The unmarried state is a trying and often injurious condition for a man as well as a woman, when they live in strict continence; and if the latter is not the case and they resort to prostitution, there are even more pain and suffering in store for them. P. 16.
We must not forget that there are always two parties to the situation. What can a physically weaker and spiritually stronger woman do even if she desires continence with her whole soul, but her husband will have none of it? Is it not then her duty to protect herself in order that she may not give birth to a weakly progeny?
HARPER’S WEEKLY. 1915.
When Dr. A. A. Brill, Lecturer in Abnormal Psychology, New York University, and formerly Chief of Clinic in Psychiatry, Columbia University, was asked how he regarded contraception in relation to nervous diseases, he replied emphatically: “You can say that I am for it. It is much better than an abortion. For instance, I have in mind a woman who was discharged from the insane hospital. She had three children and had been three times insane. What chance in life has a child born between two attacks of insanity, whose mother is mentally defective? Even sane women, if they are nervous and emotional, should never bear children against their will. It is foolish to talk about making people have children when they do not want them. It’s bad for the woman and bad for the child. It is very bad for a child to be born into a home where he is not desired. I find that many adult, nervous patients were unwished-for-children, and it was the early attitude of their parents toward them that contributed much to their bent toward nervous invalidism.” In reply to the contention of the anti-regulationists that contraception is physically and mentally harmful, he stated that certain methods are injurious, while others are not. He commented on the unfortunate fact that it is the undesirable methods which are employed by the poorer people, because druggists put a high price upon the better means on the plea that they run a risk in selling them at all. Remembering that Dr. Brill was for years connected with Central Islip, he was asked if he did not consider it demanding a good deal to expect a man discharged from an insane asylum and sent home to his wife, to live a sexually abstinent life. He replied: “Only people who know nothing of the sex impulse can make such a demand of a person who has a poor mental organization. Of course it is impossible. It is impossible even for the average normal man, and especially for those who live crowded in two or three rooms.”
THE SEXUAL LIFE. By P. W. Malchow, M.D., Professor of Proctology, and Associate in Clinical Medicine, Hamline University, College of Physicians and Surgeons; member Hennepin County Medical Society, Minnesota State Medical Society, American Medical Association, etc.
There can be no doubt that the influence of prolonged continence upon either the male or female is to dwarf and in many respects destroy that which goes to make a broad and full physical and intellectual personality and that to perform the sexual act whenever there is an existing state of sexual excitement, with the usual marital restrictions, is rather beneficial that otherwise. Page 201.
In cases of nervousness in either sex it may be found that, as a rule, the first indication is a disturbance of the sexual function, following which there will be digestive troubles, then affections of special nerves, of which disorders of sight are the first and most frequent, with neuralgias, etc., later. Observation has shown this to be the general rule, and that is also in accordance with the law of self-preservation. With the conviction that nervousness is first manifested and begins with an alteration in the natural sexual function we may conclude that other functional disorders are a natural sequence. It thus becomes evident that the most prolific cause of nervousness is an inability for natural sexual living. Page 296.
A life of celibacy cannot be said to be a natural one, and when this state of celibacy is combined with propinquity, in which there must of necessity be a source of repeated and more or less constant sexual excitability there is added to one already incomplete life a greater burden of increased tension, which must be a very considerable factor in the causation of unrest or nervousness. Page 155.
How best to circumvent family complications is the burning question of the hour with the average young wife, and a satisfactory solution of this problem would be a boon to society and prevent untold suffering. When confronted with the question, the usual answer is, in effect, “be natural,” which in these days of stress, is no answer at all, as it is not practical. Page 158.