This may be held as a ridiculous picture, but I defy denial of its unhappily too frequent illustration in real life. A word or two on the opposite extreme, continence. The reader will observe, in another page, the remark that every part, be it flesh, bone, or nerve, has its use. The reproductive organs have theirs; but it is not only for the propagation of the species—they afford an outlet for accumulated secretion—they aid in resolving the animal passions—they are the secret incentive to sexual love, and the bond of union between the sexes. They give an appetite that, like hunger, must be appeased, or nature revolts; and the harmony of society falls before the ungovernable fury of maniacal craving. Health, the source of all happiness, without the possession of which the world with its beauties would be, for all we cared, tenantless, materially rests upon a proper and moderate use of the copulative process. Entire continence, a rarity among mankind, establishes in both sexes the most miserable perversions of mind and body. In man, we have instances recorded of mania, melancholy, apoplexy, and foul skin-disorders. Blindness, deafness, and a host of evils, some greater, and few less than these just penned. It is true, continence is, as remarked, but seldom observed, especially in males, who, being denied sexual commerce, are estranged by the distressful habit of onanism; and thereby, in some measure, the enumerated maladies are avoided; but as masturbation, like other vices, grows with unbounded speed, a train of ills, far more distressful, await the sufferer, who, in addition, becomes, in the meridian of life, deprived of the very power he in youth was so improvident of. Continence in females, which all admit to be the brightest ornament a woman possesses, is attended with a poor requital; and its prevalence (to the honor of our countrywomen be it spoken) is truly attested by the miseries of hysteria, and other nervous derangements, that pervade the junior and elderly maiden branches of every family, and constitute so formidable an enemy to domestic felicity. A wide field is open for comment upon this subject, which is better adapted for the moralist than the physician. This manual, professing to be but a vehicle for topics of a professional nature only, the writer apologises for the digression, and can but express his regret, that public opinion is unfavorable to the discussion of such matters, which embrace considerations highly important to a nation, both in a moral and hygæan view. Continent persons but seldom attain old age; whereas, the married females, for instance, although exposed to the dangers of pregnancy and delivery, live generally longer than those who are unmarried or chaste; and provident married men escape the ills and snares that beset single blessedness, as it is called. Libertinism, on the other hand, in whatever way practised, is hurtful and destructive to long life.
Continence may be a virtue, but is not imposed where marriage is allowable; and then, if deviated from with moderation only, the greatest amount of health and happiness may be elicited, and the proper end of it obtained. Matrimony, where succeeded by the birth of children, powerfully conduces to the health and happiness of women.
Many female disorders are relieved by marriage. Amenorrhœa and chlorosis, disordered conditions of the uterine functions, hysteria, scrofula, skin-affections, numerous nervous disorders, and many local complaints, yield as soon as pregnancy commences.
Results should, however, be well weighed, before irrevocable steps are taken. There are many diseases and structural impediments opposed to the matrimonial contract. Malformation and mental imbecility should be held as strong interdicts to the conjugal union. People ought not to marry before manhood is well developed (the male at least 21 to 23 years of age, the female 18 to 21). Precocious or late marriages are injurious to reproduction. The unnatural union of old and young of either sex with the other, entails its own miseries. A curious estimate of salacious appetites and power has been drawn up as pervading the different temperaments. The temperaments, as elsewhere noticed, are four—the Sanguine, Nervous, Bilious, and Phlegmatic. Persons of the sanguine temperament are generally of good health, and vigorous in amorous pleasures. The nervous are extremely susceptible in their sensations, and generally much given to female society. Combined with the sanguine, they are capable of great amorous excesses. The bilious temperament imparts a jealous bearing in all affairs of sexual solicitude, that detracts from the fondness and affection which so entwine a woman to a lover or a husband. The melancholic or phlegmatic person is frigid and apathetic in his amours; and love becomes with him a secondary consideration to advancement in life. These temperaments are frequently intermixed, and are much modified by age and health; and the salacious powers correspond.
Speculations have arisen among physiologists, as to the effect of climate and season, as well as age and temperament, on the reproductive powers. Temperate and warm climates are more prolific in exciting the copulative desire, than the frigid and uncongenial situations of the northern hemisphere. The seasons bear a somewhat near analogy—spring is supposed to be more potent than summer, autumn, or winter, in arousing the amative propensities, which, like the productions of the earth, come, as it were, at that time into a new existence. This observation is borne out by the statistical fact of there being a greater number of births about Christmas and the new year, than any other period.
Man, however, is allowed to be omnivorous in all his appetites; and the uniformity of his sexual greediness is preserved by diet corresponding to the season, which renders the whole twelvemonth a perpetual spring. Man, as well as other animals, is, when in a state of health, capable of procreating upon almost any food. But when there is debility of the digestive or generative organs, the injury can be repaired by the use of proper stimulating diet, thereby occasioning due and sufficient secretions.
Air, exercise, health, and prosperity, are not without considerable influences. If seasons are not positively influential, certain it is, that particular lunar and solar periods are, taken in conjunction with the state of the body.
“Morning,” says a French writer, “is the spring of the journey, when all the functions of the body are renovated.” Others declare, that when night veils the light of the day, the quietude and secresy thereby afforded, offer moments most congenial to the gratification of mutual love. Sexual transports should be avoided after a repast, instances having been known of apoplexy being induced by the excitement of connexion being superadded to the stimulative influence of wine and food.
Henry II. consulted one Fernal for the infertility of his queen, Catherine de Medicis. The advice submitted, comprised the following notifications: Abundant and peculiar nourishment; occasional change of residence; the allowing several days to elapse between each conjugal act; and lastly, that the most favorable moment for impregnation was immediately on the cessation of menstruation. It was not until the adoption of these hints, that her majesty conceived.
Professor Dewees, of Philadelphia, enjoins that, for the enjoyment of marriage and the production of children, matrimony should not be engaged in, until the body is healthily and completely developed; until then the most scrupulous continency should be preserved. From the 23d to the 25th year is the suggested period for the male; from the 19th to the 21st, the female. These observations apply to Europeans chiefly; for in India, women become mothers at ten, owing to their early development. Precocious marriages bring premature decay on the father and mother, and entail on their offspring, diminutive stature, debility of body, and imbecility of mind, thus generating consumption, scrofula, insanity, &c. Well-regulated marriages contribute to social and lasting happiness, and the prosperity of the nation at large; but ill-assorted ones, those where the peace of either is infringed by opposing tempers, or by the after-discovery of hitherto concealed physical incapacities, present a scene of wretchedness and disappointment to which death itself were preferable. These remarks might be considerably amplified; but enough has been said, to induce those who approach to manhood, to be provident of that which, once lost, is, under all circumstances, difficult to regain; and those on the eve of embarking in the most binding and solemn obligation of all human contracts, marriage, to ponder well, ere they compromise the happiness of others as well as themselves, by engaging in a compact, they may know themselves incapable of fulfilling or of efficiently performing; one from which they can not with honor retreat, and one that, once sealed, demands a rigid compliance with its recognised duties.