Half a century of small-pox and vaccination : being the Milroy lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London on March 13th, 18th and 20th, 1919 / by John C. McVail.

  • McVail, John C. (John Christie), 1849-1926.
Date:
[1919?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Half a century of small-pox and vaccination : being the Milroy lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London on March 13th, 18th and 20th, 1919 / by John C. McVail. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The total notified cases in the years 1911-17 have been only: 1911. 1912. 1913. 1914. 1915. 1916. 1917. Totals notified . 295 123 115 65 90 149 5 Of which in port towns ... 20 72 48 10 31 55 2 In port sanitary districts... 30 12 25 7 12 14 1 These are very striking figures, showing that in the seven years small-pox has obtained almost no hold in the country, even when repeatedly introduced at seaports. In London the notifications since 1905 (after the epidemic had terminated) have only been in successive years to 1916 inclusive, 74, 31, 8, 4, 21, 7, 72, 6, 4, 21, 3, and 1. In Liverpool from 1904 to 1916 inclusive there have been only 144 cases with 4 deaths, and the last three years of this period have had only two cases, neither fatal. In Edin¬ burgh and Glasgow in the five years 1912-16 inclusive there has not been a single notification, and in the twelve years 1905-16 the total cases in the two cities have been 37, with one death. In Ireland in the twelve years 1906-17 there has been one death. On the Continent the Scandinavian countries have shared in Britain’s remarkable freedom from small-pox, and so also has Holland. Sweden had only 18 deaths in the twenty-two years 1895-1916. Norway in the sixteen years 1899-1914 had 376 cases with 27 deaths, or 7.2 per cent. Denmark had 18 deaths in the twenty-five years 1892- 1916. Its cases were about 300, so that the fatality rate was about 6 per cent. Holland had 124 deaths in the twenty years 1897-1916. The number of cases is not stated. Belgium has had much small-pox, but it has greatly diminished since an epidemic early in the present century, culminating in 1903, in which year there were 1,630 deaths in cases estimated at 10,000, which gives a fatality rate of over 16 per cent.—very similar to the rates in Paris and London in the same epidemic. In France there has been no such complete disappear¬ ance of small-pox, though the deaths in the six years