SEXUAL HYGIENE 187 



the regeneration" will the marks and scars of the re- 

 formed reprobate be wholly effaced. 



We willingly grant that there have been numerous 

 instances in which noble women have, by years of pa- 

 tient effort, reformed their erring husbands, and re- 

 stored them to the paths of virtue and sobriety from 

 which they had wandered. We do not deny that it can 

 be done again; but we do not hesitate to say that the 

 experiment is a most perilous one for any woman to 

 undertake, and one which not more than one woman 

 in a hundred can bring to a successful termination. 

 The hazard is terrible. Perhaps it is on this very ac- 

 count that many young women run the risk; but they 

 rarely understand what they are doing. The woman 

 who marries a drunkard, will, ten chances to one, die 

 a heart-broken drunkard's wife, or follow her husband 

 to a drunkard's grave. It is never safe for a woman 

 to marry a man who has been for years a habitual 

 drunkard, since he may relapse at any time; and the 

 man who has only indulged moderately, should be thor- 

 oughly reformed and tested before the chances are 

 taken ''for better or for worse." Let him prove him- 

 self well first. A proposition to reform on condition 

 of marriage should be dismissed with disdain. If a 

 young man will not determine to do right because it 

 is right, his motives are sordid; and the probability 

 is very great that as soon as some stronger incentive 

 appeals to his selfishness, he will forget his vows and 

 promises and relapse into his former vices 



