ANOTHER ANXIOUS MOTHER (_Dispensing_).—This occupation offers fair chances of a livelihood to a girl, as not only are medical men often willing to employ a woman as dispenser in their private dispensaries, but various hospitals have women dispensers, and there are many localities in which women might establish dispensaries of their own. The Pharmacy Act requires that a pupil should study for three years. The time may be spent either in working under a qualified chemist, or in the dispensary of some institution. Several lady chemists and dispensers now take pupils, and addresses of these could be obtained by applying to the Secretary of the Pharmaceutical Society, 17, Bloomsbury Square, London, or to the Secretary, London School of Medicine for Women, Arundel Street, W.C. The total expense of the course, including apprenticeship and examination fees ranges from £100 to £130. In this estimate board and lodging are not, of course, included. Your daughter would probably be advised to wait a year or two before beginning the course, as she is still so young. MEDICAL. M. J. GRAY.—We discussed the question of the best hydropathic establishments for rheumatism a few weeks ago. In England, Harrowgate, with its sulphurous waters, is the most generally useful. But living at any of the hydropathic stations is expensive, and the English ones are about the most expensive of all. It is rather difficult for us to answer your question because we never advise any person to go “to take waters” unless her income is above the average, so we cannot tell you (at all events, not in this column), what a stay at any of the stations would cost. Aix-la-Chapelle, Barèges, Harrowgate, Kissingen, Carlsbad, Contrèxeville, Homburg, Marienbad, Selters, Vais and Vichy, are the springs most generally used. If you cannot afford a stay at one of these places, you may derive some benefit from taking the waters at home. Nowadays all these waters are exported. But the benefit of taking the waters at home is not comparable with the value of a stay at the place where they came from, probably not because the waters degenerate, but because the strict regimen and the good effects of travel are absent. FIFTEEN STONE.—The latest thing for excessive obesity is extract of the thyroid gland. The preparation chiefly used is “thyroglandin,” and is made from the thyroid gland of the sheep. We cannot say at present whether this treatment is going to be of any value, but we are investigating its action. Like all animal extracts, thyroid is a very powerful drug, and sometimes gives rise to very alarming symptoms. If it is going to be valuable, it will only be used for very marked cases of obesity. SIMPLE SUSAN.—Certainly round shoulders can be remedied by gymnastic exercises. The best of these are the dumb-bells or clubs—but light bells and light clubs. Half an hour’s exercise or less every morning before breakfast. Dumb-bells should not weigh more than two pounds apiece.