THE N.Z. MEDICAL ASSOCIATION AND THE DUTY ON "VACCINE," SO-CALLED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 478, 10 April 1909, Page 7

THE N.Z. MEDICAL ASSOCIATION AND THE DUTY ON "VACCINE," SO-CALLED.

_ Sir,—Tho decision of tho Medical Association at- its recent conference, to seek the exomption of so-called' "vaccine"..! from Customs duty, is not without public interest, and naturally ovokos t]io inquiry "Why?" Doos it imply that the State Vaccination Establishment is to bo abolished, .and tho responsibility of _ tho operation and of the supply of "vaccine" left, as formerly, entirely with individual practitioners?.. ",'Tis, a consummation devoutly, to ,be wished!" Anyhow, this appeal explodes tho pretence of tho Vaccination Act and of the Medical Health Officer that "vaccine," or "vaccine lymph," is; manufactured at Wellington, for it is imported. It explodes the assumed virtue of tho so-called "pure calf lymph"; it does not originate in the calf; it 'is not calf's-lymph, or the lymph of any animal,' or it could bo procured just as well and more cheaply in New Zealand* Where then is it procured, and why not in this colony? The answer to this question, lies in tho answer to another: "What is .this so-called 'vaccine'?" This question the Customhouse officer is bound to ask, and the medical official importers are bound truthfully to answer— a questionwhich tho people are bound to ask, and to get truthfully and; frankly answered, for it is a politico-economic- question. From tho day_ tho State established and endorsed vaccination, it lost tho privilege and secrecy of tho private surgery; it became subject to popular investigation and control. From that day to this present, it has been a growing, greedy tax upon-the public revenue, and no one will suppose that tho Medical Association seeks exemption from this said tax - from regard to tho public purso. What tho annual public cost of tho vaccination establishment during tho last nine years has been, has nover been published, I believe, and is part of the official occultism of.tho Public Health Department. Apparently, no member of tho Upper of of the Lower House of Parliament has folt it his duty to institute such an inquiry. It would probably bo as difficult to drag to the' light a full relinblo answer to this question as to tho question of the origin and nature of the so-called ' "vaccine lymph." Yet hero, sir, there is a plain issue: the official medical officers either know, or they do not know, what this so-called "vaccine" is, and whence it comes. If they do not know, why and how can they presume to call it "pure calf lymph" ? Why not frankly avow their ignorance? Why not honestly say: We npither know'what or whence it is! We leave vaccination entirely to public and parent at option, as we leave every other surgical treatment. If they do know, why this policy of concealment?" Does conscience make cowards of them all, by uttering that one word "variolous" matter, a penal resort? I submit, sir, they do know. They know that its original source and naturo is smallpox it may be from London, or from Egvpt, from Japan, or from Germauy, and they also know that tho reason it is not obtained hero in New Zealand is simply becauso there is no smallpox here, and has not been, goodness knows' when; nor will . thoro bo if the people will become their own , sanitarians, by thorough and persistent clcan- . liness of the person, tho home, and tho suri roundings, and by jealously guarding the i healthy bloodstream of their children from i boing officially infected by that condensed i filth and animal, poison foisted upon tho > world as "pure calf lymph."—l am, etc., „ , ~ EDWIN COX. : Cambridge.