636 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



similar circumstances, belonging to the same race, are exposed 

 to the same danger of infection, will more of the tinvaccinated 

 than of the vaccinated be attacked by small-pox ? To my 

 mind, there can be but one answer to this question. Un- 

 doubtedly a far larger proportion of the unvaccinated will be 

 attacked. I will go even further, and say that, in proportion 

 to the length of time that has elapsed since the vaccination, 

 and the thoroughness of the operation, a much larger propor- 

 tion of the vaccinated will have small-pox in the mild or dis- 

 crete form, and so the mortality amongst the whole number 

 attacked of vaccinated persons will be smaller than that of 

 the number attacked who were unvaccinated. It must be 

 remembered that a discrete attack of small-pox is never fatal 

 unless by some gross mismanagement. But if the vaccinated 

 persons get the confluent or hsemorrhagic forms, then, other 

 things being equal, I believe their mortality will be as large 

 as if they had never been vaccinated. 



The question still remains whether, vaccination being 

 partially protective against attacks of small-pox, it inflicts any 

 such permanent injury on the constitution as to make it better 

 to risk a possible attack of small-pox than to endure the evils 

 produced by vaccination. 



To answer this question we must consider (1) what 

 are the inevitable evil results of vaccination, and (2) what 

 accidents may occur, either unavoidable in themselves, or 

 only to be prevented by the use of precautions which it is 

 hopeless to expect the use of, when vaccination is performed 

 on a large scale. 



Now, the direct and unavoidable evils of vaccination are the 

 infliction of an acute febrile disease, accompanied by a painful 

 eruption, and an alteration of the state of the whole blood 

 from its normal condition to one which for some years, and 

 those the most important in the growth and the development 

 of the body, renders it incapable of nourishing or reproducing 

 the small-pox germ. The febrile disease is a temporary affair, 

 and not, in the vast majority of cases, dangerous to life. 

 When children are so delicate or unhealthy as to make the 

 vaccine fever and eruption dangerous they can always be 

 excused the operation. 



The permanent change in the blood is quite another 

 matter. I commenced, but have never completed, some 

 microscopical investigations into the conditions of the infant's 

 blood before, during, and after vaccination. It is evident that 

 a fertile field for iiiquiry is open here ; and witliout a series 

 of well-conducted examinations, extending over children of 

 different races, and in different climates, no positive conclu- 

 sions could be arrived at. But of one thing we are quite 

 certain, as it does not need the aid of a microscope: there is a 



