9.  “IT HAS BEEN FEARED THAT A KNOWLEDGE of means to control offspring would, if generally diffused, be abused by women; that they would to so great an extent escape motherhood as to bring about social disaster.  This fear is not well founded.  The maternal instinct is inherent and sovereign in woman.  Even the prenatal influences of a murderous intent on the part of parents scarcely ever eradicate it.  With this natural desire for children, we believe few woman would abuse the knowledge of privilege of controlling offspring.  Although women shrink from forced maternity, and from the bearing of children under the great burden of suffering, as well as other adverse conditions, it is rare to find a woman who is not greatly disappointed if she does not, some time in her life, wear the crown of motherhood.

“An eminent lady teacher, in talking to her pupils once said, ’The greatest calamity that can befall a woman is never to have a child.  The next greatest calamity is to have one only.’  From my professional experience I am happy to testify that more women seek to overcome causes of sterility than to obtain knowledge of limiting the size of the family or means to destroy the embryo.  Also, if consultation for the latter is sought, it is usually at the instigation of the husband.  Believing in the rights of unborn children, and in the maternal instinct, I am consequently convinced that no knowledge should be withheld that will secure proper conditions for the best parenthood.”

10.  THE CASE OF THE JUKE FAMILY.—­We submit the following case of the Juke family, mostly of New York state, as related by Dr. R.L.  Dugdale, when a member of the prison Association, and let the reader judge for himself: 

“It was traced out by painstaking research that from one woman called Margaret, who, like Topsy, merely ‘growed’ without pedigree as a pauper in a village of the upper Hudson, about eighty-five years ago, there descended 673 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, of whom 200 were criminals of the dangerous class, 280 adult paupers, and 50 prostitutes, while 300 children of her lineage died prematurely.  The last fact proves to what extent in this family nature was kind to the rest of humanity in saving it from a still larger aggregation or undesirable and costly members, for it is estimated that the expense to the State of the descendants of Maggie was over a million dollars, and the State itself did something also towards preventing a greater expense by the restrain exercised upon the criminals, paupers, and idiots of the family during a considerable portion of their lives.”

11.  MODERATION.—­Continence, self-control, a willingness to deny himself—­that is what is required from the husband.  But a thousand voices reach us from suffering women in all parts of the land that this will not suffice; that men refuse thus to restrain themselves; that it leads to a loss of domestic happiness and to illegal amour, or it is injurious physically and morally; that, in short, such advice is useless because impracticable.