The Drainage of Adelaide and its 

 Influence on the Death«Rate. 



By James Jamiesox, M.D., Health Officer, City of Melbourne. 



[Read November ist, 1887.] 



In the course of a recent visit to Adelaide I was greatly im- 

 pressed by the evidence of cleanliness everywhere and the freedom 

 from smells. The system of drainage adopted appeared to be 

 excellent in its workings, and I was anxious to discover what had 

 been the effect on the public health resulting from its introduc- 

 tion. Accordingly I obtained, by the courtesy of Dr. Whittell, 

 the Registrar-General, a set of the annual reports on the vital 

 statistics of South Australia for the years 1882 to 1886, embrac- 

 ing the period just before and that just following the completion 

 of the deep drainage system. 



At the first glance it appears as if the result, in reduction of 

 the death-rate, had been very marked. According to the reports 

 the death-rate for Adelaide and suburbs, which had averaged 

 21-38 per 1,000 in the ten years 1875-84, and had never been 

 less than 19-71 (in 1877), fell suddenly in 1885 to 14-34, and in 

 1886 to 14'31. Such an extraordinary reduction in the rate of 

 mortality, suddenly produced, is probably unprecedented in the 

 sanitary history of any city or town of similar population, and is 

 calculated to excite suspicion that some fallacy has been allowed 

 to creep in. The possibility of error is, of course, admitted by 

 the Registrar-General, who says (Report for 1886): "The 

 peculiar circumstances of the colony during the last two or three 

 years have caused fluctuations in different districts and towns, 

 which may lead to some error in the estimates, which cannot be 

 adjusted till a new census has been taken." 



The probability of error, suggested by the very fact of the 

 death-rate having fallen to such an extent, is confirmed by the 

 circumstance that in the same years (1885 and 1886) there was 

 likewise an almost equal lowering in the birth-rate. Now, to 

 whatever cause this may have been due, it cannot be supposed to 

 have resulted from the sanitary improvements, to which a reduc- 

 tion in the death-rate might be ascribed. As regards the lowered 

 birth-rate there can hardly be doubt that its cause is to be found 

 in the commercial depression which has for some time existed in 

 South Australia, and which has probably affected chiefly and 

 most severely the capital. 



