i4 
plorations to the Darling in the thirties, describes how the tribes 
there had been almost wiped out, only a few pock-marked in- 
dividuals remaining, while even an explorer in comparatively 
recent times mentions having met with such a scarred individual 
in Central Australia. The disappearance of the disease from 
Australia must be accounted for by the exaggerated virulence 
known to attend the invasion of any race by a disease they have 
never encountered before, and in consequence show little power 
of resistance against it. As the various native tribes have little 
intercourse with each other, the disease gaining entrance into 
one by some chance individual, could destroy its members in 
toto without their neighbours coming in contact with living 
diseased persons. 
It rests with the present white inhabitants to prevent the 
chance occurrence of such a devastating epidemic amongst them- 
selves by seeing that their children are regularly vaccinated, so 
as to render them resistant to the disease when brought in contact 
with it and so as to maintain the relative immunity now pos- 
sessed by the white man in comparison with the black. 
A considerable mortality likewise attends the occurrence of 
measles amongst the aboriginal population. 
Hydatid disease, which was almost certainly an introduction 
by the white man with his dogs, sheep or cattle, has spread 
far and wide and is responsible for many deaths amongst the 
blacks, though it does not seem more fatal in them than in the 
white man. They are, however, more likely to be infected by 
drinking contaminated water. In addition to introducing the 
native to diseases of various kinds unknown to him before, the 
white man has presented him with gifts equally fatal. 
Time-o Danoas et dona ferentes. European clothes, as worn 
by the blacks, are notoriously unhygienic and dangerous to them, 
inasmuch as they are seldom discarded, but are worn day and 
night, become filthy in the extreme, and in wet weather become 
saturated with rain, in dry by perspiration. Alcohol, besides 
its direct injury, also increases the liability to chill. 
Finally, the European has taken from the aboriginal his 
country and his food supply and has restricted his nomadic life, 
all which have told heavily upon his numbers. We have, then, 
as regards human beings, the following : — -The exotic invasion of 
Australia by the white man, a race far superior in civilization 
(i.e., in a round sense, mentally) to the aboriginal, has resulted 
in the latter's rapid diminution in numbers and probably speedy 
extermination. This result is being rapidly aided by the invasion 
of the virgin soil of the native by exotic diseases such as smallpox 
(in former times), tuberculosis, measles, hydatids, and other 
diseases. 
