BY R. M. JOHNSTON, F.L.S. 19 



from consumption. This is probably due to the unusual 

 dryness of the air as shown by tlie great divergence between 

 the readings of dry and wet bulb thermometei's. This is not 

 one of the least of the claims of Hobart to be the sanitoriuni 

 of Australasia. 



In conclusion, all experience shows that whatever cosmic 

 influences may be at work, the healthiness or unhealthiness of 

 a place depends greatly on human work. It may be still 

 impossible to " bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose 

 the bands of Oriou," but it is possible to safeguard the purity 

 of our air and the healthiness of our city, and take away the 

 reproach of our past negligence. 



Major-General Tottenham said it seemed to him that 

 there was one other matter which required consideration as a 

 factor in the judgment of healthiness of a place or district, 

 whether as to natural or artificial conditions. He disclaimed 

 any desire to decry or fix the stigma of unhealthiness on 

 Hobart. He came to Hobart 11 years ago hardly able to 

 walk half a mile at a snail's pace, and his tolerably known 

 capacit}^ in locomotion now needed no statistics to attribute to 

 the healthful air of Tasmania. It was a deep debt of grati- 

 tude which had impelled him to advocate so strenuously and 

 persistently improved sanitation in Hobart, in order that the 

 health of the city — the healthiest he had ever seen in the 

 world, and he Iiad seen a good many — should be rendered 

 still healthier. (Applause.) What he complained of was the 

 existence in past years of preventible disease unwarranted by 

 the exceptional advantages of the site, and due, in his opinion, 

 and not in his alone, to municipal neglect of sanitary laws. 

 (Warm applause.) Mr. Johnston had }daced before them a 

 series of tabular statements, the burden of each being a death 

 rate. Those tables showed undoubted statistical acumen and 

 patient research. The *' mortality of disease " was well set 

 forth, but he (Major- General Tottenham) had searched in vain 

 for the *' prevalence of disease," as indicated by the number 

 of cases of preventible disease occurring in each city reviewed. 

 The exclusion of only ^'old age and senile decay" from 

 preventible 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 ordinaiy 

 acceptation of the term '■' preventible disease" was disease by 

 governmental or municipal decree, so to speak. There should 

 be no municipal or government neglect in this respect. 

 (Applause.) The mere death-rate of a place could not be 



