| In 1801 | 9,772 | |
| 1802 | 17,052 | |
| 1803 | 50,054 | |
| 1804 | 102,350 | |
| 1805 | 43,585 |
At these times the population was about 9,743,000. From 1806 to 1810 (since the horrible war and the diminution of the population to 4,338,000) the inoculated were 160,329. Dr. Bremer alone at the Royal Institute in Berlin inoculated 14,605. The total, as officially and voluntarily sent to the Government, amounted to 402,720 vaccinated, but certainly one-half was not officially mentioned. It may certainly be at least 600,000, or even 800,000.[260]
Supposing a million had been vaccinated in Prussia in the course of ten years, let me ask once more, how could they have saved the remaining millions from smallpox? Yet, with knowledge of these figures, Moore, the Director of the National Vaccine Establishment in London, did not hesitate to write—
The King of Prussia directed his children to be vaccinated, and also issued orders that Vaccination should be immediately employed in the Army; and the new practice encountered no further difficulties. By which, and by the total abandonment of Variolous Inoculation throughout Germany, the Smallpox rapidly declined; and in a few years was extinguished in some of the largest cities, from whose purlieus infectious diseases are expelled with great difficulty. Thus even in Vienna, where full four hundred persons had annually been destroyed by the Smallpox, this mortality diminished rapidly after the introduction of the Vaccine, and in five years absolutely ceased.[261]
Russia, of course, followed suit in cowpox inoculation. At the coronation of Alexander in Moscow in 1801 a foundling was operated on, christened Vaccinoff, pensioned for life, and dispatched to St. Petersburg to serve as a source of virus for other foundlings. Then followed imperial decrees prescribing vaccination, and Dr. Crichton was directed to organise a medical staff for the performance of the rite in each province of the Empire. In 1811 a ukase was issued commanding all Russians to be vaccinated within three years. As measuring the possibilities of despotism in such a matter, we learn from Dr. Crichton that between 1804 and 1812 there were 1,235,597 vaccinations performed in Russia—a similar number to that which Sacco professed to have accomplished in Northern Italy in the same time. It was estimated in Russia that of every seven children born, one perished of smallpox, and therefore Crichton argued the lives of 176,514 had (up to 1812) been saved by vaccination. The calculation illustrates the facility with which the early vaccinators deceived themselves—first, as to the certainty of their prophylactic; second, as to its vicarious efficacy; and, third, in assuming that a reduction in smallpox represented a reduction in mortality.
From Crichton, too, we learn that there were anti-vaccinists in Russia in those days—
Notwithstanding the supreme order of His Imperial Majesty, that all his subjects he vaccinated within three years, we find that, powerful as his Majesty is, this cannot be executed. There is a power greater than sovereignty, namely, the conscience of religious opinions of men, and in one or two of the distant governments there exists a peculiar religious sect belonging to the Greek Church, who esteem it a damnable crime to encourage the propagation of any disease, or to employ any doctors, or to swallow any medicines under the visitations of God. Reason has been employed in vain with these poor people; they have been threatened with severe punishments in case they remain refractory, but all to no purpose. You may well imagine that no punishment has been resorted to, though threatened, and the Government has come to the wise conclusion of leaving the dispute to time.[262]
To complete this rapid survey of the diffusion of vaccination throughout Europe, there remain Sweden with Finland, and Denmark with Iceland; but as the case of Sweden is specially interesting and instructive from the fulness and precision of its vital statistics, coupled with the claim made by vaccinators that Sweden affords irrefutable evidence of the efficacy of their prescription, I reserve it for a special chapter. There is nothing pleasanter than finding the strongholds of one’s antagonists, capturing, and occupying them.
FOOTNOTES:
[252] Boswell (Croker’s Ed.) vol. vii. p. 102.