STATISTICS OF THE UTILITY OF VACCINATION. During the pandemic of smallpox which raged through Europe from 1870 to 1873 an excellent opportunity was afforded for a test of the utility of vaccination. The greater part of the German army had been vacci nated in childhood, and all upon en tering service in the Franco-Prus sian War. 1n the French army regular vaccination had not been practiced, and revaccination was neglected. The mortality in the German army was -150. or 58 men to every 100,006; in the French army the mortality was 23.400. At the same time. in Chemnitz, Saxony, 83.9 per cent. of the inhabitants were vaccinated, 8.9 per cent. were unvaccinated, and 7.3 per cent. had previously had smallpox. Altogether, 5.6 per cent. were attacked by the disease during the epidemic, or one ease among every 56.7 of the vaccinated to one among every 2.2 of the unvaccinated. That is, the morbidity for the unvaccinated was 26 times greater than that for the vaccinated (Flinzer). To turn to earlier days. between 1796 and 1802 there died on an average an nually of smallpox in Bohemia 7663 people out of a total of about 3.000,000. During a period of twen ty-four years after the introduction of compulsory vaccination, there died annually of the smallpox 287 people out of a total population of about 4,250,000. In Berlin there died of variola from 261 to 407 per sons annually between 1758 and t809. After this date. wimp vaccination became compulsory, there died from this same disease from 2 to 10 per sons annually between 1810 and 1869. Neglect of revaccination. the importance of which was not then recognized, raised the mortality from variola in Berlin. during I870 to 1874. to a yearly average of 160.
During a smallpox epidemic in London in 1S63.
Buchanan and Seaton made an examination of 50.000 children who were exposed to the con tagion. Sonic of the children had never been vaccinated ; the large majority had been vacci nated in various manners and degrees. Of every
1000 children without any mark of vaccination, no fewer than 360 had sears of smallpox; while of every 1000 children who had evidence of vacci nation, only 1.78 on an average had any such traces: and with regard to the quality and amount of the vaccination, it was found that, of children haying four or more cicatrices, only 0.62 per 1000 hail any trace of smallpox; while of those who had a single bad mark, 19 per 1000 were scarred by smallpox. Alarson, of Lon don. learned from the study of more than 15,000 cases at the smallpox hospital. that while the unvaccinated died at the rate of 37 per eent., the vaccinated have died at the rate of only per cent.. the mortality among those with four or more scars being only 0.55, while that among those with only a single scar was 7.73 per cent.; so that, while the average risk which vaccinated persons run if they do catch smallpox is about 1-6 of the risk run by unvaccinated persons. well-vaccinated persons run less than 1-70 part of the risk.
Dr. S. W. Abbott, of the Vassachusetts Board of Health, states that in 1721 nearly 8 per cent. of the population of Boston died of smallpox. From 1800 to 1840 vaccination limited the disease so far that not over 20 deaths resulted from smallpox in that time. Relaxation of the vacci nation law in 1836 led to a larger death rate in 1830 to 1841, when 232 died from the disease in Baton. There were no deaths from variola in that city in 1886 or 1805. The control or eradi cation of the disease, as the statistics show, bears all exact proportion to the thoroughness of cination and revaccination. The preceding table, taken from The ilelboitrae Argus, shows very effectively the conditions in Prussia, Holland, and Austria.