Copy of the last report of the National Vaccine Establishment to the Secretary of State for the Home Department : to the Right Honourable Robert Peel.

  • National Vaccine Establishment (Great Britain)
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Copy of the last report of the National Vaccine Establishment to the Secretary of State for the Home Department : to the Right Honourable Robert Peel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    COPY OF THE LAST REPORT **, ♦ * 'O * v/ w From the National Vaccine Establishment to the Secretary of State for the Home Department. TO THE LORD VISCOUNT MELBOURNE, Secretary of State for the Home Department, &c. &c. &c. National Vaccine Establishment, MY LORD, 14th March 1831. U has required all our industry and zeal to supply the numerous demands which have been made upon us for Vaccine Matter from all quarters of the Empire since our last Report. We have furnished the means of protection to the Army and Navy, to every county in England and Scotland, to Ireland, to the Colonies, and moreover to several of the capitals of Europe ; and nearly 12,000 of the poor of the Metropolis and its immediate neighbourhood have been vaccinated in the course of the last year. Whilst this affords an undeniable proof of the great diffusion of Vaccination, and is a strong argument for the value of this Institution, it diminishes our satisfaction to be obliged to confess, that, if Parliament should determine that enough had now been done to establish the superior merit of Vaccination above every other security against the danger of Small Pox, and that it should be left henceforward to the discretion and good sense of the nation to continue the practice from the resources of individuals, such a determination would find the country unprepared and unprovided with the means of defence, and that a great mortality from Small Pox would be an early consequence of the breaking up of this Establishment. It is our constant care to admonish those to whom we send Lymph, of the propriety of taking advantage of the opportunity of providing a further supply for themselves. But it would seem, from the incessant applications which continue to be made to us, either that our warnings are not sufficiently attended to, or what we believe to be the fact, from the replies constantly made to us, it is' impracticable to keep up a continued supply anywhere but in the capital where numerous appointed Vaccinators assist and support each other. The result of another year’s experience is a confirmation of the value of Vaccina- tion. We have evidence before us of persons being exposed to the severest trials of its power of protection in the midst of the contagion of the Small Pox, with impunity ; and though some constitutions do admit a secondary disease, yet this is almost always a safe one, though severe in some instances in its first attack, and it is not so common as the Chicken Pox used to be after Small Pox given by Inoculation. V e have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lordship’s obedient Servants, (signed) HENRY HALFORD, President of the Royal Coll, of Physicians. Robert Bree, M. D. Censor. Geo. L. Tuthill, M. D. Censor. ROBt keate, President of the Royal Coll, of Surgeons. JOHN P. VINCENT, Vice President of the Royal Coll, of Surgeons. Clem‘ Hue, M. D. Registrar. 336.