CHAP xvm. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 279 



rapidity of which we have in recent times had no experi- 

 ence? " But Leicester is such a town. Its infants 

 the class which always suffers in the largest numbers 

 are almost wholly un vaccinated, and the great majority 

 of its adults have, according to the bulk of the medical 

 supporters of vaccination, long outgrown the benefits, if 

 any, of infant-vaccination. The disease has been intro- 

 duced into the town twenty times before 1884, and 

 twelve times during the last epidemic (" Final Report," 

 par. 482 and 483). The doctors have been asserting for 

 years that once small-pox comes to Leicester it will run 

 through the town like wild-fire. But instead of that it 

 has been quelled with far less loss than in any of the 

 best vaccinated towns in England. But the Commis- 

 sioners ignore this actual experiment, and soar into the 

 regions of conjecture with, " Who can possibly say? " 

 concluding the paragraph with " a priori reasoning on 

 such a question is of little or no value." Very true. 

 But a posteriori reasoning, from the cases of Leicester, 

 Birmingham, Warrington, Dewsbury, and Gloucester, is 

 of value ; but it is of value as showing the utter useless- 

 ness of vaccination, and it is therefore, perhaps, wise for 

 the professional upholders of vaccination to ignore it. 

 But surely it is not wise, for a presumably impartial Com- 

 mission to ignore it as it is ignored in this Report. 1 



1 Although the Commission make no mention of Mr. Biggs' table 

 and diagrams showing the rise of infant mortality with increased 

 vaccination, and its fall as vaccination diminished, they occupied a 

 whole day cross-examining him upon them, endeavoring by the 

 minutest criticism to diminish their importance. Especially it was 

 urged that the increase or decrease of mortality did not agree in 

 detail with the increase or decrease of vaccination, forgetting that 

 there are numerous causes contributing to all variations of depth- 



