. v*;e^ ^ * VrtrV v. 1/2 <&--*»->s-' SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE LIBRARY. Section No. 113, W. U.S. G.O. INNJiX No . !£*£*# **« * PHYSIOLOGICAL l IK Love, Courtship and ^Marriage,,, AN INFALLIBLE GUIDE-BOOK FOR MARRIED AND SINGLE PERSONS, IN MATTERS OF THE UTMOST,IMPORTANCE TO THE HUMAN RACE. BY EUGENE BECKLAKD, M. D. am- Among the things duly considered in this work are matters of serious importance to single and young married persons— The causes of, and cures for Sterility—The art of Beauty and Courtship—The danger of solitary practices, and how the habit may be removed—The causes of Love and Jeal- ousy, with a remedy for eradicating from the system the seeds of a hopeless or an unhappy passion—Offspring, including modes for the propitiation or prevention thereof— Tests for knowing the sexes of unborn children—Intermar- riage—Persons who ought and who ought not to marry— The most auspicious season for wedlock, &c. &c Translated from the Third Paris Edition, by PHILLIP M. HOWARD, M. D. NEW YORK. ^~~~ X<^--D1€ 1842. ■ "\\^ ^ 3 / PREFACE. I have but few prefatory remarks to offer. In the body of the work must be looked for the elucidation of its- arguments ; and I leave it to stand or fall by its own merits. It may be as well to remark, however, for the in.br.nation of persons re- siding out of Paris, that I can scarcely be called an officious or upstart medler in the mysteries of physiology, inasmuch as I have studied it with unremitting attention for nearly tjijrty years, and have written several works upon it, both anony- inouslyjand under my own name, whir1; have received general favor with 'the public. 1\iy piactice vn the Iving-in-hospital too, has also given me facilities of inn;: •.v.ution in certain func- ions and mysteries, not enjoyed by many who have written on subjects which may be found amply discussed in the fol- lowing pages. With no desire to obtain for myself the char- acter of an innovator, I have thrown over-board many theories which have been received as axioms among medical men of limited practice, or els6 those who preferred to take their authories on trust, to the labor of giving them their own serious consideration; but I have done so in no instance on my individual responsibility; but on fact after fact, case after case, and experiment after experiment, all submitted to the opinions of the first physicians in France ; amongst whom 1 may mention Drs. Guerin, Velpeau, Du Bois, and the venera- ble Baron Larrey. As this book was written rather more for the informa- tion of the public, than the faculty, I have adopted a popular and familiar style, and omitted medical terms when ever I could hit on substitutes which woul 1 explain the meaning without mystification. I have also been careful to exclude all objectionable words, which, owing to the nature of the work, 1 found a matter of no little difficulty. Still I so far attained my object, that, if I have erred at all in the premises, it has been on the side of delicacy; for my principal aim was to produce a volume on the subject discussed, which—though amply explicit in all its relations—the most fastidious persons might admit into their families for promiscuous reading; and I flatter myself that I have succeeded. This is so important a feature of my book and* calculated to effect so much good in society, that I must impress it on the reader's attention. I maintain that the following pages should be perused, not only by every addult, but also by every child over ten years old, especially if they are residents of populous places, where habits are contracted which frequently make life miserable; and where the sexes should be brought to know, by. such rules as may be laid down on the subject, who to shun in their matrimonial engagements;—that is :. which par- ties are physically and mentally constructed to make each other happy in domestic life. Many parents, from feelings of false modesty, may perhaps endeavor—while they themselves profit by this volume—to keep their children in ignorance of the important lessons it teaches. But is this right and parental ? Nay is it not rather injustice and cruelty to deprive them of a knowledge, the want of which may involve them in unhappy marriages, or leave them the victims of habits—(about whose evil effects they have never formed an indea,) which may terminate in con- sumption, imbecility, and even madness ? Yea, it is not too much to say, that there are hundreds of imbeciles and maniacs in this single city, and in every large city, who, had the sub- ject matter herein discussed been made known to them in the days of their youth, would have been now healthy and reasonable creatures. Hereafter, should insanity, idiotcy, or imbecility be produced by ignorance, the parents of the suf- ferers cannot be held blameless, as the means of prevention is herein laid before them. How strange the reason that would prefer a distroying ignorance, to a saving knowledge, and call it morality! The principal authorities I have consulted in preparing this volume are my own experience, and the verbally expressed opinions of many practical members of the faculty, for whose \ valuable assistance and information I hereby return my most cordial thanks. I am also indebted for casual hints to the writing of Aunter, Blumenback, Swammerdam, Dubois, Goad, Buffon, and others, but in cases where there was a point at issue between us, I trusted more to my own experience than to their theories. But taking in view the sentence I com- menced with, I have written too long a preface, and I shall at once close it, with a highly relevant motto from Virgil, to wit: "Addeo in teneria cowuearere multum est." DEDICATION To Mt Jules Gutrin, Professor in the Hospital of Invalids. But from the long and well established friendship which subsists between us, I should hesitate to dedicate this work to you lest it should be supposed that I did it less out respect to you than for the sake of the advantage to be gained through connecting it in any way with so distinguished a name. And yet I cannot think of any one to whom it could be so appro- priately dedicated; as, more than any physician in France, you have made the most important subjects it treats of, the study of poor life, and have acquired, in connection with them, the brilliant reputation which you so universally enjoy, and so well deserve. You will see throughout the work that I have profited largely from conversations held with you, at various times, on physiological and other matters: and that I have not forgotten your advice regarding the mysteries of love, jealousy, and reproduction. EUGENE BECKLARD. , October, 1841. TRASLATOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. Dr. Becklard, the erudite author of this deeply interesting, novel, and all important work, is one of the most eminent physicians of France, and probably the most distinguished physiologist of the age; and in the present—his last, and master production—he has laid the human family under obli- gations to him which will not be soon or easily forgotten. If popularity be the chief test of merit, this little volume is almost without a rival: the avidity with whicn it has been circulated throughout the civilized world, being perhaps unprecedented in the annals of literature. For instance: scarcely six months have elapsed since its first appearance in Paris, and yet it has been translated into no less than four janguages ; and was, by the last accounts, being traduced into the Russian, by order of the Autocrat; which is a singularly peculiar honor; and one that is never accorded by that mon- arch to any foreign book—especially a French one—unless from a full conviction of its rare and surpassing excellence. I esteem myself extremely fortunate in being the first—at least on this side of the Atlantic—to give an English version of such an important work; and I have only to add that it has been done with the most scrupulous regard to the authors's text. PHILIP M. HOWARD. BECKLARD'S PHYSIOLOGY. CHAPTER 1. Must man be born of a woman ? According to adiastus and others he neednot. A drastus con- tends that every living species the world contains has been from all eternity; and hence, thatthe time has never been when there was no man or woman; so that, according to his system, the human race cannot be the offspring of one general mother.— And he further insists thst the meanest reptile that ciawls, is the xepresentative of an equally everlasting line of ancestry.— The last assumption, hoVever has been set at nought by ex- periments in modein chemistry, though without showing the necessity of original parents; for they not only argue thut liv- ing animals of perfectly brigininal constmction may be produ- ced at pleasure, and independent of the usual mode of genera- tion; but they have actually so produced them. This I know, has been stoutly denied by men of powerful authority on such a subject, They contend that the animalcu- lae seen in such cases, and supposed to be then created—if I may be allowed the expression—were in a state of torpid and impalpable existence before ; and were merely roused into ac- tion by the galvanic shock; but they argue in the face of the fact, for animal life has been produced by foreign means, in a situation which rendered it impossible that it could have had a previous existeuce in any form. 8 4 For instanoc, DeBarre, Beckwith, aud others, melted flint by a powerful chemical process, and immediately as it cooled, before any iusect had time to deposite its eggs in it, brought their battery to bear on the inanimate dust, and possessed mil- lions of the particles with a sentient and busy organic life! And further, to show that those substances were perfect ani- mals, Professor Beckwith placed some of them iu a glass box, where he fed them on dust from their parent flint; and, as he anticipated, soon discovered that they were capable of repro- dncing their kind, in a manner more agreeable to the eomraon laws of nature, than that of their own biith. These animals had a family resemblance, but no affinity in form with any of the insects of Linaeus. Nor is this altogether a new discovery, for the ancients also claimed to be manufacturers of animals ; an assumption for which there is some bible authoriry, vide the. plagues of Egypt, as recorded in Genesis. But though insects have originated by a process so unnatu- ral, can it be so with the human race ? A sect of the learned Buddites answer in the affirmative, and point to themselves as beings who were produced by artificial means. And there is a school of philosophers in China, who are said to hold the same opinions. Many of the ancient sages had equally curious, but more plausible notions of the origin of man. Pysastras contended that in the beginning he grew upon i. tree—Michas that he is merely a cultivated insect, whom the gods brought to his pres- ent size and state of perfection by ages of care, just as garden- ers, by good management, produce the finest apples from the pits of the veriest crabs ; and in answer to the question, where did the original insect come from 1 Michas teUs us : that atoms or rather monads prevaded space, and are from all time; that every monad is a principle of life, and that from them all things, but the gods, are derived. Thus he maintains that in- animate objects, such as rocks and trees are composed of mat- ter rife with a dormant living principle : and indeed, certain modern naturalists go father in respect of the vegetable king- dom, and assume that all plants and trees feel their existence, and have sensations of pain and joy ; and that the pollen, or • fecundating dust of the male, causes the female to thrill with pleasing emotions, and to become feelingly fruitful. A Span- ish writer, whose name I forget, affirmed that he felt pulsa- 0 ticn in a lime tree ; and Wordsworth, the English poet, beau- fitully szys; * 'Tis my belief that even- flower E'ljoys the airat breathes,' which is so poetical a faith that I am Jiulfa convert to it; but still, while it is■ sulliciently demonstrated that tyhnli'or trees cannot have iisue but through c^rrinuin'ication of the sexes^ I am not prepared to a:lmit that they-.&!'their, being in such a degree as to be sensible/of the ' emotions- of. love. '' The theory of Epicurus, of.the oVigin of the human-race, ia at least a3 natural as either of -the foregoin;;-. , lie sa'vs, that men were first produced from the ground like, grub* or mush- rooms. Thg/piimifive eartlv, he believed to have been faj; ami nitrous, and that the m's beat covered it with tumors or ha- ters,'which Lurst on- maturity, suffering" little, animals of the tadpole formation, which had been generated inside to.escape like chickens from eggshells. And these animal*, he tells us, gradually developed themselves, and became human beings; and finally, that when the earth-Ieft-off bearing children to the sun, they were gifted with the organs necessary for reproduc- tion, but by what medium he does not inform us, further than that it was not through the agency of the gods ; for he would not admit that these beings ever descended ■ to interfere in the matters and things of this world. And these, or Nuchas these, ar6 the only effective arguments that have been, or probably can be adduced against the primi- tive history of the tollman race as written hv Moses- Conse- quently I make light of them, and am persuided that from Adam downwards, all men- have been, and must be born of woman. This preliminary chapter bears a negative relationship to much of the subsequent matter cf this work ; but it was prin- cipally written to correct 'a*notion which seems to prevail in community, that J am a convert to the (to mebbxoxious) doc- trines of Madame George Sand. CHAPTER IL Causes of, and cures for Sterility. 11 Be ye fruitful and multiply" is a commandment which ihould be cheerfully obeyed by the children of men ; and in fact, it would seem to be the principal end, if not the only one, of man's earthly existence; and so imperative is the voice of nature in the matter, that the universal mind of the* human race is more concentrated on the feeling that leads to the consumation desired, than on all the other attributes of be- ing put together. No two men are exactly agreed on any other subject; no two differ on this. The ambitious, the humble, the fierce, the gentle, the high, the low, the barbarous and the cultivated; however -widely opposed may be their general natures, are uuited in the desire which finds its accom- plishment in the reproduction of their kind. Wherein lies the mistery of this 1 Setting revelation aside, it seems natural to suppose that it may be to the end of sup- plying other worlds with spiritual iuhabitants, there to carry out some great and manifest object of their creation in this ; for it is but reasonable to judge that nothing has been made in vain; whereas, were to be born and die the only result of our being, the human race were a vanity,—nay a very cru- elty and a curse,—for matter would progress as well through the realms of spare without it, so that the cares, pains, and vexatious incident on man's existence might be dispensed with ; yea, and would be dispensed with, (tor the power that created him is as merciful as almighty) were there no higher service required of him than to flatter himself with hope*,— 11 which ar« as natural to him as the air ho breathes—that Were never to be realised, and to grovel in the dust with whichf'he has such little sympathy. All living things on mis planet are apparently in their proper sphere of action, but man; they require nothing artificial to reconcile themselves to it; nature supplies them with all they want; and their instinct—so much more perfect in a limited sense than reason—guides them to it. Hence they are happy, and in their proper home. But man is naked here, and at enmity with the sphere he moves in,— he is less perfect as to his wants and means of supplying them, than the meanest animal that crawls ; his faculties are unsuit- ed for his present conditons ; and he is forever spurning tha present, and anchoring his hopes on the future, and in a sphere of existence more suitable to his ideas, which surely would not happen were the earth our proper parent; for in that case it were natural that we should cling to her with an immortal fondness, nor yearn to be seperated from her in life, nor yet in death. Yes, though she gives him his body, she is not the mother of the mind of man ; for she does not, nor cannot sup- ply it with the high nourishment which it requires. And these things duly considered, and taken in connection with its mysterious aspirations, are, it seems to me, an infalliable ar- gument for the immortality or the soul; and to pursue the ide3 farther, it strikes me, that the earth may be the nursery of the solar system, and that souls proceed from one planet to another until they finally arrive at the sun, there to perceive the utility of their being and glory in a world without a grave. Thus every snn would.be the heaven of its own system—the realiza- tion of the spirit's hopes. And may not this be the secret of their stupendous attraction? But whether the intention is, or is not, to supply heavenly worlds with inhabitants, there is nothing more certain than that it is one of the first duties of the human race to increase and multiply; and the man who leaves the world without having obeyed the injunction, can scarcely be said to have ful- filled the great end of his existence. " But" perhaps replies the reader, " many men are so con- stituted that they cannot have offspring." This I deny, for all men who are not evidently of monstrous confeimation, or who have not been seriously injured by artificial means, are equal to the task of reproduction ; indeed, without the parts and means necesaary to reproduction, he would scarcely exist 12 ivere aver at all; and would be no more a human being than if he w defjJfont of heart and brain -. fhich things, tlicy tell us, h„. bfeen; but Ihave never seen any proof of it; and I believe it wfflbe concerted torn?, that I have had r.s mrrh anatomical expc;'—.r^ • i :my n-.: : :.i Trance. I arn also conrinced tint there h no yuch thiigg as.natural.har'r^eps in natural women, rmd that-the caueos which r-.i-esupoosed to render women so^ can, in ninety-nine rises,'mil of a hundred''be rembvt'd, However, it'eaonot be denied that-a va,M mimber of married perse r.s are niiblcssdd vvi'h.oflVpwn^/vvh'esc exertions ato un- doubted! and, who would gdve uu.ch that it were otherwise ; and for the bene fit of such this 'chapter was principally written! The cnuscs of unfrmtftil marriages lire numerous. Ode is the mutual coldness of die parlies; another.the mutual inten- sity of their desire?; a third their unfitness, in conspquence of the difference of their physical construction, for sexual in- tercourse: besides which-may be.mentioned leucorrlnr, dis- gust, timmidrty, irregular menstruation, great fewness of'spir- it:, extreme indulgence, &c. Also, the obliteration of the v-inal canal or absence of the ovaries-or uterine tube in the .emale ; bat these- latter are of such rare occurrence, that the parlies ?.* affiictal may be put down 3* vagaries of human na- ture, and therefore monsters; and. women so situated, if they know their afflictions, areAaltogether unfit for the duties of married life ; and are .guilty of a serious offence in smu^lm* themselves within its pale. However, one female in every million is not.thus circumstanced, and consequently not one out of every million is of necessity barren. I said unfitness for irfercmrse iionc cause of unfrtritfulness. Itis, hovyev.r, ar^-e pne; for young married persons, pro- bably hesitation in adding that the False modesty which interdicts itv is the medium of much un- happiness to married people. However, in another part of this vvo-k, relative to the mode of choosing a partner, I have laid down such rules, as, I think, may prevent, people Irjm marrying blindfold. But still I could wish tovsee common sense taking the place of a mock delicacy in this matter; and that it were permitted us to be as particular concerning, the choice of a bosom' partner, in a thing of so much importance, as we may be in the cheice of a horse ! A couple/of full habits, and strong amorous propensities, v.-ill not be likely to have children; and much toa, to their own surprise, as they emcievv that they are especially qualified to bring about a different result. They little dream that haste h not speed in this matter*; and that a slower pace would b« 14 readier means of getting to the end of their journey ! In oth- er words, there is too much intensity in tlieir devotions, for what they produce, they destroy ! Time, however, by qual- ifying their ardor, usually remedies the defect; but should it fail to do so, the necessary moderation may be produced by a light vegetable diet, cooling medicine, and occasional trips to- the sea shore—for the sea air, I suspect, has but little effect in the way desired, upon those who reside constantly within its- influence. Again, conjugal enjoyment on the part of the fa male, should be followed by repose, as but very little motion, or agitation, in persons of warm temperaments, is sufficient to arrest the ovulum on its way to the place assigned it. And futhermore, when it supposed that conception may have taken place, the parties would do well—at least for a month or so— to put a bridle on their desires ; for the spasmodic agitation, consequent on the embrace of a very amarous couple, is cal- culated to disturb the embryo in its earlier state of existence, and hence to occasion abortions or miscarriage. But, says several great authorities, among whom may be found Baillie, Swammerdam, Larry, and the venerable Dubois, "the greit and leading causes of sterility is weakness or de- bilitation on the part of the male or female, or both ; " " and'" adds th*e last, if this matter were duly attended to, nine-tenths of the people who are now pining for heirs, might be blessed with numerous progenies. This weakness or debiliation may be in some instances nat- ural, but it is generally an artificial result, produced by severe labor, libertinism, long residence in an unhealthy climate, se- cret habits, mostly acquired at school and other causes. This is the case when the man is in fault; and to the same causes, or nearly such, may be attributed the deficiency of the other sex. Immoderate love of dancing and tight lacing may also produce an artificial sterility in woryen, by causing a looseness and lassitude of system, the consequence of which is an ina- bility to respond to the action of the nude by the sympathetic pressure, which is no doubt, necessary for the conveyance of the ovulum to the chamber prepared for its reception and nourishment. I shall now proceed to give such instructions in the premi- ses, as I know from most ample experience on my own part, and also from the experience of several most eminent accouch- trs and others; must be of the utmost value and importance 13 u that order of married people who irs most interestad in the subject in hand. Defoliation in man—for absolute impotency is a thing of such rarity, as to be almost out of the question—is mostly ow. ing to derangement of that part of the system connected with the functions of generation. The result of this, as a great writer affirms, is, that the semen is not of a teeming and busy nature, and likewise that it is not imparted with a force suffi- cient, at the site of fecundation. Hence a stimulant is necessery; but it is also requisite that this stimulant should strengthen without much exciting, or the latter evil only, will be corrected , that is, the requisite force will be obtained, but not the nourishment required by the re- productive principle. Indeed it is known, that drugs of merely exciting qualities rather impoverish this principle than other- wise ; which accounts for the disrepute into which Spanish flies, tincture of lytlae, and essence of majorum and arrowroot have fallen of late years. Syrup of pine apples and port wine, mush-rooms roasted, and steeped in sallad oil, or borax are better; but in these, neither the excitement or the nourish- ment is sufficient. And indeed, I know of none of the older remedies that combine the requisite qualities in a degree, to warrant me in saying, that they may be depended on with much confidence. Consequently the subject has occupied the minds of the most eminent of the medical faculty, at least from the days of /Etius, who, about the year 495, wrote a large volume on the subject, in which he stated that the Ancients, were no doubt in possession of a preparation adequate to the removal of ste- rility ; but that it has been lost for several ages. Hermais was the next writer of authority who went into the matter largely; and be was followed by Khildoff, Heraldus, Bliss, Ludwig, and others. And again in the year 1682, Renaud published his "theory on the mysteries of fecundation," in which he contended that he had discovered the anxiously sought desi- deratum ; but it does not appear that he made any use of it in his own practice, or that he divulged the secret to others. And so things remained until the appearance of Verray's Tincture, which is doubtless a compound of much merit, but which was soon destined to be thrown in the shade by the discovery by Dr. Magnia, of his far famed Lucina Cordial* that leaves nothing to be wished for in the premises, but is so 10 admirably adapted to the use intended, that it not only excites and nourishes to an equal device, but it is followed by no re- action, vhic.h is the consequence of all other artificial stimu- lants. I have t alt en ■•'great pains to analyze this most excellent prep- aration, but withoiit. being able t^arrive at a knowlenge of r 11 its component parts. I .■"should, judge, however, by various experiments, that its invigorating, and enriching qualities are as six to one in comparison vviih eggs, and as nine to two with oyster-, while if begets a Strength to eject the fecunda- ting principle fully equal 'to lh at of Hatteys decoction, and" consequently superior to.thator aiiyroth( r nostrum with which the, modern ages have J-een acquainted, (.'old and impover- ished must be that nature which cannot be wanned by it into the glow-end ability necessary to fruitfulr.css.; and there is but little hopes of the fertility of the nuptial couch which iemaia unblessed under its auspices. Within the range of my own practice, I could cite at leas one hundred cases, in which the. Lucina.Cordial has been ad- ministered with the most eminent success, and a number of my medical friends bear equally decisive evidence toils worth; and I <■: n now add, with another vv.'.# r on the subject, that 4« a great many'of my fait'patients arc now in a fair W3y to add funher testimony in the establishment of its reputation." Many cunpus,-,and interesting stories, are told of the effect of this cordial; such as the disappointment of family expecta- tions by the appearance of unexpected.heirs, and so forth; but they arc of a nature too delicate for admission here ; the more so as I wish to make my book as grave and unexciting as the nature of such a work will allow ; but one anecdote,- which I cony from an erudite cotemporary, is too good to be omitt d. After "giving many instances pi the potency of the cordial, he says, "lv.es applied to by an Irish gentleman and lady, bc'i of very* cold natures, who were blessed with offspring after the mutual use-of five bottles. And by the v.t.y, I can tell a laughable anecdote iu connection with this etise. The gentleman and lady alluded, to, shortly r forwards returned to Ireland, having in their possession several u..opened bottles of' the' cordial. In the neighborhood of tlieir residence there. dwelt a farmer's wife who wps anxious for children, but could not succeed in the great end of her desires ; and was, there- fore, accounted barren, and pronounced so by her attendant 17 physician. This person vvas once lamenting her situation to my patient's nurse, when the latter (a shrewd woman by the way,) immediately proposed to remove the difficulty for acer- tain compensation, a part to be paid in advance, and the re- mainder when appearances made suceess evident. The bar- gain vvas immediately struck, and a few months afterwards the farmer's wife was in an interesting situation, she having reciev- ed from the nurse two bottles of Lucina Cordial, which the latter had obtained from her mistress. The farmer's wife not- withstanding, refused to pay the balance of her agreement, and vvas immediately summoned for the amount before a mag- istrate ; who, upon a full statement of all the facts, before a crowded court, allowed the amount of the claim ; which vvas paid accordingly. These particulars were furnished me by the girl's master ; who added that the defandan? finally admit- ted the potency of the cordial, but thought she had paid enough (five pounds) for the child." This mixture is also unrivalled as a remedy in leuchorrsea, flour albus, and, in fact, nearly all diseeses occasioned by the weaknesses which are incident to particular functions. While on this subject, I will mention a list of other reme- dies said to contain fertilizing virtues ; but as I am inclined to think, rather on the authority of popular opinion, than on the test of actual experience. They are water-cresses, duckweed, carrots, dandelions, artichokes, figs, potatoes, shell-fish, peach- es, hemp-seed, eggs, oysters, calves' feet jelly, &c, all of which are no donbt, incentives to amarous propensities; but, as I indicated, I have no faith tnat their influence extends any farther. Again, the females of some countries, says Ludvvig, swallow spiders, flies, ants, crickets, and even frogs, 10 pro- mote fecundation; and in Spain they sip dew from the olive leaf for the same purpose. Certain political economises, who have been so eloquent on the evil results to be expected from the—to them—alarming increase of population, may find fault with me for being so ex- plicit in this matter ; but notwithstanding, I think that society in geueral will hold me excused for the writing of the current chapter, and a large portion of it, regard me as a friend and true benefactor ; moreover, 1 am confident with Leisfranc, Roux, aud many who have adopted the same sentiment, and in the same language, that when children are wished for, they are necessary'.' And when they are not, the advice here given will not be followed, and consequently can do no harm. IB The following hints may be of importance. Morning is undoubtedly the most auspicious to generation1. More children are born in the spring of the year, than at other seasons, which is a proof against the popular opinion that " spring is the season most fertile of fruitful embraces." Wihen a female with a low womb, is married to a very masculine man, they must correct the difficulty by a means that may seem obvious, or they probably will have no off- spring ; for if the seed is planted beyond the soil designed for it, how can it bear fruit? When the case is directly other- wise, a stimulant might be necessary to prevent it from falling short. It is a popular error that there is a mode by which male < female offspring may be produced at will. No consequence whose theory of reproduction is correct, they are agreed upon certain points, which shews this to be impossible. There are tolerably conclusive rules, however, for telling the sexes of children before they are born ; and were I to be guided entirely by the testimony of my own experience, I should say that these rules were infalliable. Ladies experience more sickness with boys than with girls, probably because they are generally larger and more lively. Their foreign appetites are also of a stronger, belter defined, and more natnral character. For in- stance, with the one they will long for meat, spirituous liquors, &c; with the other, for chalk, isinglass, and various substan- ces, which wonld be quite repugnant to her at other times. Again roundness ef form promises a boy, whereas, when the tendency is nearly all to the front, and the hips and1 back give but little evidences of the lady's situation, the great probability is that the little stranger is a girl. At all events, these indica- tions never deeieved me. OH women say. that boys lean to the right side and girls to the left; also, that boys improve the beauty of the mother's counteuance,- while girls detract from it; notwithstanding the latter cause them the least sick- ness. But these signs I hold to be mere tables, as I never could see their philosopy established. On the whole, when a lady in the family way is prone to sickness in the morning, longs for food of an invigorating quality—and carries her in; crease of form rather allround her, than in any particular place, the chances are altogether in favor of a boy—perhaps, indeed, imperitively fo ; whereas, if her symptoms are otherwise, and as described above, she will in all probability bet/delivered of a 19 girl. I claim lo be original in these discoveries, as I am not aware that any other physician has studied or written on the subject. When stimulants are considered necessary to aid in repro- duction, they should not be used carelessly, but should be assisted by diet, lepose, airy location, &c, or the advantage derived from the nostrum may be rendered nugatory. At such times, cheerfulness is a great auxiliary, and all undue excite- ments,! or troubles from pecuniary or other embarassments are to be avoided. Also, amorous intercourse should be but sparingly indulged in. And nothing further need be said on the main subject of this chapter, for it covers the whole ground of the question at issue, and if its contents are abided by, can scarcely fail of being of advantage to those persons whose condition it discusses, and for whose guidance and benefit it was especially writteni CHAPTER III. On the Prevention of Offspring. While all must admit that the reproduction of our kind is the evident intention of the sympathy of the sexes for each other, it is equally certain, that there are numerous cases in all countries, wherein such a consumiation were better avoided. For example ; indigent people cannot be very anxious for numerous otl'spring to rear up in poverty ; very fruitful females must find it very unpleasant to be nearly always in a state of pregnancy ; and it is not lo be supposed that married persons, who are afflicted with hereditary disea- ses, can derive happiness from bringing into the world beings, whose existence may, in all probability, be a bur- den to them. Again, many females are so constructed as only to be able to give life to others at the sacrifice, or at least the imminent risk of their own. And furthermore, it fre- quently happens that yourg unmarried females, in a mo- ment of excitement, fall into errors, from the consequence of which they m/ght probably recover, were a lawful, and crimeless mode left open to them for avoiding the ban of the public, and burying their shame in their own bosoms. I am aware that in the latter ease there is one objec- ion—that by removing the chances of detection, we may end to promote the commission of criirfe^ But even 21 of improvement! Carrying this principle out would upset all the artificial machinery in the world—give 1 nstinct d preference over reason—and drive the whole human fam- ily to the woods for food and protection. The march of events, however, proves that the great architect intended that man should make use of his reasoning and inventive powers for the improvement of his station, and he who would oppose this axiom, must base his theory upon the presumption that reason is a vanity in man, and has been bestowed upon him as a curse, inasmuch as it moves him to the commission of things, which,— if viewed through that medium—it wonld be a sin to commit. But the ve y command of the Creator himself would upset this shallow hypothesis; for has he not expressly ordeied "that tem- ples should be built in his honor and glory." For myself I love children—but would certainly rather not see them at all, than see them crowding into the world to contend with incurable diseases, or against the horrors of poverty and semi-famine, which is the fate of at least a third of the offspring of the lower orders, even in the proud city of Paris. And from all we can learn, the chil- dren of the poor in English cities are yet more uofo u- nate ; for there they are not only half starved, but workted in factories fourteen and sixteen hours a day, like mill horses, and often brutally whipped for the nonfulfilmentof tasks, which through sheer bodily debiliation the little sufferers are unable to perform. Political economists who are tinctured with the absurd notions of Martin, Liceto, Stultz, Louis, Malthus, and many others, who wrote so much to prove they knew so little, may suggest that there is a way of correcting the evil better than the one I proposed ;—that is, by laying a heavy tax upon marriage, which would amount to about the same thing as brohibiting it altogether among the ma- jority. But would this have the desired effect ?—Non- sense!—Nature would laugh at such laws ; and the result would be, that there would be no virtue—so to speak— among the poor; while we would have as many children as ever, and fewer people to take care of them. Besides, 00 the rabid advice of these dreamers dare not bo broached, much less acted upon, by the legislators of any country, claiming the slightest knowledge of civilization. Hence, as people under all circumstances, whether they are poor, or afflicted with diseases, or so organized as to risk life in reproduction, will get married, 1 feel that I am doing a good thing for the public, in showing how nature may be allowed the free exercise of he» rights without being productive of the evil complained of. Two other here, the moral view of the case is in my favor, for if in some instances I may remove a barrier from the consum- mation of forbidden pleasures, to compensate for the evil, I may say that 1 abolish the crime of infanticide altogeth- er ; and also check tae growth of another crying evil in this, and the majority of large communities—namely, the increase of illegitimate children. '•It may, says a celebrated writer on population, " be urged, thnt to prevent pregnancy is an act in opposition to the rule of the Creator ; but this charge is easily set aside, or else we must take it for granted that every hu- man discovery and invention that has been made, were so many sins against heaven. The creator in the begining, left man in a state of nature, without anything, the gift of reason excepted, to conduce to his comforts, more than the beasts of the field. If, therefore, the principles of those who may censure my theory are correct, the very building of houses must be considered a crime,—yea, and a very great crime too, as it is a primeval ane, and hence, relatively speaking, oue of the causes of all the other sins medical writers have treated of this subject, but owino- perhaps to its delicacy, or their own want of experience, have not gone into it with sufficient peropicuity or fulness. I will endeavor to do both, and in language which can give no offence to the most fastidious. Any exercise calculated to disturp the embryo within twenty four hours after inception, may be sufficient to prevent offspring. Dancing about the room, before re- pose for a few minutes, might probably have that effect. i 23 But trotting a horse briskly over a rough road on the following day, would insure it. The cause of this is sim- ple. It merely extends to the agitation of the ovum, be- fore it has duly secured a place in the chamber provided by nature for its reception. If, besides dancing, an emission could be effected through the uterine canal, the ovum could not well escape destruction. At all events, the chances are so small, that ladies adopting these precautions mu>t necessarily have small families. If they fail once in every five years, it will be a matter rather to be wondered "at, than other- wise. All attitudes of enjoyment but the natural one, are in- imical to fertility. However, they are not to be depen- ded on ; and besides-, it has been contended that they are frequently the means of monstrous conceptions. Strong cathartics would be likely so to agitat", as to disloJge the embryo, even a month after the intercourse. It might, however, only injure it, so that it is a rather hazardous experiment. Swammering says, that it is one of the causes of malformations. For an obvious reason too, all stimulants that pass off freely are anti-reproductionists. Hence, victuals that promote thirst, combined with excitement and exercise, are great enemies to generation. Dr. Foshay knew a gentleman who discovered, after marriage, that his wife had a disposition tending to insanity. Not caring to have offspring thus afflicted, when occasion required, he used to dance with her, and make her eat salt viands} and they never had any children. And I have, in my practice, recommended the same course of conduct with much suc- cess. If the conjugatact were not carried to the ultimatum, but by p great mental effort terminated before, the prob- abilities would be a thousand to one against children— Such a system, however, requires too much presence of mind, and self sacrifice, to be generally followed. The sea air assists fecundation. On the contrary, ba- thing in salt a : U-r, or any other water, soon after coition,. miliatcs against it. '.M A fine sponge of an inch and a half or so—according to circumstances—in diameter, and fastened to a silk siring by which to withdraw it, by absording the genera- tin^ fluid, would effect, ally prevent a certain result. An oiled silk covering worn by the male, and sold at most of the toy shops of this city (Pan's,) would necessa- rily have the same result. This plan may be implicitly relied on. Food, made stimulating by spices—is, though exciting, extremely innutritious, and therefore promotive of ste- rility. Water, if warm, so much the better—used with a syr- inge, soon after the act, is almost certain to secure the end desired—one or two drops of vitriol in the water, would make this system infallible—three or four syringe- fu!s used energetically will be a sufficient guarantee from danger; nay, even to procuie ahactus (artificial abor- tioi) during the first two months. The latter, however, I hold to be a speeies of infanticide; and moreover, it must be attended with danger to the patient's health. There is a tree called by the learned the Vitex agmis castus—by the vulgar the Chaste Tree, the seeds vvere- of, make an excellent amphrodisiac, and were formerly much used fijr that purpose. It being discovered, how- ever, that they sometimes had a precisely opposite effect, they got into disrepute ; it not being then understood that the very qualities which reduced some natures below moderation, were the precise mediums to tone others— othetwise to ardent—to their proper temper, for certain demonstrations. For instance, a couple of immoderately warm desires are not apt to have children. Hence, to such the seeds of the Chaste tree would bean invaluable corrective, if they were desicous of offspring. Malformation in the female, or diseases which produce certain effect*, such for instance as the contraction of the vagina, cohesion of its sides, citracis occasioned by ulcer- ation, fluor albus, and so forth, unless carefully attended to, will protract fecundation, and may even prevent it altogether. The vagina, it may be well to state, is the 25 canal which leads from the externat orifice of the female pudendum to the uteris, and is endowed in a certain de- gree with contractive and expanding powers- At times, however, as I have indicated, it is not possessed of these powers, but remains nearly close and rigid, and hence incapable of action', until remedies have been applied. These remedies are varions. The usual ones are emolli- ent applications, and todillute it to the proper size with a sponge, or else by bungies—thin long instruments with or without caustic according to circumstances—which are to be changed from time to time, still a larger succeeaing a smaller bungie, until the orifice has been sufficiently ex- tended. Elastic gum is the best thing that these in- stiuments can be made of, but wax ones are in gen- eral use. When caustic is used, it is formed in a thin roll in the middle, lo the end of dettroying the stricture, or any part with which it comes in contact. Females under treatment for contractions, would do well to live seperhte frm their husbands fer some time, or both may be injured Should emollients- the bungie—and such methods fail the lancet will have to be resorted to, which is a certain alternative. The other means, however, are preferrable, and with patience are certain of success. On the contra- ry, when the orifice is too open, and the contractive pow- er deficient, stimulants are the best remedy, whether the object is to produce pleasure, negatived by the supineness of the vagina, or to propitiate offspring ; for the process of impregnation is as follows—(at least it Is the most proba- ble one, for there is still some mystery about it)—the ute- rus or womb opening during the act, draws in the semen by aspiration,and directs it to the ovarium^ by means of the Fallopian tubes, the extremeties of which closely em- braces that organ. Thus, unless the female vagina is in a busy, active state, there is but little apprehension of offspring. Let me add that this supinness, even in the most healthy females, is a sure attendant of disgust or ab- horrence ; therefore, I have no faith in the stories of women who are said to have born children in consequence of rape or violation. Indeed, the thing is impossible, unless 26 the parties are agreed, for the muscular effort, to the ac- tion of which the uteras responds, is voluntary on the part of the female, and is only called in play in moments of enjoyment. What then follows 1 Why that if pregnan- cy ensues after a rape, the act was not without pleasure to the victim, which is an idea that s ems difficult of ad- mission. But I am getting rather away from the main subject of this chapter. It is the proposal of plans for the preven- tion of offspring, and I have submitted to the reader all that I ever knew to be efficacious. The reader, I trust, will do me the justice to say that I have treated the subject matter of this chapter as deli- cately as it could possibly be handled, yet without in any way mystifying the meaning intended to be conveyed. A few of the remedies set forth in it have been practised by others, but many of them, and especially those for dej stroying the embryo by the promotion of thirst, or by ba- thing, which are the simplest of alll, and about as efhxa cious as any, were- discovered by myself, and this is the first time I have made any general communication of the important secrets, not thai 1 was selfish of them, but that I wished to test their virtues before I made them public. CHAPTER IV. Hints and facts of much importance to both sexes. The knowledge contained in this chapter is the result of many years research, thought and experience. It contains much that will be new to the reader, but nothing is authori- tively advanced, the trnth of which I have not fairly tested. Young physicians will be pleased to find so much that they should know in so few words, for the chapter contains nearly every thing worth seeking for, connected with the subjects it treats of; and many things not considered, or even hinted at, by previous physiologists. Dr. Guerin did me the honor to say, after looking over it in manuscript, that he never read so little matter with so much profit. On Physiology.—Physiology is the science of life—life it- self being an aggregate of phenomena, which manifests them- selves in organized bodies ; some philosophers hold the opin- ion that it is merely the effect of the play of the element on certain combinations of matter, and that there is no such thing as a living prinaiple. This theory, however is easily dispro- ved ; but not by the substitution of any which explains the mystery of sentient existence. Renewing life,—In 1667, France was thrown into a state of great excitement, by the publication of a theory of life by a physician named Richard Lower, who contended that life might be renewed and prolonged indeffinitely, by transfusing the blood of youeg into that of old people. The system was 28 '.....• $M '*<$ first tried on dogs, with—according to Lower—the most suc- cessful results. However, it not only failed with men, but in some instances it came nenrly killing those, who were candi- dates for immortality ; owing to the difference of temperament between the receiver and giver of the blood. Nevertheless, the doctrine continued to be steadily maintained by some vis- ionaries, with this saving clause, that the parties who recieved the vital fluid must have been of the same habits, temperament, state of health, Sic—when at the same age of him who yiel- ded it. Long Courtships.—Beware of long courtships, for there are so many slips twixt the cup and the lip, that it is almost as well to marry in haste and repent at leisure. Period of Child Bearing-—Women may be ten, eleven, and even twelve months in a certain condition, the ignorance whereof, causes much trouble, and occasionally has been the means of divorces. On the contrary, full grown children may be born in the senenth month after conception, and some say in the sixth, or even less, but I doubt them. At least, out of all my experience I never had personal knowledge of a case of the sort, but one, and then I had my suspicions, grounded on uarious circumstanees, apart from the main one, which were rather unfavorable to the lady's character. The law, which rarely, if ever, suffers Itself to be guided by exceptions, holds it a proof of illegitimacy if the period of child birth is delayed until the tenth month after the husband and wife have lived together.—Armande. Obstructions.—Should any unexpected barriers be discov- ered to the consumation of the rights of marriage, a physician should be consulted without delay. A false modesty in such cases, may be productive of the most serious consequences. The Duchess cle Berri, is a case in point- After being marri- ed about six weeks, she was on the eve of separating from her husband, when one of the ladies of the court learned the cause, and prevailed on her to consult a member of the faculty, who soon set all to rights, However, both the duke and and duch- esse had suffered much through their delay or ignorance. 1 he fruitful mo/iths.—It is estimated that the healthiest 29 children are born in February, March, April, and May. Conse- quently, May, June, July, and August must be the months most auspicious for conception. This is merely the popular opin- ion, but Dubois, La Bache, and a skillful writer in Le Temps assert that their experience corroborates it. Twins.—A female may have twins, the offspring of diffe- rent fathers. Thus, a woman in North America, being deliv- ered the same day of a black and white infant, acknowledged, that nine months before, she had been on the same day with her husband and a negro slave. In births where one child preceds the other, for one or two months, it is fair to suspect adultery ; and indeed, the infants themselves mostly give evi- dence of a different male paientage. Red Haired Women.—Fair haired ladies claim to be the most affectionate wives ; but he who marries a red haired wo- man, would do well not to be remiss in his attentions, for they woo warmly, and expect to be warmly wooed. A French wo. man with red hair is a rare occurrence ; but wherever there is one, love has a decided votary. Marriage and Poetry.—Marriage blunts the immaginotion 4. A married writer of fiction must hold Hymen in check, or " weary his readers; and poetry is almost irreconcilable with the state of wedlock. Schiller observes, that one cannot woo his wife and the muses; and there is, no doubt, much philoso- phy in the assumption. Thus it would seem that poetry is the escape of love when not otherwise directed. Ideas of beauty.—Men of poetieal or sanguine tempera- ment prefer the beauty of the face. Those of stronger animal propensities, the beauty of form. The latter make the most at- tentive husbands, as they are most content with the realities of life. Habitual Miscarriages.—The force of habit is such in wo- men, that when & female once miscarries, she will be always liable to miscarry when XhtTsame stage of pregnancy occurs. The kuowledge of this fact may produce the care which will prevent such a result. J •V., Th en.—The existence of the hymen in women is no certain cnuence of virginity—neither is its abscence of deflo- ration. Young females may be depriced of it by illness; and it has been found in ladies at the period of delivery. Howev- er, these are the exceptions, and very rare ones. As a general rule the hymen indicates the maiden ; and vica versa; so that a man missing it on marriage may have good grounds for sus- pecting his wife's chastity, unless she can otherwise explain the cause of its abscence. Nutritive tubes—Every animal from man to the polypi that clino-s to the rock, has a nutritive tube open at the extremities! Hence the sponge (if an animal) being differently construe ed, may be considered of a lower order than the polypi. * Coquetry.—Beware how you marry a confirmed coquet; for her manners are not so much the result of affectation as the actual changes of her mind; and her phrenological develope- ments will show that constancy is not in her nature. Bailie had, no doubt, good grounds for saying, that a confirmed co- quet would rather have any man than her husband, after the first six months of marriage. A little, well directed coquetry, however, is the spice of courtship. Living Bodies.—All living bodies spring Jfrom a germ which was part of another being; This rule holds good-.r throughout the vegetable and animal kingdom. Violation.—Conception cannot take place under feelings of horror and disgust. Hence, no woman ever became pregnant from a rape committed on her against her inclination. _ For and against.—Consumption in either sex has been cor- rected by marriage. The chances however, are in favor of fe- males ; for it has been known to bring* the decay of men to a hastier climax. Cure for Epilepsy.—Marriage is the only certain cure for uterine epilepsy. Maloimonial regret.—Men are liable to regret their mar- riage on the morning of its consummation, and to sigh for the 31 freedom they have lost. But this is only an evanescen feeling, partially attributable to the fact, that, at the commencement, the realities of love are usually found to be unequal to the an- ticipations. A week corrects this uneasiness, and content- ment mostly oecurs before the end of the honey moon. Transfer of Passion.—Love is partially the effect of men- tal, but more so of physical feeling. This is especially the case with men; and hence, when they despair of the consu- mation of one passion, they can always relieve it, or escape from it altogether by nourishing another. Hermaphrodites.—There is no such thing on record as a genuine hermaphrodite. It is true, doubts have arisen as to which sex individuals belonged, who seemed to exhibit the attiibutes of both ; but in all cases it was proved that the par- ties were either men or women ; and that the mixed appear- ances which caused their doubt, were the consequence of mal- formation. Longing for Marriage.—Young unmarried women, from the time they arrive at toe age of puberty, think and talk about little besides love and its attributes. Young men, however, though they have other objects of pursuit, are more carried away by the passion. When crossed in love, a woman be- comes melancholy, a man insane. Bad Habits.—There is but one mode in which the sexes of the human race can know each other without the sacrifice af pleasure, and probably lisks of still greater importance,— and that mode is dictated by nature. Valsalva and others as- sumed that monstrous births were often occasioned by shun- ning the advice of nature in this particular. Medium oj Reproduction.—Irritation and excitement seem to be the great medium of reproduction in all organized be- ings. Love of Plants and Animals.—It is the received opinion that all sentient beings are susceptible to the passion of love, and derive enjoyment from the communication of the sexes. And many claim the same distinction for the inhabitants of the 3:* vegetable kingdom ; sot hat the loves of the plants may be no fable. Interiourse of Trees.—Trees may have rntercocrsp, though at a great distance from each other, their pollen or fertilizing powder being borne by the wind. Otherwise, the act of re- production in trees, plants, &c. is carried on in much the same manner as among locomotive beings. Effects of bad Temper.—Constant bad temper in a wife will wear awav the affections of the most devoted husband ; and they can never be renewed ! Aman of lymphatic temper- ament, whose nature is difficult of excitement, is alone proof to the ceaseless bickerings of an irritable woman. Use of Cleanliness.—Cleanliness in youth i» a corrective of buberly. So are meagre diet, light clothing, and hard beds. Difference in the Sexes.—There is a striking anology be- tween the organs of generation in the sexes, the chief diffe- sence being that they are nearly external in man, and all inter- nal in woman. The Eyes.—Soft languid eyes are an evidence of voluptu- ous—or at least, of amorous dispositions. In women they as- sist beauty, and may be the effect of a gentle and affectionate heart, under the influence of a virtuous desire ; but in men they are effeminate, and if united with a protruding mouth, and heavy lips, denote a libinous disposition, and a want of manly fidelity. Color of the Skin.—The complexion of the skin depends on that of the lete mucosum, a glutinous substance that lies between the under and outward skin. In blacks this mem- brane contains an inky fluid, which is ascribed to carbon and the increase of billious secretions in hot climates. Puberty.—At the time of puberty the blood of both sexes fends towards the parts subservient to reproduction, whish causes these organs to awake from their torpor and to expand. The Hair.—A profusion of hair is a sign of an amorous dis- position, as is also a rough husky voice. When a man is 33 castrated heloses his beard, and his voice grows feminine. He is also liable to periodical hcemorrhages, like the other sex. Likewise he becomes artful, depraved, and foolish. Resemblances.—Ch Idren should resemble both parents, or there may be a fair doubt of their legitimacy. However, not- vvilhslarding the theories of Straus, Guillett and Walker, the rule is not iinperilive ; for I, and others, have seen infants who, in face or form, bore not the slightest similitude to iheir ft male parents ; which must be taken as proof positive in the premi- ses, fc-till, this so rarely occurs as to be only the exception to the rule. Signs of Pregnancy.—To an experienced observer, a wo- man's eye betrays her condition, when she is in a certain way, before her form gives any manifestations of the fact. The symptoms may be partially concealed by the use of snuff, which corrects the glassiness of the optics consequent on the earlier stages of pregnancy. Total Abstemiousness.—It has been frequently maintained that total abstemiousness, from sexual indulgences, would in- vigorate the mind, and exalt the genius. Facts, however, prove otherwise, for persons sworn to chastity grow weak in intellect; while eunuchs become foolish. Nevertheless, a man who wishes to distinguish himself, must not give loose to his sexual passions, for excess of indulgence greatly impuirs the faculties of the mind. Still, it is better to give way to nature, no matter how rashly—if diseases are avoided—than to resist her altogether. The former only injures—the latter destioys. It vvas the belief, with a certain school of alchymists, that he only who was perfectly chaste, could discover the philoso- pher's stone, A perfect man, capable of being so, is as rare a thing as the philosopeer's stone himself; and could he pos- sibly obtain the object of his desires, it is more than probable he would find the stone a dear bargain at the price he paid for it. Excesses—Beware of youthful excesses, for sooner or later they have to be paid for. A great English philosopher truly says, " the debauches of youth, are so many conspiracies against old age." 5 84 On Climate.—Married persons, donrous of offspring, and who have been disappointed therein, should, if they seek a change of climate, choose one colder than that which they have been used to. It need scarcely be remarked, that races inhab- iting moderately cold, are more fruitful than those who dwell in hot climates. Thete should be but little hope of becoming parents, in persons who cannot accomplish iheir desires by the aid of warm stimulants, in a cool bracing climate. .Menstruation.—Obstructed menstruation may be effectually cured by the root of the rubia tinctorum, but it should be ta- ken under advice, as injudiciously used, it is calculated to in- jure the system. Cause of laborious Menstruation.-----One of the most ac- tive caiioes of laborious or obstructed menstruation, is disap- pointment in love, and a transfer of the aflections wonld work a cure without any other remedy. Superfluous Menstruation.—"Emetics of ipecacuahna~and cold sea bathing are the best remedies for this complaint. Ei- ther may do: combined, they can hardly fail of being effective. On Puberty.—The age of puberty is not, by an universal rule, earliest in warm climates. In the inhospitable latitudes of Siberia, for instance, the women of the Mongolian race, feel its influence in the twelfth year, and a cotemporary writer says, that they are mairiageble at that age ; but this is prepos- terous ; they are no more fit to encounter the duties of a mar- ried life, than a precocious boy, who may say smart things in a drawing room, is qualified to undertake the multifarous?and practical duties of manhood. The same may be said of the Esquimaux women, the women of Lapland, and indeed, of the inhabitants geneially of the polar regions ; which is attrib- uted by some authors to the smallness of their stature, and tlieir fish ditt. But this argument is easily set aside, for the same precocity exists throughout every variety of the Mongolian race ; whether they reside in warm or cold climates—are short or tall—or live on fish, vcgetahle or animal diet. What then is the cause of this early precocity ? I am unable to answer. Ba^ftom the excessive developement of the vital system, of trie florth-eastern people, and their peculiary voracious appe- 85 tites, I am inclined to think, that it lies, in the admitted fact, of their being the least intellectual, and consequently, most an- imal of the human family ; for it cannot be denied, that the mind has a great effect on the bodily functions ; and if so, why may not the desire for certain enjoyments, rirca into early ac- tion the organs from whence they emanate? However, this physical precosity is in general the effect of the warmth of the dim its. and may be accelerated any where, by the frea use of stimulating meats, aromatics, coffee, vvine,"and o her aphrodisiacs. A writer of some note, tho lgh visionary in most of his specn- lations,Jsays—*».n takiaga general view of the period of puber- ty, it appears that in Europe, women reach it later in the north uvui in the south. In some elevated northern regions, it does not occur iin.il after twenty years of age. In England it occurs from fouruc.i to sixteen in girls, and from sixteen to eighteen in boys. In most parts of France, puberty in women com- merces usually at fourteen years of age, and in the southern departments and great towns, at thirteen. In Itally, it takes place at twelve. This is also very generally with the Spanish women, and in Cadiz they very often marry at th-it aje. In Persh, according to Chardin, it occurs at nine or ten. Nearly the sains is tha case in Arabia, Uirbary, E'^ypt, Abyssinia, Senegal, and various parts of Africa. Thus, puberty in wo- men commences generally, in tropical climates, from nine to ten." But still no matter how early it may commence, or in what climate, the desires it ereates cannot be gratified without injury to the health, until all the other parts of the system have a corresponding developement. Period of Gestation.—It is impossible that a mature child can be born before the seventh month after conception. The Maturity, however, should be amply proved, before a child born within the seventh month should be considered illegiti- mate. And this cannot be ascertained by the weijrht, for some haalthy children weigh but eight, while others weigh eighteen pounds before they come into the world. Snckling.—A feeMe woman should net suckle her infant, or it will partake of her own debiliation. Lowness of spirits, passion, &c. have corresponding effects on the milk, and con- sequently must make it innutricious. 16 Exercise.—Too much rest during pregnancy i • injurions to both mother and child. Hence ladies so circumstanced should be as active as at other times, and take as much moderate ex- cercise in the open air as they can. Strengthening Milk.—Parter milk is ihe strongest lhat a child can be suckled on, but it is apt to make them peevish and sleepy upon being disturbed. The nurse will also be advan- taged by a moderate allowance of bottled porter. The best Nurse.—Hartsoeker contended that a child would thrive better on his mother's milk, thin that of a stranger. Natural, however, as this may seem, I cannot say that It is borne out by facts. Diet.—Milk diet, though it enriches the blood, moderates the desires. It might be advantageously adopted by married persons of warm dispositions, who cannot have offspring ; and which is the usual result, in such cases, of intensity of enjoy- ment. Violent love is but rarely fruitful love. Consummation.—Albeit man is the active and woman the passive agent in the consumation of marriage, the latter is sup- posed to enter more fully into the intensity of its enjoyment. This, however, is an hypothesis which can never be closely demonstrated. CHPTER V. Advantages of Marriage—Terrors cf Absolute Continence. I fully agree with a certain famous phsiologist, that "matri- mony, as established in christian countries, greatly contributes to the health and happiness of the human species ; " but I am not so sure that he is right, when he says, that "men before they are married, are always discontented." My conviction is, that a bachelor, even beyond the hope of matrimony, is not so discontented a being, as a man who is married, but not to his mind. And the same rule will apply, even more forcibly, to the other sex ; for men have a partial corrective, which, if not sanctioned, is at least winked at, by society ; whereas women have none but the one which involves their destruction. Consequently, great care should be taken in the choice of a partner for life, not only as regards beauty, habits, manners, &c. but physical construction and desires. It is a great error in society, that which compels people to marry, while so much in the dark on certain subjects in which they are so vi- tally concerned. For instance, it is not to be expected that much happiness can attend the union of a lymphatic man, with a sanguine woman, or vice versa; and equally, or even more disagreeable is the result, when a wedded couple discov- er that their physical conformations ace w^S^Jfe ea^h oth- er ; and that, hence, they cannot duly realise tRpwbst iwrJor? tant of the enjoyments of wedlock. It might be well for mil- lions, if the manners of the age permitted inquiry on those subjects ; and it migat be accomplished through relations or friends, without any great sacrifice of modesty. At all events, 38 the mode of taking each other, for better or worse, blindfol- ded, is in nine cases out of ten the cause of unhappy marriages, divorces, elopements, desertions, and so forth; for if a couple are physically and mentally agreed, contentment is the natural result; otherwise matrimony is not to them the thing they expected, and hoped fur, and each pines for enjoyments which they find it impossible to convey to the other. I could furnish many illustrations of this, with the names and especial anises; and itmight be well for society, if society allowed of such a proceeding. I have a friend who married a woman he loved, and who loved him. She vvas cold, he vvas the reverse. After a time he shunned her society, and used to sit moping in his study ; and then he often informed n e that he did not think he was calculated for domesiic life, as he felt no sympathy with what the world called its "endearments." Well, a liille time ehpsed, and this ill assorted pair—for a rea- son which I do not care to make public—were divorced, and for some months thereafter, my friend continued to revel in single blessedness. At length however, he grew weary of it, and united his destinies lo a lady, who is, to an external obser- ver, decidedly inferior in personal attractions to the one he parted from ; but nevertheless, she is the realization of all his desires ; for he is never at ease when she is out of sight; and from being a railer at hymen, he has become one of the most domestic persons in the world. Now had reasonable ques- tions been put and answered before marriage, my friend would never have trusted himself in bonds which he was sure to break, nor be now compelled to live with a lady he adores, without having the privilege of making her his wife. Again, one of the most beautiful, and not the least respecta- bly connected ladies in Paris, has lately become the victim of a marriage, which gave promise of being a happy one, but turned out —in consequence of.the opposite temperaments of the parties—to be the reverse. I do not mean in their man- ners, for they were both amiable and attached, and so far pot on very well togethca;—but the wife was devoted and ama- rous.—the,Aiusband careless of love's dalliance—the result of which was'that the lady made a slip, was discovered, and, (as with women there is no half way house -between honor, and infamy, which the public will permit them to retire to) is now lost to respectable society. Had this female taken care to have chosen a husband of a temperament as enthusiastic and '"*#* 39 Moveable as her own, she would have found at home, the sym- pathy her nature yearned for, and thus been saved the com- mission of an error, that resulted in a destruction, which, un- dc:r the circumstances, she could scarcely resist. I would almost prefer the old Scotch fashion of " hand fas- ting " for a time, to that of taking things on chance, without any future honorable alternative. The method spoken of is sim,)ly this. When a couple became affianced, they were '* hand fasted." that is lo say, they lived together for some time as man and wife, and at the expiration of the period agreed on, if they found they were duly qualified to make each other happy, they were msrried ; but if not, they shook hands and parted to try their fortunes elsewhere. And it has happened that ladies in high life, were three times hand fasted before they were wedded. And if, as it sometimes would happen—one of these limited marriages was productive of is- eue, the child vvas provided for by the father, and regarded as uo discredit to its mother's fair name. This may have been carrying matters a little too far; but it at least afforded chance of amendment, which is not the case with our more refined, and, I s.ippose I must call it, more moral system of wedlock. However marriage in any mode, is far better than no mar- riage at all; for to say nothing of its immorality—promiscu- ous intercouase enervates the system, oppresses the brain, and blunts the appetite of desire. Variety, in fact counteracts healthy and vigorous excitements, for its stimulations are but as the passing moments of unnatural strength, during the ctisis of fever. Hence, men who have been renowned for their am- orous propensities, according to their own admissions, derived but little enjoyment, yet great prostration from sexual inter- course ; and their children, when they had any whom they could vouch for, have been in many cases, weak, puny, and imbecile. i Thus the laws of hymen do not restrict, but actually pro- mote sjxual pleasures, and are the only certain road to them ; fir such is the s ate of society, that without legal vows fidelity can hardly be expected. Cupid may visit other places, but with all its d:avvhacks—and that there are many, there is no deuying—he rarely finds himself truly at home but in the mar- riage couch. M. de Hainserck argues with eloquence in favor of polyga- my. He insists that it is agreeable to the original intention, 40 and refers to certain customs among the ancient Jews in evi- dence. He further insists that no man can be satisfied with one wife ; but that four, differing in disposition, and style of beauty, would bound his desires. And several distinguished German philosophers are of the same opinion. But I hold them to be in error, for jealousy must be the sure attendant of polygamy; and indeed it would seem one of the principle in- tentions of this vigilant sensation, to make one man and one wooi faithful to each other. However, in some nations— China for instance—a plurality of wives is said to produce no unpleasunt domestic results, and the Chineese novelists, when- they wish »o have tlieir l.eroos in a state of extreme conjugal felicity ^usually give them two wive, of opposite temperament and style of beauty, vvho are as tenderly attached to each oth- er, as they are to their common husband. But in all such ca- ses the women must rather be regarded in the light of slaves than of bosom partners, and if they had their own will in the matter, I doubt not th;y would alter the system; for every female is a natural despot in the affairs of lovr, and will of her own consent permit of no rival near her throne. At all events, I am satisfied that the doctrine of plurality would not answer in civilised countries, where the sexe3 are more on a par in general privileges; for there, if the men ins:sted on two wives, there is nothing more certain, than that the women would com- promise the matter, by providing themselves, legally oi other- wise, with twe husbands. Furthermore, "in places where a plurality of wives are al- lowed " says an eminent writer, the crnnl appetite grows sur- feited, and occasionally so depraved, that other objects become yet dearer to it than the female sex. Thus the monaichs of the celestial empire have been known to indulge in the most unnatural excesses, many of them preferring the male to fe- male favorites. Hence," continues the same author, " if we would escape evil, marriage is not only a benefit but a neces- ity." Let me add that while marriage, as legal in most parts of Europe, promotes sexual pleasures, it secures coustant mod- eration, which is necessary for the health of the body—yet more so for that of the mind. When persons alike eschew marriage and libertinism, un- natural indulgence—to which I have devoted a chapter else- where in this book—is, in nineteen cases out of twenty, the consequence ; and where it [is avoided, and absolute coutin- 41 ence persisted in, the party will have to purchase the peculiar ity by a life of anxiety, sorrow and suffering. Among the ef* fects of the latter are ferocity, deteenni nation of blood to the head, indigestion, inordinate desires, heart throbbings, inabili* ty to divest the mind from the prevailing passion, partial in- sanity, and early death. Besides, to be Continent is not to be chaste, as it is sure to engender a constant change of voluptu- ous immages and untameable desires, which it would be diffi- cult to reconcile with strict purity. By long and severe fasts, and shunning the society of the female sex, I have no doubt that men may greatly suppress their animal desires f but they can by no means obliterate them ; and clergymen of the most austere orders, have admitted this, whenever they chose to speak freely upon the subject. An ecclesiastic in Bordeaux, findiug it impossible to starve out his desires, shot himself through the heart, where lay the seat of his disease. Pope Gregory the 1st, admitted the difficulties, in this re- spect, that celibacy imposed on its votaries, but argUad that were it otherwise, continency would be no virtue, and sexual intercourse no sacrifice. Monsieur M. an ecclesiastic, wrote more particulary on the subject. He said, that at the age of thirty-two, being bound by a vow of celibacy, he began to feel the aclion of the repro* ductive organs very intensely ; and that his health was thereby injured. At this period he fixed his eyes on two women, who made such an impression on him, that they appeared to be il- luminated, and to glitter with an electric fire, so that he retU red, thinking it was an illusion of the devil. He had then vi- olent contraction and tension of the limbst which were succeed^ ed by delirium; and afterwards his immagination was assailed by obscene immages, suggested by the desires of nature. In a word, continence to his body vvas obscenity to his mind, and made him most miserable. The confessions of Father Anselmo, an austere and virtuous man, are further eminent illustrations to the same effect. Also the memoirs of Abbe Catineau. And likewise the admission of an exalted Father of the christian church, Saint Jerome, who exclaims, "O ! how often have I, when settled in the des- ert—in that vast solitude, which Jjurned up by the solar heat, 6 42 affords to monks a horrid habitation—how often have I im* magined myself to be for a moment in the midst of Romau pleasures. But I sat alone, because my heart was full of woe and bitterness. My members, deformed as they were, abhor- red the sack which invested them, and my shrivelled flesh en- dured the thirst of etheopic fire. Daily tears—daily grdlns were mine ; and if deep sfeep oppressed me, I slid my scarce- ly adhering bones down upon the naked ground, and my mind was full of dreams at variance with my vow. I, therefore, who for fear of hell, had condemed myself to such imprison- ment ; the companion of scorpions, and wild beasts, did often, in imagination, find myself amid the chores of maidens. Pal- lid vvas 1 with fastings ; and in a frigid body , yet my mind burned with desires—the flesh being dead before the man, the- fires of lust alone boiled up ; and thus must it be with all who, like mer endeavor to sacrifice the flesh to the spirit." Nor is the case better with the other sex. Indeed, if any thing, the images- of the mind of women are more inteuse, as she has fewer objects to distract her attention, and hence, she; is the greater sufferer by absolute continence. Thus, it is rare in man, but not in women, to die for love. Languor, melan-- choly, uneasiness, and haziuess of the eyes, are the earliest symptoms of suppressed desire in females ; then chlorosis -r and then probably death ; unless her passion finds vent in mar- riage, or in a solitary proctice, the evils of which aie fully considered further on. Having thus, in the difficulties of continence, illustrated the necessity of marriage, I will now proceed to give some instruc- tions as to the best mode of choosing an: appropriate partner r and these instructions may easily be taken advantage of, unless where matches are made in an indecent hurry, I may be told that love is blind, and will not be advised or taught to see on such a subject. I insist, however, that he would be advised, if he knew beforehand that the parties inspired by him were physically and mentally disagreed, to such an extent, that the objects for which they were chiefly brought together, could never be duly consummated. This may be a good place to state that nymphomania, uterine epilepsy, uterine cholics, vir- gin convulsions, hy3terics, and other morbid affections are cu- red by marriage, and effectually so by no other remedy. Nor 43 •is this all, for marriage purifies the complexion, removes blot- ches from the skin, invigorates the muscles, makes the carriage •erect and free, and the voice full and firm; and in fine is the principal medium through which nature makes the human spe- cies tranquil, healthy and happy. * CHAPTER Vf. f fnslructione in the choosing of partner, Intermarriag, $c. When two pefaons of parallel dispositions or appearance are united, it is common to observe that they are a well-matched cou- ple. In fact, however, they are not; and the very resemblance which seems to claim admiration, it> a strong ground for saying that they are unsuitable companions. The profound physiologist still readily admit the justness of this assumption ; and that marriages are most happy, and most productive of healthy and handsome offspring, when the husband and wife differ, not only in mental conformation, but in bodily construction. A melancholy man should mate himself with a sprightly woman, and vise versa ; for otherwise they will soon grow weary of the monotony of each other's company. By the same rule, should the choleric and the parent be united, and the ambitious and the humble; for the opposites of their natures not only produce pleasureable excite- ments, but each keeps the other in a wholesome check. Had Macbeth been married to a person of a disposition less aspiring to his own, he would never have murdered King Duncan. In the size and form of the parties, the same principles hold good. Tall women are not the ideal of tall men; and if they marry such, they will scon begin to imagine greater perfections in other forms than in those of their own wives. And this is well ordered by nature to prevent the disagreeable results which are almost certain to grow out of unions where the parties have a strong resemblance. For instance: tall parents will probably have children taller than either; and mental imbecility is the usual attendant of ex- treme size. The union of persons prone to corpulency; of 45 dwarfs, &c, would have parallel results ; and so, likewise, that of weakly or attenuated couples. To use a lucid but a homely phrase, the «« breed should be crossed, " to make it good. Thus the tall should marry the short—the corpulent the lean—the choleric the gentle—and so on ; and the tendency to extremes in the parents, will be corrected in the offspring. 1 do not mean to produce any ridiculous associations in the reader's mind, by ad- vancing that Brobdignags should marry Lilliputians ; man-mouu- tains become united to shadows; but that the choice of partners should be so regulated as not to propitiate the birth of semi-mon- sters ; for parents prone to corpulency beget flabby and shapeless infants; where the parents are alike of cold and unexcitable natures their children are likely to be subject to idiotcy; the issue of a very ill-tempered couple, will probably beia semi-brute ; and melancholy fathers and mothers produce hypochondriacs and sub- jects for suicide. Apart from these serious considerations, there are reasons why persons of the same disposition should not be united in wedlock, and which I have before hinted at, but not as explicitly as the subject deserves. An amiable wife to a choleric man, is like oili to troubled waters;—an ill-tempered one will make his life a misery and his home a hell. The man of studious habits should marry a woman of sense and spirit rathar than of erudition, or the union will increase the monotomy of his existence, which it would » be well for his health and spirits to correct by a little conjugal excitement; and the man of gloomy temperament, will find the greatest relief from the dark forebodings of his mind, in the socie- ty of a gentle, but lively and smiling partner. Further, in wed- lock, 'dike love not their like," so well as something of an oppo.- site nature to excite them. Timid maidens are most affected tOi brave men : sages, to good house-wives, who love 'their domestic duties better than books; and men of blunt dispositions can best appreciate the graces of refined wives. In a word, the affections oif antipodical natures sympathise most clearly; a partial illustra- tion of which may be seen in fact that the greatest philosophers find tlieir sweetest relaxtion in the prattle of childhood; and a yet apter one in the equally incontestible fact, that the bully of the school and the gentlest of the boys, usually select each other for companions. However, in some particulars the dispositions and constructions of married people must assimulate, or they will have but few en- joyments in common. The man of full habits and warm nature • 46 had better remain single than unite his destinies with a woman whose heart repulses the soft advancements of love ; and the san- guiiio female in whose soul love is the dominant principle, should avoid marriage with a very phlegmatic person, or her caresses, in- stead of being returned in kind, will rather excite feelings of dis- gust. Thus the discriminations to be made in the choice of a partner are extremely nice, and can hardly be explained in writing; but nature, assisted by the foregoing hints, will be a sufficient guide. Lest the reader should say, you first advise persons of opposite dispositions to marry, and then advise them otherwise, let me add, that the opposite natures must be those that excite, not shuii^ each oth.ee. Thus the bold and timid will sort well in wedlock, as their natures, though opposed in tlieir general features, may unite in love; but the very lymphatic and the very sanguine should by no means come together, as they can have no sympathies in common on the point which is matrimony's principal charm and grand consummation. But natuce generally assists art in the choice of partners. We instinctively seek in the object of our desires, the qualities which we do not possess ourselves. To the fair of both sexes the bru- nette complexion is the most engaging, and vice versa ; and the fcame principle governs throughout, alike in the physical and mo- ral conditions. Thus the slendor affect the plump ; the tall the shorter; the impassioned the mild; the boisterous the calm; and so on to the end of the chapter. And this is a most admirable arrangement of Providence, as it esta blishes an equiilibrum, and prevents people from tending to •extremes; for it is known that unions of dwarfs ; that giants pro- ceed from the embrace of giants; and that the offspring of parents dik.2 irritable ; alike passive ; alike bashful; &c., inherit the pro- minent qualities of both, to such a degree as to seriously interfere wiii their prospects in the world. It has been another advantage. Through its raeaus, "every eye foi'.ns its own beauty;" hence, what one person rejects, is the benu ideal of another's conception; and thus we are all provided for. This difference of tastes has been a stumbling-block with wri- ters in all its ages. They could not divine why an object that was b.iautiful, or the reverse, to one, was not the same to-all. But Lid they thoroughly investigated the matter, they would have per- ceived that a manifest design was at the bottom of it, and* that in fhis variety of tastes nature was wisely accomplishing her own ads, and producing harmonies. 41 Many physiologist have argued I hat like does not produce like; but the testimony of all experience is against them. See, lor instance, the children of red-haired parents; of those who have supernumery toes, &c; and the reader will require no further evidence of the invalidity of their doctrine. But the main proof of my assumption, and the grand argument in favor of uniting oppositcs, is to be found in the evil conse* quences attending marriages among blood relatives. Here there is generally a moral and physical resemblance between the parties, which is aimost certain to entail suffering on their offspring. This is strongly illustrated in the degeneracy of royal and noble families, who marry amongst each other. In Spain, where the proud old Hidalgos carried this absurdity to its greatest height, the race at length became so ugly, puny and imbecile, that to be dwarfish and hideous was considered an evidenco of nobility ; and when streugth and beauty graced the offspring of rank, the moth- er's fidelity vvas more than suspected, The Hidalgos, to avqid all risk of ignoble admixture, not only maried their own blood' rela- tions, but confined their choice to first and second cousins; nor was the sad result to be seen alone in (h-nepid offspring, but also in the birth of hopeless idiots. Royal families take a wider range, but still not sufficient to ensure bodily and mental vigor. Hence they are for the most part afflicted with hereditary diseases; but more than all with scrofula, which is one of the most extensive that pertains to human nature. All the Bourbons suffered thus -f s-o the reigning family of Holland and Austria; and the present occupaiit of the British throne has, as I have been informed on sufficient authority, a running evil between her shoulders. The injurious results of a union between persons having a close moral and physical resemblance will be augmented, if there is also a close kindredship of blood. The fruits of such a marriage must degenerate, if, indeed, it should be fruitful at all; but here nature again kindly stepa in to arrest the evil, for married relatives, near of kin, have rarely, if ever, numerous progenies ; owing probably to the fact, that, being for the most part of a like form and dispo- sition, the one cannot frequently cause in the other that state of excitement which is necessary to the ends of reproduction. In fine : with man as wiih animals, the best way to improve the breed is to cross it—for the intermarriage of like with like, and rerative with relative, not only causes man to degenerate, but, if the system became universal, would in time bring the human race to a termination ltogether. 48 But to the main subject of this chapter, namely the choice of partners. A male or female with a very low forehead, should carefully avoid marriage with a person of like conformation, or their offspring will, in all probability, be weak minded, perhaps to partial idi- otcy. The system Of crossing is so perfect, that marriage between per- soes, natives of different countries, are likely to be pleasant and fruitful. Speaking on this subject, an English writer says < "The Parsians have been so improved, hy introducing foreigners to breed from, that they have completely succeeded in washing out the stain of their Mongolian origin. And the same author adds, to the ef- fect that in those parts of Persia where there is no foreign inter- course, the inhabit nits are sickly and stunted ; while in those that are frequented by strangers, they are large and healthy. To make what is called a "handsome couple," the female should bo about three inches less than the male; and if the parties arc proportionately developed throughout their system, this selection may be found of advantage in other matters besides appearance. Wide haunches in man, as well as being a deformity, argue flab- hiness, and a weak overgrowth in the porcreant functions, On the contrary, they are a beauty in woman, and a proof that the re- productine organs are well developed. Hence a strong and ama- rous man would not do well to marry a female with narrow haun- ches ; for although such a pair may be equal to the coiisumalion of marri ige, there is almost certain to be a difficulty at the time of delivery, especially if ths child should be lobust in proportion with the father. In another chapter 1 have explained the reason of this. It may be as well to say here, that a female with narrow haunches should unite herself with a person of delicate bodily con- struction, not only in refference to certain rights, but because the offspring of such a person is likely to be small, and herice suited to the peculiarity of her conformation. This may seem, to the general reader, a little thing to be so especial about; but it in- volves advice of great importance to those for whom it is intended. For instance, a woman with narrow haunches alwas suffers much on delivery; the giving birth to large children seriously affects her health, and frequently wrecks her constitution; and it con- stantly happens in such cases, that delivery cannot be affected at all, unless by operations which must destaoy the life either of the child or the mother. No matter how delicately formed a female may be in other parts, if hei hauhebus are wide, and the attributes 49 thereunto pertaining, regular nnd proportionable, she need pot be afraid to marry a giant. 1 use the word haunch in its lar- gest sense—that is, to express the hip, and fore and hinder part; or, in other words, to take in the whole circumference of the pelvis. " A well formed woman,", says a modern physiologist, " should have her head, shoulders, and chest compact; arms and limbs relatively short; her haunches apart; her hips ele- vated ; her abdomen large—and her thighs voluminous. Hence, she should taper, from the centre, both up and down. Whereas, in a well formed man, the shoulders are more prom- inent than the hips. Great hollowuess of the back, the pres- sing of the thighs against each other in walking, and the ele- vation of one hip above the other, are indications of the mal- formation pf the pelvis." From the' same writer I take the following, which is appli- cable here. It is very correct in its estimates of beauty in both sexes. The length of the neck should be proportionably less in the male than the female, because the dependence of the mental system on the vital one is naturally connected with the shorter coursos of the vessels of the neck. The neck should form a gradual transition between the body and head—its fulness concealing all prominences of the throat. The shoulders should slope from the lower part of the neck, because the reverse shows that the upper part of the chest owes its width to the bones and muscles of the shoulders. The upper part of the chest should be relatively short and wide, independent of the size of the shoulders; for this shows that the vital organs which it contains are snfficientiy developed. The waist should taper little farther than the middle of the trunk, and be marked, especially in the back and loins, by the approximation of the hips. v The waist should be narrower than the upper part of the trunk and its muscles, bccr.isc the reverse indicates the ex- pansion of the stomach, liver, aad great intestines, resulting from their excessive use. The back of woman should he more hollow than that of man ; for otherwise the pelvis is not of sufficient depth for parturbation. 7 50 Woman should have loins more extended than man, at the expense of the superior and inferior parts, for this conforma- tion is essential to gestation. The abdomen should be larger in woman than man, for the same reason. Over all these parts the cellular tissue, and the plumpness connected with it, should obliterate all distinct projection of muscles. The surface of the whole female form should be character- ised by its softness, elasticity, smoothness, delicacy, and polish, and by the gradual and easy transition between the parts. The moderate plumpness already described, should bestow on the organs of the woman great suppleness. Plumpness is essential to beauty, especially in mothers, be- cause in them the abdomen necessarily expands, and would afterwards collapse, and become wrinkled. An excess of plumpness, however, is to be guarded against. Young women who are very fat are cold, and prone to bar- renness. In no case should plumpness be so predominant as to de- stroy the distinctness of parts. A male and female formed in the above models would be well matched, and have fine children. If a female throws her feet much to the rear in walking, her knees are inclined inwards. A woman that marches, rath-.' er than walks, has large hips, and a well developed pelvis, if she moves along trippingly on her tip-toes, a large calf and strong muscles are indicated. The foot lifted in a slovenly manner so as to strike the heel against the back of the dress* is a sure sign of a small calf and narrow pelvis. A heavy walk, when there is but little spring on the toes, evidences a slenderness and weakness of limbs. When the foot and an- kle assume a bony appearance, and the heel strikes the ground before the ball or edge of the foot, they indicate that a female has passed the meridian of life, no matter how other appear- ances may weigh against them. Blue eyes should marry black; for when peisons having blue eyes are united, their offspring are apt to have light hair, and a tendency to blindness. When a person is of consump- tive habits, this is a peculiaily important consideration, for it is known that in consumptive families the hazel and black-eyed 51 children die, while the blue-eyed live. Hence, a man or wo- man, having dark eyes and consumptive tendency, should choose a blue-eyed partner. However, I by no means advise consumptive persons to marry at all; that is, unless the dis- ease be artificially produced, and not hereditary; in the for- mer case matrimony may be of service, and has been known to produce a thorough cure, when all other appliances had failed. The person who studies this book thoroughly will not be easily deceived in the make, form, or internal conformation of either male or female, though having to judge them outside their dress. The moral qualities are matters to be discovered by parentage, time, and conversation. And thus advised, there cannot be much difficulty in bringing about matrimonial ar- rangements so as to " cross the breed," which, as I have clear- ly shown, is a consideration of much importance in married life. / CHAPTER VII. At what age carriage should be consternated. Very early in life—varying from ten to sixteen -years—be- gins to be felt the anxiety of the sexes to be together; and were people as robust as they migl^, be—did they live in a simple state of nature, and without suffering the fatigues and hardships generally experienced in savage life, the chances are that their desires might be consumated as well then as in after years, and without the incurrence of physical injury. As it is, however, there is a serious day of recconing for early indul- gence ; for precocious persons—unless their constitutions are as powerful as their desires—who give way to their passions at their first exactions, barter their youth for their enjoyment, and are old and weary of the wor^l at an age when people of more moderate habits are only in the meridian of pleasure and existence. It has been written over and over again, that in Arabia, and other warm climates, girls of twelve, and boys of fourteen, are ripe enough for marriage. In their affections they may be— for therein, a warm climate affects anumloubted influence ; but otherwise they are unsuited for such a change of life ; for each communion of the sexes is as productive of physical prostra- tion in sultry latitudes as in other places. The proper age to marry, all the world over, is between twenty five and thirty for men, and nineteen and twenty five for women ; and in fact, previous to the ages of twenty five and nineteen there are, as a general rule, inadequate to the re- quirements of matrimonial intercourse. Sonic young men r* 53 who iminagine that early devclopement of the pa.«sions is a proof of manhood, will not l>e ready to admit this; hut I can tell them that tlieir strength to accomplish dues not keep pace with their will to dure. ! Hence boys who marry derive bu li;tle enjoyment from the connubial state ; and ladies who unite themselves with juveniles become disappointed, and suspect their husbands of incapacity—(I dare not give it a more appro- priate title)—whereas, the only thing they are deficient in is age. Many a seperation, and even elopement, has been thus occasioned ; and the offspring ot such marriage is usually puny and consumptive. Further, men who marry too young, unless they are of cold and phlegmatic constitutions, and thus moderate in their con- duct, become partially bald, dim of sight, and lose all elasticity of limb, in a few years ; while women, in a like position, rare- ly have any bloom in theii cheek or fire in their eye, by the time they are twenty five. And all profound physiologists aoree that, from the same cause, the mental faculties suffer in the same ratio. A medium however is to be observed. It is not well to de- fer till middle age the period of connubial intercourse ; for too tedious a spinstership is as much calculated to hasten the decay of beauty, as too early a marriage. Hence, there is rarely any frsshness to be seen in maidens of thirty ; while the mat- ron of that age, if her life has been a happy one, and her hy- menial condition of not more than ten years standing, is scarcely in the hey-day of her charms. And the same rule will apply with equal force to the other sex ; for after the first prime of life, bachelors decay, and grow old much faster than married men, Hence says the poet, " Connubial pleasures keep men in'.heetiieh rr While those who shun them, witmerrehpetir (/me." The rich are quallified for marriage before the poor. This is owing to the superiority of their aliment; for very nutricious food, and the constant use of wines, coffee, &c, greatly assist in developing the organs of reproduction ; whereas the food generally made us of among peasantry of most countries, as vegetables, corn, milk, &c, retards the growth. Owing to this difference of diet, the daughter of the man of wealth, who keeps a good table, will be as adequate to certain duties of married life at eighteen, as the daughter of an humble peasant 51 a' twenty one. Singular as it may seem, it is noiie the less1 i rue, that love no vies, amarous conversations, playing parlor jj'nmes for kisses, voluptuous pictures, waltzing, and in fact all things having a tendency to create desire, assist in promoting puberiy, and preparing young persons for early marriage. Those who reach this estate, however, hy artificirl means, and much before the natural period, will have to suffer for it in af- ter life. Maidens suffering from peculiar diseases, as nymphomania, uterine epilepsy, green sickness, (wnich is mostly the result of love,) virgin convulsions, &c. should be married as soon as possible, though they have scarcely passed the term of puberiy; for marriage is a certain cure in these complaints, and cannot, at this period, do as much evil as it vvill affect good. The female who marries before the completiion of her wo- manhood—that is, before her puberty is established—will cease to grow, and probably become pale and delicate ; the more especially if she becomes pregnant soon after marriage* A person thus circumstanced will also be liable to abortions, and painful deliveries. In fine, unless under very peculiar circumstances indeed—such, for instance, as may be involved in the afflictions noticed in the preeeding paragraph—marriage should not take place until two or three years after the age of puberty. Let me, therefore advise the male reader to keep his desires in leading strings until he is at least twenty five, and the female not to enter within the pale of wedlock until she is past her eighteenth year ; but after these periods, marriage is their proper sphsre of action, and one in which they must play a part, or suffer actual pain, as well as the loss of of one of the greatest of earthly pleasures ; for nature is a tyrant, and will not be deprived of this, perhaps the most imperitive of her claims, with impunity ! CHAPTER VIII. Solitary practices, with their best mode of treatment. Many physicians of high aufhority have maintained, that two thirds of the diseases to which the human race is liable, have had their origin in certain solitary practices ; or to call things by their proper names—for I wish to make myself thor- oughly understood, so that I may not weaken the effect of what I am about to say by an affectation of false modesty—in onanism and masterbation. Some writers use the terms synon- omously; others apply the first to the act in males, and the latter to females; and for the sake of perspecuity I shall follow the second rule. I say that many physicians of high authority havejUiaintained, that two thirds of the diseases to which the hiap$Mi race is liable, have had their ortgin in these habits. I cannot go so far as this ; but I am convinced that they entail great calamities on all who indulge in them to excess, and that consumption, impotence, and lunacy, are among the feaitul effects. Parents are delicate in speaking to their children on .this subject; nay, owing to the ignorance or miserable policy of the majority of physicians, they themselves, though perhaps sufferers by the habits spoken of, arc.ignorant of their effects. Need I say that this is wrong, and should be corrected altogeth- er Need I say that it is better to warn a child against certain piact'ces which is demoralizing him, and undermining his health—nay his very reason—than to remain silent from mo- tives of a most absurd modesty, and let him pursue his ruin, unconscious that he is doing any thing wrong ? I have no 50 hesitation in saying that the parent would do so—lint is, who would leave his unconscious child wooing his own destruction i rather than caution him against the practices he is indulging in- —is consigning him to many diseases—some of the in peihaps incurable—and probably to an early death. These solitary practices are considered of such importance that they are denounced in Holy' Writ, (see 9th verse of 28th chapter of holy Genesis)—and have been the occasion of seve- ral medical convocations in Paris, to propose means for reme- dying their effects. But the medical convocations went to work the wrong way. Instead of making a mystery of the matter, they should have made a public statement ^hat " onanism &c. carried to excess engendered diseases, for whh-h there was probably no remedy ;'' which would have destroyed the effects by putting an end to the cause. And in such cases, the reader will be willing to admit the truth of an old adage, that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. It is easy to discover when young persons are giving way to these habits. The first singn is a fondness of being alone and insolitaay places. Subsequently they sigh very frequent- ly ; the skin generally, but the forehead especially, breaks out in pimples. They become idle, sluggish, and listless ; their breath is offensive and their eyes grow dull, and retreat into thtir sockets. Other symptoms are, loss of appetite, timidity, and depression of spiaits. In fact, excess of onanism or mas- turbation enervates the whole bodily and mental systems, and not unfrequently leaves them a total wreck. ¥ Again, they arrest the growth of the stature ; and, while they stop the growth of the organs, and the developcinent of the various functions, bring on early puberty, fhat is, they pro- duce an artificial ripeness, which must soon wither and dry up. Moreovor, he who greatly indulges himself when a boy, will, when a man, derive but little pleasure from sexual intecr course. Indeed, the confirmed onanist becomes incapable of consumating the rights of marriage ; and is, in consequence, compelled to continue the system of self sacrifice, for as Du- bois says, "forbearanc at this season is out of the question ; as the slighest circumstance, such as the sight of a female bust, a picture, or a pretty foot, is sufficient to awake erotic de- sires. Men who have practised this habit to much excess, are inca- pable of giving life to robust children. 5? Speaking of solitary indiscretion, Boorhave says, "it causes convulsions, emaciation, and pains in the membrane of the brain ; it deadens the senses—parliculaiy the sight: gives rise to dorsal consumption, and various other mental and bodily dis- orders." Guerin denounces it as the curse of youth; and maintains that it would be better to indulge in open debauche- ry. Good speaks of it a< an offence most injurious to health and morality ; and Lallery affirms that ii is a powerful promo- ter of lunacy. Young girls tire as much addicted to this offeuce as boys, but are not, perhaps, equal sufferers hy it. It does not drain their system, and hence, cannot cause them so much debility ; but then, it interfereses with their growth, causes blotches "on their skin, disturbs the economy of the uterus, not unfrequently deprives them of the mark of maidenhood, and while it aug- ments their desires—in fact, renders them almost insatiable—it begets in them almost an aversion to the other sex. Cooper is my authority for the last assumption; I will not.venture an opinion on the point myself; but this 1 know, that young wo- men who make use of large foreign substances to procure pleasuie, cannot, for obvious reasons, derive as much c.-joy* ment from rights sacred to the married 6tate, as other females. About the age of puberty this habit is generally commenced. However, it is not uncommonly piacticed by ihe children at school, which is apt to make the effects still more dcp'otab!e^ than when it is delayed to a later period. It is supposed by many that this habit is learned, and that no person would commence it from the simple dictates of nature. And in the case of juveniles, this argument no doubt holds good, as they are frequently known to be guilty of it, long before they are under the influence of sexual desires. Sufferers from this offence, says a late eminent writer, may find relief in cooling purgatives: and in extreme cases, in bloodletting and leeching, cold bathing, acid fiuits. nitre, i.nd a spare diet; but that, where the patient is not loo far gonp for the administerirg of such areceipe, the only sufficient lemedy is marriage. Another argues against medicines, and proceeds. "When conviction of the existence of bad habits is acqnired. it becomes necessary to speak to the subject of them mildly, and rational'y, respecting his injurious practice, and to place in his hands some good work which treats of its evil consequences," 09 •In such c-ises says the writer, ,,e^citin»,and superamndnnt food is highly injurious. The diet should be chiefly vegetable, and no syirituous drinks should be permitted." Yet another advises against suppers, down beds, hot «doth- ing, Ac, and to keep exciting works of fiction out of the pa- tient's hand. My advice in the premises is this. To speak to the party suspected in confidence ; to tell him that he cannot offend with- out being discovered, as it marks him all over; to warn him of the dreadful results thit must inevitably follow the practice if persisted in; to inform him thi.t it wdl impair his beauty, and stop his growth; and finally, to put ibis little volume in his hands, a perusal of which, by clearly informing him of his danger, will effectually cure him of his bad habjs. Miould injury Inve aheady resulted from this practie. T know of no better medicine than oirupaiion suid meagre diet; hut still would suggest the propr ety of consulting a respectable physician. The above advice will a'so apply to femalrs, and would no doubt be effectual with them, for it is scarcely to be supposed that any of the sex would persist in a prnctice, which, apart from'its other attendant evils, would mar her Lcauiy, andren- der her an unfit subject for marriage. To avoid all mistakes upon this important subject, the mean* ing of onanism and masturbation are given in another part of this volume. CHAPTER IX. Matters of importance, connected with concep- tions, fyc, seriously considered. Wom.w has less strength but more nobility than man; less intellect, but -i quicker apprehension ; her sensibility is more exqtii>iie than that of her male companion—but she does not receive such la«tin.r imp essio:is. Tiie common opinion that womindilFjrs from nun in her genital organs only, i , there- to:?, a CDimn >n error; in fact, slie differs from him in every t iii r — i itonly in lui :i'i tt<>:iiical coustructioi, which shows a linj of d m trcation from tirsi to last, but in the impressions enveved ° the mini from ai examintion of the same objects. 1 said theauromie.i! line of distinction was visible from first to last. This may not always be the c-ise, when the bones n'-e sepa ate; but I have never found it otherwise when seen in their natural ennee i >ns ; that is, I have never seen the s'^elet onof one sex.no matter what parts might be hiddei from me that I could mistake for the skeleton of the other. I have ilways found, for instance, the female chest shorter but rmra expanded than that of a male of the same altitude—the clavicle less curved—the asperities of the hones less promi- nent—the pelvis larger - and the thigh bones more unique. It is. however, in the pelvis that the corporeal distinction be- tween the sexes is most complete; and that anatomist must have ^ut little skill in his profession, who cannot at once tell the one from the other In the child, the pelvis consists of imny parts; in the adult, of hut four bones. In the male, it \* large and strong, with a small cavity, narrow openings, and bones of greater strength. In the female, it is narrow and 00 wide, with a large cavity, and slender bones, and every peculiarity which may conduce to the easy pass .ge of the child. And this is a thing of great importance, for the circle of the brim of the pelvis supports the impregnated womb, keeping it up a.ninst the pressure of labor pnius ; and some- times this brim has been so sharp as. to cut across the segment of ihe womb, which, thus i.y separating the womb Iroin the vagiin, has rendered delivery impossible ; lor the consequence is that the child escapes into the abdomen, and the woman dies. I neeil scaicely remark that the pelvis is that part of the frame which unites the human trunk with the lower ex- tremities ; or that it contains all the inte'ual organs of genera- tion. It is necessary t» beamy of form that a woman's pelvis be well developed ; and it will be well for the man who mar- ries a female with a contracted on J, to be diminutively organ- ised in his corresponding functions. This is a thing that peo- ple should be very particular in, when shout to make choice of a partner. The largely developed m.in who mauies the smally developed woman xuffers ninth ; but the risk on the woman's part is greater still; for she will be likely to have large children, which will impose on her intense labor pains, and may cost her her life. The reason of this is so obvious that 1 need pursue the delicate investigation no further. It may be inferred from the above that a skilful acconcher is necessary at the time of delivery, especially if it be die first child, when the peculiarities of the pelvis are unknown. In general cases, it is true, but little knowledge in required in as- sisting child-birth, as nature leaves art scarcely any thing lo do; and therefore a competent mid-wife might answer all pur- poses; but in the event of any new feature developing itself, not having studied the anatomy of the organs of reproduction, she would he at a loss how to act, ami perhaps assist in de- stroying life, which might have been readily srved by a good practical accoucher. In a most extensive practice of twenty- five vears I never have lost either child or mother, and I havo had hundreds of c:^e>, which, m unskilful hands, would have b en imminently danger. 1 will here add a word of advice that is founded on experience. When a lady has any reason to apprehend a hard delivery, let her not trust implicitly to her family physician, or ihe physicians of greatest note in the city, but send for the accoucher who has the most practice in some poor and populous district, and she may depend that her m case will be properly attended to. Napoleon Bonaparle un- derstood this; and hence, when his Empress was about to be confined, he did not trust her with his court physicians, who had but little personal experience in such mailers, but procured for her ihe attendance of a man whose practice lay amcngst the poorest residents of the city, and who was famous for brin»i.ig more children into the world than half the accouch- ers in J'aris Napoleon knew that a pauper and an mpress required the same tieatment in this matter; and in cpchosing for the partner of his throne, the physician of his hu mblest subjects, he wisely secured for her the practice that makes perfect. Notwithstanding the great anatomical distinction that exists between the sexes, I agtee, with Ga en and others, that there is a .striking analogy between their organs of generation, and that they appear to those who give them but little considera- tion, to differ only in their position, being internal in one, and external in the other. Nevertheless they differ almost as es- sentially in their formation, as in their mode of operation, in which each of them fulfils functions perfectly distinct, though of reciprocal necessity. It has been denied by many able physicians that the female secretes any seminal fluid, which, if true, would give her but little to do in the business of reproduction, further ihan to sup- ply a covering for its embryo ; but the fact that children gene- rally have an equal resemblance of either parent sets this ar- gument at nought, and proves that the foetus is the result of mutual contribution. In fact, it has been ascertained beyond question that the female does secrete a prolific fluid. And perhaps, the difference of family likeness may be accounted for in this way, that the child bears the strongest resemblance to that parent who has been most bountiful at the time of con- ception. I introduce this to set aside a very general, but equally erroneoas impression, that men who are anxious for robust" children require more nourishment than their wives. There is nothing more certain than that each has to furnish about an equal portion of the embryo; and hence, that to en- sure faultless offspring they should be equally vigorous. Women conceive more easly a short time after menstrua- tion, when the mouth of the uterus is less exactly closed than usual. The mouth of the uterous, be it known, is very nar- row—so narrow in fact, that the fecundating principle .would ft) not enter it, but that it craves it, and inhales it by-teal suetiott —a proof, by the way, that a rape can never be productive of offspring, for unless there is pleasure, and reciprocation of feeling, there is no action of ihe uterus, and consequently ho absorption of the productive fluid. 1 am inclined to think that two or more children are the effects of extraordinaty distention and attractiveness of the uterus, for intellectual females very rarely have twins, op any but those who hive large animal development*, and strong erotic desires. Galen assures us that some women preserve t-o much sang froid us to feel the act of conception. However, I can attach no importance to such an assurance, though women who h-ive borne many children may possibly make a good guess if the act ha? been successlul. by perceiving sensations similar lo those which, under the same circumstances, she had experienced before. At t«uch a moment, if offspring is desired, let tt»e female re- main in a state of perfect composure, and avoid making any great exertions for the subsequent week ; for any thing ilmt heats the body is calculated to expand the uterus, and thus to permit the embryo to evolve itself, which otherwise would have ascended gradually to ihe place which na'itre ln.d as- signed for its reception and sustenance. .Should a different result be desirable, vigoro-c bodily exer- tion, or other remedies set forth in a previous chapter, thould be at once resorted to. During the period of gestation and suckling, women should be more than usually careful not to cut or bruise themselves, or injure any of their hones ; as at such periods the affected parts heal or unite with gr'at difficulty. 'I he cause of this I am unable to state, as I attach but little credit to the hypothe- sis that it is owing to the quantity of earthy and cohesive matter drawn by the fcetus from the p.rts that surround it. However, the effect, which is the principal thing the public have to do with, is as 1 have stated ; so ladies would do well to comport themselves accordingly. As the fueiiis is nourished by appropriating to itself what- ever is suited to its nature in the blood brought to it bv the vessels of the uterus, it stands to reason that a well-regulated diet in the mother must exert a beneficial influence over the child. Home writers, endeavoring to account for twins, say that the multiplicity of the fetuses in the same pregnancy, is occa 93 sioned by the presence of several vesiculae, ready to be de- tached from the ovaria, and consequently lipe for fecundation. But even admitting this, I m-iintain thai more one will not be removed, unless a more than average quantity of the fluid be admitted by ihe uterus, as must be evident to any person who 1ih» duly studied the mysteries of reproduction, and made himself acquainted with the position and ecoumy of the ovaria. Thu*, as we heve seen, the uterus is a most important or- gan. Indeed, it may he said to govern the woman, for it has a place in all her thnuidits, but especially in those which are occupied with love, jealousy, vanity, and beauty : hence it may be said that the reproduction of the species is, in her, the most important object in life. And hence, in many of the Eastern nations they assign her only a mortal existence, argu* ins; tlint she would have no sympathies with, and be of no use i i a world, where she could not fu'fil precisely the same end of be n; that >he does in this. Far diff.iren', however, is my opiiro-i on the subject, for vvo nan's love is more pure ami exalted than that of man—and what- thar. pure and exalted love can be more etherial, or a greater evidence of ihe immor- tality of the soul ? ::''' t CHAPTER X. Opinions, suggestions, and information on matters conncc* ted with the general subject of t as work. Parturition.—When the child is perfectly formed, and fit for its reception in this world, manifestalions, which are tho't by many to be voluntary with itself, are given of its desire to leave the womb. Some say, however that labor is produced by the reaetion of the fibres of the uterus, thus causing a great distention, which makes it compulsory on the foetus to evolve itself; and othess, again, form opinions quite at variance with either of the above; so that nothing is actually known of the cause or causes which are the immediate means of parturition. After confinement the uterus immediately closes and falls into a state of repose, from which it is not well to disturb it for at least a month, in which time it recovers from the effect of its recent fatigue aud exertions. Twins.—The proportion of twins to single births are com- puted as being about one to eighty five ; of three children, as one to seven thousand; and of four or more, as one to a mil- lion. 1 attach no importance to these opinions. The proba- ble cause of a plurality of foetuses is the unusual distension of the uterus in some women over most others, and the profusion of scunen which is thereby drawn into the ovaria at the time of ineepuon. This, by detaching more than one ovum, would account for the mystery best; but still it is merely an hypoth- esis, and cannot be too securely relied on ; for with all the ex- ertions and discoveries of modern physicians, the assumption of Leewenhock, that the embryo was a perfect living being, 65 furnished exclusively by the male parent, has never been set aside by proofs to the contrary. In fact, it cannot be denied that iinimalculae formed like tadpoles exist in the prolific fluid, which it seems possible may be human beings in embryo ; but the. great probability, as'I have before stated, is, that twins are the result of an unusual flow of semen into the ovaria, and the detachment thereby, of more than one ovum. Hence, cold, dispassionate women rarely have twins, nor any but those who are fully developed in the pelvis, and. attendant organs. I have likewise remarked, that the mothers of twins are usually of short stature, vvliich seems to indicate th-it this rare degree of fruitfulness may be propitiated by brevity of distance between the extremity of the pudendum and the womb In the case of twins* the children are independent of each othh to vary, to assist nature with a stimulant. The fact that illegitimate children, in about two cases out of three, are boys, is another great support of this theory, for such offspring are usually the result of healthy systems and warm passions. Nursing.—A pregmant woman should.not give suck; if she does, the infant robs ihe foetus, and the foetus robs the infant of its due share of nourishment. Nor does the mother escape without injury between them. Nature herself endeavors to correct this by making the milk, at such times, offensive to the nursling ; and when the infant refuses the breast, or takes it with reluctance, it is a good evidence that conception has taken place, as also, that the infant ought to be weaned, or transferred to another riurse, as it will derive but lilttle nourishment from the breast of iis ' mother. A-iortion—Causes, Preventives, and Cures.—kn exclusion of the foetus six weeks after marriage, is called a miscarriage—be. tween that and six months, an abortion—and between six and nine, a premature labor. Dancing, riding, and other violent ex- 67 ercises, chiefly indulged in, for pleasure, during the honey moon, often produce miscarriges, by unduly agitating the embryo. Some- times the fault lies in some deficiency on the part of ihe ovum, in which event it will be expelled by the uterus, as a useless and foreign body. It occasionally lakes weeks, however, and even months to effect this expul.-ion, though the foetus is dead from the time of sepitration. Abortion may be caused by the inability of the u erus to distend itself beyond a certain size; and in subjects thus affected the s'para;ion will generally, if not alwajs, take place about the same period of pregnancy. Tight lacing, a bight, a shock, a blow on the abdomen, an irritable disposition, s< vt re labor, violent excitem-.mi of the passions—plrasuiuhle or otherwise —and a variety of other causes, as, excessive indolence, Iving in soft beds. &c.. may likewise occasion a separation and expulsion of the foetus before its time. The symptoms, before it ttk-s place, are a hcemorrhage from the vagina, with transitory pains in the back. The-patient should then hi placed in a recumbent po- sition, and examined ; and if mental or bodily exertion has been the cause, she should be blooded in the arm, and a gentie laxilive, or injection administered. Then, unless in cases where plethora prevails, a full dose of opium—say of thirty or forty drops— should be given; but when the disease originates in plethora, free purgatives, such, however, as will reduce without weakness, are the best rhmedies. By this treatment, the separation of the ovum, already commenced, is often put a stop to. The patient must then be careful of her diet for many weeks, partaking of none but such as is light and sparing ; and if exercise is allowed it should be moderately indulged in, and through such a medium as an easy carriage, or sedan chair, with short poles, and carried slowly'and with great caution. Then cold sea badiing, or indeed any bathing, is of great service; and should there be any iss-ue of blood from the vagina, it should b: prevented by injections of cold water, or any of the usual applications in such ca-es. Should the patient be a vigorous person, soft bed clothes, and stimulants must be avoided, and also, too soft a couch; if otherwise, wine may be permitted, and bitter tonics; —but in ei.her case all i. t:rcourse with the husband mu't b* avoided for several days. Arecumbtnt position is generally the safest at ihese li nts. The above remedies, as I indicated, are for the prevention of abortion; but when regular and contractile pains, accompanied with a considerable degree of hcemorrhage, show that the separa- tion of the foetus has already taken place, tperi the best thing to 68 be done is to assist nature in its expulsion, which should always be accomplished under ihe direction of a skilful physician, as it wiuld be dangerous to tamper with the received remedies, many of which might be advantageous in one case, and highly injurious in another Habit may cccasion abortion at ihe same period of pregnancy ; but when a person has frequently bjt-n a sufferer in this way, some delect of the uterus may be fairly suspected. Moving 4of the Foe/us.—It has been argued, and passed into a general belief with physicians, that the foetus never moves in the womb. But all mothers know to the reverse of this; and, moreover, the umbilical cord, when of unusual length, has oficn been found twisted seveial times around the child's neck, which which is a proof positive that the theory referred to is wrong, and the mother's right. Food.—The foetus absorbs a portion of all the aliments the mother partakes of; how necessary, therefore it is for pregnant women to be careful of what they eat and drink. It has, how- * * ever, been reccommended to women who are difficult of delivery owing to the smallness of the pelvis, &d. to live low, so as to prevent the over-growth of the child. Protracted Gestation.—Haller gives reference to women who have carried the foetus for fourteen months. I do not believe them, nor. I think, di I Haller either. B/ the code Napoleon, the legitimacy of a child born ihree hundred days afier a dissolu- tion of m-iriiage may be questioned ; but ibis is almost as far in error the other way. Women, about whom there can be no doubt, have gone ten months; and in the book of the Apocry- pha, entitled the " Wisdom of Solomon," that period is al- lowed. Love.—Love is principally made up of desire; and without desire there would be but little tendency of the sexes for each othei's society. Thus nature vvas compelled to make love a sel- fish pleasure to the end of population. Time—" Morning.'* Fays Ry: n, «is more auspicious to fruit- fulness, than d,iv or night." '• And the offspring so generated,'' adds Larry, " will be generally robust, healthy, and handsome." For my own part I cannot go so far, but rather imagine that all 69 hours are alike, and that the choice of time depends upon cir- cumstances. Suppression of the Afensus.—Thh disease, if the patient ia not plethoric, nny be relieved by a hemorrhage from the no>e which is easily effected. And indeed in any casa must do more good than harm. The Mensus.—The mensus in robust and amorous women last longer and fiovv nnre copiously than in others. Young wo- men who have this mark will derive but little comfort from con- soiting themselves with delicate or phlegmatic husbands. Difference of Sexes.—Menstruation generally ceases be- tween the forty-fifth and fiftieth year, as also the powers of con- ception, and after that, no matter what may have been written to the contrary, the great majority of women care but little for the other sex, further than in friendship. There can be very few, if any, exceptions to this rule, for menstruation is neces- sary to libidinous desires. Men, on the contrary, though on the aggregate shorter lived than women, have feelings which incline them towards the other sex, and are capable of reproduc- tion to a very advanced age. Labor.—Labor pains are not generally so severe with females who continue to live with their husbands as with those who have separated from them some time previous to confinement. There is no occasion, whatever, for married people separating during the latter stages of pregnancy. There may be, however, for a time after conception, so as to ensure fruitfulness. Milk.—The milk determinates to the breast in proportion to the irritation produced by the infant on the nipple. Hence, worn?n with strong children secrete the most milk ; and hence,' also virgins have been able to suckle children, the infant draw- ing the nourishment to the breast, which would otherwise h.ve passed through a different channel. The milk laken by a healthy i.ifant equals in weight about a thirl of the food taken by the nurse, who, it is obvious, should prepare herself for such a dis- bursement, Oi both will suffer. Disguise.—A female who wishes to disguise the marks of 70 pregnancy, might prevent the flow of the milk to the breast by an artificial irrition of the uterus. Hence, young mothers who have any affections, or suffered recent injury in the latter, can furnish their infants with but little breast milk- Srnsa'ions.—Infants laujjli towards the middle of tha sec- ond month, which shows Ujat they begin at teat period to be ca. pable of agreeable (sensation. Not to Mnile at that time, or very fcoon after, may be taken as an evidence oi sickness. Teething.—The small molar teeth appear between the age of eigliteen months and two years, and then the first detrition is complete, and the life of the child more secure. Convulsonsand diairhoeas ui\; the most fatal accidents attending demition, and call for all the nurse's care. Teething children are often lost by neglect, or ill advice. Perhaps the best of remedies is good open, bracing air; and hence, children thrive much better in the coun- try than in towns or cities. Green Sickness.—Suppressed catamenia, excessive menstrua- tion, dyspepsia, and other causes, occasionally produce green sick- ness, which may be detected by the pale, lurid, and greenish cast of the skin; but the leading cause is disappointment in love, or, in other words, inability to obtain the object of one's desires; for it rarely affects either sex until after the age of puberiy, and then it is known to have a manifest influence over the prolific organs. For this disease—when occasioned by love—cooling aperients, the daily use of a bidet of cold water used unstaringly, and meagre diet, may be of advantage; but a more certain remedy will be found in a subsequent chapter. Impotency.—In a previous chapter I lave spoken at length of this complaint, and given a variety of r medics. 1 will here add a few more, which are used in many places, but of the efficacy of wh ch I have had no expert nee, and heard m proof. Tbry are. giusing, (which is in high favor with ihe Chinese.) blisters, setons, and caustics; also, friction, with amon^ated oil orrpirits, an'l stinging or flagellating the loins with nettle?. I have like- wise heard high praise of electricity. But I have no do doubt that the Lucina cordial is a more effective remedy in the premi. aes, than all others put together. 71 Uterine Septem.---When conception has taken place, the membranes, produced in the uterus, form a bar to the descent of any subsequent flow of the prolific fluid, so that a female cannot conceive twice, unless, indeed, the act be consummated twice in the same day. before the membrane has had time to form. This is an axiom not to be interfered with, by the fact that twins are not always born at the same time. Leucorrhaea—There is noting so good for leucorrhesa in ad- vanced ag», say from forty and upwards, as emetics, sea-sickness, and change of climite ; and afterwards to tone the stomach with some nutritious stimulant. Seminal Flux.—When produced by local causes inherent in the body, it may be cured by severe exercise, purgatives, and low diet; but marriage is the only certain anj lasting remedy. CHAPTER XI. The art of Courtship—Remedy for Love, fyc. Marriage being the natural state of social life, and the only one in which human beings can be r a'ly set- tled, and content, the science of obtaining p;irtnerg should be well understood, not only as relates to the choice of form nnd qualily, but al«o the mode of ingra- tiating ourselves into tie favor of those who lake our affections captive, or whom we may think so constituted as to becapibl ;of nrnki lg happy. An 1 yet this scienca —fcr it were doing it injustice to distinguish it by a less imposing title—is but very imperfectly understood by the rrns>; a fact which occasions millions and millions of unhappy marriages; f§r men and women, for the most part, not being able to obtain the objects of their de- sires, and which they had set their hearts on, lake what they can get in despair, and arc thcrcfcic but rarely suited according to their wan Is, and 1 might al- most add their necessities. Did men know how to go about making love, as it is called, or women to comport themselves so as to charm the man they prefer above others, this evil would be corrected;and I think I can give them such instructions in the premises, as will leave such knowledge a mystery to them no longer. To begin let me impress it upon the reader, that to be natural is the great secret of success in love making. 73 To disguise one's nature, and study affection in court- ing, is the very error of the moon. Pretend to be what you arc not and you arc nothing; and hence, sympathy not knowing how to take you, docs not take you at all. Appear as you are, and you will be to some one, and that one just the being most qualified to make you happy, the very perfection of her desires; disguise your nature and you set her aflections at fault, while your imitated character will have but little impression on the hearts of those, whom such a character were it genuine, and possessed of the mysterious attraction of truth, would be sure to captivate, Ucsidjs, if you obtain a wife by de- ception—that is, by assuming a nature that is foreign to your own—yo-i obtain one that may cause you m ich domestic uneasiness; and you cannot blame her, for she take's yoa for that which you arc not, and which, if you wer?, would have insured happiness to both. Thus two couples will be married, and lead wretched lives, where- as, had each been united to the other's partner, they would all have enjoyed domestic felicity. The word should not be "that woman is a bad wife, or that man a bad husband," but "she or he are badly m ited," for were either united to a person of differeat disposition, the probability is, that that which is bad in this case, might be good in thai. And this propriety of selection is a matter of much more importance than is involved in mere domestic bickerings, for were all married peo- ple merely sympathetically matched, there would be but few elopements and little adultery in the world, and married men would feel more asmred that ttcy were the fathers of thsir own children than many of them do at present. Therefore, reader, I again urge you to woo in trnlh* When your heart is affected to a lady go bold- ly forwarg and plead your cause without affectation, and your eye will have a lire, and your check a fervor ana1 a beauty, and your tongue an eloquence that affec- tation never knew. Besides, if the maiden be one that can rcciprocrate your love, the matual electro magaotic union of minds will be at once established bcivvecn you, 10 it and that accomplished, no power no rivalry, no coecioa' can tear your affections asunder—nay, all foreign agen- cy to disunite them, will but the more effectually harmo- nize their links, aad bind them together. Thus if a woman trulj loves you, get but her guardians and friends up in judgment against yoa, and the more she will love you. Moreover, truth disarms coquetry—or in other words, truth begets truth; for when a woman sees a man's soul looking out of his eyes, if her soul is of a nature to mingle with it, all power of dissimilation is lost, and she stands before yoa thh willing captive of your untutored passion. Again, affectation is not always disguise, for woman arc keen sighted and sharp witted, and can detect the counterfeit, the consequence of which is that they play on, und probably despise the suitor, even though they may yield to their solicitations. In fact, truth with a true maiden, and most maidens arc true, is one of the most powerful of love's auxiliaries —perhaps, indeed, the most powerful of all. Rank and riches, however they may dazzle the mini, arc as noth- ing to it in forcing tlieir way to ihe affjetions. Let two man equal in appearance and education pay their ad- dresses to one woman; but let the one be rich and woo affectedly and with a dissimulation, and the other bo poor, but free from any art—save that of using no arti- fice—save teat of using no artifice—and throw his whole hndisguised soul into the contest, and my life upon it tho latter will carry the dayv Let me not be understood as dissancfioning flattery. True lovers cannot flatter for they feel all they say. On the contrary, if you imagine the lady you have set your hearc on, to have the gentleness of a dove, and the beauty of an angel, and the perfection of all the graces tell her so, for to do otherwise were to disguise your sentiments, and thus disobey the advice I give you. But you may ask, will the lady believe you? She will—at least she will believe you mean what you say, which is all that is required, as it proves your devotion, for what comes from the heart goes to the heart, ani is muasure, 75 at least in love, accojding to tee standard of the motiue that dictated it, Flatter, however, without feeling what you say, and your praise f .lis lo the ground, for then it is flattery; and though such words may strike pleasantly on a maiden's ear, they cannot penetrate through the barrier of her affections. And how is this? Because there is no soul in them, and so agine. It is like a plunge into a bath, where all the apprehension is over, the moment after you touch the water. There is no use in having a set speech ready, for in the agitation of the m im^nt. you will forget every word of it. Hence a man will be studying his part for a year or two, and when the (ime arrives, he finds that he has to trust lo nature—whichvvac t , hy by is a very excellent dependence, and seldom forsakes us in such Therefore, reader, when you arc about to make .a de- claration of your sentiments, take no heed as to what you shall say, or hew you shall act, but, armed with love alone, go fearlessly to your task, muttering something by way of preliminary—no matter what, for neither your- self, nor the lady will be in a way to understand it—and your hands lips and arms will do the rest, and that, too, more effectually than all the words in the world, I here speak of an occasion in which the lady is willing.— Shoull she be otherwise, and repulse your advances in a way that cannot be mistaken, the shock, though it may wound, will completely disembarrass you, and not only beget in you sentiments appropriate to the circum- stances of your case, but also a ready eloquence to give vent to them. The reader may have every confidence in what I am saying, for I speak from the experience of h-ndreds, sustained hy an intimate knowledge of the human heart and mind when under the influences and conducting the affairs of love. In cases where, from circumstances, a man is desirous of professing an attach- ment to a lady who is almost a stranger to him, a wri- ter on matrimony gives the subjoined advice, which is not amiss, provided it co.ild be remembered at the time when its assistance is required; and indeed in the cases it is recommended for, as they do not involve a full and ripened passion, which loses memory and all things in it- self, it probably might. It is as follows: "When the gentleman has somewhat familiarized himself with the lady, and perceived that he is, at all events, not an ob- ject of aversion or ridicule, he should seek a favorable opportunity, and speak to this effjet:4! have com2,lady, 81 to take a probable final leave of you.' The lady will naturally ask the reason; and then, if the lover be a per- son of any feeling, the occasion may give a depth to his tone, and an effect to his eloquence, that may turn the beam, though it wavered bcfjre, in his favor. 'Because, lady, I find that your society has become so dear to me that I fear 1 must fly to save myself, as I may not dare to hope that the suit of a stranger can be crowned with success.' The lady thus honestly addressed will feel herself bound to give a fair answer, especially as co- quetting at such a time might be dangerous, provided the gentleman has found favor in her sight; she will therefore, if her heart is in the affirmative, blush and tremble, and hesitatingly declare that the question has Come upon her unawares—f.hat onc#cannot give a deci- ded answer; and this, ol course, would amount to an un- qualified assent. If however, she stands the announce- ment without agitation and informs her suiter that un- der such circumstances he had better remain away, as she can only sec him as a friend, &c, the wisest thing he can do is to follow her advice, as the result would prove that he had made no impression on her, and ac- cordingly would stand but a poor chance of doing so in future; it being an established principle that if a wo- man's heart is not influenced at a first or second inter- view, she but rarely surrenders it on a malurer acquain- tance.'' The writer admits that this latter rule may have ifs exceptions, as women have been known to be- come enamored of men who had previously excifed their contempt, and even aversion; and also as there are in- stances on record of married ladies who eloped with men whom they had rejected in favor of their subse- quently despised husbands; but he contends—and I agree with him—rthat these cases are one in a theusand, and cannot effect the philosophy of Voltaire* who ex- claims:— "If women's hearts men's earliest vows desdain, All future efforts there will be iu vain.'s II 83 Procrastination in courtship is shameful; and the man that makes love for a number of years, wasting the time of a maiden in anxiety and suspense, which should be employed in domestic pleasure and usefulness, deserves, when he would fain change his condition, (ilhcr to be sentenced in his turn to a longer period of unwilling bachelorship, or even to be rejected altogether. How- ever, ladies in such cases, arc sometimes to blame, for ifth-y find it to be the nature of their lovers to linger, it will be their fault if they do n >t spur them into an im- mediate arrangem:nt, by a little well directed coquetry with another person, or else by some yet more decided means, as calling them to acconnt for their tardiness; a course of proceeding, which under the circumstances, prudence and modesty would hold them fully justified in making. Men remain bachelors for various causes, among which may be mentioned as foremost, bashfulness, which keeps them from courting; the dread of not being able to maintain a family; or some hereditary affliction, as the scrofula, which they are afraid they might entail upon their offspring. The latter do well to remain single, but there is no excuse for the others; for bash- fulness may be easily conquered by determination; and it is almost as easy to support a family as a single man; indeed, perhaps, more so, for the necessity of labor mostly produces the faculties necessary to accomplish it. 1 may safely add, that no man is single from choice and an affection for his solitary condition. On the contrary, the single throughout envy the happily mar- ried. A great deal has been said against love at first sight. My conviction is that it is the surest, purest, and most lasting of all love; and in proof of this it may be rd Juc- ed that persons who have missed the first object oft! c'r affections rarely find themselves suited in the second. There is a mystery—an action in nature in love at first sight, which the many do not understand. They gen- erally attribute it to the effect of a pretty face, ancle, 83 &c., and argue that it would be foolish to indulge in it, and that it is a chimera which will soon be obliterated from the mind. In fact, however, and as a general rule, the case is far otherwise, for first sight love, is in nine- teen cases out gf twenty, the effect of a mysterious agen- cy, acting on two minds naturally suited to each other, but which have never before come within each other's influence. It is not animal pa- chaste as they were fair: and have subsequently manied them—though discovering, in the mean time, that they were no better than they should be—owing to the fact that they were unequal to the task of couquering their affections. A book was published 84 fome years ago in Bordeax which was strongly illustrat- ive of my position. It gave an account of twenty mar- riages which occurred between respectable men and li- centious wo ncn, the former being aware of the previous evil courses of the wives they were taking to their bo- som-, but not able to escape the unhappy passion they had been inspired with, by the females, before they dis- covered the error of their ways. This book was called the "Freaks of Hymen," and vvas said to have been the experience of an ungo.vned clergy rrai. And one of the marriages it recorded, 1 rememaer had been consum- mated between one of the most brilliant lawyers in France, and a th atiical supernumerary of infamous character, whom he became enamoured of at a little village, where she had been on a summer excursion, and whcro she passed for the niece of an old lady—the wid- ow of an officer as she said—but whom he subsequently ascertained to be no better than a retired procuress. However, notwithstanding that he discovered all these matters in time to Jhavc profiled by their knowledge, the arrow had penetrated too deeply to be withdrawn; and thus an eminent lawyer married a courtezan, knowing her to be such, though when he first wooed her, it was under the impression that she was a virtuous Another remarkable case is mentioned in the work of a learned physiologist. It is as follows: Dount L)----of L saw a lady at a fashionable milincr's, and bc- ramc smitten with her almost superhuman beauty. He learned that she was but a few days in the city, and re- side 1 with herbrctierat a certain hotel. Th ther he went and obtained an introduction; and after a brief ac- quaintance, during which the lad »'s wit and loveluio>s had com; I ta!y captivate 1 h'm. he proposed for her I.and —the ferver of his fa'Cioation being such, that he had not the prudence to make en p-iry as to make enquiry as lo rank or character. The lady, however, would not consent, though seemingly half wil'ing, but at length, being weary of his solicitations, informed him that she was Mademoiselle L----the most celebrated and beau- 85 riful courtezen of the day; and added that the gentleman along with her was not her brother, but her friend. Of course the count was thrown all aback, and he fled from the false goddess of cis adoration, but he could not fly from hi r influence, for in two months aftci wards, he was at herfrt. and extorting from her a promise thaUhc would sin no more, which promise she faithfully kept- made her his lawful wife. My own experience too is rife with such cases, and also of cases where men mnrri- cd lidics afflicted with incurable mental or bodily diseas- es, the existence of which they were not aware of during the earlier period of courtship, though duly informed of them before matrimony. Consequently it behooves man to look well before he leaps, that is, before he lels his passion get the master of him, for afterwards he mdy be tt.o blind to see the sub- ject clearly. However there are remedies for love, even when at thewoast—remedies which can counteract des- pair, prevent suicide, and restore the mind to its natural cqualibrium. One is absfinancc; any moderate passion may be starved out, and it must be more than moderate if it can resist a northern latitude and low diet. Cathar- tics and blood letting; or either will assist the cure, during which warm bedclothes must be dispensed with as much as possible. At such a time, exciting books, especially novels, should be avoided, and stirring pur- suits, whether of bu.-incss or pleasure, indulged in. Men, when they are crossed in love,generally fly to in- toxicating drinks which cross them ten limes more. The wine stoup sharpens desire and memory, instead of producing apathy and oblivion; and so must any thing which warms the blood and increases the chyle, for most love is a passion Jess of the mind than of the body. Sea sickness is also a gieat moderator sf the passions, and often has a lasting effect. But a low vegetable diet, medicine, business occupations or nr.nly pursuits of pleasure,and an avoidance of all excitement likely to produce c oic feeling.-, unless they are indulged in, arc re- medics sufficient for the generality of disappointments in love. 86 When, however, the disease has taken too deep a root to be erapicated by such remedies, thero is another that cannot fai. That is, cure one passion with another! Methinks I see the rejacted lover laughing bitterly at me through his despair, for a Ivis'ng him to do a thing which he feels to be impossible. Rapt up in his idolatry and his torture, his mind cannot look leyond the object of them; all women are homely and v alue- locs compared to that one, and it is utterly impossible to adore at another shtine. So thinks the iejected and despairing lov- er. But lover, jousc yourself, and you will soon not enly dis- cover your mistake, Lut probably rejoice in your present re- jection. House yourself, 1 say, and rush into society; go from promenade to theatre, fiom concert to ball room, if the object yoi are in quest ef may not be seen in the domestic circles of "ycur friends, and Xou will soon find some one that (in the language of the great EnSlish poet, whose haro, Romeo,burn- ing with despair at his rejeotion, by Kosaline finds more than consolation in the beauty of Juliet) "will soon make you think your swan a crovv"And should you not succeed in becoming the sucject of e sudden captivation, select any handsome lady of a nature suited to your wants, and make love to her with perseverenceand determination;and no matter how indiffer- ent she may be to you at the commencement, if she has bdau- ty and worth, she will so grow in your heart that in a little while you would not change her for the woman that repulsed you, and a double dowry to uoot. and not only may one pas- sion be corrected lly another but the deepest despair ever pro- duced in the mind of man by the pangs of disappointed love, maybe effectually conquered and dispelled by a brief life of libertinism. Far be it from me however, to advise such a remedy; and yet perhaps it might be justified in cases where the sacrifice might be the means of preventing suicide. 1 have given little or no advice to the female sex in this chapter, and but little is necessary. They are nat- ural adepts in love making—or rather, they are the passive principle which has little lo do in the affairs of courtship, but to i espond lo the action ofanother. Wo- men's province istoattrac'; and this she can generally do best without the assistance of artificr, unless that permissible artifice which enables Jier to set offher beau- ties to the best advantage. Here, too, she is generally 87 perfect, knowing the colors, the attitudes, and the cos- tumes that are most becoming to her; but as some ladies often display a want «>f taste in these particulars, I have given some instructions on the subject, which may prove vscful in a chapter on the art of beauty. Ladies may also profit by what I have said on the choice and selec- tion of partners, but probably not so much as the other sex, for they are quick wilted end keen sighted, in such matt rs, and could generally pick out a partner, suited to their nature, and adequate to their wants; «nd if it frequently happens that they are notmatod so well as they might wish, it should be remembered that the fault is uot theirs, as it is not so much their province to choose as to be chosen. There is but little to be added to this department; but to sum it up let me observe that first love, when founded on a worthy object, should be cherished above all others, as it is, in fact a sort of mental magnetism drawing two souls of suitable qnalificatious together; that truth and honorare love's most powerful auxiliaries: that peiseverencc and determination may carry the day a- gainst great odds, that a brazen assurance disgusts wo- men, while a confidence united with modesty, delights them; that to woo a coquette a man must be a coquette —or else if his position in her affections be such that he has no fear for it, and indeed, in auy case, the effect; might be good, to compel her to decorum by a little gen- te severity; that bashfulness is the bane of courtship and must be corrected; and that the best thing all bachelors and maidens two or three years over the age of puberty can do, is to get married, as there is no such thing in this state of existence, as single blessedness. CHAPTER XII. Resemblance between Parents and their Offspring. A late physiological writer in England has published a work, nearly taken up with an attempt to prove that all human offspring bear an equal resemblance to both parents. I have read the work, which has the disadvantage of being loo prolix—that is, of containing so many words, and so few original ideas, that the latter are nearly buried and lost n the former; but notwithstanding, many of its arguments are ingenious, and some of them, as I am inclined to think, new. The general theory, however, is as old as the hills, has been written on repeatedly, and is familiar to every midwife of much practice—not perhaps through books, but through the test of their own experience. Guy de la Brosse wrote and lectured on it in Prris, in the beginning of the seventeenth century. John Gasper Gevartitius, the the celebrrted critic, reviewed an ancient manuscript on it, which he found in a library at Antwerp. Diascorides, a Greek physician, of the ttme of Nero, spoke of it, and said that Theophrastes, a distinguished philosophical botanist, was a firm believer in the theory. And perhaps twenty other writers of authority, with whose works we are ac- quaintdd, have either maintained or alluded to it at differ- 89 ent periods, so that the assumption by the English writer, that it is "a newly discovered law," is, on his part perfect- ly gratuitous, and not more gratuitous than untrue. Per- haps, howercr he made the discovery by himself, not hav- ing previously heard of it or seen it in print; but if so, it strikes me lhat he cannot lay claim to a very extensive reading or conversation on physiological subjects. Never- theless, as I have indicated, the English writer has ad- vanced, as I think some new points, which he deserves credit for, for if they do not exactly establish principles— and I am not prepared to say they do not—they at least evidence considerable ingenuity. The received opinion is that every infant bears in his face, form, and even mental system a mixed up resem- blance of both parents. This mutual resemblance is often so confused as to obliterate any distinct resemblance to cither, though containing in itself the assurance that the child is legitimate. Sometimes the mother will predom- inate in the form, and the father in the face, and vice versa. And again, the upper part of the countenance will show its derivati >n from one parent, and the lower from the other. Magnin, in his work on Offspring, endeavored to perfect this system by showing that at the time of inter- course, the most active party—that is, the party whoso energies were dominant—give the upper regions, from the head to the breast, the laller inclusive; and the other the remainder. But this system is manifestly erroneous; as children generally, if not always, have a likeness to both progenitors in their countenance. Dr. Guerin's opinion is, and he is sustained in it by many able physicians and phy- siologists, that no matter how striking the resemblance of the countenance may be to one parent, the features are al- ways so modified as to have an expression of the other; 12 88 4 and thus a likeness is often observable between a parent and child, though their faces to a casual observer, may be of an entirely opposite form and character. Without arguing against this system, I mist confess that I am m coavert to it, far I hivj s.«ei c'lil Ire i who were the very image of the father, without bearing any resemblance either in form or expression, at least that I could detect, to the mother—which seems to be proof positive against it, for where the likeness is between the offspring and the male progenitor, it leaves no suspicion of foul play. However, I may possibly have been deceived bv my own eyes; for one person will often ob/erve a re- semblance between two people, which cannot be discov- ered by another; but men generally believe what they see, or think they see; and therefore I may be held excusable for my want of faith in this feature of the theory of con- nfexional resemblances, notwithstanding the eminence and responsibility of the parties who propagate and support it. I here speak of mutual resemblance, as it unites in the face, for I hold it to be an axiom that an infant never was born who did not bear more or less a likeness to both par- ents ; and so thoroughly am I ponvinced of this, that were a child exhibited to me in whom no resemblance in face or formation to its assumed male progenitor might be traced, no argument could convince me that the husband of the mother was the father of the ehild ; that is, nnless an at. tempt was made to saddle the parentage on another per- son. The theory of the English writer, which he calls new, but which is only new in part, is equally liable to objec- tion. He says, that one parent contributes the anterior and upper middle part of the head, the osseus, or bony part of the face, the fjrms of the organs of sense ( the ex- 91 * ternal car, under lip, lower part of the nose, and eyebrows being often modified), and the whole of the internal nutri- tive system ; the resemblance lo this parent being conse- quently found in the forehead, and the bony part of the face, its the orbits, cheek bones, jaws, chin, and teeth, as well as the shape of the organs of sense, and the tone of the voice. And that the other parent communicates the posterior and lower middle part of the head, the cerebral situated within the skull, immediately above its jnnction with the back of the neck, and the whole of the locomotive system—i. e., the loins, ligaments, and muscles or fleshy parts. According to the system I am speaking of, parents may contribute these distinctive features indifferently ; that is* cither parent may give either species under this provision* that the most intellectual parent will mostly furaish the anterior, and the other the posterior parts of the head. However the writer is not very clear in the elucidation of his hypothesis, but leaves one apparently to infer, that, whers the parties are nearly balanced in mental qualifica- tions, at one time one may give the anterior, and another, the other, the issue depending on the relative degrees of development in which the intellectual organs of the parent were at the moment of orgasm ; or in other words, if the father's mental organs were then most excited, he would communicate the anterior parts ; and vice versa. "As a general guide in such observations" (observations to dis- cover resemblance) says the English physiologist, whose name I forbear to introduce, as he saw fit to extract over thirty pages of my work "On the Crossing and Breeding of Domestic Animals" without acknowledging the source they were obtained from. "As a general guide in such observations" says this writer "it may be noticed that when the forehead, and considered generally, the face viewed in front, resemble one parent, the whole head viewed in pro- » file will furnish the parts of resemblance to the other par--' ent; namely, the backhead, ear, under lip, etc. The front view," he continues, "best displays the observing faculties and the profile view the active ones." lie further saj 9 "the thinking faculty may be derived (an idea which ho might have faund in Surgeon Vclpeati's lecture oa the Anatomy of the Brain.) one parent giving one poriion, namely, those of sensation and observation ; anil the other parent giving the other portion, namely those of passion and Volition ; while the intermediate middle part is also divided. Thus to roUate the law in another and a briefer form, the thinking organs arc, in equal and ciislinct por- tions, derived from both parents ; while one gives the whole of the nutritive, and the other the whole of the lo- comotive organs." The reason he gives for this union of the thinking fac- ulties, and which, I believe, originated with himself, is, "that in all the voluntary acts of animals the thinking system must take the lead, and that in the act of re-pro- duction there are also functions of that system—paision and volition, which must excite the locomotive system, to fulfil the purposes of the nutritive system; and hence, in re-production, the apparent predominance of the thinking system." He goes yet further. He says to Ihe effect, that the different expressions in the features of children who yet resemble the same parent, is to be accounted for, by the assumption that this parent manifested these dissimilar expressions, at the various periods of intercourse which produced the offspring, which, by the way, is an idea of much felicity, and may have some foundation in truth : for it is not more certain that children will have different Expressions of feature, who yet resemble the same parent* 98 than it i.«, that the same countenance will greatly vary rt» expression, under different modifications of pleasure, and in fact one may be the result of the other. Explaining this to a lady the English writer very neatly says, "Ob- serve that all these differences in the faces of your children are m?re modifications of your own—such modifications as you yourself might assume under the influence of different emotions—such modifications as you actually have assumed, and therefore in these very instances communi- cated." "For, can it be doubted,*' he asks, in the same page, "that the peculiar state of the organization, and the peculiar exercise of every function at the moment of orgasm, must exert the most powerful and most undivided influence over the organizations and functions of the deli- cate, susceptible, and plastic ens, (mixed essence,) then, and by these very acts, called into existence ?" My answer is that it cannot be doubted. My answer is, that the mental organs of children are greatly influ] enced by the frame of mind in which the parents,or either of them may have been in at the period of re-production! Hence, as is generally known, men of genius seldom have gifted offspring ; for being rarely of high animal natures, their minds are given to wander even at the climax of coition, which, it is very probable, inlerfeies with the reversion of intellect lo the embryo ; and this is wisely ordered of nature, for otherwise we would have too many geniuses and loo few workmen. Should anger, jealousy, love, or any other passion of the mind predominate at the moment, I have no doubt a proportionate effect on the offspring will be the result; and thas do we see choleric parents have choleric children—grave, grave, &c, like producing its like in probably all cases but genius, where the ruling principle is liable to cause a wavering state oi 94 mind—at a time when all the faculties should be directed to one focus. When of parents, the one is passionate, and the other mild, the children generally occupy a happy medium between both ; but when any of them savor in their disposition one parent more than the other, the infer- ence—I might indeed call it a certainty—is, that the party, whose temperament predominates in ihe child vvas in the highest state of orgasm at the period of intercourse. A strange illustration of the truth of this system may be found in the fact that in the vast mass of men, the ant' mal greatly predominates over the intellectual; fort with but few exceptions, in proportion to the whole, the animal greatly predominated over the intellectual in the parents at the times when they were called into existence. It is no answer to this, that men of genius, though mostly wanting in strong erotic passions, do not produce beings of faculties corresponding with their own, but in fact it is strongly corroborative of the theory, for such parents, at the time of intercourse, are not in a state of intellectual excitement, but of mixed feeling, not suffi- ciently concentrated on any idea or subject to give a deci- ded bias to it, and consequently the children of great poets, of great generals, great statesmen, &c.,—unless where the mothers were women of unusually strong and decided character, have been, in the main, imbecile and Vacillating persons, alike deficient in high mental or animal qualifications. But while I not only admit this theory of mental influ- ence, but am, in fact, the first physiologist that indicated its general ramifications, and established it, as above, I have no faith in the hypothesis of resemblance as maintained by the English author. In fact I am convinced it rests on a Vfery sfender foundation, if, indeed, it has any at all. And 95 that his exertions to establish it are chiefly the result of an ambition to pass for the founder of a new system. Probably however, what he fondly deemed might be so, he fondly believes is so ; for notwithstanding that he abstracted from me without acknowledgment, upwards of thirty pages of matter, which cost me at least six months of considerable labor to study and digest, I cannot believe that he would willingly lead the public in error to the end of establishing himself in a false position, and this, the more, especially, as his system if acknowledged, might lead to serious consequences. For instance, a man relying on it, might repudiate his wife, and disinherit his child, because he might not be able to discover in the backhead or forehead of the latter, features and developments con- formable with his own. My theory of the resemblance between parents and their offspring, as I indicated, is this. Each must assisf in modelling the embryo after their own form and likeness. The parent who is most energetic and excited at the moment of sexual action imparts the most distinct features of resemblance. And this combined resemblance is not imparted by one to one part, and by the other to another, but in undefinable union governs the whole frame, with the distinction however already noticed, that the quality of one parent may preponderate, though that of the other equally pervades the entire system. In fact, as it is with color, so is it with form. The issue of a black and white person is not piebald, but of a unU form complexion tending to that of the parent whose orgasm was highest during the act that formed him: or occupying an exact medium, if the parents' energies were equally balanced. And until, as a general rule, black and white parents designate the influence of their separate 98 complexions on various parts of their offspring's face and form, instead of establishing them all over by general suf- fusion, the hypothesis that one parent gives to children ihe back of the head, and the other the front, instead of mixing their peculiarities, will never, as a general rule, be accredited. The subject of this chnpfcr is one of great importance, and I flatter myself that I have handled it in a manner which renders it perfectly exj licit. It may produce some trouble in the world, as from it men will learn that chil- dren, who do not rcsembla them in some degree,—if not perceptibly in the countenance, at least faintly struggling against the ascendancy of the mother's reversion of devel- opments, in the general outline of the form—cannot be theirs; but it may also be the means of a great deal of good in preventing incontinent married women from indulging in illicit passions, which, through its means, may be subsequently discovered. It is obvious, the use that might be made of this law of resemblance in testing the male parentage of illegitimate children, and saving men from the hardships of being compelledto support offspring who have no filial claim on them. It will also show mar- ried people the advantage that may be derived from keep- ing themselves in a proper frame of mind, and attending judiciously to the business in hand on certain occasions; and likewise the evil effects that are likely to follow a con- trary course of behavior. CHAPTER XIII. Beauty, with tomz instruction* in the art of pro- moting it. There is no such thing as a general standard of beauty, in organic bodies. Every living object of natural prcpor- tions is no doubt perfectly beautiful in itself, and the preference we give one thing over another, is merely the effect of an arbitrary taste. The senses arc the mediums of perceiving beauty; and they arc all independent organs, acting for themselves, and without any reference to fixed rules. Thu*, the smell of camphor might be delightful to one person, and obnoxious to another ; to some ears music is rapture, to others hut a discordant noi>e ; and the senses of sight, faslc, and touch, arc equally variable in their esti- mates of the qualities of things that hold influence over them. Again, the same set of sea.-es frequently change in ihcir predilections, or are converted from their natural tendency by the force,of association or habit. Thus, the car, on which music had an unpleasant effect in the begin- ning, may afterwards grow to be a connoisseur in sweet rounds ; the taste lhat rejected tobacco may afterwards become a slave to it ; and the eye, to which a black per- son was repugnant, may in the end, though this rarely 13 98 happens, sec a beauty in the dark s' in of the Ethiopian, supeiior to any that had ever attracted it in that of a per- son of fairer complexion. IVauty therefore — according to t!.c usual accpt.r.ion of ji (. tcnii — is nntl.ipj; in itrclf. I.ill only as it conforms to the i(!«-as and in pre .-sams < f sir.ctl.er person. " Ask a load," s;ivs Volia re, " v» hat is heauiy, and he will answer v on tha; it is a fema'c with I wo lar«c round eyes, project- ing fiom la r little head, a large fiat t!■roaf, a little belly, snd a round back." Women in the Hottentot cmvire are cors'dcrtd Icriitiful in jicjoition to lle-izcof tlaircnrs, the flatness of their rases and the projection of their lipr. And in the island of Otaheite, what v, c v. c call grace, is regarded as di foru.ity, and a female so fat and unw ieldy that she cannot even waddle, but is compelled lo lie, and swelter in her flesh, is maintained to be ihc pinnacle of loveliness. From this it would appear—and to pursue the subject were only lo gather testimony to the same < fleet— that beauty is a term indicating nothing in an object, but involved, in the appreciation of the sense that perceives it; and hence that'the maxim that "the cause of a wrong taste is a defect in judgment," is a vulgar error—taste havirg no standard to guide it, Icing a thing aibitiary in its main fcalures, l.ut still, in a great ir.ca?uic, dependent on conventional usages, the conformation of the tenses, association, habit, and country. The foregoing argument will help to explain the grounds on which the Fame female may seem beautiful to the sight of one man, and homely to thct of another ; it will also illustrate the wisdom of nature, which cr.mes every eye to form its own beauty, and thus leavis r.o fentient object without un admiicr to derive pleasure from its conttm plalioa OS Leaving the abstract consideration of what is meant by the terms taste and beauty, I shall speak of them as they relate to ihc human race in this country, and in most others of the civilized wcrhl. It is an evidence of taste to derive pleasure from tha contemph'.l.on of a human face and form, cast afler a clas- sic model ; and ia these classic models human b.-auty acknowlc.'g s its most perfect rcjavseiilaliv's. As ni ,ely-a:iK' pt rsoas in a hundred will unite in opii- ion as to the guutvl In amy of a particular person, it is a s g 1 of a correct las c iui tj be peculiar ia one's notions of excellence. A fine-looking man (:hc wo:-d handsome detracts from the idea of beauty in the male sex,) is above the medium height, but coiisitlerahly under the colossal (about five feet ten inehes is the perfection of ahitude) ; his farehea.l is high and rather square ; his back head is well rounded, but not too full of animal development; his e\es are dark, bright, and fairly set in their sockets, neither lending to recede or protrude ; his hair inclines lo a curl ; his eye- brows are r.thcr sp; re than bisliv, and leave a space of about 1hrec-qu irters of an iindi between their inward extremities ; lis nose is a medium between liomuu and aquiline ; his cheek bones are not prominent, hut still well defined; his chee'. s neither lank nor so rouaded as to indi- cate fatness or ii flatioii ; his month mo Icrately small ; his lips firm, compact, but n.»t thin ; his wins eis are well back on the cheek; his complexion is uuifjrni, belvvee.i Lrovvn and fair, with :i slight leadcacy to a blush, bat not siiffii-ieut to warrant him in being called "rosy-cheeked;" and the whole countenance well, or even strongly marked; for a smooth round face, where the features are all regular, and without any characteristic for a limi.cr lo fasten on, is- 100 incompatible wilh manly beauty. Then his neck is of moderate length, and inclines lo thickness; his throat is free from that protuberance commonly called the apple of Eve; his breast is fairly full; his shoulders square, but not abruptly so, and sufficiently broad to just overhang his hips; his arms are of a length to leave about eight inches between ihe lips of his middle lingers aid his knees; there is a Gradual decrease inwards from the hip and shoulder to Ihe waist; his hips and posterior are well defined; his back is free from the least tendency to roundness, hut is not thrown very much to the icai; his fhighs arc full, but not clumsy; his knees small; the calves of the legs so that they just touch, without pressing against each oilier; his shin rather slender; his ankle small; his instep high, and his foot slightly hollowed, and of a size corresponding to his height—for too small a foot interferes with that elasticity of step, and firmness of carriage, so essential in making up the perfect lout ensemble of a well proportioned man, A person, such as the above, with manners in accord- ance with his external appearance, and a moderate share of confidence, prudence, and intellect, would, if he set him- self about it, inflame any female heart, ami should not be afraid to strike far tlie highest rank and fortune, no matter what his own circumstances might be; for with him, to venture were to w in. Men of larger or smaller dimensions, proportionally formed, may be as pleasing objects to the sight as the above; but altitudes of more than six feet, or less than five feet six, though ever so imposing or pretty, cannot be so prepossessing. The male sex have but few advantages to expect from art. Their costume, to be elegant and becoming, must be plain. A suit of blade—black, hat and all—with a snow 101 while, starch stiffened cravat, plain diamond pin, unruffled shirt bosom, and low collar, scarcely reaching to the chin is Ihe perfection of taste and neatnass. Any deviation fron this is injurious to appearance. A black handker- chief, however, and turned down shirt collar, so that the latter does not indicate too much precision and formality, are not unbecoming ; and when the countenance of the wearer is of a high florid complexion, they may l,e pru- dently substituted for a white cravat. Of all parly col- ored dress coats, blue is least objectionable; but Ioj o-reat a display of metal buttons should be avoided, at the same time that none but metal buttons look even tolerable on this color. The pantaloons worn with a blue coat should be either black or white; also the vest; and indeed parti- colored vests or trowsers are never in good ta>t3. An elegant 1)' made man, however, may wear coals of all colors indifferently, and look elegant in each; but a person not remarkable for beauty of form, cannot do so without injury to his personal appearance. A white cravat must be nearly as thin as a sheet of paper in its thickest fold, aid free from all blemish and wrinkle, or it were betler avoided. A plain gold ring may be worn ; but any dis- play of jewelry beyond thai and the diamond pin, if I ex- cept an exceedingly fine guard chain, is likely to beget in the wearer an air of vulgarity. Great care must be taken in the cut and finish of one's hoofs. Moustaches or impe- rials should not be cu'livatcd, unless they are generally worn, nor even then, except they are black, or of a shade scarcely removed Irani it. And to sum up, the entire cos- tume must fit easily and vv ithout stiffness, or else the wearer may look over dressed, and consequently not quite the gentleman. As to the cut of the clothes it must be dicta- ted by the prevailing fashion ; for, rail at fashion as we id may, a man cannot be well dressed, or look elegant, unless he comports himself in accordance with her laws. By ihc way, a dark complexioncd man, with a strongly marked beard, who wear- a black slock or hand erehief, should not omit the shirt collar; and men would do well lo remember that whiskers composed of straggling hairs, aae a deform- ity in the face. A roundness of shoulders, or eontractioi of chest may be corrected by the use of dumb-bells ; but the broad-sword exercise is a far better remedy—ia fact, a certain one, if la' ea in time. The standard of beauty in women is much less impera- t've '.Inn in men. A woman of any height, from ihc j.elite almost to the g:g"i;t c, may be perfectly beautiful, and of any complexion, Irom the dari est brunette to the fairest lily. The medium height, however, is generally prefer- red; but the complexion is a matter that entirely depends on individual taste ; nor can it be even decided on thus ; for the same person would be likely to waver in choice between the darkly beautiful maidens of Spain and the seraphically lair daughters of Circassia. Nevertheless, though ihe shades of complexion, from the Spanish olive to the Circassian white, or ihe varieties of altitude, from the petite Cleopatra, to that,of ihe towerit g Uoxa -a, mat- ters but little, tfiere are many things arbitrarily essential to perfect beauty in women. I shall describe a be utiful woman,faking her at tie me- dium altitude, which is generally preferred. Her height is live fl-et five inches; her hair is luxuriant, ami of any color that agrees with her complexion; her forehead is ralhcr low, and as free from freckle or wiio.ae as a piece of Paphian marble ; her brows are dark, arched, narrow, and strongly defined ; her eyes are large, rather languish- ing than bright, and of either of the usual colors, for tha l£3 grey eyes of Mary of Scotland were not less captivating* than the raven orbs of ihe Queen of Sheha ; her eye- lasles are dark and long; her nose is a mitigated aquil ine__tha* is, an acquilinc curtailed of its severity ; her lips short and small, and yet withal, full and pouting ; her chin is very sligiiiingly developed ; her cars are small, thin, and with the tij) on a line with the evebrow; her complexion varies with the emotions of her mind, and ihe blush that tinges Iter cheek is delicate, and loses itself ia her face, so as to indicate no perceptible outline; her features are exactly regular, thuigh ma:!e to apuc-w otherwise by the ever-va- rying expression of her lips and eyes, and the fluctuations of the rosv* tide that ebbs and flaws beneath the transparent surface of her s". in; her smile indicates sweetness of dispo- sition, blended with a gently-proad expression, dictated probably by the consciousness of her own worth and beautv; her neck is flexible, moderately slender, of medium length, and pure as alabaster; ihe fall from her neck to her should- er-lips is gradual; her bosom is a gentle swell, so clear that ihe blue veins aie visible ; her shoulders almost verge on broadness, and press back'wards ; her posterior is full ; her hips so well developed as lo extend slightly beyond the shoulders ; her waist is small, lo show the proportions of her hips and shoulders, but is not too laper ; her arms are rounded; her hands delicately small, and figers rather long and lapered ; her thighs and calves, without being flat, in- dicate plumpness; her inslep is high, to secure a good arch to ihe foot, which secures grace in walking; and her knees, instep, and feet, are as small as they can possibly be with- out subjecting them to the character of diminutive. The above is an outline of a magnificent woman—such an one as might vie with Helen of Greece, or dispute the palm of beauty with the Venus de Medici; such an one as 104 all men must adore! And yet we have many in Paris* that would lose nothing in comparison. All tastes would probably unile in being excited and captivated by a woman like the foregoing, but in forms and faces less transcendent- ly excellent, ihey vary : many loving the slender; more the slightly enbonpoint; some chosing the petite ; others the lofty ; those the Hark-Mhcsc the fair: and so on, ti'J nature is salisficc', and every eye has singled out its own beauty. I have insisted on regularity of feature in my out- line of perfection. However, it sometimes happens that females with great regularity of feature are not much ad- mired, while others without this advantage, arc highly eap tivating. This is caused by the influence of internal prir ciples—by an expression proceeding from the mind ; fc in all cases where it occurs, it w ill be found that the regi; lar-featurcd lady is a dull, insipid person, whose soul give no character to her face, unless ihrough its inanity or ab sence ; and that the other is a lady of buoyancy, good na taure, and intellect The following are admitfed, by writers in general, to h% the three species of female beauty, of which all the restart Varieties. No. 1. Face, round ; eyes, soft, pzure ; neck, ralhei short; shoulders, moderately broad and gently rounded bosom, luxuriant and seeming to protrude from the ppac< allotted for ihe arms ; waist, sufficiently marked, thougl encroached on as it were, by the enbonpoint of ihe cor tiguous parts; haunches, gently expanded ; thighs propor tionably large; limbs and arms, tapering and delicate hands and feet, small ; complexion, rose, struggling vviti jjly; hair, luxuriant flaxen, or auburn; eyes, blue; and th whole figure extremely soft and voluptuous. * Tka.nshtoh'b Note.— And not a few in ihe city of New Yoilr. 105 j 2. Oblong face ; neck, long and tapering; shoulders, broad and delicate, without being angular; bosom, mode- rately developed; waist, somewhat resembling an inverted cone; haunches moderately expanded; thighs, proportion- able; limbs and arms, rather long and tapering; feet and hands, rather small; complexion, mostly dark; hair, abun- dant, dark, and strong ; and the whole figure, precise, striking, and brilliant. 3. Oval face ; high, pale, intellectual forehead ; eye, expressive, and full of sensibility, also indicating modesty and dignity; hips and bosom, not very well developed, but withal, her motions are characterized by grace and elegance. It may probably seem presumptuous on my part to offer any advice on the dress of ladies ; but still it can do no harm, and the following hints may be found useful in many cases, for it is not every female heart that knows how to develope her beauties or correct her imperfections. When there are a great variety of colors in a lady's cos- tume, it may be imposing, bnt can hardly be elegant. Uni„ formity of color is more advantageous to the beauty of the countenance, as may be learned by the supernumerary charms that a quaker's gown and bonnet gives to a pretty face. Still, if the contrasts are well chosen a variety of colors look rich on a tall, majestic woman ; but a petite one should avoid them, as they will make her look less than she is. If jewelry is disposed of with taste, a lady may wear any quantity, and catch an additional lustre from every gem. Otherwise, a profusion of glittering stones, will give her costume the air of tawdriness, which may be a serious drawback on her fascinations. If 106 Females with drooping shoulders, should as far as fashion will permit them, eschew short waists. Jewels should form centres ; flowers, unless when worn as a wreath or coronet—and feathers should be worn on one side. Too narrow a face is improved by a bonnet with a wide front, which exposes the lower part of the cheek. Too broad a one, by a bonnet with a close front. And wide jaws will diminish in appearance under a bonnet sloping to the point of the chin. Too long a neck may be corrected by the back of the bonnet descending, and the collar of the dress rising so as to leave but little space between them. When the shoulders are narrow, the shoulders of the dress should be formed on the outer edge of the natural shoulder, be very full, and both the bosom and back of the dress should run in oblique folds from the middle of the bust to the point of the shoulder. A large waist should be rendered less before by a stom- acher, and behind by a corresponding form of the dress, making the dress smooth across the shclulders, and drawing it in plaits to a narrow point at the waist. When the bosom is small, it may be made to seem other- wise, without suspicion, by a dress with oblique folds folds gathered above. There are many means of remedy- ing this defect, but the above is the best. If the lower posterior part of the body be too flat, it may be most naturally elevated by the skirt being gathered behind. When the lower part of the body is too* prominent be- fore, the best correction is an increase of the bosom, a [shortening of the waist, and the establishment of a corres- ponding projectiop behind 107 When the haunches aae narrow, so also should be the ottom of the dress, unless recourse is had to padding. Short women should wear a moderately narrow skirt, very long, and with the flounces' low. Tall women, on the contrary, should wear a wide skirt and several flounces, which will apparently reduce her height. Ladies should be careful to pay every attention to the hips, and to correct any deficiency by the use of those for- eign additions which fashion and habit allow, and in fact, which ladies of the most perfect symmetry use, as the na- tural proportions of the region of the pelvis are not suffi- cient to satisfy the public eye, which has been used to, and grown fascinated of superior developments. When the face is too yellow, the bonnet should be lined with yellow, which, by contrast, will cause the red and blue to predominate. And red lining will cause the yellow and blue to predominate, and thus relieve a red face. And if the face has too much red and yellow, the effect will be removed by a lining of orange. Some faces, again, are too blue, to bring out the red and yellow. \ And in short, when any particular color in the face predominates, so as to mar beauty, a bonnet lining of the same shade will render its superabundance undiscernable. The adjustment of the lining, so as hot to be too much in view, is a matter that must he left to the lady's judgment. It may be as well to add here from a source to which I am indebted for much of the above information, that dark faces are be?t effected by darker colors, because they tend to render the complexion fairer; while fair faces should avoid dark colors, inasmuch as they occasion too strong a contrast. Washing in hard water roughens the skin, as also the use of coarse towels. When soap is applied to the face, neck and breast, it should be in small quantities, (loafs' / low milk softens and smoothens the skin. A good digestion must be kept up or the countenance will suffer by it. Cold water bathing is a most powerful promoter of beauty. Guerin says it even improves the shape and features ; but at all events it removes all impurities from the skin more effectually than any thing else, and freshens the complexion. Moderately rich diet, occasionally corrected by gentle ape- rients, has a fine effect upon the skin and complexion ; while low diet—though contrary to the opinions of some— impoverishes the blood, makes the complexion dingy, and the skin coarse, and occasions blotches on the face. And very tight lacing operates injuriously on the countenance, to say nothing of its other attendant evils. The usual arts for promoting beanty, or shadowing de- fects being sufficiently understood, it is not necessary to enumerate them; nor does it occur to me that any thing of importance can be added on either subject. CHAPTER XIV. Revelations and opinions connected with, and incidental to, the various subjects of all the foregoing chapters. External Signs.—Beauty is said to be the external sign of goodness in women. I shall admit the proposition when I can duly appreciate what beauty is. Judging of it by the general standard of taste it is manifestly wrong, for the worst women are generally very beautiful, and in fact make their beauty the medium of their vices. However, beauty of parts evidence goodness ; as a handsome leg in- dicates a good leg, a fine forehead a fair intellect, and so forth. Procreation.—An author says that to procreate is in effect to die to one's self, and leave one's life in posterity. Nonsense. Continent men in the average die sooner than than those who are married. Moderate intercourse de- prives the system of nothing but what it is healthful to lose. Love Matches.—It is an old saying, that love matches are seldom or never happy. By this rule hate matches would promote the pleasures of matrimony. The idea is absurd. Unless there is love before marriage there is seldom any feeling warmer than moderate friendship after- wards. no Double Uturus.—Some women have a double uturus ; and in sueh persons a double conception may take place, and the foetuses be excluded at different periods—occasion- ally several months apart. In such cases the foetuses are not twins. Disease.—It is not too much to say that three out of every five women of a certain class, are the ceaseless vic- tims of an infectious disease. How severe then must be the price which libertines pay for their unsatisfactory in- dulgences. Courting.—In Wales and Holland the young people have a way of courting in which they go to bed together, and discuss the preliminaries of marriage. The Welsh and Dutch contend for the*morality of this fashion, and maintain that it. never results in any thing wrong. This may be ; and it cannot be denied that the mode must be extremely agreeable to those whom it may concern, and calculated to make lovers acquainted with each other's dis- » positions; but still I am afraid it might be a dangerous ex- periment to be attempted in France. Sex.—I have been often inclined to think, and have consulted with many whose opinions are valuable, and who were greatly struck with the theory, that the dominant party at the time of intercourse—that is, the parent who is most prolific—governs the sex of the child. Early Jlffection.—Young men of salacious habits, should commence as soon as possible after the period of puberty, to direct their feelings within the channels of a virtuous courtship; for this alone can chastise their desires, and insure to them an unbroken constitution. Modesty.—Were people to go perfectly naked, it would be a benefit to morality. "The rest of the body," as a celebrated painter truly observed, "not having advantages Ill in common with the face, would soon satiate the eye, were it to be constantly exposed, nor would it have more effect than a marble statue." Perhaps it would have less, as it would be likely to be less faultlessly developed. It is not the natural form that excites erotic desires so much as the art which women use to make it look attractive. Lottery.—It has been argued by eminent philosophers that if men and women drew partners in lotteries, there would be about as many suitable matches in the main as are provided by the present system. This may have been the case, but I sincerely flatter myself that a correction of the difficulty may be found, in this book. Protracted Fertility.—Good argues,rthat moderation is necessary to reproduction ; that is, that the feelings must not be too much excited; and he relates the following case in point. "I remember many years ago a healthy young couple,jWho continued without offspring for seven or eight years after marriage, at which period the lady for the first time became pregnant, and continued to add to her family every year, till she had six or seven children; and in pro- fessional conversation with the father, he has clearly made it appear to me, that the cause of sterility, during the above period, was the mutual warmth which existed between^ him and his wife. Time, that by degrees, broke the vigor of the encounter, effected at length a radical cure, and gave him an offspring he had almost despaired of. Children.—The children of aged parents, or where one is old and the other is young, are usually delicate and spare of form, and are rarely well organised. Sympathetic Love.—In courting, a great deal depends, if simple truth fails, in studying a woman's character. "Six men,"' says a writer*,'"will be making love to one lady; the first a title, the second a fortune, the third a 112 beauty, the fourth a talker, the fifth a flatterer, and the sixth a man with apparently no advantage, who will sit apart in a corner and sigh, scarcely noticed the while by his more showy rivals. After a time, however, the lady is married, and under such circumstances it usually turns out—to the surprise of all concerned but the principal par- ties—that the gentleman of the forlorn hope in the corner, has been the successful candidate. Indeed a silent, intellec- tual-looking man, who sts apart, sighs deeply, and occa- sionally looks at the lady as if he was praying to her, or for her, is generally a dangerous rival. Sign of Nursing.-~-The right shoulders of mothers and nursery maids are larger and rather more elevated than the left; which forms one of the most principal objections that fashionable ladies have against nursing their own children. Could the nurseling be carried in each arm alike, this ine- quality would not be occasioned. Chastity.—Chastity adds to the force of love, to the vigor of the organs, and is a sure means of fecundity. Celibacy.—"If men," says Dubois, "are prone to choose a life of celibacy for its intrinsic merits, women are less so; and the cause is obvious, for the very unjust usages of so- ciety render it much more convenient for the one to do without a wife than the other without a husband. The unjust usages of society are those which tolerate libertines, but cannot pardon error in women." Loveage.—The leaves of loveage eaten in salad are as good in cases of obstructions of the mouth by discharge, as any thing I know of, and I cannot account for its having gone into disuse of late days. ?* 4 *>'V