the fathers of women unable to
suckle their infants (G. von Bunge, _Die Zunehmende Unfaehigkeit
der Frauen ihre Kinder zu Stillen_, 1903) while even an
approximation to the drunken state is far from being a desirable
prelude to the creation of a new human being. It is obvious that
those who wish, for any reason, to cultivate a strict chastity of
thought and feeling would do well to avoid alcohol altogether, or
only in its lightest forms and in moderation. The aphrodisiacal
effects of wine have long been known; Ovid refers to them (e.g.,
_Ars Am._, Bk. III, 765). Clement of Alexandria, who was
something of a man of science as well as a Christian moralist,
points out the influence of wine in producing lasciviousness and
sexual precocity. (_Paedagogus_, Bk. II, Chapter II). Chaucer
makes the Wife of Bath say in the Wife of Bath's Prologue:--

"And, after wyn, on Venus moste [needs] I thinke:
For al so siken as cold engendreth hayl,
A likerous mouth moste have a likerous tayl,
In womman vinolent is no defense,
This knowen lechours by experience."

Alcohol, as Chaucer pointed out, comes to the aid of the man, who
is unscrupulous in his efforts to overcome a woman, and this not
merely by virtue of its aphrodisiacal effects, and the apparently
special influence which it seems to exert on women, but also
because it lulls the mental and emotional characteristics which
are the guardians of personality. A correspondent who has
questioned on this point a number of prostitutes he has known,
writes: "Their accounts of the first fall were nearly always the
same. They got to know a 'gentleman,' and on one occasion they
drank too much; before they quite realized what was happening
they were no longer virgins." "In the mental areas, under the
influence of alcohol," Schmiedeberg remarks (in his _Elements of
Pharmacology_), "the finer degrees of observation, judgment, and
reflection are the first to disappear, while the remaining mental
functions remain in a normal condition. The soldier acts more
boldly because he notices dangers less and reflects over them
less; the orator does not allow himself to be influenced by any
disturbing side-considerations as to his audience, hence he
speaks more freely and spiritedly; self-consciousness is lost to
a very great extent, an