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sidering. The difference of fatality in the two classes is, in our
opinion, far too great to be thus accounted for, and the suggested
explanation does not explain all the phenomena. We should
think it much more reasonable to conclude that the remarkable
difference of fatality was due to vaccination, even if it were only
in that respect that the two classes differed in their relation to
Small-pox. But this is not the case. There are other points of
distinction between the two classes. We are about to discuss the
differences they exhibit both in liability to be attacked by SmallPox
and in the type of the disease from which they suffer. And
the bearing of these facts upon the question whether the smaller
fatality in the vaccinated class is due to vaccination, which is
obviously important, will afterwards be considered.
Another explanation given of the greater fatality which
characterises the unvaccinated class has been that, inasmuch as
the unvaccinated class includes those whose vaccination has been
postponed for medical reasons, there would be amongst its number
a larger proportion of children of delicate constitution who would
on that account be more likely to succumb to an illness. With
reference to this argument, it is to be observed in the first place
that the number of those whose vaccination is postponed for
medical reasons is but small, and in the next place that the
postponement by no means necessarily shows that the child is of
a delicate constitution. It often results from the presence of some
ailment to which young children are subject, and which affects
the strong no less than the weak. But besides this it must be
remembered that those whose vaccination is postponed are
frequently vaccinated at a later period, and thus pass from the
class of the unvaccinated to that of the vaccinated. Giving due
weight to these considerations, we find it impossible to believe
that the cause suggested can account to any material extent for
the difference to which we have been adverting between the
fatality among chijdren under 10, observed in the classes of
vaccinated and unvaccinated. It must always be borne in mind
that the difference is not a narrow one, it is not measured by a