pathologically and physiologically, such close analogies to the other affections of the genito-urinary organs, that their relative interdependence and importance would be better exhibited by being considered in conjunction with the other functional disorders, an undertaking which I have consequently hazarded, more especially in the light of the opinions I have enunciated in my pamphlet " On Therapeutics and Disease,' and elsewhere.

That several of the views there expressed have been corroborated by independent testimony, both abroad and in this country, attaches to them a significance to which they would not be otherwise entitled.

In the first place, in “The Lancet" for 1866, in two papers which that journal did me the honour to publish, I indicated that in a certain class of diseases-the septicemia-the unhealthy suppuration pathognomonic of the variety so included, arose from a contaminated condition of the blood, and that the local expression of these affections, that of the throat in scarlatina, the intestinal inflammation in typhoid fever, &c., represented an eliminating effort by the system, i.e., a specific inflammation due to the presence of an adventitious compound, in conjunction, or in chemical combination with the natural excreta, and being discharged by the same channels. I drew attention to the difference between unhealthy or specific, and non-specific suppuration, maintaining that in the former, as in the throat affection of scarlet fever, the intractability of

the process was due to the auto-inoculability of the pus, illustrating this thesis by what obtains in the case of syphilis and phagedænic ulcerations generally. Further, I expressed the opinion, that poisons so operating were intermediate compounds, the result of perverted chemical changes within the body, and that they occasioned retrograde processes which destroyed the normal vitality of the blood, as manifested in persistent suppuration; and that emanations therefrom -a primary cause either of external production, or originating in the body, being operative-were capable of acting on healthy suppurating surfaces, and of reproducing the parent maladies, as in the cases of hospital gangrene, pyæmia, erysipelas, &c. These opinions have been confirmed by the discovery, in 1868, of a peculiar crystalline substance in certain forms of pus, by MM. Bergmann and Schmisdeberg, which they termed "sepsin;" and Dr S. Samuel, of Konigsberg, has performed experiments which confirm the foregoing views. The poison thus formed is probably some combination of sulphur and ammonia.

I deduced from these views the practical lesson, that in such cases there was presented a manifest and rational indication for the employment of oxidising agents, in order to reduce such compounds, by oxidation, to their ultimate and innocuous forms; and just very lately, the same view has been expressed by Dr Day, of Geelong, with reference to the arrest of small-pox by the application of peroxide of hydrogen to the pustules;

and Dr Day's reasons for so doing are those which I advanced in 1866. In like manner I anticipated Dr Basham,* in his explanation of the conversion of uric acid in the system, into urea, by the administration of alkalies and vegetable acids, and showed how the therapeutical properties of these agents in cases of gout, rheumatism, oxaluria, &c., were ascribable, not to their formation of a neutral salt with the acid, but to its formation being prevented, by being thus oxidised into normal excreta. As I showed in my pamphlet, this view reconciled various apparent anomalies. The subject is further enforced in its bearing on urinary pathology in the sequel.

There is yet, as already indicated, a subject treated of, of such a nature, or one that has been made of such a nature, that a regard for one's own respectability, renders it almost incumbent to plead reasons for referring to it. I hold the mission of the physician in too sacred a light, to consider that any ailment of the human body should be beyond his solicitude, and I believe that the weaknesses of our state are too general, that any one should be visited with neglect or contempt, because, forsooth, he may possibly labour even under a self-induced infirmity. It is gratifying, therefore, to find physicians of position manifesting the courage-for it can be called by no other nameof referring to the functional diseases of the male reproductive organs, for hitherto, to too great an * Vide "Practitioner" for 1870, and author's letter on this subject.

extent, a false and highly mischievous delicacy, to me inexplicable, prevented their discussion in any beneficial way. Absolutely there is, or there is not, such a disease as spermatic incontinence, or spermatorrhoea, as it is generally called. If there is, it is ours to treat it; if not, it is ours to expose the fallacy.

Worse still, this subject has been long made the basis of a heartless system of indiscriminate swindling as well, on the part-mirabile dictu-of some within the pale, as of others, confessedly the greater number, beyond the pale of either legal or academical recognition.

That subject I have treated according to the best of my ability, on its merits, like any other medical question; though, possibly, under the restraint of a sensitive consideration for the delicate susceptibilities of that numerous class of nice people with nasty ideas.

We have all been young-lived in Arcadia-and not a few of us, I venture to assert, must be personally cognisant of the extent to which the foulest and most diabolical conceivable literature is circulated among youth, envenoming and corrupting as it does the natural joys, alas! of too quickly fleeting years. That admitted, as it must be the unbridled riot of an organised imposture, which, under the cloak of medical science, has spread its cancerous ramifications concomitant with our language, our missionaries, and our

immorality-to whom are the public to look for instruction, and by what means can the last stronghold of charlatanism be razed? It is not to our "free press," the vaunted palladium of our rights and liberties, for the slimy trail of the inexorable impostor befouls its degenerate columns; it is not to the Legislature, for filthy lucre purchases its fostering protection of Protean quackeries, and it is thus sublimely indifferent, medically speaking, to the welfare of the subject; it is, therefore, in my opinion, on the medical profession alone that such a task must be imposed, and nothing ought to be spurned by our profession which involves the bodily or mental welfare of those of whom, in these respects we ought to be, if we are not, the honest supervisors.

I have long, and strongly entertained these convictions. I have frequently thought with Pott, "that he who thinks he can produce any benefit to society, needs not be anxious about any apology for the publication of his opinions," but I have been as frequently repressed in a desire to speak out, by deterring influences too operative, I fear, upon honourable men in the profession; and yearning for the initiation of a crusade against this pseudo-medical imposture, I addressed a letter to "The Lancet" some time ago, which will be found in the Appendix.

This letter called forth a few excellent leading articles in this journal, but in turn, presumably, the very reverse of what I anticipated, one or two separate