It would hardly be too bold to say, that the fatal treatment of this disease, for two centuries, by warming the chamber, and by stimulating and heating cordials, was the cause of two-thirds of the mortality which ensued.[80]
We now come to an interesting question. If the reader refers to the list of twelve years of greatest smallpox, and to the list of twelve years of least smallpox in London, it will be observed that the years of least smallpox predominate in the last quarter of the century, and this in spite of the diffusion of the disease by Inoculation. The inoculators when charged with increasing smallpox appealed to the London Bills of Mortality. “Let us,” they said, “take the last ninety years of the century, and we shall find that there died in London of smallpox in the thirty years--
From 1711 to 1740 inclusive 65,383 1741 to 1770 ” 63,308 1771 to 1800 ” 57,268
Here we see, that the number of deaths was greater in the first thirty years by 2075 than in the second thirty years during which Inoculation had acquired some stability, and greater by 8115 than in the last thirty years, during which Inoculation was the established practice of most prudent families.[81] We are therefore unjustly accused. These figures leave no doubt that smallpox is decreasing, and we claim that the decrease is due to our practice.”
The decrease was certain, but I cannot allow that it was due to Inoculation; on the contrary I assume that the decrease would have been greater but for the culture of the disease by the inoculators. The fact is extremely distressing to the more rabid vaccinators, and Dr. Corfield tries to curse it out of existence as “the falsest of falsehoods;” but there it abides. It is hard for those who represent Jenner as the saviour of mankind from smallpox to have it shown that Londoners, at least, were in process of salvation before his intervention; but facts, alas! are cruelly unkind to theorists, sentimentalists, and quacks of all sorts. In the words of Dr. Farr--
Smallpox attained its maximum mortality after Inoculation was introduced. The annual deaths from smallpox from 1760 to 1779 were on an average 2323. In the next twenty years, 1780 to 1799 they declined to 1740. The disease, therefore, began to grow less fatal before Vaccination was discovered; indicating, together with the diminution of fevers, the general improvement of health then taking place.[82]