?LITERATURE OF PLAGUE.]	381
[This volume, which contains a special report by Lieut.-Col. Wilkins, I. M. S., on the
Plague Hospitals in Bombay City, continues the record of plague administration in
Bombay City contained in Mr. Snow's, General Gatacre's, and Sir J. Campbell's Reports. It
consists of two volumes, the second of which is composed of chart of mortality and diagrams
of cases.]
(73) G. Hutcheson, Mahamari, or The Plague in British Garhwal and Kumaon,
(published in the Transactions of the first Indian Medical Congress), Calcutta, 1895.
[Dr. Hutcheson's paper on Mahamari is a valuable contribution to plague literature, and foreshadows many of
the measures and theories since adopted.]
(74) E. II. Cayley, Report on the Period of Infection in Pneumonic Cases, Bombay, 1898.
(75) G. Bainbridge, Report on the Plague in Sind, 1896-97, Karachi, 1897.
(76) E. L. Marsh, Report on the Disinfection of Native Dwellings by Formalehyde Vapour,
with special reference to the utility of the apparatus of Lingner, Bombay, 1899.
The volumes mentioned in this Chapter do not by any means cover the whole
published works on plague. Many have been omitted because they possess little or
no value: many others, valuable enough in themselves, have been omitted
because they have been either embodied or incorporated in other mentioned works:
of yet more no record is available. The researches of Wilm, Bitter, and other
experts are synopsized in Nathan's comprehensive Report: of the researches
of others, again, little or nothing is known. With a few exceptions, most of the
works enumerated have, at various times, been accepted as the best authorities
on, and records of, the pestilence in one or more of its many mysterious forms.
In conclusion, it may be added that during the past three years much pro-
gress has been made. The diagnosis of plague, at least in its commoner forms, has
been differentiated from typhus and relapsing fever, and carefully established:
the uselessness of the pharmacopæia is acknowledged: the micro-organism of the
disease has been discovered and characterised: and a system of prophylaxis suc-
cessfully attempted. All this, and much more, has been done. But although
much has been done, much more remains to be done. Of the various-if they are
various-causes which originate plague; of the various methods by which it is
disseminated; of the life of the bacillus in nature; of remedies after attack: of
all these, and many other important points, we are ignorant. And even the
discovery of what is known has necessitated the loss of many valuable lives,
distress and misery inexpressible.
But what are these facts but illustrations of the great Truth-
"Knowledge by Suffering entereth,
And Life is perfected by Death." *
* E. B. Browning-"A Vision of Poets."
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