68 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 



course of a year, and it lias fallen to the lot of very few physicians to encounter a 

 single case. Let us take for example the experience of Sir William Jenner, as 

 given by him before the Select Committee on Yaccination in 1871. Sir William 

 (Parliamentary Blue Book, p. 259), after stating that his experience had been gained 

 in three metropolitan hospitals (including the Children's Hospital), and in his 

 private practice as well, goes on to say, in answer to Question 4,508 : 



"I have never seen any evil arising from vaccination except the local troubles. 

 It may sometimes cause inflammation of the arm, but nothing beyond that nothing 

 that the patient did not recover from in a week or two. 



"4,511. Have you ever known of any case of syphilitic infection which you have 

 reason to suppose came from vaccination 1 Never. 



"4,512. Never in your private practice 1 ? Never in my private practice nor in 

 my public practice. 



"4,513. Have you had any case brought before you which would seem to you, 

 with your medical experience, to prove that syphilis has been given by vaccination 1 

 No, I never had one such case. 



"4,514. I suppose that I may judge that you, with your medical knowledge and 

 experience, would think yourself not justified in not recommending every parent to 

 have his child vaccinated early in life 1 I should think myself wicked and really 

 guilty of a crime if I did not so recommend." 



The experience of Mr. Thomas Stone, the medical officer of Christ's Hospital, 

 London, is so remarkable that we think it should be as widely known as possible, 

 and therefore we make no excuse in reproducing a summary of it here. He 

 furnished the committee with a statistical table of the number of deaths from all 

 causes, and the number of deaths from small pox, which occurred in each year in the 

 century included between the years 1751 and 1850. During the first half of 

 the century (1751 to 1800) there was no rule either in respect of inoculation and, 

 of course, not in respect of vaccination, although Mr. Stone thinks it highly probable 

 that many of the children had had small pox either naturally or by inoculation prior 

 to their entrance at the school. During this period the average number of boys in 

 the school was about 550 per annum, and the total deaths amounted to 264, of 

 which 31 were from small pox. Thus it appears that the death-rate from all causes 

 in that period was *96 per cent., and those from small pox '11 per cent. In the half- 

 century included between 1801 and 1850, vaccination was made compulsory on 

 every child entering at Christ's Hospital. In that period the total number of deaths 

 was 235, or -59 per cent., and there has only been one death from small pox in these 

 fifty years, and that took place in 1820. 



We devoutly wish that those who agitate against vaccination would read (and 

 try to understand) the Parliamentary Blue Book from which we have so largely 

 quoted, and in which they will find details of all the solid facts in favour of 

 vaccination, as well as the windy assertions which have been made against it. 

 Those who refuse to have their children vaccinated have, perhaps, a right to do what 

 they like with their own, but they ought to remember that they have a certain duty 

 to perform towards their neighbours ; that every child who has not been vaccinated 

 runs enormously-increased risks of contracting small pox; and that every case of 



