27
Petit Laboratory, 10th December 1896.
DEAR DR. MANSER,
I regret to be unable to sign the paper which you have read us during our
sittings yesterday and on the day before yesterday, even after its having been
altered by the Committee.
Kindly forward to the Surgeon-General the following statement which
represents the views I hold personally on the situation.
The sanitary precautions now being taken against the plague are in
conformity with the general sanitary principles adopted at present.
Any new suggestions can be made only after a patient study for which we
have not yet had sufficient time and which ought to be uninterruptedly pursued.
No immaterial alterations or additions in the present measures are in the
least likely to affect the course of the epidemic, and it is not advisable to inter-
fere with the sanitary system at present at work in the city, for which there is
no reason to substitute any other.
The preparation of an antitoxin serum, similar to that which is being
experimented upon by Dr. Yersin, is a correct attempt, and in my programme of
work submitted to the Government of India previous to my coming to Bombay,
this was the first problem to be taken up after having ascertained the identity
of the disease. Since several weeks horses, cows, goats and sheep are being
immunised at the Government Lazaretto at Siwri. Dr. Yersin has also been
asked for a supply of serum, just at the commencement of the outbreak, through
the Consul General in Calcutta, and he answered that he had only a small
amount of serum, of which he could send only two doses, since then received in
Calcutta. At my request to have the sample here for a trial, I had first a tele-
gram from the Health Officer of Calcutta, saying that it was being despatched to
me, but later on he informed me that he could not spare the specimen. I am
repeating the request to-day.
As there is the possibility of Dr. Yersin having since prepared another
supply of serum, or of his being now ready to submit it to trial, it is advisable
to repeat the inquiry, and I concur with the rest of the Committee in the clause
which has been inserted in your paper to that effect.
Yours faithfully,
(Signed) W. M. HAFFKINE.
MEASURES RECOMMENDED TO BE ADOPTED FOR LIMITING
THE SPREAD OF PLAGUE IN THE MOEUSSIL.*
1. On the appearance of plague in a district or when the disease is pre-
valent in the neighbourhood, Collectors should take measures to prevent the
admission into villages of persons from infected areas and the movement of
villagers between neighbouring villages.
2. Sanitary measures such as will improve the water supply and drainage,
the provision of food where scarcity prevails, and the supervision of the quality
of the grain sold in the bazaar—in short, all sanitary measures calculated to
improve the general health—should be carried out without delay, as improve-
ment of the general health of a population increases its resistance to epidemic
disease.
3. The death-rate should be closely watched and the cause of any unusual
mortality enquired into, so that the disease may be detected before it has spread
throughout the village.
4 When the presence of plague has been ascertained, a temporary hospital
should be erected, if possible, with wards for male and female patients, and shelter
provided near the hospital for such of the patients' friends as will act as nurses.
"When a temporary hospital cannot bo provided—e. g. in the monsoon—as suit-
able a house as possible should be obtained.
* For tionslation into vernacular for the use of village officers.