MUKTESAR, FOR THE YEAR ENDING THE 31ST MARCH, 1927
9
steps had been taken to balance expenditure, by raising the price of
serum with effect from the commencement of 1922-23, there followed
a period of years during which no endeavour at the laboratory could
raise the income for that time.
Much time was devoted to intensive economic research upon the
methods of manufacturing sera and to exploring the possibilities of
expanding the capacity of the laboratory for manufacture, and accu-
mulating stocks of good sera in time to meet the period of anticipated
high demand following upon a period of depression. In the Report of
the Institute for the financial year 1924-25, there is given in some detail
an account of the efforts made and the success obtained in cheapening
the costs of production of sera for issue to combat rinderpest and hæmorr-
hagic septicæmia. The knowledge obtained justified the laboratory in
abandoning the expensive procedure of " hyper-immunization " for the
production of anti-rinderpest serum, and the substitution of the rela-
tively cheap " immune " system, which, however, needs a considerable
degree of expert supervision to execute it most economically. Again, it
was found that a highly potent hæmorrhagic septicæmia serum could be
obtained speedily from the animals that had been discontinued from the
rinderpest work, at a cost that was very low indeed compared with the
former system of progressive hyper-immunization that had to be
carried out in close contact with the headquarters laboratory at
Muktesar.
The Izatnagar tributary plains station was definitely reclaimed for
use in 1922, and employed for serum production during the following
cold weather. Previously, it had not been anticipated that a subsidiary
plains station could be used for serum manufacture except during the
cold weather months. With its ample surface area and favourable
situation, the Izatnagar site clearly showed possibilities; the extent to
which the new processes of mass production devised at Muktesar could
be unloaded on to it was carefully investigated, and, eventually, from
October, 1924, onwards this cruder work has been undertaken nearly
completely, and throughout the year, at Izatnagar, thus relieving
Muktesar for the more delicate work for which it is naturally admirably
adapted by its situation, such as the standardization of the sera prior
to issue, the manufacture of products requiring closer expert supervision
and a cooler environment, and special research projects.
The succeeding period of high demand actually commenced, as
anticipated, towards the end of 1924 ; there were available ample stocks
to meet it. In spite of the continued high demands these stocks have
been maintained and even increased, although during the course of the
year 1925 this involved a great strain upon the direction of the laboratory,
especially as unusually high demands were coming in also at that time
for highly potent serum for use in the serum-simultaneous inoculation
against rinderpest. However, after this initial period of stress, the initial
processes of manufacture devised became familiar to the manufacturing
staff, and experience showed early that our resources for manufacture
in bulk were very elastic