240 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
and carbuncles make their appearance, followed by 
diarrhea, and death on the 13th, and in strong 
constitutions the 17th day. In France the 9th is 
the critical day. . . 
This description bears slight similitude to the 
colonial report, published in the Government 
Gazette of June 18, 1852; of which account I 
have since seen no reason for altering or amending 
a single sentence of any importance. The colonial 
malady makes quicker work than the pest of slow 
Germany. From the statements of Mr. Stewart, 
veterinary surgeon, and from some of my own, 
made by both in or near Sydney, in January and 
February, 1851, it would seem that a few hours— 
at most a day or two—wound up life’s last thread 
to breaking under the cruel pangs of enteritis. 
In the case of Murphy, so ably described by Dr. 
Robertson, the pulse became imperceptible in 
little more than twenty-four hours. Morphy met 
with the cause of death in consequence of allowing 
some virus to inoculate part of his arm while skin¬ 
ning one or two sheep which were supposed to have 
died of the prevailing endemic, then broken out in 
the county of Cumberland. In the body of this 
unfortunate the smaller intestines and _ spleen 
exhibited the chief seats of disease; and like will 
he tile case with most cattle cut off by that malady. 
The word most is italicised, because from variety 
of animal constitutions, and the rudiments or 
remains of other diseases, appearance will some¬ 
times be found complicated, and thus, to little 
experience, perplexing in the operation of post 
mortem dissections. 
I am far from denying, however, that from like 
causes like disease will be produced. The exten¬ 
sion of this endemic is a very probable sequence 
to the evil of overstocking. To quote ray own 
words in another paper on this subject—“ Man, 
changeable himself, creates changes continually 
wherever he settles. The visible alterations m the 
gramineous vegetation of various districts, and 
particularly on the superficies ofour oldest occupied 
localities, generate means sufficient to derange the 
constitutions of our grazing stock and the different 
components of the atmosphere (perhaps electricity 
itself) may he co-reiatively altered.” 
Since 18-10 an annual and gradual decrease ot 
temperature marks a recognised change in our 
colonial climatology. With this decrease must be 
noted a more equable distribution of ram, and 
fewer recurring droughts than antecedent to that 
period, although it is to be feared we stand on the 
verge of one at present. The increase of grazing 
stock has augmented to millions, and the consi- 
deration of many mouths, with food requisite for 
them, presses on the minds of discerners. From 
the soil rapacious man takes all he can get, without 
rendering it one-half per cent, for the liberal loan. 
How long this condition of cur state will endure 
rather exceeds the foresight of man ; yet “ Coming 
events cast their shadows before.” Retributive 
justice may apparently slumber, but never sleeps, 
even to the'mysterious third and fourth generation. 
The veterinary art is at the lowest ebb in the 
Australian bush. Every shepherd aims at leech- 
craft—every man is his own farrier. A list ol 
various surgical operations and medical prescrip¬ 
tions, if published, would give enlightened Euro¬ 
peans an odd idea of our colonial common sense, 
apart from science. These nostrums are remark¬ 
ably unique in their composition and defy all the 
“faculties” 
Australian diseases amongst grazing stock 
assume characteristics of their own, sometimes 
wide apart from their prototypes in the northern 
hemisphere. Ovine catarrh has no parallel ill 
Europe, and enteritis only is doubtfully men- 
tioned at remote periods and in few examples. 
The scab in sheep takes a colonial virulence quite 
unknown under other latitudes. Such phases am 
deducible from the mode of management and 
peculiar habits of stock oil our pastures, with some 
other causes cursorily noticed, or may be noticed. 
A practical treatise on these subjects, purely 
colonial, is greatly wanted. If any party of ade¬ 
quate ability and good reputation undertakes the 
task I may feel disposed to aid him with Tanous 
manuscripts, jotted down from my own experience 
and tolerably close observations. But no man will 
be so mad as to write or edit such a work unless 
he is fenced from pecuniary loss by a lengthy list 
of subscribers. _ 
R. Meston. 
Rocky River, March, 1858. 
The Registrar-General, in this monthly return 
of the Health of Sydney, institutes a comparison of 
the sanitary state of the city during the first quar¬ 
ter of 1857 and the first quarter of 1858, which is 
as follows;— 
Comparing the first quarter of 1857 with the first 
quarter of 1858, the general health and condition 
of the population do not seem to have been so 
favorable during the season just past. 
The births were as follows, viz.;— 
1857. ‘1858. 
January .. 192 159 
February . 151 . 
March . I 83 2 °9 
Quarterly Totals 526_ 
The Deaths were as under, viz. 
1857. 
January. 143 .. 
February . 105 .. 
March .. 95 .. 
521 
1858. 
167 
125 
161 
Quarterly Totals 313 153 
The cause of this increased rate of mortality, 
may, in some degree, perhaps, be traced to a higher 
range of the thermometer duri ig the season just 
past, hut there may have been other exciting causes 
at work which the gentlemen of the medical pro¬ 
fession may possibly he able to determine. 
It is lamentable to observe an increase in the 
proportion of deaths of children under five years of 
a^e to the total deaths of the quarter; in 1857 it 
was 182 out of 343, or 53-06 per cent.; in 1858, it 
is 253 out of 453, or 55-81 per cent. 
AttTS.—A curious discovery is said to have been 
made by a French gentleman, whose garden was 
inostinconveniently iuvadedby ants. They swarmed 
at Ramhouillet in his flower-baskets and among his 
ilower-beds to such a degree that it was impossible 
to attack them with boiling water without killing the 
plants. M. du Ribert therefore took another course. 
After stirring well up the ant heaps and removing 
the “ eggs,” he scattered over them a few handfuls 
of guano; and with success, as he states, that his 
whole garden was presently cleared ,—Gardener t 
Chronicle . 
