"The first of these modes [_coitus interruptus_] is physically injurious, and is apt to produce nervous disorder and sexual enfeeblement and congestion, from the sudden interruption it gives to the venereal act, whose _pleasure_ moreover it interferes with. The second, namely the sheath, _dulls the enjoyment_, and frequently produces impotence in the man and disgust in both parties; so that it also is injurious" (p. 349).... "Any preventive means, to be satisfactory, must be used by the woman, as _it spoils the passion and the impulsiveness_ of the venereal act _if the man have to think of them_" (p. 350). The italics are mine, but the following comments are by a woman, who was moreover the first woman to qualify in medicine--the late Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. "Here, in this chief teacher of the Neo-Malthusians, the cloven foot is fully revealed. This popular author, who in many parts of his book denounces marriage as the enslavement of men and women, who sneers at continence, and rages at Christianity as a vanishing superstition--all under a special pretence of benevolence and desire for the advancement of the human race, here clearly, shows what he is aiming at, and what his doctrines lead to. Male sexual pleasure must not be interfered with, male lust may be indulged in to any extent that pleasure demands, but woman must take the entire responsibility, that male indulgence be not disturbed by any inconvenient claims from paternity. Whatever consequences ensue the woman is to blame, and must bear the whole responsibility. "A doctrine more diabolical in its theory and more destructive in its practical consequences has never been invented. This is the doctrine of Neo-Malthusianism." [75] Section 6. SPECIALLY HURTFUL TO THE POOR (a) _Affecting the Young_ There are three special and peculiar evils that attend the teaching of birth control amongst the poor. Of the first a doctor has written as follows: "Morally, the doctrine is indefensible--it follows the line of least resistance, and sacrifices the spirit to the flesh. Materially, it is fraught with grave danger to the home and to our national existence. It is proposed to disseminate a knowledge of contraceptive methods throughout the overcrowded homes of the ill-fed, ill-clad poor. Now it is in these homes that the moral sense has already but little chance of development, where the child of eight or ten already knows far more than is good for the health of either body or mind, and, though we may succeed in reducing the size of the family, yet the means we employ will militate against the raising of the moral tone of the household, and the children will not be any less precocious than before." [76]