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I am somewhat handicapped in this matter, because I am officially conconcerned
with vaccination—and I have been accused of supporting it for
interested purposes. It does not appear to occur to these people that the
Medical Profession lose vastly by anything which tends towards the entire
removal of any disease. I am looking at two large posters which have been
largely circulated throughout the Hamlet of Mile End Old Town and the
Whitechapel District. The latter states that "the Guardians of the White"chapel
Union will not prosecute vaccination defaulters. On Tuesday,
"December 14th, 1897, the Guardians decided to suspend prosecutions.
"Therefore ignore all notices that threaten prosecution in 14 days."
I am informed by the Clerk to the Board of Guardians for Whitechapel
that this statement is absolutely untrue. The Guardians passed uo such
resolution. During the year there was issued a document signed by nearly
900 Medical Officers of Health in Great Britain, India, and the Colonies,
which had for its object the desire to agree with three of the more
important conclusions of the Royal Commission Firstly, that "sanitation
"cannot safely be relied upon as a substitute for vaccination;
secondly, that vaccination, especially when performed with calf lymph, is
free from any serious danger ; and, thirdly, that, in order to perpetuate
the protection against Small-pox which is afforded by vacciuation in infancy,
it is necessary to repeat the operation at a later age. From the
Times of November 2nd, 1897, I here reproduce a few paragraphs bearing
upon this matter. They are practically the words of Lord Herschell who
presided over the Royal Commission on vaccination. Lord Herschell
"declared that he had entered upon the Inquiry with an absolutely open
"mind and with a determination to follow wherever the evidence might
"lead; and the result of this process, which was the more completely
"carried out by reason of the presence on the Commission of Members
"actively opposed to vaccination, was to leave him ' surprised' at the force
"of the evidence in favour of the proceeding." Notwithstanding this
declaration, the "protection which the Commission declared to be at once
"safe and efficacious is still being withheld from a large number of
"children, who are not only themselves exposed to risks from which they
"might be protected, but are also liable to become sources of danger to the
"neighbourhoods in which they live. The report of the Medical Officer to
"the Local Government Board, just published, carries down the statistics
"of the Vaccination Department to the end of the year 1893, and shows
"that 16.4 per cent. of the children whose births were registered during the
"year had not been accounted for to the Vaccination Officers at its con"elusion."
What is urgently required at the present time appears to be, first and
foremost, some enactment which will at once consolidate and amend upon
the lines of the Royal Commission Report the law of vaccination, and,
secondly, that such law shall be strictly enforced.
During the year there were several deaths in the District attributable to
vaccination. They were enquired into by the Coroner. Erysipelas had in
each case attacked the wounds in the arm—but at such an interval after the
operation as to preclude any suggestion of contamination at the time of
vaccination. A Local Government Inspector made a very exhaustive investigation
into the cases and a statement by him to the above effect was
read to the Guardians. In the whole of London during the year 8 deaths
were registered as due to " Cow-pox and the effects of vaccination."
I append a Table containing some details of cases of Infectious Disease
which were received into Hospitals during the year. Owing to the opening
of a New Hospital at Hither Green our own cases were able to be removed
with far less delay than has been the case during recent years.