The sexual life, embracing the natural sexual impulse, normal sexual habits and propagation, together with sexual physiology and hygiene

Front matter

'1 I'^liti'tHa

New York

State College of Agriculture

Preface

The physician sees many things that are not ordinarily exposed to view. He is called upon for advice and information upon matters that are held secret and sacred. His work often soils his hands with unnameable filth and jeopardizes his comfort and safety; yet when pursued in the spirit of philanthropy and scientific endeavor, its repulsive features serve but to bring out in bold relief the ennobling virtues.

Sex is the central fact of life, and owing to the urgent necessity for enlightenment upon a subject that greatly afifects, directly or indirectly, every member of society, prudery and mawkish modesty should be disregarded. When others do not intelligently discuss delicate matters regarded as peculiarly intimate, personal and shameful, it becomes a part of the physician's duty so to do.

The situations created by an improper exercise of the sexual function in marriage are many and complicated, and the problems presented are delicate and perplexing. In dealing with these situations there is required not only a thorough knowledge of this function in all its relations, but also tact, sagacity, and a knowledge of human nature, which are not usually taught in the curriculum of our colleges.

Civilization is as yet but a mere film of refinement and intelligence lightly placed upon a foundation of ignorance and superstition. Every physician must at the present time be a missionary and in his work of pointing out the way to health, (without which there can be no happiness) he must expect to receive, oftentimes, the treatment accorded his theological fellow at the hands of barbarity.

The people look to the medical profession for the restoration and preservation of health, and modem medical science is directed toward the prevention of disease. The office of the physician is not only that of a healer, but that of a sanitarian also, and the latter becomes the higher office from the fact that the interests of the many are superior to those of the individual.

In the present age it is not so much what a practitioner of medicine is able to cure as what he is able to prevent that marks him as a benefactor. After all, the prime object of the physician's existence is to keep his patients in health; when disease overtakes them it is his business to restore them to health as speedily as possible.

When a patient seeks the aid of his physician, the latter, in addition to prescribing for him, gives him certain advice and suggestions as to his mode of life, which will aid materially in his restoration to health. If the patient is sensible and possessed of good judgment, he will continue to live in the manner prescribed, and in the majority of cases avoiding a recurrence

PREFACE. 9

of the original trouble. If the physician could have given his advice before the appearance of the ailment, and the patient had followed it, the chances are strongly in favor of the supposition that the trouble would never have appeared. In multiplying this condition and extending it to a community instead of a patient, a large amount of illness will have been prevented.

In preventing unhappiness and disease in marriage, a heavy responsibility is imposed upon the physician because of the number and importance of the interests involved.

In his capacity as the guardian of his patient's health, the physician will not have done his whole duty unless he gives such instruction and information as will be conducive to sexual health and happiness, and point out what leads to disease and misery.

There is comparatively little authentic literature upon sexual physiology and many members of the profession do not to-day fully appreciate its significance. Very much nonsense is written, and upon investigation it will be found that the average library contains many books that are [calculated to arouse and appeal to the passions, but very little is to be found that is really instructive or acts as food for thought upon the topic that greatly affects all classes and kinds of people. An effort has been made to present herewith something solid and to give only scientific and established facts — such as will better enable those who are interested and consulted upon these matters to obtain and impart rational information.

The duty of reforming the morals of the community is not within the province of the physician, and though individual reformation may be accomplished through his agency by giving instruction in matters relating to sexual hygiene and the ailments of sexual Hfe, yet this phase of the question has largely been left with those to whom it rightfully belongs.

To seek out and present the most vital facts of life is fraught with many difficulties, and the kindly encouragement given me by many members of the clergy and the legal, as well as the medical, profession has been a great aid in my labors. Such authorities as I have had access to have been freely consulted, and the works of Havelock Ellis, Krafft-Ebing, and others, have been made use of, for which I desire to make due acknowledgement.

In the previous edition of this book a number of quotations were employed to illustrate some of the points brought out, but inasmuch as they neither add to nor dertract from the work, it has been deemed advisable to omit them.

Contents

Intboduction 19

Chapter I. Sexual Sense

Definition of Sense — Self-Preservation and the Instinct for Propagatiorp^Physical Causes of Pleasure and P^in — Three Cardinal Human Functions — Physical Wants and Mental Desires — The Greatest Longing of Adult Life is Sexual — Development of Special Senses — By the Faculty of Attention and the use of Memory, the Minds become Varied, According to Cerebral Impressions — The Ever-present Sexual Stimulus — Mental Effect of Physical Changes at Puberty — The Ruling Passion of Mature Life — Preferences are Varied and Sexuality is the Real Magnet that Attracts — Individual Love Born and Made Enduring by Association — Self-Confidence and Sexual Competence — Importance of Sexual Sense 33

CHAPTER n.

SEXUAL PASSION

Passion is Exalted Feeling— Its Spontaneous Occur rence — Aroused by Either Mental Impressions or Local Bodily Conditions — Cause of Imagination — Analysis of "Love at First Sight"— Ideal Sexual Love must be Both Mental and Physical — Ethics' of Courtship — Pairing Hunger — Feelings Express a Desire for Excretion and Something More — Secrecy Clusters about Sexual Life — Emotion Creates Disgust when not Responded To — Habits of Deception Instinctive and Required for Female Safety — What Men are Impelled to Give, Women Like to Receive — Sexual Perversion — Male Delights in Exerting Force and Domination; Female Derives Pleasure from Experiencing Force and Submission — Irresistible Women — Masculine Anger arid Feminine Fear — Brain Center of Impulse and Nucleus for Romance — Cultivation of Ideas which Inhibit Desire — Self-induced Passion — Sexual Excitement During Sleep — Phenomena of Dreams — Nocturnal Emissions the Rule in Young Men, but Inexperienced Women Commonly have Vague Dreams — Causes of "Wet Dreams" and their Significance — Sexual Excitement During Sleep More Fatiguing — Woman's Dreams Tend to Reverberate Through Waking Hours — Sexual Needs of the Hysterical — Habits that Create Passion in the Female — Analysis of Day Dreams, Ravings, etc. — Passion is Blind and Seeks to Grasp what Strikes Fancy 37

CHAPTER in.

Feeling of Shame Taught — Primary Causes of Modesty are Animal and Social; the Principal Factors, Fear and Disgust — Excretions of Body are Offensive — Menstrual Flow Obnoxious and Evidences Hidden — Social Customs Inhibit or Extend Physicial Display — Conscious Violation of Proprieties the Cause of Shame — Expectation of Modesty Provokes' it — Nature's Coupling of the Center of Attraction with Physical Repugnance Creates Coquetries — I^w Modesty is Overcome — Influence of Intoxication-^^exual Congress only Way of Satisfying Reproductive Desire^ Female Attitude is Passive, but not without ExerP ing Force — Man's Failure to Take Initiatory Step Makes Woman Active-^hree Primary Sexual Centers — Feelings of Sexual Origin Gratified in Other Ways — Women Regard Mental Aspect of Devotion of Greatest Importance — Spontaneous*>Desire — ^Restraining Influence of Menstruation-^^rdor Gradually Increased by Relations-Passivity Passes into Eager Participation During Intercourse — Physical

CONTENTS. 13

State of Sexual Excitement — The Ideal Woman Not Without Passion;i^uppression of Feeling — Higher Education and Marriage — Solitary Sexual Practices in Women 60

CHAPTER IV.

MALE SEXUAL SENSE.

'What Constitutes' a Normal Condition — If Purported Facts were True there would be Very Few, in Any, Normal Men — Boyish Habits — Sexual Knowledge Obtained from One who is Older in Experience — Females who Teach the Youth — Instinct and Curiosity Sufficient Causes for Erection and Sensation — Consciousness of Sex Acutely Enhanced by Puberty — The Youth Becomes a man without Instruction and Does what His Father did — Characteristic Feature of Male Impulse is His Active part in Matters of Sex — Gallantry and its Limitations — Codes of Social Law Expression of Man's Sexual Impulse — Seminal Emissions as Proof of Sexual Capacity — If Involuntary Emissions Always Indicate Disease, then Single Life is Abnormal — These Discharges Occur on an Average of 37 Times a Year — What Masturbation Means — Impossible for Boy to Grow to Manhood Without Artificial Acts — ^Emissions without Intercourse Always Displeasing-^ Greatest Cause of Youthful Misery — Disgust Prevents Prolongation and Frequency of Habit — Masturbation Injurious when Excessive, with Bad Effects Functional and Transient 79

CHAPTER V

Sexual Conjunction the Natural Aim of Life — Pleasure the Incentive to Copulation — Hunger the Expression of the Nutritive Impulse, and Sexual Appetite the Result of the Reproductive Function — Satisfaction of Sense Immediate Object — Coitus a Process of Charging and Discharging — Intrinsic Influences Create Ideals — Extrinsic Causes make Emotion — Relief of Dual Exaltation Incidentally Perpetuates Race — Symptoms of Sexual Emotion — ^Vicarious Action of

Bladder — Nervous Explosions — Giggling Girls — Exercise of Function Develops' Character — Elevating Effect of Love — Suppression of Nature Leads to Abnormal Thoughts and Eccentricities — Mental Tranquility Incompatible with Physical Distress — Spontaneous heightening of Female Feeling — ^Recurrent Cycle of Male Physical Fitness Smaller — Coition Exacted — A Life Without Issue Cannot Reach its Highest Aim — Selfishness the Most Prolific Clause of Misery but Parentage Transfers Center of Gravity to Another — Infant Begets Sympathy and Tenderness — Physical Affinity Between Mother and Child — Nursing and Copulation — Motherhood Brings Out Womanly Qualities — Innate Desire to Lavish Affection Upon Living Thing — Maternal Instinct — Conviction of Shortcoming Develops Dissatisfaction and Unrest — Physical Effects of Exercise of Function — Rotundity of Figure — Development of Female Bust — Proper Convexity a Great Charm — Intimate Relation with Vegetative Organs — Consistency Influenced by Sexual Organs — Exercise of Reproductive, Affects Capacity of Nutritive Function — Animal is Deprived of Gracefulness and Spirit by Being Unsexed — Effects of Muscular Movement — Dancing as a Substitute for Copulation — Definition of Hysteria — Causation Attributed to Sexual Inactivity — Chlorosis and Hysteria a Show of Sexual Aptitude — Many Actions are Hypocritical and Hysterical — Insincerity where Copulative Function is involved. i5g

CHAPTER VI

Human Nature the Most Important Fact — Cases of Unsatisfactory Sexual Life Numerous — Essential Requisite is Mutuality — Orgasm the Aim and End, and Act should be Preceded by Abbreviated Courtship — Physiology of Act — Mechanism in Male and Requirements for Fitness — Timely Orgasm with Semen Deposited within Vagina Necessary for Satisfaction — Source of Either Woman's Pleasure or Anguish — Always Pleasurable when Rightly Done — How Orgasm in Woman is' Produced — Action of Womb During Climax — Nervous Tension Relieved by Act — Nervousness Always Accompanies Disturbance of Sexual Function — Sympathetic Nerve Connection Between Pelvic and Abdominal Organs — Dyspepsia

CONTENTS 15 and Vomiting of Pregnancy Arise from Uterine Congestion — Mechanism of Digestion — Neryi Erigentes tile Direct Connection Between Brain and Genitals — The Physical Linked to the Mental Being by Vaso- Motor Nerves — How Mental and Sexual Functions Aflfect Each Other 119

CHAPTER VII

Conversation and Sexual Habits — Percentage of Childless Marriages — The Course of Nature Would Increase Family about every Two Years — Celibacy with Marriage — Love for Children Grows with Presence — Time of Greatest Desire Auspicious Time for Conception: — Family Growth Governs Sexual Acts — Women who Must not only Subdue their own Feelings, but Resist Husband for One-half of Month- Withdrawal Common but not Satisfactory — Effects of Woman's Sacrifice — The Condom — The use of Douches — Employment of Suppositories, Injections, Sponges, Pessaries, etc. — Untoward Effects of Their Use — Fear as a Cause of Suppression — Monthly Regulators — Active Measures for Interrupting Pregnancy have for Object Emptying of Womb— Methods of the Abortionist — Immediate Dangers and After Effects ISO

CHAPTER VIII

c HYGIENIC SEXUAL RELATIONS

Family Welfare Depends Upon Sexual Relations — Ability and Timely Exercise Necessary — Play of the Imagination — Personal Care — Timely Avoidance of Intimate Relations — Importance of Sense of Touch — Hesitancy upon Contact Before Vigorous Activity — Size of Organs has Greatest Effect on Mind — Essentials of Female Conduct and Male Actions — Iinpulse Expressed by Female Clinging and by Encircling Traction of Male — Sense of Touch Requires Bodily Wave — Simultaneous Climax Reached by Intelligent

Co-operation — Conditions that Influence Desire — Delay of Orgasm and Woman's Pleasure — Causes' of Excess — Previous Habits a Guide to Frequency — Capacity and Proficiency Acquired by Practice — Nature's Supply of Seed Unlimited and only a Portion Elaborated — First Attempts not Successful — Failure Attributed to Active Party and Mental Effect Bad — Entrance does not mean Copulation — Success Depends upon Husband's Conduct — Women of the "Half World" and their Habits Compared with Others' — Frequent Excitations Primarily Injurious — Sexual Capacity as Various as the Digestive — Normal Frequency of Relations — Sexual Excesses Highly Improbable in Women without Undue Stimulation — Influence of Prolonged Continence 175

CHAPTER IX.

SEXUAL INEQUALITY How Unequal Sexual States are Evolved^ — In Daily Life Honor means Integrity for the Man and Chastity for the Woman — The Varying Effects of Discipline — Different Conditions of Married Women — A Wife Cannot Blame Others for Ignoring Her Humanity when She Forgets it — Advice Negative and no Instruction upon what is Most Vital — Women who can Always Respond to Husband the Happiest — Wives who are able to Help Themselves to an Orgasm — Those who are Dissatisfied with their Sexual Relations — Fifteen per cent, of Women are Practically Sexless — To Deprive a Wife of the most Profound Feelings Instilled by Life is to Deny a Created Being its Birthright — Bodily Contact Necessary for Excitement in Average Woman — The Requisites for Copulation are Desire, and Removal of Restrictions — Male Never Alarmed by Sexual Capability — Normal Coitus first Indication of Married Life — Desire Established by Acts that Cautiously Gravitate to Center — Man's Duty to Elicit Response and Retard Orgasm — Wifely Obligations — Passion and Pregnancy — Women Reach Climax Against their Will — By Attention to Genital Congestion, Desire for Relief is Made Imperative — Suggestion in Cases' of Delayed Practice — Analogy of Frigidity to Dyspepsia — By Giving that which Satisfies Manhood, Woman brings upon Herself Health and an Amiable Disposition — Combative Attitude — Silent Acquiescence and Active Response — No Submission in Absence of Emotion — Elimination of Fear — Climax Should be

CONTENTS 17

Sought when Intercourse is Attempted — Discreet Avoidance of Derogatory Remarks — With Knowledge and use of Tact, any Young Wife may Make her Relations to her own Liking 203

CHAPTER X

Nature Satisfied only with Expression of Love — Desire for Coupling most Persistent — Congress for Purpose of Procreation only is Impractical — Self-Control — Emotion Never Aroused by Thoughts of Offspring — The Testicles and Their Product — Semen Expelled with Evacuations — Conditions with Premature Emission — Development of Sex Glands — Menstruation and Ovulation — Upon what Menstruation Depends — When Graafian Follicles Rupture — Jewish Law Prohibits Congress for Seven Days after Flow — Hebrew Customs — Average Duration of Pregnancy 278 Days — Rules for Time of Delivery — Properties of Ova and Spermatozoa — When their Vitality is Lost and how Affected — Differences in Procreative Ability — Plural Births and Possibilities of Conception — The Sexual Act and Ovulation — Only Way of Calculating Gestation — Laws upon Legitimacy — Site of Impregnation — Ovum Fertilized Two or Three Days After Rupture Only — Duration of Menses makes Time of Pregnancy Vary — Woman's Feelings a Guide to Exact Time of Ovulation — The Popular Belief and the Periods when Intercourse is most Effectual for Pregnancy — Intelligent Government of Sexual Habits — Influence upon Progeny — Pre-determination of Sex — Maternal Impressions — In Education Lies Only Hope of Preventing Derogatory Acts 246

CHAPTER XI.

Nervous Condition one in which the Person is Unduly Excited and Deficient in Control— Exhaustion of Nerve Force and Debility of Centers — Abnormal Response the Essential Feature — Neurasthenia Inherited and Acquired — Lack of Endurance and Failure of Mental Support — ^Reserve Power and Neurotic Tendency — Irritable Weakness — First Manifestation is Worry — Weakest Function Early Involved — Love, Religion and the Sexual Passion as the Causes in the Female — Signs of Nervous Weakness in Young Women — Nervousness Relieved by Marriage — Sense of Fatigue may be Purely Mental — Numerous Fears — Loss of Power in Fixed Attention — Spinal Symptoms — Circulatory Changes — Frequent Disorders of Sight — Morbid Action of Vaso-Motor System — Greatest Number of Dyspepsias are Nervous — Disturbance of Sexual Organs most Frequent of all in Neurasthenia — Surgery in Pelvic Disorders and its Mose Powerful Factor — Nervous Weakness as Primary Cause in Cases of Faulty Metabolism — Anemic Type of Neurotic Persons — The Intellectual Type — Diffexence Between Hysterical and Neurotic Women — ^Relation of Nervousness to Organic Disease — Nature Evolves but does not Destroy Nor save — Most Exacting Epoch in Woman's Career — ■ Marriage Excites Sex Function — Circumstances Affect Women as Climate does Vegetation — Monotony is Unfavorable — Reflex Actions — How Nervousness is Acquired — Neuroses Occur Chiefly with Generative Disorders — Physiological means of Relief — Medicine as a Spur to Nature — Treatment of Depression — The Great Cause of Domestic Infelicity — How Harmony is Restored — Conclusions 275

Introduction

Man is naturally a social being, and the sum total of all that goes to make life worth living may be expressed by the word "contentment." The pursuit of happiness is the aim of all human endeavor, and there is nothing that contributes so largely to the happiness of adult human life (when actual necessities are available) or causes the person more secret concern and anxiety, than his or her individual sexual relations. Society and civilization are foimded and builded upon the home, and the home is not a mansion or a hovel, but is the result of the assumption of the sexual relation. If the home cannot or does not supply the sexual and most of the social needs of its founders, then it cannot be called home in the full sense of the word.

The physical, the mental, and the moral being is the result of heredity, environment, and education. Science does not take cognizance of sentiment, for that is the product of culture, and they who permit themselves to be governed by a sentimentality that ignores or conflicts with the established inexorable laws of nature, must inevitably meet with disaster.

We know nothing — absolutely nothing — except that which we have learned ; and our knowledge consists of what we have acquired by personal experience, together with that which has been imparted to us by others. The beneficent author of our being intended that we should be social creatures, and receive the greatest and most important part of our knowledge by the information of others. The average person is accorded but very meager facilities for the acquisition of knowledge upon sexuality, and what little is obtained usually comes too late to be of practical value. Civilization, religion and social ethics forbid diversified sexual experience, and sternly decree that this must be strictly limited to the one with whom the marital relation has been assumed. Practically, and to the shame of society, be it said, this is applicable more especially to women; for knowledge of a single deviation from this prescribed edict insures social ostracism to the unfortunate woman to whom the finger of suspicion may be pointed, while these "indiscretions" on the part of the man are too frequently condoned. This injustice has not only created a double standard by which people are measured, but precludes the possibility of an unmarried woman obtaining the slightest personal knowledge of what is to become of the utmost importance to her.

Education by experience, which is the greatest and best of teachers, being denied her, and therefore out of the question, the only alternative remaining for the acquisition of information, is a reliance upon what is imparted to her. It is a deplorable fact that those who are best qualified to give this infor-

INTRODUCTION 21

mation are reluctant to impart it, owing to the delicacy of the subject, and the difficulty of presenting it in an acceptable manner. The mother of the girl, upon whom this duty naturally devolves, cannot bring herself to speak of it with any degree of intelligence, and even when attempts are made to convey ideas which must of necessity be the result of a decidedly limited personal experience that is most often very disappointing, not to say disagreeable, they are almost invariably improperly presented and falsely understood. Indeed, a large proportion of mothers pride themselves upon what they are pleased to term the "innocence" of their marriageable daughters and cherish the fond illusion that ignorance is always innocence, and want of knowledge the equivalent of virtue.

Very much time and energy is expended in teaching young people how to conduct themselves in soiciety, how to make a good impression, and girls especially are educated in the art of being attractive and entertaining, and every efifort is put forth in the endeavor to make a desirable matrimonial alliance, but no attention is given to what is all-important for the family welfare, for the young couples are left to themselves at the door of the bridal chamber with no rational education relative to their conduct within the confines of that sacred boudoir. Here, at the portal of life's crucial period, they are left to work out their own salvation, hampered, rather than assisted, by their previous training, with only a varying dream that has but a bare chance of being realized, but with never a word of proper instruction upon what is most vital for their future.

Most of the literature upon this topic does not seem to be forthcoming for the sole purpose of disseminating the exact truth and depicting the actual conditions, but it is the outgrowth of ulterior and mercenary motives, and, instead of being beneficial and wholesome, is too often the source of uncalled-for solicitude, apprehension and misery. The laity, as well as the profession, is with brazen affrontery repeatedly confronted with reading matter that is a veritable libel upon mankind, in which the usual physiological conditions are portrayed as being pathological states.

To counteract as far as possible, the baneful influences of current literature and to call attention to scientific truth, as well as to endeavor to chrow a ray of light into what must be a deplorable obscurity, is the object of this publication.

CHAPTER I SEXUAL SENSE

Definition of Sense — Self-Preservation and the Instinct for Propagation — Physical Causes of Pleasure and Pain — Three Cardinal Human Functions — Physical Wants and Mental Desires — The Greatest Longing of Adult Life is Sexual — Development of Special Senses — By the Faculty of Attention and the use of Memory, the Minds become Varied, According to Cerebral Impressions — The Ever-present Sexual Stimulus — Mental Effect of Physical Changes at Puberty — The Ruling Passion of Mature Life — Preferences are Varied and Sexuality is the Real Magnet that Attracts — Individual Love Born and Made Enduring by Association — Self-Confidence and Sexual Competence — Importance of Sexual Sense.

Sense may be said to be a perception or cognizance of an impression. When an impression arises spontaneously from the body it is known as instinct, and when it amounts to an urging from within we are in the habit of calHng the feeling an impulse. When any given sensation is felt, all we can say with certainty is that there is an impression upon the sensorium in the brain. The cause may be some object of the external world, in which case the sensation will be objective; or the condition may be due to some excitement within the brain, in which instance the sensation is termed subjective. Judgments are often unconsciously based upon sensations.

The preservation of self is perhaps the strongest human instinct and is often alluded to as the "first law of nature." If we go but a step farther we find closely allied and intimately interwoven with this trait the desire to prolong or perpetuate self in the species, and with this basis we have the manifestation of sexuality, the sexual sense, or the instinct for propagation.

A state of health, ease or well-being is consistent only with a normal mind in a body where all of the organs perform their several functions harmoniously. It is more than probable that each cell in the body performs its function in unison with general consciousness. When this harmony or rythm becomes increased or exalted it is felt, and the consciousness of this sensation we call pleasure, because it is agreeable; but when this rythm is decreased and there is a lesser degree of unity, the lack of harmony occasions discomfort and we call this discord — pain.

It is necessary, then, for personal comfort, pleasure and happiness that we have, first, a physical condition in which there is a concordant cellular activity, which produces in each and every organ and tissue of the body an harmonious performance of its function ; and, secondly, such an adjustment or relation with the external world which is in accord with our being and which permits the performance of our fundamental physical functions without offending ourselves or interfering with those with whom we come in contact.

The elementary conditions of the external world are beyond our control, and hence we are compelled, for our safety, to adjust ourselves in harmonious relations thereto. If we do not hold ourselves in the proper relations toward gravity, heat, air, water, etc., we must invariably succumb, for it is necessary for our physical welfare that we conform to these natural laws.

Our mental state, however, is susceptible to other influences, and, being of a social nature, we are to a certain extent dependent upon one another, and are susceptible to and exert influences which afifect our mental tranquillity- Amicable and desirable social relations partake of mutuality, and the more we have in common with each other, the more capable do we become for mutual helpfulness, while the degree of amicability is in direct ratio with the desire and the ability for gratification.

Nowhere do we find a better exemplification of this fact than in the sexual relation. If we have no wants or desires then there is no need of satiation or gratification. The degree of felicity is conditioned upon the intensity of the desire and the ability for its satisfaction. There, is no greater pleasure or felicity conceivable than is occasioned by the satiation or gratification of the most intense desire. What, then, is the greatest desire of adult humanity ?

During growth and before maturity there are two cardinal principles that actuate every living cell and every aggregation of cells, and these are — amotion and nutrition. It would be impossible for the organism to obtain its required nutriment without motive power whereby it could appropriate to itself from its surroundings the wherewith to sustain and prolong or perpetuate its existence. After the cell or the organism has attained its maturity it becomes capable of not only prolonging its already existing physical state, but it acquires the faculty of giving off a part of itself for a separate existence, and the third fundamental function is added to the other two.

This third function is the inherent faculty of reproducing its kind, and thus we find that all living things possess a capacity for motion, nutrition and reproduction. All three are necessary for life, for without either, the kind would soon become extinct. Birth is the separation of offspring from parent, and living things owe their existence to a previous being.

These propensities are not confined to the individual cell but are possessed by every combination or aggregation of cells in separate and distinct organizations.

This applies to the human being as well as to all other living things, and though the function of reproduction is not absolutely essential to the mere existence of the individual body, yet in compliance with the laws of the indestructibility of matter and the preservation of self, this function becomes a part of the mature being, and inasmuch as it is not an absolute requisite for the maintenance of individual life, it becomes the first and, therefore, the greatest desire of the being.

In view of the above it would seem that though the reproductive function is not necessary for the temporary existence of the being, yet it is a part thereof and the very aim of its being, and therefore necessary to its natural life.