Small-pox and vaccination.

Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Small-pox and vaccination. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/20 (page 9)
    , not made until 1896. The present vaccination adminis- trative arrangements are based largely on the report of this Commission. At the time of the passing of the first Vaccination Act in 1840 the only local authorities that exercised jurisdiction throughout England and Wales were the Poor Law guardians, and the administraticn of the Vaccination Law was entrusted to and remains with them, subject to the control of the Central Authority (now the Ministry of Health). The board of guardians appoint medical men to act as “ public vaccinators”’ in their districts, and officers to keep the vaccination registers and to issue the necessary notices with reference to vaccination ; these lattér officers are called ‘‘vaccination officers,’ and their appointment was not made compulsory until 1871. The instructions of the Ministry of Health to public vacci- nators direct that, except in so far as any immediate danger of small-pox may require, the public vaccinator must vaccinate only subjects who are in good health. As regards infants, he must ascertain that there is not any febrile state, nor any irritation of the bowels, nor any unhealthy state of the skin, especially no chafing or eczema behind the ears or in the groin or elsewhere in the folds of the skin. He must not, except of necessity, vaccinate in cases where there has been recent exposure to the infection of disease such as measles, scarlatina or diphtheria, nor where erysipelas is pre- valent in or about the place of residence. The public vaccinators are instructed to aim at producing four vesicles or groups of vesicles having a total area of halfa square inch on the eighth day after the operation has been performed. By making four small marks separated as widely as possible from one another there is less likelihood of “ bad arms” resulting and a maximum efficacy in protection against small-pox is afforded. By the terms of his contract the public vaccinator is required to afford medical attendance without cost to the parent in cases in which the vaccination does not run an ordinary course and where, owing to supervening illness, such attendance becomes necessary. The arrangements in operation for vaccination throughout the country are as follows:—When the birth of a child is registered the registrar gives to the parent or other person who registers the birth of the child a notice on which is set forth the legal requirement and the steps to be taken in regard to vaccination. ‘The parents can fill in the form requesting the public vaccinator to call and vaccinate the child, or can obtain legal exemption from vaccination by making a statutory declara- tion before a justice of the peace or commissioner of caths, or can arrange for the child to be vaccinated by a private medical practitioner. ‘The vaccination register is kept by the vaccina- tion officer, who receives the list of births from the registrar