or bodily fatigue. Drunkenness and licentiousness are frequently the
heritage of posterity. Future generations demand that such results be
averted by better pre-natal influences. The world is groaning under the
curse of chance parenthood. It is due to posterity that procreation be
brought under the control of reason and conscience.

10. "IT HAS BEEN FEARED THAT A KNOWLEDGE of means to prevent conception
would, if generally diffused, be abused by women; that they would to so
great an extent escape motherhood as to bring about social disaster. This
fear is not well founded. The maternal instinct is inherent and sovereign
in woman. Even the pre-natal influences of a murderous intent on the part
of parents scarcely ever {243} eradicate it. With this natural desire for
children, we believe few women would abuse the knowledge or privilege of
controlling conception. Although women shrink from forced maternity, and
from the bearing of children under the great burden of suffering, as well
as other adverse conditions, it is rare to find a woman who is not greatly
disappointed if she does not, some time in her life, wear the crown of
motherhood.

"An eminent lady teacher, in talking to her pupils, once said: 'The
greatest calamity that can befall a woman is never to have a child. The
next greatest calamity is to have one only.' From my professional
experience I am happy to testify that more women seek to overcome causes of
sterility than to obtain knowledge of limiting the size of the family or
means to destroy the embryo. Also, if consultation for the latter is
sought, it is usually at the instigation of the husband. Believing in the
rights of unborn children, and in the maternal instinct, I am consequently
convinced that no knowledge should be withheld that will secure proper
conditions for the best parenthood.

11. "MANY OF THE MEANS USED TO PREVENT conception are injurious, and often
lay the foundation for a train of physical ailments. Probably no one means
is more serious in its results than the practice of withdrawal, or the
discharge of the semen externally to the vagina. The act is incomplete and
unnatural, and is followed by results similar to and as disastrous as those
consequent upon _masturbation_. In the male it may result in impotence, in
the female in sterility. In both sexes many nervous symptoms are produced,
such as headache, defective vision, dyspepsia, insomnia, loss of memory,
etc. Very many cases of uterine