by the reports from medical officers of health in several other parts of the country, there is no ground for surprise. Ths law strains at the gnat and swallows the camel. Reviewing the subject as a whole, it may perhaps be difficult to prove from statistics anything as to the growth of quackery, but the ominous fact about it is that quackery is undoubtedly becoming more organized and systematic. The itinerant quacks of the market-place still flourish as much as ever, but the characteristic of the day is the phenomenal growth of the large and well-organized schemes and companies carrying on their business on a scale almost incredible, and in most cases succeeding in defrauding the public into the belief that their treatment is in the hands of qualified medical men. The report issued through the Privy Council Office, incomplete though it is, and bearing on the face of it such obvious signs of imperfect inquiry and hasty replies, nevertheless contains sufficient to warrant the statement that the quackery that is proved to exist is a grave danger to the public health, and that further inquiry by a Royal Commission is urgently necessary in the interests of the community. To general practitioners this may appear supeifluous, but it is not clear that statesmen and the more intelligent part of the public have yet realized the dangers arising from the imperfect state of the law and the failure to apply even the powers that exist. It may possibly be suggested that if the Government scheme for sickoess insurance is carried in anything like its present form, the facilities for obtaining proper medical advice will be so easy that the day of the quacks will be over, as a registered practitioner will be at the beck and call of the working classes without expense. But experience shows that the high fees demanded by quacks are in no way a hindrance to their success, as the speciousness of their advertising seems to be sufficient to overcome all the dictates of common sense and economy. In short, the public needs protecting against itself, and I see no possibility of this without a radical amendment of the Medical Acts. I would therefore strongly urge that a petition should be prepared pressing on the Govern ment the necessity, in the public interest, of appointing a Royal Commission with the reference/first, to. in quire into the whole subject of unqualified medical practice, in cluding the trade in secret remedies; secondly?to ascer tain the extent of existing statutory powers, and to show how best they may be made operative ; and, thirdly, to suggest such amendments of the Medical Acts, or other Acts, as are' necessary to prevent the existing evils of unqualified practice.