The Great Inoculation.

Manawatu Herald, 12 April 1900, Page 3

The Great Inoculation.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph has a picturesque account of the scenes at the Health Office, Macquarie-street, Sydney, where thousands of people, since the plague scare became acute, have been crowding to get inoculated. "An hour before the offices were opened the approaches in Macquarie and Albert-streets were blocked by a crowd numbering not less than a thousand people.,' When the gates were Opened at 9 " the premises were rushed. A theatre crush was nothing to it. There was no keeping the crowd back, as the officials soon discovered. The people surged into the yard, and up the first flight of steps to the mail floor. They literally fought their way up, .... They tried to burst in the door of the secretary's office, and succeeded in smashing the glass of a large framed notice outside." There was actually considerable danger of the whole staircase collapsing with the weight, and it was only the perception of this that made the crowd at last listen to reason. When order was obtained two doctors (Dr. Norris and Dr. Shells), four assistants, and a trained nurse, began their arduous task. Three ft minute js about the rate at which the injections can take place. The needle is inserted about an inch under the skin of the left arm, and the serum thus discharged into the blood stream. ' An assistant stands by, and as the needle is drawn out, applies sticking plaster to the puncture, and requests the patient to put bis coat on and not to block tho gangway, The effects of inoculation vary considerably. " Have you been inoculated ? " one man was heard to ask. "No " was the reply, " have you ; " " Rather " "When?" "Yesterday." "Did you (eel any effect?" "Well, I hardly know." "How's that?" "Well, I had a good long beer before going in, and last night I went to the lodge. This morning I felt as though I had been on the • bend,' but I don't know whether it was the beer, the lodge, or the plague serum, and that's a fact ! " Sometimes ** swelling occurs as soon as the arm is touched. Sometimes two or three hours elapse. Occasionally the arm is temporarily paralysed. One man inoculated •• felt the symptons appear in a couple of hours. He got light-headed, slept badly, and woke up thinking that he had fallen through his collar." All the next day he felt unwell, but the second day after the operation he was in his normal state of health. On the whole inoculation is reported to be « not so disagreeable as vaccination, there is considerable difference ot opinion. Experiments in India, through not entirely satisfactory seem on the whole to show that the inoculated person is somewhat less likely to catch the disease, and that If he catches it, it is in a comparatively mild form.