constantly bearing in mind the danger of the present tendencies, he
can do much to change the current. Let us hope that we shall again see
the day when thoughtful motherhood shall be considered the highest
function of womanhood, and to shirk this natural duty will be deemed a
disgrace."

Gentlemen, it would be easy to prove that this testimony of Dr. Lindley
is not that of an exceptional witness, or a piece of special pleading;
but it is the acknowledged conviction of the medical profession
generally, confirmed by the last United States Census, and in fact not
questioned, to my knowledge, by any weighty authority. As early as 1857,
Dr. H. B. Storer, an eminent physician of Boston, startled the community
by publishing two books on this subject, entitled: "Criminal Abortion.
Why not?--A Book for Every Woman"; "Is it I?--A Book for Every Man."
Soon after, Rev. John Todd, a Protestant minister of Pittsfield,
Massachusetts, published a work styled "Serpents in the Dove's Nest,"
all which works and a multitude of others tell the same tale of woe
regarding the increase of child-destroying crimes in New England,
chiefly among the old stock peculiarly called Americans. Dr. Nathan
Allen, of Lowell, Massachusetts, in his treatises, "Changes in the New
England Population" and "The New England Family," gives overwhelming
testimony. "Harper's Magazine" (quoted by the "Catholic World" for
April, 1869) remarks: "We are shocked at the destruction of human life
on the banks of the Ganges, but here in the heart of Christendom
foeticide and infanticide are extensively practised under the most
aggravating circumstances." We Catholics are not personally interested
in this matter; but the good of our fellow-men and chiefly our
fellow-countrymen calls for the earnest exertion of us all to stop this
dreadful evil. All the works I have referred to exempt Catholics from
the blame pronounced; the "Harper's Magazine" article referred to
expressly says: "It should be stated that believers in the Roman
Catholic faith never resort to any such practices; the strictly
Americans are almost alone guilty of such crimes." This matter is fully
explained in a recent work called "Catholic and Protestant Countries
Compared," by Rev. Alfred Young, C.P., ch. xxxii.

VII. Now, gentlemen, I am very much afraid that while physicians as a
body abhor all such murders and openly condemn them, many do not show
much repugnance to allow, and even sometimes to suggest, s