540 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



abominable contrivances so common among those who 

 disregard the laws of nature. "Who will not respect 

 the pnrity which must characterize sexual relations so 

 governed ? 



Moral Bearings of the duestion.— Most of the 

 considerations presented thus far have been of a phys- 

 ical character, though occasional references to the 

 moral aspect of the question have been made. In a 

 certain sense— and a true one— the question is wholly 

 a moral one ; for what moral right have men or women 

 to do that which will injure the integrity of the phys- 

 ical organism given them, and for which they are ac- 

 countable to their Creator! — Surely none; for the man 

 who destroys himself by degrees is no less a murderer 

 than he who cuts his throat or sends a bullet through 

 his brain. The crime is the same, being the shortening 

 of human life, whether the injury is done to one's self 

 or to another. In this matter, there are at least three 

 sufferers; the husband, the wife, and the offspring, 

 though in most cases, doubtless, the husband is the one 

 to whom the sin almost exclusively belongs. 



ITneonsidered Murders.— But there is a more start- 

 ling phase of this moral question. It is not impossible 

 to prove that actual violence is done to a human life. 



It has been previously shown that in the two ele- 

 ments, the ovum of the female and the spermatozoon 

 of the male, are all the elements, in rudimentary form, 

 which go to make up the ''human form divine." 

 Alone, neither of these elements can become anything 

 more than it already is; but the instant they come in 

 contact, fecundation takes place, and the individual life 

 begins. From that moment until maturity is reached, 

 years subsequently, the whole process is only one of 

 development. Nothing absolutely new is added at any 



