284 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 



CHAP. XVIII. 



pared over a long series of years, is alone almost 

 conclusive; and we ask with amazement Why did not 

 the Commissioners make some such comparison as this, 

 and not allow the public to be deceived by the grossly 

 misleading statements of the medical witnesses and offi- 

 cial apologists for a huge imposture ? For here we have, 

 on one side, a population which the official witnesses de- 

 clare to be as well vaccinated and revaccinated as it is 

 possible to make it, and which has all the protection that 

 can be given by vaccination. It is a population which, 

 we are officially assured, can live in the midst of the con- 

 tagion of severe small-pox and not suffer from the dis- 

 ease " in any appreciable degree." And on comparing 

 this population of over 200,000 men, thus thoroughly 

 protected and medically cared for, with the poorest and 

 least cared for portion of our country a portion which 

 the official witness regarding it declared to be badly vac- 

 cinated, while no amount of revaccination was even re- 

 ferred to we find the less vaccinated and less cared for 

 community to have actually a much lower small-pox 

 mortality than the Navy, and the same as that of the two 

 forces combined. The only possible objections that can 

 be taken, or that were suggested during the examination 

 of the witnesses are, that during the early portion of the 

 period, the Navy was not ivlwlly and absolutely revacci- 

 nated; and secondly, that troops abroad, and especially 

 in India and Egypt, are more frequently subjected to 



cent., than the mean above given; and in the case of the Army for 

 the same years, about one per cent. more. For Ireland the calcula- 

 tion has been accurately made by means of the yearly populations 

 given at p. 37 of the " Final Report," but for the Army and Navy, 

 materials for the whole period included in the diagrams are not avail- 

 able in any of the Reports. 



