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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fruits of Philosophy, by Charles Knowlton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fruits of Philosophy
+       A Treatise on the Population Question
+
+Author: Charles Knowlton
+
+Editor: Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant
+
+Release Date: December 1, 2011 [EBook #38185]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY
+
+A TREATISE ON THE POPULATION QUESTION
+
+By Charles Knowlton
+
+Edited by Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.
+
+The pamphlet which we now present to the public is one which has been
+lately prosecuted under Lord Gampbell's Act, and which we republish,
+in order to test the right of publication. It was originally written
+by Charles Knowlton, M. D., whose degree entitles him to be heard with
+respect on a medical question. It was first published in England, about
+forty years ago, by James Watson, the gallant radical, who came to
+London and took up Richard Carlile's work, when Carlile was in jail. He
+sold it, unchallenged, for many years, approved it, and recommended it.
+It was printed and published by Messrs. Holyoake & Co., and found its
+place, with other works of a similar character, in their "Freethought
+Directory," of 1853, and was thus identified with freethought literature
+at the then leading freethought _depot_ Mr. Austin Holyoake, working
+in con-junction with Mr. Bradlaugh at the _National Reformer_ office,
+Johnson's Court, printed and published it in his turn, and this
+well-known freethought advocate, in his "Large or Small Families,"
+selected this pamphlet, together with R. D. Owen's "Moral Physiology"
+and the "Elements of Social Science," for special recommendation. Mr.
+Charles Watts, succeeding to Mr. Austin Holyoake's business, continued
+the sale, and, when Mr. Watson died, in 1875, he bought the plates of
+the work (with others) from Mrs. Watson, and continued to advertise and
+to sell it until December 23, 1876. For the last forty years the
+book has thus been identified with freethought, advertised by leading
+freethinkers, published under the sanction of their names, and sold in
+the headquarters of freethought literature. If, during this long period,
+the party has thus--without one word of protest--circulated an indecent
+work, the less we talk about freethought morality the better; the
+work has been largely sold, and, if leading freethinkers have sold
+it--profiting by the sale--through mere carelessness, few words could be
+strong enough to brand the indifference which thus scattered obscenity
+broadcast over the land. The pamphlet has been withdrawn from
+circulation in consequence of the prosecution instituted against Mr.
+Charles Watts, but the question of its legality or illegality has not
+been tried; a plea of "Guilty" was put in by the publisher, and the
+book, therefore, was not examined, nor was any judgment passed upon it;
+no jury registered a verdict, and the judge stated that he had not read
+the work.
+
+We republish this pamphlet, honestly believing that on all questions
+affecting the happiness of the people, whether they be theological,
+political or social, fullest right of free discussion ought to be
+maintained at all hazards. We do not personally indorse all that
+Dr. Knowles says: his "Philosophical Proem" seems to us full of
+philosophical mistakes, and--as we are neither of us doctors--we are not
+prepared to indorse his medical views; but since progress can only be
+made through discussion, and no discussion is possible where differing
+opinions are suppressed, we claim the right to publish all opinions, so
+that the public, enabled to see all sides of a question, may have the
+materials for forming a sound judgment.
+
+The alterations made are very slight, the book was badly printed, and
+errors of spelling and a few clumsy grammatical expressions have been
+corrected; the subtitle has been changed, and in one case four lines
+have been omitted, because they are repeated word for word further on.
+We have, however, made some additions to the pamphlet, which are in all
+cases kept distinct from the original text. Physiology has made great
+strides during the past forty years, and not considering it right to
+circulate erroneous physiology, we submitted the pamphlet to a doctor
+in whose accurate knowledge we have the fullest confidence, and who is
+widely known in all parts of the world as the author of the "Elements of
+Social Science;" the notes signed "G. B." are written by this gentleman.
+References to other works are given in foot-notes for the assistance of
+the reader, if he desires to study up the subject further.
+
+Old Radicals will remember that Richard Carlile published a work
+entitled "Every Woman's Book," which deals with the same subject and
+advocates the same object as Dr. Knowlton's pamphlet R. D. Owen objected
+to the "style and tone" of Carlile's "Every Woman's Book," as not being
+in "good taste," and he wrote his "Moral Physiology" to do in America
+what Carlile's work was intended to do in England. This work of
+Carlile's was stigmatized as "indecent" and "immoral," because it
+advocated, as does Dr. Knowlton's, the use of preventive checks to
+population. In striving to carry on Carlile's work, we cannot expect to
+escape Carlile's reproach; but, whether applauded or condemned, we mean
+to carry it on, socially as well as politically and theologically.
+
+We believe, with the Rev. Mr. Malthus, that population has a tendency to
+increase faster than the means of existence, and that _some_ checks must
+therefore exercise control over population. The checks now exercised are
+semi-starvation and preventable disease; the enormous mortality among
+the infants of the poor is one of the checks which now keep down the
+population. The checks that ought to control population are scientific,
+and it is these which we advocate. We think it more moral to prevent the
+conception of children than, after they are born, to murder them by want
+of food, air and clothing. We advocate scientific checks to population,
+because, so long as poor men have large families, pauperism is a
+necessity, and from pauperism grow crime and disease. The wages which
+would support the parents and two or three children in comfort and
+decency, is utterly insufficient to maintain a family of twelve or
+fourteen, and we consider it a crime to bring into the world human
+beings doomed to misery or to premature death. It is not only the
+hard-working classes which are concerned in this question. The poor
+preacher, the struggling man of business, the young professional man,
+are often made wretched for life by their inordinately large families,
+and their years are passed in one long battle to live; meanwhile, the
+woman's health is sacrificed and her life embittered from the same
+cause. To all of these we point the way of relief and happiness; for
+the sake of these we publish what others fear to issue; and we do it
+confident that if we fail the first time, we shall succeed at last,
+and that the English public will not permit the authorities to stifle a
+discussion of the most important social question which can influence a
+nation's welfare.
+
+Charles Bradlaugh.
+
+Annie Besant.
+
+
+
+
+PHILOSOPHICAL PROEM
+
+Consciousness is not a "principle" or substance of any kind, nor is
+it, strictly speaking, a property of any substance or being. It is a
+peculiar action of the nervous system, and the system is said to be
+sensible, or to possess the property of sensibility, because those
+sentient actions which constitute our different consciousnesses may be
+excited in it. The nervous system includes not only the brain and spinal
+marrow, but numerous soft white cords, called nerves, which extend
+from the brain and spinal marrow to every part of the body in which a
+sensation can be excited.
+
+A sensation is a sentient action of a nerve and the brain; a thought or
+idea (both the same thing) is a sentient action of the brain alone. A
+sensation or a thought is consciousness, and there is no consciousness
+but that which consists either in a sensation or a thought.
+
+Agreeable consciousness constitutes what we call happiness, and
+disagreeable consciousness constitutes misery. As sensations are a
+higher degree of consciousness than mere thought, it follows that
+agreeable sensations constitute a more exquisite happiness than
+agreeable thoughts. That portion of happiness which consists in
+agreeable sensations is commonly called pleasure. No thoughts are
+agreeable except those which were originally excited by or have been
+associated with agreeable sensations. Hence, if a person never had
+experienced any agreeable sensations, he could have no agreeable
+thoughts, and would, of course, be an entire stranger to happiness.
+
+There are five species of sensations--seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting
+and feeling. There are many varieties of feeling--as the feelings of
+hunger, thirst, cold, hardness, etc. Many of these feelings are
+excited by agents that act upon the exterior of the body, such as solid
+substances of every kind, heat, and various chemical irritants. These
+latter feelings are called _passions_.
+
+Those passions which owe their existence chiefly to the state of the
+brain, or to causes acting directly upon the brain, are called the moral
+passion. They are grief, anger, love, etc. They consist of sentient
+actions, which commence in the brain and extend to the nerves in the
+region of the stomach, etc. But when the cause of the internal feeling
+of passion is seated in some organ remote from the brain, as in the
+stomach, genital organs, etc., the sentient action which constitutes the
+passion commences in the nerves of such organ and extends to the brain,
+and the passion is called an _appetite, instinct, or desire_. Some
+of these passions are natural, as hunger, thirst, the reproductive
+instinct, the desire to urinate, etc. Others are gradually acquired by
+habit A _hankering_ for stimulants, as spirits, opium and tobacco, is
+one of these.
+
+Such is the nature of things that our most vivid and agreeable
+sensations cannot be excited under all circumstances, nor beyond a
+certain extent under any circumstances, without giving rise in one
+way or another to an amount of disagreeable consciousness or misery,
+exceeding the amount of agreeable consciousness which attends such
+ill-timed or excessive gratification. To excite agreeable sensations to
+a degree not exceeding this certain extent is temperance; to excite
+them beyond this extent is intemperance; not to excite them at all is
+mortification or abstinence. This certain extent varies with different
+individuals, according to their several circumstances, so that what
+would be temperance in one person may be intemperance in another.
+
+To be free from disagreeable consciousness is to be in a state which,
+compared with a state of misery, is a happy state; yet absolute
+happiness does not exist in the absence of misery, if it does, rocks are
+happy. It consists, as aforesaid, in agreeable consciousness. That which
+enables a person to excite or maintain agreeable consciousness is
+not happiness; but the _idea_ of having such in one's possession is
+agreeable, and of course is a portion of happiness. Health and wealth go
+far in enabling a person to excite and maintain agreeable consciousness.
+That which gives rise to agreeable consciousness is _good_, and we
+desire it. If we use it intemperately, such use is bad, but the thing
+itself is still good. Those acts (and intentions are acts of that part
+of man which intends) of human beings which tend to the promotion of
+happiness are good, but they are also called _virtuous_, to distinguish
+them from other things of the same tendency. There is nothing for the
+word _virtue_ to signify, but virtuous actions. Sin signifies nothing
+but sinful actions, and sinful, wicked, vicious, or bad actions are
+those which are productive of more misery than happiness.
+
+When an individual gratifies any of his instincts in a _temperate_
+degree, he adds an item to the sum total of human happiness, and causes
+the amount of human happiness to exceed the amount of misery farther
+than if he had not enjoyed himself, therefore it is virtuous, or, to
+say the least, it is not vicious or sinful for him to do so. But it must
+ever be remembered that this temperate degree depends on circumstances;
+that one person's health, pecuniary circumstances, or social relation
+may be such that it would cause more misery than happiness for him to do
+an act which being done by a person under different circumstances would
+cause more happiness than misery. Therefore, it would be right for the
+latter to perform such act, but not for the former.
+
+Again: owing to his _ignorance_, a man may not be able to gratify a
+desire without causing misery (wherefore it would be wrong for him to
+do it), but with knowledge of means to prevent this misery, he may so
+gratify it that more pleasure than pain will be the result of the act,
+in which case the act, to say the least, is justifiable. Now, therefore,
+it is virtuous, nay, it is the _duty_, for him who has a knowledge of
+such means, to convey it to those who have it not, for by so doing he
+furthers the cause of human happiness.
+
+Man by nature is endowed with the talent of devising means to remedy
+or prevent the evils that are liable to arise from gratifying our
+appetites; and it is as much the duty of the physician to inform
+mankind of the means to prevent the evils that are liable to arise from
+gratifying the productive instinct as it is to inform them how to keep
+clear of the gout or dyspepsia. Let not the old ascetic say we ought
+not to gratify our appetites any further than is necessary to maintain
+health and to perpetuate the species. Mankind will not so abstain,
+and if any means to prevent the evils that may arise from a farther
+gratification can be devised, they _need not_. Heaven has not only given
+us the capacity of greater enjoyment, but the talent of devising means
+to prevent the evils that are liable to arise therefrom, and it becomes
+us, "with thanksgiving," to make the most of them.
+
+
+
+
+FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. TO LIMIT AT WILL THE NUMBER OF THEIR OFFSPRING
+
+Showing how desirable it is, both in a political and a social point
+of view, for mankind to be able to limit at WILL THE NUMBER OF
+THEIR OFFSPRING, WITHOUT SACRIFICING THE PLEASURE THAT ATTENDS THE
+GRATIFICATION OF THE REPRODUCTIVE INSTINCT.
+
+First.---_In a political point of view_.--If population be not
+restrained by some great physical calamity, such as we have reason to
+hope will not hereafter be visited upon the children of men, or by some
+_moral restraint_, the time will come when the earth cannot support
+its inhabitants. Population unrestrained will double three times in a
+century. Hence, computing the present population of the earth at 1,000
+millions, there would be at the end of 100 years from the present time,
+8,000 millions.
+
+     At the  end of 200 years,  64,000  millions.
+
+     "         "    300    "   512,000       "
+
+And so on, multiplying by eight for every additional hundred years.
+So that in 500 years from the present time there would be thirty-two
+thousand seven hundred and sixty eight times as many inhabitants as at
+present. If the natural increase should go on without check for 1,500
+years, one single pair would increase to more than _thirty-five thousand
+one hundred and eighty-four_ times as many as the present population of
+the whole earth!
+
+Some check then there must be, or the time will come when millions will
+be born but to suffer and to perish for the necessaries of life. To what
+an inconceivable amount of human misery would such a state of things
+give rise! And must we say that vice, war, pestilence and famine are
+desirable to prevent it? Must the friends of temperance and domestic
+happiness stay their efforts? Must peace societies excite to war
+and bloodshed? Must the physician cease to investigate the nature
+of contagion, and to search for the means of destroying its baneful
+influence? Must he that becomes diseased be marked as a victim to die
+for public good, without the privilege of making an effort to restore
+him to health? And in case of a failure of crops in one part of the
+world, must the other parts withhold the means of supporting life that
+the far greater evil of excessive population throughout the world may be
+prevented? Can there be no effectual moral restraint, attended with far
+less human misery than such physical calamities as these? Most surely
+there can. But what is it? Malthus, an English writer on the subject of
+population, gives us none but celibacy to a late age. But how foolish
+it is to suppose that men and women will become as monks and nuns during
+the very holiday of their existence, and abjure during the fairest
+years of life the nearest and dearest of social relations, to avert
+a catastrophe which they and perhaps their children will not live to
+witness. But, besides being ineffectual, or if effectual, requiring a
+great sacrifice of enjoyment, this restraint is highly objectionable
+on the score of its demoralizing tendency. It would give rise to a
+frightful increase of prostitution, of intemperance and onanism, and
+prove destructive to health and moral feelings. In spite of preaching,
+human nature will ever remain the same; and that restraint which forbids
+the gratification of the reproductive instinct will avail but little
+with the mass of mankind. The checks to be hereafter mentioned are
+the only moral restraints to population known to the writer that are
+unattended with serious objections.
+
+Besides starvation, with all its accompanying evils, overpopulation is
+attended with other public evils, of which may be mentioned, ignorance
+and slavery. Where the mass of the people must toil incessantly to
+obtain support, they must remain ignorant; and where ignorance prevails,
+tyranny reigns.*
+
+     * The scientific part of Malthus' Doctrine of Population is
+     not very clearly or correctly given in the above passages.
+     His great theory, now or generally held by the most eminent
+     political economists, is that the increase of population is
+     always powerfully checked in old countries by the difficulty
+     in increasing the supply of food; that the existing evils of
+     poverty and low wages are really at bottom caused by this
+     check, and are brought about by the pressure of population
+     on the soil, and the continual overstocking of the labor
+     markets with laborers; and hence that the only way in which
+     society can escape from poverty, with all its miseries, is
+     by putting a strong restraint on their natural powers of
+     multiplication. "It is not in the nature of things," he
+     says, "that any permanent and general improvement in the
+     condition of the poor can be effected without an increase in
+     the preventive checks to population."--G. R.
+
+Second--_In a social point of view_.--"Is it not notorious that the
+families of the married often increase beyond which a regard for the
+young beings coming into the world, and the happiness of those who give
+them birth, would dictate. In how many instances does the hard-working
+father, and more especially the mother, of a poor family remain slave
+throughout their lives, tugging at the oar of incessant labor, toiling
+to live, and living to toil; when, if their offspring had been limited
+to two or three only, they might have enjoyed comfort and comparative
+affluence? How often is the health of the mother, giving birth every
+year to an infant--happy if it be not twins--and compelled to toil on,
+even at those times when nature imperiously calls for some relief from
+daily drudgery,--how often is the mother's comfort, health, nay, even
+her life, thus sacrificed? Or if care and toil have weighed down the
+spirit, and at length broken the health of the father; how often is
+the widow left unable, with the most virtuous intentions, to save her
+fatherless offspring from becoming degraded objects of charity, or
+profligate votaries of vice!
+
+"Nor is this all. Many women are so constituted that they cannot give
+birth to healthy, sometimes not to living children. Is it desirable,
+is it moral, that such women should become pregnant? Yet this is
+continually the case. Others there are who ought never to become
+parents; because, if they do, it is only to transmit to their offspring
+grievous hereditary diseases, which render such offspring mere subjects
+of misery throughout their sickly existence. Yet such women will not
+lead a life of celibacy. They marry. They become parents, and the sum of
+human misery is increased by their doing so. But it is folly to expect
+that we can induce such persons to live the lives of Shakers. Nor is it
+necessary; all that duty requires of them is to refrain from becoming
+parents. Who can estimate the beneficial effect which a rational
+moral restraint may thus have on the health and beauty and physical
+improvement of our race throughout future generations?"
+
+Let us now turn our attention to the case of unmarried youth.
+
+"Almost all young persons, on reaching the age of maturity, desire to
+marry. That heart must be very cold, or very isolated, that does not
+find some object on which to bestow its affections. Thus, early marriage
+would be almost universal did not prudential consideration interfere.
+The young man thinks, 'I cannot marry yet; I cannot support a family.
+I must make money first, and think of a matrimonial settlement
+afterwards.'
+
+"And so he goes to making money, fully and sincerely resolved in a few
+years to share it with her whom he now loves. But passions are strong
+and temptations great. Curiosity, perhaps, introduces him into the
+company of those poor creatures whom society first reduces to a
+dependence on the most miserable of mercenary trades, and then curses
+for being what she has made them. There his health and moral feelings
+are alike made shipwreck. The affections he had thought to treasure up
+for their first object are chilled by dissipation and blunted by excess.
+He scarcely retains a passion but avarice. Years pass on--years of
+profligacy and speculation--and his wish is accomplished, his fortune is
+made. Where now are the feelings and resolve of his youth?
+
+     'Like the dew on the mountain,
+     Like the foam on the river,
+     Like the bubbles on the fountain,
+     They are gone--and forever.'
+
+"He is a man of pleasure, a man of the world. He laughs at the romance
+of his youth, and marries a fortune. If gaudy equipage and gay parties
+confer happiness, he is happy. But if these be only the sunshine on
+the stormy sea below, he is a victim to that system of morality which
+forbids a reputable connection until the period when provision has been
+made for a large expected family. Had he married the first object of his
+choice, and simply delayed becoming a father until his prospects seemed
+to warrant it, how different might have been his lot. Until men and
+women are absolved from the fear of becoming parents, except when they
+themselves desire it, they will ever form mercenary and demoralizing
+connections, and seek in dissipation the happiness they might have found
+in domestic life.
+
+"I know that this, however common, is not a universal case. Sometimes
+the heavy responsibilities of a family are incurred at all risks; and
+who shall say how often a life of unremitting toil and poverty is the
+consequence. Sometimes, if even rarely, the young mind does hold its
+first resolves. The youth plods through years of cold celibacy and
+solitary anxiety, happy if, before the best hours of his life are gone
+and its warmest feelings withered, he may return to claim the reward of
+his forbearance and his industry. But even in this comparatively happy
+case, shall we count for nothing the years of ascetic sacrifice at which
+after happiness is purchased? The days of youth are not too many, nor
+its affections too lasting. We may, indeed, if a great object require
+it, sacrifice the one and mortify the other. But is this, in itself,
+desirable? Does not wisdom tell us that such a sacrifice is a dead
+loss--to the warm-hearted often a grievous one? Does not wisdom bid us
+temperately enjoy the springtimes of life, 'while the evil day come not,
+nor the years draw nigh, when we shall say we have no pleasure in them?'
+
+"Let us say, then, if we will, that the youth who thus sacrifices the
+present for the future, chooses wisely between the two evils, profligacy
+and asceticism. This is true. But let us not imagine the lesser evil
+to be good. It is _not_ good for man to be alone. It is for no man or
+woman's happiness or benefit that they should be condemned to Shakerism.
+It is a violence done to the feelings and an injury to the character.
+A life of rigid celibacy, though infinitely preferable to a life of
+dissipation, is yet fraught with many evils. Peevishness, restlessness,
+vague longings and instability of character, are amongst the least of
+these. The mind is unsettled, and the judgment warped. Even the very
+instinct which is thus mortified assumes an undue importance, and
+occupies a portion of the thoughts which does not of right or nature
+belong to it, and which, during a life of satisfied affection, it would
+not obtain."
+
+In many instances, the genital organs are rendered so irritable by the
+repletion to which unnatural continency gives rise, and by the much
+thinking caused by such repletion, as to induce a disease known to
+medical men by the name of _Gonorrhoea Dormientium_. It consists in
+an emission or discharge of the semen during sleep. This discharge is
+immediately excited in most instances by a lascivious dream, but such
+dream is caused by the repletion and irritability of the genital organs.
+It is truly astonishing to what a degree of mental anguish the disease
+gives rise in young men. They do not understand the nature, or rather,
+the cause of it. They think it depends on a weakness--indeed, the
+disease is often called a "seminal weakness"--and that the least
+gratification in a natural way would but serve to increase it.
+Their anxiety about it weakens the whole system. This weakness they
+erroneously attribute to the discharges; they think themselves totally
+disqualified for entering into or enjoying the married state. Finally,
+the genital and mental organs act and react upon each other so
+perniciously as to cause a degree of nervousness, debility, emaciation
+and melancholy--in a word, wretchedness that sets description at
+defiance. Nothing is so effectual in curing this diseased state of
+a body and mind in young men as marriage. All restraint, fear and
+solicitude should be removed.
+
+"Inasmuch, then, as the scruples of incurring heavy responsibilities
+deter from forming moral connections and encourage intemperance and
+prostitution, the knowledge which enables man to limit the number of his
+offspring would, in the present state of things, save much unhappi-ness
+and prevent many crimes. Young persons sincerely attached to each other,
+and who might wish to marry, should marry early, merely resolving not
+to become parents until prudence permitted it. The young man, instead
+of solitary toil and vulgar dissipation, would enjoy the society and the
+assistance of her he has chosen as his companion; and the best years of
+life, whose pleasures never return, would not be squandered in riot, nor
+lost through mortification."*
+
+     * The passages quoted are from Robert Dale Owen's "Moral
+     Physiology."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. ON GENERATION
+
+I hold the following to be important and undeniable troths: That every
+man has a natural right both to receive and convey a knowledge of all
+the facts and discoveries of every art and science, excepting such only
+as may be secured to some particular person or persons by copyright or
+patent; that a physical truth in its general effect cannot be a moral
+evil; that no fact in physics or in morals ought to be concealed from
+the inquiring mind.
+
+Some may make a misuse of knowledge, but that is their fault; and it is
+not right that one person should be deprived of knowledge, of spirits,
+of razors, or of anything else which is harmless in itself and may be
+useful to him, because another may misuse it.
+
+The subject on generation is not only interesting as a branch of
+science, but it is so connected with the happiness of mankind that it is
+highly important in a practical point of view. Such, to be sure, is
+the custom of the age, that it is not considered a proper subject to
+investigate before a popular assembly, nor is it proper to attend the
+calls of nature in a like place; yet they must and ought to be attended
+to, for the good, the happiness of mankind require it; so, too, for like
+reason, the subject of generation ought to be investigated until it be
+rightly understood by all people, but at such opportunities as the
+good sense of every individual will easily decide to be proper. This,
+I presume to say, not simply upon the abstract principle that
+all knowledge of Nature's workings is useful, and the want of it
+disadvantageous, but from the known moral fact that ignorance of this
+process has in many instances proved the cause of a lamentable "mishap,"
+and more especially as it is essential to the attainment of the great
+advantage, which it is the chief object of this work to bestow upon
+mankind.
+
+People generally, as it was the case with physicians until late years,
+entertain a very erroneous idea of what takes place in the conception.
+Agreeably to this idea the "check" which I consider far preferable
+to any other, would not be effectual, as would be obvious to all.
+Consequently, entertaining this idea, people would not have due
+confidence in it. Hence, it is necessary to correct a long-held and
+widely extended error. But this I cannot expect to do by simply saying
+it is an error. Deeply rooted and hitherto undisputed opinions are not
+so easily eradicated. If I would convince any one that the steps in one
+of the most recondite processes of nature are not such as he has always
+believed, it will greatly serve my purpose to show what these steps are.
+I must first prepare him to be reasoned with, and then reason the
+matter all over with him. I must point out the facts which disprove his
+opinion, and show that my own is unattended with difficulties.
+
+But what can be more obvious than that it is absolutely impossible
+to explain any process or function of the animal economy, so as to be
+understood, before the names of the organs which perform this function
+have been defined, that is, before the organs themselves have been
+described. Now it is well known to every anatomist, and indeed it may
+be obvious to all, that in describing any organ or system of organs,
+we must always begin with some external and known parts, and proceed
+regularly, step by step, to the internal and unknown. As in arithmetic,
+"everything must be understood as you go along."*
+
+     * This is an Americanism, which appears to us to convey a
+     false idea. If it refers to the cases used as illustrations,
+     Dr. Knowlton is more sparing in his use of them than either
+     Dr. Bull or Dr. Chavasse.--Publishers' Note.
+
+Fully to effect the objects of this work, it is, therefore, a matter of
+necessity that I give an anatomical description of certain parts--even
+external parts--which some, but imagine what I have just said, might
+think it useless to mention. It is not to gratify the idle curiosity of
+the light-minded that this book is written; it is for _utility_ in the
+broad and truly philosophical sense of the term; nay, farther, it shall
+with the exception of here and there a little spicing*, have confined
+to _practical utility_. I shall, therefore, endeaver to treat of the
+subject in this chapter so as to be understood, without giving any
+description of the male organs of generation; though I hold it an
+accomplishment for one be able to speak of those organs, as diseases
+often put them under the necessity of doing, without being compelled use
+low and vulgar language. But I must briefly describe the female organs;
+in doing which I must, of course, speak as do other anatomists and
+physiologists; and whoever objects to this will discover more
+affectation and prudery than good sense and good will to mankind.
+
+The adipose, or fatty matter, immediately over the share bone, forms
+a considerable prominence in females, which, at the age of puberty, is
+covered with hair, as in males. This prominence is called Mons Veneris.
+
+The exterior orifice commences immediately below this. On each side of
+this orifice is a prominence continued from the mons veneris, which
+is largest above and gradually diminishes as it descends. These two
+prominences are called the Labia Externa, or external lips. Near the
+latter end of pregnancy they become somewhat enlarged and relaxed, so
+that they sustain little or no injury during parturition. Just within
+the upper or anterior commissure, formed by the junction of these lips,
+a little round oblong body is situated. The body is called the clitoris.
+Most of its length is bound down, as it were, pretty closely to the
+bone; and it is of very variable size in different females. Instances
+have occurred where it was so enlarged as to allow the female to have
+venereal commerce with others; and in Paris this fact was once made a
+public exhibition to the medical faculty. Women thus formed appear to
+partake in their general form of the male character, and are called
+hermaphrodites. The idea of human beings, called hermaphrodites, which
+could be either father or mother, is, doubtless, erroneous. The clitoris
+is analogous in its structure to the penis, and like it, is exquisitely
+sensitive, being, as it is supposed, the principal seat of pleasure. It
+is subject to erection or distension, like the penis, from like causes.
+
+The skin which lines the internal surface of the external lips is folded
+in such manner as to form two flat bodies, the exterior edges of which
+are convex. They are called the nymphse. They extend downward, one on
+each side, from the clitoris to near the middle of the external orifice,
+somewhat diverging from each other. Their use is not very evident The
+orifice of the urethra (the canal, short in females, which leads to the
+bladder) is situated an inch or more farther inward than the clitoris,
+and is a little protuberant.
+
+Passing by the external lips, the clitoris, the nymphse and the orifice
+of the urethra, we come to the membrane called the hymen. It is situated
+just at, or a trifle behind the orifice of the urethra. It is stretched
+across the passage, and were it a complete septum, it would close up the
+anterior extremity of that portion of the passage which is called the
+vagina. But the instances in which the septum or partition is complete
+are very rare, there being, in almost all cases, an aperture either in
+its center, or frequently in its anterior edge, giving the membrane the
+form of a crescent Through this aperture passes the menstrual fluid.
+Sometimes, however, this septum is complete, and the menstrual fluid
+is retained month after month, until appearances and symptoms much
+like those of pregnancy are produced, giving rise to perhaps unjust
+suspicions. Such cases require the simple operation of dividing the
+hymen. In many instances the hymen is very imperfect, insomuch that some
+have doubted whether it is to be found in the generality of virgins.
+Where it exists it is generally ruptured in the first intercourse of
+the sexes, and the female is said to lose her virginity. In some
+rare instances it is so very strong as not to be ruptured by such
+intercourse, and the nature of the difficulty not being understood, the
+husband has sued for a divorce. But everything may be put to rights by
+a slight surgical operation. The parts here described are among those
+called the external parts of generation.
+
+The internal organs of generation consist in the female of the Vagina,
+the Uterus, the Ovaries and their appendages.
+
+The Vagina is a membranous canal commencing at the hymen and extending
+to the uterus. It is a little curved, and extends backward and upward
+between the bladder, which lies before and above it, and that extreme
+portion of the bowels called the rectum, which lies behind it. The
+coat of membrane which lines the internal surface of the vagina forms a
+number of transverse ridges. These are to be found only in the lower
+or anterior half of the vagina, and they do not extend all round the
+vagina, but are situated on its anterior and posterior sides, while
+their lateral sides are smooth. I mention these ridges because a
+knowledge of them may lead to a more effectual use of one of the checks
+to be made known hereafter.
+
+The uterus or womb is also situated between the bladder and the rectum,
+but above the vagina. Such is its shape that it has been compared to
+a pear with a long neck. There is, of course, considerable difference
+between the body and the neck, the first being twice as broad as the
+last. Each of these parts is somewhat flattened. In subjects of mature
+age, who have been pregnant, the whole of the uterus is about two inches
+and a half in length, and more than an inch and a half in breadth at the
+broadest part of the body. It is near an inch in thickness. The neck of
+the uterus is situated downward, and may be said to be inserted into
+the upper extremity of the vagina. It extends down into the vagina the
+better part of an inch. In the uterus is a cavity which approaches the
+triangular form, and from which a canal passes down through the neck of
+the uterus into the vagina. This cavity is so small that its sides are
+almost in contact So that the uterus is a thick, firm organ for so small
+a one. Comparing the cavity of the uterus to a triangle, we say the
+upper side or line of this triangle is transverse with respect to the
+body, and the other two lines pass downward and inward, so that they
+would form an angle below, did they not before they meet take a turn
+more directly downward to form the canal just mentioned. In each of the
+upper angles there is an orifice of such size as to admit of a hog's
+bristle. These little orifices are the mouths of two tubes, called the
+Fallopian tubes, of which more will be said presently. The canal which
+passes through the neck of the uterus, connecting the cavity of
+this organ with that of the vagina, is about a quarter of an inch in
+diameter. It is different from other ducts, for it seems to be a part
+of the cavity from which it extends, inasmuch as when the cavity of the
+uterus is enlarged in the progress of pregnancy, this canal is gradually
+converted into a part of that cavity.
+
+The lower extremity of the neck of the uterus is irregularly convex and
+tumid. The orifice of the canal in it is oval, and so situated that it
+divides the convex surface of the lower extremity of the neck in two
+portions, which are called the lips of the uterus. The anterior is
+thicker than the posterior. The orifice itself is called _os tincæ_ or
+_os uteri_, or in English, the mouth of the womb. When the parts are in
+a weak, relaxed state, the mouth or neck of the uterus is quite low, and
+in almost all oases it may be reached by a finger introduced into the
+vagina, especially by a second person, who carries the hand behind.
+
+The Ovaries are two bodies of a flattened or oval form, one of which is
+situated on each side of the uterus at a little distance from it, and
+about as high up as where the uterus becomes narrow to form its neck.
+The longest diameter of the ovarium is about an inch. Each ovarium has a
+firm coat of membrane. In those who have not been pregnant, it contains
+from ten to twenty _vesicles_, which are little round bodies, formed of
+a delicate membrane, and filled with a transparent fluid. Some of
+these vesicles are situated so near the surface of the ovarium as to
+be prominent on its surface. They are of different sizes, the largest
+nearly a quarter of a inch in diameter.*
+
+     * The vesicles here mentioned are the so-called Graafian
+     vesicles, or ovisacs, each of which contains in its interior
+     a little ovum or egg. In the human female the ovum is
+     extremely minute, so as only to be visible with the aid of a
+     lens. The Graafian vesicles are not limited to a certain
+     small number, as was formerly thought, but continue to be
+     formed in the ovaries, and to discharge at intervals mature
+     ova during the whole of the fruitful period.--G. R.
+
+In those in whom conception has ever taken place, some of these vesicles
+are removed, and in their place a cicatrix or scar is formed which
+continues through life. However, the number of cicatrices does not
+always correspond with the number of conceptions. They often exceed
+it, and are sometimes found where conception has not been known to take
+place. The Fallopian Tubes are two canals four or five inches in length,
+proceeding from the upper angles of the cavity of the uterus, in a
+transverse direction in respect to the body. Having so proceeded
+for some distance they turn downward toward the ovaries. At their
+commencement in the uterus they are very small, but they enlarge as much
+as they progress. The large ends, which hang loose, terminate in open
+mouths, the margins of which consist of fimbriated processes, and nearly
+touch the ovaria.
+
+We are now prepared to treat of conception. Yet, as menstruation is
+closely connected with it, and as a knowledge of many things concerning
+menstruation may contribute much to the well-being of females, for
+whom this work is at least as much designed as for males, I shall first
+briefly treat of this subject.
+
+Menstruation.--When females arrive at the age of puberty they begin to
+have a discharge once every month, by way of the vagina, of the color of
+blood. This discharge is termed the menses. To have it is to menstruate.
+The age at which menstruation commences varies with different
+individuals, and also in different climates. The warmer the climate
+the earlier it commences and ceases. In temperate climates it
+generally commences at the age of fourteen or fifteen, and it ceases at
+forty-four, or a little later. *
+
+Whenever it commences the girl acquires a more womanly appearance. It
+is a secretion of the uterus, or, in other words, the minute vessels
+distributed to the inner coat of uterus, select as it were, from the
+blood, and pour out in a gradual manner the materials of this fluid. It
+has one of the properties, color, of blood, but it does not coagulate,
+or separate into different parts like blood, and cannot properly be
+called blood.**
+
+     * Dr. Chavasse, on p. 94 of his "Advice to a Wife"
+     published by W. H. Smith & Son gives instances of very
+     early menstruation and consequent fecundity.--Publishers'
+     note,
+
+     ** "The menstrual discharge," says Dr. Kirkes, "consists of
+     blood effused from the inner surface of the uterus, and
+     mixed with mucus from the uterus, vagina, and the external
+     parts of the generative apparatus. Being diluted by this
+     admixture, the menstrual blood coagulates less perfectly
+     than ordinary blood; and the frequent acidity of the vaginal
+     mucus tends still further to diminish its coagulability."--
+     Handbook of Physiology, 8th ed., p. 727, 1874.--G. R.
+
+When this discharge is in all respects regular, it amounts in most
+females to six or eight ounces, and from two to four days' continuance.
+During its continuance the women is said to be unwell, or out of order.
+Various unpleasant feelings are liable to attend it; but when it is
+attended with severe pain, as it not infrequently is, it becomes a
+disease, and the woman is not likely to conceive until it is cured.
+During the existence of the "turns," or "monthlies," as they are often
+called, indigestible food, dancing in warm rooms, sudden exposure
+to cold or wet, and mental agitations, should be avoided as much as
+possible. The "turns" do not continue during pregnancy, nor nursing,
+unless nursing be continued after the "turns" recommence. Some women, it
+is true, are subject to a slight hemorrhage that sometimes occurs with
+considerable regularity during pregnancy, and which has led them to
+suppose they have their turns at such times; but it is not so; the
+discharge at such times is real blood.*
+
+     * Consult on the whole of this Dr. Chavasse's book, pp. 91-
+     101, where full details are given.--Publishers' note.
+
+The use of the menstrual discharge seems to be to prepare the uterine
+system for conception. For females do not become pregnant before
+they commence, nor after they cease having turns; nor while they are
+suppressed by some disease, by cold or by nursing. Some credible women,
+however, have said that they become pregnant while nursing, without
+having had any turn since their last lying-in. It is believed that in
+these oases they had some discharge, colorless, perhaps, which they did
+not notice, but which answered the purposes of the common one. Women
+are not nearly so likely to conceive during the week before a monthly
+as during the week immediately after.* But although the use of this
+secretion seems to be to prepare for conception, it is not to be
+inferred that the reproductive instinct ceases at the "turn of life,"
+or when the woman ceases to menstruate. On the contrary, it is said that
+this passion often increases at this period, and continues in a greater
+or less degree to an extreme age.
+
+     * See, however, Dr. Bull's "Hints to Mothers," pp. 31-58,
+     and 127-129 (published by Longmans, Green & Co.)--
+     Publishers' note.
+
+Conception.--The part performed by the male in the reproduction of the
+species consists in exciting the organism of the female, and depositing
+the semen in the vagina. Before I inquire what takes place in the
+females I propose to speak of the semen.
+
+This fluid, which is secreted by the testicles, may be said to possess
+three kinds of properties, physical, chemical, physiological. Its
+physical properties are known to every one--it is a thickish, nearly
+opaque fluid, of a peculiar odor, saltish taste, etc. As to its chemical
+properties, it is found by analysis to consist of 900 parts of water,
+60 of animal muscilage, 10 of soda, 30 of phosphate of lime. Its
+physiological property is that of exciting the female genital organs in
+a peculiar manner.
+
+When the semen is examined by microscope, there can be distinguished a
+multitude of small animalculæ, which appear to have a rounded head and a
+long tail. These animalculæ move with a certain degree of rapidity. They
+appear to avoid the light and to delight in the shade. Leeuwenhoek, if
+not the discoverer of the seminal animalculse, was the first who brought
+the fact of their existence fully before the public. With respect to
+their size, he remarked that ten thousand of them might exist in a space
+not larger than a grain of sand. They have a definite figure, and are
+obviously different from the animalculse found in any other fluid.*
+
+     * See Dr. Carpenter's "Animal Physiology," p. 558 (published
+     by H. G. Bonn); Nichol's "Human Physiology," pp. 253-255
+     (published by Trubner & Co.)--Publishers' note.
+
+Leeuwenhoek believed them to be the beginnings of future animals--that
+they are of different sexes, upon which depends the future sex of the
+foetus. Be this as it may, it appears to be admitted on all hands that
+the animalculæ are present in the semen of the various species of
+male animals, and that they cannot be detected when either from age or
+disease the animals are rendered sterile. "Hence," says Bostock, "we can
+scarcely refuse our assent to the position that these animalculæ are
+in some way or other instrumental to the production of the foetus."
+The secretion of the semen commences at the age of puberty. Before this
+period the testicles secrete a viscid, transparent fluid, which has
+never been analyzed, but which is doubtless essentially different from
+semen. The revolution which the whole economy undergoes at this period,
+such as the tone of the voice, and development of hairs, the beard, the
+increase of the muscles and bones, etc., is intimately connected with
+the testicles and the secretion of this fluid.* "Eunuchs preserve the
+same form as in childhood; their voice is effeminate, they have no
+beard, their disposition is timid; and finally their physical and moral
+character very nearly resembles that of females. Nevertheless, many of
+them take delight in venereal intercourse, and give themselves up with
+ardor to a connection which must always prove unfruitful."**
+
+     * Nichol's  "Human Physiology,"  pp.    256-257.
+     --Publishers' note
+
+     ** Magendic's Physiology.--Author's note.
+
+The part performed by the female in the reproduction of the species is
+far more complicated than that performed by the male. It consists, in
+the first instance, in providing a substance which, in connection
+with the male secretion, is to constitute the foetus; in furnishing a
+suitable situation in which the foetus may be developed; in affording
+due nourishment for its growth; in bringing it forth, and afterward
+furnishing it with food especially adapted to the digestive organs of
+the young animal. Some parts of this process are not well understood,
+and such variety of hypotheses have been proposed to explain them that
+Drelincourt, who lived in the latter part of the seventeenth century, is
+said to have collected two hundred and sixty hypotheses of generation.
+
+It ought to be known that women have conceived when the semen was merely
+applied to the parts anterior to the hymen, as the internal surface
+of the external lips, the nymphæ, etc. This is proved by the fact that
+several cases of pregnancy have occurred when the hymen was entire. The
+fact need not surprise us, for, agreeable to the theory of absorption,
+we have to account for it only to suppose that some of the absorbent
+vessels are situated anterior to the hymen--a supposition by no means
+unreasonable.
+
+There are two peculiarities of the human species respecting conception
+which I will notice. First, unlike other animals they are liable, and
+for what has been proved to the contrary, equally liable--to conceive
+at all seasons of the year. Second, a woman rarely, if ever, conceives
+until after having several sexual connections; nor does one connection
+in fifty cause conception in the matrimonial state, where the husband
+and wife live together uninterruptedly. Public women rarely conceive,
+owing probably to a weakened state of the genital system, induced by too
+frequent and promiscuous intercourse.
+
+It is universally agreed, that some time after a fruitful connection,
+a vesicle (two in case of twins) of one or the other ovary becomes so
+enlarged that it bursts forth from the ovary and takes the name of
+ovum, which is taken up, or rather received, as it bursts forth, by the
+fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube, and is then conducted along
+the tube into the uterus, to the inner surface of which it attaches
+itself.*
+
+     * Since Dr. Knowlton's work was written, the very important
+     fact has been discovered that ova are periodically
+     discharged from the ovaries in the human female and other
+     animals, not in consequence of fruitful connection having
+     taken place, as was formerly believed, but quite
+     independently of intercourse with the male. Such a discharge
+     of ova occurs in the lower animals at the time of heat or
+     rut, and in women during menstruation. At each menstrual
+     period, a Graafian vesicle becomes enlarged, bursts, and
+     lets the ovum which it contains escape into the Fallopian
+     tube, along which it passes to the uterus. "It has long been
+     known," says Dr. Kirke, "that in the so-called oviparous
+     animals, the separation of ova from the ovary may take place
+     independently of impregnation by the male, or even of sexual
+     union. And it is now established that a like maturation and
+     discharge of ova, independently of coition, occurs in
+     Mammalia, the periods at which the matured ova are separated
+     from the ovaries and received into the Fallopian tubes being
+     indicated in the lower Mammalia by the phenomena of _heat_
+     or _rut_; in the human female by the phenomena of
+     _menstruation_. Sexual desire manifests itself in the human
+     female to a greater degree at these periods, and in the
+     female of mammiferous animals at no other time. If the union
+     of the sexes takes place, the ovum may be fecundated, and if
+     no union occur, it perishes. From what has been said it may
+     therefore be concluded that the two states, heat and
+     menstruation, are analogous, and that the essential
+     accompaniment of both is the maturation and extrusion of
+     ova."--"Handbook of Physiology," page 724.--G. R.
+
+Here it becomes developed into a full grown foetus, and is brought forth
+about forty-two weeks from the time of conception by a process termed
+parturition. But one grand question is, how the semen operates itself,
+or any part thereof reaches the ovary, and if so, in what way it is
+conveyed to them. It was long the opinion that the semen was ejected
+into the uterus in the act of coition, and that it afterward, by some
+unknown means, found its way into and along the Fallopian tubes to the
+ovary. But there are several facts which weigh heavily against this
+opinion, and some that entirely forbid it. In the first place, there are
+several well attested instances in which impregnation took place while
+the hymen remained entire, where the vagina terminated in the rectum,
+where it was so contracted by a cicatrix as not to admit the penis. In
+all these cases the semen could not have been lodged anywhere near
+the mouth of the uterus, much less ejected into it. Secondly, it has
+followed a connection where from some defect in the male organs, as the
+urethra terminating some inches behind the end of the penis, and it is
+clear that the semen could not have been injected into the uterus, nor
+even near its mouth. Third, the neck of the unimpregnated uterus is so
+narrow as merely to admit a probe, and is filled with a thick tenacious
+fluid, which seemingly could not be forced away by any force which the
+male organ possesses of ejecting the semen, even if the mouth of the
+male urethra were in opposition with that of the uterus. But fourth, the
+mouth of the uterus is by no means fixed. By various causes it is made
+to assume various situations, and probably the mouth of the urethra
+rarely comes in contact with it.
+
+Fifth. "The tenacity of the male semen is such as renders its passage
+through the small aperture in the neck of the uterus impossible, even by
+a power of force much superior to that which we may rationally suppose
+to reside in the male organs of generation."
+
+Sixth. "Harvey and DeGraaf dissected animals at almost every period
+after coition for the express purpose of discovering the semen, but were
+never able to detect the smallest vestige of it in the uterus in any one
+instance."*
+
+     * Dewees' Essay on Superfoetation.--Author's note.
+
+Aware of the insurmountable objection to this view of the manner
+in which the semen reaches the ovary, it has been supposed by some
+physiologists that the semen is absorbed from the vagina into the great
+circulating system, where it is mixed, of course, with the blood, and
+goes the whole round of the circulation subject to the influence of
+those causes which produce great changes in the latter fluid.
+
+To this hypothesis it may be objected, that while there is no direct
+evidence in support of it, it is exceedingly unreasonable, inasmuch
+as we can scarcely believe that the semen can go the whole round of
+circulation, and then find its way to the ovary in such a pure unaltered
+state as the experiments of Spallanzani prove it must be in, that it may
+impregnate.
+
+A third set of theorists have maintained that an imperceptible
+something, which they have called _aura seminalis_, passes from the
+semen lodged in the vagina to the ovary, and excites those actions which
+are essential to the development of an ovum. Others, again, have told us
+that it is all done by sympathy. That neither the semen nor any volatile
+part of it finds its way to the ovary; but that the semen excites the
+parts with which it is in contact in a peculiar manner, and by the law
+of animal economy, termed sympathy, or consent of parts, a peculiar
+action commences in the ovary, by which an ovum is developed.
+
+To both these conjectures it may be objected that they have no other
+foundation but the supposed necessity of adopting them, to account for
+the effect of impregnation; and, further, they "make no provision for
+the formation of mules; for the peculiarities of, and likeness to,
+parents, and for the propagation of predisposition to disease, from
+parent to child; for the production of mulattoes," etc.
+
+A fifth, and to me far more satisfactory view of the subject than any
+other, is that advanced by our distinguished countryman, Dr. Dewees, of
+Philadelphia. It appears to harmonize with all known facts relating
+to the conception and something from analogy may also be drawn in its
+favor. It is this, that there is a set of absorbent vessels, leading
+directly from the inner surface of the _labia externa_ and the vagina,
+to the ovaries, the whole office of which vessels is to absorb the semen
+and convey it to the ovaries.* I do not know that these vessels have
+yet been fully discovered, but in a note on the sixteenth page of his
+"Essays on Various Subjects," the doctor says: "The existence of these
+vessels is now rendered almost certain, as Dr. Gartner, of Copenhagen,
+has discovered a duct leading from the ovary to the vagina."
+
+     * This view is not held at the present day. The commonly
+     received doctrine now is that the seminal fluid enters the
+     uterus, whether during the intercourse or after it, and
+     passes along the Fallopian tubes to the ovaries; and that
+     fecundation takes place at some point of this course, most
+     frequently in the tubes, but also at times in the ovary
+     itself, or even, perhaps, in the uterus. It is essentially
+     necessary for fecundation that the spermatozoa should come
+     into actual contact with the ovum. "That the spermatozoa
+     make their way toward the ovarium, and fecundate the ovum
+     either before it entirely quits the ovisac or very shortly
+     afterward," says Dr. Carpenter, "appears to be the general
+     rule in regard to the Mammalia; and their power of movement
+     must obviously be both vigorous and long continued to enable
+     them to traverse so great an extent of mucous membrane,
+     especially when it is remembered that they ascend in
+     opposition to the direction of the ciliary movement of the
+     epithelial cells and to the downward peristaltic action of
+     the Fallopian tubes. * * * There can be no doubt that it is
+     the contact of the spermatozoa with the ovum, and in the
+     changes which occur as the immediate consequence of that
+     contact, that the act of fecundation essentially consists."
+     --"Principles of Human Physiology," 8th ed., p. 961,1876.--G.R.
+
+Another question of considerable moment relating to generation is from
+which parent are the first rudiments of the foetus derived.
+
+The earliest hypothesis with which we are acquainted, and which has
+received the support of some of the most eminent of the moderns,
+ascribes the original formation of the foetus to the combination of
+particles of matter derived from each of the parents. This hypothesis
+naturally presents itself to the mind as the obvious method of
+explaining the necessity for the cooperation of the two sexes, and the
+resemblance in external form, and even in mind and character, which the
+offspring often bears to the male parent. "The principal objections,"
+says Bostock, "to his hypothesis, independent of the want of any direct
+proof of a female seminal fluid, are of two descriptions, those which
+depend upon the supposed impossibility of unorganized matter forming
+an organized being, and those which are derived from observations and
+experiments of Haller and Spallanzani, which they brought forward in
+support of their theory of pre-existent germs."
+
+In relation to these objections I remark, first those whose experience
+has been with hale females, I suspect, can have no doubt but that the
+female organism increases like that of the male, until an emission of
+fluid of some kind or other takes place. But whether this secretion may
+properly be called semen, whether any part of it unites with the male
+semen in forming the rudiments of the foetus, is another question. For
+my part I am inclined to the opinion that it does not.* I rather regard
+it as the result of exalted excitation, analogous to the increased
+secretion of other organs from increased stimulation; and if it may be
+for any object or use, as it probably is, it is that of affording
+nature a means of relieving herself; or, in other words, of quieting the
+venereal passion. If this passion, being once roused, could not by some
+means or other be calmed, it would command by far too great a portion of
+our thoughts, and with many constitutions the individuals, whether male
+or female, could not conduct themselves with due decorum. One fact which
+leads me to think that the female secretion in the act of coition is not
+essential to impregnation is, that many females have conceived, if their
+unbiased testimony may be relied on, when they experienced no pleasure.
+In these cases it is more than probable that there was no orgasm, nor
+any secretion or emission of fluid on the part of the female.
+
+     * With regard to this secretion in the female, which has
+     nothing of a seminal character, Dr. Carpenter observes: "Its
+     admixture with the male semen has been supposed to have some
+     connection with impregnation; but no proof whatever has been
+     given that any such admixture is necessary."--"Human
+     Physiology," p. 991.--G. R.
+
+As to the objection of the supposed impossibility of unorganized matter
+forming an organized being, I do not believe such a thing takes place,
+even if we admit that "the original formation of the foetus is a
+combination of particles of matter derived from each of the parents."
+What do, or rather what ought we to mean by organized matter? Not,
+surely, that it exhibits some obvious physical structure, unlike what is
+to be found in inorganic matter, but that it exhibits phenomena, and of
+course may be said to possess properties unlike any kind of inorganic
+matter. Matter unites with matter in three ways, mechanically,
+chemically and organically, and each mode of union gives rise to
+properties peculiar to itself. When matter unites organically, the
+substance or being so formed exhibits some phenomena essentially
+different from what inorganic bodies exhibit. It is on this account that
+we ascribe to organic bodies certain properties, which we call
+physiological properties, such as contractility, sensibility, life, etc.
+When, from any cause, these bodies have undergone such a change that
+they no longer exhibit the phenomena peculiar to them, they are said to
+have lost these properties, and to be dead. A substance need not possess
+all the physiological properties of an animal of the higher orders to
+entitle it to the name of an organized or living substance, nor need it
+possess the physical property of solidity. The blood, as well as many of
+the secretions, does several things, exhibits several phenomena, which
+no mechanical or mere chemical combinations of matter do exhibit. We
+must therefore ascribe to it certain physiological properties, and
+regard it as an organized, a living fluid, as was contended by the
+celebrated John Hunter. So with respect to the semen, it certainly
+possesses physiological properties, one in particular peculiar to
+itself, namely, the property of impregnating the female; and upon no
+sound principle can it be regarded in any other light than as an
+organized, and of course a living fluid. And if the female secretion or
+any part of it unite with the male secretion in the formation of the
+rudiments or the foetus in a different manner than any other substance
+would, then it certainly has the property of doing so, whether we give
+this property a name or not; and a regard to the soundest principles of
+physiology compels us to class this property with the physiological or
+vital, and of course to regard this secretion as an organized and living
+fluid So, then, unorganized matter does not form an organized being,
+admitting the hypothesis before us as correct.
+
+That organized being should give rise to other organized beings under
+favorable circumstances as to nourishment, warmth, etc., is no more
+wonderful than that fire should give rise to fire when air and fuel are
+present. To be sure, there are some minute steps in the processes which
+are not fully known to us; still, if they ever should be known, we
+should unquestionably see that there is a natural cause for every one
+of them; and that they are all consonant with certain laws of the animal
+economy. We should see no necessity of attempting to explain the process
+of generation by bringing to our aid, or rather to the darkening of
+the subject, any imaginary principle, as the _visus formaticus_ of
+Blumenbach.
+
+As to the "observations and experiments of Haller and Spallanzani," I
+think, with Dr. Bostock, that they weigh but little, if any, against the
+theory before us. I shall not be at the labor of bringing them forward
+and showing their futility as objections to this theory, for I am far
+from insisting on the correctness of it; that is, I do not insist that
+any part of the female secretion, during coition, unites with the male
+semen in the formation of the rudiments of the foetus.
+
+The second hypothesis or theory, I shall notice, as to the rudiments of
+the foetus, is that of Leeuwenhoek, who regarded the seminal animalculse
+of the male semen as the proper rudiments of the foetus, and thought
+that the office of the female is to afford them a suitable receptacle
+where they may be supported and nourished until they are able to exist
+by the exercise of their own functions. This is essentially the view of
+the subject which I intend to give more particularly presently.
+
+I know of no serious objections to this hypothesis, nothing but the
+"extreme improbability," as its opponents say, "that these animalculæ
+should be the rudiments of being so totally dissimilar to them." But I
+wish to know if there is more difference between a foetus and a seminal
+animalcule than there is between a foetus and a few material particles
+in some other form than that of such animalcule?
+
+The third hypothesis, or that of pre-existing germs, proceeded upon a
+precisely opposite view of the subject to that of Leeuwenhoek, namely,
+that the foetus is properly the production of the female; that it exists
+previous to the sexual congress, with all its organs, in some parts of
+the uterine system; and that it receives no proper addition from the
+male, but that the seminal fluid acts merely by exciting the powers of
+the foetus, or endowing it with vitality.
+
+It is not known who first proposed this hypothesis; but strange as it
+may appear, it has had the support of such names as Bonnet, Haller and
+Spallanzani, and met with a favorable reception in the middle of the
+last century. Agreeable to this hypothesis, our common mother, Eve,
+contained a number of homuncules (little men) one within another, like
+a nest of boxes, and all within her ovaries, equal to all the number of
+births that have ever been, or ever will be, not to reckon abortions.
+Were I to bring forward all the facts and arguments that have been
+advanced in support of this idea, it seems to me I should fail to
+convince sound minds of its correctness; as to arguments against it,
+they surely seem uncalled for. Having now presented several hypotheses
+of generation, some as to the manner in which the semen reaches or
+influences the ovary, and others as to the rudiments of the foetus, I
+shall now bring together those views which, upon the whole, appear to me
+the most satisfactory.
+
+I believe, with Dr. Dewees, that a set of absorbent vessels extend from
+the innermost surface of the _labia externa_, and from the vagina to the
+ovary, the whole office of which is to take up the semen or some part
+thereof, and convey it to the ovary. I believe, with Leeuwenhoek, that
+the seminal animalculæ are the proper rudiments of the foetus, and are
+perhaps of different sexes; that in cases of impregnation one of them
+is carried not only to, but into a vesicle of an ovary, which is in a
+condition to receive and be duly affected by it.* It is here surrounded
+by the albuminous fluid which the vesicle contains. This fluid being
+somewhat changed in its qualities by its new-comer, stimulates the
+minute vessels of the parts which surround it, and thus causes more of
+this fluid to be formed; and while it affords the animalcule material
+for its development, it puts the delicate membrane of the ovary which
+retains it in its place upon the stretch, and finally bursts forth
+surrounded probably by an exceedingly delicate membrane of its own. This
+membrane, with the albuminous fluid it contains and the animalcule in
+the center of it, constitutes the ovum or egg. It is received by the
+fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube, which by this time has
+grasped the ovary, and is by this tube slowly conveyed into the uterus,
+to the inner surface of which it attaches itself, through the medium
+of the membrane, which is formed by the uterus itself in the interim
+between impregnation and the arriving of the ovum in the way I have just
+mentioned.
+
+     * The opinion that the spermatozoa of seminal filaments are
+     real animalculæ is now abandoned, but it is held by Dr.
+     Carpenter and other authorities that they actually, as here
+     stated, penetrate into the interior of the ovum. "The nature
+     of impregnation," says Dr. Hermann, "is as yet unknown. In
+     all probability it is, above all, essential, in order that
+     it should occur, that one or more spermatozoa should
+     penetrate the ovum. At any rate, spermatozoa have been found
+     within the fecundated eggs of the most diverse species of
+     animals."--Elements of "Human Physiology," translated from
+     the 5th ed., by Dr. Gamgee, p. 534, 1875.--G. R.
+
+The idea that a seminal animalcule enters an ovum while it remains in
+the ovary, was never before advanced to my knowledge; hence I consider
+it incumbent upon me to advance some reason for the opinion.
+
+First, it is admitted on all hands that the seminal animalculæ are
+essential to impregnation, since "they cannot be detected when either
+from age or disease the animal is rendered sterile."
+
+Second, the ovum is impregnated while it remains in the ovary. True,
+those who never met with Dr. Dewees' theory, and who, consequently, have
+adopted the idea that the semen is ejected into the uterus, as the least
+improbable of any with which they were acquainted, have found it very
+difficult to dispose of the fact that the ovum is impregnated in the
+ovary, and have consequently presumed this is not generally the case.
+They admit it is certainly so sometimes, and that it is difficult to
+reject the conclusion that it is always so. Dr. Bostock--who, doubtless,
+had not met with Dewees' theory at the time he wrote, and who admits
+it impossible to conceive how the semen can find its way along the
+Fallopian tubes, how it can find its way toward the ovary, farther, at
+most, than into the uterus, and, consequently, cannot see how the ovum
+can be impregnated into the ovary--says, "Perhaps the most rational
+supposition may be that the ovum is transmitted to the uterus in the
+unimpregnated state; but there are certain facts which seem almost
+incompatible with this idea, especially the cases which not infrequently
+occur of perfect foetuses having been found in the tubes, or where they
+escaped them into the cavity of the abdomen. Hence it is demonstrated
+the ovum is occasionally impregnated in the tubes (why did he not say
+ovaria?), and we can scarcely resist the conclusion that it must always
+be the case."..."Haller discusses this hypothesis (Bostock's 'most
+natural supposition, perhaps') and decides against it."..."The
+experiments of Cruikshank, which were very numerous, and appear to have
+been made with the requisite degree of skill and correctness, led to
+the conclusion that the rudiment of the young animal is perfected in
+the ovarium."... "A case is detailed by Dr. Granville, of a foetus which
+appears to have been lodged in the body of the ovarium itself, and is
+considered by its author as a proof that conception always takes place
+in this organ."
+
+The above quotations are from the third volume of Bostock's Physiology.
+
+Now, as the seminal animalculæ are essential to impregnation, and as the
+ovum is impregnated in the ovarium, what more probable conjecture can we
+form than that an animalcule, as the real proper rudiment of the foetus,
+enters the ovum, where, being surrounded with albuminous fluid with
+which it is nourished, it gradually becomes developed? It may be noticed
+that Leeuwenhoek estimates that ten thousand animalculæ of the human
+semen may exist in a space not larger than a grain of sand. There can,
+therefore, be no difficulty in admitting that they may find their way
+along exceedingly minute vessels from the vagina, not only to, but into
+the ovum while situated in the ovarium.
+
+I think no one can be disposed to maintain that the animalculæ merely
+reaches the surface of the ovum and thus impregnates it. But possibly
+some may contend that its sole office is to stimulate the ovum, and
+in this way set going that train of actions which are essential to
+impregnation. But there is no evidence in favor of this last idea, and
+certainly it does not so well harmonize with the fact that the offspring
+generally partakes more or less of the character of its male parent. As
+Dr. Dewees says of the doctrine of sympathy, "It makes no provision
+for the formation of mules; for the peculiarities of and likeness of
+parents; and for the propagation of predisposition to disease from
+parent to child; for the production of mulattoes," etc.
+
+Considering it important to do away with the popular and mischievous
+error that the semen must enter the uterus to effect impregnation, I
+shall, in addition to what has been already advanced, here notice the
+experiments of Dr. Haighton. He divided the Fallopian tubes in numerous
+instances, and that after the operation a foetus is never produced, but
+that _corpora lutea_ were formed. The obvious conclusions from these
+facts are that the semen does not traverse the Fallopian tubes to reach
+the ovaria; yet, that the ovum becomes impregnated while in the ovarium
+and, consequently, that the semen reaches the ovum in some way, except
+by the uterus and Fallopian tubes. I may remark, however, that a _corpus
+luteum_ is not positive proof that impregnation at some time or other
+has taken place; yet they are so rarely found in virgins that they were
+regarded as such proofs until the time of Blumenbach, a writer of the
+present century.*
+
+     * A _corpus luteum_ is a little yellowish body, formed in
+     the ovary by changes that take place in the Graafian vesicle
+     after it has burst and discharged its contents. _Corpora
+     lutea_ were formerly considered a sure sign of impregnation,
+     as they were thought to be developed only or chiefly in
+     cases of pregnancy, but it is now known that they occur in
+     all cases where a vesicle has been ruptured and an ovum
+     discharged; though they attain a larger, size and are longer
+     visible in the ovary when pregnancy takes place than when it
+     does not.--G. R.
+
+"Harvey and DeGraaf dissected animals at most every period after coition
+for the express purpose of discovering the semen, but were never able
+to detect the smallest vestige of it in the uterus in any one
+instance."--Dewells Essay on Superfoetation. The fact of superfoetation
+furnishes a very strong argument against the idea that the semen enters
+the uterus in impregnation.
+
+A woman being impregnated while she is already impregnated constitutes
+superfoetation. It is established beyond a doubt that such instances
+have occurred, yet those who have supposed that it is necessary for the
+semen to pass through the mouth of the uterus to produce conception have
+urged that superfoetation could not take place, because, say they--and
+they say correctly--"so soon as impregnation shall have taken place,
+the _os uteri_ closes and becomes impervious to the semen ejected in
+subsequent acts of coition."
+
+Dr. Dewees related two cases, evidently cases of superfoetation, that
+occurred to his own personal knowledge. The first shows that, agreeable
+to the old theory, the semen must have met with other difficulties
+than a closed month of the uterus,--it must have passed through several
+membranes, as well as the waters surrounding the foetus, to have reached
+even the uterine extremity of a Fallopian tube. The second case I will
+give in his own words:
+
+"A white woman, servant to Mr. H., of Abington township, Montgomery
+county, was delivered about five and twenty years since of twins, one of
+which was perfectly white, the other perfectly black. When I resided
+in that neighborhood I was in the habit of seeing them almost daily and
+also had frequent conversations with Mrs. H. respecting them. She was
+present at their birth, so that no possible deception could have been
+practiced respecting them. The white girl is delicate, fair-skinned,
+light-haired and blue eyed, and is said very much to resemble the
+mother. The other has all the characteristic marks of the African; short
+of stature, flat, broad-nosed, thick-lipped, woolly-headed, flat-footed,
+and projecting heels; she is said to resemble a negro they had on the
+farm, but with whom the woman would never acknowledge an intimacy; but
+of this there was no doubt, as both he and the white man, with whom her
+connection was detected, ran from the neighborhood as soon as it was
+known the girl was with child."
+
+I am aware that some have thought that they had actually discovered
+semen in the uterus, while Ruysch, an anatomist of considerable
+eminence, who flourished at the close of the seventeenth century,
+asserted in the most unequivocal manner that he found the semen in its
+gross white state in one of the Fallopian tubes of a woman, who died
+very soon after, or during the act of coition; but says Dewees, "the
+semen, after it has escaped from the penis, quickly loses its albuminous
+appearance and becomes as thin and transparent as water. And we are
+certain that Ruysch was mistaken. Some alteration in the natural
+secretion of the parts was mistaken for semen. This was nowise difficult
+for him to do, as he had a particular theory to support, and more
+especially as this supposed discovery made so much for it. It is not
+merely speculative when we say that some change in the natural secretion
+of the parts may be mistaken for semen, for we have the testimony of
+Morgani on our side. He tells us he has seen similar appearances in
+several instances in virgins and others, who have been subject during
+their lives to leucorrhæ, and that it has been mistaken by some for
+male semen."
+
+On the whole I would say, that in some instances, where the mouth of the
+uterus is uncommonly relaxed, the semen may, as it were, accidentally
+have found its way into it; but that is not generally the case, nor is
+it essential to impregnation; and further, that whatever semen may at
+any time be lodged in the uterus, has nothing to do with conception. It
+is not consistent with analogy to suppose that the uterus has vessels
+for absorbing the semen and conveying it to the ovaria, considering the
+other important functions which we know it performs.
+
+The circumstances under which a female is most likely to conceive are,
+first, when she is in health; second, between the ages of twenty-six
+and thirty; third, after she has for a season been deprived of
+those intercourses she had previously enjoyed; fourth, soon after
+menstruating. Respect-ing this latter circumstance, Dr. Dewees remarks,
+"Perhaps it is not erring greatly to say, that the woman is liable
+to conceive at any part of the menstrual interval. It is generally
+supposed, however, that the most favorable instant is immediately after
+the catamenia have ceased." Perhaps this is so as a general rule, but
+it is certainly liable to exceptions,* and he relates the following case
+which occurred to his own notice:
+
+     * This view, which concerns a question of the utmost
+     practical importance, is held at the present day by the
+     great physiologists. It is believed that although conception
+     may occur at other times, it is much more likely to happen
+     from intercourse a few days before or after the menstrual
+     periods; that is to say, during the time when ova are in
+     process of being ripened and detached from the ovaries, and
+     before they perish and are conveyed out of the body. "There
+     is good reason to believe," says Dr. Carpenter, "that in the
+     human female the sexual feeling becomes stronger at the
+     period of menstruation; and it is quite certain that there
+     is a greater aptitude for conception immediately before and
+     after that epoch, than there is at any immediate period.
+     This question has been made the subject of special inquiry
+     by M. Raciborski, who affirms that the exceptions to the
+     rule--that conception occurs immediately before or after or
+     during menstruation--are not more than six or seven per
+     cent. Indeed, in his latest work on the subject, he gives
+     the details of fifteen cases, in which the date of
+     conception could be accurately fixed, and the time of the
+     last appearance of the catamenia was also known, and in all
+     but one of them the correspondence between the periods was
+     very close."--"Human Physiology," p. 959. So, too, Dr.
+     Kirkes remarks, that "although conception is not confined to
+     the periods of menstruation, yet it is more likely to occur
+     within a few days after cessation of the menstrual flux than
+     at other times."--"Handbook of Physiology," p. 725.
+
+"The husband of a lady who was obliged to absent himself many months
+in consequence of the embarrassment of his affairs, returned one night
+clandestinely, his visit being only known to his wife, his mother, and
+myself. The consequence of this visit was the impregnation of his wife.
+The lady was at that time within a week of her menstrual period; but as
+this did not fail to take place, she was led to hope that she had not
+suffered by the visit of her husband. But her catamenia not appearing at
+the next period, gave rise to a fear that she had not escaped! and the
+birth of a child nine months and thirteen days from the night of the
+clandestine visit proved her apprehensions too well grounded."
+
+I think this case is an exception to a general rule; and, furthermore,
+favors an idea which reason and a limited observation, rather than
+positive knowledge, has led me to advance, the above, namely, that a
+woman is more likely to conceive, other things being the same, after
+being deprived for a season of those intercourses she had previously
+enjoyed. Had this lady's husband remained constantly at home, she would
+probably either not have conceived at all, or have done so a fortnight
+sooner than she did.
+
+This case is also remarkable for two other facts: one, "that a woman in
+perfect health, and pregnant with a healthy child, may exceed the period
+of nine months by several days; the other, that a check is not always
+immediately given to the catamenial flow by an ovum being impregnated."
+Probably it is not so generally so as many suppose.
+
+The term of utero-gestation, or the length of time from conception to
+the commencement of labor, is not precisely determined by physiologists.
+"It seems, however," says Dr. Dewees, "from the best calculations that
+can be made, that nine calendar months, or forty weeks, approaches the
+truth so nearly that we can scarcely need or desire more accuracy, could
+it be obtained." Unquestionably, however, some cases exceed this period
+by many days, or even weeks, and it has been a question much agitated,
+how far this period is ever exceeded. It is a question of some moment
+in a legal point of view. Cases are reported where the usual period
+was exceeded by five or six months; cases, too, where the circumstances
+attending them and the respectability of their reporters are such as to
+command our belief. Dr. Dewees has paid much attention to this subject,
+and he declares himself entirely convinced "that the commonly fixed
+period may be extended from thirteen days to six weeks, under the
+influence of certain causes or peculiarities of constitution."*
+
+     * See tables in Dr. Bull's "Hints to Mothers," pp. 130-141.
+     --Publishers' note.
+
+These occasional departures from the general rule will, perhaps, be the
+more readily admitted when we consider that they are not confined to the
+human species. From the experiments of Tessier, it appears that the term
+of utero-gestation varies greatly with the cow, sheep, horse, swine and
+other animals to which his attention was directed.
+
+Properly connected with the subject of generation are the signs of
+pregnancy. Dr. Dewees remarks that "our experience furnishes no certain
+mark by which the moment conception takes place is to be distinguished.
+All appeals by the women to particular sensations experienced at the
+instant should be very guardedly received, for we are certain they
+cannot be relied upon; for enjoyment and indifference are alike
+fallacious. Nor are certain nervous tremblings, nausea, palpitation of
+the heart, the sensation of something flowing from them during coition,
+etc, more to be relied upon." Burns, however, says, "Some women feel,
+immediately after conception, a peculiar sensation, which apprises them
+of their situation, but such instances are not frequent, and generally
+the first circumstances which lead a woman to suppose herself pregnant
+are the suppression of the menses;" a fickle appetite, some sickness,
+perhaps vomiting, especially in the morning; returning qualms, or
+languor in the afternoon; she is liable to heartburn, and to disturbed
+sleep. The breasts at first often become smaller and sometimes tender;
+but about the third month they enlarge, and occasionally become painful.
+The nipple is surrounded with an aureole or circle of a brown color, or
+at least of a color sensibly deeper or darker than before. She loses her
+looks, becomes paler, and the under part of the lower eyelid is often
+somewhat of a leaden hue. The features become sharper, and sometimes
+the whole body begins to emaciate, while the pulse quickens. In
+many instances particular sympathies take place, causing salivation,
+toothache, jaundice, etc. In other cases very little disturbance is
+produced, and the woman is not certain of her condition until the time
+of quickening, which is generally about four months from conception. It
+is possible for a woman to mistake the effects of wind for the motion of
+the child, especially if they have never borne children, and be anxious
+for a family; but the sensation produced by wind in the bowels is not
+confined to one spot, but is often felt at a part of the abdomen where
+the motion of a child could not possibly be felt. Quite as frequently,
+perhaps, do fleshy women think themselves dropsical, and mistake motions
+of the child for movements of water within the abdominal cavity. The
+motion of the child is not to be confounded with the sensation sometimes
+produced by the uterus rising out of the pelvis, which produces the
+feeling of fluttering. At the end of the fourth month, the uterus
+becomes so large that it is obliged to rise out of the pelvis, and if
+this elevation takes place suddenly, the sensation accompanying it is
+pretty strong, and the woman at the time feels sick or faint, and in
+irritable habits; even a hysterical fit may accompany it After this the
+morning sickness and other sympathetic effects of pregnancy generally
+abate, and the health improves.
+
+Very soon after impregnation, if blood be drawn and suffered to stand
+a short time undisturbed, it will become sizy, of a yellowish or bluish
+color, and somewhat of an oily appearance. But we cannot from such
+appearances of the blood alone pronounce a woman pregnant, for a
+suppression of the menses, accompanied with a febrile state, may
+give the blood a like appearance as pregnancy, so also may some local
+disease. Of the above-mentioned symptoms, perhaps there is no _one_ on
+which we can place more reliance than the increased color of the circle
+around the nipple.*
+
+     * See "Advice to a Wife," P. H. Chavasse, pp. 115-124, where
+     many details are given.--Publishers' note.
+
+Six or eight weeks after conception, the most sure way of ascertaining
+pregnancy is to examine the mouth and neck of the uterus, by way of the
+vagina. The uterus will be found lower down than formerly, its mouth
+is not directed so much forward as before impregnation, and is more
+completely closed, and the neck is felt to be thicker, or increased in
+circumference. When raised on the finger it is found to be heavier or
+more resisting. Whoever makes this examination must have examined the
+same uterus in an unimpregnated state, and retained a tolerably correct
+idea of its feeling at that time, or he will be liable to uncertainty,
+because the uterus of one woman is naturally different in magnitude from
+another, and the uterus is frequently lower down than natural from other
+causes than pregnancy.*
+
+     * No one but a doctor, or one trained in physiology could,
+     of course, make any such examination with safety and
+     utility.--Publishers' note.
+
+It has not been fully ascertained how long it is after a fruitful
+connection before an effect is produced upon the ovaria, that is before
+any alteration could be discovered, were the female to be dissected.
+But Brighton's experiments have established the fact, that with
+rabbits, whose term of utero-gestation is but thirty days, no effect
+is propagated to the ovaria until nearly fifty hours after coition; we
+should judge, therefore, that with the human species it must be several
+days, and it is generally estimated by physiologists that the ovum does
+not reach the uterus until the expiration of twenty days from the time
+of connection.*
+
+     * "The time occupied in the passage of the ovum from the
+     ovary to the uterus," says Dr. Kirkes, "occupies probably
+     eight or ten days in the human female."--"Handbook of
+     Physiology," p. 741.--G. R.
+
+It is probable that in all cases in which any matter is absorbed from
+any part of the animal system, some little time is required for such
+matter, after its application, to stimulate and arouse the absorbent
+vessels to action; hence it is probable that after the semen is lodged
+in the vagina, it is many minutes, possibly some hours, before any part
+of it is absorbed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. OF PROMOTING AND CHECKING CONCEPTION
+
+Sterility depends either on imperfect organization, or imperfect action
+of the organs of generation. In the former cases, which are rare, the
+menses do not generally appear, the breasts are not developed, and the
+sexual desire is inconsiderable. There is no remedy in these cases.
+
+The action may be imperfect in several respects. The menses may be
+obstructed or sparing, or they may be too profuse or frequent. It
+is extremely rare for a woman to conceive who does not menstruate
+regularly. Hence where this is the case the first step is to regulate
+this periodical discharge. For this purpose the advice of a physician
+will generally be required, for these irregularities depend upon such
+various causes and require such a variety of treatment that it would
+be inconsistent with the plan of this work to give instructions for
+remedying them. A state of exhaustion or weakness of the uterine
+system, occasioned by too frequent intercourse, is a frequent cause of
+sterility. The sterility of prostitutes is attributed to this cause, but
+I doubt it being the only one. With females who are apparently healthy,
+the most frequent cause is a torpor, rather than weakness of the genital
+organs.
+
+For the removal of sterility from this cause, I shall give some
+instructions, and this I do the more readily because the requisite means
+are such as will regulate the menses in many cases, where they do not
+appear so early in life, so freely or so frequently as they ought.
+
+In the first place, it will generally be necessary to do something
+toward invigorating the system by exercise in the open air, by
+nourishing food of easy digestion, by sufficient dress, particularly
+flannel, and especially by strict temperance in all things. With this
+view, also, some scales which fall from the blacksmith's anvil, or some
+steel filings may be put into old cider or wine (cider the best), and
+after standing a week or so, as much may be taken two or three times a
+day as can be borne without disturbing the stomach.
+
+All the while the bowels are to be kept rather open by taking from one
+to three of _Pill rufi_ every night on going to bed. These pills consist
+of four parts of aloes, two parts of myrrh, and one of saffron, by
+weight.
+
+These measures having been regularly pursued until the system be brought
+into a vigorous state, medicines which are more particularly calculated
+to arouse the genital organs from a state of torpor may be commenced,
+and continued for months if necessary. The cheapest, most simple (and
+I am not prepared to say it is not the most effectual in many cases) is
+cayenne. All the virtues of this article are not generally known even
+to physicians. I know it does not have the effect upon the coats of the
+stomach that many have conjectured. It may be taken in the quantity of
+from one to two rising teaspoonsful, or even more, everyday up on food
+or on any liquid vehicle. Another medicine of much efficacy is Dewees'
+Volatile Tincture of Guaiac. It is generally kept by apothecaries, and
+is prepared as follows:
+
+Take of Gum Guaicum, in powder, eight ounces; carbonate of Potash, or
+of Soda, or (what will answer) Saleratus, three drachms; Allspice, in
+powder, two ounces; any common spirits of good strength, two pounds,
+or what is about the same two pints and a gill. Put all into a bottle,
+which may be shaken now and then, and use of it may be commenced in
+a few days. To every gill of this, at least a large teaspoon-ful of
+Spirits of Ammonia is to be added. A teaspoonful is to be taken for
+a dose, three times a day, in a glass of milk, cider or wine. It is
+usually given before eating; but if it should chance to offend the
+stomach when taken before breakfast, it may in this case be taken an
+hour after.
+
+Dr. Dewees found this tincture, taken perhaps for months, the most
+effectual remedy for painful menstruation, which is an obstinate
+complaint. If there be frequent strong pulse, heat, thirst, florid
+countenance, etc., it is not to be taken until these symptoms be removed
+by low diet, a few doses of salts, and bleeding, if required.
+
+A third medicine for arousing the genital organs, is tincture of Spanish
+Flies. But I doubt its being equal, in sterility, to the above mentioned
+medicines, though it may exceed them in some cases, and may be tried if
+these fail. A drachm of them may be put to two gills of spirits. Dose,
+25 drops, in water, three times a day, increasing each one by two or
+three drops, until some degree of stranguary occurs, then omit until
+this pass off, as it will in a day or two. Should the stranguary be
+severe, drink freely of milk and water, slippery elm, or flaxseed tea.
+
+In many cases of sterility, where the general health is considerably
+in fault, and especially when the digestive organs are torpid, I should
+have much faith in a Thomsonian course. It is calculated to arouse the
+capillary vessels throughout the whole system, and thus to open the
+secretions, to remove obstructions, and free the blood of those effete
+and phlegmy materials which nature requires to be thrown off. The views
+of the Thomsonian as to heat and cold appear to me unphilosophical. But
+this has nothing to do with the efficiency of their measures.
+
+In relation to sterility, I would here bring to mind, what has before
+been stated, that a woman is most likely to conceive immediately after
+a menstrual turn. And now, also, let me suggest the idea that Nature's
+delicate beginnings may be frustrated by the same means that put her a
+going. This idea is certainly important when the woman is known to have
+miscarried a number of times. Sterility is sometimes to be attributed
+to the male, though he apparently be in perfect health. It would be an
+interesting fact to ascertain if there be no seminal animalculæ in these
+cases; and whether medicines of any kind are available.
+
+It has been ascertained that a male and female may be sterile in
+relation to each other, though neither of them be so with others.
+
+The foregoing measures for sterility are also suitable in cases of
+impotency. This term, I believe, is generally con-lined to, and defined
+as a want of desire or ability, or both on the part of the male; but I
+see no good reason why it should not comprehend the case in which there
+is neither desire nor pleasure with the female. Such females, it is
+true, may be fruitful; but so, on the other hand, the semen may not have
+lost its fecundating property. Impotency, at a young or middle age,
+and in some situations in life especially, is certainly a serious
+misfortune, to say the least of it. The whole evil by no means consists,
+in every case, in the loss of a source of pleasure. All young people
+ought to be apprised of the causes of it--causes which, in many
+instances, greatly lessen one's ability of giving and receiving that
+pleasure which is the root of domestic happiness. I shall allude to
+one cause, that of premature, and especially solitary gratification, in
+another place. Intemperance in the use of spirits is another powerful
+cause. Even a moderate use of spirits, and also of tobacco, in any form,
+have some effect It is a law of animal economy, that no one part of the
+system can be stimulated or excited, without an expense of vitality, as
+it is termed. The part which is stimulated draws the energy from other
+parts. And hence it is, that close and deep study, as well as all
+the mental passions when excessive, impair the venereal appetite.
+All excesses, all diseases and modes of life which impair the general
+health, impair this appetite, but some things more directly and
+powerfully than others.
+
+As to the remedies for impotency, they are much the same as for
+sterility. It is of the first importance that the mind be relieved
+from all care and anxiety. The general health is to be improved by
+temperance, proper exercise in the open air, cheerful company, change
+of scenery, or some occupation to divert the mind without requiring much
+exercise of it; nourishing food of easy digestion; flannel worn next to
+the skin. The cold bath may be tried, and if it be followed by agreeable
+feelings, it will do good. The bowels may be gently stimulated by
+the pills before mentioned; and the preparation of iron also, already
+mentioned, should be taken.
+
+To stimulate the genital organs more directly, cayenne, Dewees' tincture
+of guaiac, or tincture of flies, may be taken. I have given directions
+for making and taking the tincture of flies, chiefly because it is
+esteemed one of the best remedies for impotency caused by or connected
+with nocturnal emissions, to which I have before alluded.
+
+It is in cases where little or no pleasure, nor erection, attend these
+emissions--cases brought on by debauchery, or in elderly persons--that
+I would recommend tincture of flies, and the other measures above
+mentioned. In some bad cases, enormous doses of this tincture are
+required, say two or three hundred drops. Yet the best rule for taking
+it is that already given, namely, begin with small doses, and gradually
+increase until some stranguary be felt, or some benefit be received. In
+this affection, as well as in all cases of impaired virility, the means
+I have mentioned are to be pursued for a long time, unless relief be
+obtained. These have cured after having been taken for a year or more
+without the result. In all cases of impotency not evidently depending
+upon disease of some part besides the genital organs, I should have much
+confidence in blisters applied to the lower part of the spine.
+
+Occasional nocturnal emissions, accompanied with erection and pleasure,
+are by no means to be considered a disease, though they have given
+many a one such uneasiness. Even if they be frequent, and the system
+considerably debilitated, if not caused by debauch, and the person be
+young, marriage is the proper measure.
+
+There have been several means proposed and practiced for checking
+conception. I shall briefly notice them, though a knowledge of the best
+is what most concerns us. That of withdrawal immediately before emission
+is certainly effectual, if practiced with sufficient care. But if (as
+I believe) Dr. Dewees' theory of conception be correct, and as
+Spallanzani's experiments show that only a trifle of semen, even largely
+diluted with water, may impregnate by being injected into the vagina, it
+is clear that nothing short of entire withdrawal is to be depended
+upon. But the old notion that the semen must enter the uterus to
+cause conception, has led many to believe that a partial withdrawal
+is sufficient, and it is on this account that this error has proved
+mischievous, as all important errors generally do. It is said by those
+who speak from experience that the practice of withdrawal has an effect
+upon the health similar to intemperance in eating. As the subsequent
+exhaustion is probably mainly owing to the shock the nervous system
+sustains in the act of coition, this opinion may be correct. It is
+further said that this practice serves to keep alive those fine feelings
+with which married people first come together. Still, I leave it for
+every one to decide for himself whether this check be so far from
+satisfactory as not to render some other very desirable.
+
+As to the baudruche, which consists in a covering used by the male, made
+of very delicate skin, it is by no means calculated to come into general
+use. It has been used to secure immunity from syphilitic affections.
+
+Another check which the old idea of conception has led some to recommend
+with considerable confidence, consists in introducing into the vagina,
+previous to connection, a very delicate piece of sponge, moistened with
+water, to be immediately afterward withdrawn by means of a very narrow
+ribbon attached to it, But, as our views would lead us to expect, this
+check has not proved a sure preventive. As there are many little ridges
+or folds in the vagina, we cannot suppose the withdrawal of the sponge
+would dislodge all the semen in every instance. If, however, it were
+well moistened with some liquid which acted chemically upon the semen,
+it would be pretty likely to destroy the fecundating property of what
+might remain. But if this check were ever so sure, it would, in my
+opinion, fall short of being equal, all things considered, to the one
+I am about to mention--one which not only dislodges the semen pretty
+effectually, but at the same time destroys the fecundating property of
+the whole of it.
+
+It consists in syringing the vagina immediately after connection with a
+solution of sulphate of zinc, of alum, pearl-ash, or any salt that acts
+chemically on the semen, and at the same time produces no unfavorable
+effect on the female.
+
+In all probability a vegetable astringent would answer--as an infusion
+of white oak bark, of red rose leaves, of nut-galls, and the like. A
+lump of either of the above-mentioned salts, of the size of a chestnut,
+may be dissolved in a pint of water, making the solution weaker or
+stronger, as it may be borne without any irritation of the parts to
+which it is applied. These solutions will not lose their virtues by age.
+A female syringe, which will be required in the use of the check, may be
+had at the shop of an apothecary for a shilling or less. If preferred,
+the semen may be dislodged as far as it can be, by syringing with simple
+water, after which some of the solution is to be injected, to destroy
+the fecundating property of what may remain lodged between the ridges of
+the vagina, etc.
+
+I know the use of this check requires the woman to leave her bed for
+a few moments, but this is its only objection; and it would be
+unreasonable to suppose that any check can ever be devised entirely free
+of objections. In its favor it may be said, it costs nearly nothing; it
+is sure; it requires no sacrifice of pleasure; it is in the hand of
+the female; it is to be used after, instead of before the connection,
+a weighty consideration in its favor, as a moment's reflection
+will convince any one; and last, but not least, it is conducive to
+cleanliness, and preserves the parts from relaxation and disease. The
+vagina may be very much contracted by a persevering use of astringent
+injections, and they are constantly used for this purpose in cases of
+_procidentia uteri_, or a sinking down of the womb; subject as women are
+to _fluor albus_, and other diseases of the genital organs, it is rather
+a matter of wonder that they are not more so, considering the prevailing
+practices. Those who have used this check (and some have used it, to my
+certain knowledge with entire success for nine or ten years, and under
+such circumstances as leave no room to doubt its efficacy) affirm that
+they would be at the trouble of using injections merely for the purposes
+of health and cleanliness.
+
+By actual experiment it has been rendered highly probable that pregnancy
+may, in many instances, be prevented by injections of simple water,
+applied with a tolerable degree of care. But simple water has failed,
+and its occasional failure is what we should expect, considering the
+anatomy of the parts, and the results of Spallanzani's experiments
+heretofore alluded to.
+
+This much did I say respecting this check in the first edition of this
+work. That is what I call the chemical check. The idea of destroying the
+fecundating property of the semen was original, if it did not originate
+with me. My attention was drawn to the subject by the perusal of "Moral
+Physiology." Such was my confidence in the chemical idea that I sat down
+and wrote this work in July, 1831. But the reflection that I did not
+know that this check would never fail, and that if it should, I might
+do someone an injury in recommending it, caused the manuscript to lie on
+hand until the following December. Some time in November I fell in with
+an old acquaintance, who agreeably surprised me by stating that to his
+personal knowledge this last check had been used as above stated. I have
+since conversed with a gentleman with whom I was acquainted, who stated
+that, being in Baltimore some few years ago, he was there informed of
+this check by those who have no doubt of its efficacy. From what has
+as yet fell under my observation, I am not warranted in drawing any
+conclusion. I can only say that I have never known it to fail. Such are
+my views on the whole subject, that it would require many instances of
+its reputed failure to satisfy me that such failures were not owing to
+an insufficient use of it. I even believe that quite cold water alone,
+if thoroughly used, would be sufficient. In Spallanzani's experiments
+warm water was unquestionably used. As the seminal animalcule are
+essential to impregnation, all we have to do is to change the condition
+of, or, if you will, to kill them; and as they are so exceedingly small
+and delicate, this is doubtless easily done, and hence cold water may be
+sufficient.
+
+What has now been advanced in this work will enable the reader to judge
+for himself or herself of the efficacy of the chemical or syringe check,
+and time will probably determine whether I am correct in this matter. I
+do know that those married females who have much desire to escape will
+not stand for the little trouble of using this check, especially when
+they consider that on the score of cleanliness and health alone it is
+worth the trouble.
+
+A great part of the time no check is necessary, and women of experience
+and observation, with the information conveyed by this work, will be
+able to judge pretty correctly when it is and when it is not. They may
+rest assured that none of the salts mentioned will have any deleterious
+effect. The sulphate of zinc is commonly known by the name of white
+vitriol. This, as well as alum, have been extensively used for
+leucorrhæ. Acetate of lead would doubtless be effectual--indeed, it
+has proven to be so; but I do not recommend it, because I conceive it
+possible that a long continued use of it might impair the instinct.
+
+I hope that no failures will be charged of efficacy of this check which
+ought to be attributed to negligence or insufficient use of it. I will
+therefore recommend at least two applications of the syringe, the sooner
+the surer, yet it is my opinion that five minutes' delay would not prove
+mischievous--perhaps not ten.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. REMARKS ON THE REPRODUCTIVE INSTINCT
+
+I scarcely need observe that by this instinct is meant the desire for
+sexual intercourse. Blumenbach speaks of this instinct as "superior
+to all others in universality and violence." Perhaps hunger is an
+exception. But surely no instinct commands a greater proportion of our
+thoughts or has a greater influence upon happiness for better or for
+worse. "Controlled by reason and chastened by good feelings, it gives
+to social intercourse much of its charm and zest, but directed
+by selfishness or governed by force, it is prolific of misery and
+degradation. In itself it appears to be the most social and least
+selfish of all instincts. It fits us to give even while we receive
+pleasure, and among cultivated beings the former power is even more
+highly valued than the latter. Not one of our instincts perhaps affords
+larger scope for the exercise of disinterestedness, or fitter play for
+the best moral feelings of our race. Not one gives birth to relations
+more gentle, more humanizing and endearing; not one lies more
+immediately at the root of the kindliest charities and most generous
+impulses that honor and bless human nature. It is a much more noble,
+because less purely selfish, instinct than hunger or thirst. It is
+an instinct that entwines itself around the warmest feelings and best
+affections of the heart"--_Moral Physiology_. But too frequently its
+strength, together with a want of moral culture, is such that it is not
+"controlled by reason;" and consequently, from time immemorial, it
+has been gratified, either in a mischievous manner, or to such an
+intemperate degree, or under such improper circumstances, as to give
+rise to an incalculable amount of human misery. For this reason it has,
+by some, been regarded as a low, degrading and "carnal" passion, with
+which family life must be ever at war. But in the instinct itself the
+philosopher sees nothing deserving of degrading epithets. He sees not
+that nature should war against herself. He believes that in savage
+life it _is_, and in wisely organized society of duly enlightened and
+civilized beings it should be the source of ten-fold more happiness than
+misery.
+
+A part of the evil consequences to which this instinct is daily giving
+rise under the present state of things, it belongs more particularly to
+the moralist to point out; whilst of others it falls within the province
+of the physician to treat. But let me first remark that physicians have
+hitherto fallen far short of giving those instructions concerning this
+instinct which its importance demands. In books, pamphlets, journals,
+etc., they have laid much before the public respecting eating, drinking,
+bathing, lacing, air, exercise, etc., but have passed by the still more
+important subject now before us, giving only here and there spine faint
+allusion to it This, it is true, the customs, not to say pruderies,
+of the age have compelled them to do, in publications designed for the
+public eye, yet, in some small work, indicated by its title to be for
+private perusal, they might, with the utmost propriety, have embodied
+much highly useful instruction in relation to this instinct.
+
+This instinct is liable to be gratified at improper times, to an
+intemperate degree, and in a mischievous manner.
+
+True philosophy dictates that this and all other appetites be so
+gratified as will most conduce to human happiness--not merely the
+happiness attending the gratification of one of the senses, but all the
+senses--not merely sensual happiness, but intellectual--not merely the
+happiness of the individual, but of the human family.
+
+First.--Of the times at which this instinct ought not to be gratified.
+With females it ought not to be gratified until they are seventeen or
+eighteen years of age, and with males not until they are a year or two
+older. The reason is, if they refrain until these ages, the passion will
+hold out the longer, and they will be able to derive much more pleasure
+from it in after life, than if earlier gratified, especially to any
+great extent A due regard to health also enjoins with most persons some
+restraint on this instinct--indeed, at all times, but especially for
+a few years after the above-mentioned ages. It ought not to be rashly
+gratified at first. Begin temperately, and as the system becomes
+more mature, and habituated to the effects naturally produced by the
+gratification of this instinct, it will bear more without injury. Many
+young married people, ignorant of the consequences, have debilitated
+the whole system--the genital system in particular; have impaired their
+mental energies; have induced consumptive and other diseases; have
+rendered themselves irritable, unsocial, melancholy and finally much
+impaired, perhaps destroyed their affection for each other by an undue
+gratification of the reproductive instinct. In almost all diseases,
+if gratified at all, it should be very temperately. It ought not to be
+gratified during menstruation, as it might prove productive to the man
+of symptoms similar to those of syphilis, but more probably to the woman
+of a weakening disease called _fluor albus_. In case of pregnancy a
+temperate gratification for the first two or three months may be of no
+injury to the woman or the coming offspring. But it ought to be known
+that the growth of the foetus in utero may be impaired, and the seeds
+of future bodily infirmity and mental imbecility of the offspring may be
+sown by much indulgence during utero-gestation or pregnancy, especially
+when the woman experiences much pleasure in such indulgences.
+
+Having already glanced at some of the bad effects of an undue
+gratification of this instinct, I have but little more to offer
+under the head of Intemperate Degree. It will be borne in mind that
+intemperance in this thing is not to be decided by numbers, but that it
+depends on circumstances; and what would be temperance in one, may be
+intemperance in another. And with respect to an individual, too, what
+he might enjoy with impunity, were he a laboring man, or a man whose
+business requires but little mental exercise, would, were he a student,
+unfit him for the successful prosecution of his studies. Intemperance
+in the gratification of this instinct has a tendency to lead to
+intemperance in the use of ardent spirits. The languor, depression of
+spirits, in some instances faintness and want of appetite, induced by
+intemperate gratification, call loudly for some stimulus, and give a
+relish to spirits. Thus the individual is led to drink. This inflames
+the blood, the passions, and leads to further indulgence. This again
+calls for more spirits; and thus two vicious habits are commenced,
+which mutually increase each other. Strange as it may appear to
+those unacquainted with the animal economy, an intemperate indulgence
+sometimes gives rise to the same disease--so far as the name makes it
+so--that is frequently cured by a temperate indulgence; viz, nocturnal
+emissions.
+
+Every young married woman ought to know that the male system is
+exhausted in a far greater degree than the female by gratification.
+It seems, indeed, to have but little effect, comparatively, upon some
+females. But with respect to the male, it has been estimated by Tissot
+that the loss of one ounce of semen is equal in its effects upon the
+system of forty ounces of blood. As it respects the immediate effects,
+this estimation, generally speaking, may not be too great. But a man
+living on a full meat diet might, doubtless, part with fifty ounces of
+semen in the course of a year, with far less detriment to the system
+than with 2,000 ounces of blood. It is a fact, that mode of living,
+independent of occupation, makes a great difference with respect to what
+the system will bear. A full meat diet, turtles, oysters, eggs, spirits,
+wine, etc., certainly promote the secretion of semen, and enable the
+system to bear its emission. But a cool vegetable and milk diet calms
+all the passions, the venereal especially. Most men adopting such a diet
+as this will suffer no inconvenience in extending the intervals of their
+gratification to three or four weeks; on the contrary, they will enjoy
+clear intellect, and a fine flow of spirits. This is the diet for men of
+literary pursuits, especially the unmarried.
+
+As to the mischievous manner, it consists in the unnatural habit of
+onanism, or solitary gratification; it is an antisocial and demoralizing
+habit, which, while it proves no quietus to the mind, impairs the bodily
+powers as well as mental, and not infrequently leads to insanity.
+
+While the gratification of the reproductive instinct in such manner
+as mentioned leads to bad consequences, a temperate and natural
+gratification, under proper circumstances, is attended with good,
+besides the mere attendant pleasure, which alone is enough to recommend
+such gratification. I admit that human beings might be so constituted
+that if they had no reproductive instinct to gratify, they might enjoy
+health; but being constituted as they are, this instinct cannot be
+mortified with impunity. It is a fact universally admitted, that
+unmarried females do not enjoy so much good health and attain to so
+great an age as the married; notwithstanding that the latter are
+subject to the diseases and pains incident to child-bearing. A temperate
+gratification promotes the secretions, and the appetite for food; calms
+the restless passions; induces pleasant sleep; awakens social feeling;
+and adds a zest to life which makes one conscious that life is worth
+preserving.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+     [I here connect with this work, by way of Appendix, the
+     following extract from an article which appeared in the
+     Boston Investigator, a paper which, _mirabile dictu_, is so
+     "crazy" as to be open to the investigation of all subjects
+     which mightily concern mankind.]
+
+The only seeming objection of much weight that can be brought against
+diffusing a knowledge of checks is, that it will serve to increase
+illegal connections. Now, this is exactly the contrary effect of that
+which those who have diffused such knowledge most confidently believe
+will arise from it. To diminish such connections is indeed one of the
+grand objects of this publication,--an object which laws and prisons
+cannot, or, at least, do not, accomplish. Why is there so much
+prostitution in the land? The true answer to the question is not, and
+never will be, Because the people have become acquainted with certain
+facts in physiology; it is because there are so many unmarried men and
+women,--men of dissipation and profligacy, owing to their not having
+married in their younger days and settled down in life. But why are
+there so many unmarried people in the country? Not because young hearts
+when they arrive at the age of maturity do not desire to marry; but
+because prudential considerations interfere. The young man thinks: I
+cannot marry yet; I cannot support a family; I must make money first,
+and think of a matrimonial settlement afterward. And so it is, that
+through fear of having a family, before they have made a little headway
+in the world, and of being thereby compelled to "tug at the oar of
+incessant labor throughout their lives," thousands of young men do not
+marry, but go abroad into the world and form vicious acquaintances
+and practices. The truth, then, is this,--there is so much illegal
+connection in the land, because the people had not, twenty years ago,
+that very information which, it would seem, some, doubtless through want
+of due reflection, are apprehensive will increase this evil. I might
+quote pages to the point from "Every Woman's Book," but I fear my
+communication would be too lengthy. I content myself with a few lines.
+"But when it has become the custom here as elsewhere to limit the number
+of children, so that none need have more than they wish, no man will
+fear to take a wife; all will marry while young; debauchery will
+diminish; while good morals and religious duties will be promoted."
+
+It has been asked if a general knowledge of checks would not diminish
+the general increase of population? I think that such would not be
+the result in this country until such result would be desirable. In
+my opinion the effect would be a good many more families (and, on the
+whole, as many births), but not so many overgrown and poverty-stricken
+ones. It has been said, It is better to let Nature take her course. Now,
+in the broadest sense of the word "Nature," I say so too. In this sense
+there is nothing unnatural in the universe. But if we limit the sense
+of the word Nature so as not to include what we mean by art, then is
+civilized life one continued warfare against Nature. It is by art that
+we subdue the forest; by art we contend against the elements; by art we
+combat the natural tendency of disease, etc.
+
+As to the outrageous slander which here and there one has been heard
+to utter against the fair sex, in saying that fear of conception is
+the foundation of their chastity, it must be the sentiment of a "carnal
+heart," which has been peculiarly unfortunate in its acquaintances. "To
+the pure, all things are pure." Chastity, as well as its opposite, is
+in a great degree constitutional; and ought, in a like degree, to be
+regarded as a physical property, if I may so say, rather than a moral
+quality. Where the constitution is favorable a very indifferent degree
+of moral training is sufficient to secure the virgin without the
+influence of the above-mentioned fear; but where it is the reverse you
+may coop up the individual in the narrow dark cage of ignorance and
+fear, as you will, but still you must watch. An eminent moralist has
+said, "That chastity which will not bear the light [of physiology] is
+scarcely worth preserving." But verily, I believe there is very little
+such in the market. What there be is naturally short-lived, and, after
+its demise, the unhappily constituted individual stands in great need of
+this light to save her from ignominy. What might it not have prevented
+in the Fall River affair? And if one of two things must happen--either
+the destruction of fecundity or the destruction of life--which of the
+two is the greater evil? In these cases alone this light is calculated
+to do sufficient good to counterbalance all the evil that would arise
+from it; so that we should have its important advantages to the married
+in a political, a domestic and a medical point of view, as so much
+clear gain. This, of course, is my opinion; but since I have probably
+reflected more upon the subject than all the persons concerned in my
+imprisonment put together, until it can be shown that I have not as
+clear a head and as pure a heart as any of them, I think it entitled to
+some weight.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Fruits of Philosophy, by Charles Knowlton
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Fruits of Philosophy, by Charles Knowlton
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+    
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+    
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fruits of Philosophy, by Charles Knowlton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fruits of Philosophy
+       A Treatise on the Population Question
+
+Author: Charles Knowlton
+
+Editor: Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant
+
+Release Date: December 1, 2011 [EBook #38185]
+Last Updated: January 25, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY
+    </h1>
+    <h3>
+      A TREATISE ON THE POPULATION QUESTION
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Charles Knowlton
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Edited by Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> PUBLISHERS' PREFACE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> PHILOSOPHICAL PROEM </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> <b>FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY</b> </a>
+    </p>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          TO LIMIT AT WILL THE NUMBER OF THEIR OFFSPRING
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          ON GENERATION
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. &nbsp;</a>
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          OF PROMOTING AND CHECKING CONCEPTION
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          REMARKS ON THE REPRODUCTIVE INSTINCT
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_APPE"> APPENDIX </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The pamphlet which we now present to the public is one which has been
+      lately prosecuted under Lord Gampbell's Act, and which we republish, in
+      order to test the right of publication. It was originally written by
+      Charles Knowlton, M. D., whose degree entitles him to be heard with
+      respect on a medical question. It was first published in England, about
+      forty years ago, by James Watson, the gallant radical, who came to London
+      and took up Richard Carlile's work, when Carlile was in jail. He sold it,
+      unchallenged, for many years, approved it, and recommended it. It was
+      printed and published by Messrs. Holyoake &amp; Co., and found its place,
+      with other works of a similar character, in their "Freethought Directory,"
+      of 1853, and was thus identified with freethought literature at the then
+      leading freethought <i>depot</i> Mr. Austin Holyoake, working in
+      con-junction with Mr. Bradlaugh at the <i>National Reformer</i> office,
+      Johnson's Court, printed and published it in his turn, and this well-known
+      freethought advocate, in his "Large or Small Families," selected this
+      pamphlet, together with R. D. Owen's "Moral Physiology" and the "Elements
+      of Social Science," for special recommendation. Mr. Charles Watts,
+      succeeding to Mr. Austin Holyoake's business, continued the sale, and,
+      when Mr. Watson died, in 1875, he bought the plates of the work (with
+      others) from Mrs. Watson, and continued to advertise and to sell it until
+      December 23, 1876. For the last forty years the book has thus been
+      identified with freethought, advertised by leading freethinkers, published
+      under the sanction of their names, and sold in the headquarters of
+      freethought literature. If, during this long period, the party has thus&mdash;without
+      one word of protest&mdash;circulated an indecent work, the less we talk
+      about freethought morality the better; the work has been largely sold,
+      and, if leading freethinkers have sold it&mdash;profiting by the sale&mdash;through
+      mere carelessness, few words could be strong enough to brand the
+      indifference which thus scattered obscenity broadcast over the land. The
+      pamphlet has been withdrawn from circulation in consequence of the
+      prosecution instituted against Mr. Charles Watts, but the question of its
+      legality or illegality has not been tried; a plea of "Guilty" was put in
+      by the publisher, and the book, therefore, was not examined, nor was any
+      judgment passed upon it; no jury registered a verdict, and the judge
+      stated that he had not read the work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We republish this pamphlet, honestly believing that on all questions
+      affecting the happiness of the people, whether they be theological,
+      political or social, fullest right of free discussion ought to be
+      maintained at all hazards. We do not personally indorse all that Dr.
+      Knowles says: his "Philosophical Proem" seems to us full of philosophical
+      mistakes, and&mdash;as we are neither of us doctors&mdash;we are not
+      prepared to indorse his medical views; but since progress can only be made
+      through discussion, and no discussion is possible where differing opinions
+      are suppressed, we claim the right to publish all opinions, so that the
+      public, enabled to see all sides of a question, may have the materials for
+      forming a sound judgment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The alterations made are very slight, the book was badly printed, and
+      errors of spelling and a few clumsy grammatical expressions have been
+      corrected; the subtitle has been changed, and in one case four lines have
+      been omitted, because they are repeated word for word further on. We have,
+      however, made some additions to the pamphlet, which are in all cases kept
+      distinct from the original text. Physiology has made great strides during
+      the past forty years, and not considering it right to circulate erroneous
+      physiology, we submitted the pamphlet to a doctor in whose accurate
+      knowledge we have the fullest confidence, and who is widely known in all
+      parts of the world as the author of the "Elements of Social Science;" the
+      notes signed "G. B." are written by this gentleman. References to other
+      works are given in foot-notes for the assistance of the reader, if he
+      desires to study up the subject further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Radicals will remember that Richard Carlile published a work entitled
+      "Every Woman's Book," which deals with the same subject and advocates the
+      same object as Dr. Knowlton's pamphlet R. D. Owen objected to the "style
+      and tone" of Carlile's "Every Woman's Book," as not being in "good taste,"
+      and he wrote his "Moral Physiology" to do in America what Carlile's work
+      was intended to do in England. This work of Carlile's was stigmatized as
+      "indecent" and "immoral," because it advocated, as does Dr. Knowlton's,
+      the use of preventive checks to population. In striving to carry on
+      Carlile's work, we cannot expect to escape Carlile's reproach; but,
+      whether applauded or condemned, we mean to carry it on, socially as well
+      as politically and theologically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We believe, with the Rev. Mr. Malthus, that population has a tendency to
+      increase faster than the means of existence, and that <i>some</i> checks
+      must therefore exercise control over population. The checks now exercised
+      are semi-starvation and preventable disease; the enormous mortality among
+      the infants of the poor is one of the checks which now keep down the
+      population. The checks that ought to control population are scientific,
+      and it is these which we advocate. We think it more moral to prevent the
+      conception of children than, after they are born, to murder them by want
+      of food, air and clothing. We advocate scientific checks to population,
+      because, so long as poor men have large families, pauperism is a
+      necessity, and from pauperism grow crime and disease. The wages which
+      would support the parents and two or three children in comfort and
+      decency, is utterly insufficient to maintain a family of twelve or
+      fourteen, and we consider it a crime to bring into the world human beings
+      doomed to misery or to premature death. It is not only the hard-working
+      classes which are concerned in this question. The poor preacher, the
+      struggling man of business, the young professional man, are often made
+      wretched for life by their inordinately large families, and their years
+      are passed in one long battle to live; meanwhile, the woman's health is
+      sacrificed and her life embittered from the same cause. To all of these we
+      point the way of relief and happiness; for the sake of these we publish
+      what others fear to issue; and we do it confident that if we fail the
+      first time, we shall succeed at last, and that the English public will not
+      permit the authorities to stifle a discussion of the most important social
+      question which can influence a nation's welfare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Charles Bradlaugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Annie Besant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PHILOSOPHICAL PROEM
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Consciousness is not a "principle" or substance of any kind, nor is it,
+      strictly speaking, a property of any substance or being. It is a peculiar
+      action of the nervous system, and the system is said to be sensible, or to
+      possess the property of sensibility, because those sentient actions which
+      constitute our different consciousnesses may be excited in it. The nervous
+      system includes not only the brain and spinal marrow, but numerous soft
+      white cords, called nerves, which extend from the brain and spinal marrow
+      to every part of the body in which a sensation can be excited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sensation is a sentient action of a nerve and the brain; a thought or
+      idea (both the same thing) is a sentient action of the brain alone. A
+      sensation or a thought is consciousness, and there is no consciousness but
+      that which consists either in a sensation or a thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Agreeable consciousness constitutes what we call happiness, and
+      disagreeable consciousness constitutes misery. As sensations are a higher
+      degree of consciousness than mere thought, it follows that agreeable
+      sensations constitute a more exquisite happiness than agreeable thoughts.
+      That portion of happiness which consists in agreeable sensations is
+      commonly called pleasure. No thoughts are agreeable except those which
+      were originally excited by or have been associated with agreeable
+      sensations. Hence, if a person never had experienced any agreeable
+      sensations, he could have no agreeable thoughts, and would, of course, be
+      an entire stranger to happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are five species of sensations&mdash;seeing, hearing, smelling,
+      tasting and feeling. There are many varieties of feeling&mdash;as the
+      feelings of hunger, thirst, cold, hardness, etc. Many of these feelings
+      are excited by agents that act upon the exterior of the body, such as
+      solid substances of every kind, heat, and various chemical irritants.
+      These latter feelings are called <i>passions</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those passions which owe their existence chiefly to the state of the
+      brain, or to causes acting directly upon the brain, are called the moral
+      passion. They are grief, anger, love, etc. They consist of sentient
+      actions, which commence in the brain and extend to the nerves in the
+      region of the stomach, etc. But when the cause of the internal feeling of
+      passion is seated in some organ remote from the brain, as in the stomach,
+      genital organs, etc., the sentient action which constitutes the passion
+      commences in the nerves of such organ and extends to the brain, and the
+      passion is called an <i>appetite, instinct, or desire</i>. Some of these
+      passions are natural, as hunger, thirst, the reproductive instinct, the
+      desire to urinate, etc. Others are gradually acquired by habit A <i>hankering</i>
+      for stimulants, as spirits, opium and tobacco, is one of these.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is the nature of things that our most vivid and agreeable sensations
+      cannot be excited under all circumstances, nor beyond a certain extent
+      under any circumstances, without giving rise in one way or another to an
+      amount of disagreeable consciousness or misery, exceeding the amount of
+      agreeable consciousness which attends such ill-timed or excessive
+      gratification. To excite agreeable sensations to a degree not exceeding
+      this certain extent is temperance; to excite them beyond this extent is
+      intemperance; not to excite them at all is mortification or abstinence.
+      This certain extent varies with different individuals, according to their
+      several circumstances, so that what would be temperance in one person may
+      be intemperance in another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To be free from disagreeable consciousness is to be in a state which,
+      compared with a state of misery, is a happy state; yet absolute happiness
+      does not exist in the absence of misery, if it does, rocks are happy. It
+      consists, as aforesaid, in agreeable consciousness. That which enables a
+      person to excite or maintain agreeable consciousness is not happiness; but
+      the <i>idea</i> of having such in one's possession is agreeable, and of
+      course is a portion of happiness. Health and wealth go far in enabling a
+      person to excite and maintain agreeable consciousness. That which gives
+      rise to agreeable consciousness is <i>good</i>, and we desire it. If we
+      use it intemperately, such use is bad, but the thing itself is still good.
+      Those acts (and intentions are acts of that part of man which intends) of
+      human beings which tend to the promotion of happiness are good, but they
+      are also called <i>virtuous</i>, to distinguish them from other things of
+      the same tendency. There is nothing for the word <i>virtue</i> to signify,
+      but virtuous actions. Sin signifies nothing but sinful actions, and
+      sinful, wicked, vicious, or bad actions are those which are productive of
+      more misery than happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When an individual gratifies any of his instincts in a <i>temperate</i>
+      degree, he adds an item to the sum total of human happiness, and causes
+      the amount of human happiness to exceed the amount of misery farther than
+      if he had not enjoyed himself, therefore it is virtuous, or, to say the
+      least, it is not vicious or sinful for him to do so. But it must ever be
+      remembered that this temperate degree depends on circumstances; that one
+      person's health, pecuniary circumstances, or social relation may be such
+      that it would cause more misery than happiness for him to do an act which
+      being done by a person under different circumstances would cause more
+      happiness than misery. Therefore, it would be right for the latter to
+      perform such act, but not for the former.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again: owing to his <i>ignorance</i>, a man may not be able to gratify a
+      desire without causing misery (wherefore it would be wrong for him to do
+      it), but with knowledge of means to prevent this misery, he may so gratify
+      it that more pleasure than pain will be the result of the act, in which
+      case the act, to say the least, is justifiable. Now, therefore, it is
+      virtuous, nay, it is the <i>duty</i>, for him who has a knowledge of such
+      means, to convey it to those who have it not, for by so doing he furthers
+      the cause of human happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Man by nature is endowed with the talent of devising means to remedy or
+      prevent the evils that are liable to arise from gratifying our appetites;
+      and it is as much the duty of the physician to inform mankind of the means
+      to prevent the evils that are liable to arise from gratifying the
+      productive instinct as it is to inform them how to keep clear of the gout
+      or dyspepsia. Let not the old ascetic say we ought not to gratify our
+      appetites any further than is necessary to maintain health and to
+      perpetuate the species. Mankind will not so abstain, and if any means to
+      prevent the evils that may arise from a farther gratification can be
+      devised, they <i>need not</i>. Heaven has not only given us the capacity
+      of greater enjoyment, but the talent of devising means to prevent the
+      evils that are liable to arise therefrom, and it becomes us, "with
+      thanksgiving," to make the most of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I. TO LIMIT AT WILL THE NUMBER OF THEIR OFFSPRING
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Showing how desirable it is, both in a political and a social point of
+      view, for mankind to be able to limit at WILL THE NUMBER OF THEIR
+      OFFSPRING, WITHOUT SACRIFICING THE PLEASURE THAT ATTENDS THE GRATIFICATION
+      OF THE REPRODUCTIVE INSTINCT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First.&mdash;-<i>In a political point of view</i>.&mdash;If population be
+      not restrained by some great physical calamity, such as we have reason to
+      hope will not hereafter be visited upon the children of men, or by some <i>moral
+      restraint</i>, the time will come when the earth cannot support its
+      inhabitants. Population unrestrained will double three times in a century.
+      Hence, computing the present population of the earth at 1,000 millions,
+      there would be at the end of 100 years from the present time, 8,000
+      millions.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     At the  end of 200 years,  64,000  millions.
+
+     "         "    300    "   512,000       "
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And so on, multiplying by eight for every additional hundred years. So
+      that in 500 years from the present time there would be thirty-two thousand
+      seven hundred and sixty eight times as many inhabitants as at present. If
+      the natural increase should go on without check for 1,500 years, one
+      single pair would increase to more than <i>thirty-five thousand one
+      hundred and eighty-four</i> times as many as the present population of the
+      whole earth!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some check then there must be, or the time will come when millions will be
+      born but to suffer and to perish for the necessaries of life. To what an
+      inconceivable amount of human misery would such a state of things give
+      rise! And must we say that vice, war, pestilence and famine are desirable
+      to prevent it? Must the friends of temperance and domestic happiness stay
+      their efforts? Must peace societies excite to war and bloodshed? Must the
+      physician cease to investigate the nature of contagion, and to search for
+      the means of destroying its baneful influence? Must he that becomes
+      diseased be marked as a victim to die for public good, without the
+      privilege of making an effort to restore him to health? And in case of a
+      failure of crops in one part of the world, must the other parts withhold
+      the means of supporting life that the far greater evil of excessive
+      population throughout the world may be prevented? Can there be no
+      effectual moral restraint, attended with far less human misery than such
+      physical calamities as these? Most surely there can. But what is it?
+      Malthus, an English writer on the subject of population, gives us none but
+      celibacy to a late age. But how foolish it is to suppose that men and
+      women will become as monks and nuns during the very holiday of their
+      existence, and abjure during the fairest years of life the nearest and
+      dearest of social relations, to avert a catastrophe which they and perhaps
+      their children will not live to witness. But, besides being ineffectual,
+      or if effectual, requiring a great sacrifice of enjoyment, this restraint
+      is highly objectionable on the score of its demoralizing tendency. It
+      would give rise to a frightful increase of prostitution, of intemperance
+      and onanism, and prove destructive to health and moral feelings. In spite
+      of preaching, human nature will ever remain the same; and that restraint
+      which forbids the gratification of the reproductive instinct will avail
+      but little with the mass of mankind. The checks to be hereafter mentioned
+      are the only moral restraints to population known to the writer that are
+      unattended with serious objections.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides starvation, with all its accompanying evils, overpopulation is
+      attended with other public evils, of which may be mentioned, ignorance and
+      slavery. Where the mass of the people must toil incessantly to obtain
+      support, they must remain ignorant; and where ignorance prevails, tyranny
+      reigns.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The scientific part of Malthus' Doctrine of Population is
+     not very clearly or correctly given in the above passages.
+     His great theory, now or generally held by the most eminent
+     political economists, is that the increase of population is
+     always powerfully checked in old countries by the difficulty
+     in increasing the supply of food; that the existing evils of
+     poverty and low wages are really at bottom caused by this
+     check, and are brought about by the pressure of population
+     on the soil, and the continual overstocking of the labor
+     markets with laborers; and hence that the only way in which
+     society can escape from poverty, with all its miseries, is
+     by putting a strong restraint on their natural powers of
+     multiplication. "It is not in the nature of things," he
+     says, "that any permanent and general improvement in the
+     condition of the poor can be effected without an increase in
+     the preventive checks to population."&mdash;G. R.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Second&mdash;<i>In a social point of view</i>.&mdash;"Is it not notorious
+      that the families of the married often increase beyond which a regard for
+      the young beings coming into the world, and the happiness of those who
+      give them birth, would dictate. In how many instances does the
+      hard-working father, and more especially the mother, of a poor family
+      remain slave throughout their lives, tugging at the oar of incessant
+      labor, toiling to live, and living to toil; when, if their offspring had
+      been limited to two or three only, they might have enjoyed comfort and
+      comparative affluence? How often is the health of the mother, giving birth
+      every year to an infant&mdash;happy if it be not twins&mdash;and compelled
+      to toil on, even at those times when nature imperiously calls for some
+      relief from daily drudgery,&mdash;how often is the mother's comfort,
+      health, nay, even her life, thus sacrificed? Or if care and toil have
+      weighed down the spirit, and at length broken the health of the father;
+      how often is the widow left unable, with the most virtuous intentions, to
+      save her fatherless offspring from becoming degraded objects of charity,
+      or profligate votaries of vice!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nor is this all. Many women are so constituted that they cannot give
+      birth to healthy, sometimes not to living children. Is it desirable, is it
+      moral, that such women should become pregnant? Yet this is continually the
+      case. Others there are who ought never to become parents; because, if they
+      do, it is only to transmit to their offspring grievous hereditary
+      diseases, which render such offspring mere subjects of misery throughout
+      their sickly existence. Yet such women will not lead a life of celibacy.
+      They marry. They become parents, and the sum of human misery is increased
+      by their doing so. But it is folly to expect that we can induce such
+      persons to live the lives of Shakers. Nor is it necessary; all that duty
+      requires of them is to refrain from becoming parents. Who can estimate the
+      beneficial effect which a rational moral restraint may thus have on the
+      health and beauty and physical improvement of our race throughout future
+      generations?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us now turn our attention to the case of unmarried youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Almost all young persons, on reaching the age of maturity, desire to
+      marry. That heart must be very cold, or very isolated, that does not find
+      some object on which to bestow its affections. Thus, early marriage would
+      be almost universal did not prudential consideration interfere. The young
+      man thinks, 'I cannot marry yet; I cannot support a family. I must make
+      money first, and think of a matrimonial settlement afterwards.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And so he goes to making money, fully and sincerely resolved in a few
+      years to share it with her whom he now loves. But passions are strong and
+      temptations great. Curiosity, perhaps, introduces him into the company of
+      those poor creatures whom society first reduces to a dependence on the
+      most miserable of mercenary trades, and then curses for being what she has
+      made them. There his health and moral feelings are alike made shipwreck.
+      The affections he had thought to treasure up for their first object are
+      chilled by dissipation and blunted by excess. He scarcely retains a
+      passion but avarice. Years pass on&mdash;years of profligacy and
+      speculation&mdash;and his wish is accomplished, his fortune is made. Where
+      now are the feelings and resolve of his youth?
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Like the dew on the mountain,
+     Like the foam on the river,
+     Like the bubbles on the fountain,
+     They are gone&mdash;and forever.'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "He is a man of pleasure, a man of the world. He laughs at the romance of
+      his youth, and marries a fortune. If gaudy equipage and gay parties confer
+      happiness, he is happy. But if these be only the sunshine on the stormy
+      sea below, he is a victim to that system of morality which forbids a
+      reputable connection until the period when provision has been made for a
+      large expected family. Had he married the first object of his choice, and
+      simply delayed becoming a father until his prospects seemed to warrant it,
+      how different might have been his lot. Until men and women are absolved
+      from the fear of becoming parents, except when they themselves desire it,
+      they will ever form mercenary and demoralizing connections, and seek in
+      dissipation the happiness they might have found in domestic life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know that this, however common, is not a universal case. Sometimes the
+      heavy responsibilities of a family are incurred at all risks; and who
+      shall say how often a life of unremitting toil and poverty is the
+      consequence. Sometimes, if even rarely, the young mind does hold its first
+      resolves. The youth plods through years of cold celibacy and solitary
+      anxiety, happy if, before the best hours of his life are gone and its
+      warmest feelings withered, he may return to claim the reward of his
+      forbearance and his industry. But even in this comparatively happy case,
+      shall we count for nothing the years of ascetic sacrifice at which after
+      happiness is purchased? The days of youth are not too many, nor its
+      affections too lasting. We may, indeed, if a great object require it,
+      sacrifice the one and mortify the other. But is this, in itself,
+      desirable? Does not wisdom tell us that such a sacrifice is a dead loss&mdash;to
+      the warm-hearted often a grievous one? Does not wisdom bid us temperately
+      enjoy the springtimes of life, 'while the evil day come not, nor the years
+      draw nigh, when we shall say we have no pleasure in them?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let us say, then, if we will, that the youth who thus sacrifices the
+      present for the future, chooses wisely between the two evils, profligacy
+      and asceticism. This is true. But let us not imagine the lesser evil to be
+      good. It is <i>not</i> good for man to be alone. It is for no man or
+      woman's happiness or benefit that they should be condemned to Shakerism.
+      It is a violence done to the feelings and an injury to the character. A
+      life of rigid celibacy, though infinitely preferable to a life of
+      dissipation, is yet fraught with many evils. Peevishness, restlessness,
+      vague longings and instability of character, are amongst the least of
+      these. The mind is unsettled, and the judgment warped. Even the very
+      instinct which is thus mortified assumes an undue importance, and occupies
+      a portion of the thoughts which does not of right or nature belong to it,
+      and which, during a life of satisfied affection, it would not obtain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In many instances, the genital organs are rendered so irritable by the
+      repletion to which unnatural continency gives rise, and by the much
+      thinking caused by such repletion, as to induce a disease known to medical
+      men by the name of <i>Gonorrhoea Dormientium</i>. It consists in an
+      emission or discharge of the semen during sleep. This discharge is
+      immediately excited in most instances by a lascivious dream, but such
+      dream is caused by the repletion and irritability of the genital organs.
+      It is truly astonishing to what a degree of mental anguish the disease
+      gives rise in young men. They do not understand the nature, or rather, the
+      cause of it. They think it depends on a weakness&mdash;indeed, the disease
+      is often called a "seminal weakness"&mdash;and that the least
+      gratification in a natural way would but serve to increase it. Their
+      anxiety about it weakens the whole system. This weakness they erroneously
+      attribute to the discharges; they think themselves totally disqualified
+      for entering into or enjoying the married state. Finally, the genital and
+      mental organs act and react upon each other so perniciously as to cause a
+      degree of nervousness, debility, emaciation and melancholy&mdash;in a
+      word, wretchedness that sets description at defiance. Nothing is so
+      effectual in curing this diseased state of a body and mind in young men as
+      marriage. All restraint, fear and solicitude should be removed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Inasmuch, then, as the scruples of incurring heavy responsibilities deter
+      from forming moral connections and encourage intemperance and
+      prostitution, the knowledge which enables man to limit the number of his
+      offspring would, in the present state of things, save much unhappi-ness
+      and prevent many crimes. Young persons sincerely attached to each other,
+      and who might wish to marry, should marry early, merely resolving not to
+      become parents until prudence permitted it. The young man, instead of
+      solitary toil and vulgar dissipation, would enjoy the society and the
+      assistance of her he has chosen as his companion; and the best years of
+      life, whose pleasures never return, would not be squandered in riot, nor
+      lost through mortification."*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The passages quoted are from Robert Dale Owen's "Moral
+     Physiology."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II. ON GENERATION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I hold the following to be important and undeniable troths: That every man
+      has a natural right both to receive and convey a knowledge of all the
+      facts and discoveries of every art and science, excepting such only as may
+      be secured to some particular person or persons by copyright or patent;
+      that a physical truth in its general effect cannot be a moral evil; that
+      no fact in physics or in morals ought to be concealed from the inquiring
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some may make a misuse of knowledge, but that is their fault; and it is
+      not right that one person should be deprived of knowledge, of spirits, of
+      razors, or of anything else which is harmless in itself and may be useful
+      to him, because another may misuse it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The subject on generation is not only interesting as a branch of science,
+      but it is so connected with the happiness of mankind that it is highly
+      important in a practical point of view. Such, to be sure, is the custom of
+      the age, that it is not considered a proper subject to investigate before
+      a popular assembly, nor is it proper to attend the calls of nature in a
+      like place; yet they must and ought to be attended to, for the good, the
+      happiness of mankind require it; so, too, for like reason, the subject of
+      generation ought to be investigated until it be rightly understood by all
+      people, but at such opportunities as the good sense of every individual
+      will easily decide to be proper. This, I presume to say, not simply upon
+      the abstract principle that all knowledge of Nature's workings is useful,
+      and the want of it disadvantageous, but from the known moral fact that
+      ignorance of this process has in many instances proved the cause of a
+      lamentable "mishap," and more especially as it is essential to the
+      attainment of the great advantage, which it is the chief object of this
+      work to bestow upon mankind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      People generally, as it was the case with physicians until late years,
+      entertain a very erroneous idea of what takes place in the conception.
+      Agreeably to this idea the "check" which I consider far preferable to any
+      other, would not be effectual, as would be obvious to all. Consequently,
+      entertaining this idea, people would not have due confidence in it. Hence,
+      it is necessary to correct a long-held and widely extended error. But this
+      I cannot expect to do by simply saying it is an error. Deeply rooted and
+      hitherto undisputed opinions are not so easily eradicated. If I would
+      convince any one that the steps in one of the most recondite processes of
+      nature are not such as he has always believed, it will greatly serve my
+      purpose to show what these steps are. I must first prepare him to be
+      reasoned with, and then reason the matter all over with him. I must point
+      out the facts which disprove his opinion, and show that my own is
+      unattended with difficulties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what can be more obvious than that it is absolutely impossible to
+      explain any process or function of the animal economy, so as to be
+      understood, before the names of the organs which perform this function
+      have been defined, that is, before the organs themselves have been
+      described. Now it is well known to every anatomist, and indeed it may be
+      obvious to all, that in describing any organ or system of organs, we must
+      always begin with some external and known parts, and proceed regularly,
+      step by step, to the internal and unknown. As in arithmetic, "everything
+      must be understood as you go along."*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This is an Americanism, which appears to us to convey a
+     false idea. If it refers to the cases used as illustrations,
+     Dr. Knowlton is more sparing in his use of them than either
+     Dr. Bull or Dr. Chavasse.&mdash;Publishers' Note.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Fully to effect the objects of this work, it is, therefore, a matter of
+      necessity that I give an anatomical description of certain parts&mdash;even
+      external parts&mdash;which some, but imagine what I have just said, might
+      think it useless to mention. It is not to gratify the idle curiosity of
+      the light-minded that this book is written; it is for <i>utility</i> in
+      the broad and truly philosophical sense of the term; nay, farther, it
+      shall with the exception of here and there a little spicing*, have
+      confined to <i>practical utility</i>. I shall, therefore, endeaver to
+      treat of the subject in this chapter so as to be understood, without
+      giving any description of the male organs of generation; though I hold it
+      an accomplishment for one be able to speak of those organs, as diseases
+      often put them under the necessity of doing, without being compelled use
+      low and vulgar language. But I must briefly describe the female organs; in
+      doing which I must, of course, speak as do other anatomists and
+      physiologists; and whoever objects to this will discover more affectation
+      and prudery than good sense and good will to mankind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The adipose, or fatty matter, immediately over the share bone, forms a
+      considerable prominence in females, which, at the age of puberty, is
+      covered with hair, as in males. This prominence is called Mons Veneris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The exterior orifice commences immediately below this. On each side of
+      this orifice is a prominence continued from the mons veneris, which is
+      largest above and gradually diminishes as it descends. These two
+      prominences are called the Labia Externa, or external lips. Near the
+      latter end of pregnancy they become somewhat enlarged and relaxed, so that
+      they sustain little or no injury during parturition. Just within the upper
+      or anterior commissure, formed by the junction of these lips, a little
+      round oblong body is situated. The body is called the clitoris. Most of
+      its length is bound down, as it were, pretty closely to the bone; and it
+      is of very variable size in different females. Instances have occurred
+      where it was so enlarged as to allow the female to have venereal commerce
+      with others; and in Paris this fact was once made a public exhibition to
+      the medical faculty. Women thus formed appear to partake in their general
+      form of the male character, and are called hermaphrodites. The idea of
+      human beings, called hermaphrodites, which could be either father or
+      mother, is, doubtless, erroneous. The clitoris is analogous in its
+      structure to the penis, and like it, is exquisitely sensitive, being, as
+      it is supposed, the principal seat of pleasure. It is subject to erection
+      or distension, like the penis, from like causes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The skin which lines the internal surface of the external lips is folded
+      in such manner as to form two flat bodies, the exterior edges of which are
+      convex. They are called the nymphse. They extend downward, one on each
+      side, from the clitoris to near the middle of the external orifice,
+      somewhat diverging from each other. Their use is not very evident The
+      orifice of the urethra (the canal, short in females, which leads to the
+      bladder) is situated an inch or more farther inward than the clitoris, and
+      is a little protuberant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Passing by the external lips, the clitoris, the nymphse and the orifice of
+      the urethra, we come to the membrane called the hymen. It is situated just
+      at, or a trifle behind the orifice of the urethra. It is stretched across
+      the passage, and were it a complete septum, it would close up the anterior
+      extremity of that portion of the passage which is called the vagina. But
+      the instances in which the septum or partition is complete are very rare,
+      there being, in almost all cases, an aperture either in its center, or
+      frequently in its anterior edge, giving the membrane the form of a
+      crescent Through this aperture passes the menstrual fluid. Sometimes,
+      however, this septum is complete, and the menstrual fluid is retained
+      month after month, until appearances and symptoms much like those of
+      pregnancy are produced, giving rise to perhaps unjust suspicions. Such
+      cases require the simple operation of dividing the hymen. In many
+      instances the hymen is very imperfect, insomuch that some have doubted
+      whether it is to be found in the generality of virgins. Where it exists it
+      is generally ruptured in the first intercourse of the sexes, and the
+      female is said to lose her virginity. In some rare instances it is so very
+      strong as not to be ruptured by such intercourse, and the nature of the
+      difficulty not being understood, the husband has sued for a divorce. But
+      everything may be put to rights by a slight surgical operation. The parts
+      here described are among those called the external parts of generation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The internal organs of generation consist in the female of the Vagina, the
+      Uterus, the Ovaries and their appendages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Vagina is a membranous canal commencing at the hymen and extending to
+      the uterus. It is a little curved, and extends backward and upward between
+      the bladder, which lies before and above it, and that extreme portion of
+      the bowels called the rectum, which lies behind it. The coat of membrane
+      which lines the internal surface of the vagina forms a number of
+      transverse ridges. These are to be found only in the lower or anterior
+      half of the vagina, and they do not extend all round the vagina, but are
+      situated on its anterior and posterior sides, while their lateral sides
+      are smooth. I mention these ridges because a knowledge of them may lead to
+      a more effectual use of one of the checks to be made known hereafter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The uterus or womb is also situated between the bladder and the rectum,
+      but above the vagina. Such is its shape that it has been compared to a
+      pear with a long neck. There is, of course, considerable difference
+      between the body and the neck, the first being twice as broad as the last.
+      Each of these parts is somewhat flattened. In subjects of mature age, who
+      have been pregnant, the whole of the uterus is about two inches and a half
+      in length, and more than an inch and a half in breadth at the broadest
+      part of the body. It is near an inch in thickness. The neck of the uterus
+      is situated downward, and may be said to be inserted into the upper
+      extremity of the vagina. It extends down into the vagina the better part
+      of an inch. In the uterus is a cavity which approaches the triangular
+      form, and from which a canal passes down through the neck of the uterus
+      into the vagina. This cavity is so small that its sides are almost in
+      contact So that the uterus is a thick, firm organ for so small a one.
+      Comparing the cavity of the uterus to a triangle, we say the upper side or
+      line of this triangle is transverse with respect to the body, and the
+      other two lines pass downward and inward, so that they would form an angle
+      below, did they not before they meet take a turn more directly downward to
+      form the canal just mentioned. In each of the upper angles there is an
+      orifice of such size as to admit of a hog's bristle. These little orifices
+      are the mouths of two tubes, called the Fallopian tubes, of which more
+      will be said presently. The canal which passes through the neck of the
+      uterus, connecting the cavity of this organ with that of the vagina, is
+      about a quarter of an inch in diameter. It is different from other ducts,
+      for it seems to be a part of the cavity from which it extends, inasmuch as
+      when the cavity of the uterus is enlarged in the progress of pregnancy,
+      this canal is gradually converted into a part of that cavity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lower extremity of the neck of the uterus is irregularly convex and
+      tumid. The orifice of the canal in it is oval, and so situated that it
+      divides the convex surface of the lower extremity of the neck in two
+      portions, which are called the lips of the uterus. The anterior is thicker
+      than the posterior. The orifice itself is called <i>os tincæ</i> or <i>os
+      uteri</i>, or in English, the mouth of the womb. When the parts are in a
+      weak, relaxed state, the mouth or neck of the uterus is quite low, and in
+      almost all oases it may be reached by a finger introduced into the vagina,
+      especially by a second person, who carries the hand behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Ovaries are two bodies of a flattened or oval form, one of which is
+      situated on each side of the uterus at a little distance from it, and
+      about as high up as where the uterus becomes narrow to form its neck. The
+      longest diameter of the ovarium is about an inch. Each ovarium has a firm
+      coat of membrane. In those who have not been pregnant, it contains from
+      ten to twenty <i>vesicles</i>, which are little round bodies, formed of a
+      delicate membrane, and filled with a transparent fluid. Some of these
+      vesicles are situated so near the surface of the ovarium as to be
+      prominent on its surface. They are of different sizes, the largest nearly
+      a quarter of a inch in diameter.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The vesicles here mentioned are the so-called Graafian
+     vesicles, or ovisacs, each of which contains in its interior
+     a little ovum or egg. In the human female the ovum is
+     extremely minute, so as only to be visible with the aid of a
+     lens. The Graafian vesicles are not limited to a certain
+     small number, as was formerly thought, but continue to be
+     formed in the ovaries, and to discharge at intervals mature
+     ova during the whole of the fruitful period.&mdash;G. R.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In those in whom conception has ever taken place, some of these vesicles
+      are removed, and in their place a cicatrix or scar is formed which
+      continues through life. However, the number of cicatrices does not always
+      correspond with the number of conceptions. They often exceed it, and are
+      sometimes found where conception has not been known to take place. The
+      Fallopian Tubes are two canals four or five inches in length, proceeding
+      from the upper angles of the cavity of the uterus, in a transverse
+      direction in respect to the body. Having so proceeded for some distance
+      they turn downward toward the ovaries. At their commencement in the uterus
+      they are very small, but they enlarge as much as they progress. The large
+      ends, which hang loose, terminate in open mouths, the margins of which
+      consist of fimbriated processes, and nearly touch the ovaria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are now prepared to treat of conception. Yet, as menstruation is
+      closely connected with it, and as a knowledge of many things concerning
+      menstruation may contribute much to the well-being of females, for whom
+      this work is at least as much designed as for males, I shall first briefly
+      treat of this subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Menstruation.&mdash;When females arrive at the age of puberty they begin
+      to have a discharge once every month, by way of the vagina, of the color
+      of blood. This discharge is termed the menses. To have it is to
+      menstruate. The age at which menstruation commences varies with different
+      individuals, and also in different climates. The warmer the climate the
+      earlier it commences and ceases. In temperate climates it generally
+      commences at the age of fourteen or fifteen, and it ceases at forty-four,
+      or a little later. *
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whenever it commences the girl acquires a more womanly appearance. It is a
+      secretion of the uterus, or, in other words, the minute vessels
+      distributed to the inner coat of uterus, select as it were, from the
+      blood, and pour out in a gradual manner the materials of this fluid. It
+      has one of the properties, color, of blood, but it does not coagulate, or
+      separate into different parts like blood, and cannot properly be called
+      blood.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Dr. Chavasse, on p. 94 of his "Advice to a Wife"
+     published by W. H. Smith &amp; Son gives instances of very
+     early menstruation and consequent fecundity.&mdash;Publishers'
+     note,
+
+     ** "The menstrual discharge," says Dr. Kirkes, "consists of
+     blood effused from the inner surface of the uterus, and
+     mixed with mucus from the uterus, vagina, and the external
+     parts of the generative apparatus. Being diluted by this
+     admixture, the menstrual blood coagulates less perfectly
+     than ordinary blood; and the frequent acidity of the vaginal
+     mucus tends still further to diminish its coagulability."&mdash;
+     Handbook of Physiology, 8th ed., p. 727, 1874.&mdash;G. R.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When this discharge is in all respects regular, it amounts in most females
+      to six or eight ounces, and from two to four days' continuance. During its
+      continuance the women is said to be unwell, or out of order. Various
+      unpleasant feelings are liable to attend it; but when it is attended with
+      severe pain, as it not infrequently is, it becomes a disease, and the
+      woman is not likely to conceive until it is cured. During the existence of
+      the "turns," or "monthlies," as they are often called, indigestible food,
+      dancing in warm rooms, sudden exposure to cold or wet, and mental
+      agitations, should be avoided as much as possible. The "turns" do not
+      continue during pregnancy, nor nursing, unless nursing be continued after
+      the "turns" recommence. Some women, it is true, are subject to a slight
+      hemorrhage that sometimes occurs with considerable regularity during
+      pregnancy, and which has led them to suppose they have their turns at such
+      times; but it is not so; the discharge at such times is real blood.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Consult on the whole of this Dr. Chavasse's book, pp. 91-
+     101, where full details are given.&mdash;Publishers' note.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The use of the menstrual discharge seems to be to prepare the uterine
+      system for conception. For females do not become pregnant before they
+      commence, nor after they cease having turns; nor while they are suppressed
+      by some disease, by cold or by nursing. Some credible women, however, have
+      said that they become pregnant while nursing, without having had any turn
+      since their last lying-in. It is believed that in these oases they had
+      some discharge, colorless, perhaps, which they did not notice, but which
+      answered the purposes of the common one. Women are not nearly so likely to
+      conceive during the week before a monthly as during the week immediately
+      after.* But although the use of this secretion seems to be to prepare for
+      conception, it is not to be inferred that the reproductive instinct ceases
+      at the "turn of life," or when the woman ceases to menstruate. On the
+      contrary, it is said that this passion often increases at this period, and
+      continues in a greater or less degree to an extreme age.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * See, however, Dr. Bull's "Hints to Mothers," pp. 31-58,
+     and 127-129 (published by Longmans, Green &amp; Co.)&mdash;
+     Publishers' note.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Conception.&mdash;The part performed by the male in the reproduction of
+      the species consists in exciting the organism of the female, and
+      depositing the semen in the vagina. Before I inquire what takes place in
+      the females I propose to speak of the semen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This fluid, which is secreted by the testicles, may be said to possess
+      three kinds of properties, physical, chemical, physiological. Its physical
+      properties are known to every one&mdash;it is a thickish, nearly opaque
+      fluid, of a peculiar odor, saltish taste, etc. As to its chemical
+      properties, it is found by analysis to consist of 900 parts of water, 60
+      of animal muscilage, 10 of soda, 30 of phosphate of lime. Its
+      physiological property is that of exciting the female genital organs in a
+      peculiar manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the semen is examined by microscope, there can be distinguished a
+      multitude of small animalculæ, which appear to have a rounded head and a
+      long tail. These animalculæ move with a certain degree of rapidity. They
+      appear to avoid the light and to delight in the shade. Leeuwenhoek, if not
+      the discoverer of the seminal animalculse, was the first who brought the
+      fact of their existence fully before the public. With respect to their
+      size, he remarked that ten thousand of them might exist in a space not
+      larger than a grain of sand. They have a definite figure, and are
+      obviously different from the animalculse found in any other fluid.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * See Dr. Carpenter's "Animal Physiology," p. 558 (published
+     by H. G. Bonn); Nichol's "Human Physiology," pp. 253-255
+     (published by Trubner &amp; Co.)&mdash;Publishers' note.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Leeuwenhoek believed them to be the beginnings of future animals&mdash;that
+      they are of different sexes, upon which depends the future sex of the
+      foetus. Be this as it may, it appears to be admitted on all hands that the
+      animalculæ are present in the semen of the various species of male
+      animals, and that they cannot be detected when either from age or disease
+      the animals are rendered sterile. "Hence," says Bostock, "we can scarcely
+      refuse our assent to the position that these animalculæ are in some way or
+      other instrumental to the production of the foetus." The secretion of the
+      semen commences at the age of puberty. Before this period the testicles
+      secrete a viscid, transparent fluid, which has never been analyzed, but
+      which is doubtless essentially different from semen. The revolution which
+      the whole economy undergoes at this period, such as the tone of the voice,
+      and development of hairs, the beard, the increase of the muscles and
+      bones, etc., is intimately connected with the testicles and the secretion
+      of this fluid.* "Eunuchs preserve the same form as in childhood; their
+      voice is effeminate, they have no beard, their disposition is timid; and
+      finally their physical and moral character very nearly resembles that of
+      females. Nevertheless, many of them take delight in venereal intercourse,
+      and give themselves up with ardor to a connection which must always prove
+      unfruitful."**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Nichol's  "Human Physiology,"  pp.    256-257.
+     &mdash;Publishers' note
+
+     ** Magendic's Physiology.&mdash;Author's note.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The part performed by the female in the reproduction of the species is far
+      more complicated than that performed by the male. It consists, in the
+      first instance, in providing a substance which, in connection with the
+      male secretion, is to constitute the foetus; in furnishing a suitable
+      situation in which the foetus may be developed; in affording due
+      nourishment for its growth; in bringing it forth, and afterward furnishing
+      it with food especially adapted to the digestive organs of the young
+      animal. Some parts of this process are not well understood, and such
+      variety of hypotheses have been proposed to explain them that Drelincourt,
+      who lived in the latter part of the seventeenth century, is said to have
+      collected two hundred and sixty hypotheses of generation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It ought to be known that women have conceived when the semen was merely
+      applied to the parts anterior to the hymen, as the internal surface of the
+      external lips, the nymphæ, etc. This is proved by the fact that several
+      cases of pregnancy have occurred when the hymen was entire. The fact need
+      not surprise us, for, agreeable to the theory of absorption, we have to
+      account for it only to suppose that some of the absorbent vessels are
+      situated anterior to the hymen&mdash;a supposition by no means
+      unreasonable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are two peculiarities of the human species respecting conception
+      which I will notice. First, unlike other animals they are liable, and for
+      what has been proved to the contrary, equally liable&mdash;to conceive at
+      all seasons of the year. Second, a woman rarely, if ever, conceives until
+      after having several sexual connections; nor does one connection in fifty
+      cause conception in the matrimonial state, where the husband and wife live
+      together uninterruptedly. Public women rarely conceive, owing probably to
+      a weakened state of the genital system, induced by too frequent and
+      promiscuous intercourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is universally agreed, that some time after a fruitful connection, a
+      vesicle (two in case of twins) of one or the other ovary becomes so
+      enlarged that it bursts forth from the ovary and takes the name of ovum,
+      which is taken up, or rather received, as it bursts forth, by the
+      fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube, and is then conducted along
+      the tube into the uterus, to the inner surface of which it attaches
+      itself.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Since Dr. Knowlton's work was written, the very important
+     fact has been discovered that ova are periodically
+     discharged from the ovaries in the human female and other
+     animals, not in consequence of fruitful connection having
+     taken place, as was formerly believed, but quite
+     independently of intercourse with the male. Such a discharge
+     of ova occurs in the lower animals at the time of heat or
+     rut, and in women during menstruation. At each menstrual
+     period, a Graafian vesicle becomes enlarged, bursts, and
+     lets the ovum which it contains escape into the Fallopian
+     tube, along which it passes to the uterus. "It has long been
+     known," says Dr. Kirke, "that in the so-called oviparous
+     animals, the separation of ova from the ovary may take place
+     independently of impregnation by the male, or even of sexual
+     union. And it is now established that a like maturation and
+     discharge of ova, independently of coition, occurs in
+     Mammalia, the periods at which the matured ova are separated
+     from the ovaries and received into the Fallopian tubes being
+     indicated in the lower Mammalia by the phenomena of <i>heat</i>
+     or <i>rut</i>; in the human female by the phenomena of
+     <i>menstruation</i>. Sexual desire manifests itself in the human
+     female to a greater degree at these periods, and in the
+     female of mammiferous animals at no other time. If the union
+     of the sexes takes place, the ovum may be fecundated, and if
+     no union occur, it perishes. From what has been said it may
+     therefore be concluded that the two states, heat and
+     menstruation, are analogous, and that the essential
+     accompaniment of both is the maturation and extrusion of
+     ova."&mdash;"Handbook of Physiology," page 724.&mdash;G. R.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Here it becomes developed into a full grown foetus, and is brought forth
+      about forty-two weeks from the time of conception by a process termed
+      parturition. But one grand question is, how the semen operates itself, or
+      any part thereof reaches the ovary, and if so, in what way it is conveyed
+      to them. It was long the opinion that the semen was ejected into the
+      uterus in the act of coition, and that it afterward, by some unknown
+      means, found its way into and along the Fallopian tubes to the ovary. But
+      there are several facts which weigh heavily against this opinion, and some
+      that entirely forbid it. In the first place, there are several well
+      attested instances in which impregnation took place while the hymen
+      remained entire, where the vagina terminated in the rectum, where it was
+      so contracted by a cicatrix as not to admit the penis. In all these cases
+      the semen could not have been lodged anywhere near the mouth of the
+      uterus, much less ejected into it. Secondly, it has followed a connection
+      where from some defect in the male organs, as the urethra terminating some
+      inches behind the end of the penis, and it is clear that the semen could
+      not have been injected into the uterus, nor even near its mouth. Third,
+      the neck of the unimpregnated uterus is so narrow as merely to admit a
+      probe, and is filled with a thick tenacious fluid, which seemingly could
+      not be forced away by any force which the male organ possesses of ejecting
+      the semen, even if the mouth of the male urethra were in opposition with
+      that of the uterus. But fourth, the mouth of the uterus is by no means
+      fixed. By various causes it is made to assume various situations, and
+      probably the mouth of the urethra rarely comes in contact with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fifth. "The tenacity of the male semen is such as renders its passage
+      through the small aperture in the neck of the uterus impossible, even by a
+      power of force much superior to that which we may rationally suppose to
+      reside in the male organs of generation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sixth. "Harvey and DeGraaf dissected animals at almost every period after
+      coition for the express purpose of discovering the semen, but were never
+      able to detect the smallest vestige of it in the uterus in any one
+      instance."*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Dewees' Essay on Superfoetation.&mdash;Author's note.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Aware of the insurmountable objection to this view of the manner in which
+      the semen reaches the ovary, it has been supposed by some physiologists
+      that the semen is absorbed from the vagina into the great circulating
+      system, where it is mixed, of course, with the blood, and goes the whole
+      round of the circulation subject to the influence of those causes which
+      produce great changes in the latter fluid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this hypothesis it may be objected, that while there is no direct
+      evidence in support of it, it is exceedingly unreasonable, inasmuch as we
+      can scarcely believe that the semen can go the whole round of circulation,
+      and then find its way to the ovary in such a pure unaltered state as the
+      experiments of Spallanzani prove it must be in, that it may impregnate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A third set of theorists have maintained that an imperceptible something,
+      which they have called <i>aura seminalis</i>, passes from the semen lodged
+      in the vagina to the ovary, and excites those actions which are essential
+      to the development of an ovum. Others, again, have told us that it is all
+      done by sympathy. That neither the semen nor any volatile part of it finds
+      its way to the ovary; but that the semen excites the parts with which it
+      is in contact in a peculiar manner, and by the law of animal economy,
+      termed sympathy, or consent of parts, a peculiar action commences in the
+      ovary, by which an ovum is developed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To both these conjectures it may be objected that they have no other
+      foundation but the supposed necessity of adopting them, to account for the
+      effect of impregnation; and, further, they "make no provision for the
+      formation of mules; for the peculiarities of, and likeness to, parents,
+      and for the propagation of predisposition to disease, from parent to
+      child; for the production of mulattoes," etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fifth, and to me far more satisfactory view of the subject than any
+      other, is that advanced by our distinguished countryman, Dr. Dewees, of
+      Philadelphia. It appears to harmonize with all known facts relating to the
+      conception and something from analogy may also be drawn in its favor. It
+      is this, that there is a set of absorbent vessels, leading directly from
+      the inner surface of the <i>labia externa</i> and the vagina, to the
+      ovaries, the whole office of which vessels is to absorb the semen and
+      convey it to the ovaries.* I do not know that these vessels have yet been
+      fully discovered, but in a note on the sixteenth page of his "Essays on
+      Various Subjects," the doctor says: "The existence of these vessels is now
+      rendered almost certain, as Dr. Gartner, of Copenhagen, has discovered a
+      duct leading from the ovary to the vagina."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This view is not held at the present day. The commonly
+     received doctrine now is that the seminal fluid enters the
+     uterus, whether during the intercourse or after it, and
+     passes along the Fallopian tubes to the ovaries; and that
+     fecundation takes place at some point of this course, most
+     frequently in the tubes, but also at times in the ovary
+     itself, or even, perhaps, in the uterus. It is essentially
+     necessary for fecundation that the spermatozoa should come
+     into actual contact with the ovum. "That the spermatozoa
+     make their way toward the ovarium, and fecundate the ovum
+     either before it entirely quits the ovisac or very shortly
+     afterward," says Dr. Carpenter, "appears to be the general
+     rule in regard to the Mammalia; and their power of movement
+     must obviously be both vigorous and long continued to enable
+     them to traverse so great an extent of mucous membrane,
+     especially when it is remembered that they ascend in
+     opposition to the direction of the ciliary movement of the
+     epithelial cells and to the downward peristaltic action of
+     the Fallopian tubes. * * * There can be no doubt that it is
+     the contact of the spermatozoa with the ovum, and in the
+     changes which occur as the immediate consequence of that
+     contact, that the act of fecundation essentially consists."
+     &mdash;"Principles of Human Physiology," 8th ed., p. 961,1876.&mdash;G.R.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Another question of considerable moment relating to generation is from
+      which parent are the first rudiments of the foetus derived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The earliest hypothesis with which we are acquainted, and which has
+      received the support of some of the most eminent of the moderns, ascribes
+      the original formation of the foetus to the combination of particles of
+      matter derived from each of the parents. This hypothesis naturally
+      presents itself to the mind as the obvious method of explaining the
+      necessity for the cooperation of the two sexes, and the resemblance in
+      external form, and even in mind and character, which the offspring often
+      bears to the male parent. "The principal objections," says Bostock, "to
+      his hypothesis, independent of the want of any direct proof of a female
+      seminal fluid, are of two descriptions, those which depend upon the
+      supposed impossibility of unorganized matter forming an organized being,
+      and those which are derived from observations and experiments of Haller
+      and Spallanzani, which they brought forward in support of their theory of
+      pre-existent germs."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In relation to these objections I remark, first those whose experience has
+      been with hale females, I suspect, can have no doubt but that the female
+      organism increases like that of the male, until an emission of fluid of
+      some kind or other takes place. But whether this secretion may properly be
+      called semen, whether any part of it unites with the male semen in forming
+      the rudiments of the foetus, is another question. For my part I am
+      inclined to the opinion that it does not.* I rather regard it as the
+      result of exalted excitation, analogous to the increased secretion of
+      other organs from increased stimulation; and if it may be for any object
+      or use, as it probably is, it is that of affording nature a means of
+      relieving herself; or, in other words, of quieting the venereal passion.
+      If this passion, being once roused, could not by some means or other be
+      calmed, it would command by far too great a portion of our thoughts, and
+      with many constitutions the individuals, whether male or female, could not
+      conduct themselves with due decorum. One fact which leads me to think that
+      the female secretion in the act of coition is not essential to
+      impregnation is, that many females have conceived, if their unbiased
+      testimony may be relied on, when they experienced no pleasure. In these
+      cases it is more than probable that there was no orgasm, nor any secretion
+      or emission of fluid on the part of the female.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * With regard to this secretion in the female, which has
+     nothing of a seminal character, Dr. Carpenter observes: "Its
+     admixture with the male semen has been supposed to have some
+     connection with impregnation; but no proof whatever has been
+     given that any such admixture is necessary."&mdash;"Human
+     Physiology," p. 991.&mdash;G. R.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As to the objection of the supposed impossibility of unorganized matter
+      forming an organized being, I do not believe such a thing takes place,
+      even if we admit that "the original formation of the foetus is a
+      combination of particles of matter derived from each of the parents." What
+      do, or rather what ought we to mean by organized matter? Not, surely, that
+      it exhibits some obvious physical structure, unlike what is to be found in
+      inorganic matter, but that it exhibits phenomena, and of course may be
+      said to possess properties unlike any kind of inorganic matter. Matter
+      unites with matter in three ways, mechanically, chemically and
+      organically, and each mode of union gives rise to properties peculiar to
+      itself. When matter unites organically, the substance or being so formed
+      exhibits some phenomena essentially different from what inorganic bodies
+      exhibit. It is on this account that we ascribe to organic bodies certain
+      properties, which we call physiological properties, such as contractility,
+      sensibility, life, etc. When, from any cause, these bodies have undergone
+      such a change that they no longer exhibit the phenomena peculiar to them,
+      they are said to have lost these properties, and to be dead. A substance
+      need not possess all the physiological properties of an animal of the
+      higher orders to entitle it to the name of an organized or living
+      substance, nor need it possess the physical property of solidity. The
+      blood, as well as many of the secretions, does several things, exhibits
+      several phenomena, which no mechanical or mere chemical combinations of
+      matter do exhibit. We must therefore ascribe to it certain physiological
+      properties, and regard it as an organized, a living fluid, as was
+      contended by the celebrated John Hunter. So with respect to the semen, it
+      certainly possesses physiological properties, one in particular peculiar
+      to itself, namely, the property of impregnating the female; and upon no
+      sound principle can it be regarded in any other light than as an
+      organized, and of course a living fluid. And if the female secretion or
+      any part of it unite with the male secretion in the formation of the
+      rudiments or the foetus in a different manner than any other substance
+      would, then it certainly has the property of doing so, whether we give
+      this property a name or not; and a regard to the soundest principles of
+      physiology compels us to class this property with the physiological or
+      vital, and of course to regard this secretion as an organized and living
+      fluid So, then, unorganized matter does not form an organized being,
+      admitting the hypothesis before us as correct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That organized being should give rise to other organized beings under
+      favorable circumstances as to nourishment, warmth, etc., is no more
+      wonderful than that fire should give rise to fire when air and fuel are
+      present. To be sure, there are some minute steps in the processes which
+      are not fully known to us; still, if they ever should be known, we should
+      unquestionably see that there is a natural cause for every one of them;
+      and that they are all consonant with certain laws of the animal economy.
+      We should see no necessity of attempting to explain the process of
+      generation by bringing to our aid, or rather to the darkening of the
+      subject, any imaginary principle, as the <i>visus formaticus</i> of
+      Blumenbach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to the "observations and experiments of Haller and Spallanzani," I
+      think, with Dr. Bostock, that they weigh but little, if any, against the
+      theory before us. I shall not be at the labor of bringing them forward and
+      showing their futility as objections to this theory, for I am far from
+      insisting on the correctness of it; that is, I do not insist that any part
+      of the female secretion, during coition, unites with the male semen in the
+      formation of the rudiments of the foetus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second hypothesis or theory, I shall notice, as to the rudiments of
+      the foetus, is that of Leeuwenhoek, who regarded the seminal animalculse
+      of the male semen as the proper rudiments of the foetus, and thought that
+      the office of the female is to afford them a suitable receptacle where
+      they may be supported and nourished until they are able to exist by the
+      exercise of their own functions. This is essentially the view of the
+      subject which I intend to give more particularly presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know of no serious objections to this hypothesis, nothing but the
+      "extreme improbability," as its opponents say, "that these animalculæ
+      should be the rudiments of being so totally dissimilar to them." But I
+      wish to know if there is more difference between a foetus and a seminal
+      animalcule than there is between a foetus and a few material particles in
+      some other form than that of such animalcule?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third hypothesis, or that of pre-existing germs, proceeded upon a
+      precisely opposite view of the subject to that of Leeuwenhoek, namely,
+      that the foetus is properly the production of the female; that it exists
+      previous to the sexual congress, with all its organs, in some parts of the
+      uterine system; and that it receives no proper addition from the male, but
+      that the seminal fluid acts merely by exciting the powers of the foetus,
+      or endowing it with vitality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not known who first proposed this hypothesis; but strange as it may
+      appear, it has had the support of such names as Bonnet, Haller and
+      Spallanzani, and met with a favorable reception in the middle of the last
+      century. Agreeable to this hypothesis, our common mother, Eve, contained a
+      number of homuncules (little men) one within another, like a nest of
+      boxes, and all within her ovaries, equal to all the number of births that
+      have ever been, or ever will be, not to reckon abortions. Were I to bring
+      forward all the facts and arguments that have been advanced in support of
+      this idea, it seems to me I should fail to convince sound minds of its
+      correctness; as to arguments against it, they surely seem uncalled for.
+      Having now presented several hypotheses of generation, some as to the
+      manner in which the semen reaches or influences the ovary, and others as
+      to the rudiments of the foetus, I shall now bring together those views
+      which, upon the whole, appear to me the most satisfactory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I believe, with Dr. Dewees, that a set of absorbent vessels extend from
+      the innermost surface of the <i>labia externa</i>, and from the vagina to
+      the ovary, the whole office of which is to take up the semen or some part
+      thereof, and convey it to the ovary. I believe, with Leeuwenhoek, that the
+      seminal animalculæ are the proper rudiments of the foetus, and are perhaps
+      of different sexes; that in cases of impregnation one of them is carried
+      not only to, but into a vesicle of an ovary, which is in a condition to
+      receive and be duly affected by it.* It is here surrounded by the
+      albuminous fluid which the vesicle contains. This fluid being somewhat
+      changed in its qualities by its new-comer, stimulates the minute vessels
+      of the parts which surround it, and thus causes more of this fluid to be
+      formed; and while it affords the animalcule material for its development,
+      it puts the delicate membrane of the ovary which retains it in its place
+      upon the stretch, and finally bursts forth surrounded probably by an
+      exceedingly delicate membrane of its own. This membrane, with the
+      albuminous fluid it contains and the animalcule in the center of it,
+      constitutes the ovum or egg. It is received by the fimbriated extremity of
+      the Fallopian tube, which by this time has grasped the ovary, and is by
+      this tube slowly conveyed into the uterus, to the inner surface of which
+      it attaches itself, through the medium of the membrane, which is formed by
+      the uterus itself in the interim between impregnation and the arriving of
+      the ovum in the way I have just mentioned.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The opinion that the spermatozoa of seminal filaments are
+     real animalculæ is now abandoned, but it is held by Dr.
+     Carpenter and other authorities that they actually, as here
+     stated, penetrate into the interior of the ovum. "The nature
+     of impregnation," says Dr. Hermann, "is as yet unknown. In
+     all probability it is, above all, essential, in order that
+     it should occur, that one or more spermatozoa should
+     penetrate the ovum. At any rate, spermatozoa have been found
+     within the fecundated eggs of the most diverse species of
+     animals."&mdash;Elements of "Human Physiology," translated from
+     the 5th ed., by Dr. Gamgee, p. 534, 1875.&mdash;G. R.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The idea that a seminal animalcule enters an ovum while it remains in the
+      ovary, was never before advanced to my knowledge; hence I consider it
+      incumbent upon me to advance some reason for the opinion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First, it is admitted on all hands that the seminal animalculæ are
+      essential to impregnation, since "they cannot be detected when either from
+      age or disease the animal is rendered sterile."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Second, the ovum is impregnated while it remains in the ovary. True, those
+      who never met with Dr. Dewees' theory, and who, consequently, have adopted
+      the idea that the semen is ejected into the uterus, as the least
+      improbable of any with which they were acquainted, have found it very
+      difficult to dispose of the fact that the ovum is impregnated in the
+      ovary, and have consequently presumed this is not generally the case. They
+      admit it is certainly so sometimes, and that it is difficult to reject the
+      conclusion that it is always so. Dr. Bostock&mdash;who, doubtless, had not
+      met with Dewees' theory at the time he wrote, and who admits it impossible
+      to conceive how the semen can find its way along the Fallopian tubes, how
+      it can find its way toward the ovary, farther, at most, than into the
+      uterus, and, consequently, cannot see how the ovum can be impregnated into
+      the ovary&mdash;says, "Perhaps the most rational supposition may be that
+      the ovum is transmitted to the uterus in the unimpregnated state; but
+      there are certain facts which seem almost incompatible with this idea,
+      especially the cases which not infrequently occur of perfect foetuses
+      having been found in the tubes, or where they escaped them into the cavity
+      of the abdomen. Hence it is demonstrated the ovum is occasionally
+      impregnated in the tubes (why did he not say ovaria?), and we can scarcely
+      resist the conclusion that it must always be the case."..."Haller
+      discusses this hypothesis (Bostock's 'most natural supposition, perhaps')
+      and decides against it."..."The experiments of Cruikshank, which were very
+      numerous, and appear to have been made with the requisite degree of skill
+      and correctness, led to the conclusion that the rudiment of the young
+      animal is perfected in the ovarium."... "A case is detailed by Dr.
+      Granville, of a foetus which appears to have been lodged in the body of
+      the ovarium itself, and is considered by its author as a proof that
+      conception always takes place in this organ."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The above quotations are from the third volume of Bostock's Physiology.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, as the seminal animalculæ are essential to impregnation, and as the
+      ovum is impregnated in the ovarium, what more probable conjecture can we
+      form than that an animalcule, as the real proper rudiment of the foetus,
+      enters the ovum, where, being surrounded with albuminous fluid with which
+      it is nourished, it gradually becomes developed? It may be noticed that
+      Leeuwenhoek estimates that ten thousand animalculæ of the human semen may
+      exist in a space not larger than a grain of sand. There can, therefore, be
+      no difficulty in admitting that they may find their way along exceedingly
+      minute vessels from the vagina, not only to, but into the ovum while
+      situated in the ovarium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think no one can be disposed to maintain that the animalculæ merely
+      reaches the surface of the ovum and thus impregnates it. But possibly some
+      may contend that its sole office is to stimulate the ovum, and in this way
+      set going that train of actions which are essential to impregnation. But
+      there is no evidence in favor of this last idea, and certainly it does not
+      so well harmonize with the fact that the offspring generally partakes more
+      or less of the character of its male parent. As Dr. Dewees says of the
+      doctrine of sympathy, "It makes no provision for the formation of mules;
+      for the peculiarities of and likeness of parents; and for the propagation
+      of predisposition to disease from parent to child; for the production of
+      mulattoes," etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considering it important to do away with the popular and mischievous error
+      that the semen must enter the uterus to effect impregnation, I shall, in
+      addition to what has been already advanced, here notice the experiments of
+      Dr. Haighton. He divided the Fallopian tubes in numerous instances, and
+      that after the operation a foetus is never produced, but that <i>corpora
+      lutea</i> were formed. The obvious conclusions from these facts are that
+      the semen does not traverse the Fallopian tubes to reach the ovaria; yet,
+      that the ovum becomes impregnated while in the ovarium and, consequently,
+      that the semen reaches the ovum in some way, except by the uterus and
+      Fallopian tubes. I may remark, however, that a <i>corpus luteum</i> is not
+      positive proof that impregnation at some time or other has taken place;
+      yet they are so rarely found in virgins that they were regarded as such
+      proofs until the time of Blumenbach, a writer of the present century.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * A <i>corpus luteum</i> is a little yellowish body, formed in
+     the ovary by changes that take place in the Graafian vesicle
+     after it has burst and discharged its contents. <i>Corpora
+     lutea</i> were formerly considered a sure sign of impregnation,
+     as they were thought to be developed only or chiefly in
+     cases of pregnancy, but it is now known that they occur in
+     all cases where a vesicle has been ruptured and an ovum
+     discharged; though they attain a larger, size and are longer
+     visible in the ovary when pregnancy takes place than when it
+     does not.&mdash;G. R.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Harvey and DeGraaf dissected animals at most every period after coition
+      for the express purpose of discovering the semen, but were never able to
+      detect the smallest vestige of it in the uterus in any one instance."&mdash;Dewells
+      Essay on Superfoetation. The fact of superfoetation furnishes a very
+      strong argument against the idea that the semen enters the uterus in
+      impregnation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A woman being impregnated while she is already impregnated constitutes
+      superfoetation. It is established beyond a doubt that such instances have
+      occurred, yet those who have supposed that it is necessary for the semen
+      to pass through the mouth of the uterus to produce conception have urged
+      that superfoetation could not take place, because, say they&mdash;and they
+      say correctly&mdash;"so soon as impregnation shall have taken place, the
+      <i>os uteri</i> closes and becomes impervious to the semen ejected in
+      subsequent acts of coition."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Dewees related two cases, evidently cases of superfoetation, that
+      occurred to his own personal knowledge. The first shows that, agreeable to
+      the old theory, the semen must have met with other difficulties than a
+      closed month of the uterus,&mdash;it must have passed through several
+      membranes, as well as the waters surrounding the foetus, to have reached
+      even the uterine extremity of a Fallopian tube. The second case I will
+      give in his own words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A white woman, servant to Mr. H., of Abington township, Montgomery
+      county, was delivered about five and twenty years since of twins, one of
+      which was perfectly white, the other perfectly black. When I resided in
+      that neighborhood I was in the habit of seeing them almost daily and also
+      had frequent conversations with Mrs. H. respecting them. She was present
+      at their birth, so that no possible deception could have been practiced
+      respecting them. The white girl is delicate, fair-skinned, light-haired
+      and blue eyed, and is said very much to resemble the mother. The other has
+      all the characteristic marks of the African; short of stature, flat,
+      broad-nosed, thick-lipped, woolly-headed, flat-footed, and projecting
+      heels; she is said to resemble a negro they had on the farm, but with whom
+      the woman would never acknowledge an intimacy; but of this there was no
+      doubt, as both he and the white man, with whom her connection was
+      detected, ran from the neighborhood as soon as it was known the girl was
+      with child."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am aware that some have thought that they had actually discovered semen
+      in the uterus, while Ruysch, an anatomist of considerable eminence, who
+      flourished at the close of the seventeenth century, asserted in the most
+      unequivocal manner that he found the semen in its gross white state in one
+      of the Fallopian tubes of a woman, who died very soon after, or during the
+      act of coition; but says Dewees, "the semen, after it has escaped from the
+      penis, quickly loses its albuminous appearance and becomes as thin and
+      transparent as water. And we are certain that Ruysch was mistaken. Some
+      alteration in the natural secretion of the parts was mistaken for semen.
+      This was nowise difficult for him to do, as he had a particular theory to
+      support, and more especially as this supposed discovery made so much for
+      it. It is not merely speculative when we say that some change in the
+      natural secretion of the parts may be mistaken for semen, for we have the
+      testimony of Morgani on our side. He tells us he has seen similar
+      appearances in several instances in virgins and others, who have been
+      subject during their lives to leucorrhæ, and that it has been mistaken by
+      some for male semen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the whole I would say, that in some instances, where the mouth of the
+      uterus is uncommonly relaxed, the semen may, as it were, accidentally have
+      found its way into it; but that is not generally the case, nor is it
+      essential to impregnation; and further, that whatever semen may at any
+      time be lodged in the uterus, has nothing to do with conception. It is not
+      consistent with analogy to suppose that the uterus has vessels for
+      absorbing the semen and conveying it to the ovaria, considering the other
+      important functions which we know it performs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The circumstances under which a female is most likely to conceive are,
+      first, when she is in health; second, between the ages of twenty-six and
+      thirty; third, after she has for a season been deprived of those
+      intercourses she had previously enjoyed; fourth, soon after menstruating.
+      Respect-ing this latter circumstance, Dr. Dewees remarks, "Perhaps it is
+      not erring greatly to say, that the woman is liable to conceive at any
+      part of the menstrual interval. It is generally supposed, however, that
+      the most favorable instant is immediately after the catamenia have
+      ceased." Perhaps this is so as a general rule, but it is certainly liable
+      to exceptions,* and he relates the following case which occurred to his
+      own notice:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This view, which concerns a question of the utmost
+     practical importance, is held at the present day by the
+     great physiologists. It is believed that although conception
+     may occur at other times, it is much more likely to happen
+     from intercourse a few days before or after the menstrual
+     periods; that is to say, during the time when ova are in
+     process of being ripened and detached from the ovaries, and
+     before they perish and are conveyed out of the body. "There
+     is good reason to believe," says Dr. Carpenter, "that in the
+     human female the sexual feeling becomes stronger at the
+     period of menstruation; and it is quite certain that there
+     is a greater aptitude for conception immediately before and
+     after that epoch, than there is at any immediate period.
+     This question has been made the subject of special inquiry
+     by M. Raciborski, who affirms that the exceptions to the
+     rule&mdash;that conception occurs immediately before or after or
+     during menstruation&mdash;are not more than six or seven per
+     cent. Indeed, in his latest work on the subject, he gives
+     the details of fifteen cases, in which the date of
+     conception could be accurately fixed, and the time of the
+     last appearance of the catamenia was also known, and in all
+     but one of them the correspondence between the periods was
+     very close."&mdash;"Human Physiology," p. 959. So, too, Dr.
+     Kirkes remarks, that "although conception is not confined to
+     the periods of menstruation, yet it is more likely to occur
+     within a few days after cessation of the menstrual flux than
+     at other times."&mdash;"Handbook of Physiology," p. 725.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "The husband of a lady who was obliged to absent himself many months in
+      consequence of the embarrassment of his affairs, returned one night
+      clandestinely, his visit being only known to his wife, his mother, and
+      myself. The consequence of this visit was the impregnation of his wife.
+      The lady was at that time within a week of her menstrual period; but as
+      this did not fail to take place, she was led to hope that she had not
+      suffered by the visit of her husband. But her catamenia not appearing at
+      the next period, gave rise to a fear that she had not escaped! and the
+      birth of a child nine months and thirteen days from the night of the
+      clandestine visit proved her apprehensions too well grounded."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think this case is an exception to a general rule; and, furthermore,
+      favors an idea which reason and a limited observation, rather than
+      positive knowledge, has led me to advance, the above, namely, that a woman
+      is more likely to conceive, other things being the same, after being
+      deprived for a season of those intercourses she had previously enjoyed.
+      Had this lady's husband remained constantly at home, she would probably
+      either not have conceived at all, or have done so a fortnight sooner than
+      she did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This case is also remarkable for two other facts: one, "that a woman in
+      perfect health, and pregnant with a healthy child, may exceed the period
+      of nine months by several days; the other, that a check is not always
+      immediately given to the catamenial flow by an ovum being impregnated."
+      Probably it is not so generally so as many suppose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The term of utero-gestation, or the length of time from conception to the
+      commencement of labor, is not precisely determined by physiologists. "It
+      seems, however," says Dr. Dewees, "from the best calculations that can be
+      made, that nine calendar months, or forty weeks, approaches the truth so
+      nearly that we can scarcely need or desire more accuracy, could it be
+      obtained." Unquestionably, however, some cases exceed this period by many
+      days, or even weeks, and it has been a question much agitated, how far
+      this period is ever exceeded. It is a question of some moment in a legal
+      point of view. Cases are reported where the usual period was exceeded by
+      five or six months; cases, too, where the circumstances attending them and
+      the respectability of their reporters are such as to command our belief.
+      Dr. Dewees has paid much attention to this subject, and he declares
+      himself entirely convinced "that the commonly fixed period may be extended
+      from thirteen days to six weeks, under the influence of certain causes or
+      peculiarities of constitution."*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * See tables in Dr. Bull's "Hints to Mothers," pp. 130-141.
+     &mdash;Publishers' note.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      These occasional departures from the general rule will, perhaps, be the
+      more readily admitted when we consider that they are not confined to the
+      human species. From the experiments of Tessier, it appears that the term
+      of utero-gestation varies greatly with the cow, sheep, horse, swine and
+      other animals to which his attention was directed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Properly connected with the subject of generation are the signs of
+      pregnancy. Dr. Dewees remarks that "our experience furnishes no certain
+      mark by which the moment conception takes place is to be distinguished.
+      All appeals by the women to particular sensations experienced at the
+      instant should be very guardedly received, for we are certain they cannot
+      be relied upon; for enjoyment and indifference are alike fallacious. Nor
+      are certain nervous tremblings, nausea, palpitation of the heart, the
+      sensation of something flowing from them during coition, etc, more to be
+      relied upon." Burns, however, says, "Some women feel, immediately after
+      conception, a peculiar sensation, which apprises them of their situation,
+      but such instances are not frequent, and generally the first circumstances
+      which lead a woman to suppose herself pregnant are the suppression of the
+      menses;" a fickle appetite, some sickness, perhaps vomiting, especially in
+      the morning; returning qualms, or languor in the afternoon; she is liable
+      to heartburn, and to disturbed sleep. The breasts at first often become
+      smaller and sometimes tender; but about the third month they enlarge, and
+      occasionally become painful. The nipple is surrounded with an aureole or
+      circle of a brown color, or at least of a color sensibly deeper or darker
+      than before. She loses her looks, becomes paler, and the under part of the
+      lower eyelid is often somewhat of a leaden hue. The features become
+      sharper, and sometimes the whole body begins to emaciate, while the pulse
+      quickens. In many instances particular sympathies take place, causing
+      salivation, toothache, jaundice, etc. In other cases very little
+      disturbance is produced, and the woman is not certain of her condition
+      until the time of quickening, which is generally about four months from
+      conception. It is possible for a woman to mistake the effects of wind for
+      the motion of the child, especially if they have never borne children, and
+      be anxious for a family; but the sensation produced by wind in the bowels
+      is not confined to one spot, but is often felt at a part of the abdomen
+      where the motion of a child could not possibly be felt. Quite as
+      frequently, perhaps, do fleshy women think themselves dropsical, and
+      mistake motions of the child for movements of water within the abdominal
+      cavity. The motion of the child is not to be confounded with the sensation
+      sometimes produced by the uterus rising out of the pelvis, which produces
+      the feeling of fluttering. At the end of the fourth month, the uterus
+      becomes so large that it is obliged to rise out of the pelvis, and if this
+      elevation takes place suddenly, the sensation accompanying it is pretty
+      strong, and the woman at the time feels sick or faint, and in irritable
+      habits; even a hysterical fit may accompany it After this the morning
+      sickness and other sympathetic effects of pregnancy generally abate, and
+      the health improves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very soon after impregnation, if blood be drawn and suffered to stand a
+      short time undisturbed, it will become sizy, of a yellowish or bluish
+      color, and somewhat of an oily appearance. But we cannot from such
+      appearances of the blood alone pronounce a woman pregnant, for a
+      suppression of the menses, accompanied with a febrile state, may give the
+      blood a like appearance as pregnancy, so also may some local disease. Of
+      the above-mentioned symptoms, perhaps there is no <i>one</i> on which we
+      can place more reliance than the increased color of the circle around the
+      nipple.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * See "Advice to a Wife," P. H. Chavasse, pp. 115-124, where
+     many details are given.&mdash;Publishers' note.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Six or eight weeks after conception, the most sure way of ascertaining
+      pregnancy is to examine the mouth and neck of the uterus, by way of the
+      vagina. The uterus will be found lower down than formerly, its mouth is
+      not directed so much forward as before impregnation, and is more
+      completely closed, and the neck is felt to be thicker, or increased in
+      circumference. When raised on the finger it is found to be heavier or more
+      resisting. Whoever makes this examination must have examined the same
+      uterus in an unimpregnated state, and retained a tolerably correct idea of
+      its feeling at that time, or he will be liable to uncertainty, because the
+      uterus of one woman is naturally different in magnitude from another, and
+      the uterus is frequently lower down than natural from other causes than
+      pregnancy.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * No one but a doctor, or one trained in physiology could,
+     of course, make any such examination with safety and
+     utility.&mdash;Publishers' note.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It has not been fully ascertained how long it is after a fruitful
+      connection before an effect is produced upon the ovaria, that is before
+      any alteration could be discovered, were the female to be dissected. But
+      Brighton's experiments have established the fact, that with rabbits, whose
+      term of utero-gestation is but thirty days, no effect is propagated to the
+      ovaria until nearly fifty hours after coition; we should judge, therefore,
+      that with the human species it must be several days, and it is generally
+      estimated by physiologists that the ovum does not reach the uterus until
+      the expiration of twenty days from the time of connection.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * "The time occupied in the passage of the ovum from the
+     ovary to the uterus," says Dr. Kirkes, "occupies probably
+     eight or ten days in the human female."&mdash;"Handbook of
+     Physiology," p. 741.&mdash;G. R.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It is probable that in all cases in which any matter is absorbed from any
+      part of the animal system, some little time is required for such matter,
+      after its application, to stimulate and arouse the absorbent vessels to
+      action; hence it is probable that after the semen is lodged in the vagina,
+      it is many minutes, possibly some hours, before any part of it is
+      absorbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III. OF PROMOTING AND CHECKING CONCEPTION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Sterility depends either on imperfect organization, or imperfect action of
+      the organs of generation. In the former cases, which are rare, the menses
+      do not generally appear, the breasts are not developed, and the sexual
+      desire is inconsiderable. There is no remedy in these cases.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The action may be imperfect in several respects. The menses may be
+      obstructed or sparing, or they may be too profuse or frequent. It is
+      extremely rare for a woman to conceive who does not menstruate regularly.
+      Hence where this is the case the first step is to regulate this periodical
+      discharge. For this purpose the advice of a physician will generally be
+      required, for these irregularities depend upon such various causes and
+      require such a variety of treatment that it would be inconsistent with the
+      plan of this work to give instructions for remedying them. A state of
+      exhaustion or weakness of the uterine system, occasioned by too frequent
+      intercourse, is a frequent cause of sterility. The sterility of
+      prostitutes is attributed to this cause, but I doubt it being the only
+      one. With females who are apparently healthy, the most frequent cause is a
+      torpor, rather than weakness of the genital organs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the removal of sterility from this cause, I shall give some
+      instructions, and this I do the more readily because the requisite means
+      are such as will regulate the menses in many cases, where they do not
+      appear so early in life, so freely or so frequently as they ought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the first place, it will generally be necessary to do something toward
+      invigorating the system by exercise in the open air, by nourishing food of
+      easy digestion, by sufficient dress, particularly flannel, and especially
+      by strict temperance in all things. With this view, also, some scales
+      which fall from the blacksmith's anvil, or some steel filings may be put
+      into old cider or wine (cider the best), and after standing a week or so,
+      as much may be taken two or three times a day as can be borne without
+      disturbing the stomach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the while the bowels are to be kept rather open by taking from one to
+      three of <i>Pill rufi</i> every night on going to bed. These pills consist
+      of four parts of aloes, two parts of myrrh, and one of saffron, by weight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These measures having been regularly pursued until the system be brought
+      into a vigorous state, medicines which are more particularly calculated to
+      arouse the genital organs from a state of torpor may be commenced, and
+      continued for months if necessary. The cheapest, most simple (and I am not
+      prepared to say it is not the most effectual in many cases) is cayenne.
+      All the virtues of this article are not generally known even to
+      physicians. I know it does not have the effect upon the coats of the
+      stomach that many have conjectured. It may be taken in the quantity of
+      from one to two rising teaspoonsful, or even more, everyday up on food or
+      on any liquid vehicle. Another medicine of much efficacy is Dewees'
+      Volatile Tincture of Guaiac. It is generally kept by apothecaries, and is
+      prepared as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Take of Gum Guaicum, in powder, eight ounces; carbonate of Potash, or of
+      Soda, or (what will answer) Saleratus, three drachms; Allspice, in powder,
+      two ounces; any common spirits of good strength, two pounds, or what is
+      about the same two pints and a gill. Put all into a bottle, which may be
+      shaken now and then, and use of it may be commenced in a few days. To
+      every gill of this, at least a large teaspoon-ful of Spirits of Ammonia is
+      to be added. A teaspoonful is to be taken for a dose, three times a day,
+      in a glass of milk, cider or wine. It is usually given before eating; but
+      if it should chance to offend the stomach when taken before breakfast, it
+      may in this case be taken an hour after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Dewees found this tincture, taken perhaps for months, the most
+      effectual remedy for painful menstruation, which is an obstinate
+      complaint. If there be frequent strong pulse, heat, thirst, florid
+      countenance, etc., it is not to be taken until these symptoms be removed
+      by low diet, a few doses of salts, and bleeding, if required.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A third medicine for arousing the genital organs, is tincture of Spanish
+      Flies. But I doubt its being equal, in sterility, to the above mentioned
+      medicines, though it may exceed them in some cases, and may be tried if
+      these fail. A drachm of them may be put to two gills of spirits. Dose, 25
+      drops, in water, three times a day, increasing each one by two or three
+      drops, until some degree of stranguary occurs, then omit until this pass
+      off, as it will in a day or two. Should the stranguary be severe, drink
+      freely of milk and water, slippery elm, or flaxseed tea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In many cases of sterility, where the general health is considerably in
+      fault, and especially when the digestive organs are torpid, I should have
+      much faith in a Thomsonian course. It is calculated to arouse the
+      capillary vessels throughout the whole system, and thus to open the
+      secretions, to remove obstructions, and free the blood of those effete and
+      phlegmy materials which nature requires to be thrown off. The views of the
+      Thomsonian as to heat and cold appear to me unphilosophical. But this has
+      nothing to do with the efficiency of their measures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In relation to sterility, I would here bring to mind, what has before been
+      stated, that a woman is most likely to conceive immediately after a
+      menstrual turn. And now, also, let me suggest the idea that Nature's
+      delicate beginnings may be frustrated by the same means that put her a
+      going. This idea is certainly important when the woman is known to have
+      miscarried a number of times. Sterility is sometimes to be attributed to
+      the male, though he apparently be in perfect health. It would be an
+      interesting fact to ascertain if there be no seminal animalculæ in these
+      cases; and whether medicines of any kind are available.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been ascertained that a male and female may be sterile in relation
+      to each other, though neither of them be so with others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The foregoing measures for sterility are also suitable in cases of
+      impotency. This term, I believe, is generally con-lined to, and defined as
+      a want of desire or ability, or both on the part of the male; but I see no
+      good reason why it should not comprehend the case in which there is
+      neither desire nor pleasure with the female. Such females, it is true, may
+      be fruitful; but so, on the other hand, the semen may not have lost its
+      fecundating property. Impotency, at a young or middle age, and in some
+      situations in life especially, is certainly a serious misfortune, to say
+      the least of it. The whole evil by no means consists, in every case, in
+      the loss of a source of pleasure. All young people ought to be apprised of
+      the causes of it&mdash;causes which, in many instances, greatly lessen
+      one's ability of giving and receiving that pleasure which is the root of
+      domestic happiness. I shall allude to one cause, that of premature, and
+      especially solitary gratification, in another place. Intemperance in the
+      use of spirits is another powerful cause. Even a moderate use of spirits,
+      and also of tobacco, in any form, have some effect It is a law of animal
+      economy, that no one part of the system can be stimulated or excited,
+      without an expense of vitality, as it is termed. The part which is
+      stimulated draws the energy from other parts. And hence it is, that close
+      and deep study, as well as all the mental passions when excessive, impair
+      the venereal appetite. All excesses, all diseases and modes of life which
+      impair the general health, impair this appetite, but some things more
+      directly and powerfully than others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to the remedies for impotency, they are much the same as for sterility.
+      It is of the first importance that the mind be relieved from all care and
+      anxiety. The general health is to be improved by temperance, proper
+      exercise in the open air, cheerful company, change of scenery, or some
+      occupation to divert the mind without requiring much exercise of it;
+      nourishing food of easy digestion; flannel worn next to the skin. The cold
+      bath may be tried, and if it be followed by agreeable feelings, it will do
+      good. The bowels may be gently stimulated by the pills before mentioned;
+      and the preparation of iron also, already mentioned, should be taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To stimulate the genital organs more directly, cayenne, Dewees' tincture
+      of guaiac, or tincture of flies, may be taken. I have given directions for
+      making and taking the tincture of flies, chiefly because it is esteemed
+      one of the best remedies for impotency caused by or connected with
+      nocturnal emissions, to which I have before alluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is in cases where little or no pleasure, nor erection, attend these
+      emissions&mdash;cases brought on by debauchery, or in elderly persons&mdash;that
+      I would recommend tincture of flies, and the other measures above
+      mentioned. In some bad cases, enormous doses of this tincture are
+      required, say two or three hundred drops. Yet the best rule for taking it
+      is that already given, namely, begin with small doses, and gradually
+      increase until some stranguary be felt, or some benefit be received. In
+      this affection, as well as in all cases of impaired virility, the means I
+      have mentioned are to be pursued for a long time, unless relief be
+      obtained. These have cured after having been taken for a year or more
+      without the result. In all cases of impotency not evidently depending upon
+      disease of some part besides the genital organs, I should have much
+      confidence in blisters applied to the lower part of the spine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Occasional nocturnal emissions, accompanied with erection and pleasure,
+      are by no means to be considered a disease, though they have given many a
+      one such uneasiness. Even if they be frequent, and the system considerably
+      debilitated, if not caused by debauch, and the person be young, marriage
+      is the proper measure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There have been several means proposed and practiced for checking
+      conception. I shall briefly notice them, though a knowledge of the best is
+      what most concerns us. That of withdrawal immediately before emission is
+      certainly effectual, if practiced with sufficient care. But if (as I
+      believe) Dr. Dewees' theory of conception be correct, and as Spallanzani's
+      experiments show that only a trifle of semen, even largely diluted with
+      water, may impregnate by being injected into the vagina, it is clear that
+      nothing short of entire withdrawal is to be depended upon. But the old
+      notion that the semen must enter the uterus to cause conception, has led
+      many to believe that a partial withdrawal is sufficient, and it is on this
+      account that this error has proved mischievous, as all important errors
+      generally do. It is said by those who speak from experience that the
+      practice of withdrawal has an effect upon the health similar to
+      intemperance in eating. As the subsequent exhaustion is probably mainly
+      owing to the shock the nervous system sustains in the act of coition, this
+      opinion may be correct. It is further said that this practice serves to
+      keep alive those fine feelings with which married people first come
+      together. Still, I leave it for every one to decide for himself whether
+      this check be so far from satisfactory as not to render some other very
+      desirable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to the baudruche, which consists in a covering used by the male, made
+      of very delicate skin, it is by no means calculated to come into general
+      use. It has been used to secure immunity from syphilitic affections.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another check which the old idea of conception has led some to recommend
+      with considerable confidence, consists in introducing into the vagina,
+      previous to connection, a very delicate piece of sponge, moistened with
+      water, to be immediately afterward withdrawn by means of a very narrow
+      ribbon attached to it, But, as our views would lead us to expect, this
+      check has not proved a sure preventive. As there are many little ridges or
+      folds in the vagina, we cannot suppose the withdrawal of the sponge would
+      dislodge all the semen in every instance. If, however, it were well
+      moistened with some liquid which acted chemically upon the semen, it would
+      be pretty likely to destroy the fecundating property of what might remain.
+      But if this check were ever so sure, it would, in my opinion, fall short
+      of being equal, all things considered, to the one I am about to mention&mdash;one
+      which not only dislodges the semen pretty effectually, but at the same
+      time destroys the fecundating property of the whole of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It consists in syringing the vagina immediately after connection with a
+      solution of sulphate of zinc, of alum, pearl-ash, or any salt that acts
+      chemically on the semen, and at the same time produces no unfavorable
+      effect on the female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In all probability a vegetable astringent would answer&mdash;as an
+      infusion of white oak bark, of red rose leaves, of nut-galls, and the
+      like. A lump of either of the above-mentioned salts, of the size of a
+      chestnut, may be dissolved in a pint of water, making the solution weaker
+      or stronger, as it may be borne without any irritation of the parts to
+      which it is applied. These solutions will not lose their virtues by age. A
+      female syringe, which will be required in the use of the check, may be had
+      at the shop of an apothecary for a shilling or less. If preferred, the
+      semen may be dislodged as far as it can be, by syringing with simple
+      water, after which some of the solution is to be injected, to destroy the
+      fecundating property of what may remain lodged between the ridges of the
+      vagina, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know the use of this check requires the woman to leave her bed for a few
+      moments, but this is its only objection; and it would be unreasonable to
+      suppose that any check can ever be devised entirely free of objections. In
+      its favor it may be said, it costs nearly nothing; it is sure; it requires
+      no sacrifice of pleasure; it is in the hand of the female; it is to be
+      used after, instead of before the connection, a weighty consideration in
+      its favor, as a moment's reflection will convince any one; and last, but
+      not least, it is conducive to cleanliness, and preserves the parts from
+      relaxation and disease. The vagina may be very much contracted by a
+      persevering use of astringent injections, and they are constantly used for
+      this purpose in cases of <i>procidentia uteri</i>, or a sinking down of
+      the womb; subject as women are to <i>fluor albus</i>, and other diseases
+      of the genital organs, it is rather a matter of wonder that they are not
+      more so, considering the prevailing practices. Those who have used this
+      check (and some have used it, to my certain knowledge with entire success
+      for nine or ten years, and under such circumstances as leave no room to
+      doubt its efficacy) affirm that they would be at the trouble of using
+      injections merely for the purposes of health and cleanliness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By actual experiment it has been rendered highly probable that pregnancy
+      may, in many instances, be prevented by injections of simple water,
+      applied with a tolerable degree of care. But simple water has failed, and
+      its occasional failure is what we should expect, considering the anatomy
+      of the parts, and the results of Spallanzani's experiments heretofore
+      alluded to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This much did I say respecting this check in the first edition of this
+      work. That is what I call the chemical check. The idea of destroying the
+      fecundating property of the semen was original, if it did not originate
+      with me. My attention was drawn to the subject by the perusal of "Moral
+      Physiology." Such was my confidence in the chemical idea that I sat down
+      and wrote this work in July, 1831. But the reflection that I did not know
+      that this check would never fail, and that if it should, I might do
+      someone an injury in recommending it, caused the manuscript to lie on hand
+      until the following December. Some time in November I fell in with an old
+      acquaintance, who agreeably surprised me by stating that to his personal
+      knowledge this last check had been used as above stated. I have since
+      conversed with a gentleman with whom I was acquainted, who stated that,
+      being in Baltimore some few years ago, he was there informed of this check
+      by those who have no doubt of its efficacy. From what has as yet fell
+      under my observation, I am not warranted in drawing any conclusion. I can
+      only say that I have never known it to fail. Such are my views on the
+      whole subject, that it would require many instances of its reputed failure
+      to satisfy me that such failures were not owing to an insufficient use of
+      it. I even believe that quite cold water alone, if thoroughly used, would
+      be sufficient. In Spallanzani's experiments warm water was unquestionably
+      used. As the seminal animalcule are essential to impregnation, all we have
+      to do is to change the condition of, or, if you will, to kill them; and as
+      they are so exceedingly small and delicate, this is doubtless easily done,
+      and hence cold water may be sufficient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What has now been advanced in this work will enable the reader to judge
+      for himself or herself of the efficacy of the chemical or syringe check,
+      and time will probably determine whether I am correct in this matter. I do
+      know that those married females who have much desire to escape will not
+      stand for the little trouble of using this check, especially when they
+      consider that on the score of cleanliness and health alone it is worth the
+      trouble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great part of the time no check is necessary, and women of experience
+      and observation, with the information conveyed by this work, will be able
+      to judge pretty correctly when it is and when it is not. They may rest
+      assured that none of the salts mentioned will have any deleterious effect.
+      The sulphate of zinc is commonly known by the name of white vitriol. This,
+      as well as alum, have been extensively used for leucorrhæ. Acetate of lead
+      would doubtless be effectual&mdash;indeed, it has proven to be so; but I
+      do not recommend it, because I conceive it possible that a long continued
+      use of it might impair the instinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I hope that no failures will be charged of efficacy of this check which
+      ought to be attributed to negligence or insufficient use of it. I will
+      therefore recommend at least two applications of the syringe, the sooner
+      the surer, yet it is my opinion that five minutes' delay would not prove
+      mischievous&mdash;perhaps not ten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV. REMARKS ON THE REPRODUCTIVE INSTINCT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I scarcely need observe that by this instinct is meant the desire for
+      sexual intercourse. Blumenbach speaks of this instinct as "superior to all
+      others in universality and violence." Perhaps hunger is an exception. But
+      surely no instinct commands a greater proportion of our thoughts or has a
+      greater influence upon happiness for better or for worse. "Controlled by
+      reason and chastened by good feelings, it gives to social intercourse much
+      of its charm and zest, but directed by selfishness or governed by force,
+      it is prolific of misery and degradation. In itself it appears to be the
+      most social and least selfish of all instincts. It fits us to give even
+      while we receive pleasure, and among cultivated beings the former power is
+      even more highly valued than the latter. Not one of our instincts perhaps
+      affords larger scope for the exercise of disinterestedness, or fitter play
+      for the best moral feelings of our race. Not one gives birth to relations
+      more gentle, more humanizing and endearing; not one lies more immediately
+      at the root of the kindliest charities and most generous impulses that
+      honor and bless human nature. It is a much more noble, because less purely
+      selfish, instinct than hunger or thirst. It is an instinct that entwines
+      itself around the warmest feelings and best affections of the heart"&mdash;<i>Moral
+      Physiology</i>. But too frequently its strength, together with a want of
+      moral culture, is such that it is not "controlled by reason;" and
+      consequently, from time immemorial, it has been gratified, either in a
+      mischievous manner, or to such an intemperate degree, or under such
+      improper circumstances, as to give rise to an incalculable amount of human
+      misery. For this reason it has, by some, been regarded as a low, degrading
+      and "carnal" passion, with which family life must be ever at war. But in
+      the instinct itself the philosopher sees nothing deserving of degrading
+      epithets. He sees not that nature should war against herself. He believes
+      that in savage life it <i>is</i>, and in wisely organized society of duly
+      enlightened and civilized beings it should be the source of ten-fold more
+      happiness than misery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A part of the evil consequences to which this instinct is daily giving
+      rise under the present state of things, it belongs more particularly to
+      the moralist to point out; whilst of others it falls within the province
+      of the physician to treat. But let me first remark that physicians have
+      hitherto fallen far short of giving those instructions concerning this
+      instinct which its importance demands. In books, pamphlets, journals,
+      etc., they have laid much before the public respecting eating, drinking,
+      bathing, lacing, air, exercise, etc., but have passed by the still more
+      important subject now before us, giving only here and there spine faint
+      allusion to it This, it is true, the customs, not to say pruderies, of the
+      age have compelled them to do, in publications designed for the public
+      eye, yet, in some small work, indicated by its title to be for private
+      perusal, they might, with the utmost propriety, have embodied much highly
+      useful instruction in relation to this instinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This instinct is liable to be gratified at improper times, to an
+      intemperate degree, and in a mischievous manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      True philosophy dictates that this and all other appetites be so gratified
+      as will most conduce to human happiness&mdash;not merely the happiness
+      attending the gratification of one of the senses, but all the senses&mdash;not
+      merely sensual happiness, but intellectual&mdash;not merely the happiness
+      of the individual, but of the human family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First.&mdash;Of the times at which this instinct ought not to be
+      gratified. With females it ought not to be gratified until they are
+      seventeen or eighteen years of age, and with males not until they are a
+      year or two older. The reason is, if they refrain until these ages, the
+      passion will hold out the longer, and they will be able to derive much
+      more pleasure from it in after life, than if earlier gratified, especially
+      to any great extent A due regard to health also enjoins with most persons
+      some restraint on this instinct&mdash;indeed, at all times, but especially
+      for a few years after the above-mentioned ages. It ought not to be rashly
+      gratified at first. Begin temperately, and as the system becomes more
+      mature, and habituated to the effects naturally produced by the
+      gratification of this instinct, it will bear more without injury. Many
+      young married people, ignorant of the consequences, have debilitated the
+      whole system&mdash;the genital system in particular; have impaired their
+      mental energies; have induced consumptive and other diseases; have
+      rendered themselves irritable, unsocial, melancholy and finally much
+      impaired, perhaps destroyed their affection for each other by an undue
+      gratification of the reproductive instinct. In almost all diseases, if
+      gratified at all, it should be very temperately. It ought not to be
+      gratified during menstruation, as it might prove productive to the man of
+      symptoms similar to those of syphilis, but more probably to the woman of a
+      weakening disease called <i>fluor albus</i>. In case of pregnancy a
+      temperate gratification for the first two or three months may be of no
+      injury to the woman or the coming offspring. But it ought to be known that
+      the growth of the foetus in utero may be impaired, and the seeds of future
+      bodily infirmity and mental imbecility of the offspring may be sown by
+      much indulgence during utero-gestation or pregnancy, especially when the
+      woman experiences much pleasure in such indulgences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having already glanced at some of the bad effects of an undue
+      gratification of this instinct, I have but little more to offer under the
+      head of Intemperate Degree. It will be borne in mind that intemperance in
+      this thing is not to be decided by numbers, but that it depends on
+      circumstances; and what would be temperance in one, may be intemperance in
+      another. And with respect to an individual, too, what he might enjoy with
+      impunity, were he a laboring man, or a man whose business requires but
+      little mental exercise, would, were he a student, unfit him for the
+      successful prosecution of his studies. Intemperance in the gratification
+      of this instinct has a tendency to lead to intemperance in the use of
+      ardent spirits. The languor, depression of spirits, in some instances
+      faintness and want of appetite, induced by intemperate gratification, call
+      loudly for some stimulus, and give a relish to spirits. Thus the
+      individual is led to drink. This inflames the blood, the passions, and
+      leads to further indulgence. This again calls for more spirits; and thus
+      two vicious habits are commenced, which mutually increase each other.
+      Strange as it may appear to those unacquainted with the animal economy, an
+      intemperate indulgence sometimes gives rise to the same disease&mdash;so
+      far as the name makes it so&mdash;that is frequently cured by a temperate
+      indulgence; viz, nocturnal emissions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every young married woman ought to know that the male system is exhausted
+      in a far greater degree than the female by gratification. It seems,
+      indeed, to have but little effect, comparatively, upon some females. But
+      with respect to the male, it has been estimated by Tissot that the loss of
+      one ounce of semen is equal in its effects upon the system of forty ounces
+      of blood. As it respects the immediate effects, this estimation, generally
+      speaking, may not be too great. But a man living on a full meat diet
+      might, doubtless, part with fifty ounces of semen in the course of a year,
+      with far less detriment to the system than with 2,000 ounces of blood. It
+      is a fact, that mode of living, independent of occupation, makes a great
+      difference with respect to what the system will bear. A full meat diet,
+      turtles, oysters, eggs, spirits, wine, etc., certainly promote the
+      secretion of semen, and enable the system to bear its emission. But a cool
+      vegetable and milk diet calms all the passions, the venereal especially.
+      Most men adopting such a diet as this will suffer no inconvenience in
+      extending the intervals of their gratification to three or four weeks; on
+      the contrary, they will enjoy clear intellect, and a fine flow of spirits.
+      This is the diet for men of literary pursuits, especially the unmarried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to the mischievous manner, it consists in the unnatural habit of
+      onanism, or solitary gratification; it is an antisocial and demoralizing
+      habit, which, while it proves no quietus to the mind, impairs the bodily
+      powers as well as mental, and not infrequently leads to insanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the gratification of the reproductive instinct in such manner as
+      mentioned leads to bad consequences, a temperate and natural
+      gratification, under proper circumstances, is attended with good, besides
+      the mere attendant pleasure, which alone is enough to recommend such
+      gratification. I admit that human beings might be so constituted that if
+      they had no reproductive instinct to gratify, they might enjoy health; but
+      being constituted as they are, this instinct cannot be mortified with
+      impunity. It is a fact universally admitted, that unmarried females do not
+      enjoy so much good health and attain to so great an age as the married;
+      notwithstanding that the latter are subject to the diseases and pains
+      incident to child-bearing. A temperate gratification promotes the
+      secretions, and the appetite for food; calms the restless passions;
+      induces pleasant sleep; awakens social feeling; and adds a zest to life
+      which makes one conscious that life is worth preserving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_APPE" id="link2H_APPE">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      APPENDIX
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [I here connect with this work, by way of Appendix, the
+     following extract from an article which appeared in the
+     Boston Investigator, a paper which, <i>mirabile dictu</i>, is so
+     "crazy" as to be open to the investigation of all subjects
+     which mightily concern mankind.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The only seeming objection of much weight that can be brought against
+      diffusing a knowledge of checks is, that it will serve to increase illegal
+      connections. Now, this is exactly the contrary effect of that which those
+      who have diffused such knowledge most confidently believe will arise from
+      it. To diminish such connections is indeed one of the grand objects of
+      this publication,&mdash;an object which laws and prisons cannot, or, at
+      least, do not, accomplish. Why is there so much prostitution in the land?
+      The true answer to the question is not, and never will be, Because the
+      people have become acquainted with certain facts in physiology; it is
+      because there are so many unmarried men and women,&mdash;men of
+      dissipation and profligacy, owing to their not having married in their
+      younger days and settled down in life. But why are there so many unmarried
+      people in the country? Not because young hearts when they arrive at the
+      age of maturity do not desire to marry; but because prudential
+      considerations interfere. The young man thinks: I cannot marry yet; I
+      cannot support a family; I must make money first, and think of a
+      matrimonial settlement afterward. And so it is, that through fear of
+      having a family, before they have made a little headway in the world, and
+      of being thereby compelled to "tug at the oar of incessant labor
+      throughout their lives," thousands of young men do not marry, but go
+      abroad into the world and form vicious acquaintances and practices. The
+      truth, then, is this,&mdash;there is so much illegal connection in the
+      land, because the people had not, twenty years ago, that very information
+      which, it would seem, some, doubtless through want of due reflection, are
+      apprehensive will increase this evil. I might quote pages to the point
+      from "Every Woman's Book," but I fear my communication would be too
+      lengthy. I content myself with a few lines. "But when it has become the
+      custom here as elsewhere to limit the number of children, so that none
+      need have more than they wish, no man will fear to take a wife; all will
+      marry while young; debauchery will diminish; while good morals and
+      religious duties will be promoted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been asked if a general knowledge of checks would not diminish the
+      general increase of population? I think that such would not be the result
+      in this country until such result would be desirable. In my opinion the
+      effect would be a good many more families (and, on the whole, as many
+      births), but not so many overgrown and poverty-stricken ones. It has been
+      said, It is better to let Nature take her course. Now, in the broadest
+      sense of the word "Nature," I say so too. In this sense there is nothing
+      unnatural in the universe. But if we limit the sense of the word Nature so
+      as not to include what we mean by art, then is civilized life one
+      continued warfare against Nature. It is by art that we subdue the forest;
+      by art we contend against the elements; by art we combat the natural
+      tendency of disease, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to the outrageous slander which here and there one has been heard to
+      utter against the fair sex, in saying that fear of conception is the
+      foundation of their chastity, it must be the sentiment of a "carnal
+      heart," which has been peculiarly unfortunate in its acquaintances. "To
+      the pure, all things are pure." Chastity, as well as its opposite, is in a
+      great degree constitutional; and ought, in a like degree, to be regarded
+      as a physical property, if I may so say, rather than a moral quality.
+      Where the constitution is favorable a very indifferent degree of moral
+      training is sufficient to secure the virgin without the influence of the
+      above-mentioned fear; but where it is the reverse you may coop up the
+      individual in the narrow dark cage of ignorance and fear, as you will, but
+      still you must watch. An eminent moralist has said, "That chastity which
+      will not bear the light [of physiology] is scarcely worth preserving." But
+      verily, I believe there is very little such in the market. What there be
+      is naturally short-lived, and, after its demise, the unhappily constituted
+      individual stands in great need of this light to save her from ignominy.
+      What might it not have prevented in the Fall River affair? And if one of
+      two things must happen&mdash;either the destruction of fecundity or the
+      destruction of life&mdash;which of the two is the greater evil? In these
+      cases alone this light is calculated to do sufficient good to
+      counterbalance all the evil that would arise from it; so that we should
+      have its important advantages to the married in a political, a domestic
+      and a medical point of view, as so much clear gain. This, of course, is my
+      opinion; but since I have probably reflected more upon the subject than
+      all the persons concerned in my imprisonment put together, until it can be
+      shown that I have not as clear a head and as pure a heart as any of them,
+      I think it entitled to some weight.
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fruits of Philosophy, by Charles Knowlton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fruits of Philosophy
+       A Treatise on the Population Question
+
+Author: Charles Knowlton
+
+Editor: Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant
+
+Release Date: December 1, 2011 [EBook #38185]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY
+
+A TREATISE ON THE POPULATION QUESTION
+
+By Charles Knowlton
+
+Edited by Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.
+
+The pamphlet which we now present to the public is one which has been
+lately prosecuted under Lord Gampbell's Act, and which we republish,
+in order to test the right of publication. It was originally written
+by Charles Knowlton, M. D., whose degree entitles him to be heard with
+respect on a medical question. It was first published in England, about
+forty years ago, by James Watson, the gallant radical, who came to
+London and took up Richard Carlile's work, when Carlile was in jail. He
+sold it, unchallenged, for many years, approved it, and recommended it.
+It was printed and published by Messrs. Holyoake & Co., and found its
+place, with other works of a similar character, in their "Freethought
+Directory," of 1853, and was thus identified with freethought literature
+at the then leading freethought _depot_ Mr. Austin Holyoake, working
+in con-junction with Mr. Bradlaugh at the _National Reformer_ office,
+Johnson's Court, printed and published it in his turn, and this
+well-known freethought advocate, in his "Large or Small Families,"
+selected this pamphlet, together with R. D. Owen's "Moral Physiology"
+and the "Elements of Social Science," for special recommendation. Mr.
+Charles Watts, succeeding to Mr. Austin Holyoake's business, continued
+the sale, and, when Mr. Watson died, in 1875, he bought the plates of
+the work (with others) from Mrs. Watson, and continued to advertise and
+to sell it until December 23, 1876. For the last forty years the
+book has thus been identified with freethought, advertised by leading
+freethinkers, published under the sanction of their names, and sold in
+the headquarters of freethought literature. If, during this long period,
+the party has thus--without one word of protest--circulated an indecent
+work, the less we talk about freethought morality the better; the
+work has been largely sold, and, if leading freethinkers have sold
+it--profiting by the sale--through mere carelessness, few words could be
+strong enough to brand the indifference which thus scattered obscenity
+broadcast over the land. The pamphlet has been withdrawn from
+circulation in consequence of the prosecution instituted against Mr.
+Charles Watts, but the question of its legality or illegality has not
+been tried; a plea of "Guilty" was put in by the publisher, and the
+book, therefore, was not examined, nor was any judgment passed upon it;
+no jury registered a verdict, and the judge stated that he had not read
+the work.
+
+We republish this pamphlet, honestly believing that on all questions
+affecting the happiness of the people, whether they be theological,
+political or social, fullest right of free discussion ought to be
+maintained at all hazards. We do not personally indorse all that
+Dr. Knowles says: his "Philosophical Proem" seems to us full of
+philosophical mistakes, and--as we are neither of us doctors--we are not
+prepared to indorse his medical views; but since progress can only be
+made through discussion, and no discussion is possible where differing
+opinions are suppressed, we claim the right to publish all opinions, so
+that the public, enabled to see all sides of a question, may have the
+materials for forming a sound judgment.
+
+The alterations made are very slight, the book was badly printed, and
+errors of spelling and a few clumsy grammatical expressions have been
+corrected; the subtitle has been changed, and in one case four lines
+have been omitted, because they are repeated word for word further on.
+We have, however, made some additions to the pamphlet, which are in all
+cases kept distinct from the original text. Physiology has made great
+strides during the past forty years, and not considering it right to
+circulate erroneous physiology, we submitted the pamphlet to a doctor
+in whose accurate knowledge we have the fullest confidence, and who is
+widely known in all parts of the world as the author of the "Elements of
+Social Science;" the notes signed "G. B." are written by this gentleman.
+References to other works are given in foot-notes for the assistance of
+the reader, if he desires to study up the subject further.
+
+Old Radicals will remember that Richard Carlile published a work
+entitled "Every Woman's Book," which deals with the same subject and
+advocates the same object as Dr. Knowlton's pamphlet R. D. Owen objected
+to the "style and tone" of Carlile's "Every Woman's Book," as not being
+in "good taste," and he wrote his "Moral Physiology" to do in America
+what Carlile's work was intended to do in England. This work of
+Carlile's was stigmatized as "indecent" and "immoral," because it
+advocated, as does Dr. Knowlton's, the use of preventive checks to
+population. In striving to carry on Carlile's work, we cannot expect to
+escape Carlile's reproach; but, whether applauded or condemned, we mean
+to carry it on, socially as well as politically and theologically.
+
+We believe, with the Rev. Mr. Malthus, that population has a tendency to
+increase faster than the means of existence, and that _some_ checks must
+therefore exercise control over population. The checks now exercised are
+semi-starvation and preventable disease; the enormous mortality among
+the infants of the poor is one of the checks which now keep down the
+population. The checks that ought to control population are scientific,
+and it is these which we advocate. We think it more moral to prevent the
+conception of children than, after they are born, to murder them by want
+of food, air and clothing. We advocate scientific checks to population,
+because, so long as poor men have large families, pauperism is a
+necessity, and from pauperism grow crime and disease. The wages which
+would support the parents and two or three children in comfort and
+decency, is utterly insufficient to maintain a family of twelve or
+fourteen, and we consider it a crime to bring into the world human
+beings doomed to misery or to premature death. It is not only the
+hard-working classes which are concerned in this question. The poor
+preacher, the struggling man of business, the young professional man,
+are often made wretched for life by their inordinately large families,
+and their years are passed in one long battle to live; meanwhile, the
+woman's health is sacrificed and her life embittered from the same
+cause. To all of these we point the way of relief and happiness; for
+the sake of these we publish what others fear to issue; and we do it
+confident that if we fail the first time, we shall succeed at last,
+and that the English public will not permit the authorities to stifle a
+discussion of the most important social question which can influence a
+nation's welfare.
+
+Charles Bradlaugh.
+
+Annie Besant.
+
+
+
+
+PHILOSOPHICAL PROEM
+
+Consciousness is not a "principle" or substance of any kind, nor is
+it, strictly speaking, a property of any substance or being. It is a
+peculiar action of the nervous system, and the system is said to be
+sensible, or to possess the property of sensibility, because those
+sentient actions which constitute our different consciousnesses may be
+excited in it. The nervous system includes not only the brain and spinal
+marrow, but numerous soft white cords, called nerves, which extend
+from the brain and spinal marrow to every part of the body in which a
+sensation can be excited.
+
+A sensation is a sentient action of a nerve and the brain; a thought or
+idea (both the same thing) is a sentient action of the brain alone. A
+sensation or a thought is consciousness, and there is no consciousness
+but that which consists either in a sensation or a thought.
+
+Agreeable consciousness constitutes what we call happiness, and
+disagreeable consciousness constitutes misery. As sensations are a
+higher degree of consciousness than mere thought, it follows that
+agreeable sensations constitute a more exquisite happiness than
+agreeable thoughts. That portion of happiness which consists in
+agreeable sensations is commonly called pleasure. No thoughts are
+agreeable except those which were originally excited by or have been
+associated with agreeable sensations. Hence, if a person never had
+experienced any agreeable sensations, he could have no agreeable
+thoughts, and would, of course, be an entire stranger to happiness.
+
+There are five species of sensations--seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting
+and feeling. There are many varieties of feeling--as the feelings of
+hunger, thirst, cold, hardness, etc. Many of these feelings are
+excited by agents that act upon the exterior of the body, such as solid
+substances of every kind, heat, and various chemical irritants. These
+latter feelings are called _passions_.
+
+Those passions which owe their existence chiefly to the state of the
+brain, or to causes acting directly upon the brain, are called the moral
+passion. They are grief, anger, love, etc. They consist of sentient
+actions, which commence in the brain and extend to the nerves in the
+region of the stomach, etc. But when the cause of the internal feeling
+of passion is seated in some organ remote from the brain, as in the
+stomach, genital organs, etc., the sentient action which constitutes the
+passion commences in the nerves of such organ and extends to the brain,
+and the passion is called an _appetite, instinct, or desire_. Some
+of these passions are natural, as hunger, thirst, the reproductive
+instinct, the desire to urinate, etc. Others are gradually acquired by
+habit A _hankering_ for stimulants, as spirits, opium and tobacco, is
+one of these.
+
+Such is the nature of things that our most vivid and agreeable
+sensations cannot be excited under all circumstances, nor beyond a
+certain extent under any circumstances, without giving rise in one
+way or another to an amount of disagreeable consciousness or misery,
+exceeding the amount of agreeable consciousness which attends such
+ill-timed or excessive gratification. To excite agreeable sensations to
+a degree not exceeding this certain extent is temperance; to excite
+them beyond this extent is intemperance; not to excite them at all is
+mortification or abstinence. This certain extent varies with different
+individuals, according to their several circumstances, so that what
+would be temperance in one person may be intemperance in another.
+
+To be free from disagreeable consciousness is to be in a state which,
+compared with a state of misery, is a happy state; yet absolute
+happiness does not exist in the absence of misery, if it does, rocks are
+happy. It consists, as aforesaid, in agreeable consciousness. That which
+enables a person to excite or maintain agreeable consciousness is
+not happiness; but the _idea_ of having such in one's possession is
+agreeable, and of course is a portion of happiness. Health and wealth go
+far in enabling a person to excite and maintain agreeable consciousness.
+That which gives rise to agreeable consciousness is _good_, and we
+desire it. If we use it intemperately, such use is bad, but the thing
+itself is still good. Those acts (and intentions are acts of that part
+of man which intends) of human beings which tend to the promotion of
+happiness are good, but they are also called _virtuous_, to distinguish
+them from other things of the same tendency. There is nothing for the
+word _virtue_ to signify, but virtuous actions. Sin signifies nothing
+but sinful actions, and sinful, wicked, vicious, or bad actions are
+those which are productive of more misery than happiness.
+
+When an individual gratifies any of his instincts in a _temperate_
+degree, he adds an item to the sum total of human happiness, and causes
+the amount of human happiness to exceed the amount of misery farther
+than if he had not enjoyed himself, therefore it is virtuous, or, to
+say the least, it is not vicious or sinful for him to do so. But it must
+ever be remembered that this temperate degree depends on circumstances;
+that one person's health, pecuniary circumstances, or social relation
+may be such that it would cause more misery than happiness for him to do
+an act which being done by a person under different circumstances would
+cause more happiness than misery. Therefore, it would be right for the
+latter to perform such act, but not for the former.
+
+Again: owing to his _ignorance_, a man may not be able to gratify a
+desire without causing misery (wherefore it would be wrong for him to
+do it), but with knowledge of means to prevent this misery, he may so
+gratify it that more pleasure than pain will be the result of the act,
+in which case the act, to say the least, is justifiable. Now, therefore,
+it is virtuous, nay, it is the _duty_, for him who has a knowledge of
+such means, to convey it to those who have it not, for by so doing he
+furthers the cause of human happiness.
+
+Man by nature is endowed with the talent of devising means to remedy
+or prevent the evils that are liable to arise from gratifying our
+appetites; and it is as much the duty of the physician to inform
+mankind of the means to prevent the evils that are liable to arise from
+gratifying the productive instinct as it is to inform them how to keep
+clear of the gout or dyspepsia. Let not the old ascetic say we ought
+not to gratify our appetites any further than is necessary to maintain
+health and to perpetuate the species. Mankind will not so abstain,
+and if any means to prevent the evils that may arise from a farther
+gratification can be devised, they _need not_. Heaven has not only given
+us the capacity of greater enjoyment, but the talent of devising means
+to prevent the evils that are liable to arise therefrom, and it becomes
+us, "with thanksgiving," to make the most of them.
+
+
+
+
+FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. TO LIMIT AT WILL THE NUMBER OF THEIR OFFSPRING
+
+Showing how desirable it is, both in a political and a social point
+of view, for mankind to be able to limit at WILL THE NUMBER OF
+THEIR OFFSPRING, WITHOUT SACRIFICING THE PLEASURE THAT ATTENDS THE
+GRATIFICATION OF THE REPRODUCTIVE INSTINCT.
+
+First.---_In a political point of view_.--If population be not
+restrained by some great physical calamity, such as we have reason to
+hope will not hereafter be visited upon the children of men, or by some
+_moral restraint_, the time will come when the earth cannot support
+its inhabitants. Population unrestrained will double three times in a
+century. Hence, computing the present population of the earth at 1,000
+millions, there would be at the end of 100 years from the present time,
+8,000 millions.
+
+     At the  end of 200 years,  64,000  millions.
+
+     "         "    300    "   512,000       "
+
+And so on, multiplying by eight for every additional hundred years.
+So that in 500 years from the present time there would be thirty-two
+thousand seven hundred and sixty eight times as many inhabitants as at
+present. If the natural increase should go on without check for 1,500
+years, one single pair would increase to more than _thirty-five thousand
+one hundred and eighty-four_ times as many as the present population of
+the whole earth!
+
+Some check then there must be, or the time will come when millions will
+be born but to suffer and to perish for the necessaries of life. To what
+an inconceivable amount of human misery would such a state of things
+give rise! And must we say that vice, war, pestilence and famine are
+desirable to prevent it? Must the friends of temperance and domestic
+happiness stay their efforts? Must peace societies excite to war
+and bloodshed? Must the physician cease to investigate the nature
+of contagion, and to search for the means of destroying its baneful
+influence? Must he that becomes diseased be marked as a victim to die
+for public good, without the privilege of making an effort to restore
+him to health? And in case of a failure of crops in one part of the
+world, must the other parts withhold the means of supporting life that
+the far greater evil of excessive population throughout the world may be
+prevented? Can there be no effectual moral restraint, attended with far
+less human misery than such physical calamities as these? Most surely
+there can. But what is it? Malthus, an English writer on the subject of
+population, gives us none but celibacy to a late age. But how foolish
+it is to suppose that men and women will become as monks and nuns during
+the very holiday of their existence, and abjure during the fairest
+years of life the nearest and dearest of social relations, to avert
+a catastrophe which they and perhaps their children will not live to
+witness. But, besides being ineffectual, or if effectual, requiring a
+great sacrifice of enjoyment, this restraint is highly objectionable
+on the score of its demoralizing tendency. It would give rise to a
+frightful increase of prostitution, of intemperance and onanism, and
+prove destructive to health and moral feelings. In spite of preaching,
+human nature will ever remain the same; and that restraint which forbids
+the gratification of the reproductive instinct will avail but little
+with the mass of mankind. The checks to be hereafter mentioned are
+the only moral restraints to population known to the writer that are
+unattended with serious objections.
+
+Besides starvation, with all its accompanying evils, overpopulation is
+attended with other public evils, of which may be mentioned, ignorance
+and slavery. Where the mass of the people must toil incessantly to
+obtain support, they must remain ignorant; and where ignorance prevails,
+tyranny reigns.*
+
+     * The scientific part of Malthus' Doctrine of Population is
+     not very clearly or correctly given in the above passages.
+     His great theory, now or generally held by the most eminent
+     political economists, is that the increase of population is
+     always powerfully checked in old countries by the difficulty
+     in increasing the supply of food; that the existing evils of
+     poverty and low wages are really at bottom caused by this
+     check, and are brought about by the pressure of population
+     on the soil, and the continual overstocking of the labor
+     markets with laborers; and hence that the only way in which
+     society can escape from poverty, with all its miseries, is
+     by putting a strong restraint on their natural powers of
+     multiplication. "It is not in the nature of things," he
+     says, "that any permanent and general improvement in the
+     condition of the poor can be effected without an increase in
+     the preventive checks to population."--G. R.
+
+Second--_In a social point of view_.--"Is it not notorious that the
+families of the married often increase beyond which a regard for the
+young beings coming into the world, and the happiness of those who give
+them birth, would dictate. In how many instances does the hard-working
+father, and more especially the mother, of a poor family remain slave
+throughout their lives, tugging at the oar of incessant labor, toiling
+to live, and living to toil; when, if their offspring had been limited
+to two or three only, they might have enjoyed comfort and comparative
+affluence? How often is the health of the mother, giving birth every
+year to an infant--happy if it be not twins--and compelled to toil on,
+even at those times when nature imperiously calls for some relief from
+daily drudgery,--how often is the mother's comfort, health, nay, even
+her life, thus sacrificed? Or if care and toil have weighed down the
+spirit, and at length broken the health of the father; how often is
+the widow left unable, with the most virtuous intentions, to save her
+fatherless offspring from becoming degraded objects of charity, or
+profligate votaries of vice!
+
+"Nor is this all. Many women are so constituted that they cannot give
+birth to healthy, sometimes not to living children. Is it desirable,
+is it moral, that such women should become pregnant? Yet this is
+continually the case. Others there are who ought never to become
+parents; because, if they do, it is only to transmit to their offspring
+grievous hereditary diseases, which render such offspring mere subjects
+of misery throughout their sickly existence. Yet such women will not
+lead a life of celibacy. They marry. They become parents, and the sum of
+human misery is increased by their doing so. But it is folly to expect
+that we can induce such persons to live the lives of Shakers. Nor is it
+necessary; all that duty requires of them is to refrain from becoming
+parents. Who can estimate the beneficial effect which a rational
+moral restraint may thus have on the health and beauty and physical
+improvement of our race throughout future generations?"
+
+Let us now turn our attention to the case of unmarried youth.
+
+"Almost all young persons, on reaching the age of maturity, desire to
+marry. That heart must be very cold, or very isolated, that does not
+find some object on which to bestow its affections. Thus, early marriage
+would be almost universal did not prudential consideration interfere.
+The young man thinks, 'I cannot marry yet; I cannot support a family.
+I must make money first, and think of a matrimonial settlement
+afterwards.'
+
+"And so he goes to making money, fully and sincerely resolved in a few
+years to share it with her whom he now loves. But passions are strong
+and temptations great. Curiosity, perhaps, introduces him into the
+company of those poor creatures whom society first reduces to a
+dependence on the most miserable of mercenary trades, and then curses
+for being what she has made them. There his health and moral feelings
+are alike made shipwreck. The affections he had thought to treasure up
+for their first object are chilled by dissipation and blunted by excess.
+He scarcely retains a passion but avarice. Years pass on--years of
+profligacy and speculation--and his wish is accomplished, his fortune is
+made. Where now are the feelings and resolve of his youth?
+
+     'Like the dew on the mountain,
+     Like the foam on the river,
+     Like the bubbles on the fountain,
+     They are gone--and forever.'
+
+"He is a man of pleasure, a man of the world. He laughs at the romance
+of his youth, and marries a fortune. If gaudy equipage and gay parties
+confer happiness, he is happy. But if these be only the sunshine on
+the stormy sea below, he is a victim to that system of morality which
+forbids a reputable connection until the period when provision has been
+made for a large expected family. Had he married the first object of his
+choice, and simply delayed becoming a father until his prospects seemed
+to warrant it, how different might have been his lot. Until men and
+women are absolved from the fear of becoming parents, except when they
+themselves desire it, they will ever form mercenary and demoralizing
+connections, and seek in dissipation the happiness they might have found
+in domestic life.
+
+"I know that this, however common, is not a universal case. Sometimes
+the heavy responsibilities of a family are incurred at all risks; and
+who shall say how often a life of unremitting toil and poverty is the
+consequence. Sometimes, if even rarely, the young mind does hold its
+first resolves. The youth plods through years of cold celibacy and
+solitary anxiety, happy if, before the best hours of his life are gone
+and its warmest feelings withered, he may return to claim the reward of
+his forbearance and his industry. But even in this comparatively happy
+case, shall we count for nothing the years of ascetic sacrifice at which
+after happiness is purchased? The days of youth are not too many, nor
+its affections too lasting. We may, indeed, if a great object require
+it, sacrifice the one and mortify the other. But is this, in itself,
+desirable? Does not wisdom tell us that such a sacrifice is a dead
+loss--to the warm-hearted often a grievous one? Does not wisdom bid us
+temperately enjoy the springtimes of life, 'while the evil day come not,
+nor the years draw nigh, when we shall say we have no pleasure in them?'
+
+"Let us say, then, if we will, that the youth who thus sacrifices the
+present for the future, chooses wisely between the two evils, profligacy
+and asceticism. This is true. But let us not imagine the lesser evil
+to be good. It is _not_ good for man to be alone. It is for no man or
+woman's happiness or benefit that they should be condemned to Shakerism.
+It is a violence done to the feelings and an injury to the character.
+A life of rigid celibacy, though infinitely preferable to a life of
+dissipation, is yet fraught with many evils. Peevishness, restlessness,
+vague longings and instability of character, are amongst the least of
+these. The mind is unsettled, and the judgment warped. Even the very
+instinct which is thus mortified assumes an undue importance, and
+occupies a portion of the thoughts which does not of right or nature
+belong to it, and which, during a life of satisfied affection, it would
+not obtain."
+
+In many instances, the genital organs are rendered so irritable by the
+repletion to which unnatural continency gives rise, and by the much
+thinking caused by such repletion, as to induce a disease known to
+medical men by the name of _Gonorrhoea Dormientium_. It consists in
+an emission or discharge of the semen during sleep. This discharge is
+immediately excited in most instances by a lascivious dream, but such
+dream is caused by the repletion and irritability of the genital organs.
+It is truly astonishing to what a degree of mental anguish the disease
+gives rise in young men. They do not understand the nature, or rather,
+the cause of it. They think it depends on a weakness--indeed, the
+disease is often called a "seminal weakness"--and that the least
+gratification in a natural way would but serve to increase it.
+Their anxiety about it weakens the whole system. This weakness they
+erroneously attribute to the discharges; they think themselves totally
+disqualified for entering into or enjoying the married state. Finally,
+the genital and mental organs act and react upon each other so
+perniciously as to cause a degree of nervousness, debility, emaciation
+and melancholy--in a word, wretchedness that sets description at
+defiance. Nothing is so effectual in curing this diseased state of
+a body and mind in young men as marriage. All restraint, fear and
+solicitude should be removed.
+
+"Inasmuch, then, as the scruples of incurring heavy responsibilities
+deter from forming moral connections and encourage intemperance and
+prostitution, the knowledge which enables man to limit the number of his
+offspring would, in the present state of things, save much unhappi-ness
+and prevent many crimes. Young persons sincerely attached to each other,
+and who might wish to marry, should marry early, merely resolving not
+to become parents until prudence permitted it. The young man, instead
+of solitary toil and vulgar dissipation, would enjoy the society and the
+assistance of her he has chosen as his companion; and the best years of
+life, whose pleasures never return, would not be squandered in riot, nor
+lost through mortification."*
+
+     * The passages quoted are from Robert Dale Owen's "Moral
+     Physiology."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. ON GENERATION
+
+I hold the following to be important and undeniable troths: That every
+man has a natural right both to receive and convey a knowledge of all
+the facts and discoveries of every art and science, excepting such only
+as may be secured to some particular person or persons by copyright or
+patent; that a physical truth in its general effect cannot be a moral
+evil; that no fact in physics or in morals ought to be concealed from
+the inquiring mind.
+
+Some may make a misuse of knowledge, but that is their fault; and it is
+not right that one person should be deprived of knowledge, of spirits,
+of razors, or of anything else which is harmless in itself and may be
+useful to him, because another may misuse it.
+
+The subject on generation is not only interesting as a branch of
+science, but it is so connected with the happiness of mankind that it is
+highly important in a practical point of view. Such, to be sure, is
+the custom of the age, that it is not considered a proper subject to
+investigate before a popular assembly, nor is it proper to attend the
+calls of nature in a like place; yet they must and ought to be attended
+to, for the good, the happiness of mankind require it; so, too, for like
+reason, the subject of generation ought to be investigated until it be
+rightly understood by all people, but at such opportunities as the
+good sense of every individual will easily decide to be proper. This,
+I presume to say, not simply upon the abstract principle that
+all knowledge of Nature's workings is useful, and the want of it
+disadvantageous, but from the known moral fact that ignorance of this
+process has in many instances proved the cause of a lamentable "mishap,"
+and more especially as it is essential to the attainment of the great
+advantage, which it is the chief object of this work to bestow upon
+mankind.
+
+People generally, as it was the case with physicians until late years,
+entertain a very erroneous idea of what takes place in the conception.
+Agreeably to this idea the "check" which I consider far preferable
+to any other, would not be effectual, as would be obvious to all.
+Consequently, entertaining this idea, people would not have due
+confidence in it. Hence, it is necessary to correct a long-held and
+widely extended error. But this I cannot expect to do by simply saying
+it is an error. Deeply rooted and hitherto undisputed opinions are not
+so easily eradicated. If I would convince any one that the steps in one
+of the most recondite processes of nature are not such as he has always
+believed, it will greatly serve my purpose to show what these steps are.
+I must first prepare him to be reasoned with, and then reason the
+matter all over with him. I must point out the facts which disprove his
+opinion, and show that my own is unattended with difficulties.
+
+But what can be more obvious than that it is absolutely impossible
+to explain any process or function of the animal economy, so as to be
+understood, before the names of the organs which perform this function
+have been defined, that is, before the organs themselves have been
+described. Now it is well known to every anatomist, and indeed it may
+be obvious to all, that in describing any organ or system of organs,
+we must always begin with some external and known parts, and proceed
+regularly, step by step, to the internal and unknown. As in arithmetic,
+"everything must be understood as you go along."*
+
+     * This is an Americanism, which appears to us to convey a
+     false idea. If it refers to the cases used as illustrations,
+     Dr. Knowlton is more sparing in his use of them than either
+     Dr. Bull or Dr. Chavasse.--Publishers' Note.
+
+Fully to effect the objects of this work, it is, therefore, a matter of
+necessity that I give an anatomical description of certain parts--even
+external parts--which some, but imagine what I have just said, might
+think it useless to mention. It is not to gratify the idle curiosity of
+the light-minded that this book is written; it is for _utility_ in the
+broad and truly philosophical sense of the term; nay, farther, it shall
+with the exception of here and there a little spicing*, have confined
+to _practical utility_. I shall, therefore, endeaver to treat of the
+subject in this chapter so as to be understood, without giving any
+description of the male organs of generation; though I hold it an
+accomplishment for one be able to speak of those organs, as diseases
+often put them under the necessity of doing, without being compelled use
+low and vulgar language. But I must briefly describe the female organs;
+in doing which I must, of course, speak as do other anatomists and
+physiologists; and whoever objects to this will discover more
+affectation and prudery than good sense and good will to mankind.
+
+The adipose, or fatty matter, immediately over the share bone, forms
+a considerable prominence in females, which, at the age of puberty, is
+covered with hair, as in males. This prominence is called Mons Veneris.
+
+The exterior orifice commences immediately below this. On each side of
+this orifice is a prominence continued from the mons veneris, which
+is largest above and gradually diminishes as it descends. These two
+prominences are called the Labia Externa, or external lips. Near the
+latter end of pregnancy they become somewhat enlarged and relaxed, so
+that they sustain little or no injury during parturition. Just within
+the upper or anterior commissure, formed by the junction of these lips,
+a little round oblong body is situated. The body is called the clitoris.
+Most of its length is bound down, as it were, pretty closely to the
+bone; and it is of very variable size in different females. Instances
+have occurred where it was so enlarged as to allow the female to have
+venereal commerce with others; and in Paris this fact was once made a
+public exhibition to the medical faculty. Women thus formed appear to
+partake in their general form of the male character, and are called
+hermaphrodites. The idea of human beings, called hermaphrodites, which
+could be either father or mother, is, doubtless, erroneous. The clitoris
+is analogous in its structure to the penis, and like it, is exquisitely
+sensitive, being, as it is supposed, the principal seat of pleasure. It
+is subject to erection or distension, like the penis, from like causes.
+
+The skin which lines the internal surface of the external lips is folded
+in such manner as to form two flat bodies, the exterior edges of which
+are convex. They are called the nymphse. They extend downward, one on
+each side, from the clitoris to near the middle of the external orifice,
+somewhat diverging from each other. Their use is not very evident The
+orifice of the urethra (the canal, short in females, which leads to the
+bladder) is situated an inch or more farther inward than the clitoris,
+and is a little protuberant.
+
+Passing by the external lips, the clitoris, the nymphse and the orifice
+of the urethra, we come to the membrane called the hymen. It is situated
+just at, or a trifle behind the orifice of the urethra. It is stretched
+across the passage, and were it a complete septum, it would close up the
+anterior extremity of that portion of the passage which is called the
+vagina. But the instances in which the septum or partition is complete
+are very rare, there being, in almost all cases, an aperture either in
+its center, or frequently in its anterior edge, giving the membrane the
+form of a crescent Through this aperture passes the menstrual fluid.
+Sometimes, however, this septum is complete, and the menstrual fluid
+is retained month after month, until appearances and symptoms much
+like those of pregnancy are produced, giving rise to perhaps unjust
+suspicions. Such cases require the simple operation of dividing the
+hymen. In many instances the hymen is very imperfect, insomuch that some
+have doubted whether it is to be found in the generality of virgins.
+Where it exists it is generally ruptured in the first intercourse of
+the sexes, and the female is said to lose her virginity. In some
+rare instances it is so very strong as not to be ruptured by such
+intercourse, and the nature of the difficulty not being understood, the
+husband has sued for a divorce. But everything may be put to rights by
+a slight surgical operation. The parts here described are among those
+called the external parts of generation.
+
+The internal organs of generation consist in the female of the Vagina,
+the Uterus, the Ovaries and their appendages.
+
+The Vagina is a membranous canal commencing at the hymen and extending
+to the uterus. It is a little curved, and extends backward and upward
+between the bladder, which lies before and above it, and that extreme
+portion of the bowels called the rectum, which lies behind it. The
+coat of membrane which lines the internal surface of the vagina forms a
+number of transverse ridges. These are to be found only in the lower
+or anterior half of the vagina, and they do not extend all round the
+vagina, but are situated on its anterior and posterior sides, while
+their lateral sides are smooth. I mention these ridges because a
+knowledge of them may lead to a more effectual use of one of the checks
+to be made known hereafter.
+
+The uterus or womb is also situated between the bladder and the rectum,
+but above the vagina. Such is its shape that it has been compared to
+a pear with a long neck. There is, of course, considerable difference
+between the body and the neck, the first being twice as broad as the
+last. Each of these parts is somewhat flattened. In subjects of mature
+age, who have been pregnant, the whole of the uterus is about two inches
+and a half in length, and more than an inch and a half in breadth at the
+broadest part of the body. It is near an inch in thickness. The neck of
+the uterus is situated downward, and may be said to be inserted into
+the upper extremity of the vagina. It extends down into the vagina the
+better part of an inch. In the uterus is a cavity which approaches the
+triangular form, and from which a canal passes down through the neck of
+the uterus into the vagina. This cavity is so small that its sides are
+almost in contact So that the uterus is a thick, firm organ for so small
+a one. Comparing the cavity of the uterus to a triangle, we say the
+upper side or line of this triangle is transverse with respect to the
+body, and the other two lines pass downward and inward, so that they
+would form an angle below, did they not before they meet take a turn
+more directly downward to form the canal just mentioned. In each of the
+upper angles there is an orifice of such size as to admit of a hog's
+bristle. These little orifices are the mouths of two tubes, called the
+Fallopian tubes, of which more will be said presently. The canal which
+passes through the neck of the uterus, connecting the cavity of
+this organ with that of the vagina, is about a quarter of an inch in
+diameter. It is different from other ducts, for it seems to be a part
+of the cavity from which it extends, inasmuch as when the cavity of the
+uterus is enlarged in the progress of pregnancy, this canal is gradually
+converted into a part of that cavity.
+
+The lower extremity of the neck of the uterus is irregularly convex and
+tumid. The orifice of the canal in it is oval, and so situated that it
+divides the convex surface of the lower extremity of the neck in two
+portions, which are called the lips of the uterus. The anterior is
+thicker than the posterior. The orifice itself is called _os tincae_ or
+_os uteri_, or in English, the mouth of the womb. When the parts are in
+a weak, relaxed state, the mouth or neck of the uterus is quite low, and
+in almost all oases it may be reached by a finger introduced into the
+vagina, especially by a second person, who carries the hand behind.
+
+The Ovaries are two bodies of a flattened or oval form, one of which is
+situated on each side of the uterus at a little distance from it, and
+about as high up as where the uterus becomes narrow to form its neck.
+The longest diameter of the ovarium is about an inch. Each ovarium has a
+firm coat of membrane. In those who have not been pregnant, it contains
+from ten to twenty _vesicles_, which are little round bodies, formed of
+a delicate membrane, and filled with a transparent fluid. Some of
+these vesicles are situated so near the surface of the ovarium as to
+be prominent on its surface. They are of different sizes, the largest
+nearly a quarter of a inch in diameter.*
+
+     * The vesicles here mentioned are the so-called Graafian
+     vesicles, or ovisacs, each of which contains in its interior
+     a little ovum or egg. In the human female the ovum is
+     extremely minute, so as only to be visible with the aid of a
+     lens. The Graafian vesicles are not limited to a certain
+     small number, as was formerly thought, but continue to be
+     formed in the ovaries, and to discharge at intervals mature
+     ova during the whole of the fruitful period.--G. R.
+
+In those in whom conception has ever taken place, some of these vesicles
+are removed, and in their place a cicatrix or scar is formed which
+continues through life. However, the number of cicatrices does not
+always correspond with the number of conceptions. They often exceed
+it, and are sometimes found where conception has not been known to take
+place. The Fallopian Tubes are two canals four or five inches in length,
+proceeding from the upper angles of the cavity of the uterus, in a
+transverse direction in respect to the body. Having so proceeded
+for some distance they turn downward toward the ovaries. At their
+commencement in the uterus they are very small, but they enlarge as much
+as they progress. The large ends, which hang loose, terminate in open
+mouths, the margins of which consist of fimbriated processes, and nearly
+touch the ovaria.
+
+We are now prepared to treat of conception. Yet, as menstruation is
+closely connected with it, and as a knowledge of many things concerning
+menstruation may contribute much to the well-being of females, for
+whom this work is at least as much designed as for males, I shall first
+briefly treat of this subject.
+
+Menstruation.--When females arrive at the age of puberty they begin to
+have a discharge once every month, by way of the vagina, of the color of
+blood. This discharge is termed the menses. To have it is to menstruate.
+The age at which menstruation commences varies with different
+individuals, and also in different climates. The warmer the climate
+the earlier it commences and ceases. In temperate climates it
+generally commences at the age of fourteen or fifteen, and it ceases at
+forty-four, or a little later. *
+
+Whenever it commences the girl acquires a more womanly appearance. It
+is a secretion of the uterus, or, in other words, the minute vessels
+distributed to the inner coat of uterus, select as it were, from the
+blood, and pour out in a gradual manner the materials of this fluid. It
+has one of the properties, color, of blood, but it does not coagulate,
+or separate into different parts like blood, and cannot properly be
+called blood.**
+
+     * Dr. Chavasse, on p. 94 of his "Advice to a Wife"
+     published by W. H. Smith & Son gives instances of very
+     early menstruation and consequent fecundity.--Publishers'
+     note,
+
+     ** "The menstrual discharge," says Dr. Kirkes, "consists of
+     blood effused from the inner surface of the uterus, and
+     mixed with mucus from the uterus, vagina, and the external
+     parts of the generative apparatus. Being diluted by this
+     admixture, the menstrual blood coagulates less perfectly
+     than ordinary blood; and the frequent acidity of the vaginal
+     mucus tends still further to diminish its coagulability."--
+     Handbook of Physiology, 8th ed., p. 727, 1874.--G. R.
+
+When this discharge is in all respects regular, it amounts in most
+females to six or eight ounces, and from two to four days' continuance.
+During its continuance the women is said to be unwell, or out of order.
+Various unpleasant feelings are liable to attend it; but when it is
+attended with severe pain, as it not infrequently is, it becomes a
+disease, and the woman is not likely to conceive until it is cured.
+During the existence of the "turns," or "monthlies," as they are often
+called, indigestible food, dancing in warm rooms, sudden exposure
+to cold or wet, and mental agitations, should be avoided as much as
+possible. The "turns" do not continue during pregnancy, nor nursing,
+unless nursing be continued after the "turns" recommence. Some women, it
+is true, are subject to a slight hemorrhage that sometimes occurs with
+considerable regularity during pregnancy, and which has led them to
+suppose they have their turns at such times; but it is not so; the
+discharge at such times is real blood.*
+
+     * Consult on the whole of this Dr. Chavasse's book, pp. 91-
+     101, where full details are given.--Publishers' note.
+
+The use of the menstrual discharge seems to be to prepare the uterine
+system for conception. For females do not become pregnant before
+they commence, nor after they cease having turns; nor while they are
+suppressed by some disease, by cold or by nursing. Some credible women,
+however, have said that they become pregnant while nursing, without
+having had any turn since their last lying-in. It is believed that in
+these oases they had some discharge, colorless, perhaps, which they did
+not notice, but which answered the purposes of the common one. Women
+are not nearly so likely to conceive during the week before a monthly
+as during the week immediately after.* But although the use of this
+secretion seems to be to prepare for conception, it is not to be
+inferred that the reproductive instinct ceases at the "turn of life,"
+or when the woman ceases to menstruate. On the contrary, it is said that
+this passion often increases at this period, and continues in a greater
+or less degree to an extreme age.
+
+     * See, however, Dr. Bull's "Hints to Mothers," pp. 31-58,
+     and 127-129 (published by Longmans, Green & Co.)--
+     Publishers' note.
+
+Conception.--The part performed by the male in the reproduction of the
+species consists in exciting the organism of the female, and depositing
+the semen in the vagina. Before I inquire what takes place in the
+females I propose to speak of the semen.
+
+This fluid, which is secreted by the testicles, may be said to possess
+three kinds of properties, physical, chemical, physiological. Its
+physical properties are known to every one--it is a thickish, nearly
+opaque fluid, of a peculiar odor, saltish taste, etc. As to its chemical
+properties, it is found by analysis to consist of 900 parts of water,
+60 of animal muscilage, 10 of soda, 30 of phosphate of lime. Its
+physiological property is that of exciting the female genital organs in
+a peculiar manner.
+
+When the semen is examined by microscope, there can be distinguished a
+multitude of small animalculae, which appear to have a rounded head and a
+long tail. These animalculae move with a certain degree of rapidity. They
+appear to avoid the light and to delight in the shade. Leeuwenhoek, if
+not the discoverer of the seminal animalculse, was the first who brought
+the fact of their existence fully before the public. With respect to
+their size, he remarked that ten thousand of them might exist in a space
+not larger than a grain of sand. They have a definite figure, and are
+obviously different from the animalculse found in any other fluid.*
+
+     * See Dr. Carpenter's "Animal Physiology," p. 558 (published
+     by H. G. Bonn); Nichol's "Human Physiology," pp. 253-255
+     (published by Trubner & Co.)--Publishers' note.
+
+Leeuwenhoek believed them to be the beginnings of future animals--that
+they are of different sexes, upon which depends the future sex of the
+foetus. Be this as it may, it appears to be admitted on all hands that
+the animalculae are present in the semen of the various species of
+male animals, and that they cannot be detected when either from age or
+disease the animals are rendered sterile. "Hence," says Bostock, "we can
+scarcely refuse our assent to the position that these animalculae are
+in some way or other instrumental to the production of the foetus."
+The secretion of the semen commences at the age of puberty. Before this
+period the testicles secrete a viscid, transparent fluid, which has
+never been analyzed, but which is doubtless essentially different from
+semen. The revolution which the whole economy undergoes at this period,
+such as the tone of the voice, and development of hairs, the beard, the
+increase of the muscles and bones, etc., is intimately connected with
+the testicles and the secretion of this fluid.* "Eunuchs preserve the
+same form as in childhood; their voice is effeminate, they have no
+beard, their disposition is timid; and finally their physical and moral
+character very nearly resembles that of females. Nevertheless, many of
+them take delight in venereal intercourse, and give themselves up with
+ardor to a connection which must always prove unfruitful."**
+
+     * Nichol's  "Human Physiology,"  pp.    256-257.
+     --Publishers' note
+
+     ** Magendic's Physiology.--Author's note.
+
+The part performed by the female in the reproduction of the species is
+far more complicated than that performed by the male. It consists, in
+the first instance, in providing a substance which, in connection
+with the male secretion, is to constitute the foetus; in furnishing a
+suitable situation in which the foetus may be developed; in affording
+due nourishment for its growth; in bringing it forth, and afterward
+furnishing it with food especially adapted to the digestive organs of
+the young animal. Some parts of this process are not well understood,
+and such variety of hypotheses have been proposed to explain them that
+Drelincourt, who lived in the latter part of the seventeenth century, is
+said to have collected two hundred and sixty hypotheses of generation.
+
+It ought to be known that women have conceived when the semen was merely
+applied to the parts anterior to the hymen, as the internal surface
+of the external lips, the nymphae, etc. This is proved by the fact that
+several cases of pregnancy have occurred when the hymen was entire. The
+fact need not surprise us, for, agreeable to the theory of absorption,
+we have to account for it only to suppose that some of the absorbent
+vessels are situated anterior to the hymen--a supposition by no means
+unreasonable.
+
+There are two peculiarities of the human species respecting conception
+which I will notice. First, unlike other animals they are liable, and
+for what has been proved to the contrary, equally liable--to conceive
+at all seasons of the year. Second, a woman rarely, if ever, conceives
+until after having several sexual connections; nor does one connection
+in fifty cause conception in the matrimonial state, where the husband
+and wife live together uninterruptedly. Public women rarely conceive,
+owing probably to a weakened state of the genital system, induced by too
+frequent and promiscuous intercourse.
+
+It is universally agreed, that some time after a fruitful connection,
+a vesicle (two in case of twins) of one or the other ovary becomes so
+enlarged that it bursts forth from the ovary and takes the name of
+ovum, which is taken up, or rather received, as it bursts forth, by the
+fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube, and is then conducted along
+the tube into the uterus, to the inner surface of which it attaches
+itself.*
+
+     * Since Dr. Knowlton's work was written, the very important
+     fact has been discovered that ova are periodically
+     discharged from the ovaries in the human female and other
+     animals, not in consequence of fruitful connection having
+     taken place, as was formerly believed, but quite
+     independently of intercourse with the male. Such a discharge
+     of ova occurs in the lower animals at the time of heat or
+     rut, and in women during menstruation. At each menstrual
+     period, a Graafian vesicle becomes enlarged, bursts, and
+     lets the ovum which it contains escape into the Fallopian
+     tube, along which it passes to the uterus. "It has long been
+     known," says Dr. Kirke, "that in the so-called oviparous
+     animals, the separation of ova from the ovary may take place
+     independently of impregnation by the male, or even of sexual
+     union. And it is now established that a like maturation and
+     discharge of ova, independently of coition, occurs in
+     Mammalia, the periods at which the matured ova are separated
+     from the ovaries and received into the Fallopian tubes being
+     indicated in the lower Mammalia by the phenomena of _heat_
+     or _rut_; in the human female by the phenomena of
+     _menstruation_. Sexual desire manifests itself in the human
+     female to a greater degree at these periods, and in the
+     female of mammiferous animals at no other time. If the union
+     of the sexes takes place, the ovum may be fecundated, and if
+     no union occur, it perishes. From what has been said it may
+     therefore be concluded that the two states, heat and
+     menstruation, are analogous, and that the essential
+     accompaniment of both is the maturation and extrusion of
+     ova."--"Handbook of Physiology," page 724.--G. R.
+
+Here it becomes developed into a full grown foetus, and is brought forth
+about forty-two weeks from the time of conception by a process termed
+parturition. But one grand question is, how the semen operates itself,
+or any part thereof reaches the ovary, and if so, in what way it is
+conveyed to them. It was long the opinion that the semen was ejected
+into the uterus in the act of coition, and that it afterward, by some
+unknown means, found its way into and along the Fallopian tubes to the
+ovary. But there are several facts which weigh heavily against this
+opinion, and some that entirely forbid it. In the first place, there are
+several well attested instances in which impregnation took place while
+the hymen remained entire, where the vagina terminated in the rectum,
+where it was so contracted by a cicatrix as not to admit the penis. In
+all these cases the semen could not have been lodged anywhere near
+the mouth of the uterus, much less ejected into it. Secondly, it has
+followed a connection where from some defect in the male organs, as the
+urethra terminating some inches behind the end of the penis, and it is
+clear that the semen could not have been injected into the uterus, nor
+even near its mouth. Third, the neck of the unimpregnated uterus is so
+narrow as merely to admit a probe, and is filled with a thick tenacious
+fluid, which seemingly could not be forced away by any force which the
+male organ possesses of ejecting the semen, even if the mouth of the
+male urethra were in opposition with that of the uterus. But fourth, the
+mouth of the uterus is by no means fixed. By various causes it is made
+to assume various situations, and probably the mouth of the urethra
+rarely comes in contact with it.
+
+Fifth. "The tenacity of the male semen is such as renders its passage
+through the small aperture in the neck of the uterus impossible, even by
+a power of force much superior to that which we may rationally suppose
+to reside in the male organs of generation."
+
+Sixth. "Harvey and DeGraaf dissected animals at almost every period
+after coition for the express purpose of discovering the semen, but were
+never able to detect the smallest vestige of it in the uterus in any one
+instance."*
+
+     * Dewees' Essay on Superfoetation.--Author's note.
+
+Aware of the insurmountable objection to this view of the manner
+in which the semen reaches the ovary, it has been supposed by some
+physiologists that the semen is absorbed from the vagina into the great
+circulating system, where it is mixed, of course, with the blood, and
+goes the whole round of the circulation subject to the influence of
+those causes which produce great changes in the latter fluid.
+
+To this hypothesis it may be objected, that while there is no direct
+evidence in support of it, it is exceedingly unreasonable, inasmuch
+as we can scarcely believe that the semen can go the whole round of
+circulation, and then find its way to the ovary in such a pure unaltered
+state as the experiments of Spallanzani prove it must be in, that it may
+impregnate.
+
+A third set of theorists have maintained that an imperceptible
+something, which they have called _aura seminalis_, passes from the
+semen lodged in the vagina to the ovary, and excites those actions which
+are essential to the development of an ovum. Others, again, have told us
+that it is all done by sympathy. That neither the semen nor any volatile
+part of it finds its way to the ovary; but that the semen excites the
+parts with which it is in contact in a peculiar manner, and by the law
+of animal economy, termed sympathy, or consent of parts, a peculiar
+action commences in the ovary, by which an ovum is developed.
+
+To both these conjectures it may be objected that they have no other
+foundation but the supposed necessity of adopting them, to account for
+the effect of impregnation; and, further, they "make no provision for
+the formation of mules; for the peculiarities of, and likeness to,
+parents, and for the propagation of predisposition to disease, from
+parent to child; for the production of mulattoes," etc.
+
+A fifth, and to me far more satisfactory view of the subject than any
+other, is that advanced by our distinguished countryman, Dr. Dewees, of
+Philadelphia. It appears to harmonize with all known facts relating
+to the conception and something from analogy may also be drawn in its
+favor. It is this, that there is a set of absorbent vessels, leading
+directly from the inner surface of the _labia externa_ and the vagina,
+to the ovaries, the whole office of which vessels is to absorb the semen
+and convey it to the ovaries.* I do not know that these vessels have
+yet been fully discovered, but in a note on the sixteenth page of his
+"Essays on Various Subjects," the doctor says: "The existence of these
+vessels is now rendered almost certain, as Dr. Gartner, of Copenhagen,
+has discovered a duct leading from the ovary to the vagina."
+
+     * This view is not held at the present day. The commonly
+     received doctrine now is that the seminal fluid enters the
+     uterus, whether during the intercourse or after it, and
+     passes along the Fallopian tubes to the ovaries; and that
+     fecundation takes place at some point of this course, most
+     frequently in the tubes, but also at times in the ovary
+     itself, or even, perhaps, in the uterus. It is essentially
+     necessary for fecundation that the spermatozoa should come
+     into actual contact with the ovum. "That the spermatozoa
+     make their way toward the ovarium, and fecundate the ovum
+     either before it entirely quits the ovisac or very shortly
+     afterward," says Dr. Carpenter, "appears to be the general
+     rule in regard to the Mammalia; and their power of movement
+     must obviously be both vigorous and long continued to enable
+     them to traverse so great an extent of mucous membrane,
+     especially when it is remembered that they ascend in
+     opposition to the direction of the ciliary movement of the
+     epithelial cells and to the downward peristaltic action of
+     the Fallopian tubes. * * * There can be no doubt that it is
+     the contact of the spermatozoa with the ovum, and in the
+     changes which occur as the immediate consequence of that
+     contact, that the act of fecundation essentially consists."
+     --"Principles of Human Physiology," 8th ed., p. 961,1876.--G.R.
+
+Another question of considerable moment relating to generation is from
+which parent are the first rudiments of the foetus derived.
+
+The earliest hypothesis with which we are acquainted, and which has
+received the support of some of the most eminent of the moderns,
+ascribes the original formation of the foetus to the combination of
+particles of matter derived from each of the parents. This hypothesis
+naturally presents itself to the mind as the obvious method of
+explaining the necessity for the cooperation of the two sexes, and the
+resemblance in external form, and even in mind and character, which the
+offspring often bears to the male parent. "The principal objections,"
+says Bostock, "to his hypothesis, independent of the want of any direct
+proof of a female seminal fluid, are of two descriptions, those which
+depend upon the supposed impossibility of unorganized matter forming
+an organized being, and those which are derived from observations and
+experiments of Haller and Spallanzani, which they brought forward in
+support of their theory of pre-existent germs."
+
+In relation to these objections I remark, first those whose experience
+has been with hale females, I suspect, can have no doubt but that the
+female organism increases like that of the male, until an emission of
+fluid of some kind or other takes place. But whether this secretion may
+properly be called semen, whether any part of it unites with the male
+semen in forming the rudiments of the foetus, is another question. For
+my part I am inclined to the opinion that it does not.* I rather regard
+it as the result of exalted excitation, analogous to the increased
+secretion of other organs from increased stimulation; and if it may be
+for any object or use, as it probably is, it is that of affording
+nature a means of relieving herself; or, in other words, of quieting the
+venereal passion. If this passion, being once roused, could not by some
+means or other be calmed, it would command by far too great a portion of
+our thoughts, and with many constitutions the individuals, whether male
+or female, could not conduct themselves with due decorum. One fact which
+leads me to think that the female secretion in the act of coition is not
+essential to impregnation is, that many females have conceived, if their
+unbiased testimony may be relied on, when they experienced no pleasure.
+In these cases it is more than probable that there was no orgasm, nor
+any secretion or emission of fluid on the part of the female.
+
+     * With regard to this secretion in the female, which has
+     nothing of a seminal character, Dr. Carpenter observes: "Its
+     admixture with the male semen has been supposed to have some
+     connection with impregnation; but no proof whatever has been
+     given that any such admixture is necessary."--"Human
+     Physiology," p. 991.--G. R.
+
+As to the objection of the supposed impossibility of unorganized matter
+forming an organized being, I do not believe such a thing takes place,
+even if we admit that "the original formation of the foetus is a
+combination of particles of matter derived from each of the parents."
+What do, or rather what ought we to mean by organized matter? Not,
+surely, that it exhibits some obvious physical structure, unlike what is
+to be found in inorganic matter, but that it exhibits phenomena, and of
+course may be said to possess properties unlike any kind of inorganic
+matter. Matter unites with matter in three ways, mechanically,
+chemically and organically, and each mode of union gives rise to
+properties peculiar to itself. When matter unites organically, the
+substance or being so formed exhibits some phenomena essentially
+different from what inorganic bodies exhibit. It is on this account that
+we ascribe to organic bodies certain properties, which we call
+physiological properties, such as contractility, sensibility, life, etc.
+When, from any cause, these bodies have undergone such a change that
+they no longer exhibit the phenomena peculiar to them, they are said to
+have lost these properties, and to be dead. A substance need not possess
+all the physiological properties of an animal of the higher orders to
+entitle it to the name of an organized or living substance, nor need it
+possess the physical property of solidity. The blood, as well as many of
+the secretions, does several things, exhibits several phenomena, which
+no mechanical or mere chemical combinations of matter do exhibit. We
+must therefore ascribe to it certain physiological properties, and
+regard it as an organized, a living fluid, as was contended by the
+celebrated John Hunter. So with respect to the semen, it certainly
+possesses physiological properties, one in particular peculiar to
+itself, namely, the property of impregnating the female; and upon no
+sound principle can it be regarded in any other light than as an
+organized, and of course a living fluid. And if the female secretion or
+any part of it unite with the male secretion in the formation of the
+rudiments or the foetus in a different manner than any other substance
+would, then it certainly has the property of doing so, whether we give
+this property a name or not; and a regard to the soundest principles of
+physiology compels us to class this property with the physiological or
+vital, and of course to regard this secretion as an organized and living
+fluid So, then, unorganized matter does not form an organized being,
+admitting the hypothesis before us as correct.
+
+That organized being should give rise to other organized beings under
+favorable circumstances as to nourishment, warmth, etc., is no more
+wonderful than that fire should give rise to fire when air and fuel are
+present. To be sure, there are some minute steps in the processes which
+are not fully known to us; still, if they ever should be known, we
+should unquestionably see that there is a natural cause for every one
+of them; and that they are all consonant with certain laws of the animal
+economy. We should see no necessity of attempting to explain the process
+of generation by bringing to our aid, or rather to the darkening of
+the subject, any imaginary principle, as the _visus formaticus_ of
+Blumenbach.
+
+As to the "observations and experiments of Haller and Spallanzani," I
+think, with Dr. Bostock, that they weigh but little, if any, against the
+theory before us. I shall not be at the labor of bringing them forward
+and showing their futility as objections to this theory, for I am far
+from insisting on the correctness of it; that is, I do not insist that
+any part of the female secretion, during coition, unites with the male
+semen in the formation of the rudiments of the foetus.
+
+The second hypothesis or theory, I shall notice, as to the rudiments of
+the foetus, is that of Leeuwenhoek, who regarded the seminal animalculse
+of the male semen as the proper rudiments of the foetus, and thought
+that the office of the female is to afford them a suitable receptacle
+where they may be supported and nourished until they are able to exist
+by the exercise of their own functions. This is essentially the view of
+the subject which I intend to give more particularly presently.
+
+I know of no serious objections to this hypothesis, nothing but the
+"extreme improbability," as its opponents say, "that these animalculae
+should be the rudiments of being so totally dissimilar to them." But I
+wish to know if there is more difference between a foetus and a seminal
+animalcule than there is between a foetus and a few material particles
+in some other form than that of such animalcule?
+
+The third hypothesis, or that of pre-existing germs, proceeded upon a
+precisely opposite view of the subject to that of Leeuwenhoek, namely,
+that the foetus is properly the production of the female; that it exists
+previous to the sexual congress, with all its organs, in some parts of
+the uterine system; and that it receives no proper addition from the
+male, but that the seminal fluid acts merely by exciting the powers of
+the foetus, or endowing it with vitality.
+
+It is not known who first proposed this hypothesis; but strange as it
+may appear, it has had the support of such names as Bonnet, Haller and
+Spallanzani, and met with a favorable reception in the middle of the
+last century. Agreeable to this hypothesis, our common mother, Eve,
+contained a number of homuncules (little men) one within another, like
+a nest of boxes, and all within her ovaries, equal to all the number of
+births that have ever been, or ever will be, not to reckon abortions.
+Were I to bring forward all the facts and arguments that have been
+advanced in support of this idea, it seems to me I should fail to
+convince sound minds of its correctness; as to arguments against it,
+they surely seem uncalled for. Having now presented several hypotheses
+of generation, some as to the manner in which the semen reaches or
+influences the ovary, and others as to the rudiments of the foetus, I
+shall now bring together those views which, upon the whole, appear to me
+the most satisfactory.
+
+I believe, with Dr. Dewees, that a set of absorbent vessels extend from
+the innermost surface of the _labia externa_, and from the vagina to the
+ovary, the whole office of which is to take up the semen or some part
+thereof, and convey it to the ovary. I believe, with Leeuwenhoek, that
+the seminal animalculae are the proper rudiments of the foetus, and are
+perhaps of different sexes; that in cases of impregnation one of them
+is carried not only to, but into a vesicle of an ovary, which is in a
+condition to receive and be duly affected by it.* It is here surrounded
+by the albuminous fluid which the vesicle contains. This fluid being
+somewhat changed in its qualities by its new-comer, stimulates the
+minute vessels of the parts which surround it, and thus causes more of
+this fluid to be formed; and while it affords the animalcule material
+for its development, it puts the delicate membrane of the ovary which
+retains it in its place upon the stretch, and finally bursts forth
+surrounded probably by an exceedingly delicate membrane of its own. This
+membrane, with the albuminous fluid it contains and the animalcule in
+the center of it, constitutes the ovum or egg. It is received by the
+fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube, which by this time has
+grasped the ovary, and is by this tube slowly conveyed into the uterus,
+to the inner surface of which it attaches itself, through the medium
+of the membrane, which is formed by the uterus itself in the interim
+between impregnation and the arriving of the ovum in the way I have just
+mentioned.
+
+     * The opinion that the spermatozoa of seminal filaments are
+     real animalculae is now abandoned, but it is held by Dr.
+     Carpenter and other authorities that they actually, as here
+     stated, penetrate into the interior of the ovum. "The nature
+     of impregnation," says Dr. Hermann, "is as yet unknown. In
+     all probability it is, above all, essential, in order that
+     it should occur, that one or more spermatozoa should
+     penetrate the ovum. At any rate, spermatozoa have been found
+     within the fecundated eggs of the most diverse species of
+     animals."--Elements of "Human Physiology," translated from
+     the 5th ed., by Dr. Gamgee, p. 534, 1875.--G. R.
+
+The idea that a seminal animalcule enters an ovum while it remains in
+the ovary, was never before advanced to my knowledge; hence I consider
+it incumbent upon me to advance some reason for the opinion.
+
+First, it is admitted on all hands that the seminal animalculae are
+essential to impregnation, since "they cannot be detected when either
+from age or disease the animal is rendered sterile."
+
+Second, the ovum is impregnated while it remains in the ovary. True,
+those who never met with Dr. Dewees' theory, and who, consequently, have
+adopted the idea that the semen is ejected into the uterus, as the least
+improbable of any with which they were acquainted, have found it very
+difficult to dispose of the fact that the ovum is impregnated in the
+ovary, and have consequently presumed this is not generally the case.
+They admit it is certainly so sometimes, and that it is difficult to
+reject the conclusion that it is always so. Dr. Bostock--who, doubtless,
+had not met with Dewees' theory at the time he wrote, and who admits
+it impossible to conceive how the semen can find its way along the
+Fallopian tubes, how it can find its way toward the ovary, farther, at
+most, than into the uterus, and, consequently, cannot see how the ovum
+can be impregnated into the ovary--says, "Perhaps the most rational
+supposition may be that the ovum is transmitted to the uterus in the
+unimpregnated state; but there are certain facts which seem almost
+incompatible with this idea, especially the cases which not infrequently
+occur of perfect foetuses having been found in the tubes, or where they
+escaped them into the cavity of the abdomen. Hence it is demonstrated
+the ovum is occasionally impregnated in the tubes (why did he not say
+ovaria?), and we can scarcely resist the conclusion that it must always
+be the case."..."Haller discusses this hypothesis (Bostock's 'most
+natural supposition, perhaps') and decides against it."..."The
+experiments of Cruikshank, which were very numerous, and appear to have
+been made with the requisite degree of skill and correctness, led to
+the conclusion that the rudiment of the young animal is perfected in
+the ovarium."... "A case is detailed by Dr. Granville, of a foetus which
+appears to have been lodged in the body of the ovarium itself, and is
+considered by its author as a proof that conception always takes place
+in this organ."
+
+The above quotations are from the third volume of Bostock's Physiology.
+
+Now, as the seminal animalculae are essential to impregnation, and as the
+ovum is impregnated in the ovarium, what more probable conjecture can we
+form than that an animalcule, as the real proper rudiment of the foetus,
+enters the ovum, where, being surrounded with albuminous fluid with
+which it is nourished, it gradually becomes developed? It may be noticed
+that Leeuwenhoek estimates that ten thousand animalculae of the human
+semen may exist in a space not larger than a grain of sand. There can,
+therefore, be no difficulty in admitting that they may find their way
+along exceedingly minute vessels from the vagina, not only to, but into
+the ovum while situated in the ovarium.
+
+I think no one can be disposed to maintain that the animalculae merely
+reaches the surface of the ovum and thus impregnates it. But possibly
+some may contend that its sole office is to stimulate the ovum, and
+in this way set going that train of actions which are essential to
+impregnation. But there is no evidence in favor of this last idea, and
+certainly it does not so well harmonize with the fact that the offspring
+generally partakes more or less of the character of its male parent. As
+Dr. Dewees says of the doctrine of sympathy, "It makes no provision
+for the formation of mules; for the peculiarities of and likeness of
+parents; and for the propagation of predisposition to disease from
+parent to child; for the production of mulattoes," etc.
+
+Considering it important to do away with the popular and mischievous
+error that the semen must enter the uterus to effect impregnation, I
+shall, in addition to what has been already advanced, here notice the
+experiments of Dr. Haighton. He divided the Fallopian tubes in numerous
+instances, and that after the operation a foetus is never produced, but
+that _corpora lutea_ were formed. The obvious conclusions from these
+facts are that the semen does not traverse the Fallopian tubes to reach
+the ovaria; yet, that the ovum becomes impregnated while in the ovarium
+and, consequently, that the semen reaches the ovum in some way, except
+by the uterus and Fallopian tubes. I may remark, however, that a _corpus
+luteum_ is not positive proof that impregnation at some time or other
+has taken place; yet they are so rarely found in virgins that they were
+regarded as such proofs until the time of Blumenbach, a writer of the
+present century.*
+
+     * A _corpus luteum_ is a little yellowish body, formed in
+     the ovary by changes that take place in the Graafian vesicle
+     after it has burst and discharged its contents. _Corpora
+     lutea_ were formerly considered a sure sign of impregnation,
+     as they were thought to be developed only or chiefly in
+     cases of pregnancy, but it is now known that they occur in
+     all cases where a vesicle has been ruptured and an ovum
+     discharged; though they attain a larger, size and are longer
+     visible in the ovary when pregnancy takes place than when it
+     does not.--G. R.
+
+"Harvey and DeGraaf dissected animals at most every period after coition
+for the express purpose of discovering the semen, but were never able
+to detect the smallest vestige of it in the uterus in any one
+instance."--Dewells Essay on Superfoetation. The fact of superfoetation
+furnishes a very strong argument against the idea that the semen enters
+the uterus in impregnation.
+
+A woman being impregnated while she is already impregnated constitutes
+superfoetation. It is established beyond a doubt that such instances
+have occurred, yet those who have supposed that it is necessary for the
+semen to pass through the mouth of the uterus to produce conception have
+urged that superfoetation could not take place, because, say they--and
+they say correctly--"so soon as impregnation shall have taken place,
+the _os uteri_ closes and becomes impervious to the semen ejected in
+subsequent acts of coition."
+
+Dr. Dewees related two cases, evidently cases of superfoetation, that
+occurred to his own personal knowledge. The first shows that, agreeable
+to the old theory, the semen must have met with other difficulties
+than a closed month of the uterus,--it must have passed through several
+membranes, as well as the waters surrounding the foetus, to have reached
+even the uterine extremity of a Fallopian tube. The second case I will
+give in his own words:
+
+"A white woman, servant to Mr. H., of Abington township, Montgomery
+county, was delivered about five and twenty years since of twins, one of
+which was perfectly white, the other perfectly black. When I resided
+in that neighborhood I was in the habit of seeing them almost daily and
+also had frequent conversations with Mrs. H. respecting them. She was
+present at their birth, so that no possible deception could have been
+practiced respecting them. The white girl is delicate, fair-skinned,
+light-haired and blue eyed, and is said very much to resemble the
+mother. The other has all the characteristic marks of the African; short
+of stature, flat, broad-nosed, thick-lipped, woolly-headed, flat-footed,
+and projecting heels; she is said to resemble a negro they had on the
+farm, but with whom the woman would never acknowledge an intimacy; but
+of this there was no doubt, as both he and the white man, with whom her
+connection was detected, ran from the neighborhood as soon as it was
+known the girl was with child."
+
+I am aware that some have thought that they had actually discovered
+semen in the uterus, while Ruysch, an anatomist of considerable
+eminence, who flourished at the close of the seventeenth century,
+asserted in the most unequivocal manner that he found the semen in its
+gross white state in one of the Fallopian tubes of a woman, who died
+very soon after, or during the act of coition; but says Dewees, "the
+semen, after it has escaped from the penis, quickly loses its albuminous
+appearance and becomes as thin and transparent as water. And we are
+certain that Ruysch was mistaken. Some alteration in the natural
+secretion of the parts was mistaken for semen. This was nowise difficult
+for him to do, as he had a particular theory to support, and more
+especially as this supposed discovery made so much for it. It is not
+merely speculative when we say that some change in the natural secretion
+of the parts may be mistaken for semen, for we have the testimony of
+Morgani on our side. He tells us he has seen similar appearances in
+several instances in virgins and others, who have been subject during
+their lives to leucorrhae, and that it has been mistaken by some for
+male semen."
+
+On the whole I would say, that in some instances, where the mouth of the
+uterus is uncommonly relaxed, the semen may, as it were, accidentally
+have found its way into it; but that is not generally the case, nor is
+it essential to impregnation; and further, that whatever semen may at
+any time be lodged in the uterus, has nothing to do with conception. It
+is not consistent with analogy to suppose that the uterus has vessels
+for absorbing the semen and conveying it to the ovaria, considering the
+other important functions which we know it performs.
+
+The circumstances under which a female is most likely to conceive are,
+first, when she is in health; second, between the ages of twenty-six
+and thirty; third, after she has for a season been deprived of
+those intercourses she had previously enjoyed; fourth, soon after
+menstruating. Respect-ing this latter circumstance, Dr. Dewees remarks,
+"Perhaps it is not erring greatly to say, that the woman is liable
+to conceive at any part of the menstrual interval. It is generally
+supposed, however, that the most favorable instant is immediately after
+the catamenia have ceased." Perhaps this is so as a general rule, but
+it is certainly liable to exceptions,* and he relates the following case
+which occurred to his own notice:
+
+     * This view, which concerns a question of the utmost
+     practical importance, is held at the present day by the
+     great physiologists. It is believed that although conception
+     may occur at other times, it is much more likely to happen
+     from intercourse a few days before or after the menstrual
+     periods; that is to say, during the time when ova are in
+     process of being ripened and detached from the ovaries, and
+     before they perish and are conveyed out of the body. "There
+     is good reason to believe," says Dr. Carpenter, "that in the
+     human female the sexual feeling becomes stronger at the
+     period of menstruation; and it is quite certain that there
+     is a greater aptitude for conception immediately before and
+     after that epoch, than there is at any immediate period.
+     This question has been made the subject of special inquiry
+     by M. Raciborski, who affirms that the exceptions to the
+     rule--that conception occurs immediately before or after or
+     during menstruation--are not more than six or seven per
+     cent. Indeed, in his latest work on the subject, he gives
+     the details of fifteen cases, in which the date of
+     conception could be accurately fixed, and the time of the
+     last appearance of the catamenia was also known, and in all
+     but one of them the correspondence between the periods was
+     very close."--"Human Physiology," p. 959. So, too, Dr.
+     Kirkes remarks, that "although conception is not confined to
+     the periods of menstruation, yet it is more likely to occur
+     within a few days after cessation of the menstrual flux than
+     at other times."--"Handbook of Physiology," p. 725.
+
+"The husband of a lady who was obliged to absent himself many months
+in consequence of the embarrassment of his affairs, returned one night
+clandestinely, his visit being only known to his wife, his mother, and
+myself. The consequence of this visit was the impregnation of his wife.
+The lady was at that time within a week of her menstrual period; but as
+this did not fail to take place, she was led to hope that she had not
+suffered by the visit of her husband. But her catamenia not appearing at
+the next period, gave rise to a fear that she had not escaped! and the
+birth of a child nine months and thirteen days from the night of the
+clandestine visit proved her apprehensions too well grounded."
+
+I think this case is an exception to a general rule; and, furthermore,
+favors an idea which reason and a limited observation, rather than
+positive knowledge, has led me to advance, the above, namely, that a
+woman is more likely to conceive, other things being the same, after
+being deprived for a season of those intercourses she had previously
+enjoyed. Had this lady's husband remained constantly at home, she would
+probably either not have conceived at all, or have done so a fortnight
+sooner than she did.
+
+This case is also remarkable for two other facts: one, "that a woman in
+perfect health, and pregnant with a healthy child, may exceed the period
+of nine months by several days; the other, that a check is not always
+immediately given to the catamenial flow by an ovum being impregnated."
+Probably it is not so generally so as many suppose.
+
+The term of utero-gestation, or the length of time from conception to
+the commencement of labor, is not precisely determined by physiologists.
+"It seems, however," says Dr. Dewees, "from the best calculations that
+can be made, that nine calendar months, or forty weeks, approaches the
+truth so nearly that we can scarcely need or desire more accuracy, could
+it be obtained." Unquestionably, however, some cases exceed this period
+by many days, or even weeks, and it has been a question much agitated,
+how far this period is ever exceeded. It is a question of some moment
+in a legal point of view. Cases are reported where the usual period
+was exceeded by five or six months; cases, too, where the circumstances
+attending them and the respectability of their reporters are such as to
+command our belief. Dr. Dewees has paid much attention to this subject,
+and he declares himself entirely convinced "that the commonly fixed
+period may be extended from thirteen days to six weeks, under the
+influence of certain causes or peculiarities of constitution."*
+
+     * See tables in Dr. Bull's "Hints to Mothers," pp. 130-141.
+     --Publishers' note.
+
+These occasional departures from the general rule will, perhaps, be the
+more readily admitted when we consider that they are not confined to the
+human species. From the experiments of Tessier, it appears that the term
+of utero-gestation varies greatly with the cow, sheep, horse, swine and
+other animals to which his attention was directed.
+
+Properly connected with the subject of generation are the signs of
+pregnancy. Dr. Dewees remarks that "our experience furnishes no certain
+mark by which the moment conception takes place is to be distinguished.
+All appeals by the women to particular sensations experienced at the
+instant should be very guardedly received, for we are certain they
+cannot be relied upon; for enjoyment and indifference are alike
+fallacious. Nor are certain nervous tremblings, nausea, palpitation of
+the heart, the sensation of something flowing from them during coition,
+etc, more to be relied upon." Burns, however, says, "Some women feel,
+immediately after conception, a peculiar sensation, which apprises them
+of their situation, but such instances are not frequent, and generally
+the first circumstances which lead a woman to suppose herself pregnant
+are the suppression of the menses;" a fickle appetite, some sickness,
+perhaps vomiting, especially in the morning; returning qualms, or
+languor in the afternoon; she is liable to heartburn, and to disturbed
+sleep. The breasts at first often become smaller and sometimes tender;
+but about the third month they enlarge, and occasionally become painful.
+The nipple is surrounded with an aureole or circle of a brown color, or
+at least of a color sensibly deeper or darker than before. She loses her
+looks, becomes paler, and the under part of the lower eyelid is often
+somewhat of a leaden hue. The features become sharper, and sometimes
+the whole body begins to emaciate, while the pulse quickens. In
+many instances particular sympathies take place, causing salivation,
+toothache, jaundice, etc. In other cases very little disturbance is
+produced, and the woman is not certain of her condition until the time
+of quickening, which is generally about four months from conception. It
+is possible for a woman to mistake the effects of wind for the motion of
+the child, especially if they have never borne children, and be anxious
+for a family; but the sensation produced by wind in the bowels is not
+confined to one spot, but is often felt at a part of the abdomen where
+the motion of a child could not possibly be felt. Quite as frequently,
+perhaps, do fleshy women think themselves dropsical, and mistake motions
+of the child for movements of water within the abdominal cavity. The
+motion of the child is not to be confounded with the sensation sometimes
+produced by the uterus rising out of the pelvis, which produces the
+feeling of fluttering. At the end of the fourth month, the uterus
+becomes so large that it is obliged to rise out of the pelvis, and if
+this elevation takes place suddenly, the sensation accompanying it is
+pretty strong, and the woman at the time feels sick or faint, and in
+irritable habits; even a hysterical fit may accompany it After this the
+morning sickness and other sympathetic effects of pregnancy generally
+abate, and the health improves.
+
+Very soon after impregnation, if blood be drawn and suffered to stand
+a short time undisturbed, it will become sizy, of a yellowish or bluish
+color, and somewhat of an oily appearance. But we cannot from such
+appearances of the blood alone pronounce a woman pregnant, for a
+suppression of the menses, accompanied with a febrile state, may
+give the blood a like appearance as pregnancy, so also may some local
+disease. Of the above-mentioned symptoms, perhaps there is no _one_ on
+which we can place more reliance than the increased color of the circle
+around the nipple.*
+
+     * See "Advice to a Wife," P. H. Chavasse, pp. 115-124, where
+     many details are given.--Publishers' note.
+
+Six or eight weeks after conception, the most sure way of ascertaining
+pregnancy is to examine the mouth and neck of the uterus, by way of the
+vagina. The uterus will be found lower down than formerly, its mouth
+is not directed so much forward as before impregnation, and is more
+completely closed, and the neck is felt to be thicker, or increased in
+circumference. When raised on the finger it is found to be heavier or
+more resisting. Whoever makes this examination must have examined the
+same uterus in an unimpregnated state, and retained a tolerably correct
+idea of its feeling at that time, or he will be liable to uncertainty,
+because the uterus of one woman is naturally different in magnitude from
+another, and the uterus is frequently lower down than natural from other
+causes than pregnancy.*
+
+     * No one but a doctor, or one trained in physiology could,
+     of course, make any such examination with safety and
+     utility.--Publishers' note.
+
+It has not been fully ascertained how long it is after a fruitful
+connection before an effect is produced upon the ovaria, that is before
+any alteration could be discovered, were the female to be dissected.
+But Brighton's experiments have established the fact, that with
+rabbits, whose term of utero-gestation is but thirty days, no effect
+is propagated to the ovaria until nearly fifty hours after coition; we
+should judge, therefore, that with the human species it must be several
+days, and it is generally estimated by physiologists that the ovum does
+not reach the uterus until the expiration of twenty days from the time
+of connection.*
+
+     * "The time occupied in the passage of the ovum from the
+     ovary to the uterus," says Dr. Kirkes, "occupies probably
+     eight or ten days in the human female."--"Handbook of
+     Physiology," p. 741.--G. R.
+
+It is probable that in all cases in which any matter is absorbed from
+any part of the animal system, some little time is required for such
+matter, after its application, to stimulate and arouse the absorbent
+vessels to action; hence it is probable that after the semen is lodged
+in the vagina, it is many minutes, possibly some hours, before any part
+of it is absorbed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. OF PROMOTING AND CHECKING CONCEPTION
+
+Sterility depends either on imperfect organization, or imperfect action
+of the organs of generation. In the former cases, which are rare, the
+menses do not generally appear, the breasts are not developed, and the
+sexual desire is inconsiderable. There is no remedy in these cases.
+
+The action may be imperfect in several respects. The menses may be
+obstructed or sparing, or they may be too profuse or frequent. It
+is extremely rare for a woman to conceive who does not menstruate
+regularly. Hence where this is the case the first step is to regulate
+this periodical discharge. For this purpose the advice of a physician
+will generally be required, for these irregularities depend upon such
+various causes and require such a variety of treatment that it would
+be inconsistent with the plan of this work to give instructions for
+remedying them. A state of exhaustion or weakness of the uterine
+system, occasioned by too frequent intercourse, is a frequent cause of
+sterility. The sterility of prostitutes is attributed to this cause, but
+I doubt it being the only one. With females who are apparently healthy,
+the most frequent cause is a torpor, rather than weakness of the genital
+organs.
+
+For the removal of sterility from this cause, I shall give some
+instructions, and this I do the more readily because the requisite means
+are such as will regulate the menses in many cases, where they do not
+appear so early in life, so freely or so frequently as they ought.
+
+In the first place, it will generally be necessary to do something
+toward invigorating the system by exercise in the open air, by
+nourishing food of easy digestion, by sufficient dress, particularly
+flannel, and especially by strict temperance in all things. With this
+view, also, some scales which fall from the blacksmith's anvil, or some
+steel filings may be put into old cider or wine (cider the best), and
+after standing a week or so, as much may be taken two or three times a
+day as can be borne without disturbing the stomach.
+
+All the while the bowels are to be kept rather open by taking from one
+to three of _Pill rufi_ every night on going to bed. These pills consist
+of four parts of aloes, two parts of myrrh, and one of saffron, by
+weight.
+
+These measures having been regularly pursued until the system be brought
+into a vigorous state, medicines which are more particularly calculated
+to arouse the genital organs from a state of torpor may be commenced,
+and continued for months if necessary. The cheapest, most simple (and
+I am not prepared to say it is not the most effectual in many cases) is
+cayenne. All the virtues of this article are not generally known even
+to physicians. I know it does not have the effect upon the coats of the
+stomach that many have conjectured. It may be taken in the quantity of
+from one to two rising teaspoonsful, or even more, everyday up on food
+or on any liquid vehicle. Another medicine of much efficacy is Dewees'
+Volatile Tincture of Guaiac. It is generally kept by apothecaries, and
+is prepared as follows:
+
+Take of Gum Guaicum, in powder, eight ounces; carbonate of Potash, or
+of Soda, or (what will answer) Saleratus, three drachms; Allspice, in
+powder, two ounces; any common spirits of good strength, two pounds,
+or what is about the same two pints and a gill. Put all into a bottle,
+which may be shaken now and then, and use of it may be commenced in
+a few days. To every gill of this, at least a large teaspoon-ful of
+Spirits of Ammonia is to be added. A teaspoonful is to be taken for
+a dose, three times a day, in a glass of milk, cider or wine. It is
+usually given before eating; but if it should chance to offend the
+stomach when taken before breakfast, it may in this case be taken an
+hour after.
+
+Dr. Dewees found this tincture, taken perhaps for months, the most
+effectual remedy for painful menstruation, which is an obstinate
+complaint. If there be frequent strong pulse, heat, thirst, florid
+countenance, etc., it is not to be taken until these symptoms be removed
+by low diet, a few doses of salts, and bleeding, if required.
+
+A third medicine for arousing the genital organs, is tincture of Spanish
+Flies. But I doubt its being equal, in sterility, to the above mentioned
+medicines, though it may exceed them in some cases, and may be tried if
+these fail. A drachm of them may be put to two gills of spirits. Dose,
+25 drops, in water, three times a day, increasing each one by two or
+three drops, until some degree of stranguary occurs, then omit until
+this pass off, as it will in a day or two. Should the stranguary be
+severe, drink freely of milk and water, slippery elm, or flaxseed tea.
+
+In many cases of sterility, where the general health is considerably
+in fault, and especially when the digestive organs are torpid, I should
+have much faith in a Thomsonian course. It is calculated to arouse the
+capillary vessels throughout the whole system, and thus to open the
+secretions, to remove obstructions, and free the blood of those effete
+and phlegmy materials which nature requires to be thrown off. The views
+of the Thomsonian as to heat and cold appear to me unphilosophical. But
+this has nothing to do with the efficiency of their measures.
+
+In relation to sterility, I would here bring to mind, what has before
+been stated, that a woman is most likely to conceive immediately after
+a menstrual turn. And now, also, let me suggest the idea that Nature's
+delicate beginnings may be frustrated by the same means that put her a
+going. This idea is certainly important when the woman is known to have
+miscarried a number of times. Sterility is sometimes to be attributed
+to the male, though he apparently be in perfect health. It would be an
+interesting fact to ascertain if there be no seminal animalculae in these
+cases; and whether medicines of any kind are available.
+
+It has been ascertained that a male and female may be sterile in
+relation to each other, though neither of them be so with others.
+
+The foregoing measures for sterility are also suitable in cases of
+impotency. This term, I believe, is generally con-lined to, and defined
+as a want of desire or ability, or both on the part of the male; but I
+see no good reason why it should not comprehend the case in which there
+is neither desire nor pleasure with the female. Such females, it is
+true, may be fruitful; but so, on the other hand, the semen may not have
+lost its fecundating property. Impotency, at a young or middle age,
+and in some situations in life especially, is certainly a serious
+misfortune, to say the least of it. The whole evil by no means consists,
+in every case, in the loss of a source of pleasure. All young people
+ought to be apprised of the causes of it--causes which, in many
+instances, greatly lessen one's ability of giving and receiving that
+pleasure which is the root of domestic happiness. I shall allude to
+one cause, that of premature, and especially solitary gratification, in
+another place. Intemperance in the use of spirits is another powerful
+cause. Even a moderate use of spirits, and also of tobacco, in any form,
+have some effect It is a law of animal economy, that no one part of the
+system can be stimulated or excited, without an expense of vitality, as
+it is termed. The part which is stimulated draws the energy from other
+parts. And hence it is, that close and deep study, as well as all
+the mental passions when excessive, impair the venereal appetite.
+All excesses, all diseases and modes of life which impair the general
+health, impair this appetite, but some things more directly and
+powerfully than others.
+
+As to the remedies for impotency, they are much the same as for
+sterility. It is of the first importance that the mind be relieved
+from all care and anxiety. The general health is to be improved by
+temperance, proper exercise in the open air, cheerful company, change
+of scenery, or some occupation to divert the mind without requiring much
+exercise of it; nourishing food of easy digestion; flannel worn next to
+the skin. The cold bath may be tried, and if it be followed by agreeable
+feelings, it will do good. The bowels may be gently stimulated by
+the pills before mentioned; and the preparation of iron also, already
+mentioned, should be taken.
+
+To stimulate the genital organs more directly, cayenne, Dewees' tincture
+of guaiac, or tincture of flies, may be taken. I have given directions
+for making and taking the tincture of flies, chiefly because it is
+esteemed one of the best remedies for impotency caused by or connected
+with nocturnal emissions, to which I have before alluded.
+
+It is in cases where little or no pleasure, nor erection, attend these
+emissions--cases brought on by debauchery, or in elderly persons--that
+I would recommend tincture of flies, and the other measures above
+mentioned. In some bad cases, enormous doses of this tincture are
+required, say two or three hundred drops. Yet the best rule for taking
+it is that already given, namely, begin with small doses, and gradually
+increase until some stranguary be felt, or some benefit be received. In
+this affection, as well as in all cases of impaired virility, the means
+I have mentioned are to be pursued for a long time, unless relief be
+obtained. These have cured after having been taken for a year or more
+without the result. In all cases of impotency not evidently depending
+upon disease of some part besides the genital organs, I should have much
+confidence in blisters applied to the lower part of the spine.
+
+Occasional nocturnal emissions, accompanied with erection and pleasure,
+are by no means to be considered a disease, though they have given
+many a one such uneasiness. Even if they be frequent, and the system
+considerably debilitated, if not caused by debauch, and the person be
+young, marriage is the proper measure.
+
+There have been several means proposed and practiced for checking
+conception. I shall briefly notice them, though a knowledge of the best
+is what most concerns us. That of withdrawal immediately before emission
+is certainly effectual, if practiced with sufficient care. But if (as
+I believe) Dr. Dewees' theory of conception be correct, and as
+Spallanzani's experiments show that only a trifle of semen, even largely
+diluted with water, may impregnate by being injected into the vagina, it
+is clear that nothing short of entire withdrawal is to be depended
+upon. But the old notion that the semen must enter the uterus to
+cause conception, has led many to believe that a partial withdrawal
+is sufficient, and it is on this account that this error has proved
+mischievous, as all important errors generally do. It is said by those
+who speak from experience that the practice of withdrawal has an effect
+upon the health similar to intemperance in eating. As the subsequent
+exhaustion is probably mainly owing to the shock the nervous system
+sustains in the act of coition, this opinion may be correct. It is
+further said that this practice serves to keep alive those fine feelings
+with which married people first come together. Still, I leave it for
+every one to decide for himself whether this check be so far from
+satisfactory as not to render some other very desirable.
+
+As to the baudruche, which consists in a covering used by the male, made
+of very delicate skin, it is by no means calculated to come into general
+use. It has been used to secure immunity from syphilitic affections.
+
+Another check which the old idea of conception has led some to recommend
+with considerable confidence, consists in introducing into the vagina,
+previous to connection, a very delicate piece of sponge, moistened with
+water, to be immediately afterward withdrawn by means of a very narrow
+ribbon attached to it, But, as our views would lead us to expect, this
+check has not proved a sure preventive. As there are many little ridges
+or folds in the vagina, we cannot suppose the withdrawal of the sponge
+would dislodge all the semen in every instance. If, however, it were
+well moistened with some liquid which acted chemically upon the semen,
+it would be pretty likely to destroy the fecundating property of what
+might remain. But if this check were ever so sure, it would, in my
+opinion, fall short of being equal, all things considered, to the one
+I am about to mention--one which not only dislodges the semen pretty
+effectually, but at the same time destroys the fecundating property of
+the whole of it.
+
+It consists in syringing the vagina immediately after connection with a
+solution of sulphate of zinc, of alum, pearl-ash, or any salt that acts
+chemically on the semen, and at the same time produces no unfavorable
+effect on the female.
+
+In all probability a vegetable astringent would answer--as an infusion
+of white oak bark, of red rose leaves, of nut-galls, and the like. A
+lump of either of the above-mentioned salts, of the size of a chestnut,
+may be dissolved in a pint of water, making the solution weaker or
+stronger, as it may be borne without any irritation of the parts to
+which it is applied. These solutions will not lose their virtues by age.
+A female syringe, which will be required in the use of the check, may be
+had at the shop of an apothecary for a shilling or less. If preferred,
+the semen may be dislodged as far as it can be, by syringing with simple
+water, after which some of the solution is to be injected, to destroy
+the fecundating property of what may remain lodged between the ridges of
+the vagina, etc.
+
+I know the use of this check requires the woman to leave her bed for
+a few moments, but this is its only objection; and it would be
+unreasonable to suppose that any check can ever be devised entirely free
+of objections. In its favor it may be said, it costs nearly nothing; it
+is sure; it requires no sacrifice of pleasure; it is in the hand of
+the female; it is to be used after, instead of before the connection,
+a weighty consideration in its favor, as a moment's reflection
+will convince any one; and last, but not least, it is conducive to
+cleanliness, and preserves the parts from relaxation and disease. The
+vagina may be very much contracted by a persevering use of astringent
+injections, and they are constantly used for this purpose in cases of
+_procidentia uteri_, or a sinking down of the womb; subject as women are
+to _fluor albus_, and other diseases of the genital organs, it is rather
+a matter of wonder that they are not more so, considering the prevailing
+practices. Those who have used this check (and some have used it, to my
+certain knowledge with entire success for nine or ten years, and under
+such circumstances as leave no room to doubt its efficacy) affirm that
+they would be at the trouble of using injections merely for the purposes
+of health and cleanliness.
+
+By actual experiment it has been rendered highly probable that pregnancy
+may, in many instances, be prevented by injections of simple water,
+applied with a tolerable degree of care. But simple water has failed,
+and its occasional failure is what we should expect, considering the
+anatomy of the parts, and the results of Spallanzani's experiments
+heretofore alluded to.
+
+This much did I say respecting this check in the first edition of this
+work. That is what I call the chemical check. The idea of destroying the
+fecundating property of the semen was original, if it did not originate
+with me. My attention was drawn to the subject by the perusal of "Moral
+Physiology." Such was my confidence in the chemical idea that I sat down
+and wrote this work in July, 1831. But the reflection that I did not
+know that this check would never fail, and that if it should, I might
+do someone an injury in recommending it, caused the manuscript to lie on
+hand until the following December. Some time in November I fell in with
+an old acquaintance, who agreeably surprised me by stating that to his
+personal knowledge this last check had been used as above stated. I have
+since conversed with a gentleman with whom I was acquainted, who stated
+that, being in Baltimore some few years ago, he was there informed of
+this check by those who have no doubt of its efficacy. From what has
+as yet fell under my observation, I am not warranted in drawing any
+conclusion. I can only say that I have never known it to fail. Such are
+my views on the whole subject, that it would require many instances of
+its reputed failure to satisfy me that such failures were not owing to
+an insufficient use of it. I even believe that quite cold water alone,
+if thoroughly used, would be sufficient. In Spallanzani's experiments
+warm water was unquestionably used. As the seminal animalcule are
+essential to impregnation, all we have to do is to change the condition
+of, or, if you will, to kill them; and as they are so exceedingly small
+and delicate, this is doubtless easily done, and hence cold water may be
+sufficient.
+
+What has now been advanced in this work will enable the reader to judge
+for himself or herself of the efficacy of the chemical or syringe check,
+and time will probably determine whether I am correct in this matter. I
+do know that those married females who have much desire to escape will
+not stand for the little trouble of using this check, especially when
+they consider that on the score of cleanliness and health alone it is
+worth the trouble.
+
+A great part of the time no check is necessary, and women of experience
+and observation, with the information conveyed by this work, will be
+able to judge pretty correctly when it is and when it is not. They may
+rest assured that none of the salts mentioned will have any deleterious
+effect. The sulphate of zinc is commonly known by the name of white
+vitriol. This, as well as alum, have been extensively used for
+leucorrhae. Acetate of lead would doubtless be effectual--indeed, it
+has proven to be so; but I do not recommend it, because I conceive it
+possible that a long continued use of it might impair the instinct.
+
+I hope that no failures will be charged of efficacy of this check which
+ought to be attributed to negligence or insufficient use of it. I will
+therefore recommend at least two applications of the syringe, the sooner
+the surer, yet it is my opinion that five minutes' delay would not prove
+mischievous--perhaps not ten.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. REMARKS ON THE REPRODUCTIVE INSTINCT
+
+I scarcely need observe that by this instinct is meant the desire for
+sexual intercourse. Blumenbach speaks of this instinct as "superior
+to all others in universality and violence." Perhaps hunger is an
+exception. But surely no instinct commands a greater proportion of our
+thoughts or has a greater influence upon happiness for better or for
+worse. "Controlled by reason and chastened by good feelings, it gives
+to social intercourse much of its charm and zest, but directed
+by selfishness or governed by force, it is prolific of misery and
+degradation. In itself it appears to be the most social and least
+selfish of all instincts. It fits us to give even while we receive
+pleasure, and among cultivated beings the former power is even more
+highly valued than the latter. Not one of our instincts perhaps affords
+larger scope for the exercise of disinterestedness, or fitter play for
+the best moral feelings of our race. Not one gives birth to relations
+more gentle, more humanizing and endearing; not one lies more
+immediately at the root of the kindliest charities and most generous
+impulses that honor and bless human nature. It is a much more noble,
+because less purely selfish, instinct than hunger or thirst. It is
+an instinct that entwines itself around the warmest feelings and best
+affections of the heart"--_Moral Physiology_. But too frequently its
+strength, together with a want of moral culture, is such that it is not
+"controlled by reason;" and consequently, from time immemorial, it
+has been gratified, either in a mischievous manner, or to such an
+intemperate degree, or under such improper circumstances, as to give
+rise to an incalculable amount of human misery. For this reason it has,
+by some, been regarded as a low, degrading and "carnal" passion, with
+which family life must be ever at war. But in the instinct itself the
+philosopher sees nothing deserving of degrading epithets. He sees not
+that nature should war against herself. He believes that in savage
+life it _is_, and in wisely organized society of duly enlightened and
+civilized beings it should be the source of ten-fold more happiness than
+misery.
+
+A part of the evil consequences to which this instinct is daily giving
+rise under the present state of things, it belongs more particularly to
+the moralist to point out; whilst of others it falls within the province
+of the physician to treat. But let me first remark that physicians have
+hitherto fallen far short of giving those instructions concerning this
+instinct which its importance demands. In books, pamphlets, journals,
+etc., they have laid much before the public respecting eating, drinking,
+bathing, lacing, air, exercise, etc., but have passed by the still more
+important subject now before us, giving only here and there spine faint
+allusion to it This, it is true, the customs, not to say pruderies,
+of the age have compelled them to do, in publications designed for the
+public eye, yet, in some small work, indicated by its title to be for
+private perusal, they might, with the utmost propriety, have embodied
+much highly useful instruction in relation to this instinct.
+
+This instinct is liable to be gratified at improper times, to an
+intemperate degree, and in a mischievous manner.
+
+True philosophy dictates that this and all other appetites be so
+gratified as will most conduce to human happiness--not merely the
+happiness attending the gratification of one of the senses, but all the
+senses--not merely sensual happiness, but intellectual--not merely the
+happiness of the individual, but of the human family.
+
+First.--Of the times at which this instinct ought not to be gratified.
+With females it ought not to be gratified until they are seventeen or
+eighteen years of age, and with males not until they are a year or two
+older. The reason is, if they refrain until these ages, the passion will
+hold out the longer, and they will be able to derive much more pleasure
+from it in after life, than if earlier gratified, especially to any
+great extent A due regard to health also enjoins with most persons some
+restraint on this instinct--indeed, at all times, but especially for
+a few years after the above-mentioned ages. It ought not to be rashly
+gratified at first. Begin temperately, and as the system becomes
+more mature, and habituated to the effects naturally produced by the
+gratification of this instinct, it will bear more without injury. Many
+young married people, ignorant of the consequences, have debilitated
+the whole system--the genital system in particular; have impaired their
+mental energies; have induced consumptive and other diseases; have
+rendered themselves irritable, unsocial, melancholy and finally much
+impaired, perhaps destroyed their affection for each other by an undue
+gratification of the reproductive instinct. In almost all diseases,
+if gratified at all, it should be very temperately. It ought not to be
+gratified during menstruation, as it might prove productive to the man
+of symptoms similar to those of syphilis, but more probably to the woman
+of a weakening disease called _fluor albus_. In case of pregnancy a
+temperate gratification for the first two or three months may be of no
+injury to the woman or the coming offspring. But it ought to be known
+that the growth of the foetus in utero may be impaired, and the seeds
+of future bodily infirmity and mental imbecility of the offspring may be
+sown by much indulgence during utero-gestation or pregnancy, especially
+when the woman experiences much pleasure in such indulgences.
+
+Having already glanced at some of the bad effects of an undue
+gratification of this instinct, I have but little more to offer
+under the head of Intemperate Degree. It will be borne in mind that
+intemperance in this thing is not to be decided by numbers, but that it
+depends on circumstances; and what would be temperance in one, may be
+intemperance in another. And with respect to an individual, too, what
+he might enjoy with impunity, were he a laboring man, or a man whose
+business requires but little mental exercise, would, were he a student,
+unfit him for the successful prosecution of his studies. Intemperance
+in the gratification of this instinct has a tendency to lead to
+intemperance in the use of ardent spirits. The languor, depression of
+spirits, in some instances faintness and want of appetite, induced by
+intemperate gratification, call loudly for some stimulus, and give a
+relish to spirits. Thus the individual is led to drink. This inflames
+the blood, the passions, and leads to further indulgence. This again
+calls for more spirits; and thus two vicious habits are commenced,
+which mutually increase each other. Strange as it may appear to
+those unacquainted with the animal economy, an intemperate indulgence
+sometimes gives rise to the same disease--so far as the name makes it
+so--that is frequently cured by a temperate indulgence; viz, nocturnal
+emissions.
+
+Every young married woman ought to know that the male system is
+exhausted in a far greater degree than the female by gratification.
+It seems, indeed, to have but little effect, comparatively, upon some
+females. But with respect to the male, it has been estimated by Tissot
+that the loss of one ounce of semen is equal in its effects upon the
+system of forty ounces of blood. As it respects the immediate effects,
+this estimation, generally speaking, may not be too great. But a man
+living on a full meat diet might, doubtless, part with fifty ounces of
+semen in the course of a year, with far less detriment to the system
+than with 2,000 ounces of blood. It is a fact, that mode of living,
+independent of occupation, makes a great difference with respect to what
+the system will bear. A full meat diet, turtles, oysters, eggs, spirits,
+wine, etc., certainly promote the secretion of semen, and enable the
+system to bear its emission. But a cool vegetable and milk diet calms
+all the passions, the venereal especially. Most men adopting such a diet
+as this will suffer no inconvenience in extending the intervals of their
+gratification to three or four weeks; on the contrary, they will enjoy
+clear intellect, and a fine flow of spirits. This is the diet for men of
+literary pursuits, especially the unmarried.
+
+As to the mischievous manner, it consists in the unnatural habit of
+onanism, or solitary gratification; it is an antisocial and demoralizing
+habit, which, while it proves no quietus to the mind, impairs the bodily
+powers as well as mental, and not infrequently leads to insanity.
+
+While the gratification of the reproductive instinct in such manner
+as mentioned leads to bad consequences, a temperate and natural
+gratification, under proper circumstances, is attended with good,
+besides the mere attendant pleasure, which alone is enough to recommend
+such gratification. I admit that human beings might be so constituted
+that if they had no reproductive instinct to gratify, they might enjoy
+health; but being constituted as they are, this instinct cannot be
+mortified with impunity. It is a fact universally admitted, that
+unmarried females do not enjoy so much good health and attain to so
+great an age as the married; notwithstanding that the latter are
+subject to the diseases and pains incident to child-bearing. A temperate
+gratification promotes the secretions, and the appetite for food; calms
+the restless passions; induces pleasant sleep; awakens social feeling;
+and adds a zest to life which makes one conscious that life is worth
+preserving.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+     [I here connect with this work, by way of Appendix, the
+     following extract from an article which appeared in the
+     Boston Investigator, a paper which, _mirabile dictu_, is so
+     "crazy" as to be open to the investigation of all subjects
+     which mightily concern mankind.]
+
+The only seeming objection of much weight that can be brought against
+diffusing a knowledge of checks is, that it will serve to increase
+illegal connections. Now, this is exactly the contrary effect of that
+which those who have diffused such knowledge most confidently believe
+will arise from it. To diminish such connections is indeed one of the
+grand objects of this publication,--an object which laws and prisons
+cannot, or, at least, do not, accomplish. Why is there so much
+prostitution in the land? The true answer to the question is not, and
+never will be, Because the people have become acquainted with certain
+facts in physiology; it is because there are so many unmarried men and
+women,--men of dissipation and profligacy, owing to their not having
+married in their younger days and settled down in life. But why are
+there so many unmarried people in the country? Not because young hearts
+when they arrive at the age of maturity do not desire to marry; but
+because prudential considerations interfere. The young man thinks: I
+cannot marry yet; I cannot support a family; I must make money first,
+and think of a matrimonial settlement afterward. And so it is, that
+through fear of having a family, before they have made a little headway
+in the world, and of being thereby compelled to "tug at the oar of
+incessant labor throughout their lives," thousands of young men do not
+marry, but go abroad into the world and form vicious acquaintances
+and practices. The truth, then, is this,--there is so much illegal
+connection in the land, because the people had not, twenty years ago,
+that very information which, it would seem, some, doubtless through want
+of due reflection, are apprehensive will increase this evil. I might
+quote pages to the point from "Every Woman's Book," but I fear my
+communication would be too lengthy. I content myself with a few lines.
+"But when it has become the custom here as elsewhere to limit the number
+of children, so that none need have more than they wish, no man will
+fear to take a wife; all will marry while young; debauchery will
+diminish; while good morals and religious duties will be promoted."
+
+It has been asked if a general knowledge of checks would not diminish
+the general increase of population? I think that such would not be
+the result in this country until such result would be desirable. In
+my opinion the effect would be a good many more families (and, on the
+whole, as many births), but not so many overgrown and poverty-stricken
+ones. It has been said, It is better to let Nature take her course. Now,
+in the broadest sense of the word "Nature," I say so too. In this sense
+there is nothing unnatural in the universe. But if we limit the sense
+of the word Nature so as not to include what we mean by art, then is
+civilized life one continued warfare against Nature. It is by art that
+we subdue the forest; by art we contend against the elements; by art we
+combat the natural tendency of disease, etc.
+
+As to the outrageous slander which here and there one has been heard
+to utter against the fair sex, in saying that fear of conception is
+the foundation of their chastity, it must be the sentiment of a "carnal
+heart," which has been peculiarly unfortunate in its acquaintances. "To
+the pure, all things are pure." Chastity, as well as its opposite, is
+in a great degree constitutional; and ought, in a like degree, to be
+regarded as a physical property, if I may so say, rather than a moral
+quality. Where the constitution is favorable a very indifferent degree
+of moral training is sufficient to secure the virgin without the
+influence of the above-mentioned fear; but where it is the reverse you
+may coop up the individual in the narrow dark cage of ignorance and
+fear, as you will, but still you must watch. An eminent moralist has
+said, "That chastity which will not bear the light [of physiology] is
+scarcely worth preserving." But verily, I believe there is very little
+such in the market. What there be is naturally short-lived, and, after
+its demise, the unhappily constituted individual stands in great need of
+this light to save her from ignominy. What might it not have prevented
+in the Fall River affair? And if one of two things must happen--either
+the destruction of fecundity or the destruction of life--which of the
+two is the greater evil? In these cases alone this light is calculated
+to do sufficient good to counterbalance all the evil that would arise
+from it; so that we should have its important advantages to the married
+in a political, a domestic and a medical point of view, as so much
+clear gain. This, of course, is my opinion; but since I have probably
+reflected more upon the subject than all the persons concerned in my
+imprisonment put together, until it can be shown that I have not as
+clear a head and as pure a heart as any of them, I think it entitled to
+some weight.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Fruits of Philosophy, by Charles Knowlton
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