The proportion of patients X-rayed has vastly increased in the past few years, and the use of new methods of diagnosis with various opaque substances in kidney and gall-bladder disease has very much increased the cost of X-ray Departments.In addition to this increase it has been the practice in the past few years to X-ray every case of suspected bone injury, even when the chance of fracture is considered remote. It is not the price of apparatus nowadays which is the main cause of alarm in the minds of the Administrative Authorities of Hospitals, but the constantly increasing annual cost of X-ray films and their immediate accessories.