294 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xvm. 



not upon the statistical evidence at all, but upon the 

 impressions and beliefs of the various medical officials 

 they examined, who almost all assumed the protection 

 as an already established fact. Such was the case of the 

 army-surgeon who declared that the deaths were much 

 fewer than they would have been without revaccination ; 

 and who, on being asked why he believed so, answered 

 that it was from reading of the small-pox mortality in 

 pre-vaccination times! He had made no comparisons, 

 and had no figures to adduce. It was his opinion, and 

 that of the other medical officers, that it was so. And 

 the Commissioners apparently had always held the same 

 opinions, which, being confirmed by the opinions of 

 other official witnesses, they concluded that comparisons 

 of the revaccinated Army and Navy with ordinary 

 death-rates were as unnecessary as they would certainly 

 have been puzzling to them. Hence " appears " in place 

 of " is " or " does "; and their seven conclusions as to the 

 value and protective-ness of vaccination all under the 

 heading " We think," not " We are convinced," or " It 

 has been proved to us," or " The statistics of the Army 

 and Navy, of Ireland, of Leicester and of many other 

 places, demonstrate the ["protectiveness" or " inu- 

 tility " as the case may be] of vaccination." I trust 

 that I have now convinced my readers that the best evi- 

 dence the evidence to which Sir John Simon and Dr. 

 Guy have appealed DEMONSTRATES complete INUTILITY, 

 as against what " appears " to the Commissioners and 

 what they " think." 



One other matter must be referred to before taking 

 leave of the Commissioners. I have already shown how 

 completely they ignore the elaborate and valuable evi- 





