any husbands are absolutely sterile; for it is a
mistake to consider that every man must be prolific who is vigorous and
enjoys good health. Neither does it follow, because a woman has never
given birth to a living child, that she has not conceived. About one
marriage in eight is unproductive of living children, and therefore
fails to add to the population. The seeds of life have, however, been
more extensively sown among women than these figures would seem to
indicate. If the life of an infant for a long time after birth is a
frail one, before birth its existence is precarious in the extreme. It
often perishes soon after conception. A sickness, unusually long and
profuse, occurring in a young married woman a few days beyond the
regular time, is often the only evidence she will ever have that a life
she has communicated has been ended almost as soon as begun. A tendency
to miscarriage may therefore be all that stands in the way of a family.
This is generally remediable.

It is a well-known fact that frigidity is a frequent cause of
barrenness, as well as a barrier to matrimonial happiness. Its removal,
so desirable, is in many cases possible by detecting and doing away with
the cause. The causes are so various, that their enumeration here would
be tedious and unprofitable, for most of them can only be discovered
and remedied by a practical physician who has studied the particular
case under consideration. So also in regard to the various displacements
and diseases of the womb preventing conception. Proper medical treatment
is usually followed by the best results.

While the fact that pleasure is found in the marital relation is a
favourable augury for impregnation, it has been long noticed that
Messalinas are sterile. It was observed in Paris, that out of one
thousand only six bore children in the course of a year, whereas the
ordinary proportion in that city for that time is three and a half
births for every one hundred of the population.

In some women, nothing seems amiss but too intense passion. Such cases
are much more rare than instances of the opposite extreme producing the
same effect.

A condition of debility, or the presence of certain special poisons in
the blood, may prevent conception, or, what is to all intents the same
thing, cause miscarriage. Many apparently feeble women have large
families. But in numerous instances a tonic and sometimes an alternative
constitutional treatment is required before pr