The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-29

struction of corpses and the proper iso-
latiOn of patients.
Yersins anti-bubonic serum is made
by inoculating healthy horses with
virulent plague bacilli. The blood of
the horses begins at once to combat
these bacilli-by producing substances
which paralyze them and neutralize
their toxins, or poisons. BY and by
this blood is so full of these substances
that plague bacilli cannot live in it.
Then some of it is drawn from the
horses veins and injected into the
veins of human patients. It retains its
power of combating bacilli, and so
confers immunity to the plague. Un-
luckily this immunity is not peryna-
nent. Experiment tends to prove. in
fact, that it lasts no longer than two
weeks. Therefore. a man exposed to
bubonic infection should be imrnunized
anew every fortnight.
Haffkine's prophylactic plague fluid
consists of a dead culture of dead ba-
cilli. These baciIli. of course. are in
ert themselves, but their toxins or
poisOns, are unaffected by the means
employed to kill them. When a dose
of the fluid is injected into a mans
veins these toxins stimulate his blood
to produce anti-toxins, and the blood,
after having produced enough to over
come the toxins, keeps on. The re-
sulting surplus of anti-toxins serves
wander in subsequently,, and thus the
man is rendered immune to the bu-
bOnic.
There is a difference of opinion as to
how long this immunity lasts. In
many cases, however, 1t undoubtedly
lasts a good while-perhaps several
months. In consequence Haffkine's
fluid is extensively used in the tropics
to immunize white men who are ex-
posed to plague infection. Lord Cur
zon. when he was viceroy of India.
submitted to incubation. and thus set
an example which bore good fruit.
It is probable that If all of the in
habitants of India, for instance, were
thus immunized. the bubonic would
soon die out. But the ignorant ma
tives, like ignorant people everywhere
else, are opposed to incubation, and it
is difficult to make them submit to IT.
In addition, the fluid is rather ex-
pensive, and it would take a hundred
thousand dollars to inoculate all the
people of India within a reasonable
time.
Besides that, there are very serious
practical difficulties. For one thing,
during a few days following inocula-
ton the Hatfkine fluid makes the per-
son inOculated. more, instead of less
susceptible to infection. For another
| thing, if it is employed after a person
has become infected, but before the
/ symptoms of the disease have de-
veloped, 1t is apt to produce a serious
and perhaps fatal attack. Only with
proper precautions is it's use advisable
Despite the popular idea, bubonic
| plague is not a malady peculiar to the
| tropics. During the middle ages il
| frequently ravaged Europe, and in re-
| cent years it has appeared in New York
! City, Bremen, Hamburg, Glasgow. San
| Francisco and other seaports of the
| temperate zone. 1t is most common
/ in tropical countries because the people
live with least regard for hygienic
| safety.
The present epidemic in India be-
| gan in 1896. 1t spread rapidly in the
United Provinces, Bengal and the Pun
! jab. and by 1900 the number of deaths