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to be necessary to say anything; but the pertinacity with
which some misguided persons still decry the most beneficent
of medical discoveries, shews 110 sign of abatement;
and as their teaching is calculated to prejudice, the general
public against the wise compulsion authorised by law, it is
well that a Royal Commission has been appointed to inquire
and report on the subject, the anti-vaccinationists being
represented thereon. The report of the Commission is awaited
with much interest.
Animal Vaccination : Calf Lymph.— An objection to
"arm-to-arm" vaccination has been based on the fact that, as
the lymph is passed through the human system, it may
become the means of transmitting enthetic disease. This
danger, however, though by no means to be disregarded,
appears to be slight, and in practice almost inappreciable,
seeing that the late Medical Officer to the Local Government
Board stated that he " could not learn of communication
of syphilis in vaccination being actually effected once in
a million of vaccinations." Nevertheless, and it being
desirable to remove every impediment to the full acceptance
of vaccination, it would be satisfactory to know that the
Board had made arrangements for affording to parents the
option of having their children vaccinated with calf-lymph at
the public vaccination stations. This option has long been
given at the stations in Kensington, the Guardians having
made arrangements for a supply of fresh calf-lymph weekly,
011 the days appointed for vaccination. Stations, moreover,
public and private, have been established in London,
at which persons can be vaccinated direct from
the calf, and supplies of vaccine obtained. Direct vaccination
is highly successlul at the Government stations, an
average of 088 vesicles resulting from .1000 insertions of calflymph.
"This rate of success," it has been observed on the
highest authority," is nowise to be had when the lymph"
(human or animal) "is used in any preserved condition."