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224
1911]
would have expected absolutely different results, judging by the character of
the populations. It affords food for thought.
The people are not so much to blame as the persons in high places who
made it possible for them to evade the vaccination of their children. Some
day this country will pay dearly for legislation which permits the wholesale
issue of these certificates. It is not necessary to be a prophet, or yet the
son of a prophet, to foretell what will happen when the next epidemic of
Small Pox visits us. The public have forgotten Lord Herschell's great report
on the subject, that is to say, the Report of the Royal Commission on Vaccination,
of which he was chairman. In a speech made at a meeting held in
London on March 31, 1897, to promote a memorial to Jenner, he said
respecting it: "A vast amount of material was considered by the Royal Commission,
and it fell to my lot to have to digest that material and analyse it, and
submit a report to my colleagues. I laid down in the first instance the tests
that seemed most fitting to enable an answer to be furnished to the question,
'Is vaccination, or is it not, a preventive of the disease of Small Pox and a
cause of the modification where it occurs?' I applied those tests, I can
honestly say, entirely ignorant of the conclusions to which they would lead.
" I was myself surprised at the force of the evidence which was afforded
in favour of vaccination. The report which I prepared was submitted to the
criticism of my colleagues. Amongst them were some by no means favourable
to vaccination, to put the matter not too strongly, and we availed ourselves of
the benefit of all their criticism. Wherever they pointed out that undue
weight had been given to this fact, that this or that consideration had not been
sufficiently weighed, we made modifications to meet those criticisms. I will
call attention to a few facts which were arrived at in the way I have described,
after making allowance for everything that could even plausibly be urged. In
this country vaccination was for the first time made compulsory in 1853. The
compulsory law was far from effective, and it was modified subsequently in
1867, and again in 1871."
The Effects of Compulsory Vaccination.
"I am going to invite your attention to the figures with reference to the
effects of the introduction of compulsory vaccination into this country. It is
undoubtedly recognised now that the protection of vaccination is not permanent.
It operates most effectually during the earlier jears rather than the
latter after the operation has been performed, and it is probably during the
first nine or ten years after vaccination that its operation is most efficient.