A Royal Commission's arithmetic. A criticism of vaccination statistics and a plea for fresh figures and fair inferences / by Alexander Paul.

  • Paul, Alexander.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A Royal Commission's arithmetic. A criticism of vaccination statistics and a plea for fresh figures and fair inferences / by Alexander Paul. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    0 which is notoriously a town that neglects vaccination almost altogether, thus stands last of the six. The following results are obtained :— Of the Total Small-pox Deaths Percentage borne by those - i Warrington ,~g Sheffield Loudon between tlie Age of 0-10. Per- centage. .... 22-5 .... 25-6 .... 36-8 Dewsbury Gloucester Leicester Per- centage. ,. 51-8 /^f/ .. 64-5 ^ r- 6 .. 71-4 (or 66-6) The alternative figures opposite Leicester are supplied by the Commissioners from a conscientious desire to make allowance for scarlet fever complications in some of the Leicester cases. All these figures relate to particular epideaiics, some of them iu difierent years. The Warrington, the Leicester, and the London figures refer to 1892-93; the Sheffield figures to a selected period only of the Sheffield epidemic of 1887-88; the Dewsbury figures to 1891-92 ; and the Gloucester figures to 1895-96. Undoubtedly, it is here shown by the iigures standing opposite the names of the towns that the percentage of death borne by the children was smallest in the best vaccinated towns, and that the percentages rise as you go down the list. The Commissioners truly say (par. 185) :— It will be snen that whilst at Leicester and Gloucester the deaths under 10 yeai's of age were considerably more than half the total deaths, the deaths of children of a similai- age at Dewsbury slightly exceeded one-half. In London the deaths vmder 10 were considerably leas than half. At Sheffield and Warrington they were about a quarter of the total deaths. The variations are very striking, ranging from 22'5 at Warrington to 71'4 at Leicester, and the approximation between the percentages at Sheffield and Warrington, as compared with those of the other towns, is also worthy of note. All this is true. The question is. What does it signify ? The Commissioners suggest that what they call these remarkable differences in the age incidence of fatal cases of