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CHAPTER VIII.

Medical Research in India.

       Organized medical research in India may be said to date from 1894
when the Indian Medical Congress submitted resolutions to Government
urging the establishment and endowment of a research institute. Prior
to that date medical officers working on their own initiative and with
limited laboratory resources had from time to time made important contri-
butions to the knowledge of tropical diseases. Many of their studies are
classical and amongst them may be cited those of Lewis on trypanosomes
and filaria, Vandyke Carter on spirilla, leprosy and mycetoma, Macnamara
on cholera and Fayrer on snakes and snake venoms. Officers were
occasionally deputed in earlier years to study special problems, for
example, D. D. Cunningham and Timothy Lewis in 1869 on public health
problems such as cholera and malaria. In 1889 the Government of India
extended this practice of deputing officers in connection with field inquiries
on the causation and prevention of disease. Giles for example was
deputed to investigate kala-azar and beri-beri, and then cholera and
malaria. This practice was continued and amongst those selected for
special work was W. M. Haffkine who in 1896 studied the subject of
prophylactic inoculation against cholera in Bengal. Haffkine was engaged
on this work when plague first broke out in Bombay and he was amongst
those sent to investigate its causation and prevention. He specially took
up the subject of the preparation of an anti-plague vaccine and worked
at first in the temporary laboratory accommodation which was provided
for him, but in 1899 the Old Government House, Parel, was taken over
as the Plague Research Laboratory and here along with other workers,
who were attached to the Laboratory, he continued his work.

       2. The outbreak of plague drew fresh attention to the necessity for
effective provision for medical research and proposals were submitted in
1899 for a central research laboratory and for local laboratories in each
province. Delays arose in acceptance of the scheme but in the meantime
additional officers were deputed to the Plague Research Laboratory for
further investigations on plague and research there on other subjects had
also developed. These workers included Bannerman, Lamb and Liston
whose subsequent work is well-known. At the same time Stephens,
Christophers and James had been deputed on special studies on Malaria
following the work of Ronald Ross who in 1897 had made his classical
discoveries and who had also been placed on special duty by the Govern-
ment of India to continue his self-appointed task. Although a number
of officers were at this period engaged in whole-time research work, the
laboratory at Parel, which continues at the present day under the name
of the Haffkine Institute, was the only permanent laboratory available
for their use and the urgency for suitable centres and accommodation
was apparent.

       3. Prior to the development of the scheme for Central and Provincial
Laboratories a scheme for the provision of Pasteur treatment in India,

Contributed by Colonel J. Taylor, C.I.E., D.S.O., V.H.S., I.M.S.