CIRCULARS. shall be made in such form and shall contain such further particulars as the Commissioners shall direct, and shall be transmitted by the Committee to the Board of Guardians, and recorded by the Guardians on their Minutes. "4. The payments to be made to the Medical Officer under the provisions of this Act, and all other expenses incidental to the performance of vaccination under this Act in any dispensary district, shall be charged to the electoral divisions comprising such dispensary district, in the same manner as all charges incidental to medical relief in the district. "5.-And whereas by an Act passed in the third and fourth years of the reign of Her Majesty, chapter 29, it is enacted that any person who shall produce or attempt to produce in any person, by inoculation with variolous matter, or by wilful exposure to variolous matter, or to any matter, article, or thing impregnated with variolous matter, or wilfully by any other means whatsoever produce the disease of small-pox in any person, shall be liable to be proceeded against and convicted summarily before any two or more Justices of the Peace in Petty Sessions: Be it enacted, That in any case in which any proceedings shall have been taken or instituted by or under the directions of the Board of Guardians of any union in Ireland under the said recited provision, it shall be lawful for the Board of Guardians to pay the costs of such proceedings out of the rates of the union at large." It will be seen that under the 1st section of the Act the Committee of each dispensary district is required to divide the dispensary district into districts for the purposes of vaccination. It is further enacted that the Committee, after reporting the vaccination districts to the Commissioners for their approval, shall require the Medical Officer of the dispensary district to attend in the vaccination district, at a place and at such times as shall be approved by the Committee. The Commissioners request that you will be good enough, without delay, to summon an extraordinary meeting of the Committee of Management, in accordance with Article 10 of the Dispensary Regulations, for the purpose of dividing the dispensary district into vaccination districts, and fixing the place and times for the Medical Officers' attendances in pursuance of the provisions referred to, and that you will report the result of the proceedings of the Committee to the Commissioners. With regard to the attendance of the Medical Officer at the new stations to be selected under this Act for the purpose of vaccination alone, it CIRCULARS. will be desirable, in regard to the rural portions of dispensary districts, that the Committee should choose particular periods of the year for such attendance; and the Commissioners would strongly recommend for that purpose the months of April or May, and September or October, as the most suitable for the performance of the operation. It is the intention of the Commissioners, in pursuance of the Act, to issue an Order under their seal regulating the interval of time between the operation and the subsequent inspection of each case, for the purpose of determining whether it has been successful or not, and also prescribing the form of return of such cases under the 3rd section. It will be desirable for the Committee, in fixing the two periods of the year, as above suggested, for the performance of vaccination at the outstations to be selected for that purpose, to require not less than three attendances at each such period of the year, with an interval of one week between the attendances. The Commissioners need not press on the Committee the extreme importance of endeavouring to give the fullest effect to the operation of this measure. They think it well, nevertheless, to point out the great degree in which the number of cases of vaccination has fluctuated in recent successive years, owing chiefly to the indifference with which the practice of vaccination has unfortunately been regarded. Thus, it is stated in the 12th paragraph of Sixth Medical Charities Report, that the numbers returned as vaccinated by dispensary officers were as follows, namely: The highest of the numbers in the above series falls far short of what, according to that part of CIRCULARS. the population of the country which comes within the operation of the Medical Charities Act, ought to be the number vaccinated yearly, in order to protect them from the danger of small-pox. No exertion, therefore, should be wanting on the part of the members of the Committee, individually and collectively, to give effect to the intentions of the Legislature, not only by a careful performance of the new duty imposed on them, but by endeavouring, in every possible way, to remove the prejudices of their poorer neighbours, and enlighten them on the great value of the practice of vaccination. By order of the Commissioners, B. BANKS, Chief Clerk. To the Honorary Secretary of the No. 9.-VACCINATION, 21 & 22 Vic. cap. 64.- Poor Law Commission Office, Dublin, SIR, The Commissioners for administering the Laws for Relief of the Poor in Ireland transmit herewith, for the information of the Board of Guardians, a copy of a circular which the Commissioners have addressed to the Committees of Management of the several dispensary districts, pointing out the provisions of the Act 21 & 22 Vic. cap. 64, which was passed in the last Session of Parliament, to make further provision for the practice of vaccination in Ireland. The Board of Guardians will see that this Act, the sections of which are embodied in the enclosed circular, provides for the division of the dispensary districts into vaccination districts, for the payment of the Medical Officers for the cases successfully vaccinated, and likewise for the payment of the costs of proceedings against persons unlawfully producing the disease of small-pox. The Commissioners have requested the Commit- CIRCULARS. tees of Management to proceed, in pursuance of the 1st section of the Act, to divide the dispensary districts into vaccination districts, and to determine upon the place and times of the Medical Officers' attendances in the vaccination districts. They have also acquainted the Committees of Management with their intention to issue an Order under seal, prescribing the Form in which the return of successful cases of vaccination is to be made, under the 3rd section of the Act, for transmission to the Board of Guardians. The Commissioners desire at the same time to call the particular attention of the Board of Guardians to the 5th section of the Act, by the provisions of which Boards of Guardians are empowered to pay out of the poor rates of the union at large the costs of any proceedings which shall have been taken under the Act 3 & 4 Vic. cap. 29, against persons producing or attempting to produce by variolous matter or otherwise the disease of smallpox in any person, and the Commissioners trust that the provisions of the section referred to may promote the prosecution of itinerant inoculators, and that the Guardians will co-operate in the endeavour to bring to justice every offender of that description. By order of the Commissioners, B. BANKS, Chief Clerk. To the Clerk of the Board of Guardians of each Union. No. 10.-REPORTS under VACCINATION ACT.- The Commissioners for administering the Laws for Relief of the Poor in Ireland, having reason to believe that doubts are entertained as to the periods at which the reports of Dispensary Medical Officers, of the number of persons vaccinated under the CIRCULARS. provisions of the Vaccination Act, should be made, and also as to the payments to be made to Medical Officers under the 2nd section of that Act, deem it advisable to state their views as to the precise requirements of the law in these respects. By the 3rd section of the Act the Medical Officer is required to "make a report to the Committee of Management, from time to time, of the number of persons successfully vaccinated by him in each year, under the provisions of the Act ;" and the Commissioners are of opinion, that under these words there is no limit to the number of reports that may be made in one year; but they think that it is necessary, in all cases, that a closing report should be made, up to the 31st December, whether previous reports have been made or not, so that the reports of the year taken collectively may comprise, for the year 1858, all cases of vaccination performed between the date of the passing of the Act (2nd August, 1858,) and the 31st December; and for the present and future years all cases of vaccination performed from the 1st January to the 31st December, both days inclusive. The Commissioners think, that, under the words of the Act, it would not be within their authority to limit the number of reports that may be made within the year, or to fix any obligation on Medical Officers to make them at any particular time within the year. On the other hand, it seems necessary that a closing report should be made up to the 31st December, the termination of the natural year; and that, in the event of a change of Medical Officers in any district, a report should be made by or on behalf of the outgoing Medical Officer, up to the period of his ceasing to be Medical Officer of the district. The Commissioners believe that it will generally be found convenient, in practice, to have the reports made half-yearly, after the lapse of a reasonable time from the periods fixed for the Medical Officer's attendance at the vaccination stations. The Commissioners, in their circular letter of the 24th August last, addressed to Dispensary Com |