No doubt these plants harbour, and are the favourite food of innumerable animals-Protozoans, Mollusks, Radiates and Articulates. The Euglenæ riot among them as do Plesconia or water 'spiders and misnamed lice; Rotifers make them lively, and are numerous and beautiful. Annelidæ squirm and twist among their filaments, and even leeches find there a happy home. The fresh water hydra will, too, throw out its tentacular fishing lines and catch the floating ova of its favourite infusoria with perhaps a relish of vegetable spores.

'Gorgons and Hydras and Chimæras dire'

The

encamp by the million among these little marine forests. Pretty beetles too, the natural diving-bells of the waters, with the grubs of our own lively mosquito and of the dragon flythe tiger of the waters-live and move and hunt there; nor need it astonish any one to find a host of Gasteropods, and a few Lamellibranchs. Planorbis, the Physa, and the Pupa, are particularly fond of Mougeotia. Find the one and the others are near; before all things else they eat and become fat on that delicate food. As for polywogs and frogs, why should they be excluded from such happy hunting grounds? Sweet to them, as oysters to us, are the fauna that haunt the water plants, and of course they like to rear their numerous offspring in such rich and pleasant pastures.

It may be rather alarming to think of all these relatives of ours in such early stages of evolution, harbouring themselves in the waters we must drink, and with which we must cook our food. For the feeling of the thing it is certainly desirable if possible to get rid of such kindred. But after all they are quite innocuous and more afraid to be swallowed than we can be to swallow them. They are nearly all vegetable eaters, and far more digestible than clams or oysters. A touch of gastric juice will reduce them to plasma and transform them to food.

The only drawback is, that plants and animals will die and decay, and when their remains accumulate to any great extent, they are far from being sweet or wholesome. They become the beds of another class of plants of a doubtful reputation, although very useful in the circle of life. When, and if, putrid fermentation commences there will be present hosts innumerable of plants allied to the fungus, such as Bacteria Vibriones, Torulæ, and others of this genus. Fungoid growths are to be dreaded in water. It is not possible altogether to exclude them. We breathe them with almost every breath, we drink them in all waters, and eat them in all our food. Fortunately they are not all or always hurtful. In ordinary states of health we can throw them off or absorb them, and they only develop into hurtful ferments under enfeebled or diseased conditions of the body, or unhealthy states of the atmosphere in which we live. It is almost certain that some form of fungus sporule is that which engenders malarial fevers and zymotic diseases. Recent researches in the marshes around Rome seem to demonstrate this hypothesis. It is certain that Diptheria and Enteric Fevers are due to fungoid poisoning of the blood by subtile innoculation. It is, however, only in stagnant waters, in which decaying nitrogenous or animal matters are permitted to fester, that danger is to be apprehended. If from such sources water finds access to wells or cisterns or reservoirs, there may be poison in the cup we drink. Where, however, this is carefully prevented, the mere decay of such vegetables and animal forms as are found in water-leads or reservoirs, in which water undergoes constant change and renewal, are not the least likely to be hurtful. When also we find that millions of ferments and their spores are drunk with impunity by those who drink beer, porter or ale, water drinkers need fear nothing.

All large reservoirs of water are

at times subject to an over-growth of

both plants and infusorial animals, and although to appearance they are unpleasant, yet they are not known to do any one any harm. The City of London, in England, is at present very unfortunately situated as regards its water supply, but however impure the water is, it only becomes hurtful when 'kept in close cisterns and water-butts. Where the supply is continuous, the water is not unwholesome, although it may be sometimes expedient to drink it blind. Imagination often awakens fears and alarms where there is no cause, and there is certainly no reason to apprehend any evil effects from waters drawn from either our large lakes -or rivers, or large reservoirs, which are not contaminated with city sewage, and are distributed to our dwellings by a constant pressure and supply.

The gasses which decaying vegetation gives off, although unpleasant and undesirable, are sure to be neutralised by the action of the living plants themselves. There are no better purifiers of water than the lake and river weeds. By an incomprehensible chemistry, they reduce carbonic acid gas to its elements, and absorbing the carbon for their own nutriment, set free the oxygen into the water and the air. Looked at on a clear day, they will be found covered over with brilliant little globules, which are nothing else than pure oxygen. It is this that floats the Conjugatæ on the surface of the water, nor will any unpleasant odour ever be found where these plants abound. In this

respect they are our friends and not our foes.

In an aquarium they are the most effective aeraters that can be found. If allowed to grow, and not washed off the glass as is commonly done, they will keep the water sweet and be a delight to the fishes. When I see these beautiful, little known, and often despised plants grow freely in troughs where cattle drink; in wells, and springs, and fountains of water; in the marshes, the pools, the dubs, the lakes, the rivers, and the creeks, and in all places where water settles or flows; I cannot but regard them as beneficent agents by which a kind Providence, by means of living forms, the most beautiful, ministers to animal wants, and shields us from invisible evils.

It is vain for the guardians of our Water-works to attempt to get rid of water weeds. They will grow in spite of all they can do. What they should be more careful to prevent is the percolation into reservoirs or pipes. of surface water from impure sources, such as city sewage or the collection of fungi, in the form of moulds, in dark and damp passages, such as the roofs of large drains. Any superabundance of vegetation may also be wisely removed, and flushing may occasionally be resorted to for the removal of accumulated deposits of mud. With such precautions as these, and with a continuous supply, no cities or towns in the world need be better furnished with wholesome water than the cities and towns of Canada.

T

HE importance to the country of an educated and liberal medical profession is a subject which comes home with peculiar personal force to almost every individual at some period of his life, and usually at a time when very little can be done by that individual toward promoting or securing it. The value of a man's life is seldom mentioned until he is either well advanced in years and his decease is spoken of as a natural and expected event, or when death has actually taken away, perhaps suddenly, one of the brightest and most useful members of society, or laid low some leading politician or honoured litterateur. At such a season the feelings of all interested are too much influenced by sadness to allow any one to shape a practical scheme for insuring to every member of the community the same skilled assistance and direction which is within the possible reach of the more eminent or more wealthy. Although difficult of demonstration, it will probably be conceded that every man considers his own life as valuable to the nation as that of his immediate neighbour, who by others may be regarded his superior; and, so from the lowest to the highest, it will be hard to show in a rising scale any great difference in the worth of men's lives to the State, although the task might be less severe were examples to be taken from the extremes of society and the life of a tramp' compared with that of an active philanthropist. But whatever opinions may obtain respecting the doctrine of the comparative worth of men's lives, it has been long recognised as one of the

Should

prime duties of the State to afford ample security and protection to the lives of all its citizens; and this protection is not alone limited to freedom from external or malicious violence, but extends to the provision of means for the saving of lives from perishing by natural avoidable causes. an outbreak of a malignant disease in any part of Canada be directly traceable to some clearly-defined and removable cause, public welfare would demand immediate steps for the removal of that cause; or should lives, even of children, be sacrificed through want of adequate means for their rescue, as was lately the case on the Toronto bay, public interest would at once provide measures to prevent similar future misfortunes. In the same way there must always be felt a deep interest in the thoroughness of the training of those men who have, as their special care, the health and lives of the people; and this interest has frequently found expression during the past few months in the letters. which have appeared in the dailynewspapers. From the tenor of some of these strictures on the course of the Medical Council, it might be said that, in the eyes of a man outside the medical profession, the vacillating policy which the Council has pursued in reference to medical education would seem to rest on a secret, though wellformed, determination to materially limit the numbers who seek to enter that. profession. But these sharp criticisms: have rather been the caustic expression of a keen sense of injustice than the calm reasoning of men who were

convinced that, though for a time unsuccessful, their earnest appeal for reform would finally be heard and acted upon. To speak of the wisdom of having few or many in the ranks of the profession, or to show how many would be enough for the public good, would involve too many side issues to be satisfactorily dealt with in a short paper; but to speak of the present method of entrance into the profession is at least a fair and reasonable subject of criticism.

Until the year 1869, the Universities were the only corporate, bodies granting degrees in Medicine, and these degrees were sufficient authorization to the graduates to pursue the practice of the healing art. For some years before that date, the rivalry between the various medical schools had become too keen to be productive of good effects, owing somewhat to the fact that these schools received much of their reputation and consequent income from the annual number of graduates, rather than the standard qualifications of those upon whom Degrees were conferred; and in order that the yearly number should be as large as possible, students were sometimes allowed to graduate after having gone over the prescribed course without the strictest regard to thoroughness. It was then deemed advisable to try to secure a uniform standard of excellence in all those who sought degrees in Medicine, and the Ontario Legislature introduced An Act respecting the Profession of Medicine and Surgery,' for the establishment of a central council of medical education, known as the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. By this Act the Universities were relieved of any licensing power, and this power was confided entirely to the Medical Council, so that all students of medicine have since been obliged to pass the examinations prescribed by the Council, in addition to those of their University, before they are entitled to the privileges which

were previously accorded them by the simple degree of their University. No doubt this change, calling for a dou-ble examination, one part of which is quite independent of any teaching body, has done great good not to the public only, by giving it thoroughly qualified men, but to the profession also, by elevating and equalizing the literary and professional acquirements of each of its new members; but like many other good institutions, there are found in this one some parts which give rise to a great deal of dissatisfaction. This Medical Act invests the Medical Council with the power of altering, from time to time, the curri culum of studies for the admission and enrolment of students; it also provides (Sec. 17):-" but any change in the curriculum of studies fixed by the Council shall not come into effect. until one year after such change is made." Now it appears that the exercise of this negative power is the cause of much just complaint and righteous indignation on the part of the students, and until there is some amendment in the Act which will limit the discretionary power granted to members of the Council, or which will remove certain existing hardships,, the same evil will likely continue.

To some extent in Canada, as well as in England and on the Continent, the Medical Profession has been chosen by men who have had no settled intention of following the practice for a livelihood, but who have chosen it as a special means of acquiring an education and a practical knowledge of their physical selves, and at the same time, as one which would prove a convenient crutch in case of future necessity. Indeed, across the Atlantic, many men who have become illustrious, have taken a degree in Medicine as the only road open to a comprehensive knowledge of the Natural Sciences, and medical men now as a class have much reason to feel proud of the lasting work done by their brethren toward the advancement of nearly every branch of human

Chemistry, Physics, and Botany will naturally lead the way to a closer acquaintance with all the principal physical forces around us, while the study of insanity prepares the mind, or perhaps better, the intellectual taste, for the broader field of Metaphysics and Psychology; in this manner some good reasoners have considered a degree in Medicine preferable to one in Arts which embraces more of the classics and abstract sciences. But whether the student should choose Medicine for the purpose of practice or with a view of gaining a knowledge of the world. around him, can make but little difference to the point in question, as in either case he must have a desire to know what the whole course will cover and on what terms he may pursue the study before he enters it. With a possible yearly change in the curriculum which will affect a student who has matriculated, few can be sure when they begin the course what may be required of them before they reach the end of it, and they must consequently feel that they are unjustly exposed to an unnecessary risk of being forced to do something in the third and fourth years which, if known beforehand, would have deterred them from beginning such a course.

This

uncertainty is not met with in any other instance in this Province, for whether it be in Arts, Law, Theology or Medicine, at any of the Universities, the changes introduced from time to time in the curriculum do not affect the matriculated student in any unfair way. Frequent changes in regular course of study, besides being inconvenient to all engaged in it, betray weakness and appear childish, since the minds of the young men of the country do not materially change in character every year or two; besides this, the principal reason for any change, except that necessitated by the progressive requirements of advancing civilization, is intended to affect the teachers as much as the

students.

These continual changes in the curriculum also make it quite impossible for the Universities or teaching bodies to follow the course laid down by the Council, which is only an examining body, and this want of co-operation between these bodies is a serious drawback to their students; after ten years' chase, our National University has wisely abandoned a path beset with so many thorns, and has established for herself a course of medical study which will be permanent, and which must, sooner or later, on account of its high standard, be adopted by the Medical Council itself.

Instead of so many changes in the course of study, it would appear a better policy to make the entrance examination more severe, say by the addition of Greek as a compulsory subject, for a knowledge of that language is almost essential to a clear understanding of the medical vocabulary. By such a change there would be insured a higher literary qualification in all who begin the professional studies: with this higher literary qualification there would be gained a more compre hensive view of the subject of education which in future members of the Council would not be undesirable; nor could such a change be unjust to any one as it would not affect those who had actually commenced their professional subjects.

Another cause of almost universal dissatisfaction is the method of conducting the oral examinations by the Council: as they have in past years been conducted, the students are kept waiting in a body in suspense, while one of their number enters the examination hall; this allows the 'plucked' candidate who, on account of his want of success, is disaffected, to spread discord among the remaining students who await his return outside the door of the hall, and thus the trouble begins, to be ended, perhaps, after a few days of tedious and disturbed waiting, in conduct disgraceful to both students