374 SCIENCE OF HOME AND COMMUNITY 



among people who have not been vaccinated is ten times as 

 great as among those who have been vaccinated. 



In five European countries in which vaccination is com- 

 pulsory, the average number of deaths from smallpox per 

 million of population is five ; while in six European countries 

 that do not have compulsory vaccination, the average death 

 rate is four hundred, or eighty times as high. 



When vaccination has been made compulsory in a country, 

 the effect on the death rate has been very marked at once. 

 In 1874 Germany passed a compulsory vaccination law. 

 As a result, the average number of deaths from smallpox for 

 the ten years following was only two per 100,000 population, 

 while for the ten preceding years it had been seventy-one. 

 This meant a yearly saving of about twenty-five thousand 

 lives, or of about two hundred and fifty thousand for those 

 ten years in that country alone. During that same period 

 of ten years, the death rate in the neighboring country of 

 Austria, where vaccination was not compulsory, was sixty-two 

 per hundred thousand of population as compared with two in 

 Germany where it was compulsory. In Sweden, the rate of 

 cases of smallpox per million inhabitants was two thousand 

 before vaccination ; it fell to five hundred when it was made 

 optional, and to five when it was made compulsory. 



Since the United States has taken charge of the Philippine 

 Islands, vaccination has been introduced and as a result there 

 has been a remarkable decrease in the number of deaths from . 

 smallpox. In the year 1897 about 40,000 people in the islands 

 died of smallpox. In 1907, after vaccination had been intro- 

 duced, there were only 304 deaths, or less than i per cent as 

 many as before vaccination. 



One sometimes hears objections raised against compulsory 

 vaccination, because occasionally it has been followed by 

 serious results. But in most of those cases which have 

 been carefully investigated, it was found that the ill effects 

 were not due directly to the vaccine, but to bacteria which 





