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GESTATION AND PARTURITION. 437
mother, then, should observe all the conditions of health;
and if suffering from any disease, or in the practice of
any diseasing habit, she must lose no time in seeking re
formation and cure. For this I have given sufficient di
rections. But, when she has reason, according to the
rules I have given in treating of the generative func
tion, to expect that the embraces of the man she loves
will produce pregnancy, she has many motives to be
true to herself, and to the laws which God has impressed
upon her constitution. Let her be calm, temperate,
and happy. Let her guard against amative excess. Es
pecially in the honeymoon, love runs into absorption
and exhaustion; and permanent happiness is sacrificed
to a few days of delirious and not very satisfying en
joynient. The tone of the uterine system is relaxed
by this excess ; the germ is weakened ; the spermatic
fluid is exhausted of its vital qualities ; and the result
is, a sickly, nervous a pregnancy, protracted and painful
short-lived infant.
parturition, and a sickly,
Begin right, then, with as temperance, the best, con
servator of health and pleasure; and were there no
motive but the preservation of your beauty and attrac
tive charms, so as to keep the love of your husband, that
alone should be sufficient. But the woman who has the
joys of a mother in prospective, has holier motives to
perform her duty.
When a woman finds herself pregnant, she should
double her care and diligence. I have /
very strongly
expressed the belief that in this state no strength
should be expended in sexual intercourse. "When
pregnancy exists," says a distinguished physiologist,
"
every wish is consummated ; satisfied with her