Owen's Moral Physiology; or, A Brief and Plain Treatise on the Population Question

by Robert Dale Owen

The only thing that is a matter of surprise to the Editor is, that this subject should have been so long neglected by the profession. He is convinced that this little book and the means of prevention herein recommended, will do more to prevent that moral evil, abortion among married females, than all the penal enactments of our legislators, and the criminal courts which enforce them. Yes, it is his firm conviction that a moral check to reproduction, will do what judges and juries have in vain attempted. It will put an end to the occupation of the abortionist by removing the cause and thus striking at the root of the evil. The want of the means of prevention has lead to the commission of a crime revolting to our feelings. How many lives of mothers would have been spared, had the power of preventing conception been known to them! the feelings of the community would not be so often shocked by those horrid tales, which are so frequently related in the daily papers, of child murders: and the incensed feelings of the community, ready to burst forth in mobs, and other demonstrations of popular indignation, against those who commit such crimes. I here quote a paragraph which recently appeared in one of the New York daily papers, for the purpose of showing the feeling of the community on this subject: “The residence of Madame Restell, in Greenwich street, was beset yesterday afternoon by a vast concourse of people of all classes, many of them, doubtless, drawn thither by curiosity, or a vague idea that something extraordinary was about to be enacted in reference to this notorious woman, and not a few who came apparently with the intention of being actors in some scene of violence and popular outbreak. There were very many of our most respectable citizens noticed among the mass—a result unlooked for, and certainly ominous of a deep and abiding feeling of abhorrence and detestation among the better classes, for the practices of this miserable female, which may yet prove of fearful import to her, and to those who countenance and support her in the vile and unholy occupation, the known existence of which in our midst, in defiance of all law, and outraging every sense of decency and morality, has been suffered so long to rest, as a foul plague-spot upon our city. We learn that in anticipation of some energetic demonstration in the course of the day, Madame Restell early left her house, and secretly repaired to the dwelling of some unknown friend, seeking a shelter from her fears in a hiding-place, far from the scene of her iniquitous practices. Meanwhile although the Chief of Police, aided by a strong body of officers, were upon the ground of the disturbance, it seemed for some hours as though the neighbourhood was slumbering upon a volcano, which a mere breath would inflame into fierce and terrible action. Curses loud and deep upon Restell and her coadjutors, were rife amid the crowd, and cries of ‘Haul her out!’ ‘Where’s Mary Applegate’s child?’ ‘Where’s the thousand children murdered in this house!’ ‘Where is Miss Munson!’ ‘Throw her in the dock!’ ‘Hanging is too good for the monster!’ ‘Who murdered Mary Rodgers!’ and other inflammatory exclamations of a like nature, were continually uprising from the excited multitude. Through the whole vicinity, the windows on both sides of the street were upraised, and filled with anxious faces, intently watching the movements of the mass below; and there were not wanting those, among the inmates of the neighbouring houses, and those inmates too, females of respectability and refinement, who joined in the universal cry for vengence and retribution. It did indeed seem as though the strong feeling of popular indignation was about to be manifested in an outbreak of a serious character, and that the unhappy object of their dislikes was about to realize that there is in this land, a power above all law, whose mandates would—when the arm of justice became paralysed and insufficient, and was daringly sneered at by those who depend upon their ill-earned wealth, and certain peculiar influences for impunity from the just reward of crime—be suddenly executed in violence and confusion. Owing, however, to the prompt exertions of the Chief of Police, under whose directions one or two arrests were made of the most active spirits among the assembled mass, the threatened disturbance was finally put down, and at this time, (late in the evening) order and quiet are restored to the neighbourhood.

“We do not envy the feelings of the wretched woman during the existence of the threatening outbreak, for although at some distance from the scene yet she well knew what was going forward, being made acquainted at short intervals with the position of affairs. We trust that from the experience of yesterday, Madame Restell is now convinced of the necessity of immediately closing her unlawful business; otherwise, there seems to be a most fearful certainty that the end is not yet.”

See, what a mass of evil arises from bastard children, from child-murder, from deserted children, from diseased children, and even where the parents are most industrious and most virtuous, from a half-starved, naked, and badly housed family, from families crowded into one room, for whose health a house and garden is essential. All these matters are a tax upon love, a perpetual tax upon human pleasure, and upon health; a tax that turns beauty into shrivelled ugliness, defaces the noble attitude of mankind, and makes their condition worse than that of the cattle of the field.

Then comes the consideration—what a dreadful thing it is, that health and beauty cannot be encouraged and extended, that love cannot be enjoyed without the danger of a conception, when that conception is not desired, when it is a positive injury to the parties and to society. This circumstance has been a great bar to health, strength, and beauty.

What is to be done to remedy this evil? There is something to be done: a means has been discovered, a simple means, criminal in the neglect, not in the use. The destruction of conceptions have been sought by acts of violence, by doses of poison, that injure, and sometimes destroy the mother, to reach the fœtus in her womb. This is dreadful, truly dreadful. Yet custom has made it a common matter. Every village has its almost yearly cases of the kind. In this country, hundreds of infants are yearly destroyed at birth: some cases are discovered, but many pass undiscovered. We condemn and shudder at the infanticides of China and other countries: yet it is a question, if infanticide ever prevailed in any country to a greater extent than in our own. Here, then, as in every other case of disease or other evil, it is better to prevent than to cure, and here prevention is most simply practicable, a means within the reach of all.

Those who have no means of arriving at a knowledge of the extent of this evil, could scarce realize it; since the investigation of this subject was commenced and since mention has been made publicly of the instrument before alluded to, numerous facts have come to the Editor’s knowledge which would be sufficient to convince every candid reflecting person, that the utmost extent of the credulity of those who have taken but little pains to inform themselves upon this part of the subject is not half equal to the extent of this vice. He is inclined to believe that his statement would be doubted were he to relate the number of calls he has received from persons seeking this kind of medical service under a misapprehension of his notice. The number is not confined to such as cannot legitimately become mothers, but what is most surprising, parents who move in what is called respectable society, appear to feel no delicacy in asking relief, in these cases, at the hands of the physician.

For the purpose of illustrating still more forcibly, the extent to which the business of the abortionist is carried on in this city, and likewise the dangers to which the victim is exposed, we propose to make some extracts from a case reported by Dr. Bedford, the eminent Professor of Midwifery in the University of the city of New York. Several physicians had been called in, the patient had been in labour for twenty-four hours, and they severally professed their ignorance of the nature of the case. Dr. B. then goes on to say:—

“Mrs. M. had been taken in labour Monday, Dec. 18th, at seven o’clock, P. M. and on Tuesday at seven o’clock, P. M., I first saw her. Her pains were then almost constant, and such had been the severity of her suffering that her cries for relief, as her medical attendants informed me, had attracted crowds of persons about the door. As soon as I entered her room, she exclaimed, ‘For God’s sake Doctor, cut me open or I shall die: I never can be delivered without you cut me open.’ I was struck with this language, especially as I had already been informed, that she had previously borne two children. At the request of the medical gentlemen, I proceeded to make an examination per vaginam, and I must confess that I was startled at what I discovered, expecting every instant, from the intensity of the contractions of the uterus, that this organ would be ruptured in some portion of its extent. I could distinctly feel a solid, resisting tumor at the superior strait, through the walls of the uterus, but could detect no opening in the womb. In carrying my finger upward and backward toward the cul-de-sac of the vagina, I could trace two bridles, extending from this portion of the vagina to a point of the uterus, which was quite rough and slightly elevated; this roughness was transverse in shape, but with all the caution and nicety of manipulation I could bring to bear, I found it impossible to detect any opening in the womb. In passing my finger with care, from the bridles to the rough surface, and exploring the condition of the parts with an anxious desire to afford the distressed patient prompt and effectual relief, I distinctly felt cicatrices, of which this rough surface was one. Here, then, was a condition of things produced by injury done to the soft parts, at some previous period, resulting in the formation of cicatrices and bridles, and likewise in the closure of the mouth of the womb. At this stage of the examination, I knew nothing of the previous history of the patient more than I have already stated, and the first question I addressed to her was this: ‘Have you ever had any difficulty in your previous confinements? have you ever been delivered with instruments?’ &c., &c. She distinctly replied, that her previous labors had been of short duration, and that she had not been delivered with instruments, nor had she ever sustained any injury in consequence of her confinements. This information somewhat puzzled me, for it was not in keeping with what any one might have conjectured, taking into view her actual condition, which was undoubtedly the result of direct injury done to the parts. On assuring her, that she was in a most perilous situation, and at the same time, promising that we would do all in our power to rescue her, she voluntarily made the following confession:

“About six weeks after becoming pregnant, she called on the notorious Madame Restell, who, on learning her situation, gave her some powders with directions for use; these powders did not appear to produce the desired effect. She returned again to this woman, and asked her if there was no other way to make her miscarry. ‘Yes,’ says Madame Restell, ‘I can probe you; but I must have my price for this operation.’ ‘What do you probe with?’ ‘A piece of whalebone.’ ‘Well,’ thought the patient, but without expressing it, ‘I cannot afford to pay your price, and I will probe myself.’ She returned home, and used the whalebone several times; it produced considerable pain, followed by a discharge of blood. The whole secret was now disclosed. Injuries inflicted on the mouth of the womb, by these violent attempts, had resulted in the circumstances as detailed above.

“It was evident from the nature of this poor woman’s sufferings, and the expulsive character of her pains, that prompt artificial delivery was indicated. Accordingly, without loss of time, (she then having been in labor twenty-nine hours,) I performed the operation. In a short time, Mrs. M. was delivered of a vigorous, full grown child, whose boisterous cries were heard with astonishment by the mother, and with sincere gratification by her medical friends. The expression of that woman’s gratitude, in thus being preserved from what she and her friends supposed to be inevitable death, was an ample compensation for the anxiety experienced by those, who were the humble instruments of affording her relief. This patient recovered rapidly, and did not during the whole of her convalescence, present one untoward symptom. It is now ten weeks since the operation, and she and her infant are in the enjoyment of excellent health.