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difference, however, was explained by the houses within the
first-named space being within the influence of the Hampstead
Hospital. Mr. Murphy therefore concludes that his figures for
St. Pancras show that Small-pox Hospitals as at present
constructed and managed, are a source of disease to the neighbourhood
in which they are situated. He also points out that
the Managers have not adopted the recommendations of the
Commissioners; that these hospitals should be constructed so as
to admit of the destruction of all the air the hospitals have
contained, so that if the incidence of the disease has been caused
by air-borne infection, there is still some hope of the hospitals
being used without much injury to the adjacent neighbourhood.
Dr. Verdon, the Medical Officer of Health for Lambeth,
corroborates the opinions expressed by Mr. Murphy and by
myself, that Small-pox Hospitals as at present constructed and
managed are injurious to the adjacent populations, but we
believe this to arise from the traffic to and from the Hospital,
partly by aerial infection, and, some think, by continuity of
drainage. At any rate the balance of evidence shows that in
London these hospitals assist in spreading Small-pox in the
localities in which they are placed.
The Report of the German Yaccination Commission, lately
published in Germany, is a most important document, as it
gives the most recent statistics concerning the protective power
of human lymph. The results entirely support those derived
from English returns, and are especially valuable, as the
efficacy of vaccination abroad has been questioned in this
Country. This Commission was appointed by the German
Government to make inquiry into (a) the present aspect of
vaccination, especially as regards any attendant evils; (b) to
frame rules for the eventual introduction of animal vaccine
lymph into general use in public vaccination; (c) to draw up a
scheme for the institution of an effective supervision of public
vaccination; and (d) to arrange for an imperial statistical