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childien Uiboi^ring under acute or cliroiiic aff( rtion, in- 

 flamitiou of the tiioracical and abdominal orarans, ncr- 

 voiis diseases, epilepsy, cutnneotis eruptions, etc., was 

 fis active ns it" it had been taken from children in per- 

 fect health. It prodiict'd pustules which were re<?ular 

 and efFeftuel, without transmitting any of the diseases 

 acute, chronic, contagious or non contagious. 



This question would seem settled if it were not re- 

 membered that there exi!«ts a great difference of opinion 

 between medical men, both here and in liurope. 



On the other hand, Dr Ayres refers in his paper to 

 several statistical returus from the hospitals, the army, 

 the navy and the British colonies, shewing what, how- 

 ever, has never been doubted, vizt. : the efficiency of 

 vaccination as a preservative against small pox ; with 

 fiome exceptions, however, since small pox has some- 

 times attacked persons who ha,ve been vaccinated, in 

 the same manner that some who have already had the 

 small pox may contract the disease a second and even 

 R third time. The essential point is to use a virus 

 uniting all the necessary conditions. Therefore, with 

 the view to regenerate the vaccine and obtain a suffi- 

 cient supply for the wants of Mauritius, Dr Ayres re- 

 commends that cows should be inoculated with small 

 pox, which with them, produces cow pox, the very 

 vaccine most proper for transmission to man. 



This means is deserving of a trial, since there exists 

 B marked repugnance on the part of many persons to 

 allowing their children to be inoculated with a doubt- 

 ful virus which might bring forth certain diseases un- 

 fortunately becoming too common in Mauritius. This 

 feeling is so strong that th y prefer incurring the p* - 

 nalty to which they are liable rather than expose their 

 children to the risk by which they believe them to bo 

 threatened. Dr Ayres calls this fueling a prejudice. 

 We admit it ; but it is nevertheless true that that pre- 

 judii e is shared by a tolerably large proportion of the 

 medical body, On the other hand it is sad to think 

 that the (onssequence of such a state of things, vizt. ; 

 non vaccination would be, in the event of an outbreak 

 of small pox in the colony, a rapid and fearful spread 

 of the contagion, and that to escape from the doubtful 



