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CHAPTER IX.

Barrenness.

There must be some defect in the mind of a human being that does not desire children. The unperverted sexual desires are filled with a love of posterity, and should not be exercised except for procreation.

It has been said that "the love of posterity is greater in woman than in man," but this must forever be an open question, since man's brain is generally so poisoned with tobacco and intoxicating drinks, that we know but little about what he would be without having indulged in the same. But there is a stronger reason why men do not love their children as devotedly as women aside from the mother suffering. A sexually promiscuous life destroys the finest and tenderest loves of life to a great extent. The man or woman whoever debases the procreating functions by sexual variety or change, or who indulges for selfish reasons without desires for posterity, lose the power to become the parents of children of the finest minds, bodies and morals. And although they may not be idiotic, or may not be born hermaphrodites, yet they are liable to be enfeebled in body, dull of perception, or without the power to leave their posterity to the world--in a word thy are

barren. All states and modifications of evils result from an abuse, or an improper use of the organs of generation. They should not be used at all until mind and body are mature, and then there will be a strength of character, strength of body and mind imparted to posterity that will be superior to both parents.

If bodies are mature before those in temperate climates are between 25 and 30 years old, the minds are not, it matters not how well they are educated, and no person should marry until the mind is mature as well as the body. Time alone can bring maturity that enables parents to give to children constitutions and capabilities of mind that are superior to themselves, or even equals with them. It is true that superior advantages of children to-day leads some to think that their children are an improvement on themselves, but had they had the same advantages in their youth, they would now readily see that the contrast is very great regarding the deterioration of their posterity.

The love of offspring implanted in the soul of those unable to become mothers, has caused many barren women to apply to us for a remedy, and to explain the cause of barrenness. We have seldom seen deeper looks of despair on woman's face then when she repeated the assertion that "there is no hope in the case." Men do not understand the depth of woman's

love of posterity. So great is this that women of all ages, from before the age of puberty, until long after the ordinary possible age to bear children, dream of having infants of their own in their arms, and sometimes of twins and triplets. Few, if any men have any idea of the love of motherhood that is expressed by girls to each other, and many an illegitimate child that is forced from the mother's presence, for fear of publicity, would be kept regardless of consequences to her; if she were allowed to exercise her maternal rights. A most marked and deeply affecting instance of the love of children occurred in the central part of New York. A woman of nearly thirty years of age became a mother who was never married. The father left the country before the birth. A few years after she became the mother of another child, at which occurrence all sympathy for her was extinct. When the children were about half grown she was summoned as a witness on some neighborhood difference, and the opposing counsel questioned her in regard to her two illegitimate children of different fathers for the purpose of damaging her evidence because of her character.

She replied that the love of the father in the hopes of having his offspring was so great they she was ready to bear all disgrace for the sake of having his child that she loved so dearly, that she made an

opportunity to have another child, so as to have one to love in her old age if the first should die.

The judge on the bench asked her why she did not marry if she thought so much of children? She replied that she had never had a chance to marry.

There was not a dry eye in the court, when they understood that woman's love of motherhood, and the judge in open court asked her if she would marry him. And at the close of the court they were accordingly married. Very few women are understood by men, only as some peculiar circumstances bring their real characters to light. This results from a false idea of modesty that men make for women to abide by, and then in their egotism treat women as though they knew all about them, better than they know themselves. How much men lose in the great work of soul and body elevation, men will never know until women make their own standard of what is modest and right. The one is in reality synonymous with the other. Ignorance and false modesty always accompany each other. The motive and not the words or acts are truly modest or otherwise. Whatever any one person in the world ought to know about the human body or its possibilities, organic or functional, all should know, for knowledge that is gained correctly is but the birthright of humanity. At this point we make an assertion that was never made before, that every woman, as well as every

man, has a right to know before marriage whether that life partner is capable of parentage. Science has been so developed that this can be ascertained to a certainty, and thus prevent all of the disappointments and separations resulting from barrenness. There are many causes in both men and women. There are instances of barrenness, where the only cause has been the harshness of husbands on wedding nights. The nerves of the vagina were so shocked and partially paralyzed that they never recovered the magnetic power sufficiently to foster the life of the spermatozoa until the conception was perfected.

We have discovered that some women have such a cartilagineous osuteri, that the spermatozoa lose all of their vitality before they are able to pass over such an unmagnetic place before arriving into the body of the uterus where the minute placenta is formed, with the ovum in it, awaiting the spermatozoon. Our microscopic experiments have proved that one or more munute placentae aare formed every month in the uterus while a woman is able to bear children. It is through the fine magnetic attraction of the spermatozoa for the ovum that bring the former, or sperm cells, to unite with the latter, or germ cells. How great this attraction is will be seen in another chapter, where a case is related of conception without perfect copulation.

Another cause of barrenness, is because of an

elongation of the labia of the osuteri, making the osuteri so gross and unmagnetic, that the spermatozoa cannot pass into the uterus because of the repulsion. Another cause is that the osuteri is so small that the menstrual fluid is forced through this orifice causing great pain and consequent inflammation, rendering conception impossible, because of the heat of the inflammation so soon destroying the spermatozoa. Another reason is, that the expulsive pains so injure or destroy the minute placenta, that when the inflammation subsides there is no ovum or placenta in the uterus to receive the spermatozoa. Another reason is that the albuminous fluid given off every month to fill the neck of the uterus as soon as conception takes place is of such a vitiated character that the neck of the uterus cannot retain it. Although this last substance could be contained in less than half of a small thimble, it glues up the neck of the uterus to prevent air and other influences from interfering with the great and beautiful laws of foetal development.

Barrenness is sometimes caused from temperamental inharmonies, but wrongs are every day to be met where the parents had better have been barren than to have united such temperaments, that the power of longevity was lost in the children, or the general make-up was defective.

Most of the cases of barrenness in women, yield

to medical or surgical treatment. But there are cases in men, that cannot be remedied, and it is a crime for such men to marry without the intended wife fully understanding that he is powerless to become a father. No man or woman whose respect is worth having, but would thank another for honestly revealing their true condition.

The temperamental conditions have a wonderful effect on barrenness in old age, as is seen in the following cases.

The noble Italian lady, Dianora Frescobalh, was the mother of fifty-two children.

There is a monument in Aberconway Church,, to Nicholas Hooper, who was a firty-first child, and the father of twenty-seven children by one wife.

The wife of the coachman of Charles X. became enceinte when sixty-fine years old.

Margaret Cribsowne, who died in 1763 at the age of 108 years, married her third husband at ninety-four years of age, who was at the time of marriage 105 years old. They had three children, all of ordinary height, but they never had any teeth; their hair was gray, complexions withered, and had decrepit step.

In self-imposed barrenness, married men object to having children because of their trouble when young. Some from fear that they may be deformed, or that they may not be very clever, and no credit to them

selves. Some because of a want of an understanding that maternity does not injure women in any sense as wives if all the laws are observed. Some because they are too penurious to pay the extra expenses that their wives would demand, or their own pride suggest. Some because they do not wish to have their wives ever in a condition where their own demands cannot be supplied, and where their wive's whole attention cannot be paid to them, for those who practice variety before marriage are tyrants in marriage, and generally continue their promiscuity to a greater or less extent, hoping by putting on a kind of rigidity of manners that they will convince their wives of their correctness of morals.

We would not do an injustice to men, for the same things holds true regarding women who practice a variety life, as is seen in some tribes of East India and in Africa, where the women have plurality of husbands.

The love of posterity is never as intense with variety people as with those who have always lived true lives.

The motives that call forth the love of posterity are many. The first and general one is that ever grasping to attain all that is within the possibilities of mortals, and to be considered equals with the rest of mankind.

Where honors and titles are inherited there is a

desire to perpetuate that style of greatness, and it sometimes occurs that the most cruel of measures are resorted to for the accomplishment of such a purpose. The beautiful Josephine will ever be cited as an instance of this character.

A prevalent motive everywhere, is to have some one to care for them in old age, and no matter what are the examples of ingratitude of many children, a hope that theirs will be all they desire is ever indulged.

Few men can ever understand, and perhaps no man can, how deep is the love of posterity for the purpose of having something pure to pet and place their affections upon as the predominant motive, although they have all the other motives that men have also.

We have known cases where the maternal love was so great with women whose husbands were postponing for years their wives desired maternity, that they have been led to study regarding the fulfillment of such desire from another source.

We know of cases where widowers with children when looking for second wives, have protested against marrying women who were young enough to bear children.

Some young women have distinctly told such men that they desired children, and thus defeated the contemplated marriages.

There are men who become angry every time their wives become pregnant, and treat them as though they had committed some crime, and by such treatment compel them to actually commit a crime in producing abortion.

We know of a case where the maternal love was so great, that a wife was determined to have a second child, fearing that the first (about eight years of ago[sic]) might die and leave her childless. She succeeded in her plans for conception after a second month's trial, in taking the semen from the sheet and introducing it into the vagina. Her child was a well developed boy, with the exception of having part of the cranial bones entirely absent. It lived but a few hours.

Good men cannot form a clear conception of the base motives of some men regarding the tenderest interests of life, and they hurry their daughters into marriage with any sort of a man that has wealth or position, never thinking whether the man may be able to become a father of grand specimens of humanity or not, or whether his daughter may not be barren and she be an imposition on her husband. Deception on one side is as reprehensible as on the other.