256 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xvm. 



three to two. But even Scotland had a much lower 

 small-pox mortality than England, the proportions being 

 as folloAvs for the three years which included the epi- 

 demic of 1871-73: 



Iivland. 800 per million in the three years. 

 Scotland, 1450 per million in the three years. 

 England, 2000 per million in the three years. 



Now the Royal Commissioners make no remark what- 

 ever on these very suggestive facts, and they have ar- 

 ranged the information in tables in such a way as to ren- 

 der it very difficult to discover them; and this is another 

 proof of their incapacity to deal with statistical ques- 

 tions. They seem to be unable to look at small-pox from 

 any other point of view than that of the vaccinationists, 

 and thus miss the essential features of the evidence they 

 have before them.. Every statistician knows the enor- 

 mous value of the representation of tabular statistics by 

 means of diagrammatic curves. It is the only way by 

 which in many cases the real teaching of statistics can be 

 detected. An enormous number of such diagrams, more 

 or less instructive and complete, were presented to them, 

 and, at great cost, are printed in the Reports; but I can- 

 not find that, in their " Final Report/' they have made 

 any adequate use of them, or have once referred to them, 

 and thus it is that they have overlooked so many of the 

 most vital teachings of the huge mass of figures with 

 which they had to deal. 



It is one of the most certain of facts relating to sani- 

 tation that comparative density of population affects 

 disease, and especially the zymotic diseases, more than 

 any other factor that can be ascertained. It is mainly 

 a case of purity of the air, and consequent purification of 



