11 



The South Australian Statistics of 

 Consumption. 



By Joseph C. Yeeco, M.D. 



It lias long been known that the prevalence and fatality of 

 consumption of the lungs vary greatly at different places and 

 under different climates. But there does not seem to be any 

 one climate which specially opposes the disease. It has been 

 shown to be almost unknown in some of the cold and stormy 

 islands off the western coast of Scotland. The number of 

 invalids with pulmonary affection who yearly flock to the 

 temperate regions of Italy and Southern France testify to the 

 popularity of the impression that a mild, genial atmosphere is 

 highly beneficial. Yet our southern sub-tropical colony does 

 not fail to attract a host of sufferers seeking amidst all the 

 discomforts of dry and dusty heat the cure for their complaint, 

 while there are not wanting those who extol the rarified and 

 bracing air of lofty mountain chains as par excellence the 

 remedy for phthisis. It would appear, then, to be almost im- 

 possible to decide from the physical or meteorological data of a 

 given locality whether it would prove beneficial or otherwise. 

 A guess might be made either right or wrong. The appeal must 

 be made to the statistics of the place ; whatever the a priori 

 conclusion may be, the real decision must rest upon the death 

 returns. In spite of all we hear in depreciation of statistics to 

 the effect that anything may be proved, from them, it is certain 

 that very little could be proved without them — all that could 

 exist would be a mere floating, unsatisfactory general impres- 

 sion. I wish to point out what, that is fairly definite, can be 

 learned aboiit consumption in South Australia from this source. 



Where the materials from which deductions are to be drawn 

 respecting a complaint consist entirely of death returns, the 

 study of phthisis presents an advantage over that of almost 

 every other affection, viz., that so large a proportion of the 

 patients attacked ultimately die from its ravages. I would not 

 be understood to suggest that it is incurable — it most certainly 

 is curable ; still so many of those seized are eventually 

 destroyed, that the mortality tables give a very approximate 

 idea of the prevalence of the disease. 



