The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1892-05-20 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

THE EDITOR.]  Sir, Had Dr Davies's glowing panegyric on vaccination appeared in his first letter, I need not have troubled you with mine. If efficient vaccination will render us "proof against the contagta, and force the enemy te stalk through a place mourning the los% oppor tnnity," and balked of its prey, why assume it was encouraged by insanitary conditions against all evidence to the contrary? Dr Barry. question 1959 in his evidence before the Royal Commission now sitting, in summing up his conclusion from the facts, as to the transference of the incidence of small-pox from children under ten years of age to persons over ten, and that there had been an actual increase of deaths in the latter class, says, "I think this definitely points to the conclusion that there must have been sonte eireumstanc, affecting tho.e under ten as compared with persons over ten years of age with regard to small-pox, and not to other diseases; this reductioni being confined, as it is, entirely to children, ori almost entirely to children." Q. 2014, he says, "The fatality in this epidemic has been lower in the more overcrowded districts than in some of the better class districts ; the fatality has been above the average in some better class districts." Then, after being examined at some length by Mr Picton, M.P., in a futile attempt to show that the spread of this disease followed the lines of defective drainage, he says, Q. 2238, "From evidence given here of the incidence on different districts, I think we cannot attach very much importance to any insanitary condition." I must here thank Dr Davies for reminding us of the "eastern village and its excessive degree of filth," as no illustration he could have adduced is more damaging to his contention or more favourable to mine, as he would find, on referring, say, to the vaccination experience of Surgeon. Major Pringle, late of the Indian Army, that the introduction of vaccination rendered the children of those horribly insanitary villages, whose cholera and typhoid are often endemic, as proof against small-pox as the children in the most sanitary spot in England or elsewhere. Take again Mr Stanley's camp at Benalia in Africa for the purpose of comparison, Surgeon Parke, Q, 9223. Here were 550 of Stanley's men vaccinated, as he admits, somewhat inefficiently, living in the same camp, and under similar insanitary conditions with 300 Manyema, Tippoo Tib's carriers, when an epidemic of small-pox occurs. Of Stanley's "vaccinated men, four were attacked. One of those man carried his load all the Lime; never went sick at all, although he had the spots upon him Another man was relieved and recovered ; another recovered ; and the fourth committed suicide."  Q. 9224: When you state that the greater portion of the Manyema carriers were attacked, did many of them We? "—" Nearly all of them. The villages were filled with bodies, the men dying in great numbers." I, therefore, plead guilty in all humility to the manifest "absurdity' of differing from Dr. Davies, However, I have some consolation in that my perverse absurdity appears to be shared by Dr. Barry and a Royal Commission, whereas his views are the views of the Radical Anti vaccinator, Mr Picton, M.P., and are derived apparently from private inspired sources, as no sublunary evidence of his dictum is voachsafed to us.  I regret also having touched upon this topic, a 6 I perceive now from his letter quite unnecessarily, as it may have led some of your readers into the unenviable and crucial dilemma of deciding be. tween the opinion—on the one hand of Dr. Barry, author of the exhaustive report on the Sheffield small-pox epidemic, and probably two Royal Commissions, and on the other of Dr. Davies and Mr Picton, an anti-vaccinator.. _  In taking leave, finally, of this subject, I beg to thank Dr. Davies for his courteous and apprecia• tive reply to my letter ; and you, sir, for the valuable space accorded to me, and remain, yours faithfully—