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154
that the taking away of lymph on the eighth day of itself causes
some risk of inflammation of the arm. This, however, has not
been confirmed by any evidence before us, and it is probable that
it is almost wholly an imaginary danger.
The evidence given in reference to cases in which one or
other of the maladies classed as Scrofula has been supposed to
have had its origin in vaccination, has usually been of a very
vague and inconclusive character. Scrofula is a disease chiefly
of childhood; and, being very common, there is nothing to cause
surprise in the fact that occasionally children may show its presence
in a manner likely to excite suspicion that it was due to vaccination.
It may, indeed, easily be the fact that, vaccination, in
common with Chicken-Pox, Measles, Small-Pox, and other
specific Fevers, does occasionally serve as an exciting cause of a
scrofulous outbreak. It may, however, not unreasonably be
suspected that in all such cases a latent predisposition was already
present. The chain of causation is so complicated that it is
impossible in isolated cases to arrive at any satisfactory conclusions.
To attempt any analysis of the evidence on this
subject comprised in Appendix IX. and the various Reports which
we have already issued would serve no useful purpose. It must
be sufficient to say that after careful consideration of the whole
evidence there appears to be no reason whatever to believe that
the practice of vaccination tends in any material degree to increase
the prevalence of this class of disorders.
Precisely the same arguments as those just used are applicable
to the chronic skin diseases, chiefly of the type of Eczema,
which are so often, by the public, attributed to vaccination. Of
these numerous supposed instances have been brought before us
and the medical men whose assistance we have had. It is to be
freely admitted that vaccinia, like varicella, does occasionally
cause an irritable condition of the skin which may last long, but
it is exceedingly improbable that it is responsible for any substantial
increase in the number of chronic skin diseases in children.