242 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xvm. 



of the proved untrustworthiness of the statistics, wholly 

 furnished by men who are prejudiced in favor of vacci- 

 nation (as instanced by the declaration of Dr. Gayton, 

 that when the eruption is so severe as on the third day to 

 hide the vaccination marks, it affords prima facie evi- 

 dence of non-vaccination, 2d Report, Q. 1790), we are 

 fully justified in rejecting all arguments in favor of vac- 

 cination supported by such fallacious evidence. And 

 this is the more rational course to be adopted by all un- 

 prejudiced enquirers, because, as I shall now proceed to 

 show, there is an abundance of facts of a more accurate 

 and more satisfactory nature by which to test the 

 question. 1 



One more point may be referred to before quitting 

 this part of the subject, which is that the more recent 

 official hospital-statistics themselves afford a demonstra- 

 tion of the non-protective influence of vaccination, and 

 thus serve as a complete refutation of the conclusions 

 drawn from the statistics we have just been dealing with. 

 Dr. Munk stated before the Hospital Commission that 

 the percentage of vaccinated patients in the London 

 small-pox hospital had increased from 40 per cent, in 

 1838 to 94 T 6 F per cent. in 1879 (3d Report of Royal Com- 

 mission, Q. 9090. This evidence was given in 1882; 

 but Mr. Wheeler stated that, according to the Reports 

 of the Highgate hospital, the vaccinated patients had 



1 The same view is taken even by some advocates of vaccination in 

 Germany. In an account of the German " Commission for the Con- 

 sideration of the Vaccination Question " in the British Medical Jour- 

 nal, August 29, 1865 (p. 408), we find it stated: " In the view of Dr. 

 Koch, no other statistical material than the mortality from small-pox 

 can be relied upon; questions as to the vaccinated or unvaccinated 

 condition of the patient leaving too much room for error." 



