Dispensary District who may come to him for that purpose, or DISPENSARY whom he may be requested to Vaccinate, being fit subjects

for Vaccination.

REGULA TIONS, 29TH NOV.

1869.

Name of Vaccination District.

Names of Electoral Division or Divisions comprised in Vaccination District.

Places within the Vaccination District at which the Medical Officer will attend.

Days and
Hours
of Attendance.

Vaccination will also be performed Gratuitously at the Dispensary as heretofore, on any of the Dispensary days, during the hours of attendance of the Medical Officer at the Dispensary.

Persons undergoing Vaccination should attend, or be brought, for examination of the arm on the eighth day after Vaccination, and on such other days as the Medical Officer may direct, in order to insure the successful issue of the case.

All persons are hereby cautioned against the dangerous practice of Inoculation; and poor persons are advised to present their children (if they have not been already successfully vaccinated,) at the Dispensary, for Vaccination, as the best preservative against Small-pox. By an Act of Parliament passed on the 23rd of July, 1840, (3 & 4 Vic. cap. 29,) entitled "An Act to extend the practice of Vaccination," the practice of Inoculation with Small-pox virus was made punishable by one month's imprisonment, and under a subsequent Act (31 & 32 Vic. c. 87), the period of imprisonment may be extended to six months. The following are the words of the 4th section of the last-mentioned Act:

Extract from 31 & 32 Vict. cap. 87.

"§4. Any person who shall, after the passing of this Act, 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 guilty of an offence, and shall be liable to be proceeded against summarily before two or more Justices of the Peace in Petty Sessions assembled; and upon conviction, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding Six months."

By order of the Committee of Management,

DISPENSARY
REGULA

TIONS,

29TH NOV.

1869.

FORM O.

FORM for a BOARD or INSCRIPTION to be conspicuously placed on the Exterior of each Dispensary.

Vaccination gratis.

DISPENSARY.
to

o'clock.

Medical Officer, Dr. cr Surgeon (his name), of (his residence). * Name the several days of the Week determined upon by the Committee for the purpose.

FORM P.

Union.

Dispensary District. Medical Officer's Report of Children born in the District since the 1st January, 1864, and over six months of age, who do not appear to have been Vaccinated.

NOTE. In any case in which the Medical Officer may be aware of the reason why the child has not been vaccinated, he should state it in the column for observations; and in any case in which a certificate has been given that the child is not in a fit state for vaccination, or is insusceptible of the vaccine disease, the fact should be stated.

Sealed with our Seal, this Twenty-ninth day of November, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-nine.

SPENCER.

A. POWER.

J. M'DONNELL, M.D.

R. M. BELLEW.

I, JOHN POYNTZ, EARL SPENCER, Lord Lieutenant-General and General Governor of Ireland, do approve this order.

By His Excellency's Command,

T. H. BURKE,

II-CIRCULARS OF INSTRUCTIONS. CIRCULARS

No. 1.-CIRCULAR to BOARDS of GUARDIANS, accompanying the GENERAL ORDER of 29th November, 1869.

SIR,

Poor Law Commission Office, Dublin,
18th December, 1869.

Adverting to the statement contained in their Circular Letter of the 18th February last, that they had it in contemplation to make some changes in the Dispensary Regulations, the Commissioners for administering the Laws for Relief of the Poor in Ireland now transmit to you, to be laid before the Board of Guardians, a copy of a General Order under their Seal, dated the 29th November, amending and consolidating the General Rules and Regulations in force for the Government of Dispensary Districts and the performance of Vaccination.

The amended Regulations now issued are substantially the same in most respects as those previously in force, but it is hoped that the fact of the provisions of five different Orders, which were issued at different times as the occasion for them arose, having been now brought together in one Order, and of the various provisions thus consolidated in the present Order having been arranged under their respective heads more perfectly than heretofore, will facilitate the discharge of the duties of the various persons concerned, in any matters in which a reference to the General Regulations is necessary.

The Commissioners will notice briefly the principal changes which have been made, referring to them as nearly as possible in the order in which they occur in the Consolidated Regulations.

1. Under Article 4, it is made the duty of the Clerk of the Union to prepare the Notice, Form N, and to cause it to be duly posted throughout the

CIRCULARS. district, and also to cause the Notice Board, Form O, to be kept affixed on the exterior of each Dispensary District. This duty has been hitherto assigned to the Dispensary Committee by the Regulations, but practically it has in many instances fallen into the hands of the Clerk of the Union, and in some instances, where this has not been the case, it has been very irregularly and inefficiently performed. The Commissioners think it is a matter of great importance that full and accurate information should at all times be accessible to the public throughout each Dispensary District as to where and how Dispensary relief is to be obtained; and bearing in mind the fact that the officers of the Committee, into whose hands this duty would naturally fall while it was considered as part of the duty of the Committee, are honorary officers, it has been considered advisable to relieve them of it, and to place the responsibility upon a paid officer of the union, to whom of course the Committee will from time to time communicate any changes which may be made, which render any may alteration in the Notices necessary.

It will be observed that the Form N has been modified so as to comprise both the Dispensary and Vaccination Notices, and the separate Vaccination Notice heretofore required is consequently no longer necessary. A specimen form of placard notice (Form N) is enclosed.

2. Some changes have been made in the Form of Medical Relief Tickets (E 1 and E 2), and in the instructions printed on the ticket-books and tickets. These changes, though slight in themselves, are material in character, their object being to insure the presentation of tickets as soon after they are obtained as practicable; and, in the case of visiting tickets, to cause every available information to be given to the Medical Officer as to the nature of the case, but so as not to interfere with his responsibility to attend duly and punctually under the statute and under the Dispensary Regulations.

The Commissioners attach much importance to CIRCULARS. this change, and they strongly recommend that all the existing ticket-books should be at once withdrawn and cancelled, and books of tickets in the new form provided and forwarded without delay to all persons entitled to issue tickets.

In connexion with this subject it will be observed that it is required (Art. 21, ii.,) that the tickets shall be preserved for at least two years, and that the Medical Officer shall mark on each ticket, before filing it, the number of the case in the register. It has also been deemed advisable, in order to guard against an abuse which has been found to exist in some districts, to provide by regulation (Art. 21, iii.,) that the Medical Officer shall not afford medicine or medical appliances, except in urgent cases, before a ticket has been presented.

3. The new form of Medical Relief Register (Form F), though not hitherto prescribed under Seal, was issued with the Commissioners' Circular of the 18th February last, and is, the Commissioners believe, very generally in use; but if there is any district in which it has not yet been adopted, the Commissioners request that it may now be at once provided, so that it may be brought into use on the 1st January, 1870.

4. The Vaccination Register (Form G) is in the same form as heretofore, and similar to the Vaccination Register required to be kept by the Registrars of Births and Deaths under the Compulsory Vaccination Act, so that where the Dispensary Medical Officer is also Registrar the two books can be made to supplement each other, the only entries required to be made in the Form G being those of cases (which will now be very rare) which do not come under the provisions of the Compulsory Vaccination Act, that is, the cases of persons who were born before the 1st January, 1864. The Form H, which has hitherto been merely a copy of the entries in the two vaccination registers above referred to, is now required to be, in conformity with the Act of Parliament, a report of the number of persons vaccinated, with a certi