PKOCEEDINGS, MAY. XT 



weeks, which, brings us exactly from the maximum point of temperature 

 at the end of January to the middle of March. (Applause.) Even 

 if the specific virus of the fever may be generated de novo, the 

 same process has to be gone through, showing most conclusively the 

 direct effect of excessive heat, in causing the disease to pass from aa 

 endemic condition in the winter to an epidemic form Ln^the^ summer. 

 And if this is so apparent in the months of one year, surely it is only 

 reasonable to expect that a similar increase in the disease will take 

 place in cities where sanitary arrangements are grossly neglected in 

 years with an unusually high temperature such as this year, when we 

 had several days in succession in January with a temperature, ranging 

 from 90deg. tolOSgdeg., the highest recorded temperature since 1849. 

 (Applause). The periodical variation in the temperature curve 

 corresponds roughly, I believe, with the sunspot periodicity, but what 

 influence Jupiter can have, of course, we are unable to imagine. Surely 

 to prove this influence Mr. Johnston should have shown corresponding 

 waves in the typhoid death-rate in England, but there we find a very 

 different picture. From 1871 or 1872 a most marked but gradual 

 diminution has taken place, totally irrespective of the position of Jupiter, 

 or even the number of spots on the sun, but it is certainly a noteworthy 

 coincidence that this great diminution should begin to take place 

 immediately after the passing of the Public Health Act of 1872, and 

 the further Act of 1875. From 1871 to 1880 the typhoid death-rate had 

 declined from 89 per 100,000 in the previous decade to 49 per 100,000, 

 and it has since gradually diminished to 18 per 100,000 in 1885. To 

 further illustrate this important point, I may mention that the eminent 

 authority on sanitation. Dr. Buchanan, found that in 25 English towns 

 in which sanitary improvements had been properly carried out, the 

 typhoid death-rate diminished largely in the five years succeeding the 

 completion of the works — to an extent varying from 33 to 75 per cent. 

 In startling contrast to this satisfactory state of things, due entirely, 

 be it observed, to human efforts, consider for one moment the present 

 condition of Hobart where there have been already 34 deaths in the 

 last four months, equal to an annual rate of 115 per 100,000. I would 

 venture to suggest that the one great test of the relative sanitary con- 

 ditions of towns as regards sewerage, drainage, and the purity and 

 abundance of its water supply, is the typhoid death-rate — and here 

 Tasmania and Australia compare most unfavourably with England, 

 for the simple reason that sanitation in these matters is practically 

 nil. It is in this disease that human action has been conclusively proved 

 in England to be the all-important factor all other causes, with the 

 exception of phthisis, contributing to the death-rate, have been apparently 

 undiminished by man's efforts. Therefore, when Mr. Johnston suggests 

 the probability of cosmical causes adding to or varying the intensity 

 of disease, he should have made a special exception in the case of typhoid. 

 When here in Hobart the foul water from a stagnant pool like the 

 Cascade reservoir is allowed to pollute the general town supply ; when 

 we have filth lying exposed to an almost tropical sun, and then carried 

 in leaking and open pans, in some cases through the very rooms of the 

 houses ; when we have the house slops trickling all day along slimy 

 channels in front of our very doors ; and when acting on all this mass of 

 filth and foul water there comes great heat, such as that of the past 

 summer, is it anj' wonder we have this fearful epidemic of a filth 

 disease among us? (Applause.) With this epidemic in full activity 

 every summer and autumn, is it not quite within the limits of possibility 

 that some person of note, or a near relative of such, may fall a victim to 

 it? Would not such an event be an almost irreparable injury to the 

 city from a monetary point of view by ruining its present high reputation 

 in the other colonies as a health resort ? And does it not as a simple 



