honor, welfare, nay, perpetuity of the regular medical profession? Shall Simmons' lieutenants-the subordinate Bosses called "Councilors,"-strikes, to do the behests of the Octopus and its Walking Delegate, McCormack, pack the House of Delegates with instructed and pliant delegates? Will the physicians of Texas be longer dictated to as to what they shall read, and what they shall do, and what they shall prescribe? Or will they assert their Godgiven rights to think and to act for themselves, and to be heard in the councils of a State association?

The Mixed Board Bill.

A remarkable precedent was made in connection with this bill. Madame Junot said, "Some of us must be ancestors." Somebody must make a precedent, I suppose.

The bill as published in our March number was passed March 14th, and signed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House and sent to the Governor. He refused to sign it, but sent it back for "amendment and correction." By some kind of hocus pocus it was set back in the House to "second reading," and opened for amendment. The amendments the Governor wanted were cut and dried and furnished to the champions of the bill. Then a funny thing happened.

McGregor, who did all in his power to get certain amendments put in on the first round, and to prevent the bill becoming a law, now claimed that it was already a law by limitation, it having been out of the hands of the Legislature eleven days (March 14th to 25th), and Jenkins held the same view in a powerful speech. Judge Neblett, our champion, and his supporters who fought every amendment on the first round, and did all in their power to make the bill a law-now swapped ends with McGregor and Jenkins, and said it wasn't already a law, in as much as two of the eleven days were Sundays! They insisted on the amendments, and prevailed. The Speaker upheld the contention that Sunday, in case of a mixed board bill, is not a day, and as the bill had been in the Governor's hands only nine days, he ruled that it was in order to go ahead and amend it, and they did it with a rush, 76 to 28, -got them all in that the Governor had suggested.

It is now the law, and those who don't like it can lump it. It looks very much to me that the Osteos have fallen between two stools. It will require a decision of the courts or the Attorney General to tell "where they are at." Read the bill. The astute

committee simply used them as a handle,- and dropped them. They got left on the last deal.

Castration for Rape.

AUSTIN, TEXAS, March 20, 1907.

Hon. C. K. Walter, House of Representatives, Austin, Texas. DEAR SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date, in which you propound the following interrogatories relative to House bill No. 191, providing for castration as an additional penalty for rape; and request my opinion:

1. "Do you think if the Penal Code is amended so as to provide for castration, that it will have a tendency to reform the offender and to deter others from committing said offenses?

2. "In your opinion can castration be performed in such a manner as to deprive the offender of all erectile power?

3. "Do you consider this additional punishment 'cruel and unusual?" "

Replying, seriatim, I beg to say:

1. It is amply demonstrated that capital punishment, swift and sure, even lynching by rope, bullet or the fagot, has failed to prevent or diminish the crime of rape. On the contrary, it is on the increase. In my opinion, if any measure would have a deterrent effect on those disposed to the crime, it would be castration plus a penitentiary sentence.

Castration for this offense should not be regarded as a punishment, so much as a remedial agency, both curative (for I regard the propensity to rape children, especially of a different race, as a perversion of the fundamental instinct of procreation) and preventive, and you may say also, punitive. It would certainly "reform the offender," inasmuch as it would deprive him of the power to repeat it.

2. It can be done so as to deprive him of all erectile power.

3. I do not consider castration for rape by any means a cruel and unusual punishment. There would be no torture, no physical suffering. It should be done by a skillful surgeon, and would be done under complete anesthesia. Unusual, it may be; but, as said before, it is not to be regarded so much as a punishment as a sanitary police measure in the interest of public morals and public safety.

In the Kansas Asylum for Feeble Minded, at Winfield, castration for other forms of sexual perversion has been practiced with

success, with the sanction of the law. The late Governor Hogg gave it as his opinion that the surgeon of any institution has the right to do this operation, the same as he would any other operation, for relief or cure of any disease. I have the honor to be Yours very truly,

F. E. DANIEL, M. D.

House bill No. 191 is as follows (by Walter of Gonzales):

An Act to amend Article 639 of Chapter 7, Title XV of the Penal Code of the State of Texas, in reference to the punishment for rape. Providing how the operation is to be performed, by whom and how paid for.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas:

Section 1. That Article 639 of Chapter 7. Title XV of the Penal Code of the State of Texas, be and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

Article 639. Whoever shall be guilty of rape by force shall be punished by death or by confinement in the penitentiary for life, or for any term of years, not less than two, or by castration, or by such imprisonment and castration, in the discretion of the jury.

The bill was amended so as to make it the duty of the sheriff, by order of the court, to have the county physician of the county where the crime occurred to perform the operation, and he is to be paid $25 by the State.

As amended the bill passed the House by practically a unanimous vote, there being but two dissenting voices. It was sent to the Senate where, should there be time before adjournment (April 12), it is thought it will receive little or no opposition. At this writing it is greatly feared the bill will not be reached. (P. S.: Died on the calendar; adjourned April 12th.)

Judge Walter made a ringing speech in supporting the bill. He impressed upon his hearers that this is the question of the hour! The crime is on the increase despite most drastic measures, and if we would avert a race war of extermination something should be done. Let every husband, father, brother, lover, bring it home to himself! When will this blight strike your home? This measure should have the support of every man who has wife, mother, sister, daughter or sweetheart! And it did! All honor to the able. and courageous champion of the protection of our homes, the Hon. C. K. Walter of Gonzales!

Editorialets.

MODERN MEDICAL ETHICS: Strain at a "Proprietary" and swallow an "Osteopath."

THE NEW DISPENSATION "dispenses" with professional pride, the honorable traditions and high ideals of regular medicine, with its Principles of Ethics, and, in fact, with everything the older members have been taught and have taught and practiced and that distinguish legitimate medicine from the fungi-called the various "pathies."

DR. Z. T. BUNDY of Millford, Texas, has been reappointed surgeon to the State Confederate Home at Austin.

THE TEXAS STATE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION will hold its thirtyeighth annual meeting at Mineral Wells, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, May 7th, 8th and 9th, prox.

DR. C. B. COMBES of Brownsville, Texas, died April 1 (inst.) at his home in that city, aged 70. He was one of the landmarks of Southwest Texas. Settling in Brownsville in 1859, he was identified with its every interest in all this time. He served as surgeon in the Confederate Army under General Magruder.

DR. T. O. MAXWELL, for twelve years in the service of the State in its insane asylums, and the late superintendent of the Southwestern Insane Asylum at San Antonio, has accepted the position of medical director of the Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Llano, a private institution, and has taken charge of it. The owners are to be congratulated on securing Dr. Maxwell.

DR. M. M. SMITH of Austin has been appointed medical director or chief medical examiner of the Order of Praetorians of Texas.

BARS UP AT ATLANTIC CITY.—“No drug, chemical or similar preparation used in the treatment of diseases can be exhibited which does not conform to the requirements of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association. A copy of these requirements enclosed.

"No medical journal or publication can be exhibited that contains advertisements of drug, chemical or similar preparation used

in the treatment of disease, which does not conform to the rules of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association."

Abstract from circular on "Regulations Regarding Exhibits," Atlantic City, N. J., on the occasion of the Fifty-eighth Annual Session of the American Medical Association, June 4, 5, 6, 7, 1907.-American Medical Journalist, New York.

By order of The Octopus, Simmons, Lord High Chief Executioner.

THE AMERICAN MEDICAL JOURNALIST for March is a red-hot number, sparkling with good things, and is most intensely interesting reading-editorials especially. It is commended to the selfrighteous-the "unco-gude" of the Octopus persuasion.

THE SIXTEENTH INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS will meet at Buda Pest, Hungary, August 29 to September 4, 1907.

THE FOLLOWING is from one of the independent medical publishers who has the courage to resent, as we do, the high-handed and outrageous course of the Octopus and its sycophants. The independent medical press should organize resistance to the Medical Journal Trust:

"Your March issue came to hand a couple of days ago and your leading editorial fully indicated that, like myself, you were no more able to keep out of the fray-under existing intolerable conditions than is the swimsome youngster able to keep out of the pond at the burst of spring. If medical publishers all over the country would only make up their minds to lock horns with the "Machine" in one unanimous bunch, they would make such an impression upon the Octopus as might possibly astonish themselves at the effects of their own strength. Where, however, only here and there a publisher gets busy, he is comfortably picked off as a single spy by the "Machine," when a battalion would be more than it could handle. It has been a matter of standing wonder to me that medical publishers at large have not recognized this tactical condition and acted accordingly. I also wonder, whether or not, they will ever get down to it. What do you think?

DIED ON THE CALENDAR. The 30th Texas Legislature adjourned April 12 and was immediately reassembled by the Governor to consider platform demands only.

The Castration for Rape bill, the Tuberculosis Sanitarium bill,