1.—“_Vicarious punishment_ ...”
Revolting was the shock to the writer, coming, some years ago, with
unprejudiced and ingenuous mind, to the study of the so-called “Diseases
of Women,” on finding that nearly the whole of these special “diseases,”
including menstruation, were due, directly or collaterally, to one form
or other of _masculine_ excess or abuse. Here is a nearly coincident
opinion, afterwards met with:—“The diseases peculiar to women are so
many, of so frequent occurrence, and of such severity, that half the
time of the medical profession is devoted to their care, and more than
half its revenues depend upon them. We have libraries of books upon
them, special professorships in our medical colleges, and hosts of
doctors who give them their exclusive attention.... The books and
professors are all at fault. They have no knowledge of the causes or
nature of these diseases” (or at least they do not publish it, or act on
it), “and no idea of their proper treatment. Women are everywhere
outraged and abused. When the full chapter of woman’s wrongs and
sufferings is written, the world will be horrified at the hideous
spectacle....”—T. L. Nichols, M.D. (“Esoteric Anthropology,” p. 198).
So, again, in speaking of menorrhagia:—“The causes of this disease,
whatever they are, must be removed. Thousands of women are consigned to
premature graves; some by the morbid excesses of their own passions, but
far more by the sensual and selfish indulgences of those who claim the
legal right to murder them in this manner, whom no law of homicide can
reach, and upon whose victims no coroner holds an inquest.”—(_Op. cit._,
p. 301.)
2.—“... _grievous toll_ ...”
And this in every grade of society, even to the pecuniary loss, as well
as discomfort, of the labouring classes of women.
“Statistics of sickness in the Post Office show that women” (these are
unmarried women) “are away from their work more days than men.”—(Sidney
Webb, at British Association, 1891.)
5.—“... _no honest claim_.”
The _Times_ of Aug. 3, 1892, reports a paper by Professor Lombroso, of
Turin (at the International Congress of Psychology, London), in which
occurs the following:—“It must be observed that woman was exposed to
more pains than man, because man imposed submission and often even
slavery upon her. As a girl, she had to undergo the tyranny of her
brothers, and the cruel preferences accorded by parents to their male
children. Woman was the slave of her husband, and still more of social
prejudices.... Let them not forget the physical disadvantage under which
she had to labour. She might justly call herself the pariah of the human
family.”
The word is apt and corroborative, for it was no honest act—it was not
Nature, but human cruelty and injustice that formed a pariah.
8.—“... _opprobrious theme_.”
_Conf._ ancient and mediæval superstitions and accusations on the
subject. Raciborski notes these aspersions (Traité, p. 13):—“Pline
prétendait que les femmes étant au moment des règles pouvaient dessécher
les arbres par de simples attouchements, faire périr des fruits, &c.,
&c.” And a further writer says more fully:—“Pliny informs us that the
presence of a menstrual woman turns wine sour, causes trees to shed
their fruit, parches up their young fruit, and makes them for ever
barren, dims the splendour of mirrors and the polish of ivory, turns the
edge of sharpened iron, converts brass into rust, and is the cause of
canine rabies. In Isaiah xxx. 22, the writer speaks of the defilement of
graven images, which shall be cast away as a menstruous cloth; and in
Ezekiel xviii. 6, and xxxvi. 17, allusions of the same import are made.”
Unless we accept the antiquated notion of a “special curse” on women,
how reconcile the idea of an “ordinance of Nature” being so repulsively
and opprobriously alluded to? Well may it be said:—“Ingratitude is a
hateful vice. Not only the defects, but even the illnesses which have
their source in the excessive” (man-caused) “susceptibility of woman,
are often made by men an endless subject of false accusations and
pitiless reproaches.”—(M. le Docteur Cerise, in his Introduction to
Roussel, p. 34.)