Searchlights on Health-The Science of Eugenics Part 32

THE FEMALE s.e.xUAL ORGANS.

1. The generative or reproductive organs of the human female are usually divided into the internal and external. Those regarded as internal are concealed from view and protected within the body. Those that can be readily perceived are termed external. The entrance of the v.a.g.i.n.a may be stated as the line of demarcation of the two divisions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANATOMY OR STRUCTURE OF THE FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION.]

2. HYMEN OR v.a.g.i.n.aL VALVE.--This is a thin membrane of half moon shape stretched across the opening of the v.a.g.i.n.a. It usually contains before marriage one or more small openings for the pa.s.sage of the menses.

This membrane has been known to cause much distress in many females at the first menstrual flow. The trouble resulting from the openings in the hymen not being large enough to let the flow through and consequently blocking up the v.a.g.i.n.al ca.n.a.l, and filling the entire internal s.e.xual organs with blood; causing paroxysms and hysterics and other alarming symptoms. In such cases the hymen must be ruptured that a proper discharge may take place at once.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Impregnated Egg. In the first formation of Embryo.]

3. UNYIELDING HYMEN.--The hymen is usually ruptured by the first s.e.xual intercourse, but sometimes it is so unyielding as to require the aid of a knife before coition can take place.

4. THE PRESENCE OF THE HYMEN was formerly considered a test of virginity, but this theory is no longer held by competent authorities, as disease or accidents or other circ.u.mstances may cause its rupture.

5. THE OVARIES.--The ovaries are little glands for the purpose of forming the female ova or egg. They are not fully developed until the period of p.u.b.erty, and usually are about the size of a large chestnut.

The are located in the broad ligaments between the uterus and the Fallopian tubes. During pregnancy the ovaries change position; they are brought farther into the abdominal cavity as the uterus expands.

6. OFFICE OF THE OVARY.--The ovary is to the female what the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e is to the male. It is the germ vitalizing organ and the most essential part of the generative apparatus. The ovary is not only an organ for the formation of the ova, but is also designed for their separation when they reach maturity.

7. FALLOPION TUBES.--These are the ducts that lead from the ovaries to the uterus. They are entirely detached from the glands or ovaries, and are developed on both sides of the body.

8. OFFICE OF THE FALLOPIAN TUBES.--The Fallopian tubes have a double office: receiving the ova from the ovaries and conducting it into the uterus, as well as receiving the spermatic fluid of the male and conveying it from the uterus in the direction of the ovaries, the tubes being the seat of impregnation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OVUM.]

9. STERILITY IN FEMALES.--Sterility in the female is sometimes caused by a morbid adhesion of the tube to a portion of the ovary. By what power the mouth of the tube is directed toward a particular portion of an ovary, from which the ovum is about to be discharged, remains entirely unknown, as does also the precise nature of the cause which effects this movement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ripe Ovum from the Ovary.]

THE MYSTERIES OF THE FORMATION OF LIFE.

1. SCIENTIFIC THEORIES.--Darwin, Huxley, Haeckel, Tyndall, Meyer, and other renowned scientists, have tried to find the _missing link_ between man and animal; they have also exhausted their genius in trying to fathom the mysteries of the beginning of life, or find where the animal and mineral kingdoms unite to form life; but they have added to the vast acc.u.mulation of theories only, and the world is but little wiser on this mysterious subject.

2. PHYSIOLOGY.--Physiology has demonstrated what physiological changes take place in the germination and formation of life, and how nature expresses the intentions of reproduction by giving animals distinctive organs with certain secretions for this purpose, etc. All the different stages of development can be easily determined, but how and why life takes place under such special condition and under no other, is an unsolved mystery.

3. OVARIES.--The ovaries are the essential parts of the generative system of the human female in which ova are matured. There are two ovaries, one on each side of the uterus, and connected with it by the Fallopian tubes. They are egg-shaped, about an inch in diameter, and furnish the germs or ovules. These germs or ovules are very small, measuring about 1/120 of an inch in diameter.

4. DEVELOPMENT.--The ovaries develop with the growth of the female, so that finally at the period of p.u.b.erty they ripen and liberate an ovum or germ vesicle, which is carried into the uterine cavity of the Fallopian tubes. By the aid of the microscope we find that these ova are composed of granular substance, in which is found a miniature yolk surrounded by a transparent membrane called the zona pellucida. This yolk contains a germinal vesicle in which can be discovered a nucleus, called the germinal spot. The process of the growth of the ovaries is very gradual, and their function of ripening and discharging one ovum monthly into the Fallopian tubes and uterus, is not completed until between the twelfth and fifteenth years.

5. WHAT SCIENCE KNOWS.--After the s.e.xual embrace we know that the sperm is lifted within the genital pa.s.sages or portion of the v.a.g.i.n.a and mouth of the uterus. The time between the deposit of the s.e.m.e.n and fecundation varies according to circ.u.mstances. If the sperm-cell travels to the ovarium it generally takes from three to five days to make the journey. As Dr. Pierce says: The transportation is aided by the ciliary processes (little hairs) of the mucous surface of the v.a.g.i.n.al and uterine walls, as well as by its own vibratile movements.

The action of the cilia, under the stimulus of the sperm, seems to be from without, inward. Even if a minute particle of sperm, less than a drop, be left upon the margin of the external genitals of the female, it is sufficient in amount to impregnate, and can be carried, by help of these cilia, to the ovaries.

6. CONCEPTION.--After intercourse at the proper time the liability to conception is very great. If the organs are in a healthy condition, conception must necessarily follow, and no amount of prudence and the most rigid precautions often fail to prevent pregnancy.

7. ONLY ONE ABSOLUTELY SAFE METHOD.--There is only one absolutely safe method to prevent conception, entirely free from danger and injury to health, and one that is in the reach of all; that is to refrain from union altogether.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A EUGENIC BABY.]

CONCEPTION--ITS LIMITATIONS.

1. A COMMON QUESTION.--The question is often asked, "Can Conception be prevented at all times?" Let us say right here that even if such an interference with nature's laws were possible it is inadmissible, and never to be justified except in cases of deformity or disease.

2. FALSE CLAIMS OF IMPOSTERS.--During the past few years a great deal has been written on the subject, claiming that new remedies had been discovered for the prevention of conception, etc., but these are all money making devices to deceive the public, and enrich the pockets of miserable and unprincipled imposters.

3. THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER.--Dr. Pancoast, an eminent authority, says: "The truth is, there is no medicine taken internally capable of preventing conception, and the person who a.s.serts to the contrary, not only speaks falsely, but is both a knave and a fool."

4. FOOLISH DREAD OF CHILDREN.--What is more deplorable and pitiable than an old couple childless? Young people dislike the care and confinement of children and prefer society and social entertainments and thereby do great injustice and injury to their health. Having children under proper circ.u.mstances never ruins the health and happiness of any woman. In fact, womanhood is incomplete without them.

She may have a dozen or more, and still have better health than before marriage. It is having them too close together, and when she is not in a fit state, that her health gives way.

5. SELF-DENIAL AND FORBEARANCE.--If the husband respects his wife he will come to her relief by exercising self-denial and forbearance, but sometimes before the mother has recovered from the effects of bearing, nursing and rearing one child, ere she has regained proper tone and vigor of body and mind, she is unexpectedly overtaken, surprised by the manifestation of symptoms which again indicate pregnancy. Children thus begotten cannot become hardy and long-lived. But the love that parents may feel for their posterity, by the wishes for their success, by the hopes for their usefulness, by every consideration for their future well-being, let them exercise caution and forbearance until the wife becomes sufficiently healthy and enduring to bequeath her own rugged, vital stamina to the child she bears in love.

6. A WRONG TO THE MOTHER AND CHILD.--Sometimes the mother is diseased; the outlet from the womb, as a result of laceration by a previous child-birth, is frequently enlarged, thus allowing conception to take place very readily, and hence she has children in rapid succession.

Besides the wrong to the mother in having children in such rapid succession, it is a great injustice to the babe in the womb and the one at the breast that they should follow each other so quickly that one is conceived while the other is nursing. One takes the vitality of the other; neither has sufficient nourishment, and both are started in life stunted and incomplete.

7. FEEBLE AND DISEASED PARENTS.--If the parties of a marriage are both feeble and so adapted to each other that their children are deformed, insane or idiots, then to beget offspring would be a flagrant wrong; if the mother's health is in such a condition as to forbid the right of laying the burden of motherhood upon her, then medical aid may safely come to her relief.

8. "THE DESIRABILITY AND PRACTICABILITY of limiting offspring," says Dr. Stockham, are the subject of frequent inquiry. Fewer and better children are desired by right-minded parents. Many men and women, wise in other things of the world, permit generation as a chance result of copulation, without thought of physical or mental conditions to be transmitted to the child. Coition, the one important act of all others, carrying with it the most vital results, is usually committed for selfish gratification. Many a drunkard owes his lifelong appet.i.te for alcohol to the fact that the inception of his life could be traced to a night of dissipation on the part of his father. Physical degeneracy and mental derangements are too often caused by the parents producing offspring while laboring under great mental strain or bodily fatigue. Drunkenness and licentiousness are frequently the heritage of posterity. Future generations demand that such results be averted by better prenatal influences. The world is groaning under the curse of chance parenthood. It is due to posterity that procreation be brought under the control of reason and conscience.

9. "IT HAS BEEN FEARED THAT A KNOWLEDGE of means to control offspring would, if generally diffused, be abused by women; that they would to so great an extent escape motherhood as to bring about social disaster. This fear is not well founded. The maternal instinct is inherent and sovereign in woman. Even the prenatal influences of a murderous intent on the part of parents scarcely ever eradicate it.

With this natural desire for children, we believe few woman would abuse the knowledge of privilege of controlling offspring. Although women shrink from forced maternity, and from the bearing of children under the great burden of suffering, as well as other adverse conditions, it is rare to find a woman who is not greatly disappointed if she does not, some time in her life, wear the crown of motherhood.

"An eminent lady teacher, in talking to her pupils once said, 'The greatest calamity that can befall a woman is never to have a child.

The next greatest calamity is to have one only.' From my professional experience I am happy to testify that more women seek to overcome causes of sterility than to obtain knowledge of limiting the size of the family or means to destroy the embryo. Also, if consultation for the latter is sought, it is usually at the instigation of the husband.

Believing in the rights of unborn children, and in the maternal instinct, I am consequently convinced that no knowledge should be withheld that will secure proper conditions for the best parenthood."

10. THE CASE OF THE JUKE FAMILY.--We submit the following case of the Juke family, mostly of New York state, as related by Dr. R.L. Dugdale, when a member of the prison a.s.sociation, and let the reader judge for himself:

"It was traced out by painstaking research that from one woman called Margaret, who, like Topsy, merely 'growed' without pedigree as a pauper in a village of the upper Hudson, about eighty-five years ago, there descended 673 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, of whom 200 were criminals of the dangerous cla.s.s, 280 adult paupers, and 50 prost.i.tutes, while 300 children of her lineage died prematurely. The last fact proves to what extent in this family nature was kind to the rest of humanity in saving it from a still larger aggregation or undesirable and costly members, for it is estimated that the expense to the State of the descendants of Maggie was over a million dollars, and the State itself did something also towards preventing a greater expense by the restrain exercised upon the criminals, paupers, and idiots of the family during a considerable portion of their lives."

11. MODERATION.--Continence, self-control, a willingness to deny himself--that is what is required from the husband. But a thousand voices reach us from suffering women in all parts of the land that this will not suffice; that men refuse thus to restrain themselves; that it leads to a loss of domestic happiness and to illegal amour, or it is injurious physically and morally; that, in short, such advice is useless because impracticable.

12. NATURE'S METHOD.--To such we reply that nature herself has provided to some extent, against overproduction. It is well known that women, when nursing, rarely become pregnant, and for this reason, if for no other, women should nurse their own children, and continue the period until the child is at least nine months or a year old. However, the nursing, if continued too long, weakens both the mother and the child.

13. ANOTHER PROVISION OF NATURE.--For a certain period between her monthly illness, every woman is sterile. Conception may be avoided by refraining from coition except for this particular number of days, and there will be no evasion of natural intercourse, no resort to disgusting practices, and nothing degrading.