A brief statistical answer to the speech of the Rt. Hon. Robert Lowe, M.P., delivered in the House of Commons, on compulsory vaccination : to which is appended correspondence between the Registrar General, J.F. Marson, Esq., (surgeon of the London Small-Pox Hospital,) and the author.

  • Gibbs, George S.
Date:
1861
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A brief statistical answer to the speech of the Rt. Hon. Robert Lowe, M.P., delivered in the House of Commons, on compulsory vaccination : to which is appended correspondence between the Registrar General, J.F. Marson, Esq., (surgeon of the London Small-Pox Hospital,) and the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tliinp npproBcliing to a correct statement of tlie tiumbor of vaccinations registered aiinunlly in England. I am, sir, your obedient servant, George S. Gibbs, Esq. Thomas Mann, Chief Clerk.” Whence it appears that this precious and cherished law, the repeal of a single clause of which, according to Mr Lowe, caused the sacrifice of thousands of lives, does not ’secure even a proper record of the operations performed in ])ursuance of its provisions. 9th Mo. 27th, 1861. G. S. G. APPENDIX I. Haughton-le-Skerne, Darlington, 8 Mo. 19, 1861. Sir,—Tliere is a paragraph now going the round of the papers under the head of “ Causes of Death in England,” to a portion of which I respectfully beg leave to direct your par- ticular attention :—“ To the Registrar-General’s Report (1859) is appended, as usual, an instructive paper by Dr, W. Farr. Smallpox destroyed 3,848 persons, chiefly children who had not been vaccinated.” On the 23rd ult. you kindly sent me an account of the number of persons dying of smallpox, during several years, at the same time stating that “ your abstracts of the causes of death did not enable you to distinguish the vaccinated from the unvaccinated dying of smallpox.” The two statements seem scarcely reconcileable without ex- planation. I remain, yours respectfully, GEORGE S. GIBBS. To the Registrar-General, London. General Register Office, 20th August, 1861. Sir,—Although my returns do not enable me to state the exact number of the 3,848 persons who died of smallpox in 1869 unvaccinated, the Returns sufficiently indicate that a majoriti/ had not been vaccinated. I have the honour to be, &c., GEORGE GRAHAM, Regisiear-General. George S. Gibbs, Esq. Haughton-le-Skerne, Darlington, 8 Mo. 21, 1861-. Sir,—1 have to acknowledge, with thanks, the receipt of your letter of yesterday’s date. I was induced to trouble you on the subject because the generality of newspaper readers would not understand that a bare majority was meant by the expression “ chiefly children who had not been vaccinated,” especially when followed by such words as these -.—“ An in- stance, as Dr. Parr remarks, of the rigour with which the in- fringement of sanitary laws is visited: for the children perish and the parents lose their offspring by the neglect of a pre- caution of the simplest kind.” I beg leave respectfully to submit to you that Dr. Fair’s “ instructive” paper would have been much more instructive had he indicated the cause of death to the minority, since it would appear that the “ precaution of the simplest kind ” had been adopted by them. I regret that I cannot regard the explanation given as en- tirely satisfactory. If the certificate of death in each case states the fact of vaccination or non-vacciiiation, there is no perceptible difficulty in aniviiig at the exact number in each