Sixth report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the subject of vaccination; with minutes of evidence and appendices.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Vaccination.
Date:
1897
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sixth report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the subject of vaccination; with minutes of evidence and appendices. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    App. No. S2. APPENDIX XXII. The Secbetahy of the Eoyal College of Surgeons OE England to the Commission. Royal College of Surgeons of England, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C. Sir, ISth day of May 1893. I AM desired to request that you will submit to the Royal Commission on Vaccination the following copy of a resolution* unanimously adopted by the Council of this College on the 11th instant, viz. :— We, the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, desire to put on record at the present time our opinion of the value of vaccination as a protection against small-pox. We consider the evidence in favour of its life-saving power to be overwhelming, and, we believe, from evidence equally strong, that the dangers incidental to the operation, when properly performed, are infinitesima]. • N.B.—Sir Wm. Savory, Bart., and Mr. Jonathan Hutcbinson being members of the Royal Commission did not vote.—E. T. '' Experience has satisfied us that, even when vac- cination fails to afford complete exemption from small-pox, it so modifies the severity of the disease as not only to greatly reduce its mortality, but to lessen the frequency of blindness, disfigurement, and other grave injuries. We should therefore regard as a national calamity any alteration in the law which now makes vaccina- tion compulsory. We are moreover firmly convinced that re-vacci- nation is an additional safeguard, and should be unanimously practised. ^' We would add that we believe that the instructions of the Local Government Board for Public Vaccina- tors are well designed to secure the greatest efiB.ciency in vaccination, and to avoid the liability to risks from ' the operation. I am, &c. Edward Trimmbr, The Secretary, Secretary. Eoyal Commission on Yaccination. J