f
the contraceptive measures has only diminished this fear, not completely
allayed it.

Moreover the contraceptive measures, according to the law that every
"solution" breeds new problems, have their place in causing nervousness.
Rarely do these measures replace the natural act in satisfaction.
Further, some are unable to conquer their repugnance and disgust and
some are left excited and unsatisfied. Vasomotor disturbances,
neurasthenic symptoms, obsessions, and hysterical phenomena occur in
many women as well as in some men. One of the stock questions of the
neurologists when examining a married man or woman complaining of
neurasthenic symptoms relates to the contraceptive measures used. The
channel of discharge of sexual excitement is race old. And this new
development blocks that channel. For many persons this is sufficient to
deenergize the organism.

At the present time there are two trends in the sex sphere, so far as
women are concerned. There is the masculine trend, which is usually
called feminism. Women tend to take up the work formerly exclusively
belonging to men; they tend to dress more like men, with flat shoes,
collars and ties, and tailor-made clothes. They take up the vices of
men,--smoking, drinking,--are building up a club life, live in bachelor
apartments, call each other by their last names, etc.

Whether with this goes a greater sexual license or not it is difficult
to say. The observers best qualified to comment think there has been a
decrease in female chastity,--that the entrance of women in industrial
life, the growth of the cities, the increase in automobiles, the greater
freedom of women, the dropping of restraint in manner and speech, have
brought women's morals somewhat nearer to men's.

The other trend, not entirely separate except for externals, is marked
by a hyper-sexuality, an emphasis of femaleness. This is by far the more
common phenomenon and probably more widely spread through society. The
dress of women in general is more daring, more designed for sex
allurement than for a century past. Women paint and powder in a way that
only the demimonde did a generation ago, reminding one of the ladies of
the French Court in the eighteenth century. Further, the plays of the
day would be called mere burlesque a generation back; the girl and music
show has the center of the stage, and the drama in America has almost
disappeared. There is an epidemic of magazines that flirt with the
risque;