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66
with glycerinated calf lymph," (sub-section (3) ). Section 2
abolishes repeated penalties for disobedience. It reads as
follows :—
" An order under section 31 of the Vaccination Act of
1867, directing that a child be vaccinated, shall not be made
on any person who has previously been convicted of noncompliance
with a similar order relating to the same child."
Put plainly, this means that any person having the
custody of a child may deprive the child of the benefit of
vaccination, and imperil the health of the community, by
adding an item to the danger of the spread of small-pox, at
the moderate (outside) cost of twenty shillings, i.e., the amount
of the prescribed penalty for disobedience to the order, and
which, doubtless, would be paid out of some League or Defence
Fund. The remaining sections do not call for notice. No
provision is made to enable payment to be made to other
medical persons than public vaccinators for domiciliary
vaccination. The Bill makes no provision in regard to revaccination,
which should be compulsory. Arm-to-arm
vaccination, fortunately, is not prohibited, nor, therefore, is the
use of calf-lymph made universally compulsory. The employment
of glycerinated calf-lymph is no doubt desirable, when
this lymph is employed. Public vaccination stations will be
retained. The control of vaccination is left in the hands of
the Poor Law Authorities, so many of which have shamefully
neglected their statutory duty. The Bill, which contains no
" conscience clause," is brought in as one to "amend" the
Law, the word "amend" being used in a technical sense. It
might be more correctly described as a Bill " to alter the law
with respect to vaccination." It does not satisfy those who
believe in the efficacy of vaccination as a protection against
small-pox, nor does it appear to meet with much favour from
those who are impervious to the overwhelming evidence in
favour of vaccination. This section of the public, nevertheless,
might well be satisfied, as the tendency of the measure