Vaccination and its relation to animal experimentation / Jay Frank Schamberg.

  • Schamberg, Jay Frank, 1870-
Date:
1909
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Vaccination and its relation to animal experimentation / Jay Frank Schamberg. 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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    rIhe most important opinion has been rendered by the British Royal Commission on Vaccination appointed by Queen Victoria in 1889. This commission, consisting of eminent members of Parliament, lawyers, scientists and physicians, and presided over by Lord Herschell, car- ried out an exhaustive investigation, lasting from 1889 to 1897. It held 136 meetings and examined 187 wit- nesses. The judgment of such a body as to the efficacy of vaccination should certainly be regarded as conclusive. In the final report signed by eleven of the thirteen mem- bers is found the following statement: It is to be hoped that our report will stimulate belief in the efficacy of vaccination, that it will remove some misapprehen- sion and reassure some who take an exaggerated view of the risks connected with the operation, as well as lead to a more ready enforcement of the law by local authorities. To our knowledge, no scientific society has ever passed resolutions derogatory to vaccination; on the other hand, the highest scientific bodies throughout the world have repeatedly affirmed their belief in the virtues of vacci- nation. On May 13, 1893, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, one of the most eminent bodies in Great Britain, transmitted to the Royal Commission on Vacci- nation a set of resolutions bearing on vaccination, which reads in part as follows :17 We consider the evidence in favor 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 infinitesmal. We should, therefore, regard as a national calamity any alteration in the law which now makes vaccination compulsory. ANIMAL RESEARCH IN ITS RELATION TO VACCINA- TION AND SMALLPOX The tradition concerning the protective influence of cowpox against smallpox appears to have been knovm to dairymen in England and Germany long before the days of Edward Jenner. Dairy servants whose hands were accidentally infected with cowpox while milking cows were alleged to be immune against the ever-present and fatal smallpox. After assiduous investigation extending over many years, Jenner became convinced that there was truth in 17. Rep. Roy. Com. on Vaccination, Appendix No. 22, p. 778.