SMALL-POX.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 204, 16 August 1860, Page 4

SMALL-POX.

The following letter appeared in the Times lately :—-

Sir, —We beg a space in your columns in order to draw public attention to the present alarming spread of small-pox. It is raging in various parts of this metropolis and throughout the country. It has already produced a great mortality, and, from all we can learn, is. much, o)i the increase. It was stated in a valuable introductory report on the preveutabiiity of certain kinds of premature death, published by Mr. Simon for the Board of Trade, last year,. “ that in certain considerable districts in England, during the three months ending the 31st of'Afarch, 1858, sixty years after Jenher’s discovery of vaccination, deaths by small-pox. were amounting to a fourth part of the entire district mortalityand in the same report Mr. Simon asserts that “ of those who die of small-p ox in England the immense majorty are non-vaccinated persons, and it is certain that if vaccination were universally i performed in the best known manner, deaths by small-pox would be among the smallest in i the register.” We state the conviction of

numbers of our medical brethren whenVwe assert that this formidable malady will again, a 3 in former times, appear as a scourge in our land, unless efficient and immediate means are taken for its prevention. The alarming increase of the disease is, as we fully believe, referable entirely to tlie inefficiency of vaccination as at present pursued; and this inefficiency we believe to be capable of easy explanation, and to be attributable to the following causes:—ln the fiist place, we state it to be a fact that the virus now used for vaccination is the same which Jenner employed at the time of his great discovery, transmitted since through countless human bodies, and that it has never been renewed from the cow since that period by our National Vaccine Establishment; and we believe that it is not now efficient to prevent the infection of small-pox. In the second place, this city is the centre from which the supply of vaccine matter is obtained and diffused throughout this country and our various colonies, and we are persuaded that much of the inefficiency of the matter now used arises from this circumstance, and in proof of this assertion it is necessary to bear in mind what is the peculiar physical character of a great city population, and that the health of such a-, community is by no means equal to the average health to be found in the country. Thus in numbers of our poor infant population lurks the poison of inherited syphilis, or scrofula, or cancer, or other degenerate states of constitutions ; and others,.owing to the bad drainage and ventilation, and overcrowding, together with the peculiar diet of the children of the poor, are affected with cutaneous diseases, •he transmission of the cow-pox matter through bodies so variously influenced must iiave deteriorated it, and impaired the efficiency of vacination itself as a preventative of smallpox, and hence its terrible re-appearance in ourcountry. We, therefore suggest, afresh supply from the cow itself should be obtained as Jenner obtained it when he first arrested theprogress of this fearful disease. Add to these circumstances, that the remuneration now awarded to those who vaccinate publicly is not sufficient to insure from them the frill amount •>f care and scrutiny in the selection of cases fitted for vaccination, or of the subjects from which the matter is obtained—-involving, as this selection does, a careful investigation of their physical state at both periods, and a thorough inspection of the phenomena which attend the successful performance of vaccination. Moreover, the public vaccinators are too few in nhrnber, and selected partially by parish authorities. A still greater evil, however, is that they are subjected to no authority or surveillance inasmuch as there are no in«pectors appointed by the Government to watch whether the results of each opera)ion are successful or not., ami thus to secure, by direct official superintendence, the complete performance of vaccination. The subject is so important, and likely to become one of such grave interest, if this dread disease go on increasing, that we make no apology for troubling you with this communication. —We remain, you. obedient servants,

Alfred Collinson, M. D.,19 Oxford Terrace Paddington.. Samuel Norway, F.K.C.S., 2 Marlborough Terrace,. Padddington.

An “ Order of Britannia.”—Why isthere not an order of Britannia for Britishseamen ? In the merchant and the Royal Navy alike, occur almost daily instances and occasions for the display of science, skill, bravery, fortitude in trying circumstances, resource in danger. In the first number of our A/.igazine, a friend contributed a most touch - ing story of the M‘Clintoek expedition, in the dangers and dreadful glories of which he shared ; and the writer was a merchant captain. How many more are there (and. for the honour of Fngland, may there be many like him!)—gallant, accomplished, highspirited enterprising masters of their noble profession! Can our Fountain of Honour not be brought to such men ? It plays upon captains and colonels in seemly profusion. It pours forth not illiberal rewards upon doctors and judges. It sprinkles mayors aud aidermen. It bedews a painier now and again. It has spirited a baronetcy upon two, and bestowed a coronet on one noble man of letters. Diplomatists take their Bath in it as of right; and it flings out a profusion of glittering stars upor the nobility of the Three Kingdoms. Cannot Britannia find a ribbon for her sailors ? The "navy, royal or mercantile, is a service. The command of a ship, or the conduct of her, implies danger, honour, science, skill, subordination, good faith. It may be a victory, such as that of the Sarah Sands; it may be discovery, such as that of the Fox ; it may he heroic disaster, such as that ol the Birkenhead ; and in such events merchant sea men, as well as royal seamen, take their s-hare. W'hy is there not, then, an Older of Britannia ? One day a young officer of the Furyalus may win it; and, having just read the memoirs of Lord Dundonald, 1 know who ought to have the first Grand Cross. — 'Cornhill Magazine for May.