Phillips. — On Babbit-disease. 435 



check just as much as the rabbit requires its check : hence my 

 aversion to their introduction. Had the dog, cat, and ferret 

 been capable of performing the work of supj)ression, I would 

 never have introduced the stoat and the weasel into the Wai- 

 rarapa. At any rate, if we have to concede to the full extent 

 of the round of nature's law, let us wait until population 

 becomes a little more dense with us, to impose the proper 

 check of man. 



From all this it will be seen how totally wade M. Pasteur 

 is from the truth, and how little dependence can be placed 

 upon purely scientific reasoning in dealing with this question. 



That the rabbit multiplies itself rapidly upon insular lands 

 of the globe is seen from two instances recorded in history. 

 In A.D. 1 the inhabitants of the Balearic Isles petitioned the 

 Eoman Emperor Augustus for assistance in subduing a rabbit- 

 pest there. Two legions of the Eoman army were sent to get 

 the plague down. It is e\ddent now, from my course of 

 reasoning, that these islands wanted the natural enemy. 



Also, in the case of one of the Canary Islands, or Teneriffe. 

 Prince Henry of Portugal, I think, sent some rabbits to one of 

 them, and the inhabitants had very great difficulty in subduing 

 the pest. I am a little uncertain as to the facts in this case, 

 but I remember meeting with it some time since, accidentally, 

 in the com'se of reading. This case, and the former one of the 

 Balearic Isles, and New Zealand and Australia, are exactly 

 alike. A narrow view of this question is therefore quite in- 

 admissible. We can but look at it from the point of view I 

 suggest — viz., with an atlas of the globe before us. Hitherto 

 v,-e have regarded the matter too narrowly in New Zealand, 

 and M. Pasteur's remedy, strange to say, is too narrow 

 also. 



With regard to rabbit-fencing : I do not object to rabbit- 

 fencing, but I consider it a waste of money. The best and 

 most sm-e fence is the egg of the tape- worm upon the grass. 

 The calculation for each dog is as follows : 1 x by 100 tape- 

 worms, X by 100 segments, x by 1,000 ova. 



As to the expense of the remedy, the beauty lies in its 

 cheapness. Supposing the owner of each run in the South 

 Island got but two of my diseased rabbits, and fed those 

 rabbits to two hungry dogs in his pack, and then went steadily 

 hunting over his land, the moist lands would quickly become 

 infected with the tape- worm eggs. The rabbits would eat 

 them and get fluked, and soon the whole pack of dogs would 

 be infected. The dogs would then infect the whole of the 

 lands. Whether the ferrets, stoats, and weasels also carry 

 the worm about I cannot say. I firmly believe they do ; but 

 I have all along been quite certain that the tame dog does so, 

 and I think the cat also. Neither Sir James Hector nor 

 23 



