76
Assistance by
Private
Practitioners.
Most valuable assistance was rendered by private practitioners in
the matter of inoculation. They have been marked with an asterisk in
the table of inoculations performed, and not only was the number of
operations performed by them far from insignificant, but their public-
spirited action in this matter—undertaking the work gratuitously—
carried a moral influence with it not to be measured by the number of
people protected. They influenced their patients, and through their
patients the public generally, and their support was of no small value to
the District Officers. The enormous assistance rendered by Dr Sir
Bhalchandra Krishna has been referred to elsewhere. The following
extract from a brief report by Dr. A. CT. Yiegas speaks for itself :—
Bombay, 27/i June 3900.
To
CAPTAIN W. A. CUPPAGE,
District Plague Officer,
C " Ward.
SIB,
As requested by you I have the honour to submit a brief report of the work
done at the Chira Bazaar Inoculation Station from the 9th February 1898 to the
9th June 1900. Before proceeding to give detailed information of the number, age,
periods, castes, &c., of the inoculated people, I beg to be allowed to say that at the
meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th January 1898, during the discus-
sion on the best way of popularizing M. Haffkine's anti-plague inoculation in the city,
a member suggested to the Municipal Commissioner that, instead of having an
entirely paid agency for the work, the Health Officer might be requested to issue a
circular letter to private medical practitioners to undertake the work gratuitously
at their dispensaries, and he thought that they would cheerfully respond to the call
made on them, and that most of the dispensaries in Bombay would probably be
stations for inoculation with unpaid operators. The suggestion was acted upon, and
in response to the invitation the Chira Bazaar Inoculation Station was opened on tho
9th of February 1898.
Messrs. Vasantrao Nana and Wamanrao Nana, sons of the late Sirdar Nana
Moroba, most promptly placed at my disposal their nice and furnished hall for the
use of the station. They did all the clerical and other work, and also rendered me
most valuable assistance in connection with inoculation up to the 7th January 1900,
thus obviating the necessity of rented premises and paid assistance. Owing to the
prevalence of plague in the immediate neighbourhood of their residence, they left
temporarily for Matoonga on the 7th January 1900, and from this date down to the
9th June 1900 the whole work devolved upon my energetic Secretary, Khan Saheb
Bhicaji Ratanji Rana ; and, had he not come to my rescue, the station would have
been closed, for it would have been difficult—nay, I may say without exaggeration,
impossible—to find anyone coming forward to devote such a large portion of his time
to this work and at such a critical time. As the hall was found insufficient for the
large number of persons, who came to be inoculated morning and evening, tho
station was removed to the verandah of house No. 4, Dookerwady, which also be-
longs to Messrs. Vasantrao and Wamanrao Nana Moroba and they placed it at my
disposal. When the tenants of this house returned, I was at a loss to find a
suitable place for the station, and, after having been disappointed by two other
gentlemen, Mr. Dadabhoy Nasorvanji Kerrawalla, J. P., who has on several