EFFECT OF VACCINATION 



419 



ages much less than among the unvaccinated, and that this difference is very striking 

 and complete in children because of their recent vaccination. 



Those who advocate vaccination and revaccination as protective in a greater or 

 lesser degree against small-pox do so upon three main grounds. In the first place, 

 they claim that, other things being equal, persons who have been vaccinated (especi- 

 ally within ten years) are less liable to attack from smaU-pox. This is abundantly 

 established by the figures quoted above. In the second place, they claim that 

 persons who have been vaccinated, and yet, on account of their greater number in 

 the population, and, therefore, their consequent greater probability of infection, are 

 attacked by small-pox, do not die so readHy from the disease as those who have not 

 been vaccinated. This claim also is more than proved in the returns quoted above. 

 In the third place, they claim that the protection afforded by vaccination depends 

 upon the efficiency of the vaccination. This may be measured, as is frequently done, 

 by the number of marks, but it is more satisfactorily measured by area of vaccination 

 mark (i.«. area of cicatrix). The return of the Metropolitan Asylums Board respect- 

 ing this point is given below, and a study of it wiU amply prove the daim made. 



Pasteur's Treatment of Rabies 



Eabies is a disease affecting dogs (in Western Europe)* and 

 wolves (in Eussia), and can be transmitted to other animals (chiefly 

 mammals and especially the Carnivora) and man. Infection may 

 be conveyed from the rabid animal by biting (which is the most 

 frequent mode), by licking raw surfaces, by suckling, and possibly 

 by the ingestion by animals of the flesh of other animals which have 

 died from the disease. 



* In the decennium 1894-1903, 1555 dogs in Great Britain were reported as suffer- 

 ing from rabies, of which only 29 cases occurred during the last five years. The 

 marked decline in recent years is attributed to the effects of the muzzling order and 

 stricter inspection of ownerless vagrant dogs. See also Year-Booh of Department of 

 Agriculture, U.S.A., 1900. 



