Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners Part 33

3. TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER.--Those not accustomed to use v.a.g.i.n.al injections would do well to use water milk-warm at the commencement; after this the temperature may be varied according to circ.u.mstances. In case of local inflammation use hot water. The indiscriminate use of cold water injections will be found rather injurious than beneficial, and a woman in feeble health will always find warm water invigorating and preferable.

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4. LEUCORRHOEA.--In case of persistent leucorrhoea use the temperature of water from seventy-two to eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit.

5. THE CLEANSER will greatly stimulate the health and spirits of any woman who uses it. Pure water injections have a stimulating effect, and it seems to invigorate the entire body.

6. SALT AND WATER INJECTIONS.--This will cure mild cases of leucorrhoea.

Add a teaspoonful of salt to a pint and a half of water at the proper temperature. Injections may be repeated daily if deemed necessary.

7. SOAP AND WATER.--Soap and water is a very simple domestic remedy, and will many times afford relief in many diseases of the womb. It seems it thoroughly cleanses the parts. A little borax or vinegar may be used the same as salt water injections. (See No. 6.)

8. STERILE WOMEN desiring offspring should seek s.e.xual union soon after the appearance of the menses, and not use the v.a.g.i.n.al cleanser till several days later. Those not desiring offspring should avoid copulation until the ovum has pa.s.sed the generative tract.

9. HOLES IN THE TUBES.--Most of the holes in the tubes of syringes are too small. See that they are sufficiently large to produce thorough cleansing.

10. INJECTIONS DURING THE MONTHLY FLOW.--Of course it is not proper to arrest the flow, and the injections will stimulate a healthy action of the organs. The injections may be used daily throughout the monthly flow with much comfort and benefit. If the flow is scanty and painful the injections may be as warm as they can be comfortably borne. If the flowing is immoderate, then cool water may be used. A woman will soon learn her own condition and can act accordingly.

11. BLOOM AND GRACE OF YOUTH.--The regular bathing of the body will greatly improve woman's beauty. Remember that a perfect complexion depends upon the healthy action of all the organs. v.a.g.i.n.al injections are just as important as the bath. A beautiful woman must not only be cleanly, but robust and healthy. There can be no perfect beauty without good health.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

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IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Trying On a New Dress.]

1. Actual impotence during the period of manhood is a very rare complaint, and nature very unwillingly, and only after the absolute neglect of sanitary laws, gives up the power of reproduction.

2. Not only sensual women, but all without exception, feel deeply hurt, and are repelled by the husband whom they may previously have loved dearly, when, after entering the married state, they find that he is impotent. The more inexperienced and innocent they were at the time of marriage, the longer it often is before they find that something is lacking in the husband; but, once knowing this, the wife infallibly has a feeling of contempt and aversion for him; though there are many happy families where this defect exists. It is often very uncertain who is the weak one, and no cause for separation should be sought.

3. Unhappy marriages, barrenness, divorces, and perchance an occasional suicide, may be prevented by the experienced physician, who can generally give correct information, comfort, and consolation, when consulted on these delicate matters.

4. When a single man fears that he is unable to fulfill the duties of marriage, he should not marry until his fear is dispelled. The suspicion of such a fear strongly tends to bring about the very weakness which he dreads. Go to a good physician (not to one of those quacks whose {249} advertis.e.m.e.nts you see in the papers; they are invariably unreliable), and state the case fully and freely.

5. Diseases, malformation, etc., may cause impotence. In case of malformation there is usually no remedy, but in case of disease it is usually within the reach of a skillful physician.

6. Self-abuse and spermatorrhoea produce usually only temporary impotence and can generally be relieved by carrying out the instructions given elsewhere in this book.

7. Excessive indulgences often enfeeble the powers and often result in impotence. Dissipated single men, professional libertines, and married men who are immoderate, often pay the penalty of their violations of the laws of nature, by losing their vital power. In such cases of excess there may be some temporary relief, but as age advances the effects of such indiscretion will become more and more manifest.

8. The condition of sterility in man may arise either from a condition of the secretion which deprives it of its fecundating powers or it may spring from a malformation which prevents it reaching the point where fecundation takes place. The former condition is most common in old age, and is a sequence of venereal disease, or from a change in the structure or functions of the glands. The latter has its origin in a stricture, or in an injury, or in that condition technically known as hypospadias, or in debility.

9. It can be safely said that neither self-indulgence nor spermatorrhoea often leads to permanent sterility.

10. It is sometimes, however, possible, even where there is sterility in the male, providing the secretion is not entirely devoid of life properties on part of the husband, to have children, but these are exceptions.

11. No man need hesitate about matrimony on account of sterility, unless that condition arises from a permanent and absolute degeneration of his functions.

12. Impotence from mental and moral causes often takes place. Persons of highly nervous organization may suffer incapacity in their s.e.xual organs.

The remedy for these difficulties is rest and change of occupation.

13. REMEDIES IN CASE OF IMPOTENCE ON ACCOUNT OF FORMER PRIVATE DISEASES, OR MASTURBATION, OR OTHER CAUSES.--First build up the body by taking some good stimulating tonics. The general health is the most essential feature to be considered, in order to secure restoration of the s.e.xual powers.

Constipation must be carefully avoided. If the {250} kidneys do not work in good order, some remedy for their restoration must be taken. Take plenty of out-door exercise, avoid horseback riding or heavy exhaustive work.

14. FOOD AND DRINKS WHICH WEAKEN DESIRE.--All kinds of food which cause dyspepsia or bring on constipation, diarrhoea, or irritate the bowels, alcoholic beverages, or any indigestible compound, has the tendency to weaken the s.e.xual power. Drunkards and tipplers suffer early loss of vitality. Beer drinking has a tendency to irritate the stomach and to that extent affects the private organs.

15. COFFEE.--Coffee drank excessively causes a debilitating effect upon the s.e.xual organs. The moderate use of coffee can be recommended, yet an excessive habit of drinking very strong coffee will sometimes wholly destroy vitality.

16. TOBACCO.--It is a hygienic and physiological fact that tobacco produces s.e.xual debility and those who suffer any weakness from that source should carefully avoid the weed in all its forms.

17. DRUGS WHICH STIMULATE DESIRE.--There are certain medicines which act locally on the membranes and organs of the male, and the papers are full of advertis.e.m.e.nts of "Lost Manhood Restored", etc., but in every case they are worthless or dangerous drugs and certain to lead to some painful malady or death. All these patent medicines should be carefully avoided. People who are troubled with any of these ailments should not attempt to doctor themselves by taking drugs, but a competent physician should be consulted.

Eating rye, corn, or graham bread, oatmeal, cracked wheat, plenty of fruit, etc. is a splendid medicine. If that is not sufficient, then a physician should be consulted.

18. DRUGS WHICH MODERATE DESIRE.--Among one of the most common domestic remedies is camphor. This has stood the test for ages. Small doses of half a grain in most instances diminishes the sensibility of the organs of s.e.x.

In some cases it produces irritation of the bladder. In that case it should be at once discontinued. On the whole a physician had better be consulted.

The safest drug among domestic remedies is a strong tea made out of hops.

Saltpeter, or nitrate of potash, taken in moderate quant.i.ties, are very good remedies.

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19. STRICTLY SPEAKING there is a distinction made between _impotence_ and _sterility_. _Impotence_ is a loss of power to engage in the s.e.xual act and is common to men. It may be imperfection in the male organ or a lack of sufficient s.e.xual vigor to produce and maintain erection. _Sterility_ is a total loss of capacity in the reproduction of the species, and is common to women.

There are, however, very few causes of barrenness that cannot be removed when the patient is perfectly developed. Sterility, in a female, most frequently depends upon a weakness or irritability either in the ovaries or the womb, and anything having a strengthening effect upon either organ will remove the disability. (See page 249.)

20. "OVER-INDULGENCE in intercourse," says Dr. Hoff, "is sometimes the cause of barrenness; this is usually puzzling to the interested parties, inasmuch as the practices which, in their opinion, should be the source of a numerous progeny, have the very opposite effect. By greatly moderating their ardor, this defect may be remedied."

21. "NAPOLEON AND JOSEPHINE.--A certain adaptation between the male and female has been regarded as necessary to conception, consisting of some mysterious influence which one s.e.x exerts over the other, neither one, however, being essentially impotent or sterile. The man may impregnate one woman and not another, and the woman will conceive by one man and not by another. In the marriage of Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine no children were born, but after he had separated from the Empress and wedded Maria Louisa of Austria, an heir soon came. Yet Josephine had children by Beauharnais, her previous husband. But as all is not known as to the physical condition of Josephine during her second marriage, it cannot be a.s.sumed that mere lack of adaptability was the cause of unfruitfulness between them. There may have been some cause that history has not recorded, or unknown to the state of medical science of those days. There are doubtless many cases of apparently causeless unfruitfulness in marriage that even physicians, with a knowledge of all apparent conditions in the parties, cannot explain; but when, as elsewhere related in this volume, impregnation by artificial means is successfully practised, it is useless to attribute barrenness to purely psychological and adaptative influences."

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Producing Boys or Girls at Will.

1. CAN THE s.e.xES BE PRODUCED AT WILL?--This question has been asked in all ages of the world. Many theories have been advanced, but science has at last replied with some authority. The following are the best known authorities which this age of science has produced.

2. THE AGRICULTURAL THEORY.--The agricultural theory, as it may be called, because adopted by farmers, is that impregnation occurring within four days of the close of the female monthlies produces a girl, because the ovum is yet immature; but that when it occurs after the fourth day from its close, gives a boy, because this egg is now mature; whereas after about the eighth day this egg dissolves and pa.s.ses off, so that impregnation is thereby rendered impossible, till just before the mother's next monthly.--_s.e.xual Science._

3. QUEEN BEES LAY FEMALE EGGS FIRST, and male afterwards. So with hens; the first eggs laid after the tread give females, the last males. Mares shown the stallion late in their periods drop horse colts rather than fillies.--_Napheys._

4. IF YOU WISH FEMALES, give the male at the first sign of heat; if males, at its end.--_Prof. Thury._

5. ON TWENTY-TWO SUCCESSIVE OCCASIONS I desired to have heifers, and succeeded in every case. I have made in all twenty-nine experiments, after this method, and succeeded in every one, in producing the s.e.x I desired.--_A Swiss Breeder._

6. THIS THURY PLAN has been tried on the farms of the Emperor of the French with unvarying success.