Plain home talk about the human system : the habits of men and women, the causes and prevention of disease, our sexual relations and social natures : embracing medical common sense applied to causes, prevention, and cure of chronic diseases, the natural relations of men and women to each other, society, love, marriage, parentage, etc., etc. / by Edward B. Foote.

  • Foote, Edward B. (Edward Bliss), 1829-1906.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Plain home talk about the human system : the habits of men and women, the causes and prevention of disease, our sexual relations and social natures : embracing medical common sense applied to causes, prevention, and cure of chronic diseases, the natural relations of men and women to each other, society, love, marriage, parentage, etc., etc. / by Edward B. Foote. 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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    Fig- 53. of them. Would not such places of resort be full of entertainment for women, and also full of attraction for men ? Would they not, if properly managed, successfully compete with the drinking saloons, gambling hells, and houses of prostitution, in arresting the interest, and securing the presence of young men who are now the patrons of demoralizing attractions ? If we create free public schools for the education of our children, may we not with equal benefit to the com- munity, create institutions which shall encourage moral, intellectual, and physical development of men and women ? At what fixed age should the State abandon the intellectual and physical culture of its people ? Prostitution. It is sickening to reflect that in Christian countries there exists, to an extent even greater than in the vast domain where the Christian religion is not taught, a class of women who, for a sum of money varying from 25 cents to $100, will put themselves in sexual contact with men for whom they entertain no sentiment of love, no sense of physical attraction, and toward whom they, in many cases, feel an aversion if not disgust. It is also humiliating to all who are working for, and have faith in, the ultimate moral and physical regeneration of the human race, that the amative pas- sions of men can be so morbid as to lead them for one moment to value an indul- gence of this nature which can be pur- chased like a x>aper of tobacco or a glass of rum ; but look whichever way we will, we are confronted by a mascu- line element wherein the sentiment of love is so perverted that there is a perpetual demand for demoralizing indulgence ; and a female ele- ment wherein perverted love, pride of dress, and destitution, stand ready to supply it. Hence, sexual gratification becomes an article of commerce, purchased by the male and sold by the female, greatly to the moral and physical degradation of both. The first effect upon the female is moral debasement. Her countenance may have exhibited all the marks of trouble, disappointment, and want; but now she THE INNOCENT GIRL CHANGED BY HARDSHIP AND VICE.