This reminds me of a case in which tetanus or lock-jaw ensued from the use of some old cobwebs in stopping the bleeding of a cut. The wound was a perfectly clean one, and nothing need have resulted from this obedience to a superstitious prejudice had not the cobwebs unfortunately arrested some tetanus germs, and these getting access to the wound set up the typical symptoms of lock-jaw. That this implication of the cobweb was no idle accusation was subsequently proved by portions of the same web, on being inoculated into animals, inducing in the latter well-defined symptoms of tetanus. That cobwebs readily catch dust is familiar to everyone who has the mortification of seeing them adorn ceilings and corners; that they also arrest bacteria follows as a natural consequence of the presence of dust, and hence these delicate filaments may become veritable bacterial storehouses, more especially as it is usually in the dark and remote corners that they best succeed in eluding the vigilance of the domestic eye, and are thus also out of reach of the lethal action of sunbeams; and hence their unwelcome lodgers may manage to maintain a very comfortable existence over long periods of time. That the bacillus of consumption should have been very frequently found in dust by different investigators is hardly surprising when it is realised that the sputum of phthisical persons may contain the tubercle germ in large numbers, and that until recently no efforts have been made in this country to suppress that highly objectionable and most reprehensible practice of indiscriminate expectoration. Considering that the certified deaths from phthisis in 1901, in England and Wales only, reached the enormous total of 42,408, and bearing in mind the hardy character of the _bacillus tuberculosis_ when present in sputum, it having been found alive in the latter even when kept in a dry condition after ten months, it is not too much to demand that vigorous measures should be taken by the legislature to cope with what is now regarded as one of the most fruitful means of spreading consumption. We know that in some of the states of America public opinion has permitted the enactment of laws penalising this practice. Local rules to the same effect exist in our Australian colonies. On the Continent the trend of public opinion is evident by the prohibition found in the railway carriages and the notices to that effect conspicuously posted in public places. In this country public opinion moves so slowly that we are not yet ripe for any such strong step, and so far one of the few attempts at official activity in this respect is to be found in a circular issued by the Local Government Board of Ireland to the various local authorities stating that "tuberculous sputum is the main agent for the conveyance of the virus of tuberculosis from man to man, and that indiscriminate spitting should therefore be suppressed." The public exhibition of notices