Report by the Honourable V. Rohan on Yersin's anti-plague serum / V. Rohan.

  • Rohan, V.
Date:
[1900]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report by the Honourable V. Rohan on Yersin's anti-plague serum / V. Rohan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Report by the Honorable V. Rohan on Yersin’s Anti-plague Seram. The Honorable V. Rohan to the Assistant Colonial Secretary. Sir, 20th. Febrnary, 1900, 28 Desforges Street, Port Louis. Iu reply to your letter No. 8696/991 have the honor to report that, not including the cases of Plague at the Chon Fa Iyon hospital summarily dealt with in the printed report which I annex, 12 persons suffering from Plague were treated by me in private practice with anti-plague serum obtained from the Government or bought at Messrs. Couve or Minet, Chemists and Druggists. The serum came from the Institut Pasteur de Paris. Out of these 12 persons, 4 were females and 8 males. In 8 of them the principal or primary Plagne swelling was in the Femoro-inguinal region, in 3 in the neck, in one ia the Axilla. One of those who recovered had been previously injected with Haffkine’s prophylactic. Two of the cases died within 24 hours of the first injection, but the serum in these two cases was different in appearance to the serum I had employed np to now. In two others the treatment was stopped for want of serum, in one case after one injection of 80 c. c., in the other after two injections of 40 c. c. each. In both these last cases the effect produced by the injection had been very promising, rapidly bringing the temperature and pulse to the normal, rendering the Plague swelling less painful and giving much relief to the patients, although they were poor old women living in choked up rooms. One of them was so poor as to need the assistance of the Sanitary Authorities for medicine, food and a nurse. Both died Iu all the cases, save two, the serum even when producing no rapid fall of the temperature or pulse, materially improved the state of the patient. In the two cases who died within 24 hours of the first in- jection, one had been allowed to walk about aud he fell in the night from his high bed to the floor aud bled his nose and mouth; the other sat up in his bed, read the papers aloud and smoked during the greater part of the day after the injection; but in both cases I attribute this want of improvement after the injection to the inferior quality of the serum, which, as I have said, differed in appearance from what I have up to now em- ployed,