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CHAPTER EIGHT

British Medical Journal, about which very much can be said. If his views be true that the 'uterine glands' absorb from the seminal fluid, even that is no argument against the use of quinine and various other methods of contraception, because such methods do not prevent the seminal fluid from penetrating the womb. It is to be hoped, therefore, that Professor Thomson's indiscriminate remarks about contraceptives will not mislead others into generalizing too hastily."

Contraception "is not natural."

This "argument" is incessantly brought forward by shallow thinkers and moralists. It is hardly necessary to point out that in this sense, the whole of civilization is "not natural": that tooth-brushes and eyeglasses, chloroform and telephones are each and all as much a violation of "nature's laws." Sir E. Ray Lankester[1] pointed out very vividly that "Man is Nature's rebel. Where Nature says 'Die!' Man says 'I will live!'" and that man must face the consequences in his too great numbers. He points out that animal populations do not increase—"'Increase and multiply has never been said by Nature

  1. E. Ray Lankester (1922): "The Kingdom of Mau." Pp. x, 114 illustrations, London, 1912.

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