280 



Dr. W. M. Haffkine. 



And lastly, there followed two questions, to which my experience 

 of the anti-cholera inoculation entitled me to give a reassuring answer, 

 but the correctness of which it was necessary to demonstrate afresh in 

 the case of plague, viz. : 



5. During the period of reactionary fever and all the other symptoms 

 produced by inoculation, will the resistance of the inoculated exposed 

 to plague be, for the time being, reduced, or remain the same, or be 

 increased *? i.e., would it constitute a danger to apply the inoculation 

 in localities actually affected with plague 1 and 



6. When a man who happens to be incubating the plague, or to have 

 initial symptoms of the disease already, chances to be inoculated, 

 would it aggravate his condition, or have no effect, or on the contrary, 

 help him ? 



Demonstration of the Harmlessness of the Treatment. 



The perfect harmlessness of the inoculation was first of all demon- 

 strated by the officers of the Laboratory, the Principal and Professors 

 of the Grant Medical College, a large number of leading European and 

 native gentlemen of Bombay, and their families and households, being 

 inoculated. And then, in the last week of January, 1897, when the 

 plague broke out in Her Majesty's House of Correction at Byculla,. 

 in Bombay, the option of inoculation was offered to the prisoners. 



The Experiment in Her Majesty's Byculla House of Correction, Bombay. 



The Byculla House of Correction is a long-term prison. There are 

 no children, nor very young people among the inmates, there being in 

 Bombay a separate establishment, the Sassoon Reformatory, where 

 minor criminals are sent. 



The prisoners of the House of Correction present a well-fed, well 

 clad, regularly worked, and almost as uniform a set of people as can be 

 seen in a regiment, amongst whom one could scarcely see a single 

 infirm or very aged individual. 



At the appearance of plague the prisoners numbered 346 souls. 



The inoculation was introduced after nine cases of plague had 

 already occurred, five subsequently ending fatally; there remained 

 thus 337 individuals to be dealt with. Of these, 154 only volun- 

 teered for inoculation, and 183 remained uninoculated. 



On the 30th January, in the forenoon, before the inoculation was 

 applied, six more cases occurred, of which three afterwards proved 

 fatal. The inoculation was applied in the afternoon, and afterwards 

 it was discovered that one more prisoner had already a bubo on him 

 when inoculated, while two prisoners developed buboes the same evening 

 after their inoculation. These three cases, attacked on the day of 

 inoculation, proved also fatal. 



