and culture! No doubt, the unbridled lust
for gain urges men to feverish activity; but this kind of zeal, which
is nearly always associated with the passion for pleasure, and only
works to obtain the means of satisfying it, is unhealthy. It is
necessary for other factors to act in stimulating human work.
Fortunately these forces exist, and can be found, for without work
there can be no culture, social progress nor happiness.

The worship of the golden calf, the utilization of accumulated wealth
as a means of exploiting the work of others for individual interest,
is therefore the primary and principal root of social degeneration,
marriage for money, prostitution and all their corrupt associations.
If this root is not torn out, humanity will never succeed in the
sanitation of sexual matters. The struggle against the exaggerated
modern legal rights of capital, and the abuses which result from it,
is therefore one of the most important tasks to be accomplished in
order to lead indirectly to the sanitation of sexual intercourse.

=2. The Use of Narcotics.=--The habit of using narcotic poisons,
especially alcohol, leads to the physical and moral degeneration of
men, a degeneration which not only affects the individuals concerned,
but also their germinal cells and consequently their offspring. I have
designated this degeneration by the term _blastophthoria_.
Blastophthoria is intimately connected with sexual phenomena, and
thanks to it, the individual influence of these poisons may extend to
many generations.

A single radical remedy would be easy to apply, if men were not so
much the slaves of their habits and prejudices, of capital and the
passion for pleasure. All narcotic substances, especially distilled
and fermented drinks, should be abolished as a means of pleasure and
relegated to pharmacy, in which they may still be used as remedies,
with special precautions. Alcohol may also be used for industrial
purposes.

Science has proved that even the most moderate indulgence in alcohol
disturbs the association of ideas, and renders them more superficial,
without the subject being aware of it. This slight degree of alcoholic
narcosis causes in man a temporary feeling of pleasure and gayety to
which he soon becomes accustomed. In this way there is created in him
a desire for more, too often with increasing doses.

Most narcotics, especially alcohol (either fermented or distilled),
have the peculiarity of exciting the sexua