In the end I was able to force the authorities to
have the contents of tubes obtained from the same source examined
microscopically and subjected to the culture test. They were proved to
contain the streptococcus or germ of erysipelas.

As may be imagined this case caused a great stir and much public
controversy, in which I took an active part. It was seized upon eagerly
by the anti-vaccination party, and I was quoted as the authority for
its details. In reply, the other side hinted pretty broadly that I was
a person so discredited that my testimony on this or any other
matter should be accepted with caution, an unjust aspersion which not
unnaturally did much to keep me in the enemy's camp. Indeed it was now,
when I became useful to a great and rising party, that at length I found
friends without number, who, not content with giving me their present
support, took up the case on account of which I had stood my trial, and,
by their energy and the ventilation of its details, did much to show how
greatly I had been wronged. I did not and do not suppose that all this
friendship was disinterested, but, whatever its motive, it was equally
welcome to a crushed and deserted man.

By slow degrees, and without my making any distinct pronouncement on
the subject, I came to be looked upon as a leading light among the very
small and select band of anti-vaccinationist men, and as such to study
the question exhaustively. Hearing that I was thus engaged, Stephen
Strong offered me a handsome salary, which I suppose came out of his
pocket, if I would consent to investigate cases in which vaccination
was alleged to have resulted in mischief. I accepted the salary since,
formally at any rate, it bound me to nothing but a course of inquiries.
During a search of two years I established to my satisfaction that
vaccination, as for the most part it was then performed, that is from
arm to arm, is occasionally the cause of blood poisoning, erysipelas,
abscesses, tuberculosis, and other dreadful ailments. These cases I
published without drawing from them any deductions whatever, with the
result that I found myself summoned to give evidence before the Royal
Commission on Vaccination which was then sitting at Westminster. When
I had given my evidence, which, each case being well established, could
scarcely be shaken, some members of the Commission attempted to draw me
into general statements as to the advantage or otherwise of the practice
of vaccin