Vaccination - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition vaccination

Definition :

Vaccination, inoculation with the virus of cowpox as a preventive of smallpox. First made compulsory in 1853 by 16 & 17 Vict. c. 100, gratuitous vaccination having been previously provided for in the various enactments, dating from 1840, on the subject prior to 1867, all of which were repealed by the Vaccination Act of that year (30 & 31 Vict. c. 84). By the Act it was provided, inter alia, that the parent of every child born in England should within three months after the birth of such child, or where by reason of the death, illness, absence, or inability of the parent or other cause, any other person should have the custody of such child, 1898 by the (English) Vaccination Act, 1898, and this last Act was itself amended by the (English) Vaccination Act, 1907, in order to give relief to persons having a conscientious objection to vaccination, and s. 1(1) is as follows:-

1.-(1) No parent or other person shall be liable to any penalty under s. 29 or s. 31 of the Vaccination Act of 1867 if within four months from the birth of the child he makes a statutory declaration [see infra] that he conscientiously believes that vaccination would be prejudicial to the health of the child, and within seven days thereafter delivers or sends by posts the declaration to the vaccination officer of the district.

(2) A statutory declaration made for the purposes of this s. shall be exempt from stamp duty.

(3) A statutory declaration for the purposes of this s. shall be made in the form set out in the schedule to this Act, or in a form to the like effect.

The (English) Act of 1898 also substitutes six months [s. 1 (1)] for three as the period within which a child must be vaccinated, abolishes in ordinary cases the requirement that the child is to be taken to a vaccination station, substituting a domiciliary visit [s. 1 (2)] by the public vaccinator, and directs that the public vaccinator (who previously had the power of taking lymph [s. 1 (3)] from a vaccinated child for the purpose of a further vaccination) shall offer to vaccinate with glycerinated calf lymph or other lymph issued by the Ministry of Health.

It is provided also that an order directing vaccina-tion, which previously could be made repeatedly until a child reached the age of 14, shall not be made on a person (s. 3) convicted of disobedience of a similar order as to the same child; and that no proceedings for disobedience to such an order shall be taken against any person convicted in respect of non-vaccination for not having the same child vaccinated until it has reached the age of four years (s. 4).

See Fry's Vaccination Acts; Shaw's Vaccination Acts; Chist. Stat., tit. 'Vaccination.'