Woman physiologically considered : as to mind, morals, marriage, matrimonial slavery, infidelity and divorce : with an appendix, containing notes and additions, edited by an American physician / by Alexander Walker.

  • Walker, Alexander, 1779-1852.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Woman physiologically considered : as to mind, morals, marriage, matrimonial slavery, infidelity and divorce : with an appendix, containing notes and additions, edited by an American physician / by Alexander Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    These circumstances, moreover, being added to her weakness and timidity, lead her to seek support in su. perstition, and to prefer the most enthusiastic and extravagant theological doctrines. In all this, the particular and instinctive influence of the matrix has great effects. Plutarch accordingly informs us, that the Pythoness of Delphi ascended the tripod to prophesy only once a month; and perhaps at no other periods, could even she have imagined ♦' that she felt a presentiment of the approach of the god, and amidst wild agitations, tearing of hair, and foaming of the mouth, have exclaimed, I feel—^I feel the god ! Lo, he appears !—Behold the god !—and have repeated his discourse and his oracles correctly. In modern times, it is chiefly through the enthusi- asm of woman that religious creeds have been promul- gated. (Appendix.) The nun in the cloister, says Diderot, feels herself elevated to the skies; her soul pours itself forth in the bosom of the divinity ; her essence mingles with the divine essence. She faints; she swoons ; her breast rises and falls with rapidity ; her companions flock round, and cut the laces of her vestments. Night comes on; she hears the celestial choirs; her voice joins theirs in concert. Again she returns to earth ; she speaks of joys ineffa- ble ; she is listened to ; she is convinced, and she persuades others. So natural is all this to woman, that St. Lambert says, There are even some superstitions that I would leave to the majority of men, and still more to that of women. I would not prohibit their worship of some inferior divinities, which might present to them exam- ples, and promise them protection. The personifying