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accounted for between the years 1872 to 1884 had only ranged
from 9.3 of the births in 1874 to 5.7 in 1881, the average for those
13 years being but 7.4.
Our attention has been called to the fact that the proportion
of vaccinated patients admitted to the Highgate Small-Pox
Hospital has often been as high as 94 or 95 per cent. And it has
been suggested that this indicates an attack-rate in London in the
class of vaccinated persons quite as high as that prevailing in the
case of the unvaccinated. The experience at the Highgate
Hospital certainly differs greatly from that of either Homerton or
Fulham. The test was a larger one in point of number at the
two latter hospitals than at the former. Moreover, the fact
mentioned in the preceding paragraph must be borne in mind In
London the absence of vaccination is to found chiefly in the poorer
classes of the population. The inmates of the Highgate Hospital
belonged in part to a more prosperous class. In that class the
cases of non-vaccination would be very rare. Moreover, those
who were admitted by contract with the Guardians of different
Unions came from areas outside London. It will not do, therefore,
to estimate what was the proportion of vaccinated and
unvaccinated persons in the population of London when
considering whether the unvaccinated contributed more than their
share of the Inmates of the Highgate Hospital.
We think, taking it all together, that the evidence bearing
upon the question whether the vaccinated are less liable to be
attacked by Small-Pox than the unvaccinated, points to two
conclusions; first, that there is, taking all ages together, less
liability to attack among the vaccinated than among the unvaccinated,
and next, that the advantage in this respect enjoyed
by vaccinated children under 10 years of age is greatly in excess
of that enjoyed at a more advanced period of life.
It is alleged that vaccination not only diminishes the risk
of attack by small-pox and the fatality of that disease, but that it