"Yes." "How is it that you printed this?" "Oh," said Dr. Cory, originally the card was simply concerning Highgate Small-pox Hospital and it was the printer"—oh, that naughty printer—(laughter) "who deleted the definite article when it ought to have been there, who put an 's' after the '1' who dropped out two capital letters instead of leaving three, who scattered the word Highgate, and left it as a matter for generalisation!" (Renewed laughter.) In Highgate Small-pox Hospital we know that whenever it was possible they got the nurses from the small-pox patients, and the reason these did not have it was because they had had small-pox beforehand. Now take the nurses in the fever hospital. Dr. Hopwood lately declared that no nurse had died in the Fever Hospital of London for ten years. But they were never vaccinated against fever, and why did not they die? The fact of the matter is this, the small-pox nurse fable is a very absurd one. We know well enough that small-pox has the faculty of taking hold of the weakest; that is the reason why children, whether vaccinated or not, naturally fall the easiest prey. In Gloucester you have practically no vaccinated children to suffer. It
DEPENDS UPON THE CONSTITUTION
and the amount of resisting power to the disease. The nurse is a selected person--she would never think of being taken on as such unless she were perfectly healthy. As I said, she is frequently taken from the ranks of the small-pox patients, but otherwise is perfectly healthy; she has good food, regular exercise; she works in a well-ventilated ward; and, what is more, she has no fear—which I believe is one of the greatest protectives under the sun. (Cheers.) She is in a far better position than her patients who, as a rule, come from insanitary places, from the slums and dens ef our cities; and it is not, therefore, to be wondered at that the nurses should be able to resist the small-pox. Even in the time of the plague, when vaccination was not dreamed of, it was remarked in all the old writings that the doctors and nurses rarely if ever caught the disease. But it is not that the nurses do not take it. Dr. Colin, of the Paris small-pox hospital, said that in the hospital he had no less than 200 nurses re-vaccinated under his own eyes, and yet out of that number 15 took small-pox and one of them died. Furthermore, he tells us that at the Bicetre Hospital there were 40 medical attendants and apothecaries who never contracted small-pox at all, although they had neglected to be re-vaccinated; and he mentions, moreover, 40 sisters of mercy who were right in the very centre of the hospital, who refused to be re-vaccinated, and not one of them had small-pox. (Cheers.)
RE-VACCINATION IN THE ARMY.
Then look at our re-vaccinated Army. From 1860 to 1888 we had no less than 3,953 cases of small-pox in the British Army, and 391 of them died. If re-vaccination won't protect the soldier, how is it going to protect the nurse? (Hear, hear.) Egypt in 1889 they died at the rate of 1,750 per million from small-pox. But, as a matter of fact, the Government do not believe in re-
