View report page

94
The Protection Afforded by Vaccination.—As bearing on
the question of the protective power of vaccination and re-vaccination,
reference may be made to a circular letter, issued in
October, 1879, by the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum
District, in which they summed up the experience acquired in the
hospitals by the Medical Superintendents of the several smallpox
hospitals under the control of the Board. The Managers
state that " the observations of these gentlemen confirm former
opinions on the subject, and establish beyond doubt the mitigating
influence in small-pox cases of successful primary vaccination,
and the preventive powers of efficient re-vaccination." It is
needless to quote at length the valuable statistics furnished; but
it may suffice to state that the mortality was 8.8 per cent. of the
vaccinated, and no less than 44.4 per cent. of the unvaccinated,
the observations extending to a total of 15,171 cases, treated in
the hospitals in the epidemic which began in 1876. It is added,
that " no case of small-pox has come within the cognisance of
either of the Medical Superintendents, of any person who had
been efficiently vaccinated, and successfully re-vaccinated. Moreover,
the nurses and servants employed from time to time at the
various hospitals during the epidemic, have enjoyed almost absolute
immunity from infection; and the few—some half-dozen
among nearly one thousand—who contracted the disease whilst
discharging their duties, had from some cause or other escaped
re-vaccination before entering the wards." The conclusion come
to is, that if vaccination and re-vaccination were successfully
accomplished at the proper times, small-pox " instead of being, as
it is at present, a common and extremely fatal disease, would be a
comparatively rare one, and so little fatal that few if any deaths
would result from it."
An interesting and valuable memorandum by Dr. Buchanan,
Medical Officer of the Local Government Board, on the recent
prevalence of small-pox in London among vaccinated and unvaccinated
persons respectively, published as a Parliamentary paper,
has been extensively re-produced and commented on in the public
press. It tells the same story of the protective power of vaccination
and re-vaccination, in another way, and may be read with
advantage by all who are sceptical on the subject.