1818.—During the year, 6,289 have been vaccinated in London and the vicinity; and the Board have much satisfaction in adducing unequivocal evidence of the increasing advantages of the Jennerian discovery; for it appears from the bills of mortality of London that, instead of 2,000 deaths by Smallpox, which was the annual average previous to the practice of Vaccination, there died in 1818 only 421.
That, previous to the introduction of vaccination, 2,000 was the average annual death-rate from smallpox in London is a statement that requires definition. At an early date the number is under the mark, and at a later it is over the mark. Dr. Farr delivers the truth in these words—
Smallpox attained its maximum mortality after Inoculation was introduced. The annual deaths from Smallpox in London, from 1760 to 1779, were on an average 2,323. In the next twenty years, 1780 to 1799, they declined to 1,740. The disease, therefore, began to grow less fatal before Vaccination was discovered, indicating, together with the diminution of fevers, the general improvement of health then taking place.
Bearing Dr. Farr’s figures in mind (and not forgetting the 2,000 adduced by the Board in the reports for 1811 and 1818), what does the reader think of the following audacious attempts on public credulity?—
1826.—From the quantity of vaccine lymph distributed, we are led to presume the practice of Vaccination is becoming daily more general; and the inference is still further confirmed by the fact that in 1826, only 503 deaths have occurred from Smallpox within the bills of mortality; whereas in the preceding year, 1,299 persons are recorded as having fallen victims to the loathsome disease. The whole of this difference ought not, perhaps, in candour to be attributed to the influence of Vaccination; for Smallpox during 1825 assumed a peculiarly malignant character; and there were more instances of the distemper occurring twice in the same individual than had ever been reported to us before. But when we reflect that before the introduction of Vaccination the average number of deaths from Smallpox in London was annually about 4,000, no stronger argument can reasonably be demanded in favour of the value of this important discovery. Nor can any more striking proof be given of the paternal care of the Government to protect the people at home and abroad from this destructive disease than the establishment and maintenance of this Board.
The bouncing falsehood, having passed muster, was repeated with enlargement at a suitable interval—
1834.—Only 334 deaths by Smallpox have been reported, a number considerably less than have died in any year since the introduction of Vaccination, and falling short by at least 4,000 of the average of deaths annually by Smallpox in London before the protecting influence of Cowpox was discovered and promulgated.
And again it appeared with a fresh touch of exaggeration—
1836.—The annual loss of life by Smallpox in the Metropolis before Vaccination was established exceeded 5,000, whereas, in the course of last year, only 300 died of the distemper.
Impunity being apparently assured, the fable came to be delivered as matter-of-course, thus—