§ 69. Mr. LEACHasked the Minister of Health whether he has any official information that it is the practice in the United States to carry out vaccination by means of a single insertion only, and has it been found that this method is as protective against small-pox as the official four-marks method adopted in this country?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINI have no official information as to the method of vaccination in the United States of America. The Royal Commission on Vaccination concluded that vaccination in four places giving a total vaccination area of half of a square inch is more effectual and gives better protection Against small-pox than is afforded by one place or a less vaccinated area.
§ 70. Mr. LEACHasked the Minister of Health if he is aware that it is the practice in the United States to defer vaccination until children enter the public schools at about the age of five years; and has he any information to the effect that the incidence of small-pox there in the case of children under five is any greater than the incidence of the disease on that age-period in other countries, such as Germany, where infant vaccination is well observed?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINI have no definite information as to the practice in the United States in regard to the vaccination of children, but I understand that in most of the States which enforce vaccination the law provides that every child must present a certificate of successful vaccination before admission to 1471 school. I have no information which would enable a comparison to be drawn between the incidence of small-pox in children under five years of age in the United States and in other countries, but the American statistics show that in those States where vaccination is enforced before admission to school the incidence of small-pox in the community generally is markedly lower than in those in which vaccination is not compulsory.