I.

The practice of withdrawal immediately before the act of coition is completed obtains very extensively in France. This, the most ancient of known methods, is referred to in the Bible (Genesis xxxviii. 8–9). The efficacy of the check depends, of course, entirely upon the self-control of the husband, and failure is therefore always possible. It may be mentioned that this plan has sometimes been objected to on the ground of supposed injury to health; but no evidence has been adduced in support of the objection. On the other hand, Dr. C. R. Drysdale has ascertained by personal enquiry that 100 members of the medical profession in Paris “had only 174 children in all their married lives, or not two as an average.… The question of the effect produced upon the health of the parents by the use of the physical check of Genesis xxxviii. was discussed at the meeting of the International Medical Congress at Amsterdam in 1879; and two medical men of great distinction—MM. Lutaud and Leblanc—asserted distinctly that these practices of family physical prudence in France were in no way productive of ill-health to either conjoint. And, as they were universally made use of by the medical men of Paris in limiting their own families, it was very unlikely that such damage to health as had been spoken of would not have been noted and clearly described long ago if it existed in nature.”

Abstinence from intercourse during a certain period is said to be an effectual method of avoiding conception. This, however, rests upon the assumption that a female is more likely to conceive immediately before or after “menstruation” (the monthly flow). If connection do not take place within five days before, or eight days after, menstruation, the probability of pregnancy is supposed to be diminished.