51. CHATEAUNEUF's llEl'ORT ON VACCINATION.* 



The mortality of children is much less at present, in France and in 

 its capital, than it was in the last century ; particularly, from the birth 

 to the age of five years. In the last half of the last century, and before 

 the introduction of vaccination, the deaths of children up to five years 

 of age were in the proportion of 50,579 in 100. Since the beginning 

 of the present century, and the introduction of vaccination, the propor- 

 tion of deaths in children of the same age (from the birth to five years 

 old) has been reduced to 37,855 in 100. As vaccination preserves 

 every year a certain number of children from the danger of dying of 

 the small-pox, this diminution of the mortality of children in the first 

 five years of infancy ought to be in part attributed to the action of 

 this preservative, and the effect of which would be considerably greater 

 were the practice to be more generally ado[)ted. But it is far from 

 being as general as it ought to be ; for, in the four departments, from 

 the returns of which we have made out new tables of mortality, the 

 number of children vaccinated since 1811 has only been equal to one 

 half the number born : throughout all France the proportion has not 

 risen above three-fifths ; and in the capital it has only amounted to a 

 seventh. It is extremely difficult to form an idea of the number of 

 children preserved by vaccination ; and, indeed, it never can be exactly 

 determined, from the total want of those tables which make known 

 what was in France before the revolution the amount of mortality, 

 age for age, as well as that caused by the small-pox : without such 

 information, we can only calculate problematically the question which 

 is the object of this memoir. To avoid the vagueness of theories, and 

 the errors resulting from reasoning thereon, it is necessary to confine 

 ourselves to one fact alone, which is now well established, namely, the 

 continual increase of births on the one hand, and the diminution of 

 deaths — the amount of the latter, so far from keeping pace with the 

 population, presents a falling off of 240,000 from what it would be, 

 according to the increased population, had the mortality been so great 

 as formerly. For instance, forty years ago in France, a greater number 

 of deaths took jjlace out of a population of 24,000,000, than there now 

 does out of a population of 30,000,000. In the year 1784, there died 

 in France 818,000 persons; and in the year 1824, the number of 

 deaths was only 760,000, whereas it ought, all proportions kept, to have 

 been a million. Although these advantages — the diminished mortality 

 amongst children, and the increase of population — evidently result in a 

 great measure from the beneficial effects of vaccination, yet it would 

 not be reasoning justly to attribute them exclusively to it ; for it must 

 be recollected that, about the period of its introduction into France, 

 a considerable change had begun to take place in the laws, manners, 

 and institutions of the country, in consequence of which, instruction 

 and civilization have made the most immense progress. It is therefore 



* M. Benoiiton de Chateauneuf, having been requested by the Institute of Fiance 

 to investigate the subject of tlie influence of vaccination on population, has just com- 

 pleted his researches, and presented a memoir to the academy. This request of the 

 Institute evinces the importance they attach to the subject, and the high opinion they 

 entertain of M. Chateauneuf, who is already known to the public by several essays 

 and re»iearclies upon various statistical questions. 



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