yBf.^a 't^'SiM mMm f^^wFk wB&''PJy% wBj'wUl&'it Hb»';,*'1 W-JjA WWegk-'^Z, vZMl&9k&&A mm ■%,'■<■ "'-A:- ':>&< '■' IJfe*; ' -f'-; : '¥* fy.i'-'-'.rz,- '■ % ■;• ■ ••*■ < til s .". , ' / //^'^•j.--1-!.-^-'* 4/ ') % / v / ■••= / V •> --"J * «* •-.•' --->^'"' •?.* • - •«*' '.-**?— >•. .«■ A.'!---\ > Oc<() MORAL PHYSIOLO(l\ prefer tiie latter. But, for admitting that the most social and kindly of human instincts is sensual and degrading in itself, I cannot. I think its influence moral, harmonizing, polishing, beneficient; and that the social education of no man or woman is fully completed without it. Its mortification, although far less injurious than its excess, is yet very mischievous. If it do not give birth to pieviousness or melancholy, or incipient disease, or unnatural practices, at least it almost always freezes and stiffens the character, by checking the flow of its kindest emotions; and not unfrequently gives to it a solitary, anti-social, selfish stamp. I deny the position of the Shakers, then, that the instinct is justifiable only in so far as it is absolutely necessary to the reproduction of the species. It is justifiable, in my view, just in as far as it makes man a happier and a better being. It is justifiable, both as a source of temperate enjoyment, and as a means by which the sexes can mutually polish and improve each other. If a Shaker has read my little book thus far, and cannot reconcile his mind to this idea, he may as well MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. 27 shut it at once. I found all my arguments on the po- sition, that the pleasure derived from this instinet in- dependent of, and totally distinct from, its ultimate object, the reproduction of our race, is good, proper, worth securing and enjoying. I maintain, that its temperate enjoyment is a blessing, both in itself and in its influence on human character. Upon this distinction of the instinct into its two- fold character hinges the chief point in the present discussion. It sometimes happens—nay, it happens every day and hour, that mankind obey its impulses, not from any calculation of consequences, but sim- ply from animal impulse. Thus, many children that are brought into the world owe their existence, not to deliberate conviction in their parents that their birth was really desirable, but simply to an unreason- able instinct which men in the mass have not learnt either to resist or controll. Is it desirable, that it should never be gratified without an increase of population 1 Or is it desirable that, in gratifying it, man shall be able to say whe- ther offspring shall be the result or not 1 To answer the questions satisfactorily, it Avould be necessary to 28 MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. substantiate that such control may be obtained with- out the slightest injury to the physical health, or vio- lence to the moral feelings; and also, that it should be obtained without any real sacrifice of enjoyment; or, if that cannot be, Avilh as little as possible. Thus have I plainly stated the subject. It resolves itself, as my readers may observe, into two distinct heads ; first, the durability of such control; and secondly, its: possibility. In discussing its desirability, I enter a Avide field— a field often traversed by political economists, by moralists and by philosophers: though generally it will be confessed, to little purpose. This may be in a great measure attributed rather to their fear than their ignorance. The world Avould not permit them to say Avhat they knew. I intend that my readers shall know part what I know from actual experience on the subject; for I have long since ceased to ask the superstitious people of this ball (the world) leave to say what I think and know, and what I believe to be useful to the public. CHAPTER XXX. The question examined in the abstract. CHAPTER III. The question examined in the abstract. Is it in itself desirable that man should obtain con- trol over the instinct of reproduction, so as to deter- mine when its gratification shall produce offspring, and Avhen it shall not ? But that common sense is so scarce an article, and that the various superstitions of the nursery pervade the opinions and cramp the enquiries, even of after- life—but for this, the very statement of the question might suffice to obtain for it the assent of every ra- tional being. Nothing so elevates man above the brute creation, as the power he obtains over his instincts. The lower animal follows them blindly, unreflectingly.— The serpent gorges himself; the bull fights even to death with his rival of the pasture—the dog mnkes deadly war for a bone. They know nothing of pro- progressive improvement. They are all as wise, and no wiser, than the elephant or the beaver of two 32 MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. thousand years ago. Man alone has the power to im- prove, cultivate, elevate his nature from generation to generation. He alone can control his instincts by reflection of consequences, and regulate his passions by the precepts of Avisdom. It is strange that even at this period of the Avorld, we should have to remind each other, that all know- ledge of facts is useful; or, at the least, cannot be in- jurious. The knoAvledge of some facts may be im- portant—the knowledge of none is mischievous. A human being is a puppit—a slave, if his ignorance is to be the safeguard of his virtue. Nor shall we knoAV where to stop, if we follow up this principle. Shall we give our sons lessons in mechanics, but they may thereby learn to pick locks? Shall wo teach them to read, but they may thus obtain access to falsehood and folly. Shall we instruct them in writing, but they may become forgers ? Such in ef- fect, Avas the reasoning of men in the dark ages. When Walter Scott puts into the mouth of Lord Douglass, on the discovery of Marmion;s treachery, the following exclamation, it is strictly in accordance with the; spirit and prevailing opinions of the times : MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. 33 " A letter forged ! Saint Jude to speed ! Did ever knight so foul a deed ! At first in heart it liked me ill, When the king praised his clerkly skill. Thanks to Saint Bothan, son of mine, Save GaAvain, ne'er could pen a line ; So swore I—and so sAvear I still— Let my boy bishop fret his fill." But the days are gone by Avhen ignorance may be the safeguard of virtue. The only rock foundation for virtue is knowledge. There is no fact, in physicks or in morals, that ought to be concealed from the enquiring mind. Let that parent Avho thinks to secure his son's honesty or his daughter's innocence by keeping back from them facts,—let that parent knoAv that he is building up their morality on a sandy foundation. The rains and the floods of the world's influence shall beat upon that virtue, and great shall be the fall thereof. If man, then, can obtain control over this most im- portant of instincts, it is in principle, right that he should know it. If men, after obtaining such know- ledge, think fit not to use it—if they deem it nobler 34 MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. and more virtuous to follow each animal impulse, like the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, without a thought of its consequences, or an enquiry into its nature, then let them do so. The knowledge that they have the power to act more like rational beings, will not injure, if it fail to benefit them.— They are at perfect liberty to set it aside, to neglect it, to forget it if they can. Only let them show com- mon sense enough to permit that others, Avho are more slow to incur sacred responsibilities, and more willing to give reason the control of instinct, should obtain the requisite knowledge, and follow out their prudent resolutions. If this little book were in the hands of every adult in the United States, not one would need profit by it unless he sees fit. Nor will any man admit that he can possibly be injured by it. Oh, no ! His virtue can bear any quantity of light. But then his neigh- bours, or his sons, or his daughters ! This would lead me to discuss the social bearings of the questions. But, as conceiving it more in or- der, I shall first speak of it in connection with politi- cal economy. CHAPTER XV. The question in connection with Political Economy. CHAPTER IV. The question in connection with Political Economy. The population question, as it is called, has of late years occupied much attention, especially in Great Britain. It was first prominently brought forward and discussed through too large volumes by Malthus, an English clergyman. GodAvin &c. all celebrated cotemporary writers, have all discussed with more or less reserve, and at greater or less length. Malthus' Avork has become the text book of a large political economist party in England. His doctrine is that " population unrestrained, will advance be- yond the means of subsistence." And do we not see it daily in our own country. He recommends, as a preventive of the growing evils, celibacy till a late age, say thirty years ; and he asserts that unless this "moral restraint" is exerted, vice, poverty, and misery Avill and must become the checks to popula- tion. His book, in my opinion, has done mischief. I devise innocent checks, without deviating from the c 3d MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. demands of nature, or the law of the Prophets, or Di- vine laws. They may be used or they may be let alone. It is in vain to argue Avith these defenders of the evils that be, that the day of overstocking is afar off. They tell you it must come at last ; and that the more you do to remove vice and misery—those de- stroyers of population—the sooner it will come. And what reply can one make to the argument in the ab- stract 1 I believe it to be proved that population, un- restrained, will double itself on an average every twenty five years. If so, it is evident to a demonstration, that if popu- lation be not restrained, morally or immorally, the earth will at last furnish no foothold for the human beings that will cever it. Take a medium calculation as to the natural rate of increase, and say that population unrestrained will double itself every thirty five years. That it has done so (without reckoning the increase from emi- gration) in many parts of this continent, is certain. It appears evident, then, to a demonstration, that population cannot be suffered to increase unrestrained MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. 3d for more than a very few hundred years. We are thus compelled to admit to Malthus, that sooner or later, some restraint or other to population must be employed; and compelled to admit to his aristocratic disciples, that if no other better restraint than celiba- cy, vice and misery will be found, then vice and mis- ery will be. They are the lot of man, from genera- tion to generation. Let those, then, who cry out against this little Treatise, be told that though they may postpone the question, no human power can evade it. It must come up. Had the friends of reform been left to choose their own time, it might, perhaps with advantage, been postponed. And it is an imaginable case, that prejudice might delay it until a general famine or a universal civil war became the frightful check. But will any man or woman of common sense argue the propriety of suffering such a crisis to approach? I should say no—by no means. Make use of my in- nocent checks, and you will save expense, trouble, and at the same time preserve your wives from pain, disease, and many a sorrowful tear. As all reason- able persons must know that frequent and habitual c2 40 MORAL PHYSIOLOOY. labours of that kind does injure their health and fre- quently produce diseases which will cause them to wear out the remainder of their days without enjoy- ment of any kind. Reader, read with attention, and judge without prejudice. Must the poor raise children to filll our Poor Houses, our jails, our state prisons, or can Ave all be placed on an equal standing with our neighbours, both as it regards increase of our children and an in- crease of property 1 So that Ave may be able to sup- port our own children in a comfortable way without placing them into the hands of the rich planters.— Gentle reader, must poor people raise children to be slaves or paupers ? The answer can be no ! with those that read this little book, and comply rigidly with its contents, and pursue the courses laid before them. Must parents be always slaves for their children, and die poor at last?—the answer as above. I pray my readers, then, distinctly to observe how the matter stands. Population, unrestrained, must increase beyond the possibility of the earth and its MORAL PHYSIOLOGY, 41 produce to support. At present it is restrained by vice and misery. The only remedy which the orthodox of the Eng- lish clergymen permits him to propose is late mar- riages. The most enlightened observers of mankind are agreed, that nothing contributes so positively and immediately to demoralize a nation, as when its youth refrain, until a late period, from forming res- pectable connections with the other sex. The fright- ful increase of prostitutes, the destruction of health, the rapid spread of intemperance, the ruin of moral feelings, are, to the mass, the certain consequences. Individuals there are, who escape the contagion—in- dividuals whose better feelings revolt under any temptation, from the mercenary embrace, or the Cir- cean cup of intoxication: but these are exceptions only. The mass must have their pleasures-—the pleasures of intellectual intercourse, of unbought affection,— and of good taste and good feeling, if they can ; but if they cannot, then such pleasures (alas ! that lan- guage should be perverted to entitle them to the c3 42 MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. name I) as the sacrifice of money and the ruin of body and mind can purchase.* Before concluding this chapter, let me state dis- tinctly, that I by no means agree with Malthus and other political economists in believing, that at this moment there is an actual excess of population in any country, (China perhaps excepted) in the known world. I believe that there is more than enough land in every country of Europe to support, in per- fect comfort, all their present inhabitants. That they are not supported in comfort, is in my opinion attributable, not to over-population, but to mal-government. Monopolies favour the rich, taxes oppress the poor—commercial rivalry grinds its vic- tims to the dust. To such causes as these, and not to over-population at the time being, is the actual distress (felt more or less over the civilized-worid) to be attributed. Thus, if the enemies of reform would but let us alone, we might safely postpone to other important practical * Lawrence, the ingenius author of the " Empire of the Nairs," says, shrewdly enough, " whereever the women are prudes, the men will be drunkards." MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. 43 discussions, this population question. But they will not. They force it upon us : and though it might have evinced Avant of judgement to obtrude it unnecessa- rily or prematurely on the public, it Avould betray coAvardice to evade it now Avhen thrust upon us. Enough has been said, probably, in this chapter, to determine the question, whether it is, or is not, desi- rable, in a political point of view, that some check to population be sought and disclosed—some moral re- straint thai shall not, like vice and misery, be demor- olizing, nor, like late marriages, be ascctious and im- practicable and deviating from the laws of Nature, and Divine laws. V CHAPTER V. The question considered in its social bearing. CHAPTER V. The question considered in its social bearing. This is by far the most important branch of the question. The evils caused by an oversiocking of the world, hoAvever inevitable, are distant; and an abstract view of the subject, if even unanswerable, does not come home to the mind Avith the force of a detailed reality. What would be the probable effect in social life, if mankind obtained and exercised a control over the instinct of reproduction ? My set- tled conviction is—and I am prepared to defend it— that the effect would be salutary, moral, civilizing :— that, it would prevent many crimes, and more unhap- py spent hours of the poor females, (who endure all but death to bring their children into this world to en- dure the same punishment) and that it Avould lessen intemperance and profligacy—that it would polish the manners and improve the moral feelings—that it would relieve the burthan of the poor, and the cares, of the rich—that it would most essentially benefit the 48 MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. rising generation, by enabling parents generally more carefully to educate, and more comfortably to pro- vide for their offspring, instead of keeping them nosed round by ignorance and superstition. Let us look solely to the situation of manied per- sons. Is it not a notorious fact that the families of the married often increase beyond Avhat a regard for the young beings coming into the Avorld, the happi- ness of those who give them birth, Avould dictate? (the answer might be—take them to the poor house —the farmers can pay their board there ' And an an- swer to that might be—they have children enough there already.) In how many instances does the hard-working father, and more especially the mother of a poor fam- ily, remain slaves through their lives, tugging at the oar of incessant labour, toiling to, and living only to die poor; when, if their offspring had been limited to two or three children only, they might have enjoyed comfort and comparative affluence! How often is the health of the mother—giving birth every year to an infant—(happy if not twins ! or a monster)—and compelled to toil on, even at those times Avhen na- MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. 49 ture imperiously calls for some relief from daily drudgery—how often is the mother's comfort, health —nay, her life, thus sacrificed ! or, if care and toil have weighed down the spirits, and at last broken the health of the father, how often is the widow left un- able, with the most virtuous intentions, to save her fatherless offspring from becoming degraded objects of charity or profligate votaries of vice ! Fathers and mothers! not you who have your nursery and your nursery maids, and who leave your children at home, to frequent the crowded rout, or to glitter in the over- heated ball room; but you, by the labour of whose hands your children are to live, and who, as you count their rising numbers, sigh to think how soon sickness or misfortune may lessen those wages which are now but just sufficient to afford them bread—fathers and mothers in humble life!—to you my argument comes home, with the force of reality. Others may impugn —may ridicule it. But from bitter experience you know and feel its truth. It will be said, that government ought to provide for the support and education of all the children of the land. No one R less inclined to conform to 50 MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. that position than I; but it does not support and edu- cate them. And, if it did, a period must come at last, Avhen even sueh an act of justice would be no relief from the evils of over-population. Yet, this is not all. Every physician knows, that there are many women so constituted that they cannot give birth to healthy, sometimes not to living children.— Is it desirable—is it moral, that such women should become pregnant 1 Yet this is continually the case, the warnings of physicians to the contrary notwith- standing. Others there are who ought never to become pa- rents ; because, if they do, it is only to transmit to their offspring grievous hereditary diseases ; perhaps that worst of all diseases, insanity. Yet, they will not lead a life of celibacy. They marry. They be- come parents, and the world suffers by it. That a human being should give birth to a child, knowing that he transmits to it hereditary disease, is, in my opinion an immorality. But it is a folly to expect that we can induce all such persons to live the lives of Shakers. Neither is it necessary. All that duty requires of them is to refrain from becoming parents. MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. 5 J Who can estimate the beneficial effect which rational moral restraint may thus have on the health, beauty and physical improvement of our race, throughout fu- ture generations. But apart from these latter considerations, is it not most plainly, clearly, uncontrollably desirable, that parents should have the power to limit their offspring, whether they choose to exercise it or not ? Who can lose by having this power ? and how many may gain ?—may gain competency for themselves, and the opportunity carefully to pducate and provide for their children ! How many may escape the jarrings, the quarrels, the disorder, the anxiety, which an over- grown family two often cause in the domestic circle ! Will it be asserted—and I know no other even plau- sible reply to these facts and arguments—will it be asserted that the thing is in itself immoral or un- seemly ? I deny it; and I point to the population of France, in justification of my denial. Where will you find on the face of the globe, a more polished or civilized nation than the French, or one more punctiliously alive to any rudeness, coarse- ness or indecorum ? You will find none. The French ;Vi MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. are scrupulously on these points to a proverb. Yet as every intelligent traveller in France must have re- marked, there is scarcely to be found among the mid- dle or upper classes, (and seldom even among the working classes,) such a thing as a large family— very seldom have more than three or four children. A French lady of the utmost delicacy and respectabil- ity will, in common conversation, say as simply— (aye, and as innocently, whatever the self righteous prude may aver to the contrary) as she would proffer any common remark about the weather, " I have three children : my husband and I think that is as many as we can do justice to, and I do not intend to have any more." I have stated facts—facts which no traveller who has visited Paris, and seen any of the domestic life of its inhabitants will attempt to deny. However heterodox, then, my view of the subject may be in this country, I am supported in it by the opinion and the practice of the most refined and most social, cultivated nation in the world. It is evident then, that to married persons the pow- er of limiting their offspring to their circumstances, is most desirable. It may often promote the harmony, MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. 53 peace, and comfort of families : sometimes it may save from bankruptcy and ruin, and sometimes it may rescue the mother from premature death. In no case can it, by possibility, be Avorse than superfluous. In no case can it be mischievous. If the moral feelings were carefully cultivated—if we were taught to consult in every thing rather the Avelfare of those we love than our own, how strongly would these arguments be ielt! Surely it may well be a question whether it be desirable, or whether any man ought to ask that the whole life of an intellectual cultivated woman, should be spent in bearing a fam- of twelve or fifteen children, to the ruin perhaps of her constitution, if not the overstocking of the world.— No man ought to require or expect it. But I pass from the case of married persons to that of young men and women who have yet formed no matrimonial connection. In the present state of the Avorld, when public opinion stamps with opprobrium every sexual connection which has not received the sanction of an oath, almost all young persons, on reaching the age of maturity desire to marry. The heart must be very cold or very isolated, that does not ai MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. find some object on wnich to bestOAV its affections.— Thus, early marriages Avould be almost universal, did not prudential considerations interfere. The young man thinks, I must not marry yet—I cannot support a family—I must make money first, and think of a matrimonial settlement afterward. And thus he goes to making money, fully and sincerely re- solved, in a few years, to share it Avith her whom he now loves. But passions are strong and temptations great. Curiosity perhaps introduces him into the comp?ny of those poor creatures Avhom society first reduces to a dependence on the most miserable of mercenary trades, and then curses for being what she has made them. There his health and his moral feelings alike make shipwreck. The affections he had thought to treasure up for their first object, are chilled by dissipation and blunted by excess. He is a man of pleasure—a man of the world. Pie laughs at the romance of his youth, and marries a fortune, If gaudy equipages and gay parties confer happiness. he is happy. But, my readers, will this support a proud wife and a large family of children of that grade ? No !--• IHOBAL ""'HYSIOLCG'V. 55 I3ut had he married the first object of his choice, and ■simply delayed becoming a father until his prospects seemed to warrant it, how different might have been his lot! Until men and women are absolved from the fear of becoming parents, except when they them- selves desire it, they ever will form mercenary and demoralizing connections, and seek in dissipation ihe happiness they might have found in domestic life.— Let us say, then, if we will, that the youth who thus sacrifices the present for the future, chooses wisely between two evils, profligacy and asceticism. This is true: it is not good for a man to be alone. It is for no man's or woman's happiness or benefit, that they should be condemned to Shakerism. It is a vio- lence done to the feelings, and an injury to the char- acter. A life of rigid celibacy, though infinitely pre- ferable to a life of dissipation, is yet fraught with many evils. The mind is uneasy and unsettled, and the judgment warped. I shall now speak of seduction. And let rne ask what is it gives to the arts of seduction their sting, and stamps to the world its victim ? Why is it, that the man goes free, and enters society again almost 56 MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. courted and applauded for his treachery, while the woman is a mark for the finger of reproach, and a butt for the tongue of scandal 1 Because she bears about her the mark of what is called her disgrace — She becomes a mother, because she cannot help her passion—she loves the wretch who violates her chastity—who pretends to love her in return, and presses her to his bosom with all the ardour of friend- ship, Avhile he plunges the assassins dagger in her heart. Poor woman! she cannot help herself, while the tender passion rules within her. Oh ! wretched man, remember this! have compassion on those who tenderly love you—be sincere in all your words—do not enjoy yourself at the expense of others, if you venture as far as to dispossess them of their virtue, use some good and safe check that may liberate them from scorn—that, she may not become a mother, that society may have something tangible against which to direct its anathemas. Nine tenths, at least, of the misery and ruin which are caused by seduction, even in the present state of public opinion on the subject, result from cases of pregnancy. Perhaps the unfeel- ing selfishness of him who fears to become a father, MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. 57 administers some noxious drug to produce abortion ; for even such scenes our courts of justice disclose ! Perhaps the frenzy of the wretched mother takes the life of her infant, or seeks in suicide the consumma- tion of her wrongs and her woes ! or the false lover takes her to an asylum, there to remain with the in- sane for a while until she regains her health. If, then, we cannot do all shall we neglect a part ? If we cannot prevent every misery which man's selfishness and the world's cruelty entail on a sex which it ought to be our pride and honour to cherish and defend. Let us prevent as many as we can.— If we c annot persuade society to revoke its unmanly and unchristian* persecution of those who are often the best and gentlest of its members, let us at least give to woman what defence we may against its vio- lence. And now let my readers pause. Let them review the various arguments I have placed before them.— Let them reflect how intimately the instinct of which * Jesus said unto her, " Neither do I condemn thee."— John viii, 2. d2 38 < MOiiAL PHYSI0i.0(Ji* I treat is connected with the social welfare of socie- ty.—Let them bear in mind, that just in proportion to its social influence. Is it not important that wc should know how to control and govern it ?—that, (and that we ought to prize much more highly) may save our companions and our offspring from suffering or misery—that by such knowledge the young may form virtuous connections, instead of becoming profli- gates or ascetics; that by it early marriage is de- prived of its heaviest consequences, and seduction of its sharpest sting—that by it man may be saved' from moral ruin, and woman from desolating dis- honour—that by it the first pure affections may be soothed and satisfied, instead of being twarted or destroyed—let them call to mind all this, and then let them say, whether the possession of such control be not a blessing. It now remains, after having in this and the prece- ding Chapters, spoken of the desirability of obtaining control over the instinct of reproduction, to present my views of its practicability- Thi3 I have re- served for the next Chapter, premising in this place that, as the reader is doubtless now fully conscious MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. 59 of the magnitude of the evils complained of, he will with redoubled interest peruse the remedy pointed out. D3 CHAPTEB VI. 7%e subject considered in.its immediate connection with Physiology, showing actual means, §c. a—™=. -:. '■■■■'- ~;—-U- V;**. rS ;!>*.'ifv.-- ' fa '*£?■£*>'■? '"•■■"■-•.■ '■•"":.- ^* ■ V."\; *] ,2*«£ •?■-. :'.^ iS"' . >;,:..«. ■'>>'■ ■!f-...J--, . V- i^;.^%i •:•%:,.., -i>«J^^ '.«•-:." '"'^* ' *'*5. -" ' " **"'" •*■'• / I CHAPTER VI. The subject considered in its immediate connection with Physiology, showing actual means, <$c. In this world the value of labour is too often esti- mated almost in proportion to its inutility, so in phy- sical science, contested questions seem to have at- tracted attention and engaged research, almost in the inverse ratio of their practical importance. We have a hundred learned hypotheses for one decisive prac- tical experiment. We have many thousands of volumes written to explain fanciful theories, and scarcely as many dozens to record ascertained facts. It is not my intention, in discussing tBis branch of the subject, to examine the hundred ingenius theo- ries of generation which ancient and modern physi- ologists have put forth. I shall not enquire whether the future human being owes its first existence, as Hippocrates and Galen asserted, and Buffon very in- geniously supports, to the union of two given fluids, each a sort of extract of the body of the parent, and 04 MOHAL PHYSIOLOGY. composed of organic particles similar to the future offspring; or Avhether, as Harvey and Haller teach, the embrio leposes in the ovum until vivified by the seminal fluid, or perhaps only the aura seminalis. I leave these and fifty other hypotheses as ingenius and as useless, to be discussed by those who seem to make it a point of honour to leave no fact unex- plained by some imagined theory ; and I descend at once to the terra firma of positive experience and actual observation. I have taken great pains to ascertain the opinions of the most enlightened physicians on this subject— (opinions which popular prejudice will not permit them to offer publicly in their works) and as the prin- cipal religion and politics of the present day is nothing but dollars and cents, they would not publish such opinions on account of self-interest. My friends and fellow readers, I make it openly known to you, an enlightened people, and as we are all true Ameri- cans, let us enjoy our liberty. If every person were to show to this world their true character—openly without flying under a false cloak, there would be less roguery and less mischief—less law would be MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. 65 required to regulate and detect illegitimate children. Thus, though I pretend not to speak positively to the details of a subject, which Avill then only be fully understood when men acquire sense enough simply and unreservedly to discuss it, I may ventuie to assure my readers that the main fact is incontrover- tible. I shall adduce such facts in proof of this as may occur to me in the course of this investigation How various and contradictory the different theories of generation, almost all physiologists are agreed that the entrance of the sperm itself (or of some vola- tile particles proceeding from it) into the uterus, must precede conception. This it Avas that probably first suggested the possibility of preventing conception at will. The modes of preventing it, which have been adopting in different nations are various. Those which have come to my knowledge are as follows, viz: First: It consists of complete withdrawal, on the part of the man immediately previous to emission^— That in all cases is effectual. It may be objected, that the practice requires a mental effort and partial withdrawal is not sufficient always. 66 MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. Second : The check chiefly recommended by me. It consists in the introduction into the vagina of a small damp spunge previous to coition, which is im- mediately afterwards Avithdrawn by means of a very narrow silk braid or ribband attached to it. And it is said, that if used of the size of a hen's egg. It is unnecessary to add, that the spunge should be clean—that it should be cleared of the particles of lime which is frequently found of the coarse kind (it ought to be the fine white kind for that purpose) after withdrawing this sponge another should be intro- duced fastened to a small stick four or five inches long—moistened with simple water is sufficient.— This last should be used as a swab to clear the va- gina of the semen. This spunge should be fastened on the stick in such a manner as to leave the bulk as large as a turkey's egg, or as large as a large hen's egg, (according to the size of the vagina, as the vagina of women differ sometimes consider- able) this remedy is a perfectly safe and sure preven- tive, if used of a proper size. This remedy has been used by several of my ac- quaintances, without failure—the anatomyof the parts MORAL PHYSIOLOGY. 67 alone, besides other concurring proofs, fairly demon- strate it to any unprejudiced mind. Those who use it will be safe without fail, Without getting a male or female— Those who venture on this route, Will continue to grow and not to sprout. Third: The following check has been for many years employed by the nobility, and also partially by other classes in England: It consists in the use, by the man, of a covering inade of very fine, smooth and delicately prepared skin, (commonly called Kundum's). It has been employed also to guard against syphilis and gonor- rhae, and is mentioned in some English works.* The