Return to an address of the House of Lords, date 17th June 1853, for copy of a report on the state of small-pox and vaccination in England and Wales and oher countries, and on compulsory vaccination, with tables and appendices, presented to the President and Council of the Epidemilogical Society by the Small-Pox and Vaccination Committee, the 26th day of March 1853 / H. Waddington.

  • Waddington, H. F.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Return to an address of the House of Lords, date 17th June 1853, for copy of a report on the state of small-pox and vaccination in England and Wales and oher countries, and on compulsory vaccination, with tables and appendices, presented to the President and Council of the Epidemilogical Society by the Small-Pox and Vaccination Committee, the 26th day of March 1853 / H. Waddington. 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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    Indirect com- pulsion. Direct compulsion by fine, &c. Facilities for dif- fusion of vaccina- tion. Rewards to vac- cinators. Voluntary system. Results. lowing countries we have not yet received information : Holland, Naples, States of the Church, Parma, Tuscany, Spain, Portugal, Russia, and Turkey. With regard to the kingdoms contained in the first category, we may state that, in most of them, with or without the aid of laws rendering the omission of vaccination penal, the performance of that operation is made essential to the enjoyment of so many municipal and other advantages, that the general dif- fusion of it is pretty certainly attained. In Austria, Bavaria, France, Prussia, Sardinia, Lubeck, Frankfort, and Hamburg, the production of a certificate of successful vaccination is an indispensable preliminary to admission to public schools, and in many instances to private schools. In Austria, Frankfort, Sar- dinia, Belgium, and Lubeck, no relief is given from public funds in case of poverty; there is no admission to almshouses or orphan asylums, without a similar certificate. In Frankfort, proof of vaccination is an indispensable con- dition of citizenship : nor is any person allowed to take a servant or apprentice who has not been properly vaccinated. The same rule, so far as apprenticeship is concerned, applies to Bavaria; in which country, as well as in Prussia, even the rite of matrimony is withheld until the proper certificates or other evidence of vaccination have been produced. In the kingdoms last named (Prussia and Bavaria), direct compulsion by fine is employed in addition to these means ; the fine in Bavaria augmenting annually until the law is complied with. In Austria there is no fine, but if it be known to the police that a person is unvaccinated, they have authority to take him forthwith and see that the operation is performed. Two countries only, of those from which we have received information, appear to rely wholly on the system of fine, and do not employ any of those indirect measures which we have enumerated. In Hanover, the punishment is fine or imprisonment. In Sweden, a person who refuses to comply is taken before the magistrate and reprimanded in the first instance ; he is afterwards fined, if he continues to disobey, and the fine is increased until obedience is obtained. It is right, however, to state, that in both these countries, as well as in Austria, Bavaria, and the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, great facilities for vaccination are afforded to the population by the appointment of district vac- cinators (paid generally by the State), whose duty it is to vaccinate at appointed times and at convenient stations, or even from house to house. In France and Belgium, rewards (prizes, and gold and silver medals,) are given to those vaccinators who have distinguished themselves by zeal in the discharge of their functions. In Great Britain and the United States of America, vaccination (except for those who enter the military and naval ser-vices, and the like,) is entirely voluntary ; nor are any inducements held out to medical men to encourage them to exertion. The results of these opposite modes of proceeding will be seen in the follow- ing Tables :— ^A.) TABLE showing the Mortality in various Places in England, Scotland, and Ireland, from Small-Pox, as compared with the Total Mortality, for 10 Years, ending 1850 or 1851. London - - - - - Birmingham - - - - Leeds _ - - - - Paisley - - - - - Edinburgh - Liverpool - - - - Dundee _ - - - - Perth Greenock _ - - - Glasgow _ - - - Dublin Cork Galway - - - - - Limerick _ - - - England and Wales (eight years) Deaths from Small-Pox. 16- per 16- 6 17- 5 18- 19'4 21- 24- 2 25- 34-6 36- 25- 66 39-5 35- 41- 60- 49- 21« Deaths from all Causes. 1,000 » }> » » }> >y j> >> » » »