114 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
was here that Mr Haffkine made the discovery of the stalactite 
growth assumed by the plague bacillus when grown in nutrient broth, 
which will ever be connected with his name as a reliable and easy 
means of diagnosing the organism. In December 1896 Mr Haffkine 
was successful in protecting rabbits against an inoculation of virulent 
plague microbes, by treating them previously with a subcutaneous 
injection of a culture in broth of these organisms sterilised by heat. 
The rabbits treated in this way became immune to plague. On the 
10th of January 1897 Mr Haffkine caused himself to be inoculated 
with 10 c.c. of a similar preparation, thus proving in his own person 
the harmlessness of the fluid. Shortly after this, various medical 
men and prominent citizens of Bombay were publicly inoculated, 
to encourage others to submit to operation ; but it was not till the 
publication of the result of inoculating half the prisoners in the 
House of Correction at Byculla, in Bombay, that the measure became 
popular. Increased popularity involved more wholesale manufac- 
ture of the prophylactic, and this necessitated removal to ‘ The 
Cliff’ bungalow, Malabar Hill, which was placed at Mr Haffkine’s 
disposal by the municipality of Bombay. The staff had now been 
increased to two military assistant surgeons, two clerks, three peons 
and four hamals or house-cleaners. The Cliff was occupied from 
April to November 1897, when a second move had to be made to 
another bungalow in Nepean Sea Koad. At this time H.H. Sir 
Sultan Shah, Aga Khan, K.C.I.E., the head of the Khoja Mussul- 
man community, who had been early convinced of the efficacy of 
inoculation, fitted up at his own expense Khushru Lodge, one of 
his bungalows in Mazagon, for Mr Haffkine’s use. The staff under 
Mr Haffkine was again increased, and now consisted of one com- 
missioned officer of the Indian Medical Service, four medical men 
of those sent out by the Secretary of State for India for work there, 
four local medical men, three clerks and six servants. 
The laboratory remained there for more than a year, but in 
March 1899 the demands for vaccine from all parts of the world 
became so pressing that more accommodation was an urgent necessity. 
This was found in the Old Government House at Parel (fig. 1), and 
it is the laboratory as it has been developed there that I propose to 
describe to you to-night. 
The Old Government House is a huge rambling building, standing 
