Another plan which the wife may adopt for the prevention of conception is as follows: Procure a fine sponge at a drug-store, and cut off a piece of it about the size of a walnut; then make a fine silk string by twisting together some threads of sewing silk; tie one end of the string to the piece of sponge; wet the sponge in a weak solution of sulphate of iron, or of any of the solutions before mentioned as fatal to the animalculæ of the Semen. Before connection, insert the piece of sponge far up into your person. You can place it entirely out of the way by the use of a smooth stick of the proper size and shape. The string will hang out, but will be no obstacle. After the act is over, you withdraw the sponge, and if you have a syringe, use that also. This method is pronounced by some physicians to be a sure one, and the only objection to it is that it is apt to mar the pleasure experienced by the wife. Some of our quack doctors charge five dollars for this information. It is true, they furnish a certain mysterious powder to make a mixture of in which to wet the sponge used; but the powder is nothing more than sulphate of iron, or some astringent similar to those named by us.
Coverings for the Penis, which are used in Europe to avoid contracting sexual diseases from prostitutes, must necessarily prevent conception. With one of these coverings (which are now made beautifully with a preparation of India-rubber) a man may be certain that he will never impregnate his wife. But the enjoyment of the nuptial act is not so complete as a naked Penis affords, hence the covering, or sheath, is not very popular. The cost of the best article is about three dollars a dozen.
Some men tie up the scrotum to prevent a discharge of Semen, and thus hope to avoid impregnating the female; but this method is exceedingly hurtful, as it forces the discharge into the bladder, from whence it passes off with the urine. Such a practice will in a short time so derange the procreative organs as to send all the Semen into the bladder as fast as it generates, and the effect on health will be a wasting away of vitality in the same manner as if the patient constantly practiced self-pollution.
I have thus given the only safe methods of preventing conception that are known. The first one—the withdrawal—is an art to be acquired by the husband. It is a plan which every person of good breeding should adopt for its cleanliness alone, if for no other reason. Once habituated to this precaution while enjoying the nuptial bed, you will wonder how rational beings can pursue a different course. It is indeed a refinement of social intercourse—a triumph of mind which thus controls even the laws and instincts of our nature!
EFFECTS OF TOO EARLY SEXUAL INTERCOURSE.
One of the greatest evils to mankind is a too free sexual indulgence by young men and boys. It not only injures their vital powers, but affects their intellects. Parents should watch their boys to observe whether they are of amorous temperament. If they are found to be so, a prudent person can find means to persuade or prevent their indulgence of sexual passion. If a boy is allowed free and habitual intercourse with females before he has attained his growth, it will not only prevent the full development of his body, but also of his intellect. This is a well known fact in physiology; and by this very means many youths, who would otherwise become distinguished, have settled down into mediocrity, with scarcely sufficient energy of character to earn a livelihood. In a certain family in one of the country towns on the Hudson River, three sons were born. The two oldest afterwards became distinguished men. It was a family that inherited naturally the fine talents of their father, combined with the extraordinary robust and nervous energy of the mother. It was impossible that such a couple could produce other than intellectual and vigorous offspring. The third son, up to the age of twelve or thirteen years, promised to be the flower of the family. His education was progressing favorably. He was the pride of his parents. Years rolled along, and it seemed as though the boy stood still at thirteen or fourteen. He was amiable, and learned his lessons well enough, but all the energy and fire of youth seemed to have vanished. He did not care to join in the manly sports of his elder brothers, but in a listless and dreamy mood preferred to stay at home. His parents began to have fears for his health, though he did not complain. The father finally took him to New York, and consulted a physician of eminence. The doctor asked some questions relative to his habits, but the simple and candid answers of the lad did not lead to anything explaining the real cause of his malady. At parting, the physician said to his father, that if the lad lived in New York, he should pronounce his case one of too early sexual indulgence, unless he practiced the silent vice of Onanism. “Are there no females in your neighborhood with whom the lad could by any possibility associate?” inquired the doctor. “He never goes in company at all,” was the reply. “What servants have you?” “Two excellent girls who have been years in the family—the idea of an illicit association there is preposterous.” “His mother is positive that he does not practice the solitary habit?” “Yes!” “Well, I can do nothing for him; but yet I would like to see the boy again. With your permission I will run up to your place in a week or two.” “We shall be happy to see you.”
The doctor found out the secret of the boy’s malady within twenty-four hours after his arrival. He had cohabited constantly with one of the maids from the age of twelve and a half years until he was sixteen! The lad was saved only because of his youth. He partially outgrew this severe shock to his nervous system; but yet never fully developed the intellectual powers with which Nature had endowed him. Young men who marry too soon are in the same category. There is not one in a dozen who is fully developed even at twenty-one years of age.
The case of the son of Napoleon I., Emperor of the French, was similar to that above related. At the age of fifteen or sixteen he began his career of sexual indulgence, which ended his life at the early age of twenty-one years. He, too, was an amiable, inoffensive and studious youth—beloved by his grandfather and by the whole Austrian Court; and though the son of the most energetic man that modern times has produced, yet, from his quiet and effeminate life, he scarcely attracted the least public attention.
The present Sultan of Turkey is a living evidence of the effects of too early indulgence in sexual intercourse. He is the son of a brave and vigorous soldier, and with proper culture would doubtless have become a great and good man. Abdul Medjid has been over twenty years on the Turkish throne, and has hitherto impressed those who came in contact with him simply as a weak and indolent young man, with good intentions, but with neither nerve nor energy to carry them out. It was generally believed, and with good reason, that in his case, as in that of so many others of his race, the sensual indulgence begun in his boyhood had destroyed every trace of masculine decision. No one who watched his dreamy, listless expression, and saw his relaxed muscles, and lolling attitude as he rode on horseback through the streets, could help feeling that he reigned rather in virtue of foreign support than of his own ability to command obedience.