208 AROUND THE WORLD VIA INDIA. 



position as superintendent. The former residence of 

 the governor of Bombay, at Parel, a beautiful suburb, 

 has been converted into a laboratory and the former 

 ballroom is now the place where the anti-plague serum 

 is brewed, and halls and bedrooms where fashion reigned 

 are now occupied by dozens of cages containing ani- 

 mals for experimental use. 



According to a paper presented by Lieut. Col. Ban- 

 nerman to the Boyal Society of Edinburgh in 1902, 

 the serum treatment, in the prevention of the bubonic 

 plague, devised by Hafl'kine, is reliable and specific in 

 its results. The immunity thus obtained remains 

 throughout an epidemic and has been known to last 

 two years; its exact maximum limits, however, remain 

 undetermined. The serum is prepared on a very large 

 scale and is sent wherever needed free of expense 

 through government channels. Wide bottles with long, 

 narrow necks, holding about a liter, are filled with 

 bouillon and the culture medium is inoculated with the 

 plague bacillus. A characteristic growth in the form 

 of innumerable hanging stalactite-like threads forms. 

 At the end of two months the culture is sterilized by 

 boiling and is kept ready for use in another room. The 

 T-ulture and serum rooms contain hundreds of these 

 bottles, protected against contamination by a cotton 

 plug with ends burnt off. The prophylactic treatment 

 consists in making a single hypodermatic injection of 

 from 4 to 5 c.c. of the sterilized culture under strictest 

 aseptic precautions. All subjects thus treated have 

 escaped the disease, even in badly infected districts. The 

 experience with this serum has reached enormous di- 

 mensions and its absolute reliability can no longer be 

 questioned. Accidents have happened, but they could 

 always be traced not to the serum per se, but to its im- 

 proper administration. Bannerman concludes his paper 

 as follows : "The final conclusion, then, appears to be 

 that in this discovery of Haffkine's we have within our 

 reach a means of controlling an epidemic of plague and 



