The Vaccination Question in the Light of Modern Experience An Appeal for Reconsideration (PDF)

In The Vaccination Question in the Light of Modern Experience: An Appeal for Reconsideration, Dr. C. Killick Millard critically re-evaluates the need for compulsory vaccination, highlighting the success of modern sanitation and hygiene measures in controlling smallpox. He suggests that, if the Commissioners who once upheld mandatory vaccination could have seen the effectiveness of these methods, they might have opposed compulsion. Millard points to Leicester’s “sanitation experiment,” where smallpox rates significantly declined through improved hygiene alone, demonstrating that the disease could be managed without enforced vaccination. He further observes that the reduction in mortality from other infectious diseases, or “zymotics,” closely parallels the decline in smallpox deaths, making it difficult to distinguish between the two trends. This, he argues, suggests that factors beyond vaccination—namely improved sanitation—played a critical role in reducing smallpox mortality as well. Given these findings, Millard advocates reconsidering compulsory vaccination policies in light of modern public health advances.