nts, than the
actual triumphs of surgical operations, than sero-therapy, than
vaccination, etc.? In the same way that shortsighted and longsighted
persons wear spectacles, or those who have no teeth use artificial
ones, so may men who are tainted by hereditary disease employ
preventatives in coitus to avoid the procreation of a tainted progeny;
and the same means may be employed to give women time to recover their
strength after each confinement.

=Resume.=--Let us briefly recapitulate the matter contained in the
chapters of this book:

(1). In the first five chapters I have given an account of the natural
history, anatomy and functions of the reproductive organs, and the
psychology of sexual life.

(2). In Chapter VI, I have given (chiefly according to Westermarck) a
_resume_ of ethnography and the history of sexual relations in the
different human races.

(3). In Chapter VII, I have attempted to trace the zoological
evolution of sexual life along the line of our animal ancestors, and
to briefly describe the evolution of sexual life in the individual,
from birth till death. I have thus endeavored to acquaint the reader
with the two sources of our sexual sensations and sentiments--the
hereditary or phylogenetic source, and the source acquired and adapted
by the individual.

(4). In Chapter VIII, I have described the pathology of sexual life,
because this concerns social life much more than is generally
supposed.

(5). In Chapters IX to XVIII, I have explained the relations of sexual
life to the most important spheres of human sentiments and interests,
to suggestion, money and property, to the external conditions of life,
to religion, law, medicine, morality, politics, political economy,
pedagogy and art. Incidentally, I have glanced at the social
organizations and customs which depend on these relations.

If we sum up the results obtained, we can draw from them a series of
conclusions which we will divide into two groups:

NEGATIVE TASKS

_Suppression of the Direct or Indirect Causes of Sexual Evils and
Abuses, and the Social Vices which Correspond to Them_

The corruption into which a semi-civilization has plunged humanity, by
facilitating the means of obtaining satisfaction for its unbridled
passion for pleasure, is maintained by the latter itself. But in the
long run, the unlimited abandonment of the individual to pleasure
cannot be in accord with the welfare and progress of society. This is
the knot