[Report 1896] / Medical Officer of Health, Eastbourne County Borough.

  • Eastbourne (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1896] / Medical Officer of Health, Eastbourne County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the proximity cr otherwise of small-pox. Gloucester, for instance, was formerly a district noted for its proportion of unvaccinated children ; it has lost that notoriety now. After seven years the Royal Vaccination Commission in 1896 issued its report, which has not advanced the settlement of the question very much. The Commission arrived at the foregone conclusion that the case for vaccination was thoroughly proved, and yet it ends by recommending relaxation of the law relating to infantile vaccination as well summarised in an article in the Lancet of October 3rd. The Commissioners would have the legislature place two courses before the indifferent, which class forms the bulk of the persons who do not have their children vaccinated, on the one hand that they should allow’ visiting medical men to vaccinate and revisit the child at its own home at the cost of the State and with certain specified precautions ; and on the other hand that they should go to a magistrate and make a declaration of conscientious objections to vaccination. A dissentient memorandum was framed by two members of the Commission, but even they nowhere expressed a disbelief in vaccination as a power against small-pox ; they even suggest that moral influence may properly be used in pressing it upon the population. This admission by the strong opponents of compulsory vaccination on the Commission deals admirably with the question of the supposed risks involved in the operation. * Lancet, 1896, Vol. ii, p.p. 1241, 1250.