determined that I should be placed under your care. For you guaranteed nothing-did not promise to give me health in a week or a month, but said that you "should expect that I would shortly begin to improve, and by perseverance, be ultimately cured;" and that "my recovery, in order to be real, must be gradual." I commenced using your remedies, and in two weeks there was a slight, though marked improvement. Then I began to hope! I continued under your treatment, and we endeavored to second your efforts, and follow your directions in every particular. Gradually the Tyrant Disease was vanquished. The cough and expectoration became better; the pain in the head was lessened the cramp in the stomach and dyspepsia were relieved; the bowels became active and regular, and, in short, the whole system was invigorated, renewed. In about six months I began to stand alone and gradually my strength increased so that I could walk about my room; and finally-in little less than a year after commencing the use of your remedies-oh, joy of joys! I was able to ride out! Just five years and four months had passed since I had breathed the fresh air under the open heavens. About this time I wrote as follows:

When we look back, and think of the state of my health when I commenced using your remedies, only about a year ago, of my sufferings, feebleness, nervousness, at that time; and when we remember the four previous years of misery, in which countless doses were swallowed, with very doubtful results, and sufferings that were only relieved by morphia; when we think of all this and more--more than I can tell, and then reflect upon the present condition, we cannot indeed but feel very grateful and hopeful, and regret so much that we could not have known of you five, yes, seven years ago. We have no doubt but that, could I have been treated by you then, I should never have become so feeble and thoroughly diseased. To-day, as I write, I can, when weary, lay down my pen, walk about my room, go to the window and look out, breathe the fresh air, and return to my writing refreshed. A year ago, to-day, I could not; no, not if by doing so I could have gained health itself. I could not have stood alone one second.

And now I can say that I am stronger, and am rejoicing in better health than I have known for more than nine years. I have entirely relinquished the use of morphia, and though not constitutionally strong and robust, feel that the health I now enjoy, is good compared to the ill-health that I formerly endured.

I care not what skeptics may say, I know that your remedies have helped me.

And furthermore, I wish to say that I send this testimonial and affidavit entirely unsolicited.

Sworn to before me this

4th day of May, 1868.

MRS. S. F. SMITH.

ORAN W. ROGERS,

Justice of the Peace.

[Copy.]

MORE EVIDENCES FOR THOSE WHO WISH.

Note.-Those desiring more evidences of the curability of chronic disease can have a quarto pamphlet of sixty pages full of them forwarded, postage prepaid, by mail. Those who, wishing to consult the author, cannot call at his oflice, are referred to the list of questions on page 588.

PART III.

Plain Talk

ABOUT THE SEXUAL ORGANS; THE NATURAL RELATIONS OF THE SEXES; CIVILIZATION, SOCIETY, AND MARRIAGE.

OPENING CHAPTER.

INTRODUCTORY WORDS.

N entering upon a brief consideration of the subjects which will be presented in Part III, I do so in obedience to that monitor within, whose voice has ever chided me when doing wrong, and encouraged me in every step toward my own moral and physical improvement, and in every effort I have ever put forth to rescue my fellow-beings from the bondage of disease, and the grasp of moral and social wretchedness. It is indeed impossible, at this stage of the world's development, to achieve perfect physical health, or attain unalloyed happiness. Our planet has not yet developed a crust that may not be broken by earthquakes and volcanoes; nor has it yet obtained such a perfect atmospheric equilibrium that the hurricane may not sweep the sea or the tornado devastate the land. Science has not yet taught us how we may fully avoid the effects of atmospheric changes, the breath of malaria, or how to live in such a way as to wholly avoid the

approach of disease; nor has yet God's revelation to man become suffi. ciently understood by our finite minds, to enable us to lay in His arms the soul of a beloved relative or friend without wetting the cold brow which is left us with burning, bitter tears. From all these inevitable terrestrial disasters, physical sufferings, and mental griefs, we must patiently and hopefully turn to those afflictions which it is in our power to avert or mitigate, to the end that we may achieve for ourselves and our children all the happiness which the Almighty has given us power to attain; for while human life is too brief to make wickedness, however seemingly attractive, a bauble worth touching, life is too long to be fettered and embittered by customs and conventionalities which have no root in religion or morality.

All over the world, to-day, individual happiness is "trampled out" by imperial, kingly, sectarian, and social usurpation and tyranny. Scarcely any one dares to utter his real sentiments. The powers of speech, which should be employed for conveying from one to another frank and truthful suggestions and opinions, have become so prostituted, that no one marvels at the saying of Talleyrand, that "language was made to conceal our thoughts." This, indeed, has become axiomatic. In this peculiar condition of national and social government, of political and social morality, it is not strange that men and women all over the world are unwittingly poisoning their individual enjoyments with opinions and customs bearing the embossed and bronzed labels of religion and civilization, which, when weighed by the plain religious assayer, or probed by the votary of science, are as baseless and unnatural as those which sway the minds and habits of ringed-nosed and tattooed-faced heathen.

In justice to our civilization, however, it may be said that if it does presently stultify the brain with rum, bedaub the mouth with foul tobacco, fire the soul with envy and jealousy, graduate expert swindlers, create social and religious ostracists, encourage caste based on accident of birth or fortune, and dispense power partially and unequally, it is only in its infancy; and if those who are born head and heart foremost-if those who do not begin the world by inflicting pain and consternation, by a breached presentation-will speak out frankly and make one original suggestion for the benefit of humanity during their natural lives, instead of following, body and mind, in the popular rut, what is now called Christian civilization will eventually become, in fact, what it now is only in name. Civilization has indeed, thus far, done comparatively little for the moral and social elevation of man. It has quickened the wheels of commerce; it has covered the seas and rivers with the graceful canvas of innumerable vessels; it has connected the two great oceans with rails of iron; it has so linked continents that intelligence is conveyed from one distant point to another on the wings of lightning; it has arrayed our rich men and women in fine raiment, and the poor

in rags less ornamental than nature's covering; it shelters our smart people with costly edifices, and the less knowing ones with tenements which scarcely exclude the cold; it has constructed steam carriages which make our remotest friends neighbors, and our neighborly feeling less cordial; it has invented steam ploughs, and turned handsome cattle into the shambles of the butcher. Indeed, our civilization, instead of being Christian, is only the shadow falling before the incoming Christianity, and that shadow is yet so dark and obscure in many of its aspects, that it is but little more than the monstrous caricature of the beautiful spirit whose approach produces it.

Believing, nay, knowing—after a long and extensive practice, during which I have been a kind of "father confessor" and confidential counselor, and a receiver of secrets and individual experiences, to thousands of men and women all over the northern continent of America, who have called upon me in person or addressed me by letter-that a very large proportion of the physical ailments and mental disquietudes which afflict humanity grow out of ignorance of the true functions and uses of the procreative organs, incorrect notions regarding the natural relations of the sexes, and erroneous views concerning marriage, I have felt that I should fail to perform my whole duty, if I omitted to present in this volume, as plainly and fully as space and time will permit, such views as my unequaled opportunities for observing human nature, in all its usually concealed peculiarities, have compelled me to accept. In presenting them I must speak as a physiologist, for the best part of my life has been devoted to the duties of my profession. I wish I were also a theologian, for then I am sure I should be able to reconcile with the true precepts of religion every thing herein written, which may possibly seem to conflict with popular theology, for there can be no question that physiological law is God's law. No one believes that the great Creator ever made conflicting laws. We may misinterpret them, and our misinterpretations may be antagonistic, but the laws themselves are all in perfect harmony. I may misinterpret physiological law, but it would seem as if a parson would be more likely to stumble on this ground than a physician who daily walks over it, and is consequently familiar with its peculiar prominences and declivities. Not professing infallibility, I may make mistakes; but with the love of God and humanity in my heart, I shall endeavor in these pages to say nothing that shall injure the cause of true religion, or imperil the happiness of the human family; for my aim, on the contrary, is to promote both.