220 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Mar. 



places, such as exposed manure and garbage heaps, but that 

 proper care shall be taken of such temporarily necessary nuisances. 

 The medical inspection of school children and their education in 

 the i)rinciples of hygiene are measures which will result in a 

 healthier and happier youth of Canada. 



An enlightened public is essential for the bringing about of 

 these necessary sanitary reforms, which will result in a decreased 

 death rate especially among children and a healthier environ- 

 ment and the conservation of the people's greatest asset. 



Water. 



The question is naturally asked, in what way is the natural- 

 ist concerned in the question of conservation as affecting this 

 extensive natural resource? Many replies might be given to 

 this inquiry. There is one aspect in wdiich not onh' the naturalist 

 but every citizen as a food consumer is concerned, namely, the 

 importance of the inhabitants of the water. As the problem of 

 supplying the people with food becomes increasingly important, 

 the value of fish as food will be generally appreciated to a greater 

 extent than it is at the present time. It is a matter which is 

 receiving and must necessarily receive careful consideration. 

 Our enormous areas of water and great extent of river and 

 stream are capable of providing, with proper care, a large amount 

 of valuable food, and the question is how to provide, conserve 

 and utilize that food in the most judicious manner possible. 

 First we must prevent the pollution of the streams and waters, 

 this is not only a problem which seriously affects the public 

 health, but also the fish supply in the waters. The pollution 

 of streams and rivers is a biological problem, for con- 

 tamination with sewage renders the water bacteriologically 

 unfit without treatment; and commercial pollution, the 

 emptying of commercial waste products into the water, 

 renders it useless as a sustainer of life and so cuts off this 

 important item of our food supply which is under consideration. 

 The provision of hatcheries where the eggs are carried through 

 those stages in which there is so great a mortality in a state of 

 nature will ensure a larger supply of young fish; but, unless the 

 water is suitable and the young iish can obtain an abundance of 

 food, it will be labour wasted. This leads to a subject the import 

 of which is hardly yet realized, namely, the food available in the 

 water for the fish. For a number of years this problem has been 

 receiving the attention of investigators with regard to the marine 

 fishes, and to a small extent in the United States in reference to 

 fresh water fishes. Recently, however, a real beginning has been 

 made by Prof. Needham, of Cornell Universitv, of the studv of 



