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Plain Facts for Old and Young

by John Harvey Kellogg · English · Gutenberg #19924 · 739,840 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Plain Facts for Old and Young

Author: John Harvey Kellogg


        
Release date: November 27, 2006 [eBook #19924]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19924

Credits: Produced by Ron Swanson


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG ***




Produced by Ron Swanson





[Illustration: The Sanitarium at Battle Creek, Mich.]

[Frontispiece: Yours truly, J. H. Kellogg]




PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG.

BY

J. H. KELLOGG, M.D.,

MEMBER AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MICROSCOPY, MEMBER MICH.
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH, MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT OF THE BATTLE CREEK
SANITARIUM, AUTHOR OF NUMEROUS WORKS ON HEALTH, ETC.




PUBLISHED BY
SEGNER & CONDIT,
BURLINGTON, IOWA.
1881.




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by
J. H. KELLOGG, M.D.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.




PREFACE.


The publishers of this work offer no apology for presenting it to the
reading public, since the wide prevalence of the evils which it exposes
is sufficient warrant for its publication. The subjects with which it
deals are of vital consequence to the human race; and it is of the utmost
importance that every effort should be made to dispel the gross
ignorance which almost universally prevails, by the wide diffusion,
in a proper manner, of information of the character contained in this
volume.

This book has been written not for the young only, nor for any single
class of persons, but for all who are old enough to be capable of
understanding and appreciating it. The prime object of its preparation
has been to call attention to the great prevalence of sexual excesses
of all kinds, and the heinous crimes resulting from some forms of sexual
transgression, and to point out the terrible results which inevitably
follow the violation of sexual law.

In order to make more clear and comprehensible the teachings of nature
respecting the laws regulating the sexual function, and the evils
resulting from their violation, it has seemed necessary to preface the
practical part of the subject by a concise description of the anatomy
of reproduction. In this portion of the work especial pains has been
taken to avoid anything like indelicacy of expression, yet it has not
been deemed advisable to sacrifice perspicuity of ideas to any prudish
notions of modesty. It is hoped that the reader will bear in mind that
the language of science is always chaste in itself, and that it is only
through a corrupt imagination that it becomes invested with impurity.
The author has constantly endeavored to impart information in the most
straightforward, simple, and concise manner.

The work should be judiciously circulated, and to secure this the
publishers will take care to place it in the hands of agents competent
to introduce it with discretion; yet it may be read without injury by
any one who is sufficiently mature to understand it. Great care has
been taken to exclude from its pages those accounts of the habits of
vicious persons, and descriptions of the mechanical accessories of vice,
with which many works upon sexual subjects abound.

The first editions of the work were issued with no little anxiety on
the part of both author and publishers as to how it would be received
by the reading public. It was anticipated that no little adverse
criticism, and perhaps severe condemnation, would be pronounced by many
whose education and general mode of thought had been such as to unfit
them to appreciate it; but it was hoped that persons of more thoughtful
and unbiased minds would receive the work kindly, and would readily
co-operate with the publishers in its circulation. This anticipation
has been more than realized. Wherever the book has been introduced,
it has met with a warm reception; and of the several thousand persons
into whose hands the work has been placed, hundreds have gratefully
acknowledged the benefit which they have received from its perusal,
and it is hoped that a large proportion have been greatly benefited.

The cordial reception which the work has met from the press everywhere
has undoubtedly contributed in great measure to its popularity. The
demand for the work has exhausted several editions in rapid succession,
and has seemed to require its preparation in the greatly enlarged and
in every way improved form in which it now appears. The addition of
two whole chapters for the purpose of bringing the subject directly
before the minds of boys and girls in a proper manner, adds greatly
to the interest and value of the work, as there seemed to be a slight
deficiency in this particular in the former editions.

J. H. K.
BATTLE CREEK, MICH.,
_October, 1879_.




CONTENTS.


                                                                   PAGE.
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15

_SEX IN LIVING FORMS_.

Living beings--Animals and vegetables--Life force--Reproduction--
Spontaneous generation--Simplest form of generation--Hermaphrodism--
Sex in plants--Sex in animals--Other sexual differences--Men and women
differ in form--Modern mania for female pedestrianism--3,000 quarter
miles in 3,000 quarter hours--A female walking-match--The male and
female brain--Vital organs of man and woman--Woman less muscular,
more enduring--A pathological difference--Why a woman does not
breathe like a man--The reproductive elements--Sexual organs of plants--
Polygamous flowers--The female organ of flowers--Sexual organs of
animals--The spermatozoon--The ovum--Fecundation--Fecundation in
flowers--Union of the ovum and zoosperm--Curious modes of
reproduction--Human beings are developed buds--Fecundation in
hermaphrodites--Development--Unprotected development--Partial
protection of the ovum--Development in the higher animals and in man--
The uterus--Uterine gestation--The primitive trace--Curious relations to
lower animals--Simplicity of early structures--The stages of growth--
Duration of gestation--Uterine life--How the unborn infant breathes--
Parturition--Changes in the child at birth--Nursing--Anatomy of the
reproductive organs--Male organs--The prostate gland--Female organs--
Puberty--Influence of diet on puberty--Brunettes naturally precocious--
Remarkable precocity--Premature development occasions early decay--
Early puberty a cause for anxiety--Changes which occur at puberty--
Menstruation--Nature of menstruation--A critical period--Important
hints--Menorrhagia--Dysmenorrhoea--Amenorrhoea and chlorosis--
Hysteria--Prevention better than cure--Extra-uterine pregnancy--Twins--
Monsters--Hybrids--Law of sex--Heredity--Ante-natal influences--Law
universal--A source of crime--Circumcision--Castration  . . . . . . . 25

_THE SEXUAL RELATIONS_.

Sexual precocity--Astonishing ignorance--Inherited passion--Various
causes of sexual precocity--Senile sexuality--Marriage--Time to
marry--Application of the law of heredity--Early marriage--Mutual
adaptation--Disparity of age--Courtship--Long Courtships--
Flirtation--Youthful flirtations--Polygamy--Polyandry--Divorce--
Who may not marry--Do not be in a hurry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

_CHASTITY_.

Mental unchastity--Amativeness--Unchaste conversation--Causes of
unchastity--Early causes--Diet vs. chastity--Clerical lapses--Tobacco
and vice--Bad books--Idleness--Dress and sensuality--How young women
fall--Fashion and vice--Reform in dress needed--Round dances--Physical
causes of unchastity--Constipation--Intestinal worms--Local
uncleanness--Irritation of the bladder--Modern modes of life . . . . 174

_CONTINENCE_.

Continence not injurious--Does not produce impotence--Difficulty of
continence--Helps to continence--The will--Diet--Exercise--Bathing--
Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

_MARITAL EXCESSES_.

Object of the reproductive functions--Results of excesses--Effects
upon husbands--Testimony of a French physician--Continence of
trainers--A cause of throat disease--A cause of consumption--Effects
on wives--The greatest cause of uterine disease--Legalized murder--
Indulgence during menstruation--Effects upon offspring--Indulgence
during pregnancy--Effect upon the character--A selfish objection--
Brutes and savages more considerate--What may be done--Early
moderation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

_PREVENTION OF CONCEPTION_: ITS EVILS AND DANGERS.

Conjugal onanism--"Male continence"--Shaker views--Moral bearings of
the question--Unconsidered murders--The charge disputed--Difficulties--
Woman's rights--What to do--A compromise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

_INFANTICIDE AND ABORTION_.

Not a modern crime--Causes of the crime--The nature of the crime--
Instruments of crime--Results of this unnatural crime--An unwelcome
child--The remedy--Murder by proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

_THE SOCIAL EVIL_.

Unchastity of the ancients--Causes of the "social evil"--Libidinous
blood--Gluttony--Precocious sexuality--Man's lewdness--Fashion--Lack of
early training--Sentimental literature--Poverty--Ignorance--Disease--
Results of licentiousness--Thousands of victims--Effects of vice
ineradicable--The only hope--Hereditary effects of venereal disease--
Man the only transgressor--Origin of the foul disease--Cure of the
"social evil"--Prevention the only cure--Early training--Teach
self-control--Mental culture--Early associations . . . . . . . . . . 284

_SOLITARY VICE_.

Alarming prevalence of the vice--Testimony of eminent authors--Not a
modern vice--Victims of all ages--Unsuspected rottenness--Causes of
the habit--Evil associations--Corruption in schools--Wicked nurses--Not
an uncommon case--The instructor in vice--Local disease--An
illustrative case--Other physical causes--Influence of stimulants--
Signs of self-abuse--Suspicious signs--General debility--Early symptoms
of consumption--Premature and defective development--Sudden change in
disposition--Lassitude--Sleeplessness--Failure of mental capacity--
Fickleness--Untrustworthiness--Love of solitude--Bashfulness--Unnatural
boldness--Mock piety--Confusion of ideas--Round shoulders--Weak backs--
Pains in the limbs--Stiffness of the joints--Paralysis--Gait--Bad
positions--Lack of development of the breasts--Capricious appetite--
Eating clay--The use of tobacco--Unnatural paleness--Acne--Biting the
finger nails--Palpitation of the heart--Hysteria--Chlorosis--Epileptic
fits--Wetting the bed--Unchastity of speech--Positive signs--Results of
secret vice--Effects in males--Local effects--Urethral irritation--
Stricture--Enlarged prostate--Urinary diseases--Priapism--Piles--
Prolapsus of rectum--Extension of irritation--Atrophy--Varicocele--
Nocturnal emissions--Exciting causes--Are occasional emissions
necessary or harmless?--Emissions not necessary to health--Eminent
testimony--Diurnal emissions--Cause of diurnal emissions--Internal
emissions--An important caution--Impotence--General effects--General
debility--Consumption--Dyspepsia--Heart-disease--Throat affections--
Nervous diseases--Epilepsy--Failure of special senses--Spinal
irritation--Insanity--A victim's mental condition pictured--Effects in
females--Local effects--Leucorrhoea--Uterine disease--Cancer of the
womb--Sterility--Atrophy of mammae--Pruritis--General effects--A
common cause of hysteria--Effects upon offspring--Treatment of
self-abuse and its effects--Prevention of secret vice--Cultivate
chastity--Timely warning--Curative treatment of the effects of
self-abuse--Cure of the habit--How may a person help himself?--Hopeful
courage--General regimen and treatment--Mental and moral treatment--
Exercise--Never overeat--Eat but twice a day--Discard all stimulating
food--Stimulating drinks--Sleeping--Dreams--Can dreams be controlled?--
Bathing--Improvement of general health--Prostitution as a remedy--
Marriage--Local treatment--Cool sitz bath--Ascending douche--Abdominal
bandage--Wet compress--Hot and cold applications to the spine--Local
fomentations--Local cold bathing--Enemata--Electricity--Internal
applications--Use of electricity--Circumcision--Impotence--Varicocele--
Drugs--Rings--Quacks--Closing advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

_A CHAPTER FOR BOYS_.

Who are boys?--What are boys for?--Boys the hope of the world--Man the
masterpiece--How a noble character is ruined--The marvelous human
machine--The two objects of human existence--The nutritive apparatus--
The moving apparatus--The thinking and feeling apparatus--The purifying
apparatus--The reproductive apparatus--How a noble character and a sound
body must be formed--The downhill road--Self-abuse--A dreadful sin--
Self-murderers--What makes boys dwarfs--Scrawny and hollow-eyed boys--
Old boys--What makes idiots--Young dyspeptics--The race ruined by boys--
Cases illustrating the effects of self-abuse--Two young wrecks--A
prodigal youth--Barely escaped--A lost soul--The results of one
transgression--A hospital case--An old offender--The sad end of a young
victim--From bad to worse--An indignant father--Disgusted with life--Bad
company--Bad language--Bad books--Vile pictures--Evil thoughts--
Influence of other bad habits--Closing advice to boys and young men. 419

_A CHAPTER FOR GIRLS_.

Girlhood--How to develop beauty and loveliness--The human form divine--A
wonderful process--Human buds--How beauty is marred--A beauty-destroying
vice--Terrible effects of secret vice--Remote effects--Causes which lead
girls astray--Vicious companions--Whom to avoid--Sentimental books--
Various causes--Modesty woman's safeguard--A few sad cases--A pitiful
case--A mind dethroned--A penitent victim--A ruined girl--The danger of
boarding-schools--A desperate case--A last word--A few words to boys and
girls  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470




INTRODUCTION.


Books almost without number have been written upon the subject treated
in this work. Unfortunately, most of these works are utterly unreliable,
being filled with gross misrepresentations and exaggerations, and
being designed as advertising mediums for ignorant and unscrupulous
charlatans, or worse than worthless patent nostrums. To add to their
power for evil, many of them abound with pictorial illustrations which
are in no way conducive to virtue or morality, but rather stimulate
the animal propensities and excite lewd imaginations. Books of this
character are usually widely circulated; and their pernicious
influence is fully as great as that of works of a more grossly obscene
character. In most of the few instances in which the evident motive
of the author is not of an unworthy character, the manner of presenting
the subject is unfortunately such that it more frequently than
otherwise has a strong tendency in a direction exactly the opposite
of that intended and desired. The writer of this work has endeavored
to avoid the latter evil by adopting a style of presentation quite
different from that generally pursued. Instead of restricting the
reader's attention rigidly to the sexual function in man, his mind is
diverted by frequent references to corresponding functions in lower
animals and in the vegetable kingdom. By this means, not only is an
additional fund of information imparted, but the sexual function in
man is divested of its sensuality. It is viewed as a fact of natural
history, and is associated with the innocence of animal life and the
chaste loveliness of flowers. Thus the subject comes to be regarded
from a purely physiological standpoint, and is liberated from the gross
animal instinct which is the active cause of sensuality.

There are so many well-meaning individuals who object to the agitation
of this subject in any manner whatever, that it may be profitable to
consider in this connection some of the principal objections which are
urged against imparting information on sexual subjects, especially
against giving knowledge to the young.

I. _Sexual matters improper to be spoken of to the young._

This objection is often raised, it being urged that these matters are
_too delicate_ to be even suggested to children; that they ought to
be kept in total ignorance of all sexual matters and relations until
nature indicates that they are fit to receive them. It is doubtless
true that children raised in a perfectly natural way would have no
sexual thoughts until puberty, at least, and it would be better if it
might be so; but from facts pointed out in succeeding portions of this
work, it is certain that at the present time children nearly always
do have some vague ideas of sexual relations long before puberty, and
often at a very early age. It is thus apparent that by speaking to
children of sexual matters in a proper manner, a new subject is not
introduced to them, but it is merely presenting to them in a true light
a subject of which they already have vague ideas; and thus, by
satisfying a natural curiosity, they are saved from supplying by their
imaginations distorted images and exaggerated conceptions, and from
seeking to obtain the desired information from evil sources whence they
would derive untold injury.

What reason is there that the subject of the sexual functions should
be treated with such maudlin secrecy? Why should the function of
generation be regarded as something low and beastly, unfit to be spoken
of by decent people on decent occasions? We can conceive of no answer
except the worse than beastly use to which the function has been so
generally put by man. There is nothing about the sexual organism which
makes it less pure than the lungs or the stomach. "Unto the pure all
things are pure," may have been written especially for our times, when
there is such a vast amount of mock modesty; when so much pretense of
virtue covers such a world of iniquity and vice. The young lady who
goes into a spasm of virtuous hysterics upon hearing the word "leg,"
is perhaps just the one who at home riots her imagination in voluptuous
French novels, if she commits no grosser breach of chastity. The parents
who are the most opposed to imparting information to the young are often
those who have themselves indulged in sexual excesses. In the minds
of such persons the sexual organs and functions, and everything even
remotely connected with them, are associated only with ideas of lust
and gross sensuality. No wonder that they wish to keep such topics in
the dark. With such thoughts they cannot well bear the scrutiny of
virtue.

Sexual subjects are not, of course, proper subjects for conversation
at all times, or at any time in a spirit of levity and flippancy.

II. _Knowledge is dangerous._

Very true, knowledge is dangerous, but ignorance is more dangerous
still; or, rather, partial knowledge is more dangerous than a more
complete understanding of facts. Children, young people, will not grow
up in innocent ignorance. If, in obedience to custom, they are not
encouraged to inquire of their parents about the mysteries of life,
they will seek to satisfy their curiosity by appealing to older or
better informed companions. They will eagerly read any book which
promises any hint on the mysterious subject, and will embrace every
opportunity, proper or improper--and most likely to be the latter--of
obtaining the coveted information. Knowledge obtained in this
uncertain and irregular way must of necessity be very unreliable. Many
times--generally, in fact--it is of a most corrupting character, and
the clandestine manner in which it is obtained is itself corrupting
and demoralizing. A child ought to be taught to expect all such
information from its parents, and it ought not to be disappointed.

Again, while it is true that knowledge is dangerous, it is equally true
that this dangerous knowledge will be gained sometime, at any rate;
and as it must come, better let it be imparted by the parent, who can
administer proper warnings and cautions along with it, than by any other
individual. Thus may the child be shielded from injury to which he would
otherwise be certainly exposed.

III. _Young people should be left to find out these things for
themselves._

If human beings received much of their knowledge through instinct, as
animals do, this might be a proper course; but man gets his knowledge
largely by instruction. Young people will get their first knowledge
of sexual matters mostly by instruction from some source. How much
better, then, as we have already shown, to let them obtain this
knowledge from the most natural and most reliable source!

The following paragraph from Dr. Ware is to the point:--

"But putting aside the question whether we ought to hide this subject
wholly from the young if we could, the truth, it is to be feared, is
that we cannot if we would. Admitting it to be desirable, every man
of experience in life will pronounce it to be impracticable. If, then,
we cannot prevent the minds of children from being engaged in some way
on this subject, may it not be better to forestall evil impressions
by implanting good ones, or at least to mingle such good ones with the
evil as the nature of the case admits? Let us be at least as wise as
the crafty enemy of man, and cast in a little wheat with his tares;
and among the most effectual methods of doing this is to impart to the
young just and religious views of the nature and purposes of the
relation which the Creator has established between the two sexes."

_When Shall Information Be Given?_--It is a matter of some difficulty
to decide the exact age at which information on sexual subjects should
be given to the young. It may be adopted as a safe rule, however, that
a certain amount of knowledge should be imparted as soon as there is
manifested a curiosity in this direction. If there is reason to believe
that the mind of the child is exercised in this direction, even though
he may have made no particular inquiries, information should not be
withheld.

_How to Impart Proper Knowledge._--No little skill may be displayed
in introducing these subjects to the mind of the young person in such
a way as to avoid arousing his passions and creating sexual excitement.
Perhaps the general plan followed in the first portion of this work
will be found a very pleasant and successful method if studied
thoroughly and well executed.

All information should not be given at once. First obtain the child's
confidence, and assure him by candor and unreserve that you will give
him all needed information; then, as he encounters difficulties, he
will resort for explanation where he knows he will receive satisfaction.
When the little one questions, answer truthfully and carefully.

The following paragraph by Dr. Wilkinson is suggestive:--

"When we are little boys and girls, our first inquiries about our
_whence_ are answered by the authoritative dogma of the 'silver spade;'
we were dug up with that implement. By degrees the fact comes forth.
The public, however, remains for ages in the silver-spade condition
of mind with regard to the science of the fact; and the doctors foster
it by telling us that the whole subject is a medical property.... There
is nothing wrong in the knowing; and, though the passions might be
stimulated in the first moments by such information, yet in the second
instance they will be calmed by it; and, ceasing to be inflamed by the
additional goad of curiosity and imagination, they will cool down under
the hydropathic influences of science. Well-stated knowledge did never
yet contribute to human inflammation; and we much question whether the
whole theory of the silver spade be not a mistake; and whether children
should not be told the truth from the first; that before desire and
imagination are born, the young mind may receive, in its cool innocency,
a knowledge of the future objects of powers and faculties which are
to be subject afterward to such strong excitements."

The experience of hundreds in the circulation of this work has proven
beyond all chance for question the truth of the foregoing remarks, and
often in a most striking manner. Scores of persons have written us,
"I would give all I possess in this world could I have had a copy of
'Plain Facts' placed in my hands when I was a lad," or, "Words cannot
express the gratitude I would now feel had some kind friend imparted
to me the invaluable information which this book contains; it would
have saved me a life of wretchedness."

We have had the satisfaction of knowing in numerous instances that the
virtue and happiness of whole families have been secured by the timely
warnings of danger which parents have obtained from this work. We are
glad to be able to feel that it is now thoroughly demonstrated that
intelligent persons who have given this subject thought universally
approve of the objects of the work and the manner of presenting the
subject adopted in it. Those who at first question the propriety of
discussing the subject so freely and thoroughly as is here done, lose
their prejudice entirely upon giving the work a careful perusal. In
numerous instances it has occurred that those who were most decided
in their denunciations have become the most zealous and efficient
agents in its circulation after becoming more fully acquainted with
it.




SEX IN LIVING FORMS.


Life, in its great diversity of forms, has ever been a subject of the
deepest interest to rational beings. Poets have sung of its joys and
sorrows, its brilliant phantasies and harsh realities. Philosophers
have spent their lives in vain attempts to solve its mysteries; and
some have held and thought that life was nothing more than a stupendous
farce, a delusion of the senses. Moralists have sought to impress
mankind with the truth that "life is real," and teeming with grave
responsibilities. Physiologists have busied themselves in observing
the phenomena of life, and learning, therefrom, its laws. The subject
is certainly an interesting one, and none could be more worthy of the
most careful attention.

Living Beings.--Man possesses life in common with other beings almost
infinite in number and variety. The hugest beast that roams the forest
or plows the main is no more a living creature than the smallest insect
or microscopic animalculum. The "big tree" of California and the tiny
blade of grass which waves at its foot are alike imbued with life. All
nature teems with life. The practiced eye detects multitudes of living
forms at every glance.

The universe of life presents the most marvelous manifestations of the
infinite power and wisdom of the Creator to be found in all his works.
The student of biology sees life in myriad forms which are unnoticed
by the casual observer. The microscope reveals whole worlds of life
that were unknown before the discovery of this wonderful aid to human
vision,--whole tribes of living organisms, each of which, though
insignificant in size, possesses organs as perfect and as useful to
it in its sphere as do animals of greater magnitude. Under a powerful
magnifying glass, a drop of water from a stagnant pool is found to be
peopled with curious animated forms; slime from a damp rock, or a speck
of green scum from the surface of a pond, presents a museum of living
wonders. Through this instrument the student of nature learns that life
in its lowest form is represented by a mere atom of living matter, an
insignificant speck of trembling jelly, transparent and structureless,
having no organs of locomotion, yet able to move in any direction; no
nerves or organs of sense, yet possessing a high degree of sensibility;
no mouth, teeth, nor organs of digestion, yet capable of taking food,
growing, developing, producing other individuals like itself, becoming
aged, infirm, and dying,--such is the life history of a living creature
at the lower extreme of the scale of animated being. As we rise higher
in the scale, we find similar little atoms of life associated together
in a single individual, each doing its proper share of the work
necessary to maintain the life of the individual as a whole, yet
retaining at the same time its own individual life.

As we ascend to still higher forms, we find this association of minute
living creatures resulting in the production of forms of increasing
complicity. As the structure of the individual becomes more complex
and its functions more varied, the greater is the number of separate,
yet associated, organisms to do the work.

In man, at the very summit of the scale of animate existence, we find
the most delicate and wonderfully intricate living mechanism of all.
In him, as in lower, intermediate forms of life, the life of the
individual is but a summary of the lives of all numberless minute
organisms of which his body is composed. The individual life is but
the aggregate life of all the millions of distinct individuals which
are associated together in the human organism.

Animals and Vegetables.--The first classification of living creatures
separates them into two great kingdoms, animals and vegetables.
Although it is very easy to define the general characteristics of each
of these classes, it is impossible to fix upon any single peculiarity
which will be applicable in every case. Most vegetable organisms remain
stationary, while some possess organs of locomotion, and swim about
in the water in a manner much resembling the movements of certain
animals. Most vegetables obtain their nutriment from the earth and the
air, while animals subsist on living matter. A few plants seem to take
organic matter for food, some even catching and killing small insects.

It is found impossible to draw the precise line between animals and
vegetables, for the reason just mentioned. The two kingdoms blend so
intimately that in some cases it is impossible to tell whether a certain
microscopic speck of life is an animal or a vegetable. But since these
doubtful creatures are usually so minute that several millions of them
can exist in a single drop of water, it is usually of no practical
importance whether they are animal or vegetable, or sometimes one and
sometimes the other, as they have been supposed to be by some
biologists.

All living creatures are _organized_ beings. Most possess a structure
and an organism more or less complicated; but some of the lowest forms
are merely little masses of a transparent, homogeneous jelly, known
as protoplasm. Some of the smallest of these are so minute that one
hundred millions of them could occupy the space of a cube one-thousandth
of an inch on each side; yet each one runs its course of life as regularly
as man himself, performing its proper functions even more perfectly,
perhaps.

Life Force.--To every thinking mind the question often recurs, What
makes the fragrant flower so different from the dead soil from which
it grows? the trilling bird, so vastly superior to the inert atmosphere
in which it flies? What subtle power paints the rose, and tunes the
merry songster's voice? To explain this mystery, philosophers of olden
time supposed the existence of a certain peculiar force which is called
life, or vital force, or vitality. This supposition does nothing more
than furnish a name for a thing unknown, and the very existence of which
may fairly be doubted. In fact, any attempt to find a place for such
a force, to understand its origin, or harmonize its existence with that
of other well-known forces, is unsuccessful; and the theory of a
peculiar vital force, a presiding entity present in every living thing,
vanishes into thin air to give place to the more rational view of the
most advanced modern scientists, that vital force, so-called, is only
a manifestation of the ordinary forces of nature acting through a
peculiar arrangement of matter. In other words, life depends, not upon
a peculiar force, but upon a peculiar arrangement of matter, or
organization. It is simply a peculiar manifestation of the force
possessed by atoms exhibited through a peculiar arrangement of atoms
and molecules. This arrangement is what is known as organization; and
bodies which possess it are known as organized or living bodies. The
term life may be understood as referring to the phenomena which result
from organization.

That life results from organization, not organization from life, is
more consonant with the accepted and established facts of science than
the contrary view. We might adduce numerous facts and arguments in
support of this view of the nature of life, but will not do so here,
as we have considered the subject at some length elsewhere.[1]

[Footnote 1: See "Science and the Bible," pp. 36-46.]

_Nutrition_ and _reproduction_ are the two great functions of life,
being common not only to all animals, but to both animals and plants,
to all classes of living creatures. The object of the first, is the
development and maintenance of the individual existence; the second
has for its end the production of new individuals, or the preservation
of the race. Nutrition is a purely selfish process; reproduction is
purely unselfish in its object; though the human species--unlike the
lower animals, which, while less intelligent, are far more true to
nature--too often pervert its functions to the most grossly selfish
ends.

The subject of nutrition is an important one, and well worthy the
attention of every person who values life. The general disregard of
this subject is undoubtedly the cause of a very large share of the ills
to which human flesh is heir; but our limited space forbids its
consideration here, and we shall confine our attention to reproduction.


REPRODUCTION.

As before remarked, reproduction is a function common to all animals
and to all plants. Every organized being has the power to reproduce
itself, or to produce, or aid in producing, other individuals like
itself. It is by means of this function that plants and animals increase
or multiply.

When we consider the great diversity of characters illustrated in
animal and vegetable life, and the infinite variety of conditions and
circumstances under which organized creatures exist, it is not
surprising that modes of reproduction should also present great
diversity both in general character and in detail. We shall find it
both interesting and instructive to consider some of the many different
modes of reproduction, or generation, observed in different classes
of living beings, previous to entering upon the specific study of
reproduction in man. Before doing thus, however, let us give brief
attention to a theoretical form of generation, which cannot be called
reproduction, known as

Spontaneous Generation.--By this term is meant the supposed formation
of living creatures directly from dead matter without the intervention
of other living organisms. The theory is, in substance, an old one.
The ancients supposed that the frogs and other small reptiles so
abundant in the vicinity of slimy pools and stagnant marshes, were
generated spontaneously from the mud and slime in which they lived.
This theory was, of course, abandoned when the natural history of
reptiles became known.

For several thousand years the belief was still held that maggots found
in decaying meat were produced spontaneously; but it was discovered,
centuries ago, that maggots are not formed if the flesh is protected
from flies, since they are the larvae, or young, of a species of this
insect. A relic of the ancient belief in spontaneous generation is still
found in the supposition that horse-hair snakes, so-called, are really
formed from the hairs of horses. This belief is quite common, but
science long ago exposed its falsity.

When the microscope was discovered it revealed a whole new world of
infinitesimal beings which were at first supposed to be of spontaneous
origin; but careful scientific investigation has shown that even these
mere specks of life are not independent of parentage. M. Pasteur and,
more recently, Prof. Tyndall, with many other distinguished scientists,
have demonstrated this fact beyond all reasonable chance for question.

It is, then, an established law that _every living organism originates
with some previously existing living being or beings_.

It may be queried, If it be true that life is but a manifestation of
the ordinary forces of matter,--which are common to both dead and living
matter,--being dependent upon arrangement, then why may it not be that
dead matter may, through the action of molecular laws, and without the
intervention of any living existence, assume those peculiar forms of
arrangement necessary to constitute life, as supposed by the advocates
of the theory in question? It is true that some who recognize the fact
that life is the result of organization maintain the doctrine of
_spontaneous generation_; that is, the production of life without any
agency other than the recognized forces of nature being brought about
simply by a fortuitous combination of atoms. Although this doctrine
cannot be said to be inconsistent with the theory of life presented,
yet it is by no means a legitimate or necessary result of it; and
observation proves its falsity.

The testimony of all nature, as almost universally admitted by
scientific men, is that life originated through a creative act by the
first Great Cause, who gave to certain bodies the requisite arrangement
or organization to enable them to perform certain functions, and
delegated to them the power to transmit the same to other matter, and
thus to perpetuate life. The Creator alone has the power to originate
life. Man, with all his wisdom and attainments, cannot discover the
secret of organization. He may become familiar with its phenomena, but
he cannot unravel, further, the mystery of life. The power of organizing
is possessed only by the lower class of living or organized bodies,
those known as vegetable organisms or plants. A grain of wheat, a kernel
of corn, a potato, when placed under favorable conditions, takes the
inert, lifeless particles of matter which lie about it in the earth
and air, and organizes them into living substances like itself.

To man and animals the Creator delegated the power to form their own
peculiar structures from the vitalized tissues of plants. Thus, both
animal and vegetable life is preserved without the necessity of
continued acts of creative power, each plant and each animal possessing
the power not only to preserve its own life, but also to aid, at least,
in the perpetuation of the species. The record of creation in Genesis
harmonizes perfectly with this view, it being represented that God
formed (organized or arranged) man, animals, and vegetable productions
from the earth.

Simplest Form of Generation.--Deep down beneath the waters of the ocean,
covering its bottom in certain localities, is found a curious slime,
which, under the microscope, is seen to be composed of minute rounded
masses of gelatinous matter, or protoplasm. By watching these little
bodies intently for a few minutes, the observer will discover that each
is a living creature capable of moving, growing, and assuming a variety
of shapes. Continued observation will reveal the fact that these little
creatures multiply; and a more careful scrutiny will enable him to see
_how_ they increase. Each divides into two equal parts so nearly alike
that they cannot be distinguished apart. In this case the process of
generation is simply the production of two similar individuals from
one.

A small quantity of slime taken from the surface of a stone near the
bottom of an old well, or on the seaside, when placed under the
microscope, will sometimes be found to contain large numbers of small,
round, living bodies. Careful watching will show that they also
multiply by division; but before the division occurs, two cells unite
to form one by a process called _conjugation_. Then, by the division
of this cell, instead of only two cells, a large number of small cells
are formed, each of which may be considered as a bud formed upon the
body of the parent cell and then separated from it to become by growth
an individual like its parent, and, like it, to produce its kind. In
this case, we have new individuals formed by the union of two
individuals which are to all appearance entirely similar in every
particular.

Sex.--Rising higher in the scale of being, we find that, with rare
exceptions, reproduction is the result of the union of two dissimilar
elements. These elements do not, in higher organisms, as in lower forms
of life, constitute the individuals, but are produced by them; and being
unlike, they are produced by special organs, each adapted to the
formation of one kind of elements. The two classes of organs usually
exist in separate individuals, thus giving rise to distinctions of
_sex_; an individual possessing organs which form one kind of elements
being called a male, and one possessing organs for the formation of
the other kind of elements, a female. The sexual differences between
individuals of the same species are not, however, confined to the sexual
organs. In most classes of plants and animals, other sexual differences
are very great. In some of the lower orders of animals, and in many
species of plants, the male and female individuals are so much unlike
that for a long time after they were well known, no sexual relation
was discovered.

Hermaphrodism.--An individual possessing both male and female organs
of reproduction is called an _hermaphrodite_. Such a combination is
very rare among higher animals; but it is by no means uncommon among
plants and the lower forms of animal life. The snail, the oyster, the
earth-worm, and the common tape-worm, are examples of true
hermaphrodites. So-called human hermaphrodites are usually
individuals in whom the sexual organs are abnormally developed so that
they resemble those of the opposite sex, though they really have but
one sex, which can usually be determined with certainty. Only a very
few cases have been observed in which both male and female organs were
present.

There is now living in Germany an individual who bears the name of a
woman; but learned physicians have decided that the person is as much
man as woman, having the organs of both sexes. What is still more curious,
this person has the feelings of both sexes, having loved at first a
man, and afterward a woman. There have been observed, also, a very few
instances of individuals in whom the sexual organs of neither sex were
present. It thus appears that a person may be of both sexes or of no
sex at all.

Sex in Plants.--To one unacquainted with the mysteries of plant life
and growth, the idea of attaching sexuality to plants seems very
extraordinary; but the botanist recognizes the fact that the
distinctions of sex are as clearly maintained in the vegetable as in
the animal kingdom. The sexual organs of the higher orders of plants
are flowers. That part of the flower which produces seeds answers to
the female; another part, which is incapable of forming seeds, answers
to the male. The fertile and sterile flowers are sometimes produced
on separate plants. Very frequently, they are produced upon separate
parts of the same plant, as in the oak, walnut, and many other forest
trees, and Indian corn. In the latter plant, so familiar to every one,
the "tassel" contains the male flowers, and the part known as the
"silk," with the portion to which it is attached--which becomes the
ear--the female or fertile flowers. In a large number of species, the
male and female organs are combined in a single flower, making a true
hermaphrodite.

Sex in Animals.--As previously remarked, individuals of opposite sex
usually differ much more than in the character of their sexual organs
only. Among higher animals, the male is usually larger, stronger, and
of coarser structure than the female. The same contrast is observed
in their mental characters. With lower animals, especially insects,
the opposite is often observed. The female spider is many times larger
than the male. The male ant is small in size when compared with the
female. Nevertheless, in all classes of animals the difference in the
structure and the functions of the sexual organs is the chief
distinguishing character. These differences are not so great, however,
as they might at first appear. The male and female organs of
reproduction in man and other animals, which seem so dissimilar, when
studied in the light shed upon this subject by the science of embryology,
are found to be wonderfully alike in structure, differing far more in
appearance than in reality, and being little more than modifications
of one general plan. Every organ to be found in the one sex has an
analogue in the other which is complete in every particular,
corresponding in function, in structure, and usually in position.

Other Sexual Differences.--In this country there is between five and
six inches difference in height and about twenty pounds difference in
weight between the average man and the average woman, the average man
being about five feet, eight inches in height, and weighing one hundred
and forty-five pounds; while the average woman is five feet, two or
two and one-half inches in height, and weighs one hundred and
twenty-five pounds. The relation of the sexes in height and weight
varies in degree in different countries, but is never changed. The
average height and weight of American men and women is considerably
above that of the average human being.

Men and Women Differ in Form.--The differences in form are so marked
that it is possible for the skilled anatomist to determine the sex of
a human being who has been dead for ages, by an examination of the
skeleton alone. In man, the shoulders are broad, the hips narrow, and
the limbs nearly straight with the body. In woman, the shoulders are
narrow and usually rounded, and set farther back, the collar-bone being
longer and less curved, giving the chest greater prominence; while the
hips are broad.

The consequence of these differences is that woman is generally less
graceful and naturally less skillful in the use of the extremities than
man, and hence less fitted for athletic sports and feats requiring great
dexterity. A girl throws a stone awkwardly, less from want of practice
than from a natural peculiarity of physical structure. A woman walks
less gracefully than a man, owing to the greater relative breadth of
her hips, requiring a motion of the body together with that of the limbs.
In consequence of this peculiarity, a woman is less fitted for walking
long distances.

Modern Mania for Female Pedestrianism.--Nothing could be much more
inhuman than the exhibitions made in satisfying the mania for female
pedestrianism which has recently arisen. Not long since, in walking
down one of the principal streets of Boston, we passed, in going a
distance of thirty rods, three illuminated placards announcing to the
public that in as many different public halls four female pedestrians
were exhibiting their walking talents for the gratification of the
crowds of bawdy loafers and jockeys who congregated to criticize their
several "points," and bet on their walking capacity, as though they
were horses on a race-course or hounds on a fox hunt.

3,000 Quarter Miles in 3,000 Quarter Hours.--We visited the halls and
ascertained that two of these misguided women were attempting the feat
of walking respectively 2,700 and 3,000 quarter miles in an equal number
of successive quarter hours. This would require almost incessant
exertion for nearly twenty-eight days in one case, and for more than
thirty-one days in the other, without at any time a period of unbroken
rest longer than ten minutes. Such a procedure, in the light of
physiology, is a greater inhumanity than the most merciless Boston
teamster would inflict upon his dumb brutes. Why does not Mr. Bergh
exercise his function in such cases? We did not wonder that the poor
women looked pale and suffering, and trudged along with a limping gait.

A Female Walking Match.--At another hall we found two women engaged
in a "walking match." The hall was so crowded with spectators--with
very few exceptions of the male sex--that it was with difficulty the
narrow track could be kept clear.

The sixty hours for which the walk was to be continued had nearly expired,
and the excitement grew more intense each moment. One of the walkers,
who was a few miles in advance, strode on at a pace almost marvelous,
constantly stimulated to greater efforts by the coarse shouts of the
masculine audience, who evidently took the same sort of interest in
the proceeding that they would in a dog race or a cock fight. The other
was pale and spiritless, and it seemed with difficulty that she dragged
herself along to keep upon the track until the last. At times she seemed
to be almost fainting, as the result of the long-continued excitement
and fatigue; but she managed to keep going until nine minutes before
the slow moving clock had measured off the sixty hours, when she became
too ill to be longer able to stand, and was carried off the track.

The cheers for the winner were as vigorous as though a rebel fort had
been captured, a million people emancipated from slavery, or some great
and noble deed of honor or daring had been done; but no one thought
of the injury which had been done the contestant. We turned away in
disgust.

The ancient Greeks and Romans amused themselves with witnessing the
gladiatorial contests of their male slaves; but it was left for
civilized America to introduce woman into the "ring" and make her show
her paces on the race-course. An ungraceful figure she cuts, and a
repulsive spectacle she presents; and worst of all is the havoc which
she makes with her health. At the very time that these four female
pedestrians were making their disgraceful exhibit in Boston, in another
part of the same city lay a helpless invalid who was once as noted a
"female walkist" as any of them, made hopelessly ill by the same
disregard of the plainest laws of nature.

The Male and the Female Brain.--But there are other important physical
differences to which we must call attention. Man possesses a larger
brain than woman, but she makes up the deficiency in size by superior
fineness in quality. The female brain differs from the masculine organ
of mentality in other particulars so marked that one who has given the
subject attention can determine with perfect ease the probable sex of
the owner of almost any skull which might be presented to him. This
difference in the conformation of the skull is undoubtedly due to a
difference in mental character, which, in turn, depends upon a
difference in cerebral development. Faculties which are generally
largely developed in one are usually smaller in the other, and the
reverse.

Vital Organs of Man and Woman.--The anatomist also observes an
interesting difference in the size of the various vital organs. For
example, while a woman has a heart proportionally smaller than the same
organ in man, she has a larger liver. Thus, while less well fitted for
severe physical exertion by less circulatory power, she has superior
excretory powers.

Woman Less Muscular, More Enduring.--This peculiarity of structure is
perfectly harmonious with the fact which experience has established
so often as to make the matter no longer a question, that woman is less
fitted for severe muscular exertion than man, but possesses in a
superior degree the quality known as endurance. With a less robust frame,
a more delicately organized constitution, she will endure for months
what would kill a robust man in as many weeks. More perfect elimination
of the wastes of the body secures a higher grade of vitality. On no
other hypothesis could we account for the marvelous endurance of the
feminine part of the civilized portion of the human race, ground down
under the heel of fashion for ages, "stayed," "corseted," "laced," and
thereby distorted and deformed in a manner that would be fatal to almost
any member of the masculine sex.

A Pathological Difference.--Most physiologists mention another
particular in which woman differs materially from man; viz, in
naturally employing, in respiration, chiefly the upper part of the
lungs, while man breathes chiefly with the lower part of the lungs.
For several years we have carefully studied this question, and we have
been unable to find any physiological or anatomical reason sufficient
to account for this fact, if it be such.

Why a Woman Does not Breathe Like a Man.--It is undoubtedly true that
most women do breathe almost exclusively with the upper part of the
chest; but whether this is a _natural_ peculiarity, or an acquired,
unnatural, and depraved one, is a question which we are decidedly
inclined to answer in harmony with the latter supposition, basing our
conclusion on the following undeniable facts:--

1. In childhood, and until about the age of puberty, respiration in
the boy and the girl is exactly the same.

2. Although there is a change in the mode of respiration in most females,
usually soon after the period of puberty, marked by increased
intercostal respiration and diminished abdominal or deep respiration,
this change can be accounted for on other than physiological grounds.

3. We believe the cause of this modification of respiration is the
change in dress which is usually made about that time. The young girl
is now becoming a woman, and must acquire the art of lacing, wearing
a corset, "stays," and sundry other contrivances by means of which to
produce a "fine form" by distorting and destroying all natural grace
and beauty in the "form divine."

4. We have met a number of ladies whose good fortune and good sense
had delivered them from the distorting influence of corset-wearing and
tight-lacing, and we have invariably observed that they are as capable
of deep respiration as men, and practice it as naturally.

We are thoroughly convinced that this so-called physiological
difference between man and woman is really a pathological rather than
a natural difference, and is due to the evils of fashionable dress,
which we have exposed at some length in another work exclusively devoted
to that subject.[2] In short, we believe that the only reason why women
do not, under ordinary circumstances, breathe as do men, is simply
_because they can not_ breathe naturally.

[Footnote 2: "Evils of Fashionable Dress, and How to Dress
Healthfully."]

The Reproductive Elements.--As has been previously observed, in all
except the very lowest forms of life, two elements are necessary to
the production of a new individual, or a reproduction of the species--a
male element and a female element. The special organs by means of which
these elements are produced, brought together, and developed into the
new individual in a more or less perfect state, are termed _sexual
organs_, as we have already seen. As an introduction to the specific
study of the sexual organs in the human species, let us briefly consider
the

Sexual Organs of Plants.--As already remarked, flowers are the sexual
organs of plants. Nothing is more interesting in the natural world than
the wonderful beauty, diversity, and perfect adaptability to various
conditions and functions, which we see in the sexual parts of plants.
An exceedingly interesting line of study, which has occupied the
attention of many naturalists, is the wonderful perfection displayed
in the adaptability of the male and female parts of plants to each other.
Without burdening the reader with unnecessary technicalities of detail,
we will briefly notice the principal parts of vegetable sexual organs
as illustrated in flowers.

Complete flowers are made up of four parts, two of which, the _stamen_
and _pistil_, are essential, while the other two, the calyx and corolla,
are accessory.

The _calyx_ is that part which surrounds the flower at its outer and
lower part. It varies greatly in form and color, but is most frequently
of a green or greenish color.

Just within the calyx is the _corolla_, which usually forms the most
attractive, showy, and beautiful part of the flower. The beautifully
colored petals of the rose, geranium, dahlia, and other similar flowers,
form their corollas.

Vegetable Husbands.--Within the cup formed by the calyx and corolla
are placed the _stamens_ and _pistils_ of the flower, the first being
the male organs proper, and the second the female organs of the flower.

The stamen is composed of a stem or filament, at the summit of which
are placed two little sacks called the _anther_, which contain a fine,
microscopic dust, the _pollen_, which contains the male reproductive
element of the flower. This part of the plant corresponds to the male
organ of reproduction in animals. A stamen has been called, not inaptly,
a vegetable husband. Some flowers have many stamens, or vegetable
husbands, which reminds us of the custom in Thibet and some other
Eastern countries which allows a woman to have several husbands.

Polygamous Flowers.--The great naturalist, Linnaeus, whose name was
immortalized by his careful study and classification of organized life,
made the number of stamens possessed by various flowers the basis of
a systematic classification.

For example, a flower having but one stamen was classed as _monandria_,
which means, literally, one husband; one having two stamens was
classified as _diandria_; flowers having a large number of male organs
were termed _polyandria_, or many husbands.

The Female Organ of Flowers.--The _pistil_ occupies the very center
of the flower. It produces and contains in a cell, the female element,
termed the _ovule_. It is surmounted by the _style_ and the _stigma_.

A series of plants in which the sexual organs are not visible to the
eye are termed _cryptogamia_, which means literally, hidden marriages.

As we proceed to study the anatomy of the human sexual apparatus we
shall be constantly struck with the remarkable correspondence between
animals and vegetables in the structure and functions of the sexual
apparatus.

Sexual Organs of Animals.--The male reproductive element is called a
_spermatozoon_ or _zoosperm_. The female element is called an _ovum_,
literally, an egg.

The Spermatozoon.--The male reproductive element of animals is formed
by an organ called the _testis_, or _testicle_, of which each male
possesses two. They are elastic, glandular bodies, and are formed
within the cavity of the abdomen, near the kidneys, but usually pass
out of the abdominal cavity and descend to their permanent position
before birth. The opening in the abdominal wall is usually completely
closed in a short time; but occasionally it remains open, giving rise
to congenital hernia, an accident in which a loop of intestine follows
the testicle down into the scrotum, either completely or partially.
In a few animals, as in the porcupine, the opening is never fully closed,
and the testis remains in the cavity of the body most of the time,
passing out only at certain periods. We also occasionally meet cases
of human beings in which the testes have never descended from their
place in the abdominal cavity, giving the individuals the appearance
of eunuchs. This condition, however, though an abnormal one, does not
in any way interfere with the function of the organs, as those who happen
to possess it often imagine. We have also met with cases in which the
organs were movable, and could readily be pressed up into the abdominal
cavity, through the unclosed inguinal cavity, which afforded them a
passage downward in the process of development.

As before remarked, these peculiarities do not affect the functions
of the organs in any appreciable degree, although they not infrequently
give rise to some apprehension on the part of those subject to them.
The left testicle is sometimes a little smaller than the right, another
fact which is seized upon by quacks as a means of exciting the fears
of young men who have been addicted to bad habits, although the
peculiarity is generally without important significance.

The testicles are connected with the urinary passage by means of two
ducts which terminate near the base of the bladder, at which point they
connect with the urethra. We need not dwell at further length upon the
structure of the testicles, as this subject receives fuller attention
elsewhere.

Human spermatozoa are about 1/600 of an inch in length. Those of
reptiles are very much larger. One of the remarkable features of these
minute elements is their peculiar movements. While alive, the
filamentous tail is in constant action in a manner strongly resembling
the movements of the caudal appendage of a tadpole. This wonderful
property led the earlier observers to believe that they were true
animalcula. But they are not to be regarded as such, though one can
scarcely make himself believe otherwise while watching their lively
evolutions, and apparent volitionary movement from one point to
another.

Spermatozoa originate in the testis as cells, which are filled with
granules. After a time, each granule acquires a long appendage, and
then the cell has become converted into a bundle of small zoosperms.
Development still continues, until finally the thin pellicle on the
outside of the bundle is ruptured, thus liberating the young
spermatozoa, which speedily complete their full development. The
spermatozoon is pure protoplasm, which is the basis of all life, and
its power of spontaneous motion is due to this fact.

In man, the formation of spermatozoa continues with greater or less
rapidity from puberty to old age, though at the two extremes of
existence they are imperfectly developed. When not discharged from the
body, they are said to be absorbed. Some physiologists claim that they
are composed of a substance identical with nerve tissue, and that by
absorption they play a very important part in the development and
maintenance of the nervous system.

It is asserted by good authorities that the reproductive element in
man is not so well developed as to be really fit for the reproduction
of the species before the age of twenty-four or twenty-five. After the
age of forty-five or fifty, the reproductive elements deteriorate in
quality, and become again unfitted for vigorous procreation.

The fully developed zoosperms are suspended in a transparent,
gelatinous fluid, which, mingled with the secretion of the prostate
gland and other fluids which it meets during its expulsion from the
body, constitutes the _semen_.

The Ovum.--The female element of generation, the ovum, is produced by
an organ called the _ovary_, of which there are two in each individual.
In size and form, the ovary closely resembles the testicle. Like the
latter organ, also, it is formed within the body early in the process
of development; but instead of passing outward and downward, as does
the testicle, it remains within the abdominal cavity, suspended in
place by ligaments. It is connected with a duct which receives the ovum
as it is discharged, and conveys it to the uterus.

The human ovum varies in size from 1/240 to 1/120 of an inch in diameter,
and consists of a single cell. Ova are not formed in such large numbers
as zoosperms. As a general rule, in the human female, a single ovum
is developed and discharged once in about four weeks, during the period
of sexual activity.

Fecundation.--It is often asked, and the question has elicited some
discussion, Which is the principal reproductive element; the zoosperm,
or the ovum? The ancients supposed the male element to be the essential
element, being simply nourished and developed by the female; but modern
research in biological science does not sustain this view. Probably
neither one enjoys especial preeminence; for neither can undergo
complete development without the other. In very rare cases, the ovum
has been observed to undergo a certain amount of development of itself;
but a perfect individual can be produced only by the union of the two
kinds of elements, which process is known as _fecundation_. The instant
this union occurs, the life of a new individual begins. All the changes
which result between that moment and the birth of the individual are
those of development only. Indeed, the same existence continues from
the instant of the union of the two elements, not only until birth,
but through growth, the attainment of maturity, the decline of life,
and even until death.

It is interesting to observe the different methods by which fecundation
is effected, both in plants and animals, for this is a process common
to both.

Fecundation in Flowers.--The great naturalist, Linnaeus, was the first
to explain the reproductive process in plants. He tells us that "the
flower forms the theater of their amours; the calyx is to be considered
as the nuptial bed; the corolla constitutes the curtains; the anthers
are the testes; the pollen, the fecundating fluid; the stigma of the
pistil, the external genital aperture; the style, the vagina, or the
conductor of the prolific seed; the ovary of the plant, the womb; the
reciprocal action of the stamens on the pistil, the accessory process
of fecundation."

Thus marvelous is the analogy between the reproductive organs and their
functions in plants and animals. Through this one vital process we may
trace a close relation between all the forms of life, from the humblest
plant, or even the mere specks of life which form the green scum upon
a stagnant pool, to man, the masterpiece of creation, the highest of
all animated creatures. In all the realm of Nature there can be found
no more remarkable evidences of the infinite skill and wisdom of the
Creator of all things.

In many instances the action of plants seems almost to be prompted by
intelligence. At the proper moment, the corolla contracts in such a
way as to bring the stamens nearer to the stigma, or in contact with
it, so as to insure fecundation. In some aquatic plants the flowers
elevate themselves above the surface of water while the process of
fecundation is effected; submerging themselves again immediately
afterward.

Other very curious changes occur in flowers of different species during
the reproductive act. The stigma is observed to become moistened, and
even to become distinctly odorous. Often, too, it becomes intensely
congested with the juices of the plant, and sometimes even acquires
an uncommon and most remarkable degree of contractility. This is the
case with the stigma of the tulip and one variety of sensitive plant,
and is in these plants observed to occur not only after the application
of the pollen to the stigma, but when excited by any other means of
stimulation. The flowers of some plants, during and after fecundation,
also show an increase of heat, in some cases so marked as to be readily
detected with the thermometer. This is said to be the case with the
_arum_ of Italy.

In some plants in which the pistil is longer than the stamens, thus
elevating the stigma above the anthers, the female organ is often
observed to bend over and depress itself so as to come within reach
of the anthers.

In most instances the fecundation of flowers is chiefly effected
through a purely mechanical process, though in these cases also we see
a wonderful adaptation of parts to conditions.

When the male and female parts of flowers are situated on different
plants, as is the case in the willow, the poplar, the melon vine, and
many other species, the pollen of the male flower is wafted by the wind
or gentle breeze to the stigma of the female flower, which will usually
be found at no very great distance, although fertilization may take
place in this way at very considerable distances. Bees, moths, and many
other species of insects, serve a very important purpose in this work,
transporting the fertilizing dust upon their wings, antennae,
sucking-tubes, and feet. Small birds, and even the humble snail, which
would scarcely be credited with any useful function, are also very
serviceable in the same direction. The part performed by insects in
the reproductive process of many plants is so great that they have been
very poetically termed "the marriage priests of flowers."

Nature provides for thorough fecundation in these cases by placing the
plants which bear the male and the female flowers near each other. This
fact accounts for the unproductiveness of certain varieties of
strawberries unless mixed with plants of some other variety, it being
well known to nursery-men that some varieties produce only the female
parts of flowers.

Modes of Fecundation in Animals.--The modes by which fecundation is
effected in animals are still more various and wonderful than in plants.
In some of the lower animals, as in most fish and reptiles, both elements
are discharged from the bodies of the parents before coming in contact,
there being no contact of the two individuals. In this class of animals
the process is almost wholly analogous to fecundation in those plants
in which the male and female flowers are on different plants or
different parts of the same plant. In the female fish, a large number
of ova are developed at a certain season of the year known as the
spawning season. Sometimes the number reaches many thousands. At the
same time, the testicles of the male fish, which are contained within
the abdominal cavity, become distended with developed zoosperms. When
the female seeks a place to deposit her eggs, the male closely follows;
and as she drops them upon the gravelly bottom, he discharges upon them
the zoosperms by which they are fecundated. The process is analogous
to some species of frogs. When the female is about to deposit her eggs,
the male mounts upon her back and rides about until the eggs are all
deposited, discharging upon them the fertilizing spermatozoa as they
are laid by the female.

In higher orders of animals, fecundation takes place within the
generative organs of the female by contact between the male and the
female organs. To effect this, there are necessitated certain accessory
organs, the _penis_ in the male and the _vagina_ in the female.

Nothing in all the range of nature is more remarkable than the
adaptation of the two varieties of sexual organs in each species. This
necessary provision is both a powerful means of securing the
perpetuation of the species, and an almost impassable barrier against
amalgamation.

The act of union, or sexual congress, is called _coitus_ or _copulation_.
It is accompanied by a peculiar nervous spasm due to excitement of
special nerves principally located in the _penis_ in the male, and in
an extremely sensitive organ, the _clitoris_, in the female. The
nervous action referred to is more exhausting to the system than any
other to which it is subject.

Union of the Ovum and Zoosperm.--The zoosperms not only come in contact
with the ovum, but penetrate the thin membrane which incloses its
contents, and enter its interior, where they disappear, becoming united
with its substance. In the ova of certain fishes, small openings have
been observed through which the spermatozoa find entrance. Whether such
openings exist in human ova is an undecided question; but it is probable
that they do.

Curious Modes of Reproduction.--A peculiar kind of reproduction is
observed in a variety of polyp, a curious animal which very much
resembles a shrub in appearance. It attaches itself to some solid object,
and then, as it grows, sends out little protuberances resembling buds.
Some of these separate and fall off, swimming about as separate animals.
These never become like the parent polyp; but they lay eggs, which hatch,
and become stationary polyps like their grandparent, and in their turn
throw off buds to form swimming polyps. In this case we have two kinds
of generation combined, alternating with each other.

Plant-lice afford a curious illustration of a similar generation. Males
and females unite and produce eggs. The creatures produced by the
hatching of eggs are neither males nor perfect females. They are
_imperfect females_. They are all alike, so that no sexual union occurs.
Instead of laying eggs, they produce live young like themselves, which
appear to be developed from internal buds similar to the external buds
of the polyp. After this method of reproduction has continued for eight
or ten generations, a few perfect individuals appear, and the first
process is repeated.

The common honey-bee affords another illustration like the last. A
virgin queen sometimes lays eggs, which always produce males, or drones.
After union with a male, she lays eggs in the royal cells which become
perfect females like herself. She also seems to have the power to lay,
at will, unfecundated eggs, from which drones are produced.

Human Beings Are Developed Buds.--It has been very aptly suggested by
an eminent physiologist that the ovum and zoosperm may be correctly
considered as internal buds. Thus it would appear that generation is
universally a process of budding. A child is but a compound bud, an
offshoot from its parents. This idea is not a mere fancy, but has a
scientific basis. As all the exquisite details of the most beautiful
flower are in essence contained within the tiny bud which first makes
its appearance, so is the developed human being, the full-grown man
or woman, virtually contained within the tiny cell called the ovum after
it has been impregnated or fecundated by the zoosperms. In short, men
and women are blossoms in a strictly scientific sense.

Fecundation in Hermaphrodites.--The process of fecundation in
hermaphrodite animals is very peculiar. In some cases, as in the snail,
the union of two individuals is usually necessary, though each
possesses both kinds of organs. In other cases, as in the tape-worm,
the oyster, and numerous other mollusks, a single individual has the
power to fertilize its own ova, thus being wholly independent. Human
hermaphrodites are usually so deformed that fecundation is not effected,
which is a fortunate safeguard against the multiplication of such
monstrosities.

Development.--After the union of the two elements, known as fecundation
or _conception_, if the conditions are favorable, development occurs,
and the little germ is in due process of time developed into an
individual which is an exact counterpart of its parents. During this
developmental process, the embryonic being is variously treated by
different classes of animals.

Unprotected Development.--Most fishes and reptiles discharge their ova
before fecundation, or soon after, and pay no further attention to them.
The fish deposits its eggs in a little hollow scooped out in the gravelly
bed of a stream, or sows them broadcast upon the waters. The turtle
buries its eggs in the sand, and leaves them to be hatched by the sun.
The ostrich disposes of her eggs in the same way. Many other species
of animals pay no regard to the protection of the germs which are
destined, if placed under favorable conditions, to become individuals
like themselves.

Partial Protection of the Ovum.--There are some exceptions, however,
to this general rule among fishes and reptiles. Even fishes manifest
a degree of parental solicitude in certain cases. The male of a species
of South American fish gathers up the eggs after fecundation has taken
place, and carries them in his mouth until they are hatched. Another
male fish carries the eggs of his mate in a little pouch upon the lower
and posterior part of his body.

Certain species of frogs carry their eggs wound about their legs; others
suspend them from the abdomen. Another variety carries its young upon
its back. Prof. Wyman describes a "swamp toad" which patiently takes
the eggs of his mate, one by one, and fastens them upon her back,
observing great regularity in arrangement. These several devices are
evidently for the purpose of protecting, in some degree, the young
individual during the helpless stage of its existence.

Development in the Higher Animals and Man.--Higher animals are less
prolific, and their development is a more complicated process; hence,
their young need greater protection, and, for this reason, the ova,
instead of being discharged from the body of the female after
fecundation, are retained.[3] As we have seen that a suitable
receptacle is sometimes provided outside of the body, so now a
receptacle is needed, and is provided in the interior of the body of
the female. This receptacle is called

[Footnote 3: Curious examples of internal development sometimes occur
in animals which usually deposit eggs. Snakes have been known to produce
both eggs and living young at the same time. At the annual meeting of
the American Society for the Advancement of Science, at Detroit, Mich.,
in August, 1875, we had the pleasure of examining a specimen, exhibited
by Prof. Wilder, of a chick which had undergone a considerable degree
of development within the ovary of the hen. It had a head, a rudimentary
brain, and internal viscera, but no feathers nor limbs. It was, in fact,
an egg hatched before it had been laid. The anomaly excited much
interest at that time and since among biologists.]

The Uterus.--This is a hollow, pear-shaped organ, located in the median
line, just behind the bladder, between it and the rectum. It is
supported in place by various ligaments and by the juxtaposition of
other organs. Its larger end is directed upward, and communicates upon
each side with a very narrow tube which is prolonged outward on either
side until it nearly touches the ovary of the same side. Its lower and
smaller end fills the internal extremity of the passage previously
described as the vagina. When an ovum is matured, it escapes from the
ovary into the narrow tube referred to, called the _Fallopian tube_,
and passes down into the cavity of the uterus. If fecundation does not
occur, it is expelled or absorbed after six to twelve or fourteen days.
If copulation occurs, however, zoosperms are brought into the cavity
of the uterus, and, coming in contact with the ovum, fecundate it. This
is _conception_. When the natural process is allowed to proceed,
development occurs.

Uterine Gestation.--This is the term applied to the process last
referred to. We shall not attempt to describe in detail this most
wonderful and intricate of all living processes; but will sketch only
the chief points, leaving the reader who would obtain a more complete
knowledge of the subject to consult any one of the numerous
physiological and obstetrical works which deal with it in a very
exhaustive manner.

As soon as the ovum is impregnated by the male element, it begins a
process of symmetrical division. The first division produces two cells
out of the single one which first existed. By the next division, four
segments are produced; then eight, sixteen, etc. While this process
is going on, the ovum becomes adherent to the internal wall of the uterus,
and is soon enveloped by its mucous membrane, which grows up about and
incloses it.

The Primitive Trace.--When the process of segmentation has advanced
to a certain point, the cells are aggregated together in a compact layer
at the surface. Soon a straight line appears upon this layer, which
is called the _primitive trace_. This delicate line becomes the basis
for the spinal column; and upon and about it the whole individual is
developed by an intricate process of folding, dividing, and
reduplication of the layer of cells. One end of the line becomes the
head, and the other becomes the tail. Even man has a caudal appendage
at an early stage of his existence. After a further lapse of time, little
excrescences, buds, or "pads," appear in the proper positions to
represent the arms and legs. After further development the ends split
up into fingers and toes, and by the continued development of the parts,
perfect arms and legs are formed.

Curious Relation to Lower Animals.--It is a very remarkable fact that
in the lower animals we have numerous examples in which the permanent
condition of the individual is the same as some one of the stages through
which man passes in the process of development. The same author
previously quoted makes the following interesting statements:--

"The webbed feet of the seal and ornithorhynchus typify the period when
the hands and feet of the human embryo are as yet only partly subdivided
into fingers and toes. Indeed, it is not uncommon for the 'web' to
persist to some extent between the toes of adults; and occasionally
children are born with two or more fingers or toes united to their tips.

"With the seal and the walrus, the limbs are protruded but little beyond
the wrist and ankle. With the ordinary quadrupeds, the knee and elbow
are visible. The cats, the lemurs, and the monkeys form a series in
which the limbs are successively freed from the trunk, and in the
highest apes they are capable of nearly the same movements as the human
arm and leg, which, in their development, passed through all these
stages."

Simplicity of Early Structures.--The first structures formed are
exceedingly simple in form. It is only by slow degrees that the great
complicity which characterizes many organs is finally attained. For
example, the heart is at first only a straight tube. By enlargement
and the formation of longitudinal and transverse partitions, the fully
developed organ is finally produced. The stomach and intestines are
also at first but a simple straight tube. The stomach and large
intestine are formed by dilatation; and by a growth of the tube in length
while the ends are confined, the small intestines are formed. The other
internal organs are successively developed by similar processes.

The Stages of Growth.--At first insignificant in size--a simple cell,
the embryonic human being steadily increases in size, gradually
approximating more and more closely to the human form, until, at the
end of about nine calendar months or ten lunar months, the new
individual is prepared to enter the world and begin a more independent
course of life. The following condensation of a summary quoted by Dr.
Austin Flint, Jr., will give an idea of the size of the developing being
at different periods, and the rate of progress:--

At the end of the third week, the embryon is a little less than
one-fourth of an inch in length.

At the end of the seventh week, it is three-fourths of an inch long.
The liver, lungs, and other internal organs are partially formed.

At the eighth week, it is about one inch in length. It begins to look
some like a human being, but it is impossible to determine the sex.

At the third month, the embryon has attained the length of two to two
and one-half inches. Its weight is about one ounce.

At the end of the fourth month, the embryon is called a fetus. It is
from four to five inches long, and weighs five ounces.

At the fifth month, the fetus is nearly a foot long, and weighs about
half a pound.

At the sixth month, the average length of the fetus is about thirteen
inches, and its weight one and a half to two pounds. If born, life could
continue a few minutes.

At the seventh month, the fetus is from fourteen to fifteen inches long,
and weighs two to three pounds. It is now viable (may live if born).

At the eighth month, the length of the fetus is from fifteen to sixteen
inches, and its weight from three to four pounds.

At the ninth month, the fetus is about seventeen inches long, and weighs
from five to six pounds.

At birth, the infant weighs a little more than seven pounds, the usual
range being from four to ten pounds, though these limits are sometimes
exceeded.

Duration of Gestation.--The length of time required for the development
of a human being is usually reckoned as about forty weeks. A more precise
statement places it at about two hundred and seventy-eight days. This
limit is often varied from. Cases have occurred in which a much longer
time has been required, and numberless cases have occurred in which
human beings have been born several weeks before the expiration of the
usual time, as stated. There is some uncertainty respecting the exact
length of the period of gestation, which grows out of the difficulty
of determining, in many cases, the exact time when conception takes
place.

Uterine Life.--The uterine life of the new individual begins with the
impregnation of the ovum, which occurs the instant it is brought in
contact with the zoosperms of the male. While in the uterus, the young
life is supported wholly by the mother. She is obliged to provide not
only for her own sustenance, but for the maintenance of her child. And
she must not only eat for it, but breathe for it as well, since it
requires a constant and adequate supply of oxygen before birth as much
as afterward.

How the Unborn Infant Breathes.--Oxygen and nutriment are both supplied
to it through the medium of an organ called the _placenta_, which is
a spongy growth composed almost entirely of blood-vessels, and is
developed upon the inner wall of the uterus, at the point at which the
ovum attaches itself after fecundation. The growing fetus is connected
with this vascular organ by means of a sort of cable, called the
_umbilical cord_. The cord is almost entirely composed of blood-vessels
which convey the blood of the fetus to the placenta and return it again.
The fetal blood does not mix with that of the mother, but receives oxygen
and nourishment from it by absorption through the thin walls which alone
separate it from the mother's blood.

The umbilical cord contains no nerves, as there is no nervous connection
between the mother and the child. The only way in which the child can
be influenced by the mother is through the medium of the blood, to
changes in which it is very susceptible, as we shall see more clearly
hereafter.

The cord is attached to the body of the child at the point called the
_navel_, being cut off at birth by the _accoucheur_. With the placenta,
it is expelled soon after the birth of the child, and constitutes the
shapeless mass familiarly known as the _after-birth_, by the retention
of which the most serious trouble is occasionally caused.

Parturition.--At the end of the period of development, the young being
is forcibly expelled from the laboratory of nature in which it has been
formed. In other words, it is born; and this process is termed
_parturition_. Though, at first thought, such an act would seem an utter
impossibility, yet it is a very admirable illustration of nature's
adaptation of means to ends. During the months of gestation, while the
uterus has been enlarging to accommodate its daily increasing contents,
the generative passages have also been increasing in size and becoming
soft and distensible, so that a seeming impossibility is in due time
accomplished without physical damage, though possibly not without
intense suffering. However, it is a most gratifying fact that modern
medical science may do much to mitigate the pains of childbirth. It
is possible, by a proper course of preparation for the expected event,
to greatly lessen the suffering usually undergone; and some ladies
assert that they have thus avoided real pain altogether. Although the
curse pronounced upon the feminine part of the race, in consequence
of the sin of Eve, implies suffering in the parturient act, yet there
is no doubt that the greater share of the daughters of Eve are, through
the perverting and degenerating influences of wrong habits and
especially of modern civilization, compelled to suffer many times more
than their maternal ancestor. We have sufficient evidence of this in
the fact that among barbarian women, who are generally less perverted
physically than civilized women, childbirth is regarded with very
little apprehension, since it occasions little pain or inconvenience.
The same is true of many women among the lower laboring classes. In
short, while it is true that more or less suffering must always
accompany the parturient act, yet the excessive pain usually attendant
upon the process is the result of causes which can in many cases be
removed by proper management beforehand and at the time of confinement.

After being relieved of its contents, the uterus and other organs
rapidly return to nearly their original size.

Changes in the Child at Birth.--In the system of the child a wonderful
change occurs at the moment of its expulsion into the outer world. For
the first time, its lungs are filled with air. For the first time they
receive the full tide of blood. The whole course of the circulation
is changed, and an entirely new process begins. It is surprising in
how short a space of time changes so marvelous can be wrought.

Nursing.--The process of development is not fully complete at birth.
The young life is not yet prepared to support itself; hence, still
further provision is necessary for it. It requires prepared food suited
to its condition. This is provided by the _mammae_, or breasts, of the
female, which are glands for secreting milk. The fully developed gland
is peculiar to the female; but a few instances have been known in which
it has been sufficiently developed to become functionally active in
men, as well as in young girls, though it is usually inactive even in
women until near the close of gestation. It is a curious fact that the
breasts of a new-born child occasionally contain milk.

The first product of the mammae is not the proper milk secretion, but
is a yellowish fluid called _colostrum _. The true milk secretion begins
two or three days after delivery.

The lacteal secretion is influenced in a very remarkable manner by the
mental conditions of the mother. By sudden emotions of grief or anger,
it has been known to undergo such changes as to produce in the child
a fit of indigestion, vomiting, diarrhea, and even convulsions and
death. Any medicine taken by the mother finds its way into the milk,
and often affects the delicate system of the infant more than herself.
This fact should be a warning to those nursing mothers who use
stimulants. Cases are not uncommon in which delicate infants are kept
in a state of intoxication for weeks by the use of alcoholic drinks
by the mother. The popular notion that lager-beer, ale, wine, or alcohol
in any other form, is in any degree necessary or beneficial to a nursing
woman is a great error which cannot be too often noticed and condemned.
Not only is the mother injured, instead of being benefited by such a
practice, but great injury, sometimes life-long in its consequences,
is inflicted upon the babe at her breast who takes the intoxicating
poison at second hand, and is influenced in a fourfold degree from its
feebleness and great susceptibility.


ANATOMY OF THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS.

Having now considered the functions and somewhat of the structures of
the principal organs of reproduction, we may obtain a more definite
idea of the relation of the several organs of each class by a connected
review of the anatomy of the parts.

Male Organs.--As previously stated, the external organs of generation
in the male are the _penis_ and the _testicles_, the latter being
contained in a pouch called the _scrotum_. The penis is the organ of
urination as well as copulation. Its structure is cellular, and it
contains a vast number of minute coils of blood-vessels which become
turgid with blood under the influence of sexual excitement, producing
distention and erection of the organ. A canal passes through its entire
length, called the _urethra_, which conveys both the urine and the
seminal fluid. The organ is protected by a loose covering of integument
which folds over the end. This fold is called the _foreskin_ or
_prepuce_.

The fluid formed by each testicle is conveyed by the _vas deferens_,
a curved tube about two feet in length, to the base of the bladder.
Here the vas deferens joins with another duct which communicates with
an elongated pouch, the _vesicula seminalis_, which lies close upon
the under side of the bladder. The single tube thus formed, the
_ejaculatory duct_, conveys the seminal fluid to the urethra, from
which it is discharged.

As the production of seminal fluid is more or less constant in man and
some animals, while its discharge is intermittent, the vesiculae
seminales serve as reservoirs for the fluid, preserving it until
required, or allowing it to undergo absorption. Some claim that the
zoosperms are matured in these organs. They always contain seminal
fluid after the age of puberty. During coition, their contents are
forcibly expelled by a spasmodic contraction of the muscles which
surround them and the ducts leading from them.

The Prostate Gland.--Surrounding the ejaculatory ducts and their
openings into the urethra at the base of the bladder is the _prostate
gland_, which produces a peculiar secretion which forms a considerable
portion of the seminal fluid, being mingled with the secretion of the
testes during its ejaculation. This gland sometimes becomes the seat
of somewhat serious disease. In old age it usually becomes somewhat
indurated, and often to such an extent as to seriously affect the health
and comfort of the individual by interference with urination and by
occasioning pain.

Anterior to this organ, in the urethra, is a curious little pouch, the
_utriculus_, which corresponds to the vagina and uterus in the female.
Just in front of the prostate gland are two small bodies known as
Cowper's glands. They secrete a fluid which combines with the seminal
secretion.

Female Organs.--The _ovaries_, _uterus_, or _womb_, _Fallopian tubes_,
and _vagina_ have already been described in part. The external organs
of the female are included in the term _vulva_ or _pudenda_. The most
superficial parts are the _labia_, two thick folds of integument. Just
within these are two thinner folds, the _labia minora_ or _nymphae_.
These, together with the _clitoris_, situated just above, are extremely
sensitive organs, being the chief seat of sexual sense in the female.
At the lower part is the opening to the vagina, which in the virgin
is usually partially guarded by a thin membrane, the _hymen_. This is
not always a reliable test of virginity, however, as commonly regarded,
since it may be destroyed by disease or accident, and may exist even
after the occurrence of pregnancy.

The vagina extends from the vulva to the lower end of the uterus, which
it incloses, passing between the bladder and the rectum. The lower
extremity of the uterus presents a small opening which leads into its
interior. Upon either side, at its upper and larger end, is a minute
opening, the mouth of the Fallopian tube. The latter organs extend from
the uterus outward nearly to the ovaries, toward which they present
a number of small filaments, one of which is in contact with each ovary.
These filaments, together with the interior of the tubes, are covered
with a peculiar kind of cells, upon which are minute cilia, or hairs,
in constant motion. Very curiously, they all move in the same direction,
toward the cavity of the uterus. When an ovum escapes from the ovary
in connection with menstruation, it is by these delicate hairs
propelled along a filament of tissue to the Fallopian tube, and thence
by the same means is conveyed to the uterus. It may come in contact
with the zoosperms at any point between the ovary and the lower orifice
of the uterus, and thus undergo fecundation.

Puberty.--For a certain period after birth, the sexual organs remain
in a partially developed condition. This period varies in duration with
different animals; in some cases being very brief, in others,
comprising several years. Upon the attainment of a certain age, the
individual becomes sexually perfect, and is then capable of the
generative act. This period is called puberty. In man, puberty commonly
occurs between the ages of ten and fifteen years, varying considerably
in different climates. In this country, and in other countries of about
the same latitude, puberty usually occurs at the age of fourteen or
fourteen and one-half years in females, and a few months later in males.
In cooler climates, as in Norway and Siberia, the change is delayed
to the age of eighteen or nineteen years. In tropical climates it is
hastened, occurring as early as nine or ten years. In warm climates
it is no uncommon thing for a girl to be a mother at twelve; and it
is stated that one of the wives of Mahomet was a mother at ten.

Other causes besides climate tend to hasten the occurrence of this
change, as habits, temperament, constitutional tendency, education,
and idiosyncrasy.

Habits of vigorous physical exercise tend to delay the access of puberty.
For this reason, together with others, country boys and girls generally
mature later than those living in the city by several months, and even
a year or two. Anything that tends to excite the emotions hastens
puberty. The excitements of city life, parties, balls, theaters, even
the competition of students in school, and the various causes of
excitement to the nervous system which occur in city life, have a
tendency to hasten the occurrence of the change which awakens the sexual
activities of the system into life. Hence, these influences cannot but
be considered prejudicial to the best interests of the individual,
mentally, morally, and physically, since it is in every way desirable
that a change which arouses the passions and gives to them greater
intensity should be delayed rather than hastened.

Influence of Diet on Puberty.--The dietary has a not unimportant
influence in this respect. Stimulating food, such as pepper, vinegar,
mustard, spices, and condiments generally, together with tea and coffee,
and an excess of animal food, have a clearly appreciable influence in
inducing the premature occurrence of puberty. On this account, if on
no other, should these articles be prohibited to children and youth,
or used very sparingly. Those who advocate the large use of meat by
children and youth have not studied this matter closely in all its
bearings. While it is true that children and growing youth require an
abundance of the nitrogenous elements of food which are found
abundantly in beefsteak, mutton, fish, and other varieties of animal
food, it is also true that in taking those articles of food they take
along with the nutrient elements properties of a stimulating character,
which exert a decidedly detrimental influence upon the susceptible
systems of children and youth. At the same time, it is possible to obtain
the same desirable nitrogenous elements in oatmeal, unbolted wheat
flour, peas, beans, and other vegetable productions, which are wholly
free from injurious properties. We are positive from numerous
observations on this subject, that a cool, unstimulating, vegetable
or farinaceous diet would deter the development of the sexual organism
for several months, and perhaps for a year or two.

While it might not be in all cases desirable to do this, it would at
least be wise to adopt such measures in cases in which the child is
unavoidably exposed to influences which have a tendency to hasten the
change.

It is important to add in this connection a word of caution against
the adoption of a dietary too abstemious in character. It is necessary
that an abundance of good, wholesome food, rich in the elements of
nutrition, should be taken regularly. There is no doubt that many young
ladies have induced conditions of serious disease by actual starvation
of the system. A young woman who attempts to live on strong tea or coffee,
fine-flour bread, and sweet cake, is as certainly starving herself as
though she were purposely attempting to commit suicide by means of
starvation, and with as much certainty of the same result.

Brunettes Naturally Precocious.--It has been observed that in girls
the occurrence of puberty is earlier in brunettes than in blondes; and
in general it makes its appearance earlier in persons of a nervous or
nervo-bilious temperament than in persons of a lymphatic temperament
or phlegmatic nature.

Certain nationalities and families are marked by the earlier occurrence
of puberty than in others. In Jews, the change is commonly a year or
two in advance of other nationalities in this country. It also occurs
somewhat sooner in negroes and creoles than in white persons, the
African race seeming to retain something of the precocity occasioned
by the tropical influence of its native clime.

Remarkable Precocity.--Cases occasionally occur in which puberty makes
its appearance at the age of three or four years. Indeed, a case has
been reported in this country in which a female child possessed all
the characteristics which are usually developed at puberty, from birth.
In this case the regular periodical changes began at birth.

Premature Development Occasions Early Decay.--A fact which is of too
great importance to allow to pass unnoticed, is that whatever occasions
early or premature sexual development, also occasions premature decay.
Females in whom puberty occurs at the age of ten or twelve, by the time
their age is doubled, are shriveled and wrinkled with age. At the time
when they should be in their prime of health and beauty, they are
prematurely old and broken. Those women who mature late retain their
beauty and their strength many years after their precocious sisters
have become old, decrepit, and broken down. Thus, the matrons of thirty
and forty years in colder climates are much more attractive in
appearance than the maidens of sixteen; while quite the reverse is true
in this and other countries where sexual development is unduly
hastened.

Early Puberty a Cause for Anxiety.--The unnaturally early appearance
of puberty is a just cause for apprehension, since it usually indicates
an inherent weakness of the constitution. When there are reasons for
fearing its occurrence, active measures should be taken to occasion
delay if possible. We call especial attention to this point, since there
are many who erroneously suppose the early occurrence of puberty to
be a sign of superior vigor.

Changes which Occur at Puberty.--The changes which occur in the two
sexes at this period have been thus described:--

"In both sexes, hair grows on the skin covering the _symphysis pubis_,
around the sexual organs, and in the axillae (armpits). In man, the
chest and shoulders broaden, the larynx enlarges, and the voice becomes
lower in pitch from the elongation of the vocal cords; hair grows upon
the chin, upper lip, and cheeks, and often exists upon the general
surface of the body more abundantly than in woman." The sexual organs
undergo enlargement, and are more frequently excited. The testicles
first begin the secretion of the seminal fluid.

"In woman, the pelvis and abdomen enlarge, but the whole frame remains
more slender, the muscles and joints less prominent, the limbs more
rounded and tapering [than in the male]. Locally, both external and
internal organs undergo a considerable and rapid enlargement. The
mammae enlarge, the ovarian vesicles become dilated, and there is
established a periodical discharge of one or more ova, accompanied,
in most cases, by a sanguineous fluid from the cavity of the uterus."

These changes, so varied and extraordinary, often occur within a very
short space of time; and as they are liable to serious derangement,
especially in the female, great care should be taken to secure for the
individual the most favorable conditions until they are successfully
effected. It is, however, a fact deserving of mention, that many of
the ills which are developed at this particular period are quite as
much the result of previous indiscretions and mismanagement as of any
immediate cause. A few suggestions with regard to the proper treatment
of individuals at this age may be in place.

1. Do not allow the boy or girl to be overworked, either mentally or
physically. Great and important changes are occurring within the body,
and nature should not be overtaxed.

2. Keep the mind occupied. While excessive labor should be avoided,
idleness should be as carefully shunned. Some light, useful employment
or harmless amusement--better some kind of work--should keep the mind
fully occupied with wholesome subjects.

3. Abundant exercise out-of-doors is essential for both sexes. Sunshine
and fresh air are as necessary to the development of a human being as
for the expanding of a flower bud.

4. Watch carefully the associations of the youth. This should be done
at all times, but especially just at the critical period in question,
when the general physical disturbances occurring in the system react
upon the mind and make it peculiarly susceptible to influences,
especially those of an evil character.

5. None too much care can be exercised at this important epoch of human
life, provided it is properly applied; but nothing could be more
disastrous in its consequences than a weak solicitude which panders
to every whim and gratifies every perverted appetite. _Such_ care is
a fatal error.

Menstruation.--The functional changes which occur in the female are
much more marked than those of the male. As already intimated, the
periodical development and discharge of an ovum by the female, which
occurs after puberty, is accompanied by the discharge of a bloody fluid,
which is known as the _flowers_, _menses_, or _catamenia_. The
accompanying symptoms together are termed the process of
_menstruation_, or _being unwell_. This usually occurs, in the human
female, once in about four weeks. In special cases, the interval may
be a week less or a week longer; or the variation may be even greater.
Dalton describes the process as follows:--

"When the expected period is about to come on, the female is affected
by a certain degree of discomfort and lassitude, a sense of weight in
the pelvis, and more or less disinclination to society. These symptoms
are in some cases slightly pronounced, in others more troublesome. An
unusual discharge of vaginal mucus then begins to take place, which
soon becomes yellowish or rusty brown in color, from the admixture of
a certain proportion of blood; and by the second or third day, the
discharge has the appearance of nearly pure blood. The unpleasant
sensations which were at first manifest, then usually subside; and the
discharge, after continuing for a certain period, begins to grow more
scanty. Its color changes from a pure red to a brownish or rusty tinge,
until it finally disappears altogether, and the female returns to her
ordinary condition."

The menstrual function continues active from puberty to about the
forty-fifth year, or during the period of fertility. When it finally
disappears, the woman is no longer capable of bearing children. The
time of disappearance is termed the "change of life," or _menopause_.
Exceptional cases occur in which this period is greatly hastened,
arriving as early as the thirty-fifth year, or even earlier. Instances
have also been observed in which menstruation continued as late as the
sixtieth year, and even later; but such cases are very rare; and if
procreation occurs, the progeny is feeble and senile.

With rare exceptions, the function is suspended during pregnancy, and
usually, also, during the period of nursing.

Nature of Menstruation.--There has been a great amount of speculation
concerning the cause and nature of the menstrual process. No entirely
satisfactory conclusions have been reached, however, except that it
is usually accompanied by the maturation and expulsion from the ovary
of an ovum, which is termed ovulation. But menstruation may occur
without ovulation, and, _vice versa_.

Menstruation is not peculiar to the human female, being represented
in the higher animals by what is familiarly termed the "rut." This is
not usually a bloody discharge, however, as in the human female, though
such a discharge has been observed in the monkey.

It has been quite satisfactorily settled that the discharge of the ovum
from the ovary generally takes place about the time of the cessation
of the flow. Immediately after the discharge, the sexual desires of
the female are more intense than at other times. This fact is
particularly manifest in lower animals. The following remark by Prof.
Dalton is especially significant to those who care to appreciate its
bearing:--

"It is a remarkable fact, in this connection, that the female of these
[domestic] animals will allow the approaches of the male only during
and immediately after the oestrual period [rut]; that is, just when
the egg is recently discharged, and ready for impregnation. At other
times, when sexual intercourse would be necessarily fruitless, the
instinct of the animal leads her to avoid it; and the concourse of the
sexes is accordingly made to correspond in time with the maturity of
the egg and its aptitude for fecundation."

The amount of fluid lost during the menstrual flow varies greatly with
different individuals. It is estimated at from three ounces to half
a pint. In cases of deranged function, it may be much greater than this.
It is not all blood, however, a considerable portion being mucus. It
is rather difficult to understand why the discharge of so considerable
a quantity of blood is required. There is no benefit derived from a
very copious discharge, as some suppose. Facts seem to indicate that
in general those enjoy the best health who lose but small quantities
of blood in this manner.

A Critical Period.--As the first occurrence of menstruation is a very
critical period in the life of a female, and as each recurrence of the
function renders her especially susceptible to morbid influences, and
liable to serious derangements, a few hints respecting the proper care
of an individual at these periods may be acceptable.

Important Hints.--1. Avoid taking cold. To do this, it is necessary
to avoid exposure; not that a person must be constantly confined in
a warm room, for such a course would be the surest way in which to
increase the susceptibility to cold. Nothing will disturb the menstrual
process more quickly than a sudden chilling of the body when in a state
of perspiration, or after confinement in a warm room, by exposure,
without sufficient protection, to cold air. A daily bath and daily
exercise in the open air are the best known means of preventing colds.

2. Intense mental excitement, as well as severe physical labor, is to
be sedulously avoided during this period. At the time of its first
occurrence, special care should be observed in this direction. Intense
study, a fit of anger, sudden grief, or even great merriment, will
sometimes arrest the process prematurely. The feeling of _malaise_
which usually accompanies the discharge is by nature intended as a
warning that rest and quiet are required; and the hint should be
followed. Every endeavor should be made to keep the individual
comfortable, calm, and cheerful. Feelings of apprehension arising from
a continual watching of symptoms are very depressing, and should be
avoided by occupying the mind in some agreeable manner not demanding
severe effort, either mental or physical.

There is no doubt that many young women have permanently injured their
constitutions while at school by excessive mental taxation during the
catamenial period, to which they were prompted by ambition to excel,
or were compelled by the "cramming" system too generally pursued in
our schools, and particularly in young ladies' seminaries. It is not
to be supposed, however, that the moderate amount of sound study
required by a correct system of teaching would be injurious to a healthy
young woman at any time, and we have no doubt that a very large share
of the injury which has been attributed to over-study during the
catamenia has been induced by other causes, such as improper dress,
exposure to taking cold, keeping late hours, and improper diet.

If there is any class of persons deserving of pity it is that large
class of girls and young women who are in every large city employed
as clerks, seamstresses, flower makers, and in other taxing and
confining occupations. In order to keep their situations they are
required to be on hand daily, being allowed no opportunity for rest
at the menstrual period. In many cases, too, they are compelled to
remain upon their feet all day behind a counter, or at a work table,
even at periods when a recumbent position is actually demanded by nature.
There should be less delicacy in relation to this subject on the part
of young women, and more consideration on the part of employers. Here
is a field for philanthropic effort which is well worthy of the best
efforts of any person of influence who will engage in it.

Custom of Indian Women.--The ease with which Indian women perform the
parturient act is proverbial. They suffer scarcely at all from the pains
of childbirth; and without doubt one reason of this is the preservation
of their sexual health by rest during the menstrual period. At those
seasons they invariably absent themselves from the lodge, and enjoy
absolute rest. We may readily suppose, from the nature of some of the
Mosaic laws, that a custom somewhat similar prevailed among the ancient
Hebrew women. If the hardy women of the forest are benefited by rest,
certainly our more delicate females may be thus benefited. All need
a degree of rest; with some it should be absolute.

The reckless manner in which some young women treat themselves at the
menstrual period, is quite appalling to one who is acquainted with the
painful and inveterate character of the evils which arise from such
abuse. It is no uncommon thing for young ladies to attend balls, visit
skating rinks, and otherwise expose themselves to the influences in
every way the best calculated to do them the most harm at this particular
period, observing not the slightest precaution. Such recklessness is
really criminal; and the sad consequences of physical transgression
are sure to follow. A young lady who allows herself to get wet or chilled,
or gets the feet wet, just prior to or during menstruation, runs the
risk of imposing upon herself life-long injury. Mothers should look
carefully after their daughters at these periods, and impress upon them
the importance of special care.

3. A third hint, which is applicable to both sexes and at all times,
is the necessity of attending promptly to the demands of nature for
relief of the bowels and bladder. School-girls are often very negligent
in this respect; and we have seen the most distressing cases of disease
which were entirely attributable to this disregard of the promptings
of nature. Obstinate constipation and chronic irritation of the bladder
are common effects. When constipation results, purgatives in the shape
of pills, salts, or "pleasant purgative pellets," are resorted to with
the certain result of producing only temporary relief, and permanent
damage.

To escape these evil consequences, do this: 1. Establish a regular habit
of relieving the bowels daily at a certain hour; 2. Discard laxative
and cathartic drugs of every kind; 3. To aid in securing a regular
movement of the bowels, make a liberal use of oatmeal, wheat-meal, fruit,
and vegetables, avoiding fine-flour bread, sweetmeats, and condiments;
4. Take daily exercise, as much as possible short of fatigue; if
necessarily confined indoors, counteract the constipating influence
of sedentary habits by kneading and percussing the bowels with the hands
several minutes each day; 5. Never resist the calls of nature a single
moment, if possible to avoid it. In this case, as in numerous others,
"delay is dangerous." Ladies who desire a sweet breath--and what lady
does not--should remember that retained feces are one of the most
frequent causes of foul breath. The foul odors which ought to pass out
through the bowels find their way into the blood and escape at the lungs.
A medical man whose sense of smell is delicate soon learns to know a
constipated person by the breath. As one says, "What is more offensive
than the breath of a costive child?"

Boerhaave, a famous old Dutch physician, left to his heirs an elegantly
bound volume in which, he claimed, were written all the secrets of the
science of physic. After his death, the wonderful book was opened, when
it was found to contain only the following sentence:--

"Keep the head cool, the feet warm, and the bowels open."

An old Scotch physician once gave the following advice to Sir Astley
Cooper for the preservation of health:--

"Keep in the fear of the Lord, and your bowels open."

4. Perhaps nothing tends more directly to the production of menstrual
derangements--as well as uterine diseases of every sort--than
fashionable modes of dress. We have not space here to give to the subject
the attention it deserves; it will be found treated of in works devoted
to the subject of dress exclusively. Some of the most glaring evils
are,--

(1) Unequal distribution of clothing. The trunk, especially the abdomen
and pelvis, is covered with numerous layers of clothing, an extra amount
being caused by the overlapping of the upper and lower garments. Very
frequently, the amount of clothing upon these, the most vital parts,
is excessive. At the same time, the limbs are sometimes almost in a
state of nudity. A single cotton garment, or at most one of thin flannel,
is the only protection afforded to the limbs beneath the skirts, which
often serve no better purpose than to collect cold air and retain it
in contact with the limbs. A thin stocking is the only protection for
the ankles, and a thin shoe is the only additional covering afforded
the feet. Under such circumstances, it is no wonder that a woman catches
cold if she only steps out-of-doors on a chilly or damp day.

(2) Another glaring fault is in the manner of suspending the skirts.
Instead of being fastened to a waist or suspended so as to give them
support from the shoulders, they are hung upon the hips, being drawn
tight at the waist to secure support. By this means, the organs of the
pelvis are pressed down out of place. The uterus becomes congested,
and painful menstrual derangements ensue.

(3) Tight lacing, or compressing the waist with a corset, is a barbarous
practice which produces the same results as the one last mentioned.
Reform in all of these particulars is an imperative necessity for every
woman who desires to secure or retain sexual health.

It is of the greatest importance that careful attention should be given
to the proper establishment of the menstrual function at the outset
of a woman's life of sexual activity. The first two years will be quite
likely to have a deciding influence respecting her health during her
whole future life. If a woman can get through the first two years after
puberty without acquiring any serious uterine or ovarian disease, she
will stand a good chance of enjoying a good degree of sexual health
during the balance of her life. The foundation of a great share of the
many thousands of cases of uterine disease is laid during this period.

At this early period the daughter is usually too young to appreciate
the importance of observing slight deviations from the standard of
health, even if she were able to recognize them. Hence it is a duty
which no mother should neglect, to inquire into the exact frequency
of the periods, the amount and character of the discharge, and other
points necessary to ascertain whether or not there is any deviation
from the natural condition of health. If there is pain, it is a certain
evidence of something seriously wrong. If there is irregularity in any
particular, it is a matter well deserving of serious attention.

Menorrhagia.--This condition is that in which there is a too profuse
discharge of blood. The system is weakened by the loss, and, so much
so, in many cases, that the individual does not recover her accustomed
strength before the occurrence of the next period, when she becomes
weakened still more. By a continuance of this periodical loss, the
person may be reduced to a state of almost utter helplessness. A deathly
pallor of the countenance, extreme emaciation, loss of strength, and
general debility mark the effects of the constant drain upon the system.
Thousands of young women continue to suffer in this way year after year,
until their constitutions are almost hopelessly wrecked, being
deterred by false notions of modesty or delicacy from consulting a
proper medical adviser and finding relief.

The observance of a few simple precautions, and the application of
proper remedies, will check the unnatural loss in most of these cases
very promptly. In the first place, absolute rest, chiefly in a supine
position, must be observed not only during the menstrual period, but
for a few days previous to its commencement. If this does not restrain
the flow, then cool and even cold compresses may be applied to the lower
part of the abdomen and to the small of the back. In severe cases no
harm will come from the use of an ice-compress, made by inclosing
pounded ice between the folds of a towel. Great care must be taken to
make the hands, arms, feet, and limbs thoroughly warm by the application
of warm bottles and woolen blankets. These measures will scarcely fail
to accomplish the desired end, if employed thoroughly and judiciously.
It may be well to add just here that the popular fear of using cold
in such cases is groundless. No harm can come so long as the extremities
are kept warm, and the circulation well balanced. The patient must not
be made chilly, however. It is also of importance that the patient be
kept mentally quiet as well as physically so.

Much good will result from these simple measures at the time of the
period; but a radical cure can only be effected by removing the cause
of the difficulty. The patient's general health must be improved, and
local congestion must be removed. This will be accomplished by
attention to general hygiene, gentle exercise out-of-doors between the
periods, abundance of good food, tonic baths and other necessary
treatment if there is derangement of the digestive organs, and daily
hip baths with a local douche. The hip bath should be taken in water
of a temperature of 92 degrees at the beginning. After five minutes
the temperature may be lowered 5 degrees. After five minutes more, it
may be lowered a few degrees more. By taking a warm foot bath at 95
degrees or 100 degrees at the same time, quite a cool bath may be endured
without chilling. The bath should be continued 15 minutes to 30 minutes,
according to the strength of the patient. A shorter bath than this will
do little good, as the sedative effect will not be obtained.

The douche may be taken at the same time with the bath, or before, as
is most convenient. The fountain or syphon syringe should be employed,
and the water used should range from 95 degrees to 105 degrees, as best
suits the sensations of the patient, being cooled a little toward the
last. In general, the hot  douche, of a temperature from 100 degrees
to 115 degrees, or even 120 degrees, is not only more agreeable, but
much more beneficial.

By these simple remedies alone we have successfully treated scores of
cases of this sort. In some cases other remedies may be required, and
in nearly all, accessory remedies can be employed to advantage; but
the measures described are the main features of the most successful
mode of treatment.

Dysmenorrhoea.--This condition is that in which there is more or less
pain and difficulty in connection with the menstrual process. The
causes are various, as congestion of the uterus, malformation, and
displacement or distortion of the organ. Some of these conditions
require the attention of a skilled physician to remedy; but all will
be palliated more or less by a course of treatment similar to that
described for the previous condition. A warm sitz or hip bath just at
the beginning of the period will often give almost magical relief. The
application of fomentations over the lower part of the abdomen, and
the corresponding portion of the spine, or of hot bags, bottles, etc.,
in the same localities, is a measure of great utility. The patient
should be covered warm in bed, should keep quiet, and great care should
be used to keep the extremities well warmed. The use of electricity
is a very valuable aid in numerous cases, but this requires the services
of a physician, who should always be employed in severe cases when
within reach.

In many cases of this form of disease the suffering is so great that
the constant dread of its periodical repetition becomes a source of
great unhappiness, and casts a gloom over the life of an individual
who would otherwise be as happy as could be desired.

Amenorrhoea and Chlorosis.--These are serious disorders which require
prompt and vigorous attention. They depend less frequently on disorder
of the sexual organs themselves than upon some disorder of the general
system. They usually demand the attention of a competent physician,
and require a more accurate description of their nature and of proper
modes of treatment than we have space to give here.

Hysteria.--From the most remote ages of medical history this disease
has been regarded as intimately connected with morbid states of the
female organs of generation, especially the uterus. That it is not
exclusively produced by causes of this kind is evidenced by the fact
that men also sometimes suffer from this curious malady. The phases
which it assumes are so numerous that we shall not attempt an accurate
description of it; neither is this required, as there are few who are
not familiar with its peculiar manifestations. It simulates almost
every disease. Even consumption and other formidable maladies have been
so completely simulated by this disorder as to deceive physicians of
long experience. We have met cases in which young ladies were supposed
to be in the last stages of pulmonary disease, were apparently gasping
almost their last breath, panting, coughing, and experiencing the usual
symptoms which accompany tuberculous disease of the lungs, when, upon
making a thorough physical examination of the chest, we could find no
evidence of pulmonary disease. In one case we incurred the everlasting
displeasure of a young lady by disclosing the real state of affairs;
but we were repaid in seeing an immediate disappearance of the symptoms,
and complete recovery within six weeks, although the young woman had
been considered hopelessly ill by her friends and physicians for six
months, and was tenderly watched over, petted, and mourned by friends
as one who must soon fall a victim to fell disease.

The foundation of this disease is almost always laid in some
indiscretion by means of which disease of the uterus is induced, and
the most careful attention to this part of the organism is required.
It should not be treated as a trivial matter which is wholly the result
of a diseased imagination, and requires only mental treatment, since
it is a real malady, dependent upon morbid states of the system. It
requires substantial and thorough treatment as much as rheumatism,
dyspepsia, or any other of the numerous diseases to which humanity is
subject.

Prevention Better than Cure.--We might mention numerous other diseased
conditions which grow out of inattention to the laws of health relating
to the sexual organism; but to dwell longer upon this part of the subject
would be to depart from the plan of this work, and we must forbear.
This whole class of maladies is noted for obstinacy in great numbers
of cases when the morbid conditions have existed for a long time. In
addition it should be remarked that some of the most inveterate
disorders of the nervous system originate in this same manner. The
thousands of ladies who are suffering with spinal irritation, organic
disease of the spine and other nervous disorders, are witnesses to this
fact. It is apparent, then, that prevention of these serious maladies
by attention to sexual hygiene, especially to the hygiene of
menstruation at the first establishment of that function, is a matter
of gravest importance. In fact, attention to hygiene is about all that
is required. With this, drugs will be rarely required; without, they
will be utterly useless.

Extra-Uterine Pregnancy.--Sometimes the ovum becomes fecundated
before reaching the uterus, and, instead of passing onward into that
organ as usual, remains in its position in the Fallopian tube or even
on the surface of the ovary. Occasionally an ovum falls into the cavity
of the abdomen instead of passing into the tube. Even in this situation
it may be fecundated. Impregnated ova thus left in abnormal positions,
undergo a greater or lesser degree of development. They commonly result
in the death of the mother.

Twins.--The human female usually matures but one ovum at each menstrual
period, the two ovaries acting alternately. Occasionally two ova are
matured at once. If fecundation occurs, the result will be a development
of two embryos at the same time. In rare cases, three or even four ova
are matured at once, and by fecundation produce a corresponding number
of embryos. As many as five children have been born alive at one birth,
but have not lived more than a few minutes.

The occurrence of multiple pregnancies may be explained by the
supposition that ova matured subsequent to the first fecundation are
also fecundated.

In lower animals, the uterus is often divided into two long segments
which afford room for the development of a number of young at once.
Some ancient writers make most absurd statements with regard to the
fecundity of females. One declares that the simultaneous birth of seven
or eight infants by the same mother was an ordinary occurrence with
Egyptian women! Other statements still more extravagant are made by
writers. For example: A traveler in the seventeenth century wrote that
he saw, in the year 1630, in a church near the Hague, a tablet on which
was an inscription stating that a certain noted countess gave birth
at once, in the year 1276, to 365 infants, who were all baptized and
christened, the males being all called John, and the females, Elizabeth.
They all died on the day of their birth, with their mother, according
to the account, and were buried in the church, where a tablet was erected
to their memory.

Monsters.--Defects and abnormalities in the development of the embryon
produce all degrees of deviation from the typical human form. Excessive
development may result in an extra finger or toe, or in the production
of some peculiar excrescence. Deficiency of development may produce
all degrees of abnormality from the simple harelip to the most frightful
deficiency, as the absence of a limb, or even of a head. It is in this
manner that those unfortunate individuals known as hermaphrodites are
formed. An excessive development of some parts of the female generative
organs gives them a great degree of similarity to the external organs
of the male. A deficient development of the male organs renders them
very similar in form to those of the female. Redundant development of
the sexual organism sometimes results in the development of both kinds
of organs in the same individual in a state more or less complete. Cases
have occurred in which it has become necessary, for legal purposes,
to decide respecting the sex of an individual suffering from defective
development, and it has sometimes been exceedingly difficult to decide
in a given case whether the individual was male or female.

Such curious cases as the Carolina twins and Chang and Eng were formerly
supposed to be the result of the union of two separate individuals.
It is now believed that they are developed from a single ovum. It has
been observed that the primitive trace--described in a previous
section--sometimes undergoes partial division longitudinally. If it
splits a little at the anterior end, the individual will have a single
body with two heads. If a partial division occurs at each end, the
resulting being will possess two heads and two pairs of legs joined
to a single body. More complete division produces a single trunk with
two heads, two pairs of arms, and two pairs of legs, as in the case
of the Carolina twins. Still more complete division may result in the
formation of two perfect individuals almost entirely independent of
each other, physiologically, but united by a narrow band, as in the
remarkable Siamese twins, Chang and Eng.

In a curious case reported not a great while ago, a partially developed
infant was amputated from the cheek of a child some time after birth.

The precise cause of these strange modifications of development is as
yet, in great degree, a mystery.

Hybrids.--It is a well-known law of biology that no progeny result from
union of animals of different species. Different varieties of the same
species may in some cases form a fertile union, the result of which
is a cross between its two parents, possessing some of the qualities
of each. The mule is the product of such a union between the horse and
the ass. A curious fact is that the offspring of such unions are
themselves sterile almost without exception. The reason of this is that
they do not produce mature elements of generation. In the mule, the
zoosperms are either entirely absent or else very imperfectly
developed; hence the fact that a colt having a mule for its sire is
one of the rarest of curiosities, though a few instances have been
reported. This is a wise law of nature to preserve the purity of species.

Law of Sex.--If there is a law by which the sex of the developing embryon
is determined, it probably has not yet been discovered. The influence
of the will, the predominant vitality of one or the other of the parents,
and the period at which conception occurs, have all been supposed to
be the determining cause. A German physician some time since advanced
the theory that the two testicles and ovaries produce elements of
different sexual character, the right testicle forming zoosperms
capable of producing only males, and the right ovary producing ova with
the same peculiarity. The left testis and the left ovary he supposed
to form the female elements. He claimed to have proved his theory by
experiments upon animals. Even if true, this theory will not be made
of practical importance. It is, in fact, nothing more than a revival
of an old theory held by physicians who flourished more than two
thousand years ago.

More recently another German physician has advanced the theory that
the sex may be controlled at will by observing the time of fecundation.
He asserts that when fecundation occurs shortly after menstruation,
the result will be a female; but if impregnation occurs later in the
month, and prior to the three or four days preceding the next menstrual
period, a male will almost certainly be produced. This theory was
proposed by Prof. Thury of the academy of Geneva, who claims to have
thoroughly tested it in a great variety of ways, and always with an
affirmative result. Dr. Heitzman, of New York, an instructor in
pathological histology, and an eminent physiologist, informs us that
he has thoroughly tested this theory, and finds it to be entirely
reliable. There are numerous facts which seem to corroborate the truth
of this theory, and future investigations may give to it the dignity
of an established physiological fact.

Heredity.--The phenomena of heredity are among the most interesting
of biological studies. It is a matter of common observation that a child
looks like its parents. It even happens that a child resembles an uncle
or a grandparent more nearly than either parent. The same peculiarities
are often seen in animals.

The cause of this resemblance of offspring to parents and ancestors
has been made a subject of careful study by scientific men. We shall
present the most recent theory adopted, which, although it be but a
theory, presents such an array of facts in its support, and explains
the phenomena in question so admirably, that it must be regarded as
something more than a plausible hypothesis. It is the conception of
one of the most distinguished scientists of the age. The theory is known
as the doctrine of _pangenesis_, and is essentially as follows:--

It is a fact well known to physiologists that every part of the living
body is made up of cellular elements which have the power to reproduce
themselves in the individual, thus repairing the damage resulting from
waste and injury. Each cell produces cells like itself. It is further
known that there are found in the body numerous central points of growth.
In every group of cells is found a central cell from which the others
originated, and which determines the form of their growth. Every minute
structure possesses such a center. A simple proof of this fact is found
in the experiment in which the spur of a cock was grafted upon the ear
of an ox. It lived in this novel situation eight years, attaining the
length of nine inches, and nearly a pound in weight. A tooth has been
made to grow upon the comb of a cock in a similar manner. The tail of
a pig survived the operation of transplanting from its proper position
to the back of the animal, and retained its sensibility. Numerous other
similar illustrations might be given.

The doctrine of pangenesis supposes that these centers of nutrition
form and throw off not only cells like themselves, but very minute
granules, called gemmules, each of which is capable, under suitable
circumstances, of developing into a cell like its parent.

These minute granules are scattered through the system in great numbers.
The essential organs of generation, the testicles in the male and the
ovaries in the female, perform the task of collecting these gemmules
and forming them into sets, each of which constitutes a reproductive
element, and contains, in rudimentary form, a representative of every
part of the individual, including the most minute peculiarities. Even
more than this: It is supposed that each ovum and each zoosperm contains
not only the gemmules necessary to reproduce the individuals who
produced them, but also a number of gemmules which have been transmitted
from the individuals' ancestors.

If this theory be true,--and we can see no sound objection to it,--it
is easy to understand all the problems of heredity. The gemmules must
be very small indeed, but it may be suggested that the molecules of
matter are smaller still, so this fact is no objection to the theory.

It will be seen, then, that each spermatozoon, or zoosperm, actually
contains, in an embryonic condition, every organ and tissue of the
individual producing it. The same is true of the ovum. In other words,
the reproductive elements are complete representatives, in miniature,
of the parents, and contain all the elements for producing an offspring
possessing the same peculiarities as the parents. Various modifying
circumstances sufficiently explain the dissimilarities between
parents and children.

This theory is strikingly confirmed by the fact, previously mentioned,
that in certain cases the ovum alone, a single reproductive element,
may undergo a degree of development approaching very near to completion.
It is supposed that fecundation is chiefly necessary to give to the
gemmules the requisite amount of nourishment to insure development.

As we shall see hereafter, this matter has a very important bearing
upon several practical questions.

Ante-Natal Influences.--There can be no manner of doubt that many
circumstances which it is entirely within the power of the parents to
supply, exert a powerful influence in molding both the mental and the
physical characteristics of offspring. By carefully availing himself
of the controlling power given him by a knowledge of this fact, the
stock-raiser is enabled to produce almost any required quality in his
young animals. Pigeon fanciers show wonderful skill in thus producing
most curious modifications in birds. The laws of heredity and
development are carefully studied and applied in the production of
superior horses, cows, dogs, and pigeons; but an application of the
same principles to the improvement of the human race is rarely thought
of. Human beings are generated in as haphazard and reckless a manner
as weeds are sown by the wind. No account is taken of the possible
influence which may be exerted upon the future destiny of the new being
by the physical or mental condition of parents at the moment when the
germ of life is planted, or by the mental and physical conditions and
surroundings of the mother while the young life is developing. Indeed,
the assertion of a modern writer that the poor of our great cities
virtually "spawn children," with as little thought of influences and
consequences as the fish that sow their eggs broadcast upon the waters,
is not so great an exaggeration as it might at first sight appear to
be.

Law Universal.--Men and women are constantly prone to forget that the
domain of law is universal. Nothing comes by chance. The revolutions
of the planets, studied by the aid of the telescope, and the gyrations
of the atoms, seen only by the eye of science, are alike examples of
the controlling influence of law. Notwithstanding this sad ignorance
and disregard of this vitally important subject, the effects of law
are only too clearly manifested in the crowds of wretched human beings
with which the world is thronged. An old writer sagely remarks, "It
is the greatest part of our felicity to be well born;" nevertheless,
it is the sad misfortune of by far the greater portion of humanity to
be deprived of this inestimable "felicity."

A Source of Crime.--Who can tell how many of the liars, thieves,
drunkards, murderers, and prostitutes of our day are less responsible
for their crimes against themselves, against society, and against
Heaven, than those who were instrumental in bringing them into the
world? Almost every village has its boy "who was born drunk," a
staggering, simpering, idiotic representative of a drunken father,
beastly intoxicated at the very moment when he should have been most
sober.

An interesting study of this question has recently been made by Mr.
Dugdale, a member of the Prison Association of the State of New York.
When visiting the various jails of the State, he found in one six persons
detained for crimes of various character, between all of whom there
was a family relation. Upon further inquiry, he found that of the same
family there were twenty-nine relatives in the vicinity, seventeen of
whom were criminals. Still further investigation developed the
following facts:--

Within seventy-five years, a family of 1200 persons have sprung from
five sisters, several of whom were illegitimate, and three of whom were
known to be unchaste, and who married men whose father was an idle,
thriftless hunter, a hard drinker, and licentious.

Of this family, the history of but 709 was traced. Of these, the facts
set forth in the following incomplete summary were found to be true:--

  Paupers, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
  Years of pauperism,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798
  Criminals, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
  Years of infamy, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750
  Thieves, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  60
  Murderers, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
  Prostitutes and adulteresses,  . . . . . . . . . . . 165
  Illegitimate children, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  91
  No. of persons contaminated by syphilitic disease, . 480
  Cost to the State in various ways, . . . . .  $1,308,000

Without doubt a complete summary would make this showing still more
appalling, since of the 709 whose histories were traced, it was in many
instances impossible to determine whether the individuals were guilty
of crime or unchastity or not, even where there were grounds for
suspicion. Such cases were not included in the summary.

No amount of argument on this question could be so conclusive as are
these simple facts concerning the "Juke" family. It is certainly high
time that our legislators began to awaken to this subject, and consider
whether it would be an unprofitable experiment to make some attempt
to prevent the multiplication of criminals in this manner. We are not
prepared to offer a plan for securing such an end; but it is very clearly
important that something should be done in this direction.

It is an established physiological fact that the character of offspring
is influenced by the mental as well as the physical conditions of the
parents at the moment of the performance of the generative act. In view
of this fact, how many parents can regard the precocious--or even
mature--manifestations of sexual depravity in their children without
painful smitings of conscience at seeing the legitimate results of
their own sensuality? By debasing the reproductive function to an act
of selfish animal indulgence, they imprinted upon their children an
almost irresistible tendency to vice. Viewing the matter from this
stand-point, what wonder that licentiousness is rife! that true
chastity is among the rarest of virtues!

Prof. O. W. Holmes remarks on this subject: "There are people who think
that everything may be done if the doctor, be he educator or physician,
be only called in season. No doubt; but _in season_ would often be a
hundred or two years before the child was born, and people never send
so early as that." "Each of us is only the footing up of a double column
of figures that goes back to the first pair. Every unit tells, and some
of them are _plus_ and some _minus_. If the columns don't add up right,
it is commonly because we can't make out all of the figures."

It cannot be doubted that the throngs of deaf, blind, crippled, idiotic
unfortunates who were "born so," together with a still larger class
of dwarfed, diseased, and constitutionally weak individuals, are the
lamentable results of the violation of some sexual law on the part of
their progenitors.

If parents would stop a moment to consider the momentous
responsibilities involved in the act of bringing into existence a human
being; if they would reflect that the qualities imparted to the new
being will affect its character to all eternity; if they would recall
the fact that they are about to produce a mirror in which will be
reflected their own characters divested of all the flimsy fabrics which
deceive their fellow-men, revealing even the secret imaginings of their
hearts,--there would surely be far less of sin, disease, and misery
born into the world than at the preset day; but we dare not hope for
such a reform. To effect it, would require such a revolution in the
customs of society, such a radical reform in the habits and characters
of individuals, as nothing short of a temporal millennium would be able
to effect.

It is quite probable that some writers have greatly exaggerated the
possible results which may be attained by proper attention to the laws
under consideration. All cannot be equally beautiful; every child
cannot be a genius; the influence of six thousand years of transgression
cannot be effaced in a single generation; but persevering,
conscientious efforts to comply with every requirement of health,
purity, morality, and the laws of nature, will accomplish wonders in
securing healthy children with good dispositions, brilliant intellects,
and beautiful bodies.

This is not the proper place to describe in detail a plan to be pursued;
but the few hints given, if rightly appreciated, may enable those
interested in the subject to plan for themselves a proper course. In
concluding the subject, we may summarize its chief points as follows,
for the purpose of impressing them more fully upon the mind:--

1. If a child is begotten in lust, its lower passions will as certainly
be abnormally developed as peas will produce peas, or potatoes produce
potatoes. If the child does not become a rake or a prostitute, it will
be because of uncommonly fortunate surroundings, or a miracle of divine
grace. But even then, what terrible struggles with sin and vice, with
foul thoughts and lewd imaginations--the product of a naturally
abnormal mind--must such an individual suffer! If he is unsuccessful
in the conflict, is he alone to blame? Society, his fellow-men, will
censure him alone; but He who knoweth all the secrets of human life
will pass a more lenient judgment on the erring one, and mete out
punishment where it most belongs.

2. The same remarks apply with equal force to the transmission of other
qualities. If the interest of the parents is only for self, with no
thought for the well-being of the one whose destiny is in their hands,
they can expect naught but a selfish character, a sordid, greedy
disposition, in the child.

3. The influence of the father is, at the outset, as great as that of
the mother. The unhappy or immoral thoughts of one alone at the critical
moment when life is imparted, may fix for eternity a foul blot upon
a character yet unformed.

4. If during gestation the mother is fretful, complaining, and
exacting; if she requires to be petted and waited upon; if she gratifies
every idle whim and indulges every depraved desire and perverted
appetite--as thousands of mothers do--the result will surely be a
peevish, fretful child, that will develop into a morose and irritable
man or woman, imperious, unthankful, disobedient, willful, gluttonous,
and vicious.

If such undesirable results would be avoided, the following suggestions
should be regarded:--

1. For the beginning of a new life, select the most favorable time,
which will be when the bodily health is at its height; when the mind
is free from care and anxiety; when the heart is joyous, cheerful, and
filled with hope, love, high aspirations, pure and beautiful thoughts.
If, as one writer says, it is the duty of every human pair engaging
in the reproductive act to bring into existence the most perfect
specimen of the race of which they are capable, then it becomes a
monstrous crime to enter into relations which may produce a contrary
result. This may be a truth hard to accept, but who is prepared to
dispute it on logical or moral grounds?

2. If a child has been properly conceived, the duty then devolves upon
the mother to secure its proper development. Is beauty desired, let
the mother be surrounded with beautiful objects; and let her mind dwell
upon such objects. If an active mind and brilliant intellect are
required, the mother should devote considerable time to study and
mental labor of a pleasant nature. The moral nature should be carefully
cultivated, to insure a lovely disposition. No angry words or unhappy
feelings should be tolerated. Purity of heart and life should be
maintained. The husband should do his part by supplying favorable
surroundings, suggesting cheerful thoughts, and aiding mental culture.

3. After birth, the mother still possesses a molding influence upon
the development of her child through the lacteal secretion. Every
mother knows how speedily the child will suffer if nursed when she is
exhausted by physical labor or when suffering from nervous excitement,
as anger or grief. These facts show the influence which the mental
states of the mother exert upon the child even when the act of nursing
is the only physical bond between them.

It would be a happy day for the race which should witness the recognition
of the fact that infants, even human beings in embryo, possess rights
which are as sacred as those of adult human beings.

Circumcision.--The fold of integument called the prepuce, which has
been previously described, has upon its inner surface a large number
of glands which produce a peculiar secretion. Under certain
circumstances, and from inattention to personal cleanliness, this
secretion may accumulate, and then often becomes the cause of
irritation and serious disease. To prevent such disorders, and to
insure cleanliness, the Jewish law required the removal of the prepuce,
which constituted the rite of circumcision. The same practice is
followed by several modern nations dwelling in tropical climates; and
it can scarcely be doubted that it is a very salutary one, and has
contributed very materially to the maintenance of that proverbial
national health for which the Jews are celebrated. Eminent physicians
have expressed the opinion that the practice would be a salutary one
for all men. The maintenance of scrupulous cleanliness, by daily
cleansing, is at least an imperative duty.

In some countries, females are also circumcised by removal of the
nymphae. The object is the same as that of circumcision in the male.
The same evils result from inattention to local cleanliness, and the
same measure of prevention, daily cleansing, is necessitated by a
similar secretion. Local cleanliness is greatly neglected by both sexes.
Daily washing should begin with infancy and continue through life, and
will prevent much disease.

Castration.--This operation consists in the removal of the testes of
the male. It does not at once obliterate the sexual sense, especially
if performed after puberty, but of course renders the individual
impotent, or incapable of reproduction. Persons upon whom it has been
performed are called eunuchs. It was a very common custom in ancient
times, being usually prompted by the jealousy of rulers, who allowed
no males but eunuchs to associate with their wives and concubines. The
effect upon the male is to render him effeminate in appearance and weak
in mind. If performed before puberty, the growth of the beard is scanty,
and the voice never acquires that deepness of tone natural to the
masculine voice.

An analogous operation, termed _spaying_, is performed upon females,
consisting in the removal of the ovaries; effects similar to those in
the male, _sterility_ without entire immediate loss of sexual sense,
being the usual result. Spaying is much more rarely performed than
castration. Both operations are now quite rare, seldom being resorted
to except in surgical cases. Castration is still practiced in some
Eastern countries.




THE SEXUAL RELATIONS.


Just in proportion as the perpetuation of the race is more important
than the existence of any single individual, the organs of reproduction
may in a certain sense be said to rank higher than any other organs
of the human frame, since to them is intrusted the important duty of
performing that most marvelous of all vital processes, the production
of human beings. That this high rank in the vital economy is recognized
by nature, is shown by the fact that she has attached to the abuse of
the generative function the most terrible penalties which can be
inflicted upon a living being. The power of abuse seems to be almost
exclusively confined to man; hence, we find him the only one of all
living creatures subject to the awful penalties of sexual
transgression.

The _use_ of the reproductive function is perhaps the highest physical
act of which man is capable; its _abuse_ is certainly one of the most
grievous outrages against nature which it is possible for him to
perpetrate. No observing person can doubt that the sexual relations
of men and women determine in a great degree their happiness or misery
in life. This subject, then, deserves due attention and careful
consideration. It is of no use to scout it; for it will inevitably
obtrude itself upon us, no matter now sedulously we attempt to avoid
it. It can be rightly considered only with the most perfect candor,
with the mind unbiased by passion, and prayerfully anxious to know and
_do_ what is right.

In the following paragraphs of this section are considered some of the
evils out of which grows much of the sexual suffering of men and women:--

Sexual Precocity.--There are two periods in human life when the sexual
instincts should be totally dormant; and they are so when nature is
not perverted. The first is the period reaching from infancy to puberty.
The second is the period reached in advanced age.

If raised strictly in accordance with natural law, children would have
no sexual notions or feelings before the occurrence of puberty. No
prurient speculation about sexual matters would enter their heads.
Until that period, the reproductive system should lie dormant in its
undeveloped state. No other feeling should be exhibited between the
sexes than that brotherly and sisterly affection which is so admirable
and becoming.

Fortunate, indeed, would it be for humanity if this natural state always
existed; but it is a lamentable fact that it is rarely seen in modern
homes. Not infrequently, evidences of sexual passion are manifested
before the child has hardly learned to walk. It has been suggested that
this precocity is nothing remarkable or unnatural, since it is often
seen in little lambs and other young animals. To this it is only
necessary to reply that the development of the sexual instincts
perfectly corresponds with the longevity of the animal; if short-lived,
like the sheep, only a short period intervenes between birth and the
attainment of the sexual appetite and virility. If the animal is
intended for long life, as is the case with man, these manifestations
are delayed until a much later period, or should be. Certain insects
perform the sexual act as soon as they acquire their perfect form; but
they perish as soon as the act is completed.

Astonishing Ignorance.--It is astonishing how ignorant and indifferent
the majority of people are upon this subject. A friend related to us
an incident which fairly illustrates the terrible apathy which prevails
among parents. While teaching a country school, he learned that a large
number of children, boys and girls, of ages varying from eight to twelve
and fourteen years, were in the habit of collecting together in barns
and other secluded places, and in a state of nudity imitating the "Black
Crook" with all possible additional nastiness. Horrified at such a
monstrous evil, he hastened to inform the parents of the corruption
in their midst. Imagine his astonishment when he was met with an
indifferent laugh and the response, "Pooh! it's only natural; perfectly
harmless; _just like little pigs!_" As though pigs were models for human
beings!

It is not pleasant to consider what must have been the moral status
of parents who could hold such views; and it is no wonder that they
should produce such children. Doubtless they learned, too late, that
those "natural" manifestations were the outgrowth of incipient vices,
planted and fostered by themselves, which in later years destroyed
shame and gave loose rein to lust.

Often the manifestation of sexual precocity is less gross, but almost
equally fraught with danger, nevertheless. Dr. Acton, a distinguished
English surgeon whom we shall frequently quote, makes the following
excellent remarks upon this subject:--

"Slight signs are sufficient to indicate when a boy has this unfortunate
tendency. He shows marked preferences. You will see him single out one
girl, and evidently derive an unusual pleasure (for a boy) in her
society. His _penchant_ does not take the ordinary form of a boy's good
nature, but little attentions that are generally reserved for a later
period prove that his feeling is different, and sadly premature. He
may be apparently healthy, and fond of playing with other boys; still
there are slight, but ominous, indications of propensities fraught with
danger to himself. His play with the girl is different from his play
with his brothers. His kindness to her is a little too ardent. He follows
her, he does not know why. He fondles her with a tenderness painfully
suggestive of a vague dawning of passion. No one can find fault with
him. He does nothing wrong. Parents and friends are delighted at his
gentleness and politeness, and not a little amused at the early
flirtation. If they were wise, they would rather feel profound anxiety;
and he would be an unfaithful or unwise medical friend who did not,
if an opportunity occurred, warn them that such a boy, unsuspicious
and innocent as he is, ought to be carefully watched and removed from
every influence calculated to foster his abnormal propensities.

"The premature development of the sexual inclination is not alone
repugnant to all we associate with the term childhood, but is also
fraught with danger to dawning manhood. On the judicious treatment of
a case such as has been sketched, it probably depends whether the
dangerous propensity shall be so kept in check as to preserve the boy's
health and innocence, or whether one more shattered constitution and
wounded conscience shall be added to the victims of sexual precocity
and careless training. It ought not to be forgotten that in such cases
a quasi-sexual power often accompanies these premature sexual
inclinations. Few, perhaps, except medical men, know how early in life
a mere infant may experience erections. Frequently it may be noticed
that a little child, on being taken out of bed in the morning, cannot
make water at once. It would be well if it were recognized by parents
and nurses that this often depends upon a more or less complete
erection."

We have been not more disgusted than shocked to see parents, whose
intelligence ought to teach them better, not only winking at, but
actually encouraging, these premature manifestations of passion in
their children. They may yet learn, by bitter experience, the folly
of their course, unless they make the discovery in time to avert the
calamitous results which threaten the future of their children, by
careful reformatory training.

Inherited Passion.--It is important to inquire the cause of this
precocity. Said a father of our acquaintance, when remonstrated with
for encouraging his infant son in a ridiculous flirtation, "I did just
so when I was of his age." In this case the cause was evident. The child
was only acting out the disposition bequeathed him by his parent. How
often do the secret follies of parents stand out in bold relief in their
children. Such a legacy is nothing to be proud of.

We again quote from Dr. Acton some observations on the causes of this
disorder,--for a grave disorder it is,--as follows:--

"I should specify _hereditary_ predisposition as by no means the least
common.... I believe that, as in body and mind, so also in the passions,
the sins of the father are frequently visited on the children. No man
or woman, I am sure, can have habitually indulged the sexual passions ...
without, at least, running the risk of finding that a disposition to
follow a similar career has been inherited by the offspring. It is in
this way only that we can explain the early and apparently almost
irresistible propensity in generation after generation indulging
similar habits and feelings."

Various Causes of Sexual Precocity.--Another very powerful
predisposing cause of sexual precocity will be alluded to under the
head of "Marital Excesses." The irritation caused by worms in the rectum,
by local irritation or uncleanliness, or by irritation of the bladder,
are exciting causes which are not infrequent. The latter cause is
indicated by another symptom, the frequent wetting of the bed at night.
Such a symptom doubly demands immediate attention.

The juvenile parties so common now-a-days, at which little ones of both
sexes, of ages varying from four or five years to ten or twelve, with
wonderful precocity and truthfulness imitate the conduct of their
elders at fashionable dinners, cannot be too much deprecated. Such
associations of the sexes have a strong tendency to develop prematurely
the distinctive peculiarities of the sexes. This is well evidenced by
the fact that on such occasions one of the most common and popular
entertainments is sham marriages. Parents greatly err in encouraging
or allowing their children to engage in amusements of so dangerous a
character. They are productive of no good, and are almost without
exception productive of positive and serious injury.

Modern modes of life, improper clothing, the forcing system of cramming
in schools, the immodest example of older persons, and especially the
irritating, stimulating articles of diet which are daily set before
children, as well as older people, undoubtedly have a powerful
influence in stimulating the development of the sexual passions. This
subject is again referred to under the heading, "Chastity."

Obscene books and papers, lewd pictures, and evil communications are
telling causes which will be further noticed elsewhere.

Senile Sexuality.--As with childhood, old age is a period in which the
reproductive functions are quiescent unless unnaturally stimulated.
Sexual life begins with puberty, and, in the female, ends at about the
age of forty-five years, the period known as the _menopause_, or _turn
of life_. At this period, according to the plainest indications of
nature, all functional activity should cease. If this law is
disregarded, disease, premature decay, possibly local degenerations,
will be sure to result. Nature cannot be abused with impunity.

The generative power of the male is retained somewhat longer than that
of the female, and by stimulation may be indulged at quite an advanced
age, but only at the expense of shortening life, and running the risk
of sudden death. Says Parise, "One of the most important pieces of
information which a man in years can attain is 'to learn to become old
betimes,' if he wishes to attain old age. Cicero, we are told, was asked
if he still indulged in the pleasures of love. 'Heaven forbid,' replied
he, 'I have forsworn it as I would a savage and a furious master.'"

Some learned physicians place the proper limit of man's functional
activity at fifty years, if he would not render himself guilty of
shortening his days by sensuality. Other reasons for this course will
appear hereafter.

When the passions have been indulged, and their diminishing vigor
stimulated, a horrid disease, _satyriasis_, not infrequently seizes
upon the imprudent individual, and drives him to the perpetration of
the most loathsome crimes and excesses. Passions cultivated and
encouraged by gratification through life will thus sometimes assert
a total supremacy in old age.

Marriage.--The scope and plan of this work will allow of but the
briefest possible consideration of this subject upon which volumes have
been written, much to no purpose other than the multiplication of books.
We shall devote no space to consideration of the origin of the
institution, its expediency, or varied relations, as these topics are
foreign to the character of this work.

The primary object of marriage was, undoubtedly, the preservation of
the race, though there are other objects which, under special
circumstances, may become paramount even to this. These latter we
cannot consider, as only the relations of the reproductive functions
in marriage come properly within our province.

The first physiological question to be considered is concerning the
proper age for marriage.

Time to Marry.--Physiology fixes with accuracy the earliest period at
which marriage is admissible. This period is that at which the body
attains complete development, which is not before twenty in the female,
and twenty-four in the male. Even though the growth may be completed
before these ages, ossification of the bones is not fully effected,
so that development is incomplete.

Among most modern nations, the civil laws fixing the earliest date of
marriage seem to have been made without any reference to physiology,
or with the mistaken notion that puberty and nubility are identical.
It is interesting to note the different ages established by different
nations for the entrance of the married state. The degenerating Romans
fixed the ages of legal marriage at thirteen for females, and fifteen
for males. The Grecian legislator, Lycurgus, placed the ages at
seventeen for the female, and thirty-seven for the male. Plato fixed
the ages at twenty and thirty years. In Prussia, the respective ages
are fifteen and nineteen; in Austria, sixteen and twenty; in France,
sixteen and eighteen, respectively.

Says Mayer, "In general, it may be established that the normal epoch
for marriage is the twentieth year for women, and the twenty-fourth
for men."

Application of the Law of Heredity.--A moment's consideration of the
physiology of heredity will disclose a sufficient reason why marriage
should be deferred until the development of the body is wholly complete.
The matrimonial relation implies reproduction. Reproduction is
effected through the union of the ovum with the zoosperm. These elements,
as we have already seen, are complete representatives of the
individuals producing them, being composed--as supposed--of minute
gemmules which are destined to be developed into cells and organs in
the new being, each preserving its resemblance to the cell within the
parent which produced it. The perfection of the new being, then, must
be largely dependent on the integrity and perfection of the sexual
elements. If the body is still incomplete, the reproductive elements
must also be incomplete; and, in consequence, the progeny must be
equally immature.

Early Marriage.--The preceding paragraph contains a sufficient reason
for condemning early marriage; that is, marriage before the ages
mentioned. It is probable that even the ages of twenty and twenty-four
are too early for those persons whose development is uncommonly slow.
But there are other cogent reasons for discountenancing early marriages,
also drawn from the physiology of reproduction, to say nothing of the
many reasons which might be urged on other grounds.

1. During the development of the body, all its energies are required
in perfecting the various tissues and organs. There is no material to
be spared for any foreign purpose.

2. The reproductive act is the most exhaustive of all vital acts. Its
effect upon an undeveloped person is to retard growth, weaken the
constitution, and dwarf the intellect.

3. The effects upon the female are even worse than those upon the male;
for, in addition to the exhaustion of nervous energy, she is compelled
to endure the burdens and pains of child-bearing when utterly
unprepared for such a task, to say nothing of her unfitness for the
other duties of a mother. With so many girl-mothers in the land, is
it any wonder that there are so many thousands of unfortunate
individuals who never seem to get beyond childhood in their
development? Many a man at forty years is as childish in mind, and as
immature in judgment, as a well-developed lad of eighteen would be.
They are like withered fruit plucked before it was ripe; they can never
become like the mellow and luscious fruit allowed to mature properly.
They are unalterably molded; and the saddest fact of all is that they
will give to their children the same imperfections; and the children
will transmit them to another generation, and so the evil will go on
increasing, unless checked by extinction.

Mutual Adaptation.--Another question of very great importance is that
of the mutual adaptation of the individuals. To this question we can
devote but a very brief consideration, and that will be more of the
nature of criticism than of a set of formal rules for governing
matrimonial alliances.

A writer of some note, whose work on this and kindred subjects has had
quite an extensive circulation, advocates with great emphasis the
theory that parties contemplating marriage should in all cases select
for partners individuals as nearly like themselves as possible. Exact
duplicates would, in his opinion, make the most perfect union
attainable. To make his theory practicable, he is obliged to fall back
upon phrenology; and directs that a man seeking a wife, or a woman
seeking a husband, should obtain a phrenological chart of his head and
then send it around until a counterpart is found. If the circle of one's
acquaintance is so fortunate as to contain no one cursed with the same
propensities or idiosyncrasies as himself, the newspapers are to be
brought into requisition as a medium of advertising.

If so strange a doctrine as this were advocated by an obscure individual
in some secluded hamlet, or found only in the musty volumes of some
forgotten author, it surely would be unworthy of notice; but coming
as it does from a quite popular writer, and being coupled with a great
amount of really valuable truth, it is sufficiently important to
deserve refutation. A brief glance at the practical working of the
theory will be a sufficient exposure of its falsity.

According to this rule, a man or woman of large combativeness should
select a partner equally inclined to antagonism; then we should
have--what? the elements of a happy, contented, harmonious life? No;
instead, either a speedy lawsuit for divorce, or a continual domestic
broil, the nearest approach to a mundane purgatory possible. The
selfish, close-fisted, miserly money-catcher must marry a woman
equally sordid and stingy. Then together they could hoard up, for moths
and rust to destroy, or for interested relatives to quarrel over, the
pictorial greenback and the glittering dollar, each scrimping the other
down to the finest point above starvation and freezing, and finally
dying, to be forgotten as soon as dead by their fellow-men, and sent
among the goats at the great assizes. A shiftless spendthrift must
choose for a helpmeet (?) an equally slovenly, thriftless wife. A man
with a crotchet should select a partner with the same morbid fancy.
A man whose whole mental composition gravitates behind his ears, must
find a mate with the same animal disposition. An individual whose mental
organization is sadly unbalanced, is advised to seek for a wife a woman
with the same deficiencies and abnormalities.

Any one can see at a glance the domestic disasters which such a plan
of proceeding would entail. Men and women of unbalanced temperaments
would become more unbalanced. An individual of erroneous tendencies,
instead of having the constant check of the example and admonitions
of a mate of opposite tendencies, would be, by constant example,
hastened onward in his sinful ways. Thus, to all but a very small
proportion of humanity, the married state would be one of infelicity
and degeneration.

And what would be the progeny of such unions? The peculiarities and
propensities of the parents, instead of being modified and perhaps
obliterated in the children by corresponding differences in character,
would be doubly exaggerated. The children of selfish parents would be
thieves; those of spendthrifts, beggars; those of crotchety parents,
monomaniacs; those born of sensual parents, beastly debauchees. A few
generations of such a degenerating process would either exterminate
the race or drive it back to Darwin's ancestral ape.

It must not be inferred, from our strictures upon the theory mentioned,
that we would advocate the opposite course, that is, the contraction
of marriage by individuals of wholly dissimilar tastes, aims, and
temperaments. Such alliances would doubtless be quite as wretched in
their results as those of an opposite character. It is with this as
with nearly all other subjects; the true course lies between the two
extremes. Parties who are negotiating a life partnership should be
careful to assure themselves that there exists a sufficient degree of
congeniality of temperament to make such close and continued
association agreeable.

Disparity of Age.--Both nature and custom seem to indicate that the
husband should be a little older than the wife. Several reasons might
be given for this; but we need not mention them. When, however, the
difference of ages reaches such an extreme as thirty, forty, even fifty
or more years, nature is abused, good taste is offended, and even
morality is shocked. Such ill-sorted alliances are disastrous to both
parties, and scarcely more to one than the other. An old man who forms
a union with a young girl scarce out of her teens--or even younger--can
scarcely have any very elevated motive for his action, and he certainly
exposes himself to the greatest risk of sudden death, while insuring
his premature decay. A king once characterized such a course as "the
pleasantest form of suicide." It is doubtless suicidal, but we suspect
there are some phases of such an unnatural union which are not very
enjoyable.

One reason of the great danger of such marriages to the old is the
exhaustive effects of the sexual act. As previously noted, in some
animals it causes immediate death. Dr. Acton makes the following
pertinent remarks:--

"So serious, indeed, is the paroxysm of the nervous system produced
by the sexual spasm, that its immediate effect is not always unattended
with danger, and men with weak hearts have died in the act. Every now
and then we learn that men are found dead on the night of their wedding."

"However exceptional these cases are, they are warnings, and should
serve to show that an act which _may_ destroy the weak should not be
tampered with, even by the strong."

"There are old men who marry young wives, and who pay the penalty by
becoming martyrs to paralysis, softening of the brain, and driveling
idiocy."

Dr. Gardner quotes the Abbe Maury, as follows: "I hold as certain that
after fifty years of age a man of sense ought to renounce the pleasures
of love. Each time that he allows himself this gratification is _a
pellet of earth thrown upon his coffin_."

Dr. Gardner further says: "Alliances of this sort have taken place in
every epoch of humanity, from the time of the patriarchs to the present
day,--alliances repugnant to nature,--between men bordering on
decrepitude and poor young girls, who are sacrificed by their parents
for position, or who sell themselves for gold. There is in these
monstrous alliances something which we know not how to brand
sufficiently energetically, in considering the reciprocal relations
of the pair thus wrongfully united, and the lot of the children which
may result from them. Let us admit, for an instant, that the marriage
has been concluded with the full consent of the young girl, and that
no external pressure has been exerted upon her will--as is generally
the rule--it will none the less happen that reflection and experience
will tardily bring regrets, and the sharper as the evil will be without
remedy; but if compulsion, or what is often the same thing, _persuasion_,
had been employed to obtain the consent which the law demands, the
result would have been more prompt and vehement. From this moment the
common life becomes odious to the unhappy victim, and _culpable hopes_
will arise in her desolate heart, so heavy is the chain she carries.
In fact, the love of the old man becomes ridiculous and horrid to her,
and we cannot sufficiently sympathize with the unfortunate person whose
duty [?] it is to submit to it. If we think of it an instant, we shall
perceive a repulsion, such as is only inspired by the idea of incest....
So what do we oftenest observe? Either the woman violently breaks the
cursed bands, or she resigns herself to them; and then she seeks to
fill up the void in her soul by adulterous amours. Such is the somber
perspective of the sacrilegious unions which set at defiance the most
respectable instincts, the most noble desires, and the most legitimate
hopes. Such, too, are the terrible chastisements reserved for the
thoughtlessness or foolish pride of these dissolute gray-beards, who
prodigalize the last breath of their life in search of depraved
voluptuousness."

The parents, the perpetrators of such an outrage against nature, are
not the only sufferers. Look at the children which they bring into the
world! Let Dr. Gardner speak again:--

"Children, the issue of old men, are habitually marked by a serious
and sad air spread over their countenances, which is manifestly very
opposite to the infantile expression which so delights one in the little
children of the same age engendered under other conditions. As they
grow up, their features take on more and more the senile character;
so much so that every one remarks it, and the world regards it as a
natural thing. The old mothers pretend that it is an old head on young
shoulders. They predict an early death to these children, and the event
frequently justifies the horoscope. Our attention has for many years
been fixed upon this point, and we can affirm that the greater part
of the offspring of these connections are weak, torpid, lymphatic, if
not scrofulous, and do not promise a long career."

In old age the seminal fluid becomes greatly deteriorated. Even at the
best, its component elements could only represent decrepitude and
infirmity, degeneration and senility. In view of such facts, says Dr.
Acton,--

"We are, therefore, forced to the conclusion that the children of old
men have an inferior chance of life; and facts daily observed confirm
our deductions. Look but at the progeny of such marriages; what is its
value? As far as I have seen, it is the worst kind--spoilt childhood,
feeble and precocious youth, extravagant manhood, early and premature
death."

Unions of an opposite character to those just considered, wherein a
young man marries a woman much older than himself, are more rare than
those of the other class. They are, perhaps, less deplorable in their
physical effects, but still highly reprehensible. They are seldom
prompted by pure motives, and can be productive of no good. Children
resulting from such unions are notably weak, unbalanced, and sorry
specimens of humanity.

We have scarcely referred to the domestic misery which may result from
these disgraceful unions. If a young girl is brought home by a widower
to preside over his grown-up daughters, perhaps old enough to be her
mother, all the elements are provided for such a domestic hell as could
only be equaled by circumstances precisely similar. If children are
born, neither father nor mother is fit to act the part of a parent to
them. The father, by reason of his age, is fitful, uncertain, and
childish; to-day too lenient, to-morrow too exacting. The mother is
pettish, childish, indulgent, impatient, and as unskilled in
government as unfit for motherhood. In the midst of all this misrule,
the child grows up undisciplined, uncultivated, unsubdued; a misery
to his parents, a disgrace to his friends, a dishonor to himself.

"What shall I do with him? and what will he do with me?" was the question
asked by a girl of eighteen whose parents were urging her to marry an
old man; and every young woman would do well to propound it under similar
circumstances.

Were we disposed to define more specifically the conditions necessary
to secure the most harmonious matrimonial unions, it would be useless
to do so; for unions of this sort never have been, and never will
be--with rare exceptions--formed in accordance with a prescribed
method independent of any emotional bias. Nor is it probable that such
a plan would result in remedying, in any appreciable degree, existing
evils. It is a fact too patent to be ignored that a very large share
of the unhappiness in the world arises from ill-mated marriages; but
it is also true that nearly the whole of this unhappiness might be
averted if the parties themselves would endeavor to lessen the
differences between them by mutual approximation.

Courtship.--We cannot well avoid devoting a few paragraphs to a part
of the subject so important as this, especially as it affords an
opportunity for pointing out some evils too patent and too perilous
to be ignored.

Courting, in the sense in which we use the word, is distinctly an
American custom. The social laws of other civilized countries are such
as to preclude the possibility of the almost unrestrained association
of the sexes in youth which we see in this country. We do not offer
this fact as an argument in favor of foreign social customs, by any
means, although in this one particular they often present great
advantages, since in the majority of instances other evils as great
or even greater are encouraged. We mention the fact simply for the
purpose of bringing into bold relief the evils of the characteristic
American looseness in this particular.

A French matron would be horrified at the idea of a young man asking
her daughter to accompany him alone on an evening ride, to a lecture,
concert, or other place of amusement, and much more should he ask the
privilege of sitting up all night in the parlor with the light turned
down, after the rest of the family had retired. Among respectable people
in France such liberties are not tolerated; and a young man who should
propose such things would be dismissed from the house instantly, and
would be regarded as unfit for association with virtuous people. If
a young man calls upon a young lady for the purpose of making her
acquaintance, he sees both her and her mother, or an aunt or older sister.
He never sees her alone. If he invites her to ride, or to accompany
him to an entertainment of any sort, he must always invite her lady
friend also; she goes along at any rate. There is afforded no chance
for solitary moonlight strolls or rides, nor any other of the similar
opportunities made so common by American courting customs. We are no
advocates of the formal modes of contracting matrimonial alliances
common among many nations, and illustrations of which we find at all
ages of the world. For example, among the ancient Assyrians it was a
custom to sell wives to the highest bidder, at auction, the sums
received for the handsomer one being given to the less favored ones
as a dowry, to secure a husband for every woman. The same custom
prevailed in Babylon in ancient times, and has been practiced in modern
times in Russia. At St. Petersburg, not many years ago, an annual sale
of wives was held on Whit Sunday, after the same plan followed by the
Assyrians.

Among the early Jews it seems to have been the custom for parents to
select wives for their sons. In the case of Isaac, this important matter
was intrusted to an old and experienced servant, who was undoubtedly
considered much more competent to select a wife for the young man than
he was himself. The same custom has been handed down even to the present
time among some oriental nations. In many cases the parties are not
allowed to see each other until after the wedding ceremony is completed.
The Hungarians often betroth their children while they are yet in their
cradles, as did the Mexicans and Brazilians of the last century. In
some countries it has even been customary to betroth girls
conditionally before they were born. The primitive Moravians seem to
have adhered to the ancient Jewish custom in some degree, though making
the selection of a wife a matter of chance. The old people did all the
courting there was done, which was not much. When a young man desired
a wife, a helpmeet was selected for him by casting lots among the
marriageable young ladies of the community, and the young man was
obliged to abide by the decision, it being supposed that Providence
controlled the selection. We are not prepared to say that the young
man ran any greater risk of getting an uncongenial or undesirable life
companion by this mode of selection than by the more modern modes in
vogue among us.

As before remarked, we do not present these customs as illustrations
of what might be considered a proper mode of conducting the preliminary
steps of matrimonial alliances. On the contrary, we unhesitatingly
pronounce them decidedly objectionable on moral grounds if not on
others, and we can readily see that such unions must have been in many
cases exceedingly unsatisfactory.

In various other countries, marriage customs quite the opposite from
those described have been in vogue. In Irving's "Knickerbocker's
History of New York," a somewhat humorous account is given of a custom
which has prevailed in some parts of this country as well as others,
even within the memory of persons living at the present day, and is,
indeed, said to be not yet altogether obsolete in Finland. The author,
in dwelling upon the social customs of the early Dutch settlers of New
York, describes "a singular custom prevalent among them, commonly known
by the name of _bundling_,--a superstitious rite observed by the young
people of both sexes, with which they usually terminated their
festivities, and which was kept up with religious strictness by the
more bigoted part of the community. This ceremony was likewise, in those
primitive times, considered as an indispensable preliminary to
matrimony, their courtships commencing where ours usually finish,--by
which means they acquired that intimate acquaintance with each other's
good qualities before marriage, which has been pronounced by
philosophers the sure basis of a happy union. Thus early did this
cunning and ingenious people display a shrewdness of making a bargain,
which has ever since distinguished them."

"To this sagacious custom, therefore, do I chiefly attribute the
unparalleled increase of the Yanokie or Yankee race; for it is a certain
fact, well authenticated by court records and parish registers, that,
wherever the practice of bundling prevailed, there was an amazing
number of sturdy brats annually born into the State, without the license
of the law, or the benefit of clergy."

Long Courtships.--Chiefly for the reasons presented in the preceding
paragraphs, we are opposed to long courtships and long engagements.
They are productive of no good, and are not infrequently the occasion
of much evil. There may be circumstances which render a prolonged
engagement necessary and advisable; but, in general, they are to be
avoided.

On the other hand, hasty marriages are still more to be deprecated,
especially when, as is too commonly the case, the probability is so
great that passion is the actuating motive far more than true love.
Marriage is a matter of most serious consequences, and deserving of
the most careful deliberation. Too often matrimony is entered upon
without any more substantial assurance of happiness as the result than
the individual has of securing a valuable prize who buys a ticket in
a lottery scheme. In the majority of cases, young people learn more
of each other's real character within six weeks after marriage than
they discovered during as many months of courting. To every young man
and woman we say, Look well before you leap; consider well, carefully,
and prayerfully. A leap in the dark is a fearful risk, and will be far
more likely to land you in a domestic purgatory than anywhere else.
Do not be dazzled by a handsome face, an agreeable address, a brilliant
or piquant manner. Choose, rather, modesty, simplicity, sincerity,
morality, qualities of heart and mind, rather than exterior
embellishments.

"It is folly," suggests a friend, "to give advice on these subjects,
for no one will follow advice on this point, no matter how sensible
and reasonable he may be on all other subjects. The emotions carry the
individual away, and the reason loses control." This is all too true,
in nearly all cases. We believe in affection. The emotions have their
part to act. We have no sympathy with the theories of those who will
have all marriages made by rule. But reason must be allowed a voice
in the matter; and although there may be a time when the overwhelming
force of the emotions may force the reason and judgment into the
background, there has been a time previous when the judgment might have
held control. Let every young man and woman be most scrupulously careful
how he allows emotional excitement to gain the ascendency. When once
reason is stifled, the individual is in a most precarious situation.
It is far better and easier to prevent the danger than to escape from
it.

Flirtation.--We cannot find language sufficiently emphatic to express
proper condemnation of one of the most popular forms of amusement
indulged in at the present day in this country, under the guise of
innocent association of the sexes. By the majority of people,
flirtation is looked upon as harmless, if not useful, as some even
consider, claiming that the experience gained by such associations is
valuable to young persons, by making them familiar with the customs
of society and the ways of the world. We have not the slightest
hesitation in pronouncing flirtation as pernicious in the extreme. It
exerts a malign influence alike upon the mental, the moral, and the
physical constitution of those who indulge it. The young lady who has
become infatuated with a passion for flirting, courting the society
of young men simply for the pleasure derived from their attentions,
is educating herself in a school which will totally unfit her for the
enjoyment of domestic peace and happiness should she have all the
conditions necessary for such enjoyment other than those which she
herself must furnish. More than this, she is very likely laying the
foundation for lifelong disease by the dissipation, late hours, late
suppers, evening exposures, fashionable dressing, etc., the almost
certain accompaniments of the vice we are considering. She is surely
sacrificing a life of real true happiness for the transient
fascinations of unreal enjoyment, pernicious excitement.

It may be true, and undoubtedly is the case, that the greater share
of the guilt of flirtation lies at the door of the female sex; but there
do exist such detestable creatures as male flirts. In general, the male
flirt is a much less worthy character than the young lady who makes
a pastime of flirtation. He is something more than a flirt. In nine
cases out of ten, he is a rake as well. His object in flirting is to
gratify a mean propensity at the expense of those who are pure and
unsophisticated. He is skilled in the arts of fascination and intrigue.
Slowly he winds his coils about his victim, and before she is aware
of his real character, she has lost her own.

Such wretches ought to be punished in a purgatory by themselves, made
seven times hotter than for ordinary criminals. Society is full of these
lecherous villains. They insinuate themselves into the drawing-rooms
of the most respectable families; they are always on hand at social
gatherings of every sort. They haunt the ball-room, the theater, and
the church, when they can forward their infamous plans by seeming to
be pious. Not infrequently they are well supplied with a stock of pious
cant, which they employ on occasion to make an impression. They are
the sharks of society, and often seize in their voracious maws the
fairest and brightest ornaments of a community. The male flirt is a
monster. Every man ought to despise him; and every woman ought to spurn
him as a loathsome social leper.

Youthful Flirtations.--Flirting is not confined to young men and women.
The contagion extends to little boys and girls, whose heads ought to
be as empty of all thoughts of sexual relations as the vacuum of an
air-pump of air. The intimate association of young boys and girls in
our common schools, and, indeed, in the majority of educational
institutions, gives abundant opportunity for the fostering of this kind
of a spirit, so prejudicial to healthful mental and moral development.
Every educator who is alive to the objects and interests of his
profession knows too well the baneful influence of these premature and
pernicious tendencies. Many times has the teacher watched with a sad
heart the withering of all his hopes for the intellectual progress of
a naturally gifted scholar by this blighting influence. The most
dangerous period for boys and girls exposed to temptations of this sort
is that just following puberty, or between the ages of twelve and
eighteen or twenty. This period, a prominent educator in one of our
Western States once denominated, not inappropriately, "the agonizing
period of human puppyhood." If this critical period is once safely
passed, the individual is comparatively safe; but how many fail to pass
through the ordeal unseared!

The most painful phase of this subject is the tacit--even, in many cases,
active--encouragement which too many parents give their children in
this very direction, seemingly in utter ignorance of the enormity of
the evil which they are winking at or fostering. Parents need
enlightenment on this subject, and need to be aroused to the fact that
it is one of the most momentous questions that can arise in the rearing
and training of children.

Polygamy.--One hundred years ago the discussion of the public propriety
or impropriety of a plurality of wives would have been impossible.
Polygamy had not obtained a foothold as an institution in any civilized
land. Being well known as not uncommon among certain heathenish and
barbarous tribes, it was looked upon as a heathenish and debasing
institution, the outgrowth of ignorance and gross sensuality, and a
relic of a sensual age. Now, this is no longer true. Even in this, the
most enlightened of all lands, where there are most ample facilities
for culture, for moral and mental development, polygamy holds up its
hideous head in defiance of all the laws of God and man. It is true
that the perpetrators of this foul crime against humanity and Heaven
have been driven by the indignation of outraged decency to seek a
lurking place in the far-off wilderness of the Western territories;
yet the foul odors from this festering sore are daily becoming more
and more putrescent, and in spite of the distance, are contaminating
the already not overstrict morals of the nation.

No better evidence of the blighting, searing effect of this gross social
crime could be found than the fact that not only is polygamy coming
to be winked at as something not so very bad after all, but men from
whom we have a right to expect something better are coming forward in
its defense.

We have just been perusing a work written for the express purpose of
justifying and advocating polygamy, which was written by an evangelical
clergyman. He was evidently not willing to own his work, however, since
his name is carefully excluded from the title-page, and his publisher
put under an oath of secrecy. The arguments which he makes in favor
of polygamy are chiefly the following:--

1. That it is approved by the Bible.

2. That a robust man requires more than one woman to satisfy his sexual
demands.

3. That there are more women than men; and since every woman has a right
to have a husband, the only way all can be supplied is to allow several
women, two or more, according to the capacity of the man, or as they
can agree, to form a marriage partnership with one man.

4. That the great men of all ages have been polygamists in fact, if
not by open profession.

5. That monogamy is a relic of the paganism of the ancient Greeks and
Romans, with whom it originated.

6. That it is the only proper and effective cure for the "social evil,"
and all its attendant vices and dire diseases.

As this work has had quite a circulation, bearing the imprint of a
well-known Boston publisher, and has not received any answer that we
are aware of, we deem it worth while to give these arguments, which
are very strongly presented, at least a brief passing notice. We will
consider them in the order in which we have stated them.

1. We deny most emphatically the assertion that polygamy is either
taught or approved by the Bible. It was tolerated in a people who had
long been in the darkness of Egyptian bondage, but never approved.
Indeed, the inspired writers have evidently taken pains to give
numerous examples of the evils growing out of that violation of the
law of God and Nature.

2. The second argument is based upon the asserted fact that man
naturally possesses stronger sexual demands than woman; that these
demands are imperative; and that it is not only impossible, but in the
highest d

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