In 1867, however, a new Act required Poor Law guardians to keep registers of vaccinations and to fine - and, in case of non-payment, imprison - parents who flouted the law. Within a few years, anti-vaccination leagues had sprung up: over three decades, Durbach estimates their number at around two hundred. They flourished in many parts of the country and counted supporters from all classes but were, predictably, strongest in radical London and the industrial north[.]
Susan Pedersen, in the LRB, gives a
fascinating review
of a history of the anti-vaccination movement by Nadja Durbach.
Vaccination was hardly a matter of 'clean needles': at that time it did not involve needles at all. Instead, the infant's skin was scored with a lancet in several places and viral material rubbed into the wound. Eight days later, the parent was required to bring the child back: those who had developed vesicles had the lymph harvested for direct application to another child. This 'arm to arm' method was cheaper than vaccination with calf lymph but was, unsurprisingly, much resented by the poor, who could neither prevent their children from being used as a sort of petri dish for the cultivation of vaccine material.
This rather visceral method of vaccination put children at risk of other communicable diseases; the balance of benefits wasn't very clear cut, even if the arguments weren't particularly scientific.
Comments