untable.

He is aware that a respectable though diminishing class in the community
maintain that nothing which relates exclusively to either sex should
become the subject of popular medical instruction. With every
inclination to do this class justice, he feels sure that such an opinion
is radically erroneous. Ignorance is no more the mother of purity than
she is of religion. The men and women who study and practise medicine
are not the worse, but the better, for their knowledge of such matters.
So it would be with the community. Had every person a sound
understanding of the relations of the sexes, one of the most fertile
sources of crime would be removed.

A brief appendix has been added, directed more especially to the
professional reader, who may desire to consult some of the original
authorities upon whom the author has drawn. And here he would ask from
his fellow-members of the medical profession their countenance and
assistance in his attempt to distribute sound information of this
character among the people. None but physicians can know what sad
consequences are constantly occurring from the want of it. * * *

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GEORGE HENRY NAPHEYS, M.D.

Were man's life measured by his deeds, as the poet suggests, how brief
would be the long years of many an octogenarian, and how extended the
short span which has been allotted to not a few of the world's famous
heroes!

This oft-repeated thought strikes us forcibly in considering the
biography of the subject of this sketch. Closing his life at an age when
most professional men are but beginning theirs, he had already studied
broadly, had traveled widely over two continents, had gained credit and
fame by the sword and the pen, and had amassed a fund of erudition and
experience which the more lethargic lives of most men fail to approach
after twice his length of days. It is eminently appropriate that a
record of his busy career should be attached to the works on which his
celebrity is chiefly bound, and in which he most conspicuously displays
that command of language and happy facility of imparting instruction
for which he was so remarkable.

GEORGE HENRY NAPHEYS (pronounced N[=a]'feez, the [=a] as in _fate_) was
born in the city of Philadelphia, March 5th, 1842. His parents died
while he was still at a tender age, and he was placed with some
relatives who resided in the city. From early years he was characterized
by quick perceptions and a rete