PREFATORY REMARKS.
By its action in 1864, in offering a prize for the best “short and comprehensive tract for circulation among females, for the purpose of enlightening them upon the criminality and physical evils of forced abortions,” and again in 1865, in authorizing the general circulation of the successful essay, the American Medical Association initiated a system, or rather method, of general professional influence hitherto entirely unknown. The experiment was a hazardous one. There were many who viewed it with extreme anxiety, lest it should result in the destruction of “the barrier which, for the mutual protection, both of science and the community, had always been allowed to stand,” there were those who, from having given no observation whatever to the subject, were inclined to think that its importance had been overrated; and others still, who, admitting the facts, thought their discussion indelicate, unwise, or positively dangerous. The event, however, has shown the propriety of the course pursued by the Association. The demand for the little essay has been so great as to astonish even booksellers themselves. Every medical journal throughout the country, I am told, without exception, has given it a kindly notice. The secular press has everywhere praised the profession for its united effort thus to enlighten the so general ignorance upon a professional topic; and even the pulpit has, in many places, joined itself hand in hand with our own body in the good work,[2] so that the times of old, when the clergyman was to the physician an aid and a support, rather than as is now so frequently the case, an adversary and a stumbling-block, have seemed almost to be restored.
Upon carefully considering the whole subject, I am satisfied that though much has thus been accomplished by the Association towards enhancing the general weal, there is still further work to be done ere all that is necessary can be effected. In the prize essay referred to, I portrayed, and endeavored to do it with fidelity, the criminality of wilfully tampering with the life of the unborn child, and the physical injury sure, sooner or later, to result therefrom to the mother, ordinarily causing her, far sooner than would pregnancies naturally completed, to lose the bloom of her youth, and with it one of the securities of her husband’s love, predisposing her to a wide range of disease otherwise escaped, and in fact rapidly breaking her down in health and in hope, alike of things earthly and of things spiritual; for to most fœticidal women, after the climacteric, of so-called “turn of life,” has passed, there comes a realizing sense of the home they have lost through their own folly, their own sin. To stem the tide of fashion,—for it was fast becoming the way of the world to bear no children,—and to show matters in their true light by holding the mirror up to nature, was thus attempted by the Association. The nail upon which society is to hang its faith has been driven; to clinch it, and so to render its hold secure, another blow is needed. The necessity I proceed to show, and the stroke to give, only regretting that my feeble arm is not that of some one of the Association’s stronger men, and my pen tipped with the flame which should cause these words to burn their way to the very hearts of those to whom they are addressed.
It may, perhaps, be alleged that the topics of which this book must treat are such as cannot possibly be discussed without offending good taste or transcending propriety. This opinion, like many that are merely preconceived, may be found an erroneous one. It may also, perhaps, be said that the field of inquiry is one that has been given over, by tacit consent, to a class of writers who are theorists only, without previous opportunities of extended observation, or self-constituted moralists, who argue from abstract speculations rather than from the facts that nature daily furnishes to the physician in active practice. This has undoubtedly been the case. I have been astonished at the mass of material of the description referred to, that my publishers have sent me from their shelves for inspection since the manuscript of this book was placed in their hands. Essays of the most incoherent character, some of them utterly unintelligible even, have vied for circulation with others, which, under the guise of a rational physiology, or philosophy, or religion, inculcate doctrines the most pernicious alike to body, mind, and soul. It is my aim to avoid being confounded in any way whatever with this class of writers. The views that I present are those accepted as true by the physicians of our time most competent to judge, and it will be seen that they are consistent with sound common sense. The result of many years of study, under very unusual opportunities for observing disease, I have not the slightest doubt as to the verdict that will be passed upon them by the grand jury to whom they are now submitted.
I have said that the Prize Essay upon Abortions has elicited extended and very favorable comments. Among those that have been brought to my notice there have been two of a very striking and very peculiar character, both of them apparently made in the most perfectly good faith, and from the most diametrically opposite quarters. As to the personal identity of their authors, I know nothing. One of these criticisms is offered by a woman, “the wife,” she is styled, “of a Christian physician;” her plea is evidently the result of extended observation, in no way, I trust, from personal experience, though it must have been the unlocking of a warm, and brave, and sympathetic heart. Its arguments are so weighty, and they are so well put, that I copy the letter entire in an Appendix to this essay, and trust, with the editors of the journal in which it appeared, “that it may find its way, in some more popular form than their pages afforded, to the eyes of every husband in the land.”[3]
The other article to which I refer is of a later date,[4] and this is written by one of our own sex, who comments upon the preceding, or “A Woman’s View,” stating that he is upon the eve of marriage, “and though not a whit more sensual than most men, cannot be too grateful for having thus forcibly brought to his mind a view which he for one had doubtless scarce otherwise considered.” “I would to God,” he continues, “that it might meet and claim the serious consideration of every man born of woman’s agony.” The first of these articles, to again quote from the editorial remarks concerning it, “certainly expresses, with exceeding delicacy and truthfulness, the universal feeling of her sex upon a subject which deserves more attention from our profession than it has hitherto received.” The gentlemen making this assertion, Drs. Abbot and White, of the Medical School of Harvard University, are generally considered men of a conservative cast of mind, very conservative indeed for Massachusetts, and not in the least prone towards recognition of any “woman’s rights” that are at all of a doubtful character. What, however, they do refer to will probably make itself evident in the following pages. It is, indeed, the fact, that besides our appeal to women upon these matters, so pertinent to her physical and moral health, and to the well being of society, we must pillory the man, who, under the guise of affection, steals from the maid her pearl of great price; who, under the plea of a husband’s prerogative, enforced, perchance, by scriptural texts, makes of his wife, disappointed, suffering, perhaps despairing, but the constant object of his savage lust, and makes of himself what is worse than the savage, a brute;—or who, charged with the sacred duty, alike a grateful privilege, of guarding the public health, and of fathoming the mysteries both of sanitary and of social science, yet under the dread of being thought a visionary, or what so many consider as identical with this, a reformer or a philanthropist, folds his hands demurely, and closes his eyes upon what he else must see. Must these evils still endure, or ought we not all of us, whether in or out of the professional ranks, when the man is thus placed face to face with his victim, to inquire of ourselves, soberly and in all sincerity, “Is it I?”
In one of the papers referred to, that by the lady, it is stated that “if Dr. Storer will perform as noble service for our brothers and husbands as for ourselves, and send the two books out hand in hand, they will bring him back a rich harvest of gratitude and amendment in morals.” To attempt to do this is, I am well aware, a dangerous task. There are undoubtedly those who will deny its necessity, find fault with its execution, and perhaps impugn the motives of the writer. Such, however, was the case, in each of these respects, with my former essay, and as that met with so hearty and so general approval on the part of the profession, I am emboldened again to enter the arena, trusting again to disarm mistaken or unfriendly criticism. Be this as it may, I, for my own part, have become deeply impressed with the need of addressing a word to men; and believing in this as a duty, I wait not for others to decide the question for me.
Accepting the labor in this light, I do not hesitate to repeat the language of my previous essay, and state that “the writer presents the accompanying paper neither for fame nor for reward. It has been prepared solely for the good of the community. If it be considered worthy its end, their approbation and that of the profession at large would be more grateful to the writer than any tangible and therefore trivial recompense.”
Encouraged by the action of the Association, both at the sessions of 1864 and 1865, by which it showed most unmistakably its belief that researches like the present are for the advancement of science, and their publication for the welfare of the race, I intrust this book to the wheel of fate. Its manuscript has already passed through one trying ordeal with a certain measure of success. Submitted to the touchstone of the Prize Committee of the Association for the present year, it was distanced by the essays of Drs. Black of Ohio, upon the Cause of Intermittent and Remittent Fevers, and Pallen of Missouri, upon the Treatment of certain Abnormities of the Uterus, treating as these did of subjects of more direct and especial interest to the medical profession; but it elicited the following letter from the distinguished professor in the University of Maryland, who represented the committee as its chairman, and was, of course, unaware of the identity of the author, which had been carefully disguised till I wrote to reclaim the manuscript.
“Baltimore, 21st May, 1867.
“Dear Doctor:
“I have read your essay with very great interest, and hope that you will publish it. It certainly will do good. The subject, although one of great delicacy, is handled with marked ability. The whole profession ought to feel grateful to you for your efforts to check the fearful amount of crime in relation to abortions. Your essay will, I have no doubt, meet with the general approval of the Association.
“Very respectfully,
“F. Donaldson.
“Dr. H. R. Stoker, Boston.”
Such is the character and such the source of the above indorsement, which was wholly unsolicited, that I consider my object in submitting the essay to the Committee as fully gained.