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The first edition of this book was reviewed at length in the JOURNAL (Vol. V, p. 240), and we have nothing essential to add to what was said there. The only alteration of any import in the present edition appears to be the recommendation of chinosol in place of quinine in soluble pessaries.
The book occupies a unique position in being the only compendium of the data available in regard to this important but neglected topic. The author rightly comments on the extensive ignorance of medical practitioners and the difficulty they experience in finding authoritative teachings on this as on so many other sexual topics.
The author has done such valuable work of a propagandist kind that it seems unfortunate that she should mar her work by her precipitate and unscientific temper of mind. She rightly says that investigations and experiences connected with the present subject will probably furnish us with much new information concerning the physiology of sexuality, but we are not encouraged to expect that her own work is to be relied on in this sense. One example of her methods will illustrate our point. In the review previously published in this JOURNAL Dr. Rickman gave the reasons why exceptionally clear evidence was needed before the statement about the 'interlocking of the os and penis' can be accepted. The author meets such criticism with the reply: 'My remarks were not a "belief" but were based on facts, and were a statement of conclusions from observations. I may now mention that at the clinic, among 5, 000 persons examined we found thirty-nine such cases, and I have also records of several more from correspondents' (p. 210). 'That this ever takes place is, I am aware, contradicted by some medical practitioners. Nevertheless it is a positive fact that it does take place' (p. 60). The dogmatism of such statements is in no way rendered more scientific by expressing them in terms of statistics and percentages when the very point at issue is the proof of the