200 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



occupied with other work. As to the address itself , it would be pre- 

 sumptuous Oil his part to express any opinion, much less to offer 

 any criticism, but, if he might venture to do bo, would draw attention 

 to just one part of the question that had been touched upon, which 

 was of the greatest importance, and one on which he felt very strongly 

 Thai was the satisfactory position at the Front, from the sanitary point 

 of view, and the considerable influence that this would have in bring- 

 ing the war to a successful issue. Perhaps the most importani of 

 methods of preventive medicine was antityphoid inoculation. It was 

 within the knowledge of us all, he said, that some people, well-intentioned, 

 it might be, but sadly lacking in scientific insight, had been doing their 

 utmost to dissuade men from being inoculated against typhoid fever. 



We should perhaps extend our pity to those individuals who were so 

 utterly incapable of appreciating facts that are put before them. They 

 probably belonged to that class who still believed that the earth was 

 flat, and were not to be convinced even by the statistics which had 

 been given in the House of Commons only a few days ago, and which 

 demonstrated beyond doubt or question the marvellous results that were 

 being obtained. But in this case it was not a matter of opinion, it was 

 a question of serious injury resulting to their fellow-men, and as such 

 had nothing to justify it. The carrying out of these preventive 

 measures might mean a shortening of the war that has already been 

 disastrous enough. We were deeply indebted to Professor Sims ""Wood- 

 head for having drawn our attention to these points, which, he was sure, 

 were being so ably dealt with. In hygiene, Mr. Barnard said, it was no 

 exaggeration to say that we were in the very front rank, and that no 

 nation could show us the way, and he felt sure that Professor Sims 

 Woodhead was one of the contributory causes to that state of affairs. 

 He wished to move a hearty vote of thanks to Professor Sims Woodhead, 

 and hoped that he would allow his Address to be printed in the Journal 

 of the Society. 



The vote of thanks to Professor Sims Woodhead for his Presidential 

 address was carried with acclamation by all present. 



The President, in reply, thanked those present very heartily for the 

 warm way in which they had received his somewhat fragmentary re- 

 marks. He quite agreed with Mr. Barnard that the question of typhoid 

 inoculation was one that could not be mentioned too often or insisted 

 upon too strongly, and he thought that the statistics referred to by 

 Mr. Barnard were in themselves very strong evidence of the value of 

 anti-typhoid inoculation even after the patient had been attacked. For, 

 if the figures were considered, it would be found that although there 

 were more than 600 typhoid patients at the Front there had been a 

 very low mortality, only 7 '5 per cent; but it must be remembered 

 that many of the men who went out had been inoculated. At home, 

 where a far larger proportion are un-inoculated, and where the condi- 

 tions otherwise should be much more favourable, the mortality during 

 the same period was 18 per cent. 



According to statistics, therefore, even if the patient should be 

 attacked after inoculation, he had a better chance of recovery than if he 

 had not been inoculated. Moreover, though this is not brought out bv 



