ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 27 



From this review it is plain that — 



1. The really efficient acts are the work of the last ten years 



or so. 



2. The acts are piecemeal. A comprehensive Public Health 



Bill was drafted in 1885 by the Hon. Dr. Mackellar, 

 and was read a first time in the Legislative Council, but 

 it has not got any further. 



3. The only infectious diseases with which there is power to 



deal are Small Pox and Leprosy, though with regard to 

 these two diseases the powers are most ample. 



The results of the absence in New South Wales of such sanitary 

 legislation for infectious diseases other than small pox and leprosy, 

 may be illustrated by the following examples, all occurring during 

 the past twelve months or so. 



Diphtheria. — At Cowra, the town having some nine hundred 

 and fifty inhabitants, the town and neighbourhood two thousand 

 one hundred, and the district seven thousand five hundred, from 

 November, 1892, till May 16th, 1893, there were no less than 

 two hundred and seventy-three cases of diphtheria, and thirty- 

 six were fatal. The town gets its drinking water from the river 

 below the town : there is no sewerage, almost no drainage ; half 

 the houses have cesspits, and these are not properly constructed, 

 the other half have the objectionable single-pan system. In the 

 surrounding district the cesspits were foul and the excreta of the 

 sick were simply thrown into them : the general surroundings of 

 the houses were such as to encourage the introduction and preva- 

 lence of disease. The first known case was that of a girl attending 

 the public school, and from her it probably spread. Even while 

 sick, this girl was permitted to nurse a child, and it developed the 

 disease. In every instance investigated, infection, direct or in- 

 direct, was proved. Further, these two hundred and seventy-three 

 cases were only those which came under medical cognisance, and 

 certainly here, as in every outbreak of the sort, there were a very 

 large number of cases which appeared so slight as not to come 

 under medical care, though they were undoubtedly diphtheria, and 



