388 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



cholera, there seem no reasonable grounds for doubting that its 

 effects upon the rabbits would be the same as that of mouse - 

 typhus was upon the voles. It is seldom that the theories of the 

 scientist, when put practically to the test on a large scale, have 

 proved so startlingly successful as those of Prof. Loftier are 

 reported to have done when put into actual practice in Thessaly. 



I may explain that, some years ago, I laid all the details of 

 my scheme (as herein explained) before the Government of New 

 South Wales, and made formal application for the reward already 

 alluded to. In the end, however, I was officially informed that 

 the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the various 

 methods proposed for checking or suppressing the Rabbit Pest in 

 the Australian Colonies had " decided that no scheme has been 

 propounded for the destruction of rabbits which complies with the 

 Proclamation made by the Government of New South Wales." 

 On what grounds the Commissioners arrived at this conclusion 

 was never explained to me ; and, seeing that I was never invited 

 to put my scheme practically to the test, it is hard to see how 

 they could have had any adequate grounds for their conclusion. 

 The offer has now been withdrawn. 



With regard to my application, however, it was somewhat 

 gratifying to find that, in the Final Report of the Royal Com- 

 missioners, issued in 1889, my scheme received more attention, 

 and was noticed at greater length, than any other scheme of the 

 1400 submitted. The only objection the Commissioners were 

 able to advance against the scheme was to the effect that, " when 

 the rabbits have been decimated in this manner, a few years only 

 elapse before their numbers are as large as ever." To this it 

 might be replied that, if the colonists were in search of a means 

 capable of exterminating the very last rabbit in Australia and of 

 preventing the recurrence of the plague for ever afterwards, they 

 were in search of something they were hardly likely to find. 

 Surely they might have been satisfied if they could secure a 

 means which, when the rabbits, in the natural 'course of their 

 increase, became so numerous as to become a plague, appeared 

 capable of all but exterminating them. 



In conclusion, I desire to explain that I write from the 

 theoretical standpoint mainly. All things considered, however, 

 it seems that the question of introducing rabbit-cholera among 

 the Australasian rabbits is worthy of fuller consideration. 



