CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XXVII
Importance of the problem of population — Malthus and hie doctrine — Its fallacies — Temporary validity — “Moral restraint” — Neo-malthusianism — The foundation of the Malthusian League — Great antiquity of malthusian practices — Disharmony of the family instinct — The mica operation of the Australian indigens — Artificial abortion among primitive races — Methods of preventing pregnancy in ancient times — In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries — Relative justification of the use of preventive measures — Views of recent physicians on this subject — Summary of the principal methods of preventing conception — Limitation of coitus to particular times — Advice of Soranos and Capellmann — Feskstitow’s “conception-curve” — Influence of particular seasons of the year — Prolongation of the period of lactation — Buttenstedt’s “Happiness in Marriage” and Funcke’s “New Revelation” — Criticism of these fantasies — Divergences from the normal method of coitus — Passive demeanour of the woman — Coitus interruptus — Exaggerated views of its injurious influence — Coitus interruptus and anxiety-neurosis — Trifling effect in healthy individuals — Repeated interruptions of coitus — Mechanical means of preventing conception — Compression — Muscular action — Mensinga’s “occlusive pessary” — Holweg’s “obturator” — The condom — Chemico-physical preventive measures — Douches — The “Lady’s Friend” — Antiseptic powders and security sponges — Combination of chemical and mechanical means — The “Venus apparatus” — The duplex occlusive pessary — Inflammatory affections after the use of chemical preventive measures — Herpes progenitalis — Artificial sterility — Operative methods of inducing it — Vaporization and castration — The “ovariées” — Wide diffusion of artificial abortion — Critical remarks regarding the punishment of abortion in Germany — The right of the unborn child — Rape and abortion — The methods of expelling the ovum — Internal means — Mechanical means — Danger and consequences of both — Social means for limiting abortion.