‘Until the last twenty years specific urethritis was regarded, in the male, as an affection of the most trivial import, as rapidly passing off, leaving few serious sequelæ, and offering itself as an excellent subject for jest and good-natured badinage. About two decades ago, Dr. Emil Noeggerath published a dissertation upon this affection, which will for ever preserve his name in the list of those who have accomplished good for mankind, and give him claim to the title of benefactor of his race. This observer declared, first, that out of growing young men a very large proportion prior to marriage have specific urethritis; second, that this affection very generally causes urethral stricture, behind which a “latent” or low-grade urethritis is for many years prolonged; third, that even as late as a decade after the original disease had apparently passed away the man may transmit it to a wife whom he takes to himself at that time; and fourth, that the disorder affects, under these circumstances, the ostium vaginæ and urethra, and thence passes up the vagina into the uterus, through the Fallopian tubes, where it creates specific catarrh, and by this disease produces oöphoritis and peritonitis, which becomes chronic, and often ends in invalidism, and sometimes even in death. For this essay Dr. Noeggerath was assailed by ridicule and by contradiction. The matter has now been weighed in the balance, and admitted to its place among the valuable facts of medicine. ‘My estimate of specific urethritis as a factor in the diseases of women--and I take no peculiar or exaggerated views concerning the matter--will be vouched for by all progressive practitioners of gynæcology to-day. Specific vaginitis, transmitted to virtuous women by men who are utterly ignorant of the fact that the sins of their youthful days are at this late period bringing them to judgment, is one of the most frequent, most active, and most direful of all the causes of serious pelvic trouble in women--one which meets the gynæcologist at every turn, and one which commonly proves incurable except by the dangerous procedure of cœliotomy. ‘Think for a moment of the terrible position in which a high-minded, upright, and pure man finds himself placed without any very grave or unpardonable fault on his part. At the age of nineteen or twenty, while at college, excited by stimulants, urged on by the example of gay companions, and brought under the influence of that fatal trio lauded by the German poet--“Wein, Weib, und Gesang”--the poor lad unthinkingly crosses the Rubicon of virtue! That is all! On the morrow he may put up the prayer, “Oh, give me back yesterday!” But yesterday, with its deeds and its history, is as far beyond our reach as a century ago, and returns at no man’s prayer.