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176
1905]
When all these circumstances are considered, it cannot be said that the
present cost of vaccination under the conditions laid down by the Act is
excessive.
The desirability of the practice of Vaccination being controlled by Public
Health Authorities instead of by Boards of Guardians.
It may be said to be an anomaly that the authorities appointed under the
Public Health Acts to deal with infectious disease do not possess the
administration of all the laws relating to their prevention. Strange, however,
as it may appear they do not possess this power in one most glaring instance,
namely in the administration of the Vaccination Laws, on whose proper enforcement
the health of the people so far as it relates to Small Pox is dependent,
for undoubtedly Vaccination is the great preventive of this disease.
Nevertheless, to those who are acquainted with the history of the vaccination
laws this is not a surprise.
The first Vaccination Act was passed on July 23rd, 1840, and by it the
Guardians and Overseers of every Parish and Union in England and Wales
were directed to contract with their Medical Officers or with any legally
qualified practitioner for the vaccination of persons within their district.
At this time no Sanitary Authorities, such as we know them now, existed,
whereas there were authorities ready to hand and fully equipped with a
medical staff who were quite competent to execute the Acts. Consequently
they were appointed for the purpose. In the following year (1841) a supplementary
act was passed, which charged the expenses on the Poor Rates, but
which also enacted that vaccination or surgical or medical assistance incident
to vaccination should not be considered parochial relief, and it also abolished
the practice of inoculation. In 1853 an Act to make compulsory the practice
of vaccination was passed.
These Acts were repealed in 1867 by the Consolidation Act.
The Government control of the administration of these laws was at first
(1848) in the hands of a Board called the Board of Health, but in 1858 an Act
entitled the Public Health Act, 1858, vested in the Privy Council certain
Powers for the Protection of the Public Health, among which were powers
relating to the administration of the vaccination laws, which they supervised
through their medical officers.