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of both douches and antecedent quinine pessaries. Such failures sometimes appear to be due to individual carelessness, but at other times to that natural action of the fully excited uterus which must lead to inevitable failure for in the fully excited uterus the cervix may spontaneously open and interlock with the glans penis which thus discharges directly into the uterus, thus rendering inefficacious any quinine pessary or other chemical designed to lie in the vagina as a spermaticide. I have formerly hinted at this active co-operation of the cervix, but received critical comment, even denials of the possibility of the action. Such criticism is, however, due to the rarity of persons in whom this happens and the impossibility of demonstrating it, as it can only take place at the height of sex excitement. There is no doubt whatever, that some fully sexed and roused women do experience the interlocking of the glans penis with the cervical canal, and such a woman does aspirate some of the seminal ejaculate into the uterus.

It is of course arguable that it would be better that even the small area covered by the cervical cap should have no covering on the occasion of copulation, and to a certain extent I agree with this. Nevertheless if the type of cap which I advise is used then