150 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS—SECTION I. 
lished in London a National Association for the prevention and 
cure of tuberculosis, and similar associations have been formed 
in most European countries. Arrangements were almost com- 
pleted three months ago for forming such an association in 
Melbourne, but the outbreak of influenza and other causes led 
to the postponement of the necessary public meeting. It is to 
be hoped that the movement will, at an early date, be again 
started, and that, before long, a powerful organisation will be 
formed, with the double object. of diffusing information in 
popular form, and of aiding in the establishment. of Sanatoria, 
where consumptives will have a chance of cure, far greater than 
is possible in their own homes or in general hospitals. I do 
not know of any movement more deserving of public support, 
or one more capable of lessening human suffering; and if the 
matter could be properly put before our citizens, that support 
would not fail to be given. 
Just at the present time the risk that the plague may reach 
these colonies is attracting the special attention of sanitary 
authorities. It is almost at our doors, and unless careful pre- 
cautions are taken, it may any day be in our midst. Such pre- 
cautions are being taken now, and we may hope, if not to 
escape entirely, at ‘the least that there will be but isolated cases, 
such as we have had of sm-ll-pox on comparatively rare occasions. 
Cleanliness, cleanliness, and again cleanliness, must be our 
resource. And it may be that the revival of plague epi- 
demicity will give such an impetus to sanitary improvements, 
here and in other countries, that the number of lives ultimately 
saved by such means would be greaier than the deaths which the 
scourge itself causes. The outbreak of cholera had this indirect 
beneficial effect fifty or sixty years ago, and it may well be so 
again. The great lesson to be derived from history, in relation 
to the subjects which we are here to consider, is that money 
and labour appled for the bringing about of sanitary improve- 
ments is always well expended. Whatever be the immediate 
cause which leads to that expenditure the good effects are far- 
reaching and permanent, beyond what even the most ardent 
students or pre -‘oners of sanitary science could at the time 
have anticipated. 
