tect
herself directly will avoid this thing, and the girl who desires that
neither she nor her children shall be destroyed after marriage, will
exact from the man she chooses the highest possible standard of conduct
in this matter. A friendly critic has told me that my books would be all
very well, but that I have alcohol on the brain, and I am inclined to
reply, Better on the brain than in the brain. But a subject so serious
demands more serious treatment, and the due reply is that there is no
human prospect for which I care, no public advantage to be advocated, no
good I know, of which alcohol is not the enemy; no abomination,
physical, mental or moral, individual or social, of which it is not the
friend. Further, words like these will stand on record, and may be
remembered when there has been achieved that slow but irresistible
education of public opinion, to which some few have devoted themselves,
and of which the triumph is as certain as the triumph of all truth was
in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. To the many charges against
alcohol made by the champions of life in the past, let there be added
that on which all students of venereal diseases are agreed--that it is
the most potent ally of the most loathsome evils that afflict mankind.

This chapter is not yet complete. In many cases it may be read not by
the girl who is contemplating marriage, but by one or both of her
parents. If the reader be such an one I here charge him or her with the
solemn responsibility which is theirs whether they realize it or not.
You desire your daughter's welfare; you wish her to be healthy and happy
in her married life; perhaps your heart rejoices at the thought of
grand-children; you concern yourself with your prospective son-in-law's
character, with his income and prospects; you wish him to be steady and
sober; you would rather that he came of a family not conspicuous for
morbid tendencies. All this is well and as it should be; yet there is
that to be considered which, whilst it is only negative, and should not
have to be considered at all, yet takes precedence of all these other
questions. If the man in question is tainted with either or both of
these diseases, he is to be _summarily rejected_ at any rate until
responsible and, one may suggest, at least duplicated medical opinion
has pronounced him cured. Microscopic examination of the blood or
otherwise can now pronounce on this matter with much more definiteness
than u