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

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.

37/558 (page 13)

$cination and re-vaccination. Fifthly: that, the two diseases (variola), small-pox, and (vaccina), cow-pox, are not, as is generally supposed, an- tagonistic, but one and the. same disease, which he proved over and over again by inspecting the arms of children who had been vaccinated in ^ one arm and inoculated with small-pox in the other at the same time ; the two diseases went on uninterruptedly in all the patients. Sixthly: that vaccination is often the medium of conveying many filthy and loathsome diseases from one child to another, and therefore ought not to be made compulsory.” 203. Lord Robert Montagu.] I think that you said that you took out your diploma at Aberdeen, did you not ?—I did. 204. Are you a Scotchman, may I ask?—No, I was born in Oxford. 205. Where did you study medicine ?—I was articled to a gentleman in Berkeley-square, and I studied medicine in Berkeley-square. 206. Why did you not take out your diploma in London?—For this simple reason, because I wrote to be matriculated at the University of London, but they would not permit of my matri- culating because I had not kept the full comple- ment of terms, and the University of Aberdeen is the only university that would admit to an examination without residence. 207. Was it a very long examination ?—Yes. 208. Did it last some days ?—Some hours. 209. Four or five hours ?—I should think it was, but I cannot say exactly ; I think I went in at one o’clock and came out at five. 210. I suppose it is or was very much easier to get a diploma at Aberdeen than it is in Lon- don ?—Not at all; I believe that two-thirds who went up on that occasion were plucked. I be- lieve it is the most rigid examination, with the one exception of the University of London; they have a large staff of medical men, men who are connected with one of the finest hospitals in the world, and those men are the professors of medi- cine. 211. Then when you Avent up, all the examiners knew about you was from your ansAvers at the examination ?—I beg your pardon; I had letters of recommendation from all the professors of University College. 212. I suppose that Avhen you got your dip- loma you gave your opinion of vaccination ?— 1 never remember the question of vaccination ever being submitted to me on any of the diplomas which I have ever taken. 213. I think you said that the easy recovery of the vaccinated class from small-pox, or their immunity against small-pox, was due to their being a better fed class than the unvaccinated class?—Yes. 214. How could you trace their immunity to that better feeding ?—Because I had the oppor- tunity of making myself acquainted Avith the patients Avho were sent to the Small-pox Hospital. 215. But hoAv do you knoAV that it was due to better feeding, and not due to something else ?— I believe that if you had the same experience as I have had as a surgeon of the poor, you would find that the class of people Avhom Ave send from the workhouses are the Avorst possible subjects. Those are the unvaccinated, and they bear no comparison to our domestic servants, Avho are generally shipped off the moment the attack takes place. 216. What I Avant to know is the certainty of the connection betAveen the alleged effect and the 0.37. alleged cause ; how do you demonstrate the con- Mr. nection between immunity from small-pox and W.J. Collins, good feeding?—Of the two classes of patients, M-n. one is physically strong and the other is the “ ” reverse, being delicate from constantly living in re binary prisons and workhouses. 1 217. That may be granted ; but that does not prove that it is the cause of the effect you men- tion, does it?—That is the result of my experi- ence. 218. The result of your experience is, that the better fed class do enjoy that immunity?—No doubt about it; it is a question of stamina. 219. You have stated that children Avho have been vaccinated have got syphilis after their vaccination ; and you said that you examined the parents to see Avhether they had had syphilis; are you quite certain Avhere you got the lymph from?—Yes, I got it from the National Vaccine Institution. 220. I suppose your opinion is that the syphilis Avas conveyed in the lymph ?—The first case of post-vaccinal syphilis that came under my notice Avas in a child that Avas vaccinated from a friend’s child Avho had constitutional syphilis. The first child had full Jennerian vesicles, all that Jenner Avould insist upon, and at the request of a friend I vaccinated from this child. Three weeks after- Avards, those two children Avere brought to me again; in the case of the first, from Avhom I took the lymph, the sores had not healed, but had assumed a confluent form, shoAving conclusively that there Avas some constitutional taint lurking in the system ; and the other child had sore throat and other eruptions of a syphilitic character. 221. But Avas the syphilitic poison conveyed in the lymph ?—That child Avas vaccinated from a child Avho had constitutional syphilis. 222. Then all that that proves is, that you must not take vaccine matter from a child Avho has got syphilis, is not that so?—ButAve had no means of detecting that, because the child that I \rac- cinated from had the true Jennerian vesicles so much insisted upon by Jenner himself. 223. Did you vaccinate from arm to arm ?— Yes; but the original vaccine came from the National Vaccine Institution. 224. Then two children got this poisoned lymph?—I vaccinated the first child with the vaccine obtained from the National V accine In- stitution. This child I saAV on the eighth day Avith the true Jennerian vesicles; from that child’s arm I vaccinated the second child. 225. Was there syphilitic poison conveyed in the lymph from the first child with which you vaccinated the second child?—Yes; that Avas through the vaccine lymph. 226. Had that first child, from which you took the vaccine, syphilis ?—He came from syphilitic parents. There Avas nothing in the child’s ap- pearance to lead me to believe that the child Avas suffering from any constitutional taint. 227. Did you examine those parents ?—I did. 228. And yet you took the vaccine from the arm of a child born of syphilitic parents?—Let me explain myself. The parents of those children Avere not examined until after the syphilitic sym- toms made their appearance. This case natu- rally excited a good deal of curiosity, because the parents Avere opposed to vaccination, and then I made it my business to see the parents in order that I might ascertain Avhat state of health they Avere in. The father I found had constitutional syphilis; large syphilitic nodes on his bones, B 3 and$