xxxvi SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



than it previously was that the opportunities of studying it in England 

 are now far from numerous and even when they do occur the disease is 

 usually deprived of most of its worst features. 



The mere fact that before vaccination was introduced it was an 

 everyday occurrence to meet in the streets numbers of people bearing 

 all the disfigurement of small-pox pitting, whilst now it is quite an ex- 

 ceptional circumstance to see such a case, is sufficient evidence of what 

 vaccination has done. But the very absence of such examples tends to 

 make one forget the horrors of small-pox and to tolerate senseless 

 agitators who attempt to convert others to their own absurd theories. 



To form a due estimate of the matter one must be in a position to 

 judge on the one hand of the evils of the disease to be exterminated 

 and, on the other, of the advantages claimed for the means proposed for 

 the purpose. In the present instance we are mercifully deprived of the 

 former and it is perhaps, therefore, better to take the opinion of one who 

 lived at a time shortly after the discovery of vaccination and who was 

 therefore in a position to estimate the evils of small-pox and the ad- 

 vantages of vaccination. 



Mr. Cross, writing in 1820 (twenty-two years after the discovery of 

 vaccination) of the epidemic of small-pox which visited Norwich in 1819, 

 says in conclusion : " I advocate vaccination because I believe it to be 

 the most powerful means of preventing the misery attendant on disease 

 and of saving human life which Providence has vouchsafed to put into 

 the hands of man ; my time has been given up to the gratuitous practice 

 of it, because I can thus do more good amongst the poor than by 

 prescribing pills and potions, and I regard every drop of the vaccine 

 ichor as the most active material that can be admitted into the list of 

 our prophylactic remedies. I am therefore grateful to the philosopher 

 who has taught us to wield this weapon of defence in overcoming the 

 worst of human maladies." 



And this is the unbiassed opinion of a man fully capable of forming 

 a sound judgment and having the knowledge born of experience of 

 small-pox unmodified by vaccinia and of the improvements which 

 followed on the introduction of the inoculation advocated by Jenner. 



Dr. Cory has had the good sense to give his information in a 

 tabular form wherever possible. Thus the tables on pp. 12-33 show 

 clearly the influence of vaccination in delaying the average age at 

 which small-pox makes its attacks, and further the additional security 

 conferred by several incisions as compared with one only. For instance, 

 in those cases where the patient was admittedly unvaccinated the 

 average age at which small-pox occurred was 6^58 years. In those 

 stated to have been vaccinated, but having no scars, 9*86 years ; in 

 those having one scar, 1777 years ; two scars, 17*82 years, and in those 

 having five or more scars, 19*3 years. 



The table opposite page 6 is also very instructive. It shows by 

 means of vertical lines the average yearly deaths from small-pox per 

 100,000 inhabitants in Prussia, with compulsory vaccination and 



