The effectual Prevention of Conception is a subject in which everybody is interested. No class of mankind in civilized life desires an unlimited number of offspring; yet Nature has made prevention a somewhat difficult task. Persons of energy and resolution can, however, fully accomplish their object in this respect if they will but discard the notion that the delights of sexual intercourse are marred by the withdrawal of the male organ just before the discharge of Semen takes place. This plan injures neither party, nor does it really diminish the pleasurable sensations of the connection. If you once form the habit of withdrawal, you will find it to be a far more desirable and satisfactory mode than it at first appears. I know that the plan is discouraged by many physicians, and has been pronounced a kind of Onanism on the part of the male; but it is not so. If properly performed, the act of coition is as pleasurable, as healthy and as complete as it can be when the Semen is fully injected. The cleanliness of this practice is also a great desideratim, as females of any degree of refinement can understand. I would then suggest to married people the following rule: Always carry to bed a clean napkin, which is to be kept in the hand of the male during the nuptial act. It will then be a very easy matter to place this napkin in a proper position to receive the Semen on withdrawal, at the instant it would otherwise be injected into the body of the female. If you do it at the proper moment, no pleasure is lost to either party; and habit will soon make you expert in this respect. This is the most certain mode of preventing conception that can be adopted, but as it cannot be carried out except by the prompt action of the husband, other plans are sometimes necessary to give the wife confidence, and make her feel sure of success. These we will proceed to explain as minutely as possible.

The judicious use of an ordinary female syringe, with cold water alone, or a weak solution of white vitriol or other stringent in cold water, immediately after coition, will in most cases prevent conception. The syringe must be a large one, if made of metal, and should be filled several times, and its contents injected as far up as possible. The India-rubber syringe has of late years nearly superseded metal ones, and is beautifully adapted to the business of preventing conception. By the use of this article a female may inject as much fluid as she pleases, through an elastic tube, quite as far up into her person as is necessary. The mixture should be prepared beforehand, and, with the syringe, kept by her bed-side, as success often depends upon promptness in using it. If used immediately, with a weak solution, as hereinafter stated, there is very little danger but that a woman may keep herself safe from child-bearing as long as she pleases. Solutions of Alum, Sulphate of Zinc, Chloride of Zinc, Sulphate of Iron, &c., will kill the animalculÆ of the Semen, if injected with sufficient force and profuseness. If the woman rises instantly and performs the duty, she will probably be successful. If solutions are used in preference to pure cold water, it is better to use water at last as a rinsing process. The use of the syringe, so far from injuring the female, keeps the part clean and healthy, and tends to promote general good health. In commencing this practice, you should first accustom yourself to the use of cold water by degrees. Use but little at first, and let it not be too cold. Increase the quantity and the coldness gradually, until at last the feeling will be refreshing and agreeable. India-rubber syringes can be purchased at almost any respectable drug-store in New York, at from two to three dollars. We can furnish the best article to our customers for three dollars. It is an instrument that every family should keep in the house to be used in case of sickness, if for no other purpose.

Either of the following lotions may be used, as we have explained, in preventing conception. Sulphate of Iron is the favorite article which our quack doctors recommend. They usually charge five dollars for an ounce paper of it, including directions for use; whereas the cost in New York, at a drug-store, is less than fifty cents a pound.

Lotions.—1. Dissolve half an ounce, or more, of pulverized Alum in two quarts of rain-water. If you can get Sulphate of Zinc, put in that with the Alum, in equal quantities, say a quarter of an ounce each.

2. Two drams (quarter of an ounce) Sulphate of Zinc in two quarts of soft water. Or, one-third of an ounce will perhaps do better, if used alone.

3. Chloride of Zinc, (liquid,) half a fluid ounce to two quarts of water. You can buy an ounce phial full, and use half at a time, or a two or four ounce phial, and use in proportion. If you prefer to make the lotion stronger, it will do no harm.

4. Take one and a half to two ounces Sulphate of Iron and mix it with two quarts of soft water. This is a mixture which any New York quack will charge you from three to five dollars for, and will pretend it is a great and wonderful secret.

Another plan which the wife may adopt for the prevention of conception is as follows: Procure a fine sponge at a drug-store, and cut off a piece of it about the size of a walnut; then make a fine silk string by twisting together some threads of sewing silk; tie one end of the string to the piece of sponge; wet the sponge in a weak solution of sulphate of iron, or of any of the solutions before mentioned as fatal to the animalculÆ of the Semen. Before connection, insert the piece of sponge far up into your person. You can place it entirely out of the way by the use of a smooth stick of the proper size and shape. The string will hang out, but will be no obstacle. After the act is over, you withdraw the sponge, and if you have a syringe, use that also. This method is pronounced by some physicians to be a sure one, and the only objection to it is that it is apt to mar the pleasure experienced by the wife. Some of our quack doctors charge five dollars for this information. It is true, they furnish a certain mysterious powder to make a mixture of in which to wet the sponge used; but the powder is nothing more than sulphate of iron, or some astringent similar to those named by us.

Coverings for the Penis, which are used in Europe to avoid contracting sexual diseases from prostitutes, must necessarily prevent conception. With one of these coverings (which are now made beautifully with a preparation of India-rubber) a man may be certain that he will never impregnate his wife. But the enjoyment of the nuptial act is not so complete as a naked Penis affords, hence the covering, or sheath, is not very popular. The cost of the best article is about three dollars a dozen.

Some men tie up the scrotum to prevent a discharge of Semen, and thus hope to avoid impregnating the female; but this method is exceedingly hurtful, as it forces the discharge into the bladder, from whence it passes off with the urine. Such a practice will in a short time so derange the procreative organs as to send all the Semen into the bladder as fast as it generates, and the effect on health will be a wasting away of vitality in the same manner as if the patient constantly practiced self-pollution.

I have thus given the only safe methods of preventing conception that are known. The first one—the withdrawal—is an art to be acquired by the husband. It is a plan which every person of good breeding should adopt for its cleanliness alone, if for no other reason. Once habituated to this precaution while enjoying the nuptial bed, you will wonder how rational beings can pursue a different course. It is indeed a refinement of social intercourse—a triumph of mind which thus controls even the laws and instincts of our nature!