PARLIAMENTARY REPORT ON VACCINATION. 499 
great protection against an attack of smallpox, and an almost 
absolute protection against death from that disease. 
“ That if the operation be performed with due regard to 
the health of the person vaccinated, and with proper precau- 
tions in obtaining and using the vaccine lymph, there need 
be no apprehension that vaccination will injure health or 
communicate any disease. 
“ That smallpox, unchecked by vaccination, is one of the 
most terrible and destructive of diseases as regards the 
danger of infection, the proportion of deaths among those 
attacked, and the permanent injury to the survivors; and, 
therefore, 
" That it is the duty of the State to endeavour to secure 
the careful vaccination of the whole population. 
“ Your committee have no doubt that the almost universal 
opinion of medical science and authority is in accordance 
with Dr. Gull when he states that 6 vaccination is as pro- 
tective against smallpox as smallpox itself with Dr. West, 
when he gives as the result of his experience as Physician to 
the Children's Hospital in Great Ormond Street, and as 
having had charge of between 50,000 and 60,000 children 
since 1835, that c he does not think that vaccination does 
produce disease / and with Sir William Jenner, when he says, 
6 1 should think myself wicked, and really guilty of a crime, 
if I did not recommend every parent to have his child vac- 
cinated early in life.' 
“ Against this evidence in favour of vaccination, the pre- 
valence of the present smallpox epidemic, especially in the 
metropolis, has been alleged. 
“ Your committee, however, believe that, on the one hand, 
if vaccination had not been general, this epidemic might 
have become a pestilence as destructive as smallpox has often 
been where the population has been unprotected ; and that, 
on the other hand, if this preventive had been universal, the 
epidemic could not have approached its present extent. 
“Vaccination is generally believed to require repetition 
about the age of puberty ; but, as it is almost impossible to 
enforce re-vaccination, it is most important that all children 
should be vaccinated, both for their own sakes and that 
of the community, to prevent their catching and spreading 
disease. 
“ There are three classes of children who being, by the 
conduct of their parents, left unvaccinated, are themselves 
in great danger, and may become centres of infection to 
others : — 1. There are the children who are utterly neglected 
by their parents. 2. There is the much larger number of 
