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87
SUGGESTED VACCINATION COMMISSION.
(Special Report presented to the Council on December 7th, 1905.)
Acting on the instructions of the Committee, I have considered
the letter of the Hackney Borough Council, dated
October 4th, 1905, containing copy of certain Resolutions
passed by that Council, and I have now to offer, for the
consideration of the Lambeth Borough Council, the following
remarks:—
Resolution I.—This is the keynote of the letter, and I
am unable to advise the Lambeth Borough Council to agree
with the opinion expressed in the Resolution. It is not a
fact that there has been, or is, "a public rejection of vaccination
by so many medical men since the last Report of
the Royal Commission (1889-96) on the question." Indeed,
I know of no single case to warrant such a statement. On
the contrary, all medical men, who are best competent to
express an opinion on the matter, are agreed as to the
value of vaccination and re-vaccination as preventives of
Smallpox. It is generally agreed that the Conscientious
Objectors' Vaccination Act, the practical outcome of the
Report of the last Royal Commission on Vaccination, has
been the means of lessening considerably the number of antivaccinators,
with the satisfactory result that vaccination has
become more popular, as shown by the greater numbers of
persons who have, during recent years, availed themselves
(and their families) of the simple and efficacious preventive
measure against such a loathsome disease as Smallpox
which vaccination and re-vaccination offer.
Without entering into too great detail, it may be mentioned
that, during the last Lambeth outbreak of Smallpox,
1901-2, the statistics, presented at the time to the Council,
showed that the incidence rate of Smallpox upon the population
was much less amongst the vaccinated than amongst the
unvaccinated, whether regard was had to the number of cases of
Smallpox notified, or to the number of deaths from Smallpox registered,
both children and adults. It was shown that, if
vaccination is no protection against Smallpox (as claimed by
the anti-vaccinators), the vaccinated children under 10 years