The Express.
London, England, 1866-07-23 00:00:00

THE Egf*EsSE

population. This had an excellent effeitO, akin
the year 1853 the practice of vacchaltiidd
forced by penalty. The child is helpless in the,
first four months of infancy, and the parent who
neglects to get it vaccinated in conformity with
the Act is subject to a penalty of twenty shillings.
This aroused opposition, but it is justifiable.
There is this peculiarity about successful vacci-
nation, that it leaves an indelible scar on the skin,
which is of itself evidence of the operation. And

the surgeon necessarily keeps a register of every
case. No further record is, therefore, neces-
sary. But through an accident, and in op-
position to the entention of Lord Pastaza-
nom, a moat elaborate system of registration
by the registrars ;,was set in motion by the
Act of 1853. The Registrar-General, we believe,
pronounced it impracticable ; but he supplied, as
the Act directed, all the registrars with books and
the medical men with certificates. The registration
was badly contrived, and proved a complete
failure ; the medical men rarely or never send cer-
tificates of successful vaccination to the registrars,
who after all their trouble lose all the essential
information and their pay. Where the book is
kept no use whatever is made of the information.
The system has already cost the country several
thousands of pounds. And the Bill now before
Parliament affords an excellent opportunity of
getting rid of the whole preposterous system of
public registration of vaccination. Unfortunately
the authors of the Bill, instead of abandoning
their project in their new Bill, put forward
clauses to render it more elaborate, mischievous,
and expensive.
At present the registrar of births puts in the
hands of the informant registering a birth a notice
with the address of the public vaccinator of the
district. This is a useful measure, and it is quite
sight to point out the legal obligation of vaccina-
tion, but as the notice is addressed to parents, it
need not assume the harsh form of a threatening
letter ; for the parent, it may be assumed, has the
interest of the child at heart. The new Bill not
only threatens the parent with " penalties " for
disobeying the peremptory order to get the child
vaceiateci, but superadds a new penalty of
twenty shillings for neglecting to send the registrar
by post a certificate of successful vaccination by
the family doctor. Conceive the Countess of
Croskill summarily convicted of the offence
of not preserving a registration form
which her maid has used, or if pre-
served, for not at the proper moment putting
it in the doctor's hands, getting his signa-
ture, and sending it by post to the registrar.
And her laundress, who could not read, would
be still less likely to comply with this enactment,
which by its impracticability is calculated to make
legislation ridiculous. Three elaborate forms of
certificate (B, C, and D), besides the notice (A), are
placed in the parents' hands, to be kept until the
i child is vaccinated, or one of them for thirteen
years as a defence against prosecution for neg-
Ilect of vaccination. At the end of this formidable
! list of schedules the following note is found :
" In each case the Vaccination Act of 1866 tun-
" poses a penalty of 20a. for default." Such
is the conciliatory form in which the bless-
ing of vaccination is to be presented to the
people, who in many parts of the country regard
the operation with suspicion.
By neglecting to send the certificates to the
registrars, medical men evince their view of the
worthlessness of the record. Why register vacci-
nation in a public office rather than any other
petty surgical operation, such as the extraction of
a tooth ? Some fond mothers may choose to enter
in family registers the date at which their children
first speak, or cut their teeth, or have the measles,
or are vaccinated, but there can be no reason for
Betting in motion the whole machinery of a public
department to record these, any more than the
other trivial events in our " little life."
The public vaccinators supply the inspectors
with their returns of vaccination, and, if it is re-
quired, it is an easy matter to get returns from
private practitioners of the number of children
they vaccinate annually. For statistical purposes
no more is necessary. The inspectors and public
vaccinators have themselves the power of visiting
the poor of a parish, and learning whether the
children are vaccinated by simple inspection. As
a protection against prosecution for neglect the scar
on the arm will be a much better defence than a
paper certificate, which the parent who neglects
vaccination will be tempted to fill up. This useless
registration will give parents trouble, will terrify
the timid, will confuse the ignorant, will cost
10,0001. a year, and will deter many parents from
registering the births of their children.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

f zta
friattill large e hto ens tit the .
woris eeripse. the It.
the adds if the Bala= should •.
difficulties in the way of peace they will deserrk ly
that their two allies, Prussia and France, after consent-
ing to a settlement which does not comprehend Italy,
should leave her alone face to face with Asuriria, to be
dealt with at her leisure by a power which she has so wan-
tonly and pertinaciously defied.

THE COBDEN CLUB.
The two of our contemporaries which are understood to
represent in foreign affairs the views eg. the French go-
vernment, the Marais° Post and the Daily Telegraph,
eansure Lord Russell , for his remarks on our
foreign policy at the dinner of the above club.
The -Post denies that Lord Stanley in any way ex'
presal his approval of the cession of Venetia to France,
whileihe Tekgraplt blames his lordship for questioning
the wisdom of such settlement. To the Emperor of the
French, the Telegraph insists, we owe it that matters have
reached the promising stage we now witness. He does
not look calmly on with folded arms, and solace himself
with the comforting reflection that the throes of agony
which convulse a continent are no concern of his. He
stands forth in the name of humanity, which is the suf-
ferer, and adjures the infuriated destroyers of their kind
to lower their weapons and cease the strife. But, to ac-
oomplisb that mission, he avowedly desires the co-opera-
tion of every neutral state ; so that the weighty utterance
of impartial Europe may be brought to bear on the hostile
powers in a majestic unison of appeal. It is at least a
definite policy, and is certainly a higher order of states-
manship than that which merely appropriates current
popular opinion, and mistakes selfish isolation for dignified
neutrality.
The Cobden club, remarks the Star, is henceforth an
English institution. It helps to consecrate the memory
of one who was himself an embodiment of all the finest
traits that are peculiar to the English character. Cobden
m iy in one sense be regarded hereafter as the highest type;
the noblest realised ideal, of the Englishman of his age.