ot do better than to
quote from the writings of several of the most eminent authors upon
this subject. The following paragraphs are from the distinguished Mayer,
who has already been frequently quoted:--

"The numerous stratagems invented by debauch to annihilate the natural
consequences of coition, have all the same end in view."

Conjugal Onanism.--"The soiling of the conjugal bed by the shameful
maneuvers to which we have made allusion, is mentioned for the first
time in Gen. 38:6, and following verses: 'And it came to pass, when
he [Onan] went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the
ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing
which he did displeased the Lord; wherefore he slew him.'

"Hence the name of _conjugal onanism_.

"One cannot tell to what great extent this vice is practiced, except
by observing its consequences, even among people who fear to commit
the slightest sin, to such a degree is the public conscience perverted
upon this point. Still, many husbands know that nature often succeeds
in rendering nugatory the most subtle calculations, and reconquers the
rights which they have striven to frustrate. No matter; they persevere,
none the less, and by the force of habit they poison the most blissful
moments of life, with no surety of averting the result that they fear.
So, who knows if the infants, too often feeble and weazen, are not the
fruit of these in themselves incomplete _procreations_, and disturbed
by preoccupations foreign to the generic act? Is it not reasonable to
suppose that the creative power, not meeting in its disturbed functions
the conditions necessary for the elaboration of a normal product, the
conception might be from its origin imperfect, and the being which
proceeded therefrom, one of those monsters which are described in
treatises on teratology?"

"Let us see, now, what are the consequences to those given to this
practice of conjugal onanism.

"We have at our disposition numerous facts which rigorously prove the
disastrous influence of abnormal coitus to the woman, but we think it
useless to publish them. All practitioners have more or less observed
them, and it will only be necessary for them to call upon their memories
to supply what our silence leaves. 'However, it is not difficult to
conceive,' says Dr. Francis Devay, 'the degree of perturbation that
a like practice should exert upon the genital system of woman by
provoking desires which