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FUNCTION OF GENERATION. 149
and dangerous ; but in animals where the periods are
frequent, or where one male encounters many females,
the organs are always in an active condition, and the
male always ready to perform the duties which nature
has imposed upon him, and to enjoy the pleasures
which she gives as a reward. But it must not be sup
posed that pleasure is the only attraction. The instinct
of reproduction is above all mere sensual gratification.
It is no means by certain that this act is one always of
pleasure to animals, while, in our own species, the sex
ual congress is often to the woman either entirely indif
ferent, or painful. Gestation is to many a long disease,
and parturition a death agony. Still, the desire for
offspring triumphs over all these terrible perversions.
In animals where there is but one gestation in a year,
but while the
fhere is usually but one period of heat ;
periods of gestation and lactation extend over nearly
two years in the human female, when these are at an
end, she regularly, every month, throws off an ovum,
marked by the menstrual discharge ; and, of course, is
every month prepared to receive the sexual embrace.
It seems to be fairly inferable, that once a month is the
natural period in which a woman requires sexual union;
and it may be doubted whether any greater frequency
is not a violation of natural law. At this period, how
condition, she is full of ardor
ever, when in a healthy
and has a great capacity for enjoyment, and is seldom
satisfied with a single sexual act. The period of ex
citement, moreover, may last for several or days, all
the time the ovum is passing from the ovary to the
uterus. Once there, it should not be disturbed by any
passionate orgasms, whose tendency, from that time