128 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
The vaccine was first used, as we have seen, in January 1897,. 
and from that time up to date close on 2,500,000 doses have been 
issued from the laboratory. It would, of course, be impossible,, 
within reasonable compass, to give even a resume of the results 
achieved in the numerous places from which reports have been 
received, but those wishing to study the matter for themselves will 
find full information in a pamphlet published by the Government of 
Bombay, and obtainable from any of the agents for Indian Govern- 
ment publications in London.* In all cases without exception there 
has resulted a striking reduction in the case-incidence, and a very 
remarkable lessening of the case-mortality ; in other words, fewer 
cases of plague occur among the inoculated, and those persons who 
are attacked in spite of inoculation suffer much less and recover in 
much greater proportion than the uninoculated. 
From the mass of reports received, I have selected two to lay 
before you to-night, because they are peculiar in being, I suppose, 
the most complete and thorough of any that have ever been 
compiled from among human communities, relative to the action 
of an experimental remedy. The conditions existing in these two 
places enabled the operators to reach that degree of accuracy which 
is usually attained in laboratory experiments only. 
The first experiment was undertaken at the request of the 
authorities of the Baroda State, and with their assistance. It 
happened that Mr Haffkine and I visited the town of Baroda to 
carry on inoculations there during a severe epidemic of plague, in 
February 1898, and while there were told by one of the native 
officials of a small village six miles off where plague was raging, 
and where it would be possible to have the people under close ob- 
servation. Mr Haffkine at once agreed to go down there, for he saw 
the value a crucial test would have at a time when people were en- 
quiring what remedies were available for use in epidemics of plague. 
The village of Undhera, six miles from Baroda city, inhabited by 
agriculturists, was attacked by plague in the end of December 1897. 
According to a census taken by the Baroda authorities, on the 5th 
of January 1898, there were 1031 souls in the village. 
* Statistics of Inoculations with Haffkine’s Anti-plague Yaccine, 1897-1900. 
By W. B. Bannerman, M.D., B.Sc., Major, I.M.S., Superintendent, Plague 
Research Laboratory, Bombay. Printed at the Government Central Press, 
Bombay, 1900. 
