Chapter 2
The experience of hundreds in the circulation of this work has proven beyond all chance for question the truth of the foregoing remarks, and often in a most striking manner. Scores of persons have written us, "I would give all I possess in this world could I have had a copy of 'Plain Facts' placed in my hands when I was a lad," or, "Words cannot express the gratitude I would now feel had some kind friend imparted to me the invaluable information which this book contains; it would have saved me a life of wretchedness."
We have had the satisfaction of knowing in numerous instances that the virtue and happiness of whole families have been secured by the timely warnings of danger which parents have obtained from this work. We are glad to be able to feel that it is now thoroughly demonstrated that intelligent persons who have given this subject thought universally approve of the objects of the work and the manner of presenting the subject adopted in it. Those who at first question the propriety of discussing the subject so freely and thoroughly as is here done, lose their prejudice entirely upon giving the work a careful perusal. In numerous instances it has occurred that those who were most decided in their denunciations have become the most zealous and efficient agents in its circulation after becoming more fully acquainted with it.
SEX IN LIVING FORMS.
Life, in its great diversity of forms, has ever been a subject of the deepest interest to rational beings. Poets have sung of its joys and sorrows, its brilliant phantasies and harsh realities. Philosophers have spent their lives in vain attempts to solve its mysteries; and some have held and thought that life was nothing more than a stupendous farce, a delusion of the senses. Moralists have sought to impress mankind with the truth that "life is real," and teeming with grave responsibilities. Physiologists have busied themselves in observing the phenomena of life, and learning, therefrom, its laws. The subject is certainly an interesting one, and none could be more worthy of the most careful attention.
Living Beings.--Man possesses life in common with other beings almost infinite in number and variety. The hugest beast that roams the forest or plows the main is no more a living creature than the smallest insect or microscopic animalculum. The "big tree" of California and the tiny blade of grass which waves at its foot are alike imbued with life. All nature teems with life. The practiced eye detects multitudes of living forms at every glance.
The universe of life presents the most marvelous manifestations of the infinite power and wisdom of the Creator to be found in all his works. The student of biology sees life in myriad forms which are unnoticed by the casual observer. The microscope reveals whole worlds of life that were unknown before the discovery of this wonderful aid to human vision,--whole tribes of living organisms, each of which, though insignificant in size, possesses organs as perfect and as useful to it in its sphere as do animals of greater magnitude. Under a powerful magnifying glass, a drop of water from a stagnant pool is found to be peopled with curious animated forms; slime from a damp rock, or a speck of green scum from the surface of a pond, presents a museum of living wonders. Through this instrument the student of nature learns that life in its lowest form is represented by a mere atom of living matter, an insignificant speck of trembling jelly, transparent and structureless, having no organs of locomotion, yet able to move in any direction; no nerves or organs of sense, yet possessing a high degree of sensibility; no mouth, teeth, nor organs of digestion, yet capable of taking food, growing, developing, producing other individuals like itself, becoming aged, infirm, and dying,--such is the life history of a living creature at the lower extreme of the scale of animated being. As we rise higher in the scale, we find similar little atoms of life associated together in a single individual, each doing its proper share of the work necessary to maintain the life of the individual as a whole, yet retaining at the same time its own individual life.
As we ascend to still higher forms, we find this association of minute living creatures resulting in the production of forms of increasing complicity. As the structure of the individual becomes more complex and its functions more varied, the greater is the number of separate, yet associated, organisms to do the work.
In man, at the very summit of the scale of animate existence, we find the most delicate and wonderfully intricate living mechanism of all. In him, as in lower, intermediate forms of life, the life of the individual is but a summary of the lives of all numberless minute organisms of which his body is composed. The individual life is but the aggregate life of all the millions of distinct individuals which are associated together in the human organism.
Animals and Vegetables.--The first classification of living creatures separates them into two great kingdoms, animals and vegetables. Although it is very easy to define the general characteristics of each of these classes, it is impossible to fix upon any single peculiarity which will be applicable in every case. Most vegetable organisms remain stationary, while some possess organs of locomotion, and swim about in the water in a manner much resembling the movements of certain animals. Most vegetables obtain their nutriment from the earth and the air, while animals subsist on living matter. A few plants seem to take organic matter for food, some even catching and killing small insects.
It is found impossible to draw the precise line between animals and vegetables, for the reason just mentioned. The two kingdoms blend so intimately that in some cases it is impossible to tell whether a certain microscopic speck of life is an animal or a vegetable. But since these doubtful creatures are usually so minute that several millions of them can exist in a single drop of water, it is usually of no practical importance whether they are animal or vegetable, or sometimes one and sometimes the other, as they have been supposed to be by some biologists.
All living creatures are _organized_ beings. Most possess a structure and an organism more or less complicated; but some of the lowest forms are merely little masses of a transparent, homogeneous jelly, known as protoplasm. Some of the smallest of these are so minute that one hundred millions of them could occupy the space of a cube one-thousandth of an inch on each side; yet each one runs its course of life as regularly as man himself, performing its proper functions even more perfectly, perhaps.
Life Force.--To every thinking mind the question often recurs, What makes the fragrant flower so different from the dead soil from which it grows? the trilling bird, so vastly superior to the inert atmosphere in which it flies? What subtle power paints the rose, and tunes the merry songster's voice? To explain this mystery, philosophers of olden time supposed the existence of a certain peculiar force which is called life, or vital force, or vitality. This supposition does nothing more than furnish a name for a thing unknown, and the very existence of which may fairly be doubted. In fact, any attempt to find a place for such a force, to understand its origin, or harmonize its existence with that of other well-known forces, is unsuccessful; and the theory of a peculiar vital force, a presiding entity present in every living thing, vanishes into thin air to give place to the more rational view of the most advanced modern scientists, that vital force, so-called, is only a manifestation of the ordinary forces of nature acting through a peculiar arrangement of matter. In other words, life depends, not upon a peculiar force, but upon a peculiar arrangement of matter, or organization. It is simply a peculiar manifestation of the force possessed by atoms exhibited through a peculiar arrangement of atoms and molecules. This arrangement is what is known as organization; and bodies which possess it are known as organized or living bodies. The term life may be understood as referring to the phenomena which result from organization.
That life results from organization, not organization from life, is more consonant with the accepted and established facts of science than the contrary view. We might adduce numerous facts and arguments in support of this view of the nature of life, but will not do so here, as we have considered the subject at some length elsewhere.[1]
[Footnote 1: See "Science and the Bible," pp. 36-46.]
_Nutrition_ and _reproduction_ are the two great functions of life, being common not only to all animals, but to both animals and plants, to all classes of living creatures. The object of the first, is the development and maintenance of the individual existence; the second has for its end the production of new individuals, or the preservation of the race. Nutrition is a purely selfish process; reproduction is purely unselfish in its object; though the human species--unlike the lower animals, which, while less intelligent, are far more true to nature--too often pervert its functions to the most grossly selfish ends.
The subject of nutrition is an important one, and well worthy the attention of every person who values life. The general disregard of this subject is undoubtedly the cause of a very large share of the ills to which human flesh is heir; but our limited space forbids its consideration here, and we shall confine our attention to reproduction.
REPRODUCTION.
As before remarked, reproduction is a function common to all animals and to all plants. Every organized being has the power to reproduce itself, or to produce, or aid in producing, other individuals like itself. It is by means of this function that plants and animals increase or multiply.
When we consider the great diversity of characters illustrated in animal and vegetable life, and the infinite variety of conditions and circumstances under which organized creatures exist, it is not surprising that modes of reproduction should also present great diversity both in general character and in detail. We shall find it both interesting and instructive to consider some of the many different modes of reproduction, or generation, observed in different classes of living beings, previous to entering upon the specific study of reproduction in man. Before doing thus, however, let us give brief attention to a theoretical form of generation, which cannot be called reproduction, known as
Spontaneous Generation.--By this term is meant the supposed formation of living creatures directly from dead matter without the intervention of other living organisms. The theory is, in substance, an old one. The ancients supposed that the frogs and other small reptiles so abundant in the vicinity of slimy pools and stagnant marshes, were generated spontaneously from the mud and slime in which they lived. This theory was, of course, abandoned when the natural history of reptiles became known.
For several thousand years the belief was still held that maggots found in decaying meat were produced spontaneously; but it was discovered, centuries ago, that maggots are not formed if the flesh is protected from flies, since they are the larvae, or young, of a species of this insect. A relic of the ancient belief in spontaneous generation is still found in the supposition that horse-hair snakes, so-called, are really formed from the hairs of horses. This belief is quite common, but science long ago exposed its falsity.
When the microscope was discovered it revealed a whole new world of infinitesimal beings which were at first supposed to be of spontaneous origin; but careful scientific investigation has shown that even these mere specks of life are not independent of parentage. M. Pasteur and, more recently, Prof. Tyndall, with many other distinguished scientists, have demonstrated this fact beyond all reasonable chance for question.
It is, then, an established law that _every living organism originates with some previously existing living being or beings_.
It may be queried, If it be true that life is but a manifestation of the ordinary forces of matter,--which are common to both dead and living matter,--being dependent upon arrangement, then why may it not be that dead matter may, through the action of molecular laws, and without the intervention of any living existence, assume those peculiar forms of arrangement necessary to constitute life, as supposed by the advocates of the theory in question? It is true that some who recognize the fact that life is the result of organization maintain the doctrine of _spontaneous generation_; that is, the production of life without any agency other than the recognized forces of nature being brought about simply by a fortuitous combination of atoms. Although this doctrine cannot be said to be inconsistent with the theory of life presented, yet it is by no means a legitimate or necessary result of it; and observation proves its falsity.
The testimony of all nature, as almost universally admitted by scientific men, is that life originated through a creative act by the first Great Cause, who gave to certain bodies the requisite arrangement or organization to enable them to perform certain functions, and delegated to them the power to transmit the same to other matter, and thus to perpetuate life. The Creator alone has the power to originate life. Man, with all his wisdom and attainments, cannot discover the secret of organization. He may become familiar with its phenomena, but he cannot unravel, further, the mystery of life. The power of organizing is possessed only by the lower class of living or organized bodies, those known as vegetable organisms or plants. A grain of wheat, a kernel of corn, a potato, when placed under favorable conditions, takes the inert, lifeless particles of matter which lie about it in the earth and air, and organizes them into living substances like itself.
To man and animals the Creator delegated the power to form their own peculiar structures from the vitalized tissues of plants. Thus, both animal and vegetable life is preserved without the necessity of continued acts of creative power, each plant and each animal possessing the power not only to preserve its own life, but also to aid, at least, in the perpetuation of the species. The record of creation in Genesis harmonizes perfectly with this view, it being represented that God formed (organized or arranged) man, animals, and vegetable productions from the earth.
Simplest Form of Generation.--Deep down beneath the waters of the ocean, covering its bottom in certain localities, is found a curious slime, which, under the microscope, is seen to be composed of minute rounded masses of gelatinous matter, or protoplasm. By watching these little bodies intently for a few minutes, the observer will discover that each is a living creature capable of moving, growing, and assuming a variety of shapes. Continued observation will reveal the fact that these little creatures multiply; and a more careful scrutiny will enable him to see _how_ they increase. Each divides into two equal parts so nearly alike that they cannot be distinguished apart. In this case the process of generation is simply the production of two similar individuals from one.
A small quantity of slime taken from the surface of a stone near the bottom of an old well, or on the seaside, when placed under the microscope, will sometimes be found to contain large numbers of small, round, living bodies. Careful watching will show that they also multiply by division; but before the division occurs, two cells unite to form one by a process called _conjugation_. Then, by the division of this cell, instead of only two cells, a large number of small cells are formed, each of which may be considered as a bud formed upon the body of the parent cell and then separated from it to become by growth an individual like its parent, and, like it, to produce its kind. In this case, we have new individuals formed by the union of two individuals which are to all appearance entirely similar in every particular.
Sex.--Rising higher in the scale of being, we find that, with rare exceptions, reproduction is the result of the union of two dissimilar elements. These elements do not, in higher organisms, as in lower forms of life, constitute the individuals, but are produced by them; and being unlike, they are produced by special organs, each adapted to the formation of one kind of elements. The two classes of organs usually exist in separate individuals, thus giving rise to distinctions of _sex_; an individual possessing organs which form one kind of elements being called a male, and one possessing organs for the formation of the other kind of elements, a female. The sexual differences between individuals of the same species are not, however, confined to the sexual organs. In most classes of plants and animals, other sexual differences are very great. In some of the lower orders of animals, and in many species of plants, the male and female individuals are so much unlike that for a long time after they were well known, no sexual relation was discovered.
Hermaphrodism.--An individual possessing both male and female organs of reproduction is called an _hermaphrodite_. Such a combination is very rare among higher animals; but it is by no means uncommon among plants and the lower forms of animal life. The snail, the oyster, the earth-worm, and the common tape-worm, are examples of true hermaphrodites. So-called human hermaphrodites are usually individuals in whom the sexual organs are abnormally developed so that they resemble those of the opposite sex, though they really have but one sex, which can usually be determined with certainty. Only a very few cases have been observed in which both male and female organs were present.
There is now living in Germany an individual who bears the name of a woman; but learned physicians have decided that the person is as much man as woman, having the organs of both sexes. What is still more curious, this person has the feelings of both sexes, having loved at first a man, and afterward a woman. There have been observed, also, a very few instances of individuals in whom the sexual organs of neither sex were present. It thus appears that a person may be of both sexes or of no sex at all.
Sex in Plants.--To one unacquainted with the mysteries of plant life and growth, the idea of attaching sexuality to plants seems very extraordinary; but the botanist recognizes the fact that the distinctions of sex are as clearly maintained in the vegetable as in the animal kingdom. The sexual organs of the higher orders of plants are flowers. That part of the flower which produces seeds answers to the female; another part, which is incapable of forming seeds, answers to the male. The fertile and sterile flowers are sometimes produced on separate plants. Very frequently, they are produced upon separate parts of the same plant, as in the oak, walnut, and many other forest trees, and Indian corn. In the latter plant, so familiar to every one, the "tassel" contains the male flowers, and the part known as the "silk," with the portion to which it is attached--which becomes the ear--the female or fertile flowers. In a large number of species, the male and female organs are combined in a single flower, making a true hermaphrodite.
Sex in Animals.--As previously remarked, individuals of opposite sex usually differ much more than in the character of their sexual organs only. Among higher animals, the male is usually larger, stronger, and of coarser structure than the female. The same contrast is observed in their mental characters. With lower animals, especially insects, the opposite is often observed. The female spider is many times larger than the male. The male ant is small in size when compared with the female. Nevertheless, in all classes of animals the difference in the structure and the functions of the sexual organs is the chief distinguishing character. These differences are not so great, however, as they might at first appear. The male and female organs of reproduction in man and other animals, which seem so dissimilar, when studied in the light shed upon this subject by the science of embryology, are found to be wonderfully alike in structure, differing far more in appearance than in reality, and being little more than modifications of one general plan. Every organ to be found in the one sex has an analogue in the other which is complete in every particular, corresponding in function, in structure, and usually in position.
Other Sexual Differences.--In this country there is between five and six inches difference in height and about twenty pounds difference in weight between the average man and the average woman, the average man being about five feet, eight inches in height, and weighing one hundred and forty-five pounds; while the average woman is five feet, two or two and one-half inches in height, and weighs one hundred and twenty-five pounds. The relation of the sexes in height and weight varies in degree in different countries, but is never changed. The average height and weight of American men and women is considerably above that of the average human being.
Men and Women Differ in Form.--The differences in form are so marked that it is possible for the skilled anatomist to determine the sex of a human being who has been dead for ages, by an examination of the skeleton alone. In man, the shoulders are broad, the hips narrow, and the limbs nearly straight with the body. In woman, the shoulders are narrow and usually rounded, and set farther back, the collar-bone being longer and less curved, giving the chest greater prominence; while the hips are broad.
The consequence of these differences is that woman is generally less graceful and naturally less skillful in the use of the extremities than man, and hence less fitted for athletic sports and feats requiring great dexterity. A girl throws a stone awkwardly, less from want of practice than from a natural peculiarity of physical structure. A woman walks less gracefully than a man, owing to the greater relative breadth of her hips, requiring a motion of the body together with that of the limbs. In consequence of this peculiarity, a woman is less fitted for walking long distances.
Modern Mania for Female Pedestrianism.--Nothing could be much more inhuman than the exhibitions made in satisfying the mania for female pedestrianism which has recently arisen. Not long since, in walking down one of the principal streets of Boston, we passed, in going a distance of thirty rods, three illuminated placards announcing to the public that in as many different public halls four female pedestrians were exhibiting their walking talents for the gratification of the crowds of bawdy loafers and jockeys who congregated to criticize their several "points," and bet on their walking capacity, as though they were horses on a race-course or hounds on a fox hunt.
3,000 Quarter Miles in 3,000 Quarter Hours.--We visited the halls and ascertained that two of these misguided women were attempting the feat of walking respectively 2,700 and 3,000 quarter miles in an equal number of successive quarter hours. This would require almost incessant exertion for nearly twenty-eight days in one case, and for more than thirty-one days in the other, without at any time a period of unbroken rest longer than ten minutes. Such a procedure, in the light of physiology, is a greater inhumanity than the most merciless Boston teamster would inflict upon his dumb brutes. Why does not Mr. Bergh exercise his function in such cases? We did not wonder that the poor women looked pale and suffering, and trudged along with a limping gait.