BUBONIC PLAGUE 109 



our main reliance must rest upon isolation of the 

 sick, disinfection of all infectious material, and gen- 

 eral sanitary police of infected localities. The de- 

 struction of rats in localities infected, or likely to 

 become so, is also a measure of prime importance. 

 Protective inoculations will hardly be necessary if 

 the measures above referred to are vigorously en- 

 forced, and in the opinion of the writer it is only 

 under exceptional circumstances that such inocula- 

 tions need be practised on a large scale. Those 

 whose duties require them to care for the sick or visit 

 infected localities may be given such protection as 

 is afforded by Haffkine's inoculations. But the im- 

 munisation of entire communities by inoculation in 

 anticipation of a possible plague epidemic hardly 

 seems necessary in the present state of sanitary 

 knowledge. 



