§ Mr. THOMASasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that an inquest was held at the St. Pancras Coroner's Court on Wednesday, 7th July, on the body of Frank James Ashdown, aged twenty-nine years, of Hartland Road, Kentish Town, N.W., who died in St. Pancras infirmary on 4th July; that the evidence of the widow, mother-in-law, brother, and landlady of deceased was to the effect that he was regarded as a strong and healthy man when he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps on 21st January last; that deceased wrote to his 2149W wife from Aldershot saying he had been vaccinated and had two bad arms; that soon afterwards he was removed to Llandrindod Wells, where he had to go into hospital, and both legs also became affected; that the widow testified that, when she visited her husband in hospital at Llandrindod, he told her that one of the officers had said he had never seen such a bad case of cow-pox before; that on 16th June Ashdown was discharged from the Army as unfit for further service; that Dr. Bernard Spilsbury, who conducted a post-mortem examination, gave it as his opinion that death was due to heart failure, caused by chronic Bright's disease of the kidneys, and attributed the boils to the Bright's disease and not to the vaccination; whether he can explain how this man passed the medical examination for admission to the Army if he were suffering from chronic Bright's disease; and whether, in view of the number of instances in which serious illness has supervened on vaccination, and which has been attributed by the soldiers to the vaccination, he is prepared to recommend the suspension of the operation?
§ Mr. TENNANTI cannot from my own knowledge confirm the particulars set out in the question. I am informed that the conditions described are obviously caused by Bright's disease and not by vaccination. I have no information as to the particular circumstances attending the enlistment of this man, but if he was suffering at the time from chronic Bright's disease, I can only attribute the fact that he was passed to the high pressure under which the medical examiners have to work. It is not proposed to alter the existing regulations in regard to vaccination.