First (-Second) 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:
- 1889-1890
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: First (-Second) 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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![per cent, of the birth rate ?—Yes; 1866_ was a year when the agitation against vaccination was mfull swing. 1447. In 1866 there were 10,000 odd vaccinations and 1,000 odd re-vaccinations, being 37-90 per cent, of the birth rate ; in 1867 there were 14,000 odd vaccinations and 1,000 re-vaccinations, being 52-64 per cent, of the birthrate; in 1868 there were 16,000 odd vaccinations and 1 000 odd re-vaccinations, being 66 87 per cent.'of the birth rate ; in 1869 there were 17,000 odd vaccina- tions and 1,000 odd re-vaccinations, being 57*65 per cent, of the birth rate; in 1870 there were 9,000 odd vaccinations and 4,000 odd re-vaccinations, being 29-29 per cent, of the birth rate; and in 1871 there were 37,206 vaccinations and 102,965 re-vaccinations ?—Yes. 1448. That was more than the number of births, the number of births being 29,530 ?—Yes. 1449. That was a year of epidemic ?—Yes, it was. 1450. That is for the city of Berlin ?—For the city of Berlin alone. 1451. How far that would be typical of Prussia gene- rally I suppose it is difficult to say ?—It is very difficult indeed to say, because the laws of Prussia certainly at that time did make it necessary that children should be vaccinated on going to certain public schools, but then the school-masters took the word of the parents very frequently; if either the father or the mother, or even the pastor of the district, said that the child had been vaccinated that was taken as being quite sufficient and no further inquiry was made; it was not then as now- a-days, when every child on coming to school has to bring its vaccination certificate in its hand. 1452. When did that become law in Prussia P—In 1874. 1453. (Professor Michael Foster.) You said that be- came law in 1874; do you mean that in 1874 it became necessary to exhibit a certificate, or that in 1874 real compulsion began ?—In 1874 both vaccination and re- vaccination were made compulsory. 1454. Was it not till 1874 that parents were expected to have their children vaccinated before going to school ?—They were expected to have their children vaccinated before going to school, but I do not think there was any law before that compelling them to bring a certificate. 1455. 1874 was the date of the law to compel them to bring a certificate ?—1874 ; the law did not come into action till 1875. 1456. But some time before that it was a regulation that children should be vaccinated before going to school ?—Yes, as far as certain public institutions were concerned. 1457. Do you know when the regulation came into operation that children should be vaccinated before going to school ?—No. It was certainly very early, but there was no real compulsion. 1458. Before 1836 ?—Quite as far back as that, 1835 or 1836, though no guarantee was demanded that the children had in reality been vaccinated, the word of the parents being given that the children had been vaccinated, it was considered enough. 1459. Still the regulation existed P—Yes ; it was an indirect pressure, that was all. 1460. There was a printed regulation which ought to have been obeyed ?—The printed law was only for schools where the children were educated for nothing ; where the childi-en paid there was no compulsion. 1461. In 1874 did the change in the law embrace private schools as well as public schools ?—Yes, 1462. So that there was a definite change altogether P —Certainly. In 1874 re-vaccination was introduced, and every child of 12 had to produce a certificate, and children now have to stay at school in G-ermany till they are 14. 1463. (Chairman.) You have given us some statistics as regards vaccination in Berlin ; have you any other statistics with regard to the death-rate from small-pox in Berlin ?—Dr. Guttstadt shows that in the years 1766. 1770, 1786, and 1801 small-pox caused 23-19, 21-2, and 21-16 per cent, of all deaths. Prom 1802 to 1864, that is from the time of the first introduction of vaccination into Berlin, the mortality from small-pox remained Very low, that is, comparatively speaking low, until the year 1864, when it reached the figure 3 - 43 per cent, of deaths from all causes. I have here a diagram show- iug the mortality from small-pox from the year 1816 o 60238. to 1886 in Prussia. (The diagram was handed in. See Mr. Arthur F. Appendix II., facing page 232.) Hopkirk, 1464. This goes down to 1886 ?—Yes, I have not been M.D. able to obtain any figures of a later date. g q^.^^ iggg, 1465. What are the per-centages at the bottom of the diagram p—The mortality from small-pox per 100,000 living. 1466. I see since 1874 the highest in any one year has been 4 per 100,000 ?—In 1874 it was 9 • 52 ; in 1875, 3 • 60 ; in 1876, 3 • 14 ; in 1877, 0 • 34 ; in 1878, 0 - 71; in 1879, 1 - 26; in 1880. 2 • 60; in 1881, 3 - 62 ; in 1882, 3 • 64 ; in 1883, 4 ■ 00 ; in 1884, 1 - 5 ; in 1885,1 • 4 ; and in 1886, 0 • 05 ?—Yes. The first portion of the diagram is copied from a report presented to the German Eeichstag, and the last part I have taken from a recent publication, the Preussischen Statistischen Jahrbuch, which corresponds to our Eegistrar-General's Eeports. 1467. An official report P—Yes. I now hand in another table showing that before the introduction of vaccination, small-pox was essentially a disease of early childhood; those individuals belonging to the later periods of life being protected by the attack from which they had recovered in their youth. (See Appendix II., Table C: page 232.) I copied these statistics from Lotz's Pocken und Vaccination, because Lotz has taken the trouble to put all these matters together so very carefully, and then I verified them in the British Museum. I looked at the authority Lotz gave, and I found him perfectly accurate in all respects. He shows how high the mortality was amongst young children up to the age of 20 in the days before vaccination, while after the age of 20 there was scarcely anybody left to have small-pox. They had all had it; they had either died from it or been disfigured by it. Then I have another table, the figures in which I have taken from Lotz's Pocken und Vaccination (and which he has taken from Juncker), giving the statistics of the small- pox epidemic from December 1795 to the end of 1796 in the three towns of Rawicz, Bojanowo, and Sarnowo, all of which towns are m Posen. (The table loas handed in. See Ap)2yendix II., Table D : page 2o3.) During the first year of life the average mortality was 35'9 per 100 cases of small-pox; in the second year of life, 29-0 ; in the third year, 19-6; in the fourth year, 16-6; in the fifth year, 13-4; in the sixth year, 126; in the seventh year, 12-7; in the eighth year, 5-3; in the ninth year, 9'6 ; in the tenth year, 10-8; and after that Juncker gives no cases of small-pox. In fact, in the whole of his three volumes I have found very few cases of small-pox amongst old people. The note to the table shows the careful way in which Juncker drew up his tables. 1468. Have you any other statistics with reference either to Berlin or Prussia to put before the Commis- sion P—I have some statistics of the town of Chemnitz. I believe they are considered to be a model of all statistics. This is a table for the town of Chemnitz in Saxony drawn up by Dr. Max Plinzer, showing the mortality amongst the vaccinated and unvaccinated in the epidemic of 1871, and also giving the number of cases. (The table vms handed in. See Appendix II., Table E : page 234.) Dr. Max Flinzer went very care- fully through the whole town; he gives the number of houses in each street, the number of inhabitants in each house, and the number of households (because, of course, generally in Germany people live in flats, so many families in each house), the number of cases of small-pox in each house, and the number of persons who were vaccinated or unvaccinated; and finally he draws certain conclusions from the whole. 1469. (Br. Collins.) Are the ages given p— Yes, showing that under 10 years not a single vaccinated child died, but that of the unvaccinated a good many. Of the 64,255 inhabitants of Chemnitz in 1870-71, 53,891, or 83'87 per cent, were vaccinated; 5,712, or 8*89 per cent, were unvaccinated, and 4,652, or 7'24 per cent., had already had the small-pox. There were 3,596 cases, of those 249, or 6-92 died, amongst those were 117 boys, 17 male adults, 111 girls, and 11 female adults. All the children who died were unvacci- nated, and of the adults three males and four females were vaccinated, the I'emainder being unvaccinated. Of the 249 deaths, 242 were thus unvaccinated, and only seven those of vaccinated persons, the former category contributing 97 •] 9 and the latter 2-81 per cent, of the deaths. Separating the cases of small- pox amongst the vaccinated from those amongst the unvaccinated persons, we find that of 953 cases of small-pox amongst vaccinated individuals only 0*73 C](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21361332_0167.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
