§ MR. LUPTONI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if he will request the various medical officers of health throughout the country to ascertain the vaccinal conditions of all small-pox patients, not merely by verbal inquiries, or by examination for marks of vaccination, but also by examination of the registers to ascertain if the patient has been registered as vaccinated.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSSuch an examination of the Vaccination Registers as that suggested would involve considerable trouble and some expense, and in a great many cases it would be impracticable. The majority of small-pox patients are adults whose vaccination, if any, took place at a remote and uncertain date, and often in another and perhaps distant place, many of these patients being persons of vagrant habits. It forms no part of the duty of the medical officers of health to make the proposed examination, and I do not feel that I could ask them to undertake it.
§ MR. LUPTONI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if it is a practice in the small pox hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and of authorities in charge of small-pox hospitals throughout the country, and of medical officers of health, in reference to small-pox patients, to have the vaccination registers searched in order to ascertain authoritatively the vaccinal conditions of small-pox patients.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSNo, Sir, I believe not.
§ MR. LUPTONIs not the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Metropolitan Asylums Board publishes statistics as to the conditions of the patients?
§ MR. JOHN BURNSI will inquire.