The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-08
Two French Physicians Have Written
 Books to Show That Love is Poison

From the Chicago Tribune.
 Paris, June 1.-Love is caused by ; bacillus it's in the atmosphere, the wate the soil, but. like other bacilli, 1t at tacks people only after they have reach ed a certain, or, rather, uncertain age.
 As one may have measles at Is or 55 st one may catch" love while in shor frocks and lSnickerbockers. or when th hair is white and the step uncertain When old folks take disease, like meas les, that, in the nature of things, is malady for youngsters it generally zoe hard with them. Some die, others become morally or mentally crippled for the res of their life. That the poison of love per vading ancient hulks usually has similar deplorable after-effects needs no argu- ment in this newspaper age.
 g Thus say Professors Fere and Fleury, two well known Paris hospital directors, who like Dr. Emile Laurent. medical su- perintendent of prisons, made love their special study for many years. With To- coo patients to practice on-love-sick peo- pie from all classes of society and of all ages-they diagnosed the case to cer- tainty and, at last, having gathered all needed facts and proofs, are ready to submit their discovery to the scientific world, according to aeculapian practice.
 Books on the New Science.
 NM. Fere and Fleury have incorporated their findings and opinions in two remark able books called Gin French) "The | nf of ha Er1OtioDSi and "Ile Medical Side of the Passion of Love-" re- spectively. The volumes are announced to appear within a fortnight and are sure to make a profound sensation the world over.
 While the ethics of the profession for bid the issuing of advance .eets of med teal books Professor Fleury was good enough to grant a lengthy interview, in which he explained his discovery fully.
 Love Is a poison-a slow, seductive, malignant poison. I say so despite the face that poets and others have called love nectar and ambrosia from time i'm memorial" said the professor by way of introduction.
 According to my investigations, in which I am backed up by Professor Fere, poets and romancers have no business with love whatever-love Is simply a pathological subject which was treated aIlogether too long from its emotional, tragfcal, or comical side or from it's moral and immoral aspects.
 Declares Love a Disease.
 That in this twentieth century of ours love is still regarded as a harmless or harmful divertation is one of our most dangerous inheritances from the dark ages-an inheritance fostered and kept alive by polite literature. As a matter of fact, love should be under the control of the health board, possessing full police authority, for, in contradiction of all previous writings on the subject, M. Fere and myself, after investigating love from every conceivable standpoint, found 1t to nothing short of a disease.
 Its undoubtedly caused by a poison that the individual organism or bacillus that does the destructive work has not yet been found doesn't count for much from the standpoint of medical science Medical science hasn't produced the can cer bacillus either, yet no one doubts that cancer is a poisonous growth and dis ease.
 "The Pathology of Emotions and The Medical Side of the Passion of Love treat this new-old disease entirely from tho medical standpoint, giving an analysis ol It's sources and describing the mechanism of the disease, diagnosis, prognosis, ant possible cure-the whole process. Poets Far From Truth.
 My colleague and I read and rereat everything written on the subject by great thinkers and by polite writer's" re piled M. Fleury. 'The nearest poets evel got to the truth was in Stendhafs 'CouI de Foudre' and in Alphonse Daudet's Sappho.' Stendahl with rare medica acumen hkens love to the physical pro cess of specialization, a process that under certain conditions, may be termin ated by a sudden impulse.
 "Daudets picture gives still more patho logical aspects His heros passion for al unworthy creature exhibits all the symp toms of case of poisoning; like a malig nant fever the disease steadily increases and finally kills both parties.
 Here is the pathological side of the case in nutshel:
 At first Sappho displeases him, just as initial doses of nicotine poison are re- jected by the healthy stomach.
 But he gets used to her-as the stom. ach gets used to the tobacco poison; hel charms entrance him, as etc, etc He get used to her. and finally cant do without her-just as the smoker cant do without his cigar or pipe Sappho and her lover despise each other; their life is spent in constant fighting and nagging So, in his heart of hearts, the smoker despises the weed that enslaves him and makes him obnoxious to his wife, oi lady-love perhaps
 "Daudet's hero is ready to commit any act of indecency, to lower himself in his own eyes in order to possess Sappho while he knows that she will poison his