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VACCINATION CERTIFICATE.
Compulsory Vaccination Act (16 and 17 Victoria, cap.100) - Schedule C. Notice of the Requirement of Vaccination. To be given by the Registrar at the time of registering the Birth, or withinn seven days after, pursuant to Section IX.

This certificate was given for the vaccination of THIRZA JANE STANBURY DART, of NORTH TAWTON [WEST DEVON] in October 6th 1862, signed by HUGH PYKE, Registrar. This child was no.219 in the Register Book of Births. At that time, vaccinations were given on the 1st Monday of each month, in the house of William Baker of Exbourne.

Description:
On blue paper, sometime folded, a few edge nicks, a very good copy.

*WILLIAM BUDD (1811–1880) was born in the North Tawton, son of Samuel Budd, the local surgeon. His researches into the incidence of typhoid during an epidemic in the town led to him establishing that typhoid fever was spread contagiously, and in particular that the infection was excreted and could be contracted by drinking contaminated water. This discovery contributed to national improvements in public health through improved sanitation. SEE NATIONAL ARCHIVES - Edward Jenner sparked the push for widespread vaccination beginning in the 1790s. Before Jenner, variolation?—purposely infecting patients with smallpox in the hope that they would get a weakened form of the disease and acquire immunity?—was common practice. However, variolation was risky, sometimes patients died from the procedure. Jenner is credited with making a key discovery that people who got cowpox- a mild virus contracted by those who milked cows- did not get smallpox. To test his theory, Jenner transferred pus from the spots of a woman with cowpox to an incision in the arm of a young boy who subsequently became ill with a mild form of the virus. The boy quickly recovered and then Jenner variolated his patient with smallpox to see if immunity from cowpox would protect him from smallpox. As hoped, his patient did not contract smallpox. When successful, this process? gave patients immunity to the disease. 1840 marked the first in a series of laws regarding vaccination in Britain. After the scientific community built a better understanding of how infectious disease spread, the British government outlawed the practice of variolation with the first Vaccination Act of 1840. The Act of 1840 also provided free vaccinations for the poor through the new Poor Law Unions. The government ramped up its focus on improving vaccination rates and subsequently passed the Vaccination Act of 1853. The Act made it compulsory for all infants under three months old to be vaccinated. Local registrars of births, marriages and deaths gave out vaccination certificates to parents of newborns which had to be returned signed by a doctor. Negligent parents could be fined or imprisoned. In 1867, the government increased its efforts and made it compulsory for all children under the age of 14 to be vaccinated against smallpox.

Date Published:

Stock No. 65578

Price: £150.00

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