especially
among women. One of the very first things which women must learn to
understand is the control of conception and the control of venereal
diseases. They must learn how to prevent the birth of the unfit; how to
secure the birth of the fit; and even though their husbands are infective
they must learn how to break the chain of infection in their own bodies,
so that what is bad for the race does not become worse. If women are brave
enough and wise enough, they can in most cases _wipe out the scourge of
venereal diseases from their own hearths and homes_, and ensure that every
child born is at least physically fit. But this cannot be done without
_knowledge_, and that knowledge is at present lacking.

The following pages are written with the object of imparting useful,
practical knowledge to sensible and serious women. The women who accept
and apply this knowledge can rest calm in the sure and certain faith that
it is their offspring who will build up the coming race.

II.--PRACTICAL METHODS OF PREVENTION.

A. FOR WOMEN:

SEXUAL REPRODUCTION.

To understand the practical methods of birth-control, or the control of
conception, we must first have a clear view of the processes involved when
the reproductive organs are in activity, and of the nature and situation
of the sexual organs themselves. The diagrams on pages 34, 35 and 36 show
in general outline the reproductive organs of man and woman.

Now fertilisation does not necessarily occur whenever the male organ comes
in contact with the female organ. Fertilisation occurs only when a
male-cell (spermatazoon) unites with a female-cell (ovum); in other words,
when the spermatazoa in the seminal fluid of a man meet and unite with the
germ or ovum in the body of a woman. That is the beginning of the child.
This union of the two cells need not take place during or immediately
after sexual intercourse. It may occur many hours, or even two or three
weeks, after connection, because the spermatazoa have motion of their own.
They are tiny threadlike bodies, which may work their way towards the
ovum long after they have left the body of the man and been placed in the
body of the woman, and the uterus has a searching movement, and may by its
pulsations draw the spermatazoa upwards. For these reasons a woman cannot
be quite sure of the exact time of fertilisation, and hence cannot predict
exactly the date of the child-birth. Generally the pregnancy lasts nine
months,