BY JAMES JAMIESON, M.D. '97 



of the adoption of a proper drainage scheme was put in a very- 

 forcible manner. At that time both Hobart and Melbourne 

 showed, very unfavourably in the comparison of mortality 

 rates, not only with European conditions, but even with 

 Sydney. Since then there has been a great change for the 

 better, and for several years it has been a pleasure to me to 

 be able to point out that the deaths from typhoid in Mel- 

 bourne had at last been reduced to such an extent that the 

 mortality compared favourably with that of the great English 

 towns. And comparatively lot? as the rate now is, there is 

 every reason to hope, from analogy of what has ha])pened 

 elsewhere, and notably in some of the G-erman cities, that the 

 lowest point has not yet been reached. 



In presenting, in tabular form, the death rates from typhoid 

 for a series of years, in Hobart and Melbourne, it is not 

 necessary to go further back than 1890, as by the help of 

 these figures we can make comparison of periods for which 

 reliable census figures of population are available. Calcula- 

 tions based on estimates are apt at times to be fallacious, and 

 especially in our case, where census periods are as long as ten 

 years apart. 



The following table gives a comparison of the rate of 

 mortality from typhoid, in Hobart and in Melbourne, for the 

 12 years 1890-1901:— 



Per 10,000 op Population. 



The rates for Hobart are taken from the reports of the 

 liealth officer, and as regards at least the years 1899, 1900, 

 they almost certainly require correction, since the population 

 had been overestimated by almost 6000,implying an addition 

 to the rate of about one-fourth, and making it more probably 

 2' than 1*6, as given in the table. On the other h^nd 

 the census returns showed that the estimates of population 

 for Melbourne had been a close approximation to the true 

 numbers. On analysing the figures given, the first thing at 

 once noticeable is the great decline in the mortality rate in 

 both cities, in the three last years of the period. Another is 

 that the fluctuations from year to year are much greater in 



