272 Hitman Physiology. 



proportion of the diseases of women, and their early decay, and of 

 the premature mortality of children, and the habits or vices 

 which injure or destroy them, are caused by the sensuality and 

 ignorant, thoughtless, or much worse than brutal selfishness of 

 men, who stimulate lust by gluttony, and other sensual excite- 

 ments, and then sate it in murder. The civilised world is full 

 of these sins and crimes sins against nature, and crimes against 

 ourselves and our species ; and the recognised teachers of men 

 are often as deeply in fault as the rest. Clergymen wrest the 

 Scriptures to their own destruction, and the destruction of 

 those who rely upon their authority ; and physicians give sen- 

 suality the sanction of pretended science, where the law of God 

 and the law of nature is one of purity, of chastity, of pleasure 

 only in use, and the avoidance of any useless or hurtful sen- 

 sual gratification. 



It has been stated that every faculty of man, and every 

 organ, demands its proper exercise and use. All nerves and 

 muscles subject to the will are strengthened by exercise ; but 

 this law has no application to the nerves and organs of organic 

 life. The heart beats on from birth to death, but it cannot be 

 said to fall under the law of exercise. The liver, kidneys, 

 spleen, &c., perform their natural functions from first to last in 

 their own times and ways, and the only way we can influence 

 them is by keeping ourselves in healthy conditions. Continued 

 use, or exercise, have nothing to do with the production of 

 germs in the ovary, with the phenomena of menstruation, with 

 conception, the nourishment and growth of the foetus, or the 

 secretion of milk for its support. These things are not learned 

 or done better by practice ; nor are the organs and their func- 

 tions strengthened by use, though they are so often weakened 

 by abuse. It is the same with the male as the female. There 

 is no analogy between the strengthening and education of the 

 hands and arms, or the intellectual faculties, by exercise, and 

 the production of the seminal fluid. Every physiologist will 



