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"39 CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.It will greatly simplify any enquiry and any subsequent legislation in China, or any otlier country onthis question to know that the summing up of the recentinternational conference on leprosy at Bergen, and laterby the British and Colonial delegates at that conference,shows that leprosy is undoubtedly spread by direct andindirect contagion from persons suffering from thedisease. Indirect contagion may be carried by fleas,bugs, lice, the itch parasite, etc. Leprosy has beenproved to be most prevalent under conditions of personaland domestic uncleanliness and overcrowding, especiallywhere there is close and protracted association betweenthe leprous and non-leprous. Moreover, the dangerfrom infection from leprous persons is greater whenthere isdischarge from mucous membranes or fromulcerated surfaces. The most important administrativemeasure is to separate the leprous from the non-leprousby vSegregation in settlements or asylums under capablemanagement. This was the method adopted during themiddle ages in England, and the freedom from leprosy inthat and other lands to-day is testimony to its efficiency.Certainly segregation offers the most satisfactory meansof mitigating the sufferings of the leper and of assistingin his partial recovery. At the same time it shouldproduce a reduction and ultimate extinction of thedisease from even such a pestilence-stricken district assouthern China.Perhaps the most satisfactory conclusion of recentyears is the fact that "the clinical study of leprosyinduces the belief that it is not incurable." Theresearches being made by the scientific world shouldsurely encourage every worker for the good of Chinaand should lead to renewed endeavour for the manylepers in this land, who may truly be described asdwelling outside the camp."HENRY FOWUER.