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No milk to be sold from newly‐calved cows, nor until three days after the calf has been removed.

The manifesto of the Jam Section of the Food Manufacturers' Federation which was issued to the trade and to the public in October is a document which has been subjected to much unfavourable criticism by various persons for various reasons. In our opinion it fully deserves the censure it has received. It need hardly be pointed out that jam of some kind is eaten by everybody. The annual production in this country is enormous. As a combined food and stimulant for young children jam is probably unrivalled; indeed, we cannot imagine a substitute for it. “Jam is a ready means of providing carbohydrates, and children require much carbohydrate in proportion to their size.” All this, however, assumes that jam is really what it claims to be, namely, a preparation of the fresh fruit that gives the name to the jam and sugar only. This, we take it, is the view of the ordinary man. If we turn to dictionaries we find this definition or something very like it in all the dictionaries that have been published during the last one hundred and seventy‐five years. The dictionaries of the 17th century seem not to define the word; its meaning, however, was well understood. Johnson, 1755, defines the word jam as “a conserve of fruit boiled with sugar and water”—by sugar of course meaning cane sugar. All the modern standard dictionaries speak to the same effect. Murray's Dictionary has “A conserve of fruit prepared by boiling it with sugar to a pulp.” The Encyclopædic Dictionary and Wright's Universal Pronouncing Dictionary have the same. The Century Dictionary says jam is “A conserve of fruit prepared by boiling them to a pulp in water with sugar.” Webster that it is “A thick preserve made of fruit boiled with sugar and water.” Funk and Wagnall's New Standard Dictionary, “A conserve of fruit prepared by thorough cooking and stewing with sugar, reducing it to a pulp.” It is unnecessary to give further quotations; they are all to the same effect and show what the purchaser has in his mind when he asks for a pot of jam at a shop.

At a recent inquest upon the body of a woman who was alleged to have died as the result of taking certain drugs for an improper purpose, one of the witnesses described himself as “an analyst and manufacturing chemist,” but when asked by the coroner what qualifications he had, he replied : “I have no qualifications whatever. What I know I learned from my father, who was a well‐known ‘F.C.S.’” Comment on the “F.C.S.” is needless.

THE Conference of the Library Association may be described as one without a press. The greatest dailies had the barest references to it, a fact which is surprising and lends us matter for reflection. If an admittedly national service, almost universal in application, can be completely ignored in its annual gatherings, what is to be thought? Is it that libraries are now so normal a part of the social landscape that they may be taken for granted? Are they so insignificant that they do not merit notice? Alternatively, were our proceedings too dull for the dramatic necessities of the reporter? Or, finally, was it because the general publicity of the L.A. is not aggressive, is indeed inert? These questions every librarian and library authority may ask and have a right to the answer.

If additional evidence were needed of the connection between food supply and the spread of infectious disease, it would be found in a report recently presented to the Finsbury Borough Council by its Medical Officer of Health, Dr. GEORGE NEWMAN. It appears that in the early part of May a number of cases of scarlet fever were notified to Dr. NEWMAN, and upon inquiry being made it was ascertained that nearly the whole of these cases had partaken of milk from a particular dairy. A most pains‐taking investigation was at once instituted, and the source of the supply was traced to a farm in the Midlands, where two or three persons were found recovering from scarlet fever. The wholesale man in London, to whom the milk was consigned, at first denied that any of this particular supply had been sent to shops in the Finsbury district, but it was eventually discovered that one, or possibly two, churns had been delivered one morning, with the result that a number of persons contracted the disease. One of the most interesting points in Dr. NEWMAN'S report is that three of these cases, occurring in one family, received milk from a person who was not a customer of the wholesale dealer mentioned above. It transpired on the examination of this last retailer's servants that on the particular morning on which the infected churn of milk had been sent into Finsbury, one of them, running short, had borrowed a quart from another milkman, and had immediately delivered it at the house in which these three cases subsequently developed. The quantity he happened to borrow was a portion of the contents of the infected churn.

Of all the different classes of substances that enter into our dietary the proteids are the most important, as they are not only absolutely essential for the support of animal life, but in the absence or deficiency of carbohydrates or of fat they can take the place of those substances.

In its passage through the Grand Committee the Food Bill is being amended in a number of important particulars, and it is in the highest degree satisfactory that so much interest has been taken in the measure by members on both sides of the House as to lead to full and free discussion. Sir Charles Cameron, Mr. Kearley, Mr. Strachey, and other members have rendered excellent service by the introduction of various amendments; and Sir Charles Cameron is especially to be congratulated upon the success which has attended his efforts to induce the Committee to accept a number of alterations the wisdom of which cannot be doubted. The provision whereby local authorities will be compelled to appoint Public Analysts, and compelled to put the Acts in force in a proper manner, and the requirement that analysts shall furnish proofs of competence of a satisfactory character to the Local Government Board, will, it cannot be doubted, be productive of good results. The fact that the Local Government Board is to be given joint authority with the Board of Agriculture in insuring that the Acts are enforced is also an amendment of considerable importance, while other amendments upon what may perhaps be regarded as secondary points unquestionably trend in the right direction. It is, however, a matter for regret that the Government have not seen their way to introduce a decisive provision with regard to the use of preservatives, or to accept an effective amendment on this point. Under existing circumstances it should be plain that the right course to follow in regard to preservatives is to insist on full and adequate disclosure of their presence and of the amounts in which they are present. It is also a matter for regret that the Government have declined to give effect to the recommendation of the Food Products Committee as to the formation of an independent and representative Court of Reference. It is true that the Board of Agriculture are to make regulations in reference to standards, after consultation with experts or such inquiry as they think fit, and that such inquiries as the Board may make will be in the nature of consultations of some kind with a committee to be appointed by the Board. There is little doubt, however, that such a committee would probably be controlled by the Somerset House Department; and as we have already pointed out, however conscientious the personnel of this Department may be—and its conscientiousness cannot be doubted—it is not desirable in the public interest that any single purely analytical institution should exercise a controlling influence in the administration of the Acts. What is required is a Court of Reference which shall be so constituted as to command the confidence of the traders who are affected by the law as well as of all those who are concerned in its application. Further comment upon the proposed legislation must be reserved until the amended Bill is laid before the House.

THE blueprint, vital communication link between designer, engineer and manufacturer, is currently undergoing a radical change in its traditional format at the Boeing Airplane Company in the United States.