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No. 74.
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 13TH APRIL, 1872.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following Paper from the Medical Department of the Privy Council Office, on the subject of Re-vaccination, which has been transmitted to this Government by the Right Honorable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, is published for general information.
By Command,
CECIL C. SMITH, Acting Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 11th April, 1872.
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL OFFICE.
RE-VACCINATION.
By vaccination in infancy, if thoroughly well-performed and successful, most people are completely insured, for their whole life-time, against an attack of small-pox; and in the proportionately few cases where the protection is less complete, small-pox, if it be caught, will, in consequence of the vaccination, generally be so mild a disease as not to threaten death or disfigurement. If however the vaccination in early life have been but imperfectly performed, or have from any other cause been but imperfectly successful, the protection against small-pox is much less satisfactory; neither lasting so long, nor while it lasts being nearly so complete, as the protection which first-rate vaccination gives. Hitherto, unfortunately, there has always been a very large quantity of imperfect vaccination; and in consequence the population always contains very many persons who, though nominally vaccinated and believing themselves to be protected against small-pox, are really liable to infection, and may in some cases contract as severe forms of small-pox as if they had never been vaccinated. Partly because of the existence of this large number of imperfectly vaccinated persons, and partly because also even the best infantine vac- cination sometimes in process of time loses more or less of its effect, it is advisable that all persons who have been vaccinated in infancy should, as they approach adult life, undergo RE-VACCINATION. Generally speaking, the best time of life for re- vaccination is about the time when growth is completing itself, say from 15 to 18 years of age; and persons in that period of life ought not to delay their re-vaccination till times when there shall be special alarm of small-pox. In proportion, however, as there is prevalence of small-pox in any neighbourhood, or as individuals are from personal circumstances likely to meet chances of infection, the age of 15 needs not be waited for; especially not by young persons whose marks of previous vac- cination are unsatisfactory. In circumstances of special danger, every one past childhood, on whom re-vaccination has not before been succesfully performed, ought without delay to be re-vaccinated.
Re-vaccination, once properly and successfully performed, does not appear ever to require repetition. The nurses and other servants of the Small-Pox Hospital when they enter the service (unless it be certain that they have already had small- pox) are invariably submitted to vaccination, which in their case generally is re-vaccination, and is never afterwards repeated; and so perfect is the protection, that though the nurses live in the closest and most constant attendance on small-pox patients, and though also the other servants are in various ways exposed to special chances of infection, the Resident Surgeon of the Hospital, during his thirty-four years of office there, has never known small-pox affect any one of these nurses or servants.
No. 75.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
Tenders will be received at this Office, until Noon of Tuesday, the 23rd Instant, for the erection of a School House at Wanchai.
The Plans and Specification can be seen at the Surveyor General's Office, and Forms of Tender can be obtained at the Colonial Secretary's Office.
Tender.
The Government does not bind itself to accept the lowest or any
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 12th April, 1872.
CECIL C. SMITH, Acting Colonial Secretary,
No. 76.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following Return of Revenue and Expenditure for 1871, including Receipts and Disbursements on account of the Colony by the Crown Agents in England, is published for general information,- with the Comparative Statement for the Years 1870 and 1871.
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 12th April, 1872.
CECIL C. SMITH, Acting Colonial Secretary.