MABEL ENTWISTLE sends a reply to La Marguerite’s question concerning painting on panel, which we copy verbatim:— “Surely she refers to chrystoleum painting. Chrystoleums are photographs taken from Academy pictures and then painted on. It is possible to affix these (whether painted on convex or flat glass) on to a panel. If this is what La Marguerite means, if she will write to me, I shall be pleased to send full particulars and give her any help I can, as I have had considerable experience in chrystoleum painting. But if she refers to the painting on the surface of photographs in water-colours, that is something I have wanted to learn for some time, and shall be equally glad to obtain information upon. This art requires a special medium and treatment of photo, I know, but I cannot get to know exactly. Trusting this may be of some use, “I remain, “Sincerely yours, “MABEL ENTWISTLE.” 1, William Street, Darwen. MEDICAL. A. Z.—Mussels form a food of considerable value, but they are by no means free from danger. As a food they are fairly nutritious and digestible, though far inferior in both these points to oysters. The dangers of eating mussels are very real, although they have been grossly exaggerated. They depend in part upon whether the mussels have been feeding upon sewage. Mussels taken from the mouths of rivers or elsewhere where they can come into contact with sewage matter should never be eaten. The danger is much greater when the mussels are eaten raw. If they are boiled first the likelihood of harm resulting is considerably less. Practically all germs are destroyed by boiling, so that there is little fear of contracting typhoid from eating boiled mussels. Indeed the danger of catching typhoid is far less from eating mussels than it is from eating oysters, because the latter are nearly always eaten raw, whereas the former are usually cooked. But besides the dangers of contamination with sewage, there is another danger in eating mussels, that is, that mussels are very liable to quickly decompose, and in their decomposition to set free animal poisons of the most virulent description. This is the chief cause of the numerous deaths which occur from partaking of mussels. But when we consider the vast number of mussels eaten in England, especially in the North, it is no wonder deaths should now and then occur. ARIEL.—If you wish your daughter to become a physician you must send her to a hospital where lady students are taken. She cannot by any possibility learn medicine without clinical instruction. The medicine which can be learnt from books is of no value without practical instruction. There is not such a thing as an amateur medical man or woman. A person is either a qualified and registered medical man, or else he is a quack, or a “medicine man” if you like. The law has lately shown its objection to such persons in very strong terms.