A short time ago, a friend who was visiting me handed me two letters to be posted. One was addressed “Mr. C. Albert ----” and the other, “Miss Nellie ----.” Glancing at the addresses, I remarked, “I thought your son’s name was Bert as I have always heard him called so, and why has your sister changed her name from Ellen?” This sister was then forty years old and had been teacher to her sister’s sons who lived in the country where there was a lack of schools suitable to prepare lads for the Latin school. Yet my friend said in reply to my remark, “No, my son’s name is Albert and we called him Bert or Bertie, but since he entered Harvard College, he has forbidden our using those names, because,” she added, “boys, you know, have more pride than girls. My sister likes to be addressed as Nellie.” Thus the teacher, twenty-two years older than her nephew, was denoted by spoken and written word “a girl” without “pride.” I wish all girls and women would comprehend this fact--that as long as they are pleased with a diminutive name, so long will they be classed in the category of diminutive human beings. Again, consider the ludicrous side. Here enters a woman twenty years old, six feet tall, addressed as Maggie. Now, must such a woman reach a height of eighteen feet before she attains the dignity of “Margaret”--that is, the name of a full-grown woman? I once had under my medical care a girl whose face was greatly disfigured by an eruption. She had a dark complexion and dark hair, yet her name was Lily. When a little more than fourteen years old, she came to me, her eyes sparkling with delight. “Oh,” she said, “I have found out that my real name is Lucy; I was called so for an aunt who died last week and who left me one thousand dollars in her will because I am her namesake. I cried for joy, not about the money, but because I have got rid of that horrid name of Lily.” Seeing my astonishment at her excitement, she added, “You do not know how I have suffered from my schoolmates; they nicknamed me Tiger Lily on account of my face, and now, see, Lily was only a pet name; it is not my real name!” Her mind was relieved, she was at ease and happy to assert her dignity by an appropriate name. She soon recovered from the torment of the eruption, and I have no doubt that the mental relief of having a sensible name aided in her recovery. Again, how would a woman with the dignified name of Margaret feel if she read in the newspaper the notice of her marriage with “Tommy” Smith? A certain amount of etiquette is essential in life--it gives weight and dignity to everyday occurrences, and is, as it were, an expression of a sense of social responsibilities.