21 SEPTEMBER 1872, Page 3

We trust that the report given with some confidence in

yester- day's Lancet, that Mr. Stansfeld is about to appoint as Inspectors under the new Sanitary Act chiefly junior laymen, and not edu- cated medical men, is not true. We have before expressed our strong conviction that for many purposes,—for the purpose, for instance, of advising on the proper insulation of a contagious disease,—laymen will be worse than useless, and we had quite understood that Mr. Stansfeld himself regarded the appointment of regularly trained medical inspectors as essential to the proper working of his Act. We can only trust that the rumour as to his intentions is mistaken.