324 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xvm. 



deaths of the whole eighteenth century, but those of the 

 last two decades before the publication of Jenner's 

 " Inquiry/ 7 were 1751 and 1786, showing a decided fall. 

 This, however, may pass. But when we come to the 

 Report for 1826 we find the following: " But when we 

 reflect that before the introduction of vaccination the 

 average number of deaths from small-pox within the 

 Bills of Mortality was annually about 4000, no stronger 

 argument can reasonably be demanded in favor of the 

 value of this important discovery." 



This monstrous figure was repeated in 1834, appar- 

 ently quite forgetting the correct figure for the whole 

 century given in 1818, and also the fact that the small- 

 pox deaths recorded in the London Bills of Mortality in 

 any year of the century never reached 4000. But worse 

 is to come; for in 1836 we have the following statement: 

 " The annual loss of life by small-pox in the Metropolis, 

 and within the Bills of Mortality only, before vaccina- 

 tion was established, exceeded 5000, whereas in the 

 course of last year only 300 died of the distemper." 

 And in the Report for 1838 this gross error is repeated; 

 while in the next year (1839) the conclusion is drawn 

 " that 4000 lives are saved every year in London since 

 vaccination so largely superseded variolation." : 



The Board of the National Vaccine Establishment 

 consisted of the President and four Censors of the Royal 

 College of Physicians, and the Master and two senior 



1 These extracts from the Reports are given by Mr. White in his 

 " Story of a Great Delusion." The actual deaths from smallpox dur- 

 ing the last century are given in the Second Report of the Royal 

 Commission, p. 290. The extracts have been verified at the British 

 Museum by my friend Dr. Scott Tebb, and are verbally accurate. 



