crime. Crowded in poor quarters, without any means of support, the foreign population, especially in our cities, gives us ample proof of the effects of poverty and degeneracy. In this State criminals differ some as to race from those of the East and West, where the great foreign population is such a menace. With us now it is the negro, ignorant, trifling, unreliable, and a degenerate.

The prison population of this State in 1902 was as follows: One thousand two hundred and twenty-four whites, of which 426 were foreigners, leaving 798 born in this country, and of this number we do not know how many had parents of foreign birth; 2192 were negroes, and 448 Mexicans, showing that the negro nearly doubles the number of white convicts. But this condition of affairs will materially change as our State grows rapidly in population. With the building of the Panama canal and the extending of deep-water ports, Texas will bid against the Eastern seaports for her share of foreign population. With this must came the riffraff and scum of Europe and the Eastern World, bringing its anarchy, ignorance and poverty, and we will expereience as the East does today-the fearful conflict between labor and capital. The handling of this low grade of humanity is one of the great problems that confronts this government.

The State commission of lunacy of New York in its last annual report says: "During the last three months of the fiscal year 1902 48,445 immigrants, being 44 per cent of all arriving at United States ports, named New York State as their future permanent abiding place. Of the total arrivals during this period more than one-half were Southern Italians, and 21,578 of the Hebrew race. When it is considered that relatively few of these immigrants find themselves upon debarking endowed either with worldly goods, friends, or a knowledge of the country or its language, it is not difficult to understand why the annual admissions to the city asylums of New York should be comprised of from 66 to 75 per cent of aliens."

The State commission of prisons of New York in their last report says that between 1895 and 1903, a period of eight years,

there were admitted to all prisons in that State a total of 102,581 men and women charged with crime; of this number 35 to 40 per cent were foreign, and no record is made of those whose parents were of foreign birth, which no doubt was large. Ignorant of the laws and customs of this country, this class of people filled with their own peculiar ideas of government and socialism, coming to us friendless, moneyless, and homeless, it is no wonder that so great a number are sent to prison and the asylums. This is the great problem that confronts us today, the elimination of this class of immigrants, which means the elimination of a powerful factor for crime.

Crime can not be completely eradicated from our State; there will always be men who will violate the law, but it can be greatly reduced, and will be, when the people of this Commonwealth realize the importance of this vital point.

Ignorance, intemperance, and heredity form the germ from which crime is generated; to do away with these is to do away with crime. As the great majority of criminals of this State are under 35 years of age, as shown by the reports of the penitentiaries, the solution of this problem must be made through the youths of coming generations. Of the 3865 convicts in this State, 677 were under 28 years of age, 1128 from 20 and under 25, 763 from 25 and under 30, and 537 from 30 and under 35, or a total of 3105 under 35 years of age. To overcome these conditions will take years of patient work along the lines of education and the enactment of proper laws governing immigration and marriage.

As to education: In the first place it should be compulsory, as it is today in some European countries; it should be broad and practical, embodying in its course the various trades and occupations whereby each student should be taught the necessity of directing his mind and energies to the one trade or occupation best suited to his liking. Liberal education is the great lever whereby our moral conditions can be elevated. By liberal education is meant that form of learning which enables a man to better his condition; shows him what to do and how to do it. Not the limited knowl

edge of reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and geography, which is all the learning the masses have; but with these the practical studies suited for each individual, such as mechanical, civil and electrical engineering, railroading, telegraphy, agriculture, etc., embracing all the legitimate trades of man. By this kind of education the young men of our country will feel themselves qualified to fill any place in their special line of work. By this means the race problem will be settled, and the negro will be transformed from the idle, unreliable, degenerate that he is today to an industrious, peaceable, and trustworthy workman. This country being called the "land of the free and the home of the brave," has carried the "open-door" policy too far for its own moral good; by it the offscourings of the world are pouring in on us each year in appalling numbers, bringing with them their poverty, ignorance, disease, and moral degeneracy, which not only unfits them for citizenship, but permits them to instill and teach their worthlessness and crime to the young men and boys of this country.

No factor in the causation of crime plays a more important rôle than does heredity; by it each succeeding generation afflicted with a moral or physical taint continues to grow, until in each new offspring the disease takes a more lasting, a deeper hold; the parent or grandparent having neurasthenia or hysteria, the present representative may develop insanity in any form; even so with crime.

To carry forward to a successful end this movement of elimination of crime begun by education and restricted immigration, this hereditary growth of mental and moral defets must be overcome; and this can only be accomplished by stringent laws governing marriage. Meeting as they will such fierce opposition by the people, such laws will be slow of formulating, but this is the means to the end, and the people will have to be educated to it. No man or woman should be permitted to marry if either has been convicted of crime prompted by personal gain or through degeneracy. Marriage should be prohibited when either party has at any time been confined in an asylum, or known to be an epileptic, of unsound

mind, or a moral pervert. The cause of this is apparent, but the technicalities of such a law will not be discussed at this time.

And now to the part the physician plays in this important question. He is a leader, a reformer, and advocate of all moral and scientific movements which tend to benefit man. The great sanitary movements the world over are due to his untiring interest in humanity. To him crime in all its hideousness, degeneracy with all of its loathsomeness, disease with all of its sufferings and sorrows, are everyday pictures. Then on him will devolve the starting of this moral uplifting, this universal and broad-minded education, this elimination of crime. He must talk the matter over freely with his brother physicians, must try year after year to have laws enacted which in the end will reach the climax of perfection, even as it has in the sanitary and medical laws recently adopted by this State as a result of his patient and persistent efforts. To this end let us work, "lest we forget-lest we forget."

SECTION ON OPHTHALMOLOGY, OTOLOGY, RHINOLOGY AND LARYNGOLOGY.

1. A Case of Empyema of Frontal Sinuses with Destruction of One Eye-Absence of Septum.

Bruce Richardson, M. D., Beaumont.

2. Sympathetic Ophthalmia.

W. A. Harper, M. D., Austin.

3. Abscess of the Brain from Otitis Media-Operation.

E. D. Capps, M. D., Fort Worth.

4. Report of a Case of Divergent Strabismus, and Its Correction. Henry C. Haden, M. D., Galveston.

5. Subcutaneous Injection of Vaseline for the Correction of

Deformity.

6. Some Cataract Cases.

H. L. Hilgartner, M. D., Austin.

R. F. Miller, M. D., Sherman.

7. Treatment of Deafness with High Frequency Current.

H. L. Hilgartner and

J. W. McLaughlin, Jr., Austin.

8. Tuberculosis of the Larynx.

E. H. Cary, M. D., Dallas.