Lincoln: Two Health Department inspectors smiled with relief as 250 Lincoln College students and staff dipped their hands In four buckets of disinfectant before their Sunday meal in the refectory.

This precaution was taken because of the outbreak of hepatitis at the college which has so far struck 16 students. And the health inspectors had every reason to feel satisfied at this show of personal hygiene.

Had the students known they were really the editor of the Canterbury University student paper, Canta, (Dave Ritchiet) and off-sider Bill Guest. it would have meant a dipping in the college baths that would have given the bogus inspectors lifelong hepatitis immunisation.

It was a hastily-conceived stunt-, inspired by the news that seven students, members of a held party that had toured the country a fortnight earlier, were affected by the disease. Nine more Lincoln students have since taken ill.