Weekly Phoenix herald., 1883-10-04
New statistics er vaceiaation

New statistics If yacciaatiOn
 Onr reader are well acqnnin ed says the Pacific Hcdtcal Jouriaaz, " th the hercules.n struggle Of the B itish anti -vaccinationists. now continued for ten or fifteen ye rs, directed against the compu sury vac~ cinutina law. From year 10 year the movement has been gaining strpngth. Socie ies have been or> glnized in ali qnar CTS, periodicals establ,-he-l, funds arge y rontribute ed, and many of lhe leading m and women of England, including not few of the ob'li'y, enlisted in the enterprise. JudgIng from the clamor that filled the air, the ne ri and head of the kinsdnm were gains ed over to the humane enterprise. At last the long travail of the moun- tain culmina ed in the Introduction of the repeating ball in ihe House of Comm ns. The hour of promise was come, and a triumphant maj ur- ity of tie representative of the peo pie of Great Bi'ain wonld reward the lahnrs and verify the sanguine predictions of the characterization lsts. The vote was taken; of 302 members pr, sent, IS vo-ed f,r repe-l and 296 agaln-tl "Ridiculns must" It is probable thai majority of the sivieen were favorable 10 Yaccina> tion, but, like John Bright, hostile to the compulsory clause; SD that v1ie on tn. merits Of vaccination simply would have found not mo @ than eight of the members opposed to it.
 The advncates of vaccination were prepared for the contest. Sir Lvnn Plnyfair led the way by showing that whereas in the last century the annual deaths from small pox in England and Wales averaged 3 900 in the million of population. in the forty years of the voluntary vaccina- ton that followed, the average was 600 in the million; that in the period from lS41 to 1854, when gratuitOus vaccination WAS introduced, the average feil to 305; that unds r the first obligatory act rom 1854 io 1871 q, F,rr |, t.N ana that from 1871 to 1883, the time during which the pre- sent compuls- y law had been in opeiatie the average hal been reduced t - the million.
 Dr. Cameron saii that in
 fifty years, out of 27,215 asa
 cases of vaccination and n5
 nation, in 8 600 cases of non ss'i a- tinn the deaths were 8, 400 nr 70 per cent, while of the remaining 1855 eases of vaccination the deaths wr1 e only at the rate of 715 pr mt Sir Charles Dilke, Secretary of the Local Government Cord. also ceme to he support of the vaccination with some interesting figures. There were 10,5n4 persons, he said, em- pl .yed in the London Postal Servi e al nf whom wer. required to he vaccinat, on t, ring the service, uule,s the operation had been per formed within seven years previ us lv In the ten years from -S70 to 1880 there had not been a sin.le ,sr of death from small nox in this force and although there hld been an epidemic du ing that Teriod there had been only ten eases among the men, and they very light.
 Another point, which we presume was rot overlooked in ihe discuss sion, though no mention is mad. of it in the account before us. relates 10 the drformity among those who sur vivrd. In his sketch of Oliver Gold sl.I:+s Thack cray mentions that the dis' ase fell afoul of the poor Iiltlc child's face when he was eight years old and left him sctrrrd . disf gured for life" Al the same lime. he ad Is. the small pox sconrgei all Euro and ravagrd the roses off the cheeks of half the world" P.Isons now living can recoll0rt the pock- marked faces which aboLn ed among foreigners in the first quart r of the present century, particularly among immigrants from I rla1o. At the present date q rock>ma'ked fare is comparatively rare.-'Sctenti- fc ldnaeficnn.