hysical Life of Woman_, and was meant as a direct tribute of
respect to him as the author of that work, thus obtaining for it the
testimony of the highest body in that specialty then existing in our
land.

The general plan on which Dr. Napheys prepared his sanitary writings was
one eminently calculated to reconcile those who were most opposed to
instructing the general public in such branches. While he confidently
believed that vastly more harm than good is done by a prudish
concealment of the physiology of sex and its relations to health, he
also clearly recognized that such instruction should be imparted at the
proper age and under certain limitations; while the general facts common
to the species cannot be taught too generally, or made too familiar.
Hence, he projected three books, one to be placed in the hands of young
women, a second for youths, and a third for a general household book of
reading and reference on medicine and hygiene. These three he completed
in "The Physical Life of Woman," "The Transmission of Life," and the
"Handbook of Popular Medicine."

This plan, he believed, met all the objections to popular medical
instruction, at least all well-grounded objections, while at the same
time it did away with any necessity for concealing truths important to
be known, for fear they should come to the knowledge of those for whom
they were not designed, and on whose minds they might have a disturbing
tendency.

There can be no doubt but that both the plan and its execution were
successful. The many letters he received, filled with thanks from
private parties who had gained inestimable knowledge from these works,
made rich compensation for the occasional severe strictures he received
from those wedded to ancient ways, and who often condemned without even
reading his works.

The intelligent reading public, on whom, after all, the writer must
depend for a verdict on his works, were unanimous in his favor. They
bought them in quantities, and the writer of his life in the
_Transactions of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society_, above quoted,
who wrote in 1877, estimates that by that time over _a quarter of a
million_ copies had been printed and sold. Translations were made into
the German, and several editions pirated and printed in Canada and
England. In fact, the works may now be considered to rank as classics in
the language, and many years must go by before another such series can
be written, on topics of th