§ MR. R. G. WEBSTER (St. Pancras, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been called to the fact that, during the present smallpox epidemic in null, out of 25 cases admitted to the hospital (of whom three died) all the cases were of unvaccinated patients; and if the proportion of unvaccinated persons is large in the Hull district, and to what extent the Conscience Clause in the Vaccination Act of last Session has been claimed in that locality?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARDAccording to the latest information which I have received, it is not the fact that during the present smallpox epidemic in Hull all the cases admitted to the hospital—which were 26 and not 25—were unvaccinated. Nineteen had been vaccinated, and the Medical Officer of Health reports these cases to be of a modified character, and that none had died. The remaining seven were unvaccinated; of these four have died. I have no means of estimating the proportion of unvaccinated persons of all ages in Hull, but during the last 5 years for which returns have been received some 20 per cent. of the children, whose births were registered in the two Unions in which Hull is comprised, and who survived when the returns were made, were then unvaccinated.