The days of hospital gangrene, of outbreaks of erysipelas, pyaemia and puerperal fever in hospitals have passed, but we have still too many cases of typhoid fever, diphtheria and other diseases developing in hospitals and institutions of various kinds in this twentieth century. The teachings of Pasteur and Lister that bacteria are the cause of a large number of the ills that flesh is heir to, and that these micro-organisms may be destroyed by the use of proper means—these teachings have revolutionized some departments of hospital work. One very important department that has not been entirely revolutionized is the hospital kitchen. The number of sanitary kitchens is increasing, it is true, but in many hospitals the kitchen is out of harmony with the other departments. It is not unusual to find a beautiful and imposing front entrance, to find marble and tile entering largely into the construction of many parts of the building, to find a costly modern equipment in many departments, and to find the kitchen of that same institution, dark, too small, poorly equipped, poorly ventilated, cheaply constructed throughout, and thoroughly unsanitary, a splendid place for the development of germs—a place that is, if not a disgrace to the institution, at least far from creditable. Who is to blame? Somebody surely is. Certainly when so much value is being placed on the food supplies sent from the kitchen as weapons in the fight with disease no hospital built in the twentieth century should have in it a kitchen that is not in keeping with the rest of the building, that will not bear critical inspection, that cannot be shown with as much confidence and satisfaction as the operating room or the wards. And not only in the situation, construction and equipment of the hospital kitchen is this lack of progress evident, but in no part of the hospital is the germ theory so little regarded in practical work. Pure blood is regarded as one of the great essentials of health, and much study has been devoted to that important part of the human system. The most perfect apparatus for examining the blood is considered none too good, but how often in the average hospital are tests applied to the materials from which blood is made? Are all butchers and bakers and grocers and dairymen so honorable that occasional analysis of the products supplied is quite unnecessary? An examination of the ice supply in a certain hospital, not many months ago, led to the discovery of the ice as the cause of an epidemic of typhoid fever, that seriously embarrassed the institution. A careful inquiry into such matters might have prevented serious embarrassments in a number of other institutions within recent years. Prevention is better than cure, and far cheaper. It is always better to be sure than sorry, and now that scientific research is popular, it ought to be possible for every hospital to arrange for periodical examination of its food and water supplies. [Sidenote: Filters and Water]