power of
resistance by alcohol or venereal disease.

Among savages, and at the present day among many peasants, children
are rather an advantage than a burden, because these people have
simple and healthy habits and few wants. It is our artificial and
unhealthy desire for luxury, frivolity, comfort and enjoyment, our
muscular weakness resulting from want of exercise, our exaggerated
terror of diseases and microbes, in a word our effeminacy, which makes
us so incapable of rearing large families simply and cheaply. No doubt
it becomes more and more necessary to give children a good education,
and this necessity complicates the question. But, in my opinion this
education will in the future be conducted by the State.

=Hygiene of Pregnancy.=--This subject is too special to be fully dealt
with here. We may, however, mention that idleness and overwork are
equally detrimental to the pregnant woman and her child. It is
needless to say that every pregnant woman requires care and good food.
Violent efforts, especially in the upright position, should be avoided
(vide Bachimont: _La Puericulture intra-uterine_, 1898, Paris). But
domestic work and moderate exercise of the body are beneficial.
Precautions are especially necessary during the last months of
pregnancy for the general health of the mother and child, but
imprudence during the early months may cause abortion in many women.
The progressive enervation of women in easy circumstances has no doubt
rendered them less adapted to procreation. This failing should be
corrected by progressive but prudent training.

=Medical Advice as to Marriage.=--The permission or prohibition of
marriage is a delicate question at the present day, but will be less
so in the future, if our propositions are realized. If one of the two
candidates for matrimony has been or is still insane, or seriously
affected with tuberculosis, or with active syphilis or chronic
gonorrhea, it is clearly our duty to prohibit marriage.

If the situation is not so grave, and if it is only a question of
hereditary taint, especially when there is a probability of the
offspring being deformed in body or mind, we may content ourselves
with prohibiting the procreation of children, while giving permission
for marriage, provided anticonceptional measures are used. The
importance of these measures is obvious in such cases. We should
explain to the young people in question that the procreation of
unhealthy or backward childr