320 



NATURE 



[February 6, 1902 



in a political sense, immoral as well as practically mis- 

 chievous. Already terrible evils have followed. The 

 independent tribes, on our side of the limit, believe that 

 in 1893 we annexed their hills, and only now refrain 

 from a military occupation because of the martial prowess 

 of the clansmen. All the frontier wars and the exacer- 

 bation of fanaticism all along the line since 1893 are 

 traceable directly or indirectly to this unlucky treaty. 

 Implacable suspicion and armed watchfulness on the 

 part of the hi^jhlanders, as well as those violent out- 

 breaks which have cost us so dearly, are part of the 



beauty. This makes his book, not only the most im- 

 portant publication of the time on the Indian frontier, 

 but also the most agreeable to read. The illustrations 

 are excellent, the map trustworthy and very useful. 



Fir,. I.— The road to the Takht-i-Suliman. 

 (From " The Indian Borderland, 1880-1900.") 



price which we have already paid for a false policy, not 

 justified even by the seeming expediency of a critical 

 time. 



Of Makran, the Persian Gulf, and that place of con- 

 tention, Koweit, Sir Thomas Holdich has very pleasant 

 and instructive pages. Ouite apart from the " profes- 

 sional " value of his judgments and his historical sum- 

 maries, there is a graphic power in his descriptions 

 which stamps the strange scenes deeply in the mind. 

 Here, as in all his other wanderings, this genial, able 

 Royal Engineer officer displays his love of nature's 

 NO. 1684, VOL. 65] 



REPORT OF THE INDIAN PLAGUE 

 COMMISSION. 

 'T^HIS report, consisting of five big volumes, is a record 

 ■*■ of the work of the Commission appointed by the 

 Governor-General in Council, with the approval of the 

 Secretary of State for India. The 

 questions submitted to the Commis- 

 sion were four ; ( i ) the origin of 

 the different outbreaks of plague (in 

 India) ; (2) the manner in which the 

 disease is communicated ; (3) the 

 effects of curative serum ; and (4) 

 the effects of preventive inoculation. 

 The Commission, with Prof. 

 Fraser, F.K.S., as president, has 

 collected in seventy meetings in 

 different parts of India and in two 

 additional meetings after their return 

 in London, the stupendous amount 

 of evidence embodied in three 

 closely-printed large volumes in 

 twenty-seven thousand questions and 

 answers. 



The summary of the conclusions 

 arrived at by the Commission, after 

 having examined a host of com- 

 petent witnesses and after having 

 carried out itself or directed a con- 

 siderable amount of work concern- 

 ing plague, is contained in vol. v. 

 on more than 500 folio pages. From 

 this it will be understood that the 

 work of the Commission was carried 

 out in a thorough manner. Add to 

 this the fact that the Commission 

 had prepared a large amount of 

 work in the form of charts, tables, 

 statistical summaries, &c., and that 

 after repeated and lengthy discus- 

 sions amongst themselves the com- 

 missioners remained divided on 

 several important points. We men- 

 tion this to prepare the reader of 

 the report for the surprise of not 

 finding specific answers to the spe- 

 cific (|uestions put to the Commis- 

 sion. This surprise is to a certain 

 extent justified if we remember that 

 various foreign commissions — Rus- 

 sian, German, Austrian, French — 

 who have been sent out to India or 

 Oporto respectively to study plague 

 have in their reports given their 

 Governments to understand that 

 they have satisfactorily solved all 

 and every problem concerning every 

 point of the disease plague. 

 One has only to look through vol. v. of the report 

 to feel convinced that the Commission has striven 

 assiduously to find the specific answers ; every page 

 of this volume testifies to the desire to arrive at the 

 correct conclusion ; every assertion of fact brought 

 before it was judicially and critically examined, com- 

 pared and adjusted to its proper place and bearing. 

 There can be, therefore, no question as to the thorough- 

 ness of the work itself The cause of the deficiency of 

 the answers nmst be sought elsewhere. In looking at 

 the evidence of tlie witnesses and at the observations of 



