THE ANTI-VACCINATION CRUSADE 371 



in the second part of my " Wonderful Century," published in 

 June, 1898, and was also published separately in the pamphlet 

 form, as it continues to be; and I feel sure that the time is 

 not far distant when this will be held to be one of the most 

 important and most truly scientific of my works. 



The great difficulty is to get it read. The subject is 

 extremely unpopular; yet as presented by Mr. William White 

 in his " Story of a Great Delusion," it is seen to be at once 

 a comedy and a tragedy. The historian of epidemic diseases, 

 Dr. C. Creighton, the man who best knows the whole subject, 

 and should be held to be the greatest living authority upon 

 it, terms vaccination " a grotesque delusion." To inoculate a 

 healthy child (or adult) with an animal disease, under the 

 pretense of protecting it from another disease, the risk of 

 having which is not one in a thousand, would, if now proposed 

 for the first time, be so repugnant to every principle of sane 

 medicine, as well as to common sense, that its proposer would 

 be held to be a madman. The publication of this essay in 

 the " Wonderful Century " (as one of the " failures ") did lead 

 to its being read by a considerable number of persons, and, 

 as I know, of making many converts. With the hope of 

 getting it read by Sir John Gorst, I sent a copy of my pamphlet 

 to Mr. F. W. H. Myers, asking him to be so good as to read it 

 carefully. In reply he wrote, " I will read your pamphlet most 

 carefully; will write and tell you how it affects me; and will, 

 in any case, send it on with your letter and a letter of my own 

 to Sir John Gorst, whom I know well, and whom I agree with 

 you in regarding as the most accessible member of the Gov- 

 ernment. If I am converted, it will be wholly your doing. I 

 have read much on the subject — Creighton, etc., and am at 

 present strongly pro-vaccination ; at the same time, there is 

 no one by whom I would more willingly be converted than 

 yourself." 



The letter then goes on to quote another matter, and I may 

 give the remainder further on. 



Two days later he wrote me again : — 



" I can see no answer to your statistics and arguments. 

 Of course I should like to see what the doctors can say in 



