The fact established by Raciborsky, the famous German physician, in a former generation is that ‘the period when conception is most likely to take place is near the time of menstruation, either just before it or during a few days after the time.’ It is not asserted that conception in the human race is necessarily limited to this interval of time, for it is true that great stimulus of the organs produced at any period of the month may bring about a similar congestion or special aptitude for conception. But the periodic character of the woman’s constitution regulates the probability of conception to so great an extent that by this law higher and lower sentient beings are brought into harmony, and woman assumes her due place as the regulator of sexual intercourse. Throughout the animal world procreation is governed by the will of the female. Not violence, but gentleness, is shown by the male to the female. Her refusal or desire guides sexual intercourse amongst the lower animals. To raise the human race to this higher animal level from which it has fallen is a special task of advanced physiology, which can show the physical method and reason of this redemption.
Human marriage must be regarded as a life companionship, in which the satisfaction of physical desires forms a secondary, not a primary, part. When so entered upon, love will direct its relations for the good of the two joined together in this unique union. The man joins himself to the woman in loving companionship, and her constitution henceforward must determine the times of the special act of physical union.
The foregoing physiological law is a truth full of hope and promise of infinite progress, for nations have hitherto perished in large measure through the abuse and degradation of women. The regulation of sexual intercourse in the best interests of womanhood is the hitherto unrecognised truth of Christianity, towards which we are slowly groping. When it is fully accepted, a fresh spring of vigour will have been discovered for the human race.
APPENDIX II. (Page 32)
The following sound advice on sexual physiology from the Lancet should be widely known:
‘Young men in their conflict with temptation to sexual advice often suffer under the disadvantage of receiving but little help from those to whom they ought to look for it with confidence. Few parents have the knowledge and the wisdom to tell their sons the most important truths about the sexual passion just at the time when it is becoming developed in them, and the latter are therefore left an easy prey to their strange desires, and to those “lewd fellows of the baser sort” who are always at hand to corrupt innocent youth.
‘If it is true that to a very large extent parents are unmindful of one of their gravest responsibilities, it is no less true that the medical profession has often failed in its duty in connection with this subject. Medical writers and medical men generally are too often silent on this matter, and unfortunately, when the silence has been broken, it has not always been with words of truth and soberness. We are constantly hearing and saying that “knowledge is power,” yet we find that little effort is made to impart the knowledge which would largely aid in preserving the virtue of the young, and the most pernicious teaching of those who for the lowest of reasons propagate error is left unnoticed.
‘Knowledge alone will never make a people virtuous, but it is an invaluable aid to those who are striving to control their passions. Seeing, on all sides, the terrible physical, mental, and social havoc wrought by sexual vice, we feel that the medical profession should do its utmost to stem the evil, and, at any rate, should give utterance to the truth with no uncertain sound. What are the physiological facts that ought to be proclaimed by the medical profession? Mainly these. In the first place, that occasional involuntary emissions of semen during sleep, and often in association with libidinous dreams, are natural occurrences in unmarried continent men, and are neither the cause nor the consequence of disease. The emissions are most frequent between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five; they vary in frequency in different men, but are favoured by sedentary occupations and by lewd thoughts. The subjects of these emissions sometimes complain of various sensations of malaise, which they attribute to the depressing influence of these losses; but it is a striking fact that such symptoms are only met with in those who have an exaggerated or erroneous conception of the significance of the discharge, and that they quickly disappear when their real meaning and causation are understood. To regard such a physiological occurrence as a disease and name it “spermatorrhœa” is a very serious error.
‘The second fact we wish to insist upon is that sexual continence does not beget impotence, and that the all-prevailing cause of impotence is prolonged sexual excess. In support of the opposite conclusion appeal has been made to analogy. It has been pointed out that unused muscles and bones waste, and therefore, it is urged, it must be true that continence will lead to impotence. Such argument is utterly fallacious, as are most arguments from analogy. Facts in abundance prove the contrary. Common as is sexual vice, continence is not unknown among us, and the truth of our statement is not difficult to verify. The real argument from analogy is drawn from the breast. This gland is generally inactive for many years after puberty, and yet, whenever the call for its activity arrives, it is more or less perfectly responded to. As a matter of fact, impotence does not depend upon the testicle, but upon the spinal cord; the sexual act is a physiological nerve-storm, and not simply an act of secretion. Loss of sexual potency is due to some fault in the nerves of the parts, or more commonly in the centre, in the spinal cord, which presides over this function. It is often a solitary nervous phenomenon, and by itself is not of grave import.
‘The third physiological fact we ought to teach is that no function of the body is so influenced and controlled by the higher nerve-centres as the sexual. It is excited by lewd imaginings, loose talk, and sensuous scenes. It is set in motion by even accidental stimulus of any part of the nervous system affected by the sexual organism. Hence the difficulty of continence. On all sides are sights and sounds that may become the stimulus of sexual excitement. The other side of the picture is equally true. By the exercise of watchfulness and self-control the occasions of such excitement may be reduced to a minimum, and the passion may be subdued.