CHOLERA, PLAGUE, TYPHOID FEVER 111 



This statement, and the further statements on 

 p. 113 and p. 116, are from Haffkine's monograph, 

 Protective Inoculation against Cholera. (Calcutta : 

 Thacker, Spink, and Co., 1913.) 



Out of incessant observations, theories, experi- 

 ments on animals, and experiments on self, came 

 certain methods of protective treatment. Ferran's 

 was the first : that was in Spain, in 1885. It was 

 imperfect, in that he did not fully reckon with the 

 variability and instability of the virus ; nor did he 

 so distribute his inoculations as to afford an exact 

 estimate of their value.* In 1894, came the first 

 use, in. India, of Haffkine's method. 



Haffkine, who now is Bacteriologist with the 

 Government of India, began to study cholera in 

 1889, at the Pasteur Institute. He was only one 

 of a great body of men of science occupied, in 

 diverse parts of the world, on cholera : still, so far 

 as it is reasonable to isolate one man's work, he is 

 the man. The chief problems before him were 

 (1) To select, for his vaccine, the proper strain of 



* "Absolument convaincu de Tefficacite de son precede, 

 Ferran eut le tort d'entreprendre d'emblee la vaccination en 

 grand, au lieu de prouver d'abord le bien fonde de sa methode 

 par des essais portant sur des groupements limites, dans des 

 conditions necessaires pour permettre un jugement definitif. 

 . . . Ceci explique comment, malgre les re'sultats, qui, dans 

 leur ensemble, etaient sans aucun doute favorables a la vac- 

 cination, la methode de Ferran n'eut que de tres rares 

 partisans et des adversaires nombreux." Salimbeni, Biblio- 

 theque de TMrapeutique, vol. xii., p. 411. 



