had been made to break her of this habit, but in vain.  Her medical attendant had recognized the existence of a retroflexion, but no pessary remained in situ for more than a day or so, and he suspected that she herself pulled them out.  I was unable to do more than confirm the diagnosis that had been made as to her local condition, but the pessary I introduced shared the fate of its predecessors, and she remained in the same condition,—­in no way benefited by my visit.  Things going on from bad to worse, Dr. Julius sent her to London for treatment in the early part of December.  I now determined to try the effect of the method I am discussing, of which I knew nothing when I first saw her.  It was commenced on December 11, and everything went on most favorably.  A week after it was begun, when her attention was fully occupied with the diet, massage, etc., I introduced a stem pessary, being tempted to try this instrument, which I rarely use, by the knowledge that she was at perfect rest, and that no form of Hodge had previously been retained.  I do not think she ever knew she had it, and it remained in situ for a month, when I removed it and inserted a Hodge, which was thenceforth kept in without any trouble.  I may say that I do not think the retroflexion had much to do with her symptoms, except, doubtless, at the commencement of her illness, and she probably would have done quite as well without any local treatment.  She rapidly gained flesh and strength, and very soon I entirely stopped both chloral and morphia, and she never seemed to miss them.  On December 11, when the treatment was commenced, she weighed 5 st. 9 lbs.  On January 20 she weighed 7 st.  On January 25 she walked down-stairs, and went out for a drive, and from that time she went out twice daily.  She complained of no pain of any kind, and, although she wore a Hodge, she did not seem to have any uterine symptoms.  On February 1 she went to the sea-side, looking rosy, fat, and healthy, and has since returned to her home in the country, where she remains perfectly strong and well.  A few days ago she came to town, a long railway journey, on purpose to announce to me her approaching marriage.”

“On September 10 a gentleman came to consult me on the case of his wife, in consequence of his attention having been directed to my former papers by a relative who is a well-known physician in London.  He informed me that his wife was now fifty-five years of age, and that she had passed ten years of her married life in India.  At the age of thirty she was much weakened by several successive miscarriages, and then drifted into confirmed ill health.  He wrote, on making an appointment, as follows:  ’I will give you at once a short outline of her case.  We have been married thirty-four years, of which the last twenty have been spent by her in bed or on the sofa.  She is unable even to stand, and finds the pain in her back too great to admit of her sitting up.  She is utterly without strength, of an intensely nervous temperament, and suffers incessantly from neuralgia.  She has, moreover, an outward curvature of the spine.  There is not the slightest symptom of paralysis.  Fortunately, she does not touch morphia, or any narcotic or stimulant, beyond a glass or two of wine in the day.  That she has long been in a state of hysteria is the opinion of nearly all the many medical men who have seen her.’