APPENDIX II. (Page 265)

Terrible instances of this may be seen in Trélat’s medical work,La Folie Lucide, etc. Lallemand and other French surgeons report numerous cases of fatal injury done even to nursing infants by the wicked actions of unprincipled nurses. I have myself traced the ill-health of children in wealthy families to the habits practised by confidential nurses, apparently quiet, respectable women! Abundant medical testimony confirms these observations.

It is not the plan of the present essay to enter into minute details and suggestions relative to every step of family life which bears upon our subject; such details are more suited to the private and familiar conferences of those who are resolved to ennoble the life of sex. When this high resolve has become a guiding principle, it will throw light upon every practical arrangement from infancy onward. It will then be seen that no details are insignificant to the watchful mother; that the shape of the child’s nightdress, made in the form of loose drawers; the mannerof washing and of attending to its natural wants; the nightly prayer; simple and respectful answers to the questions of awakening curiosity—all endless applications will flow from a perception of the necessity of securing the slow and healthy development of sex.

Dr.Acton has called attention to the necessity of securing local cleanliness, and to the evil arising from worms and from the habit of wetting the bed.

FOOTNOTES:[16]Parkes’Manual of Practical Hygiene, 4th edition, p. 493.[17]Ibid., p. 493.[18]W. B. Carpenter’sPrinciples of Human Physiology, 7th edition, p. 631.[19]W. B. Carpenter’sPrinciples of Human Physiology, 7th edition, p. 812.[20]The unhealthiness and indecency of harem life, with its effect upon the boys and girls, its encouragement of abortion, and the unhappy and degraded condition of the women, are sketched with the painful truth of close observation inThe People of Turkey, edited by S. Lane Poole—a book worthy of careful consideration. See also Lane’sEgyptians, etc.[21]Bulgaria and the Bulgarians.[22]Abstract from theSun. SeeThirtieth Annual Report of the Prison Association of New York.[23]See Sadler onPopulationfor many curious facts tending to show how strictly Nature guards this equality.[24]See Michel Lévy’sTraité d’Hygiène, 5th edition, vol. i., p. 145.[25]Hufeland’sArt of Prolonging Life, edited by Erasmus Wilson. 2nd edition, Part II., p. 138.[26]See W. B. Carpenter’sPrinciples of Human Physiology, 7th edition, p. 909.[27]Ibid., p. 909.[28]One of the most powerful causes of the growth of pessimism in Germany is the increasing licentiousness of a race created with a high ideal of virtue and cherishing a love of home.[29]The frequent opinion that a limited amount of fornication is a very trivial matter, that the individual may become an excellent father of a family and good citizen in spite of such indulgence, is based on the grave error of regarding sexual relations as the act of one instead of two individuals, and limited in their effects to the moment of occurrence. The moral character of such indulgence is, however, determined by its effects upon the after-life of two human beings—viz., its effect on the citizen, whose judgment becomes injured in relation to this great subject of national welfare, through early experience, and on the partner in vice whose life is one of growing degradation. These two inevitable facts remain through life.[30]See Debates of Working Men’s Congress, Paris, October, 1876. AlsoLa Femme Pauvre, a work crowned by the French Academy some years ago. Also the writings of Le Clerc, Guizot, etc.[31]See Reports of Rescue Society, London.[32]This question is now anxiously asked by intelligent mothers, who, resolved to do what is right for their children, are yet bewildered by the contradiction of authorities and the customs of society. It is the necessity in my own medical practice of answering this question truthfully, which is one of the reasons that has compelled me to write these pages.[33]G. M. Humphrey, M.D., F.R.S., in Holme’sSystem of Surgery, 3rd edition, vol. iii., p. 550.[34]See Acton’sFunctions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, 6th edition, p. 12et seq.[35]Acton’sFunctions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, 6th Ed., pp. 37, 38.[36]See also a very interesting account of schools in Thackeray’sIrish Sketch-Book.[37]I can speak from personal observation of these upright communities, where the health of the men was far better than that of the women; the former leading an outdoor, the latter an indoor life.[38]Numerous instances of wise maternal influence over sons have come under my own observation, where in mature life they have thanked these true friends, their mothers, for the wise counsels given at the right time.[39]See Appendix I.,p. 306.[40]In earnest conversation with a gentleman of wide connections, resident in Vienna, he stated that he did not know a single young man who led a virtuous life. So completely was the idea of sexual control lost, that he said frankly he should consider any man a hypocrite who pretended to be virtuous. A Protestant pastor in a small University town in the South of France told me that the public sentiment of both men and women in that town was so false that a man who had no inclination to vice would be ashamed to acknowledge a virtuous life.[41]See Appendix II.,p. 308.[42]See a valuable article in theWestminster Review, July, 1879, ‘An Unrecognised Element in our Educational Systems.’[43]Sir James Paget,Clinical Lectures and Essays, second edition, p. 293.[44]There is a class of persons, the illogical, whose conscience will not allow them to counsel vice, who state that it is a habit that can be avoided as the use of opium can be avoided, but who in the same breath declare prostitution to be a necessity, and that the greater part of young men away from home will resort to it. Now, if prostitution be a necessity, it must be because fornication is a necessity. What is a necessity? It is something inevitable, because it is rooted in the constitution; it is an unavoidable development of human nature itself. If so, fornication is not a habit like opium-eating, but the form in which human nature is shaped—God’s work. In that case fornication would not be wrong; it should not be condemned, and neither the man nor the woman who practises it should be blamed. There is no avoiding this direct conclusion, and everyone who asserts that prostitution is a necessity must be prepared to accept it. This grave error and the confusion of thought and practice which arises from it proceed from a wrong use of the word ‘Necessity.’ It is the existence of the sexual passion which is a necessary part of nature, not prostitution. This necessary passion may either be controlled or it may be satisfied in two ways—by marriage, or by fornication. It is only the passion which is a necessity, not the way in which it is gratified. It is thus a positive falsehood to state that prostitution is a necessity, and, considered in all its bearings, a most dangerous falsehood.[45]Whilst travelling in Italy I met a very intelligent Austrian gentleman, who, as a citizen of the United States, had brought up his family in New York. Conversing on the various customs of society, he said to me: ‘I have always endeavoured to respect women, and to live an upright, moral life, but I have never met with any appreciation of this fact by the families of my acquaintance. On the contrary, no mother that I have known has banished a man of position from her society, no matter how notoriously immoral his life may be. I have known respectable mothers, moving in what is called the best society, allowing a man of wealth to continue visiting the family after gross impropriety of behaviour to a daughter. My own little Rosa there (and he pointed to a charming little creature of sixteen who was travelling with the party) will not give the slightest discouragement to a clever or amusing man, although I may warn her against the notorious character of the man. I go to Paris, and observe the night assemblies after the theatres close. I find brilliant salons filled with young girls as lovely as my own daughter, often gentle in manner, elegant in dress, refined, accomplished; I should not know from observation merely that they were fallen women. “What does it all mean?” I ask myself again and again. Surely women in society have much to do in this matter.’[46]Sadler onPopulation, who states the average age of marriage amongst the labouring population at twenty-three years.[47]See Professor Monier Williams’Indian Travels.

[16]Parkes’Manual of Practical Hygiene, 4th edition, p. 493.

[17]Ibid., p. 493.

[18]W. B. Carpenter’sPrinciples of Human Physiology, 7th edition, p. 631.

[19]W. B. Carpenter’sPrinciples of Human Physiology, 7th edition, p. 812.

[20]The unhealthiness and indecency of harem life, with its effect upon the boys and girls, its encouragement of abortion, and the unhappy and degraded condition of the women, are sketched with the painful truth of close observation inThe People of Turkey, edited by S. Lane Poole—a book worthy of careful consideration. See also Lane’sEgyptians, etc.

[21]Bulgaria and the Bulgarians.

[22]Abstract from theSun. SeeThirtieth Annual Report of the Prison Association of New York.

[23]See Sadler onPopulationfor many curious facts tending to show how strictly Nature guards this equality.

[24]See Michel Lévy’sTraité d’Hygiène, 5th edition, vol. i., p. 145.

[25]Hufeland’sArt of Prolonging Life, edited by Erasmus Wilson. 2nd edition, Part II., p. 138.

[26]See W. B. Carpenter’sPrinciples of Human Physiology, 7th edition, p. 909.

[27]Ibid., p. 909.

[28]One of the most powerful causes of the growth of pessimism in Germany is the increasing licentiousness of a race created with a high ideal of virtue and cherishing a love of home.

[29]The frequent opinion that a limited amount of fornication is a very trivial matter, that the individual may become an excellent father of a family and good citizen in spite of such indulgence, is based on the grave error of regarding sexual relations as the act of one instead of two individuals, and limited in their effects to the moment of occurrence. The moral character of such indulgence is, however, determined by its effects upon the after-life of two human beings—viz., its effect on the citizen, whose judgment becomes injured in relation to this great subject of national welfare, through early experience, and on the partner in vice whose life is one of growing degradation. These two inevitable facts remain through life.

[30]See Debates of Working Men’s Congress, Paris, October, 1876. AlsoLa Femme Pauvre, a work crowned by the French Academy some years ago. Also the writings of Le Clerc, Guizot, etc.

[31]See Reports of Rescue Society, London.

[32]This question is now anxiously asked by intelligent mothers, who, resolved to do what is right for their children, are yet bewildered by the contradiction of authorities and the customs of society. It is the necessity in my own medical practice of answering this question truthfully, which is one of the reasons that has compelled me to write these pages.

[33]G. M. Humphrey, M.D., F.R.S., in Holme’sSystem of Surgery, 3rd edition, vol. iii., p. 550.

[34]See Acton’sFunctions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, 6th edition, p. 12et seq.

[35]Acton’sFunctions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, 6th Ed., pp. 37, 38.

[36]See also a very interesting account of schools in Thackeray’sIrish Sketch-Book.

[37]I can speak from personal observation of these upright communities, where the health of the men was far better than that of the women; the former leading an outdoor, the latter an indoor life.

[38]Numerous instances of wise maternal influence over sons have come under my own observation, where in mature life they have thanked these true friends, their mothers, for the wise counsels given at the right time.

[39]See Appendix I.,p. 306.

[40]In earnest conversation with a gentleman of wide connections, resident in Vienna, he stated that he did not know a single young man who led a virtuous life. So completely was the idea of sexual control lost, that he said frankly he should consider any man a hypocrite who pretended to be virtuous. A Protestant pastor in a small University town in the South of France told me that the public sentiment of both men and women in that town was so false that a man who had no inclination to vice would be ashamed to acknowledge a virtuous life.

[41]See Appendix II.,p. 308.

[42]See a valuable article in theWestminster Review, July, 1879, ‘An Unrecognised Element in our Educational Systems.’

[43]Sir James Paget,Clinical Lectures and Essays, second edition, p. 293.

[44]There is a class of persons, the illogical, whose conscience will not allow them to counsel vice, who state that it is a habit that can be avoided as the use of opium can be avoided, but who in the same breath declare prostitution to be a necessity, and that the greater part of young men away from home will resort to it. Now, if prostitution be a necessity, it must be because fornication is a necessity. What is a necessity? It is something inevitable, because it is rooted in the constitution; it is an unavoidable development of human nature itself. If so, fornication is not a habit like opium-eating, but the form in which human nature is shaped—God’s work. In that case fornication would not be wrong; it should not be condemned, and neither the man nor the woman who practises it should be blamed. There is no avoiding this direct conclusion, and everyone who asserts that prostitution is a necessity must be prepared to accept it. This grave error and the confusion of thought and practice which arises from it proceed from a wrong use of the word ‘Necessity.’ It is the existence of the sexual passion which is a necessary part of nature, not prostitution. This necessary passion may either be controlled or it may be satisfied in two ways—by marriage, or by fornication. It is only the passion which is a necessity, not the way in which it is gratified. It is thus a positive falsehood to state that prostitution is a necessity, and, considered in all its bearings, a most dangerous falsehood.

[45]Whilst travelling in Italy I met a very intelligent Austrian gentleman, who, as a citizen of the United States, had brought up his family in New York. Conversing on the various customs of society, he said to me: ‘I have always endeavoured to respect women, and to live an upright, moral life, but I have never met with any appreciation of this fact by the families of my acquaintance. On the contrary, no mother that I have known has banished a man of position from her society, no matter how notoriously immoral his life may be. I have known respectable mothers, moving in what is called the best society, allowing a man of wealth to continue visiting the family after gross impropriety of behaviour to a daughter. My own little Rosa there (and he pointed to a charming little creature of sixteen who was travelling with the party) will not give the slightest discouragement to a clever or amusing man, although I may warn her against the notorious character of the man. I go to Paris, and observe the night assemblies after the theatres close. I find brilliant salons filled with young girls as lovely as my own daughter, often gentle in manner, elegant in dress, refined, accomplished; I should not know from observation merely that they were fallen women. “What does it all mean?” I ask myself again and again. Surely women in society have much to do in this matter.’

[46]Sadler onPopulation, who states the average age of marriage amongst the labouring population at twenty-three years.

[47]See Professor Monier Williams’Indian Travels.

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