114
[CHAP. III., ΡT. I.
was appointed by Government in October 1898. The objects of this Committee covered a
very wide range and were roughly distributed as follows :—Major Manser,—whose unfortunate
death from pneumonic-plague in February 1897 necessitated his placo being filled by
Major Lyons, I. M. S.—clinical aspects of the disease ; Captain Childe, pathology of
plague ; Mr. Haffkine, the study of the microbe and its relation to man and animals,
prophylaxis, etc. ; Mr. Hankin, value of disinfectants and mode of dissemination in Nature ;
Dr. Surveyor, plague in animals.
It is both fitting and interesting to record here that Dr. Manser's case afforded the first
demonstration of the plague-bacillus in the sputum of the victims of the pneumonic form of
plague ( a form previously described by Dr. White in 1815 in a little known report *) ; a
pure culture of the plague-bacillus being recovered from his handkerchief by Mr. Haffkine ;
to whom it was sent for examination by Captain Childe, who was row the first to suspect
this new development of the disease. Suspicions of the infectious nature of this type of
plague were now first arosued by the death, from this very type of the clísense, of Miss
Joyce, the lady nurse who attended Major Manser in his last illness. Full details of
Dr. Mauser's case are given in Chapter II., p. 108.
For the next year and more, therefore, Haffkine's Laboratoryj such as it was, although
its staff and a portion of Mr. Haffkine's salary were defrayed by the Municipality, was but
a branch of this Committee.
The first improvement in the accommodation of the Laboratory was made on the 1st April
1897, when a house on Malabar Hill—"The Cliff"—was rented and fitted up by the
Municipality and placed at Mr. Haffkine's disposal. The different rooms in this bungalow
were utilized for the various stages in the manufacture of the prophylactic, also for the
storage of the vaccine in flasks and bottles. At this stage Major Bannerman, I. M. S.,
who had been deputed by the Government of Madras to study under Mr. Haffkine,
became associated with him, and they, with two civilian doctors, had the assistance of a staff
of two clerks, three peons, and four hamals in the work of the laboratory. The Cliff
bungalow was in use till November 1897, when, it being required for other purposes,
a move was made to another house in Nepean Sea Road, also provided by the Municipality.
At
this time H. H. Aga Khan, head of the Khoja community, who had all along
great interest in inoculation, and had, indeed, opened a station for the benefit of this com-
munity in one of his houses in Love Lane, Bombay, offered to place at Mr. Huffkine's disposal
the large house called Khushru Lodge in Nosbit Lane, Mazagaon. This house was filled
up with gas and water, and otherwise rendered suitable for a laboratory, at His Highness
expense : and for a year from February 1898, Khushru Lodge fulfilled its fuvetion admirably.
The staff under Mr. Haffkine at this time (February 1S9S) consisted of one Commissioned
Officer, I. M. S., four special Plague Medical Officers sent out by the Secretary of State for
India, four local medical men, three clerks, three peons, and six hamals. With the help
afforded by this extension of his staff, Mr. Haffkino was able to co-ordinate the services of his
assistants into an effective machinery of research for the investigation of improvement
connected with the manufacture of the prophylactic, and for information on questions
relating to the phenomenona of plague generally.
From March 1899, however, the demand for the prophylactic vaccine from all parts of
the world increased to such an extent that it became necersary once more to enlarge the
Laboratory : and from the 4th of March 1899 all charges in connection with the Laboratory
* Vide Introduction, p. x.