Dr. Wyld's Opening Speech.

Dr. Wyld—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,—I feel at the present moment somewhat more comfortable than I did an hour ago. It may be satisfactory to my friends to know that, because when I appeared on this platform half-an-hour ago, I thought it was very possible that Mr. Wheeler, being regarded as the great oracle of anti-vaccination, and having come all the way from Darlington to meet a real living doctor in London, I thought, of course, that Mr. Wheeler must have facts militating against vaccination which had not hitherto met my observation; there page 12 fore, I thought that possibly Mr. Wheeler might spring a mine upon me, and blow me into the air. Well, I don't find that I am any further in the air than before. I find that I occupy terra firma with as certain a step as I did before I had the honour and pleasure of meeting Mr. Wheeler on this platform.

I have met with several anti-vaccinationists at public meetings, and this I will say, that it appears to me their rhetorical usually exceeds their logical powers. I find in it—(Cries of "Question," and "Order")—a great deal of florid talking. I will not detain you with these preliminary remarks any longer, but will begin to criticise the few observations which Mr. Wheeler has brought under your notice. Now, in the first place, I, for one, never believed that Jenner was infallible. I think that Jenner was a mortal man, liable to error the same as I am, and the same, I suppose, as you are; therefore, when Mr. Wheeler brings before your notice some of the fallacies of Jenner, of course I admit them at once. We are all fallible, and Jenner, in starting this new thing, was particularly likely to fall into error; and he did fall into error; but that does not, to my mind, militate in any degree against the greatness of the man; and I do hold that Jenner was a truly good and great man.

Mr. Wheeler starts with the assertion that England was not decimated with the small-pox before the days of Jenner.

Mr. Wheeler—I did not say so.

Dr. Wyld—What did you say?

Mr. Wheeler—I said it was very prevalent, but that was because the doctors insisted that everybody should have it.

Dr. Wyld—I understood Mr. Wheeler to say that England was not decimated by small-pox before the discovery of vaccina-tion. I find from the Parliamentary report of the committee that investigated the claims of Jenner to a pecuniary reward that 45,000 people died every year in the British Islands from smallpox. If that is not analogous to decimation, I don't know what is. If we turn to the population of the present time, we find it about double what it was in the days of Jenner. If 45,000 died then, we ought to have 90,000 dying now. Well, what have we? We have had ten epidemics of small-pox during the last 30 years, and there have died only 150,000. That is a very large number, but that is only 5000 a-year, and I have shown you that 90,000 a-year ought to have died. That vaccination is inefficient, every one now admits; but when I use the term "inefficient," of page 13 course I mean imperfect. I never held that vaccination, as now performed, was perfect; and very few doctors do. The vaccine lymph, having passed for eighty years through a succession of children, has thus, I hold, become deteriorated. Mr. Wheeler says there has been an increase of infantile mortality of four in the hundred thousand births. Well, that is not a very large increase, but Mr. Wheeler jumps to the conclusion that they were killed by vaccination. This is a pure assumption; there is no foundation for it; it is a mere guess. Can you not find another reason for the increase? In the days of Jenner England was an agricultural country. It is now a manufacturing country. In the days of Jenner children were born in country places, and lived in the open air : now they are born in Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, and Darlington, and live in crowds, under the most unhealthy conditions. I ask, is it not likely that this increase of infantile mortality results from bad habits rather than from vaccination? Last year the working people (mainly) of this country consumed £150,000,000 worth of alcoholic drinks—their increased wages went chiefly in that direction, and I assert that this increased alcoholism must necessarily beget a degraded people. Mr. Wheeler denies that vaccination has checked the growth of smallpox since the days of Jenner. I have shown that 45,000 died before vaccination, and Mr. Wheeler admits that in 1802—six years after vaccination—only 3500 died. Well, if that is not a demonstration of the effect of vaccination, I don't know what is. I don't say it is a demonstration that vaccination saved all these deaths, because there might have been other causes; but, at all events, 45,000 died before vaccination, and 3500 after.

Mr. Wheeler—The one is London, the other the country.

Dr. Wyld—That is, converted from London into the country; 3500 in London would be about eight times as many.

Mr. Wheeler—No.

Dr. Wyld—About that.

Mr. Wheeler—Ten times.

Dr. Wyld—Well, if ten times, it would be 35,000 instead of 45,000.

I now come to the money Jenner got. The anti-vaccinationists are very fond of ringing the changes upon that money, and they say Jenner was a greedy man to have applied for it, and still worse for keeping it after he had got it. But what are the facts? Jenner when he discovered the process of vaccination had a very page 14 large and lucrative practice in the country. After his discovery he spent his whole time in disseminating it amongst the people. He was always running away from his practice and going to London. The consequence was that his practice almost entirely left him, and Jenner became a poor man. Therefore I for one think that Jenner was entitled to his £30,000. Mr. Wheeler has mentioned the Grosvenor case. The son of Earl Grosvenor was vaccinated, and afterwards took small-pox, and the doctors were much shocked, and being a nobleman's son, the case created an enormous stir in society. If instead of being a son of Earl Grosvenor he had been Peter Piper the green grocer, you would have heard nothing about it. Being the son of Earl Grosvenor the whole of society rang with the dreadful fact—vaccination was not a perfect security against small-pox. Jenner never said it was; he only said it was a safeguard to a large extent; that it was as good a safeguard as an attack of small-pox itself.

Mr. Wheeler—I have quoted what he said.

Dr. Wyld—I will come to that soon. Mr. Wheeler reminds me that he has read Jenner's own statement—that vaccination was a perfect protection against small-pox. Again, I say, Jenner was a fallible man, and after a few years found out that he was wrong in asserting that vaccination was an absolute protection against small-pox, and, like an honest man, he at once admitted the fact. If you look into the life of Jenner by Baron, you will see that he is continually stating that he did not believe vaccination to be a perfect protection. Well, then, Mr. Wheeler says that Dr. Jenner did not publish the letters he got from medical men about the powers of vaccination. Well, I deny the assertion. Baron in his Life of Jenner gives many letters from medical men containing the highest encomiums on his discovery. He did not publish them all. Then Mr. Wheeler says that Phipps died of consumption. Well, we know that vaccination won't prevent people dying of consumption; Jenner never said so; and poor Phipps happened to be one who died of consumption—argal, says Mr. Wheeler, he died of consumption through vaccination.

Mr. Wheeler—I did not say so.

Dr. Wyld—That is a specimen of anti-vaccination logic. Having now replied to the observations of Mr. Wheeler, I will now try to prove to you what vaccination is. In the first place, we have 20,000 medical men in this country, and I expect that with the exception of half a dozen, they believe in vaccination.

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I think that medical men who are educated in the theory and practice of medicine ought to be better judges than Mr. Wheeler. I think that is a very strong argument in favour of vaccination. Medical men feel so certain about it that they say it is ridiculous to argue the matter; and I stand here to confess that I am not more certain that two and two make four than I am that vaccination is an immense boon to the world. You know how Jenner began vaccination. A milk-maid came to consult him regarding her health, and he, joking her about her rosy face, said, "You may one day have small-pox and lose your beauty." She said, "No, I have had cow-pox." After 20 years' thinking and inquiry into this strange assertion, he published his knowledge of the facts, and then vaccinated the boy Phipps. Mark this. He vaccinated him on the 14th May, 1796—a memorable epoch. On the 1st July following he inoculated this boy Phipps with small-pox, and found it impossible to communicate that disease. That was experiment No. 1. That laid the foundation of the Jennerian theory. He found that if a person took cow-pox, he could not take small-pox. Jenner repeated this experiment, and he never was able to communicate small-pox to children who had been vaccinated. If that is not a demonstration that vaccination protects from small-pox, I don't know what is. Dr. Martin of America writes to me that he has on a hundred occasions after vaccination with calf lymph attempted to inoculate his cases with small-pox, and in not a single instance has he succeeded in communicating small-pox. If that is not a demonstration beyond all refutation, I don't know what logical demonstration is. I come to another proof. In the small-pox hospitals in London, during a certain period, there were 20,000 cases, and an average of 5 per cent, only of the vaccinated died, while 35 per cent, died who did not bear vaccination marks; 1 per cent, died if the marks were good, 8 per cent if they were imperfect marks, and 35 per cent, if there were no marks. That is argument No. 2. We find that 96 per cent, of the people are vaccinated. If vaccination were no protection, there ought in these hospitals to be 96 per cent, of the cases found with marks; but there is only 35 per cent.; and in these hospitals, as only 4 per cent, of the population are unvaccinated, there should be only 4 per cent, of such cases in the hospitals, but there are about 35 per cent. Then I come to the last statistics of the late severe epidemic in Dublin, when a larger proportion of vaccinated persons died of small-pox than were known page 16 to die in any previous epidemic—namely, 10 per cent.; but the per centage of deaths amongst the unvaccinated was 65 per cent. You will find the figures in the Medical Press of 22nd May. Then I come to the City of London, and I find that the insurance companies take those who are vaccinated at a lower premium than the unvaccinated. Of course those companies must believe that vaccination is a protection, or they would not make this distinction. The anti-vaccinators reply that the insurance companies are under the authority and dictation of the doctors. Well, you will be surprised to hear that they are not; they are under the dictation of the actuaries, men whose whole life is devoted to statistics; and is it conceivable that these men would make this distinction in insurance rates except on the soundest facts? I will now refer to re-vaccination. The doctors say you ought to be re-vaccinated about the age of puberty; and I say so too. If I vaccinate 100 children carefully, I will not make a single failure; but if I attempt to re-vaccinate 100 adults I may not succeed with more than 50. There you have a demonstration that the vaccine protection has lasted, say 20 years. I speak from authority and experience. The gentlemen who hiss and make a noise have probably never vaccinated any cases, and I suppose Mr. Wheeler has never vaccinated a case in his life!

Mr. Wheeler—I have been vaccinated and had the small-pox.

Dr. Wyld—I have vaccinated a good many. You cannot with ordinary lymph succeed in re-vaccinating more than about 50 per cent. If that is not a demonstration that vaccination has, so far, protected those adults, I don't know what a demonstration is.

The Americans are a highly educated people, and Republicans, like many of yourselves. They have no compulsory statute law regarding vaccination; yet there is a moral law which is compulsory, inasmuch as no child is admitted into a public school who is not vaccinated. ("Shame.") In the small-pox hospitals the nurses are vaccinated, and some of them have had small-pox before; but small-pox does not, in my opinion, afford a greater protection than vaccination; and these nurses go about the hospital with perfect immunity. Would the anti-vaccinators have the same confidence in sending their unvaccinated wives and daughters into these hospitals? During the last ten years, eight to ten million children in this country have been vaccinated, and out of that number, of course, you may collect a small number of page 17 cases which have gone adversely; but are those few cases to upset the whole case? I think not Then, as to the inoculation of syphilis. That was long denied by medical men; but it is now admitted, and therefore, of course, you require to exercise very great care how you vaccinate. But I, personally, have a perfect answer to that objection against vaccination, because, as you know, I do not vaccinate from the human being, but from the calf, which is an animal that cannot possibly communicate that disease. Now, as to compulsion. That is a difficult part of the subject, and I find myself in much the same position as Mr. Bright and Mr. Gladstone on the question of compulsion—that is, my mind is not clearly made up on that part of the question. I admit that it is a very hard thing to interfere with the liberty of the subject; but we owe duties to the State as well as to ourselves, and if the going about of thousands of people unvaccinated spreads, as I take it, small-pox, then I think society has a right to protect itself. You must remember that these compulsory laws have been passed by yourselves. (Cries of "No, no.") These compulsory laws have been passed by yourselves. (Repeated cries of "No," "One bishop," "Late at night," "In a small house," &c.)

Dr. Wyld repeated the statement that these laws had been passed by that House of Commons which had been chosen by the people.

The interruption was so great that the chairman interposed and said that Dr. Wyld was quite in order, for everybody was supposed to be represented in the House of Commons when a bill was passed.

Dr. Wyld continued—If these laws are a hardship, the people have a perfect escape and protection from all risks if, instead of being vaccinated with effete lymph, worn out, they are vaccinated with the best possible lymph. Then they would be so perfectly protected that they could afford to disregard the few eccentric individuals who declined to be vaccinated. The Lancet has this week suggested a Parliamentary Commission to reconsider the entire question. I hope that idea may be carried out. In conclusion—one word as to myself. I wish to defend myself from the accusation that appeared in a London newspaper that I say these things in favour of calf lymph from self-interest. I utterly deny that it is so. Last year I went to Earl Percy, with whom I have the honour to be acquainted, and urged him to page 18 bring the subject before Parliament, in order that it might be made a Government question, and his Lordship did bring the subject before Parliament. The production and distribution of vaccine from the calf is so laborious and anxious and expensive an operation, that I, for one, would be only too glad to escape from it, provided Government would take it up. Finally, I will ask Mr. Wheeler three questions—First, how do you explain this fact. You vaccinate 100 babies, and for a certain time afterwards you find it impossible to inoculate these children with small-pox? Is not that equivalent for the time being to a proof that cow-pox is a protection for that time against small-pox? Then, again, I should like Mr. Wheeler to explain the mortality in the small-pox hospitals of 35 per cent, in the unvaccinated against 5 per cent in vaccinated. And, in the third place, I would ask Mr. Wheeler to tell us whether he does not admit that if you are vaccinated with calf lymph instead of human lymph you could not possibly thus take syphilis?

Dr. Collins interposed with a question. He confessed himself to be one of those fanatics called anti-vaccinators. He had twenty years' experience of vaccination in one of the largest parishes in the metropolis. He asked the name of the American doctor who had tried in vain to give persons the small-pox after vaccination; also, whether Dr. Wyld had put his calf lymph to the test by inoculating his patients with human small-pox, and what was the result?

Dr. Wyld—I have not as yet; but I should have no hesitation in doing so.