CHAPTER XXXIX 



THE ANTI-VACCINATION CRUSADE 



I was brought up to believe that vaccination was a scientific 

 procedure, and that Jenner was one of the great benefactors 

 of mankind. I was vaccinated in infancy, and before going 

 to the Amazon I was persuaded to be vaccinated again. My 

 children were duly vaccinated, and I never had the slightest 

 doubt of the value of the operation — taking everything on 

 trust without any inquiry whatever — till about 1875-80, when 

 I first heard that there were anti-vaccinators, and read some 

 articles on the subject. These did not much impress me, as 

 I could not believe so many eminent men could be mistaken 

 on such an important matter. But a little later I met Mr. 

 William Tebb, and through him was introduced to some of 

 the more important statistical facts bearing upon the subject. 

 Some of these I was able to test by reference to the original 

 authorities, and also to the various Reports of the Registrar- 

 General, Dr. Farr's evidence as to the diminution of small- 

 pox before Jenner's time, and the extraordinary misstatements 

 of the supporters of vaccination. Mr. Tebb supplied me with 

 a good deal of anti-vaccination literature, especially with 

 " Pierce's Vital Statistics," the tables in which satisfied me 

 that the claims for vaccination were enormously exaggerated, 

 if not altogether fallacious. I also now learnt for the first 

 time that vaccination itself produced a disease, which was 

 often injurious to health and sometimes fatal to life, and I 

 also found to my astonishment that even Herbert Spencer 

 had long ago pointed out that the first compulsory Vaccina- 

 tion Act had led to an increase of smallpox. I then began 

 to study the Reports of the Registrar-General myself, and to 



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