The political side of the vaccination system; an essay read at the Birmingham Anti-Vaccination conference, October 26th, 1874 / by F.W. Newman.

  • Newman, F. W. (Francis William), 1805-1897.
Date:
[1874?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The political side of the vaccination system; an essay read at the Birmingham Anti-Vaccination conference, October 26th, 1874 / by F.W. Newman. 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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    where the cruelties of medical theory are unknown,—rather than again endure what her patriotic devotion to her subjects' welfare is said to have cost her in her first re-A^accination. Of course the Russian bride, whom the Duke of Edinburgh so recently brought to England, ought to have been met by a band of Court physicians and surgeons, to examine her arms, and possibly re-vaccinate her before she set her pestilential foot on our sacred soil,—if there is any particle of weight in tlie medical reasonings. The Acts for Compulsory Vaccination avowedly rest on these reasonings ; yet it cannot be pretended that the legislators still believed, with Jenner, that small-pox, after vaccination, is impossible. That under such circumstances Parliament should openly violate a first principle of legislation,—should act in so tyrannical and dastardly a way as to enforce vaccination only on tender infants, not on powerful and rich men, nor even on adults ;—should send fathers to prison for defending then infants, yet not dare to enforce re-vaccination on the fathers themselves,—lliis drives me to the conviction that there never was any free, open debate on the subject. I have not at hand the means of ascertaining the fact; yet (under correction) I infer that the Acts must have been disgracefully smuggled through thin Houses, at a late hour, in pursuance of medical fanaticism. No possible amendment of the law can remove its monstrosity ; for no medical scientist can lay down how long the practical efficacy of vaccination lasts, and no legislator can fancy that he knows of himself. Hence all the laws on the subject are thoroughly rotten. The only remedy is total and unconditional repeal. But, SECONDLY, I asscrt that it is beyond the functions of law to dictate any medical procediu'e, or enforce any scientific theory. The usurpation is similar to that of enforcing a religious creed. In the latter case certain bishops and clergy assure the legislators that persons who exercise their natural faculties of thought and sj^eech are foci of moral jyesiilence, and will cause the eternal perdition of thousands, if they are not stopped. To kill free-thinkers is the most effectual Aray ; to banish them is to make them a curse to other lands. The clergy therefore pleaded for the burning of here- tics, if ]X)Ssible ; if not, then at least (said they) *' burn their books, and if they try to preach, fine and imprison them; croj) their ears, slit their noses or scourge them : in short, outlaw them, for persisting in free utterances. If a legislature were now to abandon independent judgment and avow its submission to a hier- archy, it would be branded with disgrace in every country of Christendom, as betraying its trust and outstepping the limits of its