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The occurrence of a case of puerperal fever is often a source of considerable loss to a medical practitioner, owing to his occasionally having to give up all further obstetric work for a period varying according to the conscientiousness of the individual. Tetanus. —The occurrence of seven cases of tetanus, all fatal, and all with one exception associated with cuts received by barefooted children playing on the seashore, suggests that parents would be well advised to provide children with sandals. Although the practice of going barefooted is to be commended from a hygienic standpoint, in localities where there is a danger of the feet being injured by broken glass or a rusty nail, as, for example, at Onehunga, where cases are most frequent, abrasions and slight wounds should be carefully and aseptically treated. Plague. Auckland, being the nearest port to Sydney, San Francisco, Calcutta, and other centres of infection, is the most likely point of entrance to the Dominion. During the past seven years sporadic cases have occurred, all, strange to say, with one exception, within a short radius of the last focus of infection—Lower Queen Street, at a short distance from the chief wharf of the harbour. The last outbreak, in which two young women died within three days with symptoms clinically similar, and post-mortem appearances identical —typical cases of bubonic plague of the septiceemic type —came like a thunderclap on the community. The fact that both patients were employed in the same building, one occupying a position on the floor almost immediately above the other, the finding of a rat which had died from natural plague in the same building, the grossly filthy condition of the cellars, and the unaccountable accumulation of dirt and rags under the floors of the topmost room, the prompt and drastic measures taken to curtail the outbreak entailing considerable hardship on a large number of citizens, all combined to arouse public interest to feverpitch. In all countries where plague has broken out the first great difficulty has been to convince the public that the disease was really and truly one of Oriental bubonic plague. Fortunately, as far as diagnosis was concerned, there was not a vestige of doubt in either of these cases, the Bacillus pestis being easily demonstrated in each of the numerous specimens examined, combined with the cultural and biological tests being positive. Smears of blood from the heart, spleen, and kidneys all showed the typical cocco-baccillus with bipolar staining. A guinea-pig inoculated with cultures taken from the first case died of plague, so in the second case a guinea-pig similarly inoculated also died of plague. Both patients were residents of Parnell, Dr. Ferguson being the medical attendant in each case. That he should, together with Dr. Lindsay, who was called in consultation in the first case, but arrived just after death, have suggested bubonic plague as the cause of death, more especially in the first case, showed considerable clinical acumen. It is interesting to note that during the same week as the two fatal cases occurred in Auckland there was an outbreak of plague among rats on a coastal steamer carrying bonedust transhipped from a ship recently arrived at Auckland from Calcutta. The results of the Commission of Investigation in India having now definitely proved that plague is carried from rat to rat, and from rat to man, by the flea, it is now possible to concentrate preventive measures against rats and fleas. With regard to the latter, the whole building in which the cases occurred in Auckland, after disinfection with corrosive sublimate, was swabbed out with kerosene. The following extract from a letter by Dr. Turner, Executive Medical Officer, Bombay Municipality, in answer to a query as to the results obtained there by the use of " Pesterine," a byeproduct in the destructive distillation of petroleum, is of interest: — "We are using 'Pesterine' freely in Bombay, and killing rats. Whether it is the 'Pesterine,' the rat-killing, or both I can't say, but this is the mildest epidemic we have had. During the past three months we have killed 90,000 rats, and 9,850 have been infected. We use ' Pesterine ' in the places after infected rats are found and plague cases occur, and also in collections of water, and privies, and stables." I am firmly convinced from experience in Natal, Egypt, and more recently in New Zealand, as well as by experimental proof, that in petroleum we have an effective material for preventing fleas becoming a pest in houses. I have not, however, found it a panacea for all insect pests. In attempting to clear a vessel of the Northern Steamship Company of cockroaches, not only petroleum, but also benzine, strychnine, creolin, turpentine, and other insecticides were found of little use. Mr. Pruden, of Tauranga, however, succeeded in a few days in clearing the vessel of all cockroaches by means of Pruden's Cockroach-exterminator. This substance is effective in killing cockroaches within thirty-six hours of contact. In Auckland a vigorous crusade has been carried out against rats, both the Harbour Board and City Council entering heartily into the work. Culture of Danysz' bacillus were not found of any use as a means of exterminating rats. Com-mon-sense Rat-exterminator, a preparation hailing from Toronto, however, has been an unqualified success. Extensive trials were made at the Quarantine Station at Motuihi. The officer in charge reports that he speedily cleared all rats from the vicinity of the buildings. Our progressive Harbour Board, by the reconstruction of the wharves in ferro-concrete and the making of stores and warehouses rat-proof, together with the disappearance of many old dilapidated buildings, has greatly mitigated the nuisance from this pest. An organized crusade by the City Council, assisted by the Chamber of C omm erce and other interested local organizations, would go far to assist in clearing the rats out of the town—a consummation devoutly to be wished for economic reasons, apart from their potential source of danger as carriers of disease.