Vaccination considered in relation to the public health : with inquiries and suggestions thereon. A letter addressed to the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Morpeth, First Commissioner of Her Majesty's Woods & Forests. / By John Marshall.

  • Marshall, John, 1818-1891.
Date:
MDCCCXLVII
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vaccination considered in relation to the public health : with inquiries and suggestions thereon. A letter addressed to the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Morpeth, First Commissioner of Her Majesty's Woods & Forests. / By John Marshall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    several, which concern the intellectual and religious culture of the children educated within them, they are already required to submit; and there can be no reason given, why another con¬ dition, so beneficial in its tendency and confined entirely to the preservation of individual and public health, should not also be imposed upon them. The present occasion of an increased grant happens to be peculiarly favourable for the issuing of such an Order ; and it is scarcely possible to conceive that any friends of education would take offence thereat, or that any would refuse pecuniary assistance accompanied by so reasonable a condition. It is especially by those classes of society who avail them¬ selves of the schools receiving Government aid, that vaccination is the most neglected, so that, with them, the proposed inter¬ ference of the State is equally necessary and just; whereas, with other schools, as it would be less reasonable, so it is less needed. In some public schools, as, for example, those connected with the army and navy departments, in workhouse schools, and penitentiaries, the power exists to enact such a regulation con¬ cerning vaccination, and it is generally understood to be in force. Even in many private and foundation schools a similar rule has been introduced, and the Poor Law Commissioners, as long back as 1841, say they will “consider of the measures which may be recommended for promoting the general exten¬ sion of this security.” (P. 152.) Nothing, however, has since been accomplished. The announcement of the proposed regulation by the Com¬ mittee of the Council on Education, in regard to one very large class of schools, recognising its importance and necessity, would speedily be followed by its general adoption in all. An abso¬ lute condition would be imposed on the former, and the force of a good example acting through public and private opinion be brought to bear upon the latter. Two other reasons may be offered in support of this proposed interference by the State, with reference to vaccination; first, its application to children, not adults ; and secondly, its limita¬ tion to children attending at schools, (a.) If the vaccination of