Sex, by Henry Stanton 1
Sex, by Henry Stanton 1
Sex, by Henry Stanton 1
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
Language: English
SEX
By
HENRY STANTON
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
PAGE
Sex, by Henry Stanton 3
I. SEX 5
CHAPTER I
SEX
The happiness of all human beings, men and women, depends largely on
their rational solution of the sexual problem. Sex and the part it plays in
human life cannot be ignored. In the case of animals sex plays a simpler
and less complex rôle. It is a purely natural and instinctive function whose
underlying purpose is the perpetuation of the species. It is not complicated
by the many incidental phenomena which result, in man's case, from
psychologic, economic, moral and religious causes. Climate, social
conditions, individual modes of life and work, alcohol, wealth and poverty,
and other factors affect sexual activity in human beings.
The average man, woman and child should know the essential sex facts in
order to be able to deal with the sex problems of life. Of late years there has
been a greater diffusion of such knowledge. To a large extent, however,
children and adolescents are still taught to look on all that pertains to sex as
something shameful and immodest, something not to be discussed. Sex is
an "Avoided Subject."
This is fundamentally wrong. Sex affects the very root of all human life. Its
activities are not obscene, but Nature's own means to certain legitimate
ends. The sex functions, when properly controlled and led into the proper
channels, are a most essential and legitimate form of physical
self-expression. The veil of secrecy with which they are so often shrouded
tends to create an altogether false impression regarding them. This
discussion of these "Avoided Subjects," in "Plain English," is intended to
give the salient facts regarding sex in a direct, straightforward manner,
bearing in mind the true purpose of normal sex activities.
CHAPTER I 5
The more we know of the facts of sex, the right and normal part sex
activities play in life, and all that tends to abuse and degrade them, the
better able we will be to make sex a factor for happiness in our own lives
and that of our descendants. Mankind, for its own general good, must desire
that reproduction--the real purpose of every sexual function--occur in such
a way as to perpetuate its own best physical and mental qualities.
The germ cell--as has been established by the microscope--is the tiny cell
which in the lowest living organisms as well as in man himself, forms the
unit of physical development. Yet even this tiny cell is already a highly
organized and perfected thing. It is composed of the most widely differing
elements which, taken together, form the so-called protoplasm or cellular
substance. And for all life established in nature the cell remains the
constant and unchanging form element. It comprises the cell-protoplasm
and a nucleus imbedded in it whose substance is known as the nucleoplasm.
The nucleus is the more important of the two and, so to say, governs the life
of the cell-protoplasm.
We will not go into the very complicated details of the actual process of the
growth and division of the protoplasmic cells. It is enough to say that in the
case of living creatures provided with more complicated organisms, such as
CHAPTER I 6
the higher plants, animals and man, the little cell units divide and grow as
they do in the case of the lower organisms. The fact is one which shows the
intimate inner relationship of all living beings.
As we mount the ascending ladder of plant and animal life the unit-cell of
the lower organisms is replaced by a great number of individual cells,
which have grown together to form a completed whole. In this complete
whole the cells, in accordance with the specific purpose for which they are
intended, all have a different form and a different chemical composition.
Thus it is that in the case of the plants leaves, flowers, buds, bark, branches
and stems are formed, and in that of animals skin, intestines, glands, blood,
muscles, nerves, brain and the organs of sense. In spite of the complicated
nature of numerous organisms we find that many of them still possess the
power of reproducing themselves by division or a process of "budding." In
the case of certain plants and animals, cell-groups grow together into a
so-called "bud," which later detaches itself from the parent body and forms
a new individual living organism, as in the case of the polyps or the tubers
in plant life.
A tree, for instance, may be grown from a graft which has been cut off and
planted in the ground. And ants and bees which have not been fecundated
are quite capable of laying eggs out of which develop perfect, well-formed
descendants. This last process is called parthenogenesis. It is a process,
however, which if carried on through several generations, ends in
deterioration and degeneracy. In the case of the higher animals, vertebrates
and man, such reproduction is an impossibility.
These higher types of animal life have been provided by nature with special
organs of reproduction and reproductive glands whose secretions, when
they are projected from the body under certain conditions, reproduce
themselves, and increase and develop in such wise that the living organism
from which they proceed is reproduced in practically its identical form.
Thus it perpetuates the original type. Philosophically it may be said that
these cells directly continue the life of the parents, so that death in reality
CHAPTER I 7
only destroys a part of the individual. Every individual lives again in his
offspring.
This rebirth of the individual in his descendants represents the true mission
of sex where the human being is concerned. And reproduction, the
perpetuation of the species, underlies all rightful and normal sex functions
and activities. The actual physical process of reproduction, the details
which initiate reproduction in the case of the human being, it seems
unnecessary here to describe. In the animal world, into which the moral
equation does not really enter, the facts of conjugation represent a simple
and natural working-out of functional bodily laws, usually with a seasonal
determination. But where man is concerned these facts are so largely made
to serve the purposes of pruriency, so exploited to inflame the imagination
in an undesirable and directly harmful way that they can be approached
only with the utmost caution.
In making clear to the mind of youth the fact data which initiates and
governs reproduction in animal and in human life, the ideal to be cultivated
is continence, the refraining from all experimentation undertaken in a spirit
of curiosity, until such time as a well-placed affection, sanctioned by the
divine blessing, will justify a sane and normal exploitation of physical
needs and urges in the matrimonial state. To this end hard bodily and
mental work should be encouraged in the youth of both sexes. "Satan finds
work for idle hands to do," has special application in this connection, and a
chaste and continent youth is usually the forerunner of a happy and
contented marriage. And incidentally, a happy marriage is the best
guarantee that reproduction, the carrying on of the species, will be morally
and physically a success. Here, too, the fact should be strongly stressed that
prostitution cannot be justified on any moral grounds. It represents a
deliberate ignoring of the rightful function of sex, and the perversion of the
sane and natural laws of reproduction. It is in marriage, in the sane and
normal activities of that unit of our whole social system--the family--that
reproduction develops nature's basic principle of perpetuation in the highest
and worthiest manner, in obedience to laws humane and divine.
CHAPTER II 9
CHAPTER II
In this process lies the true secret of heredity. The inherited energies retain
their full measure of power, and all their original quality in the growing and
dividing chromosomes (the chromosome is one of the segments into which
the chromoplasmic filaments of a cell-nucleus break up just before indirect
division). On the other hand, the egg-substance of the female germ-cell,
which is assimilated by the chromosomes, and which is turned into their
substance by the process of organic chemistry, loses its specific plastic vital
energy completely. It is in the same way that food eaten by the adult has
absolutely no effect on his qualitative organic structure. We may eat ever so
many beef-steaks without acquiring any of the characteristics of an ox. And
the germ-cell may devour any amount of egg-protoplasma without losing
its original paternal energy. As a rule a child inherits as many qualities
from its mother as from its father.
DETERMINATION OF SEX
Sex is determined after conception has taken place. At an early stage of the
embryo certain cells are set apart. These, later, form the sex glands. Modern
research claims to have discovered the secret of absolutely determining sex
in the human embryo, but even if these claims are valid they have not as yet
met with any general application.
EARLY DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER II 10
Some twelve days after conception, the female ovule or egg, which has
been impregnated by the male spermatazoön, escapes from the ovary where
it was impregnated, and entering a tube (Fallopian) gradually descends by
means of it into the cavity of the womb or uterus. Here the little germ
begins to mature in order to develop into an exact counterpart of its parents.
In the human being the womb has only a single cavity, and usually
develops but a single embryo.
TWINS
Sometimes two ovules are matured at the same time. If fecundated, two
embryos instead of one will develop, producing twins. Triplets and
quadruplets, the results of the maturing of three or four ovules at the same
time, occur more rarely. As many as five children have been born alive at a
single birth, but have seldom lived for more than a few minutes.
GESTATION
THE EMBRYO
The Primitive Trace, a delicate straight line appearing on the surface of the
growing layer of cells is the base of the embryonic spinal column. Around
this the whole embryo develops in an intricate process of cell division and
duplication. One end of the Primitive Trace becomes the head, the other the
tail, for every human being has a tail at this stage of his existence. The neck
is marked by a slight depression; the body by a swollen center. Soon little
buds or "pads" appear in the proper positions. These represent arms and
legs, whose ends, finally, split up into fingers and toes. The embryonic
human being has been steadily increasing in size, meanwhile. By the fifth
week the heart and lungs are present in a rudimentary form, and ears and
CHAPTER II 11
face are distinctly outlined. During the seventh week the kidneys are
formed, and a little later the genital organs. At two months, though sex is
not determined as yet, eyes and nose are visible, the mouth is gaping, and
the skin can be distinguished. At ten weeks the sexual organs form more
definitely, and in the third month sex can be definitely determined.
THE FOETUS
At the end of its fourth month the embryo--now four or five inches long
and weighing about an ounce--is promoted. It receives the name of foetus.
Hairs appear on the scalp, the eyes are provided with lids, the tongue
appears far back in the mouth. The movements of the foetus are plainly felt
by the mother. If born at this time it lives but a few minutes. It continues to
gain rapidly in weight. By the sixth month the nails are solid, the liver large
and red, and there is fluid in the gall bladder. The seventh month finds the
foetus from twelve and a half to fourteen inches long, and weighing about
fifty-five ounces. It is now well proportioned, the bones of the cranium,
formerly flat, are arched. All its parts are well defined, and it can live if
born. By the end of the eighth month the foetus has thickened out. Its skin
is red and covered by a delicate down; the lower jaw has grown to the same
length as the upper one. The convolutions of the brain structure also appear
during this month.
During gestation the unborn infant has been supplied with air and
nourishment by the mother. An organ called the Placenta, a spongy growth
of blood vessels, develops on the inner point of the womb. To this organ
the growing foetus is moored by a species of cable, the Umbilical Cord.
This cord, also made up mainly of blood vessels, carries the blood of the
foetus to and from the Placenta, absorbing it through the thin walls which
separate it from the mother's blood. Only through her blood can the mother
influence the child, since the Umbilical Cord contains no nerves. The
Umbilical Cord, attached to the body of the child at the navel, is cut at
birth, and with the Placenta is expelled from the womb soon after the child
has been born. Together with the Placenta it forms a shapeless mass,
CHAPTER II 12
CHILDBIRTH OR PARTURITION
At nine month's time the foetus is violently thrust from that laboratory of
nature in which it has formed. It is born, and comes into the world as a
child. Considering the ordinary size of the generative passages, the
expelling of the foetus from the womb would seem impossible. But Nature,
during those months in which she enlarged the womb to hold its gradually
increasing contents, has also increased the generative passages in size. She
has made them soft and distensible, so that an apparent physical
impossibility could take place, though it is often accompanied by intense
suffering. Modern medical science has made childbirth easier, but the act of
childbirth is usually accompanied by more or less suffering. Excessive
pain, however, is often the result of causes which proper treatment can
remove before and at the time of confinement.
TWILIGHT SLEEP
The average weight of the new-born child is about seven and a half pounds.
It is insensitive to pain for the first few days, and seems deaf (since its
middle ears are filled with a thick mucus) for the first two weeks. During
the first few days, too, it does not seem able to see. The first month of its
CHAPTER II 13
HEREDITY
THE ENGRAM
CHAPTER II 14
CHAPTER III
(FROM 14 TO 16)
During the first years of child life all those laws of practical hygiene which
make for good health should be carefully observed. Every organ of the
body should be carefully protected, even at this early age. The genital
organs, especially, should not be rubbed or handled under any pretext,
beyond what is absolutely necessary for cleanliness. The organs of
generation, which we are apt to treat as nonexistent in children, just
because they are children, claim just as much watchful care as any others.
Even in infancy, the diaper should fit easily about the organs which it
covers, so as not to give rise to undue friction or heating of the parts. And
for the same reason it should always be changed immediately after
urination or a movement of the bowels. No material which prevents the
escape of perspiration, urine or fecal matter should be employed for a
diaper. The use of a chair-commode as early as the end of the first year is
highly to be commended, as being more comfortable for the sex organs and
healthier for the child. It favors, in particular, a more perfect development
of limbs and hip joints.
Sex impressions and reactions are apt to develop at an early age, especially
in the case of boys. If the child's physical health is normal, however, they
should not affect his mind or body. The growing boy should be encouraged
to take his sex questions and sex problems to his parents (in his case
preferably the father) for explanation. Thus they may be made clear to him
naturally and logically. He should not be told what he soon discovers is not
true: that babies are "dug up with a silver spade," or make their appearances
in the family thanks to the kind offices of storks or angels. Instead, by
CHAPTER III 16
analogy with the reproductive processes of all nature, the true facts of sex
may be explained to him in a soothing and normal way.
EVIL COMMUNICATIONS
Too often, the growing boy receives his first lessons regarding sex from
ignorant and vicious associates. Curiosity is one of the greatest natural
factors in the child's proper development, if rightly directed. When wrongly
led, however, it may have the worst consequences. Even before puberty
occurs, a boy's attention may be quite naturally drawn to his own sex
organs.
PRIAPISM
MASTURBATION
CHAPTER III 17
In the education of his children the average man is only too apt to repeat the
same mistake of unconsciously crediting the child with the possession of
CHAPTER III 18
his own feelings and his own outlook, that is the feelings and outlook of the
adult. In general, things which may make an impression in a sex way on the
adult are a matter of indifference to the sexually unripe boy. Hence it is
quite possible for a father to discuss sex matters with his young son and
inform him constructively, without in any undue way rousing his sex
curiosity or awakening desire. Such talks, of course, should be in
accordance with the principles already laid down in the section on
"Reproduction."
CHAPTER IV
(FROM 12 TO 14)
What has been said in general about practical observance of the laws of sex
hygiene in the preceding chapter for boys, applies to girls as well. If
anything the sex precautions taken in infancy should be even more closely
followed, as girls are by nature less robust than boys. If children could be
raised in entire accordance with natural laws, the sexual instinct of girls as
well as boys would probably remain dormant during the period stretching
from infancy to puberty. As in the case of the boy, so in that of the girl, any
manifestation of sexual precocity should be investigated, to see whether it
be due to natural or artificial causes. In either case the proper remedies
should be applied.
There are cases of extraordinary sex precocity in girls. One case reported in
the United States was that of a female child who at birth possessed all the
characteristics usually developed at puberty. In this case the natural
periodical changes began at birth! Fortunately, this is a case more or less
unique. In little girls and boys undue sexual handling or titillating of their
genital organs tends to quiet them, so nurses (let us hope in ignorance of the
consequences!) often resort to it. Sending children to bed very early, to "get
rid of them," or confining them in a room by themselves, tends to
encourage the development of vicious habits. A single bed, both in the
school and in the home, is indispensable to purity of morals and personal
cleanliness. It tends to restrain too early development of the sexual instinct
both in small girls and small boys.
Small girls, like small boys, display an intelligent curiosity as regards the
phenomena of sex at an early age. And what has already been said
CHAPTER IV 20
Local diseases, due to this cause, result in girls as well as boys. Temporary
congestions become permanent, and develop into permanent irritations and
disorders. Leucorrhea has already been mentioned. Contact with the acrid,
irritating internal secretions also causes soreness of the fingers at the root
of the nails, and warts. Congestion and other diseases are other ultimate
results of the habit; and these congestions to which it gives rise unduly
hasten the advent of puberty. Any decided enlargement of the labia and
clitoris in a young girl may be taken as a positive evidence of the existence
of the habit of self-abuse. Sterility, and atrophy of the breasts--their
deficient development--when the vice is begun before puberty, is another
result.
A healthy girl should be happy and comfortable in all respects. She will not
be so, especially with regard to her sex problems, unless she can appeal to
her mother as a friend and confidant. While keeping your girl's mind pure
and healthy by precept and example, do not forget that the best way to
protect her against evil influences and communications is to tell her the
exact truth about sex facts, as they apply to her, just as the father should his
boy. Keep your girl fully occupied and do not leave her sex education to the
evil winds of chance.
Let sex knowledge take its place as a proper, necessary part of her general
education. If your daughter feels she can at all times talk freely to you all
will be well. Gratify her natural sex curiosity in a natural way. See that
immediate medical attention is given inflammations, excoriations, itchings
and swellings of her genital organs. Such conditions will lead her to rub
and scratch these parts--never to be touched--for relief. If, as a result of the
sensations experienced, masturbation results, yours is the sin.
CHAPTER V 22
CHAPTER V
Adolescence is the period when the boy is lost in the man. It is the time of
life embraced between the ages of fourteen or sixteen and the age of
twenty-five. Every boy, if properly trained, should reach this period in a
state of good general health and spirits. Hitherto he has been led and
guided. Now he must develop mental strength and will power himself to
choose the good and refuse the evil in the sexual problems confronting him.
PUBERTY
According to climate puberty, the age when the human male becomes
sexually perfect, varies from ten to fifteen years. In the United States
puberty in the male usually occurs at the age of fourteen and a half years. In
tropical climates it occurs at nine or ten, and in cold countries, such as
Norway and Siberia, it may not take place until eighteen or nineteen.
Vigorous physical exercise tends to delay puberty, anything exciting the
emotions tends to hasten it. Stimulating foods, pepper, vinegar, mustard,
spices, tea and coffee, excess meat nutriment hasten puberty. A cool,
unstimulating vegetable and farinaceous diet may delay the development of
the sexual system several months or a year.
In the boy the signs of puberty are the growth of hair on the skin covering
the pubes and in the armpits. Chest and arms broaden, the frame grows
more angular, the masculine proportions more pronounced. The vocal cords
grow longer and lower the pitch of the voice. Hair grows on chin, upper lip,
cheeks, and often on the body surface.
The sexual moral law is the same for both sexes, and equally binding. It
may be summed up as follows: "Your sexual urges, instincts and desires
should never consciously injure an individual human being or mankind in
general. They should be exercised to further the value and happiness of
both."
The perfect carrying out of this general moral law implies continence on
the part of the male adolescent until marriage. Continence is positive
restraint under all circumstances. Strict continence is neither injurious to
health, nor does it produce impotence. While self-denial is difficult, since
the promptings of nature often seem imperious, it is not impossible. It is
certain that no youth will suffer, physically, by remaining sexually pure.
The demands which occur during adolescence are mainly abnormal, due to
the excitements of an overstimulating diet, pornographic literature and art,
and the temptations of impure association.
Foul thoughts, once they enter the mind, corrode it. The sensual glance, the
bawdy laugh, the ribald jest, the smutty story, the obscene song may be met
with on street corner, in the car, train, hotel lobby, lecture hall and
workshop. Mental unchastity ends in physical unchastity. The habit
common to most adolescent boys and young men of relating smutty stories,
repeating foul jokes and making indecent allusions destroys respect for
virtue. In addition there are such direct physical causes of undue adolescent
sexual excitement as constipation and alcoholism, and such mental ones as
nervous irritability.
To the constant discussion and speculation regarding sex and its mysteries
by the adolescent young male, must be added the artificial idea that idle
prattling on the subject is a sign of "manhood." Thus many young men
whose natural trend is in the direction of decency and right sexual living,
"step out" or "go to see the girls," as the phrase is, because they think that
otherwise "they are not real men." More subtle in its evil effect, yet
CHAPTER V 24
PROSTITUTION
The training of the average male mind in impure language and thought
during boyhood and adolescence, the cultivation of his animal at the
expense of the moral nature, often leads the adolescent to seek satisfaction
by frequenting the prostitute.
FREE LOVE
CHAPTER VI
Adolescence in the girl is the period when she develops into a woman. It is
that stage in female life embraced between the ages of twelve or fourteen
and twenty-one years. Elasticity of body, a clear complexion, and a happy
control of her feelings should mark the young girl at this time, if she has
been so fortunate as to escape the dangers and baneful influences of
childhood and infancy. Her numerous bodily functions should be well
performed. Thus constituted she should be in a condition to take up her
coming struggle with the world, and the sex problem it will present.
PUBERTY
It has been noticed that in the case of girls, puberty usually occurs earlier in
brunettes than in blondes. In general, it makes its appearance earlier in
those of a nervous or bilio-nervous temperament than in those whose
temperament is phlegmatic or lymphatic. In the United States fourteen and
a half years is the usual age of puberty in girls. In tropical lands, however,
it is not uncommon for a girl to be a mother at twelve. Country girls (and
boys) usually mature several months or a year later than those living in
cities. Too early a puberty in girls may well arouse concern. It usually
indicates some inherent constitutional weakness. Premature puberty is often
associated with premature decay.
In the girl the sign of puberty is the growth of hair about the pubes, private
organs and armpits. Her whole frame remains more slender than in the
male. Muscles and joints are less prominent, limbs more rounded and
tapering. Internal and external organs undergo rapid enlargement, locally.
The mammæ (the breasts) enlarge, the ovaries dilate, and a periodical uteral
discharge (menstruation) is established.
CHAPTER VI 27
MENSTRUATION
No young girl should feel alarmed if, owing to the negligence of her
parents or guardians to prepare her, she is surprised by this first flow from
the genital organs. Puberty is the proper time for the appearance of
menstruation. This is the periodical development and discharge of an ovule
(one or more) by the female, accompanied by the discharge of a fluid,
known as menses or catamenia. Menstruation, in general good health,
should occur about every twenty-eight days, or once in four weeks. This
rule, however, is subject to great variation. Menstruation continues from
puberty to about the forty-fifth year, which usually marks the menopause,
or "change of life." When it disappears a woman is no longer capable of
bearing children. Her period of fertility has passed. In rare cases
menstruation has stopped at 35, or lasted till 60.
When the period arrives a girl or woman has a feeling of discomfort and
lassitude, there is a sense of weight, and a disclination for society.
Menstruation should not, however, be regarded as a nuisance; a girl's
friends respect her most when she is "unwell." She should keep more than
usually quiet while the flow continues, which it will do for a few days.
Also, she should avoid all unnecessary fatigue, exposure to wet or to
extremes of temperature. Some girls are guilty of the crime of trying to
arrest the menstruation flow, and resorting to methods of stopping it. Why?
In order to attend a dance or pleasure excursion! Lives have been lost by
thus suppressing the monthly flux. Mothers should instruct their daughters
when the menses are apt to begin, and what their function is. During
menstruation great care must be taken in using water internally. A chill is
sufficient to arrest the flow. If menstruation does not establish itself in a
healthy or normal manner at the proper time, consult a physician in order to
remove this abnormal condition. Any disturbance of the delicate menstrual
functions during the period, by constrained positions, muscular effort, brain
work and mental or physical excitement, is apt to have serious
consequences.
CHAPTER VI 28
Continence is, as a rule more easily observed by the adolescent girl than by
the adolescent youth. Ordinarily the normal young girl has no undue sexual
propensities, amorous thoughts or feelings. Though she is exposed to the
danger of meeting other girls who may be lewd in thought and speech, in
the houses of friends or at school, she is not apt to be carried away by their
example. Yet even a good, pure-minded young girl may be debauched.
Especially during adolescence, the easy observance of natural continence
depends greatly on the proper functioning of the feminine genital organs.
These may be easily disturbed. The syringe used for injections, for
so-called purposes of cleanliness, is in reality a danger. The inner organs
are self-cleansing. Water or other fluids cast into them disorder the mucous
follicles, and dry up their secretions, preventing the flowing out of some of
Nature's necessities. A daily washing of the inner organs for a long period
with water also produces chronic leucorrhea.
Lack of proper early training, abnormal sex instincts, weak good nature,
poverty, all may be responsible for a young girl's moral downfall. As a
general thing, right home training and home environment, and sane sex
education will prevent the normally good girl from going wrong. It should
be remembered, though, that a naturally more gentle and yielding
disposition may easily lead her into temptation. Girls who are sentimentally
inclined should beware of giving way to advances on the part of young men
which have only one object in view: the gratification of their animal
passion.
The holding of hands and similar innocent beginnings often pave the way
for more familiar caresses. Passionate kisses--the promiscuous kiss, by the
way, may be the carrier of that dread infection, syphilis--violently awaken a
young girl's sex instincts. The fact is that many innocent girls idealize their
seducers. They believe their lying promises, actually come to love them,
and think that in gratifying their inflamed desires, they are giving a proof of
the depth and purity of their own affection.
CHAPTER VI 29
Here, as in the case of the young man, self-control should be the first thing
cultivated. And self-control should be made doubly sure by never
permitting one of the opposite sex to show undue familiarity. Many a
seemingly innocent flirtation, begun with a kiss, has ended in shame and
disgrace, in loss of social standing and position, venereal disease, or even
death. The pure-minded and innocent girl often becomes a victim of her
ignorance of the consequences entailed by giving in to the desires of some
male companion. The girl who has a knowledge of sex facts is less apt to be
taken advantage of in this manner.
Parents who do not control the social activities of their daughters, who
permit them to spend their evenings away from home with only a general
idea of what they are doing or whom they are meeting, need not be
surprised if their morals are undermined.
"lift." When the latter refuse to gratify their desires they are often beaten
and flung from the car. The daily press has given such publicity to this
civilized form of "head hunting," that it is difficult to sympathize with girls
who are thus treated. They cannot help but know that in nine cases out of
ten, a stranger who invites them to a ride, who "picks" them up, does so
with the definite purpose already mentioned in view.
Poverty.--Poverty, too, plays a large part in driving young girls into a life of
vice. In all our large cities there are hundreds of young women who earn
hardly enough to buy food and fuel and pay for the rent of a room in a
cheap lodging house. Feminine youth longs for dress, for company, for
entertainment. It is easy enough to find a "gentleman friend" who will
provide all three, in exchange for "companionship." So the bargain is
struck. These conditions exist in a hundred and one occupations. A young
woman may go to a large city as pure as snow, but finding no lucrative
employment, lonely and despondent, she is led to take her first step on the
downward path. Soon daily contact with vice removes abhorrence to it.
Familiarity makes it habitual, and another life is ruined. The heartless moral
code of the cynical young pleasure-seeking male is summed up in the cant
phrase anent women: "Find, ... and forget!" It is these girls, who are
victimized by their lack of self-restraint or moral principle, their ignorance
or weakness, who make possible the application of such a maxim.
VIRGINITY
Both mental and physical purity are rightfully required of the young girl
about to marry. How shall she acquire and maintain this desirable state of
purity? The process is a simple one. She must let a knowledge of the true
hygienic and moral laws of her sex guide her in her relations with men. She
must cultivate clean thought on a basis of physical cleanliness. She need
not be ignorant to be pure. Men she should study carefully. She should not
allow them to sit with their arm about her waist, to hold her hand, to kiss
her. No approach nor touch beyond what the best social observance
sanctions should be permitted. Even the tendernesses and familiarities of
courtship should be restrained. An engagement does not necessarily
culminate in a marriage, and once the foot has slipped on virtue's path the
CHAPTER VI 31
CHAPTER VII
THE HUSBAND
Marriage is the process by which a man and woman enter into a complete
physical, legal and moral union. The natural object of marriage is the
complete community of life for the establishment of a family.
CHAPTER VIII
THE WIFE
Girls marry, in the final analysis, because love for the male is an innate
natural principle of the female nature. At its best this love is pure and
chaste. The good woman realizes that its first purpose is not mere carnal
pleasure. It is a special avowal of the wife's relations to her husband, and its
natural as well as moral end is the establishment of the family on the basis
of a healthy progeny.
BEFORE MARRIAGE
The wife-to-be, like her prospective husband, will be well advised to ask
for a medical health certificate. No man, no matter how good his reputation
may be, should marry (on his own account as well as that of the girl)
without thorough examination by a physician. The consequences of
venereal infection administered to unborn children by their parents are too
horrible to allow of any risk being taken. Another bit of advice, which
cannot be too highly commended, is that the prospective husband and wife,
before they marry, have a plain talk with each other regarding individual
sexual peculiarities and needs. A heart-to-heart talk of this kind would be
apt to prevent great disappointments and incompatibilities which otherwise
may become permanent.
The natural instinct of a man is to seek his mate. On her he depends for an
orderly and lawful indulgence of his sex demands. The greatest longevity
and best health are to be found among happily married fathers and mothers.
No young woman should marry without a full knowledge of her sex duties
to her husband. And she should never consummate the marriage vow
grudgingly.
CHAPTER VIII 35
CHILDBIRTH HYGIENE
It is most important that the childbearing wife and mother have a long
period of rest between births. At least one year should separate a birth and
the conception following it. This means that about two years should elapse
between two births. If this rule be followed, the wife will retain her health,
and her children will also be healthy. It is far better to give birth to seven
children, who will live and be healthy, than to bear fourteen, of whom
seven are likely to die, while the numerous successive births wear out and
age the unfortunate mother.
MATRIMONIAL ADJUSTMENT
The above paragraph deals with one detail of what might be called
"matrimonial adjustment." This adjustment or compromise is a feature of
all successful marriages. The individual cravings of husband and wife must
be reconciled by mutual good will and forbearance if they are to be happy.
CHAPTER VIII 36
Attention should be paid in particular to not allowing habit, "the worst foe
of married happiness," to become too well established in the home, and to
cultivate that love and affection which survives the decline of the sexual
faculties.
BIRTH CONTROL
The fact that a decline in human fertility and a falling birth rate are most
noticeable in the relatively prosperous countries is a proof that it does not
proceed from economic causes; but is due rather to the spread of the
doctrine that it is permissible to restrict or control birth. In such countries as
the United States, England and Australasia, where the standards of human
comfort and living are notoriously high, the decline in the birth rate has
CHAPTER VIII 37
been most noticeable. On the other hand, we find perhaps the greatest
decline in the birth rate in France, a country where the general well-being
probably reaches a lower depth in the community than in any other part of
Europe. A comparison of the birth rates of France and of Ireland, for
example, offer a valuable illustration of the point under consideration. In
France, more than half the women who have reached the age of nubility are
married; in Ireland, generally speaking, less than a third. In both countries
the crude birth rate is far below that in other European lands. Yet the
fertility of the Irish wife exceeded that of her French compeer by 44 per
cent in 1880, and by no less than 84 per cent in 1900. And since that time
the prolificity of the Irish mother has so increased that she is now,
approximately speaking, inferior only to the Dutch or Finnish mother in
this respect.
who should rather be the first to set the example of protest against it by
having the families they are so much better able to support and educate than
those less favored with the world's goods. If the evil of voluntary control of
human birth were restricted to a privileged class, say one of wealth, the
harm done would, perhaps, not be so great. But, unfortunately, in the course
of time it filters down as a "gospel of comfort"--erroneous term!--to those
whose resources are less. They accept and practice this invidious system of
prevention and gradually the entire community is more or less affected.
We may take it, then, that "birth control" represents a deliberate and
reprehensible attempt to nullify those innate laws of reproduction
sanctioned by religion, tradition and man's own ingrained instinct. To say
that the human instinct for the perpetuation of his race and family has
become atrophied during the flight of time, and that he is therefore justified
in denying it, is merely begging the question. The instinct may be denied,
just as other higher and nobler instincts are disregarded; but its validity
cannot be questioned. Whether those who practice "birth control" are
influenced by economic, selfishly personal or other reasons, they are
offending in a threefold manner: against the inborn wish and desire which
is a priceless possession of even the least of God's creatures, that of living
anew in its offspring; against the law of the state, which after all, stands for
the crystallization of the best feeling of the community; and against the
divine injunction handed down to us in Holy Writ, to "increase and
multiply."
CHAPTER VIII 39
"Birth control" is the foe to the direct end and aim of marriage, which, in
the last analysis, is childbirth. As an enemy to the procreation of children it
is an enemy of the family and the family group. As an enemy of the family,
it is an enemy of the state, the community, a foe to the whole social system.
Mankind has been able to attain its comparatively recent state of moral and
physical advancement without having recourse to the dangerous principle
which "birth control" represents. Surely that wise provision of our existing
legal code which makes the printing or dissemination of information
regarding the physical facts of "birth control" illegal and punishable as an
offense, can only be approved by those who respect the Omnipotent will,
and the time-hallowed traditions which date back to the very inception of
the race.
CHAPTER IX 40
CHAPTER IX
SEX DISEASES
The sex diseases are the same in both sexes, whether developed by direct or
accidental infection. They are the greatest practical argument in favor of
continence, morality and marriage in the sex relation.
GONORRHEA
SYPHILIS
CHAPTER IX 41
One danger of syphilis is the fact that its true nature may be overlooked
during the first period, because of the lack of pronounced symptoms. Its
early sores may easily be mistaken for some skin affection. Mercury and
other means are successful in doing away with at least the more noticeable
signs of syphilis during the first and secondary stages. The modern medical
treatment using mercury and Salvarsan (606) in alternation, has been very
successful. It is claimed that by following it, syphilis may be totally cured if
taken in hand during the first stage. The sores developed during the first
two or three years of the disease are very infectious. In the case of a chronic
syphilis of three or four years' standing, the sores as a rule are no longer
infectious. It is possible, however, for a syphilitic of this description to
bring forth syphilitic children, without infecting his wife. Such children
either die at birth, or later, of this congenital syphilis. They may also die of
spinal consumption or paresis between the ages of 10 and 20. The mortality
of all syphilitic children is very great. In most cases, however, healthy
children are born of the wedlock of relatively cured syphilitics, though they
are often sterile. Young men who have had recourse to prostitutes, often
CHAPTER IX 42
inoculate their wives with gonorrhea or syphilis, and thus the plague is
spread.
The soft chancre is the third form of venereal disease (the hard chancre
being the first stage of syphilis). It is the least dangerous of the venereal
diseases, but unfortunately, relatively the one which occurs most seldom.
When not complicated with syphilis, it appears locally. It is a larger or
smaller sore feeding and growing on the genital organs.
The most tragic consequence of all venereal disease is the part it plays in
the infection of innocent children, and innocent wives and mothers. Often a
pure and chaste woman is thus deprived in the most cruel and brutal
manner of the fruit of all her hopes and dreams of happiness. Similarly, a
young man may find himself hopelessly condemned to a short life of pain
and misery. He may also suffer from the knowledge that he has ruined the
lives of those dearest to him. Venereal disease, syphilis in particular,
emphasizes the practical value of continence--quite aside from its moral
one--in a manner which cannot be ignored!
CHAPTER X 43
CHAPTER X
When we take under consideration the higher, truer love of one sex for the
other, that is, an affection which is not simply a friendship, but has a sex
basis, we realize that it may be a very noble emotion. There is no manner of
doubt but that the normal human being feels a great need for love. Sex in
love and its manifestation in the life of the soul is one of the first conditions
of human happiness, and a main aim of human existence.
All know the tale of Cupid's arrow. A man falls in love with a face, a pair
of eyes, the sound of a voice, and his affection is developed from this
trifling beginning until it takes complete possession of him. This love is
usually made up of two components: a sex instinct, and feelings of
sympathy and interest which hark back to primal times. And this love, in its
true sense, should stand for an affection purified from egoism.
affection on the part of the male for his mate, and on the part of the female
for her young. Often these feelings develop into a strong, lasting affection
between the sexes, and years of what might be called faithful matrimonial
union have been observed in the case of birds. This in itself is sufficient to
establish the intimate relationship between love in a sex sense and love in a
general sense. And even in the animal creation we find the same analogy
existing between these feelings of sympathy and their opposites which
occur in the case of human beings. Every feeling of attachment or
sympathy existing between two individuals has a counterpart in an opposite
feeling of discontent when the object of the love or attachment in question
dies, falls sick, or runs away. This feeling of discontent may assume the
form of a sorrow ending in lasting melancholy. In the case of apes and of
certain parrots, it has been noticed that the death of a mate has frequently
led the survivor to refuse nourishment, and die in turn from increasing grief
and depression. If, on the other hand, an animal discovers the cause of the
grief or loss which threatens it; if some enemy creature tries to rob it of its
mate or little ones, the mixed reactive feeling of rage or anger is born in it,
anger against the originator of its discontent. Jealousy is only a definite
special form of this anger reaction.
As regards man and wife, the relation of the actual sex instinct to love is
often a very complicated one. In the case of man the sex feeling may, and
frequently does exist independent of love in the higher sense; in the case of
woman it is quite certain that love occurs far less seldom unaccompanied
by the sex inclination. It is also quite possible for love to develop before the
development of the sex feeling, and this often, in married life, leads to the
happiest relationships.
Real and true love is lasting. The suddenly awakened storm of sex affection
for a hitherto totally unknown person can never be accepted as a true
measure for love. This sudden surge of the sex feeling warps the judgment,
makes it possible to overlook the grossest defects, colors all and everything
with heavenly hues. It makes a man who is "in love," or two beings who are
in love, mutually blind, and causes each to carefully conceal his or her real
inward self from the other. This may be the case even when the feelings of
both are absolutely honest, especially if the sex feeling is not paired with
cool egoistic calculation. Not until the first storm of the sex feeling has
subsided, when honeymoon weeks are over, is a more normal point of view
regained. And then love, indifference, or hatred, as the case may be
develops. It is for this reason that love at first sight is always dangerous,
and that only a longer and more intimate acquaintance with the object of
one's affection is calculated to give a lasting union a relatively good chance
of turning out happily. One thing is worth bearing in mind. Woman
invariably represents the conservative element in the family. Her emotional
qualities, combined with wonderful endurance, always control her intellect
more powerfully than is the case with man; and the feelings and emotions
form the conservative element in the human soul.
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