INQUIRY IN NEW SOUTH WALES. SMALL-POX is little known in Australia, and the recent outbreak in New South Wales created a scare that is now regarded with ridicule. The Ministry formed a commission of inquiry, and summoned fifteen of the leading medical men in the colony to assist with their advice as to compulsory vaccination, The evidence tendered has been printed at length as a parliamentary report, and to it we shall devote an article at an early opportunity. Never, perhaps, were legislators bewildered with such a mass of assertion, supposition, hearsay, and contradiction,-and all in the name of medical science! The single note of unison was the unspeakable blessing of vacciration, and the duty of Government to provide, pay for, and enforce it. As we read the unblushing recommendations to resort to compulsion, we discover afresh how superficial is the respect for personal freedom which it is the cant of our countrymen to profess. Such freedom as we enjoy is not the result of principle, but proceeds from a balance of forces-from the inability of rival parties to concur in the suppression of particular dissenters. Happily the medicine men did not have all their own way. Among the fifteen was Dr. John Le Gay Brereton, who testified bravely against vaccination (God bless him!), and his testimony has naturally excited interest and inquiry throughout the colony. The scare having subsided, the project of compulsion has for the present been set aside. Ere it is again revived, we trust means will have been taken to enlighten New South Welshmen upon the origin of small-pox, the impotence of vaccination to avert it, and the dangers of the practice. They have been caught unawares, but it is matter for hearty congratulation that they have not been hurried into an imitation of our infamous Vaccination Act.

PERSUASIVES FOR THE TIMID.

I WISH the Editor of the INQUIRER would prepare a short code of instructions for fond parents lately blessed with "an increase," who feel dubious as to vaccine risks; advising them that, at any rate, they may do something better than fall mechanically into the conventional routine, even though they may lack strength or pluck for a pitched battle and no surrender.

I feel sure we anti-vaccinators could make ourselves what the authorities would call "mischievous" by spreading the knowledge of what might be done by such parents if they would merely hold back. Their first step (if I may sketch my meaning) is that they forbid the doctor to insert virus in the new cherub. (2.) This would in due time bring a visit from the vaccination officer, to whom they would state their scruples, and with whom they might shuffle as best they were able, posing as conscientious objectors," until he was tired of making visits and wasting his official stationery on them. In many cases the officer would at this point retire in disgust from that family. But (3) the parents, if it came to the push, might at least stand the brunt of a first summons. Let their former attitude be maintained before the magistrate. Their protest

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But let us (as I believe we have grounds) hold out hope to these parents that, if they will stand the first penalty, and urge their fear of vaccine diseases, and do not make definite promise to submit to the poxing operation, there is a fair chance that proceedings at this point will be dropped, especially if they send some written protest or complaint to the Guardians, referring to the Evesham Letter as their warrant for forbearance.

Urge all parents, in brief, to open the campaign, the beginning not being an expensive affair; and when they are beaten, if in the end they do knock under, they may denounce, as loudly as they dare, the brute tyranny before which they have to bend.

It is something like getting recruits "under fire." Once there, many will show fight who were only timid at going in. At our house we have been bled by "the compellers" to the tune of some £40 to £50, and if we have been made to wince, we have still pulled through. Our vaccination officer, I believe, holds us up as a warning, as though there were no middle course between instant compliance and the certainty of £50 worth of fines. People are cowed, not knowing how much they may resist, and come off harmless at very little cost.

S. P.

A PERTINENT QUESTION.—JENNER'S
STATUE AT BOULOGNE.

IN reference to Sir John Risdon Bennett's article in the Leisure Hour, Mr. John Morison observes:

"Sir John says, 'that if all Governments would exert themselves to procure the regular vaccination of all children born in their states, small-' pox would soon disappear.' Then I ask him, how it comes to pass that the returns of the SmallPox Hospital at Highgate show that 85 per cent. of the patients had been vaccinated?

"It is claimed that the French honour Jenner, and his statue in the market-plate of Boulognesur-Mer is pointed to as a proof of the national recognition of his genius; but I am informed that the said statue was subscribed for by som medical men in Paris, and offered to the Great Exhibition, but was refused admission. mayor of Boulogne, a doctor, thereon volunteered to receive it, and had it placed where it now stands. It was not subscribed for by the inhabitants of Boulogne, and in no sense can it be described as a national tribute of respect."

Th

MR. HOCKER addressed a meeting at Quebec Hall, Marylebone, on Jan. 15, on the varieties of

Vaccination, from horse-grease to pure lymph from the calf. There followed a lively discussion, and this resolution was carried unanimously :-" That from the alarming and authentic statements made by Mr. Hocker concerning the evils of vaccination, it is the opinion of this meeting that every effort should be made to resist the unnatural practice so unwisely maintained by Act of Parliament."

LUBECK EVIDENCE.

LAST year there was an outbreak of small-pox in the city of Lubeck. In less than three months there were forty-eight cases recorded on the municipal books; only one being unvaccinated; the remaining forty-seven being the vaccinated, the re-vaccinated, the newly-vaccinated, and the thrice-vaccinated. Eight died, but the unvaccinated infant recovered. It was the seventeenth case on the roll of sufferers, and it was not the first of the family to fall ill. At this period the number of unvaccinated children in the city and suburbs is officially given as 1,427.

Had the facts been the other way-had fortyseven of the unvaccinated been attacked, and only one of the vaccinated-what brilliant sarcasm there would be in the vaccinating journals! what singing of hallelujahs in the cow-pox camp! .D.

FINED THREEPENCE!

A VERY few of the gentlemen of the medical profession have signified their intelligent adherence to vaccination by returning my letter to Dr. W. B. Carpenter, which had been courteously sent to them, without paying the postage, thus punishing me for my heresy by a threepenny fine. Hitherto, all have been prudent enough to hide themselves behind the screen of the anonymous; but one braver than the rest has confessed his rudeness by sending his name and address. I enclose his communication. Please gibbet him in the next INQUIRER, taking care that he has a copy sent to him post-paid. P. A. TAYLOR.

Brighton, Jan. 6, 1882.

UTTER FAILURE OF ANIMAL VACCINATION IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. The following letter appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald of Sept. 2, 1881 :

"SIR,-I have received from Honolulu some rather interesting particulars regarding the small-pox so prevalent there for the last twelve months.

"The Secretary of the Board of Health there writes as follows on Aug. 6: The total number of cases reported from Feb. 5 to Aug. 10, say for six months, was 788 cases; total number of deaths during same period, 289, about 37 per cent.; of these fully 70 per cent. were native Hawaiians, 12 per cent. Chinese, and the remainder spread over the whites and Portuguese. The natives, when taken promptly in hand at first symptoms, and well guarded and cared for, generally recovered; otherwise they exposed themselves during the fever, bathed during first stage of eruption; and, in most instances, the cases ended fatally. Very few patients outside of quarantine survived. Most of those who died in quarantine were those who were only discovered after four or five days' incu bation."

The Group is reported by the district physicians

to be thoroughly vaccinated and protected, so far as vaccination can protect, from small-pox. Humanised virus was forbidden by the Board of Health on account of the danger of communicating various disorders of the blood, and pure bovine virus was imported by the Board and supplied free. The importations were from Boston, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and Alameda (Cal.) Fully one-half of it proved inert; but Martin's, from Boston, was the most successful.

The cost to the Hawaian Government of the epidemic and measures for protection will exceed 100,000 dollars.

"Honolulu is now considered free from the disease.

"A. S. WEBSTER, H.B.M.'s Consul-General. "Hawaiian Consulate, Sydney,

Aug. 30."

West Derby, near Liverpool,
Jan. 24, 1882.

SIR, You have been good enough to favour me with a post-card, indirectly suggesting that I should break the law of the land by refusing to vaccinate my child.

I am not aware whether the wording of this precious document brings you within the scope of a prosecution. I hope it does; though it is not my intention to undertake the functions of the Public Prosecutor, to whom I am forwarding it.

I trust that you will hear something from him on the subject that may not be altogether satisfactory

Comparing this Return with previous years, we find that in 1879 the number postponed was 43, in 1880 it was 221, and in 1881 it rose to 1,105.

Also in 1879 the summonses were 114, in 1880 they were 294, and in 1881 they rose to 1,229.

The report of the Nottingham Medical Officer of Health for the week ending Jan. 14 is printed in the Nottingham Daily Express for Jan. 21, showing one death from small-pox and seventeen cases of the disease in the hospital.

It is said that other cases have occurred in private houses. We have not seen any statement that an unvaccinated case has been met with.

It is said that people are unwilling to send children to such hospitals; and the Nottingham papers contain a medical statement that nurses and others in a London hospital are exposed daily to infection in its most concentrated form.

If the Government would have the kindness to let Leicester alone, it would soon become virtually an unvaccinated community, the theoretical protection being theoretically lost in seven years. We should then be able to compare results with highly-vaccinated Nottingham. H. D. D.

MR. ELLISON AND

THE EVESHAM LETTER.

MR. WALTER HASKER appeared at the Lambeth Police-court on Dec. 29, 1881, before C. E. Ellison, Stipendiary Magistrate, on an adjourned summons taken out by Mr. Inspector Stevens, on behalf of the Camberwell Board of Guardians, charging him with neglecting to have his child, Alfred Nightingale, vaccinated within three months from the date of birth. Mr. Hasker had previously pleaded "Not guilty," and after some preliminary objections, the case took the following turn :

Mr. ELLISON.-Have you the Order in Council? Mr. HASKER. Here it is (handing up the General Order of Oct. 31, 1874). I should also like your Worship to look at this copy of a letter from the · Local Government Board to the Guardians of the Evesham Union, dated Sept. 17, 1875, relative to the conduct of Guardians toward those who have been fined more than once for refusing to have their children vaccinated.

Mr. ELLISON (having perused the letter) said,— Mr. Hasker has already been summoned under the Vaccination Acts?

Inspector STEVENS.-Yes, sir; but for another child. The present summons has been taken out under Section 29 of the Vaccination Act."

Mr. ELLISON.-It seems to me that this is precisely one of those .cases to which the Local Government Board refer in this letter to the Evesham Guardians.

Inspector STEVENS. That letter is directed against repeated prosecutions.

Mr. ELLISON.-That matters not now. Since 'the Vaccination Act was passed, there has been an expression of opinion from the Local Government Board against the system of strictly carrying out the Act, that is, where reasonable objection may have been shown, and where there has been one prosecution already. Therefore, for the present, I

think it would be well for the Camberwell Guardians to hold their hands, and to refer again to the Local Government Board, in order to see if this is not one of those cases which they consider within the expression of opinion in the Evesham letter.

Inspector STEVENS.-Would it not be desirable that there should be a conviction in this case first? It is not the practice of the Camberwell Guardians to summon more than once for the same unvaccinated child. When there has been a conviction under the 29th Section of the Act, the Guardians then let the matter rest. The Local Government Board do not wish the Guardians of any Union to repeat prosecutions after a first conviction; but in this case the prosecution is undertaken in respect of a child with regard to whom no legal proceedings have as yet been taken.

Mr. ELLISON.-But, even so, the Local Government Board may consider this a case where no prosecution should be instituted.

Inspector STEVENS.-The prosecution is in respect of another and a different child.

Mr. ELLISON.-But in the letter to the Evesham Guardians, the Local Government Board speak of "a persistent refusal to comply with the Vaccination Act," referring them to cases where the law is not observed from conscientious motives or reasonable objections.

Inspector STEVENS.-If that course were adopted, it would altogether defeat the object of the Act of Parliament.

Mr. ELLISON.-I have nothing to do but administer the law. The law is clear under the statute; but there have been Orders of Council to a different effect; and' some Orders have the force of law; and I should like to see this letter embodied in an Order of Council.

Inspector STEVENS.-The Guardians of Camberwell feel it to be their duty to prosecute in this case under the 29th section of the Act; Mr. Hasker being the father of a child with regard to which he has neglected to comply with the law.

Mr. ELLISON.-There is no doubt that you have a case under the statute; but I cannot say that there is a case under the expression of opinion of the Local Government Board; and I feel the necessity of allowing weight to the objection urged by the Defendant.

Inspector STEVENS.-The considerations advanced in the Evesham letter have influenced the Guardians in cases where they have obtained convictions against Defendants. In all such cases, they have not continued the prosecutions. The Guardians have exercised the reserve recommended ever since the issue of the Evesham circular. In a very large parish like Camberwell, it is necessary that the law should be carried out under the 29th Section of the Act.

Mr. ELLISON.-As regards the Defendant, pro-· ceedings have been taken with respect to his other children. I think it would be better for all parties to rest on their oars for a short time. It is clear that the Local Government Board are inclined to allow weight to certain objections to vaccination; and such objections have been advanced in the present instance. Let the case therefore remain as it is for the present, especially as we may have something fresh in the way of direction from the Local Government Board.

Inspector STEVENS.-Then the case remains in suspense for the present ?

Mr. ELLISON.-Yes; especially as we may have additional advice from the Local Government

Inspector STEVENS.-The Guardians wish to press for a conviction in this case; and if a conviction were granted, they would be prepared to let the matter rest. I ask for a decision, as the offence has been proved. I feel that the result will be mischievous as concerns the working of the Vaccination Acts in Camberwell if, in a case like this, the Guardians are advised not to take proceedings at all.

Mr. ELLISON. I recommend an adjournment for six weeks. In the meanwhile the Guardians may receive an expression of opinion which they may feel entitled to obey. It is very likely that the effect of an Order in Council will be against repeated prosecutions in cases like the present.

Inspector STEVENS.-The Evesham letter was issued some time since, and the Local Government Board have never discountenanced original prosecutions such as is now undertaken.

Mr. ELLISON.--The adjournment will do no harm. In the meantime the Guardians or the Defendant can communicate with the Local Government Board..

The case was then adjourned, Mr. Hasker intimating that he had not nearly finished his address for the defence.

LETTER FROM A SCHOOLMASTER.

I RECEIVE many letters like the following, of which I do not attempt to make use, simply because it is not possible for me to vouch for their correctness. The enclosed, you will see, comes with authority, although I cannot venture to publish the name or the precise school. With such possibilities, is not compulsion an act of atrocious tyranny ? P. A. TAYLOR.

Brighton, Jan. 11.

"SIR,-Always opposed to vaccination, I have read your letter On Current Fallacies about Vaccination' to Dr. Carpenter with much delight. A case came under my notice this morning where disease, according to the doctor's own evidence, was the direct outcome of vaccination. A lad who has been absent from school five weeks has, even now, his head and limbs covered with a most virulent eruption. The boy states that he saw the doctor this morning, who said that the disease was the result of vaccination.

Head Teacher, Board School. "P. A. Taylor, Esq., M.P."

DO NOT FORGET TO PETITION.-Mr. James Dewhirst, of Failsworth, writes:-"We are getting up a numerously-signed petition, to be ready when Mr. P. A. Taylor brings on his motion in the House of Commons; and it is to be hoped that our friends all over the country are exerting themselves in the same way. Mr, Taylor cannot be too energetically backed with petitions.".

A FINE NOSE.-A woman from Osett, 51 years of age, recently died of small-pox in the Dewsbury hospital. She said she was vaccinated, and was entered on the register as vaccinated, but the doctor affected to doubt the evidence, and wrote in the certificate of death "Vaccination doubtful." When pressed by the Guardians for the reason of his scepticism he replied, "Her smell convinced me that she was not vaccinated!"

A WILD IRISH VACCINATOR. Ar the meeting of Clonakilty Guardians, on Jan. 21, a report was furnished from Dr. Garde, medical officer of the Timoleague Dispensary District, to the effect that from the 20th of October to the 11th of December, he vaccinated 1,248 persons, 9 of whom were children under three months. The fee in each case was 2s., and the whole sum amounted to £124. 16s. 1d. Mr. O'Brien said it was the most extraordinary thing he ever heard to have a doctor go round the country, and into the National Schools, vaccinating aud re-vaccinating children, without any authority from the Guardians, or knowledge of the children's parents. About the time there was a clergyman from England in the locality who died of small-pox, vaccinated though he was, but only three persons took it after his death.

Mr. M'Carthy-It was an easy way to earn money-a very paying game.

After some discussion, the following resolution was carried unanimously:-"That we desire to draw the attention of the Local Government Board to the report of the number of persons vaccinated and re-vaccinated in the Timoleague district, and that in the opinion of this Board, the Doctor acted illegally in going into the National Schools within his district to re-vaccinate children without the knowledge of the Board or Dispensary Committee."

but helps to magnify each danger in the life or VACCINATION never protects against small-pox, health of thousands. Further, it is nothing but a blood-poisoner, and to believe that such a thing can render the organism proof against small-pox is unreasonable. On that account it is also a mistake to believe that the usefulness of vaccination can be proved by statistics. Honest and rational statistics prove only the pernicious effects of vaccination.-From CARL LÖHNERT, the Statistician, Chemnitz, Saxony, to William Tebb, Dec. 29, 1881.

"The upholders of Vaccination, in their statements to show the efficacy of Vaccination, always claim credit in cases where a person who has been vaccinated does not take small-pox, totally ignoring the fact that the great majority of persons escape small-pox whether vaccinated or not. This is as ridiculous as if some quack were to advertise a medicine as protective against hydrophobia, and then say the value of his nostrum was proved because nobody who had taken his prescription had gone mad.

"In last century in London, unprotected by vaccination, when sanitary conditions were much worse than now, the highest mortality by smallpox in any year was under 4,000; the number of deaths to cases was about 20 per cent. The highest number of cases ever known in the eighteenth century, therefore, would be about 20,000, out of an estimated population of one million-amounting to 1 in 50; in other words, 20,000 persons were attacked, and 980,000 escaped.

"I see the chairman of the Fulham Hospital Committee declares the value of vaccination to be proved, because out of 295 officers and nurses, only four had taken small-pox, all, having been re-vaccinated. Had he taken into account the ratio of four out of 295 as compared with the totality of cases to the whole population, he would have found that the former was far in excess of the latter, and that, in fact, his four cases were much nearer the ratio of cases to population as it existed in the worst epidemic of small-pox in unprotected London last century."

CHARACTER OF VACCINE VIRUS.

WHO can guarantee that lymph which has passed through countless constitutions during the last fourscore years is free from syphilitic, erysipelatous, tuberculous, or pyæmic contamination? It has been feebly and most unphysiologically urged that as long as the lymph is free from admixed blood, it is free from the risk of such contamination. But where does the lymph come from if not from the blood; and if that be polluted, are we to expect that its offsprings, the serum, and the secretions are pure and undefiled? And, for the matter of that, I have myself discovered red and white blood-corpuscles in pure lymph direct from Whitehall. Such à priori suspicion is justified by statistical facts, which show that while infantile mortality from all causes has declined, that from inoculable diseases has very considerably increased; surely that points to an inoculable cause, and what is that cause if not vaccination ?-W. J. COLLINS, M.B., B.S., B.Sc., in the Students' Journal and Hospital Gazette, Jan. 21.

'Article 13. Every child born in Switzerland ought in due course to be vaccinated within the first year of its life, or at the latest in the second. An adjournment beyond this is only allowed by reason of its health as certified by a doctor. Children born abroad and brought into Switzerland are submitted to the same regulations. The fact of vaccination will be stated by a licensed doctor on a certificate.

'Article 14.-No child can, without this certificate, be admitted to frequent either a public or a private school.''

It is curious how savagely severe Republicans can be, acting on fear and ignorance, when they are strongly moved. New York, San Francisco, and now Switzerland, are in this matter setting an example which nowhere but in Russia has been more rigorously followed.

Will they follow this lead in New South Wales? There, as here, a few interested officials, or authorities, or doctors, give "opinions," often in downright defiance of every experience, modern or ancient, and the liberty of the subject is gone. A. WHEELER.

CLERICAL CRUELTY. It is characteristic, and far from crèditable, that wherever a parson appears on a Board of Guardians his voice is almost invariably raised for extreme and violent courses. None can have forgotten the hysterical fury of Parson Beck over Mr. Escott's case; and in the Eastbourne Chronicle, of Dec. 24, there is a report of a meeting at which the Rev. T. Pitman exercised his influence for the vindictive prosecution of a number of humble folk at Eastbourne whose love and convictions are concerned in preserving their children from vaccine pollution. Remonstrance, we know, is in vain. The clerical fanatic treats reason, science, and the mercy of good sense as temptations of the devil. Nevertheless, the fact of clerical behaviour in such respects is worth noting for remembrance and policy.

THE COLOGNE INTERNATIONAL ANTI-VACCINATION CONGRESS. Many of the addresses and papers have been published in German, and a complete report of these important proceedings is now being prepared by Dr. Oidtmann, of Linnich, Aix-la-Chapelle. We are also gratified to hear that the. President, Dr. Hubert Böens, of Charleroi, Belgium, is preparing an edition in the French language. These reports will furnish most valuable compendiums of the legal, social, political, statistical, and medical facts of our contention, and should be extensively distributed. The price will be as moderate as circumstances will allow, particularly when a number of copies are ordered.

POSTERS. Several correspondents having intimated that, in their opinion, the objects. and interests of the Society will be promoted by the frequent and judicious display of bill-posters, the committee have issued a set of three, which they hope will meet the wishes of friends. Where practicable, it is suggested that these posters be put up side by side with parochial and other notices recommending Vaccination, that the bane may be neutralized by the antidote. They might also be utilized with good effect on the occasion of Lectures Public Meetings, or mounted on boards to perambulate crowded thoroughfares. Price 1d. each, or 2s. 6d. per fifty. Mr. Young will send specimen copies on receipt of addressed envelope.

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