Part 52

Besides the wrong to the mother in having children in such rapid succession, it is a great injustice to the babe in the womb and the one at the breast that they should follow each other so quickly that one is conceived while the other is nursing. One takes the vitality of the other; neither has sufficient nourishment, and both are started in life stunted and incomplete.

9. "THE DESIRABILITY AND PRACTICABILITY of limiting offspring," says Dr. Stockham, "are the subject of frequent inquiry. Fewer and better children are desired by right-minded parents. Many men and women, wise in other things of the world, permit generation as a chance result of copulation, without thought of physical or mental conditions to be transmitted to the child. Coition, the one important act of all others, carrying with it the most vital results, is usually committed for selfish gratification. Many a drunkard owes his life-long appetite for alcohol to the fact that the inception of his life could be traced to a night of dissipation on the part of his father. Physical degeneracy and mental derangements are too often caused by the parents producing offspring while laboring under great mental strain or bodily fatigue. Drunkenness and licentiousness are frequently the heritage of posterity. Future generations demand that such results be averted by better pre-natal influences. The world is groaning under the curse of chance parenthood. It is due to posterity that procreation be brought under the control of reason and conscience.

10. "IT HAS BEEN FEARED THAT A KNOWLEDGE of means to prevent conception would, if generally diffused, be abused by women; that they would to so great an extent escape motherhood as to bring about social disaster. This fear is not well founded. The maternal instinct is inherent and sovereign in woman. Even the pre-natal influences of a murderous intent on the part of parents scarcely ever {243} eradicate it. With this natural desire for children, we believe few women would abuse the knowledge or privilege of controlling conception. Although women shrink from forced maternity, and from the bearing of children under the great burden of suffering, as well as other adverse conditions, it is rare to find a woman who is not greatly disappointed if she does not, some time in her life, wear the crown of motherhood.

"An eminent lady teacher, in talking to her pupils, once said: 'The greatest calamity that can befall a woman is never to have a child. The next greatest calamity is to have one only.' From my professional experience I am happy to testify that more women seek to overcome causes of sterility than to obtain knowledge of limiting the size of the family or means to destroy the embryo. Also, if consultation for the latter is sought, it is usually at the instigation of the husband. Believing in the rights of unborn children, and in the maternal instinct, I am consequently convinced that no knowledge should be withheld that will secure proper conditions for the best parenthood.

11. "MANY OF THE MEANS USED TO PREVENT conception are injurious, and often lay the foundation for a train of physical ailments. Probably no one means is more serious in its results than the practice of withdrawal, or the discharge of the semen externally to the vagina. The act is incomplete and unnatural, and is followed by results similar to and as disastrous as those consequent upon masturbation. In the male it may result in impotence, in the female in sterility. In both sexes many nervous symptoms are produced, such as headache, defective vision, dyspepsia, insomnia, loss of memory, etc. Very many cases of uterine diseases can be attributed solely to this practice. The objection to the use of the syringe is that if the sperm has passed into the uterus the fluid cannot reach it. A cold fluid may, in some instances, produce contractions to throw it off, but cannot be relied upon."

12. IS IT EVER RIGHT TO PREVENT CONCEPTION? We submit the following case of the Juke family, mostly of New York State, as related by R. L. Dugdale, when a member of the Prison Association, and let the reader judge for himself:

"It was traced out by painstaking research that from one woman called Margaret, who, like Topsy, merely 'growed' without pedigree as a pauper in a village on the upper Hudson, about eighty-five years ago, there descended 673 {244} children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, of whom 200 were criminals of the dangerous class, 280 adult paupers, and fifty prostitutes, while 300 children of her lineage died prematurely. The last fact proves to what extent in this family nature was kind to the rest of humanity in saving it from a still larger aggregation of undesirable and costly members, for it is estimated that the expense to the State of the descendants of Maggie was over a million dollars, and the State itself did something also towards preventing a greater expense by the restrain exercised upon the criminals, paupers, and idiots of the family during a considerable portion of their lives."

13. THE LEGAL ASPECT.--By the Revised Statutes of the United States it is provided "that no obscene, * * * or lascivious book, picture, or any article or thing designed or intended for the prevention of conception or producing of abortion shall be carried in the mail, and any person who shall knowingly deposit or cause to be deposited for mailing or delivery any of the hereinbefore mentioned things shall be guilty of misdemeanor," etc. In New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and District of Columbia we find no local law against abortion. Nine states, viz.: New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, Indiana, Wisconsin, Dakotas, Wyoming and California punish the woman upon whom the abortion is attempted; while Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Kansas and California punish the advertising or furnishing of means for the prevention of conception; and Ohio makes it a crime to even have such means in one's possession. There is exception made in favor of every case where the early birth of the infant is necessary to save the life of the mother. It will be noticed that the common law punishes the furnishing or advertising of means for the prevention of conception, and hence regards it as a crime. There is, however, no ban of the civil law on Nature's law as laid down by Nature's God and discovered by medical science, which we here make known.

14. IS NATURE'S METHOD RELIABLE?--Dr. Cowan says: "Sexual excitement hastens the premature ripening and meeting of the germ cell with the sperm cell, and impregnation may result, although intercourse occurs only in the specified two weeks' absence of the egg from the uterus."

This is just possible under certain peculiar circumstances of diseased conditions, or after long separation of husband and wife. However, it seldom happens, and married people in normal health, temperate in the sexual relation, desirous of controlling the size of their family, can usually depend upon this law.

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15. MODERATION.--Continence, self-control, a willingness to deny himself--that is what is required from the husband. But a thousand voices reach us from suffering women in all parts of the land that this will not suffice; that men refuse thus to restrain themselves; that it leads to a loss of domestic happiness and to illegal amour, or it is injurious physically and morally; that, in short, such advice is useless because impracticable.

16. NATURE'S METHOD.--To such we reply that Nature herself has provided, to some extent, against over-production, and that it is well to avail ourselves of her provision. It is well known that women, when nursing, rarely become pregnant, and for this reason, if for no other, women should nurse their own children, and continue the period until the child is at least nine months or a year old. However, the nursing, if continued too long, weakens both the mother and the child, and, moreover, ceases to accomplish the end for which we now recommend it.

17. ANOTHER PROVISION OF NATURE.--For a certain period between her monthly illness, every woman is sterile. Conception may be avoided by refraining from coition except for this particular number of days, and there will be no evasion of natural intercourse, no resort to disgusting practices, and nothing degrading. The following facts have been established, without a doubt: The Graafian Vesicle, containing the egg in the ovary, enlarges during menstruation and bursts open to let the egg escape usually on the first day after the flow ceases, and seldom, if ever, later than the fourth day. It then takes from two to six days for the egg to pass down through the Fallopian tube into the womb, where it remains from two to six days, when, if not impregnated, it passes down through the vagina from the body. After the egg has passed from the body, conception is not possible until after the next menstrual flow.

The period, therefore, from after the sixteenth to within three days of the following menstrual discharge is one of almost absolute safety. We say within three days of the next menstruation, because the male seminal fluid may be retained there till the egg leaves the ovary, and in that way impregnation might follow. Impregnation would, however, rarely occur if the period was extended to from the twelfth day after menstruation close up to one day before it began again.

The above is the only physiological method (and it is no secret to a great many people) by which conception can be limited, without the employment of such means as involve danger and serious evils.

18. WARNING.--Let women be warned in the most emphatic manner against the employment of the secret methods constantly advertised by quacks. Such means are the almost certain cause of painful uterine diseases and of shortened life. They are productive of more misery by far than over-production itself.

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VAGINAL CLEANLINESS.

1. The above Syringe has a patent tube known as the vaginal cleanser. This keeps the sides of the vagina apart and permits the water to thoroughly clean and cleanse the organ. It will be found a great relief in both health and sickness, and in many cases cure barrenness and other diseases of the womb. It can be used the same as any other syringe. The tube can be procured at almost any drug store and applied to either bulb or fountain syringe. Many women are barren on account of an acid secretion in the vagina. The cleanser is almost a certain remedy and cure.

2. CLEANLINESS.--Cleanliness is next to godliness. Without cleanliness the human body is more or less defiled and repulsive. A hint to the wise is sufficient. The vagina should be cleansed with the same faithfulness as any other portion of the body.

3. TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER.--Those not accustomed to use vaginal injections would do well to use water milk-warm at the commencement; after this the temperature may be varied according to circumstances. In case of local inflammation use hot water. The indiscriminate use of cold water injections will be found rather injurious than beneficial, and a woman in feeble health will always find warm water invigorating and preferable.

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4. LEUCORRHOEA.--In case of persistent leucorrhoea use the temperature of water from seventy-two to eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit.

5. THE CLEANSER will greatly stimulate the health and spirits of any woman who uses it. Pure water injections have a stimulating effect, and it seems to invigorate the entire body.

6. SALT AND WATER INJECTIONS.--This will cure mild cases of leucorrhoea. Add a teaspoonful of salt to a pint and a half of water at the proper temperature. Injections may be repeated daily if deemed necessary.

7. SOAP AND WATER.--Soap and water is a very simple domestic remedy, and will many times afford relief in many diseases of the womb. It seems it thoroughly cleanses the parts. A little borax or vinegar may be used the same as salt water injections. (See No. 6.)

8. STERILE WOMEN desiring offspring should seek sexual union soon after the appearance of the menses, and not use the vaginal cleanser till several days later. Those not desiring offspring should avoid copulation until the ovum has passed the generative tract.