26 



water supply was also very important. He thought that Mr. 

 Grundy's statement respecting the abundant water-supply o£ 

 the Benara Station exceedingly confirmatory of his views 

 respecting one of the chief sources of hydatid infection, viz., a 

 scanty surface supply of water, to Avhich dogs could have 

 access ; and that it fully explained why that part of the 

 country should have such a happy exemption from the parasite. 

 AVith respect to Mr. Todd's objection that the swamps would 

 be too extensive to be capable of being contaminated by 

 dogs, he would say that he had not meant that the whole of the 

 larger swamps had been thus infected, but merely small 

 portions near dwellings and presenting such conditions as he 

 had mentioned, favourable for the reception and retention of 

 the ova, and to which man and the lower animals had easy 

 access. In reply to Prof. Tate's question as to whether he 

 thought the parasite to be endemic in the colony, he said that 

 he thought not, as there was no tradition of the natives having 

 suffei'ed from hydatid disease prior to the coming of the white 

 man. Neither did he think that the dog had brought it here, 

 for as a rule the Taenia Echinococcus did not liA^e for more 

 than twelve weeks in the intestine of the dog, and in the early 

 days of the colony voyages from Europe took a much longer 

 time. In sheep and oxen the hydatid may, on the other hand, 

 remain for years embedded in the tissues ; and these were 

 most probably the source of the infection. There appeared to 

 be no increase in the recorded cases of the disease in man at 

 the Adelaide and Mount G-ambier Hospitals during the past 

 five years as compared with the previous five. 



