The death from bubonic plague of an assistant in the
Pathological Institute attached to the Central Hospital of Vienna furnishes an unpleasant commentary upon Sir J. Crichton Browne's recent utterance on the responsibilities of bacteriological experts. Experiments on various animals had been conducted with bacilli imported from Bombay for the past twelve months without any mishap, and Barisoh, the assistant in question, whose duties consisted in feeding the animals and cleaning their cages, is said to have been a man of exceptional intelligence. It is stated, however, that he had refused last month to undergo the new process of inoculation, that he had grown less attentive of late, and had given way to drink on the eve of his fatal illness. It has also been positively denied by the medical authorities that any experiments with the Bombay bacilli were conducted outside the special "plague room" or experimental labora- tory, and it is well known that the Viennese hospital doctors have the highest reputation for the scrupulous, and even pedantic, care with which they guard against infection. The two nurses who attended Barisch are both indisposed, but this is at present attributed to shock. The incident tin doubtedly suggests the expediency of an Alien Act directed against the importation of plague or malignant bacilli into Europe. Scientific investigations on the spot are legitimate and desirable.
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