For a full and severe examination of the reports, statistics, and
other evidence concerning this and other outbreaks in which preventive
inoculations were made, the Report (1901) of the Indian Plague
Commission must be studied. The Commissioners, Professor T. R. Fraser,
Mr. J. P. Hewett, Professor (now Sir) A. E. Wright, Mr. A. Cumine, Dr.
Ruffer, and Mr. C. J. Hallifax, Secretary, travelled and took evidence
in India from November 1898 to March 1899: during which time they held
70 sittings and examined 260 witnesses, some at great length. The
evidence and the report are published in five large volumes. The
report, 540 pages in all, deals exhaustively with the whole subject.
It represents the very least--what might almost be called the very
worst--that can be said of Haffkine's fluid: and, of course, it reads
rather differently from the reports of the men who, with their lives
in their hands, and worked almost past endurance, fought plague
themselves. The following paragraphs give, so far as possible, the
bare facts of various outbreaks of the disease in 1897-99, in which
Haffkine's fluid was used.
1. _Daman_
Plague broke out in Daman, a town in Portuguese territory, north of
Bombay, and in constant communication with Bombay by sea, in March
1897. By the end of the month, when a Government cordon was placed
round the town, about 2000 out of 10,900 had fled. The outbreak
reached its height in mid-April, and was practically over by the end
of May. Inoculations were begun on 26th March. The total population on
that day (2000 having gone out, and 670 having died of plague) is
estimated at 8230. Of these, 2197 were inoculated, and 6033 were left
uninoculated. Among the inoculated there were 36 deaths = 1.6 per
cent.; among the uninoculated 1482 deaths = 24.6 per cent.
The Commissioners criticise these figures severely, and do not accept
them as exact. But they admit the evidence as to the results of
inoculation among the Parsee community of Daman. Of this community,
306 in number, 277 were inoculated, and only 29 were left
uninoculated. Among the inoculated there was 1 death = 0.36 per cent.:
among the uninoculated there were 4 deaths = 13.8 per cent.
They admit, also, the house-to-house investigations made by Major
Lyons, I.M.S., President of the Bombay Government Plague Committee. At
the end of May, he visited 89 houses, in 62 of which both inoculated
and uninoculated were living together. He found that out of 382
inoculated, 36 had died = 9.4 per cent.; out of 123 uninoculated, 38
had died = 30.9 per cent.
2. _Lanauli_
Plague attacked Lanauli, a small hill-station and railway depot,
during April to September 1897. The entire population was estimated at
about 2000. Inoculations were begun on 24th July in two wards of the
town, and a daily house-to-house inspection was instituted. The
figures reported, on the basis of the average daily strength of the
two groups, are as follows:--
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