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I am enabled through the courtesy of Mr. Bingham, Medical
Superintendent to the Small Pox Hospital at Hampstead,
Mr. F. W. Strugnell, Resident Surgeon to the Small Pox
Hospital at Highgate, and Dr. William Gay ton, Medical
Superintendent to the Small Pox Hospital at Homerton, to
give the following details of the vaccination of our parishioners
who died in these institutions.
Under 12 years of Age. Over 12 years of AgeNot
Vaccinated 19 15
Having bad
ation marks 1 14
Having one or more
fair marks — 8
Having one or more
good marks 2 5
It is constantly urged, as an argument against Vaccination'
that more vaccinated persons die of Small Pox than unvaccinated,
and the number of vaccinated persons who died in
St. Pancras might at first sight appear to lend some support to
this view. The question really is, however, not the number of
vaccinated and unvaccinated persons who die, but the proportion
of the vaccinated and unvaccinated, seeing that there
are not the same number in the Parish of these two classes
of persons.
It was found in an examination of school children in St
Pancras in 1863, in an inquiry made by Drs. Seaton and
Buchanan (Sixth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy
Council) that of 2568 children born between 1850 and 1860
who were examined, 2445 bore marks of Vaccination,
and 94 had none while a few were doubtful.
Now if we assume that vaccinated and unvaccinated persons
over 12 years of age in the Parish are in this
proportion, we have for every unvaccinated person 26
vaccinated. At an equal rate of death, therefore, we ought
to have had 26 deaths among the vaccinated for every death
among the unvaccinated, and for the 15 deaths which occurred
among our unvaccinated parishioners, 390 deaths among the
vaccinated instead of the 27 that occurred.
It will be seen that but three children with any signs of
vaccination died under 12 years of age. Proper Vaccination
in infancy can be largely trusted for preventing death from
Small Pox up to this age, after puberty, however, although