§ Mr. Viantasked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been called to the serious results of vaccination in the Birkenhead area; what was the source of the vaccine; and to what extent the relaxation of the regulations regarding the number of colonies of germs permitted in the lymph has been the cause of these severe effects.
§ Mr. Bevan:I am aware of certain cases at Birkenhead in which vaccination was followed by severe reaction which commonly occurs when many adults are vaccinated for the first time. Similar situations occurred before the alteration of regulations mentioned and there is nothing to support the suggestion that the Birkenhead cases were in any way due to this change. The lymph was supplied in the main by the Government Lymph Establishment, and it effectively checked this outbreak of smallpox.