113
CHAPTER III.
Part I.- The Rise of the Plague Research Laboratory.
The results obtained by Mr. Haffkine in Calcutta with his anti-cholera inoculations
—on which he had been engaged in India since 1893—had been so encouraging that
the Government of India sent him to Bombay when plague broke out there to
endeavour to discover some similar method of dealing with that disease. He reached
Bombay on the 7th of October 1896, soon after the existence of plague had been
publicly recognised, and on the 8th October began work in the Petit Laboratory at the
Graut Medical College His laboratory consisted of one room and a corridor, and his staff
oí one clerk and three peons. None of these persons knew anything of bacteriological
methods, and had therefore to be trained by Mr. Haffkine personally. In this laboratory
Mr. Haffkine worked for three months before he could be sure that he had found a means of
diagnosing the plague-microbe with unfailing certainty. This he discovered in a distin-
guishing and characteristic pendent growth having the form of stalactites assumed
by the microbes when they are cultivated in a suitable fluid medium, and allowed to hang
together in chains composed of numerous individuals. From pure cultivations of the plague
microbe, grown in nutrient bouillon, as above, Mr. Haffkiue obtained a fluid with which he
was able to work out a preventive inoculation to check the susceptibility of man and of animals
to the disease produced by the plague-germ. The first demonstration of the value of this
fluid as a means of prophylaxis to plague was made on rabbits in the laboratory. It was
found that rabbits artificially infected with virulent plague-microbes died of plague, whereas
rabbits which had been previously inoculated with this protective fluid resisted the virulent
microbes, so that they were unable to produce the disease. These observations, made
in December 1896, encouraged the trial of the fluid on human beings. On the 10th
January 1897 Mr. Haffkine underwent inoculation with this same fluid (Dr. Surveyor, who
had by that time joined him in the laboratory, operating), and proved on his own person
the harmlessness of the vaccine. In the last week of the same month the historic outbreak
of plague in the Byculla House of Correction in Bombay took place, which afforded the first
opportunity of testing the immunising properties of the vaccine Here was a population of
321 adult prisoners living under identical conditions of life, exposed to the same
chances of infection. Of these 148 submitted to inoculation. The subsequent incidence of
plague in this population was as follows—
Cases.
Deaths.
172 Uninoculated persons
...
...
12
6
147 Inoculated persons
...
...
2
0
This result served as an inducement to many persons in Bombay, and the room in the
laboratory became crowded with applicants for inoculation.
Dr. Suveyor's health having broken down in February 1897, his place in the laboratory
was taken by Dr. Kalapesi, and help in other ways was given by numerous volunteers
among whom the Professors of the Grant Medical College may be specially-mentioned.
Shortly after Mr. Haffkine came to Bombay on this special work, a Plague Research
Committee, consisting of—
Major Manser, I. M. S. ...
... President,
Captain L. F. Childe, I. M. S.,
W. M. Haffkine, Esq., C. I. E.,
} Members,
E. H. Hankin, Esq.,
Dr. Surveyor,
29