there is a distinction made between; _impotence_
and _sterility._ _Impotence_ is a loss of power to engage in the
sexual act and is common to men. It may be imperfection in the male
organ or a lack of sufficient sexual vigor to produce and maintain
erection. _Sterility_ is a total loss of capacity in the reproduction
of the species, and is common to women.

There are, however, very few causes of barrenness that cannot be
removed when the patient is perfectly developed. Sterility, in a
female, most frequently depends upon a weakness or irritability either
in the ovaries or the womb, and anything having a strengthening effect
upon either organ will remove the disability. (See page 249.)

20. "OVER-INDULGENCE in intercourse," says Dr. Hoff, "is sometimes
the cause of barrenness; this is usually puzzling to the interested
parties, inasmuch as the practices which, in their opinion, should be
the source of a numerous progeny, have the very opposite effect. By
greatly moderating their ardor, this defect may be remedied."

21. "NAPOLEON AND JOSEPHINE.--A certain adaptation between the male
and female has been regarded as necessary to conception, consisting of
some mysterious influence which one sex exerts over the other, neither
one, however, being essentially impotent or sterile. The man may
impregnate one woman and not another, and the woman will conceive by
one man and not by another. In the marriage of Napoleon Bonaparte and
Josephine no children were born, but after he had separated from the
Empress and wedded Maria Louisa of Austria, an heir soon came. Yet
Josephine had children by Beauharnais, her previous husband. But as
all is not known as to the physical condition of Josephine during her
second marriage, it cannot be assumed that mere lack of adaptability
was the cause of unfruitfulness between them. There may have been
some cause that history has not recorded, or unknown to the state
of medical science of those days. There are doubtless many cases of
apparently causeless unfruitfulness in marriage that even physicians,
with a knowledge of all apparent conditions in the parties cannot
explain; but when, as elsewhere related in this volume, impregnation
by artificial means is successfully practised, it is useless
to attribute barrenness to purely psychological and adaptative
influences."

* * * * *

PRODUCING BOYS OR GIRLS AT WILL.

1. CAN THE SEXES BE PRODUCED AT WILL?--This q