252 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xvm. 



that has produced any large and unmistakable effect, 

 thus confirming the experience of the town of Leicester, 

 which will be referred to later on. 



The Commissioners, in their " Final Keport," lay the 

 greatest stress on the decline of small-pox at the begin- 

 ning of the century, which " followed upon the intro- 

 duction of vaccination," both in England, in Western 

 Europe, and in the United States. They declare that 

 " there is no proof that sanitary improvements were the 

 main cause of the decline of small-pox," and that " no 

 evidence is forthcoming to show that during the first 

 quarter of the nineteenth century these improvements 

 differentiated that quarter from the last quarter or half 

 of the preceding century in any way at all comparable 

 to the extent of the differentiation in respect to small- 

 pox " (p. 19, par. 79). To the accuracy of these state- 

 ments I demur in the strongest manner. There is proof 

 that sanitary improvements were the main cause of this 

 decline of small-pox early in the century, viz., that the 

 other zymotic diseases as a whole showed a simultaneous 

 decline to a nearly equal amount, while the general 

 death-rate showed a decline to a much greater amount, 

 both admittedly due to improved hygienic conditions, 

 since there is no other known cause of the diminution of 

 disease; and that the Commissioners altogether ignore 

 these two facts affords, to my mind, a convincing proof 

 of their incapacity to deal with this great statistical ques- 

 tion. And, as to the second point, I maintain that there 

 is ample direct evidence, for those who look for it, of 

 great improvements in the hygienic conditions of Lon- 

 don quite adequate to account for the great decline in 

 the general mortality, and therefore equally adequate to 



