The absence of the prepuce and the non-absorbing character of the skin of the glans penis, made so by constant exposure, with the necessary and unavoidably less tendency that these conditions give to favor syphilitic inoculation, are not evidently without their resulting good effects. Now and then syphilitic primary sores are found on the glans, or even in the urethra or on the outside skin of the penis, or outer parts of the prepuce; but the majority are, as a rule, situated either back of the corona or on the reflected inner fold of the prepuce immediately adjoining the corona, or they may be in the loose folds in the neighborhood of the frenum, the retention of the virus seemingly being assisted by the topographical condition and relation of the parts, and its absorption facilitated by the thinness of the mucous membrane, as well as by the active circulation and moisture and heat of the parts. It must be evident that but for these favoring conditions the inoculation or infection would and could not be either as sure or as frequent. Any protecting mechanical aid that interferes with these favoring conditions grants an immunity to the individual, even when he is freely exposed; this protection has often been obtained by applying to the glans and penis a substantial coat of some tenacious oil like castor-oil, which was afterward gently washed off, first in a shower of tepid water and afterward in a tepid bath of warm water and borax. Horner, formerly of the navy, in his interesting little work on "Naval Practice,"[77] relates that it was customary, in the older navy of the United States, to allow public women to come on board at some of the ports and to go down to the men between decks, the Department of the Navy being probably actuated by the same humane principle that used to induce some of the West Indian cannibals to lend their wives to their prisoners of war who were intended, in the shape of roast or _fricandeau_, to grace the festive board, as it was deemed inhuman by these philanthropists to deprive a man of his necessary sexual intercourse, even if they were soon to roast him and pick his bones. They may, however, have been selfish in the matter, as by some authorities it is represented that this was done to improve the flavor of the prisoner, who was said to offer a more savory dish through this considerate treatment, the strong flavor that the semen gives to flesh being well eradicated by free fornication. Whether it was through these motives of humanitarianism, or the feeling that an American tar was the equal of the British tar, whose praises and equality Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., writes a song about in "Pinafore," who had as much right to contract a left-handed marriage as any Prince of Wales or any other prince or crowned head of Europe, the women were, nevertheless, allowed to go down between decks in preference to giving the men indiscriminate liberty on shore, the government further providing for their welfare by