there is a dissentient voice. A very estimable friend, a layman, writes, that while he admires the Never-Told Tales most deeply, he is doubtful as to the necessity of such a book. He thinks, he writes, that there is not so much venereal disease as doctors would make the people believe (a layman has no right to have any opinions on the subject, for his very best friends, with whom he may be dining very frequently, may be venereally affected), and what is more important, he does not believe that there is any man so depraved, as to marry a pure innocent girl, when he knows himself to be diseased and infectious.

We were going to answer our friend in detail, but the same mail that brought our friend's letter, brought the Medical Record (for Feb. 6), in which there appears a communication by Dr. John C. King, of Banning, Calif. California is quite a distance from New York, but Dr. King seems to have had the same experience we have. In fact the same tragedies are repeated daily thruout the United States. Dr. King writes:

"A young man was under my care for primary syphilis which rapidly developed secondary symptoms. I had given him complete instruction regarding the danger of communicating his infection to others. While mucous patches were present around his anus and in his mouth he married a pure and beautiful girl of twenty years. Six months later she was the victim of malignant syphilis. The divorce court gave her freedom from the man who contaminated her, and also made him free to infect another pure girl.

A young woman of lovely character, whom I had cared for from babyhood, asked me if it was safe to marry a young man who was also my patient. I replied yes. Two weeks later, in the effort to test his potency before marriage, the man acquired gonorrhea. In spite of strenuous opposition he married the girl during the acute stage of his disease. I have since operated upon his wife.

In a similar case another physician notified the girl's parents on the morning of the wedding day, thus preventing marriage. This doctor had previously endeavored to induce the man to postpone the ceremony but without avail. He then threatened to expose him and finally did so in spite of assurance of bodily injury. I honor the doctor.

A young woman whom I knew to be pure brought to me her lover on account of sore throat. Their wedding day was approaching. The man had secondary syphilis; his throat was badly ulcerated. He refused to postpone the marriage. I then told him to leave town within 24 hours or I would explain his situation to the girl. He left. Subsequently the girl married a decent fellow.

In cases where venereal disease is necessarily contagious I will protect the girl and not the man; first, of course endeavoring

to induce the man to afford the needed protection. Most men will do so, but all of us have met instances where they will not."

This communication, which can be duplicated by any physician of good practice, saves me the trouble of answering our friend's letter and those of similar character.

Of the literary quality of Never-Told Tales we are not the proper person to judge. But that the book is of great importance to humanity, we are quite sure. It must also be taken into consideration that it presents the first attempt to treat the disastrous results of sexual ignorance in fictional manner, in the English language.

Physicians in general seem to consider the book of great value, and they are ordering copies for distribution among their patients. Thus, for instance, Dr. J. T. Morehouse, of Orange, N. J., bought a copy of Never-Told Tales. As soon as he read it he sent a check for fifty copies, for free distribution among his patients.

There are thousands of cases similar to those described in Never-Told Tales. The physician may not have the moral and physical stamina to impart the necessary information to the interested parties; a lawsuit is not a pleasant thing to contemplate. In such cases the physician can avoid all trouble by putting a copy of Never-Told Tales into the proper hands, marking the story which seems to suit the case.

The Banquet Table.

I take particular pleasure in calling our readers' attention to a new department in the CRITIC & GUIDE, The Banquet Table. I believe, I am sure, they will all enjoy it. The besetting sin of the vast majority of our medical journals is their deadly dulness, their monotony, their aping each other, until they look as if they were all cut on the same pattern. No wonder that so many of the journals remain in their wrappers.

From the day the CRITIC & GUIDE took conception in our mind, we determined that as long as edited by us, the journal should be distinguished by these characteristics: unswerving honesty, fearless truthtelling and never flagging interestingness. We believe we have fairly well succeeded in our determination. Our readers think so. And in a desire to make the CRITIC & GUIDE still more interesting, to add to its brightness and breeziness, we introduce with this issue THE BANQUet Table.

A Urine Specialist Fakir.

A German fakir, by the name of Locher, was advertising that he could diagnose every one's illness from a sample of the urine. Four young men sent him samples of "urine," which the urine specialist "analyzed"; the young men were informed that

they were suffering from catarrh of the stomach, abdomen and throat and, if they wanted to get well, they had to buy Locher's remedy, which cost only 4 marks a bottle. The four young men, however, did not buy the remedy, for they were in good health, and the "urine" they sent to the specialist was nothing but— diluted beer.

Incompatibilities in Gonorrheal Injections.

Physicians who are not thoroly familiar with the chemistry of the products they prescribe, with the decompositions they are likely to undergo, the new compounds they may form, should best stick in their prescriptions to one chemical, unless they are sure the formula is right. Within one month two striking examples of incompatibility were brought to my notice. In one instance the physician prescribed protargol and zinc sulphate in one injection, in the other argyrol and zinc sulphate. The intention was a laudable one. The physicians wanted to combine the gonocidal effect of the silver compound with the astringent effect of the zinc salt. But hell is paved with good intentions, and the prescribers defeated their object entirely, by decomposing the silver salts and producing a very irritating mixture. At any rate, when I saw the patients their urethral canals were very sore and they stated that they became so after the use of the injection. Another well known incompatible atrocity of which some physicians are guilty is the prescribing together of silver nitrate with cocaine hydrochloride, or even sodium chloride. A precipitate of silver chloride is formed which destroys the astringent and bactericidal properties of the silver nitrate.

I do not mean to claim that every combination which produces a precipitate is worthless and can not be used in medicine. On the contrary, we sometimes deliberately prescribe two salts, which mutually decompose each other and form a precipitate. As an example I will mention the well known prescription of zinc sulphate and lead acetate. Both these salts are perfectly soluble in water; but when their solutions are mixed, a double decomposition takes place, and lead sulphate precipitaes while zinc acetate remains in solution. The following equation shows the reaction plainly:

ZnSO4+Pb(C2H3O2)=PbSO4+Zn (C2H3O2)2 (Zinc Sulphate+Lead Acetate equal Lead Sulphate+Zinc Acetate.)

But only he should venture to prescribe several compounds in the same mixture, who knows what he is about. Otherwise he may have some unpleasant surprises.

Dispensaries and Physicians' Incomes.

Many doctors have a hard, hard time to make a living. Our city friends think that the dispensaries are responsible, and would like to see them limited, regulated or abolished. Dispen

saries are no doubt a factor in the reduction of the physicians' income, but, my friends, the cause lies a good deal deeper. Our social order is wrong; it needs repairing in many parts, or perhaps making over altogether. Think more deeply on the subject. The regulation or even the abolition of dispensaries will make but an insignificant difference in your income. Suppose you devote some study to the question, how poverty in general could be abolished? It might repay you in the end.

The Influence of the Prostate on a Man's Mental Condition.

We ask our readers to read Prof. Boehm's article on "The Prostate as a Factor in Nervous Disease," which we print in this issue, with particular attention. It is unfortunately only too true that even the medical profession is not fully aware of the important influence of the prostate gland on the physical and mental condition of the human male. We have in our own practice encountered a number of patients, who were suffering from headaches, anorexia, constipation, dyspepsia, insomnia, etc., and on whom the pharmacopeia had been exhausted to no avail. Recognition of the true etiologic factor-a diseased prostate-and proper treatment directed to that organ brought about prompt alleviation and ultimately a cure of all the symptoms. Particularly remarkable is the influence of a diseased, inflamed or simply irritable prostate on a man's nervous and mental condition. Here for example is the case of Mr. X., a newspaper writer. When he came to us he complained of being nervous-and he looked itand irritable; he was unable to concentrate his mind for any length of time, and he could not sit in one place longer than 20 or 30 minutes. He had to jump up and walk about. Ejaculatio precox was marked and contributed considerably to his nervousness and depression. He suffered with constipation for which he took all possible cathartics, and with headaches for which he stuffed himself with antikamnia, orangeine, etc., etc. (Newspaper men are great consumers of patent medicines, and are as gullible in this respect as old women.) When he put himself under medical care, the results, we regret to say, were not much better, for none of the physicians thought of examining the prostate, and all satisfied themselves with treating the symptoms. On examination we found a distinct diffuse prostatitis, and in four weeks' treatment directed exclusively to the prostate all the physical and mental symptoms disappeared. He began to look so bright and buoyant that friends remarked the change at once and commented on it; and his mental power of concentration returned, and this could also be noticed in his articles.

This is simply one example, and an ordinary one, out of many.

Whenever a man complains of vague symptoms, of nervous irritability, of heaviness in the perineum, of a heavy coated tongue, of forgetfulness, of lack of power of concentration, etc., his prostate should be examined. It can do no harm, and may be found to be the sole cause of all his troubles.

No Danger of Race Suicide.

Those who advocate the intelligent regulation of reproduction, those who claim that in the human race quality is far superior to quantity, are overwhelmed with arguments: most of them trivial, some of them apparently plausible. We have answered the arguments in previous issues of the CRITIC & GUIDE. We wish to touch here just on one point. The fear is expressed that if the mass of the people be taught the means of regulating the number of offspring, too persistent use will be made of this knowledge, and the race will finally die out. We have stated more than once that the fear was altogether groundless; that things would straighten themselves out; that as soon as it would be felt, that there was work and a comfortable living for everybody, the population would again increase. And so forth. At this stage of the argument, the anti-regulationists would be sure to bring in France, as the horrible example. But France only proves our contention. For a while the death rate did exceed the birth rate, but now again the reverse is true. In the first half of 1907 the deaths exceeded the births by 55,000. This was becoming alarming, with the result that in the first half year of 1908as recently published statistics show-the births exceeded the deaths by 11,000.

There is no danger. The parental and racial instinct is too strong to ever permit the race to die out, even with the most perfect means of the regulation of reproduction in the hands of the people.

The Official Shekel Hunter.

The Journal (?) of the S. C. Med. Association, under its present editorship is the extreme type of commercial, false, hypocritical, unfair and generally worthless journalism. The S. C. Medical Association has our sympathy. While we have succeeded in squelching that stertorous sheet, we have, alas, not succeeded in improving it. Intrinsically, extrinsically and all around it is just a bad as it ever was. The last issue at hand carries the advertisements of 7 pharmaceutical preparations. Of these 7, only one, a single one, has been approved by the Council. All the rest have either failed to receive approval, or have been distinctly condemned. And still Mr. Jervey, the editor, claims to give the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry his support. Does he? And is the CRITIC AND GUIDE committing a great sin in pointing out the stupid bureaucratic inconsistency and hypocrisy of which several of our official medical journals are guilty? In the same issue editor Jervey has the following advertisement (in the Buy, Sell and Exchange Column):

"WANTED-Every member of the South Carolina Medical Association to know that their journal carries only approved advertising from responsible and trustworthy firms, and these ad