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38
been asserted that mischievous effects have been due to it,
resulting in personal injury and in loss of life. If the
practice has been productive of substantial benefit in limiting
the ravages of small-pox, and mitigating the severity of the
disease, the fact that vaccination may lead in certain cases to
personal injury or death would of course not be a conclusive
argument against its use. Danger of personal injury, and
even of death, attends many of the most common incidents
of life, but experience has shown the risk to be so small that
it is every day disregarded. A railway journey, or a walk in
the streets of any large town certainly involves such risks,
but they are not deemed serious enough to induce anyone
from refraining from that mode of travelling, or from frequenting
the public streets. And to come within the region
of therapeutics, it cannot be denied that a risk attaches in
every case where chloroform is administered; it is nevertheless
constantly resorted to, where the only object is to escape
temporary pain. The admission, therefore, that some risk
attaches to the operation of vaccination, an admission which
must without hesitation be made, does not necessarily afford
an argument of any cogency against the practice, if its
consequences be on the whole beneficial and important; the
risk may be so small that it is reasonable to disregard it.
Everything depends, then, upon the extent and character of
the risk.
The Commission thus sums up this portion of their inquiry
(paragraph 434).
A carcful examination of the facts which have been
brought under our notice has enabled us to arrive at the
conclusion that, although some of the dangers said to attend
vaccination are undoubtedly real and not inconsiderable in
gross amount, yet when considered in relation to the extent
of vaccination work done they are insignificant. There is
reason further to believe that they are diminishing under the
better precautions of the present day, and with the addition
of the further precautions which experience suggests will do
so still more in the future.