700 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 



If you will remember that almost every person who contracts 

 consumption owes his misfortune to the careless action, unconsciously 

 committed it may have been, of some individual who is suffering from 

 the disease, you will at once perceive that the action of consumptive 

 people should be under the control of some constituted authority, such 

 a,s the Board of Health. 



REMEDIES PROPOSED. 



The measures which I would propose are reasonable, and I think 

 not more severe than the nature of the case demands, I will ask your 

 careful consideration of the propositions I have to make. 



In this State at the present time it is the duty of a physician 

 directly he is consulted by a person suffering from consumption to 

 notify the fact to the Board of Health. I consider that simple notifica- 

 tion is not sufficient, but that the physician should state in his certificate 

 whether his patient is or is not in the infectious stage of the disease. 

 If the case is not in the infectious stage no action need be taken by the 

 Board of Health, but the patient must supply a certificate, not less 

 than once every month, to the effect that he is still not in the infectious 

 stage, and he must continue to send these certificates until his disease 

 has undergone arrest. So long as he provides certificates that he is 

 not infectious the board will not interfere with him. 



If, on the other hand, the physician notifies the case to be in the 

 infectious stage, then the case must be isolated either at home or at a 

 hospital until the board is satisfied not only that he has learned, but 

 that he can be safely trusted to carry out the prescribed rules of personal 

 cleanliness and disinfection. The patient must further remain under 

 the supervision of the Board of Health until the disease has undergone 

 arrest, or until he has died. 



IMPORTED CONSUMPTIVES. 

 It is undeniable that in Australia we have suffered greatly from 

 the importation of consumptives from the old country. If to some 

 consumptives who come here from abroad our climate affords the means 

 of regaining their health, let them be heartily welcome, let them benefit 

 by all we can do and give them, but let us make sure, if we can, that 

 none of them will spread the disease to others here. Every consumptive 

 who enters this State should be compelled to report himself on arrival 

 to the Board of Health, and should he be in the infectious stage the 

 I)oard must require his immediate isolation until they are assured 

 either that he is free from infection, or that he is both trustworthy and 

 competent to carry out the prescribed rules of personal cleanliness and 

 ■disinfection. 



PERSECUTION OF CONSUMPTIVES. 

 The measures which I have proposed should not only be a safe- 

 guard to the general pubHc, they should prove a boon to the consump- 

 tives themselves. Many of these unfortunate sufferers are to-day 

 fully alive to the fact that they may convey the disease to others, and 



