§ DR. TANNER (Cork Co., Mid)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government' Board whether parents who present their children to public vaccinators for vaccination with calf lymph will be open to prosecution under the Compulsory Vaccination Act if they withhold their children from vaccination with human lymph; whether the Board recognises the vaccinator's responsibility for the lymph he uses, as that responsibility has been declared by the Board's Medical Officer, and will supply to public vaccinators at least, from the institution authorised by Parliament for the production of calf lymph, so much of that lymph as they may require for the due discharge of their official duties; and whether, in view of the fact that in Belgium and other countries calf lymph in dispensed by their Governments to the almost complete exclusion of human lymph, and that the Board's Medical Officer has in a recent Report spoken favourably of the increasing preference shown in this country for calf lymph, he can inform the House on what grounds that preference and the Medical Officer's favourable mention of it are founded?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. RITCHIE, Tower Hamlets, St. George's)The Vaccination Act, 1867, under which vaccination is made compulsory, contains no exemption by which parents are relieved of the statutory obligation in this respect because of their preference for one class of lymph rather than another. But every parent is free to arrange with a private medical practitioner for the vaccination of a child with calf lymph. The Local Government Board have always regarded it as a matter of importance that the responsibility for the lymph used in vaccination should lie with the public vaccinator, and they concur in the view expressed by their medical 1192 officer as to this. The Board will continue, as heretofore, to forward to any public vaccinator who may desire it a supply of calf lymph, such as will enable him to establish a series of vaccinations, but, as I stated yesterday in my reply to-another question, I am not prepared to make any change in the administration of the Vaccination Acts pending the sitting of the Royal Commission on Vaccination. I am not aware that the Medical Officer of the Board has in any recent Report spoken favourably of the increasing preference shown in this country for calf lymph.