CHAPTER III.

ANTE-CONCEPTION CONDITIONS: THE ROYAL FAMILY OF ENGLAND.

The heading for this Chapter is one of several sub-titles under which I shall consider the laws governing generation. I shall commence in society just as I find it to-day a majority of the men and women united in wedlock, and therefore liable at any time to become parents, whether they so will it or not. Under this sub-title I shall not raise the question whether or not the parties are fit companions for each other, in the marriage relation, but accepting conditions as they are, instead of theorizing upon conditions as they should be, we will try and make the best of everything, and produce the best offspring possible under the conditions, pointing out the best methods for rearing and educating the same, and then, when the improved breed shall become old enough to marry, I will endeavor to so instruct them, that with an improved marriage relation their offspring will be as much superior to themselves as they have been made superior to their parents, and thus go on, from generation to generation, improving the race as the stockraiser is enabled to improve every variety of animal, even to the sow that wallows in the mire.

In order that my advice may not appear to be purely theoretical, and therefore make but little impression, I shall endeavor to deal with facts as much as possible. I regret that most of the writers upon this subject have labored chiefly to prove that their deductions are true, instead of proving their premises. I shall aim entirely at proving my premises, leaving the deductions, as the fish does its young, to shift for

themselves. Were the reader acquainted with the same persons as myself, I could take him to different families of children, point out the dissimilarities of constitution, intellect, disposition, and so forth; and then, after careful inquiry from the parents, be able to point out the causes for these differences. But since this course is not practicable, I will refer to the present royal family of England, the history of which it is easy to learn.

Prince Albert was most emphatically an intellectual man, quite free from low indulgences which usually characterize royality and nobility. Aside from his dignity of birth, if he had only been a hod-carrier, he would have been admired for the purity of his life, his uprightness of conduct, and exalted ambition. Queen Victoria was a most exemplary young woman, and in all her relations of life, whether as friend, wife or mother, aside from her royalty, affords a fair model for her sex. Here, then, we have two persons united, much above the average of humanity, and have a right to expect superior offspring. Nine months and eleven days after marriage, the Princess Royal was born. She has proved a very superior woman, and just such as would very naturally be expected from such parents. Just eleven months and eighteen days after the birth of Victoria Adelaide, Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, was born. The Prince is a poor model for goodness, and just such a son as would not be expected from such parents. In the Galaxy for March, 1870, Justin McCarthy says of him :

"Those who saw the Prince of Wales, when he visited this country, would surely fail to recognize the slender, fair-haired, rather graceful youth of that day, in the heavy, fat, stolid, prematurely bald, elderly young man of this. It would not be easy to see in any assembly a more stupid-looking man than the Prince of Wales is now. * * * All that he could do by countenance and patronage to encourage a debauching and degrading style of theatric entertainment, he has done. He is said to be fond of the singing of the vulgar and low

buffoons of the music hall, and to have had such persons brought specially to his residence, Marlborough House, to sing. * * * Night after night, even during the long and lamentable illness of his young wife, he visited such theaters and gazed upon those prodigies of myriad nakedness. * Almost any and every one you meet in London, will tell you, as something beyond doubt, that the Prince of Wales is dull, stingy, course and profligate."

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Dismissing the Prince for the present, I pass on to observe that seventeen months and sixteen days after the birth of the Prince, Alice Maud Mary was born, a grand improvement on her brother. Then fifteen months and eleven days later Prince Alfred was born, who is much superior in every way to the Prince of Wales.

Now the question arises, Why so much difference in children born of the same parents? Does such a question ever arise in the minds of the Court physicians? If so, the world is none the wiser for it, for they are as silent as the grave upon these subjects. Is this difference the result of chance or accident? By no means, for it is impossible that there should be an effect, of any kind, without a cause. Now I must be able to account for these differences, in a rational manner, in order to inspire the reader with confidence, and if I succeed in doing this I shall expect to command his respect in other matters that may be new to him. To begin then.

It is evident that conception followed immediately after the marriage of Albert and Victoria, while both were full of vitality and magnetism, before exhausting themselves with passional excesses, as usually happens with a newly married pair, for fashionable decency forbids that young people should be enlightened upon these points, so important not only to their own well being, but that of their offspring. Another cause contributed to the happy organization of the Princess Royal. She was begotten in love, before the honeymoon of tenderness and devotion had passed; before cankering cares had sprung up, strewing thorns in their paths, and

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while their minds were temporarily diverted from the vexations, anxieties and responsibilities of state. I might dwell upon these circumstances, elaborating them in extenso, but for the intelligent reader, I have probably said sufficient for my purpose. Having given the hint, his own thought and reflection will supply corroborating facts.

We next consider the circumstances and conditions connected with the conception of the Prince of Wales. He was begotten in less than a year after the marriage of his parents. Deductions: I. During this year the parents had exhausted their vitalities by passional excesses, the indulgences being new to both. This exhaustion must have incapacitated them for fulfilling the high and holy mission of parentage, and offspring begotten under such conditions must of a necessity be inferior. 2. During this year Victoria had endured the pains and anxieties attendant upon the period of primal gestation, having become a mother only a few weeks prior to the second conception. 3. During this year both were experiencing the cares and responsibilities of sovereignty, and although this was a weak adversary compared with the two former, still it would have been sufficient, other conditions being equal, to have made the offspring inferior to the first-born, begotten in the honeymoon of love.

"For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." This is true, because a law of Nature, rather than because it is in Galatians. We see its verification everywhere-in the plant, the animal and the human. The seed of the plant, the germ of life, may be talked about before a mixed audience, and even the most fastidious ladies are not shocked at the mention of rice, corn, barley and so forth, yet they would. be horrified if some one should say "semen" in their hearing. This does not arise from a natural delicacy, but is the result of a perverse education and the engendering of a false modesty; for as before remarked, during the early stage of embryo life, there is a period when not even the most learned Naturalist

is capable of distinguishing the plant from the human embryo. Here are two things so exactly alike, that not even the slightest difference between them is distinguishable, yet while the plant may be discussed in all its stages, from the germ to perfect completion of reproduction, both decency and polite usage forbid even the mention of the male seed, which is to the human what the grain of corn is to the vegetable. If the kernel of corn to be planted is of an inferior quality, no one would expect to be rebuked for indecency, should he venture the remark that the product of that kernel would be inferior. But to make the same remark about the male germ, would be to challenge ostracism from polite society, notwithstanding the Bible informs us that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption." Fools must strain the meaning of words, and dig deep for folly, not to comprehend the sublime thought here expressed, namely the sowing of the germ of human life and the production of offspring. For, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked." That is, if by over indulgence of bridal rites the male germ is not allowed a sufficient time to mature before being ejected, having barely enough vitality to impregnate the female ovum with animal life, but none to spare for intellectual, moral and spiritual life, then depend upon it that "God will not be mocked," and that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Physicians who write books upon this subject are too much disposed to follow in the wake of each other, giving out similar ideas, but clothed in different language. Hence, a century ago it was thought that the status of the child depended mainly upon the conditions of the mother during gestation. This idea has been perpetuated, and is popular to-day, yet very erroneous, for the status of the child depends equally upon the conditions of the father at the time of conception. If he has been upon a drunken debauch, or just recovering from a severe illness, or has been indulging to excess in bridal