The anti-vaccinators did not take much by their reconnais- sance
in force in the House of Commune yesterday week. They took their ground feebly, and hardly held it at all. Mr. Piston was almost the only man who seemed to think that the vac- cinated die as freely from small-pox as the unvaccinated; while Mr. Ritchie's figures on the other side,—if they can be accurately verified, as we suppose they can,—were exceedingly impressive. "From 1847 to 185$ the mean annual death-rate from small-pox was 1,617 per million ; from 1854 to 1871, when vaccination was obligatory, but was inefficiently performed, the death-rate from small-pox was 817 per million ; and in 1872, the number of deaths had gone down to 323 per million." Again, "out of 323 children in the Metropolis under ten years, in 1884 85, 16 deaths of children who had been vaccinated occurred, 34 children died whose vaccination was not stated, and 273 were unvaccinated." The amendment against the vote for payments to the vaccinating surgeons was rejected by a majority of 130 (196 to 66).
Previous page
