If the Guardians of the Gloucester Union were to be
indicted for manslaughter, no one could object on the ground of injustice. For some ten years, according to the Times, they have neglected to carry out compulsory vaccination in their district, and the result is an epidemic of small-pox of the most virulent type,—an epidemic which is proving specially destructive to the young, and which when it does not kill often leaves the victim blind for life. During the last seven weeks the disease has been gaining ground, and in the last two weeks no fewer than one hundred and fifty-four fresh cases have been notified each week. The local authorities are doing their beat to get the people vaccinated and re-vaccinated, but it is of course now too late. As a proof of the character of the disease, it may be mentioned that out of ninety deaths seventy-four were of unvaccinated persons. Let us hope that the people of Leicester will take warning. If Leicester persists in her present policy, she is certain sooner or later to be overtaken by an epidemic of small-pox, which in so great a city will have the proportions of a medimval plague.
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