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H.—3l

General List of Inspections, Examinations, etc. — continued. By Dr. By Inspector By Inspector Ogston. Gladstone. Cameron. Consumptives in hotels seen to .. .. 3 „ exposing in public .. .. 1 „ for Cambridge examined .. .. 7 Diphtheria cases examined, &c. .. . . 16 10 14 Tuberculosis cases examined, &c. .. .. 14 36 46 Scarlet-fever cases examined, &c. .. .. 15 38 61 Enteric-fever cases examined, &c. .. .. .... 20 2 Blood-poisoning cases examined, &c. .. .. 2 2 1 Syphilis case examined, &c. .. .. .. 1 Shipments of fruit examined .. .. .. 5 5 In addition to these many minor matters were seen to, running into more than twice as many as those in the above list. Water collected for Analysis. 01 the 34 samples of water collected or forwarded for analysis for various reasons, and examined by Professor Black, Government Analyst, and set out in his report, 20 were from cordial-factories. Of these 8 were reported as being good, 4 usable, 3 suspicious, 3 bad, 1 very bad, and 1, on being examined a second time, was reported as being good, the impurity being of a temporary nature, due to accident. Among the others were samples of water from wells at Riverton, two of which were found to be mixed with salt water from soakage from the sea at high tides. Two shallow wells at Otautau were polluted by ground soakage, and were disused and closed up. The public water-supply at Queenstown at one analysis was found to be tainted with vegetable matters of a temporary nature, and subsequent analysis proved it to be essentially of good character. The Port Chalmers public water supply, which was reported by the medical officer of one of the warships as too bad for use, was looked into by me, and the source of the pollution was proved to arise in the drainage from a dairy farm finding access to the creek running into the reservoir. This was conducted in pipes into the by-wash, and the pollution ceased, the water now being above suspicion. The water from a public well at Gore was found good. I was requested by the City Council to advise them regarding possible pollution of the water-supply by drainage from a dairy farm bordering on the water-reserve. On examining the farm and its surroundings, I considered the pollution unavoidable, and advised that the only way to put an end to it was to buy out the farm. This has now been done. In connection with a number of cases of jaundice at Waitati, I had the water examined, but it threw no light on the subject. My attention was drawn to the roof-water tank at the Stirling Eailway-station, and it was cleaned out by the Railway authorities on my requesting to have it seen to. I made a minute examination of the source and water-race supplying the Mount Pisa Station, finding that a new. race having its entrance further up the creek had been made, thus removing a possible means of pollution from a rabbiter's camp The water, coming from a hillside above any habitation and running through a clean water-race with a clean gravelly bottom, is now as perfect as can be. Infectious Diseases. I append a return of the infectious diseases reported in my district, which shows at a glance the phenomena of their occurrence. I shall divide my district for comparative purposes into two sections—the one surrounding or in more direct communication with Dunedin, and the other with Invercargill—as, especially in the incidence of scarlet-fever and diphtheria, it will be found to present a graphic picture of the spread of the diseases from a centre, or the dependence of the diseases on a large centre, to some degree at least. Thus, the Dunedin division furnishes, of scarlet-fever, 50 cases, half of which occurred at the town of Kaitangata, and 19 at Dunedin itself, leaving only six for the surrounding counties, which extended from Waihemo County in the north to Clutha County in the south. Again, the Invercargill division furnishes 86 cases of scarlet-fever, of which 31 occurred in Invercargill itself, 42 in Southland County, leaving 13 for the rest of that division in close connection with it, comprising, besides Southland, Wallace, Lake, and Tuapeka Counties. Taking population as a basis, the Dunedin division gives somewhat like 06 per 1,000 ; the southern (Invercargill) division gives about l - 6 per 1,000 of cases to the population. Thus in the latter division practically 3 cases were notified as occurring to lin the Dunedin division of my district; or, if we exclude Kaitangata, the numbers would be nearly 6 to 1. To take the cases of diphtheria notified, nearly the same result will work out. The Dunedin division furnished 9 cases, to 16 from Invercargill division. This by the population basis gives 0 - l per 1,000 to the former and 03 per 1,000 to the latter—the same ratio as scarlet-fever. In tuberculosis cases notified, the divisions do not show the same or even similar ratios, although the Dunedin division shows a lower ratio taking the population basis, furnishing (59 cases) 0 - 65 per 1,000, and the Invercargill division (43) o'B6 per 1,000 of cases notified. Enteric fever does not furnish the same result; but as this fever is not quite in the same category, as being only infectious in a limited and easily controllable degree, its spread not being actually from person to person, but by the media , of excreta, easily destroyed, the occurrence of cases with regard to localities has not the same significance. The Dunedin division gave 22 cases to 6 for the Invercargill division, or 024 per 1,000 to 0 - 12 per 1,000 respectively, taking the population basis. The blood-poisoning cases notified were quite sporadic, and of various characters, artificially classed together, comprising erysipelas, wound-infection, and suchlike.