194 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



have no hesitancy in neglecting the interests of their 

 children wherever these conflict with their own 

 pleasure. 



The life of a prostitute almost inevitably leads to 

 a progressive spiritual and bodily decline, which is 

 significant to the community wherever the number 

 of such persons is large. The causes of this decline 

 are not elusive but self-evident. Where physical 

 degeneration is not induced by specific infectious 

 diseases, it almost certainly is caused by the nervous 

 exhaustion that attends the excesses that are part 

 of the life of prostitution. For the spiritual degen- 

 eration there is a twofold reason. Prostitution in- 

 volves the systematic perversion of a powerful 

 natural instinct, and thus sets itself in direct an- 

 tagonism to the operation of the forces of nature. 

 Whereas the true object of sexual relations is to pro- 

 duce children, the object of the prostitute is to use 

 every means to circumvent this legitimate end. The 

 final result of this persistence hi an unnatural course 

 is a depressive consciousness of failure, which even 

 those of mediocre intelligence cannot escape. In this 

 respect the degenerating effects of prostitutional 

 misuse of the sex instinct are the same as those of 

 misuse unconnected with prostitution. But a sec- 

 ond powerful element enters into the spiritual 

 breakdown of the prostitute. This is the acceptance 

 of money (or some material equivalent) as a reward 

 or compensation for misuse of a fundamental in- 

 stinct. When dictated by impulse, the misuse of 



