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easily recognised. They are alike in being attended by affections
of the skin and mucous membranes, and exceptionally by disease
of the bones, eyes, and other parts, but in all these it is a question
of resemblance and not of identity with which we have to deal.
Among the 279 deaths referred to vaccination as a cause
during the period 1886-1891, five were attributed to Syphilis.
Except in cases where an inquest is held, these records are based
simply on the certificate given by the medical attendant who certified
the cause of death, but who had not necessarily attended
the patient during the course of illness which terminated fatally.
Practically all the deaths referred to vaccination as a cause during
the years 1889, 1890, and 1891, and some of those so referred
during the last two months of the year 1888, have been investigated
and reported upon by Medical Inspectors of the Local
Government Board. It appears that all the five cases attributed
to Syphilis after vaccination, during the longer period 1886-1891,
were among the cases so reported upon. We have studied these
reports and we are satisfied that in none of the five cases is there
sufficient evidence to show that the death resulted from Syphilis
caused by vaccination. One of them was the Leeds case, to
which we shall refer immediately. As regards the others, with
perhaps one exception, there is abundant reason for believing
that they were not cases of Syphilis at all.
But besides these five deaths, there were amongst those
alleged or suggested to have been connected with vaccination,
which were investigated and reported upon by Medical Inspectors
of the Local Government Board, eight cases in which, in the
course of the investigation, some suspicion of Syphilis was raised
in connexion with the illness which terminated fatally. In none
of these eight cases, however, is there evidence of any value to
show that Syphilis was communicated by vaccination.
Two or three other isolated cases have been brought to our
notice which witnesses believed to be examples of this occurrence,
but in none of them were the facts such as in our opinion to