MOTION FOR A SELECT COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 19 June 1871)

§ LORD BUCKHURST

, in moving for the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire into the present state of the law as regards Vaccination, said, that the Return which had recently been presented to Parliament showed a very unsatisfactory state of things, inasmuch as the number of children vaccinated was 217 not nearly so large as the number of births. Certain persons, he was aware, objected to vaccination, but they were so few that the Return could hardly be influenced by them, for he believed that the good sense of the public generally would overcome their opposition. He attributed the discrepancy between the number of children born to those vaccinated to the absence of a proper number of public vaccinators; to the fact that in large parishes there were not sufficient vaccinating stations; and to private medical practitioners not being compelled to send to the registrar a return of the children whom they vaccinated. Amendment was required in these matters, and he was of opinion that many children were un-vaccinated not so much from prejudice on the part of parents, as owing to the want of opportunity.

EARL DE GREY AND RIPON

said, he did not wonder at the noble Lord having turned his attention to this subject, considering that the Metropolis was now suffering so much from that great scourge, small-pox; but he ventured to suggest to him that it would not be desirable to undertake at the present period of the Session the inquiry by a Select Committee which he had proposed. Questions connected with that subject had been inquired into by a Select Committee of the other House, whose Report, he believed, had been published, although the evidence it had taken had not yet been made public. Upon that Report a Bill had been founded and introduced into the other House by the Vice President of the Privy Council, and that Bill, he trusted, would, in due course, come up to their Lordships. The Bill dealt, at all events, with one of the questions on which the noble Lord had touched—namely, that of securing throughout the country the appointment of inspectors of vaccination, who should ascertain the manner in which the law was earned out. At present, Boards of Guardians had the option of appointing or not appointing such officers, and in very many cases the due appointment of them had been neglected. The Bill to which he had referred would 218 meet that state of things by making obligatory that which was now voluntary. No doubt it was desirable and necessary that an adequate number of public vaccinators should exist throughout the country, and that every facility should be afforded for vaccination by establishing a sufficient number of vaccinating stations; subject, however, to this consideration, that it was not always possible to secure a proper supply of really good vaccinating matter for a very large number of stations. For efficient vaccination they must have good vaccinating matter, obtained from healthy children; and they could not insure the quality of the vaccinating matter employed if they had too many stations. Consequently the number of the stations had to be governed by a double consideration—namely, the amount of population and the possibility of securing a supply of good matter. The object of the Privy Council was to see vaccination carried out in the most efficient manner, and it was their earnest desire that the utmost facility, consistently with insuring a supply of good matter, should be given to the public for having their children vaccinated. He would suggest to the noble Lord that he should postpone his Motion until the Bill on that subject came up from the other House, when their Lordships could fully discuss the question; and then, if the measure did not appear to the noble Lord satisfactorily to meet the case, it would be open to him to propose any Amendments in it which he thought necessary. That would be a better course for securing early legislation on that subject than the proposal of a second Inquiry by a second Committee at that period of the Session; and as he and the noble Lord had exactly the same objects in view he trusted that the Motion would not be pressed.