In this state, the law for the prevention of infant ophthalmia provides for the immediate reporting of every case of babies' sore eyes, and failure to do so is considered a misdemeanor, and a third offense results in the revocation of the license to practice medicine. In 1915, the State Board of Health purchased 23,000 prophylactic outfits. These are little wax ampules, containing just enough one per cent nitrate of silver solution for the eyes of a child at birth. These ampules are distributed free to physicians and midwives all over the state, and in the past two years, more than 16,000 have been so distributed. In California, the birth certificate asks these questions: "Was a prophylactic for ophthalmia neonatorum used? If so, what?" The birth certificate must be filed within five days. Few doctors have the temerity to ignore these questions, or confess that they have used no prophylactic, so the questions on the certificate insure the use of the nitrate of silver solution in nine cases out of ten, though its use at birth is not made compulsory. Dr Glaser reports that the birth certificates in fourteen of the largest cities of the state, for the year 1917, show that on eighty-seven per cent of the certificates filed, the questions had been answered, and the prophylactic used. In Berkeley, every one of the birth certificates filed in 1917 reported the use of a prophylactic. The State Board of Health insists on the reporting of all communicable diseases, and infant ophthalmia is considered one of these, and in this connection, Dr Glaser says, "a case reported is a case safeguarded, a physician aided, and a community protected." But it is necessary to urge a ceaseless warfare against this most prolific cause of infantile blindness, and social and civic organizations, churches, schools, and all individuals who deplore needless suffering, are asked to give the subject the widest publicity. Physicians are only now beginning to realize that, in all phases of preventive medicine, their strongest, most necessary, and, indeed, essential ally, is the public, and the needed stimulus to a better medical performance is an intelligent knowledge on the part of the people as to what should be done. It is a common belief that ophthalmia neonatorum is an indication that one or both of the infant's parents have led unclean lives, and so, until recently, it has been difficult to have all such cases reported. While ophthalmia neonatorum _is_ often the result of the social evil, the introduction of other pus-producing germs into the eyes at birth is responsible for a large number of cases. So it should be remembered that babies' sore eyes is not a disgrace (any baby may have the disease), but blindness from babies' sore eyes _is_ a disgrace, for, in almost every case, it can be prevented.