288 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xvin. 



This slurring over the damning evidence of the absolute 

 inutility of the most thorough vaccination possible, 

 afforded by the Army and Navy, is sufficient of itself to 

 condemn the whole " Final Report " of the majority of 

 the Commissioners. It proves that they were either 

 unable or unwilling to analyze carefully the vast mass 

 of evidence brought before them, to separate mere be- 

 liefs and opinions from facts, and to discriminate be- 

 tween the statistics which represented those great 

 " masses of national experience " to which Sir John 

 Simon himself has appealed for a final verdict, and those 

 of a more partial kind, which may be vitiated by the 

 prepossessions of those who registered the facts. That 

 they have not done this, but without any careful exami- 

 nation or comparison have declared that revaccinated 

 communities have " exceptional advantages " which, as 

 a matter of fact, the Report itself shows they have not, 

 utterly discredits all their conclusions, and renders this 

 " Final Report " not only valueless but misleading. 



Y. 



BEFORE proceeding to sum up the broad statistical case 

 against vaccination, it may be well here to point out 

 some of the misconceptions, erroneous statements, vague 

 opinions, and conclusions which are opposed to the evi- 

 dence, which abound in this feeble Report. 



And first, we have the repetition of an oft-corrected 

 and obviously erroneous statement as to the absolute 



shows to what lengths the Commissioners would go to support vac- 

 cination when such unverified verbal statements are accepted in their 

 " Final Report." 



