438 Proceedinr/fi. 



or diet, or anything whatever in the environment. Any emigrant from the mother-country, 

 on landing here, is absohitely free from the danger of incurring any disease from which 

 at home he would be exempt. In every other quarter of the globe our roving fellow- 

 countrymen are liable to some new and special disease. Here the colonists suffer from 

 no one single disease which they have not themselves imported. They have given many 

 to the natives, but have taken not one in return. 



We have imported a great many of the 1600 and odd diseases named by the Eoyal 

 College of Physicians, and probably in time we shall import all the rest. 



It is a singular thing that, spite of the numerous undrained marshes, we have no such 

 thing as ague, or other malarious fevers ; and as our population is well-nourished and 

 well-to-do, scurvy, purpura, and kindred diseases are rare. Eemittent, or famine fever, is 

 unkno\vn. True typhus has, I believe, never been seen in this country, though, unfortu- 

 nately, typhoid, that disgrace of civilization, is everywhere. Diphtheria and influenza are 

 very common. Cholera has not yet made its appearance on our shores, and from all such 

 diseases as the plague, yellow fever, true dysentery, yaws, and beriberi, no New Zealand 

 colonist has ever suffered. In many countries the manufacture of flax has been attended 

 with severe septicemia fever, arising from the heaps of decaying organic material, but I 

 am not aware that this has ever appeared here. 



A strange fact is the absence of hydrophobia in dogs. In England, rats suffer from a 

 parasitic disease ; cats eat the rats and suffer, and children playing with the cats acquire 

 it (faims) : quite unknown here. 



It is my impression that skin diseases are rare here, perhaps owing to the scantiness 

 and the well-to-do character of the people. 



Sunstrokes are rare. 



Human beings who mix much with dogs, are apt to suffer from internal parasites, 

 a disease called hydatoids. In Iceland, where the dogs live in-doors all the winter with 

 their masters, it is exceedingly common, being one of the most fertile sources of death. 

 In Australia it is also very common, but in New Zealand appears to be exceedingly rare. 



As in Victoria, phthisis is very prevalent. The immigrants from Home suffering from 

 phthisis improve here ; but the young New Zealand born suffer severely, and when 

 attacked have little power of resistance. 



Of New Zealand remedies we know but little — in fact we may say nothing. Pro- 

 bably a careful search will discover a few valuable remedies amongst the flora ; but by far 

 the most powerful remedy will always be our mineral springs. And some day there may 

 be fashionable resorts for consumptive persons high up amid the peaks of the Euahine, or 

 amid the glaciers of Mount Cook. Perhaps there will come a time when consumptives 

 from AustraUa will resort to them in shoals, as they undoubtedly wiU to our mineral 

 waters. 



Dr. Hector then proposed a vote of thanks to Dr. Newman, not only for his able ad- 

 dress, but for the manner in which he had performed the duties of President for the past 

 year. Dr. Newman had always been most energetic, and had done aU in his power to 

 promote the interests of the Society. 



Dr. Buller had great pleasure in seconding the vote, which was carried unanimously. 



This concluded the business of the annual meeting. 



1. " On Neohal(Ena maiyinata," by Dr. Hector. 



A beautifully-prepared skeleton (recently obtained at Ohariu) was set up in the lecture 

 ball for the inspection of members. This whale is chiefly interesting from its being a 



