Report from the Select Committee on the Vaccination Act (1867) : together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Vaccination Act (1867)
- Date:
- 1871
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report from the Select Committee on the Vaccination Act (1867) : together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
33/558 (page 9)
![Mr. William Job Collins, m.d., called in; and Examined. 134. Chairman.] Are the Committee to un- derstand that yon are a Doctor of Medicine?— I am a Doctor of Medicine, of University and King’s College, Aberdeen; Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh; a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and Licentiate of Midwifery of the Royal College of Surgeons in England. 135. How long have you been in practice ?— I have been in active practice in the neighbour- hood in which I am now residing for more than a quarter of a century. 136. What neighbourhood is that ?—The Re- gent’s Park; and during that time I have real- ised a position as a bedside practitioner, second to no one. 137. During your practice, have you had an opportunity of watching and considering the small- pox disease ?—I have had 20 years’ experience as a public vaccinator during no less than six or seven epidemic outbreaks of small-pox in this great metropolis, 138. Are you now a public vaccinator ?—1 am not. 139. How long have you ceased to be one?— I have ceased to vaccinate for some 10 or 12 years. 140. Has the experience which you have gained given you an opportunity of comparing the progress of small-pox amongst the vaccinated with its progress amongst the unvaccinated ?— Yes; it has given me every opportunity of put- ing the so-called prophylactic to the test. For instance, in the years 1847, 1848, 1851 and 1852, I had an opportunity, as a public vaccinator in one of the largest parishes in the metropolis (St. Pancras), of watching the progress of the disease amongst the vaccinated and the unvaccinatecl, and by a curious coincidence, my attention was called to the clandestine inoculation of the small- pox. I watched the progress with more than ordinary care, because I found that this inocu- lating process with the varioloid matter had taken place both in the vaccinated and in the unvac- cinated, and this was the result. About two- thircls of those inoculated cases had been success- fully vaccinated, and I have found that where the children were strong and healthy, both among the vaccinated and the unvaccinatecl, they passed through the different stages of the disease with little or no constitutional disturbance ; but those who were exposed to the more concentrated sources of infection, and who had been previously debilitated by the influence of vaccination shared a very different fate, for they had confluent small-pox in its most hideous form. 141. Does that answer apply to small-pox which results from its being carried from an epi- demic that was raging, or small-pox that was the result of inoculation ?—This was the result of inoculation; the small-pox at that time was epidemic. 142. And your comparison, then, of the rela- tive immunity of the vaccinated and the unvac- cinated applies not to those who were subject to the epidemic, but to those who had been inocu- lated in the manner which at one time was thought very desirable as a cure?—Yes, and especially approved by the College of Physi- cians. 143. And regarded as a means by which, with- 0.37. out very great danger, the individual inoculated could be secured from the epidemic ?—Exactly so. 144. Does the result of your experience during the time of that epidemic enable you to inform the Committee as to whether amongst those who caught the epidemic there was or was not an advantage in having been previously vaccinated ? —The result of my experience at that particular epoch proved to me conclusively that there was no certainty in the operation. Some who were constitutionally strong, and not living in a pol- luted atmosphere, enjoyed comparative immunity from small-pox; but those who had been vacci- nated, and even re-vaccinated, and who were living in the varioloid atmosphere, suffered dread- fully from the poisonous influence of small-pox; so much so that two cases came under my imme- diate notice of persons who died in the most hideous form of confluent small-pox after vacci- nation and re-vaccination. 145. Did you ascertain that that vaccination had been a complete operation?—Yes; I was at the bed-side. I always made it a rule, when con- sulted in anything connected with small-pox, to ascertain whether the patients who were attacked had any marks to lead us to infer that they had been vaccinated. 146. That is to say, that two of the persons whom you knew to die of small-pox had been vaccinated and re-vaccinated?—Yes. 147. Were you called in to visit many persons who were affected by small-pox ?—Yes. At one time, when in general practice, I perhaps played a very prominent part in that particular style of practice, for I was frequently called upon in my capacity of public vaccinator. 148. Having had considerable experience as a physician in attending small-pox cases, you are aware of two cases of death from small-pox fol- lowing after vaccination and re-vaccination ?— Yes. 149. At that time you were a public vaccinator, were you the practitioner who vaccinated in those cases?—Yes; I vaccinated in both of them. 150. Had the vaccination been complete ?— Yes. 151. And how long before was it?—The lady in question was vaccinated and re-vaccinated twice, and I performed both operations. She was vaccinated as an infant, re-vaccinated before the age of puberty, and re-vaccinated again, I think, at the age of 30 or 40, just before her death. 152. Did you vaccinate her as an infant?—Ho. 153. Were either of the cases in which you vaccinated successful vaccinations?—There is a vast difference of opinion as to that; some medical men say, for instance, Mr. Marston says that you cannot be thoroughly and efficiently protected unless you can exhibit eight well-marked thimble- like impressions, four upon each arm; I will venture to say that no one in this room can exhibit that. 154. Were those cases, in your mind, successful re-vaccinations ?—Yes, no doubt about it. 155. Do you or do you not know that the first vaccination of the lady, as an infant, was a suc- cessful vaccination ?—There were unmistakeable scars to prove it. B Mr. W.J. Collins, m.d. 28 February 1871. 156. Have](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24975424_0033.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
