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prescribed by practitioners for leucorrhœa, but its effect is then somewhat different.

The habit of douching is one of the three most commonly advocated methods of birth control, and even in spite of the variety of its inconveniences and disagreeable characteristics, is still undoubtedly much used.

Innumerable vaginal douches are on the market—a number of them patented. The old-fashioned douche-can or bag, which depends on the downward flow of water when it is hung on a raised nail in the wall, is still often advised, but is now generally discarded in favour of a compressible rubber douche. This gives a good whirling spray of solution penetrating to the end of the vaginal canal and calculated to lave the interstices of the vaginal corrugations.

The douche has been repeatedly recommended by those advocating what are called "Malthusian" methods; see, for instance, the "Practical Leaflet," issued for many years by the Malthusian League, and the advice given by Dr. J. Rutgers, of the Dutch Malthusian League, and by Dr. G. Hardy, of Paris, and indeed almost all the