The philosophy of marriage : being four important lectures on the functions and disorders of the nervous system, and reproductive organs, illustrated with cases / by L.J. Jordan.

  • Jordan, Henry J.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of marriage : being four important lectures on the functions and disorders of the nervous system, and reproductive organs, illustrated with cases / by L.J. Jordan. 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.)

    41/126
    The ordinance of marriage being clearly, ac- cording to both physiological science and divine law, one mainly intended for the procreation of healthy offspring, it must of necessity be crim- inal in every respect for those who are so unfor- tunate as to labor under any hindrance,whether naturally or from disease, to the due perform- ance of the duties of an honorable union, to con- ceal that hindrance or defect, or to consummate an union with a person of the opposite sex, without taking advantage of every aid which medical or physiological skill can afford to re- move it. And if further proof than that which plain reasoning furnishes be required in sup- port of this assertion, it is furnished by the fact, that such a crime invariably brings its own pun- ishment with it in a life of misery and dis- content, further embittered by the reflection of the guilty party, that he has involved an inno- cent being, not in his criminality but in its pun- nishment. It is therefore obvious that, before entering into the state of matrimony, it is incumbent upon every one to consider seriously whether he may not be one of those who may be risking his own life-long happiness, defeating his own expectations, involving in irremediable misery his intended pai'tner, and endangering the health and well-being of possible offspring. It is time that many may and do err from ig- norance; they may be honest, temperate and vir- tuous, and contract the obligation in a confident belief of the integrity and efficiency of their vir- ile power, finding but too late that they had committed a fearful and (if they do not suspect the cause and seek a remedy) irreparable error.