( 158 ) 
[March, 
ANALYSES OF BOOKS. 
Forty-five Years of Registration Statistics, f 
to be both Useless and Dangerous. By A. R. Wallace, 
LL.D. London : E. W. Allen. 
In this little work Mr. Wallace attempts to prove, by official 
statistics, the four following propositions . 
1 “ That during the forty-five years of the registration of 
deaths and their causes smallpox mortality has very 
slightly diminished, while an exceedingly severe small- 
pox epidemic occurred within the last twelve years of 
2 “ That there is no evidence to show that the slight decrease 
of smallpox mortality is due to vaccination. 
3 . “ That the severity of smallpox as a disease has not been 
mitigated by vaccination. , 
a “ That several inoculable diseases have increased to an 
4 ' alarming extent, coincidently with enforced vacci- 
nation.” 
It must be admitted by all observers that we are far, very far, 
from having got rid of smallpox, as at the introduction of vacci- 
natTon it wfs promised and hoped. The disease still clings to 
us in spite alike of vaccination and of samtaiy reforms. But 
the question is, whether this failure is due to the inefficiency of 
the supposed safeguard or to its very frequent neglect ? The 
ficmres P here quoted show that, according to Dr. Seaton s evidence 
before a Parliamentary Committee in the year 1871, the average 
vaccinations were only 49'46 per cent of the births. So that 
about half the infants born escaped vaccination. This was 
course after the introduction of the present law, which came into 
force in 1867. It may be asked, What is the present proportion 
Tudffing from the curve showing “ efficient vaccination, in 1 
author’s second diagram, a still larger number of infants novs 
ar The V mithor declares that “ there has not been any gradual ex- 
tension of the practice of vaccination, but, so fai as official 
records go, just the reverse.” We are well aware that the rela- 
tive numbers of infants vaccinated and unvaccinated do not 
show the proportion of the vaccinated population. Still it is 
evident that a very considerable part of the nation is unvacci- 
nated, and the defenders of the pradhce are— as far as this pait 
