PLAgUE RESEARCH LABORATORY.]
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be most heartily congratulated on the extremely efficient staff he has under his command.
He is also to be congratulated upon the laboratory which, I believe, he himself considers
to be in every point satisfactory. The Government of India have done well in establishing
this laboratory, and I have little doubt that there will be others set up in various parts of
the country. Once more wishing you well in the task before you, Major Bannerman, and
knowing that your reputation must be increased as your scientific wares are sent all over
the world, I have great pleasure in declaring this institution open, and give it my best
wishes.' (Applause.)
"The proceedings concluded in the usual manner."
His Excellency's second visit to the Laboratory is thus described in the same paper :—
"On Saturday evening (26th August 1899) His Excellency the Governor of Bombay
Inspected the new Laboratory at Parel, and was accompanied by a large number of guests
who had been invited for the occasion.
"Major Bannerman delivered an interesting address on the effect of the prophylactic, in
the course of which he pointed out that people were inoculated with the dead bacillus, and
were, therefore, absolutely non-infectious. He had, he said, just received some startling
figures from Belgaum.†
*
*
*
*
"His Excellency said :I do not propose to make any speech on this occasion, but I think
I may express the thanks of the meeting to Major Bannerman for the extremely clear and
interesting lecture he has given us on this important subject. I myself have had to do with
hospitals, intimately I might say—for certainly the last ten or fifteen years, and while I have
been very familiar with many medical men and the administrations of a great many—almost
all—of the larger hospitals in London, there is one position I never expected to find myself in,
and that is the position of a medical student. But here we are all medical students, and I am
sure that in the same category I may include my friend the Bishop of Bombay, and the Roman
Catholic Bishop equally so. We are all, I am sure, glad to sit at the feet of so distnguished
a lecturer as Major Bannerman. Well, now, Major Bannerman made a very fitting reference
to the genius of Prof. Haffkine. Major Bannerman tells me he is now making use of the
genius of that distinguished scientist, and that the discovery of Mr. Haffkine has unquestion-
ably, as all the world now knows, been instrumental in saving an immense number of our
fellow-subjects in India from death. 1 may say further that the wares, as I may call them,
from the laboratory at Parel will, no doubt, in a very short time, find their way into Southerln
Europe and into England, and when the time comes for the history of this plague to be realy
written, it cannot be doubted that the name, from the point of view of science, of Professor
Haffkine will occupy the foremost place. (Applause.) I am very glad to see such a represen-
tative and varied gathering as that which is sitting before and standing around me. I see a
very large number of faces in the rows beyond there which are well-known to me in my visits
round the city, and in my connection with what we know as plague volunteers. It is not too
much, I think, to ask that they should lay to their hearts what they have heard in explanation
of the process of inoculation and the preparation of the prophylactic, and advise according
to experience and their observation. Some startling figures have been read to us from Bel-
gaum. I can give you my own personal experience as regards the efficacy of the inoculation.
I am sorry to say that among my servants, in their own quarters at Ganeshkhind, we have
had a number of cases. The exact figures up to date, which it is fair to take, are a follows :—
There have been 324 inoculated and 300 uninoculated. A very great many more have been
inoculated, but so lately that it is not fair to bring them into the calculation. We have been
so unfortunate as to have fourteen cases among the servants and their famines ; every one of
those cases has been from among the 300 who were not inoculated. I have only one thing
more to say, and that is, that Major Bannerman is not confining his work entirely to that
which he has undertaken in connection with prophylactics. In his spare time he is engaged
in making a bacteriological and chemical analysis of the atmosphere and ground air in the
district of Nagpada, which will be extremely interesting in itself, and also in the future will
be of infinite use for comparison. Where, however, this "spare time" comes in I cannot
exactly say, but that is Major Bannerman's affair. I am very glad to say that the new
scheme for Nagpada is now on the eve of obtaining the formal sanction of Government.
(Applause.) I beg to thank you, Major Bannerman, in the name of this assembly, for
the lecture you have given us. ' "
† For Belgaum figures, see Chap. I, Pt. IV., Inoculatiop.
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