Dr. Walter Robert Hadwen's works.

  • Walter Hadwen
Date:
1896-1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. Walter Robert Hadwen's works. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    APPENDIX TO SECOND EDITION. THE UN VACCINATED CHILDREN. Perhaps the most specious argument recently made use of by the apologists for Vaccination is the following table of figures extracted from Dr. Coupland's Report:— Smallpox in Children to io Years Old. Vaccinated. Unvaccinated. Attacks. Deiths. Fatality. Attacks. Deaths. Fatality. per cent. per cent. 26 1 3.8 680 279 41.0 It is at the same time declared that the one vaccinated death was a case of very doubtful vaccination. I give particulars on page 8. The reader may judge. At first sight the comparison of the figures looks startling, until it is remembered that Gloucester contained practically an unvaccinated child population, and that there were but few vaccinated to suffer. Now, I have already shown in the preceding pages the untrust- worthiness of Dr. Coupland's statistics and statements, nor are the above any exception. The figures are all wrong. I have the names and addresses of 116 vaccinated children up to 10 years of age who were attacked with smallpox in the epidemic, of whom 27 died, a fatality of 23.2 per cent. Whereas, I make the unvaccinated fatality even higher than that of Dr. Coupland, namely, 50 per cent. Seeing that for the seven years prior to the epidemic only four per cent, of the child population of Gloucester was vaccinated, it will be seen that the vaccinated attack rate bears a very high proportion to the vaccinated population; and as far as one can judge in such a case, the attack rate was as high as, if not higher, than that of the unvaccinated. The death-rate of the unvaccinated was higher than that of the vaccinated, but the ages of the latter class were of a higher average. The unvaccinated deaths included a great many babies in arms; sickly ones that no vaccinator would dare to touch with his lancet; and even infants only a few hours old born in the pestilential atmos- phere of the smallpox hospital. All such anomalies were made to swell the unvaccinated list, and to pile up its death-rate. Official vaccination statisticians can find no room for a third class! Eliminate these and the death-rate of vaccinated and unvaccinated would more nearly approximate. The death-rate in both classes was excessive, forming a combined
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