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36
Erysipelas.
With regard to this disease, the Commission came to the
conclusion that " the evidence is, in our opinion, conclusive to show
that there has not been during the last 40 years any material
increase of deaths from erysipelas owing to vaccination."
Tabes Mesenterica and Scrofula.
Passing on to tabes mesenterica and scrofula, we find that the
mortality from these diseases, as returned to the RegistrarGeneral,
shows an increase during the last 40 years. On the
other hand, the mortality from allied diseases, such as hydrocephalus
and phthisis shows a decrease. Some part, and it is
impossible to say how much, of this increased mortality in the
case of the two first-named diseases, and of the decrease in the
two last named, is apparent only and not real, and results no
doubt from better diagnosis leading to a transfer of cases from
one class to another. On this point again it is useful to resort
to the experience of Leicester. The increase of deaths under
one year from tabes mesenterica and scrofula per million births
in Leicester during the years 1883-87, as compared with the
years 1863-67, was 25.8 per cent. A similar comparison for
England and Wales shows a percentage of 26.8 per cent.
We do not find any facts to warrant the assertion that the
increased mortality from tabes mesenterica and scrofula, or any
part of it, was due to vaccination.
Pyemia, Bronchitis. Diarrhoea, and Skin Diseases.
Without encumbering our report with the details relating to
pyaemia, bronchitis, diarrhoea, and skin diseases, which are all
said to have increased owing to the mischievous influence of
vaccination, we may confidently say that there is no evidence to
justify the statement.
Upon the whole, then, we think that the evidence is overwhelming
to show that, in the case of some of the diseases referred
to, vaccination cannot have produced any effect upon the mortality
from them, and that it has not in the case of any one of them
increased the mortality to a substantial, we might even say an
appreciable, extent.
Personal injury or death, resulting from Vaccination.
When we pass to a consideration of the evidence that personal
injury or death has resulted from vaccination, the questions which
present themselves do not admit of the same simple solution as
those with which we have just been dealing. The cause of death,
or the nature of an illness, is sometimes obscure, and even if its
nature be known, it may be difficult to ascertain with certainty
what has been its origin. We shall have to make further reference
presently to the difficulties which must needs be encountered in
the investigation upon which we are engaged. As we have
already stated, it is not open to doubt that there have been cases
in which injury and death have resulted from vaccination.
We have not any means of ascertaining in what number of
cases some other disease has supervened on vaccination as a
consequence of it, without producing a fatal result. We are able,
however, to form some judgment upon this point by observing
the number of non-fatal cases to which our attention has been
called. We do not mean to suggest that we have been informed