Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/658

 634 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

tors in each squad must hand in written reports, once a week to their district leader, besides reporting every Saturday morning in person to the assistant chief of the division. These reports show the number of vaccinations, the character of dwelling vis- ited, its exact location, etc., and are properly filed. Each vac- cinator is expected to do a full day's work, and his results are judged rather by the number of vaccinations secured than by the territory covered. There can be no compulsory vaccination under the laws of New York, 1 but the doctors are expected to use all possible tact and persuasion.

The whole city is thoroughly covered by this system ; but, as it takes a very long time to make the rounds, the board adopts more speedy measures whenever a case of smallpox is reported or a general epidemic is threatened. If a single case be reported at any time, the working force of several districts may be con- centrated, and two methods of procedure follow: (i) where the case occurs in the middle of a block, that block and the opposite one are thoroughly inspected, and where necessary every person residing therein is vaccinated, the patient being meanwhile moved as speedily as possible to the city smallpox hospital on North Brother Island; (2) where the case occurs at the corner of the block, all persons living within its limits and the three adjacent blocks may be vaccinated. These two methods may be illus- trated as follows :

FIG. i. FIG. 2.

METHODS OF VACCINATION.

Black dot indicates location of smallpox case ; shaded squares indicate city blocks vaccinated.

Each district superintendent supplies the doctors in his own squad with the necessary virus, implements, and so forth, which 1 Except in the case of children attending school.