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enforce the Compulsory Vaccination Acts. That led me to study the whole question, with the result that I became an anti-vaccinator by conviction. In the course of events I was forced to the front in a public discussion of the subject, in which Dr. Bond was our chief opponent. Neither of us convinced the other, but the result showed that the public were convinced, for shortly afterwards our Board of Guardians, yielding to the pleadings of our good friend Councillor Karn and others, stopped prosecutions, and very few people have voluntarily adopted vaccination for their children since. At that time only a solitary medical man here and there was found on our side. But since then we have been joined, amongst others, by two of the foremost scientists in our country—Drs. Creighton and Crookshank —in denouncing vaccination as a superstition and a fraud. (Cheers). The disputes as to obscure scientific theories are therefore no longer in the hands of non-scientific laymen. We can leave it to the doctors to fight them out. They have never refuted Crookshank and Creighton, and until they do so we are abundantly justified in our attitude of opposition and unbelief. Into the merits or demerits of the question I am not going to enter particularly to-night.
I have by my side in the person of Dr. Hadwen—(cheers) —a duly certified medical practitioner, who, by the examinations he has passed and the diplomas he has obtained in the medical schools, is thoroughly well qualified to deal with any subject pertaining to the laws of health and the treatment of disease. You have had a taste of his advocacy in the admirable letters which he has contibuted to the “Citizen,” and as venture to think you are more anxious to hear him than me, I will not debar you from that pleasure any longer. Mr. Bland explained in conclusion that Dr. Hadwen was not a paid advocate of the Anti-Vaccination Society, which was really poor in funds, though rich in the allegiance of its supporters and in the intelligence of those who adopted its principles, but he came at the sacrifice of his time and his practice in furtherance of the cause to which he had committed himself after studying it exhaustively in all its bearings. (Cheers.)
Dr. HADWEN, whose reception was most cordial. said: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,—It certainly does one’s heart good to see such a splendid and enthusiastic audience here to-night. It shows that one thing is very certain: that whether you are united upon the question under discussion or not you are deeply interested in the subject. (Hear, hear.) Upon coming into the room I had placed in my hands a paper, written, I see, by Dr. Bond, in which he gives
“Fifteen reasons why we should believe i in the efficacy of vaccination as a preventive of small-pox.” I do not know whether Dr. Bond is here himself, but should he be here I will invite him to come on the platform and discuss those points with me after I have finished what I have to say. I have cast my eyes over them; I shall take up most of those arguments in the course of my address, and I have only now to say that every statement made in that paper has been smashed and pulverised thousands of times before. (Cheers.)
I had better, at the outset, state to you distinctly the position I occupy on the subject. I stand here not only as a medical man, but also as a father and a citizen. As a medical man I look upon vaccination as an insult to common sense,
