Public vaccination was completely different in Scotland to the rest of the United Kingdom. Where a succession of acts and bills applying to England and Wales appeared before parliament, and Ireland had four acts relating to vaccination, Scotland had only one vaccination act. The legislation passed in 1863 introduced compulsory vaccination. No further laws were passed to amend this legislation in the remainder of the century. This measure established a division of vaccination between public and private practitioners quite different to that in England and Wales or Ireland. There, the poor law authorities conducted the bulk of all vaccinations—between 60 percent and 90 percent of all infants—in theory at least under the supervision of central government. In Scotland, parish medical officers vaccinated less than 5 percent of all infants, just a few thousand children each year. Private practitioners vaccinated over 80 percent of infants. There was no form of supervision of vaccination practice: all practitioners were free to conduct the operation as they saw fit. This sharp difference between public vaccination in Scotland and that elsewhere in the United Kingdom was the result of lobbying by Scottish practitioners. Where others had failed, they succeeded in getting their vision for a limited public vaccination service and open competition for most vaccination work.

Vaccination before 1845

Vaccination received a favorable reception north of the border. It was first performed in Glasgow in May 1799 using lymph sent from London and thereafter the procedure was rapidly adopted across the country.