by prohibiting the sales, this should be done; but so many are
ready to expose themselves to danger that you cannot hope for such
a result from forbidding the sale. It is true this removes _fear_,
but the general good, and the removal of danger to the innocent
justifies this. Besides, it is a poor virtue which is kept from sin
only by the fear of disease."

Having gone so far as to admit the desirability and necessity of the
medical prevention of sexual diseases, the Roman Catholic Church will
certainly find itself later unable to deny the desirability and necessity
of preventing the birth of children liable to be born diseased or unfit.
It is not practicable for a wife to take any suitable precautions against
infection by a diseased husband, which precautions will not at the same
time be effective, to a greater or lesser extent, in the prevention of
conception. There is no half-way house in the matter of sexual hygiene.

ETTIE A. ROUT.

I.--INTRODUCTION.

At present marriage is easily the most dangerous of all our social
institutions. This is partly due to the colossal ignorance of the public
in regard to sex, and partly due to the fact that marriage is mainly
controlled by lawyers and priests instead of by women and doctors. The
legal and religious aspects of marriage are not the primary ones. A
marriage may be legal--and miserable; religious--and diseased. The law
pays no heed to the suitability of the partners, and the Church takes no
regard for their health. Nevertheless, the basis of marriage is obviously
mating, or sexual intercourse. Without that there is no marriage, and with
it come not merely health and happiness but life itself. Cut out sexual
intercourse, and society becomes extinct in one generation. Every
generation must, of necessity, pass through the bodies of its women; there
is no other way of obtaining entry into the world. Hence, it is clearly
the duty of women to understand precisely the processes involved, from
beginning to end.

With the lower animals sexual intercourse is desired only seasonally, and
only for the purpose of reproduction. With the higher animals--man and
women--sexual intercourse is desired more or less continuously throughout
adult life, and desired much more for romantic than for reproductive
considerations--that is, for the sake of health and happiness rather than
for the sake of procreation only. A few women, and still fewer men, have
no