Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in...

Thus, in Paris, in 1906, in the rich quarters, the birthrate per 1,000 inhabitants was 19.09; in well-to-do quarters, 22.51; and in poor quarters, 29.70. Here we see that, while the birthrate falls and rises with social class, even among the poor and least restrained class the birthrate is still but little above the general average for England, where prevention is widespread, and very considerably lower than the average (now rapidly falling) in Germany. It is evident that even among the poor class there is a process of leveling up to the higher classes in this matter.

See, e.g., a weighty chapter in the Sexualleben und Nervenleiden of Löwenfeld, one of the most judicious authorities on sexual pathology. Twenty-five years ago, as many will remember, the medical student was usually taught that preventive methods of intercourse led to all sorts of serious results. At that time, however, reckless and undesirable methods of prevention seem to have been more prevalent than now.

Michael Ryan, Philosophy of Marriage, p. 9. To enable "the conservative power of the Creator" to exert itself on the myriads of germinal human beings secreted during his life-time by even one man, would require a world full of women, while the corresponding problem as regards a woman is altogether too difficult to cope with. The process by which life has been built up, far from being a process of universal conservation, has been a process of stringent selection and vast destruction; the progress effected by civilization merely lies in making this blind process intelligent.

Thus, in Belgium, in 1908 (Sexual-Probleme, Feb., 1909, p. 136), a physician (Dr. Mascaux) who had been prominent in promoting a knowledge of preventive methods of conception, was condemned to three months imprisonment for "offense against morality!" In such a case, Dr. Helene Stöcker comments (Die Neue Generation, Jan., 1909, p. 7), "morality" is another name for ignorance, timidity, hypocrisy, prudery, coarseness, and lack of conscience. It must be remembered, however, in explanation of this iniquitous judgment, that for some years past the clerical party has been politically predominant in Belgium.

It has been objected that the condom cannot be used by the very poorest, on account of its cost, but Hans Ferdy, in a detailed paper (Sexual-Probleme, Dec., 1908), shows that the use of the condom can be brought within the means of the very poorest, if care is taken to preserve it under water when not in use. Nyström (Sexual Probleme, Nov., 1908, p. 736) has issued a leaflet for the benefit of his patients and others, recommending the condom, and explaining its use.

Thus, Kisch, in his Sexual Life of Woman, after discussing fully the various methods of prevention, decides in favor of the condom. Fürbringer similarly (Senator and Kaminer, Health and Disease in Relation to Marriage, vol. i, pp. 232 et seq.) concludes that the condom is "relatively the most perfect anti-conceptual remedy." Forel (Die Sexuelle Frage, pp. 457 et seq.) also discusses the question at length; any æsthetic objection to the condom, Forel adds (p. 544), is due to the fact that we are not accustomed to it; "eye-glasses are not specially æsthetic, but the poetry of life does not suffer excessively from their use, which, in many cases, cannot be dispensed with."

The development of opinion and law concerning abortion has been traced by Eugène Bausset, L'Avortement Criminel, Thèse de Paris, 1907. For a summary of the practices of different peoples regarding abortion, see W. G. Sumner, Folkways, Ch. VIII.

Even Balestrini, who is opposed to the punishment of abortion, is no advocate of it. "Whenever abortion becomes a social custom," he remarks (op. cit., p. 191), "it is the external manifestation of a people's decadence, and far too deeply rooted to be cured by the mere attempt to suppress the external manifestation."

Cf. Ellen Key, Century of the Child, Ch. I. Hirth (Wege zur Heimat, p. 526) is likewise opposed to the encouragement of abortion, though he would not actually punish the pregnant woman who induces abortion. I would especially call attention to an able and cogent article by Anna Pappritz ("Die Vernichtung des Keimenden Lebens," Sexual-Probleme, July, 1909) who argues that the woman is not the sole guardian of the embryo she bears, and that it is not in the interests of society, nor even in her own interests, that she should be free to destroy it at will. Anna Pappritz admits that the present barbarous laws in regard to abortion must be modified, but maintains that they should not be abolished. She proposes (1) a greatly reduced punishment for abortion; (2) this punishment to be extended to the father, whether married or unmarried (a provision already carried out in Norway, both for abortion and infanticide); (3) permission to the physician to effect abortion when there is good reason to suspect hereditary degeneration, as well as when the woman has been impregnated by force.

F. E. Daniel, President of the State Medical Association of Texas, "Should Insane Criminals or Sexual Perverts be Allowed to Procreate?" Medico-legal Journal, Dec., 1893; id., "The Cause and Prevention of Rape," Texas Medical Journal, May, 1904.

P. Näcke, "Die Kastration bei gewissen Klassen von Degenerirten als ein Wirksamer Socialer Schutz," Archiv für Kriminal-Anthropologie, Bd. III, 1899, p. 58; id. "Kastration in Gewissen Fällen von Geisteskrankheit," Psychiatrisch-Neurologische Wochenschrift, 1905, No. 29.