THE Ei _'v7s7" S 
OF 
GENERATION 
SEXUALITY^CONCEPTION 
BY 
H. M. GOURRIER, M. D., 
IH 
De la Faculte de Paris; Membre de la Societe des sciences physiques, 
chimiques etdes arts industriels de Paris, des Societes scientipiques, 
agricoles et litteraires des Pyrenees-Orientales et des Boiiches- 
du-Rhone, Membre des Jurys des concours et expositions 
rtgionales de France, Laureat de la prime d'hon- 
neur regionale de VAude, Ex-medecin de la 
salubrite publique, etc. 
Translated and Edited, with an Introductory and Notes, 
BY 
FRANKLIN DUANE PIERCE, M. D„ 
SUPERINTENDENT OF THE UNION SPRINGS, N. Y., SANITARIUM. 
UNION SPRINGS, N. Y.: 
HYGEIA PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
1886. COPYRIGHT, BY 
F. D. PIERCE, M. D., 
1886. 
BAKER, JONES «t CO., PRINTERS, BUFFALO, N. Y. CONTENTS. 
PAGE. 
Introductory, ----- - 5 
CHAPTER I. 
Historical.—Opinions of Ancient Authors.—Opinions of Mod- 
ern Authors, ------ 9 
CHAPTER II. 
The Laws of Sexuality and Conception, - - - 24 
CHAPTER III. 
Hermaphrodism.—Separation of the Sex and the Type.—The 
Resemblance.—The Trio, - - - - 27 
CHAPTER IV. 
Causes and Effect of Woman’s Condition, - - 35 
CHAPTER V. 
The Foundation and the Form.—Corruptness, - - 37 
CHAPTER VI. 
The Law of the Feeblest, - - - - - 38 
CHAPTER VII. 
The Conditions of Conception, and Production of the 
Sexes, -------40 iv 
CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
PAGE. 
Influence of Epidemics, of Peace and of War on Sexu- 
ality, - - - - - - -46 
CHAPTER IX. 
Comparisons, ------ 50 
CHAPTER X. 
Refutations, - - - - - - -56 
CHAPTER XI. 
Necessity for Regulating the Marital Relations, '- - 70 
CHAPTER XII. 
Reaction, - - - - - - - -78 
CHAPTER XIII. 
Practical Application of the Foregoing Principles, - 86 INTRODUCTORY. 
The subject of generation and sexuality has, as 
our author states, engaged the attention of think- 
ing men from the earliest period of the world’s 
history. The spirit of investigation seems to 
never tire. Man is not content with observing 
the results of certain phenomena ; he must fathom 
the causes, if possible, and bring them under his 
control. 
The question, “ How to Control Sex in Gen- 
eration,” is receiving to-day more attention than 
ever before, if a person may judge from the num- 
ber of articles on the subject which have recently 
appeared in some of the leading medical journals 
and journals devoted to stock-breeding and to 
agriculture. 
Among those in this country who have written 
most on the subject, and who have expressed 
original ideas, are Mr. D. D. Fiquet, a stock- 
breeder, of Houston, Texas, Mr. Thomas B. 6 
IN TROD UCTOR V. 
Armitage, and Mr. Samuel Hough Terry, who has 
written a book, entitled “ Controlling Sex in 
Generation.” 
These three gentlemen seem to have arrived at 
the same conclusion, independent of one another. 
They maintain that the sex is determined by the 
one that possesses, at the time of copulation, the 
strongest passion ; that “ the resulting sex is always 
the opposite of that in the more vigorously and 
healthfully passionate parent at the time of service 
performed,” as Mr. Fiquet puts it. 
Now, at least so far as the human family is con- 
cerned, facts contradict this hypothesis. Mr. 
Acton, Dr. Tilt, and other high medical authori- 
ties affirm that a “ woman may be well-formed, 
happily married, and without any tangible imper- 
fections of the sexual organs, and yet completely 
indifferent to connection,” and conceive and bear 
fine children of both sexes. My own observations, 
extending over a period of more than ten years, 
during which I have treated a very large number 
of women for diseases peculiar to the sex, teach IN TROD UCTOR Y. 
7 
me that many women possess no sexual passion, 
and that others, on account of a peculiar sensibil- 
ity of the nerves supplying the vagina, a condi- 
tion known as vaginismus, abhor the sexual 
embrace ; and yet these same women become 
impregnated and bear male children. 
Other things being equal, the most vigorous 
subject, the one having the greatest amount of 
vitality, would naturally possess the strongest 
passion, and, according to our author’s theory, 
the sex of the offspring would be the opposite of 
that of the parent in whom such vigor and vitality 
are manifested. 
Almost all the observations and statistics put 
forward by the three authors whom we have 
named in support of their views, only serve to 
confirm Dr. Gourrier’s theory. 
Dr. Gourrier frankly admits that his teachings 
may contain some minor errors, and they unques- 
tionably do. Nevertheless, it seems to me that if, 
indeed, he has not actually solved the problem of 
the determining cause or causes of sex, he has come 8 
INTRODUCTORY. 
nearer to it than any other author whom I have 
read; therefore, I deem his book worthy of trans- 
lation and publication in America. If found by 
the test of experience to be correct, it will prove 
of incalculable benefit, not only in its application 
to the human family, but also to the lower animal 
species. It will revolutionize the breeding of do- 
mestic animals, adding millions to the world’s 
wealth. 
I desire to collect facts bearing upon the subject, 
and, therefore, will deem it a favor if those who 
put into practice the principles set forth by Dr. 
Gourrier will communicate to -me the results of 
their experience, giving full details. Such com- 
munications, when they relate to the human spe- 
cies, will be held sacredly confidential. 
It is hoped that the medical profession, stock- 
breeders and others will give the propositions 
advanced serious consideration before passing 
judgment upon the theory. 
F. D. PIERCE. M. D. 
Union Springs, N. Y., Nov. 2, 1886. THE LAWS OF 
Generation.SexualityandConception. 
CHAPTER I 
H ISTORICAL. 
Opinions of Ancient Authors Before express- 
ing our views on such a delicate subject, we desire 
to go back and review ancient traditions, and to 
give, in a succinct and synthetical manner, the most 
salient theories of different authors on this subject, 
which has, from the earliest times, received the atten- 
tion of great minds, which has been considered by 
men of original ideas and authority, those who have 
been the guides of the human race. 
Among these, Hippocrates1 and, afterwards, Avi- 
cenna, speaking like men who are convinced that they 
express the truth, have left us descriptions which show 
that in their time science was not in a very advanced 
state. 
1 Hippocrates CEuvres completes, edition Littr6. Paris, 1839- 
1861. HISTORICAL. 
10 
The writings of Avicenna, nevertheless, although 
somewhat exaggerated concerning the influence of 
the female in determining the masculine sex, are, in 
the main, correct. This is the most remarkable and 
ingenious part of his work. It includes, it is true, 
some exaggerations and some things which are of 
no utility, but the main points are correct, and the 
author, by chance, stumbles upon the truth in his re- 
marks concerning the female. Wh,en he comes to 
speak of man, however, his ideas are erroneous. The 
foundations of his theories are incorrect and false. 
For the sake of pleasing his readers, he makes an 
overdrawn picture of the procreative power of man, 
who is, according to him, predestined to procreate 
males. 
Michel Procope1 is no more correct in his hypothe- 
ses, which rest on the quality of the semen, according 
as it comes from the right or the left testicle. 
Hufeland2 has done justice to the subject by his 
zootomical experiments, from which, however, are not 
always drawn conclusions the most just and conform- 
able to the truth. 
Henke3 and Millot,4 bringing forward the supposi- 
1 Procope Couteaux, l’Art de faire des gar§ons. Montpellier, 1770. 
sHufeland, l'Art de prolonger la vie ou la macrobiotique. New 
French Edition, by J. Pellagot. Paris, 1871, p. 398. 
8 Henke, Ueberdie Entwickelungskrankheiten. Nuremberg, 1814. 
4Millot, l’Art de procr6er les sexes a volont6. Third Edition. 
Paris, 1802. OPINIONS OF ANCIENT A UTHORS. 
11 
tions of Procope, relative to the formation of the sex 
by the ovaries, right or left, have both seen their 
theories annihilated by anatomical investigations. 
The illustrious De Graaf,1 who, by his anatomical 
dissections, has done so much for the advancement of 
science, is himself equally in error on this subject, in 
both his deductions and applications. 
The authors of later times, in their investigations 
of this subject, confined themselves to the seminal 
fluid and the spermatozoa. 
Harvey3 believed that seminal fluid was secreted in 
the uterus of the female, where it became transformed 
into an ovum on coming in contact with the sperma- 
tozoa of the male. 
Buffon maintained that the ovaries were simply 
female testicles, and that they secreted a fluid which 
was analogous to the semen of the male; that the 
sexes depended on the greater or lesser quantity of 
this secretion poured out by the male or the female 
during the act of copulation. Such theories only 
serve to envelop the subject in darkness. This illus- 
trious savant, who, according to reports which we have 
received, in the case of infinitesimally small organ- 
isms, admitted the theory of spontaneous generation, 
and denied that they produce ova, would have prefer- 
red quietly to see science retrograde rather than to 
1De Graaf, Opera omnia: De virorum et mulierum organis 
generationi inservientibus. Amsterdam, 1678. 
8 Harvey, Exercitationes de generatione animalium. 1680. 12 
HISTORICAL. 
have renounced his theory of organic animalcules, by 
which he sought to explain all the phenomena of 
nature. 
Ackermann1 maintained that, at the beginning of 
gestation, the embryo was neither male nor female, 
and he attributed the determining cause of the 
sex to the centre or place in which the embryo is 
developed. 
Knox and Weber affirmed that the embryo, at the 
beginning of its development, is hermaphrodite. 
Aristotle, Saint Thomas2 and Tiedemann believed 
that all beings were primitively females, or unfinished 
males. 
Opinions of Modern Authors—All these theories 
have had their time. To-day the most advanced doc- 
trines are based upon extended observations and 
careful scientific experiments, yet they do not express 
the latest views on this science. The majority of 
authorities believe with Pouchet,3 Robin,4 Coste and 
1 Ackermann, Ueber die korperliche Verschiedenheit des Marines 
vom Weibe. Frankfort, 1788. 
sFemina, per respectum ad naturam particularem est aliquid 
deficiens, et occasionatum quia virtus activa quae est in semine 
maris, intendit producere simile perfectum masculinum sexum. 
Sed quod femina generatur, hoc est propter virtutis activae debili- 
tatem, vel propter aliquam materiae indispositionem, vel etiam 
propter aliquam transmutationem ab intrinseco, etc. 
3F. A. Pouchet, Th6orie positive de l’ovulation spontanrie. 
Paris, 1847. 
4Ch. Robin, Diet, de medecine, 18th edition. Paris, 1873. 
Art. Generation et Ovulation. OPINIONS OF MODERN A UTHORS. 
13 
many others, that the human female produces ova 
which are thrown off every month, during the period 
of menstruation, from the age of puberty to the meno- 
pause, or change of life, and that this production of 
ova is independent of any intercourse with the male ; 
that in the case of the lower animals, ova are produced 
and discharged at intervals coincident with the peri- 
ods of sexual excitement termed heat j that before the 
age at which ovulation commences, the ova exist in 
the ovaries in a latent state ; that in traversing the 
sexual organs and during its evolution, the ovum 
undergoes certain modifications, that is to say, it 
reaches a greater or lesser degree of maturity ; that 
the female can be impregnated only when the ovum 
has not passed beyond a certain degree of maturity, 
at the moment when it comes in contact with the 
spermatozoa. 
According to certain authors, especially Warner, 
Schirac and Huber, the degree of maturity which the 
ovum has reached when it encounters the spermatozoa 
is the sole determining cause of the sex. These 
authors, relying on experiments made with bees, main- 
tain that the ovum, as it comes from the ovary, is 
neither male nor female ; that the place in which it is 
developed has absolutely no influence in determining 
the sex ; that the identity of the two sexes, during the 
first part of embryonic life, as authenticated by numer- 
ous observations, and particularly by those of Auten- 14 
HISTORICAL. 
rieth, Tiedemann, Ackermann, Meckel, Serres1 and 
others, does not in reality exist; that such identity is 
only apparent, and that the sex is formed while the 
embryo is yet a mere speck ; that the sex depends en- 
tirely upon the degree of maturity which the ovum pos- 
sesses at the moment when it encounters the sperma- 
tozoa ; that an imperfectly ripe ovum produces a 
female, and one which has attained perfect develop- 
ment, or which is fully matured, produces a male. 
Here error and truth go hand in hand. If narrow 
views exist anywhere, they certainly do in this last 
hypothesis, which would leave to chance approaches 
towards the solution of one of the greatest and most 
magnificent problems of humanity. 
For years past, repeated experiments have been 
made with a view of verifying the above theories. 
Thury8 of Geneva, Cornez and others, have made 
experiments with cattle, and Coste with fowls, which 
have been attended with diverse results. They tend, 
however, to prove conclusively that the sex obtained 
during the first part of heat is more frequently 
female, while that resulting from sexual congress near 
the end of that period is more frequently male. 
These savants have, therefore, concluded that the 
degree of maturity which the ovum has attained at 
1Serres, Anatomie compare transcendante, principes d’embry- 
og6nie, de zoog6nie et de t6ratologie. Paris, 1859. 
8Thury, Mem. sur la production des sexes chez les animaux et 
l’homme. Paris and Geneva, 1864. OPINIONS OF MODERN A U THORS. 
15 
the moment of fecundation is the sole determining 
cause of the sex ; that at the commencement of heat, 
the ovum, being imperfectly developed, can only pro- 
duce females, whereas later, when it has acquired per- 
fection, it produces males. 
We have repeated the same experiments ourselves, 
and have obtained substantially the same results. 
We have elsewhere remarked that the nearer the 
end of heat sexual congress takes place, the more apt 
is conception to result, and that disappointment is 
certain, or, in other words, that fecundation does not 
take place, when the sexes are brought together after 
the termination of heat; but, as will be seen further 
on, we are far from arriving at the same conclusions 
as our predecessors, or from being willing to make 
the same statements regarding the laws of generation 
and sexuality. Even though the results of our exper- 
iments have been the same, in the interpretations, 
deductions, and teachings, we differ greatly; also in 
the methods of practice. However, we do not wish 
to deny but that their theory may contain something 
which points towards a solution of the problem. Our 
love of truth compels us to make great concessions. 
The practical instructions of Thury for obtaining 
at will animals of either sex are contained in six 
propositions. It is evident that great uncertainty 
exists in the fourth and sixth. We will quote them : 
“ 4th.—When many ova are successively detached from 
the ovary during the same period of ovulation (in 16 
HISTORICAL. 
multiparous and oviparous animals in general), the 
first ova are generally less developed, and produce 
females ; the last are more ripe, and produce males 
(bees and cocks); but, if a second period of ovulation 
succeeds the first, or if the surroundings are consid- 
erably changed, the last ova may not be able to attain 
a superior degree of maturity, and, consequently, they 
too may produce females.” 
“ 6th.—It is plain that a person cannot be certain of 
obtaining a definite sex when the signs of heat (in 
large mammifera) are vague or equivocal, as is fre- 
quently the case with animals confined in close quar- 
ters, but not with those that are free to roam.” 
In spite of the bad diction, a person can understand 
very nearly what the author desires to say. Could 
anything be more vague? 
Coste, nevertheless, desired to verify the assertions 
of Thury, and, to this end, conducted a series of 
experiments on fowls. In these, however, he failed, 
but he has not ventured to express himself conscien- 
tiously on any point, and he has had reason to act as 
he has. His experiments, nevertheless, did lead him 
to affirm that, during the passage of the ovum through 
the oviduct, there finally comes a time when the ovum 
loses the property of receiving the impregnation from 
the male, and remains sterile. 
This important observation has a close connection 
with those which we have made ourselves, in the mam- 
mifera, and it would have much more value, if it were OPINIONS OF MODERN A U THORS. 
17 
not true that a single impregnation is sufficient to 
fecundate many ova of different sexes. 
Be this as it may, Dr. Warner, relying on the exper- 
iments of Cornez and Thury, argues that, to be con- 
clusive, the experiments of Coste should have been 
conducted with animals of the same species, and that, 
without this circumstance, a person is not apt to be 
able to judge correctly. But, if a person cannot rea- 
son from cattle to fowls, or reciprocally, on what 
ground can a person reason from bees to the mam- 
mifera? Dr. Warner reasons from bees and cattle to 
the human species, not seeming to be conscious of the 
fact that he himself is begging the question. * 
According to him, the sex depends upon the degree 
of maturity of the ovum at the moment of its impreg- 
nation by the male ; and the human ovum produces a 
female when it is fecundated at the commencement of 
the menstrual period, inasmuch as a female is the prod- 
uct of an imperfect ovum ; and that the human ovum 
produces a male when it is fecundated at the end of 
this period, inasmuch as the masculine sex is derived 
from a human ovum fecundated after it has reached a 
state of maturity and perfection.1 
After having laid down this law, the author states 
that his rules for the procreation of either sex at will 
contain some apparent exceptions. It is discovered, 
1“ La femme, moins parfaite que l’homme, dans sa nature phy- 
sique et morale, derive done d’un oeuf mur.” Dr, 
Warner. 18 
HISTORICAL. 
says he, in seeking for their causes, that many influ- 
ences, and notably the physical state of the parents at the 
time of sexual congress, modify the law announced. 
It is to these modifications, says he, that many authors 
have attributed the determining causes of the sexes, 
thus confounding the accessory with the principal. 
He further states that a study of the causes of these 
modifications leads him to this conclusion, that the 
exceptions in the theory are only apparent, and that 
this is a confirmation of the correctness of it. Such a 
conclusion, which no one but the author could have 
foreseen, seems to us almost equivalent to the abandon- 
ment or the denial of the principle itself, as we will 
explain hereafter. 
According to Boudin,1 the sex is influenced by the 
age of the parents, by their physical state, and by the 
seasons and the climates. According to him, old men 
have more boys than girls ; and the feminine sex 
predominates when the mother is more aged than the 
father ; and the two sexes tend to preserve an equi- 
librium in their productions when the parents are of 
about the same age. 
The husband, in France, generally being older than 
the wife, a person is apt to conclude with Boudin and 
1 Boudin, De l’influence de l’age relatif des parents sur le sexe 
des enfants. (Gaz. m6d. de Paris, 1863, et Comptes-rendus de 
l’Acad. des sciences, 23 f6v., 1863.) OPINIONS OF MODERN A UTHORS. 
19 
Hofacker,1 that the influence of age in determining 
the sex is demonstrated by the fact alone that, in 
France, more boys than girls are born. 
This is, to a certain extent, true, but it does not 
afford a complete solution of the problem. 
The statements of Dr. Lucas2 relative to the influ- 
ence of age on fecundity, when they do not relate to 
the determination of sex, but simply to the greater or 
lesser energy of each sex at different ages, are strictly 
correct throughout the entire animal kingdom. 
Sadler of England and Hofacker of Germany have 
concluded, from the official registers, that the age of 
the parents has a marked influence in determining 
the sex. Statistics of this kind are apt to cause con- 
fusion and give rise to uncertainties in the minds of 
investigators, and cause them to arrive at erroneous 
conclusions. Such statistics, however, although of 
no great assistance, are not entirely destitute of value, 
but they are of only partial application, and, there- 
fore, they should not serve as the basis for any 
theory. It is well known with what art it is possible 
to group figures in favor of some preconceived opinion 
or hypothesis. They may be so arranged that they 
will only prove that which their author desires to draw 
from them. Thus far, statistics have proved but one 
1Hofacker, Ueber die eigenschaften welche sich bei menschen 
und thieren auf die Nachkommen vererben. Tubingen, 1828. 
2 Lucas, Trait6 physiologique et philosophique de I’h6r6dit6 
naturelle. Paris, 1847-1850. 20 
HISTORICAL. 
fact, which is that there is a constant numerical pre- 
domination of the male sex, at all times and in all 
places. 
[Recent statistics show that in France, England, 
Germany, Austria, the United States and in most 
other countries, there is, taking the entire population, 
an excess of females, notwithstanding the fact that 
more boys than girls are born. This is due to the 
lower death-rate of the female sex. 
The census of 1871 in Italy showed that there was 
a distinct excess of males for the first fifteen years of 
life, that after that age the excess was on the side of 
the females, and very decidedly so between the ages 
of nineteen and twenty-one, and that between the 
ages of thirty-one and seventy-one, the excess was 
again, for the most part, on the side of the males.1 
—F. D. P.] 
The method pointed out by Girou,3 the dis- 
tinguished savant and agriculturist, for obtaining 
either sex at will, has no better foundation than the 
other theories we have narrated. His experiments 
were made with herds. According to him, each of 
the sexes is more apt to transmit its own attributes 
than those of the opposite sex; in other words, the 
male produces the masculine sex, and the female the 
feminine sex. 
1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, vol. xiii, p. 449. 
*Girou de Buzareingues, De la G6n6ration. Paris, 1828. OPINIONS OF MODERN A UTHORS. 
21 
Dr. Lucas, in combating this theory, brings for- 
ward one that is equally erroneous, and which very 
closely resembles the very one which he attempts to 
overthrow. According to him, the sex that possesses 
the least vitality, or strength, permits the other to 
confer its attributes on the offspring. 
This author, who, by the way, is not the only one 
to contribute to science from his imagination, would 
have expressed the truth, had he confined his remarks to 
the type, or if he had simply maintained that the type 
the most accentuated or the most constant is the one 
chosen to furnish the type. Authors have always 
thus confounded the sex and the type. We will re- 
turn to this very important subject further on. 
Let us enquire whether Girou comes any nearer the 
truth in the statement which he puts forth: “ Modera- 
tion in sexual intercourse is one of the most essential 
conditions by which each sex guards its character/’ 
It is very evident that the sex does not depend upon 
moderation in sexual congress, although this is un- 
questionably good in itself, and essential for the 
preservation of health, and, therefore, has an indirect 
influence in the determination of sex. The influence 
of this element cannot be denied, since the health of 
the parents has an important bearing on generation 
and sexuality, as will be shown later. 
No experiments on the human species have been 
attempted, so far as we know, by these same individ- 
uals, with a view of solving this important problem. 22 
HISTORICAL. 
Experiments of this kind would be so difficult, and 
the different elements which a person would be obliged 
to take into account are so complicated, that the con- 
clusions which might be drawn from them would, 
necessarily, be indefinite and inexact. 
The best plan, therefore, is to observe carefully the 
productions of nature, and draw from them our de- 
ductions. If this course were pursued, each one would 
be able, and of himself and according to his sphere, 
to arrive at more or less definite ideas, without having 
recourse to the theories of others. 
We have now reviewed the most salient opinions of 
authors on the subject of the sexes, and, almost with- 
out any exceptions, we have found their teachings full 
of errors and uncertainties. Nevertheless, all the 
authors whom we have cited, as well as those to whom 
we shall refer hereafter, are honest, especially those 
named in the first part of this chapter. They have 
made attempts to arrive at definite conclusions, and 
have searched diligently for the truth, but they have 
continually gravitated around the goal. They have 
evinced a strong desire for theories which were pleas- 
ing to their fertile imaginations. 
A narration and examination of all these theories 
would require several volumes. We would, however, 
willingly devote our time to the task, if such work 
would cause any light to be thrown upon the sub- 
ject, or if it would cause science to advance a single 
$tep; but they are so in opposition to our views that OPINIONS OF MODERN A UTHORS. 
23 
we fear such a work would be of little value to the 
reader. 
The determining cause of the sexes has been sought 
for almost everywhere, but chiefly where it does not 
exist, as in the winds, the seasons, and even in the 
phases of the moon. It is true that these have only 
been regarded as general or predisposing causes. 
According to Virey,1 summer is favorable for the 
generation of males, and winter for females. Bailly 
believed absolutely the opposite, while Riecke main- 
tained that the most favorable months for the creation 
of males were the months of May, October, November 
and December. Fourier demonstrated the fallacious- 
ness of such views, and Warner coincided with him, 
but expressed himself less decidedly. 
The ancients attributed to the winds a certain in- 
fluence. They maintained that the winds and heat of 
the equatorial regions enervated the vital faculties, and 
rendered males incapable of reproducing their sex so 
frequently as in the north. This speculation was care- 
fully investigated by a multitude of authors: by Pliny, 
Columelle and Elien, all of whom learned it from the 
writings of Aristotle, who got it from the traditions 
of the Greeks. 
Venette, Virey and Demangeon3 also obtained their 
1Virey, Philosophic de l’histoire ou des ph6nom6nes de l’organ- 
isation des apimaux et des v6g6taux. Paris, 1835. 
2Demangeon, Anthropogenese ou generation de l’homme. Paris, 
1829. 24 
THE LA WS OF 
knowledge from the same source, according to Dr. 
Lucas. 
Without stopping to narrate these diverse specula- 
tions, the discussion of which would require much 
time and space, and which do not really merit much 
attention, we shall proceed to examine and describe 
the conjugal relations and conception, and to arrive 
at a knowledge of the laws which govern the creation 
of animate beings. 
CHAPTER II. 
The Laws of Sexuality and Conception In 
the beginning, we shall give some definitions. 
What is a natural law ? 
It is a fixed, invariable, immutable principle, which 
renders an account of all natural phenomena, and 
permits of no exceptions. 
There is but one natural law. It would be im- 
possible to have many, for the reason that what is 
true in one case is equally true in all cases. This 
law is therefore universal. 
The universal law is that harmony or concert of 
action which exists throughout all the elements of 
nature, all concurring to the same end. SEXUALITY AND CONCEPTION. 
25 
Universal harmony cannot exist except there be 
a perfect equilibrium among the elements of nature. 
Nature cannot come to or maintain an equilibrium 
except she unceasingly obeys the necessities under 
which she finds herself placed, whether in a state of 
health or in a state of disease. 
Her course is governed by the need which is the 
most imperious ; upon it depends her choice. 
Nature invariably pursues the two following ends : 
1st. The conservation of the subject. 
2d. The propagation of the species. 
These two aims constitute two great forces. They 
are our two most dominant passions. The first is 
designated the instinct of self-preservation, and con- 
sists of that excessive care which we take of life, that 
longing to live which even amounts to a desire for 
immortality. The second is the powerful reproduc- 
tive instinct. 
These two forces are intimately connected. They 
react on each other, because they are in a state of 
constant antagonism. At a certain period of life the 
second overbalances the first. 
The propagation of the species may be resolved into 
the sex and the type. During its period of domination, 
the reproductive instinct sways the entire organism. 
The object of this instinct is to call into action the 
generative organs, for the purpose of maintaining 
an equilibrium, in order to prevent any interruption 
in the chain of living beings. 26 
THE LA IVS OF 
The mission of nature is, therefore, either to look 
after the maintenance of her subjects, or after their 
numerical increase, in proportion to the fertility and 
resources of the earth, and to provide for replacing 
them in proportion to the extent of their extinction. 
What subjects is there most urgent need of replac- 
ing? From a conjugal point of view, which of the 
sexes, in the natural order of things, is there most 
need of replacing ? 
It is the one that is the feeblest, the most debili- 
tated, the one that is likely to live the shortest period, 
or, in other words, the sex in which vitality is the 
feeblest at the time of the copulative act. 
Therefore, in generation, the sex is naturally deter- 
mined by the subject whose individuality there is most 
need of preserving. It is this one that furnishes the 
necessary elements for the continuation of the work 
of nature ; this one that fixes the sex. 
In the vegetable kingdom, nature acts likewise 
under the influence of the same law. The conserva- 
tion of the subject and the propagation of the 
species guide her in all her operations. She pro- 
vides for the replacing of unhealthy and unpromis- 
ing subjects by an increase in their productions. 
Thus a diseased tree which is about to die is loaded 
with fruit beyond measure. Everybody knows that 
the natural means for the reproduction of vegetables 
are found in the organs of fructification, and that a 
person may prolong the life of an annual vegetable SEXUALITY AND CONCEPTION. 
27 
by pruning off the floral organs in proportion to the 
extent of their number. 
In like manner, in the animal kingdom, life may be 
prolonged and the health preserved by proper 
management of the generative functions. 
Behold the diseased oak, loaded with an immense 
crop of acorns! Look at the poor consumptive, 
burdened with a large family, unfortunately a victim 
of a hereditary disease ! 
The law of nature is implacable, and punishes the 
children for the faults of their fathers. 
CHAPTER III. 
When there is, at the moment of conception, a per- 
fect equilibrium in the forces and vital resources of 
the male and female, the sex is determined by the 
existing need for the replacement of the branch which 
in general possesses the least vitality. 
It is in such cases that the sex may most easily be pro- 
duced at will. 
It is a favorable indication to see nature obliged to 
go back to preceding generations in search of symp- 
toms of feebleness, not being able to find in the hus- 
band or wife the necessary elements for a continuation 
of her work. 28 
HERMA PHRODISM. 
Hermaphrodism.—The question whether it is 
possible to restore physiological harmony and fertility 
in an individual in whom the development of the 
generative organs simulates that of the opposite sex, 
must be answered in the negative. 
It is evident, at first sight, that, strictly speaking, 
there exists no such thing as hermaphrodism, that is 
to say complete ; that it is only apparent, on the 
exterior, and not real. All authorities agree that a 
complete hermaphrodite does not exist. 
The cause of hermaphrodism, and of monstrosities 
in general, is to be found in an arrest or local excess 
of development, in the dispositions of matter at an 
early period of embryonic life. 
Complete hermaphrodism is impossible in the 
human species, because of the symmetfy of the gen- 
erative organs, and on account of the osseous forma- 
tion of the pelvis. In a word, there is no place for it. 
Such a condition would be a great deformity, a 
degeneration which would approach the lower orders 
of organisms. The distinct separation of the sex, 
even in vegetables, is a mark of their height in the 
scale, and of their splendor. 
The congenital infecundity or sterility of the mule 
is due to an arrest of development, or a deviation from 
or the partial or complete destruction of physiological 
harmony in one of the organs of generation. 
The workers among bees are sterile, from the fact 
that during the period of incubation their ovaries are SEPARATION OF THE SEX AND THE TYPE. 
29 
compressed, and thereby prevented from acquiring a 
perfect state of development. 
[The development of the ovaries, and consequently 
the fertility, of the female bees, is supposed to depend 
upon the kind of food they receive while in the larva 
state, the young larva which is to develop into a queen 
being supplied with a peculiar kind of food, which 
appears to be more stimulating than that supplied to 
the larvae which is to develop into workers or into 
drones.1—F. D. P.] 
Separation of the Sex and the Type.—It is, 
from what we have seen, very evident that, if there 
is a perfect equilibrium in the vital resources, it is not 
possible to have a fusion of the sexes, but, on the con- 
trary, only a fusion of the types. 
Under this condition, the female ceases to be, at 
least momentarily, conservative of the type of her race, 
notwithstanding that such is ordinarily her preroga- 
tive, and it is proper that it should be, on account of 
the important role which she plays in generation. 
This relative disposition in the type is even pro- 
duced when the male possesses a very accentuated 
type, and one which has acquired constancy. In or- 
der that this constancy of the female maybe modified 
and rooted out, it is necessary that she meet with a 
constancy of type still more pronounced than her own. 
1 Article on the Bee, by John Hunter, in Encyclopaedia Britan - 
nica, Ninth Edition. 30 
SEPARATION OF THE SEX AND THE TYPE. 
A person should not lose sight of the fact that it 
is the type, and not the sex, which is concerned here, 
points which it is important should not be confounded, 
but which frequently have been. There is an enor- 
mous difference between the type and the sex. 
The sex and the type are independent of each 
other, so that the type of the product of the same 
impregnation may be derived from the parent that is 
the strongest, and the sex from the one that is the 
feeblest. 
The vigor and strength of the subject is dependent 
upon the type, which borrows from whatever source 
it can. It requires labor to effect a modification of 
the type, but, in time, a person may obtain almost 
any type desired. The experience of breeders of 
domestic animals gives sufficient proof of this fact. 
Those animals possessing the most accentuated, the 
strongest, and the most constant types are the ones 
that prescribe the type of the offspring. 
In this connection, it is well to bear in mind that 
the first impregnation is of great importance, from 
the fact that it may influence the entire ovary, or 
only many ova, so that the types of subsequent off- 
spring may at times feel the influence of an anterior 
sexual meeting. Thus all impregnations have not 
the same importance, as the posthumous types 
testify. 
[In man and in animals, the embryo, as is well known, 
exerts in its turn a wonderful influence on the SEPARATION OF THE SEX AND THE TYPE. 
31 
mother. Stock breeders know that if a pure-bred 
female is once mated with a male of another breed, 
she can never thereafter be depended upon to breed 
true.—F. D. P.] 
This is an extraordinary application to the human 
species, of a faculty which is very common in species 
lower situated in the animal kingdom. 
With regard to the sex, like cannot produce like. 
Nature is not the mistress of it, for she cannot control 
the coming together of the sexes, nor the circum- 
stances under which such meetings take place. 
Here hygiene may exercise a decided influence, and, 
indeed, it does. 
The sex of the embryo is forced and absolute, inas- 
much as, from a general point of view, whether of 
humanity or of creation, it is a matter of management. 
It is through the sex that nature provides for the 
propagation of the species, through it that she as- 
sures an equilibrium in the production and number 
of her subjects. 
To sum up, the sex and the type are the adminis- 
trators of humanity. The one is mobile, the other is 
fixed. The one obeys the law of the stronger, the 
other the law of the feebler ; and each acts for the 
greatest profit of all—for general harmony. 
We have theoretically divided the mode of action 
of the typical and sexual powers solely for the pur- 
pose of rendering the comprehension and demon- 
stration of their mechanism more easy.  SEPARATION OF THE SEX AND THE TYPE. 
In nature, however, there is generally a harmonious 
blending of the elements which, for facility of 
demonstration, we have represented as separated. 
Both the sex and the type may most assuredly be 
furnished by the same individual, when nature finds 
in the individual the necessary elements ; or, sepa- 
rately, the sex by one and the type by the other, as 
we have before stated. This fixation is the result of 
a choice, and the choice is quickly made, for in 
nature there is no indecision. 
Nature has her laws, and she is governed by them. 
The sex and the type of her subjects are the two 
cords which she causes to vibrate, and it is through 
them that she obtains infinite varieties and shades. 
These depend upon the more or less intimate or 
favorable union which takes place between the sexes, 
whether it be the result of accident, of selection, of 
magnetism, of family alliances, but above all, they 
depend upon the relative state of health of the hus- 
band and wife, or the male and female. 
The types are improved or degraded, according to 
the circumstances, but the sexes are, necessarily, un- 
changeable. In consanguineous marriages, for exam- 
ple, the types become greatly changed, and ultimately 
die out, because there is no affinity in the sexual 
magnetism, or electricity, because the spermatic fluid, 
or the aura seminalis, is not attracted by the ovaries. 
Such marriages are, therefore, very unproductive. 
When the male and female are unlike each other in THE RESEMBLANCE. 
temperament, there is, on the contrary, a great devel- 
opment of sexual magnetism, or electricity, and the 
attraction is very strong. 
What inferences are to be drawn from this? Prac- 
tically, the only conclusion to which a person can 
arrive is that it is not proper to always sow in the 
same earth. 
It is the same with most vegetables, with those in 
which crossing is necessary.1 
The Resemblance—The sex has nothing to do 
with the aggregate of characteristic qualities in the 
offspring ; they are under the influence of and depend- 
ent upon the type. [Thus a son may, and frequently 
does, resemble the mother in figure, looks, actions and 
in other characteristics.—F. D. P.] Nothing is more 
variable or more mobile than the resemblance. 
The Trio—-There is a class of people that we shall 
designate and describe under the head or title of the 
trio. They are the consumptive, the syphilitic and the 
rickety. There is a great tendency among this class 
of people to reproduce themselves. 
The question arises, what is the cause of this 
salacity ? Its cause may be found in the great law of 
generation, which impels every individual to provide 
for his replacement, especially when he is afflicted 
with a vice which threatens his destruction, or which 
leads to degeneration of the species. 
1 Sachs, Scott, Hildebrand, Sprengel, Darwin, etc. 34 
THE TRIO. 
This propensity for sexual indulgence and this 
continual tendency to reproduction, besides produc"- 
ing great prostration and debility, are signs of bad 
omen, and symptoms of most grevious augury to 
those in whom they are presented. A person should 
not lose patience with those who manifest such 
a weakness, or envy a person this exaggeration 
of his reproductive power, inasmuch as it is generally 
the sad portion of a people the days of whom are 
numbered. It is not without a motive or grave reason 
that nature seems to be so pressed to reproduce these 
people. 
The old man naturally occupies himself more in 
looking after the preservation of his health, and the 
prolongation of his life than in other matters. After 
having provided, during the prime of life, for his re- 
placement, this object becomes to him, to a certain 
degree, a matter of secondary importance. At this 
period of life, the instinct of self-preservation is 
strongest. The love of children gives way, in a 
measure, to self-love, and the future of the family is 
left to his children. 
What a sublime law is this, which little by little 
disengages the thoughts of man from terrestrial ob- 
jects, and from the occupations of life, in order that 
his attention may be directed towards the great here- 
after ! CA USES AND EFFECT OF WOMAN'S CONDITION. 
CHAPTER IV. 
Statistical researches, with reference to the pre- 
domination of the sexes, have forced us to the conclu- 
sion that there are actually very nearly as many females 
as males in the human family. There may, however, 
be a difference of six per cent, in favor of the mascu- 
line sex, if we include the entire country. [See page 
20.] 
This predomination of the male sex is extremely 
significant, because it is in itself evidence that the 
masculine sex is the one which is the most essential 
for universal harmony, and for the development of 
the resources of the earth. Furthermore, it proves 
that such a predomination is the most easily obtained 
and maintained, for it is maintained in spite of wars, 
and is produced in spite of all kinds of abuses, abuses 
which cause us to blush with shame, and the existence 
of which we greatly deplore, abuses by which the 
woman is enfeebled, by which the production of the 
feminine sex is enforced, and by .which the harmony 
of nature is bent out of its natural course. 
Notwithstanding these abuses, there is still, as we 
have said, a predomination of the male sex, but this 
predomination would have been much greater to-day 
than it is but for marital excesses and abuses, and the 
diseases which are directly or indirectly the conse- 
quences of them, and which affect the woman more 36 
CA USES AND EFFECT OF WOMAN'S CONDITION. 
than the man; and but for the law of generation, which 
provides for the replacement of the feeblest sex 
first. 
The health and life of woman are sacrificed to lux- 
ury and to sensual pleasures. Unfortunately, she has 
to bear the heft of the burden, and suffer the pains 
which are the result of such sins. Nature is severe 
with her, inasmuch as she can never escape; she is al- 
ways the most engaged. This is hard, but it is a true 
and serious fact; such is the decree of marriage. 
This is why the proportion of women is to-day so 
great. 
Now, the precarious condition of woman, as regards 
health, and, consequently, of the population generally, 
is the result, in part, of the non-observance of proper 
hygienic conditions preceding and during pregnancy, 
and of sexual abuses. On account of such abuses, 
only inferior subjects and defective types are produced. 
We become aborted in physique and in intellect. Fur- 
thermore, the number of births is diminished on 
account of practices which are opposed to normal 
conception. 
Notwithstanding all this, an equilibrium is main- 
tained, but it is maintained artificially, with pain, and 
in a vitiated atmosphere, where it languishes. 
We live in an age of diseases of the womb. THE FOUNDATION AND THE FORM. 
CHAPTER V. 
In everything there exist what are called the foun- 
dation and the form, and in man there is no exception 
to this rule. 
The temperaments have undergone notable modifi- 
cations, from the foundation or base, particularly 
during the last third of a century, and the therapeu- 
tist has, consequently, been obliged to modify his 
practice correspondingly. 
In France, the importance of the form has generally 
been overestimated, and too much has been sacrificed 
in its behalf. 
The more we have realized our corruptness, the 
more have we desired to conceal our state. The dis- 
cussion of such subjects shocks us, and, consequently, 
our hypocritical puritanism has led us to attempt to 
conceal our true condition and to polish over the sur- 
face. 
In the beginning, the earth was warm and fertile, 
but less cultivated and less populous than to-day. 
People lived to be very old, and the women were 
strong, healthy and fruitful, and the world felt the 
effect of it. 
To-day the earth has become cool and less fertile, 
notwithstanding that it is better cultivated and more 
populous. The people are puny, and, like the ancient 
Romans, are becoming more and more corrupt. One 38 
THE LA W OF THE FEEBLEST. 
fever of enjoyment and luxury follows closely after 
another, and abuses and debauchery exist on every 
hand, recruiting in number as time goes on. The 
vices and the viruses are less profound than formerly, 
but they have gained in extent what they have lost in 
intensity. 
Although man of the present time has not so pow- 
erful a physique as his forefathers, yet the mean of 
human life has, through the aid of science, been 
lengthened. 
CHAPTER VI. 
Can the equilibrium in the number of living beings 
on the earth be affected ? 
Undoubtedly it may be, by the quality and quantity 
of products of all kinds, by improvements in agricult- 
ure, and by the regeneration of the people. 
Observation and experience teach us that by varia- 
tion and selection, between the healthy and diseased, 
we can force nature and compel her to produce. In 
order to do this, it is necessary to exercise care, and 
to enfeeble nature in order to force her to react. 
Without this there can be no other result but failure. 
Nature has but one method of operation, just as she 
has but a single law ; all her elements work in unison. THE LA W OF THE FEEBLEST. 
She leaves nothing to chance or abandonment ; like- 
wise she does not escape from the influence of the 
surroundings in which she is placed. There are no 
causes, with her, be they apparently ever so insignifi- 
cant, which do not show their influence in her human 
productions, and with very great consequences. 
In considering the subject, it will be advantageous 
to divide the menstrual period, in the imagination, into 
two unequal parts. During the first, the woman 
suffers, is enfeebled, impressionable, and sometimes 
ill. During the second part, the uterine function, 
on the other hand, being established and regulated 
and the pain having ceased, health returns and gains 
the upper hand, and the equilibrium is re-established. 
This part, which is the longer and more particularly 
the time during which reaction and ovulation take 
place, is always more favorable than the first. 
To this cause is due the predomination of the male 
sex, and it will, obviously, always depend upon it, pro- 
vided that this disposition forms an integral part of 
the law of equilibrium, and that, in nature, equilibrium 
is the indispensable condition for reproduction, indis- 
pensable for life and its regular functions, and for 
everything. The excess of male births is partially due 
to the fact that sexual congress, interrupted tempo- 
rarily during the first part of the menstrual period, is 
more frequently resumed near the end of this period, 
when the wife has regained her strength. 
If the wife could always be strong and perfectly 40 
THE CONDITIONS OF CONCEPTION 
well at the time of the copulative act, and thus have 
the advantage over the husband, there would be a 
great excess in the number of male births. A vigor- 
ous woman produces boys, when, at the time of copu- 
lation, her vigor or her vitality exceeds that of her 
husband ; then it is he that is replaced. If, from being 
vigorous, she should become very plethoric, she will 
generally abort a male embryo. 
The sex of the child is irrefragable proof of the rel- 
ative debility'' or vitality of its parents, or of themeed 
which existed for the replacement of the branch which 
furnished it. It proves that its side of the human ed- 
ifice, at the time it was begotten, was in need of succor 
and reparation. The subject in whom vitality is 
feeblest at the moment of the copulative act, there- 
fore, is the one that determines the sex of the embryo, 
in order that an equilibrium may be maintained. 
This is the law of conception, the law of the feeblest; 
an equilibrium is maintained by following this com- 
mon law. 
CHAPTER VII. 
The Conditions of Conception and Produc- 
tion of the Sexes.—In the present state of knowl- 
edge, to maintain that a person is absolute director, AND PRODUCTION OF THE SEXES. 
41 
and can produce either sex at will, is an exaggerated 
pretension. This would be equivalent to maintaining 
that a person is above nature ; that he is sovereign of 
his health, while, in reality, we are very far from it, 
for health and disease often depend upon causes which 
escape us, of which we are ignorant, and of which, 
consequently, we are unable to become the masters. 
It is, nevertheless, a very conspicuous fact that health 
and disease have a very notable influence on the prog- 
ress of natural phenomena, and, consequently, on the 
fixation and the natural or artificial determination of 
sex, and, therefore, they are the most frequent arbiters. 
Health and disease are the administrators of the 
sexes as much as the sexes and the types are the ad- 
ministrators of humanity. 
What do we understand by the terms force and 
feebleness ? 
When viewed from the point of temperament, and 
from the point of health and generation, force or 
power consists not, as in mechanics, in the power to 
raise in a certain period of time a certain weight to a 
certain height. If force, resistance, vitality and power 
were understood or taken in this sense, they would 
most assuredly conduct investigators to the grossest 
errors in diagnosis. 
The first comer is not apt to interpret the work of 
a great master, and by what strange privilege, and 
why, therefore, would the first comer, without study 
or experience, be more apt to interpret the work of 42 
THE CONDITIONS OF CONCEPTION 
nature? In order to interpret the work of nature, it 
is necessary to take cognizance of a certain force, and 
it is especially necessary to place no trust in superficial 
researches and opinions, which more frequently lead 
to error than to truth. An error of prognostication, 
even though it is not a grave one, and does not com- 
promise a good cause, nevertheless lowers, more or 
less, that to which it relates. 
The actual physical force or power of man, however 
puny he may be, is still generally superior to that of 
woman ; but the power of health, of vitality and of 
reaction, or, in other words, the resistance to disease 
and death, does not reside solely in exterior appear- 
ances or form. It does not consist in the ability to 
stuff a stomach of vast proportions with indifferent 
alimentary substances without becoming sick ; but it 
consists in the harmonious performance of the func- 
tions of all the vital organs. 
To the small body of woman, life is not less thor- 
oughly riveted. Woman’s resistance to pain and her 
vitality are generally greater than man’s. The gen- 
eral predomination of the male sex is due again to 
this cause. 
Woman sustains pain better than man. Pain is the 
lot of woman, and she cannot escape it, for she is the 
seed-bearer ; quia fructus ventris sui, for she is charged 
with the bearing of the offspring. 
The fresh and unimpaired state of the generative 
organs of the newly-married wife ordinarily gives her AND PRODUCTION OF THE SEXES. 
a marked advantage over the husband, that is, when 
she has been wise and he has not. It is necessary 
that he should recover from the effects of past indis- 
cretion, and in the meantime posterity feels the 
effect. 
In regard to the sex of the embryo, let us consider 
the propositions presented. 
1st. The power of fixing the sex is absolute. 
2d. It is directly on account of the need of replace- 
ment, and is the inverse of the vitality of the parent 
that furnishes it. 
3d. The sex of the embryo is fixed at the moment 
the ovum is fecundated. 
The vitality of the offspring is relative, and depends 
upon the parents, on their sex, their age, and their 
physical condition ; and it varies among all classes of 
people, depending upon their surroundings and habits 
of life. 
It is evident, therefore, that the obtainment of a 
particular sex at will is a difficult matter, and that, in 
order to be successful in such an undertaking, certain 
preparations are necessary. 
It is much easier to explain theoretically an event 
already accomplished than it is to produce or predict 
the same. 
In order to obtain, in general, a greater number of 
males than females, a normal thing, good health of the 
wife is the condition necessary, as debility or emacia- 
tion of the husband is the complementary condition. 44 
THE CONDITIONS OF CONCEPTION 
It is on account of the health of the young mother, 
and the fresh and unimpaired state of her generative 
organs, that the first child is often male, while the 
second, on the contrary, is often female, because of 
the enfeeblement occasioned by gestation and the pre- 
ceding lactation. Under these circumstances, if the 
health of the mother has not been re-established, or 
if the male is not debilitated, the second child is 
generally female. 
It is very rare that the husband does not, at some 
period after marriage, fully regain his vigor and 
strength, for on the nuptial couch he finds calmness 
and repose for his enervated body. 
It is while in a state of disease and suffering, and 
during convalescence from acute diseases, and during 
the first part of the menstrual period, that a woman 
is most liable to conceive, and that the conditions are 
found in her which are most favorable for her replace- 
ment, for the production of a child of her own sex. 
It is in such states as we have described that 
nature feels the most urgent need of replacing the 
suffering being, and that the greatest efforts are made 
to perpetuate her kind by calling into existence anew 
being, with a view of maintaining an equilibrium. 
“In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children,” says 
Genesis. Pain is the condition of child-birth, as 
debility is the condition of conception, and as the 
greatest relative debility is the condition of the sex. 
It is necessary to imitate nature, so far as is possi- AND PRODUCTION OF THE SEXES. 
45 
ble, and to meet her. In medicine we endeavor to do 
this. 
Among the lower animals, when a female is rebell- 
ious to conception, she is bled at the time she is put 
with the male, for the purpose of enfeebling her or 
lowering her vitality, and thus forcing her to become 
fruitful. The majority of stock-raisers do not neglect 
this, and the pioneers practice it with confidence, but 
without, as a rule, keeping records of the results. 
It is well known that luxuriant and exalted vegeta- 
tion is opposed to fruitfulness; but that if some of 
the roots of an over-vigorous tree are cut, it immedi- 
ately reacts and becomes fruitful. The practice of 
retrenching during foliage arose from this. It is the 
imposing of such obstacles in the way of nature, a 
torture, so to speak, against which she is forced to 
react, that causes her to again become productive. It 
is likewise for the purpose of obstructing the devel- 
opment of the foliaceous system that watering is sus- 
pended during the blooming period, in order to cause 
a speedy recurrence of blooming. 
It is well to think of the conservation of the subject, 
after a person has assured the propagation of the spe- 
cies. With the vegetable, such a course is doubly 
profitable, since, after the blooming period, the two 
ends may be pursued conjointly. 
From the plant are obtained, through art, very- 
numerous varieties of magnificent flowers, but, as is 
well known, they are unproductive. A plant blooms 46 
I NFL UENCE OF EPIDEMICS 
more frequently when it is given a space entirely to 
itself in a pot. 
In high culture, a slender, sickly plant produces 
seed of good quality, and is very productive. It 
desires to attach itself to a future life, it clings to this, 
it reacts, and on this depends its immortality. 
Marriage is the result of the high culture of hu- 
manity. By it the human productions are regulated. 
Life, in general, is but the result of the balancing 
of the two forces or instincts of which we have spoken ; 
the conservation of the subject and the propagation 
of the species. The latter has more to do with it than 
the former, and much greater sacrifices are made in 
its behalf. It is important that it should be well di- 
rected. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
Influence of Epidemics, Peace and War on 
the Sexes.—What is, from a war point of view, the 
importance of the male sex? We put this question 
that we may answer it. 
From a governmental and political point of view, 
and from the point of view of courage, of strength, 
and of defense of the home and the country, the male 
is of very great numerical importance, as will be seen 
later. ON SEXUALITY. 
47 
What influence have epidemics, wars and armies on 
sexuality ? 
By epidemics, nature quickly suppresses all diseased 
and rotten subjects, without regard to sex ; or, what 
is equivalent, forces them to strengthen themselves 
and react. 
In order to comprehend the results and the mechan- 
ism of this combination of natural influences, it is 
necessary to examine what takes place. The needs 
exceed the natural resources, nature discharges her- 
self of an incommodious and very heavy burden ; she 
immediately re-enters into a numerical equilibrium in 
the most expeditious manner, by the rapid suppression 
of feeble subjects, by extinguishing those in whom 
the tendency to reproduce themselves is greatest. 
Thus she acts in absolutely the inverse sense of our 
poor axiom, non bis in idem. 
She effects the weeding out of the poor plants, to 
the end that she may give the air and the nourishment 
they would require to the good. She acts through 
disease, by arrest or modification of the conditions of 
existence. Such is her method. Death is the final 
arrest, and disease is the condition next to it. 
War, on the other hand, forcibly carries away from 
nature many of her most beautiful, youngest and 
strongest subjects, at the period of their greatest pro- 
creative power. War suppresses, for a time, the pro- 
creative functions of many of the most vigorous male 48 
INFLUENCE OF WAR 
subjects, of those who undoubtedly reproduce their 
own sex with most difficulty. 
The question arises, is this really an evil? 
In order that we may ascertain, let us examine the 
inverse situation and see what happens. Female births 
and libertinism are the result. Is this a benefit? 
Most assuredly, no. 
We are not among those who deny the intrinsic value 
of woman, her moral value ; very far from it. We 
know her influence on the morals of the family, and 
we know that it is on her lap that are formed the most 
excellent of all objects on earth, an honest man and 
an honest woman, the greatest of all the masterpieces 
of the Creator. We are not of those who think her 
breasts ought to serve adults more than nurslings. 
After war and military service, after all kinds of 
abuses, the man, mutilated, enfeebled, enervated and 
sick, reproduces his own sex most easily, while, during 
peace, man is in better health, takes better care of 
himself, and, everything being equal, reproduces his 
sex with most difficulty. 
[After the great “ Thirty Years’ War ” in Europe, 
there was an overwhelming predomination of male 
births.—F. D. P.] 
War is a necessary evil, it is the general law, it is the 
law of the world; these are the strongest reasons in 
its favor. From a material point of view, it is the 
strongest that reigns and domineers. No such thing 
as equality exists in nature. OAT SEXUALITY. 
49 
Among animals there is no more equality than 
elsewhere. The strongest oppress and destroy 
the feeblest. Sometimes, however, the combatant 
suffers and succumbs himself. Such is often the fate 
of those that belong to the brotherhood of Cain. 
Notwithstanding this, the general harmony is not 
affected by such trifles, for such is the natural order 
of things. 
In the vegetable kingdom, the same law exists, the 
same influence, and the same operations. The strong- 
est domineers, stifles and destroys the feeblest, draws 
nourishment from its detritus, and warms itself in its 
sun. The light overspreads it, and harmony reigns 
again on the debris of death ! 
By enfeebling the man, war favors the creation of 
the male sex. This is some compensation, for it brings 
about a return to an equilibrium in numbers, and, in 
this respect, is a benefit rather than an evil. 
Peace, through the sexual abuses and fatigue to 
which woman is subjected, favors a surplus of female 
births, and this is an evil instead of a benefit. 
The law of the feeblest comes in to effect a coun- 
terpoise here ; this is the imperious, universal, abso- 
lute law; this is the reaction. 
Nothing in nature can escape this law. 
The vegetable suffers from the cold, because it is 
fixed in the soil; and, on account of this, it is endowed 
with the power of resistance, and this is sufficient. 
The animal possesses certain advantages over the 50 
COMPARISONS. 
plant; the instinct of self-preservation, and the power 
of locomotion, but, after all, these are small. 
Man seems to be privileged above the lower animals, 
inasmuch as he possesses the power of thought, judg- 
ment and reason, of which, as you know, he often 
makes use. 
CHAPTER IX. 
Comparisons. — From nature’s point of view, the 
male is therefore of very great importance. The 
fecundation of the ovum is his principal role. 
Homo totus semeti est, says Fernel. 
Nature has distributed seed everywhere, in order to 
offset the numerous causes of its waste, and the 
male organs, the incapacities of which are, although 
more frequent than they should be, very rare, have 
been multiplied, with a view to the continuity of the 
work of nature, and in order to avoid any gaps. 
Each sex has its relative and unconditioned impor- 
tance, and may be considered from many points of view. 
Let us take our examples, or rather, in order not to 
wound the feelings of any one, let us take our points 
of comparison from what are called the inferior spe- 
cies. As a beacon, a ship’s light sometimes serves to 
guide a person’s steps on land. Here such a com- 
parison will not lead us astray. COMPARISONS. 
51 
We have seen that, in vegetables, the male organs 
are endowed with extraordinary development, and 
that, in this kingdom, the seed is often diffused in 
great quantities. This is because the plant is fixed 
to the earth, and the seed must sometimes be trans- 
ported a long distance by the wind before it is in 
a position to accomplish its purpose. 
In the animal kingdom, with bees for example, 
since we have already spoken of them, the queen or 
the mother is surrounded with a numerous court, and, 
at the appropriate time, she may choose from a 
thousand husbands. She darts along through the air, 
and fecundation is effected by a single male, and, 
after this operation, and for a year, all the males are 
mercilessly sacrificed for the general good. They 
all fall, without any exception, massacred on the 
threshold of the hive. 
Why this massacre ? 
The reigning one orders it. But what causes her 
to think of such an act? This phenomenon is not the 
result of chance. Most assuredly it is not an excep- 
tional act, for it has occurred regularly since the cre- 
ation, and is perpetuated in the consummation. 
In this republic, people hound one another. They 
imitate the bees, to some extent, in their civil quar- 
rels ; but with the bees the measure is a radical one. 
In mammiferous animals, the seed is managed with 
great care ; none of it is wasted. A severe law is 
the law of rut, a law that the female never permits 52 
COMPARISONS. 
the male to transgress, one that is opposed to waste- 
ful dissemination. The anatomy of the sexual organs 
and the disposition of the sphincter muscles come to 
the aid of the female, and she utilizes them. 
Why does nature act thus ? 
Because she made life or creation her sole aim, and 
she pursues this course that she may overcome all ob- 
stacles. In order to accomplish her purpose no sac- 
rifice is too dear. She knows how to overturn all 
obstacles to attain her end. 
On account of its importance, the seed is, at a cer- 
tain period, the object of all her solicitude; but, as 
soon as it becomes of no use, or a nuisance to 
her, she courageously suppresses the source of it. 
This is economy of force and of machinery. 
With the ovine species, two or three rams to a flock 
of one hundred and forty ewes are amply sufficient 
to fecundate the entire number ; yet, in the births of 
the lambs, a person often obtains more males than 
females. Shepherds emasculate ninety-eight out of a 
hundred of those that they raise by castrating them. 
Why is this done ? 
Because, if all the males were permitted to grow 
up unmutilated or undeprived of their procreative 
power, there would be many destructive combats 
between them, which would imperil the interests of 
the cause, and another effect would be a greater num- 
ber of female births. 
The lot of these animals, therefore, resembles, to a COMPARISONS. 
slight extent, the fate of the male bees, of which we 
have spoken ; only the bees live in a state of freedom, 
and proceed of their own accord to the retrenchment 
of those that are of no use, the drones. 
With cattle, a single bull is sufficient for twenty 
cows, and yet in the births there are more males than 
females. These animals live a sequestered life, and 
man is the absolute master of their products. If the 
number of cows to a bull were greatly diminished, then 
there would be an excess in the number of females 
born. 
With fowls, one cock suffices for twelve hens, and 
one drake for three ducks, but in their productions a 
person often finds more males than females ; while 
pigeons and guinea-fowls, which live together in pairs, 
produce very nearly an equal number of the two sexes. 
Everything, therefore, is relative to its end and its 
utility, and everything has been created and put into 
equilibrium according to its destination. Nature, in 
order that she may thrive, has taken double precau- 
tions; she has placed the remedy on the side of the evil. 
It depends upon us whether or not this equilibrium 
is broken. 
The state of servitude of animals—in other words, 
the appropriation of animals to the needs and services 
of man—constitutes an element of wide range, and 
one which ought to be taken into great account in 
coupling them. 
We will see later what happens. 54 
COMPARISONS. 
They have felt the regulation of their masters. Do- 
mestic animals have no other products than those 
which man permits or decides that they may have. 
His interest serves as the guide. 
It is by the suppression of the passions, and through 
their rational retrenchment, that stock-breeders have 
effected important modifications in the frame-work of 
animals, in the development of their muscle, or in 
some of their attributes, so great in certain cases as 
to render them scarcely recognizable. Through such 
a course, their types have undergone a complete met- 
amorphosis, by the exaggeration of certain parts 
of their bodies, or on account of the suppression of 
certain parts which were of comparatively no impor- 
tance, so far as tiie breeders’ interest is concerned. 
How much wiser we are in the control of our passions! 
Let us examine the subject that we may become 
convinced how we should conduct ourselves and con- 
trol our actions in sexual matters for the greatest 
good of society and for our own true interests. 
In agriculture, the seed which is sown is selected 
with great care from the very best, in order to insure 
a large and improved future production. In raising 
garden seeds, the very best specimens are selected 
from which to raise the seed. Likewise, in stock rais- 
ing, the choicest animals are selected for breeders, 
and they are paired judiciously. When a person feels 
that he is not competent to do this, he consults others 
more experienced; he does not permit sexual excesses COMPARISONS. 
55 
among his animals; he supplies the breeders with ap- 
propriate food, and exercises great care, in order that 
he may be successful in obtaining beautiful types, in 
which he is not often disappointed. 
This constitutes selection, the choosing of the 
choicest. This is the regulation. 
Simply for a setting of eggs, poultry-breeders take 
a thousand precautions, as is well known; and to suc- 
ceed in whatever it may be, even in the smaller oper- 
ations, in things which are in themselves of the small- 
est importance, is it not necessary to make great efforts, 
to take great precautions, and to apply oneself closely? 
Can it be said that as much pains are taken with 
our own poor species ? Alas ! no. 
Such measures are good for oats and carrots, good 
for the mare; but for woman—fi ! 
How often is a person able to exclaim, oh! what a 
beautiful child ! It is plainly to be seen that no pains 
have been spared in its behalf. 
How many persons surround the wife with judicious 
care, and select the proper nourishment for her before 
conception, and supply her with the proper addition and 
such as is essential during pregnancy and while she 
suckles her child ? 
This is done for the mare, for the cow, and for the 
ewe, and the same course is practiced in fish culture. 
With animals, the female is nursed, cared for and re- 
spected of all others, but this is not the case with 
woman. She may get along as best she can. 56 
KEFUTA TIONS. 
Nations, are you not astonished that, after having 
pursued such a course, you have even yet some pass- 
able specimens of the genus homo among you ? 
It is with the production of man as with all other 
productions. There is no possible exception for him. 
When he deals with reproduction, he should not think 
that he can practice with impunity all sorts of abuses, 
without his offspring feeling the effect of it, both in 
the sex and in the type. To do this he would commit 
a great error. 
CHAPTER X. 
Some Refutations—Of all the theories, either 
ancient or modern, which have been applied to the solu- 
tion of the problem, two principles only have prevailed. 
The first, without denying the influence which the 
relative ages of the parents, their health and their 
physical state may exercise in the determination or 
fixation of the sex, admits of no other solution than 
that the sex is derived from the most vigorous parent. 
The second, on the other hand, without taking any 
account of the preceding elements, affirms that the 
sex of the embryo depends solely on the degree of 
maturity of the ovum at the moment of its fecunda- 
tion. This view, which is assuredly the least rational, 
still possesses something specious. REFUTA TIONS. 
57 
We will proceed to examine these two hypotheses. 
The practical application of these views has neces- 
sarily been attended with failure, but they have still 
been clung to for want of a better hypothesis. Mod- 
ern authorities have not, however, evinced such a 
liking for mere theories as their predecessors, but, 
from force of habit, a person walks in the beaten 
tracks of others so easily that he seldom takes the 
trouble to go down to the bottom of things and inves- 
tigate for himself. It is much easier to accept a ready- 
made opinion than it is to form a new one, or even 
correct the errors in others. 
Let us examine the first hypothesis, that which has 
enjoyed, even to the present time, the happy privilege 
of governing, so to speak, the medical world and, 
indeed, the entire world. 
According to it, a strong man and a feeble woman 
can only beget boys, so long as the man is robust and 
the woman is debilitated. 
Now in most instances, just the opposite sex is pro- 
duced. We do not maintain but that a strong man 
may beget boys ; we only affirm that, united to a fee- 
ble wife, he could only beget them at a time when his 
vitality is low. We maintain that the force is more 
relative than absolute, and that the appreciation of 
this is a very difficult matter ; and we especially assert 
that the stronger person contributes more to the type 
than to the sex. 
If it were possible, henceforth from the present 58 
REFUTA TIONS. 
time, for the sex to be furnished by the strongest sub- 
ject, we would soon become a world of giants, by 
natural selection, or we would speedily become dis- 
organized, for the accumulation of the stronger sex 
would cause us to run out after the second generation, 
and the equilibrium would be broken. 
This is not possible ; the theory is not true. 
In place of such a state of affairs, what do we 
really see ? 
We behold a world of pygmies ; we see armies that 
are repeatedly obliged to lower the standard of size 
in order to recruit. 
This proposition cannot, therefore, be maintained. 
It is surprising that it should have been advanced, in- 
asmuch as the experience of every day emphatically 
contradicts it. If a person attempts to put it into 
practice, the results soon convince him of its absurd- 
ity. 
Even though we are becoming pygmies, we should 
not attribute the cause of our degeneration to the law 
of the sexes; it should be attributed to the defective 
management of our passions, to the fault of the regu- 
lation. Our abasement is, in a great measure, owing 
to severe labor before the proper age, to early mar- 
riages, and to all kinds of sexual abuses ; the law of 
the sexes has nothing to do with it. Such are our 
enemies. It is these that have altered, degraded and 
contracted our model, to use a figurative expression 
which was dear to Buffon. REFUTA TIONS. 
59 
Aristotle was of this same opinion. “Nothing,” 
says he, “ is more opposed to good generation than 
precocious marriages. Throughout the entire animal 
kingdom, the products obtained at the first awakening 
of the sexual propensities are invariably imperfect. 
The methods for obtaining dwarfed races of dogs con- 
sist in provoking precocity of the generative functions. 
It is the same with all animals ; it is the same in the 
human species; precocious marriages result in the 
birth of a small race, which is without value.” 
It is on account of having neglected this great law 
that people of past ages went rapidly into a decadence. 
The most polished nations of antiquity, the Assyrians, 
the Greeks and the Romans fell into brutishness and 
slavery from the time that the fetes of Venus caused 
the temples of the other gods to be deserted. Rome 
would have perished before the end of the republic, 
if foreigners had not continually filled the vacancies 
which her disorders created. 
The same is to-day true of Paris, which has, with 
some exceptions, a feverish, enervated population, 
covetous of emotions at any price. 
Modern Spain and northern Africa have recently 
furnished similar examples. 
Again, Dr. Seraine1 has recently attributed to simi- 
lar causes the depopulation of the Sandwich Islands. 
1 Contributions a la geographic medicale ; lre station de l’oc£an 
Pacifique. (Archives de medicine Navale. Paris, 1864, Tom. II, 
p. 480.) 60 
REFUTA TIONS. 
Do we feel that we ourselves are entirely undeserv. 
ing of reproach in this regard? Is not Germany 
superior to France in this respect? The ancient Ger- 
mans, whose physical development elicited the admi- 
ration of the other nations of Europe, never married 
before the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth year ; and, 
up to this age, they preserved the most rigid chastity. 
It was a disgrace for a young man to know a woman 
before this age. 
It is therefore clear that it is not to the law of the 
sexes that a person should attribute our abasement, 
but to the law of the types—to ourselves. 
We cannot change our sex, but we are continually 
affecting the harmony and the numerical predomina- 
tion of the sexes, inasmuch as we are continually alter- 
ing our types. If authors had attributed the same 
influence to the type that they have to the sex, they 
would have been in the right. But they have con- 
founded two very different elements : the conservation 
of the subject and the propagation of the species ; 
opposed forces, which are in a continual wrestle, and 
reacting on each other without cessation ; they have 
not taken any account of this fact, or rather they have 
not thought of it; nevertheless, therein is where they 
have erred. 
Nature has confounded nothing. She well foresaw 
what would occur, and caused the sex to be derived 
from the parent possessing the least vitality, and provid- 
ed for the maintenance of an equilibrium and har- REFUTA TIONS. 
61 
mony through the type, which is furnished by the 
parent that is the strongest, by the race which is most 
constant. 
It seemed to us that it would be doing a good work 
to dissipate this confusion, which has lasted for so 
long a time, and which has engendered a multitude 
of errors. It is this which we have sought to accom- 
plish in our propositions relating to the sex and the 
type. 
If a person considers humanity in a mass, he will 
be forced to recognize that it cannot escape the uni- 
versal law ; that its entire circuit is but the repetition 
of what each of us is individually suffered to become 
acquainted with ; infancy, mature age, old age, and 
death. 
It was thus that Fourier viewed the spheres ; the 
growth, the pause, the decline, and the fall. 
Such is the law. It is by the succession of diverse 
elements that we live, and it is impossible for us to 
escape them. 
Let us now examine the theory of the graduated 
maturation of the human ovum. It is based on a 
unique remark ; that of the coincidence of male births 
from sexual congress taking place towards the end of 
heat, in the mammalia. 
With regard to this, stock-breeders have tried a series 
of experiments, and as these experiments have been 
followed with a certain appearance of success, they 
have hastened to conclude that the sex of the embryo 62 
REFUTA TIONS. 
depends solely on the greater or lesser degree of 
maturity of the ovum at the time of impregnation. 
The alluring prospect of being able to produce 
either sex at will, exciting the imaginations of inno- 
vators, has readily triumphed, through feebleness of 
judgment; and the sophism, post hoc, ergo propter hoc, 
has erected a doctrine out of their arguments. 
Yet after having proclaimed, in a very positive man- 
ner, the infallibility of their dogma, as is natural for 
those of speculative minds, these same authorities 
have, nevertheless, advised that in practice certain 
precautious be taken against it. In opposition to 
their own theory, they have prescribed, to be associ- 
ated with the course which they have laid down, a 
strengthening regimen for the husband and a debili- 
tating for the wife, or reciprocally, according as a 
person desires a son or a daughter. 
Let us briefly examine the mechanism of the unfe- 
cundated ovum. At first the ovum exists as a germ, 
and, from birth up to the age of puberty, it develops 
progressively in and with the ovary. From this epoch 
up to the menopause or change of life, the function 
of the ovaries is to ripen and throw off ova. 
Every month these organs furnish one ovum, rarely 
more. The ovum, having reached a certain degree of 
maturity, is detached from the ovary. The com- 
mencement of menstruation is an indication of its 
separation. The congested condition of the pelvic 
organs favors its detachment. The trumpet-shaped REFVTA TIONS. 
63 
extremity of the fallopian tube embracing the ovary 
creates for it a passage-way. Following this, it 
descends and enters the womb. The discharge of 
blood coming on opportunely, favors and facilitates 
its transport and passage to the outside of the body. 
This constitutes what might be termed a small monthly 
delivery, which is not always free from pain. 
If sexual congress takes place during its passage, 
or even from the time that the trumpet-shaped fallo- 
pian tube applies itself to the ovary, the ovum may 
be fecundated. It then usually ingrafts itself on some 
point of the womb; its evolution ceases, and with it 
the sanious discharge is arrested. 
But these events do not always pass with this sim- 
plicity. The ovum, whether fecundated or not, may 
continue on its passage and be discharged. Carried 
along by the sanguineous flow and by gravity, it con- 
tinues to descend; it soon passes beyond the points 
where it might successfully attach itself, and, whether 
fecundated or not, whether inert or living matter, 
falls outside the womb, and is sacrificed. This does 
not imply but that it may have attained a greater or 
lesser degree of maturity. There are thousands of 
millions in this category. 
The ovum is not always detached from the ovary 
at the commencement of the menstrual period. Di- 
verse causes may retard or impede its separation. If 
the cause is trifling, the act of menstruation is not 
notably deranged, but, when it is more grave, dys- 64 
RFFUTA TlOAtS. 
menorrhcea or amenorrhcea occurs, and the discharge 
of the ovum does not take place, for it is not matured. 
It is easy to understand how a great shaking-up of 
the economy may more or less affect all the functions. 
It is thus that the serous and-mucous secretions are 
modified, the urine and the perspiration influenced, 
the hair tarnished and arrested in its growth, and 
the nails depressed. The ovarian function cannot 
escape such influences; it suffers the fate of the other 
physiological functions; a modification, retardation, 
arrest, or exaggeration. 
Imperfections, deformities, or feebleness of the 
ovum, although rare, usually result in the loss of the 
ovarian product, without any one being conscious of it. 
The ovarian cell possesses, from the commencement, 
a vitality and an activity which are proper for it, and 
which continue up to the time of fecundation, an 
epoch at which the ovum is ripe or has arrived at the 
maximum of its morphological complexity. 
When fecundation does not take place, the ripe 
ovum is not able to longer draw from its own forces 
the elements necessary to enable it to prolong its life. 
It decays, dies and disintegrates, after having passed 
through a primordial existence. 
Such is the ordinary course of things. This does 
not imply but that the ovum may become ripened and 
perfected outside the ovary, but only that it has to 
run the risk of a multitude of accidents after its 
detachment from this organ. REFUTA TIONS. 
65 
The evolution of the human ovum is effected in a 
variable time, which exceeds a little the menstrual 
period. It is rare that it takes place in the interval 
between the menstrual flow, yet such a phenomenon 
may occur exceptionally, from excessive sexual excite- 
ment. 
Ordinarily, when the ovum is detached, when the 
fallopian tubes are not obliterated, when menstrua- 
tion is well established in the woman, when the sper- 
matic fluid, accompanied with sexual magnetism or 
electricity, the aura seminalis as it has been called, can 
enter into communication with the ovum, fecundation 
takes place, and sex and life are simultaneously estab- 
lished. The concurrence of all these circumstances is 
necessary. 
[It is very evident that a variety of causes may pre- 
vent conception. So far as the female is concerned, 
anything which prevents the entrance of the seminal 
fluid of the male into the womb or that destroys its 
vitality, anything which prevents the production of a 
healthy ovum, or its passage through the fallopian 
tube, or its attachment to the wall of the womb, may 
cause sterility. Fortunately, many of the conditions 
which cause sterility may be removed by appropriate 
treatment.—F. D. P.] 
Two effects rare ordinarily the outcome of sexual 
congress : first, the impregnation of one or several 
ova; secondly, the fecundation of the ovum which at 
the time has attained its maximum or morphological 66 
REFUTA TIONS. 
development. Impregnation and fecundation are, 
therefore, two distinct effects. The first does not 
necessarily carry with it the second. It only affects 
the type, and not the sex, of the future product. The 
sex can be fixed only at the moment of the perpetra- 
tion of the act, because it has for its end or function 
the numerical administration and equilibrium of the 
animal kingdom. 
Fecundation requires the impregnation of the ovum in 
a state of complete maturity ; that this ovum may not 
have been previously impregnated, or, in other words, 
that its type may not have been influenced before. 
Let us suppose that the ovum is ripe and nearly 
ready to die and disintegrate, and that it has become 
detached from the ovary. The male element, in the 
last stage of its existence, having worked its way up 
through the womb and into the fallopian tube, en- 
counters it. In the conflict between these two bodies, 
each of which is animated with a different form of 
electricity, in the shock of these two opposite ele- 
ments, the energy of which is exhausted, and both of 
which are destined to perish, there results, by virtue 
of the electrical attraction, a new body, endowed in 
the highest degree with the faculty of a new evolu- 
tion, inasmuch as it is the germ of a complete organ- 
ism which proceeds to enter into life. Here the vital 
spark springs into existence. 
But how have sex and life penetrated this matter? 
How has the spirit or soul instantaneously taken pos- REFUTA TIONS. 
67 
session of it? This is a mystery which man will never 
penetrate. Is it a misfortune ? Would it be an advan- 
tage to us to know how the vital spark is kindled, and 
to have the power given us to transgress the divine laws? 
From what we know, it is from this date that em- 
bryonic life begins ; but life is not always maintained, 
for the impregnated ovum does not always encounter 
the necessary conditions for a continuation of its de- 
velopment, and then pregnancy ceases. 
In such cases, there is an arrest of development of 
the entire embryo, just as in the case of hermaphro- 
dism or monstrosities there is a local arrest or exagger- 
ation of development of an organ or part of the body; 
just as there is an arrest of development in fruit when 
the trees are so loaded that it dries up and falls. 
It is in this as in all other kingdoms, with all vege- 
tables and with all animals. 
With fowls, the eggs are fecundated before they are 
layed. In the case of fish, the eggs are deposited in 
the herbage or along the shore, and from this moment 
they are perfect and ripe; nothing is lacking. The 
male, in passing over them, leaves his vivifying train, 
and the eggs are fecundated by thousands, a single 
male being sufficient. 
From the moment of fecundation all beings become 
animated, and all are provided with sexes ; all live, 
but all do not thrive until they reach adult age, for 
all are not able to meet with the conditions necessary 
for a continuance of life, especially inasmuch as 68 
REFUTA TIONS. 
nothing is so fragile as life at its commencement; and 
finally because, if such a condition did not exist, there 
would soon be a great excess of the species ; they 
would be stunted in size, and, in a word, harmony 
would be broken up. This is sufficient reason. 
A tree may be full of blossoms, all its buds opening 
out, and all of its ovaries may be fecundated by the 
pollen, and yet all its fruit may not hold fast, for there 
would be much too great a quantity for the tree to 
nourish, and it would therefore be very small. Hence 
nature makes retrenchments, by an arrest of develop- 
ment, through modifications of the circumstances and 
conditions of existence. A tree that is heavily laden 
rests the following year and recruits itself 
If a person makes a hole in the ground in the midst 
of a field, water collects in it. Soon reeds and frogs 
appear there, without there being any necessity for 
their existence. But, just as soon as the heat of 
the sun has caused the evaporation of the water, which 
is the condition essential for the continuation of their 
life, they suddenly disappear. 
Such is the mechanism of life and production; such 
are the phenomena of sexuality and generation. 
This causes us to sometimes dream regarding the 
origin of the theory of spontaneous generation, which, 
in spite of all efforts, attempts to retrieve itself, wher- 
ever propitious circumstances are encountered.1 
xDrouyn de Lhuys. Congres international. Montpellier, Octo- 
ber, 1874. REFUTA TIONS. 
69 
This digression has conducted us some distance 
from the discussion of the theory which attributes the 
sex to the degree of maturity which the ovum has at- 
tained when it encounters the male element. We 
have explained the difference in the health of woman 
during the different phases of her natural periods, 
and the consequences. We should learn not to accept 
such theories, and thus avoid the evil consequences 
which follow their adoption. Multiple births of dif- 
ferent sexes, resulting from one and the same impreg- 
nation, are alone proof of the falsity of this theory. 
We cannot avoid being shocked when we hear it 
said by educated men that a few hours’ difference in 
the time at which impregnation is effected is alone 
sufficient to determine the sex, without that influence 
of the parents which is so real and natural, and with- 
out that admirable harmony of which we are but the 
wheel works. 
To say that woman can only be bred from an im 
perfect ovum, while her organs furnish an ovum suffi- 
ciently perfect for the creation of a male being ! 
An imperfect ovum for woman ! In the eyes of 
nature, what imperfection does it possess? It is not 
inferior, except it has faults which are common in 
both sexes. 
Prove, if you can, how it is possible for the ovum 
to ripen and perfect itself without the ovary. Prove 
in what respect one hen’s egg is less perfect than 
another. 70 
NECESSITY FOR REGULATING 
A simple affirmation should not take the place of 
proofs ; and, so far as we know, no one has yet shown 
the veritable cause of natural selection, or the true 
reason for the predomination of one sex. 
In these days people are more exacting. They 
desire to know the why, and, with thinking people, to 
be able to sometimes say, post hoc, ergo propter hoc, is 
not sufficient. 
The cause precedes the effect, without doubt, but it 
is necessary to know it, in order to discern it, and 
this is something which is beyond our power. 
CHAPTER XI. 
Necessity for Regulating the Marital Relations 
—The uterine function holds a very important place 
in the life of woman ; and everything that relates to 
the generative functions has an important bearing on 
her health. 
As a rule, women do not bear a sufficient number 
of children. The womb and breasts do not perform 
sufficient work, and this is a great evil. Inertia and 
inactivity favor the development of disease. The 
organs are created for service ; to serve moderately, 
of course. Perfect repose is injurious to them. The 
health is affected by their inactivity as well as by 
opposite excesses. THE MARITAL RE LA TIONS. 
71 
This is why hygienic conditions and the proper 
regulation of conjugal affairs are, especially to 
woman, of such paramount importance. She cannot 
hope to enjoy health unless she gives attention to 
such matters. 
[It has been truthfully said that the destiny of our 
nation depends upon the future mothers of the 
country. 
Physical degeneracy of the female sex is, to-day, 
very apparent in America, and it is largely the result 
of inattention to hygiene. Doubtless two-thirds of 
all the diseases peculiar to women might be prevented 
by a judicious system of education, by proper atten- 
tion to the menstrual function, by a correct under- 
standing and observance of the duties of married 
life, and by careful management of pregnancy, par- 
turition and lactation. 
Both girls and women, especially those residing in 
towns and cities, take too little out-door exercise. 
They should do more walking, riding, rowing and 
swimming. It is not necessary that they engage in 
lofty climbing and high jumping, but they should 
carry out some such system of muscular movements 
as is practiced in gymnasia. 
The system of mentaj “cramming” which is, in 
this country, practiced to such an extent with girls 
among the middle and upper classes of society, is 
another fertile source of disease. By such a course, 
the nervous system is developed at the expense of the 72 
NECESSITY FOR REGULATING 
muscular, and a morbid impressibility and a tendency 
to diseases of the reproductive organs are produced. 
The wearing of clothing that is so tight as to im- 
pede the movements of the chest, interfering with 
normal respiration; that constricts the waist, causing 
displacement of the abdominal and pelvic viscera; or 
that does not afford sufficient protection against the 
effects of our changeable climate, is a frequent cause 
of ovarian and uterine disease. 
Insufficient food, by impoverishing the blood, and 
the use of improper food, constitute important ele- 
ments in the causation of disease. If the girls and 
women of America subsisted less on pies, highly sea- 
soned puddings, cake, warm biscuit and pickles, one 
cause which militates against their physical well-being 
would be removed. 
Reckless care of the person during menstruation is 
another prolific cause of disease. Knowing that men- 
struation is a natural function, some women will not 
consent to any physical restraint during such periods, 
and those who experience pain will not consult a 
physician, supposing that, it being a natural function, 
they must necessarily bear the pain. At such times, 
cold drinks, long walks, excitement, fatigue, and ex- 
posure to draughts or to cold and wet, should be 
avoided. If the flow is too scanty, too profuse, too 
frequent, or is attended with pain, the advice of a com- 
petent medical man should be sought, and followed. 
Measures employed for the prevention of concep- THE MARITAL RE LA TIONS. 
tion and to force abortion are, I regret to say, among 
the most frequent causes of the diseases of women in 
this country. If women were taught that they cannot 
defraud nature with impunity, that they cannot trans- 
gress her laws without paying a severe penalty, that 
such practices are attended with great danger, that 
life begins with conception, and that whoever induces 
an abortion destroys life, destroys what is, in poten- 
tiality, a human being, it seems to me that such sins 
would be less frequent. The evil is, as Prof. Thomas 
states,1 rapidly assuming such proportions that, if 
not eradicated, it must affect the future population of 
the United States. 
Imprudence after abortion or after child-birth is 
another frequent source of disease in women. After 
expulsion of the contents of the womb, its tissues 
undergo a fatty degeneration, and the organ gradu- 
ally returns to its former size. After labor at full 
term, this process of involution, as it is called, requires 
about six weeks’ time, and too early exertion, or any- 
thing which interferes with it, is attended with risk.— 
F. D. P.] 
“The general rule, deducted from extensive obser- 
vation among all people, teaches us,” says Richerand, 
“ that the reproduction of the species is for woman the 
most important object of life ; that it is almost the 
only destination to which nature seems to have called 
1 A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Women. Fifth Edi- 
tion, p. 50. 74 
NECESSITY FOR REGULATING 
her, and the only duty which she is expected to per- 
form for the benefit of human society; that everything 
which removes her from this primitive destination is 
to her disadvantage, inasmuch as her entire physical 
organization evidently relates to this end.” 
All that woman contributes toward the happiness 
of man, outside of her true function, is supplement- 
ary thereto. 
The fertility of woman is developed by reason of 
her needs of replacement. When her vitality is low, 
her fecundity is greatest. 
This is far from being disadvantageous to her. It 
is simply and wholly the effect of reaction. It is the 
balancing of the powers, or the re-establishment of 
the equilibrium. 
Women naturally sterile are generally strong and 
robust. 
We have seen that the physiological service and 
utility of the female sex only appertain to the mould, 
the type and the bearing of offspring, and that, 
consequently, her importance is relative; while from 
all other points of view, whether from a worldly point 
of view, from that of the distribution of seed, from that 
of strength, from that of war, from that of hard labor, 
from that of the development of the resources of the 
earth, from that of equilibrium and harmony, it is the 
male sex that ought to predominate. 
Everywhere the male rules. To him belongs the 
genius and the power. Nature guides him, and indi- THE MARITAL RELATIONS. 
75 
cates to him, in spite of his errors, the path which he 
ought to follow. 
Observation teaches us that if woman were stronger, 
more robust, better constituted, and, above all, better 
cared for, the proportion of female births would be 
sensibly diminished ; and that it is through these 
conditions that a proper equilibrium might be re-es- 
tablished. 
The necessity for it is so imperious and its results 
are so important that a person ought to be willing to 
devote his energy and means in its favor. Woman 
merits such treatment. We are very far from doing 
as we should by her. The most important act of our 
lives is left to chance. 
Instead of the equilibrium in the number of the sexes 
being due to the vigor of woman, the numerical pre- 
domination of the masculine sex is solely owing to the 
comparative feebleness and to the misconduct of man. 
Thegood or the ill health of woman, and, consequent- 
ly, the more or less normal predomination of the sexes, 
depend largely on the good or the bad management 
of the marital relations. 
Is it known what takes place when the proportion 
of males is greatly in excess of the females? 
Yes, we have described what takes place; nature 
responds by an increase in the number of female births. 
Will physiologists explain to us why and how this 
phenomenon is produced? 
As for ourselves, we can find but one answer, which NECESSITY FOR REGULATING 
is that it is necessary that the equilibrium be re-estab- 
lished. We do not see how any one can arrive at any 
other conclusion. 
It is our earnest desire that these views may be 
taught the guides of the human race, throughout all 
nations. 
Let us not lose sight of the fact that we should 
labor without relaxation for the health of woman. 
That her health is the condition indispensable for our 
success, and for a return to the natural equilibrium or 
proportion of the two sexes. 
As such a result is a matter of very great impor- 
tance from practical and moral points of view, and is 
of very wide range, it is plain that efforts undertaken 
for the attainment of this end are worthy of the most 
serious attention. 
Since it is at the precise moment of impregnation 
that the sex of the embryo is determined or fixed, it 
is easy to conclude that, in order to be prepared or 
fitted for this decisive moment, it is necessary to make 
some preparation for it in advance, by attention to 
hygiene, etc. 
It is evident that nature wills only universal har- 
mony; that it is the need for an equilibrium of her 
forces that solicits her; that it is the need for the re- 
placement of her subjects that she consults; and that, 
in her solicitude, she looks after the replacement of 
the being that is the feeblest, the one that she is in 
greatest danger of losing, the one that contains in THE MARITAL RELATIONS. 
germ, or included in its organism, the cause of its end, 
it matters not which sex it may be ; that the sex desired 
can be most easily obtained when there is a perfect 
equilibrium between both of the spouses and the in- 
fluences which directly affect them; and that, in case 
of a marked predominance in one of the spouses, it 
would be almost useless to struggle against it, with a 
view of obtaining the sex of the one in whom such 
predominance is manifested. It would certainly be 
reprehensible to resort to rash measures. Such a 
course would be an outrage on health. 
In the mating of the sexes, there are limits which 
ought not to be overstepped. 
[“Although a preventive of uterine disease, mar- 
riage may, nevertheless, produce it in various ways if 
not judiciously ordered. Marriage should not be 
contracted either too early or too late in life ; by too 
early, I mean before twenty-one, until which time the 
female system has not acquired its full development, 
nor the bones their perfect solidity. I have traced 
the influence of early marriage in many cases of uter- 
ine and inflammatory affections ; and there will be 
also greater chance of miscarriages when the proc- 
esses of reproduction are confided to immature organs. 
Indeed, it is not uncommon for women married at 
seventeen to begin by several miscarriages, and only to 
bear children on attaining the age at which it would 
have been prudent for them to marry.”—Dr. Tilt.1] 
1 Handbook of Uterine Therapeutics. Fourth Edition, p. 291. 78 
REACTION. 
CHAPTER XII. 
Reaction—In the preceding chapters, which 
we submit to the serious consideration of all thinking 
and educated persons, awaiting their judgment, we 
have described the conditions of conception and the 
determining cause of the sexes, and we have shown 
how, in spite of disturbing influences, they maintain 
a predomination and an equilibrium. 
The subjects which we have treated of have seemed 
very simple, though in one sense grave. A person 
cannot avoid recognizing, in the law which we have 
formulated, very nearly the truth, although it may 
contain some minor errors. On the carrying out of 
this work depends the prosperity or the decadence of 
humanity. 
The degeneration of the human race is to-day real, 
evident, palpable, and awful to contemplate. 
If we take a retrospective glance, we are unable to 
conceal our astonishment when we think that so many 
centuries have elapsed, and that so many savants have 
successively tried experiments and wasted their ener- 
gies, in attempting to discover the truth, without 
attaining their object. 
We are especially surprised that some authors could 
have possessed so much wisdom in matters pertaining 
to zoology, and have shown so little discernment, but REACTION. 
79 
lack of reason and discipline is concentrated in 
human affairs. 
Is it not attributable to arrogance, to the blindness 
of our passions? Is it not to egotism that we ought 
to attribute our past and present errors, errors which 
are of extreme gravity, since they have conducted us 
to a condition the sad consequences of which we suf- 
fer every day ? 
To what cause can this be attributed? 
Without entering into further details regarding con- 
clusions which appear so clearly on nearly every page 
of this little treatise, we shall return to the main sub- 
jects of our discourse. A person should never ramble 
away from principles. 
We will here take up the points which are of 
importance. It is necessary to once more have re- 
course to definitions. 
What is reaction ? 
What is conception, and what is the object of it? 
What do we understand by the term sex? 
How does nature work out her creations ? 
Reaction is the crisis by which nature makes an 
effort to prevent the death of her subjects, or to per- 
petuate life by the creation of new beings. 
Conception is the transmission of life. It may be 
defined as the result of a vital operation which copu- 
lation effects, and from which the human ovum takes on 
sex and life in the womb and becomes individual- 
ized. 80 
REACTION. 
Its end has been defined as the reproduction of the 
types, in order that there may be no break in the chain 
of living beings, in order that the equilibrium maybe 
maintained. 
From a general point of view, the sex may be con- 
sidered, first, as the means provided for reproduction ; 
secondly, as the instrument of the reaction of life 
against death, through transmission to the embryo. 
It is through sex that life continues, is perpetuated 
and transmitted. 
From a moral point of view, it is the sex which 
makes the being, and which gives individuality. It is 
through the sex and free will, well or badly managed, 
that the adult goes through the world doing good or 
evil. 
Take away from a subject the sex, and you at once 
efface marriage from the life of the individual, and 
one of the great ends and pleasures of earthly 
existence ; you change the sentiments, the heart, the 
love, and take away the poetry ; you weaken free will, 
and you diminish the value of the subject to society ; 
you affect the mind and the religion, for the great 
force, or power, of religion is found in merit and love 
well placed. 
When you suppress passion, you annihilate the 
counterpoise, and thus disturb the equilibrium. 
What then will remain ? There will remain matter, 
fiber and the frame-work ; but not one of these is cre- 
ated to exist alone by itself ; concert of all the constit- REACTION. 
81 
uent parts of the subject is necessary for reaction 
and harmony. 
The sex is, therefore, indispensable to the subject. 
It is the means and the intermedium of the most 
beautiful, the most noble and the most magnificent of 
the reactions of nature. 
Nature effects the selection of the sex through a 
reaction against the relative feebleness of the parent 
that transmits it. 
Without any exception, nature operates every where 
through reaction, in order to preserve an equilibrium. 
This is the only resource which she has, but it is suffi- 
cient. She is invariably successful in the struggles 
which take place within the organism. 
Reaction precedes us, follows us, and accompanies us 
at all times and in all places. We live only through 
it, for the mechanism of life is but a long succession 
of reactions. We are very near death when we are 
not capable of reacting. Reaction serves us under 
all circumstances. 
Medicine is a science which teaches us to utilize the 
power of reaction as a means of cure. Revulsive 
measures, such as counter-irritation and stimulation, 
are employed solely with a view of bringing about 
vital reaction, of awakening the vitality taken in its 
entirety. Such means solicit the revolt of the organ- 
ism, a revolution of the vital principle, an effort 
against the deleterious influences that are working 
against it. REACTION. 
Reaction makes an appeal to the organism not to 
compromise too much. The power of reaction re- 
veals itself throughout animated nature, and even in 
inanimate bodies. Thus, in chemistry, the creation of 
different products is effected through reaction. In 
physics, reaction is revealed in electricity, light, heat, 
motion, etc. In physiology, sleep is a reaction against 
fatigue or the state of wakefulness, and perspiration 
against heat. 
In affections of the mind, reaction takes place in 
the heart, in the brain, in the sentiments, and in the 
passions. The tears which flow, and the cry brought 
forth by joy, by fright, or by pain, are the effects of 
reaction. 
The squalling of the new-born infant is the result 
of a reaction against the first effects of exterior influ- 
ences. It is the effect of the abrupt change of condi- 
tions. 
It is through reaction that conception effects cures 
of certain womb and ovarian disorders. 
This is the way nature endeavors to re-establish the 
equilibrium. 
The wealthy portion of society is not the most 
fruitful, or prolific. Nothing is demanded of the 
organism, for it is well satisfied. 
In therapeutics, it is through reaction that an arrest 
of disease and a return to health, and to an equilib- 
rium of the vital forces, is effected. 
In pathology, inflammation and the morbid prod- REACTION. 
83 
ucts are the result of reaction and of the work of 
nature, which endeavors to effect a cure. 
In metaphysics, in oratory, in politics, and in every- 
thing, indeed, we behold the effects of reaction. At 
times we seek reaction, and provoke it. 
It is often through reaction that truth triumphs 
over error; it is through it that opposition raises it- 
self into power; through it that great oratorical efforts 
and the triumphs of eloquence are generally effected. 
If the nineteenth century is the age of womb dis- 
eases, the twentieth will be the age of reaction. 
A beautiful discovery ! say you ? Yes, a new appli- 
cation, beautiful and altogether modern. 
Do you wish to know the secret of increasing human 
activity, and why man of the nineteenth century 
accomplishes and invents ten times more than man of 
preceding centuries ? It is because beneath his feet 
certainty is established; it is because his works are 
based upon a solid foundation. 
To day every new science is quickly established, 
from the fact that it is aided by the facts observed 
and accumulated in the collateral sciences, and be- 
cause, figuratively speaking, it soon works the sand 
and other material into solid rock. 
“Kick vigorously with the foot, and fear not, for 
the immovable rock of truth rests here!” 
From the spark that you have caused to rise, you 
may soon see legions of workmen and soldiers spring 
up ! 84 
REACTION. 
But let us not anticipate. Let us leave this glow- 
ing ground, to reply to a question which is more 
closely connected to the subject of our discourse. 
What would occur, if #11 at once by a sudden 
change, by one of those happy and unexpected 
chances, men, forgetting traditions and losing the 
memory of their insane abuses, should return to rea- 
son, and to sound practice in sexual matters ? 
The response is not ambiguous. The health of 
zoo man would be immediately ameliorated. As a conse- 
quence, the number of male births would be notably 
augmented. With more favorable conditions, the 
human race would be constituted on a better founda- 
tion ; a proper numerical equilibrium would be 
re-established by the increased general health and 
vigor, and we would thus march progressively and 
rapidly onward to the complete restoration of the 
human frame-work, to a regeneration of the species, 
to a reconstruction of the temperaments, and to gen- 
eral harmony and prosperity. 
To this end every person may contribute, and con- 
tribute largely. 
Such is the object of this work, as will appear clear 
to the reader of the first two chapters. 
Practically, we agree in all efforts, and we put the 
question of this unforeseen possibility, because it does 
not appear to us impossible. 
It may be said by some that heretofore and now, 
just as we are, we are in equilibrium, in harmony, REACTION. 
85 
and in prosperity. Is it not affirmed that everything 
is for the best in this world ? 
In reality, everything is relative. 
To be sure, we have been heretofore, and are now, 
in a state of equilibrium, for without an equilibrium 
there can be only chaos and annihilation. Therefore, 
such as we are we live, but we do not live as we 
should. Estpejor modus vivendi, it is the last shift. It 
is an equilibrium maintained with suffering; it is not 
the normal state. 
Ought a person to be contented with such a condition 
of affairs ? To be sure, it is an equilibrium, but it is 
an equilibrium of anxiety, on account of the constant 
struggle of the sick and diseased against the strong 
and the well; it is not harmony. 
It is an equilibrium with disease against health, 
against strength, against life, against reason, and 
against nature. 
It is a combination of physical and moral marasmi; 
it is not a normal condition. 
There will be revealed to us in the near future, if it 
please the Creator, a brighter and a more prosperous 
horizon. 86 
PR A C TIC A L A P PLICA TION. 
CHAPTER XIII. 
Practical Application of the Foregoing Prin- 
ciples—In this, the concluding chapter, we will de- 
scribe the methods to be pursued in putting into prac- 
tice the principles which we have advanced. We shall 
say all that appears to us of practical value on this 
interesting subject. 
The law is one of seizing simplicity, but the prac- 
tical application of it requires great precautions. 
What is the object or end of marriage? is the first 
question which presents itself. 
This is apparently a strange question, and a very 
simple one, but it is one to which, however, a person 
does not always find a ready response. 
From the physician’s point of view, and from that 
of those persons whose positions oblige them to look 
on the moral side of marriage, the practical, material, 
physiological, and religious end of marriage is the 
transmission of life or reproduction. 
For the sake of convenience, we will divide the 
spouses into two categories. 
The first comprises the indifferent or imprudent, 
an ungrateful class, possessing but little intelligence. 
We desire to dismiss this category from further con- 
sideration at once. 
The second category of spouses includes all those 
who attach, and with reason, in our opinion, an im- PR A C TIC A L A P PLICA TION. 
87 
portance, often a very great importance, to the choice 
of the sexes. It is chiefly through this class that we 
must look for a return of the great current of life from 
past errors, and for a reparation, if it be possible. 
It is for this class that we write. 
This category may be divided into the following 
classes : a strong husband and a feeble wife who de- 
sire a girl ; a feeble husband and a strong wife who 
desire a boy; those who possess an equal amount of 
vitality. 
In these cases, what takes place? In the first two, 
leave nature to do the work, and she will meet the 
wishes of the spouses, for she never cheats herself. 
In the third case, which is also sufficiently simple, 
it is necessary to slightly enfeeble on the one side and 
fortify or strengthen on the other. It is necessary to 
enfeeble that spouse whose sex is desired ; it is nec- 
essary to diminish the vitality of this one, and increase 
that of the other, and the result will then be certain. 
If marked symptoms of debility exist on the side of 
the sex that is desired, this sex will be produced nat- 
urally, without any effort being made. 
If, on the contrary, the same amount of vitality ex- 
ists in both, the result wished for may be obtained by 
slightly enfeebling that spouse whose sex is desired. 
Nature then becomes refractory, and reacts. Such is 
the principle. 
As for the practical application, it is a delicate and 
difficult matter, and its direction should be intrusted 88 
PR A C TIC A L A P PLICA TION. 
to a skillful person. The advice of a learned physi- 
cian who has had experience in this field of practice 
should be sought. It would be unwise and very im- 
prudent for a person to attempt to treat himself with- 
out any medical guide. 
To make a prognosis without treatment is an ex- 
ceedingly difficult matter. 
Nature never deceives herself, but her interpreters 
are often deceived. It is much easier to explain an 
accomplished fact than it is to produce or predict the 
same. 
It should be well understood that, if a person at- 
tempts to treat himself, there should be no intercourse 
between the husband and wife during the entire 
period of treatment, under penalty of failure to attain 
the desired result. 
There are some people who cannot bear such a 
course without making many complaints. Simple ab- 
stainment from sexual indulgence for a brief period 
of time seems to be of no benefit; and this is all that 
most people do. 
Later we will return to this subject again. We will 
now describe in detail the methods to be pursued to 
temporarily strengthen or enfeeble the vitality. We 
will give as explicit directions as it is possible to give 
in a book regarding the courses to be adopted. 
When it is only necessary to give the economy a blow 
of the rod, so to speak, and not to bring about decided 
and lasting modifications of the physical condition, the PR A C TIC A L A P PLICA TI ON. 
89 
following means, which may be found recommended 
by various authors for obtaining a result the inverse 
of ours and the inverse of that of nature, may be 
employed. 
Strengthening Regimen—During the two or 
three weeks which precede the sexual meeting which 
it is intended should beget offspring, the food should 
consist of substantial articles of diet, such as rich 
soups, good wine, beefsteak, mutton, venison, small 
game, and, in fact, all the meats. Fruits may be 
taken sparingly in summer. Eggs and fish may also be 
taken with advantage. It is not necessary to exclude 
vegetables from the bill of fare, but a person should 
see that they agree with the individual. 
It is not necessary in all cases to follow this regimen 
too exclusively, or to carry the tonic treatment so far 
as to exceed the end in view. By such a course the 
digestive organs would be irritated and congested, 
and digestion deranged ; the object would not be 
attained; the result would be the inverse of that 
desired. 
Debilitating Regimen—This is the most essential. 
This is the course most frequently adopted, because 
it is the feebler subject that reacts, the feebler parent 
that determines the sex. 
The food should consist of thin soups, white meats, 
such as veal, chicken and lamb ; mucilaginous arti- 
cles of diet, such as corn starch and pastries ; also 
vegetables and, in summer, fruits. For drink, in addi- 90 
PR A C TIC A L A P PLICA TION. 
tion to water, weak tea may be taken with the 
meals. 
If a person desires to attain a still greater degree of 
debility, it is necessary to restrict the diet, to perform 
manual labor, and to bathe frequently in warm water. 
Then, finally, if this course does not suffice, aperient 
drinks should be taken, and the exercise of the body 
should be carried to fatigue. 
[A similar course may be adopted with horses, cat- 
tle and other domestic animals, and, indeed, has been 
by Mr. Armitage and Mr. Fiquet, with results which 
tend to prove the correctness of Dr. Gourrier’s theory. 
The former states that when he desired to obtain a 
filly from “a mare of wonderful vitality,” he “shut 
off her hard feed, softened her with mashes and grass, 
did not exercise her, and thus slowly reduced her 
strength. When her season came, she was sent to the 
horse in her artificially depleted state, and conceived. 
When it was evident, by subsequent refusals, that she 
was in foal, a few weeks’ generous fare restored her 
to her normal condition of strength. The result was 
a filly.”1 
With cattle, Mr. Fiquet writes that when he desires 
a heifer calf from any chosen cow, he permits her to 
run at pasture, stints her in feed, feeding only bran, 
root-crops, and green food, for a short period previous 
to the oestrum at which she is permitted to receive 
the male. The bull, on the contrary, is confined in a 
1 Wallace’s Monthly, vol. xi, p. 21. PR A C TIC A L A P PLICA TION. 
91 
lot by himself, is fed bountifully with corn meal, rye 
and oats, and is restrained in the exercise of his repro- 
ductive power, being permitted to serve no other cow 
until the chosen one has been disposed of. When he 
desires a bull calf, he simply reverses the conditions. 
The cow is taken from the herd, stabled, highly fed 
and well cared for. The bull is fed but sparingly, 
with “cooling food,” and is permitted to serve other 
cows at every opportunity. Thus the bull’s vigor and 
vitality are reduced. When brought together under 
these circumstances, it is stated that “ the result is in- 
variably a bull calf.” 
Mr Fiquet further adds: “An old male mated with 
a young and vigorous female begets male offspring. 
An old bull coupled with a young cow begets a bull 
calf, as is attested upon our own prairies, when we see 
old bulls going off to themselves, whilst every cow 
served by them has a bull calf. 
“ In herds in which there are but few bulls, we find 
bull calves in the majority; but in those herds in 
which young and vigorous bulls abound we find 
heifer calves most numerous.”—F. D. P.] 
Few organisms resist such a course, when it is fol- 
lowed for a sufficient period of time, and it may be 
without any danger. A person should, however, bear 
in mind that the enfeeblement should be continued 
for only a comparatively brief period. 
As is well known, the adoption of a particular regi- 
men is not the only means we possess for effecting a PR A C TIC A L A P PLICA TION. 
modification of the health. The hygienic repertory 
furnishes us many others, which are more energetic 
and more certain. 
There is a state which it is important that we 
should describe before concluding our work ; it is the 
period of convalescence from acute diseases. It is at 
such times that the senses and the generative organs, 
recovering from their somnolence, commence to shake 
off their inertia, and to come out of their inaptitude ; 
that the fatigued body, that the depressed and en- 
feebled economy, finds itself in the most favorable 
condition for generation and for producing its own 
sex, both at the same time. 
To those who, after marriage, desire simply a child, 
the sex is only a matter of secondary consideration. It 
is for the benefit of those who desire a particular sex 
that we have laid down these rules. 
In all our teachings we have affirmed that, in order 
that conception may take place outside of the ordi- 
nary conditions, it is necessary that either one or the 
other of the spouses be naturally feeble or tempo- 
rarily debilitated, by disease or through the employ- 
ment of enervating measures. 
When pregnancy takes place, it is necessary to see 
that the health and vitality are brought up to the 
standard. The means to be employed for this come 
within the domain of general medicine. 
[The majority of women, when conception takes 
place, do not consult a physician, and many go PRACTICAL APPLICATION. 
93 
through pregnancy “in a higgledy-piggledy way,” as 
Dr. Tilt calls it. Through over-exertion and over- 
excitement they frequently abort. While in this con- 
dition, they should lead a more quiet life than usual, 
and should especially avoid much physical exertion 
or excitement on those days when, but for this condi- 
tion, they would menstruate.—F. D. P.] 
It should be remarked here that, if a very vigorous 
woman is able, during a brief and transient period 
of enfeeblement, to momentarily cheat nature, in 
her intercourse with a feeble husband, the chances 
are that she will not continue long in the pregnant 
state. If such a woman, from a state of vigor, 
passes into one of plethora during the early part 
of pregnancy, she will abort very easily, and often 
in spite of every precaution. Especially is this apt 
to be the case if nature does not seek to avoid such 
a result through regular sanguineous evacuations, 
or if she does not submit to a skillfully-directed 
course of treatment. 
There is an old proverb which says: “ It is better to 
prevent thhn to repair.” 
It is certainly true in this case if ever. 
It is necessary to adopt a debilitating regimen in 
such cases, and we here repeat that a person should 
seek the advice of an educated and experienced 
practitioner. It would, perhaps, not be amiss to state 
that a person should assure himself that the advice 94 
PR A C TIC A L A P PLICA TION. 
emanates from one whose opinions are identical with 
those herein expressed. 
Let us now return to what may be termed the inter- 
regnum, the period during which the marital relations 
are temporarily suspended. 
Few are to be found in this category. We do not 
desire to set ourselves up in judgment against the 
great majority, but we do wish to approach the situ- 
ation just as it is, and not as it should be. 
The husband should temporarily abstain from sex- 
ual indulgence whenever he desires to be strengthened 
and to have his vigor restored, or when he desires to 
obtain a sex different from his own. On the other 
hand, if he desires to obtain his own sex, he should 
not lose sight of the fact that it is especially through 
the health and vigor of his wife that he should pro- 
ceed. 
The same remarks apply equally to the wife; and, 
furthermore, for the preservation of the pregnant 
state, it is often necessary that she should abstain 
from all intercourse with her husband. 
THE END. SANITARIUM; 
-A-2>T institution 
FOR THE TREATMENT OF 
CHRONIC DISEASES OF ALL KINDS, 
BOTH MEDICAL AND SURGICAL. 
Pleasantly located in the charming village of Union Springs, N. Y., on the east 
shore of Cayuga Lake. It is fully equipped with every convenience for the appli- 
cation of all recognized methods of treatment; massage, electricity in all forms, 
aero-therapeutics, inhalations, and Turkish and other baths. The rooms are newly 
decorated, cheerfully furnished, thoroughly ventilated, and in cold weather 
warmed by steam. 
We are willing and prepared to receive and treat, at moderate rates, the most 
difficult cases, those that require for their successful management and cure all the 
resources of the healing art. With the advantages here afforded, it is possible to 
cure, or permanently relieve, or at least put into working order, thousands who 
would otherwise suffer all their lives, and with no other relief but that which comes 
from the habitual use of narcotics. 
For further particulars, and for our Announcement, which contains cuts of the 
beautiful scenery in the vicinity, a map, and much useful information, address the 
Superintendent, 
F. D. PIERCE, M. D., 
UNION SPRINGS, CAYUGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. CHAMPION STOCK FARM. 
J. B. BURLEW. 
G. D. FLINN. 
CHARLEY B., 812, 
The Best Representative! Champion Family 
Standard ly Pedigree, Performance and Progeny 
Sired by King’s Champion, Jr.; dam, Old Jane, by Zeilley’s Eclipse. 
RECORD, 2:35 IN A FIFTH HEAT. 
Sire of Colonel Wood, 2:22 1-2; Bonny L., 2:27 1-4: 
Maggie Morrill, 2:29 1-4; Minnie B., 2:29 1-4 at four 
years of age; Topsy, 2:30 1-4; Honey B., 2:32 1-4; 
Dina, 2:32 1-2, Etc., Etc. 
Terms, $50, of which $10 at time of service, and the 
remainder when mare proves to be in foal. 
YOUNG STOCK 
From Standard Mares For Sale. 
A specialty made of furnishing fast road horses. 
Upwards of fifty standard brood mares and colts, representing 
the most fashionable blood of all the best families. 
For catalogues, address the proprietors, 
BURLEW & FLINN, 
UNION SPRINGS, N. Y. 
DAVID MASSEY, Groom.