SMALL-POX.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 166, 13 April 1871, Page 3

SMALL-POX.

(Canterbury "Press.")

One item of the news from England ought to attract the serious attention of the Colonial Government. Small-pox is raging in London. Such an announcement is a warning to us to set oar house in order, and prepare for our defence against the dreaded scourge. It is quite possible that a vessel may bring the infection, if not direct, to one of the Australian colonies, whence the disease will rapidly tind its way to JSTew Zealand. . . We hope this is one of the subjects which the General Assembly will take in hand next session. Hitherto there has been an unaccountable disinclination to deal with it. A Bill was introduced in 1869, but allowed to drop ; and another, brought in last year by the Premier himself, referred to a Select Committee, where it shared the fate of its predecessor. The colony is now under the Act of 1863 — a very imperfect measure, because, though it orders that parents shall have their children vaccinated within six months after birth, and imposes a penalty in case of neglect, it makes it no one's business to see that vaccination is performed, or to enforce the penalty if it is not. Consequently the Act remains practically a dead letter. In. Canterbury, taking the total number of children, the percentage vaccinated is exceedingly small ; at least, such was the case two years ago, when we had occasion to enquire into the matter, and there has probably been no great improvement since. The change required is indicated in the extract quoted above from Lord Kimberley's despatch ; namely, that the duty of enforcing the Act should be committed to the Registrars of Births, Marriages, and Deaths. To divide the country into districts, and to appoint a medical officer for each, is all very well so far as the performance of

. the operation is concerned ; but tho ' medical officer has no means of knowing how many children are born within his district, and therefore caunot tell in what cases vaccination is omitted. But it would be a more difficult matter^ to escape the Registrar. It should, ba.'his duty to lay an information agairis^ \ every parent who did not, within a certain time after registering the birth of % j a child, forward a certificate from thofc ! public vacchiator or other medical ma| testifying that it had been successfullyvaccinated. Arrangements should hqfe j made by Government for providing a , constant supply of pure vaccine lymph. But whatever system is adopted, vaccination should be made compulsory. There is no other way in which smallpox can be effectually suppressed or guarded against ; and we maintain that the Legislature is bound, as a duty it owes to the public welfare, to compel the universal observance of precautions which the experience of Ireland and other couutiies proves will secure to the colony an almost absolute immunity from this frightful and fatal 1 disease.

A remarkable scene was that at Old Say brook, Connecticut, a few days, since (says the Cincinnati " Weekly Ih,' quirer"), when, under the authority of the town, a search was made for the, remains of Lady Per wick, the first* white woman ever buried in Connecticut. For 222 years her remains have reposed near the junction of the Connecticut river with the Sound, on Saybrook Point, and now the laying out of a railroad necessitated their removal to a neighbouring cemetery. An old rude monument of brown stond has marked the reputed spot of her sepulture, but such have been the changes in the banksby the shifliug of the channel that it was doubted by many whether the remains really rested beneath, and when the excavations had reached more than an ordinary depth these doubts became more pronounced. 33 ut at last, 6 feet below the surface, the skeleton, nearly perfect, was unearthed. The teeth were shill sound, the skull unusually large, while the rest of the frame indicated a lady of slender mould ; and the hair still partly in curls, and retaining its bright golden hue, gave support to the traditions of her rare beauty. The relics were placed in a handsome coffin, covered with black cloth. The bells wore lolled for her for the first time when her bones were removed from their long resting-place, for at her burial there could have been no requiem for the noble lady, unless it were the war whoop of the wild Indian. Her husband, was the original owner and governor of this section from 1636 to IG4I, when the jurisdiction was sold to the cpjony of Connecticut ; and, after her death, he returned to England, and sat as one of the Judges on the trial of Charles I.

The contrast betn een the contending armies is very striking. Among the Germans all is cool confidence, though weariness of the war and some home sickness is evident to the least observant. The Prench talk much of what they have clone or about to do, but always fail when it comes to tho point. The armies may be brought iuto shape, aud take the field hereafter with some hope of success, though nothing in the past or present would lead an impartial seeker for truth to believe in any restoration of their energy and efficiency for some time to come.