I propose now to say a few words about the success of
vaccination, for its very success at the present time is
employed as an argument against its use. Indeed, small-pox
since the introduction of vaccination has so steadily and
rapidly diminished, that the present generation of people until
lately have little knowledge of its existence, and consequently
hardly understand the necessity of seeking a preventive for
an affection which seems so remote ; and I question whether
the present generation of medical men are fully alive to its
former dangers. The following brief observations may con-
sequently be of interest. It may be accepted as a correct
statement that before the vaccine inoculation was introduced
in 1798, that 3,000 lives in London and 40,000 in the United
Kingdom were annually the direct victims of small-pox, and
that these numbers multiplied by six — or 18,000 in London
and 240,000 in the United Kingdom — indicated the number of
people who had been affected with the disea.se every year.
