TJte Rabbit Questiov. 31 



Information has been withheld as to what birds it attacks, 

 and whether we may expect to lose our domestic poultry of 

 every kind. It is, however, pretty certain that we should lose 

 our native insectivorous birds, and with them the only res- 

 traint we possess over locusts and grasshoppers, which, no 

 longer unchecked as they are now, might become a plague fiir 

 worse than the rabbits. But it will naturally be said, if 

 such things happen here, how is it that they do not occur in 

 France ? The answer to this question is twofold. In the 

 lirst place, whenever a new disease falls upon virgin soil 

 adapted to its growth, it extends with singular rapidity and 

 virulence, and that whether the di.sease be in man, as 

 small-pox, or in the earth as thistles and brambles. After a 

 time, however and often after the most frightful 

 ravages, the disease appears to have consumed either the 

 whole or a very large portion of the special material required 

 for its growth, and then either disappears altogether or is 

 confined within moderate bounds. 



A most striking example of this is within the memory of 

 all. In lS7-i King Thakombau left Fiji to pay a visit to 

 the Governor of New South Wales at Sj^dney on the 

 occasion of his cession of his realm to the British Crown. 



While there he contracted measles, a disease entirely 

 unknown in Fiji, and unfortunately returning home before 

 he was free from the microbes, these minute particles spread 

 to his immediate attendants and grew and multiplied in 

 them, till at last the di.sease swept like a storm over the 

 islands and no fewer than 40,000 people out of that small 

 population died from its affects. After four or five months 

 the epidemic ceased in its virulent chai'acter, and now 

 measles there is scarcely more severe than in Europe. 



In the same wa}', I am informed that the growth of the 

 briar rose in Tasmania, which at one time threatened such 

 great mischief to that colony, is now far more easily 

 controlled than at first ; and that thistles in Victoria, partl}^ 

 no doubt, through the special legislation, but partly also 

 from the exhaustion of certain ingredients of the soil, are 

 becoming greatly restricted in area. Now in France the 

 plants, the animals, and the diseases have, for thousands of 

 years, been adapting themselves to each other, and, if I might 

 use a rather far-fetched simile, they have established a 

 7)iodus vivendi. 



Here we have new birds, new animals, a virgin soil and 

 new climate conditions. Who can tell what results will 



