J 24 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



Dr. WiGG read a paper on " The Proposed Introduction 

 of New Diseases into Australia." 



The President said it would be agreed that this question 

 was one of great importance, indeed of urgency at the 

 present moment. The steamer on which M. Pasteur's 

 emissaries had embarked was close at hand, and unless 

 some step were taken the experiment would be tried. 

 Of course it was possible that nothing would come of it, 

 that it would hurt no one, not even the rabbit. It might 

 affect the rabbit and no one else. Yet there was reasonable 

 probability, as Dr. Wigg had stated, that it would do a 

 great deal of harm, in any event it was a step that should 

 not be taken blindly. 



Mr. Marks was glad to be able to say that Dr. Wigg in 

 his paper mentioned a great many points on which he 

 (Mr. Marks) had laid great stress, in a letter written to 

 the Chief Secretary. If the influence possessed by the 

 Royal Society were brought to bear on the Government 

 it might be the means of preventing the introduction and 

 extension of cholera microbes in the colony. 



Dr. Jamieson said there could be no doubt of the 

 importance of the question Dr. Wigg had dealt with that 

 evening. Dr. Wigg liad been good enough, at comparatively 

 short notice, to undertake to brinff the matter before the 

 Society. The fact that the paper was not on the notice 

 paper might have pievented some from trying to make 

 themselves better acquainted with the subject. However, 

 it was but fair that the matter should be brought before 

 this, the leading Society of the colony, as the Society was 

 known to have weight with the Government. He had 

 been endeavouring, with such opportunities as he had had, 

 to make himself acquainted with the present state of 

 knowledge of this question. On some of the points 

 Dr Wiofg had referred to, he had been able to collect some 

 important information, which might be useful in connection 

 with this discussion. Firstly, with reference to the nature 

 of the disease. As far as he understood it, it was not cholera 

 at all. He understood that it got its name — fowl cholei'a — 

 from the fact that it occurred with great virulence and 

 spread violently in France at a time when the genuine 

 cholera was very prevalent. It had not the symptoms of 

 cholera, and in other countries than France it was not 

 called cholera. In Germany it was called "fowl typhoid," 

 or " bird typhoid." Dr. Wigg referred to the fact, as he 



