The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1871.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 799, 8 April 1871, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1871.

The news that scarlet fever, recently introduced into Otago by a Scottish immigrant ship, has already become dangerously prevalent should 6ervo as a warning to guard against more dreaded scourges. It is shown with what facility disease may be brought to the most distant quarter of the globe, and, with the knowledge that small-pox is raging in London and other large cities, it is well to inquire as to the steps being taken in the colony in the matter of vaccination. The re-appearance of the disease in a virulent form in London and elsewhere is due, there can be no doubt, to negligence on the part of the people in having the children vaccinated. A home paper referring to the subject, gives some very remarkable facts relative to the success that has attended the practice of vaccination in Ireland since 1851. Tho death-rate from small-pox for the ten years previous to 1851, averaged annually 3,800. In that year, an Aot made it part of the special duty of every dispensing medical officer to vaccinate, gratis, all persons brought for that purpose ; and the result was a reduction in the mortality from 3SOO to 1500, until in 1663, the deaths did not exceed 1000. The most striking results have been

obtained, however, subsequently. In 1564, an Act camo into operation making vaccination compulsory, and every precaution wa3 taken to give effect to the law. During that year, there were only 864 deaths from smallpox; aud, in 1868, the deaths bad diminished to 19, while, in 1869, only one death was recorded, that of a foreign sailor, who had contracted the disease abroad. It appears from statistical tables, that among persons unvaccinated, the percentage of cases ending in death was 35J, while it was 21f among those who had been operated upon, but who bore no vaccine scar. As is well known, the disease rarely attacks those who have been properly vaccinated, and in surh cases generally in a modified form, the percentage of deaths being very small indeed. Under the New Zealand Act of 1863. it is ordered that parents shall have their children vaccinated within six months after birth, and a penalty is imposed in case of neglect. A writer in the Canterbury '' Press" regards the measure as very imperfect '" because, though it orders that parents shall have their children vaccinated within six mouths 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." The change required, the •writer 'proceeds to state, is to commit to the registrars of births, deaths and marriages the duty of enforcing the Act, upon whom it should devolve to lay an information against every parent who did not, within a certain time after •registering the birth of a-child, forward a certificate from the pub fie vaccinator or other medical man, testifying that the operation had been effectively performed. A system of compulsory vaccination is the only method in which small-pox can be effectually suppressed or guarded against, and the Leglstature •owes it to the public welfare to compel the universal observance of a precaution which has been proved, by experience, sufficient to stamp out most effectually this virulent and fatal disease. Our contemporary recommends this as one of the subjects which the General Assembly should take in hand next session.