§ MR. HOPWOODI beg to ask the Secretary to the Local Government Board whether the Department supplies calf lymph for vaccination purposes; whether it can guarantee the public against the inoculation of tuberculosis from this source; and whether tuberculosis has been communicated to animals 1146 by vaccination in experiments by Mr. Wilson Fox and others?
THE SECRETARY TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Sir W. FOSTER, Derby, Ilkeston)Calf lymph for vaccination purposes is supplied by the Local Government Board. The Board have no information that tuberculosis has ever been transmitted through the medium of lymph used for vaccination. The whole subject of the ill effects, if any, resulting from vaccination is now before the Royal Commission on Vaccination. The Board are not aware that by means of experiments carried out by the late Dr. Wilson Fox and others, tuberculosis has been communicated to animals in the process of vaccination. So far as the Board are aware, the experiments referred to had to do with the intentional inoculation of certain animals with purposely selected tuberculous matter.
In reply to a further question by Mr. HOPWOOD, Sir W. FOSTER said: The Board have no evidence that tuberculosis was ever communicated by vaccination; and until science supplies such evidence I am not prepared to issue a guarantee, which is superfluous.