§ MR. CAMERON (Durham, Houghtonle-Spring)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the report of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, in which it is admitted that the injection of antitoxin causes a large number of rashes, inflammation of joints (ascribed to something inherent in the serum of horses or other animals), and also an increased number of cases of paralysis; and whether, in view of this statement, he will consider the advisability of taking steps to prohibit the manufacture of serum in laboratories licensed under the Vivisection Acts.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) The manufacture of serum is a procedure outside the scope of the Cruelty to Animals Act; and I am not prepared to act on the suggestion of the hon. Member. As regards the first part of the Question, I presume the hon. Member refers to a pamphlet which the Lister Institute has thought it right, to issue, by way of a warning (in order to prevent unnecessary alarm) that in some cases certain results, such as rashes and joint pains, may follow the therapeutic use of sera. These results, it is stated, are of a temporary nature and cause no bad after effects. The words of the pamphlet with reference to diptheritic paralysis do not convey to my mind the meaning attributed to them by the hon. Member.