JULY 281 



small-pox which I submit to the consideration of these crusaders. 

 The tale reaches me from far Venezuela, and I believe the facts to 

 be accurately stated, although I cannot guarantee the details, which 

 I have no opportunity of verifying. In the course of a recent 

 epidemic the small-pox struck the unvaccinated, or very slightly 

 vaccinated, town of Valencia, whereof the population is estimated 

 at 35,000. Out of this population, speaking roughly, 8,000 were 

 treated at the small-pox hospitals, about 4,000 of whom died. 

 These numbers, however, do not include those treated in private 

 houses, who were many. Also everyone who could escape from the 

 place did so, till at length it became as a city of the dead ; so that 

 the percentage of cases to population must have been much larger 

 than the figures quoted above would suggest, especially as no 

 precautionary measures were taken, at any rate before the out- 

 break. By this time the authorities at the capital, Caracas, had 

 become alarmed, and set to work to do their best to enforce con- 

 pulsory vaccination of its inhabitants. In due course the plague 

 fell upon that city also, which has a population estimated at 80,000, 

 as against 35,000 at Valencia. Here, however, after the com- 

 pulsory vaccination, the results were very different, for (not 

 counting the cases treated in private houses, for which no figures 

 are available) the patients numbered only about 400, a curious con- 

 trast to the 8,000 reported at Valencia. As the hygienic condi- 

 tions of the two towns are said to be practically the same, these 

 figures seem to be remarkable. 1 



I have been very much amused to-day watching the behaviour 

 of a game-cock which, for dynastic reasons, has been separated 

 from his harem and removed out of the Horse-yard Buildings to All 



1 It is right to add that in an article printed in a London journal of anti- 

 vaccination views, to which the above passage provides a text, it is stated that 

 according to a pamphlet published at Valencia by Pe-iro Izaquirre, the record 

 in the epidemic of 1898 amounts to 5,221 cases, with 1,515 deaths at Valencia. 

 I know not for certain which set of figures is actually or approximately cor- 

 rect ; but on the lower basis even a percentage of about 29 per cent s>eems suffi- 

 ciently alarming. 

 June 1899. 



