The small-pox epidemic of 1870-73 in relation to vaccination / by D. Manson Fraser.

  • Fraser, Donald Manson.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The small-pox epidemic of 1870-73 in relation to vaccination / by D. Manson Fraser. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    to the disease, or in other words that the nature of the disease has .undergone a radical change ; or (2) that vaccination has a protective influence. The first hypothesis may be immediately set aside as un- tenable, and the second must, therefore, be the true explanation. In conclusion, although I have endeavoured to render this paper rather suggestive than exhaustive, I think it will be admitted by unprejudiced minds that the facts I have brought forward and the com- parisons I have drawn clearly demonstrate the great value of vaccination. They show that when properly examined the epidemic of 1870-73 confirms the teaching of clinical experience. While clinical experience teaches that among the vaccinated small-pox is less intense than among the unvacci- nated, the epidemic shows a diminution in the total death-rate to be ascribed only to vaccination ; and while clinical experience teaches that among the very young who are vaccinated small-pox is of much rarer occurrence and infinitely less fatal than among the very young who are unvaccinated, tne epidemic shows an enormous decrease in the number of deaths among the very young as compared with the epidemics of pre-vaccination periods. If, then, so great a measure of success has been attained in the imperfect state of the public vaccination in 1870-73, we may surely hope that, with vaccination universally adopted and efficiently performed, small-pox may become unknown as a disease of the very young, and that, with revaccination also universally adopted and efficiently performed, the disease may wholly cease to afflict the country. Spottiswoode & CoPrinters, New-street Square, London.