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Analyses of Books. 
2 23 
iheir own want of faith in the prescription which they assert 
afiords complete security from smallpox.” 
To these brave words we may reply that the upholders of 
compulsory vaccination, when an epidemic of smallpox breaks 
put, are liable to be taxed ad libitum, by the Asylum’s Board to 
isolate the sick and to prevent the further spread of the infection. 
Further, we may take the somewhat analogous case of conflagra- 
tion, which the author himself elsewhere brings forward. There 
aie certain methods by which wood, paper, or textile goods can 
be rendered uninflammable. If by accident there falls upon such 
protected material a lighted match, or a spark of fire, they do 
not become ignited. But if these prepared matters are thrown 
into a furnace, or heaped up with unprotected wood, &c., and a 
light is applied to the latter, the protection proves insufficient. 
Just so the vaccinated person may object to living in contact 
with an unvaccinated multitude who form a pabulum for the 
epidemic. 
Mr. White seems to us in error when he argues that vaccina- 
tion is worthless because the exaggerated anticipations of its 
early promoters have been refuted by fads. No one now con- 
tends, as was done by the friends of Jenner, that vaccination 
renders the subjeCt for ever insusceptible of smallpox. Unless 
that view had been abandoned, whence the necessity for re- 
vaccination ? But it is obvious that a degree of protection which 
falls far short of life-long immunity may yet be of very consider- 
able value. 
In answer to the assertion that vaccination is useless, we may 
ask when and where it has ever had a fair trial ? or, in other 
words, when and where has an entirely vaccinated community 
existed ? If it can be shown that smallpox is capable of making 
its way into such a community, we will at once acknowledge that 
the “ Jennerian rite ” is ineffectual. In the meantime we submit 
that the best means of bringing the question to this ultimate or 
crucial test would be the cessation, or at least the suspension, of 
the agitation. 
As regards the communication of other diseases by vaccina- 
tion, whilst we admit that it has actually taken place, we must 
urge the utter want of proof that the great increase, e.g., of 
infantile syphilis complained of is exclusively, or even mainly, to 
be traced to this cause. Nor should it be forgotten that the 
Anti-Vaccinationists, if not entirely identified with the de- 
fenders of syphilis, are at least linked with them in very close 
alliance. 
The imputation that vaccination is merely upheld by the faculty 
from interested motives is repeatedly conveyed throughout this 
work: now without asserting that medical men may not have their 
judgment warped by self-interest, — just as it may be ffie case 
with political agitators, — we must remember that the emolument 
derived from vaccination is so small that, if it has any effeCt at 
