?opic11 the be borne in mind that this brew of Haffkine's fluid mufassal, timely intimation shall be furnished of his arrival to the local authorities showed only slight contamination of cocci. in the district of destination. All such persons will be allowed to move The following deductions may be drawn from the exabout freely and without periments that have been done so far :? hindrance, but it is reasonable that the local authorities should have notice of lstly, that in bottling the Haffkine's fluid froni prompt their arrival, in order that the retorts sufficient care does not seem to be forewarned and they may " on their have been exercised in preventing contaminaguard tion. The Royal Plague Commissioners left Bombay 2ndly, allowing that some contamination is unfor London on the 25th March. Their report avoidable,due to the enormous out-turn of fluid is expected to be issued in necessary to meet the demand, all the bottles July. on being filled and before being sent away should be resterilized to 60?C. for an hour, HAFFKINE'S ANTI-PLAGUE FLUID. and the corks should be replaced by proper As several instances of alleged blood poisoning fitting glass stoppers. This probably would not destroy the chemical products of putrehave been attributed to the use of this remedy, faction. If this were done, and if it was which generallj' has proved to be more or less proved that resterilizing does not injure the innocuous, Captain C. A. Johnston, M.B,, D.P.H., protective influence of the inoculation fluid, then I feel sure there would be less number l.M.s., of Hyderabad, was requested to underwhich is published herewith. land quarantine is

Nothing

bacteriological examination of this fluid living micro-organisms of an objectionable character.

of cases of

an

Hyderabad."

take

a

His general results are thus summarized in official paper issued by Lieut.-Colonel E.

Lawrie,

septic poisoning

among the inocu-

lated subjects, for the fluid which is received now from Bombay is undoubtedly a "putrescent organic liquid" as stated before the Commission by the Plague Commissioner,

to determine its

It seems desirable therefore that every care The samples of Haffkine's fluid examined bacterio- should be taken to sterilize this fluid before issue logically all show contamination with living micro- if the remedy is to maintain its popularity. organisms?iu some cases, Nos. 5315, 0349 and 4096, i.m.s. :?

"

the contamination seems to be with cocci alone, in the others with a mixture of cocci and bacilli Although the samples taken show the above contamination, other bottles of the same brew show contamination with other forms of micro-organisms. As far as the investigations have gone it will be seen that the microorganisms isolated from the fluids are many of them distinctly pathogenic, some more virulently so than others ; in one case (No. 5338) the microbe was so pathogenic as to cause death (vide rabbit 120). Babbit No. 121 shows the effect of the contamination with cocci, which was the staphyloccus aureus, producing local disease (abscess and ulceration) and a pyaemia. If the temperature charts of the inoculations with one of the brews and the organisms isolated from that brew be compared, it will be seen that the inoculation with the fluid as received from Bombay, gives a greater rise of temperature in most cases than the pyrexia produced by the isolated organisms?therefore, if the living organisms were extracted from the fluid before inoculation, a lower temperature ought to be the result of inoculating such a fluid. This idea seems to be confirmed when the temperature charts of rabbits 101 and 105 are compaiea. No. 101 is the result of inoculation of Haffkine s fluid No. 4168, giving a rise of temperature to 106 , followed

RATS AND THE PLAGUE.

Nearly a century ago, the remarkable relation of rats to plague was noticed in China. Mr. Kumagusu Minakata writes iti Nature, February 16th, to the following effect In the Encyclopaedia Britannica, ninth edition, vol. xix, p. 1G8, Dr. J. F. Payne writes : It is remarkable that of late years reports have come of the occurrence of oriental plague in China. It has been observed in the province of Yunnan since 1871 It appears to be endemic, though there are rumours of its having been brought from Burma and become more noticeable after the suppression of rebellion in that province (1872). However, the following passage 1 have lately found in Hung Liang Kill's PeliKiang-Shi-Hiva (British Museum copy, 15,31(5, a, tome iv, fol. 4, b) bears witness to the much _

THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.

132

earlier occurrence of the pest in Yunnan, inasmuch as the author, who was born in 1736, and died in 1809, speaks of his contemporary dead " Shi Rau-Nan, the son of Shi Fan, thereby : now the Governor of Wang-Kiang, was notorious for his (poetic) gift, and was only 3G years old when he died.... Then, in ChauChau (in Yunnan) it happened that in day time strange rats appeared in the houses, and lying down? on the ground, perished with blood spitting. There was not a man who escaped the instantaneous death after being iufected with the miasma. Tau-Nan composed thereon a poem entitled Death of Rats, the masterpiece of his; and a few days after he himself died from this '

queer rat

epidemic.'

"

NOTIONS ON THE NATURE OF THE PLAGUE.

practitioner sends us from Bombay of his views on the causastatement printed tion of the plague, which he had prepared for the The valuable use of the Plague Commissioners. character of his views may be gathered from the following extract from his article:? A medical

a

do not think it (the plague) was imported in from Hongkong or anywhere else. I attribute 3 sources of causes of outbreaks of plague in Bombay :? (a) The predisposing cause was the Bombay Municipality. (b) The exciting cause was the Nature herself. (c) The aggravating cause was the Plague Committee." "I

Bombay

HOW AGITATORS WORK.

Several correspondents have sent us a postcard bearing the following manifesto which has been widely circulated to Civil Surgeons in India:? PLAGUE. Dear Sip., For the sake of

asking

of

(sic. /) I have the pleasure against inoculation ? If if in favour, state reason. State would like to keep your name in

the Public

And so, state reason. in either cases if you secret. It will not be out of way to state that good MANY OF THE ClVIL SURGEONS ARE AGAINST INOCULATION and they have already written me about it. If you do not care to reply, please refuse this card.

28th Jan. 1899.

beg

to

remain,

Sir,

Your most obedient

Servant,

***?*?

N. Physician. BACTERIA IN RUM.

It might be thought impossible on the face of it that there could be any bacteriology of rum seeing that it contains nearly 75 per cent, of alcohol, but according to the results of a very interesting investigation recently made by Mr. Y. H. Yeley, M.A., F.R.S., of Oxford University, and his wife, and summarized in The Lancet, there does exist an organism in rum which accounts for an apparent disease to which it is liable at times and which is known in the trade as faultiness." The cause of this disease has long been unexplained, for it has never occurred to

"

concerned

that

1899.

it could be due

to

a

microbe, especially as the strength of the spirit is only 25 per cent, short of pure alcohol. The

"

"

faultiness of rum is at once obvious when the spirit is diluted with an equal bulk of water, the diluted liquid either immediately or after some hours becoming cloudy and depositing on longer standing a more or less copious precipitate or showing the presence in greater or less abundance of floating flocculencies. The micrococcus which has been isolated and identified as the " faultiness" is a very interesting organcause of ism. It does not, however, appear to be pathogenic or toxic according to the results of inoculating a guinea-pig. Its survival in spirit?that is, in a liquid which has hitherto been considered to be one of the best materials for preserving anatomical specimens?is remarkable. Strictly speaking, however, the organism does not flourish in alcohol but "in its gelatinous envelope, thus living as it were in a state of siege in its own castle through the walls of which it can obtain its necessary supplies of food in the form of sugar while keeping out its enemy alcohol." No definite information has been obtained as to the original habitat of this peculiar micro-organism. The discoverers of this new micro-organism which has caused a great pecuniary loss to manufacturers propose to call it provisionally Coleotkrix metliystes, from tcoXeds (a sheath) and /a?Qv)S (a drunkard)?a name ingeniously suggested by a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. KITCHEN BACTERIOLOGY.

has been delivering of lectures for ladies on hygiene popular and bacteriology, in which he has applied laboratory methods to culinary matters and procesHis jars with cotton stoppers like cultureses. tubes, says the Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette, filled with cooked and uncooked meats, etc., kept unspoiled from five to fifteen days in the warm hall. His class was allowed to invite their friends to an exhibition of Kitchen products?some raw and some cooked?that had remained in a warm room for periods varying from five to sixteen days, and which were all found perfectly fresh and quite unchanged in appearance and taste. Nor had any complicated procedure been required to obtain this result. The method simply consists in : (1) The use of vessels with wellfitting, overlapping lids, instead of the inside lids used in kitchens the world over, which allow stray bits of matter that may adhere to their rim to fall into the food; (2) avoidance of opening the vessels in which the food was kept, or, where this was indispensable, careful manipulation as in bacteriological work ; and (3) the use of cotton-wool as a covering. Cotton-wool lids have been specially prepared to Dr. Jager of

you that?Are you

I

those

[April

a

course

Konigsberg

April

1899.]

KITCHEN

BACTERIOLOGY?THE

COUNTESS OF DUFFERIN FUND.

133

the higher degrees in Europe, has been selected fit the wide for the charge of the new hospital at Srinagar tops of the food vessels; they consisted of a circular disc of in Kashmir, and Miss Cardozo will leave shortly cotton-wool, tightlyheld between two metal for Fort Sandeman in Baluchistan to open a the outer of which rings, formed the overlapping rim of the lid. It isnew station. to dispensary in that be hoped that Dr. With various hospitals and the to regard Jager will find imitators, and that "kitchen institutions in furthering the objects engaged become a bacteriology" may study of the Association, it will be seen that while with ladies. Certainly there is much room a number for improvement in the of the finest hospitals have been old-fashioned kitchen built and are entirely supported by Native methods to which our cooks" "family plain clung with such desperate Princes, the majority have been erected by funds energy, and which the}' seem to collected by the supporters of the Fund, and regard with an almost superstitious that a considerable amount of money has been reverence. spent on their construction by district branches of the Association. Over twenty-four lakhs, in all, it is computed, THE COUNTESS OF DUFFERIN'S FUND. have been expended on buildings, and have been distributed as follows:?In the North-Western At the Annual Meeting of this "Association for Provinces and Oudh, Rs. 7,10,000; in Bengal, Female Medical Aid to the Women of Supplying Rs. India," held on March 3rd, in Calcutta,under the 4,96,000; in the Native States, Rs. 4,54,000; in Bombay, Rs. 1,65,000; in the Punjab, Rs. 1,60,000; presidency of Lady Curzon, and a large gathering, in Madras, Rs. 1,52,000; in Mysore, Rs. 85,000; in Lord Curzon, Surgeon-General Harvey, including the Central Provinces, Rs. 79,000 ; in Burma, C.B., and Colonel Hendley, c.i.e., it was stated Rs. 72,000; in Berar, Rs. 33,000; and in Baluthat there are now thirty-five lady doctors of the Rs. 9,000. chistan, first grade, i.e., persons qualified for 0 registration This shows that about seven lakhs have been in the United Kingdom, seventy-five Assistant spent in the last five years,of which nearly a lakh Surgeons or practitioners of the second grade and a half have been expended in building operwho have been trained in India and hold Indian ations qualifications, and two hundred and fifty-seven In during 1898. previous volumes the Committee has drawn Hospital Assistants, or practitioners of the thirdattention to the well-known difficulty of persuadgrade, which includes all qualifications not ing purclah women to make use of the hospitals considered up to the standard for required connected with the Association and in the last Assistant-Surgeons. There have been as usual several changesreport it expressed the hope that as special purdah wards and purdah hospitals were more among lady doctors holding important charges, generally constructed throughout the country, as well as a number of new appointments. Miss A. Baiimler, m.d., has vacated her appoint-an increased attendance would be noticeable, as were slowly overcome. ment in Calcutta, and Miss A. L. Church, MB.,ignorance and suspicion In this with connection subject,and in order to has succeeded her in charge of the LadyDufferin show as plainly as possible the steady progress Victoria Hospital. Miss Blong, m.d., has been maintains is steadily being confirmed in charge of the Begum's Hospital which the Committee made in the direction, special reports were at Bhopal, vicc Miss Barnard, l.r.c.p., resigned, called for from the Lady Doctors of recently and Miss II. Lauder, M.D., has replaced of Female Hospitals Miss Dissent, m.d., at Ulwar. Miss Friend Pereira, the first grade in charge in various parts of India. Their remarks, with M.d., has been appointed to Chittagong, and relief afforded by them to purdahMiss E. Knight, m.b., is temporarily engaged at the details of nasliin women, will be found in Appendix XI. Lahore. Miss Crawley, l.r.c.p., is officiatThe details which have been have been ing at Bettiah, vice Miss Marsh, L.R.C.P., who somewhat hastily collected andgiven are necessarily is now on leave in J. Miss and Perry more or less Europe, scanty, but the Committee hopes will shortly hold charge at Nahan in place of fuller information on this important Miss Balfour, M.D., who is about to proceed on to give in its next report. At the same time leave. Miss Rachel Cohen, m.b., who was lately subject the Committee feels constrained to say that awarded the Elgin Jubilee Scholarship at home, has been appointed to the charge of the new much more assistance might be given to them in this matter, if influential Native gentlemen hospital at Rangoon, replacing Miss H. Forbes, would use their best endeavours, not only to who proceeds to Europe to obtain the higher the real explain objects of the Association where degree in medicine. Miss Yerbury, M.D., in doubts in this respect, but also to exist may L. charge of the hospital at Agra, and Miss obtain suitable candidates to adopt a career in Mackenzie, L.R.C.P., at Gaya, are both likely which may afford relief to their suffering to be granted furlough towards the end of sisters. they So far as the statements which have March, and a temporary vacancy will shoitly been received are concerned, the Committee occur at Patiala, as Miss J. Wynne, l.r.c.p., has been ordered home on medical certificate. trusts that they will, when the great difficulties Miss D. E. Pratt, m.b., who has recently taken

THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.

134

the treatment of purdah women are to hold out fair promise for better results in the future. In the North-Western Provinces and Oudh report for instance, the Central Committee finds the encouraging remark by the Provincial Committee that several of the local reports lay stress on the fact that the number of strictly purdahnashin patients is steadily increasing, while the private services of lady doctors are in some quarters highly appreciated, and being largely requisitioned. Free relief it will be seen from the returns was afforded to 2,268 women at their homes in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh alone. Lord Curzon signified his intention of continuing the Viceroy's medals to the Countess of Dufferin's Fund which were first given by Lord Dufferin and have since been presented by Lords Lansdowne and Elgin. These comprise four silver medals for competition at the Calcutta Medical College, the Campbell Medical School, the Lahore Medical College, and the Agra Medical School, a bronze medal being given to the latter school until such time as the students are qualified to compete for a silver medal. Silver medals are also continued to the Medical Practitioners' Class at Madras and the Certificated Practitioners' Class at the Bombay Medical Colleges, and a bronze medal is given to the Medical School at Hyderabad, Deccan. Lord and Lady Curzon will also give an anuual subscription of Rs. 500 to the Fund.

attending

remembered, be considered

THE VICEROY ON WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE.

of his eloquent address, His made graceful allusion to the great Excellency benefits which India is receiving from Western medical science. After saying that the British had come to India as conquerors indeed, but as benefactors also, bringing religion, law, literature and science as gifts in their hands; and after admitting that there might be two views about the three gifts first mentioned, he said : Now I come to the last boon, of science, and medical science in particular. About this two opinions can no possibly be entertained. There may be prejudices and scruples arising from long custom, ignorance, or other causes, but doubts there cannot possibly be; and I say this, that if we had come back to you from the West with our medicine in our hand, and with that alone, we should have been justified in our return. For what is this medical science we bring It is no mere collection of to you ? experimental rules. It is built on the bed-rock of pure, irrefutable science; it is a boon which is offered to all, rich and poor, Hindu and Mohammedan, woman and man. It lifts the purdah without irreverence. So far as I know, it is the only dissolvent which breaks down the barriers of caste without sacrilege. Medical science, indeed, In

the

course

"

pragmatical

[Aprn,

1899.

is the most cosmopolitan of all sciences, because it embraces in its merciful appeal every suffering human being in the world. Now, our Anglo-Indian poet Kipling?I claim him as an Anglo-Indian, though he is also the property of the world?in his latest poem, and I hope and pray?and I am sure you join in that prayer? that it will be by 110 means his last, has thus written : Take up the White Man's burden? The savage wars of peace, Fill full the mouth of famine, And bid the sickness cease.

Well, this part at any rate of the White Man's burden, this portion of the bounty of the Aryans of the West, has not been ignored by the British in India, and in my view every hospital we build in this country, every doctor we train,

every nurse we turn out, every patient we cure, is part of tho service that we owe to India; is an element of our duty in this country; is part of the home-coming gift which the Aryans of the West have brought back to their kith and

kin."

RABIES IN THE PUNJAB.

There appears to be no doubt that rabies is largely on the increase in Lahore and the surrounding districts, says the Civil and Military Gazette. Veterinary-Captain Jocelyn informs the Inspector-General of the Civil Veterinary Department at Meerut that 42 cases were dealt with at the Veterinary College in Lahore during the year ended on the 31st January last. This total shows a market increase on those of the three previous years, which were 29, 9 and 13 respectively. Of course the figures do not cover the full extent to which the disease is prevalent for, as the Principal of the College observes, the number of cases " brought to that institution represents but a fractional part of the total number which occur." Captain Jocelyn ascribes this marked spread of rabies chiefly to increased intercourse between various localities, consequent upon brisker trade, and also to the fact that recently "circumstances have been more favourable for the breeding of the canine species (jackals, wolves, hyenas, &c.)." As to the prevention of a further spread of the disease, the Principal recommends that the Police should be empowered to seize all stray and ownerless dogs, especially in cantonments and municipalities, and that the prevalence of the disease and its dangerous nature should be made as widely known as possible. ADULTERATION OF GHEE.

A difference of opinion between the GovernBombay and the Supreme Government has caused a very serious delay in the adoption of the legislation which is admittedly required to check the offence of adulterating ghee iu tho ment of

April

NOTES?REVIEWS.

1899.]

135

An experimental sowing of seed of the Austraof Bombay, says the Times of India. Nearlylian salt bush is about to be made in the Punjab three years ago, at the request of the Bombayunder arrangements Municipality, a draft Bill to extend the clausesof Land Records and to be made by the Director Agriculture. of the Municipal Act relating to the adulteration of food and drugs which were powerless to deal with this growing evil was approved by the A new insect plague,' the ' Jigger,' has been local Government. In this little Bill a strin-introduced into Bombay from Africa. Twelve gent clause was inserted, providing that the pleapersons are already attacked by this pest, a that the vendor was ignorant of the nature of the description of which is given on another page. article sold could not be accepted as valid in any prosecution, a proviso which, rigorous though it be, is regarded as essential if the measure is to Influenza, has been rather prevalent of late a great part of India. prove at all effective in dealing with a highlythroughout The Governor-General objectionable practice. in Council hesitated to give his sanction to this clause, and asked for an assurance that the retail trade in ghee was carried on under such circumstances that the penalties could be enforced without injustice to the vendors. His Excellency's advisers had apparently overlooked the fact that the section was copied exactly from Act It of 1888. The Bengal upshot of nearly two years' correspondence between the two Governments is that Bombay has gained its point, and in the draft of the Bill recently published the clause stands in its original form.

city

'

THE SCHOOL OF

TROPICAL MEDICINE.

The School of Tropical Medicine, which is being formed with the assistance of Mr. Chamberlain, is, it is stated, making progress with its preliminary work. A conference of doctors and colonial officials was held at the Colonial Office on March 1st, when the West African malaria and other tropical diseases were discussed, and information as to their remedies and prevention was tabulated. Mr. Chamberlain will make a statement upon the progress of this movement at the dinner which is shortly to be given in connection with the project. This lumbar curve of the vertebral column has been studied by Cunningham and by Turner, but very little information concerning this feature among the American races was forthcoming till a recent paper by Dr. G. A. Dorse.y in the Bulletin of the Essex Institute, Salem, Ma*s (vol. xx\Tii} p. 53). The mean index of eight varied American peoples ranges between 100-3 and 101*5 ; they are thus orthorachic. Dorsey consimeans of ders the lumbar index as an

important

in any individual race or tribe, and that it bids fair to become one of the most valuable ethnic tests known in determining the physical superiority or inferiority of any tribe

determining sex or race.

A striking feature of the last

Medical Report

by Lieutenant-Colonel

Rajputana A. Adams,

'?M.S., for the year 1807, is that the section is graphically printed in red.

surgical

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