In the February 15th issue of THE JOURNAL-LANCET is a discussion by Dr. Klaveness, of Sioux Falls, S. D., on a paper on “Syphilis and Its Relation to Society” by Dr. McLaughlin, of Sioux City, Iowa. In this discussion Dr. Klaveness states: “We are unfortunate here in South Dakota in this respect, that we do not have the population and the laboratory facilities for resorting to the Wassermann reaction at all times, and any man within the State who would systematically carry out a Wassermann reaction now and then would invalidate his findings very materially, inasmuch as it is very well established that, in order to obtain reliable readings, you must have a serologist or bacteriologist to follow this work exclusively in order to get accurate findings. It is immensely important, and it would be a boon to the suffering people, if we could have a state serologist.” This statement by Dr. Klaveness is contrary to the facts as they now exist and did exist at the time he discussed the paper at Watertown, S. D., in May, 1914. We have a well equipped medical laboratory in South Dakota in connection with the medical department at the State University at Vermillion, and we have been doing the Wassermann test. This misstatement should have been corrected at the time it was made, but was not, as I was in Watertown but part of one day during the State Meeting last May and did not hear the paper or its discussion. Permit me to state through your columns that we do the Wassermann test at the State Health Laboratory and have been doing it on Thursday of each week since March 21, 1914. At that time a circular letter announcing the fact was sent to every physician in the State, including Dr. Klaveness. This announcement was made only after several months of experimental work in perfecting the technic and controlling all factors. We do the original Wassermann test, using the Nogouchi antigen. All our reagents are prepared in our laboratory and every possible control is carried out each time the test is set up. We therefore believe that our results will compare favorably with the best scientific work of this character. At the present time a fee of $5.00 for each test is charged, containers and instructions are supplied upon request. We have done the Wassermann test for the State Hospital for the Insane at Yankton from the first. Mortimer Herzberg, M. D., Director. Vermillion, S. D., February 18, 1915. * * * * * THE LOYALTY OF NURSES To the Editor: My attention has just been called to an article published in THE JOURNAL-LANCET, August 1, 1914, it being an address by Dr. George D. Head to the graduating class of the Asbury Hospital. The advice Dr. Head gives to the nurses seems very good, and very elevating to our profession, but I would like to analyze it to show that it is not quite practical.