Smallpox, Scarlatina, Measles, and Whooping Cough may be regarded as convertible forms of infantile zymotic disease. Conditions of existence remaining equal, one may be the substitute of the other, maintaining thereby a common death-rate. Diarrhœa is sometimes placed in the same category; and, like erysipelas, it is to a large extent a consequence of vaccination. It should never be forgotten that vaccination induces a constitutional disturbance or fever, which illness is offered to Nature as a propitiation for smallpox; with which propitiation, say the vaccinators, Nature is satisfied, and withholds the infliction of smallpox. Vaccination, as an illness, however, is frequently attended with diarrhœa, and the increase of that affection, pari passu, with the increase of infant vaccination, is marked. Thus stands the record of Diarrhœa—
| Years. | Cases. | Deaths. | Mortality per 100. |
| 1777 to 1802 | 1,390 | 67 | 4·8 |
| 1803 ” 1827 | 1,529 | 7 | ·4 |
| 1828 ” 1852 | 3,995 | 43 | 1·0 |
| 1853 ” 1877 | 6,117 | 362 | 5·9 |
| —— | —– | —– | |
| 13,031 | 479 | 3·6 |
Dr. Monteith observes—
The mortality from Diarrhœa is unfortunately steadily increasing, the percentage for the last five years, 1872-77, being the highest on record—viz., 14·4. The majority of the deaths takes place among infants; and the disease is produced in most cases by the ignorance or carelessness of mothers in giving them food which is not fit for them. But why this should be the case now any more than it was twenty or fifty years ago, I cannot understand. An increased consumption of alcoholic stimulants in later times has been suggested to me as an explanation.
Any explanation is welcome that will preserve vaccination from reproach, yet what medical man is ignorant of the fact that diarrhœa is one of the commonest sequences of vaccination? Nature thus endeavouring to throw off the effects of the virus infused into the blood.
Taking, then, these five diseases in the order of their mortality, they range thus—
| 1777-1802 | 1803-1827 | 1828-1852 | 1853-1877 | Total. | ||
| Scarlatina, | { Cases, | 355 | 795 | 1,856 | 3,659 | 6,665 |
| { Deaths, | 33 | 30 | 155 | 567 | 785 | |
| Diarrhœa, | { Cases, | 1,390 | 1,529 | 3,995 | 6,117 | 13,031 |
| { Deaths, | 67 | 7 | 43 | 362 | 497 | |
| Smallpox, | { Cases, | 365 | 273 | 925 | 1,053 | 2,616 |
| { Deaths, | 90 | 57 | 152 | 129 | 428 | |
| Whooping- | { Cases, | 245 | 220 | 743 | 1,716 | 2,924 |
| Cough, | { Deaths, | 22 | 23 | 112 | 241 | 398 |
| Measles, | { Cases, | 186 | 435 | 1,572 | 2,537 | 4,730 |
| { Deaths, | 16 | 22 | 83 | 123 | 244 |
In the course of a century the Newcastle Dispensary had dealt with a total of 250,637 cases, of which no more than 2,616 were of smallpox, or about 1 in 96. The total deaths during the century were 14,088, of which no more than 428 were due to smallpox, or about 1 in 33; whilst from scarlatina they were 1 in 18, from diarrhœa 1 in 30, and from whooping-cough 1 in 35. It may be said, the record of the Dispensary does not account for the population of Newcastle. True; but it accounts for the lower strata of the population, and, therefore, for an excessive proportion of smallpox. The complete statistics of the city would exhibit smallpox as a still lighter affliction. And, we repeat, there is nothing singular about the record of the Newcastle Dispensary. It is a common story. Whenever we get out of the region of romance, and tread the ground of matter-of-fact, it is to discover that the wilder horrors and ravages of smallpox have been originally evolved from imagination, and are perpetuated in ignorance from hearsay.
FOOTNOTE:
[267] Report of the Newcastle Dispensary, from its Foundation in 1777. Printed by order of the Committee. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1878.