﻿STUDIES IN PLAGUE IMMUNITY. 331 



of India and South China. The cost of such an enterprise would be only a small 

 part of what the civilized nations are constantly expending in keeping armies and 

 navies. Even the amount which every country is spending for the prevention of 

 the pestilence would suffice. My suggestion only lacks a leader, and I see that 

 the United States, one of the greatest nations of the earth, has such a leader 

 in the person of its president, Theodore Roosevelt, who has already done so 

 much for humanity and whose noble works are being admired by the whole 

 world. 



It is obvious that sufficient attention is not being given to combating 

 this disease in its endemic centers and from which there is continued 

 danger of invasion by the pestilence into other countries. This fact is 

 conclusively demonstrated because the disease is not markedly decreasing 

 in these centers. Indeed it would appear that India is at present suffer- 

 ing from an epidemic of plague equal to the one which occurred there 

 in 1904. The official monthly returns from that country for the present 

 year (1907) show 58,438 deaths from plague in January, 98,397 in 

 February and 171,522 in March. 131 



During the past year the British Indian Plague Commission, under 

 the direction of Martin and Lamb, have by their very important studies 

 thrown much light upon the question of the manner of transmission 

 of the disease. Frequent reference has been made in the present article 

 to their researches as well as to the very valuable ones of Kolle and his 

 pupils in Berlin, and it is hoped that the laboratory investigations of 

 these observers together with the studies of Kitasato in Japan will 

 serve further to stimulate more active work in the extermination of this 

 pestilence. 



From my investigations it would appear that general vaccination in 

 the endemic centers will be a valuable means of assistance in accomplish- 

 ing this end. 



131 Lancet. (1907), 1, 1200. 

 55670—12 



