Volume 2

Reports of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the subject of Vaccination; with minutes of evidence and appendices / Vaccination Commission.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Vaccination.
Date:
1889-1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the subject of Vaccination; with minutes of evidence and appendices / Vaccination Commission. 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.

    791/798 (page 219)
    effective in saving life than was the enforcement of the law at the period of the previous epidemic. 288. The prevalence of this opinion is by no means confined to Leicester. In December 1891 we issued to all boards of guardians in England and Wales a number of questions concerning their mode of carrying out the law, the enforcement of which rests with them. The replies showed that in 122 unions compulsion had either been temporarily suspended until the report of the present Commission, or had been entirely abandoned, independently of our inquiry. These unions include, in addition to Leicester, a number of important towns, such as Eeading, Ealmouth, Derby, Darlington, Gateshead, South Shields, Colchester, Westham, Gloucester, Burnley, Bury, Oldham, Lancaster, Wigan, Wolverhampton, Ipswich, Eastbourne, Coventry, Hull, York, Middlesboro', Scarborough, Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Keighley, and others. 289. The law is also in abeyance by resolution of the guardians, in the following Metropolitan Unions, viz., Camberwell, Hackney, Islington, Lambeth, Mile End, St. Olave's, St. Saviour's, and Shoreditch. Making allowance for the fact that in about 46 of the 122 unions the suspension of the compulsory law is professedly only tem- porary until this Commission shall have reported, we cannot regard without anxiety and fear the painful conflict that would be inevitable if an attempt were made to revive and re-enforce the compulsory law in these localities against the prevalent opinion of the inhabitants. 290. Indeed, even to make the attempt would be impossible without a considerable change in the law. Eor at present the duty of enforcement lies with the guardians, and it is made a test question in their election. If we could suppose that the evidence laid before us would have the effect of changing local opinion, we might count on the future election of guardians willing to carry out the law. But a large part of that evidence has been published already, and there is hitherto no appearance whatever of any change in the local opinion of the unions above mentioned, except in the rare cases in which epidemic has occasioned panic. Each year of our labours has witnessed not an increase, but a decrease in the numbers of guardians elected in these unions oy the supporters of compulsion. 291. It appears, therefore, that, if the present law is to be made really efi'ectiv.e, this can only be secured by imposing the duty of its enforcement on the police under the direction of inspectors of the Local Government Board. There is too much reason, however, to fear that even this would not be sufficient without a material iucrease in the severity of the law. The evidence received as to the prevalence and strength of 6052-6764. conscientious objections on the part of parents convinces us that a considerable number could not be compelled by any penalties of fine or imprisonment to bring their children for vaccination or to allow the operation at their own homes. People who show this spirit are considered martyrs by their neighbours, and a few such cases soon create a local agitation against the law. The only way of enforcing the law without prose- cution of parents would be to empower^ public vaccinators to seize children by the aid of the police and vaccinate them by force. But the attempt would probably create an agitation such as no Government could withstand. 292. The difficulty of compulsion is greatly enhanced by the undeniable fact that vaccination is attended by an appreciable amount of danger. The constitutioji of a child is always more or less disturbed by it; and though the number of cases in which this disturbance assumes a painful or fatal form bears small proportion to the number of infants vaccinated, yet a certain amount of risk remains undeniable : and the question whether this risk should be encountered or not is naturally regarded as a matter of parental responsibility. We are unable to report that this risk is infinitesimal or unimportant. 293. The degree of risk which parental feeling may justly be compelled to encounter is scarcely susceptible of statistical statement, If we v;ere in a position to affirm that there is absolutely no danger, our task might be much simplified. But when once the reality of appreciable danger is proved, as we hold it to be, it becomes a very delicate question how far the law is morally justified in interfering with the discretion of parents. It may be urged that a very great danger to the community might justify the enforcement of a 'proved and indispensable safeguard even at some risk to mdivi- duals. But the danger from small-pox to any community using such precautions as we have recommended is not now great enough, nor is the safeguard of sufficient certainly to fulfil these conditions.