LORD LYTTELTON ON COMPULSORY VACCINATION.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 770, 31 August 1853, Page 3

LORD LYTTELTON ON COMPULSORY VACCINATION.

House of Lohds, April 12. Lord Lyttelion, in an" interesting and valuable speech, moved that the House go into committee on the Vaccination Extension Bill. He showed the wonderful progressive diminution of deaths from small-pox after the discovery of vaccination by Dr. Jenner. 'I he average of death from small-pox out of every 1000 deaths from all causes within the bills of mortality were in the 10 years preceding 17(30, 100; 1780,98; 1790, S7 ; 1800 88; 1810, 64; 1820,42; 1830,32; 1850, IC. In Chelsea Royal Military Asvlnm, in 48 years, on on aggregate of 31,705, not one death had occurred from smallpox after vaccinati n, and only four from second attacks of unvaccinated persons. In Ahmedabad, in Bombay, where vaccination was introduced in 1817, it became general in 1825, aud small-pox had since been unheard of. In Hanover, in 1847, of 45,830 deaths, that were only eight from small-pox. In Denmark at ,at one period smdl-pox bad entirely disappeared, so universal was the practice of vaccination. England and France were now the only countries in Europe in which vaccination was not compulsory. In some countries—as Hanover, Bavaria, nnd Sweden—the law was directly compulsory, by pecuniary penalties, which was the plan he proposed in the present bill. In Austria, Belgium, Sardinia, Prussia, aud other countries, vacciution was made indirectly compulsory by various means ; and in Prussia no one was allowed to be married who could not show that he had been vaccinated. In Ireland, where the greatest ignorance and prejudice be supposed to prevuil on the subject, no less thaa 58,000 persons had died from small-pox in the ten years ending 1841; and in subsequent years, he believed, the state of matters was not much improved. In Connaugbt —which might be considered the part of Ireland wbere vaccination was most likely to be neglected—the number of deaths during the ten years ending 1841, were 60 in 1000 ; in Lombardy, there were l| in lOO'fl, or ;3 deaths in 2000, These were two extremes.. The average number of deaths in England and Wales during eight years was nearly 22 in 1000; whereas, in a Ion" - list of countries in which vaccination was compulsory, ii ranged from 8 in 1000 in Saxony to the 1 £ in Lombardy, and the avenge was not quite five. These facts showed that, in this country, the mortality from small-pox was more than four times as much as it was upon the Continent. (Hear.) The present public provision for vacciuation was, that in every union the guardians were empowered to con'ract with a nt dicul man to vf.c;;inate all children whose parents were not above bringing them to be vaccinated. '1 he result was, that there was a gnat want of uniformity as to the extent of vaccination in various parts of the country. In B rmiugliaui, in 1851. ihe vaccinations were 91 per cent, in the total number of births ; in Leicester they were 41 percent, on the births ; in Loughborough, 18; in Bideford, only 11 per cent, upon the births. At present there was great delay before vaccination, which caused a great sacrifice of life. It was the opinion of medical men, that except under peculiar and exceptional circumstances, vaccination ought to be performed within four months of birth, and he proposed to bring down the time to three months. At present vaccinatum was often delayed until die second or third year. No sys'em of vaccination could be considered otherwise than fundamentally defective under wib a large number of children thus remain unprotected to the age of two or three. Out of the total number of 601,859 births, for the year ending September 29, 1852, there had been 397,128 vaccinations by the public officers appointed for that purpose, and 203,039 of those tbu* vaccinated were above one year, and 191,089 under one year of a°-e. This was a point upon which all the authorities laid the greatest stress, hud the bill therefore proposed that vaccination should be made compulsory within a certain time. The bill enacted that all persons coming to this country were to be vaccinated, under a penalty ; nnd notice was to be given to parents in reference to the vaccination of their children, at the time when the birth was registered. The act only extended to England and Wales. It had'been pressed upon his consideration that what was wanted v/as one complete system of national vaccination. There now existed a good deal of prejudice among the poor against the present arrangement, which they confounded with pauperism, supposing that in taking their children to the public vaccinators they were receiving pauper relief. This was a very natural feeling, and if the machinery were separated'entirely from that of the Poor law Board, the system would probably worK better. It had been objected that after all, the bill would not be compulsory, for that a person might pay the fine which the act imposed, and take away his child unvaccinated : but his own impression was, that, sooner tu.ui pay the fine, the great majority of parents would luve their children vascinated.

The Enrl of Shaftvpbvuy supported the bill. He declared that the voluntary system ha I tailed, and they must therefore resort to Some other im-ans of piotecting .soriety from this frightful disease which was one of the most fatal that ldllicted humanity. In 1K35 the lives lust by small-pox in England and Wales were upwards of 16,000; the deaths registered for two years and tt half ending December, 183'.), were 30 000, or about 18,000 annually. But the destruction of IWe caused by small-pox could not be estimated by columns of deaths ; where it did not at once destroy, it laid the foundation of many forms of disuse—it led to blindness, deafness, active .developeuiew of Scrofula, consumption, and mesenteric dlseas.-. Vaccination was not commi'pory in France ; but tin- Vaccine Committee, in their last report, advised that France should at length follow the example of many other nations. He must say that he agreed in thinking that children should be vaccinated from die arm ot a healthy child for no doubt there was a prejudice against the virus from animals. If the bill were properly carried out. and remuneration "iren to tbos* engaged unuVr it,be believed they would soon exterminate . the dwfeaae ; and he had not" tbi» slightest doubt that generations to come would thank thAr Loid>bipßfor thfttfttpntiori they h-d bestowed on that important subject, and on the blessings' that had resulted from it. I . The House went into Oomrr-Jttee r. n the bill, which, waiordeied to Le read a third time.