148 INTRODUCTION TO SEXUAL PHYSIOLOGY 



to deliberate volition in the regulation of the married state. 

 Moreover, it is clear that in the interests of future generations 

 control of some kind must be exercised more extensively, and 

 eugenic considerations must not be neglected. The methods by 

 which these results can best be achieved are a matter of dispute. 

 Contraceptive practices in coition, although very widely used by 

 all civilised peoples, and often without any deleterious results, 

 are objected to by some authorities on the ground that they are 

 liable to induce nervous or mental instability. Here we may be 

 confronted with a choice between two evils, the risk of occasional 

 neurasthenic disturbances on the one hand, and the disadvantages 

 of undue propagation on the other, and it is probably right that 

 here as elsewhere the immediate interests of the individual 

 should be sacrificed to the general well-being of the community. 

 Moreover, the effect upon the individual may often depend upon 

 the particular practice adopted. 



The employment of contraceptive methods is sometimes 

 deprecated also on grounds of morality and religion, but this is a 

 subject which is outside our present scope. It cannot be disputed, 

 however, that in some way or other man must assume a more 

 complete restraint over his reproductive functions and subordinate 

 his inclinations to the future interests of humanity. It is only 

 in regard to the manner in which this should be effected that there 

 can be any serious difference of opinion. 



Furthermore, it must be generally agreed that as the population 

 problem becomes increasingly acute, it will be of advantage to 

 the community that a greater flow of sexual energy should be 

 " sublimated " (as Freud and his psycho-analytic school express 

 it), that is, diverted into other and more profitable channels of 

 an intellectual, social, or aesthetic order. That there are 

 individuals who can successfully accomplish this has been implicitly 

 recognised throughout all ages, for they number amongst them 

 some of the greatest benefactors of mankind. It was some- 

 thing of this sort that Bacon meant when he wrote that " the 

 best works, and of greatest merit to the public, have proceeded 

 from unmarried or childless men, which, both in affection and 

 means, have married and endowed the public," and Bacon did 

 not refer merely to liberality and the endowing of worldly gain. 



There is a good deal of confused thinl^ing and writing about 

 what is called " unnatural/' and it is sometimes represented that 



