anguish from the day of conception to the day of delivery. And still
they were born perfectly normal. I know of a child whose mother was
suffering the most hellish tortures of jealousy during the entire
period of pregnancy, and still the child was born perfectly healthy,
perfectly normal, and is now a splendid specimen of manhood. I know
children whose mothers went through severe attacks of pneumonia,
typhoid fever, etc., and still they were born perfectly healthy and
perfectly normal. I know children whose mothers were using every means
to abort them, took all kinds of internal medicines until they were
deathly sick, and still they were born perfectly healthy and normal. I
know children whose mothers tried to abort them by mechanical means,
who went to abortionists who made one or more attempts to induce the
abortion--I know even cases where the mothers bled as a result of such
attempts--and nevertheless, the children were born perfectly healthy,
developed normally physically and mentally.
Of course these are not things that I would advise women to do or to
undergo. I would not advise pregnant women to worry, to be sick, to
take poisonous medicines or to make attempts at abortion, but I merely
bring up these points to emphasize to my readers not to take the
necessity of prenatal care in too absolute a sense, and not to worry
themselves unnecessarily if the conditions during their pregnancy are
not all that could be desired. The child is not necessarily going to
be affected. The condition of the germ-plasms, i.e., the condition of
the ovum and the spermatozoa at the time of conception is more
important than all subsequent care during gestation.
As there are foolish people who possess a peculiar knack of
misinterpreting and misunderstanding everything, I wish to emphasize
that hygiene during pregnancy should not be neglected. Everything
possible should be done to put the mother in the best possible
physical and mental condition. All I want to say is that it is bad to
be insane on the subject, that it is bad to take things in an absolute
sense, and that it is bad to exaggerate.
You will often hear it said that a child that was conceived when the
father was in an exhilarated condition is apt to be epileptic, or
nervous, or insane, and what not. This is also to be taken with a
grain of salt. A chronic alcoholic has a defective germ-plasm, and his
children are apt to be defective. But a glass of wine at a wedding
banquet cannot affect the previously formed spermatozoa. And the
statements about children being born defective or developing
defectively because their fathers took an occasional glass of wine are
unworthy of serious consideration; are unworthy of any consideration.
In connection with the above the reports of some cases of _violence_
and _accidents_ during pregnancy which, in spite of their severity,
did not affect the children, will prove of interest.
A delicate little woman missed her periods. She was sure she couldn't
be more than two weeks over-due. And this is what she did. For five
nights in succession she took hot mustard baths and she took them so
hot that each time she nearly fainted and came out from them like a
broiled lobster. No effect. She then took a box of pills which cost
her two dollars. No effect except causing diarrhea. She then took two
boxes of capsules which upset her stomach and made her fearfully
nauseous. No other effect. She then ate one-half a colocynth, which
made her terribly sick, causing a bloody diarrhea. She had to stay in
bed for three or four days. She then took burning vaginal injections
with some ipecac in them. No effect except making her feel raw so that
she needed large amounts of cold cream. She then took secale cornutum
and radix gossypii. No effect except giving her a headache, making her
sick to her stomach and completely destroying her appetite, so that
within a very short time she lost nearly ten pounds. She was then told
that long walks might be efficient. She took walks of six and seven
miles at a time, coming home more dead than alive. No effect. She then
heard that jumping off a table is a very efficient means. She did it
a dozen times in succession so that she was completely fagged out and
out of breath. Eight and a half months later she gave birth to a
perfectly healthy, well-formed boy weighing eight pounds.
The following case was reported by Brillaud-Laujardiere. A farmer who
was responsible for the condition of a servant of his household
conceived the idea of riding horseback with her in order to bring
about an abortion, and pushing her off when the horse was running at
great speed. This he repeated several times. The woman gave birth to a
perfectly normal infant at full term.
Hofmann reports that another farmer, under similar circumstances,
brutally kicked the woman in the abdomen repeatedly until she lost
consciousness. The pregnancy continued to full term notwithstanding.
In another case of Hofmann's, a woman allowed a heavy door to fall
upon her, but the pregnancy was not affected.
Dr. Guibout relates that a German woman, living with her husband in
California, being pregnant, wished to return to Munich, her home-town,
to be delivered. The train in which she travelled through Panama
collided with another train. Threatened abortion required her to take
a rest. She took a steamer and after a very rough passage reached
Portsmouth. From there she went to Paris. Here she fell down a flight
of stairs in the hotel where she was stopping. Again she was
threatened with abortion, but after a rest was in good condition and
continued her journey. She finally reached home, and was delivered at
full term of a normal infant.
Vibert reports the case of a woman who was in a train accident which
injured her severely, killed two of her children, but did not affect
her pregnancy. She was delivered at the proper time of a normal baby.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE MENOPAUSE OR CHANGE OF LIFE
Time of Menopause--Cause of Suffering During Menopause--
Reproductive Function and Sexual Function Not Synonymous--
Increased Libido During Menopause--Change of Life in Men.
In the chapter on menstruation I referred briefly to the menopause. I
will consider it here somewhat more in detail.
The menopause, also called the climacteric, and in common language
"change of life," is the period at which woman ceases to menstruate.
The average age at which this occurs is about forty-eight. But while
some women continue to menstruate up to the age of fifty, fifty-two,
and even fifty-five, others cease to menstruate at the age of
forty-five or even forty-two. Between forty-four and fifty-two are the
normal limits. Anything before or beyond that is exceptional.
Just as the beginning of menstruation may set in without any trouble
of any kind, and just as some women have not the slightest unpleasant
symptoms during the entire period of their menstrual life, so the
menopause occurs in some women without any trouble, physical or
psychic. The periods between the menses become perhaps a little
longer, or a little irregular, the menstrual flow becomes more and
more scanty, then one or several periods may be skipped altogether,
and the menopause is permanently established. Many women, however, the
majority probably, suffer considerably during the transitional year or
years of the menopause. Symptoms are both of a physical and of a
psychic character, but the psychic symptoms predominate. There may be
headache, capricious appetite, or complete loss of appetite,
considerable loss of flesh, or on the contrary very sudden and rapid
putting on of fat, great irritability, insomnia, profuse perspiration;
hot flashes throughout the body, and particularly in the face, which
make the face "blushing" and congested, are particularly frequent.
Then the woman's character may be completely changed. From gentle and
submissive she may become pugnacious and quarrelsome. Jealousy without
any grounds for it may be one of the disagreeable symptoms, making
both the wife and the husband very unhappy. In some exceptional cases
a genuine neurosis or psychosis may develop.
=Cause of Suffering During Menopause.= It is my conviction, and I have
had this conviction for many years, that many, if not most, of the
distressing symptoms of the menopause are due, not to the menopause
itself, but to the wrong ideas about this period that have prevailed
for so many centuries. We know the influence of the mind over the
body, and the pernicious effect which wrong ideas may exercise over
our feelings. The generally prevalent opinion among women, and men for
that matter, and not only of the laity but unfortunately of the
medical profession as well, is that the menopause is the end of
woman's sexual life. Every woman is laboring under the erroneous
impression that with the establishment of the menopause, with the
cessation of the menses, she ceases to be a woman, and as she does not
become a man, she becomes something of a neuter being, neither woman
nor man. And she has the idea that after the menopause she can have no
further attraction for her husband or for other men. Naturally such an
idea has a very depressing effect on any human being. Any human being
fights to the last to retain all its human functions, especially the
function which is considered as important as is the sexual function.
=Reproductive Function and Sexual Function Not Synonymous.= Of course
with the permanent cessation of the menses the woman's _reproductive_
function is at an end. But the reproductive function is _not_
synonymous with the sexual function, I must insist again and again,
and naturally until this erroneous idea is dispelled much unnecessary
misery will be the lot of our women. If women in general will learn
that with the establishment of the menopause they do _not_ cease to be
women, if they will learn that the sexual desire in women lasts long
beyond the cessation of the menopause, many women being as passionate
at sixty as at thirty, if they will learn that their attractiveness or
non-attractiveness to the male sex does not depend upon the menopause,
but upon their general condition, if they will learn that many women
at fifty and sixty are much more attractive than some women at half
that age, they will not take the onset of the menopause so tragically
and they will thereby avoid the greater part of their mental and
emotional suffering.
The actual atrophy of the ovaries, uterus, external genitals and the
breasts can, of course, not be prevented, but that atrophy is a slow
and gradual process, and is not in itself the cause of the various
distressing symptoms that we have enumerated.
The treatment of the menopause, if the symptoms are at all
disagreeable, or distressing, should be in the hands of a competent
physician. A little wholesome advice may be more efficient than
gallons of medicine and bushels of pills. In general the woman should
try to lead as calm and peaceful a life as possible. Warm baths daily
are beneficial, constipation should be guarded against, hot vaginal
douches are often efficient against the disagreeable flushes, and
last, but not least, the husband should during this critical period be
doubly kind and doubly considerate of his wife. It is during the years
between forty-five and fifty-five that the wife is most in need of her
husband's sympathy and support.
=Increased Libido During Menopause.= There is one rather delicate
symptom which I must not pass unmentioned. Some women during the years
while the menopause is being established, and for some years after the
menopause, experience a greatly heightened sexual desire. In some
cases this increased libido is normal, that is, no other pathologic
symptoms or local conditions can be discovered. In some cases the
increased libido is distinctly due to local congestion, congestion of
the ovaries, the uterus, etc. In some cases, I can distinctly testify,
it is psychic or autosuggestive. Because the woman thinks, and
believes that other people think, that she is soon going to lose all
her sexuality, she unconsciously works herself up into a sexual
passion which sometimes may be of long duration and may even lead to
disastrous results.
What to do in such cases? Where the woman's libido is normal or near
normal, then naturally it should be normally gratified. But if the
libido seems to be abnormally strong and the demands for sexual
gratification are too frequent, then the woman should be treated and
sexual gratification should not be indulged in, because in such cases,
as a rule, sexual gratification only adds fuel to the fire, and the
woman's demands may become more and more frequent, more and more
insistent. In exceptional cases it may even reach the intensity of
nymphomania. In such cases the aid of a tactful physician is
indispensable.
Change of Life in Men
To people not familiar with the subject it sounds rather strange to
speak of "change of life" in men.
Man, possessing no menstrual function, cannot have any menopause, but
still sexologists and psychologists who have studied the subject
carefully are convinced that between the ages of forty-five and
fifty-five men also undergo a certain change which may be spoken of as
the change of life or the male climacteric.
They become irritable, capricious, very susceptible to feminine
charms, are apt to fall in love, and in many the sexual instinct is
greatly increased. As in women, this increase of the sexual desire is
sometimes due to pathologic causes, such as an inflamed prostate
gland--in other cases it is of psychic origin.
Just as a man should be particularly kind and considerate to his wife
during her menopause, so the wife, understanding that her husband is
going through a critical period, will also increase her tact, patience
and consideration.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE HABIT OF MASTURBATION
Definition of Masturbation--Its Injurious Effects in Girls as
Compared with Boys--Married Life of the Girl Masturbator--
Necessity for Change in Injurious Attitude of Parents who Discover
the Habit--Common-sense Treatment of the Habit--How to Prevent
Formation of Habit--Parents' Advice to Children--Hot Baths as
Factor in Masturbation--Other Physical Factors--Mental
Masturbation and Its Effects.
Masturbation or self-abuse is a term applied to a bad habit which
consists in handling and rubbing the genitals. It is a bad habit
because it is apt to injure the health and future development of the
girl. The more frequently it is practiced, the more injurious it is.
It is more injurious than when practiced by boys, because the effects
are usually more permanent. Girls who indulge in the habit of
masturbation to excess not only weaken themselves, become anemic and
get a dingy, pimply complexion, but they lose their desire for normal
sexual relations when they grow up, and are unable to derive any
pleasure from the sexual act when they get married. In fact, many
girls who masturbated excessively get a strong aversion to the normal
sexual act, and their married life is an unhappy one. Their husbands
often have to ask for a divorce. Fortunately, the habit is much less
widespread among girls than it is among boys. While about ninety per
cent. of all boys--nine out of every ten--masturbate more or less,
only about ten or at most twenty per cent. of girls are addicted to
this habit. But whatever the percentage may be, the habit is an
injurious one, and if you value your health, your beauty and proper
growth and mental development, you should not indulge in it. If you
are already indulging, if you are used to handling your genitals, if a
bad companion has initiated you into the habit, you should give it up.
And mothers should watch their children, guard them against developing
the habit, and do everything possible to cure them of it, if
prevention comes too late.
But while as you see I do not deny the evil effects of masturbation,
it is necessary to state that a great change has taken place in our
opinions on the subject, and it is but right that parents should know
of this change of opinion among the medical profession, particularly
among those who specialize in sexology.
=Wrong Behavior of Parents.= When parents make the "awful" discovery
that their child is fondling its genitals or is indulging in
masturbation, they feel as if a great calamity had befallen them.
They could not feel worse if they learned that the child was a thief
or a pyromaniac. Imbued with the medieval idea of the "sinfulness" of
the habit, as well as its injuriousness, they begin to scold the
child, to frighten it, to make it believe that it is doing something
terrible, that it has disgraced them and itself; and they try to
persuade it that, unless it stops immediately, the most direful
consequences are awaiting it. The results of this mode of procedure
are disastrous--much more so than is the masturbation itself.
Often the scolding and the exposure of the child are done in the
presence of others. This implants in the poor girl a sullen resentment
that only makes it more difficult for it to break the habit. When the
child is brought to the physician, you can see by its behavior, by its
downcast looks, by its sulkiness, by its attempt to refrain from
tears, and other signs, that it regards the physician in exactly the
same light as a youthful criminal regards the judge before whom he has
been brought for trial.
It is time, high time, that this silly and injurious attitude toward a
practice, which is very common, be radically changed. It is time that
parents and physicians learn that the injuriousness of the habit has
been greatly, grossly exaggerated. It is time that they know that the
vast majority of boys and girls get over the habit without being much,
or any, the worse for it. The knowledge of this fact will not only
save them and the children much needless anguish and suffering, but
will make it much easier to deal with the latter, make it much easier
to get them divorced from the habit.
If we look at the matter in a sensible, common-sense way, and do not
tell the child caught in the practice that it has done something
disgracefully vicious and criminal, but speak to it kindly and tell it
that it is doing something that may injure it greatly, that may
interfere with its future mental and physical health and development,
then we shall have far greater success in our endeavors to break the
boy or the girl of the habit of masturbation. As I have said in
another place:
"In my opinion, stigmatizing even the most moderate indulgence in
masturbation as a vice has a deleterious effect upon the people who so
indulge and makes it harder for them to break off the habit. Every
thinking physician and sexologist can tell you that picturing the
masturbatory habit in too lurid colors and stigmatizing it with too
strong epithets has, as a rule, the contrary effect to the one
expected. The victims of the habit consider themselves degraded,
irretrievably lost. They lose their self-respect, and it is, on
account of that, harder for them to break themselves of the habit."
We shall accomplish a good deal more with our youthful and older
patients if we leave alone, altogether, the moral side of the
question--if there be any moral side to it--and emphasize the physical
injuriousness of the habit. We do not want to diminish the
self-respect of our boys and girls, we want to increase it; and we can
not do this if we make them believe that a masturbator is a vicious
criminal. Inspire your patients with confidence, tell them that
indulgence in the habit jeopardizes their future growth, both physical
and mental, their health and happiness, and you will find them easier
to control.
I am not trying to minimize the danger of masturbation, for, if
indulged in from an early age and to great excess, the results _may_
be disastrous. But, even if I were to minimize the evil consequences,
that would be less of a sin than to exaggerate them the way it has
been done for so many years, by so many people in the profession and
out of it. The evil results of exaggerating the influence of
masturbation have been so great in the past that, if now the pendulum
were to swing to the other extreme, I am sure it would not be a bad
thing at all.
To deal with the subject of the _treatment_ of masturbation belongs to
a medical treatise. But, a few remarks on how to prevent children from
acquiring the habit of masturbation will not be out of place.
=Prevention of the Habit of Masturbation.= The keynote of preventing
the habit is, carefully to watch the child from its earliest infancy.
We know that not infrequently stupid or vicious nursemaids,
wet-nurses, and even governesses ignorantly or deliberately induce the
habit in children under their charge. This, of course, must be
prevented. Even children of the age of nine, ten, eleven years should
not be left alone, but always be under supervision. Too close
friendship between boys or girls, particularly of different ages,
should be looked upon with suspicion.
A number of girls never should sleep in the same room without
supervision by an older person.
The sleeping together of two in the same bed, whether it be two
children or a grown person and a child, should not be permitted under
any circumstances. I admit of no exceptions to this demand. It makes
no difference whether the other person is a mother, a father, a
brother or a sister. Leaving out of the question any _deliberate_
element, the thing is dangerous; for, very often, unintentionally,
unwittingly, masturbation is initiated by this intimate contact.
The child--boy or girl--should sleep alone, on a rather hard mattress.
The covering should be light. A coverlet may be put over the feet. The
child always should sleep with the arms out upon the cover or blanket,
never _under_ the same. If this is done from childhood on, it is very
easy to get used to this way of sleeping, and many a case of
masturbation will thus be obviated. The child should not be permitted
to loll in bed: it must be taught to get up as soon as it awakes in
the morning. The general bringing-up must be of a strengthening,
hardening character; and this applies both to the body and the will.
When the children reach the age of nine, ten, eleven, twelve or
thirteen years (we must use discrimination and judgment, for, some
children of nine are as developed as are others of thirteen), we must
tell them that it is bad and injurious to handle one's genitals, and
we must warn them to shun any companions who wish to initiate them
into any manipulations of these parts or who show an inclination to
talk about the sexual organs and sex matters.
Hot baths are very injurious for young children in their influence in
this direction. There is no question that a hot bath has a very
decided stimulating effect upon the sexual desire of adults as well as
of children, both male and female; in fact, I have had several
patients of either sex tell me that their first masturbatory act was
committed while they were in a hot bath. Of course, the sensation
having been pleasurable, they kept on repeating the experience.
Every factor liable to give rise to the habit should be removed. Thus,
for instance, eczema about the genitals, strongly acid urine,
seatworms, and the like, should be treated until cured. That anything
having a tendency prematurely to awaken the sexual instinct should be
rigorously avoided, goes without saying.
=Mental or Psychic Masturbation.= Some girls and women will abstain
from handling themselves with their hands (manual masturbation), but
will practice what we call mental masturbation. That is, they will
concentrate their minds on the opposite sex, will picture to
themselves various lascivious scenes, until they feel "satisfied."
This method is extremely injurious and exhausting and is very likely
to lead to neurasthenia and a nervous breakdown. You should break
yourself of it, by all means, if you can. For it is even more
injurious than the regular habit.
CHAPTER TWENTY
LEUCORRHEA--THE WHITES
Misconception Regarding the Meaning of the Term "Leucorrhea"--A
Common Complaint--Severe Cases--Reasons for Resistance to
Treatment--Proper Local Treatment of the Disorder--Sterility Due
to Leucorrhea--Causes of Leucorrhea--Tonic Medicines--Local
Treatment--Formulæ for Douching.
Leucorrhea means literally a "white running," and is applied by the
laity to any whitish discharge coming from the vagina. This is wrong,
because some white discharges may be of little importance; others may
be of a serious character, and not be leucorrhea at all.