By dissenting ministers of various denominations, At Madras, under a "permission to marry" from macy and inheritance, impeached, p. 1, Q. 4, 49-51, Whether affected by a facility, or otherwise, of obtain- Impossible to have a sufficient clerical establish- Annual marriages of British subjects in India cal- Expedient to remove doubts as to such marriages Remedy proposed by the Commissioners, and upon Bill for "marriage in India" annexed to the Report, MISSIONARIES IN INDIA:-[See Converts; Dis- Important questions suggested by them as to mar- Scriptural views of, as to marriages of converts, p. 4, Regulations of in regard to marriage, and divorce of NATIVES:-[See British Subjects; Converts; Mar- REGISTRATION, its importance in connexion with mar- Certified copy of register in India, should be admis- English Marriage Acts (6 and 7 Will. IV., c. 85-6; Not approved of, by the Bishop of Calcutta, in SIKHS :- Law, as generally prevailing in the provinces subject SCOTLAND, CHURCH OF:- State of the law, in respect of such marriages, ante- "Free Church," members of, not entitled, under the [ 1 ] REPORT FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE ESTABLISHMENT, 1850. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR GEORGE GREY, BART., M.P. SIR, 2nd April, 1850. DURING the past year 172,944 charges of Lymph have been distributed, and 9,089 children have been vaccinated by the Surgeons appointed in the London districts. The Board have likewise received returns of 114,190 cases vaccinated with Lymph, supplied from the National Vaccine Establishment. But notwithstanding the large supplies of Lymph which have been furnished from the National Vaccine Establishment, the Board have to express their deep regret that the protective power of Vaccination is still so much neglected, as to permit a frightful amount of mortality from Small-pox in the United Kingdom. They have gratefully to acknowledge the attention of the General Board of Health, in communicating to them the valuable preliminary Report of Mr. Grainger, and in earnestly recommending it to the attention of Her Majesty's Government, they beg to state their satisfaction, that on the various important topics which it embraces, the practical views entertained by the able reporter coincide with those which have been often expressed in their annual Reports. The Board have had the honour, on various occasions, to solicit the attention of Her Majesty's Government to the deplorable fact that a very large proportion of the children of the poorer classes in the Metropolis, and in England and Wales generally, but above all in Ireland, remain year by year without the benefit of Vaccination. Their testimony on this important part of the sanitary condition of the population has been derived from the reports of numerous competent medical witnesses in all parts of the United Kingdom, and from the frequent recurrence of the rapid and fatal invasions of Small-pox, to which their attention has been repeatedly called by urgent applications for vaccine Lymph. The Board have had occasion to express their regret that their information on the extent of vaccination has been limited, "owing to the want of attention on the part of the public, to the repeated requests made for faithful returns, and over which they have no control;" but it is satisfactory to find that the representations which they have made, are most unequivocally confirmed by a Report, quoted by Mr. Grainger, of the Commissioners for administering the Laws for the Relief of the Poor, from which it appears that the number of persons under one year, who were vaccinated during the year ended 29th September, 1848, in 627 Unions and parishes in England and Wales, exclusive of those vaccinated at the cost of their parents, amounted to no more than 33 per cent. compared with the total number of births registered in the same period. The value of accurate statistical returns in solving the various questions connected with the public health, can scarcely be overstated; but unfortunately the Board of the National Vaccine Establishment, until a very recent period, have had no means of obtaining any such documents, and of enforcing their recommendation of Vaccination by any such appeal to the undeniable facts which attest its paramount importance. In proof of the advantage which they attach to statistical information in the furtherance of their mission, the Board likewise gladly avail themselves of the Reports of the Registrar-General, also quoted in the same preliminary Report. They not only show that an enormous mortality is annually caused by Small-pox, and that in the metropolis alone, the total mortality from this pestilence, amounted in eight years to 7,039; but that no reasonable doubt can be entertained, that this frightful destruction of human life is mainly dependent upon the neglect of Vaccination. The Board cannot refrain from quoting the following passage:-" Few of the victims of Small-pox had been vaccinated; vaccination had not even been attempted in the great majority of cases, and thus in one city, Norwich, between 200 and 300 persons were suffered to perish in three months; others were blinded, maimed, and deformed for life, through the negligence of the parents in the application of the protection discovered by Jenner, and placed at the disposal of all by the Legislature."-(Eighth Annual Report, for 1845, pp. 41, 42.) The Board cannot indeed believe that any doubt should still exist in the minds of well-educated persons, that the prevalence of Small-pox and its attendant fatality, are essentially due to the neglect of Vaccination, or that the mild disorder produced by the Vaccine Lymph, is a reliable safeguard against variolous infection. But in the Reports which they have had the honour of submitting annually to Her Majesty's Government, with a view to their publication for general information, they have never ceased to point out the causes of the spread of Small-pox, to combat the prejudices of the ignorant, and to explain the grounds of their unshaken confidence in the protective influence of Vaccination. At all events that failures very rarely occur when Vaccination is well conducted, the registers from the different stations of the National Vaccine Establishment, abundantly prove. The Board beg to subjoin the following extract from the Report of 1817. "The summary at present is that since the foundation of the establishment in the year 1809, there have been vaccinated in the stations within the Bills of Mortality, 34,369 persons; of which number it has hitherto been intimated that only four had the Small-pox, forming one failure in 8,592 cases. It is not improbable that in the same number of persons an equal or greater proportion might have had the Smallpox twice, and it should not be forgotten that when 34,369 were inoculated with the Small-pox, as the proportion of deaths in good practice, amounted by different estimates to 1 in 200 or 300, between 114 and 171 persons would have perished, and the effects of the diseases with which many others would have been afflicted as the consequence of the previous disease would have been most calamitous. Notwithstanding that a larger number of failures have occurred, than is recorded in the preceding statement, the Board may confidently refer to all the subsequent annual Reports for proof that no facts have presented themselves calculated to shake their confidence in Vaccination. The Board again beg most earnestly to draw the attention of Her Majesty's Government to the deliberate opinion, which they have expressed from time to time, that if, as cannot be doubted, the neglect of Vaccination be the principal cause of the fatal ravages of Small-pox, it is most desirable, nay scarcely less than the duty of the Legislature, and of all friends to humanity to unite in devising and in carrying out such measures of medical police as may be best calculated to prevent the spread, or extinguish, if possible, that pestilent disease, of which the destruction of its victims is a part only of its evils and its terrors. They again entreat the attention of Her Majesty's Government, to the fact that the practice of inoculation for the Small-pox, still continues, in despite of its legal prohibition, and that by the illegal exposure of infected persons, the disease still continues to be imported by vagrants and travellers of the lower classes into districts both in town and country, in which the population is unprotected by Vaccination. They desire especially to have it noticed that the contagion in the vast majority of instances is carried throughout this country by the wandering Irish, and they fear that no care, however great, of the local authorities in its several districts, can be successful in eradicating Small-pox, whilst the neglect of Vaccination, and the practice of variolous inoculation are permitted in Ireland. As far back as the year 1819, the evils here adverted to appeared to the Board so urgent and alarming, that in their Report in that year, in speaking of the ravages of the Small-pox, they ventured to say, "We believe them to be fairly attributable to the neglect of universal Vaccination, and the partial, but too frequent practice of Small-pox inoculation." The Board beg respectfully to represent that they have neglected, as they believe, no opportunity of adopting such measures as were, in their judgment, best calculated, with their limited means and powers, to obviate the great and acknowledged defects of the system of Vaccination in this country. They have again and again in their Annual Reports, endeavoured to rouse the public from their indifference to the protective influence of the Vaccine Lymph. They have circulated extensively their Reports, and have distributed popular addresses, which could be affixed as placards or public notices against church doors, and in other public places throughout the country. They have kept up a correspondence with medical practitioners throughout the United Kingdom, and its vast dependencies throughout the world, and have sedulously endeavoured by attention to the minutest details in their communications and instructions on the practice of Vaccination to ensure everywhere the most successful results. They trust, in fine, that they have faithfully executed the responsible charge confided to them of preserving a pure source of Vaccine Lymph, under the sanction and supervision of both the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. But the Board have had to regret, and they lament that they have no means of adopting or enforcing such measures as are obviously necessary for the prevention of Small-pox. They have no power of instituting domiciliary visits, or house-to-house visitation; and, indeed, hitherto such have been deemed too much of an encroachment on the liberty of the subject. They have no power of punishing offenders practising illegal inoculation or exposing infected persons, and they have only had the means granted to them, of prosecuting such offenders in two cases, in order to establish the fact of the illegality of variolous inoculation. They have, in short, no power of adopting any precautionary measures by which Small-pox may be prevented, and by which those infected with the disease, may be deterred from mixing with the unprotected population. They can only recommend and aid, but they cannot enforce Vaccination. In conclusion, the Board beg to remind Her Majesty's Government, that they have on various occasions represented that the progress of Vaccination is more rapid in foreign countries where municipal measures or legislative enactments are adopted to promote its dissemination; and they beg to express their conviction that, if England is to be freed from the Small-pox, the interposition of the Legislature alone, by wise and comprehensive measures, can disarm the pestilence of its terrors, and realize the fond hopes and prayers of the friends of humanity for its extinction. (Signed) We have, &c. CLEMENT HUE, M.D., Registrar. JOHN AYRTON PARIS, M.D. JOSEPH HENRY GREEN, President of the Royal College of Surgeons. HENRY HERBERT SOUTHEY, M.D. |