ck of vitality, while its plastic
form is being molded, and its various organs acquiring that integrity
of structure which makes up what is called constitutional
vigor,--during this most critical of all periods in the life of the
new being, its resources are exhausted and its structure depraved--and
thus constitutional tendencies to disease produced--by the unnatural
demands made upon the mother.

Effect upon the Character.--Still another terrible consequence results
from this practice so contrary to nature. The delicate brain, which
is being molded, with the other organs of the body, receives its cast
largely from those mental and nervous sensations and actions of the
mother which are the most intense. One of the most certain effects of
sexual indulgence at this time is to develop abnormally the sexual
instinct in the child. Here is the key to the origin of much of the
sexual precocity and depravity which curse humanity. Sensuality is born
in the souls of a large share of the rising generation. What wonder
that prostitution flourishes in spite of Christianity and civil law?

It is scarcely necessary to say that all medical testimony concurs in
forbidding indulgence during gestation. The same reasons require its
interdiction during the nursing period. The fact that fecundation would
be impossible during pregnancy, and that during this period the female,
normally, has no sexual desire, are other powerful arguments in favor
of perfect continence at this time.

We quote the following from a work on health by Dr. J. R. Black:--

"Coition during pregnancy is one of the ways in which the predisposition
is laid for that terrible disease in children, epilepsy. The unnatural
excitement of the nervous system in the mother by such a cause cannot
operate otherwise than by inflicting injury upon the tender germ in
her womb. This germ, it must be remembered, derives every quality it
possesses from the parents, as well as every particle of matter of which
it is composed. The old notion of anything like spontaneity in the
development of the qualities of a new being is at variance with all
the latest facts and inductions concerning reproduction. And so is that
of a creative fiat. The smallest organic cell, as well as the most
complicated organism, in form and quality, is wholly dependent upon
the laws of derivation.

"These laws are competent to explain, however subtle the ultimate
process may be, the great diversities of human org