TABOO AND GENETICS 179 



that the father of one child could pass on his 

 characteristics to offspring by other fathers, 

 lingered in biological teaching until the very- 

 recent discoveries of the physical basis of heredity 

 in the chromosomes. Law-making was also 

 influenced by the idea of woman as property. 

 For a long time there was a hesitancy to pro- 

 hibit wife-beating on account of the feeling that 

 the wife was the husband's possession, to be 

 dealt with as he desired. The laws of coverture 

 also perpetuated the old property taboos, and 

 gave to the husband the right to dispose of his 

 wife's property. 



The general attitude towards such sexual 

 crises as menstruation and pregnancy is still 

 strongly reminiscent of the primitive belief 

 that woman is unclean at those times. Mothers 

 still hesitate to enhghten their daughters 

 concerning these natural biological functions, 

 and as a result girls are unconsciously imbued 

 with a feeling of shame concerning them. Modern 

 psychology has given many instances of the 

 rebelHon of girls at the inception of menstruation, 

 for which they have been ill prepared. There 

 is httle doubt that this attitude has wrought 

 untold harm in the case of nervous and dehcately 

 balanced temperaments, and has even been one 

 of the predisposing factors of neurosis. (3). 



The old seclusion and avoidance of the 

 pregnant woman still persists. The embarrass- 



