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42
would probably have been the case had all been well vaccinated;
which, as the average cost per Patient for maintenance has been
1s. 4¾d. per day, represents an extra charge of upwards of
£9,300 for maintenance alone, exclusive of the proportionate
additional expenditure incurred for the salaries and maintenance
of Officers, and the other establishment charges of the hospitals.
Again, as the average rate of mortality in well vaccinated
cases is only about four per cent. the deaths would probably
have been under 600 instead of 2,700, and thus 2,100 lives
might have been saved.
The necessity of re-vaccination when the protective power of
the primary vaccination has to a great extent passed away,
cannot be too strongly urged. No greater argument to prove
the efficacy of this precaution can be adduced than the fact that
out of upwards of 14,800 cases received into the hospitals, only
four well authenticated cases were treated in which re-vaccination
had been properly performed, and these were light attacks.
Further conclusive evidence is afforded by the fact that all the
Nurses and Servants of the hospitals, to the number at one time
of upwards of 300, who are hourly brought into the most
intimate contact with the disease, who constantly breathe its
atmosphere, and than whom none can be more exposed to its
contagion, have, with but few exceptions, enjoyed complete
immunity from its attacks.
I am glad to be able to quote the above passages
as to the economy attendant upon the prevention in
the community of a dangerous disease like Small
Pox. I would also add that whatever is true of
Small Pox is true of all other catching diseases, and
that the greatest extravagance of which a Government
or a Public body can be guilty is to be
economical in sanitary measures.
I am not yet in a position to give the whole