Proceedings of the Royal Society of VictoHa. 129 



it did what was desired. Thousands and tens of thousands 

 of rabbits were killed after eating the chaff, which they did 

 ravenously. They could get nothing else. On Madame 

 Pomeroy's ] 9-acre block they could get nothing more than 

 what was given them by M. Pastern-. His (Mr. Bosisto's) 

 candid opinion was that we had the remedy in our own 

 hands. We wanted neither microbes nor any other 

 dangerous material imported into this country. He made 

 these observations to show that while we possessed an animal 

 that bred rapidly, yet we possessed a remedy, and did not 

 require to introduce others. He hoped the steps would be 

 taken to carry out Mr. Blackett's suggestion of quarantining. 

 If the imported disease destroyed the birds, a great evil 

 would be done to the community, as locusts, grasshoppers, 

 and other insects would increase. His land, to which he 

 had referred, was now looking green and beautiful, the 

 rabbits having been greatly lessened in numbers by the 

 adoption of the remed}^ spoken of One day the locusts 

 swept across the whole 600-acre block, and demolished 

 every particle of green thing there, and still went on. Yet 

 crows and other birds followed and feasted on the locusts. 

 The poisoned chaff which the rabbits ate was sj^read so 

 carefully, that very few birds were killed by it. The 

 rabbits, however, died in thousands. 



Dr. KuDALL. — If such a disease as fowl cholera were 

 introduced he did not think it was in the power of any 

 human being to say where it would stop. In old countries 

 it could be estimated, but not in a country like Australia. 

 Dr. Wigg had instanced the occurrence of measles in Fiji, 

 and stated that it was a new disease there, and had proved 

 fatal in a large number of cases. Dr. Jamieson seemed to 

 think that the disease had proved fatal in so many cases 

 because of the great carelessness shown on the part of those 

 who were attacked. He did not think that was a full 

 explanation of the occurrence. Many years ago measles 

 were introduced into the Faroe Islands. That disease had 

 not been known there in the memory of man, j-et it was 

 remarkably fatal, and it did seem therefore that when 

 disease fell upon virgin soil it was very likely to be much 

 more fatal than among communities who had been 

 habituated to it. 



Mr. G. S. Griffiths moved, " That having heard 

 Dr. Wigg's notes on this subject, and the remarks made 

 by the other gentlemen present, the Royal Society 



K 



