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■brother's sanitary keeper, it forced him 

 to conform to sanitary rules, and afford- 

 ed an example of public health legislation 

 •which in miany important re.^ipects was 

 not eurpaseed anywhere in the world at 

 the present day. In addition to formu- 

 lating hygienic laws these ancient sani- 

 tarians went in for large s.anitary works. 

 Jerusalem had an excellent water supply, 

 a well administeied isystem of removal of 

 organic waste, ajid probably a destructor 

 an the Valley of Hinnom. Nineveh in- 

 stalled -a drainage system many thou- 

 sands of years ago. In the Kings 

 Palace in Crete an excellent system of 

 ■water carriage removal of excreta ihad 

 been quite recently found. Rome under- 

 took gigantic and successful civic works 

 of water supply and iseweiage (much of 

 which wias sitill in uise), formulated laws 

 relating to nuisances, and enforced them 

 through medical officers of health and 

 sanitary inspectors. In the middle ages 

 the absence of sanitary laws produced 

 the plague and the Black Death, which 

 were practically the same as the epi- 

 demic which afflicted India and troubled 

 Sydney and Bris'bane. A quiarter of tihe 

 population of Europe was swept away in 

 three yeans as the result of the plague in 

 the middle ages. After detailing the 

 terrible results of the plague at that 

 period, the lecturer said that it finally 

 went away owing to a change in the 

 trade routes from the East ratner than 

 to any change in t&e sanitary Jaws. 

 Small-pox had committed tremendous 

 ravages till it was curbed by the dis- 

 coverieta of Jenner. The progresis of 

 public sanitary legislation depended to 

 some extent on tihe amount of public 

 money availatble for t^he parpose. Each 

 mdividuai ,memiber or the State had a 

 certain money value, provided he was a 

 productive worker, and it ishould he a 

 point of national economy to prolong his 

 life, and to make the conditions such as 

 would prevent him from falling ill and 

 becoming a burden to his family or the 

 State. Typhoid lever destroyed a num- 

 ber oi lives, and wa.s yel a perfectly pro- 

 ventible dii.seas'e. "If it is preventible,'" 

 the King said on one occas-'ion, "why not 

 prevent it?'' The standard of a com- 

 munity's progTee© could be gauged by its 

 sanitary admini'stration. and 'by the pro- 

 portional fund allotted for tJie purpose. 

 The attitude of the public towards sani- 

 tary reform was an important factor, as 

 on that would depend the amount that 

 would be voted towaitls it. It wa^s of 

 the utmost importance .that the public 

 should be educated on this subject. The 

 lecturer then gave numeious instances 

 where diseases had been 'prevented by 

 sanitary measures. 



Coming to Tasmania, the lecturer said 

 that during the 12 months ending on 

 June 30 of the present year there had 



been notified in this State 193 cases of 

 typhoid, 147 of scarlet fever, 160 of 

 diphtheria, in addition to consumption,, 

 which was not a notifiable disease, but 

 in 1904 there had been 114 deaths re- 

 ported from it. Consumption and typhoid 

 were among the easiest to deal with by 

 organised efforts in the direction of p:e- 

 vention and limitation. They were 



typiically preventable diseases, and there 

 was no reason why they should not be 

 dealt with in Tasmania as effectively 

 and thoroughly as malaria had been 

 dealt with in Klang. Our vital statistics. 

 compared excellently with those of other 

 States, but our returns of preventible 

 disease pointed to the need for early and 

 effective action if we were to retain our 

 reputation as a sanitorium, not only for 

 Australia, but lor countries far beyond 

 Australia. 



Public health was never likely to be- 

 come 'a buixlen upon the community, but 

 its neglect would always be one. At pre- 

 sent its State administration in Tasmania 

 cost 2.1G pence per head of the population 

 per annum. He did not say that effective 

 central sanitary administration could be 

 got for 2.16 pence per head of the popula- 

 tion, but he had no hesitation in stating 

 that if the individxial share were increas- 

 ed to the portentous sum of sixpence per 

 heiad per year, real efficiency could be with- 

 in our reach. Ninepence per head per year 

 would be absolute luxury, providing for 

 sanatoria and other badly-needed struc- 

 tural appui-tenances, enabling the State to 

 relieve and assist local bodies and their 

 officers, and rendering any repetition of 

 the Launceston affair of 1903, which cost 

 the taxpayem nearly ^20,000, to all in- 

 tents and purposes impossible, so far as 

 human endeavour could pre\nail. Victoria 

 spent 4.2 pence per head per annum; 

 NeAv South Wales 5.8 pence; and New 

 Zealand— a country which, like oui-selves, 

 had a special interest in the attraction of 

 visitors— 9.6 pence per head per annum. 

 Even the daring ninepence would not, 

 therefore, render Tasmania a dreadful 

 example of acute sanitary taxation, par- 

 ticularly when her special circumstances 

 were taken into account. 



Similarly the burden imposed upon 

 local taxation for public hei^lth purposes 

 could never be very heovy. At present we 

 had the spectacle of certain rural muui- 

 ciiDalities without any local taxation 

 whatever, although their combined annual 

 rateable value was nearly .£60,000. The 

 cities and most of the kuger and more 

 progressive centres were showing an in- 

 creasing tendency to recognise the benefite 

 of applied sanitation, with satisfactory 

 ret^.ilts, but the greater part of the State 

 was barbaric in its primeval insanitation. 

 The total annual rateable value of the 

 local government districts of the State 



