MARITAL EXCESSES AND PREVENTION OF CONCEPTION.
IN a previous chapter, the physiology of conception was explained, and
it was shown to be an organic function, independent of and remote from
the sexual act, and over which the parties to the act have no control.
From this scientific statement of the actual fact, it becomes at once
apparent that conception or pregnancy may result without natural
sexual congress, by simply injecting the sperm of the male, by means
of a uterine syringe, into the womb of the female, while she is in a
state of unconsciousness. It is also quite probable that a criminal
conspiracy of this nature could be carried out, without any violation
to the delicate anatomy that is involved in the natural process; a
detailed account of all the probabilities which the ingenuity of a
scientifically-trained mind could devise, belongs more properly to the
department of medical jurisprudence. It is, however, of sufficient
general importance that the reader should have at least an idea of the
door that has been unlocked through physiological researches.
What we are at present endeavoring to make clear is, the great
distinction and difference between _coition_ and fecundation or
conception; while one is but the result of the natural instinct aroused
by the senses, the other reaches out into the realm of the Creator.
When man undertakes to destroy the product of conception, he has
interfered with the prerogative of God and is guilty of murder.
The question may now naturally arise in the minds of pure and
morally-disposed persons, whether there is any time, without doing
violence to God’s law, that the children of men have the moral right to
control, or regulate, the procreation of the human race? If I answer
the question in the affirmative, I will then proceed to inquire into
the ways and means to that end, and also into the pernicious methods
that are employed, to accomplish this result.
It is true, that the Divine command was to be fruitful and multiply,
but before this command was given, man was a free agent and a reasoning
being, which implies that he is after all to be the judge as to the
degree in which this command is to be carried out. That is, that there
are mitigating and qualifying circumstances, which man has not only a
right to consider, but which he is expected to take into account in
propagating the species, by virtue of his reasoning faculties.
If this command were absolute and universal, chaste celibacy would be
a cardinal sin, yet it has always been held by the canons of spiritual
growth and morality, to be a Divine virtue, and even the loving Jesus
knew not woman, because the forces that are thus expended will exert
their power in other directions and towards developing powers of a
higher order.
I believe that a moral code, which is too exacting to be observed
by the average person, fails to accomplish the restraint or reform
that is desired, so that, after all, it becomes essential to lay down
such rules as the average men or women can follow as guides for their
actions. A reformer, who starts out with the broad declaration that
it is immoral to take human life, and a murderous act to destroy a
half-formed human being in its mother’s womb, and that it is equally
murderous to prevent the recent products of the sexual act from
becoming a viable being, fails to make the impression he desires.
The first half of the proposition neutralizes the second of its
sacred essence, in placing on the same level the organic function of
conception and the animal function of the sexual act.
This view is so manifestly absurd to the person of even ordinary
perception, that I feel assured, that it would neither lessen feticide
nor sexual excess.
Spermatozoa on the one hand, and the ova of the female on the other,
are, even in the natural and uninterrupted course of nature, destined
for destruction, for whenever the female menstruates, these ova are
discharged, and whenever the male copulates, hundreds of spermatozoa
are found swimming in the spermatic fluid, which in case there be no
ripened ovum are nothing more than so much waste secretion. Both are a
means to an end, and that end is the reproduction of the species. It
appears to me a flight of fancy, from the sublime to the ridiculous, to
assign to the sexual act the same importance as to the passive function
of conception, and I believe that doctrines of this nature lack not
only the least scientific support, but weaken any argument in favor
of the moral or spiritual aspect, which alone raises the question of
feticide from a social evil to a mortal sin.
Man is prompted by a powerful instinctive desire for the use of the
sexual organs, that draws him involuntarily to the opposite sex, not
for the continuance of the race, because the passion arises much
oftener without the remotest thoughts of any fruitful results. I have
the greatest regard for the life of the unborn child, yet I am far from
agreeing with those who would stamp as libidinous every thought of the
sexual instinct, that has not as its stimulus the procreation of the
species. While the average man is in the flesh, he is an animal man,
and there is no use of trying to make a spiritual saint out of flesh
and blood, and when we do find that, we have a very exceptional and
remarkable person. But what, as reasonable beings, we should do, is
to bridle the animal passions with moral reins, so that we can stand
up, in full-statured manhood, with the respectful approval of our
own conscience, able to rise above the mere animal appetites, to the
dignity of reasonable beings. This instinct, like other propensities,
is excited by sensations, and these may originate either in the sexual
organs themselves, or may be excited through the organs of special
sense. In man the passion is most powerfully aroused by impressions
conveyed through the sight or the touch. It often happens that
localized sensations will excite the sexual desire of either sex, so
that many cases of excessive sexual desire can be traced to some local
disease of the genital apparatus: chief among the numerous causes that
may be cited, is pruritus or local itch, erythema and active congestion
of the womb and ovaries.
“This tendency cannot be regarded,” says Dr. Carpenter, “as a simple
passion or emotion, since it is the result of the combined operations
of the reason, the imagination, and the moral feelings: it is in
this engraftment of the physical or spiritual attachment upon the
more corporeal instinct, that a difference exists between the sexual
relations of man and those of the lower animals. In proportion as
the human being makes the temporary gratification of the mere sexual
appetites his chief object, and overlooks the happiness arising from
spiritual communion, which is not only purer but more permanent, and of
which a renewal may be anticipated in another world,—does he degrade
himself to a level with the brutes that perish. Yet how lamentably
frequent is this degradation.” This quotation gives the entire physical
and spiritual aspect of the question, by one of the most eminent
physiologists of our time, so that in the natural course of our
investigation we are led to inquire into the currents of thought, which
would tend towards developing _moral restraint_.
Moral restraint means the restraint of the animal man by his spiritual
or higher self; the _will_ must possess its due predominance to
exercise its determining power in curbing the passions of the one, and
directing the course of the thought in the other.
The cold, calculating materialist, whose ideal is circumscribed by the
laws that have been deduced from the phenomena of the material world,
can scarcely appreciate the higher sentiments that are involved in
this investigation, unless he becomes changed in thought and feeling
to the things that are about him. To accomplish this result is hardly
within the scope of this work. With the average man as we find him, my
observation has taught me that it makes, after all, little difference,
whether he believes in a spiritual nature or is avowedly materialistic.
The great majority of men and women live, so to say, in the turbulent
waters of their own passions, wafted hither and thither by the impulses
of emotional excitement and instinctive desires. There is little or no
hope for reform, if they have not sufficient force of character to cry
halt, and stop to think a little upon questions which are to them of
the greatest importance.
Marital excesses are the mainspring of so much disease, that ordinarily
is attributed to quite different causes, that this chapter would be
very deficient were I to omit to call the attention of my readers to
this fact. The men on the whole are oftener the victims of the ill
effects of unbridled lust than the women, which shows itself by violent
and uncontrollable temper, in the one case, and stupid docility in the
other: by a lean, hungry, nervous appearance, or a brutish, sanguineous
obesity; extremes of the different temperaments and habits are but the
natural outgrowth of the constitution inherent in each individual case.
Women, as a rule, are more passive, less amorous and more chaste in
thought and feeling than men, and if we define emotion as an _idea_
associated with pleasurable or painful feelings, women are, as far as
appertains to their sexual nature, contrary to the generally-accepted
opinion, much less _emotional_ than men. Continence, among the
unmarried women, is the rule, while among the men it is the rare
exception; this is because her _will_ is by nature stronger, while her
_reason_ is weaker, she intuitively arrives at conclusions that are her
guide and saviour.
It is a prevalent idea among men that the marriage ceremony removes
all restraint from the exercise of the sexual function; this not only
neutralizes and destroys all sentiment of true love, which seeks for
the happiness of the object it loves, but breeds hatred and contempt.
To be permanently happy and mutually respectful, there must be love
beyond the pleasure of gratifying the mere sexual instinct, there must
be love in the realm of thought and a spiritual communion above the
instincts of the flesh.
“Any warning against sexual dangers,” says Dr. Acton, “would be very
incomplete if it did not extend to the excesses so often committed
by married persons in ignorance of their ill effects. Too frequent
emissions of the seminal fluid, and too frequent excitement of the
nervous system, are in themselves most destructive. The result is the
same within the marriage bond as without it. The married man and woman
who think that because they are married, they can commit no excesses,
however often the act of sexual congress is repeated, will suffer as
certainly and as seriously as the unmarried debauchee, who acts on
the same principle in his indulgences—perhaps more certainly, from
their very ignorance, and from their not taking those precautions
and following those rules which a career of vice is apt to teach the
sensualist. Many a man has, until his marriage, lived a most continent
life; so has his wife. As soon as they are wedded, intercourse is
indulged in night after night, neither party having an idea that these
repeated sexual acts are excesses which the system of neither can bear,
and which to the man, at least, is absolute ruin and to the woman a
source of disease. The practice is continued till health is impaired,
sometimes permanently, and when a patient is at last obliged to seek
medical advice, he is thunderstruck at learning that his sufferings
arise from excesses unwittingly committed. Married people appear to
think that connection may be repeated as regularly and almost as often
as their meals. Till they are told of their danger, the idea never
enters their heads that they are guilty of great and almost criminal
excess; nor is this to be wondered at, since the possibility of such a
cause of disease is seldom hinted at by the medical man they consult.
Some go so far as to believe that indulgence may increase these powers,
just as gymnastic exercises augment the force of the muscles. This
is a popular error, and requires correction. Such patients should be
told that the shock to the system, each time connection is indulged
in, is very powerful, and that the expenditure of seminal fluid must
be particularly injurious to organs previously debilitated. It is by
this and similar excesses that premature old age and complaints of the
generative organs are brought on.”
Wives of men of great vital force are not long before they become
delicate, sickly and nervous, and, entirely ignorant of the real cause
Of their feebleness, seek relief by taking “a good iron tonic,” which
does them about as much good as if they had left it alone, the tonic
effect of iron being entirely overestimated, but the delusion is
created by associating the word iron with the idea strength. After the
different _tonics_ have been tried, the patient consults a physician,
who, on general principles and after a hasty examination, informs her
that she has “womb disease.” These two words for the time being settle
the question; she now begins “to doctor,” and from the general or
family doctor she finds her way to the _female_ specialists, who, as a
rule, belong to the recognized magnifiers and humbugs of the day. Here
she becomes one of the regular habitues of the specialist’s waiting
room, disappointed and not a little discouraged. She makes the rounds
of the most prominent of them, until she has been doctored out of her
dear patience and her still dearer money. Hope is often a forlorn
consolation, and if by chance she now takes a trip to the country or
undertakes a long visit at some distance, to her folks, which gives the
poor woman respite from the “marital rights” of her Lord and Master,
she recovers her former health, strength and buoyancy. Of course
everybody congratulates her upon the wonderful effect of the climate,
when the climate had no more to do with her recovery than the moon. The
remarkable change was owing to having been let alone by husband and
doctor.
That the attempt to call attention to these flagrant abuses of the
dishonesty and ignorance of the one and the blind animal instinct
of the other will be decried and stigmatized as “cranky,” I know
beforehand, but I know also, that those who criticise these sentiments
are fully convinced of the truth of the statement. The diseases
that belong to this class are, like most uterine diseases, of an
inflammatory nature, and for that reason _rest_ is one of the most
essential features in the treatment. But as this class belongs to the
avoidable causes, prevention is much better than cure. I therefore
advise, as of first importance, to abandon the American custom of man
and wife occupying the same bed, which is only customary among the
poorer classes of Europe, who cannot afford to have separate beds or
chambers. The advantage of the European custom in segregating one’s
self on retirement, to avoid the sexual instincts being unduly excited,
can be borne out by remembering the physiology of the instinct, which
we were told is excited by sight and feeling. Besides these, there
is the possible undue familiarity, which the joint occupancy of the
chamber or bed of man and wife may engender, and that, too, is likely
to lead to excessive relations.
All efforts to exercise voluntary control, by prolonging the sexual act
or extending the venereal orgasm, are fraught with the most pernicious
results to the nerves, terminating in a partial or complete paralysis
of the different organs of the body, or a low grade of inflammation is
excited, which offers a fruitful soil for the development of various
diseases.
A man who has become the husband of a woman should never cease to
be a gentleman on that account, nor should he become lost to a
consideration of those delicacies of refinement, which smooth the
common relations in the exercise of daily duties.
Continence is the complete restraint from sexual indulgence, which in
its fullest sense does not apply to the married state, but it comes
within the scope of every married life to cultivate and practice it
as one of its virtues. Every married couple should be continent for
days and weeks at a time, and when one or the other is not feeling
well, abstinence should be practiced, as the rule, not only to avoid a
nervous shock, which may have serious results, but because conception
in an abnormal physical condition, will perpetuate itself in the child,
which is quite likely to inherit a nervous or sickly constitution.
When pregnancy supervenes, undue sexual excitement of the mother often
has the most serious consequences to the fetus, and may result in its
death, or induce abortion.
Diet is to be regulated, to assist a firm determination to lead a
chaste and purer life. Stimulating and highly-seasoned food, and
alcoholic beverages, are not to be used, because they increase the
circulation of the blood and stimulate the nerves to inflammatory
activity. Meat should be eaten only once a day, and the supper should
be bland and light.
Nature has set a time during which continence should be practiced for
the purpose of preserving the health and controlling the reproductive
function, that is, the menstrual period. Menstruation in women
corresponds to the ripening and discharge of the human ovule. The
aptitude for impregnation is a day or two before and six to eight days
after the courses cease. This is a rule which applies to the great
majority of women, and if the sexual relations are suspended from a few
days before the onset of the menses until six or eight days after the
flow has ceased, the chances for pregnancy are reduced to the minimum.
This physiological relation of the organic function of conception to
the sexual act is to be recommended as the most wholesome check to
reproduction in early married life, although I believe that there is no
time better calculated to raise a family than while you are young and
hopeful.
Children are common objects of love and hope for both parents. Life and
health are ever changing the relations of our surroundings, and when
newly-married people put off to the dim future the hopes of rearing a
family, they are often doomed to everlasting disappointment. Nature is
capricious and jealous of her prerogatives, and those who trifle with
her functions must expect to be frustrated in the end, and have no one
but themselves to blame if she fails to respond to their capricious
wishes. Children make trouble of course, so were we as troublesome in
our time, but there is also a great deal of pleasure in watching them
grow from day to day in bodily strength and mental perception, which no
amount of selfish enjoyment can compensate.
The diseases that are brought upon women by the different practices and
mechanical devices to prevent conception are too numerous to mention in
a work of this character. Some of the methods are absolutely loathesome
to all sense of decency and reduce sexual intercourse much below the
instinctive indulgence of the brute; these debauches of the conjugal
bed not only sap the vitality of the participants, but must lower or
destroy all mutual respect, and ultimate in dissension and strife,
which the divorce court will finally assuage.
Referring to the practice of conjugal onanism or interrupted or
incomplete coitus, Dr. Franklin Devay says: “However, it is not
difficult to conceive the degree of perturbation that a like practice
should exert upon the genital system of woman by provoking desires
which are not gratified; a profound stimulation is felt through the
entire apparatus; the uterus, Fallopian tubes and ovaries enter into a
state of orgasm, a storm which is not appeased by the natural crisis;
a nervous super-excitation persists. There occurs, then, what would
take place if, presenting food to a famished man, one should snatch it
from his mouth after having thus violently excited his appetite. The
sensibilities of the womb and the entire reproductive system are teased
for no purpose. It is to this cause, too often repeated, that we should
attribute the multiple _neuroses_, those strange affections which
originate in the genital system of women. Our conviction respecting
them is based upon a great number of observations. Furthermore,
the normal relations existing between the married couple undergo
unfortunate changes; this affection, formed upon reciprocal esteem, is
little by little effaced by the repetition of an act which pollutes
the marriage bed; from thence proceed certain hard feelings, certain
deep impressions, which, gradually growing, eventuate in the scandalous
ruptures of which the community rarely know the real motive.” This is
in every respect as hurtful as the vicious practice of solitary vice,
although that is comparatively less common among young virgins than
among those of the opposite sex. Nevertheless, this is a frequent cause
of hysterical symptoms and uterine disease. Stop it at once; there is
no burden that a large family of children can impose upon you, be it
even poverty and want, as great as the inevitable results of these
unnatural habits.
The use of caps or tissue coverings, made of thin rubber or
gold-beater’s skin, are not only suggestive of the licentiousness of
the brothel but their employment causes physical lesions from their
irritating friction to the walls of the vagina. I have had under my
treatment obstinate ulcerations of the vagina which were due to their
use, and in one instance it degenerated into cancer. The use of the
“womb veil,” which originated in France, has been denounced as a
fruitful source of ulceration of the womb, by modern French writers,
who are more familiar with their indiscriminate employment than
Americans. There has been also a plug or stem pessary employed for the
purpose “of sealing up the womb,” which is partly introduced into the
mouth and cervical canal of the organ; this obviously adds insult
to injury, by also irritating the cavity of the womb and exciting
inflammation of its lining membrane. There are other devices for a
similar purpose, that have the same tendency of irritating and wounding
the genitals of the female.
There is nothing that could be said, to intimidate some women, by
forewarning them of the danger of their preventive measures; they will
continue to make business for the specialists, and drain the purses of
their husbands, but there is a great majority of good, noble, matronly
women who are pure in heart and mind, that appreciate the value of
the information that I impart. What I desire to further suggest, is
a preventive measure that is entirely harmless and consistent with
chastity and cleanliness, for I believe that within certain bounds, a
woman has a moral right to limit or control the conception of her womb.
But right here the option ceases. If she pushes her measures beyond the
portals of the womb, if she employs medicines or mechanical devices to
bring around her courses, when she suspects pregnancy or conception,
she becomes a murderess in the eyes of the Creator. The bowl of tanzy
tea, or any of the many quack nostrums, advertised in the public
prints, are as much an instrument of murder as the _probe_ of the
abortionist. It would be the height of sophistry to make a distinction
between the embryo of an hour or a day old, and that of any future
period. The potentiality of a human being is established at the moment
of conception, and the destruction of this, at any period, is homicide.
No one can deny less importance to the cause, which is conception, than
to the effect, which is the human embryo, for without the one, the
other is impossible.
Hence, not to bear a child implies not to conceive a child, for if once
conceived, it must be born.
The reasons that may exist for limiting the progeny of each particular
pair cannot be formulated into a code, for these are questions of
conscience, between the individuals and their Creator, on the
one hand, and on the other, they should be influenced by economic
conditions and physical or constitutional taints of the progenitors.
I do not believe in the truth of the law of Malthus, that there
is a tendency for population to increase faster than the means of
subsistence, but I am inclined to the view held by John Stuart Mill,
that “no one has a right to bring children into life to be supported
by other people.” But when the same eminent authority designates the
procreative act as brute instinct, I think he is in great error, for
that is not so. Conjugal affection and the sentiment of love spring
from the reproductive systems, through the reflex action of the brain,
and these have their moral significance, and should not be branded as
brutal, for upon their normal functions depends the perpetuation of the
race, and as it was so ordained by the Creator, it cannot be an unholy
passion.
To be physically strong and well are the prerequisites for happiness,
and if we cannot transmit to our offspring this essential quality,
it would be much better for society if we were not instrumental in
bringing defective children into the world. The competitive struggle
for existence is hard enough for the vigorous and robust; how much
greater must it be for the constitutionally infirm? When these
conditions of infirmity exist, they should influence our course as
progenitors; this appears to me self-evident, and I trust in the wisdom
that is innate to the human soul, that only the best ends will be
subserved.
An expedient that is to accomplish the object in view, must be in
the nature of a wholesome sanitary measure, that violates no law of
nature. The inordinate use of any preventive, coupled with excessive
indulgence, cannot be without ill effects. Excesses must be studiously
avoided, so as not to incur the diseases of which mention has
already been made. The employment of a vaginal douche of the proper
temperature, medicated with a little pure alcohol, is not injurious and
is the most reliable of all preventives, provided it is intelligently
used and without delay. The quantity of fluid to be used is a _quart_
of warm water, of 103 to 105 degrees Fahr., to which two tablespoonfuls
of alcohol is added; of this, three-fourths or all is to be douched
through the vagina.
The vaginal irrigation is to be undertaken immediately after the act;
if sufficient time is allowed to pass, the spermatozoa will have
entered the mouth of the womb; then they are clearly beyond the reach
of the wash. The warm water and the necessary paraphernalia are to
be held in readiness so as to lose no time in making the toilet, nor
should there be unnecessary exposure to the danger of catching cold.
The nozzle of the syringe should always be of hard rubber, because
that is not likely to rust or corrode. The syringe is to be kept
scrupulously clean by means of occasional brushings in soapy water.
Vaginal injections should never be taken in the morning, if the person
is required to exercise on her feet, and for the same reason, should
any husband have marital relations with his wife before rising in the
morning, the wife is likely to suffer all day, either by soreness or
pain or by a dragging sensation of the womb and vagina.
The same rule is to be followed in vaginal irrigation as for other
purposes, the main point being to throw the fluid well up into the
vagina, and that can only be done if the nozzle is carried directly
backward and not upwards. No violence or force is to be used, under any
circumstance.