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of the greater danger of abortion, at other times moderate indulgence is permissible, while moralists urge that the virtue of husbands would be endangered by any restrictions. With these discussions, however, we have nothing to do in this connection. We merely allude to them as proving that there is a recognized danger to health of parents and life of offspring in the least departure from the rule of continence during gestation. The legitimate object of the sexual act being absent, no physiological end can be subserved, and the practice is, therefore, against nature, and consequently injurious. "To make love at all times is what distinguishes man from other animals," says Beaumarehais; and, in fact, with all other animals the condition of pregnancy is sacred from masculine approaches. There is no exception to this law. It might, therefore, be supposed that the exaltation of the sexual instinct by the imagination and vicious practices of man is the occasion of his violation of what appears to be a law of nature. Such is indeed the fact, and, like many another unnatural proceeding, it surely entails its punishment.
Abortions during the first few days after conception are exceedingly frequent, and often occur without the knowledge of the parties. A woman "goes over her time" by a few days, and then has some pain and considerable flooding. She regards as delayed menstruation what in fact was a veritable conception; and these abortions are very frequently repeated, eventuating in broken health and sterility. By far the most common origin of such evils is the fault in question.
It is a fact long admitted in science that excessive coition during pregnancy exerts a profound influence upon the child, occasionally those puny, sickly little objects of compassion upon whom "the sins of their fathers" have
