During the sexual epoch of the menacme a woman’s principal hygienic need
is marriage completely satisfactory alike to body and to mind. It cannot
be denied that sufficient sexual gratification, regular, of course, and
free from all excess, such as is usually experienced in married life, is
very advantageous to the health of a woman who has attained sexual
maturity—even though we admit that the drawbacks of sexual abstinence,
regarded as a cause of disease of the female genital organs and the
nervous system have been as a rule greatly exaggerated.
The inability to marry always makes a deep impression on the mental life
of woman, and in many cases also gives rise to burning desire and
tormenting yearning of an erotic nature. The unmarried miss life’s true
goal and fail to enjoy the natural exercise of their functional
capacities; alike in the cultured lady and in the poor working woman who
has failed to marry, the thoughts and feelings return again and again to
her own condition in a self-tormenting manner.
The physical and mental disadvantages entailed by sexual gratification
when obtained by an unmarried woman, one who, according to modern
phraseology, “wishes to secure her natural share of the joys of love,”
and who regards voluntary chastity as “a sacrifice to meaningless
prejudices”—need not be more particularly described.
Free love, moreover, is the most important disseminator of gonorrhœal
infection. “In any future commonwealth,” says _Runge_, “in which
marriage is abandoned in favour of the general practice of free love,
the human race will be overwhelmed by gonococci in a manner now hardly
conceivable, and the reproductive capacity in both sexes will be
diminished by the results of gonorrhœa to a very serious extent.”
Frequently enough, also, free love leads to prostitution, which at the
present day is so widely prevalent. Various reasons have been suggested
to account for the increase of prostitution. Among these are: The growth
of modern industry, with the consequent aggregation of the population in
large towns; the decline in the marriage rate; the postponement of
marriage; universal military service; the freer mutual companionship of
the sexes; and many others. At any rate, the fact would appear to be
established, that in the case of woman the determining cause of
prostitution is hunger rather than the sexual impulse. The worst paid
classes of workwomen are shown by official statistics to furnish the
largest number of recruits to the ranks of prostitutes; and it is during
times of deficient employment that the number of women practicing
occasional prostitution increases. Thus, material need is the most
important of the causes of prostitution.
This remains true even though the doctrine of _Lombroso_ and _Tarnowsky_
should find fuller justification, the doctrine that the practice of
prostitution by women is the natural expression of a congenital morbid
predisposition, “which impels them, in defiance of their direct
advantage, of reason, and of all counter-advice, to adopt this accursed
mode of life.” Prostitution, in this view, is to be regarded as the
inevitable outcome of congenital moral insanity. This is certainly true
of a small proportion of prostitutes, but is as certainly false of the
great majority, in whom unfavorable, difficult conditions of life form
the determining cause. A certain inherited or acquired mental
disposition may, indeed, be assumed to exist in these cases also—an
unstable moral equilibrium, an insufficient development of the force of
the will and of the power of resistance.
The hygienic requirement of married life for woman during the menacme is
undoubtedly sometimes hard to fulfil in our day, when the more elaborate
and expensive standard of life has increased the difficulty of
supporting a family; but from the medical point of view it is necessary
to insist forcibly on this categorical imperative, in opposition to the
view advanced by the modern women’s rights’ party, that “love is moral
also in the absence of legal marriage” (_Ellen Key_); in opposition to
the yet more extreme opinion of _George Sand_ and of _Almquist_, who,
regardless of consequences, declare marriage to be immoral; and,
finally, in opposition to the advocates of “free love,” who wish woman
to be as free as man in sexual relations.
Much as we may wish that man and wife should be in complete harmony in
marriage, and that they should feel themselves to be firmly united alike
by mutual love and by a reciprocal sense of duty, none the less we must
consider the modern maiden ripe for marriage as unjustified in
demanding, before undertaking marriage, “perfect love as typifying the
inner yearning of two beings to become one;” and we must regard the
latter-day woman as extravagant in insisting that the man shall enter
upon marriage in a condition as virgin as that of his contemplated wife.
“Perfect love” is as rare and as little to be expected as perfect
beauty; and the sexual life of man differs entirely in nature and in the
course of its development from the sexual activity of women.
Doubtless they spring deep from the soul of woman, the demands expressed
by the writer of the book “_Vera_” and by her numerous imitators, the
apostles of “Veraism,”—the demands of the maiden entering upon marriage
that her husband shall be as chaste and sexually as unspotted as
herself. Difficult of fulfilment as they are, if fulfilment is even
possible, these demands must none the less be regarded as characteristic
of the sexual life of modern womanhood. “Is man’s sexual honor,”
exclaims _Vera,_ “then altogether different from that of woman? Is not
the alleged necessity for sexual gratification in youth either a
well-organized fraud or an enormous error on the part of physicians? Is
it possible that chastity can entail diseases as terrible, as
destructive to life and happiness as those that result from unchastity?
And is it not a crying sin, even if some of these fears are justified,
to ruin both mentally and physically the whole race of women? * * * Man
demands from the girl of his choice, not chastity alone, but an
absolutely unblemished character. And rightly so. But the wife must
share her husband with street-walkers? She must bear the pangs of
maternity, while fortified by the terrible knowledge that the father of
her children has wasted his youthful virility in purchased embraces,
that he has not recoiled from impurity, that he has exposed himself to
the risk of infection with the most horrible diseases, that he has
squandered his virginity in the most bestial sensuality? * * * We girls
must also be granted the right to demand from the man of our choice the
same purity, the same unspottedness by sensuality, that he so rigorously
demands from ourselves! We must no longer content ourselves with the
remnants that are left for us by others! We must no longer be satisfied
with man’s moral inferiority! Then there will be more happiness, more
love, more health and joy of life!”
These accusations and demands so boldly made are not to be disposed of
by mere mockery. With deep sorrow we must admit the absolute truth of
the charge that too many men clamber out of the abyss of debauchery to a
blighted marriage. But the demand for equal moral rights, for the
abandonment of the hitherto prevalent bisexual ethical standards, is in
vain conflict with actuality, with the defensive instincts of young men,
with the difficulties entailed by the struggle for existence, with the
increasing pretensions (to sexual freedom) of women themselves; but
above all is it in conflict with the thousand-year-old notions of sexual
honor in the male and the female respectively, and with the undeniable
fact that the mature man is capable of elevating himself out of the base
intoxication of the senses characteristic of youth, to attain the
noblest and most intimate married love, whereas the girl who has once
descended into such an abyss sinks therein and is beyond the possibility
of rescue. Thus early marriage with equal purity of husband and wife
remains a postulate which the present can hardly be expected to satisfy,
and one whose fulfilment must be left to the future.
In consequence of modern writings and discussions concerning the erotic
problem, there has arisen a hypersensibility on the part of women in
respect of the conditions in which they pass their married life, leading
them to demand greater independence, a greater expansion of their own
individuality; this tendency must, however, be resisted, if the marriage
is to be a happy one, with mutual comfort and reciprocal consideration,
one suitable, not for exceptional beings in an ideal state, but for men
and women as they really are. In such a marriage, affection and a sense
of duty will strengthen love and preserve fidelity. A prudent, clever
woman will always understand how, notwithstanding all necessary
self-surrender, to preserve the freedom of her own individuality and the
esteem of her husband.
Marriages based upon true inclination usually result in the birth of
stronger and more beautiful children than marriages in which the
money-bags were the sole or the principal determining cause. In England,
where people commonly marry when still quite young, beautiful and
healthy children are more often seen than in France, where marriages of
expediency form the great majority. According to _Bertillon_, of 1,000
young men from 20 to 25 years of age, in England 120 marry, but in
France less than half that number, viz., 57 only. And 100 wives between
the ages of 15 and 40 give birth annually, in England to 39 children, in
France to 26 only, a number less by one-third.
In deciding upon marriage, hereditary influences deserve careful
consideration in respect alike of the family of the prospective husband
and that of the prospective wife. For it is well established that the
law of inheritance relates not only to the peculiarities of external
configuration, to the features, the stature, the tint of the skin, but
also that children inherit from their parents their mode of bodily
development, the functional activity of their organs, the duration of
their life, their predisposition to disease, and even their intellectual
and moral qualities. As regards hereditary predisposition to disease,
the most important are, as is well known, the predisposition to
tuberculosis, that to malignant tumors, and that to mental disorders.
Great disparity in the respective ages of prospective husband and wife
entail various kinds of unsuitability for marriage. An elderly man who
marries a young girl, even if he still possesses a certain amount of
virility, is unlikely to procreate healthy and powerful children; and
these latter for the most part will be weakly, scrofulous cachectic,
endowed with deficient powers of resistance, and often badly equipped
from the intellectual standpoint. Similar considerations prevail in
respect of marriages in which the husband has been exhausted by earlier
sexual excesses, so that he retains no more than remnants of virility,
whilst his semen is of doubtful fertilizing power. _D. Richard_ relates
that Louis XIV asked his physician why it was that the children he (the
king) had by his wife were delicate and deformed, whilst those he had by
his mistresses were beautiful and powerful. “Sire,” was the answer,
“c’est parce que vous ne donnez à la reine que les rincures.”
_Plato_ maintains that before every marriage the man and the woman
should both undergo official examination to determine their fitness or
unfitness for the married state, the man being absolutely nude, and the
woman stripped to the waist, for the examination. This author goes so
far as to regard it as “a form of homicide for a man to embrace a woman
when he is incapable of fertilizing her.” How rarely it happens in our
day, however, that the physician, the official with the requisite
knowledge to fulfil _Plato’s_ requirements, is asked for his opinion
regarding the desirability of a contemplated marriage! The only occasion
on which this is likely to occur is when a man intending to marry wishes
to be assured that he is completely cured from an earlier infection with
syphilis, and, therefore, runs no risk of transmitting the disease to
his wife or to possible offspring. But it never occurs to the parents of
a girl about to marry to ask the physician whether she is physically
suitable for marriage.
In deciding on marriage, however, care should before all be taken to
determine that the girl has attained complete physical and especially
complete sexual development. The age at which woman attains complete
sexual maturity is in our climate and race coincident on the average
with the twentieth year of life.
For the hygiene of marriage it is necessary that the bride should not be
extremely youthful. Notwithstanding the fact that the legal codes of
civilized countries nowhere demand for girls a greater age than fifteen
years before permitting marriage, this limit is, generally speaking,
fixed far too low. Before becoming a wife, the girl should not merely
have attained complete physical development, with her reproductive
organs in a state of maturity, but she must also be developed
intellectually to such an extent that she is fully capable of
understanding the nature and significance of marriage. At the age at
which marriage is legally permissible, a girl is still far from having
attained physical and mental ripeness for marriage, reproduction, and
maternity.
Especially with reference to the last consideration is it inadvisable
that in our climates a girl should marry earlier than from 18 to 20
years of age, and preferably even she should first attain the age of
from 20 to 22. In that case her happiness as a mother will be more
secure, and there will be a greater probability of her producing a
healthy progeny. In the East, indeed, quite different views prevail.
According to the laws of _Manus_, a girl might marry on attaining the
age of eight years; if within three years thereafter her father failed
to provide her with a husband, she might choose one for herself. Among
the Hindus it is regarded as a disgrace to the parents if a girl does
not marry quite young, indeed before the first appearance of
menstruation. _Atri_ and _Kasypa_ state that if a girl begins to
menstruate before she leaves her father’s house, the latter must be
punished as if he had destroyed a fœtus, while the daughter herself
loses caste. Marriage delayed till after the appearance of menstruation
being regarded as sinful, girls are married while still children, in
order to prevent the loss of mature ova, which is regarded as equivalent
to infanticide. Very early marriage has thus in India been legally
ordained for thousands of years. The Hindus, who even now regard every
menstruation which has not been preceded by coitus in the light of
infanticide, marry their daughters before the age of puberty.
According to oriental tradition, Mahomet married Khadijah when five
years of age, and cohabited with her three years later. In the Bible,
numerous similar examples are recorded. Among many savage tribes, as,
for instance, among some of the aborigines of India, and among the
indigens of Australia, copulation is usually effected before girls reach
the age of puberty; in India, indeed, according to _Ploss_ and _Bartels_
(_Das Weib in der Natur und Völkerkunde_), marriage with immature girls
is a widely diffused custom, and in Australia a child of ten or eleven
is often found to be the wife of a man of fifty or the concubine of a
sailor. In general, according to these authors, we find that the age of
nubility in girls is lower in proportion to the lowness of the stage of
civilization attained by the race or people to which they belong. Among
the ancient Romans, girls were commonly married between the ages of
thirteen and sixteen years.
In the Talmud, _Rabbi Joshua_ gives the following advice regarding early
marriage in Jewish girls: “If your daughter has attained puberty and is
twelve years and six months old, she must be married at any cost. If no
other means are available, manumit one of your slaves, and give her to
the freedman to wife.”
Experience proves, however, that in our climate, at any rate, girls who
marry at a very early age are inferior in fertility to those who refrain
from marriage until the genital organs have attained complete maturity;
and statistics show that those women who marry before attaining the age
of twenty must wait longer for their first pregnancy than those who
marry between the ages of twenty and twenty-four. At the higher age
also, women bear parturition and its consequences more easily than those
who marry very young. A similar influence in marriage to that resulting
from undue juvenility is exercised by its opposite, marriage when a
woman is already elderly; in this case fertility is limited, and health
also is especially apt to suffer. When the indications of the
climacteric are clearly apparent, marriage is contra-indicated, not only
on account of the impossibility of fertilization, but also in respect of
its general unsuitability in the closing stage of the sexual life.
Not only is the absolute age of the woman of importance in deciding on
the advisability of marriage, but the relative ages of the proposed
husband and wife must also be taken into account, first of all in
respect of the wife’s possible fertility, and secondly in respect of her
general health. The most suitable arrangement is that in which there is
no marked difference in age. The husband may be, and indeed in existing
social circumstances almost necessarily is, somewhat older than his
wife, as much perhaps as eight or ten years. But a very great disparity
of age (in either direction) is a serious error. If a very young girl
marries an elderly man, or a developed matron marries a young man, the
true purpose of marriage is unfulfilled, the eternal laws of nature and
all ethical principles are infringed. In the breeding of animals, the
fundamental principle has long prevailed that the animals chosen for
coupling should be well suited each to the other and should be in
perfect physical condition; and breeders are also familiar both with the
favorable influence of good nourishment and with the advantage of the
opportune crossing of distinct varieties. The same principles are
equally applicable to the human race, neglected as they commonly are in
practice.
With regard to the marriage of near kin, we can only remark that the
marriage of those closely related by blood should as far as possible be
avoided, and that such a marriage must be absolutely prohibited when in
both families there is a history of tuberculosis, mental disorders,
diabetes, and the like. When first cousins contemplate marriage, it is
indispensable, not only that both individuals should be in perfect
health, but also that on neither side there should be any serious family
history of transmissible disease or transmissible morbid tendency; and,
further, it is absolutely necessary that no such marriage of near kin
should have taken place in the proximate ancestry of the cousins, _i.
e._, their cousinship must not be a double one, derived both from the
paternal side and the maternal. It is indeed to be recommended, with a
view to the production of a healthy and powerful posterity, that
marriage should bring about a crossing of healthy individuals proceeding
from different families, different places, and different constitutional
types. An instance of the advantage to be found in this practice is
pointed out by _Ribbing_, who shows that the most powerful aristocracy
in Europe, that of England, by the gradual creation of new peers, on the
one hand, and by the gradual decline of younger sons and their
descendants into the middle class, on the other, has undergone a
continual crossing with less exalted but originally sounder stocks; in
this way its vigor and fertility have been maintained, in contrast to
the nobility of many continental states, which has so largely perished,
in consequence of its exclusiveness in the matter of marriage.
“In this connection,” continues _Ribbing_, “we must bear in mind, that
blood-relationship is not the only matter that has to be considered; in
the interest alike of the family, and of society, it is necessary to
demand that certain degrees of relationship by marriage alone, should
fall within the ‘prohibited degrees’ of love and marriage. There are
certain groups related by marriage and held together by the bond of
affection, from which foster-parents and guardians may most suitably be
selected to fulfil the duties as regards education and training of
children who have been orphaned in early years. For such a purpose none
seem better adapted than the brothers and sisters of the deceased
parents; but the upbringing of the children can be confidently entrusted
to the former only if the relationship between the older and the younger
branches of the family is one regarded by law, and still more by
morality and custom, as one precluding the possibility of the occurrence
of sexual love and marriage.”
_Möbius_, writing on “The Ennobling of the Human Race by Selection in
Marriage,” observes: “The most important aim of natural development is
the perfection of humanity. The qualities of the coming generation
depend for the most part upon the qualities of the parents. Marriage
from affection ensures the fulfilment of nature’s aims with more
security than marriage from reason; since what we have to think of is
not the happiness of the married pair but the quality of their children.
Of great importance, also, to the development of the human race are the
conditions during the commencement of life, and the mode of education.
The improvement of the race has not hitherto been the conscious aim of
the generality of people. The law does not as yet, as it should, take
into account the advantage of posterity. Capital punishment is fully
justified and purposive. Criminals should not be allowed to marry. The
perpetuation of disease by inheritance should be checked by the utmost
powers of the state. Any one marrying while suffering from any venereal
disease still in an infective condition should be punished. The marriage
of persons suffering from tuberculosis should be prohibited. For the
prevention of disease is more important than its cure. The most
important factor in preventive medicine is an improvement in the
conditions of life. The human ideal should be, goodness of heart in
association with physical and mental health. Goodness, beauty, and
strength should be simultaneously pursued. Since, however, man is made
by birth far more than by education, selection in marriage is of
fundamental importance. In the choice of a partner, attention is rightly
paid to beauty, since beauty and health are fundamentally identical;
moreover, a human being endowed with beauty is usually also more moral
than one devoid of that attribute. Equality of birth is as a rule
desirable in marriage; but not the family only is to be considered in
determining the existence of such equality, individual characteristics
must likewise be taken into account. Whether the crossing of races is
desirable is not yet certainly determined.”
From the hygienic standpoint it is necessary that in marriage also the
frequency and the manner of sexual intercourse should be regulated.
Wise men and lawgivers of all the nations of antiquity have insisted
upon the necessity of certain intervals between the acts of intercourse.
Thus, _Mahomet_ prescribed 8 days, _Zoroaster_ 9 days, _Solon_ 10 days,
_Socrates_ also 10 days. _Moses_ forbade intercourse during menstruation
and for a week after the cessation of the flow. _Luther_ prescribed
intercourse “twice a week.”
Birds and many mammals are competent to perform intercourse at
exceedingly short intervals. A well-bred cock will repeat this act 50
times daily; a sparrow, 20 times in an hour; a bull, 3 to 4 times in an
hour. In the human species, however, too rapid repetition of intercourse
is deleterious not only to the male, but to the female also, though the
latter certainly suffers in less degree. For in this act the female
plays a more passive part, and for this reason can repeat it with
impunity more frequently than the male, who loses semen at each
repetition. It is not possible, however, to lay down precise rules as to
the permissible frequency of intercourse in either sex; the matter must
depend upon physical needs. Moderate and regular indulgence in sexual
intercourse is unquestionably advantageous to women both physically and
mentally, regulating all the functions of the body, and tending to
produce a contented and cheerful frame of mind.
During menstruation, a woman should refrain from intercourse. By the
Mosaic law the death punishment was allotted both to the man and to the
woman who indulged in coitus while the latter was menstruating. As a
matter of fact, considerations alike of hygienic cleanliness and of
sanitary precaution prohibit the performance of coitus during this
period. Severe menorrhagia, perimetritic irritation, and parametritic
inflammations, have been observed to follow such indiscretions. On the
other hand, it is more than doubtful whether, in the event of pregnancy
resulting from intercourse performed during menstruation (and conception
is especially apt to occur at this time), the child is likely, as
earlier authors maintained, to be unfavorably affected, and to suffer
from cachexia, scrofula, or rickets.
After the act of intercourse, a woman should rest; and indeed sleep for
some hours is especially to be recommended. A vaginal douche should not
be administered until several hours have elapsed, otherwise there will
be a risk of preventing fertilization of the ovum. The water employed
for vaginal irrigation should never be quite cold; a temperature of
79°–82° F. (26°–28° C.) is best.
All measures for the purpose of artificially increasing sexual desire,
such as alcoholic beverages (especially champagne), and certain drugs
(especially cantharides), are even more harmful to women than they are
to men. The woman who conceives while in a state of intoxication commits
a great sin against the coming generation.[44] Just as harmful, however,
are the anaphrodisiacs sometimes employed to diminish the intensity of
sexual desire when this cannot be gratified. When affected with intense
sexual excitement, a woman is much more unfavorably situated than a man,
since man claims the right to indulge in sexual intercourse whenever he
feels disposed, and has, moreover, ample opportunity for sexual
gratification. A woman, however, properly endowed with self-respect,
will understand how to bridle her senses. Bodily exercise, moderate,
unstimulating diet, intellectual occupation with serious matters, the
avoidance of equivocal literature and of sensual dramatic
representations, cold bathing, and the use of a hard mattress and light
bed-clothing—these means will coöperate powerfully toward the prevention
of excessive sexual desire. _Horace_ already remarked: “Otia si tolles,
periere Cupidinis arcus.”
The wife should know how to bridle, not her own desires only, but also
those of her husband. She must not demand too much during the
intoxication of youthful vigor; she must prevent the complete combustion
of the flames of masculine passion, and must keep sparks glowing in the
ashes. Economy during the sexual prime preserves sexual power, enables a
man to continue intercourse to a ripe age, and avoids premature
exhaustion and satiety. When the husband is drawing near the end of his
sixth decade, the wife must accustom herself to see in him rather the
father of her children than her own husband, and must reduce her sexual
demands to that measure which will not be injurious to his health.
_Demosthenes_, writing of the sexual life of the Athenians of his time,
said: “In order to obtain legitimate offspring and to provide a faithful
guardian of our household, we marry a wife; for our service and for the
performance of daily household duties, we keep concubines; for the joys
of love, we seek the hetairai.” The task is extremely difficult, but a
clever and virtuous modern wife must endeavor to combine in her single
personality the sensual attractiveness of an Aspasia, the chastity of a
Lucrece, and the intellectual greatness of a Cornelia; she must bear in
mind the epigram of _Bacon_, “A wife must be a young man’s mistress, a
middle-aged man’s companion, an old man’s nurse.”
In the act of intercourse the woman must always play the more passive
part; she must be desired, rather than desire. Woman’s modesty increases
man’s desire. By this coquetry, permissible because natural, the woman
can bind the man to herself, and can give the lie to the assertion that
marriage is the grave of love. Partial concealment of her desire on the
part of the woman is more stimulating to the man than an open
manifestation of the sexual impulse; and a certain amount of modest
reluctance is more alluring to him than a plain invitation. Plenty of
room must be left for the play of fancy and imagination. _Schiller_
makes Fiesco say to the Countess Julia, as he covers up her bosom, “The
senses must be blind letter-carriers only, and must not be aware of that
which nature and the imagination communicate each to the other. The best
of news is stale as soon as it has become the talk of the town.”
For this reason, also, it is more suitable that intercourse should take
place, not by day, consequent on the brutal prompting of vision, but by
night only, beneath the protecting veil of darkness. A night’s rest,
moreover, will serve to restore the exhausted nerves, and to replace the
expended secretions. Less advisable is coitus in the morning, on awaking
from sleep, since the labors of the day must immediately thereafter be
undertaken. Partially impotent men only, who wake up with an erected
penis, endeavour to avail themselves without delay of this favorable
opportunity, bearing in mind the French proverb, “On aime quand on peut,
et non pas quand on veut.”
The French custom, in accordance with which the married pair sleep
together in a double-bed is undesirable on several hygienic grounds,
and, in the first place, for the reason that this continuous nocturnal
proximity is likely to give rise to the habit of indulging in
excessively frequent acts of intercourse. The best and most affectionate
of men has neither disposition nor capacity to play the part of Romeo
every night, and thus the value and enjoyment of marital duties becomes
lessened. The fulfilment of his desires should not be rendered quite so
easy to the husband; he should always appear the lover, one who seeks a
woman’s favours because he longs for her; he should not be the master,
exacting an unquestioned right. For this reason, separate beds are
advisable for the married pair, and, when possible, even separate
bedrooms.
Among the ancients, _Lycurgus_, the Spartan law-giver, regarded
maternity as woman’s principal attribute, and considered the sexual
impulse to be the means merely by which healthy citizens were provided
for the state. In accordance with this view, the sanctity of marriage
was violated, and every powerful, handsome, and valiant Spartan had the
right to request the privilege of intercourse with the wife of another,
in order to enrich that other’s family with his seed. Elderly, impotent
men conducted well-formed young men into the arms of their own wives.
The girls, like the young men, went through a course of gymnastic
exercises, in order to harden their bodies, and to fit them for the
bearing of strong and healthy children. No man might marry before
attaining the age of thirty, no woman before attaining the age of
twenty. Girls ripe for marriage were assembled in a dark place, and
there the young men chose their brides, as chance might direct. The
young men were allowed to visit their wives by night only, and secretly,
in order that the vigor of the sexual impulse might be increased and
maintained.
Among the Spartans, it happened quite frequently, that a man whose wife
had remained childless, and who believed himself to be at fault in the
matter, would beg one of his fellow-countrymen, or even a foreigner, to
come to his assistance. It was enacted by one of Solon’s laws, to
prevent a man from neglecting his marital duties, that he should have
intercourse with his wife not less than three times monthly. According
to another of Solon’s laws, an Athenian heiress might call upon her
nearest relative for the gratification of her sexual desires.
The bluntest contrast to this Spartan simplicity is furnished by the
unbridled lasciviousness that prevailed in Rome under the Cæsars, when
women’s sole desire was sexual enjoyment, while maternity was a state to
be avoided. To such an extreme was this carried, that the Roman ladies
of that day preferred to marry eunuchs, and further, as _Pliny_ reports,
hermaphrodites were in great request. _Juvenal_ writes: “There are women
who prize the infertile embraces of base eunuchs; thus they are able to
dispense with the use of abortifacients.”
The hygiene of the nuptial night deserves from the physician more
attention than it has hitherto generally received. He should warn and
enlighten the young husband, in order that the brutality with which the
act of defloration is apt to be performed may be lessened, and further
in order that mistakes in this connection, resulting from ignorance and
likely to have serious consequences, may be avoided. It is well known
that lacerations of the hymen and its environment, and even serious
injuries of the genital organs, may result from maladroit attempts at
penetration. The physician will admonish the husband in the words of
_Michelet_: “Bear in mind in this hour that thou art an enemy, a tender,
considerate, and gentle enemy!”
The young woman entering upon marriage should receive instruction from
her mother regarding all the sexual processes of copulation, instruction
at once earnest and complete. By such enlightenment, the young bride
will be spared much suffering, and a sudden disillusionment which might
seriously affect the whole of her future life will be avoided; complete
ignorance, on the other hand may lead, not merely to needless mental and
physical suffering, but to the most tragic consequences on the bridal
night. In one case known to me, the young wife, who before marriage was
utterly ignorant of the nature of physical love, was so completely
overwhelmed in her ideals by the somewhat energetic procedure of the
bridegroom as soon as he found himself alone with his wife, that she
fled from her new home then and there in the night, and by no
persuasions could be induced to return.
In that decisive moment in which the maiden loses her virginity, she
must find in her husband, not the brutal man who forcibly takes
possession of her body, but the chosen man of all, to whom her love can
refuse nothing.
“Delicate foresight and restraint,” writes _Ribbing_, “are needful above
all at the commencement of married life. The young wife, coming to the
bridal bed a pure virgin, is not, like her husband, fully prepared for
what is to take place. In all cases she is somewhat fearful of the new
experience. The first act of intercourse involves for her a certain
amount of pain, and this pain is not solely physical. * * * Moreover, we
must remember that the entire change in her mode of life makes a deep
impression upon a woman’s mind; time and quiet are needed before she can
find herself at home in the novel surroundings, before she can adapt to
the changed circumstances her moral and religious convictions, and
before she can ‘think true love acted simple modesty’ (Romeo and Juliet,
III, 2.16). Impatient husbands, through want of knowledge and lack of
consideration during the honeymoon, have often ruined the happiness of
subsequent married life.”
It happens often, unfortunately, that the wife has reason to complain of
the reckless manner in which her husband has used, or misused, his
sexual powers. Frequently enough, on the bridal night, the man proceeds
with such violence in his assault on the virgin reproductive organs of
his newly-wedded wife, that we must actually speak of him as ravishing
an ignorant and timid girl. Later, when the stimulus of novelty has
passed away, the husband often performs intercourse in a manner more
calculated to awaken his wife’s sexual desires, but in seeking his own
lordly gratification and obtaining it he is still apt to leave out of
the reckoning the need for effecting coitus in such a way as will give
complete satisfaction also to his wife.
The wedding journey likewise deserves consideration from the hygienic
standpoint. Much is to be said in favor of such a journey, inasmuch as
it endows the necessarily somewhat brutal first act of intercourse with
an aspect of romance. The removal to a foreign country, to a strange
environment, will spare the chaste maiden much shame and vexation. On
the journey, moreover, the young couple are much in each other’s
company, and the process of mutual adaptation is agreeably favored. And
yet this modern custom of making a wedding journey entails certain
serious disadvantages. The young woman leaves her home and her nearest
relatives, and is in a moment involved in the excitement of travel, an
excitement liable to increase to the degree of morbid anxiety. The
fatigues of railway-travel, of wandering about strange towns, of visits
to museums and picture-galleries, are apt to cause general loss of
nervous tone, and also local hyperæmia of the genital organs. In
addition, false modesty and the prescribed arrangements for the journey
may lead the onset of menstruation to be ignored and the customary rest
at this period to be dispensed with. Still more, the possibility of the
occurrence of conception and of the commencement of pregnancy is usually
left altogether out of the account. Many an attack of menorrhagia, of
perimetritis, and of endometritis, many a miscarriage, and many
instances of protracted sterility, are dependent upon the hygienic
mistakes of the wedding journey, and less, indeed, upon the abuses
arising out of the intoxication of passion, than upon the fatigues of
excessive travel both by day and by night. The bride who on her
wedding-day was young, healthy, and full of vitality, not infrequently
returns from the wedding journey a sickly and debilitated woman.
With regard to wedding journeys in relation to the causation of chronic
metritis, _Scanzoni_ has expressed an authoritative opinion. “After many
weeks of unsatisfied sexual desire, the young married pair, now freed
from all restraint, give themselves up to the joys of love; the intense
sexual excitement causes great stimulation and hyperæmia of the female
sexual organs; in addition, the noxious influences of travel make
themselves felt, and also hygienic indiscretions are perpetrated,
dependent upon the young wife’s modesty; it is, therefore, by no means
to be wondered at that, having left home a perfectly healthy woman, she
returns from her wedding journey with the germs of an illness from which
she never fully recovers, and which is the source of unending suffering,
and more particularly of a sterile marriage.”
Sexual hygiene demands a certain moderation in the enjoyment of physical
love, and also a certain constancy, such as may be expected in a happy
marriage.
It is not possible to lay down a general rule with regard to the
frequency of sexual intercourse, notwithstanding the earnestness with
which religious zealots, physicians, and moral teachers have in all ages
endeavored to determine how often it was proper for a man to cohabit
with his wife. The rules that have been prescribed by the various
authorities had in view, for the most part, the protection of the wife
from excessive demands on the part of her husband; sometimes, however,
by the establishment of a minimum period, a certain amount of sexual
gratification was secured to the wife; finally, also, the generation of
a healthy posterity had to be taken into consideration. _Ribbing_,
however, justly observes: “Sexual intercourse results from a natural
impulse, and he whose senses are unimpaired, and who has learned, at the
same time, amid the tumult of his sensations, to preserve proper
consideration for his wife—such a man runs little danger of making any
mistake. In opposition to the opinion of many, I regard it as entirely
right and reasonable that husband and wife should have intercourse
whenever physically and mentally impelled to that act. Nor do I see any
reason why, during the first period in which they are able to enjoy
without intermission the pleasures of sexual intercourse, they should,
in accordance with any theory whatever, impose on themselves further
restraints than those demanded by care for their physical and mental
health. The touchstone of marital hygiene is this, that on the day
following intercourse both husband and wife should feel perfectly fresh,
vigorous, and lively, alike in body and mind—even more so, perhaps, than
on other days. In the absence of such feelings, we may feel assured of
the occurrence of sexual excesses.” The same author quotes a saying of
_Pomeroy’s_: “We may quaff the nectar as freely as we will—nature
herself mixes the draught and holds the goblet to our lips; if, however,
we drink too much, she first dilutes the draught with water, later adds
gall, and ultimately perhaps deadly poison.”
The occupation, trade, or profession, and the nutritive condition and
physical constitution of the married pair, have an important bearing on
the frequency with which, without detriment to health, cohabitation is
permissible. The rules of the Hebrew Talmud already take these
circumstances into account, ordering as they do that young and powerful
men not engaged in any regular occupation shall have intercourse with
their wives daily; manual labourers, on the other hand, once a week
only; whilst brain-workers, finally, or those whose work is extremely
arduous, should allow an interval of one or more months to elapse
between the acts of intercourse. _Acton_ also prescribes that in the
case of brain-workers and of those manual workers whose labours are
exhausting, intercourse must not occur more frequently than once every
week or ten days.
The married couple should understand how to impose on themselves a
certain restraint in the matter of marital intercourse, without,
however, going so far as on altogether trifling grounds to refuse the
husband access to his wife. In this respect also, the opinions that have
recently come to prevail concerning the rights of women have had an
influence. _W. Acton_ relates a case that came under his observation in
which the wife refused to allow her husband any voice in determining
when and how often intercourse should take place; the wife, she
maintained without hesitation, since she had to bear the consequences of
intercourse, was fully justified, whenever she thought fit, in refusing
her husband’s embraces.
The dangers to the sexual life of woman which are involved by the modern
woman’s rights agitation are seen already in the changes which the
emancipation of women in North America has produced in the functions of
woman as wife and mother. In that part of the world, everything possible
has been done “to transform” (to quote the words of a brilliant
journalist) “the doll into an independent existence, to enable the
helpless woman to earn her own subsistence, and the result of these
endeavors has been most striking. The American woman has obtained the
right to enter every profession and to follow every kind of occupation
which have hitherto been reserved for men; she is physician, lawyer,
merchant, professor; her boudoir has become an office, often connected
with the stock exchange by a private wire. Legally, also, she now
possesses the same rights as man; in many States she has both the
suffrage and the right of entering the house of representatives; she has
fully emancipated herself from her former condition of tutelage, and in
her shrillest tones can cry to heaven ‘I am free, I am independent, I am
emancipated, I am myself!’ And observe, as the result of all these
attempts at the conversion of woman into man, that in the matter of
marriage also she acts as if she were no longer woman. The American
woman no longer marries; perhaps, indeed, because she no longer has the
capacity. So long and so eagerly has she given herself up to masculine
occupations, that her inward feminine nature has also perhaps undergone
transformation, so that she has become affected with a kind of neutral
lack of desire. Unquestionably, the desire for marriage on the part of
this modern ‘emancipated’ woman has vanished in the most alarming
manner, there is a notable fall in the birth-rate, and the indigenous
(white) population actually threatens to disappear.”
The wife acts wisely, not on hygienic grounds alone, in not always
acceding at once and unconditionally to her husband’s demand for the
repetition of intercourse. Her modest reluctance enhances her
desirability in the eyes of her amorous husband. Thus, _Shakespeare_
makes Posthumus exclaim (Cymbeline, Act II., Sc. 5, l. 9):
“Me of my lawful pleasure she restrained
And prey’d me oft forbearance; did it with
A pudency so rosy the sweet view on’t
Might well have warmed Old Saturn.”
Especially justified is such refusal when coitus has been already once
or twice performed, or when the consumption of alcoholic beverages has
made the husband unduly lustful. On the other hand, the refusal of
intercourse when demanded by the husband should never depend upon
baseless feminine caprice, or upon the now so frequently asserted
“rights of women.”
Experience has long ago established as a fact that unduly frequent
satisfaction of the sexual impulse entails serious consequences to the
health of the individual. And in the case of the wife these consequences
may be especially disastrous when intercourse is indulged in recklessly
during menstruation, during all stages of pregnancy, and even during the
puerperium. “Incontinence during menstruation leads to serious
circulatory disturbances and to the consequences of these disturbances;
during pregnancy it is likely to give rise to miscarriage; during the
puerperium, to congestions and inflammations. Should conception occur as
a result of intercourse during the lying-in period (and this may happen
very shortly after childbirth), abortion, and even more serious
consequences, are likely to ensue. By intercourse during lactation, the
premature recurrence of the menstrual flow is induced, and the gradual
reversion of the reproductive apparatus to the condition in which it was
before pregnancy (the process of involution) is hindered; moreover, the
secretion of milk is diminished or even entirely suppressed.” In these
terms _Hegar_ depicts the consequences of premature resumption of
marital intercourse, taking perhaps a somewhat extreme view of the
matter.
Nevertheless, this author is undoubtedly right in declaring that one of
the principal disadvantages to a woman of excessively frequent sexual
intercourse is that pregnancy occurs too often. It is astonishing to
observe the number of full-term deliveries and miscarriages that a woman
will experience within a comparatively short period of time, as is seen
too frequently among the labouring classes and more especially among
factory workers. “If we assume the ordinary mortality of childbed to be
6 per mille, a woman who in the course of 15 years undergoes labour (at
full term or prematurely) 16 times, runs a risk of death to be expressed
by the ratio of 6 × 16 = 96 per mille; that is to say, on the average,
of 1,000 women who become pregnant as often as this, nearly 1 in 10 will
die in childbed.”
Young men who have previously suffered from gonorrhœa and who wish to
marry, must, unless they wish to cause unspeakable misery, undergo an
exact and thorough examination; not only must the physician inquire as
to the presence of certain symptoms, such as smarting during
micturition, adhesion of the lips of the urethral meatus, “clap-threads”
in the urine, etc., but during a considerable period of time repeated
microscopical examinations of the urine must be undertaken, and the
filaments, if present, must be examined for gonococci. The physician
will also have to determine whether any vestiges remain of epididymitis,
and whether the quality of the semen has been impaired by the attack of
gonorrhœa. Unfortunately, it is not yet within our power absolutely to
forbid marriage to a man exhibiting all the symptoms of chronic
gonorrhœa; but it is the duty of the physician to explain to such a man
the scientific views regarding this matter that now prevail, in order to
furnish him with the grounds for a decision.
It is not possible, when discussing the hygiene of married life, to
preserve silence respecting the extremely pressing question of the use
of measures for the prevention of conception, for in recent years their
use has become extraordinarily general, chiefly, indeed, in the upper
and middle classes of society, but to some extent also among the
working-class population. Although we devote a special chapter to this
topic, we must here express the opinion that, except in certain
instances in which their employment can be justified on carefully
weighed and well-established medical grounds, the use of any mechanical
or chemical means for the prevention of conception must be
discountenanced as injurious to health. The wife who wishes to preserve
her psychical purity and moral chastity, which is not only possible in
marriage but also greatly to be desired, must not concern herself much
with the technique of the sexual life, but must give herself up to
sexual enjoyment only as the result of a delicate and immediate bodily
and mental desire. Not only for reasons of national economy regarding
the means of providing for the family, but also for well-grounded
personal reasons regarding the wife’s health, must the latter be spared
an unduly rapid succession of pregnancies and confinements. And this
should be effected by a certain degree of continence and by the
observation of extensive periods of sexual quiescence.
To preserve a woman’s health during the acme of her sexual activity, a
careful general hygiene is an important requisite. The dwelling should
be dry and roomy; above all the bedroom should not be too small, neither
damp nor dark, and it should be well ventilated. The wife’s occupations
should be so arranged as to afford a suitable alternation of activity
and repose, and there should be as little night work as possible.
Certain occupations are especially potent in the causation of the
diseases peculiar to women, principally, for the reason that they do not
permit of the requisite repose during menstruation. Thus, washerwomen,
vocalists, and sewing-machine operatives, suffer with especial frequency
from diseases of the genital organs.
Great care in the cleansing of the genital organs is indispensable in
the case of women; the vulva and its environment should be frequently
and carefully washed; and an occasional vaginal injection is
advantageous. As regards the last-named measure, however, we must point
out that it is possible to err by excess as well as by defect, and that
a daily vaginal douche can by no means be regarded as a necessary part
of the hygiene of the reproductive organs. For recent researches have
shown, on the one hand, that the vagina constitutes a natural mechanism
for the destruction of pathogenic organisms, and on the other hand, that
complete disinfection of the vagina is extremely difficult to effect.
Inflammations of the vulva, which are somewhat frequent in consequence
of excessive perspiration and undue discharge from the genital canal,
demand careful cleansing with soap and water and the use of a soft
brush. The addition to the water of lysol (in the proportion of ¼ to ½
per cent.) is advantageous. A general bath or a local sitz bath, the
water being moderately warm (95°–99° F.; 35°–37° C.), may be recommended
on grounds of beauty as well as of health, and should be taken at least
once a week.
The regular use of lukewarm sitz baths is a most valuable hygienic
measure for the prevention of various general or local disturbances
consequent upon increased flow of blood to the genital organs. These
local baths are best taken at a temperature of 95° F. (35° C.), and
should last twenty minutes; they should be taken just before going to
bed, and while sitting in the hip bath the skin of the abdomen and of
the lower part of the back should be rubbed with the hand encased in a
friction-glove. The bather on leaving the bath should get straight into
bed, and should dry herself beneath the bedclothes, rubbing the skin
till it glows. Such sitz baths serve also to keep the external genitals
clean, and to guard against infection. For vaginal douching, water
sterilized by boiling should be employed, and where any catarrh of the
vaginal mucous membrane is present, some alum, permanganate of
potassium, or boric acid may be added with advantage; the pressure of
water, when a vaginal douche is given, should never be high, the
reservoir of the irrigator being raised not more than twenty inches
above the outlet of the nozzle; as a rule the water should be lukewarm;
the patient should be in the recumbent posture. The reservoir of the
irrigator and the intra-vaginal nozzle are most suitably made of glass,
to insure cleanliness; the nozzle should not be thrust too far in, two
inches being quite sufficient. After the use of the douche, the woman
should remain ten or fifteen minutes in the recumbent posture.
In addition to the hygienic employment of such full baths and local
baths, a number of mineral baths have important therapeutic applications
in cases of disease of the female genital organs, the traditional value
of such baths having been scientifically endorsed by the modern science
of balneo-therapeutics. By means of suitably selected mineral water
baths, a powerful derivative stimulus may be given to the skin, and the
affected reproductive organs may thus be beneficially influenced.
Further, in acute inflammatory conditions or hyperæmia of the uterus or
its annexa, these baths have an antiphlogistic influence; on the other
hand, when intrapelvic exudations have formed, the baths promote the
absorption of these inflammatory products; again, in congestive states
of the female genital organs, with relaxation, thickening, and
hypersecretion of the genital mucous membrane, the baths have an
astringent and tonic influence on the tissues; finally, they have a
favorable effect on the innervation and nutrition, not only of the
reproductive apparatus, but of the entire organism. It is easy to
understand why women during the menacme are frequent visitors to spas.
At this period of life, and especially in women who lead luxurious
“society” lives, the thoughts tend strongly in the sexual direction; to
avoid this, and to prevent the ever more and more frequent breaches of
marital fidelity, the best means are the practice of vigorous bodily
exercises, and active employment, either in household affairs or in
intellectual occupations. Cold sponging of the body or cold full baths
will also be found an excellent measure for the prevention of sexual
excess. In such cases also the diet should be limited, strong and
stimulating food should be avoided, but little butcher’s meat should be
taken, whilst green vegetables and raw and cooked fruits should be
liberally consumed; at the same time, all alcoholic beverages must be
rigidly prohibited. Moreover, care must be taken that during the night
there should be no undue physical stimulation in consequence of
excessively warm and soft bedding; hair mattresses are to be preferred
to feather beds, with light down quilts for a covering. Finally, no
stimulation of an erotic character should be offered to the imagination,
and for this reason equivocal literature and lascivious dramatic
representations must be avoided. By a sufficiency of occupation,
regular, interesting, and demanding a considerable expenditure of
physical energy, a woman may be enabled to a great extent to escape the
inconvenience and distress attendant on entire or partial lack of
gratification of the sexual impulse.
It cannot be disputed that a certain and moderate amount of sexual
gratification is requisite for the perfect maintenance of physical
health in woman, and that the absence of this gratification, or the
gratification of the impulse in an abnormal or incomplete manner,
entails disturbance of alike the mental and the physical equilibrium;
but, on the other hand, the deleterious consequences of sexual
abstinence have been greatly exaggerated by many writers—both by
physicians and social economists. Owing to the fact that to the
cultivated woman sexual gratification is possible only in the married
state, whilst social conditions render marriage impossible to many women
greatly in need of such gratification; in consequence, also, of the
modern and ever more widely diffused practice by husbands of coitus
interruptus altogether regardless of the woman’s need for complete
sexual gratification—there arise in women numerous local disorders and
nervous disturbances, hysteria and even insanity being results by no
means infrequent. The significance of ungratified sexual impulse in the
pathogenesis of nervous disorders has been established by _von
Krafft-Ebing_, who points out that in unmarried women insanity most
frequently occurs between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five years,
during the decade, that is to say, in which youthful bloom and the hopes
of marriage simultaneously disappear; whereas in the male sex the
greatest incidence of insanity is between the ages of thirty-five and
fifty years, the period of life in which the struggle for existence is
fiercest.
_Hegar_, on the other hand, is a firm opponent of the view that the
favourable influence of marriage is overrated. According to this author,
the favourable effect of marriage in respect of mental disorders is to
be found, not in the gratification of the sexual impulse, but in the
ethical factors of marriage. Statistics show that even in the favourable
circumstances of marriage, sexual gratification has in women an
unfavourable influence, inasmuch as the proportion of sufferers from
mental disorders is higher among married women than it is among married
men. A study of the mental disorders which in women are especially
associated with the process of reproduction (puerperal mania) confirms
this impression. _Hegar_ insists that he has never seen nymphomania
arise in women in consequence of forcible repression of the sexual
impulse; but that he has not infrequently seen this disorder result from
unnatural excesses or from long-continued sexual irritation, especially
in hereditarily predisposed persons. Such unnatural stimulation of the
female is not infrequently practiced by the male—by the lover and even
by the husband—it may be because he himself derives pleasure from such
perverted practices, and wishes to obtain sexual gratification without
the risk of impregnation, or because he is himself incompetent for
normal complete intercourse. _Hegar_ is further of opinion that in the
causation of hysteria and also in that of chlorosis the repression of
the sexual impulse plays a quite subordinate rôle. And he regards as
pure fable the belief that continence in women is liable to lead to the
formation of mammary, uterine, or ovarian tumors. He would more readily
incline to the contrary opinion; the reproductive process being in this
respect distinctly disadvantageous to the female sex. The unfavorable
influence of the reproductive process is shown most clearly in the case
of carcinoma of the uterus; the majority of the patients suffering from
this disease are either married or widowed, and many of them have given
birth to a large number of children. “Gratification of the sexual
impulse, and more particularly the reproductive process, give rise in
women to the formation and growth of tumors, cause numerous mechanical
disturbances, and open the way to infection with various pathogenic
organisms.”
_Hegar_ considers that there is hygienic justification for the
limitation of the number of children to which a woman gives birth. The
most suitable age for motherhood lies in his opinion between the ages of
twenty and forty years. Childbirth in women younger or older than this
entails too much danger both to mother and child. At least two and a
half years ought to elapse between two successive births; and these
figures give us eight as the maximum family. If we assume that the
duration of pregnancy is nine months, and that of lactation nine to
twelve months (or in cases in which the mother does not nurse her own
infant, that a like period must be devoted to the careful supervision of
the wet-nurse or of the methods of artificial feeding), we cannot
consider it unreasonable to devote a further period of from six to nine
months to the complete reestablishment of the woman’s health. “Moreover,
woman does not exist solely for the purpose of subserving during two
decades of her life the processes of reproduction. And to permit the
maximum number of children to be as great as eight, we must presuppose
that the woman is in perfect health, and that she lives in a perfectly
healthy environment. Any illness or infirmity which renders the duties
of housekeeping and the rearing of the existing family unduly difficult,
indicates the need for a further limitation of child-bearing. And if the
reproductive function is to be rationally controlled, we must above all
attend to the age and the health of the parents. Occupation, habitation,
and general environment have also to be considered. The correct ideal is
indeed not difficult to discover.”
_Hegar_ concludes that strict moderation and even absolute continence in
sexual matters are often, and for long periods of time, a pressing duty.
“The numerous and various disasters which are brought upon the world by
unbridled and unregulated sexual passion can be prevented only by
enlightenment, moderation, and continence. If marriage were postponed
until the attainment of complete physical maturity, in women till the
age of 20, in men till the age of 25, while at the same time procreation
were no longer undertaken by women above the age of 40 or by men above
the age of 45 to 50 years; if, again, between successive pregnancies a
sufficient pause for the woman’s recuperation were insisted upon, and
intercurrent illnesses and states of debility were taken into account;
and if, finally, sickly individuals, those hereditarily predisposed to
disease, and those in any way below par either mentally or physically,
were more than heretofore prevented from marrying; then the increase of
population, which in Germany is unquestionably too rapid, would to some
extent be checked. Thoroughgoing regulation of the reproductive process
will not, however, be thus attained without the adoption of a method of
selection too rigorous for present-day notions; and for a further
advance we must in the meantime depend upon moderation and continence.”
As regards the modern demand of the “right to love,” the same
experienced gynecologist writes: “Whoever preaches to mankind the
doctrine that ‘a man sins against his own personality if he neglects to
exercise every limb he possesses, and if he denies himself the
gratification of every natural impulse,’ or the doctrine that ‘it is the
duty of every human being to gratify all his natural impulses, since
these are most intimately inter-connected with his personality—are
indeed his personality itself;’ such a preacher does harm to his kind.
Such rights and such duties are chimerical for this reason if for no
other, because two persons are necessary in the case of sexual
gratification, and sometimes—though not as often as might be wished—Hans
fails to find his Grete, without any consequent loss to society at
large.”
An especially important chapter in the history of woman at this period
of life relates to the dietetics of pregnancy and parturition, and to
the regulations to be observed for the maintenance of health at this
time and in connection with the processes of pregnancy, parturition,
puerperal involution of the uterus, and lactation. This subject cannot
now however be considered at length, and for our present purposes it is
sufficient to point out how important it is alike for mother and child,
alike for family and society, that the ever more and more widely and
generally diffused practice of the artificial feeding of infants should
be abandoned, and that there should be a return to the natural method
according to which each mother nurses her own infant. The prevailing
custom costs every year thousands of mothers their health, and thousands
of children their lives.