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214
in evidence that the epidemic of 1871-73 was as severe and widespread
as any experienced during this century, and that in the
course of this epidemic " a very large proportion of the total smallpox
deaths of adults was amongst people who had at some time
or another been vaccinated."
It would seem, therefore, that there is a certain amount of
discrepancy at the present day between the theory on which
the compulsory law is based and the actual state both of fact and
opinion.
Under these circumstances it has been suggested to us that
the obvious remedy is to amend the law by making re-vaccination
compulsory. But though such a course might receive a good deal of
support from medical opinion, the evidence we have as to the
condition of public feeling shows that it would be impracticable.
This condition of things can hardly be considered satisfacfactory.
The law, as it stands, enforces, under penalty of fine or
imprisonment, a practice once thought to be an effectual preventive
of epidemics, and a practical safeguard for every individual
vaccinated. But this prescription of the law is now generally
recognised as insufficient, unless primary vaccination be supplemented
by secondary or repeated vaccination. The question thus
arises whether it is just or expedient to enforce at the cost of
much local discontent a preventive which does not secure the end
proposed, and which confessedly cannot now be supplemented by
the only measures which, according to the medical opinions
quoted, could make it effective.
In support of a continuance and reinforcement of the present
law it is urged that if primary vaccination be not an infallible
preventive, at least it always lessens the severity of the disease,
if caught, and diminishes the mortality. It is, however, doubtful
whether such results as these would have been held to justify
compulsion when it was first proposed. And we cannot shut our
eyes to the fact that this shifting of the ground of compulsion has