be frank, for no marriage founded on deceit can be happy.
Give me permission to discuss the matter with your _fiancee_ (or
_fiance_). We shall then see what is best to be done."

In my experience, the person who consults a doctor usually accepts
this proposal, and we can thus avoid many misfortunes and do much
good.

It is impossible to fix a general rule. According to the degree of
hereditary taint or the nature of the infirmity, we allow marriage
with or without children, or do not allow it. In such cases it is
rarely necessary to have recourse to the threat of denunciation, but
this may be required in the case of egoistic or vicious individuals.
On several occasions a betrothed couple have come to me for advice as
to their proposed marriage, and have freely disclosed their most
intimate relations and antecedents. This is as it always should be, if
men were more loyal in sexual matters and understood better their true
interests. In this way the doctor's task is greatly facilitated. When
the public is more enlightened on the whole question it will become
more and more easy to arrive at a just conclusion, even without the
doctor's help.

=Artificial Abortion.=--We have already spoken of another question
which is often put to doctors--that of artificial abortion. (Vide
Chapter XIII.) In every case of this kind all the circumstances must
be carefully weighed. I repeat here, that in the future more attention
should be paid to social interests, instead of always requiring the
preservation of an embryo for the sole reason that the state of the
mother does not contra-indicate pregnancy or accouchement. The
question is whether a miserable abortion or an idiot should be allowed
to come into the world. If we allow children who are born monsters,
idiots or invalids to live, we should at least do what we can to
prevent them being born. It will no doubt be objected that it is much
easier to recognize the quality of a child after birth than before,
and this objection is quite legitimate. But so long as the laws
protect the lives of the most miserable monsters we must get out of
the difficulty as best we can.

=Treatment of Sexual Disorders.=--We cannot enter here into all the
details of a purely medical question, and shall only touch on certain
special points. Patients with venereal disease are often treated in a
very defective manner, because many of them are ashamed to submit to
rational treatment. The treatment of venereal