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Goodall has shown that even in the metropolitan fever hospitals during eight years for every 1,000 cases of enteric admitted as many of sixteen of the staff contracted the disease. The Jewish ritual requiring the washing of hands after the use of lieux d'aisances, made mechanical by the murmur of a prayer, is not the least remarkable of the sanitary teachings of Moses. A bowl of 1 in 1,000 biniodide of mercury at the foot of each typhoid bed in a hospital, as introduced into the London Temperance Hospital by Dr. Soltau Feuwick, a custom now almost universally copied in modern hospitals, is at least a constant reminder of the vigilance required to prevent infection. The success of anti-typhoid inoculation as evidenced by statistics collected during the South African War, more especially among the troops stationed at Harrismith, and since verified byexperience in India coupled with a personal interest in this method of prophylaxis, three of us having been inoculated after leaving New Zealand for Africa early in 1901, has impressed on me the advisability of an opportunity at least being given to all nurses under thirty of securing protection as offered by the use of Professor Wright's improved vaccine. Dr. Hardie Neil is at present, on behalf of the Hospital Board, in negotiation with Colonel Leisham, of the R.A.M. College, for a supply of vaccine which will be available in the event of a recurrence next season, as is probable, of the usual Auckland epidemic. Although to the sanitarian typhoid is the disease par excellence of insanitary conditions, such in themselves are not sufficient to cause an outbreak. Enteric or typhoid fever is a specific disease dependent for its inception upon a specific virus, the Bacillus typhosus. In the light of quite recent discoveries, more especially illustrated by the results of an autopsy recorded in February by Dr. Dean of the Lister Institute, it is now definitely proved that the typhoid organism may retain its vitality in the human alimentary canal for an indefinite period, extending, as in this case, up to twenty-nine years after apparent recovery from the disease. The occasional occurrence of " ambulatory cases " so mild, as far as the individual sufferer is concerned, as not to have aroused a suspicion of the possibility of typhoid, the diagnosis of which is only confirmed by resort to the Widal test or other bacteriological evidence, also illustrates the ease with which a typhoid epidemic may spread in an urban community where the source of contagion, the excreta and urine, are not dealt with in accordance with the teachings of modern hygiene. A mild or unnotified case of typhoid is a more potential danger to a community than the most virulent case which of necessity comes under medical attention and isolation. A striking example came under my notice recently in the case of a Civil servant who actually was carrying out his duties during the first three weeks of an attack. The fact that long after convalescence the typhoid bacillus is voided in the urine according to some observers in at least 25 per cent, of cases, undoubtedly plays a not inconsiderable part in the dissemination of the disease. As a matter of fact, bacilli are sometimes so numerous in the urine, as in exceptional cases of baciluria, to render it turbid. Thus more readily even than faeces may this medium lead to infection of bedclothes, underclothing, and even the pollution of sources of water-supply. Recent researches and' experiments, more especially those of Colonels Firth and Horocks at the R.A.M. College, since confirmed by Pfuhl, of Berlin, have demonstrated the viability of the enteric bacillus in soil. To quote from the conclusions drawn from their report, — " Our experiments have shown us that the Bacillus typhosus is able to assume a vegetative existence for considerable periods outside the body: we are therefore compelled to face the position that outbreaks of enteric fever are not exclusively water-borne, and that infective material carried by winds and flies may play a large part in the development of disease. We have shown that the enteric bacillus can survive in ordinary earth for over two months, no matter whether the soil be virgin, or polluted with sewage, or be frozen hard. "This being the case it is not difficult to understand how certain areas, steadily fouled by surface pollution, may become endemic foci for the development of enteric fever. We think that the amount of specific pollution which a soil may receive from the dejecta of enteric-fever cases has been greatly underestimated. Observations have shown that enteric stools may contain from three to five enteric bacilli in o'oo6 milligramme of dejecta, and when we consider the number and volume of evacuations from a single patient, it is obvious that the specific pollution of the soil under certain conditions must be enormous. It must further be remembered that the urine of enteric patients may add materially tothe specific contamination. " In the face of these considerations it is manifest that, for a proper exercise of preventive measures, our attention must be concentrated on the dejecta at the moment they leave the human body. It is true we can do much to protect ourselves against infection if the specific microorganisms become disseminated in nature, but our task then becomes stupendous, as our efforts have been directed to guard so many paths of infection. A full measure of success can only be expected or obtained when we commence our work before the enteric or specific bacillus has had an opportunity of assuming a vegetative existence. In other words, we have to consider how we can dispose of dejecta with the minimum of danger to health. This is no new problem, and it is one replete with difficulties ; moreover, it must be considered in respect of conditions existing in both civil and military life at home and abroad. " In the light of our experi/ments we cannot help regarding the dry-earth or pail-closet system, as ordinarily carried out, to be replete with danger. 'The possibilities of local dissemination of infective matter either as dust or by flies are great, and, unless the dejecta are at once removed, burnt, or deeply buried, they constitute a standing menace to the public health. We hold, therefore, that any installation of pail-closets or dry-earth system of conservancy in towns or large communities is absolutely reprehensible." As in the case of Johannesburg, where Dr. Porter, M.0.H., after quoting the above, concludes that "the chief causes are pollution of soil and air by the present bucket system, extensive soil-