4^. .O. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 "f""- ilM I.I 112 12.2 * ■- IIIIIM IIIIII.8 1.25 U 1.6 ^ 6" ► V] <^ //. o ej e". V^ / em- ■^ *¥ /. "^^ // '/ Photographic Sciences Corporation ,\ S V "% v 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY MS80 (716) 872-4503 s CiHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICIVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / lr;stitut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques i! T t( The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. D D D D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagde Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurde et/ou pelliculde Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque Coloured maps/ Cartes gdographiques en couleur □ Coloured inic (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ D Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Reli6 avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La reliure serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge int6rieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout6es iors dune restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 filmdes. Additional comments: ' Commentaires suppi^mentaires; L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la m6thode normale de filmage sont indiquds ci-dessous. n n n n Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommagdes Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaurdes et/ou pellicul6es Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Parses ddcoior^es, tachet^es ou piqu6es Fages detached/ Pages ddtachdes 3howthrough/ Transparence Quality of print varies/ Qualitd indgale de {'impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du materiel supplementaire Only edition available/ Seule ddition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une peiure, etc., ont 6t6 filmdes d nouveau de fapon d obtenir la meilleure image possible. T P o fi C b tl SI o fi si o T si T y^ IV di ei bi ri re m This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film^ au taux de reduction indiqu6 ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X y 26X 30X 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X :i The copy filmed here hes been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: National Library of Canada L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grAce d la g4n6rosit6 de: Bibliothdque nationale du Canada The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on :Se first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol '^»- (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettetA de l'exemplaire filmd, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprimto sont filmds en commengant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, salon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont film^s en commen^ant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole -^> signifie "A SUIVRE". le symbole V signifie "FIN ". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film6s A des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 A partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 t , iirt . THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. COUNSELS ON THE NATURE ANDHTQIEHE OF THB MASCULINE FUNCTIONS. BT GEORGE E. NAPHETS, A.M., M.D^ Yhaelt Comprndiuh or Mbdioal Soibmoi; Xaraom o» "Tm PuTSMUL Lin or Womah," " Moniu THHuraDfioB.- " Lnrau rROM KinuM%" no. ^ JTOsM oiiinu hao nlu an •dolMocDtalte."— Tni MNLABOED AND REVISED. THE MUSSON BOOK CO., LIMITED Publishers TORONTO KCgSI N } -L 198245 Printed in Canada by The Huuter-Rose Co., Limited PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. An untold amount of misery and crime springs from an ignorance of the nature and proper hy;,'i»;iiic care of the sexual function in man. Hitherto there has been no relia' iC work in the language on this subject, written in a popular style, and with j)roper motives. This lont,'- felt want is supplied in the most complete manner by this volume. Its author is well known as an experienced re- j^ular physician and able writer, and his work has been indorsed by some of the most distinguished [(hysiciaiks, divines, and educators in the land. The topics which it treats are those about which every inan wants information, as will be seen by the following brief SYNOPSIS OF THE BOOK. The first part treats of the peculiar function of the male, describes the period of 'puberty when this fuuetiou boj^ius, and gives the rules ot health ao this tim.3. The author then passes on to virility, or the period when this fiinction is most viujoroua ; describing its signs, the causes that hasten, and those which delay the loss of it, the effects which certain diseases, occupations, and exercises have upon it ; the food and the drinivs whick strengthen it, and those which weaken it. The instructions " How it oin he pro- longed," are especially vahiable to middle-aged and eldoily men. The sexual passion Is analyzed, and two full chap- ters iriven on the drugs which slinialate and those which moderate desne. The secontl ]>art is on the single or celibate life, ami con- tains matter which every parent, clergyman, iiud educator u PUBLISHEllS' ANNOUNCEMENT. fihoulil bo conversant with. After spoaking of the advan- t>ifi;o« and disadvantages of unmarried life from a modiod jx tint of view, the author proceeds to discuss four important (jiiestions, chiefly concerning young and unmarried men. These are the solitary vice (self-abuse), spermatorrhcea secret diseases, and the social evil (prostitution). In reference to the first of these, the consequences, the prevention, and the cure of the destructive habit of self- abuse are detailed fully, and in plain language. SjHMinatorrhcea is treated of under the headings " What biing.s it about ?" " How to prevent it," and " How to cure it. The two most frequent secret diseases are described biiefly and clearly ; their effects on a man and on his children explained ; means of prevention and treatment are mentioned, and the very important question answered, " How soon ought a man to marry who has been diseased ?" The chapter on proatitution is written with especial reference to the United States ; the number of fallen wo- men in the different cities and the classes into which they are divided, are described. The questions where they come from, how they live, and what becomes of them, are answered, and the various plans for their reform are dis- cussed. The third part of the book is on the Married Life. Every man, either married or contemplating maniage, will find here information which he would not be without for very many times the price of the book. The part opens with advice in reference to the age best for marriage, the choice of a wife, the dangers (physical) of long engagements, etc. A section is given to the consummation of marriage, and the obstacles to it both on the part of the female and the male. The latter the author divides into four: First, Lethaigy of the organs ; second, Debility; third, Impotence ; and fourth, Sterility. He explains the nature and causes of each of these conditions, an I adds the special treatment which they require. PUBLISUEllS ANNOUNCEMENT. iii The next chapter is on the Tnarital rdationa. TliO dangers of excess are pointed out, and the rules of modera- tion laid down. The nature of conception is then explained, and an ex- tremely interesting chapter given on the avoidance and limitation of offspring. Not less interesting^ to niarriod people are his full and explicit dir«.'ctions how to Imie male or female chiltlren at will. The rules given are strictly scientific, and are also applicable to doun'stic ani- mals, stock horses, etc., and will therefore doul)ly 'ntorest most people. In the chapter on inheritance the atitl\or tA.»lls what parents can do t-o avoid having disease'l, dcl'ornuMl, and weak-minded children, aud tx) have those which are hand- some, healthy, and intelligent The tiubject of nervous disorders originating in the male generative system is one of intense interest, and is treated in a practical manner. fhe chapter entitled "medical views on popular medical yjini ruction" shows the awakening interest in the profession DA thg importance of this theme, and the danger to tho I^aliUc of leaving it in the hands of ignorant and unscioipu- v*yA writers. The article on the relation of the sexes i/n. early life is one that siiould be read by every parent and teacher. The discussion on tlve relation oj sex to disease will be founrovent it — llow to cure it. FAaBS 83—91 Seorkt Dihkases . . , 92 — 105 Their cflucts and frequency — Their nature and history — The course and the conacquencea of secret diseaaos — *' Syphilophobia " — The sin ot the father visited oa the children — How soon can a man, once diseased, marry ? — How to prevent these diseases — Persona] meanH of prevention. Thr Sociai. Evil lOG— 124 Prostitution in the United States — Its effects on wo- man — its consequences to the man — The causes that maintain it — Is it a necessary evil ? — How can it be •topped ? — Shall it be regulated by law 1 Paut III.— the married LIFE. The Preliminaiuks op Makhiaoe .... 125 — 136 The meaning of marriage — I'ljysical fitness and nntit- uesB for marriage — The choice of a wife — Marrying cousins — Lt)ng engagements — The male flirt — The paramount duty of hdelity. Tjik Consummation of Makkiagb . . . . 137—1(3) its signification — Ignorance concerning marriage — The marriage relation — The tests of virginity — Obstacles to the consummation of marriage — On the part of the female — On the part of the male ; 1. Lethargy — 2. Debility — 3. Impotence — 4. Sterility — Special treat- ment of loss of power. Husbands and Wives 162-173 The hygiene of the chamber — Of marital relations — The -What is excess? dangers of excess- Thb Husband as a Fatuee ..... 174 The nature of conception — The avoidance and limita- tion of offspring — Criminal abortion— On the produc- tion of the Hexes at will. XiiQ CONTENTS. ZXlll IWHBRITAiroi 190—217 What fathers bequeath children— The physical qualities we inhent— How to avoid having diseased and de- formed ohadren— The laws of inheritance and disease —Hygienic treatment of hereditary diseases— The mental qualities we inherit— Is our moral nature in- heritable ?— Does the education of the parents affect the capacity and morality of the child t— Why nhil- dren do not more closely resemble parents— Th«^ in- fluence of race. Pabt IV. -nervous disorders originating in the MALE GENERATIVE SYSTEM. D18BA8B8 OF THB NBRV0C3 System . . 218-238 Their frequency— One of the causes of partial 'paral'ysia ; 01 hip disease; of chronic bronchitis; of epilopsy ; of wasting ; of nervous prostration ; of disorders of sight and hearing; of indigestion- The prospects of cure m nervous affections- The means of cure. Thb Phtsioal Type of Manhood .... Mbdioal Vibws on Popular Mbdioal Instruotioh Thb Relation of thb Skxbs in Early Youth , Thb Relation of Sex to Diseasb . , , , Thb Moral Relations of tub Sexual Lifb . Conclusion • • . , , J^rasDix 238—240 241—253 254—265 266—277 278—296 29ft— 297 £98—310 - « ^*l 'i •I i •it THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. INTRODUCTORY. It is tin\e that scifnon, reirnincing a reticence which lf»rii^ expcriciico lias piovi'il pcniicioiis, should (3X|)laiti and a|>i)ly to the puhlic ;;ood the hygienic laws which pertain to tliat instinct wliich, beyond all others, controls the (K'stinies of men for « f J or for evil ; we mean the instinct of procivation, i .e taculty of the trdw^Tnission of life. The ])hysioiogical importance of thin function alone would justify this. The unborn generations to all time are in great part moulded by ourselves, and receive from us, their progenitors, the imprints which ctmsign them to happiness or misery, health or disease. Add to this con- sideration the fact that the purest joys of life, those which centre around tlie family circle, and also the most flagrant stains on our civilization, those which parade our streets in shameless attire, and those which poison tlie purity of vouth with vicious narrative, alike spring from the same imjiulse; and there is reason enough to convince the most incredulous that this is no subject to be timorously shunned. Even yet, the half is hardly told. More vital, more immediately concerning each man, are the conse- quences to the individual of the intelligent observation or the ignorant violation of the laws of tlii!= instinct. No one whose avocation does not lead him within the most secrete chambers of the human heart can conceive one tithe of the anguish which arisfjs from a want of knowledge on this subject. For with this want of know- ledge is associated want of power to resist the evil and to cleav© V) the good. % 18 INTRODUCTORY. Regarding it in its multiplied and intimate relatione, to the life of man here and hereafter, we do not hesitate to Hay that no branch of .sanitary science surj)asses this in im- portance, and we may also add no branch has been so umch neglected and sc much misundei'stood. The matter is of course difficult to ti-eat ; it has rarely been ventured upon except by those who batten on the wretchedness of their fellow-men, and therefore we well know there may be a ])]\;judico against one who under- takes the task of discussing it with candour. Oidy after considerable hesitation have wo concluded to encounter this prejudice, trusting that the manner in which we shall accomplish our labour, the value of the counsels we have to communicate, and the solid information we liope to convey, will not leave any doubt either as to our motives, or as to the propriety of our course. We could adduce abundance of t\stiniony from the writings of those most interested in the amelioration of the race, and its progress in moral and social tlirections, to show the necessity long felt of a wi»rk of this nature. But we believe no person of intelligence can harbour a doubt upi»n this pi)int, and it only remains t(,. 's to sub- mit to them the present ti'eurise, and ask lor it an unpre- judiced exuminatlon. % lationr, to 'sitate to lis in iui- been so IS rarely 1 on the we well o uiider- iily after ri counter we si mil we have hope to motives, rom the ation of recti ons, nature, irbour a i to sul)- a unpre- PART I. THE NATURAL IlfSTOCT OF MAMOOD. THE PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE MALE. h.SS:;f;^ Vtz^y^:^^^!^^'^o hap. 3o:::ni.aces with the very b"'^^^^^^^^ l>ut female created He thorn " savs tf ^ ^ ^^- ^'hr " ^^^'^ ^^d PHtienfc investi..ator with m^^^^^^^^ ; iscover any ot! er calse ofTo' tl Z'l.« ""'"^^"^ *"""'^ '' the Creator upon the in^'iv uai i; , ^^^ '^^P'"^'^^ fi^^d by ^•oa Tliere is nothin. in el v ' '""^'"^"^^ "^ ^^"cep- gerni which decides wfetW it I ,]?''''" ^'^ ^'^^ ^^"'^'^n As it is the earliest so 'ex L: fi ™^'' ^' ^^"^^'«- all elements in the in.'liv duti jfrV^ ""f P«^^^^ ^^ ft oontrol. and mod.ae. all o £; trl^f 'n""'^ '' ^S^ imat,ane that boys ar.d criHs are «t .n .» Does any one 'tbke ? Error; no matte? howf ^n i "^ ""^ Physically tion.sare numerous and maHcTdF^ '""^'T'' ^^e distine- iB true Physicians hlrSuif'r.' ''^M*^^'^' ^^"« ^l hundreds of new-born infant. ?\"'^ '^^^ "^^^^^^r- the following, curious aXte e ^iL ?/ ^ established at bntli weigh on an avera "e oneto.fntf '' ^^'^ '^'^'^^'^^ their stature is four-tenthf of fn^; 7 """'^ "'^" ^^'^ales, i.s a lew beats in the minute ^"1""' ^^"^^"' '""''^ l^^'^^ ^^^^'ZF^:::;^:t::t^^, ""'^^^^ ^'« -^- His tiesh is tinner anTh L bone T.r.S'-1" ''",? ^^^"^ ' ^^^ coMu. more curved so that he cSurl 1'' ^"^'-'^""^ ^^«- a club better than she can hit V ^ '^^"''^ "^ «^ing can , his hips are narrow. whilS 20 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. H iii hers are broad, and thus he can run faster and more grace- fully ; he grows more rapidly, and he seeks the rude ex- ercises which she shuns. All these traits presage his des- tiny to wage the rougher battles of life, and fit him to meet the buffets of untoward fortune with courage and endurance. yome figures may here be found of interest. Tlie French statistician Quetelet, who has devoted more atten- tion to this subject than any other writer, gives the aver- age weight of an adult male at one hundred and thirty- seven pounds, and the average height at five feet four inches. In England, the gentleman who has charge of the University Gymnasium at Oxford reports, that of the first one hundred young men whose names were on his book, the average height was a trifle over five feet nine inches, and the average weight one hundred and thirty- three pounds. With these foreign measurements we can compare those of the students of Harvard University and Amherst College, New England. Dr. Gould, who examined a large number of the former, reports their average height at five feet eight inches, and their weight at one hundred and thirty-nine pounds. From the statistics of all the members of Amherst College, from 1861 to 1869, Dr. Allen found the average weight to be one hundred and thirty-nine pounds, and the average height about five feet eight inches. So that Americans appear to be be- tween the English and French in height, but heavier than either in proportion to their stature. The aventge height of American women is but five feet four inches, and their weight about ten pounds less in proportion. A strange contradiction meets us here — a problem which science has not yet solved. It would naturally be supposed that with this more vigorous frame, and stur- dier form, the vitality of the male would be greater than the fomale, his average life lon^i^r, his greatest age great- er. It is not so. This law ot population holds good in ■^S MORTALITY OF MALES. every country of which we have any statistica: About five per cent, more male than female children are bom, but at five years of age more girls are alive than boys. Again, at every period of life, the " expectation of life," as insurance agents call it, that is, the average term yet to live, is greater in women than men. And, finally, of very old persons, the large majority are women. So true is this that the last census of France shows that hS the age of ninety years there were three women to two men, and at the age of one hundred the number of wo- men was more than sixteen times the number of men. 1'he characteristics of infancy, such as the delicate skin, the fragile bones, the rounded outhne, the abundance oi fatty tissue, are preserved in the female more generally tht\n the male sex. It is far more accurate to say the cliiid ia mother to the woman than father to the man. MANS Sf t-JCIFIC FUNCTION. All those deop-sejited difference;?, the whole great fact of sexuality with its infinite bearings on the social, th« ])liysical, and the moral life of man, look to the accom- ])li^hnlellt of one purpose, to the performaiice of one func- tion. That pur})ose, that function, is the reproduction oj the specks, the transmission of life. Around this cen- tral, mysterious power are grouped all other faculties and aspirations. It is tlio strongest ot all instincts, the most uncontrollable of all passions, the most imperious of all demands. Nature everywhere points to it as the most sacred object of the individual's ])hysical existence. The b(!tiinist can tell of plants rooted in such exposed and barren soils that no riouiishment is atiorded for leaves or fronds ; but the Hower and the seeds mature ; the zoologist has strange stories to relate ot the males of lower forms of animal life, who, when they have once completed the act of reproduf tifjn, straightway witlier and die, as if this alone was the j)urpose of their creation. u TliE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. The instinct of solf-preservation itself in unnumbererl instances lias disappeared before the tyrannical demands of sexual love. Theie is an impulse in organic beiiifrs which they feel to be of p^reater moment than all else, weighed against which life itself is a leather in the balnnee, tlie scope of which is not bounded by tlie confines of the in- dividual, but stretches into eternity and to the limits of all things. This im])ulse is the per| etuation of their kind — once more the transmission of lifk It is some- thing apart from all else in nature. Contem[)ljiting it with the inspired eye of genius, Bichat, the proi'oundest of modern j)hysiologists, speaks of it as a phenomenon which science must study by itself, unconnected with the other functions of the individual. Regarding it with the practical observation of a man of the world, an eminent New York surgeon writes: "The strongest motive of human action, the most powerful mains|)iing within us all, is the sexual desire, with the doniestic relations which rest upon it, It is stronger in its intluence, controls more men, causes the commission of more criines and more good deeds, than any other impulse," How vitally important is it, therefore, how intimately does it concern the woal of our nation, to understand its nature and its laws, its government, its dangers, its regulation ! In what (iii\ c- tion can we with greater proi^rietv extend the domain cJ hygiene I ■m PUBl{RTY. lOltiUlt woal !, Ma iiec- am cJ WHAT IT IS. At a certain period in the life of the youth he under- poes a clianoe by which he a<'qnires powers, which qualify liira to take part in the perpetuation of his kind. This change is tlie period of pubkimy. It is distinguished by a number of physical alterations, the most significant of v\'hich is the secretion of a fecundating fluid. Yet we must not be understood to say that tliis is a prompt or sudilen change. On the '•■mtrary, it is slow, extending over many years, attended by a completion of growth and a n})ening of all the physical powers. Only when all these various processes are matured does the male reach the period of virility, that period which is the proper time for him to fulfil the duties which nature has imposed on those features peculiar to his sex. We can- not too earnestly impress on all the truth of this fact. Through ignorance of it, or neglect of it, untold misery is constantly brouglit upon the young, and the race itself shows the sad results of an infraction of this rule. Let js therefore define more minutely these two phases of life. When the boy passes to the condition of youth he leaves behind him the characteristics of childhood. The ikin becomes coai>.er and less delicate, the muscles firmer and more distinctly marked, the viice loses its childish treble, the vocal apparatus enlarges and emits a harsher sound, the bones harden, the " wisdom teeth " appear, various parts of the body become covered with a soft down which gradually becomes rougher and thicker, and those organs peculiar to his sex enlarge. Not less remarkable are the mental changes. Unwoi» 24 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. ted desires and sensations, half understood and confusing;, awake in the mind impulses to which he has been a stranger, vague longings after he knows not what, sudden accesses of shamefacedness in circumstances where he had ever been at ease, a restlessness, and a wilfulness, in- dicate to the observing eye the revolution which is going on within. Perilous moment for the boy ! Dangers of which he has no knowledge, which he could not under- stand were they explained to him, yet which will imperil all his future life and all his other faculties, are around him. The proper age at which puberty should come varies from twelve to eighteen years, as it is influenced by many surrounding conditions. One of the most important of these is climate. Travellers have frequently observed that in tropical countries both the sexes arrive at matur- ity earlier in life than in temperate or cold countries. This explains the early marriages which are customary in those localities, and which do not appear to exert the in- jurious influence on the otispring which is almost con- stantly observed in temperate climates from premature union. In Abyssinia and the shores of the Red Sea, which are the hottest parts of the globe, it is no unusual sight to see boys of fiftoen and sixteen who are already fathers. And what is even more singular, this precocity does not ap- pear to react upon the constitution, but according to the observations of an English surgeon during tl^e Abyssinian campaign, the mtusculine functions are retained with ex- ceptional vigor to very advanced years. Jn Lapland, Northern Russia, and Siberia, the J'oung men reach the age of eighteen and nineteen years botbre their sluggish constitutions undergo the changes incident to puberty, and even then it is rare that their passions are violent or long retained. our own country, the usual and healthy age of ■i-rcy is from lourluen to fifteen years, varying a year , ;>.• moi'e or less as influenced by circumstances which In WHAT HASTENS PUBERTY. 25 ni- asre of 4 ye shall proceed to mention. One of these is hereditai'y tendency. This is constantly observed as hastening or re- lardini,' by a year or two the development of both sexes. It is to some extent connected with race, as it is found that negroes are more precocious than whites, and boys oi" southern parentage than those of northern. This is readily seen to be traceable to the influence of climate just referred to. The temperament is also a controlling influence. Light- haired, stout, phlegmatic boys are longer in attaining the age of puberty, than those of nervous and nervo-bilious teiiij)eraments. (kcapatlon and habits have also much to do in the lanttor. As a general rule, the more vigoi-ous, the more addicted to athletic exerci.se, the more accustomed to out- door life, and to active pursuits, the slower will be this change in approaching. This statement may be unex- pected to many; they may think that vigorous health is precisely what nature would wish to assist her to com- plete this profound and mysterious transformation in the c institution. To all such we have to tell of a law sanc- tioned by the researches of all physiologists, proven by the daily . experience of the physician, and which we shall liave occasion hereafter to refer to frequently, for it con- tains the solution of many a vexed physical and social problem. This law teaches that there is a constant and a direct antagonism between the highest porlection of the individual and the exercise ot the masculine function; or, to quote the words of one of the most eminent writers on physiology, Dr. Carpenter, " The Development of the Individual and the Reproduction of the Species stand in an inverse ratio to each other." The constitution, by which we mean the mass of mor- bid or healthy tendencies irdierited from parents, con- sequently has very consideral>le weight in determining the time at which the change will take place. In accord- ance with the physiological law just quoted, it is very m^ H'' THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE, generally found that boys with weak, nervous, debilitated constitutions are apt to be precocious : and tlioso i^ifted by their parents with sturdy limba and a powerful frame remain boys much longer. THE HYGIENE OF PUBERTY. Let it be distinctly understood, therefore, that it is alto- gether advisable, and the only consistent hygienic course, to defer as long as possible the development of the sex- ual instinct. It will surely come soon enough, and the danger only is that it will come too soon. There are, indeed, instances of precocity, a{)parently without entailing debility or disea,se, which are not read- ily explained. Several cases are on record in medical works, where children at the age of three and four years manifested a complete development of sexual power. But apart from the liability to error which rests over these observations, such exceptional instances must be classed with what medical writers term idiosyncrasies, and no inferences for general guidance can be drawn from them. Apart from moral reasons which urge the retardation of the sexual change, there are sanitary arguments of the weightiest character which tend in the same direction. Foremost of these is the danger of solitary vice, and of illicit pleasures, with their so frequent and terrible penal- ties. The less, indeed, that the boy and the youth think about, or in any way have their attention directed to the sexual distinctions, the better. Does it follow from this that it is the duty of parents and teachers sedulously and wholly to refain from warning them, or giving instruc- tions of a private nature ? This important question has been frequently discussed, and there are now, as there always have been, men of influence who answer it in the af- firmative. But it is also worth remarking that without an exception those medical authors who have given most IGNORANCE NO BENEFIT. 17 constant and cnriiest attention to the diseases and disor- (leis vvliich arise from the prevailing; ignorance in such mat- tors, are earnest and emphatic in their recommendations to ethicators and to parents to give sound advice to bo3's, and to urge upon them the observance of certain precau- tions, wliich tend to remove premature excitements. It Ls one of tlie most important duties of those who have cliargo of youths to see tliat neither by ignorance nor urged by oppoitunity or intellectual stimulants, they foiestall nature's own good time. Mostinexcusaltleis the false modesty which, on the ground of fear lest indecor- ous thoughts should be awakened, serves as the plea for wholly neglecting this vital department of sanitary super- vision. Not untrequently some physical ailment, some local irritation leads to an afflux of blood to the paits, which piompts the boy to thoughts and deeds far moie blameworthy than any to which he could be led by grave and serious admonition. We will briefly rehearse what sanitary regulations should be instituted in schools and in private families to jirevent unnatural precocity, and to avoid the necessity of repetition hereafter, we add that these same regulations alteied more or less to suit circumstances, are of the ut- most value after puberty is established, to escape un. necessary sexual excitement, and to aid in the treatment of diseases which arise, or are associated with irritability of this function. We shall on a later page refer to them in these connections. The most [>otent of all means to this end is muscnlat (hivelopment Systematic, dailv, regulated exercise, push- ed to the verge of fatigue, and vaiied so as to keep up the interest of the pupil, cannot be too much insistea upon. This alone is worth all other precautions, and is almost indispensable. Now tliat most large schools have gymnasiums attached, and eK])eciall\ as light gyninastica have been so widely introduc<:(l, ami can hv -'Ut in practice it such small expense, there is no excuse for ne^jlectin^ THE TKANSMISSION OP LIFE. this precept. Parents will do well to decline sending their boys to any institution which has no provisions for physical culture. Cleanlinem is next to be mentioned. It were an ex- cellent arrani^ement lor every boy to be induced to take a sponge-bath, or, what is better, a shower-bath, every morning, in cool or cold water. They should be told that a sense of heat or irritation about their parts may aiise from a want of thorough cleansing. One of the most distinguished authorities on these subjects, Mr. William Acton, of London, says : " My own opinion is that a long prepuce in children is a much more frequent cause of evil habits than parents or medical men have any id^'a of. But I have never heard of any steps ever having been taken by those having the care of youth to indui.-o boys to adopt proper habits of cleaidiness in this respect. Probably no nurse, parent, or schoolmaster, would at first relish the proposal that a boy of twelve should be told to draw back his foreskin and cleanse the part thoroughly. In my own experience of children I have found this practice so beneficial that I never hesitate to recommend it in anv cases where there is the least sijxn of irritation from this cause." " Une of the common causes of premature excitement, even as early as iu fancy," says Mr. W. F.Teevan, a writer in a recent number of the Brith^k MedicalJournal {Mny, 1870), "is a tight foreskin. It is the cause of much evil, and it ought always to be remedied." This can generally be accomj)lished by giving a boy proper directions, but, if not, there should be no hesitation in recommending a surgical operation. The rite of circumcision is in this re- spect extremely salutary, and some physicians have recommended its genei-al adoption, no longer on religious but on hygienic grounds. At any rate the above advice from so eminent a quarter is deseiving the highest respect, and may, with proi)er caution, be canied out where the observant guardian considers it applicable. THE nvaiENE OF SCUOOLa iig a the AvoiMnnce of irritation from any cause is always essential. It may arise from ill-fittiiii^ drawera or pants, or t'loin an unc()mf()rtal)le seat, or from constipation of the bowels, or from an unhealthy condition of the urine or bladder, fiom piles, and much more frequently from worms, especially those familiarly known as seat-worms. Soft cushions should be dispensed with ; cane-bottomed chairs and benches are for many reasons preferable. Certain varieties of skin diseases of a chronic character are attended by such a degree of heat and itchinoj that the child is led involuntarily to scratch and rub the af- fi;cted part. Whenever they attack the inside of the thighs or lower part of the abdomen, they should receive j>rompt and ellicient treatment. The doruntonj regulations should invai-iably be of a character to jiromote modesty. Never should two or three boys be allowed to sleep in the same bed, and it were more piudent to assign each a separate chamlier. They should be encouraged by precept and example to avoid needless exposure of the person and indecorous gestui-es. The beds should be tolerably liard, matresses of hair or with springs being greatly prefcral»le to those of feathers, cotton, or sponge. These latter are heating, and, therefore, ol)jectionable. The bed clotlnng should be light, thick comfortables being avoided, and the chambers should be cool and well ventilated. Every l)oy should be reipiired before retiring to empty the bladder, as the presence of nnich Huid in that organ acts as a source of irritation on the surrounding parts. When a boy wets his bed during sleep, it may be taken as evi- dence that he either neglects this duty, or else that there is some local irritation present which requires medical attention. Sleei^ing on the back should be warned against, as this is one of the known causes of nocturnal excitement and emissions. Fortunately, the prevalence of Jlog(jinfj as a punish- ment is by no means what it once waa We say THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. fortunately, for throu<^'h ignorance of physiological laws this method of diwcipline was cr.Icuiated to Htimulate precisely what it was intended to check. It is well known that switching across tl o seat is one of the most i)ower- ful excitants of the reilex nerves of the part, and is re- sorted to by dep»'n.ved and worn-out debauchees for that very purpose. Uow unwise, how reprehensible, therefore!, to employ it on the persons of boys, in whom such a stiiimlant is most dani^erous. Readers of French litera- ture may remember an instructive example in the Con- fenKions of Jean Jaccpies Rousseau, where that dt»praved smkI eccentric, though gifted man, acknowledges to have raHier enjoyed than otherwise the floggings ho received when at school. Kqually imyiortant as these physical regulations is it ill it the boy shouM V)e assiduously trained to look with (lis^nist and abhorrence on whatever is indecent in word action. Let him be taught a sense of shame, that or iiioiiesty is manly and honourable, and that immodesty is 1 a-<(' and dishonoui-ible. Ivstabli^h in a school a hiirh and piiie tone of feeling in regard to such matters. It can be aecomplishtid by a skilful master more easily than one nnght suppose. Let some of the older and abler pupils have explained to them its necessity, and the risks and evils of an opposite course, and they can readily be en- listed on the side of purity and health. Nor should it be overh^oked that the mental food pre- sented to the boy may serve to evoke dangerous medita- tions. Many passages in the classics, man v of the fables of mythology, much of the poetry, and tiio prose of modern and especially French writers, contain insinuations and erotic pictures, seductive and hazarJou'. to the eager and impressible mind of boyhood. We have little respect for the man or woman who " sees obscenity in pure white marble," or who can discern only vulgarity in the myths of antiquity, or the warm delineations of the poets ; but what is meat for the strong man may be poison to the child. THE NATURE OP PASSION, WHAT 13 PASSION ? All those precautions are (o wliat end? To avoid eycitiii;^ tho pulsion of sex. It is well to hold this clearly in view ; and it is also well to understaiid distinctly what ♦'•is jjassion is. Through a want of this understanding, the most extravau^ant vagaries, the most dreadful asceticism, and tho wildest deiiauchery, have alike claimed sanction ftom the holiest of leligions. Is this passion a tire from heaven, or a suhtle flame from hell ? Is this "furious task-master," as Cicero calls it, to be reganled as an ever-|>resent witness to our fallen iiattir*^ as one of the imperfections inevitably rooted in our bodies by the disobedience of our hrst parents ? We eannot to such a degree accuse the benevolence of the C'reator; we cannot so violate tho analogy of organic lil'i! ; we caimot so do in justice to our own conscious- ness. The noblest and the most unselfish emotions take their rise in this passion of sex ; the most [)erfect natures are niuuMed by its sweet influence; the most elevating ties wliich bind humanity to holy effort are formed by it. i rue, it is like the genii which obeyed the magic ring in onental tale; so long as the owner of the jewel did not violate its law, that long theijenii were his willing; slaves, and bi'ought him wealth and gii^ry ; but when he became untrue to himself, then they rose upon him, and hurried him away defenceless to the gloomy cavern, and the un- (|U('nchable fiauics. The wise man, therefore, will recognize in th(3 emotions of youth a power of good, and a divinely iiii[)li)nted instinct, which will, if properly trained, form a more synnuetrical and perfected being than could [)()SHibly be in its absence ; and he will have impressed upon liim the responsibility wliich devolves on those who have to control and guide this instijut. It is not at the period of |>uberty that passion com- mences. In fact, it is hard to say, how early it may not THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. be present ; and this point we wish to impress the more emphatically, because parents and teachers, in spite of their own boj^ish experiences, if they would but recall them, are too liable to persuade themselves that at the age of five or ten years no particular precautions are necessary. But the physician knows that even in infants it is not very rare to witness excitement of the organs, which must depend on the action of those nerves which control paseion. Self-abuse not uncommonly prevails at the ages we have mentioned, and proves the early development of the instinct. In su';ii cases it is a purely nervous phenomenon, not associated with the discharge of the secretion, which does not yet exist, nor necessarily with libidinous thoughta. But these, too, come very soon, as any one must confess who is a close observer of boys ; and at whatever age the habit exists, it is equally reprehen- sible. The danger that threatens is not to be obviated by a complete repression or an annihilation of this part of our nature as something evil in itself, but by recognizing it as a natural, prominent, and even noble faculty, which does but need intelligent education and direction to be- come a source of elevated enjoyment and moral improve- ment. Should the false modesty, the ignorance, or the neglect of those who have charge of youth at the critical period when the instinct first makes itself felt, leave it to wander astray, it is with the certainty of ensuing mental anguish, physical injury, and moral debasement. To what a hideous depth these aberrations of passion may descend we dare n< *- disclose ; for, as the apostle says, " it is a shame evjn ,o speak of such things." Suflicient to say, that eveiy unnatural lust recorded in the mordant satires of Juvenal, the cynical epigrams of Martial, or the licentious stories of Petronius, is practised, not in rare or excei)tional cases, but deliberately and habitually in the great cities of our country. Did we EFFECTS OF CASTllATION. 88 chnoi^e to draw the veil from those aliominable scenes with which our professional life has broui^ht us into con- tact, we could tell of the vice which called vengeance from heaven on Sodom practised notoriously ; we could speak of restaurants fr(3<|uented by men in women's attire, yield- ing themselves to indescribable lewdness ; we could point out liierature so incDnceivabiy devilish as to advocate and extol this utter depravity. But it is enough for us to hint at tliese abysses of ini(iuity. We cannot bring ourselves to do more ; and we can only hope that the liery cautery of public denunciation will soon destroy tliis most maliunant of ulcers. THE MAN UNSEXED. ed in ns of tised, and d we # To illustrate what has just been said, we can draw usefid lessons from the condition of those who, through a h(!ndish ingenuity or some surgical necessity, have been deprived of those parts which are the font of passion ; we mean eunuchs. In ancient times, and to this day in Oriental nations, these unfortunates are frequently found ; they are usually slaves who have suffered mutilation at a tender age, and are employed to superintend the harems of the wealthy. When they are operated upon before the age of puberty, the changes we have mentioned incident to that period do not take place. The voice retains its childish treble, the limbs their soft and rounded outlines, the neck accpiires a feminine fulness, and the beard does not appear. On account of this retention of the voice, the muiila- tion was not infrequent in Europe during the middle ages, and indeed in Italy quite down to the close of the last century. The so-called castrutos were cmployetl to sing in the concerts, and especially in the churches, in whose choii-s women were not allowed. There is a bull on record of Pope Clement XIV., especially directed against the wmm^ 84 THB TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. practice, and pronouncing the ban of the Church on those who encouraged it. This testifies to its wide distribution. A number of instances are reported where persons had deliberately, either out of fanaticism or labouring under some form of mental delusion, destroyed their own virility. Ecclesiastical historians assert that the di-tinouinhed father of the church, Origen, was one example of this. He was led to do so by a too literal application of those enigmatic words reported in the nineteenth chapter of Matthew : " There be eunuchs which have made tliem- selves eunuchs for the kingdom of Heaven's sake." In most of these instances, and probably in all where the mutilation has been suffered when young, a decided effect on the mental and inoral character is observed. Eunuchs are proverbial for their cruel, crafty, unsym- pathizing dispositions ; the mental powers are feeble ;and the physical strength is inferior. They hick both courage and endurance, and supply their place with cunning and mercilessness. They prove, indeed, tliat in their want of that power which connects them with posterity, they have lost something necessary to the development of the best parts of their nature. This should teach us that it is a wise provision which stimulates our duty to the future by the reward of present pleasure. By this operation the power of sexual intercourse is not altogether lost, but there is entire sterility. The body is much more inclined to become fat, and for this reason the mutilation is practised on fowls to obtain " capons," and other animals used as food. VIRILITY. SIGNS OF ESTABLISHED VIRILITY We have intimated that puberty and virility are by no moans synonymous terms. The former is a season of change and preparation. The constitution is summoning all its powers to prepare the individual properly to protect and provide for liis own wants, and to transmit life to future generations. When the growth is completed, when the beard is grown, and the bones hardened, when the vague and fleeting fancies of youth have been transformed into a well-defined yearning for home and cliildren and a help- meet, then the season of virility has commenced. Then, and not before, is it right for the male to exercise those functions peculiarly his own ; and then, only when this is accomplished as a subordinate act, comformed to moral and social law, and accessory to pure mental emotions. At the outset of his career let him learn l>y heart and fre(iuently repeat these words of a celebrated physician, wlio spoke from a wide study of man in all his relations : " In proportion as the human being makes the temporary gratification of the mere sexual appetite his chief object, and overlooks the happiness arising from spiritual com- nuinion, 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 tliat perish." lint the distinctive sign of completed manhood is in the character of the secretion, which now couuuences. It is not our intention to write upon physiology and anatomy. This would be foreign to a work which pro- poses to confine itself to the reahn of hygiene. And we do not luuk with favour on those books wliich, by tlieir T 36 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. half-disclosures and unsavoury hints, awaken a useless curiosity whic;h they do not intend to satisfy. But it seems necessary to speak here with distinctness of one physiological point, because it is intimately connecteii with the health of the male, and without some clear com- prehension of it, much that we shall have to speak of in the nature of warnings and cautions would be unintelli- gible. We trust that an honest purpose, and scientific accuracy will guide us correctly. The secretion peculiar to the male, known as the seud or sperm, depends for its life- transmitting power on the presence of certain minute vibratory bodies, about one- fortieth of a line in length, called spermatozoa. These are exceedingly numerous and active when the secretion is healthy. A single one of them — and there are many hundreds in a diop — is sufficient to bring about concep- tion in the female. The}'^ not only have a rapid vibratory motion, but singular vitality. The secreted tiuid has been frozen and koptata temperature of zero for four days, yet when it was thawed these animalcules, as they are suppos- ed to be, were as active as ever. They are not, however, al- ways present, and when present may be of variable activ- ity. In young men, just past puberty.and in aged men, they are often scarce and languid in motion. Occasionally they are entiiely absent in otherwise hale men, and this is one of the causes of sterility in the male. Their pres- ence or abst nee can only be detected by the microscope. The organs in which this secretion is elaborated from the blood are the testicles. Previous to birth, these small rounded, firm bodies are in the abdomen, and only descend a short time before the child is born. Tliey are composed of a vast number of minute tubes united together by con- nective tissue. The total length of the tubes is estimated at forty -eight bundled feet, or nearl}-^ one mile ! Neverthe- less, so small are they, that their full capacity is not more than six cubic centimetres. • ^^^H • PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS. 87 The left testicle, though usually suspended lower than the right, is somewhat smaller, the ditt'eivnce in weight being about ten grains. The secretion is most active about twenty-five years of age, and decreases after this period as age advances. It is, however, not constant, depending very much on physical and moral causes. In some men it is periodical or intermittent, and they are therefore en- tirely impotent at times, without at all impairing their vigour at other times. The testicles are subject to special diseases, which may seriously imi)air their action. Mumps sometimes changes from the face to them, causing painful swelling, and fre- quently a similar attack occurs in venereal disaases. In- flammation may arise from an injury, and also from violent and unfjratified sexual excitement. All these affections may lead to loss of power and sterility, and it does not answer, therefore, to neglect them. Diseases which are not connected with the genital organs do not seem to pro- duce any after-influence on the .secretion in the adult in middle life ; but in aged persons, on the other hand, this is a frequent occurrence. A secretion is formed before puberty, but it is always without these vibratory bodi»(s. Only after that period is itformeil healthily and regularly by the proper glands. This is usually to such an extent that more or less of it passes from the person once in a while during sleep. Thousands of young men ignorantly attribute this per- fectly natural evacuation to some weakness of the func- tion. They are in error. Within ceitain limits, as we shall fully explain hereafter this is a natural, healthy, and necessary eflbrt of the system (piite as nmch so as an evacuation from the bowels or the bladder. It is to our present purpose to say that moderate flows of this nature are a proof of virility, when the secretion thus emitted is of proper character. Observers ha\'e noted that that pro- duced soon after puberty is feeble, and generally fi-uit- less, or if capable of fecundating, the child thus produced is weakly, and apt to be exposed to disease. r^. 38 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. At the period of virility the desires sliould not only change in })urpose, but they shouKl be less easily excited, move con)pletcly under the dominion of reason, more readily subjugated than before. It is a gross atul danger- ous error to suppose that ai'dent desires are a sign of vigorous liealth. This is a delusion which should be de- stroyed. Those men who have the finest physiques, the most athletic frames, and are in thorough " condition," experience least acutely the spur of desire. The ancients frequently refer to the continence of the athletse, and the gynmasts of our cities are always temperate in indulgence. On the other hatd, it is a > ^^rly constant symptom of cer- tain dangerous disea >b.i !l>u;. ihe passions are usually easily excited. Tlie tirst stage of pulmonary consumption ig fre- quently thus charac crizr>d, win'e it is notorious that lep- rosy, certain obstinate ski.i diisi-ases, and slow poisoning, esT)ecially that by diseased rye-tlour, morbidly intluenee the desires to an extent most damaofinsf to the constitu- tion. HYCilENE OF VIIlILIXy. Those who are already in the enjoyment of good health will need but few instructions to retain their strength at this period of life. They must, however, bear in mind the approach of advancing years, and the facility to disease which ever accompanies declining age. Therefore they nmst avoid all excesses, restrict the indulgence of desire within moderate bounas, and if unmaiied, live lives not oidy coutment but chuste, avoiding not merely vices which are condenmed both by statute and religion, Imt also all impure thoughts and conversations. For tue latter, we shall have occasion to show fully hereafter, are enervating to the body as well as demoralizing to the mind. The functions of sex are so intimately allied to the mental condition that tlie one sympathizes invariably with the other, and what degrades one, with little short of absolute certainty impairs the other. THE PERIOD OF VIRILITY. S9 fn of ., the » Then the man at middle life should be aware that to cn- Biire either a respected or a happy old age, he must at least make up his mind to renounce forever the exercise of his sexual powers, and with this in view, he should, as years progress, steadily wean himself more and more from the control of desire, and fix his thou^i^hts on those philanthropic and unselfish projects which add heauty to age, and are the crown to gray hairs. What more nause ous and repulsive object than a libidinou: and worn-out old man, heating his diseased imagination with dreams and images which his chilled and impotent body can no longer carrv into effect ? But as in the interest of the general health, and also of mental vigour, it is important virile pow.'rs be retained to the latest period of which they are capable, as tue whole body shares in their strength and sym[)athizes in their debility, it is the duty of all to observe such precepts as will defer the loss of virility to the most distant days. In general, in this country, we may assign the period of virility to commence at twenty-five years of age and to draw to a close at forty -five, thus extending over a score of years. During this period the physical and intellectual activity of most men is at its height. They are capable of their best, and whether in business or in scholarship, usually accomplish the most for which they are spoken of and remembered. The children born to them during this time are more vigorous, and are endowed with more active powers, than those begotten either before or after these limits. From fifteen to twenty-five the organs yield immature and imperfect secretion, later than forty- five the passions grow rarer and briefer, and the individual suffers more acutely from every attempt to increase the species. There are, however, some striking examples on r^ord showing how a good constitution supported by yi^^vr care, can escape the action of this law for many years. FW" 40 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. The Latin historian SaHust, relates of Masini.s.sa, king of NumiJia, that he married at tlio ai^e of four-score and five years, and had a vigorous infant born to him aftei that time. Still more remarkable is the instance of a Frenchman named De Longueville, who lived to tlio age of 1 10 years. He married his last wife wlien in his ninety-ninth year, and she bore him a son when he was in liis hundred and first year. The famous Thomas Parr, of Sliropshire, Enghmd, who lived to the almost unexampled age of one hundred and fifty-two years, married liis second wife when about one hundred and twenty ye.irs of age. She lived with him twelve years, and although she bore no children, she as- serted that during that time he never betrayed any signs of infirmity or age. But certainly the most astonishing example of j)ro- longed virility was Ijaravicino de Copellis, a nobleman of Tyrol, who died, aged 104, in 1770. fie married in his eighty-fourth year a young and healthy woman, by whom he had eight cliildren! So that, it is evident that mere Age does not destioy virility, but that it endures wiih the other bodily powers. Thus it becomes a matter of no little interest, since we see such vigour is possilile, to investigate the means by which it may be obtaiueerty, f&iting, and prayer. Much caHtigation, exerciHe devout." But if, on the other hand — and this is much more fre- quently the case — these passions are excited by local or general iiritation, then the physician and the surgeon must be consulted. Some writers call the period of de- cadence " the change of life in man," and aver that it is attended with almost as many diseases and dangers aa the corresponding epoch in the physical life of woman. At this period he is most exposed to those maladies which have their seat in the bladder and connected por- t ions of the body. Gravel and stone, difficulty in reliev- 1 WORDS TO TllK VOUNQ. 43 ing the organ, atfoctionsofthe kidney, and swelling of the glandviliir stiMictures, make tlis have asnecihcaction on the organs of sex and the blailder and kiiJneys. The tiist mentioned, cantharides, has a popular reputation as an excitant of the passions, a so-called aphrodisiac. It is not so in any true sense, as the excitement it causes is not associated with feelings of pleasure, and moreover, its use Ls certain to bo followed l)y pain and inllammation, and there are not a few examples where speedy death in great agony has supervened. I 66 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFft DRUGS WHICH MODERATE DESIRE. Babelais* hero, Panurge, in the passaf:je from the celebrat- ed romance, insists on Rondibilis su'^ijestinfj some olher means of controllinf^ his carnal desires than the use (»f wine. This the oliliging doctor willingly does, rehearsing a long list of spcifics, such as the (igniis caslun, the " cold seeds," and " hii)popotamus skin," as of sovereign virtue in subduing passion. Unlbrtunatcly an experience of a few generations has not supported in tliis instance the eru- dite doctor's words. There are, indeed, many cases where it is highly desirable to have at our command some such medicaments, which in a sense are aids and allies to the moral nat;:*-?, if not strengthening good resolutions at any rate weakening evil iuipulses, which is next best. We are glad, therefore, tljat when the articles recom- mended by the older physicians fell into disfavour, modern observation discovered others with unquestionable powers in this direction. One or two of the ancient remedi(-'s have also stooh<>r makes eunuchs of men." The most recent authority on this use of camphor is Dr. Albert Miiller, -whose work was pultlished in 18G9. He sums up the evidence by concluding that very small doses, half a grain to a grain, in most instances diminishes the sensibility of the oigans of sex, but ordy for a short time, and not invariably. In some cases, which cannot be distinguished beforehand, even such small amounts pro- duce irritability of the bladder, and therefore should not CAMPHOR AND HOPS. m he usod. On the whole, it is not a safe drug for any but a physician to administer. The active principle of hops, called lupulin, and the pollen of that plant, have a more decided effect than camphor, and are far safer. Beer-drinkers — that is, if they drink beer made by the addition of a strong infusion of hops to the malt, as is the case with good English bitter beer — soon experience a sluggishness of feeling, which often passes into indifference. Saltpetre, or nitrate of potash, enjoys a similar reputa- tion but acts injuriously on the general health when taken in quantities, and for this reason should be em- ployed with hesitation, if at all, and under advice. There are several other drugs with the same properties, but as they can only be used with discretion by those who have made a study of their effects u[)on the economy, it would neither be advantageous nor prudent to exteneculiarly American habit of taking strong liquors on an empty stomach is most destructive to nervous force, and most certain to prevent healthy children. The hurried meals and consequent dyspejwia, the use of coliee several times a day, the excessive mental strain in Aujerican business life, the increased pressure and re- doubled anxieties which tlie desperate com[)etition of our great marts invariably brings with it, .md imposes especially on those who have families to provide for, all bring about premature old age, and create a tendency to ea)"ly del^ility of all the nervous functions, and with them that of r(!production, which is infallibly handed down to the sons along with the money, houses, and land which a life of labour may have accumulated V\'ith these facts staring them in the face, it is for our native population to decide whether they will forego somewhat this desperate struggle for wealth and this self- indulgence, and thereby have to liefjueath their children tl ,' hichnomoney can purchase, and tlian which no cost- lier legacy can be left a young man — a sound constitu- tion. \ex- lal. fW'i r-'n'Tr 60 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. KELATION OF THE SEXUAL TO THE OTHER FUNCTIONS. II' :i!| In all thai: we have said before, we aimed to keep con- tantly in view and lo impress upon the reader the intim- ate association which exists between the specific func- tions of sex and the rest of the economy. How close this is in the female sex is now generally acknowledged, at least by physicians. But even they are apt to overlook the nearness of the generic power in man to all his other faculties. There is no one function which, if disturbed, leads se rapidly and certainly to general ill- feeling. The mind is sure to brood over it, and depress- ing melancholy, unfitness for action, and hypochondria will result. Dyspeptic and nervous diseases without number, general debility, and many forms of insanity are more or less directly developed from some disorder of the repro- ductive power. Many an obscure complaint, which has led the sufferer from doctor to doctor, and cost him quantities of time, trouble, and money, without any bene- fit, takes its origin in some mismanagement here, of which, perhaps, in his ignorance or thoughtlessness, he is quite unconcerned. Among many physicians, an unnecessary fear prevails lest they should offend by suggesting such a cause of disease, or a dread lest they should be thought undulv in- quisitive, or a doubt fostered by some few promineui; and prejudiced writers, as to whether bad effects really do come froui an abuse of the sexual powers. We can but repeat that every medical man who has given close study to the subj- ct is perfectly convinced that there is a vast body of anguish, m' atal and bodily, from thi? source. [Adtkors and Works refkred to.— To avoid the miisance of constant rfferencea, we append here a list of thu princijal autlioiities quoteo. : On the distinctions of sex, Waldtyt>r, Eierstock and £i, p. 152 j Fonssagrives, VEducation Vhysiqw dea Jcuiies FMes, Ch»i/. I. (Quetelet's Btatistics) AnraORS AND W0KK3 REFEKKED TO. flj Wiener AJedicinische irocAmsrArfft Tan lira ^ *^"^ of sexual passion) ; Virility : Journal d^lZtZtfhy^ol^^ut'^Yl fp^T S*"^^- ""? experiments on Bperm) • HufelanH !<^T^' o i • < , V Mantegazza's Hmtneet Physiolo,jie du Mar/ta^rnD^ 445 ^ J /*'""?*?' ^^V^^' tlisiiique ; Becquerel Trait/ ,Pnl^Lf^' ■ f' 1 ' l. ^ (formulaire aphro- Vie,ie Ourganlua, Liv. Ill cfi XXX ^S"p''l^'*'t™/ ^'^^«'*»^ ^^ III fw^ PART II. THE CELIBATE LIFE. With the male rests the choice whether or not he shall seek to contract a union with the other sex for the purpose of perpetuating the species. This is a wise, and, indeed, a necessary provision of nature ; for the man not only is more rapidly exhausted by the exercise of his peculiar functions, but on him rests the res})onsibilitiy of providing for the family he engenders. He should form no such union lightly, or before he has maturely weighed the arguments for and a<>aiust it. It is our purpose to assist him here by inrorming him of the advantages and the disadvantages of both conditions. And first, of — THE ADVANTAGES OF CEBIBACY. Were this world all, and life limited by the existence of the body, the physiologist could recognize no duty more imperative than that to the species, and no demand more important than that to perpetuate its existence. But be- yond this frail l.ouse of flesh is a life everlasting, and the preparations to tit ourselves worthily to enjoy it rank beyond any others. Therefore it is that the Master whose example io set before us for constant imitation, while ever referring to marriage as a holy and an honour- able rite, himself remained unmarried. And the most gifted of the apostles, when questioned closely on this point by the Corinthian converts, wrote to them this advice : — " As to the question which you have asked me in your letter, this is my answer; It is good for man to remain WHY NOT TO MARRY. 63 lOre .ore be- the ,nk iter on, lur- ted by unmarried. • * * In spenking thus, I do not mean to command marriage, but only to permit it. For I would that all men were as I am, * ♦ * To the unmarried I say tliat it would be good for them to remain in the state in which I also am." (1 Corinthians, Oonybeare and Howson's translation.) It is undeniable from this passage that St. Paul believed that a more devoted life — though not necessarily a purer one — could be led by a celibate. There ia no doubt of it. The calls of family aii'airs, the necessity of providing for wife and children, the time expended in the family circle, are all so many distractions which the celibate escapes. Not ft few of the men who have distinguisheti^ them- selves in science ami art preferred for this reason to renounce marriage. Sir Isaac Newton, Kant, the meta- physician, Alexander von H umholt, the gre«.test of modern physicists, the statesman Pitt, the sculptor Gibson, the philologist Jacob Grimm, and many others whose names are as familiar as thc^e, owe their celebrity in a measure to the devotion a single life allowed them to apply to their favourite pursuits. Hence it is that the Roman Catholic Church exacts celibacy of her priests, holding that thereby not only do they learn self-control, but that they can be more free to give themselves exclusivoly to the welfare of those under their spiritual charge. Lord Bacon urges the same view, saying: "Certainly the best works and of the greatest merit for the public have proceeded i "om unmarried or childless men." Such lofty motives as these, however, have little weight with most men, so we hasten to pnjceed to one that has, that is — economy. It is cheaper to live unmarried. The spiritual Michelet in his work on woman queries, or rather tlatly denies, this. But let him pass for an eccentric Fienchnian. An American ligures too closely to be per- suaded that it costs less to keep t\\ o than one. Whether the economy is not misplaced is an inquiry about wbich we shall have something ti» say hereafter. I ff 64 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. Certain it is that this motive of economy is the chief one for most men- deferring or renouncing marriage. It is particularly observable in large cities, where competi- tion in business and expensive establishments go hand in hand. As celibacy for this cause is rarely continence, history shows it associated with a low grade of morals. Marriage had almost disa])peared from ancient Rome before its fall, and to this fact a modern historical writer attributes its overthrow, so few native citizens being left to fight its battles. Paris and New York city both exhibit in their population a larger proportion of un- married men than otlier cities in their respective countries, and also a more depraved state of society. In ancient Sparta, and in some other states, laws have been enacted prohibiting celibacy, and several of the United States increase the taxes on single men after a certain age. It is |)resumed that if they escape so many burdens to which their married associates are condemneil, they should at least pay more to supi)ort the institutions which protect all. Love of liberty is often urged as a large item in the credit account of the celibate condition. A man can travel ; he can stay at home or go out ; he can smuke wh^n he pleases and live where he pleases ; he asks no one's permission., and is obliged to consult no one's con- venience but his own. If not monarch of all he surveys, he is at least autocrat in his own house, and lord of his own chamber. The yoke of matrimony, vhtculum matrimonii, as the Roman law aptly called it, does not gall his neck. All this is true ; but is he any the better, even any the happier for it ? Does liberty in this plea not mean licence ? But these are queries he must settle for himself. We cheerfully grant tliat his points are well taken as questions of fact. It is an old saying that he 'vho takes a wife makes a sacritice, and he who begets children gives hostages to Fortune. For all this, however, nature provides i^couipenses. I) REASONS FOR BACHELORHOOD. 6d PROPER REASONS FOR CELIBACY. We believe no morlern civilized state has revived the ancient law prohibiting bjich(;]orhood. It has been left, and wisely, to the discrotion of tlie individual himself. For there are very good reasons ^^■hy some men should avoid the nuptial tie. As a law, both moral and physical, tlie first indeed which man ever received, and which his inner promptings still enforce with singular veliemence, oe-'cite et mult IplicaiH 'nil, "increase and multiply," is universally binding. But exceptional cases arise in which it mny well be relaxed. We have referred to some such on tlie higlie^t of aU authorities, the words of Scripture. 'J'hen, too, there is sometimes a duty to support parents, and younger brothers and sisters, which justly excuses a man froiu contracting any new responsibilities. Some few men are so constituted that they never experience any real deep a (lection for the other sex. Such do wisely to refrain altogether. An instance was the philosopher Emanuel Kant ; he even went so far as to disUko female society, and avoided it altogether. The essayist Mon- taigne, though married, avers that he never felt any wish to assume those bonds. A far moro serious question is that which arises in connection with hereditary diseases, or those constitu- tional complaints contracted during life, which taint the blood, and are transmissible to olfspring. These inquiries we shall defer to a later pago, ]>remising that under some circumstances, not only do they permit, but mos forcibly enjoin at least temporary celil)acy. IMiysical incajiaeity h.is always been allowed to Ijc a just cause for alistaining, anil, indeed, in all the States of our Union we believe the divorce laws sanction an im- mediate divorce when such incapacity is establisheil, iind is pnjven to have been in existence at the time of mar- riage. Disappointed atlection, whether in consequence of the m m n» THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFR. proverbial inconstancy of woman, or by some casualty of nature, has ever been extolled by persona of sentiment and poetical minds as a praiseworthy argument for renouncing all future alliances. Thus the modem poet of the passions sings in Lockiey Hall : — ** Am I mad that I ■honid cherish that which beam bnt hitter fruit ? I will pluck it from my bosum thouKh my heart be at its root. Never, though my mortal •uuiuierH to such length of years shall come, As the many wintered crow that leads the clan^^ing rookery home." And, from a different motive, in the sweet ballad of Edward Gray : — " Love may come and love may go, And fly like a bird from tree to tre« | Bnt I will love no more, no more. Till Ellen Adair come back to me^ Bitterly wept I over the stone : Bitterly weeping I turned away ; There lies the botly of Ellen Adair i And there the heart of Edward Gray ! ** It is a touching constancy which thus cherishes the reminiscence of departed attachment, thus maintains the image of one love inviolate in the heart. The history of many men of deep sentiment who have never married is probably this. Washington Irving is said to have ever been faithful to the memory of a lady to whom he was engaged when young, and who was suddenly snatched from his side by death. The devotion to some high purpose, whether it be con- nected with the love of neighbour, the love of God, or the pursuit of science, is the highest reason for renouncing the pleasures and escaping the annoyances of family life. Examples of this kind compel our admiration, and usually the self-inflicted deprivation ennobles the cliaracter, as cheerful renunciation is ever sure to do. A devoted and eminent clergyman, remarkable for the geniality of his disposition, once replied to a friend of ours, who bantered him on his celibacy, that he was already married, that ON CHASTE CELIBACY. 67 his bride was the Church. He who can thus feel all his yearnings satisfied by the duties of his eallinij^ does well to abide content therewith. But let no one entertain for a moment the inexcusable doctrine that there is any other code of morals for genius, or for unusual ability, than that laid down in tlie Bible. There have not been wanting specious writers, who, on this plea, justify, or at least palliate, the immoralities of such men as Goethe, Byron, and F lusseau. When celibacy means anything but chastity, no matter in whom, or what the reason, it is assumed then it is a violation of physical and moral law, than which not one is more blameworthy or fraught with heavier penalties. ■II i !»i DISADVANTAQES OF CELIBACY Let us at this point draw a distinction, and a wide one. Under the tci-m celibates we include all males past the age of puberty who are not married ; but it by no means follows that this celibacy means continence, and still less chastity. The man is continent who commits neither fornication, nor adultery, nor secret vice ; but for all that, his mind may be " foul as hell within," and he may nourish his fancy on vile imaginings. Such a one is not chaste. Only he, pure in thought and in life, who withstands and overcomes the promptings of his carnal nature, deserves this noble epithet ; he it is who dwells in the condition of chaste celibacy ; and we say it at once, physically speaking, he alone escapes the disadvan- tages of celibacy, and he escapes them completely. We em- phatically condemn, as a most pernicious doctrine, one calculated to work untold evil, and to foster the worst forms of vice, the theory that any injury whatever rises from a chaste celihacy. The organs are not weakened, nor their power lo.st, nor is there a tendency to sperma- torrhoea, nor to congestions, nor to any one of those ilia which certain vicious writers, and certain superficial and i 1 fffl 09 TEE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. careless phyaicians have attributed to this state. No condition of life is more thoroughly consistent with perfect mental and physical vigour than absolute chastity, 'r'hose only suffer any ill results from celibacy who are impure in thought or act, and for them, it is true, nature has devised bitter tortures, and iiillicts them with pitiless severity. Looking first at general results, ^e put the question : Who live longer, the married or the celibate ? The answer is the same, seek it in the statistics of whnt country you will. In France, in England, in Scotland, in the United States, there are, in proportion to their respec- tive numi>er, more ihsLii twice as many married men st 11 living at the age of seventy, as single (more exactly 2G.9 married to 11.7 unmarried, Bec([uerel). This is alarming odds against the bachelors. Well might the registrar of Scotland say that it almost means, " Marry or die." To what are we to atti jute this difference ? The causes are not hard to assign. The nuirried man leads a more regular life, his indulgences are more tern })b- rate, rarely excessive, his meals are better served, his wife nur.'^es him when he is ill, and surrounds him with a thousand tender solicitudes and precautions when he is well. His mind is employed on his avocation, or on pleasant thoughts and cares for his home circle. He has no unsatislied yearnings, and he is not allowed vacant hours to sit in moody brooding over his iuture or his present ills. The sight and conversation of his children renew his own youth, and the relaxation he finds in joining their joyous sports instills into his frame some- thing of the spirit and vigour of the boy. How difierent the life of the celibate 1 Engrossed in elaborate and selfish cares for his health, he destroys the precautions of months by the excess of anight. Given to secret sins, he is exposed to destructive diseases : or else, not satisfying his propensities legitimately, nor yet con- trolling til em, he plunges into reckless dissipation and DANGER OF rMPURriY. 69 licence. Which class furnishes the most insane ? The celibates. In which is death from delirium tremens more frequent ? In the celibates. Who more frequently are suicides ? Again the celibates. These are all statistical truths, and they tell their own story. Looking at these parallel streams in which flow the lives of men, we may ajjply to them the words of Alfred de Musset'a pretty poem : — •* n est deux routes dans la vie t L'uiie paisible et fleurie, ' QuideHceml Ha pente cb^rie Suns 86 plaiiidie et .sauu aoupirer. L'autre, coimue un torreut nana di^oia, Daus une tSternelle fatijrue, Sous les pieds de Tenfiiiit prodigue, Boule la pieire d'lxiun." Whenever through an excitable temperament, a lack of self-government, or long habit, a man feels it impossible for hiui to live a virtuous life, he exposes himself, if he still shuns marriage, to serious mental and physical dis- ease. Worse than this, he doubly condemns himself in the eyes of the moralist, for he drags others from the path of virtue to share and to minister to his own de- basement. " The annals of eternity alone," forcibly remarks the Rev. John Todd, in his Hints Addressed to the Young Men of the United States, " can tell the amount of the guilt of the sin of impurity." And, as a physician, we may add those annals alone can reveal the destrueiion of health and life, the misuse of talents, and the wide- spread physical evils which follow in the same train. We shall proceed to show in detail what these are; but we cannot too often repeat that they are not the consequences of celibacy in itself, but of unchaste celibac3^ Tlie puro in heart, like Bunyan's pilgrim, passes these roaiing lions and these ravenous fires unscathed, and the volup- tuary alone falls their victim. It will be seen that these disadvantages attend chiefly upon those bachelors who lead immoral lives. We need m If " i: il II ITT 70 ■niE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. not conceal from ourselves tliat the vast majority of them do so. We are perfectly cognizant of the fact that the vices of single men support tlie most fragrant evils of modern society. Hejicu the sociologist finds very strong reasons to urge the policy of all men marrying, and also of marrying as soon as thoy attain the age of virility Regarding the question as a national one, it were to be hoped that such a regulation could be put in practice. [Authors and WonKs kkkkhret) to on Cblibact.— Ed. Keich, Gesrhirhte ties rhelichen Lrheiig, \>\t. f)ptums are for the medical man to under- stand, and would only mislead the un[ professional reatler. Suflicient to say that the earliest consequences are a langour, a disinclinati(j)i to physical and mental exertion, which are soon followed by an actual incapacity for such exertion — physical debility united with mental weakness. Epileptic and apoplectic attacks may also occur. An otlensive and cbaiactcristic seliishness develops in the character ; the thoughts and aspiiations seem incap- able of noble iliglits and philanthropic instincts. The iujaginatiun runs riot in images of debauchery, and tho fill 74 THE TllANSMISSION OF LIFE. conversation and reading choose by preference ij^oble and vulgar channels. The whole moral nature is debased to a more than l>ruial dt'gradation. Woman has no real charms for the miserable beinj' who no ioniser controls his', passions. In the stern woids of the Rev. John Todd : " In this life a heavier curse can hardly hang upon a young man than that of possessing a polluted imagina- tion. The leprosy fills the whole soul. Time only increases it, and even the power of the gospel am. seldom do more than restrain without subduing it." But the most feaiful eli'ects are not upon the body but the mind. We are no alarmists. W^e do not wish to con- jure up unfounded terrors. Bat our duty wouM not be done, and we would violate our conscience and our pro- fessional knowledge, did we attempt to veil or to ])alliate th'^ hideous 1" atures of this v'ce. We distinctly warn that it leads to insmiit'/, not rarely, hni frequently. There is no higher authority on mental diseases than Dr. Ileniy Maudsley cf England; and these are his words: " The habit of self-abuse notably gives rise to a peculiar and disagreeable form of insanity, characterized by intense self-feeling ami conceit, eytren)e perversion of feeling, and corresponding derangement of thou^^ht in the earlier stages; and later by failure of intelligence, noc- turnal liallucinations, and suicidal and homicidal propen- sities." So pvomitKJut and im[)ortant does this learned alienist esteem this variety of insanity that he has dt;- voted a long article to its descrii)tion in the Journal of Meiifdl ^Science (July, ]8(1S). Not only is it insidious and frequent; it is incurable, or nearly so. "Once the habit is formed," lie says, " and the mind has positively suffered fi'om it, there would be almost as much hope of the Ethiopian changing his skin or the leopard his spots, as of the victim abandoning the vice. The sooner ho sinks t.) Iiis dcgi'aded rest, the better ibr himself and the better tor the world, which is well rid of him," CI I!- Of ( >VIS [he olv of I A CAUSE OF INtJANiTY. 76 We have taken the pains to examine with care the latest reports of a larhysicians who have had the professional care of schools. Their general sentiment is that while there are very few insti- tutions for Iwys in which the vice is tlagrant, or at all universal, they are fewer in which it is unknown. Generally a considerable per cent, perhaps one-iil'th or one -sixth of the whole nunil>cr, are given to it to an ex- tent which is injui'ing their 1 todies or minds. Tlie medical attendants say that in most cases they have reason to believe that judicinusly and early informing the boys of tlu! een pressed over and over a<^Min to urge on parents, guardians, schoolmasters, and others interested in the education of youth, the necessity of giving their charge some warning, some intimation of their danger. To ;i;!- •! s and guardians I otter my earnest advice that they -hidd by hearty sympathy and frank explanation, aid their charge in maintaining a pure life." Dr. H. R. Storer remarks to the same etFect : "Children must be taught purity. There is no doubt that in many of them an improper tone of thought is established even before the period of pubei ly. For a boy to reach his teens without learning from his associates something of these matters is simply impossible." We urge, therefore, parents and teachers not to permit a natural, and under other circumstances ver}' proj>er deli- cacy, to restrain them from their bounden duty to warn their cliarges of these dangers. If wisely done, there imo risk whatever of exciting impure thoughts ; and if there is any risk, it is infiuitely less than that of leaving children in ignorance. In the first part of this work we have given at length the hygienic precautic^ns necissary to avoid and diminish sexual precocity. These should .scrupulously be enforced, and will be found of great value. To none of them do we attribute greater importance than continued, systema- 1:' I T 78 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. i' tic, gymnastic exercises. Use of the ranscles to the point of futi^fue eveiy day sliould be an unalterable regu- lation in schools. Not only is the general hmiltli proniotdl, and the form [)eifect(;d, but the nervous force's are thus centred on ])roviding increased nutrition foi-the muscular structure, and withdrawn from the jiarts essential to pro- pagation. Next to this is the study of mathematics. This requires such mental applicati<)n and fixity of thought, that the passions remain almost Wiiolly at rest. The regimen should be plain, and the imagination al- lowed to remain in abeyance. Sensational love stories, and even such wai'miy coloured pictures as are presented in the Arabian nights, and the amorous poets had better be tal.iooed. The growing custom of allowing very young people of both sexes to associate at parties, halls, dances, and simi- lar amusements cannot be approved on the score of health. It is nearly certain to favour precocity. Whether the education of tiie two sexes in the same institution would have the same eil'ect we do not know. Those who advocate tins system assert that it is extremely favourable to the maintenance of a sii;ipie and natural relation between the sexes, and consequently to the re- pression of the vice we are discussing. The experiment is being tried on a large scale in our country, so we may expect detinite knowledge ere long. Certain it is that one of the peculiarities of the young man who addicts himself to s(;cret vice is a desire to avoid persons of his own age of the opposite sex. His self-respect is impaired, and though others do not know it, he f(;els conscious of it hims(!lf, a)id shows it in mixed society. It might, therefore, act as a restraint on his self-degradation to have him freipiently in the company of femaU^ scholars, just as association witli puie and refined women is one of the best safeguai-ds which can be thrown around the adult young man. ■?!' f!i WORDS OF ADVICE. 79 iM ITS CURE. Many a victim with flfifrtrinnr bor masturbation is one vvliioli we are often asked. V\'e are in most cases ini-lined to reply no. In the ilrst place, the condition of matrimony is \ijo noble, too holy, to be debased by recommending it for any such purpose. Can the wife wooed and won wiih auv such ignoble ob- j(^et in view ever h >pe to be loved as a woman and a wile should be loved ? It is a base and ilagraiit outnige on society for the physician to give such recommendationu \ r iBBa^^ If MARUIAQE NOT RECOMMENDED. 81 ;ii^e Woiilrl he yield his own daughter to any man who soii_;iit lier for such a pui-pose? How thou dare he Counsel it ? Again, we believe that when the habit is not deejily rooted, an earnest endeavour, backed by rigid observance of the rules we have laid down, will enable a youth to conquer himself and his unnatural desires. But if it is deeply rooted ? We quote for our reply the words of Dr. Henry Maudsley, who gives no uncertain counsel: " Cer- tainly marriage need noi be reeouimended to the confirmed masturbator in the hope or expectation of curing him of his vice. He will most likely continue it afterwards, and tlie circumstances in which he is placed will aggravate the misery and the mischief of it. For natural inttu'course he has little power or no desire, and finds no pleasure in it; the indulgence of a depraved appetite has destroyed the natural appetite. Besides, if he be not entirely im- potent, what an outlook for any child begotten of such a degenerate stock ! Has a being so degraded any right to cuise a child with the inheritance of such a wretched de- scent ? Far better that the vice and its coasequences should die with him." These are hard words, and we are glad to believe that they are harder than need be. We have certainly known some few instances where after abuse for many years and to an excessive degree, men have married, had healthy children, and haAe been weaned from their un- natural appetite. We wish most clearly to be understood that even after great excesses of this nature, a young man may recover perfect health, and that where the habit has been but moderately fostered, in nearly every case, by simply ceasing from it, and ceasing thinking about it, he will do 80. Therefore there is no cause for despair or melan- choly. It is hardly credible, and yet it is true, that there are medical men of respectability who;lo not hesitate to adv ise 82 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. illicit intercourse as a remedy for masturbation. In othe» words, they destroy two souls and bodies under pretence of saving one ! No man with Christian principle, or even with a due respect for the statutes of the commonwealth, can approve for a moment such a course as this. Careful regulation of life according to sound hygienic rules, aided perhaps with appropriate medication which the physician can suggest, will generally effect good re- bults. When everything else fails we have no hesitation in re- commending surgical treatment. This is of various kinds, from repeated blistering to that ancient operation which Latin writers tell us was pratttised upon the singers of the Roman stage, called infibulation. This is of such a character as to render the act impossible or nearly so. Castration, which some have suggested, need never be re- sorted to. By one means or another we can say that that there are exceedingly few cases, except the actually insane, who cannot be broken of their habit, and consider- ably or wholly relieved of its after effects. A serious obstacle in the way of such reform is the un- willingness of sufferers to ask advice for fear of disclosing their weakness. They are ashamed to tell the truth about themselves, and, when they do apply to a physician, con- ceal the real cause of their debility, and deny it when it is asked. To such we may say that if they cannot have implicit faith in the honour as well as the skill of a medical adviser, they had better not consult him, for on their frankness his success will often depend. [Adthorb and Wobks refekued to on THI9 SUBJECT : Acton, On the Reproductive Organs, p. 82 ; Dr. Horatio 11. Storer, Is it I f l)r, John Ware, Hints to Young Men on the Relations of the Sexes ; Tissot Hur rOnanistite ; Rev. John Torld, The Student's Manual ; Henry Maudsley, Pkysiolofip and Pathology of the Afind, and Journal of Mental Science, July, 1808 ; Miiller, Ueber UmoiUkilrliche Samensverluste, pp. 23-;i4 ; Esquirol, Les Maladies Mentakt ; Eepurta of the Insane Ai^ylum of the U. S. for 1868, 1869, «to.] ! SPERMATORRlKEi. ou the ^ohn Sur uly, irol, for If the functions which cormect us with our species are a source of pleasure when properly govcriiee ashamed of, as it arises ne trly as often in [)erfectly continent as in unchaste men. The loss of the secretion then take,s place more fi'e- quently tlian we have mentioned, without ilreams, and on vei"y ulight provocation. It is associated with all tlie symptoms of an enervated nervous system, extending to a loss of meuior}', of mental power, and even of epilejisy and insanity. The countenance is pale and sallow ; the features drawn ; the eyes dull ; the 8j)irits depressed. Exer- cise of the functi<;ns is impracticable, or nearly so. Pro- found melanchol}', altered sexual feeling — often an aver- sion to society of eitlier sex — and impotence, may also present themselves. Uut here, as before, we shall avoid any long and terrifying r-atalogue of symptoms. When a man feels one-half ol the disturbances of system that sj)ermatorrhoea brings, he should, as we have said, have medical ailvice, and the physician already is acquaint- ^ease. Though it is rare, it is, when {)rest'itt, most doistrucLive to happinesB and to health, and, what is #. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 "-IIIIIM IM "" IM ||l|| 2j ^ li5 III 2.0 1.8 U IIIIII.6 V] <^ '/a '^1 S '3 ^• d? / Photographic Sciences Corporation iV # "^ V ^ :\ \ '«^. i'^ .^ #^ 6^ m^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.V 14580 (716) 872-4503 . i " THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. more to our purpose, it is always preventable. We shall speak, thereiore, of WHAT fiRINQS IT ABOUT ? UndoiiMcclly in most instances this is self-abuse. It is Hiiotlier of the bitter penalties which nature has attached tc) this unnatural crime. What is more, these cases are the most hopeless, simply because the victims cannot hit>ak the fatal chains which bind them. The tongues of men or angels, the solem warnini^ of the gospel itself, are unuvailing. The only choice that is left is death not very lemote, or a surgical operation which absolutely prevents them handling tlib parts. This last resort has succeeded when everything else has failed. But such is the state of mind of most victims that they cannot nerve them- selves to submitting t^^ it, A second cause is excess in indulgence. This may be in the marital relation, but far more frequently it occurs in the unmarried who are m(^re apt to indemnify them- selves for long self-government by renouncing all restraint when opportunity otters. Not a few wretched old bache- lors wreck then»selves in this manner. This class, too, are particularly exposed to another cause which leads to the same result — secret diseases. The after-consequences of these when neglected or ill-treated, often enough produce a weakening of the part, and a loss of power to retain the secretion. So, too, the indulgence in impure imagin- ings, and allowing the passions to become frequently ex- cited, surely bring about a similar debility with a like tendency. All these are causes which imjily a degraded mind and disgraceful habits. But it must be understood that this disorder may arise where no blame whatever attaches to tlie individual The change in the urine which takes place when the substance termed oxalic acid is secreted in large quantities renders the fluid imtating, and may lead to spermatorrhoea. So unquestionably may stone in the PREVENnVE RULE8. )0, are ,0 the es of 0(1 lice etain agiu- ex- like and this es to lace arge d to the \l bladder, ulcers and worms in the lower bowel,and sonu» local inflammations arising from colds. Prolonged diarrhoea, neglect of cleanliuess, certain skin diseases, the inordinate use of coffee, alcohol, or tobacco, excessive mental applica- tion to the neglect of exercise, and a hereditary predis- [losition, may, or any of them, lead to the same result, without the individual being the least in fault The judicious physician always bears this in mind, and we mention it, so that no unfounded fear, lest he should be suspected or convicted of debasing practices, may restrain the young man who fears he is suffering from this much- dnaded complaint from candidly layhig bare his anxieties te his medical counsellor. And if it be these habits which are the source of his suffering, he should have no hesitation in making a frank stjitement, for the physician's oflice is as inviolable as the confessional, and he knows too well that ignorance is at the source of this habit, to condemn or despise one who is or has been under its fell sway. HOW TO PREVENT IT. The suggestions we have to offer here are rendered al- most unnecessaiy by what we have said of its causes. Many of them — all of them, indeed, except the hereditary predisposition — are within the power of the individual to avoid, if he only knows enough to begin in time. The in- structions we have previously given in detail about the g(!neral hygiene of the passions will apply to those who are threatened by weakness in consequence of excesses, either social or solitary. \V hen the water or adjacent ir- ritations are to blame, these can promptly be remedied by any intelligent physician : and when the habits of food or drink are injurious they must be amended. Even when there is a natural weakness whichleada to over fre(juent losses, very much can l)e accomplished by cold bathing, regulai* exercise, an uiLstimulating diet, and I jyv THE TBANSMI8SI0N OF UFE. rigid purity. It is safe to say that this is one of those diseases which never occurs in a person who submits his life to thorough hygienic regulations ; and it is, therefore, a disease which we hope soon to see almost unknown to the young men of our day. HOW TO CURE IT. Although this is the physician's business and not the });itieiit's, and although it is no part of our plan to instruct or to advise the sick to heal themselves, there are some remarks we have to make under this head, which, if borne in mind and observed, will very materially assist the doctor, and aid those who cannot obtain the services of one. There is hardly any complaint in which treatment will be less satisfactory, unless the patient co-operates with his adviser. He must renounce injurious and irregular habits, shun evil companions, keep watch and ward over his emotions, avoid as he would the pest all prurient liter- ature, and live a chaste life. If he will not or cannot do this, he is lost. Hardly less important is it that he should strive by oc- cupation, innocent recreations, study and refined society to divert his thoui(hts from his symptoms. Nine-tenths of the misery which spermaton hcea brings arises directly or indirectly from mental sources. If it cannot be thrown off it can be dodged, and no effort or expense sliould be spared to seek genial and proper diversions. Nearly all such patients have a poicJuint for reading semi- medical books, ami take a gloomy satisfaction in perusing over and over again the long trains of appalling symptoms wliich some writers have gathered together as indicative of seminal losses. If such reading strengthened the will to resist temj)tation, or acte'd as a salutary warning, we should not say a word against it. But this is cons[»i- cuously not the case. It only serves to malce them still more hypochondriacal and unnerved. Let it be altogether eschewed. CURATIVE MEANS. Of the m'ithods of cure, one has acquired an unfortunate publicity through its ignorant and often injurious employ- ment — this is by cauterization. Many sutferers have had their pains greatly and uselessly increased by its injudi- cious application, many more have submitted to it when they had no disease at all, and were only hypochondriacal, and tormented by imaginary evils. It is rarely that it need be employed, and should never be thought of for a moment when in the hands of an advertising or itinerant charlatan. Our most emphatic warning — and we cannot lay too much stress upon it — is to shun irregular empirics and those who advertise themselves as " specialists " in this department. Most scandalous cases of exortion, mal -prac- tice, and blackmail come up before tlie police courts of our city nearly every year, and show most plainly how these insatiable leeches cajole and frighten their victims to the last degree, and for all their money furnish no sort of relief. Let the sufferer appeal to some regular physi- cian of good repute, and preferably, one whom he person- ally knows, rather than run any such risks. When the seminal losses occur during sleep, they c n {^'t'lierally be checked by taking the following prescript! a alter each meal, care being had not to allow it to tou »i the teet'i, which it is apt to injure : — ^) i I' Pm Muriated tincture of iron. Water. twenty drops j one tablesitounfol. A cold bath should be taken just before retiring, the water being poured along the spine from a height, for three to ten minutes. The bladder sliould be thoroughly emptied, and a position on the back avoided, as this pos- ture allows the urine to accumulate and press upon that portion of the bladder which is most sensitive. It is some- times necessary, when one cannot break himself from assuming such a position during sleep, to wear a plate with a projecting piece, fastoued on the back with a k^ ' 90 THE TRANSMISSION OF LTFR. liMl U.flKllf I ■ I strap or belt, or what is oqually good, to tie a towel around the body with a hard knot in it just over the spine. Several means have been devised to prevent erections during sleep, and instrument makers vend for this purpose *' spermatorrhoeal rings," which have on their inner sur- face sharp points. Tliese are worn at ni^ht, and the pain caused by the points wakes the person as soon as the erection commences. Such contrivances rarely answer the purpose on account of their inconvenience, and the difficulty of procuring them when wanted. A better and cheaper plan has lately been suggested by Dr. Wood, in the Canada Medical Journal. He reports having used successfully in two cases of this kind, one a very desperate and intractable one, in which all other measures had failod, the following simple method: " I took a strip of isiiiL^^lass adhesive plas- ter, two inches long by halt' an iiich wide, moistened it, and applied it along the back of th • raembc r. It worked like a charm, and the younji; man lias not been troubled since, when the plaster is on. Mo is now entirely re- covered and at work at his tiade," This method will also prove of service in those obstiuate cases where selt-pollution is carried on during sit ep, atid at no other time. Mr. Acton relates the case of a young man who could break himself "f this only by tying his hands to a cord passed around his neck ; and Prof. S. M. Bemi.ss, of the University of Louisiana, mentions in the New Orleam Journal of Medicine one of his patients, a boy of eighteen, who had brought on epilepsy by noctur- nal masturbation, to prevent which they had tied his hands and feet nightly to the bed posts. The French surgeon, M. Doisneau.has recently published a description of an instrument he uses for this purj:»ose, which interrupts the circulation to the genitel organs, and t lus renders erection impossible. lie has used it with signal 8uce!08s in several cases. It consists of a strap pas- sing between the thighs, to which are fa.st/eQed two '^ f' .,: HINTS FOR TREATMENT, 91 tightly-stuffed balls, which compress the arteries leading to the member, and cut off the supply of blood. Tins bandage is applied over the shirt upon retirinff for the night, and by means of straps we can obtain a com- pression sutticient to render an erection very rare, if indeed It ever takes place the circulation being so interrupted that the parts remain benumbed, and as though paralyzed by f Ai" ;iOR8 AND Works Rbfkrkkd to in this Skction • r>r v., tj_ Sp.nauto,rha.a, AM. a.d Surf,. RepoSer, Z^^'lnd jVnT^o'f'pr^ Niemeyer, Uxt Hook of Practical Medicine vol ii.1 ^n^^ j n' ^^^. Treatise on Spermatorrhota ; Dr MarrT W^£,n / .i "'/".f Practical .S.mi,iafe,. clmp. iii. v. vi • Dr AiLt S Naff Ytarly Cowpendium of the. Medical *'(-iwL Un Vxr? . £ ' • l^^^ ' *>«<«« of Snryery ; St. Louh Med<. ifArrhiJ^Ur ^^^^ } 1 ' *i"chHen, eal Journal :yr. T,e.an, BhZ: ufl^lZU^^'a^ "AiyU?t ^>t Umia Medical Archives, man, y«*r. ''"*'^'^ MedtuU, 18C9 ; wid Ow A. H 1 I \ w SECRET DISEASES. THEIR EFFECTS AND FIlE(jUEMCT. A masked pestilence, a subtle infection ia stealing upon i!io health of the nation, poisoning its blood and shoiten- ing its life, spreading from husband to wife, from parent to offspring, from nurse to infant, working slowly but with a fatal and an inexorable certainty. This pestilence is the specific contagion of diseases which arise from impure intercourse. Were this its only source, and did it stay its ravages with the guilty parties, we might say it is a just penalty, and calls for little sympathy. But this is not so. By the inscrutable law of God, which decrees that the sins of tlie father shall be visited on the children, even unto the third and fourth generation, these diseases work attainder of blood, become hereditary, and blight the offspring. They pass from the guilty to the innocent by lawful inter- course, by vaccination, by circumcision, by nursing, by utensils, even by a kisa Hundreds of examples are re- corded in medical literature, where the infection has spread by just such means. Not a single physician of experience who has not witnessed wife and children poisoned by the husband's infidelity. Here again we fear that we shall be called alarmists, and severely criticized for exciting unnecessary appre- hension. We care not. This is no imaginary evil we combat, nor is it any paltry or insignificant one. We do but repeat, and with moderated emphasis, what others have already said. We have before us a work which is anything but sensational, and which was written by men who stand second to none in our land for professional and personal character, It is the Fifth Annual Beport of the ' SECRET DISEASES. 93 Board of State Charities of Massachusetts (1868). The Board are speaking (p. Ivi.) of *' that hideous disease which must have come from the most venomous fang of the ser- pent which bit the heel of mankind/' and they go on to say: " Woe to the bodily tabernacle in which it once enters ; for it is one of those evil spirits which not even prayer and fasting can cast out. With slow, painless, insidious, resistless march, it penetrates into the very marrow of the bones, and poisons the fountain of life beyond purific»\- tion. All may look fair without and feel fair within, but the taint is there, and it affects the offspring. The effects of this disorder in corrupting the human stock, and pre- disposing offspring to disease, are more deadly than is usually believed. They are hardly exceeded by the effects of alcohol. Nature readily, ' forgives unto the sons of men other sins and blasphemies wherewith soever they may blaspheme,' but this one, like ' him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit, hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation, for he hath an unclean spirit.'" And this is said, be it remembered, in a public docu- ment, for general distribution. Can we then be blamed if we remove without compunction the veil which hides the hideous features of this malady ? Would we not de- serve extremest censure in a work of this nature if we hesitated so to do ? We would gladly add, to counterbalance what we have to say on this point, that such maladies are rare. But who would believe it ? Is it not notorious that there is no hamlet so remote, no fiontier settlement so isolated, that it is free of tlie scourge ? In the great cities it is fearfully prevalent. Including both sexes and all grades of society, we do not doubt that more tiian tu'eiiti/-Jive jwr cent, of their whole population is more or less tainted with it, and the greater number inriocenilij. Nor is it at all confined to the indigent and the degraded. Its hold is just as firm, i w 94 TUB TRANSMIciSION OF UFK. though concealed and held in chock, in the fashionable clubs and stately inansiotis of the opulent, as in the alleys and back slums of the dregs of our population. No nian, no woman, we care not what his position or his life may be, is secure from its loathsome totich. 11 ow prcat, therefore, is the error of those who speak of it as a penalty which is confined to low vice only ? And how short-sighted the policy which bids us to " Rkin and film the ulceroan place, Whilen rank corruptinn, miiiiut; all witliia, lufecta uiiHoen." This social problem interests the public. They must appreciate} the dani^er, thrif imist unite and act, thejf must lake up arms in soleinM (Niiiicst, ai\il ilt'*ii nuMC to eurb and limit, and if in any way possiMe, utterly stamp i»ut this spreading; evil. What infonua*ion seems to ua of use for tliis purpose, w<; shall {H'oOi'cd to give. TnirU NATL'RK AND in:-.T()UY. The conta.;i()U8 diseases which are propagated by the sexual relations are two in numlnsr, and are technically known as gonorrlura iind sypliilis. They both commence by some local manifestation, and may not proceed fur- ther ; but about as often they rapidly extend to the whole system, and produce ettects upon it which are as permanent in character as those by vaccination or other specific virus. By far the most insidious and descructive is syphilis. This is supposed by some writers to have been unknown in Europe until about the period of the discovery of America. And not a few historians maintain that it was conveyed from the natives of the West Indies to the in- habitants of the Oil Woil I by the sailors of Columbus. Certainly about tliat time it bi-oke out with unparalk-led virulence in the camps, courts, and brothels of Spain, Italy, HISTORY OF SYPHILIS. d6 lilis. iwn of 'as in- ;>ns. •led France, and Enp^land. No country was willinsf to fatlier it, so the Enj^lish called it the " French disease ; " the French, " le mal de Naples;" the Italians, "la mallattia iella Spa;^na." There is good reason, however, to believe that neither Columbus, the Indiana, nor any one of those nations was solely to blame in the matter. Probably it had lurked unreco^'nized and under comparatively innocent forms throuji;h all races and ajjes. At the epoch referred to, the niassiny this time tiie whole body is poisoned, and an eradio- able taint is infused in the system. The constitution, though still apparently stiong, is liable to give way at any moment. There is no longer the same power to re- pair injuries which there once was. The bones are brittle, and slow to heal. We knew of a young man of promise who was in this condition. One day, in merely attempt- ing to pull his boot, lie nnsipped his thigh-bone, weakened as it was by the disease. For nearly two years he lay on his bed, and was only released by dratli. Let any one who wishes to see a picture of what a human being is who is brought to this wretched condition by his vices or his misfortune, yieruse the sketch entitled "A Man about Town " in Mr. Wai len's remarkable book, " The Diary of a London Physi«;ian." If after reading that masterly de- lineation he still feels willing to incur the risk of such a loathsome fate, then to him other words of warning are vain and needless. "SYPniLOl'IlOBIA." While we do not wish to mitigate by one line the dark coloui-s of this picture, we still have a word of consolation which we shall interpolate here. By no means every case of disease luns on to this dire form ; constitutions differ exceedingly, and on some the elfects of the poison are brief and passing. A liidoous phantom haunts soiue men lest they should have this disease lurking in their system They watch with terror every swelling and eruj)tion on themselves and their children. None but the observant physician can appreciate what horrois prey upon them lli' GROIFNDLESS ERRORS. We know the son of a distinguished professor, a yonri with these fact«i, it becomes of the highi^st general intt'i-st to learn what the laws of such transnds- sion are, so far as they have been discovered by caret ul ob- servation. They are curious. It is possible for a man in whoso constitutinn the taint of disease exists, but is latent, to have peil'rctly sound oHsjiring. But if he has any symp- toms of the disease in any stage, it is probable, nay, almost certain, that his children will show the effects ot it, al- though their mother remains healthy. Much more generally the mother takes the disease either from the father, or from the unborn child in whose body lurks the paternal taint. But unless she does so before the seventh month ot her pregnancy, she will escape. When both uM'ther and father display unequivocal signs of the disease, the case of the child is desperate. There is liardly any hope of its being born sound. When such a eliild is born, it is a dangerous source of infection for all around it. The nurse who applies it wO \\\ LAWS OF TRANSMISSION. 101 her breast, the friend who kisses it, the attendants who handle it, are in imminent danger of becoming in turn victims of the loathsome apply to us for advice OK O.Wii diliietili subject, to tt.st, their eoiistitutiona thor- MEANS OF PREVENTION. 103 oughly, and see if they have any seedn of the malady in their systems. This can be done by bathing daily for a month in warm natural sulphur waters ; for example, the hot springs of Arkansas, those on the St, John River in Florida, or those so well known to the fashionable public in Virginia. These have the property of producing a pt.'culiar eruption on the skin if syphilis is present ; and if this does not appear, we may be very certairi that there is no virus in the system. are its !i it bc- ' be iod land rear Imp Ivice hor- HOW TO PREVENT THILSE DISEASES. What we have said of the extent, the virulence, and the calamitous results on the individual, his otlspring, and the nation, of these diseases, must evoke in every mind the earnest desire to see some regulations devised and carried out which will limit, and, if pissible, annihilate this destructive scourge. The nature of syj>hilis leads us to hope for this consummation. It is strictly coutariiary, 1870, before the New York Medical Journal Association : " It cannot be too often mentioned that p)norrh(ua is not always the result of illicit or impure intei-eourse. It is of the i^reatest import- ance that we should fully ai)pr('ciate tlii^ fact, foi' the most disastrous constipiciices liavi^ resulted fioni i^or- ance of it." All writers are agreed tliat the Cwnditiuns we have mentioned in the female may give rise to it. Such causes, tlierefui-o, slii^dd Ite s<.'rupuiously avoided; and also we should be not over-a])t to c^ndenm the pc rson, male or female, who thus nnist bear the suspiciou of uu- chastity. PERSONAL MEANS OF PRI<:VENTION. Foreiij^n writers have spoken much of the means for the personal prevention of disease* of tliis character. Very minute directions are idven, and coitain cheuiic;d preservatives rec(»mniend»'d, by the a[)]tli(iition of which immediately aftei- exj)o.sun;, the virus which conveys the disease is neutralized, and deprived of its poisonous pro- perties. Certain mechanical a]»pliances have been brouijfht beloie the professional }>ublic l>y Ameiican surgeons for the same purpose, and their u.se ha.s tiecn defended by the welbknown surgeo)i, Dr. iiumstead, of New York, on the ground tliat "the passions alwavs will contrcd, as they always have controlled, the moral .•^enso of the gi'eater part of man and woinaid-iind, and as the ell'ects of vice ai'e by no means conliiied to the guilty, theii- prevention is no unworthy subjt^et of considei'ation." While conci d- iug the force of this expression (^f so eminent a teacher, we still fear that siu;]i inrorniation, if given publicly and promiscuously, nnght tend to remove one of the barriers which now keep men in the path of rectitude. We there- tore believe such instiuctious should be kept for individual the AUTHORITIES. 105 instances, and reserveil for thoae cases in married life, whore, on the one hand, an abstinence on the part of the husband might lead to bitter feeling, or destruction of domestic ties from suspicion and jealousy; and on the other, should he not abstain, he might involve her in hia own misfoi , une. They avc- alao justifiable when a wife has a discharge of the character we have mentioned, which is liable to produce a disease apparently sped tic in character, in her husband. Some men are extremly sensitive to any ex- posure of this kind while others suffer it with impunity. Instances may also occur, and, to our knowledge, do occur where men engaged to be married, and the day fixed, con- tract, shortly before their wedding, one of these diseases. A thousand social reasons coMibinc to prevent them obtain- ing a delay ; they are often not aware of the full extent of the danger to which they will expose their bride and their children ; they are not very conscientious; such mar- riages are often for policy or convenience, and they marry. If they could save their wives' health, they would. They generally can, and it is the least that can be asked of them to do so. Yet, as we have said, with these contingencies in our mind, we have not felt it would be right to detail the means recommended, lost wo should in some degree shear of its proper t«3rrors illicit intercourse. •eater vice I lion K'l d- iclior, and •riers .hore- idual [ AUTHOHS AND W0RK8 REFEUBRD TO OS TIIE3B TOPICS.— Dr. Wm, A. Ham mond, On Venereal Diseases ; Wm. Actou, On PruHtitution ; Dtirke*, On Gonovrhaa and Si/phUU ; Dr. Berkeley Mill, On Venereal JH.teasen ; Barton, Nature ami 2'raitiiient of SiiphUis ; CoUes, On Si/phi/ia ; OuUerier, Atlas of Venereal IH^exise^ ; Dr. .1. F. r.umstcjul, (>« Venerc'il Diseases ; Ijancereftux, Trnitt hiliti ; The IVeMminHcr Rerino for July, iMiit, January ami April, 1870 ; 8t"iii, iu Nao York Meitcal .lour- nal ; and :iunier<>us inonosjraplis, rt-purts, discus-iioiia, and articles in the re- cent medical periixlicalet. J liid THE SOCIAL EVIL; We have now pointed out with tlispassionate yet earnest words th(; doplorahle consecpienoos of misgoverned si;x- ual instinct on the individual, on his family, on his child- run, and through those on society and the race at large. There remains for us to turn a still darker page, and to reveal an abyss of misery, iniquity, and disease, from which the philanthropist too often turns away with a shudder. This abyss is iiroslitutlon, the great social evil of our day, invading all grades of society, contaminating with leprous touch tlie fairest of our land, destroying the pure joys of the domestic hearth, the well-spring of dis- gusting maladies, the inexhaustible source of all manner of evil Too often the clergyman and the statesman prefer to shut their eyes und shun the unpleasant topic This is Tioi our purpose. Such a course can command no admiration and etl'ect no good re uilt, Rather will we risk the charge of over-plainness of sj)eech tlian hesitate to exhibit the na- ture, the extent, and tl»e consequences of this infecting ulcer in the body politic of our land. Our statements are based on careful studies of original documents, and tlie opinions of thcjse pliysicians and pliihmthropists who have devoted most time to com! in ting this pest. We shall aim to exhibit it as it actually exists in our midst, choos- ing the most trustworthy and the most recent sonnies of infornuvtion, and premising that all our statements are taken directly from oi iginal authorities. h PBOSTITIJTION IN THE UNITED STATES. There is no branch ot social science that offers greater dilHcultiea to the investigator than that which cuneerua ii^.X POLICE RE(JISTRATION. 107 mil are itself with the munbor, the life, the fate, and the condi- tion of fallen woirien. It havS ever been so. Thousands of years ai^o Kin.,' Solomon the wise .s;iid — " Lest thou shouMst ponder the path of her life, lier ways are movable, that thou canst not know them." (Proverbs v., G.) 'J'he great Tnajorlty of tliora entirely elude the searches of the polic(;, and coiun a! their cullmLj under some out- ward garl> of lujiiost occupation. iJefore wo proceed, therofoi'e, to tstiinate the numbers in our large cities, we iiiu.^t explain the dill'ci'ent classes in which they are di- vided. The [lolice reports of our great cities divide them into "public prostitutes," "waiter-girls," ami " kept women," or '* private mistresses." The tirst mentioned alone can, f)r oltvious reasons, be known as such to the police. They are those who ])ly their avocation with such publicity as to become f.innliar to the agents of the law. Many of the mistresses dress as well, drive as elegant equipages, and behave in public as decorously as any ladies. The " waiter-girls " can oidy lie classed as to character accord- ing to tlie good or bad reputation of the refreshment houses where they arc employed. There are certain saloons — Captain Kei\nedy, Siij) rintendent of the New York Metropolitan I'olii e, says tliirty-tliree in that city and Brooklvn — in which tlie chief business is licentious- ness. They were a few years ago very abundant in St. Louis, and the wretched women in them were known locall}^ as " beer jerkers ; " but the excessively injurious elfects of sue i estalilislimt>nts became so notorious that they were all shut U[). Only the lowest class of depraved women are found in such dens. The haunts of tliose one degree above those girls are known to the [)olice as "houses of prostitution;" and ranking above tln^se again in the obscnvauco of de- corum are the " houses of assignation." In the former, the inmates either go forth at uighi to seek their victims, '^1 ■i li 108 THE TUANSMISSION OF LirK. and are known as " boarders ;" or they remain within, and await chance comers, and are tlien called " parlour hoarders." The mistress of the house furnishes room and board to her inmates, and sometimes clothin-x, for which articles she takes care to keep them in debt to her. lii([Uor of the vilest manufacture is always kept on hand at extrava;^;int prices, and the ijirls are forced by threats and promises to urn^e its sale, (jiambliiiir is not uncommon, and " panel thieving " is carried on with great adroitness iji very many of thtm. All the inmates of these infamous houses bear assumed names, and it is a matter of constant observation hovv " movable " they are, as our translation of the Proverbs has it. They go from house to house, and from city to city, driven by an aimless restlessness. They are of all nationalities, Americans and Germans predominating, the Celtic race, that is, the Scotch, Welsh, and Irish, being in the minority, in proportion to the general population. What is surprising, in Philadelphia, New York, and probably other northern cities, there are houses fitted up with considerable expense in which all the inmates are mixed, negro and white blood, quadroons and octoroons. They are patronized exclusively by white men. The houses of Jissignation, according to the police re- ports of New York, are yearly on the increase, while the houses of prostitution are decreasing. In the former, the proprietors pret'jnd to keep no boarders, but to have a ninnber of female ac([uaintances, who, to eke out a scanty income or for motives of pleasure merely, sell their bodies. This story in ninety-nine cases in a hundred is notoriously false, and the women in such hou-;es are as often common street-walkers as anything else. With these explanations in mind, we shall proceed to estimate the magnitude of this great evil in some of our cities, and thus show the imperative importance, in a hygienic as well as a purely moral view, of taking some measures to curb it. According to the police reports of ii NUMBER OF PROSTITUTES. 109 to our Q a ome of 1869 there are in New York auJ Brooklyn 496 houses of prostitution iind 107 houses of assignation. The whole number of women certainly known to the police as public prostitutes is 2,107 ; but various competent authorities estimate the actual number of those who subsist in great part or entirely on the wages of sin, at the enormous nninber of thirty fhonsand. This calculation, allowing for difference !ti extent and character of population, a<(r(H!S closely with that made by the Midnight Mission of Philadelj)hia in the same year. The orticers of this charity are of opinion that there are not less than tivdve tlioiMsand in that city. In Cincinnati a municipal law orders a register to be kept at police headquarters, on which the name and ad- dress of every woU-ascertaincd public prostitute are in- 8cri\)ed. In IS(]9 tlie number so retion. Though this disposition of the majority we believe to bo true, yet a large minority do die. If one considers for a moment the irreguharities, excesses, and exposures to which tliey are sul ejected he cannot doubt this. Many of them are constantly diseased with venereal maladies; they often drink to intoxication ; they are exposed to in- clement weather with insullicient clothing ; they are fre- quently injured in brutal brothel tii^hts; tlkeyare neglect- ed when sick. Their chance of life must necessarily bo greatly lessened. But this, though serious enough, is by no means the worst eflfect. It is the almost hopeless moral death of the prostitute which is the darkest result of her mode of life. The woman who once loses her virtue can never re- cover her self respect ; but she, who for money has pros- tituted her body as a trade, seems to lose hold of all moral principle, and even natural aliection. She conserta by li THE FATE OF TIIK FALLEN. in noce-sity and ])n'fL'ron<'0 with tliicvcs, rrjitnldcrs, and tlie viK'st cliiSHc's of men. Slio liiicly iiiiiUr.s tliu ell(jrt to riil horsolf" from the jaws of di'uth even when assistance is oU'ei'ed. The ancient licathen wrote over the dooi^s of hrotht.'Is: Hie Imh'itdt vu!i({>tns, litre j)k'as\n'e dweUeth ; hut the cliristian kriows that a far triu'r inscription were that which Dante says is written over tlie »;ate3 ol hoU : " Leave every hope, ye who filter here." It is this utter demoralization which invests with such ditlicnlty every attempt to redeem these creatures. And we nnist look it scpiarely in the face in ail our .schemes for reform. The most striki: ' ihihition of their unnatural dehasc- nient is the almosi entire lack of maternal feelintj in these women. Their avocation by its constant excitement prevents conception as a rule, and this is a boneticent law of nature. For the wretched oll's[)iin<_,f of such motln-rs could hope for nothing but misery. When liorn, the in- fants are usually sent to a foundiin-/ hospital, or tprehended ; we mean its ellect on the men who support it. i <1 > il t! iJf. I>l 112 THE TRANvSMISSION OF I.IFK. 'ii'i i ;' i:l t I t !■ i^'J'. This is, if anything, even more deplorable than on the won\an. The words of the wi.se king are every whit as true now as they ever were, and we would that miiii.ster.s of the gospel had the nerve to choose them oftener as a text : " The lips of a strange woman drop as a honey-comb, and her mouth is smoother than oil ; " But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two- edged sword ; " Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell; " Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house ; "Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel ; " Lest strangers be filled with thy wealtli, and thy la- bours be in the house of a stranger ; " And thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed." (Proverbs v.) " Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither : and as for him that wanteth understanding, she .sf 'h to him : " Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant ; " But he knoweth not that the dead are there ; and that her guests are in the depths of hell." (Proverbs, ix.) And who are the guests ? The gjimbler, the thief, the policy dealer, the rutlian ; and with these the college stu- dent, the bank clerk, the member of the fashionable club ; aye, and also the father of the family, the husband of a pure wife, the head of the firm, the member of church ; all these, every night in all our great cities. Can any of these think to esrupe the contamination ? Vain chim- era. It is as certain as death. If nothing else remai as, tJie moral stain is indelible. As the poet Barns uigst truly says : — " It hardens a' within, And (letritius tb«) ftnilinj^" — 1 1 WHO MAINTAIN THIS EVIL. 113 Bat often there are physical consequences more im- mediately troublesome than this. The prevalence of con- tagious c'l^vJRse among these women is shocking. It is safe to say that one in three or four is suffering under some comiaunicablo form of them. " And how fearfully," exclaims the Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg in his sermon on the Midnight Mission, " is the wrath of God seen in these physical cimsequencos ! The most loathsome sight which the diseased human body, in man or woman, exhibits, the most horridly disgusting, are the living corpses in which victims of lust are putrefying to their graves." We have already said enough on this point, and we pass to another. Besides being niorally degrading, and physically dan- gerous, illicit indulgence is pecuniarily ruinous. These women accustom themselves and their dupes to reckless expenditure, and of course they sink together into poverty. Nor let tl e shrewd and cautious business n)an think him- self safe. It is notorious that a large class of these women are kept by their paramouis exclusively for the purpose of levying black inail. The middle-aged, respectable married man is allured by some decoy, his name is learned from his clothing or by the panel thief from his pocket book, he is tracked to his home or place of business, his history and family connections are hunted up, and with these facts at his command the unscrupulous pair have their victini in a net which he dares not break, and they bleed liim to their heart's content. No one not intimately acquainted with the vices of our great cities can have any idea of how many men of the " highest respectability " are daily sutfering the torments of the damned from the threats and extortions of such villains. Let this public ex|iOsition be a warning to those who are tempted by the woman in the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart who says : — " Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us solace ourselves with loves. ' ; ' ii 114 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIF& ** For the good man is not at home, he is gone a long journey. '• He hath taken a bag of money with him and will come home at the day api)ointed.'* If he yielda he will soon discover that the snares are spread as they ever were for those void of understanding. THE CAUSES THAT MAINTAIN IT. The social problem we are considering must be studied in its origin in order to prepare any method for its solu- tion. We ask, therefore, what is it leads so many women, usually almost necessarily young, healthy, and handsome —for they must be all these to ply that trade — to open or secret sin ? Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, in his sermon already quoted, answers thus : " Some with no excuse, others, if not with excuse, yet with palliations either in their bring- ing up apart from Christian intluences, and amid constant exposure to temptation ; or, from their having been the victims of seduction ; or from the extremities of destitu- tion ; or, allow me to add, in a fondness for finery, copy- ing their sisters in higher life, who, by their example of vam show in dress, have more to answer for in this mat- ter than they 8usi)ect." It is popularly supposed among men that in the greater number of cases it is the strong passions, the insatiable lusts of these women, which lead them to take up this mode of life. Such an opinion displays entire ignorance of woman's nature and facts. It is, probably, the rarest of all the causes which lead to public immoral life. It is true that many of these women claim and pretend to ex- hibit great erotic passion.but this is nearly always fictitious, adopted as an attraction, merely a " trick of the trade. " The excessive frequency with which they indulge blunts their sensibility and precludes the possibility of much real feeling. Probably the most common and fatal temptation to t.a. i THE TEMPTATlONa 115 >lo to I young women is simply money. They can gain more, and can, consequently, dress finer, live more idly, and fare better for a while by this than by any other means at their command. Then there are a very great number who are brought up to the business. The Board of Health of the Citizens' Association of New York estimate there are at least thirty thousand children between the ages of five and twelve in that city who are subject to no parental control, receive no instruction either religious or secular, and are con- stantly exposed to the corrupting influences of a hotbed of vice. Ten years later they becou^e a vast army of pros- titutes and thieves. So long as this is the case, it were indeed vain to expect the cessation of the evil. Seduction and violence are constant, but not the most important sources of supply. Country girls and female im- migrants are not unfrequently "allured to boarding-houses where scoundrels, with lying promises, or with lures of money, with the baits of vanity with the stupefying cup, or with violence, rifle them of their all, and leave them, lost strangers in a strange land, for other harpies to de- vour." (Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg.) It is notorious to those familiar with the vices of our cities, that there are so- called "em])loyment oflices," or "intelligence oftices," which are, in reality, snares for the unwary, and that the pro- prietor (male or female) is in connection with a house of ill-fame, and sends to such places those whom he thinks will be entrapped. Opulent satyrs, cloyed with ordinary mean?} of vice, and bent on provoking exhausted senses with novelty, offer large bids for youth and virtuo; stimulated by then), a class of evil old women make it tlioir business to be on the watch for giddy and vain girls, and set before them every temptation to forsake the path of chastity. From these various sources the numbers of the lost are constantly maintained in our great cities, and coudtantly increase. i 11 ■A •!' fTT 'V 116 THE TRANSMISSION OT LIFE. IS IT A NECESSABT EVIL T Divines, philosophers, and physicians have united in the expression of the opinion that prostitution is a neces- sary evil, not only in the sense that it is unavoidable by any known regulation, but that it is necessary to the in- terest, even to the morality, of society at large. St. Augus- tine, the eminent father of the Latin church, in his book IJe Ordine, says : " Suppress prostitution, and you will plunge society into libertinage " — (aufer meretr'icea, turha- veria omnia libidinibus). The severe Cato recommended that young men should visit the brothels when their passions were ardent, so that they might not be templed to invade the sanctit" of marriage. " I regard prostitution, ' says Mr. Acton, "as an inevit- able attendant upon civilized, and especially closely packed j>opulation. When all is said and done, it is, and I believe ever will be, ineradicable." And to like effect the Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, of New York : " Th-^ ' social evil' is ever in proportion to the wealth and luxury of a community." Such opinions are discouraging, and are not to be ac- cepted as the solution of the problem. There is absolutely no moral evil which is msepartt?>/?/ connected with human society. Herbert Spencer, in his " Social Statics," points out with lucid and logical language the perfectihility of the liuman species. And it is a libel on man, " made in the image of God," to say that there is any crime, especially so flagitious and enormous a crime a° this, from which it is impossible for him to refrain. Granted that our efforts to escape it have hitherto been abortive ; yet there is no cause for despair ; we simply have not set about it right. The doctrine of St. Augustine above quoted seems to us monstrous and contrary to known facts. In what countries are the obligations of marriage most sacredly respected ? Is it in those where brothels are most abundant ? We trow not. Are the large cities, where such dens are located, u.'ore conspicuous for marital chastity than the rural LJttiki. PIJLNS OF CURE. 117 districta where none exists t Ttie proposition is an absurdity. In examining this whole subject with an impartial desire to ascertain the exact truth, we have failed to find a single redeeming feature in the vice of prostitution, with- out it be that there are women wretched enough, friendless enough, desperate enough, to be forced to this mode of life to escape starvation. And this is indeed sorry praise to give it. It only gives them a chance to sell their birth- right to heaven for a mess of the devil's pottage. The opportunity of illicit intercourse never protects marriage. Chastity, not allowed sensuality, is the safe- guard of the household. The more a young man sees of abandoned women, the less is his faith in woman in gen- eral, and the more reckless bec^' ' 3S his libertinism. n HOW CAN IT BE STOPPED. »fthe the lly BO it is Irts to lis no ri'jrht. to us IntrieH Icte.l 1 trow i^atert, rural The theories which have been propounded for the abat- ing of this formidable and hydra-headed evil have been numerous and diverse. We shall confine ourselves to the examination of a few which have been brought forward within the past few years. The boldest is that advocated by a " Christian Philoso- pher," in a work published in 1869, called " Monogamy and Polygamy Compared." This anonymous writer main- tains that Christian precept and example both advocate a plurality of wives; that such a system has really no seri- ously objectionable features, and that by absorbing all the female population into the married state it effectually kills prostitution by depriving it of any materiaL This theory we do not deem worthy of sober attack. Valuable for its practicability is the plan of repression suggested by Dr. George J. Ziegler, of Philadelphia, in •several medical periodicals in 1867. He urges that the act of sexual connection be ipso facto the solemnization of marriage, and that when any such single act can be h'\ rr" 118 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. proven against an unmarried man by an umarried woman, the latter be at once invested with the legal privileges of a wife. By vesting this power in the woman, no man would risk himself in the company of a dissolute, schem- ing girl,wlio might force him to a marriage, and ruin him for life. 1'here are many strong points in Dr. Ziegler's article, to which we refer our readers for full particulars (see list of authors at the close of this section). The stroiig- estobjection to it would bo that it would considerably in- crease the teniptations to destroy family purity, married women being the only ones who could be approached with- out danger of being forced into a misalliance. Last year (1869) Dr. Charles Drysdale, of Londt)n, a sociologist of eminence, brought forward a proposition in- tended to intiict the death-blow on prostitution ; it con- sists, to give his own words, in a general deturmination to have "early marriages, and very few children (imleetl, none at all, perhaps, as in France, for some years), and greater facility for divorce, as obtains at [ucsent in In- diana, and some other States of the United 8tatcs." We question very much whether those three recommen- dations would not have the very contrary effect from that desired. We have made considerable inquiry of ])rivate individuals from the States of our Union to whi».'h Dr. Drysdale refers, and all our informants seem convinced that the facile divorces have in nowise heljied the morals of the community. We have already shown that pi-ecisoly in Chicago, where divorces are notoriously easy to procure, the number of prostitutes in proportion to the population is greater than in Paris itself. How premature marriages, and the absence of the endearing ties which children knit between father and mother could increase purity of thought and chastity of life, we confess ourstdves quite unable to perceive. The fourth method suggested is based upon the un- doubted fact that it is money — which may stand for bread u J butter, or for fine clothes, or for intellectual gratitica- i V PLANS or CURE. 119 vate I Dr. )rala ;isv )ClltC, lation ages, knit y .of Iquito un- read dtica- tion, or for any of tlie numberless pleasant th^nj^ it can furnish (among which a quiet conscience and a sound body are not included) — money, that in the majority of cases is the real tempter. Give women, say the reformers of this school, the same opportunities to earn their living, to satisfy their tastes, to make money, aa men have, and the number will be few, who will be obliged, or who will care, to make it by destroying their reputations, their peace of mind, and their bodily health. Finally, there are those who believe in throwing all theories aside, and going to work at once in collecting these lost sheep of the Master into mission houses and halls, in setting forth to them the tem{)oral and eternal dangers of their lawless life, in providing those who will accept with remunerative labour, and situations adequate to their capacities, and in trying upon them the effects of sound religious instruction. Such are the Midnight Mis- sions which have been established by zealous and pious Christians in most of our cities ; such the Magdalen asy- lums supported by the Protestant denomination ; and such the *' Houses of the Good Shephei^d," organized for the same purpose by practical Catholics. These admirable institutions all accomplish a good M'ork, although in comparison with tlie magnitude of the harvest, the labourers are indeed few. We have attempted to form some idea of their actual efhcacy by examining such reports as we have been able to obtain. From these it appears that the Midnight Missions rescue from a life of sin nearly three-fourths of tliose who enter the Homes ; and we are informed by a lesponsible Catliolic authority that the proportion of the saved in the Houses of the Good She] )herd are between two-thirds and three-fourths. But satisi'actory as this is, it is discouraging to see how few can be induced to enter these doors of escape when they are opened. The Mithiiglit Mission Home in Amity Street, New York, in its report for the year 1868, shows only one hundred and twenty two receptions ; though it I "I i« II f w iiiii if w 120 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. I 'I' is true that these excellent charities, like so many others, are sadly cramped for want of means. SHALL IT BE REGULATED BY LAW t In mere despair at discovering any means of entire re- pression, and very properly ur willing to shut the eyes and refuse to see this hideous and advancing tide of immora- lity and disease, many governments have chosen the policy of recognizing its existence, and subjecting it to such regulations as have been thought best devised to limit its growth, and diminish its destructive conse- quences. There has been recently published several very elabor- ate discussions concerning the success of these plans of legislation as they are carried out in Europe. In general terms, they aim to have the name and residence of each prostitute registered, to have the houses licensed, and their inmates subjected at certain intervals to medical exami- nation. Those found diseased are at once sent to a vene- real hospital, where they are detained until cured. In Paris, the registered prostitutes are furnished with a ticket, giving name and residence, and this they are obliged to carry always with them, and show when called upon* They are not allowed to accost men on the streets, nor to employ in public places any of the wiles of harlotry. The houses (maisons ae tolSrance), are strictly watched by the police, and the charges are fixed, and posted up in a con- Bpicuous place. These onerous enactments have failed on account of their stringer. cy. The girls are subjected to so much surveillance that they seek in every way to escape from public into private walks of crime. Consequently, while in the last ten years, the number of registered women in Paris has been steadily decreasing, the number of private prostitutes, called griseUes, lorettea, femmes tntretenues, etc, have vastly and alarmingly increased. The contagious diseases act, which against violent oppo- !l LEGAL REGULATIONS, 121 situ n has been introduced into England during the last few years, and which has been highly praised by some, and as severely condemned by others, is still under pro- bation. It provides that any woman, against whom an inf 01 mant has deposed that he has reason to believe her a public prostitute, may be summoned by the superintendent of police, and be forced to submit to medical inspection, and to be placed under surveillance. If found disease* 1, she is ordered to a hosjntal, where she is obliged to remain until vhe medical officer pronounces her well. It has been justly urged against this act and the other acts associated with it, that tney encroach too much on the freedom of the individual. In the United States we have been very shy of approach- ing this delicate and difficult topic. Our legislators in)i- tate the ostrich, which, when it wishes to escape its enemies, is currently reported to hide its head in the sand, think- ing tht»t if it cannot see them they cannot see it. The results of this policy are that in Chicago, New York, Phi- ladelpUa, and all our largest cities, gross vice stalks our streets with unblushing tread, the strange woman lays her snare for innocence and youth at every street corner, dis- ease is more common and more deadly than in any regu- lated European state, and the proportion of prostitutes rivals that of any other civilized nation in the world. It is quite time, therefore, that we lay aside this most mischievous and dangerous modesty, or pretended blind- ness, and set about some decisive measures if not to purge away, at least to limit, control, and render as powerless as possible this infecting ulcer. Two things we can do ; we can prevent the open tempting on our public streets, the fearful facility of vice which now prevails ; and we can limit the spread of contagious disease. For the former, we require police regulations, firmly carried out, forbidding the accosting of men on the streets, indecent behaviour in public, and immodest dress. For the latter we must have periodical medical inspection of prostitutes, and wards or 'i I I" |!' [...f r... w 122 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. hospitals to which those found diseased can be sent until they are recovered. Here are two distinct, practical, thoroughly practicable aims for legislation, and every one who has the goou of his species at heart, and is not utterly cankered by obsolete prejudice, cannot but grant their urgent importance iu.4id great value. It has been supposed by the French surgeon, Auzias' Turenne and his disciples, that, so far as syphilis is con- cerned, this could be successfully checked by the process known as " syphilization." This method is based on the theory that after the syphi- litic poison has been artificially introduced into the sys- tem by repeated puncturing, the individual will thei oafter be protected against it, just as he is protected against smallpox by the practice of vaccination. A number of experiments have been carried out in France, Italy and Sweden, with this view. Necessarily it is chiefly limited to public prostitutes, as no other class of the community would submit to such an ordeal. It was hoped that by its universal adoption public women would be made incapable of contracting, and hence incapable of transmitting this variety of venereal poison. The results, though still somewhat uncertain, have not equalled these anticipations. While unquestionably the process does, to some extent, and for some time, materi- ally lessen the liability to contract the disease, it does so unequally in difierent individuals, and the protective influ- ence dies out after, at most, a few years. Even if successful it would be difficult of application, and its effects on public morals are open to question. Therefore, we may dismiss it as a means of repression too visionary to merit serious consideration. But, after all, it is not by police regulations, nor sanitary rules, nor legislative enactments, nor even, we fear, by gathering the fallen from the highways and byways of our crowded cities to bear the gospel, that we shall ever pat WHAT CAN BE DONE. 123 an end to tho social evil. We have been castinjj about for a tliou.saiid devices by which we could tlirust virtue down the tliroiits of otliei's, while ourselves continue our cakes and ale in peace. We have ever been ready to point the tiiiifer of shame at the erring sister; we have ever been eaf^er to rush forward and cast the first stcme, but have we ever pomlered for a moment on the words: "He that ia williuut siiL among you ? " Ah! here we touch the heart of the matter. Would you learn the only j)Ossible method of reforming sinful women ? Three words contain tho secret: Jieform the men. In them, in their illicit lusts, in their misgoverned passions, in their selfish desires, in their godless disregard of duty, in their ignorance of the wages of sin, in their want of nobleness to resist temptation, in their false notions of health, is the source of all this sin. Teach them the phy- siological truth that chaste continence is man's best state, morally, physically, mentally ; correct the seductive error which talks of indulgence as " natural," venial, excusable ; show them that man is only manful wlien he sees the right and does it; train them to regard self -government as the noblest achievement of all ; educate tliom fearlessly in tho nature and regulation of tliosc functions which pertain to the relations of the sexes; do this, and we shall soon see that we have gained a vantage ground over against which tlie powers of evil cannot stand. Every great social reform must begin with the male sex; their:3 it is to take the step in advance, and they must do it with self-knowledge,with intelligence, and with no false sentiment. Here, es])ecially, they must act. The sin is wholly of their own making. All the misery, all the lost souls, all the blighting consequences present and to come, of prostitution, are chargeable solely and whcjlly to tlio uncontrolled sexual instinct of the male. VVhat duty, then, is more imperative to tlie clergyman, the educator, the statesman, the enlightened philanthropist anywhere, than to study this instinct, to learn how to giiide it iu ir ff- w 124 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. youth and a^e, and how to direct it in its natural and healthy channels 7 (Adthobh and Works on Pkostitution BRK-KUitRo to.— Dr. flftiisror, Iflit- toryof Pro»titution; Dr. J. Jeann«l, ZV la Prmtitulon au dix-neuviime. .nirU; Acton, Progtitution in iU Moral, Horial, and Santtary Ani'tcli; PHrent-lUiclnV telet, De la Fro$tiUUion A Pom ; Dr. Va\. AndrewH, Letteri on Prottitulion, ('hicaKo Medical Exaiuiuer, October, 1807; Uev. L)r. W. A. Muhlenberg, Woman and Her Aecu$eri^ a Sernion for the Midnijfht Miwiion, 18lii» ; Dr. Zii'gler, Medical and Surgical Reporter, 18»»7; Dr. (MiarleH Drysdale, Medical Pnta and (Hrcular, May, 1869; Weatininnter Review, PruHitmtion and How to Cure It. January anrl April, 1870 ; the Annual Reports of the Superin- t«iident of Police, the Boards of Health and the Midnight Misaioiw oi New York, Philadelphia, Chivago, CiadiuiaU •to., for LM>7-iiai m PART III. TIIK MAURI KD LIFE. ii THE PRELIMINARIES OF MARRIAGE. A man first becomes a man and a woman a woman in marriaj^o. Only when united by tliat mysterious rite does each find nature satistiud, ami all the faculties and fuDctions meetly exercised. By sucli union tiiose jiowera which are diiected without the individual, those strong sentiments which are the revoise of the seltish and intro- verted portions of our constitution, are called into action, 'i'he husband and the father no longer labours for himself alone, no longer even piincipally for himself. There are others who, he feels, have claims upon his time, his thoughts, his possessions, mores imperative even than him- self. He first provides fur tliese, and for their sakes wil- lingly and olten undergoes deprivations and self-denials. To the philosopher who occupies iiis mind with the study of the motives of men, their self-abnegation must apf>ear at once one of the most singular and most beautiful traits in our nature. That we may justly appreciate the rite which we are about to describe, we shall first speak of m <■ III :'!' THE MEANING OF MAUUIAGE. The composite character of the nature of our species does not allow us to answer this in one sentence. We are formed of organic, terrestrial bodies, and of subtle spirits. To the former portion of our nature, marriagis is the condition best adapted to the perpetuation of the 'rr i! i ' 1:! IV. : m 1?6 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. m species : it is a union of two persons of opposite sexes which calls into play the peculiar functions of each, thus furnishing the necessary factors for the production of a third individual of the same species. The physiologist sees this and nothing more. He may even dare to say that there is nothing more. In this he egrcgiously errs. Were this all, it would have little booted the lesrislators of all time, and the divine voice itself, to have enacted stringent and numer- ous regulations having reference to the married state. Such a union extends its influence throughout the whole fabric of social avid political lite, and strikes its roots deep into the moral nature of the race. If we are asked for a specific detinition, we have found none better than that given some yeai-s since by the Count of Portalis in the French legislative body. It runs as ibllows: "Marriage is the union of a man witb, a woman, who associate them- selves in Older to perpetuate the species, to aid each other by mutual u,ssi-.tance, to sui)port together the chances of life, anil to endure the same fate." In this clear and [tractical statement we perceive precisely what every one who pro|)o.ses to form this relation should feel himself or herself thoroughly prepared to assume. It is only in the most abject members of the human race that we find the marriage tie almost obliterated, and in none, we believe, is it wholly null. There are, indeed tribes in East India where the practice of polyandiy, or of one woman having several husbands, is usual, but even among these, promiscuous intercourse is prohibited. The rudest savages respect and enforce fidelity ; they believe that adultery is a crime, and hold the family circle to be sacred In p .portion as morality and civilization advance, so do the sanctity of nuirriage and the appreciation of the beauty of marital cliastity. The Roman Catholic and Greek churches consider the rite one of the holy sacra- ••^f^nts of the church, and the apostles and the early fathers J.i DIGNITY OF MARiCIAGE. 12^ ^ m i of the church unanimously refer to the married condition as honoural)le, pure, and praiseworthy ; while no denun- ciations were too scathinf; for those lewd men and women who seek to degrade it by violi:*ting its ordinances. Just in proportion as such elevated sentiments as these are abroad in a comnmnlty, just in proportion as love is pure, marriage honoured, and the bed undefiled, will all tha other Christian and patriotic virtues be admired and practised. And no more ominous sign of decay and deep corruption in a nation can be seen, than when there is a wide-spread aversion to marriage, an oft-repeated sneer at the happiness it brings, a current doubt as to the fidelity of those who are united in its bonds. We believe and hope that perhaps excepting one or two of our largest and most profligate cities such a state of thouyht does not exist in our land. Most young persons of both sexes look forward to marriage as a desirable con- dition, and when they have entered it, they accept cheer- fully its burdens, observe honourably its injunctions, and are far happier than if they had remained single. Few matters give more anxiety than the fear that for some reason this favoured condition may never be reached, that some disability exists which disqualities one from its acceptance. This is not unfrequently a fruitful source of disquietude to young men, and therefore we deem it well to discuss here the PHYSICAL FITNESS AND UNFITNESS FOR MARRIAQE. The physiological and also the legal understanding of marriage is tliat it is a nmonforthe purpose of of spring. Therefore both the lawyer and the pliysician must con- demn any maninge in whieli this purpose is not at all, or only inipoifectly carried out. In other words, virility is a necessary preliminary to marriage. Not merely should the age of j)uberty be passed, but the whole body should be so developed, and the special functions ho Hi 128 THB TBAlfSMISSION OF LIFK. '? I I i i ' i .1 ! . i t i 1 1 ; i . '1 matured, that intercourse may not prove injurious to the male, nor his unripe secretion be unequal to the forma- tion of a healthy child. Impotence, we shall speak of hereafter, but here we in- sist on virility. Marriage works sure and irreparable injuries on the constitution of boys or very young men. Their lives are shortened, their health enfeebled, their mental powers frequently impaired. Then their children are usually puny and sickly, apt to have hereditary weak- ness, and not to attain advanced years. The most advisable age to marry has been much dis- cussed by writers in all ages. We shall not repeat their conflicting opinions, many of them purely theoretical, but say at once that in this country in the majority of cases, the full stature and complete development of physical powers are not attained before the age of twenty-live years, and that from that to thirty-five is the decade in which a man may the most suitably seek a wife. Physicians are not unfrequently appealed to on the question whether a person of feeble constitution will be benefited or injured by marriage. Many families have hereditary taints, and not a few young men through mis- fortune or tempt ai ion have incurred maladies which they fear may be aguravated by the novel relations under which they will be placed, or possibly transmitted in some form to their ofilspring. So far as such inquiries relate to those diseases which ordinarily arise from impure intercourse we have already replied to them iu the previous portion of this work. In cases of a consumptive, a scrofulous, or an insane ten- dency, it is probable that a pretlisposition to such weak- ness will be passed down, ami quite certain that they will, sliould a like tendency exist in the wife. But it is not likely that any of these diseases will be ag- gravated or hastened by marriage ; on the contrary, very many facts could readily be adduced to show that in both sexes, providing that the other partner has not the same .Ak DANGER OF DELAY. 129 tendency, such constitutional disorders are decidedly miti- gated and often altogether avoided by a union. The exercise of the generative functions in marriaije has a powerful derivative effect, and not rarely alters for the better a feeble constitution. Epilepsy, nervous depres- sion, and even occasional insanity have been known to be greatly relieved or removed by a judicious union. When, however, such debility arises from a progressive and natural decay of the body — in other words, when it is the consequence of advancing age — the very worst results may be apprehended from such a step. There are matrimonial engagements occasionally contracted by elderly men which are eminently satisfactory both physi- cally and mentally. But in such instance the man must be healthy and vigorous, or else, like King David, he must content himself with the proximity alone of her who is his partner in life, otherwise he will soon fall a victim to some serious disease. Dr. Reich, in his learned work on the Degeneration of the Human Race, finds an active cause of the increasing number of diseases and weakened muscles of our generation in the growing tendency now- a-days to postpone marriage until time and perhaps in- dulgence have diminished the forces, and exposed the system to succumb readily to any unusual drain upon its resources. Therefore, after the age of thirty-five, a man in poor health, or with an obvious tendency to disease, should be extremely cautious how ho contracts a lien of this nature. Malformations of various kinds, whether by nature or accident, not unfrequently occasion poignant distress of mind lest they constitute an insuperable barrier to matri- mony. Generally, such juixiety is unfounded. A dimi- nished or an excessive growth of tlie parts rarely is carried to such an extent as to constitute a barrier to intercourse. The absence of one or even both of the testicles may arise from the fact that they have never descended from the iiiterior of the abdomen, where they are always located H 1 ,'1 I H 130 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFK. I M before birth. This retention of their original position doea not necessariJy iuterlere with their functions, how- ever. Sometimes the prepuce is long, thick, and adherent to such a degree that it seriously interferes with the exer- cise of the function. In such cases it should be submitted to the examination of a surgeon, as an operation may be roquired. A more rare condition is when the oritice of exit is not at the extremity, but on the side or close to the I ody. This usually does not prevent connection, but does produce sterility. It, too, can often be removed by a skilful surgeon. The size of the organ sometimes excites fear lest matri- mony could not be completed. But there is no perma- nent proportion between size and vigor. Generally an unusual size is accompanied with debility, and it is not infre(piently observed, indeed it may be said to be the rule, that persons of vigorous powers liave small but well- shaped parts. Those who have studied the models of classical antiquity will have noticed that the most perfect representations of manly strength present these parts even imusually small. The negro race have the imrts larger than the white, but they do not proportionately increase in size on erection. A small and shrivelled condition in either race is a sign of impotence. THE CHOICE OF A WIFE. m Although the boy Cupid is notoriously blind, and shoots his arrows wildly, yet it is not amiss for the prudent man to take such an important stop as marriage with his eyes open. A vast amount of domestic infelicity, and a vast amount of social vice, which is the consequence of this infelicity, would be saved were people a little more dis- creet and sensible in their selection of those with whom they propose to join irretrievably their lives and fortunes. So far as mental and moral qtialities are concerned, we Bhall have little to say, others, and they better qualified )t3 [an LSt pis lis- >m WHOM TO MARRY. 131 than ourselves, havinf^ given abundant advice on these topics, but in what relates to the physical, we have some hints to offer, which, if observed, will go far to insure a fortunate alliance. The young man who goes forth in search of a wife should not overlook health, nor undervalue beauty in the woman he seL'ks. Wiihout the former, he will lose half the pleasure which otlierwise would be his lot ; with the latter, the attractions which bind him true to his own hearth will bo redoubled. A sickly, nervous, peevish, in- efficient wife — (nialities which are naturally associated — is not a help-meet, but a dead weii^ht to a man; a homely, or even an indiUerent-looking wt/manruns arisk of being slatternly, of disgusting her Imsbandj and of alienating him. The powers and the chai'ius of personal beauty Jescrve to be an])reciated and applauded far more than is the w^ont, and whciu it is remembered that real beauty means also sound health, we cannot hesitate to answer the young man wlm a;ks us deprecatingly, " Would you have me marry for b.au'y ?" with a round affirmation : " You pi't'l ably cannot do better." The relative (u/es of the two should be thought of. No young woman should marry before she is twenty, and it is n >t wise for a man to select a wife who is his elder. Such unions usu:dly result in estrangement. A seniority ot between five and ten years on the pait of the husband is most highly to be reconnnendod. A writer whom we havealixady quoted, says: I think there should always be an interval of about ten years be- tween a man of mature age and his wife. Women age nnich more rapidly than men, and as the peculiar func- ti(jns of matrimony should cease hi both parties about the same time, such interval as this is evidently desirable." But we are of opinion that a difference of less than ten years is more suitable. As ab.ive remarked, from five to ten years may be taken as the limit. It is also well to be aware of the fact that when the i;'j> T 132 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. husband is the elder, the children are more likely to have a majority in the male sex. Why this is, we shall have occasion to explain subsequently. Then, too, man retains his powers and passions Ioniser than woman, and his fide- lity is more assured when she is fr*^sh and blooming, than when she has already become old v/hile he r^itains his vigour. These are low motives, it may be said, but they are such as we know inliuence our sex powerfully, and we must therefore enlist them on the good side. MARRYING COUSINS. The question whetiier intermarriage of near relatives can be approved i on' hich within tlie last few ycfira has excited lively discussion among pliysiL-ians. The most skilful are found on o})posite sides, and the argu- ments adduced auai' ' it m very strong. While granting this, we must express our own views candidly that they only seem strong, and that if closely scrutinized they are found to be based on erroneous statistics, and compiled by persons who are prejudiced already in favour of their own views. In a similar work to the present, addressed, however, to the other sex, we made use of the following language, which exposed us to severe criticism from several eminent statisticians and medical writers : " The fear of marrying a cousin, even a tirst cousin, is entirely groundless, pro- vided there is no decided hereditary taint in the family. And when such a hereditary taint doe", exist, the danger is not greater than in marrying into any other family where it is also found. But as few families are wholly without some lurking predis])osition to disease, it is not well, as a rule, to run the risk of developing this by too repeated unions." Decided as this language is, our further investigations since we made use of it do not lead us to weaken its force. On the contrary, we find ourselves supported in it byone MARRIAGE OP COUSINS. 133 of the most cautious and di'pondable authorities in the medical \vf)rld, the Lancet of London. In the editorial columns of a late number of that journal the following statement is made as the result of the most recent and ex- tended researches on that point : — "The marriage of cousins, providing Tioth are healthy, lias no tendency to produce disease in the otf'si>ring If, however, the cousins inherit the disease or the proclivity to it of their common ancestor, their childi-en will have a strong tendency to that disease, wliich miglit l>e fostered or suppressed by circumstances. Tiieie can be no ques- tion that cousins descended from an iiisane or highly con- sumptive grand-parent should not intermarry ; but we zannot see any reason for supposing that either insanity 3r consumption would result from tlie intermarriage of healthy cousins." In conclusion, while for a man to mairy a near relative when they bi)th btdong to a consumptive, a scrofulous, or a weak-minded race, is eminently rei>rehensible, it is not contrary to ascertained laws for him to unite himself to his cousin when the fandly is thoroughly healthy, LONG EN GAG E:\IE NTS. " Plighted troth " is a poetical and romantic subject, but there is such a thing as caiiying a prolonged lidility under the terms of an " engagement " t<) a dangerous excess. We do not now refer tt) the moral jjerils, the incieas(;d tempta- tions whicli arise fi'om the more intimate familiarity r,nd over-coidldence of loveis — tliough tliesc are real and ob- jectionable — but to the direct injury they bring on a young man. It is impos^ilile for liim to indulge in tliese caresses and fondlings witliout violently exciting his pas- sions, and they in turn react on the secretory functions. The consequence is that not unfrequently repeated noc- tui'nal emissions, sperniatitirlKca, and loss or imjiainucnt Oi power result. At the very moment when he should be n t \ A\ \\ nrw 134 THE TH.nNSMISSTON OF LIFE. i! i in full poRse'sion of his strength, he tintls that hope ' •> loner deferred balks itself. Tiiis caution is esrH-eially needed \>y (hose who at an earlier period of their life have injured theui.selves by solitary vice or sexual excess. Tlicre are strong physical as well as moral reasons why we would urge the lover, however unwelcome such ad- vice, ami however certain to be disregarded, to hold his loveerieiice proves that for anyone, especially a young man, to enter into a long engagement without any immediate hope of fulfilling it, is physically an almost unmitigated evil. I have reason to know that this condition of constant excitement has often caused not only dangerously frequent and long-continued nocturnal emissions, but most painful aliections of the i>estes. These results sometimes follow the progrv^ss of an ordinary two or three months* courtship to an alarming extent. The danger and distress may be much more serious when the marriage is postponed for years." Instances of the same kind have come under our own exj^erionce, and convince us tliat even such strong language as that we liave just quoted, does not state the possible injury too decidedly. THE MALE FLIRT. The evils we have just mentioned find their origin in Wiigratlfu'd sexual excitement. This is always sure to be attended, if frecjuently repeated and long-continued, by injurious consecpieneos. Whether it be from an engage- ment, from disappointed affection, fiom too great fami- liarity with the other sex, or from entertaining lascivious thou>^hts, any such excitement leads to weakening of A CAUSE OF TROUBLE. 135 power, and sometimes to actual disease. Degeneration or chronic inflammation of the glan*!, 8permatorrha3a, sinissions, and impotence, are all possible from neglect of hygienic rules in this regard. Here, therefore, ia a reason — one of many — why we should discountenance the disposition among young men to become the heroes of half a dozen engagements and love passages. In so doing they violate social laws, triHe with the best affections of our nature, give others endless anguish, and also run the chance of hurting themselves for life. The society of refined and pure women is one of the strongest safeguards which a young man can have, and he does well when he seeks it ; but it should alwa^'s be mo- tives of simple friendship and kindly interest which impel him to cultivate it. When he considers that the time has come that his means and circumstaiiLes allow of marriage, he should then look intelligently for her with whom ho would care to pass the remainder of his life in perfect loy- alty. He should be impelled by no wanton impulse, nor dissipate his time in worshipping at every j)assing shrine, but in sincerity and singleness of heart seek an early alli- ance with her to whom he is ready to swear to be ever true. For every man does well to reflect, before he assumes the vow, on 4 k ''Ills m, M THE PARAMOUNT DUTY OF FIDELITY, HI be by ige- imi- )as of which every husband owes his wife, quite as much as every wife owes her husband. The lax morality of society excuses in the one what it unequivocally condemns in the other, but the Christian and the physiologist agree in allowing no excuse for either. Nothing is more certain to undermine domestic felicity, and sap the foundation of marital hai»piness, than mari- tal infldelity. The risks of disease which a married man I i ' I ■ i . 136 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. nins in impure intercom so are far more serious, because tliey involve not only hirniscir, but his wife and his child- ren, lie should know that there is nothing which a woinan will not forLnve sooner than such a breach of con- (idence. Ho is exposed to the plots, and is ])retty certain sooner or later to iall into the snares, of those atrocious ])arties who subsist on l>lack-niail. And should he escape these cornplicntions, he still must lose self-respect, and carry about with him the burden of a guilty conscience and a broken vow, Tf we have ur^^ed on the celibate "^he preL>ervation of chastity, we still more emphatically call uj;>on the married man for the observation of fidelity. I i I'! [A0TH<>RS HEFEHHEn TO IN THIS 8KCTI0K.— Edwartl Reich, Oesrkriehte, Nature, und Gesundthritslfhre des ehiHc/ien lA>ien»; Napheys, Tlie i'hyxicai Life of Woman ; Act( ii, On the Bcprodurtive Onjans ; lli ieh, Ueher die Jii^ taitrtunfi de» memchlic/uH Ut«< IdtckU ; A. D«b«y, Myyihu du Mai-iat/t.] Ii I use liltl- h a :on- tain ioua :apQ and nee the call iehte, e AV TDK CONSUMMATION OF MRRIAGE. ITS SIGNIFICATION. In both law and medicine the prime object of marriage regarded from a social point of view, is the continuation of the species. Hence, until the preliminary ste})s to thia end are taken, the marriage is said not to be consummated. The pi'ccise meaning of tlie expression is thus laitl down by Bouvier in his Law Dictionary : " The first time that the husband and wife cohabit together after the ceremony of marriage has bei>n pcrfornKul, is called the consunmia- tion of marriage." A marriage, however, is complete without this in the eye of the law, as it is a maxim taken from the Roman civil statutes that consent, not cohabita- tion, is the binding element in the ceremony ; consensus, tLon co)wuh'ttus,facit nuptids. A sage morality throughout most civilized lands pro- hibits any anticipation of the act until the civil ofhcer or the priest has i)erf'ormed the rite. The experience of the world proves the wisdom of this, for any relaxation of the laws of proi>iiety in this respect are fraught, not only with injury to society, but with loss of self-respect to the individual. Those couples who, under any plea whatever, be it of the nearness of the day or the imagined veniality of the liberty, aUow themselves to transgress this rule, very surely lay up for themselves a want of confidence in each other, and a source of mutual recjimination in the future. True as this is shown to be by constant experience, yet there have been and still are commimities in which the custom was current of allowing and even encouraging such improper intimacies. In the early Middle Ages it was common in all grades of society, and is mentioned as Hf"^ 13S THE TIUNSMISSIOX OF LIFE. Ica'HnjT to fllssMlute haHts arul consequently condonined in tlie laws of King Ciiarleniagne, known as the Capitu- lar! us. The Emperor Frederick III. of Austria, after he was alHanoed to Leonora, Princess of Portugal by diplomatic envoys, refused to compk^te the marringe unless he was permitted to first ascertain whether she would prove a satisfactory wife. And that tlio same rights were occa- sionally insisted upon hy the other sex is shown by the example of the Lady Herzland von Rappoltstein, who, in 1378, dielined to carry out her agreement to wed Count John IV. of Habsburg, on the giotmd that, after oppor- tunities given, he had proved himself to be inca|)able. There are still remote districts in Germany where the peasantry retain the institution known as " trial nights," 'pi'ohe-iidcJite, and "come nights," kow.m-ndchte, on which a girl's lover will visit her, and each may be convinced of the physical fitness of the other for marriage. A century ago a similar custom prevailed in parts of New England and in the Geiman settlements in Pennsylvania, as has been lat(;ly shown by Dr. Henry A. Stiles, of Brook- lyn, in his work on Bandlliij, by which term it was known. Washington Irving, in his Knickerbocker History of New York, several times refers to it also. Now, we bi>lieve, happily no trace of the habit exists in our land. Only in a sitiLiularly simple and unsophisti- cated state of society could it be perpetuated without leading to flagitious immorality, and we may regard it as one of the beneficent lesultsof the extensive diflfusion of knowledge, that the merit and tlie advantages to both sexes of absolute continence before marriage are at present universally recognized in this country. lONOKANCE CONCERNING MARRIAGE. While this precocious knowledge was at one time not condenmcd as it deserved to be, and as it now is, proper KINUULAU lUNOhA^tX 13!) information on iho subject is still sinc^ularly lackin;^. Aa Mr. Acton correctly remarks: "It is but sckloni, ami then iiicidoiita'ily, that tlicso niattoi's are treated of in books. Nevertheless igni)rance, or false ideas respecting thein, li.is caused much evil, and piucli domesLic misery. It is generally nssuined that instinct teaches adults ho' - these functions should be exercised. I'lit from several cases that have come under my notice, I should say that many would be entirely ignorant but for previously incontinent habits, or from such notions as ihey J'ick up Irom wiitching animals." He gives as an instance one of his patients, a member of the Society of Friends, who had been married tor some years, aiul who, out of mere ignor- ance had never constnnmated the ceremony. Parallel examples come to the knowledge of mostpliysi- cians who have long been members of the profession. It it no very extraordinaiy experience to be called to a case of confini'tnent, and to discover that the woman i- strictly speakin^, still a virgin. The celebrated accouchcnr. Profes- sor Meigs, of Philadelphia, used to relate in his lectures sev- eral instances of the kind from his own practice. And so recently as last year (18G!)), we lintl a communication V)y Dr. H. L. Ilorton, of Poughkeepsie, New Yacity of this kind is absolute or incurable, says Bouvior in the Law JJiction- ary, and when it existed at the time of the ceieuiony (>f marriage, both the ecclesiastical law and the s[)ecial 'W< OBSTACLES TO MAUUrAQE. 143 In- Ito \n- \oi ial statutes of several of the American States, declare the marriage void and of no effect, ab initio. But the suit must be brought by the injured party, and he or she naturally incapable cannot allege that fact in order to ob- tain a divorce. An inca[)acity for marriage may exist in either sex, and it may be in either temporary or permanent. We shall tirst examine it ON THE PART OF THE FEMALE. The most common cause of a temj)orary character is an excessive sensitiveness of" the part. This may be so great that the severest pain is caused by tlie introduction of a narrow sound, and the conjugal approaches are wholly unbearable. Inflammation of the passage to the bladder, of some of the glands, and various local injuries are also ab- solute but temporary barriers. Any of these are possible, and no man with a spark of feeling in his composition will urge his young wife to gratify his desires at the expense of actual agony to herself. Conditions of this kind require long and careful medical treatment, and though it is disagreeable to have recourse to this, the sooner it is done the better for both parties. A permanent obstacle is occasionally interposed by a hymen of unusual rigidity. It is rare, indeed, that this membrane resists, but occasionally it foils the efforts of the husband, and leads to a belief on his part that his wife is incapable of matrimony. A suit for divorce was brought in a Pennsylvania court some years since on this alleged ground. An examination by experts, however, revealed the fact that no actual incapacity existed, but merely a removiilde one, fiom this cans-,'. A complete or partial absence of the vagina forms an absolute and generally incurable obstacle to conjugal duty on the part of the woman. Such a condition may arise from an injury received earlier in life, and which has al- Mi 144 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. lowed the sides to contract and j^)"ow toi^utlier ; or she may have been so from bh'th. Sur;^eon.s have devised various operations for the relief of this lualfoi'nuition, but they are usually dan^^erous and of uncertain results. No Nvouian should seek a matrimonial connection when thus afflicted, and when it is not discovered until after mar- riai^'e, the proper course is either a separation or a volun- tary renunciation of niaiital privileges. ON THE PART OF THH MALE. These are far more numerous than in the female, and foriij iin imiiortant branch of our sulijeet. Probably no one topic in sanitary and physiological science gives rise to more distressing and generally more causeless fears than the anxiety lest one may not be able to fulfil the du- ties of married life. A phiIo>ophic;d medical writer says : " In losing the connnaiid of this function at an age when it should be vigorous, man loses his self-respect, because he feels himself fallen in impoitance in relation to his species. Therefore the loss of virile power, real or sup- posed, produces an efl'eet more overj)0\vciing than that of honours, fortune, friends, or relatives ; even the loss of liberty is as nothing compared to this ijitcriial and con- tinual torture. Those who suffer from injustice or mis- fortune can accuse their enemies, society, chance, etc., and invent or retain the consciousness of not having deserved tlieir lot ; they have, moreover, the consolation of being abl'} to complain, ami the certainty of sympathy. But the impotent man can make a contident of no one. His misery is of a sort which cannot even inspire pity, and his greatest anxiety is to allow no one to penetrate his dismal se'cret." We are well convinced that there are many to whom these words a])ply, and also that there are many who Buffer these pangs needlessly, or who at least are anxious without cause. We shall therefore proceed to speak in ..? I J I CAUSES OF LETHAUGT, 145 detail of the conditions of the male which render hhn averse to the procreative act, incapable of completing it, unable to attempt it, or barren in its results, under the lieadin(js, lethargy, debility, impotence, and aterility. But His atid 3 his I. LETHARGY. There are some individuals who are rarely or never troubled by the promptings of nature to perpetuate lil'o, and yet are by no means incapable of doing so. They are indeed few in number, and are usually slow in mind and of an extremely lymphatic and lethargic tempera- ment. They experience very little desire and no aversion toward the opposite sex. In a less degree, this trait is a national one. The poorly fed peasants of the north of Europe are remarkable for the little store they set by the indulgence of passion. Such a condition need cause no anxiety, and calls for no treatment. A want of desire docs, however, often occur under cir- cumstances which give rise to great mental trouble, lest it be permanent. It may have many causes , some mental, others physical. Prolonged and rigid continence, ex- cesses either with the other sex or in solitary vice, a poor and insufficient diet or the abuse of liquors and the plea- sures of the table, loss of sleep, severe study, constant thought, mental disturbances, as sorrow, anxiety or feai, the abuse of tobacco, drugs, etc., all may lead to the ex- tinction of the sexual feelin&s. So, too, may certain diseases of the organs, especially those brought about by impure intercourse, and by organic changes, the results of age, and also, in some persons, a natural intermission in the secretion of the procreative fluid, and occasionally a dislike of the person to whom one is united. Athletic exercises, severe and long-continued, have always been known to bring about a temporary lethargy of tlie repro- ductiva system, and poisons who grow ob^se nearly m- 1'^' 146 THE TllANSMlSSION OF LIFE. variably find their passions diminish until they almost wholly disappear. Of these various causes, lethargy arising from muscular or mental exertion, from continence, from emotion, and from high living, need give no anxiety, as when the causes are removed, the natural instincts will quite surely re-assert themselves. " Men who gain their bread by the sweat of their brow," says a n.""lical writer, "or by the exhausting labour of their brains, should know full well that they cannot hope to be always in a tit state to per- form the sexual act. During certain periods when occu- pied with other matters tlie thoughts can dwell but little on such subjects, and no disposition exists to indulge any- thing but the favourite or absorbing pursuit, mental or physical, as the case may be. After a lapse of time dif- ferent in various individuals, sucli thoughts arise again, and the man who yesterday was so indifferent to sexual feelings, as practically to be temporarily impotent, now becomes ardent." When such absence of feeling springs from self-abuse, from excessive alcoholic driuks, sexual indulgence, Llie employment of drugs, or tlie use ot toltacco, it is more serious and more lasting. Then there is not only a tem- porary cessation in the secretion, but the action of the mternal organs has been alteied to a degree which may prove permanent. Some may think in classing tobacco under this head, we are going beyond what facts warrant. But our own observation, as stated on a previous page, leads us to indorse the views of Mr. William Acton, who uses the following language : " I am quite certain that ex- cessive smokers, if very young, never acquire, and if older, rapidly lose any keen desire." The treatment in all such cases can only be successful when the sufferer is willing, and able, to renounce detinitely and completely the habits which have brought about his condition. Of course, the hygienic advice we liave to ofier to all our readers is, never to allow themselves to be led into excess, and if t iM. i CUllIOUS SUPERSTITION. 147 they have ah-eady been guilty of such folly, the sooner they renounce it the happier and healthier they will be. When lethargy arises from age or local disease it must be met by a judiciously regulated medical treatment which we cannot detail here. IL DEBILITY. It is not uncommon to find desire present, and yet the consuniiuation of marriage to be impossible from a want of power, altliough the individual is by no means impo- tent. This condition is called "false impotence," and often causes great alaiin, though generally unnecessarily. In persons of nervous temperaments, though otherwise perfectly healthy, the force of imagination, the novelty, the excitement, and the trepidation attendant upon the ceremony of marriage completely overpower them, and they are terrified to find it impossible to perform the duties of their new relation. Sometimes this state of the system lasts for days, weeks, and months. Recollecting perhaps some early sins, the young husband believes him- self hopelessly impotent, and may in despair commit some violent act forever to be regretted. In the superstitions of the middle ages this temporary incapacity was deemed to be the work of some sorcerer or witch. In France the spell was known under the name of nouement d'aiguillette, and many a poor wretch has expiated this imaginary and impossible crime with severe tortures and life itself. The French perhaps, as a nation with a prevailing nervous temj^erament, may have been subject to such an affection more than others. Mon- taigne in one of his essays speaks of it as something very common, and with the enlightened spirit which character- ized him, derided the superstitions with which it was associated by the vulgar. He says in his essay on the force of imagination: "I am not satisfied, and make a very great question whether those married locks and im- \' m 14S THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. pediment"!), with which this age of ours is so fettered that there is hardly anything else talked of, are not merely the impressions of apprehension and fear." This rational explanation was not received generally then, because the trouble was imputed to witchcraft ; nor now, because it is attributed to permanent incapacity. But in all nations and ages the nervous system is and has been liable to Buch sudden prostrations. Herodotus, the Greek historian, relates that Amasis, King of Egypt, having married a Greek virgin famous for her beauty, by name Laodicea, found himself de- prived of all power to complete the marriage. Under the impression that she had used some enchantment, ho ordered her to be beheaded. But Laodicea begged time and opportunity to erect a statue to Venus, bel'ore the completion of which she assured Amasis his faculties would be restored hira. The king granted her request, and she thus saved her life. Such instances not unfrequently come to the notice of the physician, and if he is a judicious one, he refrains from calling into requisition any of those powerful drugs which act as stimulants to the functions, but rather writes for some carminative, and assures the patient of its efficacy. His promises are rarely falsified, for the mind once convinced that the corrective has been found, the nervous debility departs. The case is different and more serious in that form of debility attended by premature loss of the secretion or a defective erectile power. To be sure, this too may arise from the novelty of the act, want of power of the will, undue excitement, apprehension, fear, or disgust, and in these instances its treatment is obvious. But it is also one of the commonest consequences of excess, of venereal diseases, especially gonorrhoea, of solitary vice, and of all those causes which we have previously enumerated as ex- ertmg a debilitating influence c)n the masculine function. Concerning its prevention and treatment we refer to RARITY OF IMPOTENCE. 149 what we have already said in the second part of this work. Usually this form of debility is associated with considerjiblft irritability, that is, persons so atHlcted are on the one hand very readily excited by the presence of the other sex, or other causes, and yet are weak, and unable satisfactorily to complete the conjugal duty. All such persons snould sedulously avoid every kind of artificial excitement, make free use of cold water as douche and hip-bath, and often they require special and surgical treatment, or the employment of electricity or galvanism. Sometimes this irritability arises from an accumulation of matter under the foreskin, or from the too great tight- ness of this part. Debility may result from wearing trusses for ruptures, as these meohanical appliances inter- fere with the circulation, and hence impair the secretion of the fluid. Should this impairment extend to the de- gree of threatening entire loss of power, the question would arise whether the hernia should not be cured by what is known in surgery as the " radical operation." A diet exclusively or largely vegetable is supposed by many to weaken the powers, especially of such vegetables as are chiefly made up of fibre and water, as cabbage, turnips, beets, etc. So, too, any diet which is not nourish- ing interferes with the functional vigour. The monks of La Trappe are obliged by the rules of their order to abjure meat altogether, and to subsist upon a loaf of black bread and water each day. They are famous for the rigidity of their vows, and the success with which they mahitaiu them. III. IMPOTENCE. 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. Whatever mercenary quacks may write for base, interested motives, and however they may magnify the ill-results of abuse, it is very uncommon to "T 1 50 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. J find complete and permanent inability to consummate the marriage rite. Professor Lallemand gives the following definition of this condition : " True impotence consists of want of power, not once, but habitually; not only with prosti- tutes, but with those whom we most love ; not under un- favourable circumstances, but during long periods of time, say five, fifteen, or twenty years." It is well that it is rare, for as Prof. Niemeyer remarks : " Nut 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 inexi)erieneed and innocent they were at the time of marriage, the longer it often is before they find that something is lacking in their husband ; but, once knowing this, they infallibly have a feeling of contempt and aversion for him." It is the knowledge that they are becoming contemptible and disgusting to their wives, that brings so many young husbands, fearing they are impotent, to the physician. And as Professor Niemej'^er goes on to say, unhappy mar- riages, barrenness, divorces, and perchance an occasional suicide, may be prevented by the experienced physician who can give correct information, comfort, and consola- tion when consulted on this suljeet. Therefore we are careful to repeat that actual, perma- nent impotence is very rare in early and middle life, that nature is long-sutt'ering in this respect and slow to bring in her revenges for even very gross violations of her laws. In by far the most numerous instances, supposed cases of impotence and actual cases of inability to consummate marriage depend for their cause either on Ictliargy or de- bility of the function, and are temporary, or at any rate curable. When a single man fears that ho may be unable to ful- fil the duties of marriage, he should not marry until this fear is removed, as the very existence of siicli a suspicion hi : ^ If': I T CONSOLATIONS. 151 will stroTiiiifly tend to hr'mrt about the woaknesg which he is so anxious al)()ut. Rather let hlin state his condition fully to some iiitellii,'cut pyhsiciiin, and always preferably to one whom he kncnvs and in whose skill and discretion he has confidenco, and never to the specialists whoso ad- vertisements he roads in newsfjajiers, and whose only aim is to foster his terrors to the extent of frightening him out of large sums of money without doing him a penny- worth of good. And under no circumstances should he adopt the scandalous and disgusting advice which immoral associates may give him, to experiment with lewd women in order to test his powers. Such an action must meet with unequivocal condemnation from every point of view. Should there be good medical reasons to believe that he is actually impotent, he must not think of marriage. Such an act would be a fraud upon nature, and the law both of church and state declares such a union null and void. Yet even with this imperfection, he need not give way to despair, or to drink. There is plenty to live for besides the pleasures of domestic life. Thousands of men delib- erately renounce these. Tliere are careers of usefulness and of pleasantness in abumlance in which he can pass his days and hardly miss those joys which are denied him. Certainly it would be far more deplorable to lose sight or hearing than this faculty so rarely and some- times never called into play. There is good cheer, there- fore, even for such unfortunates. That the causes of such loss may be guarded against, in BO far as they are preventable, as every man is bound to do, we shall briefly reca[)itulate them. First, old nge. As we have explained in the first part of this work, the period of virility in man, like that of child-bearing in woman, is naturally limited to but a frac- tion of the whole term of life. The physiological change which takes place in the secretion in advanced years de- prives it (if the power of transmitting life, and at last the vigour of the function is lost. The spermatozoa, which Id i 152 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. ■4 manhood are hodios forniod, ns we liavo said, of a conical head and a lon<:f, vihratini,' extremity, lose the latter por- tion of their body, and beconio mere rounded cells, with* out the power of independent nioti(jn. With the im- potence of decrepitude, however, we have little to do, an injudieions than this of marriage. The excitement will most certainly severely aggravate the trouble. Another consideration is, that while it is permissible to marry in most cases of debility or temporary impotence, such a course cannot be recommended out of considera- tion for the young wife and future oflspring. Who has a right to ask a hiippy and charming young girl to forsake home and friends in order to rescue a lascivious young man from the penalties of his own turpitudes ? Who, being a father, would tolerate such a proposition a moment if it concerned his own daughter ? Then the act of procreation is physically the most ex- alted one of life. Its demands ou the nervous force are hi' w i\ ■i fi 1 160 TiJE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. greater, and it requires tho expendituio of more of the vital power. When this is the evident plan of nature, what offspring can we reasonably expect fi-om flagging and exhausted functions ? While, therefore, marriage as a hygienic measure is desirable, it shoulu be preceded or accompanied by treat- ment of a more direct kind, specially directed to restore the nervous force. This can be successfully done by vari- ous agents. One of the best is electricity, of which we have already spoken. It does not suit where there is irritation or in- flammation, but for debility, pure and simple, there is hardly any more satisfactory therapeutic means. After the patient has once been taught by a skilful practitioner the particular method of application which suits his in- dividual case, he can apply it himself. Good batteries can now readily be obtained at a reasonable price. Next in value is phosphorus. This agent, so dangerous if carelessly or ignorantly employed, is of the greatest service when wisely used. It is precisely the element which the nervous system expends, and therefore that which it requires to invigorate it. When there is a feel- ing of exhaustion after the act, or incomplete preparation for it, or when debility unattended with inflammation is present in any of its forms, we find it of the highest value. It may be administered in various preparations, but there is only one which it would be suitable or safe for the non-medical reader to attempt. As we have remarked on a previous page, death has in various instances re- sulted from its injudicious employment. The one we shall mention is " phosphoric acid lemonade." The foi- mula is Dilute phosphoric acid. Syrup of ginger, Water, fifteen drops: a tablespooniul { a tumblerful. This makes an agreeable beverage, and may be taken USE OF DRXTGa three times a day, bat not oftener; nor should the amuuut of the dilute acid bu iiicieased. The other powerful excitants of the nervous system which are prescribed in such cases are all so dangerous if mcautiDusly used that we shall not mention them. They form part of the physician's reserves, and can only be taken when the patient can be closely watched to prevent any injurious effects. [Authors and Works QnoTED on thb Above Topioa.— Bouvier, Die- twnary • Legal Terms ; sub voce, Marriage and Impotence ; Eeich Natur- geschtchte des Ehelihcn Lebens, pp. 92, 9.") ; Acton, On th€ Reproductive Or- gang, p. 109 ; Dr. Horton, Medical and Surgical Reporter, Aug. 1869 and leb., 1870 ; On Virginity, Tardieu, Lts Attentats aux Maurs; Marriac/e Mites of all Nations, New Yorlc, 1869, chap. III. ; Professor Lallemand, On Spermatorrhcea ; Dr. S. Durkee, On Gonorrhoea and Syphilis; Alfred Maury Zrfi Mao cnda which liallow it. Alarried ptojile nnist never loi'ce them- selves into high and violent lusts with arts and misl»e- coming devices, but be restrained and temperate in the use of their lawful pleasures." We cannot improve tipon this admirable advice, so Bound, and so fitly cxpi-osscd, by one of the wisest and purest of men; nor, though other authorities are numer- ous enough to our hand, do we consider they are called for. It 13 impossible, necessarily, to lay down any specific rules for the government of others in this particular; btit we may state generally that no husband should force his wife to submit to him against her will, nor should he even ungently persuade her ; and for himself, whenever he feels immediately after the act, or during the next day, any depression, or debility, or disturbance of the health, it is a certain sign that ho is overtasking himself. Tak- ing men (m an average, we counsel them for their own sake, when in middle life anmed excitement of this character may be followed by Hooding, and other serious symptoms, while after the crisis has been passed, the sexual appetite itself should wholly or almost wholly disappear. I 1G8 TUE TKAJSSMISSION OF LIFE. i In what we have said it may be complained that w<( harp too constantly on one string — that we are forever repeating and urging moderation, temperance, restraint, self-denial — that if marriage is going to be one r»onstant torment of Tantalus, with the beaker of pleasure ever filled and ever presented to the thirsty lips only to be whisked away again the next moment, Jeaving the ardent longings cruelly deceived, then that the charm of the con- dition is gone, and it is better and easier to deny one's self entirely than to irritate by half-iudulgence. Or it may be thrown up to as that all this counsel is useless because men will not be moderate in lust, and will not practice self-restraint in order to spare feelings which they cannot understand, and a delicar which they cannot apjireciate, in a person over whom the law gives them, in this respect, an absolute power. Very well, we are pre- pared to enforce our advice with arguments drawn from another source. We must counsel moderation not only as a moral and amiable trait, and as a bounden duty which man owes woman, but more than that, as an imperatve obliga- tion which every man owes himself. That he may know precisely what may befall hiiu from a disregard of the pro- cepts of temperance, we shall mentiijn a few of THE DANGERS OF EXCESS. The unmarried man, who purchases at a high price, and rarely, the pleasures of illicit love, is generally suj)posed to be the only sulterer from excess in the venei'eal act. Far from it. He h by no means alone. More commonly than is currently believed, the married man has to settle an account lor innnoderate induliience. To quote the words of a physician of wide experience " Too fre(|uent emission of the life-giving fluid, too fi'e- quent sexual excitement of the aervous system, is most destructive. Whether it occurs in married or unmarried people ha*i little or nothing to do with the result. antl to Fai- luiu an U'e tVo- lost Plied I TWOFOLD NATURE OF EXCESS. 169 " The married man who thinks that, because he is a married man, he can commit no excess, no matter how often the sexual act is re[jeated, will suffer as certainly and as seriously as the debauchee who acts on the same principle in his indulgences, perhaps more certainly from his very ignorance, and from his not taking those precau- tions and following those rules which a career of vice is apt to teach a man. Till he is told, the idea never enters his head that he has been guilty of great and almost cri- minal excess, nor is this to be wondered at, as such a cause of disease is seldom hinted at by the medical man he consults." The nature of excess may be twofold ; either it is a long-continued indulgence beyond the average [)o\vor of the man to withstand, and which slowly but siuoly un- dermines his health, strength, and life; or it is brief and violent. It is too often supposed that if only for a night, or a few nights, or a week or two, a man gives the reins to his passion and overtaxes his functions, a few days' rest will restore him. It does seem to, but often only seems. The ultimate consequences of libidinous excess, even when that excess is of very limited duration, are becoming more and more api)arcnt to physicians. Dr. Thomas Laycock, Professor of the Practice of Medi- cine in the University of Edinburgh, in an article pub- lished quite recently on this subject, states it as the result of his clinical experience, that "a great excess for a few days only, acting like a 'shock,' may manifest its conse- quences in the nervous system at a long distance subse- quent ])eriod. A sudden, short, yet great excess may be more dangerous than more moderate, aU)eit exces>ive in- • lulgenco, extending over a long period. In certain consti- tuticms, although only indulged in legitimately and for a short period, as after marriage, such excess may act like a shock or concussion of the spinal cord, or like a blow on the; lu'ad, and may give rise to serious chionic diseases, as epilepsy, insanity, and paralysis." 170 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. -! I Tlie ordinary results of an annse of the conjugal privi- lege are, in the man, very mucli the same as those brought on by self-abuse. Locally there is ovor-excitation, irrita- bility, and possibly inllammation. The digestion becomes impaired, dyspepsia sets in, the strength is diminished, the heart has spells of palpitation, the spirits are depres- sed, spermatorrhoea may arise, the generic powers lose their vigour, there is unusual sensitiveness to heat and cold, sleep is not refreshing, and a jaded, languid indiffer- ence takes the place of energy and ambition. One of the most striking and characteristic effects is indicated in the throat and by the voice. There is a very close sympathy, and one notr»>adily explained between the voice and the procreative function. We have aln-ady mentioned the change from tenor to bass which takes place at pubrrty, and never occurs in eunuchs. Excessive mdulgcncL- often first shows itself by an impairment of vocal ])0\ver, and a sense of dryness and hoarseness ir the throat. Sijlf-ahuse and nocturnal losses produce tlie same effects in men otherv/ise continent. Often a chronic hronchitis or a loss of volume and strength in the voice is due to some disorder or overstraining of the masculine function, and the proper remedies must be directed in accordance with this fact. Avast amount of ill-health arises from this unsuspected cause, and it is one of the benefits which we hope will accrue from a more public discussion of this topic than has yet been atteiiiptod, that there will be a gorK-ral ai)j>recia- tion of the truth that a r.an for his own sake should exert self-denial in mavi vige. Still more should he do so for his wife's sake. Very many women lose their health, and some, no doubt, their life, through the constant solicitations of their husbands. One of the ablest physicians of our country who has made the dis- eases peculiar to women his s[)ecia) study, Dr. Storcr, says: "Among these diseases is a very large class occasione*! (»r aggravated by excessive sexual iudulgeuue." Of course wo THE MAXINTUM OF POWER. 171 do but refer to this fact liere, as we have elsewhere treated of women's peculiar functions and the disorders to which they are liable, but we wish all men to know that often they may injure their wives' health irretrievably by a self- indulgent course, and with this run the risk of ruining their own domestic happiness. A foi)lish notion sometimes prevails that it is necessary to heaitli to have frecpient intercourse. We have already said that there is no condition of life more thoroughly in accordance with perfect vigour than chaste celibacy. Next to this comes moderation in married life. It is nevor re- riuired for sanitar}'^ reasons to abuse the privileges which law and usage grant. Any such abuse is pietty sure to hriT» ; about debility and disease. They may be long coming, and the connection may often be obscure, but it is undeniable. The ancient Greek phy- sicians were acquainted with the peculiar form of para- i> iis now technically called " locomotor ataxy," anu attri- i utcd it to excess in venery. Modern observers have indorsed their opinion, and liave traced beyond doubt the relation of cause and etl'cct in a number iu instances. The question may now be put, Wn.\T IS EXCESS ? As a matter of figures it is difficult to answer, but there is no difHculty whatever in stating explicily the laws of liN'nene in the case. The pow(;r of the ir.aspuline function in different men varies groatly. E.Ktraordinnry accounts are given by some wi'iters, and individuals are very apt to exaggerate their c.ipacities. It is well known that Au'^nistus, surnamed the Strong, last King of Polaml, had throe hundred and fifty-four childrtn, on which Carlyle justly remarks, in the History of Frederick tJie Great, that Augustus cortaiidy attained tlie maxiuKim in baotardy of any mortal on authentic re- v»ord. S^iP' 172 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. fH One of the Latin historians records of the Emperor Pro- cUis that in the war with the Sarmatcs he violated one hundred virgins in fifteen days. Such exhil)itions of brutal lust are discreditable to the race, and nearly always disas- trous to the individual In point of fact it is impossible for even the most vigor- ous man to repeat the sexual act more than five or six times within twelve hours. Should it be attempt> n regard this sacred union as merely a safe and easy miiai.3 of indulging their appetites. If they carry out 8uc;li an idea, they may discover too late the magnitude of their folly. It is a vicious and a vulgar error which pretends that the unnatural ardoui-, the anxiety, and the sweetness of the stolen fruit, which are associated with illicit love 178 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. tend to produce a more felicitously constituted being. Illegitimate children are notorious for their mortality. The deaths among them during the liist year are far greater in proportion than among the progeny of the mar- ried, as has been demonstrated l»y the wiit ers of the Report of the Board of State Charities of Massachusetts (1868). Some celebrated bastards there have been, it is true, but they are the exceptions, and generally they have a taint of viciousness or of monomania running in their blood which spoils their lives. Shaksjieare, who had studied so closely all that pertains to man and his superstitions, makes Edmund in King Lear say : — " Why brand tliey us with base ? Who, in the hnty stealth of nature, take ^lore CDUipositicin and tierce (|Uality, Than doth, within a dull, Btale, tiied bed. Go to the creating' a whole trihe of fops, Got between sleep and wake '!" And proves hy the atrocious villiany of the youth, and his utter want of natural affection, how false was the sentiment he expresses in these lines. True, that a certain amount of passion is eminently desirable, and in all likelihood does beneficially affect the offspring ; but here again, the judicious man will always remain master of himself. I' THE AVOIDANCE AND LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING. He chooses the part of wisdom, which cannot be im- pugned, who attentively studies the laws of nature and obediently submits his life to her dictates. We have de- fined the only natural object of marriage to be to have and to rear a family of children. The question : How many children is it our duty to have ? is one often asked by the married. The father feels his abilities to educate and provide for them limited ; the mothei-, who travails in sorrow, and on whom the immediate care of them de- ASTONISHING FERTILITY. 179 velvet, looks often with more dread than pleasure to anutlier addition to her tlock. Her health may be giving awMy and her spirits t!a^!L,fing. If hei-e, as elsewhere, we seek by observation to derive Noine reply to this inquity fioin nature, we find that she has made cert;iin provisions for the definite limitation of olls[)ring ; and unmistakulily wains us of the danger of too rapid child-bearing, not only by deVnlitating the iiiotlier, but by yielding imperfect, feeble, and deformed children. This limit she sets may indeed be a distant one. The fecundity of some women is matter of astonishment. Italian history says that the noble lady Dianora Fresco- Imldi was the mother of (ifty-two children. Brand, in his History of Newcastle, mentions as a well-attested fact, that a weaver in Scotland had, by one wife, sixty-two children, all of whom lived to be baptized ; and in Aber- convvay church may still be seen a monument to the memory of Nicholas Hooker, who was himself a forty- iiist child, and the father of twenty -seven children by one wife. Such examples are, we need not add, so rare that they belong to the curiosities of medical literature. We rarely meet a woman now-a-days who is the mother of more than ten living children. Even in such a family, the 3'oungest ones will usually be found puny, or rickety, or idiotic, or deformed. Dr. Mathews Duncan, a careful ob- stetric statistician, considers that that number, therefore, is too great. The safejijuard which nature has thrown out against over-production is by constituting certain periods of woman's life seasons of sterility. Befoie the age of nu- bility, during pregnancy, and after the change of life, they are always barren. During nursing most women are so, but not all. Some even continue their monthly change at this time. There is no absolute cei'tainty that a wo- man will not conceive then, though the probability is a^xainst it. t IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) (.0 I.I 1.25 < iQ2 I4£ 2.0 lllll~ 1-4 IIIIII.6 "/ <^ /} o 7 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEf' MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716)872-4503 '.' fj •■ i'' " 1 : ■•! it illili nnERITAXCE- WHAT FATHERS BEQUEATH CHILDREN. "The child is father to the man," it is said. We are not concerned with this adage, but with tho seemingly self-evident axiom that " the man is fatlier to the chili 1,' in a deeper sense than in being his immediate ancestor. The father has not merely transmitted life to his ollHi)ring, but he has fixed upon him, to a certain extent, his men- tal and physical peculiarities, and even his moral nature. The child does not, of course, always exactly resemble its father. Indeed, the fathei's iidluence is less potent than the mother's ; but it is a constant ever-present force in the (child's being which often writers witli " pen of adamant on tablet of brass." Let us then study, brielly though it may be, the laws and limitations of that heritage which, in the language of a distinguished [«hysiologi.st, " has, in reality, more power over our constitution and character than all the influence from without, whether moral or physical." We will tirst consider THE PHYSICAL QUALITIES WE INHERIT, particularly from our fathers. It is not difllcult to prove that physical qualities are transmitted. We need not give instances of resemblances in form and feature be- tween father and child, for they are matters of daily ob- servation to every one. It is interesting to know that the male influence is noticeable even in plants, for through the pollen of flowers the tints and varieties may be modi- fied at will. TIm influence of the father i« most marked in the ex- TUB FATUKUS LEQACT. 191 torior and extremitioa of the chiM, while the iniernAt organs emanate from the mother. The father is most apt to determine tlio muscular orj^anizjition, the mother the nervous system and temperament. This law is not an absoUite one. The mulo and hinny afford illustrations of its operations in the animal kingdom. The mule hray» while the hinny ne'ujhs. The mule derives it."* muscular structure from its sire, the ass, and, therefore, has his voice, for the voice is determined by the muscular organ- i/ation of the part. The hinny, on the contrary, which has the muscular system of its sire, the horse, like him, neighs. The influence of the father varies also with the acx of the child. The tendency seems to he for him tf^ transmit to his daughters the coiiiormation of the head .ad upper portions oi:' the body. His sons are more pione to d. "ive the form ol those parts from the mother. Hence it lidp- peus, as we shall have occasion to remark presently in speaking of mental (jualities which are inherited, *,];at (laughters partake more fre([uently than sons do of the intellectual |)eculiarities of the father. Fathers not merely give the muscular organization to their offspring, but also the force and agility acijuired by training. Thus, in ancient times, the (dhletes were found in families. In the case of animals celei»rated racers are known as valuable breeders. Eclipse is said to have been the sire of 334« winners, who secured for thm- selves in the otispring earlier. The time at which a dis- ease will first make its appearance is freriueutly as much a matter of inheritance as its other characteristics. This is, above all, true of nervous disorders. For instance, that form of insanity winch is developed oidy after a ceriain age is often inherited. A case is related of a noble family in Europe, all the male descenilants of vvhieh became in- sane at lorty years of age. Up to that epoeh in tlieir lives they all exhibited great military talent, and were entirely trustworthy in every respect. At last there remained but ont3 son, a distinguished otKeer, like his father. The critical age arrived, and he ai.->u lost his reason. Ill ' ' JL PRACTICAL RULEa l.)U The immunity occa:«onally seen to the invasion of dis- ease is capable of inheritance. Some individuals can never acquire, no matter how exposed, certain diseases, such, for example, as smallpox or intermittent fever. The happy security may be transmitted. ak- "aftcr liM- is at- them- a dis- mnoh This ',e, til at ct'itaiii 'aiuily ,iue in- ;ir lives sntiiely lied but The THE LAWS OF INHERITANCE AND DISEASE. Undoubtedly, judicious marriages would eradicate all hereditary afibctions. Legislation upon this subject is, of course, impracticable. Yet its importance demands for it the closest attention from the philanthropist and the moralist. The moral and social responsibility incurred, by marrying into a family of which one or more members have suffered from constitutional disease, is great, and should not be lightly assumed. Some general rules for the guidance of those contemplating such a union may prove useful to a few at least of our readers. Dr. J. M. Winn, an English physician, who has elaborately studied the nature and treatment of hereditary disease, has drawn up an estimate of the amount of risk incurred under various circumstances, as follows : — " 1. If there is a constitutional taint in either father or mother, on both sides of the contracting parties, the risk is so great, as to amount almost to a certainty that their offspring would inherit some form of disease. " 2. If the constitutional disease is only on one side, either directly or collaterally through uncles or aunts, and the contracting parties are both in good bodily health, the risk is diminished one-half, and healthy otfspring may be the issue of the marriage. " 3. If there have been no signs of constitutional dis- ease for a whole generation, wo can scarcely consider tha risk materially lessened, as it so fie(|uentlyrei»ppears after being in abeyance for a whole generation. " 4. If two whole generation-, iiavo eseap(;d any symp- toms of hereditiiry disease, we may fairly hope that th« / 200 THE IKANHMISSION OF LIFE. ' I - !iii ii, darif^cr lias passed, and that the morbific force has expend- ed itself." HraiENIC TREATMENT OF HEllEDITARY DISEASES. As the precautionary rules which medical science has to ofler are in many cases unknown, and in more numer- ous instances unheeded, injudicious marriages are con- stantly being formed. Chille to appear, and the intense application and undue anxiety which atteml such examinations may develop them. Those disposed to hereditary afiiiction* should extend their care of them- WHAT IS ATAVISM. 201 penci- ls. ce has ■e con- y born narked yet be ) main- ted too ife, the in some Qourish- it up by must bo d should r, unless nd other sight of. y of the )eriod of to over- jitions of ln' , notwithstanding the opposing inliueiico of many motli. -j. Francis Ualton, an English writer, who has given much attention to this subject, has accumulated an overwhelming array of facts in proof of the heredily form, but even the thoughts and inclinations of our fathers. A much older writer than he, Aristotle, also al- ludes to the transmission of moral qualities by inheritance. He tells of a man who excuses himself for beating his father by saying that, " my father beat his father, and my son will beat me, Jor it is in our famnibj." History is rich in illustiations of moral heritage. Alexander VI. and his children, the Borgiiis, will ever live upon its pages be- cause of their atrocities. The crimes of the Farnese family are too infamous for mention. The same taint of wickedness runs through the cruel nature of the Medici and the Vicontes, the latter of whom are accredited with the invention of the " forty days torture." Sextus \l, and his children were notorious for their crimes, and to the Cond^ family have been attributed in addition to their courage and brilliant intellect, " odious vices of cha- racter, malignity, avarice, tyranny, and insolence." THB LEGACY OF CRIME. 209 I Modem society furnishes us with an example and a proof of the hereditary nature of crime which touches us more nearly. There exists a distinctive criminal class in all our cities. This dangerous class is marked by certain physical and mental peculiarities, These so distinguish them that they can be readily pointed out in any promis- cuous assembly. Even in Shakspearo's time this was possible. In Macbeth, one of the murderers, iu defending his fellows, says : — " We are men, my liege." To which the king replie*^ :— ** Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ; As hounds, and grayhouuds, mongrt^ls, spaniels, curt, Shoughs, water •ru,!:,'8, and demi-wolveH, ure claimed All by the name of dogs ; the valued tile DUtinguishes the Hwift, the alow, the subtle, The housekeeper, the hunter, every one According to tlie gift which bounteous nature Hath in him clos'd ; whereby he doea receive Particular addition, from the bill 'Ihat writes ihum all alike ; and so of men." Those who are b< rn and live in crime are all marked by the same traits of physical degeneration, as well as m(3ntal and moral depravity. The truth in great measure, of the assertion of Lemnius, that the " very affections follow the seed, and the malice and bad conditions of children are wholly to be imputed to their parents," is also shown by the family histories of the criminal class. It would be easy to fortify this statement by quotations from prison reports for which, however, we have not space. There are some who, while thoy do not pretend to deny tlie inheritance of physical infirmities and diseases, still maintain tliat all men are born alike, intellectually and morally, and that it is cntii'oly due to circumstances and e'lncation that they diner from ciich other. A" woll could thoy uphold the docUiues that all men are boru \'i' ■f^" amifmmm \\ > 210 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. Jfil'. ■ I with equal tenacity of life, and vigour of constitution. Such thinkers hesitate to admit the heritage of immorality because they fear that the admission would remove the check of individual responsibility. They forget that it ia merely the tendencies which are inherited, not the acts themselves. As Dr. Elam well observes, " man's freedom is not obliterated, but he is destined to a life of more or less strife and temptation, according as his inherited dis- positions are active and vicious, or the contrary. Every sane man knows that, despite of allurements or temptation, he can do or leave undone any given act ; he is therefore free, but his freedom is more or less invaded, in accordance with the laws under consideration." How true then is it that •* it is the greatest part of our felicity to be well born ; and it were happy for human kind if only such parents as are sound of body and mind should marry." We have given instances of the inheritance of gluttony and intemperance, and of families remarkable for their crimes of violence. Theft^ among other crimes, is heredi- tary. Dr. Steinase says, from personal observation, he has known it to be hereditary for three generations. A man named P acquired in his native village the sob- riquet of *' The thief!' His son, although in prosperous business, and beyond want, was remarkable for his pro- pensity to steal small things. His son, the grandson of " The thief I* when only three years of age, would clandes- tinely take more food than he could eat ; afterward he began to take small sums of money and soon larger amounts. Before he was fourteen years of age he had become an expert pickpocket and was confined in the House of Correction. Pride is passed down from father to son ; the Stuart and Guise family afford illustrious ex- amples. Of the latter it has been said that " all the line of the Guises were rash, factious, insolently proud, and of most seducing politeness of manner." Cowardice, jealousy, anger, envy, and libertinage are all met with as familj traits. The paasion of avarice is no exception to thi» 4 ^ EDUCATION AFFECTS CHILDREN. 211 tutioTU orality ve the at it is le acta reedom lore or ed di8- Every station, lerefore ardance len is it 11 born ; parents ;luttony [)T their 1 heredi- tion, ho Ions. A the sob- ►sperous his pro- idson of elandes- vard he I larger he had in the father ious ex- the line , and of ealousy, familj to thi) i others as is shown by the family of Charles IV., that cinperor of Germany of whom it has been wittily recorded that ho " venclait en detail Vempire qu'il avait achete en gros." There is also such a thing as an hereditary passion for gambling. A lady, so strongly addicted to gambling that she passed all her nights at play, died of consumption, leaving a son and daughter, both of whom inherited from her alike her vice and her disease. These facts, in regard to the inheritable nature of our mental and moral qualities which we have been consider- ing, suggest to every thoughtful mind the inquiry DOES THE EDUCATFON OF THE PARENTS AFFECT THE CAPA- CITY AND MORALITY OF THE CHILD ? We have elsewhere asked,* " Can virtuous habits be transmitted ? Can we secure virtues in our children by possessing them ourselves ? " And we have replied, that " we are scarcely more than passive transmitters of a nature we have received." Nevertheless, although this is true of the original nature, there are certain qualities capable of being superimposed upon that nature. We cannot by any course of virtue beget a child free from evil tendencies, but we can give him much to combat them through the virtuous qualities of civilization. The animal nature of man cannot be modified. It is invari- ably transmitted. It is always the same in the barbarian and the enlightened man. liut moral and mental quali- ties can be added, which, although they can never crush out nor wholly obscure the animal nature, can improve upon it. Unless this were so, unless intellectual and moral culture did so influence not only the individual but the offspring, and thus through future generations the race, then the educator would have to say with Macbeth : — " Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, And put a barren tcfpire in my gripe." • The Physical Life of Woman, p. 12L ffr • ' f^ 212 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. ill i \ Dr. Moore, a liigh authority, remarks : " Our education may be sai 15: ■ ', MORAL HERITAGE. 213 u cation :hil(l of on, and atjcs of 3 exam- appears lization, stock." e trans- ore cer- has ex- } parent receive ibits, all ch have biologist, )f trans- ent. esults of is more rities. A -rupt the [•t of the ncreased ■e, whose habits of sceptre." upon his [re, which h if our words in account- nn has a f his evil n a level by thei^ instincts. Man is conscious of a higher, a moral law, the dictates of which he has it in his power to obey. In the language of the most recent writer upon this topic, " Every man is responsible for his voluntary acts, whatever the constitutional tendency. In the face of the facts before us, I see no rep.soa to doubt or deny that one person is bom with impulses and tendencies to particular forms of virtue or vice stronger than those of others, who, on the other hand, may be more prone to other forms of good or evil than the first. The passions and appetites are doubt less much keener and more diHicult of control in those who inherit them from a line of ancestry who have never checked them, but in whom vice has been accounted a glory and a virtue. It is much cfisier for some who in- herit a placid, even temperament, with no strong emotions, to be outwardly virtuous and orderly, than for those just- mentioned, but all have it in their power. Habitual sel- fishness, disregard of the rights or feelings of others, im- morality, may reduce man nearly to the level of the brute ; the vicious act may seem to be due to irresistible impulse, but the perpetator is not the less culpable for that. He who wilfully intoxicates himself that he may commit a murder is still a murderer, and one of the deepest dye of crime. Life to all is a warfare, to some it is much more severe than to others ; but all may fight the good fight, and all may attain the reward ; none are born with a con- stitution incapable of virtue, though many have such a one as may well make life one long struggle against the power of temptations so severe that it is well for man that he is not alone in the mortal conflict." WHY CHILDREN DO NOT MORE CLOSE' ^ PARENTS. RESEMBLE If there exists in nature, and that there does is abun- dantly proved, a law by which the oftspring so strongly tend, as we have just been endeavoring to show, to inherit r?f n 'f^ jHa4*^fc*i«i^ ^d^MBUOW 214 THE TRANSMISSION or LIFE. I i II* the physical, mental, and moral naturos of their parent, how does it happen that there are so many exceptions to be noted ? In other words, what are the causes of non- inheritance ? We have already mentioned a number, to which we need now only allude. One of these is atavism, i. e., resemblance to remote instead of immediate ancestors. This agency we have sufficiently explained. Another is the neutralizing effect of the qualities of one parent over the other in their mutual transmission to the child. In this manner, a third being may be produced, unlike either parent. A third cause is the overpowering inriuence of hostile circumstances and unfavourable conditions of life. As is very aptly remarked by Mr. Darwin, in considering animals and plants under domestication, " no one would expect that our improved pigs, if forced during several generations to travel about and root in the ground for their own subsistence, would transmit, as truly as they now do, their tendency to fatten, and their short muzzles and legs. Dray horses assuredly would not long trans- mit their great size and massive limbs, if compelled to live in a cold, damp, mountainous region ; we have, indeed, evidence of such deterioration in the horses which have run wild in the Falkland Islands. European dogs in India often fail to transmit their character. Sheep in tropical countries lose their wool in a few generations." A fourth check to inheritance is to be found in what is known as the " law of diversity." In obedience to this law children differ from their parents and from each other. This so-called law is, however, merely an illustra- tion of the strength of inheritance, for its effects are due to the transmission of temporary and accidental condi- tions in the parents. There is always under such cir- cumstances a strong inclination in future generations to depart from the modifications thus accidentally produced, and return to the original type. There are two potent infiuences affecting the character II i I' 'fit INFLUENCE OF RACES. 216 of the child to which we have made no allusion. We refer to the power of the mother's imagination over the physical smd mental condition of her unborn infant, and to the influence of the mother's mind on the child at her breast. These subjects have been elsewhere discussed in treating of the physical life of woman. We do not think it worth while to " point a moral " by applying the facts and principles we have now recorded about inheritance, to the life of tlie parents. Every in- telligent reader can do this for himself. Nor is it our purpose to prosecute the study of the formation of the child through the habits of the father beyond what we have already done. From the first it has been our aim to impress upon our readers the momentous truth that the well-being of the generations to come, and consequently the destiny of races and nations, are closely dependent on the healthy condition of the male in his sexual relations. We have now traced these relations in the individual, and pointed out their hygienic 'aws, from the period when they are first manifested to their final effects on the otispring. THE INFLUENCE OF RACE. Although somewhat foreign to the purpose of this work, which is concerned with the health of the indi- vidual rather than considerations of race, we cannot for- bear to quote the thoughts of an eminent theologian, Canon Kingsley, in reference to the extent and power of hereditary influences : " Physical science is proving more and more the im- mense importance of race ; the importance of hereditary powers, hereditary organs, hereditary habits, in all organ- ized beings, from the lowest plant to the highest animal. She is proving more and more the omnipresent action of the differences between races ; how the more favoured race (she cannot avoid using the epithet) exter- ■ 21(5 THE THANSMISSION OF LIFE. minates the less favoured, or at least expels it, under penalty of death, to ada[)t itself to new circumstances ; and, in a word, that conipetition between every race and every individual of that race, and rowrrd according to deserts, is (as far as we can see) an universal law of living things. And she says — for the facts of hi?' »ry prove it — that as it is among the races of plants and animals, so it has been unto this day among the races of men. " The natural theology of the future must take count of these tremendous and even painful facts ; and she may take count of them. For Scripture has taken count of them already. It talks continually — it has been blamed for talking so much — of races, of families; of their wars, their struggles, their exterminations ; of laces favoured, of races rejected ; of remnants being saved to continue the race ; of hereditary tendencies, hereditary excellencies, hereditary guilt. Its sense of the reality and importance of descent is so intense, that it speaks of a whole tribe or whole family by the name of its common ancestor, and the whole nation of the Jews is Israel to the end. And if I be told this is true of the Old Testament, but not of the New, I must answer, What ? Does not St. Paul hold the identity of the whole Jewish race with Israel their forefather, as strongly as any prophet of the Old Testa- ment ? And what is the central historic fact, save one, of the New Testament, but the conquest of Jerusalem — the dispersion, all but destruction of a race ; not by mir- acle, but by invasion, because found wanting when weighed in the stern balances of natural and social law f " Gentlemen, think of this. I only suggest the thought ; but I do not suggest it in haste. Think over it — by the light which our Lord parables, His analogies between tl)e physical and social constitution of the world afford — and consider whether those awful words, fulfilled then and fulfilled so often since — ' The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits hereof — may not be the supreme instance, the INFLUENCE OF UACES. 217 under ancea ; 26 and \u(f to living rove it lals, so 1 count le may mnt of blamed r wars, ured, of me the ilencies, ortance tribe or tor, and I. And \, not of ul hold b1 their Testa- ve one, jalera — 3y mir- when ftl law t ought ; -by the reen the rd — and len and shall be arth the Qce, the most complex development, of a law which runs thr<)u;;h all created things, down to the moss which struggles for existence on the rock ? "Do I say that this is all f That man is merely a part of nature, the puppet of circumstances and hereditary tendencies ? That brute competition is the one law of his life ? That he is doomed forever to be the slave of his own needs, enforced by an internecine struggle for existence ? God forbid. I believe not only in nature, but in grace. I believe that this is man's fate only as long as he sows to the flesh, and of the flesh reaps cor- ruption. I believe that if he will ' Strivo npward, working out the beasi| And let the ape and tiger die ;' if he will be even as wise aa the social animals ; as the ant and the bee, who have risen, if not to the virtue of all-embracing charity, at least to the virtues of self-sacri- fice and patriotism, then he will rise to a higher sphere ; towards that kingdom of God of which it is written, ' He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.' " [Works bkferkbd to in this section.— 7%e Variation$ of AnimaU and PJanU under Domestication, by Charles Darwin, vol. ii, p. 10 et seq. (Am. edition) ; J. B. ThompHon. L. R. C. S. Eilin., On the Hereditary Nature of Crime, in the Journal of Mental Science for January, 1870, p. 487 ; Elam's Physician » Problemt (Am. erl. , 18G9), article, Natural Heritage ; Dr. Edward S^guin, On Idiocy, a$ the Effect of Social Evilt, and at the Creative Cause of Physiologicai Education, in the Journal of Psychological Medicine for Jan- nary, 1870, p. 1 ; Francis Galton, On Hereditary Talent and Character, in MacMillan's Magazine, voL xii. ; Dr. Prosper Lucas, Traiti Philosophique et Phyaiologique ; I'Heriditi Naturelle dans let Flats de Santi et de Maladie du Systhiu No^veux; Pritchard, Researches into the Physical History of Man- kind, vol. ii. ; Flourens, Dt la Longiviti Humaineet dela Quantity de Vietur le Globe^ (Paris, 1860) ; Huf eland. Art of Prolonging Life (Am. ed., 1870) ; Lewes, Physiology of Common Life, vol. ii., p. 314 (Am. ed., 1867) ; The British Medical Journal, January 11, 18G8, p. 25 ; A. Debay, Hyuiine et Pkysiologie du Mariage, p. 173 ; Carpenter, Human Physiology, p. 779 (Am. ed.) ; Mayer, Des Rapports Confugaux, cinquibrae edition, Paris, 18i>8, pi, 381 ; Sir Henry Holland, Medical Notes and Eejlections, p. 30, et seq. Ameri^ tan Journal nf Medical Sciences, July, 18ij5.] PART IV. NERVOUS DISORDERS ORTOINATINO IN THE MALE GENERATIVE SYSTEM. This subject, singularly enough, has received little attention from medical wiiteis. There have been no popular works of any merit on this important branch of medical science. Even in the text-hooks of surgery there is scarcely more than a brief allusion to those nervous disorders hiaving their origin in man's generative system. Far otherwise has it been with the discJises peculiar to women. During the last cpiarter of a century the ablest minds in the profession have been occupied largely, some exclusively, in the study of their nature and treatment. Nor have there been wanting well-informed and popular writers to diU'use among wives and mothers a sound knowledge of the laws of their organization, and to point out to them the methods of avoiding the infirmities of their sex. Thousands have thus been benefited. Equal advantages would result to the male sex from a correct knowledge of the causes and results of those diseases to which they alone are liable. We are glad to notice that attention has been awakened to the great need of popular enlightenment in this direc- tion. One of the most prominent of the English medi- cal journals, the London Lancet, in a recent series of edi- torials on this theme, asserts tha,t .. most important service would be rendered to the coiMMiu.iity by lifting the dis- cussion of the consequences of J m angements of the specific function of mankind " out of the mire into which it has been cast by ignorance, by shamefacednoss, and by greed." On this side the Atlantic, the Philadelphia Medical and ■' ! CAUSE OF PAUTIAL PAlLALYSia 219 akened direc- mecli- of edi- service le dis- specific it has ^reed." al and Sartjical Reporter expresses " the wish that sotno skilled writer would dispel a little of the dense popular i<,'iioranco around these 8ul)jects, aii ifjnorance which, shared as it is by [>arents, teachers, and j)rofes8or8, prevents them from ^Mvinsjf instructions to their sons and pupils, by which the latter could bo saved from incalculable pain, mental a!:fony, and vice." It has been our purpose in the previous papfes to dwell at some length in treating of " The Celibate Life" upon tlireo of the principal aflections to which the unmarried man is more especially liable, viz., the consequences of the solitary vice, spermatorrhcca, and contagious secret disease. But there are many otiier disorders of the male reproductive organs, and there are numerous obscure vervous diseases which are set up and continued by irri- tation reflected from these parts. Some of them we will brielly consider. Every physician is acquainted with the host of strange and seemingly remote consequences in women of uterine disease. In dealing with any affection in the weaker sex he sees the necessity of in(]uiry in regard to the health of this organ. Too often he overlooks the connection almost or quite as intimate which exists between the nervous and generative systems in his male patients. As a result of this neglect treatment is often nugatory. Dr. Lewis A. Sayre,of New York, has recently recorded several cases oi 'partial paralysis due to the un.suspccted existence of generative malformations. When this able surgeon remetlied the local trouble the paralysis disappear- ed, although it had previously resisted the most energetic and best directed treatment. The doctor also relates, in the last volume of the Transactions of the American Medical Association, three cases of hip-disease in boys, for which he could at first find no cause in any injury, fall, blow, or wrench of the joint, but which he traced to the effect upon the hip-joint of frecpient unnoticed falls to which the child was liable because of its muscular 220 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. i ? : i 1 ^ ' 1 .,;■(■ ; ^ it ■ 1 debility or partial paralysis caused by irritation of the genital organs. He is also satisfied, from recent experience, that to thia same irritation may be traced many of the cases of excitable children with restless sleep and bad digestion, so often improperly attributed to worms. It is the man of advanced years, however, whose ner- vous system is most susceptible to the influence of dis- orders of the reproductive organs. This topic occupied our attention to some extent while treating of the " decay of virility " and " the causes which hasten its decline." We again refer to it in this connection in order to empha- size the dangers to the nervous and vital forces of the aged from the slightest approach to excess. That promi- nent French surgeon. Dr. Parise, in pointing out these perilR, utters the following words of warning : " One grand purpose pervades the creation, to live and to im- part life. This last function ought to be considered the most important. If men will conform to the laws o^ nature — laws which, moreover, are immutable and eter- nal — they must submit themselves to conditions of exis- tence and of organization, and learn how to limit their desires within the spheres of their real wants. If they will do so, wisdom and health will bloom of themselves, and abide without etfort ; but all this is too often forgotten when £he functions of generation are in question. This sublime gift of transmitting life — fatal prerogative which man continually forfeits — at once the mainstay of mora- lity, by means of family ties, and the powerful cause of depravity, the energetic spring of lijfe and health, the ceaseless source of disease and infirmity, this faculty in- volves almost all that man can attain of earthly happiness or misfortune, of earthly pleasure or of pain ; and the tree of knowledge of good and evil is the symhol of it, as true as it is expressive. Thus, even love by its excesses has- tens and abets the inevitable doom for which, in the first instance by the aid of passion, it had provided the victims. The greater part of mankind, however, show excessive !,,; EXCESSIVE INDULGENCE. 221 eter- exis- their they elves, otten This hich mora- se of the y in- piness c tree true has- le first ctims. essive feebleness in withstanding the abuse of the generative functions ; and what surprises us most is, that those ad- vanced in life are r ot always the least exposed to this re- proach. It is certnin that in old age, at a time when the passions have given v,'ay to reason, there are still many individuals who allow themselves to stray imprudently to the very precipitous edge of these dangerous enjoyments. They applaud themselves for postponing moderation till it is rather forced than voluntary ; till they stop from sheer want of vigour. What heroic wisdom ! Nature, pitiless as she is, will cause them most certainly to pay dearly for the transgression of her laws ; and the steady accumulation of diseases soon gives demonstrative proof of it. This result is the more certain and prompt, inas- much as in these cases excesses are almost always of old standing. The libertine in years has usually been dis- solute in youth and manhood, so that we may trace the progress and calculate the extent of his organic deterio- ration." It is principally by excessive indulgence that elder men bring about nervous maladies. With them the strictest moderation, often absolute continence, is necessary if they would prolong their lives, and avoid numberless physical miseries. The effects of undue indulgence at this period of life, vary according to the temperament of the indivi- dual. Men of a nervous temperament are most liable to epileptic or like seizures affecting the brain and nerves ; those of a sanguine temperament run the risk of hemor- rhage ; those of a bilious temperament, of some derange- ment of the digestive organs. A latent predisposition to various diseases lurks in the constitution of very many. This predisposition becomes active under the influence of the depressing effect of ven- eieal excess. In this way we may account for many dis- orders of the mind, of the heart, and of the lungs, which suddenly, as it were, develop themselves. When there exists in the economy, any organ or function which is V!' I '?'*"" 222 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. '■ I It H diseased or feeble, it is upon this that the evil results fix themselves. Any part of the body mny become disordered, as the direct consequence of libidinous excess. Thus, an ex- perienced physician, Professor A. P. Dutcher, M.D., of (Cleveland, has found that even in the prime of life, im- moderation in the marital relation is a frequent cause of an obstinate form of chronic hronchitls. He says in one of his lectures : " In lookini^ over a list of fifty cases of chronic bronchitis, which have fallen under my care during the last six yoars, I find th;it ton of them have been attributed to this cause. And tliey were mostly individuals in middle life, the period when the sexual propensities are the most vij^^orous, and pronqit to the most unlimited indulgence. You will occasionally treat a patient for a long time, who is sutiering from an ordin- ary attack of chronic bronchitis, and after exliausting your stock of therapeutics you will wonder that he does not recover. You are well-assured that the diagnosis is correct. He assures you tliat his habits are all right, that your prescriptions are faithfully attended to, and there is no improvement. Indeed, you may treat him as long as you please, and he will not be cured, until you expose the secret source of his malady, and compel him to abandon it. After treating a very intelligent patient for this disease a long time, I I'emarked to his wife one day, that it was exceedingly strange there was no improve- ment in his case, I could not see that he was any better than when he first came under my care, ami 1 liegan to fear that there was something about his case that I did not understanicnt one •ove- better an to (lid lasis, tsses I thini; think n]ii)n i-atiou thti Epilepsy, nervous tremblings, convulsions and various forms of paralysis are, as we have seen, sometimes the consequence of habits of excess, particularly in those who have passed the prime of life. Many diseases of the heart and brain, and numerous affections of the skin, are also often engendered and continued in the same way. It is only by recognizing these facts, that proper means of personal prevention and cure can be instituted. At the same time it must be borne in mind, that a ten- dency to venereal excess and onanism is sometimes the result and not the cause of epilepsy, and other nervous tremblings. Inordinate desire may be the accompaniment, and the earliest sign of brain disease. At the outset of the disease the unhappy patient may be conscious of, and capable of controlling, to a great extent, these morbid, and to him, distressing promptings which threaten to rule him. Dr. Echeverria, of I»Jew York city, in his re- cent work on epilepsy, records a striking illustration of these remarks, in the case of a patient affected with this disease, " superinduced by mental over-work, who, press- ed by my inquiry, wrote to me a history of his case, with the following about his feelings : " I would not weary you ■«vith the vain confession of prayers and resolves of one sinning, knowing the while how he sins, but yet, finding himself" led to the act without any intention or force to resist it. You may believe me or not ; as for myself, I am unable to account for this veuery that overcomes my whole being, as anything but an evil result of my disease. If this avowal offers no other moral, it presents that of which you need not to be often reminded in the practice of your profession — how lightly we regard the blessings of health — and, considering the self-abuse through whicli I pass, I think that I may say with the Psalmist : * How fearfully and wonderfully are we made.' " Nothing remains to be added to this description char- acteristic of an epileptic, and of the evil impulse and in- ability of the patient, to car'*y i>ut any coui'se to repu- diate it," ■fr^ 224 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. Among the nervous diseases originating in the repro- ductive organs ayphilia of the nervous systeva. calls for some notice here. Many close observations on this sub- ject have been made within t!ie last few years which leave no doubt that the brain and the whole nervous organization are liable to be affected by this subtle poison. Severe headache, epileptic convulsions, and even paraly- sis may be caused in this way during any period of con- stitutioaal syphilis. Prof. Van Buren, of New York, has recently published a series of cases of the nervous forms of syphilis, which bring into prominence many practical points hitherto not sufficiently heeded. Paralysis, epilepsy, and mental derangement were the symptoms presented by these cases. Enfeeble ment of the intelligence and loss of memory are common forms of mental disturbance noticed. Whether insanity is ever of syphilitic origin, is a question still mooted. The belief has been gaining ground among English and German physicians having charge of mental diseases, that such is the case. However it may be as to actual insanity, there are too many cases on record to permit of scepticism as to the possibility of serious impair- ment of the intellect being the frequent effect of tliis animal poison. The question has recently been asked, " Does the presence of syphilitic taint in the system ever so enfeeble the intellect as to render the subject less cap- able of mental exertion than he was before he actpiired the disease, without at the same time giving rise to intel- lectual eccentricities or loss of memory sufficiently notice- able to disclose his mental condition to his associates ?" Prof. Van Buren, the propounder of this query, feels in- clined to answer it himself in the affirmative. A CAUSE OF WASTING. There is a disease which has recently attracted much attention in the medical ]>rofession. It is known under the learned name of tabeti dorsalis, by which is meant an A CAUSE OF WASTING. 225 repro- lls for s sub- which ervoua loison. )araly- »f con- rk, has forms actical >ilepsy, ited by loss of loticed. uestion among mental »e as to cord to impair- of this asked, |m ever ss cap- [;(|iured intel- notice- iatcs V sels in- much under Mxnt an afTection chiefly characterized by wasting of the body. Progressive emaciation is almost the only symptom present excepting slight hectic fever. The disease has its origin in the nervous system, and its generally assigned cause is too early or too frequent addition to venery. There is a great difference of opinion in regard to what constitutes excess. It varies in different individuals and under different circumstances, as we have already ex- plained in a previous part of our work. It is with this form of intemperance as it is with alcoholic intoxication, people's ideas vary as to what is undue indulgence, and different individuals are affected in diverse ways by the same amount of indulgence. Venereal intemperance, whatevei it may be, is the most frequent cause of the Sad disorder of which we now speaic It is important, there- fore, that the patient should be candid with his medical adviser. Concealment is too often practised, to the detri- ment of the sufferer, particularly when the indulgence has not only been vicious, but criminal. It is to be borne in mind that the evil results of excess are not always immediately manifest. The effects do nut necessarily at once follow the cause. The connection be- tween the two, is therefore, often overlooked, and a seri- ous medical error is thus committed. Sexual excess is not the only cause of this disease, but when present always favours its developement. The cele- brated Dr. Romberg, whose authority in nervous affec- tions none will caU in question, says : " Two circum- stances have been shown with certainty to predispose to it, namely, the male sex, and the period between the thirtieth and fiftieth year of life. Scarcely one-eighth of the cases are femalea The loss of semen has always been looked upon as one of the most fruitful sources of the complaint ; but this in itself does not appear to be a matter of much consequence in intluencing the disease, as patients who have been labouring under spermatorrhoea for a series of years are much more liable to hypochon- ffn 226 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. :» drlasis and Cfirel>ra] afTcctions, than to this. But when conihined with excessive stimulation of the nerves, to which sensual abuses give rise, it not unfrequently favouia the origin and encourages the development of tlie disease after it has commenced. When the strength is much taxed by continued standing in a bent posture, by forced marches and the catarrhal influences of wet bivouacs, fol- lowed by drunkenness and debauchery, as is so often the case in campaigns, the malady is rife." Other writers speak still more positively of the in- timate relation between this disease and sexual excesses. Every pra^^bising physician who has had experience with this fortune ti'ly comparatively rare malady must acknow- ledge tl.ul t;' history of the cases, when accurately ob- tained, has nearly always pointed to this causation. A Cfl^LSE OF CONVULSIONS. Tliere is a difTerence of opinion in the minds of the pro- fession at the present time as to the frequency with which the solitary vice induces epileptic fits. All agree, how- ever, that here is to be found one of the causes of epilepsy, some asserting that it is a prominent cause, others that it is far from being the usual one. We have just pointed out, on a previous page, that "a tendency to venereal excess and onanism is sometimes the result and not the cause of epilepsy." Bearing this truth in mind, and also the lamentable fact that there have been, and are, many ruthless alai mists, who, some of them designedly, make exaggerated statements a6 to the connection between abuse of the masculine powers and epileptic disease, still it cannot be denied that an abundance of the best of medical evidence proves the existence of such a connec- tion in a certain proportion of the cases. Thus Prof. Watson, in his work on Practice, so familiar to every physician and medical student, says : " There are certain vices which are justly considered A CASE OF NERVOUS PROSTRATION. 22/ when ues, to IVOUI'8 lisease much forced ,cs, fol- en the ,he in- : cesses, le with iknow- ely ob- i. ihe pro- which ie, how- lilepsy, that it (ointed enereal Lot the ,nd also }, many make btween Lse, still Ibest of •onnec- ^s Prof. every Isidered as influential in aggravating, and even in creating, a dis- position to epilepsy; debauchery of all kinds ; the habitual indulgence in intoxicating liquors ; and, above all, the most powerful predisposing cause of any, not due to in- heritance, is masturbation — a vice which it is painful and difficult even to allude to in this manner, and still more difficult to make the subject of inquiry with a patient. But there is too much reason to be certain that many cases of epilepsy owe their origin to this wretched and degrading habit, and more than one or two patients have voluntarily confessed to me their conviction that they had thus brought upon themselves the epileptic paroxysms for which they sought my advice." NERVOUS PROSTRATION. The new circumstances and remarkable activity which characterize our modern civilization are so different from those which surrounded the monotonous lives of our fore- fathers, that we have not as yet become used to them. We are, as it were, in a new world of life, to which our systems are not yet acclimated. Hence it is that the annals of medicine chronicle a large increase in all varie- ties of nervous maladies within the last score or two of years, in both sexes and in all civilized lands. What does this teach ? It teaches that the part of prudence is to avoid more sedulously than ever before the strains upon our systems which are unnecessary, for our nervous organizations can- not bear that which those of our fathers could. Among the new diseases which have thus arisen is one which is peculiarly characteristic of crowded cities, of the great marts of trade and hives of busy life, where not only does the task of gaining a subsistence demand the utmost exercise of the powers, but beyond this the temptations of vice are most shameless, most prominent and most al« luring. ~7ja •^-f*- Mi 228 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. ! ! In this disease, which has received the technical name of paresis, there is absolutely nothing present which we can put our finger upon and say, " This is the weak point, here is the seat of the malady." Nor does the patient himself complain of any pain, and is hardly awaxe of his condition. He feels languid, depressed, " out of sorts." His mind in not as clear as it was. It is an effort to produce any- thing original, or to undertake any unusual exertion ; after a while even routine business is burdensome. Tired as he constitutionally feels, yet often he cannot sleep sound when in bed. So the symptoms follow one after another — and it is not our intention to draw any harrowing picture of them to alarm the ignorant — until there is very visibly some definite enfeeblement of the functional power of the brain, showing itself in motion and in intellectual expression. This is a disease which was certainly not recognized, even if it existed, before this age; it is the maladie du sidcle. And for what purpose have we introduced it here ? It is to warn against a common, perhaps the most common, cause of it ; that is, excessive stimulation of the sexual passions. Dr. Handfield Jones, of London, calls especial attention to the importance of this warning, and the frequency with which the vice referred to leads to a premature and seemingly unexplainable debility of the system, a want of energy, a tediurm vitcB. He quotes the words of the celebrated Hufeland: "It is proved beyond all doubt that nothing renders the mind so incapable of noble and exalted sensations, destroys so much of its firmness and powers, and relaxes the sj^stem as this dissipation." It is not easy to explain, even were it the place to do so, these efi'ects, but the correctness of the observations is too well authenticated to be doubted, and of too much imjjortance to the public welfare to be concealed. The men of our time are subjected to excitements such as It, ,.■ ▲ CAUSE OP DISEASE OP THE SENSEa 229 I name lich we I point, patient 5 of bia is mind ce any- certion ; ;. Tired )t sleep nd it is of them »ly some 16 brain, ission. ;ognized, adie du rluced it the most »n of the itention ■equency lUre and a want of the doubt Die and less and 1. ze to do ations is 30 much The such a3 none of their ancestors were, and they must be the more guarded therefore to avoid any needless exposure of their health. The same intelligence which has raised them from the depths of unlettered savagery, and enabled them to cultivate to such an extent the powers of the senses, must be their guide in using these new abilities as not abusing them, and in avoiding the perils with which a wider control over natural agencies is invariably asso- ciated. DISORDEUS OP THE SPECIAL SENSES. To illustrate still further the intimate relationship which exists between all parts of the nervous systeni, and how even remote functions are connected in their healthy activity, we shall speak of a few disorders of the special senses which occasionally take their rise from the same cause of which we have been speaking. By the term " special senses " physicians mean the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and feeling. They are at times all more or less affected in diseases such as we have mentioned, but the disorders of two of them — sight and hearing — are so important in themselves, and relatively so much more common and serious, that in the present connection we shall refer to them alone. A greater or less debility of the sight, permanent or only occasionally present, is a well-known accompani- ment of an abuse of the generative faculty. Sometimes til is is merely a dimness, a tendency to confuse objects and to blur them. At others, it is associated with an ap- pearance of specks and motes before the eyes, or a sensa- tion of prickling and heat in the ball of the eye. Of course all these and similar symptoms more fre- quently arise from other and more innocent causes than the one of which we are speaking, but it is well to know that they also arise from it, and well to be aware that often as long as such habits are continued and concealed from the physician, as is generally the case, medication 2:jO THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. m ■t I I I may be nscless, and the physician be blamod for want of skill, when no one but tho sutlerer himself is to blumo. It is gratifying to be assured that when tho cause is removed, these disorders usually rapidly disappear, pro- viding, of course, that they huve not been in existence so long as to have impaired the organ. ])r. II. Aluller, whose observations on these matters we have several times quoted, says: "The feebleness of the power of vision, which is so common among those sulieiing from disorders of tho generative function, may increase to an actual loss of the power of sight. I have in many instances wit- nessed its gradual diminution. But I am pleased to say that in every instance in which the patient continued under treatment, I have witnessed its restoration ; some- times quite rapidly after an appropriate local application. " It must not be supposed, however," continues Dr. MUller, " that this defect of the sight is always dependent in these cases on abuse, excess, or nocturnal emissions. On the contrary, there are various diseased conditions of the parts which, by some not well understood sympathy, lead to a disturbance of the powers of sight." These he proceeds to mention, but as they could only be understood by the medical reader, we shall not recap- itulate them. His observation, however, we deem it im- portant to quote, for it is of utmost weight, in our opin- ion, that no hasty inference so damaging to the moral life of a person, or unfair suspicion of his conduct, should be drawn from anything we say. The facts are, that dis- turbance ot" the eyesight, even proceeding to actual blind- ness, may arise from iriitation of the parts, and yet this be in no wise due to unusual piactices. The cases due to venereal excess, the same writer goes on to remark, the oculist is apt to treat in vain, for he rarely reflects on this distant sympathy, may not know it or believe in it, or feel a natural hesitancy in inquiring aliout it. Therefore it may be that cases which have been pronounced by the eye-surgeon incurable, will A CAUSE OF DEAFNKS3. 231 lA^ant of lumo. ;ause is ;ar, pro- tcnce so r, whoso I times ' vision, lisorders ual loss ces wit- l to say mtinucd ; some- (lication. Lues Dr. ipendent missions, itions of mpathy, lid only recap- it ini- ar opin- moial should at dis- al hlind- yet this er goes for he )t know iquiring eh have le, wilJ tin .eadily be relieved by attention to the precautions whicli we have givoa for preserving the function of sex in per- fect health. The HEAiilNQ is impaired in a less degree by such ex- cesses, but it unquestionably ia at times implicated. The disorders to which it is subject from this cause are chiefly of that character which are termed subjective. The patient will be annoyed by imaginary noises, such as buzzing, ringing, and roaring sounds. Occasionally actual deafness has been observed, a peculiar character of which readily distinguishes it from that usually encountered, that is, its variable nature. One day it will be marked, and only a loud tone can be heard ; tlie next it may en- tirely have disappeared, or be hardly observable. So far from being deaf, an unusual sensitiveness of hearing may also proceed from the same cause. In short, it is enough to say tliat most of these disturb- ances of this sense which are found generally where the nervous system has been much shocked or prostrated, also make their appearance when it is suffering under a de- pression from injury from this source. As these senses — sight and hearing — are the avenues through which the inost that is good, and beautiful, and useful is conveyed to us, and as their integrity is essen- tial to allow us to be of service to ourselves and our fellow-men, certainly no epliemeral or imaginary plea- sure of a mere ignoble and seliish sort should induce us for a moment to imperil their pel tVct working and pre- servation. Here, again, drawn from the discussion of an obscure point of medical practice, do we discover an argu- ment and a powerful one in favour of that golden modera- tion, that self-control, and that teiiii)erate use of our powers, which in all times have constituted the kernel of the maxims of sages and been the aim of legislator- Experience here is of accord with reason, and proves by example that which the latter has long taught by piecept. m ' m»- W i 23:2 THE TRANSMI«aiO« OF LIFK. DISORDERS OF DIGESTION. The nourishment of the system depends, of course, very directly upon the proper digestion ot tlie food we eat, and whatever interferes with the process, sotm ^ives occasion for the appearance of a number of other troubles, de- j)en(lent upon the starvation as it were of the separate orj^aus. Several authors have inwsted that there is little or no connection ol>scrvable between the functions of sex in the male and those of digestion ; in the female all agree that they are intimately related, and that hardly ever is there a disturbance of the former, but that it is reflected in the action of the latter. The analogy of conformation leads us to doubt, there- fore, their entire independence in the male, and we are inclined to agree with that more numerous party in the profession who maintain that many cases display a strong sympathy between the parts in question. Our own ob- servation bears this out. Seveial striking cases have come before us where dyspepsia of long standing disappeared when the disorder of the lower organs was removed. The fact that many who exhfiust their systems by ex- cess are characteiized l>y a voracious apj)etite, is not Budieient to disprove this view. The demand of the system for iood is urgent, but, when conyumed, it is often productive of unpleasant sensations, eructation, water- brash, a sense of weight and fulness, and the other fami- liar symptoms of indigestion. While it is nearly always observed that such persons, in spite of the amount of food they take, do not increase proportionately in flesh, but are marked by a degree uf attenuation which has be- come proverbial. Instances have come to our knowledge where attacks of dyspepsia made their appearance only after dissipa- tions of the kind, ami gave no trouble where the rules of health, in this respect, were judiciously observed. In TUE CHANCES OF UIX'OVtUY. 233 8G, very 3at, and (ccasion les, (le- loparate 3 or no & in the •ee that la there d in tho t, there- we are y in the a stronr? own ob- Lve come ippeared .'ed. s by ex- is not of the is often water- !r fami- always ount of in flesh, has be- attacks dissipa- Lhe rules /ed. In these the BufTerui's theniselvea did t\ot hesitate to attri- bute their CDinplaiiita to what they justly considered the real exciting cause. Whatever doubt may exist in reference to tho general question of the sympathy of these parts, there can be none concerning tho relationship of certain complaints of the lower bov els to disturbances of the masculine func- tion. Obstinate constipation may stand either in the re- lation of a cause or a consequence to chronic irritation of tho parts from any cause, innocent or Uagitious. So also the nearness of position which they occupy in ilio human system leads them to a participation in the same disturb- ances. THE PIIOSPECTS OF CURE. The catalogue of nervous disorders which depend upon disturbances of the generative functions is a somewhat long and a formidable one, but we do not u ish the reader to carry away any false impressions of alarm. Our task here is difHcult. We well know that we shall fail of our purpose if, on the one hand, we create a terror which may lead to melancholy and despair; and also if we give the idea that, after all, these vaiious dis- orders are transient, rai-e, and of slight importance. They are, in fact, frequent ; they may bo serious ; and they may become incurable, by leading to organic changes in the nervous systeai. But they are also generally readily curable, even after they have long been trouble- some. While this does not hold good for all of them, it does for most. There is no reason for despair, but the strongest for reformation. Continued indulgence will certainly end in wrecking the constitution irretrievably ; but nature is slow to yield thus far. To the last there is hope ; but from the first there is danger. Let no young man, in the pride of his strength, flatter himself he can yield to dissipation with impunity. It !-m f* ' " 234) THE ITIANSMISSION OF LIFE. u,': ' may be that a single excess will ruin his bodily powers for life, and blight his every hope at the very outset of his career. Examplesjof this are not wanting, which may well give him pause, for who knows but their fate may be his. The prospects for a complete restoration of the health are, in the large majority of instances, favourable, but only on one condition, the immediate and complete cessa- tion of the wonted indulgence, whether this be solitary or sexual abuse. Without this imperative condition, we promise nothing. Nor is this snough. The thought as well as the act must be put away. That is no reform which extends to the misdeed only, while the thoughts and wishes are as evil as ever. In no department of morals is this more true than here. " He who looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart." And tlie evil consequences to his body aa well as to his soul follow as surely in the one case as in the other. If the sufferer will resolutely see to it that he is rigidly j)iire in heart, then we can conscientiously bid him take courage, for the victory will shortly be won. THE MEANS OF CURE. While here, as in the previous parts of our work, we dis- claim tlie intention of pretending to qualify one unversed in tlie doctrines of medicine to manage successfully serious diseases, .is are some we have mentioned, we shall attempt to put those who require it in possession of informaticm which will enable them to escape from many of the ilia they have brought upon themselves. The treatment of nervous disorders in general has occu- pied prominently the attention of ])hysicians since within the last score of years these complaints have become so much moj'e numerous than formerly. R," THE METHODS OF TREATMEJST. 235 powers itset of ch may be may I health ble, but e cessa- solitary :,ion, we the act bends to I are as is more 1 to lust her in body aa ise as in 9 rigidly im take we dis- invursud serious attempt matioti the ilia las occu- e within come 80 We may sura np the general principles of this treatmen c in a few words. The system must be relieved from the cause of its disorder at the earliest moment, and recourse be had to tonic and strengthening diet, and drugs to impart to it the vigour which it has forfeited. The use of iron, as in the prescription given on an ear- lier page of this work, will be found of value. Change of air and scene, as by travelling, is an admirable tonic. Regulated exercise, always pushed short of the point of actual fatigue, is essenlial. The mineral waters which are rich in the salts of iron are of great service. The free use of cold water is always advisable. To an ordinarily vigorous system it is singularly invigorating. It increases the nervous power and attracts the blood from the inner organs to the surface. The cold bath, whether as shower-bath or douche-bath, should be taken with regularity. In feeble states of the system, cold water may be de- pressing, and there are some tetnperaments so sensitive to it that it almost throws them into convulsions. When this is the case, it is better to commence with tepid water, and gradually lower the temperature as the system be- comes accustomed to it. Th^j sponge-bath is often grate- ful and pleasant to those who cannot support without great discomfort the ajiplication of cold water in a more direct manner. The wet sheet, though cold on its first application, soon becomes warm, and acts agreeably on those whose systems are feeble and irritable. There is a strong desire in many of these cases of ner- vous trouble to quiet the irritability, and to cheer the de- pressed spirits with doses of alcoholic beverages; and there are physicians who do not hesitate to permit and even to recommend such stimulation. We must enter a decided protest against tliis ndvico and this habit. It "is not, cannot come to good." 'J'he taliacions sense of com- fort temporarily imparted is followed by a reaction which fn t | ii;» " 236 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. ft 1 requires a repetition of the dose, and soon a confirmed habit of tippling is formed. Bad at all times, this is un- speakably pernicious in cases like those we are discussing, where it is beyond everything important that the self- control be maintained, and the passions kept under. But in spite of the ri^id observance oi the ordinary precepts for nervous disorders, there are some arising from this cause which will not be healed by these means, and yet are readily curable nevertheless. These are the cases which give themselves and their medical attem .cs the most trouble. They are weary loads to themseives and friends, and regard themselves as comlirmed valetudina- rians. Such require a special local treatment. Their general nervous troubles will disappear promptly when the irritation of the parts, the causa of all the symptoms, no matter how remote, is removed. Many striking cases to this effect are to be found in the various writers who have recorded their experience on these subjects. Of course where, as in some of the cases alluded to in the earlier part of this article, the general symptona de- pend upon some malformation, or upon some poison of contagion still lurking in the system, the special and a[)- propriate means should be employed, either surgical, to reduce the malformation, or medical, to expel from the system, when possible, the morbid material. The distinction between these various causes is often a matter of great difficulty, and no one oau trust his own judgment in an obscure case. Even the expert at times is at fault, and is led to the adoption of methods of treat- ment, which, if not injurious, are useless. This is often the fault of the patient himself Either through ignor- ance, through a sense of guiltiness, or from a natural diffidence, facts which would throw light upon the cause are often withheld. It need hardly be said that such reticence as this, how- ever proper in general, is entirely misplaced between patient and physician. There should be no concealment THE DANGERS OF RETICENCE. 237 nfirmed 3 ia un- cussing, he self- Br. trdinary ing from ms, and he cases .cs the ves and etudina- . Their ly when mptonis, .njr casos ,ers who ed to in itona de- )oison of and ap- ijical, to Iroin the s often a his own at times of treat- 1 is often [h ignor- natural ihe cause his, how- between cealment when health and life are at stake. When sufficient con- fidence is not felt in a medical attendant to give him all the facts which are necessary for him to know, some other one should be sought. That many fail to receive the proper treatment because they themselves are entirely unaware how closely their present troubles are related to their former vices, we well know. The hints we have given in the last few pages are for their benefit, and we hope they will lay them well to heart. While pointing out, as we have done, a few of the ner- vous disorders originating in the reproductive system, we have carefully made our statements of even less strength than our medical experience and knowledge would justify. We desire to excite no unnecessary alarm in the mind of any one. But the fact that various nervous mala'lies may bo produced by different affections of the male organs should be known to every man. Having learned how penetrating and far reaching are the effects, may we not hope that some of our readers, through the personal ap- plication of the sanitary laws, which, in this volume, it has been our endeavour to make clear, will be led to avoid exposing themselves to the exciting causes of dis- ease of the masculine function ? [WoKKS BEFERREn TO IN THIS BKCTioN. — Th« Laticft, London, July 16 and July 30, 1870 ; Partial Paralysis from Reflex Irritation, cavsed by corv- iietiital PhimoHis and Adherent Prepuce, by liewia A. Sayre, M.D. : Prof.A. 1'. Dutcher, M.D., Lectures on Chronic lironchitis, in the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical ftemw^er for October 12, 1867; M. (Jonzales Eoheverria on Kpilepiy : Atuitomo-Patholouicaf and Clinical Notes, New York, 1870, p. 2.51 ; Prof. Wni. U. Van Buren, M.D., on •i^y/ihilis of the Nervous System, in tlie New York Medical Journal, for NoveuibtT, 18701; Traiii Historique et Pratique de la Syphilis, par le docteur E. Lanoereaux, Paris, 18(j(), p. 441 ; Let Passions d^ins Icurs Rapports avee la Santi et leu Maladies, par Xavier Bonr- ^'eoin, p. 2'.t ; 8. W. 1). Williams, M.D., on A Case of Syphilitic Insanity, in the Journal of Mental Science for April, 18U9; A Cane of Syphilitic Diwast 01 the Nervous System, Journal of Pnycholotiical Medicine for April, 18<.;y ; Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Physic, by Thomaa Watuuu, M.D. (Am. ed.). p. 149.] n iW THE POYSICAl TYPE OF MANKOOD. ' i I : In the foregoing section we have seen he y the constitu- tion is sometimes wrecked by the local diseases which we have treated of in the present work. We have traced these effects from their incipient stages until mind and body were involved. Let us now, in order to relieve this dark picture and dismal theme, turn our attention, for a few paragraphs, to the reverse of it, to man in the ideal perfection of his physical frame, and learn whether there are any stable laws in that department of nature ; and if so what they are. The artist who studies man not as he is, broken and debased by indulgence, but as he should be, in the en- joyment of all the powers which health and virtue can grant, will be our guide. He discovers that in the perfect physical type of man there are certain definite proportions which constitute symmetry, and make up a harmony which reappears in every statue and painting of the highest class, and whicli the instinct of the artist appreciates more quickly than the tape-line of the anatomist The details of this harmony will be interesting to note. The unit of the scale is the length of the nose measured from the inner corner of the eye downward. Four times this unit equals the height of the head mea- sured from the crown to a lino horizontal with the point of the chin. Eight times this unit equals the distance from the crown of the head to a line drawn around the chest at the level of the armpits. Sixteen times the unit equals the distance from the crown to tho junction of the lower limbs. m THE PHYSICAL TYPE OF MANHOOD. 239 man ,itute 'ars ill 'hich than mea- point And thirty-one times tlie unit equals the total height from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head ; and this again is equal to the distance from the extremity of the middle finger of one hand to that of the other when the arms are extended. Very numerous and minuter measurements are given in works which treat of the rules of drawing and sculp- ture. The physician, with mind fixed on the attainment of life and health, naturally might expect this ideal physi- cal type to coincide with that endowed with longest life and greatest strength. Singular to say, he would be in the wrong. ** The graceful shape and form of perfect symmetry," remarks an eminent army surgeon of large experience, **are seldom connected with power, activity, and that inexhaustible fund of endurance which support toils and fatigues with constancy and firmness." By what, then, can the capacity in a man for physical labour and endurance be judged ? This interesting question has recently been answered by a German physician, who has devoted much time to the study of the external conformation of the human body. He includes in his formula three factors, the height, the weight, and the circwmference of tlie chest on a line with tlie nipple ; and he decides that the greater the proportion of the latter to the former factors, the greater the physi- cal capacity. It was a familiar fact in our late war that neither very tall nor very short men supported the toils of field ser\'!ce as well as those of a medium stature. Nor is it common to observe either extreme in stature reach an advanced old age. In one sense, the whole external form of a man is a commentary, and a disclosure of his nature, habits, and disposition. There is a physiognomy which is not con- fined to the face, but embraces the whole body. A gifted French surgeon, by observation, became such an adept in 240 THE rnVSlCAL TYPE OF MANHOOD. this science, that he could, without fail, ascertain the profession to which a man belonged, by examining liia body. As passion and indulgence leave their Cain-like brand upon the face, so occupation impresses its peculiar- ity on the muscles of the trunk and extremities. The perfect physical type of manhood cannot be sought, therefore, amid the anxieties and toils of our marts and forums ; it must not be ex[)ected in our gym- nasia nor studios ; it will not be found in struggling crowds ; but we can expc jt it only where the wise ancients placed it, and where their works of art represent it — among the immortal godai MEDICAL VIEWS oir POPULAR MEDICAL INSTRUCTION. Our bilief in the necessity for a work similar to the one we have written has been abundantly justified, not only by the testimonials and warm recommendationa which it has received from many eminent men and friends of education (as the reader will see at the close of the volume), but also by the sale in a singularly short space of time of three editions, ana by the personal thanks of not a few who have read it and found profit and consola- tion in it. While among those who have thus aided and counten- anced our efforts in imparting instruction on an import- ant and peculiarly difficult branch of hygiene, we are gratified to number not a few of our own profession who have achiewed a deserved reputation by their studies in State Medicine, we have received from some others, whose opinions we value, expressed doubts as to the need for a work like this. Desirous as we are to exociarate ourselves from the charge of having taken up weapons to conquer imaginary foes, or to have inaugurated a Quixotic crusade against sanitary windmills, it has occurred to us that we could, with propriety, at this stage of our labours, examine the objections to which we have referred. As fai- as they have been brought to our notice, tliey are curiously diverse, and may be summed up separately as follows : — 1. There are no, or almost no evils to health which result from abuses of the masculine function. The turrortt 242 MEDICAL VIEW& ■ I I ii i which accompany such abuses are purely imaginary, and works like this might increase them. 2. These evils are so real, so manifest, and so well- known to the public already, that any further information upon them is superfluous. 3. Whether real or imaginary, such evils are so rare in moral communities like ours that the public mind ought not to be excited and alarmed by a description of them. 4. It is granted that these evils are both real and fright- fully prevalent, but it is not wise to address the public concerning them, because it is best that the public be kept in ignorance of whatever concerns its physical being. In the words of a professor of obstetrics in a Massachu- setts college, in a letter to us, " The reading of works on physiology makes men and women know just enough to be complete fools. It would be a lucky day for them should they forget that they have tongues, stomachs, and livers." Nothing but our veneration for a number of those members of our profession who oppose popular informa- tion on physiology and hygiene, has prevented us from feeling some degree of amusement in comparing these various objections to the project which we have en- deavoured to carry out. It might not be becoming in us to meet them with opinions and arguments of our own, and, becoming or not, they would not have the same weight as those advanced by professional men of unques- tioned superiority in medical science, of vast experience, and of world-wide reputation. We add, therefore, some quotations from recent medical wi'iters who have, with unbiased minds and with pains- taking fidelity, studied this subject, and thought about the propriety of rendering it more familiar to the general public as an important department of hygiene. Abbotts Smith, M.D., M.R.C.P., Lond., M.RC.S., Phy- sician to the Finsbury Dispensary ; late Physician to the North London Consumption Hospital j Physician to the M iry, and 30 well- rmation ) rare in i ought )f them, d fright- 3 public ublic be al being, assachu- rorks on LOUgh to or them tchs, and of those informa- us from ig these lave en- ng in us ur own, e same unques- lerience, medical pains- it about general Is., Phy- |n to tke to the THB OPINIOH or DB. ABBOTTS SMITH. 243 Metropolitan Free Hospital, and to the City Dispensary, etc., says, in The Medical Preaa and Circular, of London, for December 21, 1870 :— " For many years past, I have had extensive opportu- nities for observing at the various institutions with which I have been connected, as well as in private practice, the frequency of cases of spermatorrhcEa, and I have been especially struck by two facts, namely, 1. The remark- ably helpless and dejected state of patients suffering from this aftection ; and 2. The relative facility of cure, as com- pared with numerous other disorders of the genito-urinary organs, if the patients remained under treatment for a reasonable period, and if they, at the same time, relin- quished the bad habit which, in a certain proportion of the cases, had brought on or tended to perpetuate the ailment. " A third feature presented itself with almost uniform regularity, and this was that in most of the cases (at any rate, in something like two-thirds of the whole number under observation) the patients had, before applying for hospital advice, foolishly placed themselves in the hands of ignorant, unscrupulous quacks, who, acting on the principle of the old highwayman's maxim, 'your money or your life,' had rapaciously extorted as much as they could of the former, while their victims ran no small risk of also losing the latter. To a certain extent, some of the sufferers could scarcely be blamed for their apparent want of discrimination in going to such men, as they had in the first instance resorted to medical practitioners, who had told them, either that their disorder was imaginary, or, rushing into the opposite extreme, that it was incur- able, or only to be removed by the progress of time. *' It is not a little singular that the medical profession should have assumed such an apathetic or indifferent po- sition as regards this disorder. There can be no doubt of the existence of spermatorrhcea in a large number of patients, and, in fact, it would be found to be much more i 244 MEDICAL VIEWS. 111 common than it even appears to be, if it were more gener- ally recognized as a distnict affection. Many of the cases which now fall into the hands of empirical pretenders, would then come within the range of observation of quali- fied practitioners. And this must, sooner or later, be tlie case when the false delicacy which is at present allowed to surround the subject of spermatorrhoea is removed. It is the conscientious duty of medical men, standing as they do in the position of guardians of the public health, to grapple resolutely with this, as with every other phase oj disease, instead of leaving unfortunate sufferers exposed to any charlatans who may haiipen to seize upon it as a fertile field for deception and extortion. I write thus earnestly, because many instances have been published, in the medical journals, of patients— often of superior edu- cation, intelligence, and social position — who have suffered severely at the hands of quacks, partly through their complaint having been treatea too lightly by medical practitioners, partly through the mauvaise honte which induced them, misled by the specious promises held out, to fall into the traps set by quacks. ' Omne ignotum pro magnifico * is an old and true axiom concerning the credu- lity of sick people, who, like drowning men, readily snatch at any proffered assistance, without waiting to form an opinion as to whether it is worthless or sound. With re- gard to the almost culpable distaste for dealing fully with the subject, I am of the same opinion with that which was recently expressed to me by the editor of a medical journal, that there can be no more real reason for ignoring the functional disorders of the male, than those of the female sex, upon which so much has been written and said of late years. " The general symptoms of spermatorrhcea need not be dwelt upon, and I shall purposely pass over the mi- nutely detailed and grossly exaggerated symptoms, which the quacks carefully and persistently parade before their victims' imaginations, such as ' involuntary blushings,' ' loss of vigour,' ' gradual decay of nature/ and the like. THE HAIIM DONE BY CHARLATANS. 245 ire gener- the cases •eteudera, of quali- er, be tlie illowed to ed. It is g as they health, to 'phase oj '8 exposed :tn it as a irrite thus published, )erior edu- (/■ho have y through by medical mte which held out, %otum pro the credu- ily snatch form an With re- fuUy with lat which a medical ir ignoring:; )se of the itten and Bed not be the mi- nis, which fore their lushings,' the like. " Suffice it to say, that the f,'cneral symptDins are simi- lar to those which are present in all cases of disease where the patient is subjected to the effects of continuous ex- haustion of the system. He becomes languid, weak and unfit for any sustained physical or mental exertion, dis- posed rather to brood in solitude over his misfortunes, than to join in social conversation and amusements, thin, pale and anaemic in appearance. " In the majority of cases, especially of those which are connected with masturbation, the patient is unwilling to speak of his ailment, and particularly reticent concerning its causes and nature. To this peculiarity may be attri- buted, in great measure, the uncertainty and difficulty of treatment. A physician may go on for a long time, treat- ing a case of this kind by general measures, but unless he should eventually suspect its real character, and satisfy himself, by closer questioning, of the accuracy of his sus- })icions, no improvement will be manifest in the condition of the patient. In fact, the patient will be further off from a cure than ever ; the physician, unconscious of the ' foTis et origo mail' will get batlled and disheartened at the continuous want of success, while the patient, be- coming more reticent, and it may be more addicted to the bad habit, will fall into an almost hopelessly chronic state of illness and despair. How much better would it be for the patient's health and happiness, if he could face the matter boldly, and at once disclose the nature of his case to his medical adviser. ' Half-confidences are bad,' remarked one of our most distinguished judges. Lord St. Leonards, with reference to legal consultations; what, then, must half-confidences be in a medical consultation where the real nature and origin of the case are known only to the patient himself ? " If the patient gives a fair history of his ailment, the physician will usually be enabled to mark out a definite coui'se of successful treatment." I' m 246 MEDICAL VIEWS. Dr. Storer, Vice-President of the Anicrican Me^A THE OPINION OF MEDICAL JOUBNALSL remarking that ' quacks only thrive in that part of medi- cine which is neglected by the faculty,' it adds, 'hence, since there have been such able writers on syphilis in this country, that the field has been abandoned by these dan- gerous charlatans. The only field left now for the quacks is that of spermatorrhoea and functional diseases of males. The Obstetrical Society has attacked the diseases of our sisters in such a positive spirit, that the outsider has no chance in that department. That there are plenty of diseases of the male reproductive organs besides gonor- rhoea and syphilis, well-educated medical men know, but there is a wonderful disinclination to taking up this ques- tion. We have a few honourable exceptions in the names of Curling, Erichsen, and more recently Waring, Curran, and Teevan, but the exception proves the rule that the subject is still in the twilight epoch, and hence fit to be seized on by charlatans. Let us hope that our best young men may soon clear away the silly mysteries about this branch.* " We echo that hope for this side of the Atlantic, and extend to it the wish that some skilled writer would dis- pel a little of the dense popular ignorance around these subjects, an ignorance which, shared as it is by parents, teachers, and professors, prevents them from giving in- structions to their sons and pupils, by which the latter could be saved from incalculable pain, mental agony, and vice. Every physician and most teachers must have wit- nessed repeated examples of the need of just such informa- tion." THE RELATION OF THE SEXES Df ,1.1 EARLY YOUTH. A number of thoughts which occurred to us while writing the earlier pages of this work, related to our theme, yet not directly forming part of it, seem to us of such interest and practical bearing, that it is well to group tliem together in the form of an appendix, under the above title. Too often the student of nature, accustomed to the ]^hysiological aspect only of phenomena, and impressed with the importance of the function, regards reproduction as the only purpose of a difference of sex. He considers that the end is attained when the species is perpetuated, and may believe that could this be accomplished in any other mode, then sexuality would become a question of no moment. The incorrectness of such a narrow view as this has been shown with extraordinary force of thought and beauty of language, by the eminent German philosopher and critic Wilhelm von Humboldt, in an essay on " The Difi'erence of Sex and its Influence on Organic Nature." We cannot enter here into the convincing and brilliant arguments which he adduces to prove the truth of his conclusions ; we shall only repeat, in a brief and inade- quate manner, what these conclusions are. The distinction of sex, in his eyes, extends to the men- tal and moral as well as the physical traits. " Without it, iia.ture would no longer be nature, her mechanism would FHE DISTINCTION OI" SEX 255 wbile theme, >f such group ler the to the pressed uction nsiders tuated, in any in of no IB been jauty of critic [ence of Irilliant of his inade- |e men- lout it, I would cease, and both the attraction which draws Individuak to- gether, and the struggle which forces each to put forth his best energies, would cease, and a tedious, debilitating monotony would ensue." The male is everywhere, and in all hia manifestations, characterized by peculiar traits, and the female by others quite as much her own. The predominance of these qualities in either sex, however, is no advantage, but a disadvantage. In the highest types of human physical beauty, the feminine and masculine traits are brought into intimate union and a perfect equilibrium. In the Apollo of the Belvidere, magnificent specimen of manhood that it is, there is yet something feminine, something lends the grace and softness of the other sex to the power- ful muscles and manly frame. On the other hand, in that most perfect model of the female figure, the Venus of Milo, exquisitely feminine as it is, there lurks constantly some line or vague expression which reminds us of a man. Instinctively the ancient artist, with the divination of genius, recognized and gave to his work that unity of the sexes which the philosopher reasons must belong to the perfect human creature. Let us exemplify our meaning by another and a loftier example. The traditional face of our Saviour, which is so familiar to us in Christian art, ancient and modern, it is well known is not a likeness, but an imaginary portrait, developed by the inspiration of ardent piety, and perfected by a long series of monastic artists, until it expresses the ideal of their highest art-dreams. And who, on atten- tively examining any good copy of this traditional face, Cf.n fail to be struck with the feminine softness and sweet- ness which are present, and which, though present, do not in the least weaken or deduct from the quiet decision, the unalterable serenity, the unmeasured oower, and the mas- terly dignity of the countenance ? What is in these lofty efforts of art )ortrayed in the physical powers is not less true of the intellectual and 256 THE SEXES IN EARLY YOUTH. moral attributes. The remark has been made by some acute analyst of human nature, we believe by Goethe, that there is always something feminine in genius. Cer- tainly that disposition is the most admirable, and that intellect most powerful, which include in themselves what we are accustomed to define as the masculine and feminine attributes, which temper the rude force of man with the delicate sensibilities of woman, which fortify her susceptible nature with his sterner strength. These views, which we gather from the realms of art and philosophy, are not idle reveries. Thej'^ have an im- mediate and most practical bearing on our own lives, on self -culture, on the education of youth, and on the rela- tion of the sexes in early life. An extended study of social life discloses to us two diverse theories which have prevailed, and still obtain, in different nations, and in different families in the same nation, with reference to this topic. The one holds that as early as possible in life, and for as long a me as possible, it is wise to separate the sexes and keep them separated. The second theory insists that any such action is most inevitably calculated to defeat its objects, and to create and foster the very evils it is designed to avoid. Let us examine these opinions. THE THEORY OF SECLUSION. The Oriental nations from the dawn of history to the present hour, as a rule, confine the females of the family to separate apartments, restrict their knowledge of the world, and debar them from social intercourse. Young men grow to maturity without having any general female society. In Italy, Spain, and many other of the European countries, unmarried girls of the better ckisses are sedu- lously secluded in seminaries or convents. If allowed to TWO DIVERSE THEORIEa 257 y some Goethe, L Cer- id that rnselvea ine and of man fortify 3 of art I an ini- ives, on [,he rela- ) ua two btain, in he same , and lor he 86X63 is most ,0 create to the family of the Young |1 female iropean sedu- )wed to enter general society at all, it is under the strict surveil- lance of duennas, or other elderly female friends. Freedom of social intercourse among the young is not approved. Parents fear that the effect will be injurious. In England there is much difference in this respect. From ancient time* the women of Anglo-Saxon lineage enjoyed greater freedom than those of the South of Europe. They were never shut up in latticed boudoirs, and hidden from mankind by impervious jalousies. Their children grew up as playmates and companions. The theory of seclusion is based on the belief that moral restraint applied to women is insufficient, that they cannot be trained to a virtuous self-control, and that the only efficacious means to guard them from social dangers are to keep them in profound ignorance and to deprive them of every opportunity of transgression. What the consequences of such a theory, deliberately carried out, are upon the woman we need not explain to those at all conversant with the social morals of Spain or Italy. But the effects of this plan upon the male sex are even worse. The young man, with all his instincts drawing him toward the society of the opposite sex, finds none of it which suits his age and aspirations. He naturally turns to where it can be found, namely to that class of society which spurns the restrictions of the social code, and, naturally enough, those also of the moral code. This is why, in all the continental cities, there is an ex- tensive and well-defined circle known as the demi-monde, an attractive, agreeable, and dangerous resort for the young. The polish and training which the votaries of this circle obtain may indeed satisfy the superficial de- mands of the world, but to the moralist, to the admirer of the sterner virtues, to the lover of his country, such a training is portentous in the extreme. The nation which educates its youth in this school pro- vides for itself an enervated and false civilization, and prepares for its own downfall. The best physical train- 258 THE SEXES IN EARLY YOUTH. ing is not that \vhich sedulously guards against every shock, and every breath of cold air, but which gives to the body endurance and vigour to enable it to bear with impunity the blasts of winter and the struggles of the arena. So the best moral training is not that which dili- gently shuts out all knowledge of the world, and is based on an utter distrust of natural virtue, but that which teaches self-control, ability to resist evil and cleave to the good, to fight and overcome temptation, and to be actively virtuous. This training is not to be had on the theory of seclu- sion. To obtain it we must commence education from a different point, and wholly alter the relation of the sexes in early youth. :i 1 THE THEORY OP SOCIAL UNION. In this country there is no excuse for the young man who seeks the society of the loose and the dissolute. There is at all times and everywhere open to him a society of persons of the opposite sex of his own age and of pure thoughts and lives, whose conversation will refine him, and drive from his bosom ignoble thoughts. But our present intention is not to discuss this question as it pertains to general society, but to confine our remarks to the period of boyhood and girlhood. As we remarked in the earlier pages of the present work, the sexual passion is developed long before the age of puberty. It is clearly visible in childieu of even ten- der years. As we there said, it is of the utmost import- ance that it shall be restrained and controlled to the utmost. Can this best be done by a rigid separation of the sexes, or by a free communion between them ? The common and ancient supposition is that the first mentioned is the best plan. Yet, as we have shown, this view is based upon a fallacy. The Latin proverb tells us we strive against that which is forbidden. The very A DANGEROUS SOCIAL SCHOOU 259 rarity of an object excites curiosity, while familiarity breeds indifference. Nowhere is this more true than in the history of the sexual passion, and there are numbers of evidences we could adduce. That ingenious naturalist, Mr. Darwin, explains on this ground the abhorrence to the crime of incest. It is well known that, with widely different races in the most distant quarters of the world, marriages between relations, even distant relations, liave been strictly prohibited. At first, Mr. Darwin thinks that a slight feeling arising from the natural indifference of familiarity and the sexual ex- citement of novelty, led to unions between members of different rather than of the same families. This feeling was augmented through " natural selection," and finally became instinctive. It seems more probable that degrad- ed savages should thus unconsciously have acquired their dislike and even abhorrence of incestuous marriages, rather than that they should have discovered by reason- ing and observation any evil results wh^h might have followed on such unions. It is this indifference which should be most assiduously cultivated in the young of both sexes, especially in males. Nature herself has provided for it to some extent in fe- males. It is one of the acute observations of Wilhelm von Humboldt that such an indifference is the rule in the girl when just blossoming into womanhood. To quote his own admirable words : " The first emotions of her youthful heart wander, like the glance of Diana, into the far dis- tance. The earliest maidenly age is thus not unfrequently acconipanied by a certain want of fetling, indeed, inas- nuich as the feuiininc mildness de[)enils upon the develop- ment of those einotii;i!s, we may say, by a certain hard- ness. Some chaiacters hasten over this piiriod so rapidly that it is hardly perceived, but in most it is visible for some time." There ia strong reason to hold that one of the most ef- 2(;o THE SEXt^S IN EAllLY YOUTH. iH^ ' fective means to bring about this iuditi'orenco of familia- rity 18 by THE CO-EDUCATION OF THE SEXEa We have spoken of this in a previous part of this work as an experiment, about the result of whicli we are not (piitu fully satistietl. The evidence which has been sub- mitted to the public is nearly all in its favour. We are still, however, not yet inclined to give it our unreserved advocacy; there are man}-^ considerations of locality and custom which must "give us pause;" there arc individual instances in which it cannot be approved, and there are limits to mixed classes which must be detined. But of Buch importance as a practical question do we consider it, that we venture to insert an '! i tality engendered by educatin!:^ girls apart from boya — it is manifested by a frivolous and silly bearing vvlien such girls are brought into the society of the opposite sei: — this disappears almost entirely in mixed schools. In its place a quiet self-possession reigns. The consequence of this is a general prevalence of milder forms of discipline. Boys and girla originating — according to nature's plan — in the same family as brothers and sisters, their culture should be together, ao that the social instincts be saved from ab- normal diseased action. The natural dependence of each individual upon all the rest in society should not be [)re- vented by isolating one hex from another during the most formative ptages of growth. " III. Instruction is also greatly improved. Where the sexes are separate, methods of instruction are unbalanccxl and gravitate continually toward extremes that may be called masculine and feminine. The masculine extreme is mechanical, formalizing in its lowest shape, and the merely intellectual training on its highest side. The feminine extreme is the learning-by-rote system on the lower side, and the supeiluity of sentiment in the higher activities. Each needs the other as a countcr-cl'.ccU, and it is only through their union that educational n'.ethods attain com- plnteness and do not foster one-sidedness in the pupil. We find here that mixed schools are noted for the pre- valence of a certain healthy tone which schools on the separate system lack. More rapid progress is the conse- quence, and we find girls making wonderful advances even in mathematical studios, while l)oys seem to take hold of literature far better for the iuilueuce of the female j)ortioii of the class. "IV. liul'tvidiial development iH, as already indicated, far more sound and healthy. It has been found that schools kept exclusively for girls or bo3's require a much more strict surveillance on the part of the teachers. The girls continoil by themselves develop the sexual tension nmch earlier, their imagination being the reigning faculty Is, .. THE mo 1 1 EST EDUCATION. 263 and not bridled by intercourse with society in its normal form. So it is with boys, on tho other hand. Daily as- sociation in the class-room prevents this tension, and sup- plies its place by indifference. Each sex testing its strenj:{th with the other on an intellectual plane in the presence of the teacher — each one seeing the weakness and strength of the other — learns to esteem what is essen- tial at its true value. Sudden likes and dislikes, capricious fancies and romantic ideals give way for sober judgments not easily deceived by mere externals. This is the basis of that ' quiet self-possession ' before alluded to, and it forms the most striking mark of difference between the girls or boys educated in mixed schools and those educated in schools exclusively for one sex. "That the sexual tension be developed as late as pofj- sible, and that all early love affairs be avoided, is the desideratum, and experience has shown that association of the sexes on the plane of intellectual contest is the safest course to secure this end." These judicious remarks, by one who has long and at- tentively studied the prcblemunder advantageous circum- stances, are so clear that we have few commentaries to make upon them. Of course there are certain branches of instruction to which they do not apply, but this is a question \tre do not enter upon in this cuimection. The point to which we wish to draw especial attention is what Professor Harris calls the " late development of the sexual tension," in children of both sexes who are al- lowed freely to intermingle iu the pursuits of education. Furthermore, as we have shown at the outset of this appendix, that education itself is higher which develops the latent feminine instincts in boys, the inherent mascu- line traits in girls ; which, in other words, tempers each sex with the best characteristics of the opposite sex. Segregation and isolation do not improve the morality nor elevate the culture, but the contrary. From tho earliest years it is better that the sexes should meet in an 264 THE SEXES IN EARLY YOUTH, unrestricted manner, that diffidence, false modesty, and spurious sentiment should be avoided, and that much of the intellectual and social training should be in common. While this is true, it by no means follows that the social basis of children's society should be upon the same theories as that of adults. No training is more objectionable and more calculated to bring about precocious maturity, in other words, to foster the very tension which it should be our aim to dis- courage, than to introduce into the thoughts and social life of children the sentiment of sexual love. Hence it was that \7e have said, on a previous page : " The growing custom of allowing veiy young people of both sexes to associate at parties, balls, dances, and similar amusements cannot be approved of on the score of health. It is nearly certain to favour precocity." Conversation about beaus and " girls," reference to the admiration of the opposite sex, teasing about early loves, and such subjects, on which too many parents delight to sper k with their children, are thoroughly unwise. While the ordinary intercourse of the family and the school is likely to bring about a condition of indifference, it is not to be trusted to alone. The minds of the young are too excitable and too eager for novelties tx) be left to their own discretion. It is essential that they be occupied with matters which will keep them away from seductive and insidious subjects. TI 3 pursuit of the severer studies, such as mathematics, and the proper training of the physical powers, are what we must chiefl^y rely upon to accomplish this. With these precautio IS, we need not fear the result of the freedom which in this country is constanLly extending in reference to the relations of the sexes in daily life. While these associations should be looked upon with approval, they should not be unrestricted. Even in our country, in which we boast of liberty and equality, there ty, and luch of ammon, ,hat the le same Iculatcd ords, to Q to dis- d social [ence it jrowinij exes to sements a nearly e to the y loves, light to and the fference, e young B left to occupied eJuctive lematics, ,re what ith these freedom •eference A NECESSARY CAUTION. 2G5 it is better that children 6nd their playmates and com- pamonsamon,. those of thei. own social position, than witli others Ites carefully nurtured. Hence the imoro- IZf^'f T"1? """",'°'' '»^8^'^' ''"^ often done Zthe chUdren. '^'""''"=' ^'«' ^ *« companionship of their ton with II in our ity, there B IDE RELATION OF SEX. to DISEASE. It is an interesting inquiry to what extent the nature, character, and frequency of disease in the human race are intluenced by sex. Tiie power of sex over disease exists to no inconsiderable degree. It is partly due to the dif- ference in the physiological and partly to the diversity in the social life of man and woman. The extent and prac- tical bearing of this influence upon health and longevity deserve more attention at our hands than they have re- ceived in an incidental manner elsewhere in this volume. First, we shall inquire into man's liability to disease as compared to woman's In other words, which sex is the more subject to sick- ness, and what diseases show a partiality to the male rather than the female sex ? The most natural reply to this question, and the one in accordance with popular notions on the subject, is that woman, with her feebler frame, more delicate ner- vous organization, and her host of affections peculiar to herself, is more frequently and dangerously sick than man ; that she suffers more and dies earlier. This, however, is not the case. As we have pointed out in speaking of " the physical traits of the male," the average duration of life is greater with the gentler sex, who more frequently attain extreme old age than their sterner partners in the THE INFLUENCE OF SEX ON APOPLEXY. 2G7 struggle 'or existence. Yet it seems very like a paradox, that the race should not be to the strong. Several explana- tions have been offered. It has been asserted that man suc- cumbs sooner because ho is the more exposed to danger and disease by his avocations and the customs of society. VV^ar, which cost him his blood, costs woman only her tears. For him, almost alone, are the perils of the ii\toxicating cup, the exhaustions of the debauch, the fearful anxiety of the stock-room,and the excitement of the political arena. The risks of maternity do not equal these peculiar perils of raaidiood. Another explanation has been sought in the finer nervous orixanization of woman, which enables her to endure more and react l)etter. Man, therefore, suffers less, but his powers of resistance are less, and the tenrlency to death greater. Both these explanations are doubtles just, and account to a great extent for the singular disjtarity in the vitality of the two sexes. The character of the diseases which are met with in men more freq'iently than in women explain still farther the seeming anomaly. We will ])ass in review sf)me of the principal diseases which our Ucsh is heir to, and note the sex they prefer. APOPLEXY. I one in ect, is ner- iar to ti man ; ver, is ing of ition of [uently iu the Men are of tener assailed by this dangerous disease than women. This may be accounted foi-, iii part, by the well- known fact that one of the most active causes of ajwplexy is the intemperate use of fermented liquors, which, in some constitutions, produce a speedy impairment of the functions of the brain. Alcohol also exerts a pernicious intiuence in many instances upim the heart and arteries. Tlie hc^art's action is not only increased under its influence, but positive alterations in the structure of the blood ves- sels take place. In such instances, we find the movements of the heart permanently quickened, and the blood, there- fore, driven more forcibly to the brain, while the coats of ^ 2G8 THE BELATION OF SEX TO DISEASE. ■'I!; the arteries having lost their elasticity by a thickening or thinning (perhaps ulceration) of their substance are more readily ruptured by this forcible current, and hence the tendency to hemorrhage in the brain is vastly in- creased. The excessive use of tobacco is also supposed to predispose to congestion of the brain, and consequently to apoplectic attacks. As the excessive employment of al- cohol and tobacco are essentially vices of the male sex, we may attribute to them, in part, the greater liability to apoplectic attacks to which men are the victims. EPILEPSY. This disease also is more prone to attack the male sex. An exception, however, is to be made in this respect in reg.ard to the French, particulurly Parisians. All French authors agree that in Paris at least there are more women epileptics than men. Esquirol, the highest of the French authorities, states, after carefully com|)aring the number of patients at vaiious asylums, that the number of women attacked was one-third greater than that of the men. English writeis, however, are unanimous as to the greater proclivity to epilepsy being on the side of the mule sex. An analysis of the returns of the Registrar- General of England with reference to the mortality from this disease in either sex, during the past seven years, shows that 6,729 were male and 0,149 females. Hence, " it would ajv pear that the mortality of males at all ages from epilepsy is 5").2G per cent., of females 47.73 jjer cent., and that, tlierefore, 4.r^3 per cent, of male deaths occur from epi- lepsy in excess -f female deaths from that cause; or, to put it in a ditferent way, we find that the average male deaths in one year from epilepsy are 1)01.3, of feii,.ilos 878.1 ; so that annually in Eniiland and Wales 83.2 more males die epileptic than females." The census ot the T^nite«l States sliows also that in America more men die epileptic than women. THE INFLUENCE OF SEX ON HYSTERIA, 2C9 Men wlien attacked by epilepsy are more apt to die of the disease than women. This greater liability to death on their part is not confined to epilepsy, but is true of all diseases of the nervous sytsem, for whether in children, youth, or old age, death from these affection is more pre- valent in the male than the female sex. Very extended statistics have shown that during the first five years of life the deaths among males from nervous diseases are greater by one-fifth than among females, ST. VITUS' DANCE. This disease, known to physicians under the name of chorea, unlike apoplexy and epilepsy, is both moi'e fre- quent and more fatal with the female than the male sex. It is essentially a disease of children, being rarely met V'ith after twenty. From ten to fifteen years of age is the favourite period of life for this afiection and, accor- ding to some of the most reliable statisticians, girls are three times more frequently the sufferers than boys. $iJiH' HYSTERIA. that. This nervous affection is almost monopolized by the fe- male sex. It is nearly exclusively met with in women between the ages of fourteen and thirty. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that men are never hysterical. We have mon than once seen attacks of veritable hysteria in the male I'is Under the influence of excitement and de- bility, men of a certain temperament are not unfre- (juently seized with histerics. Shakspeare, the great master of tlie human passions, was aware of this. Ho puts into the mouth of Lear, upon hearing Kent's account of the cause of his being placed in the stocks, the words ; — " O, how this mother swells up toward my heart 1 Hysterica pastu> t dowu, thuu cliiubiug sorrow, Thy elements below I 270 THE RELATION OF SEX TO DISEASE. A common name for hysteria in Sliakspearo's time waa the mother, by which terra Lear therefore first designates his feeUng before employing the more learned Latin syno- nym. NEURALGIA, ^[i! This disease is more common, because probably of their greater exposure to the exciting causes, in men than in women. But that form of neuralgia which takes the shape of headache, is more of a feminine than a masculine afiiiction. HEADACHE. There are few women who are not more or less sufferers from attacks of headache ; many men are never troubled in this way. Women not only are more subject to this affection, but they also suffer more severely. Intensity of pain depends greatly upon the susceptibility, the capacity for suffering on the part of the individual. It is only by poetical licence that it can be said, an insect crushed feels the pangs of a dying giant. The delicate sensibility of woman imposes upon her greater suffering from the same amount of pain. The headaches peculiar to the female sex are very nu- merous. In men, late hours, improper food or liabits of eating, dissipation, excessive or prolonged mental toil, business anxieties, and want of exercise, are the principal causes of headache. In women, exposure to the night air while thinly clad, tight lacing, a too sedentary, indoor life, imprudence at the monthly epochs, and family cares, are the main influences which induce it. INSANITY. Males are more liable to insanity than females, in the pro})ortion, according to the latest i.nd most trustworthy tables, of fifty-three per cent, of males to forty-six per THE INFLUENCE OF SEX ON CONSUMPTION. 271 cent, of females. The period of life during which women are most subject to this disease, and most apt to die from its effects, is between the ages of twenty and forty. Most of the men on the contrary, who die of this disease, are between the ages of forty and sixty, a time wlien strength and hope so often fail the anxious man of busincsa BB0NCHITI3. Men are more liable to be assailed by inflammation of the bronchial tubes than women. This is probably due, to a great extent, to their greater exposure, in out-door life, to the causes which induce bronchitis. il ASTHMA. The male sex is much more predisposed to this trouble- some affection than the femab. According to the experi- ence of some physicians of the widest practise in this disease, about eighty per cent, of all the patients are of the masculine gender. its of toil, ncipal it air life, js, are CONSUMPTION. This fatal disease numbers more victims among the fe- male than the male sex. Sex intluences, «ilso, the time of developement of the symptons when the aticction is here- ditary. Thus in males the malady manifests itself about a year and a half later, on the average, than in females. Dr. Edward Smith, F. R. S., etc., Physician to the Hospital of Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Brompton, in a review of a ■ v^e number of cases of con- sumption, and of the condiiiuus of system and circum- stance which had aggravateil the disease, says : — " One striking feature to which we must refer was the greater liability of the female over the male sex to many of the ills to which we have referred. Thus, in reference 272 THE llELATION OF SEX TO DISEASE. to the parents, more mothers than fathers had children early, had feeble general health, and had died early. Of the pati(jnts, more i'eiiiales than males had mothers who (lied early,had most relatives who had died of consumption, had parents with one child only, had experienced feeble health and defective appetite through life, had had deli- cacy of the lungs, were married when very young, had feeble children, had lost most children, had suffered from anxiety, had had measles, scarlet fever and hooping-cough, had not worn flannel next the skin, had a very defec- tive education, were of susceptible temperament, had brown eyes, florid complexion, and fleshy habit, and had suffered from coldness of the extremities. This is most striking evidence of the liability of females to conditions tending to constitutional disease." LUNG FEVER. ■ ; -I I i'i 'i^ t: Cases of inflammfitinn of the lungs occur much more frequently among males than females. The influence of sex in the causation of the disease, is probably, however, more apparent than real. Men are more generally exposed to changes of temperature, which are the principle ex- citing causes of the disorder. HEART DISEASE. Organic disease of the heart Is more commor. in men than in women. The latter, however, are moie liable to palpitation of the heart unconnected with disease of the siructure of that organ. ill ANEURISM. Males are more frequently affected with aneurism than females. According to the statements of some surgeons of the largest experience, more than seven-eighths of all lildren y. Of [-8 wllO option, feeble id deli- ig, had sd from -cough, ' defec- it, had nd had is most iditious ch more Lience of owever, exposed pie ex.- !n men lial>le to of the ^m than urgeons 18 of ail THE INFLUENCE OF SEX ON RHEUMATISM. 273 cnses occur in men. This gieater liahility of the male 8fX is due to the relative fiequcncy in that sex of fatty and earth}' degenerations of the coats <>f the arteries, and not, as h.is been well pointed out by Prof, Gross, to the ditlerence in the occujtation and habits of the two sexes. In the vvor f* c*^ y^^- V y being caustic lunivers- ith must jquently diseases ites this among THE INFLUENCE OF SEX ON TTPHOID i^VEB. 276 fashionable women. Occasionally also the same effect is produced by the habitual wearing of a tight belt by a man. CONSTIPATION. There is a greater tendency to costiveness, and conse- quently a greater liability to the many evil results it brings, among females than mal«3. The reasons commonly assigned for this are the more sedentary habits and over- condnement to the house of women. CANCER. Cancerous disease is of more frequent occurence among women than men. Thus, it has been found that of the 11,662 persons who, during a period of five years, died from it in England (exclusive of the city of London), there were 8,746 women and 2,916 men. That is to say, three times as many women as men lost their lives through this terrible malady. The womb and the breasts are the favourite sites of malignant tumors in women. It is owing to this extraordinary predilection of malignant disease for these parts, that women suffer so much more than those of the other sex. STONE IN THE BLADDER. This affection, so common in certain districts of the country with males, is very rarely met with in women. This is owing largely to anatomical reasons. TYPHOID FEVER. To this affection women are less subject than men. There is also a greater mortality among male patients than female. The influence of sex over disease is apparent, as we have seen, in many of the most common and serious mala- dies, in reference to the liability to attack, the character of the invasion, and its mortality. Each sex is also sub^ 1,1 in; ii I!::, I I hi k I! 276 THE RELATION OF SEX TO DISEASE. ject to its peculiar disorders. A few words upon those peculiar to men will not, we trust, be without pxacticjil value. A DISEASE PECULIAR TO OLD MEN. In a previous chapter we called attention to the nervous disorders originating in the male generative system, their causes, and the prospects and means of cure. To these, therefore, we need not recur. But there are certain local troubles to which the male sex ia liable as years advance which have not yet been more than alluded to by us ; one of these is an affection known as enlargement of the 'prostate gland. This gland, situated inmiediately in front of the neck of the bhidder, when it increjises in size causes much inconvenience and suffering. The causes of this enlargement arc, according to Prof. Gros, always those " which act in a slow and permanent manner. Whatever, therefore, has a tendency to keep up habitual engorgement in the organ may be considered as being capable of producing the affection. Augmented action necessarily occasions an augmented afflux of blood and a corresponding increase of nutrition. Diminished action has a reverse effect. Amongst the more frequently enumerated causes of the malady are excessive venery, stricture of the urethra, disease of the bladder, horseback exercise, gonorrhoea, and the employment of stimulating diuretics ; but, in general, the influence of these causes is apparent rather than real. They are, no doubt, all cap- able of inducing the disease ; but, on the other hand, it is equally certjiin that they are often accused when they are entirely innocent. Some of the very worst cases of hypertrophy of the prostate occur in old men who have led the chastest of lives, who have not ridden on horse- back for forty or fifty years, and who have never had the slightest disease of any kind of the urethra." The symj)touis which first attract attention are mainly those which are connected vvith the voidinjif of water — i those acticiil lervous o, their f these, in local idvanco by us ; t of the tely in J in size to Prof, rmanent keep up Jered as THiented of blood uinished quently venery, jrseback aulating causes is all cap- md, it is len they cases of ho have tn horse- had the i mainly water — ; DISEASE PECULIAR TO OLD MEN. 277 irritation, a frequent desire, difficulty in passing it, and slight pain. The lower bowel " never feels empty, even after the most thorough purgation." These symptoms gradually increase and bring others in their train. When noticed at the age of fifty or over, they should lead the individual to seek at once medical counsel in order that aid may be extended him at the outset of the trouble. lie should, also, scrupulously avoid all irritating and stimulating foods and drinks, and never take any griping purgatives. Salts, citrate of magnesia, and cream of tar- tar are innocent and beneficial laxatives to employ. All these causes which we have just enumerated as liable to excite the disease must be avoided — hence, horseback exercise and sexual intercourse are eminently improper. Rest in a recumbent position is of very great service. Of course, this should not be carried to the extent of the avoidance of all gentle exercise in the open air during pleasant weather. Few men in advanced life escape altogether some trouble with the bladder and contiguous organs. It is important, therefore, for every individual to avoid every- thing which experience has taught him will excite even temporary discomfort of these parts. TJiat moderation in the gratification of all desires, which is so conducive to health in early and middle life, becomes imperative now. when there is no surplus vitality to be drawn upon to repair the ravages of imprudeuco. m, I r ^\ V, THE MORAL RELATIONS or TBB SEXUAL LIFE. ■J. 'A I i V [ \: fi--' i[ iiiir •r We have confined ourselves so far in our considerations on the relations of the sexes to the physiological aHpectf of the question, its physical, and to some extent, its in- tellectual bearings. It seemed more appropriate to the nature of our studies and to the character of our re- searches. Now, however, that we have brought our labours so nearly to a close, and have examined the peculiarities of sex in their various bearings upon the temporal welfare of the individual and the race, we may be permitted to step aside from our path and explain the influence which these powerful instincts have exerted and continue to exert on his actions and destiny as a moral being. The historian or theologian who does not carefully esti- mate the strength and power of the sexual impulses will often fail to interpret the actions and the creed of past generations. He will attribute to motiveless caprice and to unmeaning malignity many actions which were merely the expression of an uncontrolled instinct. So also in the lives of individuals, it is a matter of daily observation that in these respects it is next to im- possible to understand the vagaries which govern other- wise prudent and cautious men. THE SEXUAL BELATIONS IN HEATHENDOM. Did we desire to magnify the importance of our thenjo, we could readily illustrate from history how in all times ^m SEXUAL RELATIONS IN HEATHENDOM. 279 it has so fastened itself upon the minds of men that it shaped their destiny and even formed the baais of their hopes beyond this life. Every student of mythology is aware that the rites of many primitive religions are but the complex symbols which represent the power of transmitting life, and that the myths which have been devised to perpetuate the signification of these rites are but veiled descriptions of the same fact. The East Indian Qod appears under his triple form of the Creator, the Preserver, and the Des- troyer ; an«l in his form as the creator, he is represented by and woi*shipped under the image of the membrum vlril. The bull Mithra in Persian story, and the god Bel who wjus worshipped on the plains of Euphrates, are repetitions of the same idea. As might be expected, such distorted conceptions of divinity, this confusion of ideas which confounded together the creation and the transmission of the vital principle, led to licentious ceremonies and a general abasement of the moral sense. The scones recorded by the Hebrew prophets which tranfpired in ancient Babylon, and which were parts of the lel.'gious observances of that city, iioct'ssarily laid the foundation for that disintegration of society and destruction of individual powers which finally resulted in the ruin of the state. When the antique austerity of the classical republics of Greece and Rome became tainted with the corruption of Oriental communications, the most glorious traits of these commonwealths disa|)peareil, and in their place came Ciesarism and profligacy. So clearly was this introduc- tion of foreign religious rites the commencement of the state's deterioration, that the ancient heathen historians, Tacitus for example, directly attribute it to this cause. We refer to these degraded misconceptions of physical truths, and this apotheosis of the animal instincts, so that we may bring into stronger contrast with them the just and beautiful estimate wliicli was given them by Chris- tianity. f ■ 4 ■t w 280 liOBAL RKLATIONS OP SEXUAL LIFE. SEXUAL BELATIONS IN THE MOSAIC LAW. ■ ! |.| ill ■'"I-. i'i I' i ' fl' \ fH :J|I The Old Testament by its clear and sublime teachings preserved the Israelites from the contaminiitiDn liy wnicli they were surrounded. Situated in the midst of nations by whom an unlicensed debauchery was regardeii as a part and parcel of religious life, the chosen people success- lully maintained its purity, and even in the darkest hour of its history there were found four hundred men who had never bowed the knee to Baal. The doctrines of the Mosaic law are most explicit in what relates to individual purity. Far from passing by in silence these delicate relations as in cient times did not provide the concealment and protec- tion which our modern fashions afford. Even after a complete cure had been obtained the man must hold aloof for seven days and wash himself and his clothes in fresh running water. The thirteenth chapter of Leviticus has been subjected to several most critical examinations of late years by physicians who were also skilled Hebraists. One of the most recent of these studies is before us, written by a learned teacher in Vienna. He gives an exhaustive com- mentary on the original text, and adduces strong evidence that the word in the second verse and elsewhere, rendered in the English version " flesh," has reference solely to the virile member ; and that the disease designated as leprosy, MARRIAGE DUTIES UNDER TUS MOSAIC LAW. 283 referred "a run- argin of Saint ▼ht that nereforo im semi- ysiciaiis ly unin- y given ght and md con- yam per icreverit, :es.sed on bo sad nerationa. And why, let us ask, was it deemed of such im|)ortjince T The reason given is both a fact in history and a warning for all time. ** Ye sliall not commit any of these abominations. " That the land spue not you out, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations which were before you. "For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cast off from among their people." Terrible words, true at all times, and of all people ! The curse of uncleanness, of sexual vice, is sure finally to de- stroy the individual, the family, society, the nation, and extend its blighting power to unborn generationa THE MEANING OF THESE WARNINGS. Would these instructions have been given with this so- lemnity and with this care were they of small moment ? We cannot for an instant entertain the idea. Can we sup- iismcHS Hus- f lu av- is duty clean- iter its •eil Olio ch tl'.is who 10- his i >'h > i • i , in- i. ! j:! MORAL BELATIONS OF SEXUAL LIFB. the sight of Qod than married chastity and fidelity, and that any doctrine to the contrary, so far from elevating a national standard of morality, did exactly the reverse. The teachers further maintained that sexual impulse is not in itself evil, nor is it any more liable to result in evil than any other passion or appetite appertaining to man ; and that, in reference to its temperate indulgence under proper and legal restrictions, it is entirely in accordance both with the laws of natural science and the maxims of pure Christianity. This was, indeed, a step in advance, and it has re- bounded to the well-being of those who have appreciated and recognized it. But in its full bearings in social and individual life, it is still too superficially understood by the masses. This is, in a measure, owing to a general hesitation in stating distinctly to the public the nature and laws which govern the more recondite functions of the human frame. Aa far as this has been done, it has been by those ver; in- sufficiently qualified to act as the interpreters of sciei.oific results, and much more for selfish and immediate ends than from any abstract desire to promote the comfort and the happiness of their fellows. Yet the various facts which we have adduced, not from remote or limited fields, but from the general history of the race, prove conclusively how intimately associated with man s moral nature, and consequently with his life hereafter, are these questions concerning his peculiar powers. In a double sense is there a perpetuity connected with the exercise of this function. In our article on Inheri- tance we have told how distant ger.erations will certainly be moulded in their moral, mental, and physical natures by the actions of their ancestore now living. Now, we call attention to the individual destiny of each as depen- dent, to no small extent, upon the same actions. Im- prus.ied, as we hope our readers will be by this double re- ih- ] ty, and ating a reverse, mlse is b in evil o man; 3 under ordance ,xims of , has re- reciated :ial and tood by ation in t^s which n frame. ver in- • ciei-oific THE TEACHINQS OF THEOLOOIAN& 293 te ends ifort and □tot from story of 5sociated his life peculiar led with Inheri- jiertainly natures Fow, we depen- ds. Im- )uble re- sponsibility, they should seek to learn how to perform these important duties intelligently. The practical deductions which we could make from such facts are that we should not supinely fold our hands and sit contented with indolence and ignorance in the face of these demands upon our attention. No one denies that almost the greatest scourges of modern societies are still the products of a want of regula- tion in the sexual relations. Hitherto, renouncing as un- suited to the refinement and purity (!) of our social life the plain and direct admonitions which God saw fit to impart to His chosen people that they might bo kept un- spotted from the evils which surrounded them, we have tried the plan of saying nothing and doing nothing. We have hoped that by a well-bred silence on the subject of carnal aoominations, they would presently disappear and be f orgotton. The result has unfortunately not yet justified this agreeable expectation. If anything, it seems that these vices are increasing at quite as fast a rate as population, wealth, and luxury increasa The simplicity of the Society of Friends, the severity of the Pilgrim Fathers, or the heroism of the Huguenot refugees which marked the early history of our country, were hard to discover in any corner of our wide domain. AT THE PRESENT DAT. These topics, we well know, lie without the field of medical inquiry, and we feel that we may be crit icized for having spoken on matters which other and abler pens could treat with greater power. Nor would we thus have ventured beyond the legitimate limits of our sphere, had we not been persuaded that for reasons heretofore urged, there has been and is an injurious reticence about the subject. We have had placed at our disposal a library of leceut m !i ! 204 MORAT. RELATIONS OF SEXUAL IJFK. I I 1 i 1 H:! theological works tolerably comprolicnsive, and we have spent a number of hours in exaiuining the works of reoent divines and religious instructors. But in not one of them have we found as definite and positive warnings on the dangers of a misunderstood relation of the sexes as we have already referred to in the Bible itself. We may, and hope we have overlooked some works wlueli do contain them. But that there is no longer any need of such war- nings, or that it would be of doubtful utility to give them, or that it would be unadvisable on the score of propriety, are excuses for absence which we cannot admit. There is far greater latitude customary in social rela- tions in this country than in the old world; there is a precocity of intellect and a susceptibility of the nervous system which is scarcely met with elsewhere. Unless these traits are guided by morality and intelligence, they will soon bring forth a corruption unsurpassed in our times. Conceahnent and attempts to enforce ignorance will not succeed. These instruments of crafty despots and a bigoted priesthood are inconsistent with our insti- tutions. What then, to sum up, are the questions concerning the moia,l relaticms of the sexual life, which remain open to-day, and which it is our duty, without hesitation, to confront ? They are the duty which each man owes himself not to sin against the ordinances of his own lite by violating his functions ; tlie duty which he owes tlie other sex to rescue them from the gulf of iirostitutiou, and to withhold the temptations which attract them there ; the duty he owes his children in keeping himself free from the taint which will render them misenible invalids. Marriage is to be rescued from the views which are degrading it once more to a mere civil eontract, a legalized concubinage. The lax sentiments about divorce are not to pass unchallenged. The relations of husband and wife are to be redeemed from the estimate which places them upon a plane with a ve have )f recent of theiu 1 on the es as we aay, and contain iich war- ve them, ropriety, ;ial rola- lere is a nervous Unless ace, they il in our (jnoranco T despots )ur insti- ncernin<^ ain open ation, to elf not to atinghis )o rescue lold the le owes nt which is to be nee more The lax allenj^ed. edeenied le with a THOUGHTS OF AN ENGLISH TRAVELUCB. 295 business pai-tnership or with those of employer and em- ployed. There is also the prohibitory part of the moral statute to be enforced. If there is one sign more portentous than another concerning the tendency of American civilization it is the remarkable activity of the press, and even of the pulpit (in some of its forms), in desseminating a false view of sexual morality. On the one hand, we see on every news-stand illustrated books and papers familiarizing the public mind to inde- cency — the periodicals of widest circulation are filled with tales of morbid sentimentality ; and not a few through their advertisementa offer concealment and aid to debau- chery. On the other hand, a populous State is sunk in poly- gamy ; another dissolves the marriage tie as readily as a copartnership; and at many points over the land communi- ties are found who dispense with marriage altogether, and live in a condition of miscellaneous fornication. A talented English traveller who visited this country a few years ago, and who chose to study the tendencies rather than the statistics of our people, considered these aberrations of the healthy sexual instinct as at once the most remarkable and the most ominous features of our civilization. As a nation, we were not well pleased with Mr. Dixon when we read what he had to say about us, and sought rather to discover the motes which may exist in the eyes of his own countrymen than to remove the beams he had so clearly pointed out in ourselves. But the facts he recorded are undeniable, and nothing but their familiarity prevents them from impressing us as unpleasantly as they did him. The remedy for them is not remote nor difficult It is to insist upon better un- derstanding of the ethical bearings of the reproductive function, upon the purity and })ermanency of marriage, and upon those sounder views of duty which ^« have Already explained. rwwr CONCLUSION. ,f1 :' ■s ■ (, ■' wi ■f< U\ I :iHi • I Aa we reach the conclusion of our subject we cannot but feel the inadequacy with which we have treated the theme which has occupied us. The portion of man's nature whoso laws and liabilities we have with great brevity rehearsed, is at once the most mysterious and the most momentous of all. This alone it is which allies him with an earthly future beyond the limit of his own exist- ence ; this it is which in its use or abuse controls not solely his own life and welfare, but in ways to an extent wholly beyond our power to estimate, the welfare of generations to come. Whether we regard the subject from a purely ethical or a purely physiological point of view, its importance can- not but impress us profoundly. What impulse of man's physical nature most potently governs his actions, his as- pirations, and the moral complexion of his life ? Precisely this on which we have been engaged. On what do some of the most difficult questions of modern social morality turn ? Once more, on the control of this impulse. How can we as individuals most certainly secure the moral progress of posterity ? By endowing them with a physi- cal constitution free from the taint of hereditary disease, and a mental constitution devoid of inherited tendencies to crime. To accomplish this, science warns us again and again that no subtle compound of chemicals will suffice, and no future reformation and late adopted purity of life, but only early, unalterable, permanent fidelity to prin- ciple. The hesitancy which has so long, and so naturally, kept silent the voice of the medical profession upon these points, should now be laid aside, for the immense collection of statistics leave no doubt as to their accuracy, and their THE TUAN^;MISSION OF LIFE. 297 cannot [/cd the man's i great Eiua the lies him n exist- )t solely , wholly Bratioua Lhical or ice can- >f man's i, his as- *recisely do some norality How e moral a physi- disease, adeiiciea Tain and suffice, y of life, |to prin- lly, kept |e pointvS, Ictiou of id their bearing on the future of the race. ^Tany of the best minds m tlie world of practical and statistical medicine have been earnestly turned in this direction, and, as a consequence, during the last decade great adv«,nces in knowledge have been secured, and numerous suggestions have been presented looking to the preservation of the general health. It is not possible'for the profession alone, ujisupported by the puy)lic, to carry out those measures of repression and protection, whicli we have referred to as necessary to effect any reform. Ai.d the public, in order to be induced to take any action, muf i be made acquainted in no uncertain manner with the necessities of the mea- sures asked of it. Finally, the private individual who is suffering or who only thinks ho is suilcring (which is often quite as sad a condition) from his own misdeeds, and is deprived by the nature of these misdeeds from the sympathy ana at- tention he would otherwise have, should be put in pos- sesnion of a sufficiency of facts, to enable him to judge whether his fears are groundless, or whether it be not wiser to lay aside all reticence, and seek by prompt means a recovery. Such have been our aims in composing the foregoing chapters. Whether or not we have succeeded in ex- pressing ourselves regarding them lucidly, instnictively, and satisfactorily, the reader who has accompanied us thus far, ia better able to judge than ourselves. ' I'i ( . 1 1 ' iiiflOlB, 1 ■ ; »m '. .' ■ 1 (. .1; Jiii!^ MM APPENDIX. TUB PBOORKSS OF PoI'ULAR CULTURE IN PHYSlOLOaT. It ib gratifyinjj to observo that with the increase in intellectual enlightenment, always cornea a confidence in the beliijt that tliis enlightenment njt only is consistent with, but is an aid to, sound morals. In nations and ages which may be called mediajval, ignorance was anxiously defended by good men, under the mistaken notion that it is the best safeguard of purity. But the dissemination of knowledge has, in point of fact, proved a better protection. In many countries of Europe to this day it is the custom to allow unmarried girls hardly any liberty, and a very circumscribed reading. The Ame- rican girl, with almost untranimeled independence in both directions, is unquestionably superior in moral self-reli- ance. The publication of a volume full of the titles of works which are forbidden to be read — the Index Expurgdtoriua — has not improved, but has deteriorated the Roman Catholic Church. So, on physiological subjects, the objections which were vehemently urged, at first, against all popular instruction, have been, one by one, giving way, until now it ia only in regard to sexual physiology that prejmlice is in the ascendant. Even here, it is evident that the barriers of the mediae- val doctrines are disappearing. The very important re- searches of naturalists into the laws of descent, the effects of intermarriage, the transmitssion of mental and moral ■ ' • i i yyiL APrENDIX, £9U qualities, and the like, show that it la becoming more anm what i regard - labits of lot to oc- rebodiniif : that i% troubles, \ by Dr. training stituting wish to ng topic, APPKNDO:. 807 not to say. - I wiU not think of that any more." but to say Here is another subject that I will think of" Let a peraon always have some important or entertain- mg and worthy topic to which his mind can turn iT its vacant moments, and thus he will escape many a minute of ennui, many an idle and injurious va,crary This precept, it is said, is much cultivated among the Buddhist scholars of the Orient. One of these, on afisin ' m the morning, selects a verse from their sacred books o? a topic from the writings of some philosopher, and when- whTch n ?^> 'I' t)^' \^^^ ^°°^^Sed in sLe'occu^aSi which permits his thoughts to wander, or when he must pass a period m waiting, he turns to this verse or topic and thinks It over. At the close of the day he reviews his meditatioixs, and writes them down «vicwa Some such plan a^ this is an admirable one to cany out, not merely in the relation above mentioned, but in all the occasiom* of life where we are threatened with enuui or wish to escape from our thoughts. ! ' :jo8 API'ENDIX. IIL REMARKS ON THE DANQEllS OF SOLITART HABITS ! i ! i The readiness of doctors to disii;^ree has often been a subject of sarcastic allusion, aud certainly they have often justly exposed themselves to censure for hasty decisions. This may be partly attributed to the prejudices which warp every man's judgment, partly to diliciency in op- portunities of observation, and partly to the circumstances, more or less difierent, which affect every phenomenon. One would think, however, that on such a broad ques- tion, one apparently so easy of solution as the effect on the system produced by indulgence in solitary vice, there would be no great divergence of opinion. Yet such is not the case. Among recent eminent writera there is one who has expressed himself so strongly on this subject that his words have led us to survey the ground again with especial care, and the result has been that we are convinced that he has vastly underrated the evil re- sults of the habit. As his name is now the most famous among the sur- geons of Great Britain, and his opinions must necessarily, through his works, repu>)lished in this country, exercise a wide influence, we feel it a duty in this book to quote his words, and subject them to the test of others' experi- ence, and the conditions of life and disease as they appear with us. The writer refei red to is Sir James Paget, Surgeon in Ordinary to the Queen, and the passage of his writings we have in mind is the following extract from a lecture delivered to physicians and students in a London hospi- tal;— T8 )een a B often nsions. which in op- tances, ion. [ qucs- ) on the , there writers on thia {ground hat we )vil re- le sur- ssarily, orcise a quote experi- appear jeon in vritinga lecture hospi- APPENDIX. 309 "With careful and positive toa('hini» you will cure the ipfnorant, and do good to nil, except those whose bypo- cliondria is near to complete insanity. But on some sub- j«.u the ago of puberty 25 Consummation of mar- riage I.'io its siguilication 1.% obstacle:* to 142 Con8Uni[ition, how fre- quently inherited. ... lOti influence of sex on.... 271 ConvulHions, a cause of.. 2'2(» a result of vensTeal ex- cess. 223 Cousins marrying 132 (Cowardice, may be in- herited 2J0 Crime, hereditary char- acter of 208 Criminal class, peouliar- itiea of the 209 Criminal abortion 183 Cure, proapocta of, in nervous troubles 233 PA OR moana of, In nervous tronbloH 2;'.t D. Diinjrors of excess 108 DoafnesH, ii cause of 2.")! Debility 1 17 Decay of virility 40 Do Loiiun.vilUi, his a<,'e when last ni.urii-d 40 Desire, cfreota of fouil and rce, the Christian law of 287 Diverse theories, two of 8( >cial life 2r)0 Dormitory regulations, hints on 2!» Drunkard's legacy, the. ,. 2U0 brinks which strengthen virility 4K which weaken virility.. f.O Dropsy, iiiflucnce of sux on 274 Dntcher, I'rof. A. P., on the eliecta of venereal ex- cuss. . 222 Dyspepsia, a cause of.... 232 E. i ^.iTiy aex-passion 76 -Kuncation ; the effect of, through the parents on the olald 211 INDEX. 313 PAOR '2M • •• ir.s • • 2:5 1 • • 117 • • 40 J,'0 • ■ 40 ad > •• 48 i.. M ).. M on • •• OS • • 232 i)f • • 200 to • • l!)t IW • •• 287 of • ■ 2r)0 18, 2!» • • 2U0 en « • 4H • • f.d on 274 oil 'X- ■ • 222 • • 2'^-2 211 Edward Gray, the ballad Eioctricity, tho use of. .*.'.* Kn<,'aguaieut8, Iiinijr Envy, may b« Inhorited.. Epik'imy, inheritable » result of venereal ex- cess ^ ^ the influence of sex on. Example of prolonged vir- _- ' ""y riXcoBs, dangers of what is excess ? twofold nature of Excessive indulgence,dan- gorof, in old men Extraordinary example of inheritance P. Fallen, tho fate of the.... Fatliors, what they be- queath children Fidelity, paramount duty of. Flirt, the male Fly blisters, a caution in regard to Flogging, the dangers of.. Flcnirens on longevity. . . . Food and drinks which strengthen virility... weaken Form of disease, changed by inheritance 198, Frights, needless Frescobaldi, Dianora, the family of a. PAGI G6 160 133 210 197 223 208 40 108 171 101) 221 203 110 190 135 134 55 29 58 48 50 206 83 179 Gambling may be inherited 21 1 Genius, is it inheritable t 205 why unfruitful 205 Giratilt, Dr., of Paris, hia recent essay Goetho, jxtract from the Faust of Gout, an inheritance.*.'.*.! influence of sex on H. Harvard College, weight and height of students of Headache, influence of aex on Health in relation to sym^ nietry Heathendom, sexual re- lations in Heart, disease of, the re^ suit of inheritance.,, disease, influence of sex on Hereditary diseases, hyg. ienic treatment of Hidden nature of heredi- tary diseases Hip-disease, a result of generative malforma- tion Hops, the active principle of Hufeland, Dr., on tho* means which shorten life Husbands and wives Husband as a father. . . .'* Hygiene of puberty....*] Hygiene of virility Hygienic treatment of hereditary diseases Hyateria, the transmission of influence of sex on. .*...' gnorance concerning mar- PAOfl 150 45 197 273 20 270 2;i9 278 197 272 200 198 219 80 72 103 174 37 38 200 197 269 138 314 INDEX. f' h 1 ii§ PAOB Ul-ussge, inheritance of, the consequence of 194 Immnnity to disease he- reditary 199 Impotence 149 IndiTidual responsibility, how affected by the he- ritage of immorality. .210, 212 Indians, American, a cus- tom among 1R6 Inheritance 190 physical qualities we in- herit 190 how to avoid transmit- ting disease 194 mental qualities we in- herit 204 is our moral nature in- heritable 208 Inherited tendency to driiak, ineradicable na- ture of 206 Insanity, a cause of 74 inheritable 197 oft'Cuer transmitted to daughters 198 oftener transmitted by mother 198 influence of sex on 270 Intermarriage of near re- latives 132 Intemperanoei a cause of dropsy 274 Intoxication, a cause of degenerate offspring.. 206 effect of, on offspring. .. 206 Iron, a receipL for. 89 Irving, Washington, the deep sentiment of 66 Jealonsly, may be inhe- rited 810 riAi Kingsley, Canon, on the influence of race 21S Lancet, the London, its views on popular edu- cation 251 Laodicea, anecdote of . . . , 148 " Law of diversity " 214 Laws of inheritance in dis- ease 199 Laycock, Prof. Thomas, on venereal excess 169 Lethargy 145 Lecky, Mr., extract from his ** History of Fiuro- pean Morals " 289 Libertinage, may be inhe- rited Limitation of offspring. ... Liver, enlargement of, the influence of sex on Locksley Hall, an extract fr3ni Longevity, Flourens on.. Loss of power, special treatment. .......... of virility prematurely, a national tendency. . Lung-fever, influence of sex on 210 178 274 66 68 159 57 272 11 Malformation, the results of 28,152 Mangan, Olarenee, lines from 44 Man's liability to disease as compared to woman's 266 specific function 21 mt •H. INDEX. 815 216 251 148 214 199 169 145 289 210 178 274 66 53 159 57 272 266 21 PAGK Man, nnsexed 13 Manhood, signs of estab- tabliahed 35 the physical type of . . . . 238 Marriage, an excellent de- finition of 126 consummation of 137 ignorance concerning ... 1 38 meaning of 325 physical fitness and un- fitness for 127 preliminaries of 1 25 the relation of 140 Marriages, judicious, ef- fect of, on hereditary affections 193 Married life 126 Marital relations 164 dangers of excess 1 68 what is excess 171 Masinissa, King of Nu- inidia, his age when married 40 Masturbation 71 its consequences 73 its prevention 76 its cure 79 Maudsley, Dr. Henry, the counsels of 74, 81 Means of cure in nervous affections 204 Medical journals, their opinions on popular medical oducation.. . . 250 views on popular medi- cal instruction , 241 and Surgical Reporter, editorial of on popular medical education. . .. 251 Mental qualities which wa inherit 204 Middle Agea, unfortunate doctrines during the.. . . 289 Mind, purity of, » reme- dial measure 79 PAQB Montaigne, Michel de, on hereditary resemblance. 208 Moral heritage in relation to individual responsi- bility...., 209,212 nature, our, is it inheri- table 1 208 relations of Uie sexual Ufe 278 Mortality of males 21 Monaio law, sexual re]»> tions in the 280 Mumps, a risk from 37 Muscular development, its bearing on the hygiene of puberty 27 MuBset, Alfred de, a beau- tiful poem of 69 N. National tendency, our, to premature lossof virility 57 Nature of conception 176 Natural theology of the future 216 Nervous disorders origina- ting in the male gene- rative system 218 system, disorders of, in- heritable 197 prostration, how produ- ced in many oases. ... 227 Neuralgia, influence of sex on 270 Neutralizing effect of one parent over the other in inheritiince 214 New Testament, the teach- ings uf the .- .. 286 O. Obesity, influenoe of, on generative power 154 ;m 316 INDEX. 1/in ■f i OocupationB, influence of, on puberty Occupations, influence of, on virility Ofispring, avoidance and limitation of Old age, the perils of . . . . men, disease peculiar to words to the Opponents of popular med- ical instruction Origen, the fanaticism of. Oxford, weight and height of students of „ P. Paralysis, partial, the re- sult of generative mal- formations inheritable... Paresis, definitions of ... . Parr, Thomas, how old when married Passion, what it is Pastilles de serail, a warn- ing against Peculiar form of inheri- tance Perfect human creature, the unity of the sexes in the Phosphoric acid lemonade Phosphorus, the use of. .. Physical traits of the male type of manhood Physiognomy, the, of the whole body Police registration Popular medical instrnc- tion, the opponents of.. Population, a curious law of Portalis, Count of, his de- finition of marriage. . . . Power PAGl rAGB Power maximumof 171 25 Premature loss ofvirility, a national tendency — . 67 47 Pride, instance of the in- heritance of 210 178 Pritchard, Dr., his case of 220 atavism 201 276 Prostate gland, enlarge- 41 mentofthe 276 Prostration of the nervous 242 system, the causes of. .. 227 34 Prostitution 106 in the United States 106 20 its effects on the woman 109 its consequence to the man Ill the causes that maintain it 114 is it a necessary evil 7 . . 116 197 how can it be stopped ?. 1 17 238 shall it be regulated by law 120 40Puberty 23 31 what it is... 23 what hastens it 24 64 its hygiene 26 208 % Question, a national 182 255 Qnetelet, the statistics of. 20 IGO Quinine, a mixtiire con- 160 taiuing 80 19 238 lU 239 Race, Influence of 215 107 Receipt, a useful 89 Receipts, valuable 80 242 Reform, where it should begin 123 20 Regimen Sanitatis 66 Remedies in nervous af- 126 fections 234 1 59 Reticence, dangers of . . . . 230 i ■ i INDEX. 817 171 57 210 201 276 227 lOG IdO 109 111 114 116 117 120 23 23 24 26 182 20 80 215 89 80 123 56 234 23tt PAOB Reaemblance of children to parents, why not closer. 213 RheumatiBm, influence of sex on 273 Rondibilia, his advice to Panurge 66 liules, practical, on inhe- ritance 199 a Sad subject 71 Saturninus, the doctrines of 287 Sayre, Dr. Lewis A., on generative malforma- tions 219 Schools, directions for. ... 77 hygiene of 78 Secret diseases 92 their effects and fre- quency 92 their nature and history 94 their course and oonae- _ quences 96 sin of father visited on the children 99 after disease how soon to marry 102 how to prevent disease . 103 personal prevention 104 Seclusion, theory of 256 Self-abuse 71 Sex, distinction of 19 the relation of, to dis- ease 2(56 Sexes at will 185 Sexea, the co-education of, 260 the unity of, in the per^ feet human creature.. 255 the relation of, in early youth 254 Sexual function, its co-re- lations 60 Sex-passion, early 77 PAOB Shakspeare, his knowledge of the human heart. ... 46 Sight, debility of, how produced 229 Signs of established virility 35 Sims, Dr. Marion, his re- searches on sterility .... 156 Sin of the father visited on the children 99 Smith, Abbotts, M.D., etc., his views on popu- lar medical instruction.. 242 Social evil, the 106 prostitution in the Uni- ted States 106 its effects on the wuiiian 109 its consequences to ;,ho man HI the causes that maintain it 114 is it a necessary evil ?. . 116 how can it be stopped ?. 117 shall it be regulated by law? 120 union, the theory of. ... 258 Solitary vice, the 71 its consequences 73 its prevention 76 its cure 79 Spartan laws on celibacy.. 64 Special senses, disorders of 229 Specitic function, man's.. 21 Spermatorrhcea 83 what brings it about. ... 86 how to prevent it 87 how to cure it 88 Stature of male and female infants compared 19 Sterility in man 156 woman's period of , 180 Stone in the bladder, its frequency 275 Storer, Dr., his views on popular niuuical instruo- tion 246 Li' I 318 INDEX. if m im PA03 St. Titiur dance, the In- fluence of Bex on 269 Superstition, a curious. ... 147 Symmetry, the details of . . 238 Syphilis, history of 94 ni the nervous system . . 224 •* Syphilophobia " 98 T. Tabes dorsalis, what it is. . 224 Talent the offspring of talent: 204 Taylor, Jeremy, on marital indulgence IGo Temperament, its influ- ence on puberty 25 Theft, a hereditary crime often 210 Thought and inclinations hereditable 208 Thury's, Prof., law on pro- duction of sex 186 Tobacco, a consequence of the excessive use of . . . . 68 Traits, physical, of the male 19 Transmission, laws of ... . 100 Type of manhood, the physical 238 Typhoid fever, iufluonce of •ex on 276 U. Unsoundness of mind, of- ten inherited 206 V. Virginity, tests of 141 VirUity 35 ■igns of its establish- ment 35 Its hygiene 88 examples of prolonged.. 39 PAOB its decay 40 causes that hasten its loss 43 diseases which shorten it 45 effects of occupations and exercises 47 how to retain it in age.. 48 the food and drinks which strengthen it. . iH the food and drinks which weaken it 60 effects of drugs 53 our national tendency to the premature loss of. 67 Virtuous habits, can they be transmitted f 211 W. Ware, Prof. John., his valuable work 248 Warnings, meaning of the Biblical, in relation to the sexes 284 Wasting, a cause of 224 Watson, Prof. Thomas, on the cause of epilepsy... 226 ' Weight of male and female infants compared 19 Wife, choice of a 130 Winn, Dr. J. M., his rules on inheritance 199 Why children do not more closely resemble parents 213 Woman's liability to dis- ease as compared with man's 207 Words to the old 41 T. Touatt, the axioms of, on inheritance 194 Young, words to the 43 Youth, the physical cha- oarcteristics of 33 y i ! ! -i: ■•■■■•i 'mmm PAOB 40 43 45 47 48 48 60 53 57 211 248 284 224 226 19 130 199 213 207 41 194 43 as