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be obtained, even in this country, only in a state so impure Ias to render it a positive danger to health. As afl’ordingthe most recent illustration of this too prevalent neglect, wemay refer to a letter in which Mr. F. Eardley Wilmot hasdrawn the attention of railway directors to the fact

that at many stations there is no suflicient supply of

pure drinking water for the use of passengers and of theirown employés. The natural consequence is that the public. I,house is commonly called upon to make good the avoidabledeficiency. The hardship of this forced expense in a

country abounding in water is the more obvious when weperceive that with a very little thought and management itmight be entirely avoided. The letter accordingly urges onall railway companies the importance of providing at everystation a sufficient supply of pure filtered water and cleanglasses. The need of filtration will, of course, depend on thequality of water obtainable. In cases where constant ser-vice is available it might easily be dispensed with. If,however, the employment of cisterns or an excess of mineraldeposit should render its use desirable, a cbeap and simplefilter might easily be provided. In the interest of the publicgenerally, it is to be hoped that the reform suggested inthis letter will not fail to receive that full considerationwhich it deserves.

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THE VETERINARY DEPARTMENT OF THEBOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

IT is clear from the range of the woik to be done thatit is intended that the director of the Veterinary Depart-ment shall have under his control much the same machineryas the medical director of the Local Government Board hasat its disposal. Should this be the case, most satisfactorypractical and scientific results may be anticipated with con-fidence. Arrangements have been made by the board toplace at the disposal of the director a completely equippedhistological and bacteriological laboratory, and when thisis fitted up and in full operation it may be expected thatfrom it and from the various old-standing and recentlyinstituted laboratories even more work in the departmentof comparative pathology and therapeutics may come thanhas already issued from such laboratories. There have

been, and are still, good workers, and there are manyothers to whom only opportunity is wanting to develop intoaccurate scientific observers and investigators; and, muchas the voluntary principle is to be admired, and averse asmost scientific men are to too free Government subsidisingof scientific work and workers, it must be agreed thatmuch encouragement might be given by Government

departments if they would give out a larger amount offairly remunerated work than they do at present. Thedirectors of both the medical and veterinary departmentsare struggling with many problems in the solution of whichthey would be only too glad to receive outside assistance,and had they funds at their control there can be littledoubt that they would avail themselves of the assistancethat might be obtained from men working under theguidance of the heads of experimental laboratories than

they are able to under existing conditions. Many of thelaboratories which are at present maintained entirely byvoluntary effort or private benefaction would be able toextend very materially their sphere of usefulness by theaddition of very moderate Government subsidies, and inreturn these various departments would have a claim forassistance in any special work on which they might beengaged. -----

"UNDERSTANDINGS" WITH LOCUM TENENS.A VERY remarkable decision has been given touching the

obligations of a locum tenens to his principal by Mr.Montagu Williams. Mr. Robert Kennedy, of 163, Ossulston-street, had engaged the locum tenens at the rate of three

guineas a week. His duties, according to the IslingtonGazette, which reports the case, were to attend the patients,to receive petty cash, and give an account to witness onreturn. The " understanding

" was that the principal had

an exclusive right to the services of the locit))i tenens.Before the Court the locum, tcncns was charged with

embezzling ;E14, which he is alleged to have received. The

magistrate ruled that, as there was no written agreement andnothing had been said as to rendering account, the prisonerwas not a servant, and was dismissed. We can only recordthe case for the instruction and warning of principalsand assistants alike. The decision seems to us a veryshocking one. The understanding was sufficient to serve asa basis for the claim of the loculn tenens to be paid, andshould surely have been enough as a basis for the claim oithe principal to a proper account. But law is-law.

SUICIDE IN PRUSSIAN SCHOOLS.I BETWEEN 1883 and 1888 official returns have been made of

this ghastly occurrence, with the following results: therewere 58 suicides on the part of the youth of either sexattending school in 1883, 41 in 1884, 40 in 1885, 44 in 1886,50 in 1887, and 56 in 1888. Among these suicides 19, 14,10, 8, 17, and 12 were scholars in the higher institutions inthe respective years from 1883 to 1888 ; the rest attendedschools of a lower grade. According to sex the total of 28!)suicides is divided into 240 bovs and 49 girls. The investi.

gation of the motives for self-murder on the part of theseyoung persons is peculiarly difficult, details as to their

physical and psychical qualities as well as their antecedentlife being either too scanty or too untrustworthy. In 86cases (29-8 per cent. of the whole) the motive of the suicideremained obscure. In the others fear of chastisementaccounted for 80, of whom 78 attended the lower schools.Mental disorder and melancholia drove 26 to self-murder;,morbid ambition 19 (of whom 11 were pupils of the higher! institutions) ; fear of examination (the examiners,beingeither not faced or unsuccessfully encountered) 16, and ofthese 15 belonged to the superior schools. In 7 cases

practical joking was adduced as the cause of suicide, andin 5 disappointment in love.

LIBRARIES AND INFECTION.

IT might well be supposed that the question whether infer-tious disease is carried by library books had long ago beenanswered. It is at all events indisputable that they, like anyother articles in a sick room, are capable of retaining thegerms of contagion, and all the more so that their availablesurface is multiplied by the number of their leaves. Lettershave repeatedly served as germ-bearing media, and thoughthere is greater difficulty in detecting the influence ofvolumes which pass from band to hand in a circle of readers,reason and experience forbid us to doubt thatthey also haveacted in the same way. The degree in which this trans-ference of contagion is ordinarily liable to occur would affordscope for profitable inquiry on the part of librarians and of

family practitioners. The practical issue immediatelyarising out of the question is, of course, that which concernsthe work of isolation and disinfection. Arguments directedagainst the lending system on account of the facilities itafiords to infection are not,weconsider, of much practical value.With perhaps equal justice one might condemn the commonuse of street pavements or of public vehicles. Like these, thelibrary is an indispensable public boon, and cannot be setaside through dread of any ordinary and avoidable accidentof illness. T he only rational safeguards, as we explainedin THE LANCET of May 24th, are to be found in a carefulregistration of infected houses, in the refusal of all freshloans to such houses, and in the purification of any volumesknown to be infected before their resto: ation to the library.