458 Chapter XV 



[480] of a century ago (1874), and statistical information has been 

 collected with great care. With the exception of a slight increase 

 during the period from 1879 to 1885 small-pox has diminished 

 progressively since the proclamation of the new law, and has become 

 so rare that in 1897 there were only 5 fatal cases in the whole German 

 Empire. In the space of 13 years (18861898), in a population 

 which embraces two-fifths of the total inhabitants of the German 

 Empire, there were altogether five fatal cases of small-pox occurring 

 in persons who had been successfully revaccinated. Moreover, the 

 majority of the cases of small-pox occurred in the maritime towns 

 or in the vicinity of the frontier of the Russian Empire. 



Specially favourable results have been obtained in the German 

 army, in which, even before the law of 1874, vaccination was com- 

 pulsory. In 25 years there occurred in the Prussian army only two 

 cases of death from small-pox. In summing up the statistical data 

 on vaccination Kubler 1 , from whom we have borrowed the above 

 statements, expresses himself as follows : " The history of small-pox 

 must in all cases register the fact that this dreaded disease has, as 

 the result of general vaccination, not only become rare in the German 

 Empire but that it has almost completely disappeared" (p. 365). 

 The example of Germany encouraged several other countries to 

 introduce compulsory vaccination, and Roumania, Hungary, and 

 Italy have in turn promulgated similar laws. Here also it was not 

 long before satisfactory results were obtained. In Italy especially the 

 mortality from small-pox has largely decreased in recent years. 



In England, where compulsory vaccination was introduced some 

 time ago, it was abolished in 1898. As the opposition of the 

 people became more manifest, the law, although it continued to 

 exist formally, was carried out very imperfectly. The number of 

 unvaccinated children had gradually increased in such a fashion that 

 in London itself in 1897 1898 it attained the proportion of 24'9 %, 

 whilst in certain provincial districts it has oscillated between 78'4 

 and 86'4/o- Under these conditions, the abolition of the law of 

 compulsory vaccination was only the legal sanction of an accom- 

 plished fact. According to the details which have been supplied to 

 me by the Jenner Institute in London (which has taken in hand the 



[481] distribution of vaccine), vaccinations since they are no longer com- 

 pulsory have become more frequent in England, and the quantity 



1 " Die Geschichte der Pocken und der Impfung," von Coler's Bibliothek, Berlin, 

 1901. 



