Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/268

No evidence still extant indicates to us when the very primitive, nay even the prehistoric woman became sufficiently conscious of her own person and powers to desire, or to achieve, any measure of control of conception. That definite contraceptive means (however imperfect and unreliable) were employed in the prehistoric past is probable: for to-day a number of extremely primitive races possess their own type of crude knowledge on this subject, and so make it evident that earlier races of the same grade probably did also.

In primitive communities, however, the personal needs of the woman and the health-giving effects of true contraception are less likely to have been realized than the simple desire to reduce the number of unnecessary babies. Hence abortion and infanticide are the early and more barbarous equivalents of contraception, but contraception as distinct from either of these existed long centuries