PLAGUE IN INDIA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12096, 14 March 1910, Page 3

PLAGUE IN INDIA.

AWFUL MORTALIIY. WHOLE VILLAIN KS WIPED OUT. Dr Arthur de Renzi, who has returned to Christcliureh alter spending six years amongst the nat i pcs ot the i'unjab district m India, has some very interesting experiences to relate. ..After serving m the South Alrican war, he was engageo m bacteriological- rosearcli m l^onaon, and Was then selected by the Secretary of State for India for special work m connection with the plague, The disease hud gradually spread up country lrom Bombay into the Junjab, which tor ages has been the most warlike province of India, and from which the best lighting material m tlie Indian army is reciuiteu. The plague was attended by appalling mortality m the Punjab, and,, tue -'Imperial. Government, m- conjunction with the Government of idia, decided that something would have to be done . to check its ravages. A su'heme Mas pre* pared, by which the whole population of that teirritory should be ohered pmtection against plague 'by inoculation with the proved prophylactic, a kind of protective vaccine discovered by Prolessor Haffkine. It was ' this ' work, that Dr de R«nzi was selected, to undertake. Suspicion sometimes took, the shape of a belief that the doctor had been sent out by tflie British to poisqn, or otherwise kill, the whole population. On the whole, however, the' expedition ( was on admirable .terms with the natives, thousands of whom willingly . submitted to inoculation. v Everything went wfell, until a most unfortunate incident occurred at Mulkowal, an obscure village m the Punjab, where another British doctor was doing the - same kind of work. This officer inoculated nineteen villagers, and it was tliought that the operation was successfa^ butt m five day?, to'the officer's consternation, every one of *them had died of tetanus. It was some , time before the cause of the disaster was ascertained. It was then discovered that a native assistant, m opening a bottle of vaccine, had dropped the cork on to the germ-ulfested ground, replacing the cork m the bottle of vaccine. He was too frightened to admit his negligence, and germs of tetanus were transmitted to the men inoculated. The suspicious native mind was aflame immediately, and the idea that the doctor sahib had come to kill swept so rapidly through' the districts that it got a start which rendered pursuit almost hopeless. The poor, natives — those who were engaged m the campaign against plague— wore bitterly disappointed. The ascertained deaths alone m that patt.of the district numbered between 30,000 and 40,000 a week, and there must have been many which were never reported. Inoiulatioh was still carried on as .far as-possible. .E-Speriments were made tof discover the cause that' led up^to-' ihe spread of the plaguer, and a conclusion was arrived at that rats caused /*uie 'disease,; and that fleas conveyed ;.4t f ram rats to human beings. A scheme- was tlien prepared for destroying rats m the vast territory which was neing' dealt with) .' and a house-to-house disinfection was begun. The^ death rate had risen appallingly to 50,000 a, kvreek, » v On several occasions Dr'dfe Renzi rode through village' af tei villa_|ie inhabited by the dead, • with ~ltaisly a living sotrl to speak to, Most "of* the bodies of the victims were lying m the house unburied, 'and the work, di having them attended to was horrible.