354 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



Crime, proved by the Official Evidence in the Reports of the 

 Royal Commission." This was included 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 dis- 

 tant 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 pretence 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 Government. If I 

 am converted, it will be wholly yoitr 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 quite another matter, and I may 

 give the remainder further on. 



