Sexology/Part 7
PART VII.
The Physiology of Wedlock.
The extraordinary delicacy of this subject is such as to have hitherto absolutely prevented its discussion; but when ministers publicly declaim from the pulpit on the crime of ante-natal infanticide, and the press teems with minute details of the last act of a daily presented tragedy, we think it time that the drama should be faithfully elaborated and the earlier scenes equally exposed, and with the same lawful purpose—the prevention of crime, and of consequent domestic unhappiness. It is with this object in view that we venture to penetrate the secrecy of the nuptial chamber, and discover there the very beginning of evils so universally acknowledged, yet so little understood.
From the preceding chapters the different relations of man and woman on the night following the solemn ceremony which has made them one flesh can be comprehended at a glance. But few words, then, are needed to explain these differences. Of course, what we have to say regarding the woman supposes her to be, at least physically, a virgin. The poor girl has been for weeks an object of open commiseration and sympathy on the part of all the old women and young girls of her acquaintance. It is not so much what has been said as what has been mysteriously hinted by looks and actions more suggestive than words. She has been taught to regard this night as one of unspeakable horror and torment; not alone her virginity, but her utmost capacity for physical pain, are to be offered a sacrifice to her love—too often of mere position. These vague apprehensions, added to the fatigues of preparation of her wedding outfit, have produced in her the very acme of bodily and mental exhaustion; she is jaded and worn out, but, above all, frightened. The one thing in all this world of which she is least capable at this moment is the faintest spark of sexual passion. The man may be by nature kind, considerate, and loving, but the whole tenor of his thoughts and experiences on this subject are connected with violence—indeed, dynamic consummation is, as he falsely believes, the true idea of mercy. And with this disparity between the forces—shrinking timidity and ungoverned boldness—the match anticipated by Juliet, is won and lost. Lost indeed for the poor creature left mangled and terrified—nay, infinitely disgusted! Love, affection even, are well-nigh crushed out of the stricken woman, whose mental ejaculation, "O, that I had not married!" is the key-note to her whole after-existence. And so, through the long hours of that dreary night, she listens to the heavy respirations of her gross companion, whose lightest movement causes her to shrink with terror. She is fortunate, indeed, if her miseries be not renewed ere she escapes from the "bridal chamber;" and the day which follows, filled as it is with forebodings of the coming night, seems all too short for the contemplations and the resolutions which crowd upon her. Far from friends and kindred, with no sympathizing one to whom she can tell a word of her strange sorrow, with him who is miscalled her protector, revealing, by his every look and act, the bestial thoughts which fill his breast, what wonder is it that twenty-four hours of marriage have been more prolific to her of loathing than the whole previous courtship of love! Again and again these nights of horror are repeated, each, if possible, more hateful than the first, until her monster rests from sheer exhaustion, and nature cicatrizes the wounds of body and soul. The wounds received by the latter are serious indeed. Passion is forever killed.
Now if all this were remediless, if we had nothing to offer beyond the sickening exposure, too painful for the most studied narration, we should deem the foregoing too wanton for apology.
The subject, then, owes its origin to the honey-moon; but the honey-moon must be. Where, then, is the remedy? We propose to speak very plainly on this point, for it were of little service to portray the disease unless we could also indicate the specific, which, under Providence, we hope to do clearly and unequivocally. It were well if the treatment could begin with the earliest manifestations of the malady, with the first dawning of the indomitable passion in the boy, and follow him through the dangerous years whose progress, in a former chapter, we have sufficiently traced. But as this is impracticable, in the actual state of things, we must take him as he is when he closes the door of the nuptial chamber—mayhap a "reformed rake"—and say to him, with all the import of a solemn warning, "Hold I" In your keeping are now placed the destinies of that shrinking woman, for wedded happiness or wedded woe; your own tranquillity and peace of mind, perhaps your honor as a husband and father hang upon your decision now. Be cautious how you thread the mysterious path before you. You have need of all the fortitude and self-control you can possibly summon to your aid in this great emergency. You may talk of the instincts of nature, but in you these instincts are brutalized; in her they are artificially suppressed. You have the double task of curbing the former and of developing the latter. Undoubtedly the "instincts of nature" would make the marriage consummation a very awkward proceeding, sufficiently protracted for all practical purposes; but society has gotten these instincts sadly out of tune for both of you. By proper caution and delicacy on your part they may yet be harmonized, and perfect accord be thus secured. Your first words should be those of re-assurance and sympathy. Assure her most positively that her apprehensions are groundless, that no consummation shall occur this night, or, indeed, at all, until on that, as you trust on all other subjects, your wishes and hers shall exactly harmonize; above all, inform her that whenever your happy marriage shall be consummated, neither violence nor suffering shall attend it, but perfect and reciprocal happiness shall crown the act. You should know that gentleness, moderation, but more than all, due and reasonable cultivation of her womanly passion will enable you to fulfill your pledge to the very letter. You should know that in rare cases days or even weeks must elapse before entire consummation can be effected, but that when it does occur the slight pain she will suffer will be of such a character as shall increase rather than diminish her pleasure. You will also discover, by experience, that with due deliberation and prudence, nature will co-operate in your favor to relieve you of nearly all the trouble you anticipate.
We cannot be more explicit than this, but you will readily comprehend our meaning when you obey these instructions. The slightest intimation of pain or fear should warn you to desist, being determined that under no circumstances shall more violence be used than is obviously invited and shared. In one word, beware of committing a veritable outrage on the person of her whom God has given you for a companion. From all that we can learn, and the instances from which we derive our conclusions are very numerous, the first conjugal act is little else than a legalized rape in most cases. Let nothing interfere with your determination to wait for and obtain entire reciprocity of thought and desire, and let this always be your guide, not only during the honey-moon, but also throughout your married existence. Thus will you secure not only happiness and love for yourself, but that perfect confidence and gratitude from your wife which shall make her literally a sharer in your joys, as she must needs be in your sorrows. You should never forget that this passion is ordinarily slower of growth and more tardy of excitation in women than in men, but when fairly aroused in them it is incomparably stronger and more lasting. This, of course, with due allowances for differences of individual temperaments. Therefore be careful to avoid a most common error of unphilosophical man, that of undue haste and precipitation on these occasions through-out your wedded career. Be always assured that your wife is at least in entire sympathy with your own condition. It is rare that two natures are so exactly in harmony with each other that love and desire are always equal in both, but the rule should be for the one who loves the most to measure his ardor by that of the one who loves the least.
You should remember that a woman has her capacity for sexual enjoyment, and that most, if not all, wives have a tender spot for a child and a strong (yet perfectly natural) desire to become a mother, which increases as she develops into full womanhood; that undue haste, lack of sympathy and ignorance on the part of the husband is in most every case the cause of the ungratified and disappointed condition of the wife. M. Balzac, whose satirical Meditations embrace a deal of sound philosophy, says of the young wife (and which expresses our opinion of the average case):
"Her imagination persuades her to expect pleasure or happiness from a next day which will never arrive."
"She will be silent no longer when she perceives the uselessness of her sacrifices."
If you will but remember, that the fond caresses which, before marriage, won her love and affection, will arouse a world of love and passion after marriage, if you will but try it, you will be rewarded and gratified by a response of love and affection, such as only can come from a happy wife and loving mother who has realized in marriage that happiness, that right which is by nature due her.
We are now led to anticipate the question, "How frequently does health or prudence permit the repetition of the marital act?" No positive rule can be stated on this subject, dependent, as it is, on so great a variety of conditions, as individual temperaments, state of health at the moment, etc., but general principles can be clearly stated, from which may be readily deduced rules for particular instances. Regard must always be had to instructions already stated : namely, that nothing should induce a man to gratify his own desires at the expense of his wife's comfort or inclination; that the lawful pleasures of wedlock should never be permitted to degenerate into mere animal lust; that the rule should be, in all cases, to keep within but never to exceed the limits of fond desire. Franklin's rule for eating, always to rise from the table with an appetite for more, can wisely be applied to the conjugal act—never to repeat it so frequently but that the ability on both sides exists for further indulgence.
Perhaps most men learn this lesson soon enough for themselves, but a strongly passionate woman may well-nigh ruin a man of feebler sexual organization than her own, and so it is important that the woman also should be familiarized with the "physiology of matrimony," sufficiently, at least, to refrain from too exacting or frequent demands. Whatever may be her feelings, she should always remember that delicacy, as well as prudence and common sense, require her to await the advances of her companion before she manifests her willingness for his approaches. If, on the one hand, he is bound to respect her temperamental conditions, she, on her part, is equally bound to preserve toward him such an amount of womanly reserve and continence as shall prove, at the same time, her most alluring attribute, as well as her most successful guarantee of continued conjugal happiness. Something should always be held in reserve, no less of her capacity for bestowing and receiving enjoyment, than of her personal and peculiar charms. The imagination should always be left to occupy itself in depicting those treasures which it has enjoyed but never beheld; and thus the husband will remain the lover, and courtship continue until death do them part. Drapery but enhances the estimation in which men hold the female attractions of person, and the rustle of a woman's garment is more potent to charm them than the lavish exposure of the proportions of a Venus.
"These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die; like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume : the sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness.
And in the taste confounds the appetite:
Therefore, love moderately; long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow."
There is but one legitimate method of avoiding increase of family, and this should be adopted only for legitimate reasons, such as bona fide considerations of health or clearly established peculiarities of constitution. No sordid calculations of economy should have a feather 's weight in its adoption. Whom the Lord endows with existence He provides for, according to the needs of His children, and no mere human foresight can discover whether economy lies in the increase or diminution in the number of children. This most judicious method of avoiding offspring is entire continence during the time it is desirable or necessary to remain exempt. All other methods of prevention of offspring are disgusting, beastly, positively wrongful, as well as unnatural, and physically injurious. Some of them are so revolting that it is impossible to imagine how persons with the least pretensions to decency can adopt them. Any deliberate preparations with such an object savor too much of cold-blooded calculation to be even possible with pure-minded people. At best, the conjugal act should be spontaneous, and directly in. accordance with the promptings of nature. A husband who can coolly lay his plans with reference to future performances of this character is guilty of practicing the seducer's art in relation to his own marriage bed; he is the unclean bird that literally befouls his own nest. It is then impossible that those who are guilty of such practices can be ignorant of their wicked and criminal nature, and the woman who consents, equally with the man who organizes the method, is a willful and premeditated criminal. We are not writing for the benefit of such persons. We can positively assert, however, that, without a single exception, they are certainly productive of disastrous consequences to health. "But there is a practice so universal that it may well be termed a national vice, so common that it is unblushingly acknowledged by its perpetrators, for the commission of which the husband is even eulogized by his wife, and applauded by her friends, a vice which is the scourge and the desolation of marriage ; it is the crime of Onan. "He spilled his seed upon the ground, lest children should be born. And therefore the Lord slew him, because he did a detestable thing."
Who can doubt that Almighty God, in this terrible punishment, wished to impart to man a positive moral instruction which should endure to the end of time, for the crime of Onan will have imitators while the world endures—as what crimes will not? But that these should be found among men of respectability would surpass belief, if the thing were not notoriously true. At any rate, the conjugal onanists in this age and country are more numerous than the exceptions. Ministers of the Gospel, prominent church members, the very elite of society, well-nigh monopolize the art, for it is far less common to find repugnance to offspring in the lower classes than in "upper-tendom."
This enormous crime is not in all cases confined to the husband; the wife too often becomes affected with the diabolical mania, and not only by consent, but often by voluntary effort, facilitates its accomplishment. "We know of cases in which this conduct has been the cause of domestic discord, through remonstrances on the part of the husband. In these instances the woman only was guilty of the crime. One example must suffice.
A physician states that he was consulted by a gentleman of the highest respectability, who complained that his wife had not only never borne him children, but was so constituted that she seemed incapable of permitting full completion of the conjugal act. On inquiry, it appeared that she had acted by the instigations of her own mother, who had instructed her in the execution of a certain maneuver, too indecent to describe, by which she "could avoid the dangers of child-birth/' Yet this monstrous mother is a zealous member of an "orthodox" church, and not only believes in hell-fire, but indicates without scruple the very souls who, in her opinion, will be consigned to it. It is a comfort to add that the machinations of the old she-devil were readily thwarted by proper advice, and the parties now glory in the possession of children and connubial bliss.
We now propose to offer a few physiological reasons why this crime of Onan should never be committed, even if moral considerations were entirely out of the question. The effect of the practice on man is incontestably similar to that of masturbation. All the effects of the solitary vice are not manifested, because certain of the conditions are wanting, but its influence on mind and body is only less in degree. The act being against nature, she revenges herself for her violated laws in diseases of the brain and spinal marrow, functional disorders, organic diseases of the heart, lungs, and kidneys, wasting of the muscles, blindness, and frequently by impotence. The effects, in fact, are slower in development, but the same in kind. The victim finally succumbs to some acute or chronic disorder, and his epitaph may be written, "Therefore the Lord slew him because he did a detestable thing."
The effect upon woman is more obvious, because more immediate and local. The orgasm induced in the female organs by the conjugal act is such that, if left incomplete, the congestion does not immediately relieve itself, and inflammations, ulcerations, and final sterility are the resuits. The phenomena known as female weaknesses are produced oftener by this than by all other causes combined. Derangements of the bladder, rectum, and womb arising from this cause are well-nigh intractable. But these things rarely kill; we do not read that God slew Thamar.
A consideration which should operate most powerfully with generous natures, against this practice, is the fact that in every instance the most cruel injustice is practiced upon the woman in the incompleteness of the act. It is impossible for a woman, however passionate and loving she may be, to reach the true crisis of the sexual act when conjugal onanism is practiced. It is well known to physiologists that the contact of the seminal fluid with the neck of the womb is a positive necessity, not only for the proper reduction of the local congestion, but for the realization on her part of the pleasure to which the woman is justly entitled. But few repetitions of these incomplete approaches are requisite to well-nigh obliterate all ideas of enjoyment on the part of the wife so defrauded, and, therefore, another and very powerful cause of conjugal unhappiness is added to those already enumerated. But these considerations can have but little weight with most men—to their shame be it spoken. The gratification of their own lust — we cannot term it pleasure—is, with the majority of men, the leading idea connected with the marriage bed.
Man is, by his very nature, hard, selfish, and tyrannical toward woman we have elsewhere sufficiently proved. "We have also shown the causes and cure of this oppression. Christianity, however, while vastly ameliorating the condition of woman in all other respects, has shown a surprising diffidence in dealing with the brutality to which she is subjected in the marriage chamber. "Wives submit yourselves to your husbands" is a text which has been construed with a crushing literalness, while the reciprocal injunction, "Husbands love your wives," and "So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies," seems to be entirely ignored.
A woman of much social and intellectual distinction said, not long ago, "When my husband closes the door of our apartments at night, he is no longer a man, he is a monster!" Christianity has been imitated by the civil law in this last remaining tyranny, which she still permits to be exercised upon the "weaker vessel." For a woman subjected to the most hellish tortures under the forms of "marital rights" there would seem to be, literally, no redress either in "Church or State." Religion replies to such an one, "Your duty to your -husband is submission," while the Civil Code utterly ignores her complaint. In a land where divorces can be had on the most frivolous pretexts, no allegations of cruelty in the marriage chamber, however horrible they may be, can command a hearing. We give the strongest proof of this in an application for divorce just terminated. A young and beautiful girl who had "taken all the honors" in the high school of her city, and subsequently carried off the prizes for scholarship and lady-like accomplishments in a celebrated seminary, was persuaded by her parents to marry a man far inferior to herself, whose sole recommendation was his wealth. A physician was called to attend the lady some months after her marriage, and a more pitiable spectacle, he says, has seldom come within my professional observation. I could scarcely realize that the haggard and emaciated creature before us was the wreck of the beautiful girl so recently proverbial for her fascinations. In place of the brilliant eyes, flashing with proud intelligence, her dull and listless orbs told the sad story of already approaching insanity. A few questions, followed by a physical examination, and the "diagnosis" was simple enough. This bestial husband had brought the poor girl to her sad condition wholly by his excesses in the exercise of his "marital rights." It is difficult to imagine the horrible condition to which the whole generative organization had been brought. Womb, vagina, bladder, and rectum, all were fearfully inflamed and mangled. The case was simply dreadful. Separation was obtained. Many painful weeks of treatment succeeded in restoring her to comparative health, and I was subpoenaed as medical witness in her suit for "divorce and alimony." I gave my testimony, detailing with minuteness the disease and its cause. It was proved by the sworn statements of the wife and full admissions by her husband that a course of incredible brutality, arising from his fiendish passions, had been pursued toward her "night and day" from the first night following their marriage; but the evidence also showed that "outside of their bedroom he was kind and even affectionate." The court decided that the charge of cruelty was not proven, inasmuch as the law does not take cognizance of the sexual relations of married persons! Positively, during the same session of the same court, some twenty-odd divorces were granted upon allegations which, compared with what this poor woman had suffered, were heavenly virtues. And now comes this same brutal husband and applies in his turn for a divorce from his wife on "the ground of desertion!" Undoubtedly he will have no difficulty in obtaining it.
While briefly reciting the consequences entailed upon the woman by the practice of conjugal onanism, we reserved for special mention the frightful danger of cancer of the womb. We have high authority for the statement that this loathsome disease has this cause for its origin more frequently than any other. Indeed, if the constitutional proclivity to cancer exist in an individual, the practice of this vice is almost sure to develop it.
If the ejection of the seminal fluid upon the mouth of the womb and within the vagina be necessary to the attainment of pleasure in the sexual act, as we have already stated, it is absolutely indispensable to safety. There is in this fluid a certain specific property which, as it were, remedies the otherwise dangerous condition in which the womb and vagina are placed by the venereal excitement. And this property is something peculiar, outside of and beyond the mechanical effect already referred to; consequently nothing can be devised to take its place, and, consequently, whenever the genital function is not completed physiologically, direct injury results. The explanation is this: the generative organs, both male and female, are invariably congested, that is to say, the vessels are unduly filled with blood during copulation. Now, while in man this congestion subsides with the stimulus which occasioned it, in woman it persists to a considerable extent, and new congestions being successively added to the preceding, there result, at first, what are termed engorgements, then inflammations, then follow ulcerations, and then, if there be the least predisposition to cancer, those frightful malignant degenerations succeed which carry so many victims to premature graves.
Marital intercourse during pregnancy is a question on which theologians and moralists are, as yet, divided in opinion. The former contend that, while there are certain periods—embracing the first days and last month of pregnancy—when marital approaches are prohibited by reason of the greater danger of abortion, at other times moderate indulgence is permissible, while moralists urge that the virtue of husbands would be endangered by any restrictions. With these discussions, however, we have nothing to do in this connection. We merely allude to them as proving that there is a recognized danger to health of parents and life of offspring in the least departure from the rule of continence during gestation. The legitimate object of the sexual act being absent, no physiological end can be subserved, and the practice is, therefore, against nature, and consequently injurious. "To make love at all times is what distinguishes man from other animals," says Beaumarehais; and, in fact, with all other animals the condition of pregnancy is sacred from masculine approaches. There is no exception to this law. It might, therefore, be supposed that the exaltation of the sexual instinct by the imagination and vicious practices of man is the occasion of his violation of what appears to be a law of nature. Such is indeed the fact, and, like many another unnatural proceeding, it surely entails its punishment.
Abortions during the first few days after conception are exceedingly frequent, and often occur without the knowledge of the parties. A woman "goes over her time" by a few days, and then has some pain and considerable flooding. She regards as delayed menstruation what in fact was a veritable conception; and these abortions are very frequently repeated, eventuating in broken health and sterility. By far the most common origin of such evils is the fault in question.
It is a fact long admitted in science that excessive coition during pregnancy exerts a profound influence upon the child, occasionally those puny, sickly little objects of compassion upon whom "the sins of their fathers" have been literally visited. Deformed, idiotic, undeveloped in- fants are often the product of such pregnancies, while those hideous objects known as "monstrosities" owe their abnormal development to this above all other causes!
If, then, excessive coition during pregnancy is followed by such disastrous consequences, the effect of even moder- ate indulgence can be only less in degree. It must cer- tainly exert some influence, and to that extent is injurious. The best that can be said of it is that it is a questionable means of preserving a husband's virtue.
During lactation, also, the physiological aim of sexual intercourse is in abeyance, as indicated by the suspension of the menstrual function. It is certain that the whole resources of the female economy, while nursing her infant, are absorbed and occupied. She is living for two, and needs to be free from physical and mental burdens. Nev- ertheless, as instances of pregnancy occurring during lac- tation are not wanting, the fact shows that the end of sexual intercourse is possible, and therefore the act is not, in itself, against nature. It were best, however, to confine the indulgence within the most severe limits of prudence. We are positive that six weeks after the birth of a child is the very earliest that marital approaches should be attempted under any circumstances.
All that we have thus far stated in this chapter has had reference to early married life. The parties were pre- sumed to be young, or, at least, not to have passed the period of middle life. As age advances new laws gain the ascendency in the married life. In well-regulated lives the sexual passions become less and less imperious, dimin- ishing gradually, until at an average age of forty-five in the woman, and fifty-five in the man, they are but rarely awakened, and seldom solicited. It is as though nature had decreed that, in the decline of the generative faculty, while the other functions are still in their perfection, man shall enjoy in the calmness of reason and silence of the passions the results of his work, and seeing himself, in some sort, reproduced in his children, may look forward without regret to the end of his mortal existence. Nor is this the least sublime side of married life. Nothing can exceed the beneficent calm of parents descending the down- hill of life, in whose well-regulated existence the past has no remorse for violated laws, and with whom the present, freed from the torments of excitement, has only the sweet rewards of contentment and chaste repose. Surrounded by the numerous pledges of their earlier loves, they may indeed abandon the cares, and toils, and struggles of life to those who owe to them their existence, and thus far their maintenance. It is the natural order of things, that the parents shall thus, as it were, change places with their children. After the "change of life" with woman, sexual congress, while permissible, should be infrequent, no less for her own sake than that of the husband, whose advanc- ing years should warn him of the medical maxim : "Each time that he delivers himself to this indulgence he casts a shovelful of earth upon his coffin." The caution is the concentration of wisdom, and we commend it to our readers — at the risk of not being heeded.
A profound observer has written: "One of the chief causes of this infraction of the true principles of hygiene is, that man, in the beginning of old age, long refuses to believe himself to be what he is. His reminiscences, almost synonymous with regrets, are always tormenting his memory and his heart; for he constantly looks back to contemplate on the distant horizon, that promised land of love and its pleasures, where it would be so sweet to dwell if it were possible to remain there. With diflBculty does he accustom himself to the idea that the high pre- rogative of procreation is almost withdrawn from him, and he declines to admit to himself to the latest moment the state of decay with which nature has stricken him. This new existence seems, as it were, reproachful and de- grading ; since there are very few persons capable of accept- ing old age without weakness of mind and derangement of reason. Time whitens their heads without disenchant- ing their spirit. Besides, a man of good constitution, whom age has not yet overpowered, still experiences per- fidious and tempting reminiscences; all seems young in him except the date of his birth. His years are expended, but not his strength. He admits to himself that desire is not as pressing as formerly; that he no longer feels that excess of life, that fire, that ardor, which once inflamed his blood and his heart, but he does not deem himself an athlete so disarmed that he ought entirely to abandon the contest and the triumph. As Fenelon says *The young man has not yet been killed in him.' Many old madcaps, loaded with years, are recognized in this picture. I only ask them to be sincere. Is not this the humiliating portion of certain superannuated coxcombs, whose disgraces in love are contemptible, and whose successes are perfectly ridiculous? Sometimes the evil is rooted in the habits, and, as a thinker of our time has said, 'the punishment of those who have loved women too much is to love them always.'
"It is only repeated defeats, formidable diseases, the swift and precipitous advance of old age, which at length teach the imprudent being what he should have long since known, that comfort and health consist — above all in the decline of life — in the proper accord of a remnant of force, an approved reason, and sober conduct.
"Another motive equally impels certain old men to dangerous excesses; it is the example of aged men who, in reality or in appearance, preserve the faculties that age always destroys. So they recall them ; they quote them with complaisance, with a sort of inward satisfaction, dis- posed, as they are, to reckon themselves in this category of the predestinated. Thus, the Marechal d' Estrees was married for the third time at the age of ninety-one, and married, say they, 'very seriously/ The Duke of Lauzun lived a long time after having indulged in excesses of every kind. The Marechal de Richelieu was married to Madame de Roth at the age of eighty-four, and they add, 'with im- punity/ Then how can we believe what Bacon says, that the debauches of youth are conjurations against age, and that one pays dearly in the evening for the follies of the morning ?
"You see that it is not always thus, and the gay old fellow who thinks himself rejuvenated by some desires hidden beneath the ashes, is delighted to cite such exam- ples. But what signify certain isolated and assuredly very rare facts ? Ought one to govern himself by such examples unless he also has received from nature one of those excep- tional constitutions, of which the erotic salaciousness ends only with life ? It would be a very fatal mistake !"^
Besides the numerous evils which old men produce by the inconsiderate indulgence in sexual pleasures, it should be understood that sudden death is sometimes the immedi- ate consequence, by hemorrhage of the brain (apoplexy) or rupture of large blood-vessels. These accidents happen as the consequence of a violent and undue emotion, accel- erating the pulsations of the heart, or of efforts which, for the moment, suspend respiration. The precise period of life at which it is imperative that a man should maintain continence for the remainder of his existence it is, of course, impossible to state, dependent, as it is, on a great variety of circumstances, as the con- stitution of the individual and the expenditure of his virile forces in early life. In doubtful cases an experienced physician should be taken into confidence. Says the author from whom we have already quoted: "when you see an old man full of judgment, endowed with strong reason, whose enlightened and active mind is still capable of properly directing his affairs, and of being useful to society, be convinced that that man is prudent and conti- nent; that temperance, so justly called sophrosyne — guar- dian of wisdom — with the ancients, has in him a fervent worshiper. In fact, has he not acquired complete moral liberty? Is he not delivered from a violent tyranny.? Such was the opinion of Cicero: 'Behold,' says he, 'a good reply of Sophocles to some one who asked him if, being old, he still enjoyed the pleasures of love: "May the gods preserve me from them " said he ; "I have aban- doned, them as willingly as I would have quitted a savage and furious master." ' Certainly a man who has taken so pure and so firm a position exhibits a very remarkable moral vigor, and, after all, it should be remarked, he merely follows the indications of nature. The imitators of Sophocles, however, are not the less deserving of praise, so little are men disposed to make the least sacrifice in this respect. It is necessary that you resolve upon it, however; you whom age is nearing, and you whom it has already attained. You wish to live as long as possible, and with the least possible suffering — difficult solution of the grand problem of life. Well, renounce that which is no longer in harmony with your age, temperament, and forces. Accept from age peace, repose, and wisdom, in exchange for the transports and the flames of passion. Remember, moreover, that to quit before losing entirely is, in many respects, an essential article of the hygienic code of old men.[1] So may they say with Adam:
"Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty:
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood;
Nor did not, with unbashful forehead, woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as lusty Winter,
Frosty, but kindly:"
rather than with Macbeth:
"My way of life
Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf:
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but in their stead
Curses, not loud, but deep."
The effect of these excesses on aged women is different, but not less serious. After the function of menstruation has at length entirely ceased, a remarkable change gradually develops in the organs of generation. The womb shrinks and hardens, the vagina loses its peculiar softness, and becomes harsh and dry — the vaginal secretions, in fact, are altered and abolished. Everything goes to prove the inaptness of these organs for the act of reproduction. Cancer of the womb or neighboring organs, so common in women of advanced age, is often the result of these unnatural connections. While infrequent and moderate indulgences are not usually followed by disastrous consequences, habitual excesses are sure to be severely punished.
Sexual intercourse during the menstrual period need scarcely be mentioned, save to warn against its dangers. It is not often that persons are found to violate the rule of decency in this regard, but now and again, under the idea of immunity from the danger of conception, this proscribed period is selected. It is dangerous for both parties, for reasons which we need not dwell upon. It is sufficient to state the fact. It, moreover, by no means presents an exemption from the liability to pregnancy. This vulgar notion is a popular error.
Ill-assorted marriages in respect to age remain to be considered. The most common is disparity of ages. It is inconceivable with what stupid and ridiculous vanity lecherous old men are wont to seek for young wives. It is still more inconceivable that their search is so often successful. The fact is usually attributable to the cupidity of parents, who do not hesitate to sacrifice their daughters to the interests of position or fortune.
In these monstrous alliances, whether we consider the reciprocal situation of the parties thus abusively joined, or the kind of progeny which is likely to result from them, we are equally moved with disgust and compassion. Admitting, for an instant, that which is seldom true, that the union has been concluded with the free and voluntary consent of the young girl, and that no undue pressure has been exerted over her wishes, it must nevertheless occur that reflection and experience will lead too late to bitter regrets, so much the more poignant that they will be without remedy.
But when violence or persuasion — which is often the same thing — have been employed to exact the avowal which the law requires, the revolt will be only the more prompt and vehement. From that moment the married life will become odious to the unhappy victim, and criminal hopes will arise in her heart, the chains which bind her will seem too cumbersome to wear, and she will secretly long for the death of her superannuated husband. In fact, the amours of old men are ridiculous and hideous, as we have already stated, and the poor creature condemned to witness, but above all to endure them, can hardly be sufficiently commiserated. When one reflects upon this revolting subject he cannot resist a sensation akin to that inspired by the idea of incest. All is in strong contrast, physically as well as morally, and chastity is necessarily banished from those embraces where the brutality of the senses is not moderated and poetized, so to speak, by the passionate transports of the heart. So it is altogether natural, the restraints of religion apart, that the young creature should violently rupture the hated bonds, or endeavor to fill the void in her heart by adulterous love. Sometimes, indeed, by an heroic practice of Christian fortitude, she resigns herself to her fate, and then her sad and cheerless life is one perpetual martyrdom.
Such is the sombre picture of those sacrilegious unions which set at defiance the most respectable instincts, the most noble thoughts, and the most legitimate hopes. Such are the terrible penalties reserved for the improvident and foolish pride of those dissolute old men who expend their last breath of life in the quest of perfidious pleasures. We shall not review the dangers which we have already sufficiently exposed, inherent to the exercise of the genital sense in advanced age. It is true that these dangers are only for the man, but they are so much the more imminent, as the young wife is the more capable of arousing the sensual appetite by her graces, Tier youth, and all those other attractions with which she is endowed. Alas! for the old dotard who dares to drink of this enchanted cup I Nature will assuredly avenge herself most cruelly for her violated laws. "It is better to be an old man's darling than a young man's slave" is a proverb which reveals the corruption of our manners, and the stupid infamy which makes of the nuptial couch an arena of debauch as detest- able as the very slums of vice.
The interests of posterity, no less than of public morals, demand prohibitory laws upon this subject, and we call upon our legislators to boldly prescribe the extreme differ- ence in age, beyond which it shall be unlawful for mar- riages to be solemnized. A law of this nature would do much toward reforming the injustice, now daily committed, in the re-marriage of widowers, the rights of whose chil- dren are thus ruthlessly invaded. Independently of the proverbial cruelty of step-mothers, there are often prop- erty considerations of great importance. Domestic infe- licity of the most flagrant character is thus introduced in families whose home-circles had been hitherto models of innocent happiness. The evil would be well-nigh reme- died by the proposed legislation, for, if the temptation to seek young wives were removed, few old men would care for re-marriage. The products of such marriages are generally vitiated in blood, sickly, and predisposed to all morbific agencies. The explanation of this fact is com- plex, and relates tb the abnormal character of the seminal fluid, to the physical prostration of the father, and doubt- less, also, to the absence of harmonious conditions in the generative act.
Every one must have observed in the progeny of old men that sad and serious aspect, so different from the ordinary infantile expression. In proportion as their growth progresses, these unfortunate innocents acquire more and more of the senile expression, and either succumb in their childhood to the diseases for which they are proverbially an easy prey, or they eke out a miserable and puny existence, rarely attaining to adult age.7
Disparity of ages in which the woman is the older is a comparatively rare occurrence. Melancholy instances happen sufficiently often, however, to render it necessary that we should also include these ill-assorted unions in our denunciations. "While they are infinitely preferable, in the moral and physicnl point of view, to the vicious connections of which we have hitherto spoken, they are, nevertheless, to be deprecated as entailing not only positive unhappiness, but grave dangers to health.
In no case should the age of the woman exceed that of her husband, to however slight an extent. The earlier relative period of "old age" will mark this disparity very painfully as time progresses, a disparity which must gradually develop itself in the decade of thirty to forty. So, while the husband appears in the prime of his manhood, "the sere, the yellow leaf" is too obviously stealing over the wife. There is something exceedingly touching in the efforts put forth by these forlorn wives to hide the inexorable ravages of time. But the resources of art, albeit dangerous to health,8 cannot long postpone the evil day when the poor creature, the senior of her husband, finds herself the unmistakable "old woman," no longer personally attractive to her husband, himself, perhaps, in the very pride of manly beauty. It is in precisely these circumstances that so many men seek to justify themselves in the establishment of criminal relations, often introducing their paramours into the very household, under the guise of servants. governesses, etc., but more frequently maintaining separate establishments. These horrors are too often known or suspected by the unhappy wife, who, "for the sake of peace/' or "to avoid publicity," or "on account of the children," or from womanly pride, and, in many cases, from pure Christian fortitude, endures her torture in silence.
The age properly considered "marriageable" is a ques- tion of which there can be no absolute solution, dependent, as it is, on so great a variety of conditions, as climate, constitution, temperament, the actual state of health of the individual, etc. As a general rule it is imperative that the full growth shall have been attained, the vital organs in good condition, and those of generation free from all faulty conformation which may interfere with the consummation of the marriage. It is also essential that in man the sexual instinct shall have become sufficiently awakened, that the desire for sexual relations shall have created in some sort of a necessity.9 In a word, both sexes should have reached the age of procreative maturity. True procreative maturity is that condition in which the genital functions can be performed without danger to health, and in which the requisite qualities may be transmitted to the resulting offspring. So understood, this period is distinguished from that of puberty by the term nubility; that is, the age suitable for marriage. At the nubile age the procreative ability has existed for some time without employment, so that it may have completely developed, and be able to manifest its fullest powers. To this end it is essential that the seminal secretion shall have re-entered the organism, in order to have imparted the requisite vigor to the constitution, and to have afforded the full and normal development of the body.
The civil laws of different times and countries have fixed the minimum age of parties to the marriage con- tract as follows: with the Eomans at thirteen years for females, and at fifteen for males; in Prussia at fifteen and nineteen; in France at fifteen and eighteen; in Aus- tria at sixteen and twenty. These are the ages fixed by dif- ferent nations as indicating the earliest period of nubility. It will be observed that a difference of from two to five years is allowed as the relative marriageable age of the two sexes. It is by no means to be inferred that this dif- ference is intended to indicate the rule for actual practice. It is simply intended to fix the minimum nubile age for each of the sexes. Extended observation would lead us to recommend strongly that a difference of from five years as the minimum to fifteen years as the maxi- mum should be regarded in the choice of com- panions, as there is fully that difference in the two sexes in "growing eld." In our temperate climate we would indicate twenty-one as the nubile age of women, and twenty-six as that of men. Within proper limitations, early marriages are more apt to be prosperous, as regards the health both of parents and children, than late ones. Especially is this true of the relative dangers of child- birth.10
As the average duration of a woman's fecundity is about twenty-five years, and as the mean duration of pregnancy and lactation is eighteen months, it follows that a healthy woman can give birth to sixteen children, but examples are not wanting in which, in consequence of plural births or of prolonged periods of fecundity, as many as twenty-four children have resulted from a single marriage. At least three or six children should be the average product of well-assorted marriages.
0f ill-assorted marriages, in respect to consanguinity. enough has long ago been written and said to sufficiently educate all well-informed persons in a knowledge of their pernicious character, yet it is not by any means rare to witness intermarriage within the second and third degrees, and the products of such connections are proverbially feeble and delicate. The difficulty of "raising" such children is but too well known to all physicians of any experience. In nearly all civilized countries civil legislation, as well as religious laws, have fixed the degrees of consanguinity, within which they refuse to sanction marriages. This pro- hibition is based upon the following grave considerations :
1. That by causing the blood to "return into its source" the race is degenerated.
2. That the peace of families, which constitute the foun- dation of society, is invaded, by destroying the respect which children owe to their superiors, and that often the most shameful abuse of authority would be practiced to subserve a criminal passion.
But it is not only marriages within the prohibited degrees which should be proscribed. Multiplied unions between the same families are not less disastrous, in that they all tend to the premature extinction of races. This fact has been clearly demonstrated in a remarkable work by De Chateauneuf, upon "The Duration of Noble Families in France." This learned statistician has proved that nearly all the old families of a portion of Europe have long since ceased to exist. His observations embrace France, Italy, England, and Spain. In Germany, Holland, and Switzer- land the male descendants of William Tell have been extinct for nearly two centuries. If some grand names have escaped the general destruction, it has been by the aid of subterfuges of every sort, such as the infinite num- ber of substitutions, the transmission of names by women of other families, etc. Expedients of this nature abound in the annals of old monarchies.
In a communication to the Academy of Medicine, in Paris, Dr. Eilliet, of Geneva, states in substance as fol- lows: that in Geneva a considerable number of intermar- riages have occurred among blood relations, and that his attention has been long attracted by the fatal results to the health and even to the lives of the children. These con- sequences are:
1. The absence of conception.
2. Delayed conception.
3. Imperfect conception. (Miscarriage.)
4. Incomplete products. (Monstrosities.)
5. Products whose physical and moral constitution is imperfect.
6. Products more especially exposed to diseases of the nervous system, and in the order of frequency: epilepsy, imbecility or idiocy, deaf-mutes, paralysis, and various diseases of the brain.
7. Lymphatic products — predisposed to diseases which relate to scrofulous and tubercular tendencies.
8. Products which die in infancy in greater proportion than children born in other conditions.
9. Products which, if they survive inftncy, are less apt than others to resist disease and death.
To these rules there are certainly exceptions which are attributable either to the health of the parents, or to their organic conditions at the time of procreation. Thus: (1) It is seldom that all the children escape the evil influence. (2) In the same family some are attacked, while others are spared. (3) Those of the same family who are attacked are rarely ever seized in the same manner; for example, one is an epileptic, another is a deaf-mute, etc. The researches of Dr. Bemis, of Kentucky, are full of interest. He has shown that 10 per cent of the deaf-mutes, 5 per cent of the blind, and about 15 per cent of the idiots, placed in the different estab- lishments of the United States are the issue of mar- riages between first cousins. Of seven hundred and fifty- seven marriages between first cousins, two hundred and fifty-six produced deaf-mutes, blind, and idiots. Of four hundred and eighty-three other marriages of first cousins, one hundred and fifty-one had sickly children, and many were sterile. In several States — Kentucky included — laws have been adopted forbidding intermarriage of cousins- german. M. Briere relates that in a village of the dis- trict of Yverdun, in Switzerland, two brothers married two sisters, their cousins-german. Both were peasants, in easy circumstances, and of good health, with no bad ante- cedents in either of the families. One of them had five children, the other two. These seven children are all per- fect Albinos, with complete discoloration of the skin, soft flesh, white, silvery, fine hair. Their eyelids are agitated with incessant winking, and their eyes are of a deep pink, nearly red. These children, the eldest of whom was twenty years old present, it will be observed, the most complete characteristics of Albinism. Three of the chil- dren of the first brother died, one of a fall, the two others of diseases, the nature of which is not known. One of the two children of the second brother is also dead. The father of the five children having lost his wife, married another, to whom he was not related, and by whom he has had four children, all in excellent health, and presenting no trace of Albinism. This example is most conclusive, for nothing is wanting, not even the counter-proof. We cannot dwell longer upon this subject, at the same time so vast and so interesting, without transcending the limits and the scope of this work. We can but reiterate the warning, that the practice is against the laws of God and man, and therefore unnatural, criminal, and revolting. In the absence of penal enactments on the subject, the inherent punishment should deter every well-informed per- son from the commission of so great an imprudence.
There is, however, another condition generally neglected in the formation of marital alliances, to the great detri- ment of the children who may result from them, and which it is our duty to indicate in this connection. We allude to the "crossing" of temperaments, constitutions, and peculiarities in such a manner that the products may be withdrawn from all danger of hereditary taints, and, by the mingling of the different attributes, peculiar to each of the parents, may escape all organic vices of con- formation. Listen, on this subject, to the words of an authority who is without a superior in these matters :
"Marriages, in the physical point of view, should be so combined as to neutralize, by the opposition of con- stitutions, temperaments, and idiosyncrasies, the elements of morbid inheritance possessed by the parties. The union of two lymphatic, or of two evidently nervous sub- jects, should be forbidden. Two families equally predis- posed to pulmonary affections ought never to mingle their blood. There is the same danger in the union of two sub- jects affected with general debility, etc. A predisposition to analogous affections constitutes, in the eyes of the physician, another incompatibility in marriage. Scrofula and consumption would form a sordid nursery; while a woman issued from consumptive parents, hut married to a robust and healthy man, may become the happy mother of a valid generation, which, crossed in its turn with blood of good alloy, will produce another generation which shall be altogether irreproachable; for the propensity to hereditary maladies ends by exhausting itself. Stahl, Bor- deu, Buchan, Pujol, Baumes, Gintrac, and P. Lucas think thus. Unhappily, physicians are not consulted in the com- position of laws, and nothing is stipulated in our codes in favor of the physical amelioration of the human race, save the limitation of marriage to certain degrees of consan- guinity, and the epoch of legal nubility."^^
It is a matter of common observation, that parents com- municate to their descendants a more or less striking re- semblance in organization, which often extends even to the moral and intellectual qualities. It is this which con- stitutes the fact of inJieritance. "Indeed," says M. Levy, ^^ "inheritance shows itself in man both in his general form and in the relative proportion of its parts. It is mani- fested by the intimate properties of the organic fibre, if one may use that expression ; motions, attractions, features, tone of voice, functional peculiarities, all testify to the lively relation which is continued between the product and its producer, even after the separation of the new being, who, emancipated from uterine incubation, is be- yond the reach of its individuality. We do not say that procreative beings exactly repeat themselves in their pro- geny, but they impress upon it, with life, a portion of the particular direction that life has taken with them. That which appears most obviously to have been transmitted from the parents to the child is the physical type, the external conformation, the physiognomy, the form, the color." There were Eoman families called Nasones, Lobe- ones, from the salient feature which denoted the hereditary influence. Temperament, idiosyncrasies, general charac- teristics of the organism, are all transmitted, equally with external resemblances.
Original defects and deformities are often transmitted, such as blindness, deafness, imbecility, idiocy, hare-lip, hernias, etc. All authors cite examples of individuals with one or more supernumerary fingers and toes, from father to eon, for generations.13 Burdach tells of a father and son who had twelve fingers and as many toes. Van Derbach mentions a Spanish family, forty members of which had an extra number of fingers. Science teems with similar facts.
The predisposition to diseases is a sad and last proof of the bond which unites the successive generations of the same family. The best manner of correcting morbid hereditary predispositions, such as consumption, gout, cancer, scrofula, etc., is the crossing of races and temperaments, in order to establish a sort of compensation between the negative qualities of one organism, and the excess, in an opposite sense, of the other, whence results, in the last analysis, a profitable proportion for the offspring.
Dr. Serrurier, of Paris, who has devoted a life-time to the elucidation of this question, advises: "Let every one consult his physician in this matter, and be not afraid to learn the truth from his lips; encourage him, even, to explain himself categorically. Such is the duty of fathers and mothers. It is an act of humanity which every family should perform. The physician, on his part, from the importance of his ministry, ought to act with all the sincerity of his conscience, and to place himself as an impartial judge between the families, rejecting those alliances of which the consequences can be only fatal to one or both of the parties."
The transmission of disease to offspring is not the sole danger to be apprehended from incompatible marriages. Besides those contagious diseases which are so readily transmissible in sexual congress, sad examples of which are constantly before physicians, it is now a well-established fact that, by a sort of chronic poisoning, consumption is communicated even to those who were apparently the least predisposed to it. This nuptial contamination daily counts its victims unsuspected by the community, because public attention has scarcely been directed to the fact, the opinion of physicians being seldom sought in the conclusion of marriages. It is enough to declare the existence of the danger to awaken attention to the subject.
Nor can we sufficiently stigmatize those instances in which the stupidity of society allows women to be married who, from faulty conformation of the pelvis, or by reason of some organic disease, are almost sure to fall victims to the ravages of childbirth. Ordinary prudence would seem to dictate that families should seek counsel in all cases where there is the slightest suspicion of any infirmity incompatible with the normal accomplishment of the end of marriage — ^the propagation of the species. In the ab- sence of enlightened views upon this subject, the whole matter, unfortunately, is left to the decision of chance, the deplorable consequences of which are matters of daily observation.
A question often asked, is there any means of determin- ing, in advance, the sex of offspring ? We answer, unhesi- tatingly, No ! — so far as voluntary influence is concerned, and yet extended observation and study have conducted us to a theory which appears to be well founded. In brief, the conclusions are as follows:
1. The sex of the progeny of given parties will depend upon the relative vigor of their sexual organization.
2. If the man be the stronger in this regard, the children wrill be girls, and vice versa. 3. Where the organizations are equally balanced, the circumstances attending the particular act of fecundation determine the result. So the sexes of the children of such unions are apt to be pretty equally distributed.
"We do not propose, nor is this the arena for a discussion of the considerations which have led to these conclusions. We merely state them in this connection, and invite atten- tion to the subject, confident that they will be found correct. We wish to anticipate, however, a single objection that will probably be raised in the circumstance that statistics prove that, in the whole number of births, boys are in excess of girls, and that the preponderance of males is considerably greater for legitimate than for illegitimate births. So far as this touches our theory at all, we see nothing contradictory; for certainly the fathers of illegiti- mate offspring are ordinarily the most passionate of men.^* The influence upon offspring of the moral disposition of the parents at the moment of procreation is a subject of vast interest and importance. Thus, it is a fact of common remark, that "love children" are often physically and men- tally of rare perfection. So the earlier children of a mar- riage are apt to excel those born at a time when the parents seek only the grosser gratifications of the senses in their approaches, divested of the sentiment of their younger days. The generative function is intensified by gayety, content- ment, and in fact by all the expansive emotions, while depressive emotions, as trouble, fear, and anxiety, paralyze it. Intellectual labor and violent emotions repress it. The power of the imagination is demonstrated in all that relates to the pleasures of love. Astonishing proofs are extant of the intimate physiological relation between everything per- taining to generation and the simple imagination. Trevi- ranus tells of a woman whose breasts were distended with milk whenever she heard the cries of a newly-born infant. It occurs often that physicians are summoned to labors where all is real, save the presence of an infant. This has happened many times.
We cite the following case from a reliable source: A woman, married late in life, mistook the "change of life" for pregnancy, and passed through all the usual symptoms attendant upon that condition, including enlargement of the abdomen, tumefaction and pain in the breasts, morning nausea, and even swelling of the lower extremities. At the expected "term" regular pains occurred, exactly simulating those of labor, and physician and attendants were summoned to this extraordinary scene where nothing was wanting, save the presence of a baby. Pichon cites the case of a woman of forty-eight, who had not menstruated for four years, and who, while assisting at the bedside of a sister during a long and painful labor, was seized with pains absolutely similar to those she was witnessing. Some hours after flooding commenced, which continued several days, after which the breasts became swollen, and furnished an abundant secretion of milk. Another case is that of a woman in labor whose sister, a woman of forty, married, but sterile, was taken with simulative labor-pains so severely that she had to be removed from the scene.
The influence of marriage upon longevity is a question which has given rise to much dispute. While statistics would seem to show that the average of bachelors die earlier than married men, we are inclined to think that the iacl is attributable to other circumstances than continence. In order to show the contrary it would be necessary to prove continence, or at least to select for the comparison bachelors whose known habits of life would tend to that presump- tion. In fact, they are very often men of irregular and dissolute lives, in which continence is certainly not an element. The following table from M. Casper15 would seem to sustain our position. Of many hundreds of celibates who had attained their seventieth year, there were found of
Priests 42 per cent Agriculturists 40 " Merchants and Manufacturers 35 " Soldiers 32 " Clerks 32 Lawyers 29 " Artists 28 " Teachers 27 " Physicians 24 "
That which is certain in this table, is that the priests were celibates, and that which is melancholy is that the poor physician whose life is devoted to prolonging that of others, finds himself at the foot of the macrobiotic scale. Let no one contend that continence is incompatible with health and longevity. It is the argument of libertines, of those who seek a pretext for excesses of every sort, of those who would evade the plainest dictates of reason and com- mon sense. It is certainly opposed to sound physiological views. Nature has decreed that the act of reproduction shall be expensive to the individual, so she surrounds it, in all cases, with something more or less of danger. In most vegetable, and in certain animal organizations, the accomplishment of this act is followed, more or less speedily, by death. In certain instances the male expires in the embrace. All tends to prove that the propagation of the species is the final law assigned to all living beings. As though apprehensive that the intelligence of man would inform him of the danger, and lead him to refrain from the duty imposed on him, nature had hidden its perils under the most alluring attractions. His mind, his heart, and his senses provide him with the most powerful excitants to the generative act, but that he may be at the same time capable of accomplishing it and of realizing its pleasures, she has imposed rules which he can not infringe without greatly enhancing its perils. There are symptoms closely allied to epilepsy in the crisis of the venereal act, and in rare cases a veritable epileptic convulsion. Venereal ex- cesses, on the other hand, are proverbially fatal. So it follows that, in obeying the law imposed upon him, man, no less than other animals, expends somewhat of his vital forces. Certain physiologists have even maintained that nature only permits the male to survive the grand act of his existence in the interests of the resulting progeny.
If the retention of the reproductive materials within the organism, so far from being injurious, be even necessary during the period of puberty, it would seem that, other things being equal, it should not be detrimental during nubility. In fact, if these materials accumulate to excess, nature furnishes a ready and efficacious means of discard- ing them. With those who allow the function to remain, long disused, however, the elimination of the fecundating fluid but seldom occurs. The secretion is well-nigh abol- ished, and the organism profits by the economy of forces thus attained. Severe mental labors, the pursuits of science, and protracted physical exertion exercise a profound influ- ence upon the genital sense. A learned author has said that one must choose between leaving to posterity works of genius or children. La Fontaine who well understood these matters, declares: Un muhtier a ce jeu vaut trois rois. Without doubt, there are certain erotic temperaments which constitute altogether exceptions to the rule we have laid down, and with whom celibacy, without the employment of the most strenuous measures, is morally impossible; but whenever it exists this temperament is an idiosyncrasy, real or acquired, most frequently the latter, and is as amenable to proper treatment as any other morbid condition. We do not wish to be understood as advocating celibacy or per- petual continence — all that we have said elsewhere should exonerate us from such a suspicion — but what we insist upon is this : that the pretended dangers of continence are purely imaginary; that in the state of marriage there are periods when protracted continence is absolutely necessary, and that these periods are salutary no less for the husband than for the wife. From these propositions which, we think, are sufficiently established, there results the impor- tant conclusion that under no circumstances can valid pre- texts be devised for resorting to vicious practices, whether as regards the marriage bed or the establishment of illicit relations.
We have not thought it necessary to touch upon the effect of continence upon the female organism, because it is scarcely admitted as a question. Too many instances are within knowledge of all to render any defence of the proposition necessary, that the state of continence is positively innocuous for women. The dangers of this con- dition, so feelingly portrayed by certain medical writers, have been proven not to exist.
The influence of maternal impressions, during preg- nancy, upon the physical and mental peculiarities of chil- dren is a question which science has long held in disdain. Unable to explain the phenomenon, medical men have obstinately refused to entertain its existence. Popular prejudice, however, has accorded to it a faith and credulity impossible to destroy. For our part, we are disposed to occupy a middle-ground between the vulgar notions on the one hand and the incredulity of science on the other. If in the love of the marvelous, the people have strangely dis- torted the facts, science has even refused to admit the facts themselves. "We readily conceive the influence upon the offspring of "longings" on the part of the mother in "marking" her child with the impression of a grape, a fig, a strawberry, or a peach, but we cannot conceive how those parts of the body already formed, can undergo a change or destruction under the influence of any emotions however vivid. So we can believe that certain portions of the skin may resemble that of the animal which has frightened the mother; we cannot believe that the limbs and features of the animal can be substituted for those of the 'Tiuman form divine." The emotion of fear and of other violent impressions may cause those "arrests of development" which occasion monstrosities, nearly all of which defects are found in the middle line of the body. Such are the hare-lip, the cleft palate, the spina hifldu, the divided cranium, the lack of separation of the eyes, etc. These occurrences are anything but marvelous when it is con- sidered that in the development of the foetus the median line is the point which is perfected the last, and that the least obstacle to the junction of the two halves of the body, may occasion these abnormal conditions.
A singular result of married life has, it seems to us, scarcely attracted the attention it deserves, and yet it is of common observation. We allude to a certain degree of mutual resemblance of feature and expression which parties long married acquire. There is evidently something more than mere coincidence in this resemblance, since it is so often remarked, and usually develops only with time. In reality, there is nothing surprising in the fact as the influ- ence of the emotions upon the physiognomy is so well known. It is upon the knowledge of this that the whole science of Lavater is based. As the same vicissitudes ordi- narily affect both the husband and wife, it is altogether natural that the muscles concerned in expressing the resulting emotions should impress similar modifications upon the countenance of each. But, in our view, there is an additional and far more interesting reason for this resemblance, which we mention with some diffidence, inas- much as, so far as we are aware, it has never hitherto been noticed. During the whole period of ante-natal exist- ence the child derives the elements of its growth and development from materials furnished by the mother tl) rough the circulating medium — the blood. But the child is not all mother, as it certainly partakes also of the physi- cal nature of the father. Now, the blood, in passing through the economy of the infant, while parting with those ingredients necessary for its growth and sustenance, must receive, reciprocally, something of the individual nature of the new being ; that is to say, of the father him- self. This, in turn, it communicates to the mass of blood circulating in the mother's system; so that, in fact, the child has impregnated the mother with the hlood of thS. father. Successive pregnancies can only add to the inti- macy of this admixture, and as the blood is that which supplies and nourishes both form and feature, it can hardly happen otherwise than that a veritable physical resemblance should result. If this be true, and we see nothing unrea- sonable in our hypothesis, the expression of Adam, "bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh," becomes of literal signif- icance, and the beauty and intimacy of the marriage rela- tion are infinitely enhanced. It would also perfectly explain the otherwise mysterious resemblance, so often remarked, between the children of the second marriages of women and their first husbands — a resemblance which often extends to minute physical and mental peculiarities. It would also seem that this theory is corroborated by the facts known to stock raisers as the "breeding back" of animals. We can barely indicate here, however, what can be scientifically discussed only on other fields. We are pre- pared for such encounter should our position be assailed.
In conclusion we have to consider marriage in another point of view, that is to say, aesthetically. It has been said that "man does not live by bread alone." He has not only physical, but intellectual and moral wants which no less imperiously require satisfaction. He has not only the right, but the duty of seeking this satisfaction under the penalty of sinking to the level of the brute, and of failing in the accomplishment of his destiny. The sentiment of art causes him to seek the beautiful and the good. In all that he fashions he aims at perfection ; all his efforts tend to personify himself in his works, and he allows to matter the least possible share in the value of his productions. He does not otherwise in love. Carnal, gross pleasure, disen- gaged from all participation of the heart, very soon becomes for him a source of disgust, and an object of repulsion. He is only really happy in the spiritual possession of the loved being, and this happiness, comparable to none other, is the only one of which time cannot deprive him. Marriage has, consequently, a double end, applicable to the dual nature of man — the procreation of the species, and the gratifica- tion of his love of perfectibility. Says Proudhon : "Love, then, as soon as it is determined and fixed by marriage, tends to free itself from the tyranny of the organs. It is this imperious tendency (of which man is warned from the first day by the fatigue of his senses, and upon which so many persons build such wretched illusions) that the proverb expresses: 'Marriage is the tomb' that is to say, the emancipation, 'of love.' The people, whose language is always concrete, have intended here by love the violence of desire, the fire of the blood; it is this entirely physical love which, according to the proverb, is extinguished in marriage. The world, in its native chastity and its infinite delicacy, has not wished to reveal the secret of the nuptial couch; it has left to the wisdom of each one the care of penetrating the mystery, and of profiting by the instruction. It knows, however, that veritable love begins with this death; that it is a necessary effect of marriage that gallantry shall change into worship; that every husband, whatever he may pretend, is at the bottom of his soul idolatrous; that if there is an ostensible conspiracy among men to shake off the yoke of the sex, there is a tacit agreement to adore it; that only the weakness of woman obliges man to resume the empire from time to time; that with these rare exceptions the woman is sovereign, and that therein is the principle of conjugal tenderness and harmony."
Love in marriage is not only a state of domestic happiness, which every one should seek in preference to all the other elements which ordinarily enter into matrimonial combinations; it is, as we have already shown, one of the most powerful influences which bear upon the qualities of the progeny. The children of the most natural and happy marriages, that is, marriages of inclination, are, other things being equal, those who exhibit physical and mental qualities in their greatest perfection.
Marriage, then, properly regulated, exerts a powerfully beneficent influence upon the individual, and consequently upon private manners. Unlike the bachelor, whose leading characteristics are selfishness, narrowness of views, eccentricity, and obstinacy, the married man allies himself more closely to the grand interests of society, is animated by sentiments of right and justice, readily submits to the authority of law, shares in the general happiness, and holds aloof from visionary contemplations and sterile reveries.
"The conjugal union," says Burdach, "engenders the desire for children, for it is in itself, as it were, a repetition of infantile life; the woman cares for her husband as a mother would do, and the husband directs her, protects her, and nurses her as if he were her father. In giving each other the names of 'father' and 'mother' respectively, parties long married express the cordiality of their union. It is thus that marriage attaches to life by love, and thus the majority of those who cut short their existence through disgust for life are celibates."
Finally, marriage is a remedy against debauch, in that it moderates the violence of sexual inclinations by the facility of gratifying them. It also, for the same reason, prevents excesses and economizes the forces during the time that the woman is inapt for conjugal approaches.
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