'Russia and India in 1903' [‎30r] (61/68)

FIGHTING PLAGUE AT BOMBAY.
55
Goat flesh has, therefore, to be substituted. It is finely
minced, then placed in glass jars, with 40 cubic
centimetres of hydrochloric acid for every pound, and
left for a week in water at 158° Fahrenheit. The
result is complete digestion or dissolution. The fluid is
then put into earthenware jars, with one and a half pints
of water for every pound of original goat flesh. These
jars are then placed for three hours in a temperature
of 290° Fahrenheit. Then comes filtering with
charcoal, and after the fluid has been strained off
through muslin, it is neutralised by the addition of
caustic soda, and diluted with two and a half parts of
water. Again comes heating for an hour in a
temperature of 250° Fahrenheit, refiltering and
distribution into flasks. Into each are passed a few
drops of cocoanut oil. The necks are stopped with
sterilised cotton-wool, and a batch of fifty or sixty
flasks sent off for final sterilisation under a pressure of
15 lbs. to the square inch.
The Banquet of the Bacilli.
Then, the soup for the bacilli pestis being ready,
and, by the repeated processes indicated, secured
against the presence of any germ or foreign body, it is
sown with them, a thin layer of oil being still visible
on the surface. The flasks are kept in the dark, and
if the growth sown has been pure, a crop of stalactites
—resembling silk threads hanging from the surface—
is seen in the clear bouillon on placing a light behind it.
If these results are attained, bacilli are next invited
to feast upon the brew for six weeks in the Banqueting
Hall, which for over a hundred years was used by the
Governors of Bombay. They occupy over 1,200 flasks,
containing 2,500 pints, or over two tons, of fluid. The
temperature of the hall is kept at 8o° Fahrenheit,
and every second day each flask is shaken to break up