becomes insane, a misfortune which may happen to anybody; the future generations from that family will be slightly more liable to become insane than are ordinary people. If the brother of the man who went insane married a perfectly healthy girl, the tendency of their child to become insane diminishes, because one of his parents brings a good family history. But if this brother marries one of his relations, their child is far more likely to become insane, because both his parents have bad family histories. The long and short of the matter is this; there is no reason, from a medical point of view, why cousins should not marry if both are healthy, and if their family history is good. MASSIE.—We can understand your alarm when the surgeon suggested that he should “cut you open to see what is the matter with you.” But you did very wrong in refusing to give your consent to the procedure. It is exceedingly common to open the abdomen to discover the cause of obscure diseases. Many persons may think that it is not justifiable to perform an operation merely to satisfy curiosity. If this is the way you put it, we agree with you. It is criminal to perform an operation merely to satisfy curiosity! But such a thing is never done. We open the abdomen to find out the actual cause of obscure diseases in that locality; but we do so, not so much to establish a diagnosis as to see if the disease is capable of removal. Nowadays abdominal section of this kind is a trivial manœuvre, and although there is a certain amount of risk in the procedure, it is nothing when compared with the danger of allowing a progressive disease to run its course unchecked. From your letter, we take it that the surgeon thinks that you have something obstructing your bowels—he does not know what. It is very seldom possible to tell what these diseases really are without exploring. He asks you for your consent to let him open your abdomen, see what the disease is, remove it if possible, and if not, to express a definite opinion upon it. You say, “What a terrible thing it would be, if he cut me and found nothing!” It would certainly be a pity, but, after all, what better news can you wish for? * * * * * [Transcriber’s Note: The following changes have been made to this text. Page 483: gratitute to gratitude—“sincere gratitude”.] End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX. No. 1009, April 29, 1899, by Various