Xll 



English and Scotch towns averaged 26*7 

 gal. per head of the population, includ- 

 ing factories, for water supply Jvnd under- 

 ground drainage purposes. At (Jlasgow, 

 the best drained city in the world, and 

 maniiged on the most modern, up-to-date 

 principles, with an unlimited supply of 

 water if desired, they never exceeded 50 gal. 

 per head per day, and there they had water- 

 closets in every house. In the very driest 

 season Hobart had never a less supply than 

 Sydney, He had been told that in Hobart 

 so much water was used for irrigation. 

 AVell, the greater shame that people 

 should so use the water if there was not 

 enough for the health of the city. 

 The Board and the engineer held that 

 the present supply was sufficient for 

 an underground drainage system ; so also 

 thought the City Surveyor and Director of 

 Waterworks. In conclusion, he urged 

 that no private or selfish interests should 

 be allowed to interfere with an effort being 

 made to improve the health of the people 

 of the city, the health of a people being the 

 "wealth of a nation. 



Dr. Bright moved a hearty vote of 

 thanks to Dr. Sprott for his able paper, 

 and that discussion on it be postponed 

 till the next meeting ; also a vote of 

 thanks to Dr. Clarke for his interesting 

 paper. In doing so the speaker said Dr. 

 Sprott's paper must have involved a very 

 large amount of labour, research, and study, 

 and was one of the ablest and most valu- 

 able he had heard read in that room. 

 He hoped it would be printed by the next 

 meeting. The present drainage system 

 was evidently so bad that it ought to be 

 altered if possible. 



Mr. A. G. Webster seconded. 



His Excellency, in putting the motion 

 to the meeting, said he quite agi'eed with 

 the hint that such a valuable paper should 

 be printed and then fully discussed, and 

 he hoped, if possible, to be present at the 

 discussion of it. As regarded Dr. Clarke's 

 interesting, and in parts amusing, paper, 

 he would not refer to it at that late hour, 

 though he could tell some few things he 

 happened to know appertaining to it. 



The motion was then passed. 



Description of a new " cordyceps." 

 By L. Rod way. 

 Mr. L. RoDW^AY read a paper on a new 

 Cordyceps. He explained that it dealt 

 with a fungus that attacked the cater- 

 pillar. It w^as a fourth species, and 

 was found in Tasmania by Mr, H. Stewart 

 Dove, at Bischoff, and named after him.' 



A meeting of the Royal Society of Tas- 

 mania was held on Monday, August 22, 

 at the Tasmanian Museum, when a dis- 

 cussion took place on a paper lately read 



by Dr. G. Sprott on " The Causes and Pre- 

 vention of Typhoid Fever." The Hon. C. 

 H. Grant, M.L.C., presided. 



Dr. R. S. BrktHT spoke of Dr. Sprott's 

 paper as an admirable and highly instruc- 

 tive one. We could have the same good 

 results here with respect to typhoid as Dr. 

 Sprott showed had been obtained else- 

 where. There was very little that 

 was debatable in the paper. He en- 

 tirely agreed with all that it contained. 

 He placed contagion amongst the first as a 

 cause of typhoid, though Dr. Sprott did 

 not attach much importance to it. We 

 had had a considerable amount in nurses 

 and other people which could not be 

 explained except by contagion. He was a 

 very firm believer in typhoid being taken 

 by inhalation — of which he had seen ex- 

 amples. He had seen instances of where 

 it was caused by old disused and foul 

 cesspits which had been forgotten. The 

 use of disinfectants ought tobe continued 

 for some weeks after the patient 

 became convalescent. The foul odour 

 from the so-called sanitary carts had 

 caused typhoid by inhalation. Another 

 causis not generally recognised was the 

 failure to report cases to the Central Board 

 of Health, especially if the ordinary pre- 

 cautions had not been taken. However, 

 there was less carelessness in this respect 

 than there used to be. He agreed with 

 Dr. Sprott as to the contamination of milk 

 and watei' by sewage being a coinmon 

 cause of typhoid. He was afraid the boil- 

 ing of milk and water before use was very 

 seldom done. There was a wide- 

 spread fallacy that drinking water from 

 a running stream was safe. The fact 

 was that such water was often exceed- 

 ingly dangerous. Dr. Sprott mentioned 

 that typhoid had been caused by eating 

 oysters taken from the mouth of a sewer. 

 Cases of that kind had occurred at Dublin 

 and Brighton. There was another fallacy 

 he should like to contradict — that when 

 there were cesspits in Hobart there was no 

 typhoid. That statement was incorrect ; 

 but there was certainly less than there 

 was now under the pan system. There 

 was typhoid in Hobart a great deal 

 longer ago than some people admitted. 

 With respect to the burying of nightsoil, 

 soil was a great purifier, but there was a 

 limit to what it could do. A strong point 

 made by Dr. Sprott was that the germs of 

 typhoid lived 268 days in the ground. Those 

 germs might be brought to the surface by 

 earth worms, as occurred when cattle tha": 

 died of the Cumberland disease some years 

 ago were buried. With regard to pre- 

 vention, the early recognition of the dis- 

 ease and the seeking of medical ad- 

 vice at an early stage was of im- 

 portance. Cases were made more serious 

 by delay. It was appalling the distance 

 somepatients were broughtvrhen they w^ere 



