Report from the Select Committee on the Vaccine Board : with the minutes of evidence and an appendix. / Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 28 August 1833.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on the Vaccine Board.
Date:
1833
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report from the Select Committee on the Vaccine Board : with the minutes of evidence and an appendix. / Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 28 August 1833. 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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    will continue to go unvaccinated, and subject themselves thereby to be swept off on sir Henry Halford, the invasion of stnall-pox. The average number of lives lost before vaccination Bart. was discovered, in the metropolis alone, was from 4,500 to 5,000 a year ; since that time the average mortality in the same space is about 700 a year; but this 18 March 1833. shows the necessity still for recommending, at least, by the authority of Parliament, the practice of vaccination. 125. Can you state what is the per-centage upon the whole number of deaths from the small-pox during the last 30 years, as compared with the per-centage upon the total number of deaths within the bills of mortality up to 1800 ?—No, I have not that in my mind at the moment.—(Mr. Simpson.) Here is a paper I have drawn out upon the subject. 126. Will you explain what is the reason that the stationary vaccinators appear to receive very unequal salaries; there are two who receive 150/., two receive 100/. a year, and the others receive only 50/. a year?—(Sir Henrj/ Halford.) All of them received more in the first instance, but since the Board has been called upon to reduce the establishment as low as it is possible to be reduced, they have consi- dered the different claims and the different services of the vaccinators whom they employ ; Mr. Gillham has 150 /. a year, and Mr. Gillham vaccinates 3,000 persons, and he will furnish you with eight charges of lymph for every person, and there are therefore 24,000 charges of lymph produced by that person to the general depot annually.—(Mr. Siinpson.) Mr. Carpue vaccinates every day in the week. 127. He is the vaccinator at the central station ?—Yes. 128. Does Mr. Gillham vaccinate every day?—No. 129. Why does he receive the same salary as Mr. Carpue?—He vaccinates a nsuch larger number ; his attendance is from one to three, but he is generally em- ployed three or four hours a day. 130. Though he is actually required to attend two hours, he does really attend three hours?—Yes, or four. 131. Does not it appear to you that 150/. a year for attending two hours a day three times a week, is a greater sum than the duty could be performed for?—He very frequently vaccinates 100 in a day, or 80 or 90. 152. Mr. Aikin and Mr. Leese, who each receive 100 /. a year, why is it they receive more than the others whose salary is 50 I.}—(Mr. Shnpson.) 1 believe it is from their having been on the original establishment, coming from the Jennerian Society; they are both of them most efficient vaccinators. 133. Have you ever considered, if it was thought proper to dissolve the Board,, whether l)y a moderate salary afforded to the parish apothecaries in London, a com- plete supply of lymph might not be kept up?—(Sir Henri/ Halford.) I believe it could not; I believe the advantage of this discovery, and I consider it a most imr portant one, wouUl be lost in the course of seven years if it were not maintained by all the authority and all the zeal which can be taken by a public Board, reporting its proceedings to Parliament every year. What check would you then have upon those parish apothecaries that they did their duty ? It is necessary there should be a check upon the disbursement of this money, by the report to Parliament of the expenditure. 134. Since the druggists are not able to obtain a supply of lymph from the National Board, whence is it that they obtain their supply?—The druggists are «p[)lied to on behalf of their correspondents, practitioners in the country. '35- Whence is it they obtain their supply, presuming from ;i former answer given upon the subject, that, with occasional exceptions, the general rule at the Board is to refuse a supply to druggists ; whence is it the druggists obtain the supply whicli they want for their country employers?—I take it for granted that their answer back to the correspondent is, you must applv yourself to the Board, and there you will get it. 136. You do not believe there are any regular sources of supply from which, whenever they require it, they obtain it?—I believe there is no regular supply but from this National Institution, that affords a supply that they can depend upon. 137. What are the difficuhies and labours which in the letter to the Home Department from the Board of the 5th of December 1831, are referred to, and which it is stated that the Board underwent in organizinir the system for diflusing vaccination?—It has been the result of considerable experience to determine how : 0.44. c you