LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 MRS. MACKINLEY HELM 
 
PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. 
 
 AN untold amount of misery and crime springs from aa 
 Ignorance of the nature and proper hygienic care of the sex- 
 ual function in man. Hitherto there has been no reliable 
 work in the language on this subject, written in a popular 
 style, and with proper motives. This long-felt want is sup- 
 plied in the most complete manner by this volume. Its au- 
 thor is well known as an experienced regular physician and 
 able writer, and his work has been indorsed by some of the 
 most distinguished physicians, divines, and educators in the 
 land. 
 
 The topics which it treats are those about which every 
 man 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 function begins, 
 and gives the rules of health at this time. The author theu 
 passes on to virility, or the period when this function is most 
 vigorous ; describing its signs, the causes that hasten, and 
 those which delay the loss of it, the effects which certain di* 
 
 (i) 
 
ii PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. 
 
 eases, occupations, and exercises have upon it ; the food and 
 drinks which strengthen it, and those which weaken it. The 
 instructions " How it can be prolonged," are especially valu- 
 able to middle-aged and elderly men. The sexual passion is 
 analyzed, and two full chapters given on the drugs which 
 stimulate and those which moderate desire. 
 
 The second part is on the single or celibate life, and con- 
 tains matter which every parent, clergyman, and educator 
 should be conversant with. After speaking of the advan- 
 tages and disadvantages of unmarried life from a medical 
 point of view, the author proceeds to discuss four important 
 questions, chiefly concerning young and unmarried men. 
 These are the solitary vice (self-abuse), spermatorrhoea, 
 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. 
 
 Spermatorrhoea is treated of under the headings " What 
 brings it about ?" " How to prevent it," and " How to 
 cure it." 
 
 The two most frequent secret diseases are described 
 briefly and clearly ; their effects on a man and on his children 
 explained ; means of prevention and treatment are men- 
 tioned, and the very important question answered, " How 
 soon ought a man to marry, who has been diseased ?" 
 
 The chapter on prostitution is written with especial 
 reference to the United States ; the number of fallen women 
 
PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. til 
 
 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 an- 
 swered, and the various plans for their reform are discussed. 
 
 The third part of the book is on the Married Life. Every 
 man, either married or contemplating marriage, 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, 
 Lethargy of the organs ; second, Debility ; third, Impo- 
 tence; and fourth, Sterility. He explains the nature and 
 causes of each of these conditions, and adds the special 
 treatment which they require. 
 
 The next chapter is on the marital relations. Th 
 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 married 
 people are his full and explicit directions hoio to have mah 
 or female child r< // uf ir/'ll. The rules given are strictlj 
 scientific, and are also applicable to domestic animals, stock 
 horses, etc., and will therefore doubly interest most peoplr 
 
iv PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. 
 
 IH the chapter on inheritance the author tells what 
 parents can do to avoid having diseased, deformed, and 
 weak-minded children, and to have those which are hand- 
 some, healthy, and intelligent. 
 
 The subject of nervous disorders originating in the 
 male generative system is one of intense interest, and is 
 treated in a practical manner. 
 
 The chapter entitled " medical views on popular medical 
 Instruction" shows the awakening interest in the profession 
 on the importance of this theme, and the danger to the 
 public of leaving it in the hands of ignorant and unscrupu- 
 lous writers. 
 
 The article on the relation of the sexes in early life is 
 one that should be read by every parent and teacher. 
 
 The discussion on the relation of sex to disease will be 
 found of interest. 
 
 A general summary of the moral relations of the sexes, as 
 set forth in the Bible and by theological writers, closes the 
 work. 
 
 The book will be found thoroughly practical. It is in- 
 tended for self-help, and contains a number of valuable 
 receipts. 
 
THIS WORK is SOLD EXCLUSIVELY BY SUBSCRIPTION. IT CAN 
 
 BE OBTAINED ONLY OF THE CANVASSING AGENTS. 
 
THE 
 
 TRANSMISSION OF LIFE, 
 
 COUNSELS ON THE NATURE AND HYGIENE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MASCULINE FUNCTION. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEOKGE H. NAPHEYS, A.M., M.D., 
 
 OP THI PHILADILPHIA COUNTY MIDICAL SOCIMTY ; CORKXBPONDIKO UEMBKB OF ' 
 B GYNECOLOGICAL SOCIETY or BOSTON ; AUTHOR or " Tux PHYSICAL LIFE OF 
 WOMAN," ' MODES* TUULAPKL'TICS," " LETTERS FBOM EOKOPK," ETC. 
 
 "NOsse omnla hsec salus est adolescentulis." TEHENTIUS. 
 
 (JTbitton. 
 
 WITH THE FINAL CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS OF THE 
 AUTHOR, AND WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 H. C. WATTS GO. 
 
 606, 508 & 510 MINOR ST. 
 1879. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878. 
 BY D. Q. BRINTON, 
 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 
 All rights reserved. 
 
TO THE 
 
 KEV. JOHN TODD, D. D., 
 
 WHOSE EFFORTS, 
 
 DURING A THIRD OF A CENTURY, 
 
 IN ELEVATING THE CHARACTER AND EDUCATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 YOUNG MEN OF OUR COUNTRY, 
 HA VE WON POR HIM AN ENVIABLE FAME, 
 
 IS, WITH PERMISSION, 
 MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 THE opportunities afforded by a professional 
 practice in a large city, as well as information de- 
 rived from many parents and educators, nave led 
 the author of this work to believe that a great 
 amount of suffering and crime would be avoided, did 
 young men and those who have the charge of youth 
 more clearly understand the nature and hygiene of 
 the function of their sex. 
 
 It is in this department of medicine more than 
 in any other that the unscrupulous charlatan finds 
 a congenial field, because here he is favored Iry the 
 general ignorance and the natural diffidence of his 
 victims. Absurd and exaggerated statements have 
 "been forcibly thrust upon the public, not to alia}-, 
 but to excite groundless fears. These it has been 
 the author's aim to dispel. 
 
 On the other hand, real and serious evih result 
 both to the individual and the community from a 
 
 (7) 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 violation of the laws of this as of any other func- 
 tion. They have repeatedly been adverted to by 
 physicians and educators, but, out of a mistaken 
 delicacy, so vaguely that the intended warnings 
 have been of little avail. The author, therefore, 
 has endeavored to write in terms that cannot be 
 misunderstood, and yet that shall not offend by 
 want of refinement. 
 
 Fearing that he might not have accomplished 
 this difficult task, he has submitted the advance 
 sheets of the work to the Rev. John Todd, D. D., 
 the eminent author of " The Student's Manual," 
 the " Index Rerum," and other highly prized works 
 for students ; and to other distinguished educators. 
 Their commendations have encouraged him to be- 
 lieve that his efforts have been successful, and that 
 they will prove of real value to those for whom this 
 book is designed. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION. 
 
 At the time of the decease of the author of this work he 
 had under contemplation a new edition, with various en- 
 largements. Several of the topics he had treated of assumed 
 more importance as a wider experience of life taught him 
 the follies and weaknesses of his fellow men. 
 
 It has been thought best to group these additions in the 
 form of an Appendix, rather than to incorporate them in 
 the body of the book. While this has been done, the text 
 itself has undergone careful examination, and whatever 
 errors noted have been corrected, and general statements 
 altered, where necessary, into accordance with the progress 
 of medical science. 
 
 The very high estimation in which this book has been 
 held by so many of the best authorities in the land, does 
 away with the necessity of any praise of it on the part of 
 the present editor. It is sufficient to point to the testi- 
 monials which accompany the volume, to see its rank and 
 character. 
 
 1878. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF 
 
 GEORGE HENRY NAPHEYS, M.D. 
 
 Were man's life measured by his deeds, as the poet sug- 
 gests, how brief would be the long years of many an octo- 
 genarian, and how extended the short span which has been 
 allotted to not a few of the world's famous heroes ! 
 
 This oft-repeated thought strikes us forcibly in consider- 
 ing the biography of the subject of this sketch. Closing 
 his life at an age when most professional men are but begin- 
 ning theirs, he had already studied broadly, had traveled 
 widely over two continents, had gained credit and fame by 
 the sword and the pen, and had amassed a fund of erudition 
 and experience which the more lethargic lives of most men 
 fail to approach after twice his length of days. It is emi- 
 nently appropriate that a record of his busy career should 
 be attached to the works on which his celebrity is chiefly 
 based, and in which he most conspicuously displays that 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 command of language and happy facility of imparting in- 
 struction for which he was so remarkable. 
 
 GEORGE HENRY NAPHEYS (pronounced Xa'feez, the a as 
 in fate) was born in the city of Philadelphia, March 5th, 
 1 842. His parents died while he was still at a tender age, and 
 he was placed with some relatives who resided in the city. 
 From early years he was characterized by quick perceptions 
 and a retentive memory. In the Philadelphia High School, 
 from which he received the academic degree of Master of 
 Arts, he was considered the best scholar in his class, a 
 marked distinction in view of the large numbers which 
 attend that institution. Besides acquiring the usual studies 
 of the High School, he gave considerable time to phono- 
 graphy, in which he became so skilled that he could report 
 any ordinary speaker with entire accuracy. This subse- 
 quently proved a great advantage to him in his medical 
 career. 
 
 After his graduation he repaired to Hartford, Conn., 
 where he was offered and accepted the position of private 
 secretary to a gentleman of prominence in the literary and 
 religious world. 
 
 Thus he was engaged when the civil war broke out. 
 With his natural warmth of feeling and strong emotions, he 
 entered the fray among the first, and went out as Lieuten- 
 ant, and subsequently as Captain, Company F, 10th Con- 
 necticut State Volunteers. The regiment was enlisted for 
 nine months, and was dispatched to Louisiana, General 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. iii 
 
 Banks then commanding the Department. It participated 
 in engagements near Baton Rouge and on the Red River, 
 in which Captain Xapheys always acquitted himself with 
 bravery and credit. 
 
 At the time the regiment was disbanded, an early prefer- 
 ence for medical subjects led him to devote a yoar to the 
 preliminary studies of that profession, but not waiting the 
 full period required for a degree, he was appointed assistant 
 medical officer on the U. S. steamer Mingo, of the South 
 Atlantic Blockading Squadron. On her he passed a number 
 of months, cruising off the coast of the Carolinas and 
 Georgia, and ascended the St. John river. 
 
 These active duties prevented him from receiving his 
 degree of Doctor of Medicine until after the close of the 
 war, when, in I860, his diploma was conferred upon him 
 by the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, one of the 
 most renowned institutions of our country. 
 
 After graduation, he opened an office in Philadelphia, 
 and connected himself with the clinics which are held at 
 the College for the purpose of supplying medicine and 
 medical advice to the poor gratuitously, as well as for giving 
 students an opportunity of witnessing various forms of dis- 
 ease. The practical experience he gained in this manner 
 was considerable, and his natural ability soon recommended 
 him to the authorities of the institution, who appointed him 
 Chief of Medical Clinic of the College, a position he held 
 
 far several years. 
 2 
 
IV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 One of the advantages of this post was that it brought 
 him into constant communion with many eminent medical 
 men, and rendered him practically acquainted with their 
 treatment of disease. His skill in phonography enabled 
 him to take abundant notes of their lectures, and this led to 
 his early connection with the periodical literature of the 
 profession. Most of the reports he drew up were published 
 in the Medical and Surgical Reporter, a weekly journal, 
 devoted to medical science, published in Philadelphia. The 
 series of reports commenced in April, 1866, and continued, 
 with slight interruptions, until June, 1870. They are 
 characterized by a clear and correct style, and a manifestly 
 thorough grasp of the numerous topics treated. 
 
 The success which these ephemeral writings obtained 
 turned his thoughts in the direction of authorship. His 
 tastes and associations led him to employ his powers in two 
 directions : first, in preparing for the general public a series 
 of works which would acquaint them with anatomy, physi- 
 ology, hygiene, sanitary science, nursing, and the manage- 
 ment of disease, to the extent that intelligent general readers 
 can and ought to know about these subjects ; and secondly, 
 in writing for professional men several treatises on the 
 means of alleviating and curing diseases. 
 
 In the prosecution of the first mentioned of these plans, 
 he was early impressed with the utter absence of any trea- 
 tise on the hygiene of the sexual life in either sex, written 
 in the proper spirit by a scientific man. The field had been 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. V 
 
 left to quacks or worse, who, to serve their own base ends, 
 scattered inflammatory and often indecent pamphlets over 
 the land ; or else, had one or more of the points been handled 
 by reputable writers, it was in such a vague and imperfect 
 manner that the reader gained little benefit from the perusal. 
 While all agreed that a sound treatise on these topics was 
 most desirable, it had been openly averred that it could not 
 be written in a proper style for the general public. 
 
 Strong in the conviction that pure motives, literary tact, 
 and the requisite scientific knowledge qualified him to un- 
 dertake this difficult task, Dr. Napheys prepared, in the 
 early months of 18G9, his work en " The Physical Life oi 
 Woman." Proceeding with caution, he first submitted the 
 MSS. to some professional friends, and profited by their 
 stions. After the work was in type, and before pub- 
 lication, he sent complete copies to a number of gentlemen, 
 eminent as medical teachers, clergymen, educators, and liter- 
 ateurs. Their replies left him in no doubt but that he had 
 succeeded even beyond his anticipations. Almost unani- 
 mously the opinions were complimentary in the highest 
 degree, and evidently written after a close examination of 
 the book. As many of these have been printed to accom- 
 pany the work, in the last and previous editions, it is need- 
 les.s to do more in this connection than to say that they were 
 penned by such judges as Dr. W. A. Hammond, late Sur- 
 geon-General U. S. Army ; Dr. Harvey L. Byrd, Professor 
 in the Medical Department of Washington University, Md.; 
 
Vl BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 Dr. Edwin M. Snow, Health Officer of the City of Provi- 
 dence, R. I.; Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Rev. Horace 
 Bushnell, D.D., Rev. George A. Crooke, D.D., D.C.L., and 
 others. 
 
 On its appearance, the work was received with enthusi- 
 asm by both the medical press and the public. While a 
 few journals and individuals were inclined to condemn it 
 and censure the author, the intelligent and the pure-minded, 
 on all sides, recognized in him the only writer who had yet 
 appeared able to treat these delicate subjects with the dig- 
 nity of science and the straightforwardness necessary for 
 popular instruction. 
 
 Satisfied that he had chosen the proper exercise for his 
 talents, he composed and placed in the hands of his pub- 
 lisher, the following year, his not less extraordinary work, 
 " The Transmission of Life," a treatise addressed to the 
 male, as his previous one had been to the female sex. It 
 was dedicated to the late Rev. John Todd, so well known 
 for his interest in young men, and his " Student's Manual " 
 and other works addressed to them. He accepted the dedi- 
 cation and addressed the author a letter, in which occurs the 
 following high compliment to his work : " I am surprised 
 at the extent and accuracy of your reading ; the judicious- 
 ness of your positions and results ; the clear, unequivocal, 
 yet delicate and appropriate language used ; and the amount 
 of valuable information conveyed." Similar expressions 
 poured in from many other distinguished critics, as, for in- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. vli 
 
 stance, Dr. Noah Porter, President of Yale College ; the 
 Rev. Henry Clay Trumbull, the Rev. Abner Jackson, Pre- 
 sident of Trinity College, Hartford, etc. 
 
 In the same year (1870) he brought out the first edition 
 of his " Modern Therapeutics," a technical work, addressed 
 to physicians. This was enlarged in successive editions, 
 until in its present form, as continued by other hands in its 
 latest editions, it comprises two parts of 600 pages each. 
 Although the author claimed little other originality in this 
 work than the selection and arrangement of known facts, 
 yet in these respects he displayed the strongly practical and 
 original turn of his mind. As a student of the art of Thera- 
 peutics in large hospitals, clinics, and dispensaries, he had 
 convinced himself that it is not by experiments on lower 
 animals, nor yet on the human body in health, that the 
 physician can attain the glorious power of alleviating pain 
 and curing disease ; it is only through the daily combat 
 with sickness, by the bedside and in the consulting room. 
 Chemistry and physiology, he believed, could teach but 
 little in this branch ; observation and experience everything. 
 Hence, in his work on Therapeutics he announced himself 
 as " aiming at a systematic analysis of all current and ap- 
 proved means of combating disease," selecting his formulae 
 and therapeutical directions from the most eminent living 
 physicians of all nations. 
 
 This work was most favorably received by medical men ; 
 
 and, edited and revised by competent hands, continues to be 
 A 
 
VlU BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 regarded as one of the most valuable works in American 
 medical literature. The unanimous opinion of the leading 
 medical journals, as well as of its numerous purchasers, have 
 testified to its real and great worth to the practitioner of 
 medicine. 
 
 Having thus established a wide, popular and professional 
 reputation, one which would have guaranteed him a lucra- 
 tive practice, it would have tempted another, no doubt, to 
 make the most of this opportunity, so rarely granted a young 
 physician. Not so was it with Dr. Napheys. No sooner 
 had the three works mentioned been completed than he 
 sailed for Europe, in order to familiarize himself with the 
 famed schools of learning of the Old World and its rich 
 stores of material for culture. The summer was that of the 
 Franco-German war ; and spending most of it in Paris, he 
 was witness of several of the most exciting scenes which 
 attended the dethronement of the Emperor. These he 
 would describe afterwards with a vividness and power of 
 language rarely excelled. 
 
 The excitement of the period did not, however, withdraw 
 his attention from the studies he had in view. These were 
 partially indicated in a series of letters he contributed to 
 various periodicals during his absence. While these letters 
 were principally of a scientific character, it is noteworthy 
 how the relations of medicine to the welfare of man always 
 occupied his attention. Thus we find, in one sent from 
 England, June, 1870, a description of the Liverpool Medi- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. IX 
 
 cal Missionary Society, a charity which combines religious 
 instruction with medical advice ; and again, he comments 
 on the popular instruction in hygiene which was supplied 
 at that period to the English workingmen by a committee 
 of competent physicians, organized for that purpose. It 
 was the author's purpose to collect and expand these letters 
 into a volume, but the project was not carried out. 
 
 The siege of Paris, which city he left in one of the last 
 trains before the blockade commenced, and the prolongation 
 of the war, induced him to return home. In the United 
 States he found offers from several publishers awaiting him, 
 which would more than occupy him for a full year. There 
 was a new edition -of his ' : Therapeutics " demanded, and a 
 revision of both " The Physical Life of Woman " and " The 
 Transmission of Life." A New England firm urgently 
 pressed him to superintend the production of several hy- 
 gienic works, and secured him as literary adviser to their 
 house. He assumed the editorship of the " Half- Yearly 
 Compendium of Medical Science," and also of a " Physi- 
 cian's Annual," besides undertaking a number of articles 
 for the periodical press, both scientific and popular. 
 
 To this active literary life he devoted the year 1871; 
 but at its close felt more strongly than ever that he must 
 give himself several years of studious quiet, in order 
 to accomplish his best. Refusing, therefore, any further 
 engagements, he sailed for Europe again, late in 1871, and 
 did not return this time until the spring of 1875. ID chia 
 
X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 period, of more than three years, he visited almost all the 
 principal cities of Europe, and enjoyed the friendship of 
 many eminent men at London, St. Petersburg, Vienna, and 
 Paris. Reading, visiting hospitals, and attending clinics, 
 he accumulated a mass of material which he designed to 
 work up into future literary enterprises. 
 
 With these collected stores he returned to the United 
 States early in 1875, and set to work with his wonted en- 
 ergy. A new and much enlarged edition of the " Thera- 
 peutics" was sent to press ; a " Handbook of Popular Medi- 
 cine," designed to give, in simple language, the domestic 
 treatment of disease, the rules for nursing the sick, selected 
 receipts for diet and medicinal purposes, and the outlines of 
 anatomy and physiology, was put in the hands of a pub- 
 lisher ; a Synopsis of Pharmacy and Materia Medica, a work 
 of enormous labor, was well under way ; and other literary 
 projects were actively planned ; when, suddenly, the sum- 
 mons came which, in an instant, with the shears of fate, slit 
 the strand of this activity. The rest of the story may be 
 told in the words of the biographer appointed by the Medi- 
 cal Society of the County of Philadelphia to prepare a me- 
 moir of his life : 
 
 " While earnestly laboring to prepare for the press his 
 literary collections, he suffered a severe blow by the sudden 
 death of a person to whom he was deeply attached. Over- 
 work and this emotional shock produced a result likely 
 enough to occur in one of his ardent temperament. One 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. Xi 
 
 afternoon, while engaged in writing, he fell, unconscious, 
 from his chair, and for several days lay in a very critical 
 condition. On recovering his powers, it was evident his 
 brain had suffered a serious lesion. The old energy and 
 love of labor had completely gone ; even the capacity for 
 work seemed absent. Marked melancholy followed, charac- 
 terized before long by avoidance of friends and the loss of a 
 desire of life. This occurred with increasing force until it 
 led to his death, on July 1, 1876, through some toxic agent, 
 the nature of which was not ascertained. 
 
 " Thus early, and thus sadly, terminated a career of un- 
 usual brilliancy and promise. 
 
 "It is probable that much that he has written will be 
 read with pleasure and instruction by future generations ; 
 and the memory of his genial disposition, his entertaining 
 conversation, and earnest sense of professional honor, will 
 long be cherished by those of his contemporaries who en- 
 joyed his friendship." Transactions of the Medical Society 
 of the State of Pennsylvania, vol. xi, p. 720. 
 
 Various tributes were paid to his memory by the societies 
 with which he was connected, and by the scientific journals 
 to which he had been a contributor. One of these, after 
 narrating some of the circumstances attending his decease, 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 " Thus did our unfortunate associate close his short but 
 brilliant career. The emotions, the tender sentiments he 
 has described with such a magical pen, he felt himself with 
 
Xll BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 an unmatched keenness. They mastered his whole frame 
 with an intensity surpassing all romance. His descriptions 
 of the passions, descriptions which have been the wonder of 
 thousands, such is their fire and temper, were not rheto- 
 rical studies, but the ebullition of a soul sensitive to their 
 lightest breath, and not shunning their wildest tempests. 
 
 " The genius which dictated the lines he has left us is 
 not to be judged by the conventionalities which suit the cold 
 temperaments of ordinary men ; there is a strong vein of 
 egotism in most devotion ; but here was one who felt, ' all 
 is lost, when love is lost.' " 
 
 This extract well sets forth the extraordinary depth of 
 his sentiments, and the fervor of his feelings. It may be 
 added that these mental traits were not generally ascribed 
 to him by casual or ordinary associates. He was, in man- 
 ners and bearing, evidently not one who sought friendships 
 or displayed to the general gaza the current of his thoughts. 
 Consequently, of intimates he had but few, and was consid- 
 ered by those whose intercourse with him was superficial, 
 to be much more of an intellectual than of an emotional type 
 of character. 
 
 This impression was doubtless increased by the strongly 
 practical turn of his mind, which is conspicuous in all his 
 works. He was the reverse of a dreamer and had little pa- 
 tience with theorists. In his professional study he always 
 aimed at bringing into the strongest light the utilitarian 
 aspect of medicine, its ameliorating power on humanity, ite 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. Xlll 
 
 real efficacy in preserving or restoring health and limiting 
 human misery. On this his theory of therapeutics was 
 based, and, inspired by the same opinions, he was one of the 
 most earnest advocates of the day of popularizing medical 
 science in all its branches among the masses. In this effort 
 he was at times severely criticised by that class of physicians 
 and they are by no means extinct who think that medi- 
 cine should be wrapped in mystery, and that the people 
 should be kept in ignorance of themselves and of their own 
 physical frailties, to the utmost possible extent. With these 
 learned obscurantists Dr. Napheys had no patience, and 
 naturally found but slight favor. Fortunately, they were 
 in the decided minority, and, we are happy to add, even that 
 minority is daily decVeasing. 
 
 Of the various learned societies to which he was attached 
 may be mentioned the Philadelphia County Medical Society, 
 the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, and the Gynecologi- 
 cal Society of Boston. His election as Corresponding 
 Member to the latter body (which is an association of 
 scientific men who make an especial study of the hygiene 
 and diseases of women) took place shortly after the first 
 publication of the Physical Life of Woman, and was meant 
 as a direct tribute of respect to him as the author of that 
 work, thus obtaining for it the testimony of the highest body 
 in that specialty then existing in our land. 
 
 The general plan on which Dr. Napheys prepared his 
 sanitary writings was one eminently calculated to reconcile 
 
XIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 those who were most opposed to instructing the general 
 public in such branches. While he confidently believed 
 that vastly more harm than good is done by a prudish con- 
 cealment of the physiology of sex and its relations to health, 
 he also clearly recognized that such instruction should be 
 imparted at the proper age and under certain limitations ; 
 while the general facts common to the species cannot be 
 taught too generally, or made too familiar. Hence, he pro- 
 jected three books, one to be placed in the hands of young 
 women, a second for youths, and a third for a general house- 
 hold book of reading and reference on medicine and hygiene. 
 These three he completed in " The Physical Life of Wo- 
 man," " The Transmission of Life," and the " Handbook 
 of Popular Medicine." 
 
 This plan, he believed, met all the objections to popular 
 medical instruction, at least all well-grounded objections, 
 while at the same time it did away with any necessity for 
 concealing truths important to be known, for fear they should 
 come to the knowledge of those for whom they were not 
 designed, and on whose minds they might have a disturbing 
 tendency. 
 
 There can be no doubt but that both the plan and its 
 execution were successful. The many letters he received, 
 filled with thanks from private parties who had gained ines- 
 timable knowledge from these works, made rich compensa- 
 tion for the occasional severe strictures he received from 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. XV 
 
 those wedded to ancient ways, and who often condemned 
 without even reading his works. 
 
 The intelligent reading public, on whom, after all, the 
 writer must depend for a verdict on his works, were unani- 
 mous in his favor. They bought them in quantities, and the 
 writer of his life in the Transactions of the Pennsylvania 
 State Medical Society, above quoted, who wrote in 1877, 
 estimates that by that time over a quarter of a million copies 
 had been printed and sold. Translations were made into 
 the German, and several editions pirated and printed in 
 Canada and England. In fact, the works may now be con- 
 sidered to rank as classics in the language, and many years 
 must go by before another such series can be written, on 
 topics of this nature, with equal delicacy of touch and accu- 
 racy of knowledge. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DEDICATION ,...... 5 
 
 PREFACE . . . T 
 
 Introductory ... 1314 
 
 PART I. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 
 MANHOOD. 
 
 The Physical Traits of the Male 1518 
 
 Man's specific function. 
 
 Puberty 1931 
 
 What it is The hygiene of puberty What is passion? 
 The man unsezed. 
 
 Virility 32 CO 
 
 Signs of established virility Hygiene of virility The 
 decay of virility Causes that hasten the loss of virility 
 Diseases which shorten virility Effects of occupa- 
 tions on J exercises llow to retain virility in nge The 
 food and drinks which strengthen virility The food 
 and drinks which weaken virility Drugs which stimu- 
 late desire Drugs which moderate desire Our na- 
 tional tendency to premature loss of virility Relation 
 of the sexual to the other functions. 
 
 (9) 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART II. THE CELIBATE LIFE. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 The Advantages of Celibacy 6167 
 
 Proper reasons for celibacy 
 
 Hie Disadvantages of Celibacy . . . . . 67 70 
 
 The Solitary Vice 7183 
 
 Its consequences Its prevention Its cure. 
 
 Spermatorrhoea . 84 93 
 
 What brings it about How to prevent it How to 
 cure it. 
 
 Secret Diseases 94109 
 
 Their effects and frequency Their nature and history 
 The course and consequences of secret diseases 
 " Syphilophobia" The sin of the father visited on 
 the children How soon can a man, once diseased, 
 marry? How to prevent these diseases Personal 
 means of prevention. 
 
 The Social Evil 110129 
 
 Prostitution in the United States Its effects on the wo- 
 man Its consequences to the man The causes that 
 maintain it Is it a necessary evil ? How can it be 
 stopped ? Shall it be regulated by law ? 
 
 PART III. THE MARRIED LIFE. 
 
 Che Preliminaries of Marriage 131143 
 
 The meaning of marriage Physical fitness and unfit- 
 ness for marriage The choice of a wife Marrying 
 cousins Long engagements The male flirt The 
 paramount duty of fidelity. 
 
CONTENTS. 1 1 
 
 PAGES 
 
 The Consummation of Marriage 144 170 
 
 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 . .... 171183 
 
 The hygiene of the chamber Of marital relations The 
 dangers of excess What is excess ? 
 
 The Husband as a Father 184200 
 
 The nature of conception The avoidance and limita- 
 tion of offspring Criminal abortion On the produc- 
 tion of the sexes at will. 
 
 Inheritance 201231 
 
 AVhat fathers bequeath children The physical qualities 
 we inherit How o avoid having diseased and de- 
 formed children The laws of inheritance in 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? Why chil- 
 dren do not more closely resemble parents The in- 
 fluence of race. 
 
 PART IV. NERVOUS DISORDERS ORIGINATING 
 IX THE MALE GENERATIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 Diseases of the Nervous System 233 258 
 
 Their frequency One of the causes of partial paralysis ; 
 of hip disease; of chronic bronchitis; of epilepsy ; 
 of wasting; of nervous prostration ; of disorders of 
 eight and hearing ; of indigestion The prospects of 
 euro in nervous affections The means of cure. 
 
 3 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 The Physical Type of Manhood 257260 
 
 Medical Views on Popular Medical Instruction . 261274 
 The Relation of the Sexes in Early Youth . . . 275288 
 
 The Relation of Sex to Disease 289 302 
 
 The Moral Relations of the Sexual Life . . . 303322 
 
 Conclusion 323326 
 
 Appendix. <*... 327346 
 
THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 IT is time that science, renouncing a reticence which long 
 experience has proved pernicious, should explain and apply 
 to the public good the hygienic laws which pertain to that 
 instinct which, beyond all others, controls the destinies of 
 men for good or for evil ; we mean the instinct of procrea- 
 tion, the faculty of the transmission of life. The physiolo- 
 gical importance of this 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 im- 
 prints which consign them to happiness or misery, health or 
 disease. Add to this consideration the fact that the purest 
 joys of life, those which centre around the family circle, and 
 also the most flagrant stains on our civilization, those which 
 parade our streets in shameless attire, and those which poison 
 the purity of youth with vicious narrative, alike spring from 
 the same impulse ; 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 consequences 
 
 (13) 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to the individual of the intelligent observation or the igno- 
 rant violation of the laws of this instinct. 
 
 No one whose avocation does not lead him within the most 
 secret chambers of the human heart can conceive one tithe 
 of the anguish which arises from a want of knowledge on 
 this subject. For with this want of knowledge is associated 
 want of power to resist the evil and to cleave to the good. 
 
 Regarding it in its multiplied and intimate relations to the 
 life of man here and hereafter, we do not hesitate to say that 
 no branch of sanitary science surpasses this in importance, 
 and we may also add no branch has been so much neglected 
 and so much misunderstood. 
 
 The matter is of course difficult to treat ; it has rarely been 
 ventured upon except by those who batten on the wretched- 
 ness of their fellow-men, and therefore we well know there 
 may be a prejudice against one who undertakes the task of 
 discussing it with candor. Only after considerable hesita- 
 tion have we concluded to encounter this prejudice, trusting 
 that the manner in which we shall accomplish our labor, the 
 value of the counsels we have to communicate, and the solid 
 information we hope 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 testimony from the writ- 
 ings of those most interested in the amelioration of the race, 
 and its progress in moral and social directions, to show the 
 necessity long felt of a work of this nature. But we believe 
 no person of intelligence can harbor a doubt upon this point, 
 end it only remains for us to submit to them the present trea- 
 tise, and ask for it an unprejudiced examination. 
 
PART I. 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MANHOOD! 
 
 THE PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE MALE. 
 
 THE distinction of sex is no after-thought, no hap-hazard 
 accident in the formation of the individual, but commences 
 with the very beginning of life. " Male and female created 
 He them," says the inspired Word, and the patient investi- 
 gator with microscope and scalpel fails to discover any other 
 cause of sex than the imprint fixed by the Creator upon the 
 individual at the moment of conception. There is nothing 
 in the development of the human germ which decides whether 
 it shall be male or female. 
 
 As it is the earliest, so sex is also the most potent of all 
 elements in the individual life. From infancy to age it con- 
 trols and modifies all other traits. Does any one imagine 
 that boys and girls are at any time physically alike ? Error, 
 no matter how tender in years, the distinctions are numerous 
 and marked. Even at birth itself, this is true. Physicians 
 have carefully weighed and measured hundreds of new-born 
 infants, and have established the following curious and in- 
 teresting facts: Male children at birth weigh on an average 
 one pound more than females, their stature is four-tenths 
 
 (15) 
 
16 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 of an inch greater, their pulse is a few beats in the minute 
 faster. 
 
 As the boy grows, he develops unlike his sister. His mus- 
 cular force becomes one-third greater than hers; his flesh is 
 firmer and his bones larger; his collar-bone becomes more 
 curved so that he can hurl a stone or swing a club better 
 than she can ; his hips are narrow, while hers are broad, and 
 thus he can run faster and more gracefully ; he grows more 
 rapidly, and he seeks the rude exercises which she shuns. 
 All these traits presage his destiny to wage the rougher 
 battles of life, and fit him to meet the buffets of untoward 
 fortune with courage and endurance. 
 
 Some figures may here be found of interest. The French 
 statistician Quetelet, who has devoted more attention to this 
 subject than any other writer, gives the average 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 Ame- 
 ricans appear to be between the English and French in 
 height, but heavier than either in proportion to their stature* 
 
MORTALITY OF MALES. IT 
 
 The average 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 sturdier form, the 
 vitality of the male would be greater than the female, his 
 average life longer, his greatest age greater. It is not so. 
 This law of population holds good in every country of which 
 we have any statistics : About five per cent, more male than 
 female children are born, but at five years of age more girls 
 are alive than boys. Again, at every period of life, the ''ex- 
 pectation 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 at 
 the age of ninety years there were three women to two men, 
 and at the age of one hundred the number of women was 
 more than sixteen times the number of men! 
 
 The characteristics of infancy, such as the delicate skin, 
 the fragile bones, the rounded outline, the abundance of 
 fatty tissue, are preserved in the female more generally than 
 the male sex. It is far more accurate to say the child is 
 mother to the woman than father to the man. 
 
 Man's Specific Function. 
 
 All these deep-seated differences, the whole great fact of 
 sexuality with its infinite bearings on the social, the physical, 
 and the moral life of man, look to the accomplishment of one 
 purpose, to the performance of one function. That purpose, 
 that function, is the reproduction of the species, the TRANS- 
 MISSION OF LIFE. Around this central, mysterious power are 
 grouped all other faculties and aspirations. It is the strong- 
 
18 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 est of 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 
 physical existence. The botanist can tell of plants rooted 
 in such exposed and barren soils that no nourishment is 
 afforded for leaves or fronds ; but the flower and the seeds 
 mature ; the zoologist has strange stories to relate of the 
 males of lower forms of animal life, who, when they have 
 once completed the act of reproduction, straightway wither 
 and die, as if this alone was the purpose of their creation. 
 
 The instinct of self-preservation itself in unnumbered in- 
 stances has disappeared before the tyrannical demands of 
 sexual love. There is an impulse in organic beings which 
 they feel to be of greater moment than all else, weighed 
 against which life itself is a feather in the balance, the scope 
 of which is not bounded by the confines of the individual, 
 but stretches into eternity and to the limits of all things. 
 This impulse is the perpetuation of their kind once more 
 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. It is something apart from all 
 else in nature. Contemplating it with the inspired eye of 
 genius, Bichat, the profoundest of modern physiologists, 
 speaks of it as a phenomenon which science must study by 
 itself, unconnected with the other functions of the individual. 
 Eegarding 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 mainspring with. 
 in us all, is the sexual desire, with the domestic relations 
 which rest upon it. It is stronger in its influence, controls 
 more men, causes the commission of more crimes and more 
 good deeds, than any other impulse." How vitally import- 
 ant is it, therefore, how intimately does it concern the weal 
 of our nation, to understand its nature and its laws, its gov- 
 ernment, its dangers, its regulation ! In what direction can 
 we with greater propriety extend the domain of hygiene ? 
 
PUBERTY. 
 
 What it is. 
 
 AT a certain period in the life of the youth he undergoes 
 a chainre by which he acquires powers, which qualify him to 
 take part in the perpetuation of his kind. This change ia 
 the period of PUBERTY. It is distinguished by a number of 
 physical alterations, the most significant of which is the 
 secretion of a fecundating fluid. 
 
 Yet we must not be understood to say that this is a prompt 
 or sudden change. On the contrary, it is slow, extending 
 over many years, attended by a completion of growth and a 
 ripening 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 cannot too earnestly impress on all 
 the truth of this fact. Through ignorance of it, or neglect 
 of it, untold misery is constantly brought upon the young, 
 and the race itself shows the sad results of an infraction of 
 this rule. Let us 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 skin be- 
 comes coarser and less delicate, the musc-les firmer and more 
 distinctly marked, the voice loses its childish treble, the vocal 
 apparatus enlarges and emits a harsher sound, the bones 
 
20 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 harden, the " wisdom teeth" appear, various parts of the 
 body become covered with a soft down which gradually be- 
 comes rougher and thicker, and those organs peculiar to his 
 sex enlarge. 
 
 Not less remarkable are the mental changes. Unwonted 
 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 shame- 
 facedness in circumstances where he had ever been at easa, a 
 Restlessness, and a wilfulness, indicate 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 understand were they explained to him, yet 
 which will imperil all his future life and all his other facul- 
 ties, are around him. 
 
 The proper age at which puberty should come varies from 
 twelve to eighteen years, as it is influenced by many sur- 
 rounding conditions. One of the most important of these is 
 climate. Travelers have frequently observed that in tro- 
 pical countries both the sexes arrive at maturity 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 injurious influence on the off- 
 spring which is almost constantly observed in temperate cli- 
 mates from premature unions. 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 fifteen and sixteen who are 
 already fathers. And what is even more singular, this pre- 
 cocity does not appear to react on the constitution, but 
 according to the observations of an English surgeon during 
 the Abyssinian campaign, the masculine functions are re- 
 tained with exceptional vigor to very advanced years. 
 
 In Lapland, Northern Russia, and Siberia the young men 
 
WHAT HASTENS PUBERTY. 21 
 
 reach the age of eighteen and nineteen years, before their 
 sluggish constitutions undergo the changes incident to 
 puberty, and even then it is rare that their passions are 
 violent or long retained. 
 
 Jn our own country, the usual and healthy age of puberty 
 is from fourteen to fifteen years, varying a year or two more 
 or less as influenced by circumstances which we shall pro- 
 ceed to mention. One of these is hereditary tendency. This 
 is constantly observed as hastening or retarding 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 of 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 
 Temperaments. 
 
 Occupation and habits have also much to do in the mat- 
 ter. As a general rule, the more vigorous, the more addicted 
 to athletic exercise, the more accustomed to out-door life, 
 and to active pursuits, the slower will be this change in 
 approaching. This statement may be unexpected to many ; 
 they may think that vigorous health is precisely what nature 
 would wish to assist her to complete this profound and mys- 
 terious transformation in the constitution. To all such we 
 have to tell of a law sanctioned by the researches of all 
 physiologists, proven by the daily experience of the physi- 
 cian, and which we shall have occasion hereafter to refer to fre- 
 quently, for it contains the solution of many a vexed physical 
 and social problem. This law teaches that there is a con- 
 slant and a direct antagonism between the highest perfection 
 of the individual and the exercise of the masculine function ; 
 
22 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 or, to quote the words of one of the most eminent writers 
 on physiology, Dr. Carpenter, " The Development of the 
 Individual and the Eeproduction of the Species stand in an 
 inverse ratio to each other." 
 
 The constitution, by which we mean the mass of morbid 
 or healthy tendencies inherited from parents, consequently 
 has very considerable weight in determining the time at which 
 the change will take place. In accordance with the physio- 
 logical law just quoted, it is very generally found that boys 
 with weak, nervous, debilitated constitutions are apt to be 
 precocious ; and those gifted by their Darents with sturdy 
 limbs and a powerful frame rcmuin 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 sexual in- 
 stinct. It will surely come soon enough, and the danger 
 only, is that it will come too soon. 
 
 There are, indeed, instances of precocity, apparently with- 
 out entailing debility or disease, which are not readily ex- 
 plained. 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 
 
IGNORANCE NO BENEFIT. 23 
 
 pleasures, with their so frequeut and terrible penalties. The 
 less, indeed, that the boy and the youth think about, or in 
 any way have their attention directed to the sexual distinc- 
 tions, the better. Does it follow from this that it is the 
 duty of parents and teachers sedulously and wholly to refrain 
 from warning them, or giving instructions of a private 
 nature ? This important question has been frequently dis- 
 cussed, and there are now, as there always have been, men 
 of influence who answer it in the affirmative. But it is also 
 worth remarking that without an exception those medical 
 authors who have given most constant and earnest attention 
 to the diseases and disorders which arise from the prevailing 
 ignorance in such matters, are earnest and emphatic in their 
 recommendations to educators and to parents to give sound 
 advice to boys, and to urge upon them the observance of 
 certain precautions, which tend to remove premature excite- 
 ments. 
 
 It is one of the most important duties of those who have 
 charge of youths to see that neither by ignorance nor urged 
 by opportunity or intellectual stimulants, they forestall na- 
 ture's own good time. Most inexcusable is the false modesty 
 which, on the ground of fear lest indecorous thoughts should 
 be awakened, serves as the plea for wholly neglecting this 
 vital department of sanitary supervision. Not unfrequcntly 
 some physical ailment, some local irritation leads to an 
 afflux of blood to the parts, which prompts the boy to 
 thoughts and deeds far more 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 prevent un- 
 natural precocity, and to avoid the necessity of repetition 
 hereafter, we add that these same regulations, altered more 
 or less to suit circumstances, are of the utmost value after 
 
24 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 puberty is established, to escape unnecessary sexual excite, 
 ment, 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 potent of all means to this end is muscular de- 
 velopment. Systematic, daily, regulated exercise, pushed 
 to the verge of fatigue, and varied so as to keep up the 
 interest of the pupil, cannot be too much insisted upon. 
 This alone is worth all other precautions, and is almost in- 
 dispensable. Now that most large schools have gymnasiums 
 attached, and especially as light gymnastics have been so 
 widely introduced, and can be put in practice at such small 
 expense, there is no excuse for neglecting this precept. 
 Parents will do well to decline sending their boys to any 
 institution which has no provisions for physical culture. 
 
 Cleanliness is next to be mentioned. It were an excellent 
 arrangement for 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 arise 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 idea of. But I have never heard of any steps ever 
 having been taken by those having the care of youth to in- 
 duce boys to adopt proper habits of cleanliness 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 any cases 
 where there is the least sign of irritation from this cause." 
 
THE HYGIENE OP SCHOOLS. 25 
 
 " One of the common causes of premature excitement, even 
 as early as infancy," says .Mr. W. F. Teevan, a writer in a 
 recent number of the British Medical Journal (May, 1870), 
 " is a tight foreskin. It is a cause of much evil, and it ought 
 always to be remedied." This can generally be accomplished 
 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 respect extremely salutary, and 
 some physicians have recommended its general adoption, no 
 longer on religious but on hygienic grounds. At any rate 
 the above advice from so eminent a quarter is deserving the 
 highest respect, and may, with proper caution, be carried out 
 where the observant guardian considers it applicable. 
 
 Avoidance of irritation from any cause is always essential. 
 It may arise from ill-fitting drawers or pants, or from an un- 
 comfortable seat, or from constipation of the bowels, or from 
 an unhealthy condition of the urine or bladder, from 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 preterable. Certain varieties of skin diseases 
 of a chronic character are attended by zuc(: a degree of heat 
 and itching that the child is led involuntarily to scratch and 
 rub the affected part. Whenever they attack the inside of 
 the thighs or lower part of the abdomen, they should receive 
 prompt and efficient treatment. 
 
 The dormitory regulations should invariably be of a 
 character to promote modesty. Never should two or three 
 boys be allowed to sleep in the same bed, and it were more 
 prudent to assign each a separate chamber. They should 
 be encouraged by precept and example to avoid needless 
 exposure of the person and indecorous gestures. The bods 
 should be tolerably hard, mattresses of hair or with springs 
 
26 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 being greatly preferable to those of feathers, cotton, or sponge. 
 These latter are heating, and, therefore, objectionable. The 
 bed clothing should be light, thick comfortables being avoided 
 and the chambers should be cool and well ventilated. Every 
 boy should be required before retiring to empty the bladder, 
 as the presence of much fluid in that organ acts as a source 
 c irritation on the surrounding parts. When a boy wets 
 his bed during sleep, it may be taken as evidence that he 
 either neglects this duty, or else that there is some local irri- 
 tation present which requires medical attention. Sleepicj 
 on the back should be warned against, as this is one of tiie 
 known causes of nocturnal excitement and emissions. 
 
 Fortunately, the prevalence of flogging as a punisbt.ent 
 is by no means what it once was. "We say fortunately, for 
 through ignorance of physiological laws this method of dis- 
 cipline was calculated to stimulate precisely what it was 
 intended to check. It is well known that switching across 
 the seat is one of the most powerful excitants of the reflex 
 nerves of the part, and is resorted to by depraved and worn- 
 out debauchees for that very purpose. How unwise, how 
 reprehensible, therefore, to employ it on the persons of boys, 
 in whom such a stimulant is most dangerous. Readers of 
 French literature may remember an instructive example in 
 the Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau, where that de- 
 praved and eccentric, though gifted man, acknowledges to 
 tave rather enjoyed than otherwise the floggings he received 
 when at school. 
 
 Equally important as these physical regulations is it that 
 the boy should be assiduously trained to look with disgust 
 and abhorrence on whatever is indecent in word or action. 
 Let him be taught a sense of shame, that modesty is manly 
 and honorable, and that immodesty is base and dishonorable. 
 Establish in a school a high and pure tone of feeling ii? I-P- 
 
THE NATURE OF PASSION. 27 
 
 .". to P'.ich matters. It can be accomplished by a skilful 
 master more easily than one might suppose. Let some of 
 the older and abler pupils have explained to them its neces- 
 sity. and the risks and evils of an opposite course, and they 
 can rciidny lie enlisted on the side of purity and health. 
 
 Nor should it be overlooked that the mental food presented 
 t<> the boy inay serve to evoke dangerous meditations. Many 
 passages in the classics, many of the fables of mythology, 
 much of the poetry, and the prose of modern and especially 
 French writer*, contain insinuations and erotic pictures, seduc- 
 tive and hazardous to the eager and impressible mind of boy- 
 hood. 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 deli- 
 neations of the poexs ; but what is meat for the strong man 
 may be poison to t'ue child. 
 
 What is Passion? 
 
 All these precautions are to what end ? To avoid exciting 
 the passion of sex. It is weii to hold this clearly in view ; 
 and it is also well to understand distinctly what this passion 
 is. Through a want of tuis understanding, the most extra- 
 vagant vagaries, the most dreadful asceticism, and the wildest 
 debauchery, have alike claimed sanction from the holiest of 
 religions. 
 
 Is this passion a fire from neaven. or a subtle flame from 
 hell? Is this "furious task-master," as Cicero calls it, to 
 be regarded as an ever-present witness to our fallen nature, 
 as one of the imperfections inevitably rooted in our bodies by 
 the disobedience of our first parents ? \Ve cannot to such a 
 degree accuse the benevolence of the Creator ; we cannot so 
 4 
 
28 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 violate the analogy of organic life; we cannot so do hu 
 justice to our own consciousness. 
 
 The noblest and the most unselfish emotions take their rise 
 in this passion of sex ; the most perfect natures are moulded 
 by its sweet influence; the most elevating ties which bind 
 humanity to holy effort are formed by it. True, it is like 
 the genii which obeyed the magic ring in oriental tale ; so 
 long as the owner of the jewel did not violate its law, that 
 long the genii were his willing slaves, and brought him 
 wealth and glory ; but when he became untrue to himself, 
 then they rose upon him, and hurried him away defenceless 
 to the gloomy cavern, and the unquenchable flames. The 
 wise man, therefore, will recognize in the emotions of youth 
 a power of good, and a divinely implanted instinct, which 
 will, if properly trained, form a more symmetrical and per- 
 fected being than could possibly be in its absence ; and he 
 will have impressed upon him the responsibility which de- 
 volves on those who have to control and guide this instinct. 
 
 It is not at the perioc of puberty that passion commences. 
 In fact, it is hard to say, how early it may not be present ; 
 and this point we wish to impress the more emphatically, 
 because parents and teachers, in spite of their own boyish 
 experiences, if they wouM 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 ex- 
 citement of the organs, which must depend on the action of 
 those nerves which control passion. Self-abuse not uncom- 
 monly prevails at the ages we have mentioned, and proves 
 the early development of the instinct. In such cases it is a 
 purely nervous phenomenon, not associated with the dis- 
 charge of the secretion, which does not yet exist, nor neces- 
 sarily with libidinous thoughts. But taese, too, come very 
 
THE DEPTHS OP INIQUITY. 29 
 
 socn, as any once must confess who is a close observer of 
 boys ; and at whatever age the habit exists, it is equally re- 
 prehensible. 
 
 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 become a source 
 of elevated enjoyment and moral improvement. 
 
 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 not dis- 
 close; for, as the apostle says, "it is a shame even to speak 
 of such things." 
 
 Sufficient to say, that every 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 exceptional cases, but deliberately and habitually in the 
 great cities of our country. Did we choose to draw the veil 
 from those abominable scenes with which our professional life 
 has brought us into contact, we could tell of the vice which 
 called vengeance from heaven on Sodom practised notori- 
 ously; we could speak of restaurants frequented by men in 
 women's attire, yielding themselves to indescribable lewdncs- ; 
 we could point out literature so inconceivably devilish as to 
 advocate and extol this utter depravity. But it is enough 
 for us to hint at these abysses of iniquity. We cannot bring 
 ourselves to do more; and we can only hope that the fiery 
 cautery of ]>ul>!i<' denunciation will soon destroy this most 
 malignant of ulcers. 
 
30 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 The Man Unsexed. 
 
 To illustrate what has just been said, we can draw useful 
 lessons from the condition of those who, through a fiendish 
 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 na- 
 tions, 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 acquires a feminine 
 fulness, and the beard does not appear. 
 
 On account of this retention of the voice, the mutilation 
 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 castratos were employed to sing in the concerts, 
 and especially in the churches, in whose choirs women were 
 not allowed. There is a bull on record of Pope Clement 
 XIV., especially directed against the practice, and pro- 
 nouncing 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 laboring under some 
 form of mental delusion, destroyed their own virility. Ec- 
 clesiastical historians assert that the distinguished 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 themselves eunuchs for the king- 
 dom of Heaven's sake." 
 
EFFECTS OF CASTRATION. 31 
 
 In most of these instances, and probably in all where the 
 mutilation has been suffered when young, a decided effect on 
 the mental and moral character is observed. Eunuchs are 
 proverbial for their cruel, crafty, unsympathizing dispositions; 
 the mental powers are feeble; and the physical strength is 
 inferior. They lack both courage and endurance, and supply 
 their place with cunning and mercilessness. They prow 
 indeed, that in their want of that power which connects then\ 
 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 otixer 
 animals used for food. 
 
VIRILITY. 
 
 Signs of Established Virility. 
 
 WE have intimated that puberty and virility are by no 
 means synonymous terms. The former is a season of change 
 and preparation. The constitution is summoning all jts 
 powers to prepare the individual properly to protect and 
 provide for his 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 children 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, conformed to moral and social law, and 
 accessory to pure mental emotions. At the outset of his 
 career let him learn by heart and frequently repeat these 
 words of a celebrated physician, who 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 communion, which is not only purer but more 
 permanent, and of which a renewal may be anticipated in 
 another world does he degrade himself to a level with the 
 brutes that perish," 
 (32) 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS. 33 
 
 But the distinctive sign of completed manhood is hi the 
 character of the secretion which now commences. 
 
 It is not our intention to write upon physiology and 
 anatomy. This would be foreign to a work which proposes 
 to confine itself to the realm of hygiene. And we do not 
 look with favor on those books which by their half-dis- 
 closures and unsavory hints, awaken a useless curiosity, which 
 they do not intend to satisfy. But it seems necessary to 
 ppcitk here with distinctness of one physiological point, be- 
 cause it is intimately connected with the health of the male, 
 and without some clear comprehension of it, much that we 
 shall have to speak of in the nature of warnings and cautions 
 would be unintelligible. We trust that an honest purpose, 
 and scientific accuracy will guide us correctly. 
 
 The secretion peculiar to the male, known as the seed or 
 sperm, depends for its life-transmitting power on the pre- 
 sence of certain minute vibratory bodies, about one-fortieth 
 of a line in length, called spermatozoa. These are exceed- 
 ingly numerous and active when the secretion is healthy. A 
 single one of them and there are many hundreds in a drop 
 is sufficient to bring about conception in the female. They 
 not only have a rapid vibratory motion, but singular vitality. 
 The secreted fluid has been frozen and kept at a tempera- 
 ture of zero for four days, yet when it was thawed these 
 animalcules, as they are supposed to be, were as active as 
 ever. They are not, however, always present, and when 
 present may be of variable activity. In young men. just 
 past puberty, and in aged men, they are often scarce and 
 languid in motion. Occasionally they are entirely absent in 
 otherwise hale men, and this is one of the causes of sterility 
 in the male. Their presence or absence can only be detected 
 by the microscope. 
 
 The organs in which this secretion is elaborated from tho 
 
34 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 blood are the testicles. Previous to birth, these s 
 rounded, firm bodies are in the abdomen, and only desce:-.-: 
 a short time before the child is born. They are composed 
 of a vast number or minute tubes united together by con- 
 nective tissue. The total length of the tubes is estimated 
 at forty-eight hundred feet, or nearly one mile ! Neverthe- 
 less, so small are they, that their full capacity is not more 
 than six cubic centimetres. 
 
 The left testicle, though usually suspended lower than the 
 right, is somewhat smaller, the difference in weight being 
 about ten grains. The secretion is most active about twenty- 
 five years of age, and decreases after this period as age ad- 
 vances. 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 entirely impotent at 
 times, without at all impairing their vigor at other times. 
 
 The testicles are subject to special diseases, which may 
 seriously impair their action. Mumps sometimes changes 
 from the face to them, causing painful swelling, and fre 
 quently a similar attack occurs in venereal diseases. In- 
 flammation may arise from an injury, and also from violent 
 and ungratified 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 net 
 connected with the genital organs do not seem to produce 
 any after-influence on the secretion in the adult in middle 
 life, but in aged persons, on the other hand, this is a fre- 
 quent occurrence. 
 
 A secretion is formed before puberty, but it is always 
 without these vibratory bodies. Only after that period is it 
 formed 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 
 
THE CONTINENCE OF ATHLETES. 
 
 men ignorantly attribute this perfectly natural evacuation 
 to SOUK* weakness of the function. They are in error. 
 Within certain limits, as we shall fully explain hereafter 
 this is a natural, healthy, and necessary effort of the system, 
 quite as much so as an evacuation from the bowels or the 
 Madder. It is to our present purpose to say that moderate 
 flows of tliis nature area proof of virility, when the secre- 
 tion thus emitted is of proper character. Observers have 
 noted that that produced soon after puberty is feeble, ant! 
 generally fruitless, or if capable of fecundating, the child 
 thus produced is weakly, and apt to l>s exposed to disease. 
 
 At the period of virility the desires should not only change 
 in purpose, but they should be less easily excited, more 
 completely under the dominion of reason, more readily sub- 
 jugated than before. It is a gross and dangerous error to 
 suppose that ardent desires are a sign of vigorous health. 
 This is a delusion which should be destroyed. Those men 
 who have the finest physiques, the most athletic frames, and 
 in in thorough "condition," experience least acutely the 
 spur of de.'ire. The ancients frequently refer to the con- 
 tinence of the athletse. and the gymnasts of our cities are 
 always temperate in indulgence. On the other hand, it is a 
 nearly "onstant symptom of certain dangerous diseases that 
 the passions are unusually easily excited. The first stage 
 of pulmonary consumption is frequently thus characterized, 
 while it is notorious that leprosy, certain obstinate skin dis- 
 eases, and slow poisoning, especially that by diseased rye- 
 flour, morbidly influence the desires to an extent most 
 damaging to the constitution. 
 
 Hygiene of Virility. 
 
 Those who are already in the enjoyment of good health 
 will need but few instructions to retain their strength at thia 
 
36 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 period of life. They must, however, bear in mind the ap- 
 proach of advancing years, and the facility to disease which 
 ever accompanies declining age. Therefore they must avoid 
 all excesses, restrict the indulgence of desire within moderate 
 bounds, and if unmarried, live lives not only continent but 
 chaste, avoiding not merely vices which are condemned both 
 by statute and religion, but also all impure thoughts and 
 conversations. For the latter, as we shall have occasion to 
 show more fully hereafter, are enervating to the body as we'll 
 as demoralizing to the mind. The functions of sex are so inti- 
 mately allied to the mental condition that the one sympathizes 
 invariably with the other, and what degrades one, with little 
 short of absolute certainty impairs the other. 
 
 Then the man at middle life should be aware that to en- 
 sure 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 thoughts on those philanthropic 
 and unselfish projects which add beauty to age, and are the 
 crown to gray hairs. What more nauseous and repulsive 
 object than a libidinous and worn-out old man, heating his 
 diseased imagination with dreams and images which his 
 chilled and impotent body can no longer carry into eflect ? 
 
 But as in the interest of the general health, and also of men- 
 tal vigor, it is important virile powers be retained to the latest 
 period of which they are capable, as the whole body shares 
 in their strength and sympathizes 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. 
 
EXAMPLES OF PROLONGED VIRILITY. 37 
 
 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 be- 
 gotten either before or after these limits. From fifteen to 
 twenty-five the organs yield immature and imperfect secre- 
 tion, 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 record 
 showing how a good constitution supported by proper care, 
 can escape the action of this law for many years. 
 
 The Latin historian Sallust, relates of Masinissa, king of 
 Numidia, that he married at the age of fourscore and five 
 years, and had a vigorous infant born to him after that time. 
 
 Still more remarkable is the instance of a Frenchman 
 named De Longueville, who lived to the age of 110 years. 
 He married his last wife when in his ninety-ninth year, and 
 ehe bore him a son when he was in his hundred and first year. 
 
 The famous Thomas Parr, of Shropshire, England, who 
 lived to the almost unexampled age of one hundred and fifty- 
 two years, married his second wife when above one hundr<"l 
 and twenty years of age. She lived with him twelve 
 years, and although she bore no children, she asserted that 
 during that time he never betrayed any signs of infirmity or 
 age. 
 
 But certainly the most astonishing example of prolonged 
 virility was Baravicino de Capellis, a nobleman of Tyrol- 
 who died, aged 104, in 1770. He married in his eight y- 
 ftnirlh year a young and healthy woman, by whom ho had 
 eight children ! So that it is evident that mere age does not 
 
38 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 destroy virility, but that it endures with the other bodilj 
 powers. 
 
 Thus it becomes a matter of no little interest, since we see 
 such vigor is possible, to investigate the means by which it 
 may be obtained. With this in view, we shall proceed to 
 some inquiries concerning 
 
 The Decay of Virility. 
 
 The age of forty-five years, which we have just stated as 
 the average term at which sexual decadence commences, is 
 very far from a fixed rule. Perhaps in no one cyclical 
 change in life do individuals differ more than in this. In our 
 great cities, where inherited debility is added to a luxurious 
 and dissipated life, it is no unusual thing to find men of forty 
 in whom the procreative faculty is about extinct. While, 
 on the contrary, as we have just seen, instances are not 
 wanting where men have married and had children, un- 
 doubtedly their own, at the advanced ages of fourscore, 
 ninety, and even one hundred years. 
 
 " It is usually at the age of fifty or sixty," says the emi- 
 nent French physician, Dr. Parise, in his treatise on old 
 age putting the change of life in the male at a somewhat 
 later date than seems to us to hold good in this country 
 " that the generative functions become weakened. It is at 
 this period that a man begins to mark that power decrease, 
 and is apt to do so with a feeling almost akin to indignation. 
 The first step toward feebleness announces to him, beyond 
 all doubt, that he is not the man he was. He may husband 
 his strength, and retard the effect up to a certain point by 
 judicious living, but not avoid it alogether. The law of 
 decrepitude is hard to bear, but it is still a law. The ac- 
 tivity of the organs diminishes, their functions abate, they 
 
WORDS TO THE OLD. 39 
 
 languish, and at length cease entirely. The blood flows 
 thither in smaller quantities. The sensibility becomes 
 blunted, the parts wrinkle and wither, the power of erec- 
 tion disappears, and the secretion loses its consistence and 
 force." 
 
 Generally, and always in the healthy state, step by step 
 with these physical changes the passions likewise lose their 
 force, and change in nature. Love, which in early youth 
 was impetuous and sensual, which in middle life was power- 
 ful, but controlled and centred in the family, should at the 
 decline of life be freed from animal propensities, assume a 
 purely moral character, and be directed toward the younger 
 generations, the children and grandchildren, or, when these 
 are not, should find its proper sphere of activity in philan- 
 thropic endeavor, and patriotic attachment. 
 
 Like the ancient philosopher, the old should be able to 
 recall the memory of departed pleasure without a sigh of vain 
 regret, and they should adapt themselves Avith determined 
 mind to the altered condition of their physical life. Let 
 them bea. 1 in mind the reply of Cicero, who, when asked in 
 old age if he ever indulged in the pleasures of love, replied, 
 "Heaven forbid! I have forsworn it as I would a savage 
 and furious taskmaster." If this prospect seems a cheerless 
 one to the fiery ^outh or the vigorous adult, let him remem- 
 ber that desire subsides with power, and that it is still within 
 his reach by the observance of wise precautions and a proper 
 ruh- cl life, to extend the period of virility considerably be- 
 yond tha limit we have set to it. How this is to be done 
 we shall presently reveal. 
 
 Whenever old age is tormented by passions which either 
 cannot be gratified, or gratified only at the expense of 
 health, one of two causes is at work. Either there is some 
 local irritation from a diseased condition of the bladder or 
 
40 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 adjacent parts of the nervous system, or else it is a sting 
 which previous libidinous excesses either in thought or act 
 have left behind. For, 
 
 " The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices, 
 Make instruments to scourge us." 
 
 In the latter case the priest, rather than the physician, is 
 their proper attendant. He will tell them, as Othello told 
 Desdemona, that they require 
 
 " A sequester from liberty, fasting, and prayer, 
 Much castigation, exercise devout.' 
 
 But if, on the other hand and this is much more fre- 
 quently the case these passions are excited by local or 
 general irritation, then the physician and the surgeon must 
 be consulted. Some writers call the period of decadence 
 "the change of life in man," and aver that it is attended 
 with almost as many diseases and dangers as the correspond- 
 ing 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 portions of the 
 body. Gravel and stone, difficulty in relieving the organ, 
 affections of the kidney, and swelling of the glandular struc- 
 tures, make their appearance. So, too, it is about this epoch 
 that gout, chronic rheumatism, plethora, vertigo, and apo- 
 plexy are most frequent. It may, indeed, be doubted if 
 these various signs of approaching decrepitude are any more 
 closely connected with the change which takes place in the 
 sexual organs, than are the gray ness and baldness, the dim- 
 ness of sight, the quavering and broken voice and uncertainty 
 of muscular movement, which are associated with them. But 
 certain it is that the association is a most intimate one, and 
 we are perfectly justified in saying that virility is a test of 
 the general physical powers, and that if it is preserved in 
 
WORDS TO THE YOUNG. 41 
 
 ft healthy and vigorous condition, these signs of advancing 
 age can be long postponed. 
 
 This is the chief, and there are many other reasons why a 
 man should so live, and so order his labors, his nourishment, 
 and his pleasures, as to retain to the furthest natural limit 
 the exercise of his specific powers. So intimately are these 
 allied to the well-being of the whole economy, that unless he 
 is guarded and wise in their management, he will undermine 
 his general health, and render vain all other precautions 
 he may take. Therefore it is, that we deem it eminently 
 proper to lay down definite directions how to retain virility. 
 
 Causes that hasten the loss of Virility. 
 
 He who would secure a green old age must commence his 
 cares when young. Not many men can fritter away a de- 
 cade or two of years in dissipation and excess, and ever hope 
 to make up their losses by rigid surveillance in later years. 
 " The sins of youth are expiated in age," is a proverb which 
 daily examples illustrate. In proportion as puberty is pre- 
 cocious, will decadence be premature ; the excesses of middle 
 life draw heavily on the fortune of later years. " The mill 
 of the gods grinds slow, but it grinds exceedingly fine," and 
 though nature may be a tardy creditor, she is found at last 
 to be an inexorable one. In the strange lines of the ec- 
 centric Irish poet, Clarence Mangan, we may say to our 
 young readers : 
 
 " Guard your fire in youth, Friends, 
 For manhood's is but phosphorus, 
 And small luck or grace attends, 
 Gay boaters down the Bosphorus." 
 
 "We enjoin, therefore, strict, absolute, unswerving chastity 
 to the young and the celibate ; a judicious marriage at 
 
42 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 virility , and an avoidance of excess or immoderation after 
 marriage. As years increase, the solicitations of love should 
 be more and more rarely indulged in ; and they should at 
 last be wholly avoided when they leave a sensation of pros- 
 tration, or mental dulness or disturbance. If at any time 
 during middle life or later, absence, or the death of a wife, 
 should enforce a temporary suspension of the masculine 
 powers, the greatest caution should be exercised on resuming 
 their use on return or a second marriage. One of the best 
 authorities, Mr. Acton of London, says on this subject, " Expe- 
 rience has taught me how vastly different is the situation of 
 the class of moderate men, who, having married early, and 
 regularly indulged their passions at longer and longer inter- 
 vals, seldom come under the medical man's notice, from that of 
 widowers of some years' standing, or men who have, through 
 the demand of public or other duties, been separated from 
 their wives during prolonged periods. When the latter 
 class, after leading lives of chastity, suddenly resume sexual 
 intercourse, they are apt to suffer greatly from generative 
 disorders. The sudden call on the nervous system after 
 years of rest, gives a shock to any constitution, and espe- 
 cially to those who are already somewhat feeble." These ill- 
 consequences result, not from the mere fact of the resumption 
 of marital privileges, but because there is often too great 
 violence done to the constitution by an unrestrained indul- 
 gence. In all such instances, the pleasures of the marriage 
 bed should be temperate and guarded. 
 
 Diseases which shorten Virility. 
 
 Apart from those disorders, such as acute inflammations, 
 cancer, and sloughing ulcers, which actually destroy the 
 organs, there are a number which excite a morbid activity, 
 
EFFECTS OF SKIN DISEASES. 43 
 
 prompting to excess or repeated nocturnal flows, resulting 
 in premature decadence. In general terms any disease which 
 unnaturally stimulates the carnal desires has this effect. 
 Some of them we shall mention. 
 
 One of the most frequent is piles. These often produce a 
 burning and itching in the vicinity, the blood accumulates 
 in the veins of that region of the body, and acts as a me- 
 chanical irritant. For the same reason, any skin disease in 
 that locality loads to friction and heat, which are very apt 
 to evoke lustful thoughts and acts. So familiar even to the 
 more ignorant classes is this, that Goethe makes use of it in 
 the first part of Faust in a conversation between two ap- 
 prentices : One says : 
 
 " Nucti uurgdorf kommt herauf. Gewiss dort findet ihr 
 Die schonsten Madehen und das beste Bier." 
 
 To which his friend replies : 
 
 "Du uberlustiger Gesell, 
 Juckt dich zum dritten Mai das Fell?" 
 
 Undoubtedly one reason of the proverbial sensuality of the 
 lower classes in warm climates is their want of cleanliness, 
 which leads to various cutaneous diseases, and also to the 
 presence of vermin. 
 
 Acidity of the urine, causing a burning sensation as it 
 passes, gravel or stone in the bladder, and organic changes 
 in structure are all likewise liable to impel to dangerous 
 excess. 
 
 Diseases of portions of the system quite remote may have 
 similar effects. Several instances are on record where Tic- 
 lent debauches ending in debility and death have been dis- 
 covered to have been prompted by a change in the structure 
 of the brain. Physiologists arc well acquainted with the 
 curious fact that if the posterior portion of the brain be in- 
 
44 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 jured or diseased, a distressing excitement of the venereal 
 passions is sometimes brought about, entirely beyond the 
 control of the patient, and leading him to acts quite contrary 
 to the habits and the principles of his previous life. This 
 strange sympathy should lead us to be cautious in pro- 
 nouncing judgment on those who after a long course of virtue 
 suddenly give way to temptation. For the secret of their 
 action may be, and undoubtedly often is, some unrecognized 
 affection of the brain. Occasionally our daily papers seize 
 upon some scandalous story in which a minister of the gospel 
 is represented to have forfeited a character maintained in 
 parity for many years. Uncharitable comments, not unfre- 
 quently aimed at Christianity itself, are often appended to 
 the narrative. Yet who can tell in how many instances such 
 falls are owing to an overworked brain finally giving way, 
 and leading to actions for which the man cannot be held 
 responsible ? Physicians to the insane well know that pre 
 cisely those who in their sane moments are most pure in life 
 and thought, are, in accesses of frenzy, liable to break out in 
 obscene language. Thus Shakspeare. that great master of 
 the human heart, whose portraitures of insanity are mar- 
 vellously correct, makes the chaste Ophelia, when her reason 
 is dethroned, sing libidinous songs, and repeat indecent al- 
 lusions. 
 
 Consumption in its first stage when it is hardly suspected, 
 and leprosy, as well as scrofulous affections- of several kinds, 
 and disease of the spinal cord, we have already mentioned 
 as provoking an unnatural, and, under the circumstances, 
 peculiarly injurious inclination to indulgence. 
 
 In all instances of this nature, the patient for such he 
 really should consider himself should have no hesitation in 
 making his case known to an intelligent medical friend He 
 may perhaps, by a few simple and timely remedies, relieve 
 
OCCUPATION AND HEALTH. 45 
 
 himself of inopportune emotions, and insure for himself years 
 of strength, where a contrary course will hasten him to his 
 grave. 
 
 Effects of Occupations and Exercises. 
 
 Very little attention has been paid by previous writers to 
 the effects which the various occupations exert on the main- 
 tenance of virility. The importance of this consideration 
 we have just instanced in reference to brain diseases. When 
 mental cxcrlion is so arduous or so long-continued as to lead 
 to some variety of insanity, it is not unfrequently the case 
 that an unnatural sexual excitement accompanies it. Many 
 instances which are supposed to have been induced by soli- 
 tary vice, in fact have led to and not been caused by this 
 degrading habit. 
 
 Many years since, Professor Lallemand, a distinguished 
 physician of Montpelier, remarked that persons accustomed 
 to long-continued exercise on horseback, forfeit their powers 
 early, and are apt to be afflicted with a weakness of the 
 organs, passing sometimes into actual spermatorrhoea. 
 
 Those avocations which produce a flow of blood to the 
 lower regions of the body, as by continued walking, or by 
 sitting in cushioned chairs, are also weakening. 
 
 So also are those which expose a person for many hours 
 daily to an air impregnated with the odor of tobacco, or the 
 evaporation of spirituous liquors. 
 
 Confining occupations are inimical to prolonged virility. 
 A change of climate once every eight or ten years by passing 
 a winter in a southern latitude, is of great benefit to the 
 general health as well as the specific powers. It should be 
 taken whenever possible. 
 
46 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 How to retain Virility in Age. 
 
 From what has been said, the reader will now be prepared 
 to understand the essential difference which exists between 
 a nervous function, like that concerned in the reproduction 
 of life, and muscular power. This antagonism in their nature 
 exists : by frequent exercise the muscular system increases 
 in strength, and decreases in irritability ; but the nerve 
 force, by repeated calls upon it, increases in irritability, but 
 decreases in strength. The more frequently sensation is 
 evoked in a nerve, the greater is its sensitiveness and its 
 debility. This physiological law, first distinctly enunciated 
 by a celebrated French anatomist, is constantly overlooked. 
 From it we learn that in order to preserve in the greatest 
 vigor and most perfect health any nervous function, our aim 
 should be to excite and stimulate it as little as possible. No- 
 where does this law find a more striking illustration than in 
 those functions which pertain to sex. And the secret, there- 
 fore, of preserving their activity to advanced years, resolves 
 itself into avoiding all stimulants and excitants. By this 
 we do not mean either to recommend asceticism, or uniform 
 continence, but to observe temperance and discretion, to 
 limit one's self in the use of those articles of food or drinK which 
 by stimulation ultimately debilitate, and to govern one's 
 life by sound laws of health and morals. It is in this sense 
 we shall proceed to speak of a sedative yet fortifying nour- 
 ishment, as 
 
 The Food and Drinks which strengthen Virility. 
 
 The influence of animal as opposed to vegetable food upon 
 life and health has often been discussed. All readers are 
 aware that certain theorists maintain that man as a species 
 
ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE FOOD. 47 
 
 Is a herbivorous or a frugivorous animal, and that he will 
 never attain his natural term of life and exemption from 
 disease until he renounces all flesh-pots whatsoever. AVith 
 this extreme idea we have nothing in common. But we are 
 nevertheless of opinion that altogether too much meat is 
 consumed by the inhabitants of the United States. In no 
 other country are three meals of meat a day served up, as is 
 frequently the case with us. We believe that except under 
 circumstances where there is arduous muscular exertion, 
 once a day is often enough to consume much animal food. 
 
 From ancient times it has been well known that a wholly 
 or chiefly vegetable diet favors the subjugation of the pas- 
 sions, and hence it was *-ecommended to persons of violent 
 desires, and enjoined on celibate orders of priesthood. Par- 
 ticularly those vegetables which contain a large percentage 
 of vegetable fibre and of water, as the cabbage, turnips, 
 beets, melons, and carrots, and those which contain acids 
 and some soporific principle, as sorrel, sour fruits, lettuce, 
 chiccory, endive, and other salads, are reported to have 
 especial virtues in this direction. 
 
 A too exclusive use of any such diet would, however, be 
 apt to bring about physical debility, and for that reason it 
 should not be recommended. A moderate quantity of fresh 
 meat should be used daily, and when a choice is given, it 
 should be taken nroiled or roasted, as thus prepared it is 
 more readily digested, and preserves the whole system in 
 better health. 
 
 Fresh fish, shell-fish, such as oysters, and eggs, have a 
 popular reputation in this respect, which they have obtained 
 simply because they are highly nutritive and readily digesti- 
 ble. It is indeed possible, that the first-mentioned has some 
 peculiar tonic influence, owing to a small portion of phos- 
 phorus which it usually contains, that chemical element 
 
48 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 having a powerful effect in maintaining nervous force. Is- 
 landers and sea-coast tribes, subsisting principally on fish, 
 much of it eaten raw, are often reported in books of travel 
 to be unusually salacious. 
 
 Those who oppose an animal diet, for a similar reason ob- 
 ject to the use of condiments to any great extent. Here 
 they are right. "We eat altogether too much highly seasoned 
 food. Our peppers and curries are too stimulating for our 
 good, and we would be in the enjoyment of better health if 
 we were exceedingly sparing in their employment. Like 
 ether excitants, taken in quantity, they confer an ephemeral 
 and deceitful energy, certain to be followed sooner or later 
 by a reaction and a corresponding deficiency of power. lu 
 Spanish America, where the use of red pepper is carried to 
 an astonishing extent, its injurious effects are often wit- 
 nessed by the physician. In moderate quantities, however, 
 it cannot be objected to, but rather approved. 
 
 In the matter of beverages, the one most to be recom- 
 mended is chocolate. This is, or should be made from the 
 fruit of the cacao tree, and is closely similar to cacao and 
 broma. A most excellent and nourishing preparation is that 
 known as racahout, a mixture of cacao and starch, flavored 
 with vanilla. Both the cacao and vanilla have long enjoyed 
 ^ reputation as fortifying the sexual system. Tea in limited 
 quantities is not to be condemned, but coffee, except in 
 great moderation, should not be indulged in. for reasons we 
 shall presently state. 
 
 Passing now to 
 
 The Food and Drinks which Weaken Virility, 
 
 "We sum up in one sentence all the highly-seasoned arti- 
 cles, and too exclusively animal diet, which we spoke of in 
 
EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 49 
 
 the last section. The system should neither be enfeebled by 
 insufficient or innutritious food, nor should it be stimulated 
 by artificial means. No other excitants than the natural 
 impulses must be summoned, under penalty of a premature 
 decadence of force. It is obvious, therefore, that any kind 
 of aliment which causes dyspeptic troubles, or brings on 
 constipation or diarrhoea, or irritates the stomach or bowels 
 should be avoided. 
 
 In this category we distinctly include most alcoholic beve- 
 rages. Even the ancients recognized the debilitating effects 
 of intoxicating compounds on the reproductive functions. 
 "Venus drowned in Bacchus" was one of their proverbial 
 expressions ; and who is not familiar with the philosophical 
 disquisition on drinking and lechery, which the porter in 
 Macbeth reads to Mac-duff: 
 
 " Lechery, sir, drinking provokes and unprovokes : it pro- 
 vokes the desire but it takes away the performance ; it 
 makes him and it mars him ; it sets him on, and it takes 
 him off; it persuades him, and it disheartens him;" etc. 
 (Macbeth, Act. II. Scene III.) 
 
 "\Vheu in liabelais' romance, Panurge applies to the learned 
 doctor Rondibilis for some means to conquer his passions, 
 the first resource which the erudite counsellor suggests 
 is wino. I'<t r le vin. " Because," he goes on to explain, 
 " through intemperance in wine the constitution is chilled, 
 the nervous force is weakened, the male secretion is dissipated, 
 the senses are dulled, the movements are irregular, all of 
 which interfere with the powers of reproduction." Though 
 these are perhaps not authorities acknowledged by the faculty, 
 they are the reports of shrewd observers, and are borne out 
 by daily experience. Drunkards and tipplers suffer early 
 Ic" nf virility, and this is another argument if any other 
 i.- needed in favor of the temperance movement. 
 
50 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 To the arguments of Rondibilis which are just as sound 
 now as when Rabelais, himself a famous physician, wrote 
 them three hundred years ago we may add that modern 
 experiments have proven that distilled spirits very frequently 
 cause a slight inflammation of the stomach and that malt 
 liquors, being prepared in part from an infusion of hops, 
 contain a certain proportion of the principle " lupulin" con- 
 tained in that plant, which has a specific enervating effect 
 on the masculine functions. 
 
 Coffee in moderation has rather a tonic than an enervating 
 effect ; but in excess, it is distinctly proven by repeated in- 
 stances that it quite prostrates the sexual faculties. Pro- 
 fessor Lallemand relates an instance of a young man of 
 thirty, who was appointed professor in a college. In order 
 to qualify himself for his post he studied with great diligence, 
 supporting his powers on eight or ten cups of coffee daily. 
 After a few weeks he was seized with an irritable condition 
 of the bladder, and not long afterwards with entire impotence. 
 Lallemand, to whom he applied, at once stopped the coffee, 
 to which he attributed the whole trouble, and under appro- 
 priate treatment the patient recovered. Dr. Albert Miiller 
 in a recently published work mentions that in his own expe- 
 rience he has witnessed several most striking instances of a 
 similar character, and lays down the following rule as the 
 result of his studies on this point : " Through a moderate use 
 of coffee, virility can be strengthened ; but through a long 
 and excessive use of it, virility may become diminished, and 
 indeed wholly destroyed." This we can accept as a correct 
 statement of the most recent views of physiologists. Dr. 
 McDougall, of London, says that several of his patients af- 
 flicted with spermatorrhoea and generative debility, dis- 
 covered that tea and coffee always proved hurtful to them. 
 
 It may surprise some to have us class tobacco amoug the 
 
WHAT TOBACCO DOSS. 51 
 
 foods , but we do it in accordance with the prevailing opinions 
 of scieutific men that it acts as a supplemental or accessory 
 food, hindering destruction though not assisting in repara- 
 tion. 
 
 Its effects 011 ihe system have been much mooted ever since 
 it came into general use in civilized countries, and they are 
 not yet very clearly made out. But we do know that on the 
 whole and in mobt cases they are injurious, leading surely 
 sooner or later to chronic nervous and digestive disorders. 
 Physicians who nave had the opportunity of watching opera- 
 tives in tobacco-ractories, have reported that the males fre- 
 quently suffer from sexual debility, and Lallemand, whom we 
 have already quoted, relates examples where serious disorders 
 and loss of functional vigor were consequent on its too free use. 
 We might naturally expect this to be the case, for the herb 
 is a powerful narcotic, and no narcotic can be indulged for a 
 length of time without depressing the system. The medical 
 attendants of public schools have observed that in youth the 
 use of tobacco predisposes to frequent nocturnal emissions, 
 produced doubtless rather by relaxation than excitement, 
 and there is no question but that the same effect is apparent 
 though in a less degree in the adult. Sound hygiene, there- 
 fore, banishes tobacco from the pleasures permitted those 
 who would retain their virility, or confines them to an indul- 
 gence in it even short of moderation. 
 
 Drugs which Stimulate Desire. 
 
 There are certain substances which act locally on the 
 membranes and organs associated in the performance of 
 the masculine function, leading to irritation of the nerves of 
 the part, to an unnatural excitement, and consequently to 
 premature exhaustion. Sometimes these are employed for 
 
52 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 some disorder through ignorance, and sometimes they are 
 sought by those who would give a fictitious appearance of 
 strength to their animal powers, and seek by artificial irri- 
 tants to restore to the nerves a sensitiveness which they no 
 longer possess. This is a most dangerous and reprehensible 
 habit, and one which from ancient times has been condemned 
 by physicians and lawgivers. Yet it is astonishing that 
 even at this day we see love-powders and philters advertised 
 in the newspapers. In nine out of ten cases these are wholly 
 inert, and in the tenth case they are dangerous, certain to 
 lead to some painful, and perchance fatal malady. In- 
 stances of rapid death from their poisonous action are abund- 
 ant. Phosphorus and cantharides, of which they usually 
 consist, are both perilous drugs to tamper with, and dis- 
 pensed by ignorant hands are certain to result disastrously. 
 The death of the Latin poet Lucretius, which has been made 
 the subject of a masterly poem by Tennyson, of Lucullus, 
 the famous Roman epicure, and of many others, are currently 
 attributed to this cause. By the Eoman laws the manu- 
 facture and sale of these dangerous medicaments were pro- 
 hibited under pain of death, but in spite of stringent en- 
 actments, their use was uninterrupted. In this country, 
 the majority of dealers, aware of the serious results which 
 may follow the administration of any active drug, content 
 themselves with dispensing perfectly innocuous powders. 
 One of these informed us that he sold two barrels of pulver- 
 ized caraway seed under the name of love-powders. This 
 fact illustrates the incredible demand for such philters even 
 in an enlightened, and, on the whole, moral nation. 
 
 The pastilles de serail and other preparations brought to 
 us from Paris, that "lupanar of Europe," as it has been 
 severely and truly called, under whatever high-sounding and 
 Attractive names they may be sold, are equally objectionable. 
 
DANGER OF ERGOT. 53 
 
 We have before us the trade-receipts for a number of these 
 preparations, and in every instance where they are any- 
 thing more than mere highly spiced confectionery, they con- 
 tain ingredients which cannot be used without incurring 
 liability to serious and perhaps mental diseases. We em- 
 phatirally warn against their use, as we do against every 
 unnatural excitant of the genital functions. 
 
 The prolonged use of astringents and purgatives, to 
 which many persons accustom themselves on account of 
 some disorder of the stomach, or to remedy some skin affec- 
 tions, is quite apt to incite local irritation, and induce weak- 
 ness of the sexual life. These agents, indeed, are placed by 
 Dr. Albert Miiller in the first rank of those capable of pro- 
 ducing debilitating nocturnal losses. Their employment, 
 therefore, especially in schools, and in nervous temperaments, 
 which quickly respond to impressions, should be very limited, 
 or left altogether to the medical attendant. 
 
 In some portions of Europe where rye bread is the staple 
 food of the lower classes, no care is taken to sort out the 
 grains of " spurred rye," or ergot, a substance which has a 
 specific effect on the reproductive organs of both sexes. 
 The consequence of this is seen very plainly in the popula- 
 tion. Dr. Deslandes, in speaking of the natives of the valley 
 of the Gironde, says : " They present a striking example how 
 violent passions can be associated with weakened frames. 
 Their food is scanty and lacking in nourishing properties, 
 largely composed of rye meal from which the diseased grains 
 have not been separated ; their faces are disfigured, pinched, 
 and pale, and their leanness almost shocking. They present 
 an appearance of complete physical degradation, and yet 
 their missions are precocious, and they yield to them with a 
 real frenzy." These wretched people are also cursed with 
 frequent abortions, the women with womb disease, and botn 
 
54 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 sexes with a variety of mortification of the extremities, which 
 is known from its cause " ergotic gangrene." Their example 
 proves how essential it is to health and even to morals to 
 have what in many districts is a common article of diet pre- 
 pared with care, and with a knowledge of sanitary laws. 
 
 The freedom with which in some families fly blisters and 
 spirits of turpentine are used in domestic medicine is one of 
 the objections to the habit of attempting to doctor one's self 
 and others without a sufficient acquaintance with drugs. 
 Both these substances have a specific action on the organs 
 of sex and the bladder and kidneys. The first 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 feel- 
 ings of pleasure, and moreover, its use is certain to be fol- 
 lowed by pain and inflammation, and there are not a few 
 examples where speedy death in great agony has supervened. 
 
 Drugs which Moderate Desire. 
 
 Eabelais' hero, Panurge, in the passage from the celebrated 
 romance, insists on Rondibilis suggesting some other means 
 of controlling his carnal desires than the use of wine. This 
 the obliging doctor willingly does, rehearsing a long list of 
 specifics, such as the agnus castus, the " cold seeds," and 
 " hippopotamus skin," as of sovereign virtue in subduing 
 passion. Unfortunately an experience of a few generations 
 has not supported in this instance the erudite 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 nature, it' not strength- 
 ening good resolutions at any rate wea.lren>i\f nl impulses, 
 which is next best. 
 
CAMPHOR AND HOPS. 55 
 
 We are glad, therefore, that when the articles recom- 
 mended by the older physicians fell into disfavor, modem 
 observation discovered others with unquestionable powers in 
 this direction. One or two of the ancient remedies have also 
 stood their ground. Among them, the most prominent is 
 camphor. This was familiar to the practitioners of the 
 middle ages, and in a famous work on hygiene written about 
 the time of the first crusade by the professors of the school 
 <>f Salernum, in Italy, and known as the Regimen Sanitatis, 
 The Laws of Health, there occurs the following line : 
 
 " Camphora per nares, castrat odore mnres ;" 
 " The smell of camphor makes eunuchs of men." 
 
 The most recent authority on this use of camphor is Dr. 
 Albert Miiller, whose work was published in 1869. 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 organs of sex, but only for a short time, and not in- 
 variably. In some cases, which cannot be distinguished 
 beforehand, even such small amounts produce irritability of 
 the bladder, and therefore should not be used. 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 pas-es into indifference. 
 
 Saltpetre, or nitrate of potash, enjoys a similar reputation, 
 but acts injuriously on the general health when taken in 
 quantities, and for this reason should be employed with hesi- 
 tation, if at all, and under advice. 
 
 There are several other drugs with the same properties, but 
 
56 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 as they can only be used with discretion by those who have 
 made a study of their effects upon the economy, it would 
 neither be advantageous nor prudent to extend the list much 
 further. We shall moreover recur to the topic when we 
 come to treat the means for controlling certain diseased con- 
 ditions of the function, and shall leave this subject by stating 
 that in our own practice we have witnessed decided and 
 satisfactory results from the administration of bromide of 
 potassium. The peculiar and sometimes alarming effects of 
 this drug on the mental powers, although they are only tem- 
 porary, yet act as a drawback to its popularization. It is 
 still a question whether permanent weakening of the memory 
 may not be a sequel of its excessive or too long continued 
 use. Like all substances purely medicinal in nature, we 
 advise none to experiment with it, but to take it under the 
 advice of a physician. 
 
 Our National Tendency to Premature Loss of Virility. 
 
 We quoted, a few pages back, the words of a French 
 writer on old age, who placed the commencement of the 
 period of decadence in man " between fifty and sixty." The 
 gifted Flourens, in his work on human longevity, considers 
 that this is far too early, did man only husband the resources 
 of a naturally good constitution. English writers also do 
 not speak of virile weakness in healthy men under fifty. 
 
 If it is true, and it would seem from a number of opinions 
 expressed by medical authors whom we have consulted, 
 that the age of commencing decay in Europe is from "fifty 
 to sixty," then in this country we must, as a nation, be suf- 
 fering some degeneration in this respect. For it is certain 
 that of a number of elderly men whom we have consulted on 
 this point, the majority confessed to having felt a decided 
 
NATIONAL LOSS OF POWER. 51 
 
 decrease both in desire and sexual vigor as early as forty, 
 five. We venture the prediction that three out of four of 
 our elderly readers will agree that this coincides with their 
 own experience. 
 
 Now it is a serious question in national hygiene why this 
 is so ? The statistics of all our oldest settled states show 
 that fewer children are born in marriages between native 
 Americans, than in foreign-born or mixed couples. It looks 
 as if one solution of this startling fact is to be found in the 
 diminished activity of the male. We ourselves have no 
 doubt of it. 
 
 The naturalist Buffon, in the last century, maintained that 
 a careful comparison of the animals of the Old and New 
 Worlds had convinced him that those in the latter are, on 
 the whole, smaller, feebler, and shorter lived than those in 
 the former. President Jefferson took some pains, and we 
 believe successfully, in refuting this opinion ; but there is 
 really little doubt but that American born males are, as a 
 class, liable to premature decay of the generative functions. 
 
 Nor are the causes of this early decrepitude hard to find. 
 They are, as it were, at the ends of our fingers. And we 
 feel in duty bound to speak of them boldly. 
 
 One of the most obvious and most undeniable is, the ex- 
 cessive use of tobacco. This acts not only on the individual, 
 but on his sons. " In no instance," says Dr. Pidduck, a Lon- 
 don surgeon of extensive observation, "is the sin of the 
 father more distinctly visited on the children than in 
 toliacco-using. It produces in the offspring an enervated 
 and unsound constitution, deformities, and often early death." 
 Dr. H. J. McDougall says: "Many inveterate smokers 
 among my professional friends have mentioned to me the 
 diminution of their venereal desires, as one of the effects of 
 tobacco." 
 
68 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 Another is, the abuse of alcoholic beverages. Not only 
 do these, as we have shown, shorten virility, but they trans- 
 mit this same tendency to the male descendants. Even 
 when no intemperance can be charged, yet the peculiarly 
 American habit of taking strong liquors on an empty sto- 
 mach is most destructive to nervous force, and most certain 
 to prevent healthy children. 
 
 The hurried meals and consequent dyspepsia, the use of 
 coffee several times a day, the excessive mental strain in 
 American business life, the increased pressure and redoubled 
 anxieties which the desperate competition of our great marts 
 invariably brings with it, and imposes especially on those 
 who have families to provide for, all bring about prema- 
 ture old age, and create a tendency to early debility of all 
 the nervous functions, and with them that of reproduction, 
 which is infallibly handed down to the sons along with the 
 money, houses, and land which a life of labor may have 
 accumulated. 
 
 With these facts staring them in the face, it is for our 
 native population to decide whether they will forego some- 
 what this desperate struggle for wealth and this self-indulg- 
 ence, and thereby have to bequeath their children that which 
 no money can purchase, and than which no costlier legacy 
 can be left a young man a sound constitution. 
 
 Relations of the Sexual to the other Functions. 
 
 In all that we have said before, we aimed to keep con- 
 stantly in view and to impress upon the reader the intimate 
 association which exists between the specific functions of 
 sex, and the rest of the economy. 
 
 How close this is in the female sex is now generally acknow- 
 ledged, at least by physicians. But even they are apt t 
 
REFORMS NEEDED. 59 
 
 overlook the nearness of the genetic power in man to all 
 his other faculties. There is no one function which, if dis- 
 turbed, leads so rapidly and certainly to general ill-feeling. 
 The mind is sure to brood over it, and depressing 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 reproductive 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 benefit, takes its origin in some mis' 
 nuuiuircmcnt here, of which, perhaps, in his ignorance of 
 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 unduly inquisitive, or a 
 doubt fostered by some few prominent and prejudiced 
 writers, as to whether bad effects really do come from an 
 abuse of the sexual powers. 
 
 We can but repeat that every medical man who has given 
 close study to the subject is perfectly convinced that there 
 is a vast body of anguish, mental and bodily, from this source. 
 
 [AUTHORS AND WORKS REFERRED TO. To avoid the nuisance 
 of constant references, we append here a list of the principal 
 authorities quoted : On the distinctions of sex, Waldeyer, Eiersfock 
 und Ei, p. 152; Fonssngrivea, L' Education Physique des JentifS 
 Ft Hi s. Chap. I. (Quetelet'g statistics); Van Buren, New York 
 Medical Gazette, 1869; Bichat, La Vie et la Mort, p. 3. On 
 puberty: British 31<dical Journal, Aug. 1868; Willi.-im Acton, 
 Piinrtions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, passim ; 
 Journal of Ptydutogital Medicine, Nos. I. and VI. (aberrations 
 of sexual pjission); Wiener Medicinische Wochenschrift, Jan. 1869 
 vreview of Der Urniiig). On Virility: Journal d'Aitatomte et 
 
 6 
 
60 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 Physiologic, No. VI. (Prof. Mantegazza's experiments on sperm); 
 ilufelaml, Art of Prolonging Life, pp. 94, 104; Flour&ns, La 
 Loiigevtte Ilumaiiie ; Re veil le-P;i rise, De la Virillrsfc ; Debay, 
 Hygiene, et Physiologic de la Maria 'ge, pp. 98, 445, 345 (forniu- 
 hiire aphrodisiaque), Becqnerel, Tr/ntS d* Hygiene privet et piib- 
 hqiie, pp. 34, 54, 576; Albert Miiller, Ueber Viiu-illkurlielte 
 Samenrerhiste, passim; Rabelai?, La Vif de Gargaittiia, Lir. IIL 
 Cap. XXX.; Dr. Pidduck, On the Use of Tobncco ; Dr. MrDoujrall. 
 JVo'fS to Lallf.matid ; the physiological text-books of Carpenter, 
 Lmlton, Marshall, flint, etc.] 
 
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 lor the purpose 
 of perpetuating the species. This is a wise, and, indeed, a 
 necessary provision of nature; for man not only is more 
 rapidly exhausted by the exercise of his peculiar functions, 
 but on him rests the responsibility of providing for the family 
 he engenders. He should form no such union lightly, or 
 before he has maturely weighed the arguments for and 
 against it. It is our purpose to assist him here by informing 
 him of tlic advantages and the disadvantages of both condi- 
 tions. And first, of 
 
 The Advantages of Celibacy. 
 
 "Were this world all. and life limited by the existence of 
 the body, the physiologist could recognize no duty more im- 
 perative than that to the species, and no demand more im- 
 portant than that to pcr;wtuate its existence. But beyond 
 this frail house of flesh is a life everlasting, and the prepara- 
 tions to fit ours; Ives worthily to enjoy it rank beyond any 
 others. Therefore it is that the Master whose example ia 
 
 (Gl) 
 
62 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 set before us for constant imitation, while ever referring to 
 marriage as a holy and an honorable rite, himself remained 
 unmarried. And the most gifted of the apostles, when ques- 
 tioned 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 a man to remain 
 unmarried. * * * In speaking 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 
 that it would be good for them to remain in the state in 
 which I also am." (1 Corinthians, Conybeare and Howson's 
 translation.) 
 
 It is undeniable from this passage that St. Paul believed 
 tnat a more devoted life though not necessarily a purer 
 one could be led by a celibate. There is no doubt of it. 
 The calls of family affairs, 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 a few 
 of the men who have distinguished themselves in science and 
 art preferred for this reason to renounce marriage. Sir 
 Isaac Newton, Kant the metaphysician, Alexander von 
 Humboldt the greatest of modern physicists, the statesman 
 Pitt, the sculptor Gibson, the philologist Jacob Grimm, and 
 many others whose names are as familiar as these, owe their 
 celebrity in a measure to the devotion a single life allowed 
 them to apply to their favorite pursuits. 
 
 Hence it is that the Roman Catholic Church exacts celi- 
 bacy of her priests, holding that thereby not only do they 
 learn self-control, but that they can be more free to give 
 themselves exclusively to the welfare of those under their 
 spiritual charge. Lord Bacon urges the same view, saying : 
 
WHY NOT TO MARRY. 63 
 
 ' Certainly the best works and of the greatest merit for the 
 public have proceeded from unmarried or childless men." 
 
 Such lofty motives as these, however, have little weight 
 with most men, so we hasten to proceed to one that has, that 
 is economy. It is cheaper to live unmarried. The spiritual 
 Michelet iu his work on woman queries, or rather flatly 
 denies this. But let him pass for an eccentric Frenchman. 
 An American figures too closely to be persuaded that it 
 costs less to keep two than one. Whether the economy is 
 not misplaced is an inquiry about which we shall have some- 
 thing to say hereafter. 
 
 Certain it is that this motive of economy is the chief one 
 for most men deferring or renouncing marriage. It is par- 
 ticularly observable in large cities, where competition 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 al- 
 most disappeared 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 
 larirer proportion of unmarried men than other 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 presumed that if they escape so many burdens to which 
 their married associates are condemned, they should at least 
 pay more to support the institutions which protect all. 
 
 Love of liberty is often urged ;i> a large item in the cre- 
 dit account of the celibate condition. A man can travel ; 
 he can stay at home or go out ; he can smoke when he 
 
64 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 pleases an live where he pleases ; he asks no one's permis- 
 sion, and is obliged to consult no one's convenience but his 
 own. If not monarch of all he surveys, he is at least auto- 
 crat in his own house, and lord of his own chamber. The 
 yoke of matrimony, vinculum matrimonii, as tht Eoman 
 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 license ? 
 But these are queries he must settle for himself. We cheer- 
 fully grant that his points are well taken as questions of 
 fact. It is an old saying that he who takes a wife makes a 
 sacrifice, and he who begets children gives hostages to For- 
 tune. For all this, however, nature provides recompenses. 
 
 Proper Reasons for Celibacy. 
 
 We believe no modern civilized state has revived the 
 ancient law prohibiting bachelorhood. It has been left, and 
 wisely, to the discretion of the individual himself. For 
 there are very good reasons why some men should avoid the 
 nuptial tie. As a law, both moral and physical, the first 
 indeed which man ever received, and which his inner prompt- 
 ings still enforce with singular vehemence, crescite et multi- 
 plicamint, " increase and multiply," is universally binding. 
 But exceptional cases arise in which it may well be relaxed. 
 We have referred to some such on the highest of all authori- 
 ties, the words of Scripture. 
 
 Then, too, there is sometimes a duty to support parents, 
 and younger brothers and sisters, which justly excuses a 
 man from contracting any new responsibilities. Some few 
 men are so constituted that they never experience any real 
 deep affection for the other sex. Such do wisely to refrain 
 altogether. An instance was the philosopher Emanuel 
 
REASONS FOR BACHELORHOOD. 65 
 
 Kant ; ho even went so far as to dislike female society, and 
 avoided it altogether. The essayist Montaigne, though 
 married, avers that he never felt any wish to assume those 
 bonds. 
 
 A far more serious question is that -which arises in con- 
 nection with hereditary diseases, or those constitutional 
 complaints contracted during life, which taint the blood, 
 and arc transmissible to offspring. These inquiries we 
 shall defer to a later page, premising that under some cir- 
 cumstances, not only do they permit* but most forcibly en- 
 join at least temporary celibacy. 
 
 Physical incapacity has always been allowed to be a just 
 cause for abstaining, and, indeed, in all the States of our 
 Union we believe the divorce laws sanction an immediate 
 divorce when such incapacity is established, and is proven 
 In have been in existence at the time of marriage. 
 
 Disappointed affection, whether in consequence of the 
 proverbial inconstancy of woman, or by some casualty of 
 nature, has ever been extolled by persons of sentiment and 
 poetical minds as a praiseworthy argument for renouncing all 
 future alliances. Thus the modern poet of the passions sings 
 in Lockley Hall : 
 
 " Am I mad that I should cherish that which bears but bitter 
 
 fruit? 
 
 I will pluck it from my bosom though my heart be at its root. 
 Never, though my mortal summers to such length of years shall 
 
 come, 
 As the many wintered crow that leads the clanging rookery 
 
 home." 
 
 A.nd, from a different motive, in the sweet ballad of Edward 
 Gray: 
 
C6 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 "Loye may come and love may go, 
 
 And fly like a bird from tree to tree ; 
 But 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 body of Ellen Adair ! 
 
 And there the heart of Edward Gray !" 
 
 It is a touching constancy which thus cherishes the remi- 
 niscence of departed attachment, and 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 neighbor, the love of God, or the 
 pursuit of science, is the highest reason for renouncing the 
 pleasures and escaping the annoyances of family life. Ex- 
 amples of this kind compel our admiration, and usually the 
 self-inflicted deprivation ennobles the character, 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 his bride was 
 the church. He who can thus feel all his yearnings satisfied 
 by the duties of his calling does well to abide content there- 
 with. But let no one entertain for a moment the inexcus- 
 able doctrine that there is any other code of morals for 
 genius, or for unusual ability, than that laid down in the 
 Bible. There have not been wanting specious writers, who, 
 on this plea, justify, or at least palliate, the immoralities of 
 
ON CHASTE CELIBACY. 67 
 
 such men as Goethe, Byron, and Rousseau. 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. 
 
 Disadvantages of Celibacy. 
 
 Let us at this point draw a distinction, and a wide one. 
 Under the term 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 
 disadvantages of celibacy, and he escapes them completely. 
 \Ve emphatically 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 celibacy. The organs are not weakened, nor their 
 power lost, nor is there a tendency to spermatorrhoea, nor to 
 congestions, nor to any one of those ills which certain vicious 
 writers, and certain superficial and careless physicians have 
 attributed to this state. No condition of life is more tho- 
 roughly consistent with perfect mental and physical vigor 
 than absolute chastity. Those only suffer any ill results 
 from celibacy who are impure in thought or act, and for 
 
68 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 them, it is true, nature has devised bitter tortures, and in- 
 flicts them with pitiless severity. 
 
 Looking first at general results, we put the question : 
 Who live longer, the married or the celibate? The answer 
 is the same, seek it in the statistics of what country you will. 
 In France, in England, in Scotland, in the United States, 
 there are, in proportion to their respective number, more 
 than tioice as many married men still living at the age of 
 seventy, as single (more exactly 26.9 married to 11.7 unmar- 
 ried, Becquerel). This is alarming odds against the bache- 
 lors. Well might the registrar of Scotland say that it 
 almost means, " Marry or die." 
 
 To what are we to attribute this difference ? 
 
 The causes are not hard to assign. The married man 
 leads a more regular life, his indulgences are more tempe- 
 rate, rarely excessive, his meals are better served, his wife 
 nurses him when he is ill, and surrounds him with a thou- 
 sand 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 unsatis- 
 fied yearnings, and he is not allowed vacant hours to sit in 
 moody brooding over his future or his present ills. The 
 sight and conversation of his children renew his own youth, 
 und the relaxation he finds in joining their joyous sports in- 
 stils into his frame something of the spirit and vigor of the 
 boy. 
 
 How different the life of the celibate! Engrossed in elabo- 
 rate and selfish cares for his health, he destroys the precau- 
 tions of months by the excess of a night. Given to secret 
 sins, he is exposed to destructive diseases; or else, not 
 satisfying his propensities legitimately, nor yet controlling 
 them, he plunges into reckless dissipation and license. 
 Which class furnishes the most insane ? The celibates. In 
 
DANGER OF IMPURITY. 69 
 
 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 apply to them the words of Alfred do Mus- 
 set's preHy poem: 
 
 " II est deux routes dans la vie : 
 L'une paisible et fleurie, 
 Qui descend sa pente cherie 
 Sans se plaindre et sans soupirer. 
 L'autre, comme un torrent sans digue, 
 Dans une eternelle fatigue, 
 Sous les pieds de 1'enfant prodigue, 
 iuiulc la pierre d'lxion." 
 
 Wlwnevr* through an excitable temperament, a lack of 
 Belf-governrvjnt, or long habit, a man feels it impossible for 
 him to live a virtuous life, he exposes himself, if he still 
 shuns marr'sge, to serious mental and physical disease. 
 Worse* tlnu> this, he doubly condemns himself in the eyes 
 of the mora-Ust, for he drags others from the path of virtue 
 to share and to minister to his own debasement. "The 
 annals of eternity alone," forcibly remarks the Rev. John 
 Todd, in hi* Hints Addressed to the Young Men of the 
 United Stcrfes, " can tell the amount of the guilt of the sin 
 of impurity." And. as a physician, we may add those annals 
 alone can ivvenl the destruction of health and life, the misuse 
 of talents, mid Hie 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 conscouences of celibacy in itself, but of unchaste celi- 
 bacy. The pure in heart, like Buuyan's pilgrim, passes 
 
tO THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 these roaring lions and these ravenous fires unscathed, and 
 the voluptuary alone falls their victim. 
 
 It will be seen that these disadvantages attend chiefly 
 upon those bachelors who lead immoral lives. vVe need not 
 conceal from ourselves that the vast majority of them do so. 
 We are perfectly cognizant of the fact that the vices of 
 single men support the most flagrant evils of modern society. 
 Hence the sociologist finds very strong reasons to urge the 
 policy of all men marrying, and also of marrying as soon as 
 they 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 WORKS REFERRED TO ON CELIBACY. Ed. Reich, 
 Gesrhichte des ehehchen Lebens, pp. 509, 510 ; Casper, Med. Sta- 
 tistik, Bd. II. ; Becquerel, Traiti d'Hysriene privic, p. 572; W. 
 Acton, On the Reproductive Organs, p. 73, ct al. ; Rejiorts of the 
 Registrar-General; Rev. John Todd, Hints to the Young Men of 
 the United States.} 
 
THE SOLITARY VICE. 
 
 WE have just spoken of the peculiar dangers to which tho 
 unmarried condition is exposed. Our purpose now is to take 
 these up in detail, and suggest what we can toward their 
 prevention and cure. 
 
 The first we shall speak of is one which is much more 
 frequent before the age of virility, and even before puberty 
 than later in life ; we mean self-abuse. It is the danger to 
 which, of the various abuses of the masculine function, boys 
 are peculiarly liable. But it is not confined to them. We 
 had a patient at one time under our charge in a public in- 
 stitution, who, although sixty years of age, was a slave to 
 this detestable practice ; and instances of men over thirty 
 who carry it on in spite of warning, are not very rare. 
 
 There is hardly any part of our subject which is more 
 difficult to treat than this, and yet there is none which de- 
 mands more urgently plain speaking, and emphatic language. 
 There have been, unfortunately, many wretched books put 
 forth upon this topic filled with overdrawn pictures of its 
 result, and written merely for the purpose of drawing the 
 unwary ir.to the nets of unscrupulous charlatans. There is 
 also a wide diversity of opinion among skilful physicians 
 themselves as to its consequences. Some treat the whole 
 matter lightly, saying, that a large proportion of boys and 
 young men abuse themselves thus without serious or lasting 
 (71) 
 
72 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 injury, and hold, therefore, that any special warning is un- 
 called for. On the other hand, the large majority of prac. 
 titioners are convinced that not only occasionally, but fre- 
 quently, the results are disastrous in the extreme. "1 could 
 speak," says that excellent authority, Mr. Acton, " of the 
 many wrecks of high intellectual attainments, and the foul 
 blot which has been made on the virgin page of youth, of 
 shocks from which the youth's system will never, in my 
 opinion, be able to rally, of maladies engendered which no- 
 after course of treatment can altogether cure, as the conse- 
 quences of this habit." 
 
 ' I would not exaggerate this matter," says Dr. Horatio 
 R. Storer, of Boston, " or imply that those who have occa- 
 sionally gone astray are necessarily incurably diseased, or 
 their souls irretrievably lost. But I do consider that the 
 effect upon the constitution is detrimental in the extreme." 
 Elsewhere he says : " Enfeebling to the body, enfeebling to 
 the mind, the incarnation of selfishness, hardly the person 
 exists who does not know from experience or from observa- 
 tion, its blighting effects." 
 
 In like manner the late Professor John Ware, of Massa- 
 chusetts, says in a little work intended for popular instruc- 
 tion :_" The deleterious, the sometimes appalling consequences 
 of this vice upon the health, the constitution, the mind itself, 
 are some of the common matters of medical observation. 
 The victims of it should know what these consequences are ; 
 for to be acquainted with the tremendous evils it entails may 
 assist them in the work of resistance." " Nothing is more 
 certain," writes Dr. Maudsley, " than that continued self- 
 abuse will produce an enervation of nervous element, which, 
 if the exhausting vice be continued, passes into degeneration 
 and actual destruction thereof." 
 
 " I myself," says the Rev. John Todd in his Student'} 
 
A SAD SUBJECT. 73 
 
 Manual, "have seen many young men drop into premature 
 graves from this cause alone." The venerable Dr. Huf'e- 
 lancl, in his Art of Prolonging Life, says : " 1 consider this 
 OIK- of the most certain means which shorten and derange 
 life," and his words are quoted with approval by Professor 
 Lallemand, of France, and Erasmus Wilson, of England. 
 And we might continue the list of our quotations almost indefi- 
 nitely, and all of them would be found to speak in the same 
 train. 
 
 These are the recent and well-considered views of the ablest 
 men in the profession of medicine. They are borne out by a 
 number of facts in our personal knowledge. And sanctioned 
 and fortified in this manner, we believe it a duty to speak 
 with no uncertain sound, and we believe that our intentions 
 cannot be misconstrued in so doing. 
 
 'That there are physicians who treat lightly this censurable 
 indulgence is nothing surprising. We could readily quote 
 equally high authority who see no great dangers in the use 
 of alcohol, of opium, and of illicit amours. There are many, 
 say they, who yield to all these temptations, and yet do not 
 obviously sutler, and ultimately reform. Is the counsellor 
 wise who therefore pooh-poohs their perils? Certainly not; 
 and for our part, we shall not, cannot, follow their example. 
 
 Its Consequences. 
 
 And yet it is no part of onr purpose to give in this place 
 the long list of symptoms, nor to describe the changes in 
 face, expression, and form which such self-excitation brings 
 about. We have observed that studying and gloating over 
 the appalling catalogue has led in many instances to pro- 
 found melancholy, and very rarely to reform ; and it has also 
 led to suspicion of innocent persons. The special symptoms 
 
74 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE 
 
 are for the medical man to understand, and wouic, only mis 
 lead the unprofessional reader. Sufficient to say that the 
 earliest consequences are a languor, a disinclination to phy. 
 sical 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 offensive and characteristic selfishness develops in 
 the character ; the thoughts and aspirations seem incapable 
 of noble flights and philanthropic instincts. The imagination 
 runs riot in images of debauchery, and the conversation and 
 reading choose by preference ignoble and vulgar channels. 
 The whole moral nature is debased to a more than brutal 
 degradation. Woman has no real charms for the miserable 
 being who no longer controls his passions. In the stern 
 words of the Rev. John Todd : " In this life a heavier curse 
 can hardly hang upon a young man than that of possessing 
 a polluted imagination. The leprosy fills the whole soul 
 Time only increases it, and even the power erf the gospel can 
 seldom do more than restrain without subduing it." 
 
 But the most fearful effects are not upon the body but the 
 mind. We are no alarmists. We do not wish to conjure 
 up unfounded terrors. But our duty would not be done, 
 and we would violate our conscience and our professional 
 knowledge, did we attempt to veil or to palliate the hideous 
 features of this vice. We distinctly warn that it leads to 
 insanity, not rarely, but frequently. 
 
 There is no higher authority on mental disease than Dr. 
 Henry Maudsley of England ; and these are his words : " The 
 habit of self-abuse notably gives rise to a particular and 
 disagreeable form of insanity, characterized by intense self, 
 feeling and conceit, extreme perversion of feeling, and corre- 
 sponding derangement of thought in the earlier stages ; and 
 
A CAUSE OP INSANITY. 75 
 
 later by failure of intelligence, nocturnal hallucinations, and 
 suicidal and homicidal propensities." So prominent and 
 important does this learned alienist esteem this variety of 
 insanity that he has devoted a long article to its description 
 in the Journal of Mental Science (July, 1868). Not only 
 is it insidious and frequent; it is incurable, or nearly so. 
 "Once the habit is formed," he says," and the mind has posi- 
 tively suffered from 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 he sinks to 
 his degraded rest the better for himself and the better for 
 the world, which is well rid of him." 
 
 We have taken the pains to examine with care the latest 
 reports of a large number of insane asylums in the United 
 States, to ascertain precisely how many of their inmates have 
 been driven there by this vice. The average we have found 
 to be nearly nine per cent, of all the males in whom the causes 
 were assigned; and in one prominent institution in Ohio, 
 fourteen per cent. 
 
 With these fearful figures before us, with these ominous 
 words of distinguished physicians, with the full knowledge 
 that it is through ignorance that this vice is commenced 
 and spread, who dares to say that teachers and parents 
 should hold their peace, and suffer the youth of this land 
 to rush unwarned into the jaws of death ? 
 
 We may be met by the objection that it is quite uncommon. 
 Fathers love to lay the flattering unction to their souls that 
 their boy is above such a mean habit ; principals express 
 their pride that their pupils at least are free from this con- 
 tamination. 
 
 Is it common in the public and private schools of the 
 United States? This inquiry has occupied our serious 
 attention, and as the surest plan of obtaining a correct reply, 
 
 7 
 
76 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 we have asked the opinion of various physicians who have 
 had the professional care of schools. Their general senti- 
 ment is that while there are very few institutions for boys 
 in which the vice is flagrant, or at all universal, there are 
 fewer in which it is unknown. Generally a considerable pei 
 cent., perhaps one-fifth or one-six h of the whole number, 
 are given to it to an extent w r hich is injuring their bodies or 
 minds. The medical attendants say that in most cases they 
 have reason to believe that judiciously and early informing 
 the boys of the dangers of the habit succeeds in either check- 
 ing it altogether, or so curbing it that the bad results are 
 not directly obvious. 
 
 In estimating its frequency we must remember that some 
 boys and young men resist their feelings during their waking 
 hours, but unconsciously violate themselves during their 
 sleep. Such cases are peculiarly difficult to treat, as the 
 sufferer may be ignorant of his habit, and often some obscure 
 general prostration is explicable in this way. 
 
 Its Prevention. 
 
 What we have to say on this subject we address to 
 parents and educators. For on them devolves the serious 
 responsibility of preventing the formation of this habit, 
 which, when once firmly fastened on its victims, is as diffi- 
 cult to break as confirmed intemperance or opium eating. 
 It is in childhood, and in early boyhood, that in ninety-nine 
 cases in a hundred it is commenced. 
 
 We say in childhood, for, as we have said, the sexual 
 passion is not absent even from the immature child. It 
 commences almost with life itself, and so early must also 
 the watchfulness of the parent begin. " There are," says 
 Dr. Maudsley, "frequent manifestations of the instinct of 
 
EARLY SEX-PASSION. 77 
 
 propagation in early life, both in animals and children, with- 
 out there being any consciousness of the aim or design of 
 the blind impulse. "Whoever avers otherwise must have 
 paid very little attention to the gambols of young animals, 
 and must be strangely or hypocritically oblivious to the 
 events of his own early life." It is not at all unfrequent to 
 find patients who date the commencement of their vicious 
 indulgence from five, six, and seven years of age. Dr. Albert 
 M'uller gives the history of one who abused himself from 
 his third year to the age of puberty, when he was destroyed 
 by the fatal consequences of his action. 
 
 But it is more frequent about the age of puberty, when 
 the passions become stronger, and local irritations of various 
 kinds lead the thoughts and suggest the act. In childhood, 
 degraded companions and vicious domestics instruct in bad 
 practices ; at puberty the natural passions often prompt, 
 without the need of bad examples. In both cases an utter 
 ignorance of danger is present, and this is the first point 
 that the parent and teacher must make up their minds to 
 face. 
 
 They must determine, as they expect to answer for the 
 responsibilities they have assumed, not to blind themselves 
 with the idea that their young charges are too innocent and 
 too pure for such thoughts ; they must not deceive themselves 
 in the belief that sound advice here is either dangerous or 
 needless ; they must give such advice earnestly, solemnly, 
 clearly. " I have noticed," says Mr. Acton, " that all patients 
 who have confessed to me that they have practised this vice, 
 lamented that they were not, when children, made aware of 
 its consequences, and I have been pressed over and over again 
 to urge on parents, guardians, schoolmasters, and others in- 
 terested in the education of youth, the necessity of giving 
 their charge some warning, some intimation of their danger. 
 
78 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 To parents and guardians I offer my earnest advice that 
 they should by hearty sympathy and frank explanation, aid 
 their charge in maintaining a pure life." 
 
 Dr. H. E. Storer remarks to the same effect : " 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 puberty. For a boy to reach his teens 
 without learning from his associates something of these mat. 
 ters is simply impossible." 
 
 We urge, therefore, parents and teachers not to permit a 
 natural, and under other cricumstances very proper delicacy, 
 to restrain them from their bounden duty to warn their 
 charges of these dangers. If wisely done, there is no risk 
 whatever of exciting impure thoughts ; and if there is any 
 risk, it is infinitely less than that of leaving children in 
 ignorance. 
 
 In the first part of this work we have given at length the 
 hygienic precautions necessary 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, systematic, gymnastic 
 exercises. Use of the muscles to the point of fatigue every 
 day should be an unalterable regulation in schools. Not 
 only is the general health promoted, and the form perfected, 
 but the nervous forces are thus centred on providing in- 
 creased nutrition for the muscular structure, and withdrawn 
 from the parts essential to propagation. Next to this is the 
 study of mathematics. This requires such mental application 
 and fixity of thought, that the passions remain almost wholly 
 at rest. 
 
 The regimen should be plain, and the imagination allowed 
 to remain in abeyance. Sensational love stories, and even 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR SCHOOLS. 79 
 
 such warmly colored pictures as are presented in the Arabian, 
 nights, and the amorous poets had better be tabooed. 
 
 The growing custom of allowing rery young people of 
 both sexes to associate at parties, balls, dances, and similar 
 amusements cannot be approved on the score of health. It 
 is nearly certain to favor precocity. 
 
 Whether the education of the two sexes in the same in- 
 stitution would have the same effect we do not know. Those 
 who advocate this system assert that it is extremely favora- 
 ble to the maintenance of a simple and natural relation be- 
 tween the sexes, and consequently to the repression of the 
 vice we are discussing. The experiment is being tried on a 
 large scale in our country, so we may expect definite know- 
 ledge ere long. Certain it is that one of the peculiarities of 
 the young man who addicts himself to secret vice is a de- 
 sire to avoid persons of his own age of the opposite sex. 
 His self-respect is impaired, and though others do not know 
 it, he feels conscious of it himself, and shows it in mixed 
 society. It might, therefore, act as a restraint on his self- 
 degradation to have him frequently in the company of female 
 scholars, just as association with pure and refined women is 
 one of the best safeguards which can be thrown around the 
 adult young man. 
 
 Its Cure. 
 
 Many a victim with flagging body and enfeebled will is 
 ready to cry out : "Who shall deliver me from the body of 
 this death? Let them know for their consolation that very 
 many men, now hale and happy, have met and conquered 
 the tempter ; that so long as the mind itself is not actually 
 weakened, there is good hope for them ; that the habit once 
 stopped short of this point, the system recovers from its 
 
SO THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 prostration with surprising rapidity ; and that we come pro- 
 vided with many aids to strengthen their wavering purpose. 
 
 First, and most essential, is the advice that they must 
 resolutely strive for purity of mind. All exciting litera- 
 ture, all indecent conversations, all lascivious exhibitions 
 must be totally renounced. Next, all stimulating food and 
 drink, and especially coffee and alcoholic beverages, must be 
 dropped. The mind and body must both be constantly and 
 arduously employed, the diet plain and limited, the sleep 
 never prolonged, the bed hard, the room well ventilated, the 
 covering light, and the habits as much broken into as prac- 
 ticable. Generally the temptation comes at some particular 
 hour, or under some especial and well-known circumstances. 
 At such times extra precautions must be taken to occupy 
 the thoughts with serious subjects, and to destroy the old 
 associations and opportunities. The instructions we have 
 given on the earlier pages of this book for subduing the 
 passions should be read and followed scrupulously. 
 
 There are also medical means which can be employed in 
 some cases with good success, such as the administration of 
 substances which destroy desire, and local applications, and 
 even surgical operations which render the action physically 
 impossible, but these means we do not propose to enter into, 
 as they can only be properly applied by the educated physi- 
 cian, and do not form part of a work on hygiene. 
 
 As there may be some individuals, however, who cannot 
 overcome the shame they have to reveal their weakness, and 
 others who have no one within reach whom they can consult, 
 we shall insert a few formulas which have the advantage of 
 efficacy, and are not danger.ous. 
 
 When it is believed that the habit is carried on during 
 sleep, a tablespoonful of the following potion should be 
 taken on retiring : 
 
USEFUL RECEIPTS. 81 
 
 Bromide of potash, one drachm; 
 
 Simple syrup, one ounce ; 
 
 Water, one ounce. 
 
 This is intended to produce sounder sleep, and also to 
 diminish desire. The same effects are produced by the ex- 
 tractive principle of hops, which may be taken in the fol- 
 lowing 1 form : 
 
 Elixir of lupulin, half am ounce; 
 
 Camphor wuter, one ounce and a half. 
 
 One tablespoonful may be taken at bedtime. 
 
 In most cases considerable debility is present, and they 
 will be benefited by taking after each meal a teaspoonful 
 
 of the following simple tonic : 
 
 Tincture of chloride of iron, two drachms ; . 
 Sulphate of quinine, one scruple ; 
 
 Syrup of ginger, a half ounce ; 
 
 Water, two ounces. 
 
 The question whether marriage should be advised as a 
 cure for masturbation is one which we are often asked. We 
 are in most cases inclined to reply, no. In the first place, 
 the condition of matrimony is too noble, too holy, to be 
 debased by recommending it for any such purpose. Can the 
 wife wooed and won with any such ignoble object in view 
 ever hope to be loved as a woman and a wife should be 
 loved ? It is a base and flagrant outrage on society for the 
 physician to give such recommendation. Would he yield his 
 own daughter to any man who sought her for such a purpose? 
 How then dare he counsel it ? 
 
 Again, we believe that when the habit is not deeply 
 roolcd, an earnest endeavor, 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 I 
 
82 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 We quote for our reply the words of Dr. Henry Mandsley, 
 who gives no uncertain counsel : " Certainly marriage need 
 not be recommended to the confirmed masturbator in the 
 hope or expectation of curing him of his vice. He will most 
 likely continue it afterwards, and the circumstances in which 
 he is placed will aggravate the misery and the mischief of 
 it. For natural intercourse he has little power or no de- 
 sire, and finds no pleasure in it ; the indulgence of a depraved 
 appetite has destroyed the natural appetite. Besides, if he 
 be not entirely impotent, what an outlook for any child be- 
 gotten of such a degenerate stock ! Has a being so degraded 
 any right to curse a child with the inheritance of such a 
 wretched descent ? Far better that the vice and its conse- 
 quences 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 been weaned from their unnatural 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 ease, by simply ceasing from it, and 
 ceasing thinking about it, he will do so. Therefore there is 
 no cause for despair or melancholy. 
 
 It is hardly credible, and yet it is true, that there are 
 medical men of respectability who do not hesitate to advise 
 illicit intercourse as a remedy for masturbation. In other 
 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 ap- 
 prove for a moment such a course as this. 
 
 Careful regulation of life according to sound hygienic 
 
LAST RESORTS. 83 
 
 rules, aided perhaps with appropriate medication which the 
 physician can suggest, will generally effect good results. 
 
 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 practised upon the singers of the 
 Roman stage, called infibulation. This is of such a charac- 
 ter as to render the act impossible or nearly so. Castration, 
 which some have suggested, need never be resorted to. By 
 one means or another we can say that there are exceedingly 
 few cases, except the actually insane, who cannot be broken 
 of their habit, and considerably 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, conceal 
 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 honor as well as the skill of a medical adviser, they 
 had better not consult him, for on their frankness his success 
 will often depend. 
 
 [AUTHORS AND WORKS REFERRED TO ON THIS STTBJECT: Acton, 
 On the Reproductive Organs, p. 82 ; Dr. Horatio R. Storer, Is it 
 I? Dr. John Ware, Units to Young Men on the Relations of the 
 Sexes: Tissot, Sur I' Onanisme ; Rev. John Todd, The Student's 
 Manual; Henry Maudsley, Physiology and Pathology of the 
 Mind, and Journal of Mental Science, July, 1868; Miiller, Ueber 
 Unwillkilrliche Samensverluste, pp. 23-34 ; Esquirol, Les Mala- 
 din Mentales ; Reports of the Insane Asylum gf the U. &. for 
 1868, 1869, etc.] 
 
SPERMATORRHOEA. 
 
 IF the functions which connect us with our species are a 
 source of pleasure when properly governed, so they are also 
 the causes of acutest agony when disordered, or even when 
 we only imagine they are so. " It is a weakness of our sex, 1 ' 
 justly remarks a well-known American surgeon, " to be over- 
 sensitive upon everything which pertains to the generative 
 function. A man will be more alarmed by a trifling ailment 
 there, than if told that he has tubercles in his lungs." 
 
 Fully aware of this, and relying on the general ignorance 
 on this subject, the most unblushing misrepresentations have 
 been published by unscrupulous men for the sake of extorting 
 money from terrified dupes. Nowhere do we see the lament- 
 able effects of popular ignorance more sadly displayed than 
 in the groundless alarms which so many young men suffer 
 lest they are afflicted with the disease now very widely 
 known even among unprofessional readers as spermator- 
 rhoea. It is our object to do away with these fancied ter- 
 rors, while at the same time we shall not hesitate to point 
 out where real danger may be. 
 
 The long word itself means an involuntary loss of the 
 secretion peculiar to the male. It may occur only in sleep, 
 or else at stool, or when the passions are much excited, or 
 when the parts are accidentally irritated. And at the out- 
 set we must correct an extremelv prevalent error. We 
 (84) 
 
NEEDLESS FRIGHTS. 85 
 
 have often been consulted by young men who were badly 
 frightened because they had once, or twice, or three times 
 a week, or more rarely, involuntary losses during their 
 sleep, usually associated with vivid, passionate dreams. 
 They feared they were the subject of some terrible disorder; 
 they believed they were losing their virility, and were fast 
 becoming melancholy and debilitated. Their appetites were 
 poor, their rest disturbed, their minds wandering. 
 
 Now all these symptoms were purely the results of a distem- 
 pered fancy. There is no danger in such discharges when 
 moderate. They are not a sign of weakness, but of strength. 
 They are natural to every healthy young man, and rarely 
 lead to any bad results. They do not constitute the disease 
 spermatorrhoea, and there is no necessity for a moment's 
 anxiety about them. 
 
 Spermatorrhoea itself is a very rare disease, although it is 
 undoubtedly a very serious one when it does occur. The 
 patient cannot recognize it for himself, and it is therefore 
 useless and foolish for him to worry his mind about it. If 
 he feels his health running down, and fears this may be the 
 cause, let him frankly state his case to some physician in 
 whom he has confidence, and not worry his own mind about 
 it. It is no disgrace, and nothing to be ashamed of, as it 
 arises nearly as often in perfectly continent as in unchaste 
 men. 
 
 The loss of the secretion then taltes place more frequently 
 than we have mentioned, without dreams, and on very slight 
 provocation. It is associated with all the symptoms of an 
 enervated nervous system, extending to a loss of memory, 
 of mental power, and even of epilepsy and insanity. The 
 countenance is pale or sallow; the features drawn; the cy.s 
 dull ; the spirits depressed. Exercise of the functions is 
 impracticable, or nearly so. Profound melancholy, altered 
 
86 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 sexual feeling often an aversion to society of either sex 
 and impotence, may also present themselves. But here, as 
 before, we shall avoid any long and terrifying catalogue of 
 symptoms. When a man feels one-half of the disturbances 
 of system that spermatorrhoea brings, he should, as we have 
 said, have medical advice, and the physician already is ac- 
 quainted with the characters of the disease. 
 
 We said a patient cannot decide whether he has this com- 
 plaint. Every one of its symptoms may be produced by 
 other affections, and that physical sign which is so particu- 
 larly terrifying to patients, and which when they see, they 
 conclude at once that all is over with them, the discharge 
 of a white glairy fluid, is most deceptive and uncertain. 
 Many comparatively innocent causes may give rise to just 
 such discharges. Altered conditions of the kidneys and 
 bladder, local inflammations, and specific diseases may do so. 
 Nothing but a careful examination under the microscope 
 can decide whether or not such a discharge is the seminal 
 secretion. And if it does exhibit those peculiar appear- 
 ances the spermatozoids which distinguish this fluid, they 
 may arise from accidental and innocent causes. Finally, if 
 it is shown beyond a doubt that it is a clear case of sperma- 
 torrhoea, unless there are severe general symptoms of depres- 
 sion, there is still nothing at which to be frightened. Men 
 have lived on for years in perfect health with daily losses of 
 the kind. Professor Niemeyer, relates that he knew person- 
 ally a conductor on a railroad, who, for at least ten years, lost 
 a considerable quantity with every stool, without any observa- 
 ble bad effect on his general health. He was married, and 
 his wife had several healthy children. The British surgeon, 
 Mr. W.F. Teevan, expresses his opinion that a habitual escape 
 of semen when straining at stool "occurs to most men during 
 some period of their lives without producing bad results." 
 
CAUSES OP TROUBLE. 87 
 
 This illustrates how grossly those swindlers impose upon the 
 public, who would make the ignorant believe that any loss 
 of the kind is attended with disastrous effects. Our advice 
 is, Do not fret about yourself, and keep your thoughts and 
 actions pure, and you will not suffer. 
 
 But while we say all this, and say it most emphatically, 
 our duty would be but half done did we not warn in equally 
 clear language against the evils which lead to the real dis- 
 ease. Though it is rare, it is, when present, most destruc- 
 tive to happiness and to health, and, what is more to our 
 purpose, it is always preventable. "\Ve shall speak, there- 
 fore, of 
 
 What brings it about? 
 
 Undoubtedly in most instances this is self-abuse. It is 
 another of the bitter penalties which nature has attached to 
 this unnatural crime. What is more, these cases are the most 
 hopeless, simply because the victims cannot break the fatal 
 chains which bind them. The tongues of men or angels, the 
 solemn warning of the gospel itself, are unavailing. The 
 only choice that is left is death not very remote, or a sur- 
 gical operation which absolutely prevents them handling the 
 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 themselves to submitting to 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 more apt to indemnify themselves for 
 long self-government by renouncing all restraint when oppor- 
 tunity offers. Not a few wretched old bachelors wreck 
 themselves 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 neg- 
 
88 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 lected 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 imaginings, and allowing the 
 passions to become frequently excited, surely bring about a 
 similar debility with a like tendency. 
 
 All these are causes which imply a degraded mind and 
 disgraceful habits. But it must be understood that this 
 disorder may arise where no blame whatever attaches to the 
 individual. The change in the urine which takes place when 
 the substance termed oxalic acid is secreted in large quan- 
 tities renders the fluid irritating, and may lead to sperma- 
 torrhoea. So unquestionably may stone in the bladder, 
 ulcers and worms in the lower bowel, and some local inflam- 
 mations arising from colds. Prolonged diarrhoea, neglect of 
 cleanliness, certain skin diseases, the inordinate use of coffee, 
 alcohol, or tobacco, excessive mental application to the 
 neglect of exercise, and a hereditary predisposition, may 
 all or any of them lead to the same result, without the indi- 
 vidual being the least in fault. The judicious physician 
 always bears this in mind, and we mention it, so that no un- 
 founded fear lest he should be suspected or convicted of 
 debasing practices may restrain the young man who fears he 
 is suffering from this much-dreaded complaint from candidly 
 laying bare his anxieties to his medical counsellor. 
 
 And if it be these habits which are the source of his suffer- 
 Ing, he should have no hesitation in making a frank statement, 
 for the physician's office 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 bea 
 its fell sway. 
 
PREVENTIVE RULES. 89 
 
 How to prevent it. 
 
 The suggestions we have to offer here are rendered almost 
 unnecessary by what we have said of its causes. Many of 
 them all of them, indeed, except the hereditary predisposi- 
 tion are within the power of the individual to avoid, if he 
 only knows enough to begin in time. The instructions we 
 have previously given in detail about the general hygiene of 
 the passions will apply to those who are threatened by weak- 
 ness in consequence of excesses, either social or solitary. 
 "\Vhon the water or adjacent irritations 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 which leads to over 
 frequent losses, very much can be accomplished by cold 
 bathing, regular exercise, an unstimulating diet, and 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 
 patient'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 bo loss satisfactory, 
 unloss the patient co-operates with his adviser. He must 
 
90 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 renounce injurious and irregular habits, shun evil companions, 
 keep watch and ward over his emotions, avoid as he would 
 the pest all prurient literature, 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 occu- 
 pation, innocent recreations, study, and refined society to 
 divert his thoughts from his symptoms. Nine-tenths of the 
 misery which spermatorrhoea brings arises directly or indi- 
 rectly from mental sources. If it cannot be thrown off it 
 can be dodged, and no effort or expense should be spared to 
 seek genial and proper diversions. Nearly all such patients 
 have a penchant for reading semi-medical books, and take a 
 gloomy satisfaction in perusing over and over again the long 
 trains of appalling symptoms which some writers have gathered 
 together as indicative of seminal losses. If such reading 
 strengthened the will to resist temptation, or acted as a 
 salutary warning, we should not say a word against it. But 
 this is conspicuously not the case. It only serves to make 
 them still more hypochondriacal and unnerved. Let it be 
 altogether eschewed. 
 
 Of the methods of cure, one has acquired an unfortunate 
 publicity through its ignorant and often injurious employ- 
 ment this is by cauterization. Afany sufferers have had 
 their pains greatly and uselessly increased by its injudicious 
 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 extortion, mal-practice, and black- 
 
CURATIVE MEAXS. 91 
 
 mail come up before the 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 
 suiTcrer appeal to some regular physician of good repute, 
 and preferably, one whom he personally knows, rather than 
 run any such risks. 
 
 When the seminal losses occur during sleep, they can 
 generally be checked by taking the following prescription 
 after each meal, care being had not to allow it to touch the 
 teeth, which it is apt to injure : 
 
 Muriated tincture of iron, twenty drops ; 
 Water, one tablespoonfal. 
 
 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 should be thoroughly emptied, 
 and a position on the back avoided, as this posture allows 
 the urine to accumulate and press upon that portion of the 
 bladder which is most sensitive. It is sometimes necessary 
 when one cannot break himself from assuming such a posi- 
 tion during sleep, to wear a plate with a projecting piece, 
 fastened on the back with a strap or belt, or what is equally 
 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 erectiona 
 during sleep, and instrument makers vend for this purpose 
 "spermatorrhceal rings." which have on their inner surface 
 eharp points. These are worn at night, and the pain canned 
 by the points wakes the person as soon as the erection com- 
 mences. 
 
 Such contrivances rarely answer the purpose on account 
 of their inconvenience, and the difficulty of procuring them 
 8 
 
92 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 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 failed, the following simple method : " I 
 took a strip of isinglass adhesive plaster, two inches long by 
 half an inch wide, moistened it, and applied it along the 
 back of the member. It worked like a charm, and the young 
 man has not been troubled since, when the plaster is on. 
 He is now entirely recovered and at work at his trade." 
 
 This method will also prove of service in those obstinate 
 cases where self-pollution is carried on during sleep, and at 
 no other time. Mr. Acton relates the case of a young man 
 who could break himself .of this only by tying his hands to 
 a cord passed around his neck ; and Prof. S. M. Bemiss, of 
 the University of Louisiana, mentions in the New Orleans 
 Journal of Medicine, one of his patients, a boy of eighteen, 
 who had brought on epilepsy by nocturnal masturbation, to 
 prevent which they 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 purpose, 
 which interrupts the circulation to the genital organs, and 
 thus renders erection impossible. He has used it with signal 
 success in several cases. It consists of a strap passing be- 
 tween the thighs, to which are fastened two tightly-stuffed 
 balls, which compress the arteries leading to the member, 
 and cut off the supply of blood. 
 
 This bandage is applied over the shirt upon retiring for 
 the night, and by means of straps we can obtain a compres- 
 sion sufficient to render an erection very rare, if indeed it 
 ever takes place, the circulation being so interrupted th< 
 
HINTS FOR TREATMENT. 93 
 
 the parts remaiu benumbed, and as though paralyzed by 
 sleep. 
 
 [AUTHORS AXD WORKS REFERRED TO IN THIS SECTION : Dr. Van 
 Buren, Lecture OH Spermatorrh&a, JV. Y. Med. Gazette; Corres- 
 pondence on Spermatorrhoea, Med. and Surg. Reporter, May and 
 June, 1870 j Prof. Niemeyer, Text Book of Practical Medicine. 
 vol. ii. ; Lullemand, Practical Treatise on Spermatorrhaa ; Dr. 
 Marris Wilson, Diseases of t/ie Vesicula Seminales, chap. iii. v. 
 vi. ; Dr. Albert Mailer, Ueber Uitieillkurliche Samejiverluste ; 
 Bemips, in New Orleans Journal of Medicine, Oct. 1869 ; Half 
 Yearly Compendium, of the Medical Science, Jnn. 1867; Erichsen, 
 System of Surgery; St. Louis Medical Archives; Dr. Wood, Ca- 
 nada Medical Journal ; Mr. Tee van, British Medical Journal, 
 May, 1870. Doisneau's apparatus is described in Le Courier Mi- 
 iicaie, 1869 ; and the St, Louis Medical Archives, sam year.l 
 
SECRET DISEASES. 
 
 Their Effects and Frequency. 
 
 D pestilence, a subtle infection is stealing upon 
 the health of the nation, poisoning its blood and shorten- 
 ing its life, spi-eading 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 contagiou of diseases which arise from impure inter- 
 course. 
 
 Were this its ociy source, and did it stay its ravages with 
 the guilty parties, \ve might say, it is a just penalty, and 
 calls for little sympathy. But this is not so. By the in- 
 scrutable law of God, which decrees that the sins of the 
 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 intercourse, 
 by vaccination, by circumcision, by nursing, by utensils, even 
 by a kiss. Hundreds of examples are recorded 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 apprehension. 
 
 We care not. This is no imaginary evil we combat, nor is it 
 
 any paltry or insignificant one. We do but repeat, and with 
 
 (94) 
 
SECRET DISEASES. 95 
 
 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 Report of the Board of State Charities of Mas- 
 sachusetts (1868). The Board are speaking (p. Ivi.) of "that 
 hideous disease which must have come from the most veno- 
 mous fang of the serpent which bit the heel of mankind," 
 and they go on to say : 
 
 " AVoe 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, resist- 
 less march, it penetrates into the very marrow of the bones, 
 and poisons the fountain of life beyond purification. All 
 may look fair without and feel fair within, but the taint is 
 there, and it affects the offspring. The effects of this dis- 
 order in corrupting the human stock, and predisposing off- 
 spring 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 blas- 
 phemies 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 damna- 
 tion, for he hath an unclean spirit.' " 
 
 And this is said, be it remembered, in a public document, 
 for general distribution. Can we then be blamed if we re- 
 move without compunction the veil which hides the hideous 
 features of this malady ? Would we not deserve 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 
 V) remote, no frontier settlement so isolated, that it is free of 
 
96 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 this scourge ? In the great cities it is fearfully prevalent. 
 Including both sexes and all grades of society we do not 
 doubt that more than twenty-five per cent, of their whole 
 population is more or less tainted with it, and the greater 
 number innocently. Nor is it at all confined to the indigent 
 and the degraded. Its hold is just as firm, though concealed 
 and held in check, in the fashionable clubs and stately man- 
 sions of the opulent, as in the alleys and back slums of the 
 dregs of our population. No man, no woman, we care not 
 what his position or his life may be, is secure from its loath- 
 some touch. 
 
 How great, 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 
 
 " Skin and film the ulcerous place, 
 Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, 
 Infects unseen." 
 
 This social problem interests the public. They must ap- 
 preciate the danger, they just unite and act, they must take 
 up arms in solemn earnbut, and determine to curb and limit, 
 and if any way possible utterly stamp out, this spreading 
 evil. What information seems to us of use for this purpose 
 we shall proceed to give. 
 
 Their Nature and History. 
 
 The contagious diseases which are propagated by the 
 sexual relations are two in number, and are technically 
 known as gonorrhoea and syphilis. They both commence 
 by some local manifestation, and may not proceed further; 
 but about as often they rapidly extend to the whole system, 
 and produce effects upon it which are as permanent in cha- 
 racter as those by vaccination or other specific virus. 
 
HISTORY OP SYPHILIS. 97 
 
 By far the most insidious and destructive 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 inhabitants of the Old 
 AVnrld by the sailors of Columbus. Certainly about that 
 time it broke out with unparalleled virulence in the camps, 
 courts, and brothels of Spain, Italy, France and England. 
 No country was willing to father it, so the English called it 
 the "French disease;" the French, "le mal de Naples;" the 
 Italians, " la mallattia della Spagna." 
 
 There is good reason, however, to believe that neither 
 Columbvis, the Indians, nor any one of these nations was 
 solely to blame in the matter. Probably it had lurked un- 
 recognized and under comparatively innocent forms through 
 all races and ages. At the epoch referred to, the massing of 
 great armies by Francis I. and Charles V., and the increased 
 commerce, acting together with some change in the human 
 constitution itself, led to a violent outbreak in its most viru- 
 lent form. Some have imagined that the ancient leprosy, so 
 often referred to in the Old Testament, was one of its forms ; 
 and others, that it was derived froti the glanders in the 
 horse, transplanted into the human economy. But these 
 theoretical views are of little public interest, and it is enough 
 to remember that, about the year 1500, a very malignant 
 type of the disease arose and spread with fearful rapidity, 
 and that since that time it has been rightly deemed one of 
 the scourges of the human race. 
 
 The other form of secret disease, gonorrhoea, was well 
 known to the ancient Romans, and to the lawgivers of the 
 middle ages, and old English statutes of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury concerning brothels distinctly refer to it as "the 
 perilous infirmitie of burnynge." It, too, appears to hava 
 
98 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 increased in frequency and severity about the same time as 
 syphilis, and is to-day certainly much more severe than it 
 was even in the dissolute commonwealth of imperial Eonie. 
 So far have a riper civilization, a more advanced medical 
 science, and a purer morality failed to curb these insidious 
 complaints, that they are now probably more widely distri- 
 buted than ever before, and little, if at all, abated in vio- 
 lence. The only point which we have actually gained and 
 this certainly is much is to treat them with greater suc- 
 cess than hitherto. 
 
 The Course and the Consequences of Secret Diseases. 
 
 We believe that if the public generally, and especially 
 young men, were better aware of the dangers they incur from 
 illicit indulgence, there would be a determined effort at re 
 form both in municipal and personal life. . We cannot think 
 that sane, intelligent men, to say nothing of morality, would, 
 for the gratification of an ephemeral desire, risk the well-being 
 of their whole lives and the health of their offspring. It 
 must be ignorance of danger which blinds them. The foola 
 rush in where the wise men fear to tread. 
 
 Our intention, therefore, is not to rehearse a harassing 
 and disgusting train of symptoms of no value except to the 
 medical man, but to state in plain terms the general course 
 and the frequent consequences of these diseases. 
 
 We have already said both commence by local manifesta- 
 tions of some kind, which, after a time, are followed by a 
 general contamination of the system. This is the case with 
 both, but in different degrees. The after-effects of gonor- 
 rhoea are much the less severe, and are confined wholly to 
 the individual. It does not leave any hereditary taint. But 
 it may bring about life-long suffering. The passage from the 
 
EFFECTS ON THE INDIVIDUAL. 99 
 
 ftladder becomes inflamed and contracted ; that organ itself 
 (s very apt to partake of the inflammation, and become irri- 
 table and sensitive; spermatorrhoea and impotence with all 
 their miseries may follow, and the whole economy may par- 
 take of the infection. An eruption on the skin and an obsti- 
 nate form of rheumatism, both wholly intractable to ordinary 
 remedies, are more common than even many physicians 
 imagine. Not unfrequently those troublesome chronic rheu- 
 matic complaints which annoy men in middle and advanced 
 life are the late castigations which Nature is inflicting for 
 early transgressions. 
 
 These results, though serious enough, are too personal to 
 demand public action. But not so with those which flow 
 from syphilis. They are so wide reaching that every philan- 
 thropist must feel it his duty, when once made aware of them, 
 to urgently insist on some general measures if such can be 
 devised which will abate them, and protect the innocent 
 thousands on whom they are visited. 
 
 We shall first speak of the effects of syphilis on the indi- 
 vidual. They are divided into three classes ; first, the local 
 attack, which commences as a small ulcer on the part touched 
 by the virus. Next in order of time are the secondary 
 Bymptoms ; they may show themselves in three or four 
 weeks, and may lurk unnoticed for that many months ; the 
 poison attacks the skin and soft parts of the body, producing 
 rashes, ulcerations, swelling of the glands, sore throat, disor- 
 ders of the stomach, liver, and other internal organs ; the 
 hair loosens and falls out, the spirits are depressed, and the 
 brain may be attacked, leading to imbecility, epilepsy, or 
 insanity. At this stage, shallow ulcers are apt to form on 
 the tongue and just inside the lips. The discharge from them 
 Is a poison and can convey the disease, and so can a drop of 
 )ood from the infected person. Let one in this condition 
 
100 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 kiss another, or drink from a cup, or use a pipe or a spoon, 
 and pass it to another, the danger is great that the disease will 
 thus be transmitted. An instance is recently reported in a 
 French medical journal of a glassblower who was suffering 
 from such ulceratious. As is usual, in all respects he ap- 
 peared in good health, and was received into a manufactory. 
 In these establishments the w r orkmen are accustomed to pass 
 the tube through which the glass is blown rapidly from 
 mouth to mouth. He had been there only a few weeks when 
 the physician to the factory was applied to for " sore mouths," 
 and found to his horror that this single diseased man had 
 infected in the process of blowing bottles, nine others. Let 
 such an example be a salutary warning to neatness and 
 caution, as well as an illustration how often innocent per- 
 sons can become the victims of this loathsome complaint. 
 Let it also be an admonition to charity, and against hasty 
 condemnation of the sufferers. 
 
 The third step in the progress of the disease is when the 
 bones are attacked. They often enlarge, become painful, 
 and may ultimately ulcerate. Especially between the knee 
 and the ankle, and on the head is this the case. By this 
 time the whole body is poisoned, and an ineradicable taint 
 is infused in the system. The constitution, though still ap- 
 parently strong, is liable to give way at any moment. There 
 is no longer the same power to repair 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 attempting to pull off his boot, he snapped 
 his thigh-bone, weakened as it was by the disease. For 
 nearly two years he lay on his bed, and was only released by 
 death. 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, peruse the sketch entitled " A 
 
GROUNDLESS ERRORS. 101 
 
 Man tjrjotit Town" in Mr. Warren's remaikab(e book, "The 
 Diary of a London Physician." If after reading that masterly 
 delineation he still feels willing to incur tne risk of such a 
 loathsome fate, tnen to him other words of warning are vain 
 and needless. 
 
 "Syphilophobia." 
 
 While we do not wish to mitigate by one line the dark 
 colors of this picture, we still have a word of consolation 
 which we shall interpolate here. By no means every case 
 of disease runs on to this dire form; constitutions differ ex- 
 ceedingly, and on some the effects of the poison are brief 
 and passing. A hideous phantom haunts some men lest 
 they should have this disease lurking in their system. They 
 watch with terror every swelling and eruption on themselves 
 and their children. None but the observant physician can 
 appreciate what horrors prey upon them. We know the 
 son of a distinguished professor, a young man who lapsed 
 from virtue but once and contracted a mild form of the dis- 
 ease, who became a hopeless lunatic from this constant 
 dread. This is what is called "syphilophobia," and is a by 
 no means infrequent cause of insanity, suicide, and reckless 
 living. The charlatan finds in such a man a ready victim 
 for his extortionate demands. As a rulef these sufferers 
 avoid telling their family physician, and prefer to consult 
 some distant and unknown adviser. Hence they often fall 
 into the hands of bad men. who play upon their fears, swin- 
 dle them out of their money, do them no good whatever, and 
 when all else fails to satisfy rapacious demands, levy black, 
 mail, under threat of disclosing their condition. This 
 course of rascality is so common that we warn all our 
 readers against trusting their health, fortune, and reputa- 
 
102 THE TRANSMISSION Oi' LIFE. 
 
 tions with any man, no matter what his claims, of whom 
 they have no better guarantee of his honor ana skill than 
 his own word therefor, and some dozens of fraudulent certifi- 
 cates from unknown parties. In nine cases out of ten all 
 such fears are groundless and unfounded. 
 
 The Sin of the Father Visited on the Children. 
 
 If there is any field where the philanthropist and reformer 
 is most urgently demanded, it is to limit the infant mortality 
 which prevails to such an alarming extent in our great 
 cities. In New York, Boston, and Philadelphia over one- 
 fourth, in Cincinnati nearly one-third (30 per cent.) of all 
 the children born alive perish within the first year of life ! 
 What a portentous fact is this ? What are the causes of 
 this frightful mortality? 
 
 We will mention one. A physician of wide experience 
 has calculated, after careful inquiry, that fourth on the list 
 of causes is hereditary syphilis. But even this statement 
 does not at all convey an adequate idea of the effect of this 
 disease on limiting and corrupting population. Of the in- 
 fants which are stillborn, the number is very great, and of 
 these, the most frequent cause of death, according to that 
 cautious writer, Dr. Berkeley Hill, is syphilis. 
 
 But even if fhe child survives its first year, the danger is 
 not past. It may be the picture of health till five or six 
 years of age, or to the period of puberty, or even to adult 
 age, and then first reveal the long-concealed poison which 
 has lurked in the system ever since its being began. That 
 poison shows itself under a hundred protean forms. It may 
 be in eruptions on the skin and foul ulcerations, or in obsti- 
 nate " colds in the head," in swelling of the bones, in a pecu- 
 liar affection of the eyes leading to blindness, in brittle and 
 
LAWS OP TRANSMISSION. 103 
 
 loose teeth, in the protean symptoms of scrofula, in idiocy, 
 stunted growth, and in insanity. 
 
 Such are the legacies which parents who through vice or 
 misfortune have been cursed with this disease have to hand 
 down to their offspring. " The fathers have eaten sour 
 grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." 
 
 Face to face with these facts, it becomes of the highest 
 general interest to learn what the laws of such transmission 
 are, so far as they have been discovered by careful observa- 
 tion. 
 
 They arc curious. It is possible for a man in whose con- 
 stitution the taint of disease exists, but is latent, to have 
 perfectly sound offspring. But if he has any symptoms of 
 the disease in any stage, it is probable, nay, almost certain, 
 that his children will show the effects of it, although 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 of her pregnancy, she will escape. 
 
 When both mother and father display unequivocal signs 
 of the disease, the case of the child is desperate. There is 
 hardly any hope of its being born sound. 
 
 When such a child is born, it is a dangerous source of in- 
 fection for all around it. The nurse who applies it to her 
 breast, the friend who kisses it, the attendants who handle 
 it, are in imminent danger of becoming in turn victims of 
 the loathsome disc M.M . 
 
 The only person who can nurse or even touch it without 
 danger is the mother who bore it. It is in this form of in- 
 fantilo syphilis that the disease is most easily communicated. 
 In the strong, and yet not too strong language of Dr. Colles. 
 a well-known English surgeon : " The readiness with which 
 
104 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 syphilis in infants can be communicated by contact cannot 
 be exceeded by any other disease with which I am acquainted. 
 I look upon it as equally infectious with the itch itself." 
 And Dr. Barton adds : " A common mode by which the 
 syphilitic infant spreads the disease is by being Tcissed by 
 the girl that carries it, or by others." 
 
 If this is so and there is no doubt of it is it not time 
 that the public received some warning about it ? Are we 
 to shut our mouths and see these perils to public health 
 hourly increasing, and say nothing, do nothing ? 
 
 Let such a child by careful attention and sound hygiene 
 survive to adult life, and become in turn the father or mother 
 of a family, even then unrelenting nature may not be satis- 
 fied. There are undoubted cases on record where the disease 
 was handed down, in spite of every care and strict virtue, to 
 the third generation, and perhaps to the fourth. 
 
 It appears in multiplied forms of disease. " We are com- 
 pelled to conclude," says Dr. Barton, summing up in his 
 recent work the many observations on the transmission of 
 syphilis, " that a very considerable proportion of those 
 chronic diseases of the eyes, skin, glands, and bones, to which 
 the epithet scrofulous has been applied, are really the results 
 of inherited syphilis." 
 
 And all this misery, all these curses long drawn out, these 
 consequences so dire to innocent generations, the penalty of 
 one moment of illicit pleasure, the vengeance of a violated 
 law which knows justice but no mercy ! 
 
 With these deplorable possibilities in view, it becomes a 
 serious question 
 
 How soon can a Man, once Diseased, Marry ? 
 
 A French specialist of eminence does not hesitate to reply : 
 Never. We cannot agree with him. In a large number of 
 
MARRIAGE FORBIDDEN. ICj 
 
 the disease is transient, mild, curable. In others 
 it may be severe and obstinate, but finally yields entirely to 
 judicious treatment. Only in a small minority is it utterly 
 ineradicable. That it is so, however, in this minority, and 
 that it is extremely difficult to say positively, who does not 
 belong to it, is unquestionable. "We doubt if any man having 
 once had decided infection can positively say that he has 
 entirely recovered from it. 
 
 "We know a respectable physician who, when commencing 
 practice, contracted syphilis on the finger in attending the 
 confinement of a diseased woman. It became constitutional, 
 but by active treatment he apparently completely cured it. 
 He married, and has four to all appearance healthy children. 
 Fourteen years after all symptoms had disappeared, on an 
 occasion when his general health was lowered by loss of rest 
 and anxiety, the disease broke out anew. There is not a 
 doubt but that during the whole of that period it had been 
 lurking in his blood. 
 
 Knglish writers who have given the question we are con- 
 sidering a great deal of attention on account of its vast social 
 importance, and the frequency with which it is asked, have 
 settled on the following rule, which we believe may be ac- 
 cepted as of general validity, and may be acted on with very 
 little hesitation : The shortest period between the latest 
 epoch of the contraction of disease and marriage must be 
 three years; and at least one full year must elapse between 
 the disappearance of the last symptom of the complaint and 
 the marriage. 
 
 We recommend also to all who apply to us for advice on 
 this difficult subject, to test their constitutions thoroughly, 
 and see if they have any seeds of the malady ; n their sys- 
 tems. This can be done by bathing daily for a month in 
 warm natural sulphur waters; for example, the hot springs 
 
*06 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 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 peculiar eruption on the 
 skin, if syphilis is present ; and if this does not appear, we 
 may be very certain that there is no virus in the system. 
 
 How to Prevent these Diseases. 
 
 What we have said of the extent, the virulence, and the 
 calamitous results on the individual, his offspring, 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 possible, annihilate this destruc- 
 tive scourge. The nature of syphilis leads us to hope for this 
 consummation. It is strictly contagious in nature, trans- 
 mitted, that is, by contact only. The problem, therefore, 
 resolves itself simply how to avoid contact. 
 
 Unquestionably the chief though by no means the only 
 source of contagion is in prostitution, a subject therefore 
 which we shall shortly proceed to consider at length. 
 
 It is important, however, for all men to be aware of the 
 fact, that gonorrhoea not at all unfrequently arises from 
 other cause beside contagion. Ignorance of this has within 
 our .knowledge led to cruel accusations, utter disruption of 
 families, and untold misery. Dr. Ricord mentions the case 
 of a young man who even committed suicide, because he was 
 seized with this disease on his wedding trip, and ignorantly 
 concluded that his bride was unchaste. When relations are 
 had with a woman who suffers from an acrid discharge, or at 
 the time of her monthly illness, or when the indulgence is 
 excessive, or the excitement over-intense, it is by no means 
 uuusual for the male to have as the result an inflammation 
 
MEANS OP PREVENTION. 107 
 
 and discharge, which are quite the same as this disase, even 
 being communicable. 
 
 A very recent writer, Prof. A. W. Stein, of New York, 
 says in an address read February, 1870, before the New 
 York Medical Journal Association : " It cannot be too often 
 mentioned that gonorrhea is not always the result of illicit 
 or impure intercourse. It is of the greatest importance that 
 we should fully appreciate this fact, for the most disastrous 
 consequences have resulted from ignorance of it." - All writers 
 are agreed that the conditions we have mentioned in the 
 female may give rise to it. 
 
 Such causes, therefore, should be scrupulously avoided ; and 
 also we should be not over-apt to condemn the person, male 
 or female, who thus must bear the suspicion of unckastity. 
 
 Personal Means of Prevention. 
 
 Foreign writers have spoken much of the means for the 
 personal prevention of diseases of this character. Very mi- 
 nute directions are given, and certain chemical preservatives 
 recommended, by the application of which immediately after 
 exposure, the virus which conveys the disease is neutralized, 
 and deprived of its poisonous properties. Certain mechani- 
 cal appliances have been brought before the professional 
 public by American surgeons for the same purpose, and their 
 use has been defended by the well-known surgeon, Dr. Bum- 
 stead, of New York, on the ground that " the passions always 
 will control, as they always have controlled, the moral sense 
 of the greater part of man and womankind, and as the effects 
 of vice are by no means confined to the guilty, their preven- 
 tion is no unworthy subject of consideration." While con- 
 ceding the force of this expression of so eminent a teacher, 
 we slill fear that such information, if given publicly and pro- 
 9 
 
108 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 miscuously, might tend to remove one of the barriers which 
 now keep men in the path of rectitude. We therefore be- 
 lieve such instructions should be kept for individual instances, 
 and reserved for those cases, in married life, where, 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 ab- 
 stain, he might involve her in his own misfortune. 
 
 They are also justifiable when a wife has a discharge of the 
 character we have mentioned, which is liable to produce a 
 disease apparently specific in character, in her husband. 
 Some men are extremely sensitive to any exposure 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, contract 
 shortly before their wedding one of these diseases. A thou- 
 sand social reasons combine to prevent them obtaining a 
 delay; they are often not aware of the full extent of the 
 danger to which they will expose their bride and their child- 
 ren; they are not very conscientious; such marriages 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 recom- 
 mended, lest we should in some degree shear of its proper 
 terrors illicit intercourse. 
 
 f AUTHORS AMD WORKS REFERRED TO ON THESE TOPICS. Dr. 
 \Vm. A. Hammond, On, Venereal Diseases ; Win. Acton, On Pros- 
 titution; Durkee, On Gonorrhoea and Syphilis; Dr. Berkeley Hill, 
 On Venereal Diseases; Barton, Nature and Treatment of Syphilis; 
 Colles, On Syphilis; Cullerier, Atlas of Venereal Diseases ; Dr. J. 
 F. Bumstead, On Venereal Diseases ; Lancereaux, Traiti de la 
 
AUTHORITIES. 1 09 
 
 fi/ptn'tis, Dr. P. Diday, Noiivtlles Doctrines snr la Syphilis, and 
 Infantile Syphilis ; Ricord, Lettres sitr la Syphilis; The IVestmin- 
 tter Review for July, 1869, January and April, 1870; Stein, in 
 New York Medical Journal; and numerous monographs, reports, 
 discussions, and articles in the recent medical periodicals.] 
 
THE SOCIAL EVIL. 
 
 WE have now pointed out with dispassionate yet earnest 
 words the deplorable consequences of misgoverned sexual 
 instinct on the individual, on his family, on his children, and 
 through these on society and the race at large. There re- 
 mains for us to turn a still darker page, and to reveal an 
 abyss of misery, iniquity, and disease, from which the philan- 
 thropist too often turns away with a shudder. This abyss is 
 prostitution, the great social evil of our day, invading all 
 grades of society, contaminating with leprous touch the fairest 
 of our land, destroying the pure joys of the domestic hearth, 
 the well-spring of disgusting maladies, the inexhaustible 
 source of all manner of evil. 
 
 Too often the clergyman and the statesman prefer to shut 
 their eyes and shun the unpleasant topic. This is not our 
 purpose. Such a course can command no admiration and 
 effect no good result. Bather will we risk the charge of 
 over-plainness of speech than hesitate to exhibit the nature, 
 the extent, and the consequences of this infecting ulcer in 
 the body politic of our land. Our statements are based on 
 careful studies of original documents, and the opinions of 
 those physicians and philanthropists who have devoted most 
 time to combating this pest. We shall aim to exhibit it as 
 it actually exists in our midst, choosing the most trustworthy 
 and the most recent sources of information, and premising 
 that all our statements are taken directly from origiasU 
 authorities. 
 (110) 
 
POLICE REGISTRATION. Ill 
 
 Prostitution in the United States. 
 
 There is no branch of social science that offers greater dif- 
 ficulties to the investigator than that which concerns itself 
 with the number, the life, the fate, and the condition of fallen 
 women. It has ever been so. Thousands of years ago King 
 Solomon the wise said 
 
 il Lest thou shouldst ponder the path of her life, her ways 
 are movable, that thou canst not know them." (Proverbs 
 v.6.) 
 
 The great majority of them entirely elude the searches of 
 the police, and conceal their calling under some outward 
 garb of honest occupation. Before we proceed, therefore, to 
 estimate the numbers in our large cities, we must explain the 
 different classes in which they are divided. 
 
 The police reports of our great cities divide them into 
 " public prostitutes," " waiter-girls," and " kept women," or 
 "private mistresses." The first mentioned alone can, for 
 obvious reasons, be known as such to the police. They are 
 those who ply their avocation with such publicity as to 
 become familiar 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 only be classed as to character according to the 
 good or bad reputation of the refreshment houses where they 
 are employed. There are certain saloons Captain Ken- 
 nedy, Superintendent of the New York Metropolitan Police, 
 H:IV< thirty-three in that city and Brooklyn in which the 
 chief business is licentiousness. They were a few years ago 
 very abundant in St. Louis, and the wretched women in them 
 were known locally as " beer jerkers ;" but the excessively 
 injurious effects of such establishments became so notorious 
 
112 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 that they were all shut up. Only the lowest class oi 
 women are found in such dens. 
 
 The haunts of those one degree above tnese giris are known 
 to the police as " houses of prostitution ;'* and ranking above 
 these again in the observance of decorum are the " houses of 
 assignation." In the former, the inmates either go forth at 
 night to seek their victims, and are known merely as " board- 
 ers ;" or they remain within, and await chance comers, and 
 are then called " parlor boarders." The mistress of the house 
 furnishes room and board to her inmates, and sometimes 
 clothing, for which articles she takes care to keep them in 
 debt to her. Liquor of the vilest manufacture is always 
 kept on hand at extravagant prices, and the girls are forced 
 by threats and promises to urge its *ale. Gambling is not 
 uncommon, and " panel thieving" in carried on with great 
 adroitness in very many of them. 
 
 All the inmates of these infamous Tiouses bear assumed 
 names, and it is a matter of constant observation how "mova- 
 ble" 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, Ameri- 
 cans and Germans predominating, the Celtic race, that is, 
 the Scotch, Welsh, and Irish, being in the minority, in pro- 
 portion 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 assignation, according to the police reports 
 of New York, are yearly on the increase, while the houses 
 of prostitution are decreasing. In the former, the proprie- 
 tors pretend to keep no boarders, but to have a number of 
 
NUMBER OF PROSTITUTES. 113 
 
 female acquaintances, who, to eke out a scanty income or for 
 motives of pleasure merely, sell their bodies. This story in 
 miu'ty-nine cases in a hundred is notoriously false, and the 
 Women in such houses 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 1869 there are 
 in New York and Brooklyn 496 houses of prostitution and 
 107 houses of assignation. The whole number of women 
 certainly known to the police as public prostitutes is 2107 ; 
 but various competent authorities estimate the actual num- 
 ber of those who subsist in great part or entirely on the 
 wages of sin, at the enormous number of thirty thousand. 
 
 This calculation, allowing for difference in extent and 
 character of population, agrees closely with that made by 
 the Midnight Mission of Philadelphia in the same year. 
 The officers of this charity are of opinion that there are not 
 less than twelve thousand in that city. 
 
 In Cincinnati a municipal law orders a register to be kept 
 at police headquarters, on which the name and address of 
 every well-ascertained public prostitute are inscribed. In 
 1869 the number so registered was 485 ; which, if the'same 
 proportion of public to private prostitution prevails as in 
 New York, gives for the total number of fallen women 
 seven thousand. 
 
 But Chicago has the unenviable notoriety of being the 
 city in the United States where this degraded class is most 
 numerous. Prof. Edmond Andrews, M. D., of that city, esti- 
 mated that in 1867 there was one public prostitute to 230 
 inhabitants, or more than twice as many in proportion to 
 
114 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 the population as in New York city or Philadelphia, and 
 more than in any of the corrupt capitals of the Old World, 
 Paris not excepted ! 
 
 It is unnecessary to carry this dreadful enumeration any 
 further. We have said enough to display beyond question 
 the appalling extent of this sin, and an elaborate discussion 
 were out of place here. 
 
 'We shall next proceed to describe 
 
 Its Effects on the Woman. 
 
 Dr. Sanger, a physician of New York, who has had favor- 
 able opportunities for investigation in that city, asserts that 
 the whole population of public women changes once in four 
 years ; in other words, that every year one-fourth of them 
 disappears, and are replaced by fresh accessions to the fated 
 crowd. What becomes of this fourth which in some way 
 vanishes from the knowledge of the police ? Dr. Sanger does 
 not hesitate to say that most of them die. Our study of 
 the subject leads us to doubt this. The majority either 
 move to other cities, are imprisoned, become private mis- 
 tresses or wives, or escape to a life of honest labor. 
 
 It may astonish some to hear us say that they become 
 wives. But this is not very unusual. Sometimes they marry 
 much above their original station in life. We positively 
 know that out of one class which graduated at a leading 
 Eastern college not many years since with less than a hun- 
 dred members, three have married women whom they knew 
 to be prostitutes. Scions of some of the most respected 
 families in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston have com- 
 mitted the same folly. The results of such alliances are of 
 course disastrous without exception. 
 
 Though this disposition of the majority we believe to be 
 
THE FATE OF THE FALLEN. 115 
 
 true, yet a large minority do die. If one considers for a 
 moment the irregularities, excesses, and exposures to which 
 they are subjected, he cannot doubt this. Many of them 
 are constantly diseased with venereal maladies ; they often 
 drink to intoxication ; they are exposed to inclement weather 
 with insufficient clothing ; they are frequently injured in 
 brutal brothel fights ; they are neglected when sick. Their 
 chance of life must necessarily be greatly lessened. 
 
 But this, though serious enough, is by no means the worst 
 effect. It is the almost hopeless moral death of 'the prosti- 
 tute which is the darkest result of her mode of life. The 
 woman who once loses her virtue can never recover her self 
 respect ; but she, who for money has prostituted her body 
 as a trade, seems to lose hold of all moral principle, and 
 even natural affection. She consorts by necessity and pre- 
 ference with thieves, gamblers, and the vilest classes of men. 
 She rarely makes the effort to rid herself from the jaws of 
 death, even when assistance is offered. The ancient heathen 
 wrote over the doors of brothels: Hie habitat voluptas, 
 Here pleasure dwelleth; but the Christian knows that a fai 
 truer inscription were that which Daiite says is written over 
 the gates of hell : 
 
 " Leave eveiy hope, ye who enter here." 
 
 It is this utter demoralization which invests with such 
 difficulty every attempt to redeem these creatures. And we 
 must look it squarely in the face in all our schemes for reform. 
 
 The most striking exhibition of their unnatural debase, 
 ment is the almost entire lack of maternal feeling in these 
 women. Their avocation by its constant excitement pre- 
 vents conception as a rule, and this is a beneficent law of 
 nature. For the wretched ofl'spring of such mothers con id 
 hope for nothing tout misery. When boni, the infants are 
 
116 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 usually sent to a foundling hospital, or to a " baby farming" 
 establishment, or killed outright. The latter does but 
 inticipate a fate almost certain at the hospital. The infant 
 mortality on Ward's Island, New York, is over 90 per cent. 
 V^ery nearly all die. And the result is the same in Boston, 
 Philadelphia, London, and Paris. The causes, in most in- 
 stances, are hereditary syphilis and neglect. 
 
 Its Consequences to the Man. 
 
 In speaking of the effects of the social evil on women, we 
 have been repeating common-places which every reader 
 knew or suspected. But there remains an exhibit of its 
 consequences to be made, which is often lost sight of, or im- 
 perfectly apprehended ; we mean its effect on the men who 
 support it. 
 
 This is, if anything, even more deplorable than on the 
 woman. The words of the wise king are every whit as true 
 now as they ever were, and we would that ministers 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 honor unto others, and thy years 
 unto the cruel ; 
 
 " Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labors 
 be in the house of a stranger ; 
 
 " And thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thj- 
 are consumed." (Proverbs v.) 
 
WHO MAINTAIN THIS EVIL. 117 
 
 " AVhoso is simple, lot him turn in hither : aud as for him 
 that wanteth understanding, she saith 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 win) are the guests ? The gambler, the thief, the 
 policy dealer, the ruffian ; and with these, the college student, 
 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 
 escape the contamination ? Vain chimera. It is as certain 
 as death. If nothing else remains, the moral stain is in- 
 delible. As the poet Burns most truly says : 
 
 " It hardens a' within, 
 And petrifies the feelings." 
 
 But often there are physical consequences more immedi- 
 ately troublesome than this. The prevalence of contagious 
 disease among these women is shocking. It is safe to say 
 that one in three or four is suffering under some communica- 
 ble form of them. " And how fearfully," exclaims the Rev. 
 Dr. Muhlenburg in his sermon on the Midnight Mission, "is 
 the wrath of God seen in these physical consequences 1 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 morally degrading, and physically dangerous, 
 illicit indulgence is pecuniarily ruinous. These women accus- 
 tom themselves and their dupes to reckless expenditure, and 
 
118 THE TRANSMISSION 01 LIFE. 
 
 of course they sink together into poverty. Nor let the shrewd 
 and cautious business man think himself safe. It is notorious 
 that a large class of these women are kept by their para* 
 mours exclusively for the purpose of levying black mail. 
 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 unscru- 
 pulous pair have their victim in a net which he dares not 
 break, and they bleed him 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 respec- 
 tability" are daily suffering the torments of the damned from 
 the threats and extortions of such villains. 
 
 Let this public exposition 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 
 ns solace ourselves with loves. 
 
 " 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- appointed." 
 
 If he yields, 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 solution. 
 We ask, therefore, what is it leads so many women, usually, 
 almost pecessarily, young, healthy, and handsome for thej 
 
THE TEMPTATIONS. 119 
 
 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 bringing up apart from Chris- 
 tian influences, and amid constant exposure to temptation; 
 or, from their having been the victims of seduction; or from 
 the extremities of destitution ; or, allow me to add, in a fond- 
 ness for finery, copying their sisters in higher life, who, by 
 their example of vain show in dress, have more to answer for 
 in this matter than they suspect." 
 
 It is popularly supposed among men that in the greater 
 number of cases it is the strong passions, the insatiable lusts 
 of those 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 jublic immoral life. It is true that many of 
 these women claim and pretend to exhibit great erotic pas- 
 sion, but this is nearly always fictitious, adopted as an attrac- 
 tion, merely a " trick of the trade." The excessive frequency 
 with which they indulge blunts their sensibility and pre- 
 cludes the possibility of much real feeling. 
 
 Probably the most common and fatal temptation to young 
 women is simply money. They can gain more, and can, con- 
 sequently, dress finer, live more idly, and fare better for a 
 while by this than l>y 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' Ao, 
 ciation of New York estimate there are at least thirty thou- 
 sand children between the ages of five and twelve in that 
 city who are subject to no parental control, receive no in- 
 struction either religious or secular, and are constantly ex- 
 posed to the corrupting influences of a hotbed of vice. Ten 
 years later they become a vast army of prostitutes and thieves. 
 
120 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 80 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 
 immigrants 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 devour" (Rev. Dr. 
 Muhlenberg.) It is notorious to those familiar with the vices 
 of our cities that there are so-called " employment offices," 
 or " intelligence offices," which are in reality snares for the 
 unwary, and that the proprietor (male or female) is in con- 
 nection with a house of ill-fame, and sends to such places those 
 whom he thinks will be entrapped. 
 
 Opulent satyrs, cloyed with ordinary means of vice, and 
 bent on provoking exhausted senses with novelty, offer large 
 bids for youth and virtue; stimulated by them, a class of 
 evil old women make it their business to be on the watch for 
 ^iddy 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 constantly in- 
 creased. 
 
 Is it a Necessary Evil? 
 
 Divines, philosophers, and physicians have united in the 
 expression of the opinion that prostitution is a necessary evil, 
 not only in the sense that it is unavoidable by any known 
 regulation, but that it is necessary to the interest, even to 
 the morality, of society at large. St. Augustine, the eminent 
 father of the Latin church, in his book De Ordine, says : 
 " Suppress prostitution, and you will plunge society into liber- 
 
POSSIBLE ADVANTAGES. 121 
 
 tinage" (aufcr meretrices, turbaveris omnia libidinibiis). 
 The severe Cato recommended that young men should visit 
 the brothels when their passions were ardent, so that they 
 might not be tempted to invade the sanctity of marriage. 
 
 " I regard prostitution," says Mr. Acton, " as an inevitable 
 attendant upon civilized, and especially closely packed popu- 
 lation. 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: "The 'social evil' is ever in 
 proportion to the wealth and luxury of a community." 
 
 Such opinions are discouraging, and are not to be accepted 
 as the solution of the problem. There is absolutely no moral 
 evil which is inseparably connected with human society. 
 Herbert Spencer, in his " Social Statics," points out with 
 lucid and logical language the perfectibility of the human 
 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 as this, from which it is impossible for 
 him to refrain. (J ranted 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 
 arc 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, more 
 conspicuous for marital chastity, than the rural districts 
 where none exist ? The 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, without it be 
 that there are women wretched enough, friendless enough, 
 desperate enough, to be forced to this mode of life to esoupa 
 
122 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 starvation. And this is indeed sorry praise to give it. It 
 only gives them a chance to sell their birthright to heaven 
 for a mes's of the devil's pottage. 
 
 The opportunity of illicit intercourse never protects mar- 
 riage. Chastity, not allowed sensuality, is the safeguard of 
 the household. The more a young man sees of abandoned 
 women, the less is his faith in woman in general, and the more 
 feckless becomes his libertinism. 
 
 How can it be Stopped? 
 
 The theories which have been propounded for the abating 
 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 maintains 
 that Christian precept and example both advocate a plu- 
 rality of wives, that such a system has really no seriously 
 objectionable features, and that by absorbing all the female 
 population into the married state it effectually kills prostitu- 
 tion by depriving it of any material. This theory we do not 
 deem worthy of sober attack. 
 
 Valuable for its practicality is the plan of repression sug- 
 gested by Dr. George J. Ziegler, of Philadelphia, in several 
 medical periodicals in 18G7. He urges that the act of sexual 
 connection be, ipso facto, the solemnization of marriage, and 
 that when any such single act can be proven against an un- 
 married man by an unmarried woman, the latter be at once 
 invested with all the legal privileges of a wife. By vesting 
 this power in the woman, no man would risk himself in the 
 
PLANS OF CURE. 123 
 
 company of a dissolute, scheming girl, who might force him 
 to a marriage, and ruin him for life. There 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 strongest objection to it would be that it 
 would considerably increase the temptations to destroy family 
 purity, married women being the only ones who could be 
 approached without danger of being forced into a mis- 
 alliance. 
 
 Last year (1869) Dr. Charles Drysdale, of London, a soci- 
 ologist of eminence, brought forward a proposition intended 
 to inflict the death-blow on prostitution ; it consists, to give 
 his own words, in a general determination to have " early 
 marriages, and very few children (indeed, none at all, per- 
 haps, as in France, for some years), and greater facility for 
 divorce, as obtains at present in Indiana, and some other 
 States of the United States." 
 
 We question very much whether these three recommen- 
 dations would not have the very contrary effect from that 
 desired. We have made considerable inquiry of private 
 individuals from the States of our Union to which Dr. Drys- 
 dale refers, and all our informants seem convinced that the 
 facile divorces have in nowise helped the morals of the 
 community. We have already shown that precisely 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 ourselves quite unable to 
 perceive. 
 
 The fourth method suggested is based upon the undoubted 
 fact that it is money which may stand for bread and butter, 
 
124 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 or for fine clothes, or for intellectual gratification, or for any 
 of the numberless pleasant things 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 op- 
 portunities to earn their living, to satisfy their tastes, to 
 make money, as 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 w r ork at once in collecting these lost 
 sheep of the Master into mission houses and halls, in setting 
 forth to them the temporal and eternal dangers of their law- 
 less life, in providing those who will accept with remunerative 
 labor, and situations adequate to their capacities, and in 
 trying upon them the effects of sound religious instruction. 
 Such are the Midnight Missions which have been established 
 by zealous and pious Christians in most of our cities ; such 
 the Magdalen asylums supported by the Protestant denomi- 
 nations ; and such the " Houses of the Good Shepherd," 
 organized for the same purpose by practical Catholics. 
 
 These admirable institutions all accomplish a good work, 
 although in comparison with the magnitude of the harvest, 
 the laborers are indeed few. "We have attempted to form 
 some idea of their actual efficacy 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 those who enter the Homes ; and we are informed 
 by a responsible Catholic authority that the proportion of 
 the saved in the Houses of the Good Shepherd are between 
 two-thirds and three-fourths. But satisfactory as this is, it 
 is discouraging to see how few can be induced to enter these 
 
LEGAL REGULATIONS. 125 
 
 doors of escape when they are opened. The Midnight Mis- 
 sion Home in Amity Street, New York, in its report for the 
 year 1868, shows only one hundred and twenty-two recep- 
 tions ; though it is true that these excellent charities, like 
 BO many others, are sadly cramped for want of means. 
 
 Shall it be Regulated by Law? 
 
 In mere despair at discovering any means of entire repres. 
 sion, and very properly unwilling to shut the eyes and refuse 
 to see this hideous and advancing tide of immorality and 
 disease, many governments have chosen the policy of recog- 
 nizing its existence, and subjecting it to such regulations as 
 have been thought best devised to limit its growth, and 
 diminish its destructive consequences. 
 
 There have been recently published several very elaborate 
 discussions concerning the success of these plans of legisla- 
 tion 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 examination. Those 
 found diseased are at once sent to a venereal 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 de toler- 
 ance] are strictly watched by the police, and the charges 
 are fixed, and posted up in a conspicuous place. These 
 onerous enactments have failed on account of their strin- 
 gency. The girls are subjected to so much surveillance 
 that they seek in every way to escape from public into pri- 
 
126 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 vate 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 
 grtsettes, lorettes, femmes entretenues, etc., have vastly and 
 alarmingly increased. 
 
 The contagious diseases act, which against violent opposi- 
 tion 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 probation. It 
 provides that any woman, against whom an informant has 
 deposed that he has reason io oelieve 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 diseased, she is ordered to a 
 hospital, where she is obliged to remain until the medical 
 officer pronounces her well. It has been justly urged against 
 this act and the other acts associated with it, that they en- 
 croach 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 imitate 
 the ostrich, which, when it wishes to escape its enemies, is 
 currently reported to hide its head in the sand, thinking that 
 if it cannot see them they cannot see it. The results of 
 this policy are that in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, 
 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, disease is more 
 common and more deadly than in any regulated European 
 Btate, 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 blindness, 
 and set about some decisive measures if not to purge away, 
 
WHAT CAN BE DONE. 12T 
 
 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 in our public streets, the fearful facility of 
 vice which now prevails ; and we can limit the spread of conta, 
 gious disease. For the former, we require police regulations, 
 firmly carried out, forbidding the accosting of men on the 
 streets, indecent behavior in public, and immodest dress. 
 For the latter we must have periodical medical inspection 
 of prostitutes, and wards or 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 good of his 
 species at heart, and is not utterly cankered by obsolete 
 prejudice, cannot but grant their urgent importance and 
 great value. 
 
 It has been supposed by the French surgeon, Auzias-Tu- 
 renne and his disciples, that, so far- as syphilis is concerned, 
 this could be successfully checked by the process known as 
 "syphilization." 
 
 This method is based on the theory that after the syphilitic 
 poison has been artificially introduced into the system by 
 repeated puncturing, the individual will thereafter be pro- 
 tected 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 comma. 
 nity would submit to such an ordeal. It was hoped that by 
 its universal adoption public women would bo made incapable 
 of contrartinir, and hence incapable of transmitting this 
 variety of venereal poison. 
 
 The results, though still somewhat uncertain, have not 
 equalled these anticipations. While unquestionably the 
 
128 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 process does, to some extent, and for some time, materially 
 lessen the liability to contract the disease, it does so un- 
 equally in different individuals, and the protective, influence 
 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, 
 \ve 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 gather- 
 ing the fallen from the highways and byways of our crowded 
 cities to hear the gospel, that we shall ever put an end to 
 the social evil. We have been casting about for a thousand 
 devices by which we could thrust virtue down the throats of 
 others, while ourselves continue our cakes and ale in peace. 
 We have ever been ready to point the finger of shame at the 
 erring sister, we have ever been eager to rush forward and 
 cast the first stone, but have we ever pondered for a moment 
 on the words : " He that is without sin among you ?" 
 
 Ah! here we touch the heart of the matter. Would you 
 learn the only possible method of reforming sinful women ? 
 Three words contain the secret : Reform the men. In them, 
 in their illicit lusts, in their misgoverned passions, in their self- 
 ish desires, in their godless disregard of duty, in their ignorance 
 of the wages of sin, in their want of nobleness to resist temp- 
 tation, in their false notions of health, is the source of all 
 this sin. Teach them the physiological 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 when he sees the right and does it ; train them to 
 regard self-government as the noblest achievement of all; 
 educate them fearlessly in the nature and regulation of those 
 
THE TRUE PLAN. < 129 
 
 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 the powers of evil cannot stand. 
 
 Every great social reform must begin with the male sex; 
 theirs it is to take the step in advance, and they must do it 
 with self-knowledge, with intelligence, and with no false sen- 
 timent. Here, especially, 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 prostitu- 
 tion, are chargeable solely and wholly to the uncontrolled 
 sexual instinct of the male. What duty, then, is more im- 
 perative to the clergyman, the educator, the statesman, the 
 enlightened philanthropist anywhere, than to study this 
 instinct, to learn how to guide it in youth and age, and how 
 to direct it in its natural and healthy channels? 
 
 [AUTHORS AND WORKS OH PROSTITUTION EEFEKRED TO. Dr. 
 
 Danger, History of Prostitution ; Dr. J. Jeanne], De In Prostitution 
 an dix-neitvieme tiecle ; Acton, Prostitution in itt Moral, Social, 
 and Sanitary Aspects; Parent-Duchntelet, De la Prostitution en 
 Paris; Dr. Ed. Andrews, Letter on Prostitution, Chicago Medical 
 Examiner, Oct. 1867 ; Rev. Dr. W. A. Muhlenberg, Woman and 
 Her Accusers, a Sermon for the Midnight Mission. 1SG9; Dr. 
 Ziegler, Medical and Surgical Reporter, 1867; Dr. Charles Drys- 
 diile, Medical Press and Circular, May, 1869 ; Westminster Re- 
 view, Prostitution and How to Cure It, Jnnuary and April. J870; 
 the Annual Reports of the Superintendent of Police, the Boards of 
 Health, and the Midnight Missions of New i'ork, Philadelphia, 
 Chicago, Cincinnati, etc., for 1867-69.J 
 
PART III. 
 THE MARRIED LIFE. 
 
 The Preliminaries of Marriage. 
 
 A MAX first becomes a man and a woman a woman in 
 marriage. Only when united by that mysterious rite does 
 each find nature satisfied, and all the faculties and functions 
 meetly exercised. By such union those powers which are 
 directed without the individual, those strong sentiments 
 which are the reverse of the selfish and introverted portions 
 of our constitution, are called into action. The husband and 
 the father no longer labors for himself alone, no longer even 
 principally for himself. There are others who, he feels, have 
 claims upon his time, his thoughts, his possessions, more im- 
 perative even than himself. He first provides for these, and 
 for their sakes willingly and often undergoes deprivations 
 and self-denials. To the philosopher who occupies his mind 
 with the study of the motives of men, their self-abnegation 
 must appear at once one of the most singular and most beau- 
 tiful traits in our nature. That we may justly appreciate 
 the rite which we are about to describe, we shall first speak 
 of 
 
 The Meaning of Marriage. 
 
 The composite character of the nature of our species does 
 fcot allow us to answer this in one sentence. We are formed 
 
 (131) 
 
132 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 of organic, terrestrial bodies, aiid of subtle spirits. To the 
 former portion of our nature, marriage is the condition best 
 adapted to the perpetuation of the species : it is a union of 
 two persons of opposite sexes which calls into play the pecu- 
 liar 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 egregiously errs. Were this all, it would have 
 little booted the legislators of all time, and the divine voice 
 itself, to have enacted stringent and numerous regulations 
 having reference to the married state. Such a union extends 
 its influence throughout the whole fabric of social and poli- 
 tical life, and strikes its roots deep into the moral nature of 
 the race. If we are asked for a specific definition, we have 
 found none better than that given some years since by the 
 Count of Portalis in the French legislative body. It runs as 
 follows : " Marriage is the union of a man with a woman, who 
 associate themselves in order to perpetuate the species, to aid 
 each other by mutual assistance, to support together the 
 chances of life, and to endure the same fate." In this clear 
 and practical statement we perceive precisely what every one 
 who proposes to form this relation should feel himself or her. 
 self 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 polyandry, 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 adul- 
 tery is a crime, and hold the family circle to be sacred. 
 
 In proportion as morality and civilization advance, so 
 
DIGNITY OP MARRIAGE. 133 
 
 lo the sanctity of marriage, and the appreciation of the 
 beauty of marital chastity. The Roman Catholic and Greek 
 churches consider the rite one of the holy sacraments of the 
 church, and the apostles and the early fathers of the church 
 unanimously refer to the married condition as honorable, 
 pure, and praiseworthy; while no denunciations were too 
 scathing for those lewd men and women who seek to degrade 
 it by violating its ordinances. Just in proportion as such 
 elevated sentiments as these are abroad in a community, 
 just in proportion as love is pure, marriage honored, and 
 the bed undefined, will all the other Christian and patriotic 
 virtues be admired and practised. And no more ominous 
 sign of decay and deep corruption in a nation can oe 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. 
 
 AVe believe and hope that perhaps excepting one or two 
 of our largest and most profligate cities such a state of 
 thought does not exist in our land. Most young persons of 
 both sexes look forward to marriage as a desirable condi- 
 tion, and when they have entered it, they accept cheerfully 
 its burdens, observe honorably 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 
 favored condition may never be reached, that some disability 
 exists which disqualifies 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 TJnfitness for Marriage. 
 
 The physiological and also the legal understanding of 
 marriage is, that it is a union for the purpose of offspring. 
 
i34 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 Therefore both the lawyer and the physician must condemn 
 any marriage in which this purpose is not at all, or only im 
 perfectly carried out. In other words, virility is a necessary 
 preliminary to marriage. Not merely should the age of 
 puberty be passed, but the whole body should be so de- 
 veloped, and the special functions so matured, that inter- 
 course may not prove injurious to the male, nor his unripe 
 secretion be unequal to the formation of a healthy child. 
 
 Impotence, we shall speak of hereafter, but here we insist 
 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 sicbly, apt to have hereditary weakness, and not to at- 
 tain advanced years. 
 
 The most advisable age to marry has been much discussed 
 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 at- 
 tained before the age of twenty-five 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 ques- 
 tion 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 misfortune or temp- 
 tation have incurred maladies which they fear may be aggra. 
 vated by the novel relations under which they will be placed, 
 or possibly transmitted in some form to their offspring. 
 
 So far as such inquiries relate to those diseases which ordi- 
 narily arise from impure intercourse we have already replied 
 to them in the previous portion of this work. In cases of a 
 
DANGER OF DELAY. 135 
 
 consumptive, a scrofulous, or an insane tendency, it is proba- 
 ble that a predisposition to such weakness will be passed 
 down, and quite certain that they will, should a like ten- 
 dency exist in the wife. But it is not likely that any of 
 these diseases will be aggravated 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 tendency, such constitutional disorders are 
 decidedly mitigated and often altogether avoided by a union. 
 The exercise of the generative functions in marriage has a 
 powerful derivative effect, and not rarely alters for the better 
 a feeble constitution. Epilepsy, nervous depression, 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 matrimo- 
 nial engagements occasionally contracted by elderly men 
 which are eminently satisfactory both physically and men- 
 tally. But in such instances 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 indulgence 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, 
 
136 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 should be extremely cautious how he contracts a lien of tins 
 nature. 
 
 Malformations of various kinds, whether by nature or 
 accident, not unfrequently occasion poignant distress of mind 
 lest they constitute an insuperable barrier to matrimony. 
 Generally, such anxiety is unfounded. A diminished or an 
 excessive growth of the parts rarely is carried to such an 
 extent as to constitute a barrier to intercourse. The absence 
 of one or even both of ttfe testicles may arise from the fact 
 that they have never descended from the interior of the ab- 
 domen, where they are always located before birth. This 
 retention of their original position does not necessarily inter- 
 fere with their functions, however. Sometimes the prepuce is 
 long, thick, and adherent to such a degree that it seriously 
 interferes with the exercise of the function. In such cases it 
 should be submitted to the examination of a surgeon, as an 
 operation may be required. A more rare condition is when 
 the orifice of exit is not at the extremity, but on the side or 
 close to the body. This usually does not prevent connec- 
 tion, but does produce sterility. It, too, can often be re- 
 moved by a skilful surgeon. 
 
 The size of the organ sometimes excites fear lest matri- 
 mony could not be completed. But there is no permanent 
 proportion between size and vigor. Generally an unusual 
 size is accompanied with debility, and it is not infrequently 
 observed, indeed it may be said to be the rule, that persons 
 of vigorous powers have 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 unusally small. The negro 
 race have the parts 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. 
 
WHOM TO MARRY. 137 
 
 The Choice of a Wife. 
 
 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 step 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 discreet and sensible in 
 their selection of those with whom they propose to join irre- 
 trievably their lives anc". fortunes. So far as mental and 
 moral qualities are concerned, we shall have little to say, 
 others, and they better qualified than ourselves, having 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 
 seeks. Without 1'ic former, 'so will lose half the pleasure 
 which otherwise would be liis ; t; with the latter, the at- 
 tractions which bind him true to his own hearth will be 
 redoubled. A sickly, nervous, peevish, inefficient wife 
 qualities which are naturally associated is not a help-meet, 
 but a dead weight to a man ; a homely, or even an indif- 
 erent-looking woman runs a risk of being slatternly, of dis- 
 puting her husband, and of alienating him. The powers 
 and the charms of personal beauty deserve to be appreciated 
 and applauded far more than ic the vont, and when it is 
 remembered that real beauty moans also sound health, we 
 cannot hesitate to answer the young man who asks us depre- 
 catingly, "Would you have me marry for beauty?" with a 
 round affirmation: "You probably cannot do better." 
 
 The relative ages of the two should l><- thought of. No 
 young woman should marry before she is twenty, and it is 
 
/38 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 not wise for a man to select a wife who is his elder. Such 
 unions usually result in estrangement. A seniority of be- 
 tween five and ten years on the part of the husband is most 
 highly to be recommended. 
 
 A writer whom we have already 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 much 
 more rapidly than men, and as the peculiar functions of 
 matrimony should cease in 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 above 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 hus- 
 band is the elder, the children are more likely to have a 
 majority in the male sex. Why this is, we shall have occa- 
 sion to explain subsequently. Then, too, man retains his 
 powers and passions longer than woman, and his fidelity is 
 more assured when she is fresh and blooming, than when 
 she has already become old while he retains his vigor. 
 These are low motives, it may be said, but they are such as 
 we know influence our sex powerfully, and we must there- 
 fore enlist them on the good side. 
 
 Marrying Cousins. 
 
 The question whether intermarriage of near relatives 
 can be approved is one which within the last few years has 
 excited lively discussion among physicians. The most skilful 
 are found on opposite sides, and the arguments adduced 
 against it seem 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 
 
MARRIAGE OF COUSINS. 139 
 
 on erroneous statistics, and compiled by persons who are 
 prejudiced already in favor 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 statis- 
 ticians and medical writers : " The fear of marrying a cousin, 
 even a first cousin, is entirely groundless, provided there it 
 no decided hereditary taint in the family. And when 
 such a hereditary taint does 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- 
 position 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 by one of 
 the most cautious and dependable authorities in the medical 
 world, 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 extended researches on 
 that point : 
 
 " The marriage of cousins, providing both ajje healthy, 
 has no tendency to produce disease in the offspring. If, how- 
 ever, the cousins inherit the disease or the proclivity to it of 
 their common ancestor, their children will have a strong ten- 
 dency to that disease, which might be fostered or suppressed 
 by circumstances. There can be no question that cousins 
 descended from an insane or highly consumptive grand-parent 
 should not intermarry ; but we cannot see any reason for 
 supposing that either insanity or consumption would result 
 from the intermarriage of healthy cousins." 
 
 In conclusion, while for a man to marry a near relative 
 when they both belong to a consumptive, a scrofulous, or a 
 11 
 
140 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 weak-minded race, is eminently reprehensible, it is not con- 
 trary to ascertained laws for him to unite himself to his 
 cousin when the family is thoroughly healthy. 
 
 Long Engagements. 
 
 " Plighted troth" is a poetical and romantic subject, but 
 there is such a thing as carrying a prolonged fidelity under 
 the terms of an " engagement" to a dangerous excess. We 
 do not now refer to the moral perils, the increased tempta- 
 tions which arise from the more intimate familiarity and over- 
 confidence of lovers though these are real and objectionable 
 but to the direct injury they bring on a young man. It is 
 impossible for him to indulge in these caresses and fondlings 
 without violently exciting his passions, and they in turn 
 react on the secretory functions. The consequence is that 
 not unfrequently repeated nocturnal emissions, spermator- 
 rhoea, and loss or impairment of power result. At the very 
 moment when he should be in full possession of his strength, 
 he finds that hope too long deferred, balks itself. This cau- 
 tion is especially needed by those who at an earlier period of 
 their Iife4iave injured themselves by solitary vice or sexual 
 excess. 
 
 There are strong physical as well as moral reasons why 
 we would urge the lover, however, unwelcome such advice, 
 and however certain to be disregarded, to hold his loved 
 one at arm's length, and to deny himself those little fondlings 
 and toyings which he can secure. Innocent though they 
 are, and pure as the affection is, they still cheat nature with 
 unfulfilled promises, and bring with them retribution. The 
 advice of that distinguished surgeon, Mr. "William Acton, on 
 this point, is forcible. He says : " All medical experience 
 proves that for any one, especially a young man, to enter 
 
A CAUSE OF TROUBLE. 141 
 
 into a long engagement without any immediate hope of ful- 
 filling 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 affections of 
 the testes. These results sometimes follow the progress 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 experience, and con- 
 vince us that even such strong language as that we have 
 just quoted, does not state the possible injury too decidedly. 
 
 The Male Flirt. 
 
 The evils we have just mentioned find their origin in 
 ungratified sexual excitement. This is always sure to be 
 attended, if frequently repeated and long-continued, by in- 
 jurious consequences. Whether it be from an engagement, 
 from disappointed affection, from too great familiarity with 
 the other sex, or from entertaining lascivious thoughts, any 
 such excitement leads to weakening of power, and sometimes 
 to actual disease. Degeneration or chronic inflammation of 
 the gland, spermatorrhoea, emissions, and impotence, are all 
 possible from neglect of hygienic rules in this regard. 
 
 Here, therefore, is 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, trifle 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 
 
142 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 does well when he seeks it ; but it should always be motives 
 of simple friendship and kindly interest which impel him to 
 cultivate it. When he considers that the time has come that 
 his means and circumstances allow of marriage, he should 
 then look intelligently for her with whom he would care to 
 pass the remainder of his life in perfect loyalty. He should 
 be impelled by no wanton impulse, nor dissipate his time in 
 worshipping at every passing shrine, but in sincerity and 
 singleness of heart seek an early alliance 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 
 
 The Paramount Duty of Fidelity, 
 
 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 ex- 
 cuse for either. 
 
 Nothing is more certain to undermine domestic felicity, 
 and sap the foundation of marital happiness, than marital 
 infidelity. The risks of disease which a married man runs in 
 impure intercourse are far more serious, because they involve 
 not only himself, but his wife and his children. He should 
 know that there is nothing which a woman will not forgive 
 sooner than such a breach of confidence. He is exposed to 
 the plots, and is pretty certain sooner or later to fall into the 
 snares, of those atrocious parties who subsist on black-mail. 
 And should he escape these complications, he still must lose 
 self-respect, and carry about with him the burden of a guilty 
 conscience and a broken vow. If we have urged on the celi- 
 
BE FAITHFUL. 143 
 
 bate the preservation of chastity, we still more emphatically 
 call upon the married man for the observation of fidelity. 
 
 [AUTHORS REFERRED TO IN THIS SECTION. Edward Reich, Ge- 
 srhtrhte, Natnr-, und Gesundtheitslehre des ehelichen Lebens ; Na- 
 pheys, The Physical Life of Womar. , Acton, On the Reproductive 
 Organs ; Reich, Ueber die Entartnng des menschlichen Geschlechtt; 
 A. Debay, Hygiene du Mariage.] 
 
THE CONSUMMATION OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 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 steps to this end 
 are taken, the marriage is said not to be consummated. The 
 precise meaning of the expression is thus laid down by Bou- 
 vier in his Law Dictionary : " The first time that the husband 
 and wife cohabit together after the ceremony of marriage 
 has been performed, is called the consummation 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 cohabitation, is the binding element in the 
 ceremony ; consensus, non concubitus, facit nuptias. 
 
 A sage morality throughout most civilized lands prohibits 
 any anticipation of the act until the civil officer or the priest 
 has performed the rite. The experience of the world proves 
 the wisdom of this, for any relaxation of the laws of propriety 
 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, allow themselves 
 to transgress this rule, very surely lay up for themselves a 
 want of confidence in each other, and a source of mutual re- 
 crimination in the future. 
 
 True as this is shown to be by constant experience, yet 
 I 144) 
 
HISTORICAL EXAMPLES. 145 
 
 there have been and still are communities in which the cus- 
 tom was current of allowing and even encouraging such im- 
 proper intimacies. In the early middle ages it was common 
 in all grades of society, and is mentioned as leading to disso- 
 lute habits and consequently condemned, in the laws of King 
 Charlemagne, known as the Capitularies. 
 
 The Emperor, Frederick III. of Austria, after he was 
 affianced to Leonora, Princess of Portugal by diplomatic 
 envoys, refused to complete the marriage unless he was per- 
 mitted to first ascertain whether she would prove a satisfac- 
 tory wife. And that the same rights were occasionally 
 insisted upon by the other sex is shown by the example of 
 the Lady Herzland von Rappoltstein, who, in 1378, declined 
 to carry out her agreement to wed Count John IV. of Habs- 
 burg, on the ground that, after opportunities given, he had 
 proved himself to be incapable. 
 
 There are still remote districts in Germany where the pea- 
 santry retain the institution known as " trial-nights," probe- 
 ndrkte, and " come-nights," komm-nachte, on which a girl's 
 lover will visit her, and each may be convinced of the phy- 
 sical fitness of the other for marriage. A century ago a 
 similar custom prevailed in parts of New England and in 
 the German settlements in Pennsylvania, as has been lately 
 shown by Dr. Henry A. Stiles, of Brooklyn, in his work ou 
 Bundling, by which term it was known. Washington Irving, 
 in his Knickerbocker History of New York, several times 
 refers to it also. 
 
 Now, we believe, happily no trace of the habit exists in 
 our land. Only in a singularly simple and unsophisticated 
 state of society could it be perpetuated without leading to 
 flagitious immorality, and we may regard it as one of the 
 boncficent results of the extensive diffusion of knowledge, 
 that the merit and the advantages to both sexes of absolute 
 
146 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 continence before marriage are at present universally recog 
 nized in this country. 
 
 Ignorance Concerning Marriage. 
 
 While this precocious knowledge was at one time not con- 
 demned as it deserved to be, and as it now is, proper informa* 
 tion on the subject is still singularly lacking. As Mr. Acton 
 correctly remarks : " It is but seldom, and then incidentally, 
 that these matters are treated of in books. Nevertheless 
 ignorance, or false ideas respecting them, has caused much 
 evil, and much domestic misery. It is generally assumed 
 that instinct teaches adults how these functions should be 
 exercised. But 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 they pick up from watching animals." He gives as an 
 instance one of his patients, a member of the Society of 
 Friends, who had been married for some years, and who, out 
 of mere ignorance, had never consummated the ceremony. 
 
 Parallel examples come to the knowledge of most physi 
 cians who have long been members of the profession. It is 
 no very extraordinary experience to be called to a case of 
 confinement, and to discover that the woman is, strictly 
 speaking, still a virgin. The celebrated accoucheur, Professor 
 Meigs, of Philadelphia, used to relate in his lectures several 
 instances of the kind from his own practice. And so recently 
 as last year (1869), we find a communication by Dr. H. L. 
 Horton, of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the Medical and 
 Surqical Reporter, describing a similar case in which he was 
 attending physician. The husband, when questioned, stated 
 that his wife had always found the act painful, and expressed 
 his disappointment, while in fact, 'although she was at term 
 
SINGULAR IGNORANCE. 147 
 
 and was shortly delivered of a healthy child, an examination 
 showed she never had actually yielded. 
 
 The same Journal, in a later number, contains an article 
 by Dr. Quimby, of Jersey City, wfiere after several years of 
 marriage, under like circumstances, a coldness and ultimate 
 separation arose. Indeed, nearly always, domestic disap- 
 pointment is the consequence of this ignorance. 
 
 We had one instance brought to our notice where, through 
 ignorance and timidity, nearly a year had elapsed after the 
 persons had married, and yet it had not been consummated. 
 The husband knew something was wrong, and it led to a 
 separation which came near being final. 
 
 As when nature is balked in this manner, there must be a 
 hindrance to normal domestic relations, it is proper that 
 parents should see that young persons of both sexes who are 
 about to enter matrimony have a proper understanding of its 
 duties. 
 
 The Marriage Relation. 
 
 Usually marriage in this country is consummated within a 
 day or two of the ceremony. In Greece, the excellent rule 
 prevails that at least three days shall be allowed to elapse be- 
 tween the rite and the act, and it were well if this rule were 
 general. In most cases the bride is nervous, timid, exhausted 
 by the labor of preparation and the excitement of the occa- 
 sion, indeed, in the worst possible frame of body and mind 
 to. bear the great and violent change which the marital 
 relation brings with it. 
 
 The consequence is that in repeated instances the thought- 
 lessness and precipitancy of the young husband lay the 
 foundation for numerous diseases of the womb and nervous 
 system, and for the gratification of a night he forfeits tho 
 
148 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 comfort of years. Let him at the time when the slow paced 
 hours have at last brought to him the treasures he has so 
 long been coveting, administer with a frugal hand and with 
 a wise forethought. Let him be considerate, temperate, and 
 self-controlled. He will never regret it, if he defer for days 
 the exercise of those privileges which the law now gives him, 
 but which are more than disappointing if seized upon in an 
 arbitrary, coarse, or brutal mairaer. 
 
 There is no mor3 irlallible sign of a low and vulgar man 
 than to hear one boast or even to mention, the occurrences 
 which transpire on the nuptial eve. Who does so, set him 
 down as a fellow devoid of all the finer feelings of his own 
 sex, and incapable of appreciating those of the other. While 
 the newly married man should act so that his tender solici- 
 tude and kind consideration could only reflect credit on him- 
 self were they known, he should hide them all under a veil 
 of reticence more impenetrable than that which ancient 
 legend says concealed the mysterious goddess of Sais. 
 
 The husband should be aware that while as a rule the first 
 conjugal approaches are painful to the new wife, and there- 
 fore that she only submits and cannot enjoy them, this pain 
 should not be excessively severe, nor should it last for any 
 great length of time not more than one or two weeks. 
 Should, the case be otherwise, then something is wrong, and 
 if rest does not restore the parts, a physician should be 
 consulted. It is especially necessary that great moderation 
 be observed at first, an admonition which we the more ur- 
 gently give, because we know it is needed, because those 
 specialists who devote their time to diseases of women are 
 constantly meeting patients who date their months and 
 years of misery from the epoch of marriage. 
 
AN ERROR CORRECTED. 149 
 
 The Tests of Virginity. 
 
 There is a wide-spread, an erroneous, and a most mis. 
 chievous notion accepted among those not acquainted with 
 anatomy, that unless marriage is a bloody rite, it is indica- 
 tive of previous unchastity on the part of the bride. We 
 have had instances brought to our knowledge by correspond- 
 ents, where the most poignant agony, and the most cruelly 
 unjust suspicions were the consequences of this unfounded 
 belief. It seems to have become general from the perusal 
 of those portions of Deuteronomy which lay down the Mosaic 
 ritual of marriage, in which this test of virginity was con- 
 sidered final 
 
 But there is every difference between the ancient Jewish 
 maidens, brought up to an active live, married very young, an'] 
 of a peculiar temperament, and our young women educated 
 with lax muscles, and delicate frames, to habits of indolence 
 and debility. The consummation of marriage with a virgin 
 is by no means necessarily attended with a flow of blood ; 
 and the absence of this sign is not the slightest presumption 
 against her former chastity. In stout blondes it is even the 
 exception rather than the rule ; and in all young women 
 who have suffered from leucorrhcea, the parts are relaxed, 
 and flowing does not occur. 
 
 So, too, the presence or absence of the hymen is no test. 
 Frequently it is absent from birth, and in others it is of 
 exceeding tenuity, or only partially represented. There is, 
 in fact, no sign whatever which allows even an expert posi- 
 tively to say that a woman has or has not suffered the ap- 
 proaches of one of the opposite sex. 
 
 They are all quite as deceptive as that still practised in 
 Albania, known as "the sieve test." A skin is ptivtrlidl 
 tightly across the top of a sieve, and the bride is requested 
 
150 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 to stand upon it. If the skin yields, she is a virgin. As it 
 is very sure to do so, the Albanian bridegrooms are per- 
 fectly convinced of the chastity of their wives. 
 
 The true and only test which any man should look for is 
 modesty in demeanor before marriage, absence both of as- 
 sumed ignorance and a disagreeable familiarity, and a pure 
 and religious frame of mind. Where these are present, he 
 need not doubt that he has a faithful and a chaste wife. 
 
 Obstacles to the Consummation of Marriage. 
 
 We have now to consider the cases where for some inca* 
 pacity on the one side or the other, it is not possible to con- 
 summate marriage. When an incapacity of this kind is 
 absolute or incurable, says- Bouvier in the Law Dictionary, 
 and when it existed at the time of the ceremony of marriage, 
 both the ecclesiastical law and the special statutes of several 
 of the American States, declare the marriage void and of no 
 effect, db initio. But the suit must be brought by the 
 injured party, and he or she naturally incapable cannot 
 allege that fact in order to obtain a divorce. 
 
 An incapacity for marriage may exist in either sex, and it 
 may be in either, temporary or permanent. We shall first 
 examine it 
 
 On the part of the Female. 
 
 The most common cause of a temporary character is^m 
 excessive sensitiveness of the part. This may be so great 
 that the severest pain is caused by the introduction of a 
 narrow sound, and the conjugal approaches are wholly un- 
 bearable. Inflammation of the passage to the bladder, of 
 Borne of the glands, and various local injuries, are also abso- 
 
OBSTACLES TO MARRIAGE. lol 
 
 lute 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 removable one, 
 from this cause. 
 
 A complete or partial absence of the vagina forms an ab- 
 solute 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 allowed the 
 sides to contract- ind grow together ; or she may have been 
 so from birth. Surgeons have devised various operations for 
 the relvf of this malformation, but they are usually dan- 
 gerous and of uncertain results. No woman should seek a 
 mp^nmonial connection when thus afflicted, and when it is 
 not discovered until after marriage, the proper course is 
 either a separation or a voluntary renunciation of marital 
 privileges. 
 
 On the Part of the Male. 
 
 These are far more numerous than in the female, and form 
 ,n important branch of our subject. Probably no one topic 
 
152 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 in sanitary and physiological science gives rise to more dia 
 dressing and generally more causeless fears than the anxietj 
 lest one may not be able to fulfil the duties of married life. 
 A philosophical medical writer says : " In losing the command 
 of this function at an age when it should be vigorous, man 
 loses his self-respect, because he feels himself fallen in im- 
 portance in relation to his species. Therefore the loss of 
 virile power, real or supposed, produces an effect more over- 
 powering than that of honors, fortune, friends, or relatives ; 
 even the loss of liberty is as nothing compared to this internal 
 and continual torture. Those who suffer from injustice or 
 misfortune can accuse their enemies, society, chance, etc., and 
 invent or retain the consciousness of not having deserved 
 their lot ; they have, moreover, the consolation of being able 
 to complain, and the certainty of sympathy. But the im- 
 potent man can make a confident 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 secret." 
 
 We are well convinced that there are many to whom these 
 words apply, and also that there are many who suffer these 
 pangs needlessly, or who at least are anxious without cause. 
 We shall therefore proceed to speak in detail of the condi- 
 tions of the male which render him averse to the procreative 
 act, incapable of completing it, unable to attempt it, or 
 barren in its results, under the headings, lethargy, debility, 
 impotence, and sterility. And 
 
 1. Lethargy. 
 
 There are some individuals who are rarely or never trou- 
 bled by the promptings of nature to perpetuate life, and vet 
 are by no means incapable of doing so. They are indeed few 
 in number, and are usually slow in mind and of an extremely 
 
CAUSES OF LETHARGY. 153 
 
 lymphatic and lethargic temperament. 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 does, however, often occur under circum- 
 stances which give rise to great mental trouble, lest it be 
 permanent. It may have many causes, some mental, others 
 physical. Prolonged and rigid continence, excesses either 
 with the other sex or in solitary vice, a poor and insufficient 
 diet or the abuse of liquors and the pleasures of the table, 
 loss of sleep, severe study, constant thought, mental dis- 
 turbances, as sorrow, anxiety or fear, the abuse of tobacco, 
 drugs, etc., all may lead to the extinction of the sexual feel- 
 ings. 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 
 the reproductive system, and persons who grow obese nearly 
 invariably 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 medical writer, " or by the exhausting 
 labor of their brains, should know full well that they cannot 
 hope to be always in a fit state to perform the sexual act. 
 
154 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 During certain periods when occupied with other matters 
 the thoughts can dwell but little on such subjects, and no 
 disposition exists to indulge anything but the favorite or 
 absorbing pursuit, mental or physical, as the case may be. 
 After a lapse of time different in various individuals, such 
 thoughts arise again, and the man who yesterday was so in- 
 different to sexual feelings, as practically to be temporarily 
 impotent, now becomes ardent." 
 
 When such absence of feeling springs from self-abuse, from 
 excessive alcoholic drinks, sexual indulgence, the employ- 
 ment of drugs, or the use of tobacco, it is more serious and 
 more lasting. Then there is not only a temporary cessation 
 in the secretion, but the action of the internal organs has 
 been altered 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 excessive 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 definitely and 
 completely, the habits which have brought about his condi- 
 tion. Of course, the hygienic advice we have to offer to all 
 our readers is, never to allow themselves to be led into ex- 
 cess, and if they have already 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 w 
 canftot detail here. 
 
CURIOUS SUPERSTITION. 155 
 
 2. Debility. 
 
 It is not uncommon to find desire present, and yet the 
 consummation of marriage to be impossible from a want of 
 power, although the individual is by no means impotent. 
 This condition is called " false impotence," and often causes 
 great alarm, 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 himself hopelessly impotent, and may in 
 despair commit some violent act forever to be regretted. 
 
 In the superstitions of the middle ages this temporary in- 
 capacity 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 prevail- 
 ing nervous temperament, may have been subject to such an 
 affection more than others. Montaigne in one of his essays 
 speaks of it as something very common, and with the en- 
 lightened spirit which characterized him. derided the super- 
 stitions 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 
 marriage locks and impediments, 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 
 12 
 
156 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 the trouble was imputed to witchcraft ; nor now, because ii 
 is attributed to permanent incapacity. But in all nations 
 and ages the nervous system is and has been liable to such 
 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 deprived of all 
 power to complete the marriage. Under the impression 
 that she had used some enchantment, he ordered her be- 
 headed. But Laodicea begged time and opportunity to 
 erect a statue to Venus, before the completion of which she 
 assured Amasis, his faculties would be restored him. 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 call- 
 ing 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 de- 
 parts. 
 
 The case is different and more serious in that form of de- 
 bility attended by premature loss of the secretion, or a defec- 
 tive erectile power. To be sure, this too may arise from the 
 novelty of the act, want of power of the will, undue excite- 
 ment, 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 gon- 
 orrhoea, of solitary vice, and of all those causes which we 
 have previously enumerated as exerting a debilitating influ- 
 ence on the masculine function. Concerning its prevention 
 and treatment we refer to what we have already said ui the 
 second part of this work. Usually this form of debl ty i* 
 
RARITY OF IMPOTENCE. 1ST 
 
 associated with considerable irritability, that is, persons so 
 afflicted 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 should sedulously avoid every kind of 
 artificial excitement, make free use of cold water as douche 
 and hip-bath, and often they require special surgical treat- 
 ment, or the employment of electricity or galvanism. Some- 
 times this irritability arises from an accumulation of matter 
 under the foreskin, or from the too great tightness of this part. 
 Debility may result from wearing trusses for ruptures, as 
 these mechanical appliances interfere with the circulation, 
 and hence impair the secretion of the fluid. Should this im- 
 pairment extend to the degree 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 nourishing inter- 
 feres with the functional vigor. The monks of La Trappe 
 are obliged by the rules of their order to abjure meat alto- 
 gether, 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 maintain them. 
 
 3. 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 re- 
 production. Whatever mercenary quacks may write for 
 
158 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 base, interested motives, and however they may magnify th 
 ill-results of abuse, it is very uncommon to 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 prostitutes, but with 
 those whom we most love ; not under unfavorable circum- 
 stances, but during long periods ot time, say five, fifteen, or 
 twenty years." It is well that it is rare, for as Prof. Nie- 
 meyer remarks : " Not only sensual women, but all, without 
 exception, feel deeply hurt, and are repelled by the husband 
 whom they may previously have loved dearly, when, after 
 entering the married state, they find that he is impotent. The 
 more inexperienced and innocent they were at the time of mar- 
 riage, the longer it often is before they find that something is 
 lacking in their husband ; but, once knowing this, they in- 
 fallibly 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 Niemeyer goes on to say, unhappy marriages, 
 barrenness, divorces, and perchance an occasional suicide, 
 may be prevented by the experienced physician who can 
 give correct information, comfort, and consolation when con- 
 suited on this subject. 
 
 Therefore we are careful to repeat that actual, permanent 
 impotence is very rare in early and middle life, that nature 
 is long-suffering 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 lethargy or debility of the function, 
 and are temporary, or at any rate curable. 
 
CONSOLATIONS. 159 
 
 "When a single man fears that he may be unable to fulfil 
 the duties of marriage, he should not marry until this fear is 
 removed, as the very existence of such a suspicion will 
 strongly tend to bring about the weakness which he is so 
 anxious about. Rather let him state his condition fully to 
 some intelligent physician, and always preferably to one 
 whom he knows and in whose skill and discretion he has con- 
 fidence, and never to the specialists whose advertisements 
 he reads in newspapers, 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 pennyworth of good. And under 
 no circumstances should he adopt the scandalous and disgust- 
 ing advice which immoral associates may give him, to experi- 
 ment 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 deliberately renounce 
 these. There are careers of usefulness and of pleasantness 
 in abundance 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 sometimes never called into play. There is good 
 cheer, therefore, even for such unfortunates. 
 
 That the causes of such loss may be guarded against, in so 
 far as they are preventable, as every man is bound to do, we 
 shall briefly recapitulate them. 
 
 First, old age. As we have explained in the first part of 
 
160 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 this work, the period of virility in man, like that of child 
 bearing in woman, is naturally limited to but a fraction of 
 the whole term of life. The physiological change which 
 takes place in the secretion in advanced years deprives it of 
 the power of transmitting life, and at last the vigor of the 
 function is lost. The spermatozoa, which in manhood are 
 bodies formed, as we have said, of a conical head and a long, 
 vibrating extremity, lose the latter portion of their body, 
 and become mere rounded cells, without the power of inde- 
 pendent motion. With the impotence of decrepitude, how- 
 ever, we have little to do, and as to its prevention cure, 
 there is none we refer to what we have already said in the 
 earlier portion of this book, in regard to prolonging virility. 
 
 The second cause is venereal diseases. M. Liegeois, who 
 has most closely examined the effects of these diseases on 
 virility of any recent writer, considers that they lead, more 
 frequently than any other class of maladies, to permanent, 
 incurable impotence. They may do so either by an actual 
 destruction of the part, or by exciting inflammation in the 
 secretory apparatus, or by attacking the adjacent structures. 
 
 Malformations are another cause. These may be natural, 
 dating from birth, or accidental, from injury, or from some 
 necessary surgical operation, or from design, as in the case 
 of eunuchs. They are so various that we cannot give any 
 special directions for such cases. When the secreting glands 
 are absent from birth, there may or may not be impotence, 
 but generally it is present. Cases are on record, however, 
 where men in this condition have married and had large 
 families of children. Stock-raisers, however, look with well- 
 grounded suspicion on the males of the lower animals which 
 present this malformation. 
 
 The influence of self-abuse in producing impotence has been 
 much overrated for selfish purposes by writers who cared 
 
AN ERROR CORRECTED. 161 
 
 nothing how much mental suffering they caused, so that they 
 only bled their victim's purse. This habit causes perversion 
 of feeling 1 , and debility, but does not affect the character of 
 the secretion, except when carried to great excess. 
 
 " The diminished power of the onanist is usually first in- 
 creased to temporary impotence by reading popular medical 
 treatises on the results of his vice," says Professor Niemeyer, 
 and it is the manifest truth of this remark that leads us to 
 believe that some better information than that now generally 
 current on this topic will do good, and save many from 
 months of needless anguish. This is true also of sperma- 
 torrhoea. It leads to debility, but exceedingly rarely to 
 permanent incapacity. 
 
 M. Liegeois. in the paper from whicn we have already 
 quoted, says this complaint, " as a general rule, does not 
 modify the secretion." All that is required in the temporary 
 condition of incapacity which arises from this cause is to 
 cease from the evil, to commence a course of tonic medicines, 
 and to place the body under the best hygienic conditions. 
 Given these, and the most alarming symptoms will disap- 
 pear, with a rapidity as gratifying to the mind as it is bene- 
 ficial to the body. Of course we do not deny that in some 
 very few cases the insidious corruption of the system has 
 progressed to such an extent that recovery is hopeless ; but 
 they are so uncommon that few physicians meet with them. 
 
 Every one knows that repeated excesses in indulgence 
 enfeeble the powers, and result at length in actually anni- 
 hilating them. Dissipated single men, professional liber- 
 tines, and married men who are immoderate, usually pay the 
 penalty of oft-recurring violation of natural laws, by a com- 
 plete loss of virility long before the average period. We 
 tan but admonish such, that they indulge at their own peril, 
 
162 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 and that years of ceaseless care cannot repair the damages 
 which months of intemperance have brought about. 
 
 We have already referred to the fact that obesity di 
 minishes the generative faculties. It may altogether extin. 
 guish them. Trainers of domestic animals are well aware 
 that there is an antagonism between the fat producing and 
 the reproductive powers. Capons are more readily fattened 
 than cocks, steers than bulls. So it is in the human race* 
 Both men and women, as a rule, commence to grow stout 
 about the time their reproductive powers flag; and eunuchs 
 always increase in flesh. 
 
 Dr. Dancel, in his treatise on obesity, says this condition 
 of body may lead to impotence, either mechanically, by 
 causing such an unwieldy growth that the conjugal relation is 
 rendered impossible, or by diminishing desire and power. 
 
 As far back as classical antiquity, this fact was familial 
 to physicians. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, cites a 
 number of instances where a too robust habit had brought 
 about virtual or actual impotence. Fat children sometimes 
 never manifest in after years any desire for the opposite sex, 
 and there are examples of young men of thirty who were 
 completely devoid of feeling from the same cause. 
 
 The remedy for such a condition is to observe a regimen 
 which will reduce the flesh without impairing the strength. 
 This can be accomplished with ease and certainty by a judi- 
 cious application of what is now familiarly known as the 
 " Banting system." The details of this can be readily ascer- 
 tained from Mr. Banting's pamphlet, or from other sources. 
 
 " I have never failed to observe," says Dr. Dancel, in this 
 connection, "that a man, not yet old, who is delivered by a 
 judicious diet of even twelve or fifteen pounds weight, is 
 astonished at the advantageous change which has taker 
 
MINERAL POISONING. 163 
 
 place in his virile powers since he has commenced to grow 
 thinner." 
 
 So that we can add a judicious regulation of the weight 
 of the body to the precepts we gave on an earlier page, 
 "how to prolong virility." 
 
 There are some special causes of impotency not generally 
 known, and therefore not guarded against. The habitual 
 use of opium or hasheesh induces -a general prostration of 
 the nervous system, and a debility of the powers of genera- 
 tion, which in the slaves to those pernicious habits passes 
 into complete impotency. General mal-nutrition of the body 
 (sine Cererefriget Venus, is an ancient classical expression), 
 lead poisoning, diabetes, and some diseases of the spinal coid, 
 also may bring about this condition. 
 
 Arsenical poisoning has the same effect, and it is worth 
 while to remember that poisoning from both lead and arsenic 
 are more common than people generally believe, on account 
 of the very extensive use made of the salts of those metals 
 in the arts. \Ve have known and read of repeated instances 
 of lead poisoning from drinking water brought in lead pipes, 
 and of arsenical poisoning from the coloring matter in green 
 M - all paper, and such familiar sources. Nearly all the hair- 
 tonics and hair-color restorers sold so extensively contain 
 sugar of lead, and may produce the results of that poison by 
 their outward application. 
 
 4. Sterility. 
 
 In the legal treatises we have consulted in order to ascer- 
 tain the view which that profession takes of various ques- 
 tions concerned in virility, it appears that no distinction is 
 made between impotence and sterility. Bouvier in his [.aw 
 Dictionary expressly calls attention to this inaccuracy. Tk 
 
164 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 researches of physicians have recently placed it in a strong 
 ight. It is perfectly possible for a man to consummate 
 tiarriage, when it is utterly impossible for him ever to have 
 Children. His power of transmitting life is gone forever. 
 
 The condition of sterility in man may arise either from a 
 Condition of the secretion which deprives it of its fecundating 
 powers, or it may spring from a malformation which prevents 
 it reaching the point whece fecundation tak^s place. The 
 former condition is most common in old age, and as a sequence 
 of venereal disease, or from a change in the structure or 
 functions of the glands. The latter has its origin in a stric- 
 ture, or in an injury, or in that condition technically known 
 as hypospadias, or in debility. 
 
 We wish distinctly to add that neither self-abuse nor 
 spermatorrhoea, nor excess in natural indulgence leads to 
 sterility. In all these conditions, the secretion is, barring 
 exceptional cases, perfectly capable of transmitting life; 
 though we may presume certainly not such vigorous life as 
 in healthy and moral individuals. 
 
 Dr. Marion Sims, of Paris, has recently given much atten- 
 tion to sterility in man, and his researches have thrown much 
 light on the subject. As, however, they will particularly 
 interest the profession, we shall not spare space for them 
 here, but proceed to the discussion of the practical question : 
 Ought a man who believes himself sterile to marry ? He is 
 able, we will say, to consummate his union, but can have no 
 expectation of offspring. 
 
 This inquiry is not rarely put. Old men who contemplate 
 matrimony must take it as their own. Men with certain 
 deformities have also to discuss it. They cannot explain 
 their condition to the women they love ; hardly can they 
 Jisclose it to the most sympathizing and discreet medics' 
 Wend. 
 
STERILITY IN MAN. 165 
 
 Oar suggestions to them may relieve them from the neces- 
 sity of either. The only question really at issue is. whether 
 they should deprive a woman of the sweet satisfaction of 
 having little ones of her own to love and cherish. There- 
 fore if she be of such mature years as to have passed the 
 epoch when she can hope for such joys, certainly there is no 
 objection to the match. But if young, with all the motherly 
 yearnings and capacities unsatisfied, it will be a cruel and a 
 dangerous thing to condemn her to a childless life. 
 
 It is possible, however, even where there is sterility in the 
 male, providing the secretion is not absolutely devoid of life- 
 producing properties, for the husband to have children, 
 This, one of the latest and most brilliant discoveries in this 
 branch of medical science, has been successfully carried cut 
 by Dr. Girault, of Paris, whose essay " on the artificial pro- 
 duction of the human species" was published in 1869. It 
 would lead us into details of altogether too technical a 
 character to do more than mention the fact. 
 
 Those professional readers who would look into the subject 
 further will find the references at the end of this section. 
 Suffice it to say, that with such resources at hand, no man 
 need hesitate about matrimony on account of sterility, unless 
 that condition arises from a permanent and absolute degene- 
 ration of his functions. 
 
 So far as the propriety of employing such means are con- 
 cerned, we cannot doubt that under many circumstances they 
 are perfectly justifiable. They do not in any way violate 
 nature, or go contrary to her plans, but assist her in carrying 
 them out. Frequently it is of the utmost importance to the 
 happiness of a married couple that they should have a child. 
 When it is found that the sterility in either partner is owing 
 to one of the causes which the plan of Dr. Girault can alone 
 counteract and it may be either the fault of wife or hu 
 
166 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 band there can be no good reason urged against carrying 
 it out. 
 
 Where sterility depends upon a deficient secretion of the 
 seminal fluid, the patient may have a fair chance of improve- 
 ment, always provided no organic disease is present. A 
 regulated diet, tonics, and a change of climate will do much ; 
 but it is the judicious application of electricity from which 
 most is to be hoped. 
 
 " It appears not unreasonable to expect," says Dr. Julius 
 Althaus in his recent work on Electro-therapeutics, " that 
 the secretion of semen may be restored when lost, or improved 
 when deficient, by the use of galvanism. A deficient secre- 
 tion of milk in the breasts of a female, of cerumen in the ears, 
 of nasal mucus, and of saliva, may be stimulated by the 
 application of electricity. The same effect may naturally 
 be looked for by acting with the continuous current upon 
 the secretory glands of the semen." 
 
 The value of this medicinal agent in debility and failure 
 of the generative powers has long been recognized by pro- 
 fessional men. As long ago as the close of the last century 
 it was even extravagantly vaunted as a restorer of virility. 
 
 It acts as a powerful stimulant, and when combined with 
 proper general treatment holds out a promise of improvement 
 and often of cure, in most cases where no structural change 
 has taken place. But it is a useless and even a dangerous 
 remedy in ignorant hands. 
 
 Excessive passion in either sex leads to sterility. Some- 
 times this passes to a condition of true monomania, techni- 
 cally known as erotomania. In such cases it is usually con- 
 nected with some serious disease of the brain or spinal cord, 
 and may well give grounds for uneasiness. 
 
 When in men, it is known under the names of priapism 
 and satyriasii. Tki unfortunate subjects of these distressing 
 
SPECIAL DIRECTIONS. 167 
 
 complaints are constantly goaded by passion ; their thoughts 
 dwell most of the time on lascivious images ; sleeping or 
 waking they are besieged by passion ; and yielding to their 
 desires so far from assuaging only incites them more, until 
 the constitution breaks down under the unnatural strain. 
 Mule Messalinas, they urefatigati, sed non satiati. 
 
 The secretion under such circumstances is non-fecundating, 
 as a rule, showing the condition to be one of disease. And 
 further proof to the same effect is the fact that it may arise 
 in persons who have lived continent lives. 
 
 Whenever such is the case, it is the part of prudence to 
 abstain as far as possible from any indulgence whatever, to 
 take a regular course of treatment, to have a thorough 
 examination, and in all respects to regard one's self in the 
 light of a sick man. Those who ignorantly and rashly 
 imagine that such excessive sensations are a mark of vastly 
 increased vigor, and felicitate themselves on the change, will 
 have bitterly to rue their error in after years. 
 
 Special Treatment of Loss of Power. 
 
 What has been said about the causes of loss of power will 
 to a considerable extent indicate the care necessary to pre- 
 vent it, and to improve it. 
 
 But besides these there is a specific course of treatment 
 which, if persistently and intelligently carried out, is produc- 
 tive of good results. 
 
 Except in those cases where there is an organic change in 
 the parts, or where it is the result of advanced age, there is 
 every hope that the power can be restored. The weakness 
 is a nervous weakness ; it depends upon a want of strength 
 in the nervous system ; and by having this clearly in mind 
 we may accomplish much. 
 
168 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 It is well known that marriage often has an excellent 
 influence on the slighter affections of this nature. As Prof. 
 Lallemand says, "the regular and legitimate employment 
 of the functions will alone give all the energy of which they 
 are susceptible, and to this general law the function of repro- 
 duction forms no exception." 
 
 Yet it is necessary to make the distinction here that when- 
 ever it is not nervous cbbility, but local irritation or inflam- 
 mation which has brought on loss of power, no recommenda- 
 tion could be more injudicious 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 consideration for the 
 young wife and future offspring. 
 
 Who has a right to ask a happy and charming young gn\ 
 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 exalted 
 one of life. Its demands on the nervous force are greater, 
 and it requires the expenditure of more of the vital power. 
 "When this is the evident plan of nature, what offspring can 
 we reasonably expect from flagging and exhausted func* 
 tions ? 
 
 While, therefore, marriage as a hygienic measure is dcsir* 
 able, it should be preceded or accompanied by treatment of a 
 more direct kind, specially directed to restore the nervous 
 force. This can be successfully done by various agents. 
 
 One of the best is electricity, of which we have already 
 spoken. It does not suit where there is irritation or inflam- 
 
USE OP DRUGS. 1G9 
 
 tnation, 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 individual 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 ijrnorantly 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 feeling 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 pre- 
 vious page, death has in various instances resulted from its 
 injudicious employment. The one we shall mention is 
 " phosphoric acid lemonade." The formula is 
 
 Dilute phosphoric acid, fifteen drops; 
 
 Syrup of giuger, a tablespoonful ; 
 
 Water, a tumblerful. 
 
 This makes an agreeable beverage, and may be taken 
 three times a day, but not oftener; nor should the amount 
 of the dilute acid be increased. 
 
 The other powerful excitants of the nervous system which 
 are prescribed in such cases are all so dangerous if incau- 
 tiously 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. 
 
170 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 [AUTHORS AND WORKS QUOTED ON THE ABOVE TOPICS. Bou. 
 Tier, Dictionary of Legal Terms; sub voce, Marriage and Impo. 
 tence; Reich- Naturgeschichte des Ehelichen Lebens, pp 92, 95 ( 
 Acton, On tTif Reproductive Organs, p. 109 ; Dr. Horton, Medico^, 
 and Surgical Reporter, Aug. 1869, and Feb. 1870. On Virginity 
 Tardieu, Les Attentats aux meurs ; Marriage Rites of all Nations, 
 New York, 1869, chap. III. ; Professor Lallemand, On Spermator- 
 rhaa; Dr. S. Durkee, On Gonorrhoea and Syphilis ; Alfred Maury, 
 La Magie et /' Astrologie au Moyen Age., On the nouements 
 d 1 aiguillett** ; Montaigne, Essais, Liv. I. chap, xx.; Herodotus, 
 Bk. II. ; M- Liegeois, Half-yearly Compendium of Medical Scie?ice, 
 Part IV.- Sct. II. ; Dr. Dancel, TraitS de Vobesitt, chap. iv. ; Dr. 
 Marion Siro, On Sterility in Man, in the N. Y. Med. Jour., 1869; 
 Dr. Giriwit, Etude sur In Generation artificielle dam Vespece 
 hu*naine. Paris, 1869, and M&lical and Surgical Reporter, June, 
 1870 ; Dr. Julius Althans, Treatise on Medical Electricity, pp. 
 S20-625, second edition, 1870. j 
 
HUSBANDS AND WIVES. 
 
 "U ;., shall now cuppose that the young couple have passed 
 through the trials and dangers of the " honey-moon," as it is 
 familiarly called, and have settled down to the staid conduct 
 of life as " old married people." In this condition they will 
 find themselves surrounded by circumstances very different 
 from their former experiences as single persons, and it 
 behooves them to give careful attention to the precepts of 
 hygiene now, lest peculiar temptations and novel trials lead 
 them to the commission of acts for which they will be bitterly 
 but fruitlessly sorry in after years. Therefore we commence 
 our instructions with some remarks OQ 
 
 The Hygiene of the Chamber. 
 
 This should be a large, well-venti!ated room, with & 
 southern or western exposure, which can receive the direct 
 sunlight for several hours of the day. At least twelve hun- 
 dred cubic feet of air ought to be allowed each occupant, so 
 if two sleep in the room, and the ceiling be twelve feet high, 
 about fifteen feet square is a desirable size. If one or more 
 children sleep in the same room the dimensions should be 
 proportionately increased, or extra pains should be taken to 
 secure a rapid change .in the air of the room. No doubt 
 much of the mortality which characterizes the courts and 
 alleys of oui' great cities is due to the narrow and crowded 
 13 ( 171 ) 
 
2 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 rooms in which the tenants sleep ; and no matter how many 
 other causes of disease are removed, so long as this remains, 
 we cannot expect to see a proper and normal degree of health 
 established. 
 
 In this country it is customary for married persons to sleep 
 in the same bed. In Europe, in the higher classes, they 
 nearly always occupy separate rooms. Louis Philippe, the 
 " citizen king" of France, who thought it policy to assimilate 
 himself in mode of life to the middle classes, chose to make 
 his family an exception to this rule, and, during his reign, 
 visitors to the Tuileries were duly pointed out the great 
 double bed in which the king and queen slept. Probably 
 under most circumstances it is well to adopt the American 
 habit, as such nearness of body leads to a nearness of spirit, 
 and mutual trust and love are fostered by the fact of con- 
 tiguity. 
 
 Only when disease, or some avocation which leads to 
 disturbed slumbers, is to be taken into account, do we 
 recommend the opposite plan. Some physicians suppose 
 that consumption is contagious, and of course many chronic 
 skin diseases notoriously are so ; and if present, it is too 
 severe a demand for the sufferer to make that a healthy per- 
 son should needlessly be exposed to the danger of illness. 
 
 Physicians, who are called up nearly every night, can 
 hardly with propriety insist that their wives shall partake of 
 this annoyance inseparable from their avocation. But we 
 forget. We need not extend to them advice on the subject 
 of sanitary rules, as with these they are supposed to be 
 already familiar. 
 
 Cleanliness of person is a point about which married people 
 of both sexes cannot be over-scrupulous. When in health, we 
 urgently recommend them to use a bath every morning or 
 every evening. An unpleasant odor almost always attends 
 
PASSION IN WOMEN. . 173 
 
 those who neglect this direction, and certainly few small 
 things can sooner or more inevitably lead to aversion than a 
 bad smell. Persons whose feet, or whose perspiration is 
 generally foul, can obtain relief from this by seeking medical 
 advice. When it is their own fault, as for instance from 
 chewing tobacco, or from frequent indulgence in spirits, they 
 will stand sadly in their own light unless they renounce these 
 indulgences. The man who likes his quid better than his 
 wife is not much of a man. 
 
 Frequent changes of underclothing are desirable on this 
 account as well as for general hygienic reasons, and any 
 pains bestowed on keeping the attire neatly arranged and 
 well cared for will not be lost. Women have more delicate 
 sensibilities than men, they are more readily pleased or 
 repulsed by little things, and the husband who is anxious to 
 maintain pleasant relations in his home circle will do well 
 not to neglect the cares of the toilet. 
 
 We pass from these considerations of general hygiene 
 to those which more particularly have to do with the state 
 of marriage ; and first 
 
 Of Marital Relations. 
 
 At the outset of this important subject, we stop to correct 
 a gross, but widely received popular error. Every woman, 
 every physician, nearly every married man will support us 
 in what we are goincr to say, and will thank us for saying it. 
 
 It is in reference to passion in woman. A vulgar opinion 
 prevails that they are creatures of like passions with our- 
 selves ; that they experience desires as ardent, and often as 
 ungovernable, as those which lead to so much evil in our sex. 
 Vicious writers, brutal and ignorant men, and some shame' 
 less women combine to favor and extend this opinion. 
 
174 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 Nothing is more utterly untrue. Only in very rare In. 
 stances do women experience one tithe of the sexual feeling 
 which is familiar to most men. Many of them are entirely 
 frigid, and not even in marriage do they ever perceive any 
 real desire. We have in numbers of instances been so in- 
 formed by husbands, who regretted it, and were surprised 
 at it. 
 
 Loose women, knowing that their business is increased if 
 they feign the pleasure to be reciprocal, often give occasion 
 for the opinion we are combating, in the minds of young and 
 inexperienced men. As Mr. Acton well remarks : " There 
 are many females who never feel any sexual excitement 
 whatever ; others again, to a limited degree, are capable of 
 experiencing it. The best mothers, wives, and managers of 
 households know little or nothing of the sexual pleasure. 
 Love of home, children, and domestic duties are the only 
 passions they feel. As a rule, the modest woman submits to 
 her husband, but only to please him ; and, but for the desire 
 of maternity, would far rather be relieved from his atten- 
 tions." 
 
 This is doubly true of women during the periods when they 
 are with child, and when they are nursing. The whole force 
 of the economy at these times is taken up with providing 
 sustenance for the new being, and there is no nervous power 
 Jeft to be wasted in barren pleasures. In those exception- 
 able cases where this does not hold good, every excitement 
 is visited upon the child, and it has to suffer in health and 
 growth for the unnatural appetite of the mother. 
 
 The above considerations, which all married men will do 
 well to ponder, should lead them to a very temperate enforce- 
 ment of their conjugal rights. They should be always con- 
 siderate, and not so yield themselves to their passions as to 
 sacrifice their love to the woman they have married. Let us 
 
PLEASURE TO BE MUTUAL. 175 
 
 here quote the words of Dr. Horatio R. Storer, of Boston, on 
 these rights : " Restrained within due bounds as to frequency, 
 they serve to give a charm to life, and to impart fresh 
 courage for enduring its vicissitudes ; but to gain these, one 
 single rule must be observed. It is this : That the husband 
 compel his wife to do nothing that she herself does not freely 
 assent to. A forced union is even worse than solitary vice. 
 No true conjugal enjoyment can exist unless it is mutual. 
 The true rule is to take only what is freely given." 
 
 In a similar strain speaks the distinguished old English 
 divine, Jeremy Taylor, in his excellent " Rules and Exercise 
 of Holy Living :" " Married people must be sure to observe 
 the order of nature and the ends of God. He is an ill bus. 
 band that uses his wife as a man treats a harlot, having no 
 other end but pleasure. The pleasure should always be 
 joined to one or another of these ends with a desire of chil- 
 dren, or to avoid fornication, or to lighten and ease the cares 
 and sadnesses of household affairs, or to endear each other ; 
 but never with a purpose, either in act or desire, to separate 
 the sensuality from these ends which hallow it. Married 
 people must never force themselves into high and violent 
 lusts with arts and misbecoming devices, but be restrained 
 and temperate in the use of their lawful pleasures." 
 
 We cannot improve upon this admirable advice, so sound, 
 and so fitly expressed, by one of the wisest and purest of 
 men ; nor, though other authorities are numerous enough to 
 our hand, do we consider they are called for. 
 
 It is impossible, necessarily, to lay down any specific rules 
 for the government of others in this particular ; but we may 
 state generally that no husband should force his wife to sub- 
 mit 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 de- 
 
176 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIP*. 
 
 bility, or disturbance of the health, it is a certain sign that 
 he is overtasking himself. Taking men on an average, we 
 counsel them for their own sake, when in middle life and 
 usual health, not to indulge more than once or twice a week, 
 and in old age and feeble health (no matter if they do expe- 
 rience desire), by no means so often, or not at all. 
 
 There are certain periods when a complete cessation should 
 be observed. One of these is during the monthly sickness 
 of the woman, and for a day or two after that epoch. It is 
 well known that among our American Indians at such times 
 the squaws leave the lodge, and remain entirely segregated 
 from the household ; and among the Israelites the Mosaic law 
 pronounces a woman unclean for a number of days after her 
 periodical illness has ceased. 
 
 The origin of these customs, no doubt, was that observa- 
 tion proved that intercourse at such periods leads to disease in 
 the male ; and modern science, after having, as usual, denied 
 for some time this ancient opinion, has at last proven its 
 correctness. " It cannot be too often mentioned," says Dr. 
 Alexander Stein, of New York, in a paper read before the 
 Medical Journal Association of that city, February, 1870, 
 " that venereal disease is not always the result of impure 
 intercourse, but may arise from contact with a female during 
 the existence of a discharge which is not specific, as, for in- 
 stance, during menstruation." All other writers of note co- 
 incide with this view, and therefore the caution is necessary 
 absolutely to abstain at such times. 
 
 During pregnancy and nursing, conjugal relations should 
 be as few as possible. Some writers condemn them alto- 
 gether, but this we consider an extravagance. They do no 
 harm, providing that they neither on the one hand unduly 
 excite the woman, nor on the other are repulsive to her. 
 
 In the former case they injure the growth of the foetus be- 
 
THE TORMENT OF TANTALUS. 177 
 
 fore birth and sometimes provoke a miscarriage, and after 
 birth are quite sure to deteriorate the quality of the milk to 
 the serious damage, perhaps, of the infant. If repulsive, 
 they lead to domestic unhappiness, loss of mutual respect, 
 and sometimes to violent nervous excitement on the part ot 
 the wife. 
 
 After a natural confinement, at least two full months 
 should be allowed to elapse before the resumption of the 
 marital relations, and if the labor has been an unusually 
 severe or a complicated one, it is prudent to extend this 
 interregnum yet another month. 
 
 During and after the change of life, it is also important 
 to observe an unwonted moderation. During that period 
 any unaccustomed excitement of this character may be fol- 
 lowed by flooding, and other serious symptoms, while after 
 the crisis has been passed, the sexual appetite itself should 
 wholly or almost wholly disappear. 
 
 In what we have said it may be complained that we 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 constant torment of Tan- 
 talus, with the beaker of pleasure ever filled and ever pre- 
 sented to the thirsty lips only to be whisked away again the 
 next moment, leaving the ardent longings cruelly deceived, 
 then that the charm of the condition is gone, and it is better 
 and easier to deny one's self entirely than to irritate by half- 
 indulgence. 
 
 Or it may be thrown up to us that all this counsel iu 
 useless because men will not be moderate in lust, and will 
 not practise self-restraint in order to spare feelings which' 
 they cannot understand, and a delicacy which they cannot 
 appreciate, in a person over whom the law gives them, in 
 this respect, an absolute power. Very well, we are prepared 
 
178 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 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 imperative obligation which every 
 man owes himself. That he may know precisely what may 
 befall him from a disregard of the precepts of temperance, 
 we shall mention 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 supposed to 
 be the only sufferer from excess in the venereal act. Far 
 from it. He is by no means alone. More commonly than 
 is currently believed, the married man has to settle an ac- 
 count for immoderate indulgence. 
 
 To quote the words of a physician of wide experience : 
 " Too frequent emission of the life-giving fluid, too frequent 
 sexual excitement of the nervous system, is most destructive. 
 Whether it occurs in married or unmarried people has little 
 or nothing to do with the result. 
 
 " The married man who thinks that, because he is a mar- 
 ried man, he can commit no excess, no matter how often the 
 sexual act is repeated, will suffer as certainly and as seriously 
 as the debauchee who acts on the same principle in his indul- 
 gences, perhaps more certainly from his very ignorance, and 
 from his not taking those precautions 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 criminal excess; nor is this to be won- 
 dered at, as such a cause of disease is seldom hinted at by 
 the medical man he consults." 
 
TWOFOLD NATURE OF EXCESS. 179 
 
 The nature of excess may be twofold ; either it is a long- 
 continued indulgence beyond the average power of the man 
 to withstand, and which slowly but surely undermines 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 pas- 
 sion 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 appa- 
 rent to physicians. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Laycock, Professor of the Practice of Medi- 
 cine in the University of Edinburgh, in an article published 
 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 consequences in the 
 nervous system at a long distant subsequent period. A sud- 
 den, short, yet great excess may be more dangerous than 
 more moderate, albeit excessive indulgence, extending over 
 a long period. In certain constitutions, although only in- 
 dulged in legitimately and for a short period, as after mar- 
 riage, such excess may act like a shock or concussion of the 
 spinal cord, or like a blow on the head, and may give rise to 
 serious chronic diseases, as epilepsy, insanity, and paralysis." 
 
 The ordinary results of an abuse of the conjugal privilege 
 aro. in the man, very much the same as those brought on by 
 self-abuse. Locally there is over-excitation, irritability, and 
 possibly inflammation. The digestion becomes impaired, 
 dyspepsia sets in, the strength is diminished, the heart has 
 spells of palpitation, the spirits are depressed, spermator- 
 rhoea may arise, the genetic powers lose their vigor, there ia 
 unusual sensitiveness to heat and cold, sleep is not refreshing, 
 
180 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 and a jaded, languid indifference takes the place of energy 
 and ambition. 
 
 One of the most striking and characteristic effects is indi- 
 cated in the throat and by the voice. There is a very close 
 sympathy, and one not readily explained between the voice 
 and the procreative function. 
 
 "We have already mentioned the change from tenor to bass 
 which takes place at puberty, and never occurs in eunuchs. 
 Excessive indulgence often first shows itself by an impair- 
 ment of vocal power, and a sense of dryness and hoarseness 
 in the throat. Self-abuse and nocturnal losses produce the 
 same effects in men otherwise continent. Often a chronic 
 bronchitis or a loss of volume and strength in the voice is 
 due to some disorder or overstraining of the masculine func- 
 tion, and the proper remedies must be directed in accordance 
 with this fact. 
 
 A vast 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 discusaon of this topic than has yet been 
 attempted, that there will be a general appreciation of the 
 truth that a man for his own sake should exert self-denial in 
 marriage. 
 
 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 diseases peculiar 
 to women his special study, Dr. Storer, says : " Among these 
 diseases is a very large class occasioned or aggravated by 
 excessive sexual indulgence." Of course we do but refer to 
 this fact here, as we have elsewhere treated of woman's pecu- 
 liar functions and the disorders to which they are liable, but 
 Vre wish all men to know that often they may injure their 
 
THE MAXIMUM OF POWER. 181 
 
 Wives' health irretrievably by a self-indulgent course, and 
 with this run the risk of ruining their own domestic happiness. 
 
 A foolish notion sometimes prevails that it is necessary to 
 health to have frequent intercourse. We have already said 
 that there is no condition of life more thoroughly in accordance 
 with perfect vigor than chaste celibacy. Next to this comes 
 moderation in married life. It is never required for sanitary 
 reasons to abuse the privileges which law and usage grant. 
 Any such abuse is pretty sure to bring about debility and 
 disease. 
 
 They may be long coming, and the connection may often be 
 obscure, but it is undeniable. The ancient Greek physicians 
 were acquainted with the peculiar form of paralysis now tech- 
 nically called " locomotor ataxy," and attributed it to excess 
 \n venery. Modern observers have indorsed their opinion, 
 and have traced beyond doubt the relation of cause and effect 
 *n a number of instances. 
 
 The question may now be put 
 
 What is Excess? 
 
 As a matter of figures it is difficult to answer, but there is 
 no difficulty whatever in stating explicitly the laws of hygiene 
 in the case. 
 
 The power of the masculine function in different men varies 
 greatly. Extraordinary accounts are given by some writers, 
 and individuals arc very apt to exaggerate their capacities. 
 
 It is well known that Augustus, surnamed the Strong, last 
 King of Poland, had three hundred and fifty-four children, on 
 which Carlyle justly remarks, in his History of Frederick 
 the Great, that Augustus certainly attained the maximum 
 in bastardy of any mortal on authentic record. 
 
 One of the Latin historians records of the Emperor Pro- 
 
(82 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 clus, that in the war with the Sarmates he violated one 
 hundred virgins in fifteen days. Such exhibitions 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 vigorous 
 man to repeat the sexual act more than five or six times 
 within twelve hours. Should it be attempted more frequently 
 no spermatic fluid passes, but merely a glairy mucus, often 
 tinged with blood, or even pure blood. Pleasure there is 
 none, and danger there is much. 
 
 Attempts have been made by legislators and divines to 
 fix definitely a limit to the conjugal approaches which should 
 be binding on all. The physician knows the impossibility 
 of such a regulation. What one man can support with 
 impunity will ruin the health of another. Each one must 
 be a law to himself. 
 
 We have known men who for years hardly omitted a sin- 
 gle night to approach their wives, and yet seemed none the 
 worse. These are exceptions. If we are asked to give 
 some general average which may serve as a guide, we should 
 say that for a man past the first flush of youth, whose mind 
 or body is engaged in regular labor as severe as that of 
 ordinary business, once a week is as often as he can pru- 
 dently expend his force in sensual pleasure ; and often he 
 will find it of advantage even to restrict himself more than 
 this, as we have previously stated. 
 
 Generally speaking, the hygienic rule is, that after the act 
 the body should feel well and strong, the sleep should be sound, 
 and the mind clear. Whenever this is not the case, when 
 the limbs feel languid, the appetite feeble or capricious, the 
 intellect dull, and the faculties sluggish, then there is excess, 
 and the act should be indulged in more rarely. 
 
WHAT IS EXCESS? 183 
 
 rhose who observe strictly this rule will need no other, 
 and will incur no danger from immoderate indulgence. 
 
 (AUTHORS AND WORKS REFERRED TO. Becquerel, Traitt d' Hy- 
 giene ; Acton, On Prostitution; Dr. Storer, Is it I? p. 117; 
 Jeremy Taylor, Rules of Holy Living, p. 50; Dr. Stein, New 
 York Aleiitcal Journal, June, 1870 ; Dr. Napheys, Physical Life 
 of Woman, p. 78 : Dr. Laycock, Dublin Quarterly Journal of 
 Medtcal Science (May, 1869), on t/ie Dangers of Libidinous Ex- 
 c?sz ; Acton, On th? Reproductive Organs (p. 212), on Clergyman's 
 Sort Throat ; Thomas Carljle, History of Frederick the Great, 
 voJ M. p. 95 ; MUller, Ueber TJnwillkurhche Samensverluste (pp. 
 50-C3), on Venereal Excess,} 
 
THE HUSBAND AS A FATHER. 
 
 THE differences of the sexes, the emotions which depend 
 upon these differences, and the institution of marriage are 
 primarily and directly existent for the purpose of transmit- 
 ting life, or, to put it more plainly, for having children. 
 Every married couple must distinctly and constantly impress 
 this truth upon their minds, and be governed by it in their 
 life. Whatever relations they bear to each other, whatever 
 duties they may have to society and themselves, all of them 
 are subordinate to the paramount obligation of having and 
 raising a family. We care not what excuse may be ima- 
 gined in order to escape this duty, it is inadmissible. No- 
 thing short of positive incapacity can exculpate either 
 party. 
 
 It is not only their duty to have, not merely a child or 
 two, but a family of children ; but also, to do all in their 
 power that their offspring have all the natural advantages 
 which it is possible to give them. It may not be generally 
 known that this matter touches some of the most intimate 
 and earliest relations of the married couple. But, now-a- 
 days, physicians at least are fully satisfied that the season 
 and manner of conception, the condition of father and 
 mother at the time, and several attending circumstances 
 exercise a most important influence on the newly formed 
 being. In order that this topic, which we believe to be one 
 of the highest interest to all, may be properly understood, 
 we are obliged to depart from the rule we have generally 
 (184) 
 
THE HUMAN EGG. 185 
 
 laid down for ourselves not to trespass on the domain of the 
 physiologist and give a brief explanation, so far as that is 
 possible with the present possessions of science, of that most 
 mysterious and wonderful phenomenon, conception. 
 
 The Nature of Conception. 
 
 The old writers had a proverb : " Every living being origi- 
 nates in an egg." Without allowing this maxim the latitude 
 it claims, it is perfectly true so far as the human race is con- 
 cerned. Every one of us commenced our existence in an 
 egg. The human egg, however, has no shell, and is not, as 
 with fowls and many lower animals, deposited outside the 
 body. The female matures one or several at each of her 
 monthly periods, and they pass from the sac which has 
 hitherto contained them on their way to the outer world. 
 They are so minute that they are hardly visible to the naked 
 eye, and so delicate in structure that they readily perish. 
 They remain a longer or a shorter time in their passage from 
 the spot where they are formed to their destination, some- 
 times requiring but a day or two, at others probably a week 
 or two. 
 
 During this passage, should they come in contact with the 
 secretion of the male, the vibratory bodies which we have 
 described as spermatozoa surround the egg, penetrate into it 
 perhaps, and fecundate it. At this moment conception has 
 taken place, and a new member of the species ha^ com- 
 menced its individual life. 
 
 Now the interest of this process to us in the present con- 
 nection rests on the indisputable fact that the qualities of 
 the male element are very largely influenced by the condi- 
 tion, mental and physical, of the father at the time ; and that 
 these qualities materially change for better or worse, as tha 
 
186 THE TRANSMISSION OF LITE. 
 
 case may be, the development of the egg, and the growth, 
 faculties, character, and destinies of the newly-formed indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 One of the best proven and most disastrous examples of 
 this is seen in children who have been conceived at the time 
 the father was partially intoxicated. There is no doubt 
 whatever that under such circumstances the child is pretty 
 sure either to be idiotic, or to have epileptic fits, or to be 
 of a feeble mind and irritable nervous system. What a 
 curse does the unblessed cup here entail upon the family ! 
 How horrible the reflection, in after years, that the idiot boy 
 or the tortured girl owes its wretchedness to the intempe- 
 rate indulgence of the father ! 
 
 The children of men who have exhausted themselves by 
 excesses, or solitary vice, or insufficient food, or severe bodily 
 and mental strain, are not what they would have been if 
 these deteriorating elements had been removed. Very intel- 
 lectual men rarely have large families, and though to some 
 extent talent is an inheritance, the children of such are apt 
 to be either quite below or quite above mediocrity. 
 
 The offspring of men who marry late in life usually mani- 
 fest some signs of the decrepitude which marked their senile 
 father. They are not long-lived, and are rarely healthy. 
 Their teeth and hair fall early, and they are perhaps never 
 conspicuous for sturdy muscles and power of endurance. 
 
 Not dissimilar are those which are conceived at a time 
 when the father is recovering from or is threatened with a 
 severe illness. It is characteristic of the period of conva- 
 lescence from some affections, that the passions are quite 
 ardent. A. sound hygiene forbids their gratification. For 
 not only may this result in a relapse, or a lingering debility, 
 but it may bring into the world a child condemned to ao 
 early death, or a lingering and painful life. 
 
FACTS CONCERNING CONCEPTION. 181 
 
 The seasons of the year exercise a very manifest action on 
 the secretion of the male element. In domestic and wild 
 animals this is familiar to every one. To a less extent it is 
 observable in the human race. Tennyson refers to it in 
 " Lockslcy Hall :" 
 
 "In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of 
 love." 
 
 Mr. Acton, possibly acting on the hint of the poet, has 
 taken the trouble to collect the statistics on this point as 
 found in the registration reports of Great Britain. He 
 reaches the curious result that there are about seven per 
 centum more conceptions in that country during the spring 
 months than during any other quarter of the year. And 
 Dr. Edward Smith, of London, has pursued the subject 
 further, and ascertained that the mortality of infants con- 
 ceived in the spring time is decidedly less than that of those 
 who.se existence has commenced at any other period of the 
 yciir. It would thus seem that a well-defined law indicates 
 that the male, as a rule, is more capable of perpetuating his 
 species when the icy winter loses his hold of the land, and 
 the warm breath of the south wind evokes, as if by magic, 
 sweet violets and gay daffodils from the dark and cold earth. 
 
 An even temper, peace of mind, and calm desires are usu- 
 ally supposed, and with every probability, to conspire favor- 
 ably for the destinies of the offspring. Jeremy Taylor, in 
 the work we recently quoted, says: "Those mixtures are 
 most innocent which are most simple, most natural, most 
 orderly, and most safe." 
 
 It is both disgraceful and dangerous for a man to use his 
 wife as a libertine does a prostitute. How can he expect 
 her to retain her respect for him, who shows none for her? 
 How can he suppose that she will remain pure, if h<* practises 
 corrupt arts, and artificial excitants V 
 14 
 
188 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 " Husbands should know," says the Seigneur de Brantome 
 in one of his curious books, " that when they abuse their 
 wives by lascivious actions and discourses, they injure them- 
 selves, and violate the purpose of marriage; and if their 
 wives fail in fidelity in consequence of such corruptions, hus- 
 bands have no right to demand redress, for they have brought 
 this punishment on themselves." 
 
 Too frequently, we -fear, young men regard this sacred 
 union as merely a safe and easy means of indulging their 
 appetites. If they carry out such an idea, they may dis- 
 cover too late the magnitude of their folly. 
 
 It is a vicious and a vulgar error which pretends that the 
 unnatural ardor, the anxiety, and the sweetness of the stolen 
 fruit, which are associated with illicit love, tend to produce 
 a more felicitously constituted being. Illegitimate children 
 are notorious for their mortality. The deaths among them 
 during the first year are far greater in proportion than 
 among the progeny of the married, as has been demonstrated 
 by the writers 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 gene- 
 rally they have a taint of viciousness or of monomania run- 
 ning in their blood, which spoils their lives. Shakspeare, 
 who had studied so closely all that pertains to man and hi 
 uperstitions, makes Edmund in King Lear, say : 
 "Why brand they us with base ? 
 "Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take 
 More composition and fierce quality. 
 Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, 
 Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops, 
 Got between sleep and wake?" 
 
 And proves by the atrocious villainy of the youth, and his 
 utter want of natural affection, how false was the sentiment 
 he expresses in these lines. 
 
ASTONISHING FERTILITY. 189 
 
 True, that a certain amount of passion is eminently desira- 
 ble, and in all likelihood does beneficially affect the offspring; 
 but here again, the judicious man will always remain master 
 of himself. 
 
 The Avoidance and Limitation of Offspring. 
 
 He chooses the part of wisdom, which cannot be impugned, 
 who attentively studies the laws of nature and obediently 
 submits his life to her dictates. We have defined 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 
 mother, who travails in sorrow, and on whom the immediate 
 care of them devolves, looks often with more dread than 
 pleasure to another addition to her flock. Her health may 
 be giving away and her spirits flagging. 
 
 If here, as elsewhere, we seek by observation to derive 
 some reply to this inquiry from nature, we find that she 
 has made certain provisions for the definite limitation of off- 
 spring; and unmistakably warns us of the danger of too rapid 
 child-bearing, not only by debilitating the mother, 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 Frescobaldi was the 
 mother of fifty-two children. Brand, in his History of New- 
 castle, 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 Aberconway Church may still 
 be seen a monument to the memory of Nicholas Hooker, who 
 was himself a forty-first child, and the father of twenty-seven 
 children by one wife. 
 
190 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 Snch 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 youngest 
 ones will usually be found puny, or rickety, or idiotic, or de- 
 formed. Dr. Matthews Duncan, a careful obstetric statis- 
 tician, considers that that number, therefore, is too great. 
 
 The safeguard which nature has thrown out against over- 
 production is by constituting certain periods of woman's life 
 seasons of sterility. Before the age of nubility, during preg- 
 nancy, 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 certainty that a woman will not conceive then, though 
 the probability is against it. 
 
 A so-called agenetic or sterile period exists between each 
 monthly change, during the continuance of which it is not 
 possible for the female to conceive. This branch of our sub- 
 ject has attracted much attention of late years from its practi- 
 cal character, but the conclusions reached have so far not been 
 as satisfactory as we could wish. The present views of the 
 most expert physiologists are thus summed up by Dr. Dalton, 
 of New York, in the last edition of his treatise on Human 
 Physiology : " Intercourse is more liable to be followed by 
 pregnancy when it occurs about the menstrual epoch than at 
 other times. This fact was long since established as a matter 
 of practical observation by practical obstetricians. The 
 exact length of time, however, preceding and following the 
 menses during which impregnation is still possible, has not 
 been ascertained. The spermatic fluid, on the one hand, 
 retains its vitality for an unknown period after coition, and 
 the egg for an unknown period after its discharge. The 
 
PERIODS OF STERILITY. 191 
 
 precise extent of the limit of these occurrences is still uncertain, 
 aud is probably more or less variable in different individuals." 
 
 Those therefore who would take advantage of this natu- 
 ral law can do no better than confining themselves to a few 
 days intervening about midway between the monthly epochs. 
 
 We are most decidedly of opinion that it is proper an<j 
 right under some ci-cumstances for married people to avan 
 themselves of these provisions of our economy, and in thin 
 opinion we are supported by a large number of divines, 
 philosophers, and physicians. For example, when the wifq 
 is distinctly suffering from over-much child bearing ; when 
 the children are coming so rapidly that they interfere with 
 each other's nutrition ; when a destructive hereditary disease 
 has broken out after marriage ; and when the wife cannot 
 bear children without serious danger to her life. 
 
 Those who coincide with us here may urge the objection, 
 and it is a partially valid one, that the observation of these 
 natural periods of sterility does not answer the end in view ; 
 that they are uncertain and inadequate. They are so to 
 some degree, but we believe them to be much more reliable 
 than they are generally supposed. 
 
 The next refuge is to renounce entirely the conjugal privi- 
 lege. This is a perfectly allowable and proper course, if it 
 be with mutual consent. St. John Chrysostom, the eminent 
 father of the Greek Church, called Chrysostomos or the 
 Golden Mouth for his eloquence, expressly states that the 
 early Christians did not consider it amiss. The objection 
 nmv-a-days urged against it is that it is too severe a pre- 
 scription, and consequently valueless. This ought not to be. 
 A man who loves his wife should, in order to save that wife 
 overwork, and misery, and danger of death, and wretchedly 
 constituted children, be able and willing to undergo as much 
 self-denial as every one of his continent bachelor acquaint- 
 
f 92 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 ances does, 'not out of high devotion, but for motives of 
 economy, or indifference, or love of liberty. The man who 
 cannot do this, or does not care to do it, does not certainly 
 deserve a very high position. 
 
 But while all this is granted, the question is still con- 
 stantly put : Is this all ? Is there no means by which we 
 can limit our families without either injuring the health, or 
 undergoing a self-martyrdom which not one man in a thou- 
 sand will submit to ? 
 
 There are dozens and scores of means if one might be- 
 lieve the indecent advertisements which are inserted by un- 
 scrupulous knaves in country newspapers. We warn against 
 them as fraudulent and deceptive. Most of the artificial 
 means proposed for this purpose, and we have reason to be- 
 lieve extensively vended, can none of them be used constantly 
 without either failing to accomplish their purpose, or sowing 
 the seeds of disease. Many of them are in the highest 
 degree injurious and reprehensible, and are certain to destroy 
 health. 
 
 The habit of uncompleted intercourse which many adopt 
 must be disapproved on the same grounds. It does violence 
 to nature, and is liable to bring about premature loss of 
 virility, and serious injury to the nervous system. 
 
 It is a doubtful question whether any of the appliances 
 of art recommended for this purpose, even if they are inno- 
 cent in regard to health, are morally to be approved. Whether 
 under some rare and exceptionable circumstances, as when 
 women conceive during nursing, or are incapable of bearing 
 children with safety to life, such means are permissible or 
 not, must be left for the medical attendant *o determine, and 
 he alone must bear the responsibility of afBrming or refusing 
 to affirm the practice. But in the majority of marriages, 
 where the avoidance of children is sought merely to save 
 
A NATIONAL QUESTION. 193 
 
 expense or trouble, or to give greater room for freedom and 
 selfish pleasure, the resort to such means must be unequivo- 
 cally condemned. 
 
 We may be criticized, as, indeed, we have been, for refer- 
 ring to this delicate and difficult subject at all. But, as the 
 Rev. John Todd pointedly remarks in an article on this very 
 topic : " If there be indelicacy, it is in the facts, not in calling 
 attention to them." " It has become the fashion," says that 
 distinguished clergyman, " for parents to be leading round a 
 solitary, lonely child, or possibly two, it being well understood, 
 talked about, and boasted of, that they are to have no more, 
 The means to prevent it are well understood instrumentalities 
 shamelessly sold and bought, and it is a glory that they are 
 to have no more children." This is sadly true, especially in 
 the cities and large towns of this country. 
 
 Its results are even more conspicuous iu France. Dr. 
 Bergeret, a prominent physician in one of the provincial 
 towns of that country, draws a striking picture of the de- 
 moralization it has brought about. He shows how the bonds 
 of public morality have been loosened, the sacred institution 
 of marriage converted into legal prostitution, woman sunk in 
 respect, man yielding to unnatural debauches, losing his 
 better impulses to plunge into sensuality, diseases and debility 
 gaining ground, the number of births constantly decreasing, 
 and the nation itself incurring the danger of falling a prey to 
 its rivals through a want of effective soldiers. The picture 
 is a gloomy one, and is probably but little overdrawn. 
 
 If it is true that the native American population is actually 
 dying out, and that year by year the births from couples born 
 in this country are less in proportion than those from couples 
 one or both of whom are of European birth, as many have 
 asserted, then we must seek the explanation of this startling 
 fact either in a premature decay of virility, or a naturally 
 
194 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 diminished virility in middle life in the husbands, or to an 
 increased tendency to sterility in the wives, or else, and this 
 has been the, perhaps, hasty conclusion of most writers, we 
 must suppose there is a deliberate and wide-spread agreement 
 between those who are in the bonds of matrimony, that 
 American women shall be childless or the next thing to it. 
 
 Sometimes this is secured by the prevention of conception. 
 This, when it is accomplished by any other means than the 
 observation of the natural periods of sterility conjoined with 
 abstinence, is not to be sanctioned as a rule. 
 
 But when resort is had, as it frequently is, to the prao. 
 tice of 
 
 Criminal Abortion, 
 
 then no language is too severe for its condemnation. 
 
 We need not here rehearse what others have said upon 
 this topic, and what we ourselves have spoken concerning it 
 with no uncertain sound. But there is one element in this 
 crime which we wish here to bring prominently forward. It 
 is the responsibility which the husband has in its commission. 
 
 It is useless to deny or to conceal the fact that in very 
 many instances the husband's dislike of a large family, com- 
 bined with his unwillingness to practise self-denial in regard 
 to his appetites, is the motive which, beyond all others, in- 
 duces the wife to visit the fashionable Aborter, and to destroy 
 the fruit of her womb and imperil her own life and health. 
 This cowardice and brutality on his part cannot anywhere 
 find an excuse. As Dr. Horatio R. Storer observes in his 
 Is ft If 
 
 " In a very large proportion of cases, this shocking and 
 atrocious act is advised and abetted, if not compelled, by 
 the husband. 
 
 " For the woman, enfeebled perhaps by too excessive 
 
SEXES AT WILL. 195 
 
 child-bearing, for which her husband is generally wholly 
 responsible, for few of our wives do not become, sooner or 
 later, virtually apathetic ; for the woman, timid, easily 
 alarmed, prone to mental depression or other disturbance, 
 and dreading the yet safe and preferable labor that awaits 
 her, there is a certain measure of excuse. For her husband, 
 none." 
 
 This flagrant abuse is not confined to immsral circles of 
 society, nor to the corrupt atmosphere of our great com- 
 mercial centres, but extends into remote country hamlets, 
 and throughout all grades of social life. We call upon our 
 readers by example and precept to do their utmost to stem 
 its devastating tide, and at least in their own families, and 
 among their friends, to mete its due reprobation. 
 
 Its worst effects are not seen in marriage, though no phy- 
 sician is ignorant how many women in the community suffer 
 from the vile " French pills" and " female regulators" hawked 
 about, as well as from rude instruments in awkward and un- 
 feeling hands. But it is in the impunity which the vicious 
 believe they enjoy, the temptation to indulge in lustful and 
 illegitimate liaisons, the weakening of virtue, that its most 
 serious consequences are manifest. 
 
 The laws in several of our States on this subject are se- 
 vere. In New York it is a penitentiary offence to perform, 
 or to obtain, or to aid in obtaining an abortion. But yet, 
 such is the boldness of vice, that in the New York city pa- 
 pers scores of advertisements of professional abortionists may 
 any day be seen ! 
 
 On the Production of the Sexes at Will. 
 
 It is often a matter of the utmost interest in families to 
 feave a child of a particular sex. There is always a disap- 
 
196 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 pointment in having a number of children all either boys 
 or girls. The father, as a rule, takes greater interest in his 
 daughters, the mother in her sons. The ideal family is com- 
 posed of some of each sex. 
 
 Now we believe that we are not asserting prematurely a 
 scientific discovery, when we confidently say that the law 
 which governs the production of the sexes has been ascer- 
 tained ; and that, with a due allowance for certain elements 
 of uncertainty, and they few in number, persons can have 
 either a daughter or a son as they prefer. 
 
 What is more, this law is not confined to the human race, 
 but extends throughout all those species of animals technic- 
 ally known as oviparous, or which reproduce by means of an 
 egg, whether this egg is deposited without the body or ma- 
 tured within it. And as stock-raisers, bird fanciers, bee mer- 
 chants, and all engaged in the breeding of the various kinds 
 of domestic animals, often would give a great deal to have it 
 in their power to breed either sex at will, we shall give such 
 details of the extent and workings of this law as to put it in 
 their power, in the large majority of cases, to obtain either 
 males or ^males as they prefer. 
 
 The ' /scoverer of this law was a French veterinary sur- 
 geon, Prof. Thury, of the Academy of Geneva. He studied 
 with particular care the sex of the offspring with reference 
 to the date of conception. Of course, in mares, bitches, cows, 
 and the other domesticated animals, this could be ascertained 
 without any doubt. He found that when the male was given 
 at the first signs of heat in the female, the result was a fe- 
 male ; but when the male was given at the end of the heat, 
 the result was male offspring. With hens the eggs first laid 
 after the tread gave females, those laid subsequently, males. 
 The eggs first laid by the queen bee yielded females, those 
 laid later, males. 
 
BEPORT OF A STOCKRAISER. 137 
 
 A. certified import to the Agricultural Society of Canton 
 db Vaud, Switzerland, made in 1867, reports the result of a 
 careful testing of Professor Thury's law in the following 
 words : 
 
 " On twenty-two successive occasions I desired to have 
 heifers. My cows were of the Schurtz breed, and my bull a 
 pure Durham. I succeeded in these cases. Having bought 
 me a pure Durham cow, it was very important to me to have 
 a new bull, to supersede the one I had bought at great ex- 
 pense, without leaving to chance the production of a male. 
 Accordingly I followed the advice of Prof. Thury, and the 
 success has proven once more the correctness of his law. I 
 have obtained from my Durham bull six more bulls for field- 
 work ; and having chosen cows of the same color and height, 
 I obtained perfect matches of oxen. 
 
 "In short, I have made in all twenty-nine experiments 
 after the new method, and in every one I succeeded in the 
 production of what I was looking for male or female. I had 
 not one single failure. All the experiments have been made 
 by myself without any other person's intervention ; conse- 
 quently I do declare the law discovered by Professor Thury 
 to be real and accurate." 
 
 Much other evidence from recent writings on the rearing 
 of domestic animals could be adduced to justify the opinion 
 of this reporter. On a number of stock farms in France, 
 England, and this country, experiments have been conducted 
 which show that there is much that we can depend upon in 
 Professor Thury's kw. Certain exceptions and apparent 
 contradictions have also been noted, and some objections on 
 theoretical grounds have been urged. For instance, Dr. 
 Wuldeyer, of Breslau, in his recent able work on the 
 "Ovary and Ovum," opposes Thury's hypothesis on th 
 ground that the ovum, for some time after fecundation, is in 
 
1 98 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 a certain sense a hermaphrodite; in other words, the elements 
 which go toward the formation of the sexual organs are 
 alike in all. But as neither Waldeyer nor any one else has 
 been able to say what mysterious something it is that finally 
 decides the development of these elements into the peculiar 
 organs of the one or the other sex, his objection falls to the 
 ground. It is quite likely to be something in the ovum 
 itself, dependent upon the length of time it has left the 
 ovisac, as Thury asserts. 
 
 Some curious facts may be explained by this theory. "We 
 referred on an earlier page to the statistical observation that 
 more male than female children are born. This would seem 
 to be because the time when the ovum can produce a female 
 is limited to a few days of its earlier independent existence ; 
 while all the rest of its life it can lead to a male. If we take 
 a large number of observations, it will be seen that when 
 the husband is from fifteen to twenty years older than his 
 wife, most of the children will be boys. This again is because 
 the conjugal rights are more rarely exercised by men of ad- 
 vanced years, and the limited time just referred to, when the 
 ovum can become a female, is skipped more frequently. 
 
 Observations in the human subject on this point are of 
 course vastly more uncertain and liable to error than in the 
 lower animals. Nevertheless, a sufficient number have been 
 recorded to remove any reasonable doubt that it holds good 
 with man, as it does with the inferior animals. 
 
 Physicians constantly observe that if labor comes a few 
 days before " full term," or just at term, the child is more 
 likely to be a female ; but if labor is delayed beyond term, 
 which is the same as saying if the conception took place 
 quite a number of days after the cessation of menstruation, 
 then it is more likely to be a boy. 
 
 Several physicians, interested in satisfying themselves on 
 
UNCERTAINTIES MENTIONED. 199 
 
 this important topic, have noted the occurrences in their own 
 families, and published the results in medical journals. So 
 far as these have come to our notice, they are uniformly in 
 support of Thury's law. 
 
 There remains an uncertainty as to the precise time at 
 which the human ovum loses its power of producing the 
 female sex in the fretus. For reasons very readily under, 
 stood, the study of this subject is surrounded with difficulties. 
 Moreover, it may well be that a difference in this respect 
 exists in ova and in individuals. 
 
 There is also a liability to error from a want of exact 
 knowledge on our part as to how long the male element re- 
 mains active after it is removed from the body and before 
 it comes into contact with the ovum of the female. Should 
 this indeterminate period extend over several days, as it is 
 highly probable that it does, it will readily be understood 
 that an error in the application of the rule might result. 
 
 A. third possibility of error arises from some uncertainty 
 as to whether the act of menstruation in the human female is 
 strictly analogous to and coincident with the process of ovu- 
 lation. While there is no question that the external sign, 
 and the general congestion arise from the maturation of an 
 ovum, it is not yet known whether this ovum is discharged 
 from the sac in which it has been ripening, at the commence- 
 ment, during the course, at the termination, or immediately 
 subsequent to the presence of the monthly symptoms. Au- 
 thorities differ on this, and it is most probable that their 
 disagreement is to be explained by supposing that there is 
 no fixed time for the discharge of the ovum. Consequently 
 we are at a loss to estimate exactly the age of the ovum at 
 any given period after menstruation. 
 
 We have been careful to note all these elements of error 
 in adopting Thury's law, because we believe his discovery to 
 
200 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 be one of vast importance, and well established in the inferior 
 species ; and in its application to the human race, it were to 
 be regretted if a few disappointments, which may readily 
 be explained, should lead to its rejection. As a general rule, 
 we consider ourselves perfectly safe in saying that the earlier 
 conception takes place after the menstrual flow has ceased, 
 the greater is the probability that the offspring will be 
 female ; and the further removed from that period (always 
 omitting four or five days anterior to the following monthly 
 illness), the more likely is it' that the child will be a male. 
 
 Before leaving this subject we will glance at one obstacle 
 which has stood in the way of its reception. Some have 
 imagined that the theory of M. Thury is overthrown by the 
 fact that twin children are sometimes of different sex. But 
 this is an argument -founded on our ignorance. We do not 
 know at all positively that the conception of both these 
 beings took place at the same time. It is not merely possi- 
 ble, but for various reasons highly probable, that days inter- 
 vened between the commencement of life in the one and in 
 the other. So this fact, too, fails to militate against the 
 general law. 
 
 [AUTHORS AND WORKS REFERRED TO IN THIS SECTION. Mar- 
 shall, Outlines of Physiology ; Dalton, Human Physiology ; Dr. 
 Seguin, On the Causes of Idiocy, N. T. Medical Journal, 1870; 
 Dr. Edward Smith, Cyclical Changes in Health and Disease ; 
 Acton, Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, p. 105 ; Hufeland, 
 Art of Prolonging Life ; De Brnntome, Viesdes Dames Galantes, 
 Discours I. p. 35 ; Raciborski, L' Age Critique chez la Femme, p. 
 484 ; Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter, vol. six. p. 
 305 ; Rev. John Todd, The Cloud with a Dark Lining ; Bergeret, 
 Les Fraudes dans V Accompltssement de V Acte Giniratrice ; Dr. 
 Hodge, Criminal Abortion, 1809 ; Storer, Crimiiial Abortion' 
 Waldeyer, Eierstock und Ei, p. 152, etc.] 
 
INHERITANCE. 
 
 What Fathers Bequeath Children. 
 
 " THE child is father to the man," it is said. We are not 
 concerned with this adage, but with the seemingly self-evi- 
 dent axiom that " the man is father to the child," in a 
 deeper sense than in being his immediate ancestor. The 
 father has not merely transmitted life to his offspring, but he 
 has fixed upon him, to a certain extent, his mental and 
 physical peculiarities, and even his moral nature. The child 
 does not, of course, always exactly resemble its father. In- 
 deed, the father's influence is less potent than the mother's ; 
 but it is a constant ever-present force in the child's being 
 which often writes with " pen of adamant on tablet of brass." 
 Let us then study, briefly though it may be, the laws and 
 limitations of that heritage which, in the language of a dis- 
 tinguished physiologist, " has, in reality, more power over 
 our constitution and character than all the influence from 
 without, whether moral or physical." 
 
 We will first consider 
 
 The Physical dualities we Inherit, 
 
 particularly fiom our fathers. It is not difficult to prove 
 that physical qualities are transmitted. We need not give 
 instances of resemblances in form and feature between father 
 and child, for they are matters of daily observation to every 
 one. It is interesting to know that the male influence is 
 
 (201) 
 
202 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 noticeable even in plants, for through the pollen of flowers 
 the tints and varieties may be modified at will. 
 
 The influence of the father is most marked in the exterior 
 and extremities of the child, while the internal organs ema- 
 nate from the mother. The father is most apt to determine 
 the muscular organization, the mother the nervous system 
 and temperament. This law is not an absolute one. The 
 mule and hinny afford illustrations of its operation in the 
 animal kingdom. The mule brays, while the hinny neighs. 
 The mule derives its muscular structure from its sire, the 
 ass, and, therefore, has his voice, for the voice is determined 
 by the muscular organization 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 sex of the 
 child. The tendency seems to be for him to transmit to his 
 daughters the conformation of the head and upper portions 
 of the body. His sons are more prone to derive the form of 
 these parts from the mother. Hence it happens, as we shall 
 have occasion to remark presently in speaking of mental 
 qualities which are inherited, that daughters partake more 
 frequently than sons do of the intellectual peculiarities of th 
 father. 
 
 Fathers not merely give the muscular organization to their 
 offspring, but also the force and agility acquired by training. 
 Thus, in ancient times, the athletes were found in families. 
 In the case of animals celebrated racers are known as valu- 
 able breeders. Eclipse is said to have been the sire of 
 334 winners, who secured for their owners the amount of 
 $800,000. King Herod, a descendant of Flying Childers, 
 begot 497 winners. Unknown horses, which have unex- 
 pectedly won great races, have always been proved, upon 
 
THE FATHER'S LEGACY. 205 
 
 examination, descendants, through many generations, of first- 
 rate ancestors. 
 
 Stature is often hereditary. The giant Chang, who was, 
 until recently, on exhibition in London, is eight feet six 
 inches in height. His father was nine feet high. The tall 
 guards of Frederick William of Prussia were for fifty years 
 quartered at Potsdam. That place is now remarkable for 
 the numerous gigantic figures met in its streets. They are 
 the offspring of the guards and the women of the city. 
 
 Peculiarities of the sense of taste are in many cases the 
 effects of inheritance. In this manner Montaigne accounted 
 for his inveterate dislike for physic and physicians. One of 
 his ancestors when dangerously ill and assured that if he did 
 not suffer himself to be treated, he would die, replied " Je 
 suis doncques mort." Montaigne asserts that his dislike for 
 medicines was directly traceable to this ancestor. Louis 
 XIV. was excessively fond of the pleasures of the table. 
 All his children were markedly voracious and gluttonous. 
 
 Longevity is a family trait. Sobriety, and a regard for 
 the principles of hygiene, will not necessarily insure long 
 life. These may maintain a condition of health and vigor, 
 but length of life is largely determined by inheritance. 
 Longevity is a talent. It may be improved like any other 
 talent, or it may be wasted, but no amount of cultivation 
 will create it. In spite of intemperance and exposure, a 
 man who has this talent for long life may become a centena- 
 rian. A saddler, aged 113, whose grandfather died at 112, 
 and his father at 113, was asked by Louis XIV. what he 
 had done to attain to such length of days, he replied : "Sire, 
 since I was 50, I have acted upon two principles: I have 
 shut my heart and opened my wine cellar." Again, Golom 
 brewski, a Pole, notwithstanding the hardships of eighty 
 years of service as a common soldier, the fatigues of thirty- 
 15 
 
204 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 6ve campaigns under Napoleon, the sufferings of the terrible 
 Russian campaign, the effects of five wounds, and the reck- 
 lessness of a soldier's life, survived, and in 1846 was still living 
 at the age of 102. But, it is to be observed, his father 
 attained the age of 121, and his grandfather 130. A. well- 
 known literary character, M. Quersonnieres, was living in 
 1842 in the full possession of all his powers. He said: "My 
 family descends from Methuselah ; we must be killed to die ; 
 my maternal grandfather was killed by accident at 125 years 
 of age, and I," he added, smiling, "invite you to my burial 
 in the next century." The experience of life insurance and 
 annuity companies has made so apparent the iuflunce of 
 heritage over longevity, that facts bearing upon this point 
 in the family history have much weight in the calculations 
 of the actuary. 
 
 Deformities are often transmitted from father to son 
 through many generations. Edward Lambert, called the 
 Porcupine man, is an illustration. He was first exhibited 
 before the Royal Society, England, in the year 1731, at the 
 age of fourteen. The whole surface of his body was covered 
 with a peculiar horny or bristly growth, " looking and rus- 
 tling like the bristles or quills of a hedgehog shorn off 
 within an inch of the skin. When, twenty-six years after, 
 he was again presented at the Royal Society, he was still 
 covered by the same bristles. In the mean time he had had 
 emallpox, followed by a temporary loss of his scaly covering, 
 which was soon, however, renewed. He had been married, 
 and had had six children, each of whom, at nine weeks of 
 age, like himself, began to assume this rugged coat. Sub- 
 sequently, it is on record that three grandsons of the 
 original porcupine man, Edward Lambert, were shown in 
 Germany with the cutaneous incrustation above described. 
 
 In this connection an interesting question arises : Are tha 
 
USEFUL RULES. 205 
 
 results of accidents inheritable? As a rule, they are not 
 Authentic instances are not wanting, which might readily 
 oe cited, showing that this rule has its exceptions. But the 
 natural tendency is fortunately against the propagation of a 
 physical injury. Thus, although the sins of the fathers are 
 visited upon their children, their misfortunes are not. 
 
 For what purpose have we brought forward the above 
 facts in regard to inheritance ? Merely because of their re- 
 lation to the important question of prevention. It is this 
 alone which concerns the father who reads these pages, in- 
 fluenced by one of the noblest of all human motives, the 
 desire to benefit his offspring. Such a one wishes above all 
 to know 
 
 How to avoid having Diseased and Deformed 
 Children. 
 
 The father's care over the health of his child should begin 
 before its birth, nay, before its conception. Proper attention 
 then may avert taints of the system which, once implanted, 
 no medical skill can eradicate. The truth of this statement 
 is recognized by breeders of animals. Mr. Youatt, one of 
 the best authorities upon the breeding of horses, observes, 
 " The first axiom we would lay down is this, like will pro- 
 duce like; the progeny will inherit the qualities or the 
 mingled qualities of the parents. We would refer to the 
 subject of diseases, and state our perfect conviction that there 
 is scarcely one by which either of the parents is affected that 
 the foal will not inherit, or, at least, the predisposition to it; 
 even the consequences of ill-usage or hard work will des- 
 cend to the progeny. We have had proof upon proof that 
 blindness, roaring, thick wind, broken wind, curbs, spavins, 
 ring-bones, and founder have been bequeathed both by the 
 sire and the dam to the offspring. It should likewise b 
 
206 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 recollected that, although these blemishes may not appear 
 in the immediate progeny, they frequently will in the next 
 generation. Hence the necessity of some knowledge of the 
 parentage both of the sire and dam." 
 
 The influence of one parent upon the other in counter, 
 acting or intensifying the degree and the certainty with 
 which the physical qualities of one or both are transmitted 
 must be borne in mind. If the same defects be possessed 
 by each parent they will be quite certain to appear in the 
 children. If only one parent be affected, some or all of the 
 children may escape the inheritance. Take, in illustration, 
 that most common of all diseases, consumption. If husband 
 and wife both have this affection, all of the offspring will be 
 quite certain to be consumptive or scrofulous. If one of the 
 parents be healthy, it is possible that only some of the chil- 
 dren will be scrofulous, and even that none of them will 
 inherit the disease. It is most fortunate that the tendency 
 of a disease to propagate itself by inheritance is often over- 
 powered by the stronger tendency of a vigorous constitution to 
 impress itself upon the offspring. If it were possible to apply 
 this principle to its fullest extent in every individual case, 
 by never mating a feeble constitution excepting with one of 
 that healthful vigor best calculated to counteract its trans- 
 mission, the heritage of disease would, doubtless, soon be 
 unknown. While it is impossible to lay down any absolute 
 rule of conduct, and useless to hope that any such rule would 
 be generally followed, even if enunciated, it behooves every 
 man to know, be he strong or weak, that, for the reason just 
 mentioned, he may marry a woman who will bear him 
 healthy children, whereas his children by another woman 
 may be doomed. The responsibility and risk are his own. 
 We can only indicate them. 
 
 We have also words of cheer to utter in regard to the 
 
THE LAW LIMITED. 207 
 
 descent of diseased conditions from generation to generation. 
 It is a stern fact that " Our fathers have sinned, and are not; 
 and we have borne their iniquities." But disease is not 
 eternal. The offspring of sinning fathers are not without all 
 hope. The counteracting influence of one parent over the 
 other with transmission of life, of which we have just spoken, 
 does much to maintain healthful vitality and beauty in spite 
 of the degrading tendencies which may be present. In addi- 
 tion, however, there is a force resident in our nature by 
 which the diseased organization tends to return to health. 
 This benign healing force, this vix medicatrix, 
 
 " Which hath an operation more divine 
 
 Than breath or pen can give expression to," 
 
 is ever influencing the effects of inheritance. Were it not 
 for this beneficent law the human race would rapidly degene- 
 rate. The results of its operation can be seen in the faces 
 of the children of squalor and vice who throng the narrow 
 streets and wretched houses of our crowded cities. If, hap- 
 pily, time had not purified the debased organization and 
 restored health, we should look in vain there for that comeli- 
 ness of features, grace of figure, and strength of limb which 
 are now frequently to be observed. As has been truly said, 
 " the effects of disease may be for a third or fourth genera- 
 tion, but the laws of health are for a thousand." 
 
 The law of inheritance is a certain but not an invariable 
 one. Its force must not be over-estimated. For if it were 
 always true that the child of a father tainted with insanity 
 or consumption is born with these affections, then moral law 
 would imperatively forbid marriage. It is known that the 
 offspring of a father who has too many or two few fingers 
 sometimes escapes the transmission, when both parents have 
 not been similarly affected. As the child inherits from the 
 
208 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 mother as well as the father, many or all the members of the 
 family of a tainted father may be born with only a slight 
 taint of the system, or none at all. 
 
 We shall now point out a few of those diseases which are 
 especially liable to be transmitted from parent to child, with 
 the view of indicating special means of preventing, before 
 and after birth, the effects of inheritance. 
 
 The most cruel of all the maladies which afflict us, pulmo- 
 nary consumption, is the one which is most constantly seen 
 in its hereditary form. Dr. Theophilus Thompson, an English 
 physician of very large hospital experience, states, in his 
 " Clinical Lectures on Pulmonary Consumption," that " you 
 will learn, amongst a thousand patients questioned on the sub- 
 ject, above one-fourth will mention having lost a parent by it." 
 
 Again, M. Herard and M. V. Cornil, two of the latest 
 and most prominent of the French authorities on this subject, 
 mention as the result of their investigations, both in hospital 
 and private practice, that out of one hundred cases carefully 
 questioned, they find the disease hereditary in thirty-eight 
 instances. American statistics tell the same story of the 
 large proportion of consumptives born with the taint. 
 
 The mother more frequently transmits this disease to the 
 child than the father. Her daughters are also more apt to 
 be affected by it, through her, than are her sons. Indeed, in 
 regard to all diseases, the morbid constitution of the mother 
 tends to impress itself upon her daughters rather than her 
 sons, while that of the father has a reverse hereditary ten- 
 dency. With reference to the inheritance of mental qualities 
 and peculiarities, the opposite inclination seems to prevail, 
 &s we have seen, mothers most influencing their sons, fathers 
 their daughters. 
 
 That terrible and invincible foe to human life, cancer, is a 
 markedly hereditary affliction. Where the taint exists, 
 
THE INHERITANCE OF INSANITY. 209 
 
 medical art has few resources either to prevent its trans- 
 mission or to antagonize its effects. 
 
 Gout, asthma, and disease of the heart are also trans- 
 missible. They are not, of course, exclusively the result of 
 inheritance. They are often developed during the lifetime 
 of individuals whose family record is a clear one. But once 
 having made their appearance in a family, they have a 
 greater or less proneness to recur. 
 
 Of all the affections which are transmitted by inheritance, 
 the various disorders of the nervous system are the most 
 common. Hysteria, epilepsy, paralysis, and insanity 
 descend from the unhappy parents to the more unhappy 
 offspring. Physicians who have devoted themselves to the 
 study of that many-sided malady, insanity, are, of late, 
 disposed to lay more stress than formerly upon the influence 
 of inheritance in its causation. They allege that a vast 
 number of the cases commonly attributed to physical or 
 moral shocks are really instances of the breaking out of an 
 inherited tendency, which has lurked unheeded in the system 
 until aroused by some unusual excitement. According to 
 the best authorities, from one-third to one-half of all attacks 
 of insanity owe their origin to hereditary causes. 
 
 It is a noteworthy peculiarity of nervous ailments, that 
 they are not always transmitted in the same form. The 
 child of a person subject to epilepsy, for example, is as liable 
 to be paralyzed or insane as it is to be epileptic. This 
 change in the character of the nervous affection, in passing 
 from the one generation to the other, is constantly met with. 
 
 Insanity furnishes another illustration of the greater 
 disease-transmitting power of the mother. It is transmitted 
 about one-third times oftener by her than by the father 
 Airuin, also, we have an illustration of the irreater influence 
 of the mother over the diseases oi her daughters ; for when 
 
210 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 the mother is insane, it does not affect the sons any more 
 than insanity in the father would, but, on the other hand, the 
 danger of the daughters is double what it would be if the 
 father, instead of the mother, were the affected parent. 
 
 The hereditary diseases of which we have been speaking 
 do not always show themselves immediately after birth. It 
 is more usual, in fact, for them to lie hidden until the period 
 of adolescence or maturity is attained. Scrofulous complaints, 
 however, manifest themselves in the offspring earlier. The 
 time at which a disease will first make its appearance is 
 frequently as much a matter of inheritance as its other cha- 
 racteristics. This is, above all, true of nervous disorders. 
 For instance, that form of insanity which is developed only 
 after a certain age is often 'inherited. A case is related of 
 a noble family in Europe, all the male descendants of which 
 became insane at forty years of age. Up to that epoch in 
 their lives they all exhibited great military talent, and were 
 entirely trustworthy in every respect. At last there re- 
 mained but one son, a distinguished officer like his father. 
 The critical age arrived, and he also lost his reason. 
 
 The immunity occasionally seen to the invasion of disease 
 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 secu- 
 rity may be transmitted. 
 
 The Laws of Inheritance in Disease. 
 
 Undoubtedly, judicious marriages would eradicate aT> 
 hereditary affections. 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 
 
PRACTICAL RULES. 211 
 
 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. Wiun, 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 offspring may be the issue 
 of the marriage. 
 
 " 3. If there have been no signs of constitutional disease for 
 a whole generation, we can scarcely consider the risk mate- 
 rially lessened, as it so frequently reappears after being in 
 abeyance for a whole generation. 
 
 " 4. If two whole generations have escaped any symptoms 
 of hereditary disease, we may fairly hope that the danger 
 has passed, and that the morbific force has expended itself." 
 
 Hygienic Treatment of Hereditary Diseases. 
 
 As the precautionary rules which medical science has to 
 offer are in many cases unknown, and in more numerous 
 instances unheeded, injudicious marriages are constantly 
 being formed. Children are therefore daily born into ths 
 world, with dispositions more or less markeu towards heredi 
 tary affection. Much may even yet be done to stay the 
 
212 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 mischief commenced. Efforts to maintain the health of such 
 infants cannot be instituted too early. By intelligent care, 
 continued through life, the appearance of the disease may be 
 suppressed, and in some cases the predisposition eradicated. 
 The first attention should be directed to the nourishment 
 of such an infant. It should not be brought up by hand. 
 If it cannot be suckled by the mother, it must be placed at 
 the breast of a healthy nurse. The child should be warmly 
 clad, and carried daily in the open air, unless the weather be 
 inclement. The use of the bath and other requisites to 
 infantine health must not be lost sight of. This constant 
 watchfulness over the well-being of the child should not be 
 remitted during the whole period of youth. Great care 
 ought also to be taken not to overexcite the brain by 
 encouraging precocious exhibitions of talent. Active play 
 in the open air with romping companions, will do more for 
 the future of the child than any knowledge it can at an 
 early age acquire with books. Much harm is done by com- 
 petitive examinations about the period of puberty. This is 
 especially the case in those inheriting a disposition to epi- 
 lepsy or consumption. These diseases are at this age most 
 liable to appear, and the intense application and undue 
 anxiety whick attend such examinations may develop them. 
 Those disposed to hereditary afflictions should extend their 
 care of themselves even to the choice of their avocation. 
 Such pursuits as are sedentary and exposed to the debilitating 
 influence of impure, in-door air are to be avoided. So also 
 are those which require at times exhaustive mental or bodily 
 exertion. Regular exercise in the open air, by walking or 
 riding, is of the utmost moment every day. Where there is 
 a tendency to consumption, epilepsy, or insanity, it is par- 
 ticularly valuable, and can do more than is generally sup. 
 posed to avert them. 
 
WHAT. 18 ATAVISM ? 21? 
 
 Dr. "Winn speaks in strong terras of the value of cod-liver 
 oil as a preventive remedy in inherited dispositions to 
 disease. It is to be taken in small quantities (a teaspoonful 
 three times a day is ordinarily sufficient). It must be con- 
 tinued for such a long period of time as to become a cus- 
 tomary portion of daily food. 
 
 We might dwell much longer upon the nature, prevention, 
 and treatment of hereditary disease, as we have not exhausted 
 the subject. But have we not said enough to impress upon 
 the reader the prominence which it ought to occupy in tho 
 hygiene of the marriage relation ? 
 
 As a rule, diseases are transmitted directly from the 
 parents to the children, thence to the grandchildren, and so 
 on uninterruptedly from generation to generation. In some 
 cases the transmission takes place from the grandparents to 
 the grandchildren, one generation escaping altogether. This 
 resemblance of a child to its grandparents or great-grand- 
 parents, rather than its own father or mother, is known under 
 the scientific name of atavism. 
 
 It is owing to this influence that diseases and deformity, as 
 well as strength and beauty, pass by one generation to appear 
 in another. A child resembles in form or feature its grand- 
 father, or it inherits the epileptic fits or the consumption for 
 which its grandfather is remsx'r^red, the father being 
 entirely healthy. A remarkable instance, which, however, 
 is not solitary, of the influence of atavism is related by the 
 celebrated anthropologist, Dr. Pritchard. A black woman, 
 the wife of a black man, had a white child. In great fear of 
 her husband because of this, to her, unaccountable occur- 
 rence, she tried to conceal the child from him. When he 
 saw it and noticed her trepidation, he said : " You are afraid 
 of me because my child is white, but I love it the better for 
 
214 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 that, for my own father was a white man, thougn my grand- 
 father and grandmother were both as black as you and 
 myself; and although we came from a place where no white 
 people were ever seen, yet there was always a white child in 
 every family that was related to us." 
 
 Another manner in which disease may appear in the 
 children through parental influence has been well pointed 
 out by Dr. Elam. " The parents may be free from disease, 
 yet produce unhealthy children, owing probably to some 
 unfitness in the union ; these affections stamp themselves as 
 hereditary, by affecting all, or nearly all, the members of 
 the family. Sir Henry Holland mentions a family consisting 
 of three sons and one daughter, all of whom had a paralytic 
 attack before the age of forty-five, though neither of the 
 parents had suffered from anything similar; and another of 
 a family where four children died in infancy from affections 
 of the brain, without any of the relations having been so 
 affected. I am acquainted with a large family, all of whom 
 suffered when young from enlarged tonsils, and almost all 
 of whom are short-sighted in the extreme, though neither 
 father nor mother have experienced either inconvenience. 
 At the Deaf and Dumb School in Manchester there were, in 
 1837, forty-eight children taken from seventeen families, of 
 which the whole numbe: :." children was one hundred and 
 six ; amongst these, only one parent was known to have been 
 similarly affected." 
 
 The likeness of a child to its grandparents rather than to 
 its immediate parents is, although a noteworthy fact, one 
 which does not excite much comment from us. But when, as 
 is sometimes the case, the child partakes of the characteristics 
 of a very remote ancestor or of the traits of some far re- 
 moved representative of a collateral line, descended from a 
 Common progenitor, then a feeling of astonishment arises. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY EXAMPLES. 215 
 
 Such examples are, however, only illustrations of the law of 
 atavism just mentioned. 
 
 The physical characteristics of the age of the parent at 
 the time of conception are transmitted. Maturity reproduces 
 itself. The stag,*when born cf mature parents, grows faster 
 and stronger than when born of young parents. Old age is 
 inherited. Breeders of animals are \vell aware of the inferior 
 character of the progeny of old parents. The children ot 
 parents far advanced in years are peculiarly prone to senile 
 affections, and from birth bear the marks of senility. Dr. 
 Prosper Lucas, a French author who wrote a work of 1562 
 pages on the subject of inheritance, gives among others the 
 following illustrations of the above remarks. 
 
 " The wife of one of the coachmen of Charles X. became, 
 to the surprise of himself, her husband, and her children, 
 who were thirty or forty years old, enceinte at sixty-five years 
 of age. Her pregnancy followed the usual course, but the 
 child presented all the marks of the senility of the parents. 
 
 " Marguerite Cribsowna, who died in 1763, aged one hun- 
 dred and eight years, was married for the third time when 
 aged ninety-four, to a man aged one hundred and five. From 
 this union were born three children, who fvere living at the 
 death of their mother ; but they had gray hair and no teeth ; 
 they lived only upon bread and vegetables. They were 
 sufficiently tall for their age but had the stoop, the withered 
 complexion, and all the other signs of decrepitude." 
 
 While speaking of the physical effects of inheritance ws 
 cannot forbear to notice a form of bodily weakness impressed 
 upon certain social classes by transmission. Mr. Whitehead, 
 a writer upon "Hereditary Diseases," says:-v_ 
 
 " The offspring of parents, both possessing great intellectual 
 capacities, are liable to inherit such capacities in still greater 
 proportion ; but along with this refinement, so to speak, ot 
 
21G THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 the cerebral faculties, is usually conjoined a degree of physical 
 delicacy, or of disproportionate development, which con 
 stantly endangers organic integrity ; and the peril is further 
 increased if education be urged, in early life, beyond a certain 
 limit. The mind which seemed capable of comprehending 
 intuitively the most abstract problem, is soon shaken and 
 unbalanced, merging at length into insanity. 
 
 The Mental Qualities we Inherit. 
 
 We have hitherto been concerned merely with the trans- 
 mission of physical qualities by inheritance. Are mental 
 peculiarities, is talent, is genius itself, ever inherited ? We 
 answer that there is undoubtedly a marked tendency to. the 
 transmission of not merely original but of acquired intellec- 
 tual traits, the effects of education. No man of talent was 
 ever born of an idiot. Mental imbecility is handed down from 
 generation to generation. Haller, the physiologist, mentions 
 two ladies of high birth, but nearly imbecile, who weie mar* 
 tied for their wealth. At the time he wrote, a certur? 
 afterward, the same low grade of intellectual development 
 was conspicuous in the fourth and fifth generations. 
 
 That talent is often the offspring of talent is shown by the 
 two Herschels, the two Coleridges, the two Sheridans, the 
 two Colemans, the two Montesquieus, the two Pitts, the two 
 Foxes, the two Scalagers, the two Yossiuses, the two 
 Mirabeaus, the three Adams, the Kemble family, the fami- 
 lies of John Sebastian Bach and JEschylus, etc. etc. 
 But it may be said, the fact that talent is not the offspring 
 of talent is shown by Shakspeare's children, and Milton's 
 daughters ; by the feeble son of the great Oliver Cromwell ; 
 by the only son of Addison, an idiot ; by the unworthy 
 Paralus and Xanthippus who sprung from Pericles the 
 
GENIUS IS UNFRUITFUL. 217 
 
 orator that " carried the weapons of Zeus upon his tongue :" 
 by the idiotic 1 - Milesius and the stupid Stephanus, the only 
 representatives of the weighty intellect of Thucydides ; by 
 the absence of inheritors of Henry IV. and Peter the Great, 
 and by other instances which will readily occur to the reader . 
 The explanation of such facts is to be found in the superior 
 transmitting power of one parent over another. It has been 
 clearly proved as a law of heritage that the father does 
 transmit his mental powers to his cL'ldren. The exceptions, 
 such as wre have quoted, do not invuiidate this law. They 
 only bring into prominence the great modifying influence 
 of the mother. The persistency of the male power is appa- 
 rent in the fact that a line of male parents may impress their 
 peculiarities upon their male issue, notwithstanding the op- 
 posing influence of many mothers. Francis Galton,-an English 
 writer, who has given much attention to this subject, has 
 accumulated an overwhelming array of facts in proof of the 
 hereditary character of talent. In this connection Dr. Elam 
 calls attention to " a circumstance worthy of note concern, 
 ing the scale of intellectual development, viz., that the ex- 
 tremes are solitary, i. e., do not transmit their characteristic. 
 The lowest grade of intellect, the perfect idiot, is unfruitful ; 
 the highest genius is unfruitful, as regards its psychical 
 character : true genius does not descend to posterity ; there 
 may be talent and ability in the ancestry and in the descend- 
 ants, directed to the same pursuits even ; but from the time 
 that the development culminates in true genius, it begins to 
 wane. I am acquainted with a family descended in the third 
 generation from a true musical genius. Of the numerous 
 branches, scarcely one is deficient in some amount of musical 
 taste and ability, but none have a shadow of the genius of 
 tne grandfather." 
 
 Unsoundness of mind is markedly under the domain of 
 
218 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 inheritance. Dr. Henry Maudsley, now probably the best 
 authority upon this subject, states that the most careful re- 
 searches fix the proportion of cases of insanity, in which 
 positive hereditary taint is detectable, at not lower than one- 
 fourth, if not so high as one-half. He thinks the proportion 
 will be found to be greater as investigation in this direction 
 becomes more searching and exact. 
 
 In order that a predisposition to insanity be inherited it 
 is not necessary that the parents or ancestors be insane. 
 Nervous diseases are not always transmitted in their identity 
 to the offspring. Physical peculiarities are, as we have 
 mentioned, so also are organic diseases. Consumption is 
 transmitted to the child as consumption, not in the shape of 
 a predisposition to cancer. But many of the affections of 
 the nervous system, such as insanity, epilepsy, St. Vitus' 
 dance, hysteria, neuralgia, and catalepsy, change their cha- 
 racter in the descendant. Thus, the child of an epileptic 
 may be insane, and the child of an hysterical woman have 
 the like misfortune. We wish here, however, to draw a dis- 
 tinction which it is of hygienic moment to bear in mind. 
 The inheritor of the predisposition to insanity may not become 
 insane. He inherits merely the temperament. One of seve- 
 ral fates may overtake him. Insanity may immediately 
 result in consequence of the inherited taint. It may be 
 postponed indefinitely by intelligent care of mind and body. 
 It may be developed by injudicious training, by excessive 
 mental application in early youth, by anxiety, by cruel treat- 
 ment ; or it may be awakened by the great changes which 
 occur in the system at the period of puberty ; or, in woman, 
 at the time of child-bearing, or the change of life. 
 
 Intoxication is, all authorities agree, a great cause of 
 mental degeneracy in the unfortunate offspring. This heri- 
 &ge of drunkenness is one of the most startling problems 
 
THE DRUNKARD'S LEGACY. 219 
 
 connected with intemperance. For, as has been truly said, 
 "not only does it affect the health, morals, and intelligence 
 of the offspring of its votaries, but they also inherit the 
 fatal tendency, and feel a craving for the very beve- 
 rages which have acted as poisons on their system from 
 the commencement of their being /" It is known that 
 drunkenness may be hereditary in a family for centuries 
 In spite of the influence of example and careful training, 
 the children of drunkards become precocious inebriates. 
 They say, " We can't help it ; the love we inherit is too 
 strong for us." One such bound himself to abstinence for 
 months ; then he could withhold no longer, avowing that 
 the craving was actual torture, and he could not help him- 
 self. M. Morel, who has investigated this subject more pro- 
 foundly than any living writer, says : " / have never seen 
 the patient cured of his propensity whose tendencies to 
 drink were derived from the hereditary predisposition 
 given to him by his parents."* The whole nature of the 
 descendant of the drunkard is depraved under the influence 
 of this fearful inheritance. The annals of vice teem with 
 illustrations of the indecision and defective moral sense of 
 those victims to the alcoholic abuse of their fathers ; while 
 the records of medicine are equally full of cases showing the 
 
 *The eame experienced writer says elsewhere: "I constantly 
 find the sad victims of the alcoholic intoxication of their parents 
 in their favorite resorts (milieux de predilection), the asylums for 
 the insane, prisons, and houses of correction. I as constantly 
 observe amongst them deviations from the normal type of huma- 
 nity, manifesting themselves, not only by arrests of development 
 and anomalies of constitution, but also by those vicious dispositions 
 of the intellectual order which seem to be deeply rooted in the or- 
 ganization of those unfortunates, and which are the unmistakable 
 indices of their double fecundation in respect of both physical and 
 moral vil. ' ' 
 
 16 
 
220 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 constitutional feebleness and the nervous disorders produced 
 in successive generations by the same influence. Dr. Hut- 
 cheson, in remarking upon the ineradicable nature of an 
 inherited tendency to drink, says that " no sooner is the 
 patient liberated than he manifests all the symptoms of the 
 disease. Paradoxical though the statement may be, such 
 individuals are sane only when confined in an asylum." 
 Additional testimony to the same effect is given by W. 
 Collins, who testified before a parliamentary commission, in 
 England, as the result of his large experience, and as a " well- 
 established physical fact" that this form of the drunken 
 appetite "never becomes completely extinct, but adheres to a 
 man through life." All the writers upon the subject of inhe- 
 ritance, with a singular unanimity upon this point, no matter 
 how they may differ upon other topics, agree in imputing 
 to intoxication, in either parent, a potent agency in inducing 
 alcoholic mania, and moral and physical degradation in the 
 children. These results are more marked among the poor, 
 who are deprived of the hygienic advantages which fall to 
 the lot of the rich, and who are also surrounded, ordinarily, 
 by fewer social and moral restraints. None, however, escape 
 the disastrous influence, in some of its many protean forms, 
 upon mind and body. 
 
 Is our Moral Nature Inheritable? 
 
 This question brings us face to face with the consideration 
 of the hereditary character of crime. 
 
 Michel de Montaigne was a profound observer of man, as 
 well as a genial essayist. One of his papers is entitled " Of 
 the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers." In it he ex- 
 presses his wonder at the mysterious nature of that heritage 
 which transmits to us not merely the bodily form, but even 
 
THE LEGACY OF CRIME. 221 
 
 ttie thoughts and inclinations of our fathers. A much 
 older writer than he, Aristotle, also alludes to the transmis- 
 sion 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, for it 
 is in our family." History is rich in illustrations of moral 
 heritage. Alexander VI. and his children, the Borgias, 
 will ever live upon its pages because of their atrocities. 
 The crimes of the Farnese family are too infamous for men- 
 tion. 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 tor- 
 ture." Sextus VI. and his children were notorious for their 
 crimes, and to the Cond6 family have been attributed in 
 addition to their courage and brilliant intellect, "odious 
 vices of character, malignity, avarice, tyranny, and inso- 
 lence." 
 
 Modern 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 promiscuous assem- 
 bly. Even in Shakspeare's time this was possible. In Mac- 
 beth, one of the murderers, in defending his fellows, says : 
 
 " We are men, my liege." 
 To which the king replies : 
 
 " Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ; 
 As hounds, and grayhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 
 Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are classed 
 All by the name of dogs ; the valued file 
 Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, 
 The housekeeper, the hunter, every one 
 
222 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 According to the gift which bounteous nature 
 Hath in him clos'd ; whereby he does receive 
 Particular addition, from the bill 
 That writes them all alike ; and so of men." 
 
 Those who are born and live in crime are all marked by 
 the same traits of physical degeneration, as well as mental 
 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 they do not pretend to deny 
 the inheritance of physical infirmities and diseases, still 
 maintain that all men are born alike, intellectually and 
 morally, and that it is entirely due to circumstances and 
 education that they differ from each other. As well could 
 they uphold the doctrine that all men are born with equal 
 tenacity of life, and vigor 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 is 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, ac- 
 cording as his inherited dispositions 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 considera- 
 tion." How true then is it that " it is the greatest part of 
 our felicity to be well born ; and it were happy for human 
 
MENTAL QUALITIES. 223 
 
 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 hereditary. 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 sobriquet of " The thief." 
 His son, although in prosperous business and beyond want, 
 was remarkable for his propensity to steal small things. 
 His son, the grandson of " TJie thief," when only three years 
 of age, would clandestinely 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 examples. 
 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 family traits. The pas- 
 sion of avarice is no exception to the others as is shown by 
 the family of Charles IV., that emperor of Germany of whom 
 it has been wittily recorded that he " vendait en detail 1'em- 
 pire qu'il avait achet6 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 considering, 
 suggest to every thoughtful mind tLa inquiry 
 
224 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 Does the Education of the Parents affect the 
 Capacity and Morality of the Child ? 
 
 "We have elsewhere asked,* " Can virtuous habits be trans, 
 mitted ? 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 super- 
 imposed 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 invariably transmitted. It is always the same in the 
 barbarian and the enlightened man. But moral and mental 
 qualities 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 sceptre in my gripe." 
 
 Dr. Moore, a high authority, remarks : " Our education may 
 be said to begin with our forefathers. The child of the 
 morally instructed is most capable of instruction, and intel- 
 lectual excellence is generally the result of ages of mental 
 cultivation. From Mr. Kay Shuttleworth's examination oi 
 juvenile delinquents, at Parkhurst, it appears that the ma- 
 jority were deficient in physical organization, and this, no 
 doubt, was traceable to the parent stock." Agaiu, M- 
 
 * The Physical Life of Woman, p. 121. 
 
EDUCATION AFFECTS CHILDREN. T25 
 
 Giran says that ' acquire' 1 capacities are transmitted by 
 generation, and this transmission is more certain and per- 
 fect in proportion as the cultivation has extended over more 
 generations, and as that of one parent is less opposed by 
 that of the other. Children receive from their parents, with 
 the impress of their habits, all the shades of capacity apti- 
 tude, and taste which have been the fruit of such habits." 
 The eminent physiologist, Burdach, also accords to the 
 parent the power of transmitting to his offspring his intel- 
 lectual development. 
 
 Inheritance of the acquired habits of life, the results of 
 intellectual and moral training, or of daily vice, is more 
 certain than the transmission of physical peculiarities. A 
 course of vicious indulgence in the parent will corrupt the 
 morals of the child. A life of virtue on the part of the 
 parent will bear fruit in the stronger will and the increased 
 power of conscience of his offspring. He, therefore, whose 
 avocation it is to cultivate correct principles and habits of 
 thought in his fellow men holds no " barren sceptre." His 
 influence, above that of all others, is felt upon his race 
 through many generations. 
 
 Before dismissing this subject of moral heritage, which we 
 would like to pursue at much greater length if our space 
 would permit, we wish to say a few more words in regard to 
 its bearing upon the responsibility and accountability of 
 every man for his own acts. No one has a right to urge 
 inherited impulses in justification of his evil deeds. To do 
 so would be to place himself on a level with the brute. Ani- 
 mals are swayed entirely by their instincts. Man is con- 
 scious 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 
 
226 THE TRANSMISSION OP LirE. 
 
 face of the facts before us, I see no reason to doubt or deny 
 that one person is born with impulses and tendencies to par- 
 ticular 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 doubtless much keener and more difficult 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 easier for some who inherit 
 a placid, even temperament, with no strong emotions, to be 
 outwardly virtuous and orderly, than for those just men- 
 tioned, but all have it in their power. Habitual selfish- 
 ness, disregard of the rights or feelings of others, immo- 
 rality, may reduce man nearly to the level of the brute ; the 
 vicious act may seem to be due to irresistible impulse, but 
 the perpetrator is not the less culpable for that, lie 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 constitution 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 closely Resemble 
 Parents. 
 
 If there exists in nature, and that there does is abundantly 
 proved, a law by which the offspring so strongly tend, as we 
 have just been endeavoring to show, to inherit the physical, 
 mental, and moral natures of their parent, how does it hap- 
 
EXCEPTIONS EXPLAINED. 227 
 
 pen 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 influence of hostile circumstances and 
 unfavorable 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 transmit their great size and massive limbs, if compelled 
 to live in a cold, damp, mountainous region ; we have, in- 
 deed 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 illustration of the 
 strength of inheritance, for its effects are due to the trans- 
 mission of temporary and accidental conditions in the pa- 
 rents. There is always under such circumstances a strong 
 inclination in future generations to depart from the modifi- 
 cations thus accidentally produced, and to return to the ori- 
 ginal type. 
 
228 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 There are two potent influences affecting the character of 
 the child to which we have made no allusion. We refer to 
 the power of the mother's imagination over the physical and 
 mental condition of her unborn infant, and to the influence 
 of the mother's mind on the child at her breast. These sub- 
 jects have been elsewhere discussed in treating of the physi- 
 cal 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 the parents. Every intelli- 
 gent reader can do this for himself. 
 
 Nor is it our purpose to prosecute the study of the forma- 
 tion 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 gene- 
 rations 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 
 laws, from the period when they are first manifested to their 
 final effects on the offspring. 
 
 The Influence of Race. 
 
 Although somewhat foreign to the purpose of this work, 
 which is concerned with the health of the individual rather 
 than considerations of race, we cannot forbear to quote the 
 thoughts of an eminent theologian, CANON KINGSLEY, in 
 reference to the extent and power of hereditary influences. 
 
INFLUENCE OF RACES. 229 
 
 " Physical science is proving more and more the immense 
 importance of race ; the importance of hereditary powers, 
 hereditary organs, hereditary habits, in all organized beings, 
 from the lowest plant to the highest animal. She is proving 
 more and more the omnipresent action of the differences be- 
 tween races ; how the more favored race (she cannot avoid 
 using the epithet) exterminates the less favored, or at least 
 expels it, and forces it, under penalty of death, to adapt 
 itself to new circumstances ; and, in a word, that competition 
 between every race and every individual of that race, and 
 reward according to deserts, is (as far as we can see) an 
 universal law of living things. And she says for the facts of 
 history 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 futnre 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 talk- 
 ing so much of races, of families ; of their wars, their 
 struggles, their exterminations ; of races favored, 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 Testament ? And what is the 
 central historic fact, save one, of the New Testament, but 
 
230 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 the conquest of Jerusalem the dispersion, all but destruc- 
 tion of a race, not by miracle, but by invasion, because 
 found wanting when weighed in the stern balances of natural 
 and social law ? 
 
 " 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's parables, His analogies between the 
 physical and social constitution of the world afford and 
 consider whether those awful words, fulfilled then and ful- 
 filled 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 most com- 
 plex development, of a law which runs through all created 
 things, down to the moss which struggles for existence on the 
 rock? 
 
 " Do I say that this is all ? That man is merely a part 
 of nature, the puppet of circumstances and hereditary ten- 
 dencies ? 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 be- 
 lieve that this is man's fate only as long as he sows to the 
 flesh, and of the flesh reaps corruption. I believe that if 
 he will 
 
 ' Strive upward, working out the beast, 
 And let the ape and tiger die;' 
 
 if he will be even as wise as the social animals ; as the ant 
 and the bee, who have risen, if not to the virtue of all-em- 
 bracing charity, at least to the virtues of self-sacrifice 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.' " 
 
AUTHORTTTK". o 
 
 |WoR RRED TO IN THIS srrTjo.v. Tli fVo rial ions vf Aiii-. 
 
 mahand Plants under Domestication, by Charles Darwin, vol. ii., 
 p. 10 et peq. (Am. edition); J. B. Thompson, L R. C. S. Edin., 
 On the Hereditary Nature of Crime, in the Journal of Mental Sci- 
 ence for January, 1870, p. 487; Elnin's Physician's Problems (Am. 
 ed., 1869), article, Natural Heritage; Dr. Edward Seguin, On 
 Idiocy, as the Effect of Social Evils, and as the Creative Cah.se of 
 Physiological Education, in the Journal of Psychological Medicina 
 for January, 1870, p. 1 ; Francis Galton, On Hereditary Talent 
 and Character, in MacMillan's Magazine, vol. xii. ; Dr. Prosper 
 Lucas, Traite Philosophique ft Physiotogiq-ie T Heriditi Naturelle 
 dans les Etats de Sante et de Maladie du Systerne Nerveux ; Prit- 
 chard, Researches into the Pliysical History of Mankind, vol. ii. ; 
 Flourens, De la Longeviti Hit maine et dj la Qiiantit& de Vie sur 
 la Globe, (Paris, I860) ; Hufeland, 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, 1868, 
 p. 25 ; A. Debay, Hygiene et Physiologie du Mariage, p. 173 ; 
 Carpenter, Human Physiology, p. 779 (Am. ed.) ; Mayer, Des 
 Rapports Conjiiganx, cinquieme edition, Paris, 1868, p. 381 ; Sir 
 Henry Holland, Medical Notes and Reflections, p. 30, et seq. 
 American Journal of Medical Science* July, 1865.1 
 
PART IV. 
 
 NERVOUS DISORDERS ORIGINATING IN 
 THE MALE GENERATIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 THIS subject, singularly enough, has received little atten- 
 tion from medical writers. There have been no popular 
 works of any merit on this important branch of medical 
 science. Even in the text-books of surgery there is scarcely 
 more than a brief allusion to those nervous disorders having 
 their origin in man's generative system. Far otherwise has 
 it been with the diseases peculiar to women. During the 
 last quarter 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 want- 
 ing well-informed and popular writers to diffuse among 
 wives and mothers a sound knowledge of the laws of their 
 organization, and to point out to them the methods of avoid- 
 ing 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. 
 
 Wo are glad to notice that attention has been awakened 
 to the great need of popular enlightenment in this direction. 
 One of the most prominent of the English medical journals, 
 the London Lancet, in a recent series of editorials on this 
 theme, asserts that a most important service would be ren- 
 
 (233 } 
 
234 TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 dered to the community by lifting the discussion of the 
 consequences of derangements of the specific function of 
 mankind " out of the mire into which it has been cast by 
 ignorance, by shamelacedness, and by greed." On this side 
 the Atlantic, the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Re- 
 porter expresses " the wish that some skilled writer would 
 dispel 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 instruc- 
 tions to their sons and pupils, by which the latter could be 
 saved from incalculable pain, mental agony, and vice." 
 
 It has been our purpose in the previous pages to dwell at 
 some length in treating of " The Celibate Life" upon three 
 of the principal affections to which the unmarried man is 
 more especially liable, viz., the consequences of the solitary 
 vice, spermatorrhoea, and contagious secret disease. But 
 there are many other disorders of the male reproductive 
 organs, and there are numerous obscure nervous diseases 
 which are set up and continued by' irritation reflected from 
 these parts. Some of them we will briefly consider. 
 
 Every physician is acquainted with the host of strange 
 and seemingly remote consequences in women of uterine dis- 
 ease. In dealing with any affection in the weaker sex he 
 sees the necessity of inquiry 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 gene- 
 rative 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 of partial paralysis due to the unsuspected 
 existence of generative malformations. When this able 
 surgeon remedied the local trouble the paralysis disappeared, 
 although it had previously resisted the most energetic and 
 
A CAUSE OF HIP DISEASE. 235 
 
 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 frequent unnoticed falls to which the child 
 was liable because of its muscular debility or partial 
 paralysis caused by irritation of the genital organs. He is 
 also satisfied, from recent experience, that to this same 
 irritation may be traced many of the cases of excitable 
 children with restless sleep and bad digestion, so often im- 
 properly attributed to worms. 
 
 It is the man of advanced years, however, whose nervous 
 system is most susceptible to the influence of disorders 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 emphasize the dangers to 
 the nervous and vital forces of the aged from the slightest 
 approach to excess. That prominent French surgeon, Dr. 
 Parise, in pointing out these perils, utters the following 
 words of warning : " One grand purpose pervades the crea- 
 tion, to live and to impart life. This last function ought to 
 be considered the most important. If men will conform to 
 the laws of nature laws which, moreover, are immutable 
 and eternal they must submit themselves to conditions of 
 existence 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 effort; but all this is too often forgotten 
 when the functions of generation are in question. This 
 sublime gift of transmitting life fatal prerogative which 
 man continually forfeits at once the mainstay of mora- 
 17 
 
2o6 TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 lity, by means of family ties, and the powerful cause of 
 depravity, the energetic spring of life and health, the cease- 
 less source of disease and infirmity, this faculty involves 
 almost all that man can attain of earthly happiness or mis- 
 fortune, of earthly pleasure or of pain ; and the tree of 
 knowledge of good and evil is the symbol of it, as true as it 
 is expressive. Thus, even love by its excesses hastens 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 feebleness in with- 
 standing the abuse of the generative functions ; and what 
 surprises us most is, that those advanced in life are not 
 always the least exposed to this reproach. It is certain that 
 in old age, at a time when the passions have given way to 
 reason, there are still many individuals who allow them- 
 selves 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 vigor. What heroic wis- 
 dom ! 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 demon- 
 strative proof of it. This result is the more certain and 
 prompt, inasmuch as in these cases excesses are almost 
 always of old standing. The libertine in years has usually 
 been dissolute 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 
 
A CAUSE OF BRONCHITIS. 237 
 
 life, vary according to the temperament of the individual. 
 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 hemorrhage ; those 
 of a bilious temperament, of some derangement of the diges- 
 tive 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 venereal 
 excess. In this way wo may account for many disorders 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 diseased or feeble, 
 it is upon this that the evil results fix themselves. 
 
 Any part of the body may become disordered, as the 
 direct consequence of libidinous excess. Thus, an experi- 
 enced physician, Prof. A. P. Butcher, M. D., of Cleveland, 
 has found that even^n the prime of life, immoderation in the 
 marital relation is a frequent cause of an obstinate form of 
 chronic bronchitis. He says in one of his lectures : "In 
 looking over a list of fifty cases of chronic bronchitis, which 
 have fallen under my care during the last six years, I find 
 that ten of them have been attributed to this cause. And 
 they were mostly individuals in middle life, the period when 
 the sexual propensities are the most vigorous, and prompt to 
 the most unlimited indulgence. You will occasionally treat 
 a patient for a long time, who is suffering from an ordinary 
 attack of chronic bronchitis, and after exhausting your stock 
 of therapeutics, you will wonder that he does not recover. 
 You are well-assured that the diagnosis is correct. He 
 assures you that his habits are all right, that your prescrip- 
 tious are faithfully attended to, and there is no improvement 
 Indeed, you may treat him as long as you please, and he wil] 
 
S538 TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 not be cured, until you expose the secret source of hia 
 malady, and compel him to abandon it. After treating a 
 very intelligent patient for this disease a long time, I re- 
 marked to his wife one day, that it was exceedingly strange 
 there was no improvement in his case, I could not see that 
 he was any better than when he first came under my care, 
 and I began to fear that there was something about his case 
 I did not understand. ' Sir !' said she with great emphasis, 
 ' my husband is a perfect animal. His sexual excesses I 
 fear will be the death of him. If you could do something to 
 make him more moderate in this particular, I think all would 
 be well.' I took the hint, lectured him upon the evils of 
 his habit, and ordered not only moderation but total absti- 
 nence. He followed my advice, and the lady's prediction 
 was speedily verified." 
 
 Epilepsy, nervous tremblings, convulsions and various 
 forms of paralysis are, as we have seen, sometimes the conse- 
 quence 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 pre- 
 vention 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 un- 
 happy patient may be conscious of, and capable of control- 
 ling, to a great extent, these morbid, and to him distressing 
 promotings, which threaten to rule him. Dr. Echeverria, of 
 New York city, in his recent work on epilepsy, records a 
 striking illustration of these remarks, in the case of a patient 
 
BYPHILIS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 239 
 
 affected with this disease, " superinduced by mental over- 
 work, who, pressed by my inquiry, wrote to me a history 
 of his case, with the following 1 about his feelings : ' I would 
 not weary you with the vain confession of prayers and re- 
 solves of one sinning, knowing the while how he sins, but 
 yot, finding himself led to the act without any intention or 
 force to resist it. You may believe me or not ; as for myself, 
 T am unable to account for this venery 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 pro, 
 fession how lightly we regard the blessings of health and, 
 considering the self-abuse through which I pass, I think that 
 I mfty say with the Psalmist : " How fearv^lly and wonder, 
 fully arc we made." ' 
 
 " Nothing remains to be added to this description charac- 
 teristic of an epileptic, and of the evil impulse and inability 
 of the patient, to carry out any course to repudiate it." 
 
 Among the nervous diseases originating in the reproduc- 
 tive organs syphilis of the nervous system calls for some 
 notice here. Many close observations on this subject have 
 been made within the last few years which leave no doubt 
 *nat the brain and the whole nervous organization arc liable 
 to be affected by this subtle poison. Severe headache, epi- 
 leptic convulsions, and even paralysis may be caused in 
 this way during any period of constitutional 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. Enfeeblement of 
 the intelligence and loss of memory are common forms of 
 mental disturbance noticed. Whether insanity is ever of 
 
340 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 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 any scepticism as to the 
 possibility of serious impairment of the intellect being the 
 frequent effect of this animal poison. The question has 
 recently been asked, " Does the presence of the syphilitic 
 taint in the system ever so enfeeble the intellect as to render 
 the subject less capable of mental exertion than he was 
 before he acquired the disease, without at the same time 
 giving rise to intellectual eccentricities or loss of memory 
 sufficiently noticeable to disclose his mental condition to 
 his associates ?" Prof. Yan Buren, the proponnder of this 
 query, feels inclined to answer it himself in the affirmative. 
 
 A Cause of Wasting. 
 
 There is a disease which has recently attracted much 
 attention in the medical profession. It is known under the 
 learned name of tabes dorsalis, by which is meant an affec- 
 tion chiefly characterized by wasting of the body. Pro- 
 gressive 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 explained 
 in a previous part of our work. It is with this form of in- 
 temperance 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 
 
A CAUSE OF WASTING. 2 11 
 
 of indulgence. Venereal intemperance, whatever it may 
 be, is the most frequent cause of the sad disorder of which 
 we now speak. It is important, therefore, that the patient 
 should be candid with his medical adviser. Concealment is 
 too often practised, to the detriment of the sufferer, par- 
 ticularly 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 not 
 necessarily at once follow the cause. The connection be- 
 tween the two is, therefore, often overlooked, and a serious 
 medical error is thus committed. 
 
 Sexual excess is not the only cause of this disease, but 
 when present always favors its development. The cele- 
 brated Dr. Romberg, whose authority in nervous affections 
 none will call in question, says : " Two circumstances 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 females. 
 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 
 influencing the disease, as patients who have been laboring 
 under spermatorrhoea for a series of years are much more 
 liable to hypochondriasis and cerebral affections, than to 
 this. But when combined with excessive stimulation of 
 the nerves, to which sensual abuses give rise, it not unfre- 
 quently favors the origin and encourages the development 
 of the 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, 
 followed 1)\- drunkenness and debauchery, as is so often the 
 case in campaign*, the malady is rife." 
 
242 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 Other writers speak still more positively of the intimate 
 relation between this disease and sexual excesses. Every 
 practising physician who has had experience with this 
 fortunately comparatively rare malady must acknowledge 
 that the history of the cases, when accurately obtained, has 
 nearly always pointed to this causation. 
 
 A Cause of Convulsions. 
 
 There is a difference 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, however, 
 that here is to be found one of the causes of epilepsy, seme 
 asserting that it is a prominent cause, others that it is far 
 from being the usnal 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 epi- 
 lepsy." Bearing this truth in mind, and also the lament- 
 able fact that there have been, and are, many ruthless 
 alarmists who, some of them designedly, make exaggerated 
 statements as to the connection between abuse of the mas- 
 culine powers and epileptic disease, still it cannot be denied 
 that an abundance of the best of medical evidence proves 
 the existence of such a connection 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 as 
 influential in aggravating, and even in creating, a disposi- 
 tion 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 inheritance, 
 is masturbation a vice which it is painful and difficult 
 even to allude to in this manner, and still more difficult to 
 
A CASE OP NERVOUS PROSTRATION. 243 
 
 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 them- 
 selves 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 me- 
 dicine chronicle a large increase in all varieties 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 cannot 
 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 subsistence demand the utmost ex- 
 ercise of the powers, but beyond this the temptations of 
 vice are most shameless, most prominent, and most alluring. 
 
 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 
 
244 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 the seat of the malady. Nor does the patient himself com- 
 plain of any pain, and is hardly aware of his condition. 
 
 He feels languid, depressed, " out of sorts." His mind is 
 not as clear as it was. It is an effort to produce anything 
 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 de la sicde. 
 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 seem- 
 ingly unexplainable debility of the system, a want of energy, 
 a tedium vitce. 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 sensa- 
 tions, destroys so much all its firmness and powers, and 
 relaxes the system as this dissipation." 
 
 It is not easy to explain, even were it the place to do so, 
 these effects, but the correctness of the observations is too 
 well authenticated to be doubted, and of too much import- 
 ance to the public welfare to be concealed. The men of 
 our time are subjected to excitements such as none of their 
 
A CAUSE OF DISEASE OF THE SENSES. 245 
 
 ancestors were, and they must be the more guarded there, 
 fore 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 avoid- 
 ing the perils with which a wider control over natural 
 agencies is invariably associated. 
 
 Disorders of the Special Senses. 
 
 To illustrate still further the intimate relationship which 
 exists between all parts of the nervous system, and how 
 even remote functions are connected in their healthy ac- 
 tivity, 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 connec- 
 tion we shall refer to them alone. 
 
 A greater or less debility of the sight, permanent or only 
 occasionally present, is a well-known accompaniment of an 
 iiliuse of the generative faculty. Sometimes this is merely 
 a dimness, a tendency to confuse objects and to blur thorn. 
 At others, it is associated with an appearance of specks and 
 motes before the eyes, or a sensation of prickling and heat 
 in the ball of the eye. 
 
 Of course all these and similar symptoms more frequently 
 arise from other and more innocent cauM's than the one of 
 
246 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 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 may be useless, and the 
 physician be blamed for want of skill, when no one but the 
 sufferer himself is to blame. 
 
 It is gratifying to be assured that when the cause is re- 
 moved, these disorders usually rapidly disappear, providing, 
 of course, that they have not been in existence so long as to 
 have impaired the organ. Dr. H. Muller, whose observa- 
 tions on these matters we have several times quoted, says : 
 " The feebleness of the power of vision, which is so common 
 among those suffering from disorders of the generative func- 
 tion, may increase to an actual loss of the power of sight. 
 I have in many instances witnessed 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 ; sometimes quite rapidly after an appropriate 
 local application. 
 
 " It must not be supposed, however," continues Dr. Mill, 
 ler, " 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 recapitulate 
 them. His observation, however, we deem it important to 
 quote, for it is of utmost weight, in our opinion, that no 
 hasty inference so damaging to the moral life of a person. 
 or unfair suspicion of his conduct, should be drawn from any- 
 thing we say. The facts are, that disturbance of the eye- 
 sight, even proceeding to actual blindness, may arise from 
 
A CAUSE OF DEAFNESS. 247 
 
 irritation of the parts, and yet this be in no wise due to 
 unusual practices. 
 
 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 about it. 
 Therefore it may be that cases which have been pronounced 
 by the eye-surgeon incurable, will readily be relieved by 
 attention to the precautions which we have given for pre- 
 serving the function of sex in perfect health. 
 
 The HEARING is impaired in a less degree by such ex- 
 cesses, but it unquestionably is 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 ; the next it may entirely have dis- 
 appeared, 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 that most of these disturbances 
 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 depression from 
 injury from this source. 
 
 As these senses sight and hearing are the avenues 
 through which the most that is good, and beautiful, and 
 useful is conveyed to us, and as thoir integrity is essential to 
 allow us to be of service to ourselves and our fellow-men, 
 certainly no ephemeral or imaginary pleasure of a mere 
 
248 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 ignoble and selfish sort should induce us for a moment to 
 imperil their perfect working and preservation. Here, 
 again, drawn from the discussion of an obscure point of 
 medical practice, do we discover an argument and a powerful 
 one in favor of that golden moderation, that self-control, and 
 that temperate use of our powers, which in all times have 
 constituted the kernel of the maxims of sages and been the 
 aim of legislators. Experience here is of accord with reason, 
 and proves by example that which the latter has long taught 
 by precept 
 
 Disorders of Digestion. 
 
 The nourishment of the system depends, of course, very 
 directly upon the proper digestion of the food we eat, and 
 whatever interferes with the process, soon gives occasion for 
 the appearance of a number of other troubles, dependent 
 upon the starvation as it were of the separate organs. 
 
 Several authors have insisted that there is little or no 
 connection observable 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, therefore, 
 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 observation bears 
 this out. Several 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 exhaust their systems by excess 
 
THE CHANCES OF RECOVERY. 249 
 
 are characterized by a voracious appetite, is not sufficient 
 to disprove this view. The demand of the system for food ia 
 urgent, but, when consumed, it is often productive of un. 
 pleasant sensations, eructation, water-brush, a sense of 
 weight and fulness, and the other familiar symptoms of 
 indigestion. AVhile 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 
 of attenuation which has become proverbial. 
 
 Instances have come to our knowledge where attacks of 
 dyspepsia made their appearance only after dissipations of 
 the kind, and gave no trouble where the rules of health in 
 this respect were judiciously observed. In these the sufferers 
 themselves did not hesitate to attribute their complaints to 
 what they justly considered the real exciting cause. 
 
 Whatever doubt may exist in reference to the general 
 question of the sympathy of these parts, there can be none 
 concerning the relationship of certain complaints of the 
 lower bowels to disturbances of the masculine function. 
 Obstinate constipation may stand either in the relation of 
 a cause or a consequence to chronic irritation of the parts 
 from any cause, innocent or flagitious. So also the nearness 
 of position which they occupy in the human system leads 
 them to a participation in the same disturbances. 
 
 The Prospects 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 wish the reader U> 
 carry away any false impressions of alarm. 
 
 Our task here is difficult. We well know that we shall 
 fail of our purpose if, on the one hand, we create a terror 
 
250 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 which may lead to melancholy and despair ; and also if we 
 give the idea that, after all, these various disorders are 
 transient, rare, and of slight importance. 
 
 They are, in fact, frequent ; they may be serious ; and 
 they may become incurable by leading to organic changes in 
 the nervous system. But they are also generally readily 
 curable, even after they have long been troublesome. While 
 this does not hold good for all of them, it does for most. 
 
 There is no reason for despair, but the strongest for re- 
 formation. 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 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. 
 Examples of 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, favorable, but only 
 on one condition, the immediate and complete cessation of 
 the wonted indulgence, whether this be solitary or sexual 
 abuse. Without this imperative condition, we promise 
 nothing. 
 
 Nor is this enough. The thought as well as the act must 
 be put away. That is no reform which extends to the mis- 
 deed 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 
 the evil consequences to his body as well as to his soui 
 follow as surely in the one case as in the other. 
 
THE METHODS OF TREATMENT. 251 
 
 If the sufferer will resolutely see to it that he is rigidly 
 pure 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 dig. 
 claim the intention of pretending to qualify one unversed 
 in the doctrines of medicine to manage successfully serious 
 diseases, as are some we have mentioned, we shall attempt 
 to put those who require it in possession of information 
 which will enable them to escape from many of the ills they 
 have brought upon themselves. 
 
 The treatment of nervous disorders in general has occu- 
 pied prominently the attention of physicians since within 
 the last score of years these complaints have become so 
 much more numerous than formerly. 
 
 We may sum up the general principles of this treatment 
 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 vigor which it has forfeited. 
 
 The use of iron, as in the prescription given on an earlier 
 page of this work, will be found of value. Change of air 
 and scene, as by travelling, is an . admirable tonic. Regu- 
 lated exercise, always pushed short of the point of actual 
 fatigue, is essential. 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 ultnirls the blood from the 
 inner organs to the surface. The cold bath, whether as 
 shower-bath or douche-bath, should be taken with regularity. 
 18 
 
252 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 In feeble states of the system, cold water may be depresa 
 ing, and there are some temperaments so sensitive to ir 
 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 becomes 
 accustomed to it. The sponge-bath is often grateful and 
 pleasant to those who cannot support without great discom- 
 fort the application 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 nervous 
 trouble to quiet the irritability, and to cheer the depressed 
 spirits with doses of alcoholic beverages ; and there are phy- 
 sicians who do not hesitate to permit and even to recommend 
 such stimulation. We must enter a decided protest against 
 this advice and this habit. It " is not, cannot come to good." 
 The fallacious sense of comfort temporarily imparted is fol- 
 lowed by a reaction which requires a repetition of the dose, 
 and soon a confirmed habit of tippling is formed. Bad at 
 all times, this is unspeakably 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 rigid observance of 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 attendants the most 
 trouble. They are weary loads to themselves and friends, 
 and regard themselves as confirmed valetudinarians. Such 
 require a special local treatment. Their general nervous . 
 
THE DANGERS OF RETICENCE. 253 
 
 troubles will disappear promptly when the irritation of the 
 parts, the cause 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 experi- 
 ence on these subjects. 
 
 Of course where, as in some of the cases alluded to in the 
 earlier part of this article, the general symptoms depend 
 upon some malformation, or upon some poison of contagion 
 still lurking in the system, the special and appropriate 
 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 can 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 treatment 
 which, if not injurious, are useless. This is often the fault 
 of the patient himself. Either through ignorance, 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 when 
 health and life are at stake. When sufficient confidence 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 pre- 
 sent 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. 
 
254 THE TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 
 
 While pointing out, as we have done, a few of the nervous 
 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 maladies may be pro- 
 duced 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 application of the 
 sanitary laws, which, in this volume, it has been our en- 
 deavor to make clear, will be led to avoid exposing them- 
 selves to the exciting causes of disease of the masculine 
 function ? 
 
 [WORKS REFERRED TO IN THIS SECTION. The Lancet, London, 
 July 16 and July 30, 1870; Partial Paralysis from. Reflex Irrita- 
 tion, caused by Congenital Phimosis and Adherent Prepuce, by 
 Lewis A. Sayre, M. D. ; Prof. A. P. Butcher, M. D., "Lectures on 
 Chronic Bronchitis, in the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Re- 
 porter for October 12, 1867; M. Gonzales Echeverria, on Epilepsy 
 Anatomo-Pathological and Clinical Notes, New York, 1870, p_ 
 231 ; Prof. Win. H. Van Buren, M. D., on Syphilis of the Nervout 
 System, in the New York Medical Journal, for November, 1870; 
 Traili Historique et Pratique de la Syphilis, par le docteur E. 
 Luncereaux, Paris, 1866, p. 441 ; Les Passions dans leurs Rapport* 
 
AUTHORITIES. 235 
 
 avec la Santf.et let Maladies, par Xavier Bourgeois, p. 29; S. W. D. 
 Williams, M. D., on A Case of Syphilitic. Insanity, in the Journal 
 of Mental Science for April, 1869; A Case- of Syphilitic Disease oj 
 \hj Nervous System, Journal of Psychological Medicine for April, 
 1869. lectures on the Principles and Practice of Physic, by Thomaa 
 Watson, M. D. (Am. ed.), p. 419.J 
 
THE PHYSICAL TYPE OF MANHOOD. 
 
 IN the foregoing section we have seen how 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 phy. 
 sical 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 de- 
 based by indulgence, but as he should be, in the enjoyment 
 of all the powers which health and virtue can grant, will be 
 our guide. 
 
 lie discovers that in the perfect physical type of mac 
 there are certain definite proportions which constitute sym- 
 metry, and make up a harmony which reappears in every 
 statue and painting of the highest class, and which the in- 
 stinct 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 line horizontal with the point of 
 the chin. 
 
 (257) 
 
258 THE PHYSICAL TYPE OF MANHOOD. 
 
 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 the junction of the lower limbs. 
 
 And thirty-one times the 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 sculpture. 
 The physician, with mind fixed on the attainment of life and 
 health, naturally might expect this ideal physical 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," re- 
 marks an eminent army surgeon of large experience, " are 
 seldom connected with power, activity, and that inexhaust- 
 ible fund of endurance which support toils and fatigues with 
 constancy and firmness." 
 
 By what, then, can the capacity in a man for physical 
 labor 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 circumference of the chest on a line with the nipple; 
 and he decides that the greater the proportion of the latter 
 to the former factors, the greater the physical capacity. 
 
 It was a familiar fact in our late war that neither very 
 tall nor very short men supported the toils of field service aa 
 
THE PHYSICAL TYPE OF MANHOOD. 259 
 
 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 com- 
 mentary, and a disclosure of his nature, habits, and disposi- 
 tion. There is a physiognomy which is not confined to the 
 face, but embraces the whole body. A gifted French sur- 
 geon, by close observation, became such an adept in this 
 science, that he could, without fail, ascertain the profession 
 to which a man belonged, by examining his body. As pas- 
 sion and indulgence leave their Cain-like brand upon the 
 face, so occupation impresses its peculiarity 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 expected in our gymnasia nor studios ; 
 it will not be found in struggling crowds ; but we can ex- 
 pect it only where the wise ancients placed it. and whery 
 iheir works of art represent it among the immortal guds. 
 
MEDICAL VIEWS 
 
 POPULAR MEDICAL INSTRUCTION. 
 
 CUR belief in the necessity for a work similar to the one 
 we have written has been .abundantly justified, not only by 
 the testimonials and warm recommendations 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, and by the personal thanks of not a few who have 
 read it and found profit and consolation in it. 
 
 While among those who have thus aided and counte- 
 nanced our efforts in imparting instruction on an important 
 and peculiarly difficult branch of hygiene, we are gratified 
 to number not a few of our own profession who have achieved 
 a deserved reputation by their studies in State Medicine, 
 we havereceived from some others, whose opinions we value, 
 expressed doubts as to the need for a work like this. 
 
 Desirous as we are to exonerate 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 pro- 
 priety, at this stage of our labors, examine the objections to 
 which we have referred. As far as they have been brought 
 
 C261 ) 
 
262 MEDICAL VIEWS. 
 
 to our notice, they 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 terrors 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 con- 
 cerning 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 Massachusetts 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 mem- 
 bers of our profession who oppose popular information on 
 physiology and hygiene, has prevented us from feeling some 
 degree of amusement in comparing these various objections 
 to the project which we have endeavored 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 profes- 
 sional men of unquestioned superiority in medical science, of 
 vast experience, and of world-wide reputation. 
 
 We add, therefore, some quotations from recent medical 
 writers who have, with unbiased minds and w ; th painstaking 
 
THE OPINION OP DR. ABBOTTS SMITH. 263 
 
 fidelity, studied this subject, and thought about the pro- 
 priety 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.R.C.S., Phy- 
 sician to the Finsbury Dispensary ; late Physician to the 
 North London Consumption Hospital ; Physician to the 
 Metropolitan Free Hospital, and to the City Dispensary, 
 &c., says, in The Medical Press 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 spermatorrhoea, and I have been 
 especially struck by two facts, namely, 1. The remarkably 
 helpless and dejected state of patients suffering from this 
 affection ; and 2. The relative facility of cure, as compared 
 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, relinquished 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 re. 
 gularity, 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 plac-ed 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 b& 
 blamed for their apparent want of discrimination in going to 
 
264 MEDICAL VIEWS. 
 
 such men, as they had in the first instance resorted to medi- 
 cal practitioners, who had told them, either that their dis- 
 order was imaginary, or, rushing into the opposite extreme, 
 that it was incurable, 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 posi- 
 tion as regards this disorder. There can be no doubt of 
 the existence of spermatorrhoea in a large number of patients, 
 and, in fact, it would be found to be much more common 
 than it even appears to be, if it were more generally recog- 
 nized as a distinct affection. Many of the cases which now 
 fall into the hands of empirical pretenders, would then come 
 within the range of observation of qualified practitioners. 
 And this must, sooner or later, be the 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 of disease, instead of 
 leaving unfortunate sufferers exposed to any charlatans 
 who may happen to seize upon it as a fertile field for de- 
 ception and extortion. I write thus earnestly, because 
 many instances have been published in the medical journals 
 of patients often of superior education, intelligence, and 
 social position who have suffered severely at the hands of 
 quacks, partly through their complaint having been treated 
 too lightly by medical practitioners, to whom they had pre- 
 viously applied for advice, partly through the mauvaise 
 honte which induced them, misled by the specious promises 
 held out, to fall into the traps set by quacks. ' Omne ig- 
 notum pro magnified is an old and true axiom concerning 
 the credulity of sick people, who, like drowning men, readily 
 
THE HARM DONE BY CHARLATANS. 265 
 
 snatch at any proffered assistance, without waiting to form 
 an opinion as to whether it is worthless or sound. With 
 regard 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 spermatorrho3a need not be 
 dwelt upon, and I shall purposely pass over the minutely 
 detailed and grossly exaggerated symptoms, which the 
 quacks carefully and persistently parade before their vic- 
 tims' imaginations, such as ' involuntary blushings,' ' loss of 
 vigor,' ' gradual decay of nature,' and the like. 
 
 " Suffice it to say, that the general symptoms are similar 
 to those which are present in all cases of disease where the 
 patient is subjected to the effects of continuous exhaustion 
 of the system. He becomes languid, weak, and unfit for 
 any sustained physical or mental exertion, disposed rather 
 to brood in solitude over his misfortunes, than to join in 
 social conversation and amusements, thin, pale, and anaemic 
 in appearance. 
 
 " la 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 attributed, 
 in great measure, the uncertainty and difficulty of treat- 
 ment. A physician may go on for a long time, treating 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 suspicions, no im- 
 provement will be manifest in the condition of the patient. 
 
266 MEDICAL VIEWS. 
 
 In fact, the patient will be further off from a cure than ever; 
 the physician, unconscious of the 'fans et origo mali,' will 
 get baffled and disheartened at the continuous want of suc- 
 cess, while the patient, becoming 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 
 course of successful treatment." 
 
 Dr. STORER, Vice-President of the American Medical Associ- 
 ation, says, concerning the hygiene of the functions of sex : 
 
 " The subject is one that concerns all, for it lies at the 
 foundation of society sexual health and disease, the need or 
 advantage of marriage, the need or advantage of divorce, the 
 chance of home being such or an empty name, an earthly 
 heaven or a worse than purgatory these are topics that 
 affect each man, however careless or unconcerned he may 
 think himself, or may appear to be. 
 
 " Is it asked, if these disclosures are not by their very 
 publication subversive of good morals, and the calling atten- 
 tion to the true relation of the sexes suggestive to bad men 
 of, and conducive towards, their false relations ? I answer 
 
 " First, that to ignore the existence of sin, error, misery, 
 is in reality to encourage and to increase them. It is like 
 
THE OPINION OP DR. STOKER. 267 
 
 \*alking upon thinly-crusted lava, or upon breaking ice, 
 ct- rtain to prevent our saving others, ready indeed to ingulf 
 even ourselves. We varnish over or seek to conceal vice, 
 and it loses half its grossness it becomes attractive perhaps, 
 or fashionable ; but if we strip it of its veil, any soul, not 
 wholly smirched, will recoil with horror. 
 
 ' Again, all of us learn the lessons of life by experience 
 saa experience, indeed, it too often is. Many a man would 
 give even his own soul could his past life be restored to him, 
 and us follies, its sins be effaced. Too often his soul is no 
 longer his own to give : inextricably entangled in passion's 
 web, -wound about and about with its myriad threads, there 
 remains but the dead and worthless semblance of himself, 
 that can be restored by naught save the boundless grace of 
 God. "Who would not gladly escape such risk, and welcome 
 every premonition of danger ? 
 
 " Still again, many, claiming to be immaculate themselves, 
 will ask, Am 1" my brother's keeper ?' And yet, living 
 together in communities, as we do, it must be confessed that 
 we are responsible, every one of us, and to a very great 
 extent, for the shortcomings and evil deeds of all the rest, 
 and it must also be confessed that there does not exist, that 
 there probably never existed, a perfectly immaculate man, 
 who never once has erred in the very matter we are now 
 considering, either in deed, or in word, or in thought. Con- 
 soling indeed for those of us who humbly confess our in- 
 firmities is this very fact. Take the very basest of us. and 
 he at times is conscious of vain regrets of his own misdeeds, 
 and a fond desire that those whom he loves, for every man 
 has such, may be better than he. Take the very best of us, 
 and he sees a height beyond any he has yet attained, that 
 he prays he may yet reach and pass. 
 
 " And further : not merely are these researches, publications 
 19 
 
268 MEDICAL VIEWS. 
 
 for the general weal, perfectly legitimate and advisable in 
 themselves ; they have been sanctioned by precedents that 
 have already been established. I do not refer to the 
 attempts of unprincipled empirics to terrify the masses by 
 overdrawn pictures of disease, nor of holy and well-meaning 
 men to turn them to better ways by fervent descriptions of 
 the wrath to come. We shall take neither the fear of things 
 present nor future as our standard in this discussion, but 
 appeal solely to each man's reason and such appeals have 
 been made before. They have been made in France by 
 Ricord, by Lallemand, and others of the great medical phi- 
 losophers of the day ; by Parent-Puchatelet and by Diday. 
 In England, there are men like Acton, who dare to sound 
 the trumpet of alarm, bringing forward their facts from 
 private practice, from the hospital, and from the dead-house, 
 and drawing from these indisputable conclusions. In our 
 own country there are men like those brave souls, now one 
 of them at least translated to a better country, Blatchford, 
 and Hodge, and Pope, and Barton, and Lopez, and Brisbane, 
 physicians of the very highest rank in their profession, who 
 were not ashamed, in the question of the frequency and the 
 ill results of criminal abortion, to take stand beside me upon 
 the platform of our personal knowledge, and knowing, they 
 dared maintain. I will cite but one instance more. It is 
 that of a good man now gone to his rest, and a very rock he 
 was to the swelling tide of moral as well as physical evil 
 the late Professor John Ware, of Massachusetts. His little 
 work has stayed many a headlong step and saved many a 
 soul alive." 
 
 WILLIAM ACTON, M.R.C.S., Fellow of the Royal Med. and 
 Chir., and statistical societies, etc. etc., in the preface and 
 introduction to his work, addressed to the profession, on 'he 
 
THE OPINION OP DR. ACTON. 269 
 
 Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, 
 Bays : 
 
 " Should these pages accidentally fall into the hands of lay- 
 men of sense and information, many of the facts and opinions 
 to be found therein will, I apprehend, prove at least sugges- 
 tive. The continent student will find reasons for continuing 
 to live according to the dictates of virtue. The dissolute 
 will be taught, on positive and irrefragable grounds, the 
 value of self-control. The married man will find advice and 
 guidance ; and the bachelor, who is often placed in a trying 
 social position, will glean consolation from observing that 
 not only are his sexual sufferings appreciated and under- 
 stood, but that rules are given him for their mitigation. 
 The physiologist will see his principles reduced to practice. 
 The comparative anatomist will judge how much light his 
 investigations on the animal kingdom have thrown upon 
 sexual relations in man. The surgeon will learn how to 
 manage that difficult class, the hypochondriacal, and how to 
 address himself to the audacious old libertine who, setting at 
 naught religious principle and social customs, acts in open 
 defiance of the laws of his country. Lastly, the advocate 
 who practises in the ecclesiastical or criminal courts will here 
 find the basis for many valuable arguments nay more, he 
 may learn how, in many cases of guilt, fair cause may be 
 shown for a culprit's committal to a lunatic asylum instead 
 of to a prison. 
 
 " Until lately, indeed, many standard writers on the gene- 
 rative system have practically ignored the functional aspect 
 of their subject ; dealing with the whole of the wonderful 
 and complex machinery of which they treat as if the offices 
 it fulfils, the thousand feelings it affects, the countless 
 social, moral, and scientific interests with which it is so 
 intimately connected, were of little or no moment. Othera 
 
2YO MEDICAL VIEWS. 
 
 copy their predecessors, and perpetuate statements little in 
 accordance with the advanced state of science at the present 
 time. 
 
 " One reason of this reticence is obvious enough. The 
 subject has been considered delicate dangerous unseemly 
 just as well let alone, even in scientific works. 
 
 " Of course there have been notable and honorable ex- 
 ceptions to this (as I cannot but think) rather cowardly, if 
 not prudish, neglect of so large and important a branch of 
 the boundless science of humanity. Foremost, perhaps, 
 among these, I may be permitted to specify Dr. Carpenter. 
 In the later editions of his ' Physiology,' that eminent author 
 has boldly met the difficulties of the subject. Far, for in- 
 stance, from ignoring the existence of sexual feelings, he has 
 investigated them in the same calm and philosophic spirit 
 with which he has approached all other inquiries. Popular 
 prejudice he has quietly passed by; and has discussed a 
 physical phenomenon, an intellectual faculty, or a sexual 
 instinct, with equal simplicity and completeness. Indeed, 
 every step in physiological science seems to reveal to us 
 something more of that mysterious connection between the 
 perishing frame and the imperishable part which at once 
 rules, and is so largely influenced by its earthly companion. 
 I conceive it to be of the greatest importance in no case to 
 neglect or ignore their connection, and perhaps in none more 
 than in the case of the generative functions. Those func- 
 tions, and the feelings, instincts, and tendencies of which 
 they are the exponents, are, perhaps, the most powerful 
 social and moral agents in the world. They are fraught with 
 happiness or misery to generations as well as individuals. 
 
 " Plain speaking is not of necessity impurity. It is not 
 unfrequently its very opposite. I admit that matter so 
 important as this should be treated gravely and by compe- 
 
THE OPINION OF MEDICAL JOURNALS. 271 
 
 tent authority not left to the scoffer and the quack. But 
 I believe that in so doing, the truest wisdom and the best 
 means of securing the results we desire will be found in a 
 scientific candor." 
 
 From The British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical 
 Quarterly Review : 
 
 " We doubt whether, among our human relations, there is 
 one that exerts a greater influence upon most of us than 
 that which draws its impulses from the sexual feelings. In- 
 directly, it governs the whole life of the female, from the 
 time at which she dandles her first doll to the time when she 
 teaches her grandchild " pattycake, pattycake ;" the vices 
 and the virtues of the sterner sex less confessedly, perhaps, 
 but no less really result from the vagaries and dreams of 
 boyhood, or the waywardness or resolution of adult age, that 
 are prompted by the sexual instincts. . . . 
 
 " Sexual excesses are the monster evil of the present, no 
 less than of former times ; it is not, except in particular 
 forms, a subject for legislation, because legislation cannot 
 reach it; but it is essentially a subject for the clergyman 
 and the schoolmaster to deal with. It is folly to ignore 
 what every man who has been at school must know to pre- 
 vail. It is wisdom to avail ourselves of the holiest aspira- 
 tions of the youth to enable him to shun evil, not from fear 
 though from fear if need be tut from a just appreciation 
 of the immutable laws, which may be traced equally in Holy 
 \Vrit and in natural theology. "We trust that those whose 
 position as men of science and teachers enables them to speak 
 with authority, will assist in combating and arresting the 
 evils which it entails, and thus enable man to devote more 
 enduring energies and more lofty aims to the advancement 
 of his race, and to the service of his God." 
 
272 MEDICAL VIEWS. 
 
 From the London Lancet : 
 
 " The only way by which some of the most important func- 
 tional ailments and aberrant physiologic states affecting hu- 
 manity can be rescued from the grasp of the most disgusting 
 and villainous quackery, and treated with benefit to the 
 patient, is by the scientific and conscientious practitioner 
 openly taking them under his own charge. . . . 
 
 "Now, however, that legitimate and able practitioners 
 permit themselves to be known as willing to bestow as much 
 consideration on the aberrations of the generative functions 
 as on those of any other, we trust that some stoppage will 
 be put to the basest system of plunder ever conducted under 
 the mask of ' medical advice.' " 
 
 The Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter for 
 January 7, 1871, in an able editorial, entitled " The Eealm 
 of the Quack," makes the following remarks : 
 
 " Never anywhere in the field of human studies can we find 
 more striking illustrations of the dangers and the evils of 
 ignorance than in the history of that science whose votaries 
 we are. Nothing so touches the human heart, nothing so 
 puts to its utmost strain each faculty of our being, as the 
 love of life, the fear of death, the dread of pain. These are 
 the all-powerful and universal motives to which in every 
 age the true and the false physician appeal. 
 
 " The true physician seeks to allay unnecessary and un- 
 philosophical terror, to soothe with utmost promptness the 
 suffering he witnesses, to instil a calm resignation to the 
 universal law of death, to defer that inevitable close of the 
 career by wise and temperate precautions, and to defend the 
 public from the approach of pain. To accomplish this, the 
 master-minds of all ages are agreed that the most effective 
 means is the diffusion of sound knowledge. Socrates was 
 
THE OPINION OF MEDICAL JOURNALS. 273 
 
 not the first to proclaim that the source of physical ard 
 moral evil is ignorance. And what he advanced and proved 
 with such inexhaustible subtlety of logic and profuseness of 
 illustration, has become the watchword of civilization and 
 the hope of the race. 
 
 " The battle we have to fight is against the powers of intel- 
 le^tual darkness ; and the history of each day adds another 
 to the long register of facts that proves that in our science, 
 a? in all others, those who knoiv the most are the leaders 
 ard the true benefactors of their race. 
 
 " A strong illustration of this axiom is found in the history 
 of charlatanism. Within the last score of years we have 
 seen it dispossessed of one after another of its strongholds by 
 the careful study of them by able and conscientious ob- 
 servers. Hysterical phenomena, long the peculiar province 
 of mirucle vendors, are now too well known to allow them 
 any further chance for their bold assumptions. The diseases 
 of women, which twenty years ago was in its twilight period, 
 is now a branch of medical science abounding in distinguished 
 masters, and its most important facts, those which it is 
 well for all to know, have been laid before the public in 
 popular works of the highest order of merit, and which will 
 prevent thousands from unwittingly violating the laws of 
 their organization. 
 
 " There is still one department which remains far too largely 
 in the hands of those who delight to play upon human suffer- 
 ing. ami to foster it for their mercenary ends. Secret 
 dis.'ases have largely passed out of their hands, but they 
 still thrive upon certain complaints which a native shame 
 disinclines the patient to reveal to his family physician. 
 
 " The same is also true in England. In a recent number 
 of one of the leading medical weeklies there, after remarking 
 th* ' quacks only thrive in that part of medicine which is 
 
274 MEDICAL VIEWS. 
 
 neglected by the faculty,' it adds, ' hence, since there havo 
 been such able writers on syphilis in this country, that field 
 has been abandoned by these dangerous charlatans. The 
 only field left now for the quacks is that of spermatorrhoea 
 and the 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 de- 
 partment. That there are plenty of diseases of the male 
 reproductive organs besides gonorrhoea and syphilis well- 
 educated medical men know, but there is a wonderful disin- 
 clination to taking up this question. "We have a few honor- 
 able 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 dispel 
 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 instructions 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 witnessed repeated examples 
 of the need of just such information." 
 
THE RELATION OP THE SEXES 
 
 EARLY YOUTH. 
 
 A NUMBER of thoughts which occurred to us while writli.j 
 the earlier pages of this work, related to our theme, yet not 
 directly forming a part of it, seem to us of such interest and 
 practical bearing, that it is well to group them together in 
 the form of an appendix, under the above title. 
 
 Too often the student of nature, accustomed to the physi- 
 ological 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 Difference 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 con- 
 clusions; we shall only repeat, in a brief and inadequate 
 manner, what these conclusions are. 
 
 The distinction of sex, in his eyes, extends to the mental 
 
 (275) 
 
276 THE SEXES IN EARLY YOUTH. 
 
 and moral as well as the physical traits. " Without it, nature 
 would no longer be nature, her mechanism would cease, and 
 both the attraction which draws individuals together, 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 his 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, magni- 
 ficent specimen of manhood that it is, there is yet something 
 feminine, something lends the grace and softness of the other 
 sex to the powerful 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 attentively 
 examining any good copy of this traditional face, can fail to 
 be struck with the feminine softness and sweetness which are 
 present, and which, though present, do not in the least 
 
TWO DIVERSE THEORIES. 277 
 
 weaken or deduct from the quiet decision, the unalterable 
 serenity, the unmeasured power, and the masterly dignity of 
 the countenance ? 
 
 What is in these lofty efforts of art portrayed in the 
 physical powers is not less true of the intellectual and 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. Certainly that dispo- 
 sition 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. They have an immediate 
 and most practical bearing on our own lives, on self-culture, 
 on the education of youth, and on the relation 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 time 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 1ho dawn of history to the 
 present hour, as a rule, confine the females of the family to 
 
2T8 THE SEXES IN EARLY YOUTH. 
 
 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 coun> 
 tries, unmarried girls of the better classes are sedulously 
 secluded in seminaries or convents. If allowed to enter 
 general society at all, it is under the strict surveillance 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 times 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 effica- 
 cious 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 extec- 
 
A DANGEROUS SOCIAL SCHOOL. 279 
 
 sive 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 demands of the 
 world, but to the moralist, to the admirer of the sterner 
 virtues, to the lover of his country, such a training is por- 
 tentous in the extreme. 
 
 The nation which educates its youth in this school pro- 
 vides for itself an enervated and false civilization, and pre- 
 pares for its own downfall. 
 
 The best physical training is not that which sedulously 
 guards against every shock, and every breath of cold air, 
 but which gives to the body endurance and vigor to en- 
 able it to bear with impunity the blasts of winter and the 
 struggles of the arena. So the best moral training is not 
 that which diligently 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 seclusion. 
 To attain it we must commence education from a different 
 point, and wholly alter the relation of the sexes in early 
 youth. 
 
 The Theory of Social Union. 
 
 In this country there is no excuse for the young man who 
 POOK : the society of tho 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. 
 
280 THE SEXES IN EARLY YOUTH. 
 
 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 children of even tender 
 years. As we there said, it is of the utmost importance 
 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 rarity 
 of an object excites curiosity, while familiarity breeds indif- 
 ference. 
 
 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, have been strictly prohibited. At first. 
 Mr. Darwin thinks that a slight feeling arising from the 
 natural indifference of familiarity and the sexual excitement 
 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 degraded savages should thus 
 unconsciously have acquired their dislike and even abhor- 
 rence of Incestuous marriages, rather than that they should 
 
THE ARGUMENT FOR CO-EDUCATION". 281 
 
 have discovered by reasoning and observation any evil 
 results which 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 females. 
 It is one of the acute observations of Wilhelm von Hum- 
 boldt that such an indifference is the rule in the girl when 
 just blossoming into womanhood. To quote his own admi- 
 rable words : " The first emotions of her youthful heart 
 wander, like the glance of Diana, into the far distance. The 
 earliest maidenly age is thus not unfrequently accompanied 
 by a certain want of feeling, indeed, inasmuch as the femi- 
 nine mildness depends upon the development of those emo- 
 tions, we may say by a certain hardness. Some characters 
 hasten over this period so rapidly that it is hardly per- 
 ceived, but in most it is visible for some time." 
 
 There is strong reason to hold that one of the most effec- 
 tive means to bring about this indifference of familiarity is 
 
 by 
 
 The Co-education of the Sexes. 
 
 We have spoken of this in a previous part of this work 
 as an experiment, about the result of which we are not quite 
 fully satisfied. The evidence which has been submitted to 
 the public is nearly all in its favor. We are still, however, 
 not yet inclined to give it our unreserved advocacy ; there 
 are many consioorations of locality and custom which must 
 " give us pause ;" there are individual instances in which it 
 cannot be approved, and there are limits to mixed clasnes 
 which must be defined. But of such importance as a prac- 
 tical question do we consider it. that we venture to insert an 
 extract of some length from the last Annual Report of the 
 
282 THE SEXES IN EARLY YOUTH. 
 
 Board of St. Louis Public Schools, written by the efficient 
 superintendent, Professor William T. Harris. 
 
 He remarks : 
 
 " It is in accordance with the spirit of our institutions t<5 
 treat women as self-determining beings, and as less in want 
 of those* external artificial barriers that were built up in 
 such profusion in past times. We give to youth of both 
 sexes more privileges or opportunities for self-control than 
 are given in the old-world society. Each generation takes a 
 step in advance in this respect. 
 
 " Occasionally, as in San Francisco, there is a returning 
 eddy which may be caused by the unbalanced condition or 
 society found on frontiers. Old cities, like New York and 
 Boston, may move very slowly in this direction, because of 
 enormous expense required to change buildings and school- 
 yards so as to adapt them to the wants of " mixed schools." 
 In fact, the small size of school-yards in many cities renders 
 this change next to impossible. Western cities wil 1 take 
 the lead in this matter and outstrip the East. Within fif- 
 teen years the schools of St. Louis have been entirely 
 remodelled on this plan, and the results have proved so 
 admirable that a few remarks may be ventured on the expe- 
 rience which they furnish. I wish to speak of the effects on 
 the school system itself and of the effects upon the individual 
 pupils attending. 
 
 " I. Economy has been secured through the circumstance, 
 that the co-education of the sexes makes it possible to have 
 better classification and at the same time larger classes. 
 Unless proper grading is interfered with, and pupils of 
 widely different attainments brought together in the same 
 classes, the separation of the sexes requires twice as many 
 teachers to teach the same number of pupils. This remark 
 applies, of course, particularly to sparsely settled district* 
 
PROF. HARRIS' REPORT. 283 
 
 The item of economy is very considerable, but is not to be 
 compared with the other and greater advantages arising. 
 
 " AVhile it is conceded by the opponents of co-education 
 that primary schools may be mixed to advantage, they with 
 one accord oppose the system for schools of a higher grade. 
 Now, what is singular in our experience is the fact that our 
 high school was the first experiment on this plan for classes 
 above the primary. Economy and better classification were 
 the controlling reasons that initiated this experiment, and 
 from the high school the system has crept down through all 
 the intermediate grades. What had been found practicable 
 and satisfactory in the highest grades could not long be 
 kept away from the lower ones. 
 
 " II. Disci'iiline has improved continually with the adop- 
 tion of mixed schools. Our change in St. Louis has been so 
 gradual that we have been able to weigh with the utmost 
 exactness every point of comparison between the two systems. 
 
 "The mixing of the male and female departments of a 
 school has always been followed by improvement in disci- 
 pline ; not merely on the part of the boys, but on that of the 
 girls as well. The rudeness and abandon which prevail 
 among boys when separate, at once give place to self-re- 
 straint in the presence of girls. The prurient sentimentality 
 engendered by educating girls apart from boys it is mani- 
 fe.Med by a frivolous and silly bearing when such girls are 
 brought into the society of the opposite sex this disappears 
 almost entirely in mixed schools. In its place a quiet self- 
 1" ->ession reigns. The conse<|uence of this is a general 
 prevalence of milder forms of discipline. Hoys and girls 
 originating according to nature's plan in the same family 
 as brothers and sisters, their culture should be together, so 
 that the social instincts be saved from abnormal diseased 
 action. The natural dependence of each individual upon all 
 
 20 
 
284 THE SEXES IN EARLY YOUTH. 
 
 the rest in society should not be prevented by isolating one 
 sex from another during the most formative stages of growth. 
 
 " III. Instruction is also greatly improved. Where the 
 sexes are separate, methods of instruction are unbalanced 
 and gravitate continually towards 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 ex- 
 treme is the learning-by-rote system on the lower side, and 
 the superfluity of sentiment in the higher activities. Each 
 needs the other as a counter-check, and it is only through 
 their union that educational methods attain completeness 
 and do not foster one-sidedness in the pupil. We find here 
 that mixed schools are noted for the prevalence of a certain 
 healthy tone which schools on the separate system lack 
 More rapid progress is the consequence, and we find girls 
 making wonderful advances even in mathematical studies, 
 while boys seem to take hold of literature far better for the 
 influence of the female portion of the class. 
 
 " IV. Individual development is, as already indicated, far 
 more sound and healthy. It has been found that schools 
 kept exclusively for girls or boys require a much more 
 strict surveillance on the part of the teachers. The girls 
 confined by themselves develop the sexual tension much 
 earlier, their imagination being the reigning faculty, and 
 not bridled by intercourse with society in its normal form. 
 So it is with boys, on the other hand. Daily association in 
 the class-room prevents this tension, and supplies its place 
 by indifference. Each sex testing its strength 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 essential at its true value. Sudden 
 likes and dislikes, capricious fancies and romantic ideals 
 
THE HIGHEST EDUCATION. 285 
 
 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 possible, 
 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 atten- 
 tively studied the problem under 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 
 we do not enter upon in this connection. 
 
 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 allowed 
 freely to intermingle in 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 masculine 
 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 the earliest 
 yt ;irs it is better that Ihe sexes should meet in an unre- 
 stricted manner, that diffidence, false modesty, and spurious 
 sentiment should be avoided, and that much of the intellect 
 tual and social training should be in common. 
 
 While this is true, it by no means follows that the social 
 
286 THE SEXES IN EARLY YOUTH. 
 
 basis of children's society should be upon the same theories 
 as that of adults. 
 
 No training is more objectionable and more caculated to 
 bring about precocious maturity, in other words, to foster 
 the very tension which it should be our aim to discourage, 
 than to introduce into the thoughts and social life of chil- 
 dren the sentiment of sexual love. Hence it was that we 
 have said, on a previous page : " The growing custom of 
 allowing very young people of both sexes to associate at 
 parties, balls, dances, and similar amusements cannot be 
 approved on the score of health. It is nearly certain to 
 favor 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 
 speak with their children, are thoroughly unwise. 
 
 While the ordinary intercourse of the family and the 
 school is ^kely to bring about a condition of indifference, it 
 is not to trusted to alone. The minds of the young are 
 too exci tble and too eager for novelties to be left to their 
 own di f jetion. It is essential that they be occupied witt 
 matters which will keep them away from seductive and in- 
 sidious subjects. 
 
 The pursuit of the severer studies, such as mathematics, 
 and the proper training of the physical powers, are what we 
 must chiefly rely upon to accomplish this. With these pre- 
 cautions, we need not fear the result of the freedom which 
 in this country is constantly 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 are 
 
A NECESSARY CAUTION. 
 
 distinctions in society which we do, and which we ought to 
 observe. 
 
 It is better that cnildren find their playmates and com- 
 panions among those of their own social position, than with 
 others less carefully nurtured. Hence the impropriety of 
 trusting them too largely, as is often done, to the care of 
 domestics and to the companionship of their children. 
 
THE 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 
 influenced by sex. The power of sex over disease exists to 
 no inconsiderable degree. It is partly due to the difference 
 in the physiological and partly to the diversity in the social 
 life of man and woman. The extent and practical bearing 
 of this influence upon health and longevity deserve more 
 attention at our hands than they have received in an inci- 
 dental manner elsewhere in this volume. 
 
 First, we shall inquire into 
 
 Man's Liability to Disease a^ compared to Woman's. 
 
 In other words, which sex is the more subject to sickness, 
 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 nervous organization, 
 and her host of affections peculiar to herself, is more fre- 
 quently and dangerously sick than man; that she suffers 
 
 (289) 
 
290 THE RELATION OP SEX TO DISEASE. 
 
 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 struggle for existence. Yet it 
 seems very like a paradox, that the race should not be to the 
 strong. Several explanations have been offered. It has 
 been asserted that man succumbs sooner because he is the 
 more exposed to danger and disease by his avocations and 
 the customs of society. "War, which costs him his blood, 
 costs woman only her tears. For him, almost alone, are the 
 perils of the intoxicating cup, the exhaustions of the de- 
 bauch, the fearful anxiety of the stock-room, and the excite- 
 ment of the political arena. The risks of maternity do not 
 equal these peculiar perils of manhood. Another explana- 
 tion has been sought in the finer nervous organization of 
 woman, which enables her to endure more and react better. 
 Man, therefore, suffers less, but his powers of resistance are 
 less, and the tendency to death greater. 
 
 Both these explanations are doubtless just, and account 
 to a great extent for the singular disparity in the vitality of 
 the two sexes. The character of the diseases which are met 
 with in men more frequently than in women explain still 
 further the seeming anomajj. 
 
 We will pass in review some of the principal diseases 
 which our flesh is heir to, and note the sex they prefer. 
 
 Apoplexy. 
 
 Men are oftener assailed by this dangerous disease than 
 women. This may be accounted for, in part, by the well- 
 known fact that one of the most active causes of apoplexy 
 is the intemperate use of fermented liquors, which, in some 
 constitutions, produce a speedy impairment of the functions 
 ef the brain. Alcohol also exerts a pernicious influence in 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SEX ON EPILEPSY. 291 
 
 many instances upon the heart and arteries. The heart's 
 action is not only increased under its influence, lint positive 
 alterations in the structure of the bloodvessels take place. 
 In such instances. we find the movements of the heart per- 
 manently quickened, and the blood, therefore, driven more 
 forcibly to the brain, while the coats of 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 increased. The excessive use of tobacco 
 is also supposed to predispose to congestion of the brain, and 
 consequently to apoplectic attacks. As the excessive em- 
 ployment of alcohol 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. 
 
 Zpilepsy. 
 
 This disease also is more prone to attack the male sex. 
 An exception, however, is to be made in this respect in re- 
 gard to the French, particularly 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 comparing the number of 
 patients at various asylums, that the number of women 
 attacked was one-third greater than that of the men. Eng- 
 lish writers, however, are unanimous as to the greater pro- 
 clivity to epilepsy being on the side of the male sex. An 
 analysis of the returns of the Kegistrar-General of England 
 with reference to the mortality from this disease in either 
 during the past seven years, shows that 6729 were males and 
 6149 females. Hence, " it would appear that the mortality 
 of males at all ages from epilepsy is .">'_'. '_!<> per cent., of females 
 47.73 per cent., and that, therefore. !.">;{ per cent, of male 
 deaths occur from epilepsy in excess of female deaths from 
 
292 THE RELATION OF SEX TO DISEASE. 
 
 that cause ; or, to put it in a different way, we find that 
 the average male deaths in one year from epilepsy are 
 961.3, of females 878.1 ; so that annually in England and 
 Wales 83.2 more males die epileptic than females." The 
 census of the United States shows also that in America 
 more men die epileptic than women. 
 
 Men when attacked by epilepsy are more apt to die o 
 the disease than women. This greater liability to death on 
 their part is not confined to epilepsy, but is true of all dis- 
 eases of the nervous system, for whether in children, youth, 
 or old age, death from these affections is more prevalent in 
 the male than the female sex. Yery 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 more frequent 
 and more fatal with the female than the male sex. It is 
 essentially a disease of children, being rarely met with aftev 
 twenty. From ten to fifteen years of age is the favorite 
 period of life for this affection, and, according to some of the 
 most reliable statisticians, girls are three times more fre- 
 quently the- sufferers than boys. 
 
 Hysteria. 
 
 This nervous affection is almost monopolized by the female 
 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 more 
 than once seen attacks of veritable hysteria in the male sex. 
 Under the influence of excitement and debility, men, of a 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SEX ON HEADACHE. 293 
 
 certain temperament, are not unfrequently seized with hys- 
 terics. Shakspeare, the great master of the human passions, 
 was aware of this. He puts into the mouth of Lear, upon 
 hearing Kent's account of the cause of his being placed in 
 the stocks, the words : 
 
 " 0, how this mother swells up toward my heart ! 
 Ilysterica passio .' down, thou climbing sorrow, 
 Thy elements below !" 
 
 A common name for hysteria in Shakspeare's time was 
 the mother, by which term Lear therefore first designates 
 his feeling before employing the more learned Latin syno- 
 nyme. 
 
 Neuralgia. 
 
 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 affliction. 
 
 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 affec- 
 tion, 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 poeti- 
 cal license 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 nume- 
 rous. In men, late hours, improper food or habits of eating, 
 dissipation, excessive or prolonged mental toil, business 
 anxieties, and want of exercise, are the principal causes of 
 
294 THE RELATION OF SEX TO DISEASE. 
 
 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 in- 
 fluences which induce it. 
 
 Insanity. 
 
 Males are more liable to insanity than females, in the pro- 
 portion, according to the latest and most trustworthy tables, 
 of fifty-three per cent, of males to forty-six per cent, of fe- 
 males. 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 when strength and hope so 
 often fail the anxious man of business. 
 
 Bronchitis. 
 
 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 outdoor life, to 
 the causes which induce bronchitis. 
 
 Asthma, 
 
 The male sex is much more predisposed to this trouble- 
 some affection than the female. According to the experi- 
 ence of some physicians of the widest practice in this disease, 
 about eighty per cent, of all the patients are of the masculine 
 gender. 
 
 Consumption. 
 
 This fatal disease numbers more viciims among the female 
 than the male sex. Sex influences, also, the time of devel- 
 opment of the symptoms when the affection is hereditary. 
 Thus in males the malady manifests itself about a year and 
 a half later, on the average, than in females. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SEX ON CONSUMPTION. 295 
 
 Dr. Edward Smith, F. R. S., etc., Physician to the Hospital 
 of Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Brompton, in a 
 review of a large number of cases of consumption, and of 
 the conditions of system and circumstance which had aggra- 
 vated 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 to 
 the parents, more mothers than fathers had children early, 
 had feeble general health, and had died early. Of the pa- 
 tients, more females than males had mothers who died early, 
 had most relatives who had died of consumption, had parents 
 with one child only, had experienced feeble health and de- 
 fective appetite through life, had had delicacy 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 defective 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. 
 
 Cases of inflammation of the lungs occur much more fre- 
 quently among males than females. The influence of sex in 
 the causation of the disease is probably, however, more ap- 
 parent than real. Men are more generally exposed to 
 changes of temperature, which are the principal exciting 
 causes of the disorder. 
 
 Heart Disease. 
 
 Organic disease of the heart is more common in men than 
 in women. The latter, however, are more liable to palpita- 
 
296 THE RELATION OF SEX TO DISEASE. 
 
 tion of the heart unconnected with disease of the structure 
 of that organ. 
 
 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 cases 
 occur in men. This greater liability of the male sex is due 
 to the relative frequency in that sex of fatty and earthy de- 
 generations of the coats of the arteries, and not, as has been 
 well pointed out by Prof. Gross, to the difference in the oc- 
 cupation and habits of the two sexes. In the words of the 
 professor of surgery at the Jefferson Medical College, "the 
 opinion which ascribes the greater frequency of spontaneous 
 aneurism in males than in females to their more laborious 
 occupation, their more intemperate habits, and their greater 
 exposure to all kinds of disease, is entirely untenable, and, 
 therefore, unworthy of confidence. Women, it is true, are 
 not sailors, carpenters, blacksmiths, or hod-carriers, but in 
 many parts of the world they are tillers of the soil, and en- 
 gaged in almost every variety of pursuit calculated to rup- 
 ture the arterial tissues if they were in a serious state of 
 disease, such as we so often meet with in the other sex." 
 
 Gout. 
 
 Women sometimes suffer from gout, but neither so fre- 
 quently nor so severely as men. Hippocrates stated that 
 women were not liable to gout at all until after the change 
 of life. This is not strictly true, but it is quite certain that 
 women are most subject to this disease before puberty and 
 after the change of life, and but rarely affected by it during 
 the intervening period. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OP SEX OX DROPSY. 297 
 
 Rheumatism. 
 
 The statistics of rheumatic affections show that, prior to 
 the age of forty, inore men than women die from rheumatic 
 inflammations. After the age of forty, a curious change 
 takes place in this respect. The female constitution is so 
 altered that she becomes the one most readily affected w r ith 
 this malady. From forty to sixty more women die than 
 men from the direct and indirect effects of rheumatic fever 
 and inflammation of the joints. This much greater frequency 
 of the disease in women after the change of life has been 
 ascribed to the greater tendency of the skin to perspire, 
 and hence the greater danger of checked perspiration. 
 
 Dropsy. 
 
 Men are more frequently afflicted with dropsical effusions 
 than women. From forty to fifty years of age, the propor- 
 tion of deaths from this malady is nine males to five females ; 
 from fifty to sixty, the still greater ratio of fourteen males 
 to six females. Here again, as in the case of some of the 
 other diseases we have mentioned, the cause of the disparity 
 between the sexes may be in a measure accounted for by 
 the more frequent instances of excesses in the use of intoxi- 
 cating liquors with men than women. For, in the language 
 of Prof. Dickson, " Intemperance in the use of ardent spirits 
 is one of the most prolific sources of dropsy in its worst 
 forms. Whether this fatal habit be carried to the extreme 
 of sottish debauchery and drunkenness, or limited to such 
 indulgence as may be allowed without actual exposure and 
 ruin to the reputation, the effect is ultimately the same; the 
 vitality of the system is exhausted by the incessant applica- 
 tion of inordinate stimuli; the powers of the stomach are 
 worn out by the repetition of excesses, each more debilir 
 
298 THE RELATION OF SEX TO DISEASE. 
 
 tating than the former, or its tissues thickened and inflamed 
 by being so constantly bathed in a heating and almost 
 caustic fluid ; the viscera concerned in digestion become 
 universally obstructed and indurated, and disease and death 
 must at length ensue." 
 
 Enlargement of the Liver. 
 
 Increase in the size of the liver occurs more frequently in 
 females. The highest living authority upon diseases of this 
 organ, Dr. Murchison, of England, attributes this to the 
 practice of tight-lacing, so much in vogue among fashion- 
 able 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 males. The reasons commonly assigned 
 for this are the more sedentary habits and over-confinement 
 to the house of women. 
 
 Cancer. 
 
 Cancerous disease is of more frequent occurrence 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 
 8746 women and 2916 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 favorite sites 
 of malignant tumors in women. It is owing to this extra- 
 ordinary predilection of malignant disease for these parts, 
 that women suffer so much more than those of the other sex. 
 
DISEASE PECULIAR TO OLD MEN. 209 
 
 Stone in the Bladder. 
 
 This affection, so common in certain districts of the coun- 
 try 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 maladies, in 
 reference to the liability to attack, the character of the in- 
 vasion, and its mortality. Each sex is also subject to its 
 peculiar disorders. A few words upon those peculiar to men 
 will not, we trust, be without practical 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 is 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 pros- 
 tate gland. This gland, situated immediately in front of 
 the neck of the bladder, when it increases in size causes 
 much inconvenience and suffering. 
 
 The causes of this enlargement are, according to Prof. 
 Gross, always those ''which act in a slow and permanent 
 manner. "Whatever, therefore, has a tendency to keep up 
 huliitual 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 
 21 
 
300 THE RELATION OF SEX TO DISEASE. 
 
 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 capable 
 of inducing the disease ; but, on the other hand, it is equally 
 certain 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 horseback for forty or fifty 
 years, and who have never had the slightest disease of any 
 kind of the urethra." 
 
 The symptoms which first attract attention are mainly 
 those which are connected with the voiding of water irrita- 
 tion, 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 in- 
 crease 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 ex- 
 tended him at the outset of the trouble. He should, also, 
 scrupulously avoid all irritating and stimulating foods and 
 drinks, and never take any griping purgatives. Salts, 
 citrate of magnesia, and cream of tartar 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. Best 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. 
 
DISEASE PECULIAR TO OLD MEN. 301 
 
 few men in advanced life escape altogether some trouble 
 with the bladder and contiguous organs. It is important, 
 therefore, for every individual to avoid everything which 
 experience has taught him will excite even temporary dis- 
 comfort of these parts. That 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 
 ritality to be drawn upon to repair the ravages of impru- 
 dence. 
 
THE MORAL RELATIONS 
 
 OP THE 
 
 SEXUAL LIFE. 
 
 WE have confined ourselves so far in our considerations 
 5>n the relations of the sexes to the physiological aspects of 
 the question, its physical and, to some extent, its intellectual 
 bearings. It seemed more appropriate to the nature of our 
 studies and to the character of our researches. Now, how- 
 ever, that we have brought our labors 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 gene- 
 rations, lie will attribute to motiveless caprice and to un- 
 meaning 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 impossible to 
 
 (303) 
 
304 THE MORAL RELATIONS OP SEXUAL LIFE. 
 
 understand the vagaries which govern otherwise prudent and 
 cautious men. 
 
 The Sexual Relations in Heathendom. 
 
 Did we desire to magnify the importance of our theme, 
 we could readily illustrate from history how in all times it 
 has so fastened itself upon the minds of men that it has 
 shaped their destiny and even formed the basis 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 significa- 
 tion of these rites are but veiled descriptions of the same 
 fact. The East Indian God appears under his triple form 
 of the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer ; and in his 
 form as the creator, he is represented by and worshipped 
 under the image of the membrum virile. The bull Mithra 
 in Persian story, and the god Bel who was 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 scenes recorded by the Hebrew prophets 
 which transpired in ancient Babylon, and which were parts 
 of the religious observances of that city, necessarily 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 republic of 
 Greece and Rome became tainted with the corruption of 
 Oriental communications, the most glorious traits of these 
 commonwealths disappeared, and in their place came Caesar- 
 
SEXUAL RELATIONS IN THE MOSAIC LAW. 305 
 
 fern and profligacy. So clearly was this introduction of 
 foreign religious rites the commencement of the state's de- 
 tcrioralioii, 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 which was given them by Christianity. 
 
 Sexual Relations in the Mosaic Law. 
 
 The Old Testament by its clear and sublime teachings 
 preserved the Israelites from the contamination by which 
 they were surrounded. Situated in Jhe midst of nations by 
 whom an unlicensed debauchery was regarded as a part and 
 parcel of religious life, the chosen people successfully main- 
 tained 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 indifferent, or of doubtful utility, 
 or as possibly harmful if discussed openly as the modern 
 fashion widely prevails the sacred word enters with singu- 
 lar minuteness into the admonitions for chastity, for temper- 
 ance in the marital relation, and for sanitary precautions 
 connected therewith. 
 
 V.'c do not think it necessary to quote all the many texts 
 which are at hand to support this assertion. Any one who 
 will take the pains to examine the various chapters in 
 Leviticus and Deuteronomy, which contain the directions to 
 single and married men, will there find an explicitness and 
 a minuteness which writers of the present day canuol 
 attempt to imitate. 
 
306 THE MOBAL RELATIONS OF SEXUAL LIFE 
 
 It will be of interest and value, however, to recall and 
 clothe in modern language the directions given on some of 
 the points to which we have referred in the preceding chap- 
 ters, both for the purpose of substantiating what we have 
 just said and to admire again the accuracy and wisdom of 
 the inspired word, even in its minutest portions. 
 
 In regard to nocturnal and involuntary emissions the 
 law distinctly recognizes them as an " uncleanness." The 
 man was ordered to bathe himself thoroughly in water, and 
 his garments likewise The cold bath, the value of which 
 to control such discharges we have several times emphasized, 
 was thus early enjoined for the same affection. A soldier 
 who was so disturbed during war was to wander about 
 outside the camp during the whole of the next day, and at 
 night, when fatigued with the exercise, was to t bathc himself 
 and return. The exercise and the cold affusion were quite 
 certain to prevent any immediate return. (Leviticus xv. 
 16 ; Deuteronomy xxiii. 10, 11.) 
 
 The intimate connection which we have shown to exist 
 between the health of the parts and the general mental and 
 physical soundness is recognized in the Mosaic law in a 
 variety of references. Any one wounded or maimed there 
 was forbidden to enter into the congregation of the Lord, 
 and still less could he become a priest. Even during a 
 struggle it was positively forbidden for a wife to interfere 
 in such a manner that she might cause an injury to func- 
 tions of the man ; and if she did so, the penalty was to be 
 carried out without mercy; "thou shalt cut off her hand, 
 thine eye shall not pity her." (Deuteronomy xxiii. 1 ; 
 xxv. 11.) 
 
 The diseases peculiar to the organs, those which in the 
 former pages we have designated as " secret diseases," were 
 clearly by no means uncommon, and, whatever a spurious 
 modern diffidence may say about it, were most indubitably 
 
THE DIAGNOSTIC SKILL OP MOSES. 307 
 
 considered by the publisher of that great law and admirable 
 hygienic code, as most proper subjects for public instruc* 
 tion. For it must not be forgotten that the Mosaic law 
 was no series of esoteric maxims for the behoof of a limited 
 few, but was regularly read aloud to all the assembled peo- 
 ple, without omission and without reserve. They were nur- 
 tured from childhood in its precepts, and no one arose to 
 proclaim that it contained perilous and insidious informa- 
 tion. 
 
 Considered in this aspect, the very full and detailed de- 
 scriptions it gives of sexual diseases have additional import- 
 ance. Some inaccuracies, or, perhaps, hesitations, in the 
 rendering considerably obscure to the ordinary reader the 
 real purport of the advice. For instance, there can be no 
 reasonable doubt but that in the earlier verses of the fif- 
 teenth chapter of Leviticus the disease referred to is 
 gonorrhoea. The words in the second verse, "a running 
 issue out of the flesh," is rendered in the margin of the Eng- 
 lish version " a running of the reins." Saint Jerome, the 
 translator of the Latin vulgate, thought that the disease 
 intended was* spermatorrhoea, and therefore rendered the 
 original by : " Vir, qui patitur fluxum semims." The 
 third verse, which contains what physicians call the diag- 
 nosis, is in the English version wholly unintelligible; but in 
 the vulgate the test is clearly given which we now recog- 
 nize as distinguishing a slight and innocent discharge from 
 one which is specific and contagious : 
 
 "Et tune judicabitur huic vitio subjacere, cum per sin- 
 gula momenta adhaeserit carni ejus, atque concreverit, foedus 
 humor." 
 
 The contagious nature of the disease was impressed on 
 the people by the most stringent regulations. The saddle 
 that the victim rode on, the cup that he drunk from, the bed 
 he slept in, and the bench he sat upon were all to be con- 
 
508 THE MORAL RELATIONS OF SEXUAL LIFE. 
 
 eidered unclean and not to be touched by a healthy person. 
 Jn part explanation of the minuteness of these directions, it 
 is to be remembered that the clothing in ancient times did 
 not provide the concealment and protection 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 physi- 
 cians 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 commentary 
 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, and 
 which as described does not exist <at present either in Pales- 
 tine or Europe, was syphilis. He supports this view by 
 pointing out with a large array of evidence that the descrip- 
 tion given does apply to this loathsome and dangerous com- 
 plaint, and that the injunctions of complete seclusion and 
 periodical examinations of a suspected sore are precisely 
 those which, were it in our power, ought to be carried out 
 to-day. We do not pretend to judge* on so difficult a ques- 
 tion in linguistic and Biblical lore as is here presented ; but 
 so far as the medical aspect of the discussion is concerned, 
 we have been strongly impressed by the arguments used. 
 And certainly, after what we have already said of the subtle 
 and disastrous character of this scourge, we may well believe 
 that special precautions would have been given by the Divine 
 Voice to guard the chosen people from its contamination. 
 
 Passing to another part of the law, we find the vice of 
 masturbation in the form in which it was then commonly 
 
MARRIAGE DUTIES UNDER THE MOSAIC LAW. 309 
 
 practised by the heathen nations as a religious rite, con- 
 demned and punished with death. (Leviticus xviii. 21 ; xx. 2.) 
 That other and more heinous sin, which brought down the 
 wrath of God upon, and derived its name from the city of 
 Sodom, was repeatedly condemned as an '' abomination" 
 (Leviticus xviii. 2'J ; Deuteronomy xxiii. 17) ; and an 
 equally vile crime against nature is solemnly cursed in more 
 than one passage. (Exodus xxii. 19 ; Leviticus xviii. 23 ; 
 
 xx. ir>.) 
 
 The relations of the sexes were denned with aa accuracy 
 which left no pretext for unrighteousness. In spite of all 
 that modern political economists have written about the use- 
 lessness of sumptuary laws, we perceive a deep wisdom in 
 the prohibition of either sex using clothing which pertains 
 to the other. (Deuteronomy xxii. 5.) Prostitution was al>- 
 solutely prohibited ; incest, adultery, rape, and fornication 
 punished with severe penalties. 
 
 In marriage the relations of the sexes were defined dis- 
 tinctly. A newly married man was not to be called upon to 
 go to war, nor to be charged with any onerous business for 
 the space of one year. (Deuteronomy xxiv. 5.) Husbands 
 were not to deny their wives " the duty of marriage," but 
 were forbidden to demand from them this duty during the 
 monthly illness, and not until after the cleansing from it, 
 which took place on the eighth day after its cessation. (Le- 
 viticus xviii. 19, and xv. 28.) 
 
 As the reproduction of the species was considered one of 
 the chief ends of marriage, any action by which this was 
 permanently avoided, as in the case of Onan, who refused to 
 be instrumental in raising up an heir to his deceased brother's 
 estate, was regarded as criminal, and punished accordingly 
 
 We have by no means exhausted this interesting Biblical 
 study. AVe niiuht exemplify l>y many copious quotations 
 (rom different parts of both Old and New Testaments, th 
 
310 THE MORAL RELATIONS OP SEXUAL LIFE. 
 
 importance which the Word of God attributes to a proper 
 understanding of our duties as parents of future generations. 
 And why, let us ask, was it deemed of such importance T 
 The reason given is both a fact in history and a warning for 
 all time. 
 
 " Ye shall 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 destroy 
 the individual, the family, society, the nation, and extend 
 its blighting power to unborn generations. 
 
 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 suppose 
 that their intention was merely sanitary in character, that 
 they had no reference to the moral relations of the indivi- 
 dual ? Such a view were inconsistent with the known 
 objects of revelation. Finally, if instruction on these rela- 
 tions was deemed so important in the infancy of the world, 
 long before civilization with its new crimes and its new 
 vices had multiplied temptations and penalties, can it be 
 possible that they are now no longer needed? Or if needed, 
 that it is no longer right to give them. 
 
 If, as we believe, there is a profound moral significance in 
 these apparently hygienic admonitions, has that significance 
 departed from them now ? 
 
 The answer to this question is too palpably given by the 
 enormous amount of vice and misery which results from 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 311 
 
 sexual vice in this day and generation, for there to be any 
 need of a reply from us. A keen student of human nature 
 has bitterly said : " When modesty departs from the heart 
 she takes up her residence in the lips ;" and we fear that the 
 prudishness which would leave unsaid the warnings to youth 
 and men concerning the dangers to which their sex exposes 
 them is, in reality, far more to be suspected than the candor 
 which sounds aloud those warnings, even at the risk of shock- 
 ing some sensitive minds. 
 
 We know from multitudinous examples that there is no 
 one vicious tendency which more surely saps the strength of 
 the state, destroys the happiness of the domestic circle, con- 
 taminates social life, and leads the individual to destructive 
 habits, than that which regards the sexual relations. Where 
 the mothers are virtuous, the sires will be brave, and the 
 sons will be dutiful, Where libertinism is winked at, where 
 soiled reputations are excused, where statutes protect traffic 
 in human sin, we may surely look for lack of courage, lack 
 of patriotism, lack of prosperity; and though such a plague 
 spot may appear fair and flourishing enough for a time, 
 sooner or later a swift destruction will overcome it. And 
 even since the time at which we penned the line where we 
 characterized a certain city as the " lupanar of Europe," 
 the curse has gone forth upon that city, and she is now in 
 blood and ashes doing penance for her sins. 
 
 In the New Testament. 
 
 Too frequently there are those who in their natural incli- 
 nations allow themselves whatever liberties are not specifi- 
 cally prohibited by the moral code, just as there are in 
 business matters too many who do not hesitate at any trans- 
 action which is "o* the windy side of the law," and construe. 
 like the lawyer Mr. N'lioli^ in Dickens' novel, everything to 
 be moral which is legal. One such it was our chance to 
 
312 THE MOEAL RELATIONS OF SEXUAL LIFE. 
 
 meet, one who professed to live according to the highest 
 religious life, and yet who defended the propriety of an oc- 
 casional indulgence in solitary licentiousness on the ground 
 that it was nowhere prohibited in the New Testament. 
 
 This defence, urged as it was by one decidedly above the 
 average in talents and acquirements, impressed us strongly 
 with the need of a more definite expression of opinion on the 
 part of teachers, both medical and religious, in reference to 
 the duties of man in relation to his sexual nature. 
 
 All readers are familiar with the cardinal difference that 
 exists between the manner of teaching of the Old and the 
 New Testament, that the former lays down a defined ethical 
 code chiefly in the method of prohibition, while the latter 
 inculcates principles and motives of a positive character, 
 which, followed out, necessarily carry with them all and 
 more than all the force of the older law. 
 
 While, therefore, in the older books we found a minute- 
 ness of detail not surpassed even in special sanitary works, 
 we must not expect a reiteration of these in the Evangelists 
 and Apostles. But what we may expect, and what we do 
 find in abundance, are numberless exhortations to purity, 
 chastity, and cleanliness, warnings against lewdness, unclean- 
 ness, the lusts of the flesh, and the abominations which were 
 in vogue in the corrupt cities of the Roman Empire, at that 
 time rapidly declining toward the pit of effeminacy and ruin 
 into which it finally fell. The prevailing licentiousness of 
 the times is over and over again referred to, and the 
 strictest injunctions given to the early Christians to keep 
 themselves aloof from the pitch which defiled the social life 
 of the heathen. 
 
 Paul was too well aware of the destructive consequences 
 of sexual vice either to omit the mention of it, or to pass it 
 by with a timid delicacy. He refers to it with distinct 
 emphasis, and sounds his warnings in no ambiguous words. 
 
'HE NEW TESTAMENT ON THE MARRIAGE TIE. 313 
 
 The precise view taken of the marital relation by our 
 o'aviour and his disciples, has always been and continues to 
 be an unsettled point between rival schools of theologians. 
 Even in the second century there arose a Syrian sect under 
 the leadership of Saturninus, who declared, somewhat as do 
 the Shakers of to-day, that sexual intercourse at all times 
 and under all circumstances is a sin of the darkest dye, and 
 that marriage is an invention of the devil. As Mosheim 
 well remarks in his Ecclesiastical History, it is gratifying to 
 consider that any such extreme view brings with it its own 
 correction, for as it prevents the birth of children, it must 
 look for recruits solely to the adult population, and must 
 consequently be of limited duration. 
 
 Certain it is, however, that the expressions used by the 
 Great Teacher led to a much higher estimate of the sacred- 
 ness of the marriage tie, and produced a loftier respect for 
 woman than had been usual either in the Israelitish or the 
 European nations. 
 
 The law of divorce which was then promulgated, was 
 based upon a view of marriage very different from that pre. 
 viously existent. Under the Mosaic law, as well as under 
 the Greek and Roman codes, the husband and wife were 
 united by a tie previously civil in its character. The deeper 
 unity which binds them, which makes them one, which sinks 
 the duality of person in the oneness of life and aims, and 
 which is now recognized as a physiological truth, was not so 
 much as suspected by the most contemplative philosopher of 
 classical days. 
 
 Then again, the duty of fidelity to one wife, and to the 
 marriage vow, was never before impressed upon either Jew or 
 Gentile. Polygamy WHS practised and authorized among 
 the Jews, while the Greeks, though approving of only one 
 wife, did not consider it obligatory upon the husband to be 
 faithful to her. On the contrary, we read frequently in the 
 
314 THE MORAL RELATIONS OP SEXUAL LIFE. 
 
 Greek classics of married men visiting the houses of tha 
 hetaerce, and passing their time in this company, without 
 any general denunciation of the act, and almost without 
 comment. 
 
 Only when we compare the social life of that day with 
 that which Christianity introduced, can we appreciate the 
 immense superiority of its morality, and the enormous vices 
 it had to combat and to conquer. All social life is based 
 upon family life ; and this, in its inception, history, and 
 character, 'depends directly upon the moral relations of the 
 sexes. Social reforms must commence here, and here is 
 where Christianity did commence. 
 
 Sexual Relations in Christianity. 
 
 Thus Christianity, which came not to do away with the 
 Mosaic law, still lesv to do away with the evils that law was 
 given to correct, reiterates and defines the warnings and the 
 instructions of the Old Testament on the relations of the 
 sexes. It elevated the bond of marriage, increased the 
 stringency of the lien, lessened the causes of divorce, and 
 ordained the principle of monogamy, which previously had 
 been an approved custom but not an obligatory enactment. 
 
 The precepts inculcated by the Apostles on these points, 
 and on the sins of uncleanness, were required at a time when 
 the weight of the examples of men high in station and 
 eminent in intellect was thrown in favor of vicious indul- 
 gence. 
 
 The rigidity of the early Christians on these points, main- 
 tained as it was amid the temptations of a lascivious pagan 
 state enormously wealthy and incredibly dissolute, naturally 
 passed into austerity, and from austerity to asceticism. 
 
 They reversed the example of the Oriental nations, and 
 instead of regarding the instincts of procreation as natural 
 and proper when controlled and enlightened, they looked 
 
FALSE AND EXAGGERATED NOTIONS. 315 
 
 upon it as the sure proof and sign of man's moral degrada- 
 tion, the one greatest foe to his spiritual advancement, the 
 peculiar stronghold of Apollyon and his imps, and that 
 which beyond all else it behooved the seeker after righteous- 
 ness to utterly crush and stamp out of his nature. 
 
 These faise and exaggerated notions, the product of an 
 ignorance of the physical nature of man, gave rise to sad 
 results. A morbid fear of sexual excitement, a constant 
 turning of the thoughts to dangers from this source, are 
 precisely calculated in some temperaments to weaken and 
 not to strengthen the resolution. There is a fatal attraction 
 to some constitutions in the forbidden. Nititur in vetitum, 
 nature seeks what is not allowed, and the result of over- 
 strained terrors manifests itself occasionally in fearful scenes 
 of violence. 
 
 Mr. Lecky, in his " History of European Morals," gives 
 some striking illustrations of the dangers of this code of 
 morals. He remarks : 
 
 " Most terrible at times were the struggles of young and 
 ardent men through whose veins the hot blood of passioa 
 flowed, who were borne on the wave of enthusiasm to the life 
 of the anchorite in the desert. In the arms of Syrian or 
 African brides, whose soft eyes answered love with love, they 
 might have sunk to rest ; but in the lonely desert no peace 
 could ever visit their souls. Multiplying with frantic energy 
 the macerations of the body, beating their breasts with 
 anguish, the tears forever streaming from their eyes, ima- 
 gining themselves continually haunted by forms of deadly 
 beauty, their struggles not unfrequently ended in insanity 
 and suicide. When St. Pachomius and St. Palaemon were 
 once conversing together in the desert, a young monk rushed 
 into their presence in a distracted manner, and, convulsed 
 with sobs, poured out his tale. A woman had entered his 
 22 
 
316 THE MORAL RELATIONS OP SEXUAL LIFE. 
 
 cell, and had seduced him, and then vanished, leaving him 
 half dead upon the ground ; then, with a wild shriek, the 
 monk broke away, rushed across the desert till he arrived 
 at the next village, and then leaping into the open furnace 
 of the public baths, he perished in the flames." 
 
 This narrative is but one of numbers which could be 
 brought -forward illustrating the dangers of ignorance and 
 prejudice on .the important topics we have discussed in the 
 present volume, and the close relations they bear to the 
 moral part of man's nature. Here was a misguided young 
 man crazed and driven to self-murder by the phantom which 
 his own imagination, diseased by long dwelling upon one 
 function of his system, had conjured up. 
 
 During the Middle Ages. 
 
 The same unfortunate interpretation of the Christian doc- 
 trines produced similar violations of natural laws throughout 
 the Middle Ages. The violence done to the natural im- 
 pulses by an enforced and unwilling celibacy showed itself 
 in prevailing dissoluteness of life, and too often those who 
 should have been the models and exemplars of holy life, 
 were the leaders in profligate ways. 
 
 The struggle by which others attempted to maintain a 
 formal continence, while their imaginations were uncontrolled, 
 remained, and ever will remain, bitter and hopeless. The 
 unavoidable continence of the monasteries was not slow to 
 foster vices of a more deleterious character than licentious- 
 ness itself, and consequently to injure rather than to benefit 
 the general weal. Of course, we do not mean that this waa 
 commonly or even frequently the case, but there is too much 
 evidence from original records to deny that much moral tur, 
 pitude arose from this misunderstood position of the procrea- 
 tive instinct in the economy. 
 
RELATION OF THE SEXES IN MODERN TIMES. 317 
 
 Matrimonial life itself felt the effects of this erroneous 
 view. It was looked upon as an allowable, but not the most 
 holy condition of life. That there was real chastity in mar- 
 riuiro. thoujrh perhaps conceded in words, was not in act and 
 belief, for the condition of virginity was constantly upheld 
 as the only really pure state of living. " To cut down by 
 the axe of virginity the wood of marriage is the true object 
 of the saint," is the energetic metaphor of Saint Jerome. 
 The consequence of this belief that the marriage state was 
 inconsistent with pure holiness was that when a strong reli- 
 gious fervor fell upon a husband or wife, its first effect was 
 to make any continuation of happy married life out of the 
 question. The more religious partner at once desired and 
 attempted to lead a solitary life, or to join some monastery 
 or sisterhood. 
 
 In other words, it came to be generally understood that 
 married people, by the very act of marriage, put themselves 
 upon a lower plane of morality. 
 
 The inevitable consequence was a loss of self-respect, a 
 diminished esteem for marital purity, and a visible tendency 
 to infidelity in the marriage relation. It is not too much 
 to say that an impartial student of national traits can still 
 distinguish the fruits of these views in the southern nations 
 of the European continent. 
 
 In Kcdern Times. 
 
 In more modern times the inconsistencies and the incor- 
 rectness of these views of the relations of the sexes became 
 apparent, and able men rose who maintained that neither 
 continence nor virginity was more pleasing in the sight of 
 God than married chastity and fidelity, and that any doc- 
 trine to the contrary, so far from elevating a national stand- 
 ard of morality, did exactly the reverse. These teachers 
 further maintained that the sexual impulse is not in itself 
 
318 THE MORAL RELATIONS OP SEXUAL LIFE. 
 
 evil, nor is it any more liable to result in evil than 
 passion or appetite appertaining to man ; and that, in refer- 
 ence 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 redounded 
 to the well-being of those who have appreciated and recog- 
 nized 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. 
 As far as this has been done, it has been by those very in- 
 sufficiently qualified to act as the interpreters of scientific 
 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 Inheritance 
 we have told how distant generations will certainly be 
 moulded in their moral, mental, and physical natures by the 
 actions of their ancestors now living. Now, we call atten- 
 tion to the individual destiny of each as dependent, to no 
 small extent, upon the same actions. Impressed, as we hope 
 our readers will be by this double responsibility, they should 
 seek to learn how to perform these important duties intelli- 
 gently. 
 
 The practical deductions which we could make from such 
 facts are that we should not supinely fold our hands and sit 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF THEOLOGIANS 319 
 
 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 regulation in the 
 sexual relations. Hitherto, renouncing as unsuited 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 be kept unspotted from the 
 evils which surrounded them, we have tried the plan of say- 
 ing nothing and doing nothing. We have hoped that by a 
 well-bred silence on the subject of carnal abominations, they 
 would presently disappear and be forgotten. 
 
 The result has unfortunately not yet justified this agree- 
 able expectation. If anything, it seems that these vices are 
 increasing at quite as fast a rate as population, wealth, and 
 luxury increase. 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 now in any corner of our 
 wide domain. 
 
 At the Present Day. 
 
 These topics, we well know, lie without the field of medi- 
 cal inquiry, and we feel that we may be criticized 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 recent 
 theological works tolerably comprehensive, and we have 
 spent a number of hours in examining the works of recent 
 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 which do contain them. 
 But that there is no longer any need of such warnings, or 
 that it would be of doubtful utility to give them, or that it 
 Would be unadvisable on the score of propriety, are excuses 
 fc>r their absence which we cannot admit. 
 
 There is far greater latitude customary in social relations 
 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 elsewhere. Unless these traits are guided 
 by morality and intelligence, they will soon bring forth a 
 corruption unsurpased in our times. Concealment and 
 attempts to enforce ignorance will not succeed. These in- 
 struments of crafty despots and a bigoted priesthood are 
 inconsistent with our institutions. 
 
 What then, to sum up, are the questions concerning the 
 moral relations 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 life by violating his 
 functions ; the duty which he owes the other sex to rescue 
 them from the gulf of prostitution, 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 miserable invalids. Marriage is to be resmed 
 from the views which are degrading it once more to a mere 
 civil contract, a legalized concubinage. The lay. 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 ajjusiness partnership 
 or with those of employer and employe j. 
 
 There is also the prohibitory part of the moral statute to 
 be enforced. If there is one sign more portentous than 
 
THE THOUGHTS OF AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER. 321 
 
 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 disseminating 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 indecency 
 the periodicals of widest circulation are filled with tales of 
 morbid sentimentality ; and not a few through their adver- 
 tisements offer concealment and aid to debauchery. 
 
 On the other hand, a populous State is sunk in jjolygamy ; 
 another dissolves the marriage tie as readily as a copartner- 
 ship ; and at many points over the land communities arc 
 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 aberra- 
 tions of the healthy sexual instinct as at once the most re- 
 markable 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 exist in the eyes of his own coun- 
 trymen 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 un- 
 pleasantly as they did him. The remedy for them is not 
 remote nor difficult. It is to insist upon better understand- 
 ing of the ethical bearings of the reproductive function, 
 upon the purity and permanency of marriage, and upon 
 those sounder views of duty which we have already ex- 
 plained. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 As we reach the conclusion of our subject we cannot but 
 feel the inadequacy with which we have treated the theme 
 which hus occupied us. The portion of man's nature whose 
 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 be- 
 yond the limit of his own existence ; this it is which in its 
 use or abuse controls not solelv his own life and welfare, but 
 in ways and to an extent wholly beyond our power to esti- 
 mate, the welfare of generations to come. 
 
 Whether we regard the subject from a purely ethical or a 
 purely physiological point of view, its importance cannot 
 but impress us profoundly. What impulse of man's physi- 
 cal nature most potently governs his actions, his aspirations, 
 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? 
 Ouce more, on the control of this impulse. How can we aa 
 
 (323) 
 
 \ 
 
324 TRANSMISSION OF LIFE. 
 
 individuals most certainly secure the moral progress of 
 posterity ? By endowing them with a physical constitution 
 free from the taint of hereditary disease, and a mental con. 
 stitution devoid of inherited tendencies to crime. To acccm. 
 piish 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 principle. 
 
 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 sta- 
 tistics leave no doubt as to their accuracy, and their bearing 
 on the future of the race. Many of the best minds in the 
 world of practical and statistical medicine have been ear- 
 nestly turned in this direction, and, as a consequence, during 
 the last decade great advances in knowledge have been se- 
 cured, and numerous suggestions have been presented look- 
 ing to the preservation of the general health. It is not 
 possible for the profession alone unsupported by the public, 
 to carry out those measures of repression and protection, 
 which we have referred to as necessary to effect any reform. 
 And the public, in order to be induced to take any action, 
 must be made acquainted in no uncertain manner with the 
 necessities of the measures asked of it. 
 
 Finally, the private individual who is suffering- or who 
 only thinks he is suffering, (which is often quite as sad a 
 condition,) from his own misdeeds, and is deprived by the 
 nature of these misdeeds from the sympathy and attention 
 he w r ould otherwise have, should be put in possession 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. 
 
TRANSMISSION OP LIFE. 325 
 
 Such have been our aims in composing the foregoing 
 chapters. Whether or not we have succeeded in expressing 
 ourselves regarding them lucidly, instructively, and satisfac- 
 torily, the reader who has accompanied us thus far, is better 
 able to judge tLau 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 i. 
 
 The Progress of Popular Culture in Physiology. 
 
 It is gratifying to observe that with the increase in intel- 
 lectual enlightenment, always comes a confidence in the 
 belief that this enlightenment not only is consistent with, 
 but is an aid to, sound morals. 
 
 In nations and ages which may be called mediaeval, igno- 
 rance was anxiously defended by good men, under the mis- 
 taken 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 Ameri- 
 can girl, with almost untrammeled independence in both 
 directions, is unquestionably superior in moral self-reliance. 
 The publication of a volume full of the titles of works which 
 are forbidden to be read the Index E.rpurgaforius has 
 not improved, but has deteriorated the Roman Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 327 
 
328 APPENDIX. 
 
 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 is only 
 in regard to sexual physiology that prejudice is in the as^ 
 cendant. 
 
 Even here, it is evident that the barriers of the mediaeval 
 doctrines are disappearing. The very important researches 
 of naturalists into the laws of descent, the effects of intermar- 
 riage, the transmission of mental and moral qualities, and 
 the like, show that it is becoming more and more recognized 
 that these are questions about which the general public 
 should be informed without loss of time. 
 
 Since the first publication of this work, we note a decided 
 advance in this direction. Several works of a popular charac- 
 ter have been published, whose authors explain, in proper 
 language, those physiological facts which it is well for all 
 to be acquainted with. Thoughtful physicians have come 
 more and more to recognize the large number of maladies 
 which take their rise in ignorance of the laws of health in 
 the relations referred to. Thus one of them writes, in a 
 recent treatise : 
 
 " So grave are the errors of ignorance in the married re- 
 lation, that, in my opinion, to encourage, or even to allow 
 young people to marry without having received such in- 
 structions, is as foolish and wicked as to place in the hands 
 of a child a loaded pistol or a paper of poison, for no othei 
 reason than that it wanted them and had reached a certain 
 age, and yet to offer no word of advice or of warning respect- 
 ing the dangers of their employment. 
 
 " But, alas, how few parents, how few instructors, have 
 
APPENDIX. 329 
 
 the knowledge, the discretion, the tact, the judgmant, to 
 qualify them for such an office ? 
 
 " Until parents feel it an essential part of their duty to 
 acquire this information themselves, from reliable sources, 
 aii'l to impart it fully and freely to their children, as soon 
 as it can be comprehended by them, no teacher of physi- 
 ology can hold himself wholly guiltless of the sins or misfor- 
 tunes of those under his charge, if, from mistaken delicacy 
 or other motive, he refrains from including in his instruc- 
 tions an account of the processes of generation, and the 
 perils which attend the violation of their laws." 
 
 These words of Professor Burt Gr. Wilder, M.D., of Cor- 
 nell University, indicate an enormous advance since the 
 time, not a score of years ago, when any public instruction 
 in physiology was condemned by more than one teacher of 
 the branch in medical schools. 
 
 Several other efforts have been made, and successfully, 
 to disperse the mystery which has only served as a stimulus 
 to morbid imaginations, and which has kept its hold under 
 the mistaken notion that it is the protection of purity of 
 mind. 
 
APPENDIX. 331 
 
 II. 
 
 The Effects of Sexual Troubles on the Mind. 
 
 The more intimately the publication of this work has led 
 us to study and observe the effects of sexual troubles on 
 man whether those troubles were the results of vice, mis- 
 fortune or ignorance, whether they were wholly real or 
 partly imaginary the more have we noted the inadequately 
 great effect they exercise on his mind. The patient attri- 
 butes to them influences which they certainly never have 
 nor could have ; and often lays at their door the failure of 
 faculties and plans of life which an unprejudiced observer 
 would attribute to quite other causes. 
 
 For example, nothing is more common than for one who 
 has for a brief period during youth been addicted to soli- 
 tary bad habits, to assign this as the probable reason of 
 a number of functional ills which the physician, studying 
 his case, cannot see in that relation at all. So, again, in 
 various cases, after appropriate treatment has removed all 
 the prominent symptoms which such a habit has left behind 
 it, the patient is still haunted by a fear that he is not what 
 he should and would have been, that he is deeply and irre- 
 mediably damaged by his former weakness, and that he 
 never will be his former self again. Hence, instead of be- 
 23 
 
332 APPENDIX. 
 
 coming cheerful with the obvious improvement of his ease, 
 he is apt to remain almost as dispirited as ever, and because 
 he finds that the honest and intelligent physician does not 
 desire to keep him under his care longer, he seeks the ad- 
 vice of the charlatan. The latter, if he does not, by inept 
 and violent measures, actually bring about a condition of 
 positive disease, at least fools him to the top of his bent, 
 and bleeds him to his last dollar, or as near it as possible. 
 Often and often has this history occurred in our knowledge. 
 The same mental characteristic has been noted by others ; 
 and in particular, a lecture by Sir James Paget, the eminent 
 London surgeon, deserves notice in this connection. It is 
 on the subject of 
 
 Hypochondria from Sexual Troubles. 
 
 The cases which he includes under this name are those 
 of male patients who regard trivial maladies, or even some 
 of the natural events in their sexual life, with the unreason- 
 able dread and gloom, or watchfulness, which are character- 
 istic of that species of mental alienation known as hypo- 
 chondria. 
 
 This class is largely made up of those who are entirely 
 ignorant about the nature and laws of their sexual function ; 
 or else they are those of a very emotional temperament, prone 
 to excitement, and of an irritable class ; or else, and these 
 are the most numerous, they are of the class whose minds, so 
 far as their sexual life and .its relations go, are really in some 
 degree unsound, and unable to appreciate properly the part 
 these peculiar functions ought to bear in the life of man. 
 
APPENDIX 333 
 
 In regard to those so affected through 
 
 Ignorance of Sexual Affairs 
 
 there is little doubt that it is much more common both in 
 England and this country than one might imagine. Not 
 but that few boys grow up without hearing vulgar allusions 
 and coarse expressions of the sexual relation ; but authori- 
 tative teaching as to what is and what is not hurtful, of what 
 is and what is not lawful, the boy almost never hears, and 
 thus he is led to form low and incorrect opinions. 
 
 The desires and the passions arise and grow without the 
 knowledge how to direct and control them. Hence errors, 
 and fancies, and things half-understood are taken into the 
 mind, and in later life become to some men sources of misery 
 and fright, and to some the source of hypochondria and 
 gloom. 
 
 This ignorance may sometimes be dispelled later in life 
 by giving full information, and when it is thus supplanted 
 with enlightenment, the wretchedness which it causes goes 
 with it. But this is an exceptionally fortunate result ; more 
 often, the mind has been so long under the influence of 
 groundless terrors, that even when they are shown to be 
 such, the mental effect continues. Then, again, there may 
 have been reasons for apprehension, but they have been 
 removed. Do the terrors leave with their former exciting 
 causes ? No ; the physical ailments, though definitely re- 
 moved, leave this hideous legacy of distrust and low spirits. 
 
 Take a real instance. A middle-aged single man applies 
 to a physician, because he is suffering from too frequent 
 
334 APPENDIX. 
 
 losses during sleep. They are evidently too frequent, not 
 because they exceed a certain number, for, as we have stated 
 on a former page (p. 85), there is no definite and invari- 
 able rule in this respect, but because they leave behind them 
 a sense of marked lassitude and exhaustion, a feeling of in- 
 capacity for mental and physical labor. - 
 
 The case is taken in hand, and at the end of two or three 
 months the discharges are more rare, and are not followed 
 by any perceptible sense of exhaustion. The general health 
 is improved, the appetite keener, the bowels well regulated. 
 In the opinion of the physician the man is well. 
 
 Not so, in his own opinion. He has become possessed 
 with the fear that his sexual powers are permanently im- 
 paired by the diseased conditions they experienced for a 
 time. He presses for further information on this point, and 
 is decided hi his statement that he is convinced he never 
 will be able to enter properly the marital relation. 
 
 The physician attempts to show him that he is free from 
 disease, that there is no reasonable doubt but that he will 
 remain so, and that therefore his fears are without founda- 
 tion, or, at any rate, absurdly premature. Do such rational 
 arguments convince him, or diminish his anxieties? Not 
 at all. He continues to have the same spells of low spirits, 
 and belief that he is impotent. 
 
 This portrait, which, as we have said, is one painted from 
 nature, is that of a man who must be supposed to have a 
 diseased mind ; to be, on this point, actually insane. And 
 it is by no means a rare case. 
 
 Another frequent cause of this form of depression is that 
 which follows a belief that a inau is suffering from sperm- 
 
APPENDIX. 335 
 
 atorrhoea when nothing of the kind is present. This is by 
 no means confined to youth. On the contrary, it is very 
 common about middle life, or a little after it, when the 
 powers begin to fail. 
 
 Many men at this period are excessively anxious about 
 themselves, and are inclined to believe that the natural 
 abatement of their force is owing to disease of the part rather 
 than to that normal diminution of the powers which is 
 characteristic of their period of life. 
 
 To discover this imaginary disease they will often inspect 
 with great anxiety their urine. It frequently presents to 
 the eye some shreds of mucus, or signs of the secretion 
 from the prostatic glands, opening into the urethra in front 
 of the bladder. These, they convince themselves, proceed 
 from the seminal vessels. 
 
 Varicocele. 
 
 Again, as Sir James Paget remarks, there are some to 
 whom, through ignorance or misguidance, a varicocele is a 
 source of misery and dismay. A varicocele is an enlarge- 
 ment of the veins which lead to the scrotum, and occasion- 
 ally, by their painful, dragging sensation, cause pain and 
 annoyance. Quacks not unfrequeutly very much exagge- 
 rate the importance of this malformation, and pretend that 
 it is a forerunner of impotence and of wasting of the parts. 
 Such fears are groundless. 
 
 A varicocele is troublesome because of the sense of weight 
 and aching which sometimes accompanies it, and which is 
 gem-rally increased by long standing and walking. In some 
 s, also, the veins become inflamed and sensitive. But 
 
336 APPENDIX. 
 
 this is the utmost harm which a varicocele does, and it never 
 produces either impotence or wasting of the part. 
 
 The utmost treatment which is required is to wear a sus- 
 pensory bandage, and to use a cooling, evaporating lotion 
 when the part is painful from much standing or walking. 
 It is needless to give the matter any special attention, and 
 the less so, as it is a complaint which tends to diminish of 
 itself as years advance. It is said by some who have ex- 
 amined men for military service, that about one man in 
 twelve has this defect, and many of them are hardly aware 
 of it until informed of it by the examining surgeon. 
 
 Another prevalent cause of hypochondria from sexual 
 relations is the 
 
 Spinal Irritation 
 
 which is not unfrequent in men of nervous temperament 
 and feeble constitution. The backache, exhaustion, sense 
 of languor and general malaise which these persons experi- 
 ence after sexual connection or natural emissions during 
 sleep are by no means signs of weakened organs or threat- 
 ened impotency. In many the same symptoms are present 
 after any unusually severe muscular or mental exertion. 
 They are generally remediable by treatment adapted to in- 
 vigorate the whole system and relieve the particular condi- 
 tion of the spinal cord which leads to such sensations. 
 
 In many such cases, great difficulty is found in persuad- 
 ing the patient that his sufferings do not find their origin 
 in some bad habit he has at some past time been addicted 
 to. This fear increases both his misery and the difficulties 
 encountered by the physician in relieving it. 
 
APPENDIX. 337 
 
 Such a patient Ls full of apprehensions. He finds it im- 
 possible to divert his mind from his generative powers, and 
 his constant solicitude about his symptoms aggravates and 
 exaggerates them. This leads to further mischief. Such 
 a direction of his mind depresses the whole nervous system ; 
 and what is more, produces a special irritability in the nerves 
 of the part to which the attention is directed. So that it is 
 really possible that the very anxiety lest he has the malady, 
 brings it on. 
 
 Few conditions are more to be pitied than that of the 
 hypochondriacs who thus suffer, and few are more difficult 
 to cure. As we are writing this, not as a work of instruc- 
 tion to physicians, but to aid the sufferer in relieving him- 
 self as much as it is practicable for him to do, we cannot 
 urge too strongly upon all who are thus tormenting them- 
 selves to strive for the strength, the courage, and the man- 
 liness to throw aside this burden. 
 
 How is this to be done ? We will say how. The life 
 should be fully occupied in muscular, open-air work, if pos- 
 sible ; at any rate, in vigorous, steady labor of some kind. 
 The general rules of hygiene, familiar from what we have 
 already said on previous pages, should be regarded. Abun- 
 dance of sleep should be taken, and habits of self-control, iu 
 all things, should be cultivated. 
 
 Especially, a resolute endeavor must be made not to oc- 
 cupy the mind at all with the anxieties and foreboding that 
 have so darkened its pleasures. 
 
 The reply may be, that this cannot be avoided ; that it is 
 easy to prescribe a person not to think of his troubles, but 
 to carry out the precept is not in his power. 
 
338 APPENDIX. 
 
 To this we answer that it has been well shown by Dr. 
 Carpenter, the eminent physiologist, that mental training is 
 acquired, not by stifling a sentiment, but by substituting a 
 better one for it. The true plan is, when we wish to escape 
 that fretting of the mind over some worrying topic, not to 
 say, " I will not think of that any more," but to say, " Here 
 is another subject that I will think of." 
 
 Let a person always have some important or entertaining 
 and worthy topic to which his mind can turn in its vacant 
 moments, and thus he will escape many a minute of ennui, 
 many an idle and injurious vagary. 
 
 This precept, it is said, is much cultivated among the 
 Buddhist scholars of the Orient. One of these, on arising 
 in the morning, selects a verse from their sacred books, or a 
 topic from the writings of some philosopher, and whenever, 
 through the day, he is engaged in some occupation which 
 permits his thoughts to wander, or when he must pass a 
 period in waiting, he turns to this verse or topic, and thinks 
 it over. At the close of the day he reviews his meditations, 
 and writes them down. 
 
 Some such plan as this is an admirable one to carry out, 
 not merely in the relation above mentioned, but in all the 
 occasions of life where we are threatened with ennui, or 
 wish to escape from our thoughts. 
 
APPENDIX. 339 
 
 III. 
 
 Remarks on the Dangers of Solitary Habits. 
 
 The readiness of doctors to disagree has often been a sub- 
 ject of sarcastic allusion, and 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 deficiency in opportunities of 
 observation, and partly to the circumstances, more or less 
 different, 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 writers 
 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 results 
 of the habit. 
 
 As his name is now the most famous among the surgeons 
 of Great Britain, and his opinions must necessarily, through 
 his works, republished in this country, exercise a wide influ- 
 ence, we feel it a duty in this book to quote his words, and 
 
S40 APPENDIX. 
 
 subject them to the test of others' experience, and the con- 
 ditions of life and disease as they appear with us. 
 
 The writer referred 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 deliv- 
 ered to physicians and stud3nts in a London hospital : 
 
 " With careful and positive teaching you will cure the 
 ignorant, and do good to all, except those whose hypochon- 
 dria is near to complete insanity. But on some subjects of 
 your teaching you will have to be very clear as to matters 
 of fact ; especially, for instance, as to the practice of mas- 
 turbation, to which many of your patients will ascribe their 
 chief distress. 
 
 " Now, I believe you may teach positively that masturba- 
 tion does neither more nor less harm than intercourse prac- 
 ticed with the same frequency in the same conditions of 
 general health, age and circumstances. Practiced frequently 
 by the very young, that is, at any time before, or at the 
 beginning of puberty, masturbation is very likely to produce 
 exhaustion, effeminacy, over-sensitiveness and nervousness ; 
 just as equally frequent intercourse at the same age would 
 probably produce them. Or practiced every day, or several 
 times a day, either act is likely to produce such symptoms. 
 And the mischiefs are likely or nearly sure to happen, and 
 to be greatest if the excesses are practiced by those who, by 
 inheritance or circumstances, are liable to any nervous dis- 
 ease, to spinal irritation, epilepsy, insanity, or any other. 
 
 " But the mischiefs are due to the quantity, not to the 
 nature of the excesses ; and the quantity is to be estimated 
 in relation to the age and power of the nervous system. I 
 
APPENDIX. 341 
 
 have seen as numerous and as great evils consequent upon 
 excessive intercourse as on excessive masturbation ; but I 
 have not seen or heard anything to make me believe that 
 the occasional practice of this latter vice has any other effects 
 on one who practices it than has occasional intercourse. I 
 wish I could say something worse of so nasty a practice ; 
 an uncleanliness, a filthiness forbidden by God, an unman- 
 liness despised by men." 
 
 While so much of this opinion will be generally acknowl- 
 edged to be true as asserts that the occasional indulgence in 
 this detestable habit may not leave after it those permanent 
 effects which the quacks pretend, and the dread of which 
 drive so many almost to despair, yet, on the other hand, it 
 has been abundantly shown that there -is in the habit itself 
 a peculiar and distressing wear on the nervous system which 
 leaves most serious traces for a long time. 
 
 It has, for instance, been demonstrated by Professor 
 Gross, of Philadelphia, that a variety of stricture is brought 
 on by masturbation, which may in turn lead to most serious 
 consequences. These are, in the milder forms, undue sen- 
 sitiveness of the urethra, with slight inflammation along its 
 tract, and the erections become imperfect and feeble, and 
 ejaculation too precipitate. This may continue until sexual 
 desire is abolished, and a condition of hypochondria sets in, 
 with all those difficult features which we have previously 
 described. 
 
 There are, moreover, other very serious differences be- 
 tween intercourse and the solitary vice. The temptation to 
 carry the latter to excess is far greater than is the case with 
 the former; and the excitations, abnormal and excessive, 
 
342 APPENDIX. 
 
 which are encouraged to provoke it, cannot but have a long- 
 continued disastrous influence. 
 
 Another grave charge against it is its prevalence in early, 
 we may say very early life. Even in infants it is not un- 
 known, and should be carefully watched for. An able 
 American writer on diseases of children, Dr. Jacobi, has 
 recently called especial attention to this subject. He points 
 out that young children may be prompted to it by some 
 condition of the urine, by the presence of seat worms, or by 
 acquired nervous derangements, as well as by the vicious 
 instructions of those around them. 
 
 . He recommends that regular bathing and constant occu- 
 pation under intelligent supervision, are important precau- 
 tions. Children must not be permitted to sit on the floor 
 too long ; they should not be allowed to remain in bed after 
 waking up, but induced to rise and dress at once. Habits 
 of solitude, and the inclination to indulge the imagination, 
 should be broken up, and active out-door exercise iosisted on. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Abortion, criminal 194 
 
 Accidents, inheritance of the results of 205 
 
 Acquired habits, their hereditary nature 226 
 
 Acton, William, M.R.C.S., etc., his views on popular 
 
 medical instruction , 268 
 
 Age, how to retain virility in 46 
 
 Agenetlc period 190 
 
 Alcohol, effects of, on virility 49, 68 
 
 its influence on the heart 290 
 
 Aneurism, influence of sex on 296 
 
 Amherst College, weight and height of students of 16 
 
 Anger, may be inherited 223 
 
 Apoplexy, the influence of sex on 290 
 
 Artist, the, his views of man 257 
 
 Asthma, an inheritance 209 
 
 influence of sex on.., 294 
 
 (343) 
 
344 INDEX. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Atavism, what it is 213 
 
 a cause of non-inheritance 227 
 
 Athletes, the continence of. 35 
 
 Auzias-Turenne on " syphilization" 127 
 
 Avarice, may be inherited 223 
 
 Avoidance and limitation of offspring 189 
 
 Augustus, King of Poland, the number of children of..... 181 
 
 B. 
 
 Bachelors, celebrities among 62 
 
 Bachelorhood, advantages of. 61 
 
 proper reasons for 64 
 
 disadvantages of. 67 
 
 Baravicino de Capellis, the remarkable case of. 37 
 
 Becquerel, the statistics of. 68 
 
 Beer-drinking, an effect of 65 
 
 Bichat on the transmission of life 18 
 
 Blindness, a cause of. 246 
 
 Board of State Charities of Massachusetts, fifth annual 
 
 report of. 95 
 
 British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Quarterly Re- 
 view, its views on popular education 271 
 
 Bronchitis a result of excessive indulgence 237 
 
 Bromide of potassium, a useful preparation of. 81 
 
INDEX. 345 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bronchitis, influence of sex on 294 
 
 Buffon on life in the old and new worlds 67 
 
 C. 
 
 Cancer, influence of sex on 298 
 
 Camphor and hops 65 
 
 Cancer, its hereditary nature 208 
 
 Castration, effects of. 31 
 
 Castratos 30 
 
 Celibacy, advantages of. 61 
 
 proper reasons for 64 
 
 disadvantages of. 67 
 
 Chamber, hygiene of 171 
 
 Charlatans, the evil influence of 264 
 
 Chorea, influence of sex on 292 
 
 Chrysostom, St. John, on marital continence 191 
 
 Cicero on the pleasures of love 89 
 
 Circumstances hostile to inheritance 227 
 
 Cleanliness, the necessity of, in boys 25 
 
 Climate, its influence on pxtberty 20 
 
 Cod-liver oil a remedy in inherited disposition to disease 213 
 
 Co-education of the sexes 281 
 
 Conception, nature of. 186 
 
 Conclusion, the 823 
 
346 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Constipation, the causes of. 298 
 
 Constitution, the, its influence on the age of puberty 22 
 
 Consummation of marriage 144 
 
 its signification , , 144 
 
 obstacles to 150 
 
 Consumption, how frequently inherited . 208 
 
 influence of sex on 294 
 
 Convulsions, a cause of , 242 
 
 a result of venereal excess 238 
 
 Cousins marrying 138 
 
 Cowardice, maybe inherited 223 
 
 Crime, hereditary character of 220 
 
 Criminal class, peculiarities of the..., 221 
 
 Criminal abortion .,., , , 194 
 
 Cure, prospects of, in nervous troubles 249 
 
 means of, in nervous troubles 251 
 
 D. 
 
 Dangers of excess 178 
 
 Deafness, a cause of 247 
 
 Debility 155 
 
 Decay of virility 88 
 
 De Longueville, his age when last married 37 
 
INDEX. 347 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Desire, effects of food and drink on * 46 
 
 drugs which, stimulate 51 
 
 drugs which moderate 54 
 
 "Diary of a London Physician" 101 
 
 Digestion, disorders of 248 
 
 Disease, the relation of sex to 289 
 
 Diseased children, how to avoid having 205 
 
 Divorce, the Christian law of. 313 
 
 Diverse theories, two, of social life 277 
 
 Dormitory regulations, hints on 25 
 
 Drunkard's legacy, the 219 
 
 Drinks which strengthen virility 4G 
 
 which weaken virility 48 
 
 Dropsy, influence of sex on 297 
 
 Dutcher, Prof. A. P., on the effects of venereal excess 237 
 
 Dyspepsia, a cause of., 248 
 
 E. 
 
 Early sex-passion 77 
 
 Education, effect of, through the parent on the child 224 
 
 Edward Gray, the ballad of 65. 
 
 Electricity, the use of. 168 
 
 Engagements, long 140 
 
 24 
 
348 INDEX. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Envy, may be inherited 223 
 
 Epilepsy, inheritable 209 
 
 a result of venereal excess 238 
 
 the influence of sex on 291 
 
 Example of prolonged virility 87 
 
 Excess, dangers of. 178 
 
 what is excess ? , 181 
 
 twofold nature of. 179 
 
 Excessive indulgence, danger of, in old men 236 
 
 Extraordinary example of inheritance 215 
 
 F. 
 
 Fallen, the fate of the 1 15 
 
 Fathers, what they bequeath children 201 
 
 Fidelity, paramount duty of. 142 
 
 Flirt, the male 141 
 
 Fly blisters, a caution in regard to 54 
 
 Flogging, the dangers of. 26 
 
 Flourens on longevity 56 
 
 Food and drinks which strengthen virility 46 
 
 weaken 49 
 
 Form of disease, changed by inheritance 209, 218 
 
 Frights, needless 85 
 
 Frescobaldi, Dianora, the family of. 189 
 
INDEX. 349 
 G. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Gambling, may be inherited 223 
 
 Genius, is it inheritable ? 217 
 
 why unfruitful 217 
 
 Girault, Dr., of Paris, bis recent essay .., 165 
 
 Goethe, extract from tbe Faust of 43 
 
 Gout, an inheritance 209 
 
 influence of sex on ..... 296 
 
 H. 
 
 Harvard College, weight and height of students of 16 
 
 Headache, influence of sex on . ,.. 293 
 
 Health in relation to symmetry 258 
 
 Heathendom, sexual relations in ,. 304 
 
 Heart, disease of, the result of inheritance . 209 
 
 disease, influence of sex on , 295 
 
 Hereditary diseases, hygienic treatment of. 211 
 
 Hidden nature of hereditary diseases 210 
 
 Hip-disease, a result of generative malformation -. 235 
 
 Hops, the active principle of 81 
 
 Ilufeland, Dr., on the means which shorten life 73 
 
 Husbands and wives 71 
 
 Husband as a father - 184 
 
 Hygiene of puberty <12 
 
850 INDEX. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Hygiene of virility 35 
 
 Hygienic treatment of hereditary diseases 211 
 
 Hysteria, the transmission of 209 
 
 influence of sex on..., 292 
 
 I. 
 
 Ignorance concerning marriage 146 
 
 Ill-usage, inheritance of the consequence of ; 205 
 
 Immunity to disease hereditary 210 
 
 Impotence 157 
 
 Individual responsibility, how affected by the heritage of 
 
 immorality 222, 225 
 
 Indians, American, a custom among 176 
 
 Inheritance 201 
 
 physical qualities we inherit 201 
 
 how to avoid transmitting disease 205 
 
 mental qualities we inherit 216 
 
 is our moral nature inheritable? 220 
 
 Inherited tendency to drink, ineradicable nature of 220 
 
 Insanity, a cause of. 75 
 
 inheritable 209 
 
 oftener transmitted to daughters 210 
 
 oftener transmitted by mother 209 
 
 influence of sex on 294 
 
INDEX. 351 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Intermarriage of near relatives 138 
 
 Intemperance, a cause of dropsy 297 
 
 Intoxication, a cause of degenerate offspring 218 
 
 effect of, on offspring 218 
 
 Iron, a receipt for 91 
 
 Irving, Washington, the deep sentiment of. 66 
 
 J. 
 
 Jealousy, may be inherited 223 
 
 K. 
 
 Kingsley, Canon, on the influence of race 228 
 
 L. 
 
 Lancet, the London, its views on popular education 272 
 
 Laodicea, anecdote of. 156 
 
 "Law of diversity" 227 
 
 Laws of inheritance in disease 210 
 
 Laycock, Prof. Thomas, on venereal excess 179 
 
 Lethargy 152 
 
 Lecky, Mr., extract from his "History of European 
 
 Morals"... , 815 
 
352 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Libertinage, may be inherited 223 
 
 Limitation of offspring 189 
 
 Liver, enlargement of, the influence of sex on 298 
 
 Locksley Hall, an extract from 56 
 
 Longevity, Flourens on 66 
 
 Loss of power, special treatment 167 
 
 of virility prematurely, a national tendency 56 
 
 Lung- fever, influence of sex on 295 
 
 1C 
 
 Malformations, the results of. 25, 160 
 
 Mangan, Clarence, lines from 41 
 
 Man's liability to disease as compared to woman's 289 
 
 specific function 17 
 
 Man, unsexed 31 
 
 Manhood, signs of established 32 
 
 the physical type of. 257 
 
 Marriage, an excellent definition of 132 
 
 consummation of 144 
 
 ignorance concerning 146 
 
 meaning of 131 
 
 physical fitness and unfitness for 133 
 
 preliminaries of 131 
 
 the relation of. 147 
 
INDEX. 353 
 
 , PAGE 
 
 Marriages, judicious, effect of, on hereditary affections... 204 
 
 Married life 131 
 
 Marital relations 173 
 
 dangers of excess 178 
 
 what is excess? 181 
 
 Masinissa, King of Numidia, his age when married 87 
 
 Masturbation 70 
 
 its consequences 73 
 
 its prevention 76 
 
 its cure 79 
 
 Maudsley, Dr. Henry, the counsels of. 74, 82 
 
 Means of cure in nervous affections 251 
 
 Medical journals, their opinions on popular medical edu- 
 cation 271 
 
 views on popular medical instruction 261 
 
 and Surgical Reporter, editorial of on popular medi- 
 cal education 272 
 
 Mental qualities, the, which we inherit 216 
 
 Middle Ages, unfortunate doctrines during the 316 
 
 Mind, purity of, a remedial measure 80 
 
 Montaigne, Michel de, on hereditary resemblance 214 
 
 Moral heritage in relation to individual responsibility 222, 226 
 
 nature, our, is it inheritable? 220 
 
 relations of the sexual life 303 
 
 Mortality of males 17 
 
354 INDEX. 
 
 PAG1 
 
 Mosaic law, sexual relations in the 305 
 
 Mumps, a risk from 34 
 
 Muscular development, its bearing on the hygiene of 
 
 puberty , 24 
 
 Musset, Alfred de, a beautiful poem of., 69 
 
 K. 
 
 National tendency, our, to premature loss of virility 56 
 
 Nature of conception 185 
 
 Natural theology of the fature 229 
 
 Nervous disorders originating in the male generative 
 
 system 233 
 
 By&tent, disorders of, inheritable 209 
 
 prostration, how produced in many cases 243 
 
 Neuralgia, influence of sex on 293 
 
 Neutralizing effect of one parent over the other in in- 
 heritance..., 227 
 
 New Testament, the teachings of the 311 
 
 O. 
 
 Obesity, influence of, on generative power 162 
 
 Occupations, influence of, on puberty , 21 
 
INDEX. 355 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Occupations, influence of, on virility 45 
 
 Offspring, avoidance and limitation of. 189 
 
 Old age, the perils of. 235 
 
 men, disease peculiar to 299 
 
 words to the 39 
 
 Opponents of popular medical instruction 262 
 
 Origen, the fanaticism of 30 
 
 Oxford, weight and height of students of 16 
 
 P. 
 
 Paralysis, partial, the result of generative malformations 234 
 
 inheritable 209 
 
 Paresis, definition of. 243 
 
 Parr, Thomas, how old when married 87 
 
 Passion, what it is..: 27 
 
 Pastilles de serail, a warning against 62 
 
 Peculiar form of inheritance 214 
 
 Perfect human creature, the unity of the sexes in the.... 276 
 
 Phosphoric acid lemonade 169 
 
 Phosphorus, the use of 169 
 
 Physical traits of the male 15 
 
 type of manhood 257 
 
 Physiognomy, the, of the whole body 259 
 
856 INDEX. 
 
 PASS 
 
 Police registration Ill 
 
 Popular medical instruction, the opponents of 262 
 
 Population, a curious law of. 17 
 
 Portalis, Count of, his definition of marriage 132 
 
 Power 167 
 
 maximum of. 181 
 
 Premature loss of virility, a national tendency 56 
 
 Pride, instance of the inheritance of. 223 
 
 Pritchard, Dr., his case of atavism 213 
 
 Prostate gland, enlargement of the 299 
 
 Prostration of the nervous system, the causes of 243 
 
 Prostitution 110 
 
 in the United States Ill 
 
 Us effects on the woman 114 
 
 its consequence to the man 116 
 
 the causes that maintain it 118 
 
 is it a necessary evil ? 120 
 
 how can it be stopped? 122 
 
 shall it be regulated by law? 125 
 
 Puberty 19 
 
 what it is 19 
 
 what hastens it 21 
 
 its hygiene 22 
 
INDEX. 357 
 
 Q. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Question, x national. ... , 193 
 
 Quetelet, the statistics of 16 
 
 Quinine, a mixture containing 81 
 
 B. 
 
 Race, influence of. 228 
 
 Receipt, a useful 91 
 
 Receipts, valuable 81 
 
 Reform, where it should begin 128 
 
 Regimen Sanitatis 55 
 
 Remedies in nervous affections 251 
 
 Reticence, dangers of. 253 
 
 Resemblance of children to parents, why not closer 226 
 
 Rheumatism, influence of sex on 297 
 
 Rondibilis, his advice to Panurge 54 
 
 Rules, practical, on inheritance 211 
 
 8 
 
 Sad subject 71 
 
 Saturninus, the doctrines of 313 
 
 Sayre, Dr. Lewis A., on generative malformations 234 
 
358 INDEX. 
 
 1 
 FAQS 
 
 Schools, directions for 79 
 
 hygiene of 25 
 
 Secret diseases 94 
 
 their effects and frequency 94 
 
 their nature and history 9(1 
 
 their course and consequences 98 
 
 sin of father visited on the children 102 
 
 after disease, how soon to marry 104 
 
 how to prevent disease 106 
 
 personal prevention 107 
 
 Seclusion, theory of 277 
 
 Self-abuse.... 71 
 
 Sex, distinction of 15 
 
 the relation of, to disease 289 
 
 Sexes at will 195 
 
 Sexes, the co-education of. 281 
 
 the unity of, in the perfect human creature 276 
 
 the relation of, in early youth 275 
 
 Serual function, its co-relations 58 
 
 Sex-passion, early 77 
 
 Shakspeare, his knowledge of the human heart 44 
 
 Sight, debility of, how produced 245 
 
 Signs of established virility 32 
 
 Sims, Dr. Marion, his researches on sterility 164 
 
 Sin of the father visited on the children 102 
 
INDEX. 359 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Smith, Abbotts, M.D., etc., his views on popular medical 
 
 instruction 263 
 
 Social evil, the 110 
 
 prostitution in the United States Ill 
 
 its effects on the woman 114 
 
 its consequences to the man 116 
 
 the causes that maintain it 118 
 
 is it a necessary evil? 120 
 
 how can it be stopped? 122 
 
 shall it be regulated bylaw? 125 
 
 union, the theory of 279 
 
 Solitary vice, the 71 
 
 its consequences 73 
 
 its prevention 76 
 
 its cure 79 
 
 Spartan laws on celibacy 63 
 
 Special senses, disorders of 245 
 
 Specific function, man's 17 
 
 Spermatorrhoea 84 
 
 what brings it about 87 
 
 how to prevent it 89 
 
 how to cure it 89 
 
 Stature of male and female infants compared 15 
 
 Sterility in man 1C3 
 
 woman's period of 190 
 
360 INDEX. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Stone in the bladder, its frequency 295 
 
 Storer, Dr., his views on popular medical instruction 266 
 
 St Vitus' dance, the influence of sex on 292 
 
 Superstition, a curious 155 
 
 Symmetry, the details of 257 
 
 Syphilis, history of. 97 
 
 of the nervous system 239 
 
 " Syphilophobia" 101 
 
 T. 
 
 Tabes dorsalis, what it is 240 
 
 Talent the offspring of talent 216 
 
 Taylor, Jeremy, on marital indulgence 175 
 
 Temperament, its influence on puberty 21 
 
 Theft, a hereditary crime often 223 
 
 Thought and inclinations hereditable 221 
 
 Thury's, Prof., law on production of sex 196 
 
 Tobacco, a consequence of the excessive use of. 57 
 
 Traits, physical, of the male 15 
 
 Transmission, laws of. 103 
 
 Type of manhood, the physical. .. 257 
 
 Typhoid fever, influence of sex on 299 
 
INDEX. 3G1 
 U. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Unsoundness of mind, often inherited 217 
 
 V. 
 
 Virginity, tests of 149 
 
 Virility 83 
 
 signs of its establishment S3 
 
 its hygiene 35 
 
 examples of prolonged 37 
 
 its decay 39 
 
 causes that hasten its loss 41 
 
 diseases which shorten it 43 
 
 effects of occupations and exercises 45 
 
 how to retain it in age 46 
 
 the food and drinks which strengthen it 46 
 
 the food and drinks which weaken it 49 
 
 effects of drugs 51 
 
 our national tendency to the premature loss of 56 
 
 Virtuous habits, can they be transmitted ? 224 
 
 W. 
 
 Ware, Prof. John, his valuable work 268 
 
 Warnings, meaning of the Biblical, in relation to the sexes 310 
 
362 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Wasting, a cause of. 240 
 
 Watson, Prof. Thomas, on the cause of epilepsy 242 
 
 Weight of male and female infants compared 15 
 
 Wife, choice of a 137 
 
 Winn, Dr. J. M., his rules on inheritance 211 
 
 Why children do not more closely resemble parents 226 
 
 Woman's liability to disease as compared with man's 219 
 
 Words to the old..., 39 
 
 -Y 
 
 Youatt, the axioms of, on inheritance 205 
 
 Young, words to the 41 
 
 Xouth, the physical characteristics of. 19 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 THE publishers take pleasure in presenting 
 the following testimonials to the practical value 
 and the moral tone of this work : 
 
 FROM THE REV. JOHN TODD, D.D., 
 
 Author of " The Student's Manual," " Index 
 Rerum," etc. 
 
 GEO. H. NAPHKYS, M. D. 
 
 DEAR SIR : I am surprised at the extent and 
 accuracy of your reading; the judiciousness of 
 your positions and results ; the clear, unequi- 
 vocal, and yet delicate and appropriate language 
 25 ' (v) 
 
Vi TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 used; and the amount of valuable information 
 conveyed. It is comparatively a new, but very 
 important field, and you have done well. The 
 book cannot fail, I think, to do good great 
 good if rightly heeded. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 JNO. TODD. 
 
 PITTSFIKLD, MASS., Dec. 26, 1870. 
 
 FROM BISHOP LEVI SCOTT, D.D., 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 "I partake largely of the favorable opinion 
 of Dr. Todd, and wish your work great success." 
 
 FROM THE REY. H. CLAY TRTJMBULL, 
 
 Missionary Secretary for New England of the 
 
 American S. S. Union. 
 DR. NAPHEYS 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND : You certainly have a very 
 rare power of writing from a scientific stand- 
 
TESTIMONIALS. vii 
 
 point, with extreme plainness and entire purity, 
 of the most delicate matters that concern us all. 
 I, who know you, accept this as added evidence 
 that "to the pure all things are pure;" and I am 
 indeed glad that you were called to the mission 
 you have performed so well. 
 
 Your new work, on " THE TRANSMISSION OP 
 LIFE," is one that every boy, and every man, 
 every bachelor, parent, or teacher, should have 
 and read, and be grateful for. I have given 
 sufficient study to the ways and needs of boys 
 and young men, to appreciate perhaps more 
 fully than most, the importance of your theme. 
 I have been much instructed by your writings, 
 and I desire others to be benefited thereby. 
 
 Youi seachiags are based on the word of God, 
 and the nature of man; they tend to build 
 up man into the lost image of God, and to re- 
 store his body to its primitive beauty and purity, 
 as the temple of the Holy Ghost. I wish I could 
 say what would give your work the very widest 
 
Vlii TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 circulation, and secure to your views the most 
 general adoption. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 H. CLAY TRUMBULL. 
 HARTFORD, CT., Feb. 8, 1871. 
 
 FROM THE RT. REV. THOMAS MARCH 
 CLARK, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Rhode Island. 
 GEO. H. NAPHEYS, M. D. 
 
 DEAR SIR : I have read your work entitled 
 "THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE," and I do not 
 hesitate to say that I regard it as a most timely 
 and valuable treatise on an important and deli- 
 cate subject. I do not see a line to which the 
 most fastidious could object, and I believe that 
 its general circulation among the young would 
 avert a vast amount of misery and sin. 
 Very truly yours, 
 THOMAS M. 
 , R I., March 16, 1871. 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM BISHOP T. A. MORRIS, D.D., 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 "The subject of this work is one of intense 
 interest, and the manner of treating it is very 
 proper. Both will command public attention 
 and approval. May the book find a hearty 
 welcome among all the wise and good." 
 
 FROM THE REV. HORACE BUSHNELL, D.D., 
 
 Hartford, Connecticut. 
 DR. NAPHEYS 
 
 DEAR SIR: I have read your book with 
 great satisfaction. I see it to be a work im- 
 mensely wanted, and think it will do much 
 good. The subject, as related to family life and 
 the condition of posterity, is a really awful one, 
 and ought to be just as much more awful to 
 
X TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 young men, as it more deeply concerns theii 
 welfare. Give it as great circulation as you 
 
 can. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 HORACE BTJSHNELL. 
 
 FROM THE REV. LEONARD BACON, D.D. 
 
 New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 "I think you have treated very judiciously a 
 difficult subject. My belief that some such 
 work may be useful is derived from the fact 
 that the newspapers in all parts of the country 
 overflow with advertisements addressed to the 
 ignorance, the fears, and the guilt of trans- 
 gressors. If your book can diminish the sale of 
 the nostrums offered in those advertisements 
 still more, if it can put any on their guard 
 against the vices which make such advertise- 
 ments worth paying for, you will have done a 
 good work." 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM THE REV. HENRY A. NELSON, D.D., 
 
 Professor of Systematic and Pastoral Theology, 
 Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 " You have treated an important subject with, 
 great wisdom and fidelity. I could wish every 
 young person to receive early the valuable 
 shall I not say necessary ? instruction which it 
 contains." 
 
 FROM PROF. WILLIAM G. WILLIAMS, 
 
 Leavenworth, Kansas. 
 
 " The spirit of candor and delicacy as well as 
 the high moral tone and profound reverence for 
 the sacred mysteries both of our physical organi- 
 zation and of the teachings of the Bible, every- 
 where apparent in the work, are worthy of all 
 praise. Not less remarkable are the ability, 
 learning, and professional skill of the author 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 displayed in the treatment of the various topics 
 discussed." 
 
 FROM THE KEY. C. P. SHELDON, D.D., 
 
 President of the New York Baptist Convention^ 
 
 Pastor of the Fifth Baptist Church^ 
 
 Troy, N. Y. 
 
 "I have read attentively the advance sheets 
 of the work by DR. NAPHEYS, entitled 'THE 
 TRANSMISSION OF LIFE.' The subjects of which 
 it treats are of great importance ; and I am 
 much pleased with the careful, candid, and able 
 manner in which DR. NAPHEYS discusses them. 
 The public need just such information, and in 
 this work it is so imparted, that it cannot but 
 be healthful and salutary. In moral and reli- 
 gious tone it is unexceptionable. I earnestly 
 recommend its publication and circulation." 
 
TESTIMONIALS. xiil 
 
 FROM NOAH PORTER, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 President of Tale College. 
 
 DR. GEO. H. NAPHEYS 
 
 DEAR SIR : I thank you for a copy of youf 
 work on " THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE." There 
 is in it much valuable information, carefully con- 
 sidered and industriously collected. The topics 
 of greatest delicacy are treated with all pos- 
 sible refinement, while the much-needed warn- 
 ings concerning the offences against nature, which 
 are practised in ignorance by many, and with 
 shamelessness by others, are faithfully adminis- 
 tered. Very respectfully, 
 
 N. PORTER. 
 
 FROM DR. S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE, 
 
 Author of the "Dictionary of Authors." 
 GEO. H. NAPHEYS, M. D. 
 
 DEAR SIR: I have read through your work 
 on "THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE," and think it 
 
XlV TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 calculated to be extensively useful. The subjects 
 discussed are of great importance; the literary 
 style is excellent terse, vigorous, and perspic- 
 uous; the philanthropic zeal evinced is highly 
 creditable to your heart; and the moral and reli- 
 gious spirit of the work is such as to give me a 
 profound respect for the writer. The tendency of 
 the book is good, and good only. It makes vice 
 abhorrent, and virtue cheaply purchased by all 
 the wholesome restraints which it imposes. 
 I am, dear sir, very faithfully yours, 
 
 S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE. 
 PHILAOBLPHIA, March 10, 1871. 
 
 FROM THE KEY. ABNER JACKSON, 
 D.D.,LL.D., 
 
 President of Trinity College, Hartford, Ct, 
 "I have found your volume both interesting 
 and instructive. It contains a large amount of 
 useful information and suggestion in regard to 
 
TESTIMONIALS. XV 
 
 human welfare and duty. Matters of great de- 
 licacy, but of great importance in their bearings 
 on health and happiness, are here treated of in a 
 manner to instruct and guide, without shocking, 
 or giving offence. The wide circulation of this 
 work cannot fail to do good." 
 
 FROM REV. GEORGE W. SAMSON, D.D., 
 
 President of Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 
 DR. GEORGE H. NAPHEYS 
 
 MY DEAR SIR: I have read your work, "THE 
 TRANSMISSION OF LIFE," with care, as has my son, 
 who is a practising physician. I regard it as 
 scholarly in its discussion, chaste in its expres- 
 sion, and unobjectionable in every respect. 1 
 cannot but commend your worthy effort in this 
 field, where faithful instruction is so needed. 
 I am, truly, 
 
 Your friend and serv't, 
 
 GEO. W. SAMSON. 
 
XVl TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM KEY. WM. A, STEARNS, D. D., LL. D., 
 
 President of Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. 
 
 DR. GEORGE H. NAPHEYS 
 
 MY DEAR SIR: I have read the advanced 
 sheets of your work entitled " THE TRANSMISSION 
 OF LIFE.'' It is a difficult subject, which you have 
 treated with propriety and success. The informa- 
 tion which you give is of the greatest importance 
 to the community, and especially to young men; 
 and it is a thousand times better that they receive 
 it from a work like yours, than be left to obtain 
 it from sources of doubtful influence, or from bit- 
 ter experience. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your ob't serv't, 
 
 W. A. STEARNS. 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM THE REV. SANSOM TALBOT, D.D., 
 
 President of Denison University, Granville, Ohio. 
 " I have read carefully the advance sheets of 
 1 THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE,' and most heartily 
 join in recommending its publication. The 
 candor and learning of the author are very 
 manifest; the information imparted is just that 
 which the public most need, and the moral 
 tone of the work is altogether pure and elevat* 
 ing." 
 
 FROM THE REY. W. T. STOTT, 
 
 Acting President of Franklin College, Franklin, 
 
 Indiana. 
 
 "Having examined DR. NAPHEYS' 'TRANSMIS- 
 SION OF LIFE,' I cheerfully recommend it. There 
 is certainly great need of such information on 
 the subjects treated, and I know no author who 
 has succeeded so well in combining information 
 with safe advice." 
 
XViii TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM THE KEY. J. AYERY SHEPHERD, D.D., 
 
 Head Master of St. Clement's Hall, Ellicott City, Md. 
 "I have examined DR. NAPHEYS' 'TRANSMIS- 
 SION OF LIFE' with a good deal of care. The 
 subjects treated of are not merely of great in- 
 terest, they are of vital importance. But the mis- 
 fortune is that many books, in discussing these 
 things, are calculated to do harm, rather than 
 good. My decided impression is that this work 
 will do good" 
 
 FROM THE REY. CYRUS NTJTT, D.D., 
 
 President of Indiana State University. 
 11 1 know of no work, recently issued from the 
 press, calculated to dp so much good as ' THE 
 TRANSMISSION OF LIFE.' It contains informa- 
 tion of the utmost importance to the individual 
 and the race, and should have a wide circula 
 tion." 
 
TESTIMONIALS. XlX 
 
 FROM ANDREW D. WHITE, LL.D., 
 
 President of Cornell University. 
 GEO- H. NAPHEYS, M. D. 
 
 DEAR SIB : Accept my thanks for the copy of 
 your work, "THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE." 
 
 Your thoughtful and delicate presentation of 
 the subject seems to me to merit great praise. 
 That your discussion will do much good I firmly 
 believe. 
 
 I am, sir, very truly yours, 
 
 AND. D. WHITE. 
 
 PRESIDENT'S ROOMS, ITHACA, N. T., 
 April 20, 1871. 
 
 FROM PROF. JOHN S. HART, LL.D., 
 
 Trenton, N. J. 
 GEO. H. XAPHEYS, M. D. 
 
 DEAR SIR : The examination I have given 
 " THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE" has impressed me 
 with the care and discretion that you have 
 in the treatment of a very difficult subject. 
 I am very truly yours, 
 
 JOHN S. HART. 
 
XX TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM PROF. J. ORDRONAUX, LL.D., M.D. 
 
 Professor of Physiology ', Pathology, and Medical 
 
 Jurisprudence, Columbian College, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 "The subject treated of in 'THE TRANSMIS- 
 SION OF LIFE' is certainly one of increasing im- 
 portance at this day, from the popular degrada- 
 tion it has undergone at the hands of unprin- 
 cipled writers. It was due, therefore, to the cause 
 of science, no less than morality, that some com- 
 petent and honorable physician should reclaim 
 it from the slough of pollution into which it 
 had been dragged. 
 
 "Your work bears the impress of religious 
 and scientific truth." 
 
 FROM PROF. HARVEY L. BYRD, M. D., 
 
 Professor of Obstetrics in the Medical Department 
 of Washington University, Baltimore, Maryland. 
 MY DEAR DOCTOR : You have done your work 
 well. I am one of those who believe the lay- 
 
TESTIMONIALS. XXl 
 
 members of every intelligent community should 
 be educated in a general knowledge of the laws 
 of life, not only for the good of the race, but, if 
 you please, for the good of our profession also. 
 Hence I indorse your efforts in this direction. 
 I am, with high esteem, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 HARYEY L. BYRD. 
 
 FROM JOHN H. GRISCOM, M.D., 
 
 New York City. 
 
 " I have devoted considerable time to the pe- 
 rusal of ' THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE.' Its 
 numerous and important subjects have been no- 
 where, to my knowledge, as intelligently and 
 effectively treated. The sanitary advice, so well 
 inculcated, should be learned by every individ- 
 ual, especially by parents for the safety of their 
 children." 
 
XXll TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM THE PHILADELPHIA MEDIC ALAND 
 SURGICAL REPORTER, Feb. 4, 1871. 
 
 " This book is intended to meet a want which, 
 during the last year, has been urgently expressed 
 by several medical and literary journals in this 
 country and England, namely, to place before 
 the public, in popular yet irreproachable lan- 
 guage, what information regarding the hygiene, 
 nature, uses, and abuses of the procreative func- 
 tion in the male, is necessary to protect the 
 individual from the evil consequences of his 
 own folly or ignorance. It will readily be con- 
 ceived that to discuss such topics clearly, posi- 
 tively, and with benefit to the lay reader, 
 requires no ordinary tact ; and we must say that 
 the author has succeeded beyond all our expec- 
 tations. No one can possibly be harmed by 
 perusing his pages, and none but will be in- 
 structed and benefited. 
 
 " The work is characterized throughout by 
 sound scientific views, and indicates extensive 
 and careful reading." 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM THE AMERICAN LITERARY 
 GAZETTE, 
 
 Philadelphia, March 15, 1871. 
 " We feared on taking up this work to find it 
 another of those productions of which there 
 have been enough, either too technical to be 
 intelligible to the general reader, or filled with 
 vague platitudes. Such, however, is far from 
 being the case. It treats in popular and forcible 
 language the medical aspects of some of the 
 most flagrant vices of modern life, born of igno- 
 rance of physiological laws. As a work on the 
 preservation of individual health by the special 
 prevention of those disorders peculiar to the 
 male sex, it is filled with most valuable sug- 
 gestions. Many eminent educators testify to its 
 usefulness and elevated moral tone. Those who 
 are acquainted with the author's 'Physical Lil'e 
 of Woman' will find this new book fully equal 
 to that very popular and extraordinarily suc- 
 cessful work, to which it may be said to form a 
 
XXlV TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 sequel, being addressed to the other sex. "We 
 are glad to see that able physicians are coming 
 forward to give to the public information on 
 subjects of such interest to every reading man. 
 
 "The appearance of this work, by a physi- 
 cian and writer so well and favorably known as 
 Dr. Napheys, and indorsed by eminent members 
 of the regular profession, educators, and divines, 
 is a sign of the decadence of the exclusive reign 
 of quackery in an important branch of personal 
 hygiene." 
 
 FROM THE NEW YORK INDEPENDENT, 
 
 March 30, 1871. 
 
 "'THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE' treats of an 
 important and difficult subject with perfect deli- 
 cacy of thought and expression, and its counsels 
 are eminently sound and judicious. It is, we 
 believe, calculated to do great good." 
 
TESTIMONIALS. XXV 
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN SECRETARY, 
 Hartford, March 15, 1871. 
 
 "Dr. Napheys, author of 'The Physical Life 
 of Woman,' has written a book on ' the nature 
 and hygiene of the masculine function.' It is a 
 delicate topic, but one upon which information, 
 properly communicated, is immensely needed 
 by multitudes. Dr. Napheys has treated it with 
 excellent discretion, and his book comes highly 
 recommended by some of the best and wisest 
 men among us. Its perusal may save thousand 
 of persons from untold evils." 
 
 FROM THE COLLEGE COURANT, 
 
 New Haven, Conn., April 8, 1871. 
 " The author of ' The Physical Life of Wo- 
 man' has even surpassed that splendid treatise 
 by the masterpiece before us. He was led to 
 commence the work through the belief, formed 
 after an extensive practice in a large city, that 
 
XXVI TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 the present amount of suffering and misery 
 would be greatly lessened if young men and 
 those having the care of boys understood clearly 
 the nature and hygiene of their sex. The 
 papers of to-day are full of the advertisements 
 of quack doctors and quack medicines, so 
 worded as to excite the fears and gain the con- 
 fidence of the hundreds of sufferers, who endure 
 untold misery in secret rather than consult a 
 physician by whom they are known. Once in 
 the hands of these impostors, they may rest 
 assured that they will not escape until their 
 money or their lives are gone. The evils which 
 result to one and all from the violation of the 
 laws of this function, which are sometimes re- 
 ferred to by parents or teachers, but generally 
 in a vague and blind manner, Dr. Napheys has 
 endeavored to treat of in language which can be 
 readily understood, and to which the most re- 
 fined cannot object. 
 
 " This work ought to be in every one's library, 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 in every family throughout the country. No 
 young man should be without a copy of it. It 
 has no equal" 
 
 FROM THE AGE, 
 Philadelphia, April 24, 1871. 
 "These are topics of vast importance, which 
 are better suited for private reading than for 
 public discussion on the platform, or in the 
 columns of the newspaper. A knowledge of 
 them, however, is essential to health and happi- 
 ness. This knowledge a physician of our city, 
 of high character and standing, has put within 
 every one's reach. It is a book for all who are 
 of age to understand it. Parents will find in it 
 wise cautions, and men, young and old, may 
 acquire from it precise knowledge of the physi- 
 ology of the most important natural functioLs. 
 In language, moral tone, and purpose, the bcHc 
 is unexceptionable." 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN RADICAL, 
 
 PittsbKrg and New York, May 13, 1871. 
 "This eminently practical work supplies a want 
 hitherto felt by the major part of the human 
 family. Ignorance in regard to the care and use 
 of the physical functions in man has resulted in 
 untold sufferings, deranging and perverting the 
 system. Formerly there was no alternative but 
 to submit; now, with the aid of this excellent 
 manual, every man of ordinary intelligence will 
 know how to take care of himself; and the hy- 
 gienic advice imparted in its pages, if put into 
 practical use, will be of the greatest benefit to 
 the race. It is a book that should be read. 
 Every man and woman, too, will be the better 
 for it." 
 
 FROM THE LUTHERAN OBSERVER, 
 
 Philadelphia, May 5, 1871. 
 "The subject of this book is at once difficult, 
 delicate, and dangerous; and Dr. Napheys has 
 
TESTIMONIALS. XX& 
 
 been singularly successful in treating it in a way 
 to subserve the public health and public morals. 
 It is both scientific and practical. Its style is 
 clear and plain, but does not offend the most re- 
 fined taste. The information it contains is of 
 vital importance to all, but especially to young 
 men, who too often obtain what information they 
 have on the subject from- the demoralizing and 
 licentious publications of charlatans. The fear- 
 ful and increasing prevalence of certain vices 
 among the young, to which all physicians bear 
 witness, requires that parents and teachers should 
 possess the knowledge which Dr. Napheys' book 
 imparts, and should conscientiously consider 
 their duties in view of the perils which are 
 therein revealed." 
 
TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 FROM THE METHODIST, 
 New York, May 27, 1871. 
 
 " * THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE,' by Dr. George 
 H. Napheys, is a thorough treatise on the most 
 important physical function. It furnishes infor- 
 mation on a subject on which correct information 
 is much needed, which deeply concerns all men 
 and women and their children." 
 
 FROM THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, 
 
 Nashville, June 3, 1871. 
 
 " The delicate and difficult subject is handled 
 with great skill, prudence, and fidelity. The 
 appalling prevalence of licentiousness in all its 
 forms in our country shows that the question 
 must no longer be allowed to rest. The reticence 
 and fastidiousness which have characterized the 
 pulpit, the press, the lecture-room, etc., must 
 give way to earnest, well-directed efforts to stop 
 the plague, which is sapping the foundations ot 
 society. 
 
TESTIMONIALS. XXXl 
 
 "We call earnestly upon parents, pastors, and 
 teachers to watch, over the youth committed to 
 their care with the utmost vigilance, so as to 
 save them from the first transgression and in 
 order to this, you would do well to procure this 
 voiume and give it a serious and careful perusal." 
 
 FROM THE PACIFIC CHURCHMAN, 
 
 San Francisco, May 18, 1871. 
 "This is a book for honest, God-fearing men 
 and women. Its subject is one of the most im- 
 portant and sacred in the world, and is treated 
 with the highest scientific and professional 
 ability ; and, what is more important, is written 
 from a Christian stand-point. It is one of the 
 good signs of the times that such matters are 
 written upon bj honest, able hands, and the field 
 not abandoned to quacks. Every young married 
 couple should possess and read it." 
 
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