Sexology/Part 1
SEXOLOGY
PART I.
Introduction.
We present this work with pardonable pride, believing it will be the means of saving many lives and a vast amount of suffering and needless unhappiness.
The importance and demand for a work of this character cannot be doubted. Its need has been announced upon the floor of the Senate Chamber; in resolutions adopted by Church Assemblies; in the Pulpit; in our Religious and Medical Journals; and the need of the knowledge it contains is evidenced by the newspapers, in their daily records of disagreements, separations, desertions, seductions, adultery, insanity, suicide, murder and death, the cause of which in almost every case is admitted by all authorities and shown by the Records of our Courts to be ignorance of the Laws of Nature, of self and of sex.
It is to the unfortunate victims of these dreadful conditions that this book directly appeals. It is written to enlighten and benefit those who have recklessly plunged into marriage, who have assumed that relationship at once 80 holy and so intricate, where knowledge is essential, yet substituted by ignorance; marriage, whose only incentive is to get "a home" or secure a "partner." It is this "home" and this "partner" that we desire to reach, as well as to enlighten those who mentally and physically are capable of the functions of wedlock, but who for lack of knowledge suffer in silence.
In attempting to map out the rights and wrongs of the relations that exist between human beings, and which govern their life, health, intellect, love, power, happiness, usefulness and honor, we cannot avoid a feeling of responsibility, a desire and absolute determination to record nothing without careful investigation and due consideration — and yet an equal desire to hold back nothing that can give them a proper understanding of themselves.
It is far from our object to profane with open publicity the secrecy of Holy Matrimony; yet within this Holy Matrimonial state there exists a deplorable condition of sexual incompatibility, a frightful undercurrent of unhappiness; a feeling of wrong and outrage, which although in many cases not admitted—even to one's self—yet smoulders on until it bursts forth into the flame of some one of the crimes referred to.
We cannot say that this imperfect state of affairs is with the minority—nay! it exists, to a greater or less degree, with the vast majority!
A true and happy marriage, wherein we see the husband's and the wife's love for each other increase from day to day, where they grow to even strongly resemble one another—where the offspring is blessed by a healthy body and mind; where true and congenial wedlock exists; where sorrow and poverty only more strongly rivet the ties that bind them—this—this state of married happiness, which should and could be enjoyed by nearly all, is unfortunately the exception and not the rule.
It is not to those, who have either by study or natural perfection and wisdom, entrenched themselves within those all-powerful walls of true love and happiness that this book is written; except to furnish them with such knowledge as will enable them to instruct in a proper manner, and at a proper time their children, who otherwise would not, though the picture and example is constantly before them, know how and why such happiness is obtained and preserved.
It is for the rank and file of our fellow human beings that this book is mainly written. Its message is to those who have little or no conception of the duty due and owing between husband and wife. To those who are the victims of misadvised friends; the victims of the glaring advertisements of Quacks, that fill our daily papers, even polluting our religious journals, preying upon the minds and souls of our young men and women, with their endless list of symptoms, until the average youth and maiden are well nigh hypochondriacs, believing as they do (though they know not why) that they are the victims of some disease (though they know not what) which makes them unfit for marriage.
To them we give the gems of knowledge gleaned from the entire field of standard literature and from the documentary evidence of eminent European and American men and women Physicians, Professors, Lawyers, Preachers and other brilliant minds, whose far sight led them to the investigation of a subject which means the life and honor of our Nation—the health and happiness of our people.
Remember, then, that this work is not based upon medical evidence alone, nor is it in any sense a "Medical Treatise," as experience has shown that knowledge, not medicine, is needed. Therefore, in addition to the combined contributions of our Physicians, it embodies the concentrated wisdom and experience of every age and country, and does not rely upon the mere unsupported opinion of any one man, however great his genius.
Those who would accuse us of exaggeration will accuse us of extreme moderation if they will but consult the recognized authorities, from the first fathers of medicine to the most eminent scientists of our present time, and which, for the benefit of Physicians and those who desire further research, we give herewith in addition to those given throughout the book, sufficient references to standard works as will open up to them a field of study unlimited and without bounds:
Hippocrates (De Morbis, lib. ii, c. 49); Areteus (De Sign's et caus. dius. morb. lib. ii, c. 6); Lomnius (Comment de Sanit, tuend, p. m., 37); Boerhaave (Instit., p. 776); Hoffman (Consult); Ludwig (Instit. physiol.); Kloekh of (De Morb. anim. ab. infir. med. cereb.); Levis (A Practical Essay upon Tabes Dorsalis); M. Legoure (Histoire Morale des Femmes); Harbinger (On Health); Ellis (Psychology of Sex, ii); C. K. Mills (American Text Book, Diseases of Children); Garrigues (American Text Book); Palmer (American Text Book of Obs., '95); Lusk (Management of Preg'y.); Hirst (American Sys. Obs., '89); Galabin (Manual M'dw'f'y., '86); Gardin (Cyclopedia Obs. and Gym., '89); Sexual Hygiene (Clinic Pub. Co.); Brown on Divorce, Manual of Legal Medicine (Herold).
Above all, let it be remembered that we have not written to please. Had such been the ambition, the Author would have selected a widely different class of subjects. We have written to instruct, and we assure our readers that to heed our instructions is their only route to happiness. What greater service could we hope to render our fellow-creatures, than to declare to them the revelations of science in language deprived of ambiguity and cleared of the mists of technology?
Those who shall seek in our pages the gratification of a libidinous curiosity, will be disappointed, but, better still, they will be scared! Their terror will prove eminently salutary, for, in describing the evils of sexual excesses and unnatural practices, we point with the finger of authority which they dare not despise, at the deplorable consequences involved—consequences which none may escape. Indeed, in the whole range of science, there is nothing more inevitable than the dangers we have described.
If you will, suppose that by some chance, a school-girl should embrace stolen opportunities for its inspection. We ask. What harm? We are perfectly sure that the very best treatment of young persons suspected of secret bad habits, would be the leaving of this book in their way; and a young girl who can bring herself to read it, after discovering the subjects upon which it treats, needs to read it, and her parents may wink at her "indiscretion."
We believe our work will prove to be a service to all, both young and old, married or single, who will take the trouble to "read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it. Should it teach but one man how a wife should be "initiated," and in consequence, should it rescue but one woman from the sad fate which otherwise awaits her; should it snatch but one boy from the dreadful vortex into which he else had plunged, or save one girl from moral and physical ruin, it will not have been written in vain.
That it may do this for many thousands is the sincere hope and prayer of