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analysts, medical officers of health, and others ; and

to obtain information upon special questions relating to thepurity and adulteration of food and the use of deleterioussubstances therein, and to make suitable inquiries andinvestigations for this purpose. He added that the inspectorwould make a report which would be included in the annual

report of the Board’s medical officer, under whose directionhe would act. The necessity in the interests of the publichealth of much closer supervision over the manufacture, im-portation, and sale of articles of diet, including beverages, isrecognised on all hands and it is to be hoped that the steptaken by the Local Government Board will mark the inaugura-tion of drastic reforms in this direction, embracing the fixingof legal definitions similar to those already formed for milk,butter, and coffee for other articles of food and drink. The

catalogue of duties assigned to the new inspector inspiresconfidence in the good intentions of the department and itwill be the duty of the Treasury and Parliament to see thatthe Board is’supplied with adequate funds to enable it toprosecute unhampered the important and beneficent work towhich it has set its hand.

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THE EPIDEMIC OF TYPHOID FEVER ATBASINGSTOKE.

OF late years instances of carelessness or wrongheadednesson the part of those elected bodies which are placed in chargeof the public health in various districts have become un-

pleasantly frequent. The last annual report of the LocalGovernment Board contains an account of the Spennymoorcase where the urban council, according to a report by Dr.R. J. Reece, was largely to blame for the unhealthiness ofan important district. As recently as Sept. 30th we referredin these columns to the sanitary ineptitude existing atBrynmawr and Crickhowell, at both of which places thewater-supply was allowed to be polluted by leakage fromsewers and from privies. And now the sanitary authoritiesof the town of Basingstoke are being publicly blamed fordefault in their duties. Basingstoke for the last few weekshas been suffering from an epidemic of typhoid fever andon Oct. 10th there had been, it would seem from informa-tion before us, 128 cases with six deaths. It is stated thatin July when the town drains were being examined certainof the channels were plugged in the course of the operations.When the work was finished all the plugs which had beeninserted with the knowledge of the surveyor were removedand that official went for his holiday in due course. On his

return on August 31st he was told that there had been anoverflow of sewage and on making an examination he dis-covered that a plug of which he had no knowledge hadbeen inserted and had not been removed. The overflowof sewage was found to have contaminated the water-

supply either by leaking into a well or into a mainwhich was open. The surveyor removed the plug but saidnothing to the medical officer of health or to the sanitaryauthority of the serious mishap which he had discovered.On Sept. 18th two cases of typhoid fever were notified,yet no warning was given by the corporation or the healthauthority to the ratepayers although the contamination ofthe water must have been known to them. The correspondentwho sends us this information also says that the town clerkwrote to him that it was impossible to warn all the rate-payers after Sept. 18th. This statement strikes us as rather

silly ; we are certain that if the Basingstoke ratepayers hadbeen behindhand with their ra.tes they would have beennotified of the fact without any delay. On Oct. 12th the

corporation held a special meeting for the discussion of thesituation, inasmuch as by this time the number of cases hadreached the significant total of 147. Until this time manycitizens appear to have been quite unaware of their danger,and at the meeting the chief concern of the mayor and ofthe chairman of the health committee seems to have

been in reference to the trade of the town which has

apparently fallen off. The trade of the town may concern

many urban councillors-it probably does-but what theyshould really be moved about is the short-sightedness andineptitude which have conduced to a tragedy. How didan irresponsible workman come to plug a sewer ? Why didthe surveyor not report the fact of the plugged sewer ? ? Whydid not the corporation notify the townspeople that there

was danger? The town council at the meeting held onOct. 12th congratulated the health committee on its

efficiency We feel fairly certain that the Local Govern-ment Board will not be of the same opinion, but even if thereport of the medical inspector who has been deputed tomake an official inquiry proves complimentary to the energyof the authorities after the mischief was established therestill remains for explanation the policy of concealment thatwas first pursued.

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THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY.

AN’TISEPTIC treatment of the respiratory passages, thechief factor concerned being sulphurous acid, can no longerbe indulged in on the underground railway. It will be

useless now to send patients, as is said to have been done, to,say, Westminster Bridge and Baker Street Stations for therelief of bronchitic affections, since the special quality ofthe old atmosphere at these stations has been removed

by substituting electric traction for the steam engine.The pollution arising from the burning of sulphurous coalif it occurs anywhere will be at the electrical generatingstations and it behoves the companies concerned to see

that the evil so satisfactorily suppressed in one placedoes not appear at another. The improvement of theair on the underground railway is manifest to everyonewho has recently travelled by the line and even traces ofozone may be detected in the tunnels owing to the multipleelectric discharges which take place on the live rail.He would have been a bold seer who would have declaredhis belief ten years ago that the time would come whennot only would the output of evil gases on the undergroundrailway be stopped and an inodorous and comparativelypure supply of air be maintained but that in addition theair would be to some extent ozonised. Yet such is nowthe case, although it is true that traces of the old pollutionoccur when the few steam-propelled trains that are left,such as the London and North-Western trains fromMansion House to Broad-street and those providing a

local service, pass through the tunnels. We believe thatin the future the air of the underground railway will bepractically free from reproach, since the tunnels have theundoubted advantage of not being laid deeply beneath thesurface and consequently ventilation is a comparativelysimple matter and almost automatic, which is not the

case, of course, with the deeply laid "tubes." Incidentallyalso it may be remarked that the inconvenience and delayof lifts to and from the trains on the tubes" do not obtainon the underground railway. Still, too much care can hardlybe given to the provision of ventilation not only for thetunnels but for the carriages also. Complaint has alreadybeen made of the overcrowding of the electric trains but

doubtless this will be remedied as the service improves. It

was never a source of grumbling under the old system ofsteam traction that the underground railway was cold;indeed, the warmth of the trains and tunnels was a matterof common appreciation in the winter although, of course, inthe summer the heat was at times intolerable. During therecent "snap" of cold weather the railway under the newregime has been, on the contrary, cold almost to the pointof discomfort, the warming apparatus now provided notso far having been requisitioned. It will be interesting toknow whether the introduction of electric traction will