1058 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 
progressive stage before all hope is abandoned. A large con- 
sumptive hospital in the city is very objectionable. 
At the Brisbane meeting of this Association, the writer con- 
tributed a paper showing the death rate from phthisis in every 
district in New South Wales. These figures showed that in 
Sydney the rate was 1:96 ; suburbs, 1:16 ; country, 0°66; or the 
ratio for city, suburbs, and country, of 3, 2,,1. Probably the 
most suitable locations for country sanatoria would be on the 
western slope of the Blue Mountains, the Riverina, New England, 
the Queensland border, on those extensive open plains between 
the Macintyre and Gwydir Rivers. A coastal station might be 
established in the Ilarwarra or Shoalhaven districts. In Europe 
and in America the climatic treatment of phthisis has met with 
gratifying results. There are in Australia many and varied 
climates which, so far, no serious attempt has been made to take 
advantage of. 
What is required most is the sanitary education of the masses, 
and the co-operation of individual members of the community. 
The public must be made to understand that consumption is a 
preventable disease ; that their lives depend, to a great extent, 
upon the actions of one another ; and that the causes of prevent- 
able diseases are local conditions of filth and nuisance polluting 
air and water, and the reckless dissemination of contagion. 
No. 4.—A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF SMALL- 
POX AND VACCINATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 
By Frank Tipswett, M.B., Ch.M. (Syd.), D.P.H. (Camb.) ; 
Principal Assistant Medical Officer to the Government of 
New South Wales ; Microbiologist to the Board of Health. 
(Read Friday, January 7, 1898.) 
[ Abstract. ] 
I. SMALL-POX. 
THE exact time of the first appearance of small-pox in Australia 
has generally been referred to too late a date, mainly on the 
authority of Hirsch. In his “Geographical and Historical 
Pathology,” New Syd. Soc. Trans., London, 1885, vol. i, page 133, 
this writer states that small-pox did not appear in Australia till 
the year 1838, that its occurrence then was of brief duration, and 
that no further outbreak occurred until 1868. 
