compelling every parent to have his child vaccinated by a public
officer whose salary was completely independent of the number of
vaccinations performed by him, and for whom there was plenty of
alternative public health work waiting, vaccination would be dead
in two years, as the vaccinator would not only not gain by it,
but would lose credit through the depressing effects on the vital
statistics of his district of the illness and deaths it causes,
whilst it would take from him all the credit of that freedom from
smallpox which is the result of good sanitary administration and
vigilant prevention of infection. Such absurd panic scandals as
that of the last London epidemic, where a fee of half-a-crown per
re-vaccination produced raids on houses during the absence of
parents, and the forcible seizure and re-vaccination of children
left to answer the door, can be prevented simply by abolishing
the half-crown and all similar follies, paying, not for this or
that ceremony of witchcraft, but for immunity from disease, and
paying, too, in a rational way. The officer with a fixed salary
saves himself trouble by doing his business with the least
possible interference with the private citizen. The man paid by
the job loses money by not forcing his job on the public as often
as possible without reference to its results.


THE TECHNICAL PROBLEM

As to any technical medical problem specially involved, there is
none. If there were, I should not be competent to deal with it,
as I am not a technical expert in medicine: I deal with the
subject as an economist, a politician, and a citizen exercising
my common sense. Everything that I have said applies equally to