§ MR. CHANNING (Northampton, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been called to the inquest on the body of Daisy Louisa Hopkins, who died on 1st January, aged four weeks, and who was vaccinated in the workhouse in the Buckingham Palace Road when only eight days old, and in spite of its premature birth; whether he is aware that the four vaccination sores were found at the post mortem to have all ulcerated, and that the verdict of the jury was that the death was due to congestion of the lungs accelerated by the sores on the arm; whether a similar case is correctly reported as having taken place in the same month in the City Road Workhouse, in which case the child was born, vaccinated, and died, within the space of eight days; and whether the Royal Commission on Vaccination will include in 1818 its Report any recommendation as to the practice of such early vaccination in the case of workhouse-born infants?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. RITCHIE,) Tower Hamlets, St. George'sThe question of the hon. Member, I presume, is intended to refer to Daisy Westwood, not Daisy Hopkins. The child, Daisy Westwood, was born on 10th December, 1891, in the Buckingham Palace Road Workhouse, and was vaccinated there on 17th December, and died on 1st January, at 24, Great Chapel Street, Westminster. At the inquest upon the child's body the jury found a verdict to the effect that the death was due to congestion of the lungs accelerated by sores on the arm, adding that no blame could be attached to the vaccinator. According to the opinion of Dr. Bond, who made the post mortem, it is certain that the cause of death was primarily from the condition of the lungs. The sores, which Dr. Bond considered to be due to the feeble condition of the child, would, he thought, accelerate the death. Opposite opinions were given about the child's birth being premature or not. The death of an infant in the Holborn Workhouse, which appears to be the case referred to as the "similar case," occurred in December, and was investigated by one of the Board's Inspectors after the case had been submitted to the Coroner, who saw no occasion for an inquest. An attempt at vaccination had been made; it proved altogether unsuccessful, and was not repeated. The infant, the second illegitimate child of its mother, was found dead in its cot, a fortnight after its birth, from "convulsions." It is obvious that I cannot state what recommendations the Royal Commissioners will include in their Report.
§ MR. CHANNINGWill the subject be considered by the Commission?
§ MR. RITCHIEIt is quite within the scope of the Reference to the Commission, and I hope they will do so.