212 



PLAGUE 



close to the cantonment and the city. The first 

 case of plague in the regiment was on 12th 

 November 1897. Ten days later, the regiment 

 was moved out into camp. Inoculation was begun, 

 by Surgeon- Major Bannerman, on 23rd December, 

 up to which time there had been, among the 

 regiment and its families and followers, 78 cases, 

 with 49 deaths. The following account of the inocu- 

 lations is given by Surgeon- Major Bannerman : — 



" No difficulty was experienced in persuading 

 the men to consent to inoculation, when it was 

 explained to them that they would be free to return 

 to their houses in the lines after being operated on. 

 General Rolland was the first to be operated on, 

 and his example, combined with that of the officer 

 commanding, and their medical officer, who were all 

 operated on in front of the men, sufficed to con- 

 vince the Sepoys of the harmlessness of the 

 operation : and the only difficulty that then re- 

 mained was to perform the operation fast enough. 

 . . . The community was, practically, completely 

 inoculated by the end of the year. The total 

 operated on was 1665, out of a population of 1746 

 living in the lines at that date. The 81 not 

 operated on were infants, women far advanced in 

 pregnancy, and the sick in hospital chiefly, though 

 one solitary Sepoy has, up to the present time, 

 refused to submit to operation." 



From this time onward to the end of the first 

 epidemic, though the disease was at its height in 

 January in the neighbouring city and cantonment, 

 and though the men were allowed to go freely to 



