'Russia and India in 1903' [‎31r] (63/68)

FIGHTING PLAGUE AT BOMBAY.
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becomes considerable in from ten to fifteen hours, but
then begins to subside, while the pain lasts three or
four days.
Results of Inoculation.
In proof, however, that no permanently ill-effects are
to be feared from the inoculation, the Viceroy and all
his staff have been operated upon, as well as that
enlightened Prince, His Highness the Aga Khan, the
head 01 the Khoja community, all the leading Parsees,
and most of the Imperial officers directly in touch with
the people. The satisfactory results are proved by
many statistics. One instance only is sufficient. A
village of i 5 ooo people was visited by a severe attack
of plague. Half were moculated. Six weeks later an
independent investigation of the result was made.
The people said u About fifty uninoculated had been
attacked, and they are all dead ,* while only a few
inoculated have been ill, and they have all recovered.”
This was not quite borne out by actual figures. But
among seventy-one inoculated in twenty-eight houses,
there were only eight attacks, with three deaths!
whereas sixty-four not inoculated in the same houses
had twenty-seven cases with twenty-six deaths.
Mishaps in the inoculation process have been
strikingly few. But there has lately been a very
serious one in the Punjab—just at the time, moreover,
when the inhabitants of that province were all coming
in freely for inoculation. There were nineteen inocula
tions in a village, and a like number of rapid deaths
from tetanus. The people took the disaster in a very
philosophic manner, and gladly accepted the services
of the unfortunate operator in soothing the last hours
of the dying. The whole matter is now being inquired
into by a Commission, presided over by the Chief
Justice of Bombay. The fear of the Laboratory
authorities at Parel is that some foreign substance
must have got into the bottle of vaccine between the