HC Deb 08 August 1876 vol 231 cc819-20
MR. P. A. TAYLOR

asked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether he has received a statement from Mr. and Mrs. Fry of Andover to the effect that their infant child died from the direct effects of vaccination on April 25th, after five weeks of dreadful suffering, the child having been previously healthy and free from any constitutional taint; whether he has received a report on this case from the Local Government Board Inspector; and, if so, whether it is the fact that in conducting his investigation, the Inspector did not visit the parents of the deceased child, nor examine the child from which the lymph was taken, and which is alleged to have ''had a running sore in its arm, of a most offensive nature, for nine weeks;" and, whether in fact his report was founded merely on the cause of death as entered in the register?

MR. SCLATER-BOOTH,

in reply, said, he had heard from Mr. and Mrs. Pry, but not until after Notice of the hon. Gentleman's Question had been given, and they in reply to an inquiry stated that they believed their child died from the direct effects of vaccination. They did not, however, give any particulars. This was one of four cases which had been brought under his notice by a letter from Mr. Pearce, of Andover, dated 6th of May last; and by his (Mr. Sclater-Booth's) directions a medical Inspector was sent down to make inquiry into the four cases reported to him. This was on the 25th of May. The general result of that inquiry had already been stated by him, in reply to a Question put to him by another hon. Gentleman—namely, that the cause of death was not in any of those cases attributable to vaccination. In reply to the second Question put to him by the hon. Gentleman, the Inspector, he might state, informed him that he did not, when making his inquiries, call upon Mr. and Mrs. Pry, because, as he had been informed, their child had then been one month dead, and because he had previously an opportunity of seeing the same child on the 7th of April, when he was making his usual tour of inspection. At that time the child appeared to him to be in excellent health, and the vaccination had been performed about 18 days. In reply to the third Question of the hon. Member, the Inspector informed him that he had not seen the cause of death on the register, but he understood from the medical attendant of the child that it died of bronchitis.