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CONTRACEPTION

exhaustive book on marriage[1] does not refer at all to contraception, and that there is no entry of the subject in his index, and only one brief note on abortion, appears to me to be so remarkable as to be totally inexplicable!

Turning from savages to historical documents and publications, one of the earliest sources of really explicit and profound sex instruction is the Kama Sutra. Based on Sanskrit texts of the sixth century, the ancient Sanskrit books of instruction in love, in spite of all crudities (some of which appear in our eyes absurdities), are nevertheless interspersed with profound and still most useful wisdom. The Ananga-Ranga[2] is the most complete I have seen. The need for contraception was recognized by these early authors, and there is evidence that the women of the East long ago were themselves aware of the value and wished to benefit from the use of contraceptives. The methods of course are not scientific to the extent of those available to-day, but like much early information, they are based on

  1. ↑ Edward Westermarck (1921): "The History of Human Marriage," in three vols. Fifth edition. Vol. i, Pp. xxiii, 571 vol. ii, Pp. xi, 595; vol. iii, Pp. viii, 587. London, 1921.
  2. ↑ "Ananga-Ranga, Stage of the Bodiless One, or the Hindu Art of Love." (Translated and printed for private circulation only.)

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