XXXll PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS- 



DIPHTHERIA. 



With respect to diphtheria, we suffer in common with other 



countries of a temperate or semi-tropical cHmate, and so far as 



I know cannot claim any special advantages over other places. 



In fact in the southern parts of the colony, during the prevalence 



of westerly winds in winter, throat affections are common, and 



these favor the lodgment and development of the special microbe 



concerned in the causation of diphtheria, the Klebs-Lceffler 



bacillus. 



MALARIAL FEVER. 



The malarial fevers of this country are not now at all events 

 of a very bad type. Formerly fevers of this character were 

 much more prevalent and wide-spread than at present, for as 

 the country becomes settled, these diseases gradually diminish 

 and ultimately almost, if not entirely, disappear. No one 

 suffers from malarial disease contracted in or about Brisbane 

 now, although in the early days of settlement it was common 

 enough, and so with respect to all the towns and settled districts 

 of the southern portions of the colony. I have not seen malarial 

 diseases of a purely southern origin for years — not smce the 

 Toowoomba to Dalby railway was being constructed, when, as 

 the soil was being turned up, malarial fever developed of a 

 somewhat peculiar type, inasmuch as it did not partake of the 

 character of fever and ague so called, nor had it any distinct 

 remissions. The patients suffered from a certain amount of 

 feverishness it is true, but the principal symptoms were loss of 

 appetite, anaemia, extreme exhaustion, and a dull yellowish 

 state of the skin. The condition was rather one of chronic 

 malarial poisoning, than that of regular fever of either the 

 intermittent or remittent type. It resembled in many respects 

 so-called typho-malarial fever. The disease was confined 

 principally to the navvies engaged on the line, and was always 

 most prevalent amongst those engaged in cuttings. When 

 Peak Downs was first settled malarial fevers were very rife, and 

 the diggers suffered very severely. This may also be said of all 

 the other goldfields. In their early stages they were perfect 

 hotbeds of malarial fever, but long since the disease has 

 practically died out, and now few cases, comparatively speaking 

 are met with on any of the old goldfields, or Peak Downs. Of 



