ESSAY-REVIEWS 83 



plicity (at the risk of appearing vain) I recall that when he 

 was planning the New York Public Library, he sent me a copy 

 of the plans with a detailed memorandum on the specification, 

 with a request that I would ■ help me ' (!) with criticisms or 

 advice. I am prouder that he asked me this, and prouder still 

 that he thanked me for and adopted some humble suggestions 

 than if I had been consulted by a Government. 



" His interests were as broad as his mind. One happy day 

 I went with him and his lifelong friend, Justin Winsor, to 

 Stratford-on-Avon . With us went Sam Timmins, the creator 

 of the Memorial, and while Timmins did the honours of the 

 place in his own inimitable way, Billings showed us — intro- 

 duced us — to the man Shakespeare. They might have been 

 schoolmates, so vivid was the living imagination with which 

 his slow, almost solemn periods discoursed of the living Shake- 

 speare and his immortal creations. 



" Take him for all in all, Billings was a man, and we are not 

 likery to look upon his like again." l 



THE HISTORY OF THE FIGHT AGAINST VENEREAL 

 DISEASE, by E. B. Turner, F.R.C.S. (Chairman of the Representa- 

 tive Body, British Medical Association) : on the Final Report of the 

 Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases. [Pp.191.] (London : H.M. 

 Stationery Office, 1916. Price is. nd.) 



The final report of the Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases 

 has been published, thus closing the first act of the tragedy 

 of the fight against this plague, an act which has taken twenty 

 years to play to its conclusion. It was in 1896 that the first 

 steps were taken, and the first efforts made, to obtain that 

 inquiry into the extent and prevalence of these diseases which 

 was so absolutely essential if any effectual scheme for their 

 prevention and treatment was to be elaborated and set forth. 

 The incident which actually started the agitation for this 

 Government inquiry was one which, unfortunately, was by no 

 means of rare occurrence. A physician being consulted by 

 the personal attendant of five small children, all under eight 

 years of age, on examination found her suffering from S3 r philis 

 in its most infectious form. Beyond warning her that she was 

 dangerous to any person with whom she might come in contact, 

 and giving directions for the treatment of her disease, he was 

 unable to take any other steps which might save the innocent 

 babes under her care from the infection of this foul disease. 



1 Brit. Med. Journ. London, 1913, i. 642. 



