How necessary it is to have the diagnosis recorded in the physician’s own handwriting may be judged by the following incident. There was a coloured man on our list, referred to us by a private physician. This patient was a model in a school of painting and drawing, and after a time the Health Department was flooded with complaints concerning him. These complaints came from pupils, who declared they were afraid to go to the classes, because the patient coughed so violently and spat so profusely. The students did not know he was tuberculous, but they suspected it, and therefore asked us to look into the matter. Finding that the man was one of our patients, we at once wrote to the directors of this school, telling them of this, and of the complaints that had been made against him. We further suggested that if he continued to pose as a model he should use the prophylactic supplies that the nurse had given him, and which he used faithfully enough in his own home. The Directors, however, would not take our word for this; they sent the patient to another physician, not the one who had originally examined him. To this man, the darkey protested that he had never seen a doctor in his life. The second physician declared that the patient did not have tuberculosis, wrote a note berating us for our interference, and called upon us for proof. A hurried search of the files brought forth the original registration card, sent in by the physician who had first diagnosed the case, and transferred it to the nurses of the Health Department. This fact at once threw a different light upon the matter, and we were able to uphold our contention. The first physician, however, had completely forgotten this patient, and had it not been for his registration card, on file at the office, we should have been in a very disagreeable position. Since there is nothing authoritative about the nurse’s registration card, she must be exceedingly careful never to register a case unless it has been properly diagnosed. This information should be obtained from the physician himself, whether in writing, verbally, or over the telephone. She should never accept a third person’s word for the diagnosis, no matter how accurate it may seem. For example, if a patient’s mother tells the nurse that the doctor has just been in, and said her son had tuberculosis, the nurse must not accept this statement as sufficient. She must call upon the physician and ask him herself. Again, suppose the nurse has sent a patient to the dispensary, and, meeting him on the street an hour later, she learns that the doctor’s verdict was consumption. She must not take the patient’s word for this, obvious as its truthfulness may seem. It is necessary to be thus punctilious, to prevent unpleasant occurrences from taking place. The diagnosis of tuberculosis is too serious a matter to be accepted through any such irresponsible medium as the patient or his family.