A CHAPTER FOR MARRIED PEOPLE 



IT seems to be a generally prevalent opinion that the 

 marriage ceremony removes all restraint from the 

 exercise of the sexual functions. Few seem to 

 even suspect that the seventh commandment has any 

 bearing upon sexual conduct within the pale of matri- 

 mony. Yet if we may believe the confessions and 

 statements of men and women, legalized prostitution 

 is a more common crime than illicit commerce of the 

 sexes. So common is the popular error upon this sub- 

 ject, and so strongly fortified by prejudice, that it is 

 absolutely dangerous for a writer or speaker to express 

 the truth, if he knows it and has a disposition to do so. 

 Any attempt to call attention to true principles is 

 mocked, decried, stigmatized, and if possible extin- 

 guished. The author is vilified, and his work is de- 

 nounced, and relegated to the ragman. Extremist, 

 fanatic, ascetic, are the mildest terms employed con- 

 cerning him, and he escapes with rare good fortune if 

 his chastity or virility is not assailed. 



We are not going to run any such risks, and so shall 

 not attempt to enunciate or maintain any theory. We 

 shall content ourselves with plainly stating established 

 physiological facts by quotations from standard med- 

 ical authors, leaving each reader to draw conclusions 

 and construct a practical formula for himself. 



Object of the Reproductive Functions.— Man, 

 in whatever condition we find him, is more or less 

 depraved. This is true as well of the most cultivated 



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