trial. It may be objected that these ailments can be treated 

 equally well with other astringents. This is not the case in 

 all the instances referred to. But granting the truth of tbe 

 statement, yet it is some advantage to know that we have at 

 our doors so excellent a remedy. It has seA r eral other advan- 

 tages besides being so easily obtained, it is not unpleasant to 

 the palate, and there is' seldom any difficulty in getting children 

 to take it. The tincture, too, has a beautiful colour, an advan- 

 tage not to be despised. It is not poisonous. 



Mr. Moli]s t eux said that when be was a boy wattlebark was 

 often used for opthalmie complaints, and some persons had 

 been known to drink the tan-water at a tanyard to cure 

 diarrhoea and dysentery, and it was found of benefit in cases 

 of sore eyes. 



Professor Tate asked if the natives used infusions of bark, 

 because if they did the knowledge might be useful. He believed 

 a doctor in Queensland was directing attention to the subject. 

 As far as he knew, the natives seemed quite Helpless in cases 

 of illness. 



Mr. T. Magaret said white gum was used by the aborigines, 

 he believed, in certain complaints. He thought a great mistake 

 was being made in attempting to substitute different trees in 

 the Park Lands for trees such as the peppermint and white- 

 gum and wattle that originally flourished there. If the Cor- 

 poration would take tbe trouble to plant groves of wattles it 

 would be found beneficial, as tbe gum was no doubt wtolesome. 

 Children eat it. Some simple remedies were very effectual, 

 and often the primitive remedies used by old women were found 

 to serve an excellent purpose. Old women were very useful, 

 provided tbey were old women of the right sex. 



Professor Tate initiated a discussion on the encouragement 

 of natural history research in South Australia. He proposed 

 a scbeme for tbe systematic reception and record of facts 

 relating to the natural bistory of tbe colony, and made sugges- 

 tions as to the best means of stimulating tbe practical study of 

 natural science. He said Mr. Lloyd, in 1866, very earnestly 

 urged upon tbe attention of members the two fundamental 

 objects of the Society, on wbicb he remarked tbat its founders 

 were desirous that it sboidd not only afford an agreeable 

 medium of intercommunication to those whose tastes led them 

 to the piusuit of similar studies, but that it sbould also pre- 

 sent a means of illustrating and recording the many interesting 

 natural phenomena peculiar to the country, and wbicb it was 

 feared would be altogetber, iu a few years, irrevocably lost to 

 the records of science. Six years later Mr. Smeaton submitted 

 to the consideration of tbe Society some practical suggestions 

 b 



