Love, that tender, inexplicable feeling which is the germinal essence of the human spirit, is the rudimental element of the human soul. It is, therefore, a Divine gift, a blessing which the Creator did not withdraw from his erring children, when they were driven from a paradise of innocence and loveliness into a world of desolation and strife. He left it as an invisible cord by which to draw the human heart ever upward, to a brighter home—the heavenly Eden. Love is the very essence of Divine law, the source of inspiration, even the fountain of life itself. It is spontaneous, generous, infinite. To its presence we are indebted for all that is good, true, and beautiful in Art and Nature. It endows humanity with countless virtues, and throws a mystic veil over our many faults. It is this feeling, this immutable law, which controls the destiny of the race. From its influence empires have fallen, scepters have been lost. Literature owes to Love its choicest gems.
The materialism of the nineteenth century has sought to degrade Love; to define it as purely physical. The result has been a corresponding degradation of art, and even literature has lost much of its lofty idealism. Nudity has become a synonym of vulgarity; Love, of lust. "Evil be to him who evil thinks." True Love never seeks to degrade its object; on the contrary, it magnifies every virtue, endows it with divinest attributes, and guards its chastity, or honor, at the sacrifice of its own life. It increases benevolence by opening the lover's heart to the wants of suffering humanity. Ideality is the canvas, and imagination the brush with which Love delineates the beauties of the adored. Love heightens spirituality, awakens hope, strengthens faith, and enhances devotion. It quickens the perceptions, intensifies the sensibilities, and redoubles the memory. It augments muscular activity, and imparts grace to every movement. The desire to love and to be loved is innate, and forms as much a part of our being as bone or reason. In fact, Love may be considered as the very foundation of our spiritual existence, as bone and reason are the essential bases of our physical and intellectual being. Every man or woman feels the influence of this emotion, sooner or later. It is the Kadesh-barnea of human existence; obedience to its intuitions insures the richest blessings of life, while neglect or perversion enkindles God's wrath, even as did the disobedience of the wandering Israelites. The one great fact which pervades the universe is action. The very existence of Love demands its activity, and, hence, the highest happiness is attained by a normal and legitimate development of this element of our being. The heart demands This emotion manifests itself in several phases, prominent among which is filial affection, the natural harmonizer of society. Paternal love includes a new element—protection. Greater than either, and second only in fortitude to maternal affection, is CONJUGAL LOVE.
With Swedenborg, we may assert, "that there is given love truly conjugal, which at this day is so rare, that it is not known what it is, and scarce that it is." The same author has defined this relation to be a union of Love and Wisdom. The fundamental law of conjugal love is fidelity to one love. God created but one Eve, and the essential elements of paternal and maternal love pre-suppose and necessitate, for their normal development, the Love of one only. Again, Love is the sun of woman's existence. Only under its influence does she unfold the noblest powers of her being. Woman's intuitions should therefore be taken as the true love-gauge. If she desire a plurality of loves, it must be a law of her nature; but is communism the desire of our wives and daughters? No! Every act which renders woman dear to us, denounces such an idea and reveals the exclusive sacredness of her Love. As condemning promiscuity in this relation, we may cite the lovers' pledges and oaths of fidelity, the self-perpetuity of Love itself, The consummation desired by all who experience this affection, is the union of souls in a true marriage. Whatever of beauty or romance there may be in the lover's dream, is enhanced and spiritualized in the intimate communion of married life. The crown of wifehood and maternity is purer, more divine, than that of the maiden. Passion is lost; the emotions predominate. The connubial relation is not an institution; it was born of the necessities and desires of our nature. "It is not good for man to be alone," was the Divine judgment, and so God created for him "an helpmate." Again, "Male and female created He them;" therefore, sex is as divine as the soul. It is often perverted, but so is reason, aye, so is devotion. The consummation of marriage involves the mightiest issues of life. It may be the source of infinite happiness or the seal of a living death. "Love is blind" is an old saying, verified by thousands of ill-assorted unions. Many unhappy marriages are traceable to one or both of two sources, Physical Weaknesses and Masquerading. Many are the candidates for marriage who are rendered unfit therefor from weaknesses of their sexual systems, induced by the violation of well-established physical laws. We cannot too strongly urge upon parents and guardians the imperative duty of teaching those youths who look to them for Masquerading is a modern accomplishment. Girls wear tight shoes, burdensome skirts, and corsets, all of which prove very injurious to their health. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, our young ladies are sorry specimens of womankind, and "palpitators," cosmetics, and all the modern paraphernalia of fashion are required to make them appear fresh and blooming. Man is equally to blame. A devotee to all the absurd devices of fashion, he practically asserts that "dress makes the man." But physical deformities are of far less importance than moral imperfections. Frankness is indispensable in love. Each should know the other's faults and virtues. Marriage will certainly disclose them; the idol falls and the deceived lover is transformed into a cold, unloving husband or wife. By far the greater number of unhappy marriages are attributable to this cause. In love especially, honesty is policy and truth will triumph. HISTORY OF MARRIAGE.Polygamy and Monogamy. We propose to give only a brief dissertation on the principles and arguments of these systems, with special reference to their representatives in the nineteenth century. Polygamy has existed in all ages. It is, and always has been, the result of moral degradation or wantonness. The Garden of Eden was no harem. Primeval nature knew no community of love. There was only the union of two "and the twain were made one flesh." Time passed; "the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." The propensities of men were in the ascendant, and "God repented Him that He had created man." He directed Noah to take into the ark, two of every sort, male and female. But "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," and tradition points to Polygamy as the generally recognized form of marriage among the ancients. In the Christian era the first religious system which incorporated polygamy as a principle was Mohammedanism. This system, which is so admirably adapted to the voluptuous The Mormon Church was founded by Joseph Smith, and professes to be in harmony with the Bible and a special revelation to its leading Saint. According to the Mormon code, "Love is a yearning for a higher state of existence, and the passions, properly understood, are feeders of the spiritual life;" and again, "nature is dual; to complete his organization a man must marry." The leading error of Mormonism is that it mistakes a legal permission for a Divine command. The Mormon logic may be premised as follows: the Mosaic law allowed polygamy; the Bible records it; therefore, the Bible teaches polygamy. A Mormon Saint can have not less than three wives but as many more as he can conveniently support. The eight fundamental doctrines of the Mormon Church are stated as follows: 1. God is a person with the flesh and form of a man. 2. Man is a part of the substance of God and will himself become a god. 3. Man is not created by God but existed from all eternity. 4. Man is not born in sin, and is not accountable for offenses other than his own. 5. The earth is a colony of embodied spirits, one of many such settlements in space. 6. God is president of the immortals, having under Him four orders of beings: (1.) Gods—i.e., immortal beings, possessed of a perfect organization of soul and body, being the final state of men who have lived on earth in perfect obedience to the law. (2.) Angels, immortal beings who have lived on earth in imperfect obedience to the law. (3.) Men, immortal beings in whom a living soul is united with a human body. (4.) Spirits, immortal beings, still waiting to receive their tabernacle of flesh. 7. Man, being one of the race of gods, became eligible, by means of marriage, for a celestial throne, and his household of Another organization, differing from the Mormons, in many of its radical principles, is that of the "Communists," popularly termed "Free Lovers." It is located at Lennox, Madison Co., N.Y. Its members advocate a system of "complex marriage" which they claim is instituted with a conscientious regard for the welfare of posterity. They disclaim "promiscuity," and assert that the tie which binds them together is as permanent and as sacred as that of marriage. Community of property is commensurate with freedom of Love. They define love to be "social appreciation," and this element in their code of civilization, which they deem superior to all others, is secondary to "bodily support." The principles upon which their social status is founded may be briefly summarized as follows: "Man offers woman support and love (unconditional). Woman enjoying freedom, self-respect, health, personal and mental competency, gives herself to man in the boundless sincerity of an unselfish union. State—, Communism." In this, as in all forms of polygamous marriages, love is made synonymous with sexuality, and its purely spiritual element is lost. In every instance this spiritual element should constitute the basis of marriage, which, without it, is nothing more than legal prostitution. Without it, the selfish, degrading, animal propensities run rampant, while the emotions with all their boundless sweetness lie dormant. Woman is regarded as only a plaything to gratify the animal caprice. That Monogamy is a law of nature is evident from the fact that it fulfills the three essential conditions which form the basis of true marriage: (1.) The development of the individual (2.) The welfare of society. (3.) The reproduction of the species. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL.PHYSICALLY. Reciprocated love produces a general exhilaration of the system. The elasticity of the muscles is increased, the circulation is quickened, and every bodily function is stimulated. The duties of life are performed with a zest and alacrity never before experienced. "It is not possible for human beings to attain their full stature of humanity, except by loving long and perfectly. Behold that venerable man! He is mature in judgment, perfect in every action and expression, and saintly in goodness. You almost worship as you behold. What rendered him thus perfect? What rounded off his natural asperities, and moulded up his virtues? Love mainly. It permeated every pore, so to speak, and seasoned every fiber of his being, as could nothing else. Mark that matronly woman. In the bosom of her family, she is more than a queen and goddess combined. All her looks and actions express the outflowing of some or all of the human virtues. To know her is to love her. She became thus perfect, not in a day or a year, but by a long series of appropriate efforts. Then by what? Chiefly in and by love, which is specifically adapted thus to develope this maturity." But all this occurs only when there is a normal exercise of the sexual propensities. Excessive indulgence in marital pleasures deadens all the higher faculties, love included, and results in an utter prostration of the bodily powers. The Creator has endowed man and woman with passions, the suppression of which leads to pain, their gratification to pleasure, their satiety to disgust. Excessive marital indulgence produces abnormal conditions of the generative organs and not unfrequently leads to incurable disease. Many cases of uterine disease are traceable to this cause. MORALLY AND INTELLECTUALLY. In no country where the polygamous system prevails do we find a code of political and social ethics which recognizes the rights and claims of the individual. The condition of woman is that of the basest slave, a slave to the caprice and tyranny of her master. Communism raises her from the slough of slavery, but subjects her to the level of prostitution. An inevitable sequence of polygamy is a decline of literature and science. The natural tendency of THE WELFARE OF SOCIETY.The general law of ethics, that "whatever is beneficial to the individual, contributed to the highest good of society and vice versa," applies with equal force to the hygienic conditions of marriage. Each family, like the ancient Roman household, is the prototype of the natural government under which it lives. Wherever the marriage relation is regarded as sacred, there you will find men of pure hearts and noble lives. Of all foreign nations the Germans are celebrated for their sacred regard of woman, and the duties of marriage, and all scholars from the age of Tacitus to the present day, have concurred in attributing the elevation of woman to the pure-minded Teutons. In America, the law recognizes only Monogamy; but domestic unhappiness is a prominent feature of our national life; therefore, argues the would-be free-lover, monogamy does not accord with the best interests of mankind. The fallacy lies in the first premise. Legally, our marriage system is monogamous but socially and practically it is not! Prostitution is the source of this domestic infelicity. The "mistress" sips the sweet nectar that is denied to the deceived wife. Legislators have battled with intemperance, but have done comparatively little to banish from our midst this necessary (?) evil. They recoil with disgust from this abyss of iniquity and disease. Within it is coiled a hydra-headed monster, which invades our hearthstones, contaminates our social atmosphere, and whose very breath is laden with poisonous vapors, the inexhaustible source of all evil. The perverted appetites of mankind are mistaken for the natural desires and necessities of our being; and, accordingly, various arguments have been advanced to prove that monogamy is not conducive to social developement. It is curious that no one of these arguments refers to the health and well-being of THE PERPETUATION OF THE SPECIES.The third essential object of marriage is the perpetuation of the species. The desire for offspring is innate in the heart of every true man or woman. It is thus a law of our nature, and, as such, must have its legitimate sphere. The essential features of reproduction proclaim monogamy to be the true method of procreation. Promiscuity would render the mother unable to designate the father of her children. Among lower animals, pairing is an instinctive law whenever the female is tion may appear in either an acute or chronic form. The acute form is frequently a complication, or sequel of scarlet fever, diphtheria, cholera, typhoid fever, erysipelas or measles, and is frequently developed by intemperance. The acute form of the disease is very rapid in its progress, often destroying life by urÆmic poisoning—the retention of urea in the system. The symptoms of the acute form are diminution or suppression of urine, dry skin, chills, thirst, pains in the loins, and a general dropsical, puffy condition of the system, especially manifesting itself in the earlier stages under the eyes, but gradually showing itself in the oedema, or swelling of the feet, and lower extremities generally. Unless promptly relieved, the patient dies of coma (stupor), or from convulsions. No person should be so rash as to attempt the treatment of this dangerous affection without the aid of the best medical skill that can be procured. It is the Chronic Form of Bright's Disease that we propose principally to discuss in this article. True Bright's disease of the kidneys is an insidious and most fatal form of organic disease. We venture to assert that less than one per cent. of those who imagine they have "Bright's," have this disease at all. We find that most of those who, as one of our Faculty puts it, insist upon having Bright's disease, base their "diagnosis" upon the ever-changing condition of the urinary secretion, and especially upon the copiousness of the deposit; whereas, in true Bright's, deposits of any kind are rarely met with. Perhaps the form of deposit most commonly mistaken for Bright's disease, is that known to medical men as the urates. When the urates Another common form of deposit is that in which the reaction of the urine, instead of being acid, as in health, is either neutral or alkaline, and in which the earthy phosphates are precipitated for this reason. The earthy phosphates, when thrown down by a neutral or an alkaline condition of the urine, appear as a heavy white deposit, which, though usually devoid of clinical significance, is certainly calculated to frighten timid patients who read of the "terrible ravages of Bright's" in the advertisements of various popular "kidney cures." To prove that the precipitate is phosphatic in its nature, add a few drops of vinegar and it will disappear; whilst, if, after the vinegar has been added, the specimen be brought to the boiling point, not only both the urates and phosphates remain in solution, but there is only one single substance known to pathological chemistry that can form a deposit under these conditions—and that substance is albumen, which, if present in quantity, is always indicative of serious disease. The papers are filled with the plausible but unwarranted statements of the manufacturers of various "kidney cures," who anxiously desire that every one should be impressed with the idea that all their troubles arise from kidney disease in order to sell large quantities of their medicines. In many cases the unfortunate patient is rendered much worse by the use of remedies that are not suited to his condition, and which will not cure the real trouble with which he is affected. Daily we are consulted by persons in whose cases these errors have been made. In reality, true Bright's disease is not a common affection, and nine out often individuals who think that they suffer from it, or the early stages of the trouble, in fact have something more curable. In some cases it is an affection of the liver, which forces an excretion of unnatural salts by the kidneys, and thus renders the urine acrid and irritating, or they may be suffering from some other disease, such as a deformity or enlargement of certain glands, as the prostate; unnatural position of the organs, as with women who suffer from weakness, the uterus pressing forward on the bladder and urethra, and thus showing every evidence of disease in the urinary canal. It is as common for persons to suffer from deformity of the urinary canal as from misshapen limbs, or from noses and ears not of proper size and proportion. The urinary canal, from the bladder outward, is narrow and delicate. Any disease or injury therein is liable to result in gradual contraction, which may be manifested long years after the cause has been forgotten, or has disappeared. These affections, to the inexperienced, or the physician The true, and only sure way to relieve these conditions, as can be understood by any one, is to remove the real cause. The use of any medicine that stimulates the kidneys to an irritable action, under such pressure, is to be avoided, as it only makes the trouble worse, increases the amount of water that is dammed up, and results in more serious manifestations of constitutional disease; whereas, by merely relieving the choked outlet, the flow of water becomes free, and the kidneys are speedily restored to their natural condition. This is well illustrated by the following: Case 113,396.
Bright's disease when fully established is characterized by degeneration of the kidneys. Submitted to examination, after death by this disease, these organs present various appearances. Hence, the degeneration As to the causes of kidney disease, it may be said that any thing which will give rise to a greater or less degree of congestion of the kidney will induce either a temporary albuminous condition of the urine, or a true Bright's disease of the kidneys. Suppression of perspiration, by exposure to cold and wet, want of cleanliness, deficiency of nutritious diet, liver disease, certain poisons in the system, as of scarlet fever, measles, erysipelas or diphtheria, taken in conjunction with sedentary habits, bad air, excessive mental labor or worry, may each occasion an albuminous urine, and finally result in Bright's disease, but of all causes that appear to produce this disease, none are so prolific as intemperance. A scrofulous diathesis, or habit of body, may strongly predispose to the disease, and chronic kidney disease frequently follows acute rheumatism and the practice of masturbation. In some instances the chronic form of Bright's disease follows an acute attack, but is more often developed slowly and insidiously without any known cause. The Symptoms of this fatal malady generally appear so gradually that they excite but little or no concern until it has reached its more advanced and dangerous stages. Frequently, a puffy, watery or flabby condition of the face, particularly under the eyes, is the first symptom noticed, and the patient may observe that his urine is diminished in quantity. The urine is sometimes abundant, but generally more scanty than in health, is acid in its reaction, and generally of a low specific gravity. The countenance is generally somewhat pale and bloodless, which, taken with the dropsical condition of the system, and the constant albuminous condition of the urine, points the expert specialist to Bright's disease of the kidneys. Various circumstances and conditions may give rise to the temporary presence of albumen in the urine, and, although albumen may be temporarily absent from the urine even when Bright's disease exists, yet this is not common. There are certain indirect symptoms which point clearly and almost unmistakably to the presence of this disease. These are deep-seated pain or weakness in the back, gradual loss of flesh, red, brown, or dingy urine, more or less drowsiness, and as the disease advances, a smothering sensation, or difficulty in breathing, with dropsical puffiness or swelling. Occasional attacks of nausea and vomiting are common; pains in the limbs and loins, which are often mistaken for rheumatism. Irregularity of the bowels is also common. The skin becomes harsh and dry, not perspiring even under active exercise. Sometimes these symptoms are years in their development, being very obscure at first, and in some cases the disease has been known to prove fatal without the patient having experienced any extraordinary symptoms. With those whose systems are enfeebled by want, intemperance, exposures or disease, as scrofula or Undoubtedly, the trial is great, but if a sacrifice be required, let the husband forbear the gratification of passions which will assuredly be the means of developing in his delicate wife symptoms that may speedily hurry her into a premature grave. Before she has recovered from the effects of bearing, nursing, and rearing one child, ere she has regained proper tone and vigor of body and mind, she is unexpectedly overtaken, surprised by the manifestation of symptoms which again indicate pregnancy. Children thus begotten are not apt to be hardy and long-lived. From the love that parents feel for their posterity, from their wishes for their success, from their hopes that they may be useful from every consideration for their future well-being, let them exercise precaution and forbearance, until the wife becomes sufficiently healthy and enduring to bequeath her own vital stamina to the child she bears. From what has been said on this subject, it behooves the prudent husband to weigh well the injurious, nay criminal By a statute of the national government, prevention of pregnancy is considered a punishable offense; whereas every physician is instructed by our standard writers and lecturers on this subject, that not only prevention is necessary in many instances, but even abortion must sometimes be produced in order to save the mother's life. As we view the matter, the law of the national government asserts the ruling principle, and the exceptions to it must be well established by evidence, in order to fully justify such procedure. The family physician may, with the concurrence of other medical counselors, be justified, in rare cases, in advising means for the prevention of conception, but he should exercise this professional duty only when the responsibility is shared by other members of the profession, and the circumstances fully and clearly warrant such a practice. After fecundation, the length of time before conception takes place is variously estimated. Should impregnation occur at the ovary or within the Fallopian tubes, usually about a week DOUBLE CONCEPTION.If two germs be evolved simultaneously, each may be impregnated by spermatozoa, and a twin pregnancy be the result. This is by no means a rare occurrence. It is very unusual, however, to have one birth followed by another after an interval of three or four months, and each babe present the evidences of full maturity. Perhaps such occurrences may be accounted for on the supposition that the same interval of time elapses between the impregnation of the two germs as there is difference observed in their birth; that after the act of insemination, sperm was carried to each ovary; that one had matured a germ ready for fecundation, then impregnation and conception immediately followed, and the decidua of the uterus hermetically sealed both Fallopian tubes, and thus securely retained the sperm within the other Fallopian canal. The stimulus of the sperm so pent up causes that ovary to mature a germ, although it may do so slowly, and after two or three months it is perfected, fertilized, and a second conception occurs within the uterus. If each embryo observe a regular period of growth and each be born at maturity, there must be an interval of two or three months between their births. But it is far more common for the parturition of the first, displaying signs of full maturity, to coincide with the birth of a second which is immature and which cannot sustain respiratory life. The birth of the latter is brought about prematurely, by the action of the uterus in expelling the matured child. UTERINE PREGNANCY.There are many who manifest a laudable desire to understand the physiology of conception, the changes which take place, and the order of their natural occurrence. When impregnation takes place at the ovaries or within the Fallopian tubes, there is exuded upon the inner surface of the womb a peculiar nutritious substance. It flows out of the minute porous openings surrounding the termination of the Fallopian tube within The fertilized ovum rapidly develops. After its conception it imbibes nourishment, and there is a disposition in fluids to pass into it, through its delicately-organized membranes. If this process is not involuntary, it is, at all events, at the convenience and use of the developing germ. After three months the embryo is termed the foetus. Its fluids are then so much more highly organized, that some of them are tinged with sanguine hues, and thenceforward acquire the characteristics of red blood. Out of red blood, blood-vessels are formed, and from the incipient development of the heart follow faint lines of arteries, and the engineers of nutrition survey a circulatory system, perfecting the vascular connections by supplementing the arteries with a complete net-work of veins and capillaries. THE PLACENTA OR AFTERBIRTH.Whenever conception occurs, a soft, spongy substance is formed between the uterus and the growing ovum, called the placenta. It is composed of membrane, cellular tissue, blood-vessels, and connecting filaments. The principal use of this organ seems to be to decarbonate the blood of the foetus, and to supply it with oxygen. It performs the same function for the foetus that the lungs do for the organism after birth. It allows the blood of the foetus to come into very close contact with that of the mother, from which it receives a supply of oxygen, and to which it gives up carbonic acid. This interchange of gases takes place in the placenta, or between it and the uterus, through the intervening membranes. This The placenta is attached to the uterus by simple adhesion. True, in some instances, morbid adhesion takes place, or a growing together in consequence of inflammation, but the natural junction is one merely of contact, the membranes of the placenta spreading out upon the cavity of the uterus, so that, finally, the former may be entirely removed without a particle of disturbance or injury to the latter. Formerly, it was supposed that the placental vessels penetrated into the substance of the uterus. We know now there is no such continuation of the vessels of the one into the other. The decarbonation of the blood requires the placental and uterine membranes to be in contact with each other. If the union were vascular, the mother's blood would circulate in the foetal body, and the impulses of the maternal heart might prove too strong for the delicate organism of the embryo. Besides, the separation of the placenta from the uterus might prove fatal to both parent and offspring. The placenta is only a temporary organ, and when its functions are no longer required, it is easily and safely removed. THE UMBILICAL CORD.The foetal blood is transmitted to and fro between the body of the child and the placenta, by a cord which contains two arteries and one vein. This is called the umbilical cord, because it enters the body at the middle of the abdominal region, or umbilicus. It is composed, also, of its own proper membranous sheath, or skin, and cellular tissues, besides the blood-vessels. Two months after pregnancy, this cord can be seen, when it commences to grow rapidly. QUICKENING.Not until the mother feels motion is she said to be quick with child. That is, the child must be old and strong enough to communicate a physical impulse, which the mother can distinctly perceive, before it is regarded as having received life. This is a fallacy, for the germ has to be endowed with life before organization can begin. The act of impregnation THE RIGHT TO TERMINATE PREGNANCY.The expediency and the moral right to prematurely terminate pregnancy must be admitted when weighty and sufficient reasons for it exist. Such a course should never be undertaken, however, without the advice and approval of the family physician, and, whenever it is possible, the counsel of another medical practitioner should be obtained. There may be so great a malformation of the pelvic bones as to preclude delivery at full term, or, as in some instances, the pregnant condition may endanger the life of the mother, because she is not able to retain nourishment upon the stomach. In such cases only, is interference warranted, and even then the advice of some well-informed physician should be first obtained, to make sure that the life of the mother is endangered before so extreme a measure is resorted to. Those who are qualified for maternal duties should not undertake to defeat the intentions of nature, simply because they love ease and dislike responsibility. Such persons may be considered genteel ladies, but, practically, they are indifferent to the claims of society and posterity. How such selfishness contrasts with the glorious, heroic, Spartan spirit of the young woman who consulted us in reference to the acceptance of a tempting offer of marriage! She was below medium size and delicately organized. She hesitated in her answer, because she was uncertain as to her duty to herself, and to her proposed husband, and on account of the prospective contingencies of matrimony. After she was told that it was doubtful whether she could discharge the obligations of maternity with safety to herself, and yet that she might prove to her intended husband a true and valuable wife, she quickly answered, her black eyes radiant with the high purpose of her soul: "If I assent to this offer, I shall accept the condition and its consequences THE SIGNS OF PREGNANCY.The symptoms which indicate pregnancy are cessation of the menses, enlargement of the mammÆ, nausea, especially in the morning, distention of the abdomen, and movement of the foetus. A married woman has reason to suspect that she may have conceived, when, at the proper time, she fails to menstruate, especially when she knows that she is liable to become pregnant. A second menstrual failure strengthens this suspicion, although there are many other causes which might prevent the appearance of the menses, such as disease of the uterus, general debility, or taking cold, and all of these should be taken into account. In the absence of all apparent influences calculated to obstruct the menses, the presumption ordinarily is that pregnancy is the cause of their non-appearance. The evidence is still more conclusive when the mammÆ and abdomen enlarge after experiencing morning sickness. Notwithstanding all these symptoms, the audible sound of the heart, or the movements of the foetus, are the only infallible signs of a pregnant condition. THE DURATION OF PREGNANCY.The ordinary duration of pregnancy is about forty weeks, or 280 days. It is difficult to foretell exactly when a pregnancy will be completed, for it cannot be known precisely when it began. Some gestations are more protracted than others, but the average duration is the time we have given. A very reasonable way to compute the term, is to reckon three months back from the day when the menses ceased and then add five days to that time, which will be the date of the expected time of confinement. It is customary, also, for women to The English law fixes no precise limit for the legitimacy of the child. In France a child is regarded as lawfully begotten if born within three hundred days after the death or departure of the husband. There are a sufficient number of cases on record to show that gestation may be prolonged two, and even three, weeks beyond the ordinary, or average term. The variation of time may be thus accounted for: after insemination, a considerable interval elapses before fecundation takes place, and the passage of the fertilized germ from the ovary to the uterus is also liable to be retarded. There are many circumstances and conditions which might serve to diminish its ordinary rate of progress, and postpone the date of conception. This would materially lengthen the apparent time of gestation. It is likewise difficult to determine the shortest period at which gestation may terminate, and the child be able to survive. A child may be born and continue to live for some months, after twenty-four or twenty-five weeks of gestation; it was so decided, at least, in an ecclesiastical trial. We have not the space to describe minutely, or at length, the formation and growth of the foetal structures, and trace them separately from their origin to their completion at the birth of the child. The student of medicine must gain information by consulting large works and exhaustive treatises on this interesting subject. What trifling contingencies defeat vitality! Conception may be prevented by acrid secretions, the result of disease of the reproductive organs. Leucorrheal matter may destroy the vitalizing power of the sperm-cells. There are many ways, even What, then, is man but simply a germ, evolving higher powers, and destined for a purer and nobler existence! His latent life secretly emerges from mysterious obscurity, is incarnated, and borne upon the flowing stream of time to a spiritual destination—to realms of immortality! As he nears those ever-blooming shores, the eye of faith, illuminated by the inspired word, dimly discerns the perennial glories. Quickened by Faith, Hope, and Love, his spirit is transplanted into the garden of paradise, the Eden of happiness, redeemed, perfected, and made glorious in the divine image of Him who hath said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE." |