SMALL-POX IN MELBOURNE. A Minister of Public Health.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 60, 26 July 1884, Page 3

SMALL- POX IN MELBOURNE. A Minister of Public Health.

MELBOURNE, July ]«"). Ix connection with the small -pox question, Dr. Beaney emphatically condemns the übo of human lymph in vaccination. He intends to move the Legislature to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into the state of public health, He* advocates the appointment of a Minister of Public Health. The fcmall-pox patients in the Cut Paw Paw Sanatorium arc reported to be progressing satisfactorily. Freeman, McCiill, and Hardes are rapidly recovering. Davies is the only one of the four patients whose present condition is critical ; but Dr. Harbison reported yesterday afternoon that Davies was then a little better. With regard to the reported cases of small-pox in West Melbourne, nothing new has transpired. The medical authorities who weio called in on Saturday when the cases were discovered still maintain that the cases are not small-pox but chickenpox. No quarantine precautions have therefore boon insisted on. In yesterday's "Age" a telegram was published from a Yackanclandah correspondent notifying that three cases of small-pox have been discovered in llillsborough ; but Dr. Mueller, the local medical man, has pronounced the disease to be chicken-pox. The Central Board of Health has not yet been communicated with on the subject by the local health authorities. The health oflicer in Alexandra (Dr. Charles F. Lcthbridge) reported to the Central Board of Health yesterday upon an alleged case of small-pox at Scott's farm, Buxton. The patient is J oseph Fehan, 25 years of age, a labourei', who came from New Zealand six months ago, and has resided in St. Kilda, and latterly in Rose's Boarding-house, in Elizabethstreet. He had no knowledgo of any case of small-pox. His illness began on June 27, and on July 3 he isolated himself in an outhouse on the farm. Dr. Lethbridge is of opinion that it is a case of modified or mild small-pox. It resembles typical small-pox in tho periods of incubation.