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CHAPTER SIX

discovered about the chemical conditions of the vaginal canal and secretions; and that were contraception removed from its present neglected corner of medical study and considered openly and properly, true research on contraception and the vaginal reactions would lead to many discoveries of general value. There is little doubt that the degree of acidity of the vaginal secretions varies enormously in individual women, and it probably varies in the same woman under different circumstances (see also p. 61).

When a woman is using the cap the normal acidity of her vagina is probably a sufficient safeguard without any chemical pessary, because this acidity would destroy the motile activity of the sperm in a dozen hours or less. In any case, unless the woman is one of those who have a tendency to more permanent alkaline vaginal secretions, no other safeguard is necessary. In some women, however, motile sperm have been found many days after their deposition by the act of coitus. And in Taylor's work on medical jurisprudence[1] some very interesting cases, described by Bossi, art on record in which the sperma-

  1. ↑ Taylor (edited by F. J. Smith), 1920: "Taylor's Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence." Seventh edition, vol. ii. Pp. viii, 952. London, 1920.

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