University of Virginia Library

PART II.--MARRIAGE.

CHAPTER VI.
THE ETHICS OF MARRIED LIFE.

The Wedding Journey; the Ethics of Married Life; Shall Husband and Wife Occupy the Same Bed? the Comsummation of Marriage; the Marital Relation; Times when Marital Relations Should be Suspended.

The Wedding-journey.--The wedding-journey, which was formerly the cause of so much discomfort to both husband and wife, has fortunately gone out of vogue; and in its place has come the retirement to a quiet country or seaside spot, away from the prying eyes of friends. Thus the nervous strain incident to sight-seeing and travel is avoided.

The Ethics of Married Life.--It has been said that God set men and women in pairs in order that they might perfect each other and complete each other's happiness. The secret of all true happiness in life lies in the spirit of altruism; one must be able to wholly

forget herself and to find her happiness in the welfare of others.

The woman who exhausts herself physically and financially on the preparation of her trousseau and her wedding does her husband a wrong by bringing him a wife who is on the verge of nervous prostration.

The secret of a happy married life depends to no small extent on the very beginning: the relation is so entirely new, and much lies hidden in the character of each that was never suspected by the other.

Between husband and wife there must always be mutual concessions, forbearance, and sympathy; a mutual helpfulness to attain all that is best. This, of course, implies that the life of each is an open book for the other to read; that there is an unreserved exchange of thought; and that no privilege is claimed by the one that would not willingly be accorded to the other.

"How many men," says Balzac, "proceed with women as the monkey of Cassan with the violin; they have broken the heart without knowing it, as they have tarnished and disdained the jewel whose secret they never understood. Almost all men are married in ignorance of women and of love. They have commenced by forcing open the doors of a strange house and have wished to be well received in its salon. But the most ordinary artist knows that there exists between him and his instrument--his instrument which is made of wood or ivory--a sort of indefinable friendship. He knows by experience that it has taken years to establish this

mysterious rapport between an inert material and himself. He could not have divined at the first stroke all its resources and caprices, its faults and its virtues. His instrument only became a soul for him and a source of melody after long study; he only came to understand it as two friends after the most learned interrogation.

"So the world is full of young women who grow pale and feeble, sick and suffering. The ones are a prey to inflammations more or less severe; the others remain under the dominion of nervous attacks more or less violent. All these husbands have caused their own unhappiness and ruin. Never begin married life with a rape. To demand of a young girl whom one has seen forty times in fifteen days to love you because of the law, the king, and justice is an absurdity.

"Love is the union of necessity and of sentiment. Happiness in marriage is the result of perfect understanding between the spirits of husband and wife. From this it happens that in order to be happy, a man is obliged to bind himself to certain rules of delicacy and honor. After taking advantage of the social laws which consecrate the necessity, it is necessary to obey the secret laws of nature, in order to make the sentiments flourish. If a man places his happiness on being loved, it is necessary that he should love sincerely; nothing resists a veritable passion."

Shall Husband and Wife Occupy the Same Bed?--Among civilized nations custom differs in this regard; in Germany, for instance, the husband and wife occupy

separate beds in the same room; formerly in this country it was almost the universal custom for husband and wife to occupy the same bed. The current of opinion has changed in this respect, and it is now considered in the highest interests of both that they shall occupy not only separate beds, but separate rooms; these rooms communicating through a door which connects their respective dressing-rooms. This is unquestionably the best arrangement from the hygienic as well as from the ethical point of view. Health requires that one-third of the time shall be spent in sleep; the bed was made for sleep; and the most refreshing sleep can only be obtained by occupying the bed alone. If two persons occupy the same bed and one is restless, the sleep of the other is necessarily disturbed. Again, two persons occupying the same bed necessitates the same hour for rising and retiring, which is not always convenient or agreeable. Balzac writes on this subject: "To put the system of separate bed-rooms into practice is to attain to the highest degree of intellectual power and of virility. By what syllogism man arrived at establishing as a custom that of man and wife sleeping together, a practice so fatal to happiness, to health, to pleasure, and even to self-love, would be curious to seek out." If for financial reasons it is not possible to have separate bed-rooms, the German custom of having separate beds should be adopted.

The Consummation of Marriage.--The consummation of marriage is often attended with difficulty

owing to the rigidity of the hymen; this, if present, must usually be ruptured before connection takes place. Great gentleness and care must be exercised by the husband if it does not readily yield, the use of hot vaginal injections should be kept up for several weeks before the trial is repeated. These usually relax the parts very considerably; but if coitus is still found impossible, it is better to consult a physician at once, when a simple operation will generally remove the trouble and the woman is spared much suffering. In no case is any violence on the part of the husband allowable, as it might produce irreparable injuries.

There is always more or less suffering on the part of the wife at first, partly due to the rupture of the hymen, and partly to the forcible dilatation of the vagina and she should be allowed a sufficient time for nature to repair these injuries. By so doing, the constitutional disturbances and the nervous disorders which are so very prevalent may be prevented. Too frequent indulgence at this period is a prolific source of inflammatory diseases, and often occasions sterility and ill-health.

The first nuptial relations should be fruitless, in order that any indisposition arising therefrom should have had time to disappear before the woman becomes pregnant.

The Marital Relation.--It is most important for the interest of both parties that there should be chastity in the marriage relation as well as out of it. Many young

couples have had their lives ruined by excessive sexual indulgence. The effect is usually most severe upon the husband, yet the wife becomes weak, nervous, and excitable. Sexual excess is also the grave of domestic affection. The general rule given is that coitus should never take place oftener than every seven or ten days. When coitus is succeeded by langour, depression, or malaise, it has been indulged in too frequently.

Among civilized people there are three widely diferent views as to the proper course to be pursued:

First, those who maintain that sexual intercourse should not take place except for the propagation of the species.

Second, those who believe that the act is a love relation, mutually demanded and enjoyed by both sexes, and serving other purposes besides that of procreation.

Third, those who hold that sexual intercourse is a physical necessity for the man, but not for the woman.

The first theory, "that the sexual relations should never be sustained save for the purpose of procreation," has many advocates. They teach that there are other uses for the procreative element than the generation of offspring, and far better uses than its waste in pleasures. They claim that a life of total chastity increases the physical and mental vigor; and there will result a procreation on the mental and spiritual planes, instead of on the physical ones.

They also claim that to woman belongs the creative power; that she must choose when a new life shall be

evolved; and that only by adhering to this law can she be protected in the highest function of her being--the function of maternity.

The adherents of the second theory, "that the act is a love relation, mutually demanded and enjoyed by both sexes, and that it serves other purposes besides that of procreation," claim that the female sexual life indicates that the healthy woman is neither indifferent nor passive in the generative act. It has much the same effect as in man--a powerful increase in her sensations, whole groups of muscles are set in motion, and the uterus as well as the entire nervous system are in an excited condition and activity. And that it is the province of the mother to decide when a new life should begin.

The third theory, "that sexual intercourse is a physical necessity for the man, but not for the woman," is by far the most widely accepted. We will consider, first, the practical results of this last theory; and, second, the scientific basis on which it rests.

It is generally acknowledged that this practice has done more to cause domestic misery, sickness, and death than that dreadful scourge of the human race, tuberculosis.

This man, accustomed all his life to gratify his sexual passions promisculously, marries a virtuous young girl. In her menstrual periods she has had to do only with the secondary phenomena; with the expulsion of the ova not at all. She has had no instruction in the corresponding physiologic life of the man,

and is astonished at the male sexual indications, and is led to believe in their physiologic necessities. The result is that she not only suffers physically, but feels outraged and disgraced. She is liable to the chance of maternity at any time; and such offspring will probably be sickly.

Passion is presented to the young wife in so hideous a guise that it will take the utmost consideration of her husband afterward to enable her to completely overcome her repugnance. If she be worn and weary of excesses in the early days of her married life, the husband will have only himself to blame if he is bound all his life to an apathetic and irresponsive wife. Husbands place great strains upon the affections of their wives, and lower themselves almost past reinstatement in their respect and esteem.

Lastly, on what scientific basis does this "physi-logic necessity" for sexual gratification on the part of the male rest? Analogy with the lower animals does not bear it out. Among animals, except in rare instances under domestication, the female admits the male in sexual embrace only for procreation. Among many savage tribes this same rule has but few exceptions. The analogies between the male and the female sexual organs; between seminal emissions and menstruation; between the sexual life of the male and of the female, only go to accentuate the fact that this so-called physiologic necessity on the part of the male has arisen chiefly through the difference of education; so

that it has come to be that the woman is chaste and the man is degraded; that the woman is too sentimental and the man too passionate. From a purely medical standpoint, the most eminent physicians and physiologists of the day all unite in advocating a chaste and continent life, simply for the sake of the man's own health, independently of all other considerations.

Times when Marital Relations Should be Suspended.--The marital relations should always be suspended during the menstrual period. During pregnancy intercourse should never, or at least very rarely, be indulged in. At this time the mother needs to conserve all her strength and energies for herself and child; and any sexual relations during this time increase the sufferings of the mother and impair the vitality of the child. It has been even suggested that much of the pain during parturition would be avoided by entire continence during pregnancy. Intercourse during the early months of pregnancy is a frequent cause of abortion. Women who have supposed that they have never been pregnant have in reality been having abortions every second or third month.

A woman should never be subjected to coitus until three months after delivery. During lactation intercourse should never, or at least very rarely, be indulged in; as the function of lactation makes a heavy drain on the strength of the mother, and anything which would further weaken her would tend to impoverish the quality of the milk and thus the child would suffer.

CHAPTER VII.
SEXUAL INSINCT IN WOMEN.

Sexual Instinct in Women; Excessive Coitus; Causes of Sexual Excitability.

Sexual Instinct in Women.--After careful observation of the sexes in the married state, it is found that the sexual appetence is less in women than it is in men. Much of this difference in sexual appetence is doubtless due to the chastity of their lives, coupled with and resulting from the difference of education. The girl is taught repression, and the boy expression; that girls must be chaste; that chastity for boys is impossible.

According to the intensity of the sexual instinct women have been divided into three classes: A larger number than is supposed have little or no sexual feeling. Second, those who are subject to strong passion; this class is larger than the first, but small as compared with the whole of their sex. Third, those in whom the sexual appetite is moderate; this class comprises the vast majority of women.

And, even granting to woman more pleasure in sexual indulgence than usually comes to her by largest

allowance, it is safe to say that in nine cases out of ten maternity, with its early pains and later cares, greatly lessens her power of enjoyment; and that for the larger part of her married life she is either positively distressed by the apparently necessary demands of her husband upon her, and irresponsive to them, or kept to a cheerful response by a self-abnegation and regard for his comfort, not to say fear of his moral aberration, which is a positive drain upon her health and strength.

Excessive Coitus.--Those who are most frequently found to suffer from venereal excesses are the newly married; especially if they have weak constitutions and excitable temperaments. A great deal of mischief is done by two persons of unequal constitutions being matched together; the husband may exhaust the wife or vice versa, the weaker party being constantly tempted to exceed their strength. In all sexual matters there must be a consideration for others. It is not so much from selfishness as from ignorance that such a mistake is made. The ignorance comes from a lamentable morbid delicacy which prevails on all sexual matters, and which prevents all open and rational conversation on them, even between those who have the most intimate knowledge of each other.

When the conjugal act is repeated too often, the man will become gradually conscious of diminished strength, diminished nerve force, and diminished mental powers. Excess weakens a man's energies, and enervates and effeminates him. Moreover, it renders

him liable to an infinity of diseases and a readier victim to death.

Not only is the strength of the constitution lowered by the excessive expenditure of force and matter requisite for the perpetuation of the species, but this lowered standard of vitality is transmitted to children. There can be but little doubt that this is one of the reasons why so many healthy parents beget sickly children, who die early. They have exhausted themselves of the material from which a new life is created, and so it is not properly started at the beginning and never reaches its highest development. To the truth of this statement attests the mental imbecility, the pallid and attenuated forms, of the children who are the earlier products of marriage. The effect of excessive coitus in women is seen by the confirmed ill health of so many women after marriage and repeated child-bearing. A large number of these cases are dependent upon alteration and diseases of the genitalia; but a considerable number are unconnected with local disease, and in many other cases the health is never regained after all local phenomena have disappeared.

Sexual excitement in the woman causes certain congestion of the genital organs; and at the time of the orgasm there is a reflex movement which corresponds to erection, and which consists of a peristaltic movement of the tubes and uterus; to the uterus also is ascribed an act of suction by which the spermatozoa are drawn up into its interior. Even when pregnancy does not

follow, the too frequent excitation and activity of the uterus in weak constitutions causes illness, first of the genital organs and then of the nervous system.

Local diseases caused in women by excessive coitus are: vaginal catarrh, acute catarrh of the vulva, acute inflammation of the lining membrane of the uterus as well as of the uterus itself, inflammation of the ovaries, and even peritonitis. It is also known to be an important factor in the origin of blood-tumors and of cancer of the uterus. Especially is coitus at a time of great physical fatigue liable to be provocative of uterine inflammations. Aside from ethical considerations, coitus during the menstrual period may be the cause of rupture of the impaired blood-vessels, thus causing blood-tumors. Excessive coitus is a well-known cause of chronic inflammation of the uterus; that is, a habitual congestion of the uterus is induced by excessive sexual intercourse. This has been frequently mentioned by authors as leading to enlargement of the uterus in the non-pregnant condition; and it is a still more potent factor in the recently impregnated organ, whose tissues are succulent and the vessels enlarged, a condition inviting congestion and enhancing the susceptibility to engorgement.

The general manifestations of impaired health in women due to excessive coitus are: chronic anemia, with malnutrition; impaired and altered functions in all the organs, especially those of the nervous system. Menorrhagia is apt to be induced by overstimulation

of the ovaries, together with exhaustion and sexual apathy.

The source of so much misery is the increasing physical weakness of the female and the increasing nervous weakness of the male, with an increasing sexual excitability, two factors of tragic effect for the wife. Here is seen the unfortunate result of teaching two kinds of morals, one for men and another for women.

Causes of Sexual Excitability.--Too frequent genital irritation, onanism, too frequent intercourse, alcohol, too rich and too highly seasoned foods, lack of exercise.

Treatment of Sexual Excitability.--Avoid alcohol and precocious puberty. Strictest attention must be paid to the diet; everything is to be avoided which is difficult of digestion or which retards it. The following articles of diet must all be avoided: cheese, foods seasoned with pepper and curry, highly salted and acid foods, and all rich foods; and meat must be eaten only in moderate quantities. Constipation irritates the genitalia directly and increases the inflammation. The close relation of Venus and Bacchus is known not only in mythology. Carbonated waters are to be especially avoided, such as soda, seltzers, Preblauer, Geisshubler, and acid waters; also champagne and beer, heavy Italian, Spanish, and English wines. All alcoholic drinks must be forbidden.

As heavy gymnastics as the strength of the individual will admit, and plenty of exercise out-of-doors must

be taken. There must also be constant mental and physical employment. In women sexual excitability is often caused by local diseases, and passes off with their cure; if not, she must use her will-power, and take the various forms of cold baths. Sexual intercourse not oftener than once in two or three weeks, and avoid all intimate approaches; if this is not sufficient, she will have to leave her husband for a few months.

CHAPTER VIII.
STERILITY.

Sterility; the Prevention of Conception and the Limitation of Offspring; the Crime of Abortion; Infidelity in Women.

Sterility.--Conception is least apt to take place from the tenth day after one period until the third day before the next; but there is practically no time during a woman's sexual life when she may not be impregnated; in this connection it must be remembered that the spermatozoa stay alive in her for more than a week.

During lactation women are generally sterile, especially in the first months which follow the accouchement, because the vital forces are then concentrated on the secretion of milk.

The age of the wife at the time of marriage has much to do with the expectation of children. As the age increases over twenty-five years the interval between the marriage and the birth of the first child is lengthened. For it has been ascertained that not only are women most fecund between twenty and twenty-five years, but that they begin their career of child-bearing sooner

after marriage than either their younger or older sisters.

A wife who has had children and ceases to conceive for three years will probably bear no more.

When marriages are fruitless, the wife is almost always blamed; but it is by no means the wife that is always at fault; many husbands are absolutely sterile. Every man is not prolific who enjoys good health and is vigorous. Gross states that in one case out of six the sterility was due to the male. Kehrer, after a series of carefully conducted experiments, has arrived at the conclusion that in at least a third of the cases of sterile marriages the husband was the party at fault, and that gonorrhea was the cause of the barrenness.

Venereal diseases have their share of influence, and the gonorrheal infection is a potent cause of sterility. It is by no means proved that syphilis has any unfavorable influence on conception, though abortions due to this are frequent.

Gonorrhea often prevents conception by the inflammation traveling up the womb, and along the Fallopian tubes to the ovaries, whose covering is rendered thick and dense, so that the ovum cannot escape, or if it does, the fimbriated end of the tube is so agglutinated that it cannot grasp the ovum.

Alcoholism is considered a cause of sterility. It evidently does diminish the sexual potency in the male, and for this the female is often blamed.

It does not follow because a woman has not given

birth to a child that she has not conceived. The life of an infant for a long time after birth is a frail one, and before birth its existence is extremely precarious; it often perishes a few days after conception. A period coming on a few days late, and at the same time one which is unusually profuse, is the only evidence which the young wife may have of an abortion. Among prostitutes, the frequent delay of menstruation, then abundant hemorrhage, is in many cases only habitual abortion, and leads to changes in the generative organs which must result in sterility. A tendency to miscarriage may therefore be all that stands in the way of having a family; this can frequently be remedied.

Sexual incompatibility is well known to exist; prominent examples being Augustus and Livia; Napoleon and Josephine. It is also a well-known fact that frigidity is a cause of barrenness. A short separation of husband and wife is often salutary in its influence upon fertility.

It is a well-established fact that the time immediately before the period, but still more that immediately following the period, are the most favorable times for conception to take place; the remaining quiet in bed of the woman after the generative act is also favorable to conception.

The most frequent causes of sterility in women are inflammation of the lining membrane of the uterus, or of the neck of the uterus, or of both. The source of this condition in women who have had children is most

frequently due to parturition or abortion. In the newly married it may be due to a previously existing slight uterine catarrh in a displaced uterus, or it may be a manifestation of a run-down state of the system. In a majority of the newly married, however, the inflammation of the endometrium is probably due to the first efforts at conjugal approach. Many young women as the result of the preparation of the trosseau, augmented by a round of gaities at the time of marriage, enter the married state in a condition bordering on physical and nervous exhaustion; and then begin engorgements and inflammations which lead to future suffering and to sterility. Displacements and flexions of the uterus also cause sterility. Such displacements of the neck of the uterus may occur that, instead of lying in a pool of semen, as it should, it is above, in front of, or away from it, and this may prevent conception.

Vulvar and vaginal hyperesthesia, inflammations of the vulva, undue shortness of the vagina, unless great care is exercised by the husband, will induce painful coitus, and may bring about sterility by favoring the formation of a copulation sac outside of the axis of the uterine canal, and consequently misdirection of the semen.

Scrofula, probably by its effects on the general condition, leading to deficient development of the whole body, the genital organs included, may be productive of sterility.

The female being less passionate than the male, the

orgasm comes on later with her, or the male orgasm occurs so soon that she may not reach that stage at all. If both were simultaneous, it is reasonable to suppose that conception would be more likely to occur.

Ovulation is doubtless more frequently performed in some women than in others. Some women conceive with more or less regularity every fifteen or eighteen months, and others at intervals of several years.

The effect of repeated coition, provided that impregnation does not take place at once, is to engorge the uterine vessels, to alter the nature of the glandular secretions, to cause profound reflex disturbances, and thus to produce such changes in the endometrium as to lead to local inflammation and to general nervous exhaustion. Backache, leucorrhea, and irritable bladder are the first symptoms of this disorder; but frequently there are added to these, headache, indigestion, rectal tenesmus, painful and profuse menstruation. In many cases the disease continues in a mild catarrhal form, giving the woman little inconvenience besides the slight leucorrheal discharge which stains her clothing; but often this is indicative of such a change of the lining membrane of the uterus as to render it unfit for the fixation and development of the ovum, even should impregnation take place.

Under normal conditions, during the intermenstrual period, a plug of clear viscid mucus, which is secreted by the glands of the cervical canal, blocks up that passage, but is washed away each month by the menstrual

discharge. Under ordinary conditions this obstruction must seriously interfere with the entrance of the spermatozoa into the cavity of the uterus, and renders the former theory, recently revived by Bossi, quite tenable, that impregnation is most likely to occur just after the menstrual epoch.

The vaginal secretion under certain pathologic conditions may become so acid that it induces sterility. Women who suffer from severe vaginal catarrh are frequently sterile, the spermatozoa being found dead in the vagina some hours after copulation, although an examination a shorter time afterward revealed them still alive. In cases where conception takes place in spite of a very acid condition of the vaginal secretion, it is probable that some of the spermatozoa enter the uterus before the secretion has had time to act on them, or possibly the spermatozoa being injected in a mass, the acid secretion is unable to penetrate and kill them all.

The reaction of the normal vaginal mucus is always acid, that of the cervix alkaline; but as the result of the inflammatory condition, the reaction of each is often intensified, especially that of the vagina, which has an exceedingly sour and penetrating odor. This acid discharge, bathing the neck of the uterus, penetrates more or less into the cervical plug and causes coagulation of the alkaline mucus.

The chief constituent of the semen is albumin; agents which affect albuminous substances influence the

functional activity of the spermatozoa--heat, concentrated acids, and probably concentrated alkalies. In normal conditions the alkalinity of the seminal fiuid seems to be sufficient to neutralize the acidity of the vaginal secretions, so that the spermatozoa may remain seventeen days or more (Bossi) within the vaginal canal, even during a menstrual period, without having their vitality destroyed.

When hyperacidity of the vaginal secretion is present, it is probable that the fertilizing element is at once rendered inert; but should some of the spermatozoa succeed in reaching the interior of the cervical canal, the increased alkalinity of the secretion there would in all probability put an end to all further progress.

The conditions, then, which appear to prevent fecundation are: First, the absence of the proper nidus for the ovum; second, the obstruction of the cervical canal by a mucus plug; third, increased alkalinity of the cervical secretion, often accompanied by the increased acidity of the vaginal secretion. Three conditions must, then, be determined: First, are there spermatozoa in the semen? Second, do they get into the uterocervical canal? Third, do the secretions in the canal poison the spermatozoa?

"For those who are very anxious for offspring," wrote Marion Sims, "I usually order sexual intercourse on the third, fifth, and seventh days after the flow has ceased; and on the fifth and third days before its return. For the most obvious reasons this would always be before

going to bed at night, instead of just before rising in the morning. The horizontal position favors the retention of semen; the erect its expulsion. I am satisfied that too frequent sexual indulgence is fraught with mischief to both parties. It weakens the semen; in other words, that this is not so rich in spermatozoa after too frequent indulgence; and when carried to the extent of a debauch, the fiuid ejaculated may be wholly destitute of spermatozoa. Thus it will be seen that it will be much better to husband the resources of both man and wife."

The Prevention of Conception and the Limitation of Offspring.--Some of the contraindications to procreation are when either parent suffers from a disease which is transmissible, and such diseases frequently manifest themselves only after marriage; when the pregnancy would endanger the mother's life, or even where the pregnancy is a nine months' torture to her; where either parent is suffering from ill health; or where for economical reasons no more children are desired.

If there exists no condition in either parent or in their circumstances why they should not have children, the next consideration due to their children, is how the same may be procreated under the most favorable conditions possible; this condition can only be secured by making the circumtsances such that the mother shall be able to choose the time for their conception when both parents are in the best physical condition. That children

should be brought into the world haphazard, as the result of accident, is to degrade the human race below that of the lower animals, where the female admits the male only at the time of the rut, which in the majority of cases occurs only once a year.

Another requisite to bearing healthy children is that the pregnancies shall not follow each other too rapidly. Aside from the consideration for the health of the mother herself, she must be in good physical condition to bear the healthiest children she is capable of giving birth to; and for this there must be from two and a half to three years between the successive pregnancies. The results of overproduction on the children are frequently, that they are sickly, short-lived, or suffer from rickets, cerebral paralysis, idiocy, or imbecility.

And last, but certainly not least, many women become chronic invalids, or are hastened to premature graves, by having children as fast as they possibly can.

The most natural and moral way for the artificial prevention of conception, when on account of ill health or for economic reasons no more children are desired, is to abstain from sexual intercourse. But in the majority of cases the husband will not agree to this, and so the greatest number of methods have come to be used to prevent conception.

Perhaps the most frequent method use to prevent conception is withdrawal before the ejaculation of semen. While this is most injurious to the husband--debility, nervous prostration, and even paralysis are

said to ensue--the health of the wife also suffers. If, this interrupted sexual congress is continued for years, there develop gradual nervous disturbances on both sides, and a serious disease of the uterus makes itself felt. The generative organs become engorged with blood, but are not permitted to enjoy relaxation consequent upon the full completion of the act. This engorgement may lead to undue local nutrition, and diffuse growth and proliferation of the connective tissue may take place. Hence the uterine walls become dense and thickened and the nerves compressed. Of course, pain and tenderness and a sense of bearing down will be the result. Flexions and versions may be consequent upon the engorgement. The nerves become shattered, and the woman will be fortunate if she contracts no serious womb trouble.

"It is strange," says John Stuart Mill, "that intemperance in drink or any other appetite, should be condemned so readily, but that incontinence in this respect should always meet not only with indulgence, but with praise. Little improvement can be expected in morality until the producing of too large families is regarded with the same feeling as drunkenness, or any other physical excess."

Sismondi writes: "When our true duties toward those whom we give life are not obscured in the name of a sacred authority, no man will have more children than he can properly bring up. If a woman has a right to decide any question it is how many children she

should bear. Whenever it becomes unwise that the family should be increased, justice and humanity require that the husband should impose on himself the same restraint which is submitted to by the unmarried."

In the opinion of Dr. Edward Reich, it is very much to be wished that the function of conception should be placed under the domain of the will. But the strongest appeal has been made for the sake of morality itself; namely, to prevent the crime of abortion. Dr. Raciborski, of Paris, took the position that the prevention of offspring to a certain extent is not only legitimate, but it is to be recommended as a means of public good.

Continence, self-control, and a willingness to deny himself--that is what is required of the husband. But suffering women assure us that this will not suffice; that men refuse to restrain themselves; that it leads to loss of domestic happiness, to illegitimate amours; or that it is injurious physically and mentally; that, in short, such advice is useless because it is impracticable.

Dr. Napheys writes: "Is it amiss to hope that science will find resources, simple and certain, which will enable a woman to let reason and sound judgment, not blind passions, control the increase of her family?"

The Crime of Abortion.--From the moment of conception a new life begins, a new individual exists; another child is added to the family. The mother who deliberately sets about to destroy this life by want of care, or by taking drugs, or by the use of instruments,

commits a great crime, and is just as guilty as if she strangled her new-born infant. The crime she commits is child-murder. Women in their frenzy at finding themselves in this condition, and with no slightest idea of the sin that they are committing, are constantly guilty of committing abortions on themselves, or going to professional abortionists to have this crime of child-murder committed. This is another of the sins due to the ignorance of the sex in all matters pertaining to reproduction; and it is a fearfully prevalent one.

Infidelity in Women.--"We have now reached the last infernal circle of the divine comedy of marriage; we are at the depths of the inferno. There is something, I do not know what, terrible in the situation in which a married woman finds herself when an illegitimate love has ruined her for the duties of a wife and mother. As has been so well and strongly expressed by Diderot, infidelity in woman is like incredulity in a priest; it is the last step in human forfeitures; it is for her the great social crime, for it implies all the others.

"Weigh the sufferings of the future, the agonies of years by the ecstasy of half an hour. If this conservative sentiment of the creature, the fear of death, does not stop her, what could be expected of laws? Oh, sublime infamy!"--(Balzac).