THE SEXUAL INSTINCT ITS USE AND DANGERS AS AFFECTING HEREDITY AND MORALS. ESSENTIALS TO THE WELFARE OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE FUTURE OF THE RACE BY JAMES FOSTER SCOTT B.A. (Yale University), M.D., C.M. (Edinburgh University) LATE OBSTETRICIAN TO COLUMBIA HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN, AND LYING-IN ASYLUM, NEW YORK E. B. TREAT & COMPANY 1899 "If it is possible to perfect mankind, the means of doing so will be found in the medical sciences." DESCARTES. PREFACE. THIS book contains much plain talking, for which I offer no defence. Its justification will be found in the body of the work. To see men give rein to their animal passions, subjecting themselves and others to so many risks of which they are ignorant, is intensely saddening. Jeremy Taylor says: "It is impossible to make people understand their ignorance, for it requires knowledge to perceive it; and, therefore, he that can perceive it hath it not." Readers will pardon me for saying that my object is to make them understand their ignorance -to enable them to perceive it so that they may have it not. The design of this work is to furnish the non-professional man with a sufficiently thorough knowledge of matters pertaining to the sexual sphere-knowledge which he cannot afford to be without. Ever mindful of the saying of Huxley, that "knowledge does not go beyond phenomena," I have endeavored to convey this knowledge in language free as far as possible from technical terms and intelligible to laymen. My endeavor has been to avoid generaliza tion, vagueness and indefiniteness-to truthfully present physical and ethical facts-not evading unpleasant topics, nor yet transgressing the limits of propriety. Science strips all draperies from the objects it examines, and, in the search after truth, sees no indecorum in any earnest line of study, and recognizes no impropriety in looking at objects under an intense light and in good focus. I have conscientiously avoided making any statement of fact which I believe to be debatable, and have formulated nothing which I fear to present to the tests of time or criticism. The future prospects of humanity, of course, rest in the sexual domain of those who are now living, and none will dispute that the degradation of mankind is due more to sexual irregularity than to any other cause. It is commonly said that it is a hopeless task to turn the stream of the sexual activities into orderly channels. So also is it a hopeless task to do away with murder, theft, drunkenness, lying, and other prevalent misdeeds. Evils, however, can be mitigated, if not cured, if we subject them to a philosophical analysis, which may suggest remedies. Civilization has very slowly come to the race; and the tribes, originally barbarous, have required long periods of development for their higher enlightenment. The operation of Natural Law is leisurely, but unerring in its regular correlation of causes with definite effects; thus if the individual maintain himself as a desirable ancestor, the blessings of his selfrestraint will, by the operation of the law of the "survival of the fittest," accrue to his posterity, who tend to increase in the ratio of a geometrical progression, On the other hand, the progeny of the careless and the faulty will surely be affected, physically or psychically, or both. In fairness to myself it must be stated that my knowledge of these subjects has been acquired through legitimate channels. Upon my very entrance into university life my attention was first directed to the subject by an address from the late President Porter of Yale University; then came the experience as a medical student at Edinburgh, Vienna and London; then a residence of two and a half years in a hospital devoted exclusively to obstetrics and the diseases of women, followed by several years more of hospital and private practice. Thus I have learned to appreciate and respect the role of women in nature, and to abhor the ignorance which will permit men to throw aside the elements of their manhood-veracity, cleanliness, health, and fitness for ancestorship. Such men I have seen by hundreds in the venereal wards of hospitals and at large. I have made it a point to discuss the subject-matter of this work with several widely different kinds of advisers-men of science, doctors, ministers, lawyers, and with quite a large number of "men about town." Some of it has also been prudently discussed with women. It is noteworthy that these various classes of counsellors, who surely afford the fairest test, agree with what has been said; and perhaps the most emphatic assent of all comes from men of loose morals—many of whom, I have cause to believe, have, through free discussion upon the various points in this work, been led to abandon illicit indulgence. |