MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS. (Hansard, 8 May 1868)

§ SIR J. CLARKE JERVOISE
said, that in rising to move for an Address to the Queen praying for an inquiry into the spread of disease by infection, with a view to legislation on the subject, he made no pretence to science beyond that knowledge which was founded upon facts. His only logic in connection with this matter was the inexorable logic of facts. This question he (Sir J. Clarke Jervoise) considered to be one of unbounded magnitude, and of the greatest possible interest. When he brought forward the measure last year 2006 he was answered by the noble Lord the Vice President of the Committee of Council, who said that all infectious disorders were contagious, but all contagious disorders were not infectious, and stated also that a few Gentlemen connected with the Privy Council were acquainted with all disorders. It had been stated by the Medical Officers of the Privy Council that every disorder was descended in regular pedigree, and that, though we could no more tell the first parent of disease than we could tell the origin of species, the consequence might be predicted with the certainty of a chemical experiment. He confessed, however, his inability to perceive how, according to the rules of logic, it was possible to argue with the certainty of a chemical experiment upon premises which were altogether uncertain. The Pall Mall Gazette had spoken of his Notice as one that perplexed the student of the Notice Paper of the House of Commons. He did not, however, think that the services of any literary Brothers Davenport were required to unravel the meaning. But if he was altogether incomprehensible there would be nothing singular in that. Last year, on speaking to au eminent Member of that House who had taken a leading part in connection with the Cattle Plague Bill, that Gentleman observed to him that he knew nothing at all about the matter. "What!" was his exclamation, "and you a Member of the Government which brought in the Bill! have you been legislating on what you do not understand?" The reply was, "Certainly; if we only legislated on what we understand there would be no legislation at all." He was convinced that an inquiry into the subject would result in great good to all ranks of the community from the highest to the lowest. Last year he mentioned that leprosy was a type of all that had been said of the dangers and communicability of disease by the process of infection; and he wished now to point out that the mode of dealing with leprosy was the type of many of the mistakes, follies, and crimes which had been perpetrated in the name of humanity. There were still remains existing of the leper-houses which once were so numerous in this land. The disease still prevailed in India and in Syria, and since last year there had been a remarkable case at Alexandria, where Dr. Simonides died in the autumn of leprosy. Thus, we had the disease descending from the original parent of leprosy, and showing itself in the de- 2007 scendant of the original Simon. Referring to smallpox, he mentioned the case at Aylesbury of Emanuel Cooke, who twice escaped from the workhouse, was taken before the magistrates, and sentenced to fine or imprisonment. It was also said that one of the Royal Family had suffered from smallpox; and we could only hope that Royal princes were at least properly vaccinated. It was further reported that the Secretary of State for War had suffered from something of the kind. One statement said it was chickenpox, and another said it was something else. He understood on good authority it was smallpox. What with chicken, and cowpox, it only required a little change in age and sex to make a cock-and-bull story; and he was sorry that the right hon. Gentleman was not present to give the House some information on the matter. At all events, we must hope he was not exposed to the isolation inflicted on the pauper at Aylesbury, and that he was not denied the consolation of his friends. The Compulsory Vaccination Bill he had opposed, because it was not fair to subject poor people to the trouble it would entail upon them. It was cruel to ask a poor woman in the country to travel four miles, perhaps, in the depth of winter or height of summer for the purpose of getting her child vaccinated, merely upon the supposition that the disease might be communicated, which had not been proved in a single instance. There was a town (Sheffield) where a meeting of the inhabitants was held in consequence of the surgeon to the troops who were quartered there having made a report that some of the soldiers in the barracks were attacked with smallpox, and that there were numerous cases in the town. But this latter statement must have arisen from a mere guess on the part of the surgeon; that because there was smallpox in the barracks therefore it must be in the town; for when an inquiry was made hardly a single case could be found in the town; and on going back to the barracks the cause of the disease was traced plainly enough to the defective state of the arrangements there, and on removing these the disease disappeared. When the noble Lord stated last year that smallpox was absolutely preventible by vaccination, he must have known that, according to the Report of the Small pox Hospital, in round numbers, 81 per cent of the cases which entered that hospital were vaccinated cases. It might be that 2008 the majority of deaths occurred amongst those who had not been vaccinated—probably they could not read or write; but the fact he had stated showed that vaccination did not prevent a recurrence of the disease. With respect to typhus fever it was known that it was produced in many cases by foul water, by defective drainage, and by other kindred causes, which led to blood-poisoning. Several recent, cases of gaol fever occurred at Devizes—where the Judge ordered the windows of the Court to be opened, and the jury sat with their hats on for fear of infection. Had the Judge never heard of John Howard, nor ever seen a Sister of Charity going forth on her mission of mercy?—he would also refer to outbreaks of typhus fever at the village of Terling, in Essex. That outbreak was self-originating, but was said to be due to the defective state of the water supply of the village. With regard to quarantine, he had a memorial signed by many gentlemen, none of whom probably would support him in all his views, who nevertheless saw the absurdity and cruelty of quarantine. A large amount of evidence had been obtained in reference to the cattle plague, and that evidence was not worthy of consideration as to the origin of the disease. The present laws on the subject of infectious diseases were crude and cruel. How was it possible to put such laws in force? Called on as a magistrate to enforce them, he had felt that there is a time when duty ceases and conscience begins; and he had declined any longer to act in administering these laws.

§ MR. LIDDELL
, in seconding the Motion, said he was in hopes that even in the midst of political excitement the importance—he might almost say the necessity—of this subject would induce the House to give it a very careful attention. His great object was to prevail on the hon. Baronet and the House to allow the scope of this inquiry to be extended to a point beyond that contemplated by the hon. Baronet. He wished to extend the inquiry to a class of diseases unfortunately too prevalent, and to see whether the provisions of the Contagions Diseases Act might not be applied to all the great towns of the kingdom. Many Members of the House were aware that there existed an important central association in London, whose object was to have that Act extended to the civil population of our towns, and, further, very many great towns in the country were prepared to ask for the boon. Within the last 2009 few days, the great town of Newcastle, with which he was connected, had held a very important meeting upon the subject, and was prepared to ask the House to extend the Act to them, and he desired to add his voice to theirs. The difficulty that was felt in debating this subject was that one was precluded from bringing forward in public discussion the facts and evidence necessary to prove the case; but those facts and that evidence would be forth coming at the right time and in the right place if the inquiry were extended as suggested. In many of the great towns, as he had said, a remarkable unanimity of opinion had existed on this question, and their case rested, not upon panic or excitement, but upon the sober observation of medical men. The evil was a social evil in the truest sense, because even the sanctity of home was stealthily broken in upon by this intruder, and thousands of children were swept away, or permanently affected by its ravages annually, and the seeds of divers diseases were thus sown broadcast among the population. In order to effect the purpose he had in view it would only be necessary to exclude from the Motion of the hon. Baronet the words "distinguished from contagion," so that both infectious and contagious disorders might be made the subject of the Inquiry. The hon. Baronet had designated the Compulsory Vaccination Act a cruel law; but that epithet certainly did not apply to the Contagious Diseases Act. The military and naval authorities could bear testimony to the fact that the Contagious Diseases Act had been attended with considerable benefit to those places in which it had been in operation; the unfortunate victims of these maladies hailed the medical surveillance as a boon, and that Act might now, he thought, be extended to the large centres of our population with such an amount of advantage to the publie welfare as it was difficult to estimate. The right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in dealing with great social and sanitary questions, was not a man to be appalled by difficulties, and he appealed to him to grant the Inquiry now asked for.

§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGU
stated that the object of the hon. Baronet was already being carried out by the Medical Department of the Privy Council. The spread and the origin of disease was the subject of scientific study year by year, and of prolonged and accurate investigation. Annually there is laid before Parliament every new experience which is gained by that Office, or which is arrived at throughout the country, or even abroad. As examples he might mention the sixth Report of the year 1864, which gave the result of an interesting inquiry on the spread of communicable diseases in hospitals; the Report of 1866 dealt with the practice of quarantine, and showed it was of very little use as a preventive of yellow fever, although it might be required for commercial reasons. If we did not impose it here on some ships, all our ships would be put in quarantine abroad. The medical officers also made special experimental researches; in 1867 a minute investigation touching the communicability of cholera was made, and anyone who had read that Report would see that no pains or expense had been spared to make the inquiry exhaustive. This year a special investigation was being made regarding the communicability of phthisis and the allied diseases by means of inoculation. The hon. Baronet had complained that the Pall Mall Gazette had spoken of his Motion as unintelligible; he would, perhaps, pardon him if he were obliged to agree with the Pall Mall Gazette. He had been greatly perplexed as to the meaning of the Motion, and had chanced to fall into the same error as the hon. Member for Northumberland (Mr. Liddell). The terms of the Motion, suggested another kind of infection, and a mode of infection which was common in large towns, and especially in our chief military stations; the terms of the Motion were these— The spread of disease by infection (distinguished from contagion) as may tend to cheek legislation and action in cases unsupported by the evidence, winch in times of excitement saves a people from the commission of great crimes or great follies. 2011 He, therefore, had come down to the House under the impression that the hon. Baronet intended to refer to the Contagious Diseases Act; the Secretary for War had been under the same impression, and only a few minutes ago had discovered that he (the Secretary for War) might be released from the trouble of reply, and that he (Lord Robert Montagu) was to be the victim of the hon. Baronet's speech. It appeared now, however, that the hon. Baronet desired a Royal Commission to inquire into subjects at present dealt with by the Medical Officer of the Privy Council. If he desired the Commission to travel over the same ground as the medical officers, it would obviously be unnecessary; if he desired it to extend its operations beyond the scope assigned to that officer, he would be simply asking the House to re-constitute the Medical Department of the Board of Health, which Parliament had abolished in 1858. In either case the inquiry he asked for would be conducted under less rigid control than that which ruled the Medical Department of the Privy Council, and would involve a far larger expense than that which was now voted; and for these reasons he recommended the withdrawal of the Motion.

MR. BRUCE
said, he believed the hon. Member for South Northumberland (Mr. Liddell) was mistaken as to the object of the hon. Baronet's Motion. As he understood the case, the hon. Baronet wished for an inquiry into the subject of infection, seeming to be under the impression that infection was different from contagion. In this view of the case, the addendum of the hon. Member was not applicable; but he noticed that the hon. Baronet approved the proceedings of a wrong-headed man, at Sheffield, whose sole object in life seemed to be to incite people to resist the beneficent law of vaccination. He (Mr. Bruce) therefore desired to say a word to correct the harm which might result from the observations of the right hon. Baronet. During the last few days a Return had been made as to the results of the Vaccination Act in Ireland since 1864, when compulsory vaccination was first enforced. The Commission stated in that Report that the smallpox returns from workhouse lever hospitals in 1867 showed 4 deaths as compared with 149 in 1864, or 1–37th. The returns of smallpox medical officers of dispensaries showed that only 24 cases had been treated in the half- 2012 year ending September, 1867, while 850 cases had been treated in the corresponding half-year of 1864. It also appeared that, out of 153 Unions in Ireland, there were only 4 in which smallpox existed at the time the Report was made. Then the Return showed that in 1864 the deaths from smallpox were 853; in 1665, the number was reduced to 347; in 1866, it was reduced to 187; and in 1867 only 20 died. Considering what an amount of misery had, as this Return showed, been prevented by the Vaccination Act during these few years in only one portion of the kingdom, he could not permit derision of vaccination by a Member of the House of Commons to pass without rebuke. He agreed with the hon. Member for Northumberland on the question he had raised—he thought the Contagious Diseases Act might be beneficially extended to the large towns — but he recommended the hon. Member to bring forward a special Motion on the subject.