CONTAMINATION OF UNIFORMS IN THE AMERICAN ARMY.

Under the above title the Lancet (April 1) recalls the fact that twenty-one years ago it published the report of a commission on the contamination of uniforms provided by the Army Clothing Depot and Factory at Pimlico, when it was discovered that cut clothing given out to be made up by sewing-women at their homes was exposed to the infection of smallpox, scarlet fever, etc., in the houses where the work was done. Disinfection of all clothing made up outside the factories was therefore ordered; but experiments undertaken to determine the influence of disinfection on the texture of the cloth demonstrated a considerable deterioration in its strength and wearing capacity. Consequently, the amount of work given to outside workers was, and has continued to be, reduced to a minimum. These remembrances were called up by an item from a Philadelphia paper which showed that exactly the same problem had attracted