By far the greater proportion of the water consumed by Europeans in hot countries is, however, drunk in the form of aerated waters, and very frequently little or no care is taken in their manufacture, even when it is carried out by European firms in a large way of business. There can be no doubt that where the business is conducted on a large commercial scale, the water used should have been passed through suitable bacteria-proof filters; but in one of the few instances I have met with where this was even professed to be done, the filtering plant was obviously absurdly inadequate to filter more than a small percentage of the supply turned out by the firm. If such is the case with large and responsible European concerns, the character of the article turned out by the small native factories can easily be imagined. It would be hopeless to expect much improvement from the latter, but if consumers insisted on a guarantee that the water had been sterilised, in the case of the European factories, there can be little doubt that, before long, a safe supply would be put on the market to meet the demand. Of late years the practice of aerated waters being manufactured by clubs and regimental institutions has enormously increased, but it must be remembered that, except as regards the avoidance of the coarser grades of filth, there is little or no advantage in this, unless the water supply of the factory be religiously guarded against pollution. As in the case of small institutions the amount of European supervision that can be given is but small, it may be doubted if much is likely to be gained by any attempts to sterilise the water either by filtration through biscuit porcelain or by boiling. The difficulty of cooling the water is an insuperable obstacle to the adoption of the latter expedient on even as large a scale as is required for a small club, for to make good aerated beverages the water must be as cool as possible. Quite recently the writer went over a station factory to try and ascertain why the “soda” was so feeble. Installed in a corner was a bath warmer capable of warming some forty or fifty gallons of water sufficiently for bathing purposes, but quite incapable of boiling so large a quantity under any circumstances, and indeed, not constructed with the view of doing so. This appliance had been installed by some previous zealous reformer, with the view of sterilising the drinks of the station, but he had never been at the pains of ascertaining if it was really capable of bringing its contents to the boiling point.