PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE 253 



of birth by other than the natural means of fertilisation 

 has run its course in the beliefs and practices of man- 

 kind it will remain embedded in the literature and will 

 lend one more mystic charm to the most exquisite 

 fairy tales of the world. 



It is impossible here exhaustively to discuss the 

 many causes that may have retarded the discovery 

 of the truth concerning the mystery of birth. I have 

 alluded however to one deserving of some further 

 illustration. Pregnancy only results from sexual inter- 

 course by the concurrence of favouring conditions. 

 The nourishment of the parents' bodies, their respec- 

 tive ages and vital energies, the conjunction of the 

 critical moment when the womb becomes specially 

 receptive, and the state of mental emotion which may 

 so operate as to accelerate, or on the other hand may 

 altogether prevent, quickening are among the con- 

 siderations most urgent to be taken into account in 

 estimating the probability of conception. Unless 

 these conditions be favourable pregnancy cannot 

 ensue. This is ground familiar to us and need not be 

 insisted on: But such nice calculations are not 

 familiar to the savage ; and savagery and the lower 

 degrees of civilisation often tend to obscure them. 



In these stages every female is accustomed to 

 sexual intercourse, frequently from a very early age. 

 But every woman does not bear children, and none 

 bear at all times. Where polygyny prevails so many 

 young women are monopolised by the elder or more 

 powerful men that young or uninfluential men have to 

 content themselves with widows or women rejected by 

 their superiors. So, as we have noted in the last 

 chapter, among the Yuin a poor fellow who had no 





