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The test paper here described makes it relatively easy to choose the antibiotic best suited for treatment of a given bacterial infection. Each type of test paper bears both a culture medium and an antibiotic and is supplied, dry and sterile, in a transparent envelope. For a given test, the paper is wetted and inoculated and the envelope with its contents is incubated. It is not necessary to wait for the appearance of visible colonies because the metabolic activity of the bacteria is detected by an indicator (triphenyltetrazolium chloride) which is colorless until reduced to a bright red dye by bacterial enzymes. The reliability of the new test was established by a comparative study with other methods in 100 clinical cases. The test paper is easily stored, and the entire unit can be incinerated after use. It is therefore useful in general office practice and should help to make sure that each patient receives the most effective antibiotic.

A p H test paper (Hydrion) was found to have the most favorable color scale over a p H range from 1 to 6, in comparison with many available indicator papers. Its use gives good correlation with the standard titration technique. Availability of a reliable, easily used indicator paper would encourage the physician to use gastric analysis more frequently and would stimulate patients to accept self-testing just as diabetics test for glycosuria.

Every physician should know how to prepare a paper for presentation at a medical meeting or publication in a medical journal. Perhaps the most convincing reason for this is an altruistic one. Since writing is the only means the medical profession has of universally disseminating knowledge concerning new therapeutic concepts, medical discoveries, or clinical experience, it is the moral obligation of every physician who has made an original scientific observation, or has formulated from his own experience a new medical theory, to publish it for the information of his colleagues, and the ultimate benefit of mankind. Another good motive for writing medical articles is a purely selfish one. In addition to the sheer joy derived from effective self-expression, the physician who prepares an article on a certain subject broadens his own knowledge of that subject, for, before he can present his material in a comprehensive manner, he must have a