spleen, muscle all contain these ferments and when subjected to auto-digestion or autolysis, many various products result.

In the liver are found lipases, true adipolytic ferments which split neutral fats into glycerin and fatty acids analogous to the action of ordinary steapsin, according to Schmudeberg. A ferment is found in the kidneys which splits hippuric acid into benzoic acid and glycocoll, and the liver yields an extract capable of splitting off ammonia from urea, and transforms amido-acids into amides.

Perhaps the greatest force in metabolism is oxidation of the tissues, and this is accomplished by chemically distinct ferments, known as oxidases.

Physiological oxidation is due to the action of the intracellular oxidases. The organs rich in oxidizing ferments are: the liver, spleen, pancreas, thymus, brain, muscle and ovaries. The physiologist speaks of aldehydase, a ferment which oxidizes aldehydes to their corresponding acids; tyrosinase, which oxidizes benzol derivatives, especially tyrosin, and indo-phenol-oxidase, a corresponding ferment found in various organs. Metabolic changes are not quite so mystic after we acquire a little knowledge. The cell is capable of certain changes in health, while in disease similar changes occur, but they are modified. The cell suffers in the process of assimilation and as this diminishes, degeneration of the cell results.

The most potent cause of degeneration is the circulation of a poison in the body, and it may be caused by nutritional changes, by a diminished supply of food, through defects of the digestive organs or of the local blood supply. Then, again, the character of the food to the cell may be unsuitable, the blood vessels may be so altered as to bring insufficient or unsuitable nourishment.

The diseases which check the career of many able and energetic men in the prime of life begin in metabolic changes and end in degenerative changes. Normal resistance to external conditions are dependent on normal metabolism, and the forces of decay and ultimate death must wait for the slow action of abnormal metabolism.

P. I. L.

THE "OBSCENE" IN SPEECH AND PRESS.

About a year ago a symposium on the prevention of venereal disease was a feature before the Buchanan (County) Medical Society. Lawyers, educators and preachers were invited, and after the meeting it was the consensus of opinion that such discussions proved not only interesting, but were eminently practical. Knowledge is light, while ignorance is darkness. It is almost incomprehensible that any one could be found to champion ignorance. Dr. Morrow, of New York, declares that the con. cealment of facts regarding venereal diseases is a factor in perpetuating the evils attending them. The venereal evil furnishes the most conspicuous example of an evil that flourishes in darkness and owes its power for mischief to the obscurity to which it has been relegated by traditional prejudice. Publicity here is desirable, and the sentiment that forbids the

open discussion of the subject is based principally upon insufficient thought given to the subject.

Theodore Schroeder, attorney for the Free Speech League, in a pamphlet read on October 10th, 1906, in Lincoln Center, Chicago, entitled "Liberty of Speech and Press Essential to Purity Propaganda, makes many statements not generally known to the medical profession. He says that the spread of sexual knowledge is impeded by laws and by a prurient prudery.

What are the legal abridgements of our right to know? The statutes describe what is prohibited only by such epithets as lewd, indecent, obscene, lascivious, disgusting or shocking. The first reported English decision in 1868 (Reg. vs. Hicklin) laid down this test: "Whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose hands a publication of this sort might fall." If in the hands of any one imaginary person it might be speculatively believed to be injurious, no matter how much it tended to improve the morals of all the rest of mankind, nor how lofty were the motives of those accused, nor how true was that which they wrote. This is the test of obscenity under our laws today. George Francis Train was arrested in 1872 for circulating obscenity, which consisted in quotations from the Bible. On a writ of habeas corpus Train was adjudged insane. In his autobiography, Train informs us that a Cleveland paper was seized and destroyed for republishing the same Bible quotations. In 1895 John C. Wise, of Clay Center, Kansas, was arrested for the same charge as Train. In the United States Court after a contest he was found guilty and fined.

In 1892, Dodd, Mead & Co. published a little book entitled "Almost Fourteen," written by Mortimer A. Warren, a public school teacher. Before publishing it Mr. Mead submitted the manuscript to his wife and to the pastors of the Broadway Tabernacle and of the Church of Heavenly Rest, and to Dr. Lyman Abbott. All these endorsed its aim and tone.

After publication the Rev. L. A. Pope, of Newburyport, Mass., placed the book in the Sunday school library of his church. He purchased a large number of the books and sold them at cost. He was arrested, convicted and fined. A few years agc Dr. Kime, the editor of the Iowa Medical Journal, was convicted of obscenity. At the local medical college, rowdy students endeavored to drive out women students, and among other things wrote an indecent prescription on the blackboard. In his medical journal Dr. Kime wrote: "We had thought to withhold this prescription, owing to its extreme vulgarity, but we believe it our duty to show the condition exactly as it exists, and let each physician judge for himself as to the justness of the protest filed." For this he was arrested, and although supported by all four daily papers of his home city, by the clergy of all denominations, the presidents of the Y. M. C. A. and W. C. T. U. and the Western Society for the Suppression of Vice, and the Society for the Promotion of Purity, he was convicted, branded as a criminal and fined.

Dr. Malchow, of Minneapolis, wrote a book on "The Sexual Life," and ministers and preachers spoke of his delicate treatment of a difficult subject, yet under the absurd tests prescribed by the courts, and in spite of the protests of the Minneapolis Times and Tribune, Dr. Malchow and his publisher are now serving a jail sentence. During the trial the court

refused the defendants the right to prove that all in the book was true, holding it immaterial. An attempt was made to prove the great need for such a book, but the "learned" judge remarked that he hoped it was true that the public was ignorant of such matters.

Dr. Havelock Ellis' "Studies in the Psychology of Sex" have been. wholly suppressed in England. The absurd legal test would apply to a scholarly treatise on sex, circulated only among the medical profession. A book cannot be criminally obscene to a layman, and then become a moral force in the hands of a physician.

Such words as "obscene" do not stand for real qualities of literature.

Here is the judicial formula in England and America: "The statutes uses the word 'lewd,' which means having a tendency to excite lustful thoughts . . The test of obscenity is this-whether the tendency of the matter, charged as obscene, is to deprave and corrupt, those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall."

The court leaves it to the common sense and good judgment of the jury to decide, and with the present legal test, all discussions regarding sex matters are liable to be found obscene. Change the legal test," or "jury test." In his scientific study of the absurd judicial "tests" of obscenity Theodore Schroeder, of New York City, takes a leading step in advance, and no doubt great good will come from such efforts.

CASTRATION INSTEAD OF LYNCHING.

The epidemic of criminal assault and lynching which for the last few months has been so evident throughout the South, and especially in the vicinity of Atlanta, forces one to the conclusion that the proper remedy is not being utilized in punishing this revolting offense. Instead of having a deterrent effect, it only seems to make matters worse. Many of the offenders go to their death in such a manner as to give the impression to certain of the negroes that they are not criminals but martrys to race prejudice. Other vicious assaults frequently follow within a few days or a week after a lynching. No matter by what psychological process these are incited, one thing seems certain that they aggravate the danger rather than increase the safety of our wives, mothers and sisters.

In some instances the crime is committed with such brutality that nothing short of immediate death seems sufficient punishment. If, how. ever, by a lynching we increase the danger of other women, should we not hesitate and devise, if possible, a remedy which, instead of making a temporary hero of the negro, will make of him a living example of the punishment to be meted out to all who thus attempt to gratify their bestial lust? So intense is the animal passion of the negro that to be deprived of his sexual power would of necessity make him an object of ridicule and contempt among them.

In animal life we see clearly in the tractable gelding, the castrated mule, the ox, the capon, and in fact, in all animals and fowls, the effect of castration. In man, except in very rare instances, sexual power is lost.

by the removal of the testicles, and along with it he becomes docile, quiet and inoffensive. After castration his disgrace would be lasting in its moral effect.

To persuade an incensed mob that such punishment is preferable to lynching would be difficult until they could be shown the effect of emasculation, and that the negro would rather be hanged than to be deprived of sexual power so dear to him.

The kuklux klan, recently agitated, could be very useful in taking charge of these affairs in a regular way, and in assuring the frenzied friends that a punishment worse than death will be inflicted. The identity of the criminal could be ascertained by an orderly trial by the klan, and in this manner avoid punishing an innocent negro, as is often done in lynchings. The trial could be made more or less mysterious and impressive, for the negro stands in great awe of mysteries. This was clearly shown in Atlanta last winter by the belief among the negroes that there was a black wagon driven through the streets at night to capture subjects for the dissecting-rooms of the medical colleges. Absurd as is the idea, it made a profound impression upon the negroes and even those more or less intelligent were afraid to venture out on the darker streets at night.

An impressive trial by a ghost-like kuklux klan and a "ghost" physician or surgeon to perform the operation would make of it an event the "patient" would never forget, nor cease to talk about and enlarge upon. This would do away with the martyrdom effect of lynching as well as the demoralizing results of mob law. The badge of disgrace and emasculation might be branded upon the face or forehead, as a warning, in the form of an "R," emblematic of the crime for which this punishment was and will be inflicted.

As long as many of the negroes believe, regardless of the revolting character of the crime, that lynchings are the result of race prejudice, this mode of punishment will only incense them and aggravate the condition. Certain of them think their cause will be strengthened by these (according to them) martyrs just as the Christian church spread more rapidly after the persecution by Nero.

All will admit that lynching is not only a failure, but that it is dangerous. Castration in no particular could be worse-Atlanta JournalRecord of Medicine.

CONSISTENCY, THOU ART "A PEACH."-It does seem a trifle inconsistent for the journals to be berating the patents and other nostrums for oultivating the alcohol habit on the one hand, and decrying alkaloids and advocating the use of the old-fashioned tinctures and elixirs on the other. Does no one stop to think that these alcoholic beverages with a trace of medicine thrown in have as much to do with arousing the craving for stimulants as the cruder and far less seductive St,-1860-X? Why kick at peruna and then prescribe wine of oalisaya? Verily, this is a funny world.-Amer. Jour. of Clin. Med.

The Doctors' Library

Literature exists to please and instruct; and those men of letters are the best loved who have best performed literature's truest office."

A TREATISE ON SURGERY. In two volumes. By George R. Fowler, M. D., Examiner in Surgery, Board of Medical Examiners of the Regents of the University of the State of New York, etc. Two imperial octavos of 725 pages each, with 888 illustrations and 4 colored plates, all original. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders & Company, 1906. (Per set: cloth, $15,00 net; half morocco $17.00 net.)

The second volume of Dr. Fowler's work on Surgery is superior to the first we believe. There is a freshness in the illustrations and an originality in presentation of the subject matter that is most welcome in these days of formal book-making, in many instances of which the machine-made monotonous character of the volumes is painful to contemplate.

Seldom indeed can an author make the statement.made by Dr. Fowler when referring to the illustrations and colored plates in the two volumes. Of the illustrations there are 888 and of the colored plates four, "all original." Of no plate or illustration examined by the writer could it be said with propriety that it was needless, nor has one been found that is marked by mechanical imperfections or bearing evidences of carelessness or haste. The second volume deals exclusively with Regional Surgery in order as follows: Surgery of the Dorsal and Lumbar Vertebrae; Surgery of the Abdominal and Pelvic Regions; Surgery of the Female Pelvic Organs, and Surgery of the Upper and Lower Extremities. W. J. B.

DIET IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. By Julius Friedenwald, M. D., Clinical Professor of Diseases of the Stomach in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore; and John Ruhrah, M. D., Clinical Professor of Diseases of Children in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore. Second revised edition. Octavo of 728 pages. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Company, 1906. (Cloth, $4.00, net; half morocco, $5.00, net.)

This work has evidently been prepared to meet the needs of the general practitioner, hospital interne and medical student. The air of the book is practical and to the point. It is complete. It deals with the chemistry of foodstuffs; their relation to health and disease, viz., skin, nervous diseases, internal medicine and surgical cases. In this second edition the section on salts has been rewritten and enlarged. The work of Chittenden is noted, also the diet for pregnancy complicated with narrow pelves as followed by Prochownick. The perusal of this volume is bound to be followed by better results in practice as well as surgery; in uncomplicated as well as obscure cases. B. THE INFLUENCE OF THE MIND ON THE BODY. By Dr. Paul DuBois. Translated by L. B. Gallatin. 12mo. New York; Funk & Wagnalls. (Cloth, 50 cents net; by mail 54 cents.)

The intensely practical character of the writings of Dr. Dubois highly recommend him to those who desire information on these subjects. This little book not unlike his work, "The Psychic Treatment of Nervous Disorders," should not only be in the hands of the medical profession, but would be the source of correct information along the subjects it covers, to the general reader as well. Dubois furnishes the very best and most sane ideas in his field of work.