SUPPLEMENTARY APPENDIX. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE FINAL REPORT OF THE ROYAL 

 VACCINATION COMMISSION. 



The final Report of the Royal Commission ito 'inquire into the 

 subject of Vaccination was pubHshed on f September 18th, 1896.* 

 The author desires to gratefully acknowledge the permission granted 

 him, by the Controller of Her Majesty's j Stationery Office, to make 

 extracts bearing more especially on the history and pathologj' of 

 protective inoculation and the prevention of small-pox. The reader 

 is recommended by the author to study the whole of the report. 



History of Small-Pox. 1; 



The early history of small-pox, like that of many similar diseases, is 

 obscure, is subject to much debate, and, save perhaps on one point, is of 

 antiquarian interest only. 



The records of the eighteenth century show that the disease was very 

 prevalent in western Europe during the whole of that century. The 

 records of the seventeenth century also show that small-pox was a very 

 common disease during that century : this is especially the case as regards 

 the latter half of the century. The statistics which exist with respect to 

 Geneva, and various scattered statements, further show that smaU-pox 

 was a well-known disease in the sixteenth century ; but, except for the 

 records which are said to exist of severe epidemics in Iceland taking 

 place as early as 1241, as we go further back the evidence as to the 

 existence of the disease becomes less and less clear, and indeed debate- 

 able, depending as it does largely on the interpretation of incidental 



* The report may be obtained either directly, or through any bookseller, 

 from Eyre & Spottiswoode, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.G., and 32, 

 Abingdon Street, Westminster, S.W. ; or John Menzies & Co., 12, Hanover 

 Street, Edinburgh, and 90, West Nile Street, Glasgow ; or Hodges, Figgis & 

 Co., Limited, 104, Grafton Street, Dublin. 



t The headings to the extracts from the Report of the Commission are mine. 

 — E. M. C. 



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