THE SANITARY AWAKENING OF INDIA 191 



another. The difficulty, of course, is to obtain a susceptible 

 animal for the transmission experiments, but we hope that this 

 difficulty will soon be surmounted. As the result of his 

 investigations in Royapuram, Dr. Korke has discovered the 

 interesting fact that the disease is not strictly speaking a house- 

 infection, but that it tends to cling to communities having close 

 social relations with one another. Another valuable experiment 

 is that made by Colonel Donovan, in which he succeeded in 

 infecting an Indian dog with the disease, the post-mortem 

 examination showing extensive infection of the bone-marrow, 

 whilst the liver and spleen were apparently healthy. This 

 renders it necessary that we should reconsider our position as 

 regards Indian dogs, and I am of opinion that a further series of 

 observations, with examination of the bone-marrow, will be 

 necessary before we can say with confidence that the Indian dog 

 is immune to " Leishmania Donovani," and these observations 

 are all the more necessary in view of the opinion expressed by 

 Laveran and Nicolle, in their recent paper read before the 

 International Medical Congress, as to the probable identity of 

 the Mediterranean and Indian forms of the disease. It has been 

 decided, therefore, to continue the inquiry for another year, both 

 by laboratory experiments and investigations in the field. 



Yellow Fever. — In view of the opening of the Panama Canal, 

 it was considered to be of importance that prior to the actual 

 opening the Government of India should obtain definite first- 

 hand information regarding the conditions in Central America, 

 where Yellow Fever is endemic, and in the principal ports 

 between Central America and India, to admit of adequate 

 measures being devised to prevent the introduction of the 

 disease into India. Accordingly, in October 191 1 Major S. P. 

 James, I. M.S., was deputed, at the cost of the Research Fund, to 

 proceed to the endemic area by the route that will be followed 

 by ships coming to India when the Canal is opened. Major 

 James returned to India last November and submitted a most 

 interesting and valuable report, which is now under con- 

 sideration. After a careful study of the trade routes, he is of 

 opinion that the immediate danger to India on the opening of 

 the Panama Canal is not as great as was anticipated originally. 

 His chief reasons for his view are (1) that the very thorough 

 precautions taken at Honolulu, which is the first port of call for 

 the Transpacific voyage to the East, affords a strong protection 



