EFFECTS OF INCONTINENCE, CELIBACY, AND MARRIAGE.
Thepast pages relate chiefly to the diseases of the generative system consequent upon contagion, upon accident, and the ordinary wear and tear of human life: the following, to the ills that ensue from the over-indulgence in, and abstinence from, the proper purposes of the reproductive organs, and the benefits derivable from a fulfilment of the intentions of their natural functions.
There may be much good policy and correct feeling in objecting to the too public inquiry into these matters. The private closet and the public eye are two very different tribunals, and what may be approved of in the one is very likely to be condemned in the other. The line of deciding what shall be communicated and what should be suppressed may be drawn too closely; and that knowledge which is acquired by stealth is seldom so practical as that obtained by competition. If, therefore, the topics herein embraced were to be expunged, and their discussion prohibited, the afflicted would have no other resource than to apply to the adventuring and ill-educated empiric, instead of confiding his troubles to the legitimate professional man. A study, to become useful, should be general; and it is to be hoped that the prudish reserve which excludes this kind of investigation from our medical schools will be laid aside, and truth be obtained by allowable investigation.
The most moral and chaste, at the age of puberty, are assailed with feelings and desires, that, though new and unanticipated, yet need little interpretation when present, and so urgent and imperious, that if not legitimately satisfied, nature and instinct are not slow in pointing out a means of gratification.
In the male, imagination commanding a wider range than in the female, and fed by associations with, and the usages of, the world, elicits consequences explanatory of life’s purposes; and the youth having once experienced, perhapsunsolicited, and possibly during sleep, the agony of seminal secretion, can rarely withstand the afterward tempting pleasure of seeking a self-repetition of such solitary indulgence, which the forbidden union of the sexes, at this early period, may urge him to.
Setting aside the selfishness and unmanliness of the vice, it is important that the wearer of the cap and bells should know the consequences of abusing a given function by such a means of gratification. There is no mental passion, or physical exertion, that produces such temporary nervous prostration as the completion of the act of sexual intercourse; and it therefore can be easily conceived how debilitating must be the immoderate indulgence of the practice. Health consists in a due performance of all the functions of the organs of the body, and an undue exercise of them is sure to lead to a disturbance of the economy.
In ordinary sexual commerce, particular phenomena ensue, the circulation is powerfully roused, the heart thumps violently, the blood is driven to the brain, and great mental exaltation is induced, and instances have been known of death suddenly crushing the transport. The too frequent repetition of such excitement can not fail to wear out, and disease the overwrought organs, the heart and brain particularly, upon the healthy condition of which the health of the entire frame rests; and hence the diseases of the libertine are usually consumption, physical weakness, and mental imbecility, all the result of disordered circulation and impaired nervous power. If, therefore, such consequences follow a waste of the allotted privileges of man, how much more severe must they be that arise from nervous exhaustion, that which transpires from an absolute stretch of an already overwrought imagination, from, in fact, ideal pleasures, instead of those springing from the instinctive stimulus imparted by the presence of, and cohabitation with, woman. I have elsewhere treated upon the sad and withering effects of self-indulgence in a hygæan point of view. My object here is to portray the consequences of the like, and the more lawful, intemperance of sexual cohabitation in a domestic light, in how far it is destructive to the health and happiness of others, than the party addressed—the partner of our worldly anxieties, and the offspring that issue from our union. How striking is the change ofappearanceonly, much less the positive bodily condition of married persons of both sexes, within oneor two years of their union, especially if the match be a youthful one. Let any one, even with a limited acquaintance, recollect such of his former female associates, whom he knew when single, and mayhap may have indulged with in little modest pleasantries; let him recall the gay-lit countenance, the ruddy and prominent cheek, the sparkling and lively eye, the plump and well filled neck—in fact, let him but compare her then and now, and how disheartening the change; the same being may be recognised, but it is the same being only in mind, and not in person. There are exceptions, as I shall presently show, but this is the too frequent portraiture of those who embark in precocious hymeneal contracts, and restrain not the marital privileges. The countenance assumes, when thoughtful, the careworn aspect; the blanched cheek shows here and there a furrowed imprint; the lustre of the eye is dimmed; and, to drop from the figurative to the literal, the collar-bones, hitherto “overlaid with nature’s plastic moulding,” seem appointed only for union’s sake, lest the fabric of neck and shoulders should drop in pieces. Mark also the decayed health and spirits; hear the bitter grief of headaches, sideaches, nerveaches, and behold, perhaps, the puny offspring “mewling and puling in the nurse’s arms.”
The bridegroom wears a sorrowful and thoughtful look. He may possess all the comforts which few inherit, but like Pharaoh’s lean kine, as chaff thrown before the wind, their purpose is opposed.
This may be held as a ridiculous picture, but I defy denial of its unhappily too frequent illustration in real life. A word or two on the opposite extreme,continence. The reader will observe, in another page, the remark that every part, be it flesh, bone, or nerve, has its use. The reproductive organs have theirs; but it is not only for the propagation of the species—they afford an outlet for accumulated secretion—they aid in resolving the animal passions—they are the secret incentive to sexual love, and the bond of union between the sexes. They give an appetite that, like hunger, must be appeased, or nature revolts; and the harmony of society falls before the ungovernable fury of maniacal craving. Health, the source of all happiness, without the possession of which the world with its beauties would be, for all we cared, tenantless, materially rests upon a proper and moderate use of the copulative process. Entire continence, a rarity among mankind, establishes inboth sexes the most miserable perversions of mind and body. In man, we have instances recorded of mania, melancholy, apoplexy, and foul skin-disorders. Blindness, deafness, and a host of evils, some greater, and few less than these just penned. It is true, continence is, as remarked, but seldom observed, especially in males, who, being denied sexual commerce, are estranged by the distressful habit of onanism; and thereby, in some measure, the enumerated maladies are avoided; but as masturbation, like other vices, grows with unbounded speed, a train of ills, far more distressful, await the sufferer, who, in addition, becomes, in the meridian of life, deprived of the very power he in youth was so improvident of. Continence in females, which all admit to be the brightest ornament a woman possesses, is attended with a poor requital; and its prevalence (to the honor of our countrywomen be it spoken) is truly attested by the miseries of hysteria, and other nervous derangements, that pervade the junior and elderly maiden branches of every family, and constitute so formidable an enemy to domestic felicity. A wide field is open for comment upon this subject, which is better adapted for the moralist than the physician. This manual, professing to be but a vehicle for topics of a professional nature only, the writer apologises for the digression, and can but express his regret, that public opinion is unfavorable to the discussion of such matters, which embrace considerations highly important to a nation, both in a moral and hygæan view. Continent persons but seldom attain old age; whereas, the married females, for instance, although exposed to the dangers of pregnancy and delivery, live generally longer than those who are unmarried or chaste; and provident married men escape the ills and snares that beset singleblessedness, as it is called. Libertinism, on the other hand, in whatever way practised, is hurtful and destructive to long life.
Continence may be a virtue, but is not imposed where marriage is allowable; and then, if deviated from with moderation only, the greatest amount of health and happiness may be elicited, and the proper end of it obtained. Matrimony, where succeeded by the birth of children, powerfully conduces to the health and happiness of women.
Many female disorders are relieved by marriage. Amenorrhœa and chlorosis, disordered conditions of the uterine functions, hysteria, scrofula, skin-affections, numerous nervousdisorders, and many local complaints, yield as soon as pregnancy commences.
Results should, however, be well weighed, before irrevocable steps are taken. There are many diseases and structural impediments opposed to the matrimonial contract. Malformation and mental imbecility should be held as strong interdicts to the conjugal union. People ought not to marry before manhood is well developed (the male at least 21 to 23 years of age, the female 18 to 21). Precocious or late marriages are injurious to reproduction. The unnatural union of old and young of either sex with the other, entails its own miseries. A curious estimate of salacious appetites and power has been drawn up as pervading the different temperaments. The temperaments, as elsewhere noticed, are four—the Sanguine, Nervous, Bilious, and Phlegmatic. Persons of the sanguine temperament are generally of good health, and vigorous in amorous pleasures. The nervous are extremely susceptible in their sensations, and generally much given to female society. Combined with the sanguine, they are capable of great amorous excesses. The bilious temperament imparts a jealous bearing in all affairs of sexual solicitude, that detracts from the fondness and affection which so entwine a woman to a lover or a husband. The melancholic or phlegmatic person is frigid and apathetic in his amours; and love becomes with him a secondary consideration to advancement in life. These temperaments are frequently intermixed, and are much modified by age and health; and the salacious powers correspond.
Speculations have arisen among physiologists, as to the effect of climate and season, as well as age and temperament, on the reproductive powers. Temperate and warm climates are more prolific in exciting the copulative desire, than the frigid and uncongenial situations of the northern hemisphere. The seasons bear a somewhat near analogy—spring is supposed to be more potent than summer, autumn, or winter, in arousing the amative propensities, which, like the productions of the earth, come, as it were, at that time into a new existence. This observation is borne out by the statistical fact of there being a greater number of births about Christmas and the new year, than any other period.
Man, however, is allowed to be omnivorous inallhis appetites; and the uniformity of his sexual greediness ispreserved by diet corresponding to the season, which renders the whole twelvemonth a perpetual spring. Man, as well as other animals, is, when in a state of health, capable of procreating upon almost any food. But when there is debility of the digestive or generative organs, the injury can be repaired by the use of proper stimulating diet, thereby occasioning due and sufficient secretions.
Air, exercise, health, and prosperity, are not without considerable influences. If seasons are not positively influential, certain it is, that particular lunar and solar periods are, taken in conjunction with the state of the body.
“Morning,” says a French writer, “is the spring of the journey, when all the functions of the body are renovated.” Others declare, that when night veils the light of the day, the quietude and secresy thereby afforded, offer moments most congenial to the gratification of mutual love. Sexual transports should be avoided after a repast, instances having been known of apoplexy being induced by the excitement of connexion being superadded to the stimulative influence of wine and food.
Henry II. consulted one Fernal for the infertility of his queen, Catherine de Medicis. The advice submitted, comprised the following notifications: Abundant and peculiar nourishment; occasional change of residence; the allowing several days to elapse between each conjugal act; and lastly, that the most favorable moment for impregnation was immediately on the cessation of menstruation. It was not until the adoption of these hints, that her majesty conceived.
Professor Dewees, of Philadelphia, enjoins that, for the enjoyment of marriage and the production of children, matrimony should not be engaged in, until the body is healthily and completely developed; until then the most scrupulous continency should be preserved. From the 23d to the 25th year is the suggested period for the male; from the 19th to the 21st, the female. These observations apply to Europeans chiefly; for in India, women become mothers at ten, owing to their early development. Precocious marriages bring premature decay on the father and mother, and entail on their offspring, diminutive stature, debility of body, and imbecility of mind, thus generating consumption, scrofula, insanity, &c. Well-regulated marriages contribute to social and lasting happiness, and the prosperity of the nation at large; but ill-assorted ones, those where the peaceof either is infringed by opposing tempers, or by the after-discovery of hitherto concealed physical incapacities, present a scene of wretchedness and disappointment to which death itself were preferable. These remarks might be considerably amplified; but enough has been said, to induce those who approach to manhood, to be provident of that which, once lost, is, under all circumstances, difficult to regain; and those on the eve of embarking in the most binding and solemn obligation of all human contracts, marriage, to ponder well, ere they compromise the happiness of others as well as themselves, by engaging in a compact, they may know themselves incapable of fulfilling or of efficiently performing; one from which they can not with honor retreat, and one that, once sealed, demands a rigid compliance with its recognised duties.
The gist of the present article may then thus be summed up: That self-indulgence and excessive sexual cohabitation are hurtful in the highest degree; that they induce early impuissance, and bring down a load of menial and corporeal ailments. That premature marriages are destructive to health and long life, and that weak and sickly children are the general result where impregnation of the female follows. That entire continence was never ordained, and is alike productive of disease. That moderate copulation propagates the human kind, preserves health, and promotes longevity, and the sexual capability is thereby retained to the latest verge of senility.
That it is unnatural and unjust for impuissant persons to intermarry with those having healthy expectations, and the power of enjoyment; and that it behooves all who have a doubt as to their own capacity, to have that doubt removed; but, if rendered evident, to abstain from shipwrecking their own happiness, or from occasioning disappointment to others.