[Illustration: Trying On a New Dress.]
1. Actual impotence during the period of manhood is a very rare complaint,
and nature very unwillingly, and only after the absolute neglect of
sanitary laws, gives up the power of reproduction.
2. Not only sensual women, but all without exception, feel deeply hurt, and
are repelled by the husband whom they may previously have loved dearly,
when, after entering the married state, they find that he is impotent. The
more inexperienced and innocent they were at the time of marriage, the
longer it often is before they find that something is lacking in the
husband; but, once knowing this, the wife infallibly has a feeling of
contempt and aversion for him; though there are many happy families where
this defect exists. It is often very uncertain who is the weak one, and no
cause for separation should be sought.
3. Unhappy marriages, barrenness, divorces, and perchance an occasional
suicide, may be prevented by the experienced physician, who can generally
give correct information, comfort, and consolation, when consulted on these
delicate matters.
4. When a single man fears that he is unable to fulfill the duties of
marriage, he should not marry until his fear is dispelled. The suspicion of
such a fear strongly tends to bring about the very weakness which he
dreads. Go to a good physician (not to one of those quacks whose {249}
advertisements you see in the papers; they are invariably unreliable), and
state the case fully and freely.
5. Diseases, malformation, etc., may cause impotence. In case of
malformation there is usually no remedy, but in case of disease it is
usually within the reach of a skillful physician.
6. Self-abuse and spermatorrhoea produce usually only temporary impotence
and can generally be relieved by carrying out the instructions given
elsewhere in this book.
7. Excessive indulgences often enfeeble the powers and often result in
impotence. Dissipated single men, professional libertines, and married men
who are immoderate, often pay the penalty of their violations of the laws
of nature, by losing their vital power. In such cases of excess there may
be some temporary relief, but as age advances the effects of such
indiscretion will become more and more manifest.
8. The condition of sterility in man may arise either from a condition of
the secretion which deprives it of its fecundating powers or it may spring
from a malformation which prevents it reaching the point where fecundation
takes place. The former condition is most common in old age, and is a
sequence of venereal disease, or from a change in the structure or
functions of the glands. The latter has its origin in a stricture, or in an
injury, or in that condition technically known as hypospadias, or in
debility.
9. It can be safely said that neither self-indulgence nor spermatorrhoea
often leads to permanent sterility.
10. It is sometimes, however, possible, even where there is sterility in
the male, providing the secretion is not entirely devoid of life properties
on part of the husband, to have children, but these are exceptions.
11. No man need hesitate about matrimony on account of sterility, unless
that condition arises from a permanent and absolute degeneration of his
functions.
12. Impotence from mental and moral causes often takes place. Persons of
highly nervous organization may suffer incapacity in their sexual organs.
The remedy for these difficulties is rest and change of occupation.
13. REMEDIES IN CASE OF IMPOTENCE ON ACCOUNT OF FORMER PRIVATE DISEASES, OR
MASTURBATION, OR OTHER CAUSES.--First build up the body by taking some good
stimulating tonics. The general health is the most essential feature to be
considered, in order to secure restoration of the sexual powers.
Constipation must be carefully avoided. If the {250} kidneys do not work in
good order, some remedy for their restoration must be taken. Take plenty of
out-door exercise, avoid horseback riding or heavy exhaustive work.
14. FOOD AND DRINKS WHICH WEAKEN DESIRE.--All kinds of food which cause
dyspepsia or bring on constipation, diarrhoea, or irritate the bowels,
alcoholic beverages, or any indigestible compound, has the tendency to
weaken the sexual power. Drunkards and tipplers suffer early loss of
vitality. Beer drinking has a tendency to irritate the stomach and to that
extent affects the private organs.
15. COFFEE.--Coffee drank excessively causes a debilitating effect upon the
sexual organs. The moderate use of coffee can be recommended, yet an
excessive habit of drinking very strong coffee will sometimes wholly
destroy vitality.
16. TOBACCO.--It is a hygienic and physiological fact that tobacco produces
sexual debility and those who suffer any weakness from that source should
carefully avoid the weed in all its forms.
17. DRUGS WHICH STIMULATE DESIRE.--There are certain medicines which act
locally on the membranes and organs of the male, and the papers are full of
advertisements of "Lost Manhood Restored", etc., but in every case they are
worthless or dangerous drugs and certain to lead to some painful malady or
death. All these patent medicines should be carefully avoided. People who
are troubled with any of these ailments should not attempt to doctor
themselves by taking drugs, but a competent physician should be consulted.
Eating rye, corn, or graham bread, oatmeal, cracked wheat, plenty of fruit,
etc. is a splendid medicine. If that is not sufficient, then a physician
should be consulted.
18. DRUGS WHICH MODERATE DESIRE.--Among one of the most common domestic
remedies is camphor. This has stood the test for ages. Small doses of half
a grain in most instances diminishes the sensibility of the organs of sex.
In some cases it produces irritation of the bladder. In that case it should
be at once discontinued. On the whole a physician had better be consulted.
The safest drug among domestic remedies is a strong tea made out of hops.
Saltpeter, or nitrate of potash, taken in moderate quantities, are very
good remedies.
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19. STRICTLY SPEAKING there is a distinction made between _impotence_ and
_sterility_. _Impotence_ is a loss of power to engage in the sexual act and
is common to men. It may be imperfection in the male organ or a lack of
sufficient sexual vigor to produce and maintain erection. _Sterility_ is a
total loss of capacity in the reproduction of the species, and is common to
women.
There are, however, very few causes of barrenness that cannot be removed
when the patient is perfectly developed. Sterility, in a female, most
frequently depends upon a weakness or irritability either in the ovaries or
the womb, and anything having a strengthening effect upon either organ will
remove the disability. (See page 249.)
20. "OVER-INDULGENCE in intercourse," says Dr. Hoff, "is sometimes the
cause of barrenness; this is usually puzzling to the interested parties,
inasmuch as the practices which, in their opinion, should be the source of
a numerous progeny, have the very opposite effect. By greatly moderating
their ardor, this defect may be remedied."
21. "NAPOLEON AND JOSEPHINE.--A certain adaptation between the male and
female has been regarded as necessary to conception, consisting of some
mysterious influence which one sex exerts over the other, neither one,
however, being essentially impotent or sterile. The man may impregnate one
woman and not another, and the woman will conceive by one man and not by
another. In the marriage of Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine no children
were born, but after he had separated from the Empress and wedded Maria
Louisa of Austria, an heir soon came. Yet Josephine had children by
Beauharnais, her previous husband. But as all is not known as to the
physical condition of Josephine during her second marriage, it cannot be
assumed that mere lack of adaptability was the cause of unfruitfulness
between them. There may have been some cause that history has not recorded,
or unknown to the state of medical science of those days. There are
doubtless many cases of apparently causeless unfruitfulness in marriage
that even physicians, with a knowledge of all apparent conditions in the
parties, cannot explain; but when, as elsewhere related in this volume,
impregnation by artificial means is successfully practised, it is useless
to attribute barrenness to purely psychological and adaptative influences."
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Producing Boys or Girls at Will.
1. CAN THE SEXES BE PRODUCED AT WILL?--This question has been asked in all
ages of the world. Many theories have been advanced, but science has at
last replied with some authority. The following are the best known
authorities which this age of science has produced.
2. THE AGRICULTURAL THEORY.--The agricultural theory, as it may be called,
because adopted by farmers, is that impregnation occurring within four days
of the close of the female monthlies produces a girl, because the ovum is
yet immature; but that when it occurs after the fourth day from its close,
gives a boy, because this egg is now mature; whereas after about the eighth
day this egg dissolves and passes off, so that impregnation is thereby
rendered impossible, till just before the mother's next monthly.--_Sexual
Science._
3. QUEEN BEES LAY FEMALE EGGS FIRST, and male afterwards. So with hens; the
first eggs laid after the tread give females, the last males. Mares shown
the stallion late in their periods drop horse colts rather than
fillies.--_Napheys._
4. IF YOU WISH FEMALES, give the male at the first sign of heat; if males,
at its end.--_Prof. Thury._
5. ON TWENTY-TWO SUCCESSIVE OCCASIONS I desired to have heifers, and
succeeded in every case. I have made in all twenty-nine experiments, after
this method, and succeeded in every one, in producing the sex I
desired.--_A Swiss Breeder._
6. THIS THURY PLAN has been tried on the farms of the Emperor of the French
with unvarying success.
7. CONCEPTION IN THE FIRST HALF of the time between the menstrual periods
produces females, and males is the latter.--_London Lancet._
8. INTERCOURSE in from two to six days after cessation of the menses
produces girls, in from nine to twelve, boys.--_Medical Reporter._
9. THE MOST MALE POWER and passion creates boys; female girls. This law
probably causes those agricultural facts just cited thus: Conception right
after menstruation give girls, because the female is then the most
impassioned; later, boys, because her wanting sexual warmth leaves him the
most vigorous. Mere sexual excitement, a wild, fierce, furious rush of
passion, is not only not sexual vigor, but in its inverse ratio; and a
genuine insane fervor caused by weakness; just as a like nervous
excitability indicates weak nerves instead of strong. Sexual power is
deliberate, not wild; cool, not impetuous; while all false excitement
diminishes effectiveness.--_Fowler._
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