228 



PLAGUE 



These eight instances must suffice : many must 

 be left out — among them, Dharwar and Gadag, 

 where Miss Corthorn, M.B., did work as splendid 

 as Leumann's work at Hubli ; and Mr Anderson's 

 work in the Ahmednagar villages ; and many 

 more. These plague-reports are to be read, not for 

 their record of heroic zeal and resourcefulness, but 

 only as one more example of many thousand lives 

 saved by a method learned from experiments on 

 animals. 



But, of course, there is not, and perhaps there 

 never will be, a national acceptance and adoption 

 of this method through the length and breadth of 

 India. It does not work miracles ; it is an uncom- 

 fortable process to submit to ; privileges must be 

 offered with it, or the native will often prefer to 

 take his chance ; the protection is of uncertain 

 duration ; all sorts of lies are told about it, partly 

 by anti-vivisectionist writers, partly by native 

 political agitators, partly by the hakims. For 

 instance, at a meeting of hakims at Masti, Lahore, 

 on nth April 1898, the following resolutions were 

 passed : — 



" That in the opinion of this meeting the bubonic 

 plague is not a contagious disease. It originates 

 from poisoned air, and this poison is created in the 

 air on account of atmospherical germs and the 

 excess of terrestrial humidities. 



" That this meeting, having carefully considered 

 the Resolution of the Punjab Government (nth 

 January 1898), is of opinion that the rules embodied 

 in that Resolution (isolation, disinfection, etc.), are 



