National Anti-Vaccination League
Encyclopedia
The National Anti-Vaccination League was founded in 1896 in Britain
, growing from earlier smaller organisations in London, originally under the title Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League. The organisation opposed compulsory vaccination, particularly against smallpox
. It was part of a wider anti-vaccinationist movement, arguing that vaccination did more harm than good.
, with Mr. William Young as secretary. The "Vaccination Inquirer", established by Mr. William Tebb
in 1879, was adopted as the organ of the Society. A series of fourteen "Vaccination Tracts" was begun by Young in 1877 and completed by Dr. Garth Wilkinson in 1879.
The movement grew, and as the influence of the London Society soon became national, it was decided in February 1896 to re-form the Society as "The National Anti-Vaccination League." Its objectives were defined as:
In 1921 the following clause was added:— and vindication of the legitimate freedom of the subject in matters of medical treatment.
In June 1867, the publication "Human Nature" campaigned against "The Vaccination Humbug". It reported that many petitions had been presented to Parliament against Compulsory Vaccination, and many from parents who alleged that their children had died through the operation, and complained that these petitions had not been made public. The journal reported the formation of an Anti- Compulsory Vaccination League "To overthrow this huge piece of physiological absurdity and medical tyranny, and quoted Richard Gibbs, who ran the Free Hospital at the same address as stating "I believe we have hundreds of cases here, from being poisoned with vaccination, I deem incurable. One member of a family dating syphilitic symptoms from the time of vaccination, when all the other members of the family have been clear. We strongly advise parents to go to prison, rather than submit to have their helpless offspring inoculated with scrofula, syphilis, and mania."
Board in 1921
Board in 1936:
Board in 1952:
Forty-five years ago, the cry throughout the country of the reformers who were trying to get the imposts on corn abolished, was that "thousands of women and children were starving for want of that bread which the Corn Laws kept out of the land." The cry of the anti-vaccinator— which is neither less mournful, nor less true—is that thousands of children are crying for the infantine health which nature offers, but which professional interest does not permit them to enjoy. They may be born of healthy parentage, yet they must be exposed to suffering and possible death, through this system of universal State blood-poisoning: and Rachels are weeping throughout the land because their hearths are made desolate.
As in the case of the Corn Laws, so in the case of the Vaccination Acts: the cause of this widespread misery can only be repealed by persistent and determined agitation. The question is of vital and national importance, and should be considered irrespective of sect or party, for- no party holds a monopoly of sympathy for the victims of cruelty and injustice, and every one who has witnessed the operation of the system which works such widespread evil, should resolve to give Parliament no rest until this pernicious legislation is repealed.
The popularity of Vaccination has disappeared The practice has been unable to face free discussion, and the only support of vaccinal tyranny, in the present day, is the dead weight of State-officialism, and the advocacy of an interested professional trades-unionism. The SCIENCE which occupies itself with providing substitutes for Municipal and Personal Cleanliness is fore-doomed to failure. END
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, growing from earlier smaller organisations in London, originally under the title Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League. The organisation opposed compulsory vaccination, particularly against smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
. It was part of a wider anti-vaccinationist movement, arguing that vaccination did more harm than good.
Early History and Formation of the League
In 1866 Mr. Richard B. Gibbs formed the first Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League in the UK (Address: Office 1 South Place, Finsbury, London E.C.) . After his death in 1871, the League underwent various changes until 1876 when it was revived under the presidency of the Rev. W. Hume-Rothery. In 1880 the movement was enlarged and reorganised by the formation of "The London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination," and an office was opened in Victoria Street, WestminsterWestminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
, with Mr. William Young as secretary. The "Vaccination Inquirer", established by Mr. William Tebb
William Tebb
William Tebb was a British businessman and wide-ranging social reformer, particularly known as a anti-vaccinationist and author of anti-vaccination books....
in 1879, was adopted as the organ of the Society. A series of fourteen "Vaccination Tracts" was begun by Young in 1877 and completed by Dr. Garth Wilkinson in 1879.
The movement grew, and as the influence of the London Society soon became national, it was decided in February 1896 to re-form the Society as "The National Anti-Vaccination League." Its objectives were defined as:
- The entire repeal of the Vaccination Acts; the disestablishment and disendowment of the practice of vaccination; and the abolition of all regulations in regard to vaccination as conditions, of employment in State Departments, or of admission to Educational, or other Institutions.
In 1921 the following clause was added:— and vindication of the legitimate freedom of the subject in matters of medical treatment.
In June 1867, the publication "Human Nature" campaigned against "The Vaccination Humbug". It reported that many petitions had been presented to Parliament against Compulsory Vaccination, and many from parents who alleged that their children had died through the operation, and complained that these petitions had not been made public. The journal reported the formation of an Anti- Compulsory Vaccination League "To overthrow this huge piece of physiological absurdity and medical tyranny, and quoted Richard Gibbs, who ran the Free Hospital at the same address as stating "I believe we have hundreds of cases here, from being poisoned with vaccination, I deem incurable. One member of a family dating syphilitic symptoms from the time of vaccination, when all the other members of the family have been clear. We strongly advise parents to go to prison, rather than submit to have their helpless offspring inoculated with scrofula, syphilis, and mania."
Publications of The London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination
Board members
Board in 1883- President: Mr P.A. Taylor, M.P.
Board in 1921
- Secretary: Lily Loat
- Vice presidents: included Charles CreightonCharles CreightonCharles Creighton was a British physician and medical author. He was highly regarded for his scholarly writings on medical history but was widely denounced for disputing the germ theory of infectious diseases....
M.D., Josiah Oldfield, D.C.L., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., Herbert Snow, M.D. - President: Lady Grove.
Board in 1936:
- Treasurer: Ernest Parke, JP
- Secretary: Lily Loat
- Vice presidents: The Countess of Aylesford; The Marchioness of Donegall; The Duchess of Hamilton; The Lady Maud Warrender; The Viscount Harberton; Lady Dorothy Lee Warner; B P.Allinson, MRCS, LRCP; Major R. F. E. Austin, MRCS, LRCP; M. Beddow Bayly, MRCS, LRCP; Reginald Bowden, MD; H. Tudor Edmunds, MB, MRCS, LRCP; W. Ellis Morgan, MRCS, LRCP, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
; Agnes Eslcourt-Oswald, MRCS, LRCP; Mrs. Alice Ker, MD, LRCP, LRCS; Henry Valentine KnaggsHenry Valentine KnaggsHenry Valentine Knaggs was an English doctor and author who was a notable practitioner of nature cure methods .- Early life :He was the second son of Henry Guard Knaggs and Ellen Mares...
, MRCS, LRCP; Cyril Pink, MRCS, LRCP; Stirling Saunder, LRCP; Fergie Woods, MD (Brux.), MRCS, LRCP, London; T. G. Vawdrey, MRCS, LRCP; W.H. White, MRCS, LRCP; Robert Mackie John H. Bonier, Leicestcr; H.G. Chaneellor, London; H.B. Knight Chorley, London; Charles Gane, JP, Beer; H.W. Goddard, LeicesterLeicesterLeicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
; Joseph Harrison, Dorking; Rev. Lionel Lewis, MA, GlastonburyGlastonburyGlastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,784 in the 2001 census...
; Harry Lucas, BirminghamBirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
; J.E. Norman, JP, Weston-super-MareWeston-super-MareWeston-super-Mare is a seaside resort, town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which is within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury...
; W. Grove Parriss, TrowbridgeTrowbridgeTrowbridge is the county town of Wiltshire, England, situated on the River Biss in the west of the county, approximately 12 miles southeast of Bath, Somerset....
; H.E. Ponting, Dorking; A. Rawlings, Reading; H.J. Sayer, JP, Birmingham; William Slebbings, Reading; A. Trobridge, Thirsk; Harold W. Whiston, Macclesfield;
Board in 1952:
- President: Arthur Trobridge
- Treasurer: Major Hall Parke
- Secretary: Lily Loat
- B.P. Allinson, MRCS; M. Beddow Bayly, MRCS, LRCP; Reginald Bowden, MD; H. Tudor Edmunds, MB, MRCS, LRCP; Agnes Estcourt-Oswald, MRCS; Henry Valentine KnaggsHenry Valentine KnaggsHenry Valentine Knaggs was an English doctor and author who was a notable practitioner of nature cure methods .- Early life :He was the second son of Henry Guard Knaggs and Ellen Mares...
, MRCS, LRCP; Gordon Latto, MB, ChB; Erich Ledermann, MD, MRCS, LRCP; W. Ellis Morgan, MRCS, LRCP; Cyril Pink, MRCS, LRCP; Dorothy Shepherd, MB, BSc; H. Fergie Woods, MD, MRCS, LRCP
Publications of The National Anti-Vaccination League
- 1957, Is Mass Vaccination with B.C.G. always warranted in the Scandinavian Countries? (booklet)
- 1952, B.C.G. Vaccination, M. Beddow Bayly
- 1947 TROLRIDGE, Arthur. Smallpox and Vaccination. pp. 8.
- 1939, The Schick Inoculation Against Diphtheria, Beddow Bayly
- The Case Against Vaccination, Beddow Bayly (1936)
- September/October, 1952, The Vaccination Inquirer and Health Review, no 817
- 1929 National Anti-Vaccination League (LONDON) Thirty-third [etc.] Annual Report, etc.
- 1921, Vaccination and the State By Arnold Lupton MP.
- 1912, Leicester: Sanitation versus Vaccination, J.T. Biggs, JP. Book.
- 1911 Smallpox and vaccination in British India
- 1910, For and Against Vaccination. A statement by the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland; (with correspondence thereon, between Lieut. General A. Phelps and T. Percy C. KirkpatrickPercy KirkpatrickThomas Percy Claude Kirkpatrick was an eminent Irish physician, historian and writer.-Life:He was born in Dublin, son of John Rutherford Kirkpatrick, also a noted physician. He was educated at Foyle College, Derry, and Trinity College, Dublin. He became an MD at 26 years of age. In 1900, he was...
) - 1904 BURTON, John Francis. The Story of the Vaccination Crusade in Hackney & Stoke Newington, 1902–1904, and what came of it. The cases of John Polley, William Pitt, and others, with an account of the action-at-law Polley v. Fordham. pp. 40. Hackney Union Branch of the National Anti-Vaccination League: London.
- 1902 MILNES, Alfred. What about Vaccination ... With other contributions. (When Doctors Disagree. The Wreck of the Preussen. Vaccination an Error.) National Anti-Vaccination League: Westminster.
- 1902 Smallpox at Middlesbrough. A reply to Dr. Dingle’s Reports ... Second edition, revised. by BIGGS, John Thomas pp. 24.
- 1902 Smallpox at Gloucester. A reply to Dr. Coupland’s Report by Walter HadwenWalter HadwenWalter Robert Hadwen MD MRCS MRCP was a Gloucester GP and pharmaceutical chemist, president of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection , and an anti-vaccination campaigner known for his denial of the germ theory of disease.-Biography:Hadwen began his career as a pharmacist in Clapham...
. Reprinted from “The Reformer,” National Anti-Vaccination League: Gloucester - 1901 , Alfred Russel WallaceAlfred Russel WallaceAlfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...
. Vaccination a Delusion ... Being Chapter XVIII. of The Wonderful Century pp. 213–323 - 1901 An Italian Indictment of Vaccination. Public address given at the opening of the session of the University of Perugia, November, 1898 by Carlo Ruata. Translated from the Italian. National Anti-Vaccination League: London, 1901.
Publications of Lily Loat
- The Truth About Vaccination and Immunization, Lily Loat (1951)
- 1939 Pasteurization of milk : the case against compulsion
- Address by Lily Loat before English Annual Session of the American Medical Liberty League in 1927
1880. Chief points against vaccination by International Anti-Vaccination League
The Executive Committee of the International Anti-Vaccination League, in Paris, 1880, at which delegates representing France, Belgium, Holland, Prussia, Württemberg, Switzerland, England, and the USA were present resolved that- small-pox epidemics do not increase the general death-rate, there being a corresponding decrease in other zymotic diseaseZymotic diseaseZymotic diseases , an obsolete term in medicine, formerly applied to the class of acute infectious maladies, presumed to be due to some virus or organism which acts in the system like a ferment...
s, and that small-pox reduces the total mortality.
- diminution of small-pox mortality at the beginning of the 19th century was not due to Vaccination, but due to the cessation of small-pox inoculation.
- That the official returns shew that since Vaccination has been rigorously enforced, the rate of mortality from epidemic small-pox has increased.
- FOURTH.—That the small-pox hospital returns, both in Europe and America, prove that Vaccination has neither prevented nor mitigated the severity of the disorder. The observations of REES, JURIN, DUVILLARD, etc., shew that the rate of fatality per cent, of those attacked before JENNER’S time was "one in six." The cases on which this result was based being many thousands. Recent Hospital statistics shew that the fatality to-day is still "one in six," the cases being more numerous, and the majority of them vaccinated. The disease is therefore unchecked and unchanged as regards fatality.
- FIFTH.—That since Vaccination has been rendered obligatory, infantile syphilis (under one year old) has been increased in England, according to a Parliamentary return, dated February 25, 1880, from 472 per million of births in 1847, to 1,736 per million in 1877, or fourfold; and that other inoculable diseases, such as pyaemia, scrofula, erysipelas, and bronchitis, were also augmented in infants. In England, the increase of inoculable diseases was 20 per cent., notwithstanding an expenditure of 200 millions sterling since 1850 in sanitary works. Another Parliamentary return (No. 443, Session 1877) demonstrates that 25,000 babies are yearly sacrificed by diseases excited by Vaccination.
- SIXTH—That from the exceeding difficulty of finding a case of spontaneous cow-pox, the vaccinating profession cannot possess a standard of purity in lymph; and that no analysis, or microscopic examination, or medical experience, can enable a vaccinator to distinguish pure from impure lymph, nor can the appearance of the vesicle of the vaccinifer be relied upon to indicate freedom from taint of syphilitic or other disease. A subject highly syphilised can shew vaccine vesicles, according to Dr. WARLOMONT, "perfectly irreproachable" in appearance.
- SEVENTH.—That many diseases to which animals are liable, and particularly tubercle, are transmissible by means of so-called Animal Vaccination to man, according to Veterinary Surgeons, and that the great increase in Consumption in Europe was probably owing to this cause.
- EIGHTH.—Dr. H. OIDTMANN, of Aix la Chapelle, has proved by official returns from the towns of Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duren, Elberfeld, Lieghitz, Treves, Wesel, and other places, that Vaccination does not afford even a temporary protection against small-pox, but on the contrary, on the outbreaks of small-pox, there is large and constant priority amongst those attacked, of the vaccinated and re-vaccinated, over those who have escaped Vaccination.
- LASTLY.—That in view of the confusion of opinion which prevails in every medical assembly amongst the so-called authorities, whenever the subject of Vaccination is discussed, it is unwise, impolitic, unjust, and tyrannical to enforce Vaccination; that such enforcement retards all improvement in the treatment, and all discoveries for the prevention of small-pox; and that all Compulsory Legislation with regard to Vaccination ought to be repealed.
Forty-five years ago, the cry throughout the country of the reformers who were trying to get the imposts on corn abolished, was that "thousands of women and children were starving for want of that bread which the Corn Laws kept out of the land." The cry of the anti-vaccinator— which is neither less mournful, nor less true—is that thousands of children are crying for the infantine health which nature offers, but which professional interest does not permit them to enjoy. They may be born of healthy parentage, yet they must be exposed to suffering and possible death, through this system of universal State blood-poisoning: and Rachels are weeping throughout the land because their hearths are made desolate.
As in the case of the Corn Laws, so in the case of the Vaccination Acts: the cause of this widespread misery can only be repealed by persistent and determined agitation. The question is of vital and national importance, and should be considered irrespective of sect or party, for- no party holds a monopoly of sympathy for the victims of cruelty and injustice, and every one who has witnessed the operation of the system which works such widespread evil, should resolve to give Parliament no rest until this pernicious legislation is repealed.
The popularity of Vaccination has disappeared The practice has been unable to face free discussion, and the only support of vaccinal tyranny, in the present day, is the dead weight of State-officialism, and the advocacy of an interested professional trades-unionism. The SCIENCE which occupies itself with providing substitutes for Municipal and Personal Cleanliness is fore-doomed to failure. END