§ SIR W. WEDDERBURN (Banffshire)In the absence of the hon. Member for the Heywood Division of Lancashire, I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the attention of the Government has been called to the further account of the proceedings of Dr. Haffkine, in inoculating with cholera virus, in which it is stated that, after lecturing at Cambridge, Netley, and London, he obtained permission of the India Office to make an experiment of his method in India; that on reaching Calcutta he encountered opposition from the English doctors, who were sceptical, and refused to lend assistance in the experiment; and that, after a mouth, he received a telegram from Mr. Hankin, expert chemist and bacteriologist to the Government of Agra, and went thither on the 5th April, and, in the presence of the Sanitary Commissioners charged by the Government to control the operations, inoculated 15 officers of the garrison, and by the 18th had inoculated in all 347 persons with cholera virus; whether the Government are aware that it is stated in the Times of India of 26th May, 1893, that Dr. Haffkine, assisted by Drs. Hankin, Hooper, and Crawford, has inoculated 780 of the European and Native garrison, 150 residents in the Civil lines, and 250 school children in the Martinèire College; whether the Government here or in India has sanctioned these acts in the manner stated; and whether the Secretary of State will put an end to its responsibility for experiments on the health of soldiers and children, which are empirical, and have not received the approval of the bulk of the leaders of medical opinion?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. G. RUSSELL, North Beds.)The Secretary of State has seen newspaper accounts of the proceedings described in the first two clauses of the question. He has, as promised in my reply to the hon. Member on the 8th June, asked the Government of India to furnish information on the subject. The experiments must, as I then stated, have been by voluntary arrangement. It is not proposed to issue any Orders on the subject until the Government of India shall have reported the facts and their views.
§ MR. J. E. ELLIS (Nottingham, Rushcliffe)May I ask what steps were taken to ensure, with respect to the 250 children, that the experiments were submitted to voluntarily?
§ MR. G. RUSSELLWe do not know the facts. We only assume that they were voluntary. We are making inquiry.