56 MAX HENRY. 
ducers’ Gazette and Settlers’ Record of W.A., Vol. v, 1898, 
a veterinarian attached to the Stock Department, reported 
it as occurring at Koogan on the Midland Railway in that 
year, and it is said to have occurred in one or two other 
places during the nineties. Here again we are Jeft in con- 
- siderable doubt as to the true state of affairs. 
In Tasmania it appears to have been reported definitely 
from only three centres, and is evidently negligible. Ina 
private communication the Government Veterinary Surgeon 
Mr. T. Philp, B.v.Sc., states that some cases are attributed 
to the use of bone dust, a source of infection which must 
be very unusual in this country. 
Mortality. 
It is not sufficient to show that outbreaks of. Anthrax 
. are not numerous, in order to establish the comparative 
freedom of Australia from the disease, unless at the same 
time it is possible to demonstrate that the mortality in- 
volved by such outbreaks is also light. In past years the 
estimates of loss were very high, but for reasons which 
will be mentioned later, it is not considered that such 
estimates are reliable. It is not intended of course to 
convey the impression that Anthrax was not at one time 
in certain districts a veritable scourge. In 1891 Loir, 
before the Royal Society of New South Wales declared that 
the figures generally accepted as the loss in sheep from 
Anthrax in New South Wales were 200,000; whilst Hutyra 
and Marek (Special Pathology and Therapeutics of the 
diseases of Domestic Animals 1912) say, “In Australia it 
was not supposed to have been introduced until the year 
1847, but at present it causes an annual loss of 300,000 
sheep.’’ Now if the official figures are considered, it will 
be found that in those outbreaks occurring in New South 
Wales and Victoria from the period 1/1/12 to 31/12/21, that 
is ten years, actual mortality figures are available in 32 

aan 
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