more heinous violation of nature's laws:-- 

"To many it may seem that it is unnecessary to caution against 

contracting relationships at the period of the monthly flow, thinking 

that the instinctive laws of cleanliness and delicacy were sufficient 

to refrain the indulgence of the appetites; but they are little 

cognizant of the true condition of things in this world. Often have 

I had husbands inform me that they had not missed having sexual 

relations with their wives once or more times a day for several years; 

and scores of women with delicate frames and broken-down health have 

revealed to me similar facts, and I have been compelled to make personal 

appeals to the husbands."[21] 

[Footnote 21: Gardner.] 

The following is an important testimony by an eminent physician[22] 

upon the same point:-- 

"Females whose health is in a weak state ... become liable, in 

transgressing this law, to an infectious disorder, which, it is 

commonly supposed, can only originate or prevail among disreputable 

characters; but Dr. Bumstead and a number of other eminent authorities 

believe and teach that gonorrhoea may originate among women entirely 

virtuous in the ordinary sense of the term. That excessive venery is 

the chief cause that originates this peculiar form of inflammation, 

has long been the settled opinion of medical men." 

[Footnote 22: Dr. J. R. Black.] 

It seems scarcely possible that such enormity could be committed by 

any human being, at least by civilized men, and in the face of the 

injunctions of Moses to the Jews, to say nothing of the evident 

indecency of the act. The Jews still maintain their integrity to the 

observance of this command of their ancient lawgiver. 

"Reason and experience both show that sexual relations at the menstrual 

period are very dangerous to both man and woman, and perhaps also for 

the offspring, should there chance to be conception."[23] 

[Footnote 23: Mayer.] 

The woman suffers from the congestion and nervous excitement which 

occur at the most inopportune moment possible. Man may suffer physical 

injury, though there are no grounds for the assertions of Pliny that 

the menstrual blood is so potent for evil that it will, by a mere touch, 

rust iron, render a tree sterile, make dogs mad, etc., or that of 

Paracelsus that "of it the devil makes spiders, fleas, caterpillars, 

and all the other insects that people the air."