The Southland Times. FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1560, 5 April 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1872.

There are few indeed of the present generation who have any idea of the horrors from which the discovery of Dr. Jenneb delivered mankind. A Ion? period of immunity from the terrible ■scourge of small-pox has 'produced a feeling of security in the public mind, and at the same time led to a careless disregard of the precautions on which alone security depends. We have no means of ascertaining to what extent the practice of vaccination has been attended to in this colony, but there is great reason to fear that up to the present time it has been very generally neglected, particularly by settlers in the country districts, and that a large proportion of our native-born population are still unprotected from the effects of this dreadful malady in its worst form. The Vaccination Act of 1863, which was repealed last session, provided indeed for compulsory vaccination, and inflicted a penalty for ne.'lect, but like too many well-meant efforts of our legislators, it remained for various reasons little better than a dead letter during the eight years in which it was ostensibly in operation. The chief causes of its failure *»•« ataforl no nave been that the administration of its details was left in the hands of the' Provincial Governments, who frequently neglected or were unable to provide the necessary funds, and that the medical men who acted as public vaccinators, in many cases without any remuneration, were naturally unwilling to assume the invidious task of laying informations and enforcing penalties against those who did not comply with its provisions. There can be no doubt also that in a thinlypopulated country like Ne.v Zealand, it would in many cases have caused almost intolerable hardship if the compulsory clause had been rigidly enforced. Parents could not be expected to carry children of tender years ten or twenty miles to a public vaccinator, and then take them back a few days after the operation for inspection. A strong feeling prevails in many districts that there is a risk of communicating diseases of the most serious kind by means of impure or carelessly • selected lymph. That the transmission of disease by this means is possible cannot be denied, but it is satisfactory to have the assurance of the highest medical authorities of the old country that the risk is practically nothing, and that with the most ordinary care, such as would naturally be taken in matters of much less importance by any respectable medical man, all danger from this source can be absolutely prevented. On this subject we are glad to be able to quote the' following very decided testimony from the speech of Dr Buchanan in the Legislative Council last session, on the j occasion of the second reading of the j present Vaccination Act :~ " Then again, according to his experience, disease waa not communicated by vaccination. To the practised eye a healthy vesicle could be distinguished from an unhealthy one as readily as a daisy could from a buttercup. Ifc was satisfactory to him to find, on turning to the periodical medical works to which he had been able to have access, that modern opinions and -practice were in keeping with his experience. He found in the British Medical Journal of June, 1869, that Mr IS'kwton ToMKiifS, Inspector of the National Vaccine Establishment, wrote as follows : — ' With regard to the belief that frequent constitutional maladies of the gravest kind occur upon the unfortunate person upon whom vaccination is used, I can only remark that, during the long period of my official connection with the establishment (a period of thirty years), no such case has come under my kuowledge.'" The existing law on the subject came into operation on the first of March last, and differs from the previous Act in the omission of the compulsory clause, and the addition of the very important provision- that the Government undertake to procure a constant and sufficient supply of pure vaccine lymph, to be furnished without charge to all legally qualified medical practitioners on application. In pursuance of this most excellent provision, we are glad to learn that a supply of pure lymph has recently been obtained from the Medical Department at Melbourne, and distributed to all the hospitals in the colony. Considerable difficulty has hitherto been experienced , in obtaining vaccine matter just when it was required, although the trouble of obtaining and preserving it is but trifling, simply because it was no one's business in particular to take that trifling trouble, and by undertaking this part of the matter we believe the Government have conferred a very considerable boon on the community in securing for the future a regular and accessible supply of lymph, to say nothing of the extra security which may be supposed to be afforded by the official guarantee that the lymph is pure, and has been carefully selected from healthy subjects. The Act further provides for the appointment of Public Vaccinators who are to attend at times and places to be fixed, and vaccinate without charge all who desire to have the operation performed, or aify children who may be brought to them for that purpose. We observe by a recent G-azette that all the registered medical practitioners in the Colony have been appointed Public Vaccinators, and the regulations as to the times and places where vaccina- j tion can be obtained gratis ' will doubtless also be published shortly ' By a further provision, which will be found useful in remote country districts, persons who are not medical practitioners may be appointed Public Vaccinators on receiving a certificate of competency from a medical officer appointed for this purpose. The last clause in the Act may be regarded as to some, extent an approach to the compulsory principle, for it provides that the teacher of any school wholly or in part supported

by the Government, who shall have reason to believe that any of the children i attending the school have not been vac- i cinaied, shall give notice to the nearest Public Vaccinator, who is directed there i upon to vaccinate such children, if in : his opinion the operation has been neglected, or has not been successfully ( performed. Should the Government ; endeavor conscientiously to carry out the provisions of this Act, and we have every reason to believe they will, the facilities wliich will be afforded to the public for obtaining safe and effectual vaccination are so great as to leave no excuse for neglect on the part of any parent. There can be no doubt that the almost unanimous verdict of medical men is to the effect that the protection afforded by vaccination is almost perfect, while the operation itself is practically free from danger of any kind. And there can be I nd question that of all " the ills that ( I flesh is heir to," few are more disgusting i and repulsive^ than small-pox, and none I more fatal. !