Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/110

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CONTRACEPTION

June are more liable to yield conceptions than the mid-summer and mid-winter months.[1] Hence, there can be no "birth control method" involving a seasonal restriction of intercourse. The use of the "safe period" among our peoples implies a mensual safe period and not an annual one, such as might be still. practical among the primitive peoples.

(9) "Coitus Intermenstruus" or Restriction of the Coital Act to certain specified Dates in the Month, commonly called the "Safe Period," sometimes "Tempus Ageneseos."

This method of birth control is a very old one and has had a very interesting history. The earliest reference in the scientific literature of Europe which I have is Pouchet in 1842,[2] but unfortunately I have not been able to see this book and depend on Hans Ferdy's quotation. At the present time it is, as a matter of fact, the only method in addition to total abstention which is sanctioned by a variety of religious bodies, because, owing to clerical ignorance of the true functions of sex union,

  1. ↑ Charles Richet (1916): "De la variation mensuelle de la natalité." Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci., Paris, vol. 163, pp. 141-149.
  2. ↑ F. A. Pouchet (1842): "Théorie positive de la fécondation des mammifères." Paris, 1842.

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