The reciprocal duties of the medical profession and the community : being the inaugural address delivered at the sixty-sixth annual meeting of the British Medical Association / by Sir T. Grainger Stewart.

Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The reciprocal duties of the medical profession and the community : being the inaugural address delivered at the sixty-sixth annual meeting of the British Medical Association / by Sir T. Grainger Stewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    different parties are saying about the practical result of tlie clause. Mr. Chaplin, who did his best to stand to his ground, says that the administration of compulsory vaccination in the future will be absolutely impracti- cable, and no Ministry will be able to enforce it. Many share his opinion and regard the outlook as gloomy in the extreme. The anti-vaccinationists are jubilant. One of their repre- sentatives on the Commission says that the practical con- clusion of the whole matter and the results of the Royal Commission’s labours amount to the abolition of compulsory vaccination for a generation. There is another class that, while believing in vaccination and desiring to see it established, yet may be ranked as advocates of “ freedom before security.” Some of them would not accept that motto, but I think it is just. I sympathise with the love of freedom, but would not have it override the well-being of the community. I cannot advo- cate freedom to do mischief, and to that result this kind of freedom inevitably tends. In this matter is it not to be feared that the House of Commons has decided contrary to its own belief? There must be but few members who do not believe in vaccination, and would not desire to see it insisted upon. Why have they voted as they did ? Was it not on the part of some a weak yielding to the bigoted prejudices of their constitu- encies ? And may it not be said that in the case of others the “ conscientious objector ” has made cowards of them all ? I should be sorry to suggest that anyone sought to make party capital out of such material. May we look to the House of Lords for reconsideration of this subject ? That House has one member who belongs to our profession, and who understands the subject. They
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