that the pollen or male element must
unite with the ovum or female element in order to produce the seed that
will develop into the new plant. The same fact is true of the human
race. Before pregnancy can take place there must be a meeting and fusion
of the vital elements of the two sexes. This fertilization of the ovum
or joining of the male and female elements is called conception. It is
brought about by coitus, by means of which the semen of the male is
deposited in the vagina of the female. This act is called insemination,
although conception does not follow unless the ovum and spermatozoon
(life-giving element of the semen) come together and unite. When this
occurs the woman conceives and enters upon a period of pregnancy. The
time at which conception is least likely to occur is from the
seventeenth to the twenty-third day after menstruation ceases.

During the first year of married life couples are liable to abuse the
love sense by over-indulgence and thereby use up too much of their
energy. This affects their health, especially that of the young wife,
who finds herself always being tired and is unable to account for it.
Her daily tasks become a drudgery, for she is too exhausted to have the
strength to perform them. After the tasks finally are finished, she is
too tired to don the afternoon dress, and so easily falls into untidy
habits. This brings its train of results. The young husband, on his
return from work, fails to find his wife the bright, attractive girl he
married and gradually grows indifferent.

The relation of intercourse to conception is a problem that each husband
and wife must settle for themselves. Some educators claim that only for
the one is the other allowable, that the bearing and raising of children
is the sole aim of married life. Naturally this is the fundamental end
of the sex instinct. But in the present-day, practical married life it
would be impossible to convince the majority that the impulse of sex
gratification was given to them for this one purpose only.

The sense of well being and the increased capacity for work, that
follows a moderate exercise of this function, tends to convince us that
it has a beneficial effect upon the entire system if exercised
moderately. As to what constitutes moderation or temperance depends upon
the individual. What would be moderation to some would be excess to
others. It may be taken as a general rule that the after-effects will
indicate the amount.