rvous system. Dr. Gardner places this evil prominent among the causes
"the result of which we see deplored in the public press of the day,
which warns us that the American race is fast dying out, and that its
place is being filled by emigrants of different lineage, religion,
political ideas, and education."

The same author remarks further on the results of this with other causes
which largely grow out of it:--

"It has been a matter of common observation that the physical status
of the women of Christendom has been gradually deteriorating; that
their mental energies were uncertain and spasmodic; that they were
prematurely care-worn, wrinkled, and enervated; that they became
subject to a host of diseases scarcely ever known to the professional
men of past times, but now familiar to, and the common talk of, the
matrons, and often, indeed, of the youngest females in the community."

So prevalent are these maladies that Michelet says with truth that the
present is the "age of womb diseases."

Every physician of observation and experience has met many cases
illustrative of the serious effects of the evil named. Some years ago,
when acting as assistant physician in a large dispensary in an Eastern
city, a young woman applied for examination and treatment. She
presented a great variety of nervous symptoms, prominent among which
were those of mild hysteria and nervous exhaustion, together with
impaired digestion and violent palpitation of the heart. In our
inquiries respecting the cause of these difficulties, we learned that
she had been married but about six months. A little careful questioning
elicited the fact that sexual indulgence was invariably practiced every
night, and often two or three times, occasionally as many as four times
a night. We had the key to her troubles at once, and ordered entire
continence for a month. From her subsequent reports I learned that her
husband would not allow her to comply with the request, but that
indulgence was much less frequent than before. The result was not all
that could be desired, but there was marked improvement. If the husband
had been willing to "do right," entire recovery would have taken place
with rapidity.

Another case came under our observation in which the patient, a man,
confessed to having indulged every night for twenty years. We did not
wonder that at forty he was a complete physical wreck.

The Greatest Cause of Uterine Disease.--Dr. J. R. Black remarks as
f