xxii Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



found in the condition of Melbourne, which, as regards 

 sanitation, seems as if it had been entirely out of the tide of 

 progress. In the ten years 1871^80 the death rate was 

 20'36 per 1000 ; and in the eight years 1881-88 it averaged 

 20-21; the rate for 1887 being 21 •25, and for 1888, 20-54. 

 It cannot be said, of course, that nothing has been done to 

 improve the public health ; but, as the results are not to be 

 seen in the figures just given, it must be concluded that our 

 efforts, sucli as they have been, have simply prevented us 

 from suffering fally the evil effects arising from increasing 

 density of population and its associations. 



A special instance may be taken, as helping to account for 

 the remarkable difference which we have found to exist 

 between our own " Marvellous Melbourne " and the English 

 towns and cities. I prefer to take ty])hoid fever, as being 

 with us a perennial subject of interest. In the years 1870- 

 1877, the death i-ate from fever, chiefly typhoid, in the great 

 towns of England, averaged 6 per 10,000 of the population, 

 while in the years 1877-1886 it had fallen to 3-2, and in 

 1887, to 2-2 per 10,000. 



The following has been the state of things in Melbourne, 

 at corresponding periods. In the 3"ears 1871-1878, the 

 typhoid mortality was in the proportion of 78 per 10,000 of 

 the population, and in 1881-1888 it was 7'3 ; the rates for 

 the last two years, 1887 and 1888, being respectively 9"1 

 and 7*7. While our typhoid mortality has remained 

 practically the sajne, in the English towns it has been 

 reduced to about one-third of what it was less than twenty 

 years ago. 



There can be no doubt, I think, that the sanitary'- improve- 

 ments which have been operative in bringing about this 

 great reduction in the prevalence of ty})hoid in the English 

 towns, have also had the chief share in lowering the general 

 death rate. It is of no small importance, therefore, to know 

 the cause of our failure to attain a similar i-esult. We know 

 more now, than we did twenty years ago, about the nature 

 and causes of the disease, and definite rules for its prevention 



