§ MR. C. H. HOPWOOD (Lancashire, S.E., Middleton)I beg to ask the Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board why neither Sir George Buchanan nor Dr. Ballard, formerly Chief Medical Officer and Medical Inspector of the Local Government Board, offered themselves for examination in defence of vaccination before the Royal Commission; whether both suffered from indisposition when their attendance was required; and whether, seeing that Sir George Buchanan, has since recovered sufficiently to undertake the Chairmanship of the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, there is any obstacle at present to prevent either of these gentlemen from being examined if the Royal Commission on Vaccination desire, it?
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Sir WALTER FOSTER,) Derby, IlkestonIt is not the practice of officers of the Local Government Board to offer themselves for examination before a Royal Commission. Some inquiry was made as to the attendance of Sir George Buchanan and Dr. Ballard before the Royal Commission on Vaccination, and it is the fact that both these gentlemen were then prevented by indisposition from attending. I regret to state that Sir George Buchanan is still out of health, and on this account he undertook the chairmanship of the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis with great reluctance.
§ MR. C. H. HOPWOODI beg to ask the Parliamentary Secretary of the Local Government Board whether Dr. Ballard, formerly a Medical Inspector of the Local Government Board, was the inspector who made a Report to the Board in the case of Emily Maud Child, an infant who died at Leeds in 1889 of syphilis, acquired, according to the verdict of the coroner's jury, from vaccination, in which he reflected upon the character of the child's parents, and exonerated vaccination; whether his Report was disagreed with, and shown to be without foundation as regards the parents, by medical authority employed by the Royal Commission; whether the 1694 Report was submitted by the then President of the Royal Commission on Vaccination, and whether it has been published; and why Dr. Ballard did not take the opportunity, as was promised on his behalf, of appearing before the Commission to explain or vindicate his Report?
§ SIR WALTER FOSTERI am unable to add anything to the answers already given to the numerous questions as to the case of this child, and particularly to the very lengthy answer which I gave on the 19th September, 1893, to a question on the subject put to me by my hon. Friend. The Local Government Board have not received any Report from the Royal Commission on Vaccination as to the case, nor has any such Report been published. As I have previously stated, Dr. Ballard has been most anxious to give evidence before the Commission, but for many months he has been entirely confined to his house by illness.