Half a century of small-pox and vaccination : being the Milroy lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London on March 13th, 18th and 20th, 1919 / by John C. McVail.
- John McVail
- Date:
- [1919?]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Half a century of small-pox and vaccination : being the Milroy lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London on March 13th, 18th and 20th, 1919 / by John C. McVail. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![on the whole, we are going back on, rather than developing, our position in regard to general protection obtained beforehand. [That is, in spite of the increasing neglect of infant vaccination. —C.K.M.] This, of course, is a very satisfactory admission, and I trust it will be noted by all members of Parliament. He makes another significant admission which I trust will also be duly noted. At the end of his second lecture he says: There is, however, one conceivable condition which would not only justify but demand the cessation of vaccination. If small-pox were to disappear, so also manifestly would the need for vaccination ... if there were no need for vaccination it would have no value, and the marvellous decrease of small¬ pox . . . makes such a possibility, however remote still, yet apparently less remote than ever before. I have said much the same thing in my book, The Vac¬ cination Question in the Light of Modern Experience, only I go a little further, and say that as small-pox has already virtually disappeared so also has the need for infant vac¬ cination. In this matter I am merely a few years aliead of Dr. McYail, that is all. In conclusion, in order to prevent misunderstanding as to just where I stand, allow me to make my confession of faith. Vaccination, as a scientific operation for conferring complete though temporary immunity to small-pox upon the individual, will live for ever, and will always remain an outstanding achievement to the credit of British medical science. It will always be of the greatest service in com¬ bating outbreaks of small-pox whenever such may occur, and it robs such outbreaks of their chief* terrors. But infantile vaccination as a State institution aiming at the universal vaccination of infants has been living on a repu¬ tation largely based on prophecies now proved to have been erroneous; it is already discredited by large masses of the population, and is rapidly becoming obsolete. I submit that the time is ripe for a reconsideration of the question whether it is any longer really necessary.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29826536_0098.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
