Preliminary report on an investigation of the results of vaccination from the calf in the various countries of Europe, in India, and America; with proposals for the establishment of a central government establishment for continuous supply of fresh calf lymph to public vaccinators in Great Britain / by Ernest Hart.
- Ernest Abraham Hart
- Date:
- 1880
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Preliminary report on an investigation of the results of vaccination from the calf in the various countries of Europe, in India, and America; with proposals for the establishment of a central government establishment for continuous supply of fresh calf lymph to public vaccinators in Great Britain / by Ernest Hart. 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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![fall, and now inoculation was a misdemeanour. The profession in Jenner's time was warned that it diffused small-pox. It was warned seventy years ago that syphilis and other diseases would be transferred by vaccination. The arm-to-arm method had no sooner sprung up, than the objection was started by Cobbett, whose words were almost prophetic ; when we read now what he said, he seemed to be a prophet. In 1853, vaccination was made compulsory, and in 1856 the objection to it came very strongly. -The question was put, in 1867, to the profession, Have you, from your information, ever seen or known syphilis transferred from child to child by a true Jennerian vesicle? They said No. First, the vaccinators were applied to; then the men eminent in knowledge of syphilis; and then the heads of the profession. Dr. Watson said the question arose. Could the profession, on its mere authority, claim that the public should have enforced upon them another of its opinions by penal enactment with respect to vaccination ? It was an unreasonable claim; and he would say to those who were present, apparently honestly believing that vaccination could protect against small-pox, whether the time had not come when they might safely say, We will not depend on compulsion any longer. In Belgium, vaccination was not compul- sory ; neither was it in the United States. Dr. Warlomont came from a country where there was no compulsion. Was it not a fact that by a penal Act of Parliament they had killed the vitality of a remedy which, if left to the fierce competition of medical men, would improve and develop? The very fact that they went to Belgium ! and the United States, where there was no compulsion, proved this. It ij was a question whether they should not go to Parliament, and ask to make it a legal thing to take away compulsion. They would then be probably supported ; but, if they went to Parliament to enforce their second scheme, they would place the profession in a doubtful position. He was not going to be guided in his opinion by negative evidence; but he asked whether it was wise to enforce by enactment ? [The speaker was proceeding to discuss the question of compulsion, when the Chair- man ruled that he was out of order.] Was the experience they had con- sistent with that doctrine ? He alluded to the Blue Book on the epi- demic of small-pox in 1873, when the disease was so virulent that people were seized who were supposed to be protected. He respectfully submitted that it was consistent with a system of transferring from child to child living disease matter, and, that being the case, the time had gone by when vaccination should be enforced by penal enactment. Dr. HOGGAN said the question of compulsion M'as part of Dr. Cameron's Bill, and he hoped it would be made public that the question was not allowed to be discussed. According to the terms of the circular which had been sent out convening the.meeting, this was one of the questions,, and he hoped it would be made quite clear that the matter was not suffered to be discussed. Dr. Houghton said that, as to the character of the lymphs used. Dr. Watson staled he used small-pox matter for the purpose of inoculating cows or c.-J.lves, with a view of producing what was called vaccine lymph. At the meeting of December 4th, there were several gentle- men who strongly maintained the view, that a proper and right way of obtaining vaccine lymph to replenish their stock, and having unexcep- tionable lymph, was to take small-pox matter out and inoculate cows or calves with it, and from them take the vaccine lymph. From Sir Thomas Watson's letter, it appeared this had been going on for forty years; so that there could be no doubt that there had been in cir-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21358138_0091.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
