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CHAPTER II.
THE MEDICAL ASPECTS OF PLAGUE.
REPORT OF THE BOMBAY BUBONIC PLAGUE RESEARCH COMMITTEE.
(NOTE.—Footnotes made by Major Lyons are not initialled : in every other case the
initials of the annotator are given. )
The Plague Research Committee, details of the constitution and work of which are
given below, was a body of experts appointed by Government to investigate and report upon
the nature and treatment of Plague. Owing to their ordinary duties, however (Major
Manser was Professor of Medicine, and Capt. Childe Professor of Pathology at the Grant
Medical College, Bombay), they were unable to give the time and research to the subject
which could have been wished : but in this statement Mr. Haffkine and Mr. Hankin are not
included.
Nevertheless, in spite οf difficulties in the matters of time and opportunity, they, after
the lapse of a year, published a Report of remarkable excellence on the clinical aspects and
the macroscopic and microscopic pathology of the disease : as well as the results of various
investigations and experiments in the bacteriology of the subject.
At the present time, indeed, except in the bacteriology of the subject, their Report still
stands as the first authority on the medical aspects of Plague, and for that reason it is quoted,
practically in extenso, here.
Owing to the length of the Report, it has been found necessary to omit portions, but in
every case where this has been done, the fact, with a description of the portion omitted, has
been stated.
The history of the Committee itself was an eventful one. Appointed in October 1896,
its President, Major Manser, succumbed to plague within the first three months of its exist-
ence, while Dr. Surveyor's health gave way. A full description of Major Manser's case is
given in the Report itself by Captain, (now Major) L. F. Childe, I. M. S., who attended him.
After Major Manser's decease, Major Lyons, I. M. S., was appointed President.
Points of special interest are the failure to find the point of entry of the poison
into the body marked by any specific lesion, such as is the case in anthrax ; the character of
the gland enlargement and the effusion into the tissues surrounding the glands, which is so
conspicuous and forms such a mass that the glands proper are almost entirely obscured by it ;
the brain appearances of congestion, etc., which may perhaps explain the cerebral symptoms ;
and, lastly, the state of the heart, which is of great interest.
I.—REPORT BY SURGEON-MAJOR LYONS, τ. M. S., PRESIDENT OF THE PLAGUE
RESEARCH COMMITTEE.
THE Plague Research Committee was originally formed, in October 1896, to inquire into
the nature and history of the disease, stated to be bubonic plague, of which a number of cases
•had occurred in Bombay City.
The Committee was composed of the following members, and they decided to distribute
the work as follows :—
SURG.-MaJOR MANSER, President :—The clinical aspect of the disease ; its treatment
by drugs ; the source of the Bombay outbreak ; the history of its introduction and spread ;
and the evidence relating to its incubation period. Dr. Manser died in January 1897 from
plague, and Surgeon-Major R. W. S. Lyons took, his place as President.
SURG.-CAPT, CHILDE :—The macroscopic and microscopic pathology of the disease.