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- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
In "Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects," Henry N. Guernsey addresses a myriad of pressing yet often neglected topics, ranging from health and morality to social conventions and philosophical inquiries. Written during the late 19th century, Guernsey employs a didactic style that seamlessly blends humor with earnest discourse, compelling readers to confront uncomfortable truths within a rapidly changing society. His contributions are set against the backdrop of an era marked by burgeoning scientific understanding and social progress, reflecting a desire for honest conversation about issues that were frequently shunned or deemed taboo. Henry N. Guernsey was a physician and a social reformer whose robust medical ethics and progressive views greatly influenced his writing. His experiences in the medical field, coupled with his keen observations of societal dynamics, empowered him to challenge deeply ingrained norms. This background provided the impetus for Guernsey's exploration of delicate subjects, allowing him to merge his clinical understanding with moral philosophy to create a compelling narrative that advocates for transparency and knowledge in public discourse. I highly recommend "Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects" to readers who seek both enlightenment and a candid examination of the complexities of human life. Guernsey's engaging prose invites reflection and encourages critical thinking, making this work an essential read for anyone interested in the intersection of ethics, society, and personal responsibility.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects
Table of Contents
PREFACE.
For many years I have wished that some able pen would place before the community at large the knowledge contained in the following pages. Some of this information has appeared from time to time in such books as “Graham's Lectures on Chastity,” “Todd's Students' Manual,” and a few popular works of a similar kind, which have been of immense service to the human race in preserving chastity and in reclaiming the unchaste. But all these are now inadequate to the growing demand for more light on these vital topics. It has been too much the custom for everyone, parents included, to shrink from instructing their own children, or those entrusted to their care, on these points; consequently, many young people solely from their ignorance fall into the direst evils of a sexual nature and are thereby much injured and sometimes wholly ruined for life's important duties.
An experience of forty years in my professional career has afforded me thousands of opportunities for sympathizing with young men, and young women too, who had unconsciously sunk into these very evils merely for want of an able writer to place this whole subject truthfully and squarely before them, or for some wise friend to perform the same kind office verbally. The perusal of a work by Wm. Acton, M.R.C.S., of London, on “The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs in Childhood, Youth, Adult Age, and Advanced Life,” has, by his purity of sentiments, which have ever been identical with my own, both inspired and emboldened me to write a work of similar import. But his is for the profession while mine is for the profession and the laity, of both sexes and of any age. May its perusal inspire the readers with a higher appreciation of the matters herein treated, and with a greater effort to reformatory measures everywhere. Whenever I advise the consulting of a “judicious” (a term I use many times) physician, I mean one fully and practically qualified, both by inherent qualities and education, for the fullest confidence of his patients.
I am indebted to my son, JosephC. Guernsey, M.D., for assistance in editing and carrying this work through the press.
HenryN. Guernsey, M.D.,1423 Chestnut St., Philad'a.
June, 1882.
CHAPTER I.Introductory.
In the creation of the world and all that therein is, we should consider it an axiom that “Everything was created for use.” All individual substances, or beings, that come to our notice bear certain relations to one another, have connection one with another, and are dependent upon and useful to each other; and nothing could possibly exist or subsist without this co-relation: connection with and use to each other. This is a law which needs only a little reflection to be accepted as a truth in every particular—in the greatest as well as in the least created form. This is more plainly seen in the animal kingdom than in the mineral or vegetable, because its members associate and finally become conjoined in pairs. Man and woman, who represent the crown and glory of all created beings, in whom are embodied all the lower orders, were and are still created to associate in pairs—each created for the other, the one to help the other; the two to love and to belong to one another. This principle, fully carried out, justifies and shows the necessity for the creation of man and woman precisely as they are, having bodies, parts and passions, will and understanding. It is my intention in the following pages to explain the relations existing between the sexes, for the purpose of showing that the greatest happiness to the human race will be found in living a life in full accord with these relations. In order that the subject may be fully understood, let us examine the physical development of man and woman in detail, particularizing the different organs of the body as they appear in their order of formation, from the very inmost or beginning, to the ultimate or end, in their respective natures.
Ever since the primal creation of man and woman, the human race has been perpetuated by a series of births. Children have been conceived in harmony with the natural order of events, in such matters, and have been born boys and girls. A boy is a boy to all intents and purposes from his very conception, from the very earliest moment of his being; begotten by his father he is a boy in embryo within the ovule of his mother. The converse is true of the opposite sex. At this very early age of reproduction the embryo has all the elements of the future man or woman, mentally and physically, even before any form becomes apparent; and so small is the human being at the earliest stage of its existence that no material change is observable between the ovule that contains the product of conception and a fully developed ovule unimpregnated.[A]
It is about twelve days after conception before the impregnated ovule, which undergoes many changes during this time, makes its escape from the ovary where it became impregnated and enters one of the Fallopian tubes, thence gradually descending into the cavity of the womb. Here it begins to mature and become fitted for its birth into the outer world. Soon now the embryo (for such it is called at this early stage) begins to assume form. The first indication of formation that it is possible to discover, even by the help of the microscope, consists of an oblong figure, obtuse at one extremity, swollen in the middle, blunt-pointed at the other extremity. The rudimentary embryo is slightly curved forward, is of a grayish white color, of a gelatinous consistence, from two to four lines long and weighs one or two grains. A slight depression representing the neck, enables us to distinguish the head; the body is marked by a swollen centre, but there are as yet no traces of the extremities. So much can be observed about the end of the third week after conception.
At about the fifth week the embryo presents more distinctions. The head is very large in proportion to the rest of the body, the eyes are represented by two black spots, and the upper extremities by small protuberances on the sides of the trunk. The embryo at this stage is nearly two-thirds of an inch in length and weighs about fifteen grains. The lower extremities now begin to appear in the shape of two minute rounded tubercles. Till about this time a straight artery has been observed to beat with the regularity of the pulse; but now it appears doubled somewhat into the shape of an adult heart, although as yet it has but one auricle and one ventricle. As time advances we find the perfect heart with its two ventricles and two auricles, all developed from the original straight artery. At this period the lungs appear to exist in five or six different lobes and we can barely distinguish the bronchial tubes; about the same time the ears and face are distinctly outlined, and after awhile the nose is also faintly and imperfectly perceived.
At about the seventh week a little bony deposit is found in the lower jaw. The kidneys now begin to be formed, and a little later the genital organs. The embryo averages one inch in length.
At two months the rudiments of the extremities become more prominent. The forearm and hand can be distinguished but not the arm above the elbow; the hand is larger than the forearm, but is not supplied with fingers. The sex cannot yet be determined. The length of the embryo is from one inch and a half to two inches, and it weighs from three to five drachms. The eyes are discernible, but still uncovered by the rudimentary lids. The nose forms an obtuse eminence, the nostrils are rounded and separated, the mouth is gaping and the epidermis can be distinguished from the true skin.
At ten weeks the embryo is from one and a half to two and a half inches long, and its weight is from one ounce to an ounce and a half, the eyelids are more developed and descend in front of the eyes; the mouth begins to be closed by the development of the lips. The walls of the chest are more completely formed, so that it is no longer possible to see the movements of the heart. The fingers become distinct and the toes appear as small projections webbed together like a frog's foot. At about this period the sexual organs show their development as follows: On each side of the urinary locality an oblong fold becomes distinguishable; in course of progress if these folds remain separate, a little tubercle forms in the anterior commissure which becomes the clitoris; the nymphæ develop, the urethra forms between them, and the female sex is determined. If, on the other hand, these folds unite into a rounded projection the scrotum is formed, the little tubercle above becomes the penis and hence the male sex. The testicles forming within the body, descend later into the scrotum, and organs similar to them, their counterparts, form in the female and are called ovaries. These ovaries are found attached to an organ called the womb, and this again is united with the vagina, which leads downwards and outwards between the labia majora.[B]
At the end of the third month the weight of the embryo is from three to four ounces and its length from four to five inches, the eyeballs are seen through the lids, the pupils of the eyes are discernible, the forehead, nose and lips can be clearly distinguished. The finger nails resemble thin membranous plates, the skin shows more firmness, but is still rosy-hued, thin and transparent. The sex can now be fully determined.
At the end of the fourth month the product of conception is no longer called an embryo, but a fœtus. The body is from six to eight inches in length and weighs six or seven ounces. A few little white hairs are seen scattered over the scalp. The development of the face is still imperfect. The eyes are now closed by their lids, the nostrils are well-formed, the mouth is shut in by the lips and the sex is still more sharply defined. The tongue may be observed far back in the mouth, and the lower part of the face is rounded off by what a little later will be a well-formed chin. The movements of the fœtus are by this time plainly felt by the mother, and if born at this time it may live several months.
