Now it may be stated straight away that there are no human functions that have got into a more alarming state of abnormality and muddle than gestation, parturition, and lactation. Indeed, so great are the divergences from Nature in the two latter functions, that it is no exaggeration to say that, all hope of ever recovering normal conditions having long since been abandoned, all persons have now resigned themselves to an almost complete reliance on artificial aids. In the middle and so-called “upper” classes instruments and anæsthetics are now very nearly the rule in helping the function of parturition, while among the poorer classes they are very common. And in regard to lactation, all kinds of unnatural food, including, of course, cow’s milk, take the place of breast-feeding. The doctors, the nurses, the mothers, and the whole population have, we declare, resigned themselves to the modern conditions of difficult and scientifically aided childbirth; but it would be more strictly accurate to say that they have meekly prostrated themselves before a _fait accompli_; for, as far as we have been able to judge, no attempt on a grand scale has ever yet been made to ascertain whether the present difficulties are as hopelessly inevitable as they seem, or whether a more normal method of functioning might not be recovered. The ugly circumstances of modern childbirth, mitigated to some extent only by a liberal use of anæsthetics, are now sufficient to intimidate any young woman who happens to reflect, before marriage, on her future prospects; while to those already married they constitute a heavy lowering cloud, which hardly ever disperses until the climacteric at last puts an end to all anxiety. Stated in the most moderate terms, these ugly circumstances at least add to the arguments which, in our Puritanical and Feminist atmosphere, accumulate year by year against both the body and the sexual life; and for this reason alone, if for no other, it is important for us to examine them and to see how, or whether, they can be mitigated. The curious part of it is that, here, we are not confronted by degeneration or malformation nearly to the extent that some people suppose; but by ignorance, lack of initiative in the medical profession, and the foolish superstitions of all the chief actors in the muddle—the expectant mothers, the doctors, and the nurses. A certain percentage of births still takes place each year under normal conditions—that is to say, without anæsthetics or instruments; but even of these it is safe to say that they are accompanied by much more pain than can possibly be natural; while, owing to circumstances quite independent of the mother’s bodily condition, even these cases often receive quite unnecessary scientific aid.