New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-10-16
THE 1NrLv1cCN4moN MOTEMENE.

or the Legislature is well known.
--------------
THE ANTI VACCLNATIO UOTEMENT.
When Jenner went to his grave covered with the
honors of all civilized nations of the greatest
| bcnefactors of humanity, no one could nave
! dreamed that IN little more than half century
| there would arise in England powerful movement
assailing his discovery of vaccination as POSITIVE
evil and asserting that statistics prove that II mas
done nothing toward checking the ravages Of small
pox. When the opponents of vaccination 1rst began
! their work they were ridculed by the newspapers
! and The doctors. bur they kept on tIincing their
! figures in the lacc of the public until they have
attracted a large following and haze
! forced medical science to open the question anew
/ The echoes of their movement have hardly reached
| America vet We IRE sailing complaceutly along in
the wake of what until recently was supposed 70 be
w,ll-,stabli>hed Euolish authority; but i viii not
be long. il the agitation continues IN Great BRIT
ain. before we shall be compelled to admit
doubt a 10 the truth OF our conclusions, ana go
( to our hospital records anew for data to base a
! fresh Judgment upon. In the meantime u may III
t,rrs. our readers 10 l5n what are the latest aie-
u.nts of tine English opponents Of JeneTs system.
AfrP l. TAYLOR Mcmberof Parliament tor L,l-
cc.tcr and president Of The London Society Tor the
| Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination has Ju-t
published a pamphlet in reply 20 DE- W. b.
Carpenter. who is among the most conslcu-
on, defenders Of the old theory. Tins pamphIet
may be regarded rs the latest word IN the dispute
and as q summary If what has been said becie on
the side il advocates Mr.. Taylor claims mat
the yacrin,tioulsts are unfair I'M their use Oh status
tics He say. they compare the number Of small
pox deaths I'm epidemic years before Jrhl'rS tun'
with the number in the years since vaccination be-
| 1. .lrl
shows by official statistics that smallpox epdemicS
occur now lust as they did before vaccination
was known and appear to be- as deadly as
ever The falling of In the number Of smallpox
cases in the wears following the introduction of vac
ciuafion hc attributes partly to the dimnu ION OF
incubation and partly to the natural course ol the
disease which Ia, its periods of spread and its peri
ODDS of decline The fact that the bills of mortality
from the dreaded disease fell from ls,f'' IN the
last ten years of the last century to l2,33I
in the first ten years Of the present century
gave the Jcunar system powerful impetus
i'm snitc of the fact that the number OF people
| y,cc,patcd nj that time was too small TO have
auv important weight in the general result.
No serious smallpox epidemic occurred in England
between that of 1888 10 and that of 1s7172. In
The former 30 S33 persons died. in The latter which
occurred nearly twenty years after the compulsory
I
~ 900. These figures are sufficiently startling
brt Mr.. TAYLOR follows them with a whole broad
side of statistics He shows that in London, the
hest vlccruatcd city in the Kingdom. the death rate
from SMALLPOX in the five years before vaccination
was made compu sOry .292, ana IN the iYe sue
cccding years il rose to .679 thus showing the eN-
traorLinary increase Of 1928 per cent. The argu-
mrut is further reinforced 10y the following returns
of London smallpox deaths for the pat
three decades: 1SlItGO 7,15O; 1SGl'70, S,3l7;
lN7I-SO 1913 Stil more riking are the follow
ing figures: Deaths from smallpox in England and
Wales I'm the first ten years aftcrthc enforcement of
vaccination sol to 1863 335l5; IN the second
ten years q SCI 10 1879, 7045s.
10 show that smallpox cpid'mics prevail at in
tcryaIs in spite Of the general practice Of yaccna-
ton. Mr. Taylor goes to the records OF many OF the
cbic cities of Europe and make, table, taking the
fourteen years from 1861 to 1877, giving TIE highest
and lowest number of deaths per 100000 nhabI-
tarts IN each The lowest number ranges from in
Munich to ; in Prague and the highest from 03 in
Munich 10 "a in Hamburg Next lac combats with
another line OF statistics the theory that vaccna-
ton if not absolutely preventive, lessons greatly the
liability 10 smallpox. lie shows from the report
of the London Smallpox Hospital, that the proper
ton of vacciUated cases to total admissions
during the sixteen years ending 1851 was
81 per cent, and that it steadily increased
until 1t reached 81 per cent in 1866. The
common answer of tho advocates of Jenner's
system 10 such facts rs these is that the vaccination
wac not thorough. To this Mr. Taylors reoinder is
in the form of numerous extracts from hospital re-
ports classifying the vaccinatcd patients suffering
from smallpox with those having one two and three
and more marks. Thus the Metropolitan Hospital
report for l87O-72. the last epidemic season. shows
that the number Of patients with one vaccination
mark was l,12i with two marks 1,722 and with
three or more marks 1,G77. From which it would
seem that the thoroughly yaccinated" are as LA
bic TO the infection those who have had the virus
introduced into their systems but once.
We have not space to follow Mr.. Taylor in the
argument he bases statistics like the above,
which lead him to the conclusion that
vaccination has proved delusiye superstition. The
question is one of figures rather than argument. As
the case now stands we think it must be admitted
that the challenge lie and his associate agtaors in
Great Britain have made to health authorities and
the medical profession must be taken up here as
well rs i'm Europe aud the statistics of smallpox
and vaccination must be studied anew in the light
of all the questions and doubts that have recently
arisen.
Until there is change in human nature it ia
probable that innocent persons who have en-
gagged in litigation will, from time to time suffer ex-