The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-02-21

HoWDreadDi
Is Handled
There.

IN BOMBAY a wonderful work Is beng
done now to fight plague The pest
anti-toxin is being manufactured there
by wholesale. In the great plague lad
oratory, occupying the old Government
House, enough liquid is made at one time
| to dose 1000 people Hundreds of ma
tives are engaged in packing the Viais
that contain it for shipment to all parts
of the world. The place looks like a
thriving factory, where something that is
in vast demand commercially is being
turned out in feverish haste.
| great goat stable is the first odd
sight in the laboratory. Goats are used
for mediums to propagate the microoe'
because goats flesh is not obnoxious TO
the religious prejudices of any OF the
many castles, religions and creeds in In
dia. and therefore, there is no danger
that patients will refuse it on such
grounds.
The goats flesh is treated with acids,
and then heated under enormous pres
sure for about six hours, until 1t gives
| forth a pitch black albuminous solution
| This is practically the same as what can
be found in the human stomach after
| it has digested the same material.
The liquid is passed through animal
| charcoal. This decoloriZes II and rem
ders 1t still further antiseptic.
In an clubhouse stands mighty boil
er, which is kept going day and night
| Long lines of rails lead to it, and along
these rails there come all day and all
night long the little TASKS with the pre-
pared Juice They are dumped into the
boiler, and there undergo two separate
and complete bookings to steriiiZe the
medium perfectly. Then they are loaded
on other little cars, that whisk them INTO
the great poison ROOM" the laboratory,
where the most horrible malady and pest
known TO man is kept stored in tens Of
thousands of TASKS.
The room where they are kept Is the
one in which, in the old days, the great
governors of Bombay held their famous
banquets, that were unequaled anywhere
for splendor and luxury.
The banquet tables are filled as they
were then-but their present load is a
frightful one. In tube shouldering tube,
there are penned millions on millions OF
pest bacilli.
The guide lights a candle Qor the
bacilli are kept in darkness since they
thrive better that way), and holds it be-
hind row of the deadly and frighten-
ing tubes At once there is a fairy sight.
In each vial hangs a stalactite-a fieecy
wonder of a wilderness so dainty, so soft,
SHOWS that ever fell. The dark, rich
wine color of the liquid in which they are
kept makes them seem all the more mag
nificent and beautiful. The guide shakes
a flask and the stalactite becomes dis
solved and floats through the liquid In
filmy cloud that shimmers with mil
lion points of light. Then the film col
lects in hundreds of tiny little balls and
drifts down to the bottom of the flask
in miniature dancing snowstorms. And
all that purity. that fairness, is horrible,
malignant, virulent plague, corruption
unreliable and frightful death.
AS the TASKS of prepared medium are
brought into this poison room by the
swift little cars they are taken by OPP
orators and opened with all precautions
to preserve their sterility Each opera
tor has curious instrument in one
hand 1t Is the "Pasetur ballon," and
consists of a glass bulb from which ex-
tend two long spouts. One of these
spouts is plugged in two places with cot
ton, and has a mouthpiece on the end OF
il. The other spout is long and thin,
and sealed at the end The flask con-
tanning the goats flesh serum is placed
in larger flask and held in a sloping
position. A Bunsen burner is applied to
the spout with the mouthpiece and par
ticularly to those parts of the spout
where the cotton wadding IS, until the
heat has been great enough to Kill any
from the air. Then the sealed end of the
other spout is broken off and the burner
is held TO il long enough TO kill off any
eXtraneous matter that may have an-er-
ed there. Then this end IS dipped into
the medium and the operator blows into
the mouthpece.
The chance visitor (of whom there are
not many, for they fear the microbes),
will not understand what he is doing
When the guide explains it he Will feel
faint and sick. For in the spherical bulb
of the ''hallon' is enough plague-!nfect-
ed fluid to kill the population of all Asia
And the self-possessed and apparently
not a all heroic operator who Is blow
ing through the tube is blowing plague
bacilI by the thousand into the goats
flesh serum
He does not seem to be appalled, by
the thought of putting his mouth ne7r
the deadly mass. He blows as prosaIcal-
" and as much at his ease as If he were
blowing glass. With mechanical regular
ity and CELEBRITY he fills flask after
one Is filed another operator seals it
and labels it with date and ali particu-
lars, and off it goes to another room.
In this the TASKS are placed in "A boiler
and heated for an hour. care being taken
10 keep the temperature even. Then they
are cooled rapidly in troughs. In THIS
way the microbe is killed. Then 20 the
toxin is added y per cent of pure car
boiic acid. also sterilized.
The liquid after that is ready to be
syphoned into bottles. a process in which
again are manifest the wonderful care
and exactitude necessary in all that per
tains to meteorological science. Again
there is steriliZing with the Bunse1
burner. a long tube. part glass, part
rubber, is inserted in the toxin mixture,
the rubber being used for the perform
ance of a sort of milking operation from
he TO
into heated medicine bottles, stopDered
with sterilized cottonwood plugs. These
plugs are removed. the necks of the bot
ties heated. and bottles closed with corks
also sterilized in a solution of per cent
formalin and dipped into boiling parafiir.
10 create a wall between the cork aid
the glass. In the stoppering the cork
is only touched with heated forceps. Cork
and neck are now covered with carbol-
lied parchment, which in turn is fasten-
ed on with carbolified string. The whole
* dipped again into the boiling oil, so
that all creViceS may be closed. and a