Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/103

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CHAPTER FIVE

A few cases have used this method a long time and have found it satisfactory, but the great majority of observant persons are conscious of and recognize some harmful effects from the procedure.

Unreliable.—As regards the reliability of this method as a contraceptive there is also something to say. It fails from time to time owing to the man's lack of control; but it also tails at times apparently inexplicably, and when the man and woman both assert absolutely that no failure could have taken place! One reason of failure is clear, for it is naturally difficult for a man in the state of emotion induced by proper coitus to be quite sure what happens. There is, however, a more fundamental and more interesting cause of failure. Before the main ejaculation takes place (of which the man is conscious) small preliminary exudations are general, and in these, active sperm may be present. In his own person, one of my distinguished medical correspondents observed active sperm cells at the time of erection and before ejaculation had even approached onset.[1]

  1. ↑ This case was published for the first time in the 6th edition of "Wise Parenthood" (1920), and bas since been taken by other writers, but without acknowledgment of the source.

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