VACCINATION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XL, Issue 13150, 9 August 1913, Page 5

VACCINATION.

(To the Editor of the Herald.) Sir.: — I am informed w|th respect to a letter from- me, which: appeared m your paper of the 2Srd r /ult., that some persons imagined, or chose to imagine — Firstly, that '• the letter ; 'was" in 'some "way connected with the Hospital Board, and, secondly, that I considered vaocination unnecessary. ' As regards the first, the letter, as 'the signature ■ plainly shows, w^ts -written by me m my private ', capacity, and tiot as a- member or chairman of the Hospital Board.' Secondly, 1 earnestly recomniend eveiy uhVaccinaited person to become protected by vaccination without delay. To parents of small children I say there is cast oii you 'the duty of at once giving your children the safeguard of vaccination.. As showing the wonderful- benefit of vaccination, may I quote from Haydn, p. 618, "At Norwich out 'of 215 unprotected by vaccination, 200 contracted small-pox and 46' died, while of' 91 vaccinated onlytwo took the disease, and both m a modified form. At Chelsea, of 526 unvaccinated, 519 took the disease, while of 231 persons who .were" vaccinated only 27 took the disease." In 1861 tlie total tTOops 'm the United Kingdom were 89,000, amongst whom were only 51 cases of sn\all-po'x, of whom four died, being at the rate of only one death tor every 20,000. men (All being vaccinated). From the same authority the deaths per cent are : Unvaccinated 37 ? vaccinated (one gear) 7.73, do. (two sears) 4.70, Ho. -tthree' scars) 1.95, do. (four scars) 0.55. Unfortunately, the history of ; s.mal} : ppx: shows that whenever and wherever it has appeared it has always shown a tendency to become more virulent and to spread more rafpidly unless met by vaccination and extreme cleanliness and disinfection. It therefore becomes a duty to one's own family and to one's neighbors, m order to prevent the spread of so dreadful, an epidemic, to at once obtain the benefits which vaccination con-'«-i«^/. %. H ; tucker!