36 



of tho mouth, no deaths occurred. In the first week of the month thero 

 died 7 ; in the second, 14 ; in the third, 14 ; in tho fourth, 10 ; in the last two 

 days, none. The least fatal period of the month was tho last five days, during 

 which there wivs not a single death. For so many days consecutively, I have 

 never hitherto noted such an instance. The most fatal five days were from 

 the 19th to the 23rd inclusive, when 14 deaths took place. The greatest number 

 on any single day was 5 on the 23rd. 



The births registered were 55, being 6 leas than last year. 



The birdis and deaths returns for the whole of Tasmania in the first quarter 

 of ISGGare less favorable than they were for the corresponding quarter of 1865. Tho 

 births registered were 685, which is 67 less than 1865 had. Of this falling 

 off the rural districts had the largest share, 45 ; Launceston had only 3 ; 

 Hobartou, 19. The deaths for the whole island were 346, being 20 more than 

 in the first quarter of 1865. Of these the rural-districts had 11 ; Launceston, 

 5 ; Hobarton, 4. 



Before the new water works in Launceston and Hobarton furnished a more 

 copious and purer supply of water to their inhabitants, the death-increase of 

 such dry seasons as the present one, would have been relatively much 

 greater for the urban than the rural districts. It is quite possible by sanitary 

 improvements to reduce the death-rate of a town to less than that of the 

 adjoining country, as witness the success achieved at Ely. While the sewerage, 

 however, of Hobarton remains in its present neglected state, incessantly dis- 

 tilling the most noxious of gases in almost every quarter of the city, as well 

 iis in the vicinity of the city rivtdet, to the waste of public health, and in oppo- 

 sition to the soundest principles of political economy, no such triumph as 

 engineering skOl and a moderate outlay of public money has won for Ely, can 

 be obtained for Hobarton. No better initiatory move could have been made 

 than that recently unanimously adopted by the Municipal Council of the 

 city, " to forthwith employ a competent sanitary engineer to devise a plan 

 for a perfect and comprehensive sewering of Hobarton." It must be satisfactory 

 to the Fellows of the Royal Society to know that the Alderman (Lewis) who 

 moved thi? most important i esolution is one of their body. 



