Dr. Lee Alexander Stone Sex Searchlights 
AND 
Sane Sex Ethics 
An Anthology of Sex Knowledge 
Edited By Dr. Lee Alexander Stone 
Chief of Bureau of Hospital Control, Social and Industrial Hygiene, Chicago Health 
Department; Regional Consultant U. S. Public Health Service; Late Official War 
Department Lecturer and Instructor to Troops in Social Hygiene and Venereal 
Disease Control; Major M. C. U. S. R.; former Lecturer Medical 
Sociology, University of Tenn., College of Medicine, (Memphis); 
Fellow American Medical Assn.; Chicago Academy of Medicine; 
member American Institute of Criminal Law and Crimin- 
ology ; American Social Hygiene Assn.; former member 
Vice Commission, Memphis. Author: "Eugenics 
and Marriage," "The Woman of the Streets," 
"The Hidden Menace," "Sex Discussion," 
"An Open Talk with Mothers 
and Fathers," etc. 
WITH SPECIAL DRAWINGS BY DON CHILCOTE 
"I would be pure, for there are those that trust me; 
I would be true, for there are those that care; 
I zvould be strong, for there is much to suffer; 
I would be brave, for there is much to dare; 
I zvould be friend of all-the foe-the friendless; 
I would be forgiving and forget the gift; 
I would be humble, for I know my weakness; 
I would look up-and laugh-and love-and lift" 
PRICE $5.00 
CHICAGO 
SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Uninc. 
1922 Copyright 1922 
SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Uninc. A LETTER TO DOROTHY 
DR. LEE ALEXANDER STONE 
My Dear Little Girl: 
This is your twelfth birthday, and I wish you many happy 
returns of the day. May love and happiness attend you wherever 
you go, and may you never want for friends. 
You are almost ready to enter your teens, a whole life is 
ahead of you. You will soon no longer be a child, but a young 
lady. With young womanhood comes the first real taste of what 
life means. Joys and sorrows will be yours and I want to arm 
you against the things you will have to endure. The pain of 
disappointment will come to you many times; learn to fortify 
yourself against it by thinking pure and happy thoughts. 
Remember that the men and women who accomplish things 
in this world today are those who laugh in the face of adversity 
and vow not to be beaten. 
Learn to smile yourself and soon others will smile with you, 
and happiness will come from the most unexpected sources. 
Be a carrier of joy, bubble over with happiness, force your 
mind to dwell on wholesome things. 
Remember, sweetheart, that your body is a temple erected by 
Mother Nature wherein worshipers come to pray before the 
shrine of humanity. If you keep your body clean, both inside and 
out, impure worshipers cannot remain long, for the impure things 
in life come only when our minds and bodies offer no resistance 
to them. 
Remember always that there once lived in Nazareth a Holy 
Man who showed by His example the possibilities of cleanly 
living and pure thinking. Read the life of Jesus, view Him as a 
man, and emulate His example as far as you are able. He said, 
"Do unto others as you would have that they should do unto 
V VI 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
you." I want you to know that a life of service is the happiest 
one to lead. Serve others joyously and your reward will be great. 
Carry with you the message of charity and brotherly love. 
Love everybody, keep hate out of your soul-it has soured 
the lives of many who should have been the constant bearers of 
messages of joy. 
Read good books, and think deeply over what you read. 
You will find that when all have failed to please you and your 
soul is tired and hungry for sympathy that joy may be found 
between the covers of a well-written book. 
Take plenty of exercise, breathe good air, bathe often and 
keep your mind busy. 
Fortunately, you are living in the "Age of Woman"; there- 
fore, I may say to you-amount to something. Vow to be more 
than a parlor ornament, vow to do something that will place your 
name among the annals of the blessed. 
You possess talents far above those possessed by the average 
little girl, develop them, let your light shine as a beacon to guide 
others into the path of action. Dream of good things to come 
and vow to be ready to receive them when they do come. 
Be just, be generous, be kind to those around you, so that 
when dark days come you will have plenty of friends to help 
you bear your trouble. 
Your father and mother love you very dearly, we are 
ambitious for you, and will help you as far as you will let us. 
Come to us with whatever you care to, make us your confidants 
and remember that we will advise you in the best manner pos- 
sible. 
May God bless my little girl, and keep her strong in body, 
mind, and spirit, and make her ever ready to take advantage of 
her divine attributes, is the prayer of your father. PREFACE 
IT IS a sad commentary upon the intelligence and real purity 
of the thought of modern civilization, that the subject of the 
"why and wherefore" of sex should be regarded by so many as 
something to be avoided as impure, and not "respectable." Even 
the most elementary consideration of the subject must show us 
that a scientific knowledge of the important principles of sex 
manifestation is vitally essential for the best interests of race- 
preservation and race-culture. 
Our sex morality is rigorous in theory; but in practice it is 
full of laxities, inequalities, and often cruelty, especially towards 
women. Seduction, illegitimate births, infanticide, purposive 
abortion, prostitution and racial poisoning, sex vices and ab- 
normalties, all flourish under our chaotic code. Can it be said 
that our attitude to the supremely important questions related to 
and revolving around the sex-relationship is sane, practical and 
humane ? The evils and the suffering are not necessary, inevitable 
or irremediable. Some of them could be banished and others 
greatly lessened, if not entirely removed, by sensible social 
hygiene, and the upraising of finer ideals of love, marriage and 
parentage. 
When experienced physicians tell us that the sex-life of the 
mothers of the race is "terribly neglected"; that scarcely one 
man in twelve knows anything of the psychology and physiology 
of woman before marriage, and very few learn what should be 
known after marriage; that ignorance in sex matters is "appall- 
ing," especially among women; that this ignorance leads in 
women, and also, in men to such mental disturbance as psychosis, 
neurosis, hysteria and depression; that thousands of feeble and 
ailing children are born through the errors of parents, and that 
fifty per cent of infantile deaths are preventable-we may ask 
whether our civilization is real or spurious. 
Ignorance, reticence and prudery have darkened and dis- 
torted the subject of sex, but people have at last begun to realize 
that the immense importance of the "sex question" will no longer 
allow it to be hid away as a thing to be ashamed of. We are 
living in an age of plain thinking and frank speech. Subjects 
VII VIII 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
spoken of in whispers ten years past are now discussed freely. 
Why is it, then, that the most important question in the world- 
the question upon which the future of the human race depends, 
is kept a dark and mysterious secret? Why is it that so many 
young people are allowed to stumble along in blind ignorance, 
often wrecking not only their own lives, but lives of others as 
well, when it is so easy to teach them? 
It is a terrible mistake to permit young people to marry with 
only the crudest knowledge of the truth of married life, or with- 
out any knowledge whatever. A society that permits such a sin 
against present and future generations has no claim to be con- 
sidered as humane or intelligent. 
Ignorance and innocence have too long been thought to be 
synonymous and too many parents live in the fool's paradise of 
belief that their silence spells ignorance and innocence on the 
part of their children. 
Is it reasonable to suppose that ardor and passion will take 
possession of a shy, utterly inexperienced woman, who is sud- 
denly, tactlessly, and as often happens, roughly thrust into wed- 
lock. On the other hand the average young man is often insuffi- 
ciently instructed in marital hygiene or imbued with an adequate 
understanding of the nature of woman. 
It is the consensus of opinion of numerous physicians, 
ministers, and lawyers that a very large proportion of matrimonial 
disharmonies have their foundation in the common misunder- 
standing of the physiology and especially of the psychology of 
sex; and one noted sexologist makes the bold unequivocal state- 
ment that every case of divorce has for its basis the lack of 
sexual satisfaction. This, in the opinion of many students of 
sexual problems, is the strongest reason for sex instruction. 
Out of the World War, along with all the suffering and 
destruction has come much good. One benefit was the many 
urgent lessons for the need of rational sex enlightenment to 
counteract the great amount of unhappiness caused by the false 
delicacy and prudery which surrounds the sex nature with absurd 
mystery, and the creation of an American plan for banishing the 
vast amount of ill being, pain and death caused by prostitution 
and venereal disease. 
Up to the time of the war, the American health officer, with 
his brilliant record for conquering such lesser evils as tuberculosis, PREFACE 
IX 
yellow fever, typhoid fever, smallpox and malaria, felt that the 
venereal diseases were entirely outside his field. He accepted the 
dictum that they were "different-" As a result, venereal diseases 
maintained their prevalence and the cases were not even counted. 
Society paid for its neglect in wrecked homes, childless marriages, 
invalidism, blindness and insanity. 
It was found that most of the cases of venereal disease 
among our soldiers were contracted before the men came into 
the camp. In fact, over five-sixths of the venereal disease treated 
in the army in America up to the time of the armistice, was 
acquired before the boys put on the uniform. This evidence 
showed that the environment of the home town was more 
dangerous to the health of young men of draft age than the care- 
fully guarded surroundings of the camp. 
Venereal diseases have been found not infrequently in our 
public schools and colleges. Yet no word as to their character 
or existence is permitted to be said in some of the schools, even 
to the more mature pupils. How long must such a debauchment 
of American manhood continue? What an enormous bill of 
damages must be laid to the door of false modesty, prudery and 
"social cowardice." 
Venereal diseases, shielded by the "Anglo-Saxon sense of 
prudery," are doing enormous damage to the race. The lack 
of correct information among the masses of the people as to their 
extent and danger, constitutes one of the most menacing problems 
of American civilization. 
Parents and taxpayers should bear this in mind. Instruc- 
tion in social hygiene is the cheapest, yet best-paying investment 
that can be made by any community. An ounce of disease pre- 
vention in the way of education is worth a pound of heavy taxa- 
tion cure to take care of disease consequences. 
Gonorrhea and syphilis together, it is estimated, are costing 
the people of the United States approximately $3,000,000,000 
annually. Introduced into the marriage relation, these two dis- 
eases strike at the very foundation of the present social order. 
They impose a burden of physical and mental suffering upon 
humanity which has now become intolerable. 
They collect a heavier toll every year than did bullets, shells, 
gas, air-bombs-all the ghastly, wholesale killers of the late 
World War. Yet these two diseases present no mystery to the X 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
modern physician. They may be cured; and their infection can 
be checked at its source. Why, then, have we not acted, we who 
thought we were civilized? Because we have been too nice, too 
rotten, nasty nice, to organize and come out in open fight against 
syphilis and gonorrhea. 
Rupert Blue, former Surgeon General of the U. S. Public 
Health Service says that Gonorrhea and Syphilis constitute the 
most urgent, vital health problem confronting the country today. 
From time immemorial these diseases have been the scourge of 
manhood, flourishing in the darkness of ignorance and striking 
inexorably the innocent and helpless as well as the guilty. Now 
they must be exposed to the cleansing light of universal knowl- 
edge. 
The literature on Sex Physiology and Sex Psychology em- 
braces many worthless books and upon investigation it will be 
found that the average library contains many books that are cal- 
culated to arouse and appeal to the passions, but very little is to 
be found that is really instructive or acts as food for thought 
upon the topic that greatly affects all classes and kinds of people. 
An effort has been made to present herewith something solid and 
to give only scientific and established facts-such as will better 
enable those who are interested and consulted upon these matters 
to obtain and impart rational information. 
With this object in mind, and the determination to disregard 
the remnants of prudery which still survive among us, certain 
features that have been only touched on in many leading works 
of sexology, and that are still more often ignored, are here given 
the consideration that their importance warrants. This is es- 
pecially true of the birth control movement, with its intensely 
interesting and romantic history. This movement, which is now 
exercising a tremendous influence upon the population, and no 
less upon the conjugal relations of countless people, throughout 
the civilized world, is inseparably bound up with the problems of 
the sex. The biological, social and ethical bases of birth control 
are factors that cannot be ignored in a broad and truthful pres- 
entation of the sex question. 
Great care has been used to produce a book that is chaste in 
thought and diction, but in spite of the best intentions, a scien- 
tific book on sex-physiology and sex-psychology is likely to 
appear, at least in spots, to gratify a low curiosity; but in "Sex PREFACE 
XI 
Searchlights" there is no such taint and if the physiology and 
psychology of sex is discussed with a frankness that may seem 
brutal to some-it is necessary. 
On the whole, the gain from giving earnest men and women 
the facts they need, seems likely to outweigh by much any harm 
that might possibly be done to such light minds as will be misled, 
or to such sentimental minds as will be wounded, by enlighten- 
ment about sex, for if ignorance were bliss it might be folly to be 
wise; but where ignorance leads to prostitution, divorce, ill 
health, neurosis, unhappiness, it were better to be wise, even at 
the price of some shock to the sensibilities of those reared under 
and adhering to the old traditions. 
No claim to originality is made by the editor. Many books 
and pamphlets written by thoughtful authors, who have given 
much of their learning that the problems of social hygiene might 
approach, in part at least, a solution, have been consulted and 
their contents used in most instances, given full credit. 
The thanks of the world are due to these pioneers who have 
blazed, in part at least, a trail into the dark forest of ignorance 
and prurience, and have blasted the hopes of those, who, be- 
cause of lack of humanism would punish any who might step 
from the straight and narrow path of self-righteousness, which 
being properly interpreted, means the path of the serpent, into 
that one filled with the joys of well-balanced thought free from 
bias and social hypocrisy. 
Lee Alexander Stone, M. D. 
Chicago, December, 1921. TABLE OF CONTENTS 
CHAPTER I page 
REPRODUCTION AND THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
Reproduction in General. The Male Reproductive Organs: 
Penis; Scrotum; Testicle; Spermatozoa; Prostate Gland; Cow- 
per's Glands. The Female Reproductive Organs: Labia Majora 
and Minora; Vagina; Womb; Oviducts; Egg-Glands; Ova or 
Eggs. Secondary Sexual Organs of the Female: The 
Breasts; The Hymen; The Vulvo-Vaginal Glands 1 
CHAPTER II 
PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF THE 
REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
Erotogenous Zones ; Sexual Craving, Urge, Libido ; Comparative 
Sexual Desires ; Sexual Aberrations : Satyriasis; Nympho- 
mania; Sadism; Masochism; Exhibitionists; Fetichism; Sexual 
Perversion 22 
CHAPTER III 
PUBERTY 
Puberty; The Process of Menstruation; The Menstrual Dis- 
charge; Chlorosis; Seminal Emissions 28 
CHAPTER IV 
CONTINENCE 
Continence in General: The Problem of Continence; Bloch's 
Views on Abstinence 42 
CHAPTER V 
MASTURBATION 
In the Male; In the Female; The Habit of Masturbation; 
Wrong Behavior of Parents; Prevention of the Habit; Mental 
or Psychic Masturbation; The Psychology: Sexual Tension; 
The Pathology: Traumatic Suggestion; Fanatical Over-Mor- 
alizing; Ethical Considerations 62 
XIII XIV 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
PAGE 
CHAPTER VI 
IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY 
Impotence: Causes of Impotence, Masturbation; Pollutions; Pros- 
tatic and Urethral Congestion; Gonorrhea; Stricture; Organic 
Causes; Age; Sexual Excess; Sexual Abstinence; Coitus Inter- 
_»ptus; Worry; Fright; Intellectual Pursuits; Intense Desire. 
Sterility 88 
CHAPTER VII 
SEX-EUGENICS-HEREDITY 
Sex : Advantages of Sexual Reproduction; Proportion of Sexes. 
Eugenics : Meaning of Eugenics; Examples. Heredity : Mean- 
ing of Heredity; Theories of Heredity; Mendelism 96 
CHAPTER VIII 
HOW TO LOVE 
Love and Life; The Impulse to Love; Masculine Standards; 
The Art of Understanding; Freedom of Choice; Why Lives 
are Wrecked; When Men Love; The Stress of Courtship; 
Conjugal Harmony; Marriage as an Art; Quicksands of 
Married Life; Destiny of Women 103 
CHAPTER IX 
MARRIAGE 
A Short History of Marriage; Promiscuity, Polygamy and Poly- 
andry; Monogamy. Who Should Marry. Who May Not 
Marry. No Marriage License Without a Certificate of 
Freedom from Transmissible Disease. Illustrative Cases 124 
CHAPTER X 
BIRTH CONTROL 
Examples; Are Birth Control Methods Injurious? Voluntary 
Motherhood; Birth Control or Abortion; Robert Ingersoll 
on Birth Control; Which is the Better Way? Voluntary 
Parenthood League 142 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
XV 
CHAPTER XI paws 
THE LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING BY THE PREVEN- 
TION OF CONCEPTION 
Prevention of Conception; The Spector of Too Many Children; 
The Orthodox Remedies; The Race Suicide Bugbear; The 
Cause for Alarm Lies Elsewhere; It Will Lead to Immor- 
ality; It Produces Sterility; It is Not Absolutely Sure; 
Would Lead to Excess in Married Life; It is Against Re- 
ligion; It is Immoral; It Leads to Divorce; Children Sup- 
port their Parents in their Old Age; The Moral Standard 
of Those Who Advocate the Use of Preventives; Would En- 
courage Early Marriage; Would Diminish Venereal Disease 
Among the Married; Exhausts the Woman's Body; Kills the 
Woman's Spirit; Neurasthenia from Improper Methods; 
Largely Responsible for the Abortion Evil; Would Diminish 
Prostitution in Married Life; The Enormous Benefits from 
the Eugenic Standpoint; A Few Everyday Cases 169 
CHAPTER XII 
SEX FACTS FOR THE MALE 
Circumcision; Sex Alarms: Herpes, Varicocele; Hydrocele; 
Urethrorrhea; Prostatorrhea; Spermatorrhea; Venereal Warts; 
"Lost Manhood" 196 
CHAPTER XIII 
ADVICE TO GIRLS APPROACHING THE THRESHOLD OF 
WOMANHOOD 201 
CHAPTER XIV 
SEX FACTS FOR THE MARRIED 
The Best Time for Marriage; The Wedding Night; Coitus Not 
for Procreation ; Frequency of Coitus ; Excess ; Coitus During 
Menstruation; Coitus During Pregnancy; Dyspareunia; 
Vaginismus; Frigidity (Sexual Anesthesia); Onanism; 
Coitus Reservatus; Injuries During Coitus 207 
CHAPTER XV 
MENOPAUSE 
Age of Occurrence; Symptoms; Complications; Hygiene 219 XVI 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
CHAPTER XVI page 
PREGNANCY 
Development of the Ovum ; Signs of Pregnancy : Probable; Direct; 
Duration; Miscarriages; Care During Pregnancy; Disorders 
During Pregnancy; Multiple Births; Outfit for Childbirth; 
Maternal Impressions 222 
CHAPTER XVII 
ABORTION 
Seriousness; Indications For; Results; The Question of Abortion; 
Conclusions Regarding 241 
CHAPTER XVIII 
SYPHILIS 
History; Manner of Infection; Course of Disease; Preparatory 
Stage; Primary Stage; Secondary Stage; Tertiary Stage; Heredi- 
tary Syphilis; Frequency and Prevention; Recognition; Treat- 
ment; Consequences; Syphilis a Problem of the Nations; 
Syphilis and Other Diseases; Innocent Contagion in Women; 
Syphilis and Marriage; Children and the Heredity Factor; Heredi- 
tary Symptoms in Children; Nurses and Infants; Prevalence 
of Syphilis; Incidence in Various Localities; Marriage and 
Syphilis ; The Danger of Locomotor Ataxia and Paresis; A Few 
Facts About Syphilis; Personal Advice 264 
CHAPTER XIX 
GONORRHEA AND THE OTHER VENEREAL DISEASES 
Gonorrhea: History; Cause and Recognition of Disease; Man- 
ner of Infection; Course of Disease; Frequency and Pre- 
vention; Treatment; Consequences of the Disease; A. Corbett 
Smith on Gonorrhea ; Ophthalmia ; Marriage and Gonorrhea ; 
When May a Man Who Had Gonorrhea Get Married; When 
May a Woman Who Once Had Gonorrhea be Permitted to 
Marry? The Question of Probable Sterility; A Few Facts About 
Gonorrhea; Personal Advice. Other Venereal Diseases: 
"Soft Sore" or Chancroid; Balanitis. Infecting the Innocent 
Ones ., 309 
CHAPTER XX 
PROSTITUTION AND SEGREGATION 
History; Causes Underlying Prostitution; Measures of Prevention; 
Medical Inspection; Segregation; Arguments for and Against... 332 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
XVII 
CHAPTER XXI page 
QUACKS AND THEIR METHODS 
Quack's Aid Tells of Horror Chambers; Makes a "Doctor" in 
Four Seconds; Quack's Manager Tells How Sick Dupes Are 
Ruined; Former Interpreter for Quacks Makes Confessions 
of the System Used; Another Former Floor Man's Story; 
Dr. Issac Walter Hodgens-He Tells His Perfectly Healthy 
Caller He Has Prostatitis and Wants $35 for Treatment; 
Old Doctor Sweany Co.; Dr. Mac Candless Discovers Vari- 
cocele and Wants $50 for an Operation ; Letters from Vic- 
tims; Pimples; "Lost Manhood" 339 
CHAPTER XXII 
MODESTY AND PRUDERY 
Modesty; Prudery 358 
CHAPTER XXIII 
SEX EDUCATION AT HOME AND IN SCHOOL 
At Home; In School; The School Teacher and Sex Education; In 
High School; Outline of Course, Opinions of Pupils as to Utility; 
Evidence of Judge Julian W. Mack - 361 
CHAPTER XXIV 
THE PROBLEM OF SEXUAL HYGIENE 
Importance of Subject; Teaching in School; Requirement for Teach- 
ing of; Necessity for Educations of Parents Also; No Reason 
for Undue Haste 388 
CHAPTER XXV 
IF EVERY MAN WERE STRAIGHT 
There Would Be No Masturbation; No Prostitution; No Illegitimate 
Children; No Venereal Diseases; Fewer Childless Homes; Fewer 
Mental Defectives and Insane; No Locomotor Ataxia; Length 
of Life About One-third Longer; Earning Capacity Greater; 
Industrial Life Richer; Untold Misery and Suffering Ended 399 XVIII 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
CHAPTER XXVI page 
ARE CHILDREN GETTING A SQUARE DEAL? 
The Commission on Training Camp Activities; The Menace of 
Mock Modesty; Syphilis the Greatest Known Cause of 
Death; The Reapers of Wild Oats; Wild Oats as a Cause 
of Blindness; Wild Oats as a Cause of Sterility in Women; 
The Menace of the Quack; The First Stage of Syphilis; The 
Second Stage; The Third Stage; Venereal Disease Record of 
the Army; Where Sex Education Should Begin; Where the 
Blame Belongs; Where Children Should Get Their Instruc- 
tion; The Movement Behind the Clock of Time; Venereal 
Disease and Industry 409 
PART II 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
An Anthology of Sex Knowledge embracing quotations from noted 
sexologists, physicians, clergymen, educators, attorneys, social re- 
formers, representative journals and official utterances of State 
Boards of Health 419 
PART III 
SEX TRAGEDIES 
Introduction. The Story of Rose and Edward. The Case of Irene 
Larrabee West. A Lost Leader. One of Life's Little Dramas. 
Who Would Blame Her-Would You? The Case of Mary 
Brown. A Letter to a God-Son 627 
PART IV 
SELECTED POEMS, GLOSSARY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Wild Oats. The Price He Paid. Five Dollars a Week. The 
Women Who Walk. The Underworld. No One Had Told 
Her. The Worn Out Woman. The Harlot and the Nun. 
Down at the Corner. Song of the Layette. Where Did the 
Baby Come From? A Woman's Answer. C. L. M. What of 
the Prodigal Girl? A Mother to a Son. Syphilis. Fence 
or Ambulance 669 
GLOSSARY 688 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 707 
INDEX 725 PAGE 
Lee Alexander Stone, M.D Frontispiece 
"SEX SEARCHLIGHTS" will protect you from the rocks-"Igno- 
rance of Self and Sex" xxii 
Lower Part of Body of Adult Man, Divided in Midline 3 
Cross-Sections of Penis 4 
Root of Penis 5 
Testicle and Its Coverings Opened 6 
The Testicle Divided From Above Down 7 
Human Spermatozoa 8 
Neck of the Bladder, Prostate, Etc., From Below 10 
Neck of the Bladder, Prostate, Etc., From Above 11 
Lower Part of Body of Adult Female, Divided in Midline 12 
The Contents of the Lower Abdomen in the Female, Seen From Above 14 
Womb Cut Through to Show Central Cavity, and the Many Recesses. 15 
Diagram of the Womb and Its Appendages 15 
Ovary (Egg-Gland) Divided Through Middle 16 
Egg of Four-Footed Animal 17 
Breast During Lactation, Divided Through Nipple 19 
Blood Will Tell 98 
Like Produces Like 99 
Birth Control Means Health, Happiness, Perfect Children 143 
Mrs. Margaret Sanger 146 
Which Shall We Have-Legalized Birth Control or Abortion? 154 
Never Fear! She Will Break the Chain and Remove the Yoke 164 
I Believe in Birth Control-But! 167 
William J. Robinson, M.D 170 
She Will Be Helped Out With Contraceptive Information, But How 
About the Other? 177 
"Mrs. Smith, if you have another baby, it will kill you." "But Doctor, 
tell me how to prevent it." "Sorry! but the law forbids." 189 
Child at Three Weeks, Showing How It Is Attached to Womb 225 
Child at Nine Weeks, Removed From Membranes; Child at Twelve 
Weeks With Its Coverings 227 
Showing How the Womb Enlarges as the Child Grows 228 
Diagram for Computing the Time of Labor 229 
Showing How Womb Contracts at Time of Labor 231 
Usual Position of Child in Womb 232 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
XIC XX 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
PAGE 
Body of Woman During Childbirth, Divided in Midline 234 
Same With Child Removed 235 
Showing How the After-birth is Forced Out 236 
Twin Babies, Showing the Position in Which They Usually Lie 237 
The Late Fritz Schaudinn 265 
The Pale Spiral (Spirochaeta pallida) 268 
Baldness Due to Syphilis 270 
Baby Boy, Three Months Old, With Inherited Syphilis 272 
August von Wassermann 277 
Inflammation of the Bone Covering, Due to Syphilis 280 
Emile Roux ' 282 
The Late Elie Metchnikoff 284 
Syphilitic Gummas on Leg 286 
Hutchinson's Teeth, the Condition Found in Inherited Syphilis 273 
The Late Paul Ehrlich 275 
Finger Nails Attacked by Syphilis 288 
Girl of Twenty, With "Saddle Nose" and Scars from Inherited 
Syphilis 292 
Child Born of Syphilitic Parents 295 
Albert Neisser 310 
Gonococci, the Small Vegetable Germs Which Cause Gonorrhea 311 
A Pitiful Victim of Her Husband's Wild Oats 315 
Number of Venereal Diseases, U. S. Army, Before and After 
Enlistment 336 
Comparative Prevalence of Venereal Diseases and Other Important 
Communicable Diseases, U. S. Army 336 
"Men's Specialists" and "Lost Manhood" Quacks Are a Great Source 
of Danger to the Young Man 341 
Facsimiles of Quack's Advertisements 345 
Age of First Permanent Impressions Regarding Sex 362 
Age of First Proper Sex Instruction 362 
The True Story of "How Life Begins" Is Received From His 
Mother; He Is Given Wholesome Books of Instruction on Sex 
Matters; Out-or-Door Play Helps to Keep His Mind in the Right 
Channels 366 
He Has a Clean Record to Offer the Girl He Loves; A Wedding 
Neither Party Has Anything to Fear; A Happy Home and 
Healthy Children 367 
Go and Play Daughter, You Are Too Young to Ask Such Questions; 
Bad Literature Leaves Wrong Ideas About Sex; Flirting Is 
Her Pastime 370 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
XXI 
PAGE 
She Goes for a Ride With a Chance Acquaintance; The Ride Proves 
Disastrous; And Realization Comes Too Late 371 
Learning the Story of Life in the Correct Way 382 
Receiving Sex Knowledge From Improper Sources 383 
Henry Havelock Ellis 389 
Dr. Prince A. Morrow 391 
Sex Searchlights Goes Direct to the Heart of the Sex Question 419 
Gonorrhea Is Responsible for Eighty Per Cent of Blindness in 
Children 444 
The True Story of "How Life Begins" Is Received From Her 
Mother; She Is Given Wholesome Books on Sex Matters; Out- 
of-Door Play Helps to Keep Her Mind in Right Channels 460 
She Has a Clean Record for the Man She Loves; A Wedding in 
Which Neither Party Has Anything to Fear; A Happy Home 
and Healthy Children 461 
The "Wild Oats" Sown by the Fathers Will Be Reaped by the 
Children "Unto the Third and Fourth Generations" 476 
Going to the Altar in Ignorance of Everything that Marriage Signifies 
and Involves 503 
Ignorance of Sex Is the Main Cause of Divorce and Marital Unhap- 
piness 518 
Gonorrhea and Syphilis Constitute the Most Urgent, Vital Health 
Problem Confronting the Country Today 532 
The Economic Loss to the United States, From Syphilis and Gonor- 
rhea, Is About $500,000,000 every year 561 
"Yes, My Son, the Doctor Brought Baby in a Basket;" From Older 
Boys He Learns a Different Story; He Gets More Wrong Ideas 
About Sex From a Note Seen at School 574 
He Goes With Dangerous Companions and Sows Some "Wild Oats;" 
Dr. Quack Says His Disease Can Be Easily Cured; But After 
He Marries and Their Baby Comes It Is Found to Be Defective.. 575 
Dr. G. Frank Lydston 613 "SEX SEARCHLIGHTS" Will Protect You from the Rocks-"Ignorance of Self and Sex" SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
AND 
SANE SEX ETHICS 
CHAPTER I 
REPRODUCTION AND THE REPRODUCTIVE 
ORGANS 
REPRODUCTION IN GENERAL 
THE lowest forms of animal life while very small bits of 
jelly-like material, something like the white of an egg, go 
through the same stages of existence as do the highest forms- 
growth, reproduction and death. Their structure, however, shows 
no special organs. Thus the Ameba is an animalcule from fresh 
water which is capable of enclosing food particles at any point 
of its circumference, and when these have been digested as far 
as possible, of casting them out again from any portion of the 
body which happens to be most convenient. 
As we ascend in the scale organs make their appearance, 
and it is important to note that the first two sets to be distin- 
guished are those for digestion and for reproduction. Going 
still higher we find bones, muscles, blood vessels and nerves 
gradually coming into use, all of which it will be observed are 
for the purpose of rendering it more easy for the possessor to 
obtain a supply of food, as well as utilizing it when obtained. 
From the standpoint of the individual, the digestive system 
is the most important, but the reproductive from the standpoint 
of the species. It is interesting to recall some of the examples 
showing the need there is for the species to be perpetuated: 
Tapeworms being nourished by the juices of the animal in which 
they live have no use for any elaborate digestive apparatus. 
The reproductive organs, on the contrary, are thoroughly de- 
veloped, the ripe joints are practically nothing but the repro- 
1 2 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
ductive organs stuffed with eggs, and it has been estimated that 
a tapeworm will throw off about 1500 pieces during its life, each 
of these containing about 53,000 eggs. The queens of the white 
ants of Africa are mere machines, swollen with eggs which they 
discharge at the rate of 60 a minute, their food being brought to 
them by the workers. Our May-flies which live in the perfect 
winged state but a few hours, not over a day or two, have their 
mouth so imperfect they cannot absorb any nourishment, yet 
they blithely lay eggs in the water, and these ultimately develop 
into swarms which in some years obscure the street lights and 
have to be swept up in heaps. 
Among the animals without a backbone, on many occasions 
we find an approach to the sexual congress of the higher forms. 
Thus dragonflies soar about for hours clinging to each other. 
In the class of insects, the male usually dies in a short time, for 
example, when the queen-bee takes her wedding-flight, the drone- 
bee which accompanies her, loses his genital organs as a result 
of the connection and soon succumbs to his wounds. The female 
spider is much larger than the male, and compared to human 
beings has been likened to a giantess 70 to 80 feet tall and 100 
tons in weight, with a man of ordinary height, 6 feet, and weigh- 
ing 150 or 160 pounds. After the connection she has an un- 
fortunate tendency to fall on her mate and devour him, which 
he often escapes by his smaller size and quicker movements. 
Rising in the animal scale, we find most fishes merely lying 
side-by-side, and as the eggs are discharged by the female, the 
milt deposited by the male at the same time or soon after, fer- 
tilizes them. A few have "claspers" on the male by which the 
sexes are held together during the laying of the eggs. Frogs 
as well adhere tightly during the breeding season, as everyone 
knows who has tried to separate them at this time. Thus the 
relation has been getting more and more intimate, in birds, 
real contact between the sexes being necessary, and some spe- 
cies being actually provided with a rude sort of male organ, as in 
the ostrich and ducks. Hence the male sperms may reach the 
eggs just after they have been laid, as with fish; or just at the 
time they are laid, as with frogs and toads; or within the fe- 
male's body, as with birds and lizards, and the other type of 
reptiles. 
When we come to the highest class of backboned animals ANATOMY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
3 
to which we belong-or the mammals-a true sexual inter- 
course is necessary for the active male element and the passive 
female element to be able to unite, and fertilization occur. 
LOWER PART OF BODY OF ADULT MAN, DIVIDED IN MIDLINE 
F, F, fat. P. S., pubic bone. BI., bladder. P, P, prostate gland. R, 
rectum. A. C., lower opening of bowel. C. C., body of penis ending 
in-G, the tip (or glans) surrounded by foreskin. E. S., I. S., L. A., 
R. C., muscles. (Just back of penis and not lettered is the scrotum.) 
THE MALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
One of the most striking differences between the two sexes 
is that while the female organs of reproduction are mostly in- 
side and hidden, those of the male are in great part exposed. 4 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Beginning then with the external organs of the male, we find 
a rod-like appendage-the copulatory organ-or penis, and a 
bag or pouch enclosing two rather firm masses (testicles). 
In Latin penis means "a tail," therefore, except when ready 
for intercourse, the organ hangs down tail-like. It is made up 
of two cylinders of flesh, side-by-side above, and attached at 
(left) penis cut across one-half inch behind outer opening of 
URINARY CHANNEL 
1, end of organ (glans). 2, foreskin. 3, channel for urine. 4, point 
where foreskin is attached. 
(MIDDLE) PENIS CUT ACROSS THREE-EIGHTHS INCH FARTHER BACK 
1, 2, 3, as in previous picture. 4, inner covering. 5, 6, the three cylinders 
of which the organ is composed. 
(right) PENIS CUT ACROSS ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF ITS LENGTH 
The skin covering (not lettered) on outside, a cylinder on each side, and 
the third surrounding the urethra (u) is below. Just under skin is a 
large vein '(v) with an artery (a) and nerve (n) on each side. 
the near end to the bone, below there is another cylinder in the 
groove between the upper ones, but this one is hollow and 
through it runs the channel from the bladder for the urine; at 
the free end this hollow cylinder enlarges into a sort of cap, 
shaped something like an acorn, and the opening by which the 
urine periodically and the seed at times escapes is in the middle 
of this cap. All three cylinders are covered by the skin which 
continues on down from the lower belly, this returning to the 
body forms the purse to be described. On reaching the end 
of the penis, the skin covering is pleated so it surrounds the 
end of the organ more or less completely, and this pleated part 
is the foreskin. The size of the penis as a whole is no token 
whatsoever of the sexual capacity of its possessor. In some 
of the lower animals, as the dog, rigidity necessary for pene- 
tration during intercourse is furnished by a small bone in the 
middle part of the organ, but in human males, the hard condi- ANATOMY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
5 
tion is set up by the blood being dammed up. First of all an 
impression is sent from the brain, this acts on the nerves so a 
muscle at the body end of the penis is set in action and tightens 
up causing blood to collect, and shortly the whole mass becomes 
very firm, larger and raises up. 
• ROOT OF PENIS 
C, c, showing how it is attached to bones, a, a, b, b, d, d, muscles, f, 
lowest cylinder of penis through which the urinary channel runs, e, 
recess between muscles. 
Hanging down between the penis and the body is the purse 
(scrotum) surrounding the "stones," as they are termed in the 
Bible, or the testicles. These are the male organs strictly so- 
called, when they are removed in childhood remarkable changes 
are produced, the individual grows up to be neither a man nor 
a woman, but a neuter-about half-way between; removal of the 
penis, on the other hand, has no effect. The testicles, then, are 
what make up the male sex, both for man and animals, and are 
the notorious "interstitial glands," we have been reading so much 
about in the newspapers lately. With the organs of like nature 
(ovaries) in the opposite sex, they are often called "the gonads." 
Each "stone" (testicle) is about 1% inches long and wide, 6 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
and nearly as thick. Through the skin of the bag covering 
them they feel like small masses of solid flesh, but were one to be 
cut open it would be found composed of a dozen or more little 
boxes as it were, each of the boxes contains an immense num- 
THE LEFT TESTICLE AND ITS COVERINGS OPENED ON OUTER SIDE 
p, p, covering, t, testicle, e, its cap (epididymis), vd, canal by which 
seminal fluid escapes from testicle, h, appendage of testicle. G, some 
of the tubes from testicle, enlarged about 10 times. 
ber of excessively minute tubes, these are so small it is esti- 
mated their entire length is over 2,000 feet. On top of each 
testicle and at its back part is a cap (epididymis). All the tubes 
go to the cap and gradually come together at the discharge-pipe 
(vas deferens), about 18 inches long which takes a roundabout 
course, running up and entering the belly by an opening by which 
rupture often occurs, it curves on itself, then turns down to 
bottom of the bladder on outside finally emptying into the urinary 
channel. ANATOMY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
7 
There is a free supply of nerves to each testicle, as every 
one knows who has experienced the sickening pain caused by a 
blow or kick on these parts. Vomiting and even unconscious- 
ness may be set up by such violence. 
Nature has made an effort to lessen the chances of blows, 
etc., by placing the testicles on a different level, they are thus 
able to glide past each other occasionally, without damage. An 
English surgeon (Corner), examined a large number of chil- 
dren, and found at birth the testicles were approximately level. 
With growth the proportion in which the right testicle is lower 
THE TESTICLE DIVIDED FROM ABOVE DOWN 
i, i, partitions, a, a, collection of tubes in the various compartments, these 
finally join (e, f, g,) and form h, the canal from the testicle. 
decreases from 39 to 10, while that in which the left is lower 
increases from 41 to 80; becoming more marked after the age 
of 15 (when the genitalia grow at puberty) than it was before. 
The testicles form two of the many "glands" in our bodies. 
Now by this is meant a greater or lesser portion of the body 
structure set apart for a special purpose. The liver is a huge 
gland, the lachrymal glands make the tears, the salivary glands 
the saliva (spittle), the sweat glands of the skin, the perspira- 
tion, and so on. The testicle makes two kinds of fluid-the 
external and internal secretions. Of these the first is con- 8 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
cerned with the perpetuation of the species, and called the 
"seed" (semen, seminal fluid), is made up of little sperm- 
animals (spermatozoa) in incredible numbers in a thick fluid 
something like glycerin. To show the remarkable number, it 
may be said the estimate for the total number discharged at 
a single time is about 225 millions, the lowest zero, and the high- 
est over 500 millions. To measure minute objects seen under 
the microscope, the mikron is employed, this is but the 1/1000 
(left) human spermatozoa (greatly enlarged) 
1, in profile, the tail not shown. 2, viewed on the flat; b, head; c, middle 
piece; d, tail; e, end-piece of the tail. 
(right) male germs of human life (spermatozoa). ENLARGED 800 TIMES 
part of a millimeter-which itself it will be remembered is only 
1-25 inch long. These sperm-animals, first seen in 1677, are 
about 60 of such mikrons in length, and consist of a head and a 
tail. The head is the important part for fertilization though 
only one-eighth of the whole, but the tails makes the lashing 
movements by which they are propelled at about the rate of an 
inch in 7 or 8 minutes. The shape of the sperm-animals fits 
them well for traveling along crooked passages and through 
membranes, under the microscope they can be seen to make thei. 
way around small obstacles in their path. 
Internal-secretions or-fluids do not escape from the 
body, but are used up inside it, for various purposes, and of 
the several organs by which they are manufactured, the testi- 
cles are by no means the least important. As a matter of fact, ANATOMY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
9 
manhood or virility depends on this internal juice sent out by 
the testicles. Muscles are at work only for a few of the waking 
hours while the sex-glands, like the heart, work practically all 
the time, even during sleep. The juice or secretion is sent out 
through the blood, and reaching the brain, nerves and muscles, 
gives them power, strength and tone respectively. 
Before the child is born the testicles are situated high up 
in the body just under the kidneys, as time goes on they come 
lower and lower, and just before birth they escape into the 
pouch where they are to stay during the rest of life. In some 
animals they always remain inside the body, in others they 
come down during the breeding season-either under the skin 
or into a pouch like that of mankind, and go back in a short time. 
The same thing may happen in mankind, the testicle may not come 
down at all, one or both may stop anywhere on the way, some- 
times just under the skin of the groin where it is a great nuis- 
ance, being very tender when pressed on by the clothing. Of 
late years it is possible to overcome this displacement by a 
slight operation, which is especially necessary as it has been 
found that the displaced gland is liable to develop cancer. Mon- 
taigne the famous essayist tells of an individual who had al- 
ways dressed in woman's clothes, being thought to be a female, 
but one day jumping over a ditch both testicles came down. 
This may have been a genuine case of displacement, or the 
gossipy old Frenchman may have been imposed on by some 
countryman given to drawing the long bow. 
The testicle on the left side generally hangs a little lower 
than its mate, simply because the "cord" which holds it up and is 
composed of the discharge-pipe and blood vessels with many 
nerves, is somewhat longer on that side. This is perfectly 
natural and not a sign of "lost manhood" or other terrible dis- 
ease with which quacks are accustomed to frighten their youth- 
ful patients. 
As the semen is formed it is carried by the discharge-pipe of 
each side to a reservoir underneath the bladder and between 
it and the lower bowel, and stored here until the time for dis- 
charge when it escapes by a short tube into the urinary chan- 
nel, and on out of the body. Around the channel where the 
short tube enters it is a rather firm mass, the prostate gland, 
the juice from this is discharged during intercourse, and being 10 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
watery serves to dilute the thick semen and aid its escape. 
The make-up of this gland is the same in some respects, as that 
of the womb in the female, and it is sometimes called the "male 
NECK OF THE BLADDER, PROSTATE, ETC. IN THE MALE FROM BELOW 
Bl., bladder covered by lining of the abdomen (peritoneum), as far down 
as the dotted line. S. V., left seminal vesicle '(the right one has been 
unravelled). E. D., passage from seminal vesicle into urinary canal. 
V. D., canal from testicle. P, prostate gland. M, beginning of urinary 
canal. C. G., Cowper's gland. B, C, root of penis. C. C., one of the 
three cylindric masses making up the penis. C. S., another mass 
through which the urinary canal runs. U, the tube by which the urine 
is brought from the kidney to the bladder. ANATOMY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
11 
uterus." In some elderly men it gives rise to much difficulty 
in passing water as it grows larger, and being located at the 
lower part of the bladder, may prove a great obstacle to the egress 
of urine. Finally, beneath the prostate on each side is 
NECK OF THE BLADDER, PROSTATE, ETC. FROM ABOVE 
u, u, opening into bladder of tubes from kidneys, u, v, end of ridge on 
which u, u, open, s, v, muscle closing bladder, p, prostate gland. p\ 
beginning of the urinary channel, s, d, opening for seminal fluid. 
in, unprotected part of urinary channel, c, Cowper's gland with its 
opening (cd) and the part of the urinary channel (b) where the open- 
ings are located, cc, the cylinder of left side covered by skin. 
a little, round body (Cowper's gland), the juice from which is 
also poured out at intercourse, and being alkaline clears up the 
urinary canal which has been left acid since the last passage of 12 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the urine. The spermatozoa are quickly killed by contact with 
acids, and to ensure they escape from the body alive, the acid 
is checked as just stated. Moreover, these little bodies and 
some others form admirable hiding places for the germs of 
gonorrhea as we shall see later. So much for the male repro- 
ductive organs. 
LOWER PART OF BODY OF ADULT FEMALE, DIVIDED IN MIDLINE 
M, fat. C, clitoris. P. S., pubic bone. B, bladder. U, urinary channel 
(urethra). Ut., womb; U. S., one of its supports; and E. O., its outer 
opening. L. Maj., L. Min., greater- and lesser lips. H, maidenhead 
(hymen). V, birth-canal '(vagina), surrounding the womb at its inner 
ends, A. F. and P. F. P. B., A. C. B., muscles. R, R, R, lower bowel 
(rectum) opening on surface of body at A. C. 
THE FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. 
As stated previously, the female differs from the male in 
that her genitalia are mostly within the body and hidden from 
view. However, while practically outside the cavity of the ab- 
domen, they open into it on each side, as will be shown shortly. ANATOMY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
13 
It is the custom to divide the reproductive organs of the 
female into external and internal, and commencing with the 
former we find they are made up of a pair of lips on each side. 
Of these the outer (labia majora) are a fold of thick flesh, on 
right and left respectively, covered with skin externally. Just 
inside them and attached is a similar but smaller pair (labia 
minora), the inner lips, and on separating these thin lips the 
entrance to the sexual passage or birth canal (vagina) is seen. 
In young and vigorous women, the outer lips hide the thin 
inner ones, but in children the inner ones are more prominent 
because the others are not yet developed. With advancing age 
as well, and wasting of the body generally, the inner lips once 
more become noticeable, as in the child. In some of the sav- 
ages of South Africa, the inner lips grow to enormous size, and 
hang down 7 or 8 inches, making what is called the "Hottentot 
apron." From disease a similar condition is occasionally en- 
countered in white women also. Obviously such a state of 
affairs must cause a great hindrance fo sexual connection, it is 
only possible with the aid of the woman, and it is impossible for 
them to be raped. In the higher apes the outer lips are small, 
but the inner ones very large, and this prevails generally in the 
African negros until it culminates in the long "apron" of some 
tribes. 
Once past the outer and inner lips, the vagina is entered, 
this means "a sheath," and is the birth canal through which the 
child travels from the womb where it has grown to the outer 
world. It is not an open passage like a gaspipe, but the walls 
are in contact more or less firmly, except when separated by 
some means, and this is the reason why erection of the male 
organ is necessary to effect entrance, though after the birth 
of a child the parts are looser than before. In length the pass- 
ageway differs considerably, depending among other things on the 
height of the individual, but an average may be said to be 3 or 
4 inches. 
The vagina runs up and back, and at its upper end sur- 
rounds the free end of the womb (uterus), which hangs down 
into the canal. A Frenchman has defined a woman as "a uterus 
waited on by other organs," but as a matter of fact, the feminine 
characteristics depend on the ovaries, as the male ones do on the 
testicles. The womb is a hollow, muscular mass, in the mid- 14 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
line, shaped a good deal like a pear (with the large end up), 
or 3 inches long, about half that in width, and nearly an inch 
thick. It is amazing to think that from this size, it will during 
pregnancy and during the short space of 10 lunar months (280 
days) grow large enough to hold an 8-, 10-, or even 12- or 15- 
pound baby with the afterbirth, and "bag of waters." Below it 
has an opening into the birth canal, and above at each corner, 
THE CONTENTS OF THE LOWER ABDOMEN IN THE FEMALE, SEEN FROM ABOVE 
U, womb. B, bladder. 
two more, leading to the tubes by which the eggs come down. 
From birth to puberty the womb is of little importance, being 
only partly developed. From puberty to the "change of life" 
(climacteric), it is on the other hand, of great importance in the 
life of the individual, especially if she gave birth to children; 
and in any event the monthly sickness proves it is actively at 
work. After the change of life it again grows unimportant, its 
work has been done, and so long as the individual survives is of 
no further use. 
The egg-tubes (Fallopian tubes, oviducts), one on each 
side, lead from the upper and outer corner of the womb to the 
egg-gland (ovary). In length they measure about 4 inches, and ANATOMY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
15 
it is interesting to find the inner surface is completely covered 
with excessively fine hairs which are in constant motion, all 
waving in the same direction as does a field of wheat when the 
wind blows over it. Now the direction in which they wave is 
WOMB CUT THROUGH TO SHOW CENTRAL CAVITY (a), AND THE MANY RECESSES 
(d) IN WHICH DISEASE MAY REMAIN 
down, so the egg once deposited in the tube continues on, aided 
by this wavy motion, to the womb. Here if fertilized by the 
male semen it remains and quickly develops into the child; if 
not fertilized it keeps up its course and is finally expelled from 
DIAGRAM OF THE WOMB AND ITS APPENDAGES (TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE) 
u, womb, with its neck, (c). v, birth-canal, od, od, oviducts by which 
the eggs from ovary reach womb. I, I, lo, three of the supports of 
womb, i, dilated end of oviduct with its fringed border (fi). o, egg- 
gland (ovary), po, cap of ovary, h, end of cap. 
the body. To prevent the egg going astray the end of each tube 
near the ovary is large and fringed, and here it is where the 
female genitals communicate with the belly cavity. (In some 
of the lower animals, such as the rat, still further precautions 
are taken, the ovary is in a sac shut off and the only opening is 16 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
through the egg-tube.) The latter, the womb itself and the 
vagina, for all practical purposes are merely subdivisions of the 
same tube for the egg to travel along. Moreover, the lining is 
continuous from the mouth of the egg-tube into the abdomen 
OVARY (egg-gland) OF FULL-GROWN DOG DIVIDED THROUGH MIDDLE 
a, y, z, covering. I, blood vessels, m, m, cap of ovary. (The rest of the 
figures point to eggs in various stages of development. Enlarged fif- 
teen times.) 
down to the external genital opening where the skin begins, a 
distance of nearly 12 inches, so disease can travel from one end 
to the other, slower or faster-according to circumstances. 
It now remains to describe the egg-glands or "ovaries," 
which are located one on each side of the womb, and are about ANATOMY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
17 
the size of an almond with its shell, or 1% inches long, ^4 wide 
and %-inch thick. These egg-glands which correspond to the 
testicle in the male, like these latter are first formed just below 
the kidney, but before birth come down, though not so far as 
the male glands, remaining inside the abdominal cavity. 
While the ovaries are of no great size, they contain many 
thousands of eggs. At birth from 35,000 to 200,000 are present, 
but when the girl becomes a woman-at puberty-only about 
30,000 remain, the balance having been used up as food for the 
others. Yet only a fraction of this large number ever becomes 
ripe and capable of growing into a child, one every 28 days 
during the sexual life of about 30 years, or say 400 in all. For 
EGG OF FOUR-FOOTED ANIMAL 
a, whole; b, burst by pressure. In both the small body enclosing a still 
smaller round body is the important part. The smallest round mass 
(c) is shown more highly enlarged in lower left-hand corner. 
EGG OF FOUR-FOOTED ANIMAL, GREATLY ENLARGED 
zp, covering of egg. vi, yolk of egg. gs, gv, kernel of yolk. 
the same number of years in the male it is estimated that the 
total number of spermatozoa may average 340 billions-in great 
contrast to the 400 eggs. Another instance of the waste by 
Mother Nature is the number of eggs laid by fish; in the cod- 
fish, for example, they are calculated to be over nine million, 
and in the sturgeon seven millions have been counted, yet of 
these almost incredible numbers only one may live to be a full- 
grown fish. 
All the eggs of four-footed animals (mammals') are very 
small; so far as known, there is comparatively little difference 18 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
in size between those of the whale and of the mouse. The 
human ovule, first seen nearly a century ago (1827), is about 
three-tenths of a millimeter (1/25-inch) wide. Differing from 
those of birds, the animal eggs have very little yolk, and as they 
are not hatched soon as in fish, etc., the growing child has to be 
nourished by the mother by way of the "afterbirth." 
The ovary-like the testicle of the male-manufactures a 
juice or "internal secretion," which governs the characters by 
which we tell a woman from a man. On account of their inces- 
sant activity the egg-glands are often the seat of tumors and 
other diseases for which they have to be taken out by doctors 
to prevent constant suffering and ill-health, or often to save life. 
In the past few years it has been found best to leave a little 
piece of the ovary, no matter how small, if it be healthy. In this 
way the woman is not unsexed. 
At the upper part of the cleft between the greater lips of 
the external genitals is a little affair, a penis in miniature, fore- 
skin and all. This is the clitoris, which in Greek means "tickler," 
and this expressive term, which is retained by the German 
language, well expresses the uses of the little organ; it is the 
principal seat of voluptuous sensation in the female sex, being 
lavishly supplied with nerves. Just below this is the outer open- 
ing of the passage from the bladder, by which urine is passed. 
Instead of being 8 or 9 inches long as in the male, it is but 1 to 
inches; for this reason stone in the bladder is not so commen 
in women. The little gravel-like stones escape by the short 
canal, before they enlarge. In conclusion it will be noticed that 
the urinary channel opens under the clitoris-does not run 
through it as in the male counterpart. 
SECONDARY SEXUAL ORGANS OF FEMALE 
The breasts (or mammary glands) are accessory organs 
connected with the reproductive system of the female. . They 
vary greatly in size in different races, and vary also in the same 
individual. Before puberty they are small and undeveloped, 
practically the same as in boys. When womanhood is entered on 
at puberty, the breasts increase in size; as a rule, quickly. They 
grow large during pregnancy, and are largest during suckling of 
the child. While the increase is probably due mostly to the 
growth of the tissue which secretes the milk, there is consider- ANATOMY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
19 
able increase of fat as well. It is, however, common for the left 
breast to be somewhat larger. In civilized races, the shape is the 
well-known hemispherical one, but with savages the shape is 
more conical and pointed. 
Each breast is made up of several lobes or divisions-15 
or 20 in all-separated by partitions. The various lobes are dis- 
BREAST DURING NURS- 
ING, DIVIDED THROUGH 
NIPPLE 
1, Fat outside breast. 
2, 12, True breast 
tissue. 3, 11, Fat 
inside breast. 4, 5, 
10, Partitions. 6, 7, 
8, Milk channels 
(or ducts). 9, Nip- 
ple. 
tinct, and the tube by which the milk escapes that is secreted by 
each lobe opens at the nipple. Around the nipple is a colored 
area of skin. 
Generally speaking, there is but one pair, though an extra 
breast or even an extra pair are not very uncommon. Bruce, 20 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
a Scotch scientist, examined 315 individuals of both sexes, 
found more than two breasts in 7.62 per cent, and, strange to say, 
these superfluous organs were more frequent in men. 
Some of the lower animals have as many as seven pairs, 
though numerous others have but one, as in mankind. When 
numerous they are arranged along the abdomen, but when only 
a single pair is present they are on the chest as in human beings. 
This latter position is supposed to be a relic of our tree-dwelling 
ancestors. Animals climbing about among the branches can 
carry their young most easily in this position without loss of 
balance. On the occasions where extra breasts are met with in 
human beings, it is interesting to find that almost without excep- 
tion they are situated along a line drawn from the armpit to the 
bone over the bladder (pubes), recalling the plan found in the 
lower animals. 
Some milk (or at least milk-like fluid) can often be squeezed 
out of the breasts of boy babies soon after birth, and about the 
time of puberty. Indeed, Sir John Franklin, the explorer, who 
perished trying to reach the North Pole, tells of seeing an Indian 
man who was able to nurse a child. 
The Hymen (or Maidenhead). This little affair has given 
rise to an enormous amount of discussion, considering its small 
size. 
It begins to be formed after the fourth month (or about 
midway between fecundation and birth of the child). While 
occasionally but slightly developed, it seems never to be actually 
absent. The usual shape is that of a ring encircling the birth- 
canal, with the opening in the middle; but it may run across like 
a band with an aperture on each side (rare) ; or may be nearly 
solid, with many small holes (very rare). Occasionally it is 
actually impermeable (rare), and produces serious consequences 
by damming up the menstrual fluid. 
As a result of the first sexual connection it is torn, and in 
due time heals with its remains made up of several small pro- 
tuberances (or "caruncles"). This primary rupture is followed 
by more or less bleeding, and is popularly looked on as a proof 
of virginity up to that time. 
However, the central opening may be large enough for 
copulation to take place without tearing it, and the hymen has 
even been found persisting after childbirth. It may also be ANATOMY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
21 
ruptured by accidents, such as falling astride a chair or other 
hard objects, breaking of pots-de-chambre, and so on. During 
the bicycle craze years ago, the high peaks of the saddles were 
blamed for its destruction; as is the present-day custom of riding 
astride man-fashion, and wearing riding breeches. 
(The only other secondary sex organ calling for notice is 
the vulvovaginal gland on each side of the external genitalia. 
While not large, averaging %-inch in length and thickness, they 
throw off a great deal of mucus during sexual excitement and 
especially during intercourse, the object being to lubricate the 
parts, and prevent injury.) CHAPTER II 
PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF THE 
REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
ER0T0GEN0US ZONES 
ANY ONE of the five senses may be the origin of sexual desire, 
principally that of touch; but the areas in which pleasurable 
feelings can be excited are very unevenly distributed. 
In the male, the only portion of the penis which is capable 
of voluptuous sensations, is the extremity (glans), this is because 
the organ is here covered only by the moist inner skin (or mucous 
membrane), and the nerves supplying the part are unusually large 
and numerous. Hence, when through accident or disease the end 
of the organ is lost, sexual gratification is abolished. 
In the female, the nerve supply to the clitoris is three or 
four times as abundant as to the penis, due regard being had as 
to the difference in size. But while there is no doubt the clitoris 
is the principal seat of the sensation in this sex, it is by no means 
the only one. Many years ago a doctor of London, England, 
became notorious by recommending amputation of the clitoris for 
fits, excessive sexual desire and so on, and performed it on a good 
many patients. Alas! he and his few imitators soon discovered 
that such amputations had no effect on the masturbation and 
other ills for which it was applied. 
The vagina (or birth canal) is another zone, also the free 
end of the womb which hangs down into that canal. It is rather 
common for some types of women to go from one doctor to 
another asking for relief from imaginary "womb troubles." Dur- 
ing the manipulations and examinations which they are subjected 
to, sexual gratification is experienced, especially if sounds or 
similar instruments are introduced into the cavity of the womb. 
But a short time is required for the doctor to ascertain there is 
nothing the matter, but after politely dismissing the patient, she 
soon consults the next physician in her neighborhood, and at 
length makes the rounds of all. 
Another zone is furnished by the lesser lips (labia minora) 
on each side of the external genitalia, these are furnished with 
22 PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
23 
veins of good size, and swell markedly during sexual excitement. 
In about one-third of the patients in hospitals and'dispensaries, 
these lips are longer, thicker and deeper in color than usual, 
which is generally regarded by medical men as the results of 
masturbation. 
The skin also, is in women, a very susceptible area, or at 
least some parts of the body covering, the breasts, nape of the 
neck. That of the palm as well, in fact we understand tickling 
of the palms is often made use of to arouse sexual desire. 
Of course, the lips are well-known zones, and a kiss is often 
the prelude to more intimate relations. From actual experiment 
it has been found that about one-half the individuals of either 
sex have more or less marked sexual desire by mechanical 
stimulation applied to the lips. 
As nerves of the animal body approach the region which 
they are to furnish with sensation they break up into various 
networks and subdivisions, so the surface of contact will be 
larger. Now it seems astonishing that one kind of these, named 
Krause's end-bulbs, which are Unusually large, should be found 
only in the lips and in the penis and clitoris. 
At the other end of the digestive tract, the outer opening 
of the bowel (anus), is an erotogenous zone-especially in chil- 
dren. It is believed the latter sometimes bring constipation on 
themselves by not attending to calls of Nature, deriving pleasure 
from the increased size of the stool, and the difficulty of voiding 
it. Scratching the anus or titillating it is resorted to by older 
individuals. 
Finally, a most powerful zone in the female is the nipple. 
This has a good deal of what is called "involuntary" muscular 
fibres in it, and under the influence of suckling, of cold-or even 
mental emotion-becomes hard (or erect). The manner in which 
this hardening (or erection) takes place is entirely different from 
that in the penis, or its analogue in the other sex, the clitoris. In 
the last two, the blood accumulates in the veins; while in the 
nipple, the little muscles shorten and thus render the nipple firm. 
During nursing the sex feeling is diminished, or more strictly 
speaking, assumes a new character. I have often heard women 
say that the first time the infant takes the breast in its mouth all 
previous sufferings are forgotten. The consensus of their state- 
ment is that nursing the child is akin to strong sexual relations, 24 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
and indeed satisfies their sexual desires more than the real act. 
(Leo M. Gartman in "Sexual Truths," by W. J. Robinson, New 
York, 1919.) 
A French author refers to an extraordinary case: A woman 
who had so much pleasure while nursing her child, that she 
endeavored to become pregnant merely to experience this pleasant 
sensation! 
SEXUAL CRAVING, URGE, LIBIDO 
The libido-or sexual urge-in the male is entirely inde- 
pendent of the manufacture of spermatozoa, for it may be present 
before puberty, or even in aged individuals who have long ceased 
to have the sperm animalcules in the seminal fluid. 
That of the female differs from that of the male in several 
respects: The sexual sphere is more extensive and more wide- 
spread. The passive attitude is apparently greater. The libido 
in the female is more intricate, is less prone to make its appear- 
ance spontaneously, and generally needs to be excited; while the 
climax or "orgasm" comes on more slowly. After the sexual 
relationship is once begun, the libido tends to increase. The desire 
appears to manifest itself at more regular intervals, that is to say 
periodic, than in the male. So there is considerable difference 
between different women, as well as in the same woman at differ- 
ent periods. Finally, and probably owing to the passive attitude 
referred to above, the female is less liable to show evidences of 
excess. 
COMPARATIVE SEXUAL DESIRES 
Which sex instinct is stronger, that of the male, or that of 
the female, asks Gartman? Taking into consideration that there 
is far more polygamy than monogamy or polyandry, one is led to 
suppose that the male sex instinct is stronger. But there is 
another side to this picture. The man's function is only impregna- 
tion; the woman's functions are menstruation, pregnancy, lacta- 
tion [suckling] and all these functions are more or less connected 
with sexual satisfaction. Comparing the time a male spends on 
his sexual activity with the time a woman spends on hers, there 
cannot be the slightest doubt that the female is far more active 
sexually than the male. (Leo M. Gartman, in "Sexual Truths," 
by W. J. Robinson, New York, 1919.) 
About as many authorities can be collected to prove the PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
25 
sexual urge is greater in men as the contrary opinion. So it is 
probable there is little or no difference. Though Tiresias, a 
famous sooth-sayer of ancient times (Greece), who claimed to 
have been a woman first then a man, decided the sex impulse in 
women is much stronger. 
SEXUAL ABERRATIONS 
There are several types of these, and the first one we refer 
to is- 
Satyriasis, or excessive sexual desire in the male. It is 
difficult, if not impossible, to draw the line between the normal 
or healthy craving (libido), and the abnormal or diseased. For 
instance, consumptive patients of either sex are notoriously prone 
to excesses, even where far advanced in the disease. 
In this affection, so called after the mythologic satyrs, the 
sexual impulse is so overwhelming, that the unfortunate patient 
has but one object in life-to gratify it. A few individuals are 
able to control themselves by sheer will-power, the rest cannot, 
and neither time, place, nor sex nor age, have any restraining 
influence. Medical literature abounds with instances of rapes by 
these frenzied individuals on aged women, on children, animals, 
even dead bodies. If no other means of satisfaction is possible, 
they resort to masturbation. 
For some reason or other this distressing malady is less com- 
mon than the next variety. For all practical purposes it is to 
be looked upon as a form of insanity, and may be produced by 
tumors, epilepsy, or other disease of the brain. 
About the only possible treatment therefore, is incarceration 
in an asylum. Sometimes the attacks have been controlled by 
bromide of potash and other drugs which lessen the irritability 
of the nervous system; but they often return, either at lesser 
intervals or in an exaggerated form, and the sole recourse is 
confinement. 
Nymphomania. Here the female sex is affected, and like 
the craze for strong drink (dipsomania), or for stealing 
(kleptomania), may come on at irregular intervals. The patients 
may have insane parents, or be afflicted with tumors or other 
diseases of the womb and the associated organs, but probably 
in most instances it is a disease of the brain itself. Since, other 
things being equal, the female is regarded as being more modest 26 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
than the male, an attack of nymphomania is apt to give rise to 
more scandal and sensation than when the stronger sex is 
attacked. 
It is quite likely the notorious Messalina, wife of the Roman 
emperor Claudius, had this form of insanity. Not content with 
a horde of paramours, she is reported to have served as in inmate 
of the brothels of the city, and at the end of her service announced 
herself as "lassata sed non satiata," (tired but not satisfied). 
The only means of cure in many cases apparently is a safe 
retreat beyond the walls of an asylum. 
Sadism. This form of perversion is characterized by the 
desire to obtain gratification through inflicting wounds on the 
partner, or else such torture is necessary before erection occurs. 
While known long before his time, it is christened after the 
Marquis de Sade, a French nobleman who lived in the 18th 
century and wrote several books praising the method in which he 
was said to be an adept. The stabbing of women with knives, 
scissors, etc., which seems to be on the increase lately in our 
large cities, especially in the darkened movie theatres, is an 
example. 
Bluebeard, beloved of our childhood days, is another one of 
this type of insanity. He was an actual individual, Gilles de 
Laval, Marshal of France. After a distinguished career in 
defense of his country, with Joan of Arc, he retired to his castle 
of Retz, and enticed over one hundred children there, murdering 
them, and having intercourse while still in their death agonies, 
and with the blood flowing. He was able to continue this for 
fourteen years, but was finally detected (1440) and burned at 
the stake. 
Masochism. Another form, but the reverse of the last, 
and named from Sacher-Masoch, an Austrian novelist who died 
not long since; he as well described the attractions of this aberra- 
tion in a series of books. Unlike sadism, the patient wishes to 
have moral degradation or actual physical pain inflicted on them- 
selves, for the purposes of preliminary excitement or as a means 
of gratification. The methods employed are generally so disgust- 
ing that they are described in chaste Latin, so we shall content 
ourselves by merely citing a mild form. Having the woman 
trample on the unclad body of the man, wearing shoes with many 
sharp nails projecting. PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 
27 
Exhibitionists. These are generally feeble-minded nr 
actually insane subjects of the male sex. The clothing is specially 
arranged so as to expose the genital organs, either by unfastening 
a flap, or by pulling back the skirts of the overcoat. The favorite 
time for this practice is dusk, or after the street lamps are lit. 
When women are given to this practice, it is generally a symptom 
of nymphomania. (Aged men are often arrested for exposing 
themselves, but here it is more likely they have merely forgotten 
to fasten their trousers after urinating.) 
Fetichism. Among savages a fetich is supposed to be the 
dwelling place of a god, and may be carried about the person, or 
hung up in the hut or any convenient place; or it may be a 
rock, a tree, a grove of trees, or some animal, such as a crocodile. 
From our point of view, a fetich is some object of wearing 
apparel used for sexual gratification, either by masturbation with 
it or in its presence, or else the securing of it affords such 
gratification. From time to time we read of women and girls 
having their shoes pulled off, or their handkerchiefs snatched by 
some man who escapes if possible. Either seminal emission takes 
place at the time of the theft, or the articles are carried home 
for employment in connection with masturbation. For that mat- 
ter, the "Jack-the-clippers" who cut off braids or locks of hair, 
are fetichists, ejaculation taking place at the moment of the 
clipping. 
Sexual Perversion. (Uranism.) This raw and not over- 
nice subject deserves but little consideration here. All the 
aberrations we have discussed so far are heterosexual-that is 
to say involving opposite sexes. In this one we have homo- 
sexuality-in other words, attraction by the same sex. The 
Biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah proves the failing is of 
ancient standing. And, long after that, the Greek poetess, Sappho 
is said to have been an addict, and in the female it is often called 
Sapphism, or-from her birthplace-Lesbian love. Defenders of 
this type are to be found also, and a German attorney who is 
reputed to have been among the leaders of his profession, wrote 
a long series of works condoning the practice, and we believe 
tried to mitigate the laws of his country punishing it. CHAPTER III 
PUBERTY 
WHAT is generally known as the age of puberty commences 
at the period when growth is approaching its limits. That 
puberty is reached, as a rule, at an earlier age in tropical than in 
temperate zones is explained by the circumstances that, in hot 
regions, there is a greater economy of heat energy, and develop- 
ment, therefore, is more rapid. But even between individuals 
living in the same climatic conditions, the rate of growth is so 
varied that it cannot be said that there is any fixed age for the 
onset of puberty. In England, what is known as the "symptoms" 
of puberty, begin to show themselves in the majority of cases as 
early as the age of twelve, while it is not unusual for the char- 
acteristic changes of puberty to be deferred until the seventeenth, 
or even the eighteenth, year. 
Puberty is that period which marks the commencing develop- 
ment of the reproductive system, although this is not fully ma- 
tured until some few years later. During the period of develop- 
ment there is, in most cases, even with men, a general instability 
of the nervous system; and this may be explained by the circum- 
stances that the sexual factor plays an extraordinarily important 
part in the production and provocation of hysterical processes. 
Sensuality as a sexual feeling is quite dormant in normally con- 
stituted children, but at the period of puberty it begins to separate 
itself from the complex of loving and respectful feelings, which 
the child experiences towards those to whom it stands in intimate 
relations, simultaneously with the sexual organs themselves. The 
awakened sensuality in a young girl is often very apparent, ex- 
pressing itself in various ways: in passionate attachment to an- 
other girl friend; in religious fervor; in enthusiastic devotion to 
an ideal. Owing to the extensive and intimate connection and 
sympathy existing between the reproductive and nervous systems, 
it is at this period of a girl's life that her parents and teachers 
should pay the most serious attention to their charge. Everything 
should be done to encourage self-restraint and interest in outside 
affairs; the young girl should not be allowed to be too much by 
herself, for introspection and idleness, above all, must be guarded 
28 PUBERTY 
29 
against. At the same time, she should not be allowed to tax 
unduly her mental or physical energies. Good and varied diet, 
and plenty of it, regular open-air exercise, combined with active 
games, are important conditions for the improvement and main- 
tenance of health. 
So far as the mind is concerned, Feldmann tells us it becomes 
altered in three directions, viz., will, intellect and the emotions. 
(A) The will, this becomes temporarily more or less unbalanced, 
resulting frequently in hysteria and other nervous and 
mental disturbances. (B) The intellect generally broadens. 
(C) The emotions like the will become more unstable, and she 
manifests a greater sense of modesty, though at the same time she 
shows a greater inclination to male company. 
In the female the changes attending the onset of puberty have 
been well described by an English author in terms substantially as 
follows: 
As puberty draws near changes both in the mental and physi- 
cal characteristics are to be observed. Mentally the girl becomes 
more shy and reserved-the "tom-boy" disappears into the Juliet; 
modesty takes the place of innocence; her outlook becomes more 
curious, and she no longer accepts everything in life at its apparent 
value. The mysterious changes taking place spread their shadow 
over the whole range of her life. Such changes in varying degree 
affect the children of the poor classes no less than those of the 
rich and educated. From time immemorial this time has been 
regarded as a critical one, and in those of sensitive nature much 
care and tact are needed lest the girls become hysterical or given to 
self-questioning. 
Other and no less remarkable changes occur in the body: 
the child becomes a woman. The first alterations to be found are 
a growth of hair low down on the abdomen and in the armpits, 
together with a gradual enlargement of the breasts, so they round 
out. Somewhat later fat begins to accumulate in certain portions 
of the body, the distinctly feminine and attractive roundness and 
plumpness. 
The changes in the reproductive organs involve the uterus and 
ovaries principally; the former grows larger and changes some- 
what in shape, the "internal secretion" of the egg-glands (ovaries) 
begins to make its effect perceptible. As for the external genitals, 
besides the hair growth, they become darker, larger, and the thin, 30 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
inner lips are now hidden, instead of being prominent as they are 
in babies and little girls. 
There is a gland on the front of the neck, which when en- 
larged forms the well-known goiter. At puberty this becomes 
naturally rather increased in size in both sexes. The heart grows 
larger with age, and increases some 6 to 7 per cent, annually; at 
puberty, however, it takes a sudden jump, in both sexes again, 
and grows about threefold. 
The reproductive glands begin to manufacture their charac- 
teristic products-spermatozoa and eggs, for the male and female 
respectively, but besides these "external" secretions as they may 
be called, we have equally important "internal" secretions, to which 
we have already referred under Anatomy of the Reproductive 
Organs. There are many differences of mind and body between 
the sexes, which are called "secondary," such-for example-as 
the growth of the beard in the male, and the enlargement of the 
breasts in the female, and all such secondary manifestations of 
sex are due to the internal secretions poured into the blood. It is 
important to note that such secretions are formed in entirely dif- 
ferent parts of the testicles or ovaries from those producing the 
sex-cells-the spermatozoa or eggs as the case may be. 
THE PROCESS OF MENSTRUATION 
The first appearance of the discharge of mucus and blood 
from the vulva-which discharge is termed menses, catamenia, 
and the process with which it is associated, menstruation-may be 
said to mark the onset of puberty, although, in this connection, it 
may be remarked that, several years ago, at one of Barnum's 
"Baby Shows," there was shown a little girl not quite three years 
of age who "menstruated regularly." 
The term menstruation includes that of ovulation, which is 
the evolution of a germ-cell, egg, or ovum, from its ovarian bed, 
and its passage through the uterine system. But the development 
of germ-cells does not begin, as is popularly supposed, with the 
first appearance of the catamenial flow; the continual rupture of 
ovisacs and the discharge of the contained ova occurs through- 
out childhood, ovarian vesicles being known to exist even in the 
human fetus. That the ova evolved during childhood are capa- 
ble of being fertilized and of developing is evidenced by the many PUBERTY 
31 
cases of girl-wives in India who have become mothers before 
they menstruated. 
There is a good deal of popular misconception concerning the 
nature of menstruation. Some women often insist that "they 
never menstruate," others have been heard to declare that they 
"menstruate during pregnancy." Of course, in all such cases, 
the mistake is made of confounding the flow of blood and mucus, 
which in the majority of cases accompanies menstruation, as the 
process itself. It must be understood that menstruation is 
neither more nor less than ovulation-the periodic passage of the 
unfertilized ovum from the ovary to the vulva, and that the flow 
of blood and mucus is merely an accompaniment, an anomaly that 
has come to be the habit of woman in consequence of the deleteri- 
ous effects of civilized life. It is well known that the healthier a 
woman is, the less quantity of blood she discharges at the 
menstrual period. 
But we must defer explanation of this appearance of blood 
and mucus simultaneously with the periodic discharge of the ova 
until we have seen what constitutes the process proper of men- 
struation. 
THE MENSTRUAL DISCHARGE 
(Monthlies; Monthly Flow; Periods; Monthly Sickness; The 
Flowers; Being Unwell.) 
This periodic discharge is not confined to the human female 
alone, it is also met with in monkeys, as has been known for 
hundreds of years. From the earliest ages this mysterious flow 
has been looked on with wonder, naturally the first supposition 
was women were unclean at this time, and among many tribes, 
as our Indians, were obliged to dwell apart in specially-con- 
structed wigwams or huts. 
Again, some noxious influence was believed to emanate from 
them. Thus Pliny, the old Roman naturalist (in the first cen- 
tury of our era), wrote: "On the approach of a woman in this 
state, seeds which are touched become sterile, the grass withers 
away, plants in the garden are parched up, and if she sits beneath 
a fruit tree, the fruit will fall off." While long after him, the 
church councils of Nice (A. D. 325), and Laodicea (A. D. 364), 
issued decrees to the effect that during menstruation women 32 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
could not enter or even approach churches, much less partake of 
holy communion. 
Nearly all the ancient Oriental peoples thought it a purifying 
excretion, and came to the consequent conclusion that the men- 
struating woman was unclean. The old Parsees confined her, 
while a perusal of the fifteenth chapter of Leviticus will show 
the degree of horror with which the Jews regarded her. Not 
only was she to be put apart for seven days, but whosoever came 
in contact with her, or with anything she had touched, was also 
declared unclean. The legacy of this mistaken opinion of the 
nature of the menses had a characteristic effect upon the minds 
of the writers of the Middle Ages. To their frenzied supersti- 
tion the menstrual blood appeared as something dreadfully poison- 
ous, while the menstruating woman was regarded as a very 
dangerous person; did she breathe on a knife, its edge would be 
blunted; her presence drove dogs mad, interfered with the fer- 
mentation of new wine-a superstition still existing in some wine- 
growing districts; leprosy was supposed to result from inter- 
course with her. The idea of the uncleanness of the menstrual 
discharge still lingers; abstention from intercourse with a woman 
during her monthly periods is still considered to be a hygienic 
necessity. 
The French lady physiologist, Madame Bovin, who had 
facilities for investigating the subject of menstruation, denied 
to her male contemporaries, demonstrated that, as regards the 
blood which accompanies the menstrual discharge, this is nothing 
else than hemorrhage, being ordinary venous blood, more or less 
decomposed according to the time it is retained in the generative 
passages. As to the question why there should be hemorrhage as 
an accompaniment of menstruation, we cannot do better than 
quote the argument advanced by Dr. Trail, on pages 59 and 60 
of his "Sexual Physiology": "Why should there be hemorrhage 
as an accompaniment or incident of menstruation. A reference 
to the nature of the process will set this matter in its true light. 
All organs whose functions are performed periodically - for 
example: the ovaries during ovulation, the male organs during 
coition, the breasts during lactation, and the stomach during 
digestion-have a special determination of blood and nervous 
influence to the part when the function is to be exercised. This 
is clearly for the purpose of supplying the part with the material PUBERTY 
33 
requisite for the proper performance of its function. In the case 
of digestion the increased quantity of blood sent to the stomach 
is to supply the material more abundantly for the secretion of 
gastric juice. In sexual congress the blood is specially deter- 
mined to the organs concerned in secreting the seminal fluid and 
conveying it within the sexual organism of the female. In lacta- 
tion the determination of blood to the mammary glands is for 
the purpose of supplying the parts with the material from which 
the milk is formed. And in menstruation the special determina- 
tion of blood and nerve force (which are always coincident) is 
to furnish the elements for the evolution of the germ and its 
nourishment. A certain degree of distention, congestion, plethora 
or 'erethism,' is necessary to distend the capillary vessels, so that 
the fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube may grasp more 
completely the matured ovum, and insure its passage to the 
uterus: and if the ovum in its passage becomes impregnated and 
fixed to the walls of any part of the reproductive channel, the 
unusual quantity of blood, or some portion of it, is needed to 
supply the elements for its nourishment and growth, and for the 
development of its appendages-the membranes and placenta. In 
some cases the blood, after imparting the nutrient materials 
required, is wholly returned to the general circulation, so that no 
hemorrhage occurs. But, in most cases, more or less of it is 
effused into the uterine cavity and expelled per vaginam." 
Dr. Trail is of opinion that if women were more vigorous and 
firm in their muscular tissue, they would lose far less blood than 
is commonly the case, not only during menstruation, but also at 
parturition. He speaks of instances of women, married and 
single, who hardly stained their linen at the menstrual periods, 
and remarks that all of these women enjoyed unusually excellent 
health. "Women," he says, "who live a more simple life, and 
are less enervated by the luxuries and stimulants of artificial 
society, even though they are exposed to excessive toil and many 
hardships and privations, have comparatively few of the sexual 
disorders common to women all over the civilized world, and 
they lose comparatively but little blood during menstruation." 
It is generally held that the mucous discharges with the blood 
is due to the shedding of the mucous membrane of the uterus. 
This view, however, is opposed by many physiologists, who are of 
opinion that this mucus is "a product of inflammation, analogous 34 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
to that which occurs in croup, diphtheria, tubular diarrhea, and 
catarrh of the bladder." We venture to quote Dr. Trail again, 
he being a supporter of this view: "In cases of dysmenorrhea 
. . . the mucous membrane is in a state of chronic inflamma- 
tion, and exudes or excretes (not secretes) with other impurities 
or effete matters, a fibrinous material-a kind of vitiated coagu- 
able lymph-which, concreting and hardening, becomes a preter- 
natural membranous covering. Sooner or later it is 'cast off,' 
and expelled by the process of sloughing, precisely as happens on 
all mucous surfaces under similar conditions of disease. Some- 
times this membrane is cast off from the whole inner surface of 
the uterus, in the form of an entire sac or cyst containing a viscid 
fluid (which has been mistaken for abortion) ; but more fre- 
quently it is expelled in fragments of great or less consistency 
or tenacity. Females who suffer severely of that form of mis- 
menstruation, termed dysmenorrhea, or painful menstruation, 
expel this membranous matter from the uterus at each menstrual 
period. The pains attending the uterine efforts in the expulsion 
of this abnormal product are frequently agonizing, far exceeding 
in intensity the severest pains of ordinary labor at full term." 
The direct cause of menstruation is not yet settled, but the 
generally-accepted opinion is that it is connected with the escape 
of the egg. If the latter is not fertilized it is flushed out by the 
menstrual fluid. When, on the other hand, a new life is being 
formed, no flow occurs again, as a rule, till after the child is 
born. At about the time when the flow is due to begin, the blood 
vessels of the womb become full of blood, and the moist lining 
of that organ swells up. Some blood escapes from the distended 
vessels into the hollow of the womb, thence externally through 
the birth-canal. When we cut the skin covering of our bodies, 
the blood which pours out, hardens or "clots" as the doctors say. 
Menstrual blood never does, the reason being it is mixed with 
slime (mucus) from the womb itself and the vagina, or birth- 
canal. 
Adolescence in the female is evidenced by the onset of the 
menstrual flow. The age at which this is first noticed differs 
somewhat with the climate, the height above sea-level, etc., though 
the difference is not so marked as was thought at one time. The 
average for hot climates is from 11 to 14 years, and for cold 
ones, 15 to 18. For those between these extremes-or temperate 35 
PUBERTY 
climates-it is from 13 to 16. Of 6,550 cases some 1,193 occurred 
at 14 years, and 1,240 at 15 years. Many cases are known of 
the onset at an extremely early age-3 or 4 years, or even earlier, 
but such instances are due to the presence of tumors or some 
other disease condition. 
Among the poorer classes of the population menstruation may 
be said to make its appearance later, on the average, than in 
people of easy circumstances. While owing to the hard labor and 
insufficient food, the change of life comes on earlier than in their 
well-to-do sisters. 
In savage races, the onset is celebrated by more or less feast- 
ing by the family, and the costume or ornaments usually worn 
by the women of the tribe is assumed. 
Only about 10 per cent of the Eskimo women menstruate 
during the winter months, when the sun is away. When it 
reappears they pass through a period of great excitement sexually, 
resembling that of "heat" in lower animals, and Arctic explorers 
confess that their attentions at this time are very embarrassing. 
Once started the flow continues for 30 years or so. In 500 
German women the most frequent duration was 32 years; in 
one-half the total number it ranged from 27 to 34 years, or an 
average of about 30. In a like number of English women the 
average was 31.8 years. 
Menstruation comes from a Latin word which means "a 
month," and it is not surprising to find that it returns every 
month, not a calendar month, however, but a lunar month or 
every 28 days. In some it occurs more often, every 21 or 23 
days; but in most instances it is of the "28-day type" so-called. 
The flow lasts for about 3 to 4 days, gradually growing less until 
the blood is replaced by a slight amount of mucus, and then 
ceases for nearly 4 weeks. According to an English physician 
(Herman), the 28 days are divided into stages as follows: Pre- 
menstrual swelling and congestion, 7 days; actual flow, 4 days; 
post-menstrual subsidence, 7 days; stage of rest, 10 days. 
Instead of the "28-day type" women may menstruate only 
every 5 weeks; or more frequently, once in 3 weeks. If unaccom- 
panied by any other symptom, this irregularity is no reason for 
undue anxiety. Indeed there is generally some irregularity for 
a time after the flow is established at puberty, before the custo- 
mary routine is entered on. Women with some disease of the 36 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
generative organs, especially tumors situated in the thickness of 
the womb, are subject to the discomfort and pain such as they 
experience at the regular period, but coming on halfway between. 
This is the "middle-pain" of the European authors, by whom it 
was recognized. 
As regards the amount lost at each period, this varies from 
an ounce up to nearly a pint. 
A few lucky women feel better than usual at the time of this 
monthly flow, but most of the sex are depressed mentally as well 
as physically. They are fretful and irritable, and much subject 
to headaches. There is also considerable heaviness and discom- 
fort low down in the abdomen. 
In fact, the body as a whole seems to be upset. While the 
extremities are chilly or cold, there may be hot flushes in other 
parts. "Fever blisters" are common about the lips, and elsewhere 
on the body, nettle-rash and many other skin affections. Palpita- 
tion and changes in the pulse show the effect on the heart, while 
that on the stomach and bowels is evidenced by impaired or lost 
appetite, vomiting, gas accumulating in the bowels, with consti- 
pation or diarrhea, or one alternating with the other. Concern- 
ing the organs of the senses-there may be impairment of vision 
and difficulty in distinguishing colors. Hearing may also be more 
dull; the voice cords often swell so much the voice for singers is 
changed, and vocalists may be unable to carry on their singing. 
Theoretically it would be ideal if the woman could rest dur- 
ing the whole of the menstrual period. This, of course, is out 
of the question in most cases. 
A few hints may not be out of place here to lessen the incon- 
veniences : There is, as a rule, considerable antipathy to any 
undue exertion of body or mind, and this should be assisted 
insofar as it does not conflict with the daily affairs of a healthful 
life. There is no restriction as to diet, thought it is essential 
meals be taken at regular intervals. Plenty of sleep is likewise 
necessary, and outdoor exercise should not be curtailed. 
There is a great deal of misconception in the popular mind 
about the question of bathing during the menstrual period. No 
fear whatever need be entertained, provided the baths are not cold. 
On the contrary, warm or hot baths can be restorted to, a sponge- 
bath, in other words. And the external genitals should be sponged 
off with warm water every day-or preferably twice daily-in PUBERTY 
37 
addition to promoting cleanliness and absence of odor, these local 
ablutions allay irritation. So soon as the flow is over it is well 
to flush out the birth-canal by means of a douche, this prevents 
any remnants of the flow being left behind to decompose and 
set up irritation. 
Exercise must be moderate and not violent. As already 
remarked, the womb is full of blood at this time, and heavier 
than between periods-consequently there is some probability 
that undue exercise may give rise to displacements of the womb, 
a most prolific source of feminine ailments. 
Dancing comes in the class of "violent" exercises, and it is 
almost incredible that misguided young women should tamper 
with their future well-being by placing the feet in cold water, 
thus checking the flow to enable them to attend dancing parties. 
Irregularities in the flow may be divided into four groups: 
Flow scanty, altogether absent, too great, and painful. 
Scanty, the causes and symptoms of this variety are just 
about the same as the next group- 
Total absence may happen from many causes-leaving out 
some obvious ones, such as lack of the uterus or ovaries, preg- 
nancy, change of life, or after surgical operations which tall 
for cutting away of the organs, it may follow fevers, consump- 
tion, the "green sickness." Occasionally there is some deformity, 
such as a tough hymen with no opening in it, and often such 
membranes have been cut by the doctor letting many ounces of 
thick, tarry blood escape. Change of climate often has much 
influence and newly-arrived emigrants may be irregular for a 
long time, or see no flow whatever. American women, on the 
contrary, during a European tour may be equally irregular. It 
must be confessed, however, that oftentimes no cause whatever 
can be discovered, even after a most painstaking examination. 
While suppression during pregnancy is customary, exceptions are 
by no means uncommon. One or two periods may appear after 
conception takes place, or the flow may return while the woman 
is still nursing her child, and in a few queer individuals, men- 
struation and pregnancy occur before the child is weaned. 
In striking contrast to the group just considered is the one in 
which the flow is profuse. Here we are dealing, as a general 
thing, with some diseased condition of the womb. Occasionally 
it is produced by causes elsewhere, which in turn produce in- 38 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
creased accumulation of blood in the womb, by slowing the blood 
current, heart and liver disease, constipation, etc. 
There is no strict rule, what may be profuse for one patient 
is customary with another, or possibly not so much. The amount 
of the flow itself may be increased or the duration of the period. 
As already observed, the discharge during menstruation remains 
fluid, if solid pieces (clots) are passed it is a sign of some dis- 
turbance, and medical advice should be sought as quickly as 
possible. 
Besides a profuse flow at the usual time of the period, there 
may be bleeding at other times of the month as well, this too 
indicates some disease of major importance to be looked after 
without delay. 
We have seen that the everyday form of menstruation is 
attended by more or less discomfort, but when this increases to 
such an extent as to merit the name "pain," we are dealing with 
the fourth group or-to use a scientific word occasionally- 
dysmenorrhea. In addition to the sharp pain like neuralgia, the 
woman for days following the period may be weak and worn-out. 
Each return of the period is looked forward to with dread and 
fear. Sometimes the lining of the womb is expelled in shreds, or 
in a little bag, a complete cast of the interior. 
The agony suffered is such that the wretched women are 
actually beside themselves, and several years ago, one in Chicago 
after killing a small boy of the neighborhood who was annoying 
her by his juvenile noise, set up this painful menstruation as her 
defense and was duly acquitted. 
Instead of bleeding from the womb, it has been claimed this 
may take place from various unexpected localities-the breasts, 
lips, lungs, from the common "piles," and from wounds or old 
sores (ulcers). It is also alleged to come from the nose, but 
bleeding here is somewhat common with the usual flow from the 
womb. A great many of these unusual cases were reported long 
ago when doctors were not so critical as they are at present, and 
nowadays the tendency is to look with suspicion on them, generally 
as an evidence of hysteria in women who desire to attract atten- 
tion to themselves. Though to be sure in a case here in Chicago 
last year in which the bleeding seemed to come from the armpits, 
any collusion of the patient was prevented, yet it could not be 
proved to be blood. PUBERTY 
39 
CHLOROSIS 
Chlorosis is a special form of essential anemia. The symp- 
toms are similar, and it is benefited by the same therapeutic 
measures. But chlorosis, or "green sickness," may be distinguished 
from the other anemias in that it has a special relation to the 
reproductive organs. Moreover, it is questionable whether it ever 
appears at all in the male sex. Chlorosis shows itself soon after 
puberty is reached. Girls who are ill-fed and ill-housed, debarred 
from sunlight, fresh air and exercise, usually fall victims to this 
disease. Breathlessness, heart palpitations, irregularity of the 
menstrual periods, inflammatory affections of the genitals, gastric 
pains, sickness and vomiting after meals, are among the more 
general symptoms. The complexion acquires a sickly yellow- 
green tinge, the lips become bloodless. The patient suffers much 
from dizziness, while apathy, general depression, mental heavi- 
ness and stupidity are features which sometimes become quite 
marked. 
As to the question whether chlorotic women should marry, 
we beg leave to quote Prof. H. Rosin, of Berlin, who is an 
acknowledged authority on diseases of the blood: "Since chlorosis 
generally begins about the time of sexual maturity, and lasts for 
many years, resisting all treatment, chlorotic patients or their 
parents may often find themselves confronted with the question 
whether marriage is in their case permissible or desirable. The 
medical man also has often occasion to ask himself whether girls 
suffering from chlorosis may marry without injury to their 
health, without detriment to the eventual offspring, and without 
disadvantage to their married life. We may perhaps answer this 
question in the following manner: Where the female concerned 
is still very young, every possible attempt must be made to cure 
the disease before marriage is entered into. Experience shows 
that the majority of cases of chlorosis are cured before the age 
of twenty, especially if the proper treatment is instituted. It is 
not, however, possible always to wait till a cure has been accom- 
plished; a somewhat advanced age, the prospect of a happy 
marriage, an existing engagement, and other circumstances, ren- 
der sometimes a quick decision necessary. We must therefore 
rely to a great extent upon what we know from experience, 
namely, that very often, perhaps as a rule, chlorosis disappears 40 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
completely in young married women soon after their marriage, 
and especially with the beginning of pregnancy. The relations 
of chlorosis to the genital function receive in this way further 
confirmation through the favorable results achieved by a regu- 
lated married life. The doctor may therefore not only give his 
consent to the marriage of a chlorotic young women where suit- 
able treatment has been either impossible or unsuccessful, but 
he may in certain circumstances actually recommend it. It must 
not, however, be forgotten that there are now and then cases of 
chlorosis which are not benefited by marriage, though it must 
remain an open question whether they are real cases of chlorosis, 
and whether there are any chlorotic married women at all. The 
probability is that they ought to be reckoned among the cases of 
constitutional anaemia." 
SEMINAL EMISSIONS 
These may occur either at night or in the daytime. The 
first way is by far the more common, whence they are usually 
called "wet dreams." While often referred to as "pollutions," 
this is an exceedingly inappropriate term, there is nothing pollut- 
ing about the occurrence, any more than evacuating the bladder 
or the bowels. After the age of puberty in the male, when the 
fluids which are discharged with the seminal fluid are not evacu- 
ated by the way of copulation, they make their way out at more 
or less frequent intervals, and-as just stated-generally at night. 
(It is probably not generally known that in hanging, either by 
suicide or by judicial execution, there is always an escape of the 
seminal fluid.) 
Such perfectly natural discharges are one of the principal 
items of the stock-in-trade of the "lost manhood," "nervous 
debility" and other quack-advertising doctors. As a matter 
of fact they should be looked on as a sign of health, not of dis- 
ease. There is no fear of insanity hovering over one, it is espe- 
cially necessary to note the really important juice manufactured 
by the testicles, the "internal" secretion is not lost, but is saved 
for the needs of the body. The only one escaping is the external 
one, sometimes containing spermatozoa. 
Curling, a London surgeon, told of a pitiful occurrence, an 
apprentice who lived with his master was upbraided so much by 
the latter's wife for soiling the bedclothes, that in despair he PUBERTY 
41 
took a razor and cut off both testicles, nearly bleeding to death 
before being discovered. Origen, the holy Christian father of 
the third century, performed the same mutilation but from a 
different motive. Owing to a misinterpretation of that passage 
in Holy Writ (St. Matthew, xix, 12) : 
"For there some eunuchs which were born from their 
mother's womb; and there are some eunuchs which were made 
eunuchs of men; and there be eunuchs which have made them- 
selves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able 
to receive it, let him receive it." 
So far as frequency is concerned, they may occur often for 
a week or so, then several weeks may go by without any at all, 
to be succeeded by another series close together. Or, they may 
take place at fairly regular intervals. An English observer 
thought so much of his fellowman that he noted the dates of the 
discharges in his own case for a total of 8 years, and found 
they averaged 37 a year. In three other individuals they occurred 
once a week; three times a month, and once a month; and as the 
whole four were engaged in intellectual work-were probably 
more common than if occupied with manual labor. 
When boys near the age at which this natural function is 
likely to begin, they should be informed about it, and that they 
need not and must not worry about it. If not instructed needless 
alarm is often excited, sometime as much so as in young girls 
who are left in ignorance about their monthly periods. 
To prevent too-frequent discharges a few simple precautions 
are useful: Drinking water, ginger-ale and other soft drinks late 
in the evening is not good, the bladder becomes full and may 
press on the little sacs or storehouses of fluid under it. Nor is 
it well to lie on the back while asleep, and to prevent this it may 
be necessary to tie a knot in a towel and fasten the knot over the 
back; or some hard object like a small ball may be used for the 
same purpose. 
Seminal losses in the daytime may occur instead of those at 
night, or in addition to them. They are less common than the 
nocturnal variety, and in many instances the fluid forced out by 
the passage of a hard stool, etc., is from the prostate or urethra 
(prostatorrhea, or urethrorrhea). Nevertheless, if the seminal 
fluid does actually escape during the day, there is something 
wrong and good medical advice should be sought. CHAPTER IV 
CONTINENCE 
IN the consideration of this subject, as a German writer points 
out, the champions of the strictest sexual prohibition are often 
of the age when a man's thoughts are no longer troubled by 
sensuality. 
Tannenbaum enumerates the great variety of opinions held on 
this subject by some modern writers: 
(1) Abstinence is harmless. (13 authors). 
(2) Is harmful in some cases. (3). 
(3) Though harmless, normal intercourse is preferable. (1). 
(4) It leads to masturbation, but is preferable to venereal 
diseases. (1). 
(5) It prevents venereal disease. (2). 
(6) Is harmless up to the age of 30, but after that it tends 
to produce psychic anomalies. (2). 
(7) It leads to masturbation and hysteria in some cases. (1). 
(8) Is incompatible with health. (1). 
(9) Leads to unnatural practices. (1). 
(10) It improves the will-power. (1). 
(11) Is good up to the age of 25. (2). 
(12) Is harmless up to the age of 25. (1). 
(13) Is beneficial at all ages and conserves the energies. (1). 
(14) Neither normal nor beneficial, and as a rule leads to 
masturbation. (1). 
(15) Harmful after 20 and may cause serious disturbances, 
besides impairing the capacity for work. (1). 
He also remarks that one of the best-established results of 
modem research is the fact that the sexuality of different indi- 
viduals varies. Just as people vary as to the quantity of food, 
sleep, drink or rest that their constitutions require, so do they 
vary as to the quantity of sexual indulgence. Some are content 
with coitus once a week or once a fortnight; others require it 
much oftener. 
We shall introduce first some arguments for-then some 
against the practice of continence, and begin with a famous Eng- 
42 CONTINENCE 
43 
lish physician, a specialist in nervous diseases, who years ago 
(1892) wrote- 
"With all the force that any knowledge I posssess, and any 
authority I have, can give, I assert that no man ever yet was in 
the slightest degree or way the worse for continence or better 
for incontinence. From the latter all are worse morally; a clear 
majority are worse physically; and in no small number the result 
is, and ever will be, utter physical shipwreck on one of the many 
rocks, sharp, jagged-edged, which beset the way, or in one of the 
many beds of festering slime which no care can possibly avoid." 
Next in point of time comes Carpenter- 
"After all, purity (in the sense of continence) is of the first 
importance to boyhood. To prolong the period of continence in 
a boy's life is to prolong the period of growth. This is a simple 
physiologic law, and a very obvious one; and, whatever other 
things may be said in favor of purity, it remains, perhaps, the 
most weighty. To introduce sensual and sexual habits-and one 
of the worst of them is self-abuse-at an early age, is to arrest 
growth, both physical and mental. And what is even more, it 
means to arrest the capacity for affection. All experience shows 
the early outlet toward sex cheapens and weakens affectional 
capacity." 
Another specialist for nervous diseases-Nacke-found the 
inmates of insane asylums are not unfavorably affected by con- 
tinence, which in their case is obligatory. He adds that continence 
can have but infrequent unfavorable effects, and even if these do 
occur they are of mild degree. He does not believe that con- 
tinence is apt to give rise to insanity even though there is some 
family predisposition, on the other hand, he denies that mastur- 
bation or sexual excess can produce it either (Archiv f. Krim. 
Anthropol., 1903). 
We have frequent occasion to quote Michels, and do so with 
great pleasure for several reasons: While professor in a Swiss 
university he occupies a similar position in one at Turin, and is 
thoroughly familiar with the sexual life of Italy. He is not a 
physician, but the best type of educated layman, studying the 
question from the social and psychologic standpoint. As regards 
continence, he writes: 
The female has natural sexual needs just as much as the 
male. The male is apt to insist that his own unbridled sexuality 44 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
before and during marriage is the necessary outcome of his sexual 
needs; but he goes on to forbid it to women-at any rate to those 
of his own class and within his own circle-an unbridled sexuality 
similar to his own, on the pretext that in them sexual needs are 
non-existent, or if existent have an intensity enormously inferior 
to those of men. 
Pre-conjugal continence on the part of the male, he adds, is 
eminently desirable on grounds alike of individual and racial 
hygiene. Some contend that for the sake of the young wife, at 
least during the early days of marriage, it is eminently desirable 
the husband should be one who has already acquired confidence 
and experience in this department of life. In this way, we are 
told, the young woman's nervous susceptibilities will be spared, 
and her initiation to sexual enjoyment will be facilitated. Some 
go so far as to maintain that it is the moral duty of the future 
husband towards the future wife to seek preliminary initiation 
with the women of the market-place. In the author's view this 
can only be regarded as an unworthy subterfuge, as an attempt 
to find specious moral grounds for profoundly immoral conduct. 
An objection worthy of more attention is the contention that 
sexual abstinence in young men entails serious physical dangers. 
But without going so far as to join Burger in his enthusiastic 
contention that sexual abstinence is the source of all energy and 
all health, I believe we are justified in concluding, as a result of 
personal experience and observation, supported by the views of 
certain specialists, that men are able to renounce sexual gratifica- 
tion without serious physiological consequences. But even if it 
were scientifically proved that sexual abstinence is physiologically 
harmful, we must never lose sight of the fact that these harmful 
results in no way outbalance those which are the outcome of pre- 
conjugal sexual indulgence-as we learn from statistical inquiries 
into the prevalence of venereal diseases. These maladies are so 
common and their effects are so disastrous that it would be 
absurd to assume that the injurious results of abstinence to the 
individual and collective life, incapable as these are of being 
measured in precise figures, can possibly have a widespread cor- 
rupting and physically deleterious influence in any way com- 
parable to the recorded results of extra-conjugal sexual inter- 
course. 
In thus insisting on the need for a higher ideal of masculine CONTINENCE 
45 
chastity, it is far from being the intention to pass judgment from 
a superior moral altitude upon that which elderly men, with a 
regretful memory of the splendors of their past, affect to speak 
of as "the sins of youth." Nor is it necessary to condemn the 
youth whose sexual passion has overwhelmed him amid the storms 
of the senses, so that he has found it impossible to preserve intact 
the purity of his childhood. 
But I hold that it is a praiseworthy action for a young man 
to preserve for his wife the first freshness of his sexual emotions; 
and I feel moved to condemn the stupid dissipation of sexual 
energies on the part of so many of our young men, influenced 
as they are by a perverse convention which maintains, with cour- 
age worthy of a better cause, that youth must sow its wild oats, 
and influenced also by the strange medical doctrine that he who 
fails to satisfy his sexual needs with clockwork regularity is a 
necessary prey to the most varied disorders of body and mind. 
Now for some arguments against continence: 
Johannes Duck (in "Sexual Truths," by W. J. Robinson, 
New York, 1919): 
From 122 men asked how they felt in regard to abstinence, 
the following answers were received: Eighteen stood it easily; 
54 bore it only with difficulty; 31 stated they did not abstain; 19 
either failed to answer or gave evasive replies. Of the 62 whose 
testimony is of value, we find 12 indifferent to the sexual urge 
to 50 who felt it strongly. 
Some 42 women asked similarly, returned the following 
answers: Eight abstinence easy; 21 difficult; 3 no abstinence; 
10 no answer or evasive, or five women unaffected and nineteen 
affected by the sexual urge. 
Fritz Wittels (in "Sexual Truths," by W. J. Robinson, New 
York, 1919) : Partisans of prematrimonial continence recom- 
mend the practice of sports as a derivative. This may hold good 
in bourgeois circles, but what of the thousands who are being 
treated in free clinics for venereal diseases, though they work 
themselves to death in factories or mines? Sports may be help- 
ful to those who wear out the carpets in the reception rooms of 
physicians, for bureaucrats and idlers. An athlete dead-tired 
after a period of training, a cavalry officer who has exhausted 
ten mounts, fall into bed and do not think of woman. In fact 
they think of nothing whatsoever, they become stupid animals 46 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
and nobody will eulogize football champions as the ornaments of 
the race. 
"Abstinence," according to Lallemand, "causes a general 
irritability of the entire organism, which may appear as erotic 
delirium. I do not here (in "Des Pertes Seminales," Paris, 
1839-42) need to remind my readers of the many different symp- 
toms due to abstinence, of the tortures to which some people have 
submitted themselves to evade its violence and persistency, of the 
crimes which have been committed from insanity caused by it, 
etc. It is evident that a prolonged abstinence is impossible for 
those who possess strong sexual organs, without causing great 
suffering to themselves and even certain dangers to the com- 
munity." 
Lallemand further proves how those who easily stay abstinent 
are men without sexual instinct. This experienced physician also 
declares: "strong moral, religious principles from childhood, good 
examples, etc., are usually considered reasons for chastity, but, 
although I admit the beneficial influence of a good education, 
gymnastics, etc., there has been something else which has made 
abstinence simple for certain men, viz.: lacking irritability of the 
sexual organs. 
"Everyday occurrences prove that moral and religious men 
of a stronger constitution hasten to marry, as the only way of 
escaping the temptations of those who try to resist them and 
regret their giving way to them." 
Lallemand further wrote: "I am aware that one may men- 
tion people who live abstemiously without injury to their health, 
but who know their most intimate secrets ? Many of the sufferers 
of whom I have spoken have been considered healthy. Do not 
be deceived; their health is often only seeming; the least causes 
disturb it and relatives and friends are ignorant of the real origin 
of the many ailments of which they complain. The physician 
very often knows even as little as the sufferer himself how to 
relieve his condition." 
Robinson himself writes: 
The preaching of abstinence up to the date of marriage, no 
matter how late that may take place, is bound to increase the sum 
total of our sexual misery. It is bound to make us as a nation 
impotent, neurasthenic, neurotic and perverted. If we want to 
escape the sexual misery, to diminish its amount, we must remove CONTINENCE 
47 
the obstacles from the normal satisfaction of the sexual instinct. 
The shackles which have been put upon the most important instinct 
should be broken. Sex relations should be made easier and not 
harder. Every young man should be fully instructed in the use 
of the most efficient venereal prophylactics, as well as in the use 
of the most harmless and efficient measures for the prevention of 
conception. And the moderate, normal satisfaction of the sexual 
instinct should be considered not a reprehensible thing, but com- 
mendable and desirable. Only then can we hope to avoid a great 
deal of the sexual misery that is now overwhelming m^pkind, 
only then can we hope to develop a sane, healthy, normal, vigorous 
and virile race. 
Finally there is no drug or medicine known by which "the 
passion" can be kept down, and continence made easier. 
Nystrom concludes that it is desirable that continence 
should be preserved as long as possible in order to strengthen the 
physical health and to develop the intelligence and character. The 
doctrine of permanent sexual abstinence, however, he regards as 
entirely false, except in the case of a small number of religious 
or philosophic persons. "Complete abstinence during a long 
period of years cannot be borne without producing serious results 
both on the body and the mind. . . . Certainly, a young man 
should repress his sexual impulses as long as possible and avoid 
everything that may artificially act as a sexual stimulant. If, 
however, he has done so, and still suffers from unsatisfied normal 
sexual desires, and if he sees no possibility of marriage within a 
reasonable time, no one should dare to say that he is committing 
a sin if, with mutual understanding, he enters into sexual relations 
with a woman friend, or forms temporary sexual relationships, 
provided, that is, that he takes the honorable precaution of beget- 
ting no children, unless his partner is entirely willing to become 
a mother, and he is prepared to accept all the responsibilities of 
fatherhood. 
And lastly, Howard, in Sex Problems Solved, says that 
"when strong sex feelings are suppressed through a period of 
years and are gradually working upward to the upper conscious, 
the impulse for relief becomes overpowering. In the cases of 
unmarried women, neglected married women and widows, self- 
relief is resorted to as the only possible way of acquiring peace of 
mind and quiet of body. 48 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
"This is neither a sin nor crime under forced abstinence; it 
is as old as the living world. The women who occasionally 
relieve themselves by manual methods are not morally twisted 
nor in any removed from the norm; they simply have a constant 
or periodic, generally the latter, physiological hunger which must 
be satisfied. They have not been taught that there is a way for 
them to switch this hunger or impulse into other forms of expres- 
sion through work that will occupy the mind, satisfy in a healthful 
manner natural cravings and give them the pleasure of knowing 
that they are really doing good to humanity. 
"It is scarcely necessary to state that self-relief, if kept up 
for a long period, does affect the ethical standard of the women. 
It weakens self-respect and produces a state of introspection of 
the wrong sort. From a purely physiological standpoint it is not 
as harmful as in the male. Of course, in the girl and young 
woman the practice is reprehensible and demonstrates a defect 
in character; especially some mental defect of an acquired char- 
acter. As a rule, this baneful habit in young women was started 
in childhood through instruction and suggestion of an older girl: 
generally one of the born defectives whose personal charms and 
physical energy are so deceiving in girlhood." 
THE PROBLEM OF CONTINENCE* 
It is the idea of continence which has suffered, perhaps, more 
than any other sexual problem, from the confusion of the 
ethical with the physiological norm. Starting with the assumption 
that all sexual desire is, by its very nature, of the flesh, and 
therefore "beastly," the medieval church did not hesitate to pro- 
claim the ascetic ideal as the aim of life. Sex gratification was 
only allowed as an act of grace, as it were, in matrimony, which 
had to be specially consecrated for this purpose. This mode of 
thought still reverberates in the opinions expressed by certain 
purists who maintain that abstinence outside of marriage-under 
all conditions, without any qualifications whatsoever-is the only 
possible standard of virtue, little or no heed being given to the 
problem of abstemious behavior in married life, which is here 
just as essential to a high moral tone as it is outside legalized 
marriage. In order to substantiate their position, the partisans 
of this school of thought have endeavored to bring forward scien- 
* Dr. S. Herbert in The Physiology and Psychology of Sex. CONTINENCE 
49 
tific evidence in order to prove that abstinence-i. e., total absten- 
tion from sex gratification-is not only possible, but from a 
medical point of view, harmless. 
Now, it cannot be doubted that, as regards the former point, 
there are a good many individuals who are able to withstand the 
temptation of sex and lead a pure life. It is just these persons 
who never fail to insist upon their mode of life as the only 
righteous one, the one which is attainable and ought to be attained 
by all. These good people forget that, just as in other human 
traits, there exist considerable variations in the promptings of the 
sexual impulse, and that we must allow for such differences in 
sex matters as much as in other affairs of life. It will not do to 
attempt to force all sexual temperaments into the same bed of 
Procrustes. 
It is true that in the average case abstinence-which must be 
clearly distinguished from continence-does not lead to any grave 
disturbances of health; in the majority of instances no serious 
physical ill-effects result. But in saying so we have not stated 
the whole case. For there are some individuals, and not a few of 
them, in whom abstinence produces mental depression, lassitude 
and inability to work. Sometimes, as Professor A. Nystrom has 
•pointed out, nocturnal or even diurnal emissions will ensue from 
prolonged abstinence, which lead to a weakening of the sexual 
nervous apparatus, and may ultimately bring about impotence. 
Women, being more passive in their sex lives, bear sexual absti- 
nence, on the whole, much more easily, especially if the sex passion 
has not been aroused in them by actual experience. Besides, 
frigidity-i. e., a natural coldness toward sex relationship-is a 
much more frequent occurrence among women than among men. 
The female need for sex gratification would therefore be much 
smaller. But even here a dogmatic attitude can by no means be 
maintained. The erotic impulse can be largely sublimated-i. e., 
directed into other channels of an intellectual, emotional, or 
esthetic nature; but there generally remains a residuum which 
cannot be disposed of in this manner, and often leads to unex- 
plainable oppressive yearnings and desires, both in man and in 
woman. Even physical exercise, so frequently recommended as 
a panacea against sexual promptings, has by no means always 
the desired soothing effect. If not pushed to excess, thus produc- 
ing general bodily exhaustion, it may, on the contrary, by the 50 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
general heightening of the vital energy, stimulate the sex centers; 
for these are, after all, not an isolated system of the body, but are 
influenced in consonance with the whole bodily tone. 
But the medical aspect of abstinence is, in any case, besides 
the question. Our problem is not so much whether abstinence is 
unprejudicial to health, but whether, as a matter of fact, it is 
possible. Before deciding this point we must first be careful to 
define what is meant by "abstinence." For, according to the gen- 
erally implied view, abstinence merely seems to mean abstention 
from sexual intercourse with the other sex. But, as Rohleder 
has truly remarked, have we a right to speak of abstinence if we 
do not exclude at the same time all other sexual practices of 
whatever kind? There is no doubt that sexual abstinence is often 
accompanied by masturbation or other perverse practices. 
Furthermore, it may be regarded as a rule that erotic dreams, and 
voluptuous reverie form the psychic counterpart of physical sex 
gratification in all normally constituted persons. A person not so 
affected would have to be classed, according to Rohleder, as an 
individual suffering from sexual anesthesia. Therefore, speak- 
ing of abstinence can only imply partial abstinence in the sense 
indicated. 
If we desire to solve the problem whether such abstinence 
is at all possible, we must differentiate between abstinence of the 
male and of the female. Women, as we have already seen, are 
certainly less prone to become victims of violent sex impulses- 
at least in the earlier period of mature life. In fact, masturbation 
in women has been found prevalent mostly between the ages of 
twenty-five to thirty-five years. It is at this time, it appears, that 
sexual needs tend to become imperative in woman. The case 
stands otherwise with the male. Here all forces combine towards 
an early excitation of the sexual instinct. This is so much recog- 
nized as a social fact, that the problem of sexual continence may 
be said practically to be a male sex problem. But though the 
unruly sexual spirit of man is admitted as a fact on all sides, it is 
attributed by the orthodox sex reformers to premature and exces- 
sive artificial stimulation under conditions of civilized life. While 
this must be granted to a considerable extent, it nevertheless does 
not convey the whole of the truth. Professor Groos and others 
have shown that a sort of sexual play occurs even in childhood, 
and must be looked upon from a biological point of view as a CONTINENCE 
51 
preparation for adult life, in the same way as other play activities 
of man and animals. We cannot attribute to it in the majority of 
cases any corrupt taint whatsoever. Sexual proclivities are also 
freely indulged in in a natural manner by the young of many 
primitive tribes, and also among the rural population of civilized 
countries. As Metchnikoff has pointed out, it is one of the dis- 
harmonies of human life that the sexual impulse develops in man 
before full maturity is reached. The impulse towards sex grati- 
fication must therefore be looked upon as natural in the same 
sense as any other human impulse. There is no reason to assume 
that it can remain in abeyance beyond a certain period of life. 
Nor can it make any difference to the sex instinct of a man 
whether he happens to be married at a certain age or not. For 
in both cases, if the proper age is reached, the craving for the 
other sex will strive for appropriate satisfaction. As Freud has 
said: "Experience shows that the majority of people forming 
our society are constitutionally unequal to the task of absti- 
nence." And we would endorse this dictum, adding only that 
what we here mean by abstinence is the total suppression of the 
sex impulse in all its forms. This lustful propensity of the male 
in matters of sex shows itself in more than one way. Thus, 
Walter Heape speaks of the "errant nature" of the male, which 
constantly suggests to him the attraction of a strange female. 
He contrasts the roving tendency of the male, ever intent on the 
appeasing of his sex hunger, with the much more stable female, 
whose sex impulse seeks satisfaction rather in the offspring 
resulting from the sex process, thus supplying the main impetus 
for the establishment and consolidation of family life. This anti- 
thesis between the male and female expression of the sex instinct 
he would regard in the light of a biological law of Nature. A 
similar view is also taken by Professor W. Thomas, who states 
that "from the biological point of view monogamy does not, as 
a rule, answer to the condition of highest (sex) stimulation." 
Havelock Ellis, too, admits man's "mysterious craving for 
variety," which pursues him right into his married life. For we 
cannot avoid the unpleasant truth that irregular sex habits are 
not confined to the unmarried only. Among the clientele of pros- 
titutes a good proportion-and by no means the smaller one-■ 
are found to be married men. 
The upholders of the ascetic ideal are here faced with a 52 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
fundamental fact of sex life which no cavilling will avail against. 
Indeed, the problem of abstinence from this point of view becomes 
insoluble. Instead of asking the question whether abstinence is 
possible, it would be much more pertinent to ask whether, if possi- 
ble, it would be good. Traditional opinion looks too much upon 
the sex impulse as a separate phenomenon of human life which 
may be disregarded at will until such time as it can find proper 
expression in a legalized form. According to the prevailing 
notion, the current of sex life may be dammed up without detri- 
ment, personal or social. It assumes that the floodgates only 
need to be released at the appointed moment in order to yield a 
full and deep stream of emotion. But holding up too long Love's 
vitalizing power may lay barren the whole personality. We can- 
not shut out the most potent energizing factor of life without at 
the same time stunting the emotional and spiritual capacity of 
man. The development of the sex impulse is closely bound up 
with the mental growth of the individual, and its persistent dis- 
regard may cause what Nystrom has so well termed a veritable 
"atrophy" of personality. As Havelock Ellis has pointed out: 
"Even if sexual relationship had no connection with procreation 
whatever, they would still be justifiable, and are, indeed, an indis- 
pensable aid to the best moral development of the individual; 
for it is only in so intimate a relationship as that of sex that the 
finest graces and aptitudes of life have full scope." The baneful 
effect of a sexless life is seen in its worst form in spinsters who, 
doomed to a lifelong solitary existence, so often become starved 
in emotion, cramped in outlook, and soured in temperament. 
Abstinence, then, which does not allow for the natural 
growth of the erotic emotions, far from being a true ideal, must 
be condemned at best as an "empty virtue." Indeed, the idea of 
sexual abstinence is an ill-conceived notion which cannot be sus- 
tained either on physiological or on spiritual grounds. It is based 
on a false conception of sex morality which regards physical sex 
relationship as intrinsically low and brutal. We have, however, 
found, firstly, that the sex instinct is as natural as any other funda- 
mental human instinct; and, secondly, that the erotic emotions 
form the proper basis of even the noblest and truest love. We 
cannot starve the one without at the same time preventing the 
blossoming of the other. In order, therefore, to arrive at a right 
solution of the problem of continence, we must recognize both CONTINENCE 
53 
these vital elements will give us proper guidance towards a true 
sexual norm. Continence, instead of aiming to miss love, should 
rather be a disciplined cultivation of love. It is self-control which 
forms the central idea of chastity. As Ellen Key has so well 
defined it, "Chastity is harmony between body and soul in relation 
to love." And this harmony can only be attained by not unduly 
stressing either the physical or the spiritual side of love. Spiritual 
love without eroticism is meaningless, while, on the other hand, 
physical lust without the wider psychic irradiation of love is not 
only devoid of a real human content, but ends by defeating itself. 
For sexual passion, by overstepping its proper aim-the attain- 
ment of complete unity with the beloved-soon surfeits itself and 
gets wrecked on its own boulders. A sane use of the gifts given 
us by Nature, in sex matters as much as in other relations of life, 
is the only wholesome rule of conduct. 
block's views on sexual abstinence* 
There is no disputed question in respect of which the diver- 
gent views are so sharply opposed as they are regarding the 
importance, the value, and the consequences of sexual abstinence. 
I distinguish five groups of opinion: 
1. The apostles of absolute asceticism during the whole of 
life (Tolstoi, Weininger, Norbert Grasbowsky, Kurnig, etc.). 
2. The medical advocates of relative temporary continence, 
until it becomes possible to enjoy permanent hygienic intercourse, 
free from all objections. 
3. The advocates of "duplex sexual morality," who demand 
from woman sexual abstinence until she marries, but who regard 
this as impossible in the case of man. 
4. The "Vera" enthusiasts, who on moral grounds demand 
abstinence for both sexes until marriage. 
5. Those who doubt the possibility of abstinence of any kind 
for either sex, whether absolute or relative. 
Regarding those mentioned under the first heading, who 
demand absolute, life-long sexual abstinence, it is hardly neces- 
sary to say a word. It is nonsense, a pious superstition, a Utopia 
contrary alike to Nature and to civilization, born of the belief in 
the "sinfulness" of sexual intercourse. 
The normal sexual impulse is a natural phenomenon; it is 
Dr. Iwan Bloch in The Sexual Life of Our Time. 54 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
pure and thoroughly ethical; and it is only in an insane confusion 
and in a morally reprehensible falsification of his own nature that 
man has come to regard it as a "sin," as an "evil." Man has a 
natural, inborn right to the gratification of the sexual impulse. 
Absolute asceticism must be rejected as a thoroughly immoral 
doctrine. 
The same is true of the duplex sexual morality, alluded to 
under the third heading, by which that is justified to man which 
is denied to woman. The "morality" presupposes for man a 
natural impulse, and demands for him a right to gratify it, whilst 
the existence of such an impulse and of such a right is denied to 
woman. We have shown that this view is an inevitable conse- 
quence of coercive marriage morality. 
The standpoint of the sceptics alluded to under § 5 is one 
which denies the possibility of any abstinence, even merely tem- 
porary abstinence; but this view is equally to be rejected. Man 
is a natural being; his sexual impulse is a natural instinct, and 
as such one whose existence is justified; but at the same time 
man is a civilized being. Civilization is an elevation, an ennoble- 
ment, a transfiguration of Nature, whose unduly powerful impulses 
and powers must be tamed and harmonized by civilization. The 
right to sexual gratification is therefore opposed by the duty to 
set bounds to the sexual impulse, to conduct it into such paths 
that no harm can result from its exercise, either to the individual 
or to Society; and in order that, like all other impulses, it may 
subserve the purposes of the evolution of civilization. To this 
end, however, a relative abstinence is of -great importance (this 
is a matter which has not hitherto been sufficiently recognized) ; 
but this course it is only possible to follow when, at the same 
time, we emphatically affirm the rightness of sexuality, and when 
it is our desire to utilize it as a civilizing factor of the first rank. 
ment, a transfiguration of Nature, whose unduly powerful impulses 
If we fail to recognize the value of temporary abstinence, and 
the importance of the storing up of sexual energy which is thereby 
effected, and the transformation of this energy into other energies 
of a spiritual nature, such an individualization becomes impossible. 
Alike the medical advocates (§2) and the moral advocates 
(§4) of a relative temporary abstinence for both sexes have, 
from their respective standpoints, made a just demand. This is, 
in fact, in both cases an "ideal standpoint," to use the phrase of CONTINENCE 
55 
F. A. Lange; but it is also an ideal most desirable to set before 
youth, and more especially before our German youth. We cannot 
repeat too often, or insist with too much emphasis, what an end- 
less blessing results from the endeavor towards, and from the 
realization of, temporary sexual abstinence, more especially in 
the years of preparation for life, but also in the years of inde- 
pendent creative work. 
The importance of relative sexual abstinence was first recog- 
nized by the ancient Israelites. Numerous wise prescriptions 
and utterances prove this. Julius Preuss, the most celebrated 
student of ancient Jewish medicine, has recently, in an interesting 
study of "Sexual Matters in the Bible and the Talmud" collected 
the following facts bearing on the matter: 
"Chastity was a self-evident demand for the unmarried. It 
is true that, in view of the early occurrence of puberty, they mar- 
ried 'very young-at the age of eighteen or twenty; and Rabbi 
Huna is of opinion that anyone who at the age of twenty is still 
unmarried passes his days in sin or-which he regards as even 
worse-in sinful thoughts. There are three whom God praises 
every day: an unmarried man who lives in a large town and does 
not sin; a poor man who finds an object of value and returns it 
to the owner, and a rich man who gives his tithe secretly. Once 
when this doctrine was read out in the presence of Rabbi Safra, 
who as a young man lived in a large town, his face lighted up 
with joy. But Raba said to him: "It is not meant such a one 
as thou art, but such a one as Rabbi Chanina and Rabbi Oschaja, 
who live in the street of the prostitutes, and make shoes for 
them, to whom, therefore, the prostitutes come, and look upon 
them, but who, notwithstanding this, do not raise their eyes to 
look upon the prostitutes." 
After marriage also they endeavored by valuable proscrip- 
tions to enforce the great civilizing idea of temporary sexual 
abstinence. Thus, intercourse during menstruation was strictly 
forbidden, and was regarded as a deadly sin; the same was the 
case as regards intercourse when there was any other hemorrhage 
from the genital organs; but in this case the abstinence must last 
even longer. It is remarkable that Catholic theologians allowed 
sexual intercourse without limit when such morbid hemorrhage 
was present, and allowed it also, with certain restrictions, during 
menstruation. Further, among the ancient Hebrews intercourse 56 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
was forbidden during the week of mourning for parents or 
brothers or sisters; it was forbidden also during the festival of 
atonement. Guests in an inn when traveling were also forbidden 
sexual intercourse, doubtless on grounds of decency. Intercourse 
was likewise forbidden in times of famine, in order to spare the 
bodily forces. 
Golden sayings recognize the value of moderation and of 
relative abstinence. 
According to an ancient Israelitish popular saying, sexual 
intercourse is one of eight things which are beautiful when 
enjoyed in strict moderation, but harmful when enjoyed very 
freely. The others are walking, possessions, work, wine, sleep, 
warm water (for bathing and for drinking) and venesection. 
Rabbi Jochanan said: "Man possesses a little limb: he who 
satisfies it hungers; he who allows it to hunger is satisfied." 
Rabbi Ilai said: "When man observes that his evil impulse 
is more powerful than he is himself, let him go to a place where 
people do not know him, let him put on dark clothes, let him 
wear a dark turban, and let him do that which his heart desires; 
but let him not publicly profane the name of God." This can 
only mean that in general he only controls the desire who has 
already tasted the fruit-that is to say, that abstinence is the 
safest means against lust; but he who, nothwithstanding this, finds 
that the impulse threatens to become too violent, still has the duty 
to fight against it, and in any case not to yield immediately. 
This ancient notion of relative asceticism was, unfortunately, 
falsified and thrust into the background by the Utopian and con- 
tra-natural idea of absolute asceticism; its great value was com- 
pletely obscured by the inevitable reaction against the principle 
of absolute chastity. This reaction led actually to the formation 
of rules regarding the frequency of intercourse, such as that 
attributed to Luther-"Twice a week does harm neither to her 
nor to me"; although it is precisely in this department of life that 
no rules can be given, and that the greatest individual variations 
occur, so that "twice a week" may for many constitute by far too 
much, and can only be regarded as permissible to robust constitu- 
tions. Daily indulgence in sexual intercourse, continued for a 
long period of time, would be deleterious even to a Hercules, and 
in all circumstances zvould be harmful to both parties. Nature 
herself, by exhibiting a certain periodicity in sexual excitement CONTINENCE 
57 
(which periodicity is admittedly far more distinct in women than 
it is in men, who can "always" love), has facilitated temporary 
abstinence. This is, in fact, a natural demand even of the most 
extreme ethical materialism; for, as Friedrich Albert Lange 
rightly points out, "even though the individual sensual pleasure, 
as with Aristippos or Lamettrie, is raised to a principle, self- 
control still remains a requirement of philosophy, if only in order 
to assure the permanence of the capacity for enjoyment." So 
also the poet of the "New Thanhauser" sings: 
"Happy is he who eternally desires. 
A happy man art thou, Tantalus! 
If he ever attained that for which he longs, 
He would instantly taste satiety: 
Let me have but a single grape 
' From the full cluster, 
Gladly, Cytherea, will I live, 
Ever desiring, in thy courts!" 
The question of abstinence is an entirely different one, accord- 
ing as it relates to the time before or after the first experience of 
sexual intercourse. Experience shows that in the former case 
abstinence is far easier than it is when the forbidden fruit has 
once been tasted. If, with the author of this book, relative asceti- 
cism is regarded as the most desirable ideal, we shall endeavor in 
youth to realize that ideal for as long a time as possible, without 
any interruption by sexual intercourse; whereas in the later period 
of the fully-developed sexual life we shall practice sexual abstin- 
ence only from time to time. 
With regard to the former point, it would be the greatest 
good fortune for every man if he could remain sexually abstinent 
until the complete maturity of body and mind-that is, until the 
age of twenty-five. But this is in most cases an impossibility. 
Yet it is possible for every healthy man-and it is an imperative 
demand of individual and social hygiene-to abstain completely 
from sexual inter couse at least until the age of twenty. That is 
possible without any harm resulting, and it is carried out by 
innumerable persons of both sexes. It is, indeed, a fact that in 
civilized countries the physical and mental maturity of girls and 
boys by no means coincides with their sexual maturity, but, on the 
contrary, occurs from three to five years later. First between the 58 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
ages of twenty and twenty-two does man attain complete develop- 
ment. If the sexual impulse is not artificially awakened and 
stimulated during these years of adolescence, it may remain very 
moderate, without masturbation and without pollutions, and can 
be easily controlled. Relations with the other sex have not yet 
become necessary for the development of the individual per- 
sonality. The human being has still enough to do in isolation. 
First with the commencement of the third decade of life do the 
conditions alter, and sexual tension becomes so great as to demand 
the adequate and natural discharge given by the normal sexual 
act. If this is impossible, pollutions form the natural, or mastur- 
bation forms the unnatural, outlet; and when abstinence is con- 
tinued for a long time after attaining this age, the vital freshness 
and the spiritual and emotional condition are more or less 
impaired. To have emphasized this fact, in opposition to those 
authors who declared that total sexual abstinence is absolutely 
harmless to mature men, was the great service of Wilhelm Erb, 
the celebrated, widely-experienced Heidelberg neurologist. 
"It is a well-known fact," he writes, "that healthy young 
men with a powerful sexual impulse suffer not a little from 
abstinence, that from time to time they are 'as if possessed' by 
the impulse, that erotic ideas press in upon them from all sides, 
disturb their work and their nocturnal repose, and imperiously 
demand relief. I always remember the remark of a friend of my 
youth, a young artist, who, when speaking of these things, was 
accustomed to say with intense meaning: 'Who has not passed 
a mournful night weeping in bed?' And the same man could 
not sufficiently extol the relaxing disburdening, and positively 
refreshing influence of an occasional gratification; and the 
same thing has been said to me innumerable times by earnest and 
thoroughly moderate men." 
Women also gave him similar assurances. In numerous 
cases Erb observed physical and mental harm to result from 
abstinence-sometimes in healthy individuals, but more especially 
in the neuropathic. 
Important also are the investigations of L. Lowenfeld regard- 
ing the influence of abstinence: He found that in men under the 
age of twenty-four any troubles worth mentioning as a result of 
sexual abstinence were comparatively rare, as compared with the 
case of men between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-six years, CONTINENCE 
59 
the years of complete manly power and sexual capacity; and he 
found that whereas in healthy persons these disturbances were 
indeed of a trifling character (general excitability, sexual hyper- 
esthesia, hypochondriacal ideas, disinclination for work, slight 
attacks of giddiness), in neuropathic persons, on the contrary, 
there would occur coercive ideas, melancholy, feelings of anxiety, 
and even hallucinations. Females, according to Lowenfeld, bear 
abstinence-even absolute abstinence-much better than men, but 
in them also hysterical and neurasthenic conditions may develop 
as a result of sexual abstinence. 
All these harmful consequences of abstinence are, however, 
neither in man nor in woman, of such a nature that, where an 
opportunity for sexual intercourse at once hygienic and free from 
ethical objections is wanting, the gratification of the sexual 
impulse need be advised by the physician as a "therapeutic 
measure." No; Erb himself insists that, on the contrary, the 
dangers threatened by venereal diseases altogether outweigh the 
comparatively rare and trifling injuries to health resulting from 
abstinence. "Extra-conjugal" sexual intercourse involves the 
dangers of syphilitic or gonorrheal infection, or of illegitimate 
pregnancy, which latter to-day must, unfortunately, be regarded 
as a kind of severe disease. In contrast with these evils, any 
harmful consequences of abstinence fade away to nothing. 
Later in life, when the possibility of a permanent pure love 
exists, the value of temporary abstinence is to be found especially 
in the spiritual sphere. Precisely for the "erotocrat," as Georg 
Hirth terms one endowed with a powerful and healthy sexual 
impulse, is this temporary abstinence of a certain importance, 
because the stored-up quantum of sexual tension re-enforces the 
inward spiritual productivity. A number of men, at once endowed 
with strong sexual needs and with a noble mental capacity, have 
assured me that, in consequence of abstinence, they have tem- 
porarily experienced a peculiar deepening and concentration of 
their mental capacity, by means of which they were undeniably 
enabled to increase their mental output. This point in the 
hygiene of intellectual activity, which seems not to have been 
unknown to Goethe, has been as yet too little studied. 
In any case, it is definitely established that from the stand- 
point of civilization the idea of sexual abstinence is justified, if 
for this reason alone: Because in it we find a great means for 60 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
increasing and strengthening of the will; but, in the second place, 
because in it we have a valuable protection against the dangers 
of wild love; and, finally, because sexual abstinence emphasizes 
the fact that life contains other things worth striving for besides 
matters of sex, that the content of life is far from being exhausted 
by the sexual, even though the sexual impulse, in addition to the 
impulse of self-preservation, will always remain the most power- 
ful of all vital activities. 
The question whether impotence can result from sexual 
abstinence is still disputed. Fiirbringer does not know of any 
certain cases. According to Virey, by "complete and continuous 
abstinence from intercourse" in the male the organs by which the 
semen is prepared-the testicles, the seminal vesicles, and the 
vasa deferentia-and also the penis, become smaller, "unsightly, 
wrinkled, and inactive." Galen reports the same of the athletes 
of the Roman Empire, men who had to live a life of strict con- 
tinence. Virey alludes to an "extremely chaste saint, in whom 
after death no trace of genital organs could be discovered" (!). 
That absolute abstinence must ultimately limit potency, if only by 
psychical means, is a priori probable. 
Recent observations confirm the view that long-continued 
absolute sexual abstinence exercises a harmful influence upon 
potency, and especially upon potentia coeundi [possibility of copu- 
lation]. As a proof of this, I may more especially mention two 
cases of University professors, not yet thirty years of age, both 
of whom until a little while ago had had no experience of sexual 
intercourse, one having remained continent during two years of 
married life! Quite recently both of them repeatedly attempted 
normal coitus, but with complete failure quoad erectionem [in- 
ability to have erections]. Von Schrenck-Notzing also reported 
a case of this character not long ago, in which, notwithstanding 
the strong desire for normal sexual intercourse, in the case of 
a literary man thirty-five years of age, who prior to marriage 
had lived a life of complete abstinence, and had never practised 
masturbation, every attempt at coitus proved a failure. 
Finally, we have to consider the more or less physiological 
presenile and senile impotence which accompanies the commence- 
ment of old age, but naturally occurs at very different times in 
different individuals, for some men are already old at the age of 
forty years, and others are not yet old at the age of seventy CONTINENCE 
61 
years. Von Gyurkovechky dates the first decline in the sexual 
powers from the fortieth year of life, and considers that nor- 
mally these powers are completely extinguished at about sixty- 
five years. But there are numerous exceptions. Complete potency 
in respect of desire, erection, and ejaculation has been observed 
in men of seventy and eighty years; and isolated cases have even 
been recorded in which men of ninety and one hundred years 
have procreated children. In the sense of Metchnikoff and Hirth, 
who in their writings proclaim the prevention of senility as a 
hygienic ideal, this physiological potentia senilis [potency of old 
age] is no Utopia, and a future scientific macrobiotic will defer 
the onset of old age by from ten to twenty years. CHAPTER V 
MASTURBATION 
self-abuse; solitary vice; self-relief (one form of auto- 
erotism OF HAVELOCK ELLIS.) 
IN THE MALE.-By masturbation is understood producing the 
venereal orgasm, whether accompanied or not by emission of 
seminal fluid, through any artificial means whatsoever; that is 
to say any means besides the sexual union. (Before proceeding 
any further I wish to state that onanism is not masturbation. 
The practice referred to in Genesis, xxxviii, 8, 9, 10, was "with- 
drawal," and is referred to in Sex Facts for the Married.) 
It is sometimes asserted that masturbation is confined to 
human beings, and in them is not found among savages. Neither 
of these assertions is correct, as many observant farmers and 
animal keepers could testify for the first part, and travelers for 
the second part. 
Among wild animals it has been noted in elephants, camels, 
stags, etc., and among domesticated ones, dogs, stallions, goats, 
sheep. Even parrots are sometimes addicted to the practice, and 
cock-turkeys are said to make use of round stones. Stallions- 
especially of some breeds-are great offenders, and several years 
ago we remember reading of a man who intended to bet on one in 
a race, but incidentally learned from the groom that the animal 
was given to this practice, so he refrained, and when the race 
was run, the stallion finished "a poor last." Goats sometimes 
excite themselves with the aid of the mouth, as in a case in Chi- 
cago quite a while back. 
Monkeys, however, are probably the best examples among 
animals and everyone who has frequented parks or zoological 
gardens must have noticed this. Some specimens are particularly 
prone to this if a woman approaches, and it is suspected in such 
cases they are menstruating, and the animal is aware of the fact. 
Whether we inherited the practice from our simian ancestors or 
not, it is of very respectable antiquity, for the story goes that 
Diogenes, the famous Greek cynic, who lived in the 3d century 
62 MASTURBATION 
63 
before Christ, used to masturbate on the street corners of ancient 
Athens to show his contempt for womankind. 
The inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, the island at the ex- 
treme end of South America, are generally considered to be the 
lowest human beings now on earth. Despite the inclement and 
stormy weather which prevails there practically the whole year 
round, they have no clothing save an animal skin strung about 
them, and worn on the side from which the wind happens to blow. 
Their food is eaten raw, and their dwelling places-or dens 
rather-are as primitive as their clothing, yet their jargon, rude 
as it is, contains a special word for masturbation. 
Without much exaggeration masturbation may be said to be 
practiced "from the cradle to the grave." Children in the first 
few months or years may commence, the cause often being some 
irritation about the genital organs set up by too long a foreskin, 
pinworms in the lower bowel, etc. Ignorant or vicious nurses 
are in the habit of quieting fretful infants by rubbing the geni- 
talia. When a little older the boy has occasion to handle the 
male organ when passing water. Dr. Jacobi years ago, pointed 
out that "the young child is but clumsy and the reverse of adroit. 
It takes him time to disentangle the organ." We read a great 
deal about "Wise Mother Nature," "Good Old Mother Nature," 
and so on, but this necessity of handling the organ every time 
there is a call to empty the bladder scarcely strikes one as a wise 
provision. Still older boys may be taught by their companions, 
but it is quite likely a good proportion find out for themselves by 
sliding down the banisters and ropes, or by the characteristic 
juvenile habit of climbing trees. 
Estimates as to the frequency vary from 23 to 100 per cent 
for both sexes. Out of eight series (4 males and 4 females) of 
persons questioned by as many observers in this country and 
abroad, there were 1,162 males, and 251 only of these denied the 
habit, while the denials could probably safely be discounted 
to a considerable degree. For the females, the figures were a 
little better, 307 admissions and 176 denials. 
As regards the evil-effects of this "ravishing with the hand" 
-for that is the meaning of masturbation in English-authorities 
group themselves into two classes: Those asserting that all kinds 
of horrible physical and mental disturbances result, and those 
claiming the picture is overdrawn. As usual, the true state of 64 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
affairs is somewhere between these two extremes. In the first 
class the leading exponents are two authors, Swiss and French, 
who date back to 1760 and 1836 respectively, and their harrowing 
details have been translated and copied from one author to an- 
other down to the present day. 
The list of ills is a long one-headaches, loss of memory, 
paralysis, indigestion, affections of the blood vessels, epileptic fits, 
asthma, coughs and various eye diseases, to cite but a few out of 
over one hundred given some years ago by a French author. In 
fact, masturbation has been blamed for disturbances of nearly 
every one of the organs of the body. 
Of late the tendency is to make a closer distinction between 
the cases, thus when an unusually stupid boy proves to be a vic- 
tim, it is thought he persists because he is stupid, not that his 
sluggish mentality is the result of the practice. Other things 
being equal, it is not clear why discharge of the seminal fluid 
should be any more weakening when produced artificially than 
when done in the usual, natural manner. Of course, masturba- 
tion is much easier than intercourse, instead of a partner of the 
opposite sex and some suitable couch, all that is necessary is a 
few moments' solitude. Hence there is a great tendency to in- 
dulge at too frequent intervals; moreover, while normal sexual 
congress demands an erection of the penis before penetration into 
the female can take place, masturbation is perfectly possible in 
the soft, flaccid state of the organ. 
The late Sir James Paget, a famous English surgeon, wrote: 
"Masturbation does neither more nor less harm than sexual inter- 
course practised with same frequency, in the same conditions of 
general health, age, and circumstances." 
So too, the late Dr. J. N. Hyde, a noted specialist of Chicago 
in his day, claimed masturbation is merely a bad habit "like pick- 
ing the nose." The Doctor, in his early days, was a surgeon in the 
U. S. Navy and seeing how frequent this practice is among sailors, 
must have been thoroughly familiar with its effects. 
Some years ago, Sudduth came to the conclusion that mastur- 
bation, is, in the main, practiced for its sedative effect on the 
nervous system. The relaxation that follows constitutes the real 
attraction of the act. 
A recent English author-Menzies-quotes as follows: 
"Modern, clinical psychology, has, for instance, definitely estab- MASTURBATION 
65 
lished the fact that autoerotism in one form or another, is a 
normal and quite universal phase of human development, and not, 
as used to he thought, an abnormal perversion of the sexual 
instinct." 
Moll, as the result of many years' experience concludes that 
"even in children, masturbation does not necessarily do any harm" 
("Sexual Life of the Child"}. 
A New York specialist in nervous diseases tells us: "There 
is no actual slow deterioration of the intelligence; insanity and 
idiocy are not the usual effects; and there are no characteristic 
changes of facial expression nor of bodily posture branding the 
habitual indulger." (Starr, "Adolescent Period."} And another 
specialist, this time from Switzerland, states: "The effect of 
moderate masturbation in the adult has been greatly exaggerated, 
either by confounding the effect with the cause, or for mercenary 
objects, by driving timid persons to charlatans or to prostitutes." 
(Forel, "The Sexual Question."} 
Finally, W. J. Robinson, the well-known sexologist of New 
York, says in his characteristic and vigorous style: "The evil 
results of masturbation have been shamefully and stupidly exag- 
gerated, and in the vast majority of cases masturbation leads to 
no disastrous results, and it is better for a man who cannot satisfy 
his sex instincts naturally to indulge in occasional masturbation 
than to fight day and night with his thoughts, and use up his 
strength in mastering his desires." (In "Sexual Truths," see 
Adv. last page.} 
Masturbation in the Female.-It seems to be agreed that 
after puberty females are more given to the practice; once young 
manhood is reached, males have many ways of gratifying their 
sexual propensities, which are difficult or impossible for the other 
sex. Before the days of sewing machines run by power, it was 
a common occurrence for the operators in factories using the feet 
for motive power to experience an orgasm from the constant fric- 
tion of the thighs, and this excited no comment being looked on 
as part of the daily labor. When bicycle riding first began, the 
high peaks of the saddles for women set up so much irritation 
there was a protest from physicians, as a consequence the modern 
saddle of flat type came into use. 
As we have seen (under Reproductive Organs) the external 
opening of the urinary channel in females is located just below 66 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the clitoris, as a consequence, objects used for the purpose of 
masturbation, frequently escape into the bladder, and the various 
types which have been extracted from the urinary reservoir form 
an extraordinary collection. Nearly every object of appropriate 
size and shape has been resorted to. There is no space for a 
complete catalog, but among there are knitting- and crochet- 
needles, pencils, penholders, toothbrushes, and-of course-hair- 
pins. 
Again, some objects too large to pass through the urethra, 
may become ensconced in the birth canal, and owing to their 
greater size, candles, etc., make a still more extraordinary 
collection. 
THE HABIT OF MASTURBATION* 
Masturbation or self-abuse is a term applied to a bad 
habit which consists in handling and rubbing the genitals. 
It is a bad habit because it is apt to injure the health and future 
development of the child. The more frequently it is practiced, 
the more injurious it is. It is more injurious than when practiced 
by boys, because the effects are usually more permanent. Girls 
who indulge in the habit of masturbation to excess not only weaken 
themselves, become anemic and get a dingy, pimply complexion, 
but they lose their desire for normal sexual relations when they 
grow up, and are unable to derive any pleasure from the sexual 
act when they get married. In fact, many girls who masturbated 
excessively get a strong aversion to the normal sexual act, and 
their married life is an unhappy one. Their husbands often have 
to ask for a divorce. Fortunately, the habit is much less wide- 
spread among girls than it is among boys. While about 90 per 
cent of all boys-nine out of every ten-masturbate more or less, 
only about 10- or at most 20 per cent of girls are addicted to this 
habit. But whatever the percentage may be, the habit is an 
injurious one, and if you value your health, your beauty and 
proper growth and mental development, you should not indulge 
in it. If you are already indulging, if you are used to handling 
your genitals, if a bad companion has initiated you in the habit, 
you should give it up. And mothers should watch their children, 
guard them against developing the habit, and do everything possi- 
ble to cure them of it, if prevention comes too late. 
* Dr. William J. Robinson in Woman: Her S<.x and Love Life. Critic and Guide 
Company, New York City. (See advertisement last page.) MASTURBATION 
67 
But while, as you see, I do not deny the evil effects of mas- 
turbation, it is necessary to state that a great change has taken 
place in our opinions on the subject, and it is but right that parents 
should know of this change of opinion among the medical pro- 
fession, particularly among those who specialize in sexology. 
Wrong Behavior of Parents. When parents make the 
"awful" discovery that their child is fondling its genitals or is 
indulging in masturbation, they feel as if a great calamity had 
befallen them. They could not feel worse if they learned that 
the child was a thief or a pyromaniac. Imbued with the medieval 
idea of the "sinfulness" of the habit, as well as its injuriousness, 
they begin to scold the child, to frighten it, to make it believe 
that it is doing something terrible, that it has disgraced them 
and itself; and they try to persuade it that, unless it stops imme- 
diately, the most direful consequences are awaiting it. The 
results of this mode of procedure are disastrous-much more so 
than is the masturbation itself. 
Often the scolding and the exposure of the child are done 
in the presence of others. This implants in the poor child a 
sullen resentment that only makes it more difficult for it to break 
the habit. When the child is brought to the physician, you can 
see by its behavior, by its downcast looks, by its sulkiness, by its 
attempts to refrain from tears, and other signs, that it regards 
the physician in exactly the same light as a youthful criminal 
regards the judge before whom he has been brought for trial. 
It is time, high time, that this silly and injurious attitude 
towards a practice, which is very common, is radically changed. 
It is time that parents and physicians learn that the injuriousness 
of the habit has been greatly, grossly exaggerated. It is time 
that they know that the vast majority of boys and girls get over 
the habit without being much, or any, the worse for it. The 
knowledge of this fact will not only save them and the children 
much needless anguish and suffering, but will make it much easier 
to deal with the latter, make it much easier to get them divorced 
from the habit. 
If we look at the matter in a sensible, common sense way, 
and do not tell the child caught in the practice that it has done 
something disgracefully vicious and criminal, but speak to it 
kindly and tell it that it is doing something that may injure it 
greatly, that may interfere with its future mental and physical 68 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
health and development, then we shall have far greater success in 
our endeavors to break the boy or the girl of the habit of mas- 
turbation. 
In my opinion, stigmatizing even the most moderate indul- 
gence in masturbation as a vice has a deleterious effect upon the 
people who so indulge and makes it harder for them to break 
off the habit. Every thinking physician and sexologist can tell you 
that picturing the masturbatory habit in too lurid colors and 
stigmatizing it with too strong epithets has, as a rule, the con- 
trary effect to the one expected. The victims of the habit consider 
themselves degraded, irretrievably lost. They lose their self- 
respect, and it is, on account of that, harder for them to break 
themselves of the habit. 
We shall accomplish a good deal more with our youthful 
and older patients if we leave alone, altogether, the moral side 
of the question-if there be any moral side to it-and emphasize 
the physical injuriousness of the habit. We do not want to 
diminish the self-respect of our boys and girls, we want to increase 
it; and we can not do this if we make them believe that a mas- 
turbator is a vicious criminal. Inspire your patients with con- 
fidence, tell them that indulgence in the habit jeopardizes their 
future growth, both physical and mental, their health and happi- 
ness, and you will find them easier to control. 
I am not trying to minimize the danger of masturbation, for, 
if indulged in from an early age and to great excess, the results 
•may be disastrous. But, even if I were to minimize the evil 
consequences, that would be less of a sin than to exaggerate them 
the way it has been done for so many years, by so many people 
in the profession and out of it. The evil results of exaggerating 
the influence of masturbation have been so great in the past that, 
if now the pendulum were to swing to the other extreme, I am 
sure it would not be a bad thing at all. 
To deal with the subject of the treatment of masturbation 
belongs to a medical treatise. But, a few remarks on how to 
prevent children from acquiring the habit of masturbation will 
not be out of place. 
Prevention of the Habit of Masturbation. The keynote 
of preventing the habit is, carefully to watch the child from its 
earliest infancy. We know that not infrequently stupid or vicious 
nursemaids, wet-nurses, and even governesses, ignorantly or MASTURBATION 
69 
deliberately induce the habit in children under their charge. 
This, of course, must be prevented. Even children of the age of 
nine, ten, eleven years should not be left alone, but always be 
under supervision. Too close friendship between boys or girls, 
particularly of different ages, should be looked upon with sus- 
picion. 
A number of children never should sleep in the same room 
without supervision by an older person. 
The sleeping together of two in the same bed, whether it be 
two children or a grown person and a child, should not be per- 
mitted under any circumstances. I admit of no exceptions to 
this demand. It makes no difference whether the other person is 
a mother, a father, a brother or a sister. Leaving out of the 
question any deliberate element, the thing is dangerous; for, very 
often, unintentionally, unwittingly, masturbation, is initiated by 
this intimate contact. 
The child-boy or girl-should sleep alone, on a rather hard 
mattress. The covering should be light. A coverlet may be put 
over the feet. The child always should sleep with the arms out 
upon the cover or blanket, never under the same. If this is done 
from childhood on, it is very easy to get used to this way of sleep- 
ing, and many a case of masturbation will thus be obviated. The 
child should not be permitted to loll in bed; it must be taught to 
get up as soon as it awakes in the morning. The general bringing 
up must be of a strengthening, hardening character; and this 
applies both to the body and the will. When the children reach 
the age of nine, ten, eleven, twelve or thirteen years (we must 
use discrimination and judgment, for, some children of nine are 
as developed as are others of thirteen), we must tell them that it 
is bad and injurious to handle one's genitals, and we must warn 
them to shun any companions who wish to initiate them into any 
manipulations of these parts or who show any inclination to talk 
about sexual organs and sex matters. 
Hot baths are very injurious for young children in their 
influence in this direction. There is no question that a bath has 
a very decided stimulating effect upon the sexual desire of adults 
as well as of children, both male and female; in fact, I have had 
several patients of either sex tell me that their first masturbatory 
act was committed while they were in a hot bath. Of course, the 70 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
sensation having been pleasurable, they kept on repeating the 
experience. 
Every factor liable to give rise to the habit should be removed. 
Thus, for instance, eczema about the genitals, strongly acid urine, 
seatworms, and the like, should be treated until cured. That 
anything having a tendency prematurely to awaken the sexual 
instinct should be rigorously avoided, goes without saying. 
Mental or Psychic Masturbation. Some girls and women 
will abstain from handling themselves with their hands (manual 
masturbation), but will practice what we call mental masturba- 
tion. That is, they will concentrate their minds on the opposite 
sex, will picture to themselves various lascivious scenes, until they 
feel "satisfied." This method is extremely injurious and exhaust- 
ing and is very likely to lead to neurasthenia and a nervous break- 
down. You should break yourself of it, by all means, if you can. 
For it is even more injurious than the regular habit. 
THE PSYCHOLOGY* 
Among the many problems arising out of sex and demanding 
attention in the interests of the physical and moral well-being both 
of the race and the individual, not least is that presented by the 
phenomenon of masturbation. 
As all who have undertaken the office of counselling others 
in this matter know, it is a common experience to find that the 
physical and moral remedies proposed fail in their purpose again 
and again, with the result that the unfortunate victims of the habit, 
wellnigh driven to despair by frequent lapses and the defeat of 
good intentions, are sorely tempted to abandon their struggle, and, 
if of a religious temperament, to forsake the practice of religion 
altogether. It is worth while enquiring why this should be so, 
and why it is that the traditional methods of treating masturba- 
tion by stern admonitions, the recommendation of special religious 
considerations or exercises, and, perhaps, by punishment, etc., so 
often seem to defeat their own ends. It is the claim of psycho- 
analysis to throw some light on this question. 
The problem is largely one of psychology, for, as most 
modern writers of repute are agreed, pathological results where 
they follow masturbation are more often to be sought in the mind 
rather than in the body of the masturbator. Beside the pitiable 
*By K. Menzies. MASTURBATION 
71 
state of mental conflict and consequent psychoneurotic misery 
attending excessive indulgence in these activities primary physio- 
logical results pale into insignificance, a state of affairs almost 
entirely ignored by most "purity manuals," which not infrequently 
hint at a physical disintegration and collapse, nearly akin to the 
final stages of acute syphilis as the Nemesis that waits upon the 
masturbator. 
As demonstrated by Dr. Freud of Vienna, the first elaborator 
of the psychoanalytic technique, it is altogether too narrow a 
definition of masturbation to limit its meaning to the one specific 
action of inducing orgasm and seminal ejaculation by manipula- 
tion of the genitalia so common at puberty and in adult life. 
Masturbation - the self-production of erotically tinged and 
voluptuous sensations-must be taken to include a much wider 
series of phenomena than this, and may be recognized in many 
individuals, if not in all, at an age when physical immaturity 
renders impossible the climax alluded to above. Following Have- 
lock Ellis, such activities are classified under the term "auto- 
erotism." 
Classifying all these bodily centres where excitation of the 
skin or mucous membrane procures voluptuous sensations as 
"erogenous zones," Freud points out that obviously no seduction 
is necessary to awaken the sexual life of the child: such awaken- 
ing may come in spontaneously from inner sources. Havelock 
Ellis concurs: ". . . there appears," he remarks, "to be no limit 
to the age at which spontaneous masturbation may occur." How- 
ever, for the benefit of those to whom the association of sex with 
infancy appears a shocking or wicked idea, it may be pointed 
out that the authorities quoted do not contend that the child is 
aware of the nature and significance of the pleasure it seeks and 
obtains. If a thing is "nice," the child will seek it, asking no 
questions and indeed imagining none. An inherent or congenital 
"morality" is not to be expected, and the child will continue to 
regard its pleasures and self-explorations as pure and innocent 
until, under the influence and pressure of education and cultural 
morality, it is taught to regard them as prurient. An "erotogenic" 
(erogenous) or pleasure-yielding zone having been selected thus, 
the child is satisfied with its manipulation until at puberty, or 
earlier in precocious children, the genital zone asserts its primacy 
and the process of synthesis is brought to completion, 72 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Masturbation, then, in the broad sense of the excitation of 
erotogenic zones for the purpose of procuring pleasure, is thus 
found to include a wider series of phenomena than the one specific 
action usually understood by the term. Hence any estimation of 
the moral responsibility attaching to this later manifestation must, 
if it is to be logical and just, take into consideration the fact that 
in the "self-abuse" so common in adolescence we have the develop- 
ment of something that has its roots far back in infancy and deep 
down in the individual's "unconscious," where, as psychoanalysis 
shows, many unsuspected memories and many trends and impulses 
repressed under the exigencies of cultural education are treasured. 
Thus the child, remembering a pleasurable sensation and 
always casting about for expedients and methods which will 
procure its repetition, will, on the discovery of the genitalia and 
the enormously enhanced pleasure obtainable from their manipula- 
tion, normally forsake the old and now inadequate erotogenic 
zones and fasten on the new, being already predisposed to mastur- 
batic activity by past experiences, and further incited to it now by 
the facility and higher degree of pleasure obtainable. Such dis- 
covery of new fields for pleasure may, of course, result from 
direct initiation or seduction by others, but not less frequently 
through self-exploration, curiosity, or accidental experiences such 
as pressure of clothing, sliding down banisters, riding, cycling, 
friction of the towel after bathing, and so forth. 
"Normally," observes Havelock Ellis, "there appears to be a 
varying aptitude to experience the sexual orgasm or any volup- 
tuous sensations before puberty. I find, on eliciting the recollec- 
tions of normal persons, that in some cases there have been 
voluptuous sensations from casual contact with the sexual organs 
at a very early age; in other cases there has been slight excite- 
ment from early years; in yet other cases complete sexual 
anesthesia until the age of puberty." 
From the biological standpoint masturbation is undoubtedly 
unnatural, but so, perhaps, not so much in its methods as in the 
fact that its aim is the gratification in solitude of an inherent 
impulse obviously social in its reason for being and intended to 
secure the reproduction of the species. It is, no doubt, to this 
biological unnaturalness that the moralist will point as the source 
of what self-reproach which so often follows upon indulgence. 
But if the unnaturalness of any action necessarily constitutes MASTURBATION 
73 
immorality-the secret realization of which gives rise, as is alleged, 
to anxiety and remorse-we might consistently expect a similar 
effect to follow all of the many biologically unnatural habits and 
practices to which mankind is addicted, an expectation which is 
not fulfilled. 
By the provision of Nature the reproductive organs are 
closely situated to those which perform the duty of excreting 
waste matter from the alimentary system. Quite naturally the 
at first egocentric interest of infants and little children becomes 
fastened upon these functions and preoccupied with them-inter- 
est which is heightened and stimulated by the pleasurable sensa- 
tions attending defecation and micturition. The first step in the 
child's education consists in weaning it from exclusive self-interest 
and such unesthetic preoccupations to interest in other persons and 
observance of the canons of decency. Here, then, begins a con- 
flict between curiosity and voluptuous preoccupation with excre- 
mental functions on the one hand and the general social valuation 
of such interests on the other. The child begins to learn shame 
and disgust at matters which once occupied its deeply interested 
attention. It is taught that certain parts, organs, and functions 
of the body are not mentioned in polite society; that it is "dirty," 
"naughty," and deserving of punishment to allude to them or dis- 
play them in public. Thus in the childish mind, intensely recep- 
tive in its attitude towards parental prohibitions, the idea of unlaw- 
fulness becomes definitely associated with the old activities and 
interests. 
Again, "the organized conspiracy of silence" (i. e., on the 
proper function of the sexual organs and the physical differences 
between the male and the female) "is soon noticed by the child, 
and he is subjected to a mass of suggestion, all the more potent 
for being indirect, which teaches him that the whole subject is 
taboo, mysterious, improper, peculiar, and essentially wicked. 
Those who object to direct enlightenment, therefore, should rec- 
ognize that they are really defending a false enlightenment, a 
positive teaching of shame and guilt." Pfister is equally emphatic: 
"If the child is not instructed from the authoritative side, the 
street takes up the task, often in the dirtiest form. That which 
should be the object of reverence is painted as ugly and subjected 
to obscene jests. 
The appearance of such phenomena as feelings of shame and 74 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
disgust, etc., as counter-impulses or reactions to the primitive 
tendencies of the first and non-moral stage of the infantile life, 
or at any rate the development of capacities for their formation, 
is found to mark, at about the third year, the beginning of a second 
stage in the psychosexual life the child, known as the "latency 
period." The extent to which actuality may invest such 
spontaneously appearing capacities for response or reaction will 
largely depend upon the nature and type of the environmental 
and educational influences that surround the child. Where 
circumstances favor their development, the newly appearing im- 
pulses tend towards the inhibition of the first group, as, for 
example, a feeling of displeasure or embarrassment attaching to 
activities and situations formerly wholly pleasurable. Interest 
in the unesthetic is gradually repressed under a growing tendency 
to repugnance, and before the pressure of the new counter-impulses 
the old disappear from view. The inception of such repression is 
the inception of the unconscious. 
Later contributions to the ego-ideal arise from the desire to 
be thought well of and approved by the powers that be, human 
or Divine; to be loved, admired, and respected by the external 
realms of earth and heaven. 
Through bringing or attempting to bring the self into har- 
mony with the specifications of the ego-ideal is achieved self- 
respect, self-esteem, and moral consciousness. If disparity is 
perceived between the self and the ideal, the ungratified tension 
comes to perception in the familiar feelings of shame, guilt, and 
degradation. 
It is pointed out by Frink that though "the term 'conscience,' 
as it is ordinarily used, implies an endopsychic censorship which 
deals with moral matters almost exclusively, the ego-ideal contains 
many other specifications than merely moral ones, and self- 
satisfaction has other components than simply moral self-content. 
Our self-satisfaction is disturbed quite as much by non-moral 
disparities between the ego and the ideal as by strictly moral ones, 
and in either case the libido is freed in just the same way, and 
the type of displeasure experienced has essentially the same 
quality. To use the wrong fork at a formal dinner, to pass flatus 
in public accidentally, to make a serious mistake in diagnosis, 
or to have on dirty underwear, are not matters that can be classed 
as sins, though in certain circumstances they can produce a sense MASTURBATION 
75 
of shame and humiliation which has no essential qualitative differ- 
ence from that produced by actions which the individual does 
regard as sinful and immoral. We are apprised of incompatibility 
between a wish or contemplated action and the esthetic, ambitious, 
or grandiose specifications of the ego-ideal apparently in just the 
same way and by just the same function as that which applies in 
matters ethical. It would seem, then, not only convenient but 
justifiable to broaden the term 'conscience' to include not only 
that which measures the self according to the purely ethical terms 
of the ideal, but also that which does all such self-measurings, 
whether they be according to moral, esthetic, ambitious, patriotic, 
or any other variety of ego-ideal specifications." 
Sexual Tension.-With the important physical changes at- 
tending puberty fresh considerations come into view. 
Speaking of this period, Dr. Ernest Jones points out that "The 
psychosexual life of children differs from that of adults in three 
main characteristics-in the different nature of the pleasure 
experienced, in their relative independence of outside persons 
for this (autoerotism), and in the fact that they obtain pleasure 
from much more manifold sources and yet in much less differ- 
entiated ways than do adults. At puberty important changes take 
place in all these respects. The excitations, mechanical and other, 
that gave satisfaction to the child's desires now come to contain 
a disagreeable component due to the feeling of tension experi- 
enced. They thus constitute merely a "fore-pleasure" which 
impels to further activities destined to produce the "end-pleasure" 
that relief of tension brings about. 
"One would thus be forced to the assumption," writes Freud, 
"that the accumulation of the sexual substance produces and 
maintains the sexual tension. The pressure of these products on 
the walls of their receptacles acts as an excitant upon the spinal 
centre, the state of which is then perceived by the higher centres, 
which then produce in consciousness the familiar feeling of 
tension." "For me," he states in a previous passage, "it is con- 
clusive that such a feeling (i. e., tension) carries with it the im- 
pulse to alter the psychic situation, and acts incitingly." 
In continent lives this over-accumulation of the sexual prod- 
ucts commonly terminates in a mechanical discharge or overflow- 
the phenomenon known as "pollution," occurring at changeable 
but not entirely capricious intervals, and this brings about a sub- 76 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
stitute for the sexual act (L e., the normal) by a short hallucina- 
tory road. But sexual tension occurs far more frequently than 
do pollutions, and once the individual has discovered that mastur- 
bation also affords the desired relief, he is less likely to wait for 
an emission, since by the practice wherewith he forestalls it he is 
able not only to prolong the pleasure that accompanies the dis- 
charge of the sexual substance and to procure it at will, but also 
to avoid the inconveniences, discomforts, and humiliations some- 
times concurrent with pollutions during sleep. 
It is contended by some that those to whom relief by normal 
outlet ( i. e., marriage) is denied should rest content with what 
they term "a natural provision." But it is, of course, purely 
hypothetical to speak of emissions dogmatically as a "provision 
of Nature," with the implication that they are arranged for 
beneficent and ethical reasons. It would seem that they are rather 
a harmful consequence of the repression of a natural impulse, 
and no more a good substitute than the bursting of the bladder 
or paralysis of the sphincter muscle with outflow of urine would 
be a substitute for urination; for it must be evident that nocturnal 
pollutions necessarily involve a greater exhaustion to the nervous 
system than masturbation, seeing that the process is entirely 
psychical, whereas in the latter case the mechanical stimulation 
of the genitalia at least, and perhaps the vision of the desired 
object, either actual at the moment or fresher in the "mind's 
eye," assist towards the climax, and offer some analogy to and a 
nearer reproduction of the circumstances attending normal coitus. 
In connection with the question of the relief of tension, 
Havelock Ellis states that his own conclusions anent the sedative 
effect of masturbation are fully in harmony with those of Prof. 
Sudduth, who suggests that "masturbation is, in the main, prac- 
tised for its sedative effects on the nervous system. The relaxa- 
tions that follow the act constitutes its real attraction. . . . Both 
masturbation and sexual intercourse should be classed as typical 
sedatives." Haig has sought to find the precise mechanism of this 
phenomenon in the blood-pressure. "As the sexual act produces 
lower and falling blood-pressure," he remarks, "it will of necessity 
relieve conditions which incline to high and rising blood-pressure, 
such, for instance, as mental depression and bad temper; and, 
unless my observation deceives me, we have here a connection 
between conditions of high blood-pressure with mental and bodily MASTURBATION 
77 
depression and acts of masturbation, for this act will relieve these 
conditions and tend to be practised for the purpose." Such a 
result may become discoverable to adolescents, and the present 
writer has a distinct recollection from his school-days of a French 
lad of about 17 advocating resort to masturbation for the relief 
of headache. 
The sedative effect of masturbation, however, is most agree- 
ably marked, perhaps, in the psychic sphere, especially in the case 
of those whose sense of chastity is offended by sexual longings and 
phantasies, and who feel themselves exhausted by perpetual efforts 
to combat such. That a period of relief from such mental dis- 
turbances and conflicts invariably follows in some measure upon 
an indulgence is undoubtedly true, and unless there is exception- 
ally strong will-power or some powerful motive for self-restraint, 
a tendency to take the line of least resistance will probably assert 
itself in most cases. 
THE PATHOLOGY 
It appears to have been an anonymous work entitled "Onania, 
or the Heinous Sin of Self-pollution, etc.," published in the 
eighteenth century, which first called attention to the supposed 
terrible results of this practice; and various works, pamphlets, 
etc., have from time to time been published since in the same strain. 
A long list of the alleged symptoms or consequences of 
masturbation is given by Havelock Ellis (with the authorities for 
them), who admits that many of these manifestations do unques- 
tionably occur in connection with the practice, but qualifies this 
admission with the proviso "that there is good reason to believe 
that some of them may be the results of masturbation acting upon 
an imperfectly healthy organism, there appearing but little reliable 
evidence to show that simple masturbation in a well-born and 
healthy individual can produce any evil results beyond slight func- 
tional disturbances, and these only when it is practised in excess." 
Modern authorities are of the opinion that masturbation 
per se, where it is practised in moderation, is followed by no 
pernicious results worthy of serious attention, and certainly not 
by the disaster to physical health so often hinted at-it being an 
obvious truth, as Ellis points out, that "it makes a considerable 
difference whether you throw a lighted match into a powder 
magazine or into the sea." 78 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
On the other hand, however, there are, as we have' observed, 
numerous well-intentioned writers, whose high ethical purpose is 
not disputed, to be found among those who attribute an almost 
unlimited and terrifying host of evils to the practice. But it 
would seem, at any rate with some of them, that in their zeal to 
censure a practice which accepted conventions condemn on other 
grounds, they have tended to overlook the above truth stated by 
Ellis, and formed their judgments as to the general effects of 
masturbation from their observation of special cases where the 
habit has existed in alliance or complication with other disorders, 
and may well be a symptom and not the cause of neurotically dis- 
posed constitutions. 
However, although it may be conceded generally that 
moderate masturbation is, other things being equal, comparatively 
harmless, it will none the less be found that, like excess in all 
other artificial habits and practices, intensive masturbatory in- 
dulgence may be-and often is-distinctly injurious. 
From the sociological point of view more serious results may 
be indicated. Jones points out that in the case of the female 
"persistence of clitoris masturbation is one of the most important 
agents leading to anesthesia, because it means fixation on the 
infantile, male form of sexuality, and so prevents the develop- 
ment of the adult feminine form-namely, vaginal sensibility. 
The circumstance that the primacy among the various erotogenic 
zones has in the case of the female to pass over from one region 
to another during the transition from girlhood to womanhood- 
namely, from the clitoris to the vagina-whereas it remains 
throughout life in* the same region in the case of the male, is one 
fraught with potential difficulties for the normal development of 
the sexual instinct in women, and is perhaps the main reason why 
neurotic deviations are commoner than with men. It is, for 
instance, closely bound up with the problem of homosexuality in 
women, components the exaggeration of which play a compre- 
hensible part in the production of anesthesia. This anatomical 
transition, from the clitoris to the vagina, is almost comparable 
in importance to the psychological transition from the infantile 
sexual object in the family to the adult object-namely, the lover; 
but whereas men have to deal only with the difficulties of this 
latter transition, women have to deal with those of both, to change 
their object and to reverse their sexual attitude. That is so in MASTURBATION 
79 
any event, but the difficulty is materially increased in cases of 
prolonged clitoris masturbation, which makes it harder to renounce 
the infantile attitude that is bound up with the sensations derived 
from the clitoris." 
In view of the general darkness and widespread ignorance 
that prevails on sexual subjects, any habits contracted by un- 
informed persons, and felt or perceived by them directly to con- 
travene public opinion and commonly accepted standards, are 
likely to result in mental conflict. And, as we have pointed out 
above, it seems to be an undoubted fact, the truth of which is 
attested by most modern writers on the subject, that the principal 
evil results of masturbation are on the psychic side, and to be 
sought in the mind rather than in the body. "The constant 
struggle against a desire which is overpowering," writes Gries- 
inger, "and to which the individual always in the end succumbs; 
that hidden strife between shame and repentance, good intentions, 
and the irritation that impels to the act-this, after not a little 
acquaintance with masturbators, we consider to be far more 
important than the primary physical effect." 
That such is a true and faithful picture of the tormented 
state of mind of many masturbators, few who have ever under- 
taken the task of attempting to counsel and help them will care to 
deny. "The poor devils," as Forel terms them, "believe them- 
selves lost, and are often truly pitiable objects, forming types 
paraded as terrible examples in popular books on onanism which 
make the hair of timid persons stand on end." 
As knowledge advances it is undoubtedly being changed 
and modified, but until this process is complete it would appear 
better from the psychological point of view for the individual to 
resign himself in obedience to it as it now is and to resist the 
counterclaims of sex, rather than by an indulgence of the latter 
to be forced to cultivate an artificial self-respect as a defence 
against the reproach engendered by the former if its behests be 
flouted and defied. In either case the result will be conflict, but, 
unless there is special knowledge, this is likely to be less acute 
in the adoption of a line of conduct that has behind it the support 
of current conventions than in one that must always be attended 
by the secret misgiving that it is against the world. "On the 
psychic side," observes Havelock Ellis, "the most frequent and 
most characteristic result of persistent and excessive masturba- 80 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
tion is a morbid heightening of self-consciousness without any 
co-ordinated heightening of self-esteem. The masturbator, if his 
practice is habitual, is thus compelled to cultivate an artificial 
consciousness of self-esteem, and may show a tendency to mental 
arrogance. Self-righteousness and religiosity constitute, as it 
were, a protection against the tendency to remorse." The same 
writer is of opinion that women are less troubled in this respect 
than men. 
Traumatic Suggestion.-It is undeniable that much misery 
is wrought in the masturbator not only by the subjective sense 
of guiltiness on the score of flouting the behests of instinct, but 
also by dread concerning the physical results of the practice in- 
duced by direct external suggestion. For although, as we have 
indicated above, such dire results are in the opinion of most 
modern authorities almost negligible, except in cases of excess 
and in persons already neurotically disposed, none the less appre- 
hension concerning them often looms large in the psychology of 
the uninformed masturbator. 
"The patients are terrified by reading quack literature," re- 
marks Dr. Brill, "and, I regret to say, by uninformed doctors. 
They are threatened with paralysis, paresis, consumption of the 
spine, insanity, etc., and as a result they become depressed, hypo- 
chondriacal, and self-conscious. But as soon as they become con- 
vinced that they are not doomed, and that masturbation cannot 
cause insanity or other dreadful maladies, they soon lose their 
symptoms. Nor must it be imagined that robbing masturbation 
of its terrors encourages the practice. On the contrary, I have 
found that as long as the patients dread it and struggle against 
it, they masturbate twice as often as when they become con- 
vinced that it has none of its supposed terrors." 
Part, at any rate, of the duty incumbent upon the adviser 
or confidant of the masturbator seems to be here indicated; he 
should endeavor to allay the patient's misapprehensions by sound 
sexual enlightenment, and by authoritatively insisting upon the 
erroneous nature of the popular tradition respecting the awful 
physical results of the practice. He will often find that the mas- 
turbator's morbid anxiety leads him to consider himself the 
solitary victim of the habit; but if it be suggested that this is by 
no means the case, and that if such apprehensions of terrible ef- 
fects were really well founded, these evil results, seeing that auto- MASTURBATION 
81 
erotic habits in some shape are practically universal and occur in 
every individual at some stage of his life, would be patent in 
wellnigh everybody, which is manifestly not the case, then the 
patient may be considerably relieved. If he can be convinced 
that he has not done himself irreparable injury, and that there 
is still hope, his powers of resistance and self-control may be re- 
vitalized and renewed. 
Fanatical Over-moralizing.-Kindred in their pathological 
effect to suggestions and predictions of grave physical disabilities 
are like predictions of spiritual disaster. Where, on the one side, 
there is sometimes the threat or prognostication of the asylum, 
on the other there is sometimes the threat or warning of ever- 
lasting damnation. But moral fanaticism on the part of those 
to whom he turns for help and guidance will not avail the mastur- 
bator; indeed, in cases where his habit is determined by patho- 
logical compulsion threatening admonitions may serve only to 
exacerbate the conflict in his mind. 
Surely, then, it may be urged that if moral theology is to be 
truly moral it must take cognizance of the facts instead of tra- 
ditions which, however widely spread in bygone ages, are no 
longer cognate to the religious thought and consciousness of mod- 
ern times. Mere denunciation of masturbation and threats of 
punishments will not remove the habit save, perhaps, where there 
is exceptional will-power, and where predisposing factors in the 
patient's unconscious which induced to the formation of the 
habit are no longer active in inciting to its continuance. Let it 
be borne in mind that masturbation, where it is practised to ex- 
cess, may, like inversion and other psychopathological conditions 
of the sexual impulse, be determined by unconscious causes, and 
is more often a symptom of deep-seated nervous trouble than of 
wilful rebellion against Divine commandments. The counsellor of 
souls who overlooks or is ignorant of this possibility is not well 
equipped for his task. As Frink remarks, "The truth is that 
neurotics are very moral people (too moral perhaps), despite the 
fact that their behavior would not in every instance appear to 
confirm such a statement. Compared with the average normal 
people, their moral impulses are unusually strong and compelling. 
For whatever they do that is not moral they have to pay in remorse 
and self-reproaches to a degree which, in spite of all their dis- 82 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
placements and defensive mechanisms, exceeds that which the 
ordinary person suffers for any equivalent misconduct." 
The masturbator is not always that hardened sinner and 
wilful iconoclast of the "temple of the Holy Ghost" he appears 
to be in the light of popular tradition. Very often he has fought 
and struggled, watched and prayed, against his failing without 
ceasing. If he has yielded in the end it has not been by way of 
ignoble surrender, but by way of overpowering defeat. Where 
there is unconscious pathological compulsion all the moral rem- 
edies such as Noldin proposes are likely to prove unavailing. "It 
is a terribly serious injustice," remarks Freud, "that the civilized 
standard of sexual life is the same for all persons, because, though 
some may easily aaccept it, for others it involves the most diffi- 
cult psychic sacrifices." 
"1 have seen," writes Pfister, "many persons, who strained 
every nerve to free themselves from moral defects by means of 
ascetic practices, repentance, and prayer, accomplish nothing ex- 
cept doubt, pathological crippling of the will (abulia), or strength- 
ening of the vice." 
Much, therefore, as deviations from the normal and irregu- 
larities in the sexual life are to be deplored, and where possible 
prevented or removed, nothing is gained by denying that they 
exist, and that, so existing, they present problems challenging a 
rational solution which is not to be effected by ruling out their 
discussion as inadmissible because it is repugnant, or by laying 
down for abnormal persons rules that can apply to normal per- 
sons only. 
And yet this is the common attitude. Many parents, peda- 
gogues, and clerics, equipped only with traditional acceptances, 
imagine themselves qualified to admonish and advise on an intri- 
cate matter which they have never studied and shrink from 
bringing out into the light of day. Much mischief may result. 
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 
"Sexuality," remarks Frink, "even perfectly normal sex- 
uality, gives rise to most serious and difficult adaptive problems, 
and may easily be the spring of actions which will end in pain 
or misery or disaster for the individual. But for this very rea- 
son, and quite apart from the question of making the most of 
the instinct's great potentialities for happiness and good, all MASTURBATION 
83 
efforts towards establishing habits that shall control and direct 
the erotic energies need to be undertaken in the most carefully 
considered and enlightened manner that is humanly possible. Man's 
effort to overcome the imperious domination of sexuality has 
been attempted, as Hinkle remarks, "by lowering the instinct, 
and seeing in it something vile or unclean, something unspeakable 
and unholy. Instead of destroying the power of sexuality, this 
struggle has only warped and distorted, injured and mutilated 
the expression; for not without destruction of the individual 
can these fundamental instincts be destroyed. Life itself has 
needs, and imperiously demands expression through the forms 
created. All Nature answers to this freely and simply except 
man. His failure to recognize himself as an instrument through 
which life is coursing, and the demands of which must be obeyed, 
is the cause of his misery." "Ignorant and too rigorous early 
repressive training," continues Frink, "bad family influences, or 
unnatural ideals, establish in the child such habits 'of feeling and 
believing about actions' that when he becomes an adult he can- 
not without pain and horror see himself as he actually is. Ten- 
dencies which are innate and inevitable become sources for the 
development of tormenting affects of guilt; energies that are 
normal and deserving of direct expression, and energies that, 
though not normal, could become so, are fruitlessly and waste- 
fully confined and repressed. Instead of securing outlet in the 
form of activities that are compatible with the requirements of 
social existence, and which could be given them once they were 
faced and understood, many of these fundamentally normal and 
natural impulses remain as skeletons in the closets of the indi- 
vidual's psychic household, which, whenever he gets a glimpse 
of them, excite him to spasms of morbid fear." 
"The fruits of religion," remarks William James, "are, like 
all human products, liable to corruption by excess. Common 
sense must judge them. It need not blame the votary; but it may 
be able to praise him only conditionally, as one who acts faith- 
fully according to his lights. He shows us heroism in one way, 
but the unconditionally good way is that for which no indulgence 
need be asked. We find error by excess is exemplified by every 
saintly virtue." 
Again, it is found, by Freud, "that a certain part of re- 
pressed libidinous impulses has a just claim to direct gratification, 84 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
and should find it in this life. Our cultural demands make life 
too hard for most organizations, compelling the renunciation of 
reality and originating of the neuroses, without attaining a sur- 
plus of cultural gain." 
The theological definition, in so far as it applies to the mar- 
ried life of cultured and well-born individuals who are both phys- 
ically and psychically normal, will be found in substantial agree- 
ment with the first part of this statement, for in marriage, how- 
ever idealistic and sacramental a value be placed upon its phys- 
ical aspects, there is, none the less, from the reality point of view, 
a partial gratification of libidinous impulses and a primary ap- 
plication of instinct. In this partial relief the individual finds sal- 
vation. He is not called upon for an absolute repudiation of all 
sexual passion, and by the gratification of a part leaves in the 
transmutation of the remainder a task not, perhaps, beyond his 
power. The surplus may well be developed "sacramentally," if 
by that term is meant the discharge of all the good offices of con- 
sideration, forbearance, sympathy, etc., towards the- love-object. 
Herein, no doubt, lies the secret of a happy marriage and life- 
long affection between its partners who use and do not abuse 
their liberty. 
But in the case of those to whom the legitimate outlet of 
marriage is for any reason denied, it does not seem to go beyond 
the limits of just criticism to remark that there seems to be 
implicit in the theological definition of purity quoted above just 
such a mischievous valuation of the manifestations of sex as may 
prove extremely prejudicial to healthy-mindedness and personal 
happiness. For in any of the three spheres in which "repudia- 
tion" is demanded much will depend upon the motivation under 
which it is attempted. Where the motive of self-discipline is 
supplied by superstition, fear, and such considerations as those 
proposed by Salvatori, and not by a calm and reasoned realization 
of inexpediency, failure in honest effort to attain the ideal must 
inevitably result in acute mental conflict, an overwhelming sense 
of guilt, together with a crippling and inhibiting sense of per- 
sonal unworthiness and other pathological consequences. In the 
light of psychoanalysis it is seen that only in very rare instances 
and in the case of specially constituted persons is it possible to 
effect complete sublimation of so powerful and fundamental an 
instinct as that of sex smoothly and without ill results, and there MASTURBATION 
85 
is surely something morbid and distorted in the outlook of those 
who remorselessly brand the failures of well-intentioned persons 
as deadly sin. "Pure elevation of the instinct which goes beyond 
the power of the individual," remarks Pfister, "often leads to 
fanaticism, narrow-mindedness, and narrowing of the vision." 
Blind attempts at complete repression may be attended by the 
appearance of highly undesirable and antisocial reaction forma- 
tions, such as morbidity, an exaggerated prudery, etc., which may 
constitute a serious handicap to the individual's attempts to adapt 
himself to the realities of life, and lead him to that forfeiture 
of usefulness of which William James speaks. "One completely 
forgets," says Jung, "that one can be most miserably carried 
away, not only by a vice, but also by a virtue. There is a fanatic 
orgiastic self-righteousness which is just as base and which entails 
just as much injustice and violence as a vice." 
From the traditional point of view of the inherent evilness 
of sex it is argued that the battle against it is to be waged un- 
ceasingly and at any cost, but from the reality point of view it 
would appear that asceticism, chastity, and abstinence, in so far 
as they are merely negative, simply issue in a purity to which all 
things are impure. If the price paid for such a victory involves 
the crippling or marring of effectiveness for life and social use- 
fulness, it is evident that this victory for autism results in a 
defeat for altruism, and a tacit negation of such part of the duty 
of life as consists in the moral obligation to be at one's best in 
order to give one's best to others. It is shown by psychoanalysis 
that the neurotic affections and reaction formations-the unde- 
sirable and antisocial tendencies-in which the repressed instinct 
comes to expression mar the personality so that it becomes offen- 
sive, dangerous, ineffective and in a disharmonious relationship 
to its surroundings. Here there is no true moral achievement. 
Tradition, by a false and arbitrary valuation of the repressed 
instinct and by threats and denunciations, has led the individual 
away from a right and profitable attitude towards reality and 
life into an exhausting and pathological conflict with it. But 
true ethical victories can only be won on the level with reality. 
The same thinking-according-to-reality which exposes the soph- 
ism that pleads in favor of prostitution or free-love and shows 
that excess and violence in the direction of indulgence is immoral 
because it leads to a variety of results harmful both to the self 86 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
and to society, should also show us that excess and violence in 
the opposite direction of absolute renunciation and repression 
is likewise pathological. 
The truly ethical standpoint, then, would seem to be, not the 
absolute repudiation of sex as intrinsically evil, but, on the con- 
trary, the recognition of its inherent purity as a natural life force, 
and the acceptation of its claims to be such under a sensible and 
conscioitsly directed effort towards maintaining the same 
moral ideal of temperance and the same moral guid- 
ance and control of its functioning as customarily are 
exercised in the closely parallel cases of the other 
primary instincts: so that sex achieves no undue prominence in 
the individual's life, and it is not over-emphasized either nega- 
tively, as demanding the absorption of every energy for its re- 
pression, or positively, as occupying the whole field of attention 
and claiming licence for the indulgence of its every caprice. To 
be master in one's own house, aware of sex, yet neither its enemy 
or its slave, and to cultivate a self-control conditioned by reason 
and knowledge rather than by dread and superstition, would seem 
to be the ideal conducing to a healthy and joyous life. 
Thus, in reference to the special subject of our study, it may 
be suggested that those who are sincerely trying to eliminate auto- 
erotic disorders of conduct will find great comfort and a dis- 
charge from much distressing conflict in the acceptance of a purer 
moral valuation of the sexual instinct; for such will deliver them 
from at any rate one of the chief influences contributing to that 
exaggerated and often innervating sense of guilt which, under 
stress of the old traditional teaching, so frequently attends failure 
to achieve an immediate mastery over a confessedly undesirable 
habit. 
Religion can help: that, with the present writer, is not under 
dispute for a moment. But it must be religion rightly viewed and 
valued. Not the religion of fear and threatenings, of isolated 
texts arbitrarily interpreted ; but the religion of encouragement 
and hope-positive, creative, directive, illuminative. As exempli- 
fied by Salvatori and Noldin, religion appears in the sphere of 
sexual ethics as a power only to be invoked as a purely negative 
force, and enlisted on the side of blind endeavorings to repress 
and inhibit that within us which, if rightly used and accepted, 
supplies a fount of energy for furthering the expansion and MASTURBATION 
87 
development of the personality, both self-ward and other-ward; 
but when starved and stifled leads to a narrow and unlovely 
selfishness, wasted vitality, unsocial eccentricity, and perhaps 
neurosis. It is little realized, perhaps, how far with many indi- 
viduals, and especially adolescents, the plane of the religious life 
becomes almost solely an arena in which they wage an exhaust- 
ing battle with sex, and how far the field of religious aspiration 
and the motive underlying prayer and the frequentation of the 
sacraments are occupied with a striving after a negative victory. 
And still less, perhaps, is it recognized how far the personal life 
would be impoverished and the potential capacity of the individual 
for the acquisition of social virtues and cultural advancement be 
impaired were the frantic entreaties for a Divine interposition 
between the self and sex and a total elimination of the holophilic 
instinct answered directly and in the way desired. 
It is, then, not on the ground of the moral value of "other- 
worldly love" that we part company with our theologian, but on 
the ground of the implicit assumption he appears to make that 
an equal capacity for the sublimation of sexual passion exists in 
all-an assumption he is compelled to make if he would lay down 
a common law for all. From his definition of purity above, it is, 
moreover, hard to escape the conviction that to him the sexual 
instinct, both in the concrete and in the abstract, is something 
essentially impure. Obviously he would rather be without it 
altogether. It is the traditional attitude, that attitude of con- 
founding morals with esthetics, which has been the mother of so 
many tragedies, and from which has arisen that ruinous false 
modesty and prudery that forbids an adequate enlightenment of 
the young, sends youth out to fight the battle of life armed only 
with the ineffectual innocence of ignorance, or abandons it to 
learn for itself in a prurient school a false antithesis between 
morals and reality. As pointed out by Frink, "As long as we are 
taught and believe that there is something disgraceful in having 
a sexual instinct, we have either to give up being honest with 
ourselves or else give up our self-respect." CHAPTER VI 
IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY 
SEXUAL IMPOTENCE, SEXUAL WEAKNESS, 
SEXUAL INSUFFICIENCY 
TO be sexually potent; that is, to be able to perform the sexual 
act properly, with satisfaction to the man and woman, several 
factors are necessary. Those on the part of the men are: (1) A 
normal sexual desire, what we call a normal libido; (2) He must 
be capable of having a proper erection; (3) The culmination of 
the act, what we call the orgasm, during which the semen is ejacu- 
lated, must not take place too soon; that is, the man must be able 
to perform the act until the female partner is satisfied; (4) He 
must experience a distinctly pleasurable, voluptuous sensation 
during the act and during the orgasm. When any one of the 
above factors is weak or lacking altogether, the man is said to be 
sexually weak or impotent. The impotence may be partial or 
complete, temporary or permanent. Sometimes only one factor 
is lacking, sometimes two or three or all four may be at fault. 
Here are the principal varieties of sexual impotence that we 
have to deal with: (1) Lack of libido. The patient complains 
that he has no desire for women and doesn't care at all for sexual 
relations. He is able to have erections, but when he does have 
intercourse, the act affords him no pleasure. (2) The same as 
the first variety, only in addition to the lack of libido he is unable 
to have any erections. (3) Has a normal or even strong libido, 
but is unable to have any erections. (4) Has normal libido, 
normal erections, but the ejaculations are premature or precipitate, 
taking place soon or immediately after or even before intromis- 
sion. (5) The patient has normal libido, normal erections, nor- 
mal ejaculations (though as a rule they are premature), but his 
complaint is that he derives no pleasure from the act; when the 
discharge of the semen takes place he has no sensation whatever. 
In some cases, the matter is even worse, for instead of a simple 
lack of sensation, there is a feeling of scalding or burning during 
• Dr. William J. Robinson in Sex Knowledge for Men. Critic and Guide Com- 
pany, New York City. (See advertisement last page.) 
88 IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY 
89 
the passage of the semen. (6) There is libido and good erection, 
but the ejaculation takes abnormally long, until he and his partner 
are exhausted, or the ejaculation fails to make its appearance 
altogether. (7) The man has no libido, no erection, no ejacula- 
tion, and if by various manipulations a slight ejaculation is 
effected, it affords no pleasurable sensation whatever. Sex does 
not exist for him. 
Those are the seven varieties of impotence, but of these 
classes, three and four are the ones that we have to deal with 
most frequently. And of the two classes, class four, that is, pre- 
mature ejaculation or emission (ejaculatio prcecox), is the more 
common. 
We generally divide impotence into two classes; organic and 
psychic. In organic impotence we can find a plain distinct cause, 
like for instance an inflammation, disease of the testicles, a dis- 
eased prostate, etc. In psychic impotence the cause often lies in 
the patient's mind; he is really not impotent, but he fears or 
imagines he is. In the first case the treatment must be medical, 
like that of any other real disease; in the second variety mental 
or psychic treatment is often alone sufficient. When impotence 
is due to old age it is called senile, and is physiologic. 
THE CAUSES OF IMPOTENCE 
Masturbation. This is a very common cause, because, as 
I have stated before, practically every human male begins his 
sexual life with masturbation. And while the habit, if commenced 
fairly late and practiced moderately, in the majority of cases 
leaves no ill-effects, there is no question that if commenced at 
the age of ten, twelve or fourteen and indulged in immoderately, 
it may lead to relative or complete impotence, temporary or per- 
manent. 
Pollutions. Pollutions of rare occurrence or of moderate 
frequency are harmless. But if frequent and long continued they 
may ultimately lead to impotence. 
Prostatic Congestion. An inflamed or congested pros- 
tate is often the cause of impotence, but not invariably so. 
Urethral Congestion. Congestion of the prostatic urethra 
is a frequent and well-established cause of sexual impotence, par- 
ticularly of premature ejaculations. 
Gonorrhea. Gonorrhea is one of the great causes of sexual 90 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
impotence, ranging probably next to masturbation in this respect; 
not, however, gonorrhea, by itself, directly, but by its sequelae. 
Just as by its causing inflammation of the epididymis and testicles 
it is one of the principal factors of sterility, so by its causing 
congestion of the posterior urethra, prostatitis, etc., it is one of 
the principal factors in relative sexual impotence and premature 
ejaculations. 
Stricture. This sequel of gonorrhea is a decided role 
in causing relative sexual impotence, that is, imperfect erections 
and premature ejaculations. 
Organic Causes. There are certain organic conditions 
of the penis and testes which render intercourse either physically 
impossible or very difficult, or at least unsatisfactory. Such, for 
instance, are: Congenital absence of the penis or its loss from 
ulceration; hypertrophy of the penis, its size being so large that 
it cannot be introduced into any vagina; tumors; torsion, where 
the penis is twisted or bent in a vicious direction, so that intro- 
mission is difficult or impossible. Epispadias, or the condition in 
which the urethra opens on the upper surface of the penis, and 
hypospadias, where the opening is on the under surface, arc 
usually, but not necessarily, accompanied by impotence: it depends 
a good deal on the extent and the location of the defect. 
Abnormalities of the Testes. Complete congenital absence 
of the testes is, of course, accompanied by lack of libido and lack 
of potency. As a general rule this is also true of cryptorchids, 
where both testes are in the abdominal cavity. 
Atrophy of the Testes. When atrophy of the testes is 
caused by a general constitutional or by local disease, or by mas- 
turbation or sexual excess, it is accompanied by loss of libido and 
by impotence. But this is not invariably true when the testes are 
lost through accident or castration. As a general thing, loss of 
the testes does lead to complete impotence, but there are numerous 
exceptions. And the usually prevalent opinion that eunuchs are 
incapable of sexual intercourse has been shown to be erroneous. 
Some castrates are very powerful in this respect. 
Hydrocele. If excessive, this may become a mechanical 
cause of impotence. 
Hernia or Rupture. A scrotal hernia may be and often 
is a mechanical cause of impotence. The penis is not sufficiently 
large to protrude, so to say, above the scrotal mass. IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY 
91 
Varicocele. In the mind of the laity, the relationship be- 
tween varicocele and impotence is well established; this opinion 
has been fostered by the quacks, who diagnose varicocele, whether 
it exists or not, and who advise an operation for this affection as 
a cure for all ills of a sexual nature. Where the varicocele, how- 
ever, is well pronounced and extreme, it may be the cause of 
impotence but, as a rule, varicocele is not of much importance. 
Diseases of the Prostate Gland. Any abnormality of the 
prostate, such as hypertrophy, prostatitis, is apt to lead to sexual 
impotence. In prostatitis, the same as in prostatic congestion, 
it is usually temporary, and relief of the prostatic condition 
removes the impotence. It is well to bear in mind that in prostatic 
trouble, diminished sexual power or premature ejaculation may 
exist simultaneously with an increased sexual desire. 
Phimosis and preputial calculi may be serious hindrances 
to the proper performance of the sexual act. They are a frequent 
cause of premature ejaculations. I mentioned preputial calculi. 
Sometimes it is not calculi, but just dirt, and the amount of it 
under some foreskins is simply incredible. 
Age. This is, of course, a very important factor, for all 
men become impotent if they only live long enough. But if we 
attempt to answer the question, at what age men become impotent, 
at what age is it physiologic, normal, we find we cannot do so; 
for in the sexual sphere more, perhaps, than anywhere else, is 
each man a law unto himself. 
In many men the sexual power begins to decline at the age 
of forty and becomes extinguished at the age of fifty. Many 
men are just as powerful at fifty and fifty-five as they were at 
thirty, while not an insignificant percentage remain perfectly 
potent and ardent at the age of sixty-five, seventy-five and later. 
Sexual Excess. Sexual excess may, per se, be a cause of 
impotence. Every physician who has sexual diseases to treat can 
testify to that. Fortunately in almost all such cases the impotence 
is only temporary, though the former vigor may never be regained. 
As a rule complete sexual rest, with proper tonic treatment, brings 
about the desired result. But while this is true of adults, it is not 
true when the victims of sexual excess are boys. In them the 
impotence may become permanent. I know of cases of very 
young boys (eight, ten, twelve and fourteen) who have been 
seduced by vicious servant maids and nurses and forced to per- 92 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
form the act the best way they could several times a day. Some 
of these victims never recovered, remaining impotent for life. 
Nothing injures the sexual apparatus so much as its pre- 
mature abuse. The excess that will in the adult cause but little 
or only temporary damage will in boys cause terrible and some- 
times permanent havoc. 
Sexual Abstinence. I am firmly convinced that con- 
tinued abstinence from any sexual gratification may result in 
-partial or complete, temporary or permanent-impotence. 
Nature does not allow us to trifle with her. She does not 
permit any organ to remain inactive, any function to lie fallow 
for years without meting out punishment; the organs may atrophy 
more or less, but even when this is not the case, the function is 
weakened or destroyed. 
Coitus Interruptus. The abominable practice of "with- 
drawal," or interrupting coitus just when an ejaculation is about 
to take place and when both parties are at the highest point of 
tension, is one of the poisonous fruits of human civilization. 
It is responsible for numberless cases of melancholia and neuras- 
thenia and is an undoubted cause of impotence. 
Certain drugs, such as opium and morphine, cocaine, tobacco, 
potassium nitrate (saltpeter), have an injurious effect on a man's 
sexual vigor. Obesity or excessive fatness is as a rule quite 
injurious; so is alcohol, that is a chronic excessive consumption 
of alcohol in all forms. Among other causes I will mention the 
following: 
Worry. I consider this one of the most important fac- 
tors in sexual impotence. That great and continuous worry will 
diminish or abolish one's sexual desire more than anything else 
will, is a well-known fact. It is not so well known, however, that 
it may also induce relative or complete impotence, and what is 
more, the impotence may be permanent. In most cases, however, 
it passes away gradually, after the cause has disappeared. But 
it may require many attempts, considerable sexual education, 
before the potency is brought back to its former condition. 
Fright. Severe fright sometimes acts as a cause of tem- 
porary impotence, but only fright having some connection with 
the sexual act. We know of an instance where a man was inter- 
rupted in the act by the husband of the woman and several detec- 
tives who broke in the door, and he was practically impotent for IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY 
93 
nearly a year. Each time when on the point of performing the 
act the fateful night would come to his mind and the partial 
erection would promptly subside. 
Intellectual Pursuits. Nature resents burning the candle 
at both ends, and it is very rare that people who devote all their 
time to severe intellectual work do not pay for it by sexual weak- 
ness or impotence. This refers to purely intellectual work-math- 
ematics, science, research, philosophy, and so on. Particularly is it 
apt to attack those who are engrossed body and soul in certain 
"problems." A medical investigator told me that, while interested 
in a certain question which took away every minute of his spare 
time, he lost both desire and ability for over eighteen months. 
Pursuits that belong to the arts-poetry, the dramatic art, sculp- 
ture, painting, and so on-have a rather opposite effect; they 
increase the sexual desire and perhaps also the sexual power. 
Intense Desire is very frequently the cause of premature 
ejaculation. This intense libido is often manifested on the wed- 
ding night, when the couple have been long engaged. A word 
may be said here about long engagements as a causative factor 
in impotence. They are not only injurious, as being apt to cause 
intense libido-which is only a temporary trouble-but they may 
result in more or less permanent impotence, by virtue of the severe 
prostatic and posterior urethral congestion which they may cause. 
I have considered rather in detail the causes of impotence. 
For a knowledge of the causes will help you to guard against the 
disease. Avoid if you can all the troubles which are apt to lead 
to impotence, and you will avoid the condition which is responsi- 
ble for so much unhappiness, and for so many disrupted homes. 
Another point: Knowing the numerous causes which may 
be responsible for impotence, you will understand the utter absurd- 
ity and dishonesty of the quacks who promise to cure you by 
some pills or capsules or some one kind of treatment. Any phy- 
sician or quack who promises to cure you of impotence at long 
distance, without having examined you, without knowing your 
exact condition, is a knave, who is after your money. Shun those 
harpies! 
The treatment of sexual impotence is exceedingly complex, 
exceedingly delicate, and requires a competent and experienced 
physician's best skill and best judgment. We must confess that 
even the average general practitioner is not very successful in the 94 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
treatment of the more severe varieties of impotence. This being 
so, how can you expect to be cured by an ignorant advertising 
quack, or by some mail treatment? 
STERILITY 
Barrenness, sterility, or inability to have children, may be 
due to the husband or to the wife. 
Up to recent years if a marriage proved childless, the fault 
was always laid at the door of the wife; but lately it is admitted 
that the husband is often at fault, and some estimates place his 
share at as high as 25 per cent. In the male sex the condition 
is generally the result of a previous gonorrhea which closes up 
the little tubes by which the seminal fluid escapes, and either few 
spermatozoa are discharged, or none at all. Of some forty sterile 
marriages in which nothing to account for the cause could be 
found in the wife, examination of the seminal fluid from the 
husband showed no spermatozoa whatever in fourteen. (A 
similar condition is found in animals, though, of course, venereal 
diseases are ruled out. Thus a prize stallion not siring any colts 
from a series of thirty-four mares, during two years, examination 
of the animal's semen proved the vital animalcules (spermatozoa) 
were entirely absent.) 
So far as the female is concerned, the opening from the 
birth canal may be blocked, preventing the male elements from 
reaching the egg to fertilize it; or the womb may be misplaced 
or have tumors in it, which lead to the same effect. Another 
frequent cause is inflammation of the womb, which-again-has 
the same result, but by preventing the eggs from coming down 
to be fertilized. Occasionally the birth canal is so acid that when 
the male elements are deposited in it they are quickly rendered 
incapable of motion, for as shown (under the Anatomy of the 
Reproductive Organs), the lashing movements by which they 
make their way along the female passages are soon stopped by 
contact with acids. A woman, childless for fifteen years, when 
examined shortly after intercourse, still harbored living sper- 
matozoa, yet a few hours later these were all dead. Attention 
was then directed to the diseased condition of her birth canal, 
with the result that in a few months, she became pregnant. 
Mathews Duncan, a famous English authority of the last 
century, asserted that where the married couples were young IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY 
95 
(i. e., between 20 and 30) at least four years must be allowed 
to elapse before the marriage could be regarded as sterile. (The 
writer knows of two doctors in whose cases, 14 and 15 years 
respectively, elapsed after marriage before the first child was 
born.) Duncan also found that where the wife at the time of 
marriage was over 40 years, only 15 per cent of the unions were 
fertile. 
It sometimes occurs that one child is born, and the wife is 
barren from that time on. This condition is called "one-child 
sterility," and is most often set up by inflammation of the tubes 
by which the eggs come down from the egg-sacs into the womb. 
Besides the common inflammation due to previous gonorrhea in 
the husband by which the wife becomes infected, closing the 
channel in the tubes, the process of childbirth itself, especially 
if accompanied by "childbed fever," may give rise to the same 
kind of inflammation, even though the husband be healthy. 
Everyone knows of cases in which marriages are childless, 
yet one or both of the couple may be fruitful with other partners. 
Good examples of this are Martha Washington, and the Empress 
Josephine. The latter had children previous to marrying 
Napoleon, and the Emperor a son after he had separated from 
Josephine, and wedded Marie Louise. 
Not long after the x-rays were discovered it turned out that 
the operators working with them became sterile. Since then 
protection is assured by standing in a closet lined with lead and 
a switch to manipulate the apparatus. Females also become 
childless after being exposed to the rays for the relief of various 
conditions, and advantage is now taken of this fact where future 
childbearing would be prejudicial or dangerous. CHAPTER VII 
SEX-EUGENICS-HEREDITY 
THERE are several advantages connected with sexual repro- 
duction which are enumerated as follows by Geddes and 
Thompson in their "Evolution of Sex" : (a) It is more convenient, 
only two cells are needed instead of several thousand, as in fission 
or budding, (b) In higher animals asexual reproduction is impos- 
sible. No bird, for example, could multiply by splitting off (fis- 
sion), or an elephant give off a bud. (c) The reproductive cells 
are sheltered in some measure at least from the accidents of bodily 
life in general. 
On the average, 1,059 boys are born in the United States to 
every 1,000 girls. Much thought has been directed towards the 
reason for the causation of sex, but it must be confessed with no 
very satisfactory results. Thus the eggs which produce boys have 
been supposed to come only from the right ovary, and the ones 
for girls from the other side. Other views are that males come 
from poorly-nourished and females from well-nourished animals. 
That if the husband is older there will be more boys. That if the 
mother is strong-minded the children will be mostly boys. That 
eggs of one sex are produced one month and of the opposite sex 
the following month. 
It is believed by some writers that sex is a property of the 
egg alone, and the male elements (spermatozoa) merely stimulate 
growth. An observer in this country, and another in France, 
were able to start development of certain lowly forms of animal 
life-such as sea-urchins-by merely adding chemical stimuli to 
the sea water in which the egg was placed. In this instance, 
naturally, there was no contact whatever with the male elements. 
We have to recognize, says Michels, the existence of an 
inalienable right, which has all the clarity of a natural law, and 
is endorsed by the essential data of physiology. The recognition 
of this right throws light upon the difficult and complex ethical 
questions of sexual love. 
Sex being inseparable from the human body, it inevitably 
follows that love cannot be reasonably considered independently 
of the bodily function with which it is thus associated. It is not 
96 SEX-EUGENICS-HEREDITY 
97 
denied that the tree of love may grow upwards into the purest 
and most sublime altitudes of idealism; but it remains always 
true that its roots are found in the mother earth of the sexual 
function. To exclude sexuality from love would kill love as 
effectually as we should kill friendship by excluding devotion, 
science by excluding freedom of thought, religion by excluding 
metaphysics. Love without sexuality is a delusive or dangerous 
auto-suggestion. A sexual love, within marriage or without, is 
void and vain. In practical experience every one is aware that 
love is necessarily based upon a sensual foundation. 
EUGENICS 
In the past few years there has been a great pother about 
"eugenics," which means prevention of the birth of children who 
are not likely to begin life well owing to mismating of their 
parents. For the reasons adduced under Heredity, any palpable 
results from eugenics systematically enforced would not be notice- 
able for a long time, though some examples shortly will throw 
considerable light on the problem. 
Clouston, the late English specialist in mental diseases, said: 
No farmer now breeds from a bad stock of horses, cattle, or sheep. 
Dog fanciers have produced the innumerable varieties of that 
animal by skilful selection of the parentage. Race horses and 
Clydesdales are entirely the result of selecting swift or strong 
sires or mothers. It is naturally asked by thoughtful men: "Why 
should men, the 'lords of creation,' be the only living creatures 
who do not get the benefit of modern scientific knowledge either 
of such laws and practice of human selection or of natural 
selection." 
There is-or used to be-a proverb in the United States, 
"There are three generations from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves." 
That is to say, the grandfather starting in his shirtsleeves, as a 
farmer or laborer, his son amasses a fortune, which in turn is 
scattered "to the birds" by the grandson, who ends life as his 
grandfather began it-working in his shirtsleeves. This is merely 
an exemplification of what is of everyday occurrence, the sons of 
great generals or great financiers are of average ability only, 
showing no particular bent for military affairs or for money- 
getting. For instance, the Duke of Reichstadt, the son of Napo- 
leon, showed no trace whatsoever of his sire's military talents. 98 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
BLOOD WILL TELL SEX-EUGENICS-HEREDITY 
99 
LIKE PRODUCES LIKE 100 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
True it is that he died at an early age from consumption induced 
by his dissipation. The chances were against him no matter how 
long he lived, probably the best for humanity after all! 
It has been found that the birth rate among people of poor 
stock is higher than usual, probably about 25 per cent. In other 
words, the imbeciles, feeble-minded, and epileptics, etc., tend to 
increase considerably faster than their neighbors without such 
defects. 
Let us now contrast two families, the first one that of the 
Jukes in the Eastern states, which has served as a "horrible 
example" for many years. (The name is fictitious, of course, for 
disguise.) In the space of three-quarters of a century, some 
1,200 descendants were traced, of these 310 odd were professional 
paupers who aggregated 2,300 years in different poorhouses; 130 
criminals; 60 habitual thieves; 50 prostitutes and 7 murderers. 
It is calculated that in the three-quarters of a century, the money 
loss to the community in failure to follow any useful livelihood, 
expenses of prosecution for offenses, cost of keeping the various 
members in jails, hospitals and poorhouses, together with the 
value of the goods stolen footed up a total of $1,300,000. 
The contrast is shown by the other group-that of the 
descendants of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, who, while having a 
good education, seems to have been not especially remarkable, 
he married his equal in intellect. Early in this century, a tabu- 
lation similar to that for the Jukes family was made, but showed 
vastly different findings: Of the 1,394 descendants who were 
traced, there were 295 College graduates; 108 clergymen; 101 
attorneys; 75 army and navy officers; 65 professors; 6 authors of 
more or less prominence; 60 physicians; 30 judges; 16 presidents 
of railway or steamship companies; 13 college presidents, and a 
vice-president of the United States. With this long roll of dis- 
tinguished callings, we are not surprised to learn further that not 
a single descendant had ever been convicted of crime. 
One of the most convincing arguments which occurs to the 
writer of the necessity for some regulation of marriage, is the 
case of a professional colleague. Parents and grandparents on 
both sides had epileptic fits, yet they married; and, of course, my 
colleague had them finally growing so bad he had to abandon 
practice. SEX-EUGENICS-HEREDITY 
101 
Davenport in his "Heredity in Relation to Eugenics" (p. 89) 
alludes to an "intelligent" physician of good family, who studied 
abroad, married a woman, also of good family, but the victim of 
migraine [sick headaches], and warnings of St. Vitus' dance. 
Of the two children, both boys, one was normal, the other had a 
mania for running away from home. If doctors pay no more 
attention than this to selection of their partners for life, what 
can be expected from the common people? One of the characters 
in an ancient Greek play (of Euripides) is made to say: "Phy- 
sician, heal thyself," and the instance just quoted is one evidently 
in which this advice should have been taken. 
The Supreme Court of Prussia (December 17, 1920) decided 
in favor of eugenics. A man refused to obtain a health certifi- 
cate, and his fiancee broke the engagement. He thereupon sued 
her for breach-of-promise, but lost the case. 
HEREDITY 
Heredity is the tendency to resemble the parents which is 
possessed by organisms in general. What little is positively known 
about it has been learned from the lower animals. In human 
beings, the number of offspring is too small to allow for all the 
possibilities. Moreover, man is a slow breeder, and transmission 
of traits or characters impossible to study for any length of time. 
Since the Christian era, with say three generations in each cen- 
tury, we would have but 57 or 58 generations, while in some of 
the lower animals, as many generations can be had in a couple 
of months, and in others almost as many in a couple of years. 
In the past some remarkable views have been set forth con- 
cerning heredity. For example, Haller, the Swiss physiologist 
of the eighteenth century, believed that when Mother Eve was 
toddling about the Garden of Eden, some 200 trillions of human 
beings-necessarily on a very small scale-were packed away in 
her egg-sacs (or ovaries). That is to say, germs of all individuals 
of either sex to be born in future ages! 
At present two views are most in favor: The late Francis 
Galton, who introduced the method of identification by finger- 
prints, set forth as a law of "ancestral inheritance" that the 
parents contribute between them about one-half; the four grand- 
parents, one-fourth; the eight great-grandparents, one-eighth; the 
fraction remaining going still further back. 102 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Long before Galton, a Moravian monk named Gregor Men- 
del, experimented with peas in the garden of the monastery, and 
at length formulated a theory of crossing (hybridity). Unfor- 
tunately, his paper being published by the Academy of Sciences 
in his town, attracted no attention until it was unearthed a few 
years back, and about half a century after it was published. 
"Mendel's law," as it has been called, does not explain all the 
difficulties, nor is it so satisfactory when applied to human beings, 
though the enthusiasm with which it has been taken up bids fair 
to overcome this objection. 
Mendelism in brief is that if a black male, let us say, is 
mated to a white female, then one-quarter of the offspring will 
be black, another quarter white, and the balance mixed. Or, to 
choose an example from human beings-if a mentally sound 
person should marry one who is feeble-minded, and there were 
8 children, we should anticipate that only 2 would be mentally 
sound, an equal number feeble-minded, while the intellects of the 
other 4 would be more or less deficient. 
For over a hundred years a violent controversy has raged as 
to whether some acquired deformity or mutilation can be inherited. 
Let us suppose a man met with an accident necessitating amputa- 
tion of an arm, will his children be born with an arm missing? 
It is hardly necessary to state this does not take place. The Jews 
have practiced circumcision since the days of their law-giver- 
Moses, yet the babies still need it even at this late date. The feet 
of the well-to-do Chinese women have been bound and crippled 
for hundreds of years; we believe this abominable custom has 
been prohibited since the country became a republic, but at any 
rate the deformity was never inherited up to the time it ceased. 
On the other hand, some disease-conditions are distinctly 
transmitted; there are several mostly of interest to doctors, but 
two concern conditions which should interest every intelligent 
individual. These two are inability to distinguish between colors 
(color-blindness), and the affection met with in persons called 
"bleeders." In the latter the most insignificant wound, a pin- 
prick, vaccination, small cuts with a pocketknife, are followed by 
bleeding which keeps on for hours or even days, in spite of all 
the usual remedies. A curious thing about these hereditary affec- 
tions is that while they occur in the males only, they are not 
handed down by them, but by the healthy females. CHAPTER VIII 
HOW TO LOVE* 
LOVE AND LIFE 
THERE is no understanding of Life without an understand- 
ing of Love, the source of Life and our chief motive power. 
The histories of nations record the careers of kings, the intrigues 
of politicians, the wars of aggression and defence, and the indus- 
trial progress of the people. Yet even more vital than these are 
the scarce chronicles of the loves and the marriages of a com- 
munity. The security and the well-being of nations are not only 
to be found in evidence of martial valor, the development of 
crafts, and extension of territories. The trend of social evolu- 
tion is determined by love even more than by conflict and com- 
merce. 
The passion that attracts and unites the sexes is powerful 
and mysterious. Throughout Nature it is never simple. Primar- 
ily, it is the means of the continuance of life. Both directly and 
indirectly, love shapes the course of individual men and women 
and groups and societies. 
True love never ran smoothly since the world began. Each 
spring the complicated courtships, the combats, and the tragedies 
of the animals testify vividly that mating is not an easy and sim- 
ple process, even among creatures often supposed to act auto- 
matically. 
How futile, then, is the attempt sometimes made by man, a 
being of highly sensitive nerves and the subtlest brain mechanism, 
to jest idly about love, or to dismiss it as mere "instinct"! As a 
matter of fact, instinct fills a subordinate part in the conduct of 
human love. I have known educated men, about to undertake the 
duties of husbands and fathers, whose "instincts" were utterly 
lacking in the most important of human responsibilities. An in- 
stinct may prompt insistently; but it does not take the place of 
reflection or reason in the guidance of civilized men and women 
in many grave matters concerned with instinctive desires. 
In our own country, for a long period, there was no scientific 
investigation in this unexplored field. Ignorance, reticence and 
*By Walter M. Gallichan 
103 104 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
prudery darkened and distorted the subject. We are now awaken- 
ing slowly to the vast importance of imparting the necessary 
knowledge. Books especially written for children and for young 
men and women of the marriageable age, are issued by leading 
publishers who recognize the trend of public sentiment in this 
direction. 
Nevertheless, there is still some opposition among a section 
of the community to the diffusion of this knowledge. The late 
Hugo Munsterberg, in Boston, said that boys should be instructed 
very slightly, if at all, and that the truth should be withheld 
entirely from girls. 
This obscuring of the light for the potential mothers of 
the race, who, from the very nature of their supremely responsible 
position, stand in the greatest need of enlightenment, is typical of 
this professor's reactionary attitude in social matters. 
Gradually, however, in England and in the United States, the 
imperative demand for this sane and reverent teaching among the 
young is being recognized by parents, religious teachers, doctors 
and schoolmasters. Responsible authorities have begun to see 
that the menace of ignorance is appalling. Love is too over- 
whelmingly important to the race to be left to instinct and blind 
chance. We regulate the relationship of the sexes with a hundred 
legal enactments. Yet we offer little or no guidance for right 
living in marriage. The common counsels of the man in the 
street are usually worse than futile. Lovers entrust to one another 
their very souls and destinies, and blindly enter into matrimony 
and the reproduction of offspring. Do we act thus heedlessly in 
the conduct of business? 
THE IMPULSE TO LOVE 
The ingenuity and energy of Nature are more manifest in 
the impulse to love, and in the complex play of wooing or court- 
ship, than in any other human activity. We are born to love. 
The passion that unites the sexes is foreshadowed and sym- 
bolized in the loves of the plants, and illustrated in the elaborate 
courtships of animals. In biological terms, love springs from 
"the elective affinity of two different cellules." In poetic phrase- 
ology the universality and inevitability of love are expressed by 
Shelley's beautiful lines, "Nothing in the world is single." Cre- 
ative force, as Emerson said, repeats a continual chant that fills 
heaven and earth. HOW TO LOVE 
105 
But for love the world would be lacking in beauty, and the 
most powerful incentive to living and action, after the primary 
instinct of self-preservation, would not exist. The selection of 
mates throughout the domain of Nature brings forth the finest 
qualities of courage and intelligence, and determines the adorn- 
ment of tropical birds, inspires the voice of the nightingale, paints 
the gorgeous down on the wing of the butterfly, gives to man his 
stature and strength, and to woman her grace and loveliness. 
Wooing, and the choice that it implies, are the first cause of the 
progress of a species, of the supremacy of a race, and of the de- 
velopment of the noblest human virtues and emotions. Morals, 
esthetics, hereditary genius, all indeed that purifies and beauti- 
fies life, spring from the subtle affinities and the intense emotions 
called into play by love and courtship. 
The lower forms of animals display the art of love-making. 
The stickleback, that builds a nest to lure its mate, and develops 
glowing colors in the mating season, is but one lowly instance of 
the immense importance that wooing assumes throughout all life. 
Among the higher mammals and the monogamous birds love be- 
comes a sentiment marked by tenderness and refinement, and so 
finely evolved that it contrasts with the ruder courtships of some 
human primitive tribes. And in the domestic life of many ani- 
mals, and their supreme devotion to the young, we may trace the 
moral instincts that form the basis of the highest ethics among 
men. As we pass from the higher intelligent animals and the 
savages to civilized man we find that the instinct becomes more 
and more closely linked with the profoundest psychic emotions, 
and is a rich source of spiritual expression, sympathy, and 
altruism. 
A world without the vast motor-power of love is unthinkable. 
MASCULINE STANDARDS 
Racial evolution deepens the emotion of love and makes 
complex the play of attractions and selection. 
Falling in love is the result of a physiological need; but as 
mankind moves upwards the primary basis of passion is refined 
and spiritualized, and gratification is not the only object of love. 
The soul, the mind, the character attract some lovers even 
more than the fairest physical charms. An ideal of close com- 
panionship and the tenderest form of friendship between the 106 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
sexes succeeds the mere physical craving. The lover is still en- 
tranced by the glance of his mistress's eyes, the glint of her hair, 
and the sound of her voice. All the senses are concerned in selec- 
tion. But to the esthetic attractions are added esteem, admiration 
for virtues of the heart, and rare joy in mental communion and 
reciprocal help. 
As society advances towards equality of the sexes, women 
begin to recognize that the appeal of beauty alone, the ancient 
masculine standard of desirableness, has tended to stress unduly 
this attribute of their sex. Men also learn that feminine physical 
charm alone does not ensure constant affection, or satisfy all the 
cravings of the heart and brain. Among the more cultured, court- 
ship becomes intellectualized and less manifestly and purely sensu- 
ous. This does not imply a negation or an under-valuation of 
passion; for only through education and refinement can we appre- 
ciate the true meaning and the far-reaching, beneficent influence 
of devoted, fervid love. 
This transformation of ideals is attributable chiefly to a 
growing consciousness among the higher types of women that 
simple attraction has not given them the true human dignity to 
which they aspire. In a significant manner the ideal of beauty, 
or the standard of physical allurement, has repressed women, 
and hindered their finer mental and moral progression. The 
enormous expenditure of energy upon the preservation of the 
bodily signs of youthfulness, the intense preoccupation with dress 
and adornment, and all the arbitrary accentuation of sex in 
women have stood in the way of feminine advancement and true 
happiness to an extent that only a minority of cultured women 
at present realize. 
Artificial femininity is distinct from womanliness. The culti- 
vation of beauty and the desire for finery and ornaments are 
normal expressions of woman's estheticism. But this innate love 
of decoration has been fostered and developed to excess, until it 
has almost filled the whole lives of hosts of women in the civilized 
races. 
Women will more generally demand to be loved for their 
minds as well as for their faces; and this insistence will force men 
to equip themselves mentally for psychic companionship with 
wives who refuse to live as simple dolls and petted, foolish play- 
things. HOW TO LOVE 
107 
The remarkable changes in the status of women will un- 
doubtedly complicate and partially revolutionize premarital love- 
making. With the manifold social benefits of the ancient Grecian 
culture there was still a significant inequality between man and 
woman. Historians have perplexed their brains with specula- 
tions as to the causes of decay in the mighty Hellenic empire. 
None of these seem to have suspected that the repression of 
women, by neglect of education and the denial of perfectly free 
choice in marriage, may have been two of the sources of gradual 
disruption. 
Complex wooing is one striking phenomenon of the general 
complexity of advancing humanity. Ages ago an Icelandic saga 
asserted that "it requires good sense to be a lover." In our day 
there is still greater reason for aptitude and intelligence in the 
selection and courting of partners. No hard-and-fast rules and 
maxims can be set down. There is, however, a possible safeguard 
against the sinister error of accepting a sudden and violent attrac- 
tion as evidence of right choice and complete warrant of per- 
manent affection. In youth, and even in maturity, the susceptible 
and romantic are often exposed to extreme peril when an em- 
bodiment of loveliness arouses admiration and yearning. 
There can be no entire exclusion of the element of chance in 
selection. Science has no definite formulae for guidance in this 
subtle matter. The successful wooer possesses a natural compe- 
tence. Nevertheless, courtship is an art that may be studied with 
advantage to lovers and to society. This rehearsal period before 
the drama of marriage is of profound importance. 
Betrothal is often a spell of anxiety and trial. Patience may 
be more imperative at this time than after union. A complete 
confidence to the end of mutual understanding is highly essential. 
A kiss and the pressure of hands may be strangely eloquent, and 
educative and spiritualizing influences by no means lessen the 
meaning of such tendernesses. But tastes, preferences, views, 
aversions should not be hidden. Better a parting now, while the 
heart is unseared and young, than five years hence after torturing 
discovery, disillusionment, and despondency. 
It is a bitter awakening when a wife learns after marriage 
that a vital phase of a husband's character was unknown to her 
during courtship. It is a disastrous disappointment when a 
husband, who has not frankly encouraged a bride's confidences, 108 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
discovers that she was temperamentally unrecognized by him dur- 
ing courtship. Tragic is the reproach: "You did not tell me that 
you felt or thought in this way before we married." 
In the section upon "Marriage as an Art," I have pleaded 
that wooing must be as persistent and skilful after wedlock as 
before. This does not mean that pre-matrimonial love-making is 
not of vast moment in determining success or calamity in mar- 
riage. On the threshold of the temple of love a man should 
search his heart boldly as to whether his passion is really deeper 
than sensuous impulsion. And the woman should say to herself, 
"Am I marrying this man because my heart and my brain tell me 
hourly that he is an admirable, true companion, whose love I need 
and cannot live without; or am I taking this momentous step 
because I am dissatisfied with my present mode of life, or be- 
cause the reflection of living an old maid depresses me; or be- 
cause my suitor's position and money give promise to material 
benefit ?" 
"Woe to the man," writes Mantegazza, "who in solitary and 
sad contemplation of his wife says to himself: My companion is 
only a female! Much worse is it, and woe to the woman who, in 
the night watches, looking at her husband as he snores, says in a 
low, fretful voice: My husband is only a male!" 
Courtship is the period of discovery. Without this discern- 
ment the prelude to a lifelong union seems wholly meaningless. 
This is why educated persons nowadays make a wooing a far 
more serious affair than did our ancestors of a few generations 
past. 
Experience, reflection, and observation of human life teach 
the intelligent that the risks of marriage are great. Knowledge 
convinces that passing infatuations are very frequently mistaken 
for deep passions, and that association and perception may utterly 
dispel the illusion, and leave us wondering why we were duped 
by irrational fancies. 
THE ART OF UNDERSTANDING' 
True marriage based upon love and esteem is a prolongation 
courtship. The reason why arranged unions, the marriages of con- 
venience or of parental direction, are frequently successful, is that 
in these cases wooing begins with living together. In most of the 
Western nations a protracted love-making precedes wedlock. Dur- HOW TO LOVE 
109 
ing this probation the couple are acutely anxious to please one an- 
other, and there is a constant interchange of attentions, tender- 
ness, and solicitude. 
Too often wooing ceases with the bridal ceremony. The pair 
have obtained possession of one another, and the restraints of 
betrothal are removed. There is more frank self-revelation, 
less considerate regard for the everyday courtesies that count for 
so much and frequently there is shown a tendency to discover 
faults and to criticize actions. The real man and woman stand 
plainly revealed one to the other. There is a conventional British 
view that making love is somewhat ridiculous after the honey- 
moon. Courtship is abandoned as a sort of necessary folly pre- 
liminary to complete union. 
In many treatises upon love that have been written by pious 
Eastern sages, with intense sincerity, the greatest stress is laid 
upon wooing after marriage. Grave and precise counsels are 
offered to young husbands concerning the nature of women, their 
needs, antipathies, and predilections. Patience, sympathy, and 
refined tenderness are enjoined. The ideal of romantic, passion- 
ate devotion is raised. "As is sickness without a physician, as 
living with relatives when one is poor, as the sight of an enemy's 
prosperity, so is it difficult to endure separation from you." Such 
was the sentiment of married lovers in India more than a thousand 
years ago. The amatory poetry and prose of our own day some- 
times echo the emotion and wisdom of Eastern genius. 
The common use of the phrase "conjugal rights" shows that 
the reciprocal altruisms of wooing often tend to disappear in 
Western marriage. The husband is no longer the supplicant or 
pleader for privileges. He is a citizen with the law behind him, 
insisting upon "rights." This conception of matrimony is a source 
of the deepest discontent among women. It entirely negates the 
art of marriage, and reduces the wife in theory, if not always in 
absolute practice, to the status of a serf. It annihilates the spir- 
itual element in conjugal love, and fatally accentuates the mascu- 
line tendency to exert force in place of tender suasion. 
There is no hope for widespread married happiness till men 
learn that love is the art of understanding and pleasing women. 
Wives in revolt are the natural result of man's neglect of the art 
of courtship in marriage. It is the woman more often than the 
man who is disappointed in married life. After marriage it is the 110 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
husband's part to show his aptitude in arousing and maintaining 
the responsiveness of the wife. 
The guerdon of the skilful wooer, who realizes that his art 
is as long as life itself, is the noblest that fate can bestow. Love 
excels every human joy. Mathews Duncan, the great physician, 
says truly that this impulse exercises, more than any other, "emo- 
tional power over the individual, power also in morals, power in 
social questions." 
The good lover is not only pursuing his own individual ends. 
His love illumines his whole outlook upon life, and flows out to 
humanity in sympathy, understanding, and social well-doing. 
Mark Rutherford declared that passion and vitality are one. The 
vital men and women are the brain and thews of the race, and 
the vital are lovers. This dynamic of love, ten times mightier than 
the sword, is the salvation of human kind. 
FREEDOM OF CHOICE 
The question of choice usually decides itself, for good or evil 
fortune, by a complete obsession of the will. There is, however, 
often a definite, elaborate, fore-thinking, which shapes the image 
and describes the character of the desired loved one. Ninety' 
nine times out of a hundred the complete ideal is not realized. 
A woman attracted to two men, with a preference for one of 
them, remarked to me that she wished she could secure the ad- 
mirable and differing qualities of both and combine them in one 
lover. This is more than fate permits. Human nature is never 
perfect. And yet it is the supreme rare fortune of some lovers 
to discover even more charm, virtue, and good sense in the hus- 
band or wife than they attributed to him or to her during the 
wooing period. 
Certain physiological signs should aid a man or woman in 
the choice of a desirable companion for life. Physiology, the 
most neglected of the sciences, is a trustier light in this important 
quest than most men surmise. Physiognomy sought to interpret 
character from the features; phrenology claims this discernment 
through an examination of the structure of the skull. The newer 
psychology, now in a vigorous infancy, and born of a fuller ap- 
praisement of physiology, reveals the moral disposition and the 
mental traits of men and women by a study of the bony frame- HOW TO LOVE 
111 
work, the quality and color of the skin, the constitution of the 
nerves, and other physical characteristics. 
Fortunately there is "a Jill for every Jack." The misfortune 
is that the maiden and the youth often err in choice, through a 
lack of knowledge of human nature. Although instinct must be 
directed by reason, there is an instinctive attraction, difficult to 
define, but recognized by many, which often guides truly. The 
woman who, after shaking hands with a man in whom she was 
interested, declared that the mere touch of his hand instantly 
convinced her that she could never love him, affords a clue to 
this strange influence of attraction and repulsion, an influence 
that cannot be described in formal terms. Another woman, who 
sincerely admired a suitor's moral qualities and academic attain- 
ments, stated to me that she rejected him chiefly because his 
form, to her artistic eye, was "out of drawing." This, however, 
is an instance of the play of a strong esthetic feeling, rather 
than pure insinct. 
WHY LIVES ARE WRECKED 
Every man tries to discover the nature and intensity of 
woman's love. Few men succeed in the quest. 
Those who are frustrated resort to old adages for consola- 
tion, and profess that women's passions are cold by a design of 
Nature. Men have themselves to blame for their ill-success in 
this research. The standards of feminine virtue, modesty, re- 
serve, and reticence have been set up by men, as the dominating 
sex; and woman's dependence on the breadwinner and the pro- 
tector of the brood has caused her subservience to man. Any 
divergence from tradition instituted by man as the patriarch, or 
supreme head of the family, has brought penalties and sorrow to 
women. 
The dread of arousing dislike is one of the origins of sex- 
modesty. Women all the world over possess a native modesty; 
and among primitive tribes the instinct is often very marked, and 
is deep-rooted in the female sex, though the forms of expres- 
sion vary according to race. Civilized women are forced by con- 
vention to preserve extreme reticence upon their most intimate, 
and therefore highly vital, desires, feelings, and deepest emo- 
tions, because masculine opinion is generally in favor of vestal 
ignorance. 112 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
To profess to love a woman, and at the same time to take 
no pains to discover how she wishes to be loved, should be re- 
garded as an unpardonable injustice and a gross absurdity. Yet 
I have heard men declare that it is a sign of indelicacy in a 
woman if she shows an intelligent interest in the continuance of 
human life. 
It is a terrible anomaly that the greater number of women 
of the alleged "educated classes" marry with only the crudest 
knowledge of the truth of married life, or without any knowl- 
edge whatever. A society that permits such a sin against per- 
sonal liberties and rights has no claim to be considered as hu- 
mane or intelligent. I could cite a large number of instances of 
men and women, personally known to me, who have wrecked 
their lives, or at best lived in a kind of conjugal armed neutrality, 
through errors of ignorance. 
The coldness of women is often remarked by men, and is 
sometimes said to be normal. When men complain of woman's 
irresponsiveness, coolness, or indifference, they are wont to ig- 
nore their own responsibility in the matter. Is it reasonable to 
suppose that ardor and passion will take possession of a shy, 
utterly inexperienced woman, who is suddenly, tactlessly, and as 
often happens, roughly, thrust into wedlock? 
The joy in mating is as much the natural heritage of the 
woman as of the man. Fantastic in the extreme are many of the 
vulgar beliefs concerning the relative intensity of the two sexes. 
Even well-educated men often display a quaint ignorance in this 
matter. It is enough to state here that Nature has plainly indi- 
cated woman's capacity for happiness by endowing her with 
sensitive nerves. But men should know that a measure of re- 
sistance in wooing is normal in woman, and that for many, per- 
haps most, women the heart must be won before the senses. 
Until men deem it essential to make a proper study of 
woman, and until they recognize that love in marriage is an art 
requiring more delicate skill than courtship, domestic disasters 
and tragedies will abound. 
Women should know themselves physiologically before en- 
tering upon marriage and its momentous responsibilities. It is a 
hopeful augury for the future that cultivated women are begin- 
ning to realize the importance of all knowledge tending towards 
the upraising of love, the holiness of maternity, the improvement HOW TO LOVE 
113 
of the human race, the direction of the minds of the young in 
sex matters, and the hygiene of wedlock. 
The nature and expression of woman's love differ from 
man's love, because selection is a stronger factor in the feminine 
than in the masculine choice of a partner. All the foreplay of 
animals in courtship is directed towards a very definite end. The 
"showing off" of the peacock whose gorgeous tail feathers are 
the product of selection on the part of the hens, the antics of the 
male grouse, the gambols of all quadrupeds at the time of woo- 
ing, and the embellishment of the body and the trials of strength 
among primitive men, are instances of Nature's contriving that 
the fittest male shall be secured by the female. 
A young girl in love exercises choice both consciously and 
unconsciously. The spirit of the species speaks within, but its 
whisper is scarcely apprehended in conscious thought. She is 
attracted, and she loves in obedience to the fervor of her being. 
Her heart glows with affection, and her brain assures her of 
desirable qualities in the character of her suitor. 
But her apparent free selection is actually less free than she 
imagines. Rooted in the very depths of her ineradicable in- 
stincts is the desire for the man who makes the strongest appeal 
to her as the fitting progenitor and protector of her children. 
This is why the purely esthetic physical attractions of men play 
an inferior part in determining the choice of women. It has 
been often noted by men, to their chagrin, that a handsome face 
and the external graces of manhood do not always and readily 
insure success in love-making. The men who charm women are 
frequently ill-favored in features, and sometimes they are posi- 
tively ugly. 
Masculine beauty, considered in the abstract sense, certainly 
evokes the admiration of a number of women, and especially 
those possessing esthetic or artistic appreciation. When, how- 
ever, the great question of choice is in the balance, man's beauty 
of countenance is a very subordinate, or wholly unessential, in- 
fluence. In this marked respect feminine selection in love differs 
supremely from the masculine. 
To man the lure of woman's loveliness often proves fatally 
invincible, obscuring a host of temperamental and moral defects, 
and inhibiting suspicion of incompatibility. The bad, beautiful 114 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
adventuress finds men her willing prey. The plain, noble-hearted, 
virtuous woman is often a celibate for life. 
Men have given comeliness to women through the constant 
choice of the most physically alluring. The paeans to the beauty 
of woman, and almost all the rhapsody and intoxication with 
feminine charms presented in literature and art, are masculine. 
Comparatively few women experience the intense pleasure of 
the lover's gaze upon the beloved. One or two women have 
assured me that they are repelled by the masculine figure; while 
a very large number are quite supine even in the contemplation of 
an Adonis. 
Just as beauty is man's dower to woman, a biological fact 
that she is apt to overlook, so is the strength of man the gift of 
woman. The early female ancestors of our stock aided this 
evolution by selecting the strongest men as their mates. Their 
descendants exert the same selection, often dimly in their own 
minds, or quite unconsciously. 
Woman's instinct in mating is a choice of the man who im- 
presses her by a real or seeming strength and virility. Has not 
every one of us remarked the apparent capriciousness of women 
we have known? They refuse the physically refined, handsome 
wooer, and become almost slaves of a husband who is alto- 
gether deficient in facial charm, a huge "blonde beast," intensely 
and aggressively masculine. 
In the main, then, woman's normal bias in selection is for 
force, power, and strength. Her unguided intuition may lead her 
astray in fulfilling purely personal ends; but mostly she obeys a 
racial behest that is inviolable. 
The supposed relation of fervor in love and physical 
strength is, broadly speaking, an incorrect conclusion. Great 
athletes and prodigies of muscle are often not only cold in tem- 
perament, but physiologically feeble as parents. The normally 
strong man is really the finer, more harmonious type than the 
athlete, whose energy is used up in the making of mere muscular 
tissue. 
WHEN MEN LOVE 
In passing from the examination of the chief characteristics 
of woman, and the physiological and mental differentiation of the 
female from the male sex, to an analysis of the constitution of HOW TO LOVE 
115 
man, it may be well to point out that, in the sex domain, men 
are less variable than women, but in other respects they show a 
greater tendency to variation. Physically, men are more liable to 
abnormality than women, as instanced in clubfoot, hare-lip, anom- 
alous ear-structure, mal-position of internal organs, and other 
defects and variations of structure. There are more deaf and 
dumb men than women. Idiocy is commoner in the male than 
the female sex. On the other hand, genius is more often found 
among men than among women. 
In love man is more comprehensible, direct, and less fastidi- 
ous and capricious than woman. The explanation is simple: Upon 
woman lies the graver responsibility in love selection; for she 
chooses not only a lover, but a potential father. Paternal in- 
stincts do not strongly sway the man, who is primarily obsessed 
by the charms of a woman. He is absolved from the greater 
task of giving life and all its risks and pains. 
The directness of man in selection and wooing is the law of 
Nature, and as essential as the indirectness, hesitancy, coyness, 
and reserve of the object of his passion. Literally, she is "giv- 
ing herself," and incurring dangers and sufferings to which her 
lover is not exposed. If he thinks twice before asking for her 
hand she thinks ten times before yielding it. 
Her deliberation may seem evidence of coldness and calcula- 
tion. In all cases where her heart is vitally concerned her hesi- 
tancy is not an affectation, but the manifestation of a sub-con- 
scious maternal solicitude. Her choice is inexplicable to herself 
in a set formula. All she knows is that the appeal of this man 
is irresistible, and fire and flood will not restrain her. 
A man is more impetuous, sudden, aggressive and confident 
in his wooing. He can afford to be more love-distracted, ro- 
mantic, idealistic than the woman. In nine cases out of ten there 
is no defined sense of paternity mingled with his intense yearning 
for possession. The question of a family may scarcely enter 
into his reflections. He is the eternal male, urged on by an over- 
whelming impulse to seize the woman and to bear her away. Her 
reluctance alternately stimulates and irritates him, and it may 
even cause exasperation and anger. The senses have over- 
powered him; the reason is arrested; he may behave insanely. 
For the lover and the lunatic cannot disclaim kinship. Passion 
is an exaltation and a furore. 116 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
I believe that the majority of men are apt to attach a want 
of sense and good taste to the women who refuse or reject them. 
This attribution arises not solely from male vanity, but from a 
deep misunderstanding of the selective instincts of woman, and 
all that these feelings imply and determine. We are not loved 
by a woman simply because we are of the opposite sex, or be- 
cause we happen to be handsome, tall, wise, witty, amiable, or 
wealthy. A man may possess all of these graces and advantages, 
and yet fail to charm a woman who desires love and marriage. 
A maiden permitted full natural play in her choice of a 
lover is actuated, consciously or sub-consciously, by subtler and 
more elusive influences than those deciding masculine selection. 
She is innately less hasty and positive than her wooer. Her in- 
clination is to wait. His yearning is to grasp and secure imme- 
diately. The unfavored suitor, musing upon his numerous 
charms, or his tempting income, is amazed, and often affronted, 
when he sees the coveted object of his desire bestowing herself 
upon a plain-featured, taciturn, or dull example of his sex, or 
upon one who is devoid of the faculty of money-getting. And 
in his astonishment and spleen he denounces the coquetry, un- 
certainty, and perversity of women. 
Just as women suffer torment of the soul in the great emo- 
tional upheavals of love, so are men tortured by the tremendous 
impulsion of passion. In this common conflict the profoundest 
reciprocal sex misunderstandings, active quarrels, and calamitous 
repulsions are wont to arise. The jilted lover and disillusioned 
husband become the woman-hater, and the sworn opponent of 
feminist reforms. The abandoned, or the slighted, maiden and 
the disappointed wife find relief in bitter contempt for men. 
The very uncomplexity of man's love makes for fatal mis- 
apprehension among women. From the woman's point of view 
it is too powerfully centered upon one purpose. Women con- 
stantly reproach us for our imperious ardor, often with justice, 
but as often without knowledge. Nature has fashioned us for 
a mighty racial function, and we, like women, are the victims of 
our organization. 
The persons who think that passion is unlovely, and even 
shameful, are victims of mental distortion. They are actually 
in a state of morbid enmity with Nature, and their attitude of HOW TO LOVE 
117 
mind throws darkness over the whole sphere of beauty, wonder, 
and spiritual and altruistic emotions. 
THE STRESS OF COURTSHIP 
Undoubtedly the sway of masculine impulses often leads to 
errors and serious anti-social acts. Divorced from the refine- 
ments of spiritual feeling, consideration for the object of desire, 
and all the restraints and sacrifices that constitute true love, the 
physical impulse degenerates into sheer brutishness. Chivalry, 
honor, unselfishness, and regard for human happiness are utterly 
disregarded by ill-balanced men who have never known the pure 
sacraments of love. 
Fundamentally, the tactic of the man in courtship is active, 
and to a certain extent aggressive, while the role of the woman 
is at first resistant, and in a measure passive even after she has 
been won. The evidence that this is the general rule throughout 
the animal kingdom, and among human beings all over the globe, 
is conclusive. Resistance, or the defensive attitude, on the part 
of woman, her coyness and reserve, serve not only biological 
ends, but they also arouse the activity and the skill of her lover. 
When we recognize that this is the great universal rule of the 
game of courtship we are less liable to reciprocal misunder- 
standings. 
The contest between the vehement wooer and his defensive 
partner is not without real stress and often torment, even when 
both are enthused by sincere and fervent love. Courtship is not 
simply a preliminary. It is a continual preparation for a career 
of the supremest import to the pair and to the race. The impulse 
to dominate and subdue the coyly-resisting woman is very power- 
ful in the man, and in morbid forms this impulse may become 
cruel. 
Women who love with their whole beings often confess that 
there is joy in surrender and submission to a lover. The ro- 
mantic young girl dreams of the valiant knight, tender and yet 
strong, who has the power to carry her away. But before a 
woman can abandon herself happily to the will of the suitor she 
must feel absolute confidence in his love. The bold lover is 
usually victorious, because his audacity is a sign to the maiden 
that he represents her ideal of forcefulness; and the manifesta- 
tion of power gives her trust in his capacity as a future pro- 118 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
tector. I am writing now only of love, and not of the various 
social or mercenary incentives to marriage. 
The combativity of men in the play of courtship is as neces- 
sary for the well-being of lovers and the race as the mingled fear, 
reluctance, and shyness of women. Even an angry lover is not 
always a repellent object to the woman in love. The instinct of 
teasing men which is commonly observed among young women, 
is no doubt aroused by a species of delight in witnessing a man 
incensed. There is evidence to show that an element of fear is a 
tonic, and that some women desire it. 
It is only when masculinity is extreme, or morbid, that men 
delight in the exercise of tyrannous strength in marriage. The 
normally strong and refined man enjoys his power over the 
woman; but his delight is in the consciousness that she gladly 
accepts this sway and desires it, and in the satisfaction that his 
strength is mainly directed to cherishing and protecting his be- 
loved. This sense is akin to that of the mother in the care and 
upbringing of a loved child. 
CONJUGAL HARMONY 
Upon men devolves the active part in courtship. There is 
no doubt whatever that wooing after marriage is a more difficult 
subtle, and elaborate process than the mere preliminary play of 
attractions. It is an alarming reflection that the vast majority 
of men learn and practice only the arts of enticing to the altar 
and the home. When love is beginning, man practically aban- 
dons the game. 
Innately a man may be chivalrous, affectionate, and tender. 
Social education, religious teaching, and public opinion may have 
taught him that his responsibilities as a husband and father de- 
mand industry, sobriety, regular living, provision for the family 
day by day, and scholastic tuition of the children. To these ends 
he usually works with exemplary energy. He may be liberal 
in his wife's allowance, anxious that she may enjoy all material 
comforts, and constantly solicitous for her general well-being. 
In a word, he may be a typical, worthy citizen, possessing mani- 
fest good qualities and considerable intelligence. 
What is lacking that domestic life, begun under such happy 
auspices, by two affectionate persons, proves often a very in- 
different success or a flagrant failure? The pair united for HOW TO LOVE 
119 
love; they are adequately provided with the necessities of ex- 
istence; and they possess health and capacity for happiness. In 
the words of Browning, "wanting is-what?" 
The answer must be "conjugal harmony." I do not mean 
incompatibility in the ordinary sense. The two may be of one 
mind in most respects and reciprocal in esteem. And yet one or 
the other is discontented, or both are disillusioned and unhappy. 
They will either accept their lot with mingled disappointment and 
fortitude, hiding their secret distress from their dearest friends, 
and so blunder on to the end of the journey; or they will quarrel, 
abuse, and actively dislike one another for the rest of their lives, 
unless they are strong enough to sever the union irrevocably by 
legal divorce. 
Man, the prime partner in passion, the valiant wooer, the 
sole initiator, is accountable, in the great majority of cases, for 
the disastrous second act in the drama of love. His very self- 
assurance of masculine wisdom is the proof of his calamitous 
ignorance. Promise of paradise is his for consummation. He 
finds himself clutching Dead Sea fruit. He rails at matrimony; 
he blames woman; he denounces wedded love as an illusion. He 
should call himself to account. 
It is profoundly instructive that many of the classic ancient 
treatises on the art of conjugal love were the work of women. 
Is it not one of the strangest of all social anomalies that man's 
fundamental duty has been the very one that he least under- 
stands ? 
Men who live in complete chastity are often high-minded 
and conscientious. But they frequently enter matrimony without 
the slightest inquiry concerning the psychology of the woman 
they love. I have known scores of married men whose ignorance 
in this respect was colossal and almost incredible. It is quite 
true that affection and tenderness in both husband and wife miti- 
gate to a certain extent the risks of ignorance. On the other 
hand, there are many recorded cases of serious physical injury 
and manifold disturbances due to unconscious errors throughout 
marital life, 
MARRIAGE AS AN ART 
Men and women train for every career save marriage. I 
speak of civilized Western communities; for among savages and 120 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
in most Eastern nations there are rites, initiations, and instruc- 
tions preparatory to union. 
Beyond ethical injunctions, no counsel is given in our state 
of society for insuring that wedlock shall be harmonious for hus- 
band and wife in the fulfilment of those functions that concern 
not only themselves, but the whole community and posterity. 
Marriage is, however, beginning to be regarded as not merely a 
contract of the lifelong companionship of a man and a woman, 
but a matter that deeply concerns the commonweal and the com- 
ing generations. 
In the physiological and also in the moral sense it is wrong 
to marry without any knowledge of the art of marriage-that is 
to say, the art of love. No doubt the flirtations of youth serve 
in a meagre way to impart to young men and maidens some hints 
of the real passion of love. But it is a significant fact that in 
countries where flirting is most prevalent, and almost raised to 
a cult, the profoundest ignorance of the art of marriage is the 
rule. 
Women who are adepts in coquetry often enter matrimonial 
life in almost complete misunderstanding of its actualities; while 
men, for the greater number experimentalists in light amours, 
are equally ill-equipped for their momentous responsibilities. 
The aversions of wives, the irritabilities, minor nervous dis- 
turbances, some of the common- and not a few of the graver 
bodily ailments result from this ignorance. It is the source of 
mistrust, the waning of affection, the destruction of respect, the 
growth of sex-antagonism, and often utter disillusionment with 
connubial love. Ignorance in this vastly important regard has 
turned many homes into hells. It is a common cause of separa- 
tion and divorce. 
Men, perhaps equally with women, endure years of disap- 
pointment, and sometimes sheer misery, through this flagrant 
want of knowledge. So manifold, complex, and widespread are 
the results and influences arising from this evil that they cannot 
be even approximately estimated. There is no doubt whatever 
that life, from childhood to old age, is attended in millions of 
persons by perplexities, sufferings, errors, sins, and disorders that 
might be greatly lessened, or prevented and wholly removed, by 
simple enlightenment. The fathers who neglect to provide suit- 
able instruction for their sons at the marriageable age, and the HOW TO LOVE 
121 
mother who send their daughters in utter ignorance to the 
avocation of wifehood and motherhood, are gravely culpable. 
QUICKSANDS OF MARRIED LIFE 
I have insisted that the nature of love in the sexes differs in 
pronounced instances. The difference is not in the degree of 
capacity and intensity, but in form of feelings and expression. 
Under the right and natural conditions, and with the considerate 
husband, a wife is capable of all the wedded happiness enjoyed 
by her partner. Under the same conditions marriage is a success 
for the man. The conditions are psychic and physical, and not 
purely one or the other. The perfect blend of the two is impera- 
tively demanded by natural decree. 
Initiation for the woman must be a patient, loving, delicate 
process. A word even may shatter happiness on the very thres- 
hold of conjugality. Bridegrooms should realize that, added to 
natural coyness, a maiden enters into a new sphere of existence, 
grievously handicapped by the ignorance that society has encour- 
aged in her sex. Brides should realize that this ignorance on 
their part, and the timidity and alarm that it induces, reacts upon 
the husband, who may desire to show every consideration, and 
that he also may be affected by a sense of inexperience, and 
rendered nervous and tactless. Men must appreciate the su- 
perior fastidiousness of women, and women must reckon with 
the vehemence of men. 
The loving woman who entrusts herself to a man's keeping, 
and allies herself to him for the reproduction of offsprings who 
runs the risk of death itself in giving life, is placed in a terrible 
situation when the husband knows nothing of her unique psychic 
nature and her definite needs, rights, and proclivities. 
The art of marriage is the art of perennial love-making. 
More than during courtship and betrothal, a woman requires 
solicitude, tenderness, patience, appreciation, and wooing when 
she has linked herself to a man. She responds to affection in 
marriage as the expanded flower turns to the warmth of the 
sun. She notes quickly, sometimes with morbid sensitivity, the 
slightest hint of neglect, the first inkling of a husband's indiffer- 
ence, or the suspicion that she is ceasing to charm. The man 
who abandons the methods of wooing after wedlock may be 122 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
warned that neglect of the art of love often leads to a wife's 
coldness, and sometimes to inconstancy. 
Between 40 and 50 has been called "the dangerous age" for 
women. The bloom of maturity may be manifestly fading. 
When the woman looks in the glass she may mark the growing 
lines upon her face with a passionate regret. This period is 
often a graver crisis than adolescence with its dawning of love 
longings. Sometimes, when the trial is over, there is a re- 
blossoming of love in the woman's heart. Almost always a 
woman is wont to be restless and dissatisfied during this arduous 
spell. 
Many women at this crisis develop aberrant fancies. They 
find their husbands distinctly lacking in attraction. There may, 
or may not, be cause to believe that the husband is indifferent or 
disaffected. In any case, the suspicion takes root. Sometimes 
the husband's love remains undiminished, or it may have deep- 
ened with long association. Nevertheless, the wife yearns to 
live alone for a period; or she may discover a sudden violent 
infatuation for another man, often much younger than herself. 
All a husband's patience and kindly tact may be necessary 
during this trying period. Often there is but little disturbance 
of mental balance and no serious physical symptoms. Close at- 
tention to diet, rest, judicious moderate exercise, congenial occu- 
pation, and the avoidance of exterior worries will greatly mitigate 
all discomforts and pains of the climacteric. 
DESTINY OF WOMEN 
The art of marriage for women begins with an earnest in- 
clination to comprehend the physical and psychic nature of the 
man to whom she has pledged herself. 
A young wife who wishes to retain her husband's love and 
admiration should recognize that the selfishness of man, as often 
shown in the affairs of daily life, is not infrequently a want of 
reflection rather than a defect of virtue. She should not imagine 
that a preoccupied or silent, pensive mood in her companion is 
necessarily a sign of his indifference towards her. If he some- 
times omits to kiss her, when she is in the humor for tenderness, 
she should not distress herself unnecessarily with the doubt that 
his affection is cooling. Olive Schreiner refers to this apparent 
indifference, that arises recurrently in men, as a source of aston- HOW TO LOVE 
123 
ishment to wives. Such seeming apathy is often nothing more 
nor less than absorption in schemes of work or business. 
Realizing that the senses are acute in man, a wise wife will 
study the same arts of attraction that she exercised before mar- 
riage. She will incite her husband to fall in love with her re- 
peatedly. In happy marriage both partners frequently discover 
new charms and virtues in one another, and courtship continues 
for life. Dowdiness and untidiness repel many men, though 
some are almost indifferent to dress. 
Woman is the universal consoler of mankind. To her we 
turn, when errant and penitent children, for her kindly com- 
passion and counsel. In manhood we seek her pity, her aid, her 
consolations. She has the supreme gift of solace. Many a man, 
wounded in the combat of life, feels healed and strong again 
when a loved woman holds him to her and bids him take courage. 
Let women recognize that a man in love is easily influenced by 
affection, and that he, like them, is susceptible to the pangs of 
indifference or neglect. 
I hold that the re-making of society on a grander human 
plan rests chiefly with the intelligence, the intuitive faculty, in- 
sight, sympathy, and fine courage and devotion of woman. Only 
the education of woman must be broadened, and should include 
biology, physiology, and psychology. 
Our first deep impressions are received from woman. She is 
the mother, teacher, nurse, and healer. Her beauty and her love 
are the chief incentives to activity in manhood. We fight the 
world to win her smile. Men are frequently as women shape 
them in childhood, in youth, and even in maturity. There is no 
limit to the potential influence of woman upon society. 
Laplace, pointing to the volumes representing his life's work 
in science, declared all this was as nothing compared to the love 
of woman. CHAPTER IX 
MARRIAGE 
A SHORT HISTORY OF MARRIAGE 
IT IS supposed that marriage has gradually passed through 
several stages of development: 1. Promiscuity; 2, Polygamy 
and Polyandry; 3, Monogamy. 
(1) There is a great difference among authorities as to 
whether promiscuity was ever universally practiced or not. 
Though the ancient Greeks claimed marriage was introduced by 
one of their mythical heros, before which time men held their 
wives in common. If there is any truth in the Darwinian the- 
ory, that man is descended from a monkey-like ancestor, promis- 
cuity must have been a predecessor of the family group. All 
apes are promiscuous. 
In some of the Pacific Islands (Tahiti), up to a century 
or so ago, there was a secret society called the Areoi, the mem- 
bers of which gave themselves up to promiscuous sexual orgies. 
The membership was limited, and was accordingly looked on as a 
great honor. In fact, one chief who was brought to England by 
Capt. Cook, the explorer, said he considered himself the equal of 
the British king, because he had been admitted. 
One argument urged in favor of the existence of promiscuity 
in the early history of mankind, is the custom of motherhood 
(motherright, or matriarchate). That is to say, the man enters 
the woman's community, and the children belong to her. This 
takes as the corner-stone of the family and of Society, the one 
certain fact in all relationships (as Ratzel expresses it), the kin- 
ship of children to their mother. In such cases the father is even 
named after the child. Thus the father-in-law of the famous 
African explorer, Livingstone, was called "the father of Mary." 
This practice was widespread among savage tribes, and traces of 
it still linger even at the present day in out-of-the-way corners 
of the globe. Motherhood was generally prevalent in the Indian 
tribes, east of the Mississippi. 
Fatherhood (fatherright or patriarchate) may develop on oc- 
124 MARRIAGE 
125 
casions when the father is able to accumulate property, flocks, 
herds, etc., by his own labor. Obviously this would in such case 
belong to him. 
Among some savage tribes the marriage bond is so loose, one 
might almost say there is promiscuity. 
(2) Polygamy-or plurality of wives-is- and has been 
widespread among barbarous and semi-civilized peoples. One 
reason assigned for the custom is in some countries there are no 
animals capable of giving milk, hence the children must be nursed 
by the mother for several years. As lactation generally inter- 
rupts the process of menstruation and ovulation (discharge of 
eggs), the sexual desire as well is usually lessened or absent for 
this lengthy interval, hence the husband would be deprived of 
sexual gratification if he had but one wife. 
From a physiologic standpoint there is some truth to this-• 
among the lower animals, once the female has passed through the 
term of "heat" and is pregnant, the sexual desires of the male are 
abolished till the breeding season of the following year; this 
is not the case, of course, with the male of the human species. 
Michels remarks that the phenomena of habituation to mono- 
gamy are seen only in the later stages of married life, for the 
male is unquestionably characterized by polygamous tendencies. 
Even woman, as a rule, is not free from polyandrous inclinations. 
Nevertheless, her erotic sensibilities are much less developed than 
those of the male, for a prolonged and severe suppression of sex- 
ual manifestations during the period of virginity has produced 
its inevitable result. There are women, moreover, whom the aus- 
tere education given by the Church has had the effect of render- 
ing, up to a certain point, independent of the male in sexual mat- 
ters. But with men it is very different. Although for a short 
time, or even for considerable periods, a man's sexual affections 
may appear to assume an exclusive and monogamic form, it is 
Nature's will that the normal male should feel a continuous and 
powerful sexual sympathy towards a considerable number of 
women. 
It is curious to note that wild ducks have but a single mate, 
but the tame ducks of the barnyard are polygamous; with do- 
mestication their morals have become depraved. The domestic 
pigeon, on the contrary, mates for life. 126 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Even in polygamy, the first wife ranks highest, and her off- 
spring as a rule inherit the estate. 
In Paraguay, early in the seventies of last century, as a re- 
sult of the 5-years' war with Brazil, it was estimated there were 
250,000 inhabitants, about 200,000 of them women. Such excess 
of females, as the result of infanticide, war or slavery, was the 
most important cause, probably, of polygamy. After the 30 
Years' War (1618-48) in Germany, the inhabitants were so few 
that two wives were allowed; and it will be remembered that a 
similar proposal has been advocated recently as a result of the 
World-War. 
In India, even, about 95 per cent, of the inhabitants have 
but one wife, and in Persia the per cent, in still greater (98). 
The reason for this is that plurality of wives is nearly everywhere 
a privilege of the ruling classes (princes or chiefs) and wealthy 
men. Single marriages are the rule, where as among the Eski- 
mos, it take an unusually skilful hunter to support more than one 
wife. 
Polyandry (many husbands) is not found generally, mostly 
where female children are killed (infanticide) or sold. Among 
the tribe of Todas (India), all the brothers in a family have the 
same wife in common. The first child is attributed to the eldest 
brother, the second to the next, and so on down. Said to be a 
very satisfactory arrangement, as a rule I 
(3) Monogamy has been more or less generally adopted by 
all nations and tribes, as soon as they reach a somewhat high 
rank in the scale of civilization. The French author, Letourneau, 
gives as his opinion that of the great causes which have led to the 
adoption of single marriages, the first is the equality between the 
sexes which occurs so soon as it is not disturbed by the casualties 
of savage life. 
He also points out that all over the world, in all races, and 
at all times, we find examples that in the middle age of civiliza- 
tion, the rights of parents over children-especially over daught- 
ers-included in all countries the right to sell them. 
Marriage by capture and by purchase each had their advan- 
tages and disadvantages. Capture cost nothing, and it procured 
wives and concubines over whom the captor had every possible 
right; but in practice it was not free from danger, and once car- MARRIAGE 
127 
ried out it exposed him still to revenge and retaliation. Men, 
then, became resigned to the purchase of the wives, as soon as 
they could dispose of some exchange values. The "best man" 
at our modern weddings is a relic of the old days of marriage by 
capture. This latter, by the way, still survives here and there 
in a mock form, as among the Arabs. 
Marriage took place in ancient Greece in the winter time, and 
the month corresponding to our Jan. 15 to Feb. 15, was in great 
favor, so much so its name in Greek meant "the month of marry- 
ing." The period of full moon was most fashionable. The Ro- 
man bride when being dressed for the wedding had her hair 
parted by a spear, a relic of marriage by capture. In the wed- 
ding procession to the bride's future home, nuts were thrown 
among the spectators, instead of rice as in our day. Both these 
are supposed to be for the purpose of propitiating evil spirits 
by feeding them. 
To notice and describe all the queer customs connected with 
the marriage ceremony would require a book several times the 
size of this one, but a few may be referred to in passing: 
In some parts of Southern Germany, the bride weeps all the 
way back from the church; the theory being she has wept so 
much there will be no occasion for it in her future home. 
"Trial marriages" were common in Europe in the Middle 
Ages, and persisted in the Isle of Portland (England), even up 
to-and into the 19th century. If any children resulted, they were 
regarded as true heirs as if born in wedlock. "Partial mar- 
riages" were found in North Africa (Nubia), and may still sur- 
vive there. The wife belonged to the husband only one day out 
of four, on the other three she could do what she pleased. 
There is some reason for believing that marriage at first was 
onty temporary, and that family life as we know it was of slow 
growth. A great factor, no doubt, in the development of the 
family is the fact that the young of human beings are dependent 
on the parents for years, and not for a few weeks or months as 
in animals. 
One of the most extraordinary customs was that called the 
cowuade which was found among some Indians of the West In- 
dies and South America, and it is claimed also on the border 
between France and Spain. 128 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Among the Carihs of the West Indies, as soon as a child was 
born, the mother washed it, and then went about her household 
duties. The father, however, took to his hammock, and was fed 
only on soup for ten days, then allowed to eat a little tapioca. In 
six weeks a feast was had, but the father not allowed to take part, 
nor was he permitted to get up for several days, and for the first 
six months after doing so could not eat either poultry or fish. 
The object is not clear, it may have been to recognize the 
fact the father had a part to play as well as the mother in concep- 
tion and the pregnancy following. 
Among uncivilized tribes the views as to sexual morality 
differ hugely: In some the greatest license is permitted between 
the unmarried, while other tribes put a girl who has been guilty 
of bastardy to death. Still others allow the greatest freedom 
after marriage, and in some the wife is loaned to guests, either 
as an act of hospitality, or for gain. Other things being equal, 
where loose marriage customs prevail there is no jealousy. 
WHO SHOULD MARRY? 
There are some half-a-dozen requisites for a satisfactory- 
therefore happy-marriage, to-wit: 1, Proper Age; 2, Good 
Health; 3, Physical Contrast; 4, Mutual Affinity; 5, Mutual De- 
sire for Offspring; 6, Religious Opinion in Common. 
(1). Other things being equal, it is best that the contract- 
ing parties be physically and mentally mature, that the ends of 
the bones have become finally joined to the rest showing that 
the growth of the skeleton is finished. On the average for tem- 
perate climates this will be about 22 to 24 years. Though some 
years back a young woman of New York City marrying into the 
English nobility at a comparatively early age, led a medical jour- 
nal of that town to issue some warnings as to the dangers of 
childbirth before the hip bones through which the child is born 
were completely joined. Apparently no bad results followed, but 
"one swallow does not make a summer" here, anymore than in 
other walks of life. 
Tannenbaum believe that, without exception, the greatest 
obstacle to early marriage is the great probability of parenthood 
and the expense, responsibility and sacrifice associated with the 
rearing of children. MARRIAGE 
129 
The time when our progress depended largely on our in- 
stincts for self-preservation and reproduction for our success in 
the struggle for existence has largely gone. Such instincts, writes 
Corner, we possess with the lower animals. For success in life 
we have to conform to the laws evolved by our forefathers which 
have been successful in producing our present state of society. 
One result is that marriage can only take place among the middle 
classes, about 30 years of age. As a part consequence modern 
families are small compared with those in former times, and from 
the practice of 'suppression of fertilization' [birth control] still 
small. This has at least two important consequences: The sec- 
ondary sexual characters of females have become intensified by 
fashions, which are the recognized means of attracting the other 
sex; and all have to develop more nervous control than their 
predecessors had; there is, consequently, more strain on the nerv- 
ous system, hence a greater number of nervous failures. Success 
in life means both intellectual and sexual success much more now 
than it did in the past, when sexual energy meant success in vice 
as often as in virtue. Intellectual success means success in vir- 
tue, and is relatively more frequent nowadays, as social develop- 
ment necessitates nervous restraint for people to succeed. 
So far as late marriages have to be considered, Heape, the 
English biologist, observes: Changes of temperament due to 
physiologic changes in the body will occur at any period of the 
life of a married woman, although they are most marked be- 
tween 40 and 50. Married life when the two partners are equally 
set in their habits, is even more full of danger that at an earlier 
age when both are more plastic. 
But the most powerful argument against late marriages, es- 
pecially for women, is they are less likely to bear children. The 
physiologic habits acquired during a long period of spinsterhood 
may so affect the reproductive system that even a healthy woman 
may be deprived of the power to reproduce. Even if she does 
bear a child the duties of maternity will usually be less easy to 
perform than when she still had the nutriment stored back dur- 
ing a healthy girlhood to fall back upon, and thus her offspring 
will have less chance of a normal, healthy life. [To this we would 
add that life insurance statistics prove the "expectancy of life" 
that is to say the average number of years possible at a given 130 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
age, is much less of course, at say 45, than 20 years younger, 
hence the danger the mother may not live to bring up the child 
properly.] 
Heape comes to the conclusion that for the majority of men 
early marriage is the only alternative for either a repression of 
natural desires, which is bad for them; or for an indulgence of 
them on irregular terms, which under the conditions now prevail- 
ing in civilized communities, is constantly associated with suffer- 
ing and disease. 
(2) Good health of each of the contracting parties is ab- 
solutely essential. Even with a perfectly healthy state of the 
body, the trials of married life are sometimes undergone with 
difficulty, and this is very hard or utterly impossible when hus- 
band or wife are suffering from some physical ailments as well. 
Medical examination before marriage may show the bony 
framework of the woman is such that it is impossible for her to 
bear living children, and marriage should be refrained from. 
This may seem harsh, but is probably better than for the woman 
to lose her life in childbirth, or suffer injuries from which she 
remains a life-long invalid, maybe confined to bed. 
(3) By "physical contrast" is meant that a thin and a fat 
partner, a tall and a short one, will probably be more satisfac- 
tory than for both to exhibit such extremes. 
(4) There should be some degree of mutual affinity, 
whether this may be called magnetism, or whatnot, or be dignified 
with the name of "love." This is the reason why in marriages of 
expediency (manages de convenance) so common in France es- 
pecially, are often unhappy, here the wishes of the contracting 
parties are not consulted in the least, the nuptials are decided on 
by the respective parents because the farms join, or the financial 
standing of the two will be elevated. It is the reason, too, why 
royal marriages are often unsatisfactory, the union being regu- 
lated by various dynastic-and geographic-reasons not by af- 
fection. 
Here the story of the "blue stockings" occurs to one: In 
the days before short skirts were the fashion, a man seeing a 
young woman alighting from a street car fell in love with her, so 
the story goes, simply on catching a glimpse of the blue stockings 
which she wore and for no other reason whatsoever. Not a MARRIAGE 
131 
very satisfactory basis, it would seem, for substantial marital 
happiness! 
Under this head it is desirable as well that the sexual pro- 
pensities be as evenly balanced as possible. When the husband 
is ardent, and the wife cold-blooded and frigid, nothing but dis- 
cord can be expected. Though it is not clear by any means how 
this balance can be determined in time. 
(5) When one partner is a great lover of children and 
hopes for a family of their own, while the other does not care for 
offspring, but little chance of conjugal happiness would seem in 
prospect. 
(6) There is considerable danger of discord also when hus- 
band and wife are of different religious faiths; or one is religious 
and the other belongs to no faith. Especially is this true of alli- 
ances between Christian and Jews, and probably between Prot- 
estants and Catholics; though in this latter event we believe the 
non-Catholics must agree that if any children result they are to 
be reared in the Catholic faith, before the marriage can be sol- 
emnized. 
When all is said and done, this question of marriage is a 
good deal like the old Indiana proverb (or is it Ohio?) "All signs 
fail in dry weather." We have in mind three marriages of pros- 
titutes, and to all outward appearances the unions were as happy 
and satisfactory as any others; though it is noteworthy that in 
none of the three did any children result. 
WHO MAY NOT MARRY. 
Some of the principal obstacles to a successful marriage are 
the following: 
Syphilis. It is estimated that the average case of syphilis 
when not treated, is capable of being transmitted for at least 
5 years from the original chancre. Therefore, at least 5 years 
must elapse after the original sore which marks the start of the 
disease. It is presumed that at least three years' treatment has 
been taken under the advice of competent physicians. A series 
of tests at regular intervals, say four times per annum (Wasser- 
mann tests) must all be negative. 
Gonorrhea.-First of all, of course, the discharge must have 
stopped for a considerable time. The urine passed must be clear 132 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
with no fragments or particles in it. It is customary for the 
doctor to press the prostate and the little bags under the bladder 
(seminal vesticles), massage them in other words. The fluid 
forced out is then examined under the microscope to find if it 
contains the germs causing the disease. This is to be repeated a 
couple of times, or better still on three different occasions. 
Consumption.-This is not hereditary, strictly speaking, but 
the tendency is. Other things being equal, a patient with ad- 
vanced consumption should not marry; but as doctors well know, 
the sexual desires of such individuals are frequently greater than 
the average in health, and they often contract matrimony. Once 
married they are worse, of course, for the excessive intercourse is 
too much for their strength and the disease makes rapid progress. 
For the woman, the danger of pregnancy is great, and after the 
birth of a child the disease often lights up as it were and soon car- 
ries off the unfortunate victims. 
Heart Disease.-Patients with disorders of this important 
organ, should refrain from sexual commerce, hence from mar- 
riage. Any number of sudden deaths during copulation occur 
every year with patients suffering from heart affections. 
Epileptic Fits.-This is a grave defect in one partner, and if 
both the contracting parties are epileptics, marriage is out of the 
question, and should be so decreed by suitable laws. 
Marriage Between Relatives.-This is practically limited to 
cousins (either first or second), nephew and aunt, or niece and 
uncle. There is considerable misconception on this subject in the 
popular mind, matings between first cousins being supposed to re- 
sult in feeble-minded or deaf-and-dumb children. Nevertheless 
there is no foundation for the idea, provided the family history 
of the contracting parties on each side is good. Where there is 
any defect, such as unsound mind and so on, there is, of course, 
a great chance of the defect being handed down just as would 
be the case where there was no relationship whatever. In an- 
cient Egypt, the kings even married their own sisters, and so far 
as known with no bad results. As a matter of fact, the practice 
continued for a long time, if there were any evil effects, the 
practice would evidently have been abandoned. MARRIAGE 
133 
NO MARRIAGE LICENSE WITHOUT A CERTIFICATE OF FREEDOM 
FROM TRANSMISSIBLE DISEASE* 
Among the most wonderful phenomena of the present age 
is the spirit of unrest among the female members of the human 
race. Whether or not woman suffrage will prove the panacea 
that its adherents believe it will, or whether its universal granting 
will put progress back half a century as its opponents believe it 
will-one thing is sure: Woman refuses to remain the doll, the 
child, the slave that man wanted to make of her; woman is awake 
-if not fully awake, she is opening her eyes anyway. And she 
demands the right to dispose of her body as her own and not as 
her husband's property. She wants to know what is to become of 
her body when she enters the bonds of holy matrimony, for she 
has heard that not all is well in that sacred kingdom, in that 
ardently desired for paradise. She has heard some of her women 
friends cursing instead of blessing the day when they changed 
their maiden name for that of their husband. And they are begin- 
ning to ask for particulars, for details. And well it is that they 
are doing so. 
For too many years, for too many centuries, woman has been 
outraged, infected, sickened, invalided, incapacitated for life, and 
often driven to an early grave, by the man who promised to love, 
cherish and protect her. Very often he did it in sheer ignorance- 
he didn't think he could infect anybody, he thought he was per- 
fectly cured, or he forgot all about ever having had a disease. 
"It was so long ago." Sometimes he did it with perfect knowl- 
edge of the possible consequences, and in spite of the distinct 
warning of the physician. He married in the dangerous, infectious 
state, because he wanted the woman's money, or it was incon- 
venient to delay the wedding, and so forth. 
But whether infected through the husband's ignorance, 
through his carelessness or through maliciousness, the disastrous 
result was always the same, and woman is getting foolish enough 
to refuse to continue to be a victim of man's ignorance and bru- 
tality. She begins to object to being infected a day or a week 
or a month after the wedding. She is beginning to ask-or we 
are beginning to ask for her, for the liberation of the slave never 
* Dr. Wm. J. Robinson in Eugenics and Marriage. The Critic and Guide 
Company, New York City. (See advertisement last page.) 134 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
came through the slaves themselves, but through the fighters for 
liberty, through the humanitarians-some guarantee that the mar- 
riage bed will not soon be converted into an invalid bed, that the 
wedding march will not be a prelude to an early funeral march. 
Before discussing the matter any further let me give you the 
histories of a few cases: 
Case i. A pretty brunette, twenty-two years old. Married three years 
and two months. Exactly one month after the wedding-she remembers 
the happy day-she began to feel pain and burning in the vagina, pain on 
urinating, etc. She has been under treatment by various doctors ever 
since. She will never get well without an operation, because both Fal- 
lopian tubes are swollen, distended and full of pus. And if she has the 
tubes removed she will, of course, never have any children. It may also 
be necessary to remove her ovaries. 
Case 2. Age nineteen. Married two months. She must have become 
infected on the very wedding night, for ten days after the wedding cere- 
mony all the symptoms of an acute gonorrhea were in full blast. For- 
tunately the husband was well-to-do; she could afford almost daily treat- 
ment at the office, the home part of the treatment was carried out by a 
competent trained nurse, and in three months she was well. But it cost 
her a lot of pain and suffering and a pile of money. The poor can afford 
the former, but not the latter. How soon she will be able to have a child 
is also a question. 
Case 3. Age twenty-eight. Married five years. Began to ail two 
weeks after marriage and has been an invalid ever since. All that time 
she has had no treatment, for the husband happens to be a cruel, contemp- 
tible brute. He told her she did not need any treatment. "It is natural for 
a woman to be sick after marriage," and it was no use wasting money on 
doctors. But finally she became so haggard-looking, got so thin and feeble 
that her people insisted on her seeing a doctor. She came with her hus- 
band. Of course it did not take long to find out what the trouble was. 
I asked for a private talk with the man, who at first strenuously denied 
ever having had any venereal disease; but when I told him that it was no 
use lying, that I could find out in a minute by examining him whether he 
had or not, he confessed that he had had gonorrhea, but he was sure that 
he had been cured when he married. I examined his urine and found it 
full of shreds and gonococci. When I told him that it was a crime to 
ruin a human being like that, without even trying to cure her, his excuse 
was that he was afraid to send her to doctors; he was afraid they would 
tell her what the disease was, and as his and her parents were strict 
Catholics, he feared there might be trouble. And so for the fear of a 
little unpleasantness, he risked and ruined the life of the woman whom he 
had promised to cherish and protect. For she will never be a healthy, 
normal human being. Her entire generative organs-womb, the ovaries 
and the Fallopian tubes-must come out, if an attempt is to be made to 
save her life. And she may not be able to stand an operation-so weak, 
so anemic, so miserable she is. 
It is interesting to spend a minute or two in a consideration 
of the feelings of the infected wives towards their husbands. I 
used to be surprised to notice the good-natured, forgiving attitude 
towards their husbands of wives who had undergone years of MARRIAGE 
135 
suffering on account of them. But I no longer am surprised 
-for I see it so often. Not a grudge, not a resentment. But 
only in cases where the husband was kind and comradely to 
the wife, made a clean breast of things and did everything within 
his financial power to cure her. Such were the cases Nos. 1 and 
2. The husband in case No. 3 was just the opposite-he was 
a low, contemptible brute, of which we have not a few, and his 
wife, on finding out the true state of affairs, did not hesitate 
long in making him know clearly and distinctly her true feelings. 
Case 4. Age twenty-eight. Married four years. Three months ago 
gave birth to a child, after a very difficult labor. The child was afflicted 
with ophthalmia neonatorum and is now completely blind in one eye. 
Only after the greatest care and attention was the other eye saved. Since 
giving birth to the child she has been a very sick woman, running a tem- 
perature of 101 to 103 degrees Fahrenheit and losing flesh rapidly. She has 
had no intercourse since. An examination showed the presence of an 
abundant ichorous discharge, containing numerous gonococci. There can 
be hardly any doubt that she became infected soon after marriage, but the 
disease was of a mild, dormant character, as it often is in women; but as 
is also often the case, pregnancy and labor stirred up the activity of the 
gonococci, the numerous raw surfaces offered a favorable soil for the 
growth of the germs, and she got a severe acute infection. From local the 
infection soon became systemic and she died of gonorrheal endocarditis. 
Case 5. Age thirty-six. Married fourteen years. Has had nine mis- 
carriages and three children, one of whom died within a few minutes, and 
the other two within three days after birth. The woman is very anxious 
to have a child, as so many good women are, and though the husband knew 
that he was strongly syphilitic, and that he infected her, he did not intimate 
to her that there was anything the matter with her, and did not suggest 
that she needed treatment. The woman was considerably run down, but 
under proper treatment she gained rapidly in color, flesh and strength. 
She asked if she could soon have a living baby. I told her yes. But I told 
her it would be best for her not to have any babies just now, because the 
child might be born sickly, deformed or die in early infancy. Of course 
she would rather die than bring into the world a sickly, deformed child, 
and she will take good care that she does not do it. After two or three 
years of constant, honest treatment, if all the symptoms and signs are 
negative, she might run the chance of giving birth to a child. What has 
that woman's life been but one continuous round of misery, suffering and 
disappointment? All because the husband married her when he was in a 
florid, infectious stage of syphilis, and because he knew that infecting and 
ruining the life of his wife carried with it no penalty. 
Case 6. Age thirty. Married nine years. Presents a horrible sight. 
Became apparently infected within the first month of her married life, for 
she remembers that she had a severe rash all over her body about two 
months after she was married. A homeopathic doctor was then consulted 
and he told her it was due to measles. Now her nose is deeply sunken, 
she has an ulcerating gumma on the left collarbone, an immense ulcer on 
the left leg-occupying almost two-thirds of the circumference of the 
limb-and a smaller ulcer on the right leg. The soft palate is ulcerated 
through, and her voice is, of course, extremely unpleasant. She has had 
several miscarriages, but unfortunately she gave birth to two living children 
also. Both are puny and sickly, one has a bad cataract on one eye, and the 136 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
other is already showing signs of epileptic fits. Both are mentally below 
par, and if they are not fortunate enough to die at an early age they will 
grow up to swell the army of deviates, defectives and degenerates. Per- 
haps they will belong to the class of the criminally insane and will end 
their lives in prison. 
Case 7. Pretty, charming, intellectual Mrs. X. Thirty-three years of 
age. Married five years. She married beneath herself socially and intel- 
lectually. But she was getting on in years, she became possessed of that 
unreasonable fear of remaining an old maid, and-the chief reason-she 
had a strong maternal instinct, and was "just crazy" to have a child. 
People do not suspect how strong this instinct is in many women. I did 
not suspect it myself until I saw it in my own practice. And many men 
would be painfully surprised if they knew the real reason why their wives 
married them; in many cases, I repeat, it is simply the irresistible desire 
to become a mother. And as they see the time passing, passing, they become 
seized with a subconscious fear of never becoming a mother, and then they 
accept the first "reasonable" offer, a man who may be very far removed 
from their ideal. As a rule such women are rather cool to their husbands 
and pour out all their love and affection on their children; they fill out their 
whole life. As I said above, Mrs. X married Mr. X principally because 
she wanted to be a mother. Imagine her disappointment, then her chagrin, 
then her despair, when year after year passed and no sign of a child. 
Without her husband's knowledge she had herself examined and was pro- 
nounced healthy in every respect. She disliked to broach the subject to her 
husband, but so strong was her desire for a child that she overcame her 
reluctance and spoke to her husband, who pooh-poohed the matter, but she 
insisted and he came for an examination. She came with him. A most 
painstaking examination showed that he was free from gonorrhea, nor 
were there any signs of syphilis; in fact, he was in excellent health. A 
further examination, however, revealed the existence of a former gonor- 
rhea. To the question if he ever had gonorrhea he answered in the affirma- 
tive, and further questioning also brought back to his memory the fact that 
he had had a bilateral epididymitis. It then became clear why Mrs. X 
never became pregnant. To her anxious question whether she could have 
a child I was obliged to answer that it was not likely; that at any rate it 
would require long, long treatment. And here she broke out in sobs and 
her tears came down in torrents. She tried to restrain herself but could 
not. It was a pitiful picture! One could see that she felt that she was 
cheated-cheated of her hopes and expectations and ambitions. 
Case 8. This case is very similar to the preceding one, as far as the 
wife is concerned. For ten years she was praying for a child, but her 
prayer was not answered. She was examined a number of times and 
found all right. The husband did not consider it necessary to have him- 
self examined. At last she prevailed upon him. He denied ever having 
had venereal disease, and on examination I found that he was telling the 
truth. But I also found that he had but one testicle (monorchid) and 
that his "semen" was entirely free from spermatozoa. And here I was 
obliged to tell them that there was not any hope of their ever having 
children, that treatment would be useless and a waste of money. She did 
not break out in tears and sobs, but her face was a study worthy of the 
brush of a great painter. 
Case 9. Age thirty-four. Married seven years. Sallow, dingy com- 
plexion, anemic, poor appetite. Husband complains that she has been 
getting very cranky and irritable of late; almost impossible to get along 
with her. As a girl and in the first years of married life she was of a 
kind and amiable disposition and very submissive. A diplomatic question- 
ing and examination of each spouse apart elicited the sad fact that the MARRIAGE 
137 
husband is almost completely impotent. He was suffering with frequent 
night emissions before marriage, and it was as a cure for this condition 
that a doctor advised him to get married. And he did follow this stupid, 
criminal advice and got married without undergoing any treatment. And 
his condition has been getting worse and worse since marriage, so that 
now both libido and potentia are almost completely absent. During her 
entire married life the wife has not had sexual satisfaction once. The 
first two or three years she did not mind it, as she had practically no 
desire. But with the awakening of her sexual instinct she has been suf- 
fering quite pronouncedly, and lately, she told me, she had begun to feel 
as if she could not stand it any longer. 
Case 10. Age twenty-nine. Married five years. This case is similar 
to the preceding one. The wife came to find out if there was any reason 
why she could not have any children. An examination disclosed the aston- 
ishing fact that she was still a virgin with intact hymen. Further exami- 
nation disclosed the reason why? the husband was completely impotent; 
while libido was present, and the semen proved normal, potentia coeundi 
[ability to have intercourse] was entirely absent. 
Case ii. She had some misgivings on accepting him, as she feared 
that her money and her position might be some factors in his ardent woo- 
ing. But he was so nice, so strong, and so gentlemanly that she accepted 
him. Even before the honeymoon was over she began to perceive that he 
was not a paragon of virtue. The chief trouble was with his love for 
drink. He restrained himself at first, but later on he gave unrestrained 
license to his appetite and then he would break out in uncontrollable fits 
of passion. In short, she saw very soon that she had to deal with a con- 
firmed dipsomaniac. And now her only anxiety is not to have any children 
from a drunken father. But she did become pregnant, and she is bearing 
the child in anguish, in fear that it will be born abnormal or that it will 
grow up a drunkard. She was determined to get rid of the fruit of her 
womb; whether she changed her mind or whether she succeeded in her 
determination I don't know. But her life is ruined. 
Case 12. When she married him she had no idea that there was any- 
thing wrong with him. Several months after marriage she discovered 
that he was suffering from mild epileptic attacks. He has had those 
attacks since childhood, but he did not consider it necessary to disclose 
the fact to her. She has had three children with him. One, a girl, seems 
to be quite normal; of the other two, who are boys, one is subject to 
epileptic fits, and the other is a high grade imbecile. He shows signs of 
moral depravity, is cruel to whomever or whatever he can be (to animals 
particularly), and when he grows up he will probably commit one or more 
crimes before he is made innocuous. The feelings of that mother in 
general, and her feelings for her husband, can be better imagined than 
described. And still she is unable to free herself from his importunities, 
she cannot leave him for various reasons, and but for the fact that she at 
last learned the use of the proper means of preventing conception, she 
would be bringing into the world more epileptics, more imbeciles, to swell 
the vast overflowing ocean of misery, wretchedness and crime, in which 
we are already wading knee-deep. 
Case 13. Mrs. N. N. No more pitiable tale could be told. A thousand 
times better had she never been born or had she died in infancy or had 
she committed suicide. For she is now a paralytic imbecile, confined to a 
state institution for the insane, a torment to' herself and all those about 
her, her relatives praying for her death as a deliverance from her suffer- 
ing. And she was a nice, bright, lively woman 1 But the husband infected 
her with syphilis, she received no treatment, until the symptoms became 138 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
so prominent that they could not be overlooked; the disease was in a 
virulent form, and now she is a victim of general paralysis of the insane, 
and it may be two or three years before Death, the deliverer, will come 
to her and end her sufferings. The husband has escaped any brain involve- 
ment so far. Probably because he took energetic treatment. He may still 
become a victim to this, the most terrible sequel of syphilis. And I don't 
know if it would not be poetic justice if he did. Not because he infected 
his wife, but because, on account of his miserable cowardice and selfish- 
ness, he did not see to it that she got proper treatment, though he knew 
full well the gravity of the disease. 
But to return to our subject. All this misery, multiplied by 
a hundred thousand, could be eliminated by a very simple means; 
by demanding from each male applicant for a marriage license a 
physician's certificate of freedom from every transmissible or at 
least from venereal or mental disease. I know that there would 
be a great deal of opposition to the enactment of such a law, but 
with public opinion thoroughly awakened and in favor of it, few 
legislators would dare publicly to oppose it. 
I know the objections that are likely to be raised. One is 
that the candidates would go to unscrupulous quacks who would 
for a few dollars give them the desired certificate even when 
they were in the infectious stage. But this can easily be obviated 
by demanding that the certificate be signed by a reputable phy- 
sician. No advertising quack is considered a reputable physician 
and no reputable physician would risk his standing by giving a 
false certificate. 
Another objection is that the candidates could go to another 
State and get married. If all the States had such laws then, of 
course, the candidate would have nowhere to go; but even before 
all the States pass such laws this can be easily obviated by declar- 
ing null and void a marriage between citizens of a certain State 
who in order to escape the requirements of their State law went 
into another State to get married. This is actually done in 
Indiana. Residents of the State of Indiana who go into another 
State to get married, and return to Indiana, are subject to penal- 
ties, and have their marriage declared null and void. 
The mere presence of such a law on the statute books would 
have a wonderful educational effect. The young men, knowing 
that before they could hope to get married they must present a 
clean bill of health, would be exceedingly careful in their sexual 
relations, would use much greater precautions to avoid venereal 
infection; and having had the misfortune to become infected, MARRIAGE 
139 
they would at once seek the most competent and most energetic 
treatment. And even without passing such a law, if merely the 
idea became common, many young men would consider it their 
duty and their wish to have themselves examined before entering 
matrimony, and bring a certificate of freedom from any trans- 
missible disease to their respective brides. It is being done now 
among certain people, but the number is still too small to have 
any appreciable effect on the post-marital incidence of venereal 
diseases. However, it is becoming more and more common. 
I might also say that the custom now prevailing in the better 
families of having the prospective bridegroom take out a life 
insurance policy for a considerable amount of money is done not 
only for the purpose of protecting the young wife in case of the 
husband's premature death, but also for the purpose of ascer- 
taining his physical condition. The bridegroom's prospective 
parents-in-law do not say brutally that this is the purpose, but 
the bridegroom understands it. Unfortunately the life insurance 
examination cannot generally determine the presence or absence 
of gonorrhea or syphilis, except when those diseases are present 
in too self-evident a condition-for the life insurance examiner 
does not express the prostate to examine the prostatic secretion, 
nor does he perform the Wassermann test to ascertain the pres- 
ence or absence of syphilis. 
I stated that a certificate of freedom from venereal disease 
should be demanded from every male applicant. Some might 
ask, why not also from every female applicant, and those who 
are for equality of the sexes cannot see why the woman should 
be given privileges which the men do not possess. Theoretically 
there is no reason why it should not be so, but we live in a prac- 
tical world and every reform advocated must have a sane, 
rational foundation-and the reason why I say that it is not neces- 
sary to demand a certificate of freedom from venereal disease 
from every female applicant is because the proportion of infected 
women to infected men, speaking, of course, of the respectable 
classes, is as one to one hundred. The difference may even be 
greater, and it seems to me absurd to subject a thousand women 
to vaginal examinations in order to perhaps find one who is 
infected. Of course, should our women become as emancipated 
as the men, and should they adopt the same sexual standard as 140 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the men, and should venereal disease among our unmarried 
women become as common as it is among the men, they then 
should be required to furnish a certificate just as well as the men. 
But what I said applies only to the certificate of freedom from 
venereal disease. As concerns mental diseases, such as insanity, 
epilepsy, and so forth, the requirement should now apply to 
women just as well as to men. 
One section I would incorporate in this law-such provision 
exists in Norway, and there is no reason why it should not exist 
here-namely, that knowingly infecting a person with venereal 
disease should be considered and punished as a felony. It should 
not be necessary to prove malice, the mere fact that the person 
knew that he had the disease and concealed the fact from his or 
her partner should be sufficient for a conviction, and for render- 
ing any marriage null and void. 
It might be objected that many mental diseases, or mental 
taints rather, cannot be detected by an examination, and there- 
fore many people in whose families there is feeble-mindedness, 
insanity and epilepsy would still be married, but this possibility 
would be obviated by the requirement that all candidates for 
marriage make a sworn statement that there has been no mental 
disease in his or her immediate ancestry. Of course, swearing 
falsely would subject the parties to the usual penalties for 
perjury. 
How about people who, knowing the exact condition of their 
partners, decide to disregard all risks and to marry in spite of 
possible dangers? Would I or would I not permit them to marry? 
This brings up an entirely different question. Provided there is 
full knowledge on both sides of the true state of affairs, I would 
permit them to marry-but with one condition, that under no 
circumstances should they bring forth children. As long as there 
are no children the State has no right to interfere with the private 
affairs of two individuals. But this is another story, a story for 
another essay. 
To show how rapidly the sentiment for the health certificate 
as a prerequisite to the marriage license is spreading, it is suf- 
ficient to mention that in several States that have no laws 
on the subject a number of prominent clergymen announce that 
they will not perform the marriage ceremony unless such a 
certificate is brought to them. We thus see that the discussion MARRIAGE 
141 
and agitation of public questions do have a great influence, and 
are necessary preliminaries to the enactment of any laws. In 
fact no law is worth very much that has not behind it a strong 
public opinion formed by previous discussion, and our friends 
who sneer at talking, and always want that something be doing, 
are unnecessarily impatient. Talking is also doing. A word is a 
deed. It is often more important than the deed. 
BENEFITS OF MARRIED LIFE. 
It has been known for some time, especially by life insur- 
ance companies, that married persons live longer. The death rates 
for single men between 30 and 40 years old may be almost two 
times as high as those for their married companions; as age ad- 
vances, however, the percentage lessens. For single women also 
the rates are higher, except from about 20 to 42 or 45, when the 
period of childbearing increases the mortality among married 
women. 
Philip and Murray believe, so far as married men are con- 
cerned, the reason for their remarkable longevity is not the fre- 
quent gratification of the sexual desire. Rather must it be taken 
for granted that their more orderly and regulated mode of life, 
their average less abuse of alcohol, and the relative infrequency 
of veneral infection and its consequences, are the factors which 
play the principal part. 
Even crime and suicide are less common among the married. 
Some time ago, the inventor of the celebrated method for identi- 
fying criminals, Bertillon (of Paris), made several investigations 
on this point, and found of 1,000 individuals accused of various 
crimes, 508 were bachelors, but only 398 married and 94 widow- 
ers. For men, of every 100 married men accused of crime, there 
were 170 bachelors or widowers; and for every 100 married 
women, 245 unmarried or widows. Lastly, for every million 
inhabitants in the population of France, 628 bachelors suicided, 
and 273 widowers, against 246 married men. CHAPTER X 
BIRTH CONTROL 
A DOZEN or so years back we heard a great deal about 
"race suicide," but this was soon replaced by: "Not more 
babies, but better ones." 
We are reminded here of the fable about the eagle: The 
mother bird lays but two eggs, and the one in the fable had 
hatched only one of the pair. She was made fun of by a clucking 
hen with a dozen downy chickens running after her, but drawing 
herself up, she answered Biddy: "It is true I have but one young 
while you have a dozen, but mine is an eagle" 
What is to be hoped for from such examples as the follow- 
ing: 
Some time ago a case was reported in Canada, in which a 
woman not 30 at the time had had no less than 17 children; this 
prolific marvel bore triplets twice, and twins three times. A 
Bohemian in Chicago, was asked in court (Nov. 14, 1920), to 
tell the names of his children, and after considerable urging 
replied that he could recall those of 15, the names of the other 
9 had slipped his memory. A few days later, a woman with a 
2-year old child, whose husband was earning $17 a week, gave 
birth to triplets, and naturally had to appeal to the charitable. 
But a woman, of Boston, in 26 years gave birth to 22 children, 
all single births. 
A Chicago butcher, whose wife presented him with triplets 
without his permission, was so incensed he "skipped town," and 
the family would have been in a deplorable state, had it not been 
for kind-hearted neighbors. 
The death rate among the babies in large families is higher 
than customary. First of all the mother is often poorly fed, 
the stress of bearing children not so far apart leads to a run- 
down condition physically, and the developing baby is insuffi- 
ciently nourished. Michels quotes some figures from Europe 
showing the death-rate in families of only one child is 23.5 per 
cent.; in those with eight children it rises to 51.5; and in families 
of fifteen and upward is 69.3. 
142 BIRTH CONTROL 
143 
i 
\ 
c*^ 144 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
W. Blair Bell, the English specialist remarks a woman 
among the well-to-do who should have had 17 children and lost 
12 would be marked out as she went about the world for the 
compassion and wonder of her fellows; but such a destiny is 
accepted as possible by the working classes and is cruelly fre- 
quent among them. 
Savage races find the struggle for existence is hard enough 
at best and that every extra mouth counts. Hence they resort 
to a crude plan of birth-control by killing children, generally 
females. In some places it is the custom to kill one or both of 
twins, especially as some tribes have the ridiculous belief that 
twin-births are a sign of adultery on the woman's part. An 
equally ridiculous belief was current a century or so ago in the 
north of France (Brittany), even at the present day the district 
is somewhat isolated, and was formerly much more so, owing to 
the few roads and these poor. As a consequence there was 
considerable intermarriage, but the men of one family had an 
unenviable reputation for being the fathers of twins, so much 
was this the case, that any woman not their wives who was un- 
lucky enough to bear twins, was forthwith denounced as having 
been unfaithful to her marriage vows! 
For a long time, now, France has taken the front rank in the 
matter of birth-control. The population of that country was 
practically stationary as far back as 1861-5. For the principal 
European countries the average number of children ranged from 
5 per family in Hungary, to 3.1 in France. But Chesser points 
out that at present the tendency to limitation of the family is not 
confined to any country, or to any one class. It has extended 
through the great middle classes of Western Europe to the more 
thrifty and provident of the working classes; and in most in- 
stances the motive is not selfishness so much as a desire to con- 
form to the standard of living in the same class. 
Karl Pearson, the London statistician, estimates that one- 
half of the next generation is produced by one-quarter of the 
married population. Hence the small families of the so-called 
higher classes will be decidedly outnumbered in a few genera- 
tions. 
It seems that some plan of birth-control is not very far 
away. At the meeting in October, 1920, the New York State 
Federation of Women's Clubs adopted a resolution, by 147 against BIRTH CONTROL 
145 
97 votes, which declared that: "The primary necessity for fam- 
ily-and therefore for public-health, is an intelligently deter- 
mined interval between pregnancies, to be secured by regulating 
the inception of life and not by interfering with life after it 
starts," and "urging the speedy removal of all barriers due to 
legal restrictions, tradition, prejudice, or ignorance which now 
prevent parents from access to scientific knowledge on this sub- 
ject, as is possessed by the medical profession. 
A few weeks later, in a meeting of the Peace Society of 
Milwaukee, the lady-president advocated a "bride's strike" and 
the refusal of married women to give birth to children until fu- 
ture wars are made impossible through disarmament. She de- 
clared that in this way pressure could be brought which would 
produce immediate results. 
ARE BIRTH CONTROL METHODS INJURIOUS?* 
Advocates of scientific birth control are sometimes met with 
the absurd statement that such methods are injurious to the 
health of the woman. It is even asserted that they cause cancer 
and other disease and that they bring about sterility. 
As applied to scientific birth control, these statements are 
both false and silly. In the light of the best authoritative infor- 
mation of the day, it can be unequivocally set down that modern 
birth control methods, properly employed, are not only not injuri- 
ous but are often positively beneficial to the woman's health. 
The contrary is maintained for the most part by those who are 
mentally honest but uninformed or by such as are altogether 
prejudiced. 
The clergy, bound to its theological dogmas is usually op- 
posed to birth control methods and is only too ready to accept 
any bald statement levelled against them. A few physicians who 
are uninformed as to modern means of birth control, still incline 
to the opinion that they are injurious, but these physicians have 
in mind the earlier, cruder means of preventing conception. 
Some of the persons who maintain that preventive measures 
are injurious are so ignorant of the whole subject that they in 
opposing abortion call it birth control. Still others believe that 
harmful drugs are given internally as contraceptives. They, of 
course, confuse abortives with the means of preventing concep- 
*By Margaret Sanger, in Birth Control Review, January, 1919. 146 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
It is in the deliberate restraint and measurement of human production 
that the fundamental problems of the family, the nation, the whole 
brotherhood of mankind find their solution. We all recognize the 
right of Margaret Sanger to speak on these matters with authority.- 
Havelock Ellis. 
MRS. MARGARET SANGER BIRTH CONTROL 
147 
tion. Anyone who knows anything about either birth control 
or abortion knows that scientific birth control methods would do 
away with abortions which occur in appalling numbers in Amer- 
ica every year. 
One commonly practiced method of preventing conception 
is not only uncertain but beyond all doubt injurious to the 
woman's health. This is the one which, because of the with- 
holding of scientific information upon the subject, is most com- 
monly used. It was perhaps the earliest method known and was 
condemned by the wise men among the ancient Jews, being 
anathematized in the Bible in a very specific fashion. Modern 
science sometimes calls it Onanism from the name of the Biblical 
character who, we are told, was signally punished for practicing it. 
Until recent years it was supposed that this method was 
injurious to the man alone, but it has been discovered that the 
man in many cases seems to suffer no ill effects, while the 
woman's health may actually be wrecked. 
Mantegazza believes that organic disease of the spinal cord 
may follow this practice. Hirt says that it may lead to neur- 
asthenic disorders. Eulenberg is of much the same opinion. 
Valenta declares that it is one of the chief causes of chronic 
metritis. Kleinwachter says that its harm to the system of the 
woman is by no means trivial. Still other great authorities who 
have pointed out the dangerous effects of the practice are Forel, 
Von Krafft-Ebing, Mensiga, Freud, Lowenfeld, Elischer and 
Ellis. 
"The lack of sexual satisfaction," says Kisch, as a sort of 
final word upon the subject, "aggravates nervous and hysterical 
troubles in women, while suitably regulated intercourse with 
mutual satisfaction has an actively beneficial effect." 
This method, then, in the opinion of the best informed of 
modem birth control advocates is unscientific, and dangerous. 
In the same class so far as being unscientific and injurious to the 
health is continence, much advocated but little practiced. This 
subject will be considered later as will the question whether 
scientific birth control methods are certain. For the present it 
is enough to point out that scientific birth control methods 
exclude those which are either uncertain or injurious and that 
the advocates of birth control stand for the dissemination of 148 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
knowledge which will permit mothers to limit their families in a 
sane, scientific, healthful way. 
The first essential in Birth Control is cleanliness and a 
sane observance of the principles of sex hygiene. These factors 
alone, taught to a woman, ignorant of the proper care of her 
physical functions until she sought knowledge of Birth Control, 
have restored many to health and have even disposed of many 
cases of sterility. It is the consensus of modern medical opinion 
not only that scientific Birth Control methods are not harmful 
but in thousands of cases very beneficial to women suffering 
from leucorrhea, inflamed cervix and other local disturbances. 
Among the objects of attacks by opponents of Birth Con- 
trol are cleansing, antiseptic solutions, and the like. It is 
to be remembered that these are not preventives and are not 
to be depended upon as such. As the term indicates, an anti- 
septic is designed for and serves certain medical purposes. Its 
function when applied to the reproductive organs of a woman 
is medicinal or hygienic, not the prevention of conception. In- 
juries to women from the use of antiseptics result from igno- 
rance or lack of proper directions, as would be the result if 
such solutions were improperly applied to a wound or a surgical 
incision. 
Mechanical means have also been attacked, it being alleged 
that they cause cancer. Mechanical devices worn too constantly 
might produce irritation and cause trouble. A number of new 
devices have not yet been sufficiently tested to make an opinion 
as to their harmlessness possible at this time. And dangerous 
devices will be employed or devices misused as long as law and 
custom deny to woman knowledge of scientific means of deter- 
mining the number of her children and the time of their birth. 
A glance at statistics disposes of the contention that Birth 
Control is responsible for the development of cancer. The 
implication which the opponents of Birth Control seek to leave 
is that as the birth rate falls because of the use of contraceptives, 
the cancer rate rises. The contention is sheer nonsense. As 
far back as 1876 before the birth rate began to fall, the cancer 
rate began to rise. Moreover, it is only among women who have 
reached the age of 65 that the increase is noted. It seems 
probable that women above 65 have not used contraceptives, as 
they were not so widely known during the child bearing days BIRTH CONTROL 
149 
of women even now at that age. And if they had been known, 
it would seem very unlikely that a contraceptive used during 
their child-bearing period would cause cancer twenty years 
afterwards. Nor is this all-further light on this particular 
absurdity is that no increase in the rate of cancers affecting 
women's reproductive organs has been noted. 
Statistics of several countries throw still more light upon the 
preposterousness of the contention. Ireland has had an in- 
creasing cancer rate for twenty years with a constant birth rate. 
Birth Control certainly is not responsible there. For five years 
of diminishing birth rate due to the application of scientific Birth 
Control, Holland has shown also a decrease in the cancer rate. 
France, where Birth Control methods are in wide use, has a 
cancer mortality of only .76 per thousand, as against .95 in 
England and Wales, where the birth rate was .28 per thousand 
at that time. 
The assertion that Birth Control methods induce sterility is 
equally ridiculous. Many a woman, through the use of scientific 
contraceptives has so toned up and strengthened her reproductive 
organs as to become capable of child bearing when she would 
otherwise have continued barren. Where sterility has been laid 
to contraceptives, physicians have discovered in nearly every 
case conclusive proof of some condition in the woman or her 
husband which would have prevented children under any cir- 
cumstances. In thousands of cases where women have practised 
scientific Birth Control for five, ten and even twenty years, 
they have later borne strong, healthy children. Usually the 
child is stronger in such cases because the mother has waited 
until her health is at its best and the family means are such 
as to give the baby the proper care, before and after its birth. 
Dr. William J. Robinson's challenge, issued several years 
ago, still remains unanswered. "I challenge" said he, "any 
physician and gynecologist to bring forth a single authenticated 
case in which disease or injury resulted from modern methods 
of prevention." 
The gist of the matter then is this: Scientific Birth Control 
is not only harmless but often a direct benefit to the health. 
Unscientific contraceptives are as likely to harm their users as 
any other unscientific thing applied to or used in connection with 
any part of the body. The plain conclusion is that with the 150 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
health of the womanhood of America at stake, the mediaeval laws 
and customs which prevent full and free dissemination of in- 
formation concerning scientific Birth Control should be sent to 
the scrap heap along with rack, the thumb screws and other 
outworn instruments of torture. 
Besides being harmless and of positive benefit locally, 
scientific Birth Control methods have a much more important 
function for the improvement of the health of women. Anyone 
who knows anything at all about the subject knows that the 
health of a woman who is the mother of two or three children 
born several years apart is better than that of the mother of 
many children who follow each other at periods of a year or 
two. 
Nor is this all. The dread of undesired pregnancy is the 
nightmare of the lives of millions of women. To this cause 
and this cause alone is directly traceable the wrecking of the 
physical systems of many of them. Wille, a prominent author- 
ity quoted by Kisch, asserts that "the continued fear of preg- 
nancy will in most cases do more injury to the feminine system 
than all the preventive measures in the world." 
No woman can be healthy or strong who lives continuously 
in fear. Moreover, it is a fact universally recognized by phy- 
sicians that to a nervously weak woman, preventive measures 
are necessary and a number of them are even helpful in re- 
gaining her health. 
The sooner these facts are understood, the sooner the laws 
against the spread of scientific Birth Control are abrogated 
and information concerning reliable and safe or beneficial con- 
traceptives comes within the reach of all women, the quicker 
the question of the general health of women will be settled. 
VOLUNTARY MOTHERHOOD* 
Our train was crossing the Nevada desert, and four pas- 
sengers were conversing in a corner of the observation coach. 
Our group consisted of a successful physician from the Middle 
West, taking a brief vacation on the Pacific Coast; an earnest 
middle aged clergyman, giving up a New York pastorate to 
accept a larger one in California; a well known San Francisco 
lawyer returning home from Washington, where he had argued 
*By Rabbi Rudolph I. Coffee, Ph.D., in Birth Control Review, November, 1918. 151 
BIRTH CONTROL 
a case before the Supreme Court, and myself. Our conversa- 
tion had touched various angles of the great World War, and 
we were then discussing the child of tomorrow, as he would 
be affected by these war changes. 
"He must be given more practical schooling," said the 
lawyer. 
"More attention must be paid to his physical needs," added 
the doctor. 
The minister, fearing that his radicalism might shock us, 
earnestly said, "I speak for the unborn child. He must be 
well bom." To which I quickly added, "His birth should be 
a voluntary act and the deliberate wish of his parents." 
At once, the three professons were arrayed against me. "Do 
you stand for birth control?" they spoke as with one voice, and 
I smiled in assent. 
My clerical acquaintance questioned me first. "If you are 
a true minister of God, how dare you interfere with the laws 
of Nature?" I replied that a law of Nature which controlled 
the actions of dogs, pigs and cats might not arbitrarily be bind- 
ing on man as well. Surely there must be some degree of dif- 
ference. 
"But, Rabbi," he continued as though clinching his argu- 
ment, "does not the Bible say 'be fruitful and multiply and fill 
the earth' " ? I replied that God's word never commanded us 
to fill the earth with idiots, imbeciles and blind babies, the in- 
evitable outcome of accepting this verse of Genesis without 
question. A command which was given, if we literally accept 
Genesis as divine, when the world was in its infancy and needed 
population, requires some modification in these days of over- 
crowded tenements and filthy slums. 
Strange indeed and very sad, how the Bible can be used 
to uphold dangerous doctrines. The Kaiser quotes the Bible 
to show that he is divinely appointed. People, utterly unac- 
quainted with Bible criticism, cite verses from Daniel to prove 
the approaching end of the world. Had Columbus listened to 
the so-called wisemen, and their Bible interpretations, he would 
never have discovered America. The Bible is a holy book, but 
its interpreters have not always acted wisely. No friend of the 
Bible will quote its pages to prevent such action as will stop, 
at the source, this terrible increase of insanity and sex diseases. 152 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The medical opposition to my position was along different 
lines. "If you think I shall perform abortions for the sake of 
your theory, you are much mistaken" the doctor said. Of course, 
I quickly assured him that voluntary motherhood also objects 
to abortive operations. We further believe that it would mini- 
mize the number of these illegal acts because we stand for edu- 
cation along sex lines by competent teachers. 
The doctor rather hotly protested and said that medical men 
-not laymen and faddists-should lead a reform movement 
which will so radically change methods of living. I reminded 
him that house cleaning does not always come from within. 
Not the insurance men, but Charles E. Hughes, a lawyer, had 
led the way to insurance reforms; not the lawyers, but an 
outraged public opinion, was overcoming the antiquated legal 
procedure of a century ago; it is not the doctors of America, 
but the Army and the Navy that is wiping out the segregated 
districts. Ten years ago, five years ago, we were still told by 
medical men that prostitution was a "necessary evil." Now, 
if the doctors will not lead in this movement for voluntary 
motherhood, forward looking men and women will be com- 
pelled to take the lead in this struggle for higher living ideals. 
The lawyer belonged to the old school. "Whatever is, is 
right." He had made a very comfortable living, let others do 
likewise. Because he had been born with a healthy constitu- 
tion, he expected the same of others. I asked how many chil- 
dren he had and slowly he answered "one." His wife did not 
wish the burden of caring for a second. The doctor likewise 
was the father of but one child. His wife was physically un- 
able to bear another without grave risk and danger. The 
minister added corroborative evidence of a very startling na- 
ture. His family, also was limited to but one child. Both he 
and his wife loved children, but his salary did not allow him 
to support a larger family. 
So these three opponents of voluntary motherhood were 
proving my argument through their own lives. But with this 
very important difference. The poor who should limit the size 
of their families, lack the necessary information. These three 
strong and cultured men, well able to care for their personal 
interests, would deny the knowledge of birth control to the 
very people who need it most. BIRTH CONTROL 
153 
Having thus disarmed the three men, I explained the true 
meaning of voluntary motherhood to them. Let us frown on 
those women, physically, economically and mentally fit to be 
mothers who refuse this highest function of womanhood. They 
are the real upholders of race suicide, not those poor ignorant 
souls who seek guidance and light. From the homes of the 
healthy and the independent citizens, not from the weak, 
struggling and pauper families should the majority of our future 
babies come. Voluntary motherhood does not lay emphasis on 
fewer normal babies, but it does insist on fewer babies who are 
unfit to fight life's battles properly. Voluntary motherhood 
hopes for more babies, more of the fit, more of the healthy and 
strong, so that this world may be properly rebuilt for the resi- 
dence of man. 
BIRTH CONTROL OR ABORTION* 
Family limitation will be practiced. No law has yet been 
framed that can prevent it. The Church has been powerless and 
the champions of wornout moral creeds find themselves trying 
in vain to force all worhen to become mothers against their wills. 
Abundant evidence of the futility of seeking to impose in- 
voluntary motherhood upon women is found in the size of the 
families of the rich, of the well-to-do and of the wage workers 
of large earning capacity. The women of these classes long ago 
refused to be mere brood animals-usually they prefer to be 
voluntary mothers, determining for themselves the number of 
children they shall have and when they shall have them. Family 
limitation for them is an accomplished fact. 
It is also an accomplished fact with many of the wives of 
the less highly paid workers. But with the latter, as well as 
with some of their more fortunate sisters, family limitation takes 
a far more drastic and too often a terribly dangerous course. 
The awakened woman of today will not bear unwanted children. 
She will not bear more children than she can care for. And if 
she is denied the knowledge of the safe, harmless, scientific 
methods of birth control, she limits her family by means of 
abortion. 
In the very nature of the case, it is impossible to get ac- 
curate figures upon the number of abortions performed annually 
*By Margaret Sanger, in Birth Control Review, December, 1918. 154 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
e'S! i 
'^1' 
425.000 
Aja®® 
WHICH SHALL WE HAVE-LEGALIZED BIRTH CONTROL OR ABORTION? BIRTH CONTROL 
155 
in the United States. It is often said, however, that one in five 
pregnancies end in abortion. One estimate is that 150,000 occur 
in the United States each year and that 25,000 women die of 
the effects of such operations in every twelve months. Dr. 
William J. Robinson asserts that there are 1,000,000 abortions 
every year in this country and adds that the estimate is con- 
servative. He quotes Justice John Proctor Clark as saying that 
there are at least 100,000 in the same length of time in New 
York City alone. 
Dr. Max Hirsch, a famous authority quotes an opinion that 
there are 2,000,000 abortions in the United States every year! 
"I believe" declares Dr. Hirsch, "that I may say without 
exaggeration that absolutely spontaneous or unprovoked abor- 
tions are extremely rare, that a vast majority-I should esti- 
mate it at 80 per cent-have a criminal origin. 
"Our examinations have informed us that the largest num- 
ber of abortions are performed on married women. This fact 
brings us to the conclusion that contraceptive measures among 
the upper classes and the practice of abortion among the lower 
class, are the real means employed to regulate the number of 
offspring." 
The question, then, is not whether family limitation should 
be practiced. It is being practiced; it has long been practiced 
and it will always be practiced. The question now is whether 
it is to be attained by normal, scientific birth control methods or 
by the abnormal, often dangerous, surgical operation. 
That is the question which the church, the state, the moral- 
ist, and most of all, the woman herself, must face. 
The knowledge of birth control methods may for a time 
be denied to the woman of the working class, but those who 
are responsible for denying it to her, and she herself, should 
understand clearly the dangers to which she is exposed by the 
dark age laws which force her into the hands of the abortionist. 
To understand the more clearly what these dangers are, and 
to realize the more fully how much better it would be to avoid 
them, it is first necessary that women should know something 
of the processes of conception, the prevention of which frees 
them of all risk of having to resort to abortion. 
In every woman's ovaries there are imbedded millions of 
ovules or eggs. They are there in every female at birth and as 156 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the girl grows into womanhood, these ovules or eggs develop 
also. At a certain period or age, the ripest ovule leaves the 
nest or ovary and comes on down one of the tubes into the womb 
and passes out of the body. When this takes place, it is said 
that the girl is at the age of puberty, for the ovule is now 
ready for fertilization (or conception) by the male sperm. 
About the same time the ovule is ripening or developing, 
the womb is preparing to receive the fertilized ovum by a re- 
inforced blood supply brought to its lining. To this lining the 
ovum will cling and gather its nourishment after fertilization 
takes place. If fertilization (conception) does not take place, 
the ovum passes on out of the body and the uterus throws off 
its surplus blood supply. This is called the menstrual period 
and occurs once a month or about every twenty-eight days. 
In the male sexual organs, there are glands (testes) which 
secrete a fluid called the semen. In the semen is the life-giving 
principle, the sperm. 
When intercourse takes place (if no preventive is used) 
the semen is deposited in the woman's vagina. The ovule is 
not in the vagina, but is in the womb, further up, in safety, 
or perhaps in the tube on its way to the womb. As steel is 
attracted to the magnet, the sperm of the male starts on its 
way to seek the ovum. Several of these sperm cells start, but 
only one enters the ovum and is absorbed into it. This proc- 
ess is called fertilization, conception or impregnation. If no 
children are desired, the meeting of the male sperm and the 
ovum must be prevented. When scientific means are used to 
prevent this meeting, and thereby to limit families, one is said 
to practice birth control. 
But if preventive means are not used and the sperm meets 
the ovum and development thus begins, any attempt at remov- 
ing it or stopping its further growth is called abortion. 
There is no doubt that women are apt to look upon abor- 
tion as of little consequence and to treat it accordingly. An 
abortion is as important a matter as a confinement and requires 
as much attention as the birth of a child at its full term. 
"The immediate dangers of abortion," says Dr. J. Clifton 
Edgar, in his book "The Practice of Obstetrics," " are hem- 
horrage, retention of an adherent placenta, sepsis, tetanus, per- BIRTH CONTROL 
157 
foration of the uterus. They also cause sterility, anemia, ma- 
lignant diseases, displacements, neurosis, and endometritis." 
In plain, everyday language, in an abortion there is always 
a very serious risk to the health and often to the life of the 
patient. 
It is only the women of wealth who can afford to give an 
abortion proper care and treatment both at the time of the 
operation and afterwards. These women often escape any 
serious consequences from its occurrence. 
The women whose incomes are limited and who must con- 
tinue at work before they have recovered from the effects of 
an abortion are the great army of sufferers. It is among such 
that the deaths due to abortion usually ensue. It is these, too, 
who are most often forced to resort to such operations. 
If death does not result, the woman who has undergone an 
abortion is not therefore safe. The womb may not return to 
its normal size but remain large and heavy, tending to fall away 
from its natural position. Abortion often leaves the uterus 
in a condition to conceive easily again and unless prevention 
is strictly followed another pregnancy will 'surely occur. Fre- 
quent abortions tend to cause barrenness and serious, painful 
pelvic ailments. These and other conditions arising from such 
operations are quite likely to ruin a woman's general health. 
While there are cases where even the law recognizes an 
abortion as justifiable if recommended by a physician, I assert 
that the hundreds of thousands of abortions performed in Amer- 
ica each year are a disgrace to civilization. 
I also assert that the responsibilities for these abortions and 
the illness, misery and deaths that come in their train lies at 
the door of a government whose authority has been stretched 
beyond the limits of the people's intention and which, in its 
puritanical blindness, insists upon suffering and death from 
ignorance, rather than life and happiness from knowledge and 
prevention. 
It needs no assertion of mine to call attention to the grim 
fact that the laws prohibiting the imparting of information 
concerning the preventing of conception are responsible for tens 
of thousands of deaths each year in this country and an untold 
amount of sickness and sorrow. The suffering and the death 
of these women is squarely upon the heads of the lawmakers and 158 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the puritanical, masculine-minded persons, who insist upon re- 
taining the abominable legal restrictions. 
Try as they will they cannot escape the truth, nor hide it 
under the cloak of stupid hypocrisy. If the laws against im- 
parting knowledge of scientific birth control were repealed, 
the 1,000,000 or 2,000,000 women who undergo abortions in 
the United States each year would escape the agony of the 
surgeon's instruments and the long trail of disease, suffering and 
death which so often follows. 
"He who would combat abortion" says Dr. Hirsch, "and 
at the same time combat contraceptive measures may be likened 
to the person who would fight contagious diseases and forbid 
disinfection. For contraceptive measures are important weapons 
in the fight against abortion. 
"America has a law since 1873 * * * which prohibits by 
criminal statute, the distribution and regulation of contracep- 
tive measures. It follows, therefore * * * that America stands 
at the head of all nations in the huge number of abortions." 
There is the case in a nutshell. Family limitation will al- 
ways be practiced as it is now being practiced-either by birth 
control or by abortion. We know that. The one means health 
and happiness-a stronger, better race. The other means disease, 
suffering, death. 
When all is said and done, it is not the advocate of birth 
control, but the bitter, unthinkable condition brought about by 
the blindness of church, state and society that puts up to all three 
the question: 
Birth Control or Abortion-which shall it be? 
ROBERT INGERSOLL ON BIRTH CONTROL* 
For thousands of years men and women have been trying 
to reform the world. They have created gods and devils, heavens 
and hells; they have written sacred books, performed miracles, 
built cathedrals and dungeons, they have crowned and uncrowned 
kings and queens; they have tortured and imprisoned, flayed alive 
and burned; they have preached and prayed; they have tried 
promises and threats; they have coaxed and persuaded; they have 
*A wonderful plea for birth control made by Robert G. Ingersoll in the course of 
an address delivered at the Hollis Theatre, Boston, on June 2, 1899. More than 
twenty years have elapsed since these words were spoken and each passing day has 
but added weight to the arguments so vividly expressed. BIRTH CONTROL 
159 
preached and taught, and in countless ways have endeavored to 
make people honest, temperate, industrious and virtuous; they 
have built hospitals and asylums, universities and schools, and 
seem to have done their very best to make mankind better and 
happier, and yet they have not succeeded. 
Why have the reformers failed? I will tell them why. 
Ignorance, poverty and vice are depopulating the world. 
The gutter is a nursery. People unable even to support them- 
selves fill the tenements, the huts, the hovels with children. They 
depend on the Lord, on luck and charity. They are not intelligent 
enough to think about consequences or to feel responsibility. 
At the same time they do not want children, because a child is a 
curse to them and to itself. The babe is not welcome because it is 
a burden. These unwelcome children fill the jails and prisons, 
the asylums and hospitals, and they crowd the scaffolds. A 
few are rescued by chance or charity, but the great majority 
are failures. They become vicious, ferocious. They live by 
fraud and violence, and bequeath their vices to their children. 
Against this inundation of vice, the forces of reform are 
helpless, and charity itself becomes an unconscious promoter 
of crime. 
Failure seems to be the trade-mark of nature. Why? Na- 
ture has no design, no intelligence. Nature produces without 
purpose, sustains without intention, and destroys without thought. 
Man has a little intelligence, and he should use it. Intelligence 
is the only lever capable of raising mankind. 
The real question is, can we prevent the ignorant, the poor, 
the vicious, from filling the world with their children? 
Can we prevent this Missouri of ignorance and vice from 
emptying into the Mississippi of civilization? 
Must the world forever remain the victim of ignorant pas- 
sion? Can the world be civilized to such a degree that conse- 
quences will be taken into consideration by all? 
Why should men and women have children that they can- 
not take care of, children that are burdens and curses? Why? 
Because they have more passion than intelligence, more pas- 
sion than reason. 
You cannot reform these people with tracts and talk. You 
cannot reform these people with preaching and creed. Passion 
is, and always has been, deaf. 160 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
These weapons of reform are substantially useless. Crim- 
inals, tramps, beggars and failures are increasing every day. 
The prisons, jails, poor houses and asylums are crowded. Re- 
ligion is helpless. Law can punish, but it can neither reform 
criminals nor prevent crime. The tide of vice is rising. The 
war that is now being waged against the forces of evil is as 
hopeless as the battle of the fireflies against the darkness of 
night. 
There is but one hope. Ignorance, poverty and vice must 
stop populating the world. This cannot be done by moral suasion. 
This cannot be done by talk or example. This cannot be done 
by religion or by law, by priest or hangman. This cannot be 
done by force, physical or moral. To accomplish this there is 
but one way. Science must make woman the owner, the mistress 
of herself. Science, the only possible savior of mankind, must 
put it in the power of woman to decide for herself whether she 
will or will not become a mother. 
This is the solution of the whole question. This frees woman. 
The babes that are then born will be welcome. They will be 
clasped by glad hands to happy breasts. They will fill homes 
with light and joy. 
Men and women who believe that slaves are purer, truer 
than the free, who believe that fear is a safer guide than knowl- 
edge, that only those are really good who obey the commands 
of others, and that ignorance is the soil in which the perfect, 
perfumed flower of virtue grows, will, with protesting hands, 
hide their shocked faces. 
Men and women who think that light is the enemy of virtue, 
that purity dwells in darkness, that it is dangerous for human 
beings to know themselves and the facts in Nature that affect 
their well being, will be horrified at the thought of making in- 
telligence the master of passion. 
But I look forward to the time when men and women by 
reason of their knowledge of consequences, of the morality born 
of intelligence, will refuse to perpetuate disease and pain, will 
refuse to fill the world with failures. 
When that time comes, the prison walls will fall, the dun- 
geons will be flooded with light, and the shadow of the scaffold 
will cease to curse the earth. Poverty and crime will be childless. 
The withered hands of want will not be stretched for alms. They BIRTH CONTROL 
161 
will be dust. The whole world will be intelligent, virtuous and 
free. 
WHICH IS THE BETTER WAY?* 
How Two Couples Settle the Size of Their Families. 
The Circumstances:- 
Each couple have three children. They live very eco- 
nomically. The husband's small salary is used to the last 
cent. The cost of living is increasing daily and there is 
positively no chance to provide for another child except 
by depriving the present children of education and even 
of the bare necessities of life. Another child would 
mean a set-back which would involve accepting charity 
of the state. 
OY 
The husband has contracted tuberculosis or some heredi- 
tarily communicable disease, 
or 
The health of the wife will not permit further childbirth. 
The Decision:- 
Both couples, knowing that their first duty is to the chil- 
dren they already have, to society, the country and to 
themselves, and realizing that more children would be a 
burden on the state, or would take the bread out of the 
mouths of their present family, decided not to have any 
more children. 
Couple No. i 
Refrain from sexual relations for a long 
period, say for four years, in this way 
permitting the natural seed to pass away 
as in celibates, unfertilized. 
Thus controlling birth by negative 
methods. 
Sanctioned by the 
church and the 
"purist" 
Termed murder by 
the church and lust 
by the "purist" 
Couple No. 2 
Live happily on as husband and wife, 
and use contraceptive methods for the 
same period, in this way preventing the 
fertilization of the seed. 
Thus controlling birth by positive 
•methods. 
*By Mary DeBrito, in Birth Control Review, February, 1919. 162 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The Results at the End of Four Years 
Both Couples Have Used Their Own Judgment and 
Voluntarily Prevented the Birth of Two Chil- 
dren Each. 
Object: Same in Both Cases. 
Result: Same in Both Cases. 
Thus: since the intention and the accomplishment were 
exactly the same in both cases, the sole difference was 
the way in which the result was accomplished. 
Therefore anyone who calls the achievement murder in 
one case must also agree that it is the same thing in the 
other case. Both Couples Accomplished the Same 
End. They Successfully Prevented the Birth of 
More Children of Their Own Accord. 
The matter of the ways and means of bringing about 
the result is purely a matter of taste. Any self styled 
"purist" who would limit cohabitation to the inten- 
tional reproduction of offspring, should just as con- 
sistently subscribe to the doctrine that since the purpose 
of eating is to maintain life, one should eat only what 
is sufficient to keep life in the body and that indulgence 
in dessert is sinful; or since clothes were primarily 
intended for covering and warmth, no one should wear 
lace for the pleasure of so doing. 
Anyone who delights in the picture of a congenial couple, 
separated for years, looking at each other through the 
iron bars of celibacy (which only too frequently drives 
weak men into the arms of other women) has a most 
distorted view of this beautiful relation. 
Possession of birth control information never leads to 
excess of indulgence by intelligent and refined people 
any more than the knowledge that he will not be spanked, 
necessarily leads any good child to immediately become 
incorrigible. 
voluntary parenthood league 
The director of this organization is Mrs. Mary Ware Den- 
nett (51 East 59th St., New York City). The objects for which 
it was founded are as follows: BIRTH CONTROL 
163 
1. To render available for the people's need, the best scien- 
tific knowledge as to how parenthood may be voluntary instead 
of accidental; and as a first step toward that end, the removal 
of the words "preventing conception' 'from the Federal obscenity 
laws which now besmirch and degrade the question of intelligent 
parenthood by including it with penalized indecencies. 
2. The education of parents so that the birth of children 
may occur with due regard to health, heredity, income, choice, 
environment and the well being of the community. 
The League is concentrating on Object No. 1 till it shall be 
accomplished. 
The so-called "Comstock" obscenity law was passed by 
Congress in 1873, and ever since then there has been more or less 
open agitation against it, and it has been secretly broken by 
increasing thousands of individuals, until it has become a dead 
letter for practically all who have learned how to make it so. 
But until now, no one has even gone through the motions of 
specifically asking Congress to remove from the Penal Code the 
words "preventing conception," which never had any proper 
connection with all the indecencies that the law was framed to 
suppress. 
The Voluntary Parenthood League is like the "lady from 
Philadelphia" in the old story, who quite simply insisted that the 
horse be untied in order that the carriage might go. Merely 
protesting against the law is futile unless some steps are taken 
toward changing it. So we are taking those steps-firmly, 
steadily and persistently. We say, change the Federal law first, 
as it is the model for all the state laws. The states will then 
easily follow suit, just as they did when the Federal "Comstock" 
law was first passed. 
Being an amendment to the Penal Code, the bill, according 
to precedent, would be referred to the Judiciary Committee of 
each House. But since it is primarily a health measure, the 
procedure recommended by Senator Nelson, Chairman of the 
Judiciary Committee, will be followed, namely, that it be referred 
first to» the Committee on Public Health, and if approved by that 
Committee, the Judiciary Committee can then, as he said, "attend 
to the technicalities." 
The most important members on whom pressure should be 
put are the members of the two Judiciary Committees and the 164 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
NEVER FEAR! SHE WILL BREAK THE CHAIN AND REMOVE THE YOKE BIRTH CONTROL 
165 
Committee on Public Health, and they should be addressed 
respectively at the Senate Office Building and the House Office 
Building, Washington, D. C. 
The sections to be amended are given below in substance. 
Note that we are not only striking out "preventing conception," 
but we are adding two words which strengthen and define the 
prohibition of abortion. This is deemed wise because it is some- 
times hastily assumed that preventing conception and abortion 
are synonymous, and nothing could be farther from the truth- 
abortion being interference with life after it has started, and 
contraception or prevenception being the prevention of the start 
of a new life. Abortion is sanctioned by legal precedent when 
a physician considers it imperative to save the mother's life, 
but otherwise it is illegal. The Federal law has never made this 
distinction, as have the state laws-hence our amendment. 
Matter in () to be omitted. Matter in italics to be added. 
Section 211, Federal Penal Code.-Every obscene, lewd, or lascivious, 
and every filthy book, pamphlet, picture, paper, letter, writing, print, or 
other publication of an indecent character, and every article or thing 
designed, adapted, or intended for (preventing conception of) producing 
or facilitating illegal abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use; and 
every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is 
advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or 
apply it for (preventing conception or) producing or facilitating illegal 
abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose; and every written or 
printed card, letter, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement or notice of 
any kind giving information directly or indirectly, where, or how, or of 
whom, or by what means any of the hereinbeforementioned matters, 
articles, or things may be obtained or made, or where or by whom any 
act or operation of any kind for procuring (or) producing or facilitating 
of illegal abortion will be done or performed, or how or by what means 
(conception may be prevented or) illegal abortion may be produced or 
facilitated whether sealed or unsealed, is hereby declared to be non-mail- 
able matter and shall not be conveyed in the mails or delivered from any 
post office or by any letter carrier. Whoever shall knowingly deposit or 
cause to be deposited for mailing or delivery, anything declared by this 
section to be non-mailable, or shall knowingly take, or cause the same 
to be taken, from the mails for the purpose of circulating or disposing 
thereof, or of aiding in the circulation or disposition thereof, shall be fined 
not more than five thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than five 
years, or both. 
Matter in () to be omitted. Matter in italics to be added. 
Section 245, Federal Penal Code.-Whoever shall bring or cause to 
be brought into the United States or any place subject to the jurisdiction 
thereof from any foreign country or shall therein knowingly deposit or 
cause to be deposited with any express company any obscene, lewd, or 
lascivious or any filthy book, pamphlet, picture, paper, letter, writing, 166 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
print, or other matter of indecent character, or any drug, medicine, article, 
or thing designed, adapted or intended for (preventing conception or) 
producing or facilitating illegal abortion or for any indecent or immoral 
use, shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars or imprisoned not 
more than five years or both. 
A proposed new section for the Penal Code to be added to 
our bill if it seems advisable for the protection of the public. 
"No printed information as to methods of preventing conception, and 
no ingredients compounded for the purpose of preventing conception shall 
be transportable through the mails or by any other public carrier in the 
United States except such as bear endorsement of duly licensed physicians 
or public health authorities." 
Should anyone ask if the V. P. L. bill will not make it pos- 
sible for irresponsible laymen, quacks or commercial interests to 
scatter this knowledge broadcast, hawk it on the street corners, 
etc., please make it clear we are confident that the leaders of the 
medical profession will meet this need and opportunity so effec- 
tually that ignorant laymen, or self interested money-makers, 
will have no chance to function. If the information is given out 
by all doctors in their private practice, by all clinics, hospitals 
and dispensaries, is discussed in medical journals, perfected by 
research in medical schools, and published by governmental 
health agencies, like the Children's Bureau, the Public Health 
Service, and State Boards of Health, there will be such wise and 
wide circulation of the knowledge from authoritative sources 
that no unworthy agencies will have any inducement to compete. 
We feel that this confidence in the medical profession is 
justified, because hygiene is progressing as never before, pre- 
ventive medicine is the great modern impulse in the profession, 
and then we have the precedent of the extraordinary work done 
during the War to control venereal disease. The doctors met the 
war exigency handsomely. They issued millions of pamphlets, 
and leaflets to educate not only the army and navy, but the whole 
civilian population. The profession can surely be counted on to 
meet this constructive opportunity with equal skill and devotion 
to the public welfare. 
An officer of one of the largest child welfare organizations 
asked how much was needed to get our bills through Congress 
and the eighteen states where amendments will also be necessary. 
We said that $50,000 would probably do it. "Is that all ?" he ex- BIRTH CONTROL 
167 
"I lxdt@vetti 
Bicth- j 
Control-1 
BUT!" I 
sFEAR OF 
^RIDICULE^ 168 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
claimed, "Why if you saved only twenty-five mothers and babies, 
it would be worth that much." Not that the value of mothers and 
babies can be estimated in cash, but our bill will save many, many 
thousands every single year. The budgets of large charitable and 
welfare organizations run from $40,000 to $1,000,000 a year. 
Our bill will help to decrease the need not only for these organ- 
izations, but will markedly lessen the present drain on public 
funds for the institutional care of the defective and unfit. How 
much saner and more constructive it will be when the money 
from the pockets of the rich and from the people's taxes can be 
released to a great extent from these endless patchings of pre- 
ventable misery, and can be used instead for education and for 
the enrichment of millions of lives which are now hopelessly dull 
and gray. 
Our legislation hits clear to the foundation of health and 
happiness. If you don't believe it, imagine yourself in the place 
of parents who can earn only small wages, whose babies have 
kept coming till the whole family is desperately short of food, 
clothes and a chance, and whose only medical service is what can 
be had from the hospitals and clinics, which never officially break 
the law and give contraceptive information as private physicians 
frequently do for their well-to-do patients. Think what such a 
situation would mean to you! And then help your very utmost.* 
* Those wishing definite information as to how they may help should address 
The Voluntary Parenthood League, 51 East 59th Street, New York City. CHAPTER XI 
THE LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING BY THE 
PREVENTION OF CONCEPTION* 
PREVENTION OF CONCEPTION 
THIS subject directly or indirectly touches every man, woman 
and child-nay more, it touches not only the living child, it 
touches the child not yet born. 
We believe that under any conditions and particularly under 
our present economic conditions, human beings should be able 
to decide how many children they want to have and when they 
want to have them. And to accomplish this result we demand 
that the knowledge of preventing undesirable conception, should 
not be considered criminal knowledge, that its dissemination 
should not be considered a criminal offense punishable by hard 
labor in Federal prisons, but that it should be considered knowl- 
edge useful and necessary to the welfare of the race and of the 
individual. 
We would not force any family to limit the number of their 
children against their will, though we would endeavor to create 
a public opinion which would consider it a disgrace for any 
family to have more children than they can bring up and educate 
properly. Public opinion is stronger than any laws, and in time 
people would be as much ashamed of having children whom they 
could not bring up properly in every sense of the word, as they 
are now of having their children turn out criminals. 
Now, no disgrace can attach to any poor family, no matter 
how many children they have, because society prevents them from 
having the knowledge of how to limit the number of children. 
But if that knowledge became easily accessible and people still 
refused to avail themselves of it, then they would properly be 
considered as criminal members of the community. 
As far as couples are concerned who are well-to-do, who love 
children, and who are well capable of taking care of a large 
number, we American limitationists would say: "God bless you, 
* Extracts from Birth Control by Dr. Wm. J. Robinson, The Critic and Guide Co., 
New York City. (See Adv. Last Page.) 
169 170 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M.D. 
Pioneer of the Birth Control Movement in America and One of the 
World's Foremost Sexologists, LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
171 
have as many children as you want to; there is plenty of room 
yet for all of you." 
Our European friends would put a limit to the number of 
children even of the well-to-do. They claim that the means of 
subsistence are but limited, that Western Europe is about as 
thickly populated as it can be. And they are afraid that the 
birth of a large number of people, even among rich and well- 
to-do, means the taking out of the bread from the mouths of 
somebody, from the mouths of the poor. We are not afraid of 
it. We know that America can support in perfect comfort mil- 
lions and millions more of people. 
I, on the other hand, was drawn into the limitation of off- 
spring propaganda by the misery resulting from too many chil- 
dren which I witnessed among my friends and acquaintances and, 
as stated before, among my patients in the early years of my 
practice. Not that I do not recognize that, eventually, in the 
future, the race will, in self-preservation, have to put a strong 
check upon its birth rate, but I am dealing, I always prefer to 
deal, with the living people of today. 
THE SPECTER OF TOO MANY CHILDREN 
The effects of the limitation of offspring might be discussed 
under two separate heads: the effects upon the individual family, 
and upon the race as a whole. But you cannot injure or benefit 
the individual without injuring or benefiting the race, and you 
cannot injure or benefit the race without injuring or benefiting 
the individual. 
Under our economic conditions that the fear of too many 
children is a most frightful specter which terrorizes the ordinary 
workman and the middle class and professional man, is some- 
thing which requires no discussion. There would not be this 
frenzied demand for contraceptive knowledge if this were not 
so. That an unlimited number of children is a curse to the poor, 
requires almost no argument. There is not a physician who has 
not had cases in his practice of families which started life in a 
respectable manner but which became quickly demoralized, 
financially and physically, by children coming in rapid succession. 
And many a physician will tell you of cases in which their en- 
deavors to bring to life a still-born child were not at all con- 
sidered by the parents, by the father particularly, with favor. 172 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
That a family of three or four can live better, more com- 
fortably, on a certain sum per week, say $25, than can a family 
of six or seven, goes without saying. But we will deal with this 
point later on. 
A workingman should not have more than two children. 
Every child after the second, and particularly after the third, is 
individually and racially a calamity. It means that the mother's 
health is being exhausted, that she cannot attend as properly as 
she should to her first children, that the succeeding children are 
taking away a part of the indispensable food and clothing from 
the first children, that the first children will not be able to get 
the necessary bringing up and education that they otherwise 
would, that they will be sent to work earlier than they otherwise 
would, it means glutting the labor market with wage-slaves. In 
short, in my opinion, too many children in other than well-to-do 
families is a crime. It is a crime against every member of the 
individual family, a crime against the father, a crime against the 
mother, a crime against the first children, a crime against the 
succeeding children, and a crime against society. 
THE ORTHODOX REMEDIES 
This being so, what is the remedy? Two remedies are pro- 
posed by our reactionary philosophers and sociologists. One is 
that the poor should not marry until able to support a family, or 
should marry late in life. This advice is as stupid as it is vicious. 
If the poor, embracing in this term not only the workingmen but 
many professional men, writers, small business men, etc., were to 
wait until they could support a family properly, they would not 
be able to marry while alive. They would have to wait until 
they went to heaven, or until they were in their second incarna- 
tion. But if the advice to marry late were universally followed, 
it would prove an irreparable injury to the human race. It 
would mean an indescribable increase in prostitution, in sexual 
perversions, in sexual weakness, and in venereal disease. The 
fathers would come to their nuptial beds sapped of all vitality, 
debilitated, infected. And as late marriages among men mean 
necessarily also late marriages among women, the mothers would 
be neurotic or psychotic old maids, and what children such unions 
would give rise to can readily be imagined. 
The second advice is that married people should abstain from LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
173 
sexual relations. To give advice which we know is impossible of 
being followed is the acme of fatuity. But where married people 
were foolish enough to attempt to follow this advice the effects 
were pernicious. For married people to attempt to abstain for 
any length of time means to lay the foundation for irritability, 
weakness, nervousness, or even genuine neuroses, and a cooling 
or even destruction of the affections. It very often means driving 
the husband into the arms of prostitutes, with the possible risks 
of venereal disease. 
But a remedy must be had. The chief thing that distinguishes 
the human being from other animals is his intellect. The human 
intellect has given us remedies which, while permitting men and 
women to marry at the proper age and to live a normal sexual 
life as Nature intended, still help them to control the number of 
their children. 
The greatest obstacle we meet in our propaganda is the con- 
fusion, both on the part of physicians and of the laity, of preven- 
tion of conception with abortion. Just as the statute books speak 
of the two in the same sentence, meting out the same severe 
punishment for both, so the physician and the layman often speak 
as if the one were as objectionable or as criminal as the other, 
and as if believing in the one necessarily meant accepting the 
other. Not only do contraception and abortion not belong in the 
same category, but one of the principal reasons, one of the 
strongest motives that makes us advocate contraception so per- 
sistently is because we want to do away with the evil of abortion 
as far as we can. 
Abortion is degrading and humiliating to the woman. It is 
always accompanied with some risk, if not to life at least to health 
and it is apt to lead to abuses. For this and various other reasons 
all true humanitarians are endeavoring to diminish the evil of 
abortion, which is constantly on the increase. And one of the 
most effective remedies is the universal knowledge of the proper 
means of prevention of conception. 
In inducing abortion we destroy something already formed; 
we destroy a potential human being. In prevention, however, we 
merely prevent chemically or mechanically the spermatozoa from 
coming in contact with the ovum. There is no greater crime or 
sin in this than in refraining from sexual intercourse. 174 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
THE RACE SUICIDE BUGBEAR 
The first objection we are apt to hear, when we advocate that 
the knowledge of the use of preventives be easily accessible, is 
that such knowledge would have dire effects, it would decrease 
the population to such a degree that the human race would com- 
mit suicide. Are families who possess a knowledge of efficient 
and harmless preventives perfectly childless? Of course not. 
They regulate the time when they want to have children and 
their number, but very few indeed decide to remain barren alto- 
gether. 
That there is a small percentage who are so devoid of the 
parental impulse that they would utilize the preventives so as 
never to have any children I will admit. But is it not better for 
the race that people who are so utterly devoid of that something 
that we call the parental instinct that they do not want to have 
any children at all, should not have any? Is a child conceived, 
born and brought up against the will of the parents a spectacle 
to be enthusiastic over? On the contrary. 
When I see to what interminable trouble and expense some 
men and women go in order to have children; what tortures and 
risks, endangering her very life, a prospective mother will un- 
dergo to have a living child, I have no fear that the use of pre- 
ventives will result in the dying out of the human race. 
No, there is no danger of the parental instinct dying out. I 
even deny that this instinct is now weaker than it was fifty or a 
hundred years ago. True, our ancestors had a larger progeny 
than we have, but they could not help themselves. At that time 
means for the prevention of conception were practically un- 
known, and they knew of no method except abstinence, which 
was never very popular. And this brings us to the second reason. 
Our ancestors were generally more intemperate in sexual mat- 
ters, the same as in food and drink, than we are. Their life was 
coarse, dull, monotonous, and this was their only pleasure, as it 
still is of the lowest strata of society. And third, our ancestors 
lacked the sense of responsibility. They might have loved their 
children as much as we do, but our love is a finer love, more in- 
telligent, more sublime, more anxious for the future. In other 
words, the love of our ancestors for their children was more a 
selfish love, as is the love of the low and ignorant of the present LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
175 
day. Our love is a noble, altruistic one, which forces us occasion- 
ally to deprive ourselves of the pleasure of children for the 
children's own sake. Again I say, there is no danger of parental 
instinct dying out. 
But we have proofs unanswerable and undeniable. Here we 
have a whole country, Holland, in which the use of preventives 
is practically universal-and is the country dying out? On the 
contrary, it is increasing even somewhat more rapidly than before, 
because wherever the birth rate goes down the death rate goes 
down step by step or even to a still greater degree. This can be 
proven by statistics from almost every country in the world. 
DECREASED BIRTH-RATE MEANS DECREASED INFANTILE DEATH RATE 
This decrease of the death rate is very easy to understand, 
because the fewer children a mother has the better care she can 
take of those she does have. The economic condition with fewer 
children is better than of families with many children, speaking, 
of course, of the same strata of society. And the mother's health 
not being exhausted by too frequent child-bearing, nursing and 
bringing up of children, her health is better and she gives birth 
to healthier and more resistant children. 
I admit that when the knowledge of the use of preventives 
becomes really universal the rate of increase of the race will 
become very much slower. But there is certainly a great differ- 
ence between a slow increase and suicide. 
Is an increase in numbers at all desirable ? Is China with its 
more than 400 millions any happier than we, who can boast of 
only 105 millions ? And does China from any and every point of 
view amount to as much as does the United States, which has 
only about one-fourth of its population? I prefer a common- 
wealth of 5 million people, all of them healthy and contented, 
all having work to do, all materially comfortable, all educated 
and cultured, to an empire or a republic of 100 millions, all cut- 
ting each other's throats, all in fear of starvation, with senseless 
luxury on one hand and shameful poverty on the other-I prefer, 
I say, the small to the larger commonwealth. 
THE CAUSE FOR ALARM LIES ELSEWHERE 
There is one point, however, that should give all true friends 
of humanity cause for alarm. In countries like England and the 
United States, the most marked diminution of the birth rate has 176 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
been among the aristocracy, among the cultured classes, while it 
has been but slightly diminished among the workmen and among 
the poor and very poor. Jt means that those most able to bring 
up children, are breeding less and less, while those least able to 
and least capable of bringing up children and giving them a 
decent education and a decent start in life, keep on breeding 
unrestrainedly. It means that, if no check be put to this state of 
affairs, eventually the race will begin to degenerate. 
But what is the remedy? To exhort, beg or command the 
better classes to become more prolific is, as you all know, prac- 
tically useless-so the only remedy we have is to instruct the 
lower classes to make use of the same means so that they may not 
overwhelm the better elements, pollute the race-stock and add to 
human misery. 
IT WILL LEAD TO IMMORALITY 
People who have gotten over the "race suicide" bugaboo are 
deeply afraid that if this knowledge became universal female 
unchastity would become universal. They are convinced that 
what keeps our girls and other husbandless women chaste is the 
fear of pregnancy and nothing else. In other words, they openly 
acknowledge that our entire adult womanhood is mentally un- 
chaste and what keeps a large proportion of them from physical 
unchastity is not morality but the fear of consequences. 
To this argument, which next to the race suicide argument, 
seems to be the most formidable, and to a good many the most 
unanswerable, leaving out the answer that virtue which needs 
continuous guarding is scarcely worth the sentinel, my answer is 
that the fear of pregnancy is not the chief deterrent. What keeps 
most of our unmarried women chaste is the general and religious 
education, the custom of the country, hereditary influence, and 
the general monogamous tendency of the female. 
On a certain percentage of the female population all these 
factors exert no influence now, and the only result the knowledge 
we advocate would have is that illicit relations would be entered 
upon with less terror, perhaps, with less anxiety than they are 
now, but far from increasing immorality it would diminish it. 
The fear of pregnancy does act as a deterrent in a large number 
to coitus in the natural way, but instead of that it leads to 
numerous perversions of the sexual act, which are as a rule LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
177 
SHE WILL BE HELPED OUT WITH CONTRACEPTIVE INFORMATION. BUT HOW ABOUT THE OTHER? 178 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
extremely injurious to the health of both partners. There are 
thousands of women who are physically virgins, whose hymen is 
intact, but expert in various sexual perversions, and such women, 
are in my opinion much more unchaste than the woman who 
enters upon normal, though illicit sexual relations, with the man 
she loves. 
And if some women are bound to have illicit relations, is it 
not better that they should know the use of a harmless preventive 
than that they should become pregnant, disgracing themselves 
and their families, or that they should subject themselves to the 
degradation and risks of an abortion, or failing this commit 
suicide ? I may be wrong, but cannot help believing I am kinder 
and more humane than those cruel bigots who demand that any 
woman who has indulged in illicit relations should expiate her 
"crime" by death or by all the humiliation, ostracism and suffer- 
ing which are now imposed upon the mother of an illegitimate 
child. 
it is injurious 
This objection we still meet quite frequently, not only from 
the laity, but from physicians who are supposed to know better. 
A whole catalogue of ills are given which are likely to result: 
congestion, inflammation, cancer, nervousness, etc. This state- 
ment is unqualifiedly false. Physicians who make such state- 
ments do it either because they are ignorant or because they 
know only of some methods that are injurious, or confuse pre- 
vention of conception with abortion, or they do so deliberately 
to mislead the people, to prevent them from engaging in what 
they call an immoral, ungodly and demoralizing practice. 
I emphasize: There is absolutely nothing injurious in the 
proper modern methods of prevention. On the contrary, more 
than once has it been noticed that women who suffered with con- 
gestion, leucorrhea, catarrh of the cervix and vagina, were im- 
proved by the use of modern contraceptives. Of course there is 
no doubt that certain mechanical devices and poisonous solutions 
are in use which may in time produce injury. Because an alkaline 
soap is irritating are you going to condemn the use of all soap? 
It is absurd, and still this is the kind of argument the opponents 
of the limitation of offspring have recourse to. And I challenge 
any physician to bring a single authenticated case in which disease 
or injury resulted from the modern methods of prevention. LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
179 
IT PRODUCES STERILITY 
We know that the proper methods of prevention have abso- 
lutely no effect whatever in causing sterility. As long as the 
woman uses the preventive she is safe, as soon as she gives up 
the use of the preventive she becomes impregnated. Sometimes a 
single omission of the use of the preventive measure causes im- 
pregnation, as many women have found out to their sorrow. 
But the sterility bugaboo is firmly rooted. A couple came to 
me who wanted to have children. They had used preventives for 
three years and then, their circumstances having improved, they 
decided to have a child, but although they had discontinued pre- 
ventives for over a year, no offspring had resulted. They were 
firmly convinced that the wife was sterile owing to the use of the 
contraceptives. As a matter of fact, repeated examinations 
showed that the husband was suffering from complete azoospermia 
and never could have any children, with or without contracep- 
tives. But it was plainly to be seen these patients were skeptical 
and clung to their belief that the lack of offspring was due to the 
means used in the past. 
IT IS NOT ABSOLUTELY SURE 
This is true in the sense that there is not one single method 
that is suitable for everybody, but it is not true that a certain 
means will not prove absolutely efficient in a certain given case, 
or practically so. 
And this uncertainty is due to the fact that the whole thing 
is done secretly, clandestinely, as if a crime were being committed. 
If the whole thing were free and legal, if the matter could be 
discussed freely in the journals, each one would have no difficulty 
in finding the means most appropriate to herself. 
But even as it is now, the methods are infallible in 98 or 99 
per cent, of cases, and while this may be no consolation to the 
hundredth case that happens to be caught, we do consider that 
both for the individual family and for the race as a whole it is 
even now a means of the most wonderful potency for good. One 
little instance: In Berlin the birth rate was, in 1876, 240 per 
annum per each thousand married women; in 1912 the birth rate 
had fallen to 90! Doesn't this show the great efficacy of con- 
traceptive measures? 180 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
WOULD LEAD TO EXCESS IN MARRIED LIFE 
Here is again the same idea: that we abstain from moral 
crimes and physical sins only through fear of the consequences. 
I stamp this medieval idea as false. Some people will commit 
sins, crimes and bestialities in spite of consequences; others will 
lead a healthy, moral, rational life just for its own sake, because 
they have been brought up to be decent. And I am sure that 
when the study of sexual hygiene has become universal, when 
men know that excessive indulgence is injurious, they will abstain 
from it, the same as they abstain from excessive alcoholic in- 
dulgence or excessive eating. It is true, as Shaw says, that mar- 
ried life offers the maximum of temptation with the maximum 
of opportunity, but as the variety is lacking, things equalize them- 
selves and the vast majority of married couples settle down after 
the first few months to a temperate existence, sexually speaking. 
The times, when the husbands indulge most unrestrainedly 
because the fear of impregnation is absent, is during their wives' 
pregnancies; and as pregnancies will be fewer and farther be- 
tween, there will be less indulgence. So that we have a right to 
claim, that far from increasing indulgence in marital relations, a 
knowledge of the means of prevention will act as a check, and 
excesses will give place to moderation. 
IT IS AGAINST RELIGION 
I know of no place in the Bible where the prevention of con- 
ception or limitation of offspring is prohibited. I do not claim to 
be a great student of the Bible, but recently at St. Mark's Church 
this point was brought up and the minister said distinctly that he 
did not know, at least he could not think at the time of any place 
in either the Old or the New Testament which contained any- 
thing condemning the use of preventives. 
But assuming that it did contain an explicit injunction 
against their use, I would simply ask those whose conduct is 
guided by the Bible to refrain from using those means, but not 
to attempt to force their morals and their conduct upon people 
who are guided by different standards of morality. LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
181 
IT IS IMMORAL 
This argument all depends on what you call immoral. No 
inanimate thing, no act can be moral or immoral per se. It is the 
circumstances under which an act is performed, the uses to which 
a thing is put that make it moral or immoral. Immoral is some- 
thing that is injurious to the community, to another individual, or 
to the person himself. As contraceptives are not injurious to the 
persons using them, they are certainly not injurious to one's 
neighbors, and far from being injurious to the community they 
are helpful to it by raising the hygienic, eugenic and economic 
standards. So wherein does the immorality consist? I am afraid 
that those who bring up the immorality argument; have created a 
fetish which they would find great difficulty in maintaining on its 
pedestal if forced to present real arguments. 
IT LEADS TO DIVORCE 
We are told that childlessness is one of the causes of divorce, 
and statistics seem to show there is more divorce among childless 
couples than among those who have children. 
Those who bring this argument forget one very important 
point. Most cases of divorce in which childlessness is the causa- 
tive factor are due not to the fact that the parents used preventive 
measures, but to the fact that one of the partners, either the hus- 
band or the wife, was sterile. In other words, the divorce is not 
caused by the desire of the parents not to have any children, but 
by the desire to have them, a desire which is frustrated by the 
inability of either one or both partners. In all cases of divorce 
of which I know in which the partners were childless, the divorce 
was demanded by one of the partners just because he or she was 
extremely anxious to have children, and they hoped that by 
remarrying their ardent desire would be realized. No, preven- 
tion of conception plays but an insignificant part in the increase 
of divorce. 
Divorce in itself in many cases is an unmitigated blessing, 
freeing two people from a yoke that has become hateful to one or 
both; and voluntary childlessness plays a very small role in the 
divorce problem; it is involuntary childlessness or sterility that 
does play an important part, and for this the prevention of con- 
ception propaganda is certainly not responsible. 182 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
CHILDREN SUPPORT PARENTS IN THEIR OLD AGE 
Another argument is that children often prove a blessing 
and support to the parents when the latter get old. I do not deny 
that. Are not two or three sufficient? And while it is true that 
some children do prove a blessing and support to their parents, 
many others prove a burden as long as they live. And there are 
certainly many more parents who wear themselves out and be- 
come prematurely aged in the struggle for existence, a struggle 
which is the more intense the more children there are at home, 
than are afterwards supported by their children. And besides it 
is a pretty, pretty sad state of affairs that parents who have 
worked all their lives should in their old age be so poor as to need 
the support of their children. 
THE MORAL STANDARD OF THOSE WHO MAKE USE OF OR ADVOCATE 
THE USE OF PREVENTIVES 
Pamphlets and books have been written against those who 
make use of preventives and those who advocate the rational 
limitation of offspring. They have been called immoral, decadent, 
degenerate, egotists, low creatures devoid of responsibility. 
I will admit among the upper classes, and a certain percent- 
age of the middle classes, the decision to limit children or to avoid 
having any at all, flows from a desire on the part of the parents 
not to have their comfort or personal pleasures interfered with. 
But this accusation is distinctly untrue when applied to the vast 
majority of the middle, professional and working classes. Far 
from being due to a lack of responsibility, it is due to a height- 
ened sense of responsibility. Thinking parents are so imbued 
with the sense of responsibility in bringing a human being into 
the world under our present social and economic conditions, that 
we must praise them for refusing to bring into being too large 
a number. 
Having answered the most important objections, 
1 will now summarize briefly what benefits would 
accrue to humanity if the knozvledge of prevention 
became universal, or at least universally accessible. LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
183 
WOULD ENCOURAGE EARLY MARRIAGE 
The reason many men marry now at such a late age is be- 
cause they are afraid they would not be able to support a wife 
with many children. If the men knew that by safe means they 
could limit their children to the number they can afford to have 
and to a time most convenient, they would marry much earlier 
and more of them would marry; and this would necessarily have 
a great effect in diminishing bachelors and old maids. This 
would in its turn have a great effect in diminishing prostitution 
with its terrible venereal disease. 
I am not so optimistic as to believe that early marriages and 
the knowledge of prevention of conception will do away altogether 
with prostitution. People who have studied the subject know 
that among the patrons of prostitutes married men-and happily 
married men, too-constitute quite a large contingent. Patronage 
of prostitutes or seeking after illicit relations emanates from a 
different source than a mere desire for sexual gratification. But 
none the less it cannot be denied that if early marriagei became a 
common thing, and if the fear of impregnating one's wife were 
eliminated, the greatest part of the demand for prostitution would 
be cut off. And with the diminution of prostitution goes a cor- 
responding diminution in venereal disease. 
Early marriage would have other beneficial effects; it would 
diminish masturbation, and tend to diminish the evils of absti- 
nence, neurasthenia and various other neuroses. 
WOULD DIMINISH VENERAL DISEASE AMONG THE MARRIED 
There is one point that I believe has never been brought out 
before, and that is the remarkably beneficent influence which the 
use of contraceptives has and will have on the diminution of 
venereal disease among married people. There are thousands and 
tens of thousands of men who have had gonorrhea some time in 
their lives and who because they have no discharge or shreds in 
the urine erroneously consider themselves cured. Some hasty or 
incompetent physician may even have told them that they are 
cured. Those people get married and sooner or later they infect 
their wives. The use of contraceptive measures entirely abolishes 
or reduces to a minimum the danger of infection. For it so 184 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
happens that most of the contraceptive measures are at the same 
time preventives against gonorrheal and syphilitic infection. 
In my practice I often base my decision as to whether I will 
permit or not permit a man to marry upon the fact whether or 
not he is going to use contraceptive measures. If the man tells 
me that they want to have children at once I am much more strict 
than otherwise, for there are cases in which in spite of the most 
careful tests it is impossible to say with scientific definiteness 
whether a man is absolutely free or not. And if such a man 
says contraceptives are going to be used for the first year or so, I 
have no hesitation in giving him permission to marry. I simply 
tell him to come around in six months or a year for another 
examination. But where the couple objects to contraceptives, 
then I insist upon more treatment and more examinations until I 
can be morally certain. 
EXHAUSTS THE WOMAN'S BODY 
Every physician knows that too frequent childbirth, too fre- 
quent nursing, and the sleepless nights that are required in bring- 
ing up a child, exhaust the vitality of thousands of mothers, make 
them prematurely old or turn them into chronic invalids. The 
knowledge of prevention would do away with this evil. 
We are often told by our opponents of their mothers and 
grandmothers who had 8 or 12 or 15 children and were neverthe- 
less healthy and pretty pictures to look upon. But they are the 
exception. In the vast majority frequent pregnancies exhaust 
the vitality of the mother, lead to early decay, to Bright's disease, 
and shorten life. 
In discussing this question man is "at his best" in showing 
his unlimited egotism. One would think that childbirth is 
such a trifling matter, as to be utterly devoid of any pains and 
risks. The poor man utterly forgets the nausea, vomiting, dropsy, 
the aggravation of all other diseases which the woman may hap- 
pen to be suffering with. He forgets the horrible agony of child- 
birth (which in spite of "twilight sleep" we will still have with us 
for quite some time to come). He forgets the dangers of 
hemorrhage, of lacerations, infections, convulsions. He over- 
looks the troubles connected with nursing of the child, etc., etc. 
Let us remind our dear masculine friends that in spite of 
tremendous progress, the whole process of childbirth is still LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
185 
something which many women look at quite justly with some 
dread. Not only have the processes of gestation, labor, the puer- 
perium and lactation quite some morbidity but they have a quite 
respectable or even sinister mortality. Though the joke is not a 
particularly brilliant one, still it will bear repetition; it is to the 
effect, that if Nature had made it so that the man should have the 
first child and the woman the second, and thus further in alterna- 
tion, there would never be a third child. If man had to go through 
what women do, if men were not only the begetters but also the 
bearers of children, the laws against the prevention of conception 
on our statute books would never have been put on, or if they 
had been put on they would have been very quickly taken off. 
KILLS THE woman's SPIRIT 
Besides the deleterious effect that frequent childbearing has 
upon the woman, often making her prematurely aged and hasten- 
ing her death, there is another point to be considered. It cripples 
or kills the spirit of many a woman. 
Of course an uncongenial or unsympathetic husband may 
without any outside "aid" succeed in a very short time in com- 
pletely crushing the best woman's spirit and aspirations. But in 
the vast majority it will be found the real cause is the children 
following closely upon each other. How can a woman who has 4 
or 5 children within the first ten years of her married life ever 
think of following up her studies and living up to her ideals and 
aspirations ? 
This argument will not appeal to many men, who think that 
all a woman is for-to breed children, that once she has entered 
into the holy bonds of matrimony she must like those entering 
Dante's Inferno leave everything behind and devote herself ex- 
clusively to the business of being a mother. I believe a woman 
should be a human being besides being a mother, and if she is to 
get some enjoyment out of life, she must not be forced to be a 
breeding machine merely. 
NEURASTHENIA FROM IMPROPER METHODS 
On account of our vicious laws, which make the imparting 
of knowledge on the subject so difficult, many women use im- 
proper and injurious methods of prevention and thereby injure 
their health or risk their very lives. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
186 
Similarly there are numberless thousands of men who have 
become pitiable weaklings from injurious methods which they 
practice through ignorance of better and harmless methods. 
Universal knowledge of the proper means of contraception would 
save these men from a deplorable fate, would do away with an 
evil which is greatly on the increase. 
LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ABORTION EVIL 
The evil of abortion kills thousands of unmarried and tens 
of thousands of married women. If it does not kill, it often 
infects, maims and weakens for life. To the honor of the pro- 
fession, be it said, the physician called in to treat a girl or 
woman dying from a criminal abortion, very often at great risk 
to himself, protects the good name of the poor woman, and does 
not give on the death certificate the true cause of death. The 
knowledge of the prevention of conception would do away 
entirely with the evil of abortion, or would reduce it at least to a 
minimum. Every investigator has found that wherever means 
of prevention of conception are most difficult to obtain, there 
abortions are at their highest. Where preventives are easy to 
obtain, where their sale is permitted by law, there both abortion 
and illegitimacy are reduced to a minimum. 
WOULD DIMINISH PROSTITUTION IN MARRIED LIFE 
We know that a good many married men who patronize 
prostitution do so not on account of wickedness merely, but to a 
great extent they are driven to it by the fear of impregnating 
their wives. And what is more-many wives know it and actually 
encourage their husbands to visit prostitutes, such is their terror 
of another and another and another pregnancy.. What this 
means in increased risks of venereal disease needs no detailed 
discussion. A knowledge of the means of prevention would 
obviate this terrible evil. 
THE ENORMOUS BENEFITS FROM THE EUGENIC STANDPOINT 
We know perfectly well there are people whom it is a crime 
to permit to bring children into the world. About the unques- 
tionably insane, imbeciles, morons, and perverts, we need not 
worry in this respect. Society will have to take care of them by 
sterilizing them or segregating them. But there are people who LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
187 
can very well get married, provided they do not bring children 
into the world. Among such we may mention people suffering 
with tuberculosis, epilepsy, perhaps cancer and certain mental 
abnormalities. We have no right to deprive those people of 
any affection in their lives. And besides, it would be worse 
than useless to do so. If you make your requirements for a 
marriage certificate too rigid, those people will be sure to enter 
into illicit unions, and this means an enormous increase in 
prostitution and illegitimacy. But teach those people the proper 
means of prevention of conception and the problem is solved. 
There are thousands of syphilitic men and women who are 
perfectly safe as far as their partner is concerned, but not safe 
enough to become parents. They cannot infect but they must 
not give birth to children for fear that the children may have 
the taint in them. The use of preventives saves the world from 
thousands of pitiable hereditary syphilitics. 
Or is it better to permit tainted parents to bring syphilitic, 
epileptic and insane children into the world than to use preven- 
tives? One reverend gentleman said it was much better to have 
the streets full of syphilitic, maimed and defective children than 
to accept the doctrines of Dr. Robinson. 
Then again there are thousands of women who suffer from 
diseases which are not hereditary, which become dangerous only 
when pregnancy occurs. Cases of advanced heart or kidney 
disease, of very narrow or deformed pelvis, of tendencies to 
eclampsia or puerperal convulsions. To impregnate them means 
to hasten their end or actually to drive them into the grave. The 
knowledge of the prevention of conception would obviate these 
potential murders. 
A FEW EVERYDAY CASES * 
In my twenty years' work for the cause of rational birth 
control I have come in contact with thousands and thousands of 
cases which demonstrate in the most convincing manner possible 
tragic results of forced or undesired motherhood. 
Some of them are positively heartbreaking. They make you 
sick at the stupidity of the human race, at the stupidity and 
brutality of the lawgivers. But I do not wish to appeal to your 
*By Dr. Wm. J. Robinson in Sex Knowledge for Women, The Critic and Guide 
Co., New York City. (See Adv. Last Page.) 188 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
emotions. I will therefore briefly relate a few everyday cases, 
which will demonstrate to you the beneficence of contraceptive 
knowlege and the tragedy and misery caused by the lack of such 
knowledge. 
Case 1. This class of case is so common that I almost feel 
like apologizing for referring to it. She, whom I will call by the 
forbearing name of Mrs. Smith, had been married a little over 
nine years, and had given birth to five children. She was an 
excellent mother, nursed them herself, took good care of them, 
and all the five were living and healthy. But in caring for them 
and for the household all alone, for they could not afford a 
servant or a nurse-girl, all her vitality had been sapped, all her 
originally superb energy had dwindled down to nothing; her 
nerves were worn to a frazzle and she became but a shadow of 
her former self. And the fear of another pregnancy became an 
obsession with her. She dreamed of it at night, and it poisoned 
her waking hours in the day. She felt that she simply could not 
go through another pregnancy, another childbirth, with its sleep- 
less nights and its weary toilsome days. She asked her doctor 
who brought her children into the world to give her some preven- 
tive, but he laughed the matter off. "Just be careful," was all 
the advice she got from him. And when in spite of being care- 
ful, she, horror of horrors, became pregnant again, she gathered 
up courage, went to the same doctor, and asked him to perform 
an abortion on her. But he was a highly respectable physician, a 
Christian gentleman, and he became highly indignant at her 
impudence in coming to him and asking him to commit "murder." 
Her tears and pleadings were in vain. He remained adamant. 
Whether he would have remained as adamant if instead of 
Mrs. Smith, who could only pay twenty-five dollars for the 
abortion, the patient had been one of his society clientele, who 
could pay two hundred and fifty dollars, is a question which I 
will not answer in the affirmative or negative. I will leave it 
open. I will merely remark that in the question of abortion in 
certain specific cases the moral indignation of some physicians is 
in inverse proportion to the size of the fee expected. A doctor 
who will become terribly insulted when a poor woman who can 
only pay ten or fifteen dollars asks to be relieved of the fruit of 
her womb, will usually discover that the woman who can afford LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
189 
"Mrs. Smith, if you have another baby, it will kill you." 
"But-Doctor, tell me how to prevent it?" 
"Sorry! but the law forbids." 190 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
to pay one hundred dollars is badly in need of a curettement. Oh, 
no. He does not perform an abortion. He merely curets the 
uterus. 
But to come back to Mrs. Smith. She went away from the 
indignant adamant doctor. But she was determined not to give 
birth to another child. She confided her trouble to a neighbor, 
who sent her to a midwife. The midwife was neither very 
expert nor very clean. Mrs. Smith had to go to her two or three 
times. After bleeding for about ten days she developed blood 
poisoning, from which she died a few days later, at the early 
age of twenty-nine, leaving a disconsolate father, who in time 
to come will probably find consolation with another woman, and 
five motherless children, who will never find consolation. One 
may find a substitute for a wife, but there is no substitute for a 
mother. 
And such tragedies are of daily occurrence. May the Lord 
have mercy on the souls of those who are responsible for them! 
Before I proceed further I wish to say that it is the terrible 
prevalence of the abortion evil, with its concomitant evils of 
infection, ill health, chronic invalidism and death, that more than 
any other single factor urges us in our birth control propaganda. 
And those who want to forbid the dissemination of any informa- 
tion about the prevention of conception are playing directly into 
the hands of the professional abortionists. They could not act 
any more zealously if they were in league with the latter and 
were paid by them. And having mentioned the subject of abor- 
tion, I wish to utter a note of warning. In our birth control 
propaganda, we must be. very careful to keep the question of the 
prevention of conception and of abortion separate and apart. 
The stupid law puts the two in the same paragraph, some ignorant 
laymen and equally ignorant physicians treat the two as if they 
were the same thing. 
Case 2. Mr. A and Miss B are in love with each other. 
But they cannot get married, for his salary is too small. They 
might risk getting married, if the specter of an indefinite number 
of children did not stretch out its restraining hand. She comes 
from a good family, she was brought up, if not in the lap of 
luxury, in the lap of comfort and coziness, and it is* the ambition 
of every good American to furnish his wife at least as good a LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
191 
home as her father gave her. Her father, by the way, died pre- 
maturely from overwork in trying to give all possible comforts 
and advantages to a bevy of six unmarried and marriageable 
daughters. 
As I said, the fear of children kept them back. Each year 
the hope revived that in another year their union in matrimony 
would be consummated. But the years passed. Mr. A's hair 
became thin and grayish, Miss B began to look haggard and 
pinched-and still the marriage could not take place. Miss B 
was very religious and very proper, and would not do anything 
that was improper. A was not quite so proper; he paid occasional 
visits elsewhere, and as instruction in venereal prophylaxis was 
not included in his college course, he acquired a gonorrhea, which 
it took him about six months to get rid of. To shorten the story, 
A was thirty-nine and Miss B was thirty-five when the many 
times postponed marriage was consummated, but Cupid seemed 
to be busy elsewhere when the ceremony took place, and there is 
very little romance in their married life. The marriage has re- 
mained childless, as I told Mr. A it would be. 
I consider this a ruined life-and all for the lack of a little 
knowledge. 
If the anti-preventionists, those who are opposed to any in- 
formation about the prevention of conception, were not so hope- 
lessly stupid, they would see that from their own point of view 
it would be better if such information were legally obtainable. 
For it would be instrumental in causing more marriages which 
otherwise remain unconsummated, and by favoring early mar- 
riages, it would be instrumental in curtailing the demand for 
prostitution, in diminishing venereal disease. And as is well 
known, venereal disease is one of the great factors in race 
suicide. 
Case 3. A young woman was married to a man who be- 
sides being a brutal drunkard was subject to periodic fits of in- 
sanity. Every year or two he would be taken to the lunatic 
asylum for a few weeks or months, and then discharged. And 
every time on his discharge he would celebrate his liberty by 
impregnating his wife. She hated and loathed him, but could not 
protect herself against his "embraces." And she had to see her- 
self giving birth to one abnormal child after another. She begged 192 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
her doctor to give her some means of prevention, but that boob 
claimed ignorance, and the illegality of the thing. The woman 
finally committed suicide, but not before she had given birth to 
six abnormal children, who will probably grow up drunkards, 
criminals or insane. 
And because we object to such kind of breeding, we are 
accused of being enemies of the human race, of advocating race 
suicide, of violating the laws of God and man. 
Case 4. This observation concerns a couple both of whom 
had a very bad heredity. The blood of each was badly tainted. 
The doctor who had treated the husband cautioned them and 
told them that they had no right to have children. But here the 
tables were turned. The doctor wanted to give them the means 
for prevention, but the husband and wife, pious Roman Catholics, 
would not go against their religion and God (as if God wanted 
a world full of imbeciles), and refused to employ any precau- 
tions. They have had four children so far. One of them seems 
fairly normal, except that he is silly, in which respect he is 
merely like his parents; two are deaf and blind in one eye; the 
fourth is practically an idiot. 
This case brings us face to face with another phase of the 
problem. What should we do when the parents, stupid and 
ignorant, refuse to stop breeding worthless material? Eugenic 
agitation, education, will bring about such a strong public opinion 
that none but idiots, who will be vasectomized or segregated, will 
dare to bring into the world children that are physically and 
mentally handicapped. 
Case 5. This couple had been married eight years, and had 
five children. And the wife said she could not stand it any 
more. Another child-No, she preferred death. They practiced 
coitus interruptus for a while, with mutual disgust, but when the 
wife was caught again, she said: "No more!" And she would 
not let her husband come near her. He could do what he 
pleased-she did not care. After a few months he began to go 
elsewhere-contracted syphilis, had to give up his position, the 
home was broken up, the wife went out to work, the children are 
scattered-in short, a home, which we are told is the foundation 
of our society, is broken up, and there is misery and wretched- 
ness all around-and all for the lack of a little timely information. LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
193 
Case 6. Mr. A and Miss B, twenty-eight and twenty-five 
years old, respectively, have known one another for several years, 
and in spite of their occupation, which is supposed to make peo- 
ple blase and cynical-he being a reporter and she a special story 
writer-are quite in love with each other. But their occupation 
and income are such that they cannot possibly afford to have 
and to bring up any children. They would love to get married, 
but the specter of a child-or rather of children-frightens them; 
and they remain single, to the great physical and mental injury of 
both. Accidentally they learn of appropriate means of regulating 
conception, get married and live happily-ever after, that is, 
until they find themselves in a position to have children and to 
bring them up properly. 
In what way was society injured by this young couple ac- 
quiring contraceptive information? 
Case 7. Mr. C and Miss D are in love with each other. 
Unfortunately there is a strong hereditary taint of insanity on 
both sides. They are too high-minded to think of giving birth 
to children. They might be all right, but with insanity one does 
not take any chances. The thing is too terrible. They are con- 
demned to a life of celibacy, which to them means a life of loneli- 
ness and misery. But like an angel from heaven comes to them 
the knowledge that one can live a love-life without any penalties 
attached to it. They get married and there is not a happier 
couple living. 
In what way has society been injured by this couple obtaining 
the contraceptive knowledge? 
Case 8. Mr. and Mrs. E have been married five years. 
They have a child four years old which shows unmistakable 
symptoms of epilepsy. They are horrified and an investigation 
discloses the fact that on her side in the preceding generation 
there was a good deal of epilepsy. Of course, the next child may 
not be epileptic. But then again it may. No parents with any 
sense of responsibility would take such chances. They decide 
to give up conjugal relations. They keep it up for about thirteen 
or fourteen months; then one night an accident happens and 
very soon she finds herself pregnant. She declares she would 
rather die than to give birth to and have to take care of another 
epileptic child. She goes to a friendly physician who performs 194 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
an abortion on her and now the couple, not secure against future 
accidents, if they live together, decide to separate, and a tragedy 
is in sight. Fortunately they learn that conception can be pre- 
vented, and they continue to live together with benefit to them- 
selves and harm to none. 
In what way has society been injured by those people acquir- 
ing contraceptive information? 
Case 9. Mr. and Mrs. F have been married six years, and 
in these six years they have been blessed with four children. 
When he married he was getting twenty-two dollars a week, 
and that is exactly what he is getting now. In the meantime the 
cost of living has gone up twenty-five per cent, and there are four 
extra mouths to feed and four extra bodies to clothe. What dif- 
ference this has made in that little household can better be 
imagined than stated. The little mother has aged sixteen years 
in those six years, and there is not a trace left of her girlishness 
and youthfulness. She loves her children, and does not want to 
get rid of them. She would not take a million dollars for one of 
them, but she would not give five cents for another. But this is 
just what terrifies them: the possibility of another. And that 
possibility makes her irritable, makes her repel her husband's 
slightest advances, makes her move his bed to another room. 
She even tells him to satisfy his sexual desires elsewhere-and 
at the same time she is in fear and trembling that he might follow 
her advice. In short, a nice young home is about to be disrupted. 
Fortunately he reads somewhere an article on the subject of vol- 
untary limitation of offspring, he begins to investigate; his 
physician pleads ignorance, but he is persistent, the physician 
investigates and obtains the desired information, which he shares 
with the patient. Harmony is restored and a happy home is re- 
established. 
Who was injured by the couple obtaining this information? 
And if nobody was injured, and everybody concerned was bene- 
fited, then why should the imparting of such information be 
considered a felony, punishable like the most atrocious of crimes ? 
Case 10. Mr. and Mrs. G have been married fifteen years. 
They were the parents of seven children, a large enough number 
for any family. Those seven children were born during the first 
eleven years of their married life. During the past five years, LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
195 
afraid of having any more, they first abstained1 and then adopted 
a method which every modern sexologist knows is injurious to 
the nervous system of both the man and the woman. The man 
became a wreck; first neurasthenic, then impotent, cranky and 
grouchy, unable to get along in the office, constantly squabbling 
with his wife, who became just as bad a wreck. Their economic 
condition plus too many small children prevented the parents' 
separation. They remained living together, but they lived like a 
cat and a dog tied in a bag. Each silently prayed to be rid of the 
other. But a conversation overheard at a Turkish baths estab- 
lishment put him on the right trail, and one year later we find the 
couple reconciled, both in good health and living a peaceful and 
fairly harmonious life. And those who have benefited most by 
the change are the children. In what way was society injured? 
And still if the doctor who gave Mr. G the information should 
have been caught and convicted, he would have been sent to 
prison for a year or two or five. Would he have deserved it? 
Here we have several plain, simple, unembellished cases 
which are typical of millions of similar cases and which prove 
conclusively that the law against imparting information about 
preventing conception is brutal, vicious, antisocial. Should not 
such a law be repealed, wiped off the statute books? Of course, 
it should! CHAPTER XII 
SEX FACTS FOR THE MALE 
OLD JOHN WESLEY, the founder of Methodism, said: 
"Cleanliness is next to godliness," and cleanliness of the 
sex organs has a great influence in preventing irritation-with 
rubbing and scratching-and indirectly promoting morality. 
Nevertheless, the cleanliness should not be carried to excess 
and thus defeat its very object. 
In babies the foreskin is long and baggy. A cheesy-like 
secretion may set up irritation, and the foreskin becomes fas- 
tened to the end of the penis, or else the folds of the foreskin 
itself grow together. Where no changes of this sort occur, 
after puberty the erection of the organ pulls the foreskin 
back. In old age, the condition of the foreskin returns to that 
of the child, as in so many other directions at this time of life. 
And once more there may be tightness. While circumcision 
is best for babies and can be done at a very early age, where 
the parents object the adhesions can be separated by the 
doctor passing a suitable instrument between the foreskin and 
the end of the male organ, without any cutting or bleeding. 
Circumcision-or removal of the foreskin-might be done 
with advantage in every boy-baby. Long, long ago, when 
men lived in trees, a foreskin which would cover the end of 
the penis completely might be of advantage in protecting the 
sensitive extremity from being scratched or bruised by the 
bark or branches; but this protection is no longer needed, in 
fact, rather a hindrance. 
Such removal was obligatory in ancient Egypt, and prob- 
ably copied from there by the Hebrews. It was-and is- 
widespread in Africa; before Christ the Ethiopians resorted 
to it, and the Zulus and other tribes continue it. It was not 
a religious rite in the beginning, but merely adopted as a 
measure of cleanliness, doubly necessary on account of the 
hot climate. Accordingly we find it scattered here and there 
over the globe; in all Mohammedans, for example. Sometimes 
as in the mountains of British Columbia (Canada), where the 
196 SEX FACTS FOR THE MALE 
197 
climate is far from being hot. Among some tribes, circum- 
cision of the female was also carried out. 
In addition to the cleanly aspect of the custom, there seems 
to be some lessening of the liability to contract syphilis, the 
hardened covering from exposure not being wounded so 
readily, hence not furnishing a break by which the germs of 
syphilis can gain entrance. 
(Australia is a queer country-some of the four-footed 
animals lay eggs; the swans are black; the leaves on the trees 
project with the edges up and down, hence throw no shade. 
The black natives have a mutilation, which in their lingo is 
called the "mika." This consists in cutting a slit on the under 
surface of the male organ which opens into the urinary canal, 
hence during sexual commerce, the seminal fluid escapes 
through this, and there is no possibility of the female becom- 
ing pregnant. It seems to be done on every man after he has 
become the father of a child to prevent undue increase of the 
population.) 
Sex Alarms. Herpes (shingles) are small blisters usually 
grouped into a circle. These may occur on any part of the 
skin, so they are often found on that of the genital organs. In 
a few days they dry up, but like the same disease elsewhere 
on the skin, have a great tendency to come back, being due 
to a disturbance of the nerves. Competent medical advice 
should be had, as the little blisters may readily become in- 
fected with the germ which causes soft sores. 
Varicocele. The veins of the male scrotum (purse, bag) 
are not very well supported by the loose surroundings, and 
often become large, when they form a mass feeling like the 
famous "bunch of worms" under the skin, which quacks refer 
to so often in their advertising matter and letters. Ninetv- 
seven out of every 100 cases occur on the left side on account 
of peculiarities of the veins there, and which need not detain 
us. Moreover, the vast majority (80 to 90 per cent) are met 
with in individuals before the age of 25 years. There is no 
danger to life, nor is there any likelihood of "lost manhood," 
or any other horrible consequence, the enlarged and swollen 
veins disappear, as a rule, sooner or later. They are on the 
same plan as are the common every-day "piles" about the 
lower end of the bowels, and these while annoying and even 198 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
painful at times, do not kill anybody. No treatment is neces- 
sary in most cases, simply pay no attention to the affair. If 
the man is engaged where he has to stand at a lathe or press 
while at work, or stand anywhere, it might be well for a time 
to wear a suspensory bandage, which can be had at most drug 
stores. Above all it must be remembered that these swollen veins 
do not cause wasting of the testicles. 
Hydrocele is an accumulation of clear fluid, or dropsy of 
the sac which surrounds the testicles. It comes on earlier 
than varicocele, somewhat over one-half all cases being met 
with between 5 and 20. It is rather common in hot climates, 
but in any locality is due to feeble muscles or a weak heart. 
The condition comes on without warning and progresses more 
or less rapidly. In some 1,500 patients, it was present on 
both sides in about one-third, and the balance of men were 
affected equally often on the right and left sides. The amount 
of fluid present is from 8 to 10 ounces; as a rule, less than a pint. 
Sometimes enormous accumulations are found, to six quarts 
or more forming a swelling 1% by 2 feet or more. The 
remedy is simple, "tapping'' with a syringe, to remove the 
fluid, then injection of iodine or other irritant to prevent 
further accumulation. It may be necessary if the fluid re- 
accumulates to cut down and remove the lining of the sac, 
which puts a stop to it, for nothing is left to make the fluid. 
If it is not convenient to see a doctor, much relief for the 
time being can be had by wearing a suspensory bandage, or 
supporting the mass by a handkerchief pinned to the under- 
clothing. 
Urethrorrhea. During sexual excitement mucous fluid 
is poured out from Cowper's glands near the bladder, and 
from the many small pockets in the lining of the penis. The 
object is (as already seen under Anatomy) to change this 
lining to alkaline from the acid condition in which it was left 
after the last passage of urine. This alkalinity in turn is to 
preserve the spermatozoa, which, as has been pointed out, 
are quickly killed by an acid neighborhood. Suppose the 
sexual excitement is not gratified, that is to say not gratified 
by sexual intercourse, this clear fluid may make its appear- 
ance* at the end of the penis. This is of no consequence; it 
is not semen, nor does it weaken the individual, SEX FACTS FOR THE MALE 
199 
Prostatorrhea. This is another escape of fluid, but in this 
instance from the prostate gland, the large chestnut-shaped 
mass which surrounds the neck of the bladder. It likewise 
occurs during sexual excitement, and may be set up by past 
excesses, entailing weakness of the small muscles. No atten- 
tion should be paid to it, in fact worrying about it may keep 
it up. 
Spermatorrhea. Here the discharge-as the name im- 
plies-contains semen or "sperm." Of course, the only way 
to distinguish this variety from the last two is by the micro- 
scope, but the unfortunate victim of a mucous discharge 
imagines he is losing his vital "fluid" and makes himself 
despondent and miserable. A great many eminent physicians 
deny there is any discharge of semen at other times than 
during intercourse, or occasionally during sleep. 
Venereal Warts. This term is decidedly inappropriate, 
for they are often produced by lack of cleanliness, and are 
found occasionally even in young children. They sometimes 
grow to such a size inside the foreskin that the foreskin can- 
not be retracted, or what is called "phimosis" occurs. When 
of any size there is a profuse discharge of intolerable odor. 
That they are not necessarily due to venereal disease is shown 
by the fact they are often met with in individuals of the other 
sex, who are afflicted with severe cases of "the whites." Simple 
cleanliness often causes them to disappear, if not a little 
powdered borax or a very little powdered alum generally dries 
them up. 
"Lost Manhood." First of all it must be reiterated that 
the size of the male organ is no criterion whatsoever of the 
sexual power, notwithstanding the popular belief to the con- 
trary. 
Corner, an English surgeon, takes occasion to observe 
that another popular error is that the sexual power is cor- 
related with the intellectual-decline of one being accom- 
panied by decay of the other. Every man has a certain 
amount of energy; if he uses up that energy in one direction, 
there will be little left to be used in others; on the other hand, 
a man of abounding energy is likely to show it in all directions. 
The manner in which this energy shows itself seems to be 
acquired from surroundings and education to a great extent. 200 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The supply also appears to be largely an inherent or congenital 
characteristic. Therefore the sexual is a very unreliable 
index of the intellectual life; although one can safely say that 
he who is possessed of little or no energy will display little 
or none in everything which he undertakes. The amount of 
development of the testicles is a very minor factor. The 
mainspring of sexual, as of other energy, lies in the brain and 
spinal cord, and not in the sexual organs, these latter are 
merely the works by which the mainspring of energy in the 
brain makes the "sexual clock go." With all declines of 
nervous energy, such as in illness or nervous exhaustion, the 
sexual power must decline correspondingly. 
It has been stated that performance of the sexual act 
requires the delicate working in common of many sets of 
impulses. In consequence of the delicacy of this complicated 
system, the working in common of the many impulses, it is 
easily thrown out of gear. Thus in all illnesses the sexual 
power is affected early, and is one of the last possessions to 
return during convalescence. It also becomes easy to under- 
stand why those whose minds become depressed, and who 
perhaps discover a varicocele, find real concern in their loss 
of sexual power. In the less intellectual and, therefore, the 
more animal, the sexual nerve centers in the spinal marrow 
have little or no control from the brain, and may show a sort 
of exaggerated action. To put it briefly, the health and con- 
dition of an individual is often reflected in his sexual life. It 
is in consequence of this that so many patients are troubled 
about the functions of their generative system. It is neces- 
sary to convince them that their sexual condition is not the 
real trouble which afflicts them. It is merely the outward 
and visible sign of their inward and hidden condition, which 
lowers the nervous system. As a consequence the medicine 
must be directed to the nervous, not the generative system. CHAPTER XIII 
ADVICE TO GIRLS APPROACHING THE THRESH- 
OLD OF WOMANHOOD* 
WHEN a girl has passed the transition period of puberty 
and is entering upon young womanhood she exerts an 
irresistible attraction on the male sex. Whether she give the 
impression of a luscious red rose or of a delicate white lily, the 
charms of a beautiful, healthy, bright girl of seventeen or eighteen 
are undeniable and their appeal to the esthetic and sexual sense 
of every normal male is a normal, natural phenomenon. Whether 
it is a good thing or a bad thing that it is so, we will not stop 
to discuss here. But it is a natural phenomenon, a natural law, 
if you will, and one does not quarrel with natural phenomena. 
It is useless. But the attraction which the girl exercises on the 
male is fraught with danger to her, and therefore a few words of 
advice and of warning are not out of place. 
Fortunate are you, my young girl friend, if you come from 
a well-sheltered home, if you have been properly brought up, if 
you have a good and wise mother who knows how to take care 
of you. A mother's wise counsel given at the proper time, and 
her comradeship all the time, are more invulnerable than an 
armor of bronze and more secure than locked doors and barred 
windows. But if you have lost your mother at an early age, or 
if your mother is not of the right sort-it is no use hiding the 
fact that some mothers are not what they should be-if you have 
to shift for yourself, if you have to work in a shop, in an office, 
and particularly if you live alone and not with your parents, then 
temptations in the shape of men, young and old, will encounter 
you at every step; they will swarm about you like flies about a 
lump of sugar; they will stick to you like bees to a bunch of 
honeysuckle. 
I do not want you to get the false idea that all men or most 
men are bad and mean, and are constantly on the lookout to ruin 
young girls. No! Most men are good and honorable and too 
conscientious to ruin a young life. But there are some men, 
*Dr. William J. Robinson in "Woman: Her Sex and Love Life," Critic and 
Guide Company, New York City. (See Adv. last page.) 
201 202 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
young and old, who are devoid of any conscience, who are so 
egotistic that their personal pleasure is their only guide of con- 
duct. They will pester you. Some will lyingly claim that they 
are in love with you; some perhaps will sincerely believe that 
they are in love with you, mistaking a temporary passion for the 
sacred feeling of love. Some will even promise to marry you- 
some making the promise in sincerity, others with the deliberate 
intent to deceive. Still others will try to convince you that 
chastity is an old superstition, and that there is nothing wrong in 
sexual relations. In short, all ways and means will be employed 
by those men to induce you to enter into sexual relations with 
them. 
Don't you do it! 
I am not preaching or sermonizing to you. I am not appeal- 
ing to your religion or your morals. For if you have strong 
religious or moral ideas against illicit sexual relations, you are not 
in need of mine or anybody else's advice. But I assume that you 
are a more or less modem girl, with little or no religious bring- 
ing-up, or perhaps a radical girl, who has shaken off the shackles 
of religion and tradition. And to you I say: Don't you do it. 
Why? Because your welfare, your future happiness, is at stake. 
I am speaking from the point of view of your own good, and 
from that point of view I say: Resist all attempts which men 
make exclusively for the purpose of satisfying their sexual 
desire, their lust. 
You will ask again, why? For several reasons. First, you 
run the risk of venereal infection. The danger is not so great 
now as in former times, but is great enough. There are still 
plenty of men dishonest enough to indulge in sexual relations 
with a woman when they know they are not radically cured. The 
same man who will not get married unless he is sure he is per- 
fectly cured will not hesitate to subject a transient girl or woman 
to the risk of venereal infection. I know personally, because I 
have treated them; yes, I treated several intelligent and radical 
young men who infected young girls. And some of these girls 
in their turn, through ignorance and innocence, infected other 
men. So then, the first danger is the danger of venereal infection. 
The second danger, still greater and more certain than the 
first, is the danger of impregnation. And pregnancy for a girl 
under our present moral and social-economic conditions is a terri- ADVICE TO GIRLS 
203 
ble calamity. She is ostracized everywhere, and it means, if 
discovered, her social death. But you will say: "Aren't there 
any remedies that can be used to prevent conception? Aren't 
you yourself among the world's chief birth-controllers; one of the 
world's chief advocates of the use of contraceptives? Yes! my 
dear young lady, but I never made the claim that the contracep- 
tives were absolutely infallible, I never claimed that they were 
loo per cent effective in 100 per cent of all cases. But if they 
are effective 999 times or even 990 times in every 1,000 they are 
a blessing. And thousands of families so considered them. And 
if a married woman "gets caught" once in awhile, the misfortune 
is not so great. But if the accident happens to a non-married 
woman, the misfortune is great. Then again, you want to bear 
in mind that accidents are less likely to happen to married than 
to non-married women. The married woman has no fear, needs 
no secrecy, and she can go about the method of preparation care- 
fully, with deliberation. The unmarried girl, as a rule, has not 
the proper conveniences, more or less secrecy must be main- 
tained, hurry is not infrequently necessary, and that is why acci- 
dents are more apt to occur in spite of the use of contraceptives. 
So then, the second danger, even more sinister than the first, 
is the danger of pregnancy. "But if a misfortune happens, 
can I not have an abortion produced?" No, not always. Phy- 
sicians willing to induce an abortion are not found on every 
corner. But this is not the principal point. What I have to say 
on the subject I will say later on in this chapter. 
Then it is well for you to bear in mind that those very men 
who use their utmost efforts, who strain every fibre and every 
nerve to get you, will despise you and detest you as soon as 
they have succeeded in making you yield to their wishes. This 
is one of the worst blots on the male character, a blot from 
which the female character is entirely free. And some men- 
fortunately their number is not very large-are such moral 
skunks that they take morbid pleasure in boasting publicly of 
their sexual conquests, and unscrupulously peddle about the name 
of the girl whom, by cunning false promises or other means, they 
succeeded in seducing. And, of course, such a girl finds it difficult 
or impossible to get married, and must end her days in solitude, 
without the hope of a home of her own. 
For the above reasons I advise you earnestly and sincerely 204 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
not to yield to the solicitations of thoughtless or unscrupulous 
men, who think of nothing but their coarse sensual pleasures. It 
is advice dictated by common sense, by your own deeper interests, 
aside from any religious or moral considerations. 
The above advice, or call it sermon if you will, is meant 
principally for young girls, girls between the ages of eighteen and 
twenty-five. If a girl has reached the age of twenty-eight or 
thirty and is willing to enter upon illicit sexual relations with 
her eyes open, with a full knowledge of the possible consequences, 
then it is her affair. 
But whatever the relations between the man and the girl 
may be, whether she yielded in a fit of passion, or was seduced 
by false promises, by "moral" suasion, by hypnotic influence or 
by the vulgar method of being made drunk, what is she to do if 
she finds herself, to her horror, in a pregnant condition? There 
are two ways open to her; either let the pregnancy go to term 
or to have an abortion brought on. 
If she lets the pregnancy go to term she has the alternative 
of bringing up the child herself openly or of placing it secretly 
in a foundling asylum. In the first case, the necessity of publicly 
acknowledging illegitimate motherhood requires so much moral 
courage that not one woman in a thousand is equal to it. It is 
not moral courage alone that is required; the social ostracism 
could be borne with stoicism and even with equanimity, if with 
it were not frequently associated the fear or the real danger of 
starvation. For under our present system the illegitimate mother 
finds many avenues of activity closed to her. A school teacher 
would lose her position instantly, and so would a woman in any 
public position. It is feared that her example might have a con- 
taminating influence on the children or on her fellow workers. 
Nor could she be a social worker-I know of more than one 
woman who lost her position with social or philanthropic institu- 
tions as soon as it was discovered that she did not live up strictly 
to the conventional code of sex morality. Nor could she be a 
private governess. 
It is thus seen that to acknowledge one's self an illegitimate 
mother requires so much courage, so much sacrifice, that very, 
very few mothers are now found who are equal to the task. 
Especially so when it is taken into consideration that the humilia- 
tions and indignities to which the child is subjected and the later ADVICE TO GIRLS 
205 
reproaches of the child itself make the mother's life a veritable 
hell. So this alternative is generally out of the question. 
To give the child to a foundling asylum or to a "baby farm" 
means generally to condemn it to a slow death-and not such a 
slow one, either. For as statistics show, about 90 to 95 per cent 
of all babies in those institutions die within a few months. And 
the very few who survive and grow up have not a happy life. 
Life is hard enough for anybody; for children who come into 
the world handicapped by the disgrace of illegitimacy, life is tor- 
ture indeed. It is with a breaking heart generally and because 
there is no other way out of the dilemma that a mother puts her 
baby away in a foundling asylum. She hopes and prays for its 
speedy death. 
Taking into consideration the pitifully unhappy lot of the 
illegitimate child, it is no wonder that every unmarried woman, 
as soon as she finds herself pregnant, is frantically determined 
to get rid of the child in the womb as soon as possible. And 
abortion thrives in every civilized country. Thousands and thou- 
sands of doctors and semi-doctors and midwives are making a 
rich living in this country from practicing abortion. The greater 
the disgrace with which illegitimacy is considered in a country, 
the stricter the prohibition against the use of measures for the 
prevention of conception, the greater the number of abortions in 
that country. But abortion is not a trifle, to be undertaken with 
a light heart. It is true that if performed by a thoroughly com- 
petent physician, with all aseptic precautions, it is practically 
free from danger. But when performed by a careless physician 
or an ignorant midwife, trouble is apt to happen. Blood poison- 
ing may set in, and the patient may be very sick for a time, and 
may on recovery from the acute illness remain a chronic invalid 
for life. And occasionally the patient dies. Whether or not 
abortion is justifiable under special circumstances is a separate 
question. 
I do not wish to leave this topic without re-emphasizing the 
fact that abortion is not a trifle, to be undertaken or even to be 
spoken of lightly. Too many women, not only in the radical 
ranks, but in the conservative ranks as well, are in the habit of 
considering abortion as a joke, a trifling annoyance, something 
like a cold in the head, which, while disagreeable, is sure to pass 
away in a day or two. They know Mrs. A and Mrs. B and per- 206 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
haps Miss C who had abortions produced on them and in two or 
three days they were as good as ever. Yes! But they do not 
know Miss D who is resting in her grave, nor. do they know why 
Miss E and Mrs. F are invalids for life. The women who get 
over their abortion experiences easily are apt to talk of their good 
luck; the women who have become chronic invalids or who are 
resting in their graves as a result of an abortion are not apt to 
talk of the matter. 
And therefore, once more, remember, an abortion is no trifl- 
ing matter. 
One other piece of advice and I am through: Some men of 
a low moral and mental caliber are under the influence of the 
pernicious idea that if a girl has lost her virginity-no matter 
under what circumstances-she no longer amounts to much and 
is free prey for everybody who may want her. And, like beasts 
of prey, these wretched specimens of humanity pester such a girl 
with much more impudence, more brazenness than they dare to 
employ in the case of a girl who is still considered a virgin. And, 
what is more, the girls themselves become poisoned with this 
pernicious idea and dare not offer the same resistance that the 
virgin does. And they often yield with resignation, though 
against their will, and though they may experience a feeling of 
disgust against the man. 
Now again, don't you do it. Do not nurse the medieval idea 
that because you are not a virgin in the physical sense, you are 
"ruined," "no good," and an outcast. You are nothing of the 
kind. If through some cause or other you are no longer in pos- 
session of an intact hymen, it is your affair or misfortune, and 
nobody else's. Do not on that account cast your eyes down and 
avoid meeting people. Carry your head high, do not fear to meet 
people, and treat with contempt the jeers of the stupid and 
ignorant. A person's entire character does not depend upon the 
presence or absence of the hymen, and one misstep should not 
ruin a person's whole life. A boy is not "ruined," is not an out- 
cast, because he has had sexual relations before marriage, and 
while the boy's and girl's cases are not exactly identical, still the 
poor girl should not be made to expiate one error all her life long. 
It isn't fair. CHAPTER XIV 
SEX FACTS FOR THE MARRIED 
THE BEST TIME FOR MARRIAGE 
THE exact date should be set by the prospective bride or her 
mother. The "resting stage" which is further considered 
under Menstruation, and may be looked on as about 10 or 12 
days after the monthly flow stops, is the best period for the 
probability of immediate pregnancy is less at this time. 
THE WEDDING NIGHT 
Among the ancient Greeks a respite of three days was 
granted the bride before the marriage was consummated; in the 
Aztecs (Mexico) this was even extended to four days. No doubt 
in many instances such a custom might be revived with advantage. 
For-as Michels observes-many girls before marriage are left 
in crass ignorance regarding everything which concerns the 
sexual life-an ignorance which is responsible for an irresistible 
feeling of anxiety, and is not inconsistent with a dread expecta- 
tion of terrible things about to happen. This is all the more 
comprehensible when we remember that the girl, while delib- 
erately kept in ignorance, has nevertheless been able to glean from 
conversations, from books, and from overheard jests, a certain 
number of sexual facts, apt to be offensively conceived, precisely 
because they are torn from their natural context and are most 
remote from the normal working of the healthy girl's imagina- 
tion. There is further to be considered the dread of the physical 
pain to be experienced from the rupture of the hymen. But 
the chief source of trouble is the suddenness of the sexual transi- 
tion. Where the self-surrender is gradual, no anxiety arises. 
Anxiety and its sister-feeling of shame disappear in the acstasy 
of love, take to flight before the awakening of desire. 
The brutalities of the nuptial night often prove the grave 
of love. The sudden intimacy with a man who, materially at 
any rate and often psychologically as well, has been known only 
from a distance, strikes terror into many women, so that it is 
precisely the most chaste and the most delicate-minded who are 
207 208 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
impelled to an erotic refusal; while as a result of this, men who 
are themselves of delicate fibre, and therefore also impression- 
able, actually become, in relation to such women, impotent. 
The bridal night and those that immediately follow it not 
infrequently conceal the germs of death. The marriage 
bed with its troubles and sufferings is often the starting-point of 
long illness, leading the man to a premature grave, and the woman 
to the lunatic asylum. 
The current morality of the state of betrothal poisons that 
state and desecrates the act of sexual union of two loving beings, 
inasmuch as it permits the maiden's entry into the sexual life 
only under exposure to the fierce light of public curiosity-not 
to speak of the wedding journey and other abominations. She 
enters upon her married life decked out like a peacock, and 
profoundly wounded in her maiden sense of self-respect, because 
she knows beforehand the precise place and hour in which willy- 
nilly, she is to lose her virginity. The publicity thus given to 
an act, undoubtedly one of the most solemn in life, but which 
ought also to be one of the most private, proves very clearly that 
the moral code regulating betrothal and the introduction to 
marriage is still in an extremely primitive condition, and needs 
reform from its very foundation. 
Instead of handing the young w'oman over to her husband 
on the bridal night, as one takes a mouse out of a trap to throw 
it to the cat (quoting Michels once more), the lovers should 
come together as true friends and real comrades, who sexually 
differentiated, only become aware of their sex by gradual stages, 
and gradually learn to make use of it. 
On the other hand, Horch narrates a case where the bride 
boxed her husband's ears on the wedding night because he did 
not gratify her as often as she felt entitled to. (In "Sexual 
Truths," by W. J. Robinson, New York, 1919.) 
COITUS NOT FOR PROCREATION 
It is a question whether propagation of the species is the 
only purpose of the sexual instinct. If so it would seem the 
instinct should subside in the female after the change of life has 
been passed, and there is no possibility of any more children, yet 
we often find it continues for years unabated. 
The phrenologists recognized this long ago by distinguishing SEX FACTS FOR THE MARRIED 
209 
between the "bump" of amativeness, presiding over sensual desire 
they claimed, and the bump of philoprogenitiveness, presiding over 
desire for children. 
Even the Rev. H. Northcote admits this in his "Christianity 
and Sex Problems." He sets forth his view as follows: "Cer- 
tainly, if the sexual act in humanity were a reproductive act and 
nothing more, the organs with which it is performed would 
belong more truly to the species than to the individual; but it 
has other objects than the sole one of reproduction. It is a love 
act. Duly regulated, it conduces to the ethical welfare of the 
individual and promotes his efficiency as a social unit." 
So too, Exner (of the Y. M. C. A.) in his little book pub- 
lished under the auspices of the Association, believes sex pleasure 
in the animal world serves to assure propagation of the species. 
In human life it also serves the purposes of love and therefore 
it becomes legitimate for its own sake, aside from the purposes 
of procreation. 
"Therefore the perpetuity of the race seems to depend on 
the exercise of this power. But the exercise of this power is used 
legitimately not alone for the reproduction of the race, but for 
the exchange and interchange of loving endearments between 
those who by the rights of marriage have been made man and 
wife" (Evangelist M. B. Williams in "Sex Problems"). 
FREQUENCY OF COITUS 
It is utterly out of the question to lay down any hard-and-fast 
rule as to how often sexual congress in the married is advisable 
or even permissible. The best that can be done is to reach the 
happy medium, if this be possible. Zoroaster, that ancient Persian 
sage, who lived in the 7th century B. C., put the average at once 
every 9 days. About three hundred years after him, Plato the 
Greek philosopher, practically had the same idea of moderation- 
once every 10 days. And about ten centuries still later, Moham- 
med, an ardent advocate of plurality of wives, recommended twice 
a week. 
Martin Luther, having been a monk-given the loose morals 
of monasteries in his day-was probably familiar with this phase 
of the question, and decided on two or three times a week. This 
average is still considered by some authorities as normal for 
individuals in good health and of sound bodies. 210 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
In support of this opinion, we choose the following passage 
from Tannenbaum: 
One of the best established results of modem research is the 
fact that the sexuality of different individuals varies. Just as 
persons vary as to the quantity of food, sleep, drink or rest that 
their constitutions require, so do they vary as to the quantity 
of sexual indulgence requisite. Some are content with coitus 
once a week or once a fortnight; others require it daily or even 
several times daily. S. A. Tannenbaum (in "Sexual Truths," 
by W. J. Robinson, New York, 1919). 
Zenobia, the celebrated queen of ancient Palmyra, permitted 
intercourse with her royal person once a month, unless pregnancy 
had occurred in the meantime. All this self-denial availed her 
but little, for it will be remembered she was brought to Rome in 
chains-though to be sure of gold-and died there far from her 
native land. 
EXCESS 
There is probably some tendency to excess in nearly every 
newly-married pair, though this soon lessens as the novelty 
wears off. 
It is well established that sexual excess is better borne by 
the female. Insanity in males as a result of overindulgence is 
not rare, but is very uncommon in females. Nervous prostration 
as well is uncommon in the latter, and frequent in men. 
Where from sleeping in the same bed, there is any proclivity 
to excess, in spite of all good resolutions-if separate sleeping- 
rooms cannot be had, the twin-beds fashionable of late years will 
be found of great service. 
COITUS DURING MENSTRUATION 
Just before or just after the flow, the sexual impulse is gen- 
erally increased; it may also be heightened during the flow itself, 
but, as a rule, is less at this time. 
Sexual congress is generally refrained from during the 
period. In former times it was deemed unlucky, and later on 
sinful, but at the present day principally from esthetic reasons. 
Nevertheless, it is occasionally advised by physicians, when all 
other means for inducing pregnancy have failed, and the woman 
remains barren. Again the act may be easier than usual, as the 
genital passages are loosened up somewhat during the period. SEX FACTS FOR THE MARRIED 
211 
Gartman points out that menstruation increases the sex feel- 
ing in all females, not humans alone but among all females where 
its equivalent exists. During two days prior and during menstrua- 
tion, the female sex instinct increases in strength (Leo M. Gart- 
man in "Sexual Truths," by William J. Robinson, New York, 
1919). 
COITUS DURING PREGNANCY 
Gartman also observes that during pregancy the sex instinct 
of the sexually weak woman lessens or disappears; in the 
sexually strong one it persists during the whole nine months. It 
may only be due to the freedom people permit themselves during 
pregnancy. Measures were taken to prevent conception, and both 
husband and wife were half starved. It is when pregnancy is 
an established fact that measures are no longer taken to prevent 
conception. This feeling of safety causes all taboos to disappear 
and the pair forget the days of their starvation. 
There is danger of producing miscarriage by the shock of 
the male organ against the neck of the womb, as well as by the 
greatly increased flow of blood to the sexual organs during the 
act. There is danger also, of blood-poisoning, especially in women 
who have had children, and in whom the neck of the womb is 
more open. Many cases "of childbed fever" due to this cause 
are to be found in medical journals, and many of these again, 
were fatal. In December, 1919, an Ohio doctor attended a 
woman, aged 43, with her 5th child, she came very near dying 
from peritonitis. It turned out the woman had had intercourse 
the night before coming to the hospital, and the physician 
attributed her misfortunes to this cause. 
The danger from infection is at its height say in the last 3 
months, there is considerable risk from other causes in the first 
3, and the intercourse should be limited to the middle 3 months. 
DYSPAREUNIA 
This condition which means "painful intercourse" must be 
distinguished from vaginismus, in which painful cramps occur 
before intromission of the male organ. 
There may be many causes-a narrow vagina (or what 
amounts to the same thing, disproportion between the male and 
female organs). Scratches and cuts about the external orifice of 212 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the birth canal, from the first few days of married life. The 
womb itself or the ovary may be out of place and pressed on dur- 
ing the sexual act. There may be tumors or inflammations of the 
womb and its connections. Occasionally, no cause whatever can 
be discovered. 
Of course, there is more or less pain attending the first few 
sexual acts after marriage, especially as the husband may be 
rough or awkward. This pain disappears-other things being 
equal-if a sufficient interval be allowed to elapse, and give the 
lacerations time to heal. If the condition is due to tumors or 
displacements, naturally medical advice is to be sought. 
(A queer state of affairs is met with, though not very often. 
Here instead of pain, there may be disagreeable phenomena, head- 
ache, dizziness, nausea and vomiting or diarrhea.) 
VAGINISMUS 
It is now just 60 years since a Scotch author first described 
this painful and annoying cramp of various muscles of the female 
genitalia. 
The first case reported in this country was that of a patient 
of 45, married at the age of 20, and an invalid since then. The 
reporter goes on to say: "I attempted to make a vaginal examina- 
tion, but failed completely, the slightest touch at the mouth of the 
vagina producing the most intense suffering. Her nervous system 
was thrown into great commotion; there was a general muscular 
agitation; her whole frame was shivering as if with the rigors of 
an intermittent ["chills and fever"]. She shrieked aloud, her 
eyes glaring widely, while tears rolled down her cheeks, and she 
presented the most pitiable appearance of terror and agony. 
Notwithstanding all these outward involuntary evidences of 
physical suffering, she had the moral fortitude to hold herself 
on the couch, and implored me not to desist from my efforts if 
there was the least hope of finding out anything about the 
inexplicable condition. After pressing with all my strength for 
some minutes, I succeeded in introducing the index finger into 
the vagina up to the second joint, but no further. The resistance 
to its passage was so great, and the vaginal contraction so firm, 
as to deaden the sensation of the finger, and thus the examina- 
tion revealed only an insuperable spasm of the sphincter vaginae 
[the muscle surrounding the outer opening of the birth-canal]. SEX FACTS FOR THE MARRIED 
213 
The woman was then put to sleep: "As soon as she was fully 
under the influence of ether, greatly to my surprise I found the 
mouth of the vagina completely relaxed, and the vagina itself 
perfectly normal, not presenting the least variation from health." 
The spasm affects not only the muscles of the genitalia, but 
in extreme cases those of the thighs, and even of the back; or- 
rarely-the entire body. During sexual excitement and inter- 
course, there is some contraction of the muscular apparatus of 
the female sexual organs, and vaginismus is merely an exaggera- 
tion of such contraction. It is a remarkable fact that on some 
occasions the spasm does not appear till after a child has been 
born, and it has even started up during the course of the birth 
thus impeding delivery. 
A cure is generally to be expected with appropriate treat- 
ment, but takes considerable time. First and most important, all 
attempts at intercourse must be prohibited. The cause is often 
found to be some local condition, such for example, as an 
unusually tough hymen (maidenhead), or tears may have been 
produced on the wedding night and small ulcers are left which 
remain, and are prevented from healing by the repeated acts of 
sexual commerce. 
It frequently happens that the spasm persists though the 
local ulcer (or whatever it was), has been cured. Under such 
circumstances physicians prescribe a solution of ointment of 
cocaine, which renders the parts less sensitive. However, it often 
becomes necessary for the doctor to dilate the birth canal 
gradually by instruments at regular intervals for some months. 
FRIGIDITY (SEXUAL ANESTHESIA) 
This is an extremely frequent cause of matrimonial unhap- 
piness, often ending in the divorce court. Estimates by various 
authors range from 10 to 50, and even 75 per cent. Some claim 
it is increasing. It is generally considered to be less common 
among Jewish women. Nevertheless, it is evident this cannot be 
the only cause for divorce. We recall several instances to the 
contrary, one case in particular where the husband was separated 
for drunkenness, and marrying again, confessed the first union 
was much more satisfactory in respect of less frigidity. 
Frigidity may be due to disease of the brain or the spinal 
cord; or it may be caused by diabetes and other disturbances of 214 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the general health, by abuse of alcohol, and by addiction to 
morphine. Masturbation is thought by several authors to be an 
important cause, especially because the portions of the genitalia 
which are not the seat of excitation in intercourse are titillated 
and irritated. Hence the ordinary coitus has no effect on such 
parts, and fails to afford gratification. 
Probably a cause, the frequency of which is utterly un- 
suspected is adhesions of the clitoris to its foreskin or to the 
neighboring parts. This little organ is not the only seat of 
voluptuous sensation in the female, but is probably the principal 
one. In fact, a Chicago specialist now deceased, wrote that it is 
a veritable electric push-button "which being pressed or irritated, 
rings up the whole nervous system." 
Under normal conditions the clitoris is swollen during inter- 
course like a miniature penis, and is drawn out at right angles 
so its most sensitive part, the tip, comes in contact with the penis 
and is rubbed back and forth. When it is held in place by being 
adherent, it is prevented from coming in contact with the male 
organ. 
Another Chicago specialist believes the fault is on part of 
the husband in many cases. If the sexual excitement is not 
brought to its natural climax, the reaction leaves the woman in 
a very disagreeable condition, and repeated occurrences of this 
kind may even lead to general nervous disturbances. Some of 
these unfortunate women learn to suppress their sexual sensation 
so as to avoid all these disagreeable sequelae. Such a state of affairs 
is not only unfortunate, because it deprives the female partner 
of her natural rights, but it is also to be deplored because it prac- 
tically brings down such a married woman to the level of the 
prostitute. 
Michels, as usual, makes some very sensible remarks on this 
subject: 
"The beloved woman can make use of certain safeguards for 
the control of the polygamous inclinations of the male. She 
possesses means which, though not infallible, are yet powerful, 
for holding in check the dangerous centrifugal tendencies of her 
husband, by providing for him at such times that sexual variety 
without which the erotic life of the male remains inadequate 
and incomplete. The means to which I refer are that the woman 
herself, within the limits of monogamic life, should become as SEX FACTS FOR THE MARRIED 
215 
'polygamous' as possible; in other words, that she should offer 
a man the possibility of appeasing his polygamous instincts within 
the limits of a strictly monogamic union. Let me amplify this: 
No one but a dullard will vaunt himself on the possession of a 
frigid wife; none but a dullard will fail to understand that the 
frigid wife is not always a frigid woman, and that frigidity, far 
from being a safeguard against infidelity, may on the contrary 
merely be its precursor.* 
The sexual embrace effected simply as a one-sided act and 
purely as an affair of routine must in the long run prove repulsive 
to a man of refined sensibilities. A woman who is devoid of a 
certain measure of animality, and that by no means a small 
measure, must be regarded as a degenerate. Many women believe 
that they can play their part properly in married life with nothing 
more than indifference, complaisance, and passivity. Many even 
imagine that in this way they will make their husbands realize 
the magnificent purity and majesty of the love of the "respectable 
woman," in contrast with previous experiences of the shameless 
pleasures of intercourse with prostitutes. But a woman should 
know how to link a man to her, not only by the intensity, but 
also by the variety of her sexual manifestations. There is an 
apt Venetian proverb to the following effect: A woman must 
have four aspects; in the streets she must be self-contained, in 
church modest, in the house diligent, and in bed frenzied. The 
last postulate is based upon her recognition that uniformity is 
the grave of love. 
Other things being equal, lack of gratification on the wife's 
part means lack of orgasm, and this in turn is supposed to mean 
lessened liability to pregnancy. Though Adler asserts: 
The most important of all the psychic causes of lack of 
orgasm is the fear of pregnancy. Consciously or unconsciously 
that fear dominates all the sexual thoughts of woman. Most 
women harbor the idea that their own orgasm when it coincides 
with the man's ejaculation must result in pregnancy. This theory 
has been scientifically exploded; there are cases known in which 
'Jeanne Landre, in "Echalote and Her Lovers," writes very well: "How 
touching is the confidence by which all men are afflicted, and how touching is their 
blindness! An ardent temperament, even if it burns for them alone, infatuates 
them; the opposite phase, a coldness capable of refrigerating the rays of the sun, 
tranquillizes them. They never suspect that what is annulled by their presence, 
may be exalted by the presence of another. Such is their vanity that this idea 
never occurs to them, and the problem altogether exceeds their grasp. The woman 
who does not love them cannot possibly love anyone else!" 216 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
pregnancy was provoked during unconsciousness from ether, or 
from mechanical [artificial] introduction of the sperm. Preg- 
nancy following rape or occurring during the first few days after 
marriage when the woman experienced only pain and discomfort, 
proves such a theory is untenable. 
And yet there is a particle of truth in it. The proportion of 
pregnancies preceded by "feelings," however, is only a trifle 
higher than that of pregnancy preceded by no "feelings." (Otto 
Adler, in "Sexual Truths," by W. J. Robinson, New York, 1919.) 
A corroborative case is reported in a well-known text-book 
on Obstetrics, a woman married for 6 years was childless. 
Finally, the orgasm occurred during copulation, and pregnancy 
followed. 
The prospects for relief are none too bright. If adhesions of 
the clitoris are found, and these loosened up, cure often follows. 
In other instances, success has sometimes been had by measures 
directed toward the mental attitude, hypnotism or "mind cure." 
Of course, sexual anesthesia may occur in men also, though 
it is much rarer. The famous English philosopher, Sir Isaac 
Newton, who lived to the age of 85, is said never to have had 
an erection. It may be his lifelong devotion to studies requiring 
the most intense mental application diverted his sexual life into 
other channels. So, too, it has been asserted that the marital 
infelicities of Thomas Carlyle and his wife were due to a physical 
deformity of the penis which rendered intercourse impossible, 
though not interfering in the least with the sexual appetite. 
(In this connection it is interesting to recall that Sir Isaac 
Newton, was a premature child, and so small that "he could have 
been put into a quart mug." Nowadays many prematurely-born 
children are saved by incubators, but his survival is very credit- 
able when we think of the crude methods possible in 1642.) 
ONANISM 
Withdrawal; Defrauding; Incomplete Copulation; Interrupted 
Copulation 
The first mention of this is in the Old Testament (Genesis, 
XXXVIII, 9, 10) : 
And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, SEX FACTS FOR THE MARRIED 
217 
when he went in to his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, 
lest that he should give seed to his brother. 
And the thing which he did displeased the Lord; wherefore He 
slew him also. 
It is not clear whether Onan was the originator or not (prob- 
ably not), but if his violent end deterred any of his countrymen 
from following his example, his punishment has long since been 
forgotten, and onanism is probably as common among the mar- 
ried nowadays as masturbation is among the unmarried. 
Onanism is not masturbation, evidently, though often used 
by authors as though synonymous. The male organ being com- 
pletely withdrawn from the birth-canal before the seed is dis- 
charged, utterly prevents pregnancy from that sexual congress. 
Nevertheless, since the practice is unnatural, we should expect 
theoretically that it will be followed by serious consequences, and 
this is generally the case. 
Much more serious results are experienced by the woman: 
During the copulative act the womb and connecting organs are 
full of blood, and as the orgasm does not occur, the blood stag- 
nates. As a consequence, we frequently find chronic inflammation 
of the womb, sometimes displacement of that organ. But the 
nervous phenomena are especially significant, dull pain low down 
in the back and lower abdomen, with a sensation of dragging in 
the lower limbs, all'these may keep up for several hours. 
A few authors even assert that tumors of the womb are more 
common in women who resort to the method. 
On the other hand, since there is little prospect of pregnancy, 
sexual excesses are very likely to be indulged in, and the evil 
effect added to that of the accompanying onanism. 
COITUS RESERVATUS 
In this form the sexual congress is kept up for an unusually 
long time, an hour or more, the man refraining from ejaculation, 
though his partner may have several orgasms. Therefore, for the 
woman this mode of copulation affords the utmost satisfaction, 
though for the man the necessary will-power and self-control are 
difficult to acquire and in many individuals utterly impossible. 
This is shown by the experience of the notorious Oneida Com- 
munity in New York state, where this practice was called "pan- 
tagamy" or "male continence." In that strange association every 218 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
man was regarded as the husband of every woman from a 
theoretic standpoint. Nevertheless, in order for the males to 
become proficient in the method, they were (so the story goes) 
initiated soon after puberty by females past the childbearing age, 
so if the male were unable to refrain from emission of semen, 
no pregnancy could occur. For females, initiation by a male also 
considerably older, began several years after adolescence. The 
Oneida Community kept up this practice for several decades, and 
stopped it not because of any evil-effects, but from the criticism 
of the surrounding populace. (The Indians nearby formed a 
strange contrast. They used to get $5.00 from the State for every 
child born on the reservation, and bred at a rate which would 
put white mice or guinea pigs to the blush.) 
INJURIES DURING COITUS 
The first act of sexual intercourse is generally accompanied 
by more or less bleeding from rupture of the hymen (maiden- 
head). Sometimes this is so profuse and continuous that medical 
aid has to be summoned. In such instances, however, there has 
usually been injury to some other structure in the vicinity, for 
instance, the birth canal itself. Fortunately the tears in the hymen 
heal up in a few days. 
Awkward or intemperate sexual acts may produce serious 
injuries, tearing of the small lips (nymphae or labia minora), or 
of the perineum between the sexual opening and that of the 
bowels. It seems amazing, but examples are often reported where 
intercourse has taken place not through the birth canal (vagina), 
but through the urinary passage (urethra) or the lower bowel. 
Lastly attention may be called to the disgusting belief held 
in Europe, and when occurring here, in emigrants from Europe, 
that a stubborn case of gonorrhea can be cured by having inter- 
course with a virgin. This monstrous theory is responsible for 
many rapes on children, CHAPTER XV 
MENOPAUSE 
(Climacteric; Change of Life Critical Period.) 
JUST as the elderly years first, then old age mark the end of 
life in general, so the "change of life" shows the generative 
organs are no longer active, and we have sexual death. Men- 
struation ceases as it begins at no fixed age. Of a series of 
European women the dates were as follows: Thirty-five to forty, 
320; forty to forty-five, 736; forty-five to fifty, 1,117; fifty to 
fifty-five, 423. It is somewhat later in cold climates, thus while 
in Marseilles (France) it was 47 years, in Petrograd it was 49. 
Virgins together with married women who have never borne 
children, are apt to pass through this epoch sooner than the 
mothers of families. Working women, owing to hard work and 
insufficient nourishment, generally reach the change of life several 
years ahead of those in better circumstances. Again, when the 
flow begins early it lasts late in life, as a rule; though to this, as 
to every other rule, there are numerous exceptions. 
Sometimes the flow stops suddenly, the amount lost growing 
less and less until the absolute stoppage. As a general thing, 
however, the time is prolonged for from several months up to a 
year, or 2 or 3. The length of the interval between the succes- 
sive flows becoming longer, from 6 to 8 weeks, and there may 
be considerable irregularity as during the onset at puberty, a 
profuse flow alternating with a slight one and so on. 
When the flow stops abruptly there is great danger of violent 
nervous and other disturbances. On the other hand, when the 
intervals between the periods lengthen gradually, while the flow 
grows less and less, there is not apt to be so much disturbance 
of the health generally. Strange to say a sudden stoppage is 
sometimes thought to be due to pregnancy. 
There is often considerable mental disturbance at this "criti- 
cal period," women realize that old age is not far off, and with 
it the fading of their personal charms. In some instances there 
is actual unsoundness of mind, the "climacteric insanity" so-called, 
which may pass off gradually or remain for the balance of life. 
219 220 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Some happy individuals of a philosophic turn of mind, once 
they know the discomfort of the monthly periods, and the pain 
and worry of bearing children are past, make the best of the 
situation. Their strength, both of body and mind, increases so 
much that they often pass the remaining years of life more satis- 
factorily than at any previous time. 
It often happens that just before or at the start of the change 
of life, some women surprise their husbands and themselves by 
increased sexual desire and by increased pleasure during the act, 
even with individuals "frigid" during the whole previous married 
life. A similar state of affairs is often noted where an artificial 
"change of life" has been brought about in early years by the 
ovaries being removed for tumors, abscesses, etc., though in such 
cases the increased desire does not last very long usually. 
Occasionally tumors in the womb which had set up profuse 
or continuous bleeding, shrink up once the "climacteric" is over 
and cause no further trouble. 
A most serious state of affairs occasionally manifests itself. 
After the "change" is apparently done with, bleeding begins once 
more, and the woman confides to her friends that she is "unwell" 
again. Unfortunately, this generally means the first sign of one 
of the most terrible afflictions of the female sex, and that is 
cancer of the womb. It is to be hoped for the peace of mind of 
any reader to whom this happens that not a day be lost in con- 
sulting the family physician. 
As it became recognized that sex is not merely a matter of 
difference between the primary characters, a whole host of 
secondary sexual characters became recognized in turn, according 
to Corner. Among these are the shape of the body, the muscular 
development, the development of fat, the breast, the chest, the 
beard and moustache, affections, voice, inclinations, and number- 
less mental traits. All know the thin, angular woman with deep 
voice, incipient beard and moustache just as well as we know 
the plump, rounded man with a high-pitched voice and hairless 
face. Further, we recognize that the assumption of certain male 
characters are physiologic to women after their sexual life is 
ended at the change of life. This is curious, because if a male 
child fails in sexual development he tends to the child-like or 
female form. But after her sexual life is over a women often 
tends to masculinity. THE MENOPAUSE 
221 
So far as the health measures called for at the menopause 
are concerned, only some general rules can be referred to, readers 
will be preferably better off if they consult their family phy- 
sicians, and be guided by their advice. 
The change of life ushering in elderly and then old age, 
there is no longer the monthly drain on the system, and only 
enough food need be taken to repair the wear-and-tear of every- 
day life. Other things being equal, it will be well to increase the 
amount of vegetables in the diet, and to drink plenty of water. 
Every adult has learned by experience, often very distressing, 
which articles of food agree with them and which do not, and 
the woman at the climacteric should be no exception. There is 
considerable tendency to accumulation of gas in the bowels, and 
any food which starts this up should either be greatly reduced 
or omitted entirely. 
The bowels need especial attention, a daily evacuation being 
secured-by injections, salts or oil as preferred. In most cases 
this daily passage can be had by selection of the proper articles 
of diet. Some daily exercise should be taken, and by "exercise" 
we mean that in the fresh air. Turkish baths will probably help, 
especially in stout women; as may massage every week or maybe 
twice a week. Local cleanliness is now of great importance, the 
external genitals should be bathed each day with warm water, 
and it is better to wipe off the parts after each bowel movement 
and passage of urine, with a little wad of cotton wet in warm 
water. If this be neglected, an intolerable itching is very apt to 
appear, which makes life miserable, by a constant irritation, 
interfering with proper sleep, CHAPTER XVI 
PREGNANCY 
WHILE a woman can only have one child in a year, a man 
could have ten or a dozen by as many different mothers. 
On the other hand, once the man deposits the spermatozoa in the 
genital passages of the woman, his part is finished-while that 
of the woman has only begun. The difference is well set forth by 
the English biologist, Heape, as follows: 
The woman produces a germ-cell, an ovule [egg] and when 
this is fertilized she protects it while it develops; she provides 
the growing embryo with nourishment, during the whole nine 
months of pregnancy, and, when the child is born, she is designed 
to provide nourishment for it for still many more months. Thus 
the only part of the reproductive process which is similar in man 
and woman is that which concerns the elaboration and production 
of the germ cells. After conception the onus of the whole of the 
rest of the process is borne by the woman. 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE OVUM 
We must here repeat that menstruation, or ovulation, is the 
passage of the ripened ovum, or germ-cell, from the ovary 
through the genital channels of the human female. The process 
recurs normally once in every 28 days, and continues to recur 
until the critical age, or "turn of life," is passed, when the organ- 
ism is no longer capable of developing ova. 
The ovum of the human female consists of a vitelline mem- 
brane, yolk, and the germinal vesicle (protoplasm) containing 
the germinal spot (nucleus). As the nucleus of a cell is to be re- 
garded as a specialized portion of the protoplasm, for the sake of 
convenience, that form of protoplasm which constitutes the cell- 
body is termed cytoplasm, while that which constitutes the nucleus 
is called karyoplasm. 
We have already spoken of the structure of the human ovary, 
and of the Graafian vesicles, or follicles-so named after their dis- 
coverer, Regnier de Graaf, a Dutch physician-or ovisacs, which 
are developed within the stroma of the ovary. During their 
222 PREGNANCY 
223 
earlier development the Graafian vesicles are situated deeply with- 
in the substance of the ovary, enlarging as they approach the 
surface, where, as has already been described, they appear as 
small boils on the exterior of the organ. The Graafian vesicle 
undergoes material changes prior to its rupture, its walls be- 
coming more vascular externally, and being thickened internally 
by the deposit of a substance which consists of an aggregation of 
cells. 
Before the moment of discharge of the ovum, the number of 
the nuclear elements, or chromatin bodies, in the germ-cell is re- 
duced, which process is known as maturation. In the great ma- 
jority of animals the nucleus of the ripe ovum divides twice in 
rapid succession, and two minute cells are given off. These come 
to nothing, though one of them may again divide; they are to 
be regarded as "abortive," unsuccessful sister cells of the ovum 
which has extruded them. But in many cases it is clear that, as 
the result of this two-fold division, the remaining nucleus of the 
ovum (technically called the female pro-nucleus) has suffered a 
reduction in the number of chromosomes-readily stainable bodies 
by one half. The number of these chromosomes, or chromatin 
bodies, in the cells of an animal is definite and constant for each 
species, and the result of this process of maturation is that the 
number of nuclear elements in the ovum which is now ready for 
the essential act of fertilization is half that which is character- 
istic of the somatic cells-i.e., body-cells-of the animal. (We 
have already spoken of the distinction between the body-cells and 
the germ-cells; how the somatic, or body-cells, are off-shoots 
from the germ-cells, but how the germ cells remain unmodified, 
unspecialized, to continue unaltered the organization of the fertil- 
ized ovum from which the creature arose, owing their peculiar 
power of reproduction to retention of the original organization of 
the fertilized ovum.) 
But during the history of the male sperm cells a somewhat 
similar process of reduction in the number of chromosomes has 
also taken place, so that when ovum nucleus and sperm nucleus 
come together in fertilization, the number of chromosomes char- 
acteristic of the species is obviously to be found in the fertilized 
egg-cell. As E. B. Wilson puts it: "There are still many diffi- 
culties and discrepancies, especially when plants are considered 
alongside of animals, but the one fact of maturation that stands 224 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
out with perfect clearness and certainty amid all the contro- 
versies surrounding it is a reduction of the number of chromo- 
somes in the ultimate germ-cells to one-half the number char- 
acteristic of the somatic cells. It is equally clear that the reduc- 
tion is a preparation of the germ-cells for their subsequent union, 
and a means by which the number of chromosomes is held con- 
stant in the species." 
After the ovum has passed through the process of maturation 
and has been discharged by the bursting of the ovisac, the vesicle 
becomes atrophied and obliterated much in the same manner as 
a boil on the surface of the skin passes away after bursting. The 
vesicle, during its process of retrogression, appears as a yellow 
body on the surface of the ovary, such bodies being called corpora 
lutea. It is remarkable that the corpora lutea of menstruation- 
that is, of Graafian vesicles which have discharged ova from 
which pregnancy has not resulted-disappear much sooner than, 
and differ very much in appearance from, corpora lutea of preg- 
nancy. The corpus luteum of pregnancy is much larger and does 
not disappear until the ninth month, while the corpus luteum of 
menstruation has disappeared altogether by the sixth month. 
The matured ovum, on its release from its ovarian bed, is 
grasped by the fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube, along 
which it is helped to pass by the wave-like motion of the cilia 
which line the mucous coat of the tube. The passage of the ovum 
from the ovary to the vulva usually occupies from eight to twelve 
days, although there are many cases in which, owing to disease, 
weakness or torpor of the uterine system, the passage of the 
ovum may be so slow as to occupy nearly the whole month. 
The process of menstruation, which corresponds in nearly 
every respect with the rut of animals, is attended in normal women 
by an increase of sexual desire, and it is at these periods that 
married women are most liable to pregnancy. It is also about 
these times that there is an increase of nervous irritability, and 
women should on this account avoid all unnecessary excitement, 
while taking every available opportunity of resting themselves. 
Women should at all times, so much does uterine health depend 
on the general health, strive to keep their physical condition at 
the highest possible level by means of open-air exercise, plain 
food, sensible dress, and regular habits. 
It is not surprising then to find that the duties assigned to PREGNANCY 
225 
woman in this matter are attended by other essential economic 
differences throughout her body. During pregnancy the whole 
of her organs are affected in sympathy with the requirements of 
the growing child, and under natural conditions they all take 
their share of the extra work thrown upon them; or, if not so 
required, cease active work as much as possible. The strain of 
finding nourishment for the child affects the mother's power of 
assimilation and the working of her blood vessels; the burden 
of carrying her child affects the poise of her body, the exercise of 
her muscles, and the condition of the nervous system. The func- 
tional activity of all her organs is modified to serve this great 
purpose of the woman's existence, and, normally, the increased 
activity demanded of some organs tends to decrease the activity 
of others which are not immediately required for this purpose. 
The brain is the chief example of this latter class of organs; the 
brain should not be strained at such times. 
SIGNS OF PREGNANCY 
The changes in the body set up by pregnancy are of two 
kinds: I. Probable (or symptomatic). II. Direct (or bodily). 
(I) The probable signs, three in number, consist of stoppage 
of the menstrual flow, nausea and vomiting, and changes in the 
breasts. 
CHILD AT THREE WEEKS, SHOWING HOW IT IS ATTACHED TO WOMB 226 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The cessation of menstruation is usually the first change to 
make itself apparent. In nearly all cases it is sudden and abrupt, 
there is no gradual decrease in the quantity, nor in the frequency. 
Of course, to be of any significance, the cessation must occur in 
women previously regular in the monthly flow. 
Nausea and vomiting are in evidence from about the second 
month; they are met with in about two-thirds of the women, and 
are most common soon after rising, hence the name, "morning- 
sickness." The prospective mother may only be "sick at the 
stomach" (retching) but no actual vomiting, or merely brings up 
thick mucus. In about two months these disappear, though they 
may last longer. (The dangerous cases are discussed later on 
under Disorders of Pregnancy.) 
Changes in the Breasts. These grow larger-by the second 
month-there is a feeling described as "knotty," later on the 
veins under the skin are also enlarged. The skin about the 
nipple becomes much darker in brunettes, almost black; in 
blondes this feature is not so noticeable. Thin fluid (mucus, not 
milk) can be squeezed from the nipple occasionally as early as the 
third month. 
(II) The direct signs, four in all, are made up of enlarge- 
ment of the womb, changed color of the birth-canal lining, move- 
ments of the child, heart-sounds of the child. The signs in this 
class, depending as they do on the growth of the womb and its 
contents are more reliable-hence of greater value than those of 
first class. 
Enlargement of the Womb. For the first three months the 
breadth and width of the womb increase more than the length. 
The size of about a goose-egg is reached by the eighth week; in 
eight weeks more, i. e., the end of the fourth month, the womb first 
presses on the wall of the abdomen and can be readily made 
out by feel. (Though at the goose-egg stage it can generally be 
recognized by experts as enlarged.) By the end of fifth month 
the top is just below, and by the end of sixth month, just above 
the navel. The highest point occurs in the thirty-sixth week, 
just at end of breast-bone, in the last two weeks before birth the 
womb sinks down a little. 
Changes in Color of Birth-Canal. From pressure on the 
veins by the growing womb, the blood is dammed up and in the PREGNANCY 
227 
FIG. 1. CHILD AT NINE WEEKS, REMOVED FROM MEMBRANES (THREE TIMES 
NATURAL SIZE) 
FIG. 2. CHILD AT TWELVE WEEKS WITH ITS COVERINGS (NATURAL SIZE) 228 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
early months there is a violet color of the neck of the womb, the 
birth-canal, and the external genitalia. 
Movements of the Child generally begin about the 18th to 
20th week. This is the time of "quickening," and often (es- 
pecially with the first child) give rise to various disagreeable feel- 
SHOWING HOW THE WOMB ENLARGES AS THE CHILD GROWS 
(The figures refer to the weeks.) By the fortieth week, the womb 
sinks down again, and is about same level as at the thirty-second week. 
ings, faintness, etc. When the pregnancy is well along these 
movements can be seen as well as felt, and can be started up by 
pressure on the womb through the abdominal-wall. They may be 
heard by doctors with their apparatus before quickening and 
before the heart. PRIGNAN0Y 
229 
Heart-Sounds of the Child are to be heard at about the same 
period (18th to 20th week). This is the most conclusive sign 
by far of pregnancy. When conditions are unusually favorable 
they may be detected several weeks before (15th or 16th week), 
and in any event they constantly grow louder as the pregnancy 
progresses. They are much faster, averaging 132 per minute, 
than in ordinary adult life, which is 72 for the same period. 
(There are other signs, such as a change in the neck of the 
womb, which seems to become softer, etc., but these interest 
nobody but doctors.) 
Of late years another means of detecting pregnancy has 
become possible, and that is the use of the X-rays. Occasionally 
in obscure cases, and in circumstances where pregnancy would be 
thought unlikely, resort to the X-rays reveals the shadows cast 
by the bones of the child within the mother. 
Schultze's diagram for computing the time of labor 
The figures between the straight lines show the exact number of days 
to be added for each of the months severally; those in parentheses are to 
be employed in leap-year. (The black figures-280-refer to the usual 
duration of pregnancy in days or ten lunar months.) 
DURATION OF PREGNANCY 
In human beings it is impossible to tell the exact date at 
which a given woman conceives. Even the time of the sexual 
congress which led to conception is not known as a rule. More- 
over, where the date of copulation is noted, fertilization of the 230 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Directions.-Find in the upper horizontal line the date on which the last menstruation ceased; the figure 
beneath gives the date of expected confinement (280 days). 
Jan. 
Oct. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
Nov. 
Feb. 
Nov. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1 2 3 4 5 
Dec. 
Mar. 
Dec. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 
Jan. 
Apr. 
Jan. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 
Feb. 
May 
Feb. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
Mar. 
June 
Mar. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 
Apr. 
July 
Apr. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 
May 
Aug. 
May 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
June 
Sept. 
June 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
July 
Oct. 
July 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
Aug. 
Nov. 
Aug. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 
Sep. 
Dec. 
Sep. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
Oct. 
Illustration: If menstruation ceased Oct. 11 the confinement will take place July 18. Or one day 
earlier if leap year. 
TABLE FOR CALCULATING THE DURATION OF PREGNANCY PREGNANCY 
231 
egg may not have occurred for several days, the male elements 
(spermatozoa) remaining alive in the meantime. The longest 
survival of human spermatozoa known so far is three and one- 
half weeks. Of the thousands of spermatozoa which make their 
way up to the human egg, the only one which succeeds in effect- 
ing an entrance is the one the head of which first comes in contact 
with the egg. Changes rapidly take place in the covering of the 
egg which then prevent the entrance of any more spermatozoa. 
THE ARROW SHOWS THE DIRECTION 
IN WHICH THE WOMB CONTRACTS 
AT THE TIME OF LABOR, AND 
FORCES THE CHILD THROUGH THE 
NECK OF THE WOMB INTO THE 
BIRTH-CANAL AND THEN OUT INTO 
THE WORLD. 
For the domestic animals it is possible to obtain more exact 
data, and in them it has been found there are considerable differ- 
ences. Thus in mares, the average length of pregnancy is about 
348 days, but extremes of 340 and 394 days have been observed; 
and while that of the cow lasts about 282 days, labor has begun 
as early as the 269th and as late as the 308th day. Hence it is 
possible in the human animal as well, pregnancy may be longer 
than usual, when it is probable the child will be larger than 
commonly the case. 
Owing to the reasons just stated, the only date possible in 232 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the human being is that of the last menstruation, and taking this 
as a basis in 650 instances, the pregnancy lasted from 253 to 315 
days. The great majority, however, from 267 to 287 days (267 
to 273 days, 102-274 to 280, 177-281 to 287, 140). 
MISCARRIAGES 
This term or else "abortion" is used when the products of 
conception are expelled before the child is capable of possible 
life. The time of viability is generally set at or about 183 days, 
USUAL POSITION OF CHILD IN WOMB 
Utero-vesical pouch, between womb and bladder. Cervix, neck of womb 
Pouch of Douglas, between womb and bowel. 
although children born at this time have much less chance of 
surviving than they do about a fortnight later. After the child 
is developed enough so it will probably live, instead of mis- 
carriage the occurrence is called "premature labor." 
For some years past by the use of the well-known "incuba- PREGNANCY 
233 
tors," many of these premature children have been pulled through 
and reached childhood, though they are usually smaller than when 
born at full-time. 
CARE DURING PREGNANCY 
As is the case throughout this book, it is expected the advice 
of the family physician will be sought and followed on all ques- 
tions. Only some general hints being permissible: 
There is no occasion to make any material changes in the 
daily routine of life. Some increase in the amount of food is 
usually necessitated, but this must be nourishing and easily di- 
gested, and the amount of flesh food should not be much greater. 
Women often overdo the question of eating, excusing themselves 
on the plea they "have two to nourish." It is generally believed 
that much of the serious disturbances which accompany pregnancy 
have their origin in an excess of meat. 
Open-air exercise, moderate in degree, is important. The 
bowels are to be kept moving daily, preferably by appropriate 
food. General baths can be continued, but injections into the 
birth-canal must be resorted to cautionsly. 
Concerning the dress, all undue pressure must be avoided, 
corsets would better be left off. For the same reason garters are 
better replaced by hose-supporters. 
It is often useful to harden the nipples by washing them 
daily with alcohol and water. 
DISORDERS DURING PREGNANCY 
All there is need for here is the mere list, and there is some 
objection even to this, undue alarms may be excited. So the 
following is to be looked upon only as a catalog of what wight 
happen, and fortunately many women go through pregnancy with 
discomforts merely of a minor degree. Should some untoward 
phenomena occur, the doctor who has been retained for the con- 
finement is to be consulted at once. Of late it is becoming the 
custom for women to see their physicians at intervals soon after 
pregnancy begins. This has several advantages, it enables the 
medical man to keep better track of the pregnancy, and by exami- 
nation of the urine frequently, he is often able by appropriate 
measures to ward off disagreeable-or even dangerous-compli- 
cations. 234 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The vomiting of the early months which is as much a part 
of pregnancy as is the enlargement of the womb, generally 
ceases about mid-way of the course (4 months or thereabouts). 
As we have seen it generally comes on the first thing in the 
BODY OF WOMAN DURING CHILDBIRTH, DIVIDED IN THE MIDDLE LINE 
Vesica, bladder. Urethra, urinary channel. Placenta, afterbirth. Rectum, 
lower bowel. Liq. amnios, bag of waters. 
morning after arising, in severe cases th© vomiting may occur at 
any time of day, and last to the later months. The condition is 
serious and stubborn, sometimes requiring that the contents of 
the uterus be evacuated. Tn rare instances a fatal issue ensues. 
Other digestive disturbances are common-constipation, PREGNANCY 
235 
diarrhea, gas in the bowels, heartburn, "waterbrash." A very 
annoying complication (luckily not very common) is increased 
flow of saliva; it comes on about the same time as the "morning 
sickness," and is often very rebellious to treatment. 
SAME WITH CHILD REMOVED, SHOWING HOW THE WOMB AND BIRTH-CANAL 
(vagina) ARE STRETCHED 
Dropsy of the feet and legs and swollen veins are all due to 
the same cause-pressure above by the womb. The veins which 
enlarge may be in the limbs, or about the end of the bowels 
("piles"). 
Neuralgia is common, affecting the teeth, the face, the breast, 
or between the ribs. Cough and difficult breathing depend 236 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
largely on the lessened motion of the muscle between the chest 
and the abdomen (the midriff or diaphragm). 
Convulsions are the most serious condition met with in the 
pregnant woman, and it is sad to note that about three-quarters 
of all cases occur with the first child. Almost one-half of the 
children die, and about one-quarter of the mothers. 
SHOWING HOW THE "AFTER-BIRTH" (PLACENTA) IS FORCED OUT BY THE "CLOT" 
(BLOOD) COLLECTING BEHIND. THE CURLED AFFAIR ATTACHED T« THE 
AFTER-BIRTH IS THE NAVEL-CORD. 
MULTIPLE BIRTHS 
Double births (twins) are somewhat common; triplets much 
more rare, and quadruplets excessively so. A few cases of five 
at a time-and apparently genuine-are known, some of them 
from this country. Some years back a series of 13 million 
births in Prussia was analyzed, and twins found once in every 
80 births, triplets once in 7,910, and quadruplets once in 371,126. PREGNANCY 
237 
There are two kinds of twins, the ordinary, which may be 
of the same or different sexes; and the extraordinary (homol- 
ogous) invariably of the same sex. Nevertheless the sexes are 
pretty evenly divided, for of the twin-births in Paris during five 
years, 33 per cent were boys, 32 per cent girls, and 35 per cent 
of both sexes. 
TWIN BABIES, SHOWING THE POSITION IN WHICH THEY USUALLY LIE 
OUTFIT FOR CHILD-BIRTH 
Complete outfits ready for use may be had from the surgical- 
supply houses, and if due time be allowed for shipping, could be 
ordered through the druggist; the prices range from a small sum 
up to $50. If for any reason it is thought best to gather the 
materials needed at home, the following list of suggestions may 
be useful. It can be materially extended as necessary, and each 
medical attendant has his or her ideas of what is essential: 
The bed linen and towels need not be new, if well washed 
and thoroughly sterilized, not by warming but by baking in the 
hot oven for several hours. They should first of all been encased 
in several layers of clean wrapping paper and not taken out of 238 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the wrapper after baking till ready for use. If possible they 
should be removed from the oven directly to the lying-in chamber. 
For keeping the bed dry, two waterproof sheets are abso- 
lutely necessary-one about 6 by 4% feet, the other 3 feet square. 
Formerly rubber was the favorite, but the cost is now so great, 
table oilcloth, preferably white in color, may be selected. 
Several utensils of enamel or agate-ware, a couple of slop- 
jars, as many washbasins, a douche-pan, a 2-quart pitcher. 
Several (new) nailbrushes, a fountain syringe (if well boiled, 
an old one will suffice), a hot-water bag or bottle, a medicine 
glass, castile soap, green (liquid) soap, white vaseline. 
Six yards or so of cheesecloth (baked), plenty of absorbent 
cotton (baked). 
It is taken for granted a fresh nightgown and stockings are 
in readiness, and the usual baby clothes. Some doctors advise the 
use of "binders" for the mother's abdomen, after delivery; others 
object to them. 
The physician is provided with any drugs he thinks will be 
called for, also chloroform, and braided silk for tying the navel- 
cord. For this last purpose little clips are often applied. 
MATERNAL IMPRESSIONS 
No doubt a great many of our readers have seen individuals 
whose faces are disfigured by large bluish or purplish blotches, 
popularly termed "mother's marks." They may also be found 
almost everywhere on the skin surface, but are obviously most 
noticeable on the face. These are said to be due to some "long- 
ing" of the mother while carrying the child, and which was not 
gratified; or else they follow some scare or fright. It makes no 
difference what the longing was for, articles of food, drink, 
ornament, etc., the grandmothers or some wise neighbor can 
glibly point out the resemblance in shape and color to the object 
longed for. 
This, of course, is ridiculous. Such marks are due to unusual 
width of the blood-vessels under the skin, and quickly relieved 
by electricity, the X-rays, or that recent wonder-worker-radium. 
We have not heard so far of any "longing" for an automobile 
being recorded by one of these mother's marks; to have a 
"flivver" or any other of the popular makes indelibly imprinted 
on the offspring would be very annoying. PREGNANCY 
239 
For an early example of this belief we must turn to Holy 
Writ (Genesis xxx, 37, 38, 39): 
"And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel 
and chestnut tree; and pilled white streaks in them, and made 
the white appear which was in the rods. 
And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in 
the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to 
drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. 
And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth 
cattle ringstreaked, speckled and spotted." 
After impregnation occurs and the baby begins to develop 
in the womb, it has no connection with the nerves of the mother, 
depending on her only for nourishment. There being no nervous 
communication any mental shock sustained by the mother could 
not be transmitted. Thus in the old story of the white woman 
who gave birth to a mulatto, and accounted for it by telling her 
physician she was "chased by a negro" the doctor added-under 
his breath-"and caught by one." 
It is true that when the mother does not get sufficient food 
while carrying the baby, or is suffering from some slow poison, 
let us say alcohol or lead, the child may be deformed but only 
because it is not well nourished. 
In "Sir Richard Calmady," a story by an English lady- 
novelist, the daughter of a clergyman, the hero's father was a 
great fox-hunter, and as the result of an accident was brought 
home with both legs off. The mother, pregnant at the time with 
the hero, saw the father as he was being carried in, and when her 
son was born, he, too, was deprived of legs. 
Preposterous I It occasionally happens that children are born 
with one or both legs, one or both arms (or all four limbs) 
missing, but this unfortunate happening is generally due to the 
coverings of the child in the womb being too tight in the early 
stage, and thus cut off the blood supply to the extremities. In 
very rare instances there is nothing developed but the head itself, 
trunk and lower limbs being represented merely by a flattened 
area of a sort of thin skin. Our own Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
and himself a physician, in his novel describes a case in which 
the mother of the heroine was frightened by a snake, and the girl 
grew up with all sorts of serpent-like traits. Though there is 240 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
some excuse for this, because at the time his tale was completed 
not so much was known of the subject. 
By the end of the second month the development of the 
child is completed, after that it merely increases in size. When 
there is any deformity it must be regarded only as a coin- 
cidence. Nearly all mothers have some fright, scare, or other 
violent mental shock while carrying the child or children, yet how 
few have "marks." How shall we account for such cases as the 
one reported from Europe several years ago, in which the father 
and all four children had club feet? Was the mother "scared" 
four times in succession by seeing her husband or some other 
individual with club feet? We thoroughly agree with Herbert, 
the English authority, who states: "Only the striking coin- 
cidences, of course, are noticed, while the failures are for- 
gotten." 
The lower animals, birds, reptiles, even fish, are also subject 
to such deformities, in fact, some types, such as double-heads, 
are much more common in them. We might admit that animals 
may have had some "longing" but it would be stretching one's 
imagination too much to grant this in case of a bird, and especially 
of fish, which, as we have seen, are left to the chances of wind 
and wave to grow up. 
We shall close the discussion of this part of the subject by 
recalling another story of the woman whose family were no- 
toriously slow in paying for medical help. Her doctor who had 
not been remunerated for the previous arrival, was pestered dur- 
ing the birth as to whether the baby would be "marked." Finally, 
after it was born, getting out of patience, he inspected the new 
arrival very carefully, then looking over his glasses, he turned 
to the mother and said: "I am sorry to say, Madame, the baby 
is marked-C. O. D." CHAPTER XVII 
ABORTION * 
OF course as to the graver question of abortion, or feticide, 
there can be no serious conflict of moral judgment; although 
the frequency with which the crime is committed, in these later 
days, is sufficient evidence that Civilization itself, if it teaches, 
fails absolutely to guard, the sanctity of human life; and that 
there is no power in education, law, refinement, nor any other 
influence, save that possibly of religion, to repress savage and 
utilitarian instincts, and subordinate them to the best uses of 
society. Indeed, there appears to be a growing sentiment, born 
chiefly of the crime, degradation and suffering of the very poor, 
with a too slavish regard for the not clearly defined, and very 
much overrated, law of human heredity, which teaches that the 
prevention of birth is, in many cases at least, an act of mercy. 
One of the greatest minds of Greece not only condoned the prac- 
tice, but advocated its adoption by law, when the population had 
exceeded certain defined limits; and the laws of Rome, during 
the Republic and the greater part of the Empire, so far as I am 
enabled to ascertain, nowhere condemned it. 
A great army of writers, both Pagan and Christian, repre- 
sent the practice as both deliberate and universal; ascribing it, 
not to poverty, not to licentiousness in sexual indulgence, but to 
the very same motives which underlie it today-the shrinking of 
the fashionable mother from the pains and necessary disfigure- 
ments of child-bearing, the difficulty of discharging social duties, 
and a selfish desire to avoid parental cares and responsibilities. 
Weighty motives, truly, to lie at the root of murder! It 
speaks well for the poets and philosophers of Rome and Greece, 
that, while Ovid, Seneca, Favorinus, Plutarch and Juvenal, all 
regarded abortion as notorious and common, they were equally 
unanimous in pronouncing it reprehensible and criminal. 
Probably the most active agent in promoting the wicked prac- 
tices of abortion and infanticide in the United States, as well as 
England, is the obloquy, notwithstanding the sexual excesses of 
• Dr. J. Richardson Parke in Human Sexuality. 
241 242 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
both countries, which attaches to such violations of the laws of 
chastity on the woman's part. It is no crime on the part of a 
man to commit adultery, to seduce a virgin, or keep a mistress, so 
long as the act is shrouded with a becoming secrecy; if found 
out, it may be mildly disapproved of, but woe betide the woman 
who makes a misstep! 
Acts, which, in France, Italy, Russia, or other portions of 
the continent, would imply neither total subversion of the moral 
sense, nor any general emotion of deep popular reprehension, are, 
in England and the United States, followed in a great majority 
of cases by social ruin. Thus, in the endeavor to hide sins which 
in themselves ought neither to be hopelessly vicious, nor irrevo- 
cably fatal, being simply the temporary triumph of man's tempta- 
tion, and a natural instinct on the woman's part, over social 
convention, infanticide and abortion are multiplied, and thousands 
and thousands of pure-minded, yes I easily savable young girls, are 
hurled annually into the abyss of prostitution. 
Indeed it would not be hard to show that it is by no means 
the naturally worst female element which falls before temptation; 
this ruin, in most cases, being quite as much due to ardor of affec- 
tion, vivacity of mind, as to inherent vicious propensities. 
The question of the criminality of abortion has also been 
largely affected by the diverse views, and physiological specula- 
tions, of medical writers themselves, as to the precise period in 
intrauterine existence at which the fetus takes on the nature, 
and consequently the rights, of a separate being. 
The ancient idea was the child was a part of the mother; 
and that she had the same right to destroy it as to amputate a 
finger or excise a tumor from her body. 
Both Plato and Aristotle admitted, and even sanctioned, the 
practice of abortion, no enactment against voluntary feticide 
prior, at least, to the time of Ulpian. 
The Stoic philosophers believed that the soul of the infant 
was received with its first respiration; and the Justinian Code 
fixed, arbitrarily, the period of the beginning of animation forty 
days after conception; while the more rational modern doctrine, 
of course, is that the infant is a distinct living organism from the 
very moment the ovum is fecundated. 
Abortion is justifiable in those cases where continuation of ABORTION 
243 
the pregnancy to full-term would be associated with fatality to 
either mother or child, or to both; where the habitual death of the 
fetus, in utero, has accompanied a great number of previous 
pregnancies; in multiple pregnancies, where the growth of two or 
more offspring in the womb would gravely threaten the mother's 
existence; in certain diseased conditions-abdominal dropsy, 
tumors, pernicious anemia, predisposition to placental hemor- 
rhage, chorea, nephritis-and those anatomical malformations of 
the bony pelvis which render parturition not only dangerous, but, 
in many instances, impossible. 
Stehberger and other obstetricians would add to this list 
cases where the mother's life is despaired of, but in which pre- 
mature delivery may save the child's life; but whether deliberate 
abortion may be resorted to as a means of averting shame, on the 
part of the mother, or safeguarding her social character and 
standing, is a question which belongs to Morals rather than Medi- 
cine, and concerning which the maternal instinct, as well as the 
intuitive perceptions of morality, may always be relied on to form 
a correct judgment. 
With an almost countless army of prostitutes in this country, 
with luxury and idleness among the rich constantly tending to 
sexual erotism and sensuality, with the free and easy social inter- 
course prevailing between the sexes, with the constantly dimin- 
ishing number of marriages, and that monstrous aversion to 
motherhood, when marriage does take place, so universally preva- 
lent among women, it can hardly be wondered at that abortion 
has become so frequent as to attract the gravest attention of the 
law it seems so easy for it to avade; or that infanticide is growing 
so common as to recall the Roman horrors of the thirteenth cen- 
tury, when, it is said, Pope Innocent III was shocked at hearing 
that dead infants were being drawn nightly from the Tiber in the 
nets of the fishermen. 
In the first place, there is no room for any diversity of view 
as to abortion outside the exceptions I have named. It is simply 
the most cowardly and brutal form of murder, committed for the 
most selfish of motives. There should be no hesitancy at least on 
that point. I wish I could say to those young girls who prowl 
nightly through the streets, inquiring, with veiled faces, at drug- 
shop counters for abortefacient remedies, or for those cold-blooded 244 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
charlatans, those night-hawk Borgias of unborn innocence (not 
always, alas, belonging to the illiterate laity, nor to even the known 
"scalawags" of the profession), who, for a week's wage of an 
ordinary mechanic, hire themselves to perpetrate a crime meaner, 
more cowardly than open, manly homicide; I wish I could say to 
these, many of them innocent victims of man's perfidy, that, as 
far as moral guilt is concerned, they might just as well take the 
rosy, smiling babe from the cradle, and strangle it, as to swallow 
the potion that stills forever the tiny heart they can feel beating 
beneath their own. 
Let the young mother-married or single-keep this thought 
constantly in her mind if she would avoid Divine vengeance; for, 
they were no idle words which came to that little circle of listeners 
by the Sea of Galilee-"whoso shall offend" [attack, assail, hurt 
or injure] "one of these little ones, it were better for him that a 
millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned 
in the depth of the sea." 
The moral unity of any community is not one of standard, 
nor of acts, but of tendency. Men are born with benevolent feel- 
ings very subordinate to selfish ones; and fortunately so, as a little 
thought will convince us that the extinction of selfishness-and 
this is a hard blow to the altruist-would necessarily result in the 
complete dissolution of Society; but it is the function of civiliza- 
tion, and of religion, partially to invert this order; or at least to 
restrain congenital tendencies within prescribed limits. Special 
circumstances may influence the intermingling of complicated 
motives; may temporarily obscure or retard moral evolution; 
but back of all the conflicts of theological dogma, independent of 
all material or psychical processes, is a well-defined ethical idea 
of right and wrong, which resists every counter-stroke of philos- 
ophy, and the most obtrusive element of which is the inviolable 
sanctity of human life. 
The man who destroys life, at whatever period, save in 
defending his own, or in obedience to the behest of law, is a 
murderer; and I make the assertion, and devote so much space 
to the matter, simply because men and women are trying on every 
side to stifle their innate instincts, and to reason themselves into 
the false and foolish belief that destroying a fetal life is a very 
different thing from destroying that of an infant after birth, or 
that of an adult. Both acts, so far as moral guilt is concerned, ABORTION 
245 
are, on the contrary, precisely alike. So much alike, indeed, that 
post-natal infanticide, coming directly within the juridical cate- 
gory of murder, I shall omit largely in this connection, the argu- 
ments used applying equally to both intra- and extrauterine 
murder. 
One of the first needs of a licentious act is, of course, to 
conceal its consequences. Many of the reasons given by married 
women for procuring abortion would have some weight were they 
not preventable. Thus, a woman with an abnormally small pelvis 
may very justly dread the ordeal of childbirth; but such a woman 
never should have married. The same remedy applies if she have 
an incurable disease; and in almost, if not all, such cases it will 
be found that the first sin lay in exposing herself to a condition 
in which the secondary one became necessary. Of course many 
will say that this is a hard remedy-to abstain forever from sexual 
pleasure. It is; but the condition necessitating it is also hard. 
Dr. Reamy, of the Ohio State Medical Society, writes- 
"From a very large verbal and written correspondence in this 
and other States, together with personal investigation, and facts 
accumulated, it appears to me we have become a nation of mur- 
derers." This startling statement, founded on most undeniable 
facts, has reference to the widespread, and apparently increasing, 
habit of committing abortion, or feticide, which is, to all intents 
and purposes, premeditated murder. 
That forced abortion is steadily on the increase, and that 
prevention of conception keeps pace with it, is proven by the fact 
that our native-born Americans, among whom the terrible prac- 
tice appears most prevalent, are all noted for small families, and 
that among this class, as is amply shown by statistics, there are 
absolutely in many places more deaths than births, the native- 
born population of Massachusetts and New York actually decreas- 
ing every year. A clergyman of New York writes-"We could 
prove that in our little village of a thousand people prominent 
women have been guilty of this crime of murder. Sadder still, 
half of them are members of Christ's Church; and while fully 
15 per cent of our women habitually practice this deadly sin, 
there is a much larger percentage who endorse and defend it." 
Few of either sex nowadays enter into the marriage relation 
without being fully informed of every method and means of 
obviating the undesirable results of matrimony; and it is no 246 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
uncommon thing to find women making these the subject of social 
afternoon conversations among themselves. 
Common charity prompts the belief that such women cannot 
know the awful enormity of the crime they commit. It is to be 
hoped, at least, that they may have that shield of ignorance to 
cover themselves with in the Last Day; but in order to convince 
such that they cannot hide behind any silly notion that the killing 
of the fetus in the womb is a whit different from killing the 
child in the cradle. 
ABORTION AND ITS RESULTS 
Few but medical men are aware of the enormous proportions 
which have been assumed by this terrible crime during the present 
century, that it is increasing with fearful rapidity, and has really 
reached such a magnitude as seriously to affect the growth of 
civilized nations, and to threaten their very existence, has become 
a patent fact to observing physicians. 
An eminent medical authority asserts "that the frequency of 
this form of destroying human life exceeds all others by at least 
50 per cent, and that not more than one in a thousand of the 
guilty parties receive any punishment by the hand of civil law. 
But there is a surer mode of punishment for the guilty mothers 
in the self-executing laws of Nature. 
The destruction of the child after the mother has felt its 
movements is termed infanticide; before that time it is commonly 
known as abortion. It is a modern notion that the child possesses 
no soul or individual life until the period of quickening, which 
occurs at about the third month. This is an error undoubtedly. 
The ancients with just as much reason, contended that no distinct 
life was present until after birth. Hence it was that they could 
practice, without scruple, the crime of infanticide to prevent too 
great increase in population. The bad effect of abortion and 
infanticide are not felt upon the child only, as some may sup- 
pose, but as I have already pointed out, the mother is in imminent 
peril of losing her life at the time, and it is also possible that she 
may be rendered an invalid for the rest of her days. A physician 
states that it is fifteen times as dangerous as natural childbirth. 
Says another author writing on this subject: "There are those 
who would fain make light of this crime by attempting to con- 
vince themselves and others that a child while in embryo has only ABORTION 
247 
a vegetative life not yet endowed with thought and ability to 
maintain an independent existence. If such monstrous philosophy 
as this presents any justification for such an act, then the killing 
of a newly-born infant, or of an idiot may be likewise justified. 
The destruction of the life of an unborn human being, for the 
reason that it is small, feeble and innocently helpless, rather 
aggravates than palliates the crime. Every act of this kind, with 
its justification, is obviously akin to that savage philosophy which 
accounts it a matter of no moment, or rather a duty to destroy 
feeble infants, of old helpless fathers and mothers." 
Let us look at some of the effects of forced abortions on the 
body and soul of the mother: 
In producing abortion at any period of gestation she runs a 
great risk of losing her life; death may occur from flooding or 
subsequent inflammation. Very many women die from this cause, 
whose acquaintances and even near friends never know the true 
origin. It is difficult to get at a nearly right proportion of deaths, 
but it may be safely stated that one woman in every ten who 
effect forced abortions die-either at the time from hemorrhage, 
or shortly after through inflammation, etc. 
It is a mistake to suppose that death must be immediate, and 
owing only to the causes just mentioned. The rapidity of death, 
even when directly the consequence, greatly varies; though gen- 
erally taking place almost at once if there be hemorrhage, it may 
be delayed even for hours where there has been great laceration 
of the uterus, its surrounding tissues, and even of the intestines; 
if metro-peritonitis ensue, the patient may survive for from one 
to four days-even, indeed, to seven and ten. But there are other 
fatal cases, where on autopsy there is revealed no appreciable 
lesion, death, the penalty of unwarrantable interfering with 
Nature, being occasioned by syncope, by excess of pain, or by 
moral shock from the thought of the crime. 
A score of natural births at the full period, under right con- 
ditions, would not entail on the mother a shadow of as much 
pain and danger as would one forced abortion. 
Allowing the woman has been so fortunate as to escape 
death, there follows in the wake of the crime done such an array 
of evil results as might well deter any woman from the commis- 
sion of this great crime. Diseases of the pelvis-such as vesical 
and uterine fistula, adhesions of the os or vagina, etc., all of 248 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
which are often incurable; uterine displacements, and all their 
attendant miseries. Sterility sooner or later results, so that when 
the woman really desires offspring, her desires and prayers bring 
no echoing response. Should the woman succeed in bearing chil- 
dren, they will likely be puny, unhealthy, deformed and short- 
lived. 
If there is one thing more than another that will destroy 
beauty it is the one of criminal abortion. Abortion will very 
effectually and very quickly destroy the most beautiful face and 
form a lovely woman ever was endowed with, and hurry her with 
rapid strides to premature age, with its attendant faded skin, 
wrinkled face and bent form. The woman who produces abortion 
destroys the bloom of her ripe womanhood, hardens and deepens 
the face-lines, angularizes the hitherto rounded contours, the out- 
ward loving expression of the soul's interior presence is darkened, 
the rich maternal love-nature is lost, and premature old age comes 
on with galloping strides. 
When the "turn of life" arrives, there is often present a 
tendency to that fatal disease, cancer. 
And lastly, there is the ever-present remorse of conscience- 
the ever-present phantom of a great crime-a crime against 
humanity-a crime against the loving mercy and justice of God, 
ever asserting the individuality of its thought-nature, ever destroy- 
ing all peace and happiness of the perpetrator. And well it 
may; for if murder will not do it, and especially the murder of 
one's own child, what will do it?-what can do it? 
While illegitimate sexual indulgence doubtless leads to abor- 
tion in no small degree, yet it is safe to say that it is practiced 
within the home circle to a greater extent than anywhere else. It 
is needless to say that any interference with the course of Nature 
is essentially harmful, especially to the mother. As far as health 
is concerned, the burden of ill-health resulting from the perver- 
sion of Nature's laws falling entirely on the woman. 
The risks and dangers attendant upon abortion are very 
great indeed, especially after the first month, the danger increas- 
ing as pregnancy progresses. As has been shown above, the 
uterus undergoes a slow and gradual change for the reception of 
the fetus and for its delivery at the end of nine months, and 
when forced to do this work prematurely it is unprepared, and 
the uterus is unable to contract sufficiently completely to expel ABORTION 
249 
the contents. This causes a wide range of disorders, such as 
subinvolution, displacements of the uterus, leucorrhea, hemor- 
rhages, etc. In fact, a woman very rarely escapes serious con- 
sequences. 
After one abortion has taken place the diseased condition 
of the reproductive organs often renders the woman barren for 
life. The consideration of the future welfare and happiness of 
their children should be a matter of greatest importance to every 
parent. The home life should be so regulated as to make it a fit 
place for their growth and education, and not until there is a 
proper conception of the duties of parentage will there be an 
improvement in the situation. The mother is the type of the 
highest expression of Nature, and her creation crowned the animal 
kingdom. The millions of humanity who have been sent on this 
earth to work out our civilization all sprang from one original 
cell measuring one one hundred and twentieth of an inch in size I 
The name of "mother" is sacred the world over, and the tie that 
binds her to her child is usually more intimate and lasting than 
the affection she feels for the father. The mating of the two 
sexes is consummated in the sexual act, and the result is the child 
that binds them together. We owe it as a sacred duty to pos- 
terity and to ourselves that greater care should be taken in the 
propagation of the race; that our children be reared and nurtured 
in hygienic surroundings, and that the environment of the home 
life shall be such as to wield a powerful influence for good upon 
each and every member of the household. The highest function 
of true manhood is to protect the woman he loves and uphold her 
during the years in which she is devoting her mind and heart to 
the rearing of their children. He plays the aggressive part, and 
his very approach to the woman is a pledge of his guardianship 
and protection to her. 
Abortion as it is commonly practiced today is a crime against 
the Law of God and Man. 
THE QUESTION OF ABORTION * 
A clever word has recently been coined by Prof. Gumplovicz 
of the University of Gratz. The word is "acrochronism," and it 
refers to the belief which is shared by the majority of people, that 
*An address delivered by Dr. Wm. J. Robinson before a body of physicians and 
later published in Sexual Problems of To-Day, The Critic and Guide Co., New York 
City. (See Adv. Last Page.) 250 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the period they live in is the best of all periods, superior to any 
period that has preceded it. 
And right here let me say that I believe, in spite of the fact 
that humanity is not advancing in a straight line, but in zigzag; 
in spite of the fact that occasionally we take a decided step back- 
ward; in spite of the fact that some periods are poorer in great 
men, in philosophers, in writers, than some preceding periods, I 
believe, I say, that, with the exception of the dark Middle Ages, 
which for a thousand years hung like a pall over the world, 
acrochronism is justifiable, and J. am willing to be classed among 
the acrochronists. For we are making progress, and if we make 
up the balance sheet at the end of every ten or twenty-five years, 
we shall find the sum total decidedly in our favor. 
We have not yet solved all the questions in philosophy, in 
morals, in religion, in economics that confront us. Regarding 
some of the questions, we are no nearer solution than we were a 
century ago; but one point we have reached: we are no longer 
afraid to discuss any question. There are no sacred subjects 
any more, the mere discussion of which is considered a crime. 
We have passed the childish stage in which we were told that 
certain questions must not be touched, that it was a sin to think 
of certain things or try to analyze them to find out the why and 
wherefore. We recognize no barrier to any discussion. We 
recognize no closed doors which we must not attempt to open 
with the key of critical analysis. In short, in the arena of dis- 
cussion we recognize no forbidden ground. We recognize but 
one danger-the danger of silence, the danger of repression. No 
matter how wrongly a question may be discussed, it is by far 
better to consider it openly, even if erroneously, than not to 
discuss it at all. If we discuss a question wrongly, someone is 
sure to point out our error, but if for fear of appearing uncon- 
ventional, of being criticized by Mrs. Grundy, we hide our opin- 
ions, smother our convictions, how can we ever arrive at the truth ? 
The question of abortion is of great interest from a 
philosophic, biologic, moral, and social standpoint. Unfortu- 
nately it has always been surrounded with so much bigotry, so 
much hypocritical cant, that the issue has been entirely obscured. 
There is no reason why this question could not be discussed 
calmly, judicially, without bias and without fear. This I will 
attempt to do. ABORTION 
251 
And I can do this the more readily, because, strange as this 
statement may sound to you, 1 personally have never produced 
an abortion. Yes, it is twenty years since I received my M. D. 
degree, and during that time I have not committed one single 
abortion. I know this sounds strange in a large audience of 
physicians, but it is so. 
But, pray do not for one moment imagine that it was on 
moral grounds that I refused the hundreds of pleading, weeping, 
heartbroken, distracted women, married and unmarried, who 
begged and entreated to be freed of the fruit of their womb. 
No! I repeat, it was not moral superiority; it was pure cowardice, 
principally. I may have contempt for a law, but I prefer to obey 
it as a matter of wisdom-as a matter of egotism, if you will. 
I have always felt that I have something important to do in this 
world; I felt that I had a message for humanity, and I therefore 
thought it best not to endanger my peace of mind and not to run 
the risk of getting into the clutches of the law. Yet there is no 
particular merit in such an attitude. It is a policy of wisdom, 
but it has nothing to do, I wish to emphasize, with high moral 
courage. 
Another reason for my keeping shy of abortions is that it is 
hard to shake off the feelings of prejudices engendered by early 
training; and I have always had a personal dislike for the abortion 
business; and I have always been taught as a youth to despise 
the abortionist. And the professional abortionist, it must be 
confessed, is not a high-class individual. True, he may prove, 
and often does prove, a great benefactor, but the fact must be 
borne in mind that the professional abortionist is not in the 
business for altruistic purposes; he does not do the work out of 
pity's sake, as physicians sometimes do; he does it only for the 
money. If you don't believe it, ask a professional abortionist to 
bring on an abortion on a poor girl, without charge. 
So you see what my personal views are. But I have always 
had deep contempt for the hypocrite, and likewise great pity for 
the muddle-minds who would get up in a medical society and 
brand the commission of an abortion as a crime exactly equiv- 
alent to that of murder, and would, with eyes raised to heaven, 
stigmatize the one guilty of an abortion, whether it be the aborter 
or abortee, as a murderer. 
Gentlemen, if every physician who even once in his career- 252 
SIX 3IAICHHQHTS 
under the stress of tragic circumstances, in order to save the life 
and reputation of a young girl and the happiness of her parents- 
performed an abortion, is a murderer, then seventy-five per cent, 
nay, probably ninety per cent of the medical profession are mur- 
derers. And if every woman who had an abortion performed on 
her is a murderess, then millions of our child-bearing women are 
murderesses. And I tell you that some of them are beautiful 
murderesses, sweet, gentle, kind, attached to their husbands and 
children, devoted to charitable work, and altogether lovable. A 
peculiar kind of murderess. 
Should any of my utterances appear to you too radical, should 
any of my friends think that some of the things I say might better 
be left unsaid, then I can only reply, paraphrasing slightly the 
young genius, the lamented author of "The Martyrdom of 
Man": In the matter of speaking or writing I listen to no 
remonstrance, I acknowledge no advice, no decision save that of 
the monitor within me. My conscience is my adviser, my audi- 
ence, and my judge. It bids me write and speak as I write and 
speak, without evasion, without disguise; it bids me go on as I 
have begun, whatever the result may be. If my opinions should 
be condemned, without a single exception, by every one in the 
audience here, it will not make me regret having expressed 
them, and it will not prevent me from expressing them again. 
That the question of abortion is of tremendous importance 
will be acknowledged by everybody who has given the subject any 
consideration. 
The number of abortions performed annually in this country 
is so appallingly large that the uninitiated cannot be blamed for 
being somewhat skeptical when the figures are mentioned. I 
have gone on record with the statement that about a million 
abortions are brought about every year in the United States. 
Exact statistics are not and never will be available; but I am 
sure that my estimate is a very conservative one, and that three 
millions would be nearer the truth. Justice John Proctor Clark 
stated that one hundred thousand abortions are performed an- 
nually in New York City alone, and if these figures are correct, 
then the number for the United States would be in the neighbor- 
hood of two and a half millions. 
Can you form any conception in your minds as to what this 
means, in shame, in humiliation, in anguish, in economic loss, in ABORTION 
253 
time and money, in chronic invalidism, in permanent sterility, and 
in premature graves? No, I fear you can not. And the worst of 
it is, that abortion and the demands for abortion are not dimin- 
ishing but increasing from year to year, as can be testified to by 
all general practitioners. And as far as the immediate future is 
concerned, the evil is sure to keep on, the increase. 
The reason for this is a two-fold one: First, married women 
are beginning to rebel against an unlimited number of children, 
they are beginning to refuse to be drudges, good for nothing 
except breeding and nursing; they are beginning to feel the tre- 
mendous responsibility of bringing children into the world for 
whom they cannot provide, and having failed, on account of 
ignorance, in preventing pregnancy, they will try to interrupt it. 
No physician in this room will deny that the demand from 
married women for bringing on abortions is becoming greater 
from year to year. 
The second reason is that our unmarried women are be- 
ginning to look at sexual relations from a different point of view. 
Of course I do not speak of all women, but I speak of a large, 
constantly growing number of educated, thinking, independent 
women. 
These women-it is shocking, but it is true-do not regard 
chastity as the greatest treasure of woman, or the greatest honor 
of woman. They are not like the ancient Roman or Jewish 
women, who were always ready to give up their lives for their 
honor. No! Many of our women of today regard chastity as but 
an empty virtue, a hollow shell. They have been taught the in- 
justice of a double standard of morality. If a woman can remain 
chaste until marriage they have been told, so can a man. But as 
they saw that men do not remain chaste, they decided that they 
themselves need not do so either. In other words, they turned 
the proverb around, and declared that what was sauce for the 
gander was also sauce for the goose. 
And there is no use denying that there is a constantly grow- 
ing number of unmarried women who indulge in sexual inter- 
course habitually, without considering it any more wrong than 
do men. And, of course, when these self-same women get into 
trouble, they will demand relief. And you cannot blame them. 
As long as illegitimate pregnancy is considered the blackest of 
crimes, as long as maternity unhallowed by priest or magistrate 254 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
is considered the deepest and most shameful sin of which woman 
is capable, so long you can not blame the unmarried woman for 
wanting and demanding to get rid of the fruit of her passion, of 
the evidence of her "sin." 
These women are not low and debauched, as our puritans 
and theologians would have us believe. They would prefer to 
get married, to live like true, faithful wives, for unlike men, 
who by nature are polygamous, women are by nature mon- 
androus. But on account of social-economic conditions, mar- 
riage is all the time becoming a harder and harder proposition; 
it is becoming more and more difficult to make a career, and 
therefore the age at which men get married is getting further and 
further advanced; many never arrive, while others, when they 
are ready financially, find themselves so old that they decide to 
end their lives in single blessedness. Many old bachelors means 
many old maids. The old bachelors have no difficulty in satisfying 
their sexual needs. 
What should the old maids, or the relatively young but pros- 
pective old maids do? Remain old maids, crabbed, soured old 
maids to their last day? Well, thousands and thousands are do- 
ing it. Thousands and thousands of women are ruining their 
health, destroying their beauty, stifling their desires, renouncing 
the greatest joy and pleasure of life, the companionship and 
embraces of the opposite sex, are bringing all these sacrifices for 
the sake of a principle which is very dear and very real to them, 
though others consider it but an empty bubble. But those women 
who have thrown off the restraint of religion and are not ham- 
pered in their acts, by what is to them a fictitious morality, are 
not willing to sacrifice their lives to a myth, to a symbol, and with 
these women, unless, as I said before, they acquire the knowledge 
of the prevention of conception, the medical profession will have 
to count. 
Some of our esteemed friends have an infallible remedy for 
all this world's ills. 
Teach the people morals or religion (which terms to them 
are, by the way, synonymous), they tell us, and all will be well. 
"Teach the people that abortion is a crime equivalent to murder, 
that the mother who has an abortion performed on her is a 
common murderess. Excoriate the abortionist in the press and 
in the pulpit-and the evil will disappear." ABORTION 
255 
How naive, how childish, or shall we use a stronger word 
and say, how stupid? Here they have been teaching, preaching, 
cursing and excoriating for two thousand years; yet the evil, 
instead of diminishing, is increasing. And still they have not 
the perspicacity to see that the remedy they propose is an in- 
effective one. 
The same thing with the prevention of venereal disease. We 
all know the terrible ravages of venereal disease. We see the 
incalculable damage it is doing to the individual, to the family, 
to posterity. But when it comes to remedies we differ. Our 
conservative friends who have not succeeded in freeing them- 
selves from the thraldom of custom, tradition and superstitition 
have but one remedy to offer: Preach morality, preach chastity, 
frighten the people with the specter of syphilis and gonorrhea. 
That this preaching and frightening process has been going on 
for two thousand years without any effect whatever seems to 
have no influence on them. They keep on repeating the same 
vapid, though undoubtedly in most instances sincere, platitudes, 
year in and year out. 
We, radical thinkers, who are not afraid to look at every 
question from a broad philosophical viewpoint, who combine with 
our idealism and hope for the future a desire for practical results 
in the present, have seen the inefficiency of moralistic preaching, 
and have decided that if we wish to diminish venereal disease 
under our present social conditions, the only thing to do is to 
show the people how to use real preventive measures. And where 
preaching and cursing have proved worthless, protargol and 
calomel have shown themselves marvelously effective. Our Gov- 
ernment puts these preventives into the hands of our soldiers 
and sailors, and everywhere there is a marked diminution in the 
incidence of gonorrhea and syphilis. And we cannot see why 
the means that are used with such good effect by the army and 
navy, by the student bodies of Germany and France, cannot be 
put into the hands of the general public with similarly good 
results. 
To return to the abortion question, which presents a similar 
aspect. Recognizing abortion as an evil, and recognizing that the 
most thunderous anathemas of the church, the most horrible 
threats of eternal punishment have failed to do any perceptible 
good, we turned to more practical, more efficient measures. 256 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
There is one measure, and one only, which will quickly and 
positively do away with the evil of abortion, and that is, teaching 
the people how to prevent conception. This is but one of the evils 
which the knowledge of the prevention of conception will do 
away with, but it is an important evil. Of course our so-called 
moralists and thinkers who belong to the kindergarten class object 
to this-but this we cannot help. We shall have to accept their 
opprobrious epithets, face their displeasure, and go on with our 
work. And our motto will remain: No undesirable pregnancies, 
no forced childbearing, no children brought into the world as 
accidents. 
We now come to the other part of the paper: Is abortion 
ever justifiable? Particularly, is abortion ever justifiable when 
the mother's health is not threatened? 
There is a religion which considers abortion unjustifiable, 
under any and all circumstances; even when the mother's life is 
at stake; even when the mother is sure to lose her life, unless 
abortion be induced. These views are to us so medieval, so 
inhuman, that we cannot discuss them. We can only condemn 
them as unworthy of an enlightened humanity. The more liberal 
religions and the vast majority of the public in general recognize 
that abortion is justifiable whenever the mother's life is threat- 
ened, and our textbooks on obstetrics give a number of indica- 
tions where the physician is justified in inducing abortion. Such 
are: Uncontrollable, pernicious vomiting of pregnancy, severe 
albuminuria, tendency to eclampsia, puerperal insanity in previ- 
ous labors, deformed pelves, certain cases of heart disease, tuber- 
culosis, and a few other conditions. 
Let us now see whether abortion is ever justified when the 
mother's health or life is not at all threatened. To make an 
argument carry conviction, to make it strike the nail on the head, 
it is a good thing, at least it is often necessary, to take a striking 
illustration. Let us take the following example: 
A beautiful girl, of a fine family, barely 16 (and, by the 
way, this is an actual- and not a hypothetical case), is assaulted 
and raped by a brutal negro. To the indescribable horror of the 
girl and of the parents, her menses fail to appear at the expected 
time, and the horrible fear of pregnancy becomes a certainty, 
corroborated by a physician, in another month. The girl's health. ABORTION 
257 
however, strange to say, has not suffered in the least. Nature, 
as you know, does not know the words licit and illicit. 
Now I am asking you this clearcut, unequivocal question, to 
which I would like to have a clearcut, unequivocal answer: Is 
abortion permissible in that girl's case? If you answer une- 
quivocally, without beating about the bush, without any hesitation, 
as one Catholic priest did, "No!" I am satisfied. I simply 
stop all further discussion because I can see that we live in 
different centuries, different blood courses in our veins, different 
feelings dwell in our hearts, radically different thoughts are 
produced by our cerebral cells. You would no more understand 
me than a Hottentot would understand Shelley's poems, or a 
blind man appreciate Murillo's Madonna, or a deaf man be 
thrilled by Beethoven's symphony. But if you say, as I imagine 
most of you will, "Yes, in the above case abortion is justifiable," 
or, perhaps, "not only justifiable but imperative," then we can 
proceed further. 
Yes, the thought is revolting to have that beautiful refined 
girl bear within her womb for nine months and then give birth to 
a child the father of whom is a brute. It is perfectly brutal and 
outrageous to have a girl become an unwilling mother under the 
circumstances. Yes, I agree with you that producing an abortion 
in the above case is perfectly justifiable. Nay, I am willing 
to go even further with you and agree that not to produce one 
would be a crime against the girl and against humanity. 
Let us now go a step further. Let us assume a case (and 
this case is also an actual- and not a hypothetical one; in fact, all 
the examples I am citing here are actual cases from life) in 
which the assaulter was a white brute, not a colored one. Should 
the girl be compelled to bear and become the mother of the child 
of a man whom she detests and loathes? And what love will 
she be able to give the child when it is born? And what future 
will the child have? No, for even tho the rapist may be a white 
man, abortion is justifiable. 
Now let us take a different case. I know of several cases 
of incest, where brothers were living with their sisters. I know 
of two cases where the sisters became pregnant. In one instance 
an abortion was produced; the other was permitted to go to term, 
and the child is now in a foundling asylum. In which case do 
you think was the proper course pursued? In the first one, of 258 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
course; and it is a damnable shame that abortion was not pro- 
duced in the second case. The girl-mother's life is blasted for- 
ever, for she has the specter of the child in the foundling asylum 
before her eyes all the time; she will, of course, not be able to 
get married; in short, she will have to drag out a miserable 
existence to the end of her days. And how about the child? 
If he ever grows up, he is sure to be miserable, unhappy, living 
under constant insults and humiliation, and cursing his fate and 
the day he was born. 
We now come to the ordinary run of cases that infest the 
offices of physicians and the abortionists. Cases of girls who 
became pregnant under the promise of marriage or who lost their 
reason in a moment of uncontrollable passion. 
Here is the problem: What should you do with those girls 
who come to you with their frightened eyes swollen from sleep- 
less nights and worry and red from weeping, with anguish 
engraved in every feature of their face; who trembling tell you 
their heart-breaking tales; who plead with you that it would 
kill their mother (and it sometimes does kill the mother, and the 
father too) ; who swear to you that unless you help them out 
they will throw themselves into the river or under an elevated 
or subway train, or they will take a dose of carbolic acid? (And 
quite often, more often than you think, they fulfill their threat.) 
What should we do with those unfortunate girls, whose tears are 
salty enough to eat thru a heart of stone, and with whom not to 
feel any sympathy it would be impossible, except for a man 
utterly devoid of any human feeling? What should we do 
with them? Should we, concealing our sympathy for them, 
politely but firmly show them the door, as I, for reasons of 
which I am not particularly proud, have always done, or should 
we help them out of their misery? 
Let us see what becomes of the girls whom we, the respect- 
able doctors, put out of our offices. Some of them get into 
the hands of the professional medical abortionist-they are the 
luckiest. For, as a rule, the doctor who makes abortion his 
business, nefarious as it may be, does his work carefully and 
aseptically. 
Another portion gets into the hands of the midwives and 
other ignorant abortionists, male and female. Here the poor 
girls sometimes come out all right, sometimes they become invalids ABORTION 
259 
for life. In another portion the girl goes to some home or 
maternity hospital, stays until the child is born, which is then 
given to some foundling asylum or farmed out to some poor 
woman, the mother paying for its board. What becomes of the 
child, you can imagine. How the mother feels with the knowledge 
of her hated or loved (which latter is still worse) child in the 
asylum, I also leave you to imagine. 
And still another portion of these girls, ignorant of how or 
unable to find anyone to help them go thru the tortures and 
humiliations of an illegitimate pregnancy and childbirth, has 
recourse to one of the means mentioned before: the river, the 
noose, the train, or carbolic acid; sometimes it is paris-green or 
corrosive sublimate or the heads of matches soaked in water. 
Well do I remember little Beatrice. She was twenty, but 
she hardly looked it. She got into trouble and she came to me. 
I knew her. She knew me and knew I was kind, and she hoped 
that I would help her out of her misery. Wasn't I kind and 
good? But she did not know how cruel the kind can sometimes 
be, how selfish the good often are. When I gently as I could, 
but none the less positively, refused her, I saw that had I hit 
her on the head with a sledge-hammer I could not have hurt her 
more. She looked stunned. She did not say much. She did 
not make any threats of suicide, she gave me one reproachful 
look with tear-filled eyes and left. And next morning they 
carried her mangled little body from under the elevated train 
into the hospital. She gave my name, and wanted to see me. 
It was hard for me to go and see her, but I could not refuse her 
dying wish, and came. She had sustained severe internal injuries, 
and one could see that she had but a few hours to live. But 
she was fully conscious. She asked me to hold her hand. And 
then she said, "Forgive me. Good-bye." And I went. But were 
I to live a hundred years more, I should not forget her liquid, 
veiled eyes. I see them now, just as if she stood before me. 
I could relate many, many sad heart-breaking cases of dis- 
grace, financial ruin, and premature death of entire families, 
brought about by the misstep of a young daughter, which nobody 
would relieve-but the paper is getting too long, and, besides, 
you probably are all familiar with such cases. 
What is the upshot of all this? What is the underlying 
principle of this paper? Do I advocate abortion? No. Not a 260 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
bit of it! And I do trust that none of you will go away with 
that wrong impression or will attempt to misrepresent me and 
make me say things which I did not say. 
Abortion is a disagreeable business, a nefarious business, 
if you wish; at least it is to me, tho I may be suffering from 
ancient prejudices which I cannot shake off. And it is an un- 
healthy, unhygienic, even dangerous business. There is always 
a slight element of risk connected with it. It may give rise to 
pathologic conditions, many women become chronic invalids, and 
it may cost the poor girl or woman her life. 
No, I do not advocate abortion. But I do most emphatically 
advocate something which will render abortions unnecessary. I 
advocate legalizing the teaching of the people how to prevent con- 
ception. I advocate that this knowledge be made common prop- 
erty; it will then obviate the necessity for abortions, as it will 
obviate hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of other evils- 
as I have demonstrated, I believe conclusively, in the chapter on 
the Limitation of Offspring. 
Once more I repeat: I do not advocate abortion-I advocate 
the prevention of conception. But as, when you are called to 
a case of typhoid fever, it is hollow mockery to tell the patient 
that he should have taken care of himself and prevented the 
attack, so when little Beatrice, or Fanny, or Jennie comes to 
you and tells you that her periods have not come around, that 
she is two weeks overdue, it is too late to add salt to her wound 
and tell her that she should have looked out. And in cases 
where a life, a reputation, the happiness of several people are 
at stake, we are justified, I believe, in sanctioning the induction 
of abortion. On the one hand we have a mass of unformed, or 
not fully formed, nonsentient matter, which is only potentially 
a human being; on the other hand we have a living, palpitating 
human being, we have several other human beings, who can all 
suffer, the parents and the brothers and the sisters, we have shame, 
disgrace, social ostracism, and perhaps death of one or more per- 
sons. Which shall we choose ? 
If it is still difficult for you to arrive at a conclusion, let 
me ask you this question: Suppose a young woman comes to 
you and tells you that unless you relieve her of her trouble she 
will, on leaving your office, commit suicide. Suppose you know 
the young woman, know her high-strung character, know her ABORTION 
261 
high-mindedness and truthfulness, and know that she never 
utters empty words; that whenever she says something she means 
it. Suppose you are absolutely convinced in your mind that she 
will carry out her threat and within twenty-four hours she will not 
be among the living. What then? Are you then morally justi- 
fied in inducing an abortion? If not-that is, if you answer No- 
then let us go further. 
Why do you say that, if that woman suffers from uncontrol- 
lable vomiting or develops eclampsia, you are justified in pro- 
ducing an abortion? You say that her life is in danger, and you 
are justified in trying to save it. Isn't in the former instance 
the woman's life in still greater danger? I may be mistaken, but 
it seems to me that our ideas on the subject are rather coarse 
and muddled up and need a thoro overhauling. 
If it is a purely physical condition that threatens the patient's 
health or life, such as vomiting, eclampsia, a contracted pelvis, 
a fibroid tumor of the uterus, rapidly developing Bright's disease 
or consumption, then we are justified in interfering; but if it is 
an indescribably horrible mental anguish, if it is the fear of 
shame and disgrace that we know will positively hurl the woman 
into the jaws of death, then we must not interefere. We must sit 
with our arms folded and show the dying victim the door. I 
may be wrong, but it does not seem right to me. 
People must be taught to perceive that there are conditions 
of mental anguish in which are a million times worse than any 
physical ailment or disability can be. Worse than death itself. 
I feel very deeply on the subject, for I have passed many 
sleepless nights in self-accusations-not for having peformed 
abortions, but for not having performed them. I am not very 
successful as a sophist and I could not avoid the conclusion that I 
was almost as guilty of the death of little Beatrice as if I had 
pushed her under the wheels of the locomotive. 
Permit me now to make a brief summary of what I have said, 
emphasizing a few points: 
1. Abortion is an unpleasant business ethically, has always 
a slight element of risk in it, and, if improperly performed, often 
leaves the woman an invalid. 
2. The best way, the only proper way, of dealing with 
abortion is to obviate the necessity for it. 
3. The best way, the only proper way, of obviating the 262 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
necessity for abortion is to teach the people the proper means 
of preventing conception. 
4. To be able to teach people the proper means of pre- 
venting conception, it is necessary to change the brutal and stupid 
law making the imparting of such information a crime punishable 
by five years in prison and five thousand dollars fine. 
5. To call a physician who, under certain special circum- 
stances found himself obliged to induce an abortion, a murderer, 
to call every woman who has undergone an abortion a murderess, 
is silly and hypocritical; and those who apply these terms gen- 
erally know that it is so. 
6. I should like to see the term "criminal abortion" applied 
with more discrimination than it is now. I know that the induc- 
tion of abortion is legally a crime, but that does not mean that 
it is always morally a crime, just as there are many actions 
which are not at all punishable by law, but are nevertheless the 
blackest of crimes from a moral point of view. 
7. As long as our social system remains as it is at present, 
as long as marriage remains an unattainable ideal for many 
women, as long as the vast majority of people remain ignorant 
of any means of preventing conception, as long as illegiti- 
mate motherhood is the greatest disgrace for the mother and 
illegitimate childhood the direst calamity for the child, so long 
there will be a tremendous demand for abortions, and so long 
will the demand be satisfied. If not by those in the profession, 
it will be satisfied by those out of it-and satisfied in a bungled, 
sometimes dangerous manner. 
8. We can hardly escape the conclusion that under the 
conditions enumerated in the preceding paragraph the induction 
of abortion is often morally justifiable, and sometimes morally 
imperative. 
9. It is a very serious question with me whether the physi- 
cian who under certain circumstances induces an abortion is not 
morally a better man than he who closes his ears, his eyes and 
his heart to the tearful pleadings of these most unfortunate vic- 
tims of our false social system and false morality, and tells them 
either gently or roughly to get out of his office, and not dare to 
insult him with the proposal to commit a crime. 
10. Under the conditions enumerated in paragraph 7, the 
abortionist is a necessary evil. And while I heartily approve ABORTION 
263 
of the activity of our medical societies in prosecuting unlicensed 
practitioners and quacks, I have no sympathy with the work of 
spying upon and hunting down and prosecuting the abortionists. 
Our societies could have their time employed to better advantage. 
I may find very few people to agree with me on this point, but 
it is my opinion, and I must express it, for I have promised 
myself either not to speak at all, or when I do speak, to speak 
the truth as I see it, and the whole truth. 
11. For certain purposes in the discussion of the question, 
it is well to bear in mind that he who cries out most loudly 
against the nefarious crime of abortion in public is occasionally 
quite an industrious abortionist within the four walls of his 
office. 
12. The last word has not yet been spoken on the subject. 
I do not claim it has. But whatever the opinions may be, it is 
time that the question of the justifiability of abortion under 
certain non pathologic conditions be freed from cant and hypoc- 
risy, hysteria, theologic and traditional bias, and be discussed 
in a calm, judicial, scientific, and above all, humane spirit. CHAPTER XVIII 
SYPHILIS 
HISTORY. It is generally asserted that this fell disease is 
of American origin and was brought back by the sailors 
who returned with Columbus from the West Indies. However, 
as will be shown presently, in the past few years serious doubts 
have been thrown on this alleged origin. 
The name was given by an Italian physician-Fracostorius- 
in a poem written in 1530. Here he traced its start to a mythical 
shepherd Syphilus, who was thus afflicted by Apollo as a punish- 
ment for blasphemy. Very old Chinese writings, as far back as 
26 centuries before Christ, contain accounts of diseases which 
could be cured with mercury. In the first century of our era, 
sores on the genitals were described by classic writers, and a 
few years later, eating away of the soft palate. All these may 
really have been examples of syphilis; also the sores which rapidly 
destroyed the sexual organs and referred to by an Arab writer 
in the eleventh century. 
Syphilis began to attract attention in 1494, hence not long 
after the return of Columbus, when the Spanish garrison in 
Naples was besieged by the French troops. It is not known with 
certainty what the number of Columbus' crews was, but it was 
probably not over 100, and Fracostorius just alluded to, remarked 
it was scarcely possible that such a small number could be respon- 
sible for the widespread ravages in Spain and Italy within the 
space of a few months. Moreover, neither Columbus himself nor 
his son Ferdinand make any reference to the disease in their 
writings. 
Now great ravages are often made in the bones of syphilitic 
individuals, and if syphilis did owe its origin to America, we 
should expect to find some evidence in the skeletons of the mound- 
builders and other ancient races, with but crude methods for treat- 
ment or none at all. Yet, strange to say, none have been unearthed 
so far. To be sure bones have been discovered with destructive 
changes evidently due to syphilis, but there is no certainty they 
date back beyond 1492. Before the Europeans arrived there was 
evidently a far-reaching system of barter, for sea shells have 
264 SYPHILIS 
265 
Like Metchnikoff, not a doctor but a student of animal life. Owing 
to his mastery of the method of staining minute animalcules, was able to 
immortalize himself by his discovery in May, 1905, of the germ of syphilis. 
He was cut off prematurely by pneumonia, which put an end to a career 
probably destined to afford other equally meritorious discoveries. 
THE LATE FRITZ SCHAUDINN (1875-1906) 266 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
been found in the graves a long way from the ocean, the copper 
from Lake Superior as far as the Gulf of Mexico, and the famous 
red pipestone of Minnesota hundreds of miles off. Yet in all 
this enormous expanse of territory traces of syphilis are lacking, 
as they are in the older burial places of Peru and other countries 
of South America. 
In 1913, a manuscript of recipes was discovered in Italy, 
the date-judging by the handwriting-being about 1425. How- 
ever this may be, a later owner adding some material, states the 
book came into his hands in 1465. The original collection con- 
tains two recipes for the "French disease," one of the early 
names for syphilis, a very significant fact-for if it was written 
in 1425, or about then, this was some score of years before 
Columbus was born. 
Some diseased bones were dug up in the region of the 
Marne, just before it became famous in the World War, and 
were sent to a pathologist in Lyons, who for over a quarter 
century had been studying the diseases of bone. After due 
examination he had no hesitation in stating the changes found 
were due to syphilis, and was then stupefied to be told by the 
finder that the bones came from a prehistoric burial-a cavern 
of the polished-stone age. While this epoch is later than the 
first or rough-stone age, its antiquity is staggering, so much so 
that Columbus and his times are as last week. 
So, until more conclusive evidence is forthcoming, when the 
American origin of syphilis is set forth, we would do well to 
assume an attitude like that of the man "from Missouri." 
More progress has been made in the last sixteen years in our 
knowledge of syphilis than in the four and a quarter centuries 
elapsing since it became notorious at the siege of Naples. First 
of all (1905) the cause was traced to an animalcule, next year a 
nearly perfect means for discovering its presence was introduced, 
and in a few years more the famous "606" was given out. All 
these three steps were due to the Germans. 
Cause. The most ridiculous theories were brought out long 
ago to account for the origin, such as intercourse between men 
and animals, but these were gradually dropped as the stock of 
learning increased. When the microbes were found some years 
back to cause many diseases, it was natural to seek for the cause 
of syphilis among them, and at first the various vegetal microbes SYPHILIS 
267 
alleged to be responsible were one by one disproved. Attention 
was then directed to animalcules and this was successful- 
though in a roundabout way-for two German observers inves- 
tigating the claims of a given animalcule as the starting point 
of the disease, stumbled on the genuine cause. 
This, of course, has a jawbreaking Greek name (Spirochata 
pallida), but for our purpose I shall allude to it as "the pale 
spiral." In spite of its long name its size is excessively small. 
To measure objects seen with the microscope the mikron is 
used, this is only 1/1000 of a millimeter, which is itself-as 
will be remembered-1/25 of an inch. Accordingly our pale 
spiral measures from 6 to 15 mikrons long. Seen through the 
microscope the germ has a close resemblance to the everyday 
corkscrew, twisted in a regular and cleancut manner. The 
turns average from ten to twenty for the individual germ. 
There is no doubt as to its being the cause, it has been 
found everywhere in the body over and over again, since it was 
first met with sixteen years ago. Moreover, it has been shown 
present in the urine, the seminal fluid and the breast milk. 
Some microbes have little paddles, as it were, attached to 
the edges by which they propel themselves, our pale spiral has 
none of these. Nevertheless, it moves-though somewhat slowly 
-in the direction of its length, and twisting on itself as it 
travels. 
Manner of Infection. While syphilis can be transmitted 
experimentally to animals (the manlike apes, rabbits, etc.), for 
all practical purposes it may be said to be confined to human 
beings. Hence the disease is transmitted by contact-sexually 
or otherwise-between such human beings. In most instances 
it follows sexual relations; in a small number it may be due to 
use of drinking cups, pipes, spoons, forks and so on which have 
been used shortly before by syphilitic individuals and not 
cleaned. 
The latest estimate as to the frequency of this indirect con- 
veyance is between 5 and 10 per cent. 
The pale spiral under proper conditions can be kept alive 
for a few days outside the body, otherwise it dies in a short 
time, say five or six-maybe eight-hours. Fortunately there is 
a great difference here from the germ causing consumption, 268 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
which may remain alive and dangerous for days, weeks, and 
even months after leaving the body. 
Course of Disease. Syphilis is important since it is 
transmitted to the second generation, and it is the only disease 
of consequence which is capable of such transmission. In con- 
sumption it is the weakened resistance to disease which is trans- 
mitted ; and it is still uncertain whether cancer is hereditary 
or not. 
THE PALE SPIRAL (SPIROCHAETA PALLIDA) 
This little animalcule, discovered by the late Fritz Schaudinn, is the 
cause of syphilis, (a) pus cells without spirals; (b) the pale spirals; 
(c) same inside the white blood cells. 
Besides the preparatory stage or period of incubation (A) 
three others can be distinguished: (A) The stage of incuba- 
tion, from the time of infection to the onset of Stage I, aver- 
aging three to four weeks. 
1. The primary stage is ushered in by the appearance of 
the "hard" sore (chancre), and keeps up for several weeks, six 
on the average. During this interval the whole body is being 
invaded by the poison, and an eruption of the skin which makes 
an abrupt appearance, signifies the beginning of stage II. The SYPHILIS 
269 
duration of which stage varies considerably-a few weeks or 
months; several months; or a year and more, gradually subsid- 
ing. Stage III is not always met with, but the first two are prac- 
tically constant. The reason for this is that sufficient drugs 
have been taken before the last stage is entered upon. 
(A) Preparatory Stage': The germ of syphilis makes its 
entrance through some breach of the outer skin, or the moist 
skin lining of the body (mucous membrane). We have just 
seen how small this germ is, and evidently a wound too small to 
be seen with the naked eye will be large enough to permit 
ingress. After entering the body the germs remain in place for 
some time, multiplying in number; finally they have increased 
enough to cause much irritation in the neighborhood. As a 
result there is a sore, chancre, or the start of- 
(I) The Primary Stage: It might be expected that the 
sore would speedily be noticed by the diseased individual, but 
this is not always the case. The chancre may be in the channel 
for the urine or elsewhere in the interior of the body of both 
sexes, hidden from view; or it may be so small and insignificant 
it attracts no attention whatever. In fact it is estimated that 
nearly one-half of the men with syphilis-and considerably over 
that number for women-deny the occurrence of the chancre, 
having overlooked it or forgotten all about the insignificant be- 
ginning, accompanied as it was by little or no pain. 
However, the customary chancre is a hard lump about the 
size of a split pea, which soon turns into an open sore or ulcer. 
This is usually round, single and attacks by preference the 
extremity of the penis in the male, and the external genitals in 
the female. 
Extragenital chancres can occur anywhere on the body to 
which access can be had by the pale spiral. The customary loca- 
tions are on the face (especially lips), the mouth, or the hands. 
A Philadelphia specialist has reported the infection of eight 
young girls by a single man through "kissing games" at a party. 
(II) The Secondary Stage: We now begin to meet evi- 
dence of the wide distribution of the causal germs through the 
blood. Some individuals show no disturbance of the general 
health; others, sooner or later, have some fever, loss of appetite 
and weight, then grow pale and have pains-like rheumatism- 270 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
in the bones. "Knots" or "kernels" develop, for instance along 
the side of the neck and are tender when pressed on. 
But other things being equal, the skin is most affected 
during this stage. The first manifestation is a rash, of rose- 
This picture is that of a patient in the Paris Hospital for Venereal 
Diseases. Thinning ot the hair on scalp is not uncommon, but it seldom 
reaches the extent shown. 
BALDNESS (ALOPECIA) DUE TO SYPHILIS 
colored spots, bearing some likeness to that of measles, and 
covering most of the body; the color soon fades and leaves 
brown stains which in turn disappear. The next is a series of 
hard pimples (or "papules") which differ considerably in size, SYPHILIS 
271 
but persist longer than the rose-rash. Still later there may be 
small abscesses ("pustules") like those in chickenpox. The hair 
generally falls out either over the whole scalp, or in patches 
here and there. If the abscesses are very numerous on the 
scalp, the hair roots are destroyed, and the individual has a 
motheaten appearance as a result. 
Changes similar to those on the outer skin are found in the 
lining of the mouth and throat, and producing considerable dis- 
comfort soon attract the notice of the individual. Moreover, 
the history of their presence is of much importance in deciding 
later on what the original trouble was. These ulcers covered 
with a white coat, are to be met with on the inner surface of 
the cheeks, the soft palate, tonsils and tongue. Also at the 
beginning of the windpipe, and here they may produce tem- 
porary or permanent hoarseness. The discharge from the ulcers 
in the mouth is excessively dangerous, and is usually responsible 
for the transmission by way of drinking glasses, pipes, and sim- 
ilar articles. (Many cases of syphilis are known to doctors in 
which during tattooing the "artist" moistened the needles or the 
ink in his mouth. In Belgium, years ago, so many glass-blowers 
became syphilitic by passing the blow-pipe from one to the other, 
that a law was enacted making it obligatory for each workman to 
have his own instrument.) Eye-troubles causing much dis- 
turbance of vision are seen as well. 
(Ill) The Tertiary Stage: In this stage-while any of 
the bodily structures may be attacked-the skin again leads in 
frequency; then in order the nervous system, bones, walls of 
the bloodvessels, the liver and other organs. At least this is 
the order in which masses of gummy, elastic material are de- 
posited. Such "gummas" range in size from the head of a pin 
to that of a small plum, and they appear mostly in the third 
year of the disease, then grow less with the lapse of time. While 
apparently possible at any time during the subsequent life of the 
individual, they are seldom in evidence later than the twentieth 
year of the disease. Here an exception must be made in favor 
of the arteries and the nervous system. The late Sir William 
Osler, the famous physician, wrote: "On no system does the 
virus of the disease fall with greater intensity in all stages than 
on the blood-vessels; it is safe to say that through the arteries 
syphilis kills more than through any other means." 272 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
(It must not be understood that there is any sharp division 
between these stages, that a given subject goes to sleep in the 
primary- and wakes up in the secondary-one. On the contrary, 
they merge imperceptibly into each other.) 
BABY BOY, THREE MONTHS OLD, WITH INHERITED SYPHILIS 
"Snuffles" since age of two months. Third child; first born dead 
and prematurely (at six months) ; second died at age of five months. 
Hereditary Syphilis: It is well known to doctors that syph- 
ilis is the principal cause of children being born dead ("still- 
births"). When the baby is infected through the mother at any 
time during the first half of pregnancy, it is very apt to die. If 
born alive the evidences of the disease make their appearance 
quickly in the form of "snuffles," the nose being stopped up by 
a thin discharge, and a copper-colored eruption on the skin. 
The bones, joints and eyes are likewise involved. Of 302 chil- 
dren, the symptoms appeared in the first month in 140; in the 
second in 71; in the third in 71; and in the remaining 20 at 
various times before the end of the second year. SYPHILIS 
273 
An uncommon variety of "tardy" hereditary syphilis usually 
makes itself manifest before puberty, though it may be long 
delayed, up to 20, 25 or more years. Transmission to the third 
generation is possible, though no undoubted instance has been 
recorded thus far. 
Eye troubles sometimes develop and leave scars which pre- 
vent the rays of light passing through and interfere much with 
sight. In a few cases deafness develops in time, and may affect 
both ears, and that permanently. Another variety of this heredi- 
tary type is the changes in the teeth called "Hutchinson teeth" 
from the English surgeon who first called attention to them. The 
ones especially involved are the central teeth above, which are 
further apart, somewhat peg-shaped and with a decided notch 
on the cutting edge. As only the permanent teeth are thus 
changed, this will not be in evidence till about 8 years of age. 
Hutchinson's teeth, the condition found in inherited syphilis 
Of course, children may become affected by acquired syphi- 
lis the same as adults. This may occur from kissing, etc.; it 
has often followed the rite of circumcision, and was not un- 
known in former days when vaccination for smallpox was done 
from arm-to-arm instead of with calf-lymph as at present. 
Frequency and Prevention of Syphilis. As is the case 
with everything which has to deal with man and his activities, the 
most diverse figures have been sent out regarding the ratio in 
which syphilis may be expected among the populace at large. 
It has been estimated that over 10 per cent, of the male adults 
in Europe have the disease, and from 5 to 10 per cent, of the same 
population in this country. However, for the U. S., the ratio 
apparently is not increasing to judge from the statistics of the 
Public Health Service: From 1881-90, when 30,000 to 50.000 
patients per annum were treated, the highest per cent, of those with 
syphilis was 9.7 and the lowest, 7.6. From 1910-14, the total had 
risen to 50,000 to 53,000 and the extremes were 8.8 and 6 per cent. 
A French observer found the disease was most often con- 
tracted in men between the ages of 20 and 26-the maximum be- 274 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
ing 23 years; in women between the ages of 18 and 21-the maxi- 
mum being 20 years. Some 8 women and 20 men out of every 100 
of each sex contracted the disease before the age of 20. In the 
U. S. it is believed the greater number of infections occur from 
20 to 25 years of age. So far as prostitutes are concerned, about 
one-half are diseased, but the longer they resort to this calling 
naturally the more chances of infection, and it is claimed that 
with the lapse of time practically every one is syphilitic. 
In considering the prevention of syphilis I shall not discuss 
the "redlight district" and its denizens, which is dwelt on else- 
where. Much has been done in the past few years in this country 
to lessen the ravages-prohibition of the common drinking cup, of 
common towels, supervision of barber shops, hotel-, restaurant- 
and other employes having to do with the preparation and serving 
of food. Some have even gone so far as to advise individual 
communion cups. Some states and cities have enacted laws and 
ordinances making syphilis a reportable disease, the same as diph- 
theria, etc., and furnishing free treatment. 
Coming now to prevention proper, and disregarding the 
moral or ethical side of the problem, it has been found that by 
means of certain drugs within an hour after exposure, 99.6 per 
cent, of the cases are prevented from acquiring venereal disease. 
(The usual one is 33 per cent calomel in wool-fat (lanolin) oint- 
ment.) This figure is furnished by Moore based on his experi- 
ence in Paris with the American troops.* 
Recognition of Syphilis. Not so many years ago doctors 
had considerable difficulty at times in deciding that they had to 
deal with syphilis in a given patient. In many the appearance-• 
and especially the feel-of the sore were conclusive, in others 
they were deceptive, and in doubtful cases it was sometimes the 
custom to wait till the case was cleared up by the rose-rash on the 
skin. For some sixteen years, we have, as already stated, been in 
possession of a trustworthy test for detecting the presence of 
syphilis in the body. For the first few days after the chancre 
makes its appearance, the Wassermann (for so the test is called 
after its originator) is usually absent, it then rapidly becomes 
present, from about 25 per cent, of all cases in first week to about 
75 to 80 per cent, in fifth week. The test is particularly valuable 
late in the disease, when untreated cases often show it in 95 out 
*Jour. Ant 'r. y^dica! Arscc , Oct. 2, 1920. SYPHILIS 
275 
THE LATE PAUL EHRLICH (1854-1915) 
In his laboratory at Frankfort-on-the-Main he carried on an extensive 
series of investigations on the blood, etc. Turning his attention to syphilis, 
he made several hundred researches, and at length (1910) No. "606" 
proved to be the long sought-for remedy. 276 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
of every 100 cases. The cost of the test is not high even by private 
chemists, and many of the states and large cities arrange to have 
it done free for worthy individuals. 
Even when too early for this test, the characteristic pale 
spirals can be detected in the primary sore by recently discovered 
methods, and proper treatment commenced at once. 
Treatment of Syphilis. This is quite outside the scope of 
this book. But it may be stated in passing that almost marvelous 
results have been had of late years by the use of "606" (or 
arsphenamine as it is now called), in addition to the mercury 
which has been the standby for hundreds of years. 
The Consequences of Syphilis. Several of these have 
already been referred to. In addition to the lifelong invalidism 
of the parents is the enormous death-rate among the children. 
The French author just mentioned, had unusual opportuni- 
ties for seeing the ravages of the disease, since he was on the 
staff of the large Paris hospital which admits only patents with 
that and other forms of skin disease. Several years ago he wrote 
that of 4,700 patients under his charge, 2,009 had paralysis of the 
brain and spinal marrow. This seems to be exceptional, for the 
latest figures are that from 1 to 5 per cent, only of individuals 
with syphilis end with these paralyses. On the other hand loco- 
motor ataxia is in most instances due to syphilis, and many 
writers of late do not describe it under that name but as "syphilis 
of the spinal marrow." 
In 1914, the experience of all the American life-insurance 
companies with all kinds of disease was published. The number 
of known or suspected syphilitic subjects was very large-25,000, 
and there were 328 deaths, while the expected deaths by insur- 
ance companies were 198.82. In other words, the excess of 
deaths was almost 70 per cent., and the average expectation of 
life at the different ages was lessened by about 5% years. 
SYPHILIS A PROBLEM OF THE NATIONS* 
To give a purely technical definition, "Syphilis is a contagious 
disease, chronic in evolution, intermittent in manifestations, 
and indefinite in duration, caused by a specific microbe discovered 
by Schaudinn in 1905." Or in more simple language, syphilis is 
a disease caused by a certain definite poison which is introduced 
•By A. Corbett-Smith. SYPHILIS 
277 
AUGUST VON WASSERMANN '(BORN 1866) 
In 1906 discovered the nearly infallible means for detecting syphilis, 
called after him the "Wassermann test." 278 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
into the system only by actual contact with the poisoned or in- 
fected part of another's body, or an article. When once infected, 
and unless adequate remedies and treatment are forthcoming, the 
poison may in time permeate to any part of the body, from the 
glands nearest to the infected spot to the nervous system itself. 
Speaking generally a person may become infected in one of 
two ways: by (a) sexual contact, i. e., through sexual intercourse 
with an infected person, and (b) non-sexual contact, i. e., from 
some infected person, or from an article, such as a barber's razor, 
a vaccination lancet, &c., or from kissing, from drinking out of 
an infected cup, &c. Under this heading I will include all cases 
of "innocent" contagion. 
While sexual infection is by far the more common, yet it is a 
grave mistake not to take serious account of the large number of 
cases due to non-sexual contact. A mistake because of the atti- 
tude of stern morality which people are wont to adopt towards the 
unfortunate sufferer; the conviction that the disease must neces- 
sarily be due to-a "moral lapse," shall we say? 
The poison of syphilis is by no means confined, as is popu- 
larly supposed, to the genital organs, although that is naturally 
the region where the disease, when due to sexual contact, more 
commonly first manifests itself. 
Syphilis is a chronic disease. That is to say, when once the 
poison has invaded the system, the body remains in a state of in- 
fection, either latent or open, for an absolutely indefinite period. 
The disease may show signs of its presence five or ten years after 
the original infection. Cases are recorded of symptoms appearing 
from twenty-five to fifty-five years after. 
But these symptoms are intermittent in their appearances. 
Though the body may remain infected there may quite possibly be 
no visible sign of the disease, save at intervals. The patient may, 
in fact, imagine himself to be fully cured. Then another out- 
break, more serious than the last, may appear in a totally different 
part of the body. Fournier compares a body in such a condition 
to a volcano in a state of intermittent eruption; a series of dis- 
tinct outbreaks separated by periods of quiescence. 
The symptoms of syphilis are classified under three distinct 
heads, as they appear in chronological order. Thus the first 
appearance of the disease after contagion, usually in about thirty SYPHILIS 
279 
days, and evidenced by no more than a comparatively insignificant 
sore called the chancre, is spoken of as the primary symptom. 
This primary period usually lasts about six weeks, and the 
chancre, which appears at the spot where contagion was effected, 
will probably heal up quite rapidly. The chancre is in many cases 
so insignificant that it may readily be mistaken for a pimple, a 
small abrasion; or, indeed, it may not even be noticed. Attention 
is generally directed to the chancre by a certain itching, or feeling 
of irritation. This is an ordinary, normal case, but it must be 
remembered that in all stages of the disease, even from the pri- 
mary period, the severity of the attack and the exact nature of the 
symptoms vary with the individual. 
Imagine then that the primary period has run its course; that 
the symptoms have been made light of, or that the application of 
remedies has ceased with their speedy disappearance. The 
secondary period is then entered. The poison has by now more 
or less thoroughly permeated the entire body, and it begins to in- 
dicate its presence by eruptions on the skin and mucous mem- 
branes. Generally the secondary symptoms begin with a rash 
upon the trunk, or perhaps with headaches and insomnia, and, in 
women, particularly with anemia. There may follow such dis- 
orders as ophthalmia, pains in various joints and muscles, affec- 
tions of the nerves. 
In all this there is nothing really serious; nothing, that is, 
which may not be cured comparatively easily. The particular 
danger of the secondary period lies in the fact that it is the period 
when the disease is most contagious, when it becomes most dan- 
gerous to others. There is, naturally, acute discomfort, even pain, 
and certainly disfigurement. These symptoms should subside 
under proper treatment. "By itself it is a trifle; but by its con- 
tagiousness it is a plague." 
If then the subject has, at this stage, consented to undergo 
prolonged and careful treatment, and if such treatment has proved 
successful, then one may reasonably expect to find the disease at 
an end. But if the subject has been insufficiently treated then the 
tertiary symptoms are inevitable. In fact the chief cause of the 
development of tertiary symptoms is almost invariably inadequate 
treatment. At the same time, however, it should be observed that 
there is no sharp dividing line between secondary and tertiary 
symptoms. Cases of secondary or contagious lesions have been 280 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
observed so long as fifteen years after the original infection; and 
instances of tertiary lesions have been recorded during the second 
year of the disease. 
INFLAMMATION OF THE BONE COVERING '(PERIOSTITIS) DUE TO SYPHILIS 
These specimens from an English museum are very old, before the 
use of iodid of potash was known. In some instances (right-hand) only 
one surface was diseased, in others both sides. The bone has died in 
places, and has fallen out, giving rise to holes in the skull. 
But assuming, once again, inadequate treatment we now come 
to the real disease in all its gravity. It is the tertiary period 
which makes syphilis the hideous plague it is. In a work of this 
nature, destined for wide general circulation, one naturally hesi- 
tates to state definitely what these symptoms are. And yet if this SYPHILIS 
281 
is not done how else may one bring home to the public the 
meaning of syphilis? Perhaps it will be best to give here, with 
but little comment, a table prepared by Fournier to show, in rela- 
ative proportion, the various organs attacked by the disease in its 
tertiary period. Observations had been carried out upon 4,700 
patients:- 
Cases 
Affections of the skin .. .. .. .. 1,518 
Subcutaneous tumors .. .. .. .. 220 
Tertiary lesions of the genital organs .. .. 540 
" " " tongue .. .. .. 277 
" " " palate .. .. .. 218 
" " " throat 118 
" " " lips 45 
" " " tonsils .. .. .. 12 
" " " nasal mucous membrane 10 
" " " bones .. .. .. 556 
" " " joints 22 
" " " muscles .. .. .. 23 
" " " digestive tube .. .. 22 
" " " larynx .. .. .. 36 
" " " lung 23 
" " " heart 12 
" " " aorta 14 
" " " liver 11 
" " " kidney .. .. .. 39 
" " " eye Ill 
" " "ear 28 
" " " arteries and veins .. 17 
Syphilis of the brain, spinal cord and nervous 
system generally .. .. .. .. 2,009 
Other lesions .. .. .. .. .. 22 
Two points, arising out of the above table, suitably call for 
comment. The first thing which must at once strike the reader is 
the astonishing ubiquity of the disease; that no single organ of the 
body is immune from attack. I have referred to the fact that the 
severity and exact nature of that attack vary with the individual 
subject. Thus, taking three cases of tertiary symptoms, the first 
subject may develop epilepsy, the second some form of lung dis- 
ease, and the third may become totally blind. 
The second point which will be noticed is the enormous num- 
ber of cases in which the nervous system is affected: 2,009 in 
4,700 patients! Does this fact throw any additional light upon 
my introductory remarks on the subject of insanity? The very 
center and directing agent of the human body forms the chief 
point of attack by tertiary syphilis. And the converse of this is 
equally true: that syphilis is by far the most important cause of 
disease of the nervous system. 282 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The close inter-relationship between syphilis and the degene- 
ration of the nervous system would provide material for a bulky 
volume. Especially is this so at the present time when, owing to 
the conditions under which most of us live, the nervous system 
offers less and less resistance to the strain placed upon it. Statis- 
tics for the United States are not available, but the evidence given 
by specialists all tends to confirm the experience of Fournier. 
Director of the Pasteur Institute (Paris), member of the Paris 
Academy of Medicine, and the Academy of Sciences. With Metchnikoff 
succeeded in inoculating the man-like apes with syphilis. Also prominent 
in introducing antitoxin for prevention and cure of diphtheria. 
EMILE ROUX 
The report upon the census of 1911 in England and Wales 
has recently been published. There has been a steady increase 
in the rate of insanity since 1871, which has assumed alarming 
proportions in the case of children under fifteen years of age. 
With these the figure stands at 823 per million, showing an increase SYPHILIS 
283 
since 1871 of 30.8 per cent. Taking all ages together, 4,491 per 
million were insane, an increase of 10.1 per cent since 1901. 
Further, about 60 per cent of cases known to be syphilitic admitted 
into asylums between the years 1908-12 were general paralytics. 
A serious state of things indeed. 
SYPHILIS AND OTHER DISEASES 
We have seen from Fournier's statistics that no single organ 
of the body is immune from syphilitic attack. But it is possible 
to go further and to assert that there are few disorders or diseases 
known to mankind which may not be developed, either directly 
or indirectly, from syphilis. Since the discovery of the Wasser- 
mann test, we have come directly to connect an ever-increasing 
number of diseases with syphilis. So remarkable have been the 
results of the test that we may assert that at least one-half of all 
disease, if not a still larger proportion, is due more or less directly 
to syphilis. If gonorrhea be also taken into account, I should be 
strongly disposed to say, from a careful study of the question, that 
perhaps two-thirds of the diseases known to civilization either 
have their origin in sexual disease, or that sexual disease is an 
important predisposing cause of them. 
Now that is a serious statement to make, but I will give some 
further evidence in support of it. Dr. Carl H. Browning, the 
Director of the Pathological Laboratories, Glasgow University, 
has recently carried out observations upon 3,000 cases. In this 
work he used the most scrupulous care and precision of detail not 
only in aiming at a complete investigation in each case of (a) the 
condition of the patient, (&) the condition of members of the 
patient's family, and (c) the history of the health of the patient 
and his family; but also in the actual working of the Wassermann 
test. I may, however, add that Dr. Browning first of all thor- 
oughly satisfied himself that the test gave what is called a "posi- 
tive reaction" only when the poison of syphilis was actually 
present. Here is a summary of the results: 
(1) Among 331 unselected cases of children attending hos- 
pital as outdoor patients, syphilis was present in a proportion of 
14 per cent. 
(2) Mental Deficiency and Epilepsy.-Out of 204 cases of 
young people examined, syphilis was present in 95 cases; 46 per 
cent. Of these, 105 children were either under school age (13 284 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
being less than 5 years old) or were not fit to attend through men- 
tal defect. Taking into account as well other members of the 
patients' families, the proportion of syphilitic infection was found 
to be 59 per cent. 
(3) Heart Disease in Children.-25 cases were examined. 
Infection was present in 17 and 1 doubtful, the ages of these 
ranging from 1 month to 3 years. Of the 18 cases, 9 died when 
less than 6 months old. 
Russian scientist. In addition to numerous discoveries in other lines, 
with Roux, succeeded in inoculating the man-like apes with syphilis. 
Received the Nobel prize in 1908. 
THE LATE ELIE METCHNIKOFF '(1845-1916) 
(4) Deafness in Children.-82 deaf children were examined; 
17 gave a "positive" reaction. There was, further, every indica- 
tion that syphilis plays a much greater part in this condition than 
could be detected by the test. 
(5) Ozena (bone diseases).-Out of 52 cases, 16 gave a 
"positive" reaction (30 per cent). 
(6) Aortic Disease.-Out of 46 cases a "positive" reaction 
was present in 64 per cent. 
(7) Nervous Diseases.-122 cases were examined. A "posi- 
tive" reaction was given in 41 per cent. SYPHILIS 
285 
(8) Eye Diseases.-Out of 84 cases the presence of syphilis 
was indicated in no fewer than 57. In one form of eye diseases 
(interstitial keratitis) the percentage was 95 per cent of "positive" 
reactions. 
(9) Severe Gynecological Ailments of Women.-37 cases 
were examined: 20 gave "positive" reactions, and 2 others had 
children who gave similar indications of syphilis. Of another 
subdivision 39 cases were examined and 18 reacted "positively," 
59 and 46 per cent. 
These results of Dr. Browning's observations, taken in con- 
junction with Fournier's statistics, certainly furnish us with very 
weighty evidence. It will be observed that a large proportion of 
Dr. Browning's cases were children, and therefore that the taint 
of syphilis was hereditary or congenital. This fact bears upon 
the question of "innocent" contagion, which we have yet to con- 
sider ; also upon the hereditary effects of syphilis, which will also 
be dealt with in due course. 
And yet in face of all these appalling facts we still go on 
drifting. One is simply dumb with astonishment that no practical 
measures have ever been taken to enlighten the public. What is 
the use of publishing articles in medical journals and leaving them 
there to be bound up at the end of the year? What is the use of 
reading papers at minor congresses, and passing resolutions which 
are forgotten in a month? The public will not listen? The sub- 
ject is too dreadful? The public must be made to listen; and to 
insist that these Augean Stables of civilization shall be cleansed. 
Sexual disease is less dangerous than tuberculosis or even 
gout if only it is attacked in its primary stages. 
If the nations can enter upon a great campaign against tuber- 
culosis, which is far less serious-I say nothing of the sequelae of 
syphilis and gonorrhea-who will assert that sexual disease can- 
not similarly be attacked ? 
I wonder how much money is spent annually in trying to con- 
vert the so-called heathen to Christianity. I wonder how much 
time, money, and energy is being wasted over half-a-dozen politi- 
cal and party questions of the day. How many people are affected 
in any real degree by them? How many by this curse of civili- 
zation? What is the Church doing towards stemming the tide of 
disease? Is it concentrating its energies upon making its adherents 
a cleaner, healthier, finer body of men and women, of genuine 286 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
service to themselves, their families, and their country; or is it 
bent rather upon nurturing their souls for the hereafter? 
SYPHILITIC GUMMAS ON LEG, WHICH HAVE BROKEN DOWN, FORMING ULCERS 
The solution of the problem lies in the education of the indi- 
vidual. What is being done to that end? 
NON-SEXUAL, OR INNOCENT CONTAGION 
I have indicated that a person may acquire syphilis either by 
sexual intercourse or by contact with some infected person or 
article. In considering this latter form it will be more convenient SYPHILIS 
287 
if we further qualify those two divisions and speak of syphilis 
either as "merited" or "innocent." Under the former will nat- 
urally be classed the majority of cases of the disease, where con- 
tagion has been effected through what may be termed extra-marital 
intercourse. Under the latter we may include those cases in which 
an individual has acquired the disease innocently. 
As cases of "innocent" contagion I would include (a) wives 
who have contracted the disease from their husbands; (&) chil- 
dren from their parents or nurses; (c) medical men and nurses 
from their patients; and (J) generally, those from infected 
articles. 
In these days, when hardly a week passes which does not see 
some new bogey dangled before the public by the medical or daily 
press, those who insist upon the dangers in impure milk, unclean 
restaurant dishes, the house fly and half a hundred similar germ 
carriers, have come to be regarded with an amused tolerance. 
Similarly if I set forth here a few cases of syphilis acquired by 
such contagion, I shall at once be met with the criticism that they 
are but isolated cases and have no real bearing upon the preva- 
lence of the disease. But if we would be honest in our endeavor 
to discover the real meaning and significance of syphilis, we must 
take into consideration such cases of "unmerited" contagion. 
Admit, by all means, that those cases are in the minority, but, in 
doing so, remember that the suffering caused by them is propor- 
tionately greater, because the subjects are innocent; and remember 
that the factor of heredity is now at work. 
Apart from the fact that sexual disease is not a topic of polite 
conversation, one of the principal reasons why methods of pre- 
vention have not been seriously taken in hand by national govern- 
ments is that the disease is always presumed to be due to immo- 
rality. Whenever definite measures have been advocated-and 
this has happened so many times within the last fifty years-they 
have invariably been met by certain intensely moral individuals 
who have argued that a premium would thus be put upon vice. 
"Sexual disease," they assert, "is an admirable corrective; it is 
a just retribution. Give us tuberculosis or smallpox to deal with 
and we shall be most happy to pass any bill. These involve no 
question of immorality; the sufferers are all innocent people. But 
sexual disease! If a man likes to go out of his way to expose 288 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
himself to infection, and to seek for it in a questionable manner, 
then he must abide by the consequences." 
Innocent Contagion in Women.-To take this subdivision 
first. In twenty-seven years of private practice Fournier states 
SYPHILIS AT TIMES ATTACKS THE FINGERNAILS AND THE NEARBY STRUCTURES, 
CAUSING VARIOUS DEFORMITIES OF THE NAILS. OCCASIONALLY ULCERS 
FORM DESTROYING THE NAIL COMPLETELY, AND IT IS NEVER REFORMED. 
that 887 women affected with syphilis passed through his consult- 
ing room. These he distinctly classified into 842 cases where the 
disease was of sexual origin, and 45 where it was certainly non- 
sexual. This was his first classification, and it gave a figure of a 
little over 5 per cent of cases of unmerited contagion. He then SYPHILIS 
289 
carefully considered the 842 cases. Bringing his observations 
down to percentage form Fournier states that "out of 100 women 
affected with syphilis 81 belong to the loose women of all classes, 
and 19 are married women." Thus, adding these two percentages 
together, the figure was obtained of nearly 25 per cent as the 
average of cases of unmerited syphilis in women. 
"That is my reply," says Fournier, "to those who regard 
syphilis as being necessarily due to immorality." He adds, further, 
that he had observed the most scrupulous care and impartiality in 
making these deductions; and that Ricord, his teacher, remarked 
in comment, "You have not exaggerated the point at all; I have 
seen the same as you, and in the same proportions." Such is the 
result of observations in Paris upon patients drawn from all classes 
of society. Have we any reason to suppose that the facts will 
differ materially in this country? [England] 
I put this point to Mr. J. Ernest Lane, the senior surgeon of 
St. Mary's Hospital, and asked him what he had to say upon the 
subject. He tells me that the most significant fact of the present 
time is that the majority of the female patients whom he has to 
treat are very young girls, mostly under the age of 20. That 15 
per cent of the patients are married women, and therefore presum- 
ably mostly innocent. "All the cases," he said, "in the children's 
wards and the greater part of the married women are cases of 
'innocent' syphilis." 
It must be remembered that these are cases passing 
through a public hospital; that the observations do not take 
any account of the well-to-do classes, the upper and middle strata 
of society, who would naturally seek treatment from private prac- 
titioners. Bear carefully in mind what I have already said about 
the nature and characteristics of syphilis, and then apply some of 
those details to any one of the cases mentioned by Fournier and 
Lane. Those innocent women, and children, now in our hospitals 
are not being treated for a trivial complaint from which they will 
shortly recover and face the world again completely healed. It is 
fairly safe to presume that the majority of them are already in an 
advanced stage of the disease and that previous treatment, before 
they thought of entering hospital, was wholly inadequate. Hence 
their present condition, and hence the increased difficulty in effect- 
ing a total cure. 
It means that, in all probability, for each case in the wards 290 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
there may be three more outside not being treated. Apart from 
the husband who has infected his wife you must take into account 
other possible members of the household. The chances are that 
the woman has had no idea how contagious her disease is. Her 
children may have become infected by the mother's kiss. A friend 
may have been similarly infected. The servant, or the daily help, 
may have drunk out of an infected cup, and, in her turn, taken 
the disease to her own home. You will see that the possibilities 
are simply endless. And when that point has been grasped, then 
think what syphilis actually means, what it looks like. 
Syphilis and Marriage.-There almost invariably arises con- 
siderable difficulty in affording adequate treatment to the husband 
or wife who has become infected, or in whom the symptoms 
develop after marriage. And the reason is the very natural one 
that neither cares to confess to the other, even if the gravity of 
the disease is appreciated. Consequently a local druggist or an 
advertising "quack" is often consulted, secret remedies are applied, 
and the poison of the disease continues at its insidious work until 
some virulent outbreak or collapse ensues. This will perhaps 
throw a little more light upon the nature of the cases in the hos- 
pitals to which I have referred. 
In married women the early symptoms of syphilis are very 
frequently mistaken for those of some other ailment. Thus even 
secret remedies may not be applied until the disease has got a firm 
hold. And I need hardly add that in such secret remedy cases the 
danger of infection for other members of the family is very great. 
These several facts probably account in great measure for the 
higher statistic percentage of women, as compared with men, who 
develop the more serious disorders of tertiary syphilis. For the 
percentage is higher. 
The second factor in syphilis and marriage which calls for 
mention is the more advanced age of the individual concerned. I 
mean that syphilis is more dangerous in the old than the young. 
A married woman of 28, for instance, may possibly develop graver 
symptoms than would a girl of 19. 
It will be observed that I have made no reference to the 
morality of the matter. Is it really necessary to do so? In writ- 
ing of this subject of sexual disease I believe that the best way 
to carry conviction of its gravity is to confine myself so far as 
possible to simple statements of fact. If these will not convince SYPHILIS 
291 
then "a little bench of heedless bishops here," with all their preach- 
ing, would fail. 
I could, were I so minded, draw lurid pictures of families 
into which the plague of syphilis has been introduced by the hus- 
band. To a pure-minded, virtuous woman syphilis is a loathsome 
thing, a thing belonging to debauched and loose women. It needs 
little imagination to conjure up the results when it has crept into 
the home. I recall a case where the wife, after two miscarriages, 
gave birth to a child infected with syphilis which died almost 
immediately. Then the revelation of the disease came upon her 
in a lightning flash, she realized that her husband was the mur- 
derer of her three children. Mad with grief and hate she stabbed 
him to the heart, and then killed herself. 
Certainly this was an exceptional tragedy, but the case-books 
of private practitioners will furnish hundreds of narratives of 
lesser tragedies-of divorce, social ruin and all the attendant 
miseries to husband, wife and children. 
Syphilis, during the active period of life, does not as a rule 
lead to sterility in the wife, but it is estimated that 42 per cent of 
miscarriages and abortions are due to the disease. With both 
parents infected the proportion is so high as 70 per cent. 
Proper treatment will hold syphilis in abeyance even if it does 
not actually cure it. From careful comparison of results the broad 
rule has been established that: without adequate treatment abor- 
tion will result; with proper treatment there will be healthy chil- 
dren; but when the treatment ceases there will be syphilitic 
children. 
It is asserted that the elimination of sexual diseases will put 
a premium upon immorality. Even supposing, for the sake of 
argument, that it will, what have we to say for the 20 to 25 women 
out of a hundred, to say nothing of the children, who are inno- 
cently condemned to such suffering? Have they no claims upon 
our sense of justice? 
And yet, with all that I have said about these tragedies of 
"innocent" contagion, I would again emphasize the fact that, with 
the sterling remedies which are now at command, sexual disease 
is less serious than tuberculosis if only treatment is secured and 
persisted in from the very beginning. It depends upon the indi- 
vidual. 
Children and the Heredity Factor.-Speaking in a general 292 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
sense, the unborn babe, or the child after birth, may become 
infected with the poison of syphilis in one of three ways, which 
may be further subdivided: 
(1) By hereditary transmission. This means either (a) that 
the (potential) mother is already infected with the poison before 
the child is actually conceived, or (&) that the father transfers 
the poison to the mother in the spermatozoa. 
(2) By congenital transmission. This means that the unborn 
child has been conceived in a healthy condition, but has become 
infected either before or at birth from the infection of the mother 
subsequent to conception. 
GIRL, 20 YEARS OF AGE, WITH "SADDLE-NOSE" AND FINE SCARS ABOUT MOUTH 
FROM INHERITED SYPHILIS. 
(3) By contagion after birth. That is when a healthy child 
is born, but the disease is subsequently acquired from an infected 
parent, a nurse, or, generally, from an infected article. 
Taking (1) and (2) we come to speak of "transmission" as 
being either (a) Mixed, from both parents; or (&) Maternal, 
which includes infection from the mother either at conception or 
during pregnancy; or (c) Paternal, where the mother is healthy, 
but the poison is conveyed as noted in (1), b. 
What I desire to emphasize at this point is the appalling child 
mortality which results from infected parents. The above per- SYPHILIS 
293 
centage figures give some indication of this, and I would invite a 
very thoughtful attention to them. Let me set them down in 
tabular form: 
Mode of transmission 
Syphilis present in 
Death-rate 
Mixed 
92 per cent. 
84 " 
68.5 per cent. 
Maternal 
60 
Paternal 
37 " 
28 
Take only the least dangerous of those subdivisions, that of 
paternal transmission. There we find that children born from an 
infected father and a healthy mother die in the proportion of 
1 in 4. But look at the figures of mixed and maternal trans- 
mission. They are almost too terrible to realize. It has, in fact, 
been laid down as an axiom that a child born of a mother in a 
state of recent infection is almost fatally condemned to death. 
The case-books of an eminent specialist in private practice 
record the history of 44 women who became pregnant in a state 
of infection. Of the 44 births there were 43 deaths and one living 
child! The same specialist also records 208 births from 100 
infected women. Of these 60 only survived. The remainder were 
miscarriages or stillbirths. A mortality of 71 per cent! And all 
of these cases were drawn from the upper and middle classes, to 
whom the best medical care was open, and who may have been 
presumed to possess a reasonable amount of intelligence and 
knowledge. Imagine the figure in the case of the lower classes. 
Another set of cases was that of 90 women, infected by their 
husbands, who became pregnant during the first year of the dis- 
ease. The births resulted as follows: Fifty miscarriages or still- 
births, 38 deaths shortly after birth, and two infants who survived. 
A death-roll of 88 out of 90. Again all these cases were drawn 
from the higher classes of society, and observed in the course of 
private practice. 
It is of the first importance to note that these three series of 
observations were taken in the ordinary course of practice; that 
there was no idea of selecting a number of malignant cases with 
a view to making a pessimistic return. The figures were compared 
with the results obtained by some fifteen other specialists, and the 
outcome was practically identical, the mortality averaging 77 per 
cent. 
Dr. Hochringer, of Vienna, published in 1910 the results of 
his observations at the Children's Hospital in that city. He 294 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
records that out of 516 births from syphilis-infected parents 253 
were born dead or died soon after birth. Of the 263 survivors 
55 died before the age of 4, despite careful treatment; and of the 
remaining 208 only 51 were normally healthy. Once again then 
we find a similar percentage, only about 25 per cent of syphilis- 
infected children growing into healthy adults. 
In fact, in every country from which I have gathered informa- 
tion, the story is the same. I have referred to the prevalence of 
the disease in certain villages in Russia; I will quote from two 
more authorities in that country. A careful record was kept in 
Moscow for ten years. During that time there were recorded 
2,002 births from syphilis-infected parents. Of this number only 
577 children survived. A mortality of 71 per cent! Dr. Tar- 
nowsky records a case of three families with 22 children. Of all 
these individuals only one healthy adult survived. 
Major H. C. French, R.A.M.C., records his personal experi- 
ence of a similar condition of affairs in India between the years 
1896 and 1901. 
Dr. Bennie gives evidence in support of his theory that every 
child possesses a syphilitic taint if either parent has ever had 
syphilis. He adds that of Australian children 10 per cent are so 
infected, and that for these the chances of death before puberty 
are seven times as great as in the case of normally healthy 
children. 
Hereditary Symptoms in Children.-In speaking of innocent 
contagion of children I have dealt so far solely with effects upon 
mortality. We have now to consider very briefly the effects of 
syphilis upon living children. I may add that for my authorities 
upon this question I rely chiefly upon the record of Professor 
Fournier, Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, Dr. C. F. Marshall, and 
others. 
For the sake of convenience I will adopt Fournier's sum- 
mary, in three groups: 
(1) The symptoms which affect the individual in a partial 
manner only, i. e., the part of a system, or a single organ. 
(2) Those affecting the body as a whole. 
(3) Those which are still more serious, and constitute 
monstrosities. 
As regards the third subdivision, which is comparatively 
uncommon, I think it unnecessary, for obvious reasons, to speak. SYPHILIS 
295 
The ordinary symptoms of syphilis are, for the most part, 
absent in infected children. The effect of the poison manifests 
itself in such ways as malformations of the teeth (which are 
particularly common) and palate; of the head and skull; of the 
CHILDREN BORN OF SYPHILITIC PARENTS MAY EXHIBIT EVIDENCES OF THE DIS- 
EASE WHEN BORN. SOME, HOWEVER, DO NOT SHOW ANY MARKED EVI- 
DENCE UNTIL LATER ON. 
spine, nose, eyes and ears; of the limbs, such as dislocations of 
the hip, club-foot, etc.; and in disorders of the heart, etc. All 
these are included under the first subdivision. 
Under the second subdivision are included cases where the 
general constitution, temperament or vital resistance is affected; 296 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
where the child is born "a weakly, puny, wizened creature," too 
weak to suck or cry. Or it may be brought to life seemingly 
healthy and may, in a few years, be carried off because it does not 
appear to have the will to live; dying of no definite complaint, 
just passing away. 
Another type, under this subdivision, is the child whose 
physical development is permanently arrested; a stunted growth 
like that of a Japanese dwarf tree, and yet growing older, ever 
older. 
Then there is this question of Mental Deficiency in children. 
Some observations of the first importance on the subject have 
recently been carried out by Dr. Kate Fraser and Dr. H. Ferguson 
Watson, upon 204 mentally deficient children, ranging from 1 
month to 8 years old. In the great majority of cases there were 
no palpable traces whatever of syphilis, even when an examination 
of the parents and relatives gave practically conclusive evidence 
that it must be present. Of these 204 cases the presence of syph- 
ilis was detected, by the Wassermann test, in no fewer than 60 
per cent. 
Summing up, these specialists concluded that syphilis was the 
causative factor in more titan 50 per cent of cases of mental 
deficiency; and that syphilis was associated with a far higher 
percentage of cases than could be ascertained by an examination 
of the patients alone. 
I read in the press of a public meeting held to protest against 
the action of the head-mistress of a school in daring to instruct 
her pupils in the elements of sex hygiene. I read the comment 
of a worthy town councillor at that meeting, "We don't want our 
children to be educated as midwives." Have, then, those parents 
who thronged the hall been at pains themselves to instruct their 
children in the things which a child should learn, and in the most 
beautiful manner? Have they fulfilled their obligations in such 
a way that they may properly resent interference from a third 
person? Oh! this miserable hypocrisy and cant; are we never 
going to break it down? 
But it has to be broken down, and this generation is going 
to do it. I refuse to believe that the public will not respond so 
soon as it has learned the facts. There must be initiated such 
a campaign of education as will break up once and for all this 
conspiracy of silence. That campaign has indeed already been SYPHILIS 
297 
begun and recruits are enrolling themselves by hundreds in the 
ranks of the invading army. Let the watchword, "For the Chil- 
dren," be emblazoned upon its standard, to be carried like a fiery 
cross to the confines of the world. 
Nurses and Infants.-Leading directly out of the contagion 
of children we may suitably consider a few facts concerning the 
infection of nurses by infants; also the converse, the suckling of 
healthy children by an infected nurse. 
Particular attention has recently been directed to this ques- 
tion by the production of Brieux's play, "Damaged Goods." In 
this there is an episode where the medical attendant forbids the 
suckling, by a healthy nurse, of a child in whom syphilitic symp- 
toms have developed. 
It will at once be apparent how very real this danger must 
be. The danger is immediate when the symptoms have already 
developed; but it also exists in the numerous cases in which the 
child remains apparently healthy for some time after birth. Pinard 
gives statistics showing that symptoms appear in infants: in 70 
per cent during the first month; in 20 per cent during the second 
month; and in 10 per cent up to the end of the fourth month. 
Thus a child born of syphilitic parents cannot be held non-con- 
tagious during this period. 
The main point to be decided is the one considered by Brieux 
-whether the first duty is due to the infected infant or to the 
healthy nurse. If the infant is deprived of its natural food given 
by the natural method then it will undoubtedly suffer. On the 
other hand the nurse will become infected and will, in all prob- 
ability, spread the contagion. Here are two cases in point quoted 
by Fournier: 
(1) A child born of a syphilitic father was given to a 
healthy nurse. The child soon developed symptoms of syphilis 
and infected the nurse. The latter, in turn, infected her hus- 
band, who lost an eye by syphilitic iritis. The nurse died soon 
afterwards of syphilitic paralysis. 
(2) A husband infected his wife, and the child subse- 
quently born was given to a nurse. The child developed symp- 
toms of syphilis and infected the nurse. The nurse, in turn in- 
fected her own child, which died in a few months, and also her 
husband. The nurse also lost an eye through syphilitic iritis, 298 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
and a year later gave birth to a syphilitic child, which died in 
two months. 
From these and other similar considerations the rule must 
be established that "we have not the right to give syphilis to a 
nurse in order to save an infant." 
I will quote one case to show the converse side, viz., the in- 
fection spread by a syphilitic nurse. It will be noted that nearly 
all the cases which are given throughout this work bear upon 
several other points in addition to the one immediately at issue. 
While the details are invariably unpleasant I think that definite 
examples of the effect of syphilis will have more practical value 
than mere descriptive writing. 
A healthy child, of some 8 months, born of young and healthy 
parents, was given to a strong and apparently healthy nurse. In 
about six weeks the nurse developed certain symptoms which 
were subsequently diagnosed as syphilitic. (It was afterwards 
discovered that she had been undergoing treatment for syphilis, 
and that her child had died of the disease.) 
The child began to waste and developed sores in the mouth, 
followed by other and more serious secondary symptoms. The 
mother contracted a chancre on the lip through kissing the child; 
and this was followed by secondary symptoms, and a subsequent 
abortion. 
The grandmother also contracted the disease about the same 
time as the mother; as did also two sisters of the child, all 
developing secondary symptoms. 
Finally, the father of the child, who had been warned of the 
danger of cohabiting with his wife, also became infected, and 
subsequently developed secondary symptoms. 
Here then, in resume, were six serious contaminations and 
one death, all in a single family, through the infection introduced 
by a nurse. 
One cannot, heaven knows, exaggerate the effects of this 
disease, but I would not have it thought that my object consists 
merely in making out the case as serious as possible. My whole 
object is directed towards setting forth actual facts as clearly 
as possible and, at the same time, towards emphasizing how 
fully adequate is the treatment which medical science has at its 
command if only people will learn to avail themselves of it. That 
despite all that I have said about the ravages of syphilis the SYPHILIS 
299 
disease is less dangerous than, say, typhoid fever, if only rem- 
edies are applied and persisted in from the very outset. It de- 
pends entirely upon the individual concerned. 
THE PREVALENCE OF SYPHILIS 
Several eminent personages in Church and State who have 
perused those statistics which have already been given, have re- 
marked quite frankly that they did not believe them, and have 
advised me to be as sparing with them as possible. And if I 
have-only for the moment I hope-been unable to convince 
such masters of learning of the widespread prevalence, I fear that 
my chances of convincing the general public are very slender 
indeed. 
As I have already several times remarked, the official statis- 
tics of sexual disease are only concerned with the three specific 
forms, and take no account of the many other diseases which, we 
have seen, are so frequently the outcome. And even here we 
find further confusion in trying to arrive at an estimate. For 
it by no means necessarily follows that because the mortality 
from, say, aneurysm is on the increase, therefore syphilis is also 
on the increase. Nor must we deduce a corresponding increase 
in syphilis from the steady rise since 1876 of admissions into 
lunatic asylums. In both cases we might trace back the causes 
to the more improved methods in investigating the results of 
syphilis. 
Suppose we consider the numbers of would-be recruits an- 
nually refused admission into the army on account of their being 
infected. On the face of it, this would seem to offer a reason- 
able basis for a broad calculation as to the prevalence of sexual 
disease amongst the civil population. We should know, more- 
over, what part of the country each of these men came from, 
and this would be an additional help. 
Upon this basis we should deduce that syphilis was decidedly 
upon the decrease, for the number of refusals has been steadily 
decreasing since 1873. 
But before accepting such a deduction there are several 
facts which must be remembered. Of these the most significant 
is, I think, that candidates for enlistment are now generally well 
aware that if they go up for medical examination with symptoms 
of syphilis they will be rejected. And equally as important to 300 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
our inquiry is the fact that candidates for enlistment are by no 
means representative of the civil population. Would-be recruits 
are thus drawn from two or three classes only and we are there- 
fore entitled to draw our inferences as to prevalence of sexual 
disease only amongst those particular classes. 
Some systematic and international basis for the collection of 
statistics in sexual disease is sadly needed. Now and again a 
state or city will adopt some temporary means for collecting evi- 
dence, but it is seldom any more than the glimmer from a shep- 
herd's lantern across a dark moor. New York City, for instance, 
has just concluded a year's period of compulsory notification. 
Ten years ago the Prussian Board of Education instituted a care- 
ful inquiry throughout Germany. Most important of all, per- 
haps, we have the results of the careful investigation initiated by 
Dr. B. Burnett Ham, an investigation which has, I honestly 
believe, done more than anything else to arouse the public to an 
appreciation of the gravity of the situation. Incidentally, this 
was the first occasion in any country when any sound scientific 
basis (the Wassermann reaction) was utilized to determine the 
prevalence of syphilis on a large scale. 
But, after all, this consideration of the prevalence of syph- 
ilis is no more than a digression. The "man-in-the-street" is not 
particularly concerned with it. It may possibly form matter of 
additional interest in the same way as the succeeding articles 
on international aspects, prostitution, and other side issues, but 
that is all. I will, however, for the sake of completeness, attempt 
some kind of estimate from such selected data as we have avail- 
able. Let us take first the results of the investigation in Mel- 
bourne. 
For twelve months syphilis was made compulsorily notifiable, 
but it is known that a certain number of private practitioners did 
not report any cases. Of 5,700 cases reported, 3,160 were found 
to be syphilitic, or 0.5 per cent of the population. Five hundred 
and fifty cases at the Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital were also 
examined. Of these 13.3 per cent were syphilitic. As a result 
of these and other investigations upon similar lines it was con- 
cluded that approximately 5 per 1,000 of the Melbourne popu- 
lation were infected with syphilis; that the damage caused by 
this and gonorrhea must be enormous. 
These results are particularly instructive because Australia SYPHILIS 
301 
is, practically speaking, a new country, and one in which syphilis 
would scarcely be expected to have obtained so firm a foothold. 
The important fact should also be noted that while prostitution 
does flourish in the cities of Australia there is no economic 
necessity for women there to earn their living in such a manner. 
Think for a moment of the conditions which obtain in our great 
cities, industrial centers, and seaports-the overcrowded homes 
of the poorer classes, the impossibility of decent privacy in their 
daily lives, the constant intermingling of the sexes, the absence 
of sanitation, the use and abuse of alcoholic liquor-all powerful 
factors in the spread of sexual disease. Think of the vast amount 
of uncontrolled professional prostitution, and the increase in 
amateur prostitution. Think of the hopeless inadequacy of our 
existing facilities for treatment of patients. Paris, with a popu- 
lation of 2^4 millions, has 2,000 beds available for such cases; 
Berlin, with over 2 million inhabitants, has a still larger number; 
London, with a population of 4% millions, can muster no more 
than 200. 
Prevalence in Japan.-The figures given to indicate the prev- 
alence of gonorrhea over syphilis in Japan afford also valuable 
evidence of the incidence of syphilis amongst the civil population 
in that country; 4.75 per 1,000 of the young men of 20 years old 
are infected. And if chancroid and gonorrhea are also taken 
into account we get the extraordinary figure of 25.26 per 1,000 
males at this age suffering from sexual disease. As regards the 
mortality from syphilis in Japan the returns of the Imperial 
Statistical Bureau of the Cabinet show that, since 1907, the 
figure stands at 0.2 per 1,000 of the population, and 9 per 1,000 
deaths. The general mortality has been 20 per 1,000 of the 
population. 
As a side-light upon this issue I may quote a passage from 
Professor Blaschko's work, ''Hygiene der Prostitution." There 
he estimates that 45 per cent of the clerk and merchant class in 
Berlin, between the ages of 18 and 28, have had syphilis, and 120 
per cent have contracted gonorrhea. In Breslau the figures are 
77 per cent for syphilis, and 200 per cent gonorrhea. He adds, 
further, that every university student, during his four years' 
course, contracts one form or other of sexual disease at least 
once. 
Another eminent authority estimates that one German in five 302 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
has had syphilis, and that the average for gonorrhea is more than 
one attack per man. Of course the condition of affairs amongst 
the male population which these statements imply is simply ap- 
palling. It is partly because the number of women in the total 
population is so much in excess over the men that the percentage 
of disease is brought down to a credible limit. 
There are many other estimates and figures which I might 
quote, particularly in respect to prevalence in the army and navy. 
There is, however, one more point in the German statistics to 
which I may invite attention. It is found that the incidence of 
sexual disease is almost always proportionate to the size of the 
town. Thus, taking the adult males alone, we find the following 
proportions: 
Berlin, with 2,000,000 inhabitants 14.2 per 1,000 males 
Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants.... 10.0 per 1,000 males 
Cities with more than 30,000 inhabitants.... 5.8 per 1,000 males 
Cities with less than 30,000 inhabitants.... 4.5 per 1,000 males 
In other words it is found that the number of prostitutes, 
professional and amateur, and so the incidence of disease, in- 
creases with the size of the town. Presumably it is a question of 
demand and supply. 
This fact naturally suggests another factor, that of the regu- 
lation of prostitution. But I may remark here that between 
the years 1903-5 the percentage of sexual disease infection 
amongst recruits for the German Army was highest in those 
cities where regulation of prostitution is most effective. Also that 
the incidence among the recruits decreased proportionately with 
the size of the town. 
For the sake of convenience we may now consider our re- 
sults in tabular form; 
Per 1,000 
of the 
Remarks 
Period 
Locality 
Population 
1911 
City of St. Petersburg. 
... *27 
- 
1911 
City of Moscow 
... *22 
- 
1900 
City of Berlin 
... *18 
- 
1911 
Central Agricultural 
Region, Russia 
... *16 
-- 
1909 
Roman (Roumania) .. 
... 15 
- 
1911 
Moscow Industrial Region *10 
1911 
Siberia 
... * 6 
-■ 
INCIDENCE OF SYPHILIS IN VARIOUS LOCALITIES SYPHILIS 
303 
Per 1,000 
of the 
Remarks 
Period 
Locality 
Population 
* 
1911 
City of Copenhagen... 
5.8 
Notification not very exact. 
1909 
Bucarest 
5.2 
-- 
1911 
Little Russia 
.... *5.1 
One of the richest provinces. 
1910-11 
Melbourne 
.... *5 
Underestimated. 
1909-12 
Japan 
5 
Very approximate only. The 
incidence is about one-fifth 
the total amount of sexual 
disease. 
1909 
Roumania 
2.3 
- 
1913 
New York City 
2.2 
One year's compulsory noti- 
fication : much underesti- 
mated. 
1906-11 
City of Christiania... 
.... *2.0 
Average for five years. Noti- 
fication reliable. 
1911 
Lithuania (Russia) .. 
.... *1.3 
One of the poorest provinces. 
* Fairly represents, I think, the number of recent and standing cases. 
I must once again emphasize the fact that these returns are 
approximate only and can only be accepted as affording a general 
indication of the incidence of syphilis. No account whatever, 
save to some degree in the Melbourne figure, is taken of the 
results of syphilis, and we have already seen the nature and extent 
of some of those results. 
MARRIAGE AND SYPHILIS* 
The problem of the syphilitic differs from the problem of 
the exgonorrheal patient. When a gonorrheal patient is cured, 
so far as infectivity is concerned, and is not sterile, there is no 
apprehension as to the offspring. Gonorrhea is not hereditary, 
and the child of a gonorrheal patient does not differ from the 
child of a nongonorrheal person. In the case of syphilis, it is 
different. The patient may be safe so far as infecting the partner 
is concerned, but yet there may be danger for the offspring. 
The rules for permitting a man or a woman who once had 
syphilis to marry, therefore, are different from those applied to 
the gonorrheal patient. Here are the rules: 
1. I would make it an invariable rule that no syphilitic patient 
should marry or should be permitted to marry before five years 
have elapsed from the day of infection. But the period of time 
alone is not sufficient; other conditions must be met before we 
may give a syphilitic patient permission to marry. 
* Dr. William J. Robinson in Woman: Her Sex and Love Life. Critic and Guide 
Company, New York City. (See advertisement last page.) 304 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
2. The man or the woman must have received thorough 
systematic treatment for at least three years, either constantly or 
off and on, according to the physician's judgment. 
3. For at least one year before the intended marriage, the 
person must have been absolutely free from any manifestations 
of syphilis; that is, from any eruptions on the skin, from any 
mucous patches, swellings in the bones, ulcerations, and so on. 
4. Four Wassermann tests, taken at intervals of three 
months and at a time when the patient was receiving no specific 
treatment, must be absolutely negative. 
If these four conditions are fully met, then the patient may 
be permitted to marry. 
It is important, however, to state that, in permitting or refus- 
ing syphilitic persons to marry, we are guided to a great extent 
by the fact as to whether they expect to have children soon or not. 
In the case of a couple who are anxious to have children soon 
after their marriage, the conditions for our permission must be 
more severe than when the couple are willing or anxious to use 
contraceptive measures for the first years of their married life. 
For, if a man is free from any skin lesions and from any mucous 
patches, his wife is safe from infection as long as she does not 
become pregnant. But, if she does get pregnant, she may become 
infected through the fetus; and, of course, the child also is liable 
to be syphilitic. Hence, much stricter requirements for syphilitics 
who expect to become parents are necessary than for those who 
do not. 
In case both the man and the woman are or have been syphi- 
litic, permission to marry may be granted without hesitation, as 
the danger of infection is absent, but permission to have children 
must be refused absolutely and unequivocally. Regardless of the 
time that may have elapsed from the period of infection, regard- 
less of treatment, regardless of Wassermann tests, the danger of 
the child is too great if both parents have the syphilitic taint in 
them. A healthy child may be born from two syphilitic parents 
who have undergone energetic treatment, but we have no right to 
take the chance. I, at least, never wanted to, nor ever will want 
to, take such a responsibility. 
The Danger of Locomotor Ataxia or Paresis. There is 
still one more point to consider in dealing with a syphilitic patient. 
In patients who did not receive energetic treatment from the very SYPHILIS 
305 
beginning of the disease as also in patients whose treatment was 
only desultory and irregular, we never can guarantee, in spite of 
lack of external symptoms, in spite of a negative Wassermann 
reaction, that some trouble may not develop later in life. 
What shall we do in such cases and what particularly shall 
we do if, from a general examination of the patient, we carry 
away the impression that, while free from the danger of infection, 
the man is not a good risk? Under these circumstances, we must 
refuse all personal responsibility, leaving the assumption of the 
responsibility to the prospective wife. 
Here is a case in point. About five years ago a man came to 
me for examination; he came with his fiancee. He had contracted 
syphilis ten years previously, received irregular treatment by 
mouth, off and on. For five years he had had no symptoms of 
any kind. He considered himself cured, but wanted to know, 
and his fiancee wanted to know, whether he really was cured. 
There were no symptoms of any kind and the Wassermann was 
negative. Nevertheless, I could not give him a clean bill of health. 
I noticed what seemed to me a slowness in thinking and just the 
least bit of hesitation in his speech. 
I told the girl (the man was thirty-five, she was thirty-two) 
that I could not render a definite decision in the matter, that 
everything might be all right, and then again it might not; but, 
that the question about children she would have to decide defin- 
itely, once for all, namely, that she was not to have any children. 
She was fully satisfied so far as that part was concerned; she 
said she herself objected to children and did not intend to have 
any and knew how to take care of herself. All she wanted to 
know was, whether she was in danger of being infected. I told 
her no, but that in my opinion there was some danger of her 
husband developing general paresis or locomotor ataxia. 
The girl had been a teacher for about twelve years, and she 
was so sick at heart of the work, was so anxious for a home of 
her own, that she decided to take the risk. And they got married. 
The marriage remained childless. The man developed general 
paresis (softening of the brain) three years later and died about 
a year afterward. The woman, now a widow, I understand, is 
not sorry for the step she had taken. This shows what things 
our social-economic conditions and our moral code are responsi- 
ble for. 306 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
A FEW FACTS ABOUT SYPHILIS 
1. Syphilis, also known as "pox," "blood disease," etc., is 
a serious contagious disease, slowly acting, which may affect all 
parts of the body. 
2. Syphilis is caused by a minute germ, which can only be 
seen with a powerful microscope, which circulates through the 
blood and attacks every organ in the body if unchecked by proper 
treatment. 
3. Syphilis is usually but not always transmitted by sexual 
intercourse. 
4. Syphilis always begins by the germs entering the body 
through a break or abrasion of the skin or of the lining of the 
mouth or sexual organs. This abrasion may be so small that it 
cannot be seen. 
5. Syphilis always begins with the local sore which develops 
at the spot where the germs penetrate. The germs grow slowly at 
first and from two to eight weeks may elapse before the sore 
appears. This initial sore, pimple or ulcer is usually painless and 
is called a "hard chancre" or the first stage. 
6. Syphilis gradually develops after the chancre has appar- 
ently been cured. Skin rashes, sores in mouth, swelling of glands, 
fever, deep pains in bones, sore throat, falling out of hair, are 
some of the most frequent symptoms of this stage. Any one or 
more of these symptoms may occur. This is known as the second 
stage. 
7. Syphilis, when untreated, Liay appear to be cured spon- 
taneously after the second stage, but it is not. It remains in the 
blood and the deep parts of the body. The germs will lie quiet 
sometimes for years and then suddenly produce the terrible 
effects known as the third stage. They will slowly destroy the 
brain, nerves, bones, blood vessels, etc. Locomotor ataxia, par- 
alysis, paresis or softening of the brain and some forms of apo- 
plexy, are a few of the later effects of untreated syphilis. They 
may come on as late as twenty years after the original "chancre," 
but are all part of the same disease and caused by the same germs. 
8. Syphilis, when uncured, may also be transmitted to 
unborn children through either father or mother. It is one of the 
greatest causes of miscarriages, children being born dead, and of 
•Massachusetts State Board of Health. SYPHILIS 
307 
weak, sickly children. When born alive these babies often spread 
the disease, as their syphilis is very contagious. 
9. Syphilis is extremely contagious in the first and second 
stages. 
10. Syphilis is most easily cured in the first or "chancre" 
stage, is readily curable in the second stage, and may be greatly 
improved in the third stage. 
11. Syphilis in all stages requires long thorough treatment 
by special remedies to insure a cure. Certain laboratory tests, 
especially the one known as the "Wassermann Test," are of great 
assistance in determining when the disease is cured. 
12. Syphilis can be accidentally transmitted during the first 
and second stages and from babies with congenital syphilis in a 
great variety of ways, by kissing, by articles accidentally con- 
taminated with secretions from the sores, as towels, pipes, drink- 
ing glasses, eating utensils, etc., etc. 
13. Syphilis affects most public and clandestine or secret 
prostitutes. It can best be prevented by avoiding all chance of 
infection. 
14. Syphilis can be cured, but not in a week or a month at 
any stage. A person with syphilis must be sure he is getting com- 
petent treatment and then stick to it a long time, until the "blood 
tests" and his physician say he is cured. 
PERSONAL ADVICE 
1. Do not forget your disease may be communicated to 
others by contact other than sexual intercourse. 
2. It may be transmitted by any of the secretions of the 
body, but more especially by blood or blood serum oozing from 
raw mucous surfaces, such as cracked or sore lips, mucous patches 
in the mouth and throat, discharges from syphilitic ulcers and 
sores. 
3. Never permit the slightest opportunity for other persons 
to come in contact with any of these secretions. 
4. To avoid this, follow these rules: 
(a) Until the acutely infectious stage is passed and permis- 
sion is given by the physician, you should have individual drink- 
ing cups and eating utensils. These should be sterilized by boiling 
after each use. Never use public drinking cups. 
(b) Tooth brushes and containers of pastes, powders oi 308 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
mouth washes used in caring for the teeth should be kept in sep- 
arate containers or compartments where no opportunity for 
contact with others is possible. Brush the teeth night and morning 
(or better, after each meal) and keep mouth clean. 
If you have bad teeth have them attended to by a dentist. 
Be fair to him and his next patient by telling him you have syph- 
ilis, so he may take precautions and not infect others. 
(c) Use no razor or other articles used in shaving except 
your own, and permit no other person to use your shaving outfit. 
Shaving in a public barber shop is prohibited for one year after 
beginning of infection. 
(d) Basins, lavatories and bathtubs used should be washed 
out thoroughly with soap and hot water after each use by you. 
Separate basins are to be used wherever possible. The use of 
public bathtubs is prohibited. 
(e) You should use individual towels. 
(f) Handkerchiefs and clothing, especially underclothing, 
which may be soiled by secretions, should be laundered separately, 
or if impracticable, they should be immersed in boiling water or 
an approved antiseptic solution, as advised by the physician, 
before being added to other laundry. 
(g) All dressings of sores or ulcers must be burned or 
otherwise destroyed. Never leave them where they are accessible 
to flies. 
(h) Never kiss others or permit them to kiss you. 
(i) Sleep alone and practice continence. Your physician 
will tell you good habits improve your physical tone and hasten 
recovery. 
(j) Follow your physician's advice, and do not cease treat- 
ment until by every known laboratory method he has satisfied 
himself of your recovery, and assures you there is no longer 
danger of your transmitting the disease. 
(k) Do not be led astray by promises of hasty or permanent 
cure by falsely advertised remedies. Cheap cures make miserable 
lives and expensive funerals. You gain nothing but bitter expe- 
rience by deceiving yourself, and you risk the injury of those 
nearest and dearest to you. Play fair with yourself and with 
others. 
5. Consult your doctor at least once a month for two years. CHAPTER XIX 
GONORRHEA AND THE OTHER VENEREAL 
DISEASES 
GONORRHEA 
{Clap, "A Dose," Etc.} 
HISTORY. There are accounts in the Bible, and in the old 
writings of Egypt which evidently refer to this disease. 
At any rate it was well known to the classic writers on medicine, 
both before and after Christ. The name given to it early in our 
era, means a "flow of semen," the man who christened it sup- 
posing the discharge of matter (or "pus") was really the seminal 
fluid of the male. (How he accounted for it in the female, his- 
tory does not tell us.) By the time of the Middle Ages, traveling 
for commerce and other reasons had become much more com- 
mon, and the doctors of those far-off days were quite familiar 
with the signs of the disease, which knowledge was made neces- 
sary for them by the universal spread. About a century and a 
half ago, an English surgeon experimented on his own person 
by taking some discharge from a man with gonorrhea and putting 
it under the skin. Unfortunately the man had syphilis as well as 
gonorrhea, and the Englishman breaking out with syphilis in due 
time naturally claimed the diseases were identical. The confu- 
sion thus started was not cleared up for many years. Because 
we now know that gonorrhea is not a flow of semen, many doctors 
prefer to use the word "urethritis," meaning thereby inflamma- 
tion of the conduit for the urine. 
Cause and Recognition of the Disease. In 1879 a German 
scientist proved that gonorrhea is caused by a microscopic germ, 
and it is interesting to note that this was three years before the 
famous discovery of the germ which gives rise to consumption. 
Its name is the gonococcus, and since "kokkos" is Greek for 
berry, we expect to find them round in shape, and this is the case; 
in size they are excessively small and are only to be seen with a 
powerful microscope. Unlike the pale spiral through which syph- 
ilis originates, these little plants are unable to move. 
309 310 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
ALBERT NEISSER 
In 1879 discovered the minute vegetable germ (the gonococcus) which 
causes gonorrhea. GONORRHEA 
311 
The only positive means of recognizing the disease is to 
identify the cause under the microscope. Accordingly a drop 
of the discharge being placed on a little glass slip, is colored with 
a certain dye; if the germs are present they will be seen either 
loose or inside the little round masses (or "cells") with which the 
discharge swarms. They may be seen singly, but are usually in 
twos, with the concave edges flattened somewhat where they come 
together, hence look a little like a coffee-bean, but by no means 
so much so as many authors would have us believe. 
GONOCOCCI, THE SMALL VEGETABLE GERMS WHICH CAUSE GONORRHEA 
Note that they are arranged in pairs, and look slightly like a coffee- 
bean. In this specimen most were within the cells. 
Manner of Infection. This is practically always during 
the sexual act, though the disease can be transmitted by use of 
syringes, sponges and so on, which have been used not long before 
by diseased individuals. It is sometimes the case that by care- 
lessness in this respect, nearly all the girl inmates of orphan- 
asylums, children's hospitals, etc., become infected. 
Course of Disease. Here things happen more quickly 
than is the case with syphilis: In three to five days, seldom over 
a week or two, there is itching and a sensation of warmth about 312 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the opening of the urinary channel. Scalding or burning on 
making water soon follows; then the discharge appears, at first 
thin and watery, it soon becomes thick, yellowish or greenish, in 
severe cases streaked with blood. As the disease travels back 
along the urinary canal, the pain on passage of urine becomes 
excessive, so much so patients sometimes faint from the agony. 
Sleep is often disturbed for men by the male organ becoming hard 
and bent and very painful. All these manifestations gradually 
subside with time, and in ten to fourteen days are no longer 
annoying. The discharge, however, still continues, but in a month 
or two again becomes thin or watery. Finally it disappears com- 
pletely, or keeps up indefinitely by escape of a thin, milky fluid, 
the "gleet." 
Frequency and Prevention. Many years ago a New York 
doctor estimated that 80 per cent of all men had gonorrhea at 
the time, or had had it previously. This figure is thought to be 
rather high nowadays, and it is supposed that 50 or 60 per cent 
is nearer correct, at least for the U. S. It is generally agreed 
the disease is much more common than syphilis, say four-or five 
times more, this would make the average frequency somewhere 
in the vicinity of 50 per cent. For women the figures vary- 
the majority of prostitutes have it, while very few cases are found 
in other classes of this sex. 
Obviously the way to prevent infection with gonorrhea is 
to abstain from sexual intercourse unless married. Since a good 
proportion of mankind does not see fit to adopt this course, it 
remains to find what can be done to lessen the danger. (Here 
again we are not concerned with the moral or ethical aspect of 
tne case, merely the medical one.) It has been found that in- 
jection of a solution of some of the drugs made of silver, if 
done within a few hours after a suspicious connection is often 
successful in preventing development of the disease. This is to 
be carried out by a duly-qualified physician. Some idea of the 
benefits may be had from the fact that in the U. S. army, about 
12 to 13 per cent of the enlisted men (in 1907), required treat- 
ment for this affection. In 1911, the preventive treatment was 
started and by 1915-16, the per cent of men needing treatment 
had fallen over one-half (5 to 6 per cent). 
Treatment. For this a reputable physician must be con- 
sulted. The affection is much too serious to be cared for by the GONORRHEA 
313 
patient taking some of the quack remedies advertised on walls, or 
something recommended at the corner drug store. In short it 
consists in flushing out the canal with appropriate agents at regu- 
lar intervals, and faithfully kept up. The entire sexual tract in 
both sexes has myriads of pouches and sacs opening into it, most 
of them-while microscopic in size-large enough to hide in- 
numerable germs, so long as these hidden deposits exist there is 
danger of a fresh outbreak. So mere stoppage of the discharge 
is no sign treatment is to be discontinued, though in this point 
be guided by your doctor. Persistence is the keynote. 
Consequences of the Disease. Physicians who are famil- 
iar with the ravages of syphilis and of gonorrhea, sometimes 
declare that if they had their choice between the two diseases, 
they would prefer infection by syphilis. The treatment takes an 
incomparably longer time, but a cure is generally obtained-even 
with the old-fashioned mercury and potash. In gonorrhea, on the 
other hand, the ravages produced by the inflammation are some- 
times beyond the reach of drugs. 
We have seen how small the germs of the disease are, every 
drop or two of the discharge contains hundreds and thousands, 
and the discharge is excessively dangerous. All dressings soiled 
with it must be burned at once. Especially should great care 
be taken to prevent any getting into the eyes; the inflammation 
which results causes serious disturbance of sight, even total 
blindness. 
Troubles in the joints are often met with, the germs being 
carried there by the blood. The joints most often affected are 
the knee and ankle-and in the arm, the elbow, wrist and fingers; 
usually only a single joint. Various degrees are to be found- 
one like rheumatism, sometimes ending in partial or total crip- 
pling of the joints in the hand, and for bookkeepers, violinists, and 
other occupations depending on the hand for a livelihood, putting 
a stop to such activities. Or, there may be "water on the joint," 
and occasionally abscesses with great damage to the gristle with 
permanent stiffness. A curious thing is that the joints may be 
severely diseased, even where the gonorrhea itself seems rather 
mild. 
Sometimes the poison carried by the blood affects the joints 
only, at others it attacks the lining of the heart and that of the 
chest. In the latter case there may be sudden death from "heart 314 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
disease" or crippling of that important organ for the balance of 
life. 
A common result of gonorrhea in the male is what is known 
as a "stricture"-that is to say, a narrowing of the channel by 
which the urine escapes from the body. As a consequence of the 
inflammation, little sores form, now everybody has noticed how 
a scar after a cut or burn, as it heals grows smaller, wrinkling up 
the flesh. The same thing happens in the urinary canal, it be- 
comes more and more difficult to pass water, until at length it 
escapes drop by drop, and if nothing be done stops altogether. 
The reservoir for the urine-the bladder-grows more and more 
full, and unless emptied will burst into the abdomen. If taken 
in time the narrowing can be stretched by a physician passing 
instruments, but if not treated till late it is necessary to pass a 
knife and cut through the obstruction. Incidentally, as a conse- 
quence of the damming-up, the kidneys may become diseased, 
and irreparable-even fatal-damage ensue. 
In 10 per cent approximately of all cases, the little cap to 
the testis is attacked by the disease. The pain is very great, also 
the swelling-both lasting for several days-but this is trivial 
compared to the fact that such attacks may block up the tubes 
by which the seminal fluid is discharged, and in turn produce in- 
ability to have children (sterility). 
As shown in the chapter on the Anatomy of the Reproductive 
Organs the urinary and sexual organs of the female are separ- 
ated, not joining as in the other sex. Accordingly we find serious 
results to follow on part of the female generative organs. When 
the germs of gonorrhea get into the tubes from the womb to the 
egg-gland (ovary), an abscess often follows. The great major- 
ity of such abscesses are due to gonorrhea, and it is amazing to 
what size they may grow: The tube ordinarily about the size of 
a slate pencil enlarges until it sometimes holds a quart or more 
of matter. Of course, there is often no hope for this state of 
things save for the abdomen to be cut open, and the diseased 
tube or tubes removed. Even where this extreme condition is 
not reached, the channel in the tubes becomes stopped up, and 
preventing the eggs escaping into the womb, causes sterility once 
more. 
Women are also liable to joint troubles, but generally speak- 
ing, the lining of the "neck" of the womb is most diseased. The GONORRHEA 
315 
A PITIFUL VICTIM OF A HUSBAND'S "WILD OATS1 316 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
ovaries and the lining of the abdomen may be affected as well, 
with constant pain and a life of invalidism and painful "monthly 
periods." 
One of the saddest consequences of the disease in the woman 
is that should she while suffering from it, give birth to children, 
the eyes of the baby become diseased on the way, and unless 
promptly and thoroughly cared for, blindness results. It is as- 
serted that over one-half of people who are said to be "born 
blind" are so from this involvement of the eyes. Fortunately 
steps have been taken by most of the states to require the attend- 
ant at childbirth-whether physician or midwife-to adopt cer- 
tain simple precautions by which this deplorable calamity can 
be prevented.* But a short time since a midwife in Chicago, 
who was proved to have neglected this precaution was heavily 
fined. 
So it can be seen the old saying that "Clap is no worse than 
a bad cold" gives a mighty poor idea of the distressing compli- 
cations to which the disease renders one liable. Nor does that 
other saying to the effect it can be cured by "10 cents' worth of 
bluestone," come anywhere near the truth as thousands of human 
beings have found to their sorrow. 
A French author writes that he has known many instances 
where an unexpected attack necessitated absence from a competi- 
tive examination and ruined the subsequent career of the unlucky 
possessor. Finally, while a second attack of syphilis is one of 
the rarest possibilities, a given individual may have gonorrhea 
a number of times. 
A. CORBETT SMITH ON GONORRHEA* 
The serious nature of gonorrhea lies more particularly in 
the fact that unless adequate treatment is applied in the early 
stages, and so soon as possible after infection, it is liable to be- 
come chronic and so extremely difficult to cure. It may, for in- 
stance, remain quiescent in the system for years, to break out 
again, long after the patient has imagined himself to be fully 
cured, in a variety of complications of which ophthalmia and 
blindness are particularly frequent and serious examples. 
* Application of a 1 per cent solution of lunar caustic (silver nitrate), as soon 
as possible after birth to the babies' eyes. 
*By A. Corbett-Smith. GONORRHEA 
317 
On the other hand, if remedies are promptly forthcoming 
upon the immediate appearance of the primary symptoms, or, 
better still, upon the mere suspicion that infection has been ac- 
quired, and if the treatment be continued in strict accordance 
with medical advice, there is comparatively little danger. 
One definite example may here be given of the retention by 
the gonococcus or microbe of its vitality over a period of years. 
A man has contracted gonorrhea. Under medical advice he ap- 
plies the necessary remedies, and after a time, with the disap- 
pearance of all symptoms, he discontinues them under the belief 
that he is cured. At the end of, say, two years, he marries, and 
the gonococci, which all this time have remained dormant in the 
urethra, are transferred to the virgin vagina and are there rejuve- 
nated. The wife becomes infected and the husband becomes 
reinfected with his own gonococci. Under these circumstances 
he is practically certain to attribute the blame to his wife, and it 
needs no effort of the imagination to visualize the serious com- 
plications which may thereby ensue. 
I have quoted this particular example because it must supply 
some explanation of the extraordinary number of cases of in- 
fection amongst married women. Despite the hysterical asser- 
tions of the more irresponsible section of the Women's Move- 
ment, I refuse to believe that any man, save a callous criminal, 
will knowingly infect his wife with such a disease. For herein 
lies its insidious nature. A man may adopt all reasonable pre- 
cautions, and yet he may not persist in them for a sufficient 
length of time. Careless he may be, but not necessarily crim- 
inal, for criminality implies the knowledge and the will. And 
yet his carelessness may be the cause of infinite suffering. 
Dr. Johnstone states that a large proportion of the opera- 
tions performed at women's hospitals are rendered necessary by 
gonococcal infection, that the proportion is, in fact, as high as 
25 to 50 per cent of the major operations performed. More 
serious still, from the point of view of our racial development, 
is the estimate that about one-third of the childless marriages are 
due to gonococcal infection in the female; for gonorrhea is one 
of the most potent causes of sterility. 
Another fact which is not properly appreciated is that a sub- 
ject may become infected with the disease merely through con- 
tact with infected articles. A child may, for instance, contract 318 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
gonorrheal ophthalmia from the infected touch of a parent's 
fingers, or from the mother during parturition. Comment upon 
such a point is wholly superfluous, for it will readily be seen how 
extensive is the suffering which may be inflicted. And the disease 
might so easily be avoided. It depends upon the individual. 
The literature bearing upon syphilis and its treatment is 
most extensive, while gonorrhea is, comparatively speaking, ig- 
nored. And yet Dr. Prince A. Morrow has stated that "in the 
case of gonorrheal infection the individual risks the wife is 
made to incur are much more serious than those following syph- 
ilis. The infection may invade the cavity of the uterus and 
ascend to the annexial organs, causing salpingitis, ovaritis, peri- 
tonitis, etc., destroying her conceptional capacity and rendering 
her irrevocably sterile, to say nothing of the resulting dangers 
to life and the frequent necessity of surgical operations to re- 
move her tubes and ovaries." 
Indeed, when no more than a cursory consideration is given 
to the question the figures and facts which present themselves 
are simply appalling, incredible. It is as though we were asked 
to believe that the Great Plague of London, when one in every 
four fell dead, were actually now raging, but in secret and behind 
closed doors. To read an authoritative statement such as "Gon- 
orrhea is the most widespread and universal of all diseases in 
the adult male population, embracing 75 per cent or more," or 
that of Noeggerath, and then to sit still for a few minutes with 
closed eyes, is to conjure up a mental picture of misery and suffer- 
ing worthy to find a place in "11 Inferno" of Dante. 
One could fill pages with such quotations, with heart-break- 
ing instances of innocent sufferers; of women deprived, perhaps 
from their very wedding night, of their dearest privilege in life; 
of ruined homes; of babes doomed to a lingering death in life; 
of-but the brain refuses to frame the sentences, it is all too 
hideous. At the outset one may dispose oneself to write calmly 
and dispassionately of these things, to discuss them in the cold 
light of science and reason; but human feelings must assert 
themselves when all else is swept aside and forgotten save only 
the figure of a little child who kneels with imploring, upraised 
hands to the gaunt spectre of this loathsome disease. 
One is indeed almost tempted to agree with Miss Pank- 
hurst's assertion that gonorrhea has not been brought prominently GONORRHEA 
319 
to public attention because the medical profession hesitate to 
publish the appalling facts. And yet this would not account for 
the scarcity of purely medical literature (apart from short papers) 
upon the subject. Statistics in any country are practically non- 
existent ; but of this fact the explanation is a simple one. 
When a man contracts gonorrhea it is fairly certain that he 
will consult, not a properly qualified medical man, but a neigh- 
boring druggist. The druggist, or quack, will probably sell him 
(at an exorbitant price) a box of capsules, or some drug possess- 
ing some curative properties, and the man will be temporarily 
cured. In the case of syphilis a man is simply compelled sooner 
or later to seek medical advice, or go into hospital. Hence, in our 
Navy and Army at any rate, and in our hospitals, the case is 
duly recorded. 
Have I said sufficient to show the meaning of gonorrhea to 
the individual and to the community ? And then I recall a remark 
once made to me by a driver of the Field Battery in which I 
served. "Why, sir," he said, "a man isn't a man until he has 
had the 'clap' ". And, to our shame, that is the attitude of thou- 
sands of men. Who can wonder that women are uniting to 
insist that such things shall cease ? And so I force myself to con- 
tinue, to set down facts still more direct, that men shall realize 
(so far as this may serve) the misery and suffering of which they 
may be the agents so long as they adopt such an attitude, so long 
as they consider gonorrhea a trivial thing, a lesser evil than a 
severe cold. 
Speaking in a broad general sense it is found that there is a 
distinct difference in the pathology of the disease as it affects the 
sexes. It lies in the fact that in the male the incidence of gonor- 
rhea is more visible, easily diagnosed, but it is also attended by 
a far greater degree of pain and discomfort than in the female. 
On the other hand, in the female, it is very frequently non- 
apparent; there is often considerable difficulty in distinguishing 
possible symptoms from those of other disorders; there is com- 
paratively little, if any, discomfort; but, finally, the resultant 
effects are often of the most serious character, involving, as 
remarked above, sterility and acute abdominal diseases. 
Having regard, then, to this tolerant attitude adopted by so 
many men towards gonorrhea it only remains that the facts must 
be driven home into the public mind still more emphatically. 320 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
And in attempting the task, I cannot do better than follow the 
scheme adopted by Fournier. 
In the first place, in the case of the male, the initial treat- 
ment, from the fault of either patient or doctor, may not prove 
efficacious, and the discharge from the urethra may persist for 
some considerable time. 
Secondly, the discharge may fail to dry up completely and 
so may generate a chronic discharge called gleet. This is cer- 
tainly one of the most difficult to cure. It involves a prolonged 
and painful treatment; it is liable to frequent recurrences, and 
may indeed after all prove refractory to every kind of treatment. 
I have referred to the liability of gonorrhea developing into 
a chronic complaint, and have given instances of ophthalmia and 
blindness, and of the serious disorders which may be inflicted 
upon innocent women through the, often, reckless carelessness 
of an infected husband. Perhaps most sad and cruel of all, 
1 have spoken of the helpless babe contracting at birth some form 
of the disease. Surely no more potent argument than this last 
is needed to secure a full consideration of all the facts, and the 
determination on the part of the individual and the community 
to stamp out gonorrhea from civilization. 
Is it realized what sterility (especially when it is apparently 
inexplicable) means, to the individual, apart from the commun- 
ity? To the husband or wife who reads these lines it may mean 
nothing save a deliberate intention to refrain from procreation. 
With such a one I am not immediately concerned. But what of 
the young wife to whom the gift of a child would prove the 
dearest pledge of her love for her husband? Ignorant of the 
cause, she undergoes the humiliation of childlessness. In vain 
she listens for the tiny voice of her dream-child crying to come 
to her; the patter of "little feet along the floor." And so may 
come gradual estrangement between husband and wife; the break 
between two hearts which, a few short years before, had seemed 
to join in a lifelong union; and at last the dissolution of a home 
which had never been a home. And all because, perhaps, of one 
single, seemingly trivial incident in the husband's life of years 
ago-a birthday dinner, a visit to a music-hall, a little half-hour 
in a woman's company. And the blame attaches to the wife, not 
to the husband I GONORRHEA 
321 
OPHTHALMIA AND BLINDNESS 
Here are a few facts and figures concerning the prevalence 
of a form of preventive blindness-Ophthalmia Neonatorum- 
which, as already remarked, is a result of gonorrheal infection. 
(1) Ophthalmia neonatorum is by far the most common 
cause of blindness in children. 
(2) It was estimated that, in 1918, about 7,000 persons in 
the United Kingdom had lost their sight from ophthalmia neona- 
torum. 
(3) In the United States it was estimated that, of the 
total cases of blindness under one year, over 25 per cent were 
due to ophthalmia neonatorum. 
(4) In New York it was calculated that of all children 
born 1 per cent suffer from ophthalmia during the first few days 
of life, and, of these, one in twenty is blinded or partially blinded 
as a result of the disease. 
(5) In the various blind asylums and schools the percent- 
age of cases due to ophthalmia neonatorum varies from 27 to 75 
per cent, the average being about 35 per cent. 
From these and other data the conclusion that ophthalmia 
neonatorum accounts for upwards of 10 per cent of all cases of 
blindness can hardly be termed an exaggeration. 
And yet it is seriously asserted that sexual disease, and its 
sequelae, is the "retribution of sin." May I invite the attention 
of those who labor under that delusion to the above details? If 
gonorrhea is stamped out of existence ophthalmia neonatorum 
will also cease to exist. 
Two more specific divisions in possible effects: 
The most common and also the most serious of all such re- 
sults is found in stricture of the urethra. "Sometimes," says 
Fournier, "it is amenable to mild forms of treatment, but it is 
often only cured by surgical operation. Further, a neglected 
stricture may become the point of origin of grave complications* 
affecting the prostate, bladder and kidney. Then everything is 
possible, even death, which is not rare in such cases." 
And, lastly, there are frequently to be found definite and 
permanent affections of the joints resulting from gonorrheal 
rheumatism. Here again there may be no more than a perma- 
nent stiffness, say of the fingers; but many cases are upon record 
of a total disablement of various limbs. 322 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
MARRIAGE AND GONORRHEA* 
For a man or a woman who has once suffered from gonor- 
rhea or syphilis to enter matrimony without having secured a 
competent physician's opinion is a great responsibility. And a 
great responsibility rests upon the shoulders of the physician who 
is called upon to give such an opinion. For, a wrong decision- 
a wrong decision either way-that is, permission to marry when 
permission should not have been granted or refusal to give per- 
mission when permission should have been granted-may be 
responsible for much diseases: disease of the mother and of the 
offspring. It may even be responsible for death. 
There is no easy, short road to a positive opinion. It requires 
a thorough, painstaking examination at the hands of an experi- 
enced physician, one thoroughly familiar with all the modern 
tests, to tell whether it is safe for a man who once suffered from 
venereal disease to enter the bonds of matrimony. Sometimes 
one examination is not sufficient, and several examinations may 
be necessary; but, the opinion of a conscientious, experienced phy- 
sician may be relied upon, and, if all men and women who once 
suffered from venereal disease would seek for, and be guided by, 
such an opinion, there would be no cases of marital infection, 
there would be no children afflicted with gonorrheal ophthalmia, 
there would be no cases of hereditary syphilis. 
I firmly believe that a time will come when all venereal dis- 
eases will have disappeared from the face of the earth. But, until 
that time comes, it would be for the benefit of the race and of 
posterity if people had to present a certificate of freedom from 
transmissible venereal disease as a prerequisite to a marriage 
license. Custom is often more efficient than law, and, if a pre- 
marital examination should become a universal custom (and there 
are indications in this direction) no law would be needed. 
When May a Man Who Had Gonorrhea Get Married? 
For a man who once suffered from gonorrhea to be pronounced 
cured and a safe candidate for marriage, the following conditions 
must be present: 
1. There must be no discharge. 
2. The urine must be perfectly clear and free from shreds. 
3. The secretion from the prostate gland, as obtained by 
* Dr. William J. Robinson in Woman: Her Sex and Love Life. Critic and Guide 
Company, New York City. (See advertisement last page.) GONORRHEA 
323 
prostatic massage, and from the seminal vesicles, as obtained by 
"milking," or "stripping," the vesicles, must be free from pus 
and gonococci. To make sure, it is best to repeat such examina- 
tion at three different times. 
4. There must be neither stricture nor patches in the 
urethra. 
5. What we call the complement-fixation test, which is a 
blood test for gonorrhea similar to the Wassermann blood-test 
for syphilis, must be negative. 
Referring to conditions 1 and 2, it sometimes happens that 
the patient has a minute amount of discharge or a few shreds in 
the urine, and I still permit him to marry; but this is done only 
after the discharge and shreds have been repeatedly examined 
and have been found to be catarrhal in character and absolutely 
free from any gonococci or other germs. 
It sometimes happens that a patient comes to me for an 
examination a few days before the date set for the wedding. I 
examine him and find that he is not in a safe condition to marry, 
and so advise him to delay the wedding. Sometimes he follows 
the advice, but in some cases he is unable to do so. He claims 
the wedding has been arranged, the invitation-cards have been 
sent out, and to delay the wedding would lead to endless trouble 
and perhaps scandal. In such cases I, of course, assume no 
responsibility; however, I do advise the man to use an antiseptic 
suppository or some other method that will protect the bride 
from infection for the time being, while he, the husband, has an 
opportunity to take treatment until cured. Of the many cases in 
which I advised this method, I do not know of one in which 
infection has taken place. 
When May a Woman Who Once Had Gonorrhea Be Per- 
mitted to Marry? In the case of a woman the decision may 
be harder to reach than in that of a man. Of course, the urine 
must be clear and the urethra must be normal; however, we 
cannot insist that there must be no discharge. This, because 
practically every woman has some slight discharge; even, if not 
all the time, they at least immediately prior and subsequent to 
menstruation. Of course, the discharge must be free from gono- 
cocci and pus. Also the complement-fixation tests must be 
negative. But, even so, we cannot be absolutely sure, because 
gonococci may be hidden in the uterus or in the Fallopian tubes. 324 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Here, we have to go a good deal by the history given us. 
If the woman, during the course of the gonorrhea, had salpingitis, 
that is, an inflammation of the Fallopian tubes, then we can never 
say positively that she is cured; all we can say, at best, is, pre- 
sumably cured. And, further, if she has no pains in the uterine 
appendages, either spontaneous or on examination, and, if several 
examinations made within a day or two following menstruation 
are negative, then we may assume that she is cured. It is impor- 
tant, though, that this examination be made on the last day of 
menstruation or on the first or second day following; for there 
are many cases in which no pus and no gonococci will show in 
the intermenstrual period, but will appear on those particular 
days, because, if the gonococci are hidden high up, they are likely 
to come down with the menstrual blood and portions of mucous 
membrane that are shed during menstruation. 
At best, it is a delicate problem, so that whenever there has 
been the least suspicion that the woman may harbor gonococci I 
have always advised (as is my custom, to be on the safe side) 
and directed the woman to use either an antiseptic suppository or 
an antiseptic douche before coitus. With these precautions 
adopted, I have never had an accident happen. 
The Question of Probable Sterility. Thus far I have con- 
sidered the problem of marriage from the standpoint of infec- 
tivity. But, we know that, besides the effect on the individual, 
gonorrhea has also a far-reaching influence on the race; in other 
words, that it is prone to make the subjects-both men and 
women-sterile. And a candidate for marriage may, and often 
does, want to know whether, besides being noninfective, he or she 
is capable of begetting or having children. 
In the case of man, the problem is, fortunately, a very simple 
one. We can easily obtain a specimen of the man's semen and 
determine, by means of the microscope, whether it contains sper- 
matozoa or not. If it does contain a normal number of lively, 
rapidly moving spermatozoa, the man is fertile, regardless of 
whether he ever had epididymitis or not. If the semen contains 
no spermatozoa, or only a few deformed or lazily moving ones, 
then he is sterile. 
In the case of woman, it is absolutely impossible to determine 
whether the gonorrhea has made her sterile or not: because there 
is no way of expressing an ovum from the ovary. The woman GONORRHEA 
325 
may not have had any pain or inflammation in the Fallopian 
tubes, and yet there may have been sufficient inflammation to 
close up the orifices of the tubes. On the other hand, she may 
have had a severe salpingitis on both sides and still be fertile. 
Nor is there any way of telling whether the ovaries were so 
involved in the process as to become incapable of generating 
healthy ova, or any ova at all. In short, there is absolutely no 
way of telling whether a woman is sterile or fertile-we can only 
surmise. And our surmise in this respect is liable to be wrong 
just as often as right. The only way the question can be decided 
is by experience. If the prospective husband is willing to take a 
chance, well and good. 
While just as many girls marry as do young men, still, in 
practice, we always shall have to examine an incomparably larger 
number of male than of female candidates. This is due, not only 
to the fact that an incomparably larger number of men suffer 
from venereal disease, but also because very few women will 
confess to their fiancees that they ever entertained antematri- 
monial relations and-what is still worse-were infected with 
venereal disease. This, of course, is owing to our double standard 
of morality, which looks upon as a trivial or no offense in the man 
what it condemns as a heinous crime in the woman. I have 
known hundreds of men who confessed freely to their fiancees 
that they had had gonorrhea, but I have known only two girls 
who made a confession of the fact to their future husbands. 
They got married, however, and lived happily with their husbands 
ever after. 
A FEW FACTS ABOUT GONORRHEA* 
1. Gonorrhea is one of the most common of the highly con- 
tagious diseases and is also known by many other names, the most 
common being "clap," "a dose," and "a strain." "Gleet" is the 
chronic form of the disease. 
2. Gonorrhea is caused by a minute germ called the "gono- 
coccus," so small it can be seen only under the microscope. 
3. Gonorrhea is nearly always spread by sexual intercourse, 
but may be spread by accidental contact with the gonorrheal dis- 
charge or pus. The most serious forms of this accidental infec- 
tion are infection of the eyes, when it often causes blindness, and 
'Massachusetts State Board of Health. 326 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
infection of the "privates" of little girls and girl babies, often 
from contaminated bedding. 
4. Gonorrhea is a serious disease, and not a trivial annoy- 
ance "no worse than a bad cold" as is often ignorantly said. 
5. Gonorrhea is always a serious disease because: 
(a) It is occasionally directly fatal. 
(b) It has a long and serious list of complications which 
may come on long after the original "dose" seems to be entirely 
cured. 
(c) In millions of cases it is transmitted to wives by hus- 
bands who have not been thoroughly cured and thereby produces 
long drawn-out female disease curable only by serious operations. 
(d) It is the greatest cause of sterility or inability to have 
children, due either to infection of the wife or gonorrheal inflam- 
mation of the testicle in the husband. 
(e) It is the greatest of all causes of blindness in babies 
and is the cause of more than 10 per cent of all blindness. 
6. Gonorrhea has many distinctly recognized complications. 
The most frequent and important are: 
IN THE MALE 
Stricture. 
Inflammation of the bladder. 
Inflammation of the testicle. 
Abscesses of the groins. 
Abscesses of the kidneys. 
Rheumatism. 
Sterility. 
IN THE FEMALE 
Inflammation of the womb. 
Inflammation of the ovaries. 
Inflammation of the tubes. 
Local or pelvic peritonitis. 
Inflammation of the bladder. 
Rheumatism. 
Sterility. 
7. Gonorrhea is one of the most deceptive of all diseases. 
It is easy to think it is cured when really only the discharge has 
stopped, while the gonococcus is still present, able to do extensive 
damage to the patient and to infect others. 
8. Gonorrhea affects practically all prostitutes sooner or 
later, both the public and the clandestine or secret prostitutes. 
9. Gonorrhea is in practically all instances a curable disease 
if treatment is begun early, competently given, faithfully followed 
out by patient, and kept up sufficiently long. The time necessary 
will almost never be less than one month and may take many 
months, GONORRHEA 
327 
10. Gonorrhea may be caught more than once; one attack 
does not produce any protection against later infection. 
11. Gonorrhea is a preventable disease, but the only sure 
means of prevention is in avoiding exposure. Don't take a 
chance. 
PERSONAL ADVICE 
1. Never forget your disease is infectious, or "catching," 
by other means than by sexual intercourse. 
2. It may be transmitted to the eyes and private organs 
through contact with the discharges from the urinary canal. 
3. Never permit the slightest opportunity for other persons 
to come in contact with these discharges, or with anything con- 
taminated by them. 
4. To avoid this, follow these rules: 
(a) Always wash the hands thoroughly with soap and hot 
water after every urination or other handling of the diseased 
organs. Remember, by one such act of carelessness you may 
carry the infection on your fingers to your own eyes and expose 
yourself to the risk of becoming blind. 
(b) After washing the hands, do not merely rinse the 
basin or lavatory; wash it thoroughly with soap and hot water, 
and preferably follow by an antiseptic solution of known strength, 
as advised by your physician. 
(c) The same care should be used in washing out bathtubs. 
The use of public bathtubs is prohibited. Never use any bathtub 
immediately preceding another person. 
(d) Always have your individual towel. The use of the 
common towel is a prolific cause of gonorrheal infection of the 
eyes. Don't expose others to the risk of blindness. 
(e) Protect the clothing and underclothing against soiling 
by use of proper dressings. Soiled clothing should be laundered 
separately; or, if impracticable, soiled portions should be im- 
mersed in boiling water or an approved antiseptic solution before 
being added to other laundry. 
(f) All dressings must be burned or otherwise destroyed. 
Never leave them where they are accessible to flies. 
(g) Exercise care to prevent soiling of toilet seats by dis- 
charges. 
(h) Sleep alone. Above all, have no sexual intercourse 328 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
until you know you are well. You will not wish to be charged 
with causing the loss of health, or possibly the death, of any per- 
son. Besides, your physician will tell you, it retards your own 
recovery. 
(i) Follow your physician's advice, and do not cease treat- 
ment until by every known laboratory means he has satisfied him- 
self of your recovery and assures you there is no longer danger 
of your transmitting the disease. 
(j) Do not be led astray by promises of hasty cure by 
falsely advertised drug-store remedies. Cheap cures make mis- 
erable lives and often expensive funerals. You gain nothing but 
bitter experience by deceiving yourself, and you risk the injury of 
those nearest and dearest to you. Play fair with yourself and 
with others. 
5. Consult your doctor at least once a week for the first 
three months. 
OTHER VENEREAL DISEASES 
Sores on the external genitalia are of two types-one, the soft 
sore found in either sex; the other balanitis, confined to the male. 
"Soft Sore" or Chancroid, so called because it resembles the 
chancre of syphilis, is a common affection, next so after gonor- 
rhea. It is due to a vegetable germ discovered some thirty-two 
years ago by a French observer, but unlike the one of gonorrhea, 
this is rod-shaped. These sores are always produced by personal 
contact with another individual, and appear in a few days after 
such contact. Very small abscesses are the first evidence, burst- 
ing soon they leave small sores with ragged edges and a free 
yellow discharge. As their name implies they are not hard like 
the first stage of syphilis; on the other hand, they are painful, 
and usually more than one can be found. 
The preventive measures are the application of a calomel 
ointment as for syphilis. 
Some years ago medical students had to memorize a long 
list of differences between the "hard" and "soft" sores, but as the 
old saw goes: "All signs fail in dry weather." At present with 
improved tests the soft sore is recognized by finding the vegetable 
germ. Both hard and soft sores may be present at the same 
time, and formerly it was very unsafe to trust to the appearances 
shown on inspection. GONORRHEA 
329 
All necessary in taking care of the soft sore is to keep it 
clean, and apply the powder or salve advised by one's doctor. 
The blood is not infected, neither is the body in general 
poisoned. When a soft sore heals that is the end of it, save for 
its cause it acts like any other little sore, that from poison ivy for 
instance. To be sure before this happy event takes place, ab- 
scesses are apt to form in one or both groins, which are very 
painful, and a good many-about 25 per cent-have to be opened 
by the physician. 
Balanitis. The head of the male organ, having more or less 
resemblance to an acorn, is so called in Greek, and from it comes 
the name for sores with more or less mortification of the flesh. 
This uncommon type which has only been known for a few 
years past, is caused by still another type of vegetable germ-a 
curved rod with the ends pointed. 
In men with long foreskins, after impure connection, small 
white sores form, these gradually increase in size and have a 
profuse, foul-smelling discharge. Sometimes these heal, but as 
a general thing, mortification sets in and spreads rapidly. If on 
the foreskin this is soon destroyed, when on the head of the male 
organ this is quickly eaten away, and the destruction going on 
part or all of the penis may disappear, even as far as the bony 
arch (pubis). Strange to say, all this does not set up much dis- 
turbance except for the extreme tenderness, there is little or no 
fever, etc. 
The principal danger is the condition may be mistaken for 
the "soft sore," an entirely different affair. Luckily the germs 
can be found in the discharge when treatment must be promptly 
started to stop the spread. This consists, among other things, 
of allowing free access of air by slitting up the foreskin, for the 
germs belong to a large class which grow best when they are 
protected from the air. 
INFECTING THE INNOCENT ONES 
The following human tragedies illustrate the most frequent 
disasters resulting from the contamination of the family through 
venereal disease, namely: 
1. The loss of motherhood, even of life itself. 
2. The mutilation of the wife by surgery to preserve her 
life. 330 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
3. The loss of eyesight in the new-born infant. 
4. The loss of pecuniary support through the disability of 
the husband. 
1. A girl 22 years old married a man of 26. About a month after 
the wedding the bride was confined to her bed for several days with 
severe pains in the pelvic region, accompanied with fever (peritonitis) ; and 
she remained a semi-invalid from that time. On her return from their 
European trip five months later she was examined by a competent phy- 
sician. The cause of her illness was found in a gonorrheal abscess of 
each Fallopian tube, which rendered her an invalid as well as sterile. Care- 
ful treatment produced but slight improvement. Finally a surgical operation 
was performed and the tubes removed. This greatly improved her health 
though she is, of course, permanently barren. The husband admitted that 
he had twice contracted a mild gonorrhea while at college years before, 
but considered himself cured. Examination revealed the germs of this 
disease in him. 
2. A bride 18 years old came with her mother two weeks after her 
wedding. She was suffering from newly acquired gonorrhea. After eight 
weeks of constant treatment she was apparently well. Her husband had 
lived "like other men." 
3. The patient was a bride 22 years old, a beautiful woman of excel- 
lent family. She was suffering from gonorrhea contracted from her hus- 
band, who had supposed himself cured before the wedding. An operation, 
which offered the only chance of saving her life, was performed. All went 
well for a few days. Her husband, who had been constantly with her, 
was called away on urgent business. The patient suddenly became worse 
and died before his return. 
4. A man with gonorrhea of fifteen months duration, applied for 
treatment with the request to cure him in six weeks, as he was bound to 
get married at the end of that time. After examination the patient was 
warned that he could hardly expect to be cured by that time. At the end 
of six weeks permission to marry was refused. The patient disobeyed and 
married the heiress to a considerable estate. She became contaminated 
with his disease. Five months after the wedding she was taken to a hospi- 
tal, operated upon for gonorrheal abscess, and died two days after the 
operation. 
5. A family consists of a father, mother and three children; the 
father is a mechanic, works at night and sleeps during the day. At night 
the mother and children occupy his bed without changing the bedding. 
The father contracts gonorrhea, a druggist prescribes for him on his way 
home from work. In a few days the baby develops gonorrheal inflamma- 
tion in both eyes, and a girl of 6 shows the disease in the sexual organs. 
Both children became infected from the bed polluted by the father. 
6. A married man while intoxicated contracted gonorrhea. His 
little daughter 7 years old, who slept in the same bed with him, developed 
the disease in both eyes. Careful treatment fortunately saved her eyesight. 
7. A young bride was infected with gonorrhea by her husband, who 
supposed himself cured before marriage. When her baby came its eyes 
were infected; and it was saved from total blindness only by most pains- 
taking care, covering a period of three or four anxious weeks. During 
the treatment of the little one's eyes, in spite of care and warning, the 
mother's breasts became infected, causing a painful and tedious abscess. GONORRHEA 
331 
In another case, also of gonorrheal inflammation of the young 
mother, the babe's eyes were infected; within two weeks both were lost, 
and the child is totally blind. The majority of these cases are due to lack 
of knowledge on the part of the husband, who is not told that the disease 
may lurk in his deeper parts long after it is outwardly cured. 
8. We have in the children's department of the County Hospital 
numerous cases of gonorrhea among the children, especially the little girls. 
The increase of this disease in our children's department has been alarm- 
ing during the last two years, and we are sometimes unable to trace the 
source of infection. 
9. "E" had been most carefully reared, coming of ministerial stock 
for generations past; a young man to whom she had been engaged for 
three years betrayed her. She came to us two months before her child 
was born and had never showed any signs of syphilis. The little one, how- 
ever, was diseased when born, suffered greatly during the four short 
months of its life and then died, its little body gradually becoming decayed 
from the time of its birth. 
10. The most pitiful case of inherited syphilis I have known is a 
girl of 18 who is just learning to spell "cat" and "dog." Her growth has 
been stunted and her vision practically destroyed by this inherited disease; 
and though she has been helped by proper treatment she will always be a 
loser in the fight of life. 
11. A young wife gave birth to her first child, a credit to the 
parents. During her invalidism the husband met a former sweetheart, 
contracted syphilis from her and before he became aware of his own 
infection, contaminated his wife. She developed syphilitic sores in the 
mouth, and through her kisses infected the child with the disease contracted 
from her husband. 
12. A young man married two years after he had contracted syphilis. 
Within a year his wife had a spontaneous miscarriage, her child having 
been destroyed by the taint inherited from the father. A year later she 
gave birth to a puny child which bore the marks of the same disease. 
Soon after the birth of this child the father, who had apparently 
enjoyed good health, awoke one morning to find his right arm and leg 
completely paralyzed and his ability to utter words abolished, his paralysis 
resulting from syphilitic disease of the blood vessels in the brain. He 
gradually regained his power of speech and the use of his paralyzed limbs, 
though unable to earn a living for over a year. During this time the 
family was dependent for subsistence upon the charity of relatives. He 
will probably have more trouble from the same cause. 
13. A young man who was on kissing terms with several girls, 
acquired syphilis. Though warned that he could communicate the dis- 
ease by a kiss, he failed to resist temptation, and implanted the disease on 
the lip of each of two girls of good family. 
14. Six years after acquiring syphilis, during which time he had 
married and begotten a child, a young man developed locomotor ataxia. 
The physical and mental disability thereby entailed caused the loss of a 
good position and bright business prospects; and the present financial out- 
look for his family is discouraging. CHAPTER XX 
PROSTITUTION AND SEGREGATION 
PROSTITUTION is a legacy from antiquity. It has appar- 
ently existed since the childhood of the world, and so far as 
can be seen will continue to its end. 
In olden days prostitution was at times a sort of religious 
observance. Thus in Babylon every woman was obliged once 
in her life to repair to the temple of the goddess Mylitta, cor- 
responding to the Roman Venus, and offer herself to the first 
comer, her earnings going to the upkeep of the temple. An 
ancient writer tells us some of the fair devotees did not remain 
a day, while the homely ones had been waiting for a year or 
even several. 
Later on licensed prostitutes were installed in the city-states 
of Greece. Thus Plato (in the 5th century before Christ), to 
protect the maids and matrons of Athens, purchased slave-girls 
from various countries of the ancient world and had them fed 
and housed at the public expense, their earnings belonging to the 
state. 
As the centuries rolled on the calling flourished, until in 
the 5th century of our era (or about 1000 years after Plato), 
attempts at suppression began. The original one was by the 
empress of the Greek ruler, Justinian, and herself a former in- 
mate of a house of prostitution. She founded a retreat for them, 
but as no applicants appeared, several hundred were seized and 
imprisoned; however, in a few months all the inmates had either 
died or committed suicide. 
Another attempt was made by Louis IX of France, who 
(in 1254 A. D.) issued an edict against the filles de joie ("daugh- 
ters of joy") as they are called in France to this day. And such 
attempts have continued from time to time up to this year of 
grace-1922. It has been recognized for many years that the 
illegal (?) or clandestine prostitute is as dangerous as the pro- 
fessional one, if not more so, in the manner of spreading disease. 
In this connection, the English traveler Sir Richard F. 
Burton, about the middle of last century told a comical story: 
332 PROSTITUTION AND SEGREGATION 
333 
He was in the Indian army at the time, and stationed in the 
province of Scinde. The prostitutes in the town where the Eng- 
lish garrison was located, sent in a complaint to the military 
officials respectfully pointing out that the married women of the 
town were rapidly taking their means of livelihood away from 
them! 
Michels quotes Meiner to the effect that more especially 
in the Middle Ages, physical love was regarded as an absolute 
necessity. In the case of imprisoned debtors, their creditors 
were compelled twice a week to send them sufficient money to 
enable them to pay for the services of prostitutes. 
For many years the causes underlying prostitution have been 
the subject of investigation in Europe, and then in this country. 
An early effort (1855) was made by Dr. William W. Sanger, who 
was one of the physicians to the Penitentiary Hospital on Black- 
well's Island, New York harbor. 
He questioned some 2,000, and in his book tabulated the an- 
swers and comments on them at great length. We have room 
only for a few figures: Some 750 women were under 20 years 
of age. About one-quarter (521) were illiterate, unable to read 
or write. The social status was-single, 1,216; married, 490; 
widowed, 294. Nearly one-half had been leading such life for 
less than two years-less than one year, 634; one to two years, 
325. As regards the alleged motive for resorting to prostitution, 
513 said it was inclination, 525 were destitute, 258 had been se- 
duced, 181 attributed their downfall to drink; various reasons 
were given by the rest. A good proportion (359) asserted they 
did not drink at all, 647 did so moderately; so this leaves prac- 
tically one-half who were decidedly intemperate. Finally, of 
the entire 2,000 only 91 professed no religion. 
Sanger's findings as to "inclination" were corroborated years 
afterward by the chaplain of Millbank Prison (England). He 
found most of the female prisoners who were prostitutes had 
taken up the calling out of pure "cussedness," as the expression 
is. They were not poverty-stricken, nor had they been seduced. 
Lately it has become fashionable to account for prostitution 
by the assertion the women are of low mental development. Few 
men about town would be inclined to agree with this, at least the 
money-getting proclivity is not underdeveloped! 334 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
It has been well said that all prostitutes have venereal dis- 
eases some of the time, and some have such diseases all the time. 
In 1917, of the denizens of the notorious Barbary Coast (San 
Francisco), 97 out of every 100 were found diseased. Two 
years previous, practically the same number (96 per cent.) in 
Baltimore had a venereal disease. Even in such a small town as 
Pottsville, Pa. (20,000 inhabitants), of the 20 inmates in the three 
houses, 18 had syphilis or gonorrhea or both. This last instance 
shows how such diseases must be spread, one house had three in- 
habitants, and the cards of the latter by which their share of the 
day's receipts were to be determined, were punched 49, 37 and 28 
times respectively. 
Attempts have long been made, especially in Europe with its 
many garrison towns, to grapple with the prevalence of venereal 
diseases. A favorite plan, especially in France and Germany was 
licensed prostitution, though it has been known for many, many 
years over there, that the so-called "clandestine" prostitutes (shop 
girls, waitresses, barmaids, etc.) are fully as dangerous as the 
licensed class. In England, the Venereal Diseases Acts were re- 
pealed by the goody-goodies in 1886, since which time it is said 
the diseases have continued almost without check. 
In the Russo-Japanese war, according to Thibierge, the Jap- 
anese installed free licensed houses, subjected to regular medical 
visits, and attributed to this the very small prevalence of venereal 
diseases in their army. In the Russian forces, with no such regu- 
lations, the number of venereal patients was very high. 
Medical inspection is not thought of very highly in this coun- 
try. To declare a prostitute free from venereal disease is not to 
be lightly undertaken, hence reputable physicians decline to sign 
such statements, and the usual examiner is more intent on getting 
his fee than of making a thorough examination. To show what 
a farce the ordinary "examination" is, every one of the prostitutes 
in Pottsville had a certificate from a physician that she was free 
from disease, yet as just stated nearly every woman (18 out of 
20) was infected. The principal weakness of medical inspection 
is that granted a patient is absolutely free at a given moment, in 
two or three hours, they may be excessively dangerous to every- 
one coming in contact with them. 
Segregation has been widely heralded as a cure-all for pros- 
titution. This is a little beyond the scope of this work, so we PROSTITUTION AND SEGREGATION 
335 
shall merely quote the following contrast from Pamphlet No. 4 
(Montana State Board of Health) : 
THE TWO SIDES 
It is claimed that 
SEGREGATION 
1. Concentrates prosti- 
tution, thus facilitat- 
ing control and re- 
duction. 
2. Decreases prostitu- 
tion by regulation. 
3. Decreases venereal 
diseases through 
medical inspection. 
4. Enables control of 
the liquor traffic in 
connection with 
prostitution. 
5. Prevents crimes 
against women. 
6. Protects the com- 
munity from offens- 
ive and detrimental 
proximity of pros- 
titution. 
7. Decreases graft in 
connection with pros- 
titution, and the 
exploitation of the 
prostitute. 
8. Decreases crime by 
enabling police super- 
vision of a rec- 
ognized crime center. 
9. Safeguards against 
sexual perversions by 
providing an outlet 
for the unrestrained 
sexual appetities of 
men. 
10. Protects boys and 
young men from 
contact with the 
prostitute by remov- 
ing temptation from 
the streets and resi- 
dence districts. 
The truth is that 
SEGREGATION 
1. Increases prostitution, continually adver- 
tising vice by making it familiar. Affords 
a place of commerce, otherwise uncertain 
and precarious, to the least competent of 
prostitutes, mentally and physically. 
2. Increases prostitution by increasing the de- 
mand, which increases the supply. 
3. Increases venereal diseases by deceiving 
the ignorant into a fancied reliance upon a 
frequently "faked" and inevitably futile 
medical inspection. 
4. Stimulates an illegal liquor traffic, since 
commercialized vice fails without liquor. 
5. Tends to increase crimes against women 
by fostering promiscuity and providing a 
source of sexual brutalization and de- 
generacy. 
6. Exposes the community by advertising vice 
as a community necessity, making it easily 
accessible and tolerated, a condition con- 
ducive to the moral degradation of the 
community. 
7. Increases graft, by illegal toleration of 
commercialized vice, tempting the police 
to exact illegal revenue and confer illegal 
privilege. Gives free rein to the exploita- 
tion of prostitutes. 
8. Increases crime by fostering viciousness 
and disease, providing a meeting-place for 
the idle and vicious, with whom, rather 
than with the police, the prostitutes sym- 
pathize and usually cooperate. 
9. Fosters sexual perversions and abnormali- 
ties by educating men in habits of promis- 
cuous sex relations until they cannot be 
satisfied by the professional prostitute 
except by perversions which she is com- 
pelled to practice. 
10. Exposes boys and young men to contact 
with the prostitute by presenting an ever- 
present opportunity to "go down the line 
and see the sights." Provides a show-place 
for special obscene and depraved exhibi- 
tions, to which the youth is lured by 
"runners" and the sale of lewd pictures. 336 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
With the entrance of the United States into the World War, 
the question assumed an acute phase, for during the mobilization 
it was found one-fifth of the men examined for army service had 
some form of venereal disease, acquired in civil life previously in 
the vast majority. The usual beating of tom-toms was begun by 
the government officials and a steady stream of pronunciamentos, 
Comparative prevalence of Venereal Diseases and other Important 
communicable diseases In the U. S. Army. 
Venereal Diseases 102.3 
Other Communicable Diseases.. 29.4 ■HBH&HB 
Pneumonia, scarlet fever, typhoid and paratyphoid. (Measles not in- 
cluded.) The figures above represent the annual rates per 1,000 for 
all troops in the U. S., based on the reports from Sept. 21, 1917, to 
May 31, 1918. These are accurate for comparison only. Prepared 
from reports to the Surgeon General. 
decrees and regulations followed, of course, with heart-to-heart 
talks, movies, and leaflets galore at the training camps. The re- 
sults were not altogether what could be wished, judging by the 
keeper of a house in France who complained to the army authori- 
ties that her inmates were kept so busy by the "doughboys" that 
they could not obtain the needed sleep! 
Comparison of the number of cases of Venereal Disease contracted 
before and after enlistment. 
Before enlistment .5 
After enlistment 1 HS3BKSBK 
The number of cases before enlistment includes all uncurfed cases, old and 
new, as compared with the new cases contracted after enlistment. The 
great contrast, however, is mainly due to the better protection given to 
soldiers than is given most men and boys in civil life. The above 
estimate is based on reports from Camps Sherman, Lee, Upton, Meade, 
Custer, Kearney, and the Western Department from Oct. 25, 1917, to 
May 10, 1918. Journal Amer. Med. Assn., Aug. 10, 1918, p. 456. 
When the railroads were taken over, the U. S. Public Health 
Service entered the field, and special efforts were made among 
railway employes. The latter objected to being singled out, claim- 
ing they were no more immoral than any other class of workers. 
In cities near the training-camps, Louisville, for instance, raids PROSTITUTION AND SEGREGATION 
337 
were made on houses in the redlight districts, and those present 
carted off to jail, where they were kept until a test could be made 
as to whether venereal disease was present. The city jail was 
soon so full there was no room for ordinary prisoners, then a 
ward in the City Hospital was taken over, and before long over 
200 women were quarantined there for treatment. 
In Chicago, and other municipalities and states as well, re- 
porting of venereal disease has been made compulsory, the same 
as for scarlet fever, smallpox, etc. This leaves a wide loophole 
for well-to-do patients to escape by bribing their medical at- 
tendant. 
Handling of venereal diseases is a huge problem, and it may 
be doubted if any practical solution of the problem has been sug- 
gested thus far. When an individual who has suffered the pain 
and misery-to say nothing of the expense-attending a case of 
gonorrhea, promptly exposes himself in due time to the possibil- 
ity of fresh infection, how can we expect to reach such individuals 
with moral sayings or educational measures. We have in mind 
two such persons: The first worked in a bookstore, and used in 
his leisure moments to look over the medical works with pictures 
of the ravages of syphilis and other venereal diseases. Horri- 
fied, he would make a lot of good resolutions, but forget them 
all on the night of the next pay day. The other a chauffeur, had 
a severe case of gonorrhea, but was scarcely well when he con- 
tracted soft sores (chancroids), and before this is in type may 
have a fresh case of gonorrhea or mayhap syphilis. 
As far back as 1873, the government authorities in Finland 
reported that after a crusade against venereal diseases in that 
country for the previous quarter-century, including free treat- 
ment for all those applying for it, both gonorrhea and syphilis 
were on the increase. 
It is an old saying that "You cannot make people good by 
law." Despite this a series of rules have been promulgated. For 
example in the Suggestions for State Board of Health Regula- 
tions for the Prevention of Venereal Diseases, of March 29, 
1918, Rule 8 runs as follows: 
Prostitution to be repressed.-Prostitution is hereby declared 
to be a prolific source of syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid, and 
the repression of prostitution is declared to be a public health 
measure. All local and state health officers should, therefore. 338 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
co-operate with the proper officials whose duty it is to enforce 
laws directed against prostitution, and otherwise to use every 
proper means for the repression of prostitution. 
This is a good sample of the childish faith of government 
officials in rules and regulations. Having declared prostitution to 
be a public health measure, and declared a ruling, the naughty 
practice, will, of course, stop, instanter. 
The Secretary of the Treasury, in Amendment 7 to Inter- 
state Quarantine Regulations, decreed that persons infected with 
venereal disease must not travel except under certain restric- 
tions. Some 47 state boards of health have agreed that "the 
travel of venereally infected persons within the state is to be 
controlled by state boards of health by definite regulations that 
will conform in general to the interstate regulations." It is 
claimed that lessening the travel of infected persons, will also 
lessen the dangers of the spread of venereal diseases. Let us 
hope so, but as the old English recipe for haresoup reads: "First 
catch your hare." 
When the late Prof. Ehrlich announced the perfecting of 
"606" several years ago, he was in hopes that one dose of it would 
cure syphilis. This statement aroused a storm of protests from 
moralists-clerical and otherwise-who argued that if a patient 
could be cured so quickly, it would merely allow him to resume 
his evil practices. Ehrlich's hopes are not realized, it was very 
soon discovered that a somewhat lengthy course of treatment was 
necessary; on the other hand, it proved to be of enormous benefit 
in some forms of syphilis, especially that affecting the brain, 
which were either not benefited at all by the old methods of 
mercury and potash, or only very slowly. 
The same arguments have been urged against the use of 
measures to prevent infection after extramarital intercourse. 
These strike one as somewhat narrow-minded, and far from the 
broad point of view we are endeavoring to adhere to in these 
pages. CHAPTER XXI 
QUACKS AND THEIR METHODS 
THE work "quack" comes from an old Hollandish term, 
which like the one for the sounds uttered by ducks, means 
"to gabble or chatter." Several centuries ago these medical 
charlatans were in the habit of frequenting public gatherings 
like market-places and fairs, where they talked long and loud 
about their remedies, and from their incessant noise the word 
came to be applied to them. 
In the '80s, many of the Chicago papers had glaring adver- 
tisements of several of these gentry, containing among other 
things: "The Doctor is 60 Years Old," "You See no One but 
the Doctor," "The Doctor Has 24 Parlors and Offices." Many 
of them died off, but others took their places, changing the word- 
ing of their traps for the unwary by making it appear they were 
using all recent discoveries, such as the X-ray, "606," etc. 
At length (October-November, 1913) the Chicago Tribune 
started a crusade to put the Chicago concerns out of business. 
It is scarcely necessary to state that high-class paper never con- 
tained any of these swindler's advertisements, but other sheets- 
especially the ones in foreign languages-were less scrupulous. 
One of the Tribune staff was first of all thoroughly examined 
by a number of well-known physicians connected with medical 
colleges, and unanimously pronounced a perfectly healthy man. 
(He was 25 years old, 6 feet tall, weighing 185 pounds, and had 
played football for 6 years.) Providing himself with a bottle of 
colored water containing a little ammonia, which masqueraded 
as a "sample of urine," he called on eight of the charlatans, and 
among other ailments was told by two he had "pustoris" and 
"specificus gravitus." (No! don't look these up in the glossary 
at the end of this book, for there are no such words in medicine.) 
When his tour as a "patient" was finished, the accounts were 
duly printed in successive issues of the Tribune for the above 
months, and created such a sensation that most of the gentry 
promptly absconded. This enterprising and courageous paper 
has kindly given us permission to make extracts from the articles, 
and we gladly avail ourselves of the privilege: 
339 340 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
quack's aids tell of horror chambers 
The Tribune presents to its readers today the "confessions" 
of two men who know a certain phase of medical quackery from 
the inside. They are former employees of that eminent specialist 
in "getting the money," Dr. Edward N. Flint, who practices 
medical skullduggery at 322 South State Street. 
The individuals who made the "confessions" were "floor 
men" in "institutes" which Flint conducts in a string of middle 
western cities as a side line to his regular "offices" in Chicago. 
The business of the "floor man" or capper is to mingle with the 
crowds that visit the "institutes," gain their visitors' confidence 
and lure them to the "case taker" and the doctor who fleeces them. 
It must be said in behalf of the two men who talked to the 
Tribune that when they entered Flint's employ they did not know 
he was a swindler and that they got out of the business as soon 
after they had learned the truth as they could. 
Their names are suppressed because the Tribune believes 
them to be potentially honest and does not wish to destroy the 
reputation of men who, in different surroundings, would turn 
out to be useful citizens. "Institutes" of the kind Flint runs are 
well known to the average Chicagoan. They are the wax-work 
shows which recently have been ordered suppressed in Chicago by 
Health Commissioner Young. Some still are running surrep- 
titiously. The visitor is attracted to the "institute" by a wax- 
work display occupying one of the windows. He enters and finds 
himself in a long room containing 100 or more wax effigies 
representing human beings in various stages of disease. The 
figures in the front of the room are exceedingly frank in their 
display of the human form. That is to give the show drawing 
power among the prurient. 
As the visitor passes down the line, however, the statues 
undergo a subtle change. He finds chills of horror beginning to 
chase each other up and down his spine. He stops in front of a 
cabinet with a glass front. As he peers through the pane the 
interior of the cabinet suddenly is illuminated by electric light 
and the face of an idiot boy leers out hideously at him. Over 
the boy's head, sharply set off by a shaded light, are the words: 
LOST MANHOOD 
The visitor starts away in horror and is immediately ap- QUACKS AND THEIR METHODS 
341 
MENS SPECIALISTS AND 'LOST MANHOOD" QUACKS ARE A SOURCE OF GREAT DANGER TO THE YOUNG MAN 342 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
proached by a man in uniform, who suggests that he go up and 
see the doctor. A little farther on a tableau displays the ravages 
of venereal diseases. By this time, quite naturally, the visitor 
is beginning to feel ill. This is the time for the "floor man" to 
get in his fine work. The "floor man" has been watching the 
crowds carefully. He has picked this particular visitor as a 
"live one." He arrives at the man's side and offers his sympathy. 
He desires to know the visitor's symptoms. The visitor, glad 
to confide in anyone, tells what he thinks is the matter with him. 
The "floor man" gets him a drink of water and then adroitly 
ascertains how much money he has with him. 
When this information is given the visitor is ready for the 
doctor. In the slang of the "institutes," the operation which 
follows is "feeing the patient." A patient is "feed" in the 
slang of the institute when he has been fleeced. If he comes 
back for a second fleecing he is "refeed." 
MAKES A "doctor" IN FOUR SECONDS 
Fred Glover lives at 2618 Emmett Street. When Burgess 
assumed charge of the Atomo-Radio Company he was an obscure 
but ambitious elevator operator at 36 South Franklin Street. 
About a month ago, George Franks, who formerly worked for 
Dr. "Specificus Gravitus" Zins, walked into Glover's elevator. 
"Hello, Franks," said Glover. "What are you doing?" 
"Why," replied Franks, "I'm practicing medicine." 
"Where do you get that 'practicing medicine' stuff?" inquired 
Glover. "You never studied to be a doctor." 
Franks laughed. "Fred," he said, "you always were a boob. 
Wise up. You don't have to study to be a doctor. You don't 
even have to grow a set of whiskers. All you have to do is- 
but say, I'll show you how. I'll make a Doc out of you. I'm 
going on a vacation. Come on with me. You can have my 
place." 
Glover says Franks took him to the Atomo-Radio offices 
and presented him to Burgess. He explained that Glover was a 
potential "wise guy" and wanted to substitute for Franks while 
the latter was away. Glover says Burgess looked him over, ac- 
cepted him. fixed him up with a white jacket, and then gave him 
the following instructions: 
Scare your patient into believing he has some disease. QUACKS AND THEIR METHODS 
343 
Then find out how much money he has. 
Get the money. 
Then get rid of the patient as quickly as possible. 
Don't waste time with a patient after he's broke. 
Don't tolerate a moneyless patient around the office. 
Glover started to work, but did not carry out the instruc- 
tions to the letter. He had some home-grown medical ideas of 
his own and he supplemented this by reading medical books. 
He gave his patients good advice. He told them to eat and sleep 
regularly. His methods were so different from the other "special- 
ists" in the place that he became popular with many of the 
patients. They would ask for him. After Glover had been there 
three weeks he was called before Dr. Burgess. The doctor had 
discovered that the former elevator man was treating the patients 
almost as if he wanted to do them good, instead of merely "do" 
them. 
"What is the meaning of this?" Glover says Dr. Burgess 
asked him. "What do you think this place is? Do you think 
we want all of these patients to think they can get well without 
coming to us with their money?" 
A few days later Glover was told his services were needed 
no longer. He protested that he had been induced to leave his 
elevator job with the understanding that his position was to be 
permanent if his services were satisfactory. He told Dr. Burgess 
that he had given up his former job and that he could not get it 
back. 
"I realized then why they did not want me," Glover told 
the Tribune. "They want a man who will bunko the ignorant 
patients and get the money. The only man licensed to practice 
medicine at the Atomo-Radio Company is Dr. Burgess. The rest 
are taken from some other job. They know nothing of the legiti- 
mate practice of medicine. They make doctors out of them as 
they did me. They take them from the street, give them a 
white jacket, and they are 'specialists.' I could continue in the 
business if I wanted to be dishonest. They are merciless. 
They want the money. I think too much of my future to 
jeopardize my chances by robbing the patients the way you must 
do in those places. Now I am out of a job. I will have to sell 
my library to pay my rent unless I get a job this week. I have 
worked hard to buy these books and sometimes I study all night." 344 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
quack's manager tells how sick dupes are ruined 
"I mixed the prescriptions. We had several shelves of 
medicine, that looked rather imposing. Most of it was colored 
water. The doctor would write on the prescription 'Aqua Mis- 
sourianus,' which called for plain Missouri River water, colored 
green, red or blue, with fruit coloring. In Chicago and in Gary, 
Ind., the prescriptions called for 'Aqua Michiganus.' Hinkle's 
pills were a great favorite. You can get a dozen for a nickel in 
any drug store. We sold them seven for $2. We had them in 
three colors, so that a patient could be kept using them three 
weeks, thinking they were different pills. Hinkle's pills are 
mild cathartics. 
"Our popular 'come-back' prescription was elixir simplex. 
It is almost whisky and any man who uses it regularly can get a 
jag on it. They always came back to have the prescription re- 
filled. I used to make the stuff by the barrel. First, if we were 
out of alcohol I would send a boy with a two-gallon jar for one 
gallon of alcohol. When he returned I would fill the jar up with 
a gallon of water. Then I would be ready to mix. The prescrip- 
tion calls for four pounds of sugar, two and two-fifths pints of 
alcohol, and 'Aqua Missourianus quantitat sufficiat ad cong. II,' 
which means a sufficient quantity of water to bring the whole up 
to two gallons. Then I would add one and a half ounces of fluid 
extract of orange peel and color the whole with burnt sugar. It 
was a sure jag. We would get anywhere from $2 to $5 for a 
four-ounce bottle of the stuff. 
"My reports were all made in cipher. I used to send them 
out every night. The cipher initials and the key to them are as 
follows: 
" 'M. C.-Museum calls.' 
" 'N. C.-New calls to doctor.' 
" 'N. C. P.-New calls put-"put" means money collected.' 
" 'C. B.-Comebacks-men who called at museum and after 
reading literature came back for examination.' 
" 'C. B. P.-Comebacks put.' 
'"O.C.-Old calls.' 
" 'N. F.-New fees-amounts contracted for.' 
" 'O. F.-Office fees.' 
" 'P. R. T. H. O.-Previous remittance to home office.' " QUACKS AND THEIR METHODS 
345 346 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
FORMER INTERPRETER FOR QUACKS MAKES CONFESSION OF THE 
SYSTEM USED 
"I was interpreter and office man. I speak Polish, Slavic, 
Bohemian, Russian and English. The office was on the second 
floor. There was a reception room, a consultation room, the 
doctor's private office, the electrical room, and the pharmacy 
where we kept the dope. 
"When a new patient would come in I would tell him that 
the doctor was performing a serious operation at the time and 
would let him sit there for about an hour, so as to let him think 
we were an important firm. First I would get his name and age 
and address and the place he worked and how much he got in 
salary and what day he received his pay. Then I would find 
out about his symptoms and whether he ever had been treated 
before. All of this information would go in to the doctor so 
he would be prepared. One of my duties was to keep new 
patients from talking with any old patients who might happen 
to be in the waiting room. If they insisted on talking it was my 
place to get into the conversation and switch it to some other 
subject. If it got too strong to swing I would isolate the new 
patient in one of the consultation rooms. For instance, here 
was a case of one fellow, I remember. When he came in I 
found out he was a second boss in the stockyards and how much 
he got, and that he was paid on Fridays. I took him into the 
doctor and explained in English he wanted attention. 
"The doctor looked at the patient and shook his head and 
spoke to me. I translated and told the man he was in a very bad 
condition. Then we put him on the operating table. The doctor 
shook his head again. I explained the doctor was afraid to take 
care of the case because it was a serious one. Then the doctor 
asked me, 'Does this man value his money more than his life?' 
and I translated it to the fellow on the table, who would gladly 
assent to pay anything he had to be saved. The doctor then 
decided to take the case. After being examined this man asked 
what the charge was and the doctor told him $25. The man 
pulled out a roll of bills with a $50 bill on the outside. 
" 'Wait a minute,' said the doctor, as he carefully began 
looking at the patient again. The patient weakened and lay 
back on the table. After more of the fake examination he was QUACKS AND THEIR METHODS 
347 
separated from $50, instead of the original $25 which we had 
asked. He was given a prescription which was filled at our 
drug counter, and cost him $5. There was just enough of the 
medicine to last him until his next pay day. I know that they 
never cured any diseases, because they had no real drugs to do it 
with. We used to get pills by the barrel." 
ANOTHER FORMER "FLOOR MAN's" STORY 
"I am a salesman by profession. About four months ago I 
found myself out of work and looking around for something to 
do. I read an advertisement for a first-class salesman who could 
speak several languages. I answered the ad. and soon after re- 
ceived a letter from a Dr. Reinhardt. Reinhardt asked me to call. 
I visited the office and saw Reinhardt. He introduced me to 
Flint. Flint told me, 'You are just the man I want. I like your 
appearance.' I remained in Chicago during the next week, calling 
daily on Flint and Reinhardt and receiving from them instructions 
as to my future course of action while in their employ. They 
taught me a line of medical talk and prepared me for receiving 
patients. 
"At the end of the week Flint and his wife and myself took 
a train for Indianapolis. Their plant there is at 28 S. Illinois St. 
On the ground floor is a window in which is exhibited a group of 
wax figures operated by machinery, which shows how to resusci- 
tate a drowning man. That draws the crowd. I went to work on 
a Saturday. It was the last day of the automobile races and there 
was a big crowd. That day we had 800 visitors. I know that, 
because one of my duties was to keep track of the number of 
pamphlets printed in different languages that I gave away. I gave 
away 800. I was to be floor man. Before I went to work I had 
a talk with our casetaker, a man named Woods. His instruction 
in effect was that I was to 'con' the suckers and get them upstairs 
to him so he could get the money. This was a surprise to me, be- 
cause I had come down to Indianapolis convinced the business 
was honest. I told Woods what Flint and Reinhardt had told me 
about misrepresentation. 
" 'It doesn't make any difference what Flint and Reinhardt 
told you,' replied Woods. 'You are working for me and you take 
your orders from me. Remember one thing: IVe's here to get 
the money.' I didn't like that very well, but I was broke and I 348 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
was there in Indianapolis with my wife without friends and it was 
up to me to make good. I thought, too, that I would be able to 
come to a better understanding with Woods through Flint. As a 
matter of fact, I know now that Flint wouldn't have helped me. 
All that talk he had given me about being honest with the visitors 
wras just plain bunk. They wanted me to be enthusiastic. They 
knew that if I believed in them I would do better work. 
"After my talk with Woods I was turned loose on the main 
floor. This was a big room full of wax figures. Flint had 
brought his wife down to see the plant. She never had been in it 
before. Honestly, I was ashamed when that woman came in there 
and looked over that stuff. It sure was a show for men only. The 
real chamber of horrors, though, was on the next floor. That was 
where they took the suckers to throw the final scare into them. 
Before I went to work I had a last talk with Woods. He gave me 
one caution. 'Don't tell 'em you are a doctor,' he said. 'If they 
call you "doctor" that's all right. You don't have to deny the title, 
you know.' 
"With that he left me and I found myself alone with the 
negro porter among those wax statues. Pretty soon the 'hicks' 
began to come in. I walked around among them and engaged my- 
self in friendly and seductive conversation among the ones that 
looked like they had money. My instructions gave me two things 
to get out of them. One was their 'weak point'-what they 
thought was the matter with them. The other was how much 
money they had with them. 
"The work was pretty easy. Most of the visitors were young 
fellows from the country. A large percentage of them were not 
sick at all-only thought they were sick, the result, usually, of a 
guilty conscience. I'd talk to them a while then stick some disease 
on them-I had a list of diseases from Woods. The virulence of 
the disease depended on how much money the sucker had. If he 
had lots of it I'd tell him he had syphilis and show him by means 
of the wax figures that he was developing the symptoms. One 
fellow had a wart on the side of his hand. I convinced that chap 
that he was in an advanced stage of syphilis simply by comparing 
his wart to a wart on one of our wax dummies. After I had con- 
vinced him he had the disease, I took him upstairs to the cham- 
ber of horrors and showed him what he would be like in a week 
or two if he didn't take our treatment. QUACKS AND THEIR METHODS 
349 
"This work, as I said, was pretty easy. I didn't have any 
pangs of conscience about skinning these 'boobs.' Most of them 
had a skinning coming to them for the way they had been acting, 
and I figured that anyway it would be worth money to them if we 
did throw a scare into them that would keep them out of trouble in 
the future. But a little later in the day I ran across several 
patients that worried me. One of these was a poor devil with a 
cancer. I knew by looking at him that the best doctor on earth 
couldn't cure him. Another was a fellow so weak with tubercu- 
losis he could scarcely walk. I went through the motions and got 
them up to the doctor. Without batting an eye our quack told 
them he could cure them in a month. This went on for two days 
and all the time I was getting sorer and sorer on my job. The 
blow-off came on the afternoon of the second day when a nice 
young chap came in and said that he had hernia. 
"He had been to another quack, and the quack had injected 
paraffin into him. The paraffin had formed a lump. He was 
going to get married and he wanted himself fixed up. I knew by 
this time what our doctor would do with that case. He would 
take out the first lump of paraffin and then inject some more in 
another place. I felt sorry for the fellow, but I took him upstairs 
to the doctor just the same. Our system of introducing patients 
to the doctor was this: We walked upstairs and I pushed a but- 
ton for the doctor. He came out, and I introduced him to the 
patient. Then we left the patient alone in the doctor's reception 
room. 
"The doctor went back to his office, and I walked out into 
the hall and over to the case-taker's office. I'd tell the case-taker 
what our patient thought he had and how much money he had 
with him. Then the case-taker would pick up a phone on his desk 
and tell the facts I'd given him to the doctor. After that the 
doctor would send for the patient. He'd diagnose his case right 
away as syphilis or whatever I had told the case-taker. The con- 
sultation would follow. The doctor never said a word about 
money. At the end of the interview the patient would want to 
know how much the treatments were going to cost him. The doc- 
tor would put on a look of hurt dignity and reply: 
" 'I never discuss money matters. I am a physician. You'll 
have to talk to Mr. Woods.' 
"Then he would give the patient a slip of paper and get him 350 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
out of the office. The patient would walk over to Woods' office 
present his slip of paper and ask the price. Woods would tell him 
the treatment would cost him so much down-the amount he had 
in his pocket-and so much later. The patient invariably was so 
badly scared by this time that he would give up quick. You see, 
it was all cash business. After we'd hooked them once we didn't 
care if they never came back. 
"Well, when this man got into Woods' office Woods told him 
that the treatment would cost him $25. I'd told Woods that be- 
cause the chap had told me he was hard up and I wanted to make 
the case a flivver. The fellow with the hernia hummed and 
hawed and then said he would go and get the money. He came 
downstairs and asked the porter for me. Then he started in to 
tell me his troubles. He said that if he had to give up $25 he 
would have to put off his marriage. That made me feel ashamed 
of myself. 
" 'What shall I do?' he asked. 
" 'Do,' said I, 'why, you clear out of this place and don't 
come back again. Those fellows are a bunch of robbers.' 
"Well, right there is where I lost my job." 
DR. ISAAC WALTER HODGENS. HE TELLS HIS PERFECTLY HEALTHY 
CALLER HE HAS PROSTATITIS AND WANTS $35 FOR TREATMENT 
Hodgens' place is at 35 S. Dearborn St. He advertises 
"scientific direct methods" for curing "specific blood poison, acute 
and chronic infectious diseases, weakness and nervousness" in the 
shortest possible time, and lays emphasis on the fact that he is a 
graduate of Jefferson Medical College. He informed a perfectly 
healthy investigator who called on him that he was suffering from 
prostatitis and offered to cure him for $35. This diagnosis was 
based on an examination of a mixture of water, ammonia and 
anilin which had been submitted to him by his "patient." It is 
true that he is a graduate of Jefferson Medical College. He was 
licensed to practice medicine in this state in 1902. He lives in 
Wilmette. 
Oct. 10.-I visited Dr. I. W. Hodgens, second floor of the 
Crilly building, today. I gave the name of H. Vanderveen. 
"What is the matter?" asked the doctor when I entered. 
"Nervous," I said. "Wanted to have you look me over. I 
haven't been feeling well." QUACKS AND THEIR METHODS 
351 
He looked at my tongue and said it was badly coated. Then 
he examined my eyes with a magnifying glass. 
"Appetite?" he asked. 
"Sometimes good. Sometimes bad." 
I told him I was worried over my health because I couldn't 
enjoy the work I was doing-inside work over a desk. 
"I think that something is wrong with your urinary tract," he 
said. 
He asked me to bring him a specimen to-morrow. He said 
his bill would be reasonable and to feel perfectly safe. He did not 
require any sort of a deposit. On the walls of his office are 
pictures of persons in various degrees of syphilis. He ushers 
patients out of the office by a rear passage. 
Oct. 11.-I called on Dr. Hodgens again to-day. I delivered 
to him a bottle, which he had provided yesterday, filled with a 
mixture of water, ammonia and anilin, obtained from the Ameri- 
can Medical Association. 
"I will have to examine this, Mr. Vanderveen," he said. "It 
will take me ten or fifteen minutes. Wait here." 
He returned in about ten minutes. "Be patient, Mr. Van- 
derveen, I don't want to say I know what's wrong until I have 
thoroughly examined the contents of the bottle. I think there is 
uric acid in it." 
In ten minutes he returned again and examined the prostate 
gland. 
"Very sensitive, very sensitive, young man. I will have to 
make a further examination." 
"What is the prostate gland ?" I asked him, "and how serious 
is the trouble?" 
"It is a gland just at the neck of the bladder. It might be 
said that it controls the nervous system. When that is deteri- 
orated you are nervous. You are run down and have no desire for 
work." 
He went out and returned in a moment; then asked me 
to step into his assistant's office. The assistant, named "Smith" 
(he said), examined me further. 
"Very much enlarged," he said with a long face, "very much 
more than I expected. I want to give you treatment." 
"How much will it cost?" I asked. 352 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
"Well, the regular price for this treatment is $50. You had 
better take it. You are facing a dangerous thing. 
"Considering your condition financially, I think we can give 
you the treatment for $35. How much can you pay now?" 
"Three dollars is as much as I can give," I replied. 
"We don't like to take less than five. How often can you 
make payments?" 
I told him once a week and he seemed satisfied. 
"I guess that is enough for this afternoon," he said. "I will 
want to give you another kind of treatment soon, but you are in 
too delicate a condition now for it. Come on Monday night." 
He escorted me to his drug dispensary and provided me with 
a bottle containing a red fluid. It was marked "Private Formula." 
He seemed worried about my condition. 
"Now, Harry," he said when I left, "I am glad you came to 
us. You are in a serious condition." 
Then he handed me a small packet of pills, 
OLD DOCTOR SWEANY CO. DR. MCCANDLESS DISCOVERS VARICOCELE 
AND WANTS $50 FOR AN OPERATION 
The establishment of Old Doctor (Francis Leaverett) 
Sweany is at 63 W. Randolph St. The reporter who visited the 
place was received by a Dr. McCandless. He was told he had 
varicocele. The "patient" had been previously diagnosed by an- 
other quack as a syphilitic. Dr. McCandless, however, found no 
trace of this disease. He wanted $50 for a minor operation. Dr. 
Sweany, who established this concern, was a graduate of the 
Medical College of Indiana, Indianapolis. The school is now de- 
funct. He practiced simultaneously in Chicago and Philadelphia 
from 1900 to 1908 and in St. Louis from 1900 to 1902. 
Oct. 10.-I went to the office of Dr. Sweany & Co. today. A 
flamboyant sign stops you as you pass on Randolph at. Dr. 
Sweany's name is on the sign and on the door in big letters and it 
is on the steps in metal placards several times. A young man 
asked who I was, and, learning I was a new patient, went at once 
to the "doctor in charge." While he was gone a janitor stuck his 
head in the door and wanted to know my "number." I told him 
I was a new patient, and he made tracks for the front office also. 
The doctor in charge-his name is McCandless-invited me in, 
smiled, stuck out his hand, and asked what he could do for me. QUACKS AND THEIR METHODS 
353 
I told him I was to be married in a month and wanted to see if I 
was all right. 
"I have been told I had syphilis," I said, thinking of an ex- 
perience the day before with "Prof. Ehrlich," "and I want to be 
sure I haven't." 
"What leads you to that belief?" 
"Well, there's the hair falling out, doctor-and the tightness 
of the throat." 
"I don't think you have syphilis; you don't look syphilitic. 
Let me examine your hair and your throat." 
He strapped a magnifying glass to his forehead and trained it 
on my throat, pressing down my tongue with a nickel plated in- 
strument. Then he felt my scalp. 
"No, I don't believe you have syphilis," he said. "The falling 
hair may be due to some affected hair cells. I am of the opinion 
that a blood test would show negative." 
After some more inquiry he said I had varicocele. 
"That case of varicocele is not very bad now, but it's weak- 
ening. You are a young man now, vigorous and healthy, and you 
do not feel its influences as yet. But you would find it weakening. 
I would advise you to have it fixed." 
"How much would it cost?" 
"Fifty dollars." 
"That's an awful lot of money, doctor." 
"Well, it seems a good sum now. But you can afford it bet- 
ter at this time than after a while. You owe it to yourself and to 
your future wife to be in perfect health." 
"I think I can borrow it," I answered after studying the mat- 
ter for some moments. "I am sure I can. Would you want it all 
at once?" 
"Oh, no, not necessarily. You could pay $25 now and $25 
later, or you can pay so much-say $5 or $10-a week. We can 
cure you easily in the month." 
He then wrote my name [Everett Dimond today], age, occu- 
pation, grocery clerk in Wilmette, and the amount of the fee. Dr. 
McCandless is a rather tall, spare and solemn man, with a look of 
profound sincerity and trustworthiness. 
"Fifty dollars." 
"I am so glad that your paper went after those quack doc- 
tors," writes a girl in South Chicago, "that I simply must tell you 354 
of our sad experience with one of them. We gave that big Dr. 
Sweany Co. pretty near all my brother Alex made in wages one 
whole summer. Alex was a deckhand on a Graham & Morton 
boat and had to sleep in all kinds of places. One day he came 
home and told mamma he had broken out all over his body and 
could not sleep. I had been reading in the newspapers the adver- 
tisements of those doctors. I thought Alex had contracted some 
bad disease in his dirty job, and mamma and I thought it best he 
go to Dr. Sweany and be cured. Dr. Sweany took one look at 
him and says sure enough he has this bad disease and that if he 
didn't get busy at once he would die in a short time. He told 
Alex it might take a whole year to cure him, but he would take 
the case for $60 and guarantee a cure. 
"We all got together and secured the money, with the under- 
standing that Alex was to pay us back as he got paid from the 
boat company. The doctor gave him only some yellow ointment 
to place on different parts of his body. Alex used this for two 
months, but instead of getting better grew worse. Mamma be- 
came alarmed, got Alex to take his shirt off, and found that the 
only thing the matter with my brother was that he was covered 
with vermin. We went to the drug store and asked the druggist 
what kind of ointment Sweany had prescribed. He said it was 
sulphur, and he would sell us enough to kill a dozen crops of 
vermin for 50 cents. It cured Alex when he rubbed it all over 
his body. Sweany knew what was wrong all the time, but he told 
Alex if he did not keep up the treatment he never could get mar- 
ried and in a year or so he would either be dead or in a sana- 
torium. Now, we will admit that we are ignorant and don't know 
much, but w'e surely thought no human being would ever treat us 
that way. It surely would do my heart good to see the whole 
Sweany Co. in jail for life-also the rest of his kind. And for 
what you have done so far I will promise you that I will read the 
Tribune every day of my life, and I hope you will continue to get 
after them still worse." 
Here are other letters: 
"Chicago, Oct. 27.-[Editor of the Tribune.]-Your expose 
of quack doctors reminds me of how I was robbed of $60 or $70 
by Dr. Sweany. I went to his office. After scaring me he said he 
would guarantee to cure me for $45. As I thought I was all in 
and thought $45 would cure me, I handed over $45 cash. He QUACKS AND THEIR METHODS 
355 
gave me a few electric treatments, and then he wrote out an 
apparent prescription inclosed in a sealed envelope and told me to 
take it to a certain drug store. As he had guaranteed to cure me 
for $45, I thought that included the entire cost. To my surprise 
the druggist brought out four small bottles of medicine and after 
spending five minutes telling of the great importance of the medi- 
cine I was shocked when he said the cost was $11. Here I had 
just paid $45 and was now paying besides for medicine. I saw in 
an instant that I was jobbed. I finally beat him down to $6 for 
the four bottles. I was ordered to take two teaspoonfuls before 
and after meals and at bedtime. In the meantime I called at the 
office every few days for a little electric shock. I figured I would 
not get any more medicine. In a few days the doctor, knowing 
the medicine was exhausted, handed me another envelope. How- 
ever, I took it to a different druggist, and he said it was no pre- 
scription at all, simply a code between those two parties. I de- 
cided I would take no medicine at all, but continue to take the 
electric. I found, however, the doctor would give me no treat- 
ments unless I had medicine, so I quit. "Walter." 
"Chicago, Oct. 28.- [Editor of the Tribune.]-I had an at- 
tack of the grip. I went to see Dr. Sweany. I was just 21 years 
of age, and after he made a thorough examination, during which 
he frightened me almost to death, I was told I had varicose veins 
and that for $35 he would give me a written guarantee to cure me 
as soon as possible. The guarantee I later discovered was nothing 
more than a contract to pay $30 in thirty days. I made a deposit 
of $5 at the time. After providing me with two bottles of dope, 
one for external and one for internal use, I was told to return in 
a week for further treatment. The medicine I took internally did 
not agree with me. Upon my return I was given another bottle of 
the same stuff, which upset my stomach still more, so that I gave 
it up, got disgusted with the treatment, and did not return the fol- 
lowing week. I soon began to feel much better, but I received a 
letter from Sweany, chastising me for not coming back, threaten- 
ing me with dire results regarding my future, and calling my at- 
tention to the fact that I still owed $30, and that if I did not call 
within ten days they would put it in the hands of their legal de- 
partment for collection. I saw I had no chance to fight and called 
and paid the $30." "Evanston." 356 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
PIMPLES 
At the time when adolescence sets in in the male sex, as has 
already been stated, the beard commences to grow and hair 
comes out on other parts of the body in both sexes. This merely 
shows the skin is becoming more active, and one sign of this 
increased activity in many boys is the appearance of little pimples, 
on the face especially. Foolish individuals believing this is a 
symptom of "lost manhood," become frantic and consult-or 
worse, write to-quacks who frighten them into paying more 
money than most of them can well afford, and for what? An 
alleged "cure" of a condition which is as natural as the sprouting 
of the beard, not an indication of any venereal disease and no 
cause for worry. 
We say writing is much worse than a personal interview, 
for the reason that the quacks exchange letters or lists of names 
with each other. On the other hand, such letters are regularly 
offered for sale by brokers in mail-order lists. Several years 
ago one of the New York brokers offered no less than three 
million for sale at a fixed price. 
LOST MANHOOD 
Quacks are shrewd, they know nearly every boy has in- 
dulged in masturbation more or less, and has "wet dreams." 
With this knowledge they bait their traps with cunningly-worded 
advertisements. The result is crowds of adolescents call on 
them or write to find if they really have "lost manhood," and 
after calling or writing are generally convinced they have. The 
"doctor" shows them one testicle is lower than the other, a "sure 
sign" of varicocele, or else a sample of urine contains a cloudy 
deposit of mucus or a layer of red crystals at the bottom. We 
have already seen under Anatomy that in the great majority of 
males the left testicle is lower; as for the mucus, that is from 
the lining of the bladder, and the small red crystals are nothing 
but acid from the kidney which may be discovered in the urine 
of little babies. 
The more one reads and sees of these fakers the more 
truth there appears to be in the old motto of P. T. Barnum: 
"The public loves to be humbugged." High-grade and reputable 
physicians never have to drum up business by advertising; neither QUACKS AND THEIR METHODS 
357 
do lawyers. Furthermore, no doctor finds it necessary to "guar- 
antee" a cure, as do all these alleged "specialists." 
Sad to relate, some individuals become so despondent over 
the prospect that they put an end to themselves, and the leading 
medical publication of England, the British Medical Journal, 
commenting on a case of suicide, said editorially: "We receive 
despairing letters from those victims of foul birds of prey who 
have obtained their first hold on those they rob, torture and often 
ruin, by advertisements inserted by newspapers of a respectable, 
nay, even of a valuable and respected, character." 
It is curious that in this country little or nothing was done 
by medical journals to put a stop to quackery. It remained for 
an influential paper like the Chicago Tribune to make the 
charlatans rapidly hunt a hiding place, CHAPTER XXII 
MODESTY AND PRUDERY 
MODESTY. 
THERE is considerable uncertainty as to the exact origin of 
modesty. It certainly has nothing to do with clothing, for in 
some of the Pacific Islands, the men are naked and the women 
clothed; while in a group possibly not far away, the men are 
clothed-such as it is in those hot climates-and the women 
wholly nude. Now a German traveler tells us that the women 
and girls in New Britain, one of the island-groups, are ex- 
tremely modest and respectable notwithstanding they have not a 
stitch of clothes on them. So too, Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, 
the famous lady-traveler, after living several years among the 
Japanese writes: "A woman may be naked and still behave like a 
lady." 
Westermarck, the celebrated Finnish historian of marriage, 
gives as his opinion that clothing was originally intended not to 
hide or protect the body-but to render it attractive from the 
standpoint of sexuality. 
Nor is modesty confined to the female sex as a woman physi- 
cian thought some time ago. She wrote to a medical journal 
stating how agreeably surprised she was while assistant in a dis- 
pensary, to find the male patients modest, even though from the 
working classes! The good lady evidently labored under the de- 
lusion that modesty is a strictly feminine attribute. 
PRUDERY. 
This false modesty which is diametrically opposed to the 
genuine article was much more common years ago. When Mari- 
ana of Austria, was on the way to become the bride of Philip 
IV, of Spain, long before the days of railroads, she perforce 
traveled by carriages. To relieve the tedium of the long trip, a 
visit was paid with her suite to a factory where stockings were 
made, and the future queen was much interested in the process. 
A pair which were nearly done at the time were hastilv finished, 
and sent to the future queen before she left the town as a souv- 
358 MODESTY AND PRUDERY 
359 
enir. An old lady-in-waiting to whom the messenger delivered 
the gift, drew herself up and thrusting the package back said: 
"Sir! the Queen of Spain has no legs." 
Long after this humorous saying, we used to hear of the 
spinster ladies in Boston who hid the "legs" of their pianos in 
pantalets, and a near relative of them, she being left some money 
by an uncle always referred to it as a "Zzw&acy", never as a 
legacy. 
The growing sexual laxity and degeneration of the modern 
world has caused the educators of all lands to turn their eyes in 
the direction of sexual ethics and education. A considerable lit- 
erature has resulted, based, for the most part upon the following 
ideas: That the Christian Church has from the beginning looked 
upon the sex instinct as something sinful and shameful, the claims 
and functions of which should be veiled in obscurity; as a result 
young people have been left to the dangers and responsibilities of 
life without any adequate knowledge and preparation; and that 
their situation becomes increasingly impossible the more modern 
economic life withdraws young people from parental control at an 
early age and exposes them to a thousand uncontrollable influ- 
ences. It is further asserted in most of these publications that 
the best means of combating the danger is as early and complete 
as possible an instruction in the nature and dangers of sexual re- 
lationships. (Foerster). 
Along the same line Mrs. Scharlieb bids us remember that 
all natural appetites are divinely implanted, and that there is no 
more sin and shame in the proper gratification of one than there 
is in the proper gratification of another. It is right to eat when 
we are hungry-provided that we can properly and honestly ob- 
tain food, it is right to abstain from food-even when we are 
hungry-if the means to satisfy our hunger can only be ob- 
tained by force or fraud. So, too, with regard to other appe- 
tites equally divinely implanted; their gratification must depend 
on the right and privilege that may be made for them. 
Conventional hypocrisy, remarks Michels, is to a large ex- 
tent unknown in Italy. To the stranger passing the night in a 
hospice, the nun will indicate the privy in the most simple way 
in the world, without a blush-and without thought of the need 
for one. "At a dinner party at which the author was one of the 
guests, the host before we sat down to table indicated to us all 360 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the whereabouts of the water closet. Not one of the guests was 
in the least embarrassed. In speaking to a pregnant woman, to 
allude to her condition, even though she is a stranger is regarded 
by the Italians as in no way improper." 
The safest foundation-he continues-for the treatment of 
sexual matters is to be found in a natural way of thinking and 
feeling. In a nation which regards the sexual impulse as natu- 
ral and truly human there will be less tendency to the misuse of 
that impulse. For this reason, though in many respects more 
sensual than the northerners, the southerner is less inclined to 
obscenity and pornography. A glance at the sexual life of Italy, 
concludes Michels, will convince us of the truth of this view. 
There is a growing conviction that innocence (or at least 
ignorant innocence) is no protection for virtue, but this aspect 
is taken up much more at length in the chapter on Sex Educa- 
tion. 
Judge Ben Lindsey, as magistrate presiding over the Juven- 
ile Court of Denver, Colo., is certainly in a position to see the 
distressing effects of the lack of this sex education. Several 
years ago in an article (in the Ladies' Home Journal), he wrote 
that after careful inquiry he found that only 5 per cent, of 
parents had ever said anything on sexual matters to their children. 
The large majority naturally supposed their own children were 
in complete ignorance of such matters, and were dumbfounded 
when they discovered their mistake. "Parents do not know their 
children," he continues, "nor have the least idea of what their 
children know, or talk about and do when away from home." 
As a result of his observations he is convinced 90 out of every 
100 girls who "go wrong" do so from lack of supervision by the 
parents. Another of his findings-and a very sad one-is that 
in the majority of fallen women, the damage is really done before 
the age of 12 years. "Every wayward girl I have talked to has 
assured me of this truth," CHAPTER XXIII 
SEX EDUCATION AT HOME AND IN SCHOOL 
AT HOME 
DR. MABEL S. ULRICH, in her circular, "Mothers of 
America" (Virginia State Board of Health), emphasizes 
the fact that sex is the most insistent, most inevitable force in 
the life of an individual, yet so far as our teachings have gone 
we have pretended it did not exist. We have left our children to 
meet the problems growing out of it with no guidance whatever. 
We have met their honest curiosity with silly evasions. We 
have vaguely hoped that when sex impulses and temptations 
invaded their consciousness, with them would come divine in- 
spiration or intuition, which would safely carry them through 
any emotional storm. 
In the past, we have had the excuse, such as it was, of 
ignorance. Today the time for silence and drifting is over. 
The war has forced the issue of sex education. 
Sex education is far more than merely giving children the 
facts of existence, or warning youth of the dangers of disease. 
It includes the entire field of morals, of health, of manners, and 
of social and racial responsibility. In other words, all education 
which has to do with the development of character and healthful 
living, may be considered a part of sex education. It is well to 
remember that the undisciplined, self-indulgent child of today 
has an excellent chance of becoming the dissipated youth of to- 
morrow, even in spite of the most careful biological teaching. 
Therefore, we do not hold that telling children the truth con- 
cerning sex will alone insure ideal morals, but do maintain that 
it is a far step in the right direction and one which every mother 
must take before she can feel that she has done her part in the 
safeguarding of her boys and girls. 
The State Board of Health of Vermont, in "When and How 
to Tell the Children" (Pamphlet No. 9-For Parents), points 
out that during the past ten or fifteen years, society has been 
learning many tragedies in marriage and much suffering among 
innocent women and children have been caused by sex diseases. 
361 362 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
It is believed the spread of such diseases has been due largely to 
ignorance and false ideas concerning sex. Formerly this sub- 
ject was associated with secret and vicious practices; to discuss 
it was indecent. Now, men and women are coming to under- 
stand that this sex function is intimately associated with the 
physical, mental and moral development of the individual and 
THE AGE OF FIRST PERMANENT IMPRESSIONS 
REGARDING SEX 
Age No. of 
boys 
4-5 16 
6-7 108 
8-9 140 
10-11 193 
12-13 139 
14-15 41 limgEKWW 
The average age at which 637 men received their 
first sox impressions was 9.6 years. 
THE AGE OF FIRST PROPER SEX INSTRUCTION 
Age No. of 
boys 
6-7 7 n 
8-9 7 SE3 
10-11 32 Hnfli 
12-13 93 BSWWMWmW 
16-17 209 
18-19 105 
20-21 38 ffiESSCTEESa 
22-23 6 iiSH 
24-25 5 03 
The average age at which 727 men received In- 
struction about sex from wholesome sources was 
15.6 years. 
with the welfare of the entire race. The people are learning its 
right use is the surest basis of health, happiness and usefulness, 
and that it Is a subject full of nobleness, purity and health. It 
is believed these evils will be remedied, in large measure, by sex 
education. 
It has been discovered, moreover, that many of the disasters 
mentioned are due to false ideas gathered during childhood. SEX EDUCATION 
363 
When a mother evades the questions of her child regarding the 
facts of birth or answers them untruthfully, its questions there- 
after are generally directed towards other sources of informa- 
tion. The results are often most unfortunate. Sex education, 
therefore, should begin in the home not later than the time when 
the child asks its first question about the origin of life. It 
should proceed in easy, progressive stages, a little here and a 
little there, on through the years, until the child has become 
grown. 
A wholesome curiosity about birth and sex exists in all 
normal children. It is implanted by Nature, and generally shows 
itself at the age of 5, 6, or 7. When a little child first asks: 
"Where did the baby come from?" or "Where did the kittens 
come from?" the mother's opportunity has come. An evasion 
or a falsehood now may be disastrous. When the child discovers 
it has been deceived, it is not likely to return to its mother when 
it wishes to learn more; it will go elsewhere. 
Parents-both mother1 and father-ought to be prepared for 
three possible situations: (1) The child may ask some such 
question as is indicated above, that is, "Where did the baby come 
from?" (2) It may ask some utterly unexpected question, for 
instance, "What does it mean, 'half shepherd and half St. Ber- 
nard?'" (3) It may ask some question beyond its years-some 
question the answer to which it is too young to understand. 
1. The parent may answer a question like the first safely, 
truthfully and wisely in some such way as this: "Babies grow 
inside their mothers' bodies, just as little birds in a nest or seeds 
in a flower. The seeds, when they are ripe, come out of the 
flower; the birds hatch from the eggs and when their wings 
grow they leave the nest; and babies, after they are big enough, 
come out from the mother's body and we say they are born." 
2. If the child asks a question regarding the breed of a dog 
or another animal, it may be answered somewhat as follows: 
"The dog is called half shepherd and half St. Bernard, because 
one of its parents was a shepherd dog and the other was a St. 
Bernard dog. All little dogs must have both a mother and a 
father; little kittens always have a mother and a father, and so, 
too, there are always mother birds and father birds when little 
birds are born, and there are always mothers and fathers when 
little babies are born." 364 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
This often will satisfy the child completely. Sometimes it 
will be necessary or desirable to show the child some simple 
flowers like the sweet pea, and to continue somewhat as follows: 
"Do you see the fine, yellow dust in these flowers? It is called 
pollen. When the bee goes from flower to flower, it often carries 
pollen from one flower to another. The pollen contains male 
cells. They go down to the bottom part of the flowers, where 
they find the female cells. Then the new cells thus formed grow 
into seeds. We plant the seeds in the ground, and in the spring 
they develop into plants which bear flowers like these we are 
looking at. So in all kinds of animals and in people there are 
male cells and female cells, and both the mother and the father 
have a part in the development of the young." 
3. When the child asks questions that are too unexpected 
for ready answer, it may be necessary to postpone a reply. But 
the mother should never evade the question or show amusement. 
She should answer promptly and directly that the question is one 
that she cannot explain until the child is older. 
Pamphlet No. 13, of the Colorado State Board of Health, 
on "Sex Education in the Home and High School," is by J. E. 
Peabody. As he is head of the Department of Biology in a large 
high school, his views are of importance: 
Nothing in life-he observes-is more interesting, or more 
worth while, or more educational than bringing up a family. 
Before our oldest son and daughter were five, they had, of course, 
asked where children come from. Fortunately, we were spend- 
ing our summers on a farm, and while there the dog had her 
family of puppies. We told the children that the puppies came 
from inside the mother-dog, and from Fido they also learned 
the mother-dog's way of feeding and protecting her offspring. 
When we came back, we happened to be talking about a little 
one expected in the family of a friend, and the 6-year-old 
daughter said in the most matter-of-fact way: "Oh, yes, just 
like Fido." Now there is no reason in the world why any parent 
with ordinary common sense cannot tell the necessary facts rela- 
tive to sex matters, at least so far as maternity is concerned, 
without introducing absurd stories of "the stork" or "the doctor's 
satchel." 
When one comes to the discussion of the father-function, 
the problem is somewhat more difficult. The way we did it was SEX EDUCATION 
365 
this: When our boy was about 10, he was interested in a corn- 
growing contest. He sent for some popcorn seed, while his 
father planted sweet corn close by. The corn grew so well that 
the boy captured the prize. But in the autumn, the corn ears 
were a surprise, indeed, for on the same ear there was sweet- 
popcorn and pop-sweet-corn. 
But the corn-growing contest furnished the answer to the 
boy's insistent question: "What is the use of the father bird and 
the father dog?" He was told how the pollen had been carried 
from his popcorn garden to the sweet corn, plot and in the other 
direction as well. He looked at pollen under the magnifying 
glass and through the microscope, and he was told how the pollen 
had fertilized the corn ovules. Then we discussed the mating of 
the male and female birds at breeding time. "Now what did you 
think those birds were doing?" he was asked, and his answer was, 
"I thought they were fighting." "Not a bit," was his father's 
answer, "the male animals were transplanting to the mothers the 
sperm cells to fertilize the egg cells in much the same way that 
fertilization took place in the corn in your garden. After fertili- 
zation the eggs are laid, and within the egg the baby bird is 
formed and later is hatched. In much the same way the little 
puppies were formed in Fido's body, and later were born." The 
father then said to the boy, "You have eyes like your mother, 
and hair like your father, and you have inherited other char- 
acteristics from your parents and grandparents, and these char- 
acteristics were transmitted to you through the egg cell and the 
sperm cell just as was the case in the corn. The sex organs in 
your body are for the production of sperm cells when you become 
a man, and if you wish to be a healthy man, you must let these 
organs entirely alone, except to make sure that they are kept 
clean." Somewhat later, perhaps at 10 years of age, the boy was 
told of the "wet dreams" he would probably have when older. 
"When those experiences come, don't worry about them at all, 
but just come to your father and we will talk them over together." 
The boy is now 15, he is spending the summer in a boy's camp, 
and I am fairly sure he is safe from temptation and from worry, 
because he has been prepared in advance. 
Anything relative to sex that can be taught a child before he 
is io years old is just so much clear gain, for the topic can then 
be discussed with the utmost frankness, and with no self- 366 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
THE TRUE STORY OF 
"HOW LIFE BEGINS" IS 
RECEIVED FROM HIS 
MOTHER 
HE IS GIVEN WHOLE- 
SOME BOOKS OF 
INSTRUCTION ON 
SEX MATTERS 
OUT-OF-DOOR PLAY 
HELPS TO KEEP HIS 
MIND IN THE RIGHT 
CHANNELS SEX EDUCATION 
367 
HE HAS A CLEAN 
RECORDTO 
OFFER THE 
GIRL HE LOVES' 
A WEDDING 
NEITHER PARTY 
HAS ANYTHING 
TO FEAR 
A HAPPY HOME 
AND 
HEALTHY CHILDREN 368 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
consciousness on the part of the child. It seems to me that 
parents often misinterpret the curiosity which young children 
evince with reference to the external differences between boys 
and girls. Children are simply seeking for knowledge which, 
in my judgment, it is their right to have, and which can easily 
be given them before the dawn of sex-consciousness. 
In teaching the child, however, Michels warns that we must 
avoid all fables and false statements, such as those about a stork 
or the cabbage patch, intended solely to conceal from children 
the mystery of their birth. An intelligent child who keeps his 
eyes open will not long allow himself to be humbugged with 
nonsense of this kind. Witness the little boy asked whether his 
mother had found him in a cabbage or a flower, answered: "Oh 
how silly, my mother found me inside herself." 
Some of the beliefs' of small children as to how babies orig 
inate were collected by Prof. G. Stanley Hall: "God makes babies 
in heaven, though the Holy Mother and even Santa Claus make 
some. He lets them down and drops them, and the women or 
doctors catch them, or He leaves them on the sidewalk, or brings 
them down a wooden ladder backwards and pulls it up again, or 
mamma or the doctor or the nurse go up and fetch them, some- 
times in a balloon, or they fly down and lose off their wings in 
some place or other and forget it, and jump down to Jesus, who 
gives them around. They were also, frequently said to be found 
in flour-barrels ('and the flour sticks ever so long, you know') 
or they grew in cabbages, or God puts them in water, perhaps in 
the sewer, and the doctor gets them out and takes them to sick 
folks who want them, or the milkman brings them early in the 
morning; they are dug out of the ground, or bought at the baby- 
store." 
While gathered a good many years ago (Pedagogical Sem- 
inary, 1891), it is apprehended a similar collection at the present 
day would not differ materially. 
Several authors advise that mothers lay stress on the pain of 
childbirth. To this Wittels vigorously objects: 
"It is nauseating, however, to hear them whenever they speak 
of sexual facts, break forth into a whine about parturition; you 
know that type of talk: 'How I have suffered to bring you into 
the world.' Some day a smart child will turn and ask; 'Why SEX EDUCATION 
369 
didn't they give you chloroform?' (To which we would add that 
of late years an unusually smart child will ask: 'Why didn't 
they give you "twilight sleep"?' ") 
IN SCHOOL. 
In a very recent article (November, 1920), Drs. Pierce and 
White call attention to the growing realization of the necessity 
for deciding on a plan that can be safely followed in the schools, 
whereby the next generation will be better prepared to meet the 
problems of sex relations than have adults of this age. The 
former policy of omission of all reference to reproduction of the 
species has proved to be vicious. Parents should realize that they 
have not the choice of whether or not their children shall receive 
knowledge of sexual matters, but have only the choice of whether 
this knowledge shall come through proper channels or shall be 
gained surreptitiously through information, often demoralizing, 
proffered by companions. 
This question has been given a great deal of thought by edu- 
cators, and it is believed that sex education should begin early and 
that the child should be led gradually through facts of reproduc- 
tion in lower forms of life to an understanding of reproduction 
in human beings. Then would naturally follow instruction in 
regard to the nature of venereal diseases and methods of avoiding 
exposure to these dangerous diseases. 
Sex instruction in schools should never be given as a sepa- 
rate series of lectures or courses, but be made a part of other 
studies. Sex knowledge should be part of physiology, biology, 
physical education, sociology, domestic sciences, even of history 
and literature, so that children will acquire the right attitude 
toward sex problems in an unconscious manner. There is cer- 
tainly no short cut to knowledge in this field, and more harm than 
good will result from talks on sex matters given by poorly 
equipped teachers or lecturers as a special feature of class work. 
It should be possible and practicable to devise a method of 
sex instruction whereby the ideas of the most advanced educators 
could be presented by motion pictures. This visual method ap- 
proaches as nearly as possible the natural way in which a child 
absorbs knowledge, and removes largely the difficult question of 
the qualification of a teacher. Material for this purpose should, 
of course, be very carefully selected by a group of psychologists, 370 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
FLIRTING 
IS HER 
PASTIME. 
BAD LITERATURE 
LEAVES WRONG 
IDEAS ABOUT SEX 
GO AND PLAY 
DAUGHTER, 
YOU ARE TOO 
YOUNG TO / 
ASK SUCH yy 
QUESTIONS SEX EDUCATION 
371 
AND REAL- 
IZATION . 
COMES 
TOO LATE 
THE RIDE PROVES 
DISASTROUS 
SHE GOES EOR A 
RIDE WITH A CHANCE 
ACQUAINTANCE 372 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
educators, physicians and parents; and the entire series of films 
dealing with this subject should be reduced to scenario form 
and approved by authorities in the field of medicine and educa- 
tion before the preparation of the series is commenced. This of 
necessity will take much time, and is not a part of the program 
that should be rushed to an unhappy result. The series should 
form a sequence of instruction from the time the child enters 
kindergarten until he leaves high school. Subsequent instruc- 
tion in colleges and universities may be given by lectures and con- 
ferences, and after leaving college the educational facilities of the 
various state bureaus of venereal disease would be available to 
meet arising needs. 
As regards "The School Teacher and Sex Education," Eliot 
in Pamphlet No. 12 (Colorado State Board of Health) states 
school teachers who have become interested in the general field 
of sex education are inquiring: "What can we do to help?" They 
can help, he says, in various ways, but the first word must be one 
of caution. 
Some teachers advocate direct and specific instruction in 
matters of sex and reproduction. Few realize the difficulties. 
They are aware of the emergency; have an idea-possibly an ex- 
aggerated one-of what sex instruction can effect; they shun 
false modesty, and are emboldened by the thought that any in- 
formation they may impart will be less harmful than the mis- 
information already acquired. It is true an emergency exists; 
that the wise imparting of information is important; that false 
modesty has been a hindrance. It is true also that wise in- 
formation by the right person at the right time, in the right quan- 
tity, and in the right spirit can do no harm and will really help. 
But, it does not follow that teachers in general, nor self-appointed 
volunteers among them, are able immediately-without experience 
or preparation, and without proper textbooks-to introduce it into 
the schools or to teach it themselves; nor should they be permitted 
or authorized to do so. 
The reasons for these conclusions are: First, most teachers 
lack the essential technical knowledge; second, they lack training 
in the pedagogy of sex instruction. Teachers who are eager to 
take up this work will better understand what can and cannot be 
wisely done in the schools, if they will remember and consider 
carefully the following well-established principles: SEX EDUCATION 
373 
1. Parents ought to be the advisers of their children in 
these matters. Upon the parents should rest the main burden. 
No school can take a wise parent's place nor do for all children 
what parents ought to do. 
2. A clear line of demarcation lies between what can and 
what cannot be done in the schools. There is a wide difference 
between personal, private counsel concerning the morals of the 
sex impulses (i. e., the attempt directly to control sexual behav- 
ior) on the one hand, and on the other hand, the teaching of ele- 
mentary scientific facts of sex and reproduction in the organic 
world. The latter is a proper but limited field for work in 
schools; the former should not be treated except under special 
circumstances. 
3. Such information on reproduction and the laws of sex 
as may properly be imparted by class instruction in the schools 
ought not to stand out separately but should be an organic part 
of courses in Nature study, botany, zoology, and physiology. 
In fact, much of the information which might properly be con- 
veyed to pupils in their classes may be given without the slightest 
consciousness on their part that what they are receiving is 
"sex information." The simplest facts of biology bear on our 
problem. 
4. Such a program, even thus definitely limited, will require 
conservative experimenting. Experimenting of this sort can be 
attempted at any time, if properly authorized and safeguarded. 
Normal schools must undertake the definite instruction and train- 
ing of teachers. 
Teachers should not attempt to "introduce sex hygiene into 
the schools" without authorization from superintendents, and 
school authorities should not undertake to direct such work with- 
out taking counsel of experts in the field of education. 
Even strait-laced and conservative England is becoming in- 
terested. They have a National Birth-Rate Commission, which 
started an inquiry into sex problems connected with adolescence, 
in other words, the influences which affect the welfare of poten- 
tial parents. 
The first witness was "Miss" Norah March, and notwith- 
standing the president of the Commission is the Lord-Bishop of 
Birmingham, she "talked right out in meeting." She said that 
whether or not chastity was the best preparation for parenthood 374 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
seemed to be a point on which medical and psychologic thought 
was not yet agreed. Personally holding that love should be the 
basis of marriage, she held that as a general social code the tenet 
of chastity as a preparation for marriage was the ideal. If mar- 
riage was delayed until late in life, chastity might be supremely 
difficult to many, while those to whom it was impossible were con- 
fronted with celibacy. The future might see some form of extra- 
marital sex relationship and parenthood finding a place in our 
social code. There were many more women than men in this 
country. The wider education of girls, their entry into the world 
of labor, in short, their general emancipation, all tended toward a 
liberation of natural impulses and a desire for freedom of 
choice. The right to motherhood was a doctrine that was gaining 
ground. It was essential that a system of education-using the 
word in its broadest sense-should provide emotional and intel- 
lectual compensations for those to whom the more complete life 
was denied. The preparation of the young citizen for worthy 
parenthood was no simple matter merely of appropriate instruc- 
tion. Though accurate knowledge might be a great help, it 
did not of itself empower the individual to follow the line 
of conduct chosen. To begin with the ethical considerations, 
without a firm basis of the biologic, psychologic, social and racial 
relations, was to court failure. Many more parents were learning 
to give information to their children on such subjects as birth 
and sex. Supplementary instruction in biology, physiology, and 
hygiene could best be given in school and other classes. As to 
venereal disease, she deprecated strongly its prominent presenta- 
tion in instruction of the young. The pseudomorality induced 
by the fear of the disease might even be detrimental to character. 
Moreover, the fear did not deter on any large scale.-(London 
Correspondence, Jour. American Med. Assoc., Oct. 30, 1920.) 
IN HIGH SCHOOL. 
Prof. Peabody, already referred to, has had about 20 years' 
experience in teaching in a high school with nearly 5,000 pupils, 
hence his opinions are of unusual value. 
He tells us since biology is required of all first-year students, 
nnd since 200 to 300 elect advanced biology in the junior or senior 
year, we keep 15 biology teachers busy in the instruction of these 
classes. In the first year we teach the children something about SEX EDUCATION 
375 
nutrition and the development of energy in plants, animals, and 
man. Special emphasis is laid upon hygienic habits of living, 
e. g., in the matter of the choice of food, methods of cooking, 
proper habits of eating, exercise and study, ventilation, and hours 
of sleeping. We also give them careful instruction in the funda- 
mental principles of the reproductive function so far as it con- 
cerns single-celled organisms, flowering plants, insects, fishes, and 
birds. We do not think it wise to discuss mammalian reproduc- 
tion in mixed classes in the first year. We are thoroughly con- 
vinced that most of these children like the subject of biology and 
that they think it well worth while. 
We are fully conscious, however, that this classroom in- 
struction does not reach the heart of the problem of sex educa- 
tion. What these boys and girls of 14 and 15 ought to know are 
the applications of these principles to their own individual lives, 
and for this purpose sex instruction should begin at least when 
children are 5 years old. However, we are confident that many 
of the boys and girls carry over from their plant and animal biol- 
ogy and apply to human life some definite and clean ideas relative 
to egg cells, sperm cells, fertilization, and embryonic develop- 
ment. They see how necessary is this process of reproduction if 
life is to be continued, and they get some conception of the altru- 
istic meaning of this whole process. 
In this first-year work we have made little attempt to teach 
sex hygiene so called. As I have already said, we do not think 
it wise to discuss in this first-year course the reproduction of 
mammals. I raise the question, however, whether it would not 
be wise to separate the boys and girls in their biology classes, giv- 
ing so far as possible the boys to the men teachers and the girls 
to the women. Then when any intimate questions relating to 
sex functions come up for discussion there need be no hesitancy 
in talking about them. 
About three years ago we started a new course in biology 
for the upper classes. In this advanced biology we emphasize 
comparative physiology, personal hygiene, and sanitation. 
Some 200 or 300 students are now in our classes, and in general 
they are a splendid lot of boys and girls. Most of them are 
training to be teachers in the elementary schools. Did you ever 
figure out the far-reaching possibilities of a teacher's influence 
in these senior courses-those of you who are helping to train 376 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
teachers? Let us say that 200 of these boys and girls are going 
to be teachers. Each half-year each one of them will probably 
teach 50 boys and girls. If this instruction is continued by this 
one group of 200 for ten years, they will have influenced the 
lives of 20,000 pupils. And each half-year we get a new com- 
pany of recruits in our classes. 
In this advanced course we discuss very frankly, even in 
mixed classes, the reproductive process through the mammals, 
and the relative importance of heredity, environment, and train- 
ing. We emphasize especially the tremendous importance of 
right choices in marriage, and the boys and girls become so 
deeply interested that after class they come to us and say: "Why 
can't we have more of this kind of instruction? This is what 
we have been longing to get." To the boys we say: "If you 
care to remain after school, say on Friday, we will talk things 
over, and I will try to answer any questions you may wish to 
ask." The outline of my talk is as follows: 
A. The process of reproduction. 
1. Why reproduction is necessary. 
2. Asexual reproduction in plants and animals. 
3. Advantage of sexual method of reproduction (variation). 
4. Reproduction of flowering plants. 
5. Reproduction of fishes and frogs. 
6. Reproduction of reptiles and birds. 
7. Reproduction of mammals (including man). 
B. Hygiene of the reproductive organs. 
1. Menstruation. 
2. Seminal emissions. 
3. Internal secretions of the ovaries and spermaries. 
4. Self-abuse. 
5. Sexual relations. 
6. Venereal diseases. 
7. Morality and religion as factors in hygiene. 
C. Heredity. 
1. The Kallikak family. 
2. The Jukes. 
3. The Jonathan Edwards family. 
4. The germ plasm as a heritage in trust. 
5. The importance of right choices in marriage. SEX EDUCATION 
377 
Before leaving the conference the boys are usually asked 
to answer on a sheet of paper a half-dozn questions. They are 
not allowed to place any mark of identification on the paper, 
and so we feel we are getting some rather reliable first-hand 
information. Thus far I have tabulated 56 answers with results 
as follows: 
Question 1. "Has your father or any other relative ever 
talked with you in regard to sex matters?" Twelve boys an- 
swered "Yes"; 43 "No." One boy wrote, "My father wished to 
talk about it but never had the chance; I learned much from a 
couple of my friends who visit prostitutes." Another said, 
"From jokes and stories told on the street I had gotten only the 
dirty and evil side." 
Question 2. "Have you ever been worried about seminal 
emissions?" Twenty-three said they had been worried, and 31 
answered "No." Nearly all, however, expressed great relief on 
learning that these experiences, if not too frequent, should be 
regarded as perfectly normal. Several had been troubled so 
much that they had consulted quack doctors. 
Question 3. "Have you ever heard it said that sexual inter- 
course was necessary for health?" "Yes" was the reply of 28; 
"No" of 23. Among the comments of the boys were these: 
"Yes, if the face is to be kept free from pimples." "Almost im- 
possible for young men to keep from it." "This opinion prevails 
among the majority of pupils." "It draws off poisons from the 
system." "Yes, but never believed it because of the health of 
monks and holy men and priests who are noted for purity." One 
boy came to me some time after one of my talks and said that his 
mother wished him to ask me if his uncle and another relative 
were right in urging him to go to a house of prostitution in order 
to stop his frequent seminal emissions. I shall never forget the 
gratitude which the mother expressed to me for the help in sav- 
ing her boy. 
Question 4. "What have you learned today that you did 
not know before?" Some of the answers were these: "Nearly 
everything" (5 boys); "The explanation of menstruation" (8); 
"Development and birth of young" (15) ; "Harmlessness of sem- 
inal emissions" (9) ; "Sex relations unnecessary for health" (3) ; 
"Dangers of venereal diseases" (7); "Attitude toward girls and 
women" (2); "Internal secretions of ovaries and spermaries" 378 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
(7) ; "Difference in the effect of seminal emissions and self- 
abuse." 
Question 5. "What other topics would you like to have dis- 
cussed?" Most of the questions suggested were those the boys 
had a perfect right to have answered; among them were these: 
"What is the cause of pimples on the face?" "How can it be 
told when the egg has been fertilized?" "Are sex relations more 
or less harmful than self-abuse?" "What are the results of self- 
abuse?" "What can we do when temptation comes?" When, 
however, I read from the papers questions relating to sexual in- 
tercourse after marriage, I told the boys frankly these were topics 
that did not in any way concern them at their time of life. I 
urged them, however, to feel perfectly free to come to me as 
soon as they were engaged to be married, and I would gladly tell 
them, so far as I could, all they wished to know. 
Question 6. "What is your judgment as to the value of 
these conferences for boys?" "Absolutely necessary" was the 
answer of 23 boys. Others wrote as follows: "The most essen- 
tial things I have ever heard"; "The evil results from self-abuse 
were never so brought home to me"; "They ease one's mind"; 
"They frighten from bad practices"; "Should be given in all 
schools," etc. 
At the close of each of these conferences I express the hope 
that each one will carry away at least five lessons he will never 
forget: (1) A clean and wholesome thought of the whole process 
of reproduction; (2) A love and consideration for his mother 
such as he never felt before; (3) A chivalrous feeling toward 
every girl; (4) A firm resolve, if possible, never again to practice 
self-abuse both for his own sake, for the sake of the girl who will 
later be his life mate, and for the sake of the children who will 
call him father; and (5) such a loathing of venereal disease that 
he will be kept in time of temptation from any possible yielding 
to contamination. 
Our high school girls, too, need this kind of instruction just 
as much as do the boys. However, no man, no matter how 
well he may be prepared to do such work, has any right to at- 
tempt to talk to girls about these most intimate matters relating 
to sex. The reason for this is that although we want to remove 
the cloak of shame and prudery which has previously shrouded 
this subject, we must take great care not to tear away as well SEX EDUCATION 
379 
the veil of modesty and delicacy which is necessary for its 
highest and finest interpretation. None of our women teachers 
thinks herself prepared for these talks to girls. We are, how- 
ever, most fortunate in being able to secure each half-year a 
graduate of Vassar, and author of one of the sanest books for 
girls that has ever appeared. She gives two afternoon talks after 
school. These have proved so helpful that with the approval of 
the principal and the city superintendent we allow any girl in the 
senior class to attend. 
At the close of her second talk Miss Smith asks the girls to 
answer a series of questions also-no girl being allowed to place 
her name upon the paper. Ninety-eight of these answer papers 
have thus far been tabulated, as follows: 
Question 1. "Did your mother or any other relative ever 
tell you (a) about the coming of the baby? (b) about the men- 
strual period? (c) about your responsibility for the conduct of 
boys?" The answers to these questions were these: (a), "Yes," 
21 girls; "No," 77; (b), "Yes," 42; "No," 56; (c), "Yes," 30; 
"No," 64. 
Question 2. "Did you tell your mother about the last lec- 
ture? If so, what did she say?" Some of the girls whose papers 
were tabulated were unable to hear the first lecture, and this 
doubtless accounts for the fact that only 54 answered "Yes," 
while 28 said "No." Eighty-six per cent, of the mothers ex- 
pressed hearty approval; 6 per cent, made no comment and 8 per 
cent, disapproved. Some of the comments of the girls were 
these: "Yes, it saved her a lot of trouble"; "More than pleased"; 
"I never discuss such subjects with my mother"; "She was 
shocked"; "She thought it was a good plan to have these lectures, 
because all mothers cannot explain these things in a scientific 
way." 
Question 3. "Have you ever been troubled or frightened 
(a) about your menstrual period? (b) about matters relating to 
sex?" Twelve per cent, said "Yes" to (a) ; 88 per cent., "No." 
Twenty-eight per cent, said they had been troubled about matters 
relating to sex; 72 per cent, said they had not. 
Question 4. "What have you learned from these lectures 
that you did not know before?" Five said they had learned 
"Almost everything"; 2 said nothing was new to them. Eighteen 
emphasized the knowledge that had been gained relative to men- 380 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
struation; 37 said they had learned much in regard to pregnancy 
and birth; 16 spoke of sex diseases; 14 of their new-found 
knowledge of their responsibility for the conduct of boys; 8 ex- 
pressed gratitude for having learned the way to tell the story of 
reproduction to young children. 
Question 5. "What other topics would you like to have dis- 
cussed?" Here are some of the questions asked: "Formation of 
twins"; "Twilight sleep"; "How to bring up children"; "Cause of 
birth when marriage has not taken place"; "Why some women 
do not have children"; "Sex diseases"; "I do not know what 
relations are between man and woman, being brought up by very 
strict parents who have old-fashioned ideas concerning this topic 
and I am still wondering." 
Question 6. "What is your opinion of the value of such 
conferences for high school girls?" "Value immeasurable," said 
7 girls; "Should be given to all girls in high school" (32); 
"Ought not to be given to freshmen" (10); "Clears up many 
mysteries in the mind" (3) ; "Gives feeling of reverence for 
motherhood" (4); "Prevents girls from going astray" (2). 
If these intensely human documents reveal anything it is a 
real hunger of boys and girls for wholesome truth-truth about 
the most vital matters that has been denied to them. The aver- 
age parent and pastor is pitifully ignorant of the facts and does 
not have the needed vocabulary in which to express himself. 
They should, however, take every possible means to prepare 
themselves for this solemn duty. Prof. Charles W. Eliot and 
others have emphasized over and over again the duty of teachers 
also in these matters. To no class, however, comes a greater 
opportunity to do this work than comes to the teacher of biology. 
How can we arouse them to a greater sense of their responsibil- 
ity? The reward in this service is great, for I know of no joy 
comparable to that of helping boys and girls find their way 
through the trying years of adolescence. 
Judge Julian W. Mack, whose distinguished services in one 
of the largest juvenile courts give his every word great weight, 
is suggestive to parents and teachers, both in respect to the neces- 
sity for the instruction of girls and the best methods of giving 
such instruction. His statement follows: 
"During a three-years' experience as judge of the Juvenile 
Court in Cook County there came before me several hundred SEX EDUCATION 
381 
cases of girls, ranging in age from seven to eighteen years, every 
one of whom had made a misstep. Their pitiful stories have im- 
pressed upon me the vital importance of two fundamental duties 
that fathers and mothers owe to their children: 
"First, that parents should at all times, from earliest child- 
hood, have that priceless possession, the genuine confidence of 
their child: a confidence which will cause the child not merely to 
obey, but also to trust and to feel implicitly that the parent is at 
all times and under all circumstances the best friend, the most 
constant companion, and the wisest and most willing adviser. 
"Second, that, in order to earn and to deserve this confidence, 
parents must be frank in responding to the natural inquiries of 
their child; yea, more, they must divine the unspoken question 
at the right time, and answer it clearly and in a manner that will 
invite further questions as the child develops into young woman- 
hood. I know the difficulties involved in this, even for the more 
intelligent and educated parents. But I know only too well that 
too many parents live in a fools' paradise of belief that their 
silence spells ignorance and innocence on the part of the children. 
"It cannot be too emphatically repeated that every child 
mingling with other children, whether in private or in public 
schools, is going to learn much even at the age of ten, and, in 
circles in which children are not carefully guarded, even as early 
as seven. The words picked up, the thoughts awakened, arouse 
the inquiring mind. If the silent inquiry be felt and responded 
to by the parents a relation is established which, developed by 
mutual confidences, throws a protecting mantle over the little one 
that in many cases will guard her for life. If the spoken or un- 
spoken query be avoided or checked the first barrier is raised, 
which, followed by the conventional story, easily and quickly dis- 
covered to be untrue, destroys the child's faith in her mother. 
This may close her lips for all time and turn her to those who 
are always within reach and are only too ready to initiate her 
not only into a complete knowledge of but also into an experi- 
ment with the mysteries of life. 
"I do not for a moment assert that all girls make missteps 
because of this ignorance of the facts of life. Many of mature 
age realize not only the moral wrong but some of the physical 
consequences as well. Even they, however, are generally ignor- 382 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
LEARNING THE STORY OF LIFE IN THE CORRECT WAY SEX EDUCATION 
383 
RECEIVING SEX KNOWLEDGE FROM IMPROPER SOURCES 384 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
ant of the results of disease that too often follow the wrong step 
and of its permanent and terrible consequences. 
"The literature that the social hygiene societies are now 
spreading is to the average girl, as it is to the average parent, a 
sealed book. The girl who has enjoyed the confidence of her 
parents from childhood may be spared much of this knowledge, 
but to those girls who have not been strengthened by this com- 
plete mutual trust with the parent even these sad stories must 
be told. 
"Whenever a number of school children are in court for 
these wrongs one leader among the girls has invariably been 
found responsible for spreading the trouble. The boys instinc- 
tively recognize the difference in girls and know which are possi- 
ble victims and which are not. From one of the schools located 
in an excellent region of Chicago came a girl of seventeen years 
of age. Her parents were an old couple, her sister a trained 
nurse, and her brother an excellent business man. This seven- 
teen-year-old girl was the baby of the family and in their eyes 
an innocent child, the object of universal love. The family 
never suspected that instead of visiting one of her girl school- 
mates after supper, as she said she d d, she was keeping an ap- 
pointment with some of the neighborhood boys. Her influence 
led at least three other girls of from twelve to fifteen to follow 
in her footsteps. Two of her intimate friends were twins of the 
age of fifteen, and one took the keenest pleasure in these cland- 
estine meetings. The other twin knew practically nothing about 
them, as not only the boys, but even the girls, recognized her in- 
nate modesty and refrained from mentioning them in her pres- 
ence. The boys told me that they would be ashamed and afraid 
to make an indelicate suggestion in her presence, while they 
hesitated at nothing in the presence of the other twin and her 
companions. 
"None of these girls had the slightest knowledge of the 
physical consequences of their acts. They all realized, of course, 
that they were disobeying and deceiving their parents and other- 
wise doing wrong, but not one of them had ever been told any- 
thing about the origin of human life. As to whether this knowl- 
edge would have protected them or not I cannot be sure, but I 
believe, from my conversations with them and with their par- 
ents, that it would have done so. The incident became gen- SEX EDUCATION 
385 
erally known in the school and caused a complete awakening 
of the parents in that section of the city to a realization of their 
obligations. The school is located at the border line between a 
section occupied by fairly well-to-do people and a section occu- 
pied by the poorer classes. Every one of the boys and girls in- 
volved in this trouble came from the well-to-do class. 
"In another case some half a dozen boys and half a dozen 
girls between the ages of ten and thirteen were involved. The 
leader here, again, was a girl of eleven years. She was one of 
the seven or eight children of a widow. This girl had never 
received the slightest instruction in these matters-in fact, she 
was the victim of parental neglect to such an extent that it be- 
came necessary to take her away from home. 
"In a small suburb of Chicago half a dozen high-school girls 
of fourteen and fifteen years of age made a regular practice of 
receiving a company of their male fellow-students at their re- 
spective homes on Thursday afternoons when the mothers were 
away attending their club meetings. These boys and girls were 
all of the so-called better classes and the mothers were intelli- 
gent women. In their club affairs these women had displayed 
an active interest in communal welfare, but they had forgotten 
to gain the full confidence of their daughters; not one of these 
girls had ever been told anything of the mystery of life, or un- 
derstood the physical consequences of her act. 
"A group of seven little girls, from nine to twelve years of 
age, were the victims of a gray-haired scoundrel, all led on by a 
child of twelve, the first victim, who persuaded the others to 
follow her example. Candy and a few pennies were sufficient 
inducement in this case. 
"In another case, a group of half a dozen girls of fourteen 
and fifteen years of age made it a custom, after church on Sunday 
morning, to visit a man who gave them ice cream and played 
music for them, and the parents thought that they were going 
for a walk! 
"One little girl of nine years of age, who was kept in ignor- 
ance of these things by her parents, was the victim of more than 
a dozen boys, ranging in age from ten to sixteen. She was a 
beautiful, innocent child. 
"A widowed mother with two beautiful daughters of fif- 
teen and seventeen made no attempt to instruct either of them. 386 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
She was a weak, pleasure-loving woman, and the natural re- 
sults followed. Both girls were faithful attendants at Sunday 
school and church, but were easy victims of their school com- 
panions. The younger girl was subsequently responsible for 
leading three of her girl Sunday-school mates into like adventures. 
"A mother disregarded some rumors that came to her about 
her eleven-year-old daughter. She pooh-poohed them, declar- 
ing that she knew her child, and that the child's 'innocence' and 
ignorance were absolute protection to her. The mother's dis- 
covery of her mistake was something heart-breaking to witness. 
"Now what is the lesson to be derived from these and many 
like experiences? As I said before, one can never be sure that 
knowledge of the physical consequences will be complete protec- 
tion to a girl. But that knowledge she should possess, and pos- 
sess early as a first covering. While knowledge alone, without 
character, will never save, the fear of consequences will oft- 
times brace up a weak girl to resist to the uttermost. 
"Some wise teachers have been able to impart much valuable 
information in the regular course in physiology and hygiene to 
high-school classes as a normal and natural part of the course 
without any undue emphasis. The task, however, is an extremely 
delicate one, and, except in the hands of the wisest and most ex- 
perienced, is apt to be full of danger. 
"Instruction of this kind, particularly to those under the 
high-school age, must be individual; it cannot therefore be given 
by the already overburdened public-school teacher. 
"The greatest care must be exercised in imparting such 
knowledge. Many parents are unequal to the task and should 
call to their aid the wise family physician. Moreover, as the 
children whose parents cannot or will not instruct them or cause 
them to be instructed by the physician are a source of danger 
to the children of others; as children cannot be raised in hot- 
houses nor kept from contact with others-sooner or later most 
of them will go to school, public or private; as one vicious child 
will influence many companions, the importance of mothers' asso- 
ciations in connection with every school and every grade of the 
school cannot be too strongly urged. Here can be gathered 
those responsible for the children's associates; here a wise parent 
can help the ignorant and thus build up a double barrier about 
her own child. SEX EDUCATION 
387 
"The intelligent parents owe a double duty: they owe a 
duty to their own children and to other children, and the duty to 
the other children is not only from a humanitarian standpoint, to 
fill the place of the unworthy or ignorant parent, but indeed from 
the selfish standpoint: to protect their own children. Even the 
best and wisest mothers frequently blunder. The carefully-trained 
and only child of a most excellent woman created a great sensa- 
tion in a select school in a Western city by immediately confid- 
ing all that she had learned at home to her schoolmates, male 
and female, with a good many embellishments. 
"An innate or inbred modesty not only makes a girl in every 
way lovely, but it is also her greatest shield; her sole completely 
reliable protection. A girl must be taught that to give even the 
tip of a finger to a boy is wrong; that she will awaken in him a 
desire which some boys at least will lose no opportunity to sat- 
isfy; but, further, she should be told why, and what it means. 
Modesty and ignorance have too long been thought to be synony- 
mous. Knowledge of the dangers may in itself check a growing 
forwardness; it cannot but strengthen and doubly shield those 
who are of pure thought" CHAPTER XXIV 
THE PROBLEM OF SEXUAL HYGIENE* 
IT IS impossible to doubt the vitality and the vigor of the new 
movement of sexual hygiene, especially that branch of it con- 
cerned with the instruction of children in the essential facts of 
life. In the eighteenth century the great educationist, Basedow, 
was almost alone when, by practice and by precept, he sought to 
establish this branch of instruction in schools. 
A few years ago, when the German Durerbund offered 
prizes for the best essays on the training of the young in matters 
of sex, as many as five hundred papers were sent in. 
We may say that during the past ten years more has been 
done to influence popular feeling on this question than during 
the whole of the preceding century. 
Whenever we witness a sudden impulse of zeal and enthusi- 
asm to rush into a new channel, however admirable the impulse 
may be, we must be prepared for many risks and perhaps even 
a certain amount of damage. This is, indeed, especially the case 
when we are concerned with a new activity in the sphere of sex. 
The sexual relationships of life are so ancient and so wide, their 
roots ramify so complexly and run so deep, that any sudden 
disturbance in this soil, 'however well-intentioned, is certain to 
have many results which were not anticipated by those respon- 
sible for it. Any movement here runs the risk of defeating its 
own ends, or else, in gaining them, to render impossible other 
ends which are of not less value. 
In this matter of sexual hygiene we are faced at the outset 
by the fact that the very recognition of any such branch of 
knowledge as "sexual hygiene" involves not merely a new depart- 
ure, but the reversal of a policy which has been accepted, 
almost without question, for centuries. Among many primitive 
peoples, indeed, we know that the boy and girl at puberty are 
initiated with solemnity, and even a not unwholesome hardship, 
into the responsibilities of adult life, including those which 
have reference to the duties and privileges of sex. 
•By Harelook Ellis in Tuk •/ Social Hygiene. 
388 PROBLEM OF SEXUAL HYGIENE 
389 
HENRY HAVELOCK ELLIS 
This famous scientist was born in the County of Surrey, which has been 
called the "Garden of England," on Feb. 2, 1859. Coming from sea- 
faring ancestors, much of his childhood was passed at sea. After 
teaching school for several years in Australia, he returned to England 
and studied medicine, but only practiced a short time, having become 
interested in literary work and original scientific researches. His 
magnificent work, "Psychology of Sex," appeared in six volumes 
from 1897-1903, and is often quoted in the pages of this book. 390 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
But in our own traditions scarcely even a relic of any such 
custom is preserved On the contrary, we tacitly maintain a 
custom, and even a policy, of silent obscurantism. Parents and 
teachers have considered it a duty to say nothing and have felt 
justified in telling lies, or "fairy tales," in order to maintain 
their attitude. The oncoming of puberty, with its alarming 
manifestations, especially in the girl, has often left them unmoved 
and still silent. They have taken care that our elementary text- 
books on anatomy and physiology, even when written by so 
independent and fearless a pioneer as Huxley, should describe 
the human body absolutely as though the organs and functions of 
reproduction had no existence. The instinct was not thus sup- 
pressed; all the inevitable stimulations which life furnishes to 
the youthful sexual impulse have continued in operation.* 
Sexual activities were just as liable to break out. They 
were all the more liable to break out, indeed, because fostered by 
ignorance, often unconscious of themselves, and not held in 
check by the restraints which knowledge and teaching might 
have furnished. This, however, has seemed a matter of no con- 
cern to the guardians of youth. They have congratulated them- 
selves if they coxild pilot the youths, and especially the maidens, 
under their guardianship into the haven of matrimony not only in 
apparent chastity, but in ignorance of nearly everything that 
marriage signifies and involves, alike for the individual and the 
coming race. 
This policy has been so firmly established that the theory 
of it has never been clearly argued out. So far as it exists at 
all, it is a theory that walks on two feet pointing opposite ways: 
sex things must not be talked about because they are "dirty 
sex things must not be talked about because they are "sacred." 
We must leave sex things alone, they say, because God will see 
to it that they manifest themselves aright and work for good; 
we must leave sex things alone, they also say, because there is no 
department in life in which the activity of the Devil is so spe- 
cially exhibited. The very same person may be guilty of this 
*Moll in his wise and comprehensive work. The Sexual Life of the Child (German 
ed., p. 225), lays it down emphatically that "we must clearly realize at the outset that 
the complete exclusion of sexual stimuli in the education of children is impossible." 
He adds that the demands made by some "fanatics of hygiene" would be dangerous 
even if they were practicable. Games and physical exercises induce in many cases a 
considerable degree of sexual stimulation. But this need not cause us undue alarm, 
nor must we thereby be persuaded to change our policy of recommending such games 
and exercises. PROBLEM OF SEXUAL HYGIENE 
391 
Some years after his graduation, in 1874, he became attending surgeon 
to the City Hospital, where the cases of venereal disease were treated at 
that time. However, what interests us most here is the fact that in 1905, 
Dr. Morrow was instrumental in founding the American Federation for Sex 
Hygiene, and served as its president from then to the time of his death. 
DR. PRINCE A. MORROW (1852-1918) 392 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
contradiction, when varying circumstances render it convenient. 
Such a confusion is, indeed, a fate liable to befall all ancient 
and deeply rooted tabus; we see it in the tabus against certain 
animals as foods (as the Mosaic prohibition of pork) ; at first 
the animal was too sacred to eat, but in time people came to 
think that it is too disgusting to eat. They begin the practice 
for one reason, they continue it for a totally opposed reason. 
Reasons are such a superficial part of our lives! 
Thus every movement of sexual hygiene necessarily clashes 
against an established convention which is itself an inharmonious 
clash of contradictory notions. This is especially the case if 
sexual hygiene is introduced by way of the school. It is very 
widely held by many who accept the arguments so ably set forth 
by Frau Marie Lischnewska, that the school is not only the best 
way of introducing sexual hygiene, but the only possible way, 
since through this channel alone is it possible to employ an anti- 
dote to the evil influences of the home and the world.* 
Yet to teach children what some of their parents consider as 
too sacred to be taught, and others as too disgusting, and to 
begin this teaching at an age when the children having already 
imbibed these parental notions, are old enough to be morbidly 
curious and prurient, is to open the way to a complicated series 
of social reactions which demand great skill to adjust. 
Largely, no doubt, from anxiety to counterbalance these 
dangers, there has been a tendency to emphasize, or rather to 
over-emphasize, the moral aspects of sexual hygiene. Rightly 
considered, indeed, it is not easy to over-value its moral sig- 
nificance. But in the actual teaching of such hygiene it is quite 
easy, and the error is often found, to make statements and to 
affirm doctrines all in the interests of good morals and with the 
object of exhibiting to the utmost the beneficial tendencies of 
this teaching-which are dubious at the best and often at variance 
*See Frau Marie Lischnewska's excellent pamphlet, Geschlechtliche Belehrung der 
Kinder, first published in Mutterschuts, 1905, Heft 4 and 5. This is perhaps the ablest 
statement of the argument in favor of giving the chief place in sexual hygiene to the 
teacher. Frau Lischnewska recognizes three factors in the movement for freeing the 
sexual activities from degradation: (1) medical, (2) economic, and (3) rational. 
But it is the last-in the broadest sense as a comprehensive process of enlightenment- 
which she regards as the chief. "The views and sentiments of people must be 
changed," she says. "The civilized man must learn to gaze at this piece of Nature 
with pure eyes; reverence towards it must early sink into his soul. In the absence of 
this fundamental renovation, medical and social measures will merely produce refined 
animals." PROBLEM OF SEXUAL HYGIENE 
393 
with actual experience. In such cases we seem to see that the 
sexual hygienist has indeed broken with the conventional con- 
spiracy of silence in these matters, but he has not broken with 
the conventional morality which grew out of that ignorant 
silence. With the best intention in the world he sets forth, dog- 
matically and without qualification, ancient half-truths which 
to become truly moral need to be squarely faced with their com- 
plementary half-truths. The inevitable danger is that the pupil 
sooner or later grasps the one-sided exaggeration of this teach- 
ing, and the credit of the sexual hygienist is gone. Life is an 
art, and love, which lies at the heart of life, is an art; they are 
not science; they cannot be converted into clear-cut formulae 
and taught as the multiplication table is taught. Example here 
counts for more than precept, and practice teaches more than 
either, provided it is carried on in the light of precept and 
example. The rash and unqualified statements concerning the 
immense benefits of continence, or the awful results of self- 
abuse, etc., frequently found in books for young people will 
occur to every one. Stated with wise moderation they would 
have been helpful. Pushed to harsh extravagance they are not 
only useless to aid the young in their practical difficulties, but 
become mischievous by the injury they inflict on over-sensitive 
consciences, fearful of falling short of high-strung ideals. This 
consideration brings us, indeed, to what is perhaps the chief 
danger in the introduction of any teaching of sexual hygiene: 
the fact that our teachers are themselves untaught. Sexual 
hygiene in the full sense-in so far as it concerns individual 
action and not the regulative or legislative action of communi- 
ties-is the art of imparting such knowledge as is needed at suc- 
cessive stages by the child, the youth and maiden, the young 
man and woman, in order to enable them to deal rightly, and so 
far as possible, without injury either to themselves or to others, 
with all those sexual events to which every one is naturally 
liable. To fulfill his functions adequately the master in the art 
of teaching sexual hygiene must answer to three requirements: 
(1) he must have a sufficing knowledge of the facts of sexual 
psychology, sexual physiology, and sexual pathology, knowledge 
which, in many important respects, hardly existed at all until 
recently, and is only now beginning to become generally acces- 394 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
sible; (2) he must have a wise and broad moral outlook, with 
a sane idealism which refrains from demanding impossibilities, 
and resolutely thrusts aside not only the vulgar platitudes of 
worldliness, but the equally mischievous platitudes of an outworn 
and insincere asceticism, for the wise sexual hygienist knows, 
with Pascal, that "he who tries to be an angel becomes a beast," 
and is less anxious to make his pupils ineffective angels than 
effective men and women, content to say with Browning, "I may 
put forth angels' pinions, once unmanned, but not before"; (3) 
in addition to sound knowledge and a wise moral outlook, the 
sexual hygienist must possess, finally, a genuine sympathy with 
the young, an insight into their sensitive shyness, a comprehen- 
sion of their personal difficulties, and the skill to speak to them 
simply, frankly, and humanly. If we ask ourselves how many 
of the apostles of sexual hygiene combine these three essential 
qualities, we shall probably not be able to name many, while we 
may suspect that some do not even possess one of the three quali- 
fications. If we further consider that the work of sexual hygiene, 
to be carried out on a really national scale, demands the more 
or less active co-operation of parents, teachers, and doctors, and 
that parents, teachers, and doctors are in these matters at present 
all alike untrained, and usually prejudiced, we shall realize some 
of the dangers through which sexual hygiene must at first pass. 
It is, I hope, unnecessary for me to say that, in thus point- 
ing out some of the difficulties and the risks which must assail 
every attempt to introduce an element of effective sexual hygiene 
into life, I am far from wishing to argue that it is better to 
leave things as they are. That is impossible, not only because 
we are realizing that our system of incomplete silence is mis- 
chievous, but because it is based on a confusion which contains 
within itself the elements of disruption. We have to remember, 
however, that the creation of a new tradition cannot be effected 
in a day. Before we begin to teach sexual hygiene the teachers 
must themselves be taught. 
There are many who have insisted, and not without reason, 
on the right of the parent to control the education of the child. 
Sexual hygiene introduces us to another right, the right of the 
child to control the education of the parents. For few parents 
today are fitted to exercise the duty of training and guiding the PROBLEM OF SEXUAL HYGIENE 
395 
child in the difficult field of sex without preliminary education, 
and such education, to be real and effective, must begin at an 
early age in the parents' life* 
The school teacher, again, on zvhom so many rely for the 
initial stage in sexual hygiene, is at present often in almost 
exactly the same stage of ignorance or prejudice in these matters 
as his or her pupils. The teacher has seldom been trained to 
impart even the most elementary scientific knowledge of the 
facts of sex, of reproduction, and of sexual hygiene, and is more 
often than not without that personal experience of life in its 
various aspects which is required in order to teach wisely in 
such a difficult field as that of sex, even if the principle is 
admitted that the teacher in class, equally whether addressing 
one sex or both sexes, is not called upon to go beyond the scien- 
tific, abstract, and objective aspects of sex. 
This difficulty of the lack of suitable teachers is not, indeed, 
insuperable. It would be largely settled, no doubt, if a wise and 
thorough course of sexual hygiene and pueri-culture formed 
part of the training of all school teachers, as, in France, Pinard 
has proposed for the Normal schools for young women. Dr. 
W. O. Henry, in a paper before the Nebraska State Medical 
Association in May, 1911, put forward the proposal: "Let each 
State have one or more competent physicians whose duty it shall 
be to teach these things to the children in all the public schools 
of the State from the time they are eight years of age. The 
boys and girls should be given the instruction separately by 
means of charts, pictures, and stereopticon views, beginning with 
the lower forms of life, flowers, plants, and then closing with 
the organs in man. These lectures and illustrations should be 
given every year to all the boys and girls separately, having 
those from eight to ten together at one time, and those from ten 
to twelve, and those from over twelve to sixteen." Dr. Henry 
was evidently not aware that the principle of a special teacher 
appointed by Government to give special instruction in matters of 
sex in all State schools had already been adopted in Canada, in 
•"We parents of today," as Henriette Furth truly says ("Erotik und Elternpflicht," 
Am Lebensquell, p. 11), "have not yet attained that beautiful naturalness out of which 
in these matters simplicity and freedom grow. And however willing we may be to 
learn afresh, most of us have so far lost our inward freedom from prejudice-the 
standpoint of the pure to whom all things are pure-that we cannot acquire it again. 
We parents of today have been altogether wrongly brought up. The inoculated feeling 
of shame still remains even after we have recognized that shame in this connection is 
false." 396 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the province of Ontario; the teacher thus appointed goes from 
school to school and teaches the elements of sexual physiology 
and anatomy, and the duty of treating sexual matters with rever- 
ence, to classes of boys and of girls from the age of ten. The 
course is not compulsory, but any School Board may call upon 
the special teacher to deliver the lectures. This appointment 
has met with so much approval that it is proposed to appoint 
further teachers on the same lines, women as well as men. 
It is not necessary that the school teacher of sex should be 
a physician. For personal and particular advice on the concrete 
difficulties of sex, however, as well as for the more special 
and detailed hygiene of the sexual relationship and the precau- 
tions demanded by eugenics, we must call in the physician. Yet 
none of these things so far enter the curriculum through which 
the physician passes to reach his profession; he is often only a 
layman in relation to them. Even if we are assured that these 
subjects form part of his scientific equipment, that fact by no 
means guarantees his tact, sympathy, and insight in addressing 
the young, whether by general lectures or individual interviews, 
both these being forms of imparting sexual hygiene for which 
we may properly call upon the physician, especially towards the 
end of the school or college course, and at the outset of any 
career in the world.* 
Undoubtedly we have amongst us many mothers, teachers, 
and physicians who are admirably equipped to fulfil their respec- 
tive parts-elementary, secondary, and advanced-in the work 
of sexual hygiene. But so long as they are few and far apart 
their influence is negatived, if it is not even rendered harmful. 
It must often be useless for a mother to instil into her little 
boy respect for his own body, reverence for the channel of 
motherhood through which he entered the world, any sense of 
the purity of natural functions or the beauty of natural organs, 
if outside his home the little boy finds that all other little boys 
and girls regard these things as only an occasion for sniggering. 
*The method of imparting a knowledge of sexual hygiene (especially in relation to 
venereal diseases) at the outset of adult life has most actively been carried out in 
Germany and the United States. In Germany lectures by doctors to students and 
others on these matters are frequently given. In the United States information and 
advice are spread abroad chiefly by the aid of societies. The American Society of 
Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, with which the name of Dr. Morrow is specially 
connected, was organized in 1905. The Chicago Society of Social Hygiene was estab- 
lished in 1906. Since then many other similar societies have sprung up under medical 
auspices in various American cities and states. PROBLEM OF SEXUAL HYGIENE 
397 
It is idle for the teacher to describe plainly the scientific facts of 
sex as a marvelous culmination in the natural unfolding of 
the world if, outside the schoolroom, the pupil finds that, in the 
newspapers and in the general conversation of adults, this sacred 
temple is treated as a common sewer, too filthy to be spoken of, 
and that the books which contain even the most necessary descrip- 
tions of it are liable to be condemned as "obscene" in the law 
courts* 
It is vain for the physician to explain to young men and 
women the subtle and terrible nature of venereal poisons, to 
declare the right and the duty of both parents in marriage to 
know, authoritatively and beforehand, the state of each other's 
health, or to warn them that a proper sense of responsibility 
towards the race must prevent some ill-born persons from marry- 
ing, or at all events from procreating, if the young man and 
woman find, on leaving the physician, that their acquaintances 
are prepared to accept all the risks, light-heartedly, in the dark, 
in a heedless dream from which they somehow hope there will 
be no awful awakening. 
The moral to which these observations point is fairly clear. 
Sex penetrates the whole of life. It is not a branch of mathe- 
matics, or a period of ancient history, which we can elect to 
teach, or not to teach, as may seem best to us, which if we teach 
we may teach as we choose, and if we neglect to teach it will 
never trouble us. Love and hunger are the foundations of life, 
and the impulse of sex is just as fundamental as the impulse of 
nutrition. It will not remain absent because we refuse to call 
for its presence, it will not depart because we find its presence 
inconvenient. At the most it will only change its shape, and 
mock at us from beneath masks so degraded, and sometimes so 
exalted, that we are no longer able to recognize it. 
"People are always writing about education," said Chamfort 
more than a century ago, "and their writings have led to some 
valuable methods. But what is the use, unless side by side with 
the introduction of such methods, corresponding reforms are not 
introduced in legislation, in religion, in public opinion? The 
only object of education is to conform the child's reason to that 
of the community. But if there is no corresponding reform in 
•Many flagrant cases in point are aet forth from the legal point of view by Theodore 
Schroeder, "Obrcene" Literature and Constitutional Law, New York, 1911, chap. IV. 398 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the community, by training the child to reason you are merely 
training him to see the absurdity of opinions and customs conse- 
crated by the seal of sacred authority, public or legislative, and 
you are inspiring him with the contempt of them." We cannot 
too often meditate on these wise words. 
It is useless to attempt to introduce sexual hygiene as a 
subject matter, and in some respects it may be dangerous. When 
we touch sex we are touching sensitive fibres which thrill through 
the whole of our social organism, just as the touch of love thrills 
through the whole of the bodily organism. Any vital reform 
here, any true introduction of sexual hygiene to replace our 
traditional policy of confused silence, affects the whole of life 
or it affects nothing. It will modify our social conventions, enter 
our family life, transform our moral outlook, perhaps reinspire 
our religion and our philosophy. 
That conclusion need by no means render us pessimistic 
concerning the future of sexual hygiene, nor unduly anxious 
to cling to the policy of the past. But it may induce us to be 
content to move slowly, to prepare our movements widely and 
firmly, and not to expect too much at the outset. By introducing 
sexual hygiene we are breaking with the tradition of the past 
which professed to leave the process by which the race is carried 
on to Nature, to God, especially to the devil. We are claiming 
that it is a matter for individual personal responsibility, deliber- 
ately exercised in the light of precise knowledge which every 
young man and woman has a right, or rather a duty, to possess. 
That conception of personal responsibility thus extended to the 
sphere of sex in the reproduction of the race may well transform 
life and alter the course of civilization. It is not merely a reform 
in the classroom, it is a reform in the home, in the church, in 
the law courts, in the legislature. If sexual hygiene means that, 
it means something which can only come slowly, with difficulty, 
with much searching of hearts. If, on the other hand, sexual 
hygiene means nothing but the introduction of a new formal 
catechism, and an occasional goody-goody perfunctory exhorta- 
tion, it may be introduced at once, quite easily, without hurting 
anyone's feelings. But, really, it will not be worth worrying 
about, one way or the other, CHAPTER XXV 
IF EVERY MAN WERE STRAIGHT* 
WHEN a man does not know himself, and is not straight and 
true in his sex-life, calamitous conditions may occur to 
three distinct classes of people-to himself, to the woman who 
becomes his wife and to his children, if indeed he can father 
children. The calamity may come to one or two or all three. 
Not many thinking young men would voluntarily bring upon 
themselves or the ones they love any physical or mental blight- 
surely not if they know what these blighting results may be. 
Shall we then face the facts and see how many, many devasta- 
tions might be avoided if only men were straight and true. The 
subject is far wider than the venereal disease problems, and I 
want you to think not only of the diseases which despoil the 
body but of the infinitely greater dangers to the mind and to the 
soul. It follows, then, that if every man were straight certain 
conditions would never occur. 
If every man were straight, there would be no such thing 
as masturbation or self-abuse. Boys would be taught very early 
in life that this habit is an evil and that Nature will take care of 
his sex-organs without any aid from himself. He would know 
that wet-dreams or night losses are the natural occurrence in 
healthy, vigorous youths and young men and in older men who 
are continent. There would be no question whatever about 
keeping free from this horrible habit and no boy or young man 
would think for a moment of indulging in this physical pleasure 
or teaching anyone else to do so when he knows how sadly it 
depletes the system of that which is needed to make a man strong, 
vigorous and alert. As a boy he will learn how to take such 
care of his body that it will be keen to carry out the orders of 
a mind filled with that which is best and highest. A real man 
can do anything. He can do what he wills. 
If every man were straight, there would be no such thing 
as prostitution. There would be no loose women if there were 
* Taken from a very excellent book by Dr Oswald C. J. Withrow, M.B. (Toronto), 
M.R.C.S. (England). L.R.C.P. (London), entitled Talks On Sex Education, published 
by F. D. Goodchild Company, Toronto, Canada. (Price $1.25.) 
399 400 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
no loose men. It is computed that the average number of men 
served by each prostitute daily is ten. If they only knew, men 
would avoid prostitutes as they would the plague-for indeed 
they take huge chances of contracting those diseases which are 
the most serious of all. Think of the chances of infection daily 
to those who take the way to their houses. Better than all, men 
would learn to know the opposite sex in the best sense, would 
respect and protect them, and would do nothing to contribute to 
any girl's downfall and entrance upon that most horrible and 
bestial of all lives-prostitution. I feel sure that not more than 
five men out of a hundred understand women at all, and those 
who boast of having sown wild oats and consorting with harlots 
know true, pure women least. The ranks of the' prostitutes are 
recruited largely from girls who have been betrayed by men 
under the guise of love, and then flung aside as a toy, old and 
tarnished and of no further use. Some day the world will have 
the proper label for such rascals. But of those young and ignor- 
ant fellows who are first led astray by the allurements of the 
scarlet woman I want to ask one question. Who is your boss- 
the girl with the honeyed words or you-yourself ? When every 
man is master of himself there will be no prostitutes. 
If every man were straight, there would be few suicides 
among young women, and there are a great many today, not so 
named in the daily press. A young man in the guise of a lover 
leads a pure girl into illicit relations, and pregnancy occurs. What 
is to be done? The young man cannot or will not marry her- 
our modem social conditions being largely responsible-and a 
tragedy is bound to occur. Either she takes the poison route to 
the great beyond (how many times it has been my lot to view 
this kind of passing) or she mutilates her body to get rid of that 
which would prove a curse to her all her days, or she employs 
some quack "doctor" or ignorant "nurse" to "help her out." In 
a few days blood-poisoning and death-you may call it murder 
or suicide, but that is what is happening only too frequently. If 
she does not die, the girl passes through a long and serious illness 
and bears in her body scars which will never be eradicated and 
in her soul sorrows and suffering which will never be healed. 
No MAN will be guilty of such a crime against pure girlhood. 
If every man were straight, there would be no illegitimate 
children to wander, like Ishmael, up and down the earth with IF EVERY MAN WERE STRAIGHT 
401 
everybody's hands against them and ofttimes with their hands 
against the world. And what about the girl-mother with no pro- 
tection against the cruel slurs and stigmas of society? It is 
against such that men and women lift up cruel stones and cast 
them with great vehemence, feeling singularly righteous all the 
while. When a man is straight and true he will never perpetrate 
such a crime against womanhood and childhood. 
If every man were straight, true love would find a place in 
every man's life. He would respect and honor all women and he 
would love one woman supremely and would learn to understand 
her through and through. He would realize what true Love 
means and how the Body, the Mind, and the Spirit of the woman 
he means to make his wife are equally important. The physical 
side of Sex will never fully satisfy any thinking man, and the 
sooner men are told this with no uncertain sound the better it 
will be for the human race. 
If every man were straight, there would be no such things 
as venereal diseases, and I want you to see from the foregoing 
pages just what this statement means. Think of the misery and 
unhappiness which might be saved-think of the waste of money 
and human life which might be stopped-and then think that 
venereal diseases are absolutely preventable,-if every man were 
straight. 
If every man were straight, there would be no such thing 
as gonorrhoeal rheumatism. Any man who becomes infected 
with the venereal disease called gonorrhoea may be the victim 
of this serious complication. The joints become swollen and very 
painful, the man is rendered unfit for any duty, and the condition 
is practically incurable. It is easy to write "Rheumatism" on the 
man's medical history sheet so that the world may not know the 
truth, but the doctor knows and the man knows that gonorrhoea 
following an impure life was the cause. 
If every man were straight, most of the chronic diseases of 
the bladder and generative organs would cease to exist. These 
troubles do not come from within the body. They are introduced 
from without, and the germs of gonorrhoea and syphilis are 
largely responsible. When these germs once infect the generative 
organs, no one can possibly tell how far the trouble may extend. 
Think of it-what is spoken of as a "simple" gonorrhoea-"No 
worse than a bad cold"-may cause serious disease of the urethra, 402 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the bladder, the prostate gland, the kidneys or the testicles, besides 
causing joint, blood and heart diseases. Gonorrhoea is a very 
serious disease and man does not need to acquire it nor to suffer 
from the many troubles which follow if he will but live straight. 
If every man were straight, there would be no such thing as 
Organic stricture. This is NEVER due to a strain; it is almost 
always due to gonorrhoea. You have seen how a deep burn 
when healed contracts the skin markedly. This is what happens 
to the delicate mucous membrane of the urethra after an attack 
of gonorrhoea. This contraction partly closes or wholly shuts 
off the urethral opening and a great deal of trouble follows. 
Instruments and surgical operations are necessary to make life 
worth living, but once stricture develops it is really never cured. 
You have been told to report for prophylactic treatment, if by 
any chance you forget your manhood and "fall" for a prostitute. 
This is what you should do certainly and as early as possible. 
There's no question about that. But isn't it just possible that the 
preventive treatment which will keep you from having gonor- 
rhoea or syphilis may cause stricture if the treatment is needed 
too often. Suppose you placed such medicine frequently on the 
delicate lining of your eye. Wouldn't you expect to spoil your 
eye? The mucous membrane of the urethra is just as delicate. 
The only way to keep from having stricture is to keep away from 
prostitutes. 
If every man were straight, there would be no such thing 
as chronic gonorrhoea, which means gleet and prostatic disease 
and other conditions. Although gonorrhoea can be cured, it is 
so difficult to cure that hosts of cases become chronic. Of 270 
men suffering from gonorrhea in one hospital at one time, 240 
were chronic. This means that the germs of gonorrhea may be 
present in the passages of the generative organs for months and 
years and are capable of infecting others long after the acute 
symptoms have passed away and the disease is supposed to be 
cured. If every fellow knew how serious gonorrhoea really is, 
I feel sure that not one of them would take a chance. If the 
man himself only suffered it would be bad enough, but when he 
knows what serious results follow in innocent women and children 
he will surely keep himself straight. 
If every man were straight, most of the surgical operations 
on the female generative organs would not be needed. Men IF EVERY MAN WERE STRAIGHT 
403 
marry pure, innocent girls, after having had gonorrhoea which 
they think is cured. Only the lowest, most contemptible brute 
would marry, knowing that his venereal disease was still acute. 
But if the germs are there at all they may infect the girl-wife 
of a few days or weeks, and the results are likely to be very 
serious. Any of the female generative organs may become 
infected, and when the inflammation spreads deeply a surgical 
operation is imperative. This may not save the woman's life, and 
she dies-in the very heyday of youth-as truly murdered as 
tho by an assassin's pistol. If she lives, she is mutilated and 
deprived of ovaries or uterus, or both. Is there any greater 
tragedy under the sun? I know of none. Yet men-and women, 
too, I am sorry to say-think lightly of the young man's wild 
oats, and mothers either do not know or do not care about the 
danger that threatens their daughters who marry men who have 
ever had venereal disease. Husbands have shed bitter tears, 
wives have had their lives spoiled and hopes killed because of 
this calamity which has entered their married life so soon after 
the honeymoon. Whose fault is it? Frankly and honestly it must 
be laid at the door of the man who has not lived straight. The 
number of surgical operations performed under the names of 
"appendicitis" or some such innocent label when the real cause 
is venereal disease is not written in reports, and physicians dare 
not tell the truth to their patients. Every true youth yearns for 
a home and a pure-minded girl as its mistress. It will be easy 
to make her happy and keep her healthy if the young man will 
but live straight and keep himself clean for her. 
If every man were straight, there would be fewer childless 
homes. Gonorrhoea causes sterility in both men and women. 
Many a wife with a strong mother instinct comes to find out what 
is wrong with her that she cannot have children to brighten and 
bless the home. She does not suspect nor can the physician tell 
her that her husband is to blame because years before an attack of 
gonorrhoea has so affected his generative organs that he cannot 
become the father of children. The future depends largely upon 
the character of our homes and of the children born during the 
next generation. Every true girl has the mother instinct strongly 
implanted. Don't you think, boys, you owe it to the girl who 
will some day become your wife and who will expect to become 
the mother of your children to live the straight life now? 404 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
If every man were straight, very few children would be born 
blind. Nearly every case of blindness in the new-born is due to 
gonorrhea. Oh! the horror which must pursue a father all his 
days to know that the blindness of his babe is due directly to his 
own sin. The innocent child, in its journey into this world from 
its mother's body, has its eyes infected by the germs of 
gonorrhoea which the father has passed to his unsuspecting wife, 
and ever after has to grope its unseeing way through a world 
of sunshine and beauty, the darkness made more awful because 
it could have been prevented if the man had only been straight. 
When King John ordered Prince Arthur's eyes to be put out with 
red-hot irons, the boy pleaded with Hubert to spare him, and his 
words are strong and vivid enough to move anyone to tears. 
The unborn children are pleading for common justice as they 
enter this world. Spare their eyes, you young men who travel 
that pathway which is not straight. You can do it if you will. 
If every man were straight, there would be only about half 
the number of abortions and miscarriages. Syphilis is the real 
cause of half the troubles of this kind, and as you will readily 
see, this proves serious in two directions: First, it causes a great 
amount of race suicide; and second, it endangers the health and 
the life of women. How many women are carried out prema- 
turely to a place in God's Acre because of complications after 
abortions and miscarriages following venereal diseases will 
never be known because such facts are not published. These 
women are murdered by their husbands. There's no shadow of 
a doubt about it, but the death certificate doesn't call it that and 
the law has no redress. 
If every man were straight, there would not be nearly so 
many babies born dead. Do you realize what that means to a 
mother who has been dreaming dreams of the future of her child 
who will be strong and healthy and beautiful and everything else 
that a good baby can be? To tell a mother that her child is still- 
born-that is indeed a heavy task-and one cannot say to her 
that the cause is syphilis and her husband is to blame. I wonder 
if the truth would not be best after all? 
If every man were straight, there would be few children 
born diseased. I have seen the most hideous examples of syphilis 
in new-born children. They are loathsome in the extreme. 
Luckily for themselves, 80 per cent of such children die within IF EVERY MAN WERE STRAIGHT 
405 
a few clays or weeks, and these also are really and truly murdered. 
The father's syphilis has been communicated to the mother, an 
innocent victim of her husband's perfidy, and from her trans- 
mitted to the child. Herod's slaughter of the innocents moves 
us to righteous anger. What shall we say about the slaughter 
of the innocent children by the fathers of today? 
If every man were straight, there would be far fewer 
mentally-defective children. This would come about in two 
ways. First, feeble-minded girls would not then be the prey of 
men, but would be protected from their own weakened wills and 
strongly developed sex-life. If any man would stop a moment to 
think he would realize surely what a grave menace to our 
national life the feeble-minded are proving to be, and he will 
be straight before any suggestion of consorting with such. Many 
generations ago a man was criminal enough to have sexual 
relations with a feeble-minded girl. From that union has pro- 
ceeded a long line of criminals, prostitutes, mental defectives, 
paupers, the flotsam and jetsam of society. Does any real man 
want to be responsible for this sort of thing? Second, syphilis 
is one of the causes of mentally-defective children, so that any 
man who has contracted syphilis may become the father of 
feeble-minded children. There is no sadder sight in all the world 
than a child growing up physically with a very low mentality. 
Every child has a right to be well born. If every man were 
straight, children would at least get common justice. 
If every man were straight, practically half the amount of 
insanity in the world would be done away with. Syphilis is the 
cause of a large amount of insanity, and the worst of it is that 
the mental condition takes years to develop. Years after the 
venereal disease has been contracted, and when a man is possibly 
at the height of his business success, the ravages of syphilis make 
themselves known in an attack of insanity, and his sorrowing 
family have to put him away with others of his kind. Wouldn't 
it be better to keep away from loose women than take a chance 
like this? 
If every man were straight, there would be among men and 
women absolutely no paresis, sometimes called softening of the 
brain. This disease is the most terrible of all and is directly 
traceable to syphilis. It is incurable, and within a very few 
years after the symptoms of this type of insanity have shown 406 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
themselves death carries off the victim. Children of men suffer- 
ing from this mental trouble, also known as general paralysis of 
the insane, may be the victim of this disease-heredity plays a 
great part here. Isn't it pitiful to see a girl of thirteen or fourteen 
years of age insane and very close to the death line because her 
father has so grossly sinned? It is computed that paresis forms 
25 per cent of all cases of insanity, and since it is directly due to 
syphilis it would cease to exist if every man were straight. 
If every man were straight, there would be no such disease 
as locomotor-ataxia. This does not mean insanity, but it does 
mean that a man becomes more or less of a cripple, stalking 
along unsteadily by the aid of two canes, eyes upon the ground, 
helplessness written large over his every attitude. Many a man 
has had a brilliant course at college and the university, has 
entered business or a profession and made a success there, only 
to be stricken down with this disease of the nervous system. 
Then he recalls a venereal disease which he contracted during 
his student days. The Mills of the Gods grind slowly, but they 
grind exceedingly small. This also is true, 'Whatsoever a man 
soweth that shall he also reap." In the laboratory of the human 
body results are sure. 
If every man were straight, diseases of the arteries and 
blood vessels would be greatly lessened. One of our famous phy- 
sicians has told us that we are just as old as our arteries, and it 
means that if we do anything to cause our blood vessels to become 
hardened and old, we thereby make ourselves old, no matter how 
many birthdays we may number. There are men at thirty older 
than other men at seventy. Syphilis is the cause of these changes 
in the arteries. Day by day, ceaselessly, noiselessly, the poison 
of syphilis works upon the delicate blood vessels, making them 
hard and brittle. The man works along unconscious of the 
ravages of the disease until one day an artery snaps somewhere 
in the body, and he is either a dead man or a helpless cripple. 
It's rather horrible, isn't it, to think of such a sword hanging 
over one's head? Such would not happen if every man were 
straight. 
If every man were straight, no man before middle life would 
have apoplectic or paralytic strokes. Whenever you see a man 
under middle-age the victim of sudden paralysis coming on with- 
out any apparent reason you must think of syphilis as the most IF EVERY MAN WERE STRAIGHT 
407 
likely cause. Many a man's life is cut short by apoplexy before 
middle age. Why? Syphilis contracted years before. When 
such calamities as these can be prevented, why will men expose 
themselves to contracting venereal disease ? I believe it is mainly 
because they do not know the facts. Just so soon as people learn 
to call things by their right names and think of them as they 
really are without excuse or equivocation, these tragedies will 
no longer occur. 
If every man were straight, the average life of mankind 
would be at least one-third higher than it is today. Venereal 
disease is responsible for the cutting off of so many men and 
women years before the end of their allotted span that this 
menace has assumed large proportions. This is true in military 
life, and has occasioned the following striking statement from 
Surgeon-General Gorgas, of the United States forces-''If the 
military sanitariums were given a choice of an approved method 
that zvould eliminate all bullet wounds or all venereal disease from 
the army, we would choose the' latter because its results would 
accomplish more for the efficiency of the army" A similar state- 
ment might be made about our civilian population. Syphilis kills 
at long range, and so one is apt to question such statements as 
that just written, but facts bear out the truthfulness of every 
word. You cannot have this too strongly impressed. Often the 
fleeting pleasure produces dire calamity. 
If every man were straight, his earning capacity would be 
greater and industrial life would be richer. One of our great 
corporations has given first place to venereal disease and immoral- 
ity in lessening the value of their employes' work both to them- 
selves and to the company. The waste of time and money natur- 
ally cannot be computed, but it certainly is very great. It is not 
altogether a matter of dollars and cents, but even from this 
viewpoint, it is worthy of serious consideration. In the army 
more men are rendered inefficient through venereal diseases than 
from any other cause. In civilian pursuits this is equally true. 
If every man were straight, it would not be so difficult for 
women to be pure and true. Girls naturally have high ideals and 
desire to live right. Men are the aggressors and are responsible 
for the downfall of many a girl, trading upon her love of dress 
and admiration, which, within limits, is the inalienable right of 
every member of her sex. When a woman has fallen to the 408 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
ranks of the prostitutes her knowledge of the frailties of men 
gives her an influence over them to which young men, and older 
men, too, are foolish enough to submit. If every man were 
straight, painted women would pass away forever. 
If every man were straight, untold misery and suffering 
would be no more. Men and women desire happiness above 
everything else, but how can true happiness reign in a home 
shadowed by many of the calamities about which we have already 
spoken? Here again it is exceedingly difficult to find the sum 
of all the misery and suffering caused- by the perversion of the 
sex instinct, but any physician knows that almost daily he is 
brought face to face with its problems. A true man will think 
twice before he will add even a little to the world's misery. CHAPTER XXVI 
ARE CHILDREN GETTING A SQUARE DEAL* 
WE were educated during the war to a realization of some 
things that never had before occurred to us. In the exami- 
nation of some 10 million men for the draft, it was discovered 
that a vast number were infected with diseases that rendered 
them unfit to wear the uniform of their country. Those of us 
who had been familiar with the problems of social hygiene little 
realized that our figures and estimates would be so absolutely 
verified by inspection of men who were physically examined. 
THE COMMISSION ON TRAINING CAMP ACTIVITIES 
The problem came up at the beginning as to what we were 
going to do with the young men who were in service. Were men, 
after they had gone through their drills eight hours a day, and 
after they had performed their kitchen duties, to be turned loose 
as they had in the Civil and Spanish Wars to wander the streets, 
pick up clandestine prostitutes and mix in drunken brawls ? The 
problem was met by the establishment of the Commission on 
Training Camp Activities and in a large part by its Social Hy- 
giene Section. 
This organization undertook to gather together men who 
were familiar with the details of social hygiene to talk to the 
men in the Army, and it was my privilege to talk to red-blooded 
men, some possibly your husbands, brothers, sons, or sweethearts, 
and to give them a type of instruction that was necessary for their 
well-being. Men were told to conserve their bodily energy; they 
were told if they associated with women of the street they were 
taking a chance of contracting diseases that would ultimately 
destroy them unless carefully treated. We made an appeal to 
these men to conserve the seed that was in their bodies, that a 
new generation might be born after the war. The problem, after 
all, is not so much what we are to do with the present genera- 
tion, but what are we going to do for the generation of tomorrow. 
* By Lee Alexander Stone, M.D., in Journal of Health and Sanitation, January, 
1921. 
409 410 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
THE MENACE OF MOCK MODESTY 
Many of you already have lived your lives and have done as 
much as you can do, but what of tomorrow's children? There 
were 4 million men in your Army who listened to a type of in- 
struction that should have been given to them in their homes. 
Why had not such instruction been given? Because of that 
infernal something-that disease of Society, that menace called 
"mock modesty," which many parents suffer from. Mock mod- 
esty is a sign of a diseased social organism. Women who hide 
behind their fans, and blush as they say, "Why, I cannot talk to 
my sons about Nature, or to my daughter, because it is not the 
proper thing to do. We must hush up these things. The gen- 
erative instinct is unclean, keep it in the background." What a 
mistake this is! The procreative instinct is Life, it is the holiest 
impulse in all the world. How long shall we keep up our hypoc- 
risy? Isn't it better to bring into the light of pitiless publicity 
the diseases that sap at the vitals of Society? 
SYPHILIS THE GREATEST KNOWN CAUSE OF DEATH 
There are today in the United States 770,000 boys who attain 
the age of 21 every year, and out of that 770,000 young men, a 
conservative estimate, the lowest that can be made, proves that 
450,000 of these boys-your boys-contract gonorrhea or syphilis 
before they reach the age of 30. Ten to twenty per cent of that 
number will be infected with syphilis. We talk about tubercu- 
losis being a cause of death! Syphilis is the greatest cause of 
death known, according to Osler. Read vital statistics. Go 
over cases of locomotor ataxia; paresis, or softening of the brain; 
other conditions of the nervous system; paralysis developed be- 
fore the age of 40, and you will find that syphilis, and its end- 
results, is at the bottom of all of them. Take into consideration 
the thousands of young men and women today who are going 
through life deformed. I know of one little boy who recently 
showed up in a certain board of health office. He was a boy 
who would have been a beautiful boy perhaps. He was only 10 
years old, and he said to the doctor, "There is something the 
matter with my nose, and I wish you would look at it. A few 
days ago I had a bad case of snuffles, and I used my handkerchief 
and a bone came out of my nose, and I took a hair pin and pulled ARE CHILDREN GETTING A SQUARE DEAL? 
411 
the rest of it out." He had pulled the entire bone from his nose. 
That child had inherited syphilis. The parents had not taken 
treatment. I can take you through hospitals and show hundreds 
of men and women affected and marked for life because of 
hereditary syphilis. 
THE REAPERS OF WILD OATS 
Go into jails and penitentiaries; homes for the crippled; for 
the feeble-minded; and juvenile institutions of one type or an- 
other, and you will find germs of syphilis growing there, con- 
tracted in the sowing of "wild oats" of the inmates or contracted 
by fathers or grandfathers, because they, too, had insisted on 
sowing wild oats and handed down to the innocent a crop they 
would reap. 
We have had for years a popular notion that it is necessary 
for a young man before he attains his majority or before he 
marries, at least, to go out, sow a crop of wild oats, paint the 
town red and have a good ( ?) time. The individual who advised 
this vicious practice did not realize that when the time came to 
read the harvest of the crop he had advised sowing that it would 
hardly be the young man, but his wife who would give herself 
to him, or his offspring, who would be the reapers. 
WILD OATS AS A CAUSE OF BLINDNESS 
There is necessity for education that will lower the mortality 
rate. Men and women, and boys and girls need instruction of a 
nature that will develop in them a desire to promulgate higher 
ethical standards. In the sowing of wild oats, gonorrhea plays an 
important part. Many are familiar with individuals who have 
been blind from birth. In institutions for the blind thousands of 
poor men and women are going through life in total darkness 
because they had harvested a crop of wild oats which their fathers 
had sowed in their young manhood. There are today in the 
United States over 12,000 blind babies between the age of three 
days and three years who are blind because, when their heads 
were being born into the world they had put into their eyes the 
germ of gonorrhea-their eyes were burned out as with a red- 
hot iron. Gonorrhea is the greatest cause for blindness in the 
new-born baby. We have the invention of Crede, which is a solu- 
tion of nitrate of silver, and which should be dropped into the 412 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
eyes immediately after birth. This should be done by a reputable 
doctor. It is a very simple thing to do and prevents gonorrheal 
blindness. I have known reputable physicians to say, "There is 
not a chance of gonorrhea in this case," and I have seen the baby 
go blind as the result of his carelessness. 
WILD OATS AS A CAUSE OF STERILITY IN WOMEN 
A result of a "good time" may produce sterility in women. 
The husband says, "Why have you never given me an offspring ?" 
The woman in answer has the right in many instances to rebuke 
her husband by asking, "Why did you not take the proper kind 
of treatment when you had gonorrhea?" I am not blaming men. 
I am not accusing them of criminal actions-they are not guilty. 
Society has insisted that it was necessary to keep social diseases, 
hidden diseases, and to keep them out of the way, so that when 
they have crawled out of the darkness and stabbed us in the 
back, we have not always known where the blow came from. We 
wonder why it is that these diseases have not been brought into 
publicity before. Today we have tuberculosis sanitariums all 
over the United States. There is hardly a state or city of any size 
in this country that has not a sanitarium for taking care of this 
disease. 
A few years ago we were ashamed to talk about tuberculosis. 
We said it should not be talked about. We have been saying 
the same thing about syphilis and gonorrhea. It is the duty 
of every citizen, in view of what we have learned in our fight 
against tuberculosis to work along similar lines and to bring 
into the light of pitiless publicity, gonorrhea and syphilis in 
order that these diseases may receive proper attention from those 
interested in their treatment. The proper kind of treatment 
must be long and continued at the hands of experts. This 
means that the quack must be eliminated. 
THE MENACE OF THE QUACK 
How many in your daily work have run across the terrible 
crimes that have been committed by quacks? We see them every 
day. The quack starts out with a lie on his lips and you know 
that he is doing nothing other than skin the public. He is after 
money and is totally devoid of a conscience. Many young men 
rejoice when the discharge of gonorrhea disappears, and the ARE CHILDREN GETTING A SQUARE DEAL? 
413 
symptoms subside. They are humbugged into believing they are 
entirely well and stop treatment. They are fooling themselves 
and are laying up for the future, calamity for the women they 
marry! Gonorrhea requires long and careful treatment. 
THE FIRST STAGE OF SYPHILIS 
Syphilis takes from three to five to ten to twenty to fifty 
years to cure, if it is ever cured. The primary stage may be con- 
tracted through sexual intercourse or innocently by using a dirty 
drinking cup, towel, shaving utensil or knife, fork or spoon of 
an individual who has a syphilitic sore in his mouth or on his 
body. Whether it is contracted during illicit communion with a 
prostitute, or from the dirty drinking cup, roller towel, or other 
things mentioned, it is syphilis. 
THE SECOND STAGE 
We have the second stage at which time mouth sores appear 
and also sore throat. It is at this time that the individual is in 
the most highly communicable stage of the disease. There may 
be a breaking out on the body (an eruption) along with mouth 
sores and mucous discharges. Individuals with secondary syphilis 
are more deadly to society, ten for one, than a hundred cases of 
influenza, smallpox, or yellow fever. These diseases are quaran- 
tinable, and can be put under armed control if necessary. When 
you have an individual with syphilitic mouth sores running loose, 
you are face to face with a social menace. You have at large an 
individual who is jeopardizing Society, and more particularly 
the young men and young women who are potential parents of 
oncoming generations. You must cease regarding the sick man 
of society today as an individual unit. Society is ill when he 
is ill, and society must protect itself from disease, and therefore 
must prevent his running at large. 
THE THIRD STAGE 
In the third stage we find locomotor ataxia; we find blind- 
ness. Within one hour recently I saw a blind man made so by 
syphilitic iritis. I saw a woman 30 years old wabbling along- 
locomotor ataxia. Syphilis caused it! I also saw a young man 
dragging an arm and a foot. Paralysis (Hemiplegia) Syphilis! 
It is in this third stage that you see rotting ulcers of the flesh, 
that you see the decay of bones and also softening of the brain, 414 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
and other conditions involving the nervous system. There is not 
a part of the human anatomy that syphilis cannot affect, and 
when I tell you it is estimated that 10 to 15 per cent of the mem- 
bers of society today are suffering from syphilis or its end-results, 
you can readily understand the danger that you may encounter, 
and why it is necessary for you to fight venereal diseases harder 
than you ever fought tuberculosis. In the French Army Pautrier 
estimated that there were 200,000 cases of syphilis. This will 
mean a dropping off in the birth rate in France, because syphilis 
is the greatest cause for miscarriages and stillbirths known; that 
the French Army will probably be short 400,000 soldiers in the 
decade of 1936 to 1945. 
VENEREAL DISEASE RECORD OF THE ARMY 
You are anxious to know what happened as a result of the 
educational plan adopted in the United States Army? Never 
in the history of warfare has there been an army so absolutely 
clean and free from venereal disease as the United States Army. 
There is not an officer in the service, nor a private, but who 
can look back with pride at the record made. We had 227,000 
cases of venereal disease among 4,000,000 men up to February, 
1919. The sad feature of this statement is, that five-sixths of 
the 227,000 cases were brought by men wearing civilian clothes 
who had contracted these diseases before entering the service. 
Approximately 38 thousand cases of venereal diseases can be 
directly charged to having been contracted after men put on their 
uniforms. This is a wonderful record! No man was allowed to 
go to the front line, or to go over the top, who was infected with 
a venereal disease. The instant the soldier was found to be dis- 
eased, he was put in a pen and every one who passed him knew 
what he was imprisoned for and why he was quarantined. His 
associates realized that in his body lay the hidden menace of 
society. They further realized that he was a destroyer of morale; 
he was a slacker, because he had received a type of instruction 
that should have kept him away from illicit communion with 
prostitutes and clandestines. 
WHERE SEX EDUCATION SHOULD BEGIN 
Many of you, perhaps, are opposed to education of children 
along lines adopted by the Army. You, no doubt, are wondering 
if I am going to urge the education of children in public schools. ARE CHILDREN GETTING A SQUARE DEAL? 
415 
I do not believe that we are as yet ready to train children in sex 
and social hygiene. Because I believe that it is necessary to edu- 
cate a generation of adults in social hygiene before we can hope 
to go into the public schools. I believe, however, the time is 
coming when we are going to teach social ethics and hygiene in 
public schools, but those who teach it are first going to be edu- 
cated not to make blunders. You must educate parents in the 
right way of thinking. You cannot, in an hour or two, get rid 
of social hypocrisy. You cannot get rid of mock modesty in so 
short a time. You can only do this by constant education. Who 
is responsible for sex diseases? You and I are. Because we 
have failed to take our boys and our girls into our confidence. 
How many girls have been kicked out, driven away, sent out into 
total darkness because they have committed an error? They 
have been driven out by fathers and mothers and ostracized by 
Society. They kicked them out. Why ? Because they fell, due to 
the fact that they were ignorant. I recall one magnificent girl 
in a southern town. She committed an error. Her father was 
sent for to come to the university where she was. When he 
rushed into the room where she stood, he paid no attention to 
those present, but demanded, "Why did you do this? Why did 
you bring disgrace on my good name, and on the good name of 
your mother?" The girl arose in the majesty of her woman- 
hood, looked her father in the face and said, "Why didn't you or 
why didn't mother, tell me the truth about myself when I asked 
questions? Why wasn't I told?" 
WHERE THE BLAME BELONGS 
When a child can rebuke a parent as this girl rebuked hers, 
the blame for her error falls on the shoulders of the father or 
the mother. This father realized that he was to blame, and he 
took that girl home with him. So long as society refuses to train 
children and refuses to reckon with the consequences of venereal 
diseases, just that long will society be unable to cast a stone. 
Whenever you condone the sowing of wild oats; condone the ex- 
istence of prostitution or a double standard of morals, it renders 
you unfit to hurl stones. You cannot cast stones until you have 
purged yourselves of the false accretions of falser teachings that 
have been in existence for ages which make you unfit to com 
demn the actions of your brother. You have not the right. 416 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Many of you say, "But I am not my brother's keeper." You are 
more your brother's keeper today than you have ever been in the 
history of the world. When your son and the son of the rich 
man and the son of the man in middle life and the son of the man 
who was a puddler in the iron foundry went together into a 
trench, they forgot class and they forgot caste. They forgot their 
social differences. It was a question of who could deliver the 
goods. Can you stand up and fight? Have you got the "guts" 
to go over the top, and the answer came back, "We have. We 
are men." They slept together; they ate together, and their 
souls went West together. 
WHERE CHILDREN SHOULD GET THEIR INSTRUCTION 
/ 
On those fields of Flanders and into No Man's Land went 
this grand army of American boys with the hearts of fathers and 
mothers crying to them across the sea, "Do your duty now as 
you have never done it before in all your lives." Men gave up 
their lives, gave up their strong virile manhood; these men in 
whose bodies were seeds that would have brought forth a race 
of giants died the deaths of heroes that the United States might 
live. I want you to remember that the souls of these men cry 
out from the grave to play the game of life straighter than you 
have ever played it before and to be doubly straight with your 
children and see that they get a square deal and are not lied to. 
If your boy or girl comes to you and says, "Mother," or "Father, 
where did I come from? Who made me?" For God's sake 
don't say, "The stork brought you," or don't say, "I found you 
in a jardiniere," as I heard a woman tell a boy the other day, 
and later on allow these children to learn the truth from the 
gutter in the filthiest style imaginable. Do you expect boys who 
get their knowledge from street gamins to be a credit to you if 
you have not given them the type of instruction they deserve ? 
THE MOVEMENT BEHIND THE CLOCK OF TIME 
Man is nothing more than the hand on the dial of the clock 
of Time. He indicates the period as time goes on. Sometimes 
he says, "Why, I am it," but he could not have been "it" if his 
mother had not brought him into the world 1 if she had not taught 
him when he was a baby or young man. He pressed a button, 
and papa's pocket was touched, and that was the end so far as ARE CHILDREN GETTING A SQUARE DEAL? 
417 
father was concerned. Mother was closer to him. She looked 
after him and directed his actions, and mothers everywhere are 
doing the same today. Woman is the great movement behind the 
clock of time. 
VENEREAL DISEASE AND INDUSTRY 
There is one other point before I close. Many are coming 
in contact with employers who have in their employ great num- 
bers of men and women. Do you know that it is costing the 
United States from three to five billions of dollars a year, be- 
cause of failure on the part of men and women to take treatment 
for venereal disease? These diseases lower efficiency. If em- 
ployers would put into their places clinics for the treatment of 
such diseases or would insist on their employes consulting spe- 
cialists, and regard each individual affected as a diseased mem- 
ber of society, and compel him to take treatment by establishing 
clinics so that men and women may get proper treatment, we 
can readily see what good could be accomplished. 419 INTRODUCTION 
^HIS chapter contains several hundred extracts, se- 
lected with great care from the enormous accumu- 
lation of literature on Sexology. Much time and labor 
has been spent to be sure all aspects of the subject are 
considered. Over one hundred authors are quoted, and 
among them are to be found-physicians, clergymen, 
educators, attorneys, social reformers, representative 
journals, as well as the official utterances of several 
State Boards of Health. 
In many instances conflicting opinions are set forth, 
in order that the reader may be in possession of both 
sides of the question, and form an opinion accordingly. 
It is confidently expected that a perusal of the selec- 
tions will prove both interesting and instructive. 
420 PART II. 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
A dead baby is next of kin to a diseased baby.-Havelock 
Ellis. 
♦ * ♦ ♦ ♦ 
A wife's duties are beauty, gentleness, and the bearing of 
children.-The Talmud. 
* ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
The poor, the leprous, the blind and the childless are like 
the dead.-The Talmud. 
* * ♦ * ♦ 
Gonorrhea kills thousands, it maims tens of thousands, dis- 
ables hundreds of thousands-Dr. W. A. Evans. 
* * * * * 
Two mentally defective parents will produce only mentally 
defective offspring.-Henry Herbert Goddard, Ph. D. 
***** 
The man who pulls down another man's daughter may expect 
to have his own daughter pulled down. That's the law. 
***** 
The man who does not believe in educating young men in the 
sexual life invites the destruction of his daughter. Is it not true? 
***** 
Modern balls, modern dances, modem clothes are an out- 
rage to love. They are blasphemous, sacrilegious.-Eugene 
Brieux. 
***** 
The more advanced civilization is, the greater is the number 
of illegitimate births, and the more widespread is prostitution.- 
Westermarck. 
♦ * * * ♦ 
An unhappy married woman of uncertain age should not 
attempt to teach sex hygiene to young people. Her first duty is 
to learn this herself. 
421 422 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
To be a good animal is the first essential for success in life, 
and to be a nation of good animals is the first condition of national 
prosperity.-Herbert Spencer. 
* * ♦ ♦ ♦ 
Women and children are the innocent and helpless victims 
of the venereal diseases. There can be no higher honor to man 
than to protect them from such infection. 
***** 
The problem of sex is the problem of life; it is the problem 
of Society's happiness in comparison with which all other prob- 
lems sink into insignificance.-Ellen Key. 
♦ * * ♦ ♦ 
A married person of forty of either sex who is really happy 
and content has had a college education in sexology and is pre- 
pared to teach young people all about sex. 
***** 
The history of human marriage is that of a union wherein 
women have gradually gained a victory over the passions, the 
prejudices, the selfishness of men.-Westermarck. 
***** 
More than half the cases of blindness is due to two infec- 
tions: of the outside of the eye with the gonococcus, and the 
interior of the eye with the spirillum of syphilis.-Dr. IV. A. 
Evans. 
***** 
The prostitute is the most mournful and most awful figure 
in history, who remains while creeds and civilizations rise and 
fall, the eternal sacrifice of humanity, blasted for the sins of the 
people.-Lecky. 
***** 
No female should use a syringe, douche or any other instru- 
ment that has been used by another female. Many sad cases of 
innocent infection have resulted from such errors.-Indiana State 
Board of Health. 
***** 
One of the principal reasons that makes the eradication of 
quackery forever impossible is to be found in the fact which finds 
incisive expression in the proverb, "Stupidity is a hardy peren- 
nial."-Dr. Wilhelm Ebstein. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
423 
I know that whatever makes for clean and upright man- 
hood and womanhood and good Americanism is right, and should 
be encouraged.-Hon. Edwin Denby, Secretary of the Navy. 
* * ♦ ♦ ♦ 
A maiden lady attempting to teach sex hygiene to the young 
or endeavoring to inform married people concerning the proper 
conduct of sex relations is like a teacher of calculus who is not 
yet familiar with mental arithmetic. 
***** 
Sexual passion is a matter of universal experience; and 
speaking broadly and generally, we may say it is a matter on 
which it is quite desirable that every adult at some time or other 
should have actual experience.-Edward Carpenter. 
***** 
Many of your patients will ask you about sexual intercourse, 
and some will expect you to prescribe fornication. . . . Chas- 
tity does no harm to mind or body; its discipline is excellent; 
marriage can be safely waited for.-Sir James Paget. 
***** 
Stop the indiscriminate kissing habit. There are thousands 
of syphilitic mouths. Don't let strangers kiss your children in the 
mouth under any circumstances. The less mouth kissing, all 
around, the better.-Indiana State Board of Health. 
***** 
A husband should never blame his wife for becoming in- 
fatuated with another man until he has made sure that her conduct 
is not the inevitable, biologic results of his own ignorant or indif- 
ferent or selfish execution of his part of the sex relation. 
* * * * * 
The supreme law for husband is: Remember that each act 
of union must be tenderly wooed for and won, and that no union 
should ever take place unless the woman also desires it and is 
made physically ready for it.-Dr. Marie Carmichael Stopes. 
***** 
After the worst has been seen it remains a fact there is in 
our midst a strong stream of clean living and clean loving. There 
is, after all, a large body of men and women of good will, whose 
whole bent is towards wholesomeness and healthfulness.-Geddes 
and Thompson. 424 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
To insure a sanitary marriage it is imperative to establish a 
quarantine station before the marriage license window, over 
its gate should hang this legend: No Health Certificate, No 
License!-Dr. Albert H. Burr. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
Many a married man who has suffered from gonorrhea 
before marrying, has, in the belief he cannot again be infected, 
had no compunction as regards indulging in extramarital inter- 
course, with the result he does contract it, and-what is worse- 
infects his wife.-Philip and Murray. 
♦ ♦ ♦ * * 
The corruption worked by prostitution is threefold: The 
man who makes use of the prostitute's services is corrupted; 
the prostitute herself is corrupted; lastly the social consciousness 
is corrupted, involved in a devil's circle of contradictions by 
which the whole process is surrounded.-Meisel-Hess. 
♦ * * * ♦ 
The effects of gonorrhea on the female generative organs 
have been so destructive that no successful contradiction is feared 
when the belief is expressed that no disease of modern times has 
caused so much indirect mortality, mutilation and suffering, both 
mental and physical, as gonorrhea.-Dr. Joseph Taber Johnson. 
***** 
What a source of devastation is a public or private teacher 
of youth, when his heart is impure! What a tragic example of 
misleading is he who, himself in a position imposing upon him 
the duty of leading others towards virtue, is animated by the 
most detestable of all passions!-Johann Peter Frank. 
***** 
The company of prostitutes often renders men incapable of 
understanding feminine psychology, for prostitutes are hardly 
more than automata trained for the use of male sensuality. 
When men look among these for the sexual psychology of woman 
they find only their own mirror.-Dr. August Forel. 
***** 
All over the world the number of special diseases increases 
at an appalling rate. These diseases not only harm the diseased 
person, but undermine the health of his children. They are SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
425 
exceedingly contagious. To tolerate sexual stimulation is to 
increase these diseases, to work for their propagation.-Eugene 
Brieux. 
* ♦ ♦ * ♦ 
Modern science altogether fails to endorse the implied opin- 
ion of the medieval Christian Church-and of many other systems 
of morality and religion-that the reproductive instincts were 
innately evil and should be repressed and trodden under foot by 
all religious and moral men and women.-Sir Thomas Clouston. 
The absurdest features of the conventional attitude as 
regards prostitution are perhaps seen in the extraordinary means 
sometimes recommended to render it unnecessary. One advo- 
cates abstinence from meat diet, another extols the peculiar vir- 
tues of porridge, a third advises teetotalism.-Meisel-Hess. 
* * * * * 
What can be done to prevent the cases of infidelity due to 
pregnancy in the wife or her fear of pregnancy? Only one 
thing, and that is to teach married women, especially the poorer 
ones who need it, that there are other effective and not injurious 
ways besides refusal of marital relations to prevent pregnancy.- 
Dr. William L. Holt. 
***** 
Sex discussion must be considered proper. Sex must be 
considered worthy. The sex life must come into its logical place 
equal or paramount in importance to nutritional, political, moral 
or spiritual life. The removal of the tabu on all sex matters 
must occur before we can effectually remedy the evils which 
such tabu has made possible.-Dr. W. F. Robie. 
***** 
The prudishness with which a girl is "brought up" leaves her 
no alternative but to view her passions from the nasty side of 
human nature. All healthy thought on the subject is vigorously 
repressed. It is opposed to a girl's best interests to prevent her 
from having fair and just conceptions about herself and her 
nature.-Dr. J. Milner Fothergill. 
***** 
All parents should know the facts of sex hygiene and 
physiology necessary for instructing their own children and for 426 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
imparting to them the ideals of a chivalrous spirit and a clean 
mind and body-a sure protection against venereal diseases.- 
Ohio State Board of Health. 
***** 
Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree 
of his horse, cattle, and dogs, before he matches them; but when 
he comes to his own marriage, he rarely, or never, takes such 
care. Yet he might by selection do something, not only for the 
bodily constitution and frame of his offspring, but for their 
intellectual and moral qualities.-Charles Darwin. 
***** 
Undoubtedly sexuality is very closely connected with the 
mainspring of other vital energy. For instance, Maudsley has 
maintained that religion is dependent on sexuality. There can 
be no doubt that the vital nervous energy put by the individual 
into either sex or religion, is derived from the same or a similar 
course in both cases.-Dr. E. M. Corner. 
***** 
Clinics, hospital wards, reformatories, homes for the feeble- 
minded, education and recreation cost cold, hard cash, but it can 
be proved that they are much cheaper in dollars and cents than 
the enormous industrial and human waste caused by the spread 
of venereal diseases.-South Dakota State Board of Health. 
***** 
The physician knows that the cause (of divorce) is almost 
invariably sexual discontent. In the last 20 years there have 
been over 1,000,000 divorces in the United States. Drunkenness, 
lack of support, "incompatibility, cruel and abusive treatment," 
are only indirect expressions of want of mutual sex satisfaction. 
-Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
***** 
What is divorce except a public insult to love? And what 
becomes of the beautiful phrase of the marriage rite, "for better 
for worse"? What becomes of it? The whole thing amounts 
to this: "I take you as long as my caprice lasts"; or "I will stay 
with you until my senses are awakened by another." What 
becomes of the children ? Who cares for the children!-Eugene 
Brieux. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
427 
The quack doctors and the venders of patent medicines who 
prey upon their victims with ''quick" cures that do not really 
cure, the person with one of the diseases who exposes another, the 
man or woman who directly or indirectly promotes the business 
of commercialized prostitution-such persons are giving aid and 
comfort to the foes of American civilization. - Virginia State 
Board of Health. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
Do good women, respectable women, realize that their undress 
awakens instincts which they naturally turn down but which, once 
awakened by them, require satisfaction which is found in low 
dens of vice and that, in this way, they help and have helped to 
poison not only their friends, and the brothers of their friends, 
but perhaps the future husbands of their daughters?-Eugene 
Brieux. 
* * * * ♦ 
Statistics gathered from a number of representative colleges 
in the Middle States show that only one man in twenty receives 
from his parents any adequate instruction on these subjects 
before leaving home. If such young men, representing such 
homes, go out into the world uninstructed, to grope their way 
in the darkness of ignorance, what must be the mental condition 
of the youth from less thrifty families?-Dr. Winfield Scott Hall. 
***** 
There is as much "sin" in sexual frigidity as in excessive 
venery, and that a well-instructed woman would not allow herself 
to form a false and illusive theory of wedded love disjoined from 
physical pleasure. She would think it not right, after accepting 
the obligations of matrimony, to rebel against the law of Nature 
by rejecting one of the most vital and important of these obliga- 
tions.-Rev. Hugh Northcote. 
***** 
It is more necessary to the child's moral and physical welfare 
that he should be instructed on sexual questions than to be taught 
any other of the actual school curriculum. To the people who 
taboo all sexual subjects as immoral, I will answer that a scientific 
fact or truth is never immoral, but that the hypocrisy and con- 
cealment now prevailing with regard to such matters are decidedly 
so.-Dr. Eduard Ceresole. 428 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Morally, it is assault and battery with intent to kill to infect 
a female with gonorrhea. An enlightened public sentiment some 
day may make it a statutory offense. A male has no more right 
to pass a venereal disease to a female than he has to infect her 
with hydrophobia or smallpox.-Social Hygiene vs. Sexual 
Plagues. 
♦ * * * * 
The conspiracy of silence regarding Sex has created untold 
suffering. Men and women were created for companionship, and 
it is useless trying to hide from them the deepest things of life. 
If they do not learn from the Church the things of most concern 
to their lives they will pick them up from the gutter.-Rev. Victor 
Murphy. 
***** 
The man who marries a pure woman and risks prostitutional 
exposure may be proud of one distinction should he infect his 
wife-he has committed a wrong that would be scorned by the 
beasts of the field. An animal when sick seeks to hide. Man 
alone deliberately destroys those nearest and dearest to him.- 
Indiana State Board of Health. 
***** 
The lack of information, education and training concerning 
the functions and control of the sexual instinct, and the con- 
sequences of its abuse and perversion, appeared at every point of 
our inquiry for the sources of supply of the victims of vice, 
either as the cause of the perversion of children and youth, or as 
a complication of all other causes.-Chicago Vice Commission. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
For women, as for men also, sexual love is an end in itself, 
and must not be regarded merely as a means to motherhood. A 
woman feels by turns the physiologic need for the male and for 
the child. It is not the desire for children which explains either 
the self-surrender of unmarried girls to their lovers, or the 
adultery of wives who already have a number of children.- 
Prof. Robt. Michels. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
A story is told of a French nobleman whose son was about 
to leave his home to live in a big city. Said the father to the 
son: "If you are not afraid of God, fear at least syphilis." This SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
429 
advice might be applied today, for if boys or girls knew, or 
could see the appalling results of syphilis, they would surely fear 
it, for it is humanity's most deadly foe.-Mrs. Margaret H. 
Sanger. 
* * * * * 
The venereal diseases are social assassins. They spare neither 
virtue nor innocence. Why deny the existence of an assassin by 
professing to ignore his presence? Is that wise, brave, or in any 
sense good policy ? It would seem to be very much like the policy 
of the silly ostrich which, hiding its own eyes to danger, believes 
it is secure.-Indiana State Board of Health. 
* * * * ♦ 
The student should remember that the functions of the 
testicle, like those of the mammary gland and uterus, may be 
suspended for a long period, possibly for life, and yet its structure 
may be sound and capable of being roused into activity on any 
healthy stimulation. Unlike other glands, it does not waste or 
atrophy for want of use.-Dr. Thomas Bryant. 
***** 
The sexual diseases differ from all other diseases in that they 
are acquired generally by the male by an act of volition, that is, 
by deliberately exercising the right of choice, the choosing to risk 
exposure. Correct education as to sex nature means a more 
intelligent control of the will, and the consequent gradual elimina- 
tion of the sex scourges.-Social Hygiene vs. Sexual Plagues. 
***** 
The campaign against alcohol, the practice of outdoor sports, 
and refraining from a rich and stimulating diet are no doubt 
praiseworthy tendencies of our time; but it is not by such reforms, 
nor by physical culture, nor by an introduction of lowly young 
men to "private family life," nor even by the spread of ethical 
societies that we shall succeed in imposing the desired control on 
the manifestations of the sexual impulse.-Meisel-Hess. 
***** 
Society must be relieved by sound instruction from the 
horrible doctrine that the begetting and bearing of children are 
in the slightest degree sinful or foul. That doctrine lies at the 
root of the feeling of shame in connection with such processes 
and of the desire of secrecy. There is nothing staining or defiling 
about the bringing of another normal child into the world in 430 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
marriage, therefore no need for shame or secrecy, but only for 
pride and joy. This doctrine should be part of the instruction 
given to all young people.-Dr. Charles Eliot. 
***** 
The clitoris, is a part extremely sensible and wonderfully 
prurient. It is certainly the chief though by no means the only 
point through which the immediate call to detumescence is con- 
veyed to the female organism. It is, indeed, as Byron Robinson 
remarks, a veritable electrical bell button which, being pressed 
or irritated, rings up the whole nervous system.-Dr. August 
Forel. 
* * * * * 
It is the consensus of opinion of numerous physicians, 
ministers, and lawyers that a very large proportion of matrimonial 
disharmonies have their foundation in the common misunder- 
standing of the physiology and especially of the psychology of 
sex. In the opinion of many students of sexual problems, this is 
the strongest reason for sex-instruction.-Prof. Maurice A. 
Bigelow. 
***** 
Let no counsel nor suggestion of prudery imperil the clear 
mental vision of the child. Respect for the body and the vital 
impulse of love is the sole moral safeguard for youth. Disrespect 
for sex is the great anomaly of civilization. It is the result of a 
distorted view of modesty and refinement. Prudery, profanity 
and obscenity have violated the sanctuary of love.-Walt er M. 
Gallichan. 
***** 
The difference between men and women which we know as 
"sex" is deeper and more fundamental than many of us realize. 
Each half of humanity has its own special way of expressing life, 
and each possesses, developed to the highest degree, just what the 
other lacks. It is for this reason that men and women so strongly 
attract each other, and are, indeed, so incomplete without each 
other.-Chapman. 
***** 
No woman of calm and elevated mind has ever felt any 
sense of injury or affronted honor in consequence of the sexual 
admiration of a man. Why should a tacit homage paid to the 
irresistible nature of her feminine charms be regarded as SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
431 
offensive? The accessory phenomena of desire may, indeed, 
deprive desire of its innocent aspect; but the desire per se cannot 
render such homage offensive.-Prof. Robt. Michels. 
* * * * * 
If the question of hygiene, the question of infection by 
venereal diseases, were the dominant determinant in establishing 
the morality of our sexual life, the demand for preconjugal 
chastity would be far stronger as regards the husband, than as 
regards the wife. A man's first experience of sexual intercourse 
is often with a prostitute, involving dangers, not only to his own 
health, but to the health also of the woman he may subsequently 
marry.-Meisel-Hess. 
* * * * * 
The sexual life of our times in civilized communities, with 
all its gross materialism, vice, cruelties, travesties of love, dis- 
eases, and incalculable moral and mental suffering, can only be 
raised and purified by knowledge and humanitarian sympathy. 
This is a social task for every one. Above all, we must recog- 
nize that the young can no longer be abandoned to the fatal 
darkness that is haunted with terrors to the mind and perils to 
the body.-Walter M. Gallic han. 
* * * * * 
The finest compliment that any young man can pay to his 
bride-to-be is to place in the hand of her father or best friend a 
certificate of "freedom from communicable disease," given by a 
reputable physician. It shows that the young man is "on the 
square." This should become a national custom. No young man 
who has been infected should risk marriage without the advice of 
a physician. A timely consultation of this kind may save much 
future unhappiness.-Social Hygiene vs. Sexual Plagues. 
***** 
It cannot be doubted there are a good many individuals who 
are able to withstand the temptation of sex and lead a pure life. 
It is just such persons who never fail to insist upon their mode 
of life as the only righteous one, the one which is attainable and 
which ought to be attained by all. These good people forget that, 
just as in other human traits, there exist considerable variations 
in the promptings of the sexual impulse, and that we must allow 
for such differences in sex-matters as much as in other affairs 
of life.-Dr. S. Herbert. 432 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
If a father, instead of looking up Bradstreet's when seeking 
a suitable husband for his daughter, would look up the doctor; if 
the ambitious mother would throw away the Social Register or 
the Almanac de Gotha and study to understand the conditions 
that are rife among the young men today, scandal, divorce, 
imbecile children and insane and unsexed daughters would be the 
exception rather than the rule.-Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
* * * * ♦ 
The distressing occurrence, repeated over and over again, of 
a healthy young girl marrying and being doomed to inevitable 
invalidism, has stimulated the demand for measures looking 
toward the protection of those entering matrimony. Plans are 
being tried out whereby the State may be assured of freedom 
from disease of each of the contracting parties, without subjecting 
them to disagreeable questioning or examination.-Texas State 
Board of Health. 
***** 
The question of sex education is one of the most important 
with which Society is confronted today. Ignorance in regard to 
this very difficult subject is responsible for a vast amount of 
injury and suffering-mental, moral and physical. This ignorance 
is due in a large part to the fact that, just because the subject 
is by nature a peculiarly difficult one to treat, it has been and is 
passed over in silence by the great majority of parents, teachers 
and ministers.-Rev. Samuel Tyler. 
***** 
Mothers should know that this over-stimulation of the erotic 
feeling of their sons by thoughtless girls, or dissolute women, is 
a menace to the sexual idealism of youth. Many young men are 
aroused by the apparently harmless familiarities that women 
often permit and actually encourage. In these cases the "virtu- 
ous" woman preserves her chastity at the cost of her "fallen" 
sister's disgrace. The ball room mimicry of passion incites many 
young men to seek the women who are "martyred for the sins of 
the people."-Walter M. Gallichan. 
***** 
Most modern medical authorities agree concerning the dif- 
ficulty of laying down definite rules as to the frequency of coitus. 
Some men have a congenital virility, others are born with only 
slight capacity. Some wear themselves out before middle age, SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
433 
while others preserve their vigor till 60 or later. Excess and 
disuse both favor an early waning of power. Some men exhibit 
very little nervous strain; others are readily exhausted. The 
variation is so great that Curling and other physicians assert that 
no fixed rule can be established.-Walter M. Galhchan. 
* * * * * 
Gonorrhea and syphilis constitute the most urgent, vital 
health problem confronting the country today. From time im- 
memorial these diseases have been the scourge of mankind, 
flourishing in the darkness of ignorance and striking inexorably 
the innocent and helpless as well as the guilty. Now they must be 
exposed to the cleansing lift of universal knowledge.-Dr. Rupert 
Blue, Former Surgeon General, U. S. Public Health Service. 
* * * * * » 
The problems of control and direction of the sex instinct are 
not man's alone. They must be solved by man and woman work- 
ing together. The coarser and more destructive forms of sex 
energy are transformed when men and women work together for 
the care of children, the organizing of neighborhood activities, the 
prevention of social waste in human life, the development of civic 
spirit, the informing and strengthening of patriotic purpose.- 
Illinois State Board of Health. 
***** 
How intoxicating indeed, how penetrating-like a most 
precious wine-is that love which is the sexual transformed by 
the magic of the will into the emotional and spiritual I And what 
a loss on the merest grounds of prudence and the economy of 
pleasure is its unbridled waste along physical channels! So 
nothing is so much to be dreaded between lovers as just this-the 
vulgarization of love-and this is the rock upon which marriage 
so often splits.-Edward Carpenter. 
***** 
The fact many young women take the risk, in the present 
state of sex-morality, of ruining their entire futures by indulgence 
in extra-marital sexuality, under conditions where pecuniary or 
other considerations are entirely out of the question, would tend 
to show that the sexual impulse is by no means so weak in women, 
as many would lead us to believe. It is simply incomprehensible 
that the female sexual needs should be less urgent than those of 
the male sex.-Dr. Bernard S. Talmey. 434 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
My conviction, founded on experience, is, that only a small 
number of women would be without sexual feeling if sound views 
and teaching prevailed in respect to the sexual life, if due weight 
were given to inner devotion and tender caresses as the pre- 
liminaries of love in marriage, and if couples who wish to avoid 
pregnancy would adopt sensible preventive methods instead of 
coitus interruptus.-Dr. Anton Nystrom. 
* * * * * 
AU remedies advertised for the "cure" of "sexual weakness" 
are frauds. Where they are not inert they are dangerous. Official 
drug stimulants for the sexual organs are usually unreliable. In 
small doses most of them are valueless and in large doses they are 
not only unsafe, but make a bad matter worse. To attempt to 
stimulate weakened organs where rest or proper local treatment 
is needed, or where bad habits require correction, is sheer foolish- 
ness.-Dr. G. Frank Lydston. 
***** 
Accusations should not be made regarding anyone who 
appears to be suffering from the effects of venereal diseases. The 
man with pimples all over his face probably has some common 
skin disease, not syphilis. Many women have operations from 
causes other than gonorrhea. 
The actual victims of venereal diseases should not be thought 
of as outcasts or criminals. They may be entirely innocent. 
Venereal diseases are diseases, not crimes.-U. S. Public Health 
Service. 
***** 
Stress has been laid upon the harm which can be done by the 
publication of works dealing with sexual problems. Undoubtedly 
the pornographic interest of the laity, and also of men of science, 
does play a part here! But the benefits which the unreserved 
scientific elucidation of the sexual problem is able to diffuse 
throughout the widest circles of the population are so extensive 
that this consideration of any possible harm that may ensue 
becomes infinitesimal in comparison.-Dr. A. Von Schrenck- 
N otzing. 
♦ * * ♦ ♦ 
In most cases the sexual coldness of women is in fact only 
apparent, either due to the concealment of glowing sexuality 
beneath the veil of outward reticence prescribed by conventional SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
435 
morality, or else to the husband who has not succeeded in arousing 
erotic sensations which are complicated and with difficulty 
awakened. . . . The sexual sensibility of women is certainly 
different from that of men, but in strength it is at least as great. 
-Dr. Iwan Bloch. 
♦ * * ♦ ♦ 
A young woman should not forget that her lover virtually 
proposes himself as the future father of her children; only from 
this standpoint can she make an intelligent and safe estimate of 
him. It is a foolhardy thing for a woman to marry a man to 
save him, and no self-respecting man should ask it. He thereby 
asks her to risk her life happiness on a single throw, and the dice 
are loaded.-Dr. H. S. Pomeroy. 
***** 
Prostitution, venereal disease, marital unhappiness, divorce, 
neurosis and general ill-health, ill-defined dissatisfaction with life, 
and hopeless misery, one and all, and many similar evils spring 
more from ignorance of sexual physiology and psychology, from 
fear of transgressing indefinite ethical or religious standards, 
from shame at having supposedly low and unmanly or unwomanly 
thoughts and desires, than from any other source.-Dr. W. F. 
Robie. 
***** 
With all the force that any knowledge I possess can give, 
and with all authority I may have, I assert, as the result of long 
observation and consideration of facts of every kind, that no man 
ever yet was in the slightest degree or way the better for incon- 
tinence; and I am sure, further, that no man was ever yet any- 
thing but better for perfect continence. My warning is: Let us 
beware lest we give even a silent sanction to that against which 
I am sure we should resolutely set our face and raise our voice. 
-Dr. IV. R. Gowers. 
***** 
Young men should also understand from a biologic stand- 
point that from the ages of 12 to 21 the body of a boy is being 
made over into that of a man. Nature has no large amount of 
vital energy that may be wasted safely in excesses of any kind 
during the adolescent period, for all the forces of the body are 
needed for rebuilding. Sexual excesses during that period are 436 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
certain to be punished with a dwarfing or stunting effect on 
mental and physical development. Self-control is the thing!- 
Indiana State Board of Health. 
♦ ♦ * ♦ * 
The Enemies of Birth Control. Foxes think large families 
among the rabbits highly commendable. Employers who want 
large supplies of cheap labor, priests who want large numbers 
of parishioners, military leaders who want plenty of cheap food 
for gunpowder, and politicians who want plenty of voters, all 
agree in commending large families and rapid multiplication 
among the poorer classes.-Professor Thomas Nixon Carver, 
Harvard University, President of the American Economic 
Association. 
♦ ♦ * ♦ ♦ 
It certainly is more degrading to character deliberately to 
destroy unborn life than to attempt to "regulate" when there is 
a possibility that the life may not be originated by conception; 
but if married women had a proper and womanly regard for 
maternity, and a proper self-respect, they would not need to be 
told that nothing should induce them to allow the slightest inter- 
ference, directly or indirectly, with their irregularities except 
under the advice of an able and conscientious physician.-Dr. 
H. S. Pomeroy. 
♦ * * ♦ ♦ 
The silly idea that the innocence of ignorance is a safeguard 
to virtue, should be forever banished. Prudery and false modesty 
should have no place in the training of the child. Veiled mean- 
ings should never be used in speech, but the speech should be 
plain and simple. Pruriency, which is an unholy curiosity, a 
curiosity born of concupiscence, should never be fostered, but 
it should be punctured and rooted out by plain speech and careful 
explanations made in chaste and guarded language.-Evangelist 
M. B. Williams. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
Love is not blind, neither does it blind people who have 
fallen victims to it. It is the general ignorance concerning the 
passion which is responsible for most of the irretrievable mistakes 
which lovers commit. If people would only prepare themselves 
beforehand by trying to acquire some knowledge of the problem SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
437 
of sexual functions and relations, if they would only make some 
effort to study the subtleties of sexual attraction, of preferential 
mating, of the physical and psychical insistence of the sexual 
impulse to "find a mate," there would be a far smaller percentage 
of unhappy marriages to record than there are at present.-Dr. 
A. A. Philip. 
* * * * ♦ 
Venereal prophylactics may increase promiscuity of some 
unmoral and immoral men, but if universally and scientifically 
used by such men, there would be little or no infection of innocent 
women and children. Therefore, I assert that the good which 
would come from the use of prophylactics by those who do not 
recognize moral control would be far more significant than the 
fact that venereal prophylactics might encourage immorality. 
Those who would use prophylactics would be no worse morally 
than they were before, but Society would gain hygienically.- 
Prof. Maurice A. Bigelow. 
***** 
The statesman and patriot has much to make him anxious 
for the future welfare of communities. The persons who have 
the material and intellectual resources for the best service in rear- 
ing children and fitting them for society and citizenship are more 
and more neglecting the duty. Those who have the benefit of a 
good mental and moral inheritance are not bequeathing it. Others 
are multiplying. The majority soon will take possession with its 
evil heritage. Heredity will work against the spiritual forces 
which are striving to elevate and bless the individual, the nation, 
and the race.-Rev. Joseph T. Duryea. 
***** 
If you wish to know what has become of our oldtime respect 
for love, ask the police to tell you how many pleasure establish- 
ments have been opened in the big cities of the world during the 
last five years-and increase this number considerably by the 
number of such clandestine places! If you care to know how 
fares the respect for love, ask a lawyer to give you comparative 
divorce statistics since 1916, and ask a doctor to let you have the 
figures recording the appalling growth of venereal diseases! 
You will have food for reflection.-Eugene Brieux. 438 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
How ignorant many of our young women of good families 
are in respect to that which is of paramount importance to their 
purity and safety is little imagined! Many an innocent girl has 
been led on to ruin by being first made to believe that the repro- 
ductive act could not possibly be fruitful of result except at 
certain very limited periods, or that it must be repeated many 
times before there would be the conditions which would make 
conception possible, the argument being that as there was no 
danger, there could be no sin.-Dr. H. S. Pomeroy. 
* * * ♦ ♦ 
It is difficult for me to refrain from using unparliamentary 
language when I think of it, when I think that the very cultured, 
well-to-do and professional classes, the statesmen and so-called 
statesmen, lawyers, clergymen, physicians, businessmen, etc., who 
in their own cases make very positive, very regular use of the 
knowledge of the means of preventing conception, limiting the 
number of their children to two or three, set up a howl at the 
very first intimation which anybody makes that the people at large 
should be given the knowledge.-Dr. Wm. J. Robinson. 
***** 
Age Married to Youth.-In the case of the old man who 
believes himself potent and seeks a young woman to wife, a 
social crime is committed. These old men are generally widowers 
who after marriage to a young woman discover that they are 
dead husbands. Intense jealousy follows this state, and sad is 
the lot of the young wife! It is not strange that we read in 
the daily press of the desire of these deceived women to be free. 
Yet, in spite of all warnings from those who have suffered this 
slavery, these marriages go on.-Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
* * * * * 
As a practical corollary, believing that Science is for the 
control as well as the illumination of life, believing that fore- 
warned is forearmed, we give definite instruction to young people 
in regard to health and disease, foods and poisons, exercise and 
rest, and so on. As the results are well known to be useful, the 
question arises: Why should we not apply the same method in 
regard to sex-hygiene? We instruct youth in regard to the 
digestive system and the skin, the nervous system and the muscles, 
but the reproductive system is tabooed. Why this conspiracy of 
silence?-Geddes and Thompson. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
439 
As it is, the civilized girl is led to the "altar" often in utter- 
most ignorance and misunderstanding as to the nature of the 
sacrificial rites about to be consummated. The youth too is 
ignorant in his way. Perhaps he is unaware that love in the 
female is, in a sense, that it dwells longer in caresses and em- 
braces, and determines itself more slowly towards the reproduc- 
tive system. Impatient, he injures and horrifies his partner, and 
unconsciously perhaps aggravates the very hysterical tendency 
which marriage might and should have allayed. - Edward 
Carpenter. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * 
We must continually keep before our minds the fact that in 
no other department of life so much as in the sexual life do we 
find side by side, and closely associated each with the other, the 
noblest and the basest, the superhuman and the subhuman, be- 
cause the finest and the deepest roots of our spiritual and bodily 
existence spring, for the most part, from this subsoil; and we 
must remember that man would not be able to sink so deep, far 
beneath the level of animality, if he had not first raised himself 
by his own powers, in conflict with himself, through an immeasur- 
able height of civilization.-Dr. Albert Eulenburg. 
***** 
The production of offspring is an act that concerns the 
community in a very vital sense. When two semi-insane per- 
sons reproduce themselves in a large family of defectives, imbe- 
ciles, wastrels, drunkards, and criminals, the community is endan- 
gered and burdened. Hospitals, asylums, prisons, reformatories, 
and, to a large extent, workhouses afford plentiful and lament- 
able instances of utterly unpremeditated procreation. The social- 
ization of the sexual instinct is the means wherewith responsible 
men and women in the future will refrain on the highest moral 
grounds from perpetuating disease and deadly physical maladies. 
-Walter M. Gallichan. 
***** 
If girls were educated from puberty, or late adolescence, in 
the psychology of man and woman, and taught to recognize the 
specific differentiations of the sexes, the powers, aptitudes, limi- 
tations, emotions, and aspirations, all that goes to the direction 
of conduct-they would err less often in the choice of husbands. 
The same rule applies to the mental training of young men. As 440 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
it is, we "leave it to Nature," and force a couple of strangers to 
lifelong cohabitation. The results are palpable in all classes of 
society. Unhappy marriage is said to be the rule rather than 
the exception. Every divorce case provides evidence that there 
is something fundamentally amiss with conventional matrimony. 
-Walter M. Gallichan. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
Every true marriage ought to be a succession of courtships. 
Love is not walking round a rose-garden in the sunshine; it's 
living together, growing together. And the honeymoon is as 
trifling as the hors d'oeuvre in comparison with wedded love, and 
as unable to satisfy the deep needs of women and men. Falling 
in love, wooing, and honeymooning are a short and easy episode, 
but marriage is long and always difficult. And the finding and 
maintaining happiness is a definite achievement and not an 
accident, for it is beyond accident. It is the result of a steadfast 
ideal and a diligent cultivation.-Mrs. C. Gasquoine Hartley. 
* * ♦ ♦ ♦ 
In the milder cases of erotic dreams and nocturnal losses 
the condition is absolutely physiologic. Such losses constitute 
Nature's method of disposing of excessive secretion. In subjects 
who have lived a regular sexual life in the matrimonial state 
sexual deprivation produces the same result. 
The specious advertisements of the quacks concerning 
nocturnal losses are cunningly devised to impress the layman 
with the belief that all cases are alarming and lead to "lost man- 
hood." The credulity and ignorance of the public in such matters 
have fattened generation after generation of those human wolves 
and vampires, the advertising quacks.-Dr. G. Frank Lydston. 
***** 
Warnings to the young will do little besides creating a genera- 
tion of neurasthenics worrying themselves to death. It is easy 
to give warnings, but it will not be so easy to tell children that 
their sexual impulses are nothing to be ashamed of and should 
not be repressed. Are we to explain to our girls how they can 
ascertain whether a man has a purulent discharge? This mere 
suggestion makes us indignant. Our girls are decent girls. In SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
441 
decency they must go through pregnancy and be milch cows, in 
decency they must bear their inflammations of the vagina, in 
decency they must rot alive. A day will come when we will 
consider it more important to the young than to teach the history 
of literature.-Dr. Fritz Wittels. 
♦ ♦ * ♦ ♦ 
Every intelligent physician knows that conjugal life is the 
salvation of many women. Every specialist in the nervous and 
psychic disorders of women is aware that a healthy vita sexualis 
is the remedy for many troubles of the brain. There may be 
total unconsciousness of the root of the physical or mental dis- 
equilibrium. Many women have conflicts and longings which 
they attribute to any other source than enforced single life, dis- 
harmonious marriage, or unfulfilled maternal processes. The 
anabolic energy of woman may be said to desire avidly the cata- 
bolic force of man as the completion of being. No argument, no 
evasion, can destroy this fact of human life. "Nothing in this 
world is single."-Walter M. Gallichan. 
♦ * * * * 
We have one kind of masturbation, the most dangerous and 
most weakening kind, in which no material object and no friction 
of any kind is used. I refer to psychic, mental, abstract, or 
ideational masturbation, in which the person, man or woman, 
induces an orgasm by concentrating the imagination on lascivious 
pictures and performances, on the naked bodies of the opposite 
sex, on scenes of intercouse, etc. This, as stated, is the most 
dangerous and most injurious variety of masturbation because in 
order to induce an orgasm and ejaculation without any mechanical 
aid the sexual centers must be excited to their utmost and this 
causes their rapid and sometimes irreparable exhaustion.-Dr. 
William J. Robinson. 
***** 
Every girl should be so thoroughly posted upon the mystery 
of sex, and what sex relations mean, as to realize that a single 
slip, a single indiscretion at this period may cost her that which 
is more precious than her own life. It is ignorance rather than 
inclination that ruins most girls who go astray. They instinctively 
want to do right. They love cleanliness and purity much more 
than men do, but the vicious take advantage of their ignorance 442 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
and play upon their finer sensibilities, their greater sympathy and 
their longings for love and admiration. How many young girls 
are ruined just because of their innocence and ignorance which 
really constitute their greatest attraction for the libertine!-Rev. 
Orison Swett Marsden. 
* * * * ♦ 
There are probably a million women in this land living lives 
of legalized prostitution; who conceive children in hate of 
husbands they abhor, bring them forth in bitterness of spirit to 
be reared in an atmosphere of discord-offspring stamped from 
their very inception with the die of the criminal or the courtesan. 
Yet the purists and pietists "view with alarm" the vast increase 
in the number of divorces; are weeping and wailing because 
women will not suffer in silence a bondage that is bestial-a 
prostitution pre-eminently the worst in the world, that of love- 
less marriage.-Brann-The Iconoclast. 
***** 
So small a matter is abortion considered by many women 
that they look upon professional talent as quite unnecessary, 
and an abortionist as causing needless trouble and expense, and 
so they manage the affair themselves, using for the purpose 
various household instruments which it makes one shudder to 
think of, or endeavoring to accomplish the end by means of 
drugs. We meet in our practice women who would hesitate to 
harm a fly, but who admit to having destroyed a half dozen or 
more of their unborn children, speaking of it as they would of 
the drowning of superfluous kittens!-Dr. H. S. Pomeroy. 
***** 
Civilization, with its plainly manifested tendency to resist 
sex, to attempt to ignore it, conceal it, minimize it, and symbolize 
it, has intervened between the minds of men and women and 
their primary desires and emotions, and set up curious recoils, 
fears, sense of shame, and feelings of disgust. If the awe, the 
mystery, the reticence, and repugnance surrounding sex had 
been centered around alimentation, the repairing of the waste 
of the body, we should exhibit a shameful, timorous, resistant 
attitude to eating. Any function or any object can be made 
repellent or disgusting by association or suggestion.-Walter 
M. Gallichan. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
443 
I see shop girls and waitresses, factory girls and maids, 
chorus girls, stenographers, and governesses, each with a differ- 
ent story, each with the same terror of the consequences of their 
folly. "I never knew," they tell me, "I never knew there were 
such temptations." . . . Let us go back to the question of 
sex-education of the public. Silence has been the policy in the 
past. We have taught our children biology and natural history, 
we have taught them physiology, carefully ignoring the organs of 
reproduction; we have warned the young to make use of their 
senses and their brains, but we have refused to recognize the 
very force that guides all these instincts, the vital power of sex. 
-Prof. Maurice A. Bigelow. 
* * * * * 
Why the clergy have not long ago refused to marry such 
persons as idiots, imbeciles, epileptics, feebleminded, feeble- 
bodied, "recovered" insane, it is difficult to tell. But their very 
gross inaction is doing them immense harm in the public 
thought. It will not improve the physique of our nation, even 
though the papers state that the choir sang with great feeling, 
"The voice that breathed o'er Eden," that the decorations were 
carried out by Messrs So-and-So, while "the presents were on 
a most lavish scale." All this does not mean healthy children, 
happy homes or useful citizens. The house jerry-builder is but 
a harmless person when compared with the jerry-builders of 
children.-Dr. R. R. Rentoul. 
***** 
I know there is a violent reaction against the great number of 
divorces. To my mind, divorce should be very hard to get, in 
general, and almost unobtainable for those who have children. 
By these alliances which are the parody of love, these breaks, 
these raptures which are the negation of it, man shows that he 
has less and less respect for woman. But the respect for woman 
is the test, in a certain measure, of a people's morality. 
But has woman, on her side, nothing to blame herself for? 
If she is less respected, isn't it because she no longer respects 
herself? At the beaches, at the watering places, at balls, a cer- 
tain mental effort is required to realize that most of the half- 
naked women one sees are, in private life, perfectly respectable 
women. Yet this is so.-Eugene Brieux. 444 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
GONORRHEA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR EIGHTY PER CENT OF BLINDNESS IN CHILDREN SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
445 
So many men and women, writes a correspondent, a literary 
man, gain sexual ideas in childhood from reading the Old Testa- 
ment, that the Bible may be called an erotic text-book. Most 
persons of either sex with whom I have conversed on the subject, 
say that the Books of Moses, and the stories of Amnon and 
Tamar, Lot and his daughters, Potiphar's wife and Joseph, etc., 
caused speculation and curiosity, and gave them information of 
the sexual relationship. A boy and girl of fifteen, both friends 
of the writer, and now over thirty years of age, used to find 
erotic passages in the Bible on Sunday mornings, while in a 
Dissenting chapel, and pass their Bibles to one another, with 
their fingers on the portions that interested them.-Havelock Ellis. 
* * * ♦ ♦ 
Prolonged abstinence makes men sad, unbridled and wild, 
as one often observes in sailors. The retention of semen may 
be injurious to those, who by nature are passionate and full of 
semen. Among the inconveniences one may mention pollutions, 
spermatorrhea, swelling and inflammation of the seminal ducts, 
thickening and finally destruction of the accumulated semen, 
priapism, spasm, melancholy, and at least the violent passion 
itself. The nerves and veins of a plethoric young man may 
possess a natural disposition to motions and evacuation of seminal 
fluid, which takes place during sexual pleasures. He feels 
particularly well when his nerves are put to this activity. On the 
other hand, complete abstinence and suppression of this appetite 
appear unbearable to him.-Dr. Wm. E. Whitney. 
***** 
Considering how large a part the sex-passion plays in the 
lives of most men and women; considering how it permeates the 
literature and art of the World and is-as the basis of the home 
-the most potent factor in social life, its profanation is a terrible 
loss, and the habit of mind which such profanation engenders 
cannot fail to weaken the whole spirit of reverence. I must 
confess that the man who jests over sex relations is to me incom- 
parably lower than the man who sustains clean but wholly 
illegitimate sex relations; and while I am conscious of a strong 
movement of friendship towards a lad who has admitted impurity 
in his life but retains reverence for purity, it is hard to feel 
anything but repulsion towards one who profanes the subject 
of sex with coarse and ribald talk.-Prof. E. Arthur Sibly. 446 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
It is not the frequent gratification of the sexual desire which 
constitutes the cause of the remarkable comparative longevity of 
married men. Rather must it be taken for granted that their 
more orderly and regulated mode of life, their average less abuse 
of alcohol, and the relative infrequency of venereal infection, and 
of its consequences, are the factors which play the principal part. 
Besides which, it must not be forgotten that the quality of 
married men is, on the whole, somewhat better than that of 
single men; for marriage involves, even in our present day, a 
certain, though by no means adequate, selection of the fittest, 
inasmuch as highly degenerated individuals, such as idiots, 
lunatics, cripples, etc., are, as a rule, excluded from it.-Dr. A. A. 
Philip. * * * * * 
Most girls, at the time of marriage, are self-conscious. The 
traditional teachings in regard to sex make them ashamed. Their 
ignorance of the subject makes them afraid and uncertain. Their 
previous sexual thoughts and feelings and their early habits or 
childhood experiences make them reticent and reserved; for they 
have been taught that all childhood sex habits or experiences 
and all sex thoughts or feelings are indelible stains that nothing 
can efface. They approach with fear and trembling the uncer- 
tainties of the wedding night; and instead of looking forward 
with joy to the events of the honeymoon they look forward to 
what should be the happiest period of their lives with dread, and 
ofttimes look back upon it with disgust and loathing.-Dr. W. F. 
Robie. * * * * * 
Continence in Man.-Abstinence or sexual continence is by 
no means impracticable for a normal young man of average 
constitution, assiduous in intellectual and physical work, abstain- 
ing from all artificial excitations, especially from all narcotics 
and alcohol in particular, for these substances paralyze the judg- 
ment and will. When sexual maturity is complete, that is after 
about twenty years, continence is usually facilitated by nocturnal 
emissions accompanied by corresponding dreams. The health 
does not suffer from these in any way. However, in the long run 
this state cannot be considered as normal, especially when there 
is no hope of it coming to an end in a reasonable time. What is 
much more abnormal are the numerous artificial sexual excita- 
tions that civilization brings with it.-Dr. August Forel. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
447 
Most boys and girls are naturally clean and wholesome. 
Boys are ambitious to be vigorous and manly, girls to be sweet 
and womanly. If they are dealt with honestly and intelligently, 
if the wonderful facts of reproduction are explained to them in 
a simple manner, if the relation of sex in the development of 
manhood and womanhood is made clear, they will see in birth 
an ever-recurring miracle, they will regard their bodies as sacred 
temples, they will see in sex a source of richer and fuller life, 
they will respect motherhood and fatherhood, they will regard 
marriage as one of the most sacred relationships in life.-Illinois 
State Board of Health. 
* * * * * 
Intercourse During Menstruation.-Because many women 
are much more passionate during their menses than at any other 
period, husbands not infrequently consult physicians as to the 
propriety, injuriousness or harmlessness of intercourse during 
menstruation. 
Putting aside the esthetic part of the question, sex relations 
should not take place during menstruation. It is apt to lead in 
some cases to congestion of the womb and ovaries and may give 
rise to catarrh of the urethra in the man. But the ancient idea 
of the great injuriousness and the dire results of relations dur- 
ing menstruation rest on no scientific basis, and there are many 
couples who perform the act during that time without any injury 
to husband or wife.-Dr. William J. Robinson. 
Marital difficulties are usually due to sexual ignorance or 
misunderstanding. These can often be corrected by the parties 
themselves, after they have established sufficiently confidential 
relations. If they themselves are not successful, an experienced 
physician generally will have little difficulty in effecting a com- 
plete reconciliation. Marital relations among conscientious people 
are more likely to be too-infrequent than too-frequent. So-called 
female frigidity is almost invariable a misnomer. The apparent 
frigidity is due to shame, fear, or ignorance, of all of these com- 
bined, in wife or husband, or in both parties. Some investigators 
in sex fields agreeing substantially with these conclusions are 
Emminghaus, Griesinger, Ellis, Herbert, Forel, Sir James Paget, 
Woodruff, Brill, Theirnich and Nacke; and numerous other 
investigators are approaching this position.-Dr. W. F. Robie. 448 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Nearly every body is taught by vicious elders that gonorrhea 
is "no worse than a bad cold." He also is taught that it is as 
natural that youth should go through it as that babies should 
go through teething. This lie, passed from our fathers and our 
fathers' fathers, has been responsible for untold misery and death. 
It has caused an economic loss to society of billions upon billions 
of dollars. It has been more disastrous and expensive than all 
the wars the civilized world has ever seen. Gonorrhea has 
wrecked thousand of homes, sterilized thousands of women or 
sent them to the operating table-perhaps to death-sterilized 
legions of men, made them useless to themselves and to society 
or even destroyed their lives; it has blinded thousands of innocent 
babes. Is then, gonorrhea "no worse than a bad cold?"-Dr. G. 
Frank Lydston. 
* * * * * 
Quacks of all kinds are a menace to the public, but the 
venereal and "lost manhood" quacks are a double menace. Not 
only do they fail to cure the patient, but they often make him 
worse. And in many cases they deliberately induce a disease 
which the patient did not have before. Not only do they ruin 
his health, they weaken and pervert his mind, making him the 
subject of groundless fears of which he may not be able to rid 
himself for years and years to come. And then they often act 
the part of blackmailers, robbing the patient of his very last 
dollar, knowing that the patient with a venereal or sexual disease 
is, above all, anxious to avoid publicity. 
They are utterly heartless in their demands of money, often 
going so far as to threaten the patient with exposure.-Dr. 
William J. Robinson. 
' ***♦,* 
Who Are the Unfit?-People afflicted with serious malforma- 
tions, degenerates such as idiots, imbeciles, lunatics, epileptics, 
drunkards, habitual criminals, and chronic sufferers, such as 
tuberculous persons and syphilitics, should absolutely be excluded 
from procreation. Equally unsuitable as procreators are individ- 
uals whose physical development is not complete, or whose sexual 
character is imperfectly marked. It is particularly necessary to 
dissuade from marriage women with poorly-developed breasts 
and hips, women who menstruate irregularly, and women with SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
449 
ill-developed and imperfect pelves, as a consequence of rickets. 
In fact, only such persons should beget children as are perfectly 
healthy, strong and well-nourished. Individuals who are either 
too young or too old are unsuitable for procreative purposes.- 
Prof. M. Gruber. 
♦ * * * * 
I cannot remember a single case of a healthy individual in 
whom I could discover no other cause but continence for condi- 
tions of ill-health. People do occasionally complain of discom- 
fort, of a feeling of pressure or tension, but these inconveniences 
are easily overcome, and without any "artificial correction." It 
is true that some eminent experts are of a different opinion, and 
that this opinion is based upon genuine cases of disease due to 
continence; but I am inclined to regard these cases as exceptions 
confirming the rule. I cannot allow a comparison between the 
sexual desire and such natural instincts as hunger and thirst, 
because food and drink are in all circumstances vital necessities. 
One might as well advocate drunkenness because it is due to a 
craving for alcohol! I may say here for the same reason I never 
dare to recommend to unmarried young men the gratification of 
the sexual desire as a curative measure.-Dr. A. A. Philip. 
* * * * * 
For centuries there has been one law for the man and another 
for the woman. Men have insisted upon it; women have 
acquiesced in it. 
There has become embedded in our social fabric the idea 
that men may do with impunity what women dare not do with- 
out calumny; that young men ought to see life and sow certain 
"wild oats" in order to be "men" and really live, whereas young 
women who are to be their future wives must not step from a 
straight and narrow pathway, or they forfeit all right to be 
chosen as prospective mothers and mistresses of wealthy and 
refined homes. 
And women draw their skirts aside from the girl who has 
made a false step, while welcoming to their circle the man who 
has consorted with harlots or betrayed innocent and trusting 
girlhood. 
This is the Double Standard, as illogical as it is cruel, and 
as selfish as it is destructive.-Dr. Oswald C. J. Withrow. 450 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Early in the course of syphilis, while it is contagious, there 
is great danger of infecting other people by the mouth. Because 
of this danger, do not kiss anybody. Especially do not endanger 
children by kissing them. Do not allow anything which has 
come in contact with your lips or has been in your mouth to be 
left lying around so that anyone can use it before it has been 
cleaned. This applies to cups, glasses, knives, forks, spoons, pipes, 
cigars, toothpicks and all such things. It is better to use your 
own towels, brushes, comb, razor, soap, etc., though these are 
much less likely to be contaminated than objects which go in 
your mouth.-Utah State Board of Health. 
***** 
With the boy when circumcision has been performed, the 
foreskin is not left loose and pendulous, to be easily rubbed over 
the glans in sexual excitement, but four-fifths of the temptation 
has been removed by the operation. The probability is he will 
never discover any other method of masturbation, unless he 
should be taught some of the evolutions of the pervert in seek- 
ing to satisfy his sensual fantasies, while more likely he will 
escape and with a little wise instruction, scarcely being tempted, 
will arrive at the years of discretion and of maturity, clean and 
pure, free from the contamination of vicious companions who 
teach these things, or at least free from the evil results which 
follow in the train of this injurious and destructive habit.- 
Evangelist M. B. Williams. 
♦ * ♦ ♦ ♦ 
Some books for girls perpetuate the ancient but absurd 
emphasis on the virginal significance of the hymen; and a recent 
book from a prominent publisher goes so far as to try to frighten 
girls into remaining chaste by stating that a physician could 
discover if they have been unchaste. This is far from being 
always true, for the structure may be congenitally absent, may 
sometimes remain after sexual union, or may be accidentally des- 
troyed in childhood; and reliable physicians have stated that 
proving unchastity by the hymen is by no means easy. Hence, 
the less said about the ancient belief, the better for young women. 
The truth is that the hymen is a worse than useless relic of 
embryological development, and it is neither an indicator nor a 
dictator of morality.-Prof. Maurice A. Bigelow. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
451 
Unsocial Sexual Relations Cannot Be Made Safe.-On the 
whole it is a conservative judgment that no device exists by 
which unsocial sexual relations can be made safe from the stand- 
point of genital infection. It is difficult to believe that the attain- 
ment even of maximum efficiency in their public health control 
will totally do away with syphilis and gonorrhea. They will 
remain the heritage of lust. It is axiomatic that the quintessence 
of caution, the most highly specialized instinct of the "knowing 
one" for the "safe chance" sooner or later goes astray. Where 
infection has been most carefully ruled out, or is least suspected, 
there it occurs.-Dr. John H. Stokes. 
* * * * ♦ 
There are some well-meaning people who still cling to the 
old-fashioned moralist view that venereal affliction is the just 
punishment of those who violate the Seventh Commandment, 
and therefore nothing should be said or done. The weakness 
of this view is that the evil worked is not confined to the trans- 
gressor. The infection is often brought home and transmitted 
to innocent wife and child. It will hardly be contended that the 
Supreme Intelligence ever intended a human being should con- 
tract a loathsome disease and then infect the innocent. The 
so-called moralist view will not stand the light of twentieth cen- 
tury analysis. The truth made manifest shall make men free.- 
''Social Hygiene vs. Sexual Plagues." 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
Many hospitals and dispensaries arbitrarily close their doors 
to patients suffering with venereal diseases. This is a remnant 
of barbarism. Social justice demands that this class of patients 
be offered adequate treatment. Three distinct advantages are 
apparent in this work: First, relief to the immediate sufferer; 
second, protection of the public by rendering carriers of the dis- 
ease less liable to transmit it to others; third, by properly educat- 
ing such patients, knowledge concerning these diseases is dis- 
seminated by those who have paid the price of bitter experience 
for their first-hand information. Contact between doctor and 
patient should be humane and sympathetic; hospital facilities 
should be available for cases needing such attention, and pro- 
vision for modern treatment, with due regard for privacy, should 
be made.-Colorado State Board of Health. 452 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
With very few exceptions, masturbation is not a nervous 
disease. It is not a disease of the imagination. It is a real disease, 
and no amount of talking, whipping, or laughing will cure it. 
Those who say that the patient should be talked to, and his will- 
power and self-restraint cultivated, his general health improved by 
tonics, outdoor sports, etc., have very little experience with this 
disease. When masturbation has been firmly established you can 
no more talk your patient out of masturbating than you can talk 
a child suffering from the itch out of scratching. The latter is 
caused by an irritation in the skin and the former by an irritation 
in the posterior urethra.-Dr. Max Huhner. 
♦ ♦ ♦ * ♦ 
One argument in favor of incontinence deserves special 
notice, as it purports to be founded on physiology. I have been 
consulted by persons who feared, or professed to fear, that if the 
organs were not regularly exercised they would become wasted, 
or that in some way impotence might be the result of chastity. 
This is the assigned reason for committing fornication. There 
exists no greater error than this or one more opposed to physio- 
logical truth. In the first place, I may state that I have, after 
many years' experience, never seen a single instance of wasting 
of the generative organs from this cause. . . . No continent 
man need be deterred by this apocryphal fear of atrophy of the 
testes from living a chaste life.'-Dr. William Acton. 
♦ ♦ ♦ * ♦ 
Prostitution has two great roots which sink deep into the 
foundations of modern civilization. The first is our degrading 
social and industrial system. This cruel institution by denying 
to tens of thousands of young women an honest living, forces 
them to choose between a wretched poverty and trading with the 
only capital they have-their youth, beauty, innocence-in short, 
to give up what is naturally the most sacred thing in life to a 
woman: the hope of true love and happy marriage, home and 
children. The other root of prostitution is the cowardly, stupid, 
cynical attitude taken by society toward all sexual matters, result- 
ing in the inexcusable custom of teaching children nothing what- 
ever about reproduction except that it is a low, unmentionable 
subject, and that adultery is forbidden by the ten commandments. 
-Dr. William L. Holi. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
453 
The Sex Necessity Lie is founded on the doctrine that 
cohabitation is essential to health. This lie is a prostitute in 
itself in that it beckons to the young man and professedly gives 
him sanction of Nature to cohabit with the prostitute. That this 
is a malignant lie, one that Nature bitterly opposes, is demon- 
strated by the fact that she punishes those who believe it with 
disease. It is popular acceptance of this lie that seems to extend 
a sort of apologetic social pardon to a young man who grievously 
sells his physical birthright for a mess of venereal pottage; it is 
this lie that keeps alive the "wild oats" delusion with its wreckage 
of human hope and happiness; it is this lie that defends down- 
right wickedness.-"Social Hygiene vs. Sexual Plagues." 
* * * * * 
Most medical men of an age to beget confidence in such affairs 
will be able to recall instances in which an ignorance, which would 
have been ludicrous if it had not been so sad, has been displayed 
on matters regarding which every woman entering on married life 
ought to have been accurately informed. There can, we think, 
be little doubt that much unhappiness and a great deal of illness 
would be prevented if young people of both sexes possessed a 
little accurate knowledge regarding the sexual relations, and were 
well impressed with the profound importance of selecting healthy 
mates. Knowledge need not necessarily be nasty, but even if it 
were, it certainly is not comparable in that respect with the 
imaginings of ignorance.-British Medical Journal. 
***** 
The germ of syphilis though thrice blessed by the priest, is 
no respecter of persons. Not all their prayers can destroy a 
single germ left upon the rim of the communion cup by the saliva 
of a syphilitic. The mucous patch of the mouth is the most in- 
fectious and dangerous of all syphilitic lesions. Syphilis does not 
hesitate at the door of the Church-it walks in, seeking a feast of 
the innocent. The guilty syphilitics are safe, but the innocent 
suffer. This is the twentieth century. There is no room for the 
ecclesiastical asininity of the middle ages, when disease was 
regarded as a visitation of God and the man who fought it was 
burned as an infidel. As a matter of safety and good taste, inno- 
cent worshippers should not be asked to risk mixing their saliva 
with the germ-laden secretions of syphilitic mouths.-Dr. G. 
Frank Lydston. 454 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
A well woman is hard to find among married women; only 
here and there do we find one blessed with perfect health. 
One of America's leading physicians has recently said that 
the majority of all these invalids are ill because of some sexual 
trouble, most of them because of ignorance. Many of these are 
ill because of the abuse of their own organs, many because of the 
abuse which men have heaped upon them, making them the 
sharers of uncured gonorrheas and similar disorders. Some of 
them know the source of their difficulty and understand to a 
degree their complaint and its etiology. The great mass, how- 
ever, have no knowledge whatever concerning themselves, or the 
cause of their illness. They only know that they are ill.- 
Evangelist M. B. Williams. 
* * * * * 
It is difficult nowadays to find any serious arguments against 
the desirability of early sexual enlightenment, and it is almost with 
amusement that we read how the novelist Alphonse Daudet, when 
asked his opinion of such enlightenment, protested-in a spirit 
certainly common among the men of his time-that it was unneces- 
sary, because boys could learn everything from the streets and 
the newspapers, while "as to young girls-No! I would teach 
them none of the truths of physiology. I can only see disad- 
vantages in such a proceeding. These truths are ugly, disillusion- 
ing, sure to shock, to frighten, to disgust the mind, the nature, 
of a girl." It is as much as to say that there is no need to supply 
sources of pure water when there are puddles in the street that 
anyone can drink of.-Dr. Iwan Bloch. 
***** 
Marriage is not a religion to us: it is a sport.-I say this 
quite deliberately. I am sure we know better how to engage a 
servant, how to buy a house, how to set up in business-how, 
indeed, to do every unimportant thing in life better than we know 
how to choose a partner in marriage. We require a character 
with our cook or our butler, we engage an expert to test the 
drains of our house, we study and work, and pass examinations 
to prepare ourselves for business, but in marriage we take no 
such sensible precautions, we even pride ourselves that we do not 
take them. 
We speak of falling in love and we do fall. There really is SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
455 
something ludicrous in our attitude. We are everlasting children 
in an everlasting nursery; we so fiercely refuse seriousness towards 
the fundamental emotions. The conventions are sacred: nothing 
else matters. We stand for purity, which means with women 
ignorance, and with men silence and discretion.-Mrs. C. 
Gasquoine Hartley. 
♦ * * * ♦ 
Notwithstanding very strong assertions to the contrary, and 
by authorities who profess to have thoroughly studied the ques- 
tion, no sufficiently valid objections have been established upon 
reasonable grounds, or upon facts of physiology and health, to 
living, nay, to passing life in a state of celibacy. The argument 
that if marriage cannot for various reasons be carried out, it is 
nevertheless necessary, upon physiological grounds, that a sub- 
stitute of some kind should be found, is altogether erroneous and 
without foundation. It cannot be too distinctly stated that the 
strictest temperance and purity is as much in accordance with 
physiological as moral law, and that the yielding to desire, 
appetite, and passion is no more to be justified upon physiological 
or physical than upon moral or religious grounds.-Dr. Lionel S. 
Beale. 
***** 
Unprofessional Ethics.-The doctor who would conceal 
the truth about a murder or a robbery because the perpetrator 
happened to be a patient of his would rightly be regarded as an 
enemy of Society. Why should the crime of silence in regard to 
an offense which destroys the soul as well as the offender him- 
self, and causes untold suffering, perhaps death to others, be 
countenanced by the law and the medical profession? 
It is about time that the curse of secret immorality should 
be dragged out of its hiding place and exposed to the light. If 
every physician was compelled by law-and it is a crime against 
Society that he is not-to be truthful in these matters, this black 
plague of sexual immorality, with its evil progeny, would be 
tremendously circumscribed. If every young man, every husband 
and father, knew that his secret sin would be made public, that 
he would be disgraced in the eyes of his family, his community, 
there would be comparatively few male-or female-prostitutes. 
■-Rev. Orison Swett Marsden. 456 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
There is no question that the honeymoon is often an ordeal, 
and not infrequently a tragedy for the inexperienced woman. 
The experience of this episode may imply a complete reversal of 
all the maidenly views upon love and marriage. Serious mental 
shock, leading to hysteria and other neurotic disturbance, is by 
no means uncommon. So subtle and delicate are the emotions 
aroused that one injudicious phrase may sink into the mind, and 
set up an inner conflict or repugnance lasting for the whole of 
married life. There are blunders and indiscretions that some 
women can never really forget. A woman of fine mental fiber 
and sensitive feeling, a modern type of temperament conspicuous 
in the refined classes, may possess the deepest capacity for love 
and for reciprocal fervor, and yet live always secretly estranged 
in soul from the husband who has acted thoughtlessly, selfishly, 
or ignorantly in the early days of conjugal union.-Walter M. 
Gallichan. 
* * * * * 
Why put this vital and wholesome movement for sex educa- 
tion upon the low plane of fear for the consequences if one trans- 
gresses ? I don't believe fear is a high ethical concept to which to 
appeal. Our efforts must be turned not towards frightening the 
young to do right, but towards the inculcation of that right- 
thinking which leads to right-doing. Education is the proper 
method to curb licentiousness. We must take the child from its 
birth and teach it self-control. Education of girls is the crux of 
the problem. They themselves are the ones to train boys to self- 
control, for the male sex is the aggressor, and the female does 
not fall except by lack of will-power and self-control. Once all 
women made it plain that they will not marry a man who has 
not a certificate of health, once all womankind resolves she would 
rather be a healthy "old maid" than an infected wife, the problem 
of sex hygiene will be solved then, but not until then.-Dr. Ira S. 
Wile. 
***** 
Patients who have been thoroughly quacked are often 
markedly neurasthenic, as a consequence of dishonest suggestion 
and subsequent brooding over real imaginary ills. Such patients 
are passed along from one quack to another until, by the time 
they become discouraged with quacks and seek the aid of a SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
457 
reputable physician, the golden opportunity of correcting their 
mental state is likely to be practically lost. 
If the laity ever becomes intelligent enough to understand 
that an alleged guarantee is alone sufficient to stamp the quack as 
a scoundrel, quackery will be put out of business. Meanwhile, 
if prospective patrons of the quack will merely submit the con- 
tracts and "guarantees" to a good lawyer before going on with 
the so-called treatment a serious "crimp" will be put in the quack 
shop.-Dr. G. Frank Lydston. 
* * * * * 
While improvement of dancing will reduce its dangers, it 
will not eliminate the problem of self-control for normal young 
men. They must learn to understand their own emotions. They 
should be forewarned that others have found danger in dancing. 
They should know that some strong-willed men have given up 
dancing when they found that it made more intense the problem 
of sexual self-control, both mentally and physically. They should 
know the increased danger if dancing is associated with alcohol, 
vicious women, immodest dress, extreme freedom of conduct, and 
other morally depressing influences. Such knowledge along with 
general sex-education will do much to make dancing not only safe 
for average young men, but also helpful along social and esthetic 
lines.-Prof. Maurice A. Bigelow. 
***** 
A young girl may very well marry at seventeen or eighteen, 
or at any rate between eighteen and nineteen. She is then 
sexually mature and her mentality is sufficiently developed, so 
that the difference in age we have required may be obtained. 
Young people thus united may continue their studies before 
procreating children, and their marriage will stimulate them to 
work. 
It is absolutely necessary to avoid everything which causes 
separation or exclusion, even in appearance. At the risk of appear- 
ing ridiculous in the eyes of certain superior persons, I repeat 
that separation of beds and bedrooms is a dangerous experiment 
to make in marriage, and that it may easily lead to estrangement, 
even when based on the highest motives. 
It is the same, in a still higher degree, with sexual continence 
in marriage, even when it does not last for years, excepting in 
cases of grave disease or senile impotence.-Dr. August Forel. 458 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Parents to Blame.-While it is not pleasant to blame parents 
for the ruin of their children and to lay the blame of the present 
generation's degeneracy entirely upon our ancestors, neverthe- 
less, truth compels us to state that much of the sorrow today 
caused by vice, by disobedience and even by crime on the part 
of young people, is due to the fact that fathers and mothers have 
not restrained their children, have not demanded implicit obedi- 
ence to their own wise commands, have not set the proper 
example in holiness and purity, and last but not least, have failed 
to teach, from the very outset of life, the beauty of purity, the 
hideousness of impurity, the purpose of the sexual organs, the 
sacredness of the reproductive system with the fact that this 
system is to be conserved only for the holiest purposes and for 
the highest aims and ends.-Evangelist M. B. Williams. 
Boys, as a rule, pass over the period of masturbation with- 
out much injury. The lies and exaggerated statements dis- 
tributed by the quacks and ignorant mentors and accepted by the 
public have had great and lasting influence in bringing on fear 
of impotency. In other words, the fear of the consequences has 
been much worse than the actual consequences. 
I do not want to be misunderstood in this important matter. 
So-called "self-abuse" unquestionably is of injury to both the 
physical and mental growth of young men and boys. But because 
a boy has indulged in what has been almost an universal habit 
does not mean that permanent impotency will follow in the period 
of manhood. Any such baneful habit kept up in adult life will, 
as any sexual excess natural or unnatural, result in impairment 
of all vigor-mind, body or sex functions.-Dr. Wm. Lee 
Howard. 
♦ * * * ♦ 
No great field of legitimate human exploitation except that 
of sex is still practically untilled. This has been avoided, as 
beneath our dignity, or beyond our power or right to understand. 
Shame and fear have resulted from early dogma. Secrecy, 
prudery have been secondary reactions. Nevertheless, sex ought 
not to be beneath our notice. Logically a function which is at 
the very foundation of Life and its continuity, on which directly 
depend home, family, love, comradeship, and more remotely re- SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
459 
ligion, ethics, art and literature must have great power for good 
or evil and is, therefore worthy of deepest consideration, but 
passing over logic, our senses inform us that the sex function, 
properly managed, makes for health, happiness, usefulness and 
longevity and improperly managed, makes for disease, crime, 
debauchery and early decline or death. Why, then, do we hesi- 
tate and procrastinate? Why are we self-conscious and ashamed? 
Why do we feel that we are sacrilegious or unclean if we think 
or talk about sex ? Science must show what the condition is and 
how it came about, but Philosophy must give the reason why.- 
Dr. W. F. Robie. 
* * * * * 
It is often said: "The reformed rake, however, makes the 
best husband." 
That statement should always be concluded with: "and the 
reformed harlot always makes the best wife." I can see no 
reason why a reformed rake would make any better husband than 
a reformed prostitute would a wife. I see no reason why a 
diseased man is any better than a diseased woman, or why a 
moral leper should be better for his leprosy simply because he is 
a man. Again, unfairness can be charged against Society at 
large for ever making such a distinction, for ever giving any 
such double standard, and by the propagation of such a doctrine 
encouraging young manhood to follow the paths of vice as proper 
preparation and valuable schooling for the duties devolving upon 
him in marriage and the sacred functions of the marriage bed.- 
Evangelist M. B. Williams. 
***** 
There are three special physiological reasons why sex in- 
dulgence should be avoided during pregnancy. The first of these 
is the directly weakening effect upon the parts concerned, with 
irritation and congestion, which, of course, would be unfavorable 
to natural and easy childbirth. It is an item of material im- 
portance where the woman is concerned. The second is that 
intimacies of this kind have a tendency to produce, or at least 
greatly to aggravate, the condition of nausea, or "morning sick- 
ness," which many pregnant women experience. The third rea- 
son is found in the very serious danger of inducing a miscarriage. 
There is no question that a large percentage of miscarriages are 460 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
OUT-OF-DOOR PLAY 
HELPS TO KEEP HER 
MIND IN RIGHT CHANNELS 
SHE IS GIVEN 
WHOLESOME BOOKS 
ON SEX MATTERS 
THE TRUE STORY 
OF" HOW LIFE BEGINS 
IS RECEIVED FROM 
HER MOTHER SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
461 
A HAPPY HOME 
AND 
HEALTHY CHILDREN 
A WEDDING IN WHICH 
NEITHER PARTY HAS 
ANYTHING TO FEAR 
SHE HAS A CLEAN 
RECORD FOR THE 
MAN.SHE LOVES 462 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the direct result of this abuse of the sexual relation by incon- 
siderate, exacting husbands. It is not a merely sentimental 
matter. It is a practical matter. I believe that in very few 
instances would the husband and prospective father wish for 
such abnormal indulgence if he knew that it might result in the 
loss of his unborn child.-Dr. J. H. Le Moyne. 
* * * * * 
The Home, the Church and the School have reached a small 
proportion of the human race with adequate sex instruction, 
while thousands of quack doctors still ply their vicious trade, 
widely disseminating falsehoods and preying on that fatal igno- 
rance of vital matters that we have carefully cultivated in our 
children under the name of innocence. 
Many generations have joined in the "conspiracy of silence" 
in matters pertaining to sex. Having almost no opportunity to 
hear sex and matrimony discussed with reverence, our young 
people have almost invariably heard these matters discussed with 
vulgarity. If groups of social workers come to serious disagree- 
ment on other phases of the present emergency, all can unite in 
favor of spreading certain truths as widely as possible in an 
effective educational campaign. Sex aspects of hygiene should 
be dealt with as a phase of school hygiene.-iVm. T. Foster, 
president of Reed College. 
***** 
The Prey of Quacks.-No factor in the fraudulent financial 
careers of quacks and charlatans is so productive of dupes as 
the fear of loss of sexual vigor. These lying leeches fatten upon 
this fear of men ignorant of sexual truths-and most men are 
ignorant of the facts and truths. These advertising money- 
suckers stimulate the fears of the trembling youths and de- 
spondent men, increase the causes for the intensive worry and 
never accomplish but two things-injury to their dupes and 
robbery of their fondest hopes and money. 
While most men take precautions, physical and legal, to 
protect their property from thieves and unscrupulous persons, 
while they study and become wary of sharks and "get rich quick" 
schemes, in the matter of protecting themselves from worse 
sharks they remain careless and unsuspecting.-Dr. Wm. Lee 
Howard. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
463 
The indirect cause for all the unfathomable worries in many 
women, the reason for the intense anxiety about self, is due to 
the repression of sex impulses. The longing to know, to compre- 
hend, to find some mode of expression is always with the young 
woman and girl and is left for her to solve unaided. At that 
age in adolescence when confession and instruction would have 
relieved this repression and longing, the girl is further repressed 
and suppressed in all her curiosity and the wish to have mental 
and soul purging-to have cleaned out those deleterious memory 
spots of childhood's impressions. This clearing of the mind so 
that the subconscious can produce no psychic shock is not done 
today. 
We all know what a real shock is to the conscious mind. 
Well, repression is a shock to the subconscious mind, and in 
this fact lies the reason for that destructive worry which so 
many women are unable to avoid.-Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
* * * * * 
The illegality, under present disgraceful laws, of the dissem- 
ination of proper contraceptive information to those who need 
it, makes it incumbent on each individual touple to repudiate un- 
justifiable law, which is no doubt also unconstitutional, and seek 
comfort, health, and efficiency for themselves, and choose between 
poverty and handicap on the one hand and proper food and suffi- 
cient early training on the other, for their children. It seems as 
if every doctor and humanitarian must advise people faced with 
this contingency to seek until they obtain some form of adequate 
protection which interferes neither with health nor with perfectly 
satisfactory, mutual sexual relations. There are unquestionably 
such adequate forms of protection; and adequate or inadequate 
ones are used by most married, fertile men and women of the 
intellectual classes through portions of their married lives, it makes 
little difference whether such a family is Jew, Gentile, Catholic, 
black or white, Christian or pagan, bond or free.-Dr. W. F. 
Robie. 
***** 
There are thousands of syphilitics who are wandering around 
unable to pay the prices which the physician asks to treat this 
disease. The same can be said of gonorrhea, and the same 
physician who clamors against the prices of the so-called quack, 464 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
forgets that the price he asks of the public is exorbitant in the 
extreme. So the only course for the individual to take, if he 
cannot pay the price, is to remain a menace to Society. The 
physician assumes no responsibility toward society to find out 
if the patient is under treatment elsewhere; the patient can do 
as he pleases with his disease when he closes the doctor's door. 
This, then is the situation as regards society's attitude toward 
the venereal subject: Society seems to take a different attitude 
towards other contagious and infectious diseases, such as measles, 
chicken pox, diphtheria, etc. In these diseases, a physician has 
some responsibility towards society, he must report each case as 
it comes to his attention, to the Board of Health, who in turn 
assumes some responsibility by isolating the disease.-Mrs. 
Margaret H. Sanger. 
***** 
The Safe or Sterile Period.-It is a well-known fact that 
there are certain sterile days every month with most if not all 
women; and that these begin from the ninth to the nineteenth day 
after menstruation has ceased and continue until her next period. 
If, then, it can be determined in each individual case just when 
this time commences and how long it continues, then subtract 
eight days, the longest time spermatozoa have been known to live 
in her genital tract, and you have an absolutely sure thing. Sup- 
pose, for instance, that the woman is regular, beginning every 
twenty-eighth day, the flow ceasing on the fourth day; count 
twelve days for her fruitful period, which is a fair average, and 
five days for the life of the spermatozoa, also a fair average, and 
you have seven safe days-enough for any man or woman in one 
month. It would almost seem as though Nature had arranged 
this whole matter, providing for continence about three-fourths 
of the time. In many cases the sterile period is much longer, giv- 
ing about twice as many days. In some few instances it seems 
utterly unreliable.-Evangelist M. B. Williams. 
***** 
Gonorrhea and Rheumatism.-If a young m'an who has a 
history of "acute inflammatory rheumatism," even if it was five 
years ago, asks for the hand of your daughter, refuse it until you 
can get the TRUE cause of this "rheumatism." Don't be blinded 
by such terms as "arthritis," "suppurative synovitis," "myositis," SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
465 
or any other euphemisms-get the facts. If it is proven to your 
satisfaction that the cause of the "rheumatism" was gonorrhea, 
absolutely refuse to allow the marriage to take place. If you do 
not you are responsible for a crime; for bringing pain, disgrace, 
death to your daughter. Better kill her at once than allow her 
to die slowly, unsexed, despondent and cursing you for keeping 
her in ignorance of these diseased states of so many young men. 
If you parents, who have a little knowledge of these affairs had 
taught what you do know to your daughters, then many a hasty 
marriage would be stopped; many an elopement impossible; 
for if the girl knew WHY you refused your consent, she would 
also refuse.-Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
A young man has a deep-seated posterior gonorrheal gleet- 
hardly noticeable, perhaps. He gets married. The germ, half- 
starved from trying to live in worn-out tissue is thrown out from 
the husband. The bride develops an acute gonorrhea, since the 
germ transplanted to a fresh soil, gratefully welcomes the change 
and comes to life with renewed and malignant vitality. To his 
amazement, the young husband may acquire an anterior infection 
or a "new dose" of gonorrhea. The husband becomes suspicious 
and angry and accuses his wife of having infected him. Results: 
tearful denial, separation, divorce, perhaps hospital operation for 
wife, husband seeks another bride to infect. Is humanity any 
better off for such ignorance?-Indiana State Board of Health. 
* * * * * 
I find a tendency among most grown-ups, especially among 
teachers and advanced parents, who ought to know better, to 
place too firm a reliance on moral teaching and sexual enlighten- 
ment as a means of saving our daughters and our sons from 
making the same mistakes in their lives that we ourselves have 
made. Like those drowning in deep waters where they cannot 
swim, we have clutched at any plank of hope. You see, so many 
of the old planks-religion, social barriers, chaperons, home 
restrictions, and so many more, on which our parents used to rely, 
have failed us, broken in our hands by the vigorous destroying of 
the young generation, and, therefore we have clutched with frantic 
fingers at this new fair-looking life raft, in pursuit of the one 
aim to protect our children. Myself, I have done this. It is with 466 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
uttermost sadness I have to acknowledge now that I do not believe 
we can help the young very far or deeply by all our teaching. 
Not only do they want their own experience, not ours, but it is 
right for them to have it. The urge of adolescence carries them 
away out of our detaining hands.-Mrs. C. Gasquoine Hartley. 
* * * * * 
I believe that the reason why masturbation is so widespread 
an evil-amounting, I gather, although from the nature of the 
case no complete evidence can ever be accurately obtained, to 
somewhere about 90 to 95 per cent of all boys at boarding-schools 
-is because the boy leaves his home in the first instance without 
one word of warning from his parents-and thus falls into evil 
ways from his innocence and ignorance alone. This immorality is 
estimated by some at 80 per cent, by others at 90 per cent. An- 
other says that not 10 per cent are innocent. Another that it has 
always begun at from eight to twelve years of age. Others that 
it is always worst amongst the elder boys. Others that "it is 
universal." And yet there are people who deprecate purity-teach- 
ing for boys because they feel that a boy's natural modesty is 
quite a sufficient protection, and that there is danger of destroy- 
ing a boy's innocence by putting ideas into his head. To hear 
such people talk, and to listen to the way in which they speak 
of self-abuse as though it implied monstrous moral perversion, 
one would think that the condition of morals when they were 
young was wholly different.-Dr. Clement Dukes. 
* * * * * 
Effect of Masturbation in Girls.-Eulenburg considers that 
the comparative absence of bad effects from masturbation in girls 
in largely due to the fact that, unlike boys, they are not terrorized 
by exaggerated warnings and quack literature concerning the 
awful results of the practice. Forel, who has also remarked that 
women are often comparatively little troubled by qualms of con- 
science after masturbation, denies that this is due to a lower moral 
tone than men possess. Guttceit states, according to his observa- 
tions, "masturbation, when not excessive, is, on the whole, a quite 
innocent matter, which exerts little or no permanent effects," and 
adds that it never, in any case, leads to hypochondria onanica in 
women, because they have not been taught to expect bad results. 
W. C. Krauss says: "From my experience it (masturbation) SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
467 
seems to have an opposite effect upon the two sexes, dulling the 
mental and making clumsy the physical exertions of the male, 
while in the female it quickens and excites the physical and 
psychical movements. The man is rendered hypoesthetic, the 
woman hyperesthetic."-Havelock Ellis. 
* * * * * 
During the teens, sex education must concern itself with 
many factors other than mere knowledge concerning reproduc- 
tion. Facts now are likely to be far less interesting and vital 
than sensations. There should be no more talking of sex than is 
necessary to insure its complete understanding and to prove your 
readiness to help. For the rest, the youth's emotions should be 
directed into safe channels by means of healthful exercise and fun. 
Trashy novels feed sex desires; trashy movies are even more dis- 
turbing. Athletic contests, military drill, pageants and community 
drama, girl- and boy scout and campfire organizations, enough 
sleep, simple non-stimulating food, wholesome friendships; these 
are of fundamental importance in sex education during this diffi- 
cult age.-Dr. Mabel S. Ulrich. 
***** 
Change of Life in Men.-To people not familiar with the 
subject it sounds rather strange to speak of "change of life" 
in men. 
Man, possessing no menstrual function, cannot have any 
menopause, but still sexologists and psychologists who have 
studied the subject carefully are convinced that between the 
ages of forty-five and fifty-five men also undergo a certain 
change which may be spoken of as the change of life or the male 
climacteric. 
They become irritable, capricious, very susceptible to 
feminine charms, are apt to fall in love, and in many the sexual 
instinct is greatly increased. As in women, this increase of the 
sexual desire is sometimes due to pathologic causes, such as an 
inflamed prostate gland-in other cases it is of psychic origin. 
Just as a man should be particularly kind and considerate 
to his wife during her menopause, so the wife, understanding 
that her husband is going through a critical period, will also 
increase her tact, patience and consideration.-Dr. William J. 
Robinson. 468 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Numberless are the jovial and contented husbands who have 
never suspected, and who will never know, that their wives carry 
about with them, sometimes with silent resentment, the ache of 
mysterious tabus. The feeling that there are delicious privacies 
and privileges which she has never been asked to take, or forced 
to accept, often erotically divorces a wife from her husband who 
never realizes what he has missed. The case of such husbands is 
all the harder because, for the most part, all they have done is 
the result of the morality that has been preached to them. They 
have been taught from boyhood to be strenuous and manly and 
clean-minded, to seek by all means to put out of their minds the 
thought of women or the longing for sensuous indulgence. They 
have acquired the notion that sexual indulgence and all that 
appertained to it is something low and degrading, at the worst 
a mere natural necessity, at the best a duty to be accomplished 
in a direct, honorable, and straightforward manner. No one 
seems to have told them that Love is an art, and that to gain real 
possession of a woman's soul and body is a task that requires 
the whole of a man's best skill and insight.-Havelock Ellis. 
* * * * * 
Pre-determination of Sex.-On the question of the causes 
of production of the sexes at will. There is no want of hypo- 
theses, assertions, nor even of experiments on this subject; but, 
we are obliged to admit that up to the present we know nothing 
certain. No one has yet succeeded in producing experimentally 
in animals males and females at will. According to one theory, 
which has created much impression, overfeeding produces females 
and underfeeding males. Although this appears to be true in 
certain cases among some animals, it is in no way proved in a 
positive manner. 
It has also been suggested that selection produces the sex 
which is deficient in numbers; but here again proofs are wanting. 
It has been maintained that crossing tends to breed females, 
while consanguineous marriages produce males; in other words, 
that mongrel races show an excess of female births, while races 
in which marriages are very consanguineous, and polyandrous 
tribes show an excess of males. It is much better to leave this 
question alone till science has furnished us with conclusive proofs. 
Certain results obtained with the lower animals give hope that 
the future may shed some light on this point.-Dr. August Forel. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
469 
The "Double Standard of Morality" is the lie that 
protects the libertine and gives to him social standing, while it 
outlaws his sister, the prostitute. The lie also gives the syphilitic 
the right to enter a home of respectability and to marry a pure 
woman. The wife often finds out too late she has been married 
to a walking pest, a being who properly should be in a sanitarium 
or hospital or in isolation upon some island where he could not 
injure the innocent or assist in social distintegration. It is to be 
hoped under a system of sane education that the parents and 
young women of America will realize that a syphilitic husband 
makes a mighty poor parent; whether he be foreign duke or 
American millionaire. There is nothing quite so fine as good, 
red blood, free from disease. It maintains the home and sustains 
the state.-"Social Hygiene vs. Sexual Plague." 
Any condition which changes the conformation of the 
prostatic urethra is likely to produce urinary obstruction. In- 
flammatory swelling-acute or chronic-tumors, stone, abscess 
and the enlargement of the prostate seen in more or less advanced 
life are attended by urinary obstruction of greater or less degree. 
The prostate is a sexual organ and normally should shrink 
or atrophy with old age. Enlargement of the prostate, therefore, 
always is the result of disease, never of old age. The sooner 
this is understood by the laity the sooner the foolish notion that 
"every old man has an enlarged prostate" will be corrected. 
Nature should not be made to bear an unfair share of the burden 
of blame for such conditions. The man past middle life who 
begins rising at night to urinate should not deceive himself with 
the "old man" theory. He should consult his physician at once. 
Early attention may delay development of, or even cure, condi- 
tions zvhich, if neglected, will inevitably lead to permanent 
prostatic enlargement.-Dr. G. Frank Lydston. 
* * * ♦ ♦ 
It is considered quite the proper thing to inform a young 
girl as to the truths of her nature when she approaches the men- 
strual period. Intelligent persons are convinced that such knowl- 
edge affords a valuable safeguard for the maiden in every way. 
But when a boy is approaching a parallel critical period in his 
life-the period of emissions and erotic (love) fancies-it is con- 470 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
sidered very bad form and "dangerous" to give him the slightest 
information. The lad is expected to stumble his way into knowl- 
edge, to suffer and to die, perhaps, from the venereal poisons. 
If moral and physiological instruction is good for the maid, why 
should it not be good for the youth? No wonder President David 
Starr Jordan of Leland Stanford University should remark sadly 
that probably one-third of the young men of today are maimed 
for life before they get a good start.-"Social Hygiene vs. Sexual 
Plagues." 
* * * 3|t 
The Desire of Change in Man.-A peculiarity of the sexual 
appetite in man, which is fatal for Society, is his desire for change. 
This desire is not only one of the principal causes of polygamy, 
but also of prostitution and other analogous organizations. It 
arises from the want of sexual attraction in what one is accus- 
tomed to and from the stronger excitation produced by all that is 
new; a phenomenon of which we have spoken above. On the 
average, woman has a hereditary disposition which is much more 
monogamous than man. The sexual appetite thus loses its 
intensity from the prolonged habit of connection with the same 
woman, but, becomes much more intense with other women, if 
not in all men at any rate in most. Such desires may generally 
be overcome by the aid of a true and noble love, and by sentiments 
of duty and fidelity toward the family and toward a respected 
wife. We cannot, however, deny that they exist, nor that they 
are the cause of the worst excesses, and the most violent scenes, 
often with a tragic result.-Dr. August Forel. 
* * * * * 
There is probably no greater menace to the health and 
efficiency of the American people today than the venereal 
diseases. Tens of thousands of women are in a state of semi- 
invalidism because of gonorrhea contracted from husbands who 
thought themselves cured before marriage. Large numbers of 
babies are hopelessly blind from this disease. Uncounted num- 
bers of women will never bear children because gonorrhea has 
made either the husband or wife sterile. Syphilis is causing 
insanity, paralysis, locomotor ataxia, and degenerative changes of 
the vital organs. No disease known to medical science has such 
a harmful effect on the offspring. Gonorrhea and syphilis SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
471 
together, it is estimated, are costing the people of the United 
States approximately $§00,000,000 annually. Introduced into the 
marriage relation, these two diseases strike at the very foundation 
of the present social order. They impose a burden of physical 
and mental suffering upon humanity which has now become 
intolerable.-Pennsylvania State Board of Health. 
* * * * * 
How many girls enter upon marriage quite ignorant and 
altogether inexperienced. They commit themselves to the keeping 
of a man of whom they know hardly anything at all. The parents 
are often satisfied with the most meager information. It is con- 
sidered improper to ask for detailed information regarding the 
husband's past life, and hence it often happens that a girl is 
delivered up to an unscrupulous man suffering from venereal 
infection, simply because she has never been adequately informed 
regarding the serious step she is undertaking, regarding the com- 
pletely new mode of life upon which she is so suddenly entering. 
We thus see that there are ample grounds for explaining to a 
girl in good time precisely what she will undertake in entering 
the married state.-Dr. Albert Moll. 
***** 
If boys are in need of sex instruction, then girls are much 
more in need of it. The first reason is because a misstep in a 
girl has much more disastrous consequences than it has in a boy. 
The disastrous results in a boy are only physical in character; the 
results of the same misstep in a girl may be physical, moral, social 
and economic. If a boy, through ignorance, rashly indulges in 
illicit sexual relations, the worst consequence to him may be infec- 
tion with a venereal disease. He is not considered immoral, he 
is not despised, he is not ostracized, he does not lose his social 
standing in the slightest degree, and when he is cured of his 
venereal disease he has no difficulty in getting married. He does 
not even have to conceal his past sexual history from his wife. 
But if a girl makes a misstep the consequences to her are terrible 
indeed; it may not only cost her health and social standing, she 
may have to pay with her very life. She runs the risk of venereal 
infection the same as the boy does, but in addition runs the risk 
of becoming pregnant, which in our present social system is a 
catastrophe indeed.-Dr. IVm. J. Robinson. 472 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
By teaching chastity we not merely decrease the demand for 
prostitutes, but we greatly diminish the supply. Few girls, if 
any, take to the streets until they have been seduced; and the 
antecedents of seduction are the morbid exaggeration of the sexual 
appetite, the lack of self-control, and the selfish hedonism which 
youthful impurity engenders. 
A young man allows lust or passion to lead him into seduc- 
tion, he commits a crime the consequences of which are usually 
cruel in the extreme; for in most cases the seduced girl sinks of 
necessity into prostitution. So blind, so callous does impurity 
make even the refined and generous, that many a young man who 
can be a good son, a good brother, a noble friend, a patriotic 
citizen, will doom a girl whose only fault is that she is physically 
attractive-and possibly too affectionate and trusting-to tortur- 
ing anxiety, to illness, to the horrible suffering of undesired 
travail, to disgrace, and in nineteen cases out of twenty to ostra- 
cism and the infamy of the streets. Murder is a small thing 
compared with this. Who would not rather that his daughter 
were killed in her innocence than that she should be doomed to 
such a fate?-Dr. Mary Scharlieb. 
* * * ♦ ♦ 
Venereal, Prophylactics. - The most efficient prophylactic 
against gonorrhea is protargol; the most efficient prophylactic 
against syphilis is calomel or mercuric chloride (corrosive sub- 
limate). The protargol is used in the form of a 2 per cent solu- 
tion or suspension; the calomel is used in the form of a 30 per 
cent ointment; the mercuric chloride in the form of a 3 to 1000 
solution, the vehicle consisting of tragacanth, starch, glycerin, 
alcohol and water. The packet used by our army and navy con- 
sists of a collapsible conical shaped tube with a partition in the 
center; the conical half of the tube is filled with a 2 per cent 
protargol solution; squeezed out. The other half of the tube is 
filled with a 30 per cent calomel ointment; when wanted for use, 
the cap is removed, a portion of the ointment is expressed and the 
organ anointed. Both the protargol and the calomel ointment are 
used after intercourse. 
Prophylactics are now prepared which contain one prepara- 
tion both against gonorrhea and syphilis. They are more con- 
venient to use.-Dr. William J. Robinson. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
473 
If you have read and believed "Onania," and the works of 
Tissot, Lallemand, Howe and Acton, as well as more recent 
books of sex instruction, like Stall's series, "Sexology," and the 
like, which have drawn their inspiration from the earlier ones 
mentioned, you will be led to believe that masturbation is the 
most disgusting and injurious practice and the most degrading 
vice and sin against morals and decency that ever has affected 
mankind. 
If, on the other hand, you have read Nacke, Greisinger, 
Thiernach, Brill, Woodruff, and scores of other scientific inves- 
tigators, you will find that any results from this practice, itself, 
are trivial, or entirely negligible. Rohleder, Ellis, Freud and 
Krafft-Ebing consider that the only harm that it does is some- 
times to produce functional nervous disturbances. All modern 
scientific writers agree that neither epilepsy, insanity, feeble- 
mindedness, tuberculosis, nor, in short, any other diseases ever 
can be caused by masturbation alone.-Dr. W. F. Robie. 
* * * * * 
In the etiology of impotence three main causes must be taken 
into consideration. Impotence is almost always met with in con- 
genital or acquired malformation. Such anomalies lie more in 
the province of surgery. Impotence is also found as a symptom 
in certain constitutional diseases. The patients suffering from 
these troubles are seeking medical advice more for their causative 
anomaly than for the symptom of impotence, which in these cases 
is of secondary importance. Hence the consideration of these 
cases may also be omitted. The anomaly of impotence par excel- 
lence and for which medical advice is mostly sought is nervous 
impotence. This impotence from nervous collapse is the com- 
monest and complicates all other kinds. 
The patients of this class have always been normal in their 
sex-life. Suddenly, one day, they find themselves impotent. The 
cause of this kind of impotence is, in the majority of cases, sexual 
excesses, and four different kinds of excesses may be taken into 
consideration, excesses in copulation, in masturbation, in mental 
erethism, or commonly called day-dreaming, and finally excesses 
in tactile eroticism, or the common sexual dalliance or caresses 
of young lovers.-Dr. Bernard S. Talmey. 474 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Self-treatment with simple or patent remedies will not cure 
venereal disease. It may cause the outward symptoms to dis- 
appear, but to cover up a disease is not to cure it. 
The only safe and certain way to a complete cure of venereal 
disease is treatment by a competent physician or venereal clinic. 
Also, it is just as necessary to continue the treatment until rigid 
medical tests show a complete cure. Some of the most serious 
after-effects of venereal disease are due to stopping treatment too 
soon. 
Self-treatment probably costs less in the beginning, but you 
are fighting a dangerous enemy, and the weapsons must be chosen 
accordingly. The Allies, armed with pop-guns, could never have 
defeated Germany. Pop-guns cost less, but the most expensive 
things in the long run are those that do not give results, and the 
self-treatment of venereal disease does not give results.-U. S. 
Public Health Service. 
* * * ♦ ♦ 
Parents and taxpayers should bear this in mind. Instruction 
in social hygiene is the cheapest, yet best paying investment that 
can be made by any community. An ounce of disease prevention 
in the way of education is worth a pound of heavy taxation cure 
to take care of disease consequences. One or two lectures during 
the term in the high schools will go far to post young men as to 
fundamental truths. It is desirable, though not strictly essential, 
that the instructor be a man of high moral character who by open 
life and manifestation of physical health, constitutes an example 
of the value of moral and physical restraint, thus arousing a spirit 
of emulation in young men. Boys do not want to be preached at. 
They simply want to be told how to live in order that they may 
become successful and respected men. There is no subject they 
are more deeply interested in than sex nature; they instinctively 
realize it to be the supreme thing in manhood. What a great 
wrong society does to them by denying the proper knowledge!- 
''Social Hygiene vs. Sexual Plagues." 
♦ * * * * 
If the penalties meted out to the impure are so many, there 
is yet comfort for the unmarried man in those pages which show 
that perfect continence is quite compatible with perfect health, 
and thus a great load is at once lifted from the mind of him who 
wishes to be conscientious as well as virile and in health with all SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
475 
the organs of the body performing their proper functions. There 
is an erroneous and widely spread belief that exercise of the 
sexual functions is necessary in order to maintain health. . . . 
The reproductive glands have been so constructed that their spe- 
cific activities can be suspended for long periods of time without 
their atrophy or the slightest impairment of function. In this 
particular they resemble the inherent capabilities of a woman's 
breasts, which can remain quiescent for years and when called 
into demand physiologically respond with perfect function. It is 
a pernicious pseudo-physiology which teaches that the exercise 
of the generative functions is necessary in order to maintain one's 
physical and mental vigor of manhood.-Dr. James Foster Scott. 
****:' 
Ignorance Responsible for Disasters to Pure Womanhood.- 
It has been learned that the gonococcus may sometimes remain in 
a quiescent state in the urethra for a considerable period-often 
for years; that the infected may suffer no immediate inconveni- 
ence; in fact, he or she may consider themselves free from the 
infection, but when this germ is transplanted to a fresh soil it may 
resume its malignancy. The fact that many unhappy wives have 
undergone severe or fatal surgicial operations, places a seal of 
truth upon this statement. A majority of these wives were clean 
and virtuous women; they married men "who had gone the pace"; 
these men brought to their wives the "germ of debauchery," in 
most cases unwittingly, only to learn, too late, they have ruined 
the woman of their choice. 
In justice to the human race it must be maintained there are 
but few men, however immoral or debased, who would deliber- 
ately infect their wives. It is ignorance-lamentable, fearful, 
widespread ignorance that is largely responsible for these dis- 
asters to pure womanhood-certainly not wilful intent. Does not 
every principle of human justice, of real morality, call for decent 
public enlightenment?-Indiana State Board of Health. 
* * * * * 
There is a disease which is born of sin, and which leads to 
grave results, although it is popularly believed to be a small mat- 
ter, easily and quickly cured, and leaving no trace behind it. 
This disease (gonorrhea) sometimes lies behind the cemetery lot 
with only the graves of husband and wife. Children had been 476 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
THE "WILD OATS" SOWN BY THE FATHERS WILL BE REAPED BY THE CHILDREN "UNTO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATIONS." SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
477 
desired, and it had been thought a mysterious Providence which 
withheld them. Investigation might have explained the matter in 
this way: The husband contracted this disease; he was apparently 
quickly cured, and supposed that to be the end of it; but the end 
was not yet. He gave the disease to his pure and innocent wife, 
in whom, perhaps, it was never recognized at all; but it did its 
work-the inflammation which it caused thickened the walls of 
delicate tubes in the mechanism of reproduction; they were 
stopped up, and she became barren.-Dr. H. S. Pomeroy. 
♦ * * * * 
There is a special aspect of the problem of pre-marital chas- 
tity of men that young women should understand, and that is 
their indirect responsibility for the unchastity of many men. In 
discussing dancing and extreme dress, it has been indicated that 
women as a sex have a tremendous responsibility for the temp- 
tations of men. The same is true in the case of flirting or more 
extreme familiarities with men. However sure a young woman 
may feel of her own power of self-control, she should not consider 
lightly her possible part in a chain of events which may lead men 
to unchastity with other women. Many a man driven into the 
white heat of passion by thoughtless or deliberate acts of a pure 
girl has gone direct to seek relief of tension in the underworld. 
Of course, the girl in this case is not directly responsible for the 
downfall of the man; but I wonder if there is not moral, if not 
legal, responsibility for one who knowingly leads or helps another 
to the brink of a precipice from which he voluntarily falls.- 
Prof. Maurice A. Bigelow. 
♦ * * * ♦ 
It is painful to be obliged to speak of a practice, regrettably 
common among misguided young men, who, for the sake of the 
pleasurable sensations experienced, artificially arouse their gen- 
erative organs to the acme of activity. This is variously known 
as self-abuse, self-pollution, masturbation, and Onanism. To the 
normal mind this habit is so grossly offensive as to excite intense 
disgust. From the hygienic point of view, it is at best a reckless 
and unjustifiable waste of precious energy; at worst it may cause 
physical and mental wreck. On this matter, however, it is very 
important that I be not misunderstood. It is undoubtedly true 
that the habit may continue years without producing noticeable 478 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
deterioration of health, but, even in these cases of apparent exemp- 
tion from serious consequences, there is likely to be established 
such a perversion of the generative nature as to unfit the sufferer 
for the sexual functions that should find their fullest and most 
valuable expression in the relations of the marital state. In gen- 
eral, the health is not ruined, as is alleged in the quack advertise- 
ments that deface and disgrace some journals that are allowed 
to enter our homes, but the fact remains that the practice is low, 
filthy, bestial, and degrading. Whatever may be said in deprecia- 
tion of self-pollution, it immediately injures only the person who 
practices it, and by so much is less evil than a method of sensual 
gratification that involves another. The solitary vice being vice, 
is bad, but the social evil is vastly more vicious.-Dr. F. H. 
Gerrish. 
* * * * * 
Education undertakes the task of repressing the girl's sen- 
suality until the time of betrothal. It not only forbids sexual 
relations and sets a high premium on innocence, but it also with- 
draws the ripening womanly individuality from temptation, main- 
taining a state of ignorance concerning the practical side of the 
part she is intended to play in life, and enduring no stirring of 
love which cannot lead to marriage. The result is that when she 
is suddenly permitted to fall in love by the authority of her elders, 
the girl cannot bring her psychic disposition to bear, and goes 
into marriage uncertain of her own feelings. As a consequence 
of this artificial retardation of the function of love she brings 
nothing but deception to the husband who has set all her desires 
upon her, and manifests frigidity in her physical relations with 
him.-Dr. Sigmund Freud. 
* * * * * 
There is one cemetery lot which makes my heart sick-it is 
the one with a long row of infant graves. The devout lay 
observer is wont to exclaim: "What a mysterious Providence!" 
It certainly is both mysterious and providential-mysterious how 
the parents could have been guilty of bringing those infants into 
the world, and providential that the morbid, weakly things were 
removed soon and not allowed to cumber the earth, a weariness 
to themselves and others. And there is another mystery about 
it-that the parents were willing thus to advertise their weakness SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
479 
and their sin. It had been better to have let the kindly hand of 
time level the dishonoring little mounds of earth, and to have put 
the chronicle, if anywhere, on the least conspicuous place on the 
family monument. One, two, even three infant graves may call 
for sympathy for the bereaved parents; but when the number 
reaches a half dozen or more, sympathy often may well be swal- 
lowed up in pity and its near of kin, contempt! Behind this rozv 
of tiny graves there usually lies a loathsome disease (syphilis) 
which might have remained a secret had not heredity published it 
to the world.-Dr. H. S. Pomeroy. 
***** 
Trainers of pugilists and of men who are entering for ath- 
letic contests are well aware of the effect sexual intercourse exerts 
upon the physical and mental condition of every man, and coitus 
is the one thing which is rigidly excluded, and about which the 
strictest laws are held. An ex-pugilist has told me that when he 
was training for a fight, at the beginning, he suffered a great deal 
from want of intercourse, his seminal losses were frequent, and 
he had large and repeated pollutions, but in a short time, as soon 
as he got thoroughly into his work, these entirely disappeared and 
indeed he thought no more about them; but as soon as his work 
was finished and the fight was over he found that sexually he was 
as good as ever, the libido was pronounced, and I am satisfied, 
not only from this man's experience but of others with whom I 
have talked, that in such cases there is no loss of power from 
sexual abstinence, provided always the patient is not keeping his 
genital organs continually irritated by dallying with women, by 
reading, talking, or thinking about matters connected with sexual 
intercourse.-Dr. Frederick R. Sturgis. 
***** 
In the beginning of married life the principle commended to 
the husband should be that an alarmed and reluctant bride should 
be patiently wooed and never ravished. The delicacy of caution 
and restraint is of great importance, especially at this juncture 
which marks the outset of connubial relations. The entire change 
of life at this period exerts a strong influence upon the physical 
condition of the young bride. She needs time and rest to get 
used to the new condition of things and to reconcile it to her 480 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
ethical views. If these matters are not respected by the husband, 
the death-blow to the young love is already dealt in the first days 
of married life. 
There is, furthermore, always more or less suffering on the 
part of the bride in the first congress, partly due to the rupture of 
the hymen and partly to the forcible dilatation of the vagina. 
These pains are not confined only to the time of the act, but con- 
tinue day and night, and represent a really diseased condition. 
Hence sufficient time should be allowed after defloration for 
Nature to repair these injuries. Frequent indulgence at this 
period of married life is a prolific source of inflammatory diseases 
and occasions ill health.-Dr. Bernard S. Talmey. 
♦ * * * * 
She who obtains a miscarriage in the earlier months of preg- 
nancy feels comparatively virtuous, because she draws the line at 
"quickening." This is moral jugglery and ethical hair-splitting. 
What evidence is there of soul at five months which may not be 
found at four? True, the unborn child of the latter age does not 
appear to move its legs and arms, while the other usually does. 
Is the spirit situated in the extremities, or is the movement of a 
muscle evidence of a soul? Considered from the lower plane of 
physical life only, what reason is there for the distinction? There 
has been life from the first; there is no independent life until 
birth. Is it reasonable to suppose that the Creator, who has been 
steadily at work for four months and fifteen days on one of the 
most delicate and complicated pieces in His whole laboratory, and 
has made no mistake thus far-the work being absolutely perfect 
as far as carried-considers it of little or no consequence today, 
but of the utmost importance and value when it shall have been 
in His hands a few hours longer? Our laws visit the death penalty 
on the wilful destruction of post-natal human life; would that they 
might inflict the same penalty for the wilful destruction of pre- 
natal human life of whatever age!-Dr. H. S. Pomeroy. 
***** 
Tell your girl about menstruation as soon as her figure begins 
to show signs of change. Make her understand that this is a 
normal function; that she will have no pain and practically no 
discomfort if her body is healthy, her muscles firm and well devel- 
oped, her blood and digestion as they should be. Explain to her SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
481 
that crowding of the system with sweets, lack of daily exercise 
and baths, slinking shoulders and crooked backbone are far more 
responsible for girls' pains and depressions during this time than 
any diseased condition of the reproductive system itself. 
Teach her the duty of health; that since the life-stream must 
pass through the bodies of women, she owes this duty, not only 
to herself, but to the race; and then help her to do her part. 
At about this time your girl will begin to .take a new interest 
in boys and in her clothes, less in games and activities. Be sym- 
pathetic, but try to encourage group fun rather than pairings, 
doing rather than day-dreaming. 
Teach her the meaning and reason for good manners and 
true conventions. Good manners alone have saved thousands 
of girls from unfortunate situations. Know her friends; don't 
let her stay all night with other girls; know (don't guess) where 
she is when not in school; don't nag her.-Dr. Mabel S. Ulrich. 
♦ * * * * 
The Sexual Dangers of the Bible.-In the Bible sexual proc- 
esses are repeatedly mentioned. In the mind of the child a conflict 
inevitably arises when, on the one hand, he finds that everything 
of a sexual nature is diligently concealed from him, and, on the 
other, in the Holy Book, which is put before him as the basis of 
his moral instruction, he finds that so much attention is paid to 
sexual things. It is not the actual accounts of sexual things in 
the Bible which constitute the danger, but the contrast between 
the plain speaking of the Bible in these matters, and the general 
affectation of secrecy outside its pages. An additional point of 
importance is the fact that in the Bible sexual topics are handled 
in a way which is by no means always delicate. I may recall the 
frequency with which the idea of the whore is employed for pur- 
poses of comparison; and I may refer also to the occasional use 
of strongly erotic language, as, for example, in the Song of Solo- 
mon. A further danger lies in the fact that the Bible contains 
descriptions of customs which are no longer in harmony with 
modern ideas; it suffices to mention the accounts of polygamy in 
the Old Testament. Unless the distinction between what is his- 
torical and what is truly religious is carefully explained to the 
child the latter's moral ideas will very readily become confused. 
-Dr. Alfred Moll. 482 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The "Lost Manhood" Quack.-For years "quack" doctors 
and "medical" institutes have made capital out of the ignorance of 
men concerning facts about their reproductive organs. In many 
cities these unscrupulous men advertise to cure "lost manhood," 
"nervous debility," "pimples," and other things which have nothing 
to do with sexual health. They try to frighten people into paying 
large sums for the cure of "diseases" that do not exist, and scare 
boys into thinking the normal experiences of growing manhood 
are indications of sexual disorders. They are more interested in 
a patient's money than his health. A good doctor never adver- 
tises ; he waits until a man comes to him. 
Many boys are bothered by pimples on the body when they 
reach the age of about fifteen, sixteen or seventeen. These are 
not an indication of any sexual disorder whatsoever, and they 
need cause no worry. If they become especially unpleasant the 
family physician should be consulted. 
Men suffering from any sex disease should beware of these 
same "medical institutes" and advertising quacks. Patent medi- 
cines and "favorite prescriptions" are dangerous. Every case 
needs individual attention and the care of an absolutely reliable 
physician.-United States Public Health Service. 
* * * * * 
From a legal point of view, several late occurrences are of 
great interest: 
In Oklahoma a man received a penitentiary sentence of five 
years for infecting a girl with syphilis. 
Not far off, in Nebraska, a doctor warned a hotel-keeper one 
of his patients who had syphilis was a guest at the hotel, and, as 
he refused treatment, was a menace to the other patrons of the 
hotel. The doctor was sued for violating professional confidence, 
but was upheld by the courts. 
The most important decision, however, was in North Caro- 
lina. Here the Supreme Court affirmed a decision of a lower one 
which awarded damages of $10,000 to a wife against the husband 
for infecting her with venereal disease. Part of the final ruling 
was to the following effect: The true ground for the exemption, 
at common law, of the husband from liability to the wife for his 
torts was because by marriage she became his chattel. All the 
conditions and customs of life have changed. Many laws become SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
483 
obsolete, even when not changed by statute and the constitution, 
as this has been; and no principle of justice can maintain the 
proposition in law, or in morals, that a debauchee, as the defendant 
admitted himself to be, can marry a virtuous girl, and, continuing 
his round of dissipation, keep up his intercourse with lewd women, 
contracting, as he admitted, venereal disease, communicate it to 
his wife, as the jury found, subjecting her to humiliation, and 
ruining her physically for life, and seeking to run off with all his 
property, abandoning her to utter indigence; yet be exempted from 
all liability by the assertion that he and his wife are one, and that 
he being that one, he owes no duty of making reparation to her for 
the gross wrong that he has done. 
* * * * * 
The social diseases, shielded by what has been termed the 
"Anglo-Saxon sense of prudery," are doing enormous damage to 
the race. The lack of correct information among the masses of 
the people as to their extent and danger, constitutes one of the 
most menacing problems of American civilization. Has not the 
time come for parents, and in fact for all thoughtful citizens, to 
abandon the false delicacy, the prudery, which, by surrounding 
sex nature with absurd mystery, invites the destruction of national 
health? Young men are taught in school the physiology of the 
brain, heart, lungs, stomach, and other vital organs. Why should 
such instruction cease when it comes to the most important func- 
tion of the body-that of reproduction on which depends the 
perpetuation of the species? The health of the reproductive 
organs also has an important effect on the other organs of the 
individual. Is it not social stupidity to insist on the education 
of young men in arithmetic, geography, grammar, and in other 
branches which fit them for business life, and at the same time 
deny them proper knowledge of a function, the impairment of 
which constitutes a most destructive assault upon their physical 
and mental capacity and unfits them for success?-Social Hygiene 
vs. Social Plagues. 
***** 
The Evils of Masturbation Are Greatly Exaggerated.-It is 
wrong to terrify the mind of youth with the formidable insanity 
specter. While the practice is admitted to be weakening and de- 
basing, and while physicians understand that the youth who wisely 484 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
refrains or keeps the practice under control makes the better 
balanced man in maturity, yet exact knowledge asserts that mas- 
turbation is rarely the specific cause of insanity. The popular 
impression that the practice is the frequent cause of mental over- 
throw is based on the observation that many insane people prac- 
tice the vice. Those who make a scientific study of the insane have 
learned that perhaps the larger percentage of demented persons 
owe their condition to delinquency at birth. Frequently they are 
the offspring of underfed, overworked or alcoholized and often 
venerealized parents. Lacking in physical and mental stamina 
at birth, the delinquent has not sufficient moral strength to resist 
temptation to self-abuse, which may hasten but is not the primary 
cause of insanity. Admonition as to the evils of masturbation is 
not the most important thing in sex-education. The important 
thing is to teach young men the physiologic truths of their own 
natures. The question of self-abuse is quickly disposed of under 
such instruction, since science teaches the practice is not necessary, 
can largely be restrained, and gives the reasons WHY. Science 
presents the possibility of a sensible, well regulated young man- 
hood that constitutes an infinitely more invigorating and noble 
animus for right conduct than the detestable threat of the mad- 
house with its hateful and unnecessary mental anguish.-Indiana 
State Board of Health. 
♦ * * * ♦ 
While we refuse to excuse men who allow the sexual sug- 
gestiveness of women's dress to overcome their self-control, we 
should at the same time recognize that women have themselves 
to blame for much of the existing situation. I believe it is true 
that the average woman does not understand how dress that 
makes unusual exposure of the body may make a sexual appeal 
to men; but there is no such innocence on the part of the demi- 
mondes by whom many of the most dangerous styles are intro- 
duced. Perhaps women of intelligence and good standing may 
some day come to realize their responsibility for wearing clothing 
that means unusual temptation for men. However, this seems 
Utopian in these years when even women of the best groups are 
wearing equivocal dress; and so men must learn to fight their 
own battles against natural instincts stirred to greater intensity 
by dress invented to increase the trade of the women of the 
underworld.-Prof. Maurice A. Bigelow. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
485 
No man waits upon another's wife, provides her with car- 
riages and cut flowers, opera tickets and wine suppers with never 
a suspicion of sex, and no maid who values her virtue will receive 
marked attentions from a married man. When a virgin finds an 
"affinity" she should steer it against a marriage contract at the 
earliest possible moment; when a wife discovers one to whom she 
is not wedded she should employ a bread and water diet to 
subdue her "natural super-naturalism" and reinforce her religion 
with a season of penitence and prayer. 
The proper study of mankind is man; and we can obtain 
no true idea of the animal if we view him only in holiday attire. 
As despite all "progress of science," incubators and other labor- 
saving machinery, people still persist in entering the world in 
the primogenital way, the relation of the sexes is of quite immeas- 
urable importance, and knowledge thereof should not be monopo- 
lized by the narrow circle who read medical magazines. It is 
well that we come occasionally out of the cloud-realm of senti- 
ment and discuss the relations of man and woman from the 
standpoint of practical common sense.-Brann-The Iconoclast. 
* ♦ * ♦ ♦ 
Inside the body, near the bladder, are two glands, called the 
seminal vesicles. When a youth reaches the age of fifteen, six- 
teen or seventeen (though it may be earlier or later), these 
glands become filled with a fluid which is occasionally discharged 
in the night. This discharge is called a seminal or nocturnal 
emission. It is a perfectly normal experience. It may come two, 
three or four times a month, or only once in two or three months. 
It is well not to lie on the back when sleeping, and well not to 
drink much water late in the evening. Lying on the back brings 
the bladder directly over the seminal vesicles. If the bladder is 
full, it may cause an irritation of the vesicles, with too frequent 
emissions as a result. If a boy or man permits himself to get 
into a state of continued sexual excitement by continually think- 
ing of sexual matters, these experiences may happen so often as 
to be weakening. If he keeps himself clean in mind and body, 
however, and feels no ill effects from emissions, he need not and 
should not worry. 
Knowing these facts, the young man will not permit himself 
to become the victim of quack doctors. In many cities unscrupu- 486 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
lous men advertise to cure "lost manhood," "nervous debility," 
"pimples," and other things which have nothing to do with sexual 
health. They try to frighten the ignorant into paying large sums 
of money for the "cure" of diseases which do not exist. Many 
boys are bothered by pimples on the body when they reach the 
age of about fifteen, sixteen or seventeen. These are not an 
indication of any sexual disorder whatsoever, and they need cause 
no worry.-Vermont State Board of Health. 
* * * * * 
Sex and Health.-Health and endurance depend largely on 
healthy sex organs. Until recently there has been silence and 
secrecy in matters of sex, so that women and girls have not 
known the close connection between the proper care and use of 
the sex organs and general health, and the connection between 
their own health and the health of future generations. 
Sex is one of the most fundamental things in life. It is that 
which makes a man a man, and a woman a woman. 
The change from girlhood into womanhood comes with the 
"waking up" and growth of her sex organs, and at this time a 
secretion begins to develop in the ovaries which is carried through 
her body, and adds to her strength and brain power. The out- 
ward sign of this growth is the beginning of menstruation, or the 
monthly flow of blood. From this time on the girl changes 
gradually from the awkwardness of her early teens into the grace- 
ful, attractive period of young womanhood. 
The growth of a boy into a young man at about the age of 
fourteen is due to the growth and changes in his sex organs. His 
sex glands also secrete an exceedingly important substance which 
is absorbed into his blood. The blood carries this substance or 
secretion all through his body, into his muscles and into his brain. 
It gives tone to his muscles, power to his brain, and strength to 
his nerves. 
It is sex, therefore, which makes possible the attainment of 
manhood and womanhood. 
And sex is the means of creating Life itself. "The most 
fundamental thing in the world around us is life; the most funda- 
mental thing in the spiritual life to which we aspire is love. The 
beginnings of life and the beginnings of love are in sex."-United 
States Public Health Service. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
487 
The Sex Instinct and Love.-Sex is the basis of the renewal 
of life. It is also the most fundamental thing in love. Love is 
often tised as the word to describe the strong attraction between 
men and women. This attraction is due, in large part, to the sex 
instinct. 
Sex underlies also the love of mother and child, of husband 
and wife-even friendship, to a great extent, is an outgrowth 
of sex. 
The sex instinct is as normal, natural and necessary an 
instinct as self-protection. Just as the feeling of hunger for food 
has been given us that we may know when to eat and thus pre- 
serve life, so the sex instinct has been given us in order that we 
may create life. 
Like any other instinct, it is evil only when it is misdirected 
and uncontrolled. One way in which human life differs from 
animal life is that men and women have the power to choose how 
they shall use the sex instinct. Its highest and finest possibilities 
can be reached only by directing it toward the building up of a 
home and of a family. 
Marriage has been accepted after centuries of experience as 
the best method of carrying on life, both for the individual and 
for the race. A man or woman who acts in a way which may 
bring children into the world without provision for a respectable 
home or proper care, performs a cowardly act. Such a man or 
woman is called immoral by the public. 
If moreover, the sex impulse is used selfishly for the sake of 
physical pleasure, for any other selfish gain, or even to give 
pleasure to another, the opportunity for the highest and finest 
love in life is lost.-United States Public Health Service. 
* * * * * 
Woman is the object of the sexual instinct. The sexual 
instinct is the unavailing protest against death. Spiritualize Love 
as you may, the sexual instinct is the one great motive. Fancy 
is a fangle to disguise the fact. We wish to propagate because 
we know we must die. We love woman. The instinct operating 
in us endears her to our minds with the sanctity of our vain hope 
against the inevitable. She takes on appearances given her by 
our desire to heighten our desire. The something from without 
the world that we call Beauty transfigures her. She is the abyss 488 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
that calls to us to lose ourselves in it. The last want of love is 
away beyond mere possession; it is a wish to be absorbed in the 
personality of the beloved. This is but a showing of the craving 
for annihilation of individuality.' The very dread of death there- 
fore makes us seek it. What a maze!-Brann-The Iconoclast. 
* * * * * 
Do not tell the children the ancient falsehood that insanity 
will surely result from handling the sexual organs. It is true 
that masturbation is a common habit of certain types of insane 
people and of some neurotics; but it is probable that the habit is 
more often one of several factors rather than the direct cause of 
the nervous breakdown. However, it is scientific to say that the 
habit may weaken the nervous system and indirectly affect general 
health, especially in pre-adolescent and early adolescent years. 
Probably the greatest nervous damage comes because there is 
often greater excess than is possible in natural sexual relations; 
the strain of all sexual excess is more in loss of nervous energy 
than of secretions. The safest advice one can give children is 
that the doctors agree that unnecessary touching of sexual organs 
has interfered with the health of many children and that those 
who avoid this are most likely to grow up strong in body and 
mind. This is the truth and practically the whole of the known 
truth that might have influence with young people.-Prof. Mau- 
rice A. Bigelow. 
***** 
It is generally agreed that the lack of sexual harmony in so 
many marriages has usually a dual cause (due in each case to 
ignorance or misinformation of long standing). First, the 
husband, in his conjugal advances, is too abrupt and inconsiderate 
of his mate's delicate balanced sexual nature, and fails to pave 
the way with the preliminary wooing which in all the higher forms 
of animal life, including man, is the natural forerunner of con- 
jugation. Or he may show amorous insistence during that por- 
tion of the monthly cycle when his wife's sexual vitality is at a 
low ebb, when intercourse is physically undesirable and psychic- 
ally repugnant to her. The second, and closely allied cause of 
discord, is the frequent coolness or virtual revulsion on the part 
of the wife to the sex act; this condition being due to the teach- 
ing of an irrational asceticism, or a false outlook on the whole SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
489 
subject of sex, resulting in the marital relations to an artificial 
frigidity. It might be said, however, that this attitude, when not 
due to constitutional causes, can be usually overcome or alleviated 
by the tactful attentions of a considerate husband, who under- 
stands the psychology of the sexual embrace.-British Medical 
Journal. 
* * * * * 
The Dangerous Quack.-The prevalence of the robbing and 
injurious quacks has been due entirely to the silence and pro- 
hibitory action of the medical societies. Yes! silence, denials, 
ignorance and apathy on the part of the physicians have aided 
and protected the quacks in their wholesale destruction of health 
and morals. Fines, imprisonment of a few out of hundreds and 
thousands, have not aided in letting the public know the facts. 
Publicity in homes, schools and press would long ago have sent 
these tricksters and swindlers to cover. The press has always 
been willing, but without the strong help and support of the 
medical men it was helpless. The few physicians willing and 
capable have been held back through fear of professional 
ostracism-the attitude of the priests of the Middle Ages. 
But just how is one to know who is and who is not a char- 
latan, a quack, a lying injurer? By understanding something of 
the sexual self, of the causes of sex disturbances and their many 
manifestations, of impotence true and false, of the fact that no 
reputable physician ever promises to make an absolute cure.- 
Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
***** 
Most boys and young men receive no information whatever 
concerning sexual matters from their fathers, or other honest, 
friendly counselors. Fathers, however careful and conscientious 
in the instruction of their sons in all other matters, shirk this 
duty because it is a delicate and unpleasant task. Because of this 
ignorance, young men become the easy dupes of the numerous 
confidence operators who in paid advertisements style themselves 
"specialists," etc., and profess to be skilled in the treatment of 
"nervous debility," "lost manhood," "varicocele," etc. These men 
know that most boys have practised or learned something about 
self-abuse; that all young men have nocturnal emissions; that few 
young men consult their fathers about these matters; hence boys 490 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
and youths swallow as truth the stuff which the "specialist" cun- 
ningly prints. 
Probably half the young men in the country have been at 
some time secretly terrified by reading in such advertisements 
that nocturnal seminal emissions are evidences of grave disease 
of the sexual organs which will surely result in insanity, "loss 
of manhood," etc., unless the frightened youth employs the mar- 
velous skill of the advertiser. And the ignorant boy, being 
ashamed or afraid to consult his father about the matter, falls 
into the trap. 
Reputable clergymen, lawyers, and physicians never solicit 
business by advertising; beware of the doctor who does so. The 
young man should seek medical advice from his family physician 
whom he can safely trust as honest adviser and confidential 
friend. A few words of sound medical advice often save a young 
man months of secret, needless alarm, as well as considerable 
money.-Vermont State Board of Health. 
* * * * * 
With our domestic animals we exercise the greatest care, 
we apply all the knowledge with which Science has provided us, 
to prevent the production of weaklings or degenerates. But the 
civilized human community does its best to protect and preserve 
its weaklings. This is quite as it should be; but, at the same 
time, we must do our utmost to prevent the weakling from affect- 
ing the race. 
But it is not the congenitally diseased, or those who have 
acquired a transmissible disease, who constitute all the danger to 
the race. It is evident that to produce the strong and healthy 
we, the progenitors of future generations, must likewise be strong 
and healthy. And to this end we must apply our intelligence. 
If unhealthy conditions exist, we must not seek to propagate 
until these be removed; and if we cannot remove them, then we 
must deny ourselves the exercise of Life's supreme function. 
When people have become enlightened enough to see in the 
Sexual Act something that is not the mere gratification of an 
appetite, it will be seen that the discussion of sexual matters is 
no more indelicate than the discussion of matters pertaining to 
any other of life's functions; and it will then be seen how in- 
delicate are the people who try to conceal such matters from the 
light of day.-Dr. H. R. Murray. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
491 
Consanguineous Marriages.-There is a general opinion that 
marriages between blood relations, even when the contracting 
parties are presumably in perfect health, are often sterile, or, if 
not, the children born of such unions are usually endowed with 
insufficient vitality, malformed, predisposed to disease, or other- 
wise physically or mentally defective. The question has aroused 
much interest, and the result of exhaustive investigation, though 
inconclusive, would seem to indicate that consanguineous mar- 
riage is not per se injurious to the offspring, but that the danger 
of procreation among blood relations lies in the hereditary trans- 
missibility of certain predispositions to disease; and, generally 
speaking, it is advisable that blood relations should not marry, 
even though they appear to be absolutely free from hereditary 
taint, because it must be borne in mind that there is always the 
possibility that two similar predispositions to disease, or degen- 
erate tendencies, which on account of their slight intensity are 
not recognizable in the parents, may combine in the offspring and 
become so pronounced as to assume a definite abnormal char- 
acter. 
It should be mentioned in this connection that there is, 
undoubtedly, an unfavorable element in the marriage of two 
individuals who spring from two races too wide apart.-Dr. A. A. 
Philip. 
♦ * ♦ ♦ ♦ 
After suffering for years many married women become 
feeble, wornout, nervous wrecks; their lives are a burden. The 
operating table is their only hope, and they leave it deformed, 
mutilated and sexless. 
Women should protest against the so-called "medical secret" 
which decrees that they be kept in ignorance where their health, 
as well as life, is directly concerned. That there are men in the 
medical profession in this country, as well as in Europe, who 
have openly protested against respecting the secret where another 
life is involved seems a cheerful signal of a general social awaken- 
ing in this field. 
If women voluntarily exposed themselves to diseases which 
would sap the husband's vitality, making him a dependent in- 
valid, or expose him to the shock of a mutilating operation, or 
death-would men continue to suffer? Would they allow the 
medical secret to protect women in this alleged "Freedom?" 492 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Every girl knows he would neither protect her nor continue to 
suffer. It is women only who have allowed the double standard 
of morals to stand so long, giving men the purest and best of 
their womanhood, but not demanding the same from them. As 
soon as women realize the danger to themselves and their chil- 
dren which they are likely to incur from men who have lived 
promiscuously, they will revolt against such standards.- 
Mrs. Margaret H. Sanger. 
* * * * * 
Who Should Discuss the Sexual Continence Question?-In 
order to reach a proper solution of the sexual continence ques- 
tion, we must eliminate from the discussion certain classes of 
people. We must eliminate the man who is so old that he no 
longer remembers that he ever was young; we must eliminate the 
impotent or pervert, who never experienced any normal desire; 
we must eliminate the bigoted theologian and the narrow-minded 
moralist, who consider extra-marital intercourse a crime, about 
on a par with burglary or murder; we must eliminate-this by 
all means-the asexualized old maid, who has no conception of 
the power of the libido in normal man (or in normal woman, 
for that matter) ; and-last but not least-we must also eliminate 
the debauchee who puts an absurdly exaggerated value on the 
sexual function, and who believes that life without sexual grati- 
fication is not worth living. 
In short, the question should be discussed by normal, healthy, 
free thinking, scientific men, ranging in age between thirty and 
fifty. They may be older, provided they have good memories. 
Only then will we have an honest and scientifically valuable 
answer to this tremendously important question: The existence 
or non-existence of the sexual "necessity."-Dr. William J. 
Robinson. 
♦ * * * ♦ 
Infecting the Innocent.-The conditions created by the mar- 
riage relation render the wife a helpless and unresisting victim. 
The matrimonial bond is a chain which binds and fetters the 
woman completely, making her the passive recipient of the germs 
of any sexual disease her husband may harbor. On her wedding 
night she may, and often does, receive unsuspectingly the poison 
of a disease which may seriously affect her health and kill her 
children, or, by extinguishing her capacity for conception, may SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
493 
sweep away all the most cherished hopes and aspirations of mar- 
ried life. She is an innocent in every sense of the word. She 
is incapable of foreseeing, powerless to prevent this injury. She 
often pays with her life for her blind confidence in the man who 
ignorantly or carelessly passes over to her a disease which he has 
received from a prostitute. The victims are for the most part 
young and virtuous women-idolized daughters, the very flower 
of womankind. 
It would be hard to name a crime so dastardly as for a man 
deliberately to defile and poison the body of the clean, sweet girl 
who loves and marries him; deliberately to inflict upon his chil- 
dren a foul disease-deformity, idiocy, premature death. Yet 
this is done, with a frequency which has at length aroused our 
best physicians to the struggle for public enlightenment and 
protection.-Rev. Orison Swett Marsden. 
* * * * * 
The Masturbator's Face.-Many boys and young men are 
afraid that masturbation can be recognized on their face and 
in their general demeanor. This is foolish. There is no such a 
thing as "a masturbator's face"; pimples are no sign of masturba- 
tion, and on the other hand a non-masturbating boy may be 
exceedingly shy, bashful and retiring. Nobody can recognize by 
your face that you have been masturbating, and do not make 
hasty conclusions in judging others. 
I am laying emphasis on this point because, in my opinion, 
there are few beliefs that have caused greater mischief than the, 
erroneous idea that there are unmistakable tell-tale marks by which 
we can know positively whether or not a person is a masturbator. 
Of course, if a boy or young man masturbates to excess, he may 
become anemic and his fact get a pale, dingy look, with rings 
around the eyes, etc. But these facial characteristics do not differ 
in any way from those produced by many other diseases. A bad 
stomach, insomnia from any cause, a congested prostate, piles, 
and so on, may produce the same facial appearance. It is 
peculiar that a person may look the picture of health, but having 
heard or read that masturbation may be diagnosed by merely 
looking at one's face, he will begin to imagine that this is the case 
with him, and that everybody knows that he was addicted to the 
habit.-Dr. William J. Robinson. 494 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Ignorance and Venereal Disease.-Venereal diseases have 
ruined nations, crippled millions of people, their baneful effects 
have been passed on from generation to generation. Crime, 
insanity, viciousness and defectives have been our inheritances 
and man has been thinking and saying, "It is the way of the 
world-it is man's punishment for the original sin," and stupidly 
let it go at that. 
Such an attitude no longer prevails. We are insisting that 
the diseased ones should not marry nor propagate. What the 
Church and Society, even up to five years ago, constantly ignored 
or accepted as a subject never to preach or talk about is now 
commonly discussed and explained, with the purpose and deter- 
mination of bringing about better social health and moral con- 
ditions. 
To get rid of evil you must face it. To win battles you 
must go to the front. To zmderstand the hidden forces in man 
which have been the causes for so much of the past sexual 
excesses and accompanying mental and nervous troubles we must 
face their trenches and dig them out. 
Make no mistake: The sexual instincts and forces cannot 
be separated from the other primal instincts and forces, func- 
tions or impulses.-Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
* * * * * 
Marriage has been too thoughtlessly recommended as a cure 
for masturbation, for pollutions, for spermatorrhea, even for a 
lack of libido and for homosexuality. This was due to the gen- 
eral ignorance of the profession in matters sexual. Let us hope 
that all those who study this book will be more careful in the 
future, and will not dispense the matrimonial advice thought- 
lessly and indiscriminately. 
If I write on this subject so frequently and so emphatically, 
it is because I know the inside histories of too many unhappy 
homes. "Get married." And he gets married and he finds either 
that he is unable to perform the sexual act at all, or if he per- 
forms it, that it does not satisfy him. And he curses the physician 
for his advice. And I state it as my positive opinion that the 
ignorance of our profession of the physiology, pathology and 
psychology of the sex instinct, and the careless, thoughtless 
counsel so often given without any consideration of the possible SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
495 
consequences, is responsible more than anything else for the 
contempt in which the medical profession is held by a large num- 
ber of the laity, and for the alarming antagonism to it in many 
quarters. Thoughtless advice to a confirmed masturbator or to 
an impotent to get married may result in the life-long unhappiness 
of two individuals.-Dr. William J. Robinson. 
It is especially hard to understand how any medical men 
could recommend to a young man to resort to illicit relations for 
health and to jeopardize his own health and that of his future 
family. If it is justified to recommend illicit relations to a young 
man, as a cure for masturbation and its resulting neurasthenia, 
instead of explaining to him that a healthy hygiene and the 
exercise of his will-power will make easy the control of the desire 
without any loss of health, then why not recommend the same 
remedy to young women? Continence is no more injurious to 
the man than to the woman. The conventional view that incon- 
tinence in men is a necessary condition of health must be cor- 
rected. Instead of the popular fallacy that a young man is 
physically the worse for a clean moral life, the entire weight of 
evidence of the world's foremost medical scholars is unreservedly 
of the opinion that he is physically better for it. It is recognized 
by the highest authorities that continence is perfectly compatible 
with the most perfect health. Chastity properly understood is 
health, it never does any harm to mind or body. It is the con- 
sensus of the opinions of most of the great medical thinkers that 
it is not prejudicial to the health of a man to keep his body clean 
until he has found a true mate in life.-Dr. Bernard S. Talmey. 
* * * * * 
The testimony of expert witnesses with regard to the 
influence of masturbation in producing other forms of psychoses 
and neuroses is becoming equally decisive; and here, also, the 
traditions of Tissot are being slowly effaced. "I have not, in the 
whole of my practice," wrote West, forty years ago, "out of a 
large experience among children and women, seen convulsions, 
epilepsy, or idiocy induced by masturbation in any child of either 
sex. Neither have I seen any instance in which hysteria, epilepsy, 
or insanity in women after puberty was due to masturbation, as 
its efficient cause." Gowers speaks somewhat less positively, but 496 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
regards masturbation as not so much a cause of true epilepsy as 
of atypical attacks, sometimes of a character intermediate between 
the hysteroid and the epileptoid form; this relationship he has 
frequently seen in boys. Leyden, among the causes of diseases 
of the spinal cord, does not include any form of sexual excess. 
"In moderation," Erb remarks, "masturbation is not more dan- 
gerous to the spinal cord than natural coitus, and has no bad 
effects"; it makes no difference, Erb considers, whether the 
orgasm is effected normally or in solitude. This is also the opinion 
of Toulouse, of Fiirbringer, and of Curschmann, as at an earlier 
period it was of Roubaud.-Havelock Ellis. 
* * * * * 
Long Engagements.-There are men who for personal rea- 
sons-long engagements, for example-know the necessity of 
being continent. Many honorable men in this position have a hard 
fight with their surging impulses, and close communion with the 
loved one does not help matters. Secretions occur which set up 
local inflammation of the glands in the groin, the sexual centers 
in the brain are kept active and in time there is a feeling of gen- 
eral relaxation. 
If this state is long continued harm is done to the generative 
system. Nature is being aborted in her desires, and in time local 
congestion as well as nervous irritation follows. 
This is the reason physicians advise against long engage- 
ments, where the man and maid frequently meet alone. This is 
the real reason why English and Continental girls-in fact, girls 
in all countries except the United States-are not permitted to be 
freely alone with their future husbands, and why marriages are 
expected to follow soon after the betrothal, for the effect of 
caresses and contact often does more harm to the sensitive and 
passionate girl than to the man. Many an American girl has gone 
to her nuptial bed completely used up in her nervous force and 
self-control through months of sexual excitement and imagina- 
tions.-Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
♦ * * * * 
Personal experience with thousands of men and hundreds of 
women who have been the victims of coitus interruptus, coitus 
incompletus or coitus prolongatus entitles me to speak with 
authority on the subject. It is hard to determine who, the man SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
497 
or the woman, is more seriously, more extensively injured by the 
practice; but my own impression is that it is the man. While; as 
a result of the practice, both may become afflicted with a lack of 
libido, or even a distate and loathing of sex relations, fast heart, 
neurasthenia, etc., there is one condition which may and often 
does affect the man, but from which the woman remains free, and 
that is: inability to copulate. Atony and congestion of the 
prostate are also conditions from which the man alone suffers. 
As to absorption of the semen by the female genitals, no 
scientific proof exists of any absorption by the vaginal epi- 
thelium; there can be no question there is some likelihood of 
absorption by the epithelium of the lining membrance of the 
uterus. But even here scientific proof is still lacking. The 
absorption of one's own internal secretions is not an analogous 
case: Here the secretion is poured directly into one's own blood 
or lymph stream. But it is a fact that many women suffer intensely 
when in their sex relations they are deprived of the semen, either 
through the practice of coitus interuptus or through the use of a 
condom.-Dr. William J. Robinson. 
* * * * * 
Commercialisation of the Sex Impulse extends to other fields 
than those of alcoholism and prostitution. The filthy picture 
industry and other grossly indecent activities still thrive. Less 
flagrantly but still regrettably, the moving picture theatre, the 
legitimate stage, books, and clothes, all reflect the eagerness to 
coin sex curiosity and sex desire into cash. While it is scarcely 
necessary to be Comstockian in repression of every aspect of the 
nude, there can be no escape from the fact that the vogue of 
"leg shows," suggestive gesture and dancing, risque plays and 
peek-a-boo garments is inspired by something more than a return 
to appreciation of the Grecian in art. It perceptibly raises the 
tempo of sex life, and cannot be dismissed as negligible by the 
student of sexual morale. While we need not become fanatics, it 
is unwise to ridicule unqualifiedly those who speak on the side of 
caution in these things. The trend is there, and best recognized 
for good or ill, rather than veiled under an assumed, because con- 
venient, broadmindedness. If eroticism is to be the trend of the 
times, perhaps well and good. It may be that Nature is thus 
asserting herself in the struggle against modern economic checks 498 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
upon the sexual life. But the profitable eroticism has no excuse 
for being, and every act and every industry which makes a dollar 
out of the stimulation of sex impulses deserves the closest 
scrutiny and the most persistent supervision from those intent on 
sexual idealism.-Dr. John H. Stokes. 
* * * * 
The prevailing impression that men's ideal woman is without 
passion (though it may have a semblance of correctness in theory, 
is not so seriously taken in practice) makes women afraid and 
unwilling to admit their sexual inclinations, and leads them to 
suppress their desires. That some noble women at least, have 
strong sexual passions and suffer greatly by reason of their sup- 
pression is not sufficiently understood. 
Aside from this there are other things which make women 
think themselves more frigid and with less sexual emotion than 
they really possess. Among these may be mentioned: 
Disease or weakness of her sexual organs, especially after 
childbirth. 
Fear of pregnancy and dread of the suffering and discom- 
forts of childbearing, which are sometimes largely of their own 
making. 
The trouble given by taking precautions to prevent concep- 
tion and the uncertainty of the various methods employed acting 
as restraining influences on the ardor. 
Ignorance of husbands about calling forth the desire and 
want of knowing how to do in order effectively to bring about 
the emotional climax. 
Yielding to embraces without desire, together with giving 
evidence of performing a marital duty that is exacting and dis- 
tasteful.-Dr. C. W. Malchow. 
Even if we refuse to believe that social-hygienic teaching will 
protect many young men from sexual diseases, there is the 
woman's need of information to be considered. Women 
more than men suffer the consequences of venereal infec- 
tions. Therefore, every young woman who considers marriage 
should know the possibility of danger to herself and her children, 
and be able to decide accordingly. Of course, even with much 
knowledge, she may marry the wrong man, for correct diagnosis SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
499 
of social disease is not always easy; but if her confidence is 
betrayed and she becomes infected, she ought to know the impor- 
tance of immediate and radical medical treatment. Let me illus- 
trate these statements that women should know the danger of 
venereal disease: One of my college friends neglected an impor- 
tant legal case to travel seven hundred miles in order to tell face 
to face another college friend that she was about to marry a dan- 
gerous man. Being utterly igrlorant of the existence of sexual 
diseases, the girl and her mother characterized my friend's state- 
ment by a short and ugly word, and ordered him to leave their 
home instantly. The marriage occurred and some months later 
the young woman went to her grave, a victim of gonorrheal sal- 
pingitis and peritonitis.-Prof. Maurice A. Bigelow. 
* * * * * 
Sexital Ignorance and Frigidity.-There are women who never 
experience the least pleasure during intercourse, and who cannot 
even understand the attraction of the act. They have become 
mothers several times without having had a single orgasm. The 
common belief, that woman becomes pregnant only when orgasm 
occurs in the coitus, has proven without foundation. 
The most cases of that category concern women of abnormal 
organization, or those who have been influenced by ascetic teach- 
ings, or those who are panically afraid of childbearing, or others 
who have married without love and never have loved their hus- 
bands. Probably the husband in many cases has not properly 
conducted the sexual connection according to the laws of kind- 
ness, devotion and love. 
Many men think it very strange that their wives never are 
passionate or enjoy the conjugal embrace. They consult physi- 
cians about the condition, but many of these have very little 
knowledge concerning sexual matters, the reasons for lack of 
orgasm in woman, and the role the man plays therein. They often 
say that many women are so constituted and one must be satisfied 
with the condition as it is. 
My own opinion is that very few women would be sexually 
cold if proper ideas of sexual life were predominant, if real love 
connected with tender fondling were present in marriage, and if 
married people who wish no children would use proper instead of 
improper precautions.-Dr. Anton Nystrom. 500 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Who Shall Marry?-Marriage at an age too youthful (below 
twenty on the part of the woman, below twenty-four on the part 
of the man) and at too advanced an age (above forty on the 
part of the woman, above fifty on the part of the man) is also 
disadvantageous to the offspring, as manifested by higher mortal- 
ity of the infants, by the more frequent occurrence of malforma- 
tions, idiocy, rickets, etc. Equally disadvantageous is too close 
relationship by blood, since in this way any unfavorable tend- 
encies are greatly strengthened. Upon a certain degree of in- 
breeding, or, rather, upon an approximation to inbreeding, de- 
pends the formation of every race. The "racial problem" in this 
sense is a kind of exaltation of the inbreeding principle, for the 
very idea of race implies a more or less close relationship be- 
tween all the members of a definite stock. Thus the entire 
absence of fresh blood does not necessarily give rise to any de- 
generation; but it is certain that long-continued close in-and-in 
breeding on the part of near blood-relatives in the same family 
results in a progressive tendency to degeneration, because, among 
those who unite in marriage, the same morbid tendencies are 
present, and accumulate in consequence of the inbreeding. 
Marriage between uncle and niece, or between aunt and nephew, 
and the, unfortunately, far too frequent marriages between first 
cousins, are therefore to be condemned.-Dr. Iwan Bloch. 
* * * * * 
In former times the woman exclusively was considered at 
fault in every case of barreness or sterility. When the wife 
failed to endow her master with an heir she was packed off to 
the doctor, and she was subjected to all kinds of treatment, 
curettings, dilatations, etc., and if the treatment remained ineffec- 
tive, she was often divorced. In this man-made world it never 
came to the people's and even to the doctors' minds to search for 
the cause in the man. As a matter of fact, we know now that 
in a large percentage of cases it is the husband and not the wife 
who is to blame for sterility ? In my own practice I have found 
the husbands to be the cause in 80 per cent of childless marriages. 
He is either suffering with congenital aspermia, or what is more 
common, azoospermia, or his ejaculatory ducts have been sealed 
by a bilateral gonorrheal epididymitis, or he infected her and 
made her sterile. And I never treat now a woman for alleged SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
501 
sterility until after I have examined her husband, for a five 
minutes' examination of the husband often saves the wife months 
and months of useless treatment. But the world at large is still 
ignorant of these facts, and the wife is still made the scapegoat 
in cases of sterility. Sometimes the husband who is exclusively 
the cause of the sterile marriage uses the sterility as an excuse 
to get rid of his wife. Luckily the women are beginning to learn 
something.-Dr. William J. Robinson. 
* * * * * 
Let us remember the wide diffusion of the newspapers of 
our day. We cannot prevent children from reading newspapers; 
a statement that applies not to large towns merely, but to small 
towns and to the country districts as well. I speak here, not only 
of newspapers which are known to be sensational, but of others 
as well. The more serious periodicals are today often inclined 
to devote a good deal of space to many sexual occurrences; they 
even err in transforming many non-sexual matters into sexual 
ones, giving them a superfluous erotic background. They miss 
no chance of converting an ordinary murder into a lust-murder; 
of describing a common assault as the outcome of sadism; and 
of writing of any woman of whom mention has to be made in 
connection with some public occurrence, as a young lady of sur- 
passing beauty. But apart from all this, the newspapers are 
today so full of sexual matters (the question of sexual enlighten- 
ment, the prevention of the venereal diseases, the suppression of 
prostitution, the protection of motherhood, etc.), that with the 
best will in the world it is impossible to keep children from read- 
ing about such things. Nor can this be regarded as unfortunate, 
so long as these questions are treated in a moderate manner.- 
Dr. Albert Moll. 
***** 
Protect Your Boy From Quacks- There is no other subject 
which so troubles and worries the average youth of a certain age 
as fear that something is the matter with his sexual life. The 
very secrecy which surrounds it tremendously aggravates his 
worry, because he does not dare consult his parents about it. 
Not one boy in a thousand, under such circumstances, would 
frankly go to his father for advice for he feels guilty; and he 
would not dare to go to an older friend, or even to the family 502 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
physician. There are medical quacks who know this only too 
well, and they take every possible advantage of his delicate 
situation. 
There are thousands of parents who think that their boys 
have never known evil, that they can not by any possibility be 
contaminated, and yet they may be constantly answering adver- 
tisements concerning "lost vitality," "lost manhood," and the 
"errors of youth." These parents little realize the tremendous 
harvest which the quacks are reaping from their sons, through 
the effects of their subtle advertisements and criminal literature 
describing the results of "lost manhood." 
Away with this foolish criminal mask of silence which leaves 
your son at the mercy of such charlatans! If you have not safe- 
guarded him with proper instruction at the outset, at the most 
dangerous period in his life when he has stood tiptoe on the 
threshold of opening manhood, at the very door of his future, 
at least come to his rescue now and save him from becoming a 
victim of all sorts of quacks, who will bleed him, mislead him, 
and possibly drive him to utter ruin.-Rev. Orison Swett 
Marsden. 
% % * % % 
Woman's first actual sexual experience can not, for ana- 
tomical reasons, be altogether agreeable, but is most often more 
or less painful, and its memory not readily effaced. 
The existent emotion will have received a sudden shock, but 
the actual injury is but slight and the discomfort temporary and 
overshadowed by subsequent desire, if due consideration be 
shown. 
In some rare instances the hymen, which obstructs the 
vaginal entrance, is of such size and structure as to impede 
progress, but when once ruptured and healed, which it ordinarily 
very readily does, the subsequent acts are never painful when 
properly done and normal physical conditions prevail. 
Cases are now and again encountered by physicians where 
a rigid hymen is found intact several months or even years after 
marriage, but these only emphasize the prevailing popular igno- 
rance of sexual matters. 
Until such a time when a woman really knows all that the 
sexual act affords, the bedroom etiquette of the pair and the 
varying results are very largely what the man makes them; but SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
503 
* 6 W*E I1 r^uy ul 
GOING TO THE ALTAR IN IGNORANCE OF EVERYTHING THAT MARRIAGE 
SIGNIFIES AND INVOLVES 504 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
after this time, in everyday life, it is practically the woman who 
is most responsible for the congeniality of the sexual relations. 
Some women will not discuss or reveal to their husbands 
their personal sexual status, but will confide to the physician 
many things which if known to the husband and judiciously acted 
upon would very often be conducive to the couple's mutual 
benefit.-Dr. C. W. Malchow. 
* * * * * 
It is obvious that the more extreme and unqualified opinions 
in favor of sexual abstinence are based not on medical, but on 
what the writers regard as moral considerations. Moreover, as 
the same writers are usually equally emphatic in regard to the 
advantages of sexual intercourse in marriage, it is clear that they 
have committed themselves to a contradiction. The same act, 
as Nacke rightly points out, cannot become good or bad accord- 
ing as it is performed in or out of marriage. There is no magic 
efficacy in a few words pronounced by a priest or a government 
official. 
Remondino once remarked that the authorities who have 
committed themselves to declarations in favor of the uncondi- 
tional advantages of sexual abstinence tend to fall into three 
errors: (1) they generalize unduly, instead of considering each 
case individually, on its own merits; (2) they fail to realize that 
human nature is influenced by highly mixed and complex motives 
and cannot be assumed to be amenable only to motives of abstract 
morality; (3) they ignore the great army of masturbators and 
sexual perverts who make no complaint of sexual suffering, but 
by maintaining a rigid sexual abstinence, so far as normal rela- 
tionships are concerned, gradually drift into currents whence 
there is no return.-Havelock Ellis. 
***** 
Woman too often forgets. She has been so thoroughly 
"domesticated" by man that she feels too readily that after 
marriage she is all his. And by her very docility to his perpetual 
demands, she destroys for him the elation, the palpitating thrills 
and surprises of the chase. 
In the rather trivial terms of our sordid modern life it works 
out in many marriages somewhat as follows: The married pair 
share a bed room, often even a bed (though this detestable habit SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
505 
is fortunately rapidly decreasing) and so it comes about that the 
two are together not only at the times of delight and interest in 
each other, but during most of the unlovely and even ridiculous 
proceedings of the toilet. Now it may enchant a man once- 
perhaps even twice-or at long intervals-to watch his goddess 
screw her hair up into a tight and unbecoming knot and soap 
her ears, but it is inherently too unlovely a proceeding to retain 
indefinite enchantment. To see her floating in the deep clear 
water of her bath-that may enchant forever, but the unbeautiful 
trivialities essential to the cleansing processes of a bath tend only 
to dim the picture and, if repeated, to dull the interest and atten- 
tion that should be bestowed on the body of the loved one. Hence, 
ultimately, everyday association in the commonplace daily neces- 
sities tends to reduce the keen pleasure each takes in the sight 
of the other. And hence, inevitably and tragically though 
stealthily and unperceived, to reduce the keenness of stimulation 
the pair exert on each other, and thus to lower their intensity of 
pleasure in the sex act.-Dr. Marie Carmichael Stopes. 
* * * * * 
One of the strongest sexual excitements which directly con- 
cern only men but indirectly leads to mutual erethism is the 
modern woman's dress. Although from time immemorial woman 
always so dressed as to accentuate and bring into prominence her 
secondary sexual characteristics, yet the former modesty, the 
customs and certain sumptuary laws dictated moderation in this 
respect. The modern woman acknowledges no restraint. She 
copies slavishly the Parisian fashion which, as a rule, is a creation 
suggested by the demi-mondaine and designed to increase her 
trade by exciting the passions of the other sex. The modern 
woman throughout the civilized world consciously or uncon- 
sciously imitates her erring Parisian sister. Not only does she 
try to bring into bold relief by means of the corset her main 
secondary sexual characteristics, her bosom and her pelvis, but 
by means of her hose supporters, her legs and the space between 
them are only partly veiled. Thus a really obscene effect is 
created which is far more exciting than if she were perfectly 
nude. The effect of contrast and expectation renders the partly 
veiled nudity more exciting. This is the psychological reason why 
man tries to conceal his natural state and covers it by artifice, 506 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
while animals try to win their mates by showing and exposing 
their sexual qualities. 
All these artificial excitements tend to create voluptuousness 
and lead to excesses in venery. These excesses have the indis- 
pensable consequences of making a large number of our men and 
women highly neurasthenic.-Dr. Bernard S. Talmey. 
In dealing with the alleged absence of the sexual impulse, a 
well-informed medical correspondent writes, much caution has 
to be used in accepting statements as to its absence from the 
fact that most women fear by the admission to place themselves 
in an impure category. I am also satisfied that influx of women 
into universities, etc., is often due to the sexual impulse causing 
restlessness, and that this factor finds expression in the prurient 
prudishness so often presenting itself in such women, which in- 
terferes with coeducation. This is becoming especially noticeable 
at the University of Chicago, where prudishness interferes with 
classical, biological, sociological and physiological discussion in 
the classroom. There have been complaints by such women that 
a given professor has not left out embryological facts not in them- 
selves in any way implying indelicacy. I have even been informed 
that the opinion is often expressed in college dormitories that 
embryological facts and discussions should be left out of a course 
intended for both sexes. Such prudishness, it is scarcely neces- 
sary to remark, whether found in women or men, indicates a 
mind that has become morbidly sensitive to sexual impressions. 
For the healthy mind embryological and allied facts have no 
emotionally sexual significance, and there is, therefore, no need 
to shun them.-Havelock Ellis. 
* * * * * 
The tumescent state in both husband and wife is the true, 
natural, and one might add ethical, state for conjugation. This 
simple fact is, however, far from universal acceptation among 
highly cultured men in most western nations. The neglect of 
this biological law is a prime cause of tragedy in countless mar- 
riages. Outrage can be perpetrated in wedlock without any fear 
of legal punishment. Any discussion of the morality of mar- 
riage that ignores this factor of misery is entirely inadequate. 
We should inform all prospective husbands in the psychology of SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
507 
conjugality. For this is by no means a mere physiological, or as 
some say, "animal" act. Conjugation is for the thoughtful 
woman, to a much greater degree than for the man, an impressive 
and very significant rite. Even in the instance of a woman of 
coarser mold, intercourse is inevitably associated with matern- 
ity. The outcome may be months of pain, followed by a going 
down to the very gates of death, and even the loss of life. For 
the refined woman, there are elements symbolic, sacramental, and 
complexly emotional in the linking of psyche and body. And 
profanity or ribaldry may be so abhorrent that a mere expression 
may unbalance the delicate emotional poise. Many women 
become morbidly prudish or frigid through the crude and primi- 
tive roughness of a gross, or unobservant and thoughtless, hus- 
band.-Walter M. Gallichan. 
$ $ $ 
Another type of parents who should know the reasons for 
sex-instruction are those who accept the traditional idea that their 
daughters must be kept "protected" and "innocent" while their 
sons are free to sow a large field of "wild oats," concerning which 
Society in general, and such parents in particular, will care little 
as long as social diseases, bastardy suits, or chronic alcoholism 
do not result from the dissipations. These are the fathers and 
mothers who need the most enlightenment concerning the im- 
portance of such sex-instruction as will make clear the far- 
reaching consequences of "wild oat sowing." Perhaps most such 
parents are ignorant, but some are simply thoughtless. As an 
illustration of the latter, the editor of a well-known magazine 
was recently talking with a prominent author and made some 
reference to the immoral habits of young men. Their conversa- 
tion was essentially as follows: The author remarked, "I assume 
that my boys will be boys and will have their fling before they 
settle down and marry." The editor quickly replied, "Yes, and 
I presume that you expect your boys to sow their wild oats with 
my daughters, and that in return you will expect my sons to 
dissipate with your daughters. At any rate, you have damnable 
designs on somebody's daughters." This put on the wild-oat 
proposition a light which was apparently new to the literary man, 
for he replied, "That is a phase of the young man's problem 
which never occurred to me. It does sound startling when stated 
in that personal way."-Prof. Maurice A. Bigelow. 508 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
There is no one thing that causes the average boy in his teens 
so much misery and induces suffering from the pangs of con- 
science in his thoughtful moments as the knowledge of his own 
solitary or artificial sexual practices. 
Oftentimes these reproaches are prolonged into middle life 
and occasionally old men still attribute their ailments to what is 
termed "youthful folly." 
It is exceedingly hard to tell just how far admonition shall 
go, but it should not be carried to the point of so thoroughly 
frightening the youth as to destroy his morale and pluck. Noth- 
ing does this more readily than the false and fabulous stories 
which are told about the consequence of this habit. 
Young lives are blighted and brilliant careers prevented by 
withholding the truth and grossly exaggerating or misstating the 
natural results of this habit. 
Many men can look back upon their earlier lives and realize 
that the consequences of self-abuse were pictured to them in the 
most appalling colors and the efforts of their parents and teachers, 
with the kindest intentions, did more harm than good by their 
attempts to stop it. They subsequently, under conditions for- 
getting the past, find to their great astonishment that their powers 
are good and this proves to be their salvation. The knowledge 
of their retained manhood puts new life into them and convinces 
them that the statements of kindly-disposed persons were 
erroneous, and they become sound men.-Dr. C. IV. Malchow. 
* * * * * 
No disease has such a murderous influence upon the offspring 
as syphilis; no disease has such a destructive influence upon the 
health and procreative function of woman as gonorrhea. Since 
the welfare of the human race is largely bound up in the health 
and productive capacity of the wife and mother, the sanitation 
of the marriage relation becomes the most essential condition of 
social preservation. It is well known that gonorrhea often de- 
stroys the most important organs of special sense, resulting in the 
terrible affliction of blindness. It has been computed that from 
20 to 30 per cent of the blindness in this country is caused by 
gonococcal infection. Who are responsible for the introduction 
of venereal diseases into marriage and the consequent wreckage 
of the lives of innocent wives and children? Not, as a rule, the SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
509 
practiced libertine or the confirmed debauchee; but, for the most 
part, men who have presented a fair exterior of regular and 
correct living-often men of good business and social position- 
not infrequently what are considered the good "catches" of 
society-the men who, indulging in what they regard as the harm- 
less dissipation of "sowing their wild oats," have entrapped the 
gonococcal infection. Who are responsible for the introduction 
selves cured, sometimes even with the sanction of a physician, 
marry innocent women and implant in them the seeds of disease 
destined to bear such fearful fruit. Gonorrhea is the most wide- 
spread and universal of all diseases in the adult male population, 
embracing 75 per cent, or more. The prevalence of syphilis, 
though not nearly so universal, is variously estimated at from 
5 to 18 per cent.-Dr. Prince A. Morrow. 
♦ * * * ♦ 
The majority of prostitutes are mentally deficient or feeble- 
minded. 
This has been proven during many investigations. 
If we are in earnest about eradicating the hideous business 
of prostitution we must take this fact into account. The truth is 
that such girls are not responsible, and no matter where you place 
them in society, they are bound to continue the practice of im- 
morality. 
" 'Tis true, 'tis a pity-and a pity 'tis, 'tis true." 
But the fact remains and no amount of argument or theoriz- 
ing can alter it. If we are really in earnest, there is only one 
thing that can be done, and it must be done if we are to make 
any permanent progress. These girls must be placed in institu- 
tions under custodial care, and that caYe, together with super- 
vision and training, will most likely have to be exercised during 
the rest of their lives. This will prove an expensive business, 
but it is the only real remedy and it can be proven that it will 
surely pay even when computed in dollars and cents. 
But what about the men? A man cannot be arrested as a 
prostitute because, up-to-date, there is no such thing as a man 
prostitute. 
Unjust discrimination, is it not? Yet a man gets a venereal 
disease and is enabled to conceal it from everyone. He, too, may 
be, and often is, a mental defective and can pass on disease to 510 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
others with impunity. Male mental defectives must be placed 
under custodial care in exactly the same way as the female and 
should be kept under such care and under the closest supervision 
all the rest of their lives.-Dr. Oswald C. J. Withrow. 
* * * * * 
Blindness Caused by Gonorrhea.-Children are not born 
blind as an effect of gonorrhea. They contract it during the 
process of being born, and if the eyes are not cared for after the 
germ gets into them, blindness is very likely to result. 
There is a man in our city who makes his periodic trips to 
Salem to see two of his children who have been blind from birth 
due to gonorrhea. I do not think he knows the cause of their 
blindness, but in spite of the grief it would cause him, he ought 
to know it to ward off future trouble. Now just what is the 
matter with those children's eyes? Their eyes, as eyes, are just 
as good as yours or mine except that they have ground glass for 
windows instead of clear glass, so to speak, through which the 
light can pass. The germs were picked up during birth and were 
not washed away or destroyed by an antiseptic. They began to 
develop just as they do in the genital organs. As stated above, 
they live on the cells of the tissues. Consequently they attack the 
lining of the eye and the cornea, which is the transparent tissue 
through which light enters the eye. If the injury to this tissue 
is sufficient to make little ulcers on the surface, as it usually does, 
scar tissue forms as the process subsides and the cornea heals. 
Light cannot penetrate scar tissue, and hence the child is left in 
darkness when its eyes are as good as ever, only they cannot see 
out, or to be more accurate, the light cannot get in. There is no 
cure for the condition. When we think of the thousands who 
must spend their life in darkness it is surely time to question 
whether gonorrhea is "no worse than a bad cold." Twenty-five 
per cent of the blindness in the United States is due to gonorrhea. 
In foreign countries the percentage is much larger.-Dr. J. Allen 
Gilbert. 
***** 
The estimates of the proper frequency of sexual intercourse 
may always be taken to assume that there is a cessation during 
the menstrual period. This is especially the case as regards early 
oeriods of culture when intercourse at this time is usually re- SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
511 
garded as either dangerous or sinful, or both. Under civilized 
conditions the inhibition is due to esthetic reasons, the wife, even 
if she desires intercourse, feeling a repugnance to be approached 
at a time when she regards herself as "disgusting," and the hus- 
band easily sharing this attitude. It may, however, be pointed 
out that the esthetic objection is very largely the result of the 
superstitious horror of water which is still widely felt at this time, 
and would, to some extent, disappear if a more scrupulous cleanli- 
ness were observed. It remains a good general rule to abstain 
from sexual intercourse during the menstrual period, but in some 
cases there may be adequate reason for breaking it. This is so 
when desire is especially strong at this time, or when intercourse 
is physically difficult at other times but easier during the relaxation 
of the parts caused by menstruation. It must be remembered 
also that the time when the menstrual flow is beginning to cease 
is probably, more than any other period of the month, the 
biologically proper time for sexual intercourse, since not only 
is intercourse easiest then, and also most gratifying to the female, 
but it affords the most favorable opportunity for securing fertili- 
zation.-Dr. Iwan Bloch. 
* * * * * 
It seems almost incredible that in some countries medical 
men who are not ashamed to throw young men into the arms of 
prostitution blush when mention is made of anti-conceptional 
methods. This false modesty, created by custom and prejudice, 
waxes indignant at innocent things while it encourage the greatest 
infamies. 
It is important to observe that Holland, the country which 
takes most care that children shall be well and voluntarily con- 
ceived, has increased its survival-rate and has thereby not 
diminished but increased its population, and has the lowest infant 
mortality in Europe. While in America, where the outrageous 
''Comstock Laws" confuse wise scientific prevention with illegal 
abortion and label them both as "obscene," thus preventing people 
from obtaining decent hygienic knowledge, horrible and criminal 
abortion is more frequent than in any other country. 
It should be realized that all the proper medical methods of 
preventing undesired pregnancy consist, not in destroying an 
already growing embryo, but in preventing the male semen from 512 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
reaching the unfertilized egg cell. This may be done either by 
shutting the semen away from the opening of the womb or by 
securing the death of all (instead of the natural death of all but 
one) of the two- or three hundred million spermatozoa which 
enter the woman. Even when a child is allowed to grow in its 
mother, all these hundreds of millions of spermatozoa are in- 
evitably and naturally destroyed every time the man has an 
emission; and to add one more to these millions sacrificed by 
Nature is surely no crime. To render inert the ejaculated 
spermatozoa which would otherwise die and decompose naturally 
is a simple matter, now familiar to every intelligent physician 
and layman.-Dr. August Forel. 
* * * * * 
So widespread is this evil (abortion) that you can scarce 
pick up a paper without finding some abortion nostrum adver- 
tised. Scan the next paper that comes into your home and see if 
the virtues of some tansy, pennyroyal or other feticidal com- 
pound be not therein set forth. Were these crime promoters not 
extensively sold the murderous scoundrels who manufacture them 
could not annually expend vast sums of money without "public 
educators" for their exploitation. These advertisements fre- 
quently suggest the crime; that is their intent; hence publishers 
who insert them are the co-partners of abortionists and share both 
the iniquity and the cash. But even this costly advertising does 
not indicate the extent of the evil, for by far the greater part of 
those married women who desire to avoid maternity are their 
own practitioners-paying the penalty with premature age, 
impotency and pain. 
In ancient Sparta theft was considered proper, but getting 
caught a crime. Modern society has improved upon that peculiar 
code. Adultery-if the debauchee have wealth-is but a venial 
fault, and to be found out a trifling misfortune, calling for con- 
dolence rather than condemnation. 
It is well enough to protect the honor of children with severe 
laws and a double-shotted gun; but the average young woman is 
amply able to guard her virtue if she really values it, while the 
married woman who becomes so intimate with a male friend that 
he dares assail her continence deserves no sympathy. She is the 
tempter, not the victim.-Brann-The Iconoclast. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
513 
The question of how frequently to indulge in sexual refresh- 
ment is one which agitates the mind of nearly everyone at some 
time during the married life. 
Like any other exercise, a certain amount is unquestionably 
beneficial, but just what that amount is it is very difficult if not 
impossible to state, and no fixed rules can be formulated that 
would strictly apply to even a majority of people at all times. 
Very much depends upon the age, temperament, social con- 
ditions, habits of eating and drinking, climatic states, and espe- 
cially previous sexual habits. 
In the neighborhood of twenty years of age the person is 
capable of greater activity and all of his functions are susceptible 
to greater elasticity than is usually found a couple of decades 
later. Any exercise, including sexual, which would be readily 
borne and speedily recovered from in the earlier period might be 
excessive in later life. 
Inclinations are to some extent transmitted by heredity, which 
makes some hardy and others less stable, and a certain amount 
of exertion would in one instance be tolerated and even strength- 
ening, but might in another of opposite temperament be sufficient 
to cause fatigue and be injurious. 
Conditions of life that render excitation more or less fre- 
quent require periods of relaxation to counteract the excitability 
if a happy medium is to be maintained. Sexual indulgence may 
be considered a sedative, but a frequency of intercourse under 
conditions that are recurrently exciting would be depressing if 
the influence of association did not create the demand.-Dr. C. 
W. Makhow. 
* * * * * 
If young men could see the diseased vagina as the physician 
sees it, by electric light and microscope, they would not be so 
quick to throw away the priceless heritage of good health for the 
privilege of contact with the pus-poisoned genitals of the prosti- 
tute. No one has such a profound respect for venereal disease 
as the physician who daily may come in contact with infection. 
Observe him hasten for antiseptics after coming into contact with 
infection. None of it for the wise physician! 
Think of the millions that would be released for helpful 
things if men were to surrender polygamous pursuit. Think of 
the millions that are spent in the chase after the sexual joys that 514 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
turn to gall and wormwood, the millions that apparently are 
largely wasted as far as benefiting the world is concerned. The 
courtesan will consume as much wealth in a year as would aid 
many to a happier life. Then after it is all over, and the man 
has had his "fun," it is universal experience that his reflection 
must be "I was an ass!"-and there is none to dispute the ad- 
mission. 
It will soon be impossible for any man to deceive his wife 
as to the venereal infections. The Ladies' Home Journal, with a 
million circulation, has placed before the women of the country 
definite information on the subject. Other magazines treat the 
subject openly in their columns. The future generation of in- 
telligent young women will be fully conversant as to the results 
of infection. The poisoning of women and children must come 
to an end. Soon Society will not accept any excuse for a gon- 
orrheally-blinded child or for the venereal debauchment of the 
wife.-Indiana State Board of Health. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
The Sins of the Father.-I know of an instance where a 
man, a kind father and loving husband, had been led one Christ- 
mas Eve to indulge in a large bowl of hot drink. At the con- 
clusion of the bout someone suggested that they go to a certain 
place and finish up the night. This man went with the crowd; 
two mornings later he awoke to find himself diseased. Ashamed 
to go to his family physician he quickly sent to one of the neigh- 
boring cities for medicine. When it came he began to treat him- 
self. A few days later his wife told him that she and the children 
all had very sore eyes and to call in the doctor. This he neglected 
to do until late in the day. When the doctor made his examina- 
tion he called the man aside and asked him where he had been 
and what he had. The astonished man replied, "Nowhere, noth- 
ing"; but the doctor shook his head and told him that he knew 
better. "Do you know what ails your family?" "Nothing but 
sore eyes, I suppose," the man replied. "Your wife and children 
all have gonorrheal ophthalmia," said the physician, "though I 
have not explained the disease to them. Now come and tell me 
about it." So the man showed him where the roller towel on the 
back porch served for the family. "So," the doctor said, "you 
have treated yourself and washed here and they have used these SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
515 
same towels, and now they are all victims of your sin. Your 
youngest child will perhaps not entirely lose her sight but she 
will never recover fully the perfect use of her eyes." Upon hear- 
ing this the man burst into tears and cried for forgiveness, but 
it was too late for tears to be of any avail! He had brought this 
suffering upon all the innocent members of his family.- 
Evangelist M. B. Williams. 
* * * * * 
Sexual Intercourse During Pregnancy.-The question 
whether sexual intercourse is permissible during pregnancy is 
often put to the physician. Some extremists and theorists de- 
mand complete abstinence during the entire duration of pregnancy. 
Such abstinence is not only not feasible, but is unnecessary and 
may prove a disrupting factor; it may create not only dissension, 
it may wreck the love-life of husband and wife. I know of cases 
where the wife, influenced by the wrong teachings about the 
necessity of complete abstinence during pregnancy, about the 
possible injury to the child from intercourse, persisted in keeping 
the husband away; and the result was that the husband began 
to go to other women, and he got in the habit to such an extent 
that he refused to give up entirely, even after the child was born. 
It cannot be expected from a married man, who is used to more 
or less regular sexual relations, to abstain entirely for nine or 
ten months. Such a demand is unreasonable and uncalled for. 
All claims about the injurious effects of intercourse on the mother 
and child lack proof and foundation. During the first four 
months of pregnancy no change need be made in the usual sex 
relations. Their "intensity" should be moderated, their frequency 
need not. During the fifth, sixth and seventh months intercourse 
should be indulged in at rarer intervals-once in two or three 
weeks-the act should be performed without any violence or 
intensity, and the usual position should be reversed or changed 
to a lateral one. During the eighth and ninth months relations 
had best be given up altogether. 
And this abstinence should last until about six weeks after 
the birth of the child. During this period the uterus undergoes 
what we call involution: that is, it goes back to the size and shape 
it had before pregnancy, and it is best not to disturb this process 
by sexual excitement, which causes engorgement and congestion. 
-Dr. William J. Robinson. 516 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The ideal of strict pre-con jugal continence may be said to be 
universally advocated, though in the civilized nations it is com- 
paratively rare in practice among the male population. The 
view that no men are entirely chaste is of the same order of 
generalizations as the assertion that all men are intensely libidin- 
ous and addicted to sexual vice. There are many men who have 
never indulged in "venal love," and there is a certain small pro- 
portion whose restraint is as complete as that of a vestal virgin. 
Among the positive celibates we must class the impotent, the 
atrophied, the non-sensual by nature, the anesthetic, and the 
sexually ill-developed, the persons who have lost normal desire 
through long-continued auto-erotic gratifications, and some of 
the sufferers from forms of nerve disorder. In another category 
are the sexually normal and vigorous who control themselves 
through stern effort in obedience to religious precept or a high 
ideal of purity.-Walt er M. Gallichan. 
♦ * * * * 
Our present formality, combined with general ignorance of 
girls on sexual matters, renders a mutual understanding prior to 
definite betrothal generally impossible. Moreover, there is a sort of 
hysterical and pathological love, the product of the imagination, 
which is associated with sentimental words and sighs as well as 
coquetry, but transformed into disgust or hatred by the first 
coitus. Although more common in women, this false love is met 
with in hysterical men. Sometimes the illusion disappears while 
there is yet time to break off the betrothal. 
For a number of reasons, both parties should be medically 
examined before marriage. This precaution may reveal the 
presence of a narrow pelvis or vaginismus in the woman, or 
aspermia, venereal disease, etc., in the man. 
When a woman will only support coitus with a view to 
procreation, it is her duty to inform her fiancee, who can then 
consider whether he will submit to such restriction. If the wife 
will not allow her husband a concubine, it only remains for him 
to renounce his marriage, or to procreate children extra-nuptially. 
My opinion on this subject will no doubt appear very immoral 
to many people, but it is natural and rational. It is needless to 
say that I do not intend that a man has the right to compel his 
wife to have intercourse whenever he pleases. The question is a SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
517 
very delicate one; but, by the aid of good will a satisfactory 
solution of the problem can be obtained in most cases, in the 
manner indicated above. Love and mutual respect will always 
find a way out of the difficulty. It is necessary to avoid extreme 
asceticism and unnatural idealism on the one hand, and excessive 
sexual indulgence on the other hand. In the sexual question 
above all others it is the wisest course to strike a happy medium. 
-Dr. August Forel. 
* * * * * 
Syphilis as a Cause of Inebriety.-Syphilis is a more fre- 
quent cause of inebriety than is generally supposed. Some of 
those who contract syphilis are highly sensitive men and women, 
with very exaggerated views of its probable effects. Their men- 
tal sufferings, whether they be from remorse, fear of discovery, 
or dread of future consequences, are acute, and induce a condi- 
tion of nerves highly suitable to the growth of alcoholism. Or, 
on the other hand, they may totally despair of ever regaining 
their health, and in sheer desperation resort to drink. I am quite 
convinced that the contraction of this disease by some has a most 
demoralizing effect, breaking down the last barrier of self-respect, 
and leading to a consequent reckless plunge into all that is unde- 
sirable, indulging largely in spirits to enable them temporarily to 
forget their misery. The very company which they consort with 
only tends to encourage their drinking habits, in order to prey 
upon them so long as they have money to spend-then the end is 
not far off; the whole wretched story, beginning in one unfor- 
tunate indulgence-in some cases their very first offence.-Dr. 
C. A. McBride. 
***** 
The Venereal Taint.-The most horrible of all evils has crept 
into the bodies, and even the souls, of this generation. We have 
recently had many appalling examples of the horrors of war. 
Shot, shell and bayonet can tear human bodies into shreds. 
Famine sometimes counts its victims by the hundreds of thou- 
sands. Fire, floods and tornadoes have played havoc with human 
lives. 
But all these cruel, devastating forces are more than equalled 
in horror by the venereal taint. 
Venereal disease comes on you silently. It is usually the 
result of an indiscretion, but sometimes attacks one who is not 518 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
IGNORANCE OF "SELF AND SEX*' IS THE MAIN CAUSE OF DIVORCE AND 
MARITAL UNHAPPINESS 3EX SEARCHLIGHTS 
519 
to blame. And once it has touched you it begins to eat its way 
into your life centers. It devitalizes your body, desecrates your 
soul. 
Millions upon millions have paid the heavy penalties that it 
exacts. No words of tongue or pen can fittingly describe its 
horrors. Go into any hospital and watch the various phases of 
this disease in its progress, and you will know that no mutilated 
bodies on a battlefield of war at its worst could be more appal- 
lingly pitiable than the condition of the victims of this scourge. 
Must this Gorgon-horror go on its way unmolested? Are 
we going to stand by with folded arms? Or are we going to 
find a remedy-make it possible for the men and women of this 
and future generations to avoid its destructive power? 
Should we not signal with a red flag, and cry out a warning 
so loud that all can hear? 
The recent World War has given us some fearful lessons, but 
one of the most valuable is the blow that it struck to prurient 
prudery-the real cause of this unspeakable evil.-Bernarr Mao 
Fadden. 
♦ ♦ * ♦ ♦ 
You Cannot Compromise With Venereal Diseases.-Unless 
cured syphilis and gonorrhea, or "clap," know only one result- 
the destruction of the human body. Venereal disease in a person's 
body must be driven out-every trace of it. Otherwise, it will 
spread and grow worse, sapping strength, undermining health 
and leading to serious physical disability; or, like an enemy under 
fire, it may retreat from sight, leaving the impression that the 
body is safe and sound again. Unless completely cured, it lurks 
in the body and may break out again, years later. That is the 
deception and treachery of venereal disease. 
Self-treatment with simple or patent remedies will not cure 
venereal disease. It may cause the outward symptoms to dis- 
appear, but to cover up a disease is not to cure it. 
The only safe and certain way to a complete cure of venereal 
disease is treatment by a competent physician or venereal clinic. 
Also, it is just as necessary to continue the treatment until rigid 
medical tests show a complete cure. Some of the most serious 
after-effects of venereal disease are due to stopping treatment 
too soon. 520 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Self-treatment probably costs less in the beginning but you 
are fighting a dangerous enemy, and the weapons must be chosen 
accordingly. The Allies, armed with pop-guns, could never have 
defeated Germany. Pop-guns cost less but the most expensive 
things in the long run are those that do not give results, and 
the self-treatment of venereal disease does not give results. 
So, if you have intended to treat yourself for a venereal 
disease, or have started to do so- 
STOP! Even though you may be improving-STOP!!- 
RIGHT NOW!!! 
Go to a competent physician or venereal clinic. Avoid quack 
doctors or medical institutes advertising quick cures. They are 
far more interested in your pocketbook than in your recovery. 
Remember that cheap treatment for a dangerous infectious 
disease never pays. With health wrecked or only partly restored, 
the money saved by such treatment can give little pleasure. 
Always remember that venereal disease can be cured. But 
do not forget that neglected or improper treatment may ruin a 
person's health beyond repair. 
Take no chances when attacked by anything so treacherous 
as a venereal disease.-Dr. Rupert Blue, Former Surgeon-Gen- 
eral of the United States Public Health Service. 
* * * * * 
Some Results of Ignorance and Prudery.-Syphilis is the 
disease responsible for an asserted 90 per cent of locomotor 
ataxia, a large per cent of insanity (syphilis, acquired and heredi- 
tary), for a great number of still-born children and for a heavy 
percentage of premature deaths of children, for apoplexy, paralysis 
and sudden death long after the disease is supposed to have been 
eliminated. Insurance actuaries hold that on an average syphilis 
shortens life one-third. Yet because of ignorance of the terrible 
character of this disease, is not uncommon to hear a young man 
laughingly boast to a companion as if it were something to be 
proud of: "I've caught a dose of chancres." What a mockery 1 
The disease has been found not infrequently in the public 
schools and colleges. Yet no word as to its character or existence 
is permitted to be said in some of the schools, even to more mature 
pupils. How long must such a debouchment of American man- 
hood continue? What an enormous bill of damages is laid to the 
door of prudery-"social cowardice," if you please! SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
521 
Again, it is not permitted to say to a young man: "If after 
being warned you go deliberately to the prostitute and contract 
this disease, you should consider yourself a social menace until 
informed that you are no longer an infectious agent. Moreover, 
young man, you have no moral, physical, or social right to enter 
into the state of marriage until you have been pronounced free 
from it, for if you are not free from it you may infect your wife, 
bring dead or diseased children into the world, thus inflicting a 
wrong not only on the innocent, but Society." 
Has not the time also come when a woman shall have the 
tacit right to say to a young man who may ask her hand in mar- 
riage: "You demand chastity from me. In return, I ask that 
you certify that you have the physical right to become my hus- 
band and the father of a family."-Indiana State Board of Health. 
s|c 
''Pelvic Inflammatory Disease."-Pelvic inflammatory dis- 
ease is a general term employed to describe the condition follow- 
ing an extension of a gonorrhea from the more external female 
parts upward into the structures of the lower abdomen. Pus 
tubes, for example, are a phase of pelvic inflammatory disease. If 
the germ escapes through the wall of inflammation thrown up by 
the body against it, and gets into the surrounding tissues, every 
part and structure in the neighborhood are involved in the fight, 
and intestines, omentum, and womb are matted together around 
and abscess that may later burst or be opened through the birth 
canal (vagina) or even the rectum. The treatment in cases 
of this type must often be the operation euphoniously called 
"hysterectomy plus bilateral salpingo-odphorectomy" or "pan- 
hysterectomy." After it the woman is usually told that a piece 
of one ovary was left (as it often is) so that she can still feel 
she is a woman, since that is all the evidence of the fact that she 
will ever have from that time on, except that she will continue 
to wear skirts. For the benefit of her husband they leave her a 
vagina; for the benefit of herself, perhaps, a piece of ovary. To 
hear such a woman, so defenceless-looking in her braided hair 
and ether jacket, whisper timidly as they wheel her, uncomplain- 
ing, up to the operating table: "I do hope they'll fix me so I can 
have a baby"; to see the skin and muscles gape before the sweep 
of the knife; to think that woman's thoughts for her, through an 522 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
hour of ether haze and hushed comment and the peculiar sibilant 
click of forceps as the surgeon does his uttermost to cobble up 
the wreckage and save her hope; finally in despair he begins the 
quick swinging practiced movements that mean it all must go; 
and then to see her again a week later, after they have told her 
the ovary story, is an experience to make the hardest turn away 
his face.-Dr. John H. Stokes. 
* * * * * 
The "Bad Cold" Lie, Fakes, Drug Stores and Quacks.-One 
of the great obstacles to the treatment of gonorrhea is an ancient 
lie expressed in the now hackneyed quotation of a current remark 
"A dose of "clap" is no worse than a bad cold." This monu- 
mental falsehood is at last being nailed by the combined efforts 
of medical profession and laity, city, state and nation. With such 
an impression of the disease dinned into his ears by tradition and 
associates it is little wonder that the young man of the average, 
type finds the restrictions and exactions of treatment irksome. It 
is little wonder also that he falls an easy prey to all sorts of 
quackery and to the wiles of Jimmy the drug clerk, who is always 
"there" with the right thing to take "to dry up a dose" and has no 
unpleasant ideas about the "water wagon" and avoiding sexual 
relations while the sure is going on. Of course, the boy who "falls 
for" this stuff wakes up with a jolt some day, and crawls to some 
doctor's office with a chronic urethritis that may never clear up 
entirely, and a prostatitis and vesiculitis that have snuffed his 
chances for all that makes his later life what it ought to be. 
There are no superlatives adequate to describe the human vermin 
who thrive on this sort of thing. Among them must be reckoned 
not alone the advertising quack and the men's specialist, but those 
commercial concerns which make and market, and those drug 
stores which permit upon their shelves the innumerable "specifics" 
for the self-cure of gonorrhea and "gleet," whose alluring 
promises appear upon the walls of every bar and toilet room. 
The "clap doctor," with his waving hair and the fatherly look 
and voice, is still with us. He is the man who plucks the in- 
experienced boy of the last cent he can beg, borrow or steal, and 
then turns him out with the words "That morning drop means 
nothing; you are cured." Not far removed from his level, to 
our shame be it said, is that type of physician, fortunately be- SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
523 
coming more and more rare, whose conception of the cure of 
gonorrhea ends with "drying it up," and whose ignorance of the 
microscope and all the modern tests for cure is only equalled by 
his scorn of them.-Dr. John H. Stokes. 
* * * * * 
The Results of Gonorrhea.-Following are some of the things 
that gonorrhea has done to many males and may do to any male 
who becomes infected and neglects the disease: Causes stricture 
or narrowing of the urethra. The inflammation leaves a scar. 
The urine not being able to pass freely sets up an annoying irrita- 
tion in the urethra. A stricture often can be removed only by a 
long course of painful treatment. A surgical operation is often 
necessary. Causes swelling of one or both of the testes. Where 
there is double inflammation complete sterility may and often does 
result. Exceedingly painful and dangerous. Victim often suffers 
distinct loss of moral tone. Mental disturbances. Causes inflam- 
mation of delicate ducts and vesicles in deep urethra, sometimes 
superinducing an abscess, very grave and painful, necessitating 
dangerous operation. Sterility is again sometimes the result. 
Often loss of moral tone and mental disturbances. Causes gonor- 
rheal rheumatism, one of the most painful diseases in medical 
knowledge. Here the germ enters the blood, finds a home in the 
joints, which swell to enormous size with extreme suffering. 
Ankylosis, or stiffening of the affected joints, is not infrequent, 
leaving the sufferer a permanent cripple. Causes gonorrheal 
ophthalmia. Gonorrheal pus transferred to the eye may extin- 
guish sight in a few hours. It is an exceedingly stubborn and dan- 
gerous affliction. Causes disease of prostate gland. This gland 
situated at the neck of the bladder, is the "heart of the sexual 
system." Infection of that organ may be the cause of the disease 
becoming chronic or incurable with destructive effects on the 
generative function. Abscess sometimes results, necessitating a 
serious surgical operation. Causes a tendency, it is thought, 
toward tuberculosis of prostate gland and testes, resulting in 
dangerous and often fatal surgical operations. In women, causes 
inflammation of the ovaries, the Fallopian tubes and the womb, 
often necessitating radical surgery to save life of victim. Barren- 
ness and life-long invalidism are, of course, the result.-Indiana 
State Board of Health. 524 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Gonorrhea of the Eye (Gonorrheal Ophthalmia).-Gon- 
orrhea of the eye is spoken of as gonorrheal ophthalmia, which 
while it can and does occur in adults, is overwhelmingly more 
common in children. The very first word that should be said 
about gonorrhea of the eye is that it can be prevented* The next 
word is, that if not prevented, it will probably cause blind- 
ness. Increasing knowledge of the first fact has diminished 
but by no means done away with the importance of the 
second. Gonorrheal ophthalmia is a disease of the inno- 
cents. The usual time of infection is in the passage of the 
child down the infected birth-canal of the mother. The bare 
thought of a little chubby child's bright eyes being ground through 
the filthy pus of a "clap" sickens a decent man. Yet this is exactly 
what happens, and its mother, all unknowing, is made the doer of 
it. Usually within twenty-four hours after birth, if a preventive 
has not been used, pus begins to form in the eyes, and with almost 
lightning-like rapidity the clear, bright cornea of the eye ulcerates, 
under the swollen, pus-filled lids, breaks through, and lens and all 
collapse into the opening. When the process subsides, the baby 
is blind. The mere statement that one-third of the blindness in 
asylums and one-half the blindness dating from birth is due to 
gonorrhea of the eye conveys no impression whatever of the 
tragedy. One has to see one of these little children, rocking back 
and forth in a railed-in chair, waving its hand between face and 
window because that flickering of the finger shadows across the 
twilight is all it will ever know of more than half of life, one has 
to see this thing, and watch the baby groping about on the floor 
and gurgling as it feels of your shoe-strings, really to know in the 
soul of him, what gonorrhea means.-Dr. John H. Stokes. 
* * * * * 
The Unfair Double Standard.-The world has formerly 
excused sexual immorality in men while insisting upon purity in 
women. One reason is that the sex instinct is more easily aroused 
in most men than in most women. The stronger feeling is due to 
•The prevention of.gonorrhea of the eye is. accomplished by the use of a 1 per 
cent solution of silver nitrate, which is dropped into the eyes immediately after birth. 
In the vast majority of civilized countries this is now a universal and legally com- 
pulsory practice. It is required by most of our states, and it should be done on every 
baby born into the world, no matter what its parentage. The necessary medicine and 
directions for carrying out this protective measure can be obtained from any state 
board of health. The universal observance of this preventive measure will in time 
banish from the earth the gonorrheal blindness that begins in infancy. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
525 
one of Nature's measures for promoting new life. Since the egg- 
cell of the mother is in readiness only at infrequent intervals, the 
sperm cells must always be in readiness to unite with the ovum 
in order that it may not be lost. 
But we are beginning to face facts, and no longer excuse men 
who do not control their sex impulses. Physicians tell us that 
sex union is not necessary to the health of men, as many people 
used to believe. This was one of the important lessons taught to 
every American soldier by order of the Government during the 
War. Any man who claims that sexual intercourse is necessary 
to his health is ignorant of the facts, or else is using the lie basely 
to induce some girl to sacrifice herself for his pleasure. 
There is no longer any excuse for a different standard of 
morality for men and women. 
Women and girls are to a great extent responsible for setting 
and maintaining a new standard. 
In the first place, they must demand clean living from the 
men of their choice; and in the second place, they must help them 
by avoiding actions which arouse this natural but dangerous 
impulse and make it difficult for them to control their conduct. 
Many girls thoughtlessly stimulate the sex emotions of their 
men friends by careless words, familiar acts, and too thin or other- 
wise "suggestive" and conspicuous clothing. 
A girl, sure of her own self-control, may see no harm in 
indulging in a flirtation, but she may not be aware how greatly 
she is arousing the feelings of the man and making herself respon- 
sible for his temptation and mistakes. If she is not the sort of 
girl from whom he can obtain gratification for his feelings, it 
frequently happens that he will go elsewhere to other girls who 
may be less able to protect themselves. There is a physical danger 
also to the self-controlled girl who indulges in frequent "spoon- 
ing." Long-continued "spooning" involves an emotional strain 
which saps the vitality and weakens the girl both physically and 
mentally. It sometimes makes her incapable of real affection in 
marriage. 
If girls are to demand clean living from their men friends 
they must learn to treat them in a frank and friendly way as 
comrades and to help them maintain a high standard, instead of 
trying to win their admiration by purely physical appeal.-Ohio 
State Board of Health. 526 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The Tragedy of the Nuptial Chamber.-When first enter- 
ing upon the marriage relation, young husbands are in danger of 
making some very serious mistakes. Many a husband has had 
cause to regret that in his lack of consideration he has allowed 
his passion to awaken in his wife such a feeling of disgust as to 
obliterate her affection for him, to blast the prospects of all future 
happiness, and to render both himself and his wife miserable 
throughout all their subsequent years. * * * With ignorance on 
the one side, inconsideration and ungovernable passion upon the 
other, the combination is unfortunate and the results are often 
serious. The first act of the drama which is to culminate in 
separation and an effort to secure a divorce, is often enacted 
upon the night of the very day which witnessed the marriage 
ceremony. The ignorance and inconsiderateness or both are 
alike to blame for this sad result-the wife for her lack of 
knowledge and consideration, and the husband for his lack of 
intelligent and thoughtful appreciation of the delicacies and dan- 
gers of the new relation. * * * It is enough to make a 
thoughtful and considerate man blush to think of the scores of 
wives who annually confess to their physicians that the only rape 
that was ever committed upon them was by their own husbands 
the first day of ther married life.-Rev. Sylvanus Stall. 
* * * * * 
Don't Brush the Bloom from the Fruit.-Do not be in too 
great haste to brush the bloom from the fruit you covet. It will 
lose half its attractions at once. Practice in lawful wedlock the 
arts of the experienced lover rather than the violence of the man 
who commits rape, and you will find the reward of your patience 
very sweet and lasting. This bud of passion cannot be rudely 
forced open. Its development must be the work of time. If 
the young wife is met with violence, if she finds that her husband 
regards the gratification of his own desires more than her feel- 
ings-and if she be worn and wearied with excesses in the early 
days of her married life, the bud will be blighted. The husband 
will have only himself to blame if he is bound all his life to an 
apathetic, irresponsive wife. It is easy to imagine the unsatis- 
factory conjugal relations which are brought about in punish- 
ment of the husband's early impetuosity and ignorance. He 
finds an unreciprocal wife, doubts her affection for him, because SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
527 
with his masculine nature, he cannot conceive of a love unblended 
with passion. She, in her defrauded womanhood, feels aggrieved 
and debased by any conjugal approach-especially by an enforced 
one-and finds it equally hard to understand how affection and 
passion can be united; the one she knows to be so self-forgetful 
and denying, and the other she has such abundant cause for believ- 
ing utterly selfish and rapacious.-Dr. E. B. Duffy. 
* ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
Methods and Technic of Sex Instruction.-The age at which 
children begin to acquire first impressions of sex is much less than 
is commonly supposed, and much earlier than the age of the official 
attempts to impart information. The estimated age of first sexual 
impressions in a large survey was 9.6 years, the age at which 
wholesome instruction was first received 15.5 years. The sex 
education of children as such must, therefore, be begun much 
earlier than puberty, as previously pointed out. If the parent 
frankly confronts the first questions asked by the child and 
answers them simply, truthfully and directly, without too much 
detail, the simplicity of the child and the entire absence of the 
self-consciousness of puberty will make the situation easier to 
manage thereafter. The child should be repeatedly impressed 
with the fact that the source of information on such matters is the 
father and mother, not friends and companions, and that the sub- 
ject is never to be discussed outside. Emphasis on the impersonal 
and larger aspects of sex is essential. Children respond well, in 
my experience, to explanations of honorable conduct toward each 
other. The physical side should be biologized at first by the use 
of plants and other animals, but to be effective it must always 
come back to human beings, although an excessive literalism is to 
be avoided. While corn and tiger lilies and other examples from 
real life are valuable, pictures of human anatomy are generally 
conceded to be undesirable because too suggestive. The choice of 
words is the most embarrassing problem to the untrained. It can 
be overcome to no small extent by reading some of the literature 
illustrating methods of approach, which is obtainable from 
accredited sources at the present time. During the earlier years 
of a child's life it should be taught personal cleanliness, learn not 
to meddle with the genitalia, and acquire a profound respect for 
these parts, which little children learn well on repeated insistence. 528 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
If children are found to have made a false start, it is the height of 
folly to resort to fear or threats. Both of them drive the child 
violently in upon himself, and in the case of masturbation espe- 
cially, lead to mental states infinitely worse than the original 
trouble. In the earlier years is laid the whole foundation of the 
intimate friendliness between parent and child which will draw 
the two together and make the child approachable during the 
transitions and self-consciousness of puberty. The parent must 
play an active part and move toward the child, not wait for the 
latter to approach him. It is surprising how easily satisfied a 
child's curiosity is, and how often vicious information comes to 
him gratuitously, and not of his own seeking.-Dr. John H. 
Stokes. 
♦ * * * * 
"Not only is the apparatus of sexual excitement in women 
more complex than in men, but-in part, possibly as a result of 
this greater complexity-it much more frequently requires to be 
actively aroused. In men tumescence tends to occur almost 
spontaneously, or under the simple influence of accumulated 
semen. In women, also especially in those who live a natural 
and healthy life, sexual excitement also tends to occur spon- 
taneously, but by no means so frequently as in men. The com- 
parative rarity of sexual dreams in women who have not had 
sexual relationships alone serves to indicate this sexual differ- 
ence. In a very large number of women the sexual impulse re- 
mains latent until aroused by a lover's caresses. The youth 
spontaneously becomes a man; but the maiden-as it has been 
said-"must be kissed into a woman." 
One result of this characteristic is that, more especially when 
love is unduly delayed beyond the first youth, this complex 
apparatus has difficulty in responding to the unfamiliar demands 
of sexual excitement. Moreover, delayed normal sexual relations, 
when the sexual impulse is not absolutely latent, tend to induce 
all degrees of perverted or abnormal sexual gratification, and 
the physical mechanism when trained to respond in other ways 
often fails to respond normally when, at last, the normal condi- 
tions of response are presented. In all these ways passivity and 
even aversion may be produced in the conjugal relationship. The 
fact that it is almost normally the function of the male to arouse SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
529 
the female, and that the greater complexity of the sexual 
mechanism in women leads to more frequent disurbance of that 
mechanism, produces a simulation of organic sexual coldness 
which has deceived many.-Havelock Ellis. 
* * * * * 
In an instructive article ("Why Girls Go Wrong," Ladies' 
Home Journal, January, 1907) B. B. Lindsey, who, as judge of 
the Juvenile Court of Denver, is able to speak with authority, 
brings forward ample evidence on this head. Both girls and 
boys, he has found, sometimes possess manuscript books in which 
they had written down the crudest sexual things. These children 
were often sweet-faced, pleasant, refined and intelligent, and 
they had respectable parents; but no one had ever spoken to 
them of sex matters, except the worst of their school-fellows or 
some coarse-minded and reckless adult. By careful inquiry 
Lindsey found that only in one in twenty cases had the parents 
ever spoken to the children of sexual subjects. In nearly every 
case the children acknowledged that it was not from their parents, 
but in the street or from older companions, that they learned 
the facts of sex. The parents usually imagined that their children 
were absolutely ignorant of these matters, and were astonished 
to realize their mistake; "parents do not know their children, nor 
have they the least idea of what their children know, or what 
their children talk about and do when away from them." The 
parents guilty of this neglect to instruct their children are, Lindsey 
declares, traitors to their children. From his own experience he 
judges that nine-tenths of the girls who "go wrong," whether or 
not they sink in the world, do so owing to the inattention of 
parents, and that in the case of most prostitutes the mischief is 
really done before the age of twelve; "every wayward girl I have 
talked to has assured me of this truth." He considers that nine- 
tenths of school-boys and school-girls, in town or country, are 
very inquisitive regarding matters of sex and, to his own amaze- 
ment, he has found that in the girls this is as marked as in the 
boys.-Ladies' Home Journal. 
***** 
It were idle to talk of "reforming" women who never pos- 
sessed the faintest conception of modesty; in whom the brutish 
nature dominates the divine; but these form a very inconsiderable 
portion of that vast array upon whose brows blazes the scarlet 530 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
brand of the courtesan. A vast majority of these unfortunates 
feel their degradation as no male malefactor ever felt his dis- 
grace; would, were it possible, wash the stains from their souls 
with their heart's blood. Every year of the world thousands of 
them, unable further to bear their weight of shame, longer to 
endure the fierce scourgings of the fire-whips of an avenging 
conscience, burst the gates of death, hide in the grave from a 
cold world's bitter scorn. Other escape there is none; Society 
will not receive them back, its doors are irrevocably closed to 
them. They may knock, but it will not be opened unto them; 
they may come on their knees, groping their way through 
penitential tears, but they will be spurned from its portals with 
foul reproach. Society made them what they are; it now sits in 
judgment upon them and declares that they shall be no other. 
From the lips of the stern judge are never heard those words, 
the sweetest that ever fell on mortal ears, divinest sentence that 
ever passed the lips of God or man, "Go and sin no more!" Other 
criminals reform. The thief becomes an honest man; the forger 
lives down his crime; the manslayer purifies his bloody hands 
with a life-time of noble deeds; but once a courtesan always a 
courtesan. There is no place in all the wide world but the bagnio 
for the woman who has once erred-no matter how youthful or 
inexperienced, how foul her betrayal.-Brann-The Iconoclast. 
* * * * * 
Dangers of Masturbation Greatly Exaggerated.-The 
dangers of masturbation have been greatly exaggerated. Chiefly 
since the publication, at the end of the eighteenth century, of 
Tissot's book on masturbation, but to some extent also even 
earlier, it has been usual to refer to masturbation the occurrence 
of innumerable diseases, including mental disorders and locomotor 
ataxia. I do not propose to reproduce the account given by 
Tissot, and after him by Hufeland, and also by the innumerable 
quacks and swindlers who trade in the "cure" of "secret dis- 
eases"-these latter, preying upon the fears of humanity, declare 
that every possible affliction in both sexes may result from 
masturbation, and recommend innumerable miraculous remedies 
for these often imaginary ills. Disorders and displacements of 
the womb, ulcers, and cancer, gastralgia and gastric spasms, 
jaundice, pains in the nose, are supposed in women to result from 
masturbation, as well as "the whites," nymphomania, etc. There SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
531 
is hardly a single organ of the body of which disease and de- 
struction have not by man been referred to masturbation. In 
reality all this is false. It is more than doubtful whether, as far 
as adults are concerned, occasional masturbation is necessarily 
more harmful than normal sexual intercourse. According to my 
own observations, the principal question is whether, in masturba- 
tion, the bodily and mental stimuli employed to obtain sexual 
gratification involve an especial shock to the nervous system- 
a greater shock than results from normal sexual intercourse. 
More powerful shock may, indeed, arise from the fact that the 
masturbatory act is apt to be repeated with excessive frequency; 
and we have to admit that the chief danger of masturbation lies 
in the fact that there is so grave a risk of sexual excess.-Dr. 
Albert Moll. 
* * * * * 
Consider the controversy that has raged with regard to the 
providing of prophylactic outfits to our men in the army and 
navy. One would think this was a simple matter. Precautions 
taken before, or within a short time after contact, enormously 
lessen the dangers of infection. And yet prophylaxis is objected 
to on the grounds that it is immoral, that it invites to sexual 
indulgence by providing immunity from infection. It is also 
held to give rise to a false security. 
Really, it is difficult to have patience. Huge sums are being 
spent in treating these diseases after they have been contracted, 
but we must not give our young men the means whereby they 
may be prevented from being contracted. Such miserable 
prejudice would be funny, unless one remembers the unconscious 
cause which gives it so burning a strength. 
During the War I attended a conference to protest against 
the giving of prophylactic outfits to the overseas troops. It was 
called and conducted by ladies, the incarnation of all the virtues, 
effervescing in the most appalling sentimentality I have ever come 
across, even at meetings of women met to discuss the morals 
of men. Interminable floods of gush! They talked of nothing 
but purity, its beauty, its healthfulness, its moral uplifting to the 
soul of the young man-its devil knows what! Venereal diseases 
were Nature's punishment for impurity; to provide prophylaxis 
was to insult the pure youth, to hurry on to sin the youth who 
was not pure. Such was the pleasing doctrine slowly and solidly 532 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
GONORRHEA AND SYPHILIS CONSTITUTE THE MOST URGENT, VITAL HEALTH PROB- 
LEM CONFRONTING THE COUNTRY TODAY. THEY MUST BE EXPOSED TO THE 
CLEANSING LIGHT OF UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE.-DR. RUPERT BLUE, FORMER 
SURGEON-GENERAL, U. S. PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
533 
defended, while the real problem of how to prevent the spread 
of venereal diseases-especially how to stop the birth of infected 
children, was lost in white clouds of virtue. And many of these 
women themselves were mothers! When I remonstrated, at- 
tempted to show that the one fact to go for was the prevention 
of infection as in that way only could the spread of the plague 
be stayed and the innocent saved from suffering with the sinner, 
I was charged, denounced, and cut to pieces. I am sure that 
every one of those good women pitied me-as a matter of fact, 
one speaker said frankly that she was very sorry for my son; 
plainly they were very doubtful of my virtue.-Mrs. C. Gasquoine 
Hartley. 
It is thus a result of the complexity of the sexual mechanism 
in women that the whole attitude of a woman toward the sexual 
relationship is liable to be affected disastrously by the husband's 
lack of skill or consideration in initiating her into intimate 
mystery. Normally the stage of apparent repulsion and passivity, 
often associated with great sensitiveness, physical and moral, 
passes into one of active participation and aid in the consum- 
mation of the sexual act. But if, from whatever cause, there is 
partial arrest on the woman's side of this evolution in the process 
of courtship, if her submission is merely a mental and deliberate 
act of will, and not an instinctive and impulsive participation, 
there is a necessary failure of sexual relief and gratification. 
When we find that a woman displays a certain degree of in- 
difference in sexual relationships, and a failure of complete grati- 
fication, we have to recognize that the fault may possibly lie, 
not in her, but in the defective skill of a lover who has not known 
how to play successfully the complex and subtle game of court- 
ship. Sexual coldness due to the shock and suffering of the 
wedding night is a phenomenon that is far too frequent. Hence 
it is that many women may never experience sexual gratification 
and relief, through no defect on their part, but through the failure 
of the husband to understand the lover's part. We make a false 
analogy when we compare the courtship of animals exclusively 
with our own courtships before marriage. Courtship, properly 
understood, is the process whereby both the male and the female 
are brought into that state of sexual tumescence which is a more 534 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
or less necessary condition for sexual intercourse. The play of 
courtship cannot, therefore, be considered to be definitely brought 
to an end by the ceremony of marriage; it may more properly 
be regarded as the natural preliminary to every act of coitus.- 
Havelock Ellis. 
♦ * * * ♦ 
Physicians make a specialty of diseases of the eye, diseases 
of the nose and throat, diseases of the stomach, etc.-why not 
make a separate and important specialty of diseases of the sexual 
system? Is it perhaps because diseases of the sexual system are 
less "serious" and cause less suffering? Then listen to what I 
have to say: As to life they are less serious; but as far as 
suffering is concerned, I declare emphatically that there is not a 
disease or a whole class of diseases which is responsible for so 
much suffering, so much misery, so much heart-breaking as are 
the diseases of the sexual system-and I do not except tubercu- 
losis. Only the suffering is of a different character. 
Do you see yon disrupted home, where love and peace reigned 
before and hell is reigning now? Do you see that business man 
who is steadily and unexplainably losing his grip on the details 
of his affairs, is losing his appetite and his sleep and will soon 
have to be sent up to a sanitarium for repairs? See you that 
refined woman who has every material comfort imaginable and 
is nevertheless wasting away, becoming pale, irritable, melancholic 
and will soon be-if nothing is done to help her-a confirmed 
hypochondriac? Do you see that wan-looking bookkeeper who, 
formerly an expert, is now unable to keep a position for any 
length of time because he is mixing his figures so? Do you see 
that bright young boy who is losing both brightness and flesh to 
such an extent that the parents are afraid he is running into con- 
sumption? And how about that sweet young girl who was 
obliged to give up college for reasons that nobody could explain? 
And those hundreds of divorced couples? All this unspeakable 
misery and suffering due to disorders of the sexual system! And 
the pity of it is, that all of it, or the greater part of it, could 
have been avoided if not for two things-it the patients had not 
been afraid, ashamed to ask for advice, and if the physicians 
were not so densely ignorant of the subject of sexual disorders. 
-Dr. William J. Robinson. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
535 
Needless Waste of Little Lives.-A portion of infant and 
child mortality represents, no doubt, the lingering and wasteful 
removal from this world of beings with inherent defects, beings 
who for the most part ought never to have been born and need 
not have been born under conditions of greater foresight. 
These, however, are the merest small fraction of our infant 
mortality. It leaves entirely untouched the fact that a vast multi- 
tude of children of untainted blood and good mental and moral 
possibilities, as many perhaps as one hundred in each thousand 
born, die yearly through lack of sufficient food, lack of sufficient 
good air and lack of sufficient attention. 
The plain and simple truth is that they are born needlessly. 
There are still far too many births for our civilization to look 
after adequately; we are still unfit to be trusted with a rising 
birth rate. 
These poor little souls are born amid tears and suffering; 
they gain such love as they may; they learn to feel and to suffer; 
they struggle and cry for food, for air, for the right to develop; 
and our civilization at present has neither the courage to kill 
them outright quickly, cleanly and painlessly, nor the heart and 
courage and ability to give them what they need. 
They are overlooked and misused, they go short of food and 
air, they fight their pitiful little battle for life against the crudest 
odds, and they are beaten. Battered, emaciated, pitiful, they are 
thrust out of life, borne out of our regardless world, stiff little 
life-soiled sacrifices to the spirit of disorder against which it is 
man's pre-eminent duty to battle. 
There has been all the pain in their lives, there has been the 
radiated pain of their misery, there has been the waste of their 
grudged and insufficient food and all the pain and labor of their 
mothers, and all the world is the sadder for them, because they 
have lived in vain.-H. G. Wells. 
* * * ♦ ♦ 
The Stork Story.-It is not possible in our life to speak the 
truth always and unconditionally, but this fact does not give us 
the right to lie to children without good cause. Especially 
dangerous is it to relate to children fables about the stork or the 
cabbage-garden, at a time when they have long been enlightened 
about sex from other sources. I recall the case of a girl seven 536 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
years of age, whose mother was still in the habit of telling her 
that babies were brought by the storks; but this child was accus- 
tomed to join with other girls and boys in playing at "father, 
mother and midwife," wherein they displayed a comparatively 
exact knowledge of the processes of reproduction and birth. We 
are not surprised when a woman tells us that as a child her con- 
fidence in her mother was seriously shaken from the moment 
when she was enlightened by others concerning the sexual life, 
and she recognized that what her mother had told her about the 
matter was quite untrue. I do not mean to imply that stories of 
the stork and cabbage-garden variety are to be altogether ex- 
cluded. It would be as reasonable to prohibit all kinds of fairy 
tales. Some tell us that we should tell children fairy stories only 
so long as they regard the whole of Life as a fairy tale. But in 
view of the vivid imagination of childhood, no such sharp dis- 
tinction is practicable. Let the reader recall his own childhood. 
Does the child regard the fairy tale as a lie, even after he has 
begun to doubt if the world of fairy stories has any actual exist- 
ence? Certainly not! Similarly with regard to the stork fable. 
I consider that the complete suppression of this fable, unless we 
replace it with some like poetical fancy, can do nothing but harm 
to the child's nature. All that we must ask is that such a story 
shall not for too long be put before the child as fact. When the 
child's development has gone far enough, it will be well to 
dispense with the stork story.-Dr. Albert Moll. 
* * * * * 
The most usual consequences of abstinence in man are heavi- 
ness of the extremities, pains and pressure of the head, especially 
the back of it, which is congested, backache, anxiety, depression, 
weakness, general malaise, want of appetite, flatulence and 
diarrhea, pains in the testicles, which are swollen and tender, 
bad dreams and poor sleep, which gives no recreation, aversion 
to, distaste for work, etc. Altogether too long abstinence, causes 
a state of insensibility of the sexual organs, which may lead to 
impotency. In accordance with Lallemand, the celebrated Eng- 
lishman, Dr. Erichsen declares: "That spermatorrhea is caused 
by continuous efforts to suppress the sexual appetite through a 
life of forced or unavoidable abstinence." The chastity, peculiar 
to some ascetics and other abstinent men, has not depended upon SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
537 
moral principles, but has often been the consequence of sexual 
weakness, caused by debility of the generative parts, spermator- 
rhea, atrophy of the testicles, etc. 
Complete destruction of the sexual function often follows 
upon early irritability of the sexual organs, caused by abstinence. 
One cannot then speak of Chastity when the "dead" generative 
apparatus excites "no temptation," and one cannot speak of 
Virtue when the moral will-power is unnecessary to overcome 
outside temptations. Abstinence cannot to a great length be 
endured without such a dissolution, except when a man has a 
weak constitution or never has had a strong sexual instinct. 
The defenders of absolute abstinence may certainly put forth 
men, who without ever having had intercourse, enjoy good health. 
The question in such cases is whether they have told the truth, 
or if their health has been good, etc., as most men at least some- 
times have given away to sexual temptations by masturbation, if 
they have not had intercourse with a woman. A healthy appear- 
ance is often deceptive and may conceal many functional dis- 
turbances or the health may continue good for some time, but 
who can promise that it will do so in the future, if abstinence is 
continued? To begin with only the overfulness of the seminal 
vesicles is relieved by pollutions, but later weakness appears, with 
spermatorrhea, impotency, dullness, headache, etc.-Dr. Anton 
Nystrom. 
* * * * * 
The Continence Advocates-IVho They Are.-Those who 
preach absolute continence from illicit intercourse at all hazards, 
under all circumstances, belong to two classes: (1) Those who 
do so from a religious or moral point of view; and (2) Those 
who claim to be free from the theologic or moralistic bias, and 
base their advocacy on presumably purely hygienic grounds. With 
the first class we have no quarrel; a religious or moral code 
admits of no argument. You believe a certain way, and that's 
all there is to it! But with the people of the second class I do 
have a quarrel, for while pretending to speak as scientists and 
hygienists, if you examine their arguments you will at once dis- 
cover the theologic or conventional twist. Let us be honest, and 
let us not mix or confound theology or a man-made morality 
with biologic necessity. As far as my personal experience goes, 
the men who preach absolute continence to the young generation 538 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
at all costs belong to either one or several of the following 
categories: 
1. Men with a congenitally weak or absent sexuality. 2. Old 
or middle-aged men who have become sexually impotent, and 
who have forgotten that they ever were young and that red blood 
ever coursed in their veins. 3. Men who have married at a very 
early age. 4. Men who, while believing in the sexual necessity, 
still think that the danger of venereal infection and of moral 
degradation is so great that it overshadows the possible harm 
of continence, and that public policy and the good of the rising 
generation therefore demand the advocacy of continence. 5. 
Simply and plainly hypocrites, who while preaching continence 
from the platform, lead a very free and active sexual life. To 
this class belong some of the professional lecturers who are ex- 
pected to preach in a certain way at so much per lecture. The 
people of category five need not be taken into consideration, as 
they are unworthy of respect. The men of the first four 
categories are perfectly sincere in their opinions, but those be- 
longing to categories one, two and three are not competent judges 
in the matter.-Dr. William J. Robinson. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * 
Sexual Anesthesia or Congenital Absence of the Sexual 
Sense and Appetite.-Sexual sensations are so intimately con- 
nected with the sexual appetite that it is difficult to separate them. 
No doubt in the adult a certain degree of sexual appetite may 
exist without any voluptuous sensation, but this is a secondary 
phenomenon. 
Complete sexual anesthesia is very rare in man, it is not a 
special form of anomaly, but the reduction to zero of a normal 
sensation and the appetite which corresponds to it. The char- 
acteristic feature of these cases is that, contrary to what occurs 
in eunuchs and cryptorchids, not only testicles, but all the cor- 
relative sexual attributes (the beard, voice, character, etc.) are 
normally developed, and are in no way inverted as in homosexual 
individuals. Sexual anesthesia causes no more suffering than 
color-blindness, but like the latter it occasions individual trouble 
resulting from misunderstanding. The sexual anesthetic, having 
a more or less false idea of marriage, often marries in complete 
ignorance, and the results are then disastrous, thanks to our laws 
and customs. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
539 
In women sexual anesthesia is very common. Krafft-Ebing 
is wrong in maintaining that in all such cases the women are 
always neurotic. A number of absolutely normal and intelligent 
women remain all their life completely cold from the sexual point 
of view, apart from the normally passive character of the female 
sex in coitus. It is rather the very libidinous woman who is 
pathological. 
We have seen that the normal sexual sentiment of woman 
is developed rather in the direction of love, and desire for chil- 
dren. Erotic men often complain of the sexual coldness of their 
wives, which is disagreeable to them, for pleasure in one sex 
excites and completes that of the other. Cold women submit to 
coitus as a duty, or at any rate only mentally enjoy their hus- 
band's caresses. 
Sexual anesthesia occurs normally in old age. It may occur 
at an earlier age, owing to destruction or atrophy of the sexual 
glands, great excesses, or on the contrary, extreme continence. 
Certain diseases and psychoses may also cause it.-Dr. August 
Forel. 
* * * * * 
Natural functions and demands make the foundation for 
sexual feelings. They belong to human nature, but not as sinful 
feelings, i, e., if they do not murder all that is noble in man- 
and if they are not signs of a low appetite. They are also of 
the utmost importance for the happiness of mankind and the 
preservation of humanity and are thus legitimate and necessary. 
Man would be abnormal without them. Humanity cannot exist 
without love, beauty, pleasure and joy. 
Far from being immoral, the sexual sense is in itself moral, 
if it is held within proper limits and injures no one. 
It is immoral to try to prevent normal activity, even though 
it is done under well-meaning and grand promises of happiness 
in another life. One can expect the greatest usefulness for public 
welfare from happy, powerful and healthy people. We should 
therefore endeavor to further happiness and by no means resign 
it to the "vale of tears," but try to remove and lessen mis- 
fortunes, sufferings and disharmonies, which only reduce energy 
and love of life. Moral education is that which furthers a 
liberal, uniform and harmonic development of all inner forces, 
and immoral education is that which disturbs this harmony. 540 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Educators must consult Nature, not to try to remould m 
Liberty must be the ruling principle of educators. The intellect 
must be freed, it must judge freely and not be commanded by 
fixed, subjective opinions and dogmas. Nature develops an in- 
finite multitude of forms the higher it rises, and it reaches the 
highest multitude in the sensual world. The secrets of Nature 
are far from explanation and only an objective, unprejudiced 
investigation can trace them. 
To set down a fixed opinion of the misery and sinfulness 
of natural man after imaginary dogmas, when one lives accord- 
ing to Nature, is sin against her. Many a one, who does not 
lead a pure life after the notions of asceticism, may be a noble 
and altruistic man, while many a puritan is cruel and inhuman. 
Many are born with strong natural desires, but are virtuous 
as they know how to rule and ennoble themselves, while many 
puritans are really not virtuous, as they, from birth, have never 
had a single sexual desire to resist.-Dr. Anton Nystrom. 
* * * * ♦ 
Masturbation a Cause of Sexual Anesthesia.-In many cases 
it has seemed to me that masturbation, when practiced in excess, 
especially if begun before the age of puberty, leads to inaptitude 
for coitus, as well as to indifference to it, and sometimes to undue 
sexual irritability involving premature emission and practical im- 
potence. This is, however, the exception, especially if the practice 
has not been begun until after puberty. In women I attach con- 
siderable importance, as a result of masturbation, to an aver- 
sion for normal coitus in later life. In such cases some periph- 
eral irritation or abnormal mental stimulus trains the physico- 
sexual organism to respond to an appeal which has nothing what- 
ever to do with the fascination normally exerted by the opposite 
sex. At puberty, however, the claim of passion and the real 
charm of sex begin to make themselves felt, but, owing to the 
physical sexual feelings having been trained into a foreign chan- 
nel, these new and more normal sex associations remain of a 
purely ideal and emotional character, without the strong sensual 
impulses with which under healthy conditions they tend to be 
more and more associated as puberty passes on into adolescence 
or mature adult life. I am fairly certain that in many women, 
often highly intellectual women, the precocious excess in mas- 
turbation has been a main cause, not necessarily the sole efficient SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
541 
cause, in producing a divorce in later life between the physical 
sensuous impulses and the ideal emotions. The sensuous impulse 
having been evolved and perverted before the manifestation of 
the higher emotion, the two groups of feelings have become 
divorced for the whole of life. This is a common source of much 
personal misery and family unhappiness, though at the same time 
the clash of contending impulses may lead to a high development 
of moral character. When early masturbation is a factor in 
producing sexual inversion it usually operates in the manner I 
have here indicated, the repulsion for normal coitus helping to 
furnish a soil on which the inverted impulse may develop unim- 
peded.-Havelock Ellis. 
* * * * * 
Results of Ignorance of Personal Hygiene.-Another thing 
which affects the womb is retention of urine, i. e., keeping 
the bladder full. Many girls have been brought up in such 
ignorance and under such false ideas of prudery that they 
will suffer pain from distention of the bladder rather than allow 
the slightest hint to escape them that they need immediate relief. 
This brings about not only a weakness of the bladder, which will 
in later life be very annoying and really embarrassing, but the 
pressure of a full bladder on the surrounding parts-the womb 
and its attachments-is apt to displace it and irritate it. Then 
again, a girl may be within a few days of her flow, and here the 
pressure of a full and hard bladder may set up an inflammation 
and bring on the period before its time. All this tends to start 
an irregularity, and when this irregularity is fairly established, 
the girl's, and later on the woman's, life is only an existence 
full of misery. 
In fact, I think I am justified in saying that ninety per 
cent, of the women suffering from nervousness, hysteria, rest- 
lessness and pain, comes from the sexual organs being out of 
place, twisted, early inflammations and general lack of care of 
them from want of knowledge. 
And it is so easy for a girl to grow into complete woman- 
hood, full of life, good health and scarcely any unnatural know- 
ledge that she has ovaries, womb or breasts. Most women today 
only know they have a womb from the severe pains and that 
"bearing down" feeling about which they constantly complain. 542 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Those dragging pains in the small of the back so many 
suffer from during the menstrual flow, and those racking head- 
aches, are not natural. The pains mean that the womb is drag- 
ging or else pulling upon its supports; that you need to rest and 
keep off your feet as much as possible.-Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
*■%*'*.■* 
Recently, a woman standing high in the social circles of her 
city crossed off the names of two young men from her invitation 
list. The action was bound to be noticed, and it was. Several 
friends went to her and pleaded for the young men. "Of course 
it is unfortunate," they argued, "that they are not just what 
they should be, but you are very likely to drive them farther 
toward ruin by your action in so publicly calling attention to 
their habits by excluding them from your social affairs." The 
social leader listened. "No!" she said, firmly, "you are wrong. 
We have all been wrong in opening the doors of our houses to 
them. I warned both of them that I would do this if they did 
not mend their ways; and, while they listened respectfully, they 
went right on. For the sake of my own two daughters, and the 
daughters of other mothers who come to my house, my doors 
are closed to them." The woman's stand had the effect of helping 
more timid and wavering mothers, and before the season was 
over practically every door was closed to the young men. 
If all women would unite in taking the stand adopted by 
this social leader toward male sexual sinners, the most damnable 
feature of our civilization, the double standard of morals, which 
makes a woman an outcast for the immorality which is over- 
looked in a man, would soon be a thing of the past. 
Are the effects of impurity in a man less disastrous than in 
a woman? Is there any sex in principle? Is there any reason 
why a man should have license to drag himself through licen- 
tious mire any more than a woman? A thousand times, No! It 
would be loosening the very foundations of Virtue to counten- 
ance the notion that, because of the difference in sex, men are 
at liberty to set morality at defiance and to do with impunity 
that which, if done by women, would stain the latter's character 
and make them outcasts forever. All right-minded people must 
agree with Angelina Grimke Weld that "whatever is morally SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
543 
right for a man to do is morally right for a woman to do; I 
recognize no rights but human rights." 
It is because human rights have been ignored in the past, 
because one sex has arrogated all rights, all power, to itself, 
and dominated the other sex, that we have the absurd and mon- 
strous paradox of a double standard of morals.-Rev. Orison 
Swett Marsden. 
* ♦ * * * 
Jealousy in Woman.-Other irradiations of love in woman 
are similar to those of man. Jealousy is perhaps not much less 
developed in woman than in man. It is less brutal and violent but 
more instinctive and persevering; it manifests itself by quarrels, 
needle pricks, chicanery, petty tyrannies and all kinds of tricks 
which poison existence as much as man's jealousy, and are 
quite as inefficient against infidelity. In the highest degree of 
passion the jealous man uses violence or resorts to firearms, 
while the woman scratches, poisons or stabs. Among savages, 
jealous women bite off their rivals' noses; in civilized countries 
they throw sulphuric acid in the face. The object is the same 
in both cases, to disfigure. 
Amorous illusions produced in woman by the sexual appetite 
are analogous to those of man, but are modified by feminine 
attributes. It is the same with hypocrisy. The passive role of 
woman in sexual life obliges her only to betray her feelings 
to the object of her desires in a reversed and prudent manner. 
She cannot make advances toward man without contravening 
the conventions and risking her reputation. She therefore has 
to be more skilful in the art of dissimulation. This gives us 
no right to accuse her of falseness, for this art is natural, in- 
stinctive and imposed by custom. Her desires for love and 
maternity unconsciously urges her to make herself as desirable 
as possible to man by her grace and allurements. Her stolen 
glances and sighs, and the play of her expression serve to betray 
her ardor as through a veil. Behind this furtive play, especially 
calculated to excite the passions of man, are hidden, in the natural 
and good woman, a world of delicate feelings, ideal aspirations, 
energy and perseverance, which are much more loyal and honest 
than the motives revealed by the more brusque and daring man- 
ner in which man expresses his desires. The fine phrases by 544 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
which man's love is expressed generally cover sentiments which 
are much less pure and calculations much more egoistic than 
the relatively innocent play of the young girl. No doubt there 
are false women whose amorous wiles are only a spider's web, 
but we are speaking here of the average, not of the exceptions.- 
Dr. August Forel. 
***** 
Length of Engagements.-The question is often asked, "Are 
long or short engagements better?" We unhesitatingly reply, as 
a rule, the short engagement is preferred, the long one to be 
avoided, but here as elsewhere, there are exceptions. Where 
two young people feeling they are or will be unfitted for 
marriage for many years, and yet feeling certain that they are 
mates, having their futures before them with problems un- 
solved and difficulties to be met and conquered, feeling they 
need each other's pledge like anchors to the soul, we should not 
discourage an engagement under those circumstances. But when 
the parties are much together there will be an interchange of 
affectionate endearments, the kiss, the embrace and the ardent 
lover's kiss in time inflames the passion of his mistress, he being 
man finds his heart like Vesta's altar-the fire forever burns. 
Temptation, therefore, of the sharpest sort comes, and being 
tempted, both thinking they are to live forever with the other 
anyway, what wonder that long engagements often provoke 
fornication, in many cases betrayal, by giving or taking all the 
privileges of marriage. In Europe the engaged girl is safe- 
guarded, chaperoned continually, in fact, a system of rigorous 
espionage is instituted to prevent this very thing. Not so with 
us. Each has unrestricted access to the other, both are left upon 
their honor, and it is not the honor that fails so much as 
their strength. A thousand times better to have a short and 
chaste engagement, to save all these delights until sanctified 
by marriage rites, then there will be no fearful hours of waiting, 
no anxious dread at each approaching period. Many a girl has 
become an invalid and her strength wasted in watching for those 
monthly signs, sometimes delayed until fear and hope and name- 
less dread have alternated to the breaking down of health and 
the wasting of her moral powers. The best way is to keep 
perfectly free in mind and conscience by chaste demeanor. Omit SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
545 
all loving dalliance that fires the passion, for one of three 
things is a necessity: The sin that. I have mentioned, broken 
health from unsatisfied passion or masturbation, with its 
train of evils often continuing after the consummation of the 
marriage rites.-Evangelist M. B. Williams. 
* * % * * 
Awful Results of Masturbation, Exaggerated.-The oppos- 
ing views on the subject (masturbation) may be simply explained 
by the fact that the writers on both sides have ignored or insuffi- 
ciently recognized the influence of heredity and temperament. 
They have done precisely what so many unscientific writers on 
inebriety have continued to do unto the present day, when de- 
scribing the terrible results of alcohol without pointing out that 
the chief factor in such cases has not been the alcohol, but the 
organization on which the alcohol acted. Excess may act, accord- 
ing to the familiar old-fashioned adage, like the lighted match. 
But we must always remember the obvious truth, that it makes 
a considerable difference whether you threw your lighted match 
into a powder magazine or into the sea. 
While we may thus dismiss the extravagant views widely 
held during the past century, concerning the awful results of 
masturbation, as due to ignorance, and false tradition, it must 
be pointed out that, even in healthy or moderately healthy 
individuals, any excess in solitary self-excitement may still pro- 
duce results which, though slight, are yet harmful. The skin, 
digestion, and circulation may all be disordered, headache 
and neuralgia may occur; and, as in normal sexual excess or 
in undue frequency of sexual excitement during sleep, there is 
a certain general lowering of nervous tone. Probably the most 
important of the comparatively frequent results-though this 
also arises usually on a somewhat morbid soil-is neurasthenia 
with its manifold symptoms. There can be little doubt that 
the ancient belief, dating from the time of Hippocrates, that 
sexual excesses produce spinal disease, as well as the belief that 
masturbation causes insanity, are largely due to the failure to 
diagnose neurasthenia.-Havelock Ellis. 
$ * * $ * 
Seminal Emissions.-During puberty many changes take 
place in the boy, such as change of voice, the growth of hair 
on the face, various parts of the body, and most important, the 546 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
discharge of the sexual fluid commonly known as seminal emis- 
sions. This latter symptom appears in every normal healthy boy 
on reaching the age of puberty, but unlike the menstrual period 
which occurs at a stated period in girls, the seminal emissions 
do not depend upon a special period; they occur at different 
times. Unlike menstruation, which in the girl lasts from two 
to seven days, the discharge lasts only a few seconds, and is 
not accompanied by pain. This expulsion is considered perfectly 
normal, and is not a sign of physical or sexual weakness, but 
a sign that a surplus accumulation of ripe sex cells are present 
and have come to their full development and overflow. Nature 
takes care of this and uses all of this life-giving fluid according 
to the needs of the individual, casting off the surplus. 
It is this symptom that alarms young boys at puberty. It is 
this overflow which enables quack doctors to play upon the 
innocent and ignorant boy, telling him that it is an indication of 
weakness. And it is also this as the result of telling older boys 
about it that leads boys to houses of prostitution; for they are 
told by their ignorant advisers that they must have sexual rela- 
tions or endanger their sexual capacity. 
It is also this overflow which, occurring in sleep awakens 
the boy, and he is conscious of what has occurred; he is con- 
scious also of a pleasurable sensation which this sense of relief 
produces, and unless warned against it he will try at some later 
time to bring on this relief by friction or mechanical means, 
which is known as masturbation-often called "self-abuse." The 
age of puberty is one of the periods in an individual's life in 
which it is easiest to acquire this habit, in girls as well as in 
boys, although the girl may not be conscious of any sensation, 
through the accumulation of the "detumescence." Yet there is 
the same nervous tension that exists in boys, due to congestion 
of the not fully developed genital organs, perhaps slight in inten- 
sity, but it is there and the girl becomes conscious of it.- 
Mrs. Margaret H. Sanger. 
♦ * * ♦ ♦ 
Heredity.-The doctrines of heredity, are, of course, com- 
bated by many, but no man ever thought of combating them when 
applied to his kennels, chicken-coop or pasture. He will send his 
favorite bitch a thousand miles to some particular dog; and 
will pay the heaviest kind of fee that his mare may be put to SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
547 
a record-breaking stallion; he will spend his life trying to im- 
prove the breed in a single strain of poultry that he may produce 
one extra egg per month; or in breeding a horse that will break 
all previous records, and not give an hour of serious or honest 
thought to his bedroom or the scientific breeding of children. 
He will choose the mate who delights his eye, who brings him 
a fortune, or one whom he thinks will keep his stockings darned, 
or his trousers patched, or his stomach fed, or who appeals to 
his lustful fancy; but the thought of scientific marriage never 
enters his mind, and when he has won her, children are be- 
gotten, or, rather, they happen; they are not brought up, they 
come up, and he is quick to charge all failures to Providence, 
while taking credit to himself for any successful or fortunate 
result. 
Often children are conceived on the wedding night in the 
midst of its lust and fears, its mingled fright and joy, as the 
result of one of its sensual acts oftimes repeated ad infinitum 
ad nauseam. It is a fortunate provision of Nature, however, 
that this act often repeated at short intervals robs the semen 
of its spermatozoa. If that were not so, we would probably 
have a puny, attenuated race. No act requires so much of 
careful, prayerful, thoughtful preparation as the propagative act. 
Do not think I am overstating this; let me repeat again that even 
now nearly one-half of all the children born die before they are 
five years old, and more than half of this number before they 
are two years old. Do we need more startling figures to show 
how unfitted most children are for the battle of life?-Evangelist 
M. B. Williams. 
♦ ♦ * * ♦ 
The Ignorance of Parents.-When the boy arrives at the 
age of puberty, he is in greater danger than a girl of being not 
only led astray by companions, but being actually sent into un- 
clean living by those nearest and most interested in his welfare- 
HIS PARENTS. The reason of this is that there has been and 
still is a false idea clinging to many parents that as soon as the 
boy has seminal emissions, it is a signal that he must have 
sexual relations or suffer in health. That the seminal emissions 
are not harmful and that they grow less frequent as the boy grows 
older is a fact of which few mothers seem to be aware. We can- 
not blame the mothers of the past for not informing their sons 548 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
of this physical condition, for few of them knew it themselves. 
Mothers have been as ignorant as the boys of their sex functions 
as well as other functions of the body. They accepted sickness, 
disease, and even death without a question, placing their faith 
and confidence entirely in the hands of the medical profession, 
who, like the rabbis and high priests, made a church of their 
knowledge. 
Fortunately, this condition of affairs is changing, and the 
knowledge of the human body, which for ages has been most 
carefully locked within the medical libraries, is fast taking up 
its abode in the homes of the people-where it belongs. 
Only a few weeks ago I had occasion to talk to a woman 
about her oldest son, whom I considered sick from overwork and 
lack of nourishment. She informed me, however, that this was 
not so, and whispered confidently that he was 16 years old and 
"in that age when he needs a woman." She further remarked 
that she and "the papa" had talked it over with the result that 
the father told the boy, when he had "the desire for a woman," 
that he, the father, "would give him money enough to get one." 
Think of that boy's attitude toward women, and the danger to 
become affected with venereal diseases that he was likely to 
contract! Yet both parents had the sincerest wish to do their 
best for that boy; they give the best advice they knew.-Mrs. 
Margaret H. Sanger. 
♦ * * ♦ ♦ 
Sexual Power.-The individual variations in the sexual in- 
stinct are enormous, and may be said to vary from zero to an 
intense and perpetual excitation called Satyriasis. By sexual 
power is understood the faculty of accomplishing coitus. This 
power in the first place requires strong and complete erections, 
as well as the faculty of following them by frequent seminal 
ejaculations, without being precipitate. Impotence or incapacity 
for coitus belongs to pathology and consists usually in the 
absence or defectiveness of erections. Sexual power and appe- 
tite generally go together, but not always, for it is possible to 
be powerful with feeble sexual appetite, and intense appetite 
sometimes goes with impotence; the latter condition, it is true, 
is pathological. Sexual power also varies so much in individuals 
that it is hardly possible to fix a limit between the normal and 
the pathological. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
549 
The sexual power and appetite in man are strongest on the 
average between 20 and 40 years, especially between 25 and 35. 
But, while young men of 18 to 20 years or more may be still 
tranquil, without having had seminal ejaculations, one often 
finds, among races who mature earlier, boys of 12 or 16 who are 
fully developed both in sexual power and appetite. In our Aryan 
races, however, when this occurs before the age of 14, it is a 
case of pathological precocity. The late appearance of sexual 
power and appetite is rather a sign of strength and health. 
After the age of 40, the sexual power slowly diminishes, 
and after the seventieth year, or even before this, becomes extinct. 
Exceptionally one finds old men of 80 who are still capable. 
Normally the sexual appetite diminishes with age; often, how- 
ever, especially when it is artificially excited, it lasts longer than 
sexual power. 
As regards sexual power we must distinguish between that 
of copulation and that of fecundation. The power may exist 
without the latter, when the testicles have ceased to functionate, 
while the other glands, in particular the prostate, second the 
venereal orgasm by their secretion, when the power of erection 
is still preserved. Inversely, the testicles may contain healthy 
spermatozoa in the impotent.-Dr. August Forel. 
* * * * * 
Ignorance and Innocence or Intelligence and Virtue.-Rea- 
son is still fighting prejudice as to which is the better method 
of conserving the purity of young girls and young women, to 
leave them in complete ignorance of everything pertaining 
to sex, or to instruct them in the science of sexual functions 
and relations. Most schools will have nothing to do with such 
instruction; the majority of parents are equally opposed to it, 
fearing to rob the innocent girl of her sweet simplicity. But 
there are few girls who, having arrived at puberty, are not in 
possession of some sort of knowledge of sexual matters, knowl- 
edge calculated rather to excite prurience than help them to 
preserve purity of mind. 
So perverted is the popular imagination that it is actually 
considered to be more in keeping with morality that a young 
couple be enticed into union-provided, of course, that such a 
union be properly registered-simply and solely for the purpose 
of gratifying their sexual instinct, after the manner of animals. 550 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
That their union may result in the propagation of offspring 
is quite a secondary consideration-it is nearly always regarded 
as a probable result; rarely, if ever, as the purpose. To take 
any precaution to ensure good quality in any eventual offspring 
by seeking to acquire reliable information concerning sexual 
matters so that the health and vigor of the organs may be pre- 
served and promoted so that they may be fit for their purpose is 
considered indelicate, even indecent. 
Such is the only logical conclusion to which we can come 
when we take into account the popular idea that, in sexual mat- 
ters at least, ignorance and innocence are more desirable than 
intelligence and 'virtue. That woman is more subject than man 
to ill-health is not a consequence of Divine wrath visited upon 
generations of women because of the fault of one; it is merely 
the natural result of woman's silly habits and her improper care, 
or neglect, of her own body. 
So childlike is our faith in old ideas that we are almost 
compelled to look upon the woman who is so healthy that she 
is never afflicted with any of the sexual disorders common to 
women, who bears and rears healthy children without suffering 
pain or injury, somewhat in the same way as the king of Egypt 
regarded the good fortune of Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos.- 
Dr. A. A. Philip. 
* * * * ♦ 
With the development of the other senses the sense of color 
is awakened in the adolescent girl. The girl, who, yesterday 
allowed her elders to choose clothing and colors for her, at this 
time becomes most exacting in her own selection of ribbons 
and dresses. Sunsets and forests have become beautiful, and 
often the girl with artistic talent decides at this age to choose 
her life work. Laces, jewelry, trinkets, ribbons and shop win- 
dows become her world. Indeed, so great is her desire to 
possess ornaments that she has been known to resort to petty 
thievery, when unable to avail herself of the means to obtain 
them otherwise. Certain authorities, who have made Vice and 
kindred subjects a study, assert that it is the great desire for 
trinkets, silk petticoats, etc., which induces girls to sell their 
bodies and enter prostitution. Such authorities fail to see the 
economic significance of these unsatisfied desires. There is 
something wrong with a system of Society which allows its SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
551 
women to sell their bodies for such trifles, the desire for which 
is part of their natural development. 
Is flesh and blood and the virtue of the mothers of the 
future so cheap in this land of plenty that it can be sacrificed 
for such whims? It is impossible to suppress that inherent and 
natural desire in the adolescent girl to adorn and beautify her- 
self. She must and will do it. 
The girl of wealth, of the so-called upper class, can beautify 
herself and adorn her body with the costliest jewels and fabrics. 
All eyes are upon her in admiration of her exquisite taste and 
attractive appearance. Yet this same manifestation in a working 
girl is condemned. Any attempt on the part of a working girl 
to give expression to the desire to be beautiful is considered 
"dangerous to her welfare," is spoken of as her "awful desire 
for trinkets." 
The women of wealth set certain standards for themselves 
and their class, but separate and distinct standards for the women 
of the working class. It is about time the reformers and philan- 
thropists do something other than deal with the symptoms of 
the great social unrest, and some of the latest reports of vice 
investigators have been compelled to face some of the most 
fundamental causes, and acknowledge these causes.-Mrs. Mar- 
garet H. Sanger. 
♦ * * * ♦ 
Don't Misrepresent the Effects of Masturbation.-In my 
opinion stigmatizing even the most moderate indulgence in mas- 
turbation as a vice, has a deleterious effect on the people who so 
indulge, and makes it harder for them to break off the habit. 
Every thinking physician and every thinking parent can tell 
you that picturing the masturbatory habit in too lurid colors 
and stigmatizing it with too strong epithets has, as a rule, the 
contrary effect to the one expected. The victims of the habit 
consider themselves degraded, irretrievably lost. They lose their 
self-respect and it is on account of that harder for them to break 
themselves of the habit. 
"We will accomplish a good deal more with our youthful and 
older patients, if we leave alone altogether the moral side of 
the question and emphasize but do not exaggerate the physical 
injuriousness of the habit. We do not want to diminish the 
self-respect of our boys and girls, we want to increase it; 552 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
and we cannot do it if we make them believe that a masturbator 
is a vicious criminal. Inspire your patients with confidence, tell 
them that continuance in the habit may jeopardize their future 
growth, physical and mental health and happiness, and you will 
find it easier to handle them." 
In conclusion, I will say that I could give the life-histories 
of hundreds of people zvho, as boys, practised masturbation quite 
regularly and steadily, but have grown up to be healthy, energetic, 
successful men, the habit apparently having produced no ascer- 
tainable effect, either upon their physique or upon their mentality. 
Against the wilful misrepresentation of the evilminded no- 
thing will avail. But to obviate any honest misunderstanding 
on the part of sincere seekers after truth a few words may not 
be out of place. This is not in justification of, much less a 
plea for, self-abuse. But it is a plea for a sane attitude towards 
a universally prevalent phenomenon, which is purely physical 
in character; it is a plea against senseless and injurious exaggera- 
tions, against characterization of people as criminal and vicious 
who at the very worst are only weak; it is a plea for fact against 
fancy. In short, it is a plea against driving people, through 
feeding them upon falsehood, into neurasthenia and melancholy, 
who, through the truth, can be made quickly into normal, healthy 
and life-enjoying men and women.-Dr. William J. Robinson. 
(See last page.) 
* * * ♦ ♦ 
The Double Standard.-Virtue for the woman, impurity for 
the man, has been recognized by nearly all classes, and the fond 
and doting mother who seeks to make a match for her daughter 
seems no longer to demand purity on the part of the would-be 
husband, but instead, seems only to demland social position 
or a certain amount of this world's goods. 
The girl is no longer taught in the home that virtue is the 
chief thing-save for herself; the virtue which Society imposes 
upon her, the strict rules of living which perhaps she will be 
ostracized if she break them, are not imposed upon the young 
man, and she comes to the marriage ceremony not with the 
thought that she has married a man who has been pure from 
his youth; who has come to the marriage altar, and who will 
come to the marriage bed, as virtuous as he expects his wife to 
be; but that he probably sowed his wild oats, and in all probabil- SEX 'SEARCHLIGHTS 
553 
ity he has a full taste, perhaps his full share of the world's 
pleasures, and with such foolish, wicked words as "The reformed 
rake makes the best husband" seeks to be content, seeks to lull 
herself to sweet security with the thought that even now he has 
tried all the pleasures of this world, that he has tried many other 
women and found them unsatisfactory, and at last he has decided 
to settle down to her, and that he will probably prove true, and 
remain faithful. 
Of course, we can only hope that such will be the case, 
that the wild young man has seen the folly of his ways, that 
he has repented of the foolishness and of the sins of his youth, 
and that when he comes to marry the sweet, pure girl who has 
charmed his senses and captivated his heart, that he will turn no 
more to the devious and winding ways of Sin, but will be content 
with her and be glad that he has found this angel of his life.- 
Evangelist M. B. Williams. 
* * * * * 
The wanton worship of the flesh has passed with the World's 
youth; but though much of man's crassness has been purged 
away in Time's great crucible, he is still of the earth earthy and 
clings tenaciously to his ancient prerogative of polygamy. When 
he marries, Society does not really expect him to respect his 
oath to "forsake all others"-regards it as a formal bow to 
the covenants, a promise with a mental reservation annex; but 
it considers a woman's vow as sacred and the breaking thereof 
as rankest blasphemy. He is allowed but one wife, but he may 
have a score of mistresses and Society will placidly wink the 
other eye-until some tearful maiden requires him to share the 
shame she can no longer conceal or an "injured husband" goes 
a-gunning. This should not be so, but so it is. There be fools, 
both male and female, who will rise up to exclaim that this is 
false; but that it is Gospel truth is proven every day in the 
year in every community on the American continent. Men with 
reputations for licentiousness that would shame old Silenus are 
cordially received in the most exclusive society. They are 
found at every "high-falutin' function," bending over the 
white hands of the most accomplished ladies of the land; on every 
ballroom floor, encircling the waists of debutantes; in the parlors 
of our best people, paying court to their young daughters. The 
noblest women in this world become their wives-fondly under- 554 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
take their "reformation" while indignantly drawing their skirts 
aside lest they come in contact with the tawdry finery of females 
whom these lawless satyrs have debauched. Of course, when a 
woman learns that her reformatory work has proven a failure, 
drear and dismal, she complains bitterly, may even demand a 
divorce; yet she could count upon the fingers of one hand the 
hubbies she would trust behind a sheet of paper with a wayward 
daughter. She doesn't believe a little bit in the virtue of the 
genus male, yet insists that her own husband be a saint-assumes 
that her own charms should cause him to regard all other women 
with indifference, and when she learns of his polygamous prac- 
tices suffers all the pangs of wounded pride.-Brann-The Icono- 
clast. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * 
The ignorance of women of all that concerns the art of 
love, and their total lack of preparation for the natural facts of 
the sexual life, would perhaps be of less evil augury for marriage 
if it were always compensated by the knowledge, skill and con- 
siderateness of the husband. But that is by no means always 
the case. Within the ordinary range we find the large group of 
men whose knowledge of women before marriage has been mainly 
confined to prostitutes, and the important and not inconsiderable 
group of men who have had no intimate intercourse with women, 
their sexual experience having been confined to masturbation 
or other auto-erotic manifestations, and to flirtation. Certainly 
the man of sensitive and intelligent temperament, whatever 
his training or lack of training, may succeed with patience 
and consideration in overcoming all the difficulties placed in the 
way of love by the mixture of ignorances and prejudices which 
so often in woman takes the place of an education for the erotic 
part of her life. But it cannot be said that either of these two 
groups of men has been well equipped for a task. The training 
and experience which a man receives from a prostitute, even 
under fairly favorable conditions, scarcely form the right prepa- 
ration for approaching a woman of his own class who has 
no intimate erotic experiences. The frequent result is that he 
is liable to waver between two opposite courses of action, both 
of them mistaken: On the one hand, he may treat his bride as 
a prostitute, or as a novice to be speedily moulded into the 
sexual shape he is most accustomed to, thus running the risk SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
555 
either of perverting or of disgusting her. On the other hand, 
realizing that the purity and dignity of his bride place her in an 
altogether different class from the women he has previously 
known, he may go to the opposite extreme of treating her with 
an exaggerated respect, and so fail either to arouse or to gratify 
her erotic needs. It is difficult to say which of these two courses 
of action is the more unfortunate; the result of both, however, 
is frequently found to be that a nominal marriage never becomes 
a real marriage.-Dr. Iwan Bloch. 
♦ * * * ♦ 
Cure of Masturbation.-I take this opportunity of drawing 
attention to a method recommended by Fere for the cure of mas- 
turbation, which I have myself found of good use in several 
cases, but which appears to be almost entirely unknown. It is 
that the child addicted to masturbation during the night hours 
should be watched by a trustworthy person; every time the 
child puts its hand to its genital organs, or endeavors to stimu- 
late these organs mechanically in some other way, the attendant 
must immediately intervene, and draw the hands from beneath 
the bed-clothing. This plan may be adopted whether child mas- 
turbates while asleep or while awake. But good can be expected 
from the method above all in those cases in which the child 
masturbates during the sleep, and in which it commonly wakes 
up directly it is interfered with. In most cases the children 
treated in this way soon give up the practice of masturbation, 
even though the evil is of long standing. But it will be advisable 
to continue to supervise the child for some time after a cure 
has apparently been effected, lest what may have become a ner- 
vous automatism should be resumed after a brief intermission. 
The chief difficulty in the practical application of this method 
lies in the choice of a trustworthy person to watch the child. 
As a rule, the mother will be the most suitable, but now and 
again we shall find a hired nurse to whom this extremely difficult 
task may safely be entrusted. In a number of cases with which 
I have had to deal, I have recommended the mother to undertake 
the duty herself, because she seemed to me the most trustworthy 
person available. But it is a very regrettable fact that many 
mothers are altogether unwilling to make the necessary sac- 
rifice for their child's good; and most of them are quite ready 
to believe that some woman whom they can hire will perform 556 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the duty which they themselves as mothers have renounced. 
Such lack of proper feeling is especially common among those 
who belong to what are termed the upper classes of society-to 
the aristocracy whether of birth or of wealth-whereas among 
the middle classes I have found mothers far more ready to make 
the necessary sacrifices.-Dr. Albert Moll. 
* * * * * 
Impotence.- As implied by the meaning of the word, we 
have to deal here with loss of power-a condition in which the 
sexual act cannot be performed. While possible in either sex, 
the male is most often involved, and in addition such individuals 
are generally sterile as well. 
The causes may be bodily or mental, among the former 
various deformities of the male organ prevent it from being 
inserted. The mental causes are rather numerous, and comprise 
several circumstances which may act on the mind: Among these 
are fear of contracting some venereal disease; fear of being 
detected; of causing pregnancy, and so on. Years ago a French 
author told about a young man who was initiated into the pleas- 
ures of Venus by a woman who disguised herself with a blond 
wig, and later he was impotent save with a partner in a blond 
wig. A mathematician in Europe had the disagreeable habit 
of pondering over the solution of problems in figures, and became 
so engrossed he was unable to secure a condition of the male 
organ necessary for the sexual relation. His wife was advised 
to ply him with wine previously and by getting him partially 
intoxicated, switch his mind away from figures and this worked 
successfully. 
For women the two principal causes are deformities of 
the birth-canal, and great pain excited by the act. 
To relieve this unfortunate failing, the first thing necessary 
is absolute rest of the genital apparatus for weeks and months. 
To avoid arousing sexual desire as much as possible, husband and 
wife should not share the same bed, and separate rooms, if 
posible, are even better. 
Above all, medicines already put up and sold in drug stores, 
are strictly forbidden. There are several drugs which are 
reputed to be powerful agents for arousing sexual desire, but it 
is now known that none of them have any effect, even in poison- SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
557 
ous doses. Nor are any of the "machines" and apparatuses of 
any more value. These are naturally expensive, and other things 
being equal-the more costly they are, the less benefit can be 
derived. 
The individual should endeavor to keep himself in as good 
general health as can be done. Plenty of good, nutritious food, 
cold baths, prevention of constipation by appropriate diet (or if 
need be, injections of soapsuds or taking mild laxatives). 
Great benefit is had by application of a solution of lunar 
caustic to the urethra near the bladder by physicians; who often 
prescribe the bromides to allay sexual excitement. In due time- 
after sufficient rest has been had-the doctor will probably advise 
strychnine and other tonics. 
For the form affecting the mind principally-psychic or 
mental impotence-electricity is often very valuable.-Dr. Wm. 
E. Whitney. 
* * * * * 
To the Pure AU Things Are Pure.-If one is constantly 
in a nervous, erotic state, if one cannot cut off sensual thoughts 
and apply the mind to daily or hourly work, if-I am speaking 
of the fully grown man and woman-one cannot view statuary 
or other works of art of a nude nature without seeing Sex 
in its sensual aspect, then there is no stable control over sex 
forces. If such a twist of mentality is found in the man past 
active age or in maidenly women of the irritable age, it is 
the real "dangerous age." 
Such persons see only what is in their wabbling sexual 
centers; the beauty of conception the genius in working it out, 
its inner and moral meanings escape their mind's eye. 
The man or woman who is always seeing in art or literature 
something injurious to the public, or can read into works of 
literature and drama only the immoral and sensuous, while blinded 
to the reasonable and natural effects of human nature as described 
in literature and art, is possessed of an overdeveloped sexual 
center in the brain, and the function of that brain, the mind, 
is never free from evil ideation and imputation. 
The cure for these self-assumed mentors is to stop worry- 
ing about the danger to public morals and get to worrying about 
their own. Only the decent-minded have the right to censor 
the indecent. 558 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The individual who would garb the statue of Venus, the 
male or female person who would drape every painting showing 
the beauty of healthy flesh and form, are in a state of chronic 
sensual drunkenness. Like the alcoholic victim always looking 
for something containing alcohol, they see something for their 
cravings, some suggestion or hint to satisfy an abnormal thirst 
in the true statements of honest writers. In the case of such 
women it is symptom of unsatisfied longings expressed in one 
of the many unrecognized forms sexuality takes under a period 
of long suppression. As this state continues to middle life and 
past, it is a fixed, cemented condition of mental and moral stra- 
bismus-cock-eyed.-Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
* * * * * 
Perverted Sexual Instinct and Marriage.-The existence of 
a perverted instinct or habit in one of the married pair may 
cause acute distress to the other, and entirely normal, person. 
That abnormalities of the sex instinct are not uncommon is 
shown by the extensive literature on the subject, the testimony of 
physicians who have care of the insane, and by cases occasion- 
ally reported in the newspapers. A perversion is usually the 
profound secret of the person affected. There may be extreme 
morbidity. But the propensity is often not discovered by the 
other partner until after wedlock. This concealment cannot be 
regarded as real delicacy of feeling. It is reprehensible, and 
fraught with incalculable peril. Many marriages have been 
wrecked by this cause. Sexually inverted (homosexual) men 
and women sometimes marry without disclosing their abnormal 
impulse to their lovers. Men who crave to inflict pain (Sadism) 
and women or men who court physical suffering (Masochism) 
frequently marry unsuspecting lovers. Many of these subjects 
are predisposed by heredity to their perversions, while others 
have acquired habits by experimentation in vice. The congeni- 
tal cases are heavily weighted by inheritance with impulses that 
they cannot control, though they may will to live normal lives, 
and are repelled by their own aberrant propensities. Surely, 
when any of these abnormal instincts exist, it is the solemn duty 
of the man or woman to admit them frankly to the prospective 
wife or husband at the outset of betrothal. In most instances 
these innate perversions must be rightly regarded as a barrier to 
matrimony with a normal partner.-Walter M. Gallichan. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
559 
The Results of Sex Ignorance.-The past faulty education 
of women has been a great source of evil and misery. Some 
appraisement of the extent of the evil can be gained from the 
following facts: A very large number of girls are doomed to 
future disease through total lack of knowledge concerning the 
meaning of the monthly cycle, and a want of hygienic teaching 
concerning it. The seeds of hysteria, neurasthenia, and other 
mental troubles are frequently sown in adolescence, and the 
whole of the future life is threatened with unhappiness or phy- 
sical suffering. The attempted total repression of curiosity 
respecting the sexual life sets up a morbid introspectiveness, dis- 
torts the judgment, hinders moral and intellectual development, 
and imperils peaceful marriage. Ignorance makes the young 
the easy prey of the debased and the corrupting. It is one cause 
of the formation of auto-erotic habits which may enfeeble health 
during the time of growth, and become a bar to happy conju- 
gality. 
Want of sex education is a common cause of failure and 
tragedy for women in marital life. Many women know little or 
nothing of their deepest desires, idiosyncrasies, prejudices, and 
aversions, until they are suddenly and often irrevocably, con- 
fronted with specific difficulties arising in wedded life. For the 
lack of plain physiological knowledge many wives injure their 
health, impair their reproductive power, threaten the life of the 
coming infant, and cause unhappiness to their partners. Many 
estrangements between man and wife are traceable to ignorance 
of sexual hygiene, a perverted ethical attitude, a fantastic tradi- 
tion, or an old wives' fable. I know only too poignantly that 
the ignorance of many so-called well educated people is almost 
incredible. In some not very rare instances grave physical injury 
to the wife or to the husband is due to ignorance-Walter M. 
Gallichan. 
♦ * * * * 
Exaggerated Statements of the Dangers of Masturbation.- 
I need not describe the dangers to health resulting from mas- 
turbation and sexual excesses, but it is necessary to allude to 
the exaggerated statements which are sometimes encountered 
regarding the dangers of masturbation, especially in popular 
works on the subject, so that the physician may be on his guard 560 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
about this matter. A child who during and after the act of 
masturbation has a keen sense of wrong-doing, and consequently 
suffers much from self-reproach, may, if the fear is superadded 
of having done serious permanent injury to health, be affected 
with grave hypochondriacal manifestations. Many instances 
of this have come under my notice, in young men and young 
women of sixteen or thereabouts. Even when the practice of 
masturbation has long been discontinued, and the patient is 
quite grown up, such symptoms may arise, owing to the per- 
sistence of the fear of disastrous results, and the auto-suggestive 
influence of this fear. Nowhere is more tact required by the 
physician in his dealings with those who masturbate or have 
masturbated. There is even a real danger that a moral lecture 
may cause a shock to the system; in the case of some young men 
it may sometimes be better to acquiesce in masturbation, rather 
than to alarm them by talking about the disastrous consequences 
of the indulgence. I refer to those unfortunate creatures who 
suffer from severe hyperesthesia of the sexual impulse, and who 
for social reasons are not in a position to satisfy the impulse 
in any other way than by masturbation, or who refrain from 
illicit intercourse in the well-grounded fear of venereal infection. 
The physician who has seen a number of such cases, who has 
learned how they continually relapse into the practice of mas- 
turbation, notwithstanding all their good resolutions and their 
conviction that masturbation is at once dangerous and immoral, 
will be likely to feel that it is better, not indeed to recommend 
masturbation, but from time to time tacitly to permit it. To do 
in these cases what it is well to do in certain others, namely, 
to describe the bad effects of masturbation, may give rise to 
grave conditions of depression, and even to suicide. Certainly, 
in such cases, we must carefully avoid alarming the patients too 
seriously about the consequences of masturbation.-Dr. Albert 
Moll. 
♦ * ♦ * * 
The aim of eugenics is the production of a better humanity, 
especially by the elimination of bodily and mentally feeble stocks. 
With the discovery of the Mendelian law, eugenics was placed 
upon a scientific basis. The world knew by experience that desir- 
able as well as undesirable traits are transmitted by heredity, but SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
561 
THE ECONOMIC LOSS TO THE UNITED STATES, FROM SYPHILIS AND GONORRHEA, IS ABOUT $500,000,000 EVERY YEAR.- 
PENNSLYVANIA STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. 562 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
it thought that heredity could be controlled by environment. It 
believed in economic determinism. Mendel's law revealed the 
inexorableness of the law of heredity. 
The science of eugenics teaches that Nature is stronger than 
nurture. The characters of any living being are determined by 
two factors, heredity and environment, or Nature and nurture, but 
inheritance is more vital than environment. Heredity and educa- 
tion supply a potential figure, both multiplied give something, if 
one is nothing the result is nothing. But heredity is the weightier 
factor. When Nature and nurture compete for supremacy on 
equal terms, says Galton, the former proves the stronger. Neither 
is self-sufficient; the highest natural endowments may be starved 
by defective nurture, while no carefulness of nurture can over- 
come the evil tendencies of an intrinsically bad physique, weak 
brain or brutal disposition. 
No degenerate or feeble stock can ever be converted into a 
healthy and sound stock by environment, such as sanitary sur- 
roundings, good laws, education, wealth, etc., as the radical doc- 
trainaires would like to make us believe. Such means may render 
individual members of the stock passable or even strong members 
of Society, but the same process will have to be gone through 
again and again with their offspring. Improved conditions of life 
mean better health for the existing population, greater educational 
facilities, means greater capacity for using existing ability. But 
lasting improvement can only be secured by breeding from good 
stock. The development of the future generations will be little 
influenced by environmental improvements, if the conditions of 
the blood have been neglected. Nothing can be brought out from 
a child by eugenics which is not within him. 
The elimination of the feeble stock, met with not only in the 
slums but also in the quarters of wealth, which weighs down the 
body politic, can only be effected by the prevention of the propaga- 
tion of those afflicted with undesirable characters. 
There are three methods to effect the elimination of the 
undesirables-segregation, sterilization and castration.-Dr. Ber- 
nard S. Talmey. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ * 
The Chief Cause of Vice.-Students of vice, whether 
teachers, clergymen, social workers or physicians, have been labor- 
ing for years to find the cause and cure for vice, and especially SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
563 
for prostitution. They have failed so far to agree on either the 
cause or the cure, but it is interesting to know that upon one 
point they have been compelled to agree, and that is, that ignorance 
of the sex functions is one of the strongest forces that sends young 
girls into unclean living. 
This, together with the knowledge of the rapidly increasing 
spread of venereal diseases and the realization of their subtle 
nature, has awakened us to the need of a saner and healthier 
attitude on the sex subject, and to the importance of sex educa- 
tion for boys and girls. 
This need has shown itself so clearly that the question no 
longer seems to be, "Is there need of instruction?" but, "Who 
shall instruct?" Shall the mother or teacher instruct? When 
shall such instruction be given? In childhood, or in puberty? 
These are the points now under discussion. 
To the writer the answer is simple: The mother is the logical 
person to teach the child as soon as questions arise, for it is to 
the mother that the child goes for information before he enters 
the schoolroom. If, therefore, the mother answers his questions 
truthfully and simply and satisfies his curiosity, she will find that 
the subject of Sex ceases to be an isolated subject, and becomes 
a natural part of the child's general learning. A woman does not 
need to be a college graduate, with a special degree in the study 
of botany, before she can tell her child the beautiful truth of its 
birth. But she does need to clear her own mind of prudishness, 
and to understand that the procreative act is natural, clean and 
healthful; that all Nature is beautified through it, and conse- 
quently that it is devoid of offensiveness. 
If the mother can impress the child with the beauty and 
wonder and sacredness of the sex functions, she has taught it the 
first lesson, and the teacher can elaborate on these teachings as 
the child advances in school. All schools should teach anatomy 
of the sex organs and their physiology, instead of teaching the 
human body in the neuter gender as has been done up to this time. 
The whole object of teaching the child about reproduction 
through evolution is to clear its mind of any shame or mystery 
concerning its birth and to impress it with the beauty and natural- 
ness of procreation, in order to prepare it for the knowledge of 
puberty and marriage.-Mrs. Margaret H. Sanger. 564 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The Effects of Celibacy on IVoman.-It is difficult to judge 
of the effects of celibacy in the male sex. It is quite possible that 
there may be "old bachelors" who have been strictly celibate all 
their lives, and who in the course of time acquire certain physical 
peculiarities; but the effects of celibacy on women are very 
apparent. According to Dr. Havelburg, of Berlin, unmarried 
women, as a rule, begin to lose their freshness when nearing the 
thirties. The rosy color of the cheeks gradually disappears, the 
skin loses its elasticity and firmness, the lips become thin, and the 
naso-labial fold acquires a sharply pronounced character. Deep 
shadows form under the eyes, the latter develop a dull lustre and 
sorrowful expression. The voice receives a sharp by-sound. 
Short but distinct hairs appear on the face instead of the former 
soft down. The cushion of fat under the skin diminishes, and 
this is especially noticeable in the breasts, which become smaller, 
and often also flaccid and pendulous. On this account the neck 
appears thin, the shoulders angular, and the upper ribs and collar 
bones very prominent. Moral indisposition and all sorts of 
nervous complaints are frequent accompaniments of these condi- 
tions. The learned doctor proceeds thus: "A regulated sexual 
life, such as our social institutions make possible for women in 
the form of marriage only, would act as a perfect source of 
youth. Thus Nature has her fixed laws which demand their due 
with inexorable severity." 
Marriage indeed is the remedy which many a doctor would 
like to be able to apply for the cure of the innumerable female 
patients who come to them imploring their medical advisers to 
tell them the reason why they should be afflicted with so many 
mysterious and apparently incurable ailments. Some doctors, in 
moments of exasperation, have been betrayed into blurting out 
the truth; but they know that, in the majority of cases, such 
information is as useless as it is cruel. 
Although the number of male children born is about equal 
to that of female, yet the rate of mortality among male infants 
far exceeds that among female. Emigration also is responsible 
to a large extent for the dearth of males in the marriage market. 
So long, therefore, as our ethical code insists on monogamy- 
which, by the way, is another instance of an idea which was 
prompted in the first place by economical considerations-and for- 
bids female infanticide, yet which does nothing to check the SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
565 
general slaughter of the innocents, mostly male, which goes on 
every day, the army of old maids is bound to increase.-Dr. A. A. 
Philip. 
* * * * * 
To the Really Innocent and Pure All Things Are Pure. The 
result of this morbid sense of shame is that there is scarcely any 
other subject so completely ignored as the sex function, although 
so much of the health and happiness of the race depends upon it. 
This false sense of shame is the cause of our modern fig-leaf 
modesty and prudery, which attributes a particular obscene mean- 
ing to everything sexual. It has created that diseased imagination, 
depraved beyond all hope, which can find any prurient gratifica- 
tion in the cold, chaste nakedness of ancient marble. The mere 
nude arms or legs of a small school girl, the furnishings of a 
public bath-house, the naked limbs of a Tyrolean peasant, or the 
grandest works of art awaken in them lascivious thoughts. Indi- 
viduals with such traits are accustomed to interject their own 
diseased imagination, guilty conscience and obscene sentiments 
into the purest artistic creations, be they sculptured, painted, 
written or spoken. 
The prudery and obscenity of these victims of a diseased 
imagination and perverted moral sense have succeeded in distort- 
ing our judgment on questions of sex in such a way that any 
desire for scientific instruction in these subjects has become 
inextricably confused with ideas of prurience and impropriety. 
Matters pertaining to the generative functions are, as a rule, 
excluded even from treatises on physiology. But for the anato- 
mists and insanity experts, nothing would be known about the 
physiology of normal Love. The zealots wish to persuade us 
that the population of the earth increases by the stork-method. 
Even the physician who is often called upon for advice about 
things pertaining to the psychological phase of sex, prudishly 
ignores the mightiest of human instincts which is so intimately 
related to human weal and woe. He is conversant with the sexual 
question by virtue of its anatomical and physiological knowledge, 
and he is well aware of its hygienic, sociological and ethical impor- 
tance. But when he is to furnish enlightenment on psychic or 
pedagogic questions of sex, he is embarrassed because of a lack 
of knowledge of sex psychology. The great teachers of our 566 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
medical schools, who ought to impart to their pupils all their 
knowledge about the nature of things concerning Love that they 
have gathered in their long and extensive experience, seem either 
to consider Love a subject too sacred for physiological and 
psychological analysis, or are really afraid to arouse the anger of 
the zealots who make of the sanctuary of sex attraction a for- 
bidden topic.-Dr. Bernard S. Talmey. 
* * * * * 
Noctiirnal emissions cannot be considered as caused by erotic 
dreams; it is rather vice versa, viz.: that the dreams are influenced 
by the erotic desire caused by an overfilled condition of the 
seminal vessels, which are emptied by a spasmodic contraction as 
a part of the sexual orgasm. 
Thus, the sexual organs influence the brain and nervous 
system, even during sleep. Analogous emissions of fluid in the 
form of secretion from several glands of the female generative 
organs also take place, though they do not occur as frequently as 
in man. They are called female pollutions. The nocturnal and 
unconscious seminal emissions often have a tendency to make a 
young man melancholy and anxious, but these constitute Nature's 
manner of conserving energy, and are necessary for sexual 
equilibrium in men who do not perform their sexual function. 
If they do not occur too often and are accompanied by erotic 
dreams and erection, and are followed by general sensation of 
well being, increased power and desire for activity, they are not 
harmful but beneficial and necessary for preservation of health. 
Pollutions, following too closely upon each other are of 
morbid nature, but it is difficult for the physician to decide 
whether or not they occur too often, and he must possess good 
judgment in making such decisions in a number of cases, because 
no two people are alike, even in sexual matters. What is normal 
in a strong passionate man, is excessive, or abnormal in one of a 
weak constitution. One should invariably weigh and consider the 
symptom complex present in every case before deciding whether 
these emissions are only Nature's safeguards, or a pathologic con- 
dition. A powerful constitution can endure a great expenditure 
of seminal fluid, whereas a weak one suffers by far smaller loss. 
Normally, pollutions occur in strong healthy men about two 
or three times per month, and in some cases even weekly emissions 
cannot be considered excessive or abnormal, if not followed by SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
567 
general depression, bodily or mental fatigue or lassitude. Pollu- 
tions can occur still more frequently, every other or every night; 
but under such abnormal conditions they tend to weaken mind 
and body, and often lead to hypochondria, mental aberrations and 
weariness of life. 
Predisposing causes of frequent pollutions are many, for 
example, too abundant evening meals, rich highly seasoned food, 
alcoholic drinks, sleeping in too warm beds or in the dorsal posi- 
tion, erotic excitement of the phantasy, previous masturbation, 
phimosis, lacking cleanliness of the male organ, hemorrhoids, 
worm in the bowel, etc. In certain individuals seminal emis- 
sions occur very often without any apparent predisposing reason. 
Hereditary disposition or some peculiar abnormal condition of the 
tissues may be considered the cause, in such instances.-Dr. Anton 
Nystrom. 
* * * * * 
Frequency of Sexual Intercourse.-It is not possible to lay 
down a general rule with regard to the frequency of sexual inter- 
course, notwithstanding the earnestness with which religious 
zealots, physicians, and moral teachers have in all ages endeav- 
ored to determine how often it was proper for a man to cohabit 
with his wife. The rules that have been prescribed by the vari- 
ous authorities had in view, for the most part, the protection 
of the wife from excessive demands on the part of her husband; 
sometimes, however, by the establishment of a minimum period, 
a certain amount of sexual gratification was secured to the wife; 
finally, also the generation of a healthy posterity had to be taken 
into consideration. Ribbing, however, justly observes: "Sexual 
intercourse results from a natural impulse, and he whose senses 
are unimpaired, and who has learned, at the same time, amid 
the tumult of sensations, to preserve proper consideration for 
his wife-such a man runs little danger of making any mistake. 
In opposition to the opinion of many, I regard it as entirely 
right and reasonable that husband and wife should have inter- 
course whenever physically and mentally impelled to that act. 
Nor do I see any reason why, during the first period in which 
they are able to enjoy without intermission the pleasures of sexual 
intercourse, they should, in accordance with any theory whatever, 
impose on themselves further restraints than those demanded by 
care for their physical and mental health. The touchstone of 568 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
marital hygiene is this, that on the clay following intercourse both 
husband and wife should feel perfectly fresh, vigorous, and lively, 
alike in body and mind-even more so, perhaps, than on other 
days. In the absence of such feelings, we may feel assured of 
the occurrence of sexual excesses." The same author quotes a 
saying of Pomeroy's: "We may quaff the nectar as freely as we 
will-Nature herself mixes the draught and holds the goblet to 
our lips; if, however, we drink too much, she first dilutes the 
draught with water, later adds gall, and ultimately perhaps 
deadly poison." 
The occupation, trade or profession, and the nutritive con- 
dition and physical constitution of the married pair have an im- 
portant bearing on the frequency with which, without detriment 
to health, cohabitation is permissible. The rules of the Hebrew 
Talmud already take these circumstances into account, ordering 
as they do that young and powerful men not engaged in any 
regular occupation shall have intercourse with their wives daily; 
manual laborers, on the other hand, once a week only; whilst 
brain-workers, finally, or those whose work is extremely arduous, 
should allow an interval of one or more months to elapse between 
the acts of intercourse. Acton also prescribes that in the case 
of brain-workers and of those manual workers whose labors are 
exhausting, intercourse must not occur more frequently than 
once every week or ten days.-Dr. E. Heinrich Kisch. 
* * * * * 
Man Has No Right to Injure His Oivn Children.-The care- 
less or wilful procreation of a vicious progeny is not only a crime 
against humanity, but a wrong to the children who ought to have 
remained unborn. Hence it is the solemn duty of any couple, if 
there is a taint in their ancestry, voluntarily to exclude them- 
selves from parenthood. If their mentality does not enable them 
to exercose such control, Society has a right, nay! the duty, to 
effect the exclusion in its own interest as well as in the interest 
of the offspring, who would become a burden to themselves. 
This exclusion cannot be realized by laws against marriage 
of individuals physically or morally inferior. Such laws are 
entirely futile in relation to propagation. Only hypocrites or per- 
fect fools do not see it. The sex-urge plays a particular role in 
degenerates. They suffer from a diseased exaggeration of the 
sex impulse. No laws, except it be segregation, can prevent the SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
569 
seduction of the feeble-minded woman or the rape by the crim- 
inal man, and a new generation of deteriorates would arise, mar- 
riage or no marriage. The baneful sentimentality or sordid 
economy which allows moral weaklings to roam at large on 
parole or suspended sentence can only lead to the breeding of 
mental and moral cripples. If the number of the undesirable 
and unfit should be decreased, not the marriage but the breed- 
ing of the defectives should be prevented. 
Among the means of prevention of propagation, the segrega- 
tion of the defectives in different homes (such as asylums for 
epileptics, for feeble-minded or for deaf-mutes) would be the 
most humane method, but also the most unsafe (temporary 
escape is never impossible), and the most burdensome for 
society. To segregate people who are still able to support them- 
selves and deprive society of their earning capacity represents a 
great economic loss' to the body politic. 
The other quite humane method of prevention of propagation 
is simple sterilization. The slight operation of vasectomy, respec- 
tively salpingectomy, does not give the least inconvenience nor 
does it alter in the least the mental or bodily character of the 
operated individual. This small operation has no more effect 
upon the person, in regard to his potency, that an obliteration of 
the vas deferens in the male or of the Fallopian tube in the female; 
and these obliterations cause so little inconvenience that they 
remain, as a rule, unknown to the man or woman. They are 
only accidentally discovered when the patients apply for the 
treatment of their sterility.-Dr. Bernard S. Talmey. 
* * * * * 
Psychic Impotence is a symptom which occurs accidentally 
in the normal state, and very frequently in psychopathological 
conditions. 
A representation or idea of any kind may suddenly paralyze 
by suggestive action the normal reflex mechanism of the center 
for erection. The blood ceases to accumulate in the corpora 
cavernosa and erection is either arrested or not produced at all. 
For example, a very excited lover, who has had strong erec- 
tions at the moment when he prepared to copulate, may be sud- 
denly overcome with the idea that he will fail, or by some other 
thought which paralyzes erection and renders coitus impossible. 
The remembrance of such a failure and the distress and shame 570 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
attached to it, even efforts to produce erection indirectly for an- 
other attempt, constitute further causes of inhibition of the 
cerebro-spinal activity; they temporarily extinguish the sexual 
appetite, and prevent by their interference the automatic mecha- 
nism of erection which they strive to produce. The greater the 
fear of failure, the more the psychic impotence increases. This 
phenomenon may be limited to a certain woman, but it is more 
often general. Sometimes an incomplete erection is produced, 
which is insufficient. 
This condition, which depends on auto-suggestion, is best 
treated by hypnotic suggestion. The sentiment of impotence pow- 
erfully depresses a man, and the depression increases his im- 
potence. This condition often, however, disappears by itself. 
A special variety of psychic impotence is that in which erec- 
tion takes place, but the idea of ejaculation predominates so 
much that it paralyzes the voluptuous sensations, and causes 
ejaculation to occur without pleasure, or even erection to cease. 
Impotence may occur at the first coitus, or may come on 
gradually. It is often produced suddenly at the time of mar- 
riage in persons who have hitherto been very capable, even in 
Don Juans. Men may have normal erections and pollutions, 
but these may be stopped by counter-suggestions at each attempt 
at coitus. Habitual masturbation may in some cases contribute 
to produce impotence, but we must not generalize from such 
cases, nor construct a dogma from them, for continence may 
also be a cause of impotence. 
All these details, which are combined in all kinds of ways with 
other sexual troubles, but which are also produced alone in men 
who are otherwise normal, throw much light on the relation of 
the momentary mental state of man to his sexual appetite and the 
accomplishment of coitus.-Dr. August Forel. 
♦ ♦ * ♦ * 
Frigidity in Women.-The word frigidity means coldness, 
and wrhen a woman has no desire for sexual relations or experi- 
ences no pleasure when she has sexual relations, she is said to 
be "frigid." 
Some cases suffer only from lack of desire, others from lack 
of pleasure, and still others from both. In some cases the frigidity 
is congenital-that is, the lack of desire with inability to experi- SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
571 
ence pleasure during the act is inborn. In most cases, however, 
it is acquired, or is only temporary, and is due to various causes. 
Frigidity is much more widespread among women than it is 
among men. Some physicians claim it is present in fifty per cent, 
of all women. This may be an exaggeration, but if we put the 
number at twenty-five per cent, we will be quite near the truth. 
The causes of frigidity in women are many, but here are the 
most important ones: First and foremost is the repression of all 
sexual manifestations which the unmarried woman has to prac- 
tice and has had to practice for many centuries. So that a part 
of the frigidity is hereditary. You cannot entirely eradicate a 
natural instinct, but that by continually repressing it, by giving 
it no chance to assert itself, you may weaken it-about this there 
can be no question. 
The second cause is masturbation. Cases that have been 
addicted to excessive masturbation are very apt to develop not 
only frigidity, but complete aversion to the sexual act, and in- 
ability to experience any pleasure or orgasm. Such cases we 
come across every day. 
A third very important cause is sexual weakness in the 
husband. When the husband is sexually weak (suffering with 
premature ejaculations) he either fails to awaken the sexual 
instinct in the woman, or, if it has been awakened, it is apt to 
turn not only into frigidity but into aversion to the act. 
The fourth cause is often merely dislike towards the hus- 
band. The last two causes, weakness of the husband and dis- 
like towards him, are unfortunately very frequent, and a wife 
who was frigid with one husband may show herself very pas- 
sionate on marrying another man. 
The fifth cause is fear of pregnancy. 
The above are the principal causes. Other causes may be 
disease of the womb, laceration of its neck, inflammation of 
the ovaries, vaginismus, disease of the thyroid gland, etc. 
It is an unfortunate fact that women who were frigid up 
to the age of forty or so may become very passionate after that 
age. 
As to the treatment of frigidity, little or nothing can be 
done for frigidity that is congenital. Most of the other kinds of 
frigidity, however, can be cured.-Dr. William J. Robinson. (See 
last page.) 572 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The Sex Joke.-We must gradually, as fast as we can, give 
up the idea that sex is funny. If we think of it as a purely 
scientific physiological phenomenon of rare significance and ex- 
traordinary power, the time-worn jokes will cease to enter our 
consciousness and our conversation, because they will be actively 
irrelevant. There will be no association of ideas to draw them 
out. For we shall know that sex is our greatest blessing, and 
shall co-operate heartily to banish all the mismanagement which 
makes it a curse. 
But to the suggestion that the sex joke has got to go, the 
world says, "Impossible! It is as old as Adam!" Yes, and the 
drink joke is as old as Noah, and the hell joke is as old as Orpheus! 
Old as they are, they are not immortal, for the hell joke is prac- 
tically dead in educated America, and the drink joke can hardly 
raise a smile it is so feeble. The first has died because children 
are no longer threatened with hell, and grown people no longer 
think about it. The second is moribund because liquor is less and 
less familiar to children, and by grown people it is more and 
more disused and disapproved. A joke needs a basis of familiar 
reality from which to turn its somersault. Even now the sex 
joke has disappeared where the grown people have ceased to 
misuse sex and the children regard it simply as a scientific fact. 
Thus science is rapidly removing many of our old-time errors 
and the reliable old jokes that went with them. Nature is never 
funny. Fun implies choice, and there is no choice about a scientific 
fact. It is merely so.-Annie W ins or Allen. 
* * * * * 
Why Women Become Prostitutes.-The young man should 
know that the great majority of prostitutes do not willingly 
undertake the shameful business of selling their virtue. He 
should know that the majority have gone downward for such rea- 
sons as follows: Many a woman has been betrayed by some 
detestable man who pretended to love her. Poverty has forced 
many other women to the first downward step. Many are easy 
victims because they belong to the feeble-minded class. Others 
have been driven into immoral life by parents and even hus- 
bands. Still others have been drugged, and raped while in- 
sensible. A limited number have begun prostitution as "white 
slaves" kept as prisoners until all hope of a better life has van- 
ished. A few have deliberately begun to accept the attentions of SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
573 
lewd men in order to get money for luxurious dress and finery. 
And relatively very few have started downward because of sexual 
passion such as commonly influences men. In short, every young 
man should be informed that most women living by prostitution 
have begun innocently or unwillingly; but, having made one false 
step, Society has shunned them, even near relatives have cast 
them off, and a career of prostitution has appeared the only way 
of making a living, vulgar and unspeakably sordid though it be. 
It is evident that the responsibility for prostitution rests almost 
entirely upon men. Unfortunately, Society does not recognize 
this fact and has no way of dealing legally with both men and 
women found associated in houses of prostitution. At present 
the women arrested for prostitution are treated as criminals, while 
their male associates in vice are allowed to depart as if they were 
respectable citizens. 
Tell young men these facts as to why women become prosti- 
tutes. Help them to realize that most of these women are pitiful 
victims of man's worse than brutal sexual passions. Then add 
the astounding fact that very many of the women of the under- 
world have short lives, their health being undermined rapidly by 
dissipation, by alcohol used to bury their shame or to stimulate 
their flagging energies, and by the two loathsome diseases, gonor- 
rhea and syphilis, which relatively few prostitutes escape-tell 
young men such facts which eminent physicians and sociologists 
have often verified, and there are good chances of striking sym- 
pathetic notes in their young manhood.-Prof. Maurice A. 
Bigelow. 
* * * * * 
Pre-natal Impressions.-It is believed by many people that 
strong impressions made upon the mother during pregnancy may 
produce marks or defects in the child. This belief dates from 
earliest antiquity, and is widespread among all races. The belief 
particularly refers to the emotions of fright or sudden surprise; 
thus it is believed that if a woman during pregnancy should be 
frightened by some animal, the child might carry the mark of the 
animal upon its body, or it might even be born in the shape of 
the animal. Thousands of such alleged cases are given in proof. 
There is hardly a layman, or, particularly, a laywoman, who 
does not claim to know of authentic cases of maternal impres- 
sions. 574 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
'YES MY SON. 
THE DOCTOR 
BROUGHT BABY 
IN A BASKET" 
FROM OLDER BOYS HE 
LEARNS A DIFFERENT STORY 
HE GETS MORE WRONG IDEAS 
ABOUT SEX FROM A NOTE 
SEEN; AT SCHOOL SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
575 
HE GOES WITH DANGEROUS COMPANIONS AND SOWS SOME*WILD OATS" 
DR. QUACK SAYS HIS DISEASE CAN BE EASILY CURED 
BUT AFTER HE MARRIES 
AND THEIR BABY COMES' 
IT IS FOUND TO BE z 
DEFECTIVE / 576 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
It is a thankless task to try to shatter well-established beliefs, 
and I do not hope to succeed in persuading that maternal impres- 
sions are untrue and lack scientific foundation. But I consider 
it my duty to state my belief, whether you accept it or not. In 
my opinion there is not a single well-authenticated case of mater- 
nal impression. There is hardly a case of defect or monstrosity 
where the cause is supposed to be due to maternal impression 
which cannot be explained in some natural way, or simply by 
accident. Thousands of women are frightened or shocked by 
disagreeable sights, by crippled men, by animals, and still their 
children are born perfectly normal. On the other hand, many 
marked, or defective, or monstrous children are born in which 
no maternal impressions can be given as the cause. So why 
can it not happen when the mother was frightened by something 
during her pregnancy, and the child was born with some mark or 
defect, that the latter was simply an accident and not the result 
of the impression? Because a thing follows another thing it 
does not mean that it was caused by that other thing. 
Very often the so-called shock or fright which the mother 
experiences during gestation is simply a product of her imagina- 
tion. We know of many cases where the mothers never men- 
tioned that anything happened to them, and only after the child 
was born with some kind of mark or defect they began to hunt 
for causes and claimed that such and such a thing happened to 
them while they were pregnant, but on close investigation the 
alleged event was found to have originated in the mother's brain. 
In short, while the subject of maternal impressions is an 
interesting one and demands further investigation, there is at the 
present time no scientific justification for the belief in such 
impressions. Particularly must we scout any stories of maternal 
impressions during the latter part of pregnancy, during the fifth, 
sixth, seventh, eighth, or ninth month. Because after the child 
is fully formed no mental or psychic impressions can make birth- 
marks on it, amputate its limbs, or convert it into any sort of 
monstrosity.-Dr. William J. Robinson. 
* * * * * 
The Defloration, as it is termed, is a duty involving the hus- 
band's utmost consideration and tenderness. It is so important 
a matter that it cannot be dismissed as a simply physical act. 
The conduct of a man in the highly critical first weeks of mar- SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
577 
tied cohabitation usually decides to a great extent the chances of 
happiness for himself and his bride throughout the rest of their 
lives. Very many unfortunate unions are predetermined by mis- 
haps, misunderstandings, and involuntary errors occurring in the 
honeymoon stage of matrimony. That an acute psychic excite- 
ment should exist in both bride and bridegroom on this auspi- 
cious and sacramental occasion is inevitable. Both may be wholly 
inexperienced. Both are, more or less, overwrought through 
emotions aroused by a long-deferred wedding, and by the sudden 
novelty of a permissible throwing off of the ordinary disguises 
that veil the deepest instincts and desires. Too frequently the 
bride is unprepared or ill-prepared in theoretical knowledge of 
conjugality. She is excessively timid, maybe slightly hysterical. 
Vague, and often terrifying, hints may have been whispered that 
a torturing ordeal awaits her. There are many instances of the 
young wives fleeing from their husbands at this appalling hour. 
It is not an uncommon occurrence for the bride to imagine that 
her partner is acting immorally or abnormally. Many women 
have not the slightest knowledge of their own physical structure, 
and no inkling of marital duties. A woman of twenty-five- 
reared in a careful tradition of ignorance, and accustomed to 
thrust all thought of sex out of consciousness-finds herself sud- 
denly confronted with the unknown, the unsuspected, the alarm- 
ing. Her standard of modesty and seemliness may be so violently 
shaken that a real injury to the psyche results. 
I know women, now advanced in years, and mothers of 
men, who have never recovered entirely from the tragedy of 
maladroit initiation into marriage. The dim fears of maiden- 
hood have been rudely transformed into a recoil, and the atti- 
tude towards sex has remained morbid or hostile throughout the 
whole of married life. Often frigidity is engendered in a wife 
during the first month of marriage. A word may disturb the 
subtle and delicate poise of the emotional nature at this fatal 
hour. Bluntness and directness may terrify or disgust, and an 
impetuous impatience on the part of the man may freeze a bud- 
ding ardor in his bride.-Walter M. Gallichan. 
* * * * * 
Alcohol and Sexuality.-It needs no extended argument to 
convince the average person that an individual will do things 
when under the influence of drink that he or she would not do 578 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
when perfectly sober. It is an old saying that "When the wine 
is in, the wits are out." But there is a deeper connection and 
relation between alcoholic drink and sexual indiscretions than 
is usually realized by the average person. Besides the com- 
monly known weakening of will-power and self-control arising 
from the influence of strong drink, there are certain influences 
concerning the sexual nature and arising from the presence of 
alcohol in the system, which are not known to most persons. 
In the first place, there is an exhilarating effect arising from 
certain kinds of liquor, wines, and other forms of alcoholic drinks, 
which manifests directly in an excitement of the sexual centers 
and organism. In many cases a strong sexual excitement, absent 
at other times, is aroused, and the person is carried away with 
the force of passion unknown under other circumstances. Added 
to this the weakened will-power arising from too much drink, and 
we have an explanation of many cases of "mistakes" of women. 
It would appear that women are even more susceptible than are 
men to unusual sexual excitement arising from alcoholic drinks; 
and that, therefore, they should be especially cautious in the indul- 
gence in such drinks, particularly when in the company of strange 
men, or men careless in regard to sexual morality and respect for 
women in their company. 
But there is still a deeper reason, based upon the latest dis- 
coveries in psychology, why caution in this respect should be 
observed by women. We allude to the discovery that alcohol first 
affects the mental and emotional tendencies of more recent racial 
acquirement, acting so as to paralyze and inhibit the activities 
thereof, and thus to release the activity of the more primitive emo- 
tions and motive activities. Thus, the woman under the influence 
of alcohol finds that the more recent racial traits, such as sexual 
control, restraint, sexual morality, conventional observations, etc., 
are practically temporarily paralyzed and inhibited, or to use the 
current slang phrase, are "put out of commission" for the time 
being; and, at the same time, the old elemental, savage, barbaric, 
"cave man" instincts, habits, and methods of action, are brought to 
the surface, and proceed to manifest their activity if opportunity 
be granted for the same-and the opportunity is usually granted. 
This being found to be true, it is seen that the woman so under 
the influence of liquor is, for the time being, little more than a 
"cave woman," or barbarian, with all the lax sex morality of the SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
579 
latter, and with all the tendencies to manifest into activity the 
primitive impulses arising in her nature and demanding ex- 
pression. Added to this the weakening of will-power always 
accompanying the alcoholic influence, it is seen that the woman 
under the influence of strong drink is an easy prey to designing 
men, and a willing victim to her own lower passions. 
An authority on sex subjects says: "That Bacchus, the god 
of wine, is the strongest ally of Venus, the goddess of love, using 
the term Love in its physical sense, as the French use the word 
'amour,' has been well known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, 
as it is well known today to every saloon-keeper and every keeper 
of a disreputable house. And all measures to combat venereal 
diseases and to prevent girls from making a false step will only 
be partially successful if we do not at the same time carry on a 
strong educational campaign against alcoholic indulgences. * * * 
Of what use are warnings to a girl, when under the influence of a 
heavy dinner and a bottle of champagne, to which she is unaccus- 
tomed, her passion is aroused to a degree she has never experi- 
enced before, her will is paralyzed and she yields, though deep 
down in her consciousness something tells her she shouldn't? 
She yields, becomes pregnant, and is in the deepest agony for 
several months, and has a wound which will probably never heal 
for the rest of her life. Of what use have all the lectures, books, 
and maternal injunctions been to her? * * * I believe that the 
sex instinct can be stimulated artificially beyond the natural needs, 
and among the artificial stimulants of the sex instinct alcohol occu- 
pies the first place. And bear in mind that alcohol produces even 
a stronger effect upon women, in exciting the sexual passion, than 
it does on men. Women are more easily upset by stimulants and 
narcotics, and that is the reason why it is more dangerous for 
women to drink than it is for men. It is impossible to give statis- 
tics and exact or even approximate figures. But there is no ques- 
tion in my mind, or in the mind of any careful investigator, that 
if alcoholic beverages could be eliminated, the number of cases of 
venereal infection would be diminished by about one-half. And 
what is true of venereal disease is also true of the seduction of 
young girls. Alcohol is the most efficient weapon that either the 
refined Don Juan or the vulgar pimp has in his possession." 
Our advice to the woman who is asked to drink liquor in the 
company of a man outside of her immediate family circle is 
emphatically this: DON'T DO IT!-Dr. R. B. Armitage. 580 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Sterility or barrenness is a condition of inability to have 
children. In former years the opinion prevailed generally, when- 
ever a couple was childless, that fault was exclusively the 
woman's. It wasn't even thought that the man could be to blame. 
We know now that in at least fifty per cent, of cases of sterility, or 
childless marriages, the fault is not the woman's but the man's. 
It is, therefore, very unwise in conditions of sterility to subject the 
wife to treatment without first examining the husband. Never- 
theless, this is still often the case, particularly among the lower 
classes or among the ignorant. There are cases where the woman 
goes from one doctor to another for years and is subjected to all 
kinds of treatment, when a simple examination of the husband 
would show that the fault lies with him. 
Some women have one child and are unable afterwards to 
give birth to any more. Such a condition is called one-child- 
sterility. It is generally due to an inflammation of the Fallopian 
tubes which closes up the openings of the tubes into the womb, 
so that no more ova can pass from the ovaries through the tubes 
into the womb. This inflammation may be the result of child- 
birth, for childbirth alone may set up an inflammation, or it may 
be due to an infection contracted from the husband. 
In order to be fertile, that is, to be able to conceive and give 
birth to a living child, the woman's external and internal genital 
organs must be normal, her ovaries must produce healthy ova, 
and there must be no obstruction on the way, so that the ova 
and the spermatozoa can meet. The mucous membrane of the 
womb must also be healthy, so that when the impregnated ovum 
gets attached to the womb it may develop there without any trou- 
ble, and not become diseased or poorly nourished and cast off. 
We must always remember that the woman's share in bring- 
ing forth children and perpetuating the race is much more impor- 
tant than the man's. When a man has discharged his spermatozoa 
his work is done-the woman's only commences. 
The conditions which cause sterility in women are many, but 
the most common cause is a salpingitis or an inflammation of the 
Fallopian tubes, which may be caused by gonorrhea or any other 
inflammation. A severe leucorrhea may also be the cause of 
sterility, because the leucorrheal discharge may be fatal to the 
spermatozoa. Another cause is a severe bending or turning of 
the uterus either forwards or backwards. The opening of the SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
581 
neck of the womb, the os, may also be closed, or practically so, 
from ulceration, from strong applications, etc. In some cases 
sterility may be due to severe constitutional diseases, when the 
person is very much rundown and so anemic that menstruation 
stops. Unfortunately this is not always the case, for women even 
in the last stages of consumption may, and often do, become 
pregnant. Syphilis unfortunately does not cause sterility; it only 
causes miscarriages until controlled by treatment. 
The treatment of sterility can be succesfully carried out only 
by a competent physician, particularly by one who is devoting 
himself specially to this kind of work. But I want once more to 
impress upon every woman who is sterile, and who wants to have 
a child, not to have herself treated or even examined until her 
husband has been subjected to an examination.-Dr. William J. 
Robinson. (See last page.) 
* * * * * 
How Girls Are Led Astray.-A large proportion of the vic- 
tims of white slavery are from farms and smaller towns in the 
country. They are more easily duped by the wiles of the pro- 
curers than city girls, and their identity is more easily hidden; 
besides, they are more readily controlled, because they do not 
know much about city life. Many of these young girls are led to 
their doom in just trying to see what the World is like. They have 
been kept close to the home and know almost nothing of life. 
When they get away and have a little more liberty, love of 
romance and adventure and their ignorance lead them astray. 
These girls from the country never have been taught that a 
young girl, friendless and alone in a large city, is in greater 
danger than she would be alone with wild beasts in the jungles of 
Africa; that thousands of men are watching for just such girls 
as they, waiting to lure them to their ruin, setting all sorts of 
traps for them. They are never told, perhaps, that thirty thous- 
and men in New York City alone, not to speak of Chicago, Boston, 
St. Louis, and other big centres, make it a profession to lure just 
such innocent young girls into sin, and that many of them become 
rich in this awful traffic in human lives. 
The country girl who has been accustomed to a quiet, simple 
life is often thrown off her guard by the glitter of the city, the 
evidences of luxurious living,-beautiful dresses, fine automobiles. 582 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
and people everywhere on pleasure bent. She is dazzled by these 
things and often loses her mental balance. 
Such an unsophisticated, inexperienced girl is easily enticed 
to public dance halls, where young men who are experts in mis- 
leading girls often induce her to drink, and the proprietor pur- 
posely makes it very difficult to get water in these places. The 
dances last only four or five minutes, because the chief aim of the 
halls is to get the inmates to buy drinks. Thousands of girls are 
thus induced to drink, and, before they realize it, the hour is late 
and the young men persuade them that they can not afford to go 
home, but that they can explain the next morning that they stayed 
with their friends. 
In other words, the most damnable methods are used to play 
upon the credulity and the vanity of these young girls. As a rule, 
of course, the girls know nothing about the character of the men 
who are trying to ruin them; who tell them especially if they are 
attractive, that it is a shame that such handsome girls should not 
have diamonds and beautiful clothes, and thus play upon their 
vanity. They often make them believe that they can get places 
for them on the vaudeville or theatrical stage, and that they will 
introduce them to managers, etc. These bogus managers arc in 
the game with the "cadets," and under the pretense of helping the 
girls to positions, lead them farther and farther to their ruin.- 
Rev. Orison Swett Marsden. 
* * * * * 
Polygamous Sexual Instinct in Man.-The tricks which are 
played on a man by his sexual appetite, especially by his polyga- 
mous instincts, must not be confounded with the systematic, artifi- 
cial and abnormal training of the same appetite. The physical and 
psychic attractions of a woman are capable of completely divert- 
ing the sexual desires of a man from their primary object, and 
of directing them on the siren who captivates his senses. The 
elements of the sexual appetite here form an inextricable mixture 
with those of love, and constitute the inexhaustible theme of 
novels and most true and sensational love stories. 
Hereditary pathological dispositions play a considerable role 
in many cases of this kind. Also, marriages of sudden and pas- 
sionate love (we are not dealing here with love marriages con- 
cluded after sufficient reflection and deep mutual acquaintance- SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
583 
ship) are not more stable than the so-called "manages de con- 
venance" for passionate natures, usually more or less pathologi- 
cal, are apt to fall from one extreme to the other. The power 
exercised by sexual passion in such cases is terrible. It produces 
conditions that may lead to suicide or assassination. In men 
whose power of reason is neither strong nor independent, opinions 
and conceptions are frequently changed; love may change to 
hatred and hatred to love, the sentiment of justice may lead to 
injustice, the loyal man may become a liar, etc. In fact the sexual 
appetite is let loose like a hurricane in the brain and becomes the 
despot of the whole mind. The sexual passion has often been 
compared to drunkenness or to mental disease. Even in its mild- 
est forms it often renders the husband incapable of sexual con- 
nection with his wife. 
For example, a man may cherish, respect and even adore his 
wife, and yet her presence and touch may not appeal to his senses, 
not excite his appetite or erection; while some low-minded woman 
will produce in him an irresistible sensual attraction, even when 
he experiences neither esteem nor love for her. In such cases 
sexual appetite is in more or less radical opposition to love. Such 
extreme phenomena are not rare, but hardly common. Although 
excited to coitus with the woman in question, the husband would 
not in any case have her for a wife, nor even have children by 
her, for after the slightest reflection he despises and fears her. 
Here, the sexual appetite represents the old atavistic animal in- 
stinct, attracted by libidinous looks, exuberant charms, in a word 
by the sensual aspect of woman. 
On the contrary, in a higher domain of the human mind, the 
sentiments of sympathy of true love, deeply associated with 
fidelity, and with intellectual and moral intimacy, unite against 
the elementary power of the animal instinct. Here we see dwell- 
ing in the same breast (or, to speak more correctly, in the same 
central nervous system) two which struggle with each other.-Dr. 
August Forel. 
***** 
The Seducer and His Conscience.-Many a time when one has 
satisfied his lustful passions with the sweet, confiding girl whose 
love and confidence he has succeeded in winning, then turning 
away leaving her desolate and alone, he does not stop to think he 
has robbed, perhaps, one life of its sweetness and of its joy, that 584 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
he has turned one more soul away from hope and light down to 
the dark and empty shadows of despair, that he has done his 
part towards tempting one more girl to enter the avenues of 
prostitution, the darkest of all the paths of sin which feet of 
women ever trod. He does not stop to think that deeds like that 
have filled the brothels of our land again and again, until in truth 
they are constantly recruited from the ranks of those who have 
loved not wisely, but too well, or too passionately, and have been 
betrayed by him in whom they reposed their deepest confidence 
and whom they thought would be the soul of honor in their hour 
of need. But consequences too often follow these acts. When 
the girl finds maternity imminent, she is ready to turn from home 
and friends, she feels that she has been a disgrace to them, she 
has passed beyond the pale of pardon and of hope, and she either 
becomes a murderess and thus criminally rids herself of the un- 
born fruit of her womb, or going off in some secret place like the 
stricken deer, she bears the child and either seeks to rear it by 
the fruits of her prostitution or giving it over to some kindly 
family in adoption refuses to return, and in the dark plague 
spots of our cities, unknown, under an assumed name, plies her 
trade. How terrible to think that one has been the cause of so 
much ruin and of so much dark despair. The broken-hearted 
father, the tearful, praying mother, the relatives and loved ones 
feeling that they are now disgraced, the girl because of pride 
refuses to return, refusing to humble them by her presence un- 
derneath their roof or in the home; so she goes on in that brief 
life whose average is but from three to seven years, and then 
burns out like moths that flutter over burning flames or lighted 
candle until with singed wings they fall into eternal burnings. 
Not a pleasant subject for contemplation to a man who has 
even the vestiges or rudiments of a conscience; not a pleasant 
subject for his midnight dreams, nor for his waking hours, nor 
for his dying bed.-Evangelist M. B. Williams. 
* * * * * 
Consanguineous Marriages. - Consanguinity means blood 
relationship, and consanguineous marriages are those between 
near blood relatives. The physician is frequently consulted as to 
the permissibility or danger of marriage between near relations. 
The question geneally concerns first cousins, second cousins, uncle 
and niece, and nephew and aunt. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
585 
The popular idea is that consanguineous marriages are bad 
per se. The children of near relatives, such as first cousins, are 
apt to be defective, deaf and dumb, blind, or feebleminded, and 
what not. This popular idea, as so many popular ideas are, is 
wrong. And still there is, of course, as there always is, some 
foundation for it. The matter however is quite simple: 
We know that many traits, good and bad, are transmitted by 
heredity. And naturally when traits are possessed by both father 
and mother they stand a much greater chance of being transmit- 
ted to the offspring than if possessed by one of the parents alone. 
Now, then, if a certain bad trait, such as epilepsy or insanity, is 
present in a family that trait is present in both cousins, and the 
likelihood of children from such a marriage inheriting that trait 
is much greater than when the parents are strangers, the taint 
being present in the family of only one of the parents. But ii 
there be no heredity taint in the cousins' family, and, still more, 
if the family is an intelligent one, if there are geniuses in the 
family, then there cannot be the slightest objection to marriage 
between cousins, and the children of such marriage are apt to 
inherit in a strong degree the talents or genius of their ancestors. 
In short, if the family is a bad one, one below par, then marriage 
between cousins or between uncle and niece should be forbidden. 
If the family is a good one, above par, the marriage between 
relatives of that family should be encouraged. 
The idea that the children from consanguineous marriages 
are apt to be deaf and dumb has no foundation in fact. Recent 
statistics from various asylums in Germany, for instance, have 
shown that only about five per cent, of the deaf and dumb chil- 
dren were the offspring of consanguineous marriages. If 95 per 
cent, of the deaf and dumb had won-consanguineous parents, how 
could one say that even in the other five per cent, the consan- 
guinity was the cause? If it were the other way around, then 
of course we could blame consanguinity. As it is, we can assume 
even in this five per cent, a mere coincidence, and we have no 
right to say that consanguinity and deaf and dumbness stand in 
the relation to each other of cause and effect. 
It is interesting to know that among the Egyptians, Persians, 
and Incas of Peru close consanguineous marriages were very 
common. The Egyptian kings generally married their sisters. 
This was common custom and if the children born of such unions 586 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
were defectives or monstrosities the fact would have become 
quickly apparent and the custom would have been abolished. 
Evidently the off-spring of very close consanguinity was normal, 
or even above normal, or the practice would not have been con- 
tinued such a long time. 
It is perhaps worth while noting that one of the world's 
greatest scientists, Charles Darwin, was the child of parents who 
were first cousins.-Dr. William J. Robinson. (See last page.) 
Erotic Centers.-Of the whole of this group of phenomena, 
the most typical and the most widespread example is certainly 
the kiss. We have in the lips a highly sensitive frontier region 
between skin and mucous membrane, in many respects analogous 
to the vulvo-vaginal orifice, and reinforcible, moreover, by the 
active movements of the still more highly sensitive tongue. Close 
and prolonged contact of these regions, therefore, under condi- 
tions favorable to tumescence sets up a powerful current of 
nervous stimulation. After those contacts in which the sexual 
regions themselves take a direct part, there is certainly no such 
channel for directing nervous force into the sexual sphere as the 
kiss. This is nowhere so well recognized as in France, where 
a young girl's lips are religiously kept for her lover, to such an 
extent, indeed, that young girls sometimes come to believe that 
the whole physical side of love is comprehended in a kiss on the 
mouth; so highly intelligent a woman as Madame Adam has 
described the agony she felt as a girl when kissed on the lips by 
a man, owing to the conviction that she had thereby lost her 
virtue. Although the lips occupy this highly important position 
as a seconda: y sexual focus in the sphere of touch, the kiss is 
confined to man and, inded, to a large extent, to civilized man. 
There is yet another orificial frontier region which is a highly 
important tactile sexual focus, the nipple. The breasts raise, 
indeed, several interesting questions in their intimate connection 
with the sexual sphere and it may be worth while to consider 
them at this point. 
The breasts have from the present point of view this special 
significance among the sexual centres that they primarily exist, 
not for the contact of the lover, but the contact of the child. 
This is doubtless, indeed, the fundamental fact on which all the 
touch contacts we are here concerned with have grown up. The SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
587 
sexual sensitivity of the lover's lips to orificial contacts has been 
developed from the sensitivity of the infant's lips to contact with 
his mother's nipple. It is on the ground of that evolution that 
we are bound to consider here the precise position of the breasts 
as a sexual centre. 
As the great secreting organs of milk, the function of the 
breasts must begin immediately the child is cut off from the 
nutrition derived from direct contact with his mother's blood. 
It is therefore essential that the connection between the sexual 
organs proper, more especially the womb, and the breasts should 
be exceedingly intimate, so that the breasts may be in a condition 
to respond adequately to the demand of the child's sucking lips 
at the earliest moment after birth. As a matter of fact, this 
connection is very intimate, so intimate that it takes place in two 
totally distinct ways-by the nervous system and by the blood.- 
Havelock Ellis. 
* * * * * 
The Sexual Sensibility of Woman.-It is possible, however, 
that the greater extension of the sexual sphere in woman gives 
rise, if one may use the expression, to a greater dispersal of 
sexual sensations, which are not, as they are in man, closely con- 
centrated to a particular point, and for this reason the spon- 
taneous resolution of the libido (in the form of the sexual 
orgasm) is rendered more difficult. 
Recently Havelock Ellis has made a searching investigation 
into the nature of the sexual impulse in woman. He found the 
following differences by which it was distinguished from the 
sexual impulse of the male: 
1. The sexual impulse of woman shows greater external 
passivity. 
2. It is more complicated, less readily arises spontaneously, 
more frequently needs external stimulus, while the orgasm de- 
velops more slowly than in man. 
3. It develops in its full strength only after the commence- 
ment of regular sexual intercourse. 
4. The boundary beyond which sexual excess begins is less 
easily reached than in man. 
5. The sexual sphere has a greater extension, and is more 
diffusely distributed than in man. 588 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
6. The spontaneous appearances of sexual desire have a 
marked tendency to periodicity. 
7. The sexual impulse exhibits in woman greater varia- 
bility, a greater extent of variation, than in man-alike when we 
examine separate feminine individuals, and when we compare 
the different phases in the life of the same woman. 
In the majority of cases the sexual frigidity of woman is, 
in fact, apparently merely either because behind the veil pre- 
scribed by conventional morality, behind the apparent coldness, 
there is concealed an ardent sexuality, or else because the par- 
ticular man with whom she has had intercourse has not suc- 
ceeded rightly in awakening her erotic sensibility, so compli- 
cated and so difficult to arouse. When he has succeeded in doing 
so, the sexual insensibility will in the majority of cases disappear. 
Where sexual frigidity in woman is enduring in character, 
we have to do either with inherited influences, with sexual devel- 
opmental inhibition, the psycho-sexual infantilism of Eulenburg, 
or with some disease (especially hysteria and other nervous 
disorders), and with the consequences of habitual masturbation. 
Speaking generally, the sexual sensibility of woman is, as 
we have seen, of quite a different nature from that of man; but 
in intensity it is at least as great as that of man.-Dr. Iwan Bloch. 
3|C 
TheTime When Impregnation Occurs.-While many ingenious 
theories have been advanced in recent years touching the precise 
point, or period, at which impregnation takes place, it is regret- 
table that at the present stage of the investigations no authorita- 
tive judgment, founded on actual knowledge, can be passed. 
From observations, however, made in a great number of cases by 
Tait, Kruger, Pozzi, Schroeder and others, it is apparently cer- 
tain that it must occur, as to time, during the first half of the 
menstrual period, and most probably within a week after the 
cessation of the catamenial flow. Raciborski observed sixteen 
cases in which conception occurred as late as the tenth day after; 
and from what I have been enabled to glean from a vast mass 
of literature on the subject, it is fair to assume that fully 99 per 
cent, of all cases occur within twelve days after termination of 
the monthly flow. 
There is little substantial evidence to support the theory 
that impregnation may occur at any time by the mere rupture of SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
589 
an ovisac; nor is it at all probable that the ovum may be retained 
in the Fallopian tube from one menstrual period to another; the 
contrary, indeed, being pretty fully established by examination 
of animals. 
The most probable hypothesis that the ovum, after ejec- 
tion from the ovary, is from six to twelve days in passing through 
the tube, and that impregnation occurs within that place and 
period. Pouchet extends the time to fourteen days, as does also 
M. Coste; but the slight difference in time is of little consequence, 
the important feature of the discussion being to fix the place and 
method in which, and by which, impregnation takes place. 
This has apparently been done; at least with such a degree 
of certainty as to justify us in believing that whenever a concep- 
tion takes place after the twelfth or fourteenth day of the men- 
strual interval, it is owing to the Graafian vesicle having failed 
to discharge the ripened ovum, the one which came to maturity at 
the previous menstrual period; which ovum being ruptured by the 
excitement of sexual intercourse, at any time prior to the next 
subsequent menstruation, may insure impregnation. 
The summary of our established facts, then, seems to be, that 
it is during the menstrual period that the female ova are ripened. 
That from the ovary they are discharged into the Fallopian tube, 
the journey which occupies them from six to fourteen days, 
according to functional activity, and that, if impregnation occur 
at all, it must occur before the ovum has passed out of the tube. 
Should it not be fertilized by the spermatozoon within the tube, 
or within the ovary itself, there will be no impregnation, the 
ovum passing into, and being lost in, the womb. 
Then, if five days be allowed for menstruation, and fourteen 
for the passage of the ovum through the tube, there remains- 
and this is the point arrived at by the previous remarks-a period 
of nine days during which impregnation cannot occur. 
I use the word cannot, of course, only as a substitute for 
"extreme improbability"; the ratio in which it may occur-once 
in every three to five hundred cases-being such as practically to 
exclude it from consideration.-Dr. J. Richardson Parke. 
* * * * * 
Hygiene of the Nuptial Night.-The hygiene of the nuptial 
night deserves from the physician more attention than it has 
hitherto generally received. He should warn and enlighten the 590 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
young husband, in order that the brutality with which the act of 
defloration is apt to be performed may be lessened, and further 
in order that mistakes in this connection, resulting from ignor- 
ance and likely to have serious consequences, may be avoided. 
It is well known that lacerations of the hymen and its environ- 
ment, and even serious injuries of the genital organs, may result 
from maladroit attempts at penetration. The physician will ad- 
monish the husband in the words of Michelet: "Bear in mind 
in this hour that thou art an enemy, a tender, considerate, and 
gentle enemy!" 
The young woman entering upon marriage should receive 
instruction from her mother regarding all the sexual processes 
of copulation, instruction at once earnest and complete. By 
such enlightenment, the young bride will be spared much suffer- 
ing, and a sudden disillusionment which might seriously affect 
the whole of her future life will be avoided; complete ignorance, 
on the other hand, may lead, not merely to needless mental and 
physical suffering, but to the most tragic consequences on the 
bridal night. In one case known to me, the young wife, who be- 
fore marriage was utterly ignorant of the nature of physical 
love, was so completely overwhelmed in her ideals by the some- 
what energetic procedure of the bridegroom as soon as he found 
himself alone with his wife, that she fled from her home then 
and there in the night, and by no persuasions could be induced 
to return. 
In that decisive moment in which the maiden loses her vir- 
ginity, she must find in her husband, not the brutal man who 
forcibly takes possession of her body, but the chosen man of all, 
to whom her love can refuse nothing. 
"Delicate foresight and restraint," writes Ribbing, "are 
needful above all at the commencement of married life. The 
young wife, coming to the bridal bed a pure virgin, is not, like 
her husband, fully prepared for what is to take place. In all 
cases she is somewhat fearful of the new experience. The first 
act of intercourse involves for her a certain amount of pain, 
and this pain is not solely physical. * * * Moreover, we 
must remember that the entire change in her mode of life makes 
a deep impression upon a woman's mind; time and quiet are 
needed before she can find herself at home in the novel surround- 
ings, before she can adapt to the changed circumstances her SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
591 
moral and religious convictions, and before she can 'think true 
love acted simple modesty.' Impatient husbands, through want 
of knowledge and lack of consideration during the honeymoon, 
have often ruined the happiness of subsequent married life." 
It happens often, unfortunately, that the wife has reason to 
complain of the reckless manner in which her husband has used, 
or misused, his sexual powers. Frequently enough, on the bridal 
night, the man proceeds with such violence in his assault on the 
virgin reproductive organs of his newly-wedded wife, that we 
must actually speak of him as ravishing an ignorant and timid 
girl. Later, when the stimulus of novelty has passed away, the 
husband often performs intercourse in a manner more calculated 
to awaken his wife's sexual desires, but in seeking his own lordly 
gratification and obtaining it he is still apt to leave out of the 
reckoning the need for effecting coitus in such a way as will give 
complete satisfaction also to his wife.-Dr. E. Heinrich Kisch. 
* * * * * 
Medical Institutes and Quacks.-Advertising quacks and 
quack institutes are a greater plague to this country than the 
cholera ever could be, and are probably responsible for more mis- 
ery and deaths than is the terrible scourge of consumption. 
In my specialty I see cases every day that make one's blood 
boil. A person has a little pimple on his genitals: It may be 
herpes, may be due to a little irritation or scratch, may be due 
to the bursting of a little blister, or to the itch. If such a person 
gets into the hands of those advertising quicks, then the Lord 
have pity on him! Those gentry vdill frighten the life out of him. 
They will convince him that he has syphilis in the very worst 
form; and then will proceed to bleed the poor fellow as long as 
he has, or as long as they think he has, a dollar left. But at the 
same time they will ruin his health and his stomach by nauseous 
medicines, pills and tablets-for they have to show him that they 
are giving him something for his money. I have had numerous 
patients, who came .to me with the diagnosis of syphilis from 
the medical institutes and quacks, most of the sores proving noth- 
ing but mild abrasions or local irritations. 
The same is true of gonorrhea. When these harpies get a 
gonorrheal patient, they torture him to death. They make him 
better, then they make him a little worse, then again better, over 
and over. And in spite of the so-called "guarantees to cure," when 592 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the patient is no longer able or is unwilling to put up more money, 
he is kicked out, the door is shut in his face, and he is forbidden 
to come again. They know that, in spite of their written guaran- 
tees, no patient will be willing to go to court, and thus bring 
to light the fact that he has a venereal disease. 
Very often when such a patient applies for treatment to a 
real physician, he is in a most deplorable condition. We find him 
suffering with gleet, chronic patches in the urethra, quite often 
strictures from the use of too strong injections, and so on. And 
it often takes many months to undo the damage wrought by those 
dastardly quacks. 
The same is true of sexual disorders :These are of too com- 
plicated a character to be understood or diagnosed properly by 
the quacks, and still it is here that they reap their harvest. By 
advertisement, circular and booklets, they make our young men 
and boys think that every case of nightly emission or masturba- 
tion is a dangerous disorder which will send them directly to the 
grave or to the madhouse, and when they succeed in enticing a 
youth in their clutches, they not only rob him of his last cent, but 
they generally succeed in making a nervous wreck of him. And 
then his name and address are given to other quacks, and he is 
overwhelmed with other letters, other "literature," assuring him 
that they can positively cure him or it will not cost one cent; 
and so similar alluring offers with fake testimonials are showered 
upon him to the end of his days. 
You know-or you may not know-there are letter-brokers 
who make it a regular business to sell letters from sufferers from 
various diseases to different quack concerns. These letters are 
carefully classified, with remarks as to the social and financial 
standing of the patient. If you ever had the misfortune to become 
the patient of a quack, and he knows your right name and address, 
you may be sure that these will travel from quack to quack; in 
truth your name will go down to posterity.-Dr. William J. Rob- 
inson. (See last page.) 
* * * * * 
The Dangers of Ignorance of Self and Sex.-Parents are 
too often responsible for the degradation of their daughters. 
Mothers neglect properly to instruct them regarding the duties 
they owe to Society and the dangers inseparable from male com- 
panionship. They learn the sacred mysteries of reproduction SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
593 
from "flip" girls who are "on the mash" and rather glory in being 
considered a trifle rapid, and are too often led upon the reefs 
before they realize that sexual purity is the noblest jewel of per- 
fect womanhood-that when it is lost she is already dead and 
damned. They are permitted, when the demon of passion is first 
stirring in their blood, to "keep company" with gay young men 
beyond the maternal eye, to dance and flirt, and the logical se- 
quence of such license is a coroner's inquest on one of their 
boasted "conquests," a military marriage or another addition to 
the demi-mondaines. If young girls left so unguarded do not go 
to perdition, no credit is due to their parents. Even if they pass 
the ordeal without debauchment of body, they are so debased in 
mind as to be forever unfitted for noble wifehood, for no man 
possessed of refinement equal to that of a scurvy ape will marry 
a maid who has been pawed over by Tom, Dick and the Devil. 
She's "damaged goods" the very moment she submits to the kisses 
and caresses of a man who does not make her the empress of his 
heart and home. All the perfume of the rose has disappeared- 
she has become entirely too promiscuous, too experienced. When 
a man learns that his wife delivered to him as a dowry a joblot 
of reechy kisses, collected of male acquaintances much as she 
might accumulate picture cards or cancelled postage stamps, he 
should be privileged to sear her slobber-trap with a red-hot iron 
and turn her loose to wander like a she-Cain through the world. 
Her sin differs in degree (but not in kind) from that of the com- 
mon courtesan, and to a man of real refinement the degree is not so 
broad that it must be measured with an astronomer's instrument. 
True it is that virtue which must be ever guarded is not worth 
the sentinel; but the proverb applies to adults, not to young girls. 
A better plan which takes it for granted that an unmarried woman 
only awaits a good opportunity to go astray; or which assumes 
that all men are wingless angels, would be for the State to hold 
parents responsible for the purity of their daughters until the 
latter have reached the legal age of consent, and erase the word 
"seduction" from the criminal code. A woman rightly reared 
and carefully guarded until she is of marriageable age will never 
be "led astray" unless she furnishes the string. The wildest rake 
who ever went unhung will attempt no criminal familiarity with 
any woman unless she extends to him encouragement. No mar- 
ried woman possessed of sufficient intellectuality successfully to 594 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
evade the lunatic asylum was ever "seduced." When a wife goes 
wrong she should come in for at least one barrel of the shotgun 
if the wronged husband decides that a dirty drab is worth the 
price of an ounce of powder.-Brann-The Iconoclast. 
* * * * $ 
Unsatisfied Sexual Desire as a Cause of Female Disorders.- 
If a woman has a normal constitution she usually experiences the 
same desire of sexual gratification as man, and she must be ap- 
proached with tender fondling by the man during the sexual act, 
without which feature it is brutal. As it is known that orgasm 
appears later in woman than in man, the husband should take 
that circumstance into consideration and consider it his duty to 
prolong the intercourse sufficiently for orgasm in the woman. 
It is, as a rule, possible for a man to do so, at least for the con- 
siderate one, who can under all circumstances learn to control 
to a considerable extent the time for ejaculation. 
There exist marriages where the husband does not wish to 
have intercourse with his wife without her free, spontaneous 
consent, and considers it an injustice toward her if she does not 
also enjoy orgasm. Conviction of woman's need of sexual gratifi- 
cation may thus educate a man, if real love is present. 
Absence of orgasm at the presence of sexual desire may have 
serious consequences, the physiological reason of which is very 
apparent. 
An appetite has been excited without being satisfied, the 
entire sexual apparatus has been stimulated, ovaries, uterus and 
vagina are congested, but the irritation is not ended by the natural 
crisis. If this is often repeated the uterus finally becomes swollen, 
inflammation of ovaries and other organs appear, accompanied 
by pains, catarrh of vagina and uterus, ulcers on cervix, hemor- 
rhages, etc. Finally serious changes take place and many claim 
that cancer of the uterus may be caused thereby. 
Nature takes revenge, but man does not know that he has 
done wrong, and the attending physician often knows nothing 
about the cause of the ailment, as he has never been told the 
secret of the sexual relations existing between husband and wife. 
Many women with female diseases are too modest to inform 
the physician about such details if he does not understand how 
to gain information by means of prudent questioning. Local SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
595 
treatment is often resorted to where a constitutional cause is to 
blame, and it may do some good if it tends to allay the irritation, 
etc., but the regained health is easily lost again, and the treatment 
with baths, douches, cautery, massage, operations, etc., must be 
resumed. 
Other consequences of unsatisfied sexual desire in coitus are 
the many different nervous diseases which are caused by the 
state of irritability of the genital organs, hysterics, epilepsy, 
melancholia, neuralgia, paresthesias, queer ideas and sensations, 
etc. Diseases of the female generative organs often manifest 
themselves by pain and other abnormal symptoms of distant 
organs, as neuralgia of the stomach, intestines, breast, face, 
teeth, etc. 
Diseases of the sexual organs, as well as abnormalities of 
the sexual functions, are among the most common causes of 
nervous and mental diseases. Insanity and suicide are often the 
final outcome. It is not sufficient to state the presence of some 
"female disorder" as the cause of an abnormal mental condition 
or suicide. To understand the complication one must go further 
back and try to explain and discover the cause of this cause, etc. 
It is the same with many other diseases, as dropsy, heart trouble, 
kidney diseases, where it is important to take into consideration 
a general constitutional disease as the real cause. 
Woman's health often suffers from the great injustice, the 
violation of woman's rights by man, who is so egotistic that he 
thinks only of his own pleasure in the sexual union. 
Ungratified sexuality depends upon lacking knowledge of 
the art of loving, to which art pertains the quality of being kind 
and sympathetic in general and especially in the sexual act. One 
does not readily understand why interruption of the sexual act 
as a preventive is injurious. Just as woman reaches the height 
of sexual enjoyment, the orgasm, the act is interrupted and can- 
not be continued by the man, and for reasons already shown 
this is very injurious. 
Many physicians have mentioned diseases caused by coitus 
interruptus and have described how health has been regained by 
complete coitus performed under protection of proper hygienic 
instruction. 
Besides diseases of women caused by abstinence, which 
makes life miserable for husband as well as wife, there are other 596 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
dangers, viz., the revenge of womanly nature against its outrage; 
manifesting itself by indifference, dislike, disgust for the husband, 
and irritability of the sexual organs which persist in spite of all 
precautions and attempts to relieve it. Dissensions and misun- 
derstandings appear, and new connections are entered into; di- 
vorce is often the finale, and the public judges harshly and un- 
justly, ignorant as it is of the real cause thereof. They may have 
shown very little of the real cause.-Dr. Anton Nystrom. 
***** 
Relation of Masturbation to Hypochondriasis.-Some mas- 
turbators become much distressed, and reproach themselves for 
having spoilt their lives by their bad habit. They give way to 
lamentations before their doctor and their acquaintances, wring 
their hands with despair, and beg everyone to come to their aid. 
They look upon themselves as poor sinners whose lives have been 
ruined, either by their own fault or by others. They have read 
sensational books which excite both the fear and the sexual desire 
of weak characters, whom they are intended to exploit. These 
poor devils believe themselves lost, and are truly pitiable objects. 
These form the types which are paraded as terrible examples in 
books on masturbation which make timid persons' hair stand on 
end. 
When these unfortunate masturbators are questioned on all 
the circumstances of the act of which they accuse themselves, we 
generally arrive at the following results: 
We recognize that we have to deal with psychopathic or 
neurotic subjects more or less tainted by heredity, timid and 
shunning their fellows, easily impressed by imagination, pos- 
sessed of unhealthy sentiments and ideas; in fact, hypochondriacs, 
predisposed to look upon every sensation or slight indisposition 
as a grave disorder threatening their health or life. They thus 
live in perpetual anxiety. This mental anomaly has for a long 
time preceded the masturbation, even if they have masturbated, 
which is often even not the case. 
Among the numerous patients of this kind that I have 
treated, there were many who had simply had nocturnal emissions 
since puberty, but they regarded themselves as lost men through 
masturbation! Many others no doubt practice compensatory mas- 
turbation, generally because their timid nature prevents them from 
frequenting prostitutes, or committing other sexual excesses, SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
597 
while the way in which they analyze their sensations easily leads 
them to masturbation. On the other hand, they are generally so 
afraid that they do not give way to excessive masturbation, per- 
haps only once or twice a week, or even less often, so that the 
normal frequency of coitus, according to Luther, is often not 
attained and seldom exceeded. Among these persons we find 
few precocious or excessive masturbators. I admit, however, 
that a hypochondriacal constitution predisposes somewhat to 
masturbation. 
But, what I wish to lay stress upon, is that the masturbators 
who are full of lamentation and self-reproach are neither the most 
numerous nor those who commit the greatest excess. The worst 
masturbators, those who provoke several ejaculations daily, belong 
to the category of sexual hyperesthetics. These have not the 
classical aspect attributed to them by tradition; they are not pale 
and terrified creatures, but rather lewd individuals who are early 
transformed into impudent Don Juans. They may be as cour- 
ageous, as clever and as strong as others and yet be disposed to 
all kinds of evil tricks and follies. It is, therefore, not true, as is 
so often said, that it is possible to recognize a masturbator by his 
face and manner. 
These excessive masturbators no doubt do themselves harm 
in various ways, but the great error of taking sexual hypochon- 
driasis for the type of masturbators, is to confound cause with 
effect. Sexual hypochondriasis is in no way the effect of mas- 
turbation, but precedes it, and masturbation is rather its effect, or 
is simply associated with it. It is obvious that masturbation, by 
its depressing effect, aggravates a mind beset with hypochon- 
driacal anxieties. 
It results from these facts, first, that a sexual hypochondriac 
should be treated as a hypochondriac and not as a masturbator; 
secondly, that the worst slaves of masturbation are not to be 
looked for among pale and dejected individuals. 
Among women, especially young girls, hypochondriasis is 
not common, and cases of sexual hypochondriacs who accuse 
themselves of masturbating are rare among them. Women who 
masturbate generally keep their secret and are apparently very 
little affected by it. However, masturbation does them nearly as 
much harm as men; it is true they have no loss of semen, but 
the repetition and intensity of the nervous irritation are greater 598 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
than in man, and it this which causes most exhaustion. In spite 
of this, it is curious to observe that women who masturbate are 
generally less ashamed than men, and are apparently less 
depressed by it. We must bear in mind that the loss of semen by 
masturbation has in man a peculiarly depressing effect, for it lacks 
its object and represents an absolutely abnormal satisfaction of 
the sexual appetite. 
It may be objected that this difference is due to another 
cause, that women who masturbate have less moral tone and are 
especially depraved individuals. I agree that this is often the 
case, but far from always. The intensity of the sexual excita- 
bility in women has nothing in common with their character; it 
may be associated with high intelligence, with high moral and 
esthetic qualities, and even with a strong will. On the other hand, 
deficiency in moral sense and will may occur with sexual frigidity, 
and, as we have already seen, may lead to sexual excess without 
any voluptuous sensation, in accordance with the peculiarities of 
feminine sentiment. These facts show how complex are the 
causes of a given effect in the sexual domain.-Dr. August Forel. 
* * * * * 
The Unspeakable Quack.-The frauds that pay best of all 
are those based upon venereal diseases, real and imaginary. The 
scoundrels in this case usually resort to small pamphlets, pur- 
porting to set for the evils and horrors of "lost manhood," self- 
abuse, impotence and sterility. This lurid and misleading litera- 
ture is put in the hands of youths and even boys. Men are often 
paid to stand on comers near to schools and other institutions to 
hand pamphlets to the boys as they come and go. It is a great 
pity that so much ignorance prevails among young people in 
regard to matters of sex, and that parents are so backward and 
diffident about mentioning them to their children. If such instruc- 
tion were the rule, instead of the exception, boys and girls would 
be forewarned and forearmed against real danger-the danger 
that lies in ignorance. The result is usually a morbid curiosity to 
learn more of this subject about which there is so much mystery. 
Such curiosity is always satisfied in time, but secretly, and often 
through the vilest of companions and associations. 
The flaming literature of the quack at once arrests the atten- 
tion of young men in this state of mind. The pamphlets are SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
599 
worded with diabolical art and cunning. The most ordinary and 
commonplace conditions are twisted into pathological symptoms. 
By the time a poor youth has perused the tissue of lies he is 
about convinced that he must be somehow a victim of venereal 
disease, even though he may never have been actually exposed 
to it. And if, in addition, he happens to have varicocele, he sees 
no future but that of an incurable paralytic. But at last a ray 
of hope illumines his darkened soul. The final paragraph states 
that the writer-this altruistic being who consents to practice 
medicine solely in the interests of humanity-has discovered the 
sovereign remedy. The victims of "youthful errors" and "lost 
manhood" may rely on him and him alone to save them. 
"Young men 1 Come to me, if you would be saved from the 
errors of youth!" Some such legend is conspicuous in nearly 
every public toilet, a bait for the ignorant and unwary. 
But thousands of grown men, who ought to have better 
sense, patronize these charlatans for treatment of venereal dis- 
eases. And here is where one of the worst and most far-reaching 
evils occurs. A man engaged to be married has contracted vene- 
real disease. He may have acquired it during the jovial, alcoholic 
wind-up of a stag party, or perhaps his moral standard is so low 
that he does not consider his engagement as binding him to shun 
vicious associations. In any case he is now badly frightened, 
and in desperate haste to get cured before the wedding day ar- 
rives. If sense has conquered shame he consults his family phy- 
sician, and the latter strongly advises him to postpone his mar- 
riage indefinitely. For it takes not less than three years to cure 
syphilis, and at least six months to eradicate gonorrhea. Just 
at this time, however, our Lothario reads a quack pamphlet. Ah, 
this is just what he wants! "All venereal diseases cured to stay 
cured after a few weeks' (or days') treatment." So he rushes 
off to the "specialist," and puts himself in his hands. In a brief 
time, as the latter promised, the symptoms have subsided or be- 
come obscured, and the marriage consequently takes place. A 
little later, however, the innocent wife is a victim of the loath- 
some venereal disease of which her husband thought the quack 
had cured him. 
The power and influence of the advertising quacks depend 
largely upon the complete ignorance of the general public in 
regard to all matters medical, anatomical and physiological. Very 600 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
few people know where the liver is. Several times, while treat- 
ing patients for obscure or doubtful cases of a certain disease, I 
have been seriously asked: "Doctor, if I really haven't this dis- 
ease, isn't there danger that your medicine might give it to me?" 
Absurd as is such a question, the enquirers have not always been 
fools. That it could be asked at all, and by persons otherwise 
intelligent, is a significant fact, and one that goes a long way 
towards accounting for the widespread and pernicious influence 
of the quacks.-Dr. Norman Barnesby. 
* * * * * 
The Closed Womb.-Let us consider the girl whose monthly 
flow is scanty or entirely absent. She has arrived at the age of 
sixteen years and has not "seen anything." But every month, for 
a year or so, she has had headaches, felt extremely nervous, had 
some pains, the breasts have felt tender and sore, and altogether 
she has had a miserable twelve months of these symptoms, but 
no relief from a flow. What is the matter with such a girl? 
A girl may have over-exercised or injured herself when she 
was twelve years of age or thereabouts, and brought about a 
little inflammation, which at the time she knew nothing about. 
The womb was already getting prepared to do its monthly work, 
and as the weeks went on the inflammation increased. Inflamma- 
tion always means some kind of extra growth at the injured spot; 
like a scar, for example, after a wound has healed up. 
The womb itself is not a sensitive organ to the touch or to 
slight inflammations at the lower end, hence the little girl does 
not, at the time, feel any pain. She may feel uncomfortable in 
that region, but as she has been brought up NEVER to mention 
any matters concerning her sex organs, of course, she keeps silent 
zvhile the injury goes on. The little inflammation heals up, but in 
healing what does it do? Leaves a scar, of course. Now this 
scar may be big enough to have CLOSED the outlet for the 
monthly flow-to have made the entrance of the womb grow 
together. It is under these circumstances a sealed bag; nothing 
can come away from it. 
The girl's time comes, but the blood does not. All the other 
signs being present, she watches and worries. Some times, alas! 
too many times, she has never been told just what should happen. 
Backache troubles her, headaches often drive her to take some SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
601 
harmful drug, she becomes fretful, loses control of her temper in 
the simplest things and finally loses friends because she "is so 
horrid, says so many cutting things." 
Yet she does not mean to be disagreeable; she simply cannot 
help it. How could she? There is a clot of blood in her womb 
that cannot come away; it remains and hardens and each month 
is added to by the banked-up blood. 
It is a very sad condition, and one that often continues until 
a tumor is formed, or some other complication makes an invalid 
of her in the prime of her life-or what should be her prime. 
This condition is frequently the cause of hysteria, of des- 
peration, of a gradual mental failing. 
There is another condition which goes to ruin a girl's health 
and happiness, for the effects are the same as in a closed womb. 
There is a membrane in all chaste girls called the hymen. This 
closes the entrance to the vagina. Now there should always be a 
little opening, or several little openings in this membrane to let 
out the blood. In some girls this is closed from birth; so com- 
pletely closed and tough that the weight of the first monthly blood 
cannot break through it. Then we have all the symptoms of the 
stoppage we have in the closed womb, only the blood packs and 
hardens in the lower parts instead of the womb. Often this pro- 
duces greater distress in the womb. Here great bloody tumors 
form and the state of the poor girl is certainly pitiable. 
From birth also the womb may be closed, grown together. 
Then there are some girls so nervously constituted that the least 
touch on the muscles of the womb will shut it up spasmodically. 
Such a girl's womb is not grown together, but when the first drops 
of blood are trying to ooze away, the womb shuts tightly. In all 
these cases the results to the girl are the same as I have de- 
scribed. 
The remedy for all this misery is simple, almost painless, 
and will not detain you from your duties but a few days; some- 
times not at all. By simply cutting or snipping apart the growth 
at the entrance to the organ, or opening it by a little stretching 
instrument, the fault is remedied; the girl cured. And all this 
simple knowledge could have saved thousands of suffering girls 
and women. No! it does not interfere with your proof of vir- 
ginity. The snipping is too slight. But supposing it should? 
What of it, as long as you know in your own heart that you are 602 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
a chaste girl ? Do you want to be a miserable wreck of a woman 
just on account of an ancient superstition, a foolish and harmful 
idea of a lot of old women and medieval theologians? 
It is a sad condition-this closed womb-and should not be 
allowed to sicken a girl for one hour-IF SHE KNOWS. 
Alas! she has not been allowed to know these things-just 
allowed to suffer and be blamed.-Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
* * * * * 
The Menopause, also called "the climacteric," and in common 
language "change of life," is the period at which woman ceases 
to menstruate. The average age at which this occurs is about 
forty-eight. But while some women continue to menstruate up 
to the age of fifty, fifty-two, and even fifty-five, others cease to 
do so at the age of forty-five or even forty-two. Between 
forty-four and fifty-two are the normal limits. Anything before 
or beyond that is exceptional. 
Just as the beginning of menstruation may set in without any 
trouble of any kind, and just as some women have not the slight- 
est unpleasant symptoms during the entire period of their men- 
strual life, so the menopause occurs in some women without any 
trouble, physical or psychic. The periods between the menses 
become perhaps a little longer, or a little irregular, the menstrual 
flow becomes more and more scanty, then one or several periods 
may be skipped altogether, and the menopause is permanently 
established. Many women, however, the majority probably, suf- 
fer considerable during the transitional year or years of the meno- 
pause. Symptoms are both of a physical and of a psychic charac- 
ter, but the psychic symptoms predominate. There may be head- 
ache, capricious appetite, or complete loss of appetite, considerable 
loss of flesh, or on the contrary, very sudden and rapid putting 
on of fat, great irritability, insomnia, profuse perspiration; hot 
flashes throughout the body, and particularly in the face, which 
make the face "blushing" and congested, are especially frequent. 
Then the woman's character may be completely changed. From 
gentle and submissive she may become pugnacious and quarrel- 
some. Jealousy without any grounds for it may be one of the 
disagreeable symptoms, making both the wife and the husband 
very unhappy. In some exceptional cases a genuine neurosis or 
psychosis may develop. 
Cause of Suffering During Menopause.-It is my conviction, SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
603 
and I have had this conviction for many years, that many, if not 
most, of the distressing symptoms of the menopause are due, not 
to the menopause itself, but to the wrong ideas about this period 
that have prevailed for so many centuries. We know the influ- 
ence of the mind over the body, and the pernicious effect which 
wrong ideas may exercise over our feelings. The generally 
prevalent opinion among women, and men for that matter, and 
not only of the laity but unfortunately of the medical profession 
as well, is that the menopause is the end of woman's sexual life. 
Every woman is laboring under the erroneous impression that 
with the establishment of the menopause, with the cessation of 
the menses, she ceases to be a woman, and as she does not become 
a man, she becomes something of a neuter being, neither woman 
nor man. And she has the idea that after the menopause she can 
have no further attraction for her husband or for other men. 
Naturally such an idea has a very depressing effect on any human 
being. Any human being fights to the last to retain all its human 
functions, especially the function which is considered as impor- 
tant as is the sexual function. 
Reproductive Function and Sexual Function Not Synony- 
mous.-Of course, with the permanent cessation of the menses 
the woman's reproductive function is at an end. But the repro- 
ductive function is not synonymous with the sexual function, I 
must insist again and again, and naturally until this erroneous 
idea is dispelled much unnecessary misery will be the lot of our 
women. If women in general will learn that with the establish- 
ment of the menopause they do not cease to be women, if they 
will learn that the sexual desire in women lasts long beyond the 
cessation of the menopause, many women being as passionate at 
sixty as at thirty, if they will learn that their attractiveness or 
non-attractiveness to the male sex does not depend upon the 
menopause, but upon their general condition, if they will learn 
that many women at fifty and sixty are much more attractive 
than some women at half that age, they will not take the onset of 
the menopause so tragically and they will thereby avoid the 
greater part of their mental and emotional suffering. 
The actual atrophy of the ovaries, uterus, external genitals 
and the breasts can, of course, not be prevented, but that atrophy 
is a slow and gradual process, and is not in itself the cause of the 
various distressing symptoms that we have enumerated. 604 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The treatment of the menopause, if the symptoms are at all 
disagreeable, or distressing, should be in the hands of a competent 
physician. A little wholesome advice may be more efficient that 
gallons of medicine and bushels of pills. In general the woman 
should try to lead as calm and peaceful a life as possible. Warm 
baths daily are beneficial, constipation should be guarded against, 
hot vaginal douches are often efficient against the disagreeable 
flushes, and last, but not least, the husband should during this 
critical period be doubly kind and doubly considerate of his wife. 
It is during the years between forty-five and fifty-five that the 
wife is most in need of her husband's sympathy and support. 
Increased Libido During Menopause.-There is one rather 
delicate symptom which I must not pass unmentioned. Some 
women during the years while the menopause is being established, 
and for some years after the menopause, experience a greatly 
heightened sexual desire. In some cases this increased libido is 
normal, that is, no other pathologic symptoms or local conditions 
can be discovered. In some cases the increased libido is distinctly 
due to local congestion, congestion of the ovaries, the uterus, etc. 
In some cases, I can distinctly testify, it is psychic or autosug- 
gestive. Because the woman thinks, and believes that other people 
think, that she is soon to lose all her sexuality, she unconsciously 
works herself up into a sexual passion which sometimes may be 
of long duration and may even lead to disastrous results. 
What to do in such cases? Where the woman's libido is 
normal or near normal, then naturally it should be normally 
gratified. But if the libido seems to be abnormally strong and 
the demands for sexual gratification are too frequent, then the 
woman should be treated and sexual gratification should not be 
indulged in, because in these cases, as a rule, such gratification 
only adds fuel to the fire, and the woman's demands may become 
more and more frequent, more and more insistent. In excep- 
tional cases it may even reach the intensity of nymphomania. 
In such instances the aid of a tactful physician is indispensable. 
-Dr. William J. Robinson. {See last page.) 
* * * * * 
Defective Menstruation.-Many of the pathological condi- 
tions affecting the womb and its appendages depend upon the 
periodicity of activity manifested in the menstrual cycles, or are 
consequent upon tight-lacing, insufficient and improper feeding, SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
605 
and want of exercise. The more common morbid conditions are 
malformations, inflammations, displacements, diseases, tumors 
and lesions; the latter being due principally to accidents and 
abnormalities of pregnancy and labor. Inflammatory mischief 
often arises from chill during a menstrual period, which in its turn 
may give rise to displacement. The various forms of displacement 
are: Prolapsus, or "falling of the womb," in which case the organ 
slips down into the vagina, some times so much so that it may 
become external; anteversion and retroversion, the tipping for- 
ward and tipping backward of the womb; anteflexion and retro- 
flexion, when it is bent forwards or backwards upon itself. It is 
urgently advised that no woman suffering from uterine displace- 
ment marry without first obtaining the consent of her medical 
adviser. 
Tumors of the uterus are exceedingly common, in many cases 
giving little or no trouble, while in others their size may cause 
distress from pressure upon neighboring organs, and sometimes 
may lead to severe and dangerous hemorrhage. 
There are many other disorders and weaknesses of the uterine 
system, such as leucorrhea and similar offensive discharges from 
the vagina. Treatment depends entirely on the cause, but in all 
cases a toning up of the general system by means of diet and 
exercise should be the first thing to which attention should be 
paid. 
Owing to the extensive and intimate connection and sympathy 
existing between the reproductive and nervous system, uterine 
disorders often give rise to nervous complaints, such as hysteria. 
Marriage will often effect improvement, or even cure, of many 
of the minor uterine disorders, but where such exist, it is always 
the more advisable course for the individual to consult a medical 
man before definitely deciding on matrimony, for so much depends 
on the nature of the disorder and its cause. 
Displacement of the womb is a frequent cause of constipa- 
tion, and it must be said that women suffer a great deal more 
from this complaint than do men. The genital organs of the 
female are, unlike those of the male, contained within a bony 
cavity, besides which the female has one organ, the uterus, which 
the male has not. The female pelvis, therefore, although broader 
than the male, is more crowded with organs, and it is obvious 
that the slightest pressure on the pelvic walls must crowd these 606 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
organs still more. Custom compels women to compress their 
waists with the corset, requiring them also to bear from the 
waist the weight of all their heavier garments, yet allows men to 
suspend their clothes from the shoulders. And yet man is so 
constructed that even considerable compression of his waist does 
him little harm compared to that which a very slight compression 
of the same region does to a woman. That women are the chief 
sufferers from constipation is, therefore, no matter for wonder. 
The pressure of the uterus upon the rectum-which, as has been 
explained, is the lower part of the large intestine-is certain to 
interfere with the functions of the latter. Pressure of the womb 
on the bladder, also, sets up irritation of this organ, besides lead- 
ing to other complications. The bladder is capable of great dis- 
tention; when moderately full, it holds about one pint, but cases 
have been known when the organ has held as much as twenty 
pints. Of course, any excessive distention of the bladder has the 
effect of interfering seriously with the functions of the other 
organs contained within the pelvic cavity. Women, unfortu- 
nately, are more guilty of the habit of resisting the physical desire 
to empty the bladder than are men; yet, for the same reason as 
that given above, the danger of neglect in this direction is far 
greater in this case. 
The prolonged retention of the poisonous contents of the 
rectum and the bladder results in the poison being re-absorbed 
into the system, circulating with the blood throughout the body, 
irritating the nerves, disordering the digestion, causing eruptions 
of the skin, overworking the kidneys and fouling the breath, for 
that which the bowels do not readily discharge, it is the function 
of the lungs, kidneys and skin to undertake to get rid of. 
With the long series of evils which may arise from patho- 
logical conditions of the uterus and its appendages, must be 
included the interference with the regular recurrence of the men- 
strual periods, and the almost inevitable results which a stoppage 
of the menses has upon the general health. Besides the condi- 
tions mentioned above, there are others which may interfere with 
the natural function of menstruation; cold, intense mental excite- 
ment, excessive emotion; it behooves every woman, therefore, to 
exercise great caution and care as the time for the monthly period 
approaches. Apart from the non-appearance, or sudden cessa- 
tion, of the discharge, the most usual symptoms of arrested SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
607 
menstruation are severe pain in the uterine region, gradually 
extending over the entire abdomen, down the thighs and legs, 
even to the feet; or the pain may travel up the spine to the head. 
Nausea, fever, shivering fits and headaches may follow. The best 
remedial course is for the patient to take a hot sitz bath, sipping 
some hot drink, such as ginger, peppermint or cinnamon tea, after- 
wards getting into a well-warmed bed. Of course, it is essential 
that the bowels be first attended to. We would warn our readers 
against the female pills and remedies which are so much adver- 
tised. These drugs are mostly poisonous, their action being 
brought about by the antagonism and antipathy of the system to 
whatsoever is abnormal, injurious or non-usable. 
It must be mentioned that there are some women, more espe- 
cially girls, who will deliberately employ artificial means to delay 
or check their menses, a desire to attend some social function, 
such as a dance or a picnic, being the usual occasion. The fear- 
ful risks of such an attempt would seem to be sufficiently obvious; 
but the ignorance of some women regarding even such matters is 
so great that they do not hesitate to make the attempt whenever 
the condition would be inconvenient to them. It is not that 
mothers do not tell their daughters of the dangers of such a 
course; but, where ignorance exists of the why and wherefore 
such a practice should be dangerous, a mere warning, however 
solemnly delivered, is not sufficient to deter a girl who values 
social pleasures above that which is to her nothing more than a 
little discomfort. Think of the number of women who regard 
irregularity in recurrence of the menses as a mere habit peculiar 
to some women, and a matter, therefore, of very little import! It 
is certain that any girl, fully comprehending the physiology of 
menstruation, would as soon swallow a dose of poison as attempt 
to interfere with the regular appearance of her menses. 
"The foundation of menstruation is the prime law of woman- 
hood and any attempt to check or interfere with its natural course 
is unwomanly and unclean, besides being dangerous in proportion 
as it is successful."-Dr. A. A. Philip. 
* * * * * 
Leucorrhea-The Whites. - Leucorrhea means literally a 
"white running," and is applied by the laity to any whitish dis- 
charge coming from the vagina. This is wrong, because some 608 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
white discharges may be of little importance; others may be of a 
serious character, and not be leucorrhea at all. 
Leucorrhea is one of the banes of the modern girl and 
woman. It is very frequent. Probably at least twenty-five per 
cent (some say fifty or seventy-five per cent) of all women suffer 
with it in a greater or lesser degree. In some cases it is only an 
annoyance, necessitating the frequent changing of napkins, but in 
others it causes a great deal of weakness, backache, erosions, 
itching and burning. It is very resistant to treatment, particu- 
larly in girls. The reason it is so resistant to treatment is because 
the discharge, while coming from the vagina, does not usually 
originate in the vagina; it originates in the neck of the womb, and 
the hundreds and hundreds of injections that women take for 
their leucorrhea only reach the vagina; they cannot penetrate into 
the womb. And it is only by treating the cavity of the cervix, 
which can only be done by a physician, through a speculum, that 
the root of the trouble can be reached. And, if any erosion or 
ulcer is noticed, it can be directly touched up with the necessary 
application. And it is for this reason that in girls leucorrhea is 
so much more difficult to treat. For fear of having the hymen 
ruptured the girl objects to a thorough examination and to local 
treatment, and the leucorrhea is permitted to proceed until per- 
haps a chronic inflammation of the womb and the Fallopian tubes 
is established. There is no doubt that many cases of sterility or 
childlessness in women are due to long-neglected leucorrhea in 
girlhood. 
What Is the Cause of Leucorrhea? We can answer simply: 
the cause of leucorrhea is catarrh in any part of the female genital 
tract. But this is no real answer. What are the causes of the 
catarrh? The causes of catarrh are many: The most common 
cause is a cold. Wetting the feet and getting chilled, particularly 
during the menses, may set up a catarrh in the cervix. Long 
standing on one's feet, lifting and carrying heavy bundles, danc- 
ing in overheated rooms and then going out scantily clad in the 
chill night air, prolonged ungratified sexual excitement, lack of 
cleanliness in the external genitals-all these are factors in setting 
up a catarrh of the cervix with a resultant leucorrhea. A general 
rundown condition, worry, overwork, too-hard study, lack of fresh 
air, and a general scrofulous condition also favor the develop- 
ment of catarrh of the womb and leucorrhea. It will therefore SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
609 
be seen that the treatment of leucorrhea to be successful must be 
general and local. 
General Treatment. The general treatment consists in gen- 
eral hygienic measures and in common sense. The patient should 
not be on her feet more than she can help, and she should not 
walk until exhausted or fatigued. It is better to take several 
short walks than one long one. The corset she wears, if she 
wears any at all, should be of the modern kind: not one that 
presses the womb and the other abdominal organs down, but one 
that supports the abdominal walls, and rather raises the contained 
organs up. The lacing or buttoning must be from below up, and 
not from above down. That it should not in any way interfere 
with the freedom of respiration goes without saying. Constipa- 
tion, if any, to be treated, must be treated intelligently, by mild 
measures, and care must be taken that the bowels move at regular 
hours. Where the leucorrhea is due to or is aggravated by anemia 
and general weakness, a good iron preparation, such as one 
Blaud's five-grain pill three times a day, or a tonic of iron, 
quinine and strychnine, will do good. A daily cold bath or cold 
sponge, followed by a brisk dry rubbing with a rough towel, is 
also useful. 
Local Treatment. Local measures consist in painting or 
swabbing the vagina and cervix with various solutions, of tam- 
pons, suppositories and douches. Local application to the vagina 
and uterus can be done satisfactorily by the physician or nurse 
only. The insertion of a suppository or douching can be easily 
done by the patient herself. 
While it is always best and safest to consult a physician, and, 
while self-medication is generally inadvisable, there are occasions 
when a physician is not available; in some small places a woman 
may, for various reasons, have a strong objection to gynecological 
examination and treatment; and some women may be too poor to 
pay the doctor. In such circumstances self-treatment is justified 
and there can be no objection to it if the remedies are harmless 
and are sure to do some good; that is, to improve the condition 
where they do not effect a complete cure. 
One of the simplest things is an alum tampon. You take a 
piece of absorbent cotton, about the size of a fist, spread it out, 
put about a tablespoonful of powdered alum on it, fold it up, tie 
a string around the center, insert it in the vagina as far as it will 610 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
go, and leave it in for twenty-four hours. Then pull it gently 
by the string and syringe yourself with a quart or two quarts of 
warm water. Such a tampon may be inserted every other day 
or every third day, and I have known many cases where this 
simple treatment alone produced a cure. In many cases, however, 
douches work better and the two best things for douching are 
tincture of iodine and lactic acid. Buy, say, four ounces of tinc- 
ture of iodine, and use two teaspoonfuls in two quarts of hot 
water in a douche bag. This injection should be used twice a 
day, morning and night. Of the lactic acid you buy, say, a pint, 
and use two tablespoonfuls to two quarts of water. The lactic 
acid has the advantage over the tincture of iodine that it is color- 
less, while the iodine is dark and stains whatever it comes in 
contact with. Sometimes I order the use of the tincture of iodine 
and the lactic acid alternately, for one douche the tincture of 
iodine, for the next the lactic acid, and so on. When the condi- 
tion improves, it is sufficient to use one teaspoonful of the tinc- 
ture of iodine and one tablespoonful of the lactic acid to two 
quarts of water. These injections are quite efficient and have the 
advantage of being perfectly harmless. One point about the 
injections: they should be taken not in the standing or squatting 
position (in which position the fluid comes right out), but while 
lying down over a douche pan. The douche bag should be only 
about a foot above the bed, so that the irrigating fluid may come 
out slowly; the patient, after each injection taken in the daytime, 
should remain at least half an hour in bed (in the night time she 
stays all night in bed). This gives the injection a better chance 
to come in contact with all the parts of the vagina, and a portion 
of it comes in contact with the cervix, where it exerts a healing 
effect. Avoid the use of patent medicines.-Dr. William J. Robin- 
son. {See last page.) 
* * * * * 
The Lie of the Wild Oats.-The belief is quite general that 
every youth of stamina "must sow his wild oats." Some go so 
far as to say that he cannot amount to anything unless he does 
sow more or less of them. Many women have been heard to say 
that penitent roues make the best husbands, not recognizing the 
fact that where one man is strong enough to overcome his evil 
experiences, a hundred are wrecked, morally and physically. SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
611 
That the average young man sows more or less wild oats is 
indisputable. That the more substantial and manly men are often 
the ones who have paid particular attention to their sowing is 
true. That some men who never sowed any were not much to 
begin with is also true. If fear, or lack of animality, had not been 
more prominent in such men than in their erring brothers, they 
would have joined their ranks. That some "goody-goody" young 
men, who never have been tempted, fall into evil ways later in 
life cannot be denied. That penitents often make good husbands 
is a matter of common observation; whether they have been 
scared into good behavior or have simply matured in judgment 
matters not. On the other hand, many young men who might 
have been ornaments to society have been ruined for life by wild 
oat sowing. That any youth is better for wild oat sowing, save 
where its terrible results bring a naturally weak and vacillating 
character to his senses through mental shocks, is false. "Boys 
will be boys," they say. Yes! and dogs will be dogs; but this does 
not lessen the deadliness of hydrophobia. The wild oats' doctrine 
was probably invented by some fake social philosopher, who had 
sins of his own to apologize for and no diseases acquired by 
early indiscretions to modify his opinions. 
Almost every boy at some time in his life is taught by his 
elders the "Lie of the Wild Oats." His father and grandfather 
learned it before him and followed where it led. The man who 
escapes its dangers does so by great good luck, or by virtue of a 
strong organization, moral, mental and physical, that nothing can 
shake. That any man who sows can altogether escape reaping 
is a fallacy. Physical, mental or moral scars remain, and while 
the world may be satisfied with him, he is never satisfied with 
himself. Man's sexual lapses in after-life are often due to his 
chasing some mental will-o'-the-wisp; some youthful experience 
which, like the circus of his boyhood, seems ideal. 
Impressions made upon the highly sensitive sexual brain 
centers of youth at a period when the emotional organization is 
especially impressionable leave a memory that overshadows all its 
future life as a false ideal-an ideal which is merely a reflex 
from a mental scar that will never fade nor become dulled in 
sensitiveness so long as physical sexual capacity remains unim- 
paired. 
Should youth be exposed to debauchery to strengthen it? 612 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Most emphatically, No! If youth were protected from wild oats 
influences until its judgment was mature there would not be so 
many brands to be plucked from the burning. For the benefit of 
those who accepted the "wild oats" conception of the male ideal, 
here are a few pictures that are only too familiar: 
Picture I. A certain health resort-the sinkhole into which 
a large part of the immorality, crime and disease of America is 
dumped-there are a hundred thousand visitors annually. Of 
these, a large proportion go there to harvest their "wild oats" crop. 
He who visits one of the government "rale holes" can best appre- 
ciate the harvest of the "wild oats." 
Picture 2. A hospital. Here is a group of locomotor ataxies; 
there a group of deformed children; yonder, a girl in her teens is 
nursing a child who never will know its father. More "wild oats." 
Picture 3. An asylum. Here is a case of general paresis; 
there a melancholiac; in the next room a maniac can be heard 
shrieking. "Wild oats" aplenty. 
Picture 4. A police court, full of drunks, criminals and 
bums. "Wild oats" again. 
Picture 5. A jail. Here are "wild oats" of the striped, 
short-haired variety in abundance. 
Picture 6. A foundling asylum full of children cursed by 
Society before they were born as "bastards." Poor little "wild 
oats!" 
Picture 7. A doctor's office, full of anxious men and still 
more anxious women, who do not gossip much about their ail- 
ments, even among their intimates, save where the women are 
told by the doctor a pretty little fairy tale for home use. "Wild 
oats" growing in the dark. 
Picture 8. A brothel. Around the "reception room" sits a 
collection of poor female creatures, many of whom were originally 
sacrificed in aiding youth to sow its "wild oats." These women 
are now getting poetic revenge, as the doctor knows. 
Picture 9. A beautiful girl is found dead in the river one 
fine morning. What is she doing there? Washing the "wild 
oats" out of her life. 
Picture 10. A pistol shot rings out in a gambling hall-a 
man falls dead. The gun was loaded with "wild oats." 
Picture 11. A defaulting bank cashier flees to Canada; he is 
looking for a market for his "wild oats." SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
613 
DR. G. FRANK LYDSTON 
Eminent Physician, Sociologist, Lecturer and one of the pioneers in the 
field of Social Hygiene. 614 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Picture 12. A series of deserted babies found in the snow. 
Who planted them there? Sowers of "wild oats." 
Picture 13. A wife, surrounded by her cold and hungry 
children is sitting weeping-eating her heart out. The husband 
and father is on a drunk; he has whipped her, is in jail, or has 
deserted her. "Wild oats" make broken hearts; they are poor 
food for babies; they do not buy coal, nor cover nakedness. 
We doctors know the wild oats crop under numerous terms. 
Crime, inebriety, syphilis, paresis, locomotor ataxia and gonorrhea 
are chief among them. What the consultation room does not tell 
us the operating table does. Youths would better look at the 
specimens of disease taken by the surgeon from innocent wives, 
and see how they tally with the "wild oats" of some husbands* 
youth before they begin sowing their own. 
There are thousands of syphilitics and tens of thousands of 
gonorrheics in every large city in the world. Add to these the 
other wild oats products, crime, pauperism, prostitution, inebriety 
and insanity-all the conditions of degeneracy-and we can never 
offset the frightful record with an occasional brand plucked from 
the burning or with the "burnt child who dreads the fire." 
The "Lie of the Wild Oats" is based upon the misapplication 
of the theory of a separate standard for men and women. The 
young man may sow his wild oats, but the young woman must 
not. The sowing of the wild oats by the one, however, necessi- 
tates the co-operation of the other. What made the thousands 
of prostitutes in every great city? What supports them? What 
keeps the supply equal to the demand? Largely "wild oats." 
Wherever immorality, vice, disease, crime, drunkenness and in- 
sanity most thrive, there, if we dig down to the very root of these 
evils, we find "wild oats" the thickest. 
The maimed gray-beards who learned the wild oats lie from 
Society's primer are usually willing to confess that the "wild oats" 
of yesterday are watered with the tears of today. The vicious 
roots of the "wild oats" of youth often lie deep in the ashes of 
manhood's and womanhood's despair. The crop is garnered with 
the sickle of regret and threshed with the flail of disease and 
pain.-Dr. G. Frank Lydston. 
***** 
Superstitions of Pregnancy.-There are many superstitions 
concerning pregnant women. Many women have heard it said SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
615 
that events which make an impression on them during the child- 
carrying stage affect the child, such as the sight of disagreeable 
objects, the sight of a fire, the sight of a mouse. It is felt that 
these things affect the child either as to its nervous state or by 
leaving on various parts of the body imprints like the object seen, 
hence birthmarks and dark red discolorations are considered to 
be the result of such influences. It is also said that disagreeable 
things that the woman experiences, things that make her unhappy, 
or worried, act injuriously upon the child. 
Of course, it must be stated that to whatever degree a 
mother's health be injured while bearing a child, to that degree 
the nourishment of that child may be impaired. But it must not 
be forgotten that, after all, the fetus which the mother is carry- 
ing in the womb is a little being encased in an egg-shell and float- 
ing in fluid. There is no direct channel, of a nerve nature or any 
other nature, between the mother and this little ovum with its 
contents. The only connection is through the medium of the 
blood, and the entire purpose of this blood is to come into contact 
with a certain part of the egg-shell and thus feed and nourish this 
ovum, and then when the ovum has within it a little embryo 
large enough, the blood of the mother exchanges its product with 
the blood of the fetus, not directly blood to blood, but substances 
pass from one to the other through intervening cell layers. The 
egg, including the little fetus, is the product of the union of one 
cell of the male and the egg of the mother. Whatever that egg 
of the mother was at the time it was joined by the cell of the 
father; whatever that cell of the father was when it joined the 
ovum of the mother, these create the new being. It is the result 
of the various elements and potentials existing in these two cells. 
Hence it may be said that at the moment when the ovum is 
fecundated, at that moment the destiny of that particular embryo 
is settled. 
Why various children of the same parents, even twins, differ 
so much is a matter which we cannot decide. It is true that the 
reaction of one cell on the other produces in successive children 
of the same parents different combinations in the way of appear- 
ance, nature, etc., but those combinations, after all, can be recog- 
nized, in the course of time, to be the result of the forces, powers 
and potentials existing in either one or both parents or their 
progenitors. 616 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
This holds true of color, this holds true of height, this holds 
true of size, this holds true of peculiar deformities or peculiar 
marking, peculiar characteristics, facial or otherwise, which exist 
and characterize certain families. This holds true in different 
races; the evidences are too numerous to be mentioned. This is 
an absolute fact. 
Any ideas which we have heard or read or learned which 
suppose that the sex of the child may be regulated by any pro- 
cedure as to the union of the male and female elements have 
proven so far to be without foundation. Why sex follows one 
course or another in different families-the male predominating 
in some, the female in others, or the divisions being equal in 
others-we do not definitely know. 
Many other ideas are erroneous, such as that the position 
in which a woman sits has an influence upon the position of the 
child. I have heard it frequently said that women should not 
cross their legs. The only reason that I can imagine for this is 
that in the later stages it may be possible that this position might, 
by pressure against the abdomen, influence to a slight degree 
(although I cannot believe to be very important) the position of 
the head, which is usually found below. 
Other ideas are to the effect that one should not stand on a 
step-ladder and lift; that one should not reach upward or hang 
pictures because that is supposed to injure the position of the 
child. Whenever a child is born with a twisted cord, or found 
to be dead within the uterus because the cord has been twisted in 
a knot, one may always find that the patient has done something 
which, if the imagination so wills, may be held responsible for 
this accident. As a matter of fact, such accidents as the cord 
being around the neck of the child, or knots in the cord, are due 
to the fact that the embryo within the uterus, especially if plenty 
of water be there, is constantly moving about, changing its posi- 
tion, particularly in the early months, and the wonder is, not that 
this occurs so often, but that it does not occur more often. 
Another notion is that the appetite for food which the patient 
exhibits during the child-bearing stage has a marked influence on 
the child. My observation shows me that many patients who eat 
very well have small children, and many patients who eat very 
little, either because they are small eaters or because they have 
not been well during the early months of pregnancy, have very SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
617 
large children. I believe the size of the children depends almost 
entirely on the matter of inheritance, and I do not believe that 
starving the mother or diminishing her food supply very greatly 
will always bring about the development and birth of a small child. 
A fact which I desire to reiterate is that the fetus, and this 
includes the egg shell in which it grows, is the product of the 
union of two cells. Each of these cells represents within itself 
potential forces. That means inheritance, too, through the indi- 
vidual father and through the individual mother, and as the 
degree to which these forces react on each other in the union of 
these two cells is a matter which no one can foretell, it constitutes 
a question under the heading of heredity. 
This matter has a rather important bearing, because it fre- 
quently happens that young women, in their first pregnancy, over- 
hear many opinions which are foolishly expressed. They hear 
the "fixed ideas" of people who have heard things, or who have 
"experienced" these wonderful phenomena in their own cases, and 
a great deal of worry is caused these young patients. They 
imagine or fear that something terrible may happen to their 
progeny owing to various errors they are supposed to have done, 
or in errors of diet, or in any accident which has occurred, or in 
the frightful things which they may have seen or heard. 
During the child-bearing stage, a woman's mind should be as 
free as possible of worry about senseless and foolish things. It 
should be fixed in happy lines, simply for the general effect that 
it has on the patient's system and the patient's welfare. 
Wholesome food, plenty of exercise, good sleep, and freedom 
from mental worry are important factors in sustaining the 
nourishment of a patient, enabling her to approach the period of 
lying-in with a great deal of confidence and freedom from 
imaginary dangers. These things are all-important, as said before, 
from a general standpoint, as regards the patient's condition, as 
regards her nervousness, as regards the courage with which she 
approaches the period of labor. Hearing of the accidents which 
have happened to other people during their child-bearing stage 
or during their labor, hearing of the various accidents which have 
occurred to babies, all have a bad effect on the nervous state of 
the individual. It is the same as with a surgical case. The more 
free from worry a patient approaches the operating table, the 
better her system sustains the shock of the operation, even if 618 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
simple, and certainly the shock of operation, if the procedure be 
a severe one. The some thing holds true with a lying-in patient. 
It makes it easier for the patient, it makes it easier for the nurse, 
and it makes it infinitely easier for the physician. The best form 
of "twilight sleep" of which I have any knowledge is the total 
freedom from worry about senseless and imaginary conditions.- 
Dr. Samuel Wyllis Bandler. 
Frigidity in Women.-We apply the term "frigid" to women 
who have little or no sexual desire, or who are incapable of expe- 
riencing any voluptuous sensation during the act! The two, i. e., 
lack of libido and inability to experience the orgasm, may and 
often do go together, but not necessarily so. That is, a woman 
may have very little sexual desire, and still be able to enjoy inter- 
course when she does have it; and on the other hand, she may 
have a strong sexual desire and be utterly incapable of experienc- 
ing any orgasm. 
Is frigidity in women frequent? Yes! quite frequent. Very 
much more frequent than the same condition is in men. I am 
aware of the fact that some medical writers and some radicals 
are trying to make us believe that there is practically no differ- 
ence between the manifestations of the sexual instinct in man 
and in woman. I decidedly disagree with this view and I claim, 
(1) that lack of libido or frigidity is present in a much larger 
proportion of women than of men; (2) that the sexual instinct 
awakens in women much later than it does in men; (3) that the 
libido sexualis is much less developed and plays a lesser role in 
women than it does in man, and (4) that continence in women, 
for not too long periods, is much more feasible than it is for men. 
I know full well that there are girls and women as passionate 
as any man can be-and more so; I know that in some girls the 
instinct awakens very, very early and occupies their entire life; 
but these are exceptional cases, and do not militate against my 
general statement. I admit also that women are very fond of 
the company of the opposite sex, and feel the need of being loved, 
petted, fondled and caressed even more than men do, but this 
feeling differs to quite a degree from the "gross" act of sexual 
intercourse. This is not the place to go into a detailed discussion 
of the differences in the sex instinct in the male and female, but 
these two facts may be brought to the reader's attention: There SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
619 
are any number of girls who go on to the age of 18, 20 and 25 
without as much as a sexual stir. No purely sexual longings, no 
night emissions, no masturbation. They live as calmly up to that 
age as if there were no sexual instinct. And such girls are per- 
fectly normal. When they get married they manifest a sex 
instinct, healthy in every respect. We find no such instances 
among normal young men. The instances of young men who had 
no sex manifestations up to the age of 18 or 20 are exceedingly 
rare, and when found they are instances of young men of very 
weak or abnormal sexuality; young men who will never be any 
good sexually. Another fact well known to any sexologist is the 
following: There are many married women who for the first 
few years of their married life have very little sexual desire and 
experience very little or no pleasure in the act. It takes them 
several years of experience and "education" before they "wake 
up." There are no men who require several years of sexual 
education before their instinct is awakened. The normal boy's 
instinct needs no education and no guidance. These two facts 
point out sufficiently that there is quite a difference of degree, 
if not of kind, between the sex manifestations in the two sexes. 
Leaving out of consideration the women who loathe inter- 
course, or the embrace or even the mere approach of a man, and 
who are probably in most cases homo-sexual, there are many cases 
that have absolutely no desire and no pleasure. They do not 
loathe the man, they may even respect and love their husband, 
but with the best will they can not get up any sexual desire. A 
man is to them an indifferent object. The sexual act is devoid 
of any pleasure to them, and no matter how frequently repeated 
they fail to experience any orgasm or even any pleasurable sen- 
sation. Some of these cases are congenital and unamenable to 
treatment. Others are suffering only from retarded development, 
that is for some unexplainable reason, the ovaries, clitoris, etc., 
are in an infantile condition, and the woman reaches her full 
sexual development only at the age of 25, 28 or 30, or even later. 
Aside from these cases of complete frigidity there are milder 
cases, where the woman has merely a weak sexuality, and needs 
sexual satisfaction only once in two, three or four months. Others 
are indifferent, they can indulge frequently and enjoy the act 
fairly well or in a fashion, but they can also go without any indul- 
gence for years, without feeling any the worse for it. To some 620 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
women-with a perverted education, or rather a perverted sense 
of propriety, the act appears as a nuisance. They like the pre- 
liminaries of the act, they experience some orgasm, but they do 
not like the manner of action. 
We must bear in mind, however, that a very large percentage 
of frigid women are frigid only because their husbands are awk- 
ward and ignorant. Very often a little instruction to the husband 
converts an allegedly frigid, sexless wife into a very normal, even 
passionate wife. And it happens that a wife who passed for 
frigid with one husband is complained of by the second husband 
as passionate and even too exacting. Frigidity may also arise 
from dislike of or hatred of a certain man. A woman may in- 
voluntarily freeze sexually at the attempted touch of one man 
and melt away at the approach of another. I am speaking here 
of the purely physical act. Such cases we might designate as 
psychic- or pseudo-frigidity. 
The Treatment of Frigidity.-The treatment of frigidity is 
more a matter of common sense and skilled judgment than any- 
thing else. For the congenitally frigid woman very little can be 
done. The treatment will also be much more efficient in women 
of the well-to-do classes who can afford leisure, luxuries, travel, 
amusement, the best kind of food, etc., than in women of the 
poor classes, who have to do hard work, can afford no extrava- 
gances, and have no romance in their lives. Very often in cases 
of female frigidity the person to be instructed or treated is not 
the woman, but the man. 
The diet should be rich and generous, with a large percentage 
of proteids. Eggs (preferably raw), meats, fish, oysters, caviar, 
should be consumed liberally, with plenty of condiments. Hot 
baths, occasionally with a little mustard, before going to bed 
are decidedly efficacious.-Dr. Wm. J. Robinson. 
* * * * * 
The Prevalence of Venereal Disease.-A generation ago, 
when a young man went to his family physician with his first 
gonorrhea, he was comforted with the assurance that after all it 
was "no more serious than a bad cold." Now we know that syphilis 
and gonorrhea are as great a scourge to Society as tuberculosis 
and alcoholism, and that gonorrhea is responsible for more injury 
than syphilis, because it is six times as common and has quite as 
serious results in many cases. It is the chief cause of sterility SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
621 
and impotence; it makes thousands of women lifelong invalids 
from peritonitis; and it destroys the eyesight of thousands of 
infants by infection from the mother during birth. 
Most people have no adequate conception of the terrible 
prevalence of the venereal diseases, and hence do not realize that 
they are a menace to the national health quite equal to if not 
greater than tuberculosis. Unfortunately the total number of 
cases of venereal disease in any state or city is not known, because 
physicians are not compelled to report their cases. We can only 
estimate. Such estimates of course vary greatly; I will give only 
a few by the best known authorities in America and Europe. 
Dr. P. A. Morrow, the late president of the American Society 
of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, says: "Probably not less 
than 450,000 cases of gonorrhea and syphilis occur every year in 
the United States among young men. Hospital statistics seem to 
indicate that 20 per cent of our young men contract venereal 
diseases before their twenty-first year, 60 per cent before their 
twenty-fifth, and 80 per cent by their thirtieth." Another well- 
known American specialist, Dr. E. H. Grandin, estimates that 60 
per cent of all men on the average have gonorrhea in an acute 
or latent state (i. e., not cured). Dr. Wilhelm Erb of Germany 
declares that some authorities have exaggerated the frequency of 
gonorrhea among men. He carefully questioned two thousand 
men in his own private practice, which is chiefly among the upper 
and middle classes, and found that of these two thousand men, 
all of whom were over 25 years of age, only 971, or 48.5 per cent 
had had gonorrhea. This estimate is indeed optimistic when 
compared with that of Ricord, who declared that in Paris 80 per 
cent of the men had the disease; but even if so, it is very serious. 
In the same series of men Erb found that 18.2 per cent had had 
syphilis. A special committee appointed to study the Social Evil 
and its results in New York in 1903 estimated that there were 
probably as many as 200,000 syphilitics in that city. 
The fact that venereal diseases find many more victims in 
America than does tuberculosis is clearly shown by the records of 
the outpatient department of the Massachusetts General Hospital. 
During the year 1904 nearly a thousand (983) patients were 
treated for venereal diseases, while only 430 were treated for all 
forms of tuberculosis. And we must not forget that a great many 
men, particularly of the uneducated working class which makes 622 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
the chief use of hospitals, when afflicted with a venereal disease, 
avoid the publicity of a hospital and go to a private doctor or to 
one of those human vultures, the sexual quacks. 
Hereditary syphilis alone causes a large number of deaths in 
America every year. Here again we can only estimate: If 20,000 
children die in France yearly, as is reported, we must estimate 
that in America with twice the population the number is probably 
much greater, from thirty to forty thousand. If only one out of 
ten of the 200,000 syphilitics estimated in New York begot or 
bore a syphilitic child during the year, there would be 20,000 
tainted infants brought into the world, and over half that number 
would die in infancy or early childhood. For the mortality of 
hereditary syphilis is notoriously high, though it has been con- 
siderably reduced in recent years by better methods of treatment. 
It is said by some authors to have been even 80 and 90 per cent 
in certain places in the past. The statistics of the Foundling 
Asylum in Moscow for ten years showed that of 2,038 syphilitic 
infants the mortality was over 70 per cent. And it is well known 
to American child-specialists that syphilitic foundlings in asylums 
can rarely be raised unless they can be breast-fed, which is seldom 
the case, because the infant would infect a non-syphilitic wet 
nurse and so cannot be given to one. But it is probably better for 
Society that such tainted infants should die, for they usually make 
weak, degenerate men and women, who, moreover, if not cured 
by thorough treatment, may bear children with syphilitic heredity, 
thus transmitting the loathsome disease even to the third genera- 
tion. 
In this general statement of account against the venereal 
diseases as agents in race suicide and degeneration, we must 
remember that nearly half, or 42 per cent, of all spontaneous 
non-criminal abortions are caused by syphilis. 
What has been the attitude of "the best members of society" 
hitherto towards this great social evil and menace ? Indifference, 
suicidal indifference! The only excuse and explanation of this 
culpable indifference has been the complete ignorance and mis- 
understanding of these diseases, especially in their moral aspect, 
by the good, intelligent part of the community, including the 
women. The prevailing orthodox belief, at least among the 
religious, was substantially this: "It is only vicious, licentious, 
depraved people who have these diseases. They are God's pun- SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
623 
ishment for their sins, and it would be an impious meddling with 
the Divine will and justice to try to protect such people from the 
consequences of their sins." 
It is necessary to teach these people that the non-moral laws 
of Nature affect the innocent exactly the same as the guilty; that 
as many more innocent women and children suffer from venereal 
disease as guilty men. Dr. Morrow, who has made a special study 
of this point, declares that venereal disease is actually commoner 
among virtuous wives than among prostitutes. He gives a satis- 
factory explanation for this, which need not be given here. He 
thinks that fully 8 per cent of all the wives in the United States 
have gonorrhea, contracted, of course, in the great majority of 
cases from their husbands. This would mean that over one mil- 
lion American wives are suffering from this loathsome disease, 
which almost surely blasts the life of every wife and mother 
whom it afflicts. 
The following statements by specialists of wide experience 
confirm Dr. Morrow's. Gruber, of Germany, says: "Thousands 
or hundreds of thousands of innocent wives have gonorrhea." 
Dr. Noeggerath, of New York, declared that fully 80 per cent of 
all men who married in that city carried the germs of gonorrhea 
in a latent if not in an active stage, and hence were liable to infect 
their wives. This estimate is probably greatly exaggerated. Let 
us hope that Dr. Erb's careful statistics of 49 per cent of all men 
above 25 years infected is also true in New York. It is surely 
bad enough! On the point of the frequency with which gonor- 
rheal infection of the wife from the husband occurs there is con- 
siderable disagreement. While Dr. Erb is extremely optimistic 
and found that only 4 per cent of the wives of 400 men who had 
had gonorrhea had contracted it, others believe that of every 
hundred women who marry men formerly infected with the 
gonococcus (germ of gonorrhea) fully 90 per cent contract some 
form of the disease. Zweifel and Sanger, of Germany, find that 
18 per cent of all women have gonorrhea. The explanation of 
these wide variations lies in the extreme difficulty of diagnosis 
of gonorrhea in women, which often amounts to an impossibility. 
We are not here concerned whether the small or the larger figures 
are near the truth; we are concerned only with the great fact that 
a great number of innocent women and children are suffering 
from gonorrhea and syphilis, and hence sufferers from venereal 624 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
disease must not be scorned as outcasts, but treated as are con- 
sumptives with the sympathy and humanity which they deserve. 
How can this terrible condition of affairs be changed? How 
can venereal disease be prevented? There has been a great change 
in the attitude of physicians, intelligent clergymen, and all humani- 
tarians towards this problem during the last few years. The old 
attitude was based on ignorance and the Calvinistic doctrine of 
predestination ; it was pessimistic just like the old attitude towards 
consumption. The new attitude is based on scientific investiga- 
tion and knowledge of the facts, and ignores theological dogmas 
of Divine punishment: instead of a barren superstitious faith in 
a cruel, unjust God, it substitutes a well-grounded fruitful faith 
in the laws of Nature, in Science, Reason, Human Nature and 
Evolution. Progressive American physicians now believe that 
the venereal diseases, like consumption, have definite ascertained 
causes in social, moral and economic conditions, and are essen- 
tially preventable by improving these morbid conditions. We 
believe that in the course of time they can and will be as greatly 
reduced in frequency as yellow fever has been in Cuba and small- 
pox in Europe. We hope some day in the far future they will 
become extinct. 
Personal Protection Against Venereal Disease.-The very 
nature of the venereal diseases makes them preventable. Here 
more than anywhere else in the range of human experience 
is an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure. As is clear 
from the modes of transmission of these diseases already de- 
scribed, all that any man or woman has to do is to avoid sex- 
intercourse or other close personal contact with those carrying the 
contagion, and also public drinking cups and toilet articles. In 
practice this means for men to avoid all indulgence in prostitu- 
tion; for women it means not only to escape being seduced and 
forced into or voluntarily entering prostitution, but also, if possi- 
ble, not to marry a man whom they suspect has been a victim of 
venereal disease. Every girl should be taught that it is of vastly 
greater importance for her to know the sexual and physical record 
of her suitor than his bank account; and her brother or father 
should consider it his sacred duty to investigate the moral charac- 
ter and reputation of the young man on whom his sister's or 
daughter's happiness and life depend. 
It is very easy to say to young men: If you want to avoid SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
625 
the venereal diseases, simply avoid illicit intercourse, keep conti- 
nent. But it is easier said than done! Whether a man keeps 
continent or not depends unfortunately on a great many factors 
besides his own character. It would take another book to do 
justice to the economic, social, moral, physical and educational 
forces which are responsible for the widespread indulgence in 
promiscuous intercourse among modern men. I can only take 
time here to contradict three very common fallacies, which remove 
to a great extent the natural fear which young men have of sexual 
indulgence: 
The first fallacy is that sexual congress is necessary, espe- 
cially for young men, in order to preserve the manly vigor. Un- 
fortunately some doctors have supported this idea; but the entire 
weight of medical authority in America is against it. The experi- 
ence of successful athletes is of great practical value in this con- 
nection ; it speaks unqualifiedly for continence. The idea that the 
sexual organs will degenerate if not used is proved false by 
experience. Continence preserves virility, while sexual indulgence 
exposes to the venereal and other nervous diseases which cause 
impotence. 
The second superstition is that a man can run practically 
no danger of contracting a venereal infection if he uses some 
antiseptic wash after sexual indulgence or some protective appli- 
ance. It is reasonable to suppose that such precautions do prevent 
many infections, but experience establishes beyond a shadow of 
doubt that none of these methods can be relied upon absolutely. 
The author happens to know among his own small acquaintance 
a young man who religiously used antiseptics, but nevertheless 
was infected by both syphilis and gonorrhea. 
The third false belief is that it is safe to go to a regular 
brothel. The origin of this idea is probably the fact that a much 
smaller percentage of regular prostitutes are infected than of 
"girls on the street," and also that in Paris and many of the 
European capitals all the licensed prostitutes are subjected to 
regular physical examination and quarantined for a time if found 
diseased. One may get some idea of the frequency of venereal 
infection among registered prostitutes (or regular inmates of 
brothels) from the figures given by Dr. Ravogli for Cincinnati, 
where a system of medical licensing and regular physical exami- 
nations and treatment was introduced in 1893, but later abolished. 626 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
In the year 1893 there were 142 prostitutes treated for venereal 
diseases; in 1894 there were 224; in 1901 there were 529; in 
1902, 324. As the total number of licensed and examined prosti- 
tutes in 1903 was only 625, it appears that no less than a half of 
them are infected at least once during the year. In Paris no less 
than 13.5 per cent of the licensed prostitutes were found diseased, 
and over 30 per cent of the unregistered. Good French authori- 
ties say that about 65 per cent of all prostitutes have been infected 
before the age of twenty-one. They pass most of their infectious 
period unlicensed, which explains the much lower morbidity 
among the licensed, most of whom have passed through the 
infectious stage. Moreover, there is not now any system of regis- 
tration and medical examination of prostitutes, so far as I know, 
in any American city. 
No! the American people, so stupid in much of their legisla- 
tion, have wisely refrained from legalizing the institution of 
prostitution and attempting to make it safe and attractive. The 
example of Paris, which has tried this system for a hundred years 
with little success, should teach us not to enact any such vicious 
laws. We must prevent and gradually abolish prostitution, not 
blindly attempt to sterilize it. 
Every American youth must be taught that the only safe way 
for him to avoid the venereal plagues is to keep continent until 
marriage; that the patron of prostitution is truly responsible for 
the perpetuation of the institution and quite as injurious a mem- 
ber of society as his female partner. 
And, after all, it is not at all impossible to keep pure and 
continent. Continence is very much a habit; and the habit once 
well established requires no great effort to maintain. Like all 
habits, it must be established by seeking those influences which 
strengthen it and avoiding those which weaken it. Every man 
knows from his own experience what influences help him to con- 
trol his sexual impulses and what hinder. Every man must find 
these out for himself, and be ever on his watch against the traps 
set to arouse his animal nature. For some men daily outdoor 
exercise is essential to preserve their physical and mental equili- 
brium; others must particularly avoid overeating; while still 
others must especially guard against being idle, for then lascivious 
ideas get possession of their minds.-Dr. William L. Holt. PART III. 
SEX TRAGEDIES 
INTRODUCTION 
J^HE third part of "Sex Searchlights" is devoted to 
Sex Tragedies. The theme which binds these sev- 
eral cases together is that of "Ignorance of Self and 
Sex." 
They are selected to present forcibly the lesson that 
the tragedies of life are tragedies, mostly, of ignorance, 
especially in the case of sexual disaster. And the great- 
est tragedy of it all is that they are preventable. There 
never has been need for youth not to know-the only 
reason has been that people have shirked a great re- 
sponsibility, either out of their own ignorance, or be- 
cause of a mistaken or criminal modesty. Sex is the 
most beautiful thing in life, or, it can be the most ugly. 
Why then should we not tell our young people the truth 
that saves from evil? 
Included also in this part is a letter written to a god- 
son when he was eighteen years old which is one of the 
very best "sex talks" for adolescent boys and it is to be 
regretted that every boy reaching the threshold of man- 
hood hasn't a god-father, father or teacher to bring him 
face to face with such protective knowledge coupled 
with high ideals. 
627 THE STORY OF ROSE AND EDWARD* 
MISS ROSE M was a little over twenty-two. She was 
a bright, cheerful, happy girl, and this was her happiest 
day. Not only because on that day she was graduated from 
Barnard with high honors, but Edward-dear Ed, whom she had 
loved and looked up to for so many years-had proposed last 
night, and the passion, romance and aroma of that proposal still 
lingered with her. And how the plans and hopes and dreams kept 
chasing each other in her active, fertile brain. She had decided 
where they would live, where they would spend their summers, 
how she would bring up her children, etc., etc. And Ed was a 
husband to be proud of. Tho but twenty-eight years old he had 
already achieved eminence in the legal profession, and his practice 
was more than he could attend to. And he was one of those rare 
specimens, a truly honest lawyer. Not honest in the legal sense, 
but honest in the true human sense. And kind-hearted, a gentle- 
man in the noblest sense of the word and an all-round athlete. 
A man to protect a woman from every possible care and to make 
her happy as long as she lived. So thought Rose, and she was 
right. 
They were married in October. They expected to stay away 
three months on their honeymoon, but they returned after about 
three weeks. Rose was not feeling well, and traveling and stay- 
ing in hotels didn't agree with her. She looked rather tired and 
fagged out, but that was natural. It was not natural, however, 
that after a week's rest she did not show any improvement. On 
the contrary, she began to look somewhat haggard. She had a 
little irritation in the genito-urinary tract, increased frequency 
of micturition, etc., but as this is not unusual in newly-married 
women, it was not considered of sufficient importance to consult 
a physician. Things continued this way, getting a little better 
and a little worse, until the beginning of January. On the fifth 
of January she was taken violently and dangerously ill. Severe 
abdominal pain, very rapid but hard pulse, and threatening 
collapse. The physician who was called in diagnosed the case as 
ruDtured tubal oregnancv. A consulting surgeon was called in and 
* Dr. Wm. J. Robinson in Never-Told Tales, The Critic and Guide Co., New York 
City. (See Adv., last page.) 
628 THE STORY OF ROSE AND EDWARD 
629 
it was decided that in order to save the patient's life, an immedi- 
ate operation was necessary. And tho it was midnight, the patient 
was quickly removed to 's Private Hospital and operated 
upon. No signs of extrauterine pregnancy were discovered, but 
about three and one-half pints of a blood stained and somewhat 
purulent serum removed. An examination of this serum demon- 
strated the presence of millions of gonococci. We had to deal 
here with a case of fulminant gonococcal salpingitis. Both tubes 
were thickened and inflamed and they were removed. And so 
was the now useless uterus. The operation was a "success," i. e., 
the patient recovered. 
A confidential talk was had with Mr. Edward. He searched 
his memory for a while-yes, some two years ago he had a very 
mild attack of-he did not know whether it was gonorrhea or 
something due to a "strain." It was very mild, it didn't bother 
him much, he went to his physician who gave him an injection 
and he was all right in three or four weeks. He never attached 
much importance to that attack and it had escaped his memory 
entirely. An examination of his urine, however, demonstrated 
the presence of shreds, and while no gonococci could be found in 
the urine, they were demonstrated in the expressed secretion from 
the prostate and seminal vesicles. The despair of Mr. Edward 
at learning that he was the unwitting cause of the tragedy can 
better be imagined than described. 
Rose recovered, but you would hardly know her if you saw 
her. She aged ten years in ten weeks. She is making no plans, 
she has no hopes, she is dreaming no dreams-not for the present 
at any rate. Never again will she be the happy Rose that she was 
before she became Mrs. Edward. Never will her home be 
gladdened by the noise, romp and laughter of little children. 
Who is to blame ? Nobody. Rose certainly is not, nor is Ed. 
For he certainly would have had his right hand cut off-and his 
left one too-rather than cause the woman whom he loved above 
all else in the world any pain or suffering. But he "didn't know," 
and we cannot be blamed for things that we do not know, and 
that we never were told that we ought to know. Should we 
blame those who insist that all knowledge of sexual matters be 
kept away from the people? Perhaps, but even they are more 
to be pitied than blamed. For they are generally sincere in their 
beliefs and we cannot blame them for their ignorance. 630 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
No, nobody is to blame, but it is the duty of those who see 
the light to spread the knowledge of sexual matters and of the 
dangers of venereal disease before people, so that tragedies like 
those that have struck down our friends Rose and Edward may 
become rare or impossible in the friture. 
It would be an excellent plan if every man who indulged in 
promiscuous relations, no matter how rarely, had himself thoroly 
examined before marrying. This even if to his knowledge he 
never had gonorrhea. For there are gonorrheas without any 
subjective symptoms, gonorrheas in which the gonococci remain 
dormant, only to awaken into virulent activity at the first oppor- 
tunity. And newly-married life is such an opportunity. THE CASE OF IRENE LARRABEE WEST* 
I HAVE been the Larrabees' family physician for many years. 
I pulled little Irene thru an attack of diphtheria, scarlet fever 
and measles. That was before she reached her seventh year. 
Since then she was never sick. She became very robust and loved 
outdoor sports. She was normal, healthy, not highstrung, and 
looked at life with prosaic eyes. She was a passionate novel 
reader. 
At 18 she became engaged to a certain Mr. West, a lawyer 
from Atlanta, Ga., who attended to her father's affairs in that 
section of the country and who came on occasional visits to the 
Larrabees. At 19 she married. We were sorry to lose her, to 
miss her prosaic, healthy face and cheerful laugh, but she left 
her paternal home with a light heart. She wanted to be a mother. 
She loved children. She promised to come home on frequent 
visits. She' didn't. 
Today I was called in to see her-to see Mrs. Irene West, 
nee Larrabee. Is it really one and the same person? It is hard 
to believe. And still it is so. It is nearly five years since I saw 
her last-when she left for her honeymoon and went to live with 
her husband in Atlanta; and I have but seldom heard of her. 
Mrs. Larrabee told me that she heard from her daughter but 
rarely, that she was not feeling very well and she was afraid she 
was not very happy. Mr. West was so nice and kind and gentle- 
manly and she couldn't account for it. 
I spent about half an hour with Mrs. West and I could 
account for everything. When I came in Mr. West called me 
aside and told me he thought his wife was very sick, and what 
was worse, he thought she was addicted to morphine. I was 
shocked and somewhat incredulous. I knew Irene was not one to 
lightly become addicted to anything. She had never tasted a 
drop of alcohol, had never been given an opiate, and there must 
have been some very peculiar reasons to have made her a mor- 
phine habitue. 
I examined her. Her legs and arms were full of needle 
pricks, the face bore a suffering, humiliated expression. I gave 
* Dr. Wm. J. Robinson in Never-Told Tales, The Critic and Guide Co., New York 
City. (See Adv., last page.) 
631 632 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
her a thoro gynecologic examination; then I had a confidential 
talk with her husband, which made the cold sweat come out on 
him quite profusely, and what he suspected, and what several doc- 
tors hinted at, became a certainty. Some ten years ago a 
gonorrheal urethritis. He treated it for a year or more and 
thought he was radically cured. He remained continent for over 
a year before getting married-the entire time he was engaged to 
Miss Larrabee. 
About two or three weeks after the wedding she commenced 
to complain of certain symptoms, which, to me, pointed to an 
acute gonorrheal infection. A Dr. G., who had been the West 
family physician for years, and in whom Mr. West's mother had 
great confidence, was called in. I investigated that doctor and 
found that he was an illiterate ignoramus. He had never attended 
any college. He ordered some strong bichloride of mercury in- 
jections. The condition became worse. Soon the pains became 
very severe, both in the bladder and in the sides. Then Dr. G., 
at his wits' ends, began to feed Mrs. West on morphine and give 
her morphine injections. He treated her in this way for a 
year. Her condition gradually became aggravated. Finally it 
was decided to call in another doctor. She was curetted and 
curetted again. Her condition gradually became worse. Double 
salpingitis and oophoritis was diagnosed; the condition became so 
critical that an operation was decided upon. The seriousness of 
the operation was fully explained. Then Irene rebelled. She 
said if she was to undergo a serious operation she wanted to have 
it done at home and wanted her own doctor to do it. And here 
she was. Yes, an examination corroborated the absolute necessity 
of an immediate operation. She had to become asexualized, and 
her intense maternal instinct was never to become satisfied, her 
hunger for a child was never to be appeased. 
She was operated on two days later. "The operation was a 
success," but the patient hovered between life and death for seven 
or eight weeiks. She is in fair health now, but is constantly 
brooding and melancholic. Somehow or other the true cause of 
her condition, which for five years was a secret to her, is a secret 
no longer. How she found out, nobody can tell. But there is a 
marked change in her relation to her husband. He feels guilty 
and downhearted. Her life is ruined forever, and the household 
can never be a happy household. THE CASE OF IRENE WEST 
633 
It would be very daring to suggest that fathers should 
demand certificates of perfect health from their future sons-in- 
law, but I hope the time will come when men will make sure that 
they are sexually healthy and that their future wives run no risk 
of becoming either infected, or what is almost as bad, sexual 
neurasthenics. 
Irene's parents have still no suspicion of the cause of her 
deplorable condition, and feel guilty that their daaughter should 
have given poor Mr. West so much trouble and caused him so 
much expense. I was in today to see Irene and her mother chided 
her gently and lovingly for being "such a burden" to Mr. West. 
"And such a healthy girl as she was! You remember, Doctor. 
From her seventh year to the day of her marriage she had not 
a day's sickness. Married life agrees with some people, with 
others it does not." Irene merely smiled. A sad, cheerless smile. 
With her craving for morphine she struggles valiantly, and I 
trust that now, when she does not need it to quiet her pain, she 
will overcome the habit entirely. 
Doctors should not be too sentimental, but it hurts to see 
a healthy, cheerful girl converted into a ruin, into an unhappy 
person-neither man nor woman-thru ignorance. A LOST LEADER* 
SELDOM, if ever, does a man make a big name for himself 
during his first year at Oxford. And yet Brentwood proved 
a notable exception. He went up to Oxford with the biggest 
reputation of any of his year, and won a double blue by the end 
of his third term. 
Brentwood was one of the finest, cleanest and straightest 
young fellows you could wish to meet; the type, at its very best, 
which is directing and fulfilling the destinies of the Empire all 
over the world. A man built for a great career. He was adored 
by children and dumb animals-and there is no finer praise. 
The landlord of his rooms-in those days they were off the 
Cornmarket-had a daughter of twenty-two. This young woman 
had already set the gossips talking-and not without cause. Nat- 
urally enough Brentwood attracted her very strongly; but there 
it bad ended, for Brentwood was a healthy young fellow with too 
many other things to think about; and Nellie was not a particu- 
larly pretty girl. 
At the end of the second year came his 21st birthday; and it 
was duly celebrated in the fashion dear to Oxford. I should not 
say that Brentwood was actually drunk when the party finally 
broke up, but at any rate he was merry and muddled-and it was 
Nellie who helped him to find his bedroom. 
In a little less than a month, he noticed the appearance of 
what he took to be a small boil. It caused some little discomfort, 
but thinking it merely an indication that he was run down, a little 
out of sorts, or that his blood was in poor condition, he paid no 
attention to the sore save by consulting a local druggist, and ap- 
plying a boric acid lotion. It disappeared in due course. 
Those were the darkest days of the South African War, the 
winter when disaster after disaster struck chill to the hearts of 
the people, but only nerved the country's manhood to finer effort. 
Brentwood volunteered, and sailed with the first troop to leave 
England. Towards the end of the voyage he began to feel de- 
cidedly ill, with sick headaches and intermittent feverish attacks, 
*By A. Corbett-Smith. 
634 A LOST LEADER 
635 
but he struggled somehow through the week of landing, parades 
and movement up country. 
The night before A Troop went into their first action, Brent- 
wood felt fit only for hospital. A week of drenching rain and 
no rest. The next day his troop was engaged in a prolonged 
skirmish in which Brentwood was badly wounded in the shoul- 
der. They got him back to the hospital tent, and then it was dis- 
covered that he had developed an extensive red rash all over 
back and chest. 
The surgeon was a young man of little experience, and he 
completely failed to diagnose the real nature of the symptoms. 
Also hospital accommodation and staff were inadequate, and 
Brentwood had to get along with little attention. He got steadily 
worse, his skin was now in a very bad condition, and so he was 
invalided to Cape Town. There they found that he was well ad- 
vanced in the secondary period of a bad attack of syphilis. But 
the mischief was done, never to be repaired. That fortnight of 
unceasing hard work in bad weather with the grip of fever upon 
him, the wounded shoulder, the subsequent neglect, had all served 
fully to undermine a constitution already weakened by the in- 
sidious poison within his system. 
He stayed on in South Africa for a year under treatment 
and was then pronounced sufficiently recovered to return to Eng- 
land. But it was a Brentwood whom none of us recognized. 
Stanmore, Tipley and I met him; and when he insisted that he 
really was the dear fellow whom we had seen off from Oxford 
in the dark of a December morning eighteen months before, none 
of us could face him for the tears in our eyes. 
And all because of one little incident of which he had been 
at the time almost ignorant, almost the victim. 
But the saddest was yet to come. Inevitably prevented from 
entering the Diplomatic Service, upon which he had set his heart, 
too weakened in health for continuous concentration in any se- 
rious work, Brentwood at last decided to join a friend who con- 
trolled a large tea-planting estate in Ceylon. 
He sailed, leaving his heart behind in the keeping of a 
charming girl whom he worshipped. But he never told his love, 
like the man of grit he was. And she-she too loved him, and 
wondered. She knows now; and the shrine of his memory is 
very sacred to her. 636 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
For a few months I heard good accounts of him. But, almost 
unwittingly, the poison was still at work and the end was near, 
though none of us realized how near. I had been preparing to 
leave for the Far East upon business, when a cablegram arrived 
from Brentwood begging me to start by the first steamer. I got 
to Ceylon just in time to hold him in my arms as he died. A 
paralysis of certain internal organs had gradually developed, and 
the agony during that last fortnight had been intense. Almost his 
last words were, "They say the woman always pays; but, by God, 
I think I've worked off some of the debt!" 
So died one of the finest men and one of the noblest charac- 
ters I have known. His country was immeasurably the poorer 
for his loss. He died one more victim to ignorance. His father, 
who might have warned him of the new element, woman, which 
would enter his life on leaving school, had failed to do so. No 
one had warned him of possible results, and these things are not 
learned by instinct. The actual incident with the girl (an amateur 
prostitute, be it noted) might possibly have happened, in any 
case, if not with Nellie then with another; but at least Brentwood 
would have been fore-armed, and the disease would have been 
arrested in its development. ONE OF LIFE'S LITTLE DRAMAS* 
THE facts can be stated briefly. She married at twenty. She 
was very happy. He was supremely happy. At twenty-one 
she had a boy, a big bouncing boy. Labor was tedious, extremely 
difficult, but all ended well. Their life acquired a new interest 
and they felt happier still. 
A year later, almost to a day, she had another boy. Two 
years later another child came-this time a girl. They were very 
glad: they wanted a girl. She didn't get over this confinement 
as well as she did the first two. She was not exactly sick, but 
she lost some of her spirit and buoyancy. Attending to three 
children was not quite so easy as to attend to one. And then 
the cost of living had increased considerably during the four 
years of their married life, while the husband's salary had not. 
They thought that three children would be enough for several 
years to come. She went to her family physician, who had 
attended her in three confinements and asked him if he could 
not give her something she should not get in the "family way" 
so soon. No, he could not give her anything. He did not believe 
in going against nature, etc., etc. The truth of the matter is, 
the good doctor was ignorant, and could not have given the poor 
woman anything if he had wanted to. 
And so in about eighteen months another child came. It 
must be sadly recorded that there was no joy in either the ma- 
ternal or the paternal breast, when the new arrival made its 
appearance. Rather there was sorrow and grief for a month or 
two. But finally they became reconciled to the situation. "We 
don't want them to come, but when they are here, we must do 
for them the best we can, and we wouldn't want to lose them 
for the world." They now began to use preventive measures, a 
knowledge of which the wife acquired from an obliging friend. 
The measures were neither quite effective nor quite harmless; 
they affected the health of both husband and wife, and finally 
she was "caught" again. In less than three years after the fourth 
child, the fifth one came upon the scene. It was a weak, puny 
* Dr. Wm. J. Robinson in Never-Told Tales, The Critic and Guide Co., New York 
City. (See Adv., last page.) 
£11 
637 638 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
child, probably because the mother felt weak and exhausted 
during almost the entire pregnancy, while her mind was restless 
and her spirit rebellious. Also for the first time she had a severe 
postpartum hemorrhage. It was, however, controlled after pack- 
ing the uterus with iodoform gauze, under an anesthetic. 
After a rather prolonged convalescence, Mrs. B. got up and 
this is what she told her husband: "John, if I have another 
child before the end of ten years, I will kill myself." And she 
said it as if she meant it. And John thought that she had good 
reasons not to want any more children for some time to come. 
Only twenty-eight years old and five children-that is enough. 
So thought John and he determined to keep himself well in hand. 
Their preventive measures had proven ineffective, and so the 
only positive remedy was-to abstain. And he did. And before 
a year passed, John's dearly beloved wife was once more preg- 
nant. It was outrageous that it should have happened-but it 
happened. It always happens. The mischief was done. 
She went to her doctor-the same old family physician who 
had brought all her children and herself into the world. As 
she was only "a couple of weeks over," she thought he could do 
something for her, give her a little medicine or do something 
else. He told her to try a hot foot bath and with this cold piece 
of comfort he dismissed her. She left, sick at heart, but 
determined. 
And now every fake and fraud advertised in the newspapers, 
every female regulator, every kind of pennyroyal pill, found its 
way into the home of Mrs. B. The only result for Mrs. B. was 
an irritated and inflamed stomach, so that she could hardly retain 
any food at all, and she lost about twenty pounds in weight. 
John looked on with deep grief; he tried to protest mildly against 
her using all the poisonous stuff, but his remonstrances only irri- 
tated her. As John told me, she did not seem to love him any 
more; in fact, his presence seemed to annoy her. Those who 
know something about sexual psychology will have no difficulty 
in understanding Mrs. B.'s feelings. It often happens in such 
cases that the deepest love is turned into the deepest aversion. 
It is as a rule only temporary, but it is real while it lasts. And 
the swallowing of pills, capsules, oils and tinctures went on. 
One day she asked John for fifty dollars and left the house. 
She came back towards evening. She said nothing. She suffered ONE OF LIFE'S LITTLE DRAMAS 
639 
badly that night. Next day she began to bleed, and it kept up 
for two, three days. Then it stopped. Then she got feverish, 
developed pain in the abdomen, which became progressively 
worse. A physician was called in, and the poor woman was found 
to suffer from septic peritonitis. The uterus was emptied, a 
slight improvement set in, but she began to lose ground rapidly, 
and in ten days-Mrs. B. was buried. Who the man or the 
woman was who performed or rather attempted to perform the 
abortion will never be known, for Mrs. B., when asked by the 
attending physician to give the name of the guilty bungler, gave 
him such a look of scorn and contempt, that he did not attempt 
to question her any further. 
And so the five children were made motherless, to grow up 
without a mother's love, without a mother's care. And a man is 
walking about ashy-colored, sunken-eyed, distraught, half-dead. 
Does he consider himself partly or wholly responsible for his be- 
loved wife's death? Who knows? But a happy home has been 
forever destroyed. Destroyed by the ignorance of the family phy- 
sician, who did not know how or did not care to help the poor 
wife, destroyed by the ignorance, which makes it a crime to sell 
or to give away any conception preventives, destroyed by the 
ignorance and prudery which make the discussion of the regula- 
tion of reproduction problem a shocking subject even in medical 
journals. 
And when you think that the little drama, this heartrending 
tragedy, has its counterpart in every city in the United States, 
when you think that almost daily, yes, daily, young mothers are 
carried to untimely graves-the death certificate does not always 
state the true cause of death-and children are orphaned and 
husbands widowed, and misery is spread broadcast, and all thru 
ignorance, dark, cruel ignorance, you cannot help feeling impa- 
tient and rebellious, and you cannot help feeling that this world 
was all bungled in the making, and that you could have made a 
better, a far better and happier world if you had been the author 
of the job. 
Ignorance is the root of all evil. Broadly speaking, all human 
misery, all human suffering, is due to ignorance. And nobody in 
particular is to blame. The ignorant ones are not to blame- 
we can only pity them-for they either can't help or don't know 
how to help their ignorance. Often they do not even know that 640 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
they are ignorant. And even those who make it a point deliber- 
ately to keep the people in ignorance, who make it a crime to 
acquire knowledge on a certain subject, are not always to blame, 
for very often they are convinced that what they are doing is 
for the benefit of mankind, that the knowledge they forbid would 
only prove injurious to the people. And can you blame men who 
are sincerely convinced that their work-no matter how pernicious 
from our standpoint-is for the benefit of mankind? No. We 
can only educate them. 
Education is our only weapon. And it is of no use getting 
impatient. Each one has to do his duty according to his light and 
things will work out all right in the end. I know that the end 
sometimes seems far-far away in infinity-but if you know of 
any better and quicker way, than educational propaganda, to reach 
the desired end, I wish you would impart me your knowledge. 
I should be truly grateful. WHO WOULD BLAME HER-WOULD YOU?* 
WHEN I learned that Brannigan got married I was dumb- 
founded. "The Hound!" I could not help exclaiming. 
Only six months previously he had applied to me for treat- 
ment. He had a fresh and florid case of syphilis, which I knew 
would require long and careful management, before the virus 
would be more or less eliminated from the system and make him 
a safe individual to mingle with his fellowmen. He had blotches 
and pimples on his face, forehead and body, his hair was coming 
out, he had a nasty sore throat and white patches on his lips, 
tongue and inside his cheeks. 
He followed treatment faithfully-which for a person of his 
class rather surprised me. For Brannigan was a saloonkeeper 
and quite a politician (or perhaps ward-heeler would be more 
correct), and for these people to give up smoking and drinking 
is quite a sacrifice, a sacrifice which they are seldom willing to 
bring, even if they promise you that they will. But Brannigan 
apparently followed instructions carefully and after three months' 
treatment his external condition was excellent. The eruption 
had entirely disappeared, and leaving the whiskey alone took 
away the puffiness from his usually bloated countenance, hence 
he looked even better than before he became sick. So that to 
the layman he looked a picture of health. He was telling me 
that his friends remarked on his exceptionally good appearance, 
and asked me if I thought he still needed treatment. Did he still 
need treatment? I explained to him that not three months, but 
three years at least is what he needed. But I saw he was 
skeptical. 
The trouble with the common, coarse people is, that as soon 
as they get rid of pain, or of external disfigurements, they think 
that treatment is superfluous. They thus allow the disease to gain 
further headway, and when pain and eruptions again make their 
appearance, they reapply to the physician. Often it is too late 
to do anything in the way of curing the disease; all that can be 
* Dr. Wm. J. Robinson in Never-Told Tales, The Critic and Guide Co., New York 
City. (See Adv., last page.) 
641 642 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
done is to relieve the symptoms. I explained to him these points, 
but, as I said, I saw he was skeptical. 
And then he startled me out of my chair by the announce- 
ment that he intended to get married soon. I explained to him, 
using all the eloquence and persuasive power at my command, 
that he was not in a position to get married, that he had no moral 
right to do so, that he would infect his zvife, that she would have 
miscarriages, that if she gave birth to a living child, it would be 
puny, weakly and would probably die at an early age, etc., etc. 
It was of no use. His moral code was apparently-a blank. He 
said that the day of his wedding was set, that he couldn't well 
put it off, and that he didn't think anything would happen. If 
anything should, he would then request my services. I told him 
that a man who, being in his condition, would marry an innocent 
woman, deserved solitary confinement in the penitentiary for 
life; hanging or shooting was too good for him. I then dismissed 
him, and that was the last I saw of him for a while. And when 
I heard that soon after he married Jessie Costello, who was barely 
out of her teens, my heart ached. Of course there can be no 
question of love in such a case. Brutal animal passion-perhaps. 
But whether he was attracted to her by her young pretty face, or 
by the considerable dowry left her by her father (he had been 
dead some two years, and she lived with her mother and a 
younger sister) is hard to say. Probably by both. 
My heart ached, tho I knew the Costellos but slightly; but 
I was utterly helpless in the matter. I met Brannigan some two 
months after his marriage. He looked well and he told me, with 
a rather impudent smile, that he felt as fine as a fiddle, that his 
wife felt fine, and that he didn't think he would ever need me. 
I had moved to another part of the city and I didn't hear 
of the Brannigans for about five years. Then one morning Mrs. 
Brannigan appeared at my office. 
We physicians are used to see changes in women, who we 
knew as girls. This is particularly true of the poorer classes. 
Overwork, frequent childbearing, nursing, sleepless nights, dis- 
agreement with the husband, etc., etc., often work havoc with 
the faces of young women. But the changes in Mrs. Brannigan, 
nee Costello, were so extraordinary, that my heart stood still for 
the moment. She had been plump, she was now as thin as a 
skeleton. She had had a wealth of black, glossy hair, now her WHO WOULD BLAME HER-WOULD YOU? 
643 
hair was thin, "moth-eaten," lustreless. One of her eyes was half- 
closed, and the sight in it was almost entirely gone, but what 
made her almost unrecognizable and repulsive, was the nose. 
The bridge of her once Roman nose was deeply sunken, so that 
the tip looked upward, and the flattened organ emitting a sicken- 
ing disagreeable odor. She noticed that I was struck by the 
change in her appearance, and she smiled very sadly. 
I took her history and I copy it briefly from my case book: 
She began to ail about three months after her marriage. She 
had a bad sore throat, very severe headache, fever, pains in the 
muscles, her hair came out, her face and cheeks got blotchy, etc. 
(Of course I needed no more symptoms to know what was the 
matter with her.) She wanted to see a doctor, but her husband 
didn't think it was necessary. He said he knew something good 
himself. He bought her some pills, which did her very much 
good. The pain went away, the face cleared up, etc. About two 
months later she had a miscarriage. In two months another 
eruption; pimples, pustules and blotches all over the body, and 
in four months another miscarriage. She had in all five mis- 
carriages ; finally about nine months ago she gave birth to a living 
child, but it was very weak, had an eruption on the body, and 
its nose was flat and fallen in. 
Whenever she would get an eruption her husband would 
bring her some pills and some medicine (undoubtedly from the 
prescriptions which I had given him) and she would improve. 
After about two years of this home treatment she insisted on 
seeing a physician,, and her husband brought her one. The doctor 
examined her, said she had eczema and prescribed. The medicine 
improved her condition considerably, but temporarily. Of course 
the doctor knew what the disease was, but he was instructed by 
the husband, as doctors so often are in such cases, not to tell 
the truth. 
And so she had been going on for five years. Excepting 
the first three months of her married life, she never had a day 
of health or of peace. She was constantly suffering. The treat- 
ment was intermittent and only served to relieve the severest 
symptoms. Now the medicine was not having much effect.* 
* I can fully corroborate the statement of Fournier and other great syphilologists 
that in women contracting syphilis from their husbands, the disease often pursues ? 
most malignant course. And for the mere reason, that the cowardly beasts, i.e., the 
husbands, are afraid to tell their wives what the matter is and so the disease is 
allowed to progress until such a time when treatment is well-nigh useless. 644 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
During the last year she hardly left her room: she was so much 
ashamed of her appearance. Hundreds of times, she said, she 
wished herself dead, and I gathered from her remarks that but 
for her strong religious faith, she being a devout Roman Catholic, 
she would have done away with herself long ago. Her husband 
also had occasional eruptions, but not so bad. He was now an 
aiderman, and expected soon to be nominated for assemblyman. 
I understood that he was not treating her well. He was running 
around with other women, and with one he was keeping company 
"pretty steady." 
What brought her now to my office? Up to the day previous 
she had no idea that she had any kind of a "bad" disease, or a 
"catching" sickness. Yesterday a cousin of hers, who was a 
medical student in Boston, came to see her; he was shocked by 
her appearance, and inadvertently remarked that she must be 
suffering from a very bad disease, which required very energetic 
and very thoro treatment. At any rate he was sure she was not 
suffering from eczema. The doctor who made the diagnosis 
must have been very ignorant or must have deceived her deliber- 
ately. He had heard of me and advised her to consult me. He 
knew I would tell her the exact truth. As she knew I had 
treated her husband once, she went to see me the very next day. 
I told her what her disease was and also told her that only the 
most energetic treatment could save her from its further ravages. 
I was afraid her nose was hopelessly doomed, but of course did 
not tell her so. She asked me how people got this disease. I told 
her the usual way, but added that people sometimes got infected 
from drinking cups, from using a towel which a syphilitic had 
used, from being shaved by a barber who had the disease on his 
hands, etc. 
"And did my husband have the disease before he married 
me ?" she asked in high tension. I told her as gently as I could, 
that I regretted very much not to be able to give her any informa- 
tion regarding her husband's condition. We were not supposed 
to speak of our patients to anybody. I would give all the 
information she desired regarding herself, but she must not ask 
me any questions regarding her husband. But I fear she under- 
stood. And this I could not help. Was I called upon to tell a 
deliberate untruth for the sake of whitewashing her husband? WHO WOULD BLAME HER-WOULD YOU? 
645 
Certainly not. Neither morally nor legally did I have any such 
obligation. 
She wanted to put herself into my full charge, but 
unfortunately-or fortunately-I could not take the case, as we 
were leaving in a few days for Europe, for a nine months' trip. 
I gave her, however, the names of two specialists and told 
her that either one would treat her intelligently and conscien- 
tiously, and would do as much for her as I could. 
Some two or three months after I returned home, I learned 
that what I had feared had happened: Poor Mrs. Brannigan's 
nose was completely gone. The disease had made too deep in- 
roads and there was no possibility of saving it. She was wearing 
an artificial nose, and but very, very seldom left the house, and 
when she did she was heavily veiled. Some months later I heard 
that her baby, the only one she had, died. It had always been 
puny and sickly, and when it got broncho-pneumonia, it had no 
chance at all. When a child is born with a strong hereditary 
taint, is not treated properly, and gets one of the children's 
diseases-measles, bronchitis, pneumonia or whooping cough, etc., 
-the death certificate may, in ninety per cent, of the cases, be 
written out beforehand. Mrs. Brannigan did not attend the 
child's funeral. She was too weak to go out. But Mr. Brannigan 
did and he came home in a hilarious condition, half drunk. 
And the following morning the neighborhood was shocked 
by the news that Mrs. Brannigan had shot her husband dead, 
while he was asleep, and then killed herself. The servants testi- 
fied at the inquest that after the first shot they heard some con- 
versation. Mr. Brannigan seems to have asked why she did it, 
and she apparently explained to him. But the answer must have 
been a short one, for the second shot which killed Mrs. Brannigan, 
followed very soon after. The papers had it, that Mrs. Bran- 
nigan's act was done in a temporary fit of insanity, caused by 
the loss of her child and by an incurable disease with which she 
was afflicted. But it was not a fit of insanity. The act was care- 
fully premeditated, and was committed by her as a duty, as a 
punishment of a dastardly crime. In her letter, which the news- 
papers did not get possession of and which here appears for the 
first time, she explains and attempts to justify her action. Here 
it is: 
". . . May the Lord forgive me! I know I am about to 646 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
commit a mortal sin, but maybe it is a bigger sin to let such a 
man as Dan live. I have nothing to live for. My baby, the only 
creature which needed me, is dead. The doctor says my case is 
hopeless. He took me young and healthy and see what he made 
of me. If he killed me outright the crime would not have been 
so great as what he [has] done to me. I never knew a good day 
since I married him. A man has no right to treat a woman like 
that. I feel I ain't going to live long. And I know when I am 
gone he is going to marry Mrs. . And he will make her sick 
and miserable, and she will have sick children that don't deserve 
to live. No, that is too much. Let him suffer for his sins, for 
hiding from me what kind of sickness I had so I could be treated 
by a good doctor. . . . May the Lord help me." 
Here followed some more lines which were not quite legible. 
And so Brannigan expiated his sin, by being shot, a punish- 
ment which I had told him was too good for him. Mrs. Bran- 
nigan, crazed by the outrages committed upon her person by a 
conscienceless wretch, took the moral law into her own hands. 
I cannot find it in my heart to blame her-can "Ou? THE CASE OF MARY BROWN* 
MARY BROWN was a woman of "the plain people" class. 
She had worked in a large tailoring shop before her mar- 
riage, and since her marriage to John Brown she had given all 
her time to her home, and latterly to the two children which had 
come to her with an inadequately short interval between their 
respective births. 
She was happy, in the sense that she had very little to cause 
her unhappiness. Her husband earned fairly good wages, and 
their living expenses were kept within limits, for neither was 
extravagant. It is true that they had very little, if anything, left 
at the end of the month, particularly after the babies came; but 
on the other hand they had never been accustomed to having more 
than a few dollars laid by for a rainy day, so that the lack of 
a surplus did not cause much unusual worry on the part of John 
and Mary. 
Then there came two disturbing new factors into Mary's 
life. First of these was the unmistakable fact that in the due 
course of time a third baby would be added to the little brood, 
and the second of the possibility of the United States as a 
probable factor in the Great War. 
Mary knew but little of wars in general, and of this Great 
War in particular. She had heard much talk about the coming 
of the war to our country on the part of her neighbors, but she 
was a woman who concerned herself but little with things outside 
of her little circle of personal and family interests, and so she 
was not unduly disturbed at first by the talk concerning the 
probable entry of the United States into the great conflict. She 
thought that it was a great sorrow, but no doubt an unavoidable 
one, and that those who had these matters in charge doubtless 
knew what was for the best-and, anyway, she "did not bother 
her head about such things," but left them for "the men folks" 
to settle. 
But Mary's peace of mind was soon rudely disturbed by 
the excited and hysterical clamor of some of the women in the 
*Dr. Robert B. Armitage in Never-Told Stories, Advanced Thought Publishing 
Co., Chicago. 
647 648 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
neighborhood when war had actually been declared, and the day 
of registration been appointed. For John was in the age limit of 
the draft, and was making arrangements to register. He told 
her that there was no probability of him ever being called into 
active service, and that he would almost certainly be exempt by 
reason of his dependent family. But Mary felt that he was just 
saying this in order to cheer her up, and she felt more certain 
of this than ever when she listened to the talk of her women 
neighbors. 
Many of the neighborhood women were of foreign extrac- 
tion, and they repeated tales told them by their mothers about 
men being dragged away from their homes and families, and 
driven into the ranks-all this over in Continental Europe, of 
course, but almost certain to be duplicated here, they said. And 
some of the women added that their husbands knew other men 
who were the relatives or friends of some in authority, and these 
persons in authority had passed the word that every man within 
the age limit was to be called to the colors at once, regardless of 
his dependent family; and that the wives were to be left to 
attend to the family needs as best they might 
Mary brooded over these things, and fresh fuel was added 
to the fire of her fears from day to day by the gossip and dismal 
prophecies of the neighbor women. She said but little to John 
about this, for he always laughed at her worries when she men- 
tioned the matter to him; but she felt certain that he was only 
trying to save her from worrying and fretting, and that he was 
really as much disturbed as herself at the prospect. Her women 
friends told her that the men were maintaining a conspiracy 
of silence regarding the matter, in order to prevent worry and 
grief on the part of their women folk. 
Mary felt that, someway, she might be able to get along 
without starvation during John's absence in the army, with her 
two small children, were it not for the fact of the expected new- 
comer. The more she thought about the forthcoming addition to 
the family, the more worried and frightened she became. She 
became morbid on the subject, and her natural fears took on 
a deeper and more intense phase by reason of her physical 
condition, which predisposed her to flights of fancy and imagina- 
tion. She began to grow desperate. 
About this time, she grew better acquainted with a young THE CASE OF MARY BROWN 
649 
wife in the neighborhood who was of a different type. This 
woman had acquired a superficial knowledge of many things of 
which Mary had scarcely heard before that time. She told Mary 
that no woman need bear children if she did not wish to do so. 
She told her that it was a very simple matter for a woman to 
have a physician attend to these matters for her, and that no 
one was any the wiser on account of the matter-not even the 
woman's husband. She told Mary that she knew of some women 
who had visited the doctor on this errand as many as a dozen 
different times, and were none the worse for it; and that she, 
herself, had "had it done" twice, and had experienced no evil 
effects. 
At first the suggestion repelled and horrified Mary, for she 
had been brought up in the old-fashioned school of thought to 
which such things as these were anathema; and she shuddered 
at the mere idea. But her new friend laughed at her fears, and 
called her "old-fashioned," and "behind the times." Later she 
met other acquaintances of the temptress, all of whom talked 
freely of visits to the doctor for the purpose named, just as they 
might have discussed the taking of a dose of cough medicine. 
It was the old story, and Mary found that the monster of 
frightful mien, which though at first hated, gradually lost its 
horrible visage by reason of familiarity, and later became endur- 
able, and finally was embraced as a friendly thing. 
One day, leaving her two children in the care of a neighbor, 
she went with her evil advisor to visit "the doctor" who would 
relieve her of her worries and terrors. She had arranged through 
her friend to pay him a certain sum in advance-all the money 
that she could lay her hands on at the time-the balance to be 
paid in monthly instalments. Entering the office of the human 
hyena, Mary was seized with a violent fit of trembling, and her 
first impulse was to open the door and regain the security of her 
home. But the scoundrel, sizing-up the situation, began to quiet 
her fears by laughingly telling her that it was not as dangerous 
as having a child's loose tooth extracted, and that in a day or 
so she would have entirely forgotten the whole matter. So 
Mary began to think that she had been making a mountain of 
a molehill, and apologized for her fears and misgivings, and 
bade the doctor to proceed with his "treatment," for such he 
called it. 650 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
The operation performed, Mary returned to her home with 
her friend, the latter laughingly telling her that everything 
would now be all right with her, and that before the week was 
over she would have entirely forgotten the whole matter, as the 
doctor had assured her. But Mary did not feel right about the 
matter. Not only was her conscience troubled, by reason of her 
former religious training, but she felt much disturbed physically. 
She experienced strange and terrifying sensations throughout 
her body, and it seemed to her as if something had been thrown 
into the delicate mechanism of her physical structure, which was 
affecting the normal movements and functions of the several 
parts thereof. 
Reaching home, and dismissing her friend, she threw 
herself across her bed and wept, and sobbed, and moaned. She 
did not experience much pain at that time, but was conscious of 
something radically wrong in her physical make-up. She then 
went out after her two children and brought them home. She 
threw her arms around them, and sobbed out her sorrow, much 
to the dismay and distress of the little ones. She had a strange 
presentiment that she was soon to leave these two little ones 
behind her, and her heart was chilled at the thought-not that 
she feared what might befall herself, but that she was filled with 
dread of leaving behind her the two tiny mites into whom the best 
of her life had flowed. 
In a day or so Mary became violently ill. Her husband 
becoming alarmed, called in a reputable physician who saw in 
a few moments just what was the cause of the trouble, although 
Mary at first denied everything (in accordance with the hastily 
whispered advice of her woman friend who told her that if she 
told the truth she would be arrested and sent to prison). The 
physician ordered her removal to the hospital, and saw to it that 
she received the best possible treatment and attention. But 
before long the most alarming conditions manifested themselves; 
blood-poisoning set in; and Mary began to slip away from the 
hands of those striving to bring her safely through the ordeal. 
Before she died she made a full statement, naming the woman 
neighbor and the abortionist, and stating just what had happened. 
The legal machinery was set into operation, but the abortion- 
ist and his accessory made desperate efforts to escape the net 
spread for them. A celebrated shrewd and unscrupulous lawyer THE CASE OF MARY BROWN 
651 
who made a specialty of a certain class of criminal cases was 
employed by the abortionist, who seemed to have money at his 
disposal (some said that there really existed a "protective 
association" composed of these malpractitioners, and a "defense 
fund" provided for just such cases). 
The prosecution introduced evidence showing the woman's 
condition, both the attending physician and the hospital authorities 
proving conclusively that the woman had died of blood-poisoning 
resulting from the effect of an operation performed with the 
purpose of bringing on an abortion. Mary's signed deathbed 
statement was introduced as evidence, and seemed destined to 
effect a conviction. 
But the shrewd lawyer for the defense placed the abortionist 
on the stand, and he flatly denied not only the fact of his 
performance of the operation, but even the advice regarding the 
same. He testified that Mary had visited him in company with 
her woman friend, for the purpose of having an examination 
made regarding her physical condition. He swore that the 
examination was made, and that he had advised Mary that she 
was pregnant, and that there was nothing to prevent her from 
having a natural and normal "carrying time," with a safe delivery 
at the end thereof. He testified that Mary seemed quite 
disappointed, as she had evidently hoped that she had been 
mistaken in supposing herself pregnant. He denied that the 
subject of an operation for the purpose of producing a mis- 
carriage had been brought up in the entire conversation. He 
denied that a considerable sum of money had been paid to him, 
but stated that only a modest fee for the examination and advice 
had been accepted. He indicated his belief that after leaving his 
office, Mary had proceeded to some woman abortionist (of which 
there were many, he said) and had an illegal operation performed 
upon herself, as she evidently did not wish to become a mother 
again. 
Mary's woman friend was then called to the stand by the 
defense; and she corroborated everything that had been testified 
to by the abortionist. Like a parrot, she repeated his very words. 
She had been carefully drilled in the office of the abortionist's 
lawyer, and had rehearsed the whole story until she could repeat 
it glibly. She had been induced to perjure herself by threats 
of losing her good name, and by possibly placing herself in the 652 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
position of an accessory; and had been warned against paying 
any attention to the district attorney's promise of immunity for 
her if she turned state's evidence, this being a common trap she 
was informed. Besides this, there was held before her the 
promise of a yellow-backed bill of respectable denomination if 
she "acted right"-and she did! 
The defense sought to explain Mary's deathbed statement 
as the result of the suggestions made to her by the attending 
physicians and hospital attendants while she was in a state of 
feverishness nearly approaching delirium. In fact, in his clever 
address to the jury the lawyer managed to introduce a veiled 
suggestion that the reputable attending physician himself might 
know more about the matter than he wished to have appear, and 
that he was trying to throw suspicion on the poor abused client 
of the lawyer, of whose success he probably was jealous, etc., etc. 
The jury disagreed-it was ten to two in favor of conviction, 
however. There will be a new trial eventually, no doubt-though 
the same has been postponed several times. In the meantime the 
memory of the case is fading away, and the matter is becoming 
stale and cold, for there are many other cases coming forward 
for attention every day, and the old ones are almost overlooked, 
particularly in the case of oft deferred and postponed "new 
trials." 
John has married again-he really did not wish to do so very 
much, but then "he had to have someone to look after the 
children." He has moved the little family away into another 
neighborhood where the old case will not be talked about. The 
new mother is a good woman, and tries her best to "do the right 
thing by the children." And she takes the little ones with their 
father, every once in a while (the intervals between such times 
growing longer, however, as time passes) to visit the grave in 
the far distant cemetery. 
There are one or two, however, who were present at the scene 
in the hospital, and in whose ears occasionally still sound the 
wailing cry of the woman fast sinking into the depths: "If I only 
had known; if I only had known!" A LETTER TO A GOD-SON* 
MY Dear Hugh : It is 18 years since that morning when I 
stood beside your Mother, as she held you in her arms, 
and took for you the vows which our Faith enjoins. That after- 
noon I wrote to you my first letter. A little of it I can remember: 
"Tell your Father," I said, "to teach you how to play with a 
straight bat and to stand up to the fastest bowling; how to ride 
clean across country and not to funk the fences; how to bring 
down a pheasant coming fast over the tree-tops in a high wind. 
And tell your Mother to teach you, for her sake, to be gentle and 
courteous in reverence to all women." 
These seemed to me a summing up of the qualities which go 
to the making of the best of all products, a Gentleman. It was 
not for the sake of the sport, but for what the Open Life made 
you. And given these qualities you are ready to face anything, 
in Church, State or Business. 
Now you are shortly leaving the best of schools for the 
great world outside and your tussle with life. And you are 
going to encounter-not, perhaps, just yet, but in a year or two- 
one of the biggest factors in life, the other sex. How are you 
going to tackle it? 
Of course, just for the moment, you won't understand. You 
cannot imagine what you will have to do with women or they 
with you, at least, to make a serious business of it. I know 
when I was at school we used to think girls a rare nuisance and 
we never used to talk about them. I don't suppose things have 
very much changed, have they? But there was Miss Dorothy, 
whom you met last holidays down in Virginia, an "awfully de- 
cent sort," as you told me. I know she is, and if they were all 
jolly, healthy, out-of-door girls like that I should have nothing 
more to say, and I certainly shouldn't be writing this letter. But 
I am afraid that Mistress Dorothy is rather an exception. 
Now I am not going to preach to you about what you ought 
to do and what you ought not; I have never done that, have I? 
I just want to tell you a few facts about a rather unpleasant 
subject and leave the rest to your good sense. Don't imagine, 
*By A. Corbett-Smith in The Problem of the Nations. 
653 654 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
either, that I am going to write you an essay upon that most 
delightful and elusive of topics, "Woman." For one thing you 
would only be terribly bored, and for another every man has to 
find these best things out for himself. "It's mean"-as a young 
lady once remarked to me-"to profit by other people's experi- 
ences ; I want to profit by my own." 
But there are some things which you will not find out for 
yourself, or if you do it will probably be in the wrong way and 
with possibly disastrous results. It is just those things that I 
want to tell you about if you will let me. And if you can't quite 
get the hang of it all right away just put this letter down and 
read it again in a year or so. 
* * * 
How shall I begin? It is a little difficult, and yet not so 
difficult as it might be because we're starting fair, you and I. We 
talked over certain things when you first went away to school. 
Since then you have gradually come to understand what sex 
means and there is nothing more to tell you about the simple 
facts. Every young fellow, when he arrives at a certain age, 
experiences some more or less certain impulses for which he 
cannot properly account. There is nothing whatever to be 
ashamed of in them; they are perfectly natural, and girls ex- 
perience them in much the same way. 
But up to now there has been no opportunity, and probably 
no inclination on your part for directing those impulses towards 
the other sex. You liked Miss Dorothy because she was a good 
pal, played a most creditable game of golf, and made a jolly 
good inning for you when we played against Deepcut. But I'll 
swear that you never wanted to kiss her; and it would have 
spoiled everything if you had. 
Well, now you are going to face life in reality. You'll find 
yourself with men who are beginning to look upon girls from a 
new point of view. You'll take a little time to adjust yourself. 
But I shall not be at all surprised to find, if you ask me to lunch 
in your new quarters, that you have become quite an ardent 
admirer (from a platonic standpoint, of course) of one or other 
of those extremely pretty young ladies who dress so daintily and 
sing so charmingly in "The Staircase Girl." No, you need not 
trouble to hide their photographs, because if you do I shall only 
ask to see them; and I am fairly certain to admire your taste. LETTER TO A GODSON 
655 
After all, a pretty girl is one of the loveliest things God ever 
made, and if they are not to be admired and made a fuss of 
(within reason) I don't quite see why they were ever created. 
* * * 
But coming back to this question of impulse, it seems to me 
that there are two ways in which a young fellow feels it. The 
one is a simple desire for the companionship of a being of the 
other sex, a feeling, an attraction which no one has ever properly 
defined and no one ever will. This we may call "sex-hunger," 
for want of a better term. The other is an impulse to gratify 
the sexual appetite by actual physical intercourse with a woman; 
either with some particular woman or with women as a sex. 
Do you quite see what I mean, or shall I try and put it a little 
more clearly? Mind you, both these impulses are perfectly nat- 
ural. If anyone tells you that the former is natural and proper, 
and that the latter is unnatural and wrong, then he has not 
grasped the rudiments of human nature. The sexual impulse is 
the greatest of all natural laws. It is wrong only when it is 
used unworthily and to base ends. 
I am going to say very little about "sex-hunger" because, in 
one sense, there is very little to say. You are quite capable of 
looking after yourself. Some men feel the need of female com- 
panionship more than others. It rather depends on your general 
line of work and how fully you are occupied. In any case you 
are certain to find a big difference when your hard physical exer- 
cise is cut off, a big gap to be filled. You must keep up your 
baseball and football as long as you can after you leave school. 
If you are working hard and manage to get in a fair amount of 
exercise you will be happy enough. Go and visit, too, at a few 
good houses and meet nice people. Cultivate the acquaintance 
of a few charming women, pay little attentions, and so on, and 
you will probably find as much female companionship as you 
want. 
♦ ♦ * 
I must confess that I am a great believer in freedom and 
comradeship between men and women. Each sex reacts upon 
the other, each learns from the other, and this is all to the good. 
If a young fellow has been brought up with a love of the open 
air-and it is this love which makes you what you are-I can 
see no danger in his comradeship with a nice girl. Such a man, 656 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
too, is generally rather fastidious in his choice. He will never 
be really content in carrying on a flirtation with a golden-haired 
maiden in a photographer's shop, or with a waitress in his favorite 
cafe. It really isn't worth it. 
Of course you will have your little love affairs, passing 
moments of delicious, stolen joys. You need not fear for my 
sympathy. When I was about your age I remember that my 
affections were fairly equally divided between a lady, who was 
perhaps ten or twelve years older than I, and a girl (very 
beautiful I then thought her) whom I met at the State Fair. The 
former relationship did me a world of good, and I am proud to 
think that even after all these years we are still dear friends. 
The latter affair came to an untimely end when the young lady 
prevailed upon me to visit her people. 
But if you are working and living alone in Chicago and you 
don't get much exercise and you are rather cut off from pleasant 
female society, then I see danger ahead. And this brings me to 
the other kind of impulse. 
♦ * * 
Sex-hunger and sexual impulse are each parts of the great 
law of Sex Attraction, but there is a certain difference between 
them although it is difficult to define. As I honestly believe, and 
I say this in all reverence, the Creator bestowed this sexual 
impulse upon man that it might serve two ends. The first is the 
reproduction of life, and the second is that it might form the 
supreme manifestation of love between man and woman. The 
world must recognize the first, it does not always recognize the 
second. 
Different peoples have different standards of morality upon 
the relationship of the sexes. What is regarded as quite ordinary 
in some countries is looked upon as most immoral in this country. 
And certain habits and customs which we never think about 
because they are practically a part of our everyday life-these 
would be regarded as grossly immoral by, say, the Chinese. It 
comes to this, that in this question of morality you must abide 
by the customs of the society in which you live or take the con- 
sequences. In the same way you may saunter across one of the 
pleasant tracts of grass in Lincoln Park, but if you go to another 
city and indulge in a similar recreation in one of the parks there 
you will be fined for the privilege. LETTER TO A GODSON 
657 
But a man is not apt to bother very much about the morality 
of the act when his sexual impulse drives. I may be accounted 
somewhat of a revolutionary, but I hold that to sin against Love 
and one's own conscience is graver far than to sin against the 
morals of society. 
* * * 
And so I put the matter to you from this point of view first 
of all: You are given a very wonderful and beautiful thing. Are 
you going to abuse the gift and drag it through the mire, or 
carefully cherish it until you may place it to the noblest uses for 
which it was given? If the former, you will experience some 
brief moments of mad, sensual passion, with immediate and 
unfailing self-reproach and self-disgust; if the latter, you will 
realize all the ecstasy of the most perfect thing in life, the clean 
and passionate intimacy of union in all its freshness with the 
woman whom you come to love and make your wife. 
Does this seem too ideal a programme? Well, youth is the 
age of ideals. It may be difficult to carry out but it is by no 
means impossible, and at least it is worth setting before your- 
self. You will come to understand better as the years pass. 
Now we will turn to hard facts. 
* * * 
After you have knocked about the world for a little you will 
very naturally ask me why I would attempt to deny you an ex- 
perience which most other young men indulge in. You will say 
that you probably will not be in a position to marry for at least 
another ten years. Am I going to condemn you to a celibate life 
all those years and stifle what I admit to be a natural impulse? 
That the experience will do you no harm; that you must learn 
what life means; these and other like arguments. 
Yes, that question has been put by thousands of young fel- 
lows to men who are far better qualified than I am to reply to 
it, and I do not believe that a satisfactory answer can ever be 
given. I am young enough to remember vividly my own youth 
with all its desires and impulses, and yet old enough to have 
seen more of the world and of men and women than most can 
crowd into a life-time. And so I am not going to say "Thou shalt 
not," nor tell you that it is morally wrong or anything like that. 
But I am going to answer your argument in the approved Irish 658 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
fashion by setting another one before you for you to solve. In a 
word I am going to try to show you the other side of the 
picture and then leave the whole matter to your own practical 
common-sense. * * * 
Someone will perhaps tell you, or you may come to think it 
for yourself, that continence (or abstention from sexual inter- 
course) is apt to be physically harmful to a man. Such an idea 
is absolutely and entirely wrong. I believe that Nature has made 
one or two mistakes, but she certainly has not made one in this. 
The harm is supposed to arise from the overmuch accumula- 
tion of semen, the discharge of which at such times does indeed 
give relief. But, as you know, Nature has provided what we 
may call a safety-valve, and if this does not act normally at 
proper intervals, then I think that it is a matter for medical 
advice. The temporary discomfort is a very trifling affair beside 
that which every woman experiences each month. And I do 
beg you, old man, not to imagine that you ought to seek relief in, 
shall we say, an irregular way. I assure you, and I know that 
I am well backed by medical opinion, that there is absolutely no 
necessity. I admit that the sexual impulse is strongest at those 
times, but the remedy lies in your own hands. If you fight it 
down once or twice, throw yourself into some extra hard work, 
get a long day on the golf-links, or a good tramp across country, 
you will find that things come to adjust themselves quite easily. 
Above all, keep away from "The Staircase Girl" and such like 
performances, and don't read erotic books. 
* * ♦ 
Now we will imagine that one evening things are too strong 
to resist even with a fight. I can see you throw your books across 
the room unable to concentrate on anything. You feel that you 
simply must go and face the unknown. Or perhaps you have 
had a particularly good dinner at the College Inn and three or 
four of you are going to have a really jolly evening of it. You'll 
probably look in at the Empire, there will be more drinks, and 
before you know where you are you will find yourself talking 
trivial nonsense to a beautifully gowned young woman who 
naively suggests that you see her home. Whv not? What does 
anything matter? You are feeling like the mouse who got 
tipsy over a puddle of whisky and then sat up and said, 
"Where's that damned cat that chased me yesterday ?" LETTER TO A GODSON 
659 
I am imagining your first serious attempt to realize this big 
thing of life. And as it is the first it is ten chances to one that 
you fall into the hands of an ordinary professional prostitute, 
and not one of the better class, either. Well, you are making a 
mistake to start with. What you really desire-and I see you 
as a clean-limbed, healthy young man-is the gratification of 
your appetite under the glamour of love. You want to feel that 
the woman, whoever it is, gives herself to you because she is at- 
tracted by you, by your pleasant talk, by your good looks. You 
will be disappointed. A prostitute is out solely to make money. 
It is with her as regular a trade as the selling of potatoes is to the 
grocer at the corner. She has to live, pay an exorbitant rent for 
her rooms, buy good clothes, and so she must needs make as much 
money as she can. She cannot afford to be generous. 
It is to her interest to counterfeit love, to act a comedy for 
your particular edification. But you will not be deceived. In any 
case you will quickly be disillusioned when it comes to the sordid 
business of paying in hard cash for your few hours' amusement. 
And probably, seeing that you are a novice at the game, she will 
attempt to extort every penny she can. Do not blame her, it is 
her trade. Men made her what she is; she is absolutely right to 
repay her debt, with interest. 
I am not going to paint for you all the mean and shabby de- 
tails of your business deal. You will have experienced in a very 
tentative way the thing which you set out to experience and the 
net result will be, for the woman, five or ten dollars in her 
pocket; for you, the loss of so much good money which you can 
ill afford, no real physical satisfaction, but merely a feeling of 
deep disgust at yourself and a longing to kick vourself down- 
stairs. 
You do not believe me? Very well, try it; and if you prove 
me wrong I promise to pay for your evening's amusement, and 
any expenses which you may be put to as the consequences of it. 
Yes, "consequences"-for I have only suggested what your feel- 
ings will be as the immediate result of your experience. Now 
you shall hear what some of those consequences may be: 
♦ * * 
There are certain diseases which a man is liable to acquire 
from sexual intercourse with a prostitute; we call them "vener- 
eal," or "sexual" diseases. And if I were disposed to back your 660 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
chances against infection in such a first experience as I have 
described I would not take odds at 100 to 1. The two special 
diseases are "Gonorrhea" and "Syphilis," and you may have 
contracted either. I will take each separately and tell you a little 
about them. 
You will know within a week whether it is gonorrhea, in its 
more usual form. There will be a dull aching in the groins, and a 
yellowish, matter-like discharge from the inflamed urethra. You 
will naturally be a little alarmed, and in a few days more, as you 
go about your ordinary business and eat and drink as usual, you 
will find things beginning to look serious. Then you will probably 
mention it to an acquaintance, for vou won't care to tell your 
father or me. 
"Oh, that's all right," he will say-"it's quite simple. Every- 
body gets it and we'll cure it in no time.' He will tell you go to 
Jimmy the druggist and ask for a certain drug and then follow 
the directions. If he has told you the right thing and you follow 
the instructions with scrupulous care, you may find that the symp- 
toms disappear in a fortnight or so. Then you will stop the 
treatment and go on with your usual life. If the attack was a 
mild one you may have got safely through; but again I am not 
backing your chances. It is the most curious and the most dan- 
gerous fact about sexual diseases that the symptoms-even seri- 
ous ones-disappear zmder treatment in an incredibly short time. 
* * * 
Now we will suppose that the attack was not a mild one, or that 
you have not applied proper remedies, or that you have consulted 
a "quack" doctor advertising in one of the papers, or that you have 
not persisted long enough in your treatment. All very reasonable 
suppositions. The disease may then turn into something really 
serious and become chronic; that is, it will get a grip of your 
system and break out again long after you have imagined yourself 
fully cured-even years after. Perhaps you may not be able to 
get the discharge to dry up and disappear. From this infection 
will possibly be spread from soiled linen, towels and such like, and 
a perfectly innocent person may contract the disease. 
And if the gonorrhea becomes chronic you will not neces- 
sarily find the original symptoms again attacking you, but a 
variety of complications may ensue. For instance, there may re- 
sult a very painful inflammation of a certain small organ connected LETTER TO A GODSON 
661 
with the testicles, or perhaps an attack of a form of rheumatism, 
or, very frequent and particularly serious, you may develop 
ophthalmia and so blindness. 
Gonorrhea is very contagious-you see how easily you may 
have contracted it. A man who imagines himself fully cured may 
marry, and then he will infect his wife. The results with her are 
infinitely more serious. To begin with, gonorrhea is known to be 
one of the most frequent and powerful causes which prevent a 
woman having children. The disease may also get a firm hold of 
certain internal organs and she will have to undergo serious opera- 
tions, risking disablement and even life. 
* * * 
You must not think that I am selecting rare cases and telling 
you all the worst facts with the object of frightening you. I only 
want you to understand that gonorrhea is indeed a serious thing 
which, supposing you ever contract it, you must tackle the very 
moment you think you are infected, and persist in treatment un- 
der skilled medical advice until you are pronounced absolutely 
cured. I am not exaggerating things one little bit; in fact I am 
not telling you the worst. 
I am not going to give you any bothering figures, but I can 
assure you that there is no disease in the world more prevalent 
than gonorrhea. I will just quote for you one statement by an 
eminent man who has made a special study of this disease, and 
from that you will see that you are up against a really tough prop- 
osition :- 
"It has been established beyond doubt nowadays that about 
70 out of 100 of various serious diseases" (which he names) "met 
with in married women are due to the infection of their careless, 
ignorant or unscrupulous husbands." 
* * * 
Two words more and then I have done with gonorrhea. 
Supposing that you ever do contract it you must not necessarily 
blame the woman. A woman is not attacked by the disease in the 
same way as a man, and, indeed, it is very rare for her to know 
that there is anything the matter with her. Even medical men 
often fail to diagnose the symptoms. 
And the other word is this, although I hardly think it neces- 
sary to say it to you. Whatever any friend of yours may remark, 662 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
to have contracted gonorrhea is not a sign of manhood and so 
something to be proud of. You are a gentleman, old fellow, and 
no gentleman thinks of women like that! 
* * * 
Now I am going to tell you something about "Syphilis," the 
other disease which you may have contracted from that one trivial 
adventure with a woman. And as syphilis is really serious, unless 
you begin treatment right away and carefully persist in it for a 
long time, I shall have to say a good deal about it. 
The first danger with syphilis is that you may pass over as 
unimportant the primary symptoms, or first indication that you 
are infected. You may have become poisoned by the microbe 
either in the sexual act or, if the woman happens to be infected on 
the lips or mouth, by kissing her. In any case the first symptom 
appears in about three weeks, a small, hard ulcer, which is called 
a "chancre." This forms either upon the genital organs or upon 
the mouth, or indeed upon any part of the body which came in 
contact with the infected place upon the woman. The chancre is 
often quite insignificant; you will take it to be a trivial boil, per- 
haps, and it will gradually disappear with or without any kind of 
treatment. 
Very probably you will hear it said, "Gonorrhea is a very 
ordinary complaint, easily cured, but if you get syphilis you might 
just as well go and shoot yourself right away." Those very 
words were said to me by a young fellow only last month; he had 
got syphilis and was very seriously proposing to poison himself. 
Even educated men often think very much the same, and, what 
is far worse, say it. 
Hugh, such an idea is not only absolutely wrong, it is crimi- 
nal, and does immense harm! Of the two it is syphilis which is 
more easily treated. I will not say cured outright, because it is 
rather a lengthy business. But I give you my word that a case of 
syphilis can be made non-infective in 48 hours. If only a man will 
go straight to the very best medical man he can find directly he 
suspects that he is infected, and if only he will rigidly follow the 
advice and treatment given, then he need not be afraid. It will 
take time, it may take a couple of years before he is absolutely 
cured, but he will be non-infectious and the disease will have been 
stopped from attacking other parts of the body. LETTER TO A GODSON 
663 
But if you neglect this advice and discontinue treatment then 
look out! The next thing that happens is the breaking out of a 
particularly disfiguring rash. You see the poison has by now 
begun to spread through your body. The rash generally indicates 
what are called "secondary" symptoms, but very few cases are 
exactly alike. This is the time when the disease is most con- 
tagious. You remember how careful they were when you had 
scarlet fever; how they separated you from everyone and dis- 
infected everything. Well, this period of syphilis is much the 
same. You may give it to anyone in all kinds of unlikely ways, 
by a towel, a cup, a pipe. A workman, for instance, may be- 
come infected through drinking out of the same mug of beer 
which an infected comrade has used. Then he, too, will go 
through the same course of the disease, beginning with the 
"chancre." 
I don't want to horrify you too much, old fellow, but I do 
want you to realize what is likely to happen if you don't go 
straight off to that doctor and stick to the treatment. If you stop 
the treatment the thing will break out worse than ever somewhere 
else. In some parts of the world, particularly in some country 
districts of Russia, syphilis has become an absolute plague, at- 
tacking every single family, men, women and children. They 
never get treated properly because doctors are few, and so the 
disease steadily spreads and develops into other diseases which 
are almost too dreadful to talk about. 
* * * 
And it is these other diseases, produced by syphilis, which 
give to syphilis the evil reputation it has acquired. It is, I think, 
quite safe for me to say that the "tertiary" symptoms, or evil re- 
sults, only follow when there has been inadequate treatment in 
the earlier stages. 
Well, then, if the treatment has not been of the proper kind, 
or if treatment has been stopped too soon, there is not a single 
organ in the body which may not be attacked. And the part 
which is most liable to attack is also, unfortunately, the most im- 
portant of all-the brain, and the nervous system generally. A 
great French specialist made careful notes upon 4,700 cases of 
these "tertiary" symptoms and, out of all the various parts of the 
body affected, no fewer than 2,000 developed syphilis of the brain 
and spinal cord. 664 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
I could fill pages with details of these symptoms, but I will 
only most earnestly beg you to weigh very carefully every word 
that I have written, for I have not exaggerated one iota. There 
is not a single organ in the human body which may not be attacked 
and destroyed by untreated or neglected syphilis. And to destroy 
some of these organs means certain death. 
♦ * * 
Last of all I must tell you of the gravest of all results of 
syphilis-its effect upon children, either by death before or soon 
after birth, or by the suffering to which they are condemned in 
life. 
I don't want to say much about this side of it. You will un- 
derstand why. It is the last but the strongest appeal of all to 
every man. Some day, Hugh, you will meet a girl whom you will 
love very dearly, who will become all the world to you. She, too, 
will have learned to love you and, because she is a woman, it will 
be her dearest pride to give into your keeping in full, overflowing 
measure all her pure soul and body. 
This is, perhaps, too big a thing for you to understand yet 
awhile, so just for the sake of argument we will imagine that you 
have begun to realize that Miss Dorothy means a great deal more 
to you than "an awfully decent sort"; that in fact you have come 
to see that she is a very dear girl whom, the gods willing, you 
would really like to marry. 
Now supposing that as a result of that little adventure of 
yours you were so unfortunate as to contract syphilis. You must 
not forget that this would have been a very ordinary result. You 
might, had I not now warned you, have neglected to get fully 
cured and so have married Miss Dorothy while in a state of in- 
fection, although believing yourself to be quite fit. 
* * * 
In the first place you would convey the poison into her sys- 
tem, with all the possible results to her which I have told you of. 
Ah! Hugh, that is not pleasant to contemplate, is it? The one 
being in the world whom you would love and cherish above all 
others. Then there might be a child. You love children, Hugh, 
and they, too, love you. You should be very proud of that. 
A child born of syphilitic parents is almost fatally condemned 
to death, either before birth or during the first few days or weeks LETTER TO A GODSON 
665 
after birth. If it lives it grows up a being apart from other 
children. Perhaps, with the stamp of years of life and suffering 
upon its little face from the hour of birth, it may grow into a poor, 
wizened creature, developing all sorts of ailments, never free from 
suffering-need I go on, old man? Oh, you will think of this, 
won't you! For your wife's sake, for your children's sake, think. 
Is all this worth an hour's unsatisfied indulgence? If you must 
do it, and the evil thing befalls you, then I implore you, by all you 
hold or may hold sacred, to face the consequences like the man 
you are and not to rest until you have driven out the last trace of 
the poison from your body, and you are clean once more. 
Promise me, Hugh! 
* * * 
There are two more points which you may possibly think to 
put to me. You may say that gonorrhea may be very common, 
but that surely syphilis is rare. Again I do not want to give you 
a lot of figures, but I will just take two cities on either side of the 
world and tell you how many cases of syphilis were actually un- 
der medical treatment at a certain time. 
In Melbourne, out of a population of 600,000, and during 
1910-1911, there were about 3,000 cases. In Petrograd, out of a 
population of 1,620,500 in 1911, there were recorded 45,023 cases 
of syphilis and 61,355 cases of other forms of sexual disease, in- 
cluding gonorrhea. That will show you how prevalent it is. If 
I were to tell you how many young men in New York or Chicago 
contract these diseases you probably would not believe me. 
* * * 
And the other point might be this. You may argue with 
yourself somewhat in this fashion: "Yes, I see that there cer- 
tainly is a big risk if I have anything to do with one of those 
women of the streets. But all those arguments do not apply in 
the case of a girl who is practically straight and earning her living 
in ordinary business. She will not have anything the matter 
with her." 
I am afraid that I must dispel that illusion too. "Practically 
straight," I think you said. It is just the girls who are "practi- 
cally straight" who are the most dangerous, from the point of 
view of disease. I will tell you why: 
The average professional prostitute knows well that her pros- 666 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
pects of trade depend very largely upon keeping herself free from 
infection. She may not know that she is in an infective state, 
but she is certain to take reasonable precautions. She is a woman 
of experience, she knows what to do, and she realizes the value 
of cleanliness. If she neglects this she is doomed. 
The "practically straight" girl (shall we call her an "ama- 
teur" prostitute?) is not a woman of experience. Under the 
conditions in which the average girl of today is brought up in 
this country she is fairly certain to be almost entirely ignorant 
of the most elementary facts of sex and the functions of her 
body. She may not even have heard of the existence of sexual 
disease; and she certainly will have very little idea of putting into 
practice those regular habits of strict cleanliness which her pro- 
fessional sister rightly regards as a necessity. 
From every country in the world comes the same report: 
"It is not the professional prostitute whom we fear, but the ama- 
teur. We can exercise some control and supervision over the 
former, we can have none whatever over the latter." 
* * * 
You seek for the glamour of love over your sexual impulse 
and act. You think that you have found it in a girl who does 
not expect payment in cash for her favors. You are wrong. 
Once again you are putting your money on the wrong horse. If 
it is to the interest of a professional to counterfeit love, it is still 
more so with an amateur. 
A girl takes her first false step through ignorance of the 
consequences, through curiosity to realize the big thing of life, 
and, most frequently of all, for love of the man. Once the act 
is accomplished the barrier, physical and mental, is broken down 
and she is an entirely different woman. You cannot realize what 
that barrier is to a girl-very few men can. Once it is down 
she is at the mercy of the world. Her maidenly reserve, inno- 
cence if you will, is torn from her. She has lost for ever a great 
possession. The man who has taken it is responsible in the sight 
of God and men for her future life. 
Well, she has parted from her first lover. She may run 
straight afterwards, but it is improbable. The restraining influ- 
ence has vanished. From her experience of the sexual impulse 
she becomes reckless and other lovers follow in succession. But LETTER TO A GODSON 
667 
a woman knows only one real passionate love in her life, all the 
others are merely shadows. She may seek to regain that love in 
another man, she may have her passing dreams that she has found 
it once more-they are only dreams. 
And so the comedy is played. She would have each new 
lover believe that she is chaste, or, if the mask falls for a moment, 
then "practically straight." She, too, would throw the glamor 
of love over the act. It is a mockery; she knows it, and you in 
your heart know it. Believe me, old man, it isn't worth it! 
* * * 
You will find your amateur prostitute everywhere. In the 
chorus, behind the counter, hastening to fetch you your meal at 
that select little cafe. When you go abroad you will find her- 
but there, I could write for you pages of romantic disguises 
which discreetly veil the amateur. In fact, the professional has 
long since recognized the value of these disguises in her quest 
of trade, and it is now exceedingly difficult to trace the dividing 
line. 
So you see that if you must be on your guard with the pro- 
fessional, you must none the less beware of the amateur. The 
former is absolutely certain to become infected sooner or later 
despite all her precautions; the latter generally contracts the 
disease at an early age, before she is 18 or 19. Indeed, it is most 
sad to think that the majority of female patients now being 
treated in the hospitals for sexual disease are young girls below 
the age of 20. 
There, that is all that I am going to say about it. We, your 
Mother and Father and I, desire your happiness and good for- 
tune more than anything else. We want you to turn out what 
we have tried to make you, a gentleman in the best sense of the 
word. We can only lay the foundation, the rest is in your hands. 
I have told you these things only for your own health's sake 
and that you may at least be forearmed. I once had a dear friend 
who was killed by syphilis simply because he knew nothing about 
it. [See "A Lost Leader," page 634.] 
* * * 
There are now many hundreds of men and women working 
hard to stamp out these diseases from civilization. Syphilis and 
gonorrhea are, in themselves, no more immoral than small-pox or 668 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
scarlet fever. It is not a disgraceful thing to have contracted 
them, but a deep misfortune. 
And so we would, if we may, make the world a more beau- 
tiful place to live in. We would win to a finer and purer relation- 
ship between men and women, each living for and with the other. 
We would see our children grow into strong and sturdy citizens. 
* * * 
Perhaps you are going up to the University in a year or so, 
and of course you want to make both the football and baseball 
teams. We should be proud of you. You won't make them if 
you go fooling around with women. Later, perhaps, you are 
going to study for the medical or legal professions. If you spend 
evenings in a girl's bedroom your brain will refuse to answer 
when you call upon it. You will find it impossible to perform a 
delicate operation, or to plead a case in Court. You will not be 
able to concentrate. 
If you steadily fight that sexual impulse you will be incom- 
parably the finer man for it, in brain and body. If ever you 
must give way, then for God's sake remember what I have told 
you: "Look to the end," as old Aristotle said. 
Here is a little check to help you through the Summer Half. 
Yours always affectionately, 
A. Corbett-Smith. PART IV. 
SELECTED POEMS, GLOSSARY 
AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 
WILD OATS 
HAH, let them alone-" 'tis the age-old cry- 
xl. "Boys will ever be boys, you know; 
They must plow the world to the rim of youth, 
The fields of wild oats they must sow. 
Let them alone-they are immune 
To leash of straight-laced moral code. 
BOYS WILL BE BOYS; they measure life 
By laws that license has bestowed." 
This is the hectic creed of the years, 
The damning lie that parents preach 
To ease their conscience of the blame 
For higher goals they failed to reach. 
Immune, these sowers of wild-oat tares? 
There's never a single garnered field 
Where sickles of sorrow have cut their swaths 
But tells its tale of a misery yield. 
Go, look in the wards where the maniacs rave, 
Their brain cells brimmed with liquid fire 
Through mad misrule of uncurbed wills 
Or the blight of a foul desire. 
And count, if you can, the blameless hosts- 
The waifs unfathered and unnamed- 
Who, under the light of God's blue sky, 
Must live their cheated lives ashamed. 
And, ah! the "drunks" and the derelicts 
Lined day by day at the judge's bar, 
And the man who limps on a shriveled limb- 
A horrible, visible moral scar! 
669 670 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
And the frightened girl with her shame revealed 
Leaping down where the moonbeams quiver, 
Her epitaph but the scornful line: 
"A floater dragged from the river." 
And the men hard-lipped and filled with fear 
As they slip from the doctor's door, 
Hiding his verdict of loathsome taint- 
(O, the wives who must pay THAT score!) 
Hating the secret noisomeness 
That saps with its creeping ills, 
Hating the wild oats that they sowed 
In the lustful pace that kills. 
These are the boys who "would be boys" 
Not held to straight-laced moral code. 
The boys who measured their golden youth 
By laws that license had bestowed. 
They tread the trail where the serpent crawled 
And are slimed with its vicious stain, 
They plow their oats with the plow of sin 
And reap with the sickle of pain. 
L'Envoi 
And the gleaners who come in the after-years- 
Generation born under that spell? 
In taint of body and smirch of soul 
They garner an endless hell! 
-Sara Beaumont Kennedy. 
THE PRICE HE PAID 
BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX 
I SAID I would have my fling, 
And do what a young man may; 
And I didn't believe a thing 
That the parsons have to say. 
I didn't believe in a God 
That gives us blood like fire, 
Then flings us into hell because 
We answer the call of desire. POEMS 
671 
And I said: "Religion is rot, 
And the laws of the world are nil; 
For the bad man is he who is caught 
And cannot foot his bill. 
And there is no place called hell; 
And heaven is only a truth, 
When a man has his way with a maid 
In the fresh keen hour of youth. 
"And money can buy us grace, 
If it rings on the plate of the church; 
And money can neatly erase 
Each sign of a sinful smirch." 
For I saw men everywhere, 
Hotfooting the road of vice; 
And women and preachers smiled on them 
As long as they paid the price. 
So I had my joy of life; 
I went the pace of the town; 
And then I took me a wife, 
And started to settle down. 
I had gold enough and to spare 
For all of the simple joys 
That belong with a house and a home 
And a brood of girls and boys. 
I married a girl with health 
And virtue and spotless fame, 
I gave in exchange my wealth 
And a proud old family name. 
And I gave her the love a heart 
Grown sated and sick of sin! 
My deal with the devil was all cleaned up, 
And the last bill handed in. 
She was going to bring me a child, 
And when in labor she cried, 
With love and fear I was wild- 
But now I wish she had died. 672 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
For the son she bore me was blind 
And crippled and weak and sore! 
And his mother was left a wreck. 
It was so she settled my score. 
I said I must have my fling, 
And they knew the path I would go; 
Yet no one told me a thing 
Of what I needed to know. 
Folks talk too much of a soul 
From heavenly joys debarred- 
And not enough of the babes unborn, 
By the sins of their fathers scarred. 
-From The Cosmopolitan. 
FIVE DOLLARS A WEEK 
THUS is it down in Beelzebub's books, 
August the 17th. Isabel Brooks. 
Home in the country, folks decent but poor, 
Character excellent, morals still pure. 
Came to the city today and found work; 
Wages five dollars, department store clerk. 
Wages five dollars, to last seven days; 
Three for a miserable hall bedroom she pays, 
Two nickels daily the street car received; 
One dollar forty for eating that leaves. 
One-forty has quite a long way to reach. 
Twenty-one banquets at seven cents each. 
There: every penny of wage has been spent; 
Squandered for eating and riding and rent. 
Spendthrift: she ought to remember life's ills; 
How in the world will she pay doctor's bills? 
What if she's furloughed? There's always a chance; 
Isabel ought to save up in advance. 
Hold: I've not mentioned her clothes, she must wear 
Dresses, hats, stockings, shoes, ribbons for hair. 
Where shall she get them? Suppose that we stop. 
Perhaps we would better just let the thing drop. POEMS 
673 
You, good math'metician, may figure it out; 
It's a matter of figures, or figure, no doubt. 
Look at this picture, it's better I'm sure, 
Character excellent, morals still pure. 
What else is written we'll not look to see, 
Why! As I live, there's a tear in his eye, 
What in the world can make old Satan cry? 
Surely the Devil is feeling his age: 
Look what he's written on Isabel's page: 
"Virtue's a luxury hard to afford, 
When a girl hasn't money to pay for her board." 
-Herbert Kauffman. 
THE WOMEN WHO WALK 
THE street lights gleam, and the buildings tower, 
In the lazar city by the sea, 
While the silent gloom, like stinking spoom, 
Awakens misery. 
And women tramp the streets so damp, 
Shorn of their modesty. 
Their smile is hard, and their faces wan, 
And they cringe as they walk along. 
There's none of God in their sinful nod 
As they hum a ribald song. 
But these women tramp the streets so damp, 
To the streets their kind belong. 
There is much of woe, in their frozen hearts, 
Where erst dwelt melody; 
They've wedded shame, and lost their name, 
For all eternity. 
Always they tramp, the streets so damp, 
Lost in iniquity. 
God came down, one night on the town, 
To learn if He could, whence came 
These accusing sobs, from the drunken mobs, 
That seemed His throne to blame. 
He there did tramp, the streets so damp, 
Beside the women of shame. 674 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
But He soon went back to her harpists, 
Back to infinity; 
And He said as He went: "The real intent 
Is born of poverty, 
The women who tramp the streets so damp, 
Need more than chastity." 
He strolled through the streets of Jasper, 
He came to the judgment hall, 
And then He took the sinner's book, 
And wrote in infinite scrawl 
"The women who tramp the streets so damp, 
Have drunk this cup of gall." 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
Pity them, cheat them, curse them all, 
Enjoy them if you must; 
Some man's to blame, for a woman's shame, 
Because she built on trust. 
And those who tramp the streets so damp, 
Are lost through manly lust. 
-Clem Yore. 
THE UNDERWORLD 
HARKI to the cries of the Underworld! 
List to their sobs and moans! 
Blush when you hear their curses 
That chill your very bones. 
For they are lost and the hateful, 
They are the city's sores, 
Each day they die by hundreds, 
Beside your very doors. 
You fathers and mothers, attention! 
What do you know might come 
Into your life to wreck your joy, 
To devastate your home? 
Little you think your daughter 
Runs risk of vice and blame. 
Little you think your growing boy 
Will cause some woman shame. POEMS 
675 
You fathers who sit and lord it, 
Now that your oats are sown, 
Can a hundred women number 
The harlots you have known? 
As you kiss your little baby, 
And you scold your hopeful wife, 
Do you ever look back and ponder, 
At your deceitful life? 
Do you remember your twenties? 
And likewise your thirties, too? 
And have you changed your ways, I ask? 
Is anyone on to you? 
Is your name still known in the "district?" 
Do you maintain a flat? 
Have you a child lost somewhere, 
That you would call a brat? 
Think of these human beings, 
Whimpering in their woe. 
Of course you can't correct them, 
This you surely know. 
But you can watch your daughter 
And you can teach your son, 
Not to ruin a maiden, 
Like you perhaps have done. 
Never to tell a woman. 
A lie that will break her heart, 
And never to gloat on cunning ways, 
Or play a dastard's part. 
Teach the deeds of the Master, 
Not some infernal creed. 
The world wants human action, 
Tenets it does not need. 
Then you, you polished plutocrats, 
Wild on business bent, 
Pay an honest wage to your workers, 
To show your sure intent. 676 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
It will help a lot in doing 
The things you claim should be 
Done-for our social evil, 
Done-for humanity. 
And when you sit on juries, 
And see some cringing crook, 
Just close your eyes a moment, 
And take an inward look. 
And then make up your sober mind 
To do as you think is right, 
I'm sure you'll see your duty 
In a very lurid light. 
How many of you are landlords 
To Pansy, or Rosie, or Belle? 
How many souls in your houses 
Carboliced into hell? 
Don't you always of a Sunday, 
Go to church and pray? 
When you know your wantoned tenants, 
Are roping all the day? 
How many of you own tenements, 
Reeking and rotten, too, 
Where your agent drives like a slaver, 
Collecting the rent for you? 
Where childish fingers earn a dime; 
For all of a half a day's toil- 
And childish bodies, bend and break, 
Beneath the midnight oil. 
Each city has its tenderloin, 
Each town its house of shame, 
And you and I, and all the world 
Contribute to the blame. 
The thing to do is obvious, 
Our task is clearly plain. 
Rightly teach the growing child, 
And we ourselves abstain. 
-From Songs of the Underworld POEMS 
677 
NO ONE HAD TOLD HER 
SHE was just in the bloom of life's morning 
She was happy, and free, and fair; 
And a glance in her bright eyes would tell you 
Of nothing but innocence there. 
She was waiting for someone to tell her, 
As she stood with reluctant feet, 
On the banks of the wonderful river 
Where childhood and womanhood meet. 
She waited, but still no one told her 
The secret of life so sublime; 
And she held not the safeguard of knowledge 
In life's beautiful morning time. 
The flower so sweetly unfolded 
Was crushed by a rough hand one day, 
And the jewel, so sacred, so precious, 
Was stolen and taken away.-Selected. 
THE WORN OUT WOMAN 
AT last I'm a worn out woman; 
I have drank my fill of life. 
I've had my share and more to spare, 
I am nobody's wife. 
I want a home and flowers and babies; 
I want to believe I am good. 
I crave a name without a shame, 
To live as I know I should. 
I know I cannot have it; 
I'm not kidding myself I can. 
I've paid the price and wedded vice; 
I'd tarnish-a regular man. 678 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
I'd love to go home for my finish; 
Home where the skies are blue, 
And there in bliss, feel a truthful kiss 
From lips I knew were true. 
♦ * * * * 
But I am only a worn out woman, 
I must live just the same, 
Drink the gall, and sate you all, 
'Till the pitiless end of the game. 
-Clem Yore. 
THE HARLOT AND THE NUN 
TWO figures lay in the morgue, 
Dragged from the river deep: 
A harlot was one, the other a nun, 
Wrapped in endless sleep, 
With a cake of ice at their shoulders, 
And nobody there to weep. 
The features were much distorted. 
Only the clothes could name, 
Which was the nun, and the other one 
The woman lost to shame; 
But the clothes were taken away, 
When the coroner's deputy came. 
And somehow their garments were mixed 
And thus when identified, 
The fallen one became the nun, 
And she was sanctified; 
And the holy sister was buried alone 
As though her shame to hide. 
The woman of shame lies honored, 
In Calvary's holy ground, 
While Sister Celeste always will rest 
'Till the very last trumpets sound, 
As nineteen hundred and eight, 
In a city's nameless mound. POEMS 
679 
So only the Master knows them 
From the records of the mind; 
"Judge not," He said, "the quick nor dead, 
Lest ye be judged in kind:" 
For woman's woes are many, 
And the human eyes are blind. 
-Clem Yore. 
DOWN AT THE CORNER 
VIRGINIA was airy, a fair little fairy, 
Born of the best of blood; 
Her mother was proud, and she allowed 
Virgie to do as she would; 
And it was not writ, she thought a bit 
Of what her child might learn 
In running about, when she was out, 
Where the street lamps dimly burn. 
Down at the corner, the poisonous corner 
Where children love to go; 
This is the spot, the red hot spot, 
Where Satan's tapers glow; 
This is the place, the luring place, 
Primer of vice and woe. 
Virginia is old and it is told, 
E'en to this late day, 
When she went bad, citily bad, 
Her mother pined away. 
Nobody knows of Virgie's woes, 
And no one seems to care; 
But that old spot, that crimson spot, 
Still lures the children there. 
Down at the corner, the poisonous corner, 
Where the children love to go; 
This is the spot, the red hot spot, 
Where Satan's tapers glow; 
This is the place, the luring place, 
Primer of vice and woe. 
-From Songs of the Underworld. 680 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
SONG OF THE LAYETTE 
I LINGER over this snowy pile 
Of dainty muslin, linen and lace, 
Imagining all the while 
How they will look round a baby face. 
Tiniest garments of fabric fine, 
Royal with costly embroidery, 
Fill my heart with a spell divine, 
Only the earnest of that to be. 
All the glory of motherhood 
Has already enriched my soul, 
Stirred my pulse and warmed my blood 
Even before I have reached the goal. 
-Ruth G. I. Havens. 
WHERE DID THE BABY COME FROM? 
WHERE did you come from, baby dear? 
Out of the everywhere into here. 
Where did you get the eyes so blue? 
Out of the sky, as I came through. 
Where did you get that little tear? 
I found it waiting when I got here. 
What makes your forehead so smooth and high? 
A soft hand stroked it as I went by. 
What makes your cheek like a warm, white rose? 
I saw something better than anyone knows. 
Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss? 
Three angels gave me at once a kiss. 
Where did you get this pretty ear? 
God spoke, and it came out to hear. POEMS 
681 
Where did you get those arms and hands? 
Love made itself into hooks and bands. 
Feet, whence did you come, you darling things? 
From the same box as the cherub's wings. 
How did they all come just to be you? 
God thought of me, and so I grew. 
But, how did you come to us, you dear? 
God thought about you, and so I am here. 
-George Macdonald. 
A WOMAN'S ANSWER 
DO you know you have asked for the costliest 
thing 
Ever made by the hand above, 
A woman's heart and a woman's life 
And a woman's wonderful love? 
Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing, 
As a child might ask for a toy, 
Demanding what others have died to win; 
With the reckless dash of a boy? 
You have written my lesson of duty out, 
Man-like you have questioned me; 
Now stand at the bar of my woman's soul 
Until I shall question thee. 
You require that your mutton shall always be hot, 
Your socks and your shirts shall be whole; 
I require your heart to be true as God's stars 
And as pure as heaven your soul. 
You require a cook for your mutton and beef; 
I require a far better thing. 
A seamstress you're wanting for stocking and shirts; 
I look for a man and a king. 682 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
A king for a beautiful realm called home, 
And a man that the Maker, God, 
Shall look upon as He did the first 
And say, "It is very good." 
I am fair and young, but the rose will fade 
From my soft young cheek some day. 
Will you love me then 'mid the falling leaves 
As you did 'mid the bloom of May? 
Is your heart an ocean so strong and deep 
I may launch my all on its tide ? 
A loving woman finds heaven or hell 
On the day she is made a bride. 
I require all things that are grand and true, 
All things that a man should be; 
If you give all this, I will stake my life 
To be all you demand of me. 
If you cannot do this, a laundress and cook 
You can hire with little to pay; 
But a woman's heart and a woman's life 
Are not to be won that way. 
-Anonymous. 
C. L. M. 
IN the dark womb where I began 
My mother's life made me a man. 
Through all the months of human birth 
Her beauty fed my common earth. 
I cannot see, nor breathe, nor stir, 
But through the death of some of her. 
Down in the darkness of the grave 
She cannot see the life she gave. 
For all her love, she cannot tell 
Whether I use it ill or well, 
Nor knock at dusty doors to find 
Her beauty dusty in the mind. POEMS 
683 
If the grave's gates could be undone, 
She would not know her little son, 
I am so grown. If we should meet 
She would pass by me in the street, 
Unless my soul's face let her see 
My sense of what she did for me. 
What have I done to keep in mind 
My debt to her and womankind? 
What woman's happier life repays 
Her for those months of wretched days? 
For all my mouthless body leeched 
Ere Birth's releasing hell was reached? 
What have I done, or tried, or said 
In thanks to that dear woman dead? 
Men triumph over women still, 
Men trample women's rights at will, 
And man's lust roves the world untamed. 
O grave, keep shut lest I be shamed. 
-John Masefield 
WHAT OF THE PRODIGAL GIRL? 
WE all have a heart for the prodigal boy 
Who was caught in sin's mad whirl, 
And we welcome him back with songs of joy; 
But what of the prodigal girl? 
For the prodigal boy there's an open door, 
And a father's bounteous fare; 
And tho he is wretched, sick and poor, 
He is sure of a welcome there. 
But what of the girl who has gone astray? 
Who has lost in the battle of sin ? 
Say, do we forgive in the same sweet way, 
We've always forgiven him? 684 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Does, the door stand ajar, as if to say, 
Come, enter, you need not fear? 
I've been open thus since you went away, 
Now close to the second year. 
Or do we with hand of hellish pride, 
Close and bolt the door, 
And swear, "While heaven and earth abide 
She will enter here no more?" 
Oh Christ! It seems we have never learned 
The lesson taught in the sand, 
For even yet the woman is spurned 
And stoned in a Christian land. 
Down into the slough we hurl her back, 
Then turn around with a smile, 
And welcome the boy from the sinful track, 
Tho' he may have been more vile.-Selected. 
A MOTHER TO A SON 
1 THROUGH long and shattering pain I gave 
J- you birth; 
It would have been far easier to have died, 
But you, my baby, drew me back to life 
By love and joy and pride." 
"And when God called on me to lay aside 
My dreams for you and give His cause my boy, 
I sent you out to fight-perhaps to die- 
With pride and love and joy." 
"You have not died-you have not even fought- 
Today I suffer more than all the pains 
Your being cost. My pride, my joy, are gone- 
Nothing but love remains." 
"For all the service that you might have given, 
And all the honour that you might have won 
You squandered for a harlot's poisoned kiss- 
My son, Oh God! my son!" 
-Amelia J. Barr. POEMS 
685 
SYPHILIS 
I KNEW a yeoman, who for thirst of gain. 
To the great city drove from Devon's plain, 
His numerous lowing herd. His herds he sold, 
And his deep leathern pocket bagged with gold. 
Drawn by a fraudful nymph, he gazed, he sighed; 
Unmindful of his home and distant bride, 
She leads the willing victim to his doom 
Through winding alleys to her cobweb room; 
Thence through the streets he reels from post to post. 
The vagrant wretch the assembled watchmen spies, 
He waves his hanger, and their poles defies. 
Deep in the roundhouse pent all night he snores, 
The next morning vain his fate deplores. 
Ah! hapless swain! unused to pains and ills, 
Canst thou forego roast beef for nauseous pills ? 
How wilt thou lift to heaven thy eyes and hands, 
When the long scroll the surgeon's fees demands? 
Or else (Ye gods avert that worst disgrace) 
Thy ruined nose falls level with thy face; 
Then shall thy wife thy loathsome kiss disdain, 
And wholesome neighbors from thy mug refrain. 
-John Gay. 
FENCE OR AMBULANCE 
'Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed. 
Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant; 
But over its terrible edge there had slipped 
A duke, and full many a peasant; 
So the people said something would have to be done 
But their projects did not at all tally. 
Some said, "Put a fence 'round the edge of the cliff," 
Some, "An ambulance down in the valley." 
But the cry for the ambulance carried the day 
For it spread through the neighboring city; 
A fence may be useful or not, it is true, 
But each heart became brimful of pity 686 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
For those who slipped over that dangerous cliff, 
And the dwellers in highway and alley 
Gave pounds or gave pence, not to put up a fence 
But an ambulance down in the valley. 
"For the cliff is all right if you're careful," they said, 
"And if folks ever slip and are dropping, 
It isn't the slipping that hurts them so much 
As the shock down below when they're stopping." 
So day after day as those mishaps occurred, 
Quick forth would these rescuers sally, 
To pick up the victims who fell off the cliff 
With the ambulance down in the valley. 
Then an old sage remarked, "It's a marvel to me 
That people give far more attention 
To repairing results than to stopping the cause, 
When they'd much better aim at prevention." 
"Let us stop at its source all this mischief," cried he, 
"Come, neighbors and friends, let us rally; 
If the cliff we will fence we might almost dispense 
With the ambulance down in the valley." 
"Oh, he's a fanatic," the other rejoined, 
"Dispense with the ambulance? Never! 
He'd dispense with all charities, too, if he could. 
No, no! We'll support them forever! 
Aren't we picking up folk just as fast as they fall? 
And shall this man dictate to us ? Shall he ? 
Why should people of sense stop to put up a fence 
While the ambulance works in the valley?" 
But sensible few, who are practical too, 
Will not bear with such nonsense much longer; 
They believe that prevention is better than cure, 
And their party will soon be the stronger. 
Encourage them, then, with your purse, voice and pen 
(And while other philanthropists dally) 
They will scorn all pretense and put a stout fence 
On the cliff that hangs over the valley. POEMS 
687 
Better guide well the young than reclaim them when old, 
For the voice of true wisdom is calling; 
To rescue the fallen is good, but 'tis best 
To prevent other people from falling; 
Better close up the source of temptation and crime 
Than deliver from dungeon or galley; 
Better put a strong fence 'round the top of the cliff, 
Than an ambulance down in the valley. 
-Selected. GLOSSARY 
Abortifacient (abor-tefa'shunt). A 
medicine causing abortion. 
Abortion (abor-shun). Premature 
expulsion of the products of 
pregnancy, in the first 3 months. 
(From 3 to 6 months generally 
called "miscarriage"; and 6 to 
9 months "premature labor.") 
Abortionist (abor'shun-ist). A 
person who makes a business 
of inducing criminal abortions. 
Abstinence (ab'stinence). Vol- 
untary privation in diet, etc. As 
used here refers to sexual inter- 
course. 
Abulia (ah-bu'leah). Absent or 
defective will-power. 
Acrochronism (akrok-ro-nizm). 
The belief that the time in 
which we live is better than in 
bygone ages. 
Adolescent (ad'o-les'zent). 
Growing from childhood to 
adult life. 
Aesthetics (See esthetics). 
Afterbirth (af'ter-berth). The 
structure, consisting of the 
placenta and coverings, cast 
from the womb after birth of 
the child. 
After-Pain (af'ter-pane). Pain 
following child-birth from con- 
traction of the womb. 
Altruism (al'troo-izm). 'Regard 
for others, both natural and 
moral; opposed to egoism 
(selfishness). 
Ameba (ame'bah). Small animal- 
cules, these jelly-like specks can 
only be seen with the micro- 
scope. Some are found in the 
body and cause disease, but the 
one here referred to comes 
from stagnant ponds. 
Amenorrhea (amenorrhe'ah). Ab- 
sence of the monthly "periods." 
Anathema (a-nath'ema). A ban 
pronounced with solemnity by 
religious authority, and accom- 
p a n i e d by excommunication. 
Hence: Denunciation of any- 
thing as accursed. 
Anemia (ane'me-ah). A diseased 
state of the blood, the amount 
of which may be less than in 
health; or the quantity may be 
correct, but the quality not 
good. It is generally evidenced 
by paleness of the skin, loss of 
energy, palpitation of the heart, 
etc. 
Animalcule (an-imal'kul). A mi- 
croscopic animal organism. 
Anteflexion (ante-flek'shun). A 
bending forward of the womb. 
Anteversion (ante-ver'zhun). A 
turning forward of the womb. 
Antisepsis (ante-sep'sis). The 
use of chemical substances 
which are capable of destroying 
disease germs. 
Antiseptic (an-te-sep'tik). A sub- 
stance destructive to poisonous 
germs. Some of the chief ones 
are alcohol, boric acid, carbolic 
acid, corrosive sublimate, com- 
mon salt, charcoal, tannic acid, 
sugar and vinegar. 
Anus (a'nus). The outlet of the 
lower bowel onto the surface 
of skin. 
Aortic (a-ort'ik). Belonging or 
pertaining to the aorta. This is 
the largest blood vessel in the 
body, and leaving the left side 
of heart, brings red blood to 
the entire body. 
688 GLOSSARY 
689 
Apoplexy (ap'o-plec-se). Burst- 
ing of a blood vessel in the 
brain. This may cause im- 
mediate or speedy death, or In 
case of recovery, the person is 
paralyzed more or less, as a 
rule one-half of body. The first 
seizure is generally followed 
later on (maybe years later) 
by one or more, finally ending 
in death. 
Appendages, Uterine (appen'dag- 
es u'ter-in). The Fallopian 
tubes, and the ovaries. 
Arthritis (ar-thri'tiz). Inflamma- 
tion of a joint. (Inflammation 
of the lining only is called 
"synovitis.") 
Asceticism (ascet-izizm). The be- 
lief that only those who mortify 
themselves in this world, by 
fasting and self-denial will get 
to Heaven. 
Asexual (ah-seks'u-al). Without 
sex; non-sexual. 
Asexualization (ah-seks-ual-iz-a' 
shun). Removal of the testicle 
or of the ovary, in the male and 
female respectively. 
Aspermia (ah-sper'me-ah). Lack 
of secretion of semen. 
Atavism (at'av-izm). Inheritance 
of characteristics from remote 
ancestors. 
Atony (at'on-e). Lack of normal 
strength, i. e., debility. 
Atrophied (at'ro-fed). Shrunken. 
Atrophy (atro-fee). A shrinking 
or wasting of an organ or part. 
Like the opposite condition 
(hypertrophy) it may be due to 
fewer of the elements compos- 
ing the part, or they may be 
smaller. 
Autism (aw'tizm). A mental 
condition marked by morbid 
day dreaming. 
Autoerotism (aw'to-e-rot'ism). 
Sexual instinct gratified with- 
out another person. 
Automatic (au'to-mat'ic). In- 
voluntary, or mechanical. 
Autopsy (aw'top-see). The 
examination of a body, gen- 
erally to determine the cause of 
death. 
Azoospermia (assoh-spur-meah). 
Absence of the vital male ani- 
malcules (spermatozoa). Sexual 
relations are possible, attended 
by ejaculation, but pregnancy 
will not follow. In most cases 
the result of gonorrhea. 
Bagnio (ban'yo). A house of 
prostitution. 
Balanitis (bal-an-i'tis). Inflam- 
mation of the free end (or 
glans) penis. 
Barren (bar'en). Sterile; unfruit- 
ful incapable of producing off- 
spring. 
Biology (bi-ol'o-ji). The science 
of living things, and of their 
structure and life. 
Brothel (broth'el). A house of 
ill-fame. 
Bulbous (bul'buz). Structures 
having a swollen end, usually 
applied to the cut ends of 
nerves. 
Cadet (ka-det'). A slang term 
used to denote males who 
seduce young women, then live 
off their earnings. 
Calculus (kalk'yu-lus). Stone- 
like bodies formed in various 
organs, very common sites are 
the kidney, urinary and gall- 
bladder. Small at first, if not 
passed spontaneously or re- 
moved by surgery, they keep 
on growing, often reaching in- 
credible sizes, a pound and more. 690 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Cancer (kans-er). This name was 
given long before Christ, on ac- 
count of the way in which these 
deadly tumors send out masses 
somewhat resembling the limbs 
of a crab. 
Canon (kan'non). A law, rule, 
or standard, for instance of be- 
havior. 
Capillary (kap'il-a-re). The 
smallest blood vessels joining 
the arteries to the veins. 
(Capillus in Latin means "a 
hair," so this gives some idea 
of the small dimensions.) 
Castration (kas-tra'shun). Re- 
moval of the testicles. (In the 
female removal of the egg-sacs 
is called "spaying.") 
Catamenia (kat-ah-me'ne-ah). The 
monthly uterine discharge; or 
the "periods." 
Cautery (kaw'ter-e). A substance 
or instrument for burning away 
a part. 
Celibacy (sel'i-ba-sy). The state 
of single life, especially one 
bound by vows not to marry. 
Cellular Tissue (sel'u-lar). A 
loose, spongy tissue which sur- 
rounds the muscles and organs 
of the body, filling the space 
between them. 
Cerebrum (ser'e-brum). The up- 
per portion of the brain, form- 
ing the majority of that organ. 
Cervix (ser'viks). A neck-like 
part of the body, here used for 
the womb. 
Chancre (shang'ker). The sore 
or ulcer which marks the be- 
ginning of syphilis. 
Chancroid (shang-kroid). This 
means "like a chancre," or the 
beginning of syphilis, but this 
"soft" sore once healed does not 
cause any further trouble. 
Chlorosis (klo-ro'sis). The dis- 
ease in young women mostly, 
so-called from the green color 
of the skin, or "green sickness." 
Chorea (kore'ah). Uncontroll- 
able twitchings of the muscles. 
Generally called "St. Vitus' 
dance." 
Cilia (sil'yah). The eyelashes or 
similar hair-like processes. 
Used here to mean those on the 
inner lining of the egg-or 
Fallopian tubes. 
Climacteric (klimak'ter-ik). Used 
here to mean the time at which 
the "monthly periods" stop. 
Clitoris (klit'o-riz). The organ 
in the female corresponding to 
the penis in the other sex. 
Small, and located at upper 
angle of outer genitals. 
Cognate (kog'nate). Things or 
subjects of a like or similar 
nature, as relations or families. 
Cohabitation (ko-habit-a'shun). 
Has the same meaning as 
Coitus. 
Coitus (koee-tuz). Sexual inter- 
course or connection. 
Coitus Incompletus (koee'tuz in- 
complee-tuz). Interruption of 
the sexual act by "withdrawal" 
of the male, before emission of 
the seed. 
Coitus interruptus, the same. 
Coitus prolongatus, sexual acts 
which are kept up for much 
longer than the usual time, by 
an effort of will on part of the 
man. 
Colostrum (kolos'trum). The 
first milk from the breast after 
childbirth. It is thicker than 
usual and full of small drops 
of fat. 
Complement-fixation test, used to 
detect gonorrhea. GLOSSARY 
691 
Conception (kon-sep'shun). Start 
of a new life or fecundation, by 
the male element coming in 
contact with the egg of female. 
Concubitu (kon-ku'bit-you). 
Concubitus (kon-ku'bit-us). Same 
as coition and copulation. 
Concupiscence (kon-ku'pis-enz). 
Sexual desire. 
Confinement (kon-fin'ment). The 
time of childbirth. 
Congenital (kon-jen'it-al). A 
condition or state existing from 
birth. 
Congestion (kon-jes'chun). Ex- 
cess of blood in an organ or 
part. 
Conjugal (kon'ju-gal). This term 
applied to the married state, 
really means "yoked together." 
Connubial (kon-nu'bi-al). Same 
as conjugal. 
Consanguineous (con'san-gwin' 
e-us). Persons related by birth. 
Consanguinity (kon-san-gwin'it- 
ee). Blood-relationship. State 
of descent from same ancestor. 
Constipation (kon-stip-a'shun). A 
sluggish condition of the 
bowels, usually meaning there 
is not a passage at least daily 
(or "costiveness"). 
Continence (kon'tin-ens). Self- 
restraint, particularly as re- 
gards sexual indulgence. 
Contraception (kon-trah-sep' 
shun). To prevent conception. 
Contraceptives (kon-trah-sep' tiv). 
Drugs or other measures made 
use of to prevent conception. 
Copulation (kop-u-la'shun). Sex- 
ual intercourse or congress; 
coition; coitus. 
Cord, Umbilical (cord, umbil'ical). 
The navel-string, attaching 
child to afterbirth. The means 
by which blood is supplied to 
child before birth. 
C o r p o r a cavernosa (korpo'rah 
kahverno-sah). Two of the 
three cylinders forming the 
male penis. They are much 
larger than the corpus spong- 
iosum, which lies below and be- 
tween them. 
Corpora lutea (korpo-rah lew-te- 
ah). "Yellow bodies," the 
scars left in the egg-sacs 
(ovaries). Those after men- 
struation last about six months, 
after childbirth for several 
months longer. 
Corpuscle (kor'pus-1). A very 
small body or cell. Usually ap- 
plied to those found in blood; 
the most important being the 
red which give the characteris- 
tic color; and the white, only 
1 of these to several hundred 
red. 
Courtesan (kur'te-zan). A pros- 
titute. 
Cowper's glands (kowper's 
glahnds). Two small masses 
connected with the urinary 
channel of the male. 
Cryptorchid (krip-tor'kid). A 
male whose testicles have not 
descended into the scrotum, and 
are retained in abdomen. 
Cytoplasm (sighto-plazm). The 
bulk of the material composing 
the minute masses (cells) of 
which animals and plants are 
built. However, the Karyoplasm 
is more important. 
Dalliance (dal'li-anz). The act 
of fondling; lover's caresses. 
Decidua (de-sid'u-ah). The bag 
enclosing the child in the womb. 
The "caul," or "veil." 
Defecation (def-e-ka'shun). The 
act of having a movement of 
the bowels. 692 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Defloration (def-lo-ra'shun). The 
act of losing virginity, as dis- 
tinguished from rape in which 
violence is used. 
Demi-mondaine, an inhabitant of 
the "half-world." Originally 
used to designate women not 
living with their husbands, but 
now meaning "kept women" or 
others of shady reputation, 
though not prostitutes. 
Demi-monde (dah'mi-mond). 
French words meaning "half- 
world." 
Dentition (denti'shun). The proc- 
ess of cutting the teeth. 
Detumescence (dee'tu-mes-enz). 
Subsidence of anything swollen, 
generally used for the sexual 
organs after intercourse. 
Dipsomania (dipso-ma'ne-ah). 
Uncontrollable desire or craze 
for alcohol. 
Douche (doosh). A stream of 
water directed into a cavity, or 
against a part of the body. Us- 
ually applied to flushing of the 
birth-canal in the female. 
Dropsy (drop'se). Collection of 
fluid in the limbs and cavities 
of the body. Generally caused 
by disease of the heart, kidneys 
or liver. 
Dysmenorrhea (dis-menor-e'ah). 
Painful and difficult "monthly 
periods." 
Dyspareunia (dis-par-ru'ne-ah). 
Sexual intercourse attended by 
pain. 
Dystocia (dis-to'ke-ah). Difficult 
childbirth. 
Eclampsia (e-klamp-se-ah). The 
fits or spasms which often come 
on during pregnancy, childbirth, 
or after the latter. 
Effete (ef-feet'). Worn out, gen- 
erally from age. 
Ego-ideal (aygo-eyedeal). Since 
ego means "I" and ideal "per- 
fection," the combination char- 
acterizes persons who think 
themselves perfect; having a 
"swelled head" in other words. 
Ejaculation (e-jak-u-la'shun). A 
sudden expulsion, for example 
the seminal fluid of the male 
during intercourse. 
Embryo (m-bree'oh). Applied to 
the child during the first four 
months after it begins to grow 
in the womb; after that it is 
called "fetus." 
Endometrium (ahndo-me-tri-um). 
The lining of the womb. 
Endometritis (ahndo-me-tri-tis). 
Inflammation of the lining of 
the womb. 
Endopsychic (ndo-sy-kik). The 
"mind within," that is to say of 
a given person. 
Epididymis (epee-did'ymis). The 
cap of the testicle, attached to the 
posterior border at the upper end. 
Epididymitis (epee-didymi'tis). 
Inflammation of the cap of the 
testicle. 
Epilepsy (epi'lep-se). "Fits," or 
convulsions, with frothing at 
mouth, and unconsciousness. 
Epispadias (epee-spad-eas). A 
deformed penis in which part 
or all of the roof of the urinary 
channel is absent. 
Epithelium (epi-thele-um). The 
little plates, as it were, which 
fitted together form the outer 
layer of the skin, and of the lin- 
ing of the body. 
Erection (eerek-shun). An organ 
or part of the body which be- 
comes firm and hard by the 
blood becoming dammed up in 
it. Here applied to the penis 
and clitoris, in the male and fe- 
male respectively. GLOSSARY 
693 
Erethism (ayre'thizm). An ex- 
cessive amount of nervous irri- 
tability. 
Erogenous (see "Erotogenic"). 
Erotic (e-rot'ik). From the 
Greek name of Cupid, hence 
pertaining to-sensual-love. 
Eroticism (er-ot'is-izm). Ten- 
dency to erotomania, or a craze 
for sexual intercourse; as dip- 
somania is for alcohol. 
Erotogenic (e-rot-o-jen'ik). Pro- 
ducing erotic sensations, hence- 
Erotogenic Zones, areas which on 
being stimulated give rise to 
such feelings. 
Esoteric (e-soter'ik). Arising 
within the organism, as distin- 
guished from "exoteric," arising 
without. 
Esthetics (es-thet'iks). The 
power or mental faculty for ap- 
preciation of the beautiful. 
Ethic, Ethical (eth'ik, eth'ik-al). 
In accordance with those rules 
governing conduct (or ethics). 
Etiology (e-te-ol'o-je). That 
part of the science of medicine 
which treats of the causes of 
disease. 
Eugenics (u-jen'iks). That sci- 
ence which treats of the future 
improvement of the human 
race. 
Eunuch (u'nuk). A boy or man, 
deprived of the testicles only; 
or of all external genitals. 
Exacerbate (egz-as'er-bait). To 
grow more violent; as an at- 
tack of illness. 
Exhibitionism (x-hibish-un-ism). 
A type of insanity in the male, 
in which the subject exposes his 
sexual organs. 
Extra-marital, outside the mar- 
ried state, as when a man con- 
tracts venereal disease, 
Fallopian tube (Fahlo-pean). The 
channel by which the eggs 
come down from the egg-sacs 
to the womb. (Named after 
the Italian who discovered 
them nearly 400 years ago.) 
Feces (fe'sez). The material 
discharged from the bowels. 
Fecund (fek'und). Fruitful or 
prolific. 
Fertilization (fer-til-iz-a'shun). 
Impregnation by the male seed 
coming in contact with the fe- 
male egg. 
Feticide (fe'ti-sid). The destruc- 
tion of the child in the womb. 
Fetish (fet-ysh). Idols wor- 
shipped by savage tribes, 
mostly in Africa. It may be a 
rock, or other inanimate object, 
or living things, trees, birds, 
etc. 
Fetichism (fet-ysh-yzm). A form 
of sexual aberration in males, 
in which shoes, gloves or other 
objects of female clothing are 
used to excite sexual associ- 
ations, generally with the aid 
of masturbation. 
Fetus (fe'tus). The child after 
the fourth month of pregnancy. 
(Before that time called "the 
embryo.") 
Fibroid (fy-broyd). Hard tu- 
mors, like gristle. They may be 
found in many parts of body, 
either in men or women, but 
here refer to those in womb. 
"Filles de joie" (fee day shwaw). 
"Daughters of joy," the French 
name for prostitute. 
Fimbriated (fim-bree-a-ted). This 
means "fringed," and is applied 
to the border of the egg or Fal- 
lopian tubes, at their upper end. 
While meant to guide the egg 
into the womb, sometimes they 
fail and the egg falls into the 694 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
abdomen, so the child develops 
among the bowels instead of in 
the womb. 
Fistula (fystu-lah). An unnat- 
ural passage in the body, caused 
by disease, generally an abscess. 
It may be inside and between 
the stomach and bowels, or 
bowels and bladder, etc., but 
often opens from the skin into 
the inside, a common place be- 
ing at the lower end of bowels. 
Flatus (fla'tus). Gas or "wind" 
in the bowels. 
Fluor albus (flew-ohr ahl-buz). 
Same as leucorrhea, or "the 
whites." 
Function (funk'shun). The work 
of an organ which can be per- 
formed only by that organ, and 
is necessary to the life or well- 
being of the individual. 
Gastralgia (gastral-jeah). "Stom- 
ach ache," pain in the stomach, 
without inflammation. (When 
there is inflammation it is 
termed "gastritis"). 
Generative Organs (jen'er-a-tiv 
or'gans). Those organs in the 
male and female by means of 
which a new being is created. 
Genitalia (jen-it-a'le-ah). The 
sexual reproductive organs. 
Gleet (glete). The chronic stage 
of gonorrhea. 
Gonad (gho-nad). The portions 
of the body which furnish the 
matter from which the child 
starts. The testicles and the 
egg-sac (ovaries) in the male 
and female respectively. 
Gonococcus (gon-o-kok'us). The 
minute vegetable germ which 
causes gonorrhea. 
Gonorrhea (gon-or-e'ah). The 
venereal disease which is char- 
acterized by a discharge of pus 
from the urinary passages. 
Graafian follicle (grayph-ean fol- 
li-kl). Little bags which form 
on the outer surface of the egg- 
sacs, and each enclose an egg. 
They burst finally and set the 
egg free to travel down to 
womb, and the scars left are 
called the "corpora lutea." 
(Also called Graafian vesicles). 
Groin (groin). The crease be- 
tween the lower abdomen and 
the thigh. 
Guerdon (ger-dun). A reward or 
recompense. 
Gumma (gum'ah). Masses of 
soft material formed in many 
parts of the body, during the 
third stage of syphilis. 
Gynecologist (jine-kol-ojist). A 
doctor who confines his prac- 
tice to the diseases peculiar to 
women, and who is therefore 
especially skilled in their treat- 
ment. 
Habituation (habit-you-ashun). 
Becoming used to or accus- 
tomed to a condition or occur- 
rence. 
Hedonism (hedo-nism). Sensual- 
ity, pleasure-seeking the chief 
aim of the person. 
Hemorrhoid (hem'or-oid). A 
"pile" or vascular tumor of the 
rectal mucous membrane. 
Hernia (her'ne-ah). The escape 
of a part, generally the bowel 
from its usual place. Same as 
"rupture." 
Herpes (hur-pease). A disease of 
the skin with formation of blis- 
ters. The everyday "shingles" 
is a good example. 
Heterose x u a 1 (het-ero-seks- 
shual). Belonging to or con- 
nected with the other sex. 
Holophilic (holo-feelik). "Love 
of the whole," that is, of 
humanity. GLOSSARY 
695 
Homologous (homol-ogus). Parts 
or organs having the same ap- 
pearance, but not necessarily 
for the same use. For exam- 
ple, the front limbs of quadru- 
peds and birds are homologous 
-yet in one case used for walk- 
ing, in the last for flying. 
Homosexual (homo-seks-shual). 
Belonging to or connected with 
the same sex. 
Hors d'oeuvre (or-davre). French 
for "side-dishes." 
Hybrid (hi'brid). Having par- 
ents of different species, as a 
mulatto, a mule, etc. 
Hydrocele (hi'dro-sel). A col- 
lection of fluid, especially in the 
male scrotum (or covering of 
the testicles). 
Hygiene (hi'jeen). The science 
of health, and how to preserve 
it. 
Hygienic (hi-jeen'ik). Pertain- 
ing to health. 
Hymen (hy'men). "Maiden- 
head." The fold at the outer 
orifice of the birth canal in a 
virgin. 
Hyperesthesia (hi-peres-theesya). 
An increase in the sensibility of 
the skin, or of some of the 
senses, sight, hearing, etc. 
Hence sexual hyperesthesia 
would be a marked increase of 
the sexual appetite. 
Hypertrophy (hi-per-trofe). In- 
creased size of an organ or part 
of body. It may be due to a 
larger number of the compon- 
ent parts, or each of these parts 
may be larger without increase 
in number. 
Hypochondriacal (hypo-kondri- 
akal). Having the "blues." Un- 
duly anxious as to one's health. 
Hypoesthesia (hipo-esthee-sya). 
A decrease in the sensibility of 
the skin or of the senses, sight, 
hearing, etc. (The opposite of 
hyperesthesia.) 
Hypophysis (hipof-yziz). A mass 
hanging from the lower side of 
brain, and enclosed in a recess 
of the skull. While not much 
larger than a pea, it has great 
effect on growth, and when dis- 
eased in childhood, growth is 
not checked as usual at about 
18 or 20 years, and the result is 
the individual becomes a giant. 
Hypospadias (hipo-spad-iaz). A 
deformity of the penis in which 
the lower wall of the urinary 
channel (urethra) is partly or 
entirely lacking. 
Hysteria (histe-reah). A disease 
found occasionally in men, but 
mostly in young women. The 
patients have no control over 
their acts or their feelings, and 
exaggerate all their real or 
imaginary ills. All possible 
diseases are counterfeited, they 
may claim to be blind, to be 
paralyzed to have "fits," fever, 
and so on. 
Iconoclast (ikon'o-klast). An 
enemy of the worship of idols, 
and who destroys them. 
Idee fixe (eeday-fiks). French 
words meaning a "fixed idea," 
a form of insanity. 
Impotence (im'po-tens). A lack 
of power of any kind, but refers 
principally to lack of sexual 
power. 
Impotentia. coeundi (impoten- 
sheah koe-undy). Inability to 
have sexual intercourse. 
Impotentia generandi (jen-eran- 
dy). Inability to have children. 
Impregnation (im-preg-na'shun). 
The fecundation of the egg by 
male elements. 696 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Infanticide (in-fan'tis-id). The 
murder of an infant. If done 
before birth (or criminal abor- 
tion) called "feticide." 
Inhibit (inhib-it). To hold in 
check or stop altogether. Gen- 
erally used to mean the influ- 
ence exerted by the nerves on 
some function, say digestion. 
Inhibition (inhibit-shun). The 
act of checking or stopping. 
Intercourse (inter-korse). While 
this may mean association of 
nations or countries, it here re- 
fers to sexual unions. 
Intermenstrual (in-ter-men'stru- 
al). Symptoms between the 
monthly "periods." 
Interstitial gland (inter-stish-yul). 
As used here means taking the 
testicle or ovary from other 
persons or animals, and insert- 
ing them in the bodies of men 
or women. 
Intrauterine (in-trah-u'ter-in). 
Anything within the womb, us- 
ually in central cavity. 
Iritis (i-ry'tis). Inflammation of 
the iris, or colored part about 
pupil of eye. 
Jeunesse doree (junes-doray). 
Two French words meaning 
"gilded youth." Fashionable 
young men, necessarily of the 
wealthy class. 
Karyoplasm (kareeoh-plazm). The 
vital or essential portion of the 
small particles (cells), of which 
many trillions go to make up 
our bodies. (Sometimes spelled 
"caryoplasm.") 
Katabolic nerves (katah-bolik). 
Those which govern the wear 
and tear of our bodies. 
Labia majora (lahbee-ah mag- 
orah). The "large lips," two 
folds of skin at the outer open- 
ing of the female genitals. 
Labia minora (lahbee-ah meen- 
yorah). The "small lips," two 
smaller folds inside the "large 
lips." 
Laceration (las-er-ashun). The 
act of tearing, or rending, and 
a wound so made. 
Lactation (lak-ta'shun). The pe- 
riod of suckling or nursing. 
Lactiferous ducts (lak-tif'er-us 
dukts). The tubes bringing 
milk from the breast to the 
nipple. 
Lesbian love (las-beean). Unnat- 
ural intercourse between wo- 
men, so called from the Island 
of Lesbos, in ancient Greece, 
where it was said to be very 
common. (Also called "sap- 
phism" and "tribadism.") 
Leuc orrhea (lu-kor-e'ah). A 
whitish-yellow or green dis- 
charge from the birth canal or 
womb, "the whites." 
Liaison (le'a'zon). An illicit in- 
timacy between man and 
woman. 
Libidinous (lib-id'in-us). Strong 
sexual desire. Lustful. Sala- 
cious. 
Libido (lib-i'do). Sexual urge, 
craving or desire. 
Lochia (lo'ke-ah). A discharge 
which follows childbirth, last- 
ing about two weeks. 
Locomotor-ataxia (a-tak-shea). A 
disease of the spinal marrow 
due to syphilis, and producing 
a staggering walk. 
Lying-in (li'ing-in). The period 
which follows childbirth, during 
which the mother is confined 
to bed. GLOSSARY 
697 
Macrobiotic (mak-robi-ot'ik). 
Long-livedk 
Mamma (mam'ah). The breast. 
Manages de convenance. A mar- 
riage from interested motives 
(French). 
Masochism (maz-o-kism). One 
form of sexual aberration, in 
which the subject requires cruel 
treatment before ability to have 
coition. 
Massage (mas-ahzh'). Methodic 
pressure, friction, and kneading 
of the body, especially the mus- 
cles and joints. 
Masturbation (masturba'shun). 
Production of the venereal or- 
gasm by stimulating the geni- 
talia mechanically. 
Matriarchate (mat-ri-ar'kat). De- 
scent reckoned only in the fe- 
male line, the children all be- 
longing to the clan of the 
mother. 
Meatus urinarius (mee-ah-tus 
yourinar-ius). Two in number, 
the one usually meant is the 
outer aperture on surface of 
body of the urinary channel; 
the other is outlet of the blad- 
der internally. 
Menopause (me-no'paws). 
"Change of life," the time when 
the monthly "periods" stop. 
Menorrhagia (men-or-a'je-ah). A 
profuse or excessive menstrual 
flow. 
Menses (men'sez). The periodic 
flow from the womb, usually 
every 28 days; i. e., a lunar 
month. 
Menstruation (men-strua'shun). 
The function peculiar to the 
female of producing the men- 
strual flow. 
Metabolism (met-ab'o-lizm). 
Wear and tear of the body. 
Metamorphoses (m e t a m o r' - 
phoses). Changes of shape or 
structure, as of liver to fat, etc. 
Metro-peritonitis (mee'troper-i- 
toni-tis). Inflammation of the 
womb and of the thin covering. 
Metrorrhagia (metrorrh'gia). A 
flow of blood from womb be- 
tween the "periods." 
Micturition (mik-tu-rish'un). The 
act of passing urine. 
Milt. The seminal fluid of fishes. 
Miscarriage (mis-kar'aj). The 
expulsion of the fetus between 
the third and the sixth months 
of pregnancy. (Before that 
time usually called "abortion," 
and later "premature labor.") 
Molecular (mo-lek'u-lar). Be- 
longing to the smallest portion 
of anything. 
Monandrous (mohnan-druz). 
Same as monogamy, but usually 
said of plants. 
Monastic (mo-nas'tik). From the 
. Latin for a monk. Hence of 
or pertaining to life in a mon- 
astery. 
Mongrel (mon'grel). Not of a 
pure breed, as mongrel dogs. 
Monogamy (mo-no-gah'my); 
Monogamous. Marriage with 
but one person; also applied to 
the mating of animals and birds, 
where as is often the case the 
pairing is for life. 
Mons Veneris (monz vah-neris). 
The cushion of fat at the upper 
side of the external genitals in 
the female. 
Morbidity (mor-bid-itee). The 
relation between disease and 
health in a given country or 
community, that is the sick-rate. 
Motivation (moh-tee-vah-shun). 
The force or impulse behind a 
given act. 698 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Mucous (mu-kus). Parts which 
make mucus (slime). On in- 
side of body, and many con- 
nected with the digestive organs. 
Mucus (mukus). The slime or 
watery fluid produced by such 
parts. 
Myositis (mi-osi-tis). Inflamma- 
tion of the muscles. 
Nephritis (nefre-tiz). Inflamma- 
tion of the kidney ("Bright's 
disease.") 
Nerve-centre. The "switchboard" 
in the brain or the spinal mar- 
row, where ingoing impulses are 
received, and shunted to out- 
going ones. 
Neurasthenia (nurasthe-nyah). 
Marked lessening or complete 
exhaustion of nerve force. It 
may be due to overwork and 
many other causes, but is here 
used to mean the effect of sex- 
ual excesses ("sexual neuras- 
thenia"). 
Neurosis (nuro-ziz). A "func- 
tional" affection of the nervous 
system. That is to say, the use 
of the nerves is interfered with, 
though there is no change in 
their structure. A typical ex- 
ample is "writer's cramp." 
(When a disease alters the 
make-up of the parts involved, 
it is termed "organic.") 
Neurotic (nurot-ik). A person af- 
fected with a neurosis. 
Neuter (nu-ter). A person or be- 
ing neither male nor female. 
(The "workers" among bees are 
neuters, because they have no 
sexual organs.) 
Nocturnal emissions (noktur-nal 
emish-unz). Escape of the se- 
cretions of the sexual organs 
during sleep. While usually re- 
ferring to the male "seed," in 
the other sex, there may be a 
discharge from the vulvovaginal 
glands on each side of the outer 
opening. 
Nostalgia (nostal-jeah). The mel- 
ancholy state caused by the de- 
sire to return home or to the 
person's native land. 
Nubile (new-bill). The age suit- 
able for marriage, generally 
said of young women. 
Nucleus (newklee-uz). The small 
spot within a cell, on which the 
special properties of the cell de- 
pend. (Composed of karyo- 
plasm). 
Nuptial (nup-shall). Related to 
or connected with weddings; 
nuptial ceremonies, nuptial 
rites, etc. 
Nymphae (nim-fay). The lesser 
lips (labia minora), so called 
because they were supposed to 
direct the stream of urine. 
Nymphomania (nimfo-mania). A 
form of insanity in women, at- 
tended by excessive sexual de- 
sire. (A similar condition in 
men is termed "satyriasis.") 
Obscurantism (obsku-rant-izm). 
The doctrine of the obscurants, 
who believe in "blocking the 
wheels of progress," of knowl- 
edge and learning. 
Omentum (oman-toom). A sort 
of apron which hangs down in- 
side the belly, from the stom- 
ach, and is in front of the 
bowels. 
Onanism (onan-izm). Sexual 
congress in which-to prevent 
impregnation-the male organ 
is "withdrawn" before the seed 
is expelled. 
Oophorectomy (ofurek-tomee). 
Removal of one or both of the 
egg-sacs (ovaries). GLOSSARY 
699 
Ophthalmia (offthal-mee-ah). In- 
flammation of the moist lining 
of the eyelids, and of its con- 
tinuation on the eyeball. Ap- 
plied here especially to that in 
new-born babes from gonorr- 
hea in the mother's birth-canal. 
Orgasm (urgazm). The end-or 
climax-of sexual intercourse, 
evidenced in the male by the 
discharge of "seed," and in the 
female by escape of the contents 
of the vulvovaginal glands. 
Orgiastic (orgee-asteek). Of or 
related to orgies. These latter 
were common in ancient Greece 
and Rome, as part of the wor- 
ship of the God of Drunkeness. 
Still used to mean a drunken 
carouse. 
Os (awss). Latin for "bone," 
also for "mouth." The en- 
trance to the womb is called os 
uteri (mouth of the womb). 
Ovaritis (ovary-tiz). Inflamma- 
tion of an egg-sac (ovary). 
Ovary (ovah-ree). The egg-sacs 
which form the eggs (ova). 
Oviducts (ovee-dux). The nar- 
row channels by which the eggs 
come down from the egg-sacs 
to the womb. (Usually called 
Fallopian tubes.) 
Ovulation (ovulay-shun). Proc- 
ess of formation and discharge 
of the eggs, at or about the 
same time as the monthly 
"periods." 
Ovule (ov-ewl). An egg before 
impregnation by the male ele- 
ments. (After such fertiliza- 
tion it is termed an "ovum.") 
Ovum (oh-voom). The egg after 
fertilization by the male ele- 
ments. 
Ozena (ozee-nah). Severe nasal 
catarrh, in which ulcers form 
and the discharge is horribly ill- 
smelling. (Often due to syphi- 
lis.) 
Pantagamy (pantah-ghamee). The 
practice formerly resorted to by 
the Oneida Community of New 
York State, and called by them 
"male continence." It con- 
sisted of prolongation of sex- 
ual intercourse much beyond 
the usual time by will-power of 
the male, and without discharge 
of the "seed" (semen). 
Paresis (pahre-siz). Complete 
paralysis, due to syphilis. 
Paresthesia (pahres-theez-ya). An 
unusual sensation, itching, 
burning, especially of the skin. 
Parturition (party ou-rish-yun). 
The process of giving birth 
(that is child birth). 
Pathology (pathol-ojee). That 
branch of medical knowledge 
which treats of diseases. 
Patriarchate (paytri-arkate). De- 
scent reckoned only in the male 
line, the children all belonging 
to the clan of the father. (Where 
reckoned in female line, called 
"matriarchate.") 
Pelvis (pal-viz). "A basin," the 
bony ring formed by the hip- 
bones on each side and the 
backbone behind, surrounding 
some of the sexual organs in the 
male, and most of those in the 
female. 
Pelvic (pal-vik). Connected with 
or belonging to the pelvis. 
Perineum (payrinee-oom). A 
triangular portion between the 
lower bowel and the birth-canal, 
the base formed by the skin. 
(In the male it occupies a simi- 
lar position, but is of much less 
importance.) 700 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Periodicity (peeree-odis-itee). 
Some phenomenon or function 
which returns at regular inter- 
vals. For example, the menses, 
every 28 days, as a rule, are 
periodic. 
Periphery (payrif-eree). The 
outer edge or circumference of 
anything, say an organ of the 
body. 
Peristaltic action (payristal-tik 
ak-shun). The contractions of 
the bowel, followed by dilata- 
tion, by which the food is 
forced along. 
Peritoneum (payree-tonee-oom). 
The moist lining of the belly 
cavity, it also covers the stom- 
ach, liver, etc. Being moist, the 
contents of the belly slide past 
each other without damage. 
Peritonitis (payreeto-nytiz). In- 
flammation of this lining. 
Pernicious anemia (pernit-shus 
anee-mya). A very dangerous 
form of anemia, the cause is 
still unknown, and the majority 
of the affected persons die. 
Perversion (payr-ver-shun). A 
change from the usual course. 
(Hence Sexual Perversion 
means some unnatural means 
of gratifying sexual desire- 
Sadism, Masochism, etc.) 
Phantasy (fanta-see). Queer 
ideas, "drawing on the imagi- 
nation." 
Phenomena (feenom-eenah). 
Events or appearances out of 
the ordinary. Birth of a child 
with two heads would be so 
called. 
Philosophic (filos-offic). The 
conduct which a philosopher 
would be likely to follow, wise 
and cool, matter-of-fact. 
Phimosis (fymo-siz). Foreskin 
(in either sex), so tight the 
penis or clitoris, as the case may 
be, cannot be exposed. 
Phobia (pho-beeah). A continu- 
ous fear or dread of some event 
or circumstance. Acrophobia, 
fear of high places; claustro- 
phobia, of rooms and enclos- 
ures, and so on. 
Physical (fizi-kal). Connected 
with or pertaining to physics, 
the department of knowledge 
which treats of the properties 
of matter. Also of or related to 
the human body-physical ex- 
amination, examination of the 
body and its parts. 
Physiologic (fizzeo-lojik). Of or 
belonging to physiology. 
Physiology (fizzeol-ogee). The 
department of science, which 
deals with the body functions 
and uses. 
Placenta (plass-entah). The "af- 
terbirth," by which the child is 
nourished from the mother 
previous to birth. The name in 
Latin means a "flat cake," and 
this gives a good idea of the 
shape. 
Plethora (pletho-rah). A condi- 
tion with too much blood, caus- 
ing headache, nosebleed, and a 
rosy countenance, among other 
things. 
Pollutions (pollu-shuns). The ri- 
diculous term sometimes ap- 
plied to the escape of the "seed" 
during sleep. (There is noth- 
ing "polluting" about such oc- 
currences.) 
Polyandry (pohlee-ahndree). 
Marriage of a woman with 
more than one man, often all 
the brothers of a family. 
Polygamy (pohleeg-ahmee). The 
state of having more than one GLOSSARY 
701 
wife (or mate) at a time. 
(Used for both men and ani- 
mals.) 
Pornography (pornog-rafee). The 
literature dealing with vile or 
obscene subjects. 
Post-natal (naytai). Some event 
occurring after birth. 
Post-partum (pahr-toom). Same 
meaning, hence- 
Post-partum hemorrhage (hay- 
moraj). The bleeding after de- 
livery of a woman. 
Potentia coeundi (potenshe-ah 
ko-undy). Power or ability to 
have sexual intercourse. 
Potentia generandi (jen-erandy). 
Power or ability to have chil- 
dren. 
Potentia senilis (seny-liz). Old 
men who retain power or abil- 
ity to have intercourse. 
Precocious (preko-shuz). Unusu- 
ally early development of some 
function, for instance the sex- 
ual. (In most instances, how- 
ever, this is a sign of some dis- 
ease, often of the brain.) 
Pregnant (prayg-nant). Being 
with child, "in the family way." 
Premature Labor. Childbirth be- 
fore the usual time (280 days). 
Usually taken to mean in last 
two months, when child is cap- 
able of survival. Before that 
called "miscarriage" and if very 
early, "abortion." 
Prepuce (prep-use). The fore- 
skin of the penis (male), and 
clitoris (female). 
Preputial (prepu-sheal). Of or 
belonging to the prepuce. 
Presenile (pre-seenyle). Said of 
persons who while young or 
even in middle life, have all the 
characteristics of old age. 
Priapism (pryap-izm). Said of 
the male penis, when erection 
continues for hours or days 
with pain. 
Primo Concubitu (preemoh kon- 
kewbityou). The first sexual 
relation of the individual. 
Progeny (proj-enee). The chil- 
dren or offspring. 
Prolapse (proh-laps). A descent 
or falling down of an organ or 
part, refers here to the womb. 
(In Latin "prolapsus.") 
Promiscuity (prohmeeskew-ee- 
tee). The condition supposed 
to have existed in the early 
ages of the world, in which 
there was no marriage and no 
family-life. The children fol- 
lowed the mother, as those of 
animals do to this day. 
Propagation (propah-ghashun). 
The spread or diffusion of an 
idea, religion, etc. Often used 
to mean sexual intercourse. 
Prophylactic (profeelak-tik). 
Methods used to prevent the 
spread of disease. 
Prophylaxis (profeelaks-iz). The 
same, or rather the theory of 
such prevention. 
Prostate (praws-tayt). A gland, 
shaped something like a chest- 
nut which surrounds the lower 
end of bladder in the male. 
Prostatorrhea (prawstat-orreeah). 
A discharge from the prostate 
gland. 
Prostitute (prawstee-tewt). A 
woman who accepts money for 
the hire of her body, a harlot, 
a strumpet. 
Prurient (prewree-ant). From 
the Latin for "itching," hence 
itching for forbidden knowl- 
edge, especially of the genitals 
and of sexual relations. 
Pseudo (sudoh). When begin- 
ning a word means false or 
counterfeit. Hence- 702 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Pseudofrigid (sudoh-freejid). A 
person masquerading as sex- 
ually cold. 
Psyche (sy-kee). The mind, the 
soul. 
Psychic (si-kik). Of or pertain- 
ing to the mind. Hence- 
Psychic-frigidity (f r i j i d-i t e e). 
Sexual coldness of mental ori- 
gin. 
Psychologist (sikolo-jist). A per- 
son well learned in psychology. 
Psychology (sikol-oje). The de- 
partment of knowledge which 
deals with the mind and its 
workings. 
Psychoneurosis (sykonew-row- 
siz). A nervous disease either 
originating in the mind, or af- 
fecting it. 
Psychopathologic (sykopatho-lo- 
jeek). The diseased states 
which set up mental disorders. 
Psychosexual (syko-seksyoual). 
The mind chiefly occupied with 
sexual matters. 
Psychosis (syko-siz). A mental 
disturbance or disorder. 
Psychotic (sykot-ik). Caused by 
or related to a psychosis. 
Puberty (pewber-tee). The time 
of life when reproduction be- 
comes possible, evidenced in 
the male by formation of the 
"seed," and in the female by 
beginning of the "monthly'' 
periods.'' 
Puericulture (pewairi-kulshur). 
Looking after women during 
pregnancy, so the children 
when born will be strong and 
healthy. (Also the training and 
care of children after birth.) 
Puerpera (pewer-pahrah). A 
woman who has recently given 
birth to a child. Consequently 
Puerperal septicemia (pewer-pah- 
ral septiseemyah). Blood poi- 
soning after childbirth ("child- 
bed fever)." 
Puerperium (pewerpah-rheum). 
The stay in bed after childbirth. 
Quickening (kwik'en-ing). The 
first movements of the child in 
the womb felt by the mother. 
"Rale holes" (ral-holz). Slang 
term for the baths at Hot 
Springs, Ark., as they are used 
to cure syphilis. 
Rape (rayp). Sexual intercourse 
forcibly and against the will. 
Generally on females; some- 
times by women on boys. 
Rectum (rek-toom). The last 
portion of the bowels, which 
opens on the skin. 
Reflex (ree-fleks). A "switch- 
board" in the brain or spinal 
marrow, by which impulses are 
shunted from one part of the 
body to another. For instance, 
heat increases the flow of per- 
spiration, through the reflex 
from the skin to the sweat- 
glands, by way of the brain. 
Respiration (respee'ra-shun). The 
process of breathing. 
Retching (ret'shing). An effort 
at vomiting, in which either 
nothing at all is brought up, or 
only slime (mucus). 
Retroflexion (ret-ro-flek'shun). A 
bending of the womb; (a fur- 
ther stage of retroversion). 
Retroversion (ret-ro-ver'shun). 
The turning back of the womb, 
not so severe as retroflexion. 
(Turning forward is called "an- 
teversion.") 
Roues (roo'ay). "Men about 
town," "rounders," whose chief 
aim in life is sexual gratifica- 
tion. GLOSSARY 
703 
Rugae (rhoo-gay). A part of the 
body having folds or wrinkles. 
Rut (rhut). Being "in heat." The 
extreme impulse to reproduc- 
tion occurring at regular inter- 
vals, usually once a year, in 
horses, cattle, and other ani- 
mals. 
Sadism, (sah-dizm). The form of 
mental aberration in which vio- 
lent or cruel treatment of the 
partner arouses sexual desire. 
Salpingectomy (salpin-jek'toh- 
me). Cutting out of part or all 
of an egg (or Fallopian) tube. 
Salpingitis (salpin-ji'tiz). Inflam- 
mation of the Fallopian tubes. 
Sapphism (saff-izm). Unnatural 
sexual relations between fe- 
males. (Also called "tribad- 
ism," and "Lesbian love.") 
Satyriasis (sahtee-ri-aziz). A 
form of insanity in men, in 
which they behave like satyrs. 
Satyrs (sah'teers). In the fables 
long before Christ, were sup- 
posed to be part man and part 
goat; hence with the lewd con- 
duct of these animals. In stat- 
uary generally making part of 
the court of the God of 
Drunkenness. 
Self-abuse (see Masturbation). 
Semen (seamen). The "seed" 
produced by the male, which 
acts on the "egg" of female, and 
gives rise in time to the child. 
Seminal Emissions. Escape of 
the male "seed" at other times 
than sexual intercourse. (Usu- 
ally during sleep.) 
Senile (se'nial). An old, wornout 
condition of the body, or parts 
only. Generally in advanced 
life, but some diseases or con- 
ditions may bring it on com- 
paratively young. 
Sensuality (sensyu-al-itee). The 
mental state of individuals 
whose chief object is gratifica- 
tion of their appetites. Com- 
monly used for sexual desires, 
but may imply excess in eating 
or drinking, love of finery, etc. 
Sepsis (sep'siz). In other words 
"blood poisoning." 
Sexologist (seks-ol-ojist). One 
having especial knowledge of 
sexology, and an authority on 
that subject. 
Sexology (seks-ol-ojee). The 
topic which considers the sexes 
of mankind, but particularly 
their relations. 
Sexual (seks-you-al). Connected 
with or pertaining to sex. 
Sexual anesthesia (sekshu-al an- 
esthee-sya). Anesthesia means 
loss of feeling or sensation; 
hence sexual anesthesia is an 
absence of sexual desire ("frig- 
idity"). 
Smegma (smag-mah). A whitish, 
foul-smelling substance which 
accumulates about the external 
genitals of unclean individuals. 
Somatic (sohma-tik). Belonging 
to the body, that is the frame- 
work (bones, muscles, etc.), as 
distinguished from the con- 
tained organs (liver, stomach, 
etc.) 
Spaying. Removal of the egg- 
sacs. (In the male removal of 
the testicles is called "castra- 
tion") 
Sperm. The "seed" or semen of 
the male. 
Spermatorrhea (sper-mat-ore-ah). 
Escape of the male "seed" at 
other times than sexual inter- 
course. (To be distinguished 
from nocturnal emissions "wet 
dreams" during sleep. 704 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Spermatozoa (sper-mato-zoah). 
The actively-moving animal- 
cules forming the male "seed." 
Of the many thousands dis- 
charged at one time, only one 
unites with the egg to form the 
child. 
Spirochaeta pallida (spyro-keta 
pah-lidaw). The "pale spiral," 
a very small animalcule which 
causes syphilis. 
Sterility (stay-ril-itee). Unable 
to have children, barren. 
Sterilize (stay-ril-ise). To free 
fabrics or instruments of dis- 
ease germs. Usually by baking 
at a high heat for a long time. 
Stricture (strix-your). A narrow- 
ing, or "drawing tight" (as the 
name implies), of a channel or 
passage. May involve any of 
these-bowels, throat, etc.-but 
here refers to narrowing of the 
urinary passage of the male. 
Subinvolution (sub-in vole w- 
shun). As used here means the 
womb after childbirth does not 
return to its usual size, but re- 
mains much larger. 
Suppository (sup-pozi-toree). 
Small, round, or conical masses, 
of wax, cocoa-butter, etc., con- 
taining medicine. These when 
inserted into the lower bowel 
or birth canal melt at body 
heat, and the contained drug 
flows gradually over the disease 
area. 
Syncope (sinko-pee). Fainting or 
swooning. 
Synovitis (sino-vytiz). Inflam- 
mation of the thin lining of the 
joints. 
Syphilis (sifi-liz). A serious vene- 
real disease; may be inherited, 
but is generally contracted in 
sexual relations. There are 
three stages, and while any 
part of the body may be af- 
fected, naturally the skin erup- 
tions are most noticeable. 
Tabu (ta-boo). Houses, plots of 
ground, or objects, the ap- 
proach to (or use of), being for- 
bidden by the tabu laid on them 
by the king or by priests. The 
prohibition began in the South 
Sea Islands, but the word is 
now used everywhere. (Also 
spelled "taboo.") 
Tabus. Plural of tabu. 
Tachycardia (takeekar-deah). A 
heart which is beating much too 
rapidly. 
Tampon, (tahm-pun). Wads of 
various materials, cotton, gauze, 
etc., used to plug, cavities of 
the body. Refers here to the 
ones for birth-canal, they are 
tied with the string hanging 
out, so they can be removed in 
due time. 
Tedium Vitae (tee-deom fitay). 
Tired of life. 
Testicles (test-ikulz). The or- 
gans of the male, usually two, 
which manufacture the "seed." 
(Also called "testes.") 
Tetanus (teta-nuz). Latin for 
"lockjaw." 
Thymus (thi-muz). A mass 
found in the neck and upper 
chest of children and young 
animals. In the child it begins 
to disappear at the age of 2, 
and in about ten years more is 
nearly all gone. (In calves 
makes part of the "sweet- 
breads.") 
Thyroid (thi-royd). A large mass 
on each side of the windpipe at 
upper end, and joined by an 
isthmus across the front. 
"Goiter" is an enlargement of 
this mass. GLOSSARY 
705 
Torsion (tor-shun). A turning 
or twist. 
Tribadism (trib-adizm). From 
the Greek for "rubbing," unnat- 
ural intercourse between wo- 
men. (Also called "Lesbian 
love" and "sapphism.") 
Tumescent (tewmes-zent). Swol- 
len, enlarged. As used here re- 
fers to the genital organs of 
both sexes, preliminary to 
coition. 
"Twilight Sleep." A method in- 
troduced of recent years for 
lessening the pangs of child- 
birth. By use of appropriate 
drugs, while pain is felt at the 
time, the woman has no recol- 
lection of it when the effects 
wear off. 
Ubiquity (youbik-wety). Pres- 
ence everywhere at the same 
moment, for example, the at- 
mosphere. 
Umbilicus (umbeeli-kuz). The 
navel. 
Uranism (oorah-nizm). One form 
of homologous sexual aberra- 
tion, generally between males. 
(Sometimes spelled "urnism.") 
Ureters (you-ree-terz). The tubes, 
one on each side, which bring 
urine from the kidneys down 
to the bladder. 
Urethra (you-ree-thraw). The 
channel-long in male, short in 
female-through which the con- 
tents of the bladder are 
emptied. 
Urethritis (you-ree-thry-tiz). In- 
flammation of the lining of this 
channel. 
Urethrorrhea (you-reeth-ror-eah). 
A discharge from the lining of 
the urethra. 
Uterine (you-terin). Belonging 
to or connected with the uterus. 
Uterus (youter-uz). Latin name 
for "the womb." 
Vagina (vaji-nah). The passage 
from the vulva to the womb, 
for copulation, and through 
which the child is born. 
Vaginismus (vajee-nizmuz). 
Painful spasm of the muscles 
surrounding the vagina. 
Varicocele (vahkriko-seal). An 
enlarged and swollen condition 
of the veins in the spermatic 
cord which supports the testicle. 
Vas deferens (vaz deff-erenz). 
The tube by which the "seed" 
(seminal fluid), escapes from 
the testicle. 
Venereal (venee-reul). Diseases 
transmitted by sexual relations. 
(From Venus, the goddess of 
Love.) 
Vesical (vesee-kal). Of or per- 
taining to the urinary bladder. 
Virginity (vergin-itee). State of 
women who have never had 
sexual intercourse. 
Viscera (viz-serah). The organs 
in the large body cavities. 
(Lungs and heart in chest; 
stomach, liver and bowels in 
abdomen, etc.) 
Viscid (viz-id). Sticky, like white 
of egg. 
Vita sexualis (veetah sekshu-ah- 
lis). Latin for "sexual life." 
Vitelline membrane (vita-leen 
mam-brain). The covering of 
the human egg. 
Vitiated (vishee-atud). Some- 
thing which has been made im- 
perfect or faulty. 706 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Viva voce (veeva vosay). By 
word of mouth. 
Voluptuous (volup-shu-ous). The 
temperament which enjoys 
pleasure and luxury. Generally 
said of persons given to exces- 
sive gratification of the sexual 
appetite. 
Vulva (vol-vah). The name used 
for the external genitalia of the 
female. 
Vulvovaginal Gland (volvovaj- 
eenal). A small mass on each 
side of the vulva; during coitus 
it furnishes much mucus for 
lubricating the parts. 
Wassermann Test (Vawser-man). 
A very reliable means of detect- 
ing syphilis; named after its 
discoverer. 
Waterbrash, "sour s t o m a c h." 
Burning sensation, with belch- 
ing of gas, or spitting of sour 
fluid, due to "dyspepsia." 
"Whites," The. A discharge from 
the birth-canal, caused by dis- 
ease of that canal, or of the 
womb (leucorrhea). 
Womb (woom). The muscular 
bag or sac which holds and pro- 
tects the child for about 280 
days, until the time for it to 
be born, (In Latin "uterus.") BIBLIOGRAPHY 
THIS is a bibliography of books and pamphlets referred to in 
compiling the manuscript for "Sex Searchlights." A great 
many of these authors were quoted and where this was done the 
author was given full credit. It is submitted for the convenience 
of those wishing to purchase books by authors quoted in this 
"Anthology of Sex Knowledge." 
Ackerman, Jessie A.-Pure Life 
for Two. A. H. Crist Co., 
Cooperstown, N. Y. 
Adler, Felix-Influence of Man- 
ual Training or Character. 
A. H. Crist Co., Cooperstown, 
N. Y. 
Armitage, Robert B.-Never Told 
Stories (1918). Private Sex Ad- 
vice to Women (1918). Sex 
Force (1913). Sex Secrets 
(1918). Advanced Thought 
Publishing Co., Chicago. 
Arnold, C. W.-I m p u r i t y in 
Schools, and How to Deal With 
It. A. H. Crist Co., Coopers- 
town, N. Y. 
Asch, P.-Gonorrhea (1917). Reb- 
man Co., New York. 
Ashton, Alice M.-A Wise Young 
Wife. Going Home to Father 
and Mother. A. H. Crist Co., 
Cooperstown, N. Y. 
Balliet, Thos. M.-Manual Train- 
ing in the Elementary Schools. 
A. H. Crist Co., Cooperstown, 
N. Y. 
Bandler, Samuel Willis-The Ex- 
pectant Mother (1916). W. B. 
Saunders Co., Philadelphia. 
Bamesby, Norman - Medical 
Chaos and Crime (1910). 
Mitchell Kennerley, New York. 
Belfield, W. T.-Sexual Hygiene 
for Young Men. The American 
Social Hygiene Assn., New 
York. 
Berkeley, Cornyns-A Handbook 
of Midwifery (1921). Paul B. 
Hoeber, New York. 
Bigelow, M. A.-Sex Education 
(1916). The Macmillan Co., 
New York. 
Bigelow, M. A.-The Educational 
Attack Upon Problems of So- 
cial Hygiene. The American 
Social Hygiene Assn., New 
York. 
Blackmer, Rollin C.-Sexual Jur- 
isprudence (1911). The Phil- 
mar Co., St. Louis. 
Blanchard, Phyllis-The Adoles- 
cent Girl (1920). Moffat, Yard 
& Co., New York. 
Bloch, Iwan-The Sexual Life of 
Our Time (1908). Rebman Co., 
New York. 
Bradley, Wm. Aspenwall - The 
Social Hygiene Sergeant. The 
American Social Hygiene Assn., 
New York. 
Brann, Wm. Cowper-The Works 
of Brann the Iconoclast. 12 
vols. (1898). The Brann Pub- 
lishers, Inc., New York. 
Brewer, M. Wilfong-The Girl 
and Her Relations With Men. 
A. H. Crist Co., Cooperstown, 
N. Y. 
Brieux, Eugene - Damaged 
Goods (1913) - Novelized by 
707 708 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Upton-Sinclair. The John C. 
Winston Co., Philadelphia. 
Brown, Helen W.-Child Ques- 
tions and Their Answers. The 
American Social Hygiene Assn., 
New York. 
Brown, Louise Fargo-The Re- 
sponsibility of the Dean of 
Women for Sex Instruction. 
The American Social Hygiene 
Assn., New York. 
Bruner, P. M.-The Integrity of 
the Sex Nature. A. H. Crist 
Co., Cooperstown, N. Y. 
Burgess, Clara Amy-The Sex 
Philosophy of a Bachelor Girl. 
Advanced Thought Publishing 
Co., Chicago. 
Buzzacott, Francis H.-Mystery 
of the Sexes (1914). Advanced 
Thought Publishing Co., Chi- 
cago. 
Cady, B. C., and V. M.-The Way 
Life Begins. The American So- 
cial Hygiene Assn., New York. 
Capp, Wm. M.-The Daughter: 
Her Health, Education and 
Wedlock (1891). F. A. Davis 
Co., Philadelphia. 
Carleton, Sprague-The Serious- 
ness of Venereal Disease 
(1908). Paul B. Hoeber, New 
York. 
Chapman, Mrs. Woodalien-In 
Her Teens (1914). How Shall 
I Tell My Child? (1912). Flem- 
ing H. Revell Co., New York. 
Clark, J. Bayard-The Control of 
Sex Infections (1921). Mac- 
millan Co., New York. 
Clouston, Sir Thos.-Before I 
Wed; or, Young Men and Mar- 
riage (1913). Cassell & Co., 
Ltd., London. 
Cocks, Orrin G.-Social Evil and 
Methods of Treatment (1912). 
Association Press, New York. 
Cook, W. W.-The Father as His 
Son's Counselor. A. H. Crist 
Co., Cooperstown, N. Y. 
Cooper, Arthur-The Sexual Dis- 
abilities of Man (1920). Paul B. 
Hoeber, New York. 
Corbett-Smith, A.-The Problem 
of the Nations (1914). Paul B. 
Hoeber, New York. 
Davids, Eleanor - The Ideal 
Mother. A. H. Crist Co., Coop- 
erstown, N. Y. 
Davis, Frank P. - Impotency, 
Sterility and Artificial Impreg- 
nation (1917). C. V. Mosby 
Co., St. Louis. 
Dawson, E. Rumley-The Causa- 
tion of Sex in Man (1917). Paul 
B. Hoeber, New York. 
Dawson, Geo. E.-The Right of 
the Child to Be Well Born. 
Funk & Wagnails Co., New 
York. 
Dennett, Mary Ware-The Sex 
Side of Life. Privately Pub- 
lished by Mary Ware Dennett, 
350 W. 55th St., New York. 
Densmore, Emmett-Sex Equal- 
ity (1907). Funk & Wagnalls 
Co., New York. 
Densmore, Margaret M. C.-Pa- 
renthood and Purity. A. H. 
Crist Co., Cooperstown, N. Y. 
Donovan, Frances-The Woman 
Who Waits (1920). Richard G. 
Badger, Boston. 
Drake, Emma F. A.-What a 
Young Wife Ought to Know 
(1901). What a Woman of 
Forty-five Ought to Know 
(1902). The Vir Publishing Co., 
Philadelphia. 
Drake, Emma F. A.-The Pa- 
rent's Guide (1917). J. L. Nich- 
ols & Co., Naperville, Ill. BIBLIOGRAPHY 
709 
Drake, Emma F. A.-Preparation 
for Parenthood (1911). Arthur 
H. Crist Co., Cooperstown, 
N. Y. 
Dreiser, Theodore-Sister Carrie 
(1900). The Hand of the Pot- 
ter. Boni & Liveright, New 
York. 
Drysdale, C. V.-The Small Fam- 
ily System (1917). B. W. 
Huebsch, New York. 
Eddy, W. H.-Reproduction and 
Sex Hygiene. The American 
Social Hygiene Assn., New 
York. 
Edwards, Ernest-Personal Pur- 
ity for Girls (1909). Personal 
Purity for Young Women 
(1909). Personal Purity for 
Boys (1909). Personal Pur- 
ity for Young Men (1909). R. F. 
Fenno & Co., New York. 
Eliot, W. G.-The School Teach- 
er and Sex Education. U. S. 
Public Health Service, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 
Ellis, Mrs. Havelock-Love in 
Danger (1915). Houghton Mif- 
flin Co., New York. 
Ellis, Havelock-Studies in the 
Psychology of Sex-6 Vols. 
Vol. 1-The Evolution of Mod- 
esty, Sexual Periodicity and 
Auto-erotism (1900). Vol. 2- 
Sexual Inversion (1901). Vol. 
3-Analysis of the Sexual Im- 
pulse (1903). Vol. 4-Sexual 
Selection in Man (1905). Vol. 
5-Erotic Symbolism (1906). 
Vol. 6-Sex in Relation to So- 
ciety (1910). F. A. Davis Co., 
Philadelphia. 
Ellis, Havelock-Man and Wom- 
an. The Criminal (1904). 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New 
York. 
Ellis, Havelock-Essays in War 
Time (1917). Task of Social 
Hygiene (1916). Houghton, 
Mifflin Co., Boston. 
Ellis, Havelock-The Objects of 
Marriage. The Love Rights of 
Women. Small or Large Fam- 
ilies. New York Women's 
Publishing Co., New York. 
Everett, Ray H.-The Failure of 
Segregation as a Protector of 
Innocent Womanhood. The 
American Social Hygiene Assn., 
New York. 
Exner, M. J.-'Rational Sex Life 
for Men (1914). Problems and 
Principles of Sex Education. 
The Physician's Answer. 
Friend or Enemy. Association 
Press, New York. 
Fawcett, James Waldo - The 
Trial of Wm. Sanger. New 
York Women's Publishing Co., 
New York. 
Ferenczi, S.-Sex in Psycho-An- 
alysis (1916). Richard G. Bad- 
ger, Boston. 
Fielding, Wm. J.-Sanity in Sex 
(1920). Dodd, Mead & Co., 
New York. 
Fite, Warner-Birth Control and 
Biological Ethics. New York 
Women's Publishing Co., New 
York. 
Flexner, Abraham - Prostitution 
in Europe (1914). Modern 
Book Society, New York. 
Foerster, F. W,.-Marriage and 
the Sex Problem. Frederick A. 
Stokes Co., New York. 
Forel, August-The Sexual Ques- 
tion. Modern Book Society, 
New York. 
Fosdick, Raymond B.-Prostitu- 
tion and the Police. The Amer- 
ican Social Hygiene Assn., New 
York. 710 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Foster, Eugene C.-Better Than 
a Fortune. Associated Press, 
Chicago. 
Foster, William T.-The Social 
Emergency (1914). Houghton 
Mifflin Co., Boston. 
Freud, Sigmund-Totem and Ta- 
boo (1918). Moffat, Yard & 
Co., New York. 
Galbraith, Anna M. - Four 
Epochs of Woman's Life 
(1901). Personal Hygiene and 
Physical Training for Women 
(1911). W. B. Saunders Co., 
Philadelphia. 
Gallichan, Walter M.-The Psy- 
chology of Marriage (1918). 
Letters to a Young Man on 
Love and Health (1920). Fred- 
erick A. Stokes Co., New York. 
Galloway, Thos. Walton - Sex 
and Life (1919). Association 
Press, New York. 
Galloway, Thos. Walton-Biol- 
ogy of Sex (1913). D. C. Heath 
& Co., New York. 
Gamble, Eliza Burt-The Sexes in 
Science and History (1893). 
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New 
York. 
Gavit, John Palmer-Some Infor- 
mation for Mother, or How 
One Man Answered the Ques- 
tions of a Child About Repro- 
duction. New York Evening 
Post, New York. 
Geddes, Patrick and Thompson, 
Arthur - Sex (1914). Henry 
Holt & Co., New York. 
Gilbert, J. Allen-True and False 
Sex Alarms (1916). Rebman 
Co., New York. 
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins - The 
Punishment that Educates. A. 
H. Crist Co., Cooperstown, 
N. Y. 
Goddard, Henry H.-Psychology 
of the Normal and Subnormal. 
The Kallikak Family. Feeble- 
mindedness (1916). Dodd, Mead 
& Co., New York. 
Goodnow, Marc. N.-Getting Ac- 
quainted With My Boy. A. H. 
Crist Co., Cooperstown, N. Y. 
Gould, Arthur - Science of Sex 
Regeneration (1911). Advanced 
Thought Publishing Co., Chi- 
cago. 
Greene, Jerome D.-Medical As- 
pects of Social Hygiene. The 
American Social Hygiene 
Assn., New York. 
Greene, Marie A.-Little Jour- 
neys Into the Heart of True 
Things (1920). Burton Pub- 
lishing Co., Kansas City. 
Greer, Jos. H. - Sex Science 
(1911). Stanton & Van Vliet, 
Chicago. 
Griggs, Edw. Howard - Friend- 
ship, Love and Marriage 
(1915). Moral Education 
(1903). B. W. Huebsch, New 
York. 
Grimke, Angelina W. - Rachel. 
New York Women's Publish- 
ing Co., New York. 
Groves, Ernest R.-Moral Sanita- 
tion (1916). Association Press, 
New York. 
Guernsey, Henry M.-Plain Talks 
on Avoided Subjects (1882). 
F. A. Davis Co., Philadelphia. 
Guild, Ellis B.-The Science and 
Philosophy of Eugenics (1920). 
Burton Publishing Co., Kansas 
City. 
Gulick, Luther H.-Dynamic of 
Manhood (1917). Association 
Press, New York. 
Guyer, N. F.-Being Well Born 
(1916). Bobbs-Merrill Co., In- 
dianapolis. BIBLIOGRAPHY 
711 
Hague, W. Grant-The Eugenic 
Marriage (1913). 4 Vol. Re- 
view of Reviews Co., New 
York. 
Hall, Winfield Scott-Life Prob- 
lems (1913). American Medi- 
cal Association, Chicago. 
Hall, Winfield Scott - From 
Youth Into Manhood (1909). 
Association Press, New York. 
Hall, Winfield Scott-Instead of 
Wild Oats (1912). Fleming H. 
Revell Co., New York. 
Hall, Winfield Scott - Sexual 
Knowledge (1916). The John 
C. Winston Co., Philadelphia. 
Hall, Winfield Scott-Sex Train- 
ing in the Home (1920). The 
Midland Press, Chicago. 
Hartley, C. Gasquoin-Women's 
Wild Oats (1920). Frederick 
A. Stokes Co., New York. 
Hartley, C. Gasquoin - Mother- 
hood (1917). The Age of Moth- 
er-Power (1914). Dodd, Mead 
& Co., New York. 
Hayden, James - Venereal Dis- 
eases (1916). Lea & Febiger, 
Philadelphia. 
Heape, Walter-Preparation for 
Marriage (1914). Cassell & 
Co., Ltd., London. 
Heape, Walter-Sex Antagonism 
(1913). Constable & Co., Ltd., 
London. 
Heaton, Walter - T emperament 
and Sex (1919). Richard G. 
Badger, Boston. 
Hellman, Alfred M. - Twilight 
Sleep (1915). Paul B. Hoeber, 
New York. 
Herbert, S.-An Introduction to 
the Physiology and Psychology 
of Sex (1917). The First Prin- 
ciples of Heredity (1910). A. & 
C. Black, Ltd., London. 
Herbert, Mrs. S. - Sex Lore 
(1918). A. & C. Black, Ltd., 
London. 
Herman, Geo. Ernest-Diseases 
of Women (1913). Funk & 
Wagnalls Co., New York. 
Holt, E. B.-The Freudian Wish: 
Its Place in Ethics (1915). 
Henry Holt & Co., New York. 
Holt, Wm. L. - The Venereal 
Peril (1914). The Critic and 
Guide Co., New York. 
Hood, W. L.-For Girls and the 
Mothers of Girls (1914). The 
Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianap- 
olis. 
Hormel, Margaret Stewart-Pur- 
ity in the Home. A. H. Crist 
Howard, Clifford-Sex Worship 
(1898). Chicago Medical Book 
Co., Chicago. 
Howard, Wm. Lee-Confidential 
Chats With Boys (1911). Con- 
fidential Chats With Girls 
(1911). Facts for the Married 
(1912). Plain Facts on Sex 
Hygiene (1910). Sex Problems 
Solved (1915). Edward J. 
Clode, New York. 
Howard, Wm. Lee-Start Your 
Child Right (1910). Fleming 
H. Revell Co., New York. 
Howe, Joseph W. - Excessive 
Venery. E. B. Treat & Co., 
New York. 
Howe, W. Lewis-Care of the 
Expectant Mother (1903). F. A. 
Davis Co., Philadelphia. 
Howell, Wm. H. - The Sexual 
Necessity. The American So- 
cial Hygiene Assn., New York. 
Huhner, Max-Disorders of the 
Sexual Function (1916). F. A. 
Davis Co., Philadelphia. 
Hutchinson, Sir Jonathan-Syph- 
ilis. Funk & Wagnalls, New 
York. 712 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Irwin, Will-Conquering an Old 
Enemy (1920). American So- 
cial Hygiene Assn., New York. 
Jacobson, D. J.-The Control of 
Venereal Diseases. U. S. Public 
Health Service, Washington, 
D. C. 
Jones, Ernest - Psycho-Analysis 
(1920). Wm. Wood & Co., 
New York. 
Jordan, Wm. Geo.-Little Prob- 
lems of Married Life (1910). 
Fleming H. Revell Co., New 
York. 
Kammerer, P. C.-The Unmarried 
Mother (1918). Little, Brown 
& Co., Boston. 
Kathren, Richard D.-Let's Civil- 
ize the Marriage Laws (1913). 
Burton Publishing Co., Kansas 
City. 
Kerley, Chas. G. - What Every 
Mother Should Know (1915). 
Paul B. Hoeber, New York. 
Key, Ellen-The Younger Gen- 
eration (1914). The Woman 
Movement (1912). Love and 
Marriage (1911). Renaissance 
of Motherhood (1914). The 
Education of the Child (1909). 
The Century of the Child 
(1909). G. P. Putnam's Sons, 
New York. 
Key, Ellen-Love and Ethics 
(1911). B. W. Huebsch, New 
York. 
Keyes, Edw. L.-Morals and Ve- 
nereal Disease. The American 
Social Hygiene Assn., New 
York. 
King, E. A.-Sex Problems of 
Young Men. A. H. Crist Co., 
Cooperstown, N. Y. 
Kisch, Heinrich-The Sexual Life 
of Women (1916). Rebman 
Co., New York. 
Knopf, S. Adolphus-Birth Con- 
trol. New York Women's Pub- 
lishing Co., New York. 
Krafft-Ebing, R. V. - Psycho- 
pathia Sexualis. Modern Book 
Society, New York. 
Latimer, C. Wormeley - The 
Changing Girl (1913). Fleming 
H. Revell Co., New York. 
Lay, Wilfrid-Man's Unconscious 
Passion (1920). Modern Book 
Society, New York. 
Lay, Wilfrid-Man's Unconscious 
Conflict (1917). The Child's 
Unconscious Mind (1919). 
Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. 
Levy, Louis Henry-Pictorial Re- 
view's Correspondence Course 
in Sex - Education. Pictorial 
Review, New York. 
Lewers, Arthur H. N.-Diseases 
of Women (1912). Paul B. 
Hoeber, New York. 
Lowry, E. B.-Your Baby (1915). 
Confidences (1910). False Mod- 
esty (1912). Himself (1912). 
Herself (1911). Preparing for 
Womanhood (1918). Truths 
(1911). Teaching Sex Hygiene 
(1914). The Woman of Forty 
(1919). Forbes & Co., Chicago. 
Lucka, Emil-Eros (1915). G. P. 
Putnam's Sons, New York. 
Lumb, Capt. Norman-Treatment 
of Gonorrhea (1920). Lea & 
Febiger, Philadelphia. 
Lutes, Della Thompson-To Fa- 
thers of Sons. A. H. Crist Co., 
Cooperstown, N. Y. 
Lydston, G. Frank-Sex Hygiene 
for the Male (1912). The Ham- 
ming Publishing Co., Chicago. 
Lydston, G. Frank-Diseases of 
Society and Degeneracy. Riv- 
erton Press, Chicago. 
Lytle, H. W., and Dillon, John- 
From Dance Hall to White BIBLIOGRAPHY 
713 
Slavery (1912). Stanton & Van 
Vliet, Chicago. 
MacFadden, Bernarr-Manhood 
and Marriage (1916). Woman- 
hood and Marriage (1918). 
Physical Culture Publishing 
Co., New York. 
Maeterlinck, Maurice - Mary 
Magdalene (1910). The Life of 
the Bee (1919). The Betrothal 
(1918). Dodd, Mead & Co., 
New York. 
Malchow, C. W. - The Sexual 
Life (1907). C. V. Mosby Co., 
St. Louis. 
March, Norah H.-Towards Ra- 
cial Health (1919). E. P. Dut- 
ton & Co., New York. 
Marsden, Orison Swett - The 
Crime of Silence (1915). Phys- 
ical Culture Publishing Co., 
New York. 
Marshall, F. H. A.-The Physiol- 
ogy of 'Reproduction (1910). 
Longmans, Green & Co., New 
York. 
May, Otto - The Prevention of 
Venereal Diseases in the Army. 
The American Social Hygiene 
Assn., New York. 
Maynard, A. Gertrude - The 
Fussy Mother. A. H. Crist Co., 
Cooperstown, N. Y. 
Meisel-Hess, Grete - The Sexual 
Crisis (1917). Critic & Guide 
Co., New York. 
Menzies, K.-Autoerotic Phenom- 
ena in Adolescence (1921). Paul 
B. Hoeber, New York. 
Michels, Robert - Sexual Ethics. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New 
York. 
Miner, Maude-The Slavery of 
Prostitution. The Macmillan 
Co., New York. 
Mitchell, Louise D.-The Con- 
fessions of a Mother. A. H. 
Crist Co., Cooperstown, N. Y. 
Modeland, Margaret J.-The Ex- 
pectant Mother and Her Child 
(1915). The John C. Winston 
Co., Philadelphia. 
Moll, Albert-The Sexual Life of 
the Child (1912). The Macmil- 
lan Co., New York. 
Moore, Harry H. - Keeping in 
Condition. The Macmillan Co., 
New York. 
Mordell, Albert-The Erotic Mo- 
tive in Literature. Boni & Liv- 
eright, New York. 
More, Adelyne - Uncontrolled 
Breeding. New York Women's 
Publishing Co., New York. 
Morrow, Prince A.-Eugenics and 
Racial Poisons. The Boy 
Problem. Instruction in the 
Physiology and Hygiene of 
Sex. The Sex Problem. The 
Young Man's Problem. The 
American Social Hygiene Assn., 
New York. 
Nichols, J. L. - Know Thyself 
(1903). Safe Counsel. J. L. 
Nichols & Co., Naperville, Ill. 
Northcote, H.-Christianity and 
Sex Problems (1906). F. A. 
Davis Co., Philadelphia. 
Nystrom, Anton - The Natural 
Laws of Sexual Life (1908). 
C. V. Mosby Co., St. Louis. 
Oppenheim, James - Wild Oats 
(1910). B. W. Huebsch, New 
York. 
Oppenheimer, H. - Gonorrhea in 
the Male (1910). Rebman Co., 
New York. 
O'Shea, M. V.-The Trend of the 
Teens (1920). Frederick J. 
Drake & Co., Chicago. 
Osler, William-A Way of Life 
(1913). Man's Redemption of 
Man (1910). Paul B. Hoeber, 
New York. 714 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Pancost, S.-Ladies' New Medical 
Guide (1901). Stanton & Van 
Vliet, Chicago. 
Parke, J. Richardson - Human 
Sexuality (1910). Professional 
Publishing Co., Philadelphia. 
Paul, Cedar - Population and 
Birth Control. New York 
Women's Publishing Co., New 
York. 
Peabody, James E.-Sex Educa- 
tion in the Home and High 
School. The American Social 
Hygiene Assn., New York. 
Philip, A. A., and Murray, H.- 
Knowledge a Young Man 
Should Have. Knowledge a 
Young Woman Should Have. 
David McKay, Philadelphia. 
Pierce, C. C.-The Public Health 
Service Against Venereal Dis- 
eases. The American Social 
Hygiene Assn., New York. 
Pomeroy, H. S. - Is Man Too 
Prolific? 1891). The Ethics of 
Marriage (1888). Funk & 
Wagnalls Co., New York. 
Pullman, Ray W.-Police and the 
Public Health. The American 
Social Flygiene Assn., New 
York. 
Pusey, W. A.-Syphilis as a Mod- 
ern Problem (1915). The 
American Medical Association, 
Chicago. 
Robie, W. F.-Rational Sex Eth- 
ics, Vol. 1 (1916). Rational Sex 
Ethics, Vol. 2 (1919). Sex and 
Life (1920). The Art of Love 
(1921). Richard C. Badger, 
Boston. 
Robinson, Victor - Pioneers of 
Birth Control (1919). Volun- 
tary Parenthood League, New 
York. 
Robinson, William J. - Sexual 
Problems of Today (1912). Sex 
Knowledge for Men (1916). 
Sex Knowledge for Women 
(1917). Sex Morality, Past, 
Present and Future (1912). 
Sexual Truths (1919). The 
Limitation of Offspring (1919). 
Eugenics and Marriage (1917). 
Never Told Tales (1908). 
Population and Birth Control 
(1917). A Practical Treatise on 
the Causes, Symptoms and 
Treatment of Sexual Impotence 
and Other Venereal Diseases 
(1919). Stories of Love and 
Life (1913). Small or Large 
Families (1917). Treatment of 
Gonorrhea and Its Complica- 
tions in Men and Women 
(1915). Woman: Her Sex and 
Love Life (1919). Critic and 
Guide Co., New York. (See 
Adv., Last Page.) 
Ross, Edward A.-Social Con- 
trol. Social Psychology. The 
Macmillan Co., New York. 
Rummel, Luella - Womanhood 
and Its Development (1912). 
Burton Publishing Co., Kansas 
City. 
Saleeby, C. W.-The Progress of 
Eugenics (1914). Funk & 
Wagnalls Co., New York. 
Saleeby, C. W. - Woman and 
Womanhood (1911). Mitchell 
Kennerley, New York. 
Salmon, Arthur L. - The Man 
and the Woman (1913). Forbes 
& Co., Chicago. 
Sanger, Margaret - What Every 
Mother Should Know (1916). 
What Every Girl Should Know. 
The Birth Control Movement. 
A Short Statement on Birth 
Control. New York Women's 
Publishing Co., New York. 
Sanger, Margaret - Woman and 
the New Race (1920). Bren- 
tano's, New York. BIBLIOGRAPHY 
715 
Sanger, W. W.-History of Pros- 
tuition (1897). The Medical 
Publishing Co., New York. 
Scharlieb, Mary-What It Means 
to Marry. Youth and Sex. 
Funk & Wagnalls Co., New 
York. 
Scott, James Foster-The Sexual 
Instinct. E. B. Treat & Co., 
New York. 
Sinclair, Upton - Sylvia (1913). 
Sylvia's Marriage (1914). John 
C. Winston Co., Philadelphia. 
Slocum, Mrs. Anette-For Wife 
and Mother. Shrewesbury Pub- 
lishing Co., Chicago. 
Smart, I. Thompson - What a 
Young Mother Should Tell Her 
Daughter (1911). What a 
Young Mother Should Tell 
Her Little Girl (1911). What 
a Young Father Should Tell 
His Little Boy (1911). What a 
Young Father Should Tell His 
Son (1911). Funk & Wagnalls 
Co., New York. 
Smith, Nellie M.-The Mother's 
Reply. Three Gifts of Life. 
U. S. Public Health Service, 
Washington, D. C. 
Smith, Wm. Hawley - Children 
by Chance or by Choice (1920). 
Richard G. Badger, Boston. 
Snow, Wm. F.-The Medical Ad- 
viser and His Correspondence 
File. The American Social Hy- 
giene Assn., New York. 
Snow, Wm. F. - Public Health 
Measures in Relation to Ve- 
nereal Diseases. U. S. Public 
Health Service, Washington, 
D. C. 
Sperry, Lyman B.-Confidential 
Talks With Young Men (1898). 
Confidential Talks With Young 
Women (1898). Husband and 
Wife (1900). Fleming H. Re- 
vell Co., New York 
Stacpoole, Florence - Advice to 
Women on the Care of Their 
Health (1917). Funk & Wag- 
nalls Co., New York. 
Stacpoole, Florence - Advice to 
Women. S. Ogilvie Publish- 
ing Co., New York. 
Stall, Sylvanus - What a Young 
Boy Ought to Know (1909). 
What a Young Man Ought to 
Know (1904). What a Young 
Husband Ought to Know 
(1907). What a Man of Forty- 
five Ought to Know (1901). 
The Vir Publishing Co., Phila- 
delphia. 
Steinhardt, I. D.-Ten Sex Talks 
to Girls (1914). Ten Sex Talks 
to Boys (1914). J. B. Lippin- 
cott Co., Philadelphia. 
Stephens, Margaret-Woman and 
Marriage (1910). Frederick A. 
Stokes Co., New York. 
Stiles, Henry Reed - Bundling. 
Knickerbocker Publishing Co., 
Albany, N. Y. 
Stokes, John H. - The Third 
Great Plague (1917). W. B. 
Saunders Co., Philadelphia. 
Stokes, John H.-Today's World 
Problem in Disease Prevention 
(1919). U. S. Public Health 
Service, Washington, D. C. 
Stone, Lee Alexander-Sex Dis- 
cussion (1917). An Open Talk 
With Mothers and Fathers 
(1920). The Woman of the 
Streets (1919). The Hidden 
Menace (1919). Burton Pub- 
lishing Co., Kansas City. 
Stone, Lee Alexander-Eugenic- 
ally Speaking (1921). Are 
Children Getting a Square 
Deal? (1921). Blood Will Tell 
(1921). The Home Health 
Publishing Co., Inc., Chicago. 
Stone, Lee Alexander-Racial Ef- 
ficiency. A Step Forward to 716 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Better Citizenship. Wisconsin 
State Board of Health. 
Stopes, Marie Carmichael-Mar- 
ried Love (1918). The Critic 
and Guide Co., New York. 
Storey, T. A.-Work of the U. S. 
Interdepartmental Social Hy- 
giene Board. The American 
Social Hygiene Assn., New 
York. 
Talmey, Bernard S„-Love (1919). 
Modern Book Society, New 
York. 
Thomas, Wm. I.-Sex and Soci- 
ety (1907). Richard G. Bad- 
ger, Boston. 
Thomson, Arthur - Heredity 
(1907). G. P. Putnam's Sons, 
New York. 
Tippy, Worth M.-The Place of 
the Church in the Control of 
Venereal Disease. U. S. Public 
Health Service, Washington, 
D. C. 
Tuttle, Florence Guertin - The 
Awakening of Woman. World 
and World Federation. New 
York Women's Publishing Co., 
New York. 
Ulrich, Mabel S.-The Girl's Part. 
Facts for Young Women. 
Mothers of America. On Mar- 
riage. A Straight Talk to 
Boys. U. S. Public Health 
Service, Washington, D. C. 
Urlin, Ethel L.-A Short History 
of Marriage. David McKay, 
Publisher, Philadelphia. 
Vecki, Victor G.-Sexual Impot- 
ence (1920). W. B. Saunders 
Co., Philadelphia. 
Vedder, Edw. B.-Syphilis and 
Public Health (1918). Lea & 
Febiger, Philadelphia. 
Walling, Wm. H. - Sexology 
(1904). Puritan Publishing Co., 
Philadelphia. 
Watson, David - Gonorrhea and 
Its Complications in the Male 
and Female (1916). Paul B. 
Hoeber, New York. 
Watson, J. A. S. - Heredity. 
Dodge Publishing Co., New 
York. 
Watt, H. J.-Psychology. Dodge 
Publishing Co., New York. 
Weininger, Otto-Sex and Char, 
acter. Modern Book Society, 
New York. 
Weir, James, Jr.-Religion and 
Lust (1897). Chicago Medical 
Book Co., Chicago. 
Westermarck-History of Hu- 
man Marriage. The Macmillan 
Co., New York. 
Williams, M. B.-Sex Problems 
(1901). Fleming H. Revell Co., 
New York. 
Withrow, Oswald C. J.-Talks on 
Sex Education (1919). Fred- 
erick D. Goodchild, Toronto. 
Wood-Allen, Mary - What a 
Young Girl Ought to Know 
(1905). What a Young Wom- 
an Ought to Know (1913). The 
Vir Publishing Co., Philadel- 
phia. 
Wood-Allen, Mary - Ideal Mar- 
ried Life (1901). Fleming H. 
Revell Co., New York. 
Wood - Allen, Mary - Teaching 
Truth (1907). Parent's Prob- 
lems (1907). Caring for the 
Baby (1907). Almost a Man 
(1907). Almost a Woman 
(1913). Adolescence. Confiden- 
tial Relations Between Mothers 
and Daughters. A Friendly 
Letter to Boys. Keep Mother 
and Me Intimate. A Noble Fa- 
ther. Purification of Desire. 
Preparation for Parenthood. 
What Shall be Taught and Who 
Should Teach It. When Does BIBLIOGRAPHY 
717 
Bodily Education Begin? The 
Arthur H. Crist Co., Coopers- 
town, N. Y. 
Woods, Robert A. - Prohibition 
and Social Hygiene. The 
American Social Hygiene As- 
sociation, New York. 
Wrench, G. T. - The Healthy 
Marriage (1917). Paul B. 
Hoeber, New York. 
Yore, Clem.-Songs of the Under- 
world (1914). Stanton & Van 
Vliet, Chicago. 
Young, Meredith - The Mentally 
Defective Child (1919). Paul 
B. Hoeber, New York. 
Zenner, Philip-E ducation in 
Sexual Physiology and Hygiene 
(1913). Stewart & Kidd, 
Cincinnati. BOOKS TO READ ON SOCIAL AND SEX HYGIENE 
DR. LEE ALEXANDER STONE 
Following my lectures to civic audiences, I am constantly 
being asked, "What must I read?" The following list of books 
has been carefully chosen from a large selection to be found in 
my own library. They will serve to enlighten the minds of those 
interested in social and sex hygiene. One list marked "For 
Advanced Readers" comprises books to be read by students and 
teachers. The list marked "Non-Technical" will be of general 
interest to those who are reading simply to inform themselves. 
Social hygiene is involved with everything that looks toward 
race improvement. Those who expect to become proficient in this 
new phase of social science must be students of ethics, religion, 
ethnology, and of the history, both ancient and modern, of the 
causes for the development of civilization. They must, without 
prejudice, read the story of life, as told by the historians of differ- 
ent races since the dawn of creation. 
The social hygienist must taboo anything that savors of 
religious bigotry. He must be broad enough in his knowledge 
of moral ethics to realize that "morality" is largely a question 
of chronography, geography, and individual point of view. He 
under no circumstances should stand for a type of inquisition 
which is being advocated today by certain self-styled social 
hygiene organizations, which are in reality nothing more than 
detective agencies engaged in "framing" on female delinquents. 
These delinquents become offenders many times because of 
ignorance and poverty. Frequently they are feeble-minded. 
They are usually persecuted and prosecuted by ascetics and 
modern "Cyrils." Many of the methods practiced by some of 
these organizations would do credit to the frightfulness of the 
"dark ages." 
Havelock Ellis in his book, "The Task of Social Hygiene," 
has this to say regarding sex hygiene: 
"Sexual hygiene in the full sense-in so far as it concerns 
individual action and not the regulative or legislative action of 
communities-is the art of imparting such knowledge as is needed 
at successive stages by the child, the youth, and maiden, the young 
718 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
719 
man and woman, in order to enable them to deal rightly, and so 
far as possible without injury either to themselves or to others, 
with all those sexual events to which everyone is naturally liable. 
To fulfill his functions adequately the master in the art of teach- 
ing sexual hygiene must answer to three requirements: (1) he 
must have a sufficient knowledge of the facts of sexual psychology 
sexual physiology, and sexual pathology, knowledge which, in 
many important respects, hardly existed at all until recently, 
and is only now beginning to become generally accessible; (2) 
he must have a wise and broad moral outlook, with a sane ideal- 
ism which refrains from demanding impossibilities, and resolutely 
thrusts aside not only the vulgar platitudes of worldliness, but 
the equally mischievous platitudes of an outworn and insincere 
asceticism, for the wise sexual hygienist knows, with Pascal, that 
'he who tries to be an angel becomes a beast,' and is less anxious 
to make his pupils ineffective angels than effective men and 
women, content to say with Browning, 'I may put forth angels' 
pinions, once unmanned but not before'; (3) in addition to sound 
knowledge, and a wise moral outlook, the sexual hygienist must 
possess, finally, a genuine sympathy with the young, an insight 
into their sensitive shyness, a comprehension of their personal 
difficulties, and the skill to speak to them simply, frankly and 
humanly." 
The following books have been selected with the hope that 
they may be read and studied. I commend them to those inter- 
ested in saving the next generation from itself. 
BOOKS FOR SOCIAL AND SEX HYGIENE FOR ADVANCED 
READERS 
Task of Social Hygiene-Have- 
lock Ellis. The very best work 
on the subject. Should be in 
the library of all interested in 
education and in furthering the 
advance of civilization. Hough- 
ton, Mifflin Co., Boston. 
Essays in War Times-Havelock 
Ellis. Houghton, Mifflin Co., 
Boston. 
Syphilis and the Public Health- 
Vedder. A book which com- 
pares very favorably with 
Fournier's essays on syphilis. 
Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia, 
Pa. 
The Unmarried Mother-Kam- 
merer. Splendid for the social 
worker. A study of the causes 
of illegitimacy. Little, Brown 
& Co., Boston. 
Motherhood-Mrs. C. Gasquoine 
Hartley. 
The Truth About Woman-Mrs. 
C. Gasquoine Hartley. These 
two books deal with the posi- 720 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
tion of woman in society from 
ancient times down to modern. 
I know of no books on the ethical 
relationship of woman to soci- 
ety as valuable as these. They 
are filled with a mass of inter- 
esting material that will be of 
value to readers. Dodd, Mead 
Co., New York. 
The Great Unmarried-Gallichan. 
Psychology of Marriage-Galli- 
chan. Stokes, New York. 
The Third Great Plague-Dr. J. 
H. Stokes. A study of syphilis 
written for the layman. W. B. 
Saunders Co., Philadelphia. 
Social Diseases and Marriage- 
Morrow. Dr. Prince A. Morrow 
was one of the pioneers in so- 
cial hygiene. His book is a 
classic, but is now out of print. 
History of European Morals- 
Lecky. 
Diseases of Society and Degen- 
eracy-Lydston. This book by 
Dr. G. Frank Lydston should 
be in every library. Lombroso 
classed it as being one of the 
most valuable contributions to 
science written in years. Riv- 
erton Press, Chicago. 
The Awakening of Spring- 
(Drama). Frank Wedekind. 
This drama arraigns society for 
tabooing sex education. Moth- 
ers and teachers should study 
it. Wedekind possesses a won- 
derful knowledge of child psy- 
chology. 
The Family-Parsons. Putnam, 
New York. 
The Betrothal - Maeterlinck. 
Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. 
Prevention of Venereal Diseases 
-Sir Archdall 'Reid, K. B. E„ 
M. B., C. M., F. R. S. E., with 
an introductory chapter by Sir 
Bryan Donkin, M. D., F. R. S. 
P. This book is addressed on 
the one hand to those who 
would prevent venereal disease 
in themselves, and, on the oth- 
er, to those who would prevent 
it in the community. Heine- 
mann, London. 
Eros-Lucka. A remarkable book 
for the teacher of sex hygiene 
who wishes to establish a back- 
ground for his arguments. Put- 
nam, New York. 
Sexual Ethics-Michels' "Sexual 
Ethics" is a study of conditions 
in Europe before the war-ex- 
c e 11 e n t. Charles Scribner's 
Sons, New York. 
Sexual Life of the Child-Moll. 
This is the best book to be had 
on the subject it treats of. 
Should be in every library. 
Macmillan Co., New York. 
Morale and Its Enemies-Hock- 
ing. Yale University Press. 
The Jewish Child-Feldman. A 
reliable first-hand account of 
all the phases and aspects of 
Jewish child life. Bailliere, Tin- 
dall & Cox, London. 
Sanity in Sex-William J. Field- 
ing. An illuminating exposi- 
tion on the sex question, from 
the standpoint of the vital indi- 
vidual, social and economic 
problems. The volume is highly 
endorsed by many European 
and American authorities, in- 
cluding Havelock Ellis, Mar- 
garet Sanger, Dr. Maud 
Thompson, August Claessens. 
Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. 
History of Prostitution-Sanger. 
History of Human Marriage- 
Westermarck. A scientific study 
of the institution of marriage. 
The best book ever published 
on the subject. Macmillan, 
New York. BIBLIOGRAPHY 
721 
The Evolution of Marriage-Le- 
tourneau. Scribner, New York. 
The Life of the Bee-Maeterlinck. 
This book should be read by all 
students of social and sex hy- 
giene for its charming philos- 
ophy and sound reasoning. 
Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. 
The Slavery of Prostitution- 
Maude Miner. An excellent 
study of prostitution from the 
pen of an authority. Macmil 
lan, New York. 
The Sexual Question - Forel. 
Rebman Co., New York. 
The Woman of the Streets-Lee 
A. Stone, M. D. An attack on 
present-day methods of perse- 
cution and prosecution of pros- 
titutes. Burton Publishing Co., 
Kansas City, Mo. 
Heredity in Relation to Eugenics 
-Davenport. A very valuable 
addition to the library of those 
who are interested in race im- 
provement. Henry Holt & Co., 
New York. 
Adolescence-G. Stanley Hall (2 
vols.). A book for students and 
teachers. Ranks as being the 
best book of its kind. Apple- 
ton, New York. 
Damaged Goods-Brieux. Bren- 
tano, New York. 
Social Psychology - Edward A. 
Ross. Macmillan, New York. 
Psychology of the Normal and 
Subnormal - Henry H. God- 
dard. Dr. Goddard stands at 
the very top as a student and 
an authority. His studies of the 
feeble-minded have won him a 
place among the great scientists 
of the world. He knows his 
subject and gives freely of his 
knowledge. "Psychology of 
the Normal and Subnormal" is 
a masterpiece. 
The Kallikak Family-Goddard. 
Feeble - mindedness - Goddard. 
Dodd, Mead & Co. 
The Century of the Child-Key. 
This book should be put in the 
hands of every intelligent moth- 
er. Putnam, New York. 
NON-TECHNICAL BOOKS OF GENERAL INTEREST TO STU- 
DENTS OF SOCIAL AND SEX HYGIENE AND TO 
PARENTS 
Talks on Sex Education-Dr. Os- 
wald C. J. Withrow. A most 
excellent book to be turned 
over to boys or girls after hav- 
ing been read by their parents. 
F. D. Goodchild Co., Toronto. 
Plain Facts on Sex Hygiene-Dr. 
Wm. Lee Howard. 
Sex Problems Solved-Dr. Wm. 
Lee Howard. 
Facts for the Married-Dr. Wm. 
Lee Howard. 
Confidential Chats With Boys- 
Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. 
Confidential Chats With Girls- 
Dr. Wm. Lee Howard. These 
books are from the pen of a 
scholar, and are eminently supe- 
rior to many books published 
on Sex Hygiene. They deserve 
careful reading. F. J. Clode, 
New York. 
The Sexual Science Series-Dr. 
A. A. Phillip, M. C., C. M., late 
Medical Officer of Public 
Health, Northern Division, 
Scotland, and H. R. Murray. 
Sexual Science. 722 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Knowledge a Young Woman 
Should Have. 
Knowledge a Young Wife Should 
Have. 
Knowledge a Young Husband 
Should Have. 
This series is somewhat ad- 
vanced, yet is written in a vein 
that may be understood by all. 
The five volumes deserve a place 
in the library of every student. 
Parents may read them to ad- 
vantage. David McKay, Phila- 
delphia. 
Three Gifts of Life-Nellie M. 
Smith. Splendid for young 
girls of 14 and over. Dodd, 
Mead & Co., New York. 
Sex Education-Bigelow. Mac- 
millan Co., New York. 
Womanhood and Its Develop- 
ment-Luella Z. Runnell. A 
most excellent book for the 
young woman. Burton Pub- 
lishing Co., Kansas City, Mo. 
The Way Life Begins-B. C. and 
V. M. Cady, American Social 
Hygiene Association, New 
York. 
Keeping in Condition-Harry H. 
Moore, Macmillan Co., New 
York. 
The Nurse and the Knight 
(pamphlet). This most excel- 
lent pamphlet had a great deal 
to do with keeping many men 
straight during the war. Asso- 
ciation (Y. M. C. A.) Press, 
New York, 
The Right of the Child to Be 
Well Bom-Geo. E. Dawson. 
Funk and Wagnails, New York. 
Some Information for Mother, or 
How One Man Answered the 
Questions of a Child About Re- 
production. John Palmer Gav- 
it. Splendid. New York Even- 
ing Post, New York. 15 cents. 
Today's World Problem in Dis- 
ease Prevention. Dr. J. H. 
Stokes. May be had from U. 
S. Public Health Service, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 
The Hidden Menace - Lee A. 
Stone, M. D. Free distribution. 
Burton Publishing Co., Kansas 
City, Mo. 
An Open Talk With Mothers and 
Fathers, Presenting Some Pres- 
ent Day Problems in Social Hy- 
giene-Lee A. Stone, M. D. A 
frank discussion of the prob- 
lems involving the teaching of 
Social Hygiene, and Sex 
Truths. Burton Publishing Co., 
Kansas City, Mo. 
The Woman of Forty-Lowry. 
Preparing for Womanhood- 
Lowry. 
Truths-Lowry. 
False Modesty-Lowry. 
Teaching Sex Hygiene in the Pub- 
lic Schools-Lowry. 
Himself-Lowry. 
Herself-Lowry. These seven ex- 
cellent volumes are published 
by Forbes & Company, Chi- 
cago. SOCIAL HYGIENE MAXIMS 
By DR. LEE ALEXANDER STONE 
Syphilis is the greatest cause of death, not excepting 
tuberculosis. 
♦ * * * * 
Gonorrhea causes eighty per cent of dll blindness in the eyes 
of the new-born. 
* * * * * 
Mads birthright of force and stability is always weakened 
by syphilitic poison even after a cure. 
***** 
Thirty-three and one-third per cent of all insanity is caused 
by syphilis or its end-results. 
* * * * * 
Parents, give your children a square deal. When they ask 
you ''Where Did I Come From?" tell them the truth. 
***** 
Tuberculosis kills, syphilis kills, maims, causes insanity and 
crime; reaches into the family from grandfather to little grand- 
child. 
* * * * * 
Society has been drunk with prudery. Like all maudlin 
drunkards it is suffering from the effects. Take the cure! 
Know thyself. 
* * * * ♦ 
It is estimated that there are over ten million cases of 
syphilis, acquired and hereditary, in the United States, a large 
part of which remains untreated. 
***** 
Venereal diseases exist mainly because Society still places a 
taboo on the mention of the natural forces of the body which lead 
to the reproduction of the species and refuses to allow them to 
be discussed. 
723 724 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Ignorance does not necessarily mean innocence. Ignorance 
of self has caused many boys and girls to take steps downward 
that they might have refrained from taking had they been 
instructed by those who brought them into the world. 
♦ ♦ * * * 
The reproductive function is divine and is deserving of a 
place on the shrine of life before which those called into existence 
by its force must bow. Nature never intended that what she 
controls should ever be looked upon as being unclean. 
* * * * * 
"Why did not you tell me the truth about myself, when I 
asked for it?" is the heartbreaking question asked of many 
parents by daughters whose ignorance had been taken advantage 
of and who had learned the truth too late to save themselves. 
* * * * * 
Nature never intended that a mother should bear any other 
than a healthy offspring. False Ethical Standards and "Wild 
Oats Sowing" have decreed otherwise. Every day babies are 
born who are maimed or made blind and whose right to clean 
blood has been destroyed by venereal diseases. 
♦ * * * * 
Seven hundred and seventy thousand boys reach the age of 
twenty-one years every year in the United States. Before they 
reach the age of thirty, sixty per cent of them or over 450,- 
000 will have contracted gonorrhea or syphilis or maybe both. 
Thus is youth tainted because of ignorance and false modesty. 
***** 
Mock Modesty is a social disease more deadly than any 
disease known. It places a premium on ignorance and condemns 
measures which, if put into practice, would guarantee knowledge 
of self to the growing youth and girl which would make them 
more wholesome. Mock modest persons are usually nasty-minded 
and are unfit to train children, INDEX 
Aberrations, sexual, 25 
Abortifacient, inquiries for, 243 
often fails, 638 
Abortion, 232, 241, 442 
anathema against, 649 
and its results, 246 
as means for prevention of too 
many children, 173 
causing septic peritonitis, 639 
conditions justifying, 242, 256 
dangers of, 173, 205, 245, 246 
degrading, 173 
frequency of, 155, 156, 252 
humiliating, 173 
increasing, 173, 205, 246, 512 
is not birth control, 145 
less by half "if every man were 
straight," 404 
or birth control, 153, 260 
question of, 249 
responsibility of largely due to 
ignorance of preventive meth- 
ods, 186 
self-induced, 480 
Abortionist, escape of from convic- 
tion, 650 
is ignorant, 258 
not high class, 251 
not needed by many women, 445 
the, 189 
Abstinence, sexual, 445, 504, 536 
harmful, 244 
may cause impotence, 92 
prolonged, effects of, 445 
Abulia, due to continence, 88 
Acrochronism, justifiable, 249 
Adolescence, masturbation in, 540 
Adolescent girl, development of 
color sense in, 550 
After-birth, the, 18, 236 
Age, as cause of impotence, 91 
at menopause, 219 
at puberty, 28 
Age, for marriage, 119, 128 
married to youth, 438 
Alarm, cause for lies elsewhere, 175 
Alcohol and sexuality, 577 
Altruism, defeated by autism, 85 
hard blow to, 244 
not asceticism, 540 
not found in quacks, 598 
of love, 175 
Ambulance or fence, 685 
Ameba, simple structure of, 1 
Amenorrhea, causes of, 37 
Anathema, against abortion, 255, 649 
against Onanism, 147 
Anatomy of birth canal, 13 
of breasts, 18 
of clitoris, 18 
of egg-glands, 16 
of egg-tubes, 14 
of Fallopian tubes, 14 
of hymen (or "maidenhead"), 20 
of mammary glands, 18 
of ovaries, 16 
of penis, 4 
of prostate gland, 9 
of scrotum, 5 
of testicle, 5 
of uterus, 14 
of vagina, 13 
of vulvovaginal gland, 21 
of womb, 14 
Anemia, caused by abortion, 157 
caused by excessive masturbation, 
493 
causing sterility, 580 
chlorosis form of, 39 
constitutional, not found in mar- 
ried, 40 
in girls due to masturbation, 66 
treatment of when associated with 
chlorosis, 609 
Anesthesia, sexual, 213, 538 
caused by masturbation, 540 
725 726 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Animals, menstruation in, 31 
syphilis in, 267 
Animalcules, amebic, 1 
cause of syphilis, 266 
sperm, 94 
Answer, a woman's, 681 
Anteflexion, of womb, causing men- 
strual disturbances, 605 
Anteversion, of womb, causing men- 
strual disturbances, 605 
Antiseptics, not used for birth con- 
trol, 605 
used by doctors to prevent infec- 
tion, 513 
Anus, as erotogenous zone, 23 
Aortic disease, caused by syphilis, 
284 
Apoplectic strokes, none before 
middle life "if every man were 
straight," 406 
Apoplexy, many deaths from due to 
syphilis, 520 
Appendages, uterine, 15 
diseases of caused by gonorrhea, 
318 
absence of pain in shows gonor- 
rhea is probably cured, 324 
Areoi, the society of, 124 
Army, United States, venereal dis- 
ease record of, 414 
Art of understanding, 108 
Arthritis, often means gonorrhea, 
464 
Asceticism, ancient notions of, 56 
and altruism, 540 
and chastity, 85, 536 
desirable, 57 
upholders of, 51, 53 
Asexual reproduction, not possible 
in higher animals, 96 
Asexualization necessitated by gon- 
orrhea, 632 
produces neuters, 5 
Asexualized old maids, not authori- 
ties on continence, 492 
Aspermia, cause of sterility, 500 
Atavism, sexual appetite as example 
of, 583 
Atony, of prostate, from interrupted 
coitus, 497 
Atrophy, of female sex organs after 
"change of life," 603 
of personality, from repressed sex 
impulse, 52 
of testicles, 90 
of testicles may account for chas- 
tity, 537 
Australia, the "mika" operation of, 
197 
Autism, defeats altruism, 85 
Autoerotism, 62 
elimination of, 86 
masturbation is one form of, 62, 
71 
normal in human beings, 65 
not same as perversion, 65 
Autopsy, showing no cause for 
death in abortion, 247 
Azoospermia, causing sterility, 179, 
500 
Babies, beliefs of children as to or- 
igin of, 368 
not nearly so many born dead, "if 
every man were straight," 404 
Baby, where did it come from? 680 
"Bad cold idea," the, 522 
Bagnio, only refuge for erring 
woman, 530 
Balanitis, cause of, 329 
consequences of, 329 
treatment of, 329 
Barrenness, or sterility, 94, 500, 579 
due to abortion, 157, 249 
Bible, an erotic text-book, 445 
sexual dangers of, 481 
Biological standpoint, masturbation 
unnatural from, 72 
Biology, determines correct time for 
coitus, 511 
relation of adolescence to, 435 
relation of sexual play in children 
to, 50 
taught, but not sex education, 443 
Birth canal, anatomy of, 13 INDEX 
727 
Birth control, 142 
are the methods for injurious? 
145 
enemies of, 436 
or abortion, 153 
Robert Ingersoll on, 158 
Births, multiple, 236 
Bladder, and generative organs, 
most chronic diseases of would 
disappear "if every man were 
straight," 402 
Blame, where it belongs, 415 
Blind, very few children born, "if 
every man were straight," 404 
Blindness, caused by gonorrhea, 316, 
321, 510 * 
gonorrhea and syphilis as cause 
of, 422 
wild oats as cause of, 411 
Blood lost in childbirth, 33 
Blood vessels, diseases of greatly 
lessened "if every man were 
straight," 406 
Bloom, do not brush from fruit, 526 
Bluebeard, as Sadist, 26 
Breasts, anatomy of, 18 
as erotogenous zones, 23 
changes in from pregnancy, 226 
number of, 19 
Brothel, empress as inmate of, 26 
inmates of due to wild oats crop, 
612 
inmates of seduced, 584 
not safe, 625 
Brown, Mary, case of, 647 
Bugbear, the race suicide, 173 
Cadets, wiles of, 581 
Calculi, preputial, may cause im- 
potence, 91 
Cancer, liable to occur in misplaced 
testicles, 9 
may be due to abortion, 248 
not caused by birth control, 148, 
149 
Canons, of decency, 73 
Capillary vessels, to become distend- 
ed require congestion, plethora 
or erethism, 33 
Castration, occasionally does not 
cause impotency, 90 
to eliminate undesirables, 562 
Catamenia, the, 30 
relation of to impregnation, 588 
Cause for alarm lies elsewhere, 175 
of balanitis, 329 
of chancroid, 328 
of gonorrhea, 309 
of syphilis, 266 
Cautery, use of in diseases of 
women, 595 
Celibacy, effects of on women, 564 
birth control prevents, 162 
no valid objections to, 455 
Centers, erotic, 586 
Cervix, disease of causes "the 
whites," 608 
inflamed, birth control methods 
beneficial in, 148, 178 
ulcers of from ungratified sexual 
desire, 594 
Chancre, 269, 279 
Chancroid, cause of, 328 
consequences of, 329 
manner of infection with, 328 
prevention of, 328 
treatment of, 329 
"Change of life," 219 
in men, 467 
Child, heart-sounds of in pregnancy, 
229 
movements of, in pregnancy, 228 
Child-birth, outfit for, 237 
too frequent exhausts woman's 
body, 184 
too frequent kills woman's spirit, 
185 
Childless homes, fewer "if every 
man were straight," 403 
Children, age of at first permanent 
impressions of sex, 362 
are they getting a square deal? 
409 728 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Children, beliefs of as to origin of 
babies, 368 
diseased, few born "if every man 
were straight," 404 
man has no right to injure his 
own, 568 
mentally-defective, far fewer "if 
every man were straight," 405 
needless mortality in, 535 
specter of too many, 171 
support parents in their old age, 
182 
too many, orthodox remedies for, 
172 
where to obtain sex education, 416 
Chlorosis, 39 
absence of menses caused by, 37 
marriage with, 39, 40 
treatment of, 39 
Choice, freedom of, 110 
Chorea, obstacle to marriage, 101 
occasionally justifies abortion, 243 
Cilia, of egg tubes, 15, 224 
Circumcision, advantages of, 196, 
450 
extent of, 196 
history of, 196 
"Clap," the, 309 
Cleanliness of sex organs, beneficial, 
196 
Climacteric, 219 
womb of little importance after, 
14 
Clitoris, the, 430 
anatomy of, 18 
as erotogenous zone, 22 
sensitiveness of, 430 
C. L. M„ 682 
Closed womb, the, 600 
Cognate, ancient theology not-with 
modern, 81 
Cohabitation, forcing lifelong stran- 
gers to, 440 
not essential to health, 453 
proper frequency of, 567 
purist's limitation of, 162 
Coitus during menstruation, 210, 447 
during pregnancy, 211, 458, 515 
Coitus, usual frequency of, 209, 432, 
510, 513 
incompletus, 216 
incompletus, evils of, 496 
interruptus, 216 
interruptus (or incompletus) ill- 
effects of, 192, 216, 496, 497, 595 
interruptus, as cause of impotence, 
91 
injuries during, 218 
not for procreation, 208 
painful, 211 
prolongatus (or reservatus), 217 
ill-effects of, 496 
Color sense, development of in 
adolescent girl, 550 
Commercialization, of sex impulse, 
497 
Complement-fixation test must be 
negative before marriage of 
gonorrheic, 323 
Conception, time when it occurs, 588 
prevention of, 425, 436, 438, 463 
early methods of prevention of 
crude, 145 
limitation of offspring by preven- 
tion of, 169 
prevention of and the race suicide 
bugbear, 174 
prevention of, as regards specter 
of too many children, 171 
prevention of claimed to be 
against religion, 180 
to be immoral, 181 
to be injurious, 178 
to be not absolutely sure, 179 
to cause sexual excess, 180 
to cause sterility, 179 
to lead to divorce, 181 
will lead to immorality, 176 
contrasted with abortion, 260 
diminishes venereal disease among 
married, 183 
enormous benefits from as re- 
gards eugenics, 186 
a few cases showing necessity 
for, 187 INDEX 
729 
Conception, improper methods caus- 
ing neurasthenia, 185 
moral standard of those using, 182 
would cause early marriage, 183 
would diminish prostitution in 
married life, 186 
Congenital frigidity, can be helped 
but little, 620 
morality not to be expected, 71 
Congestion, from intercourse during 
pregnancy, 459 
menstrual, 33 
of prostate and urethra often due 
to long engagements, 93 
of urethra and prostate often 
causes impotence, 89 
relieved by contraceptives, 178 
Conjugal harmony, 118, 119 
life, salvation of many women, 
441 
love, 120 
rights, 109 
Consanguineous marriages, asserted 
children from mostly boys, 468 
greatly strengthen unfavorable 
tendencies, 500 
not necessarily injurious, 132, 491, 
584 
Consequences of balanitis, 329 
of chancroid, 329 
of gonorrhea, 313, 317, 320, 330 
of syphilis, 276, 283 
Constipation, common in pregnancy, 
235 
induced by childreri, 23 
to be prevented with amenorrhea, 
605 
with "change of life," 604 
with impotence, 557 
with leucorrhea, 609 
Consumption, as obstacle to mar- 
riage, 132 
Consumptives, sexual excess in, 25 
Continence, arguments against, 45 
arguments for, 42 
benefits of, 474, 479 
Continence does not cause wasting 
of organs, 452 
not harmful, 435, 449 
not impracticable for normal 
young men, 446 
premarital, 455, 516 
problem of, 48 
sexual, 536 
sexual who should discuss it? 492 
unscientific and injurious for birth 
control, 147 
Contraception, knowledge of bene- 
ficial, 186 
laws against to be amended, 165 
not the same as abortion, 173 
Contraceptives, do not cause can- 
cer, 149 
not absolutely infallible, 203 
not antiseptics, 148 
not harmful, 145, 181 
prevent resort to abortion, 158 
Convulsions, in pregnancy, 236 
Copulation, possible without rupture 
of hymen, 20 
prospective wives to be instructed 
in, 590 
Cord, umbilical, twists of, 616 
Corner, down at the, 679 
Corpora cavernosa, if blood does 
not accumulate in causes im- 
potence, 569 
lutea, formation of, 224 
Courtesan, no other calling than 
possible, 530 
the consumes much wealth, 514 
Courtship, stress of, 117 
Couvade, the, 127 
Cowper's glands, anatomy of, 12 
mucus from, 198 
"Critical period," 219 
Cryptorchids, differ from subjects 
with sexual anesthesia, 538 
generally impotent, 90 
Cytoplasm, from egg cell, 222 
Dalliance, excesses in, 473 
injurious if long continued, 545 
Dancing, danger of, 457 730 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Dangers of ignorance of self and 
sex, 592 
Death, syphilis greatest known cause 
of, 410 
Defecation, in children, with pleas- 
urable sensation, 73 
Defloration, importance of, 576 
"Defrauding," 216 
Demimondaines, dress of, 505 
Desires, comparative sexual of male 
and female, 24 
Destiny of women, the, 122 
Dipsomania, contrasted with eroto- 
mania, 25 
Diseased children, few born "if 
every man were straight," 404 
Dispensaries, should treat venereal 
diseases, 451 
Divorce, causes for, 442, 443, 447 
claimed that prevention of con- 
ception leads to, 181 
sexual discontent as cause of, 426 
"Doctor," quacks make one in 4 
seconds, 342 
Domestic animals, duration of preg- 
nancy in, 231 
masturbation in, 62 
"Double standard, the," 449, 469, 
552, 553 
unfair, 524 
Douches, beneficial in "change of 
life," 604 
beneficial in "whites," 609 
in female disorders from ungrati- 
fied sexual desires, 595 
syringe for, not to be used by 
others, 422 
use of after "periods," 37 
Down at the corner, 679 
Dramas, one of Life's little, 637 
Dreams, erotic, 442 
Dress, immodest, 427, 477, 484, 505 
Dropsy, in pregnancy, 184, 235 
may require emptying of uterus, 
243 
Drunkenness, syphilis as cause of, 
517 
Duration of pregnancy, 229 
of pregnancy, in domestic ani- 
mals, 231 
Dysmenorrhea, conditions in, 34 
nature of, 38 
Dyspareunia, cause of, 211 
Earning capacity greater "if every 
man were straight," 407 
Eclampsia, danger from averted by 
birth control, 187 
may call for abortion, 256, 261 
very dangerous, 236 
Education, sex, at high school, 374 
at home, 361 
at school, 369 
Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, family of, 
100 
Effete material, in menstruation, 34 
Ego-ideal, contributions to, 74 
specification of, 75 
Egg, the human development of, 222 
enormous number of, 17 
size of, 17 
Eggs, enormous number of in tape- 
worms, 2 
in white ants, 2 
Egg-glands, anatomy of, 16 
Egg-tubes, anatomy of, 14 
Ejaculation, in psychic impotence, 
570 
premature, 571 
produced by fetichism, 27 
produced by psychic masturba- 
tion, 441 
Embryo, vegetative life of, 246 
Emissions, nocturnal, 566 
nocturnal, no danger from, 485 
seminal, 545 
Engagements, long, 496, 544 
Endometritis, caused by abortion, 
157 
Endopsychic censorship, conscience 
in, 74 
Epididymis, the, 6 
Epididymitis, causes sterility, 500 
Epilepsy, caused by syphilis, 283 
may cause satyriasis, 25 INDEX 
731 
Epilepsy, not due to masturbation, 
64, 495 
obstacle to marriage, 132 
prevention of conception where 
children have, 193 
Epispadias, usually causes sterility, 90 
Epithelium, of vagina and uterus, 
absorption of semen by, 497 
Erection, absent in psychic impo- 
tence, 569 
mechanism of, 4 
Erethism, necessary to propel human 
egg, 33 
Erotic centers, 586 
fancies of adolescence, 469 
Eroticism, in female, at "change of 
life," 604 
in female, from masturbation, 530 
Erotogenous zones, 71, 72, 78 
anus as, 23 
breasts as, 23 
clitoris as, 22 
labia minora as, 22 
lips of mouth as, 23 
nipple as, 23 
penis as, 22 
skin as, 23 
vagina as, 22 
Esthetics, 49, 74 
and intercourse during menstrua- 
tion, 447, 511 
and masculine beauty, 113 
confused with morals, 87 
spring from sex impulse, 105 
Ethical considerations of masturba- 
tion, 82 
Ethics, not affected by masturbation 
in female, 48 
of sex, 86 
unprofessional, 455 
Etiology of female complaints, 454 
Eugenics, 97, 426, 437, 490, 562 
aim of, 560 
enormous benefits to from pre- 
vention of conception, 186 
Eunuchs, 41 
not necessarily sexual anesthetics, 
538 
Eunuchs, some individuals capable 
of intercourse, 90 
Exacerbate the conflict, moral ad- 
monitions serve only to, 81 
Excess, sexual, 210 
as cause of impotence, 91 
claimed to be possible with pre- 
vention of conception, 180 
Exhibitionists, as sexually aberrant, 
27 
External secretions, 7 
Extramarital sexual intercourse, 59, 
287 
narrow-minded opponents of, 488 
to prevent infection in, 338 
Eye, gonorrhea of, 524 
Face, the masturbator's, 493, 597 
Fakes and quacks, 522 
Fallopian tubes, anatomy of, 14 
infection of from gonorrhea, 523 
Families, unusually large, 142 
Fanatical over-moralizing on mas- 
turbation, 81 
Father, sins of the, 514 
Fatherhood, 124 
Fecund individuals not necessarily 
impotent, 549 
Fence or ambulance, 685 
Female, changes in at puberty, 29 
disorders, unsatisfied, sexual de- 
sire as cause of, 594 
secondary sexual organs of, 18 
Fertilization, most favorable time 
for, 511 
when ovule ready for, 136 
Fetichism, a form of sexual aberra- 
tion, 27 
Feticide, 241 
increasing, 245, 512 
Fetus, habitual death of, 243 
nature of in womb, 615 
Fibroid tumor of womb, may neces- 
sitate abortion, 261 
"Filles de joie," edict against, 332 
Fimbriated end of egg tubes, 15, 33, 
224 732 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Fistula, may result from abortion, 
247 
Fits, epileptic, as obstacle to mar- 
riage, 132 
Five dollars a week, 672 
Flatus, accidental passage of, 74 
accumulation of from abstinence, 
536 
"Floor man," of quacks, story of, 
347 
"Flowers, the," 31 
Foreskin, the, 4, 18 
Freedom of choice, 110 
Frequency, of coitus, 209 
of coitus, in married life, 510, 513 
of gonorrhea, 312 
of syphilis, 273, 299 
Fright, as cause of impotence, 92 
"Frigidity," sexual, 213, 427, 434, 
478, 498, 499, 538 
in women, 570, 618 
Fruit, do not brush bloom from, 526 
Function, of nerves, disordered from 
masturbation, 473 
Galton's theory of heredity, 101 
Gastralgia, in women, supposed to 
result from masturbation, 530 
Generative organs, the, 1 
of female, most operations on not 
needed "if every man were 
straight," 402 
Genitalia, the, 1 
children to be taught handling of 
is bad, 69, 527 
uncovering of by exhibitionists, 
27 
Genito-urinary tract, irritation of in 
bride, 628 
Girl, adolescent, development of 
color sense in, 550 
what of the prodigal? 683 
Girls, approaching the threshold of 
womanhood, advice to, 201 
effect of masturbation in, 466 
how they are led astray, 581 
why they "go wrong," 529 
Glands, of human body, 7 
Gleet, consequences of in newly- 
married, 465 
marriage with, 465 
nature of, 312, 320 
resulting from treatment by 
quacks, 592 
God-son, letter to a, 653 
Gonads (or sex-glands), the, 5 
Gonococcal salpingitis, fulminant, 
629 
Gonococcus, the, causes gonorrhea, 
309, 311 
Gonorrhea, cause of, 309 
causing blindness, 422, 510, 524 
causing double salpingitis and 
oophoritis, 632 
causing impotence, 89 
chronic, none "if every man were 
straight," 402 
consequences of, 313, 317, 320, 330 
course of, 311 
evil-effects of, 421, 424, 428, 448, 
475, 503, 528 
few facts about, 325 
frequency of, 312 
history of, 309 
manner of infection with, 311, 317 
marriage with, 131, 322 
penalty for communicating, 482 
positively no intercourse during 
attack of, 327 
prevention of, 312 
recognition of, 309 
scourge of mankind, 433 
sterility due to, 314, 320, 324 
treatment of, 312 
Gonorrheal rheumatism, 464 
none "if every man were straight," 
401 
Graafian follicle, failing to dis- 
charge ovule, 589 
nature and location of, 222 
"Green sickness," the, 39 
Groin, abscess in caused by gonor- 
rhea, 326 
testicles may be situated at, 9 INDEX 
733 
Guerdon of the skilful wooer, 110 
Gumma from syphilis, 271 
Gynecologists, challenge to regard- 
ing birth control, 149 
Habituation, to monogamy, 125 
Harlot and the nun, the, 678 
Harmony, conjugal, 118 
Health and sex, 486 
Heart disease, as obstacle to mar- 
riage, 132 
Heart-sounds of child, in pregnan- 
cy, 229 
Hedonism, selfish from youthful 
impurity, 472 
Hemorrhage, postpartum, 638 
Hemorrhoids, common in pregnan- 
cy, 235 
facial appearance with, 493 
"wet dreams" caused by, 567 
Hereditary syphilis, 272, 291 
Heredity, 101, 546 
Hernia, may cause impotence, 90 
Herpes, on genitals, 197 
quacks excite, alarm, 591 
Heterosexual aberrations, 27 
High school, sex education at, 374, 
395 
History, of circumcision, 196 
of gonorrhea, 309 
of marriage, 124 
of prostitution, 332 
of syphilis, 238 
Hodgens, Dr. Isaac W., tells a 
healthy caller he has prostatitis, 
350 
Holophilic instinct, the, 87 
Home, sex education at, 361, 394 
Homologous twins, 237 
Homosexual aberrations, 27 
in women, 78, 619 
individuals, marriage of, 558 
individuals, marriage no cure for, 
494 
Honeymoon, sometimes a tragedy, 
456 
Hors d'oeuvre, honeymoon is as tri- 
fling as-compared with mar- 
riage, 439 
Hospitals, should treat venereal dis- 
eases, 451 
"Hottentot apron," the, 13 
Husbands, best not made by re- 
formed rakes, 458 
Hutchinson's teeth, 273 
Hybrids, Mendel's explanation of, 
102 
Hydrocele, may cause impotence, 90 
nature of, 198 
Hygiene, of menstruation, 37 
of nuptial night, 589 
of wedlock, importance of, 113 
personal, results of ignorance of, 
541 
rapid increase of, 166 
sexual, problem of, 388 
sexual, Frau Marie Lischnewska's 
views on, 392 
social, maxims of, 723 
Hygienic, function of antiseptics, 
148 
measures in leucorrhea, 609 
rearing of children, 249 
sexual problem, 388 
Hymen (or maidenhead), anatomy 
of, 20 
impeding coitus, 502 
imperforate damming up menses, 
601 
not infallible proof of virginity, 
450 
Hyperesthesia, sexual from mastur- 
bation, 467, 597 
sexual relieved by masturbation, 
564 
Hypertrophy of penis, causing im- 
potence, 90 
Hypochondriacal ideas, caused by 
abstinence, 59 
from too-frequent emissions, 567 
in men, caused by masturbation, 
80, 560 
in women, from sexual diseases, 
534 734 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Hypochondriacal ideas in women, 
never caused by masturbation, 
466 
relation of to masturbation, 596, 
597 
Hypoesthesia, in men, from mastur- 
bation, 467 
Hypospadias, causing impotence, 90 
Hysteria, arising at puberty, 29, 559 
from imperforate hymen, 601 
may start at marriage, 456 
in men, false love in, 516 
in women, from unsatisfied sex- 
ual desire, 595, 605 
in women, generally due to dis- 
ease of the generative organs, 
541 
in women not caused by mastur- 
bation, 495 
Iconoclast, masturbator not always 
an, 82 
Idee fixe, in mother's marks, 617 
Ignorance and innocence, or intelli- 
gence and virtue, 549 
and venereal diseases, 494 
some results of, 520 
Illegitimate children, none "if every 
man were straight," 400 
Immodest dress, 477 
Immoral, prevention of conception 
claimed to be, 181 
Immorality, alleged that limitation 
of offspring will lead to, 176 
Impotence, causes of, 89, 473 
due to sexual abstinence, 60 
in men, 556 
in women, 556 
presenile and senile, 60 
psychic, 569 
varieties of, 88 
treatment of, 93 
Impotentia coeundi, 497 
Impregnation, of human egg, 156 
time of, 588 
Impressions, maternal, 573, 581 
prenatal, 573, 581 
Incomplete copulation, 216 
Industrial life richer, "if every man 
were straight," 407 
Industry and venereal disease, 417 
Inebriety, syphilis as cause of, 517 
Infanticide, increase of, 246 
of females, forbidden, 564 
postnatal is murder, 245, 480 
Infants, needless mortality in, 535 
"Inflammatory disease, pelvic," 521 
Inhibit sexual impulse, to, 86 
Inhibition, of non-moral stage in in- 
fancy, 74 
of sexual control by alcohol, 577 
of sexual development, 588 
Injuries, during coitus, 218 
Injurious, alleged prevention of 
conception is, 178 
Innocence and ignorance, or intelli- 
gence and virtue, 549 , 
ignorance no safeguard to virtue 
of, 436 
Innocent and pure, to really, all 
things are pure, 556, 565 
infection of, 492 
Insanity, less by half "if every man 
were straight," 405 
Intellectual pursuits, as cause of im- 
potence, 93 
Intelligence and virtue, or ignorance 
and innocence, 549 
Intense desire, as cause of im- 
potence, 93 
Intercourse, during menstruation, 
447 
frequency of, 567 
positively none during attack of 
gonorrhea, 327 
suitably regulated, affords sexual 
satisfaction, 147 
Intermenstrual period, gonococci 
absent in, 324 
Interrupted copulation, 216 
Internal secretion of ovaries, 18 
of testicles, 8 
Interstitial gland, nature of, 5 
Intrauterine existence, time when 
fetus becomes separate being, 
242 INDEX 
735 
Irene Larrabee West, case of, 631 
Iritis, in nurse, contracted from 
syphilitic child, 297 
Jack-the-clipper, 27 
Jealousy in women, 543 
Joints, diseases in from gonorrhea, 
313 
Joke, the sex, 572 
Jukes family, the, 100 
Karyoplasm of human egg, 222 
Kissing, indiscriminate to be 
stopped, 423 
indiscriminate in syphilis, to be 
stopped, 450 
Labia majora, 13 
minora, 13 
minora, as erotogenous zones, 22 
Laceration of hymen, from awk- 
ward coitus, 590 
of womb from abortion, 247 
Lactation, as cause for polygamy, 
125 
increased blood supply during, 33 
sexual desire during, 23 
some morbidity attending, 185 
Lactiferous ducts, route of, 19 
Layette, song of the, 680 
Leader, a lost, 634 
League, Voluntary Parenthood, 162 
Lesbian love, form of sexual aber- 
ration, 27 
Letter to a god-son, 653 
Leucorrhea, birth control methods 
beneficial in, 148 
cause of, 607, 608 
caused by abortion, 249 
causes weakness of the sexual or- 
gans, 605 
may cause sterility, 580 
nature of, 607 
supposed to result from mastur- 
bation, 530 
treatment of, 
Libidinous, all men not intensely, 
516 
Libidinous impulses, repressed, 83 
woman, very, is pathological, 539 
Libido, sexual, 24 
intense, causes premature ejacula- 
tion, 93 
lack of causes impotence, 88 
lack of not cured by marriage, 494 
spontaneous resolution of, 587 
Lie of the wild oats, 610 
Life, and love, 103 
length of one-third higher "if 
every man were straight," 407 
Life's little dramas, one of, 637 
Limitation of offspring by preven- 
tion of conception, 169 
"Lips," of female generative or- 
gans, 13 
of mouth, as erotogenous zones, 
23 
Lischnewska, Frau Marie, views on 
sexual hygiene, 392 
Lives, why they are wrecked, 111 
Locomotor ataxia, danger of from 
syphilis, 304 
due to syphilis, 276, 470 
none "if every man were straight," 
406 
Long engagements, 496, 544 
Lost leader, a, 634 
"Lost manhood," 199, 356 
remedies for are frauds, 434 
quack, the, 482 
Love and life, 103 
and the sex instinct, 487 
impulse to, 104 
when men, 114 
Mack, Judge Julian W., views on 
sex education, 380 
Macrobiotic individuals in the fu- 
ture, 61 
"Maidenhead," (or hymen), anat- 
omy of, 20 
the, 450 
Male, reproductive organs of, 3 
Mammary glands, anatomy of, 18 
Man, desire of sexual change in, 470 736 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Man has no right to injure his own 
children, 568 
polygamous sexual instinct in, 582 
"were straight, if every," 399 
Mariages de convenance, not stable 
for passionate natures, 580 
reasons for unhappiness of, 130 
Marriage, age for, 119, 128 
and gonorrhea, 322 
and perverted sexual instinct, 558 
and syphilis, 290, 303 
as an art, 119 
best time for, 207 
early, encouraged by prevention 
of conception, 183 
history of, 124 
lack of sexual harmony in, 488 
medical examination before, 516 
no license for without certificate 
of freedom from transmissible 
disease, 133, 424, 431, 432 
not a cure for masturbation, sem- 
inal emissions, frigidity, etc., 
494 
of chlorotic women, 39, 40 
should be succession of court- 
ships, 439 
sport, not a religion, 454 
unfit subjects for, 448 
Marriages, consanguineous, 132, 
491, 584 
principal obstacles to successful, 
131 
requisites for satisfactory, 128 
Married, veneral disease is les- 
sened by prevention of concep- 
tion, 183 
Married life, benefit of, 141 
consequences of, 491 
early, caution in, 479 
early, difficulties in, 554 
prostitution in, diminished by pre- 
vention of conception, 186 
quicksands of, 121 
sexual aspect of, 502, 504 
Married men, live longer, 446 
Married men paying attention t* 
girls and other women, 485 
Marry, who shall? 500 
Mary Brown, case of, 647 
Masculine standards, 105 
Masochism, a form of sexual aber- 
ration, 26 
individuals with marrying, 558 
Massage, at "change of life," 221 
in female complaints, 595 
Masturbation, 62, 452, 508 
a cause of sexual anesthesia, 540 
among savages, 63 
as cause of impotence, 89 
causes hyperesthesia in women, 
467 
causes hypoesthesia in men, 467 
cure of, 555 
effect of in girls, 466 
effects of exaggerated, 438, 473, 
488, 495, 530, 545, 559 
effects of not to be misrepresent- 
ed, 551 
ethical considerations of, 82 
evil-effects of, 63 
frequency of, 63, 466 
habit of, 66 
in animals, 62 
in birds, 62 
in the female, 62 
in the male, 65 
mental or psychic, 441 
none "if every man were straight," 
399 
not injurious, 477, 459 
pathology of, 77 
prevention of, 68 
psychology of, 70 
relation of to hypochondriasis, 596 
visits to prostitutes not justified 
to prevent, 495 
Masturbator's face, the, 493, 557 
Maternal impressions, 238, 573, 581 
Matriarchate, custom of, 124 
Maxims of social hygiene, 723 
Meatus urinarius, location of, 4, 18, 
65 INDEX 
737 
Medical examination previous to 
marriage, 516 
institutes and quacks, 591 
Men, "change of life" in, 467 
impotence in, 556 
love, when, 114 
Mendel's theory of heredity, 102 
Menopause, the, 602 
age of, 219 
disturbances at, 219 
symptoms of, 219 
treatment of, 221 
Menorrhagia, 37 
Menses, the, 30 
Menstrual discharge, the, 31 
Menstruation, absence of, 37 
age of beginning, 34 
care during, 37 
coitus during, 210 
defective, 604 
disturbances during, 36 
duration of, 35 
in animals, 31 
information to be given, 480 
intercourse during, 447 
painful, 38 
process of, 30 
profuse, 37, 38 
stoppage of in pregnancy, 226 
"vicarious," 38 
Mental, (or psychic) masturbation, 
70 
Mentally-defective children, far 
fewer "if every man were 
straight," 405 
most prostitutes are, 509 
parents, 421 
Metroperitonitis, from abortion, 247 
Metrorrhagia, 38 
Micturition, increased frequency of, 
628 
pleasurable sensation with in chil- 
dren, 73 
"Mika" operation, (of Australia) 
the, 197 
Milt, (seminal fluid) of fishes, 2 
Miscarriage, 232 
early in pregnancy, 480 
Miscarriage may be caused by coi- 
tus during pregnancy, 459 
less by half "if every man were 
straight," 404 
Misery and suffering, untold, no 
more "if every man were 
straight," 408 
Mock modesty, 436, 438 
menace of, 410 
Modesty, and prudery, 358 
origin of, 358 
Monandrous, women are naturally, 
254 
Monkeys, masturbation in, 62 
menstruation in, 31 
Monogamous animals and birds, 105 
marriages, found in higher states 
of civilization, 126 
marriages less numerous than 
polygamous, 24 
women more so than men, 176, 
470 
Monogamy, 126 
Monthly "periods," the, 31 
Moral standard of those using pre- 
ventives of conception, 182 
Morbidity, extreme with sexual 
aberration, 558 
of gestation, labor, lactation and 
puerperium, 185 
Mother to a son, a, 684 
Motherhood, 124 
voluntary, 150 
"Mother's marks," 238, 573, 581 
Motivation, much depends on, 84 
Mucous membrane, state of in pain- 
ful menstruation, 34 
Mucus, discharge of with menses, 
30, 31 
prevents clotting of blood, 34 
Multiple births, 236 
Myositis, often caused by gonor- 
rhea, 464 
Nephritis, caused by too-frequent 
childbearing, 185 
may necessitate abortion, 243, 261 
Neuralgia, in pregnancy, 235 738 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Neurasthenia, caused by improper 
methods of birth control, 185 
from masturbation, 545 
from sexual excesses, 506 
often starts in adolescence, 559 
sexual from abstinence, 59 
sexual, from treatment by quacks, 
456 
sexual, illicit relations not justi- 
fied in, 495 
sexual, marriage with, 440 
Neurosis, at "change of life," 602 
from disorders of the sexual or- 
gans, 157 
from repressed sexual instinct, 87 
Neurotic individuals, masturbation 
common in, 488 
mothers, 172 
nation, abstinence will make a, 46 
people, very moral, 81 
women, not always sexual anes- 
thetics, 539 
Neuter individuals, produced by 
asexualization, 5 
produced by gonorrhea, 633 
Nipple, as erotogenous zone, 23 
No one had told her, 677 
Nocturnal emissions, 566 
alarm concerning, 490 
no danger from, 485 
Nun and the harlot, the, 678 
Nuptial chamber, the tragedy of, 
526 
night, hygiene of, 589 
Nurses and infants, transmission of 
syphilis between, 297 
Nymphae, injuries of during coitus, 
218 
Nymphomania, a form of sexual 
aberration, 25 
at "change of life," 604 
supposed to result from mastur- 
bation, 53 
Obscurantism, policy of regarding 
sex education, 390 
Offspring, limitation of by preven- 
tion of conception, 169 
Omentum, disease of from gonor- 
rhea, 521 
Onanism, differs from masturbation, 
62 
to prevent conception, 147, 216 
"One-child sterility," 95 
Oneida Community, the, sexual cus- 
toms of, 217 
Oophoritis, double from gonorrhea, 
632 
Ophthalmia, caused by gonorrhea, 
316, 321, 422, 514, 524 
Orgasm, absence of in women, 499 
from psychic masturbation 441 
lack of in wife, 215 
later in women, 594 
natural and unnatural, 496 
Orgiastic self-righteousness, fanatic, 
85 
Orthodox remedies for too many 
children, 172 
Os, adhesions of from abortion, 247 
closure of, 581 
Outfit for child-birth, 237 
prophylactic, 531 
Outline for sex education in high 
schools, 376 
Ovaries, anatomy of, 16 
Ovaritis, from gonorrhea, 318 
Oviducts, anatomy of, 14 
Ovulation, includes menstruation, 
30, 34 
interrupted by lactation, 125 
process of, 30 
Ovules, number of, 17, 155 
size of, 18 
Ovum, development of, 31, 222 
time of impregnation of, 589 
Ozena, many cases of due to syph- 
ilis, 284 
Painful intercourse, 211 
menstruation, 38 
Pantagamy, (coitus reservatus), 217 
Paralytic strokes, none before mid- 
dle life "if every man were 
straight," 406 
Parenthood League, Voluntary, 162 INDEX 
739 
Parents, ignorance of, 547 
supported by children in old age, 
182 
to blame, 458 
wrong behavior of regarding mas- 
turbation in children, 67 
Paresis, absolutely none "if every 
man were straight," 405 
danger of from syphilis, 304 
from "wild oats," 612 
masturbators threatened with, 80 
Paresthesia, from unsatisfied libido, 
595 
Parturition, blood lost in, 33 
when dangerous, 243 
Patriarchate, custom of, 124 
Pathological condition of very libid- 
inous woman, 539 
Pathology, habit determined by 
compulsion of, 81 
of masturbation, 77 
sexual, physician's ignorance of, 
494 
sexual, teachers must know, 393 
Pelvic ailments, serious from abor- 
tion, 157 
"inflammatory disease," 521 
Pelvis, diseases of from abortion, 
247 
of female, crowded with organs, 
605 
Penis, anatomy of, 4 
as erotogenous zone, 22 
conditions of causing impotence, 
90 
Perineum, injury of from awkward 
coitus, 218 
Periodicity of menstruation, 31 
of sexual desire in women, 24 
"Periods, the," 31 
Peripheral irritation of psychosex- 
ual organism, 540 
Peritonitis, gonorrheal, death from, 
499 
may be caused by coitus in preg- 
nancy, 211 
often caused by gonorrhea, 318 
septic from abortion, 639 
Pernicious anemia, may necessitate 
abortion, 243 
Personal hygiene, results of igno- 
rance of, 541 
Perversion, sexual, forms of, 27 
large number of subjects with, 504 
often due to fear of pregnancy, 
176 
Perverted sexual instinct and mar- 
riage, 558 
Phantasy, sexual, sense of chastity 
offended by, 77 
Philosophic females, as regards 
"change of life," 220 
persons, may practice abstinence, 
47 
questions, not all solved as yet, 
250 
reason for alleged uncleanness of 
sex, 459 
Phimosis, cause of, 199 
may cause impotence, 91 
may give rise to frequent emis- 
sions, 567 
Physiologic changes in women at 
any age, 129 
Physiology of reproductive organs, 
22 
of sex ignored by physicians, 494 
of sex instinct, not taught, 443 
Pimples, 356, 434 
Placenta, expulsion of, 236 
Plethora, necessary to distend capil- 
laries, 33 
of nerves and veins in young men, 
445 
Pollutions, a natural outlet, 58, 75 
inconveniences of from absti- 
nence, 449 
marriage not cure for, 494 
"nocturnal," 40 
not apt to cause impotence unless 
excessive, 89 
Polyandry, nature of, 126 
not so common as polygamy, 24 
said to produce more boy-babies, 
468 740 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Polyandry, women not free from 
tendency to, 125 
Polygamous sexual instinct in man, 
582 
Polygamy, 125 
ancient prerogative of man, 553, 
582 
more common than monogamy, 24 
widespread, 125 
Pornography, interest of laity in 
aroused by works on sex, 434 
Southern nations less inclined to, 
360 
Postnatal infanticide is murder, 245, 
480 
Postpartum hemorrhage, 638 
Potentia coeundi, causing sterility, 
137 
lessened by abstinence, 60 
Potentia senilis, not Utopian, 61 
Power, sexual, 548 
Precocious appearance of sexual 
power, 549 
arousing of erotogenous zones, 71 
excess in masturbation, 540 
masturbators, few hypochondriacs 
among, 597 
menstruation, 30, 35 
Pregnancy, 222 
care during, 233 
coitus during, 211, 459, 515 
convulsions in, 236 
disorders during, 233 
dropsy in, 235 
duration of, 229 
duration of in domestic animals, 
231 
neuralgia in, 235 
signs of, 225 
superstitions of, 614 
swollen veins in, 235 
table for calculating duration of, 
230 
vomiting in, 234 
Premature labor, 232 
Prepuce, of female, 18 
of male, 4 
removal of, 196 
Preputial adhesions, 196 
calculi, 91 
Prevention of chancroid, 328 
Prevention of conception, 425, 436, 
438, 463 
and the race suicide bugbear, 174 
as regards specter of too many 
children, 171 
claimed it will lead to immorality, 
176 
to be against religion, 180 
to be immoral, 181 
to be injurious, 178 
to be not absolutely sure, 179 
to cause sexual excess, 180 
to cause sterility, 179 
to lead to divorce, 181 
comparison of with abortion, 260 
does not increase infant mortal- 
ity, 511 
enormous benefits of from eugenic 
standpoint, 186 
illustrative cases of, 187 
neurasthenia from improper 
methods of, 185 
would diminish prostitution in 
married life, 186 
would diminish venereal disease 
among the married, 183 
would encourage early marriage, 
183 
Prevention of gonorrhea, 312 
Prevention of syphilis, 273, 286 
Preventives of conception, moral 
standard of those using, 182 
Priapism caused by abstinence, 445 
Price he paid, the, 670 
Primo concubitu, caution at, 470 
Prodigal girl, what of the? 683 
Profuse menstruation, 38 
Prolapsus causing menstrual dis- 
turbances, 605 
Promiscuity, preceding marriage, 
124 
Propagation of offspring, a second- 
ary consideration, 550 
of undesirable characters, pre- 
vention of, 562 INDEX 
741 
Prophylactics, against venereal dis- 
ease, 47 
Prophylactic outfits, providing of, 
531 
Prophylaxis of venereal diseases, 
437, 472 
Prostate gland, anatomy of, 9 
a sexual organ, 469 
congestion of often causes im- 
potence, 89 
diseases of as cause of impotence, 
91 
enlarged, from disease not old 
age, 469 
Prostatorrhea, 199 
mistaken for seminal emissions, 
41 
Prostatitis, due to gonorrhea, 523 
quack tells healthy man he has, 
350 
Prostitute, a most mournful figure, 
422 
a trained automaton, 424 
the clandestine, 437 
Prostitutes, most are mental-de- 
fectives, 509 
visits to not justified for mastur- 
bation and neurasthenia, 495 
Prostitution, 497 
and segregation, 332 
causes underlying, 333, 572, 580 
history of, 332 
in married life, diminished by 
prevention of conception, 186 
none "if every man were straight," 
399 
roots sink deep in civilization, 
452 
source of, 472 
Protection against venereal disease, 
624 
Prudery, 425, 436, 506 
absence of in Italy, 360 
and modesty, 358 
doing great damage, 483 
examples of, 358 
responsible for immorality, 360 
some results of, 520 
Prurient children, 392, 436 
college women, 506 
school, learning in, 87 
Pseudofrigidity, 620 
Pseudophysiology, pernicious, 475 
Psyche, injury to from coitus, 577 
Psychic impotence, 569 
masturbation, 70, 441 
symptoms at "change of life," 602 
Psychoinfantilism, 588 
Psychologists consider men also 
may have "change of life," 467 
Psychology, girls should be edu- 
cated in, 439 
of masturbation, 70 
of reproductive organs, 22 
of sex instinct slighted by phy- 
sicians, 494 
shows autoerotism is normal, 64 
the newer, 110 
Psychoneurosis, masturbation 
causes, 71 
Psychopathologic condition of the 
sexual impulse, 81 
subjects, masturbators, as, 596 
Psychosexual life of child, 74 
Psychosis may cause sexual anes- 
thesia, 539 
may develop at "change of life," 
602 
Psychotic old maids, 172 
Puberty, age of, 28, 156 
changes in females at, 29 
in males, 30 
instruction for boys and girls at, 
469 
Puericulture, teachers should be 
trained in, 395 
Puerperal fever causes "one-child 
sterility," 91 
insanity, may necessitate abor- 
tion, 256 
septicemia, from intercourse dur- 
ing pregnancy, 211 
Puerperium, some morbidity in, 185 
Pure, to the all things are pure, 
556, 565 742 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Quack, menace of, 412 
the "lost manhood," 482 
the unspeakable, 598 
Quacks, 427, 448, 456, 485, 489 
aid of tells of horror-chambers, 
340 
and fakes, 522 
and medical institutes, 591 
and their methods, 339 
former interpreter for makes con- 
fession of the system used, 346 
make a "doctor" in 4 seconds, 342 
manager of tells how dupes are 
ruined, 344 
prey of, 462 
protection of boys from, 501 
story of "floor man" of, 347 
Quadruplets, 236 
"Quickening," time of, 228 
Quicksands of married life, 121 
Race suicide bugbear, the, 173 
Rakes, the reformed does not make 
the best husband, 458 
Rale holes, inmates of due to wild 
oats crop, 612 
Rape, by subjects with satyriasis, 
25 
impossible with Hottentot apron, 
13 
on brides, 479, 526, 591 
Recognition, of gonorrhea, 309 
of syphilis, 309 
Rectum, gonorrheal abscesses burst- 
ing into, 521 
presses on the womb, 606 
Reforming women, 529 
Religion, prevention of conception 
claimed to be against, 180 
Remedies, orthodox, for too many 
children, 172 
Reproduction, in general, 1 
in animals, 3 
in birds, 2 
in fishes, 2 
in insects, 2 
in tapeworms, 2 
Reproductive and sexual functions, 
not synonymous, 603 
organs of female, 12 
of male, 3 
organs, physiology and psychol- 
ogy of, 22 
Retching, in pregnancy, 226 
Rheumatism and gonorrhea, 464 
Retroflexion of womb, causes dis- 
turbed menstruation, 605 
Retroversion of womb, causes dis- 
ordered menstruation, 605 
Rose and Edward, story of, 628 
Roues, penitent do not make the 
best husbands, 610 
Rupture, may cause impotence in 
male, 90 
Rut, aftei in animals sexual de- 
sire of male abolished, 125 
of animals practically identical 
with human menstruation, 224 
Sadism, a form of sexual aberra- 
tion, 26 
exaggerated accounts of, 501 
marriage of males with, 558 
"Safe" or sterile period, 464 
Salpingectomy, to prevent propaga- 
tion of undesirables, 569 
Salpingitis, causes sterility, 580 
double, from gonorrhea, 632 
from gonorrhea, 318, 325 
fulminant gonococcal, 629 
gonorrheal, death from, 499 
Sapphism, a form of sexual aberra- 
tion, 27 
Satyriasis, a form of sexual aberra- 
tion, 25 
Satyrs, debauchery by lawless, 554 
School, sex education at, 369, 395 
Scrotum, anatomy of, 5 
Secondary manifestations of sex, 30 
Secretions, external, 7 
internal, 8 
Seducer, the, and his conscience, 583 
"Seed," the male, 8 
absence of, 324 
contains cause of syphilis, 267 INDEX 
743 
"Seed" unable to reach egg, 94 
Segregation, and prostitution, 332 
arguments for and against, 335 
Self-abuse, 62 
Self and sex, dangers of ignorance 
of, 592 
Semen, of male, 8 
absence of, 324 
contains cause of syphilis, 267 
unable to reach egg, 94 
Seminal emissions, 40, 485, 545 
frequency of, 41 
prevention of, 41 
Seminal fluid, nature of, 8 
Senile impotence, 60, 91 
Sensibility, sexual, of woman, 587 
Sensuality, dormant in children, 28 
increase of, 243 
Sepsis, causing one-child sterility, 95 
from abortion, 156, 205 
puerperal, from intercouse during 
pregnancy, 211 
Sex, 430 
age of first permanent impressions 
regarding, 362 
alarms, 197 
and health, 486 
Sex education, 421, 422, 423, 425, 
427, 428, 432, 438, 439, 441, 443, 
446, 447, 451, 453, 454, 456, 458, 
462, 465, 467, 471, 474, 489, 498, 
501, 507 
education, methods of, 527 
education, where it should begin, 
414 
Sex facts for female, 28 
for male, 196 
for married, 207 
Sex ignorance, results of, 559 
Sex impulse, commercialization of, 
497 
repression of injurious, 463 
Sex instinct, and love, 487 
Sex joke, the, 572 
Sex necessity lie, the, 453 
Sex-passion, the, 445 
Sex, predetermination of, 468 
Sex, secondary manifestations of, 30 
Sexes, proportions of born in U. S., 
96 
Sexologists, need for, 534 
views of on masturbation, 67, 68 
Sexology, specialists in, 67 
Sexual aberrations, 25 
abstinence, 49, 445, 536 
abstinence, Bloch's views on, 53 
and reproductive functions not 
synonymous, 603 
anesthesia, 213, 538 
anesthesia, caused by masturba- 
tion, 540 
anesthesia in women due to mas- 
turbation, 78 
anesthesia, may last till puberty, 
72 
anesthesia, may be sinful, 427 
anesthesia, rare in men, 216 
continence, 536 
Sexual craving, libido, urge, 24 
desire, unsatisfied as cause of 
female disorders, 594 
desires, comparative of male and 
female, 24 
Sexual excess, 25, 210 
excess, as cause of impotence, 91 
Sexual excitement in women, 528, 
533 
frigidity, 427, 434, 478, 498, 499 
Sexual hygiene, Frau Marie Lisch- 
newska's views on, 392 
problem of, 388 
Sexual ignorance, 499 
Sexual impotence, 88 
Sexual impulse, comparison of in 
male and female, 433 
Sexual instinct, perverted, and mar- 
riage, 558 
instinct, polygamous, in man, 582 
Sexual insufficiency, 88 
Sexual intercourse, frequency of, 
567 
intercourse during pregnancy, 515 
Sexual offenders, social ostracism 
of, 542 
Sexual organs, of female, 12 
of male, 3 744 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Sexual organs, secondary found in 
female, 18 
Sexual perversion, 27 
liable to arise from abstinence, 
46 
not autoerotism, 65 
Sexual power, 548 
Sexual reproduction, advantages of, 
96 
Sexual sense, the, 539 
Sexual sensibility of woman, 587 
Sexual tabus, 468 
Sexual tension, 75 
Sexuality and alcohol, 577 
"Shingles," on genitals, 197 
Signs of pregnancy, 225 
Sins of the father, 514 
Skin, as erotogenous zone, 23 
Smegma, accumulation of, 91, 196 
Social hygiene maxims, 723 
"Soft" sore, the, 328 
"Softening of brain," absolutely 
none "if every man were 
straight," 405 
"Solitary vice," 62 
Somatic cells, formation of body 
by, 223 
Son, a mother to a, 684 
Song of the layette, 680 
Specter of too many children, 171 
Sperm, 8 
escape of apart from coitus, 199 
life-giving principle of semen, 156 
wasted in Onanism, 217 
Spermatorrhea, 199 
from prolonged abstinence, 445 
marriage no cure for, 494 
Spermatozoa, enormous number of, 
8 
size of, 8 
Spiral, the "pale" as cause of 
syphilis, 266 
Spirochaeta pallida, cause of syphi- 
lis, 266 
Standard, the unfair double, 524, 
552, 553 
Standards, masculine, 105 
Sterile or "safe" period, the, 464 
Sterility, or barrenness, 94, 500, 579 
about one-third of cases of due 
to gonorrhea, 317 
alleged to be caused by limitation 
of offspring, 179 
causes of, 94 
from gonorrhea, 314, 320, 324 
not always due to wife, 500, 580 
not due to birth control, 149 
prevented by birth control meth- 
ods, 149 
wild oats as cause, 412 
Sterilize outfit for childbirth, to, 
237 
utensils used by subjects with 
gonorrhea, 307 
"Stone's, the," anatomy of, 5 
Stork story, the, 535 
Story of a Lost Leader, 634 
Irene Larrabee West, 631 
Mary Brown, 647 
Rose and Edward, 628 
The Brannigans, 641 
"Straight, if every man were," 399 
Stress of courtship, the, 117 
Stricture, as cause of impotence, 89 
from gonorrhea, 90, 314, 320, 523 
organic, none "if every man were 
straight," 402 
Subinvolution of womb from abor- 
tion, 249 
Suffering and misery, untold no 
more, "if every man were 
straight," 408 
Suicide, race, the bugbear of, 173 
Superstitions of pregnancy, 614 
Suppositories, antiseptic, 323 
for leucorrhea, 609 
Sweany Co., The Old Dr., discover 
varicocele in a healthy in- 
dividual, 352 
Syncope, death from following 
abortion, 247 
Synovitis, suppurative, often fol- 
lows gonorrhea, 464 INDEX 
745 
Syphilis, 264, 685 
a few facts about, 305 
a problem of the nations, 276 
and marriage, 131, 290, 303 
as cause of blindness, 422 
as cause of children's death, 478 
as cause of inebriety, 517 
cause of, 266 
causing murder and suicide, 641 
consequences of, 276, 283, 520 
course of, 268, 278 
danger of kissing in, 450 
danger of locomotor ataxia or 
paresis from, 304 
fear of, 428 
frequency of, 273, 299 
germ of no respecter of persons, 
453 
greatest known cause of death, 
410 
hereditary, 272 
history of, 238 
incubation period of, 268 
manner of infection with, 267, 
278 
penalty for communicating, 482 
prevention of, 273, 286 
recognition of, 274 
sad case of death from, 634 
scourge of mankind, 433 
stage one of, 269, 279, 413 
stage two of, 269, 279, 413 
stage three of, 271, 279, 280, 413 
treatment of, 276 
Table for calculating duration of 
pregnancy, 230 
Tabu on certain animals as food, 
392 
on subject of sex, 73, 438 
Tabus, sexual, 468 
Tachycardia, 497 
Tampons in leucorrhea, 609 
Tapeworms, enormous number of 
eggs in, 2 
Tedium vitae, from frequent emis- 
sions, 567 
Tetanus, may result from abortion, 
156 
Testicle, anatomy of, 5 
conditions of causing impotence, 
90 
swelling of from gonorrhea, 523 
Thyroid gland, changes in at pu- 
berty, 30 
disease of may cause frigidity in 
women, 571 
Time, movement behind clock of, 
416 
Too frequent childbirth kills wom- 
an's spirit, 185 
Torsion of penis, as cause of im- 
potence, 90 
Training camp activities, commis- 
sion on, 409 
Traumatic suggestion, resulting 
from masturbation, 80 
Treatment of balanitis, 329 
of chancroid, 329 
of chlorosis, 39 
of gonorrhea, 312 
of leucorrhea, 609 
of menopause, 221 
of pregnancy, 233 
of syphilis, 276 
"Trial marriages," 127 
Tribadism, form of sexual aberra- 
tion, 27 
Triplets, 236 
Tuberculosis, (pulmonary) as ob- 
stacle to marriage, 132 
Tumescence, favored by kissing, 
586 
necessary for conjugation, 506 
slower in women, 528 
Tumescent state, need of, 506 
"Twilight sleep," best form of, 618 
Twins, 236, 237 
Ubiquity of syphilis, 281 
Understanding, art of, 108 
Underworld, the, 674 
"Unwell, being," 31 746 
SEX SEARCHLIGHTS 
Uranism, a form of sexual abbera- 
tion, 27 
Urge, sexual, 24 
Urethra, catarrh of from inter- 
course during menstruation, 447 
congestion of causing impotence, 
89 
Urethritis, from gonorrhea, 309 
man must be free from before 
marriage, 322 
Urethrorrhea, nature of, 198 
from gonorrhea, 309 
mistaken for seminal losses, 41 
Urinary channel, of female, 18 
of male, 4 
Uterine fistula, from abortion, 247 
Uterus, anatomy of, 14 
of little importance after "change 
of life," 14 
Vagina, anatomy of, 13 
as erotogenous zone, 22 
Vaginismus, 212 
Varicocele, 197 
as cause of impotence, 91 
healthy man told by quack he has, 
352 
not often cause of impotence, 91 
Vas deferens, anatomy of, 6 
Vasectomy, 192, 569 
Veins, swollen, in pregnancy, 235 
Venereal diseases, 429 
and ignorance, 494 
and industry, 417 
court decisions inflicting penalties, 
482 
damage caused by, 513 
dangers of, 451 
in married, diminished by pre- 
vention of conception, 183 
menace to health and efficiency of 
American people, 470 
need treatment by physician, 474 
no compromise with, 519 
none "if every man were 
straight," 401 
prevalence of, 620 
Venereal diseases, prophylactics, 472 
prophylaxis, 437 
protection against, 624 
record of army, 414 
should be treated in hospitals, 451 
society's attitude toward, 463 
Venereal taint, the, 517 
Venereal warts, 199 
Vesical fistula from abortion, 247 
"Vicarious" menstruation, 38 
Vice, chief cause of, 562 
Virginity, results of suppression of 
sex impulse during, 125 
Virtue and intelligence, or ignorance 
and innocence, 549 
Viscid contents of sac in painful 
menstruation, (dysmenorrhea), 
34 
Vita sexualis, healthy, remedy for 
many diseases of the brain, 441 
Vitelline membrane of human egg, 
222 
Vitiated lymph, cast off in painful 
menstruation, (dysmennor- 
rhea), 34 
Voluptuous preoccupation, conflict 
of with curiosity, 73 
sensations arise in erotogenous 
zones, 71 
sensations, none with sexual ex- 
cess, 598 
sensations rare before puberity, 
72 
Voluptuousness, created by arti- 
ficial excitement, 506 
Vomiting, in pregnancy, 234 
Vulva, passage of eggs to, 31 
Vulvovaginal gland, anatomy of, 21 
Warts, venereal, 199 
Wassermann test for recognizing 
syphilis, 274 
must be negative before mar- 
riage, 304 
not always resorted to, 139 
shows syphilis is very common, 
296 INDEX 
747 
Waste, needless of little lives, 535 
"Waterbrash" in pregnancy, 235 
Wedding night, the, 207 
"Wet dreams," 40 
What of the prodigal girl ? 683 
When men love, 114 
Where did the baby come from? 
680 
White ants, enormous number of 
eggs in, 2 
"Whites, the," 607 
birth control methods beneficial 
in, 148 
may cause disordered menstrua- 
tion, 605 
may cause sterility, 580 
Who would blame her-would you? 
641 
"Why girls go wrong," 529 
Why lives are wrecked, 111 
Wild oats, 669 
as cause of blindness, 411 
as cause of sterility, 412 
lie of the, 610 
reapers of, 411 
"Withdrawal," 216 
as cause of impotence, 91 
Woman, body of exhausted by too 
frequent childbirth, 185 
spirit of killed by too frequent 
childbirth, 185 
the worn-out, 677 
Woman's answer, a, 681 
body, exhausted by too-frequent 
childbirth, 185 
Womanhood, advice to girls ap- 
proaching the threshold of, 201 
Womb, anatomy of, 14 
diseases of from gonorrhea, 314 
enlargement of in pregnancy, 226 
the "closed," 600 
Women, destiny of, 122 
effects of celibacy on, 564 
frigidity in, 570, 618 
impotence in, 556 
not so difficult to be pure "if 
every man were straight," 407 
reforming, 529 
sexual excitement in, 528, 533 
sexual sensibility of, 587 
who walk, the, 673 
why they become prostitutes, 572 
wild oats as cause of sterility in, 
412 
Worn-out woman, the, 677 
Worry, as cause of impotence, 92 
X-rays cause sterility, 95 
detection of pregnancy by. 229 
for removal of "mother's marks," 
235 
Youth married to age, 438 
Zones, erotogenous, 22 Bsafe counsel 
By B, G. Jefferis, M.D., Ph.D. 
and 
J. L. Nichols, A.M. 
AN Illustrated Authoritative Work 
Covering Every Point Relating 
to Social and Sexual Science or the 
Proper Relations of the Sexes, Em- 
bracing the Natural Sexual Impulse, 
Normal Sexual Habits and Propa- 
gation, Together with Sexual Physi- 
ology and Hygiene. 
Sex Hygiene and Sex Knowledge 
-for Young Men and Women. 
-for Young Husbands and Wives. 
-for Fathers and Mothers. 
~that .Par®"ts should impart to 
their children. 
Things You Should Know-If You Don't Know 
You Know- You Know- 
That many homes are childless- That ]eucorrhea (whites) is the 
but do you know the reason why? bane of the modern girl and 
I ou Know- woman-but do you know the 
No doubt, that about 50% of all cause and the simple effective 
wives are sexually frigid-but do remedy? 
you know the reason why? v 
You Know- You Know- 
Of the evil, "secret habits" of That during pregnancy a woman 
boys and girls-but do you know should be guarded and advised- 
what to do? but do you know all about this 
You Know- important period? 
That with many vitality is lost You Know 
too soon-but do you know the q,. . ., , ,, , 
cause? That a wife should never become 
y a mother without an equal desire 
1 no W t . on her part, and a condition of 
The acts of the nuptial chamber health necessary to successful 
form the foundation of future maternity-but do you know 
love or hatred-success or failure when this should be? 
-but do you know the lines that __ 
divide these paths? You Know- 
You Know- Some sensational books and "Lost 
That every boy and girl should Manhood" quack literature in 
be educated, step by step, in re- general pictures masturbation in 
gard to the subject of their birth a lurid light that would make a 
-but do you know just how to timid person's hair stand on end 
do it? -but do you know the truth? 
In looking backward you say, "If I had only known.'' But in looking for- 
ward will you say the same again! 
"Safe Counsel" is chaste in thought and diction, but in spite of the best in- 
tentions, a scientific book on sex-physiology and sex-psychology is likely to appear, 
at least in spots, to gratify a low curiosity; but in "Safe Counsel" there is no 
such taint and if the Authors honor their readers with a frankness which may 
seem brutal to some-it is necessary. 
On the whole, the gain from giving earnest men and women the facts they 
need, seems likely to outweigh by much any harm that might possibly be done 
to such light minds as will be misled, or to such sentimental minds as will be 
wounded, by enlightenment about sex. 
Prudery and False Social Conditions have kept YOU in ignorance of "Self 
and Sex." This state of affairs is a menace to the mental, physical and moral 
health of your son, daughter, wife and yourself. "Safe Counsel" will protect 
you from this great peril and will answer the many vital questions you would 
like and ought to ask-but will not. 
Bound in Full Seal Grained Kraft Morocco. Price $3.00, Postpaid 
Bound in Silk Cloth. Price $2.50, Postpaid 
SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Uninc. 
538 South Clark Street Chicago FROM DANCE HALL TO WHITE SLAVERY 
The World's Greatest Tragedy 
By H. M. LYTLE and JOHN DILLON 
Special Investigators for the Press 
An Expose of Vice in All Its Revolting Detail Written 
to Protect the Innocent and Arouse the Sleeping 
Thrilling stories of actual experiences of 
girls who were lured from innocence into 
lives of degradation by men and women en- 
gaged in a regularly organized White Slave JW^ jBJ•I|]XB|TTT[N9B|T1HM 
Traffic. 
Showing the evils of the Dance Hale 
and the easy steps by which young girls are PfflW 
led to their downfall. 
These stories of actual occurrences are H 
told by conscientious men who have taken . V S' 
many risks to secure the facts, to aid the Ew " 4^^ 
organizations and leagues and individuals l||| -■ 
who are working earnestly to save girls, to 'y '{e . 
clean out the vice districts, to secure laws RI 
that will punish the fiends, both men and |H 
women, engaged in white slavery, and more O' 
than all else to warn fathers and mothers, vHlf |MH3hE 
and through th'-m the sons and daughters of WB! 
the land, against the dangers and pitfalls ''SJ 
which are spread for the unenlightened. 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
-Dance Hall Peril The Tragedy of the Maternity Home 
Country y °f G r°m The Tragedy of the Want Ad 
The Tragedy of Stefa, the Little Th* Tragedy of the Assignation 
Immigrant House 
The Tragedy of the Young Mother The Tragedy of the Immigrant Girl 
The Tragedy of the Wall Flower The Tragedy of the Stage 
The Tragedy of Valeska of Poland The Tragedy of the Five Thousand 
A Tragedy En Masque The Tragedy of the Little Lace Maker 
The Tragedy of the Telephone Girl The First Night 
The Tragedy of the Factory Girl Arrested 
At the Sign of the White Front The Second Orgy 
A Tragedy of Freiberg's Ella Gingles on Trial 
Every man and every woman of mature age should read this book. 
Throughout the entire volume every sentence, every paragraph, every page 
and every chapter leaves the one who reads it numb and chill with the utter 
heartlessness of these demons who lure from homes of culture and virtue 
young girls, wives, mothers, and wreck their souls and kill their bodies. 
It contains in brutal and unvarnished language, from the lips of "White 
Slaves," tales of their great sufferings and their mental anguish that are 
unspeakable and yet are so necessary to be known that we may fight this 
greatest crime of our modern civilization-this damnable traffic in human 
souls. The language is ordinary, common sense, hard, cold, blunt-but it 
paints masterpieces and brain-pictures of the dreadful orgies of the "under 
world." You see these young women crying out in the night; you can see 
the blanched faces and hear the ribald laughter of souls that are lost; you 
can see men that go out into the rural districts-in the small cities-and there, 
under the lurid promises of gay life in the big cities, bring into the jaws of 
this modern Moloch, girls and women who should be the mothers of our 
nation's future. So great a panorama does this book present to the human 
mind that once you open its covers, you must read on and on to the end. 
Prudery IS Not Modesty-Ignorance Is Not Innocence-Enlightenment 
Is the Surest Way to Be Guarded Against This Terrible Evil-To Be Warned 
Is to Be Forearmed. 
Bound In Cloth with Cover Inlay and Full Page Halftone Illustrations 
Price $2.00, Postpaid 
SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Uninc. 
538 South Clark Street Chicago The Key to Culture 
256 Pages Profusely Illustrated 
The Sure Way 
The only assurance that one may have that they will at 
all times be well poised, respected, admired and honored is 
to know definitely the proper and correct thing to do or say 
under any circumstances. Is anything more humiliating and 
inexcusable than being a guest at an elaborate dinner and 
being in doubt as to which fork or spoon to use? To be 
free from all embarrassment, safe from blundering mistakes, 
at ease in the presence of brilliant celebrities, one must 
know. THE KEY TO CULTURE gives this essential in- 
formation. 
Subjects Treated 
Introductions Flowers and Their Meaning 
Cards Precious Stones and Their Meaning 
Mastery of Conversation Wedding Superstitions and Omens 
Dinners Every Day Omens 
Table Manners Lucky and Unlucky Days 
Receptions Dreams and Their Meaning 
Weddings How to Tell Fortunes by Cards 
Wedding Anniversaries Your Fortune in the Dominoes 
Balls and Dances Influence of the Planets on Your Life 
Riding an<TDriving To Read Character by Shape of Head 
Personal Spells, Charms, Omens and Superstitions 
Beauty Secrets Advice to Young Women 
Courtship and Love Letters Advice to Young Men 
Are You Successful in Love? 
The chapter entitled, "Courtship and How to Write Love 
Letters," consisting of 24 pages, is crammed full of valuable 
hints to those in love. This chapter treats this important 
subject with the delicacy and, at the same time, the frank- 
ness it deserves. The author, appreciating the fact that 
there are times in every man's and woman's life when they 
wish to express their sentiments without being mawkish or 
reverting to undignified diction to express their excess of 
sentiment, has compiled numerous specimen love letters for 
the guidance of those desiring to communicate their ardor 
to the one inspiring their admiration. 
The hints to be found in the chapter entitled "Courtship 
and How to Write Love Letters" will be found invaluable to 
those struggling with this subject of so much moment. You 
can win or lose your heart's desire through a poorly edited 
love epistle. Refer to specimen letters and you will find 
many suggestions well worthy of your attention. 
Bound In Silk Cloth. Price $2.00, Postpaid 
SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
NOT INC. 
538 South Clark Street 
CHICAGO THE PARENTS GUIDE 
Where Do Babies Come From? 
By OZORA S. DAVIS 
President of the 
Chicago Theological Seminary I 
and DR. EMMA F. DRAKE 
Author of RBilSiisSOn^^ 
''What a Young Wife Ought to Know," | 
"What a Woman of 45 Ought to Know," I 
"Maternity," etc. Lfb 
ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLORS. 
By JOHN W. COLLINS 
EVERY HOME where there are children 
will be enriched by "The Parents' 
Guide." Wise parents will read the story 
to their boys and girls. Children are indeed 
fortunate whose parents tell them the story 
of life before they hear it from older chil- 
dren who do not understand. 
The entire story is told in the language 
of childhood. The authors have avoided 
scientific terms and no attempt is made at 
literary style.. It is not a story to be told in a day or week, but a series of 
stories beginning with the flowers and birds and on up to the higher forms of 
life as fast as the parent thinks best. A clean, wholesome story from beginning 
to end that every child should know. 
The "Parents' Guide" is not another sex book, but the means by which 
parents can prepare themselves to answer the perplexing questions of child- 
hood. The purpose of the writers has been to make a book which would 
come in with definite help for parents who want their children to know the 
story of life as it should be told. 
Children Are Bound to Learn the Story 
Ninety-seven children in every hundred learn the story of life before 
the age of twelve. This knowledge cannot be kept from them through any 
protective art that has yet been devised. It is inevitable, inescapable. The 
only protection is to tell them the story Dr. Davis told his boys and as 
Dr. Drake told the story to her girls. 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Our Point of View Being a Gentleman with Girls 
The Place of the Home When the Long Story Begins 
A Boy, His Father and the Story of The price of the Baby 
Where Do Babies Come From? A Word to Parents 
Calling Things by Their Right Names Father 
The Change into Manhood Development 
The Male Organs of Sex Knowledge that Protects 
The Sexual Problems of Boyhood rp, A x ax* 
Pictures, Suggestions, Thoughts, ™e Age of Attraction 
Talks, Friends Young Womanhood 
Forming and Breaking Habits Sex Hygiene in the Schools 
Associating with Boys Who Misunder- Pleasures that Recreate 
stand the Story A Postlude for Parents 
"Why Did You Not Tell Me the Truth About Myself, When I Asked 
for It?" is the Heartbreaking Question Asked of Many Parents by Daughters 
Whose Ignorance Had Been Taken Advantage of and Who Had Learned 
the Truth Too Late to Save Themselves. 
Ignorance Does Not Mean Innocence. Ignorance of Self Has Caused 
Many Boys and Girls to Take Steps Downward That They Might Have Re- 
frained from Taking Had They Been Instructed by Those Who Brought Them 
into the World. 
Next to the Story of Jesus in Importance is-"THE STORY OF LIFE." 
Parents, Give Your Children a Square Deal. When They Ask You "Where 
Did I Come From?" Tell Them the Truth. 
Durably Bound in Silk Cloth 
Price $2.00, Postpaid 
SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Uninc. 
538 South Clark Street Chicago THE BUSINESS GUIDE 
Or 
Safe Methods of Business 
A Safe and Trustworthy Guide to the Proper Transaction of All 
Kinds of Business 
"yHE BUSINESS GUIDE" is 
O;. i ;■ J- a manual of common-sense 
rules for the transaction of all 
J- - ' 4? kinds of business. It contains 
sound business advice from many 
Jmost successful men of 
. •?$, America and has started hundreds 
°f young men on the highway of 
aHC success. These lessons are in- 
tended to give just such practical 
> it help as is needed by thousands of 
O? T ; inexperienced persons who are, 
feach year> compelled to do busi- 
ness for themselves-without a 
business education. 
It supplies the necessary Legal and Business Information, 
together with the appropriate forms for the successful conduct 
of practical business of every description. The matter it con- 
tains has not been gathered at random from out-of-date pub- 
lications, or unreliable sources, but has been carefully written 
and prepared by practical Attorneys, Bankers and Journalists, 
each experienced in the particular subject treated. A complete, 
up-to-date, comprehensive and authentic aggregation of vital 
facts, pertaining to business, which are in constant usage by 
successful business men. A money saver-a safe law and busi- 
ness counselor, promptly and accurately settling all questions 
in doubt-no time lost-no bill to pay. Just reach in your desk 
for this handy and compact encyclopedia of dependable business 
information and-PRESTO-the question is correctly settled. 
Every line of the "Business Guide" is practical business 
knowledge. Every business form is up to date. There is not 
a useless word or sentence in the entire book. 
A Book That Will Grip the Attention of Every Ambitious 
Man-A Complete Commercial Course-Simple-Practical- 
Concise. 
Substantially Bound in Silk Cloth 
Price $2.00, Postpaid 
Bound in Flexible Seal Leather. Gold Stamping. 
Price $2.50, Postpaid 
SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Uninc. 
S38 South Clark Street Chicago The Up-To-Date, Practical 
LETTER WRITER 
By PROF. E. J. STRONG 
This Book Is- 
A reference book, a primer, a first-aid in correspondence 
mishaps, for advertising managers, assistants, corre- 
spondents, promotion department executives and em- 
ployees, stenographers, business men and students in 
general. 
Every phase of letter writing is I T HIT * T[h "H! ■ 
handled with illuminating clearness | I Ilf? $ 
in this textbook. It is equally es- 
sential to the experienced letter . ' 
writer and to the beginner. This j| 
hand-book teaches the principles rz " 
of up-to-date business letter writ- ' 
ing, and makes those principles so 1 
clear, by examples, illustrations I || 
and forms, that the beginner can '|8 
apply them in actual practice. ii 
Tells How to Analyze a Letter, UI f~ I 
How to Construct a Letter, Pitch- 
ing the Key, Letters of Credit, H F . 
Collection Letters, Correspond- '• 
ence of Complaints, Little Tricks of Letter Writing, Personal 
Element, Brevity, The Correspondence of Orders and Con- 
signments, Salesmanship, Letters of Advice, Apology, Con- 
gratulation, Condolence, Favor, Introduction, Application, Invi- 
tation. All about business-its laws and forms. Commercial 
law in daily use. Business and legal forms. Everything in this 
Book is clear, practical, concise. 
This book, however, is not for the "master letter writer," not 
for the man who "wrote the book." It's not a post-graduate 
course or "higher education" at all. Instead it's just a sort of 
Handy-Andy text-book for those who want to know something 
about the basic principles in letter writing and how to apply 
them; those who get stuck now and then on questions of 
punctuation, grammar and form and want something to go 
to for reliable information. Stenographers, especially (bosses 
take note), will find this little book an invaluable aid in speeding 
up their work. 
Bound in Silk Cloth 
Price $1.50, Postpaid 
SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Uninc. 
S38 South Clark Street Chicago ■ THE VEST POCKET LAWYER 
The Only Book of Its Kind 
Here at last-in a single volume 
-a complete law course-clearly 
analyzed in understandable English. 
It is a daily guide-a manual of ref- 
erence for the business man-the 
law student-the justice of the peace 
-the notary public-the farmer-the 
clergyman - the merchant - the 
banker-the doctor. 
Just as the Lawyer Advises 
-You too can know the law. 
-What to do and what to avoid. 
-How to draw up legal forms. 
Ask Any Question-This Book 
Has the Answer. 
Use the Vest Pocket Lawyer to 
look up any point of law or any legal 
form-just as you look up a word 
in Webster's Dictionary. 
It doesn't just give you an opinion, but it gives you the law 
and the reason why. It also gives you a supposed case in every 
instance. Nothing complicated; just the law as standardized for 
the past one hundred years. Ask your question just as you would 
ask your lawyer; only instead of speaking you look up the index 
of this little book. In the index you will find the subject of your 
question followed by the number of the paragraph containing the 
answer and the supposed case. 
CONTENTS 
Assignments Personal Property Practice 
Accident, Fire and Life Landlord and Tenant Constitutional Law 
Insurance _ Wills Partnership 
Workmen's Compensation Reaj Estate Corporations 
Patents Real Estate Mortgages Judgments 
TradeaiAcceptances Chattel Mortgages Attachments 
Contracts Evidence Garnishments 
Quasi Contracts Negotiable Instruments Executions 
Agency Pleading Bankruptcy 
Torts Common Law Pleading Constitution of the 
Domestic Relations Equity Pleading United States 
Criminal Law Code Pleading 112 Legal Forms 
What Is a Trade Acceptance? 
Do You Know How to Make a Valid Bill of Sale, Power of Attorney, War- 
ranty Deed or Assignment? Can You Make a Valid Will so as to Preserve Your 
Estate for Your Wife and Children? What is the Proper Form for a Farm 
Lease? Who has Title to the Farm When a Mortgage is Put on the Farm-the 
Farmer or the Man Who Loans the Money? How is a Mortgage Foreclosed? 
What Does the Farmer Have to Do in Order to Redeem His Farm? 
The "Vest Pocket Lawyer" not only tells you the law and just how to use 
it, but gives you 112 legal forms for drawing up papers of all kinds. 
Endorsed by Lawyers, Bankers, Students and Big Business Men 
This Book Will Save You Many a Ten Dollar Bill 
360 Pages-Printed on Thin Bible Paper-Substantially Bound 
in Red Silk Cloth 
Price $1.25, Postpaid 
SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Uninc. 
538 South Clark Street Chicago DICKSON'S VEST POCKET WRITING DESK BOOK 
By PROF. HENRY DICKSON 
A Complete Guide to Correct Letter-Writing Combined With 
the Complete Self-Pronouncing Dictionary of 
the English Language 
'T'HIS book is designed for all who write. The study of it will 
A enable you to learn to write letters that will be practically 
free from errors; especially the more common errors that brand 
the writer as an uneducated and illiterate person. A well 
written letter is the true index of your best thoughts. Next to 
correct speech, the most desirable of all accomplishments is 
the ability to write a correct letter. 
HDo You Want to Know 
HOW to Pronounce. 
HOW to Punctuate. 
HOW to Spell Correctly. 
HOW to Use Capital Letters. 
HOW to Avoid Common Er- 
rors. 
HOW to Use Familiar Quo- 
tations. 
HOW to Use Common Ab- 
breviations. 
HOW to Use Latin Words 
. ' and Phrases. 
5 HOW to Use French Words 
I and Phrases. 
. , * HOW to Correct Proof. 
' . ~ § HOW to Use Synonyms and 
H Antonyms. 
H HOW to Understand Busi- 
Worth Its Weight in Gold 
This Book Contains a Self-Pronouncing Dictionary of the 
English Language, Rules for Spelling, Punctuation and Capi- 
talization; Synonyms and Antonyms, Homophonous Words, 
French and Latin Phrases and Words; Familiar Allusions, Pos- 
tal Information, Daily Business and Commercial Law, Par- 
liamentary Law, Bankruptcy Laws, and Interest Laws of all 
States; Weights and Measures, Important Historical Events. 
Bound in Red Flexible Kraft Leather. Stamped in Gold. 
300 Pages Printed on Thin Bible Paper. 
Price $1.25, Postpaid 
SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Uninc. 
538 South Clark Street Chicago The Woman of the Streets 
By LEE ALEXANDER STONE, M.D. 
Chief of Bureau of Hospital Control, Social and Industrial Hygiene, Chicago 
Health Department; Regional Consultant U. S. Public Health Service; 
Late Official War Department Lecturer and Instructor to Troops in 
Social Hygiene and Venereal Disease Control; Major M. C. U. S. 
R.; Former Lecturer Medical Sociology, University of Tenn., 
College of Medicine (Memphis) ; Fellow American Medi- 
cal Assn.; Member American Institute of Criminal 
Law and Criminology; American Social Hygiene 
Assn.; Former Member Vice Commission, 
Memphis. Author: "Eugenics and Mar- 
riage," "The Hidden Menace," "Sex 
Discussion," "An Open Talk With 
Mothers and Fathers," etc. 
Illustrated by J. P. ALLEY 
I A very unusual volume by a masterful 
writer. 
A discussion of the most dependable and 
the most practical methods to be pursued 
if this social problem is to be solved. 
A new angle on the old methods that 
should be read by all who are interested in 
the building of a better social system. 
He advocates absolutely the single stan- 
dard of morality. No attempt is made to 
handle the subject in the stereotyped man- 
ner. 
The prostitute is the most mournful and 
most awful figure in history, who remains 
while creeds and civilizations rise and fall, 
the eternal sacrifice of humanity, blasted 
for the sins of the people. 
There are many women of the under- 
world who can be saved. There are many 
who cannot, for they have become too 
hardened and too cynical to be easily 
reached by a reform wave. 
Prostitution has two great roots which 
sink deep into the foundations of modern 
civilization. . The first is our degrading 
social and industrial system. This cruel 
institution, by denying to tens of thousands 
of young women an honest living, forces them to choose between a wretched 
poverty and trading with the only capital they have-their youth, beauty, inno- 
cence-in short, to give up what is naturally the most sacred thing in life to a 
woman: the hope of true love and happy marriage, home and children. The 
other root of prostitution is the cowardly, stupid, cynical attitude taken by 
society towards all sexual matters, resulting in the inexcusable custom of teach- 
ing children nothing whatever about reproduction except that it is a low, un- 
mentionable subject, and that adultery is forbidden by the Ten Commandments. 
Christianity is on trial every time a vice campaign is started, and it is com- 
manded of every so-called Christian to do his duty and act as the Nazarene 
would have him act were he present to direct. "Let him who is without sin 
among you cast the first stone at her." These words of Jesus have thundered 
down the ages as a warning to the smug, self-satisfied member of organized 
Social Systems. Christ meant exactly what he said, and it ill behooves any 
man today to cast a stone at the woman who has erred and for whose error he 
is responsible. TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Ancient Prostitutes, Factors in the Es- The So-called Reformer an Enemy to 
tablishment of Society. „ Society. 
Enfranchisement of Women a Step 
The Venereal Peril. Forward. 
Segregation or Clandestine. Which? a Plea for Our Children. 
The Harmfulness of Vice Crusades. Causes of Prostitution. 
Price, $1.00, Postpaid 
BURTON PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Kansas City, Mo. An Open Talk with Mothers and Fathers 
Presenting Some Present Day Problems in Social Hygiene 
By LEE ALEXANDER STONE, M.D. 
Chief of Bureau of Hospital Control, Social and Industrial Hygiene, Chicago 
Health Department; Regional Consultant U. S. Public Health Service; 
Late Official War Department Lecturer and Instructor to Troops in 
Social Hygiene and Venereal Disease Control; Major M. C. U. S. 
R.; Former Lecturer Medical Sociology, University of Tenn., 
College of Medicine (Memphis) ; Fellow American Medi- 
cal Assn.; Member American Institute of Criminal 
Law and Criminology; American Social Hygiene 
Assn.; Former Member Vic.e Commission, 
Memphis. Author: "Eugenics and Mar- 
riage," "The Woman of the Streets," 
"The Hidden Menace," "Sex 
Discussion" 
With a Foreword By MAJOR GENERAL LEONARD WOOD 
I In this timely book by a noted 
writer on sex hygiene the question 
of instructing children in personal 
purity is treated sensibly and thor- 
oughly. . 
The author, who is a physician 
of wide experience and a pleasing 
writer, has very adequately treated 
this important subject. No one can 
come in contact with young people 
without feeling a need of a united 
effort on the part of parents, 
physicians and teachers to lessen 
the immoral tendencies, with their 
degrading effects, to which the 
present generation is subjecred. 
Knowledge of the right sort wnl 
prevent many wrecked lives. 
To bring these facts to the at- 
tention of fathers and mothers; to 
show them the necessity of early 
and proper instruction for both 
boys and girls in matters pertaining to sex; 
and to prove that the parents who withhold 
this knowledge are committing a crime in 
allowing their children to fall because of ignorance, is the aim of "An Open 
Talk With Mothers and Fathers"-the most thorough and convincing appeal 
ever made for the proper education of the young in matters pertaining to sexual 
hygiene by the foremost writer on the subject. 
When you consider that over 60% of the childless homes in the world are 
due to venereal disease, that 80% of the blindness in the world can be traced to 
the same cause, and that over forty per cent of the operations on the female 
organs are directly traceable to one of these diseases contracted from the hus- 
band, then we realize the need of war on these grim destroyers. 
The tragedy of it all is the fact that the prevalence of these 
diseases might have been prevented by proper instruction of 
adolescent boys and girls. 
The silly idea that the innocence of ignorance is a safeguard to 
virtue should be forever banished. Prudery and false modesty 
should have no place in the training of the child. 
With the desire to help fathers and mothers in their work of protecting 
their sons and daughters "An Open Talk With Mothers and Fathers" has been 
written. 
PRICE $1.00, POSTPAID 
BURTON PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Kansas City, Mo. Qrt1lnV/O In $rst chapter of Woman: Her Sex and Love 
•JCJUUTe Life, Dr. Robinson says: "The task I have put be- 
- fore myself in this book is to give our girls and women 
jCLn^ sane, square and honest information about their sex 
organs and sex nature, information absolutely free from 
1 luridness, on the one hand, and maudlin sentimentality. 
CLnd on the other." 
- - And his concluding words are : "I trust that Woman : 
Honest Her $ex and L°ve Life will help, in some slight degree, 
in spreading healthy, sane and honest ideas about sex 
among the men and women of America." 
In working out this aim, Dr. Robinson is wholly 
practical. His purpose is to assist women in the com- 
prehension and development of their sexual life. 
Woman: Her Sex and Love Life 
By DR. WM. J. ROBINSON 
-deals fully with the larger aspects of the subject, but equally with 
the "small things" that often make or break love and life. 
The book isn't simply a treatise on the structure of the sex organs; 
it is instinct with an inspiring philosophy of love and life. 
It is a complete book, by a physician with a wholly human outlook, 
an exponent of the humanized science of our day. 
Women, even more than men, require the fullest information about 
sex. Ignorance In matters sexual is more disastrous to women than 
to men. 
The simple practical points in this book would render millions of 
homes happier; prevent the disruption of many a family; and show how 
to preserve love and sexual attraction. 
It destroys many injurious errors, and teaches truths that have 
never been presented in a book before. 
The deliaacy of the book is charming; the presentation free from 
either grossness or prudery. 
Price $3.00 Postpaid 
JUST A FEW OF THE CHAPTERS 
The Female Sex Organs. Who May and Who May Not 
The Sex Instinct. Marry. 
Puberty. Birth Control. 
The Hygiene of Menstruation. Vaginismus. 
Pregnancy. Sterility. 
Disorders of Pregnancy. The Hymen. 
Size of the Fetus. Frigidity in Women. 
Lactation or Nursing. Single Standard of Sexual Morality. 
Abortion and Miscarriage. divorce System. 
Menopause or Change of Life. W™ .... . 
Masturbation. Ad/£e Marr,ed and Those 
About lo Be. 
Venereal Diseases. Difference Between the Sex and Love 
Vulvovaginitis in Little Girls. Life of Man and Woman. 
Venereal Prophylaxis. Jealousy and How to Combat It, 
Alcohol, Sex and Venereal Disease. etc., etc. 
THE CRITIC AND GUIDE 
12 Mt. Morris Park West New York City 
Book Dept. A LIST 
OF SOME OF THE 
CRITIC AND GUIDE PUBLICATIONS 
Treatment of Sexual The Critic and Guide, 
Impotence $4.00 Monthly, single copies 
Woman: Her Sex and 25 cents; a year 2.00 
Love Life 3.00 Woman from Bondage 
Married Life and Hap- to Freedom, by Raley 
piness or Love and Husted Bell 2.50 
Comfort in Marriage. 3.00 Uncontrolled Breeding, 
Sexual Problems of To- or Fecundity vs. Civ- 
daV 2.00 ilization. Adeline 
Sex Knowledge for Men More $1.00 
and Boys 2.00 r , XT 
T . . . , Sex Morality and Ner- 
The Limitation of Off- vousness, by Prof, 
spring by the Preven- Freud 25 
tion of Conception . . . 1.50 
Small or Large Fami- Th.ev „ 
lies. By Drysdale and Wm' L' H°k' M- D- -25 
Havelock Ellis 1.50 The Social Evil, by Wm. 
Never Told Tales 1.50 L- Holt, M. D 15 
Stories of Love and Life 1.50 The Hunter, by Olive 
A Clergyman's Son and Schreiner, with an 
Daughter 1.00 introduction by Dr. 
Eugenics and Marriage. 1.50 Robinson, entitled, A 
Sex Knowledge for ^age My Life, 
Women and Girls... 1.50 paper 25 cents 50 
The Sexual Crisis. Scientific Medicine vs. 
Meisel-Hess 3.00 Quackery 10 
Population and Birth Pioneers of Birth Con- 
Control. A sympo- trol. Dr. Victor Rob- 
sium 3.00 inson 1.00 
Books not otherwise marked are by Dr. William J. Robinson. 
THE CRITIC AND GUIDE 
12 Mt. Morris Park West New York City 
Book Dept.