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PROCEEDINGS OE SECTION J. 
would not alone guard us against the progressive ravages of so 
terrible a visitant as the cholera, the special enemy against whom our 
Dresden friends directed their efforts, but would serve us as effectively 
against the smallpox, the typhus and yellow fevers, or any other of 
the formidable Indian or Asiatic plagues which have not yet found 
a footing in our continent. 
In this connection it would be desirable to bear in mind, in draw- 
ing up such a code, that whilst the Dresden conference considered five 
days as the incubating period of cholera, and decreed that passengers 
travelling by sea or land, either bj ship or train, who had not 
exhibited for that period any symptoms of cholera, might be safely 
allowed to land — it mattered not if they came direct from an infected 
port, or if they carried the disease with them for a time, if within six 
days before arriving no symptom of the disease appeared the passengers 
are allowed to land and any goods to be sent on shore — it is added, 
however, “ if the proper disinfection has been carried out” This latter 
proviso may make a difference, but certain it is that we in Queensland 
had an experience in the case of the s.s. “ Dorunda,” to which I have 
already referred, that so short a period as five days would not be 
sufficient protection, inasmuch as the evidence was conclusive at the 
inquiry held on that occasion that no trace of the disease appeared 
until the period of twelve days had elapsed after she had left the in- 
fected port. I may add that in one of the last kindly discussions I 
had with our late respected medical brother. Dr. Joseph Bancroft, he 
expressed himself very strongly against limiting the incubating period 
of cholera in Australia to five days. 
In conclusion, I trust I may, without presumption, venture to 
suggest to the Conference, in consideration of the extreme importance 
of the subject, that the opportunity afforded by this meeting should not 
be allowed to pass away without some action being taken. It should 
be borne in mind that, as far at least as I am aware, no combined 
answer has been given to the question put some months since to the 
colonies by the Imperial Government, “Whether they would join in 
the Dresden convention, and if not why not?” 
I respectfully submit this would be a favourable time, and this 
Conference would be an appropriate body to perform such a duty. On 
the one hand to satisfy the Imperial authorities that the colonies are 
not as yet in a position to justify their joining the convention, whilst 
on the other hand they are anxious and willing to follow their European 
brethren as far as they can in the march of sanitary progress. 
In my humble opinion there ought to be little difficulty in a 
committee of this Conference taking the annexures of the Dresden 
conference, especially Anncxure I., as the framework of a similar code 
of sanitary regulations for Australia, which, if worked in conjunction 
with federal quarantine, would give the colonies the best chance of 
still retaining the proud title of the virgin continent. 
