This week's Lancet prints a striking report sent to that
paper by Dr. Allan, medical officer of Westminster, in regard to one of the Post Office public telephones. Not only did' Dr. Allan find the telephone call-box, with its darkness, dirt, and dust, a suitable place for harbouring dangerous organisms, but he quotes Professor Klein's examination of one of the "swabs" taken from the mouthpiece of a transmitter in a public call-box. In one of these typical tuberole bacilli were found. The swab had attached to it "a mass of whitish-grey viscid substance," and when two guinea-pigs were infected with this substance, they both developed tubercles. Dr. Allan ends by pointing out how essential it is that the Post Office should see that the public boxes and instruments are properly constructed, regularly and frequently inspected, disinfected, and kept thoroughly clean.
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