Quotes from [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
pure calf lymph
Infant deaths increase from
syphilis
Smallpox conditions:
Smallpox harmless under
proper treatment:
Failure of vaccination
Smallpox dangers
Vaccinators have always, and still do, avoided proper discussion, for
obvious reasons:
Leicester alone, invalidates vaccination
Jenner's horse grease
Authority ploy
Reduction
in infant mortality is entirely due to improved
sanitation
Statistics
unreliable
There are no adequate statistics showing these fatalities, but it may be estimated that in England and Wales no fewer than 6,000 Infants are Killed every Year by Vaccination. This is perhaps the least part of the damage. The Great Damage is that caused to Teeth, Eyesight and Constitution, by the illness of vaccinia forced upon the infant at the most critical and delicate period of its life. [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
In conclusion, I have thus shown, I hope, beyond the possibility of dispute, that all the claims made in favour of vaccination are unfounded in fact; that it is a dangerous practice, and that it is a useless practice ; and the sooner the Government of the country dissociates itself absolutely from such a piece of eighteenth century quackery, the better it will be, not only for the health of the nation, but for the progress of true science, and for the honour and dignity of Parliament and the executive authority. [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
But the argument may be carried much further. As previously mentioned, all those people who pride themselves on being authorities on the question of vaccination assert that no person is safe from small-pox who has not been vaccinated during the last ten years. Now, according to the census of 1901 there were in England and Wales rather more than seven million children under ten years of age, leaving twenty-five million persons in England and Wales who were practically unprotected by vaccination, except for the comparatively small number who had been re-vaccinated. It is safe to say that in England and Wales there are at the present moment not less than twenty million persons who have not been vaccinated within the last ten years, and who are therefore [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
'pure
calf lymph'
The "pure calf lymph" is what I call pus, but whatever name
is given to it there is no doubt that it is matter taken from a pustule. In
order to obtain this matter a calf is laid upon the table and securely fastened
down, its belly is shaved, and then about 150 cuts are made—an operation which
some people consider very cruel. Into these wounds matter from another diseased
calf is rubbed, and, as a result, pustules grow from each wound. When these pustules have fully developed the calf is again strapped down on the table,
and the pustules are scraped off—another operation which would seem to be very
cruel. The matter thus obtained is pounded in a mortar, and afterwards strained
through a sieve. It is subsequently mixed with glycerine and becomes the "pure
glycerinated calf lymph " of the trade. According to all analogy this is a very
dangerous compound to put into the human blood. It is well known that pus, when
put into the blood, often acts as a deadly poison. Medical men say that there
is no pus in the lymph, but they give no guarantee. If we refer to the columns
in the preceding table (3) headed " Vaccination, Mortality," showing the deaths
from syphilis, we see that between the year 1853 (when vaccination was made
compulsory) and the year 1875 the deaths from that cause of infants under one
year old multiplied fourfold. It is hardly possible to avoid the conclusion
that this slaughter of the innocents was in a great measure due to vaccination.
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
The Local Government Board in 1897 revoked its prohibition of the use of lymph containing even the smallest admixture of blood, and all lymph now used contains blood ; this blood may have specific tendencies. [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
The first idea of Jenner, and others before Jenner, was to use matter from the cow ill with the disease called cow-pox. This failed, and was dangerous. Jenner's second idea was horse-grease: this failed, also was found dangerous. Later on, others, finding it difficult to get cow-pox, have inoculated cows with human small-pox. A great deal of vaccination has been performed with matter raised in this way. It rested, however, with Dr. Monckton-Copeman to discover a most ingenious method of producing the stuff he wanted. He scraped matter from the corpse of a small-pox patient,* and with that he inoculated a monkey, and succeeded in getting pustules on the monkey. He then inoculated a calf with matter from the monkey, and succeeded in getting pustules on the calf. He then inoculated children with matter from the calf, and succeeded in getting pustules on the children, and a great deal of this matter was sent out by the Local Government Board for vaccinating children. (Shortly after this there began a small-pox epidemic in London.) This method of producing vaccine material did not commend itself, however, to the taste of the British public. Questions were asked about it in Parliament. The Local Government Board, however, instead of standing by its men of science—instead of claiming that they were an authority before which the ignorant public must bow, with strange regard to "ignorant clamour" said that no more of this corpse-monkey-pox should be put into the blood of little English children, and since the Government was hard up for matter for doing the cow-poxing business — of late years they have sent to Germany—obtained from Cologne * some matter with which to inoculate calves in the British Vaccine Establishment. Where the Germans got their stuff from the learned authorities of the Local Government Board do not know, and, apparently, do not care. Any stuff that will raise the regulation pustule on the arm of a little baby will do. They think it is equally effective with any other stuff, in this view of the case they are undoubtedly right ; it is as effective for good as any other of the filthy concoctions with which they have for generations poisoned the blood of our children. It is all absolutely useless. [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Infant deaths increase from
syphilis
This table (3) gives a terrible record of the great increase in deaths from this
horrible disease following upon the compulsory infliction of vaccination on the
people. It shows that the deaths from syphilis amongst the babies increased six-fold,
whilst the population only increased one-quarter, in other words, the death-rate
from syphilis amongst babies was increased four-fold. Nor is it likely that this
table in the least degree exaggerates the deaths from infantile syphilis. The
tendency amongst medical men would rather be to name some other disease as the
cause of death, if it were possible to do so with accuracy. The facts given in
this table are sufficient of themselves to condemn vaccination, and, indeed, the
system of vaccination which had been practised for one hundred years is now
universally condemned and abandoned in the British Isles........It is hardly possible to avoid the conclusion
that this slaughter of the innocents was in a great measure due to vaccination.
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Smallpox conditions:
This evidence is sufficient to show that the epidemic of 1885 was not due to
want of Vaccination. The fact is, parts of Montreal were in a very filthy
condition. The French-Canadian paper Le Monde said, referring to the sewers: "The proof that they are in a bad state is that the stench from the street
gullies in certain parts of the city is so powerful as to create nausea in
passers by." On the 25th November, 1885,
Montreal correspondent of the Toronto Mail
wrote: " The three Wards of St. Mary, St. James, and St. Lewis have contributed
about 90 per cent, of the deaths throughout. It is in these wards that the
10,000 cesspools exist which breed the small-pox and other epidemics which help
to fill up the mortality reports of the city."
On the 25th November, 1885, the Montreal Herald reported an interview with Dr. Garceau of Boston, Mass., who said, referring to the epidemic of small-pox: " I
attribute the chief cause to the frightful system of cesspits."
Since that time Montreal has greatly improved its sanitary condition, with the
consequent diminution of disease. Mulhall gave the general death-rate in that
town during the years 1878-1880 as 37 per thousand. The English
Registrar-General gave the death-rate for the years 1906-1910 at a little over
22 per thousand. Probably more recent figures will show a still lower
death-rate.
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Smallpox harmless under
proper treatment:
If one fact stands out more clearly than another, it is that the case fatality
of small-pox depends on treatment. I remember very well, during the small-pox
epidemic of 1871-2, reading a letter from Dr. Smedley, of
Matlock, Bath, in which
he says he regretted to read of the numerous deaths from small-pox. He said :
"It is a most harmless disease if properly treated. I have treated hundreds of
cases without a single fatality." The effect of treatment is clearly shown by
the following statements: Gloucester Epidemic*
In this epidemic, during the first twelve months, the deaths out of 277 cases
were 151, equal to a death-rate in the Municipal Hospital of 54 per cent, of the
cases. The reason for this high death-rate was that the patients were crowded
together, two or three or even four in a bed, the nursing staff was too small,
the medical attendant was inexperienced. Then came a medical man from the Local
Government Board, who sternly condemned the hospital arrangements, and got a
newly arranged hospital. Immediately the case fatality fell from 54 per cent, to
10 per cent, in that newly organised hospital, while the average death-rate in
the Municipal Hospital out of 730 cases was 27 per cent. But during this same
epidemic there came a Captain Fielden, from Derby, who treated over 200 cases.
He had a very simple and humane way of treating them. He applied medicated
ointment to the feverish skin, and so relieved the symptoms that the patients
quickly recovered, and his case fatality was under 2-per cent.
Case Fatality : London, Leeds, Leicester, Sydney (Australia) Niagara Falls
(U.S.A.). In the epidemic of 1901-2 in London the
case fatality was about 17 per cent. In
Leeds, during the years 1899 to 1904, to August 7th inclusive, out of 577 cases
the deaths were 28, making a case fatality of nearly 5 per cent. In Leicester,
in the years 1902-3-4-5, out of 741 cases there were 30 deaths, showing a case
fatality of 4 per cent. It may be asked, why this difference in case fatality ?
I suggest that it depends, on treatment. In London the number of cases was large
in proportion to the accommodation, and therefore neither the air space nor the
nursing accommodation was as much as was required for the best treatment. Also, as
far as I can make out from the Report of the Metropolitan
Asylums Board, every case was vaccinated at the hospital or otherwise recently vaccinated, and
this would throw an additional strain upon the strength of the patient. The
result was a total case fatality for the years 1901 and 1902 of 16.87 Per cent.,
or nearly 17 per cent. ; whilst for the year 1901 the case fatality was 16.7
portent. ; in 1902, when there were more cases, and consequently more strain was
put on the accommodation, the case fatality rose to 18.4 per cent. In Leeds the
number of cases occurring annually was small in proportion to the accommodation,
and therefore each patient got better attention, and the death-rate was not
more than 5 per cent. The same observations apply to Leicester, where the
death-rate was only 4 per cent, on the average of four years. At
Sydney, in 1913,
out of 1,016 cases of small-pox there was not a single death, although 95 per
cent, of the cases were unvaccinated. At Niagara Falls, 1913-14, out of about
500 cases none were fatal, although vaccination had been largely discarded in
the town for many years. Some medical men have now adopted Captain Fielden's
principle of applying ointment to the feverish skin of the patient with
satisfactory results. There is little doubt that if once our medical men could
shake themselves clear of the vaccination superstition they would soon be able
to deal with small-pox patients in a satisfactory manner.
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Failure of vaccination
The figures of the Registrar-General, showing that in the twenty-seven
years ending with 1911, 2,505 admittedly
vaccinated persons died of smallpox, prove that vaccination does not protect.
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
"That vaccination is capable of extirpating the disease or of controlling epidemic waves is," says Crookshank, " absolutely negatived by the epidemic in 1825, and the epidemics which followed in quick succession in 1838, in 1840, 1841, 1844-5, 1848, 1851-2. Vaccination was made compulsory in 1853, but epidemics followed in 1854, 1855, and 1856, culminating in the terrible epidemic in 1871-72 with more than 42,000 deaths. Epidemics followed in 1877 and 1881." (Inaugural Address to Medical Society of King's College, October 26th, 1894.) [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Smallpox
dangers
Dr. W. S. Tebb, "A Century of Vaccination," p.
232. A manager to the Metropolitan Asylums Board, in a letter dated March, 1892,
says he was in a small-pox hospital ship, and visited from 3,000 to 4,000
patients some two or three times, and has never been vaccinated, and has never
had small-pox : Ibid., p. 232.
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Vaccinators have always, and still do, avoided proper discussion, for
obvious reasons:
Advocates of Vaccination Decline Discussion.
One thing even more extraordinary than the law is the trouble one has, to get
this question fairly faced. The advocates are willing to make concessions to
conscientious objectors, or do anything necessary to abate active hostility, or
passive resistance to vaccination, on condition that Ministers and Parliament
will not allow the principle of vaccination to be questioned. There
is a strong indisposition to discuss vaccination on its merits, and if any
medical man is so daring as to question these merits the method adopted with
him, and indeed with all anti-vaccinators, is that described by Jenner himself
in a letter to Mr. James Moore, the Director of the first National Vaccine
Establishment, in 18010. He spoke of a new scheme he was contemplating to "serve
the cause of vaccination." He wrote (April 21st, 1810) : "The great
feature of the scheme is this — to place every man in a questionable
point of
view who presumes to inoculate for the small-pox with such a mass of evidence
as will be held up to him in favour of vaccination. A general association will
be formed of all the medical men in the county favourable to the plan ; and I
really think, TO AVOID THE IGNOMY OF RESISTANCE, nearly the whole will come
in. Some of the variola-vaccinists have already abjured their old bad habits and
joined the standard before it was half hoisted." This question ought to be
investigated without fear of the "ignominy of resistance."
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
It will be found that whenever a vaccination law is introduced the members of the Administration responsible excuse themselves from discussing the merits of vaccination. These they insist on taking for granted. [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Anti-vaccinators Refused all Means of Verification.
Members of the National Anti-Vaccination League applied for leave to inspect
the registers relating to the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and
were informed that these registers were kept at the smallpox hospitals, and
that no person would be allowed to enter the hospitals to inspect the registers
unless he was re-vaccinated. In this way the anti-vaccinators were excluded from
inspection of the registers. They then applied to the clerk for a copy of the
entries, offering to pay the statutory fees. To this the clerk replied that
the Metropolitan Asylums Board was not a sanitary authority, and he therefore
declined to give the list. By these means the anti-vaccinators were excluded
from all chance of verifying the classification of the patients.
....It is a remarkable and striking fact that whilst the advocates of vaccination,
who receive large grants of public money, are continually preparing and
publishing tables of statistics showing the difference in the mortality of
vaccinated and unvaccinated patients, yet
in no single hospital or epidemic have they made a thorough inquiry into the
vaccinal condition of the patients. This can only be done by an inspection of
the vaccination registers. This would settle beyond a doubt the question whether
or not the patient had been vaccinated in infancy. This conclusive test,
however, is seldom, if ever, applied by those who prepare the statistics in
favour of vaccination. People who are accustomed to the preparation of really
scientific statements will be able to estimate at their true value statistics
which are prepared without reference to the best sources of information.
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Leicester alone, invalidates
vaccination
The experience of this single town (leicester)
should be sufficient to carry conviction to any unbiased mind that
general compulsory vaccination is a foolish and useless process.
[1921] Vaccination and the
State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Jenner's
horse grease
Jenner contended that every person who had had horse-grease cow-pox was
protected against small-pox, but persons who had had the other kind of cow-pox
were not protected, so that when he was confronted with cases where cow-pox had
failed to protect, he said it was a spurious kind of cow-pox. A careful study of
the evidence, as it is given in the writings of Prof.
Crookshank, of William White. of Dr. Creighton, of Dr. W. Scott Tebb,†of Dr.
Monckton-Copeman, of Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, and many other writers, fails
to show that there was anything worthy of the name of evidence in support of
Jenner's theory that horse-grease cow-pox had a specific effect on the human
body calculated to prevent infection by small-pox.
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
The medical men who took up vaccination would have nothing to do with Jenner's theory of horse-pox, and thus saved the scheme from destruction. Vaccination went on receiving credit for the reduction of small-pox really due to the gradual supplanting of the old inoculation process, but in the meantime experience was shattering its claims. [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Authority ploy
Perhaps the chief argument used in favour of vaccination is that of "authority." It is said that
the medical profession are in favour of vaccination, that
they know all about it, and it is folly for anyone who
has not been medically trained to have an opinion on
the question.
I would suggest that a real authority is a man who has devoted some years of his
life to the study of the vaccination question and who is unbiased by any
pecuniary advantage or professional sympathy in the conclusions at which he
arrives.
If such is the standard of authority the
"authority " is on the side of the
anti-vaccinators. We have the opinion of the late Dr.
Collins, who was a public vaccinator, but who resigned that appointment because he considered
vaccination did great harm and no good, and he wrote a book to prove his case.
We have the opinion of Dr.
Creighton, who was employed by the publishers of the
"Encyclopaedia Britannica " to write an article on the subject of Vaccination ;
he thereupon made a careful study of the question, and came to the conclusion
that vaccination was not only useless, but dangerous. There is Professor Edgar
Crookshank, who has published two ponderous volumes on "The History and
Pathology of Vaccination," a work which he undertook in order to demonstrate
the scientific basis of vaccination ; but the result of his inquiry was to show
that there was no scientific basis for the practice, and he expressed the
opinion in his book that the practice would fall into desuetude.* Then we have
the opinion of Dr. Walter Hadwen, of Gloucester, who has made a special study
of the question of vaccination, and who also has decided that it is both useless
and dangerous. Then we have the opinion of Sir William
Collins, a medical man of
the highest eminence, knighted on the occasion of the King's coronation, who
also considers that vaccination is a bad thing. Then we have the opinion of
Alfred Russel
Wallace, LL.D. Dublin, D.C.L. Oxon., F.R.S., &c, that "Vaccination (is) a Delusion, its penal enforcement a Crime." The names I have
mentioned above constitute, indeed, an authority worthy of respect.
[1921] Vaccination and
the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Reduction in
infant mortality is entirely due to improved
sanitation
Mr. Alfred Milnes, M.A., in his masterly paper, printed in the Journal of the
Royal Statistical Society, Vol. LX., Part III., September, 1897, shows
conclusively that the reduction in infant mortality is entirely due to improved sanitation, children being peculiarly
susceptible to the effect of insanitary conditions. He has extracted from the
45th and 55th Reports of the Registrar-General the annual average death-rate per
million living in the decade 1871-80 and in the decade 1881-90. For
the towns of
Whitechapel and Hampstead, averaging these two decades, it appears that the
mortality for all ages is about 7,300 per million living greater in Whitechapel
than in Hampstead, while for those under five years old the mortality of
Whitechapel is about 37,500 per million living more than the mortality in
Hampstead, showing that the conditons adverse to life in Whitechapel are in the
case of infants under five years five times more fatal than they are upon the
population taken as a whole. These figures show that improved sanitation is
quite sufficient to account for the reduced fatality from small-pox in children.
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Statistics unreliable
The Registrar-General's Returns give the number of deaths certified by
medical men to be due to vaccination—and the number so given is for the
thirty-one years ending with 1911—1,154. It must, however, be borne in mind that
the ordinary practitioner considers it to be his duty, so far as possible, to
avoid giving certificates calculated to bring vaccination into disrepute. When
any person dies, there is generally a complication of ailments, and any one of
these may be selected by the medical man as the cause of death. He is not
necessarily obliged to give the orginal cause of the illness.
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
There is a third comment to be made on these classifications of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. It would appear from the Reports* that as a matter of fact the whole of the small-pox patients in their hospitals had been vaccinated. This is shown in the elaborate tables given, but in the Summary every patient is put in the unvaccinated list who was not known to have been efficiently vaccinated at least fourteen days before symptoms of small-pox were observed. [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
It is amazing to-day to recall the original grounds on which the State began its patronage of vaccination. The petition of Jenner for a grant from Parliament (and he ultimately had two grants amounting together to £30,000) claimed that vaccination had "the singular effect of rendering through life the persons so inoculated perfectly secure from the infection of small-pox." [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
However, a Bill was brought in, which is probably remembered now chiefly for Mr. Balfour's interposition to create the conscientious objector, and for the conflict in the House of Lords in the last days of the Session of 1898. The real novelty of the Act was, that it contemplated deliberately and ex animo the abandonment of Dr. Jenner and his cow-pox, without any overt, declaration to that effect, but under the pretext that the technique of the manufacture of lymph was to be improved, according to the most recent methods. To this end the current stock of vaccine throughout England and Wales (not in Scotland) was extinguished, by putting a stop to the practice, in use for a hundred years, of drawing off the fluid, at the eighth day, from the vesicles of the infants last vaccinated (or the "vaccinifers"), and using it for the vaccination of the next batch. [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
The best proof of the private intention to go back to small-pox is to be found in an obscure corner of the Regulations which were drawn up by the Board complementary to the Act. It was thought expedient to retain, a certain bonus of one shilling per case for efficient vaccination (amounting to about £16,000 per annum), which had been sanctioned by the Lords of the Treasury in 1868, and had hitherto been awarded, on the report of inspectors, for the large surface area and the correctly "foveated" floor of the cow-pox scar. This bonus was retained, but the reference to those famous marks of Marson and Seaton was struck out, for the reason that the lymph about to be issued from the Government laboratory was not of a kind to leave such marks, nor, indeed, any enduring marks at all, save, occasionally, the smooth, sinning marks of suppurating small-pox. This change, I say, was made in the conscious knowledge that the matter about to be issued was not cow-pox. Mr. Chaplin also issued a Minute, in which Dr. Copeman's experiments to cultivate small-pox pustules into a colourable imitation of cow-pox were commended not, of course, in those words. Public vaccinators, under the Act of 1898, are supplied with tubes—ten thousand per week—containing they know not what. According to the latest information, extorted from the Board by the pertinacity of Sir William Collins, it now appears that the experts themselves do not know the source of the lymph, whether it is cow-pox or smallpox, but only that it was procured in Cologne, and that the purveyor thought well of it. To this pass has it come in the country of Dr. Jenner, under the eyes of a Parliament which has been engaged in cockering and protecting his discovery consistently and continuously ever since 1802, and in the administration of a law which is the strictest of any in punishing parents for refusing cow-pox, and vaccinators for using small-pox. [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
If, however, we refer to the Report of the Statistical Committee of the Metropolitan Asylums Board for the year 1901, we find a still more extraordinary classification of the deaths from small-pox.. Thus, whilst the average case fatality of those who are stated to be vaccinated is just under 10 per cent., the case fatality of those vaccinated persons the area of whose marks is not recorded is 58 per cent., or nearly six times the average case fatality, whilst of those who are in the "doubtful" class the case fatality was 51 per cent., or more than five times the average vaccinated mortality. But if we go to the unvaccinated class, there we have a death rate of only 31 per cent., a little over half the death-rate of those unfortunate vaccinated persons the area of whose vaccination marks was not recorded. [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
Mr. J. Jackson Clarke, M.B. (Lond.), F.R.C.S., &c, the distinguished surgeon,
when recently describing experiments in vaccination on the cornea, refers to the
resulting "now well-known bodies " which "recall the bodies Russell described
in cancer in 1890." Mr. Jackson Clarke further states that the bodies seen in
the vaccinated cornea are closely similar in their appearance to those described
as protozoa in cancer.
General Phelps, in a paper read at the Glasgow meeting of the National
Anti-Vaccination League, held in November, 1903, says : " Monckton-Copeman and
Mann, writing on vaccine lesions in skin, observes : 'Clarke rightly points out
that many cells appear similar to those found in cancer.' "
[1921] Vaccination
and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
In the same year there were 13,799 deaths from diarrhoea, but who talked about diarrhoea ? No, the whole talk and the whole fuss was about small-pox, and simply for this reason—that there was supposed to be a prophylactic which could be sold to every one, well or ill, and therefore those who had the prophylactic to sell and those who believed in it talked about small-pox and vaccination, and whilst all this talk was going on about one disease tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths were taking place from other diseases which might easily have been prevented by sanitation. [1921] Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.