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[Extracted from] [1912] LEICESTER: SANITATION versus VACCINATION BY J.T. BIGGS J.P.

CHAPTER  55. CRUCIAL COMPARISON FOR LEICESTER.

WITH a desire of putting Leicester to the severest possible test, I will now compare it with :— (1) Japan, which has not only copied Western ideas with respect to vaccination, but has gone one better (!) in having the whole population periodically revaccinated; (2) with the revaccinated British Army—all strong, selected men in the very prime of life, who have passed a searching medical examination, and are also under constant supervision—serving at home, in India, and in the Colonies; and (3) the Royal Navy, also composed of picked men, thoroughly "protected" by vaccination and revaccination, and who have had to come satisfactorily out of a most rigid medical examination.

This incisive comparison is of Leicester's practically unvaccinated civil population, at all ages, and of both sexes ; with the revaccinated inhabitants of Japan, at all ages, and of both sexes; and also with a specially selected healthy body of strong men who form our army and navy, likewise revaccinated :—

GRAPH C.

ILLUSTRATING   TABLES 21 & 29.  COMPARISONS  WITH   LEICESTER.

SMALLPOX FATALITY RATES, percent, of cases, in vaccinated and re-vaccinated populations compared with "unprotected" Leicester, in varying periods from 1860 to 1908.

TABLE 21.   (See Graph C.)

 Name.

 Period.

 Small-Pox.  Cases

  Small-Pox. Deaths.

 Fatality-rate per cent. of Cases

 Japan

 1886-1908

 288,779

 77,415

 26.8

 British Army (United Kingdom)

 1860-1908

     1,355

        96

   7.1

 British Army (India)

 1860-1908

     2,753

     307

 11.1

 British Army (Colonies)

 1860-1908

        934

       82

   8.8

 Royal Navy

 1860-1908

     2,909

     234

   8.0

 Grand Totals and case fatality rate per cent, over all

 

 296,730

 78,134

 26.3

 Leicester (since giving up vaccination)

 1880-1908

 1,206

        61

   5.1

In this comparison, I have given the numbers of revaccinated cases, and deaths, and each fatality-rate separately and together, so that they may be compared either way with Leicester. In pro-vaccinist language, may I ask, if the excessive small-pox fatality of Japan, of the British Army, and of the Royal Navy, are not due to vaccination and revaccination, to what are they due? It would afford an interesting psychical study were we able to know to what heights of eloquent glorification Sir George Buchanan would have soared with a corresponding result—but on the opposite side.

TABLE 29.
Small-Pox Epidemics, Cost, and Fatality Rates Compared. 

 

 Vaccinal Condition

 Small-Pox Cases

Small-Pox Deaths 

 Fatality-rate Per Cent

 Cost of Epidemic

London 1900-02

 Well Vaccinated

 9,659

 1,594

 16.50

 £492,000

Glasgow 1900-02

 Well Vaccinated

 3,417

    377

 11.03

   150,000

Sheffield 1887-88

 Well Vaccinated

 7,066

    688

   9.73

     32,257

Leicester 1892-94

 Practically Unvaccinated

    393

      21

   5.34

       2,888

Leicester 1902-04 Practically Unvaccinated    731       30    4.10         1,602