Human Physiology. 



unnatural practices, closely akin to the solitary vices which are 

 so abhorrent and so destructive ; and there is no doubt that 

 every practice of this kind is a physical injury. We cannot 

 interfere with natural functions with impunity. We can refrain 

 altogether, by mutual agreement, with mutual advantage. 

 Against purity, continence, chastity, the apostle says there 

 is no law. 



But what can be done when lustful men, who care for noth- 

 ing but the gratification of their sensual appetites, compel their 

 wives to submit to their embraces, when they are utterly unfit 

 to bear children, and are so ##-brutal as to make these demands 

 during pregnancy, at the risk of producing abortion, and dur- 

 ing nursing, to the great injury of mother and child ? 



First of all, there should be no such unnatural husbands. But 

 it is hard to say how wives can protect themselves from them, 

 where they exist, any more than they can from being abused or 

 outraged in any way. In such cases, it would seem that the 

 wife ought to have a right to protect herself and her offspring. 

 No man has a right to force a child upon a woman against her 

 wishes : and for every wrong there should be a remedy. Wo- 

 men have a partial remedy against the injuries of compulsory 

 embraces, in the fact that the nervous excitement of the organs 

 is to a considerable extent under the control of the will. 

 Women have the power of refraining from participation in the 

 pleasure, and therefore, to some extent, of avoiding the ex- 

 haustion, of the sexual embrace. The unfortunate women who 

 sell their bodies to gratify the disorderly lusts of men, com- 

 monly yield themselves passively, without pleasure, often with 

 disgust, while they enjoy the embraces of men they love. 



There is some misapprehension as to the requirements of 

 marriage, or what is called the marriage debt, or marital rights, 

 which can be sued for in our courts, and the duties which religious 

 teachers, directors, and confessors enjoin. In the Holy Scrip- 

 tures married partners are exhorted to act justly and charitably 



