The Committee observed that the Board might consist of two physicians and one surgeon, whose duties, not being onerous, might be discharged gratuitously. As the Committee was more loose-handed than Dr. Gregory, so the Commons were laxer than the Committee. The President and a Censor of the College of Physicians, and the President of the College of Surgeons, were suffered to continue their £100 a-year each, and the annual subsidy for the Establishment stood fixed at £2,200, until vaccination, under the disguise of sanitation, developed into the monstrous proportions with which we are at this day afflicted.
There is much talk prevalent in favour of “the endowment of research;” but what may come of such endowment, when not sharply looked after, is manifest in the example of the National Vaccine Establishment. The investigation, assumed to start with, was never pursued; and the guardianship of the public interest undertaken by the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons was never anything but make-believe. Annual Reports were presented to Parliament, signed by the heads of the Establishment, but of research they bore no trace, and many of them might have been dashed off by the Registrar in the course of an hour. Destitute of any scientific merit, these reports yet afford some curious glimpses of what was going on from year to year, with indications of the chief points of resistance encountered by the practice of vaccination; and, in turning over the series from 1810 to 1840, I have made the following notes, which may be read, perhaps, with interest.
VARIOLATION.
The chief resistance proceeded from the inoculators with smallpox; indeed, with the exception of apathy, there might be said to be no other resistance. Hence we read under the several dates—
1810.—During 1809, the surgeons vaccinated 1,493 persons. We are sorry to have to relate a decline of Vaccination in the Metropolis, and an apparent indisposition to the practice of it; and to express regret that there should be evil-disposed persons, who are endeavouring to frustrate His Majesty’s intentions by alarming the misinformed with stories which they know to be false.
1812.—We have reason to ascribe the increase of Smallpox in London during last year to the rash and inconsiderate manner in which great numbers are still inoculated for the Smallpox, and afterwards required to attend two or three times a week at the place of inoculation in every stage of their illness. The practice of Inoculation is the great means whereby Smallpox is kept in existence, and its infection propagated to persons and places where it would not otherwise be seen.
1814.—The Board has with great regret to observe that, although the punishment of three months’ imprisonment was awarded against Sophia Vantandillo, for carrying her child, whilst under the influence of Smallpox, through the streets, (which infected many others, eight of whom died) the unwary are still enticed by the hand-bills of shameless empirics to submit their children to Variolous Inoculation. It is, however, to be hoped that the above sentence passed by the Court of King’s Bench, which the Board has taken every method of promulgating, may produce considerable benefit. The Board selected Sophia Vantandillo as a proper example on account of the extent of the mischief occasioned by her misconduct; and that this prosecution, followed by a lenient punishment, may prevent any further wilful exposure of inoculated persons, is its fervent wish. The Board at the same time prosecuted Mr. Burnet, who inoculated the child, and who has long circulated most mischievous and offensive hand-bills, offering to inoculate persons with Smallpox gratis, and stigmatising Vaccination as productive of the most loathsome disease. This practitioner having suffered judgment to go by default, has been sentenced by the Court of King’s Bench to six months’ imprisonment.
The whole of the expenses incident to this Establishment for 1814 have been defrayed by the vote of last year, but the Board regrets that in consequence of the recent prosecutions and convictions, and the measures adopted for the more effectual extension of the practice of vaccination throughout the Empire, an addition of £500 to the annual grant will be necessary.
1815.—In Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Norwich, Inoculation is disused, and, in consequence, the Smallpox is scarcely known. In the country about Aberystwith in Wales, and Bawtry in Yorkshire, it has entirely disappeared. The reverse is, unhappily, the case in Portsmouth, Bristol, and London. In the Metropolis alone the mortality may be estimated at 1,000 annually; perhaps throughout the United Kingdom it is not less than ten times that number. It appears to us that this waste of human life can be prevented only by such legislative enactments as will entirely put a stop to Inoculation with Smallpox.
That smallpox was increased by variolation we have no reason to doubt, notwithstanding the fact that toward the close of the last century, when variolation was most practised, smallpox was steadily falling-off; but to ascribe the existence and persistence of smallpox to variolation was absurd. Smallpox was a widely-diffused disease before variolation was introduced to anticipate and minimise it.