(a) An hysterical woman, whose father was a lascivious, egotistical crank, married a man absolutely devoid of will power and energy. She was gifted; the marriage a failure. Of the two children, one was an indolent, thoroughly useless, good-for-nothing boy, whose only thought was of wasting money on pretty neckties and the like and of flirting with the girls, of which art he was a past-master. The other one, a girl, betrayed the same characteristics and disposition. The mother was in despair and inconsolable, cursing her offspring and the marriage alike. Too late, alas!
(b) The son of a neurasthenic father and an hysterical mother, although of a good-natured disposition, had the vilest, uncontrolable temper, which would suddenly carry him away to acts of violence only to be bitterly regretted immediately afterwards. Whilst drunk he became excited and drawing a revolver wounded several innocent bystanders. As an officer in the army he was insulted by a tipsy student, whom he shot down on the spot, although he was sober himself at the time. On another occasion he shot himself in the breast, but recovered. Presently he fell in love most desperately with an hysterical woman and married her. The mother-in-law, who was an eccentric, mischievous person, started a bitter feud between the two families. He became greatly wrought up over the affair and demanded of his wife to stop the quarrel at once. As she demurred, he ended her life with a bullet from a pistol. Of course, he was arrested and languished in jail in utter agony and despair. What a future for those two unfortunate children that sprang from this union! I may point out here that at the time when he killed his wife, whom he loved passionately, he was not under the influence of strong drink, for he had given up the use of alcohol altogether for quite a number of years.
(c) A very religious lady had married a man who became insane. He, too, was a devout churchman. There were 8 children. Under treatment the father improved and was dismissed from the asylum. I urged them both to prevent further conception, having in view the dangers of hereditary taint in the possible offspring. The wife indignantly told me that her church demanded of her to bear as many children as she could. They had several more, all of them candidates for the insane asylum or the institute for nervous patients. And that is called religion and morality!
(d) A heavily tainted couple, desperately enamored of each other, came to me in great distress to ask: "May we get married?" I answered: "It does not strike me as being the wisest thing for you to do. But if you cannot exist without each other, by all means get married; but think what a calamity it would be, if two beings tainted as you both are, were to beget offspring." "But we are so fond of children." "Well, that is easily mended. There are plenty of healthy orphans whose parents were strong and sound both in body and in mind, but who are strangers to a father's and mother's love, and are craving for a good education. Make your own choice, but take only the very best. Then you will have a family and enjoy all the pleasures of parenthood. As for the rest, heed my advice. Avoid pregnancy."
The law of heredity winds like a red thread through the family history of every criminal, of every epileptic, eccentric and insane person. And we should sit still and witness our civilization go into decay and fall to pieces without raising the cry of warning and applying the remedy?
However, this is by no means all. Tuberculosis is the white plague of to-day. It is considered an established fact that every living human being inhales and swallows tubercle bacilli by the millions every day, and it is even claimed that every one of us harbors somewhere in the economy this dreadful poison to a larger or smaller degree. Whilst the pure, immune blood in a sound, robust constitution is able to resist the inroads of, and even to kill, sterilize, and eliminate these bacilli, the weaker and hereditarily tainted individual falls a prey to the attacks of this dire disease by the thousands. True, serum therapy and open-air treatment are accomplishing many cures, but the hereditary disposition remains in the system all the same, and may be transmitted to the coming generation, or at any rate may impair the power of resistance in the offspring.
Moreover, the sexual appetite is very pronounced in phthisical patients. They marry and beget children in the most wanton fashion. The law cannot and does not prevent them, and the carnal instinct is not to be killed. What is to be done when law and religion forbid the application of preventive measures and even prosecute the person that recommends them?
Local disease and pathological conditions in the woman (at times in man also), within wedlock, may render parturition an immediate danger to the life of the mother or of the child or of both together, for instance, cancer of the womb or other affections of the uterus, kidney disease, a deformed pelvis. Surely in such cases it is the bounden duty of the physician to intervene and council against, nay, absolutely forbid impregnation. Well, how is it to be done? Must husband and wife, who love and esteem each other, be separated? It would be unnatural, in fact it is quite impossible. Or should they abandon sexual intercourse all together and live like brother and sister? Well, a few exceptionally cold natures may have will power enough to carry into effect such a pact. But in 99 out of 100 cases the interdict of the sexual act sends the husband to satisfy his cravings elsewhere and contract disease, or he falls in love with another woman and wrecks home and family.
Similar conditions may be brought about by other causes as well. Take, for instance, the poor workingman or mechanic who has already six or seven children and whose wife is unusually fertile, giving birth to children year after year. The wages of the father do not suffice to properly support them all. The food that can be purchased with the slender means is not at all adequate. Rent and other bills fall behind and the man gets in debt. They are both young yet. What is to be done? If they follow the natural law there will be an increase in the family every year. Moreover, these ever-recurring labors weaken the constitution of the woman and sap away her strength. Starvation? Sexual continence in wedlock? It is strange, indeed, to hear rich men, well-fed clergymen, pious zealots and reformers, leaning back in their comfortable chairs after a sumptuous meal and smoking an expensive Havana cigar, discuss this burning question and bewail the immorality of the common people.
Statistics prove that these very people, who extol to the poor all the blessing of a big family, never live up to their teachings either in theory or in practice. The majority of these apostles of morality have no children at all, or at the utmost two or three. Why should that be so? What interesting reading it would make if the sexual history of these persons were followed up and printed.