Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/204

the method might prove invaluable for use for the very type of person whom it is racially desirable that doctors should control and should not leave potent to conceive through negligence and carelessness. However, the pessary is now made either of silver, silver gilt, pure gold or platinum and is therefore too expensive for this class of patient. It costs about two guineas; hence until our country decides to spend money on prevention rather than expensive institutions to keep wastrels and the feebleminded, the cost takes it out of the reach of the very ones who most need a controlled contraceptive.

This method is, so far as I can' discover, the only one so far available which might be used to deal with cases which otherwise should be sterilized. Therefore, this method should receive consideration and study rather than uninformed condemnation.

One medical practitioner in New York told me that it was used in the first instance for women who did not conceive owing to the persistent closure of the cervical canal, the pessary was inserted in order to stretch the canal and keep it open. After being used for that purpose for a few months it was removed, pregnancy ensued and then after the desired birth it was reinserted with