1841: 4 & 5 Victoria, c.32: An Act to amend an Act to extend the Practice of Vaccination.

[21st June 1841.]

WHEREAS an Act was passed in the Fourth Year of the Reign of Her present Majesty,

[3 & 4 Vict c. 29.]

intituled An Act to extend the Practice of Vaccination; but no express Provision was thereby made for defraying the Expences of carrying the same into execution; be it therefore declared and enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same,

[Expences of Vaccination to to be defrayed out of the Poor Rates.]

That it shall be and be deemed to have been lawful for the Guardians of every Parish or Union in England and Ireland, and the Overseers of every Parish in England, by whom the Contracts for Vaccination may respectively be or have been made under the Provisions of the said Act, to defray the Expences incident to the Execution of the said Act out of any Rates or Monies which may come or may have come into their Hands respectively for the Relief of the Poor.

[Vaccination declared not to be Parochial Relief.]

II. And be it further declared and enacted, That the Vaccination, or Surgical or Medical Assistance incident to the Vaccination, of any Person resident in any Union or Parish, or of any of his Family, under the said Act, shall not be considered to be Parochial Relief, Alms, or charitable Allowance to such Person, and that no such Person shall by reason of such Vaccination or Assistance be deprived of any Right or Privilege, or be subject to any Disability or Disqualification whatsoever.

Source: Collection of Public General Statutes, 1841.

Related legislation: Vaccination Extension Act, 1840.

Further reading: The Victorian Commons, ‘Vaccination and the Vote.’