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joined in reprimanding the surveyor for furnishing the Ianalyst with particulars concerning the source. One

remarked that " the analyst ought not to know wherethe water came from" " and another that "it was a

most outrageous thing that the water should be sent

for analysis as this was." "Surely the analyst couldfind out impurities without leading strings." " Germs

might have existed only in imagination in these circum-stances." An appeal was made to Somerset House, as is

usually done in view of the widely prevailing but ignorantidea, first, that Somerset House is the proper tribunal andsecondly, that a chemical analysis alone is sufficient toenable a sound opinion tc be given as to the suitability ofa water for drinking purposes. We then said that "it is

certainly to be hoped that neither the analysts at SomersetHouse nor any other analyst will venture to express an

opinion upon the safety of a water without knowingsomething of the source from which it is derived." Now,in matters of this kind the Somerset House chemistshave frequently posed as referees and their dictum has beenaccepted by justices, while no inquiry was undertaken bythem with that detail which is absolutely necessary intothe source and environment of the water. To speakplainly, the chemists at Somerset House have no businessto give a pronouncement on these questions at all. The con- I,sideration of water-supply is altogether outside their dutiesand the sooner the public and our justiciary learn this thebetter for the community. Such incidents make it more

urgent that the Government should soon appoint and

recognise a court of decision connected with the Local

Qovernment Board or a newly-constituted board of health,whose duty it shall be to undertake cases of reference ofthis sort and inquire practically into cases of dispute withthe view of a settlement which shall be satisfactory andreassuring to the community at large.

THE NEED FOR REVACCINATION.

IN the singularly able "memorandum" on the Govern-ment Vaccination Bill which Dr. Bond has prepared for theJenner Society, and which, we trust, will be widely circu-lated, there are some remarks upon the necessity for

instructing the public upon vaccination which we heartilyendorse. The case for revaccination, too, is so well putthat we may quote it in full.

’<The experience of every epidemic, and last but notleast of that at Middlesbrough, shows conclusively that ifwe wish to protect the community against these increasinglyfrequent scourges we must take as much trouble to promoterevaccination as we have hitherto taken to promote infantvaccination. So long as the public are led to believe, as theyhave been hitherto, that vaccination in infancy is the onlything about which the State need take any care, so long willepidemics of so-called vaccinated’ adolescents and adultsand of unvaccinated or badly-vaccinated children be theopprobrium of our country. There is only one way of effectingthis, and that is by requiring, so far as is practicable, everychild who enters a school to be efficiently vaccinated, andthat before it leaves school it shall be equally efficiently re-vaccinated. It is to the revaccination of her adolescentpopulation that Germany owes the remarkable immunityfrom epidemics of small-pox which she has for the last

twenty years enjoyed rather than to her compulsoryvaccination in early childhood. For it is the adolescentsand adults whose early protection in infancy has becomeattenuated by age who are most exposed to the risks ofsmall-pox. If we could secure their protection by revac-cination at the end of the school age, as well as thatof the children at the commencement of it, we neednot trouble ourselves much about the infants. We havebeen misled in this respect by false inferences fromthe experience of Jenner and the early vaccinators.When infants were the chief sufferers, because theadult population was in a large degree protected by havinghad the disease, the discovery of a means by which these

unfortnnate little victims could be almost absolutely pro-tected naturally led to an undue estimate of the value ofinfant vaccination, especially as its effects were assumed tobe more lasting than they really are. But we have now todeal with altogether changed conditions. Where infantvaccination is fairly well maintained, as it has been in

Middlesbrough, it is the adults who have not been revacci-nated who are now the chief source of danger-a dangerwhich can only be avoided by investing every young personwith the same degree of protection which we have for thelast half century conferred upon the greater portion of ourinfant population." -

THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

WE regret to find that the Government has decided topostpone the consideration of the London University Billuntil the Committee stage of the Irish Local GovernmentBill-which will begin on Tuesday next-has been disposedof. As the Irish Local Government Bill is the principalmeasure of the session this means a long postponement,probably until after the Senatorial election, which isfixed for May 16th. The death of Sir Richard Quain hascreated a vacancy on the Senate which Convocation will

fill, according to precedent, by a graduate in arts or law.Two candidates-Mr. James Bourne Benson, LL.D., B.A.,and Mr. Fletcher Moulton, B.A.-have issued their addressesand the election will turn solely on the London UniversityBill, which Dr. Benson supports and Mr. Moulton opposes.The reconstitution of the University on a dual basis forexternal or non-collegiate students and internal or collegiatestudents is the only alternative to two universities-one

teaching and examining and the other examining only. It is

impossible for the present condition to continue, for themetropolis must have a local teaching university. As is well

put in a circular signed by the representatives of the Londonteaching institutions of university rank who waited on themetropolitan Members of Parliament on March 28th, "teach-ing educates ; examinations do not educate ; degrees do noteducate ; they are of value only as tests and certificates ofan education hich the University teaching alone imparts."We trust that the Government will see that with the Bill asnow submitted to the House of Commons stands or falls thewhole feasibility of reconstituting the existing University asa teaching university for London. It would be a severe blowto the reform of higher education in London if the laboursof the last twelve years were to be rendered fruitless.

QUACKS AND QUACKERY

IN a Brisbane newspaper, dated Feb. 26th, is a presumablyeditorial article headed " Quacks and Quackery." Withmost of the sentiments therein expressed we are in cordialagreement, though they are set forth embellished withflowers of rhetoric to which we in this less romantic landare but little accustomed. "If we abhor," says the writer,"the respectable commercial swindler, we absolutelyloathe the quack. The quack is in the lowest layerof the human dunghill........ Wherever one sees the

glitter of brag one is justified in suspecting the absenceof bona fides and should search, so to speak, for the

horns, hoofs, and tail of the advertiser. When addedto the glitter aforesaid there is also accompanyingevidence that the alleged curer is merely a bird of passage,roosting like a buzzard in our midst until he shall havesecured a bellyful of garbage, one may take the horns,hoofs and tail for granted." The article goes on to askwhether it would not be possible to penalise personsnot duly qualified from pursuing the occupation ofreal or pretended curing of diseases. "This wouldnot affect genuine patent medicine inventors ...... forthe restrictions and conditions surrounding the grantingof a patent are in themselves some sort of guarantee