Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/48

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CONTRACEPTION

on the other hand, suffer detrimental effects from quinine (see p. 110).

Wherever abnormalities of any sort are present (and how often, alas, that is true!) special considerations must come into play, and in specific cases the more advisable method might be quite other than that which would be the best for a normal and healthy woman. Considerations of some such special cases are indicated on pp. 183 et seq.

As the act of coitus is not solely a physiological process, but one which, particularly in our later civilizations, is so complex and so involved with sentiment and spiritualized feeling, the ideal contraceptive must be one the use of which is sufficiently simple and easily adjustable not to interfere with the sentimental and psychological reactions of the act. For this reason the practice of douching, not uncommon (see p. 116), is thoroughly unsuitable, even if it were satisfactory in other respects, which incidentally it is not.

Once contraceptives are studied adequately they might be so planned as to combine their function with that of a tonic or other substance likely to benefit the individual case. Theoretically, however, as I have persistently maintained, contraception should

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