On the present methods of combating the plague / by W.M. Haffkine.

  • Waldemar Haffkine
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the present methods of combating the plague / by W.M. Haffkine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    (2) That in the one-third of cases which still occur, the recovery rate is at least double that in the non-inoculated attacked, the ultimate result being a reduction of the plague mortality by some 85 per cent, of what it is in non-inoculated Indians. (3) That in an inoculated European an attack of plague, if it sub- sequently occurs, has so far always ended in recovery. (4) That the inoculation is applicable to persons already infected and incubating the plague, and prevents the appearance of symptoms, or else mitigates the attack, a fact which disclosed a basis for the bacterio- therapeutic treatment of disease. (5) That in natives of India the degree of immunity conferred by this inoculation, though gradually vanishing, seems to last during several outbreaks of plague ; and that (6) In Europeans the effect has not yet been seen to disappear in the space of time, since 1897, that this inoculation has been under study. I now proceed to matters which concern the epidemiological aspect of the question, viz., the place which experience has indicated should be assigned to this plan of defence in plague-stricken provinces. His Majesty’s letter on the plague, addressed to the Governor-General of India on August 13 last, and Lord Minto’s communication to the heads of local governments and administrations, have brought about a renewal of efforts to bring down the plague mortality. Lord Minto’s letter points out that many expensive and harassing opera- tions carried on in the past may be safely abandoned, and expresses the hope that, with the assistance of the people themselves, some distinct advance will now he made towards bringing the ravages of the pestilence under control. Consequently, in most places fresh campaigns have been undertaken and organised in the light of the teaching gained during the past decade. The Province which has had most of this unhappy experience is the Bombay Presidency, where the disease appeared first, viz., in 1896. The result of this experience may, I think, he gauged from the following official utterances: On October 7 last, the Hon. Mr. Muir Mackenzie, then Acting Governor of that Presidency, in a speech addressed to the Municipal Corporation of Satara, summarised the mutual position of the two principal measures on which the Bombay Government have learned to rely in the struggle against the plague. “Evacuation,” he said, “is no doubt effective quantum valeat. But think of its drawbacks. I doubt if it would have been possible at all during the torrential rains of July and early August, If managed, think
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