The Four Epochs of Woman's Life; A Study in HygieneGalbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Science
The Four Epochs of Woman's Life; A Study in Hygiene
Galbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Women -- Health and hygiene
"For those who are very anxious for offspring," wrote Marion Sims, "I
usually order sexual intercourse on the third, fifth, and seventh days
after the flow has ceased; and on the fifth and third days before its
return. For the most obvious reasons this would always be before going
to bed at night, instead of just before rising in the morning. The
horizontal position favors the retention of semen; the erect its
expulsion. I am satisfied that too frequent sexual indulgence is
fraught with mischief to both parties. It weakens the semen; in other
words, that this is not so rich in spermatozoa after too frequent
indulgence; and when carried to the extent of a debauch, the fiuid
ejaculated may be wholly destitute of spermatozoa. Thus it will be
seen that it will be much better to husband the resources of both man
and wife."
The Prevention of Conception and the Limitation of Offspring.-- Some
of the contraindications to procreation are when either parent suffers
from a disease which is transmissible, and such diseases frequently
manifest themselves only after marriage; when the pregnancy would
endanger the mother's life, or even where the pregnancy is a nine
months' torture to her; where either parent is suffering from ill
health; or where for economical reasons no more children are desired.
If there exists no condition in either parent or in their
circumstances why they should not have children, the next
consideration due to their children, is how the same may be procreated
under the most favorable conditions possible; this condition can only
be secured by making the circumtsances such that the mother shall be
able to choose the time for their conception when both parents are in
the best physical condition. That children should be brought into the
world haphazard, as the result of accident, is to degrade the human
race below that of the lower animals, where the female admits the male
only at the time of the rut, which in the majority of cases occurs
only once a year.
Another requisite to bearing healthy children is that the pregnancies
shall not follow each other too rapidly. Aside from the consideration
for the health of the mother herself, she must be in good physical
condition to bear the healthiest children she is capable of giving
birth to; and for this there must be from two and a half to three
years between the successive pregnancies. The results of
overproduction on the children are frequently, that they are sickly,
short-lived, or suffer from rickets, cerebral paralysis, idiocy, or
imbecility.
And last, but certainly not least, many women become chronic invalids,
or are hastened to premature graves, by having children as fast as
they possibly can.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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