and got married; and in a few days to a few weeks their wives were infected and often became but shadows of their former selves. The excuse is always the same: Everything is “arranged," prepared, the trousseau is ready, cards have been sent out, and to delay the wedding would lead to an awful lot of inconvenience and annoyance. And to avoid "inconvenience,” human life is sacrificed.

The reason so many men go to the marriage bed with a loathsome venereal disease in full activity, in the acute stage, is a peculiar one. It is not the nicest thing to discuss, but the truth must be told; it may perhaps act as a preventive. Many fellows intend to lead a decent life after marriage. They promise themselves to be truly monogamic and not to stray from the path of virtue. And so they want to finish up their bachelor life in a good debauch. And they have their bachelor suppers, they drink and have the last "good time." And not infrequently it is then when they acquire their first infection. We have known men who went to other women on the evė of their wedding night. As it takes several days for either gonorrhea or syphilis to develop, they married, thinking there was nothing the matter with them. And in a few days the disease made its appearance in both husband and wife. Another reason why men indulge in intercourse a short time before marriage is to try their sexual powers-whether they are potent or not. This is true of men who have led a perfectly continent life; a few weeks before marriage they get frightened, the spectre of impotence begins to haunt them, and they decide, tho very reluctantly and with sharp conscience-prickings, to try. They do, and often with disastrous results. For somehow or other this class of people seems to have particularly bad luck. One such case, the most tragic and most pathetic in all our extensive experience, is worth referring to in a separate note, which we will write at some future date.

This editorial is already too long, but we wish to conclude with an admonition to the physician to be as firm as adamant and to do all that lies in his power to prevent his patients from entering into marriage relations when in a dangerous infectious condition. We must keep the professional secret sacred, but when the question is of human life and human happiness, we must use moral suasion, and when necessary, we must not shrink from using a threat.

Never Say Old.

As we noted in a previous editoral, the time limit at which people begin to consider themselves old is being further and further advanced. But it is our opinion that as far as intellectual pursuits are concerned, there should be no such a thing

There is no age at which the pursuit of intellectual studies becomes impossible, especially in people who have kept their brains fairly busy and did not allow them to become

entirely rusty. And it is a joy to perceive that old people are beginning to rebel against being put into the class of wornout, used-up, no-more-worth-anything antique furniture. More and more frequently do we meet people of forty, fifty, sixty and over who are undertaking courses of study, in universities or at home, and who bring them to a successful conclusion. We are referring not only to special courses, but to regular courses in medicine, law, philosophy, etc. Not going to the extent that the extremists do, we must nevertheless insist, that in a great measure a man is what he thinks he is. If you think you are old, you are old. If you think you are young, you are young. If you think you are too old to undertake a certain kind of study, or to embark upon a certain kind of enterprise, then you are too old, and you will probably make a failure of your study or enterprise. But if you think you are young and you engage in the enterprise, whatever it may be, with the enthusiasm of youth, success will be the result.

Never say old!

A Wife and Her Husband.

Quite often, when a married woman is ailing, has a pasty, dingy complexion, lustreless eyes, suffers from lack of appetite and insomnia, is irritable and cranky, wants she-does-not-knowwhat, is in a mood varying from black to the deepest azure, has been given dozens of kinds of drugs, and treated by massage, baths, electricity, etc., and has not been improved in the least, quite often we say, such a woman needs no treatment at all-it is her husband who needs it. And very often he needs no treatment either-merely a little advice. And just a little advice frankly and plainly given does the trick. The wife's complexion clears up, her eyes acquire a lustre, her walk has a spring to it which it did not possess before, her appetite is fine, she is jolly and happy, life has a new interest which it did not possess before-in short, she is thoroly permeated with the joie de vivre. And what did it all?

The cognoscenti know; as to the others, I will let them do some guessing.

The Determination to be Cheerful.

We need not tell our readers what we think of Christian so-called Science and the so-called New Thought philosophy. (It is really blasphemous to use the words science and philosophy in connection with those puerile incoherent attempts at thinking). And still-falsehood in this world being so often mingled with truth-there is a grain of truth in those movements. That grain of truth consists in the statement that the desire and determination to be cheerful and happy (in the common sense of the term) do contribute materially toward

the attainment of cheerfulness and happiness. And the cheering encouragement, the admonition to be peaceful and placid, often found in the New Thought journals, undoubtedly do have a good effect on many people. The people who have ceased to draw strength and consolation from their orthodox religion must have some encouragement from the outside, and to such people an occasional "cheer-up," an assurance, that they can feel just the way they make up their mind to feel, is of great help and value.

The number of people who can go thru life's battle entirely alone, unaided, unsupported and unencouragedeither by religion, philosophy, the love of a human being or the approval of the crowd-is very small indeed.

We do not

Of course, it is silly to go to extremes. believe that one who has a cancer or has lost a dear relative or has been dispossessed for non-payment of rent, would be consoled or cheered by the "New" Thought philosophy; but in the ordinary troubles and tribulations of life an optimistic, cheering philosophy, an encouraging admonition, is decidedly of value. Even a motto on the wall, telling you not to worry, that the troubles we fear most never come, that there is a day after the darkest night, that the fiercest storm is followed by a clear sky, is of positive value. It helps you-sometimesto pull yourself together and to call into play your dormant energies.

Barrie, Unfaithfulness and Forgiveness.

Many newspapers are making a lot of fuss and giving expression to a lot of drivel and rot, because Barrie, the wellknown novelist, is willing to forgive and to continue to live with his wife, who he discovered loved and had relations with another man. We cannot see how Barrie could have acted. otherwise if he really loved his wife. And there is no heroism or altruism in Barrie's action whatsoever; he simply finds it more painful to live without his lovely wife than to live with her, even with her "unfaithfulness." And if Barrie is a hero on account of his willingness to forgive, then we have millions of such heroines among all classes of women. For the number of women who know of the unfaithfulness of their husbands and nevertheless continue to live with them is very large indeed. It might be said that the women do it because they have to, because they are economically dependent upon their husbands. But in our opinion, this is taking a narrow view of the question. It is unquestionably true in some cases, but in the majority of instances, the real cause lies elsewhere. The real cause is love, the love of the wife for the husband. And I think look out, I am going to shock you dlittle of the "love" of a husband, who will disgrace and cast

out into the street a wife, with whom he lived for years, who bore him children, who shared with him his trials and tribulations, merely because (perhaps for irresistible physiologic reasons) she happened to make a "misstep." Such a man never loved his wife. He merely had her as a convenience. And tho such a man may have all the legal rights on his side, tho Mother Grundy may encourage and society may applaud him, in our eyes such a man is a common brute. He never knew the meaning of Love.

Love understands all, gives all and, above all, forgives all.

Contraception and Abortion.

The man who sees no difference between the advocacy of the prevention of conception and the induction of abortion, between the sale of contracepts and the sale of abortifacients, is a man of such infantile mentality, that it is hardly worth while to enter into any discussion with him. That type is almost hopeless. Almost but not quite. For we have been successful in admitting some rays of light into the crania of apparently hopeless cases-and then they wondered how they could be so stupid as not to see the difference between merely preventing a thing from happening and destroying a thing after it has happened.

Not Inherently Wicked.

Man is not inherently wicked. Man is a plant. When the soil is good and appropriate and the weather is good, the plant is strong and luxurious. When the soil is poor and the climatic conditions unpropitious, the plant is stunted and shriveled. As we cannot speak of a wicked plant, so we cannot properly speak of a wicked man or woman, tho we would find it very difficult to get along without this adjective.

"Cultivate Regular Habits."

It is a good piece of advice. It is good to have your meals at regular hours, go to bed and get up at regular hours, etc. And still still it is not good to be a slave to regular habits and to regular hours. The body should possess enough élasticity, so as not to be upset, not to be thrown out of gear by a missed meal or by a missed night's sleep. While travelling we came across people who would be near fainting, when they could not get their regular meal just at the accustomed hour. This is bad. It is as bad to be a slave to the regularhours-habit as to other habits. The writer eats three meals a day, but on occasions he can eat five meals a day, and on occasions he can go twenty-four hours without a single meal. The body must possess some reserve power, and you should teach it to be your slave and not your master.

The Price of a Kiss.

Since my return from Europe I have had three cases almost identical in all their heart-breaking features. To report one will therefore suffice:

A nice young lady, from a good respectable family, goes away to the mountains for a short vacation. She is a strict Catholic, chaste and virtuous, but a little flirting, when away on a summer vacation, is not considered very sinful; and submitting finally to the entreaties of a gay young fellow she permits him to kiss her-once or twice. Whether he kissed her more than once or twice I do not know. The patient insists that only once or twice. Be the number of kisses what it may, four weeks later, the young, 18 year old girl-really a child— develops a sore on the lip, which her family physician, not suspecting the nature of the trouble, treats with zinc oxide ointment and similar worthless applications. The sore does not heal; on the contrary it gets worse, the glands in the neck swell, the throat becomes sore, and when she is sent to me for treatment, the diagnosis is so plain, that a blind man could make it. The poor girl presents a fully developed case of syphilis, with all its terrible characteristics. The girl's life is ruined, probably forever. Her mother's heart, of whom she is at present almost the sole support, will break... And all for a kiss. Certainly a dear price to pay for one or even for a dozen kisses. (That she is virtuous, there is no question, for I examined her and found her a virgin).

Whether the young man knew that he was infectious or he thought himself cured and harmless, there is no means of knowing. Confrontation is not so easy and feasible in this country as it is in Europe. If he knew that he was infectious (there are such wretches) he ought to be in prison; if he did not know, he ought to be in a hospital. In any case the advice to girls away on a vacation is: Be careful whom you kiss or whom you allow to kiss you. And the same advice may be given to young men.

And another thing: We believe the time has come to make the transmission of venereal disease a criminal offense. When it can be shown that the person-male or female-who transmitted the infection was aware of the nature of the disease, the offense should be punished as a felony.

* * *

P. S. I wonder how many hundreds of men and women— old, middle aged and quite young-return from their vacations, domestic and European, with physical and moral blemishes? Chaperons who really chaperon are not altogether a superfluity. In some cases they are an absolute necessity.

Will you please renew your subscription without waiting for a bill? $1.00 a year, but better $3.00 for 4 years or $10.00 for life.