802 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xvm. 



I then show the existence of so unreasoning a belief 

 in the importance of vaccination that it leads many of 

 those who have to deal with it officially to concealments 

 and misstatements which are justified by the desire to 

 " save vaccination from reproach." Thus it happened 

 that till 1881 no deaths were regularly recorded as due 

 to vaccination, although an increasing number of such 

 deaths now appear in the Registrar-General's Reports; 



arithmetical calculations, due to a natural incapacity, which quality 

 appears to be a special characteristic of those who advocate vaccina- 

 tion, as the examples I have given sufficiently prove. 



Another glaring case of official misrepresentation occurred in the 

 Royal Commission itself, but was fortunately exposed later on. A 

 medical officer of the Local Government Board gave evidence (First 

 Report, Q. 994) that the Board in 1886 "took some pains to get the 

 figures as to the steamship Preussen," on which small-pox broke out 

 on its arrival in Australia. He made the following statements : (1) 

 There were 312 persons on board this vessel. (2) Four revacciuated, 

 47 vaccinated, 3 who had small-pox, and 15 unvaccinated were 

 attacked 69 in all. (3) The case was adduced to show that 

 " sanitary circumstances have little or no control over small-pox 

 compared with the condition of vaccination or no vaccination." 



This official statement was quoted in the House of Commons as 

 strikingly showing the value of vaccination. But, like so many 

 other official statements, it was all wrong ! The reports of the Mel- 

 bourne and Sydney inspectors have been obtained, and it is found : 



(1) That there were on board this ship 723 passengers and 120 

 crew 843 in all, instead of 312 ; so that the "pains " taken by the 

 Local Government Board to get " the figures " were very ineffectual. 



(2) There were 29 cases among the 235 passengers who disembarked 

 at Melbourne, of whom only 1 was unvaccinated. The crew had all 

 been revaccinated before starting, yet 14 of them were attacked, and 

 one died. All these in addition to the cases given by the Local 

 Government Board. Thus 18 revaccinated persons caught the dis- 

 ease, instead of 4, as first stated, and 69 vaccinated, instead of 48; 

 while among the 15 cases alleged to be unvaccinated three were 

 infants under one year old, and two more between five and ten years. 



(3) The official reports from Melbourne and Sydney stated that the 

 vessel was greatly overcrowded, that the sanitary arrangements were 



