LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Class 
 
 
POPULATION': 
 
 I T S 
 
 LAW OF INCREASE. 
 
 B Y 
 
 XATHAX ALLEX, M. I)., LOWELL, MASS. 
 
 READ AT THE MEETING OF THE WESTERN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, 
 IN CHICAGO, NOVEMBER 12, 1868- 
 
 LOWELL, MASS. : 
 STONE & HUSE, T*OOK AND JOB PRINTERS, NO. '21 CENTRAL STREET. 
 
 1870. 
 

POPUL ATIOIsr : 
 
 ITS 
 
 LAW OF INCREASE 
 
 BY 
 
 NATHAN ALLEN, M. D., LOWELL, MASS. 
 
 READ AT THE MEETING OF THE WESTERN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, 
 IN CHICAGO, NOVEMBER 12, 1868. 
 
 LOWELL, MASS. : 
 
 STONE & HUSE, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, NO. 21 CENTRAL STREET. 
 
 1870. 
 
\\t> 
 
 i 
 
POPULATION -ITS LAW OF INCREASE. 
 
 READ AT THE MEETING OF THE WESTERN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
 IN CHICAGO, NOVEMBER 12, 1868.* 
 
 THE increase of Population as governed by fixed laws or prin- 
 ciples seems never to have attracted any public attention till near the 
 close of the Eighteenth Century. The, French Revolution prevailing 
 at that period, gave rise to some bold and speculative inquiries con- 
 cerning the progress and perfectibility of man, the origin and extent 
 of human government, as well as the existence and power of a Creator 
 of all things. 
 
 In 1793, William Godwin published a work upon Political Justice, 
 respecting the unequal distribution of the good things of this life and 
 the causes of so much poverty, misery and suffering in the world, 
 which must, in the very nature of things, seemingly cast reflections 
 either upon human or divine government. The Rev. Thomas R. 
 Malthus, connected at that time with the University of Cambridge, 
 in an accidental conversation with a friend in respect to the merits of 
 Godwin's views, was prompted to make some criticisms which led to 
 the publication, in 1798, of an "Essay on the Principle of Population 
 as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society" This Essay was 
 afterwards greatly improved, and passed through several editions in 
 the form of two large, octavo volumes. 
 
 The principles embodied in this work, had at the time, and have 
 since had a most powerful influence. While on the one hand they 
 were readily adopted by large numbers, and have been extensively 
 incorporated into works upon Political Economy, on the other hand, 
 they have been controverted by many of the ablest minds in Great 
 Britain. From the year 1800 to 1830, several works were published, 
 
 * In a discussion at the close of this convention upon the publication of its proceedings, 
 the Rev. Edward Bcecher, D. D., in a speech advocating the measure, remarked that, " The 
 papers read were generally good, but that of Dr. Allen's on the increase of Population, if 
 published at an expense of twenty thousand dollars, would return one thousand fold, so 
 great are the underlying principles of our natural and national life so ably treated in that 
 document." 
 
 236823 
 
opposing, criticising and condemning the doctrines of Malthus in the 
 severest way. At the same time many elaborate articles appeared in 
 the quarterly reviews and monthly magazines upon Population, some 
 of them approving and commending these doctrines, while others 
 exposed and denounced them in the most bitter manner. 
 
 In 1841, Thomas Doubleday published in London a work enti- 
 tled, " The True Law of Population shown to be connected with the 
 Food of the People /" and, in 1852, Herbert Spencer published in 
 the Westminster Review an able article, introducing a " New Theory 
 of Population]" 1 deduced from the general law of animal fertility. 
 Neither of these theories has ever made a very great impression on 
 the public, or commanded the confidence of those most interested in 
 this subject. While the doctrines of Malthus have been gradually 
 losing their hold on the public mind, and most important changes 
 in Society have been taking place in respect to the progress, character 
 and destiny of the race, no attention, comparatively, has of late been 
 given to the laws which directly regulate its increase. In fact, for 
 the last thirty years there has been no general or thorough discussion 
 of this subject. But there are new agencies coming into existence, 
 and changes occurring in the status of different communities and 
 nations, that will ere long compel attention to this most important 
 question. 
 
 Facts connected with emigration and the intermixture of races, 
 together with census returns, registration reports, mortuary statistics, 
 <fcc., are constantly coming to light, which demand explanation, and 
 can be satisfactorily accounted for, only by referring them to some 
 fixed laws of human increase. The materials upon which a portion 
 of these facts are based have been accumulating for a long time, 
 while some of them are so new and startling, and are of such a 
 nature and magnitude that they must be investigated. The ration- 
 ale of these facts must be brought to the test ; the lights of Science 
 challenge such a scrutiny ; the interests of an advancing civilization 
 demand it. This will appear evident when we pass in review some 
 of those facts like the following: It seems from the census and 
 registration reports of France, that the population of that great 
 nation has become almost stationary, and that the number of births 
 there has been steadily decreasing for the last fifty years. At the 
 commencement of the present century the average number of child- 
 ren to each marriage in France was five, but it is estimated that the 
 average number at the present day in the rural districts will not 
 exceed three, and in Paris, not much over two. Now, it is a well 
 
established fact that no nation can increase in population with a 
 much less average than three children to each marriage. In confir- 
 mation of the same fact it is found that the birth-rate in France has 
 been reduced to one in thirty-seven persons. It is also an established 
 fact that for any nation to be in a prosperous condition or gain in 
 population, the birth-rate must range between one in thirty to thirty- 
 five ; but with a birth-rate less than that say one in thirty-eight 
 to forty, such a nation, having the usual amount of mortality, must 
 diminish in population. The changes that have already taken place 
 in France cannot be satisfactorily accounted for by the drafting of 
 young men into the army, nor by the emigration of young people 
 out of the country, nor by the diminution of marriages. If the births 
 or birth-rate, therefore, should continue to decrease in France for the 
 next fifty years, as they have for the last half-century, what will be 
 the result? 
 
 A similar class of facts is found to prevail with the descendants 
 of the first settlers of New England. The Puritans were originally 
 a prolific people. They had on an average for several successive 
 generations from six to ten children to each married couple, but 
 within the present century, the average has dropped down from six 
 to about three, and the birth-rate of the original stock in some cities 
 has been even less than it is in France. Had not the older cities 
 received recruits from the country or additions from the foreign 
 element, their population would have been seriously affected. 
 
 By census returns taken in 1765 and 1865, there are now found 
 only about one-half as many children under fifteen years of age, rela- 
 tively, to the adult population, as there were one hundred years ago. 
 It is beginning to be admitted that there is, at the present time 
 in most parts of New England, no increase of the strictly native 
 population. This change is not at first very apparent, partly from 
 the fact that a large foreign element is constantly immigrating to its 
 shores, and partly, that this foreign class is wonderfully prolific, hav- 
 ing nearly three times as many children as the Americans. This 
 constant addition by immigration and births to the population of New 
 England makes a fair show of increase on paper but when an anal- 
 ysis is made of its character, it shows at once that all or nearly all 
 this increase arises from foreign descent. If the average number ol 
 children among the Americans to each marriage should continue to 
 decrease, so that they will not make good the places of the producing 
 stock, and a larger and larger number of persons every year shall see 
 fit to live a single life, it is evident that the native stock must rapidly 
 
6 
 
 diminish and, at no distant day, comparatively must run out! Is it 
 possible, says some one, that the Puritan the best stock that the 
 world ever saw, under what would be considered the best family 
 training, the highest order of educational influences, and the purest 
 religious instruction should thus run out in New England, and give 
 place to a people of foreign origin, with far less intelligence and a re- 
 ligion entirely different ? When we come to consider all the causes 
 of this radical change in New England population, it may not seem 
 so surprising. 
 
 The Census of the State of New York taken for 1865, dis- 
 closes some curious facts. The method of taking this Census was 
 different from that of all others in this respect : that it was taken by 
 families with particular reference to children. In answer to the in- 
 quiry put to every woman who was or had been married (in all 
 842,562), how many children she had had, whether present or absent, 
 living or dead, there were 115,252 women who responded that they 
 never had had a child; 124,317, only one child; 123,319, two, and 
 108,324, three children. Here we find 471,772, more than one-half 
 of all the married w^omen in the great State of New York, who will 
 average only one child and seven-tenths to each woman. These fig- 
 ures include both the foreign and American classes; but, as the foreign 
 have generally the most children, the American compose undoubtedly 
 by far the largest proportion of the families here mentioned. Now, if 
 the law, settled by mortuary statistics, that two-fifths of all children 
 bora die before reaching adult life, be applied to these facts, scarcely 
 is one child here raised for each woman that is, as far as these 471,- 
 772 married women in the great State of New York are thus far re- 
 ported. It is true that a large number of children might afterwards 
 be born to these same married women, possibly as many as here re- 
 turned in the census, but even then that would make an average of 
 only about 2 to each married woman. It should also be borne in 
 mind that these returns of the census include the foreign element as 
 well as the strictly American ; and, when it is considered that the 
 former are far more prolific than the latter, it will be seen at once, 
 that the American, at this rate, would not begin to keep the original 
 stock good. 
 
 In the County of New York which is mostly made up of the 
 city reporting about one-half of its population as foreign we find 
 this remarkable fact : While nine hundred and sixty-five American 
 women had each ten children and upwards, there were twenty-eight 
 hundred and fifty foreign women having each ten children and up- 
 
wards making three times as many. The compiler of this census 
 states that he is convinced that there is, at the present time, no 
 increase of population among the descendents of the first settlers of 
 the State of New York. 
 
 There is another class of facts gathered by way of comparison? 
 which is somewhat curious and difficult of solution. It we compare 
 the number of children born by the strictly American, with that of 
 the Irish, the Scotch, the English and the German, the difference is 
 surprising. We find that the latter, both in Europe and in this 
 country, have on an average two, if not three times as many as the 
 former, even though both classes may live in the same locality and 
 under the same general influences. 
 
 Again : if we make the comparison between the present genera- 
 tion in New England, and their ancestors living one hundred years 
 ago, we find the number of children at that period averaged two or 
 three times as many as in the same number of families at the present 
 day. Here the comparison is made between a people of the same 
 stock, living on the same ground, under the same climate and free 
 institutions. A most singular fact analogous to these is found stated 
 in the Registration Report of Vermont for 1858, It states that 
 while the producing part of the population, say from the age of 
 fifteen to fifty, was in Vermont almost precisely in the same propor- 
 tion to those under and over these ages as that in England, the birth- 
 rate in Vermont was one to forty-nine, and in England the same 
 year it was one in thirty-one ; and should the foreign element in 
 Vermont be separated, the birth-rate would be still lower in fact 
 only about one-half as large as that of England. Considering that 
 the comparison here made is between a people occupying the 
 healthiest part of New England, engaged principally in agricultural 
 pursuits and scattered in settlement and a population situated as 
 that of England is living mostly in cities and thick settled places, 
 as well as composed largely of the extremes in society the result is 
 certainly extraordinary. 
 
 Now, how can these various facts be explained ? How can they 
 be accounted for upon any well-known theories or principles of 
 population ? Why should there be such a difference between the 
 number of children of married people at the present day, and 
 families of the same stock fifty or one hundred years ago ? Why 
 should the Irish, the Scotch, the English and the German, living in 
 our country, have two or three times as many children as the same 
 number of our American women ? There must be some radical 
 
8 
 
 causes for these changes or differences. It is justly said that the 
 population of New England has been very much affected by constant 
 emigration to the West and elsewhere, but when a careful examina- 
 tion is made as to the actual numbers emigrating, and then, as to 
 what should have been the natural increase, it does not account sat- 
 isfactorily for all the changes in its inhabitants. Moreover it should 
 be borne in mind that the comparison here instituted, is between 
 the same number of married women, whether living now or one 
 hundred years ago, of the same stock, or between the same number 
 of families of different races living at the present time. 
 
 It has been alleged by writers upon this subject, that unfavorable 
 climate, bad government, want of food, epidemic diseases, war, want 
 of marriages and prudential considerations, have always been found 
 to be the principal causes in preventing an increase of population. 
 But it will not be pretended for a moment that the four first named 
 causes, viz : climate, government, famine and pestilence, could have 
 had any effect in the cases here mentioned and war could not prior 
 to 1860, and then only for a few years ; neither could the want of 
 marriages, as the marriage rate has fallen off comparatively but little 
 from former times and is almost equal to that of European nations 
 or of their representatives in this country. Modern times disclose 
 the fact that it is not the number of marriages, but the fruitfulness of 
 this relation that tells on the increase of population. The only re- 
 maining cause -prudential considerations cannot be passed over so 
 lightly. These have had their influence in a great variety of ways ; 
 in postponing marriage till a later age in life ; in regarding the care 
 and expense of children as a burden, as well as in preferring pleasure 
 and fashion to domestic duties and responsibilities. To such an ex- 
 tent has this " prudence " been carried that a great variety of means 
 has been adopted to prevent conception, and in case of pregnancy, to 
 produce abortion. This practice has been carried on so extensively 
 as to affect somewhat the increase of population partly by its direct 
 effects, but, more indirectly, by its injury to the health and constitu- 
 tion of its victims. But passing by for the present the deep crimin- 
 ality and fearful extent of this practice, why should such a crime 
 become so prevalent in all classes of society even with married 
 women among the intelligent, the refined and the religious ? Why, 
 too, should the natural instincts of women be so changed in regard 
 to offspring ? Why should so low an estimate be placed upon the 
 value of human life ? Why should such a persistent effort be made to 
 defeat one of the most important objects of the marriage institution, 
 
and that, too, by a party of all others most deeply interested ? Surely 
 there must have occurred some radical changes in the organization 
 of woman to account for such an unnatural disposition, as well as for 
 this great decrease of population from preceding generations. No 
 such facts can be found in the history of any other civilized people, 
 race, or nation upon the globe. 
 
 Having canvassed for many years the questions here raised, from 
 different points of view, and carefully examined the various works 
 published on population, the conviction was forced upon our mind, 
 that some important changes must have occurred in the organization 
 of large numbers of New England women, and that there might 
 have been sufficient causes and agencies operating for a long time in 
 society to produce some such change. v An examination into these 
 changes going on in New England society developed in our own 
 mind some IICAV views upon the great laws of human increase. And ? 
 if these views hold good here, the laws on which they are based are 
 true everywhere have existed in all past ages, and will be effective 
 in all coming time. Whatever changes may take place in the body 
 itself or in the external world in its influence upon the human system, 
 the same great law of increase still exists was a part of the consti- 
 tution at its creation, and will continue so, as long as it is governed by 
 organic laws. 
 
 We are aware that we are here advancing upon ground involv- 
 ing questions the most difficult and complicated that can be found in 
 the whole range of science, of philosophy, of political economy, or of 
 morals questions that have been discussed by the ablest minds, but 
 still many of them left in doubt and confusion. It may also seem 
 preposterous to think that at this late period in the history of the 
 world any new discovery of a great organic law can be developed in 
 such a field of inquiry ; but new discoveries and inventions of the 
 most surprising character are continually being made in other depart- 
 ments of science. It seems to be the order of divine Providence that 
 the great secrets of nature should be disclosed gradually at different 
 periods in history, and sometimes by very humble agencies. 
 
 The question might naturally arise, why this law so fundamental 
 and important should not have been discovered before ? We answer 
 that nearly all writers upon this subject were looking principally to 
 other sources for a law of population. In describing the various 
 causes that favored or prevented an increase of the race, some writ- 
 ers have scarcely admitted that the body the most important agent 
 of all had anything to do in the matter. Being ignorant themselves 
 
10 
 
 of the science of Physiology, their attention has been turned in every 
 other direction for some cause, agency or influence to explain changes 
 in population, rather than to the primary, fundamental law of human 
 organization itself. And what is most singular, this same law has 
 been applied for more than half a century, with wonderful success, 
 in improving and changing the development as well as character of 
 the animal creation. Look at those domestic animals, the horse, 
 the ox, the cow and the sheep, what wonderful improvements and 
 changes have been made here within a few years; and never was 
 this process of change going on so effectively as at this very day. 
 Had the same views always prevailed with reference to increase and 
 improvement in the animal kingdom, as have been entertained for 
 more than half a century respecting the human race, viz: that the 
 law of increase depended mainly upon causes extraneous to the 
 organization itself, the wonderful improvements that have been wit- 
 nessed in domestic animals, would never have taken place. It is 
 true, in the latter case, the law can be applied more readily and 
 extensively, with more immediate and direct effects, but still the 
 general law in both cases is the same. 
 
 Before attempting to describe the nature of this law, with the 
 conditions affecting its operation, it may be well to notice briefly 
 the different theories on population that have been promulgated, 
 together with some remarks upon the same. The leading principle 
 of Malthus is, " that population when unchecked increases in a geo- 
 metrical ratio, while subsistence increases only in an arithmetical 
 ratio." Because it happened to be ascertained at that time that 
 population in the United States doubled once in about twenty-five 
 years, Malthus assumed that this was a general law applicable to all 
 nations and for all time ; whereas, it is a positive fact that some 
 nations have doubled their population once in fifteen years, others in 
 twenty years, and with others it required forty or fifty years. That 
 is, Malthus assumes that the sexual propensity is invariably a given 
 quantity, the same everywhere arid at all times. It requires no 
 evidence to prove that this assumption is false, contrary to all expe- 
 rience, all facts and the common judgments of mankind. 
 
 Again : it was discovered that in Great Britain and in two or 
 three other places, the production of food was not equal to the wants 
 of an increasing population, and, as for the sake of argument or some 
 definite proposition, it was desirable to determine some relative pro- 
 portion between the two factors, it was assumed that the increase of 
 qne was geometrical, while that of the other was arithmetical. Now 
 
11 
 
 no fact in the history of agriculture is more obvious, than that the 
 amount of food produced and available, varies wonderfully according 
 -to the differences in the fertility of the soil and modes of cultivation, 
 as well as in the increased exchanges of food obtained by the means 
 of the improvements in manufactures and commerce. So great and 
 variable has this increase in different nations and ages been, that 
 it seems impossible to determine it permanently in figures by any 
 definite ratio. 
 
 Upon the hypothesis that population tended to increase much 
 faster than the means of subsistence, Malthus proceeded to collect 
 facts in the history of the world not only to prove the principle, but 
 to show what causes in different ages and nations had operated to 
 prevent this increase. These causes he divides into two classes called 
 "checks the positive and the preventive." Some of these checks, 
 such as vice, misery, poverty, disease, &c., are of human origin, and 
 result from the violation of physical law, while others, such as famine, 
 plagues, epidemics, earthquakes, &c., might be considered more prop- 
 erly of divine origin. It certainly seems inconsistent with the moral 
 attributes of the Creator that He should establish a law of population 
 that such agencies a.s are here mentioned, must be employed to regu- 
 late it. The "preventive checks" are wholly under human control, 
 and are capable of the greatest possible abuse. There are certain 
 features in Malthus' doctrine of population that have always been 
 revolting to the moral sense of mankind. 
 
 According to the theory of Thomas Doubleday, the law of 
 population is connected with food in such a manner, that there is a 
 wonderful power inherent in nature to increase its fecundity or fer- 
 tility, wherever any species or genus is endangered. He discusses 
 this provision of nature as applied to the vegetable and animal king- 
 doms under two heads, the plethoric, and the deplethoric states the 
 former as unfavorable, and the latter as favorable to fertility. As far 
 as Doubleday explains and applies his theory, it is not only consistent 
 with the great laws of physiology, but, when carried out to its fullest 
 extent, it can receive a complete and satisfactory explanation only by 
 the aid of these laws. 
 
 Herbert Spencer has more recently published what he calls a 
 "new theory on population" deduced from the general law of animal 
 fertility. His theory is that an antagonism exists in nature between 
 individualism and reproduction ; that matter in its lower forms pos- 
 sesses a stronger power of increase than in all its higher forms ; that 
 the capacity of reproduction in animals is in an inverse ratio to their 
 
12 
 
 individuation, and that the ability to maintain individual life and 
 that of multiplication varies also in the same manner. The views 
 of Spencer though expressed in a great profusion of language, and 
 complicated with many obscure points in philosophy, when reduced 
 to the simple, practical tests of science, will be found to have a basis, 
 more or less, in the great laws of physiology. Other writers, as 
 Saddler, Richards, and Fourier have presented various views on 
 population, but neither of them a well-defined, complete and inde- 
 pendent theory of itself. 
 
 Works upon political economy have treated all these theories 
 with the greatest diversity of statement, affording very little instruc- 
 tion or satisfaction to any one. 
 
 In attempting to account for certain anomalous changes going 
 on in the population of New England, the inquiry arose, Has not the 
 human system itself experienced some changes ? Have not certain 
 causes been operating through two or three generations with so much 
 power as to affect the development particularly the relative propor- 
 tions of the body itself? For the sake of convenience and illustra- 
 tion, we shall adopt the division made by some writers on the human 
 body into four distinct compartments called temperaments, 
 
 The first division, the brain, the spinal column, and nerves of 
 motion and sensation scattered through the body, called the Nervous 
 Temperament, 
 
 Second: the heart, the lungs and all the blood-vessels in the 
 system, called the Sanguine Temperament, 
 
 Third : the organs in the abdomen, the stomach, bowels, liver 
 and absorbents, called the Bilious or Lymphatic Temperament, 
 
 Fourth : the muscles, bones, ligaments, constituting the motive 
 power of the system, called the Muscular Temperament. 
 
 The term temperament, in one sense denotes the result of a 
 mixture or tempering of all the qualities, both physical and mental 
 of any individual, but, as used here, it is intended to apply more 
 particularly to the different compartments of the body as connected 
 with health and the laws of human increase. As all the organs in 
 the body are included in one or other of these temperaments, and as 
 every organ, however insignificant or obscure, has a specific work to 
 do in the animal economy, it is necessary that every one of these 
 organs should have its natural development and perform its natural 
 functions. 
 
13 
 
 The human body in its normal or most healthy state may be 
 compared to a perfect machine made up of a great variety of parts, 
 each part performing its own work and not interfering with that of 
 the others, so that the "wear and tear" will come upon all parts 
 of the machinery alike. Every mechanic will say at once that such 
 a machine, thoroughly constructed and kept in running order, will 
 accomplish for the time being far more work, and last much longer, 
 than one poorly built, not well-balanced in its parts, and continually 
 getting out of order. This subject is beautifully illustrated in the 
 teachings of the Apostle Paul where he says, " The body is not one 
 member but many. . . . God hath set the members of every one of 
 them in the body as it hath pleased him. . . . The eye cannot say 
 unto the hand, I have no need of thee ; nor again the head to the 
 feet, I have no need of you. And whether one member suffer, all 
 the members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all the mem- 
 bers rejoice w T ith it." We are here taught, if there is a seeming 
 difference in the importance of the functions and relations of these 
 members, they are all necessary in making up the whole body, 
 and the rights of each must be respected. 
 
 And if this law is true when applied to individual members of 
 the body, it must hold good with still greater force, when applied to 
 a whole class of organs included under the head of one of the tem- 
 peraments. Here is the great trouble with the human system. These 
 temperaments are not equally developed ; are not well-balanced ; do 
 not assist each other in their respective functions, by doing severally 
 their own proper work, but constantly interfere, thus violating the 
 laws of nature. In carrying on the operations of the animal economy, 
 it is clearly the design of nature that there should be a perfect union 
 or harmony of these temperaments that such was the development 
 of the human body at its creation, and that in such a state, it is 
 found most exempt from disease, is capable of performing the great- 
 est amount of labor, of receiving the greatest amount of enjoyment, 
 as well as reaching its greatest longevity. 
 
 It is here, at this very point, where starts or is grounded the great 
 law of human increase upon a perfect development of all the organs 
 in the body constituting a 'perfect union or harmony between the tem- 
 peraments. This presupposes that all other conditions are favorable, 
 such as the age, the health, the union and adaptation of the married 
 parties ; that, with this standard of organization, and provided the 
 laws of nature are not violated or interfered with, there will uniformly 
 be found not only the greatest number of children, but they will be 
 endowed with the highest amount of physical vigor and health. 
 
14 
 
 It is true, there may be a great variety of conditions, or powerful 
 factors that enter largely into its operations and modify essentially 
 its results, but, here in the perfect organization of the human system, 
 has this great law of population its germ, its seat and foundation. 
 The common sense of mankind, which is applied to the practical 
 duties of life, as well as to the numerous facts in science, would 
 certainly incline us to believe that the body itself, in its various states 
 and ever-changing forms, must constitute the most prominent, if not 
 the principal agency, in the functions of increase. To establish a 
 general law which is to have the greatest possible agency in develop- 
 ing the nature of a body and controlling its very existence, the 
 presumption is that such a law must be evolved, in some Avay, from 
 the designs had in the creation of that body. Such has been found 
 by experience and observation to be the fact in reference to the great 
 laws that pervade the whole vegetable and animal kingdoms. And 
 though there may be objects and agencies extraneous to the body 
 itself, that may have a powerful influence over its development, yet the 
 most important law of all the law that shapes its life, character and 
 destiny must have its seat and foundation somewhere in the system 
 itself. Such we should naturally suppose Avould be the fact in the case 
 of man, the highest and the noblest work of the Creator, and where 
 human agency and accountability have more to do than anywhere 
 else in the world. Whereas an examination into the views and 
 theories of most writers upon population shows, that the laws which 
 they lay down for its increase have been controlled almost wholly 
 by agents or objects entirely external to the body, and some of them 
 holding only remote or indirect relations to it. 
 
 The standard of physiology upon which the laws of population 
 are here based, is the same perfect organization of man as when he 
 came from the hands of his Maker and was pronounced not only 
 "very good," but was commanded to "be fruitful and multiply, and 
 replenish the earth and subdue it." But by man's course of disobe- 
 i dience and rebellion, he lost not only the moral image and likeness 
 \ of his Creator, but that harmony and perfection in his physical organi- 
 zation which he has never yet regained. 
 
 This same balance or union of the temperaments constitutes the 
 standard for the greatest amount of health, of longevity and strength 
 that can ever be found in the human system. This is proved by the 
 laws of physiology, as well as by facts gathered from experience, 
 observation and history. This same organization presents the only 
 perfect standard of beauty for the human form ; for there is such a 
 
15 
 
 standard founded in nature and represented by art -:i perfect stand- 
 ard of beautiful figure for the eye, as well as of taste for the mind, 
 when all its faculties are trained and cultivated to their highest 
 degree. Accordingly whenever models of the best specimens of the 
 race have been adduced, they have always exhibited this harmonious 
 development of the human body. The Apollo Belvidere, the immor- 
 tal work of the Greek chisel, and the Venus de Medicis, represent 
 a well-balanced organization all parts of the system in beautiful 
 symmetry, the vital organs large, the limbs, the muscles, the bones, 
 the blood-vessels, the nerves, distinct and clearly defined, nothing 
 too strong, nothing too weak, nothing in excess, nothing deficient. 
 But noth withstanding such a standard or model of human organiza- 
 tion is set before us, the reality is nowhere to be found. No nation, 
 or race, or tribe, or people upon the globe can present perfect living 
 examples, containing all the organs of the body in a perfectly healthy 
 and well-balanced state. They can only offer approximations to this 
 standard. 
 
 Now, the human constitution as represented by these tempera- 
 ments has been constantly varying in every age and with all classes 
 of people. The causes of these changes originate partly within the 
 body, and partly from external agencies and influences. They often 
 change materially, and sometimes radically, with the same individual 
 between the cradle and the grave. Slight changes in the organization 
 do not affect much the physical or mental character of an individual 
 or people ; but when a certain class of organs or one of these tem- 
 peraments, becomes very predominent, it has a most marked and 
 sometimes serious effect. 
 
 We have dwelt somewhat at length upon the importance of this 
 balance of organs, for it is the key not only to a sound constitution, 
 perfect health and long life, but to the law of increase. Nearly all 
 the diseases, pains and weaknesses of the body are but the result of 
 deviations from this harmony, and an observance of the great laws 
 of life and health looks towards restoring this balance. Ifj then, this 
 balancing of all the organs in the body is found necessary for the 
 greatest amount of health and longevity of the race, may it not 
 become equally necessary for its increase ? If only now and then 
 a single individual in the community was found with a constitution 
 badly diseased or imperfectly developed, its hereditary effects would 
 not be very perceptible ; but when large numbers or a majority are 
 found so constituted, not more than one or two generations can 
 sibly pass before such effects become marked and well known. 
 
16 
 
 It is now generally believed to be in accordance with the laws 
 of hereditary descent, that the mother, not the father, transmits the 
 vitality, the stamina, the strength of the physical system to the child, 
 It becomes, then, a question of the highest importance that women 
 especially should have sound and well-balanced organizations. If 
 the law of human increase is based upon physiology, it becomes 
 doubly important that the organization of women should be as per- 
 fect as possible. For it is a law, running through the whole animal 
 and vegetable creation, that an organization badly diseased or imper- 
 fectly developed, has a direct tendency to decline both in vitality and 
 fruitfulness. And can a law that is here of so general application be 
 made an exception in the case of the human race ? 
 
 Now, the evidences of the general ill-health of the American 
 and particularly of the New England women as gathered from 
 travelers, newspapers, journals, medical works, and physicians, are so 
 abundant, that they have nowhere been called in question. Many 
 of the causes and effects of this ill health have been more or less 
 discussed, but in no place has its connection with the increase of 
 population been carefully considered. When the nature and peculiar 
 character of these complaints are fully considered and that many 
 of them are not found so prevalent in any other part of the world 
 it is clearly evident that they interfere seriously with the laws of 
 increase. And there are reasons to believe that these peculiar dis- 
 eases and weaknesses are every year multiplying, so that, in process 
 of time, they will have a still more powerful effect upon the increase 
 of population. 
 
 It has long been the opinion of medical writers that married 
 women on the whole, have better health and live longer than those 
 in single life. And very recently Dr. J. Stark, of Edinburgh, proved 
 this fact most conclusively from an examination on a large scale, of 
 the Registration Reports of Scotland. It should be observed, that 
 this fact is here demonstrated among a class of women somewhat 
 distinguished for having large families, and might not hold good in a 
 community where large numbers of married women have no children. 
 The organization of woman, the history of her diseases, and the rate 
 of mortality, demonstrate that married life and the production of 
 children are one of the primary objects of her creation. Physiology, 
 pathology and all history upon the great laws of life and health prove 
 this beyond controversy as a general law. There may be exceptions 
 to this general rule, but it is a law which God has made applicable to 
 all races and nations ; and whatever institutions, habits or practices 
 
17 
 
 interfere with its execution, are abnormal, are deviations from the 
 laws of nature and of God. 
 
 What, then, are the obvious teachings of Revelation in regard 
 to marriage ? These teachings may be presented by giving the view.s 
 held both by the Episcopal and Catholic churches, which embrace the 
 largest Christian denominations in the world. These views, professed 
 to be derived from Revelation, are sustained not only by the greatest 
 possible experience that can be obtained in the whole history of man, 
 but are found to harmonize perfectly with the great laws of human 
 organization. The propositions laid down in the marriage service of 
 the Episcopal Church, state in these words, that this institution is 
 ordained for three purposes " (1) the procreation and education of 
 children ; (2) the avoidance of incontinence ; and (3) the mutual 
 society, help and comfort of the married pair? Any union of the 
 sexes in which provision is not made for fulfilling every one of these 
 purposes, or which tails in so doing, comes so far short of securing 
 the great objects of this institution. To what precise extent either 
 or all these points are met in the marriage relations of the present 
 day, it might be difficult to decide. 
 
 By the great number of divorces occurring in this country, as 
 well as from the increasing troubles in domestic life, it is quite evident 
 that the laws of nature and of God, as here enjoined in marriage, are 
 not very faithfully observed. Is there not good reason to believe 
 that this institution is regarded too much at the present day by large 
 numbers as a mere partnership, intended only for the comfort, con- 
 venience and interests of the parties forming it ? In attempting any 
 reform here, should we not come back to first principles, the laws of 
 nature ? 
 
 It is reported that there has been an alarming increase of vice and 
 immorality in certain partsespecially in the large cities of France 
 and Germany, and it is found upon careful inquiry that these evils 
 arise from breaking down the sacredness of the family institution, 
 more than from any other source. Are there not agencies and influ- 
 ences operating here that in like manner threaten the security and 
 permanency of this institution ? The agitation which has sprung up 
 within a few years with reference to the wrongs, the rights and the 
 employments of women, presents questions complicated with domes- 
 tic and public relations which are found most difficult and delicate to 
 settle. 
 
 In the discussion of this great subject, and in the attempts to 
 adjust the points of right and duty involved, it becomes necessary 
 
18 
 
 to inquire what are the teachings of the laws of nature the laws of 
 life and health not only of individuals, but collectively of the race? 
 Here is a stand-point for canvassing this whole subject of vast im- 
 portance. Any changes in the situation, employment and position 
 of woman that shall tend to improve her general health, and perfect 
 her physical organization, are certainly above all things most desir- 
 able not merely for her own sake, but on account of the relations 
 she may sustain to others. In determining just what these changes 
 should be and to what extent they may be safely carried, the question 
 arises at once, what will be their eifect upon the organization and 
 character of woman in respect to the institution of marriage and the 
 perpetuation of the race ? While some persons might prefer to cany 
 on this discussion and reform without any regard to questions of this 
 nature, no final adjustment of right and duty can here be permanently 
 secured, except as based upon the great laws of the human constitu- 
 tion. God has so constituted his creatures that the laws of their 
 own being cannot long be ignored or violated with impunity. The 
 marriage and parental relations constitute the ground work, the foun- 
 dation stones, the main pillars of all human society, and no changes 
 should be countenanced or tolerated lor a moment that tend in any 
 way to weaken or destroy these relations. Admitting that the law 
 of increase as here advocated is true, it presents new views of the 
 highest importance as to all those means, influences and agencies that 
 are calculated to change the organization and character of woman. 
 This subject opens from this point of view a most inviting field for 
 discussion, but the facts and arguments in proof of this law claim at 
 the present time and on this occasion our more immediate attention, 
 and must be presented in a brief or summary manner. 
 
 This theory is sustained directly by all the leading principles of 
 Physiology. In a general sense, the laws of hereditary descent have 
 always been admitted, though there may have been differences of 
 opinion how far these influences extended. It is a fact, we believe, 
 that the more carefully and thoroughly these laws have been investi- 
 gated, the more uniformly and extensively have they been found to 
 prevail. Now, this law of increase is but the perfecting or carrying 
 out of these same hereditary tendencies. The more perfect the or- 
 ganization of the parent, the more perfect that of the offspring. The 
 same kind of evidence that proves the existence of any hereditary 
 agency at all, sustains also the law of human increase. 
 
 Again : Every organ or class of organs in the system must receive 
 its proportion of nutrition. Dr. Carpenter, in his work on. Physiology, 
 
19 
 
 makes this statement : " There is a certain antagonism between the 
 nutritive and reproductive functions, the one being exercised at the 
 expense of the other. The reproductive apparatus derives the mate- 
 rials of its operations through the nutritive system, and its functions. 
 If, therefore, it is in a state of excessive activity, it will necessarily 
 draw off from the individual fabric some portion of the aliment des- 
 tined for its maintenance. It may be universally observed that when 
 the nutritive functions are particularly active in supporting the indi- 
 vidual, the reproductive system is undeveloped, and vice versa" Here 
 is a powerful argument from the highest physiological authority ; and 
 the statement so simple and plausible must commend itself to the com- 
 mon-sense and judgment of every person. Let any class of organs 
 or portions of the body be unduly or excessively exercised, and it re- 
 quires the more nutriment to support it, thereby withdrawing what 
 naturally should go to other organs. Let any one of the tempera- 
 ments become too predominant, and the others must suffer more or 
 less. Let this be continued through two or three generations, and the 
 evil becomes intensified. A negative argument may also be deduced 
 from physiology. In all the works treating of " impotence " and " ster- 
 ility," the causes are generally found to exist in a feeble or diseased 
 state of some parts of the body, or to arise from the abuse of certain 
 organs. Such causes are not often, if ever, found in a well developed 
 and proportioned body, where, too, the laws of life and health have 
 always been properly observed. 
 
 There is another class of facts that cannot be satisfactorily ex- 
 plained upon any other hypothesis. The sacred scriptures clearly 
 intimate, that there is something wrong in the intermarrying of blood 
 relations, and, by the laws of Moses, it was forbidden u within the 
 third degree." Both the Greeks and Romans observed these facts, 
 and proclaimed that such marriages were " prejudicial to the healthy 
 propagation of the species." The Catholic church very early opposed 
 it, and adopted a standing order or canon against all such alliances. 
 A great number of facts have been gathered, both in Europe and in 
 our own country, which prove that such marriages beget not only a 
 class of the worst diseases and complaints, such as scrofula, consump- 
 tion, epilepsy, deafness, idiocy, deformities of the body, etc., but, in 
 many cases that they run out entirely in offspring, within two or 
 three generations. Here is a class of facts that have been accumu- 
 lating for over four thousand years, and have never yet received any 
 satisfactory solution. They would never have been noticed in the 
 scriptures, nor secured the attention they have, unless they origi- 
 
20 
 
 nated from some fixed causes or laws existing in the constitution itself 
 These facts and causes can be rationally explained only upon such prin- 
 ciples of physiology as are connected with this great law of increase. 
 A similar collection of facts may be obtained from the history of fami- 
 lies intermarrying, belonging to a particular class, moving in a certain 
 circle, and possessing similar organization and character, such as the 
 royal families of Europe, the patricians of Rome, the nobility of France, 
 the peerage of England, &c. It is well known that in nearly all these 
 orders, there has been as a whole, a marked tendency to degeneracy 
 in their offspring, as well as to the entire extinction of these families. 
 In our own country, we have no distinct orders or classes, but, in 
 certain circles or localities, where the same families have intermar- 
 ried more or less for several generations, there has been observed in 
 their descendants a decided decay, as well as diminution of numbers. 
 These facts find a ready explanation in the principles of physiology 
 as here set forth. 
 
 Facts and arguments of the most convincing nature can be ad- 
 duced in favor of this theory of population from the vegetable and 
 animal kingdoms. The same general laws that govern all organic 
 matter here, govern and control all the changes that take place in the 
 human system. It is true there may be some points of variance and 
 some modifications that are not strictly analogous, but, in the main, 
 the general principles operating in these several departments are the 
 same. The wonderful improvements and changes that have been 
 brought about within a few years in domestic animals, have all been 
 effected by the application of laws similar to what prevail in human 
 physiology. We cannot enter here into detailed points of proof, but 
 confidently assert that by a careful comparison and analysis, the law 
 of increase here advocated will throw a flood of light upon certain 
 parts of vegetable and animal physiology ; while on the other hand 
 facts deduced from these two departments of science afford the 
 strongest possible evidence in proof of this same law of human 
 increase. 
 
 This theory of increase receives strong proof from the history 
 of three classses of people. First, from the most healthy and best- 
 balanced organizations to be found, where the temperaments are 
 nearest equally represented. According to our theory, such a class 
 will have the greatest number of children, combined with the highest 
 degree of strength, vigor and health. Such were the early settlers 
 of New England ; next perhaps may be reckoned the better portion 
 of the Irish race, whether living in Ireland or America, together with 
 
21 
 
 a middling class of the German, Scotch and English. It was the 
 united sentiment of a learned body in Europe (expressed many years 
 since), after a careful review and thorough discussion of the leading 
 characteristics of different nations, that the " Scotch brain placed 
 upon the Irish body furnished the best material for the highest order 
 of physical and mental development to be found in the world." 
 Many illustrations of this character may be found in the history of 
 some portions of our own country. 
 
 In the second class where either the muscular, lymphatic, or 
 sanguine temperament greatly predominates, few or no children are 
 found. Here the nutrition goes mainly to support the body of the 
 individual, and the merely animal nature becomes excessive. Such 
 examples are rare in a highly civilized state of society, but abound 
 among a savage or a barbarous people. It has always been observed 
 that excessively fleshy people are not very prolific in offspring ; and, 
 nowhere in the history of the world can be found a tribe or race, 
 living in a purely savage, barbarous state, leading a low, coarse, 
 sensual, animal life, that has been at all fruitful in children through 
 several successive generations. The laws of nature have wisely fixed 
 limitations to the increase as well as prosperity of such a people. 
 
 The third class include the other extreme in society those having 
 a great predominance of the nervous temperament. Here the brain 
 and nervous system prevail in excess, accompanied with a deficiency 
 of the muscular and vital temperaments. This class is very numer- 
 ous, and rapidly increasing under our present type of civilization. 
 The brain and nervous system are exercised too much, compared with 
 other parts of the body, and require for their support an undue pro- 
 portion of nutrition and blood. In this class may be found some, 
 especially women who, commencing early in life, have been closely 
 confined to books and literary pursuits ; others, whose minds have 
 always been kept under a severe pressure or strain from cares, anxie- 
 ties, fashions or excitements of some kind ; others still, who, inherit- 
 ing a decided nervous temperament, and neglecting physical exercise, 
 live luxuriously, and depend for their enjoyment very much upon the 
 excitements of the day. All such women have few children, and find 
 much difficulty in rearing what they do have. 
 
 There are certain agencies now operating upon society with 
 great power, which are peculiarly adapted to develop and inten- 
 sify this organization. Illustrations of this character may be found 
 everywhere throughout the country, but are, perhaps, most strikingly 
 manifest on a large scale in New England, especially in Massachu- 
 
22 
 
 setts. Within fifty or one hundred years, there has been here a great 
 change in the organization and character of females. Once they 
 were generally mothers of large families, possessed strong, healthy 
 constitutions, and lived to a good old age. Once they performed 
 mostly their own housework did not injure their bodies by fashion 
 in dress, or have their brains and nerves racked by any high-pressure 
 principle. But what a contrast do the women of this generation 
 present to such examples ? 
 
 The causes of this change arise principally from three sources, 
 and the effects upon the constitution are so marked as to require a 
 more particular description. First cause : a large proportion of do- 
 mestic labor, particularly in cities, has now passed from the hands of 
 New England women to foreign help especially all that is hard and 
 laborious. It is a law in physiology that exercise, and exercise alone, 
 develops and strengthens the muscles ; no kind of exercise whatever 
 accomplishes this so readily and thoroughly as housework. As a 
 consequence, principally of this neglect, the female constitution in 
 those cases is reduced in vigor and strength ; the muscles are soft 
 and flabby, and cannot bear much hardship or exposure ; there is a 
 want generally of physical stamina and power of endurance. 
 
 The second cause : The fashions of the day or style of dress are 
 directly calculated to change the form of the body to displace the 
 internal organs and interfere seriously with their functions. The 
 compression of the chest and abdomen prevents the proper expansion 
 of the lungs as well as oxygenation of the blood ; it obstructs the 
 natural action of the heart and healthy circulation of the vital fluid ; 
 it disturbs the healthy action of the stomach and bowels, tending to 
 produce indigestion and costiveness ; it depresses more or less all the 
 internal organs causing weakness and disease especially of those in 
 the lower part of the pelvis which seriously interfere with the great 
 laws of reproduction. Not only the functions of these particular 
 organs are injured, but the general health is sensibly impaired by it. 
 The sanguine and lymphatic temperaments are thus not sufficiently 
 developed to produce generally that amount of nutrition and vitality 
 in the system so necessary for carrying on all the operations of nature. 
 And by the laws of hereditary descent these weaknesses and inequali- 
 ties are transmitted in many instances very much intensified. 
 
 The third cause arises from the early, persistent and continued 
 strain upon the brain and nervous system, to the neglect of other 
 parts of the body. The girl is sent to school at the age of five or 
 six, and kept there with short intermissions till sixteen or eighteen, 
 
23 
 
 without much regard to physical exercise ; at a period in life the 
 only chance it has when all parts of the body should have healthy 
 growth, complete development and consolidation of strength. In 
 the completion of her education, there may be found the highest 
 order of social qualities, personal accomplishments, mental attain- 
 ments and moral character, but engrafted upon a physical system 
 entirely unfitted for domestic labor, for the practical duties and re- 
 sponsibilities of every day life, as well as for the fulfillment of the 
 great laws of maternity. Besides, a large portion of the influences, 
 arising at the present time, from society, fashions, amusements, read- 
 ing, and various excitements of the day, are peculiarly adapted to 
 increase and intensify this nervous temperament. It is true, while 
 this same organization presents the highest type of refinement, taste, 
 culture, piety, &c., it is at the same time accompanied with the most 
 serious "drawbacks/' It illustrates the principle of Fourier, that 
 "just in proportion as individuals or a community become perfected 
 in civilization, in the same proportion the race inclines to run out ;" 
 but how this happens and upon what principles it depends, he did 
 not tell us. The theory of human increase as based upon the laws 
 of physiology explains this matter. It shows that God has set limits 
 to the progress and perfectibility of man in this particular direction. 
 Here is the danger or tendency of such a type of education, civiliza- 
 tion and religion as prevails at the present day. 
 
 This great predominance of the nervous temperament is unfavor- 
 able in a variety of ways, to the increase of population. As a general 
 rule, people highly educated and following pursuits that severely and 
 continuously tax the brain and the nervous system, have fewer children 
 than persons engaged in manual labor for a livelihood. It is a fact 
 well established by history that neither men nor women distinguished 
 for genius and literary attainments have ever as a class been prolific 
 in offspring. Many examples of this kind could be adduced where 
 such families have actually run out, and the name has become extinct. 
 
 This constant and excessive exercise of the brain and nerves, 
 especially in woman, consumes all the vitality generated in her sys- 
 tem from day to day, thereby withdrawing the stimulus and nutrition 
 which should go to support other parts of the body. .The vital tem- 
 perament including the 'lungs, the heart, and the digestive organs 
 has not sufficient development and strength to provide the requisite 
 materials for healthy gestation. And then in case of bearing offspring, 
 the frail, delicate organization of the mother easily breaks down and 
 her constitution is used up in having one, two, or three children. 
 
24 
 
 Besides such is the deficiency of the vital temperament that the 
 nourishment which nature designed cannot be found for the child, 
 and artificial means of support must be resorted to, which greatly 
 endangers its life. 
 
 It is the opinion of some medical men of extended observation 
 and who have made particular inquiries on this subject, that not 
 more than one-half 'of our American women now nurse their children. 
 Some will not do it ; others cannot, having neither the organs nor 
 the nourishment requisite for it, and large numbers who attempt it, 
 can furnish only a partial supply. In confirmation of this statement, 
 here is the answer to an inquiry made of the manufacturer of a 
 new and high-priced nursing-bottle, just introduced to the market ; 
 his sales for the last year, he replies, amounted to "Jive hundred 
 gross," that is 72,000, and in his judgment "the sale of nursing- 
 bottles in the United States must amount yearly, all told, the cheap 
 and the more expensive, to not less than fifty thousand gross" 
 What a contrast do these facts present in the sale and use of this 
 article as compared with the same fifty or one hundred years ago, 
 when such a thing as a nursing-bottle was here scarcely known ? Do 
 not these facts argue some change not only in the disposition, but 
 in the physical organization of woman ? 
 
 Besides the great danger attending this artificial feeding, the 
 child itself inherits the active brain and sensitiveness of the mother ; 
 the vital organs are all small ; there is a want of arterial blood ; the 
 child naturally has a feeble hold of life, and great numbers of such 
 infants die in spite of the best medical skill, nursing and care. When 
 all these things are taken into account, the alarming infant mortality 
 at the present day is not to be wondered at. 
 
 It may be said, perhaps, that this imperfect organization and 
 these mental defects of character described here are wholly confined 
 to New England ; that, in the great West, with its large lakes and 
 rivers, its boundless prairies and inexhaustible soil, no such evils 
 exist. But is it so ? And is there no danger ? It is said, that the 
 emigrants from New England to the West do better than those re- 
 maining at home. They should be more fruitful ; as a class, they 
 have more physical energy more vitality and stamina of constitu- 
 tion. It is mainly this very organization that moves them to change 
 their residence. And then, the influences of a new country as well 
 as the inter-mixture by marriage, by association, by business, <fcc., of 
 a people composed of different races and types of character, have 
 always proved favorable to an increase of population. It undoubt- 
 edly holds good in the present instance. 
 
But do no such evils as have been here portrayed threaten the 
 West? Is there no danger in its high political excitements, its intense 
 pressure of business, its rapid accumulations of wealth, &c.. of injury to 
 the physical organization ? Is there no intemperance, no licentious- 
 ness, no kind of extravagance in living, nor form of fashion in society, 
 nor modes of education, that constantly violate the laws of the 
 human constitution ? It certainly behooves the guardians of health, 
 the conservators of good morals, as well as the cultivators of social 
 science, to look well now to these things. As it is said " there is a 
 tide in the affairs of men," so in the progress of social evils, when the 
 seed is being sown or it is in a germinating process, they can be 
 eradicated far easier than when full grown and sweeping everything 
 around to destruction. What more pre-eminently appropriate for the 
 friends of social science to investigate than the evils growing out of 
 the violation of those great laws of life and health, involved in the 
 increase of the human species? And are there not evils at the 
 present day connected especially with our domestic relations and the 
 marriage institution, that need investigation and correction? If 
 the law of population here advocated is true, it presents not only new 
 and most important views of the duties, obligations, and responsibili- 
 ties of these relations, but ths, right wciy and proper means for their 
 improvement. The inquiry naturally arises, what are to be the 
 results of this change in organization, and what methods of reform 
 can be suggested ? It is frequently much easier to find out and 
 describe clearly the nature of diseases, with their causes, than to 
 ascertain remedies and prescribe medicines that will certainly cure 
 them. There is another thing still more difficult, that is, to influence 
 or compel people to follow up carefully and thoroughly all the pre- 
 scriptions and directions necessary for relief and cure. It is particu- 
 larly so here. In response to the above question, we propose to make 
 a few suggestions. 
 
 Is there likely to be in New England an intermixture by way of 
 marriage between those of foreign parentage and of those strictly 
 American ? We answer no, not in sufficient extent to remedy the 
 
 evil.. The reports of marriages in Massachusetts for thirty years 
 
 the allotted period of one generation show but little increase ot 
 such marriages. In the advancing education and improvement of the 
 foreign population, together with the constant changes in the habits, 
 employments, and tastes of our own people, there will be naturally 
 some intermixture, and perhaps an increase of such marriages ; but 
 then there are limits beyond which such connections will not extend. 
 4 
 
There are great boundary lines in society, fixed in the very nature of 
 things, by association, by families, by relationship, and, in the present 
 case, especially by a radical difference in religion, which cannot easily 
 be modified, certainly not obliterated. 
 
 To cure disease or remedy an evil, the cause must be removed. 
 In the survey which we have made of the changes that have taken 
 place in female organization in New England, the principal causes 
 may be summed up under three distinct heads, viz: 1st, Neglect of 
 physical exercise ; 2nd, Fashions in dress ; and 3rd, The too exclu- 
 sive cultivation of the brain. It is the law of God that no human 
 being can have a sound, vigorous body, accomplish much physically 
 and enjoy long life, without good m.tiscles. That these muscles be 
 properly developed, their exercise must be commenced early, and be 
 carefully trained when the system is in a state of growth. Exercise, 
 and exercise alone, can do this. The girl must practice the lighter 
 gymnastics of domestic labor, and be thoroughly and practically 
 trained in all household duties. In this way she would obtain not 
 only a-good physical development, but a preparation for some of the 
 most, important duties of life, which neither books, schools nor 
 accomplishments can ever furnish. Connected with this improved 
 muscular development, and knowledge of domestic duties, there 
 would be other advantages of great value, such as more perfect 
 health, curtailment in family expenses, and a capability in every 
 respect of fulfilling more satisfactorily those most responsible, but yet 
 happy, relations in life those of wife and mother. Though there is 
 a variety of ways by which exercise can be obtained, yet domestic 
 labor is altogether the most important and best adapted to develop 
 and strengthen the whole system. Within a few years much interest 
 has been awakened upon the subject of physical exercise, particularly as 
 connected with schools and seminaries of learning. Besides the out- 
 door exercise and games, calisthenics and gymnastics have been intro- 
 duced inside the school-room, and are becoming a part of the regular 
 exercises in many institutions. This is an improvement in the right 
 direction is good as far as it goes but is entirely inadequate to 
 meet fully the demands of nature. No kind of exercise for girls is 
 so well calculated as household work to develop all the muscles of the 
 body to do it in early life, and gradually under circumstances 
 favorable to health generally. The girl and young woman must thus 
 be trained year after year, otherwise she will never obtain that hardi- 
 hood of constitution that strength of muscles that power of endur- 
 
27 
 
 ance, or in other words, that balance of temperaments so essential to 
 good health and happiness, in all the social and domestic relations of 
 life. 
 
 To restore the balance in woman of the vital temperament, or 
 the sanguine and lymphatic, is not an easy thing. The power of 
 fashion in dress is almost omnipotent. Judging by the past only, any 
 prospect of much or great improvement in this respect, is rather dis- 
 couraging. Still, ignorance, pride and vanity, must gradually give way 
 to self-interest, to knowledge and sense of duty. There have been-, 
 within a few years, improvements in two respects : with some women 
 there is certainly less compression of the chest, and better protection 
 of the feet. But there is room for still greater improvement in this 
 direction. 
 
 For the proper and healthy development as well as exercise of 
 the lungs and the heart, together with the digestive organs, that 
 pressure upon the chest and abdomen so generally practiced by 
 females, must be removed ; otherwise a due proportion of the vital 
 temperament in woman never can be restored ; otherwise it is abso- 
 lutely impossible for her to maintain a perfectly healthy organization 
 herself or give proper vitality and strength of constitution to her 
 offspring. 
 
 There is another practice in the present style of dress, which is 
 most injurious to female health. We refer to the unequal protection 
 in clothing to different parts of the body that the trunk receives a 
 far greater amount of clothing than the extremities. In the case of 
 girls especially of those fashionably dressed the arms and legs, and 
 sometimes, the upper part of the chest are very slightly protected, 
 compared with the body. This same fact holds good with a great 
 majority of women, particularly in fashionable life. 
 
 What, now, is the effect of this difference in clothing, when 
 considered in view of the sudden changes of weather and the long, 
 cold winters, to which we are exposed ? It violates some of the 
 most important laws of physiology. It tends directly to prevent the 
 natural and healthy circulation of the blood in large portions of the 
 surface of the system, as well as to the hands and feet to the arms 
 and legs. It tends at the same time to retain, not only an undue 
 proportion of blood in the body, but to cause, much of the time, a 
 congested state of this blood in the vital organs, which is well known 
 to medical men to be very productive of disease. With the many 
 sudden changes of heat and cold that exist in our climate, such a 
 style of dressing must produce corresponding changes in the temper- 
 
28 
 
 ature as well as in the circulation of the blood, and interfere also in 
 other respects with the free and natural action of the lungs and the 
 heart. Let such a practice be continued by females for years, and at 
 the most important period in life, too, and its influence must prove 
 most unfavorable to their physical development and health. 
 
 There are two other topics having an immediate bearing upon 
 this change in female organization, which deserve notice here, though 
 not connected so directly with fashion in dress, as in the manner of 
 living one has reference to the heart and the lungs, the other to the 
 organs below the diaphragm. In consequence of the great improve- 
 ments in the construction of dwellings in the introduction of stoves, 
 furnaces, and steam, for heating purposes the air now breathed 
 much of the time in our houses, is not as good as that used fifty or 
 one hundred years ago. The women of our day spend most of their 
 time in-doors, and do not begin to take so much exercise out of doors 
 as our mothers and grandmothers did ; neither do they compare, in 
 this respect, with the women of the best European nations. This 
 change in reference to the laws of ventilation, has had a most injuri- 
 ous effect in the development of the lungs and the heart, as well as 
 upon public health. 
 
 The other topic referred to, and which has had an exceedingly 
 unfavorable effect upon female health, is the very general use of fine 
 flour bread. A great change has occurred between the present and 
 former generations in the use of this article ; and probably nowhere 
 in the world are the finest brands of flour so generally sought and 
 extensively used, as in our country. When such bread becomes the 
 principal article of diet, is consumed warm or newly baked, accom- 
 panied with strong tea or coffee, and with little physical exercise, its 
 general effect is to produce dyspepsia, indigestion and costiveness. 
 It is well known that these are very common complaints among 
 American women ; and, without dwelling upon the pains and evils 
 of dyspepsia, this very general costive habit is productive, in our 
 women, of an untold amount of ill-health and positive disease. 
 Connected with this evil, and partly growing out of it, is the con- 
 stantly increasing practice of depending more and more upon 
 tea and coffee, with high-seasoned and stimulating food, instead of 
 supporting the body with plain, nutritious diet. Within a lew years, 
 there has been a surprising increase among our American people, in 
 the use at the table of condiments and spices, as well as stimulants. 
 For instance, thirty or forty years ago, the cayenne pepper or capsi- 
 cum, was imported into the United States in small quantities, and 
 
29 
 
 used almost exclusively lor medical purposes; but where one bag 
 was then bought, hundreds, if not thousands are now imported, and 
 employed in a variety of forms as condiments for the table. It 
 would seem as though the more stimulating, the more heating and 
 fiery the article was, the better it suited the demands of the modern 
 stomach. In such cases, the mucous membrane of this organ must 
 be kept most of the time in an irritable and inflamed state, similar in < 
 some respects to the effects of alcohol ; and like the use of ardent 
 spirits, the more the stomach has such stimulants, the more it wants 
 them and imperatively demands them. 
 
 Such a course of diet tends directly to develop more and more 
 a nervous temperament, and, on the other hand, such an organization 
 in its very nature, demands and will have these very stimulants. 
 Here we have cause and effect interchanged, so that an abnormal 
 state of the system serves thus to perpetuate itself more and more. 
 This peculiarity in the relation of cause and effect, constitutes a 
 leading obstacle in the way of changing the nervous temperament, 
 or arresting the agencies that are most active in its development. 
 In order to effect a reform, there must be some change in the causes 
 producing this state of things. Education, as it is now conducted, 
 has been one of the most powerful agents in bringing about this 
 predominance of the nervous system in women. The great mis- 
 take has been in the too exclusive cultivation of the brain at the 
 expense of all other parts of the body. Some writers and teachers 
 have urged on female education, and advocated a higher and higher 
 range of studies, without any regard to the physical system ; others 
 have almost spurned the idea that the body was of any account 
 whatever that the mind alone possessed value and required cultiva- 
 tion. Time may prove that what has been, in some respects, our 
 boast and glory, may yet become our shame and curse. Such- is the 
 connection of the body with the mind, that a proper development of 
 the former is indispensible in this world for the highest manifesta- 
 tions of the latter. The law^s that govern the one, are just as much 
 a part of the laws and will of the Creator, as those that govern the 
 other ; and God will not allow these physical laws always to be 
 violated with impunity. If pains and sufferings, weaknesses and ill- 
 health, sickness and premature deaths, are not sufficient admonitions 
 that there are penalties attached to these laws, the gradual diminu- 
 tion and final extinction of the race will demonstrate this great fact. 
 The leading agencies and controlling influences in society are operat- 
 ing powerfully in this direction, and should they continue and in- 
 
30 
 
 crease, as they have for the past fifty or one hundred years, the most 
 surprising changes will take place. 
 
 In no one thing in our community is there so much need of 
 change or reform as in female education. Our girls are now put to 
 school too early are confined in the school-room too many hours 
 have too many different studies, and in their whole course of educa- 
 tion are urged on, in a variety of ways, by motives and appeals alto- 
 gether too stimulating and exciting for their organization. The 
 most intelligent members of the medical profession, and professed 
 teachers themselves, who have carefully considered the subject, have 
 remonstrated over and over, against the present practices. But their 
 exposures, remonstrances, and appeals, have had apparently but little 
 influence. 
 
 If half the time of girls, between the ages of eight and eighteen, 
 was spent in obtaining a thorough knowledge of every department of 
 household duties, or of some suitable trade or business, how vastly 
 better qualified would they be, not only in the most important matter 
 of physical health and sound constitution, but in other desirable 
 preparations, for performing the great duties of life ? As education 
 is now conducted, while it improves the mental faculties and furnishes 
 the mind with stores of knowledge, how generally does this very 
 training serve to increase the misery, the unhappiness, and suffering, 
 of females in all their future life ? It does this by cultivating a, 
 predominance of the nervous temperament, without enough of the 
 muscular and vital to support it by a knowledge of books merely, 
 without any experience in domestic duties or other pursuits in fact, 
 by cultivating the mental faculties to a high degree, without the 
 ability, the means or resources, to gratify them. It may be said, we 
 have plenty of help at our own doors, in the foreign population, and 
 that there is no necessity of our girls and women applying them- 
 selves to the dull routine and drudgery of domestic labor. Thus, 
 our female friends at the South reasoned for several generations, 
 living in comparative indolence, despising labor, devoted to a fash- 
 ionable and extravagant course of life, till now a thorough recon- 
 struction is needed in that portion of society, almost as much as in 
 governmental affairs. If domestic labor is to be given up more and 
 more, if physical exercise continues to be generally neglected by our 
 girls, and this predominance of the nervous system in our women 
 goes on increasing, a worse curse in time, we fear, will overtake us, 
 than ever followed negro slavery. 
 
31 
 
 There is one way in which a reform in this matter may be effect- 
 ed, or at least commenced. Let the true nature and object of mar- 
 riage be better understood, in accordance with natural laws in the 
 physical qualifications and adaptations of parties entering it in 
 a proper knowledge of the duties and responsibilities growing out of 
 this relation. Let the qualities most sought for in marriage, be 
 changed : instead of the slender form, the small waist, the ac- 
 complishments of a fashionable education, the choicest decorations 
 of the person let a well-developed body, good health, a sound con- 
 stitution, a practical knowledge of domestic duties, be the qualities 
 most preferred the indispensable pre-requisites. We should then 
 have an increase of healthy offspring, less discontent in the family, a 
 far less number of divorces, and a more perfect union between the 
 husband and the wife, in all their interests, comforts, and happiness 
 in life. 
 
 It may be said, that this change in the law of human increase, 
 arid other evils, which have here been referred to, are a necessary 
 part of an advancing civilization, and grow, in the nature of things, out 
 of the present artificial state of society ; and that such is their origin, 
 growth and necessity, that no reform or improvement can easily be 
 made. But these have been brought about entirely by human 
 agency principally by a violation of the great laws of life and 
 health. Such evils have never before been found a part of the civil- 
 ization of any race or nation, unless we except the Roman empire. 
 And what is fyere the testimony of history from the highest living 
 authority ? Prof. Seeley, of Oxford University, England, after 
 a most thorough analysis of the real causes of the downfall of 
 the Roman empire, says, in a recent treatise : " The immediate 
 and patent cause of the fall of the empire was, that want of popula- 
 tion which made it impossible to keep up a native army, and which 
 caused a perpetual and insuppressible stream of barbaric immigra- 
 tion." And the want of this population, says he, arose from three 
 causes: "Infanticide," "Aversion to marriage," and "The general 
 reluctance to rear families." This Empire nourished between four 
 and five hundred years, but the evils here enumerated commenced 
 near the close of the second century, increased during the third, 
 and culminated before the expiration of the fourth in the downfall 
 of the nation. Shall the purely native population of our country 
 especially of New England follow in the footsteps of the Roman 
 Empire, and meet with a similar fate ? 
 
Is such the type of our education, our civilization, and Christianity, 
 that these evils must necessarily exist and cannot be remedied ? If 
 our civilization is such as tends to destroy or weaken those two great 
 relations the matrimonial and parental which lie at the foundation 
 of all society, is it not time for some change or reform ? 
 
 It is less than two hundred and fifty years since our Puritan 
 ancestors settled here, and nearly all these evils have sprung up with- 
 in fifty years. The English nation has now been steadily advancing 
 in population and all the elements of civilization for over a thousand 
 years, and never was more prosperous than at the present time. The 
 ancient Greeks, without the gospel the greatest civilizing power 
 ever known could flourish as a people for over two thousand years. 
 A longer career of prosperity and a nobler destiny should await our 
 native American people. Let these evils be exposed and discussed, 
 as they ought to be, in public and in private, in the family circle and 
 on the rostrum, by the pulpit and by the press, and the people will 
 prove not only loyal to government, but obedient to the laws of their 
 own being, as well as those of the Creator. 
 
 NOTE. The above paper, with some slight corrections, is here published, just as pre- 
 sented on the occasion' referred to. At that time it was expected that the Papers read at 
 the Social Science meeting in Chicago would be published in a volume, which has not as 
 yet been done; and this accounts in part for the delay, and manner of the publication of 
 this paper at the present time. X A 
 
 LOWELL, April, 1st 1870. 
 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
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