24. – MARRIAGE
THE vast practical importance of the various points included in this Section and the following Sections is our apology for introducing them. In other works, and also to some extent in this one, we have attempted to show the value and bearing of pure air and water, light, exercise, recreation, good food, etc., on health and long life. Here, however, we carry our researches further back and venture to offer suggestions concerning the exercise of those functions of the male and female organs of reproduction on the integrity of which depends, to a great extent, the physical and moral qualities of individuals.
The question of the marriage of unsuitable persons, or of marriage at an unsuitable age, is often either disregarded, or viewed from a too narrow standpoint, as if it only concerned the individuals forming the alliance. Our responsibility, however imposes on us the duty of enforcing the truth that the health, happiness, and material greatness of future generations are involved in such marriages. No one but a physician, who sees human nature in all, even in its darkest aspects, can fully appreciate the subject, or accurately trace its workings in society. The several points, here only briefly alluded to, are of pressing importance, and should be seriously pondered, in all their bearings, by persons contemplating marriage, and by parents and guardians.
Marriageable Age : From twenty to twenty five years of age may be stated as the most suitable time of life for contracting marriage on the part of women. Although the function of menstruation commences from the fourteenth to the sixteenth year, yet the female constitution is not sufficiently formed and matured till twenty or twenty-one years of age to permit of marriage without risk of injury to health and comfort. Some exceptions so this may exist in persons who have acquired at about nineteen that physical and mental perfection which the majority of persons in this country only attain some years later. On the other hand, too late marriages frequently entail much discomfort, and the children of such parents are often sickly, and die prematurely. But these points are more fully and separately considered further on.
Precocious Marriage – Physiology clearly teaches the both animals and plants must, acquire full development before they are capable of reproducing their species in the highest and most vigorous condition. Too early marriage often results in arrest of development, a shattered constitution, and generally impaired health in the mother; such marriages are also generally “less fertile, and the children who are product of them are weak, puny, and have an increased rate of mortality” (Duncan). Further, premature marriage, by anticipating the demands of nature, increases the sufferings and dangers of childbirth.
Anatomical facts may also be briefly cited to confirm the correctness of our conclusions. The perfect ossification of the pelvic bones, and their complete union to one another, do not usually take place till after twenty years of age; not is it till about this period that the pelvis has fully assumed the form, shape, and distinctive sexual features so admirably suited for the functions of child-bearing. It is well known that the pelvis of the two sexes differ but little till puberty; but at that period the female pelvis begins to assume its striking characteristics; its cavity becomes capacious and broad in both its diameters, and an inlet and outlet also enlarge.
These and other characters so necessary for maternity are not fully developed till after that maturity of growth, the process of years, which only fairly commences about the time of puberty. “When I am consulted,” write M. Joulin, “As to the opportuneness of a marriage for subjects who are too young, I am accustomed to respond to the parents that they should not marry their daughter until a year at least after her stature has ceased to increase. This is the epoch that I fix for nubility.” The early exercise of the sexual functions of the lower animals does not disprove our argument. The life of the sheep, for examples, is much briefer, its office much more material, and its sexual propensities are therefore manifested at a much earlier age.
Late Marriages – Under this heading we deem it desirable to make some additional remarks with the view of correcting popular fallacies on so important a subject. “The lateness of marriages.” Graves says “may be generally taken as a good test of an improved state of society, and as exhibiting that power of moral restraint over the passions which should characterise civilised and intelligent beings.” If by late marriages, in the above quotation, is meant marriage contracted many years after the period stated in a previous paragraph as the most fitting, then, from more than one point of view, we must decline to regard it as indicative of, or favorable to, the mortality of society. The political and even the moral philosopher betrays a lack of sound wisdom, and an incomplete view of human nature, if, in his calculations, he ignores or underrates the sensuous element of our nature.
In considering human nature, as medical men, we can scarcely avoid taking all parts of it into view. In the exercise of our profession we have frequently repeated evidence that the great functions of the body and the high aspirations of the soul act and react upon each other. Whatever may be the theories of moral and speculative philosophers, our profession compels us to regard men and women as complementary beings mutually dependent on each other for health, virtue, and happiness, this dependence commencing on the attainment of manhood and womanhood. By observing, as nearly as circumstances permit, the period of marriage before noticed, an important step will be taken towards maintaining the health, happiness, and morals of all classes.
Marriage, moreover, if suitable and happy, lengthens life. The relatives influence of marriage and celibacy on the duration of life has been ascertained. And the result is that the mortality is considerably less, both among men and women, in the married state, than among the celibate and widowed. This opinion has indeed been controverted; and it has been affirmed that longevity, instead of being a consequence of marriage, is simply a correlation of it; that they are concomitant results of the same cause – viz., constitutional vigor. Where the reproductive instincts are strong the surplus vital energy is great, and the organisation is likely to last. This may be true, but we nevertheless think that well-assorted marriage lengthens life.
In thus recording our matured opinion on the subject, we may be excused detailing, in a domestic Manual, the varied kinds of evidence on which it is based. Let the inquiring mind look around, and somewhat beneath the surface of society, carefully examining what will thus come to view, and proof will be ample and varied that deferment of marriage many years beyond the period indicated is not always consistent with physical and moral well-being.
Disproportionate Ages – A considerable disproportion between the ages of the husband and wife is to be avoided. When circumstances are favourable to such an arrangement, there should not be more than three to five years’ difference between the ages of the man and the woman, the husband being the senior.
Ill-health a Contra-Indications – A little reflection will convince anyone of the disastrous consequences likely to spring from the marriage of unhealthy persons. “The fact cannot be disputed, though appreciable with difficulty, that the natural and special dispositions of the individual descend to him in a certain measures from his origin, and that parents transmit in their children such and such moral propensities just as they do such and such physical temperament, or such and such features. Hereditary transmission enters into the moral as well as into the physical order of the world” (M. Guizot). Diseases, then, as well as peculiarities of character, may be transmitted from parents to children. This is no mere theoretical statement, but a truth based on practical observations a hundred times verified; and it should convey a most impressive lesson. If, for example, the consumptive young woman marries, she becomes a mother – for the consumptive are generally prolific – and indelibly imprints her infirmity on her off-spring, while she exposes her off- spring, while she exposes herself to the perils of children a hundred fold heightened in such a disease. The observant medical practitioner only, who can trace effects to their causes, can gauge the suffering and bitter disappointment which result from such marriages, and should be consulted before marriage are arranged. It will be obvious that unless the fountain whence much physical evil flows-hereditary taint-be itself purified, nothing can effectually check the progress of maladies universally prevalent, and destructive to happiness, health, and longevity. so long as a reproducing agent is constantly at work, imprinting at the time of impregnation the elements of disease on countless numbers of children, nothing can prevent the multiplication of the evils consequent on diseases and premature death.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."