VACCIXATION IX NEW YORK. 



333 



cinations not considered perfect, even though they had to a certain 

 extent " taken," were either immediately revaccinated or the parents 

 informed that the protection was not perfect, and advised to have the 

 operation repeated at an early date. This work was also reported to 

 the inspector, and the revaccinated cases again visited on the eighth 

 day. 



Between the twentieth and thirtieth days each case of primary 

 vaccination was visited a second time to make sure that all was right, 

 and deliver certificates of vaccination. If any unusual symptoms had 

 occurred or the sore was tardy in healing, the case was taken in charge 

 and treated until well. But even here the care did not cease. In each 

 family where vaccination was performed a circular was left, printed in 

 English and German, giving directions for the care of the vesicle, and 

 directing parents to bring their children to the inspector's office at any 

 time afterward, should any unpleasant effects appear which they might 

 attribute to the vaccination — a privilege which they were not back- 

 ward in claiming. 



All the schools, institutions, asylums, workshops and factories 

 were visited and vaccination offered. Two physicians were assigned 

 specially to the public schools and the same care regarding reports, 

 records, and revisiting was observed. Certificates were also given to 

 those thoroughly protected in order to avoid the annoyance and labor 

 of unnecessary examinations. 



Thus the work of vaccination was for the first time carried on in a 

 tliorough and systematic manner, and thus it has been kept up ever 

 since. Twice a year the tour of inspection and vaccination is made 

 throughout the tenement-house region, factories, and all places where 

 people are habitually brought together in large numbers in a more or 

 less confined atmosphere. The schools are thoroughly canvassed about 

 once in three years. Five years of such extensive, systematic and 

 thoroughly studied work coiild scarcely fail of results of some kind 

 either for good or for evil. During that time 270,970 vaccinations 

 were performed by the Vaccinating Corps alone, independent of the 

 great number performed at the dispensaries, and by physicians in their 

 private practice. It remains to examine these results as regards the 

 protection which vaccination affords against small-pox, and as regards 

 the transmission of disease, which has constituted the great ground of 

 prejudice against the practice of vaccination. Regarding the advan- 

 tages or disadvantages of vaccination two main points present them- 

 selves : 



1. Is vaccination a protection against small-pox ? 



2. Is it a vehicle for the communication of other diseases ? Let 

 the facts themselves speak ; and the facts here presented, all of which 

 occurred during the epidemic of 1874-75, are di-awn from the published 

 reports of the Board of Health and from personal conversations with 

 Dr. Taylor, the very efficient Inspector of Vaccination, whose excel- 



