sterility is an excessive sexual indulgence. In such cases, a temporary separation is advisable. We know of many instances where this measure has been rewarded by successful consequences. A few sea-baths on the part of the husband during the separation, will be greatly conducive to the regaining of his manly vigor.
There is a time, also, when woman is said to be naturally sterile; and that is, after the ovum has escaped the womb, which generally happens about the twelfth day after menstruation. From this time to two or three days before the menses are due again, many physiologists maintain that woman is absolutely sterile.
Besides the above-mentioned period, it may also be stated that, as a rule, women do not generally conceive while nursing their infants.
Beyond these normal periods of temporary barrenness, however, sterility is quite frequent among women; and the causes are often obscure. The organic causes are: a closure of the uterine neck; imperfections in the conformation of the Fallopian tubes or ovaries; and strictures of the vagina itself. Physiologists have advanced other theories, such as the absence of voluptuous sensation at the approach of the conjugal relation, contrast of temperaments, etc.
This latter, which is called "the theory of frigidity," is untenable, from the fact that many women who have never experienced the slightest voluptuous sensation have conceived and given birth to a numerous family; that women have conceived when commerce was forced on them under the most repugnant circumstances, or even under the most complete lethargy.
The contrast of temperament — although very rarely — has sometimes been proven a true cause of sterility, by the fact that a man and a woman who never have had children
