benefit of it do not cover the expenses of their support; nevertheless, they are rewarded for it, and faithfully.

"The aborigines, seeing the real and positive advantage they are getting for heir work, will exert themselves the more, and thus by degrees they will become acquainted with the various branches and different works of a farm. They are rained in everything save in minding sheep, cattle, pigs, or goats, which thing does no good to them. Even tailoring, shoemaking, and similar trades are considered too sedentary and unwholesome for them; nevertheless, if any of them has an inclination to be a shoemaker or to learn any other trade, he is allowed to follow it. But, as a general rule, they are trained in the branches of agriculture. "When any of them gets to be of a proper age and sufficiently instructed to cultivate by himself a field, a parcel of land is apportioned to him for that purpose. That land is to be cleared by himself, the other natives helping him, for which work the establishment pays them. It pays also somebody else for the rooting out of large trees and old stumps; for that work is considered too hard and even injurious to the health of the aborigines; pays as well for the fencing of the land, and thus the land is ready for the plough at the expenses of the establishment. At ploughing season that native being supplied by the same establishment with a team, plough, seed, harrow, and other necessaries, he ploughs that parcel of land or part of it.

"At the latter end of November our native is reaping the wheat of his field, and as cheerful as any man can be. The other natives are paid by the establishment for helping him; the native owner of the field is not paid for his reaping, nor has he been paid for his ploughing; he is not paid for any work he does for himself, but he is supported and supplied with everything he may be wanting at those times.

The crop of the field is respected as his property, but it is also well understood that whatsoever money that crop will produce to him, that money shall be employed in buying tools and utensils of agriculture; and if those means are enough, a bullock or more are to be bought. Of the money he receives as wages for the works he does at the establishment he may dispose at his pleasure, although he is often advised to employ it usefully.

"If he is a single or unmarried man, the establishment provides him with a cottage at its own expenses, but he had been provided with it before that time if married.

"Should the single native find any of the girls at the same establishment willing to become his partner, they, supposing them both well instructed in their Christian religious duties, will be married. If there is no girl at the establishment or none of them is willing to marry him, then he may obtain any from out the establishment, and when instructed and baptised he may marry her.

"That native once married, the establishment supports him, as before, his wife and children (if they have any) for some time, perhaps for two or three years, and then by degrees the means of the establishment are shortened to him in due proportion to the increase of his own means.

The children of that native, or natives, as the case may be, will be a great step further advanced in civilisation than their parents were at their age. They will have a better chance of having from their early days a good Christian and civil education, and the children of those children will be further advanced still.

"Thus by means of practical religious and physical work, education together with but little school in the beginning, and over all by the blessing of the Almighty, in the course of time a village of industrial small farmers and good Christians will be gradually formed.

"To this hypothesis it may be said that after all there is no more in it than a theory. Indeed it is a theory, but such that the fathers of our grandfathers by putting it into practice have fully demonstrated to have been the medium, and the high road by which they reached to their high state of civilisation, and even ourselves to the enjoyment of that we have the happiness to possess at present. "After religion, I believe reading, writing, and what follows it, to be, to the already civilised people, one of the greatest, if not the greatest blessing of civilisation, but I do not think it to be so in the case of savages or uncivilised people, as the aborigines of Australia are. Nature itself teaches us that the first thing

a newly-born child looks after is the breast of its mother, and no man can make use of his mental or intellectual faculties if he has not the necessary physical powers to enable him to do it.

"It would be, perhaps, not out of place to add that even to the most of civilised people who do write, their pen is their plough, their ink their seed, and their paper their field. Very few indeed are those whose thought, and not whose ink is their seed; in fact, the more get their living by the plough, and the privileged (exceedingly) few by the thought.

"Anyhow that theory has regulated my operations here, and that hypothesis is nothing else but the same theory put here into practice, in order to attain our charitable and heartily wished-for-end, viz., the conversion and civilisation of the aborigines of this province.

"There are already better than eighteen years since I first came to this colony, but only seven since it has been my privilege to begin this benevolent work in my own way. For nearly the first four years (out of seven), the whole system worked well; at the latter end of the fourth year, the measles and its consequences were a great drawback to our efforts, nevertheless we continued exerting ourselves, and I have no reason to complain of the general result.

"A period of seven years is rather too short to expect in it great things from a work and system depending on the age of children. We had several young natives able already to work for themselves when the measles decimated them, but at present of 33 native boys and girls we have with us, four young men only are able to plough for themselves, and their joined crop yielded, this year, 200 bushels of wheat save 10.

"They themselves alone, ploughed the ground, threw the seed, harrowed the field, and at the proper season reaped materially the fruit of their hard labour. "Self-interest is the oil that makes every wheel go. Take away self-interest, and not one will move; for nothing is done for nothing.

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Surely, if the aborigines are left to themselves, they cannot but follow their forefathers' traditions and customs, but if properly and timely trained, I, for one, do not see the impossibility of their being truly civilised. A great deal depends. there is no doubt, I think, on the system adopted, and on the way and manner of carrying that system out. The experience of many past years has taught us that the time, labour, and expense of civilising the aborigines of Australia by only teaching them how to read, to write, &c. &c., has been as yet an unfortunate failure. I have no doubt that neither want of zeal nor of means have been the cause of it, therefore it must lie in the system adopted. It seems to me that the physical work system as adopted in this Benedictine mission answers better, the practical result of it shows this, although in a short time, and on a small scale. I regret not being able to carry it out on a larger scale, but the simple reason is no other than our scanty means or private income. I thankfully acknowledge in this place, in justice and with gratitude to the colonial government, their helping us in our charitable work these three years with £100 sterling per annum.

"An enterprise of this magnitude cannot be properly carried out, even on our small scale, without incurring great expenses (and I know it too well), but, after all, the conversion and regeneration of man is not the work of man alone.

"We generally do select the best means as the medium for the better and surer attainment of our ends; but in the conversion of man, not the medium of that system, nor the other; not the scanty means nor the ample ones; not the management of that man nor of the other can alone succeed, for neque qui plantat est aliquid neque qui rigat; sed qui incrementum dat Deus,' neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.'

"Nevertheless, if we in such a charitable work comport ourselves as ⚫God's coadjutors,' and if as such we persevere in doing our best, every one of us shall receive his own reward, according to his labour.""

I have introduced this somewhat lengthy abstract from Bishop Salvado's paper, because it explains the method of civilising adopted by him, and which in his former communication, cited in my last paper, he stated had been successful in training the aborigines

without destroying them. The method employed pre-supposes the possession of considerable capabilities on the part of the native population. But the direction given to these is more towards physical improvement and introduction of better physical and moral habits, than towards mere head-knowledge.

In dealing with uncivilised races, it has hitherto been too often the case that the Roman Catholic Missionary has believed: Sprinkle this child with holy water; and then, the sooner it dies the better:"that the Protestant Missionary has believed: "Make this child capable of understanding the truths of religion, and then our work is done."

But the wiser Missionary of this day says: "What is the use of reading and writing to the natives, it does not give him a living. Show him his duty to God. And teach him how to plough." Otherwise, he does but fall into vice, worse than before. Ceres comes before Minerva.

As for the Australians, in their present state, very few of the human race are lower in the scale of civilisation than these poor people excepting indeed, those who trample upon and oppress them, who introduce among them the vices of European (so-called) civilisation.

What must be the condition of a people of whom an English lady,* conducting a native school, can write, as she does to me :

"There is not in nature, I think, a more filthy, loathsome, revolting creature than a native woman in her wild state. Every animal has something to recommend it; but a native woman is altogether unlovable."

And yet the daughters of these degraded women can give examples, like the following, cited in the same letter:

"Bessy, the girl, has just commenced to play the harmonium in church, a superior instrument with two key boards (Alexandre's), and it is very gratifying to hear her, she plays so well, and with such coolness and composure, and not with any idea that she is doing what I suppose was never done before by an Australian native. She is very simple-minded, but quite equal in knowledge and intelligence to an English girl, who has not had greater advantages."

It is an advantage of an Association, such as this, that it enables difficult social problems to be subjected to discussion, and public opinion to be brought to bear on abuses which would not perhaps be otherwise reached. The voluminous papers, of which I have given a few extracts, are the first fruits of last year's discussion-by making them public, further good will ensue. This question of the fate of aboriginal populations is one closely concerning our national honour, and every day enhances its importance. I cannot better conclude, in the way of application, than with the following words from Bishop Hale's paper, already cited:

"Upon the Australian races European civilisation (Christian in name, but far

* Mrs. Camfield, of Annesfield, King George's Sound, Western Australia.

rom Christian in reality) has come suddenly and with overwhelming force. It has found them utterly unable to hold their own against it, equally incapable of joining with and flowing onward with the advancing tide; and therefore these races have been, since the contact first took place, and still are, going down before and beneath its, to them, destructive progress.

"If their condition had been less degraded, or if the tone of our civilisation had been less overbearing, self-seeking, and oppressive, or even if the irruption of the one upon the other had been less sudden and less violent, the result might have been different. But it is vain to speculate upon what might have been; we know, too well unhappily, what has been taking place, steadily and surely, from the moment when Europeans first set foot upon the Australian continent until this present time. The native races sink down and perish at our presence."

Here we have the undoubted fact graphically described. The only question is, whether Bishop Salvado's plan of training the children of the disappearing race will save the race. His method is founded on sound physiological principles; and being so, is one of the most likely to succeed.

On the Disinfecting Property of Heat. By G. SHANN, M.D. CANT., F.R.C.P.

THE proposition which I am anxious to bring before the Association, with a view to insure its more general acceptance, and hence its more extensive practical application, is, that heat, at or near the temperature of boiling water, has the property of destroying infection, when properly employed. Heat raised to the point of combustion will of course destroy infection in the same way as it destroys all other animal and vegetable substances, by resolving them into their primary elements. It is manifest that such an application of heat, for the purpose of destroying infection, is only of limited use. If, however, it can be shown that heat of a temperature so low as not to injure the materials subjected to it, is effectual in destroying the property of infection which any substance may have acquired, by imbibition, from the sources of poison, it is obvious that we should establish a truth of wide practical application and utility.

In bringing forward this subject, I do not pretend to the slightest originality, or to have anything new to offer; but simply desire to show what has been done towards establishing the truth of the proposition in question; believing that the evidence on which it rests is comparatively little known, and that it is greatly in consequence of this that its general practical application has been so much neglected. I shall not enter into any discussion as to contagion, or as to what diseases are contagious; I shall assume that certain diseases do give rise to the secretion of a specific poison in the system capable, under certain conditions, of reproducing the disease in other persons; and that these poisons may not only be transmitted immediately, but also mediately, that is through absorption into other substances, such as silk, cotton, and woollen fabrics. The substances so charged with poison have been called fomites, and are the most common

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agents in the diffusion of infectious complaints. It is with these fomites that we are now concerned; and it is in the disinfection of these that the power of heat in destroying this baneful property can alone be made practically available. It is principally in the disinfection of woollen materials, which do not admit of being washed without injury, as clothes, carpets, and other furniture, that this property of heat admits of the most useful application.

We are indebted to the late Dr. Henry of Manchester, one of the ablest and most accurate chemical philosophers of his day, for the discovery of this important property of heat at a comparatively low temperature. Dr. Henry's first experiments were instituted for mercantile purposes; being called upon to suggest some method of disinfecting cotton of the contagion of the plague, which at the same time should not damage the raw material for purposes of manufacture. This inquiry, entered upon originally for the benefit of commercial enterprise, was recurred to with renewed energy from motives of philanthropy on the first appearance of cholera in this country. The idea of trying experiments with heat was suggested by the known fact, that the plague appeared to lose its contagious property during the prevalence of high degrees of atmospheric temperature. Chemical considerations also led this acute philosopher to conjecture that the matter of infection, being a product of organic life of a complex nature, might have its nicely balanced affinities easily disturbed, and hence yield to the decomposing agency of a very moderate temperature. Dr. Henry commenced a series of experiments first with vaccine lymph, which he showed was capable of resisting a temperature below 120° Fahr., but was rendered inert by a temperature of 140° Fahr. The next series of experiments was with the infection of scarlet fever. Flannels imbued with the poison were apparently rendered harmless by exposure, for from two to four hours, to dry heat of from 200° to 206° Fahr. Dr. Henry, who was a singularly accurate observer, and most cautious and philosophic in drawing inferences, says of these experiments that they appeared to him sufficiently numerous to prove that, by exposure to a temperature not below 200° Fahr., during at least an hour, the contagious matter of scarlet fever is entirely dissipated or destroyed. There is reason from analogy, he remarks, to believe that other contagions would also yield to the decomposing action of the same agency; though a sufficient amount of direct experimental evidence is wanting. It is only due to this self-sacrificing philanthropist to record that he also tried similar experiments on his own person with the poison of typhus fever with negative results; but on these he does not place much stress, as it could not be shown that he was under any circumstances susceptible of the disease in question.

Strongly impressed with the belief, that the value of Dr. Henry's discovery was by no means sufficiently known or appreciated, a series of inquiries were instituted in some of our largest towns, amongst persons likely to be best informed, to ascertain if anything had been done, in the way of experiment, since Dr. Henry's time,