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(4) it is not necessary for the child to be taken to a public vaccinator, but that
officer shall, if required, visit the home of the child for the purpose of
vaccinating the child;
(c) the public vaccinator of the district, if the child is not vaccinated within
four months of birth, is to visit the child's home and to offer to vaccinate
the child with glycerinated calf lymph; the child is not to be vaccinated
if the public vaccinator is of opinion that the conditions under which the
child is living are prejudicial to its being safely vaccinated. In such case
vaccination is to be postponed and the medical officer of health of the
district is to be informed of the fact;
(d) the parent of any child born in any institution is not to be compelled to
have such child vaccinated earlier than at the expiration of six months from
the date of its birth;
(«) no parent shall be liable to any penalty under section 29 or section 31 of
the Vaccination Act, 1867, who within four months of the birth of the child
satisfies two justices or a magistrate in petty sessions that he conscientiously
believes that vaccination would be prejudicial to the child's
health, and delivers within 7 days thereafter to the vaccination officer a
certificate from the justices or magistrate of such conscientious objection;
(/) repeated penalties are provided against and persons committed to prison
for non-compliance with the requirements of the Vaccination Acts are to be
treated as first-class misdemeanants;
(g) the Local Government Board may make rules and regulations as to duties
and remunerations of public vaccinators ; the Board may, if necessary, on
account of a serious outbreak of smallpox, require the Guardians of any Poor
Law Union to provide vaccination stations ; this is to be done by order
and with respect to the area to which the order applies and during the
period it is in force, the Local Government Board may modify the provisions
of this act requiring the public vaccinator to visit the home of the child
otherwise than on request of the parent;
(h) lists are to be kept of vaccinated persons treated in smallpox hospitals
which shall be open for searches at all reasonable times.
This act is framed to carry out the suggestions of the recent Boyal Commission
on Vaccination with respect to the means to be adopted for preventing or lessening any
ill effects there may be resulting from vaccination, as to the arrangements and
proceedings for securing the performance of vaccination, and with respect to prosecution
for non-compliance with the law.
The conscience clause' is the result of the efforts of the legislature to formulate
a scheme devised to " preclude the attempt (so often a vain one) to compel those who
are honestly opposed to the practice to submit their children to vaccination, and, at
the same time leave the law to operate as at present, to prevent children remaining
unvaccinated owing to the neglect or indifference of the parent."