VIU 



the exceptional advantages of the site, and due, in his opinion, and not 

 in his alone, to municipal neglect of sanitary Ij^ws. Mr. Johnston had 

 placed before them a series of tabular statements, the burden of each 

 being a death-rate. Those tables showed undoubted stitistical acumen 

 and patient research. The "mortality of disease" was well set forth, 

 but he (MajorGeneral Tottenham) had searched in vain for the "pre- 

 valence of disease,' as indicated by the number of cases of preventable 

 disease occurring in each city reviewed. The exclusion of only *• old 

 age and senile decay " from preventable causes classified all other 

 deaths amongst the possible. That, unintentionally no doubt, gave a 

 false view as regarded "sanitary state," for diseases were due to 

 public as well as private responsibility or neglect of such. The 

 ordinary acceptation of the term •• preventable disease " was disease by 

 governmental or municipal decree, so to speak. There should be no 

 municipal or government neglect in this respect. The mere death-rate 

 of a place could not be regarded as a fully trustworthy test of its 

 healthfulness. All the fever cases in Hobart were not notified, and the 

 speaker gave statistics to support his contention. As Mr. Johnston had 

 indicated, without accurate statistics they could not know, prove, or 

 compare anything. As a soldier he could not afford to "enthuse" 

 over statistics, the bases of which were, to say the least, of uncertain 

 origin. 



Mr. W. F. Ward (Government Analyst) considered that Mr. John- 

 ston's paper could not fail to convince anyone who would take the 

 trouble to read it carefully that, excluding the deaths of old people, 

 which formed such a large proportion of the deaths, and the old must 

 die, Hobart death-rate was lower than that of other Australasian cities. 

 But even this was not sufficient to attract the attention of visitor^', and 

 so he suggested that the monthly statements might either be so modi- 

 fied as to emphasise every time the high rate from old age alone 

 occurred, or th-it the vital statistics be published at longer intervals, 

 with full details. The question, however, was not, he thought, so much 

 one of figures as of the general health reputation of the place, and in 

 this we had suffered somewhat, owing, in the first place, to a few con- 

 spicuous cases of diphtheria last summer, and in the second, to perhaps 

 a greater degree, to a statement repeated again and again that the 

 town smelt to quite an unusual extent ; that bad odours were in facfc 

 "frequent and piinfal and free," the cause being the want of rain to 

 wash the town. Now, the ordinary passerby did not stop to investi- 

 gate, but classed everything which offended his or her nostrils compre- 

 hensively as " drains," declaimed accordingly, and anticipated germs, 

 although it might be no more than the powerful but harmless water in 

 which a cabbage had been boiled. Yet the good nams of the city 

 suffered. There was no necessary connection between bad smells and 

 infectious diseases. Human beings could often, for long periods, eat, 

 drink, and breathe more or less filth, and be apparently not much the 

 worse until the specific germs are somehow introduced which then 

 increase, multiply, alid spread in the congenial soil, so that typhoid 

 and diphtheria were known as " filth diseases." It followed, therefore, 

 that though offensive odours might in some cases be practically harm- 

 less, yet there was no reason why they should be tolerated if they could 

 by any possibility be got rid of, and if enthusiasts had occasionally 

 exaggerated their effects as well as the death-rate, yet enthusiasm 

 carried most reforms, and had in this case great, if not full, justifica- 

 tion. 



Mr. Johnston, in replying on the discussion, said he was glad that 

 the main object of his paper had been accomplished. It was his endea- 

 vour to show the distinction between the sanitation of a place and its 

 healthfulness j that it did not necessarily follow that while the sanitary 



