678 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION H. 
Though it is disappointing not to have been able to obtain 
positive results after this rather laborious inquiry into the causes 
of the annual and periodic fluctuations in the prevalence of 
typhoid fever in Melbourne, it does not follow that it has been 
without value. We always hear the hope. or even the positive 
opinion, expressed, that a good hot wind will check the prevalence 
of the disease ; or, on the contrary, that heavy rains will have the 
same effect. It is well to know whether such opinions have any 
good foundation ; and there may be positive gain in having the 
mind disabused of unfounded notions as to the beneficial or 
detrimental influence of general conditions, such as temperature, 
rainfall, or barometric pressure, over which we have no control. 
We are thrown back on the well-established facts that a filth- 
saturated soil supplies a condition eminently favourable to the 
spread of typhoid, and that a proper system of drainage, how- 
ever it may operate, can be depended on to reduce, steadily and 
to a large extent, the prevalence of the disease. The best possible 
system of drainage cannot, of course, prevent danger arising from * 
contamination of water or milk, or put an end to other possible 
modes of communication. But, judging from experience gained 
in the large cities of Europe, it may safely be said that no other 
measure of precaution, no other sanitary improvement, can be 
compared with this in certainty of effect. 1 do not believe that 
the difficult questions just discussed are incapable of solution, and 
if the varying prevalence of the disease, annual and periodic, is to 
be explained at all, I still think that it must be by meteorological 
considerations. The data at my disposal are insufficient, or are 
not analysed with sufficient care to allow of positive conclusions. 
But we know the direction in which to look for the remedy ; and 
if we get the good result, we can afford to. wait for the 
explanation. 
3.—COOL HOUSES. 
By James W. Barrett, M.D. 
[ Adstract. 
Tue author said that the object of the paper was to describe 
simple methods by which Melbourne houses might be kept cool 
during the summer. The cause of heating of the house was two- 
fold; the heating of the roof and walls by the sun, and the 
entrance into the house of hot air. A temperature of 70 with 
the ordinary. degree of humidity was not unpleasant, and he found 
from Mr. Ellery that on only fourteen nights during December, 
January, and February did the temperature of the air between 8 
p.m. and 12 p.m. exceed 70. Therefore, we might conclude 
that on the great majority of nights cool fresh air could be 
