[back] Smallpox vaccination lies
[Extract, from chapter 103] LEICESTER: SANITATION versus VACCINATION BY J.T. BIGGS J.P.
Mr. Ernest Hart, at page 4 of "The Truth About Vaccination," says :—
"Mr. Ashbury, the senior Member of Parliament for Brighton, in the course of a recent yachting cruise, visited the seaport town of Ceara, in the Brazils. Finding that an epidemic of small-pox had recently partially depopulated the town, Mr. Ashbury inquired into the facts. He found that in one cemetery alone, the burials of persons dead of small-pox amounted to 27,064 from August, 1878, to June, 1879. In December, 1878, no fewer than 14,375 persons who had died of small-pox were buried in this cemetery, and one day as many as 812 such persons were interred. He had not time to obtain the official returns from the other cemetery, but he was informed, on good authority, that the burials there during the same period were about 13,000. Thus out of a population not exceeding 70,000 persons, no fewer than 40,000 deaths from small-pox had taken place."
This was repeated by Dr. Carpenter at a vaccination debate in Steinway Hall, London, on 3rd February, 1882, but, finding the statement unreliable, it was struck out of the report of the meeting at Dr. Carpenter's own request in a letter to Mr. William White, Editor of the "Vaccination Inquirer." The reason was not far to seek, for, in a semi-official work on Brazil, by Mr. William Scully, Editor of the "Anglo-Brazilian Times," at page 248, we read :—
"Fortaleza, or Ceara, the capital of the province ... is the port for the foreign trade of the province, and has about 20,000 inhabitants."
Mr. Ashbury, it seems, had not time to ascertain how 40,000 persons could die of small-pox in the space of one year out of a population of only 20,000. Nor did he consider how it was that the town was not only inhabited, but appeared populous and prosperous on his visit.