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of course so large a water supply could never suffer serious 

 contamination. I do not know whence the game on Benara 

 obtain their drinking water. In order to arrive at any trust- 

 worthy data of this kind the water supply most accessible to 

 the kangaroo should be noticed, and as this is being done in 

 some parts of the South-East, I have no doubt that ere long we 

 shall have some interesting facts to record. Dr. Jackson, whose 

 opinions upon this subject must command the greatest respect, 

 was of opinion that " the unusual prevalence of hydatid disease 

 in the South-Eastern District may be fairly attributed to the 

 large number of marsupials and (to a lesser extent) of native 

 dogs or dingos which abound, and to the peculiar disposition of 

 the water supply, most of which exists as surface-water or 

 swamps." Dr. Jackson attributes the chief rule to the mar- 

 supials, inasmuch as the dingo is rapidly becoming extinct. It 

 is highly probable that kangaroos are much infested with 

 hydatids in this district as a whole, so that I attach no import- 

 ance to my inability to find cysts in the few specimens examined 

 by me. It would be very interesting to receive information 

 upon this point from sportsmen of a scientific turn of mind. 

 As regards the sheep, there is no doubt that hydatid infection 

 is very common in them, and that the parasite often co-exists 

 with, and is often mistaken for, fluke. This is not surprising, 

 when we learn that the water supply is the medium of infection 

 in each case. And now as regards the records of the Mount 

 G-ambier Hospital. I may remind you that in my statistical 

 paper I gave you, upon the authority of Dr. Jackson, the 

 returns of this hospital for the seven years ] 873-1880. They 

 showed that during that period one out of every 53 in-patients 

 treated was a case of hydatids. Of course this represents a 

 very alarming prevalence of the disease ; but it was doubted 

 by Professor Tate whether the localization of the disease in 

 the South-East was proven by the cases treated in the Mount 

 Gambier Hospital. Professor Tate was inclined to think that 

 the high reputation of Dr. Jackson — then in charge of the 

 Mount Gambier Hospital — had something to do with the large 

 number of cases of hydatids treated in that institution. This 

 was, of course, a very cogent objection, and during my recent 

 visit to Mount Gambier I brought this question before the 

 notice of Mr. A. K. Varley, the very obliging Secretary of the 

 hospital. This gentleman, who has taken a warm and intelli- 

 gent interest in this subject, has been kind enough to collect 

 and tabulate for me all the cases of hydatids admitted into the 

 hospital from January, 1869, to December, 1882, i.e., for 14 

 years. They amount in all to 51; cases, and during the same 

 period there were 3,365 admissions of in-patients duly recorded. 

 kSo that in round numbers about one out of every 62 cases 



