XLV. 
connection with the experiments with the microbes of chicken-cholera authorised by 
the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into schemes for the extermination of 
rabbits in Australia, and afterwards in connection with the bacteriological examination 
of the Melbourne water-supply. 
About this time, feeling that the matter was of more than purely scientific 
importance, he cherished the hope of the permanent appointment of a Government 
bacteriologist ; a hope which found expression in the following characteristic letter 
contributed under the zom de plume of “F.1.S.” to one of the Sydney newspapers :— 
“Tt has long been a matter of surprise to me that a Government which has displayed such a lavish 
liberality in protecting sheep from rabbits, not to mention scab, catarrh, prickly pear, Bathurst burr, and _ 
other ills and misfortunes which sheep are subject to, has never risked a very much smaller expenditure for 
the protection of human life from disease certainly preventable. Typhoid fever has now become a perfect 
scourge throughout Australia ; the numbers of its victims are annually increasing, and they are generally 
the young and the strong ; it is a disease known to be caused by a minute vegetable organism of the genus 
Bacillus ; and it only requires a knowledge of the life-history of the microbe to find means to effectually 
stop the rapid increase of the disease, if not actually prevent it. 
“A few years ago an effort was made by the Linnean Society of New South Wales to stimulate 
investigation in this direction, and for two years successively it offered a prize of £100 for an essay on the 
life-history of the bacillus of typhoid fever, but without result as far as original research was concerned, 
This, I think, was pretty clear evidence that the sum of £100 was insufficient to induce anyone to 
undertake an investigation necessarily involving much time and labour. But surely a Government which 
promises the huge sum of £25,000 for the destruction of rabbits can scarcely hesitate about spending the 
twenty-fifth part of that sum in the more urgent and important matters of checking disease and saving 
human life. 1t is with the intention of calling attention to this subject that I now write to you, and if I 
succeed (with your assistance, I hope) in rousing public interest, and inducing action on the part of the 
Government, I shall feel that humanity will benefit thereby to a greater degree than by the poisoning of a 
million rabbits. 
“T believe that a prize of £1000 for an essay on the bacillus of typhoid fever, extending over three 
years, would be in all probability attended with most useful results; but it is not to be expected that any 
such essay would solve all, or nearly all, of the many doubtful points in the history of this microbe requiring 
solution. I would therefore much prefer to see two experienced and competent bacteriologists employed 
under the orders and control of the Board of Health, for the study of pathogenic organisms generally, at 
the discretion of the Board. It is certain that without assistance from the public funds it will be very 
long before the typhoid bacillus can be properly investigated. Scientific Societies have not the means to 
offer sufficient prizes ; and medical men, who are from their biological education the best qualified people 
for such inquiries, are for the most part dependent on the practice of their profession for a living, and 
certainly cannot afford the time for lengthened investigations without fee or reward.” 
Finally, seeing no prospect of the immediate realisation of these hopes, and 
imbued with a sense of the importance of the subject, he began to entertain the 
project of making some provision for the endowment of Bacteriology out of his 
own means; and so enthusiastic was he about it that for some little time he 
contemplated doing it during his life-time, but subsequently changed his mind and 
