Femina, A Work for Every Woman — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Femina, A Work for Every Woman
John Stuart Mill · en
The trouble begins with frequent desire to void urine and a continual
bearing down or straining sensation, which may be accompanied with
a sense of heat suggesting to the minds of the most chaste and pure
women, sexual desire, which the gratification of that indulgence does
not relieve nor satiate, but, on the contrary, the sexual passion
becomes only exaggerated. It is only the strongest force of character
and Christian fortitude that keep some of these unfortunate women
in the path of rectitude and virtue, and it is only the scientific
specialist who can appreciate the real cause. In many instances
women, truly noble in character, have fallen from their high estate,
because uncontrollable impulses swept them into the maelstrom of
licentiousness, which might have been averted, if they had known of
whom to seek proper advice.
This irritation is often innocently and ignorantly acquired in early
girlhood by fingering the parts, or practicing masturbation, which
sets up an inflammatory condition of the urethra that becomes chronic,
and in time may entail the terrible consequences to which I have
already alluded. For that reason mothers should not be over-delicate;
they should not only keep a watchful eye on their children when in
seclusion, but should make it their holy duty to gradually initiate
their children into a knowledge of physiology and of the diseases that
may result from any violation of youthful virtue.
Why is it that many children who have been reared in an atmosphere of
sanctity, children who have enjoyed from their earliest recollection
moral and spiritual administration, have fallen into vice and
depravity? The reader should stop to answer this question for herself,
while I too will answer it for her.
It is because moral teachers overlook the fact that human beings are
dual; that we are all animal, however spiritual, and that the functions
of the animal nature must be understood in order that the spiritual
nature can control them.
A false delicacy has entirely neglected this part of the education of
our children, which I stamp as the height of stupidity and hypocrisy.
Among other causes of this malady is hot and acrid urine, or gravelly
discharges from the bladder, cutting and irritating the mucous membrane
in its passage; abrasions of this nature often lay the foundation for
ulcers. When the urine is in that condition, it is probably due to a
complication of diseases of the bladder, the kidneys and the liver. A
chemical and microscopical examination of the urine will be the only
means of settling these questions.
The urethra often takes on the inflammations of the neighboring tissue
or organs; disease of the vulva or of the vagina will spread itself to
the urinary canal. I have seen cases in which the whole trouble was
traceable to a catarrh of the neck of the womb.