1897] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL 169 



called attention to a matter which effects the public health 

 in a different deg-ree. Disclaiming- any intention of need- 

 lessly interfering- with any person's means of livelyhood, 

 he has protested against the licensing of night lunch wag- 

 ons, on account of the liability of the spread of disease by 

 this means. These wagons are a familiar sight in the 

 cities and larger towns. Either they are driving about the 

 streets or they occupy a stand, night after night. Mr. 

 Hurley has interested himself to inquire into their oper- 

 ation and finds when ready for customers the water supply 

 of a wagon consists of about two gallons of water in a 

 bucket. During the night several hundred cups of coffee 

 and mugs of milk are sold and emptied into mouths many 

 of which are dirty and diseased, some foully so. The 

 cleansing of the mug or cups consists of a rinsing in the 

 bucket of water and a wipe with a tow^el that does duty for 

 the entire night. We must agree wath Mr. Hurley that 

 probably no better method of spreading disease can be 

 found than the practices he discribes, and the subject is 

 one which should receive the attention of the board of 

 health in the cities w^here such a menace to public health 

 exists. — The Engineering Record. 



Infection by Pets. — Cats have been suspected of con- 

 veying the infection of diphtheria, and scarlet fever has 

 been traced to them. To this may be added (Chicago 

 Medical Record ) the unwelcome news that a health officer 

 has reported a case of smallpox brought about in the same 

 wav, that is, by a cat from an infected house carrying the 

 disease to a neig-hboring house. 



Another case is reported in La Medecine Moderne, "of 

 a seamstress who was in the habit of allowing her dog to 

 lick her face. She was attacked one day with a severe in- 

 flammation of the right eye. Oculists were consulted, but 

 their treatment was unsuccessful; and owing to the fact 

 that inflammation of the left eye was beginning, the right 

 eye was cut out. In it was found a tapeworm, which the 

 dog had probably picked up while licking some less pleas- 

 ing object than his mistress's face. 



