ow come forward with his
charts, slides and cultures, or else hereafter forever hold his peace.

(_Several spectators shuffle their feet, and an old maid giggles, but no
one comes forward._)

THE CLERGYMAN

(_To_ THE BRIDE _and_ BRIDEGROOM): I require and charge both of you, as
ye will answer in the dreadful hour of autopsy, when the secrets of all
lives shall be disclosed, that if either of you know of any lesion,
infection, malaise, congenital defect, hereditary taint or other
impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined together in eugenic
matrimony, ye do now confess it. For be ye well assured that if any
persons are joined together otherwise than in a state of absolute
chemical and bacteriological innocence, their marriage will be septic,
unhygienic, pathogenic and toxic, and eugenically null and void.

(THE BRIDEGROOM _hands over a long envelope, from which_ THE CLERGYMAN
_extracts a paper bearing a large red seal._)

THE CLERGYMAN

(_Reading_): We, and each of us, having subjected the bearer, John Doe,
to a rigid clinical and laboratory examination, in accordance with Form
B-3 of the United States Public Health Service, do hereby certify that,
to the best of our knowledge and belief, he is free from all disease,
taint, defect, deformity or hereditary blemish, saving as noted herein.
Temperature _per ora_, 98.6. Pulse, 76, strong. Respiration, 28.5.
Wassermann,--2. Hb., 114%. Phthalein, 1st. hr., 46%; 2nd hr., 21%. W. B.
C., 8,925. Free gastric HCl, 11.5%. No stasis. No lactic acid. Blood
pressure, 122/77. No albuminuria. No glycosuria. Lumbar puncture: clear
fluid, normal pressure.

Defects Noted. 1. Left heel jerk feeble. 2. Caries in five molars. 3.
Slight acne rosacea. 4. Slight inequality of curvature in meridians of
right cornea. 5. Nicotine stain on right forefinger, extending to middle
of second phalanx.

(_Signed_)
SIGISMUND KRAUS, M.D.
WM. T. ROBERTSON, M.D.
JAMES SIMPSON, M.D.

Subscribed and sworn to before me, a Notary Public for the Borough of
Manhattan, City of New York, State of New York.

_(Seal_) ABRAHAM LECHETITSKY.

So much for the reading of the minutes. (_To_ THE BRIDE): Now for yours,
my dear.

(THE BRIDE _hands up a similar envelope, from which_ THE CLERGYMAN
_extracts a similar document. But instead of reading it aloud, he
delicately runs his eye through it in silence._)

THE CLERGYMAN

(_The reading finished_) Very good. Very creditable. You must see some
good