43
Inoculation.
On the 19th July 1898 the Health Officer applied for a grant of
Rs. 5CO to compensate people of the poorer classes who might be debarred
for 2 or 3 days from their ordinary employments through having under-
gone the operation. This application was complied with. On the 17th
August a discussion took place in the Standing Committee on the motion
of Dr. N. N. Katrak and there was a strong consensus of opinion that
inoculation should be pushed in Bombay in anticipation of a further
outbreak of plague. This led to consultation between the Municipal
Commissioner and M. Haffkine on the 29th August. It was followed
by a series of weekly meetings at which the Commissioner consulted
M. Haffkine, the Executive Health Officer, the Hon'ble Dr. Bhalchandra
Krishna, Dr. Katrak and others. An inoculation station was already
open at the Laboratory, Khoshroo Lodge, and from 1st September
1898 Drs. Trilokkeker, Kalapesi and D. K. Patel agreed to under-
take the duty of honorary inoculators going round the localities
in which their practice lay and endeavouring to persuade their
acquaintances of the value of the prophylactic treatment. On the
13th September a special inoculation allowance was sanctioned for
Dr. B. S. Shroff, and Dr. Kajaballi V. Patel ; the latter being one of
the Sectional Medical Officers on plague duty who had already had some
measure of success in this direction. About the middle of October a
special inoculation shed was erected on the maidan opposite the Municipal
Office. Later on 23rd January special inoculation allowances were made
experimentally to Drs. Britto and K. B. Shroff, Sectional Medical Officers
in 0 Ward and D Ward, and from the 10th February to Dr. Godinho,
Medical Officer in E Ward. An allowance was also made to Dr. Sorabji
D. Desai, who was placed in charge of an inoculation station at Dharavi in
the north of the Island (F and G Wards) under the patronage of Mr.
Adamji Peerbhoy, who induced most of his factory hands there to under-
go the operation. Meantime the Commissioner had used every endeavour
to enlist in this cause the leaders of all sections of society, and a meet-
ing of the most influential gentlemen among Marathi speaking Hindus
was held in the Municipal Hall on the 13th October. This meeting was
addressed by the Hon'ble Dr. Bhalchandra Krishna and by Dr.
Katrak, and an almost unanimous feeling in favour of inoculation was
on that occasion evinced. Dr. Bhalchandra had already in September
addressed a meeting of Hindu gentlemen at his own house, distributing
hand-bills explaining the results achieved by inoculation, and he followed
it up by addressing a mass meeting on the occasion of the Dussera
festival, 24th October, at the gathering of the Arya Mitra Mela in
Madhav Bag. It was at this time that the results secured at Hubli had
just become available, and at the meeting thousands of hand-bills
summarizing those results were scattered broadcast. On the 27th
October an inoculation station was opened in the Walkeshwar Temple
compound at the house of Mr. Ranchordas Tribhovandas under the
auspices of Mr. Mulji B. Barbhaya and other influential gentlemen, and
here, too, Dr. Bhalchandra addressed the meeting. Mr. Lakhmidas