$32 (HE ZOOLOGIST. 
near Chicago from trichinosis: last year a score of thousand 
hoggets died from lung-worm in the southern portion of this 
North Island of New Zealand; millions of sheep die in England 
from sheep-fluke. These are but instanees of the severity of 
nature’s laws. And nature’s proper laws are continuous; not 
like M. Pasteur’s remedy, or our own winter poisoning. How 
well do we know here that the rabbits grew proof against the 
poisoned grain, and refused to take it! So will the rabbits grow 
proof against cholera-microbes. Even a few fowls in each hen- 
roost always escape the ravages of chicken-cholera. Again, 
there were, and are still, many places in the South Island where 
we could not lay the poisoned grain. This escape from poison 
and disease, and these inaccessible places, yearly afford bases 
for the rabbits to breed up again. But there is no escape from 
bladder-worm or liver-rot. 
With respect to the time the disease takes to effect the death 
of the rabbit, Professor Thomas mentions thirteen and twenty- 
one days after infection. We have always thought it took 
longer, but Professor Thomas thinks that he can make the 
disease even still more fatal. This is good news; but I do not 
think there is any necessity for it to be more fatal than it is. 
My runis clear now from the pest. I keep but one rabbiter and 
a pack of dogs over twelve thousand acres, and he catches about 
twenty-five rabbits a week. Hecould look after twenty thousand 
acres just as easily as twelve thousand. (I do not think his 
time thrown away in regularly going round the run. He saves 
his wages in other directions.) Iam, however, indifferent what 
disease is selected, provided one of nature’s true remedies is 
applied. As to any disease like cholera suddenly sweeping off 
millions, I do not believe in its applicability to our present 
circumstances. Too much virulence would do harm. 
In the use of so many dogs there is, of course, a danger of 
some dogs going wild. I should recommend the Government to 
publish the resolutions the settlers arrived at in my district, in 
1884, upon this question. We are now through the rabbit-pest, 
and I do not think the wild dogs have killed a thousand sheep 
during the last four years over a million acres. Still, there are 
a few dogs gone wild in the bush, which we occasionally hear 
and see; but these can easily be got if the search for them is 
properly gone about. Prevention in this matter is better than 
