Facts about vaccination : speeches in Parliament, 19th June, 1883 / by Sir Lyon Playfair and Sir Chas. Dilke, Bart.

  • Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair
Date:
[1883?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts about vaccination : speeches in Parliament, 19th June, 1883 / by Sir Lyon Playfair and Sir Chas. Dilke, Bart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    died of the disease, of whom 1,600 died in the garrison in Paris, out of an army of 170,000. The small-pox followed the German camps also, but only 263 of their well-re-vaccinated soldiers died. It was not because they were Germans that small-pox spared them, for it attacked the city of Berlin in January, 1871, and was nearly as fatal to the civil population there as it was in Paris during the siege. I contend that the German soldiers escaped on account of their re-vaccination. Many hundreds of them were prisoners in Paris during the siege, and only one of them was attacked by a mild form of small-pox. Could a more pronounced experiment on a large scale have been made in regard to the value of vaccination P This epidemic became pandemic, for it not only devastated Europe, but invaded both North and South America, as well as the South Sea Islands. Before describing its ravages in this country, I may as well say how far it influenced our ninety thousand re-vac- cinated soldiers. It entered our army as it did this country, in 1873, and lingered in it during 1872, but during those two years it only killed forty-two soldiers. The epidemic of 1871, however, struck the civil popu- lation of England and Wales strongly, and was
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