The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English Part 15

The one great fact which pervades the universe is _action_. The very existence of Love demands its activity, and, hence, the highest happiness is attained by a normal and legitimate development of this element of our being. The heart demands an object upon which to lavish the largess of its affection. In the absence of all others, a star, a flower, or even a bird, will receive this homage. The bird warbles a gay answer to the well-known voice, the flower repays the careful cultivator by displaying its richest tints, the star twinkles a bright "good evening" to the lonely watcher, and yet withal there is an unsatisfied longing in the lover's heart, to which neither can respond; the desire to be loved! Hence, the perfect peace of reciprocated love. If its laws are violated, nature seeks revenge in the utter depression or prostration of the vital energies. Thus has the Divine Law-giver engraven His command on our very being. To love is, therefore, a duty, the fulfillment of which should engage our n.o.blest powers.

This emotion manifests itself in several phases, prominent among which is filial affection, the natural harmonizer of society. Paternal love includes a new element--protection. Greater than either, and second only in fort.i.tude to maternal affection, is

CONJUGAL LOVE.

"He is blest in Love alone Who loves for years and loves but one."--HUNT.

With Swedenborg, we may a.s.sert, "_that there is given love truly conjugal, which at this day is so rare, that it is not known what it is, and scarce that it is_." The same author has defined this relation to be a union of Love and Wisdom. The fundamental law of conjugal love is _fidelity to one love_. G.o.d created but one Eve, and the essential elements of paternal and maternal love pre-suppose and necessitate, for their normal development, the Love of _one_ only. Again, Love is the sun of woman's existence. Only under its influence does she unfold the n.o.blest powers of her being. Woman's intuitions should therefore be taken as the true love-gauge. If she desire a plurality of loves, it must be a law of her nature; but is communism the desire of our wives and daughters? No! Every act which renders woman dear to us, denounces such an idea and reveals the exclusive sacredness of her Love. As condemning promiscuity in this relation, we may cite the lovers' pledges and oaths of fidelity, the self-perpetuity of Love itself, the common instincts of mankind, as embodied in public sentiment, and the inherent consciousness that first love should he kept inviolable forever. Again, Love is conservative. It clings tenaciously to all the memories connected with its first object. The scenes consecrated to "Love's young dream" are sacred to every heart. The woodland with its winding paths and arbors, the streamlet bordered with drooping violets and dreamy pimpernel, the clouds, and even "the very tones in which we spoke," are indelibly imprinted on the memory. There is also the "mine and thine"

intuition of love. This sentiment is displayed in every thought and act of the lover. Every pleasure is insipid unless shared by the beloved; selfish and exacting to all others, yet always generous and forgiving to the adored. "Mine and thine, dearest," is the language of Conjugal Love.

The consummation desired by all who experience this affection, is the union of souls in a true marriage. Whatever of beauty or romance there may be in the lover's dream, is enhanced and spiritualized in the intimate communion of married life. The crown of wifehood and maternity is purer, more divine, than that of the maiden. Pa.s.sion is lost; the emotions predominate.

The connubial relation is not an inst.i.tution; it was born of the necessities and desires of our nature. "It is not good for man to be alone," was the Divine judgment, and so G.o.d created for him "an helpmate." Again, "Male and female created He them;" therefore, s.e.x is as divine as the soul. It is often perverted, but so is reason, aye, so is devotion.

The consummation of marriage involves the mightiest issues of life. It may be the source of infinite happiness or the seal of a living death.

"Love is blind" is an old saying, verified by thousands of ill-a.s.sorted unions. Many unhappy marriages are traceable to one or both of two sources, Physical Weaknesses and Masquerading. Many are the candidates for marriage who are rendered unfit therefor from weaknesses of their s.e.xual systems, induced by the violation of well-established physical laws.

We cannot too strongly urge upon parents and guardians the imperative duty of teaching those youths who look to them for instruction, in all matters which pertain to their future well-being such lessons as are embraced in the chapter of this book ent.i.tled, "Hygiene of the Reproductive Organs." By attending to such lessons as will give the child a knowledge of the physiology and hygiene of his whole system, the errors into which so many of the young fall, and much of the misery which is so often the dregs of the hymeneal cup, will be avoided.

Masquerading is a modern accomplishment. Girls wear tight shoes, burdensome skirts, and corsets, all of which prove very injurious to their health. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, our young ladies are sorry specimens of womankind, and "palpitators," cosmetics, and all the modern paraphernalia of fas.h.i.+on are required to make them appear fresh and blooming. Man is equally to blame. A devotee to all the absurd devices of fas.h.i.+on, he practically a.s.serts that "dress makes the man."

But physical deformities are of far less importance than moral imperfections. Frankness is indispensable in love. Each should know the other's faults and virtues. Marriage will certainly disclose them; the idol falls and the deceived lover is transformed into a cold, unloving husband or wife. By far the greater number of unhappy marriages are attributable to this cause. In love especially, honesty is policy and truth will triumph.

HISTORY OF MARRIAGE.

POLYGAMY AND MONOGAMY. We propose to give only a brief dissertation on the principles and arguments of these systems, with special reference to their representatives in the nineteenth century. Polygamy has existed in all ages. It is, and always has been, the result of moral degradation or wantonness. The Garden of Eden was no harem. Primeval nature knew no community of love. There was only the union of two "and the twain were made one flesh." Time pa.s.sed; "the sons of G.o.d saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose."

The propensities of men were in the ascendant, and "G.o.d repented Him that He had created man." He directed Noah to take into the ark, two of every sort, male and female. But "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," and tradition points to Polygamy as the generally recognized form of marriage among the ancients. The father of the Hebrew nation was unquestionably a polygamist, and the general history of patriarchal life shows that a plurality of wives and concubines were national customs. In the earlier part of Egyptian history, Menes is said to have founded a system of marriage, ostensibly monogamous, but in reality it was polygamous, because it allowed concubinage. As civilization advanced, the latter became unpopular, and "although lawful, was uncommon," while polygamy was expressly forbidden. Solomon, according to polygamous principles, with his thousand women, should have enjoyed a most felicitous condition. Strange that he exclaimed "A woman among all these have I not found." According to the distinguished Rabbi, Maimonides, polygamy was a Jewish custom as late as the thirteenth century. When Cecrops the Egyptian King, came to Athens (1550, B.C.) he introduced a new system, which proved to be another step toward the recognition of Monogamy. Under this code a man was permitted to have one wife and a concubine. Here dawned the era of Grecian civilization, the glory of which was reflected in the social and political principles of Western Europe. During the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., concubinage disappeared, but, under the new regime, the condition of the wife was degraded. She was regarded as simply an instrument of procreation and a mistress of the household, while a cla.s.s of foreign women, who devoted themselves to learning and the fine arts, were the admired, and often the beloved companions of the husbands. These were the courtesans who played the same role in Athenian history, as did the chaste matron, in the annals of Rome. When Greece became subject to Rome and the national characteristics of these nations were blended, marriage became a loose form of monogamy. In Persia, during the reign of Cyrus, about 560 B.C., polygamy was sustained by custom, law, and religion. The Chinese marriage system was, and is, practically polygamous, for, from their earliest traditions, we learn that although a man could have but one wife, he was permitted to have as many concubines as he desired.

In the Christian era the first religious system which incorporated polygamy as a principle was Mohammedanism. This system, which is so admirably adapted to the voluptuous character of the Orientals, has penetrated Western Europe, Asia, and Africa. Hayward estimated the number of its adherents to be one hundred and forty millions. The heaven of the Mohammedan is replete with all the luxuries which appeal to the animal propensities. Ravis.h.i.+ng Houris attend the faithful, who recline on downy couches, in pavilions of pearl. On the Western Continent a system of promiscuity was practiced by the Mexicans, Peruvians, Brazilians, and the barbarous tribes of North America.

The Mormon Church was founded by Joseph Smith, and professes to be in harmony with the Bible and a special revelation to its leading Saint.

According to the Mormon code, "Love is a yearning for a higher state of existence, and the pa.s.sions, properly understood, are feeders of the spiritual life;" and again, "nature is dual; to complete his organization a man must marry." The leading error of Mormonism is that it mistakes a legal permission for a Divine command. The Mormon logic may be premised as follows: the Mosaic law allowed polygamy; the Bible records it; therefore, the Bible _teaches_ polygamy.

A Mormon Saint can have not less than three wives but as many more as he can conveniently support. The eight fundamental doctrines of the Mormon Church are stated as follows: 1. G.o.d is a person with the flesh and form of a man. 2. Man is a part of the substance of G.o.d and will himself become a G.o.d. 3. Man is not created by G.o.d but existed from all eternity. 4. Man is not born in sin, and is not accountable for offenses other than his own. 5. The earth is a colony of embodied spirits, one of many such settlements in s.p.a.ce. 6. G.o.d is president of the immortals, having under Him four orders of beings: (1.) G.o.ds--_i.e._, immortal beings, possessed of a perfect organization of soul and body, being the final state of men who have lived on earth in perfect obedience to the law. (2.) Angels, immortal beings who have lived on earth in imperfect obedience to the law. (3.) Men, immortal beings in whom a living soul is united with a human body. (4.) Spirits, immortal beings, still waiting to receive their tabernacle of flesh. 7. Man, being one of the race of G.o.ds, became eligible, by means of marriage, for a celestial throne, and his household of wives and children are his kingdom, not only on earth but in heaven. 8. The kingdom of G.o.d has been again founded on earth, and the time has now come for the saints to take possession of their own; but by virtue, not by violence; by industry, not by force. This sect has met with stern and bitter opposition. It was successively located in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, from the last of which it was expelled by force of arms, and in 1848 established in Utah.

Its adherents number, at the present time, more than two hundred thousand.

Another organization, differing from the Mormons, in many of its radical principles, is that of the "Communists," popularly termed "Free Lovers."

It is located at Lennox, Madison Co., N.Y. Its members advocate a system of "complex marriage" which they claim is inst.i.tuted with a conscientious regard for the welfare of posterity. They disclaim "promiscuity," and a.s.sert that the tie which binds them together is as permanent and as sacred as that of marriage. Community of property is commensurate with freedom of Love. They define love to be "social appreciation," and this element in their code of civilization, which they deem superior to all others, is secondary to "bodily support." The principles upon which their social status is founded may be briefly summarized as follows: "Man offers woman support and love (unconditional). Woman enjoying freedom, self-respect, health, personal and mental competency, gives herself to man in the boundless sincerity of an unselfish union. State--, Communism." In this, as in all forms of polygamous marriages, love is made synonymous with s.e.xuality, and its purely spiritual element is lost. In every instance this spiritual element should const.i.tute the basis of marriage, which, without it, is nothing more than legal prost.i.tution. Without it, the selfish, degrading, animal propensities run rampant, while the emotions with all their boundless sweetness lie dormant. Woman is regarded as only a plaything to gratify the animal caprice.

That Monogamy is a law of nature is evident from the fact that it fulfills the three essential conditions which form the basis of true marriage: (1.) The development of the individual (2.) The welfare of society. (3.) The reproduction of the species.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL.

PHYSICALLY. Reciprocated love produces a general exhilaration of the system. The elasticity of the muscles is increased, the circulation is quickened, and every bodily function is stimulated. The duties of life are performed with a zest and alacrity never before experienced. "It is not possible for human beings to attain their full stature of humanity, except by loving long and perfectly. Behold that venerable man! He is mature in judgment, perfect in every action and expression, and saintly in goodness. You almost wors.h.i.+p as you behold. What rendered him thus perfect? What rounded off his natural asperities, and moulded up his virtues? Love mainly. It permeated every pore, so to speak, and seasoned every fiber of his being, as could nothing else. Mark that matronly woman. In the bosom of her family, she is more than a queen and G.o.ddess combined. All her looks and actions express the outflowing of some or all of the human virtues. To know her is to love her. She became thus perfect, not in a day or a year, but by a long series of appropriate efforts. Then by what? Chiefly in and by love, which is specifically adapted thus to develope this maturity." But all this occurs only when there is a normal exercise of the s.e.xual propensities. Excessive indulgence in marital pleasures deadens all the higher faculties, love included, and results in an utter prostration of the bodily powers. The Creator has endowed man and woman with pa.s.sions, the suppression of which leads to pain, their gratification to pleasure, their satiety to disgust. Excessive marital indulgence produces abnormal conditions of the generative organs and not unfrequently leads to incurable disease.

Many cases of uterine disease are traceable to this cause.

MORALLY AND INTELLECTUALLY. In no country where the polygamous system prevails do we find a code of political and social ethics which recognizes the rights and claims of the individual. The condition of woman is that of the basest slave, a slave to the caprice and tyranny of her master. Communism raises her from the slough of slavery, but subjects her to the level of prost.i.tution. An inevitable sequence of polygamy is a decline of literature and science. The natural tendency of each system is to _sensualism._, The blood is diverted from its normal channels and the result is a condition which may be appropriately termed _mental starvation_. Sensualism is in its very nature directly opposed to literary attainments or advancement. Happily there is a golden mean, an equalization of those elements which const.i.tutes the acme of individual enjoyment.

THE WELFARE OF SOCIETY.

The general law of ethics, that "whatever is beneficial to the individual, contributed to the highest good of society and _vice versa_," applies with equal force to the hygienic conditions of marriage. Each family, like the ancient Roman household, is the prototype of the natural government under which it lives. Wherever the marriage relation is regarded as sacred, there you will find men of pure hearts and n.o.ble lives. Of all foreign nations the Germans are celebrated for their sacred regard of woman, and the duties of marriage, and all scholars from the age of Tacitus to the present day, have concurred in attributing the elevation of woman to the pure-minded Teutons. In America, the law recognizes only Monogamy; but domestic unhappiness is a prominent feature of our national life; therefore, argues the would-be free-lover, monogamy does not accord with the best interests of mankind. The fallacy lies in the first premise. Legally, our marriage system is monogamous but _socially_ and _practically_ it is _not!_ Prost.i.tution is the source of this domestic infelicity. The "mistress" sips the sweet nectar that is denied to the deceived wife.

Legislators have battled with intemperance, but have done comparatively little to banish from our midst this necessary (?) evil. They recoil with disgust from this abyss of iniquity and disease. Within it is coiled a hydra-headed monster, which invades our hearthstones, contaminates our social atmosphere, and whose very breath is laden with poisonous vapors, the inexhaustible source of all evil.

The perverted appet.i.tes of mankind are mistaken for the natural desires and necessities of our being; and, accordingly, various arguments have been advanced to prove that monogamy is not conducive to social developement. It is curious that no one of these arguments refers to the health and well-being of the _individual_, thus overlooking, perhaps willfully, the great law of social economy. Even a few medical writers sometimes advocate the principles of this so-called liberalism. In a recently published work, there are enumerated only _two_ demerits of polygamy and _six_ of monogamy. These six demerits which the author is pleased to term a "bombsh.e.l.l," he introduces on account of his moral convictions no less than humanitarian considerations. The same author terms monogamy a "worm-eaten and rotten-rooted tree." The worm that is devastating the fairest tree of Eden and draining its richest juices is what our contemporary thinks, may be "_plausibly termed, a necessary evil_." It is claimed that monogamy begets narrow sympathies and leads to selfish idolatry. The fallacy of this argument lies in the misapprehension of the term _selfishness_. Self-preservation is literally selfishness, yet who will deny that it is a paramount duty of man. If perverted, it may be vicious, even criminal; but selfishness, in so far as it is generated by monogamy, is one of the chief elements of social economy; furthermore, it favors the observance of the laws of s.e.xual hygiene. As we have said elsewhere, true love _increases benevolence_, and correspondingly expands and develops the sympathies.

Selfish idolatry is preferable to social neglect. This argument will not bear a critical examination; for it is a.s.serted that in a happy union, "love is so exclusive that there is hardly a liking for good neighbors, and scarcely any love at all for G.o.d." If the "good neighbors" were equally blessed, they would not suffer from this exclusiveness, and it is practically true that there is no higher incentive to love and obey our Maker than the blessing of a happy marriage.

THE PERPETUATION OF THE SPECIES.

The third essential object of marriage is the perpetuation of the species. The desire for offspring is innate in the heart of every true man or woman. It is thus a law of our nature, and, as such, must have its legitimate sphere. The essential features of reproduction proclaim monogamy to be the true method of procreation. Promiscuity would render the mother unable to designate the father of her children. Among lower animals, pairing is an instinctive law whenever the female is incapable of protecting and nouris.h.i.+ng her offspring alone. During at least fifteen years, the child is dependent for food and clothing upon its parents, to say nothing of the requisite moral training and loving sympathy, which, in a great measure, mould its character. Fidelity to one promotes multiplication. It has been argued by the advocates of polygamy that such a system interferes with woman's natural right to maternity. Of the many marriages celebrated yearly, comparatively few are sterile. The statement that many single women are desirous of having children, would apply only to a very limited number, as it is seldom that they would be able to support children without the aid and a.s.sistance of a father. Promiscuity diminishes the number and _vitiates_, the quality of the human products. "Women of pleasure never give to the world sons of genius, or daughters of moral purity."

CHAPTER XVII.

REPRODUCTION.

Every individual derives existence from a _parent_, which word literally means one who brings forth. We restrict the meaning of the term _reproduction_, ordinarily, to that function by which living bodies produce other living bodies similar to themselves. _Production_ means to bring forth; _reproduction_, the producing again, or renewing. To protract individual existence, nutrition is necessary, because all vital changes are attended by _wear_ and _waste_. Nutrition is always engaged in the work of reparation. Every organism that starts out upon its career of development depends upon nouris.h.i.+ng materials for its growth, and upon this renewing process for its development. Nutrition is all the while necessary to prolong the life of the individual, but at length its vigor wanes, its functions languish, and, finally, the light of earthly life goes out. Although the single organization decays and pa.s.ses away, nevertheless the species is uninterruptedly continued; the tidal wave of life surges higher on the sh.o.r.es of time, for reproduction is as constant and stable as the attractive forces of the planetary system.

It is a fact, that many species of the lower order of animals which once existed are now extinct. It has been a.s.serted and denied, that fossil remains of man have been found, indicating that races which once existed have disappeared from the face of the earth. The pyramids are unfolding a wonderful history, embracing a period of forty-five hundred years, which the world of science receives as literally authentic, and admits, also, that fifty-four hundred years are _probably_ as correctly accounted for. The extinction of races is not at all improbable. At the present time, the aboriginal inhabitants of this continent seem to be surely undergoing gradual extinguishment! It, therefore, seems to be possible for a weaker race to deteriorate, and finally become extinct, unless the causes of their decadence can be discovered and remedied. All people are admonished to earnestly investigate the essential conditions necessary for their continuance, for the rise and fall of nations is in obedience to natural principles and operations. Viewed from this standpoint, it is possible that a careful study of the human temperaments and their relations to reproduction may be of greater moment than has. .h.i.therto been supposed, and a proper understanding of them may tend to avert that individual deterioration, which, if suffered to become general, would end in national disaster and the extinction of the race.

Until recently, even naturalists believed that descendants were strictly like their parents in form and structure. Now it is known that the progeny may differ in both form and structure from the parent, and that these may produce others still more unlike their ancestry. But all these peculiar and incidental deviations finally return to the original form, showing that these changes have definite limits, and that the alterations observe a specific variableness, which is finally completed by its a.s.suming again the original form. (See page 16, Figs. 2 and 3).

_Reproduction_ may be _s.e.xual_ or _non-s.e.xual._ In some plants and animals it is non-s.e.xual. The propagation of species is accomplished by buds. Thus the gardener grafts a new variety of fruit upon an old stock.

The florist understands how to produce new varieties of flowers, and make them radiantly beautiful in their bright and glowing colors. The bud personates the species and produces after its kind. Some of the _annelides_, a division of articulate animals, characterized by an elongated body, formed of numerous rings or annular segments, multiply by spontaneous division. A new head is formed at intervals in certain segments of the body. (See Fig. 97).

Something similar to this process of budding, we find taking place in a low order of animal organization. Divide the fresh water polyp into several pieces, and each one will grow into an entire animal. Each piece represents a polyp, and so each parent polyp is really a compound animal, an organized community of beings. Just as the buds of a tree, when separated and engrafted upon another tree, grow again, each preserving its original ident.i.ty, so do the several parts of this animal, when divided, become individual polyps, capable of similar reproduction.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 97.

An annelid dividing spontaneously, a new head having been formed toward the hinder part of the body of the parent.]

The revolving volvox likewise increases by growth until it becomes a society of animals, a multiple system of individuals. There are apertures from the parent, by which water gains a free access to the interior of the whole miniature series. This monad was once supposed to be a single animal, but the microscope shows it to be a group of animals connected by means of six processes, and each little growing volvox exhibits his red-eye speck and two long spines, or horns. These animals also multiply by dividing, and thus liberate another series, which, in their turn, reproduce other groups.

Generation requires the concurrence of _stimuli_ and _susceptibility_, and, to perfect the process, two conditions are also necessary. The first is the sperm, which communicates the principle of action; the other is the germ, which receives the latent life and provides the conditions necessary to organic evolution. The vivifying function belongs to the male, that of nouris.h.i.+ng and cheris.h.i.+ng is possessed by the female; and these conditions are s.e.xual distinctions. The former represents _will_ and _understanding_; the latter, _vitality_ and _emotion_. The father directs and controls, the mother fosters and encourages; the former counsels and admonishes, the latter persuades and caresses; and their union in holy matrimony represents one; that is, the blending of vitality and energy, of love and wisdom,--the elements indispensable to the initiation of life under the dual conditions of male and female,--_one in the functions of reproduction_.

Let us consider the modes of s.e.xual Reproduction, which are _hermaphroditic_ and _dioecious_.