We may affirm that next to sexual diseases, abortion and its consequences are the most important factor in the etiology of chronic genital inflammations and of sterility. P. 9.
Our examinations have informed us that the largest number of abortions are performed on married women. This fact brings us to the conclusion that contraceptive measures among the upper class, the practice of abortion among the lower class, are the real means employed to regulate the number of offspring. P. 32.
THE SEXUAL LIFE OF WOMAN IN ITS PHYSIOLOGICAL, BIOLOGICAL AND HYGIENIC ASPECTS. E. Heinrich Kisch. Translated by M. Eden Paul, M.D. Rebman & Co., New York.
A means of insuring artificial sterility, which in all civilized countries is punishable as a criminal offense, and which is nevertheless very frequently practiced, is the artificial induction of abortion. Especially in North America it would appear that there exist regular professional abortionists. P. 413.
THE FAMILY AND THE NATION. A Study in Natural Inheritance and Social Responsibility. Wm. Cecil Dampier Whetham, M.A., F.R.S. Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Catherine Durning Whetham. Longmans Green & Co., N. Y., Bombay and Calcutta, 1909.
There is no finality, a nation must either be losing or gaining ground, either improving or degenerating. Hence the scientific study of the effect of the existing conditions of any time on the rates of reproduction of different stocks of the nation, should be the chief work of the sociologist, and the control of these conditions the supreme duty of the statesman. P. 5.
CHAPTER VII
PROSTITUTION, FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS AND VENEREAL DISEASES
In this chapter it is shown that the feeble-minded parent is many times as prolific as the normal parent. A considerable percentage of girls living in prostitution are mentally defective, and if careful statistics were collated it would be found that 95 per cent. of these women come from large families. The feeble-minded should be instructed how to prevent conception, thereby diminishing prostitution and its invariable accompaniment,—venereal disease.
SOME PROBLEMS OF THE SOCIAL EVIL. Hon. Chas. N. Doodnow, Judge of the Morals Court, Chicago. “The Light.” B. S. Steadwell, Editor. Jan.-Feb., 1915.
The Court of Morals conducted an investigation of prostitution along three lines, social, physical and mental. In the first report, April 10th, to December 31st, 1913, 639 cases were examined, representing every race, creed, and nationality. 334 were colored, 298 white, 2 Armenian, 1 Japanese. Occupations: 225 housework, 174 waitresses, 136 laundresses, 83 clerks or cashiers, 6 seamstresses, 4 stenographers, 1 trained nurse, 1 manicurist, 24 scrub women, 110 had no occupation. Venereal disease in infectious stage was diagnosed in 108 cases. 315 showed evidence of having syphilis, and of the remaining 116, had bacteriological tests been made, 50% at least would have been found victims of the disease. As to intelligence, over 400 were mentally deficient, two were found to be insane, and 68 were little more than imbeciles, having mental capacity of less than a seven year old child. Later statistics of 100 women going through the Court were taken showing again that usually their work was of a character which required the least skill and mental effort, and that 97% either were, or had been afflicted with disease, and that the majority were mentally deficient. We did not have any imbeciles, or idiots from the Morals Court, though quite a number of the morons were of the low grade type bordering on the imbecile group. In other words, 89.37% of our cases are feeble-minded, or borderland. If we leave out the borderland cases it shows that 85% of our cases, exclusive of the insane, alcoholics, and drug habitues are distinctly feeble-minded. This finding is interesting since it corresponds to our findings in the Boys’ Court, where we found 84.49% were feeble-minded. It is therefore to be clearly seen here that with the girl defective-delinquent, as with the boy, the basic cause is feeble-mindedness. This is the intrinsic cause, which environment and other causes on the whole, are extrinsic.