A CHAPTER FOR MARRIED PEOPLE 535 



and following verses: 'And it came to pass, when he 

 [Onan] went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled 

 it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his 

 brother. And the thing which he did displeased the 

 Lord; wherefore he slew him.' 



" Hence the name, conjugal Onanism. 



"One cannot tell to what great extent this vice is 

 practiced, except by observing its consequences, even 

 among people who fear to commit the slightest sin, to 

 such a degree is the public conscience perverted upon 

 this point. Still, many husbands know that nature 

 often succeeds in rendering nugatory the most subtle 

 calculations, and reconquers the rights which they have 

 striven to frustrate. No matter; they persevere, none 

 the less, and by the force of habit they poison the most 

 blissful moments of life, with no surety of averting 

 the result that they fear. So, who knows if the infants, 

 too often feeble and weazen, are not the fruit of these 

 in themselves incomplete procreations, and disturbed 

 by preoccupations foreign to the generic act? Is it 

 not reasonable to suppose that the creative power, not 

 meeting in its disturbed functions the conditions nec- 

 essary for the elaboration of a normal product, the 

 conception might be from its origin imperfect, arid the 

 being which t3roceeded therefrom, one of those mon- 

 sters which are described in treatises on teratology?" 



"Let us see, now, what are the consequences to 

 those given to this practice of conjugal Onanism. 



"We have at our disposition numerous facts which 

 rigorously prove the disastrous influence of abnormal 

 coitus to the woman, but we think it useless to publish 

 them. All practitioners have more or less observed 

 them, and it will only be necessary for them to call 

 upon their memories to supply what our silence leaves. 



