In spite of the approach of the hot weather—ithas, in fact, actually commenced—plague is still on the increase at Bombay. In fuct, the last figures of the mortality bill top the record. The Plague Commission goes on holding its sittings and recording evidence from all kinds and conditions of men, but strange to say the Commission seems to have made riy practical experiments of its own, Ibelieve that, with sou in China, like the poor, the Plague is always there, and so you cannot fail to be interested with the' progress of the disease in India. The points at issue are Ist, how the Plague originates, and 2nd, what is the best way of exterminating it. One thing seems to be-clear and that is the Indian Plague of 1897-8-9 is not the same kind of Plague as was in the habit of constantly reappearing in Europe two or three hundred years ago. Whereas the old disease was no Tespecter of persons, the Indian Plague, with few exceptions, seems to attack natives most exclusively. The reason for this is generally attributed to the fact that tives go ubout barefooted, and as the Plague germs thrive chiefly in the surface of the ground these are most liable to infection. This lays open the whole question of treatment. In Bombay alone nearly
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.