Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/25
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
ζῶμεν κατ' οἴκους, οἱ δὲ μάρνανται δορί,
κακώς φρονοῦντες· ὡς τρὶς ἂν παρ' ἀσπίδα
στῆναι θέλοιμ᾽ ἂν μᾶλλον ἢ τεκέιν ἅπαξ.
"At home, while they do battle spear in hand,
"Wrongly they think; for three times would I stand
"With shield on arm sooner than bear one child."
No one who has watched a woman through the pains of childbirth can fail to realize that Euripides was right; and many of us I imagine, even though we stood by the table or the bedside with rubber gloves on our hands, chloroform close by, and sterilized forceps ready in warm water, must have felt that somehow or other it is hard that women who pay the price of pleasure should not have some voice in the number of times they have to endure the slow and painful distention of the soft parts by the fœtal head. By your method it is so easy! The woman need not pay unless she wishes. On this subject Bentham's views as to the principle of utility, and on pleasure and pain, may be commended to your opponents.
As I have no wish to be charged with advertising myself, no desire to divert subscriptions from the hospital which I have loved so long, which has taught me so much and which in my last years has even invited me to lecture within its walls, no leisure to answer letters and no inclination for controversy, I will follow the example of Ulrich von Hutten, the defender of John Reuchlin, and subscribe myself,
Your humble servant,
OBSCURUS, M.B., D.P.H.,
Barrister-at-Law.
xxiii.