itute, I find:--

"Du _condon_ cependant, vous connaissez l'usage,
* * * * *
"Le _condon_, c'est la loi, ma fille, et les prophetes!"

The difficulty remains, however, of discovering any Englishman of
the name of Condon, who can plausibly be associated with the
condom; doubtless he took no care to put the matter on record,
never suspecting the fame that would accrue to his invention, or
the immortality that awaited his name. I find no mention of any
Condon in the records of the College of Physicians, and at the
College of Surgeons, also, where, indeed, the old lists are very
imperfect, Mr. Victor Plarr, the librarian, after kindly making a
search, has assured me that there is no record of the name. Other
varying explanations of the name have been offered, with more or
less assurance, though usually without any proofs. Thus, Hyrtl
(_Handbuch der Topographischen Anatomic_, 7th ed., vol. ii, p.
212) states that the condom was originally called gondom, from
the name of the English discoverer, a Cavalier of Charles II's
Court, who first prepared it from the amnion of the sheep; Gondom
is, however, no more an English name than Condom. There happens
to be a French town, in Gascony, called Condom, and Bloch
suggests, without any evidence, that this furnished the name; if
so, however, it is improbable that it would have been unknown in
France. Finally, Hans Ferdy considers that it is derived from
"condus"--that which preserves--and, in accordance with his
theory, he terms the condom a condus.

The early history of the condom is briefly discussed by various
writers, as by Proksch, _Die Vorbauung der Venerischen
Krankheiten_, p. 48; Bloch, _Sexual Life of Our Time_, Chs. XV
and XXVIII; Cabanes, _Indiscretions de l'Histoire_, p. 121, etc.

The control of procreation by the prevention of conception has, we have
seen, become a part of the morality of civilized peoples. There is another
method, not indeed for preventing conception, but for limiting offspring,
which is of much more ancient appearance in the world, though it has at
different times been very differently viewed and still arouses widely
opposing opinions. This is the method of abortion.

While the practice of abortion has by no means, like the practice of
preventing conception, become accepted in civilizat