Part 5
To sum up: If you wish to maintain your intellectual faculties intact—to enjoy good health—to be cheerful in the decline of life—to keep your strength, your imagination, your memory, and your eye-sight unimpaired, refrain from too frequent intercourse with women. Once a week is quite often enough for this indulgence, and more than twice a week is positively hurtful. Some men may sneer at this advice, perhaps; but to such we say, look back upon your life. Are you as perfect, both physically and intellectually, as you would have been had you curbed your sexual desires?
POSITION DURING SEXUAL INTERCOURSE.
There is one phase of sexual matters that physiological writers seldom allude to, but which should be understood by married people, viz.: the position of their bodies during the nuptial act. Any unnatural performance of this act is apt to impair the health of the female, and many women have been seriously injured and rendered miserable for life by the beastliness of their husbands in this respect. Unnatural positions will cause derangements and bearing down of the womb, produce fluor albus, or whites, and sometimes will originate tumors and fungi in the private parts. A woman of delicate mould and constitution might be fatally injured in this manner; and no female, however robust, can enjoy sexual intercourse except in the position intended by Nature. For a full and perfect enjoyment of sexual pleasures, there must be first a mutual fondness or sentimental feeling, called love. Where this does not exist, the married pair should, in their associations, endeavor to be in as good humor as possible, and to tolerate each other’s caresses with the hope that love may grow between them. Marriages have occurred where the bride felt an antipathy almost amounting to disgust towards the embraces of her husband, but afterwards, on a close intimacy and free acquaintance, became not only reconciled, but really fond of him. Delicacy and watchfulness on the part of the husband will often enable him to make himself agreeable to a woman who at first has no sympathy with him whatever. From the peculiar organization of females, there are times when a husband’s caresses may be unpleasant and irksome even to a loving wife: if he is reasonable and consciencious, he will not fail to observe this, and will abstain from intruding on her privicy on such occasions.
A man who will force his caresses upon his wife can be ranked only with “the brutes that perish.” Of this class also are those who “go in unto their wives” after the manner of brutes. The natural position to which we have alluded suggests itself to every married pair who possess the most remote particle of love for each other. But to make it unmistakable, we would say, that the female should lie upon her back, with her legs straight down—or if the legs are raised, they should be but slightly elevated. All other positions are unnatural and unhealthy. I could illustrate this fact by several cases in point, but the details are too disgusting. Suffice it then to say, that I have known females suffering from painful diseases caused by sexual connection in a standing position—in a position where their partners approached them from behind, and also in one case where the woman was forced or persuaded to lie on her back with her knees up against her chest. No female can desire such intercourse as this, because she cannot enjoy it. It is therefore the libidinous antics of her companion that compels her to it. Very few men of decent breeding require the caution I have here given, but if there be half-a-dozen who profit by it, I shall be compensated for thus alluding to a delicate subject.
DISPOSITION AND INTELLECT—HOW FORMED.
It is wisely ordered by Nature that genius, and a high order of intellect, shall not, as a general rule, descend to children. If mankind could impart to offspring an intellectual superiority, we should probably have too many geniuses in the world, and too few workers. The animal propensities, the peculiar disposition, the various passions, the form, features, &c.—these, and other peculiarities of parents are always transmitted to their children; but that lofty, soul-inspiring sentimentality which enlarges the reasoning faculties and bestows mental distinction upon its recipients, seems to be a peculiar gift from the Deity itself.
Some physiologists assert that Nature does not endow the children of distinguished men so bountifully as those of less exalted capacities, and assign as a reason that great minds have their weaknesses and their follies, which are apt to show themselves in a marked manner at the moment they are begetting their children. I do not endorse this doctrine, but suspect that men are beholden rather to their mothers than to their paternal parents for whatever intellectual gifts God, in his wisdom, has bestowed upon them. A healthy, well developed, and naturally intelligent woman will have smart and intellectual children, even though her husband may be a ninny. If you want intelligent children, then, look you out a wife who has a soul above street yarn and love stories. But should you select the best woman from a thousand, you will scarcely find in her a wife capable of breeding you a very moderate genius. It is thought by some people that the state of the intellect at the moment of the nuptial act marks the mind of the child. I do not believe this; for if a crop of geniuses could be raised by minds specially tutored for the occasion, who doubts but that the world would be full of them?
In looking for a mother for his children, a man should seek a woman of different temperament from himself. If he is lymphatic and good natured, let him find a wife who is nervous and irritable; and _vice versa_. If he be of a sandy complexion, or fair-haired, with blue eyes, let him choose one of those luscious brunettes, with flashing black eyes, and a resolution as firm as a rock. On the contrary, if he be dark complexioned, impatient and passionate, let him sacrifice and enslave a mild and blue-eyed blonde of the cold North. Choose you always a woman of intellect, and if with that, you have one of a temperament and complexion opposite to your own, your children will be distinguished for something—they will not live a life of drudgery and dependence—and they _may be_ geniuses. The selection of a conjugal partner is one of the most important events of life, in either man or woman. Too little attention is generally paid to it.
THE TEMPERAMENTS—HOW DISTINGUISHED.
In the course of this treatise we have alluded to the Temperaments of different individuals, and it may therefore be interesting to describe them. A person of a Lymphatic temperament has a languid, good-natured look, sleepy eyes, and the face is soft, round and full. A Sanguine temperament is represented by an earnest, anxious countenance, large intelligent eyes, prominent nose, robust health, and a strong constitution. The Bilious temperament usually presents a strong marked countenance, yellow skin, bulging eyes, projecting lips, full muscular habit, and not very fleshy. Persons of Nervous temperament are usually (though not always) thin and spare: their features are firm set, lines of countenance harsh, constitution delicate, and intellectual qualities of the first order.
Men of genius may be ranked as follows: Sanguine-nervous are usually great writers, divines, musicians, or artists. Sanguine-bilious, great generals, politicians, statesmen, inventors, business men, or distinguished in any calling requiring much energy and industry. Sanguine-lymphatic are frequently persons of great talent, enterprise, and distinction, and are generally long lived; but they seldom make any considerable display of their abilities, or become men of mark.
Lazy, inefficient and irresolute people, are in most cases constitutionally so from a lack of sanguinity in their temperaments. Some men and women are so constituted that they never can rise above drudges in society; for if they are industrious they have no confidence in themselves.
THE NATURAL LAWS OF MARRIAGE, AND OF THE TEMPERAMENTS.
It is well known that marriages between near relatives produce unhealthy and imperfect children, but the causes of such a result are not generally understood. These causes extend far beyond the circle of a family, for it is quite as improper for two persons of the same temperament to marry, as it would be for a brother and a sister. The laws of the Temperaments of the human family may be enumerated as follows:
1st. When both parties to a marriage are constitutionally the same, there will probably be no children.
2d. The vital elements are incompatible with each other, and if children are born to parents who are alike in this respect, they will probably be idiotic, or rachitic.[1]
3d. When parties who marry are nearly alike—if their temperaments differ only in part—they will have children who may live to adult age, but who will then probably die of tubercular phthisis (consumption). In illustration of this, I have known whole families of children to be taken off by consumption between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-seven years, where this disease had not previously existed in the families of the parents or their progenitors.
4th. If the constitutions of a married couple assimilate to the extent of one-half, their children will be apt to die before the first seven years. The diseases of such children are tubercles in the glands of the intestines, or in the membranes of the brain.
5th. When persons marry who are alike in temperament, and whose constitutions materially differ, a majority of their children will be still-born, and none will probably live to be two years old.
6th. When one of the parties to a marriage is exclusively vital, and the other similar, but of a nervous and melancholy turn, the children will generally be promising.
7th. To produce smart and healthy children, one of the parties should be of sanguine-bilious temperament, with good vitality, and the other of a quiet, lymphatic turn.
Scrofulous forms of disease result exclusively from marriages illustrated by the first five laws above given. More than half the children that die are those of constitutionally incompatible parents. People who live in health to a good old age, owe more to their parents giving them a sound constitution than to any efforts of their own to preserve health. So many diseases are traced by skillful physicians to improper marriages, that the study of Physiology, and of the human temperaments, seems to be as necessary to young people as the most common branches of education.
Fortunately for the human race, marriages are oftener contracted from instinct than from motives of policy; and individuals of opposite temperaments are apt to experience that natural attraction towards each other that results in marriage. But marriages of interest are still occurring sufficiently frequent to fill our lunatic, idiot, and deaf-and-dumb asylums, and we are glad to notice that the subject is attracting attention, and that new laws are proposed to prevent the marriage of blood relatives.
It is also proper to state that there should not be an extreme disproportion in stature between a married pair. A delicate, slightly formed, small woman, whose pelvis is small, should not marry a large robust man. If she does, her offspring will be too large for her to bring into the world without much suffering, and sometimes mutilation, and destruction of health. This is also the fate of many girls of small stature who become mothers at too early an age, and before the hip and other bones, which form the cavity through which the infant comes into the world, is sufficiently developed.
Early marriages (if not too early) are better than late ones, for the natural state of mankind, after puberty, is a rational association of the two sexes. Woman was adorned by Providence with her graces and charms to delight the opposite sex, and she possesses those graces in full perfection only while she is young. At that period she is indued with power to give and to inherit a sort of terrestrial paradise, to multiply her species, and to become matron, queen, and mother. Her early ripeness proves that it was the intention of Providence that mankind, while young, should settle in matrimony, and exercise those gifts which reproduce their equals. In many young people the marriage state, when properly enjoyed, augments the energies of the sanguineous system; the distended arteries carry warmth and animation through the body; the muscles become vigorous; the walk is more free; the voice firmer—in short, both men and women by this means improve their health, strength and beauty, and assist the development of their intellectual faculties.
[1] Softening and distortion of the bones.
ON THE INFLUENCE OF VITAL FORCE.
The base of the brain is the source and foundation of motion, thinking, and feeling in the human body. The breadth of it indicates the vigor, and its depth the tenacity of life. Men generally have the base of the brain more developed than women, and as a consequence exhibit, in both body and mind, more of what is called force of character. A man whose brain is very full at the base, seldom, if ever, suffers from chronic forms of disease, and never dies from consumption, except in old age when the brain is decayed. His ailings will be confined to inflammatory diseases, gout and rheumatism. Men of this class are never drudges. They are usually energetic, either for good or evil, and are more apt to be leaders of their fellow-men than otherwise. Vital force is as necessary to the promotion of health as pure blood. Those who are deficient of it sooner or later become afflicted with some functional form of disease. Intellectual men of this class usually pursue the profession of a minister, a physician or a college professor, though they make very indifferent doctors or teachers. They do not possess sufficient force or energy of character to make their talents and worth appreciated by the multitude. The trustees of schools and colleges employ them without making any inquiries as to their ability to govern youth, and the consequence is frequent difficulties and fruitless disputes with their pupils.
TENACITY OF LIFE AND LONGEVITY.
The depth of the base of the brain is a true index of vital tenacity, or duration of life in any individual. This depth varies in different persons from less than a quarter of an inch up to an inch and a quarter.[2] A full inch in an individual fifty years of age indicates a life of eighty or ninety years. One-half to five-eighths of an inch shows that though the person may live many years, yet he has not the vital power to resist formidable assaults of disease. And those persons whose base of brain presents a depth of less than half an inch, must be exceedingly careful of their health, and may expect to die from the most trivial cause. On the contrary, those with three-fourths of an inch, and above it, will probably survive the most powerful attacks of disease. The base of the brain, being the seat of vitality in all animals, the exact size of it shows the quantum of life possessed by any individual. Hereditary diseases may be excepted, in certain cases.
[2] Take a piece of twine and pass it from the outer corner of each eye around the back of the head, letting it touch the most projecting protuberance on the hind part of the skull. The distance between this line and the ear-hole gives the depth alluded to.
HOW TO DETECT PREGNANCY.
Almost every married woman considers the stoppage of her usual monthly turns a warning that she is in the family way; and this will hold true in nine cases out of ten. Nevertheless, in some women the menses continue for a couple of months or more after impregnation takes place. So, also, there are many other causes for the suppression of the menses, and the failure of the monthly turn is not, therefore, conclusive evidence of impregnation. Other peculiarities may be noticed which will go to confirm the fact, and one is an enlargement of the neck. Singular as this may appear, it is true: and some married ladies keep the exact measure of their necks so as to be able to detect this sign. Pains similar to colic, fainting fits, shuddering and creeping of the skin, longings for unusual food and drinks, loss of appetite, morning sickness, fretfulness and peevishness, hysteria, and a dozen other changes in the feelings, temper or desires of a woman, are strong presumptive signs of conception.
The breasts, being always in sympathy with the womb, usually begin to enlarge a little, the nipples become hard, and their color turns from the usual delicate pink to a chestnut brown, with little dots or pimples on the circle. This alteration in the nipple must be closely observed to indicate positive pregnancy, as it frequently becomes dark from other causes. The hue occasioned by conception is peculiar to itself, and is a sure indication that gestation has commenced.
Soon after conception, in some females, the face and eyelids will swell; and many girls are suspected from this cause alone by their more experienced sisters. Others are warned of their condition by flying pains, palpitations, &c., and by pains at the top of the head. If the urine be kept in a clean vessel for several days, and a white scum arises at the top, this is considered by some physicians as conclusive evidence of pregnancy.
When a woman has become pregnant, the white line on the abdomen, extending from the navel to the pubis, becomes darker, and the navel itself swells out a little. The mucus membrane which lines the Vagina, which is usually of a delicate rose color, turns blue or purple.
The above are the most prominent and conclusive evidences of conception during the first three months, though some of them may not be experienced until a later period. At the end of thirteen weeks the enlargement of the womb begins to develop itself so as to leave no doubt whatever of the interesting situation of the lady. In some cases even this enlargement is the result of other causes; and should a doubt exist, an examination by a physician, or any experienced person who can feel the mouth of the womb with a finger, will determine the state of the case. The mouth closes and contracts together immediately after conception, and this condition of it can be easily detected if the finger be applied in the right place. If the mouth of the womb is not closed, then the enlargement is surely from other causes.
LABOR AND CHILD-BIRTH.
A healthy and natural birth usually takes place after the fifteenth day of the ninth month of pregnancy. It may be delayed until the end of the month, but is seldom so protracted. Shortly before labor is to commence, the belly sinks, and the hitherto snug-fitting dress will become loose. This is caused by the descent of the womb into the bottom of the belly. The motions and weight of the child are also felt to be lower than usual, and if in a natural position, the head will fall down to the orifice of the womb, and press upon it. This drives forward the membranes which restrain the water at the orifice, and at the proper moment they break, and labor then commences.
Labor is caused by involuntary contractions of the uterus and abdominal muscles. By their force the liquor amnii flows out, the head of the fœtus is engaged in the pelvis, it goes through it, and soon passes out by the valve, the folds of which disappear. These different phenomena take place in succession, and continue a certain time: they are accompanied with pains more or less severe, with swelling and softening of the soft parts of the pelvis and external genital parts, and with an abundant mucous secretion in the cavity of the vagina. All these circumstances, each in its own way, favor the passage of the fœtus.
The precursory signs of labor are as follows: Two or three days before it is to commence, a flow of mucus takes place from the vagina, and the external genital parts swell and become softer: it is the same with the ligaments that unite the bones of the pelvis; the mouth of the womb flattens, its opening is enlarged, its edges become thinner, and slight pains, known under the name of _flying pains_, are felt in the loins and abdomen. At the next stage pains begin to be felt in the lower part of the back, or lumbar region, and tend towards the womb, or the rectum: these occur at intervals of fifteen to thirty minutes, and each is accompanied with contraction of the womb, and tension of its neck, which begins to open. If a finger is now introduced into the vagina, a considerable tumor may be felt, which is a protrusion of the membrane coverings of the fœtus, containing the first waters. The pains gradually become stronger up to the time when the membranes break, and labor actually begins.
The uterus now contracts on itself, and is applied to the surface of the fœtus. Soon the pains and contractions of the uterus increase considerably, and are accompanied by the contraction of the abdominal muscles. The woman should favor this state of things by making all the muscular efforts in her power, (straining.) As the labor progresses, her pulse will become stronger and more frequent; her face becomes animated; her eyes grow brighter; her whole body is in extreme agitation; perspiration flows in abundance; until the head of the child descends into the lower strait of the pelvis.
At this stage there is a discharge of whitish matter from the vagina, and pains occur which extend from the small of the back, or loins, and the groins, down towards the front, or private parts; and sometimes the membranes will even protrude through the external opening. Presently a strong pain comes on, crack go the membranes, the liquor amnii gushes out with a rush, deluging the bed. After this there are longer intervals between the pains, and on the midwife’s introducing her finger, she can feel the head of the child. As the pains increase in intensity, the patient is apt to scream, though some women of firmness will suppress their feelings: she lays hold of a towel, which is commonly fastened to the bed-post for this purpose, and bears down with all her might: her pulse now is rapid, and her skin is hot; the process still goes bravely on; the pains are now more frequent, stronger and lasting.
The head of the child now gradually descends lower and lower in the vagina until it presses on the perinœum, or outer edge of the private part adjoining the anus. In this stage of the labor an inexperienced midwife would think that a few pains more would expel the child, but although the head rests upon the perinœum, and shows itself at the external orifice, yet it may be some hours before it is expelled, more especially if it is a first child; but if the second or third, half-a-dozen more pains will generally be sufficient to complete the process.
During this time the woman usually suffers some from head-ache, looks intensely red in the face, and often experiences a trembling of the lower limbs.
The outer passage will now begin to enlarge gradually, and the head appears. When it is advanced as far as its ears, it is said to be “in the passage.” When the birth has advanced one-third, the midwife may assist the expulsion if she chooses, though Nature alone would accomplish it. When the child is born, the midwife should lay it upon her knees, with its face down, so as to give exit to the mucus, waters, &c., from the mouth, if any has been imbibed, which is most generally the case.