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The Indian Ocean Rim Southern Africa and Regional
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Author(s): Gwyn Campbell
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The Indian Ocean Rim

The Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation was formally established in 1997 under
the leadership of South Africa, India and Australia. The demise of Apartheid, the fall of the Soviet
empire, and the rapid advance of globalization altered the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean region in the
early 1990s and served as a catalyst in the creation of the IOR. This book contextualizes the founding
of the IOR by outlining the historical aspects of economic ties across the Indian Ocean and previous
attempts to promote regional co-operation.

The contributors to this volume analyse the post-colonial ideological legacy, the political and economic
constraints caused by Apartheid and communism, the end of protectionism and the problem of
globalization. These major themes in the history of the IOR are applied to what the future holds for
Southern Africa within this economic grouping, and whether or not regional cooperation will manage
to compete with globalization.

This volume will be of interest to scholars of development studies, international relations, Third World
studies, and regional development.

Gwyn Campbell served as an academic adviser to the South African government in negotiations that
led to the formation of the IOR. He is a Lecturer at the Centre for North-South Interaction at the
University of Avignon. He has published widely on the economic history of Madagascar and the south
west Indian Ocean including Economic History o f Imperial Madagascar 1750-1850 (Lit Verlag: 2002).
 RoutledgeCurzon-IIAS Asian Studies Series

Series Co-ordinator: Dick van der Meij

Institute Director: Wim A.L. Stokhof

The International Institute for Asian Studies (HAS) is a postdoctoral research centre based in Leiden and
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its main objective is to encourage Asian Studies in the Humanities and the Social
Sciences and to promote national and international co-operation in these fields. The Institute was established in
1993 on the initiative of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Leiden University, Universiteit van
Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. It is mainly financed by The Netherlands Ministry of Education,
Culture and Sciences. IIAS has played an active role in co-ordinating and disseminating information on Asian
Studies throughout the world. The Institute acts an international mediator, bringing together various entities for the
enhancement of Asian Studies both within and outside The Netherlands. The RoutledgeCurzon-IIAS Asian Studies
series reflects the scope of the Institute. The Editorial Board consists of Erik Zurcher, Wang Gungwu, Om
Prakash, Dru Gladney, Amiya K. Bagchi, James C. Scott, Jean-Luc Domenach and Frits Staal.

Images of the ‘Modern Woman’ in Asia

Edited by Shoma Munshi

Nomads in the Sedentary World

Edited by Anatoly M. Khazanov & Andre Wink

Reading Asia
Edited by Frans Husken & Dick van der Meij

Tourism, Heritage and National Culture in Java

Heidi Dahles

Asian-European Perspectives
Edited by Wim Stokhof & Paul van der Velde

Law and Development in East and Southeast Asia

Edited by Christoph Antons

The Indian Ocean Rim

Edited by Gwyn Campbell

Rethinking Chinese Transnational Enterprises

Edited by Leo Douw, Cen Huang & David Ip

‘Hinduism’ in Modern Indonesia

Edited by Martin Ramstedt

Indonesian Sea Nomads

Cynthia Chou

Diasporas and Interculturalism in Asian Performing Arts

Edited by Hae-Kyung Um

Reading East Asian Writing

Edited by Michel Hockx & Ivo Smits
The Indian Ocean Rim
Southern Africa and Regional Co-operation

Edited by Gwyn Campbell

 First published 2003 by RoutledgeCurzon
Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 USA
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Publisher’s Note
This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by the contributors

© 2003 Gwyn Campbell for selection and editorial matter; individual chapters the contributors.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information
contained in this book, and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may
be made.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 978-0-700-71344-8
ISBN 978-1-315-02843-9 (eISBN)
Contents

1. Introduction: The Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) Economic Association: 1

History and Prospects
Gwyn Campbell

2. Cape Town and Port Louis in the Eighteenth Century 42

Nigel Worden

3. The Hadhramis, The Hadhramaut and European Colonial Powers in the Indian 54
Ocean
David Warburton

4. An Analysis of the Cocoa Frontier in the Indian Ocean Rim Region 64

Judith Streak

5. The Indian Ocean Rim: A Cost-benefit Analysis from a Developmental 77

Perspective with Special Reference to Southern Africa
Andreas Lombardozzi

6. Prospects for the Tourist Industry in Southern Africa 92

Elizabeth Marabwa

7. The Feasibility of Including the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) 107
and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the Indian Ocean Rim
Association for Economic Co-operation
Marina J. Mayer

8. The Competitiveness of the Southern African Customs Union within the Context 123
of the Indian Ocean Rim
Mario Scerri

9. The Gold Mining Industry and the South African Economy 1980-95 143
Marc Flior

10.The Role of the Iron and Steel Industry in the South African Economy 157
Ariella Kuper

11. Industrial Development and IOR Integration: Threats and Opportunities: 174
A Research Agenda
Simon Winter

12. A Future Common Agricultural Trade Regime for Southern Africa 190
J. J. Truter

13. Forging Economic and Political Relations Between South Africa and Tanzania 200
in the Post-apartheid Era
C. S. Rwejuna

14. Mauritius and the IOR Association 210

Jay sen Ramasamy
15. The IOR and its Economic Groupings 220
Gwyn Campbell

16. South Africa and France in Africa and the Indian Ocean - Economic and 238
Commercial Partners or Rivals?
André Ulpat

17. The IOR and the Strategic Importance of the Indian Ocean Region in the 249
Post-Cold War Era
Gwyn Campbell and R. R. Subramanian
 C h apter 1

I n t r o d u c t io n

T h e I n d ia n O c e a n R im (IO R )
E c o n o m ic A s s o c ia t io n :1
H is t o r y a n d P r o s p e c t s

G w yn C a m pbell

This volume focuses upon the relationship between South and southern
Africa and the Indian Ocean rim, notably in the context o f the establishment
o f the Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) association, an economic grouping
formalized in March 1997 with an initial membership o f fourteen and a
projected membership o f at least double that number. It surveys the
historical background to economic co-operation across the Indian Ocean,
and examines the potential opportunities and risks o f current moves towards
regional co-operation in the area.2
The establishment o f the IOR occurred in a decade o f rapid liberalization
and o f mounting criticism o f the economic, social, and environmental
impact o f the latter. The protests that largely sabotaged the 1999 WTO
summit in Seattle were the height o f an anti-globalization movement that
has rocked the complacency characteristic o f First World economies and
governments since the collapse o f the USSR. The protests also helped to
convince many LDC (Less Developed Country) governments that they
could, if united, influence those First World governments and institutions
that have hitherto enjoyed monopoly control o f the WTO to accommodate
major LDC concerns.3 The viewpoint o f many LDCs, notably in Africa, is
that globalization threatens to accentuate the divide between them and more
developed regions o f the world. It has certainly been seen to assist Africa
less than any other global region. To many in Africa, the only answer is to
seek to promote economic development and greater bargaining power vis-à-
vis the international economic institutions dominated by the ‘N orth.’4 A
possible reflection o f such criticism is that international bodies like the
World Economic Forum have started inviting relevant NGOs to express
their views, and the IMF and World Bank, possibly stung by criticism o f the
draconian social impact o f Structural Adjustment policies, have proposed a
new loan scheme, to be devised and managed by recipient governments,
aimed at reducing poverty.5
 G w yn C am pbell

Such protests have also fed into the movement for regional co-operation,
o f which the IOR grouping forms a part. These initiatives occur in an
apparently paradoxical economic environment. The generally accepted
theory o f international trade is based upon the precepts of free trade and
comparative advantage, yet - apart from the British flirtation with free trade
in the mid-nineteenth century - only since the conclusion o f the Uruguay
Round o f GATT in 1993 has free trade become a realistic aim
internationally. At the same time, the WTO and other major international
economic institutions have promoted the formation o f regional economic
groupings even though the latter tend by definition to discriminate against
non-participants; member countries tend to start specializing in sectors in
which, in an international context, they do not possess a comparative
advantage. Some liberal economists argue that a better alternative to
regionalism is to push for rapid multilateral trade liberalization within the
WTO.6 However, the majority view is that the formation o f regional free
trade areas are a step towards the ultimate goal o f international
liberalization.7 Thus the institutions o f the North have given their blessing to
associations like the Caricom Community o f fifteen Caribbean countries,
and to the Central American common market.
It is in this context that the IOR was founded. The organization is o f
considerable geo-political significance for, although a number o f sub­
regional economic associations exist, it is the first pan-Indian Ocean region
grouping to emerge, linking sub-regional economic giants like Australia,
India and South Africa. With its vast natural and human resources the IOR
has the potential not only to promote intra-regional growth, but also to
become a major player in the North-South debate. Nevertheless, South and
southern African involvement in the IOR grouping is contested both on the
grounds that the costs will outweigh the benefits o f involvement and
because o f the primacy o f prior claims o f regional organization within
southern Africa (SADC) and o f traditional economic ties to Europe.8

T h e H is t o r ic a l B a c k g r o u n d to th e IO R

Economic co-operation across the Indian Ocean has a long history. Unlike
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Indian Ocean benefits from the
‘m onsoons,’ a singularly stable pattern o f seasonal currents and winds; the
south west monsoon blows from April to October and the north east from
October to May, in theory enabling vessels to sail from one side to the other
side o f the Indian Ocean and back within twelve months. By the early
centuries AD, shipbuilding and navigational technology had advanced
sufficiently to exploit the monsoons and a long-distance maritime trading

2
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man a natural impulse, and demands for him a right to gratify it,
whilst the existence of such an impulse and of such a right is denied
to woman. We have shown that this view is an inevitable
consequence of coercive marriage morality.[688]
The standpoint of the sceptics alluded to under § 5 is one which
denies the possibility of any abstinence, even merely temporary
abstinence; but this view is equally to be rejected. Man is a natural
being; his sexual impulse is a natural instinct, and as such one
whose existence is justified; but at the same time man is a civilized
being. Civilization is an elevation, an ennoblement, a transfiguration
of nature, whose unduly powerful impulses and powers must be
tamed and harmonized by civilization. The right to sexual
gratification is therefore opposed by the duty to set bounds to the
sexual impulse, to conduct it into such paths that no harm can result
from its exercise, either to the individual or to society; and in order
that, like all other impulses, it may subserve the purposes of the
evolution of civilization. To this end, however, a relative
abstinence is of great importance (this is a matter which has not
hitherto been sufficiently recognized); but this course it is only
possible to follow when, at the same time, we emphatically affirm
the rightness of sexuality, and when it is our desire to utilize it as
a civilizing factor of the first rank. The “individualization” of the
sexual impulse has been described in detail in an earlier chapter of
this work, to which I may refer the reader. If we fail to recognize the
value of temporary abstinence, and the importance of the storing
up of sexual energy which is thereby effected, and the
transformation of this energy into other energies of a spiritual
nature, such an individualization becomes impossible.
Alike the medical advocates (§ 2) and the moral advocates (§ 4) of
a relative temporary abstinence for both sexes have, from their
respective standpoints, made a just demand. This is, in fact, in both
cases an “ideal standpoint,” to use the phrase of F. A. Lange; but it is
also an ideal most desirable to set before youth, and more especially
before our German youth. We cannot repeat too often, or insist with
too much emphasis, what an endless blessing results from the
endeavour towards, and from the realization of, temporary sexual
abstinence, more especially in the years of preparation for life, but
also in the years of independent creative work.
The importance of relative sexual abstinence was first recognized
by the ancient Israelites. Numerous wise prescriptions and
utterances prove this. Julius Preuss, the most celebrated student of
ancient Jewish medicine, has recently, in an interesting study of
“Sexual Matters in the Bible and the Talmud” (Allgemeine
Medizinische Central-Zeitung, 1906, No. 30 et seq.), collected the
following facts bearing on the matter:
“Chastity was a self-evident demand for the unmarried. It is true that, in view of
the early occurrence of puberty, they married very young—at the age of eighteen
or twenty; and Rabbi Huna is of opinion that anyone who at the age of twenty is
still unmarried passes his days in sin or—which he regards as even worse—in
sinful thoughts. There are three whom God praises every day: an unmarried man
who lives in a large town and does not sin; a poor man who finds an object of
value and returns it to the owner, and a rich man who gives his tithe secretly.
Once when this doctrine was read out in the presence of Rabbi Safra, who as a
young man lived in a large town, his face lighted up with joy. But Raba said to
him: ‘It is not meant such a one as thou art, but such a one as Rabbi Chanina and
Rabbi Oschaja, who live in the street of the prostitutes, and make shoes for them,
to whom, therefore, the prostitutes come, and look upon them, but who,
notwithstanding this, do not raise their eyes to look upon the prostitutes.’”

After marriage also they endeavoured by valuable prescriptions to

enforce the great civilizing idea of temporary sexual abstinence.
Thus, intercourse during menstruation was strictly forbidden, and
was regarded as a deadly sin; the same was the case as regards
intercourse when there was any other hæmorrhage from the genital
organs; but in this case the abstinence must last even longer. It is
remarkable that the Catholic theologians allowed sexual intercourse
without limit when such morbid hæmorrhage was present, and
allowed it also, with certain restrictions, during menstruation.
Further, among the ancient Hebrews intercourse was forbidden
during the week of mourning for parents or brothers or sisters; it
was forbidden also during the festival of atonement. Guests in an inn
when travelling were also forbidden sexual intercourse, doubtless on
grounds of decency. Intercourse was likewise forbidden in times of
famine, in order to spare the bodily forces.
Golden sayings recognize the value of moderation and of relative
abstinence.
According to an ancient Israelitish popular saying, sexual intercourse is one of
eight things which are beautiful when enjoyed in strict moderation, but
harmful when enjoyed very freely. The others are walking, possessions, work,
wine, sleep, warm water (for bathing and for drinking), and venesection.
Rabbi Jochanan said: “Man possesses a little limb: he who satisfies it hungers;
he who allows it to hunger is satisfied.”
Rabbi Ilai said: “When man observes that his evil impulse is more powerful than
he is himself, let him go to a place where people do not know him, let him put on
dark clothes, let him wear a dark turban, and let him do that which his heart
desires; but let him not publicly profane the name of God.” This can only mean
that in general he only controls the desire who has already tasted the fruit—that is
to say, that abstinence is the safest means against lust; but he who,
notwithstanding this, finds that the impulse threatens to become too violent, still
has the duty to fight against it, and in any case not to yield immediately.

This ancient notion of relative asceticism was, unfortunately,

falsified and thrust into the background by the Utopian and contra-
natural idea of absolute asceticism; its great value was completely
obscured by the inevitable reaction against the principle of absolute
chastity. This reaction led actually to the formation of rules regarding
the frequency of intercourse, such as that attributed to Luther
—“Twice a week does harm neither to her nor to me”; although it
is precisely in this department of life that no rules can be
given, and that the greatest individual variations occur, so
that “twice a week” may for many constitute by far too much, and
can only be regarded as permissible to robust constitutions. Daily
indulgence in sexual intercourse, continued for a long period of
time, would be deleterious even to a Hercules, and in all
circumstances would be harmful to both parties. Nature
herself, by exhibiting a certain periodicity in sexual excitement
(which periodicity is admittedly far more distinct in women than it is
in men, who can “always” love), has facilitated temporary
abstinence. This is, in fact, a natural demand even of the most
extreme ethical materialism; for, as Friedrich Albert Lange[689] rightly
points out, “even though the individual sensual pleasure, as with
Aristippos or Lamettrie, is raised to a principle, self-control still
remains a requirement of philosophy, if only in order to assure the
permanence of the capacity for enjoyment.” So also the poet of the
“New Tanhäuser” sings:
“Selig, der da ewig schmachtet,
Sei gepriesen, Tantalus,
Hätt’ er je, wonach er trachtet,
Würd’ es auch schon Ueberdruss:
Gib mir immer Eine Beere,
Aus der vollen Traube nur,
Und ich schmachte gern, Cythere,
Lebenslang auf deiner Spur!”

[“Happy is he who eternally desires.

A happy man art thou, Tantalus!
If he ever attained that for which he longs,
He would instantly taste satiety:
Let me have but a single grape
From the full cluster,
Gladly, Cytherea, will I live,
Ever desiring, in thy courts!”]

The question of abstinence is an entirely different one, according

as it relates to the time before or after the first experience of
sexual intercourse. Experience shows that in the former case
abstinence is far easier than it is when the forbidden fruit has once
been tasted. If, with the author of this book, relative asceticism is
regarded as the most desirable ideal, we shall endeavour in youth
to realize that ideal for as long a time as possible, without any
interruption by sexual intercourse; whereas in the later period of the
fully-developed sexual life we shall practise sexual abstinence only
from time to time.
With regard to the former point, it would be the greatest good
fortune for every man if he could remain sexually abstinent until the
complete maturity of body and mind—that is, until the age of
twenty-five.[690] But this is in most cases an impossibility. Yet it is
possible for every healthy man—and it is an imperative demand of
individual and social hygiene—to abstain completely from
sexual intercourse at least until the age of twenty. That is
possible without any harm resulting, and it is carried out by
innumerable persons of both sexes. It is, indeed, a fact that in
civilized countries the physical and mental maturity of girls and boys
by no means coincides with their sexual maturity, but, on the
contrary, occurs from three to five years later. First between the ages
of twenty and twenty-two does man attain complete
development.[691] If the sexual impulse is not artificially awakened
and stimulated during these years of adolescence, it may remain
very moderate, without masturbation and without pollutions, and
can be easily controlled. Relations with the other sex have not yet
become necessary for the development of the individual personality.
The human being has still enough to do in isolation. First with the
commencement of the third decade of life do the conditions alter,
and sexual tension becomes so great as to demand the adequate
and natural discharge given by the normal sexual act. If this is
impossible, pollutions form the natural, or masturbation forms the
unnatural, outlet; and when abstinence is continued for a long time
after attaining this age, the vital freshness and the spiritual and
emotional condition are more or less impaired. To have emphasized
this fact, in opposition to those authors[692] who declared that total
sexual abstinence is absolutely harmless to mature men, was the
great service of Wilhelm Erb,[693] the celebrated, widely experienced
Heidelberg neurologist.
“It is a well-known fact,” he writes, “that healthy young men with a powerful
sexual impulse suffer not a little from abstinence, that from time to time they are
‘as if possessed’ by the impulse, that erotic ideas press in upon them from all
sides, disturb their work and their nocturnal repose, and imperiously demand
relief. I always remember the remark of a friend of my youth, a young artist, who,
when speaking of these things, was accustomed to say with intense meaning:
‘Wer nie die kummervollen Nächte in seinem Bette weinend sass....’ And the same
man could not sufficiently extol the relaxing, disburdening, and positively
refreshing influence of an occasional gratification; and the same thing has been
said to me innumerable times by earnest and thoroughly moderate men.”
 Women also gave him similar assurances.[694] In numerous cases
Erb observed physical and mental harm to result from abstinence—
sometimes in healthy individuals, but more especially in the
neuropathic.
Important also are the investigations of L. Löwenfeld[695]
regarding the influence of abstinence. He found that in men under
the age of twenty-four any troubles worth mentioning as a result of
sexual abstinence were comparatively rare, as compared with the
case of men between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-six years,
the years of complete manly power and sexual capacity; and he
found that whereas in healthy persons these disturbances were
indeed of a trifling character (general excitability, sexual
hyperæsthesia, hypochondriacal ideas, disinclination for work, slight
attacks of giddiness), in neuropathic persons, on the contrary, there
would occur coercive ideas, melancholy, feelings of anxiety, and even
hallucinations. Females, according to Löwenfeld, bear abstinence—
even absolute abstinence—much better than men, but in them also
hysterical and neurasthenic conditions may develop as a result of
sexual abstinence.
All these harmful consequences of abstinence are, however,
neither in man nor in woman, of such a nature that, where an
opportunity for sexual intercourse at once hygienic and free from
ethical objections is wanting, the gratification of the sexual impulse
need be advised by the physician as a “therapeutic measure.” No;
Erb himself insists that, on the contrary, the dangers threatened by
venereal diseases altogether outweigh the comparatively rare and
trifling injuries to health resulting from abstinence. “Extra-conjugal”
sexual intercourse involves the dangers of syphilitic or gonorrhœal
infection, or of illegitimate pregnancy, which latter to-day must,
unfortunately, be regarded as a kind of severe disease. In contrast
with these evils, any harmful consequences of abstinence fade away
to nothing.
Later in life, when the possibility of a permanent pure love exists,
the value of temporary abstinence is to be found especially in the
spiritual sphere. Precisely for the “erotocrat,” as Georg Hirth terms
one endowed with a powerful and healthy sexual impulse, is this
temporary abstinence of a certain importance, because the stored-
up quantum of sexual tension re-enforces the inward spiritual
productivity. A number of men, at once endowed with strong sexual
needs and with a noble mental capacity, have assured me that, in
consequence of abstinence, they have temporarily experienced a
peculiar deepening and concentration of their mental capacity, by
means of which they were undeniably enabled to increase their
mental output. This point in the hygiene of intellectual activity, which
seems not to have been unknown to Goethe, has been as yet too
little studied.
In any case, it is definitely established that from the standpoint of
civilization the idea of sexual abstinence is justified, if for this reason
alone: because in it we find a great means for increasing and
strengthening of the will; but, in the second place, because in it we
have a valuable protection against the dangers of wild love; and,
finally, because sexual abstinence emphasizes the fact that life
contains other things worth striving for besides matters of sex, that
the content of life is far from being exhausted by the sexual, even
though the sexual impulse, in addition to the impulse of self-
preservation, will always remain the most powerful of all vital
activities.
[687] “Vera” is the heroine of a novel (“Eine für Viele: Aus dem
Tagebuche eines Mädchens”) which attracted considerable attention
in Germany. She demanded from men entering on marriage the
same virgin intactitude which men are accustomed to expect in
their wives. English readers will be reminded of Evadne, in Sarah
Grand’s “The Heavenly Twins.” Evadne, it will be remembered, left
her husband at the church door, owing to information she received
regarding his preconjugal career. In England we might speak of
“Evadne” enthusiasts, instead of “Vera” enthusiasts.—Translator.
[688] P. Näcke also (“A Contribution to the Woman’s Question and to the
Question of Sexual Abstinence,” op. cit., p. 49) strongly condemns
this duplex morality, which he regards as “obviously unjust.” Cf. also
Max Thal, “Sexual Morality: an Attempt to solve the Problem of
Sexual, and more Particularly of the so-called Duplex Morality”
(Breslau, 1904).
[689] Friedrich Albert Lange, “History of Materialism,” vol. iii., p. 302,
English edition.
[690] “My dear young men,” thus wrote Ernst Moritz Arndt, at the age of
eighty-nine, to the Burschenschaft (Students’ Association) of Jena,
“I can wish nothing better for you than that you should arrange
your course of life in Jena, and pass through it, as I heretofore
passed through it, making a courageous, vigorous, and earnest
fight against the lusty, overbearing impulses of youth, which in the
best case are so easily carried to excess.... In these your most
valuable years, between eighteen and twenty, you must, with
redoubled manliness, courage, and chastity, strive to deserve the
praise given by Caius Julius Cæsar to the young men of Germany.”
[691] Cf., in this connexion, the remarks of A. Herzen, “Science and
Morality,” pp. 11, 12 (Berlin, 1901). The same age for human
maturity was fixed on also by J. C. G. Ackermann (“The Diseases of
the Learned,” p. 268; Nürnberg, 1777).
[692] I need mention only Seved Ribbing, Acton, Rubner, Paget, Hegar,
Beale, Herzen, A. Eulenburg, V. Cnyrim, and Fürbringer.
[693] Wilhelm Erb, “Remarks on the Consequences of Sexual Abstinence,”
published in the Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases,
1903, vol. ii., No. I., pp. 1-18.
[694] Theodor Mundt, in his “Madonna” (pp. 240, 241; Leipzig, 1835),
has very vividly described the beneficial and refreshing influence of
coitus upon women.
[695] L. Löwenfeld, “The Sexual Life and Nervous Troubles,” pp. 62-69,
fourth edition.
 CHAPTER XXVI
SEXUAL EDUCATION

“Better a year too early than an hour too late.”—Oker Blom.

CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XXVI

Science and practice have hitherto, for the most part, ignored the sexual — The
danger of blind chance in the sexual province — Necessity for the
enlightenment of the coming generation — Sexual education as a part of
general pedagogy — The right to the knowledge of one’s own body — Sexual
enlightenment of young people — The dispute regarding the when and the
how — Distinction between the youth of the country and the youth of the
town — Points of association — A passage from Gutzkow’s autobiography —
Disastrous sources of early sexual enlightenment — Character of the
pedagogic enlightenment — Importance of this — Suggestions regarding the
methods of sexual enlightenment (Sigmund, Lischnewska, F. W. Förster) — My
own views — Education of the character and of the will — Principal rules of
sexual pedagogy — Education to manhood.

CHAPTER XXVI
The manner in which up to the present day humanity has, properly
speaking, completely ignored the fact of sexuality is at once
remarkable and difficult to understand. Until recently people went so
far as to regard scientific research into sexual matters by adult
persons as improper! The mystical idea of the sinfulness, of the
radically evil character, of the sexual, was a dogma which even
natural science appeared to admit. Our attitude towards the sexual
was as if it were at once Sphinx and Gorgon’s head, as if it were the
veiled statue of Sais. We stood helpless, in the face of this
mysterious and malignant power, against the blind hazard of
chance which plays so momentous a part, more especially in
sexual affairs. As everywhere in life, so here also, the dominion of
chance could be overcome only by means of knowledge. The
solution of the sexual problem demands, in the first place,
openness, clearness, learning in the department of the sexual,
knowledge of cause and effect, and the transmission of this
knowledge to the next generation, so that this latter may without
harm become wise. Sexual education is an important chapter in
general pedagogy.[696]
Regarding animals, plants, and stones the youthful human being
of to-day acquires the most exact information, but we have hitherto
refused him the right to understand his own body, and to acquire a
knowledge of certain important vital functions of that body. There
can be no doubt about the fact that the modern human being, who
has learned to so large an extent to regard himself as a social
being, has a sacred natural right to this knowledge.
Celebrated pedagogues of a hundred years ago, such as
Rousseau, Salzmann, Basedow, Jean Paul, etc., expressed
themselves in favour of the early sexual enlightenment of youth, and
gave the most valuable advice regarding the methods to be
employed;[697] but their views remained for the most part devoid of
practical effect, and it is only in recent years, in connexion with the
question of the protection of motherhood, with the campaign against
prostitution, and with the attempt to suppress venereal diseases,
that interest in this matter has been reawakened; and there now
exists in this department an extensive literature, belonging chiefly to
the last few years, proceeding from the pens of physicians,
pedagogues, hygienists, and advocates of woman’s rights.[698] It is,
in truth, the burning question of our time, the solution of which is
here attempted. Correct sexual education forms the foundation for
the ennoblement and resanation of our entire sexual life. Only
knowledge and will can here effect a cure. Thus, sexual pedagogy
naturally falls into two parts—sexual enlightenment and the
education of the will.
The need for sexual enlightenment is now recognized by all far-
seeing social hygienists and pedagogues. The only difference of
opinion concerns the when and the how. Some plead for
enlightenment as early as possible, in the first years of school life;
others wish to defer enlightenment until puberty, or even later. I am
of opinion that the circumstances in this respect are entirely
different, according as we have to do with small towns and the open
country, where more careful watching of children is possible, and
where the dangers of premature sexual development and of
seduction are not so great, or as we have to do with large towns,
where, in my view, the children cannot be enlightened too early,
since town life brings the children of all classes, and social misery
brings more especially the children of the lowest classes of the
population, so early into contact with sexual matters that a
purposive enlightenment becomes absolutely indispensable. Children
living in large towns should, from ten years onwards, be gradually
and carefully made acquainted with the principal facts of the sexual
life. We find here more points of association than is usually
imagined. Gutzkow, in his admirable autobiography, “From the Days
of My Boyhood” (Frankfort-a.-M., 1852, pp. 263, 264), has beautifully
described this:
 “The first appearances of love in the heart of the child occur as secretly as the
fall of the dew upon flowers. Playing and jesting, innocence gropes its way
through the darkness. Words, perceptions, ideas, which to the adult appear to be
full of dangerous barbs, the child grasps with careless security, and takes the
duplex sexual life of humanity to be a primeval fact which came into the world
with man as a matter of course, and one which requires no explanation. Born from
the mother’s womb, to the child the mother is the secure bridge by which it is
conducted past all the riddles of womanhood. The child imitates the love of the
father for the mother, plays the game of the family, plays father and mother, plays
at being himself, a child. From the rustling autumn leaves, from abandoned
bundles of straw, huts and nests are built, and for half an hour at a time a
completely blameless boy can lie down besides his girl playmate, quietly, and as if
magnetized by the intimation of love. Danger is in truth not far distant from such a
practice of childish naïveté; it lurks in the background, and seeks only an
opportunity to lead astray. But a child never understands the significance of the
severe punishment which it so often receives for its imitative imaginary family life.
The amatory life of the adult first breaks upon the imagination of the child and
upon his quiet play like the opening of a door into a house. People take so little
care of what they do before the innocent; they exhibit passionate affection for one
another; they caress when the children are by. The child sees, ponders, and
listens. Certain hieroglyphics alarm it; tales are laughed at—tales which suddenly
throw a strange and wonderful light upon quite familiar human beings. The boy
will notice that his elder sister has a joy or a sorrow, the nature of which he
cannot completely grasp. He sees an elder brother filled with the joy of life, with
the lust of youth, with the love of adventure, and no attempt is made to conceal
these passions from the child.... Such and similar experiences succeed one
another without cessation, and tales which the child hears are listened to with
eagerness. The red threads of love and of the charm of beautiful women are not
to be grasped by the hand of a child, and yet they have upon the child a certain
secret influence.”

The child hears and sees much that is erotic, even immoral, but
does not stop to think about it, does not understand it. After a while
its ignorance becomes a puzzle; soon lascivious thoughts arise.
Maria Lischnewska describes very vividly this psychological process
in the soul of the child, in part according to her observations as a
teacher. She justly criticizes the “stork stories,” to which the child
listens without believing them, in order subsequently to be
enlightened in an extremely disagreeable manner by older ill-
conditioned comrades.[699]
 These children, ten or twelve years of age, often learn about
sexual matters from the lowest side, without obtaining a true
knowledge. They frequently acquire the most astounding verbal
treasury of lewd expressions, and even sing obscene songs, of which
Maria Lischnewska gives a remarkable example on the part of a girl
twelve years of age.
No, there can be no question that the child at school, from the
tenth year onwards, should, without fear of disastrous
consequences, be enlightened regarding sexual matters by parents
and teachers, in order to avoid the dangers which we have just
described. But this instruction must be divested of any individual
relationship, of any personal character, and must be communicated
in thoroughly general terms, as natural scientific knowledge, as
a medical doctrine, belonging to the province of philosophical and
pathological science. In this way will be avoided any undesirable
accessory effect related to subjective perceptions. When Matthisson
esteems youth as happy on this account, because the book of
possibilities is not yet open to its gaze, this certainly does not hold
as regards sexual enlightenment. Here, to a certain degree, this
book of possibilities must be disclosed, if we do not wish all the
poetry and all the ideal view of life to be utterly destroyed by contact
with rude reality. Precisely in this case do we understand the
wonderful remark of Goethe, that we receive the veil of poetry from
the hand of truth. This first renders possible a truly earnest and
profound conception of sexual relationships; this creates a
consciousness of responsibility which cannot be awakened
sufficiently early. The true danger is, as Freud[700] also points out,
the intermixture of “lasciviousness and prudery” with which
humanity is accustomed to regard the sexual problem, just because
people have not learned sufficiently to understand the connexion
between cause and effect in this department of human activity.
Various methods have been recommended for sexual
enlightenment. I shall discuss more particularly the suggestions of
the Austrian Realschul professor, Sigmund, of the Volkschul teacher,
Maria Lischnewska, and of the University professor, F. W. Förster.
 Sigmund (quoted by Ullmann, op. cit., p. 7) considers that in the
Volkschüler (primary schools), in the case of children up to the age
of eleven years, there should be no systematic explanation of sexual
matters, and that this should be begun first in the Gymnasium
(higher school). His scheme of instruction is as follows:
1. The enlightenment of the pupils at the Gymnasium is to be effected in five
stages (Classes I., II., V., VI., VII.)
2. The enlightenment in the lower classes is limited to the processes of sexual
reproduction. In the first class, the origin and birth of the mammalian young and
the origin of insects’ eggs are explained. In the second class, the origin and birth
of reptiles’ and birds’ eggs, the fertilization of the eggs of fishes and batrachians,
the ova of the sea-urchin, and those of the jellyfish, are described. The act of
sexual intercourse will not be alluded to in the first two classes—that is,
it will not be mentioned to children before the age of thirteen years.
3. The completion of the idea of “sexual life” is effected by means of botanical
and zoological instruction in the upper school in a synthetic manner, wherein no
important detail is omitted, but the copulatory act is kept in the background.
4. All sexual matters expressly concerning human beings, and all the
pathological relations of the sexual life, should be left to the hygienic instruction,
which is given during one hour weekly to the seventh class as a part of general
instruction in somatology.
5. The natural history taught to the sixth class will embrace zoology only; the
natural system will be considered in an ascending series (excluding human
somatology, which in a logical manner is deferred until the study of zoology is
completed, and it will thus be dealt with in the seventh class, as a preparation to
the instruction in hygiene).
6. In conferences with parents, the parents can be kept informed regarding the
nature of the instruction which is being given to their children, and can at the
same time be led to work in unison with the school in this matter.

Maria Lischnewska advises beginning already in the third class of

primary schools—that is, when the child is only eight years old—to
give instruction in the elements of natural science, more especially
utilizing, as the first means of sexual enlightenment, the examples of
vegetable fertilization, as well as the reproduction of fishes and
birds. Even to the question “Whence do little children come?” an
answer should be given, more or less in the following terms:
“The child lies in the body of the mother: when she breathes, then the child
breathes; when she eats and drinks, the child also obtains his food. It lies there
warm and safe. Gradually it becomes larger and begins to move. It has to lie
somewhat curled up, because there is so little room for it. But the mother feels
that it is alive; she is full of joy, and makes ready the child’s clothing and its bed.
Finally it is fully grown. The mother’s body opens, and the child comes to the light.
Then the mother takes it into her arms with joy and nourishes it with her milk.”
Then the teacher would pause, and continue after a while: “Now, would you like
to see the child?” Then there would naturally be a many-voiced “Yes, yes!” and the
teacher would show to the class a picture such as our anatomical atlases exhibit
now in beautiful form. The abdominal walls of the mother are turned back, and
the child is seen slumbering. Then the teacher would say: “Thus you also slept
within the body of your mother. You belong to her as to no other human being in
the whole world. For this reason you should always love and honour her.”
Thus is the child’s urgent demand for knowledge satisfied. He is freed from all
prying into nooks and corners. He experiences a feeling of honourable respect
towards the primary source of life.

In the fourth school year further examples of the reproduction of

plants, fishes, and birds should be given; in the fifth and sixth years
the first demonstration of the process of sexual union among the
mammals, with some account of embryology; and the process of
birth should also be described. Then there should follow (at about
the age of thirteen or fourteen) enlightenment regarding the
development of the sexual life and regarding venereal diseases—
information, that is to say, concerning hygiene and concerning the
protection of one’s own body. Physicians such as Oker Blom and Dr.
Agnes Hacker definitely demand that elucidation regarding this latter
point should not be deferred until the time of puberty.
F. W. Förster proposes to postpone the whole process of
enlightenment until the twelfth or thirteenth year; and if at an
earlier age a child expresses any natural doubt regarding the stork
fables, the following answer should be given (op. cit., p. 606):
“Where small children come from is a matter which you cannot yet understand.
We grown-up persons even understand very little about it. I promise you that I will
explain to you what we know of the matter on your twelfth birthday, but only if
you promise me something in return. Do you know that there are boys and girls so
bumptious that they behave as if they already knew all about it, because they
have somewhere picked up a word or two without really understanding it? Promise
me that you will never listen when such as these begin to talk about the matter;
for you may be certain that the true secrets are matters of which they are
ignorant, for this reason—they would not speak about it. He who really knows
holds it as a sacred matter; he is silent about it, and does not call it out at the
street comers.”

Förster strongly advises against associating sexual enlightenment

with a knowledge of the reproductive process in plants and animals,
for this reason: that if this is done “the human being is brought too
near to the vegetable and animal life,” and the “sacred thought” of
the elevation of humanity above the animal is obscured. He then
gives very beautiful examples and modes of instruction for such
sexual enlightenment of children twelve years of age.
I myself am of opinion that, without in any way making light of
the difference between man and animal, the earlier elucidation at
about the age of ten years should be associated with the general
instruction in natural history regarding the reproductive process of
animals and plants; and then very gradually, up to the age of
fourteen, all important points in this department can be explained,
including, finally, an account of the venereal diseases. It is obvious
that after this time, more especially in the dangerous years of
puberty, systematic enlightenment must be continued. That which is
good and useful in this department of knowledge cannot be too
often repeated.
But all enlightenment will be useless unless hand in hand with it
there proceeds a process of education of the character and
the will. Our school youth thinks and dreams too much, and does
too little. Up to the present time it has been believed that it is
sufficient to teach children, and to continue to teach them, to care
for their health, to see that they have good food and sound sleep,
without also taking into consideration the necessity for awakening
the individuality and the energy slumbering in each one of them.
The “gymnasium” must concern itself with the gymnastics, not
only of the body, but also of the mind, and must thus restore that
harmony between body and mind which appears to have been quite
lost at the present day. Bodily education by games and sports is only
one of the means for this purpose. The principal aim is to strengthen
the character, to induce the habit of self-command and self-denial by
a profound and intimate grasp of sexual problems. Nowhere does
fantastic dreaming take revenge more thoroughly than in sexual
relationships, for which reason also the so-called “only children” are
especially endangered;[701] nowhere do clear knowledge, objective
acquirements, and a firm will celebrate finer triumphs over blind
impulses than they do here. The principal rule of sexual pedagogy
runs as follows: Avoid the first opportunity and the first contact;
keep the child and the young man and the young woman at a
distance from all the stimulating pleasures and enjoyments of the
adult. The production of manliness, as it has recently been described
by Mosso,[702] Güssfeldt,[703] Georg Sticker,[704] and Ludwig
Gurlitt,[705] has the greatest importance, more especially as regards
the sexual life. This has been insisted on, above all, by Hans
Wegener[706] and F. W. Förster (op. cit.). Moral statistics have
incontrovertibly proved that progress in civilization and morals does
not depend upon punishment or upon prophylactic measures against
errors and excesses of passion, but only upon the subjective
improvement and strengthening of the single individual. Guizot
declared: “C’est de l’état intérieur de l’homme que dépend l’état
visible de la société.” Drobisch,[707] in his “Moral Statistics,” has
established this fact yet more firmly. Energy is the magic word for all
vital activities of the present day, both spiritual and physical.
Discipline, work, abstinence, bodily hygiene, are the means for
educating the character, and these also play the principal part in
sexual pedagogy.[708]
[696] For this reason, Fr. W. Förster, in his admirable “Jugendlehre”
(Berlin, 1906), devotes a special section to the subject of “sexual
pedagogy” (pp. 602-652).
[697] Maria Lischnewska, in her admirable work upon “The Sexual
Instruction of Children,” published in Mutterschutz, 1905, vol. i., pp.
137-150, quotes the principal passages relating to this subject from
the works of the writers just mentioned.
[698] In addition to the two admirable works already mentioned, by F. W.
Förster and M. Lischnewska, I may allude also to the following:
Richard Flachs, “Sexual Enlightenment as a Part of the Education of
our Young People,” with a full bibliography (Dresden and Leipzig,
 1906); Carl Kopp, “Sexual Affairs in the Education of Youth”
(Leipzig, 1904); Max Marcuse, “Sexual Enlightenment in Youth”
(Leipzig, 1905); “Sexual Hygiene and Sexual Enlightenment in the
School” (a Discussion at the First International Congress for School
Hygiene, held at Nürnberg, 1904), published in the “Reports of the
German Society for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases,” 1904,
vol. ii., pp. 63-71; Karl Ullmann, “The Sexual Enlightenment of
School-Children,” published in the Monatsschrift für
Gesundheitspflege, 1906, No. 1; M. Flesch, “Enlightenment in the
School,” published in Blätter für Volksgesundheitspflege, vol. iv., p.
164; Emma Eckstein, “The Sexual Question in the Education of the
Child” (Leipzig, 1904); Adelheid von Bennigsen, “Sexual Pedagogy
in the House and the School” (Berlin, 1903); Alfred Fournier, “Pour
nos Fils quand ils auront Dix-huit Ans” (Paris, 1905); M. Oker Blom,
“Beim Onkel Doktor auf dem Lande”: a Book for Parents, second
edition (Vienna, 1906); Friedrich Siebert, “A Book for Parents”
(Munich, 1905); same author, “What shall I say to my Child?”
(Munich, 1904); Mary Wood-Allen, “When the Boy becomes Man”
(Zurich, 1904); same author, “Tell me the Truth, dear Mother”; W.
Busch, “No more Stork Stories: a Practical Introduction, showing
how Children should be taught the Truth, and how the Family
should be Safeguarded from Moral Contamination” (Leipzig, 1904);
E. von den Steinen, “The Human Sexual Life: a Lecture to those
leaving School” (Düsseldorf, 1906); cf. also, by the same author, “An
Address to those leaving School concerning Sexual Love,” published
in the Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, 1900, vol.
v., pp. 259, 260; F. Siebert, “Our Sons: their Enlightenment
regarding the Dangers of the Sexual Life” (Straubing, 1907); F.
Siebert, “The Sexual Problem in Childhood,” published in “The Book
of the Child,” edited by Adele Schreiber (Leipzig and Berlin, 1907),
vol. i., pp. 106-117; L. Bergfeld, “Take the Bandage from your Eyes,
dear Sister: an Open Letter to Adolescent Girls” (Munich, 1907).
[699] In some cases the child will criticize the grown-up’s fables with a
sharp-sighted logic, as the following story proves: Pepito, a child
seven years of age, asks his mother, “Tell me, mamma, how do
children come?” “People buy them.” “I don’t believe that people buy
them!” “Why not?” “Because poor people have the most!”
[700] S. Freud, “Collection of Minor Writings upon the Doctrine of
Neurosis,” p. 216 (Leipzig and Vienna, 1906).
[701] Cf. Eugen Neter, “The Only Child and its Education” (Munich, 1906).
[702] Angelo Mosso, “Physical Culture in Youth” (Hamburg and Leipzig,
1894).
[703] Paul Güssfeldt, “The Education of German Youth” (Berlin, 1890).
[704] Georg Sticker, “Health and Education,” second edition (Giessen,
1903).
[705] Ludwig Gurlitt, “Education in Manliness” (Berlin, 1907).
[706] Hans Wegener, “We Young Men: the Sexual Problem of the Cultured
Young Man before Marriage: Purity, Strength, and the Love of
Woman” (Düsseldorf and Leipzig, 1906).
[707] M. W. Drobisch, “Moral Statistics and the Freedom of the Human
Will,” pp. 96-101 (Leipzig, 1867). Valuable works regarding the
education of the character and the social education of the child are
found in the first volume (second edition) of the monumental work
edited by Adele Schreiber, “The Book of the Child” (Leipzig and
Berlin, 1907), from the pens of Laura Frost (pp. 42-63), F. A.
Schmidt (pp. 168-179), Lüngen (pp. 192-201), G. Kerschensteiner
(pp. 202-207), R. Penzig (pp. 215-222), and Adele Schreiber (pp.
223-231). Important in relation to sexual enlightenment is also the
question (one actively discussed at the present moment) of the
education of the sexes in common—the so-called co-
education. It has been proved by experience that co-education
has a good effect in sexual relationships (cf. Gertrud Bäumer, “Co-
education,” op. cit., vol. ii., pp. 44-48).
[708] The question of sexual education and enlightenment occupies at
the moment a place in the foreground of public interest, and rightly
so; for upon this depends principally the further reform and the
resanation of all the sexual relationships of civilized peoples. For
this reason the Discussions, now in the press, of the Third Congress
of the Society for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases
(“Sexualpädagogik”), Leipzig, 1907, were occupied exclusively with
this subject, which was considered in elaborate debates from four
points of view:
1. Sexual instruction in the house and the school.
2. Sexual enlightenment of young persons at puberty.
3. Sexual instruction of teachers and parents.
4. Sexual dietetics and education.

The present position of sexual pedagogy in all these respects is

exactly defined in this comprehensive volume; and, in addition, at
the conclusion of the book we find a compend of the recent
literature of the subject. Much of value regarding sexual regimen is
to be found in the work of H. Mann, “Art and the Sexual Conduct of
Life” (Oranienburg, 1907), and in that of A. Eulenburg, “Sexual
Regimen,” published in Mutterschutz, July and August, 1907. As an
opponent of early sexual enlightenment, we must mention G.
Leubuscher (“School Medicine and School Hygiene,” pp. 65-70;
Leipzig, 1907). He considers that such enlightenment should only
be given at the time of leaving school. His reasons, however, are
not convincing, and, above all, do not apply to large towns.
 CHAPTER XXVII
NEO-MALTHUSIANISM, THE PREVENTION OF
CONCEPTION, ARTIFICIAL STERILITY AND
ARTIFICIAL ABORTION

“Formerly the use of such devices was regarded as immoral

and punishable, and was actually punished; it was
condemned as an interference with the Divine plan. But such
views and measures are extreme. Here, as everywhere,
human foresight and methodical interference are
permissible.”—Gustav Schmoller.

CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XXVII

Importance of the problem of population — Malthus and hie doctrine — Its
fallacies — Temporary validity — “Moral restraint” — Neo-malthusianism —
The foundation of the Malthusian League — Great antiquity of malthusian
practices — Disharmony of the family instinct — The mica operation of the
Australian indigens — Artificial abortion among primitive races — Methods of
preventing pregnancy in ancient times — In the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries — Relative justification of the use of preventive measures — Views
of recent physicians on this subject — Summary of the principal methods of
preventing conception — Limitation of coitus to particular times — Advice of
Soranos and Capellmann — Feskstitow’s “conception-curve” — Influence of
particular seasons of the year — Prolongation of the period of lactation —
Buttenstedt’s “Happiness in Marriage” and Funcke’s “New Revelation” —
Criticism of these fantasies — Divergences from the normal method of coitus
 — Passive demeanour of the woman — Coitus interruptus — Exaggerated
views of its injurious influence — Coitus interruptus and anxiety-neurosis —
Trifling effect in healthy individuals — Repeated interruptions of coitus —
Mechanical means of preventing conception — Compression — Muscular
action — Mensinga’s “occlusive pessary” — Holweg’s “obturator” — The
condom — Chemico-physical preventive measures — Douches — The “Lady’s
Friend” — Antiseptic powders and security sponges — Combination of
chemical and mechanical means — The “Venus apparatus” — The duplex
occlusive pessary — Inflammatory affections after the use of chemical
preventive measures — Herpes progenitalis — Artificial sterility — Operative
methods of inducing it — Vaporization and castration — The “ovariées” —
Wide diffusion of artificial abortion — Critical remarks regarding the
punishment of abortion in Germany — The right of the unborn child — Rape
and abortion — The methods of expelling the ovum — Internal means —
Mechanical means — Danger and consequences of both — Social means for
limiting abortion.

CHAPTER XXVII
Whereas in former times opinions on social questions were
determined principally by economic considerations, to-day we are
to a great extent influenced also by the aims and endeavours of
individual and social hygiene; for this reason the so-called
problem of population has come to occupy the consciousness of
civilized mankind to a far greater extent than before it has passed
from the stage of theory into that of practice. Serious critical political
economists, such as, for example, B. G. Schmoller,[709] have
recognized this. The increasing understanding of the conditions of
social life, knowledge of the connexion between economic conditions
and the number and quality of the population, must of itself lead to
the discussion of the question whether the regulation of the number
of children born is not one of the principal duties of modern
civilization. The Englishman Robert Malthus was the first who,
stimulated by an idea of Benjamin Franklin, in the year 1798, in his
“Essay on the Principles of Population,” discussed this serious, and
even alarming, question of the natural consequences of
unrestricted sexual intercourse, and answered it in an extremely
pessimistic sense. For, according to him, whereas human beings tend
to increase in number according to a geometrical progression—that
is, in the ratio 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and so on—the means of subsistence
increase only in arithmetical progression—that is, in the ratio of 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, and so on. Hence it follows that the numbers of the
population can be kept within bounds, so as to remain proportional
to the nutritive possibilities, only by means of decimating influences,
such as vice, poverty, disease, the entire “struggle for existence,” by
preventive measures, and by the so-called “moral restraint” in and
before marriage. Although this celebrated theory, which filled with
alarm, not only all those already living in Europe, but also all those
who wished to produce new life, has to-day been generally
recognized as false,[710] since it failed to take into account technical
advances in the preparation of the soil[711] and other ways in which
it will become possible to increase the means of subsistence; and he
equally ignored the possibility of a better division of property. None
the less does his theory remain apposite in respect of many of the
social relationships of more recent times; the doctrine has, in fact,
temporary validity for certain periods of civilization, such as our own.
Malthus recommended, as the principal means of preventing over-
population, abstinence from sexual intercourse (moral restraint)
before marriage, and the postponement of marriage; thus he was
an apostle of the “relative asceticism” recommended in the twenty-
fifth chapter of the present work.
In England this early view found utterance among the political
economists and sociologists, such as Chalmers, Ricardo, John Stuart
Mill, Say, Thornton, etc. It was also actively discussed in wide circles
of the population, so that as early as the year 1825 the “disciples of
Malthus” were a typical phenomenon of English life.
A further development of malthusianism in the practical direction
was represented by the so-called “neo-malthusianism”—that is, an
actual diffusion of instruction in the means for the prevention of
pregnancy and for the limitation of the number of children. Such a
procedure was first publicly recommended by Francis Place, in the
year 1822; but no widespread teaching of practical malthusianism
occurred till a considerably later date, notably after the foundation of
the Malthusian League, on July 17, 1877. The principal advocates of
neo-malthusianism in England were John Stuart Mill, Charles
Drysdale, Charles Bradlaugh, and Mrs. Besant.
Malthusian practice is, however, much older than the theory.
Metchnikoff[712] declares the endeavour to diminish the number of
children to be a very widely diffused “disharmony of the family
instinct,” which in itself is much more recent, and is much less widely
diffused in the animal kingdom than the sexual instinct. Animals, at
any rate, know nothing of the prevention of conception; that is a
“privilege” of the human species. By primitive races such preventive
measures are very widely employed. Among these measures one of
the best known is the “mica” operation of the Australian natives—the
slitting up of the urethra of the male along the lower surface of the
penis, so that the semen flows out just in front of the scrotum, and
is ejaculated outside the vagina.[713] Regarding the wide diffusion of
artificial abortion among savage races, Ploss-Bartels gives detailed
reports. The pursuit of material enjoyments, characteristic of civilized
peoples, is not here (as recent authors have erroneously assumed)
the determining influence; we have, in fact, to do with a widely
diffused disharmony of the family instinct,[714] for which in certain
definite conditions some justification must be admitted. The period
for the unconditional rejection of malthusianism by pietists and
absolute moralists has passed away definitely. Not only physicians,
but also professional political economists, recognize the relative
justification and admissibility of the use of preventive measures in
certain circumstances for the limitation of the procreation of
children. It has rightly been pointed out[715] that in every marriage
a time must eventually arrive when preventive measures in sexual
intercourse are employed, and necessarily must be employed,
because, in respect of the state of health of the wife, and also in
view of economic conditions, their use is urgently demanded. These
relationships have been discussed with great insight by A. Hegar,[716]
and he has proved the justification of practical neo-malthusianism in
every ordinary marriage, as well as for the population at large. By
means of a “regulation of reproduction,” an immoderate increase of
the population is prevented; by diminishing the quantity we improve
the quality of the offspring. Late marriages, long pauses between
the separate deliveries, and the greatest possible sexual abstinence,
subserve this purpose.
Like Hegar, the Munich hygienist Max Gruber[717] also recognizes
the necessity for setting bounds to the number of children to be
brought into the world, since the capacity of the human species to
increase is far greater than its power to increase the means of
subsistence. He describes very vividly the physical and moral misery
of the parents and the children when the latter are too numerous;
he also shows that from the birth of the fourth child onwards the
inborn force and health of the children diminish more and more.
Naturally, also, diseases affecting the parents, and the pressing
danger of the inheritance of these diseases, renders necessary the
use of sexual preventive measures, or else of moral restraint. Gruber
enunciates the thoroughly neo-malthusian proposition:
“The procreation of children must be kept within bounds, if mankind wishes to
free itself from the cruel condition by which, in irrational nature, the balance is
maintained—death in the mass side by side with procreation in the mass!”

L. Löwenfeld[718] also sees in the recommendation of such

measures for the prevention of pregnancy “nothing either improper
or immoral”; he sees in these measures “means for diminishing the
poverty of the lower classes, and for abolishing, to a great extent,
the high infantile mortality of these classes, although neo-
malthusianism is in no way a panacea for all the social evils of our
time”; and he writes very strongly against the condemnation of
preventive measures by a “perverse medical zealotry”; in fact, he
assigns to preventive measures an immense hygienic importance.
Many other physicians also, such as Mensinga[719] (the discoverer of
the occlusive pessary, the first medical man in Germany to assert
with energy the justification of employing means for the prevention
of pregnancy, and the first to establish with precision the indications
for the use of these measures, especially in relation to the
disadvantageous consequences to women’s health of bearing a large
number of children), Fürbringer,[720] Spener,[721] and others, have
drawn attention to the eminent hygienic and social importance of
measures for the prevention of pregnancy; whereas, on the other
hand, in France, in view of the alarming decline in the population of
that country, scientific medicine has adopted a more hostile attitude;
no longer, however, so bitterly hostile as in the work (now somewhat
out of date, but nevertheless containing interesting details) of
Bergeret.[722] A layman also, Hans Ferdy (A. Meyerhof),[723] has
published a number of interesting works on practical neo-
malthusianism.
We shall now proceed to give a brief account of the means
commonly employed for the prevention of pregnancy.
l. The Restriction of Intercourse to Particular Periods.—It is
clear that by means of relative asceticism, and by restriction of the
number of individual acts of sexual intercourse, the possibilities of
fertilization can be limited to a considerable extent. Thus,
Capellmann, in a work published in 1883, entitled “Facultative
Sterility, without Offence to Moral Laws,” recommended abstinence
from intercourse for fourteen days after the cessation of
menstruation and for three or four days before the commencement
of the flow, in the belief that fertilization occurs principally during the
days immediately before and after menstruation. Capellmann thus
revived the prescription of Soranos, a gynecologist of the days of
antiquity. According to the researches of the physiologist Victor
Hensen, it is true that the greatest number of fertilizations take
place during the first few days after the menstrual period; but
conception may also occur on any other day of the menstrual cycle,
although the probability of conception at other periods than those
named is a diminishing one. Feskstitow has based upon statistical
data an interesting “conception curve,” according to which the
frequency of fertilization on the last day of menstruation, on the
first, ninth, eleventh, and twenty-third days after the end of the flow,
varies respectively according to the ratios 48, 62, 13, 9, 1; between
these points the course of the curve is almost straight. On the
twenty-third day after menstruation the probability of conception is
thus one-sixty-second of the maximum. Thus, though the probability
of fertilization following intercourse on the twenty-third day after the
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