u 



])iit in this colony, subject to all sorts of tiuctuation, I should be 

 reluctant to adopt it. Let us take tlie city of Adelaide as a test. 

 In the census year, 1881, the population was in round numbers 

 38,500 ; the births were 1,380. ^Vssuming that the birtlis are a 

 safe index, the population fell in 1882 to about 34,000. In the 

 next year, 1883, it bounded up to 39,000. It remained the same 

 in 1884, and in 1885 it fell to 35,000. Those of us who reside 

 in Adelaide know full well tliat there were no such upward and 

 downward leaps as those indicated. jN^othing occurred in 1881 

 to 1882 to justify the belief that Adelaide lost 4,500 people, nor 

 was there anything in 1882 to 1883 to account for the sudden 

 addition of 5,000. 



The question still remains— Have we at present any data to 

 enable us to determine the effect of deep drainage on the public 

 health ? I use the words at present advisedly, because I believe 

 we shall have to wait several years before we shall experience the 

 full benefits which our improved system will confer on us. Those 

 w^ho have made Adelaide their home Avill remember the condition 

 of things. A few years ago Adelaide could properly be described 

 as a city of stinks. There were hundreds of privies with cess- 

 pools that were simply holes in the ground, and from these the 

 subsoil was saturated with filth of the most offensive kind. The 

 only escape for house-slops was into the public gutters ; and we 

 all remember the abominable pools of filthy liquids which existed 

 from one end of the city to the other. Deep drainage has put an 

 end to these nuisances, but it has not removed from the subsoil 

 the filth which has been accumulating there for years. There is 

 a common idea that earth is the great purifier for excretal 

 matters, and so it is if there be plenty of vegetation to use up the 

 material, but without vegetation the earth soon becomes satu- 

 rated, and afterwards the changes become so slow that it is 

 difiicult to know when the dangers arising from this earth-poisoning 

 will end. Two or three years ago there were some extensive altera- 

 tions being made at the back of a drapery establishment in 

 Rundle-street. One of these required the excavation of earth for 

 a large underground warehouse. One morning the contractor 

 called at the Board of Health Ofiices and invited me to go down 

 to this work, where I should find something to interest me. 

 When I went there I found tliat a long excavation had been 

 made from the back of the Rundle-street shop in a direction to- 

 wards Xorth-terrace. Just at the back of the shop there had 

 formerly been an old privy, with a cesspool behind it. This had 

 not been used for several months, having been emptied and filled 

 up as required by the Hydraulic Department when connection 

 was made with the sewers. The excavation had brought to view 

 .a long ^N^edge-shaped mass of earth below the surface, difiering in 



