MARITAL EXCESSES AND PREVENTION OF CONCEPTION.

In a previous chapter, the physiology of conception was explained, and it was shown to be an organic function, independent of and remote from the sexual act, and over which the parties to the act have no control. From this scientific statement of the actual fact, it becomes at once apparent that conception or pregnancy may result without natural sexual congress, by simply injecting the sperm of the male, by means of a uterine syringe, into the womb of the female, while she is in a state of unconsciousness. It is also quite probable that a criminal conspiracy of this nature could be carried out, without any violation to the delicate anatomy that is involved in the natural process; a detailed account of all the probabilities which the ingenuity of a scientifically-trained mind could devise, belongs more properly to the department of medical jurisprudence. It is, however, of sufficient general importance that the reader should have at least an idea of the door that has been unlocked through physiological researches.

What we are at present endeavoring to make clear is, the great distinction and difference between coition and fecundation or conception; while one is but the result of the natural instinct aroused by the senses, the other reaches out into the realm of the Creator. When man undertakes to destroy the product of conception, he has interfered with the prerogative of God and is guilty of murder.

The question may now naturally arise in the minds of pure and morally-disposed persons, whether there is any time, without doing violence to God’s law, that the children of men have the moral right to control, or regulate, the procreation of the human race? If I answer the question in the affirmative, I will then proceed to inquire into the ways and means to that end, and also into the pernicious methods that are employed, to accomplish this result.

It is true, that the Divine command was to be fruitful and multiply, but before this command was given, man was a free agent and a reasoning being, which implies that he is after all to be the judge as to the degree in which this command is to be carried out. That is, that there are mitigating and qualifying circumstances, which man has not only a right to consider, but which he is expected to take into account in propagating the species, by virtue of his reasoning faculties.

If this command were absolute and universal, chaste celibacy would be a cardinal sin, yet it has always been held by the canons of spiritual growth and morality, to be a Divine virtue, and even the loving Jesus knew not woman, because the forces that are thus expended will exert their power in other directions and towards developing powers of a higher order.

I believe that a moral code, which is too exacting to be observed by the average person, fails to accomplish the restraint or reform that is desired, so that, after all, it becomes essential to lay down such rules as the average men or women can follow as guides for their actions. A reformer, who starts out with the broad declaration that it is immoral to take human life, and a murderous act to destroy a half-formed human being in its mother’s womb, and that it is equally murderous to prevent the recent products of the sexual act from becoming a viable being, fails to make the impression he desires. The first half of the proposition neutralizes the second of its sacred essence, in placing on the same level the organic function of conception and the animal function of the sexual act.

This view is so manifestly absurd to the person of even ordinary perception, that I feel assured, that it would neither lessen feticide nor sexual excess.

Spermatozoa on the one hand, and the ova of the female on the other, are, even in the natural and uninterrupted course of nature, destined for destruction, for whenever the female menstruates, these ova are discharged, and whenever the male copulates, hundreds of spermatozoa are found swimming in the spermatic fluid, which in case there be no ripened ovum are nothing more than so much waste secretion. Both are a means to an end, and that end is the reproduction of the species. It appears to me a flight of fancy, from the sublime to the ridiculous, to assign to the sexual act the same importance as to the passive function of conception, and I believe that doctrines of this nature lack not only the least scientific support, but weaken any argument in favor of the moral or spiritual aspect, which alone raises the question of feticide from a social evil to a mortal sin.

Man is prompted by a powerful instinctive desire for the use of the sexual organs, that draws him involuntarily to the opposite sex, not for the continuance of the race, because the passion arises much oftener without the remotest thoughts of any fruitful results. I have the greatest regard for the life of the unborn child, yet I am far from agreeing with those who would stamp as libidinous every thought of the sexual instinct, that has not as its stimulus the procreation of the species. While the average man is in the flesh, he is an animal man, and there is no use of trying to make a spiritual saint out of flesh and blood, and when we do find that, we have a very exceptional and remarkable person. But what, as reasonable beings, we should do, is to bridle the animal passions with moral reins, so that we can stand up, in full-statured manhood, with the respectful approval of our own conscience, able to rise above the mere animal appetites, to the dignity of reasonable beings. This instinct, like other propensities, is excited by sensations, and these may originate either in the sexual organs themselves, or may be excited through the organs of special sense. In man the passion is most powerfully aroused by impressions conveyed through the sight or the touch. It often happens that localized sensations will excite the sexual desire of either sex, so that many cases of excessive sexual desire can be traced to some local disease of the genital apparatus: chief among the numerous causes that may be cited, is pruritus or local itch, erythema and active congestion of the womb and ovaries.

“This tendency cannot be regarded,” says Dr. Carpenter, “as a simple passion or emotion, since it is the result of the combined operations of the reason, the imagination, and the moral feelings: it is in this engraftment of the physical or spiritual attachment upon the more corporeal instinct, that a difference exists between the sexual relations of man and those of the lower animals. In proportion as the human being makes the temporary gratification of the mere sexual appetites 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. Yet how lamentably frequent is this degradation.” This quotation gives the entire physical and spiritual aspect of the question, by one of the most eminent physiologists of our time, so that in the natural course of our investigation we are led to inquire into the currents of thought, which would tend towards developing moral restraint.

Moral restraint means the restraint of the animal man by his spiritual or higher self; the will must possess its due predominance to exercise its determining power in curbing the passions of the one, and directing the course of the thought in the other.

The cold, calculating materialist, whose ideal is circumscribed by the laws that have been deduced from the phenomena of the material world, can scarcely appreciate the higher sentiments that are involved in this investigation, unless he becomes changed in thought and feeling to the things that are about him. To accomplish this result is hardly within the scope of this work. With the average man as we find him, my observation has taught me that it makes, after all, little difference, whether he believes in a spiritual nature or is avowedly materialistic. The great majority of men and women live, so to say, in the turbulent waters of their own passions, wafted hither and thither by the impulses of emotional excitement and instinctive desires. There is little or no hope for reform, if they have not sufficient force of character to cry halt, and stop to think a little upon questions which are to them of the greatest importance.

Marital excesses are the mainspring of so much disease, that ordinarily is attributed to quite different causes, that this chapter would be very deficient were I to omit to call the attention of my readers to this fact. The men on the whole are oftener the victims of the ill effects of unbridled lust than the women, which shows itself by violent and uncontrollable temper, in the one case, and stupid docility in the other: by a lean, hungry, nervous appearance, or a brutish, sanguineous obesity; extremes of the different temperaments and habits are but the natural outgrowth of the constitution inherent in each individual case.

Women, as a rule, are more passive, less amorous and more chaste in thought and feeling than men, and if we define emotion as an idea associated with pleasurable or painful feelings, women are, as far as appertains to their sexual nature, contrary to the generally-accepted opinion, much less emotional than men. Continence, among the unmarried women, is the rule, while among the men it is the rare exception; this is because her will is by nature stronger, while her reason is weaker, she intuitively arrives at conclusions that are her guide and saviour.

It is a prevalent idea among men that the marriage ceremony removes all restraint from the exercise of the sexual function; this not only neutralizes and destroys all sentiment of true love, which seeks for the happiness of the object it loves, but breeds hatred and contempt. To be permanently happy and mutually respectful, there must be love beyond the pleasure of gratifying the mere sexual instinct, there must be love in the realm of thought and a spiritual communion above the instincts of the flesh.

“Any warning against sexual dangers,” says Dr. Acton, “would be very incomplete if it did not extend to the excesses so often committed by married persons in ignorance of their ill effects. Too frequent emissions of the seminal fluid, and too frequent excitement of the nervous system, are in themselves most destructive. The result is the same within the marriage bond as without it. The married man and woman who think that because they are married, they can commit no excesses, however often the act of sexual congress is repeated, will suffer as certainly and as seriously as the unmarried debauchee, who acts on the same principle in his indulgences—perhaps more certainly, from their very ignorance, and from their not taking those precautions and following those rules which a career of vice is apt to teach the sensualist. Many a man has, until his marriage, lived a most continent life; so has his wife. As soon as they are wedded, intercourse is indulged in night after night, neither party having an idea that these repeated sexual acts are excesses which the system of neither can bear, and which to the man, at least, is absolute ruin and to the woman a source of disease. The practice is continued till health is impaired, sometimes permanently, and when a patient is at last obliged to seek medical advice, he is thunderstruck at learning that his sufferings arise from excesses unwittingly committed. Married people appear to think that connection may be repeated as regularly and almost as often as their meals. Till they are told of their danger, the idea never enters their heads that they are guilty of great and almost criminal excess; nor is this to be wondered at, since the possibility of such a cause of disease is seldom hinted at by the medical man they consult. Some go so far as to believe that indulgence may increase these powers, just as gymnastic exercises augment the force of the muscles. This is a popular error, and requires correction. Such patients should be told that the shock to the system, each time connection is indulged in, is very powerful, and that the expenditure of seminal fluid must be particularly injurious to organs previously debilitated. It is by this and similar excesses that premature old age and complaints of the generative organs are brought on.”

Wives of men of great vital force are not long before they become delicate, sickly and nervous, and, entirely ignorant of the real cause Of their feebleness, seek relief by taking “a good iron tonic,” which does them about as much good as if they had left it alone, the tonic effect of iron being entirely overestimated, but the delusion is created by associating the word iron with the idea strength. After the different tonics have been tried, the patient consults a physician, who, on general principles and after a hasty examination, informs her that she has “womb disease.” These two words for the time being settle the question; she now begins “to doctor,” and from the general or family doctor she finds her way to the female specialists, who, as a rule, belong to the recognized magnifiers and humbugs of the day. Here she becomes one of the regular habitues of the specialist’s waiting room, disappointed and not a little discouraged. She makes the rounds of the most prominent of them, until she has been doctored out of her dear patience and her still dearer money. Hope is often a forlorn consolation, and if by chance she now takes a trip to the country or undertakes a long visit at some distance, to her folks, which gives the poor woman respite from the “marital rights” of her Lord and Master, she recovers her former health, strength and buoyancy. Of course everybody congratulates her upon the wonderful effect of the climate, when the climate had no more to do with her recovery than the moon. The remarkable change was owing to having been let alone by husband and doctor.

That the attempt to call attention to these flagrant abuses of the dishonesty and ignorance of the one and the blind animal instinct of the other will be decried and stigmatized as “cranky,” I know beforehand, but I know also, that those who criticise these sentiments are fully convinced of the truth of the statement. The diseases that belong to this class are, like most uterine diseases, of an inflammatory nature, and for that reason rest is one of the most essential features in the treatment. But as this class belongs to the avoidable causes, prevention is much better than cure. I therefore advise, as of first importance, to abandon the American custom of man and wife occupying the same bed, which is only customary among the poorer classes of Europe, who cannot afford to have separate beds or chambers. The advantage of the European custom in segregating one’s self on retirement, to avoid the sexual instincts being unduly excited, can be borne out by remembering the physiology of the instinct, which we were told is excited by sight and feeling. Besides these, there is the possible undue familiarity, which the joint occupancy of the chamber or bed of man and wife may engender, and that, too, is likely to lead to excessive relations.

All efforts to exercise voluntary control, by prolonging the sexual act or extending the venereal orgasm, are fraught with the most pernicious results to the nerves, terminating in a partial or complete paralysis of the different organs of the body, or a low grade of inflammation is excited, which offers a fruitful soil for the development of various diseases.

A man who has become the husband of a woman should never cease to be a gentleman on that account, nor should he become lost to a consideration of those delicacies of refinement, which smooth the common relations in the exercise of daily duties.

Continence is the complete restraint from sexual indulgence, which in its fullest sense does not apply to the married state, but it comes within the scope of every married life to cultivate and practice it as one of its virtues. Every married couple should be continent for days and weeks at a time, and when one or the other is not feeling well, abstinence should be practiced, as the rule, not only to avoid a nervous shock, which may have serious results, but because conception in an abnormal physical condition, will perpetuate itself in the child, which is quite likely to inherit a nervous or sickly constitution. When pregnancy supervenes, undue sexual excitement of the mother often has the most serious consequences to the fetus, and may result in its death, or induce abortion.

Diet is to be regulated, to assist a firm determination to lead a chaste and purer life. Stimulating and highly-seasoned food, and alcoholic beverages, are not to be used, because they increase the circulation of the blood and stimulate the nerves to inflammatory activity. Meat should be eaten only once a day, and the supper should be bland and light.

Nature has set a time during which continence should be practiced for the purpose of preserving the health and controlling the reproductive function, that is, the menstrual period. Menstruation in women corresponds to the ripening and discharge of the human ovule. The aptitude for impregnation is a day or two before and six to eight days after the courses cease. This is a rule which applies to the great majority of women, and if the sexual relations are suspended from a few days before the onset of the menses until six or eight days after the flow has ceased, the chances for pregnancy are reduced to the minimum. This physiological relation of the organic function of conception to the sexual act is to be recommended as the most wholesome check to reproduction in early married life, although I believe that there is no time better calculated to raise a family than while you are young and hopeful.

Children are common objects of love and hope for both parents. Life and health are ever changing the relations of our surroundings, and when newly-married people put off to the dim future the hopes of rearing a family, they are often doomed to everlasting disappointment. Nature is capricious and jealous of her prerogatives, and those who trifle with her functions must expect to be frustrated in the end, and have no one but themselves to blame if she fails to respond to their capricious wishes. Children make trouble of course, so were we as troublesome in our time, but there is also a great deal of pleasure in watching them grow from day to day in bodily strength and mental perception, which no amount of selfish enjoyment can compensate.

The diseases that are brought upon women by the different practices and mechanical devices to prevent conception are too numerous to mention in a work of this character. Some of the methods are absolutely loathesome to all sense of decency and reduce sexual intercourse much below the instinctive indulgence of the brute; these debauches of the conjugal bed not only sap the vitality of the participants, but must lower or destroy all mutual respect, and ultimate in dissension and strife, which the divorce court will finally assuage.

Referring to the practice of conjugal onanism or interrupted or incomplete coitus, Dr. Franklin Devay says: “However, it is not difficult to conceive the degree of perturbation that a like practice should exert upon the genital system of woman by provoking desires which are not gratified; a profound stimulation is felt through the entire apparatus; the uterus, Fallopian tubes and ovaries enter into a state of orgasm, a storm which is not appeased by the natural crisis; a nervous super-excitation persists. There occurs, then, what would take place if, presenting food to a famished man, one should snatch it from his mouth after having thus violently excited his appetite. The sensibilities of the womb and the entire reproductive system are teased for no purpose. It is to this cause, too often repeated, that we should attribute the multiple neuroses, those strange affections which originate in the genital system of women. Our conviction respecting them is based upon a great number of observations. Furthermore, the normal relations existing between the married couple undergo unfortunate changes; this affection, formed upon reciprocal esteem, is little by little effaced by the repetition of an act which pollutes the marriage bed; from thence proceed certain hard feelings, certain deep impressions, which, gradually growing, eventuate in the scandalous ruptures of which the community rarely know the real motive.” This is in every respect as hurtful as the vicious practice of solitary vice, although that is comparatively less common among young virgins than among those of the opposite sex. Nevertheless, this is a frequent cause of hysterical symptoms and uterine disease. Stop it at once; there is no burden that a large family of children can impose upon you, be it even poverty and want, as great as the inevitable results of these unnatural habits.

The use of caps or tissue coverings, made of thin rubber or gold-beater’s skin, are not only suggestive of the licentiousness of the brothel but their employment causes physical lesions from their irritating friction to the walls of the vagina. I have had under my treatment obstinate ulcerations of the vagina which were due to their use, and in one instance it degenerated into cancer. The use of the “womb veil,” which originated in France, has been denounced as a fruitful source of ulceration of the womb, by modern French writers, who are more familiar with their indiscriminate employment than Americans. There has been also a plug or stem pessary employed for the purpose “of sealing up the womb,” which is partly introduced into the mouth and cervical canal of the organ; this obviously adds insult to injury, by also irritating the cavity of the womb and exciting inflammation of its lining membrane. There are other devices for a similar purpose, that have the same tendency of irritating and wounding the genitals of the female.

There is nothing that could be said, to intimidate some women, by forewarning them of the danger of their preventive measures; they will continue to make business for the specialists, and drain the purses of their husbands, but there is a great majority of good, noble, matronly women who are pure in heart and mind, that appreciate the value of the information that I impart. What I desire to further suggest, is a preventive measure that is entirely harmless and consistent with chastity and cleanliness, for I believe that within certain bounds, a woman has a moral right to limit or control the conception of her womb. But right here the option ceases. If she pushes her measures beyond the portals of the womb, if she employs medicines or mechanical devices to bring around her courses, when she suspects pregnancy or conception, she becomes a murderess in the eyes of the Creator. The bowl of tanzy tea, or any of the many quack nostrums, advertised in the public prints, are as much an instrument of murder as the probe of the abortionist. It would be the height of sophistry to make a distinction between the embryo of an hour or a day old, and that of any future period. The potentiality of a human being is established at the moment of conception, and the destruction of this, at any period, is homicide. No one can deny less importance to the cause, which is conception, than to the effect, which is the human embryo, for without the one, the other is impossible.

Hence, not to bear a child implies not to conceive a child, for if once conceived, it must be born.

The reasons that may exist for limiting the progeny of each particular pair cannot be formulated into a code, for these are questions of conscience, between the individuals and their Creator, on the one hand, and on the other, they should be influenced by economic conditions and physical or constitutional taints of the progenitors. I do not believe in the truth of the law of Malthus, that there is a tendency for population to increase faster than the means of subsistence, but I am inclined to the view held by John Stuart Mill, that “no one has a right to bring children into life to be supported by other people.” But when the same eminent authority designates the procreative act as brute instinct, I think he is in great error, for that is not so. Conjugal affection and the sentiment of love spring from the reproductive systems, through the reflex action of the brain, and these have their moral significance, and should not be branded as brutal, for upon their normal functions depends the perpetuation of the race, and as it was so ordained by the Creator, it cannot be an unholy passion.

To be physically strong and well are the prerequisites for happiness, and if we cannot transmit to our offspring this essential quality, it would be much better for society if we were not instrumental in bringing defective children into the world. The competitive struggle for existence is hard enough for the vigorous and robust; how much greater must it be for the constitutionally infirm? When these conditions of infirmity exist, they should influence our course as progenitors; this appears to me self-evident, and I trust in the wisdom that is innate to the human soul, that only the best ends will be subserved.

An expedient that is to accomplish the object in view, must be in the nature of a wholesome sanitary measure, that violates no law of nature. The inordinate use of any preventive, coupled with excessive indulgence, cannot be without ill effects. Excesses must be studiously avoided, so as not to incur the diseases of which mention has already been made. The employment of a vaginal douche of the proper temperature, medicated with a little pure alcohol, is not injurious and is the most reliable of all preventives, provided it is intelligently used and without delay. The quantity of fluid to be used is a quart of warm water, of 103 to 105 degrees Fahr., to which two tablespoonfuls of alcohol is added; of this, three-fourths or all is to be douched through the vagina.

The vaginal irrigation is to be undertaken immediately after the act; if sufficient time is allowed to pass, the spermatozoa will have entered the mouth of the womb; then they are clearly beyond the reach of the wash. The warm water and the necessary paraphernalia are to be held in readiness so as to lose no time in making the toilet, nor should there be unnecessary exposure to the danger of catching cold. The nozzle of the syringe should always be of hard rubber, because that is not likely to rust or corrode. The syringe is to be kept scrupulously clean by means of occasional brushings in soapy water. Vaginal injections should never be taken in the morning, if the person is required to exercise on her feet, and for the same reason, should any husband have marital relations with his wife before rising in the morning, the wife is likely to suffer all day, either by soreness or pain or by a dragging sensation of the womb and vagina.

The same rule is to be followed in vaginal irrigation as for other purposes, the main point being to throw the fluid well up into the vagina, and that can only be done if the nozzle is carried directly backward and not upwards. No violence or force is to be used, under any circumstance.