Xn PEOCEEDINGS, MAY. 



matter of business behove us to apply all possible remedies at once, to 

 preserve that reputation rather than suffer its loss, and then have to 

 struggle for many years to come to regain it ; -when, it may be, other 

 towns have gained the fanae that was ours and occupy the proud 

 position we now hold of being the sanatorium of the Southern 

 Hemisphere. (Loud applause.) 



Mr. Mault said that, taking Mr. Johnston's paper as a whole, 

 he had been disappointed with it, because the consideration of such a 

 subject gave Mr. Johnston a chance of aiding sanitary work in our 

 midst, and he was afraid that, on the other hand the paper had had 

 rather the effect of retarding that good work. He did not see from 

 one end of the paper to the other any thing like an attempted proof of 

 the value of comparative statistics in regard to the sanitary con- 

 dition of Hobart itself. It was the Hobart of to-day only that he had 

 spoken about, not the Hobart of to-day compared with any other 

 time. If he had taken advantage of some of the statistics 

 that Dr. Parkinson had advanced in regard to England he 

 would have seen that while Jupiter was approaching the earth, 

 while the sunspots were diminishing or increasing in number, 

 there was one continual march in the way of diminution in the 

 death-rate generally, amounting in the decade between 1870 

 and 1880, as compared with the decade between 1860 and 1870 

 to 1 per cent., and of that 1 per cent, at least three-quarters 

 was due to a diminution in deaths from what are called preventible 

 diseases. That would show most clearly that sanitary science and 

 the inculcation of the duty of cleanliness can override such cosmical 

 influences as were at work. He could not help thinking that Mr, 

 Johnston had been led wrong by his love of comparative 

 statistics. He (the speaker) did not like them. Their duty 

 was with positive statistics. In his opinion they should look at 

 a death from preventible disease as a homicide chargeable to some- 

 thing or somebody. There was one detail on which they ought to 

 have information. He alluded to the manner in which deaths were 

 registered here. He found that in the register of deaths in the 

 City of Hobart it was apparently quite sufficient if at the time of 

 registration the name of the deceased person was given, with his 

 occupation, and the street in which he lived. It would be of 

 infinitely more importance — in fact, it would make all the 

 difference between usefulness and uselessness to give not only the 

 street, but the number in the street. Parliament, by a vote 

 it had passed last session, had given him a little leisure, and 

 he thought to employ that leisure by preparing a mortality map of 

 Hobart. But he found himself debarred from making this map 

 because he could not get anything like precise information as to the 

 locality of disease. He knew that a person had died in Argyle- 

 street, but he could not tell whether it was at this end or a mile 

 away. In most cases it appeared the deaths were registered by 

 undertakers. He thought, perhaps, they could give him some 

 assistance, and he had gone to an undertaker who had the largest 

 business in the town. He gave all the information in his power, but 

 even that was almost useless for the special purpose required. For 

 the future they should know exactly where every death occurred. 

 Mr. M ault explained the system adopted by Dr. Russell in Glasgow 

 by which every case of disease was localised and registered. A 

 death occurring at a certain house in a certain street was registered, 

 and if other deaths followed at short intervals in the same 

 house the fact was at once known, and the sanitary con- 

 dition of the house was looked into. The same principle was followed 

 in regard to localities. Some system of this kind in Hobart 



