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658. Is concentration, or, rather, is undue concentration of these organisms we have been speaking about in the atmosphere sufficient to produce it ? —I really would not answer very much about erysipelas. It is a very difficult subject. T think Dr. Roberts, our pathologist, will give you more satisfactory data than I can. 659. At any rate, it should not arise ? 660.-In your experience of the Dunedin Hospital has erysipelas arisen there from time to time ? —lt has. 661. Can you remember the number of cases in which it has arisen? —Yes. 662. Can you tell us them ? —I should like to confine myself to my own practice. 663. Ido not want to know about anybody else's case. Let each other medical gentleman look after his own cases? —I remember two distinct cases, though it may be quite possible that there might be more ; if so, I have forgotten them. But I can speak positively of two cases that occurred in my own practice. One was that of a man on the right-hand side of the Hospital as I went in, No. 1 ward, who came in with a urinary disorder, and he took erysipelas in a very severe form indeed. We had to turn him out of the ward, and to put him somewhere in the garden—it was summer time —partially as a measure of safety for the whole of the patients in that ward. But he died. 664. From what ?—I should think from the combined effects of the disease and erysipelas. I had another case which I also remember distinctly. It was that of a young girl who came into the Hospital suffering from a small labial cyst. I remember her case for this reason : I had promised her that she should go out again in a very short time. But she took erysipelas, and instead of leaving the Hospital in ten days, as she ought to have done, she remained—l would not like to say how much—in the Hospital very much longer than I had anticipated. I very distinctly remember those two cases. 665. In the light of your previous and subsequent experience, can you tell us whether there was anything in that girl's condition that could have reasonably led you to anticipate having to meet with such results ?—No. You would not be surprised in the case of an unhealthy wound if erysipelas travelled from it to another patient in the ward, especially in the present condition of the ward, but that it should have broken out in the case of that girl surprised me very much. It did not strike me so much then as it does now. Now it simply corroborates my views on the unsatisfactory condition of the Hospital. 666. Would you say that it was surprising, assuming that the hygienic condition of the Hospital was then as unsatisfactory as it is at present ?—Not at all surprising. Ido not think I expressed myself so clearly in my last answer as I should have done. What I meant to say was that erysipelas ought not to have occurred in the case of the girl at all; but in the case of the man, with an unhealthy wound from urine soaking into it, one is not so much surprised. 667. Can you, or any other medical man, state positively how this erysipelas arose ? —No. 668. This is, I suppose, one of the many illustrations you have told us of that, all combined, induced you to form the opinion that you have done ?—Yes. A number of cases have occurred over a number of years, and these cases have made my suspicions become convictions. 669. At or about the week in which you wrote your letter of complaint to the Trustees—that is, July, 1890—how many cases of erysipelas were there in the Dunedin Hospital at that time which had arisen in the Hospital?—" At or about," you say? 670. Yes. Ido not fix you to any date?—l have prepared a diary of the events as they have occurred. 671. How many cases were there at about that time. I mean cases of erysipelas that had arisen within the Hospital? —At about that time Mrs. Snowden had died—about the 22nd July. Two cases of erysipelas had occurred in the children's ward on the 25th July. On the 30th May two other cases of erysipelas broke out, one case being in No. 1 ward and the other in No. 3 ward. That makes four certain cases that had occurred. 672. The Chairman.] These had arisen in the Hospital ?—Yes, in the different wards at about that period. 673. Mr. Solomon.] What was the result in those cases. Were there any deaths ?—Yes ; the man in No. 3 ward died. His name was J . I believe that he had heart-disease, and I understand that he died from the combined effects of erysipelas and heart-disease. 674. Did any case of erysipelas occur in No. 7 ward?—ln that ward a rather curious occurrence took place. My patient, Mrs. S , died on Tuesday, the 22nd July, and on the Sunday following a Miss W , who was in the next bed to my patient, developed erysipelas. At all events, 1 was told so by the doctor who was attending her. 675. The Chairman.] That would be on the 29th ? —No ; it was on the 27th that she developed what I was told at the time was erysipelas. 676. This case you do not include in those you have cited? —No; I have purposely kept it out. I saw the case. It was taken out of the ward and put into a separate ward. It was evidently being treated for erysipelas. Iron had been administered internally, and boracic acid dusted over the part affected. I simply looked at it, but did not remove the powder. 677. Who was in attendance on that case? —Dr. Jeffcoat, who told me when he took me to the bed that it was a case of erysipelas. 678. I find this paragraph in Erichsen at page 15 : " The frequency of the occurrence of erysipelas in an institution may be taken as an indication of neglect of its sanitary arrangements." In your opinion, do those remarks apply to the state of affairs with regard to erysipelas alone which existed in the Dunedin Hospital during the week you have been speaking about ? —Yes. 679. Do you think that the presence of all these cases which you have mentioned—remembering that there are a hundred beds in the institution—is consistent with a fair state of hygiene ? —No I do not.