90 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
those seen in England, only in so far as has already been 
mentioned, except that among all the fatal cases that have 
occurred in Sydney among the troops, for nine years past, 
no tubercular deposition has been found in any one of the 
internal organs except the lungs. Many cases seen here 
which are always looked upon in England as beyond the 
leach of recovery, terminate favourably; these generally 
commence towards the end of summer, or In the beginning 
of winter, when the patient, from the frequent climAtlc 
changes, is subject to repeat* 1 attacks of acute catarrh, 
and eynanche tonsillaris. The soldier has been seen 
with extensive tubercular deposition, large vomic® In 
the lung, and great emaciation, to gain flesh ; the 
dulness on percussion c ugh, and expectoration gradually 
diminish, and ultimately to recover, without an abnormal 
symptom remaining, except, perhaps, a weak vesicular 
murmur-such cases are not unfrequently met with in 
civil life. 
From what I have observed in connection with Phthisis 
in this country, l am very much inclined to be ieve that 
the truthfulness of Dr. Ramage's theory, mechanical as 
it appears to be, is not a little strengthened by the facts 
that have come before me. In consequence of the pre¬ 
valence of dust, and the rapid metcarologleal changes 
we have often alluded to, the bronchial membrane is very 
often in a state of intumescence and subacute Inflamation, 
and the tonsils are subject to inflamatory attacks, and 
consequent enlargement? in the cases of recovery I have 
spoken of, there has always been an association of acute 
catarrh ; but I have never remarked permanent enlarge- 
ment.of the tonsils, 
Whether this state of the bronchial mucous membrane 
was instrumental in effecting a cure, by preventing free 
“expiration,** as Dr. Ramage believes ? or whether, from 
the bronchial apparatus being supplied by a distinct sys¬ 
tem of blood vessels, this inflamatory condition of the 
mucous membrane, with increased secretion, acted in 
any way as a counter-irritant, I have never been able to 
determine. 1 have had no opportunity of trying the 
•* inhaler," as most of the cases were associated with 
hoemoptyses or some other circumstance that contra-in¬ 
dicated its adoption. 
The entire absence of any tubercular deposition in the 
abdominal organs would, perhaps, strengthen the opinion 
entertained by many high authorities in England, that 
tubercules are never found in the abdominal organs except 
in connection with a similar deposit in the lung. I have, 
nevertheless, seen a case in England where there has 
been tubercular deposition in the abdomen without the 
trace of a similar deposit in the lung. 
I have dwelt somewhat largely on the tubercular dis 
eases, as it will save repetition in the statistical report. 
From these considerations, then, the conclusion that is 
forced upon us is that in New South Wales there has 
been, especially as regards soldiers, a powerful element at 
work, climatic or other, that has battled in no mean way 
with the deposition of tubercle. 
[Mr. Divorfcy has forwarded a large number of statis¬ 
tical tables containing returns from the ti oops stationed 
in this colony, and comparisons instituted with the re¬ 
turns of the health of the troops in England. These 
returns are very minute and elaborate, but they would 
occupy so much of our space, that we are compelled to 
omit them. We subjoin the conclusions at which he 
arrives 1 , ,. 
It will be seen, from this paper, that this country is 
pregnant with interest and importance; that, if our notions 
of geological formation bo true as they are natural, 
New South Wales has been undisturbed through the 
most momentous epochs in the history of our globe, 
viz., the creation, the fall, and the redemption of man ; 
that consequent on the revulsion of some of the better 
parts of man's nature, through the moral disturbance 
in tho “ Gold Discovery,” the Australian mind has 
taken on a morbid development, as seen in the thoughts 
and actions of living men; that this irruption in Aus¬ 
tralia has, in many cases, snapped across the ticbeams 
that have for ages held together the noble superstruc¬ 
ture of our soldiery ; that the direct exposure to its in¬ 
fluence of those, on whom devolves the duty and the 
honour of upholding the dignity of their fatherland, is 
much for man whoso “ brain is not encased m steel; 
that as the mariner reefs his sail in a troubled sea, the 
Almighty has lessened tho vital power in man, -that he 
mav letter weather a storm, in which, as has been seen, 
many are wrecked who encounter it; that Isew South 
Wales is by no means the “flowery land,” where sick¬ 
ness and death are seldom known; that although the 
erosion is slow it is steady, and although the mucous 
surfaces hear the brunt from first to last, if not counter¬ 
acted bv all the more favourable combination of cir¬ 
cumstances by man v years sooner than that of \> estem 
Europe, the Australian climate will in the long run 
wear out the human constitution. . 
Although there is little or nothing m connection with 
tho mortality of the troops to indicate that the health 
of the soldier is materially impaired by a comparatively 
short residence in the Australian climate, tor in winter 
be generally lays in a stock of health suihcient in great 
nart to earn- him through the following summer, and 
when he arrives in the bracing climate of England, a 
more vigorous artion is sot up in the constitution, and 
tho original tone of the system muy be readily estab¬ 
lished f yet the people of England ought to have had 
their eves sufficiently opened to see the effect of the 
Australian climate on the European constitution, by the 
desolation that repeatedly followed the transfer of a 
corns from an Australian to an Indian station. 
It is but reasonable to suppose that, under 1 rovi- 
dcnce, a higher tone of system will in the course of 
ages he induced from the adaptation of the constitution 
to the nature of tho climate; but, as far ns can vet be 
indeed from what is seen of the first and second genera¬ 
tions, this pliysiologicaal change will be slow in its 
progress. Alien it is considered, then, that for geneia- 
rtons to come Australia is no doubt destined to be the 
home of countless numbers of those born and reared in 
tho more invigorating climes of Western Europe and 
that in the absence of every form of Epidemic, the mor¬ 
tality in Sydney is greater than in any of the large 
towns of England, with all their poverty and misery ; 
and that, notwithstanding all its advantages, fever is as 
readily set up, and is of as great intensity « Sydney 
as in the overcrowded cities m the United Kingdom 
and when it is contemplated what desolation might fol¬ 
low- the introduction of such epidemics as variola 
tvphus, or asiatic cholera, there is surely enough to 
convince men that it will be a wise Government who, 
ridding itsolf of the delusion that there is any superi¬ 
ority or even equality in the Australian climate,when 
eonipared with that of Western Europe, proceeds with 
its sanitary arrangement, with the conviction, ihatthis 
is by no means a climate that will hear being tnfled 
•with. 
It has been said that “internal sanitary arrangement, 
and not quarantine law, arc the safeguard of nations ; 
but it is clear that, in this case, the sanitarian when ho 
goes to work, must ever have the o»Wr <JefenM* well 
manned, seeing that we.are so iU equipped in the citadel 
to fight the ceaseless battle of disease ; for it has been 
seen that in the endeavour to discover many of the • 
complex workings of disease, all tlm powers of the 
micrescope, and file analysis of chemistry sink exhaus¬ 
ted. We must not then depend upon a higher tone of 
system for a conservative against disease, for if this takes 
place at all, it will only be by slow depnv ^ 
sanitary arrangements must therefore, at least, keep 
race with file crowing wants of the population. _ 
It must not be supposed from this, that the phjscian 
is to trust to the sanitarian; he must be up and doing, 
for much has yet to be accomplished,.seeing-the.field 
of medical science, is, as yet, almost unbroken. It 
may be that the honour of solving many of the recon¬ 
dite problems in physiol.ogy and pathologyrts 
for the Australian student of medicine ; tor, although 
it has parted with some of the feelings, the A 
tralian mind has lost none of the intelligence of the^Enro- 
pem, and it is not unlikely, therefore, that gold with 
all its facinations will fail, in time, to satisfy it, and 
