my old friend, Professor Corker. The article, which runs to nearly
seventy pages, does the utmost credit to this brilliant writer, who
comes to the conclusion that no satisfactory solution of the mystery
has ever been propounded or ever can be. But while his examination of
the different theories is singularly free from bias he is evidently
impressed by the ingenious view of Dr. Amos Stoot, the eminent Chicago
alienist, that the masked inmate of the Bastille immured himself
voluntarily in order to investigate the conditions of French prison
life at the time, but, owing to the homicidal development of
his subliminal consciousness, was detained indefinitely by the
authorities, and during his imprisonment wrote the _Letters of
Junius_.

* * * * *

I have been reading with much enjoyment, and I hope profit, a
book entitled _Behind the Ivory Gate; Being the Reminiscences of a
Dentist_, by Orlando Pullar, F.R.D.S. Mr. Pullar's opportunities for
studying the psychology of his clients have been exceptional, and he
has turned them to rich account in these fascinating pages. He is,
moreover, as adroit with his pen as with the instruments of his humane
and benevolent calling, and has a pretty wit. Thus he tells us that
his villa at Balham is named "Tusculum," and that, in view of the fact
that three generations of Pullars have been dentists, his family can
be said to be of "old extraction." This pleasant quip I seem to have
heard before; but, with all deductions, there are many signs here of
a strong sagacious mind, that brings to bear on all the jars of daily
life the priceless emollient of moral uplift.

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