536 PLAIN FACTS TOR OLD AND YOUNG 



'However, it is not difficult to conceive,' says Dr. 

 Francis Devay, 'the degree of perturbation that a like 

 practice should exert upon the genital system of woman 

 by provoking desires which are not gratified. A pro- 

 found stimulation is felt through the entire apparatus ; 

 the uterus, Fallopian tubes, and ovaries enter into a 

 state of orgasm, a storm which is not appeased by the 

 natural crisis. It is to this cause, too often repeated, 

 that we should attribute the multiple neuroses, those 

 strange aifections which originate in the genital sys- 

 tem of woman. Our conviction respecting them is 

 based upon a great number of observations. Further- 

 more, the normal relations existing between the mar- 

 ried couple undergo unfortunate changes; this affec- 

 tion, founded upon reciprocal esteem, is little by little 

 effaced by the repetition of an act which pollutes the 

 marriage bed; from thence proceed certain hard feel- 

 ings, certain deep impressions which, gradually grow- 

 ing, eventuate in the scandalous ruptures of which the 

 community rarely know the real motive.' 



"If the good harmony of families and their recip- 

 rocal relations are seriously menaced by the invasion 

 of these detestable practices, the health of women, as 

 we have already intimated, is fearfully injured. A 

 great number of neuralgias appear to us to have no 

 other cause. Many women that we have mterrogated 

 on this matter have fortified this opinion. But that 

 which to us has passed to the condition of incontestable 

 •proof, is the prevalence of uterine troubles, of enerva- 

 tion among the married, hysterical symptoms which 

 are met with in the conjugal relation as often as among 

 young virgins, arising from the vicious habits of the 

 husbands in their conjugal intercourse. . . . Still more, 

 there is a graver affection, which is daily increasing, 



