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, the State Board of Health bill, all died, not reached. The joint conference cut out the little appropriation to make effective the vital statistics law, and Brumby has about two cart loads of reports on hand and no way to use them. Comment is unnecessary. I can't do justice to the subject. How dear to our heart is the cash on subscription, -Ex. PROFESSOR FITCH: Our handsome and distinguished friend, Dr. Wm. E. Fitch, of Gaillard's Southern Medicine, New York, has been elected Demonstrator of Anatomy, Medical Department, Fordham University, New York. THE BILLS THAT GOT THROUGH are the Pure Food bill, the Mixed Board monstrosity, the Anatomical bill, $75,000 for additions to Southwestern Insane Asylum, San Antonio, and an asylum for idiots, $25,000, to be annexed to the Austin State Lunatic Asylum. No action was taken on the Federal Quarantine law requiring States to turn over international quarantine to the United States government. THE LATEST.-April 17th. The Governor today signed the Mixed Board Bill. The "Red Back" is the first to publish the news and the bill. I de THE DR. NATHAN SMITH DAVIS MEMORIAL. sire to call the attention of the members of the medical profession of Texas to the fact that a committee has been appointed by the American Medical Association to collect a fund to be devoted to establishing a suitable memorial to the late Dr. N. S. Davis, one of the founders of the American Medical Association, one of the authors of the original code of ethics, founder and first editor of the Association Journal. It seems appropriate that the memory of a man who did so much for medical organization and for the progress of American medicine should be perpetuated in a suitable way. The undersigned having been appointed a member of the committee from Texas, with authority to add the names of other members to the Texas division, begs leave to state that he has requested |