PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 1031 
altogether deficient with the appearance of protection, the public 
health becomes the sport of every infectious disease that comes 
along. 
The most typical illustration I can adduce of the position of 
public health legislation, extending over a number of years, is to 
be found in the last report of the Central Board of Health for the 
colony of Victoria. The Health Act in Victoria has been in opera- 
tion since 1890. Itis admirably drawn up, and makes provision for 
the notification of infectious diseases, and their subsequent manage- 
ment; for the inspection of food and other supplies for human 
consumption ; and is altogether a model Act. The feature, how- 
ever, that demands our attention at this moment is, that all duties 
and powers are lodged in local health authorities, with a central 
authority for supervising purposes. If legislation on these lines 
were capable of being made effective, then, to my mind, Victoria, by 
virtue of its compr ehensive and intelligent Health Act, and also the 
acknowledged public-spiritedness of its community, would make it 
so; but the words of the report I have alge d to do not support 
any such expectation. Its words are: ‘‘ Protection against com- 
municable diseases is still of a most imperfect sort. As yet, but 
scant means have been provided for the isolation of persons 
suffering from infectious diseases ; indeed, in the metropolis, as 
already stated, no person, no matter how indigent, can claim a bed 
when suffering from such disease for isolation purposes, or, to tell 
the whole tale, even for the purpese of receiving medical relief. 
There is but one Municipal Council-—that of the city of Mel- 
bourne—that is possessed of a disinfecting oven. There is, too, but 
one ambulance in the Colony for the conveying of an infectious 
person from one place to another. Even the discharges of typhoid 
patients are, in not a few districts, still undealt w ith, or in- 
adequately dealt with ; but we understand that this, as far as the 
metropolis is concerned, is now rectified. Speaking generally, the 
preparations for dealing with communicable diseases are very 
defective, and those for properly dealing with infectious diseases 
are for most parts of the Colony practically non-existent.” 
The state of matters here described is, I regret to say, not one 
of which the colony of Victoria has a monopoly. Her case is the 
more striking, seeing she has had fairly advanced legislation for at 
least five years when the report was written. Several of the 
colonies have not reached her standpoint in legislation, or, if so, 
then only of late. Surely, if practical experience in the working of 
an Act is any guarantee of its real efficiency, these words are simply 
condemnatory. They at once suggest the question,—Should local 
authorities be entrusted with the administration of a branch ot the 
Public Health Act they so signally fail to put into effect? It would 
seem that the law may he as perfect as the Mosaic economy, but 
it is no warranty of its success. There is such a thing evidently 
