Sir James Crichton Browne, in his presidential address delivered before
the Sanitary Inspectors' Association last Saturday, dealt instructively with the small-pox epidemic. Though the present visitation was calculated to cause anxiety, it was consolatory to reflect that the existing resources for com- bating its invasion were superior to any available in the past, while the statistics already published afforded convincing proof of the protective power of vaccination when properly performed. With regard to further legislation on the subject, when the present Act expired in 1903, while professing him- self a convert to the efficacy of the conscience clause, he suggested that the surviving malcontents should be subjected to additional obligations. " The avoidance of vaccination should be made appreciably more troublesome and expensive than compliance with it, since for one child unvaccinated owing to conscientious objection there were at least a hundred or so disabled by the ignorance, indolence, or carelessness of their parents." • He approved of Dr. Sykes's suggestion of a system of international notification of small-pox, and admitted that sanitation was a factor in preventing its spread. But when all was said and done, there was no sub- stitute for vaccination in relation to small-pox, though it might have its auxiliaries. According to published statements made since this address, there has been a. practical immunity amongst children attending Board-schools, while it is hinted that the statistics will tend to show the immense value of re- vaccination.
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