HC Deb 25 February 1907 vol 169 cc1252-3
MR. LUPTON (Lincolnshire, Sleaford)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been drawn to the report of Dr. Kelsch to the Academie de Medicine, Paris, two years ago, in which he records the fact that he saw an experiment being made at the vaccination station, Lamb's Conduit Street, to inoculate calves with the variolous matter of human smallpox, with a view to manufacturing so-called cow-pox virus out of the contents of the resulting sores; and whether he will give orders for the prosecution of any persons who may make such experiments.

Notice had also been given of the following Questions:—

MR. LUPTON

To ask the President of the Local Government Board if his attention has been called to the report of Dr. Kelsch to the Paris Academie de Medicine two years ago, in which that scientist shows that Belgium was the only country in which cow-pox is now being used for the manufacture of vaccine lymph; whether Dr. Kelsch accurately reports that he had seen an experiment in progress in Lamb's Conduit Street to manufacture so-called vaccine lymph out of the variolous matter of human smallpox; and, if so, whether, in view of Section 32 of The Vaccination Act, 1867, he will order the prosecution of such of his subordinate officials as have thus infringed the law.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. JOHN BURNS,) Battersea

Perhaps my hon. friend will allow me to answer this Question, and at the same time to reply to his second Question on the Paper. My attention has been called to the report of Dr. Kelsch, but I do not find that he stated that he had seen an experiment in progress at Lamb's Conduit Street to manufacture vaccine lymph out of the variolous matter of human smallpox. I understand him to say that he saw a calf at the stables covered with an eruption produced by inoculation of variolous virus after two passages through the monkey and two others through the calf. This description I am informed is correct. The result of the vaccination was not used, and never was intended to be used, for human vaccination. The operation was a test of the value of an experiment performed elsewhere in its bearing on the possible manufacture of lymph, and does not appear to have involved an infringement of the Cruelty to Animals Act. Section 32 of the Vaccination Act, 1867, to which my hon. friend refers, prohibits the inoculation of persons with smallpox. There was no contravention of the section in this case.