BY HON. W. F. TAYLOR, M.D. XXXUl 



course where the soil is broken up in anything Hke large areas, 

 cases of malarial fever become frequent on these old fields. The 

 disease is still prevalent in the northern coastal districts, the 

 inhabitants of which suffer from time to time rather severely. 

 It is not very fatal, and is soon recovered from on moving south, 

 or under suitable treatment and proper regimen. In this 

 particular disease Queensland cannot be said to be any worse 

 off than other countries, and, so far as my experience goes, it is 

 considerably better off than some I have lived in. 



YELLOW FEVER. 



That Queensland is free from yellow fever we may, I 

 think, safely assert, but there is no doubt that at one time, and 

 in one locality, an epidemic of a disease very closely resembling 

 in its characters those of yellow fever, prevailed to an alarming 

 extent, and was very fatal in its effects. I allude to an 

 outbreak which took place in Mackay and its neighbourhood 

 in 1869 and 1870. Arriving in Rockhampton in May, 1870, 

 I was informed of the prevalence of this disease, but it was 

 then on the wane, and as I was under an engagement to go on 

 to Clermont, I refrained from visiting Mackay for the purpose of 

 studying the nature of the disease. 8o far as I know, there 

 has never been another outbreak of a similar nature at Mackay 

 or elsewhere. 



CHOLERA. 



Cholera is not endemic in Queensland, and I do not think 

 ever will become so if suitable precautions are carried out in 

 the future as in the past. But we have had one or two 

 invasions of the disease, and as time goes on, and the means of 

 communication between our ports and those of eastern 

 countries where the disease is endemic increases, we may be so 

 unfortunate as to admit the stranger within our gates, and have 

 some difficulty in getting rid of him. But this is a contingency 

 which is not hkely to happen if we are true to ourselves and 

 attend to our sanitary defects. If our house is in order the 

 stranger cannot abide in it ; if it is not in order, he most 

 certainly will effect a lodgment once he is introduced. Efficient 

 sanitation is our only safeguard then, for we will find, as has 

 been found everywhere else, that quarantine is not in itself a 

 complete means of defence. 



