A report on vaccination and its results : based on the evidence taken by the Royal Commission during the years 1889-1897.

  • Royal Commission on Vaccination.
Date:
1898-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on vaccination and its results : based on the evidence taken by the Royal Commission during the years 1889-1897. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    was largely practised. An attempt has been made to calculate upon the basis of the returns of the above institu- tions, the proportion of the population in London which was vaccinated during the first twenty years or so of the centm-y ; but the data are too uncei'tain to allow of any value being attached to the result. 30. Incidental x-eferences in contemporary writings seem to show that, after about 1805, the first enthusiasm for vaccination somewhat diminished and the practice tended to decrease; but the check seems to have been transient only, for such scattered data as can be obtained show that the practice was very prevalent during the latter part of the first quarter of the century. This is strikingly illustrated by two records, one in London, the other in the country. Of the childi'en (over 8000, all under 12 years of age) admitted into the Eoyal Metropolitan Infirmary between October, 1820, and April, 1822, 41 per cent, had been vac- cinated, and 6 per cent, inoculated. At Cambridge, in 1824, of the 8112 inhabitants under 25 years of age (who had been born therefore since tlie introduction of vaccination) 48*7 per cent had been A'ac- cinated. At Norwich, in 1819, it was calculated that out of a population of 40,000 about 10,000 had been vaccinated ; but there is no statement as to the ages of the vaccinated. The distribution of the vaccinated Avas irregular, for of 603 persons forming families specially examined, only gi had been vaccinated, and of these only 57 previously to 1819. There are no reasons for thinking that, so far at least as towns are concerned, Cambridge was in any way exceptional as regards vaccination. On the other hand, the great similarity of the results in places so different as London and Cambridge, go far to justify the supposition that, could data be obtained, they would show a like state of things in the towns generally. If so it may be concluded that at the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, at any rate in towns, a proportion approaching the half of the children born during that quarter were vaccinated. As to the vacci-