ENTOZOA IN RELATION TO PUBLIC HEALTH, ETC. 353 
tiring exertions of our sanitary officers have more than coun- 
terbalanced the excess of evil arising from this source ; and 
in connection with these special interests the members of 
this Association may justly lay claim to have played a most 
conspicuous part. But, as I have previously said — or, at 
least, inferred — we are not yet in a position to afford abso- 
lute proof, either one way or another. The methods hitherto 
employed have not, and could not have, enabled us to obtain 
satisfactory evidence as to the increase or decrease of para- 
sitism, as the case may be. Comparatively few people re- 
cognise the importance of precise information on this sub- 
ject ; and I believe I am the only professional teacher who 
has ventured to give special courses of lectures on helmin- 
thology at a Medical College. 
Again, if any one seeks for information in the Registrar- 
Generaks report as to how many cases of death from para- 
sites occur annually, what will he find recorded ? Nothing. 
The whole subject is in confusion, and will continue to re- 
main so for a long time to come. Some years back, when 
investigating the question as to the mortality from parasites, I 
failed to find, save in the isolated cases reported in the 
medical journals, any public record of deaths from entozoal 
disease. Thus, death from parasites in the brain, liver, lungs, 
heart, and other organs would be registered under epilepsy, 
diseases of the liver, and so forth, to say nothing of the mul- 
titude of instances where the true nature of the disorder has 
unquestionably been overlooked. Long ago I took occasion 
to express my belief that annually several hundred persons 
died in this country from parasitic diseases, and I have since 
seen no reason to change that opinion. Far otherwise; and 
therefore, taking example from the spirit which animates the 
whole body of the profession, I spared no pains to enlighten 
the public on this matter, in so far as such efforts might 
tend to lessen the prevalence of certain well-known maladies. 
Once more reverting to a principal point at issue, many 
will say wdth Dr. Corfield that we ought not to condemn the 
irrigation system, since no entozoal evils of any kind have 
arisen in localities where there has been a “ long-continued 
application of fresh excrement and sewage.” My reply is, 
that it is not the utilisation of sew’age itself that I object to, 
but to certain wholesale methods of distributing it over the 
land in a fresh state. As to the assertion that no harm fol- 
lows irrigation, no matter to wffiat extent it be carried out, I 
have already shown the fallacy of drawing such conclusions 
on entozoological grounds, without so much as touching 
upon the overwhelming evidence that sewage exhalations and 
