§ MR. HOPWOODasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether a Memorial has been received by him from Mr. Henry Allen, of Holloway, respecting the death of his child, Mabel Emma, on the 19th April 1883, alleging that she died from the effects of vaccination with calf lymph from 698 the Marylebone Institution; whether, as the inquest was held without a postmortem or other evidence available to prove the cause of death, he will grant the prayer of the Memorialist for an official inquiry; and, whether it be the fact that calf lymph is usually followed by more inflammatory and severe effects than even human lymph?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKEThe Memorial has been received, and the Coroner has been communicated with, who informs me that the jury, in view of the evidence given at the inquest, gave as their verdict that the child died—
From the mortal effects of pneumonia, following septicœmia from a labial abscess, and the jurors further say that the death was from natural causes.I have had before me the depositions in this case; and I have been advised that the course of the disease in this child, beginning in an altogether different part of the body from the vaccinated arm, and extending to altogether different parts of the body, while the vaccinated arm showed no undue inflammation, was not such as to suggest any connection whatever between the disease and the vaccination. The Board have accordingly replied that they have no power to review the decision of the Coroner's Court; and that, after fully considering the circumstances of the case, they are unable to satisfy themselves that there exists any sufficient ground for an inquiry, such as the Memorialist suggests. It is a fact that calf lymph does produce somewhat more decided constitutional symptoms than are produced by averaged humanized lymph.