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16 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
tion you would have been in had you never been vaccinated. "The protective power of
vaccination," writes Dr. Seaton, "against small-pox, extends to every race of mankind,
and is seen in every climate, and in every part of the habitable globe. Wherever small-pox
has been known to occur, exemption from the attack has been the rule among the vaccinated,
the exception among the unvaccinated." In society there is always found a body of
men so perverse, that they will deny all that others believe, and believe all that others deny.
The benefits of vaccination could not escape challenge; hence we have it denounced by
them in these latter days, almost as virulently as in the former days, when its results were
unknown. Amongst them there are doubtless some who refuse belief in the benefit of vaccination
from honest motives; and to which motives has lately been added the fear of a special
poison being passed into the blood with the vaccine matter. I have seen no trustworthy
evidence upon which to base any real ground of fear. Measles was fatal to 25, in place of
34 of the previous year. Scarlatina and hooping cough have proved more fatal, giving an
excess of 6 and 7 deaths duriug that time. Typhus was fatal in 41 instances; in 1865-6
there were 51 deaths from this disease.
It appears from a report made by Dr. Murchison, that two facts have been made clear
upon a subject which heretofore has afforded considerable discussion. The first of these
facts is, that the concentration of the fever poison, by placing those suffering from it together,
does not increase the mortality amongst the patients: and the second fact is, that the
concentration of the fever poison does not increase the danger of the attendants. In the
first half of the year 1862 the records of the Fever Hospital gave the mortality as nearly 21
per cent; whilst at that time in six of the General Hospitals it was 23.32. In the Fever
Hospital one person took the fever for every 40 admitted; and one died for every 135
admitted. In the General Hospitals one person took the fever for nearly every 4 admitted;
and one died for every 129 admitted. In the year 1866 the mortality in the Fever Hospital
had decreased to 19½ per cent., and one only took the fever for every 56 admitted. Whether
an equal decline has taken place in the General Hospitals, I have no means of informing
you. Granting these statements correct, and there is no reason to doubt them, then the
necessity and benefit of Fever Hospitals are shewn, and the power given to Vestries to build
them is one that should be exercised.
In every district in London there are certain localities that are never free from fever.
These localities I need not say, have the stamp of poverty deeply and legibly engraven upon
them. But every now and then, from some change in the susceptibility of the person, or
from some peculiarity of season, it crosses the limit of its narrow circle and rages far and wide.
From such an outburst we have recently emerged, and we are now enjoying a singular immunity
from its attacks. From the various London districts there have been sent to the
Hospitals 1,718 cases of fever during the last half of the year 1866. The admissions from
some of the districts were 51, 53, 62, 73, 76, 87, 108, 117, 139, and 144. From this district
26 were sent. Now how manifestly unjust it would be to take a district whilst labouring
and staggering under the attack of a fever epidemic, and represent this occasional
condition as its normal one; and then contrast it with others free from fever epidemic,
and attribute the difference to sanitary neglect. The causes of fever are deeply seated in
our social state. Not only without the man must its sources be sought, but with"1
the man.