§ Mr. B. S. STRAUSasked the President of the Local Government Board, whether his attention has been called to the death on 29th August last of Charles Blomfield, aged eight months, of 110, Southam-street, 1818W Kensington; whether he is aware that, as the result of a coroner's inquest, the cause of death was certified to be exhaustion consequent upon erysipelas following vaccination; and, seeing that the Royal Commission on Vaccination found that vaccine lymph might contain the micro-organisms which are held to cause erysipelas, will he say what precautions are taken to ascertain that such organisms are absent from all lymph supplied by the Local Government Board or employed in public vaccination?
§ Mr. BURNSI am aware of the verdict of the coroner's jury with regard to the death of this child. My attention was called to the case, and I caused inquiry to be made with regard to it. It appears that an interval of at least 17 days elapsed between the vaccination and the commencement of the erysipelas, and, in these circumstances, it seems clear that the erysipelas was not introduced with the vaccination, as otherwise it would have made its appearance at a much earlier date. The child was not vaccinated by a public vaccinator, or with lymph supplied by the Local Government Board; but, as regards the lymph which is so supplied and which is that used by almost all public vaccinators, I may state that very complete precautions are taken for the exclusion from it of erysipelas micro-organisms. These precautions include the use of only healthy calves, the careful watching of the calves while the lymph is being developed, the collection of lymph from those calves only whose vaccination runs a perfectly normal course, and the subsequent slaughter and veterinary examination of all the calves from which lymph has been obtained. The lymph is prepared for distribution in sterile apparatus, and is mixed with glycerine which has been proved to destroy the organisms of erysipelas. Moreover, the absence of such organisms is repeatedly tested before the lymph is distributed.