The sexual organs of man and woman are wonderfully adapted to each other, and have a perfect power of mutual attraction. Nature sacrifices every thing to reproduction: it is thus that we enjoy all strength, vigor and beauty, so as to excite us to contribute to the procreation of our species; and thus that such exquisite pleasure is associated with the copulative act. It is for this reason also that we experience so many sweet illusions in the brilliant season of our amours, and that we give way to others when our reproductive powers have failed. In a word, Nature always regards the species, and never the individual; and whatever we may say or think of our superiority over inferior animals, we cannot conceal from ourselves the fact that, like the brutes, we are influenced in our unions by the pleasure of sexual intercourse. It is useless to deny that the majority of marriages which are apparently based on the sentiment called love, are nothing more than the result of an involuntary obedience to the imperious voice of our sexual organs. A man admires the graceful figure, the voluptuous form, and the general female graces of a woman, and he at once desires to possess her person. This induces him to cultivate her acquaintance, and unless he finds something in her disposition positively disagreeable, ten to one he will offer her marriage. Who will deny that sexual desire was the moving cause of this connection? A woman meets a man of fine figure, noble gait and manner, broad chest, and elevated head, furnished with a luxuriant growth of hair. His eyes are full of fire, and he is amiable, gallant and polite. She at once feels a thrilling desire to become better acquainted with him. What is that but a sexual yearning? Thus far, certainly, no sentimental collusion can have occurred between them.

The philosophy of sexual desires has been frequently discussed by learned men, and interesting experiments have been made to test whether the attraction of the two sexes was not precisely the same in human beings as in the minor animals. These tests proved that our animal natures are not directed altogether by the intellect. We see young persons of opposite sex mutually caress and embrace each other by some mysterious influence, even before they are of sufficient age to experience sexual desires. This mutual attraction is attributed by some people to Animal Magnetism—the male being the positive, and the female the negative principle. We, however, believe it to be an instinctive sympathy; for experiments have been made which prove that the Generative Organs of either sex exercise a certain mysterious influence one upon the other. A French physiological writer says that two vigorous young persons were put in a semi-insensible state by the use of certain drugs. Being stripped and their private parts placed slightly in contact, (their heads being fully covered,) this slight touch instantly excited the sexual feeling. This experiment is reported in detail, and we do not doubt that it was bona-fide. The peculiar instinctive attraction in this case was so delicate that it acted almost like electricity to the male organ. Besides this instinctive attraction, the nervous sensibility is so constituted as to aid in the union of the sexes. In the present state of society, however, young people do not usually wait the slow process of Nature’s teachings, but gain their knowledge by a precocious association or under the instruction of their seniors. The sexual impulse, under such circumstances, is forced and unnatural, and is frequently the parent of incurable disease.

Coition, or sexual union, may be compared to a fit of epilepsy, or to an electrical shock. It entirely engages both the mind and the body; we neither hear nor see, but the soul is entirely absorbed in the act. When a man is performing this act, if his thoughts wander, the product will be feeble, and if his wife become pregnant the offspring will be inferior. This fact is applied to the offspring of great geniuses, who are supposed to be thinking of something else when they beget their children, and hence their descendants are often much below them in intellect. In further confirmation of this theory, history informs us that some of the greatest men the world ever saw were bastards—children begotten with vigor, and when the minds of the parents are supposed to have been absorbed in the one idea of a loving sexual embrace. Aristotle believed that the causes of deformed children, of monstrosities, and of all defective offspring, were in consequence of imperfect connections, or acts of generation when the minds of the parents were depressed by passion, anxiety, trouble, or any difficult or abstract matters.

Persons of moderate and regular habits, with strong and sound constitutions, beget healthful infants; while those whose habits are excessively mental, generally produce feeble offspring, though their constitutions and general health may be good.

Another cause of feeble children is the abuse of the function of generation by too frequent intercourse. In such cases the semen is thin and watery, being too suddenly secreted. Harvey says that to produce vigorous offspring, the spermatic fluid ought to remain two or three days in its receptacles for its thinner parts to become absorbed, when more vitality will be imparted to it, and hence the more vigorous will be the offspring.

It will be thus seen that the proper union of the sexes is at that moment when the mind and body are at rest, and when both parties are in a mood for mutual caresses. Certain moral and intellectual perceptions undoubtedly govern their feelings under such circumstances, and aid in producing that intense pleasurable feeling which a healthy and proper connection will always promote.

As to the times when sexual union should be avoided, I would say that during five or six days after the monthly turn of the female commences, it is absolutely unhealthy to both. Married men of cleanly habits will religiously observe the Jewish law in this respect, and wait seven days. It was formerly thought that connection with a female during the menstrual flow, was the origin of a certain sexual disease called gonorrhoea; but such is not the fact. Connection during that period is, however, unnatural, hurtful, and often painful to the female. Neither should there be any intimacy of this kind when the female is troubled with fluor albus, or whites, as then there is danger that the male may contract gonorrhoea. When a girl appoints her wedding day, she should reckon as near as possible a time when she will be fully over her monthly turn. If subject to fluor albus, she should first seek the most efficient means of cure; and if possible, a cure should be effected before she marries. Girls subject to this complaint seldom enjoy the constant sexual intercourse incident to married life. Medical science can manage this disease so easily and effectually by the aid of the Truss, or Abdominal Supporter, that there is no excuse for neglecting it. Unless the strictest cleanliness is practiced by the wife while she has the whites, she may give her husband the disease called gonorrhoea. She should never have any connection with him in the morning until she has risen and washed the part thoroughly. Suspicious men have often believed their wives unfaithful because they have contracted gonorrhoea from the whites. But the fact is well known to medical men that that alone is the original cause of the disease.

In Persia, and indeed in most Mahomedan countries where a plurality of wives is allowed, it is considered indecent to approach a woman for sexual intercourse during pregnancy, or when she is suckling her child. This custom is highly commendable, and if observed among Christians it would tend to promote the health of both the mother and her offspring, for Nature never intended that the nuptial act should be performed solely for the gratification of our passions. Nevertheless, I do not say that a moderate indulgence during pregnancy would be hurtful to a robust woman; though to a weak and nervous one it surely is. But after the child is born, sexual intercourse should cease until it is weaned, to insure its health. Many sucking children die in consequence of the sexual indulgences of their parents, and none are wholly unaffected thereby.