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not to speak of their immeasurably more frequent
effect, that of preventing altogether the occurrence of
small pox—is specially, uniformly, and abundantly
furnished by the reports of the medical officers of every
hospital established in the Metropolis and in the
provinces for the treatment of that disease during the
recent and preceding epidemics. In truth, the protection
afforded by successful re-vaccination is greater
than that imparted by a previous attack of small pox,
either natural or inoculated. It cannot be too generally
known, that it is more common for a person to
have small pox a second time, than to have it after
successful vaccination and re-vaccination ; and that,
whereas fatal cases of secondary small pox, as of other
contagious affections, do from time to time occur, the
disease after successful re-vaccination is invariably
mild. Of nearly 15,000 cases of small pox treated in
the London hospitals during the epidemic of 1871-72,
there were 4 only which presented proofs of having
been re-vaccinated, and they were all mild cases.
To those who remember the scarred features of a
former generation, further testimony of the priceless
value of vaccination is borne and silently proclaimed
alike by the all but universally unmarred countenances,
and by the very few disfigured faces, now to be seen
in our streets.
I have little to add to the foregoing observations,
supported as they are by the unequivocal testimony of
facts, and enforced by the sad, and the stern, and the
irrefragable logic of events. The virus of small pox