HYGIENE OF THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS.


The structure and functions of organized bodies are subject to continual
alteration. The changes of nutrition and growth, which are constantly
taking place in the tissues render them at the same time the seat of
repair and waste, of renovation and decomposition, of life and death.
The plant germinates and blossoms, then withers and decays; animal life,
in like manner, comes into being, grows to maturity, fades, and dies. It
is, therefore, essential to the perpetuation of life, that new organisms
be provided to take the place of those which are passing out of
existence. There is no physiological process which presents more
interesting phenomena than that of reproduction, which includes the
formation, as well as the development of new beings.

Since self-preservation is Nature's first law, the desire for food is a
most powerful instinct in all living animals. Not inferior to this law
is that for the perpetuation of the race; and for this purpose,
throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms, we find the Biblical
statement literally illustrated: "Male and female created He them."

Health is the gauge by which the prosperity of a people may be measured.
Were we to trace the history of nations,--their rise and fall,--we would
find that much of the barbarism and crime, degradation and vice, as well
as their decline and final extinction, was due to licentiousness and
sexual excesses. Since there is an intimate relation between mind and
body, when the body is enfeebled the mind becomes enervated. Morbid
conditions of the body prevent the highest mental development, and, on
the other hand, when the mind is debilitated, general depravity,
physical as well as mental, is the result. The highest development of