Starting, then, with the assumption that women may, with profit to themselves and to the community, become practitioners of medicine, it is clear that they must, in the first place, secure such an education as shall make them thoroughly competent to take their share of responsibility in the care of the national health; and, secondly, that they must obtain this education in accordance with the regulations prescribed by authority, so that they may be recognised by the State as having conformed to all its legal requirements, and may practise on terms of perfect equality with other qualified practitioners. It is essential to the thorough comprehension of this last point that the laws regulating medical practice in this country should be clearly understood, as these can never be lost sight of by those who are engaged in the battle which we are now waging, and I will, before proceeding further, endeavour to state clearly the provisions of the Medical Act of 1858. For the protection of the public against ignorant and mischievous quacks, the Act provided that no person should be recognised as a legally-qualified practitioner of medicine in the United Kingdom unless registered in a Register appointed to be kept for that purpose. The Act provided that all persons possessing the degree of M.D. from any foreign or colonial University, and already practising in this country at the date of the passing of the Act, should be entitled to be so registered; but that, with this exception, (and a curious one in favour of those on whom the doctorate had been conferred by the Archbishop of Canterbury,) no medical practitioners could demand registration unless holding a licence, diploma, or degree, granted by one of the British Examining Boards specified in the schedule attached to the Act. It is, of course, self-evident that these provisions were intended solely to defend the public against incompetent practitioners, and, though it is perhaps to be regretted that the Act did not expressly require the Medical Council to examine, and, on proof of competency, to register the holders of foreign diplomas, and all others who had pursued a regular course of medical study, it could not be anticipated that any great injustice would be done by the omission of any such a clause; and still less, assuredly, was it intended by this Act to secure to one sex a monopoly of all medical practice. But, at the present moment, it is certain that great danger exists that the Act may be wrested from its original purpose and made an almost insurmountable barrier to the admission of women to the authorised practice of medicine; and this because the Act, as it at present stands, makes it obligatory on all candidates to comply with certain conditions, and yet leaves it in the power of the Medical Schools, collectively, arbitrarily to preclude women from such compliance.