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the subject in a work which is designed to be useful to the ordinary practitioner, for he will certainly meet a number of patients who will be guided by their religious feeling in this matter and obey their "consciences" rather than their medical adviser, unless he can overcome their prejudices.

Forel says^[1] "It seems almost incredible that in some countries (including England) medical men who are not ashamed to throw young men into the arms of prostitution, blush when mention is made of anticonceptional methods. This false modesty, created by custom and prejudice, waxes indignant at innocent things while it encourages the greatest infamies."

Owing to a variety of circumstances, some of which will become apparent in the historical chapters, the present generation in this country is apt to look upon contraception as a materialistic or atheistic solution of what they well know to be one of life's greatest difficulties, namely, the excessive child-bearing of many married women. The circumstances which have led up to this public attitude in our country are dealt with later on; they do not in any sense necessarily reflect a universal or international