16 AUGUST 1902, Page 3

A powerful appeal on behalf of the Imperial Vaccination League,

signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London, Rochester, and Stepney, Cardinal Vaughan, the Chief Rabbi, Lord Kelvin, and many of our most eminent physicians and surgeons, appears in Monday's Times. The objects of the League are twofold,—to secure legislative improvements in the Vaccination Act, which expires in 1903, and to educate public opinion in support of vaccination. In regard to legis- lation, the attitude of the League is far from aggressive. Its promoters do not propose to urge the abolition of the "conscientious objector" clause. But they insist on the need for obligatory revaccination of school children at a specified age as an amendment of paramount importance—in Germany, where revaccination was enforced by law in 1874, epidemics have practically ceased—and propose to formulate the best expert opinion on the administration of the Vaccination Law and the adequate provision of glycerinated lymph. Such opinion will be then laid before Members of both Houses. In regard to the instruction of public opinion, the League proposes to set to work by assisting ministers of all denomi- nations and other persons working among the poor to make known by literature, lectures, and meetings the need for and value of vaccination and revaccination. As this plan of cam- paign will often involve the distribution of literature gratui- tously, the signatories appeal for funds, which may be sent to the secretary, Dr. E. J. Edwardes, at 53 Berners Street, W.