But what becomes of these victims of our social conditions? That nature has been sinned against is expressed in the peculiar features and traits of character by which old maids and ascetic old bachelors are distinguished from other persons in all countries and climates, and goes to show the strong and harmful influence resulting from the suppression of natural instincts. Many forms of hysteria among women are due to this cause. Hysteria is also caused by dissatisfaction in marriage, which sometimes results in sterility. These are the general characteristics of modern marriage and its results. From them we must draw the following conclusion: Present-day marriage is an institution ~that is closely connected with existing social conditions, with which it must stand and fall. But this marriage is in a state of decline and dissolution as bourgeois society itself~. Which are the salient points that we have determined in regard to bourgeois marriage? 1.--The birth-rate is declining although the population is increasing, which shows that the economic status of the family has deteriorated. 2.--Divorces are increasing more rapidly than the population is growing, and in most cases women are the ones to seek divorce, although they suffer most in consequence of it, both economically and socially. This shows that the unfavorable factors in marriage are increasing, that marriage is in a state of dissolution. 3.--The marriage-rate is declining, notwithstanding the fact that the population is increasing; which proves that in the eyes of many persons marriage no longer accomplishes its social and moral purpose and is regarded as worthless or of doubtful value. 4.--In almost all civilized states there is a disproportion in the number of the sexes, the female sex predominating. This is not due to natural causes,--since ~more~ boys than girls are born,--but to unfavorable social and political factors that are rooted in conditions of state and society. ~As all these unnatural conditions that are especially harmful to women are established by the nature of bourgeois society and increase with the duration of its existence, this society proves itself incompetent to abolish the evils and to liberate woman. To accomplish this a different social order will be necessary.~ [81] Ely Metschnikoff--The Nature of Man. CHAPTER XII. Prostitution a Necessary Social Institution of Bourgeois Society. 1.--Prostitution and Society. Marriage constitutes one phase of the sex relations of bourgeois society; prostitution constitutes the other. If men fail to find satisfaction in marriage, they, as a rule, seek it with prostitution; and those men who for one reason or another refrain from marrying, seek satisfaction with prostitutes also. To those men then, who voluntarily or involuntarily lead an unmarried life, and to those who do not find their expectations realized in marriage, opportunities for satisfaction of the sexual impulse are far more favorable than to women.