§ 65. Mr. WILKIEasked the total number of declarations of conscientious objection to vaccination made in Scotland in the years 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, and 1911, and also the percentages of these declarations to the births?
| In respect of Births Registered in | Declarations. | Percentage of Births. | ||
| 1907 | … | 7,258 | … | 5.6 |
| 1908 | … | 15,846 | … | 12.1 |
| 1909 | … | 22,746 | … | 17.7 |
| 1910 | … | 26,954 | … | 21.7 |
§ The corresponding figures for 1911 are not yet available.
§ 66. Mr. SNOWDENasked the President of the Local Government Board whether he has received a copy of a photograph of a child named Mary Jarrett, of Croydon, together with particulars of the case; whether the infant is suffering seriously from the effects of vaccination performed upon it by a public vaccinator with lymph supplied by the Board; whether Dr. S.Monckton Copeman, a medical inspector of the Board, has inquired into the circumstances; will a copy of Dr. Copeman's report be open to the inspection of Members of this House; is he aware that many cases of serious illness, some with fatal results, have been reported in the Croydon union within recent years; and what steps does he propose to take in the matter?
§ The PRESIDENT Of the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. Burns)I have received the photograph and particulars referred to, and Dr. Copeman, one of the Board's medical inspectors, has investigated the case and visited the home of the child. He found that the home and the children were dirty, that one of the beds was in a disgusting condition, and that there was evidence that the child had not been properly cared for. In view of these circumstances, and looking to the fact that a number of other children were vaccinated with the same lymph without any ill-effects, I am advised that the illness of the child, Mary Jarrett, cannot properly be attributed to vaccination. Dr. Copeman's Report is a confidential document, and I do not propose to lay it on the Table. Since the 1st of January, 1899, the Local Government Board have received information of four other cases in the Croydon Union in which injury was 1168 alleged in consequence of vaccination. In one case the injury was a bromide rash due to the administration of drugs by the mother; another was an attack of whooping cough which occurred fourteen months after vaccination; in the third case the child appears to have suffered from generalised vaccinia, an extremely rare complication of vaccination; and in the fourth case from septicæmia. During the period to which these cases relate over 55,000 persons in this union were vaccinated, and no further steps appear to be necessary.