from the last published statistics, which are for 1893—I am now speaking from memory—that there were 150 unvaccinated cases and 253 vaccinated, but 1,054 cases were never stated at all. When out of a total of 1,457 cases over 1,000 are left undescribed, and we are not told whether they were vaccinated or not, what confidence can you have in such statistics? I say that such statistics as those, upon which vaccinators base their case, are nothing more nor less than a fraud. (Cheers.)
Now, you test the mitigation theory by malignant cases. Mr. Alexander Wheeler proved before the Royal Commission that of those said to be vaccinated 82 per cent. died, and of those with good marks 85 per cent. died; so that the well marked patients come worse off when vaccination is mostly needed. The argument we generally get is this: If a person happens to have been vaccinated and he goes through life without catching small-pox they say, "What a splendid thing it is that he was vaccinated"; if he has a mild attack they say, "How very fortunate he was vaccinated, or he would have had the small-pox very severely"; if he happens to have a severe attack we are told, "It was a lucky job he was vaccinated, or he would have. died"; and if a person who has been vaccinated should have the impudence to go and die, then we are coolly told, "Oh, he had not been vaccinated properly." (Laughter.)
In the hospital statistics of to-day you generally find that the unvaccinated people die at the rate of from 30 to 60 and even 80 per cent. or higher; and yet when we come to look. at the fatality of the last century and the horrible condition of things which I have mentioned to you, we find that the fatality was only 18 per cent. If, therefore, the fatality of unvaccinated people last century was only 18 per cent., and the average fatality of the present day amongst the unvaccinated runs from 30 to 80 per cent., I want to know, like Trelawney's Cornishmen, "the reason why." (Hear, hear). I do not believe the doctors of the present day are less competent than those of a hundred years ago; and therefore why double and treble. the number of unvaccinated patients who are slipping through their fingers as compared with a century before? It is not for me to explain this. Let them explain it themselves. Mitigation is therefore a sham. I remember that the Duke of Connaught, although vaccinated with the very finest and the most recherché lymph. had the small-pox afterwards, and they could not understand it. (Laughter). A great deal of interest was aroused upon the point, and the doctors came to the conclusion that his Royal Highness could not have been vaccinated properly. Why, if a Royal Vaccinator cannot do his work properly what must you poor wretches expect from the rank and file of the profession? (Loud laughter and cheers.)
THE NUMBER OF MARKS.
Then we are told it goes by the marks: that you must have a certain area, a certain shape, and a certain number. In fact, there are any amount of shuffles: as Cobbett used to say, "Quackery has always one shuffle left." (Renewed laughter.) When you come to remember that you can have no less
