Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-03-10
VACCINATION.
Should it be Compulsory:

Mr.. EDITOR: Since the subject of
vaccination now seems to claim a
large share of the attention of the
public, the following, which I hap
pened to see recently, may be of in
terest:
''The following statistics are taken
from the registrar-general's eng
land) return, and were compiled by
DR.. c. L. Pearce. Vaccination was
made compulsory by an act of par
lament in the year 1853, and again
in 1867, and still more stringent in
1871. Since 1853 we have had three
epidemics of small pox, each being
more severe than the one preceding.
The first epidemic was in the years
1850, when the deaths were
14,244. The second was in 1863
1866, when the deaths were 20,059.
The third was in 187O-'71-'72, when
the deaths were 44,840. The in
crease of population from the first to
the second epidemic was 7 per cent.
The increase of smallpox in the
same period was nearly so per CEN
The increase of population from the
second to the third epidemic was 10
per cent. The increase of small >pox
in the same period was nearly 100
per cent. The death rate from
small-pox in the first ten years after
the enforcement of vaccination from
1854 to 1868 was 33,515. In the
second ten years, from 1864 to 1873,
it was 7O,45S. These startling fig
ures need no comment. The latest
Parliamentary return, entitled Vac
cination Mortality No. 433, session
1877, published by the registrar
general, shows the average number
of deaths per annum of infants under
one year, from fifteen specified dis
eases, which are inoculable or inten'
fed, as follows: Prior to the vacci-
nation act, there died in the year
1847, 62,619 infants, out of popu'
lation of II, 927,609 In 1854 there
died $4,000 infants. In 1867 there
died 92,827, out of population of
2O,O66, 224. In 1868, 96,282 infants
died. In 1875, 106,173 infants died,
out of population of 22,712,266.
Thus, while the population of
England had increased from 1S,O0O,-
900 to 100000, the deaths of in
fants from fifteen diseases had risen
in the same period from $4,000 to
100000. Had the mortality kept
pace with the population, the deaths
in 1875 would have been only $4,000;
that is to say, in 1875 there persisted
in England $4,000 infacts who would
have lived had vaccination been as
little in vogue as in 1S47.
"Out of $4,000 small~pox cases
given in this return, $4,000 were
under five years of age, when vac
cination enforced by law is held to
afford absolute protection. It must
also be observed that this alarming
increase of infant mortality is con-
current with improved dwelling
houses, better water supply, the
erection of baths and washhouses,
the opening of public parks and
gardens in all large centers of pops
ulation, and the expenditure (since
vaccination was made compulsory
of f120,O00,000 sterling in sanitary
works. During my recent visit to
the United States, 1 made every
effort to obtain statistics as to the
results of vaccination, but was in
variably told that none are kept by
the city board of health. A mem
J Der of the New York Medical
Society told me he had heard of so
many cases of injury arising from
vaccination that the subject must
inevitably come up sooner or later
for searching inquiry. That bovine
vaccination, both in New York and
Philadelphia, has so completely failed
to arrest and mitigate small -pox, as
arm to,arm vaccination in England,
is shown by the fact that the last
epidemics, after half a century of
persistent vaccination, were among
the most fatal ever known in these
cities.
"The London Lancet reported that
The outbreak in 1872 carried off 800
per week in New York city alone.
professor Robert A. Gum, of New
York, who has given this subject