§ Mr. SWANasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions if the Government is prepared to suspend the Order requiring all clinical thermometers to be tested and approved by the National Physical Laboratory before sale until there is a better supply, in view of the influenza epidemic; and what steps are being taken to ensure a better supply and what proportion of clinical thermometers sent to the National Physical Laboratory is rejected?
§ Mr. KELLAWAYIt was found necessary to make the Order owing to the large number of inaccurate instruments which were getting into the hands of the public, and I do not propose to suspend it. In order to develop the supply of these instruments arrangements are made for the manufacture of the necessary kind of glass, and the instrument makers are given expert advice in the production of the finished article which is now approximately twice as great as before the issue of the Order. An average of 10 per cent. of the instruments submitted by chemists have been rejected.