CONSULTATION SERVICE BY MAIL A recent opinion by the department of justice of Pennsylvania, published in the July issue of the Pennsylvania Medical Journal , 1 provides an interesting point of view regarding medical consultation by mail. In 1939 a Pennsylvania law was passed requiring an applicant for a marriage license to submit a statement from a duly licensed physician of the commonwealth certifying that the applicant is not infected with syphilis or, if infected, is not in a stage of the disease which is likely to become communicable. Any applicant having been denied a physician's statement may appeal to the department of health for a review of his case and the department may, after appropriate investigation, issue or refuse to issue a certificate in lieu of the required physician's certificate. To facilitate the review of such a case on appeal, the department of health proposed to utilize the facilities of