Copulation may take place in the female before puberty or after the climacteric period; but in neither will the sexual congress be fruitful. Then, if the signification be confined to fruitful contact, there would seem to be a marital discrepancy between the male and female; as in the female we observe only thirty years of her existence in which it is possible for sexual congress to be followed by conception; while the male, from puberty to very old age, may be fruitful, if placed in conjunction with a female at the proper age. Nature, being rather wise in this respect, has not deprived the female of her sexual passion and pleasure at the limit of her fructification period. Perfect coitus is not essential to impregnation; as many authenticated cases are on record in which intromission had not taken place, as evidenced by an unruptured hymen, where only it was possible for the semen to come in contact with the sphincter vaginæ; and impregnation and conception followed. Only by contrasting natural with abnormal coition, is it possible for us to comprehend how much one subject has to do in causing nervous diseases; and not to advocate that normal coition――which refers to time as much as manner――produces many permanent morbid changes. _Copulation, practiced in moderation, is conducive to domestic felicity only when both parties to the marriage contract are in a state of health sexually._ This excludes sexual contact in too close proximity to the menstrual crisis, and whenever the female is not in a condition to appreciate the act, and that her condition and will should be considered and respected, and man at all times should consult her pleasure. For further information on the physiology of copulation, I must refer the reader to _Flint’s Human Physiology_, where it is treated of in an exhaustive manner. But there are many points of interest that are not alone physiological, that may well be discussed and belong especially to our subject. There seems to be a chosen time for fruitful coition with all animals. With the human race this is only partially true. The female, it is said, begins her period of breeding usually at fourteen and discontinues at forty-five; yet there are intermediate periods when copulation will not usually prove fruitful, viz., that period beginning the fourteenth day after menstruation, and ending with the next menstrual flow. This rule is not valid; as many times, in my own observation, have I known women to conceive at any and all times during her period of breeding. Even cases have occurred where the period of menstruation was not confined to the usual time of life; or the “second life” may appear, as in the following case which came under my observation some years since: