BELGAUM 



211 



forced on one, that the inoculation must be the 

 cause. Seeing the absolute similarity of conditions, 

 the 671 inoailated should have had proportionately 

 1 1 2 cases and 7 7 deaths, if they had remained as 

 susceptible < to the disease as their uninoculated 

 brothers, sisters, parents, wives, husbands, children ; 

 but, instead of that, they had only 32 cases and 17 

 deaths. This death-rate would doubtless have been 

 still further reduced, but for the fact that a very 

 much weakened vaccine had to be used, owing to 

 the demand having got beyond the resources of the 

 laboratory at that time." 



4. Belgattm. 



In Belgaum, a town of Southern India with a 

 normal population of about 30,700, two outbreaks 

 of plague occurred in quick succession. The first 

 outbreak lasted from November 1897 to May 

 1898 ; the second, from July 1898 to January 1899. 

 During the two epidemics, 2466 persons were 

 inoculated. Of these, it was reported that only 61 

 (or 62) had been attacked, of whom 33 died =1.34 

 per cent. But these figures, in the judgment of the 

 Commission, cannot be accepted as even approxi- 

 mately correct. There are, however, two groups 

 of these Belgaum cases, one of which the Com- 

 mission admits as substantially accurate, and the 

 other as absolutely accurate. These groups are, 

 (1) the Army cases ; (2) the cases reported by Major 

 Forman, R.A.M.C., Senior Medical Officer of the 

 Station. 



(1) The Army cases. — These cases occurred in 

 the 26th Madras Infantry, which was living in lines 



