Col. A. B. Meacham, who has spent much time among the Modocs, says: “There is a tradition among them that the Great Spirit blew his breath upon a maiden, and said to her that she should become the mother of the son of the Great Spirit. He forbade her to look upon the face of man until the child was born. To this day no Indian woman of the tribe who is to become a mother, ever looks upon the face of man.”
Is it not possible that here is one potent reason that Indian women have so little suffering in child-birth? May not the intelligent white man learn a lesson of purity, of self-abnegation, as well as of honor to his wife and offspring, from the untutored savage?
We are counseled by eminent physicians, like Acton, Gerrish, Cowan and Winslow, that the continent life gives to the individual the best physical development, the greatest intellectual strength and the highest moral excellence, as well as promotes conditions for the improvement of the race.
Prof. Huxley says: “That man has had a liberal education who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will * * * * and who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience.”
Dr. F. H. Gerrish says: “Man’s procreative energy should be to him a sacred trust, to be kept inviolate, and to be used only with the distinct and definite purpose of perpetuating his kind. His children would never be accidents, but begotten intentionally, at a time when both parents are in good physical and mental condition.”
Further, in opposing the prevalent opinion that continence is a cause of disease, he says: “I very much doubt if a member of this association ever had to treat a disease resulting from chaste continence. I would emphasize the adjective, for nothing but harm can come from the excitement dependent on the constant or frequent entertainment of lewd imaginings, even if one abstain altogether from sexual indulgence.”
Rev. N. E. Boyd says: “Men need all their vital force not required in fatherhood, for the performance of the labors, material, mental and moral, whereunto they are called.”
A well-known author testifies: “Beyond doubt, as men now live, continence is almost impossible. They drug themselves with tobacco and excite themselves with wine. They enervate their powers in heated rooms, and read books which arouse lascivious desires. Naturally, sexual passion attacks them, and if it be refused gratification they become fevered and restless, and declare that health demands frequent intercourse, and suffers without. But it is not a physical necessity. Under certain conditions absolute continence is consistent with the highest health during the whole lifetime. To attain this, however, one must live in perfect accordance with hygienic laws; he cannot expect to suppress one vice and yield to another.”
The following wise counsels to fathers is in a pamphlet entitled “The Better Way,” by A. E. Newton: “The matron, when once her organism has entered upon the work of developing a new life, should be left unmolested by intrusion in that department of her being. The work cannot be well performed—it may be woefully defaced or ruined—if the energies of her system are drawn upon by additional demands upon the sexual organism. At all events, the intuition of the mother, when against the practice referred to, should never be violated. To abstain from all intrusive acts is a duty which no father can disregard with impunity.
“The strength of the sexual appetite in men is unquestionably the grand obstacle to the improvement of the race in the manner proposed. But is this strength in all cases purely natural and healthy? Otherwise, no one can rationally urge that its demands should be indulged to their full extent—much less that the personal rights, the health and happiness of the opposite sex, and the welfare of unborn generations, should be sacrificed to its indulgence. * * * Experience has proven that mastery can be attained. A determined will—an earnest, constant aspiration for power from above to overcome, with a careful abstinence from exciting foods, drinks, acts and thoughts, and the use of appropriate means to allay excitement—these, persisted in, will bring the victory in due time.”