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Board. During the year 1901, amongst the patients admitted to these
Hospitals were 21 persons who had been employed in disinfecting
work; not one of these had been re-vaccinated since infancy; and Dr.
Acland, who made careful enquiries, was informed that not a single
person who had been properly re-vaccinated, engaged in work similar
to that of the 21 persons mentioned above, is known to have been
admitted during this period (1901); further, no official of the Board,
(all of whom are re-vaccinated when they commence their work) had
suffered from Small Pox during the year 1901. Nine other cases were
admitted to the Board's Hospitals suffering from Small Pox, contracted
in the discharge of their duties as Sanitary Inspectors, Dustmen, and
Undertakers; of these, 5 had not been re-vaccinated, one was said to
have been re-vaccinated 40 and one 19 years ago, and one without
success 4 years previously. Further, during the 16 years, 1884—1900,
more than 2,000 persons have been employed in the Small Pox
Hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board; of this large number—
some few of whom no doubt were protected by a previous attack—only
17 contracted Small Pox, though constantly exposed to the infection.
Of these, 4 are known to have escaped re-vaccination, and the remaining
13 are known to have been re-vaccinated after having been exposed to
infection. From the dates at which the eruption appealed in these
cases, it is practically certain that every one of them had contracted
Small Pox before their re-vaccination could possibly have taken effect.
Lastly, not one of the staffs of the Hospital Ships has ever died of
Small Pox, and not one has even suffered from the disease for the last
8 years (1893-1901) During 20 years, 1881-1901, the Board's
Ambulance Service has employed over 1250 persons; of these, 4 have
contracted Small Pox, one was unvaccinated and died, one had been
unsuccessfully vaccinated and died, two only had been re-vaccinated—
they both recovered.
In the Tottenham epidemic, 1901-2, there have been 4 instances
in which the one unvaccinated member of a family was the only one
to catch Small Pox, and there has not been a single case amongst
clergymen, doctors, postmen, or policemen, the classes amongst whom
vaccination and re-vaccination generally obtain.
In this connection I might mention that not a single member
of the Hospital Staff contracted the disease, although the Resident
Medical Officers and several of the Nurses suffered from sore throats,
which latter fact can, however, be easily accounted for by the enforced
isolation, and the marshy nature of the ground on which the Temporary
Hospital had perforce to be erected.
These are remarkable facts, and do not seem to me to justify
any other conclusion than that these persons—constantly exposed to
infection in a virulent form (in the Tottenham Hospital 41 per cent. of