11 



clear enough for South Australians, but the distinction between 

 Adelaide and suburbs was not sufficiently marked for strangers.. 

 I noticed this a few months ago, and in the last three quarterly 

 reports the form of the return has been altered so that no further 

 error can occur. 



Coming on to Dr. Jamieson's second mode of calculation, that 

 in which a comparison is drawn between the mortality from 

 typhoid fever and diarrhceal diseases and the mortality from other 

 diseases occurring in the same period, I agree that such a com- 

 parison is fair and legitimate, and in the absence of disturbing- 

 factors the conclusions drawn from it afford a fair indication of 

 the sanitary condition of localities to which the test is applied. A 

 glance at the figures shows that the doctor has spent much valu- 

 able time in the preparation of this part of his paper. In the 

 comparison he now undertakes he discards the Adelaide and 

 suburban population because, as he explains, he could find no 

 guide to enable him to make out what registration districts are 

 in the Adelaide and suburban area. He therefore falls back on 

 the registration district of Adelaide, which he supposes to corres- 

 pond closely with the area efficiently provided Avith sewers. I 

 regret that want of local knowledge has again led the doctor into 

 fatal mistakes. Registration districts are arbitrary divisions of 

 the colony made for the purpose of affording facilities for regis- 

 tration, and without reference to any other requirement. Once 

 formed, they cannot be altered without introducing confusion and' 

 probably mistakes into official records. The Adelaide registration 

 district has no relation to the drainage area. It includes Ade- 

 laide, Parkside, Unley, Mitcham, Mount Lofty, Belair, Brighton, 

 Reedbeds, Salisbury, Stirling East, Walkerville, Glen Osmond,. 

 Dry Creek, Plympton, and many little townships scattered 

 around the places I have named. Adelaide is the only town in 

 the district that is within the drainage area. The other drained 

 towns — Hindmarsh and Thebarton — are not included. The 

 objections to the doctor's first series of calculations tells therefore 

 ^Yith. even greater force against the second, and I believe that if 

 we could have the pleasure of Dr. Jamieson's attendance he 

 w^ould be the first, after the explanation I have given, to tell us 

 that his figures furnish no guide to the determination of the 

 question he undertook to discuss. 



Here I might close my remarks on Dr. Jamieson's paper, but 

 a rather long portion of the contribution is given to a discussion 

 of a subject collateral to the main question but having an in- 

 direct bearing upon it. The doctor notes the record of the sud- 

 den fall in the ratio of mortality in Adelaide and suburbs from 

 21-21 per 1,000 in 1884 to 13-34 in 1885 and to 14-31 in 1886, 

 and he endeavours to show by a mode of calculation of his own 



