Chapter 13

_Diet_.--He who would keep in subjection his animal nature must carefully guard the portal to his stomach. The blood is made of what is eaten. Irritating food will produce irritating blood. Stimulating foods or drinks will surely produce a corresponding quality of blood. Irritating, stimulating blood will irritate and stimulate the nervous system, and especially the delicate nerves of the reproductive system, as previously explained. Only the most simple and wholesome food should be eaten, and that only in such moderate quantities as are required to replenish the tissues. The custom of making the food pungent and stimulating with condiments is the great, almost the sole, cause of gluttony. It is one of the greatest hindrances to virtue. Indeed, it may with truth be said that the devices of modern cookery are most powerful allies of unchastity and licentiousness. This subject is particularly deserving of careful, candid, and studious attention, and only needs such investigation to demonstrate its soundness.

_Exercise_.--Next to diet as an aid to continence, perhaps of equal importance with it, is exercise, both physical and mental. It is a trite proverb, the truth of which every one acknowledges, that "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do," and it is equally true that he always has an evil thought in readiness--speaking figuratively--to instill into an unoccupied mind. A person who desires to be pure and continent in body and mind must flee idleness as he would the devil himself; for the latter is always ready to improve upon the advantages afforded by an idle moment, an hour given to reverie.

We have the strongest testimony from the most eminent physicians in regard to the efficacy of exercise in overcoming abnormal sexual desires. Mr. Acton relates the following statement made to him by a gentleman who has become distinguished in his profession:--

"'You may be surprised, Mr. Acton,' said he, 'by the statement I am about to make to you, that before my marriage I lived a perfectly continent life. During my university career, my passions were very strong, sometimes almost uncontrollable, but I have the satisfaction to think that I mastered them; it was, however, by great efforts. I obliged myself to take violent physical exertion; I was the best oar of my year, and when I felt particularly strong sexual desire, I sallied out to take my exercise. I was victorious always, and I never committed fornication. You see in what vigorous health I am; it was exercise alone that saved me.'"

Says Carpenter, on the same subject, in a textbook for medical students, "'Try the effect of close mental application to some of those ennobling pursuits to which your profession introduces you, in combination with vigorous bodily exercise, before you assert that the appetite is unrestrainable, and act upon that assertion.'"

Walking, riding, rowing, and gymnastics are among the best modes of physical exercise for sedentary persons; but there is no better form of exercise than working in the garden. The cultivation of small fruits, flowers, and other occupations of like character, really excel all other modes of physical exercise for one who can engage in them with real pleasure. Even though distasteful at first, they may become very attractive and interesting if there is an honest, persevering desire to make them so. The advantages of exercises of this kind are evident. 1. They are useful as well as healthful. While they call into action a very large number of muscles by the varied movements required, the expenditure of vital force is remunerated by the actual value of the products of the labor; so that no force is wasted. 2. The tillage of the soil and the dressing of vines and plants bring one in constant contact with nature in a manner that is elevating and refining, or at least affords the most favorable opportunities for the cultivation of nobility and purity of mind, and elevated principles.

Exercise carried to such excess as to produce exhaustion is always injurious. The same is true of mental labor as of physical exercise. Plenty of sleep, and regular habits of retiring and rising, are important. Dozing is bad at any time; for it is a condition in which the will is nearly dormant, though consciousness still lingers, and the imagination is allowed to run wild, and often enough it will run where it ought not. Late study, or late hours spent in any manner, is a sure means of producing general nervous irritability and sexual excitement through reflex influence.

_Bathing_.--A daily bath with cool or tepid water, followed by vigorous rubbing of the skin with a coarse towel and then with the dry hand, is a most valuable aid. The hour of first rising is generally the most convenient time. How to take different kinds of baths is explained in other works devoted to the subject.[10] General and local cleanliness are indispensable to general and local health.

[Footnote 10: See "Uses of Water" and "The Household Manual."]

_Religion_.--After availing himself of all other aids to continence, if he wishes to maintain purity of mind as well as physical chastity--and one cannot exist long without the other--the individual must seek that most powerful and helpful of all aids, divine grace. If, in the conflict with his animal nature, man had only to contend with the degrading influences of his own propensities, the battle would be a serious one, and it is doubtful whether human nature alone--at least in any but rare cases,--would be able to gain the victory; but, in addition to his own inherent tendencies to evil, man is assailed at every point by unseen agencies that seek to drag him down and spoil his soul with lust. These fiendish influences are only felt, not seen, from which some argue that they do not exist. Such casuists must find enormous depths for human depravity. But who has not felt the cruel power of these unseen foes? Against them, there is but one safe, successful weapon, "the blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin."

The struggling soul, beset with evil thoughts, will find in prayer a salvation which all his force of will, and dieting, and exercising, will not, alone, insure him. Yet prayer alone will not avail. Faith and works must always be associated. All that one can do to work out his own salvation, he must do; then he can safely trust in God to do the rest, even though the struggle seems almost a useless one; for when the soul has been long in bondage to concupiscence, the mind a hold of foul and lustful thoughts, a panorama of unchaste imagery, these hateful phantoms will even intrude themselves upon the sanctity of prayer and make their victim mentally unchaste upon his knees. But Christ can pity even such; and even these degraded minds may yet be pure if with the psalmist they continue to cry, with a true purpose and unwavering trust, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

At the first suggestion of an evil thought, send up a mental prayer to Him whose ear is always open. Prayer and impurity are as incompatible as oil and water. The pure thoughts that sincere prayer will bring, displace the evil promptings of excited passion. But the desire for aid must be sincere. Prayer will be of no avail while the mind is half consenting to the evil thought. The evil must be loathed, spurned, detested.

It would seem almost unnecessary to suggest the impropriety of resorting to prayer alone when sexual excitability has arisen from a culpable neglect to remove the physical conditions of local excitement by the means already mentioned. Such physical causes must be well looked after, or every attempt to reform will be fruitless. God requires of every individual to do for himself all that he is capable of doing; to employ every available means for alleviating his sufferings.

MARITAL EXCESSES.

It seems to be a generally prevalent opinion that the marriage ceremony removes all restraint from the exercise of the sexual functions. Few seem to even suspect that the seventh commandment has any bearing upon sexual conduct within the pale of matrimony. Yet if we may believe the confessions and statements of men and women, legalized prostitution is a more common crime than illicit commerce of the sexes. So common is the popular error upon this subject, and so strongly fortified by prejudice is it, that it is absolutely dangerous for a writer or speaker to express the truth, if he knows it and has a disposition to do so. Any attempt to call attention to true principles is mocked at, decried, stigmatized, and, if possible, extinguished. The author is vilified, and his work is denounced, and relegated to the ragman. Extremist, fanatic, ascetic, are the mildest terms employed concerning him, and he escapes with rare good fortune if his chastity or virility is not assailed.

We are not going to run any such risks, and so shall not attempt to enunciate or maintain any theory. We shall content ourselves with plainly stating established physiological facts by quotations from standard medical authors, leaving each reader to draw conclusions and construct a practical formula for himself.

Object of the Reproductive Functions.--Man, in whatever condition we find him, is more or less depraved. This is true as well of the most cultivated and refined ladies and gentlemen of the great centers of civilization, as of the misshapen denizens of African jungles, or the scarcely human natives of Australia and Terra del Fuego. His appetites, his tastes, his habits, even his bodily functions are perverted. Of course, there are degrees of depravity, and varieties of perversion. In some respects, savages approach more nearly to the natural state than civilized man, and in other particulars, the latter more nearly represents man's natural condition; but in neither barbarism nor civilization do we find man in his primitive state.

In consequence of this universal departure from his original normal condition,--the causes of which we need not here trace, since they are immaterial in the consideration of this question,--when we wish to ascertain with certainty the functions of certain organs of the human body, we are obliged to compare them with the corresponding organs of lower animals, and study the functions of the latter. It is by this method of investigation that most of the important truths of physiology have been developed; and the plan is universally acknowledged to be a proper and logical one.

Then if we wish to ascertain, with certainty, the true function of the reproductive organs in man, we must pursue the course above indicated; in other words, study the function of reproduction in lower animals. We say _lower animals_, because man is really an animal, a member of the great animal kingdom, though not a beast--at least he should not be a beast, though some animals in human form approach very closely to the line that separates humanity from brutes. We are brought, then, for a solution of this problem, to a consideration of the question, What is the object of the reproductive act in those members of the animal kingdom just below man in the scale of being? Let science tell us, for zoologists have made a careful study of this subject for centuries.

We quote the following paragraphs from one of the most distinguished and reliable of modern physiologists;[11] the facts which he states being confirmed by all other physiologists:--

"Every living being has a definite term of life, through which it passes by the operation of an invariable law, and which, at some regularly appointed time, comes to an end.... But while individual organisms are thus constantly perishing and disappearing from the stage, the particular kind, or species, remains in existence.... This process, by which new organisms make their appearance, to take the place of those which are destroyed, is known as the process of _reproduction_ or _generation_.

"The ovaries, as well as the eggs which they contain, undergo, at particular seasons, a periodical development, or increase in growth.... At the approach of the generative season, in all the lower animals, a certain number of the eggs, which were previously in an imperfect and inactive condition, begin to increase in size and become somewhat altered in structure."

"In most fish and reptiles as well as in birds, this regular process of maturation and discharge of eggs takes place but once in a year. In different species of quadrupeds it may take place annually, semi-annually, bi-monthly, or even monthly; but in every instance it recurs at regular intervals, and exhibits accordingly, in a marked degree, the periodic character which we have seen to belong to most of the other vital phenomena."

"In most of the lower orders of animals there is a periodical development of the testicles in the male, corresponding in time with that of the ovaries in the female. As the ovaries enlarge and the eggs ripen in the one sex, so in the other the testicles increase in size, as the season of reproduction approaches, and become turgid with spermatozoa. The accessory organs of generation, at the same time, share the unusual activity of the testicles, and become increased in vascularity and ready to perform their part in the reproductive function."

"Each of the two sexes is then at the same time under the influence of a corresponding excitement. The unusual development of the genital organs reacts upon the entire system, and produces a state of peculiar activity and excitability, known as the condition of 'erethism.'"

"It is a remarkable fact, in this connection, that the female of these animals will allow the approaches of the male only during and immediately after the oestral period; that is, just when the egg is recently discharged, and ready for impregnation. At other times, when sexual intercourse would be necessarily fruitless, the instinct of the animal leads her to avoid it; and the concourse of the sexes is accordingly made to correspond in time with the maturity of the egg and its aptitude for fecundation."

"The egg, immediately upon its discharge from the ovary, is ready for impregnation. If sexual intercourse happens to take place about that time, the egg and the spermatic fluid meet in some part of the female generative passages, and fecundation is accomplished.... If, on the other hand, coitus do not take place, the egg passes down to the uterus unimpregnated, loses its vitality after a short time, and is finally carried away with the uterine secretions."

"It is easily understood, therefore, why sexual intercourse should be more liable to be followed by pregnancy when it occurs about the menstrual epoch than at other times.... Before its discharge, the egg is immature, and unprepared for impregnation; and after the menstrual period has passed, it gradually loses its freshness and vitality."

[Footnote 11: Dalton.]

The law of periodicity, as it affects the sexual activity of males of the human species, is indicated in the following remarks by the same author:--

"The same correspondence between the periods of sexual excitement in the male and female, is visible in many of the animals [higher mammals], as well as in fish and reptiles. This is the case in most species which produce young but once a year, and at a fixed period, as the deer and the wild hog. In other species, on the contrary, such as the dog, the rabbit, the guinea-pig, etc., where several broods of young are produced during the year, or where, as in the human subject, the generative epochs of the female recur at short intervals, so that the particular period of impregnation is comparatively indefinite, the generative apparatus of the male is almost always in a state of full development; and is excited to action at particular periods, apparently by some influence derived from the condition of the female."

The facts presented in the foregoing quotations from Dr. Dalton may be summarized as follows:--

1. The sexual function is for the purpose of producing new individuals to take the place of those who die, and thus preserve the species from becoming extinct.

2. In the animal kingdom generally, the reproductive function is _necessarily_ a periodical act, dependent upon the development of the reproductive organs of both the male and the female at stated periods.

3. In those exceptional cases in which the organs of the male are in a state of constant development, sexual congress occurs, in lower animals, only at those periods when the periodical development occurs in the female.

4. Fecundation of the female element can only take place about the time of periodical development in the female.

5. The desire for sexual congress naturally exists in the female only at or immediately after the time of periodical development.

6. The constant development of the sexual organs in human males is a condition common to all animals in which development occurs in the female at short intervals, and is a provision of nature to secure a fruitful union when the female is in readiness, but not an indication for constant or frequent use.

7. The time of sexual congress is always determined by the condition and desires of the female.

An additional fact, as stated by physiologists, is that, under normal conditions, the human female experiences sexual desire immediately after menstruation more than at any other time. It has, indeed, been claimed that at this period only does she experience the true sexual instinct unless it is abnormally excited by disease or otherwise.

From these facts the following conclusions must evidently be drawn:--

1. The fact that in all animals but the human species the act can be performed only when reproduction is possible, proves that in the animal kingdom in general the sole object of the function is reproduction. Whether man is an exception, must be determined from other considerations.

2. The fact that the males of other animals besides man in which the sexual organs are in a state of constant development do not exercise those organs except for the purpose of reproduction, is proof of the position that the constant development in man is not a warrant for their constant use.

3. The general law that the reproductive act is performed only when desired by the female, is sufficient ground for supposing that such should be the case with the human species also.

The opinions of writers of note are given in the following quotations:--

"The approach of the sexes is, in its purest condition, the result of a natural instinct, the end of which is the reproduction of the species. Still, however, we are far from saying that this ultimate result is, in any proportion of cases, the actual thought in the minds of the parties engaged."

"The very lively solicitations which spring from the genital sense, have no other end than to insure the perpetuity of the race."[12]

[Footnote 12: Dr. Gardner.]

"Observation fully confirms the views of inductive philosophy; for it proves to us that coitus, exercised otherwise than under the inspirations of honest instinct, is a cause of disease in both sexes, and of danger to the social order."[13]

[Footnote 13: Mayer.]

"It is incredible that the act of bringing men into life, that act of humanity, without contradiction of the most importance, should be the one of which there should have been the least supposed necessity for regulation, or which has been regulated the least beneficially."[14]

[Footnote 14: Dunoyer.]

"But it may be said that the demands of nature are, in the married state, not only legal, but should be physically right. So they are, when our physical life is right; but it must not be forgotten that few live in a truly physical rectitude."[15]

[Footnote 15: Gardner.]

"Among cattle, the sexes meet by common instinct and common will; it is reserved for the human animal to treat the female as a mere victim to his lust."[16]

[Footnote 16: Quarterly Review.]

"He is an ill husband that _uses his wife as a man treats a harlot_, having no other end but pleasure. Concerning which our best rule is, that although in this, as in eating and drinking, there is an appetite to be satisfied, which cannot be done without pleasing that desire, yet since that desire and satisfaction were intended by nature for other ends, they should never be separated from those ends."

"It is a sad truth that many married persons, thinking that the flood-gates of liberty are set wide open, without measures or restraints (so they sail in the channel), have felt the final rewards of intemperance and lust by their unlawful using of lawful permissions. Only let each of them be temperate, and both of them modest."[17]

[Footnote 17: Jeremy Taylor.]

Says another writer very emphatically, "It is a common belief that a man and woman, because they are legally united in marriage, are privileged to the unbridled exercises of amativeness. This is wrong. Nature, in the exercise of her laws, recognizes no human enactments, and is as prompt to punish any infringement of her laws in those who are legally married, as in those out of the bonds. Excessive indulgence between the married produces as great and lasting evil effects as in the single man or woman, and is nothing more or less than legalized prostitution."

Results of Excesses.--The sad results of excessive indulgences are seen on every hand. Numerous ailments attributed to overwork, constitutional disease, or hereditary predisposition, know no other cause and need no other explanation.

_Effects upon Husbands_.--No doubt the principal blame in this matter properly falls upon the husband; but it cannot be said that he is the greatest sufferer; however, his punishment is severe enough to clearly indicate the enormity of the transgression, and to warn him to a reformation of his habits. The following is a quotation from an eminent medical authority:--

"But any warning against sexual dangers would be very incomplete if it did not extend to the excesses so often committed by married persons in ignorance of their ill effects. Too frequent emissions of the life-giving fluid, and too frequent excitement of the nervous system are, as we have seen, in themselves most destructive. The result is the same within the marriage bond as without it. The married man who thinks that because he is a married man he can commit no excess, however often the act of sexual congress is repeated, will suffer as certainly and as seriously as the unmarried debauchee who acts on the same principle in his indulgences--perhaps more certainly from his very ignorance, and from his not taking those precautions and following those rules which a career of vice is apt to teach the sensualist. Many a man has, until his marriage, lived a most continent life; so has his wife. As soon as they are wedded, intercourse is indulged in night after night, neither party having any idea that these repeated sexual acts are excesses which the system of neither can bear, and which to the man, at least, are absolute ruin. The practice is continued till health is impaired, sometimes permanently, and when a patient is at last obliged to seek medical advice, he is thunderstruck at learning that his sufferings arise from excesses unwittingly committed. Married people often appear to think that connection may be repeated as regularly and almost as often as their meals. Till they are told of the danger, the idea never enters their heads that they are guilty of great and almost criminal excess; nor is this to be wondered at, since the possibility of such a cause of disease is seldom hinted at by the medical man they consult."