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Already this comparatively small outbreak
in London conveys its lesson to those who can see
and understand, as the following statement will
show. It is officially recorded that during this
month of March there were admitted into the
Smallpox Hospital at Joyce Green eight little
children under eight years of age, and of these
little ones three had been vaccinated and five were
unvaccinated. Now mark what followed. The
three vaccinated had the disease extremely
lightly, and all of them got well. Of the five unvaccinated
ones, four died! What sort of a
disease is it that when it attacks five entirely
unprotected children slays four out of five ? Does
not that convey some idea of what smallpox can
do when it gets a fair field to work in ? Does the
vaccination of those three count for nothing?
Had it no share in saving their lives? Though
these figures are but few from which to draw
deductions, yet it is the same story that has to
be told over and over again when smallpox gets
among us. This is just an example of what this
disease can do and used to do on a large scale,
and makes it easy to understand why it was so
dreaded in the past, and why those who are conversant
with its past history the whole world
over are doing all they can to offer protection to
the unprotected, and to enforce the doctrine that
not only is "prevention better than cure," but
that in this case it is far wiser to take the preventive
measures that experience tells us are so
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