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shame. I have never uttered one word to a jury I did not believe, and God helping me, I never will.
This book, they call obscene, was published in 1866. It was published to prevent diseases of women which were caused by ignorance or brutality on the part of their husbands. Doctor Landis had an extensive practice, from which he learned the causes' of disease and suffering, and being unable to give to all who needed, the proper instruction in his lectures, he published this book, for the purpose of preventing those diseases and alleviating those sufferings.
The book speaks for itself. If you will turn, Gentlemen of the Jury, to the title page yon will find that this is "A Strictly Private Book for Married Persons, on The Secrets of Generation." On the same page you find the following — "This Book must not lie about the House, but every Male and Female should read it."
I assure you Gentlemen there never was a title page placed in any book where the intention was more clearly apparent to have it truly represent the book than this. He put the price at one dollar, for the very purpose of keeping it out of the hands of children.
The District Attorney thought the caution not to let the book lie about the house, was put there because Doctor Landis lacked faith in his book, and when he said "every male and female should read it" it was simply an effort to sell the book. Gentlemen the District Attorney is mistaken. The Doctor meant simply and only this—that the book should not fall into the hands of children, who are unprepared by their years to look into these subjects, as they would be likely to, if it were left carelessly lying about the house.
He meant that every adult person of either sex should read and understand the laws of God as explained in the book. In the address to the reader, on page 8, the Doctor says — "The Author does not believe in making 'vain repetitions' or long prayers—when a shorter course answers as well or better."
On page 5, he says—"To the honest and pure-minded individual who labors to love, and to be loved; moreover to be happy, always endeavoring to make earth heavenly. there can be no subject more interesting and sublime, than the laws of generation; and in fact everything that is connected with the origin of human life."
Gentlemen, would to heaven you could view that in the same light I view it, and feel it as I feel it. If there is anything that will reform society, if the race of criminals of Bedford and St. Mary's Streets, who live and fester in their crimes, threatening the liberty and lives of the people in this great city, is to become extinct, it will be through a proper knowledge of and obedience to these laws of God in Generation. Crime begets crime. Tobacco-chewing, whiskey drinking parents can no more generate a healthy and pure-minded son or daughter, than you can make oil and water mix without any chemical change in either.
The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children of the third and fourth generations.
Gentlemen, it is a law of nature that like begets like. Where the parents indulge in lustful passion at the moment of conception the child will have a corresponding organization. You cannot gather grapes of thorns nor figs from thistles.
You cannot have healthy, beautiful, moral, high-minded, parent-loving and God-honoring children, until both parents understand and obey these laws of God in the highest and holiest functions of the organs of generation.
When this is done your criminals will be no more. Your criminal code—now so bad will not be needed, and such poor wretches as are now eking out a miserable existence) in alms-houses, hospitals, prisons and penitentiaries all over the land will be unknown. Houses of prostitution will become extinct, intemperance will cease, and men will walk the earth erect and free, reflecting God's image in the light of day. These laws of nature apply to animals as well as man.
The Patriarch Jacob under stood this law when he placed the peeled rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut-tree, before the flocks that they might conceive before the rods when they came to drink.
