[16] Parkes’ _Manual of Practical Hygiene_, 4th edition, p. 493. [17] _Ibid._, p. 493. [18] W. B. Carpenter’s _Principles of Human Physiology_, 7th edition, p. 631. [19] W. B. Carpenter’s _Principles of Human Physiology_, 7th edition, p. 812. [20] The unhealthiness and indecency of harem life, with its effect upon the boys and girls, its encouragement of abortion, and the unhappy and degraded condition of the women, are sketched with the painful truth of close observation in _The People of Turkey_, edited by S. Lane Poole--a book worthy of careful consideration. See also Lane’s _Egyptians_, etc. [21] _Bulgaria and the Bulgarians._ [22] Abstract from the _Sun_. See _Thirtieth Annual Report of the Prison Association of New York_. [23] See Sadler on _Population_ for many curious facts tending to show how strictly Nature guards this equality. [24] See Michel Lévy’s _Traité d’Hygiène_, 5th edition, vol. i., p. 145. [25] Hufeland’s _Art of Prolonging Life_, edited by Erasmus Wilson. 2nd edition, Part II., p. 138. [26] See W. B. Carpenter’s _Principles of Human Physiology_, 7th edition, p. 909. [27] _Ibid._, p. 909. [28] One of the most powerful causes of the growth of pessimism in Germany is the increasing licentiousness of a race created with a high ideal of virtue and cherishing a love of home. [29] The frequent opinion that a limited amount of fornication is a very trivial matter, that the individual may become an excellent father of a family and good citizen in spite of such indulgence, is based on the grave error of regarding sexual relations as the act of one instead of two individuals, and limited in their effects to the moment of occurrence. The moral character of such indulgence is, however, determined by its effects upon the after-life of two human beings--viz., its effect on the citizen, whose judgment becomes injured in relation to this great subject of national welfare, through early experience, and on the partner in vice whose life is one of growing degradation. These two inevitable facts remain through life. [30] See Debates of Working Men’s Congress, Paris, October, 1876. Also _La Femme Pauvre_, a work crowned by the French Academy some years ago. Also the writings of Le Clerc, Guizot, etc. [31] See Reports of Rescue Society, London. [32] This question is now anxiously asked by intelligent mothers, who, resolved to do what is right for their children, are yet bewildered by the contradiction of authorities and the customs of society. It is the necessity in my own medical practice of answering this question truthfully, which is one of the reasons that has compelled me to write these pages. [33] G. M. Humphrey, M.D., F.R.S., in Holme’s _System of Surgery_, 3rd edition, vol. iii., p. 550. [34] See Acton’s _Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs_, 6th edition, p. 12 _et seq._ [35] Acton’s _Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs_, 6th Ed., pp. 37, 38.