236 TYPHOID FEVER. MALTA FEVER 



offered to any of the working staff who desired 

 it : — 



" All the medical staff, and a number of attend- 

 ants, accepted the offer. Not one of those vaccinated 

 — 84 in number — contracted typhoid fever : while of 

 those unvaccinated and living tinder similar conditions, 

 16 were attacked. This is a significant fact, though 

 it should in fairness be stated that the water was 

 boiled after a certain date, and other precautions 

 were taken, so that the vaccination cannot be said 

 to be altogether responsible for the immunity. 

 Still, the figures are striking." (Lancet, 19th March 

 1898 ; see also Dr Tews paper, in Public Health, 

 April 1898.) 



Certainly, they are striking ; so is the story of 

 the eight young subalterns on the Khartoum 

 expedition, of whom six were vaccinated, and two 

 took their chance. The six escaped typhoid, the 

 two were attacked by it, and one died. But these 

 figures are too small to be of much value. 



The first anti-typhoid inoculations on a large 

 scale were made among British troops in India 

 (Bangalore, Rawal Pindi, Lucknow), when the 

 Plague Commission, of which Professor Wright 

 was a member, was in India, November 1898 to 

 March 1899. These inoculations were voluntary, 

 at private cost, and without official sanction ; 

 though the original proposal for them, in 1897, na d 

 come from the Indian Government. Pending official 

 sanction, they were stopped. Then, on 25th May 

 1899, the Indian Government made application to 

 the Secretary of State for India that they should be 



