The subject of the following remarks is the mode of spread of bubonic plague in epidemic form as deduced from observations made during the outbreak at Sydney. The nature of the disease, and the whole of the circumstances which accompanied its appearance, having been described at length in my official report, only those points which have a direct bearing on the subject just defined are here mentioned; but a brief preliminary statement of certain local conditions is necessary.

Both boric acid and borax are extensively used as food preservatives, and much interest attaches to the question of their influence if any upon the general nutrition of the consumer, especially children. Although this method of preserving food has existed for a comparatively long period there seems no agreement as to the harmfulness or otherwise of these substances when taken with a mixed diet.

The want of success which has so persistently attended the efforts of most bacteriologists to isolate the B. typhosus from water supplies suspected to have caused enteric fever, suggested a study of the varieties of B. coli which are associated with the B. typhosus in the dejecta of patients suffering from enteric fever. It was hoped that the organisms in question might show cultural characteristics or reactions to specific sera, which would enable them to be distinguished from the varieties of B. coli present in the dejecta of healthy people; so that even if the B. typhosus were not detected, the presence of these special organisms might afford reasonable grounds for the belief that the water under examination had been fouled by the specific dejecta of cases of enteric fever. With this object in view 150 organisms have been examined; of these 80 were isolated from the stools of cases of enteric fever and 70 from the stools of healthy men. The enteric fever cases were five in number, one being a severe relapse, and the other four severe cases which terminated fatally. The stools were obtained during the third and fourth weeks of the disease and also, in the fatal cases, from the intestines after death had occurred.

The following contribution to the aetiology of cerebrospinal meningitis is published with a view to calling attention to the possible part played by dust in the causation of this disease. The strong connection between dusty occupations and cases of cerebrospinal fever, as here detailed afford, it is believed, a prima facie presumption that dust may be one of the vehicles of the specific germ.

Towards the end of October 1900 the Sanitary Authorities of Cambridge and Chesterton found themselves face to face with a serious outbreak of diphtheria; the first official notification had been on October 14th, and by October 23rd eleven cases had been notified, of which four terminated fatally, on October 15th, 21st, 22nd and 26th respectively. These four were all children attending the Infants' Department of a certain Higher Grade School, and the other seven cases were either children of this school or persons closely associated with them.

The following is an account of the bacteriological examinations for diphtheria bacilli made by me at the University Pathological Laboratory, from October 23, 1900 to Jan. 5, 1901; a period which includes all but the first week of the outbreak described in the preceding paper.

The idea of having the means of applying the Anti-rabic treatment of Pasteur in Shanghai, China, had its origin in the marked incidence of rabies among the numerous dogs of the Shanghai district and the consequent large mortality from this disease. The local condition was the more marked because of the short incubation period observed in Shanghai both in the human subject and in the rabbit inoculated from the rabid dog, being seldom much over a month in man and rarely over two weeks in rabbits inoculated subdurally.

The question of the presence or absence of micro-organisms in the normal organs of the body has occupied the attention of numerous observers; yet, despite the fact that its solution is not accompanied by any great difficulties, the results of experimentation have been strangely at variance. For instance, Meissner stated that no bacteria capable of development are present in the living tissues of the healthy animal, while Zweifel (1885) expressed the opposite opinion, namely, that human organs habitually contain germs, that these germs, however, are anaerobic in character, their capability of development being limited by the amount of oxygen present in the blood stream.

The larva about to turn into a pupa comes to rest, the thoracic region becomes swollen, and the pupa gradually issues through a dorsal slit in the larval cuticle, which is ultimately thrown off with all its exterior chitinous appendages as well as those parts of the spiracles etc. which are superfluous.