AUSTRALIA. VI ~> 



licensing board examines the credentials of the applicanl 

 and, if the candidate is in possession of a diploma from 

 a recognized medical school, he is admitted witliout pass- 

 ing an examination. The local branch of the British 

 Medical Association meets monthly and the sessions are 

 usually well attended. The Australasian Medical Con- 

 gress meets every three years and includes New Zealand. 

 Adelaide, Australia, August 11, 1904. 



THE MELBOURNE HOSPITALS. 

 Man, the masterpiece of creation, the image of God, 

 is subject to pain, disease and death wherever chance or 

 circumstance may have fixed his abode in the world, as 



"There is no mortal whom pain and disease does 

 not reach." — Cicero. 



Primitive man has no, or at best only an imperfect, 

 conception of the ways and means to protect himself 

 against the disease-producing influences and he is power- 

 less, or nearly so, when afflicted by accident or disease. 

 For asres civilized man has endeavored to ascertain the 

 cause of diseases and to discover remedies for their pre- 

 vention and successful treatment. In their primitive 

 state the aborigines, living a natural life, are less ex- 

 posed to injury and disease than civilized man living in 

 luxury and intent on the accumulation of wealth or the 

 gain of fame, for 



"Increased means and increased luxuries are the 

 two civilizers of man." — Disraeli. 



Civilization and the conditions and circumstances at- 

 tending and following it have bred the most destructive 

 diseases unknown to the primitive races. Firearms, 

 commerce, increase of travel and the various industries 

 incident to civilization are productive of accidents from 

 which the natives in their original state were almost 

 exempt. On the other hand, civilization has always 

 been concerned in establishing effective sanitary meas- 

 ures and in devising rational and more successful treat- 

 ment of injuries and disease. The principal functions 

 of every intelligent and humane government consist in 



