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
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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.

    63/558 (page 39)
    If we go to Copenhagen, we find similar re- sults. In the vaccinated, of 653 cases there occurred— Number of Cases. Age. 14 Under 0 years of age. 102 From 5 to 10 years of age. 173 From 10 to 15 years of age. 289 187 From 15 to 20 years of age. 156 From 20 to 25 years of age. 19 From 25 to 30 years of age. 2 From 30 to 35 years of age. 364 Above 15 vears of age out of 653, or more than one-half. In the Stockholm Hospital 961 cases occurred in the vaccinated. Of these— Number of Cases. Age. 3 Were under 5 years of age. 4 From 5 to 10 years of age. 13 From 10 to 15 years of age. 20 45 From 15 to 20 years of age. 51 From 20 to 25 years of age. 40 From 25 to 30 years of age. 20 From 30 to 35 years of age. 17 From 35 to 40 years of age. 4 From 40 to 45 years of age. 2 From 45 to 50 years of age. 1 From 50 to 55 years of age. 180 H ere we have the cases in the proportion of 180 above 15 years of age to 20 under that age, or nine times the number. This contrast is shown very prominently at page xxxi of Mr. Simon’s Papers on Vaccination. Proportionate Distribution by Age of 1,000 Small-pox Deaths in Geneva before the Dis- covery of Vaccination, and of the same Number in Paris mostly vaccinated :— Ages. Geneva, 1580 to 1760, Un vaccinated. Paris, 1842-1851, Mostly Vaccinated.! 0—-5 years 805 338 5—10 10—15 ’? 155f m 8 5-3 } \ J 59 15—20 20—25 77 132f 25—30 30—35 77 ] 329| 35—40 77 \ 2| 109* over 40 >7 J - 31* Tot at. - - . 1,000 1,000* “ Thus nearly one-third of the whole number of small-pox deaths in Paris happens between the 0.37. ages of 20 and 30 ; one of the most startling facts I have learnt in my study of the subject. I can conceive for it no other exjfianation than that given in the text, and if this be the true one, there must prevail in Paris an appalling amount of post- vaccinal small-pox. I cannot say whether differ- ence of race may make any difference to that re-development of susceptibility to small-pox ; still less can I venture to surmise whether so extreme an instability in the results of French vaccination may depend on anything peculiar to the French administration of this important agency. But if those indications be sound, which in a later part of this section I deduce from the history of re- vaccination in the Prussian army, there would apparently be cogent reasons for inquiring very critically into the quality of lymph which is current for the vaccinations of France.” But we need not go out of England to find an illustration of this terribly increased liability to small-pox in adult life in the vaccinated. In the Highgate Small-pox Hospital 3,094 cases occurred in the 16 years from 1836 to 1851, all vaccinated. Of these no less than 2,825 were above 15 years of age, and no less than 1,584, considerably more than one-half, were between 20 and 30 years of age, while 1,058, more than one-third the number at all ages, were 20 to 25 years of age. In one year, 1866, no less than 118 vaccinated patients died of small-pox in that hospital. Coming to a more recent date, 1871, I find, in the Asylums’ Hospital, Hampstead, according to the Report presented to the Board 18 February 1871, the following proportions of vaccinated and unvaccinated in the decades of life appear: — Years of Age. Vaccinated, Unvaccinated. Under 10 - 46 102 10—20 193 46 20—40 270 51 Over 40 - 36 4 545 203 Here not only have we three fifths of the small-pox patients vaccinated, but we have the large and unnatural proportion of 306 vaccinated to 55 unvaccinated above 20 years of age. The opinion I hold is, and the conclusion is inevitable, that vaccination is an interference with a natural law, and that re-vaccination, recom- mended by the Privy Council and the College of Physicians, predisposes to small-pox in adult life, and it is highly dangerous to resort to it during the prevalence of an epidemic. Inoculation with vaccine lymph will not prevent a person from being infected while the variolous atmospheric conditions exist which develope the disease. It may be urged that, at least, there is a saving of infant life by vaccination, looking at the pro- tection afforded by the operation, as shown in the statistics of early ages. As a rule, I admit the greater liability in children to small-pox, but there are happy variations in the susceptibility, nor is a child at all times in the same state of receptivity. Six weeks ago I attended a little e 4 girl Mr. C. T.Pearce, M.D. 7 March 1871.