Note 246-7 — Chapter II

Duvillard, Analyse ou Tableau de l'Influence da la petite Vérole, 1806, is of opinion that before vaccination only 4 per cent. of those over 30 years of age were spared by the small-pox; that two-thirds of all new-born children were attacked by the disease sooner or later, and that from one-eighth to one-seventh of those attacked died; and of small children even one-third. Hence, in many countries, the average duration of life was increased 3½ years by reason of vaccination. In London, between 1770 and 1779, of 1,000 deaths, 102 were caused by the small-pox; in from 1830 to 1836, only 25 in 1,000. (Porter, Progress of the Nation, I, 1, 39.) In Berlin, between 1792 and 1801, 4,999 persons died of the small-pox; between 1812 and 1822, only 555. (Casper.) That this is really a consequence of vaccination is proved by the facts of the Chemnitz small-pox epidemic of 1870-71, during which, in four of the streets principally visited by it, 9 per cent. were taken ill. Of 4,375 persons who had been vaccinated, 2.12 per cent. were attacked; of 644 who were not vaccinated, 54.38 per cent. Of those attacked, 2.1 per cent. of the former and 11.3 per cent. of the latter died. (Leipzig Tageblatt, 5 Mai, 1871.)