1901 - 2 .] Plague Research Laboratory of Government of India. 115 
in extensive grounds in the suburb of Parel, which has passed 
through many changes of fortune. It was originally a Roman 
Catholic seminary in the time of the Portuguese, but was forfeited 
to Government on account of suspected intrigues between its 
possessors and the independent rajahs in the Western Ghats. About 
the year 1765 it became the official residence of the Governors of 
Bombay, and continued to fulfil this function till 1883, when it 
was finally abandoned after the death of the Governor’s wife from 
cholera thought to have been contracted there. It stood vacant 
for some fifteen years, till the advent of plague suggested its use as 
a convenient hospital, and within its walls hundreds of plague 
patients were treated in 1897-98. In July 1899 the move from 
Mazagon was begun, and by the 10th of August everything was 
in readiness for its formal opening as a laboratory by His 
Excellency Lord Sandhurst, Governor of Bombay, which took 
place in the presence of a large concourse of the leading European 
and Native inhabitants of Bombay. 
The staff at present numbers fifty-three, consisting of the 
following, viz. : — 
Dir ector-in- Chief (Mr W. M. Haffkine, C.I.E.), who is also 
scientific adviser to the Government of India. 
Superintendent , a commissioned medical officer of the Indian 
Medical Service, responsible for the general conduct of the 
laboratory. 
Three European Medical Men , two being commissioned officers 
of the I.M.S., and one engaged on account of special training in 
laboratory work, both chemical and bacteriological. 
Three Native Medical Men , twelve clerks, seven decanters, 
one engineer, and twenty-five laboratory attendants. 
During the busy months of the year this staff is altogether 
employed in the manufacture and despatch of the plague vaccine, 
hut when the demand declines other subjects of investigation are 
taken up, such as snake-bite, malarial and relapsing fevers, Malta 
fever, an undetermined fever occurring in the famine relief camps 
of Guzerat, the manufacture and curative action of serums for 
plague and snake-bite, and vaccines for typhoid and cholera. 
The manufacture of the plague prophylactic, which at present 
forms the main work of this large establishment, has gradually 
