The crux of pastoral medicine; the perils of embryonic man

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BY
Rev. ANDREW KLARMANN, A. M.

FOURTH ENLARGED EDITION

PERMISSU ORDINARH

010.

Printers to the Holy Apostolic See and the Sacred Congregation
of Rites

RATISBON, ROME, NEW YORK, CINCINNATI

1912

flibU ©bstat.

REMIGIUS LAFORT, S.T.L..

Censor.

APR 9 1952

Imprimatur.

4« JOHN. CARDINAL PARLEY,

Archbishop of New York.

NEW YORK. NOVEMBER 20. 191L

COPYRIGHT, 1912

FR. PUSTET A CO.

NEW YORK AND CINCINNATI

to til?

Three questions of vital importance have these
latter days not only forced themselves on the at
tention of the public, but have also engaged the
interest of those whose office it is to look out for
and protect the welfare of the public, and to direct
general and spontaneous movements into safe
channels. Both the legislatures of several states
and the prominent heads of large private so
cieties instituted for the purpose of providing a
moral and medical prophylaxis against criminality
and degeneracy, have taken a definite and practi
cal view of Vasectomy, or rather, Vasotomy.
The Moment of Death has received a more sym
pathetic attention from the medical experts, and
has been most earnestly discussed as a stage in
the earthly pilgrimage of man full of neglected
possibilities both for the priest and for the physi
cian. And lastly, the question of Instructing the
Young on the Sex Problem has called forth two
diametrically opposed lines of disputants, of which
the one would as energetically defend as the other
would oppose, the cause. This dispute has not yet
settled down to the condition of a quiet con-

iv Preface.

troversy. Each of these two lines has hitherto
been following its own course irrespective of that
of the other. The same may be said to be true of
those who have so far led the discussion of Vaso-
tomy, and in a measure also of those who have
joined the debate on the new developments that
are suggested by the latest discoveries made in the
province of death.

We have undertaken to give both sides of these
questions a calm consideration, the results of
which form the additional chapters of this book.

THE AUTHOR.

New York, December i, 1911.

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The first edition of this book was sent out
without the sword and buckler of a preface,
partly because the author was induced to share,
in a measure, the apprehensions of many of his
friends, that he went into "deep water" with the
medical profession, partly also, because nobody
else would risk introducing a book that was new,
not only as to the language, but also in the
treatment of its subject — and more than new, in
as much as it set itself at variance with all hitherto
acknowledged authors in the same field. So it
went forth to take care of itself.

As it is, the most brilliant recommendation
could not justify this book, if it could not justify
itself.

And the little book was well received, contrary
to expectations and predictions. The reviews,
unpaid and unsolicited, although much welcome,
and herewith thankfully acknowledged, well-nigh

vi Preface.

"kissed the baby to death." And in these ex
pressions of welcome the medical men were as
free as the theologians. It seemed almost that
the joy over its arrival forbade the reviewers
to notice, or at least, to censure the few faults
of which the first edition was not quite free.
These faults have been corrected in the new
edition.

But we feel it a duty, now, to explain, how
this book has come to make such rigid opposition
to traditional methods of Pastoral Medicine.

The authors of Pastoral Medicines have been
either physicians or theologians. The physicians
consulted the theologians either in person or in
the shape of books. Now, a theologian who
had not made a thorough preparation for such
consultation, and acquainted himself with the
physiological and medical parts of the cases under
consideration, would naturally hesitate to con
tradict a physician of high standing in his pro
fession; and only such made the attempt of
writing these books. If the theologian consulted
the physician, he faced the same difficulty. The
ology was at a disadvantage in either case; for
in sickness and trouble, medical assistance is
sought first, as it ought to be. But where a
question of conscience enters into the proceed-

Preface. vii

ings of the doctor, the case is already prejudiced
against interference of any description, as it ap
pears to handicap the physician, in whose care
the patient was given from the beginning.

But nobody doubts that a physician as such
is not competent to find his way through the
intricacies of cases the solution of which in
volves, not only authoritative decisions, but the
very fundamental principles of moral philosophy
and theology, together with the studies which
are considered preparatory to the acquisition and
mastery of these sciences. Moreover, authori
tative decisions are given after a complication
of difficulties has made a case practically hopeless
of disentanglement by private authority.

And thus we find in the various books on
this subject indications of mutual fear on the part
of the authors. Few authors, if one, have taken
a courageous stand against their opponents on
the same question. Besides, Pastoral Medicine
has been held in such scant esteem, by the medical
profession, at least, that succeeding authors con
tented themselves with copying each other. Far
from making pretentious to scientific treatment,
the "crux" of Pastoral Medicine was ever bedded
out of sight under a heap of hygiene, nursing
and sickroom regulations, diet and ventilation,

viii Preface.

signs of death and apparent death, lunacy and
epilepsy, syphilis, etc., etc. The attempt at sin
cerity with the dangerous, delicate and trouble
some subject of Pastoral Medicine proper, the
perils of nascent life, was only made in a half
hearted manner. It seemed so much like passing
through Scylla and Charibdis. On the one side
there threatened the danger of delicacy of treat
ment and expression, especially in our sensitive
vernacular, and on the other, a clash with the
hereditary opinions and "ipse dixits" of the men
of either profession.

This is not said irreverently. We have the
greatest respect for authority, as the book tes
tifies; but in science, authority ends with the
proofs. But when we studied the works of the
most eminent authors, although we found much,
very much, that was a credit to their zeal, dil-
ligence and love of truth, we could not help
noticing contradictions, inaccuracies, tergiversa
tions of blank despair; some of these unwhole
some things in the one, and some in the other.

It occurred to us, then, that the writing of a
new book in English required more than a mere
compiling of cases, decisions and quotations. We
thought it feasible and necessary, to put Pastoral
Medicine on its own feet, lending a pedestal from

Preface. ix

Christian biology and from the philosophy and
ethics of the greatest philosopher, St. Thomas;
and then chisel away "for dear life" at the new
goddess, until she should take form and feature,
spurring our efforts with the principles of these
sciences, and guiding them with authoritative
decisions, as far as they are on hand.

How far this end was achieved the public ex
pressions of expert opinion have testified, despite
the unpleasant fact that to agnostic and other
non-Catholic physicians, many of these decisions
have come like nightmares, although they, too,
subscribe to them ("Medical Review of Re
views," New York and London, August 25,

1905)-

But we realize that the work is now only begun.
We realize also that our work is imperfect, as
may be expected in a new departure. The task
was arduous — clearing away and building up.
Yet it was not audacity, but necessity, that per
suaded us to undertake this work.

May God bless it for the welfare of His great
and of Him so well-beloved family!

THE AUTHOR.

NEW YORK, September n, 1905.

283

THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND
GENERATION.

INTRODUCTION.

I. The problem that is bidding defiance to
all attempts of the scientists at solution, is the
problem of life, and, concomitantly, of genera
tion. The most delicate optical and mechanical
instruments have been devised ; the most search
ing investigations into the most secret retreats
of life have been instituted; the lowest unit of
life has been discovered in the cell; the cell has
been examined in its integral, interdependent
elements; substitution has been made for the
one and the other of these elements for the
purpose of discovering and determining their
relative necessity in the process of life, and
generation, and cell-multiplication ; life has been
found even in the least dependent elements of
the tiniest cells: but whence life comes, is still
as deep a secret to the natural sciences as it has
ever been.

6 The Problem of Life and Generation.

2. Moreover, science has succeeded in estab
lishing as a scientific fact the peculiar phenom
enon of chemical substitutes for one of the
factors of cell-life assuming the activity of the
elements eliminated, or, at least, of inciting the
activity of the remaining factors or elements in
the same manner as the natural factor.

The only difference noticed between this pro
cess and that of the union of all the natural
factors is this, that the artificial process, intro
duced by a chemical agency, comes to a dead
stop a long time before the germ-cells, the
bearers of the generative activity, have ac
complished their natural task of perfecting a new
individual. This failure may be due to the in
sufficiency of the strange factor introduced; but
it may also be due to the inability, unexplained so
far, of the germs under investigation, of sustain
ing life in artificial surroundings.

However this may be, it is certain that such
germs left in their natural habitat, never show
traces of chemical combinations; so that it
seems safe to assume, that a chemical factor in
serted into the life-elements of the cell, and
substituted for the native principle, can do no
more than excite the activity of the remaining
parts or factors, without contributing toward the

(The Problem of Life and Generation. 7

process of development that vigor, which would
promote the process of generation on the lines
of the natural progress toward the efformation
of a new individual after the pattern of the
species.

But as the efformation of the individual is the
termination of the work and purpose of nature,
and the individual alone is the subject of life
with a purpose of its own, it follows that
chemistry is unable to accomplish more than,
perhaps, the initiation of the process of life,
which it finds pre-existent as its subject of
operation.

Thus the application of acetic acid and salt
solutions (Prof. Loeb, New York) to the eggs
of sea-urchins may set the mechanism of gen
eration in motion, as the warmth of an incubator
causes the fructified egg to begin its race toward
the hatching of a chick.

But acids cannot assume the office of either
protoplasm, spermcell, or pronucleus. In such
a simple substance (not philosophically simple!)
as the egg-cell of a sea-urchin, the chromosomata
may, upon chemical incitement, go through a
series of processes identical with the natural
process of generation in these creatures, so as
to present the beginning of a new individual;

8 The Problem of Life and Generation.

but the generative process stops this side of its
natural termination: as a clock, set in motion
by pressure exerted upon its principal wheel
(with the spring unwound), moves as if it were
in working order; but the moment the pressure
ceases, the motion ceases also.

Artificial elements cannot impart the natural
tendency of the process of generation ; the teleo-
logical principle is nature's own, and this it is
that presides over the functions of the generative
germs of the million species of living organisms,
pointing the way to each one according to the
pattern of the parent from which it is derived.
It is a marvel of consistency that nature re
produces from the germ-cells, so much alike to
each other, the infinite variety of descendants
which continue the unity and harmony of living
nature.

Chemistry may yet unravel the mysteries of
the cell elements, the protoplasm, the chromo
somes, the filaments of the cell-axis or spindle,
the granules composing the chromosomes; but
it will (probably?) fail to elicit the spark of
life from inert matter by means of acids or
other chemical agencies.

Yet, even if chemistry should succeed to
evolve by such means a new individual, this

The Problem of Life and Generation. 9

would not solve the problem of the origin of
life, in as much as the chemical factor is actuat
ing a cell already living. If chemistry could call
forth the spark of life from matter, as dead and
dry as ashes, no matter by what process, then it
would deserve the palm. It is known, moreover,
that in parthenogenetic generation, propagation
takes place without the concurrence of sperm-
cells of any kind, offering a plain illustration of
the futility of the efforts at stamping every
form of life as seminal : but in this case, neither
is the origin of life derived from chemical
activities.

3. But every known form of life is cellular
(except, of course, the life of spirits) :

A reduction to one half of its original germin-
ative elements, the chromosomes, takes place in
every germ-cell, the protoplasm preserving its
state, in the cell of the ovulum as well as in the
sperma. The cells reduced in this manner are
doomed to death if they fail of their office of
fructification. And besides, the protoplasm and
the chromosomes together assume, in the process
of generation, a double office, that would seem
to be contradictory to their nature as it exists
in transitu. For, one direction of generation
lies toward forming and building up the struc-

io The Problem of Life and Generation.

ture of the new individual, or developing the
type of the species, and for this office alone the
generative germs seem to be prepared. The
other direction of the generation lies toward in
creasing the new germ or cell begot of the union
of the two original germ-cells. Now, it has been
observed in all growth that the mass or bulk
of the individual is increased by means of the
division of the cells, in which now, in the
process of growth, the chromosomes are not
halved, and one half expelled, as occurs in the
preparation of the cell for germination. This
office is also fulfilled by the same cells or germs
of generation, opposed as it may seem to their
nature and condition.

Hence this admirable adaptation of such scant
and simple means to the purposes of generation
and propagation must be superintended by a
factor which aims unerringly at a preconceived
termination; and for the reason that the same
original processes and elements terminate in the
reproduction of the whole variety of living things
according to the exact type of their respective
species, this factor must be specifically distinct
in each species.

In the ancient, traditional philosophy of
Aristotle and the School, this factor is called

The Problem of Life and Generation. n

the pattern, idea, or form of the thing. St.
Thomas (S. Theol. i. 15. i. c.) thus defines
this term : "Idea is Greek, form is Latin. Hence
by ideas we understand the forms of some things
as they exist besides the things themselves. Now,
the form of a thing existing besides the thing
itself, may be said to exist for two purposes:
either to be the pattern of that of which it is
called the form, or, to be the principle of the
cognition of that thing, according to the saying
that the forms of things cognoscible are said to
be in the mind of him who knows those things.
"And with regard to both (modes) we must
recognize (admit) ideas. And this is proved in
this way: In all things not produced by chance
it is necessary that the form should be the in
tention of every generation. But an agent would
not act on account of the form, except in so far
as the likeness of the form is within it (the
agent) . And this happens in two ways : in
some agents the form of the thing to be produced
is preexistent according to their natural state of
existence, as in those which act through nature :
thus a human being produces a human being,
fire produces fire. In some (agents) however,
the form exists according to intelligible being
'(existence in the intellect), as we see in those

12 The Problem of Life and Generation.

who act through intelligence: thus the likeness
of the house is preexistent in the mind of the
builder. And this can be said to be the idea of
the house, because the architect strives to make
the house similar to the form which he conceived
in his mind."

It is difficult to think that a more apt and
significant name could be found for this myste
rious regulator of living nature.

4. This regulative principle cannot easily be
disposed of by theorizing. It is a stubborn
reality, a postulate of the sober science of natural
philosophy.

But perhaps physiology can relegate it to the
obscurity of antiquated and obsolete methods of
philosophical speculation ?

Physiology could gainsay its necessity as a
real factor of investigation only on either of the
following grounds : I ) Because it has never
been found, or 2) Because something has been
discovered, or is discoverable, in its place. But
physiology cannot assert that it can dispense
with such a factor, no matter of what nature.
This attempt has been made by the defenders
of equivocal generation, and by the inventors of
the mechanical, material or chemical origin of
life. But that attempt has signally failed, so

The Problem of Life and Generation. 13

that all respectable scientists who publish the
results of their conscientious investigations only
for the love of truth, are agreed as to this, that
it may serve any purpose but that of science, to
maintain on flimsy argument and on such dis
honesty as that of the exploded Haeckelian
B at hy bius, etc., that life springs from matter. —
There are demagogues even in the household of
Minerva. Their principal object seems to be
to pave the way for materialism, atheism and
pantheism; but their purpose is not sincere, and
their eye no longer simple. From Spinoza to
Nietzsche, the wind of sincerity would have blown
such a freight of ingenuity, diligence, tenacity
and acumen as has been sailing the sea of the
sciences, into the secure harbor of serene Truth
these many years, instead of sophistry and half-
heartedness tossing it about from reef and rock
to wave-crest and abyss.

Now, science cannot build an argument on
the ground that "the regulative, teleological
factor has never been found" : i ) Because "a
non esse ad non posse non valet consequential

2) Because such a factor must of its nature
be invisible, as being the expression of an in
telligence, either as something real, and distinct
from the substance or object, of which it is the

14 The Problem of Life and Generation.

form, as the soul of man; or as something real
in the nature of faculties, which come like light
from fire, as the souls of the lower animals.

Life is natural motion, or motion from within :
Vivit quod seipsum movet; let us compare it
with the motion of matter, which is ever arti
ficial. Mechanical motion cannot come into
question at all, because in it the motor and the
movens are visibly divided, or separated. Chem
ical motion approaches much nearer the ap
pearance of native motion; but it also is pro
duced by the concurrence of at least two factors.

In the most complicated mechanism, whose
purpose is to move toward a certain aim or end,
it is the relation of the various parts to each
other, and to the purpose of the instrument,
which brings about the intended result.

This relation is established by the proper ad
justment of the parts to each other and to the
whole. But this adjustment is the practical ap
plication of the form of the instrument, or the
idea, in the mind of the mechanic. That idea
is also invisible in the instrument, but manifest
enough in the work of the machine.

Thus also is the form of living things the
expression of an intelligence in the form of

The Problem of Life and Generation. 15

native motion, or life; for "vivere viventibus
est esse."

It is, therefore, in the notion of this form or
idea, the applied similitude and power of an in
tellect, or an operative law, not to be discernible
except by its effects; as we can not see the
applied intellect of the architect in even such
a very material thing as the house, or, of the
mechanic, in the machine, except by the effects
which we perceive as the product of intelligence
and the correct termination of an intention.

"Ab esse ad posse/' however, "valet conse
quential

Things which we ourselves construct with a
certain end in view, must teach us that things
which have a well defined purpose in nature,
although they are not made by man, are also
made to express a certain idea or form of in
telligence; for a certain, determined idea, can
not but emanate from an intellectual principle.
The means and the end must be known and
calculated for the final purpose. Therefore, that
which directs the germinative elements in the
way to the natural termination of their activity,
is aptly styled the idea, or, for the sake of con
formity with usage, the form.

Hence the teleological factor in nascent life

1 6 'The Problem of Life and Generation.

is not in the mass, which is inert of its nature,
but comes from an agency outside the mechan
ical and chemical forces — from that Intelligence
which builds and preserves nature, the Creator.

The other ground on which physiology would
build an argument against the necessity of that
regulative factor of life and generation, the idea
or form, is no less unsafe. For, something
would have to be discovered which could un
erringly distribute the elements of generation in
order not to endanger the stability of the various
species, or orders of living things.

If that factor were of the matter, and still
could accomplish this end, we would have to
concede to matter a superiority and perfection
over life. But who would wish to admit this
paradox? It would be maintaining, in effect,
that the material engenders the idea of the watch
in the mind of the watchmaker, which is absurd,
for this reason, that then the material would
have had to suggest the idea or form of the
first watch.

Nor will it further the interest of the in
ventors of mechanical life to say that the laws
of matter produce life, for, the laws of matter
would have to be made either by matter itself,
or by someone outside of matter; a law is a

The Problem of Life and Generation. 17

rule with an .end, that does not exist for itself,
but for the harmony of those things that tend
together toward one end. If matter could beget
a law, it would rank higher even than the second
stage of life, sensitive life; but if someone else
makes the laws of matter, so as to force matter
to submit to certain regulations in its relation
to life and generation — what matters it by what
name we call those laws? or what matters it
what we call the supreme Ruler of the universe?

This point is made in either event: there is
in life and generation necessity of a regulative
factor, not the kin of matter.

5. But if the process of generation tends in
fallibly toward the reproduction of an individual
after the pattern (form) of the parental species
by virtue of an unvarying regulative principle,
what must become of the theory of evolution,
or in its milder form, the theory of descendency?

Many observations of eminent scientists seem
to point to the possibility, if not the fact, of new
species developing from such species as have
remained constant in themselves. Videant Con
sul es!

If the derivation of a new, specifically de
termined order of living beings from one of the
old conservative species could be proved beyond

i8 The Problem of Life and Generation.

a shadow of doubt, and no other convincing ex
planation and proof could be advanced but the
theory of evolution or descendency, then indeed
there would be reason for fears and tears in the
old camp. But conjecture and hypothesis can
not overthrow with a wink of the eye the
logical deductions from the axiomatic principles
of Aristotle and St. Thomas, and their school.
The inductive and analytical methods of modern
scientists will, in the end, arrive at the same
results as the synthetic method of the ancients.
They are not going from the centre in opposite
directions, but the one with a foreknowledge of
the centre, the other with a suspicion, from
opposite points in the circumference in the
direction of the centre.

Adaptability, it would seem, is the key to the
understanding of the apparent variations from
customary forms in some species.

The laws of nature are at once so rigorous
as to admit no natural exceptions ; yet so pliable
as to provoke temporary suspension by inter
communion and mutual compensation.

We cannot see without the organs of vision:
this is the law. Still since the sense of sight
is only an instrument of observation, the prin
cipal agency of vision, the mind, can see more,

The Problem of Life and Generation. 19

and can understand more than the eye can scan.
Were the mind made independent of sight, how
wonderfully wide would its range of under
standing — mental vision — stretch at once!

A stone is directed and held earthward by
the law of gravitation; still it can be forced to
move in the opposite direction, another law sus
pending the law of gravitation for a time.

Such laws are fundamental laws, and cannot
be actually suspended, but rather counteracted
or counterbalanced for a time by natural powers.
But such are also the laws of life and generation,
as we see by the beautiful order that exists in
living nature, an order never even slightly dis
turbed by nature itself.

Some properties, or relations — points of con
tact with others, if one will — may be modeled
on new plans; as we can reduce the force of
the law of gravitation in the stone by reducing
the bulk of the stone. The inertia of matter
may be overcome to some extent by the ap
plication of a lever, etc., etc. But we could not
make a stone have no weight at all, in present
conditions; nor could we by any means impart
the power of initiative motion to matter as
such: and thus we cannot, by the same natural
necessity, set aside the specific factor of genera-

2o The Problem of Life and Generation.

tion, which is the fundamental principle of order
in the endless variety of living beings.

Hence there are no such modifications of
original species as would constitute a new
species; because this would open the door to
disorder, and, consequently, to universal dis
solution, which nature abhors: "Hence because
in corruptible things there is nothing perpetual
and everlasting, except the species, the good of
the species is of the principal intention of nature,
toward the preservation of which natural gen
eration is directed" (S. Theol. I. 98. I. c.).

But as the fundamental laws of nature may
be modified in an individual object under stress
of necessity induced by collision with other laws
(as sight may be lost, and its organs dwarfed in
perpetual darkness), so also may a species as
such become the parent of an order of beings of
the same species which acquire new properties
and relations or points of contact with their new
and lasting surroundings, or which simply cast
off family traits.

But these individuals would not constitute a
new type in nature ; as the races of mankind do
not constitute so many species of humanity or
intellectual animals who would have to be classed

'The Problem of Life and Generation. 21

under a higher genus than animal, or under a
lower specification than rational.

6. But a) what is the life-form of the
changeable generative germ, and b) what is the
new form acquired in generation?

a) The generative germ is in a state of tran
sition: i) because it makes special preparations
for this stage by halving its chromosomes ; 2) be
cause if it fails of the purpose of this process,
it perishes; 3) because in the union of the
two germs for a common activity, a new cell is
formed, the nucleus of a new being, and now
neither ovulary nor spermatic cell.

Hence the germs in transitu live only by the
influence of the principal form, and have none
of their own.

b) The form induced during the process of
generation is i) an acquired form, 2) a new
form.

It is an acquired form i) because the germ
has lost its original composition and with it the
faculty of continuing life after the old manner,
as is evident from its decay if it does not find
a mate in the same condition; hence it has
lost its own determinative factor or element, a

22 The Problem of Life and Generation.

secondary and dependent form, as a cell; 2) be
cause the preparation for generation was due to
the old form, which manifests its elimination in
the death of the generative germ if it fail
to become an actual element of generation;
3) therefore, in beginning life, after reduction,
for a new purpose, it gains a new object, be
comes the subject of a new idea, and, in con
sequence, of a new form — for the purpose of
generation is totally different from the purpose
of growth, which is the ordinary purpose of the
cell, and cell-life.

4) As long as the cell remained in the parental
body, it lived by the life of the principal form;
this is evinced by the fact that it bears the im
print of the original so indelibly marked that
it would determine the nature of the new in
dividual, toward whose efformation it is direct
ing, on the lines of the species; and now, be
coming the centre of a new process, free from
the parental interdependency, it must also gain
a new principle of life and activity. This prin
ciple is the form proper to the species, or, the
forma substantialis.

5 ) If the germinative cell can, and does throw
off the original life principle, or, rather, sever its

The Problem of Life and Generation. 23

connection with it, by death in case of the failure
of the generative process, it can just as easily
sever that connection at the accession of a new
object of its existence, after having severed its
connection with the parental organism.

Hence there is no reason to admit the actu
ation of the new individual produced by the
process of generation, except by a new form, the
form of the order of beings, or species, of which
that individual is becoming a member; on the
contrary, there is every reason to admit that no
other principle but the idea, or form, in the
mind of the Creator, as verified in being outside
Himself, actually superintends the wonderful
process of generation. Therefore, the form,
superintending generation, is an acquired form.

But the form induced in the process of gen
eration is also a new form.

This assertion is partly included in the other
statement, "that it is an acquired form." Still
there is a distinction in the direction of its pur
pose.

i) The old forms of the germinative cells
were subject to and in union with the principal
form, or the forma substantial, of the parent
body; the form of the individual intended by

24 The Problem of Life and Generation.

generation, must itself be a principal form, since
it must take up and go through the same activity
as the parent form, organizing, multiplying and
distributing the cells which shall originate from
the generative union of the sperma and the
ovulum, so as to form the body of the new
individual iuxta speciem. This end the old cell-
form could not attain, being only subsidiary and
intermediary; hence the form of the unified
activity of the generative germs is a new form.

This new form actuating not only part of a
substance, but a new being, must be a substantial
form. The last form, or the secondary form of
the cell as such, could well be accidental or
partial since its subject formed only part and
accident of a living whole; but the new form,
embracing all the parts (cells), and distributing
them in a perfectly defined order, can no more
be accidental, than the fixed character of the
individual which it animates, is accidental.

2) This form is a new form even for another
reason: as long as the germinative cells were
contained in the respective parental bodies, each
had separate existence as a cell in the principal
form of the parent; but now, when both are
uniting for the purpose of generation, they be-

The Problem of Life and Generation. 25

come one new being; thus they either still pos
sess each its own form, or not : if each possesses
its own formal mode of existence, they cannot
together progress toward the efformation of a
new living individual, for "vita est in individuo"
(indiviso) ; and how could they be one with
two forms? But if they do no longer possess
their respective forms, and yet live in a new
cell, they must together have acquired a new
form, the regulator of their new existence: in
chemistry we find elements in combination form
ing a new substance, on the same principle, life
excepted.

3) It is a fact well known among scientists,
that the chromosomes of the germinating cells
are dissociated, halved, and one half cast off
to perish, while the remaining half must proceed
to generate, lest it, too, perish. This process
of dissolution, checked only by the supervening
of the process of generation, indicates the elim
ination of the former principle of life and being,
and the induction of a new one, if the intention
of nature succeeds.

7. Hence we find standing between life and
matter the Omnipotence of the Author of nature.
All life is by; His goodness, and is beholden to

26 The Problem of Life and Generation.

His power. Human life, existing not for the
mere sake of man, but participating of the des
tiny of man, is sacred, even at the moment of
its initial formation.

8. It would seem now, that the Creator is
leading men to find Him in the unfolding of the
deepest mysteries in nature, when they have so
long hesitated to recognize Him in the glorious
Revelation by Faith. He bids science descend
into the abyss, because it would not mount the
heights; He would win the intellect through the
heart: would that men now surrendered their
hearts to Him, convicted by their own light of
the darkness that they have been groping!

CHAPTER I

ABORTION.

SUBJECT OF ABORTION.

GENERAL VIEW.

1. The source of all misery is Original Sin.
Its curse is universal. The whole creation of
God beneath the sun is in the ban of the decree :
"Cursed is the earth in thy work." Gen. 3. 17.
Life is doomed to dissolution and death from
its rising, and even the purely material world
is incessantly tending toward corruption and
decay.

2. But in no creature is the efficiency of the
original curse made more manifest than in
woman, who provoked the kind Creator to anger
and invited that curse: "I will multiply thy
sorrows and thy conceptions : in sorrow shalt
thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be
under thy husband's power, and he shall have
dominion over thee." — What a dreadful humilia
tion for the Queen of the visible world, the
erst-while compeer of man !

28 Abortion: General View.

3. The fury of that curse was abated in part
by the God-like charity which Jesus Christ in
troduced into the world. One of His apostles
dared already teach His earliest followers, barely
rescued from the gloom and shadow of pagan
perversion: "But to them that are married,
not I, but the Lord commandeth, that the wife
depart not from her husband; and if she de
part, that she remain unmarried, or be reconciled
to her husband. And let not the husband put
away his wife." I. Cor. 10. n. "So also ought
men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife, loveth himself." Eph.
5. 28. Hence woman was readmitted by the
Redeemer to the full possession of the rights
of the race, of which she had been deprived by
both pagan and Jew. The yoke that she had
been sentenced to bear was softened, and her
burden lightened by the kind offices of sincere,
Christian love.

4. But this privilege affected directly only
her ethical position, her physical condition re
maining unchanged. For Redemption was not
wrought by nature, but by the grace of God;
and grace establishes new relations only be
tween God and the sinner, not, however, be
tween the Creator and the creature.

Abortion: General View. 29

5. The physical state of woman has rather
deteriorated in proportion to the multitude of
actual sins, which hang upon the heel of the
first sin and accentuate the misery which it
wrought. Sinful deeds, especially when they
become a habit, do not injure the soul and
morality alone, but work damage, and, in the
course of a life, or many lives of the same sinful
indulgences, permanent and hereditary ethical
and physical impairment, and consequently, a
predisposition to fresh evils with succeeding
generations.

6. The hereditary ethical oneration — if at all
existing — is not so very pernicious. — No matter
how strong a disposition toward disease may
exist, it can be successfully counteracted and
eliminated, or, at least, checked, by medical skill
applied in time. If we now institute a compar
ison with the spiritual parts of man, we find
there the will, the master of all ethical dis
turbances; a master who can cope with every
other master, but God; a master, at whose nod
and beck stand the armies of Heaven, and whose
arsenal is the graceful bounty of an Omnipotent
God.

7. Still the duties of motherhood, unavoidable
ordinarily in marriage, require a strength of

30 Abortion: General View.

character, and an integrity of purpose, which
in view of sin and its ravages, we should think
rare, indeed. But to the credit of the gentle sex
be it said, there is no creature beneath the sun
of heaven more capable of making sacrifice and
more willing to suffer for others, than woman;
no love more admirable for constancy and dis
interestedness, than the love of a mother. This
Victim of Providence bears in her bosom the
charm that chastens the uncouthness of carnal
pruriency, that tames the "wild horse," and, in
short, makes of the man a gentleman, where
religion, not being admitted to the heart-
chamber, must fail.

8. But in the present state of civilization,
where religion is denied admittance into the
councils of the public, many natural conditions
are overturned. Public life is to a great extent
only a mask of private degradation. Wealth
and opulence are wrapt in an air of haughtiness
that cannot but provoke the disgust of the in
genuous, and the anger and envy of the lowly.
The rich set the example of secret murder for
the sake of widening the sphere of sensual in
dulgence and avoiding the anxieties of child
birth and the expense of bringing-up and educa
tion. — It is not a strange phenomenon for the

"Abortion: General View. 31

observer by the way-side, to see the temptation
laid at the door of matrimony, to shirk its
sacred duties, or to assume only that part, which
costs no immediate sacrifice, and whose effect can
be conveniently frustrated.

9. Moreover, the demands made upon the
health and strength of girls and women in the
workshops of factories; the habit of spending
the better part of the night in riotous amuse
ments; poor food, and insufficient clothing in
winter; early knowledge and indulgence of
pleasures that are justified by conjugal love
alone, such as intimate association with persons
of the opposite sex, turning the imagination
into a caleidoscope of amatory revels — if worse
do not befall — ; and above all, the deplorable
"errors'* of early youth: all these misfortunes
unite to render the Flower of the creation less
fit from generation to generation, to bear and
bring to maturity healthy fruit.

The very delicacy of the mechanism which
nature appoints for weaving flesh and spirit
together into human life, must teach that an
injury inflicted upon the health of the woman,
results inevitably in an injury, often irreparable,
to the most delicate parts of the future mother.

10. For, a woman who offers her cincture

32 Abortion: General View.

at the Hymeneal altar, assumes with her new
state not only the wreath of the bride, but like
wise the tight-sitting diadem of the mother.
Soon must the blossoms of the chaplet fade ; but
unless she criminally declines the burden of
motherhood, which makes her the queen of her
little circle, the chaplet will only fade to reveal
a precious circlet, in which every new being
risen from her womb, shall add a new jewel.

ii. Hence woman is held not only to dis
charge her conjugal duties to the full extent of
their demand, but also to avoid, both before and
after marriage, whatever may threaten the sanc
tity of her position in the great family of God.

In assuming the rights and duties of matri
mony she binds her life to that of her children
as well as to that of her husband.

She cannot escape responsibility before the
tribunal of God, if through aversion, or culpable
neglect, she frustrates the designs of her sacred
contract, or of nature. Whatever may endanger
the life she consents to bear in her womb, is an
offense against her state of life, an act of im
morality, if the cause of that danger is direct,
and under her control. With that life she holds
a pledge from God, which He alone can redeem,
the Author of life.

'Abortion: General View. 33

12. In the face of these serious considera
tions it is idle to advance the following prin
ciple, variously stated, in defense of abortion
and embryotomy: "In a desperate case the life
of the unborn child is a negligible quantity,
which must be regarded as non-existent;" "The
child threatens the life of the mother, and is,
therefore, to be treated like an unjust aggres
sor;" "The mother enjoys priority of right over
her unborn child." This absolutely false and
pernicious principle has lent countenance to the
murder of numberless innocents, has supported
the infidelity of "respectable" men and women,
and veiled the cowardice of "martyrs" to their
conjugal vows, nay, even stopped the search of
the medical science and art after means and
methods of relieving — or, rather, anticipating
— "desperate cases" with the skill and precision
that we admire so much in modern surgery.
Happily enough, Cassandra has not cried in
vain ; the principles of Christian morality, which
are, in effect, only an enhancement of the natural
ethical laws, are no longer banned from every
lecture room and operation table. But the abate
ment of convenient and conventional nuisances
can not be accomplished in a day, nor by the
few; the creating of a universal public con-

34 Abortion: Definition.

tempt and abhorrence alone will eradicate so
prevalent an evil as feticide. A long step in
this direction has been taken by Father Charles
Coppens, S.J., in his lectures on "Moral Prin
ciples and Medical Practice," and the most emi
nent men of the medical profession have begun
to raise their voices in earnest protest against
abortion and embryotomy as against murder.
But there is still ample room to "fight the
enemies of Catholic ideals; there is no com
promise, no alternative" (J. F. Hultgen, M.D.,
"Cath. Fortnightly Review" XII. i. 1905).

NATURE OF ABORTION.

DEFINITION OF ABORTION.

13. The foundation of the distinction be
tween abortion and other modes of interference
with a pregnancy, is the condition of the life of
the fetus. The development of the fruit of the
womb may have progressed to such a stage as
will enable it to continue life outside the womb,
either independently, or with the assistance of
the medical art (incubation, artificial feeding,
etc.), although the natural termination of the
gestation has not yet been reached; or the
development may have been intercepted at a
stage when an unfortunate disturbance of the

Abortion: Principles. 35

fountain of fetal life brought the pregnancy to
a disastrous termination.

14. The bringing forth of the viable fetus
before the natural termination of the pregnancy
is called premature delivery; the effusion of the
fetus at a time when it is not capable of sustain
ing extra-uterine life, is called abortion. And
it is not necessary for this process that the fetus
be killed in the womb and then ejected; it suf
fices that the vital conditions of the fetus are
destroyed, to brand it as the crime of abortion.

PRINCIPLES.

15. Abortion is the interruption and elimina
tion of the process of pregnancy and gestation.
This process is the work of nature, or a physio
logical process, by which is produced a new being
according to the human species.

1 6. Hence abortion is a violation of the laws
of nature.

17. Abortion involves the death of a human
being ; hence it is also a violation of the positive
law of God "Thou shalt not kill !" And assum
ing the right over life and death, it rebels against
the supreme dominion of the Creator: "I will
kill and I will make to live." Deut. 32. 39.

36 'Abortion: Principles.

1 8. The moral aspect of abortion must,
therefore, be determined by comparison with the
fundamental rules of morality, that is, with the
commandments of God, the voice of conscience,
or the common consent of the human race, and
the ruling and teaching of the Church, commis
sioned by God to be the teacher of mankind in
His stead.

19. (a) As to the first criterion, it is evident
from the curse of Cain, the first man to shed
innocent blood, as well as from many other
prohibitions, besides the Fifth Commandment,
that God forbids murder, the killing of the in
nocent.

(b) The conscience of the race, or sensus
communis, has formulated a most comprehensive
principle, the very key-note of the human con
science, that "Evil must not be done for the sake
of the good resulting therefrom" (Non sunt
facienda mala ut eveniant bona). This principle
is derived from the fundamental principle of
ethics, upon which is raised the moral structure
of our nature : "The good thou shalt do, the evil
thou shalt avoid."

(c) The Church has ever interpreted the
divine and the natural law, applicable to this

Abortion: Principles. 37

subject, to mean that "It is never allowed to
procure abortion directly" (Nunquam licet di-
recte procurare abortum).

20. The proximate deduction from these
principles is, that direct abortion is a wilful vio
lation of the laws of God, of nature, and of
ethics; hence for the reason of the importance
of its object, murder, a mortal sin.

21. A similar violation is to be considered
in what is popularly called miscarriage, that is,
abortion ensuing indirectly.

But the spiritual adviser must be very prudent
and charitable in determining the degree of res
ponsibility in this untoward event. Miscarriage
may result from causes so remote and so secret
as to elude the watchfulness of most conscien
tious mothers: from indisposition of the womb,
contracted at a time when the question of child-
bearing had not entered their minds; from
syphilitic infection by a brutal husband; from
uncontrollable depression of spirit, etc., etc. A
violation of this nature, which cannot be re
medied, is merely material, and is free from
moral guilt.

But miscarriage may be caused also through

38 Abortion: Principles.

recklessness, or sheer neglect of mothers, or by
violence done to them: not indeed with the in
tention of destroying the fruit of the womb ; for
this would constitute murder; but from sub
jective motives, such as passion, "practical
joking," and the like.

Now, some degree of responsibility must at
tach to a miscarriage which could have been
foreseen and prevented ; because anyone who by
virtue of his office and condition assumes the
care of an object, is held in conscience to such
a degree of responsibility for the safety of his
trust, as will justly compare with Its value. But
there is nothing more precious among earthly
goods than human life, and nobody charged
more rigorously with the care of intra-uterine
life than the mother: therefore, the neglect of
this sacred trust is a violation of office, not as
sumed from man, but from God Himself, in
matrimony; consequently, indirect abortion as
sumes the same proportion of moral guilt as the
neglect which produces it.

But it is more gratifying to forewarn than to
judge an* unfortunate mother. Here, if any
where, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound
of cure."

Abortion: Divisions. 39

DIVISIONS.

22. In the various books of Pastoral Medi
cine, and others, which treat on this subject, the
divisions in vogue are principally the following:

(a) Physiological abortion, as opposed to
mechanical ; *

(b) Direct and indirect;

(c) Involuntary or accidental, and volun
tary;**

(d) Artificial, subdistinguished into thera
peutic and criminal ^ — medical abortion (and
spontaneous).

The members of these divisions are variously
defined, and the definitions variously trimmed to
suit certain exigencies, notably, the traditional
"desperate cases." But the latest decisions of
the Holy Office, and the latest works of Catholic
theologians and of eminent physicians (Coppens,
Eschbach, Stoehr, Capellmann, Antonelli, Marx,
Olfers, Saenger, Olshausen, Tait, etc.), have
shed so much light on this subject, that confusion
should be impossible, and false definitions can
no longer serve any purpose but to conceal either
indifference to the moral law, or incompetency.

* StOhr-Kannamtiller, Past. Med., p. 437.
** Eschbach, Disp. Phys. TheoL, p. 274.
t Appendix, Right to Life.

40 Abortion: Criticism of Definitions.

CRITICISM OF DEFINITIONS.

23. The interruption of a work of nature
from without constitutes an act foreign to the
course of nature, and is, therefore, not physio
logical. Hence abortion being the work of an
agency foreign to the termination and course of
nature's work, cannot be a physiological process.
It does not matter whether the agent of an
abortion be a drug or an instrument; its effect
is a violation and destruction of the office and
purpose of the pregnancy, which nature pre
serves and favors. Nature does not destroy the
objects of its intentions: "Nature tends (is di
rected) toward one end," Natura determinatur
ad unum.

Even if the abortion ensues from the in
disposition of the womb or of the fruit itself,
as in the case of syphilitic contamination, the
cause of the indisposition is really the primary
cause of the abortion, according to the principle :
Causa causae est causa causati.

But that indisposition is not caused by nature,
left unhampered in its work.

Still, in as far as the agency of such an
abortion is remote from the scene of the havoc
it has wrought, and has produced a condition

Abortion: Criticism of Definitions. 41

with which nature must now actually labor and
contend, like the sense of vision with eyes
dimmed by cataract, this abortion has been
called physiological by mistake. It is in effect
a spontaneous abortion; not as if it had not a
definable cause, but for the secrecy and precision
with which it proceeds.

It is this hampered condition of nature in
which nature works indeed, but not with its full
powers, that has misled such eminent physicians
as Stoehr and Capellmann to call an abortion
as direct as possible, like medical abortion, a
physiological killing, when the abortion is in
duced not through mechanical violence, but
through the destruction of the physiological con
dition of the embryonic life. Says Dr. Stoehr
(op. cit. p. 437) : "By physiological killing I
understand the induction of the abortion, in so
much as the vital conditions are thereby taken
away from the fetus." And Dr. Capellmann
(Past. Med. 1904, p. 17) : "In this case (lock
ing of the pregnant womb) the peril of the
mother does not arise from the pregnancy in the
physiological sense, but is caused in a purely
mechanical way by the enlargement of the
womb," as if the enlargement of the womb
were not a physiological, i. e., natural result of

42 Classification of Physical Evils.

the pregnancy, and could be attacked without
also directly attacking the pregnancy.

There is another reason which prompts the
rejection of this term, physiological killing or
abortion. It is made the hiding-place of a
process which has been called by such names a
therapeutic, medical, and indirect abortion, with
the insinuation that this process is permissible
if it can only be tucked away under the wings
of long-suffering nature; not that these terms
are unjustifiable as mere names; but because
they can be made to cover the crime of feticide
with the cloak of nature, and, therefore, to
escape the strictures of the Nunquam licet, if
they are allowed to parade in the guise of a
purely physiological process.

Physiological killing by the induction of
abortion, therefore, is as irredeemable an op
position of terms as a "glass" eye, and, at best,
a misnomer; for although we speak of glass
eyes, yet we do not see with them.

CLASSIFICATION OF PHYSICAL EVILS.

24. The division or classification of evils
cannot be based on a common formal, or final
cause, * as evil implies a deficiency in its sub-

* Summa TheoL I. 49, I. c.

Classification of Physical Evils. 43

ject. Abortion — aside from its moral bearing —
is an evil in so far as it imports a frustration
of the effect intended by nature in the effort-na
tion of the new being which is the terminus ad
quern of its work.

Mother and child are during the greater part
of the gestation period, i. e. up to the period of
the viability of the fetus (at least the end of
the fifth month), physiologically one being; not
indeed, one whole physically: the child is
neither part of the mother's body, nor identified
with the person of the mother, so as to lose
personal existence at any time; but it is a
being in the process of physical development,
and, therefore, dependent upon the mother for
its fountain of life. This physiological union
is the way, so to say, by which nature works
its end, the birth of a mature child.

Now, abortion, which is the elimination of
this physiological process, cannot itself be a
physiological process. It constitutes a defect of
the natural process of generation.

25. The subject of the process of abortion is
the pregnant mother, not merely the pregnant
womb : therefore, the pregnancy in its totality.
Some disturbances affect the pregnancy im
mediately or directly, others, indirectly, by

44 Classification of Physical Evils.

means of intermediary causes. And thus we
distinguish abortions as direct and indirect.

26. Direct abortion is that which is procured
as the immediate end of the invasion of the
pregnant womb.

It may not be amiss to observe that the "end
of the invasion" mqans, not the intention of
the operator, but the natural and necessary end
and object of the work undertaken,

27. This limitation is made in order to foil the
pass of perplexity. There are authors of great
authority in these matters who claim that, no
matter how direct the killing of the fetus may
be, it must pass for indirect abortion if the
"Operator does not actually intend the killing.
But a sane man cannot do a thing without in
tending doing it, except, perhaps, his own per
plexity has confused his ideas.

28. Indirect abortion is that which ensues
from a disturbance of the pregnancy produced
either by a remote cause, or by intermediate
causes inducing the incapacity of the pregnant
womb for its natural functions.

29. Direct abortion admits no subdivisions.
The distinction between direct therapeutic and
criminal abortion is an illusion, or a subterfuge.
Whether direct abortion be procured by a phy-

'Classification of Physical Evils. 45

sician with the approval of the law, in order to
relieve the danger of the mother; of simply in
order to free the mother from an unwelcome oc
cupant of her womb; or, lastly, in the dark, by
the mother herself, with or without the assistance
of some conscienceless physician or midwife, —
it is murder; for "Nunquam licet directe pro-
curare abortum."

30. Indirect abortion admits the subdistinc-
tions of spontaneous and therapeutic abortion.
The disturbances upon which indirect abortion
ensues may proceed from internal and external
conditions. But in either event the abortion is
due to a defective state of the pregnancy. This
defect may be found in the fetus as well as in
the mother. But if the abortion proceeds from
a condition of the pregnancy with which nature
was burdened from the beginning, and which,
therefore, is inherent in either child or womb, the
abortion may be said to be in part a natural
process, as we often call a disease a natural pro
cess. Such an abortion might be called physio
logical, if one would retain a term so misleading
and incorrect; but it is properly called a spon
taneous abortion. It proceeds from within the
subject without a traceable immediate cause, and
answers the state of disturbance in its own
elements.

46 'Abortion: Review.

31. If the abortion proceeds from a 'dis
turbance of the pregnancy, induced by an agent
foreign to the pregnant womb but not attacking
it directly, it is called indirect therapeutic
abortion, when the direct object of the inter
ference is the cure of the mother. This abortion
is neither intended, nor foreseen to follow ut
in pluribus; but its risk is assumed for the sake
of an important end to be gained, as a bare
possibility, or probability.

REVIEW.

32. According to the distinctions and defini
tions in vogue with many writers on this sub
ject, spontaneous abortion is that which ensues
naturally, .as by accident. This, however, can
be verified only in the event when the generative
and gestatory organs are in such a state of
debilitation that their energy suffices for the
offices of a conception, without assisting the
initial process in its progress toward the natural
termination. Then, indeed, the abortion hap
pens without any direct cause disturbing the preg
nancy, as abortion in this case results from a mis
construction of the elements underlying preg
nancy from the beginning.

Abortion: Review. 47

But this the authors do not always intend to
signify. "Spontaneous abortion" is applied in
discriminately to this accident and to that abor
tion which follows upon some definable cause,
although this cause may have been placed with
out any aim at its murderous effect. The former
alone is really spontaneous and accidental while
the latter is indirect.

We have here in the physical sphere the same
condition that we find in the moral. One man
commits reprehensible acts in consequence of
the depravation of his moral faculties through
invincible ignorance, or through imbecility, and
thus escapes the censures of conscience ; another,
through vincible ignorance, or unbridled con
cupiscence, and is held to such a degree of
responsibility as corresponds to his obligation
of instructing and governing himself.

Physiological abortion, as paraded by some
authors, would be that which ensues in the
course of medical treatment, whether post hoc,
or propter hoc, if only the purpose of the author
is to heal.

But it should be called therapeutic, when it
ensues indirectly, i. e. post hoc; criminal, when
it ensues directly, i. e. propter hoc, as the object
of the medical treatment, whether intended by

48 Abortion: Review.

the author, or, by a fiction, excluded from the
intention, when it cannot be excluded from the
treatment as its direct effect.

Mechanical abortion, as championed by the
authors, is direct abortion on their own admis
sion; but, permissible, as they claim, as the
only available means of saving the mother's
life; criminal, only as a welcome expedient of
disencumbering the pregnant womb.

33. These distinctions are not exact; they
collide with each other. This unbeseeming con
fusion has arisen from the tenacity with which
some modern authors, and many practitioners,
protected by wicked laws, cling to the pagan
error of assuming that the unborn child is "a
negligible quantity" in a desperate case. It is
an unscientific and immoral assumption; and
"desperate cases" are as fast going out of
practice, as medical skill and courage are com
ing in. With the triumphs that modern surgery
is celebrating everywhere, a "desperate case" of
pregnancy and child-birth is very liable to bring
back to the memory of the medical expert —
which every obstetrician ought to be — the old
classic hint: "Risum teneatis, amid."

^Abortion: Historical Review. 49

HISTORICAL REVIEW.

In 1620 Fienus maintained on good ground
that the human soul was infused into the embryo
as early as three days after conception ; 28 years
later Florentinius, a religious priest, taught
openly that the human soul was the intelligent
soul from the moment of conception. Zachias,
the pope's physician, at the same period adopted
that assertion as a certainty. The ancient me
dical view, adopted from the speculations of
Plato and Aristotle as opposed to the teaching
of Hippocrates, began to be disowned. It should
thenceforth have been laid aside, instead of sup
porting upon it the old theory of a new subject.

Still even in 1620 the question of human
animation was not quite so new and novel as
to serve as an excuse for medical abortion;
the true excuse has ever been the inability of
medicine to conquer the difficulties of the
traditional "desperate cases." The ancient
Oriental Fathers of the Church, following the
lead of Tertullian and Sts. Gregory and Basil,
resting their teaching in part on the physiology
of Hippocrates, and in part also on the philo
sophy of common sense and the sensus com-
munis, quietly, but intrepidly championed the

50 'Abortion: Historical Review.

principle, that the human embryo is animated
by the intellectual soul from the moment of
conception.

Nor was the opinion of the Stagirite much
in vogue anywhere before the establishment of
the School of the Middle Ages. As long as
St. Anselm, Hugo of St. Victor, and Peter the
Lombard, and the spirit of freedom, engendered
by their intrepidity, dominated the minds in the
West, that artificial theory of the succession of
three souls in human animation was not deemed
worthy of serious consideration.

It is true, these master minds could not un
ravel the mystery of human animation, being
obliged to take their premises from a science
then in its swaddling clothes; but they re
pudiated, as inconsistent with the sense of their
Church, the unfounded theory of a threefold
form in one subject.

But when the masters made their humble bow
to Aristotle, and bent low at his feet, his light
became the beacon for the busy searchers of
the mysterious coasts. Physical science was
then more myth than mystery.* Even the great

* Albertus Magnus, however, did not bind himself in his re
search to traditions.

'Abortion: Historical Review. 51

Angel of the Schools, St. Thomas, idly moored
his redoubtable prow, once and again, in shallow
bays, and lost his bearing for a little while:
only in deference to the Master's authority, and
contrary to his own better knowledge and
judgment.

In the West, therefore, two opinions contested
the ground: i) That of the theologians before
the rise of the School, holding that the human
embryo is animated by one soul, the human soul,
the human principle of life and intelligence, as
soon as the elements constituting the body have
assumed shape; 2) That of the School, holding
that the human embryo is animated successively
by a vegetative, a sensitive, and lastly, an intel
lectual form. The moment of animation, like
the moment of formation, upon which they in
sisted so strenuously, was not fixed. Still it
was practically assumed at so early a period,
that it comprehended that stage at which preg
nancy is more likely to give cause of complica
tions and perplexity, that is, between the first
and the third month, the shorter term being ac
corded the male, the longer, the female embryo.

This view is as effectually subversive of the
theory of "negligible quantities," as the most
modern, since we can never determine whether

52 Abortion: Historical Review.

an embryo is male or female, at that stage, and
hidden in the maternal womb; nor can the be
ginning of a pregnancy be fixed at a certain
moment before the lapse, ordinarily, of a month.

The sensus Ecclesiae, however, discounte
nanced direct abortion from the beginning, not
taking sides with either faction, but proclaiming
abortion a violent invasion of the sacred right
to life. St. Basil, in a letter to Amphilochius
expresses the position of the Church in these
words: "She who purposely destroys the fetus,
must suffer the penalty of murder. And it does
not matter to us, whether the fetus is formed,
or not formed."

Balsamo, the patriarch of Antioch, comments
on this rule as follows: "But this was said for
those who maintain that no murder is committed
by inducing the abortion of a fetus which has
not yet been formed, because (they say) a man
is not formed immediately from the semen in
jected into the womb ; but it turns first into blood,
then grows and changes into human flesh, after
ward taking shape and developing the members
and the parts." (Eschbach, Disp. Phys. Theol.,
Disp. 3.).

Thus we find that during those long years
of scholastic disputes the Church stood calmly

'Abortion: Historical Review. 53

in the midst of the disputants, ever protecting
the nascent life, and warning the more ardent
and aggressive combatants against a foul pass.
As long as they were only theorizing, she could
well afford to be at ease.

The new light thrown upon the subject of
human animation, could not cause even a
shadow of doubt to fall on the ancient and con
sistent practice of the Church.

But this new light did throw a heavy shadow
on the traditional medical practice. In olden
times the practitioner sought to justify direct
abortion in a difficult case by comparing the
value of the mother's life with the worthlessness
of a conception believed to be little more than
a bundle of flesh akin to an ordinary tumor.
In these our own times, those who repudiate the
obligation of the Christian moral law, still have
recourse to the same unworthy subterfuge;
whereas those, who acknowledge allegiance to
the moral code, point to their own utter help
lessness in "desperate cases"; cases, made des
perate only through the inability of their art to
relieve them. The innocent occupant of the
maternal womb is forthwith denounced as an
"unjust aggressor, and sentenced to destruc
tion."

54 'Abortion: Historical Review.

The Church did not have to face about, be
cause its position has always been correct; but
both the profession and jurisprudence must
change their position. They stand on an ex
ploded theory, and are guilty of tergiversation
unless they candidly admit the criminality of
direct abortion in any case. Medicine and law
must take sides with the Church, lest they lay
themselves open to either of these two charges :
i) That they disregard the sacred rights of the
race — we say, race — because direct abortion
tends, as the history of the ancient pagan nations
testifies, toward the destruction of the race,
touching, as it does, with its wicked finger the
very vitals of society, the end and purpose of
the matrimonial state; 2) That they are in
competent to exercise, or regulate, an art,
whose scientific basis has been changed, while
its methods are still lumbering in the tracks of
an antiquated juggernaut. —

It should be the boast of the medical art to
overcome to the satisfaction of the mother and
the safety of the child, all obstacles that may be
found in child-bearing and parturition, for this
is one of the chief purposes, and certainly the
most important, of medicine, as there is in these
circumstances danger of losing two lives at once,

Abortion: Historical Review. 55

or of directly sacrificing one to preserve the
other.

The sophistry of the wicked and the in
competent alike, as much as the readiness of
the afflicted to condone the wrong done to an
other in order to save the precious self, have
conspired to wean the profession from their
duty to delve into the utmost recesses of their
art, and to exhaust its armory for the discovery
of means wherewith to safe-guard both lives,
that which is commended to their skill by man,
and the other which is entrusted to their justice
and charity by God. Physiology has now no
means at hand to discern the condition of the
fetus, or even its existence, before it manifests
its small life in the manner of the mature man!
Let the medical art devise a method of ex
ploring the secrets of the maternal womb with
as much certainty as it explores the brain, the
liver, the kidneys, the stomach, and other organs
and parts of the human body — and the moral
codex will no longer stand in its way in the
form of that terrorizing tyrant that it is now
unfairly adjudged to be.

The position of law and medicine in reference
to abortion (and embryotomy) is not only an
tiquated in view of the triumphant surgery now

56 ^Abortion: Historical Review.

holding death at bay in so many cases, formerly
considered more "desperate" than a trouble
some pregnancy, but it is criminal. To what
dire mistakes those ancient views have led the
most sincere minds, may be gathered from the
fate of Dr. Capellmann, a God-fearing Catholic
physician, the Nestor of Pastoral Medicine. In
his far-famed book he calls a case of the most
direct abortion, the perforation of the amnios,
physiological * abortion : "In this case the
danger to the mother is not caused by the
pregnancy, in the physiological sense, but
simply by the mechanical enlargement of
the womb," he says; "the discharge of the
water removes this mechanical obstacle, con
tracts the womb, and this contraction has for
its immediate result, the possibility of replacing
the womb, and thus averting the danger to the
mother, before the abortion, that is certain to
follow, may ensue," etc. Capellmann here em
ploys an equivocation: he calls the danger of
the mother from the locking of the pregnant
womb in the upper strait, a danger from a
mechanical enlargement. But is this enlarge
ment not natural? Does the danger not result

* See StOhr-Kannamiiller, op. tit. 1900, p. 437.

Abortion: Historical Review. 57;

rather 'from the misplacement of the womb?
And if the reposition of the womb cannot be
accomplished except by withdrawing from the
fetus its life-element, and directly incapacitating
the uterus for the continuance of its physio
logical office, can the resulting abortion — "which
is certain to follow" — with any semblance of
sincerity be said to be simply a deplorable, but
natural event, following physiologically from an
innocent factor, like indirect therapeutic abor
tion? Dr. Capellmann's case is a case of direct,
mechanical abortion, and has been condemned
by Stohr-Kannamuller (Pastoral-Medizin, p. 441.
Ed. 4, 1900), and others.

In mechanical abortion procured for the
purpose of liberating the mother from the
danger of death, or from very grave illness,
the removal of the fetus becomes only the
occasion of relief (but not as frequently as
mothers may be made to believe), since the fetus
is not the cause, but merely the innocent oc
casion of the evil condition. For, assuming
the healthy condition of the mother, and
ordinary prudence on her part, commensurate
with her duties, pregnancy proceeds naturally,
and normally. But if her physical capacity for
her momentous duties had been impaired before

58 Indirect Abortion.

she offered herself to the sacred duties o'f
motherhood, must the innocent life that slumbers
peacefully beneath her heart be sacrificed to her
cowardice or imprudence?

Mechanical abortion can in no sense be called
therapeutic, since its object is not the cure of a
disease, of which the fetus is wrongfully made
the cause; but rather the destruction of a work
placed by nature, with the consent* of the mother,
where it belongs, and where it has a natural
right to be. If any disorders arise from the
pregnancy, they must be remedied by correcting
an error into which nature is forced by agencies
foreign to the physiological process of gestation,
and not by "spilling the baby with the bath.'*
A wide field is here opened for the exercise of
the skill, zeal, and ingenuity of the physician.

CAUSES OF ABORTION.

CAUSES OF INDIRECT ABORTION.

CAUSES OF SPONTANEOUS ABORTION.
REMOTE CAUSES.

34. The remote dangers of (spontaneous
and therapeutic) abortion are so numerous, that
in many instances it is not only very difficult,

Indirect Abortion. 59

but well-nigh impossible to ascertain whence the
deplorable event took its effect. The state of
pregnancy alone affects the mother's physical,
and often, psychical condition so strangely, that
she often appears to be changed into her very
counterpart. In some cases even decidedly un
natural conditions are produced.

35. "It is certain," says P. Eschbach (Disp.
Phys. Theol. Disp. I. cap. 5.), "and confirmed
by daily experience, that pregnant women crave,
as ordinary food, not only things injurious,
such as are salty, sharp, bitter, and laxative;
but also things absurd and dangerous, such as
yeast, coals, ashes, gypsum, quick and slacked
lime, earth, sand, pebbles, tow, wool, cotton;
and sometimes even things unnatural, as raw
eels, spiders, lizards, and human flesh."

36. Speaking of the influence of the preg
nancy on the mind, he continues:

"The influence of the pregnancy on the moral
disposition, it will be seen, is no less powerful.
Indeed those who have before been known to
be meek and loving, become thoroughly irritable,
daring and jealous; who have been of sound
judgment and mature counsel, tried in patience,
are now stupid, giddy, impatient, and even prone
to suicide."

60 Indirect Abortion.

Hence it is plain that such abnormal conditions,
if allowed their sway, bear with an evil trend
on the delicate state of the gestatory organs. But
in very many cases, these conditions are the ripe
result of some irregularity antecedent to or con
sequent upon the gestation, which demands the
kind offices of the physician. Thus it may be
possible, that the symptoms of abnormity do not
so much indicate a flaw in the process of gesta
tion, i. e., in its term, the fetus, and, in a manner,
the uterus, as in the general condition of the
subject. It has frequently happened that high-
strung, noble-minded young women, despite their
general good health, have contracted an evil dis
position through worry, modesty, or fear of the
things to come.

Therefore, mothers who experience more in
convenience than is the ordinary lot of the preg
nant, must not fail to place themselves in the
care of a conscientious, skilful physician at the
very beginning of the difficulties. Much discom
fort, and more misfortune can thus be averted.

Indirect Abortion. 6 1

PROXIMATE CAUSES OF INDIRECT
ABORTION.

38. The causes which are more proximately
connected with abortion, and in consequence
also come tnore closely under the strictures of
the Fifth Commandment, are thus enumerated
by Cangiamila (P. Eschbach, loc. cit.) :

"The brutality of the husband in striking
or tormenting his wife; the imprudence and
temerity of women undertaking journeys, or
lifting burdens too heavy for their strength, at
least during the time of pregnancy; the lack
of proper food and drink which they often crave
with uncontrollable vehemence ; * the immoder
ation and rashness with which women often dis
regard the preservation of health and strength;
severe fasts; jumping or dancing; clothing too
tight, to affect a graceful figure/'

Extended wedding-tours, and the corset be
long in this list in our days. "Modern phy
sicians," P. Eschbach continues, "teach the same :
All motions and actions causing a violent con
cussion of the body must be avoided by women

* which was respected by the law in olden times.

62 Indirect Abortion.

in pregnancy: jumping, dancing, riding. They
should also be very careful not to drive over
cobblestone pavement, and other rough roads.
Nay even the riding in the constantly vibrating
trains (of the rail-road) brings on abortion quite
frequently; and, therefore, long, journeys by
rail, unless they be necessary, should not be
undertaken; instead of the ordinary sewing
machine, a hand sewing machine should be used ;
excessive indulgence in the use of intoxicating
beverages, which can never be excused, may kill
the conception in the first months."

Now, if the husband realizes the danger of
causing abortion by his brutality, or if the mother
realizes that the causes enumerated may produce
abortion in her own case, the husband commits
murder by his brutality, and the woman, by her
recklessness or inconsideration, if there be reck
lessness or inconsideration in her conduct; for
sometimes pregnant women do undertake labors,
too difficult for them, not from choice, but from
necessity, and in the case of necessity their con
duct must find a kindly heart for judgment.

What has been said of the riding in trains,
applies with redoubled force to the riding in
the jerkey trolley-car, especially with women
reared in the cities, where effeminacy, want of

Abortion: Illustration. 63

air and sun-light, vanity of dress, and sedentary
habits conspire to make the young mother's
womb an open grave.

39. But even when the physical condition re
mains normal, abortion frequently happens from
various disturbances so remote as practically to
elude the strictest attention: such as hereditary
predisposition (oneration?), affecting the nature
of the temperament, or the physical complexion ;
early youth, or advanced age ; change of climate,
mountain air, severe weather, disease, and acute
sickness.

ILLUSTRATION.

We may fitly compare the fruit of the womb
with the fruits of plants and trees. The seed
takes the place of the embryo; the substance
within the seed, takes the place and fulfills the
office of the placenta, in some; in others, of
the placenta and the amniotic liquid; the coat
(or the shell of the stone), that of the amnion
and chorion.

Now, in the generation of plants (to trans
pose our terms), not all the flowers do seed,

64 Abortion: Illustration.

nor do all the green fruits attain ripeness.
Nature is lavish with the gift of beauty. In
May we find in the shadow of the cherry tree
a carpet of withering blossoms; in June, a very
bone-field of rejected fruits.

We shall leave the decaying flowers out of
our comparison, and retain only the fruits.

In the early day after blooming, many of the
cherries are torn off by the wind, or broken off
by the branches, or by the other fruits in the
same bunch, striking against each other when
agitated by wind and storm; others are at
tacked by insects, and employed as incubators,
and not being able to serve a twofold purpose,
they succumb to the foreign imposition. But in
a healthy tree, so much of the fruit will ripen,
as will not be disturbed by violence.

If the tree is sick, attacked by the rot, etc.,
its fruitfulness is diminished, or destroyed, in
proportion as the debilitation or decay has pro
gressed, and the fruit yielded, is puny and taste
less. Thus we see trees bloom like brides in
spring, and mourn like widows in fall, bare of
the fruit of which they had given such cheerful
promise.

The physiological conditions of propagation
are radically the same in all creatures below the

"Abortion: Illustration. 65

sun. Hence the process of generation and
gestation in the human mother develops naturally
and smoothly, if she is healthy, and her con
dition normal. Whenever this process becomes
troublesome, the fault lies with the subject, or
the terminus a quo, not with the object, or the
terminus ad quern, of generation; because the
object is the work of inflexible and predetermined
nature, whereas the subject, preexistent, and
exposed to the ravages of the universal curse
of sin (dissolution), may turn aside from the
course prescribed by nature, and has already ac
quired velocity and momentum, so to speak,
on its way to its own dissolution, even while it
is striving to reach the zenith of its natural per
fection.

The agencies of disease and disorder, gen
erally, are manifold. But the fruit, the object
of nature in the work of generation, is innocent
of the disorders that may endanger its own,
together with the mother's life and well-being.
It must, therefore, never be attacked as an
aggressor.

As we distinguish two ways in which the
fruit of trees is intercepted on its course toward
maturity, so we also distinguish two ways in
which the human fruit is intercepted. Fruit dies

66 Abortion: Illustration.

and is dissociated from the source of its life
either by violence, or from inability of the
mother tree to sustain a second life-process.

If one would remove a cherry from its native
twig before it is ripe, intending simply to re
move from it the green flesh, — let us say, for
medicinal purposes — would he not also have re
moved the stone, the real fruit? Would his act
not be the direct cause of the death of the germ
within the stone, irrespective of his kind in
tentions ?

And if one would perforate a cherry in order
to extract the liquid substance of the stone shell,
not separating the fruit from the stem, and thus
make the seed-germ die : \vould he only in
directly become the cause of the destruction?

Could such an act be therapeutic? Would the
cause of the destruction wrought, be a physio
logical cause?

But now, if one would, in order to save the
tree from destruction by caterpillars, apply a
solution to the leaves and boughs, that is apt
to kill the infesting pest, and, accidentally, some
of the fruit indirectly, let us say, by causing the
more tender twigs to wither: the destruction
ensuing would be ascribed to the physiological
indisposition produced by the preventive poison,

'Abortion: Illustration. 67

and would, therefore, be an evil in the subject,
interrupting and destroying accidentally the
physiological process of the growth to maturity.

And if the tree with its unripe fruit is sud
denly overtaken by a sharp frost, the fruit must
die from the same general injury, that is, from
the inability in the tree to maintain, or rather,
to reestablish the conditions for the life and
growth of its fruits.

Therefore, to conclude the illustration : Abor
tion is the interruption and elimination of the
natural process of generation and gestation at
a period when the fruit of the womb is not yet
viable. We have set forth that the destruction
of the fruit may ensue indirectly, that is, upon
the same ground upon which rest the principles
or conditions of life for both fetus and mother
(fruit and tree) ; or it may be brought about
mechanically, or, artificially, directly, by violence.
Indirect destruction follows in the wake of an
outrage committed against the subject; direct
destruction follows a violent attack upon the
object of the physiological process, the fetus.
In indirect abortion, the moral responsibility
must be measured by the degree of injustice, if
there be any, on the part of the agent in his
invasion of the subject. In direct abortion,

68 'Abortion: Illustration.

which aims at the term toward which the whole
process is tending, whose way, therefore, is an
evil way of its very nature, leading to murder,
the responsibilty is fixed by the Author of life
in His Commandment:

"Thou shalt not kill!"

MORALITY OF ABORTION.

APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES.

THERAPEUTIC AND ARTIFICIAL ABORTION,

OR
INDIRECT AND DIRECT ABORTION.

1. We have shown in the preceding treatise
that the medical treatment of pregnant women
must never be instituted without proper regard
of the germinating life, whose right to protection
in any case is inviolable by law of God and
nature.

2. It is plain that every abortion, except that
which results from remote and uncontrollable
causes, is more than a mere accident to be de
plored, as soon as we divest our mind of the
nefarious habit of considering the unborn child
less a man for having not yet engaged our sym
pathies.

3. The moral view, rather than the medical,
determines the position which the physician must
take in respect of abortion, because it involves
both the rights of God and of man, with the
right to life, the gift of God.

7° Abortion: 'Application of Principles.

4. Physicians ought so much the more readily
to respect the claims of the moral law, as the
disregard of them casts a shadow not only over
their moral character, but, at least in the eyes
of their more honest and more competent col
leagues, also over their professional reputation.
"We blush while we record the fact, that ....
even medical men are to be found who, for some
trifling pecuniary recompense, will poison the
fountains of life, or forcibly induce labor, to the
certain destruction of the fetus, and not in
frequently of the parent," says Doctor Hodge in
a lecture on Obstetrics, as quoted by Father
Coppens, S.J., (Moral Principles and Medical
Practice, p. 71.).

5. The physician who stands in the field fully
equipped well understands the harm wrought by
the injudicious interference with the work of
nature; he would not commit himself to dis
sembling the injury, inflicted upon the health of
the parent, by assuming the role of a benefactor
when he is the minister of death and destruction.
To this hypocrisy, however, the dishonest prac
titioner must commit himself, would he justify an
abortion procured even as a remedy, in the eyes
of the ignorant.

"The question of indirect abortion must be

Abortion: 'Application of Principles. 71

discussed principally in connection with the
medical treatment of the pregnant; but just in
this case, in my opinion, one need not be over
anxious. There are few medicines which, in
the dose administered for the cure of diseases,
bring the danger of abortion; moreover, ex
perience teaches that the end intended in criminal
abortion is rarely compassed by means of medi
cines, or then only, when the dose is so large,
that the mother will show evident symptoms of
poisoning. Consequently, in more than ninety
per centum of the cases of attempted abortion
brought to trial, we find that, when the criminal
end was accomplished, recourse had been had to
mechanical interference." (Stohr-Kannamuller.
Past. Med. p. 440).

6. Therefore, this is a just conclusion:
Whether abortion is directly intended as the
means of reducing abnormal conditions, or the
pregnancy is the immediate object of attack, or
the disease of the mother is treated with such
quantities of medicines as will expel the con
ception, or kill it in the womb: the proceeding
is disreputable, and criminal.

"Now let us take a lower view," says Dr. N.
F. Cooke (Before Marriage and After, p. 118),
"and regard the question as one of expediency

72 'Abortion: 'Application of Principles.

merely. There is no medicine known to the
profession which possesses the specific property
of inducing miscarriage; many will do so in
some cases, but only secondarily, that is, in
proportion as they shatter the constitution, ruin
the health, and produce a state of the system
which renders it incompetent, through debility,
to sustain pregnancy. . . .

There remains the mechanical method, in
which various instruments are used, according
to the taste of the operator. All of these are
more or less dangerous in themselves, and none
of them can avert the dangers incidental to
abortion. These are numerous, and to one who
knows them, frightful .... flooding .... inflam
mations .... insanity barrenness female

weakness."

7. But we are told, situations arise under
the hands of the physician acting as accoucheur,
that are nothing short of the desperate; the
physician must act immediately, or find himself
placed in the awkward position of confessing
his helplessness at a moment when he is con
sidered the only help in sight.

8. For this very reason the physician should
be anxious to inform himself of every detail of
the assistance which his art may offer him;

Abortion: A Classical Case. 73

and of the limitations placed by the moral law,
not indeed upon the exercise of his noble art,
but upon charlatanism and quackery; and no
less also of the assistance which the priest can
lend, to whom Christians look for advice and
comfort in a conflict between conscience and
necessity. In many instances the priest will
succeed in persuading the patient to submit to
an operation which must save mother and child
(e. g. Laparotomy or the Cesarean section, for
reposition of the misplaced womb, or in the case
of an ectopic conception), when the scalpel had
been looked upon as the certain messenger of
death.

CHAPTER II.

A CLASSICAL CASE.

DR. CAPELLMANN'S "PERFORATION OF THE
AMNION."

9. On the celebrated case which Dr. Capell-
Tnann elaborates in his Pastoral Medicine with so
much skill and erudition, most of the principles
can be whetted upon which hinges the morality
of the interference with the unviable fetus. The
case is this :

74 Abortion: A Classical Case.

After Dr. Capellmann quotes the doctrine of
Gury- Bailer ini on the voluntarium in causa, he
proceeds :

"The criteria of indirect abortion which I
have set up, are applicable, I think, only in the
single case, when the pregnant uterus is im
movably locked in the upper strait, as happens
by retroversion, sinking and prolapsus uteri. If
now all the means known to science, of turning
and replacing the uterus, have failed, I deem it
permissible to induce abortion by perforating
the amnion, and emptying it; for:

1 ) The mother is in imminent danger of death,
and must die together with the fetus, unless the
uterus be replaced;

2) There is no other expedient of saving the
mother ;

3) The discharge of the amniotic liquid is
directly conducive toward averting the danger
to the mother's life.

"In this case," Dr. Capellmann argues, "the
danger to the mother does not lie in the preg
nancy, physiologically speaking, but is caused,
rather, mechanically, by the enlargement of the
womb. The discharge of the waters removes
this mechanical obstruction, allows the womb to
shrink, and in consequence of the shrinking,

Abortion: A Classical Case. 75

makes reposition possible; and the peril of the
mother is removed before the abortion, which is
certain to follow, may ensue, so that an actual
abortion, i. e. the expulsion of the fetus from
the womb, will not be necessary for the re
moving of the danger.

"Fortunately this locking of the womb as well
as the absolute impossibility of reposition, are
of such rare occurrence, that Martin found it
necessary to pierce the amnion only once in 57
cases. In 50 cases reposition was made; in 5,
abortion occurred spontaneously, and then, of
course, reposition followed; in one case, the
mother came to the hospital in a dying condition
due to unsuccessful attempts at emptying the
bladder, and died without reposition being made.
The mother on whom the perforation of the
amnion was performed, died also."

This solution of the case was attacked, and
Dr. Capellmann defended himself in a note,
which still appears, together with the case and
its ample preparation, in the I4th edition, 1904,
as follows :

"I have learned that some theologians do not
allow even this case of indirect abortion. But
I see no reason to abandon this my view, until
my arguments have been refuted, and until it

76 Abortion: A Classical Case.

has been proved to me, that one condition is
wanting the fulfilling of which makes the
operation permissible according to the above."

The value of the case is more theoretical than
practical, since according to the statistics quoted
by Dr. Capellmann himself, his theory was ap
plied only in one case of 57, and then with dis
astrous results.

But its very theory is wrong on the ground
of a fiction which the good Samaritan un
wittingly allowed to grow on the edge of his
logic. For :

1) The first assertion built upon the criteria
by Capellmann, is not true full length; the
mother is indeed in imminent danger of death;
but she must not die with her child, because the
second assumption upon which the latter part of
that assertion is grounded, is false.

2) "That," therefore, "there does not exist
any other expedient of saving the mother," is
not considered true any longer; nor was it less
false in Capellmann's day, but it was supported
by the fear of an operation, Laparotomy, now
indeed quick and easy, but then bloody and
dangerous.

3) The distinction between physiological and
mechanical danger in this case, is not well

'Abortion: "A Classical Case. 77

founded. The enlargement of the womb is cer
tainly the result of the physiological state, that
of pregnancy, and the connection between these
two conditions is so intimate that here the state
of pregnancy and the danger are identical. But
the mother's life is endangered by an accidental
disorder, the locking of the womb, not by the
pregnancy as such. If, therefore, the disorder
cannot be remedied except by attacking the preg
nant womb, abortion is made the cause of the
relief to be brought about : * but ffnon sunt
facienda mala ut eveniant bona!f

The amniotic fluid is so much part of this
pregnancy, as of any other, that neither would
exist without the other. Its artificial discharge
destroys the pregnancy as surely and directly as
it removes the danger and brings the desired
relief. The perforation of the amnion is the
beginning of an absolutely certain abortion, as
the necessary consequence; without it, relief
could not be obtained. Hence, there is no method
of direct abortion known to be more effective
than the traditional perforation.

* Sicut pollutio esset remedium concupiscentiae; vcl, sicut si
quis vellet fornicari, et tamen sibi persuadere conaretur, con-
sensum se dare nolle, ne fornicaretur.

7& 'Abortion: A Classical Case.

Dr. Stoehr, an eminent author, had at one
time sided with Dr. Capellmann in his solution
of the case, but later changed his view com
pletely. In the fourth edition of his work (pp.
441, ss.), we find the following reference: "Be
the indication which the estimable author gives
in this luckily rare case ever so congenial to
me, still I cannot approve it from fundamental
reasons. If we consider that Capellmann cham
pions the perforation of the amnion as the
sovereign, nay, the only certain means of abor
tion in the entire medical armamentarium, we
must say that the application of this specific col
lides absolutely with the principle: Nunquam
licet direct e procurare ab or turn. Direct abortion
is not only that which is directly intended, but
also that which is directly induced. Now, since
the effusion of the fetus must follow the per
foration of the amnion with mathematical cer
tainty, as night follows day, we have here the
most direct process of abortion imaginable ; and,
hence, either the Nunquam licet, or this quoted
indication must fall to the ground.

"Capellmann argues from the fact that the
relief of the mother appears immediately after
the discharge of the amniotic waters, instead of
following only after the accomplishing of the

'Abortion: A Classical Case. 79

abortion. I do not doubt at all, that the dis
charge of the amniotic fluid brings almost instant
relief; but I must deem illusory the distinction
between physiological and mechanical pressure,
because the mechanical pressure caused by the
waters, is an absolute consequence of the physio
logical process of pregnancy, and can in no wise
be separated from it.

"Under these circumstances I would unhesitat
ingly propose laparotomy, which is no longer
such a frightful operation in view of our anti
septic safeguards ; and thus I would remedy the
locking by reposition through laparotomy, and
probably save both mother and child.

"This operation has sometimes been performed
also in case of the locking of the vacant uterus,
with good results (Sanger, Olshausen) ; and if
abortion follows occasionally, it is certainly in
direct."

This "desperate case" ought to be settled to
the satisfaction of both physicians and moralists
— and also jurists. Capellmann could conceive
only one case in which artificial abortion (which
he misjudged to be indirect) would be necessary
and permissible. But according to the present
standing of the medical art, even in this case
laparotomy supplants abortion.

8o Abortion: A Classical Case.

But the mother might object to the bloody
operation; what then?

1. She must be cautiously persuaded, perhaps
most effectually by the priest, of the comparative
groundlessness of her fear, and at the same time,
of the obligation of charity toward her child,
which must probably die without baptism in an
abortion.

2. She may be warned of the dangers at
tending artificial abortion, which are numerous
and grave. (See page 70).

3. But it will be well to bear in mind what
both prudence and the zeal for the salvation of
souls suggest: "In these circumstances the con
fessor and the pastor must proceed very cau
tiously, and act in such a manner as not to
pronounce the prohibition of these (forbidden)
operations, when they foresee that they will
gain nothing in such an event, as is ordinarily
and generally the case; lest the woman, having
been induced by her husband, her parents, or the
physician, to submit to the operation in order
to save her life, be tormented by pangs of con
science, and having lost the good faith in which
she had been, expose herself to the great danger
of losing eternal life, if perhaps she should suc
cumb during the operation. The priest, there-

^Abortion: A Classical Case. Si

Tore, should dispose the penitent to having the
greatest confidence in God, the Virgin Immacul
ate, and the Saints, and hear her confession, that
she may gain eternal life, if haply she die from
the operation, and let him be solicitous about
having the fetus baptized." (Antonelli, Med.
Past. pag. 210. num. 328, 1904).

Father Antonelli makes these observations in
connection with those operations which are sum
marized under the term "embryotomy" ; but they
apply here very well, although Father Antonelli
seems* to side with Dr. Capellmann (Med. Past.
1904, pages 219 — 224, cap. IV), and approves
his arguments, in opposition to Stohr-Kanna-
muller, who repudiates the perforation as un
necessary and immoral ; and, to Dr. Olfers, who
practically admits it to be an abortion, direct
and certain, but seeks to justify it by the laudable
intention of the operator ; and against Dr. Marx,
who admits it to be immoral as direct killing
of the fetus, but excuses himself on the ground
of the duress, in which the operator is placed
by the law and his reputation.

But what can the physician do? If he is in
good faith, and the case is fraught with difficulties

* He says, "videtur dicendum provocationem abortus per
punctionem membranarum, etc., .... esse indirectam."

82 Abortion: A Classical Case.

and trouble, and there is periculum in mora,
who would wish to tempt him? He has the
law to coerce and to defend him.

If he is a Catholic physician who knows of
the prohibition, his position is heroic.

Dr. Marx (Past. Med. p. 101, 1894) says
of this case of the locking of the womb: "The
uterus can generally be extricated from the
locking during the chloroform narcosis. But
if the extrication cannot be accomplished, then
there is no other means left for the saving of
the mother but the perforation of the amnion ....
Is the operation permitted from the view-point
of the Christian moral law?

"Under the given circumstances, and, of
course, after the most accurate examination of
the details of the case, I deem it permissible,
and have acted accordingly in praxi . . . . " Then
he drops a word about the priority of the right
to life with the mother and another about
the right of self-defense, and then gives Dr.
Capellmann the most ungraceful coup de grace:
"Capellmann .... justifies the attack with calling
it an indirect abortion, thus trying to square
himself with the "Nunquam licet direct e pro-
curare abortum" of the moralists. In reference
to which it can only be said, from the medical

'Abortion: 'A Classical Case. 83

standpoint, that there is no more direct means
for the procuring of abortion, than the perfora
tion of the amnion and the lessening of the
amniotic sac."

His actual regular practice, Dr. Marx de
scribes and seeks to justify a little later, (page
107) after stealing a little balm from Spiegel-
berg "(1. c. P. 832)," and magnifying the ap
parent difficulties of the case by introducing a
few other of the grewsome possibilities of com
plications ; * thus :

"In such a situation, the physician finds him
self in duress. If he proceeds according to the
rules of obstetrics, his action collides with the
views of the moralists, or rather, with his own
conscience. If he declines to act in accordance
with the prescriptions of the ors obstetricia, he
is liable to be hailed to court for a "profes
sional mistake," either for inflicting bodily in
jury through neglect, or for manslaughter. In
either case this aggravating circumstance is
added to the neglectfulness, that the defendant
was specially bound by his profession to that
attention which he set aside." Then he quotes
P. P. 230, and 222, Penal Code for the German
Empire, and continues:

* which do not change the moral aspect of the question.

84 ^Abortion: A Classical Case.

"Finally, who would call in an accoucheur,
who on account of his hesitation and indecision
does his professed character so little honor!"

But at last he admits: "In order to extricate
oneself from this dilemma without burdening
the conscience, the Cesarian section * is ever to
be recommended, if competent assistance and
trustworthy nurses are at hand."

The good Doctor practically admits that the
physician can do nothing "without burdening
his conscience," if the mother rejects this last,
bloody expedient.

Dr. Olfers, another celebrated physician, and
authority in these matters, finds little difficulty
in helping himself:

"It is plain," he says (Past. Med. p. 18),
"that there is question here (perforation) only
of reducing the volume of the womb. Hence
the intention ** is here directed toward this one
thing, that the end may be obtained by the
draining of part of the contents from the womb.
Could this be accomplished without simultane
ously inducing abortion, the child could be
borne to maturity; since the removal of the
fruit matters nothing in this case. Of course,

*In our case laparotomy, preferably.
;* Italics, ours.

'Abortion: A Classical Case. 85

abortion ensues quite certainly, because the con
traction of the womb and the expulsion of its
entire contents are the inevitable consequences
of the partial draining of the womb, as ex
perience shows; but this is not intended."

Well, now, is this abortion indirect?

Dr. Olfers here refers to the masterly expo
sition of the case by Dr. Capellmann, and then
concludes the acts by quoting St. Alphonsus:
"Liguori says: If the remedy (he speaks of
a remedy which may induce abortion) tends
directly toward killing the fetus, these are indeed
never allowed; but if it tend directly toward
preserving the life of the mother, these are
certainly allowed, when otherwise the death of
mother and child is thought to follow with
moral certainty."

Now, St. Alphonsus does not speak of the
intention of the operator, as Dr. Olfers does,
but of remedies, the application of which may
cause abortion. If such remedy aims at the
destruction of the fetus, irrespective of the
intention of the physician, haec quid em nun-
quam licent.

What does Dr. Marx say of Capellmann's
operation? "There is no more direct means
for the procuring of abortion than the perfora-

86 'Abortion: A Classical Case.

tion of the amnion, and the reduction of the
amniotic sac." (See above, p. 80). And Dr.
Stoehr? "....We must say that this specific
collides absolutely with the Nunquam licet, etc."

Father Coppens, S.J., the learned author of
"Moral Principles and Medical Practice," says
in this work (p. 71) :

"Gentlemen, if once you grant that grave
reasons would justify abortion, there is no
telling where you will stop in your career of
crime."

It is admitted by Drs. Capellmann, Stoehr-
Kannamueller, Marx, Olfers (and all others),
that the abortion produced by the perforation of
the amnion is the most direct and unvarnished
abortion : why then all this turning and twisting?
Dr. Marx confesses himself guilty without much
ado, but blames the desperate situation and the
cruelty and severity of the law. Dr. Capellmann
blinds himself to the fact that the abortion is
direct as intended, as does also Dr. Olfers ; and
there is no question of the intention of the
operans, but of the opus itself, for the intention
of murder would make any other operation sinful
for the operator.

Stoehr-Kannamueller (Past. Med. p. 437)
seem to give the correct answer, that will save

Abortion: A Classical Case. 87

the conscience, if not the standing of the obste
trician :

"I will not refer to the much discussed in-
Justus aggressor" (here credit is given in a note
to Dr. Capellmann for having thoroughly cleared
the atmosphere of that bug), "but I believe that
a short glance at the matrimonial contract will
fully clear up the juridical situation. The mother
once giving her consent at the Hymeneal altar,
thereby assumed all the obligations of the mar
ried life, although at that decisive moment she
may have been conscious, as is, alas, commonly
the case with the modern candidates for mar
riage, almost exclusively of her dawning rosy
rights, and barely have given the duties that
were awaiting her a passing thought. Now she
stands face to face with the rigorous conse
quences of the free resolve of her will .... What
an exhibition of miserable cowardice, to shirk
the burden, and to sacrifice moral honor and
conscience to the meanest egotism, now, that
one has enjoyed the pleasures! Nothing but a
nobler conception of matrimony on the one hand,
and a deeper religious sense on the other, can
here produce a radical change."

The Catholic physician, therefore, cannot lend
his hand to murder through abortion, but must

88 'Abortion: 'A Classical Case.

act in union with his Church in the endeavor
to raise the standard of matrimonial morality to
sublimer heights, and to encourage Christian
mothers to a greater spirit of sacrifice. He can
not do more in such a predicament.

In order to show that this solution conforms
to the ruling of the Holy Office, the supreme
authority on these things for Catholics, we ap
pend the decree of July 24th, 1895, quoting from
"The Right to Life of the Unborn Child":

"Most Holy Father: Stephen Mary Alphon-
sus Sonnois, Archbishop of Cambrai, humbly
submits the following: Dr. Titius, when called
to a pregnant woman, who was very ill, ob
served repeatedly that the only cause of her
deadly disease was her pregnancy, i. e., the
presence of a fetus in her womb. Hence there
was but one way open to him to save the patient
from certain and imminent death, namely, to
cause abortion. On this course he usually de
cided in similar cases, taking care, however, to
avail himself of such remedies and operations,
which would not of themselves, or not im
mediately kill the fetus in the womb, but, on
the contrary, would, if possible, deliver the child
alive, although, not being able to live, it would
die soon afterward. But after reading a rescript

Abortion: A Classical Case. 89

from the Holy See to the Archbishop of Cambrai,
dated Aug. 19, 1888, that it was unsafe to
teach the lawfulness of any operation which
might directly kill the fetus, even though such
were necessary to save the mother, Dr. Titius
began to doubt the lawfulness of the surgical
operation by which he had not unfrequently
caused abortion to save pregnant women who
were very ill.

"Therefore, in order to set his conscience at
rest, Dr. T. humbly asks whether, on occurrence
of the like circumstances, he may resort to the
aforesaid operations."

"Rome, July, 24, 1895.

"To this urgent request the cardinals of the
Holy Roman Congregation of the General In
quisition, after advising with the theological
consultors, have decided to answer: No; accord
ing to other decrees, namely those of May 28,
1884, and of August 19, 1888." *

also Decrees 4 and 5 in the Appendix of Decrees.

CHAPTER III.

ECTOPIC CONCEPTIONS, MYOMA, AND
CLEAR OVA.

ECTOPIC CONCEPTIONS.

1. Conception sometimes takes place, con
trary to law and order, outside of the maternal
womb. The fruit of such an error is called an
ectopic fetus. Hence, an ectopic fetus is a mis
placed fetus, in as much as the natural abode,
the habitat, as it were, of the fetus is the womb.

2. An ectopic fetus enjoys as much right to
life as any normal conception, because it also
is animated by a rational soul, and, therefore,
is a human being.

(a) It must be noticed that a misplaced, or a
diseased zvornb may, or must be operated on, as
circumstances may direct, to correct a disorder;
whereas the fetus can never be made the direct
object of a lawful operation; for the womb is
only an instrument; the fetus, the terminus ad
quern, of the purpose of nature.

Ectopic Conceptions, etc. 91

'(b) Under stress of necessity, an ectopic fetus
may be removed by a surgical operation,

1) when any normal conception could be
removed; as in case of honest doubt,
positive or negative, whether, what
should from its very abnormity not be
considered a natural conception from the
first, be not perhaps an imposition of the
nature of an ordinary tumor, which has
come to be the cause of grave danger to
the life of the mother ;

2) when the mother dies before the fetus
is viable;

3) at the stage of viability — if the ectopic
fetus reaches that stage. These concep
tions generally become very troublesome
at an early period, and often die with
out interference.

3. Scrupulous care must be taken that a fetus
thus removed be baptized; and, if viable, be
nursed as tenderly as the fruit of a regular
conception.

This remark becomes necessary for the fact
that medical authorities almost universally teach,
that an ectopic fetus should always be treated
as an impostor.

92 Ectopic Conceptions, etc.

4. "Is laparotomy permissible when there is
question of extra-uterine pregnancy, or ectopic
conceptions ?" *

Wednesday, May 4, 1898, the Sacred Con
gregation made the following answer:

"(Ad III.) Under stress of necessity, laparo
tomy is permissible for the extraction of ectopic
conceptions from the maternal bosom, provided
earnest and timely care be taken of the life of
both fetus and mother" (Eschbach, Disp. IV.
IV. p. 470).

5. Eschbach (loc. cit. p. 472) makes this
comment on the decision: "From this answer it
is easy to judge, that for the present no distinc
tion is to be made between the intra-uterine
and the ectopic fetus, for the reason that the
one and the other is surely animated by a rational
soul, and enjoys the same right to life. There
fore, the Holy Office decides in this, as in the
answer to the first doubt (three doubts had been
proposed), that the life of both fetus and mother
must be taken care of, earnestly and in time."

* Decree of May 4th, 1898 (Appendix):
'III. Estne licita laparotomia quando agitur de pregnatione
extra-uterina, seu de ectopicis conceptibus? "

"Ad III. Necessitate cogente, licitam esse laparotomiam ad
extraliendos e sinu matris ectopicos conceptus, dummodo et
foetus et matris vitae, quantum fieri potest, serio et opportune
provideatur."

Ectopic Conceptions, etc. 93

6. The learned author of "Moral Principles
and Medical Practice," Father Coppens, S.J.,
sets forth the case very lucidly (op. cit. p. 76) :
"While these principles (governing abortion)
are clear and undoubted, there are cases in which
the right application of them is beset with great
difficulties. These often occur in connection
with what is called ectopic or extra-uterine
gestation, namely, when the nascent human form
lodges in some recess not intended by nature
'for its abode. Of late years, Dr. Velpeau of
Paris, Dr. Tait of Birmingham, and many
other eminent physicians have shown that cases
of ectopic gestation are more numerous than
had been supposed ; one practitioner reports that
he had attended fifty cases, another, eighty-five.

"i. We will first suppose the case of an
interior growth occurring, the nature of which
cannot be determined. It may be only a tumor,
yet it may be the growth of a living fetus. If
no immediate crisis is feared, you will wait, of
course, for further developments. If it proves
to be a child, you will attempt no operation till
it becomes viable at least. But suppose that
fatal consequences are apprehended before the
presence of a human being can be ascertained

94 Ectopic Conceptions, etc.

by the beating of the heart; suppose that delay
would endanger the mother's life; and yet if
you cut out the tumor, you may find it to contain
foetal life. In such urgent danger, can you
lawfully perform the operation? Let us apply
our principles. You mean to operate on a
tumor affecting one of the mother's organs.
The consequences this may have for the child
are not directly willed, but permitted. The
four conditions mentioned before, are here veri
fied, under which the evil result, the death of
the possible fetus, may be lawfully permitted;
namely: (a) You do not wish its death;

(b) What you intend directly, the operation
on the mother's organism, is good in itself;

(c) The good effect intended, her safety, to
which she has an undoubted right, overbalances
the evil effect, the possible death of the child,
whose right to life is doubtful, since its very
existence is doubtful; now, a certain right must
take precedence of a doubtful right of the same
species; (d) The evil is not made the means
to obtain the good effect (see "Am. Eccl. Rev.",
Nov., 1893, p. 353). This last condition would
not be verified, if it were proposed, not to cut
out the cyst, but to destroy its contents by an
electric current. Then, it would seem, the fetus

Ectopic Conceptions, etc. 95

itself, if there be one, would be directly at
tacked.*

"2. The case would present greater difficulties
if the growth in question were known to contain
a living fetus. Such a case is discussed in all
its details, with remarkable philosophical acumen,
and in the light of copious information furnished
by prominent members of the medical profession,
in the pages of the "American Ecclesiastical
Review" for November, 1893, pages 331 — 360.
"... .Three of them (participants in the discus
sion **) agree that in the case of a cyst known to
contain a living embryo, when a rupture most
probably fatal to mother and child is imminent,
the abdominal section might be performed law
fully, the cyst opened and the child baptized be
fore its certain death. Two of these justify this
conclusion on the principle that the death of
the child is then permitted only or indirectly
intended; one maintains that the killing of the
embryo is then directly procured, but he con
siders that an embryo in a place not intended
for it by nature is where it has no right to be,

* Compare with this our solution of Capellmann's celebrated
case.

** Parenthesis by author.

96 Ectopic Conceptions, etc.

and, therefore, may be treated as an unjust ag
gressor upon the mother's life. At least one of
the disputants condemns the operation as ab
solutely unlawful.

"Gentlemen, when such authorities disagree,
I would not presume to attempt a theoretic de
cision (pp. 76 — 79)."

Now, on page 80 of the same lecture, the
author says: "A Catholic physician has here
a special advantage; for he has in cases of
great difficulty the decisions of Roman tribunals,
composed of most learned men, and renowned
for the thoroughness of their investigations and
the prudence of their verdicts, to serve him as
guides and vouchers for his conduct .... These
courts have uniformly decided against any
operation tending directly to the death of an
innocent child ("Am. Eccl. Rev.," Nov., 1893,
PP- 352, 353; Feb., 1895, p. 171)."

But the positive ruling of the Holy Office con
cerning the removal of the ectopic conceptions,
dummodo et foetus et matris vitae, quantum
fieri potest, serio et opportune provideatur"
given as late as 1898, precludes the propriety
of an operation by which the fetus must die,
although it be only in consequence of its un-
viability.

'Ectopic Conceptions, etc. 97

In 1905, the distinguished Jesuit author and
lecturer makes this honorable confession (in a
paper read before the Medical Section of the
Second Australian Catholic Congress at Mel
bourne) :

"When I first published my "Lectures on
Moral Principles and Medical Practice," I felt
compelled, by the authority of great names, to
state that this logical conclusion from evident
principles, as I took it to be, was, by some dis
tinguished moralists, so liberally interpreted in
certain cases of ectopic gestation as to be prac
tically set aside. This passage of my work still
exists in the original English, and in its French
and Spanish translations. But I gladly take this
opportunity of calling attention to the correction
made in the German rendition by Rev. Dr. B.
Niederberger. He quotes a decree of the Holy
Office, issued as late as March, 1902, which con
demns the supposed exception, and thus confirms
the universal rule, admitting of no evasion, that
no physician may ever directly procure the death
of an embryonic child.

I know that cases frequently occur in which
the application of this principle is peculiarly
embarrassing to a conscientious practitioner of
medicine. But the path of duty is clear, and it

98 Ectoplc Conceptions, etc.

must be followed at any sacrifice. Consequences
we must leave confidently to God ; and He does
not disappoint those who trust in Him. I may
be allowed, in this connection, briefly to refer to
an instance of late occurrence.

Last February I was called upon for advice
by an able and conscientious physician. The case
was that of a pregnant lady, whose confinement
could not be expected till after three months.
She had been wasting away, and had lost the
use of her reason, her mania being so violent at
times that it took three persons to hold her. The
doctor, who is a man of great experience, said
he was morally sure of thwo things — one, that
she could not live another month unless she were
relieved of her living burden; the other, that,
once relieved of it, she would soon recover. Of
course, I insisted that abortion is always out of
the question. The child was not yet viable.
Prayer alone was left; it was offered fervently.
The next day the lady was a little better; she
kept on improving ; regained her mental and her
bodily health. A premature birth followed with
out apparent cause; the child was born eight
weeks before term, tiny, but healthy. When last
heard of, mother and child were doing well."

Ectopic Conceptions, etc. 99

7. Father Antonelli quotes Max Range's
practice as an example of what must not be
done, despite the general practice of the profes
sion (Med. Past. p. 197, Edition 1904) : "But
in case of extra-uterine pregnancy, obstetricians
commonly teach that this pregnancy is to be
treated like any tumor of an evil nature; and,
therefore, after having made certain, in the
first months, of such a pregnancy, the cyst should
be extirpated by laparotomy, or the fetus killed
by electricity or injections of morphine. Even
if such a pregnancy is discovered later, the
quoted surgical operation should be undertaken
as soon as possible without any regard of the
life of the fetus." Radical, indeed. But An
tonelli also opposes the decree of May 4, 1898,
to this proceeding.

8. The opinion of Dr. Olfers (Past. Med.
page 19) of the treatment of extra-uterine con
ceptions agrees with his view of treating any
other seriously troublesome fetus. He removes
the fetus by a "timely" abortion, and thus differs
toto coelo from the decision of Rome. He says :
"Hither belong also the extra-uterine preg
nancies, which are rare, and result when an
ovulum is lodged in the Fallopian tubes, or
drifts into, and develops in the abdomen. These

ioo 'Ectopic Conceptions, etc.

cases are most rare." (Not, according to Drs.
Velpeau and Tait).

9. The entire difficulty seems to arise from
a misunderstanding of the terms direct and in
direct abortion, and, finis operis and finis
operantis.

Now, finis operis is the end and purpose of
the work, or the end toward which the operation
tends of its nature; as the finis operis of build
ing is the construction of the house; but finis
operantis is the end, purpose or intention of the
operator, aside from the end of the work in
hand; as the finis operantis of the building (in
the builder, of course), is the gain, or wages.
(See St. Thomas, S. Theol. 2—2,141,1).

Hence, in an operation which directly deprives
the fetus of the possibility of continuing life, in
such a way that the fetus, or the pregnancy is
made the point of direct attack, and its sacrifice,
the remedy of the disorder under treatment; the
intention of the operator does not enter at all
into the question of the objective aspect of the
operation; the finis operis here, that is, the
object of the operation is, the killing of the
fetus, no matter, if the finis operantis be the
saving of the mother's life. -And since the direct
killing of a fetus, whether in the womb, or out-

Ectopic Conceptions, etc. lot

side after ill-timed delivery, is forbidden, it is
but logical to say, that such operations as cannot
be undertaken without making a holocaust of
the embryo or fetus as the object of the pro
cedure, like perforation, extirpating, etc., are
those at which the various prohibitory decisions
of the Holy Office are aimed unerringly.

"Mulierem for tern, quis inveniet? Procul et
de ultimis finibus pretium ejus" (Prov. 31, 10).

In a truly desperate case, where no help can
be expected at the hands of man, it should not
be so difficult to implore help from God ; and if
He, too, decline to interfere, a Christian mother
must rise to the solemnity of the occasion, and
make herself a willing martyr to her conjugal
vows. Martyrs are made not only by dying for
the Faith, but also by dying for duty and virtue.

10. We are sorry to note that the ancient
bug-bear of the unjust aggressor was conjured
up by one of the disputants in the discussion of
the "Am. Eccl. Review," Nov. 1893, in order
to doom to death the ectopic conception.

St. Thomas (S. Theol. 2 — 2, Qu. 64, Art. 7)
gives the theory of the defense against an unjust
aggressor in his own clear method of reasoning,
with all the precautions — which seem to be so
often overlooked: "I answer, it must be said

102 'Ectopic Conceptions, etc.

that there may be two effects of one act: of
which the one may be simply in the intention,
the other, however, may be (over and) above
the intention: now, moral acts take their nature
from what is intended; and not from that
which is above the intention, since this is in
cidental, as flows from what is said above
(qu. 43, art. 3. et 1—2. qu. I. art. 3, ad 3.) ;
a double effect, therefore, can result from the
act of one defending himself: the one indeed,
is the preservation of one's life: and the killing
of the aggressor, the other: such acts, there
fore, are not illicit on account of one intending
to preserve his life ; for it is natural for everyone
to preserve his being (existence) as much as
he can: but an act, proceeding from a good
intention, may become illicit, in as much as it
is not proportionate to the purpose; and thus
it will be illicit for one to use greater violence
than is proper in defending his life: but if he
wards off violence with moderation, the defense
is allowed: for according to law it is allowed
to repulse violence by violence cum moderamine
inculpatae tutelae, and as to salvation, it is not
necessary that a man should omit the act of in-
culpable protection in order to avoid the killing
of the other ; because man is bound to care more

Ectopic Conceptions, etc. 103

for his own, than for the life of another: but
because it is not allowed to kill a man without
public authority for the public good, as appears
from what is said above (art. 3, huj. qu.),
it is illicit for a man to kill a man in defense of
himself, except he have public authority, and,
intending to kill a man he refer this to the
(cause of the) public good, as we see in the
soldier fighting against the enemy, and in the
servant (executioner) of the judge fighting
against robbers; although even these commit
sin, if they be moved by private passion."

Now, St. Thomas insists upon the opposition
of violence to violence.

Does the ectopic fetus do violence to the
mother ?

Let us see: (a) The mother, submitting to
her conjugal obligation, or exercising her con
jugal privilege, consents to conception, and
gestation; and to the birth of a child, a human
being from her womb. Does she assume all the
risks of pregnancy? — There are none, if her con
dition is perfect; if her condition is not perfect,
is the coming child at fault, or the mother?
— Shall the child which was brought into being
by the consent, if not by the positive will of its
parents, answer for the mistakes of its pro-

104 Ectopic Conceptions, etc.

genitors? — Can a friend in the same peril with'
us in a fragile boat, at our invitation, be an un
just aggressor? — The English Common Law
does not hold thus, as may be learned from the
case of the British yacht "Mignonette" as de
cided by the Lord Chief Justice of England,
Judge Coleridge, than whom there is no greater
jurist living (Coppens, "Mor. Princ. and Med.
Practice," pages 83, ss.). Father Eschbach
agrees with this solution (op. cit. pp. 452, ss.).

ii. An objection:

It may be objected that ectopic conceptions
result as by accident, and without any fault of
the mother ; therefore, although the mother may
be willing enough to bear out a natural concep
tion, even under great difficulties, still, she should
not be asked to bear the consequences of 'mis
guided nature,'

Answer :

1) The child is as much the victim of
'misguided nature' as the mother, and it, too,
deserves some consideration, for it is a human
being despite its unfortunate position;

2) The child is in the same danger as the
mother, and that not from choice, but from the
indisposition of the mother; this indisposition
may or may not, result from an error of the

Ectopic Conceptions, etc. 105

mother, or from an error of nature, which at
some time or other, was held up in its natural
function: but this is not the fault of the child,
and, therefore, the innocent fetus must not be
burdened with the sins of its progenitors, or with
the mistakes of misdirected nature.

3) Even if the right to the abode which it
occupies, be denied the child in such pregnancies,
still, it enjoys a higher right than the mere ac
cident of position; namely, the right to life,
which it receives from God as the first natural
endowment, and which, therefore, is inviolable
per se: Hence the lower right of the mother,
or her claim to protection against the unwonted
location of her child, must yield to the higher
right of the child, as a God-given right.

12. Another objection:

The right of the fetus is counterbalanced by
the same right of the mother, and even over
balanced by the priority of the right to life in
the mother: "Qui prior tempore, potior jure"

Answer :

In the possession of the essential rights of
nature, there is no priority; lest we be forced
to concede, that parents, for this reason, have
the right of disposition over the lives of their
children at any time. This was indeed the

io6 Ectopic Conceptions, etc.

condition among barbarous nations; but we
are no longer barbarians, and the claim is
preposterous. The natural rights of a human
being are the same at any stage of his life,
whether nascent or matured.

13. A third objection:

But the right against the unjust aggressor is
also a God-given right.

Answer :

Most certainly! — But an innocent child is not
a greater menace to the life of the mother than
a diseased heart : and yet, not one physician has
ever suggested the excision of that vital organ
for a cure — because the result of this operation
would entangle him in the meshes of the law,
and no quibbling would save his reputation —
as is — alas — the case in the killing of the un
complaining infant.

14. Fourth objection:

We may defend our life against the invasion
of even such diseases, of which the cure involves
the risk of our own, also a human life.

Answer :

The risk of a human life (for a proportionate
reason), is not the certain loss of a life. To
exchange life for life, so as to make the loss
of the one the direct cause of the preservation

Ectopic Conceptions, etc. 107

•

of the other, is not in man's power, as the
common consent of the race has ever testified,
whether this consent is codified, or merely the
voice of the heart and mind of all nations.

15. Now, in extirpating the unviable fetus
(or the viable one, instead of bringing it alive
into the light), ectopic or natural, the operator
resorts to an expedient which directly brings
death : if the mother were to be killed as directly
as the child is condemned to its doom, for the
sake of saving the child, who would demand,
or even only permit this sacrifice?

We say killed, because, although she may have
to die in certain instances, yet her death happens
without contravention of the law: "Thou shalt
not kill!" And God is no respecter of sizes.

(&) 1 6. The idea of aggression in a child, that
is where it finds the conditions of nascent life,
by the consent of its progenitors, even if it is
mislaid, is almost ridiculous. This misplace
ment does not, indeed, give the child special
privileges, although it may demand special pro
fessional consideration; but neither does it
vitiate any natural rights. One may mislay a
watch, but he retains the ownership, which fol
lows the watch as long as the owner does not
waive his claim: now, a child cannot waive its

io8 Ectopic Conceptions, etc.

claim to life; not because it cannot perform
rational acts, but because its life is not its own,
but God's property.

17. In a pamphlet, entitled "The Morality
of Medical Practice," by His Grace, the Arch
bishop of Melbourne, this learned prelate makes
the words of Father Coppens (op. cit.) his
own in this manner: "Risks and dangers are
incidental to the married just as they are to
several other states. They are no greater, as
the author remarks, than the dangers of the
battlefield, or the mine, the factory and the
forest, which are the lot of men. The woman
was warned of old, "I will multiply thy sorrows
and thy conceptions ; in sorrow shalt thou bring
forth children." If she is not willing to run
the risks, or suffer the sorrows of married life,
let her remain single. But if she enters the
married state she must, as a rule, bear with the
hardships of her state, or, in extreme cases,
abstain from the use of marriage."

18. In conclusion: The ectopic fetus enjoys
the same protection of its right to life, as the
normal conception, as the best authorities agree,
and the Holy Office has decided.

Ectopic Conceptions, etc. 109

19. The following case of false diagnosis in
what would have become a "desperate case" in its
time, had not a brave man taken charge of it,
proves the reasonableness of the exceptions we
have taken to the general practice. It was pub
lished in the August number of the "Medical
Review of Reviews" (New York and London),
1905. At the same time it should teach the ad
visers of women the necessity of referring them
to a conscientious and competent physician at
the first manifestation of impending disaster, or,
even, of grave irregularities, in the process of
gestation.

"Pregnancy in an Ante-Latero Flexed Uterus, Mistaken
for Extra-Uterine."

"Dr. G. Fieux, professor of the faculty of Bor
deaux, says in the Annals of Gynaecology that
he reports this case on account of the error in
diagnosis. It concerns a case of pregnancy
developed in an ante-latero flexed uterus, which
simulated an extra-uterine pregnancy.

Mme. D., wife of a physician, was healthy and
regular in her menstruation while a young girl.
Married at 21, first child at 22, delivery by
forceps on account of uterine inertia, which pro-

no Ectopic Conceptions, etc.

longed the period of expulsion. At 25, a second
labor, which was normal. After these two labors
the patient suffered from some gastrointestinal
trouble, characterized especially by a very pro
nounced dilatation of the stomach, aggravated
by quite frequent attacks of hepatic colic. While
in this uncertain state of health at the beginning
of 1903, she missed three menstrual periods,
which up to that time had been regular. This
amenorrhoea was accompanied by digestive
trouble, and by development of the breasts. The
patient knew that she was pregnant.

The physician who was consulted declared
that there was no pregnancy, and that it was
simply a case of salpingitis, and terminated his
examination by the classical introduction of the
uterine sound.*) Six days later she expelled a
foetus of about 8 or 9 cm. The consequences
of this abortion, induced through error, were un
complicated.

After this abortion the menses were regular
and normal until February 22, 1904. The period
of the month of March did not appear, but on
April 8 there was a slight show of a pink color,

* Why this destructive operation is persistency called ''clas
sical," dii norunt. (Author.)

Ectopic Conceptions, etc. in

which on the loth (six weeks after last menses)
changed into a considerable haemorrhage.

This haemorrhage was accompanied by severe
expulsive pains and, according to the statement
of the husband, the blood contained numerous
membranous debris, resembling decidua. Vaginal
examination made at this time showed the cer
vix soft and widely patulous. Hot douches
moderated the sanguineous discharge, which,
nevertheless, lasted until the i8th of April, al
ways containing here and there some bits of
membranous debris. Then everything became
normal, so that it was supposed that an abortion
had occurred.

But on the 26th of May (three months) a
slight bloody flow again appeared, consisting of
a deep red, almost black fluid. On the evening
of the 27th, during dinner, Mrs. D. suddenly
felt a severe pain in the left hypogastric region,
and had an attack of syncope, which lasted ten
minutes. The pulse was small, the abdomen
distended, there was some vomiting, but no ele
vation of temperature. The flow continued until
June ist. After this incident the general health
became bad. On June 12, Dr. Fieux was called
in consultation, and the history was so sug
gestive that he could not avoid thinking of an

H2 Ectopic Conceptions, etc.

extra-uterine pregnancy, and the examination
confirmed his suspicions. The patient was very
thin, palpation readily revealed a sub-pubic tu
mor of the size of a small orange, a little to
the left of the median line. This tumor, which
was regular and round, was sensitive on pres
sure, and hardly movable. It was hard and ap
peared never to have undergone any change in
consistence. By vaginal and bimanual exami
nation the doctor found the cervix softened, dis
placed far backward, and a little to the right.
The anterior and the left culs-de-sac were ef
faced by the tumor, which projected deeply into
the pelvic cavity. A deep furrow separated the
tumor from the portion of the uterus accessible

to the finger while the hand on the abdomen

observed that the hypogastric tumor was almost
completely fixed.

On the right the appendages were enlarged
and very tender. The doctor made a diagnosis
of tubal pregnancy on the left side of about
three months' duration, with a slight rupture of
the foetal cyst.

On the 1 4th of June there were new attacks
of pain, less severe than the previous ones, but
each accompanied by a half- fainting condition
which lasted several minutes.

Ectopic Conceptions, etc. 113

They agreed to operate as soon as possible
before the menstrual period, which would fall
on or about June 25, and the day for operation
was set for the twentieth.

As soon as the abdomen was opened, they
recognized their error. The foetal pseudo-cyst
was nothing else than the uterine body in left
ante-lateral flexion. This was lifted gently with
the open hand and easily placed in the proper
position, for there were no adhesions to hold it
in its misplaced situation, and then they had
under observation a uterus of the form and
volume of one three months pregnant. The left
appendages were healthy. The right ovary con
tained a thin-walled cyst of the size of a pigeon's
egg, and was removed. The whole operation
lasted thirty minutes.

The recovery was excellent, except that
vomiting persisted for three days. One month
after the operation the doctor examined the
uterus, and was greatly surprised to find that
it had developed very little, the fundus extend
ing 10 cm. about the pubes, exactly as on the
day of operation. After this the pregnancy pro
ceeded normally to term."

H4 Myoma.

CHAPTER IV.

MYOMA OF THE PREGNANT WOMB.

1. When during pregnancy malignant tumors
form in the muscular tissue of the womb and
grow to such unseemly proportions as to menace
the life of the mother, the excision of the im
pregnated womb by laparotomy is suggested as
the only expedient for the salvation of the mother.
By this operation, the fetus is, indeed, sacrificed,
but the danger is averted.

2. Is this operation permissible?

(a) Capellmann's work (i4th edit. p. 19)
says no, very emphatically, and grounds its
denial on the decree of July 24th, 1895, and on
the retraction of Father Lehmkuhl, S.J., of his
former opinion, which favored an affirmative
answer ("Analecta Eccles.," vol. 3, pag. 483).

(b) Father Antonelli seems to favor an af
firmative answer ; but he says "videtur dicendum"
(see above, p. 79, n). He applies the decision
of the Holy Office to all those operations which
are directly fatal to the life of the fetus, but
argues that both in the perforation of the fetal
membranes and in the excision of the pregnant
womb, the operation is only indirectly fatal, and
bases his argument on the assertion, that in both
cases the danger to the mother's life is not

'• , Myoma. IX5

caused by the pregnancy, but by mechanical
pressure, or mechanical bulk, of the uterus.

3. Hence, the solution of this case must
proceed from the answer to this question:

"Is the death of the child in this case the
direct consequence of the excision, or not? Or
in other words: is this operation to be said
to be ((directe occisiva foetus"?

(a) Principles underlying the solution:
Abortion may be called direct in two ways:

1) when it is procured as the immediate ob
ject of both the operator and the operation;

2) when it is procured as the means of
achieving the object of the operation.

The first member of this division is established
on the principle "Nunquam licet directe procurare
abortum."

The second member on this: "Non sunt
faclenda mala ut eveniant bona"

(b) Application of principles.

A) The " Nunquam licet" applies to all opera
tions which of their nature and object tend
toward the killing of the fetus, whether it be
contained in the womb, or, taken from the
womb, must die on account of its unviability.
This follows from the decree of May 4th, 1898,
which, in permitting laparotomy for those cases

1 1 6 'Myoma.

where the existence of a human being is 'doubt
ful (ectopic conceptions), makes this provision:
"dummodo et foetus et mains vitae quantum
fieri potest, serio et opportune provide atur."

Now in the excision of the pregnant womb,
the operation tends toward the killing of the
fetus neither of its nature, nor of its object.
Ergo: The "Nunquam licet" does not apply to
this operation; consequently it is permissible,
servatis servandis.

The burden of the argument is on the second
proposition, which we shall prove:

(a) "It must be said that something may be
the cause of something (else) in two ways:
one way, directly, the other, indirectly. And,
indeed, indirectly in this manner, that we say,
some agent, causing a certain disposition for a
certain effect, is the cause of that effect inci
dentally and indirectly: as he who cuts (al.
dries) the wood, is said to be the cause of it
burning.... But something is said to be the
cause of something (else) directly, when it
works toward that directly (quod directe opera-
tur ad illud)" (Summa Theol. I. quest. 114,
art. 3. c.).

St. Thomas, therefore, teaches, that only that
cause is the direct cause of a certain effect which

Myoma. I17

directly aims, (or works) at the effect. He
does not say, however, that it matters, whether
the cause produces that effect also as the object
of the operator, or merely as that of the operation.

Now, the excision of the womb does not aim
directly at the death of the fetus ; therefore, the
death of the fetus is not the direct effect of the
operation.

(b) Proof : ( i ) If the object of the operation
were this, to remove the pregnancy, or the fetus,
the pregnancy, or the fetus, would have to be
said to be the cause of the disease; because the
remedy is directed toward the removal of the
cause of a disease. But the myomatic condition
of the womb is in no wise a consequence of the
pregnancy, or of any feature of the pregnancy;
ergo.

Proof : (2) An operation which is of its nature
directly fatal to the fetus, cannot be undertaken
without destroying a pregnancy or a fetus ; now,
this operation is often undertaken on the vacant
womb: therefore it cannot be said to be of its
nature directly fatal to fetus or pregnancy.

The major is evident from the very definition
of the term nature, as "the principle of action";
and although in this connection the term is not
used in its philosophical sense, but rather by

n8 Myoma: Objections.

way of accommodation, still, it signifies for the
operation that relation which the philosophical
term "nature" imports in things metaphysically
considered. Hence the parity cannot be denied,
since not the argument, but the language is at
fault, which borrows a term from one sphere
to apply it in another in the same sense.

Whatever is of the nature of things, is always
found in them; v. g., it is the nature of anger
to disturb unerringly a certain complexus of
nerves, in preference to the rest.

The minor is proved by the medical practice.

OBJECTIONS.
The Amputation Compared with the Perforation.

i) The vacant womb is also locked in the
same manner as the pregnant womb; now,
whatever does not enter into the effect, does
not proceed from the cause; but — pregnancy
does not enter into the effect of the operation
necessary to make reposition of the vacant womb :
therefore, the operation for reposition of the
pregnant womb cannot be said to be directly,
and of its nature, fatal to the fetus.

Answer : (a) "The vacant womb is also locked
in the same manner as the pregnant womb," as

, Myoma: Objections. 119

to its location, granted; as to the cause of the
locking, denied.

(b) The locking* of the pregnant womb may
frequently be remedied by the same operation
that remedies the locking of the vacant womb;
but when it is to be remedied by the operation
under discussion, the perforation of the amnios
— is this ever applied in the locking of the
vacant uterus! A vacant womb is no less the
denial of all the features of pregnancy, as the
perforation of the uterus is the assertion of
what it seeks to destroy.

The argument is a petitio principii in any
event.

2) The death of the fetus does not contri
bute anything toward the effect of the operation,
even in the case of the perforation of the fetal
membranes, since the end intended is the relief
of the mother, and the end or object of the
operation is the reposition of the uterus; but
whatever does not enter into the effect, does
not proceed from the principal cause : therefore,
the death of the fetus in the perforation does
not follow directly from the cause, or, the
operation.

Answer: (a) The death of the fetus does not
contribute anything to the indirect effect of the

I2O Myoma: Objections.

operation, the relief of the mother, which is tHe
ethical object, or the object of the operator
(finis operantis), — granted; it does not contri
bute to the immediate object or effect of the
operation, the emptying of the ovum of its vital
contents, and the destruction of the pregnancy,
which is the object of the operation (finis
opens) — denied. It is this direct destruction of
the pregnancy, and, in consequence, of the
fetal life attacked, which makes this operation a
causa mala.

(b) Whatever does not enter into the prin
cipal effect of the operation, does not proceed
from the principal cause directly, granted; in
directly, i. e., so that the subject which receives
the effect is not fit to receive the entire effect, —
denied. Thus a nail driven into a weak board,
does not fasten the board, but splits it, failing
of its direct object as conceived by the operator,
and directly producing that effect which is the
direct effect of the driving of a nail, too large
for that board, and indirect only in the mind
of the carpenter. For the cause must be pro-
portionate to the effect intended, if the finis
opens and the finis operantis should not be
separated, from excessus or delectus causae.

Thus if one would draw all the blood from

Myoma: Objections. I21

a man in order to cure rheumatism, he would
certainly kill the man, irrespective of his good
intentions, propter excessum causae.

Thus also, a shot fired from a blank cartridge
would not kill, propter defectum causae.

Where, therefore, one must be killed to cure
another, the remedy is as costly as the cure;
but this remedy is costlier by the command of
God: "Thou shalt not kill."

Now, the direct effect of an operation is not
that which may be the first in the mind of the
operator (except as to its morality), but that
which is the first and immediate effect of the
operation, considered as a means to procure the
object intended by the operator. Thus a phy
sician, intending to excise a tumor on the spine,
and for this purpose thrusting a scapel through
the heart of his patient so that he might operate
from the inside, would certainly be guilty of
murder: morally (formaliter), if he is not in
sane; legally (materialiter) , if he by some mad
fiction persuades himself that this method is the
one he must employ. This illustration seems to
be inane, silly, void of sense — but only because
we judge of it without prejudice.

In the "classic" process of the perforation of
the fetal membranes, no matter for what pur-

122 Myoma: Objections.

pose or with what intention or fiction, the first
and immediate effect is this : to withdraw from
(the fetus the vital element, the amniotic fluid,
which is as necessary for the continuation of
fetal life, and the absence of which is as cer
tainly destructive of fetal life, as the heart is
necessary for the life of the matured man, and
its perforation destructive of his life. There
fore, the direct effect of the perforation of the
fetal membranes is the killing of the fetus.

It is only by a mental fiction, engendered by
prejudice, and the pernicious habit of consider
ing the defenseless infant less a man than the
obstreperous candidate of a fatal operation, that
we discriminate against the helpless child.

B) "Non sunt facienda mala ut eveniant
bona"

This principle is thus unanimously developed
and applied by the theologians:

When two effects, the one good, and the
other evil, result from one cause, the evil effect
is not imputed to him who places such a cause,
under the following conditions:

i) That the cause* be good, or at least, in-

* The cause here does not mean the intention of the agent,
or the reason for which he operates — that is the effect — but the
action itself, i. e. not the causa finalis, but the causa efficient.

Myoma: Objections. 123

different; 2) That the good effect do not re
sult from the cause by means of the bad effect;

3) That the agent intend only the good effect;

4) That there be a reason proportionately grave
to counterbalance the result of the evil effect.

These conditions warrant the morality of
such operations or actions as are based on that
principle, because then the evil effect is only
permitted — and is permissible — as an indirect
consequence of such actions. Now, all these
conditions can be verified, as is seen from the
preceding exposition, in the amputation of the
pregnant womb for myoma: hence this opera
tion is permissible, when necessary to preserve
the mother's life.

In the perforation of the fetal membranes, it
may be noted, not one of these conditions is
fulfilled; not even the last, since no reason can
be grave enough to justify murder.

For those who may still hesitate to admit the
radical and essential distinction between the oper
ation on the amnion, and that on the womb for
the removal of myoma, we would give the fol
lowing illustration:

John and James, two mariners, suffer ship
wreck and are pitched into the sea. They dis
cover a floating plank, and make for it, climbing

124 Myoma: Objections.

on it both at the same moment, each grasping
one end. The plank can not hold both, and,
although it would support one, it will tip up at
the other end the moment that John jumps off.
Now the jumping of John means the death of
James. John sees a larger plank, leaves the first
one to James, realizing that James will be pitched
into the water again, and because he is exhausted,
must drown, whereas he himself is safe.

Is John answerable for the drowning of James ?
Or, must he rather drown with James?

The correct answer is so plainly indicated, that
we fear we would insult the intelligence of the
reader to give it.

But, John and James climb on the same plank,
and John, realizing the clanger, pushes James off
by violence, in order to save himself, because both
cannot be saved: what then?

Then John is interfering with the rights of
God over human life. These rights are so sacred,
that no one dare violate them with impunity. In
the case James is as innocent of criminal aggres
sion as the unborn babe, and must not be sacrificed
by a crime to the welfare of John. If no other ex
pedient can be found, John and James must drown
together, rather than that John should save his
life by the sacrifice of the life of James.

Myoma: Objections. 125

In the former case, John had the right to
jump, thus to save himself, leaving James to
his fate; because the saving of John was not
accomplished by an act that was in itself and
directly a violation of any right of James : both
were in imminent danger of death; but the
danger was averted for John, not by his putting
James into greater danger by any act of his,
although the danger was hastened for James by
the circumstance of the plank's losing its balance,
which John foresaw, but could not prevent. Nor
was the act of John forbidden on that account,
or on any account under these circumstances,
since every man is bound to preserve his life, if
it can be done without injustice to man and God.
Hence John caused the drowning of James only
indirectly, or, rather, he allowed it, because he
could prevent it neither in case he remained on
the plank, nor in case he jumped in order to
save at least his own life. John's act was not
in the least immoral.

Now, the operation by which the conception
is removed together with the diseased womb,
stands parallel to this case in the application of
the Fifth Commandment. Mother and child must
die but for the operation. The mother can as
surely be saved as the child must die by the oper-

126 Myoma: Objections.

ation. The operation is directly an attack on
the disease of the mother, with which pregnancy
has nothing to do. Hence the destruction of
the pregnancy is incidental to the operation, in
direct, and only permitted, because it can not be
prevented.

If a pregnant mother were to be operated for
appendicitis, or for any other internal or external
lesion or disease that would entail a great loss
of blood and consequent debility, the pregnancy
would also be terminated and the fetus lost:
would anyone forbid such operations ? — No ; they
do not clash with the prohibition of God : "Thou
shalt not kill !"

But the perforation of the amnios is parallel
to the second case of John.

By pushing James off the plank, John assumed
power over human life. But this is accorded no
individual, except in defense of one's own life
and property against an unjust aggressor; and
even in this case, that power must be exercised
cum moderamine inculpatae tutelae, as St.
Thomas so accurately explains (loc. sup. cit).

The principle so often overlooked in the ex
amination of these difficulties, is, that human life
is sacred, that is, that it has a value set upon it
by God, who created it for a supernatural pur-

Myoma: Objections. 127

pose. He has so often signified that He would
never surrender His dominion over human life,
except for the good of the race, in particular
cases. Hence no one is at liberty to take human
life in exchange for his own or that of anyone
else, except in the name of the society; or, in
self-defense against grave injustice, cum modern-
mine, etc., i. e. without directly aiming at the
death of the adversary.

Now, by the perforation of the amnios, the
fetus is attacked. If the predicament of the un
fortunate mother could in any way be said to
be independent of the state of pregnancy, and,
therefore, could be attacked and remedied with
out directly attacking the pregnancy, or, rather,
without previously destroying the physiological
integrity of the pregnancy: then the operation
would have to pass censure. But the perforation
kills the fetus by destroying what is the totality
of the natural condition of pregnancy. If one
would puncture the eye with a needle, he would
destroy the sight as surely as if he would sever
the optic nerve; blindness (death of sight) would
be caused as directly and surely one way as
the other.

Hence there is no parity between the cases of
Perforation, and Operation for Myoma. There-

128 Clear Ova.

fore, the removal of the womb, for myoma, is
not, as Father Antonelli and the editor of Capell-
mann (i4th Ed.) think, an operation direct e oc-
cisiva foetus; but an operation truly therapeutic,
even if surgical, and as far distinct from the
operations condemned by Rome as murderous,
as the practice of the medical art is from the
gruesome occupation of the public executioner.

CHAPTER V.

CLEAR OVA.

1. Together with such pregnancies as will
interrupt themselves, so to speak, for one reason
or another, and throw off the fetus in a state
of corruption without any traceable interference,
pregnancies are found in which the ovum con
tains the fetus in a state of liquefaction; i. e.,
the embryo dies in the first weeks, and is
gradually dissolved in the water of the ovum.
This pregnancy is called a clear ovum, although
the water is by no means clear, but, on the
contrary, appears turbid and muddy, whereas it
is always clear in undisturbed pregnancies.

2. This case may be attended with as much
trouble and discomfort as any other pregnancy,

Clear Ova. 129

which disturbs the physical condition of the
mother from other causes, such as uncontrollable
vomiting (hyperemesis gramdarum).

3. There are at present no symptoms known
to the medical profession by which the clear
ovum in the womb could be distinguished from
the normal pregnancy.

4. If the life of the mother comes to be
menaced by her condition before the fetus can
be presumed to be viable, and the physician
supposes the presence of a clear ovum instead
of a normal conception, and, therefore, operates
with a view to remove the fetus: what is the
moral aspect of his proceeding?

(1) The physician rests the morality of his
action on a mere supposition, which involves the
risk of direct abortion. "Qui amat periculum,
peribit in illo."

(2) But, the defenders of this operation*
contend :

a) The mother is needlessly sacrificed to an
imposition of nature, if the pregnancy
is one of a clear ovum;

b) The child, if there be one, can be bap
tized, owing to peculiar instruments em-

* Right to Life of the Unborn Child, Appendix, pp. 117-125.

130 Clear Ova.

ployed, and an entirely new method of
operating.

(3) It is unfortunate, indeed, on the one
hand, that the precious life of a mother should
be forfeited to an imposition; and, on the other,
it is a comfort to know that so helpless a being
as is the child in the womb, should be made a
child of God before its death. But new methods
do not change the nature of direct abortion, nor
does an occasional error of nature, induced by
some untoward accident, deprive the natural in
habitant of the maternal womb of its right to
protection, and lay it open to the danger of
being killed on the mere supposition of the
existence of an impostor, since the presumption
always stands in favor of a normal conception.

Dr. X.* defines his position on direct abortion
in these concise terms: "In the interests of
scientific truth upon a serious theological ques
tion, we think it useful to study here two very
interesting instances of medical abortion, directly
produced, which force us to reconsider this
problem hitherto decided by a categorical non-
possumus"

Then he presents another case; that of "a
mother dying from uncontrollable vomitings

* Annales de Philosophic Chretienne, Oct. 1903, op. cit.

Clear Ova. 131

brought on by pregnancy; the same operation
effected the extraction, after intra-uterine bap
tism, of two small fetus three months old, so
much alive that they stirred for more than a
quarter of an hour and were able to be baptized
sub conditione by one of the parish priests."

And a little later:

"If we now ask theologians why artificial
abortion is illicit, they give us the following
twofold reason: that it is homicide of the
body as well as the soul. Now we have just
seen in two cases previously cited that i) the
salvation of the soul is always assured in the
case where the embryo is existent and alive,
thanks to the wholly new rapidity of extraction
and to baptism either in utero, or post par turn.

"That 2) there are cases where the embryo
does not exist alive in the ovum, and where,
nevertheless, everything proceeds as if it were
animated, that is to say, where the mother is
condemned to death by the remains of an
embryo which has formerly existed but which
may be already dead several weeks, and which
theology refuses to allow the physician to
remove."*

* The two cases referred to are clear ovum, and uncontrollable
vomiting.

132 Clear Ova.

REVIEW OF THE REASONS OF DR. X.

1. The reason which theologians give for
the prohibition of direct abortion is not this,
that it is a twofold homicide; for one of the
fundamental principles of moral theology, "non
sunt facienda mala ut eveniant bona" , precludes
the consideration of the spiritual life in direct
abortion; not that theology has not as tender
a regard for the spiritual welfare of man, as
medicine, but because no consideration what
ever can legalize the murderous invasion of the
right to life of the innocent. The Fifth Com
mandment of God in its literal application suf
fices for the theologian to condemn murder.
Therefore,

2. Whether "the salvation of the soul is al
ways assured" in direct abortion, or not, does
not change either the Fifth Commandment
with its categorical prohibition, or the logic
and faithfulness to doctrine and principle of
the theologian. And

3. "If there are cases where the embryo does
not exist alive in the ovum" theology does not
"refuse" to allow the physician to remove the
encumbrance; but it asks of the physician to
prove that there is no life in the womb, because

Clear Ova. 133

the presumption stands for life in all cases where
death cannot be assumed on reasonable grounds.
But an unfounded supposition is no reasonable,
much less, scientific ground. Hence theology
must not be made to answer for the short
comings of the medical science. If a physician
is morally certain that in a given case he has
to deal with either a dead fetus, or a clear ovum,
the theologian will encourage him with a most
hearty "Go ahead", to exercise his skill in the
rescue of one life through removing the remains
of another that has accidentally perished.

NOTES.

There must be certain unmistakable signs or
manifestations of death in the womb, as they
are outside of the womb, which the medical pro
fession have so far failed to discover and discern.

As long as physicians admit, as they now do,
that they are groping in the dark in these des
perate cases, theology must not be charged with
brutality or antiquated stubbornness, when it puts
a wholesome check upon the exercise of an art
that for its present insufficiency demoralizes
society and sacrifices so many lives to — I beg
pardon — incompetency and ignorance.

134 Clear Ova.

The Christian moral law, championed by
science and piety alike, does not forbid the
physician to assist a mother in her agonies, and
to save her life, instead of allowing mother and
child to die together, provided he does not em
ploy means and methods which run counter to
the laws of God, for whose violation theology
will accept no apologies. Let the medical science

devise means and ways truly scientific for

the present mode of assisting mothers by pro
ducing direct abortion is certainly not scientific

that respect both the exactions of morality,

and the dignity of science; then medicine and
theology will no longer dwell apart.

Mothers in such desperate cases are not sacri
ficed to the "narrowness of the decrees of the
Holy Office," * but to the deplorable incom-
petency of some of the obstetricians, who may
have mastered the field of the medical practice,
without examining the last redoubts.

* Prof. Treub, in Right to Life, ete.

CHAPTER VI.

HYPEREMESIS GRAVIDARUM.

(Uncontrollable Vomiting of the Pregnant.)

Stoehr-Kannamueller (Past. Med. p. 438)
introduces his views of this evil with these
plain remarks :

"Direct Abortion — every interference which
must necessarily cause the expulsion of the un-
viable fruit — is permissible under no circum
stances, no matter how ethical the object may be.
The medico-scientific postulate of abortion is
to be judged exclusively from the mother's
sphere of interest. Here then they insist upon
i) the uncontrollable vomiting of the pregnant
(Hyperem. gravid.), which in many instances
appears as early as the first week and often
becomes most obstinate. But it generally dis
appears at the end of the first half of the preg
nancy without medical assistance, and, curiously
enough, without the nutrition having suffered to
a dangerous degree; in particular cases, how
ever, the patient is doomed to a fatal emaciation.

136 Hyperemesis Gravidarum.

In this condition of things, where the pregnancy
is the sole cause of the dangerous vomiting, it
was thought proper until recently, to remove at
once cause and effect by inducing abortion. But
this indication, — aside from moral considerations
— does not give the right to eliminate the
pregnancy; because recent experience teaches
(Cohnstein, Ahlfeld), that this proceeding
brings about the desired result in only one half
the cases, and that at present we have other
efficient means at hand, which almost universally
produce the desired effect, etc."

Dr. Stoehr, therefore, contends that a physi
cian who is well informed of the present stand
ing of the obstetrical art, need not resort to
abortion in such "desperate cases," and that
"almost universally" the "desperate case" is
made desperate through the lack of information,
or the indifference to morality of the physician.

But Dr. Stoehr also virtually admits that in
some cases, no remedy will avail.

Now, the numerical relation of this desperate
case to the normal and safe pregnancies does not
alter either its moral aspect, or its desperateness.

What is to be done when the one desperate
case of a thousand is brought to the notice of the
physician ? He applies every conceivable remedy,

Hyperemesis Gravidarum. 137

consults with his experienced confreres, and yet
finds himself unable to relieve the desperateness
of the conditions.

He must leave his patient in the hands of
God who has often righted things that sat awry
with greater hopelessness than these cases. And
if the patient dies, let him console himself with
the consideration that his conscience is free from
the guilt of murder, and that people die of other
ailments equally elusive of medical skill and
care.

Nor is this advice the outcrop of pious stupi
dity. For, if, v. g., the physician's assistance is
declined, as happens frequently, until there is no
other choice left for him, but between directly
killing the child, or allowing the mother to die,
who might have been saved but for some foolish
fear, or false modesty: would any honest man
think it amiss of the physician if he now de
clines to have a murder forced upon his hands?
And similar reasons will vindicate the conduct
of an honorable practitioner in similar cases.

Dr. Marx (Past. Med. pp. 102 ss.) consistently
with his error, refuted above by his own ad
missions, thinks that the moralist (possibly the
confessor) may base his judgment in particular
cases of this kind on the following reasons which

138 Hyperemesis Gravidarum*

he quotes from "Spiegelberg, Manual of Ob
stetrics for Physicians and Students," Lahr,
1878, p. 252:

"Every single case must be judged by itself.
Only this can be set up as a general rule, that
the interference (induction of abortion) is not
made before all means have been applied that
agree with the continuance of the pregnancy,
especially also artificial nutrition; but not when
it is too late, not then, when the fatal termina
tion appears inevitable to everybody — and the
evil sometimes approaches this unfortunate event
very suddenly and rapidly. But let no one ever
take the responsibility for this operation upon
himself without the consent of another specialist
of experience in these matters."

But then he begins to doubt :

"This operative attack has, at all events, some
difficulties for the Catholic. The Holy Office
decided the question whether it is permissible to
lessen the head of the living child during birth,
in this way: "Tuto doceri non posse in scholis
CathoHcis." Roma locuta — causa finita. By
these attacks which we have described, the life
of the fruit, of whose life there is no plausible
reason to doubt, is destroyed with the same

Hyperemesis Gravidarum. I39

directness as by the operations undertaken to
lessen the body of the child during birth. But,
forsooth, is the fruit in the second or third
month of pregnancy a different being from the
fetus in the ninth or tenth month, when it is
about to exchange intra-uterine with extra-
uterine life?"

He is candid enough to disprove his own
theory with the most striking reason. The de
fender of the perforation of the amnios, who
admits it to be direct abortion, is also in this
case in a quandary.

CHAPTER VII.

EMBRYOTOMY AND THE CESAREAN
SECTION.

1. Under Embryotomy are comprised all
those operations which are applied at delivery
for the purpose of dismembering the body of
the child, or of reducing the bulk of that part
which presents itself.*

2. There are chiefly five operations which
are undertaken when the head is presented, and
cannot pass the natural channels of birth:
Craniotomy, Cephalotripsy, Cephalotomy, Sfeno-
tripsy, and Embryulcy.

3. By Craniotomy the skull of the child is
punctured and the brain extracted. The ensuing
contractions of the womb reduce the volume of
the head and expel the child. But when this
reduction of the head is not effective, the child
is drawn out with the hands, or with instruments.

* Antonelli, Med. Past. 1904, pp. 196, ss.

Embryotomy. J4r

4. Craniotomy is applied principally in
two cases: a) when the pelvis is too narrow,
b) when the head of the child is too large.
It is an old practice.

5. By Cephalotripsy — the crushing of the
head — the head of the infant is compressed to
such a degree that the blood and the brain burst
the bones and the skin of the head. (This
sounds horrible in English!) It is sometimes
preceded by craniotomy in order to facilitate
the operation. Also an old expedient. The
percentage of mortality for the mothers is 30,4
(Antonelli, 1. cit.) ; but the percentage of death
for the hapless innocents is, of course, 100.

6. By Cephalotomy the head of the child is
cut in two lengthwise. It is employed when the
ferocity described above, does not accomplish
its purpose. The percentage of mortality is
21,3, exclusive of the children.

7. By Sfenotripsy the base of the skull is
punctured in various places. According to Dr.
Hubert, 16,66% of the mothers die when the
narrowness of the pelvis is moderate (80 — 64
mm.), and 12,05%, when the narrowness is
extreme (at least 65 mm.).*

* Antonelli, op. cit. p. 197.

Embryotomy.

8. Embryulcy means either of these two
operations: a) decollation, when the head is
severed from the trunk; b) detruncation, when
the chest or the back is ripped open. This
operation is applied when the child presents the
trunk at delivery; it is then cut into several
portions and thus extracted.

9. When none of these operations avails, the
physician resorts to evisceration, whereby the
abdomen, or the chest is opened, and the in
testines drawn out.

10. All these operations are forbidden as
murder; indirectly by the decree of the Holy
Office of May 21, 1884, and directly, by that of
Aug. 14, 1889, and by the Fifth Commandment
of God.

11. It is revolting to the sense of man to
think that a defenseless, helpless infant should
be treated, at the hands of science, like a piece
of raw beef, just because this much vaunted
science shirks the duty of performing the Ce-
sarean Section, an operation, perhaps requiring
a little more skill, but at least equally as effective
of the desired result, as these, and by far less
destructive of human life, whose care is com
mitted to the physician, be it nascent or matured.

12. Craniotomy, therefore, has lost all feat-

Embryotomy. 143

ures that would recommend it in the sight of
the Catholic, physician, parent, or adviser, and
we should pass it over now, had it not some
features that suggest a comparison with the
Cesarean Section and laparotomy.

For, first of all, the advocates and incorrigible
abettors of this inhuman cruelty to innocents,
endeavor to prove by statistics, that its ap
plication is less dangerous to the life of the
mother, than the application of the classic
Cesarean operation, or laparotomy.

Now, statistics can be made a very supple
material, and cannot prima facie influence the
correct deductions of science, whether natural
or religious (medical or theological).

Moreover, the statistics of a progressive art
or science must fetch up with the progress of
that art and science. It would be idle to base
a twentieth century conclusion on a nineteenth
century calendar of surgery.

And then, the elements of success and failure
alike must not be ignored, or wantonly set aside
to "make things tally."

A Cesarean operation may fail of complete
success, where craniotomy also would have
failed, more dismally than the former, had it
been applied. We say, "of complete success,"

144 Embryotomy. ,

because the Cesarean operation always saves
one life, and generally, two, whereas craniotomy
always and ever destroys one life, and jeopardizes
30% of the second.

Hence we would suggest — life for life — that
such statistics do not only relate the death-rate
of the mothers, but the full percentage of all
lives lost or saved. For in one successful
Cesarean operation we have two lives saved; in
an unsuccessful one (as the term is taken by
the profession), generally only one life lost
(that of the mother) ; in craniotomy, one life
is certainly lost — doomed by the very purpose
and method of the operation — ; and if the
operation is not successful in the sense of the
medical science, two lives are sacrificed. In
thirty successful Cesarean operations, sixty lives
are saved; in thirty unsuccessful ones, thirty
lives are saved. In thirty successful craniotomies,
thirty lives are given to Moloch; in thirty un
successful ones, sixty lives are lost.

The Cesarean operation is undertaken for the
safety of the child, with much discomfort but
little risk to the mother; craniotomy aims at
the safety of the mother, with equally as much
discomfort to her, and more risk, by means of
destroying the child. The former generally

Embryotomy. 145

saves tKe mother together witK tHe child; the
latter always kills the child to save the mother.

As to the relative danger of these operations
to the life of the mother, it must be said, that
ceteris paribus, the odds now stand decidedly
in favor of the Cesarean section. As to the
pain attending these operations, neither causes
as much as a difficult delivery, in view of the
skill and methods of modern surgeons. As to
the physiological consequences, craniotomy is
more apt to cause lasting injury than the
Cesarean section. As to the moral consequences,
craniotomy tends to loosen the moral com
plexion of mothers, and of society at large, by
legalizing murder ; whereas the Cesarean section
strengthens the conviction (or brings it), that
marriage has its own sufferings and hazards,
which must be borne with humility and patience,
instead of thrusting them on an innocent child
with a wave of the hand.

These conclusions are substantiated by the
following tables and arguments :

Dr. Olfers (Past. Med. pp. 20 — 21) gives
the following statistics,* after he voices his

* Dr. Olfers defends craniotomy very strenuously, although he
also considers it illicit, after the decree of May 21, 1884.

146 Embryotomy.

assent to the condemnatory decree in these
words :

"With this (decree of May 21, 1884), there
fore, the illicitness of craniotomy is decided, and
the Cesarean section substituted in such cases.
St. Alphonsus says, the mother must not prefer
death to the Cesarean operation in this case:
'In the case where the woman is robust and the
surgeon experienced, so that there is hope of
saving the child, she is held to suffer the incision.
And really the danger is most commonly con
sidered to be remote, because on account of the
greater skill of our surgeons, both mother and
child are often saved: but, on the contrary, if
the incision is omitted, women are placed in a
danger scarcely less, because the dead fetus can
not be dismembered in the womb without grave
danger to the mother's life/ "The last sen
tence," Dr. Olfers continues, "namely, that
craniotomy endangers the life of the mother
as much as the Cesarean operation, was indeed
formerly true, but is true no longer ; the danger
for the mother is very slight in view of the
present standing of surgery. In all the clinics,
and polyclinics of the Prussian state, 89 cranio-
tomies were performed in the year 1889 — 90.
Only four of the mothers, that is, 4,5%, died.

Embryotomy. 147

But of the twelve women who submitted to the
Cesarean incision, also four, hence, 33%, suc
cumbed to the attack. Let the casuists decide,
if this comparison must move the confessor, as
Gury, II. 141, has it, to avoid urging the mother
too much sub gram to consent, so that she may
not be exposed to the danger of committing a
mortal sin, if she persistently refuses.

"But in many cases this alternative may be
declined by the timely induction of artificial
premature delivery, that is, by the induction of
parturition at a time when the child is already
viable, but so small that it can still pass the
natural channels. Scanzoni points out in gen
eral the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy, i. e.
six and one half calendar months, as the earliest
period for this operation. In very urgent cases
this period may be anticipated, since it is a
matter of fact that also younger fetus, of five
months' gestation, have lived.*

"With what success for the preservation of
life this operation is applied, is shown by
statistics. In the same year (1889 — 90), of
which we have quoted the clinical figures for

* It is interesting and important to note that the beginning
of viability is dated back to the end of the fifth month with
greater assurance every day.

148 Embryotomy.

craniotomy and the Cesarean section, 42 parturi
tions were artificially induced. Of the mothers,
one died, and of the children, twelve. The
death-rate for the mothers, therefore, was 2,3%,
in premature birth, as against 4,5%, in cranio
tomy, and 33% in the Cesarean section. The
death-rate of the children, of course, is 100%
for craniotomy; in the Cesarean section it
was 41,6%, and in artificial premature birth,
27,3%.

"From these figures it is apparent, what
beneficial results might be obtained, if the clergy
man either in person, or through others, would
opportunely call the attention of young women
to the fact that it is all-important for them
to obtain certainty of these conditions, as
soon as they know they have become mothers.
There is no doubt that much anguish of mind,
much bodily pain would be spared the women,
weighed down, as they are, by the inevitable
difficulties* of the married state."

So far Dr. Olfers.

Now, on the basis of ethics, Dr. Olfers' list
of figures stands in need of correction. The
safety of the life of the child is as much the

* Pope Gregory IX says of the lot of women : ''Ante partum
onerosus, dolor osus in partu, post partum laboriosus"

Embryotomy. 149

object of the Fifth Commandment and the con
cern of the moralist, as the safety of the mother's
life. Hence, taking the positive results, or the
success, of the various operations which he
quotes, we find of

lives, saved, lost, % lost

in 89 craniotomies 178 85 93 52,4
" 12 Cesarean op. 24 20 4 16,66
" 42 prem. births 84 71 13 15,5

From these figures it is evident that the in
duction of the premature birth is the most
wholesome assistance rendered to mother and
child, and the least injurious to the rights of
the child. But this is in the nature both of the
operation and the conditions under which it is
applied. The conditions of craniotomy and
of the Cesarean section are far less favorable.
Craniotomy compares most unfavorably; not
because its conditions are more desperate, but
because it is the direct taking of the one life; it
should once for ever be discountenanced, as it
is by the most reputable obstetricians. It stands
convicted of inaptitude before the tribunal of
science as much as before that of morality. The
Cesarean operation must always take its place
when the artificial birth of the viable fetus can
not be produced.

150 Embryotomy.

The figures of more recent and more com
prehensive statistics add weight to this conclu
sion. We give here the figures quoted by P.
Eschbach of the year 1900 (op. cit. p. 343),
who refers to "Traite de Tart des accouchements
par Tarnier et Budin," Paris, 1901, tome IV,
p. 516, in favor of the Cesarean section:

Names

of Operators.

Operat.

Success.

Failures.

Drs.

Leopold

76

69

7

Reynold

22

22

O

Pasquali

9

8

I

Olshausen

29

27

2

Zweifel

76

75

I

Charles

10

10

O

Bar

14

13

I

Chroback

IO

9

I

Schauta

58

52

6

Braun

34

30

4

Gummert

8

8

0

346 323 23

Hence almost 94 per cent, of the operations
were successful, or, not quite 7 per centum
(6m/»*«) failed; which means that of 692 lives
in mortal peril, 669 were rescued by the
Cesarean section!

Embryotomy. I51

"It must be remembered, too, says Father
Eschbach (op. cit. p. 344), that the skill and
prudence of the experienced has reached such a
point that now they open the maternal womb
and safely extract the child with barely any
shedding of blood." — "It is absolutely true," the
learned Guermonprez* writes to us, "that thanks
to the progress of surgery these latter years, this
operation is rendered almost bloodless, i. e.,
without any effusion of blood."

What, then, is the duty of priest and physician
in the case when the mother is found in peril of
her life at delivery, and could be saved by the
application of the Cesarean incision, as also her
child, but insists upon craniotomy?

This mother can reasonably insist upon cranio
tomy only for one of these reasons: Either
she fears the inexperience of her medical atten
dant, or she dreads the loss of blood, or the
consequences of the narcosis, or, she has been
falsely persuaded by her husband, or others,
that craniotomy is the safer operation, and that
she may tuta conscientia demand it.

If she reasonably doubts the skill and ex
perience of the obstetrician, procure a better one,

* Professor Guermonprez to Father Eschbach.

152 'Embryotomy.

if there is time; if not, and sHe is tiona '
let her have her peace of conscience, and proceed
with the sacraments, as in the case of conscientia
erronea. And it is not easy to suppose a false
conscience in a woman so filled with mental
agony and physical pain as to be on the verge
of mental derangement. If fear is so violent
as to bear upon reason with uncontrollable
force, causing a mild state of temporary aber
ration of the mind, it certainly hinders the move
ments of the will and clouds the understanding
(St. Thomas, S. Theol. 1—2, 6, 6; and 9, 2.),
and an act committed in this state, is beyond
moral censure. This state may generally be
ascertained from the external condition of the
unfortunate mother. She is wild-eyed, restless,
trembles over the whole body, and asks for de
liverance from her pains with an intense and
pitiful anxiety.

But if any of the other reasons quoted above
obtain with her, and there is hope of convincing
her of the error of her position, as there surely,
is in many cases, let the confessor or the physician
adduce such reasons as will dispel her prejudice,
and then proceed with the sacraments, and the
Cesarean operation.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CESAREAN SECTION.

A PRACTICAL AND INTERESTING QUESTION.

A more interesting and more delicate question
is the following:

Must the confessor, contrary to the teaching
of older moralists, oblige the mother in conscience
to submit to the Cesarean section, when otherwise
she could not be saved from death, and her child
would die without baptism?

The opinion of the ancient moralists was based
on what ground medicine could furnish them at
the time. Before the advent of modern surgery,
the Cesarean section had to be considered an
extraordinary remedy, as a most serious and
dangerous operation. The danger of blood-
poisoning, fatal floodings and lacerations, etc.,
etc., were by no means excluded. But now, these
dangers are reduced to a scarcely calculable
minimum. The only serious danger that remains
under the hands of an experienced operator, re
sults from shock. But this, too, can be minimized
by the comforting words of either the spiritual
or the medical adviser, or often entirely prevented
by the application of ether or chloroform.

The decision of this case from the view-point
of the moralist, must, therefore, be based on
new grounds. The new position is aptly set

154 The Cesar can Section.

forth by Father Joseph Albert! (Pars Theol. Past.
Ed. II. Rome, 1898, pp. 60 ss.) :

"When the mother is unable to bring forth
the child, so that the Cesarean section must be
applied: I. I state that it is taken for granted
by all theologians, that nobody is obliged in
conscience to employ extraordinary means of
safety. But we know that the Cesarean section
is an extra-ordinary means; hence, per se a
woman is not obliged to submit to it in order
to save her life. Yet, because in these circum
stances the right to life of the mother comes in
collision with the right to the spiritual life of
the child, two suppositions are possible: if the
child can at all be baptized without the mother
undergoing the operation, she is not obliged to
submit to it; hence she may permit her own,
and her child's death; but if the child cannot
be baptized unless the operation be applied, we
must distinguish: if the operation will certainly
cause the death of the mother, she is never
obliged to go under the knife; if, however,
both the temporal safety of the mother and the
eternal salvation of the child can be secured with
equal probability, in a probable doubt of either,
the mother is obliged to give preference over
her temporal life to the spiritual life of her

The Cesar ean Section. 155

child, and must, therefore, suffer the operation
'(St. Thorn, p. 3. quaest. 68; — St. Alphonsus,
Op. Mor. I, VI. 106).

"Hence, as to the administration of the sacra
ments, it makes a difference whether she refuses
or not, when she is convinced that she is obliged
to undergo the operation: if she refuses, the
sacraments cannot be given, because it is plain
that she commits a grievous sin ; if she consents,
the sacraments of Penance, and Holy Eucharist
as viaticum, may be given, and also Extreme
Unction, if the operation threatens to be very
dangerous. — If the mother is in good faith
about the gravitiy of her obligation" (op. cit.
num. 54, III.), "we must distinguish: If we
foresee that the admonition will be fruitful, it
must be given; if not, then, according to the
common doctrine of the theologians, she must
be left in good faith, lest the sufferer fall from
a material into a formal sin."

"If the Cesarean operation cannot be per*
formed, no operation directly fatal to the
child, can be performed. — Nay, it is a crime
to place a cause, by which an immature fetus
is expelled from the maternal womb, although
it be expelled alive (S. C. S. O. May 28, 1884.
—Aug. 9, 1889.— Jul. 25, 1895).

1156 The Cesar can Section.

"But what is to be done when the mother is
dead or dying, and the child still unbaptized? —

"When the mother is dead, the pastor is
obliged to have the operation performed in order
to baptize the child if it can be presumed to be
still living. (Scav. IV. 297.)."

".When death is imminent, the pastor must

a) Persuade the relatives of the patient of
their grave obligation to allow the
Cesarean section for the sake of the
baptism of the child;

b) Call any surgeon or obstetrician of the
place, who should be ready to operate
as soon as the legal assurance of death
is procured;

c) Inform the civil authorities, so that the
visit of the board of health may be
made immediately after the demise for
the purpose of pronouncing the legal
assurance (with us, the attending physi
cian's testimony suffices) ;

if) After the death of the mother, her
mouth should be kept open by introduc-

The Cesar can Section.

ing a tube,* by which" pure air may be
conveyed into the womb, and the womb
should be kept warm by applying cloths
warmed at the fire ;

e) When surgeons and obstetricians refuse
to listen to him, and when the civil
official declines to act, let him seek to
coerce them by invoking the assistance
of the local police ;

f) If his appeals profit nothing (as will be
the case ordinarily with us), the pastor
himself must not undertake this very
difficult and grewsome operation; nor , /
must he commit it to the hands of in
experienced persons. But he must see

to it, according to the opinion of the
modern theologians, that baptism be
administered by means of some obste
trical instrument through the ordinary
channels." **

* P. Eschbach (op. cit. p. 359) calls this a vain undertaking,
"because", he says, "the child does not perish from the want
of respiration in the mother." He is certainly right. For the
lungs of the dead do not draw in or use the air at all events,
and the child in the womb cannot breathe through the tube in
the mouth of the mother. Respiration is a vital process, and
not merely the passing-in and out of the air.

** Alberti, op. cit. pp. 60-62.

158 The Cesar can Section.

The priest, therefore, is not obliged, either to
perform the operation in person, or to baptize
the child in the womb, since these actions are
universally held to be inconsistent with the
priestly character and decorum. (See Decree
of Feb. 15, 1760.)

'(Father Eschbach, also, treats this subject very
extensively, and in the same tenor, op. cit.
Disp. III.).

There is still another point of vital importance
involved in the consideration of the Cesarean
section, on which the views of physicians are
divided to the very extreme limits. It is this:

"How long can a child sustain life in the
womb of the dead mother?"

It stands to reason that various circumstances
must be reviewed in answering this question.
What reduces the chances of life in the unviable
fetus, does not enter at all into the life-conditions
of the mature child about to be born but for the
attending difficulties.

The unviable fetus, often (if not generally)'
dies before the fatality overwhelms the mother;
the viable child may be suffocated in the effort
to facilitate the delivery.

The Cesar can Section. I59

It is impossible to fix the limit of vitality for
the child in the womb, once that Death has
pitched his tent so near.

There are recorded many cases of children
rescued by the Cesarean section after the death
of the mother ; for example, St. Raymond Non-
natus was taken from the womb of his dead
mother three days after her death ; princess
Pauline of Schwartzenberg perished in 1810 in
a conflagration during the wedding festivities
of Napoleon I, and when her womb was opened
the next day, a living child was found ; on March
31, 1846, a woman who had been dead from
drowning four days, was found to bear a living
child (L'Univers, April 9, 1846).*

Cangiamila relates many cases of this kind,
some of them so extraordinary, that they hardly
merit credit.

Now, to be practical :

When the mother dies during the earlier period
of pregnancy, before the end of the third month
of gestation, great care must be exercised in the
operation, so that the tender fetus may not be
exposed to additional danger before it can be
baptized. Dr. Marx (Past. Med., p. 103), says:

* Confer Eschbach, op. cit. Disp. III.

160 The Cesar can Section.

"With the fruits of the earlier periods it is
always a case of mortis articulus, nay, in most
instances death has overtaken them before they
may be born. Hence I am of the opinion that
a fruit not older than five months thus expelled,
should be baptized only sub conditione. In the
expulsion of the fruit in the first months there
is, in the first place, a separation from its field
of nutrition, the wall of the womb. This results
first in hindering, and gradually also in stopping
the flow of the vital arterial blood from the
maternal blood vessels. Now, the organs of the
fetus and the tissue from which they grow, are
at this period developed so meagerly that there
can be no thought of life after the suspension of
this vital condition . . . . " Then Dr. Marx rejects
as erroneous the following opinion of Dr. Olfers
(Past. Med. p. 15, Olfers) : "In artificial abor
tion the fetus is not killed directly ; * but it
causes only the contractions of the womb, either
by medicines or mechanical means, so that the
fruit is nearly always expelled alive, unless it
died from some other reason."

It is true, these physicians speak of the con-

* This assertion, by the way, is the key to his position on
the case of the perforation of the amnios.

The Cesar can Section. 161

'dition of the fetus in connection with abortion
(and contradict each other!), and we, in con
nection with the Cesarean operation to be per
formed after the death of the mother: but the
Cesarean operation must face the same conditions
in the case of unviable fruits. What we wish
to learn from these men is, that a fetus is put
in a very precarious condition when it is inter
fered with at all in the early stage of pregnancy.

But it should be remarked here that Dr.
Olfers' views agree with those of Dr. Capellmann
on the condition of the expelled fetus, if the ex
pulsion takes place in the first three months:
"Here we must distinguish three periods. First,
the period up to the end of the third month, be
cause until then the ovum is almost always re
jected whole!' (Capellmann, Past. Med. p. 139.)

Stoehr-Kannamueller (Past. Med. pp. 451 —
452) makes this pertinent comment:

"According to the Roman Ritual the womb
of every pregnant woman must be opened after
death for the purpose of administering baptism
to the fruit. But practically the priest is rarely
in a position to demand the Cesarean section
before the fortieth day, or the physician, to
perform it; since probably in half these cases
a pregnancy cannot even be ascertained. And,

162 The Cesarean Section.

therefore, I do not consider it a question for tKe
serious discussion of physicians, whether, and
how long the ovum can live after the mother
died at an early stage of the pregnancy. In the
pastoral and medical practice generally only the
more advanced, nay, the most advanced stages
of pregnancy will be presented for assistance;
and the prospects of success will then be the
more favorable, the nearer the day of the
operation is brought to the normal end of the
pregnancy, the stronger the constitution of the
mother, and the less it is to be feared that the
ailment which took away the mother, also
threatened the life of the child/'

It would, therefore, seem reasonable to con
clude : i ) The children to be extracted after the
death of the mother are more likely to be found
alive than those that are extracted by violence
(before viability) from the womb of the dis
eased mother ; because in the case of the former,
the natural elements of the children's condition
are left untouched until the blood of the mother
has grown cold, or even, until it has begun to
decompose perceptibly.

2) Those cases in which the children have
been found alive after two or three days, are so
rare, if true at all, that Dr. Stoehr is probably

The Cesarean Section. 163

right in thinking that it is asking too much of
a man to believe them. (Past. Med. p. 453.)

3) The viable fetus may be extracted without
danger before it is baptized; and even if it
should show no signs of life, it must at once
be baptized conditionally, "si vivis."

Dr. Stoehr (op. cit. p. 371) relates a very
telling case of his own experience, where a newly
born infant, seemingly so much dead that the
midwives began to ridicule the labors of the
conscientious young physician who had been
working over the child for over half an hour,
was brought back to life, baptized, and lived
twenty hours, even after an interruption of the
attempts at revivification. Dr. Stoehr confesses,
too, that from that day he habitually worked
more persistently and much longer over newborn
children who gave no sign of life, than even
over adults apparently dead, and often with
splendid results after long-continued and ap
parently hopeless efforts.

3. If the Cesarean section must be per
formed post mortem matris in order to save an
unviable fetus for baptism, it should be borne
in mind that the secundina must be opened care
fully and slowly, in order to prevent a sudden
spilling of the amniotic water which would

1164 The 'Cesarean Section.

result in the death of the fetus. At th'e same
time it need not be feared that the contact with
the air will instantly kill the fetus (or embryo).
But in the case of a very diminutive embryo,
. of less then six weeks' gestation — (which will
rarely become the object of medical or pastoral
solicitude) — Debreyne suggests baptism by im
mersion of the ovum, i. e. of the fetus together
with the secundina, in the baptismal water.
Capellmann thinks this precaution unnecessary,
and would rather confer baptism by aspersion or
infusion, "since after six weeks," he says, "the
fetus is so large (17 — 25 mm.), that it can
easily enough be baptized by infusion" (op. cit.
p. 141).

It is well also to note that no time should be
lost, in such instances, in looking for signs of
life; but the proper mode of proceeding is to
baptize immediately on presentation of the fetus :
conditionally, indeed, "si vivis" if there is no
sign, or reasonable doubt of life; with the con
dition "si es capax," if baptism is to be conferred
by the immersion of the opened ovum. Of
course, whenever the existence of life is mani
fested by a movement or pulsation of the heart,
or, rather, what would develop as the heart,
baptism is conferred absolutely, if only the fetus

The Cesarean Section. (165

can undoubtedly be touched by the stream of
salvation.

Dr. Capellmann (op. cit. p. 140) gives an
advice that appears to be inconsistent with his
views of the physiological existence of the fetus :

"When the ovum," he says, "is carefully
opened, and the water is discharged slowly, i. e.,
not suddenly, the contact of the air will not kill
the fetus instantly, no matter how small it may
be. Too much time must not be lost in looking
for signs of life; but if the ovum is fresh (not
discolored or decomposed), and the fetus white
(not yellowish or brownish), baptism must be
administered immediately after the opening of
the ovum : "si es cafyax!'

Anent the placing of this condition "si es
capax" we would note that after Dr. Capell-
mann's description of the circumstances, the
fetus is freed from the water of the womb and
can undoubtedly be touched by the baptismal
water: why, then, this condition instead of "si
vivis"? For no other doubt can remain, except,
perhaps, a doubt of the presence of life.

Dr. Capellmann must admit either i ) that the
secimdina together with the amniotic water, con
stituting, as they do, in union with the early
embryo the totality of the conception, the ovum,

f66 The Cesarean Section.

may be considered part of the child, after all,
at that early stage when the existence of the
embryo in this connection is an indispensible
condition of its life. — But then, the good phy
sician should not have advocated the destruction
of this union in his case of the perforation of
the ovum.

Or 2) that there is danger that the baptismal
water may not, perhaps, touch the fetus
swimming in a remnant of the amniotic liquid:
and then he cannot consistently contradict
Debreyne, whom he quotes, as the advocate of
baptism by immersion of the entire opened ovum.
For, if the baptismal water cannot with absolute
certainty be poured on a fetus from six to
twelve weeks old, after the amniotic water has
been at least partly withdrawn, which Capell-
mann intimates by insisting on the condition
"si cap ax es" what difference can it make, if,
with equal uncertainty, one baptizes the same
fetus by immersion, when he must make the
same condition?

Moreover, in a note Dr. Capellmann re
commends baptism by immersion to the inexpe
rienced; and the baptism of very small fetus,
in the same manner, to anyone, indiscriminately.

We would explain Dr. Capellmann's contra-

The Cesarean Section. 167

diction in this manner: The older theologians
required of him who was to baptize a fetus that
could not safely be separated from the ovum, to
immerse the entire ovum with the condition:
"si es capax" ; then to open it carefully, and
upon rinding a fetus not evidently dead, to
repeat the sacrament conditionally: "si non es
baptizatus" and in doubt of life : "et vivis." *

Hence that condition, "si capax es" , has held
over from the time when both medicine and
theology considered the total ovum, child and
part of the child, and Dr. Capellmann copied it
unwittingly, contrary to his assumed position
on the physiological existence of the fetus. But
the proofs of this assumption, which medicine
has so far advanced, are not convincing enough
to remove a doubt so universal in the writings
of eminent theologians, and so grave by virtue
of the necessity of baptism ; for "in dubio tutius
est sequendum."

If, therefore, the physician succeeds in baring
the live fetus from the ovum, it must be baptized
absolutely ; if there is doubt of life, conditionally,
"si vivis"; but when the fetus can not safely be
separated from the water to warrant absolutely

* Konings, TheoL Moral, Num. 1260, 2.

The 'Cesar can Section.

the timely contact with the baptismal stream,
the ovum must be immersed after careful open
ing, and the condition applied: "si capax es."

Physiology has not yet advanced a final argu
ment in favor of the theory, "that the secundina
is at no time part of the fetus"; because the
secundina develops simultaneously with the
embryo from the fructified ovulum, as much as
the fruit of the cherry tree: stone, germ, flesh
and skin, develops from the blossom. The germ,
fully ripened, throws off its involucra; but it
does not throw them off at the early stage of
formation, because they are part and parcel of
the fruit like the nascent germ itself; and the
germ only gradually becomes the sole object of
the work and intention of nature: it remains
even after skin and flesh are decayed, after the
shells are split, and the filling has been consumed
in the process of a new generation, a self-
sustaining, viable germ.

We make the limitation : "at no time" because
it cannot be denied that at the moment when the
germ, human or otherwise, has attained a stage
of comparative maturity, when with special care
and assistance — (we are dealing with animal
life) — it may exist for itself, that which was at
first an indispensible condition of life and

The Cesar ean Section. 169

existence, now becomes mere wrappings for pro
tection. Science has not yet determined that
moment for the human germ.

The decidua, however, is never part of the
fetus, because it is formed from the membrane
of the womb, and thus belongs entirely to the
mother.

We conclude this treatise on craniotomy and
the Cesarean section with the warning of Stoehr-
Kannamueller (op. cit. p. 449) :

"One more point must be mentioned. If the
mother in labor refuses the application of the
Cesarean section, even after the gravity of the
moral obligation, wherever it exists, has been
earnestly set forth, then there is nothing left for
the physician to do, if the child is alive, than
to await the death of the mother in the name
of God, and save what may yet be saved by
laparotomy after death. His conscience forbids
him to offer any other assistance."

CHAPTER IX.

THE PORRO OPERATION.

1. This operation consists in the amputation
of the womb together with the ovaries, and ducts
or tubes. Its invention is ascribed to Edward
Porro, a professor of surgery at the university
of Pavia, who applied it for the first time in
the year 1876.

2. Physicians resort to this operation (i)
when the Cesarean section might result in the
death of the mother from hemorrhage; because,
they say, the Porro section is not accompanied
with such profuse bleeding; and (2) when
there is danger that in the next delivery (or
pregnancy) the mother must again face death.

This operation removes all the internal organs
of generation, they claim, and, therefore, makes
a future conception and the concomitant dangers
impossible; lastly (3), when for any other
reason, or for none, a woman declines the burden
of child birth.

The Porro Operation. 171

OBSERVATIONS.

3. a) The Porro operation involves a serious
mutilation of the human body. But this is
permissible only when the member to be ampu
tated threatens the safety of the whole body, and
other remedies are not available for a cure.
St. Thomas expresses this rule as follows:
"Membrum non est praescindendum propter
corporalem salutem totius, nisi quando aliter
toti subveniri non potest" (S. Theol. 2 — 2. 9,
65, a. i. 3.). We must not amputate a member
for the bodily welfare of the whole, except when
other means will not avail."

This is the universal doctrine of the theo
logians. When, therefore, conscientious physi
cians have come to the conclusion that the con
ditions of a case are such as will not permit the
success of the Cesarean section, they may safely
apply this method.

But we cannot help calling attention to the
words of Drs. Stoehr-Kannamueller and Guer-
monprez, to the effect, that the Cesarean section
can now be performed without much spilling of
blood. Hence it would seem but reasonable to
conclude, that the success of the Cesarean section
depends largely upon the experience and skill
of the operating surgeon, to the lack of which

172 The Porro Operation.

qualifications the moral principle quoted above
from St. Thomas does not apply.

(b) The Porro section renders illusory the
principal purpose of matrimony — or, rather, of
its use — the procreatio prolis.

It is evident that this effect is not, or need
not be, intended when this operation is under
taken as the last measure for saving the mother's
life ; therefore, it does not necessarily anJ per se
enter into the question of its licitness. But when
this effect is made the sole object of the operation,
so that the operation would not be undertaken
but for the sake of ensuring that effect, it is
sinful, no matter what other reasons may be
advanced in defense of it.

They urge as one reason, that "a woman
whose life is endangered by every pregnancy,
would be condemned to a life of forced con
tinence, which is unnatural; therefore, the oper
ation should be permitted." —

But may the same reason not also be ad
vanced to protect an emasculated husband, or a
eunuch ? —

It is indeed impossible at present to give a
theoretical decision on this question in so far
as it touches the matrimonial section of Canon
Law; for, i) many able and experienced phy-

The Porro Operation. 173

sicians deny that the removal of the ovaries
alone insures safety against the natural conse
quences of conjugal intercourse. The reason is,
that the amputation may not be so complete and
radical as to frustrate the constant attempt of
nature to rebuild and reconstruct, what was be
lieved to be extirpated.

2) The Holy Office has decided (Feb. 3,
1887), that the marriage of a certain woman,
who had undergone the excision of the ovaries,
was not to be prevented.

Still, we should not overlook the fact that this
decision, together with another one given July
30, 1890, in favor of the marriage of a certain
woman from whom both ovaries as well as the
womb had been excised, was rendered for parti
cular reasons which have not yet been disclosed,
and in private cases. Such decisions must not
be interpreted as covering all similar cases, unless
we disregard the rules of interpretation laid
down in Canon Law. On the contrary; the
universal teaching of the theologians pronounces
against the total absence of the essential organs
of generation, whether internal or external, as
against what is commonly accepted to be the
canonical impediment of impotency.

174 The Porro Operation.

Father Antonelli quotes Amort, among others,
on this head, as follows:

"Si sterilitas causata fuerit artificaliter per
potum seu venenum * sterilitatis, constituit ve-
rum impedimentum dirimens matrimonii titulo
impotentiae ; quia hoc venenum destruit seu cor-
rumpit ipsa organa generationis, nempe ipsarrr
matricem, ovaria, vel testiculos."

(De Mul. Exisae Impotentia, p. 45. 1903).

The Holy Office has certainly not overturned
the common doctrine. But it is not the scope
of this work to meddle with the two knights
now in the lists, battling for the prize in this
celebrated discussion, Fathers Eschbach and
Antonelli.

An abundance of valuable information and —
entertainment can be found in the works of
these two celebrated authors :

P. Eschbach, "Disput. Physiol. Theol.,"

J. Antonelli ( i ) "De Conceptu Impotentiae/*
(2) "Pro Conceptu Impotentiae/'
'(3) "De Mul. Excisae Impotentia."

So much is certain, however, that, in view of
the classic interpretation of the impediment of

* We cannot expect Amort to know of the Porro section,
but he speaks of effects identical with those of the total ex.
cision.

The "Crimen Nefandum." 175

impotency, the Porro section is a very dubious
expedient at best in "desperate cases," and that,
except in truly extreme cases, it cannot lawfully
be applied without violating the principle so con
cisely stated by the greatest Master in theology.
The classic operation in all very difficult cases
is the Cesarean; and for this reason it is
championed by all conscientious and skilful
physicians as the most moral, the least perilous,
and the most efficient remedy of a really des
perate case of parturition.

CHAPTER X.

CONJUGAL ONANISM.

The examination of this sore on the social
body should probably be comprised in the view
of this treatise; not as if it constituted one of
the perils of embryonic man, but rather, because
it is so widely substituted for the remedies of
those perils. But the matter looking so unclean
in English, and moral theology according it its
proper meed of consideration, we will content
ourselves with giving just a word of advice for
its pastoral handling.

i) The confessor who insists upon physio
logical deterrents against the crime, must be
ready to meet both the godless medical adviser
who counsels and instructs married people in
the perpetration of this crimen nefandum, and
also the parties interested, who will gainsay and
laugh to scorn his warnings and threats on the
ground of a robust constitution and the tardi
ness of outraged nature ip. meting out its ter
rible retribution. The confessor should insist
principally on the immorality of the act, threaten-

Conjugal 0 nanism. 177

\ng, like St. Paul, eternal damnation. If this
does not have the desired effect, treat them as
incorrigible consuetudinarii. . Leniency in such
fearful danger of mental blindness is misplaced.

2) Race suicide is menacing the existence of
nations and parts of nations now, and will not
be stemmed by gentleness. God did not send
Onan to a retreat, but smote him dead on the
spot. The ogling with conjugal cowardice*
is abetting an evil that contravenes the very
purposes of the creation of man, as man and
woman, and renders its abettor as guilty before
the Creator and Judge as the perpetrator.

3) The principal objection which the physi
cian raises against the veto of the moralist, is,
that in many instances where Onanism is prac
tised, a conception will break down the constitu
tion of the mother, so that the lives of mother
and child are jeopardized ; hence it is better, they
say, to allow the lesser damage and danger, than
to counsel the sacrifice of the unfortunate victim.

* Dr. Marx (Past, med., p. 122) says: "The shattering of
the marital life through Onanism is the principal source of the
disaffection of the men in France toward the church. In the
Compte-Rendu of the year 1884, it is expressely stated, that in
those departements, v. g. in the Bretagne, where such immorality
is not practiced, religious life is found in full bloom."

178 Conjugal 0 nanism.

The real reason, however, is, in most cases,
the dread of the doctor, of losing a patient, and
— money.

The physician knows, that immoral relations
between the sexes tax the nerve-power, and the
entire system indirectly, to a most lamentable
degree. If a woman is not in a condition to
comply with her conjugal duties, can she, then,
suffer with impunity those exactions of the flesh,
which rouse every fibre from the heart to the
finger-tips !

Whence these many wrecks, physical, mental
and moral, that litter the coast of the "higher"
classes? Whence these many unfortunates, who
are disgusted at everything noble and good?
Whence these thousands of unbelievers ? Whence
these puny, nervous children, boys, young girls,
young ladies ? There is no more abundant source
of infidelity — religious and matrimonial — than
the despair born of unbridled lust, and sired by
the terror of the future judgment.

4) But it may not be the general condition
of the wife that protests against her sacred
duties : the protest may come from some very
particular condition, as, extreme narrowness of
the pelvis, or any other organic disorder.

If the pathological condition forbids the natural

Conjugal 0 nanism. 179

exercise of the conjugal privilege, it forbids even
more sternly, whatever is unnatural.

If some organic (local) disorder is in the way,
then the physician must point out some decent
way out of the difficulty. Of these there are not
many. The old advice of abstinentia usque ad
tempus minus aptum quo conceptio fiat, has been
so much discredited of late, that neither a prudent
confessor, nor an alert physician will give it
unconditionally any longer. The induction of
premature birth in due season would remedy
many an evil case.

Qui autem monent ut conjuges cohabitent qui-
dem, sed copulam ante periculum effusionis ab-
rumpant, vel impossibile vel stultum quid suadent.
Inter modernos sane non panel ad hoc uti ad opus
bonum conjuges adhortantur, quod sit non solum
possibile, sed opus facile et gratum nimis. Quot
antem pollutiones vir patiatur, et quoties mulier
perperam agitetur, antequam operis expertl fue-
rint, sapienter tacent. Ast "non sunt facienda
mala ut eveniant bona," etiamsi opus istud per
se did posset non immoralef licet periculis ob-
noxium.

The only safe advice to be given in these cases
is the advice of the moralist, which will save
both the character of the physician, and the

180 Conjugal 0 nanism.

health of the parties under treatment : "And you,
employing all care, minister in your faith, virtue ;
and in virtue, knowledge; and in knowledge,
abstinence; and in abstinence, patience; and in
patience, godliness." (II. Petr. i, 5 — 6.) "Dearly
beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims,
to refrain yourselves from carnal desires which
war against the soul, having your conversation
good among the gentiles." (I Petr. 2, n — 12).
The salvation of the race is in the hands of the
Church of God; the physician, therefore, who
would wish to make his ministrations, especially
to the married, abundantly fruitful of good, must
join hands with the moralist — or be lost without
trace and track, without boon and blessing.
Louis Pasteur, a pious Christian, a Catholic, was
mindful of this truth throughout his career, and,
in consequence, has stamped his name on his
century. Joannes Mueller, the great teacher of
the great, conservative Virchow, and of many
other lights in science, owed his success as in
vestigator and teacher to his Catholic conser
vatism, a conservatism inculcated by the con
sciousness of the humiliating, but unshakable
truth, that "we know in part, and we prophesy
in part." (I. Cor. 13, 9). The same must be said
of the immortal Malpighi.

Conjugal Onanism. 181

The profession and practice of the Christian
Faith are not only not incompatible with, but in
dispensable in the profession and practice of
science and art, unless ephemeral success and
the applause of a debauching press and the rabble
alone are sought, or — the best efforts of the
genius of man are made subservient to the wor
ship of the meanest among the gods, filthy
Mammon.

1 82 Vasotomy (Vaseciomy).

CHAPTER XL

VASOTOMY (VASECTOMY).
A surgical operation which has lately attracted
widespread and serious attention, is Vasotomy.

Est levis quacdam operatio chirurgica qua vas
deferens amborum testiculorum aut ita pene
praeciditur aut saltern ita nlo constringitur, ut
potestas generandi e medio tollatur. Sperma
enim impeditur quominus in vesiculas seminales
ascended, et ita id quod relictum a quibusdam
semen dicitur, nihil reipsa est nisi liquor glandula
prostata generatus, qui solum semini ferendo in-
servit. Qua mutilatione facta, copula carnalis
pernci quidem potest, seminatio vero ad generan-
dum apt a minhne habetitr.

Vasotomy is advocated and applied for the pur
pose of rooting out criminals and degenerates
by stopping their propagation. Several States of
the Union have permitted Vasotomy by the favor
of their laws.

Quce operatio etiam pro levandis quibusdam
morbis adhibetur. Nam nimia abundantia turn
spermatis turn liquidi glandulis excreti morbos
corporis et animi quandoque excitat, quibus
medcri hand pot est nisi fons} qui in organis
inferioribus situm habet} praecludatur.

Vasotomy (Vasectomy). 183

Such a condition may easily reflect upon the
nerves and even upon the brain and cause misery
and suffering, and become the source of uncon
trollable, morbid and unnatural sexual impulses,
and a train of sin and crime.

It may not be out of the way to note here, that
the modern habit of releasing all the lower, the
animal impulses of human nature, in the name of
"free development," from the wholesome check
of reason and religion, has contributed not a
small item to the sum of human wretchedness,
and has also obscured the vision of well-meaning
and experienced philanthropists, both individually
and collectively. The great masters of the past
have recognized, described and judged with deep
and sympathetic understanding, both the power
and the weakness of the intellect and of the will
of man. They have made sufficient allowance
for differences of temperament and disposition in
the individual ; also for ignorance and habit ; they
have even in a large measure recognized our own
modern "incontrollable impulses" in the unpoetic
garb of the mot us primo-primi; but they have not
deflected from their unmodern habit of calling a
spade a spade. Whoever to-day is conversant
with the philosophy of the past will confess that
our modern psychology has not improved one

184 Vasotomy (Vasectomy).

whit on the psychology of the great School of
the Middle Ages. We have succeeded in confus
ing the notions of right and wrong, but we have
not advanced one step beyond the fence which
discriminates matter and spirit in man.

Our superior knowledge (if such it be forma-
liter) of the human organism, and especially of
the brain, and of the nerves and their intercon
nection and their multiplex functions, has only
served to confirm the results of the logical excur
sions of the philosophers of old into the twilight
region of the borderland between body and soul.

The ancient as well as the following genera
tions of philosophers laid great stress upon disci
pline, and self-discipline in particular, for regulat
ing and subduing elementary outbreaks, or "in-
controllable impulses" and "compulsory notions."
Many of them had had occasion to watch the
changes going on in men who were brought un
der the salutary influence of religion after they
had spent half their lives in the license of pagan
ism, and had observed that the antecedent "in-
controllable impulses" of titanic rage (the ber
serks) and of bestial lust slowly yielded to pain
fully acquired habits of self-restraint — of re
trenchment in the joys of living and thriving.

But if we seriously consider that the very word

Vasotomy (Vasectomy). 185

"training" with its implication of method and
mastery is in the ears of modern educators and
their ill-starred "material" a reproach, a curtail
ing of "liberty," synonymous with cruelty and
lordism, we need not rub our eyes in surprise at
the many excuses invented by ethical writers and
medical writers in order to gloss over the failure
of a false system.

The tree of knowledge is not the tree of life.
A boy in kilts would be ill at ease in the coat-
of-mail of the old hussars. The light and the
heat of the sun are not the only requisites for
the growth of vegetation ; there must be good soil
and good air, as well as seasonable rain besides
the kindly services of the sun.

We are neglecting the training of the man.
Many disorders, especially of those of sex, are
caused, not by ignorance, nor by knowledge, but
by untimely knowledge, precocity and curiosity.
They could have been avoided had the unfortu
nate victim been taught in time to chasten his
natural impulses, not only in things modest, but
also in things honest, humble, meek and lowly.
And then he would not have become the slave of
"compulsory notions" and "incontrollable im
pulses." The entire motor-mechanism of our
body may be thrown into disorder by vicious tarn-

i86 Vasotomy (Vasectomy).

pering — and the blame be laid at the door of a
diseased brain.

The larger number of the cases of nervous dis
ease leading to criminal acts and habits may be
traced to the following heads :

1. Bad stomachs, and consequent irritability;

2. Positive abuse of the imagination, and con
sequent restlessness and unsatisfied cravings; this
is the most prolific source of venery;

3. Lack of the habit of self-control, and conse
quent lack of restraint of desires and impulses.

Hence a better trained generation would be a
healthier and happier generation; and revealed
religion offers more true philosophy in a single
line of the Gospel than reason and science will
ever succeed in extracting from experiment and
speculation. Was it not as a remedy for the blind
ness of the intellect, and the weakness of the will,
and the rebellion of the flesh, that the Author of
man condescended to pour a ray of heavenly light
upon the earth ?

With this assertion we do not wish to dis
countenance research, examination and experi
ment; but we should like to discourage the mod
ern audacity of going into the darkness without
securing a lamp.

Yet conditions akin to insanity are met with in

Vasotomy (Vasectomy). 187

persons otherwise normal in their moral sense.
At instances of lapses in physical function, the
will seems to slip from the leash of reason, and
the patient commits an act wholly at variance
with his views and principles. The physician
ascribes this error to a physiological defect, a
lesion of the brain, or to the paralysis of a portion
of the cortex of the brain : which must be granted
to be a correct diagnosis, if the patient fails and
falls only and exclusively in a certain line of
thought or action ; because then it cannot reason
ably be denied that the thought (idea) or act is
the result of a mechanical reflexion; as whatever
is mechanical, is bound to be of regular and uni
form occurrence. But if the patient manifests
viciousness also in other directions, or is capable
of diversifying his conceptions and consequent
actions, not only according to objects, but also ac
cording to categories of objects, then the seat of
his immoral activity is in the mind rather than
in the body and its organs, because then his activ
ity is the result of conscious perception, which is
not seated in the cortex of the brain, but in the
intellect.

As a matter of fact the "compulsory notions"
and "incontrollable impulses" which commonly
are brought to our attention are nothing but

i88 Vasotomy (Vasectomy).

foibles which we pardon with a smile of compas
sion. Once a "compulsory notion" assumes the
proportions of a mania, as for example, the homi
cidal mania, we are confronted with a pronounc
edly diseased condition. And once an "incon-
trollable impulse" refuses to yield to all efforts
at repression, we are dealing with an object of
sympathy. These views are natural, universal,
and human. The incontrollable impulses of wom
en in pregnancy were recognized and protected by
law in the Middle Ages. Hence neither have we
reason to pride ourselves on our "superior"
knowledge of man, nor should we make bold to
impugn the canons of morality laid down by the
jurists and the moralists of the past. We have
not pushed our way one step further from the
classic exposition of the harmonious working
together of body and soul. If only those who so
strenuously labor, for the uplifting of our genera
tion would take the trouble to acquaint themselves
with the wealth and wisdom of the old and tried
philosophy, they would not try in vain, building
up new systems of prophylaxis on the rubbish
cast aside by the old builders.

Therefore, the attempt to remedy a moral evil
by a physical operation, such as Vasotomy, is a
radical, a too radical procedure. Only in cases

Vasotomy (Vasectomy). 189

where the diseased organa sexus are the cause of
pathological disorders — which may indeed pro
duce moral evils more or less culpable — should
we advocate the use of the scalpel instead of the
use of the birch. And in this light we must ex
amine the question whether Vasotomy is licit or
not.

WHAT IS THE MEDICAL STATUS?

Vasotomy is a slight operation. It is not
attended with the dangers, pains, difficulties and
consequences of major operations. It is not a
grave mutilation of the human body. It can be
executed by a skilful physician within a few min
utes. Its process of healing is smooth and even,
and insensible. Aside from the moral effects, the
injury done to the subject is insignificant.

Hence from the physical, physiological and
medical standpoint, Vasotomy presents no objec
tionable features.

Ciwn praeterea sanitatem corporis viri vaso-
tomiae subject* inspicimuSj vasotomia nullum ma-
lum corporis praesefert. Eundem namque ac cas-
tratio effectum sortitur, otnnimodam scilicet im-
potentiam generandi. Sed rempublicani ab hosti-
bus occuliis, id est, a viris ad crimen proclivis et
degeneris parvo censu liberat dum ipsos excises
multis malis exuit.

190 Vasotomy (Vascctomy).

Facultatem tandem tribuit voluptatibus omni
bus matrimonii ganderc, onera tamen, quorum
praecipua sunt generatio et educatio prolis, re-
movet.

WHAT IS THE MORAL STATUS?

The morality of Vasotomy is to be considered
from the viewpoint of both the natural and the
positive moral law. As a mutilation of the human
organism it falls both under the natural law,
which obliges man to safeguard his constitutional
integrity, and under the positive law of God as
expressed in the fifth commandment of the Deca
logue: "Thou shalt not kill," which manifestly
comprises all attempts at human life, whether di
rect or indirect. But as a mutilation, Vasotomy
may be dismissed from the tribunal of the moral
law, on account of its being a slight and insignifi
cant mutilation, which is not forbidden when a
reasonable cause demands it.

But as we must consider in every human act
not only its nature and process, but also, and
principally, its aim and effect, so we must examine
Vasotomy in the light of the intention of both
operator and subject, and in the light of the effect
it produces on the race. Man was bidden not only
to live, but also to increase and multiply. And to

Vasotomy (Vasectomy). 191

insure the growth and propagation of man, the
Supreme Legislator has formulated a special com
mandment alongside the one that protects human
life — the sixth commandment — in order to pro
tect the community against the tendency of self-
destruction by abuse.

Organa sexus hunc tantum finem natura sua
habent, genus humamim propagandi. Omnis
itaque qui els vcl abutitur vel damnum nocivum
infert, finem pervertlt et reum se facit criminis
in naturam. Utrum enim licitum sit annon haec
organa mutilare, non lege quidem humana, sed
eadem prorsus lege definiendmn est qua homo
conditur et jure et mrtute pallet simile sibi
gignendi. It is irrelevant to the morality of any
action contrary to the intentions of nature,
whether the legislators of one state or of a dozen
permit, command, or forbid such action. Divorce
has not been made moral by the license the civil
government has granted against the sanctity of
the marriage contract in the sight of its divine
Author. The morality of any action of man is
judged from its bearing towards or away from
the will of the Lord of man.

Homo non eo fine sexu indnitnr ut voluptatem
copula? carnalis capere possit. Econtra sicut cibo
et potui sumendo, ita etiam sexui exercendo,

192 Vasotomy (Fasectomy).

voluptas sensus superadditur qua et ea quae secus
oegre ferrentur, actui necessario snbjiciantur, et
appetitus fastidiosus ad validiorem impetum in-
citetur.

In the use of food and drink for the mainte
nance of life, God has given little latitude of dis
cretion; man must eat and drink in order to live
and thrive. But in the use of the generative
faculty, God has given man the fullest liberty of
reasonable choice; no man will take harm from
abstention in the matter of sexual delectation.

But as the right to life is a radical and funda
mental right in the individual, and the protection
of life so natural a duty that it asserts itself rather
in the form of an instinct, so also is the right to
generate a radical and fundamental right in the
individual, and the possession and protection of
the power of generation an inviolable privilege.

Human life may be taken ( i ) by public author
ity, as a punishment of crime; (2) by the indi
vidual, in defense of his own life or property, or
virtue. But human life may never be taken with
the definite aim of destroying life as the sole, or
principal end of the destruction; because human
life belongs to God, who does not allow human
authority to kill the evil-doer, except for the pur
pose of punishing him for his crime, and of most

Vasotomy (Vasectomy). 193

effectively protecting the community against his
wickedness.

Nor is it the intention of him who acts in self-
defense against an unjust aggressor, to kill an
enemy, but to rid himself of the imminent danger
of the unjust aggression.

Now, if public authority may exact the life
of the criminal as a punishment for his crime, may
the same public authority not also exact the in
tegrity of the body as a punishment for criminal
impulses, and as a preventive against the multipli
cation of criminals and degenerates ?

This is the crux of the question. Society has
an undisputed right to take defensive measures
against those whose actions and existence are a
standing menace to its own existence or welfare.
These measures may not only be repressive, but
destructive. Law and order demand a decisive
course. Therefore, may society not resort with
equal justice to the scalpel of the physician and
to the sword of the public executioner ?

Now let us draw in our net.

In the first place : The pleasure which attends
the acts of sustaining and propagating human life
is added to these acts only as an incidental. Its
purpose is to assist the proper faculties in placing

1 94 Vasotomy (Vasectomy).

their act with the necessary energy. Therefore,
the pleasure of the exercise of such faculties is
granted ad finem consequendum. Hence, where
there is no more proper purpose in the exercise of
any faculty, the seeking of the pleasure of such
exercise is a deflection from right reason and
from the order of nature.

But by Vasotomy generation is rendered im
possible. Leaving aside the much-disputed ques
tion of what constitutes the actus aptus ad gener-
andum relatively to the use of marital rights, it is
certain that the fluidum eiectum in copula
carnali by one who has undergone Vasotomy,
neque esse neque continere spermatozoa. Solus
enim finis hums operationis est> humor em copula
detractwn neutrum efhcere, praesecto vel con-
stricto ductu seminali. Now, although the posi
tive legislation regarding the impediment
of impotency in connection with the use of marital
intercourse may not be clear in its application to
individual cases, yet so much goes without con
tradiction: that Vasotomy separates the natural
appetitus et delectatio actus carnalis from its natr
ural finis, and therefore, is intrinsically wrong as
the means of subverting the designs of nature and
of the Creator. Vasotomy is immoral as an in*
strument against nature, in the same degree that

Vasotomy (Vasectomy). 195

Onanism and Masturbation are wrong as practices
against nature ; because the underlying principle is
the same : indulgence of the pleasures of the flesh
with a positive contravention of their purpose.
Hence, even if a particular married man, a sub
ject of Vasotomy, should be permitted, for one
reason or another, to exercise his conjugal privi
lege, yet this would not upset the contention that
he is injured in his natural integrity.

li qui asserunt virum sectum verum quidem
sed sterile semen ejicere, itaque inter steriles tan-
turn et non inter impotentes recensendum esse,
praeposterum quid asserunt. Nam quod organa
sect a vasotomia eiiciunt, semen non potcst esse
ullo mo do; sed est liquor tantum qui spermati col-
ligendo, conseruando et pervehendo inservit. A
grain of wheat from which the germ has been
removed, is no more useless for sowing than the
liquidum eicctum a viro mutilato ad generandam
prolem. The potestas coeundi which is not lost
by the operation does in no conceivable manner,
in this case, include the possibilitas generandi,
which is always included in mere sterility.

Hence it seems safe to conclude that Vasotomy
is immoral on the ground that it destroys the in
tegrity of the human constitution rendering it un
fit to co-ordinate the means and the direct end of

196 Vasotomy (Vasectomy).

the sexual act on the basis of the appetitus ulthni
finis.

In the second place: Vasotomy is resorted to
(a) as a means of relieving a pathological condi
tion produced by seminal disorders; (b) as a
means of sterilizing criminals and degenerates.

In the case of men suffering from disorders due
to derangement of the seminal organs, Vasotomy
may be applied without scrupling about its moral
ity, on the principle that part of the body may be
destroyed in order to save the whole; but in the
case of criminals and degenerates, with whom the
operation is to serve the sole purpose of render
ing them impotent, Vasotomy is immoral with
out doubt.

For first : If Vasotomy in these cases is applied
as a punishment, it is inadequate, and a perversion
of the end of justice, which also serves the moral
law. It is inadequate as a punishment (i) be
cause it inflicts no suffering of any kind, and a
punishment which is free from suffering, is not
felt as a punishment, i. e., neither acts as a de
terrent nor as a retribution; (2) because it does
not produce the desired protection against the
object of justice. The object of justice is the
criminal himself, and not his possible future
progeny. The descendents of criminals, even of

Vasotomy (Vascclomy). 197

habitual criminals, are not born with crime, but
at best with the mere disposition or tendency for
crime — which is true to a certain extent of us
all, fallen race that we are. If all those were to
be thus treated who are likely to transmit a dispo
sition for crime to their offspring, there would be
left very few men in certain classes of modern
society — for, let it be remembered, that adultery,
rape, avarice, and dishonesty are just as great
crimes before God, as drunkenness, murder and
theft.

But Vasotomy, in the second place, is also a
perversion of the end of justice.

The end of justice is, to assist in upholding the
moral law, i. e., in protecting and advancing the
morality of the community. Now morality does
not consist merely in a veneer and gloss of nice
manners, and in the twisting and turning of the
citizens according to the ordinances of the board
of aldermen, but in the integrity of the conscience
of men, both as individuals and as members of
society. Vasotomy neutralizes the external effect
of the carnal appetite. It leaves the stimulus car-
nis in full possession. Considering, then, that
criminals and degenerates are the subjects under
discussion, and that they are surely not greater ex
perts in mastering their passions than men of

198 Vasotomy (Vasectomy).

normal instincts, who can close his eyes to the
train of acts, thoughts and desires, etc., of lust
following on the heels of immunity from father
hood ! — No, Vasotomy as a punishment is a dire
failure.

In the third place: Vasotomy is applied as a
preventive for the propagation of criminals and
degenerates. The argument is this: Society is
empowered to protect itself against serious danger
and injury even by resorting to the axe of the
executioner; but by applying Vasotomy, society
seeks the same end; hence, society has the same
right. And as Vasotomy is a milder remedy
than execution, and serves the same purpose, so
ciety has even a better right to resort to Vaso
tomy, in so far as this means is more humane.

Solution : "Society (through public author
ity) is empowered to protect itself against danger
and injury" in the person of an unjust aggressor,
by meting out adequate punishment f granted ; but
society has no moral right either to mete out in
adequate punishment or to punish a criminal
whose crime is merely an internal act, although
his presence may be an affliction, according to the
axiom : De internis non iudicat praetor." The
first restriction applies in the cases of all criminals
subjected to Vasotomy, as we have seen above;

Vasotomy (Vasectomy). 199

and the second, to most degenerates. Public au
thority, guided for many hundred years by the
common sense of the race and the moral law of
Christianity, has succeeded in repressing crime by
various reasonable, seasonable, and natural means,
without resorting to a needless and degrading mu
tilation.

2. "But by applying Vasotomy, society seeks
the same end," i. e., the repression of danger and
injury.

This is not true. By punishing capital offenses
with death, or perpetual imprisonment, society
seeks (i) retribution; (2) the horror of crime in
the other members of society criminally inclined ;
(3) its own protection and the safety of its mem
bers.

But by the application of Vasotomy, society
does not seek the only retribution possible in the
case, that is, the privation of manhood as such ( i )
because the end and purpose of Vasotomy is to
sterilize the subject with a decided view towards
the multiplication of criminals as such, and not
merely as offspring; (2) because the criminal and
degenerate with their blunted moral sense, do
rather rejoice in than grieve over their loss of
manhood, which loss is to them rather an added
license. But even if society should seek this kind

2OO Vdsotomy (Vasectomy).

of retribution, yet Vasotomy would remain as
immoral an operation as before, because the crime,
the cause of the punishment, is supposed to be an
external act, which falls under the jurisdiction of
the external tribunal, whereas the punishment, an
invasion of the moral integrity of human nature,
is a violent aggression of the principal obligation
of society, "to increase and to multiply." — "Vol-
enti non fit iniuria"? In the violations of nature,
we cannot be volentes without being also partici
pants.

Furthermore: Society seeks "the horror of
crime, etc."

To this we may briefly answer: Society does
indeed seek to impress the community with a salu
tary fear of its punishment for the purpose of
checking lawlessness. But does the unmanning of
a criminal really act as a deterrent ? Upon whom ?
The defendant himself is put aside for the present,
as we know that criminals, for reasons of personal
comfort, have begged to be sterilized by
Vasotomy. — Upon whom then does this operation
reflect as a deterrent? Surely only upon those
who run the risk of being legally sterilized. But
they are the habituated criminals. Now, if no
other punishment has impressed them, will this, at
last, which is looked forward to as a comfort,

Vasotomy (Vasectomy). 201

check them in their wickedness? — Or are other
degenerates to be impressed ? Their very degen
eracy is proof against impressions which bring
nothing to them but visions of unbridled license in
the future. — Or is the law-abiding citizen to be
impressed with the fear of being deprived of his
manhood? Then he would have to feel within
himself the tendency (or degeneracy) for crim
inal habits — and, thank God! there are a few of
us left who try both to repress the inborn, and
to guard against the acquired tendency towards
crime.

Lastly, society seeks "its own protection, etc." —
True, society in handing over the criminal to the
executioner, lawfully seeks it own protection and
the safety of its members by taking his life. This
is in accordance with the practice of justice as
sanctioned by good sense, law and usage, and is at
least not contrary to the law of God. Here is a
degree of proportion between offense and expia
tion which is recognized by instinct. Can the
same cool comparison be made between crime and
Vasotomy ?

We should note from the beginning that there
exists a certain equality, among civilized nations,
between the crimes punishable by death and the
death penalty. In putting the murderer to death,

2O2 Vasotomy (Vasectomy).

life is asked for life ; in punishing rape with death,
we requite deathly insult with death. In dealing
capital punishment to the thief, the law looks over
the head of the individual subject injured, and
considers the nature of the offense, the tempta
tions it may bring to others, and the consequent
insecurity of property, and indirectly, also of life.
Hence we would not find fault to a great extent
with a government which would resuscitate the
old laws against burglars, highwaymen, kidnap
pers, and the like.

Is there also that degree of proportion to be
found in the application of Vasotomy which our
moral sense requires?

i . As a punishment, — we have seen this above,
— Vasotomy is a failure. As a corrective, it is en
tirely disproportionate. It deprives the criminal,
not of the power to commit crime — which must
be the object of the law — but it deprives him of
the power to generate. Where is the proportion ?

But, they say, "Society seeks to protect itself
not so much against the criminal, as against his
offspring."

Yet his offspring is a mere probability. And
if it were a certainty, it is non-existent now, and
it is not yet criminal. Where then does the law

Death and the Sacraments. 203

obtain a hold? Do we legislate for possible
citizens and for possible crimes ?

Could the wise men of the nation not put their
heads together, and devise some way of pouring
the oil and wine of Faith into the wounds of the
poor victim of the robbers (unbelief, ignorance,
neglect), rather than throw sand in his eyes, or
administer an anaesthetic, and make him believe
that he has been dealt with mercifully and chari
tably?

CHAPTER XII.

DEATH AND THE SACRAMENTS.

1. Where death is certain, there is no more
question of administ^ng the sacraments. The
homo viator, for whose salvation the sacraments
are given, has finished his course and has already
presented himself before the tribunal of the iustus
index. Prayer may avail for his comfort and re
lief, but the sacraments have no currency beyond
the grave.

2. Where death is doubtful, 'and the necessity
for receiving the sacraments exists, this necessity
:s so much the more emphatic, as both the time is
short and the disposition of the ordinary subject
most probably better now than at any other time
during life.

2O4 Death and the Sacraments.

3. Death is doubtiul in all cases for some time
after the appearance of the signs of death. In all
cases, death can prudently be supposed to be
doubtful for at least from five to thirty minutes
after the outward collapse of the habitation of life.
In cases of sudden death, as also in cases of as
phyxiation, drowning, death by lightning or me
chanical electric shock, no one may prudently hesi
tate to give the necessary sacraments (Baptism,
Absolution, Extreme Unction) within the space
of three hours after the accident, with the proper
conditions.

4. Of the exterior signs of death only one is
certain, general corruption. Local corruption, in
dicated by discolorations in the soft or pendent
regions, is not a sure sign of dissolution. The
rigor mortis is deceptive. It is often simulated by
certain diseases which are accompanied with vio
lent convulsions, by cholera, catalepsy, etc. And
besides, rigor mortis does not keep regular times
coming and going.

5. In diseases which often terminate in death,
not of themselves, but on account of a local col
lapse, as is often found in typhoid and pneumonia
cases, no one should hesitate, in case of need of
the sacraments, to minister to the patient within a
space of at least three hours after the appearance

Death and the Sacraments. 205

of death has set in. In some such cases, the
victims have been revived as late as from six to
nine hours after the "moment of death."

6. In all cases of the demise of baptized
adults, who have not previously been anointed,
Extreme Unction sub formula brevi et conditione
ffsi vivis (not "si es cap ax" or "si es dispo situs" )
should be administered. It has power to give the
grace of salvation under conditions which would
frustrate Absolution.

7. No fear of scandal need be entertained on
account of the irreverence towards the sacraments,
because Absolution may be given inaudibly,
and Extreme Unction, under the abbreviated
form, which a prudent priest can easily conceal if
he is afraid of scandalizing anyone. If then the
proper conditions are placed, there is neither in
ternal nor external irreverence. If, however, de
spite caution and prudence, there is danger of
giving scandal, let the priest briefly instruct the
spectators as to the nature and necessity of his
ministrations. Should the danger of scandal still
remain, then it does surely not arise from respect
of the Church, her ministrations and her minis
ters, and as the product of ill will, it may as well
be ignored. The same course may be, and should
be followed with regard to those who have passed

2o6 Death and the Sacraments.

away seemingly impenitent, or in excommunica
tion. They may now be disposed. Treat a dead
man as a living man as long as there is no cer
tainty of his death. This is safer than treating a
living man as dead. A prudent doubt in such
extreme need justifies the priest in discarding cere
mony and scruples, and in doing what God has
empowered him to do for the salvation of souls.

8. The internal signs of death are chiefly the
complete stop of pulsation, that is, of the heart
beat and of the circulation of the blood. But with
these the priest can have no concern, and the
physician knows the sphere of his work.

9. To allay the fears of those who dread being
buried alive, they may be reminded that many in
whom latent life continues after the appearance of
the signs of death for many hours, and who might
be revived, will eventually die without regaining
consciousness. Moreover the modern manner of
preparing the dead for burial is a pretty safe as
surance that the last spark of life — if any should
remain — will be extinguished before the body is
borne out to the cemetery. The opinions of the
medical world are divided almost equally as to
the number of those buried alive, one half claim
ing that the number is very large, and the other
half, that it is very small. As a matter of fact,

Death and the Sacraments. 207

it is terrible to think that even one human being
should be committed alive to the horrors of the
grave.

There is a tribe among the Slavic nations who
were in the habit of driving a stake through the
heart of their dead in order to insure their being
dead at the time of burial. But this custom was
forbidden by the Church, perhaps, because it was
directly aimed at the extinction of possibly latent
life — and that would confirm the new theory; —
possibly also, because it was connected with the
superstition of Vampirism (Vide Gorres, Mystic :
Hypophysic).

10. Yet, as the dreadful possibility of dying
in appearance only and of being hurried to the
grave alive exists, no precaution should be deemed
uselesss, or too difficult, to ward it off. No one
should proceed with the ordinary preparations for
burial on the mere death certificate of the attend
ing physician, written out in the doctor's office and
without inspection and examination of the
"corpse." The examination should be careful, re
spectful, tender — the "corpse" may be alive, ri
diculous as it may appear to those who have not
followed the work of most earnest and conscien
tious masters in medicine. At all events, no body
should be consigned to the grave before the only

208 Death and the Sacraments.

certain sign of death, dissolution, has manifestly
set in. The situation of a "dead man" with latent
life still in possession, is the most serious, and,
at the same time, the most helpless.

11. In cases of unforeseen and sudden deaths,
and deaths by accident, the work of reviving
should be begun immediately and should be per
sisted in for at least three to four hours. And if
then death is not absolutely certain, let the good
work go on under the direction of a competent
physician until the case is decided one way or the
other, and do not let it stop sooner.

During all this time the priest may profitably
assist with his spiritual ministrations, even at the
side of obdurate sinners, heretics, and the other
excommunicated. Nor should he fail to suggest
acts of faith, of contrition, of the love of God,
to his unfortunate brother, who may now still be
living, even if afterwards no results should come
of the zeal and energy of the good Samaritans.
The spark of life may be so small and weak that
it will flicker out without externally once more
manifesting its light. Under any circumstances,
no harm is done, and the great work of helping a
sinner into heaven may be accomplished.

12. A word remains to be said about the con
dition of the soul during the process of dying. In

Death and the Sacraments. 209

the "Dream of Gerontius" we have a beautiful,
philosophical presentation of the labor of the
newly delivered soul adjusting its faculties to the
impressions of the new world into which it has
just been ushered. Now, although we have no
absolute certainty that the soul will be then as one
slowly awakening from a disconcerting dream,
yet, considering that the soul is part of the human
person, of an earthly creature, it is not only pos
sible, but even quite probable, that the soul, when
awakening in the spirit world, will have to dis
entangle itself from the threads of the habit it
wore on earth. But then it is also probable that
the soul will recede slowly and step by step from
its earthly habitation: like the good-man of the
house leaving his dwelling for a long time. He
will draw in the shutters, close the windows, pull
down the blinds, and the house will wear the
aspect of desertion long before the last key is
turned at the vestibule door. It is this most
precious space of the tarrying of the soul which
may often be improved by the priest to tear a
sheep out of the jaws of the "roaring lion," and
restore it to the bosom of the Good Shepherd.

2io Instruction of the Young.

CHAPTER XIII.

INSTRUCTION OF THE YOUNG ON THE
SEX PROBLEM.

I. NATURE OF THE PROBLEM, AND HELP.

A question which not only touches the interests
of the physician, the educator, and the moralist,
but which directly involves the safety of the young
and the happiness of the home, is the question
whether the young should be introduced into the
atmosphere of the things of sex by their elders,
superiors, and teachers. The reason for this con
sideration is evident. The hustle and bustle of
our public life, the eagerness of our appetites, the
recklessness of our publishers, publicists and ar
tists, and the servility — if such is not too mild a
name — of the stage, and the idolatry practiced on
childhood — all these and many more evils con
spire to act on the present day community like a
whirlwind before the eyes of children — veils are
lifted from things that should have remained
hidden.

Yet the question is actual, and no amount of
weeping and deploring will make it less real,
pressing and actual ; we have no choice but to
take our stand towards the evil thing. Nor will

Instruction of the Young. 21 1

this question be solved by resorting to the removal
of its sources, which are so manifold, and reach
down so deep into modern life, that removing
them is become impossible. We cannot deflect th-;
raging torrent of twentieth century nervousnes.?
and materialism from its present course without
wasting and shattering both our energy and our
resources. The present bent of nations is towards
the earth and its teeming pleasures, and away
from an invisible Heaven and the ethereal way
that leads to it. We cannot change the objective
world ; but we can fortify the position of the sub
jects and train and drill them for the part they
must play in the world.

I. Children must needs be made acquainted in
time by prudent masters concerning things in the
knowledge of which others will not fail to teach
them before such teaching can be made profitable.
In every case where an innocent child is intro
duced into the uncongenial atmosphere of sexual
ity, injury cannot be avoided, whether the leader
and conductor be a wise mentor or a wicked
seducer. Of course, the effects in either case are
widely different. Whereas a child, learning of
these things from the wisdom of a parent or other
prudent instructor, will see its heaven of innocence
become overcast with darkling clouds, and will be

212 Instruction of the Young.

saddened by the untimely wisdom, and will be an
noyed in body and mind by the visions of shame
faced usefulness of its tender body, and will lose
its artlessness and serenity, but will gain a morbid
curiosity of inquiry and practice : the unfortunate

I victim of the shameless purveyor of the forbidden
knowledge will not alone sustain these injuries,

-but will also be goaded on to further stealthy in
quiry, to practice, to indulgence, and to early ruin.
2. The first ideal to fall in the sight of every

'child taught the knowledge of sex, is the rever
ence for its parents. The child is too young to
comprehend the provisions of the Creator for the
propagation of the human race; nor is it wise
enough to understand the sanctity of marital re
lations ; nor is it strong enough to distinguish be
tween the nasty relations of sex among those who
are a scandal to the public, and the sacred rela
tions of its own father and mother. In public,
only sinful relations are spoken of, and they are
made the object of censure, of execration, of
abomination, or of ridicule and scurrility:
who now will impress the child with a
favorable, with a respectful idea, of the same
relations — only hallowed by the contract or the
sacrament — existing in its very home? Is the
child ripe enough to recognize the difference?

Instruction of the Young. 213

Such knowledge was never intended to become the
companion of innocence.

3. The second ideal to crumble is the child's
own sacredness — the inviolability of childhood.
Every child is dominated by a distinct apprehen
sion of its own sacredness. This is the essence
of its innocence. But let the child know and feel
that there is slumbering within its flesh a well of,
knowledge and pleasure that has been kept a
secret out of respect or out of fear, and then
make haste to stem the tide of confusion and of
the resulting eagerness to learn and to compare —
and the angel is driven forth from his quiet abode.
The traitor within the gate has been aroused.
And if he refrains for a while from actual treason,
still the danger with its incessant strifes is ever
present, and the peace of the citadel of innocence
has fled. Such knowledge was never intended to
be the companion of innocence.

4. Another ideal to go the way of perdition
is the mutual respect between boys and girls.
The noble regard which well-bred children of
different sex bear towards each other is of a nat
ural seed. It forms the early barrier between the
sexes, a rosy hedge between them at work and
play, the safeguard placed by nature, the hand
maid of the Maker. Its charm is its secrecy. Chil-

214 Instruction of the Young.

dren do not realize what it is that makes the boy
kind and gentle towards the girl, and the girl re
served and firm towards the boy. And the longer
this blissful ignorance can be continued, the safer
is the path of the young.

5. Is it not a pity that the paradise of child
hood has been invaded by the marauder?

But as the invasion is a fact, sad though it be,
and as the danger of invasion threatens even our
most carefully guarded children, we must face
the fact and make the best of it.

What can be done? How can children be
rendered immune against the contagion in the
air?

First: What can be done?

As matters stand in our day, a form of educa
tion which ignores instruction on the problem of
propagation, in the case of children from 12 years
up, at least in larger communities, must be pro
nounced not only incomplete, but defective. But,
on the other hand, if religion is not made the basis
of these instructions, the result will be like the
opening of a gas tank with a torch. If even on
the hand of religion and piety these instructions
must proceed with the utmost caution and pru
dence, they cannot at all be attempted on merely
natural considerations. Nature does not suggest

Instruction of the Young. 215

the need of a check in all those appetites which
minister pleasure to the purposes of nature.
A child not checked in enjoying delicious food
will gorge itself, and return to the feast until sur
feit or sickness forbids further indulgence. And
among natural appetites, the carnal craving is the
most delusive and persistent. One of the princi
pal reasons for restraint will be the right under
standing of the need and end of pleasure in all
natural functions. But this accomplishment can
not be acquired from considering only the natural
purpose of bodily functions. These functions do
serve also a higher purpose. They are directed to
the ultimate end of man's existence. But of the
ultimate end of man, nature speaks only in whis
pers and at intervals. It is only a well instructed
conscience that unremittingly peers out through
haze and dark at the beacon light of the will of
God.

The first step, then, to be taken in training the
young to the habits of modesty and chastity under
our adverse conditions is, to train their heart, or,
to awaken their conscience. The child that learns
to fear and detest any kind of sin, cannot fail to
fear and to detest the lowest form of sin, lust,
from which it is naturally repelled by shame. But
lust must be designated as a sin. As merely "a

216 Instruction of the Young.

bad habit/' or, worse, "a youthful indiscretion,"
lust will have its fullest sway. If the various
occasions and manifestations of this sin are cau
tiously explained to the younger children, and
their unsullied ideals are strengthened by timely;
praise of the beauties of purity, and brightened by;
reading or hearing the life stories of the Virgin
of Virgins, of St. Agnes, St. Aloysius, etc., this
should suffice not only to guard them against
harm, but also to steel them against later opposi
tion and insinuation. Prayer also should be rec
ommended as a powerful aid to the preservation
of purity.

Second: How can children be rendered im*
mune against the contagion in the air?

In order to prepare the recruit in the warfare
against himself for battle without allowing him to
be dazzled and dazed beforehand with the be
witching appeals of the enemy, we must look to
the outposts and sentinels on the battleground.
But as the enemy has its most powerful ally posted
in the centre of our own camp, strict watchfulness
is required also at home.

Our leading question, then, is this:

How can the young be warned and prepared
without confronting them with the dangers re
sulting from familiarity with things that are likely;

Instruction of the Young. 217

to fire the blood long before the mind is sufficiently
matured to submit to the hot contest of the flesh
against the spirit? In other words: How can
the dangers of curiosity, untimely instruction and
observation, be warded off or counteracted with
out giving the young an opportunity to know the
end and purpose (or, even, the existence) of the
sex distinction, and thus despoiling them of their
beloved innocence?

The answer is this :

In the first place, the occasions of curiosity, of
information and observation, must be made im
possible as nearly as our present conditions of life
may permit.

The first and most wicked of these occasions is
the modern city dwelling for the poor and the
middle class, the tenement house, and the flat.

There is neither privacy nor secrecy in these
houses. Yet married life requires spells of privacy
and secrecy. Not infrequently children are un
wittingly made the witnesses of the maritale com-
mercium, or of doings which they suspect as
wrong and fearful of the light of day on account
of the stealth and enforced quiet surrounding
them. In this manner parents fall under the sus
picion of doing what they have often forbidden
their children as wrong and disgraceful. The re-

218 Instruction of the Young.

spect of the children is undermined, their sim
plicity in trusting the parents, and also the cate-
chist, is tainted with doubt, they become more
suspicious, and attentive to the gossip of their
elders, to jests and jokes and hints, which are al
together too free a practice among all classes of
our urban communities. The seed is sown, and
given the soil of our corrupt nature, it cannot but
thrive.

A feature whicii adds to the growing danger,
is the inability of the child to read and understand
his own mind. The experience is new and is not
suspected of being dangerous in the moral order
— or why should it have been gathered from the
conduct of the parents, etc.? So the child does
not disclose his doubts, or his fanciful rambles,
either to his parents — modesty, tattered though it
be, forbids it — nor to his confessor — because, for
sooth, it is not sinful !

Watchful parents discover in their children the
first signs of waning modesty in their tardy
obedience, their side-long, "knowing" looks, their
diffidence — yea, but watchful parents would not
in the first place furnish an occasion of scandal
to their children! The first indication of injury
done to the -mfortunate child is noticed by the
confessor generally in the first woeful lapse of the

Instruction of the Young. 219

youthful penitent. So much for the present about
the evil of the ordinary city dwelling.

The second and no less wicked occasion of curi
osity, instruction and observation, is the school.
In schools not fully pervaded with the spirit of
Christian decorum and the sweet odor of Chris
tian piety, it is simply a means of self-preservation
for the community to separate the sexes in differ
ent buildings situated so as not to communicate
with each other either by entrance or exit or even
by more distant access.

Up to within about the tenth year of age the
two sexes may perhaps be allowed to attend in the
same building, and in the same class room, if
necessity should urge such a course. But children
beyond ten years of age should be separated ac
cording to sex, unless, as we indicated above, an
atmosphere of piety can be maintained that would
act as a check upon both precocious curiosity and
observation. But, surely, to keep the two sexes
together in the close circle of the class room after
the pupils have reached the period about the thir
teenth year, is a sheer challenge to the gods to
keep them from contracting the mating fever and
from opening wide the doors to the dangers of
immodesty.

Is it necessary to point out the why's and where-

220 Instruction of the Young.

fore'sf Who but an imbecile can shut his
eyes to the changes in form, bearing and aspira
tions of the girls at that period? And who but
a disciple of blatant materialism can abet the nat
ural curiosity of the boy, and approve his unripe
speculations under the close and constant contact
of the class room with the mysteriously budding
maid? Let this suffice for modesty's sake; the
physician and the confessor are well aware that
much must remain unsaid on this subject. — And
fifty years ago, much, or most of what has been
said so far, would not need to be said on account
of the tender care with which children were
guarded in the bosom of the family. But in those
days there still was fostered a true family-spirit,
which, alas, is taking a hasty departure in our age.

In the third place, one might expect to find
the occasions of sin offered in the family circle
where growing boys and girls dwell most in-,
timately together. But, except in rare cases of
fiendish corruption, the family circle offers little
danger of this kind, if only the dictates of ordinary
decency are observed, because the illusive fra
grance of the strange blood is absent by a provi
dent arrangement of the Creator, the Author of
the family.

In the fourth place is to be found, however, the

Instruction of the Young. 221

danger with which the first manifestations of
puberty are attended, and of which we have al
ready above given a hint. Girls are generally for
tunate enough to find a prudent and sympathetic
adviser in a watchful mother. But boys, for many
reasons too well known to need recounting, either
seek no advice at all, or at the wrong address.
And even if the luckless young chap unbosoms
himself to anyone but a physician, he generally
meets with nothing but cautious consoling or over
strained warning. Everybody is afraid to ask him
a formal question which would show him the way
to a full acknowledgment of his error, the nature
of which he often does not understand, and hence,
he cannot tell. Everybody fears the boy might
be informed of things he does not and should not
know; but nobody is afraid to let him go away
with his racking doubts and his evil conscience,
for, let no one forget, what a power of allurement
there is in sin despite the remonstrance of con
science. And if conscience is left in doubt, so
much the more powerful grows the temptation.

Now, against the occupation of tenements and
flats, all warning is in vain as long as we are
bound to consider it cheap living to be herded to
gether like rabbits in their coop. Also the warn
ing against the common housing of both sexes in

222 Instruction of the Young.

the school and the class rooms will go unheeded
as long as so many contradictory interests are
united with the work of public education. And
so we will be obliged to do the best we may to
counterbalance, from another direction, the dan
gers arising from these two chief sources, and
meanwhile patiently bear with the malum serpens
that is eating away the vitals of civilized nations.
What, then, can we do to counteract the evil to
some degree?

In the first place, we must distinguish between
children and children. Some children are simply
innocent to such a degree that a suspicion of evil
in anything connected with the difference of sex
cannot arise in their minds : their hearts are pure.
They might witness without further harm, almost
any scene not downright brutal, look at any pic
torial representation of the nude, and walk away
with downcast eyes, their modesty undisturbed,
save for the uncomfortable feeling of having seen
something which they did not like, because they
have been trained to personal cleanliness from be
fore the dawn of their reason. To make children
of such angelic modesty acquainted with the pur
poses of the sex distinction, would be criminal, if
the instruction were given by persons in the posi
tion of teachers, catechists, or parents. If, on the

Instruction of the Young. 223

other hand, such instruction were given with evil
intent by their elders, it is not at all improbable
that they would fly to their parents with an indig
nant protest against the indignities inflicted on
them by bad playmates or schoolmates.

Such children are not isolated hot-house plants.
Barring hereditary oneration and corrupt influ
ences from without, every healthy child is by
nature more inclined to be modest than to be
otherwise.

But there are also children of that class which
is styled "precocious" ; and their numbers are actu
ally greater than those of the innocent and unsus
pecting.

Precocity is not of natural growth; it is gen
erated, or, rather perhaps, cultivated. The child
is idolized, and presented as a phenomenon to
every visitor in the family ; it is trained to memo
rize verses and to sing comic ditties, after the
fashion of the classic "Liza Grapemen, Liza
Blyme" (Lives of great men, lives sublime), long
before it has learnt to stand up straight, at a time
when the brain and sense of the infant should
never be imposed upon, and will bear no burden
without taking harm. Thus the child is inocu
lated with the venom of the lust to shine ; vanity
develops into pride, and pride will be careful to

224 Instruction of the Young.

produce in time its awful brood of self-will, dis
obedience, curiosity and fastidiousness. In the
place of loving attachment to its parents, a most
disagreeable selfishness will insinuate itself, and
will demand deference to its wishes in the face
of all opposition. Such children will, from sheer
aversion to authority, eagerly seize upon every
opportunity to assert their self-will in opposition
to the will and command of their superiors, and
will delight in busying themselves with evil things,
just because they know they are evil and forbid
den; and they will surely not shrink from those
things which they soon realize as the most strictly
forbidden.

Then there is another class of children who
manifest no decided bent either one way or an
other. They might appear to form the majority
of children, if we consider only the fact that child
hood is the earliest stage of development of both
mental and physical qualities, and that the forma
tive period does not seem to begin before the time
of puberty.

But it is a dreadful mistake, most commonly
made by uneducated, and also by conceited par
ents, to assume that the child needs only to be left
to itself in those early years of the softness and
sweetness of humanity, to develop all its natural

Instruction of the Young. 225

instincts in the proper way — which is the natural
way, in the opinion of the foolish.

Here two mistakes are to be noted. The first,
that the natural way is the proper way of develop
ing body and soul of the child; and the second,
that during early childhood the process of de
velopment is the only process going on in the
child.

Concerning the fruit, or result of the natural
development of mind and body, no one who knows
aught of the nature of man will maintain that
nature will produce a saint of its own accord. Yet
the beginning of a well ordered life is the begin
ning of the way of perfection, which is the way
of sanctity. Our natural trend is not towards
sanctity, for the simple reason that nature left to
itself tends in the direction of least resistance. But
in the moral world, in the world of character, the
direction of least resistance is not the direction of
purity of conscience. Therefore, the natural de
velopment of the child is not in the direction of
moral perfection.

Concerning the process of the natural develop
ment of mind and body, it must not be overlooked
that nowhere in nature does any form of develop
ment proceed without making and leaving behind
definite deposits of its results — its conquests, if

226 Instruction of the Young.

one will — as the substructure of later formations.
The stalk of the wheat is not discarded at the time
of bloom, else the maturing ear would hang in
the air. The entire growth of the plant was work
ing towards the formation of the ear from the
moment the seed began to quicken and to sprout
to the moment of the full maturity of the grain.
And we cannot well imagine growth to take place
under a different form in any living creature, be
cause growth is a life-process, and life, with all
its manifestations, is an undivided and indivisible
agency.

Hence, the period of formation cannot be sepa
rated from the period of development at any stage
of human life. This physiological truism has been
so well recognized also in the moral sphere of
human life, that professional educators of the
highest authority have not yet ceased to proclaim
the stern axiom that "what the moral bent of the
child is at the age of from six to nine years, that
it will remain in substance throughout life."
St. Augustin (Enchiridion), Bishop Sailer, Alban
Stolz, Vierthaler and Fuerstenberg, make no
secret of their convictions on this important point.

Therefore, from purely ethical considerations,
the large number of children who appear to be
neutral on the subject of character, are an anom-

Instruction of the Young. 227

aly. Every child manifests a decided bent of
character even before the dimmest dawn of rea
son. The more quiet and refined the child ap
pears, the deeper laid are the roots of its individ
uality. It is for the parents, and especially for
the mother, to watch and to study that living
shrine of mystery that is some day to disclose its
secrets in deeds which will determine its lot here
and hereafter.

What, then, is the reason that so many children
appear to be decidedly bent neither on good nor
on evil?

Let us not lose sight of the fact that such neu
trality is merely apparent ; it is a cloak, or a veil,
or a habit ; an assumed drowsiness ; a feigned lack
of interest ; it is everything but real and genuine.
The inherited cunning of the race is by far more
the property of childhood than of manhood. The
child is a stranger to all its surroundings, and is
helpless, and through its helplessness, is made
timid. It must resort to the only defense of the de
fenseless, the art of not provoking an attack from
the suspected or the known enemy. It is this cun
ning — artless, serene and perfect — which renders
the crooning, the stamping and kicking, the play
and prattle, of very young children so amusing to
the adults. It is there, without doubt ; inborn and

228 Instruction of the Young.

ingrained in every fibre of this new arrival in a
strange and hostile world.

Is it vicious? Is it the trace of sin left upon
the soul? No; it would rather seem to be the
last root in the heart, of the natural good humor
with which, we should think, our first father
viewed the beauty of the visible world in contrast
with the supernatural beauty which he had a right
to know, and for which he bore triumphant long
ing in a heart adorned with the grace of the
Almighty.

Hence, in order to understand the character of
a child, one must lift that veil of cunning. The
best place to watch and study a child, is the nur
sery. But as nurseries, or even as little as especial
care of nursing, are not to be found among our
poor and middle classes, another expedient is to be
provided for obtaining the proper insight into the
natural trend of the child's disposition. This ex
pedient is furnished a thousand times and more,
particularly with the neglected children of the
poor, on occasions of play, of taking food, of
showing affection and gratitude, or, the reverse.
The cross-grain is bound to appear here. The
child feels at ease; feels that it has a right to do
and say what is dictated by its fancy, because on
such occasions, the humors of the child have been

Instruction of the Young. 229

indulged from the beginning of its separate exist
ence, and the tendency of forming habits has
already asserted itself.

Here is the crucial point in education, or, rather,
in child-training. And it is here that neglect
dominates the minds and methods of parents.

The first mistake made at this point is in the
easy excuse that "it is only a child ; it has no un
derstanding," etc. ; and this excuse of foolish sym
pathy is carried forward to the years when the pet
and darling has not only acquired the use of his
understanding, but has also formed habits of dis
obedience, of pride and vanity, of cruelty, and
their tribe. And it is here that the child would
with equal ease and readiness acquire habits of
immodesty, were it not for the absence of the
stimulus. At all events, at that juncture the child
has already laid the foundation for selfwill and
self-indulgence: the soil is prepared; all that is
wanting for the growth of mischief, is the seed
of mischief — if the spoiled darling has not already
contracted the habit — of course, innocently — of
indulging in fingering and fondling, which would
be mortally sinful in adults.

The preparation of pure offspring is antecedent
even to this period. We mention this in order to
make it appear more credible when we maintain

230 Instruction of the Young.

that the most scrupulous watchfulness is impera
tive in the earliest period of development. —

How is the self-assertion of the darker element
of our nature to be met in the child ?

We do not advocate the indiscriminate use of
the rod. A child can be trained without being
cuffed and buffeted. But it is wrong without gain
saying that all children will take to correction
without re-enforcement of the correction.

As a most certain means of spoiling the child,
exuberant caressing and slavish tenderness must
absolutely be banished from the infant; and
much more, of course, from the child growing up
towards and into its teens.

In the second place, remonstrances of the child
against orders must under no circumstances be ac
cepted, and, if repeated, must never be allowed to
pass without the administration of a practical re
minder of the authority of the parents. Only let
that practical reminder be given with moderation,
and let it be accompanied with the impression that
punishment is not applied to satisfy the anger of
the parent, but to cure the child.

Thirdly: The usual insistence of the child in
having its will, must be crossed — not rudely, but
wisely — wherever it may appear. Teach the child

Instruction of the Young. 231

practically that it has no authority to command,
and it will learn more readily to obey.

Fourth : The mistake of promising to the child
some small gift or favor on condition that it be
obedient, is criminal in its effect of fostering self-
will and disobedience.

Fifth : The frequent desire of children to lord
it over the younger or the less favored, must be
repressed, pruned, and eradicated. No elder broth
er has any authority whatever over his sisters or
over his younger brothers, except he be their
guardian in the place of the parents, no matter
what his accidental position may be in the family
— and excrescences of this nature must be per
emptorily retrenched.

Sixth: Pouting, stubbornness, etc., must not
be tolerated for an instant. Insubordination is a
marked sign of selfishness — if not of pride — and
must be dealt with accordingly.

We admit, this looks like militarism carried
into the nursery. But even if it were militarism,
it would not be misplaced where it is necessary^ for
fighting against so insidious an enemy as the early
outcroppings of the faults of a fallen creature,
which is to be assisted both by nature and by art
to rise from its fall. "Gratia subaudit naturam."

232 Instruction of the Young.

The consolation is to be found in this that very-
stringent measures are necessary only in the curb
ing of passionate tempers — and there they are
indispensably necessary. But strict watchfulness
is necessary in every case until the tendencies of
character have been discerned, corrected, and
aligned with the requirements of the dignity of
man.

Where loving watchfulness is wanting, there
can be no thought of reasonable training, and the
unfortunate candidate for citizenship, both in the
earthly and in the heavenly kingdom, is left to
himself to hatch out the unsightly brood of sin
and shame that spell disgrace and ruin here, and
probably also, hereafter.

The feature of which no educator (parent or
teacher) may ever lose sight is, to be systematic
and consistent in his treatment. There must be
method; the method of motherly prudence and
solicitude, and of fatherly firmness, united in one
single viewpoint, that of procuring the salvation
of the child for this earthly life and for the life
of grace. Any other viewpoint is wrong, because
incapable of allowing us an unerring look at faults
without despair, and at virtues, without softness.

The want of system and consistency in their
training is at the bottom of the conscious cunning

Instruction of the Young. 233

of children after the awakening of the reason
ing faculty. Children pampered to-day, and ham
pered to-morrow, become insecure, and, in conse
quence, insincere. They are afraid to display
their good traits for want of appreciation;
and they are careful to conceal the workings
of their evil traits for fear of punish
ment. The stress of their exuberant young
life naturally inclines them towards the evil,
the easier tendency, which thrives as in an in
cubator under the hypocrisy of turning an
indifferent manner to the observer. And the
saddest of all consequences is, as impurity seeks
darkness, that such children will seek what is
hidden and novel, and conceal the disease, once
that they have tasted the deathly cup.

To instruct such children on sexual matters,
is only pouring oil on the flame, if the instruction
is given in guarded terms, because the child prides
itself in knowing more than the instructor can risk
to tell; and both the reverence for modesty and
the respect for the instructor have suffered a new
and staggering blow. In such cases, the con
fessor is the only safe instructor and guide. The
declaration of the young sinner offers him the op
portunity of serious inquiry along the lines of his
confession of guilt, and of serious warning against

234 Instruction of the Young.

the physical and moral evils resulting from carnal
indulgence.

Indeed, the natural instructors of such children
are the parents, the mother for the girls, and the
father for the boys. But for reasons stated above,
the parent is the last one who will be made the
confidant of the erring child.

Once that it is known that a child is consciously
entangled in the net of impurity, sweet and suave
methods of instruction are out of the question. It
would be the same as fostering a fracture with
the application of poultices without setting the
broken bones. Healing may ensue, but the result
is a crippled and useless limb. The principal part
in the treatment of a fractured limb is the setting.
So also in taking in hand a child in whom concu
piscence of the flesh has broken down the natural
barriers of purity — delicacy and modesty — the
barriers must be re-erected ; a pity it is that they
can not be rebuilt of the same material. The in
structor will reach out after that bridle and check
which had never before been laid on the unfortu
nate child, its conscience, its personal honor, its
dread of disgrace. The threat of physical ills
will generally fall flat. The child has no experi
ence of these ills, and may suspect the zeal of its
mentor. Without an awakening of the sense of

Instruction of the Young. 235

responsibility to God for the abuse of the body
— the gift and property of God — little prospect
of success may be entertained. It is for this rea
son chiefly that the pest of impurity has spread
over so large an area among the young who are
left to grow up without religious teaching.

Is it necessary to inform such unfortunates
about the natural purpose of the sexual faculty?

No ; emphatically, no ! Not only not necessary,
but not even excusable! Let it be noted that we
are speaking of those who are consciously, know
ingly, wickedly, impure. No amount of additional
information will tend to decrease the desire for
the forbidden pleasures. If the remedies offered
by religion cannot be applied, the unfortunate
young sinner generally learns the cruel lesson of
punishment from the ruin of his whole life.

II. FUTILE REMEDIES.

It has also been suggested, and is the practice
in certain circles, in England, at least, to allow
boys and girls free social intercourse together at
an age when their attachments are supposed to
be nothing more than Platonic love. But neither
the theory itself, nor the results justify such a
blindfolded suggestion. For, as far as the theory

236 Instruction of the Young.

is concerned, let us consider that a wound indeed
may heal under plasters, salves, and oil ; but such
fostering would enhance the malignity of a can
cer : and concupiscence is not an ordinary wound,
but a cancer, which needs the electric needle and
the scalpel of retrenchment much more than court
plasters and soft and caressing breathing. And
as to the results, it may be proclaimed from the
housetops, without fear of contradiction, that they
are lamentable enough in furnishing abundant
grist for the divorce mills, and in sadly increas
ing the need for wet nurses and found
ling asylums. The practice of St. Aloysius, al
though heroic, in refraining from looking up into
the face of any woman, would be much more in
harmony with traditional Christian thought and
practice. The earliest separation of the sexes has
ever been considered the surest safeguard against
dangers to purity. This most powerful instinct
of sex is not killed by constant and blandishing
stimulation; it is not an inactive organ, but a
power dominating several connected spheres and
complexus of nerves.

As another measure of prevention, or precau
tion, the proposition has been made carefully to
select the food and to supervise the diet of adoles
cent children. Is there more value to be attached

Instruction of the Young. 237

to this than to the preceding "remedy"? Let us
see:

I. The food suggested as anaphrodisiac is of
such quality as to reduce the caloric virtue of the
process of digestion and nourishment ; but — what
ever food fails to supply the quantity of heat nec
essary for the normal process of life, tends (a) to
introduce into the system an unnecessary quantity
of waste, and (b) to inaugurate a retrogression.
Now both the labor of disposing of waste matter
and the labor of meeting the demands of the pro
cess of growth, especially in the young with whom
our dealings are at present, without the proper
supply of heat, from being one unified physio
logical process in good health and natural nutri
tion, becomes a pathological process, casting re
sponsibility for neglect upon the nerves. The
nerves in their turn take the most sensitive in
ternal organs into their sympathy, one after the
other, and infect them with their own suffering,
and the ultimate result of this restraint will be
nervous debilitation; in some cases, anemia; in
other cases, heightened sensibility and irritability
consequent upon nervous irritation, and the last
sufferings of these children will be worse than the
first. We know it for a medical fact, that with
those who are in the extreme state of waste and

238 Instruction of the Young.

irritation, the poor consumptives, the restlessness
of the stimulus carnis is rather aggravated than
soothed.

It would seem to be best, then, to follow a
rational mode of dieting, that is, the ordinary and
customary mode, of giving children such nourish
ment as is commonly supplied by the market — but
to let the young eat as often as they are hungry,
and not as much as they like at a time.

2. As a second objection to a specially selected
diet for children with the view of rendering them
immune from aphrodisia, let us offer the consid
eration that children so fed have no more reason
to suppress the desire for an increase of heat-
supplying food, than children more coarsely nour
ished, and as a consequence they will strive to
satisfy that desire by procuring for themselves
(a) either larger quantities of the food offered
than the digestion can dispose of, or (b) substi
tutes, such as candy, cake, and sweets of all kinds,
for which the pestilential "candy penny" is al
ways ready. And as a fact we observe it on all
hands that daintily or poorly fed children make
up for the deficiency of their food by disposing of
such substitutes in formidable quantities, with or
without consent and connivance of their parents,
contract the candy habit, lose their appetite, be-

Instruction of the Young. 239

come dyspeptics, improverish their blood, and, at
the time of puberty, develop all manner of ail
ments, complaints and disorders, of which it is
at least doubtful, that they foster the spirit of
purity, and retard the incursions of the sexual
instinct, and discourage the blandishments of
aphrodisia.

It is reasonable, therefore, to expect that no
one tampers with the established method of feed
ing children wholesome and nourishing food sev
eral times a day, especially with the object in view,
of not tempting them to be immoderate; for im
moderation in eating is the highway of immodesty
for young and old.

Hence neither social liberty (without super
vision of the most exacting kind) nor selection of
food deserves much and serious consideration in
the question of forearming the young against the
novel dangers of adolescence.

What, then, can be suggested? Prayer?
Prayer is a common remedy in the hands of Cath
olic educators, and it is rightfully held to be the
most powerful antidote for all dangers and temp
tations. But where is the rector animarum who
has not had poor unfortunate youths in his care
who sobbingly confessed that they prayed while
they sinned, and sinned while they prayed? who

240 Instruction of the Young.

despite prayer and sacraments persisted in evil,
even criminal habits, for months and for years?
Their case is the crux confessariorum.

Why is prayer ineffective in so many cases?
The safest answer may be : because children gen
erally practice only oral prayer. Oral prayer also,
if only said with the proper intention, is a means
of grace ; but is it a means of such extraordinary
grace as is required in the heated contest with the
most alluring and most cunning of all passions?
We are very much inclined to say nay, remember
ing the solemn warning of our Savior : "Qui pot-
est caper e, capiat," and the teaching of the Church,
that without a special grace, none will long be
master of this elementary impulse. If indeed our
children, especially also those of the public schools,
could be so deeply imbued with the spirit of the
Christian religion, that on the one hand they could
conceive an invincible horror for everything evil
as an offense of God, and, on the other, with
that spirit of prayer which does more internal
clamoring of. the heart, of the will, than external
reciting, then, surely, prayer could be made the
armor of innocence for the young in their hottest
day.

Hence the spiritual training of the child may
not be neglected in education under pain of fail-

Instruction of the Young. 241

ure in the most delicate part and period of the
task of education.

As the sexual instinct in all its forms is prima
rily an infection of the blood, "an ounce of pre
vention is worth a pound of cure," even
in opposing the unlawful tendencies of
nature. The work of raising a dam against the
impending flood of impurity must begin far out
in the region of the gathering waters. Give us
a generation of God fearing parents, of responsible
teachers, of scrupulously zealous confessors, and
the purity of ten subsequent generations is as
sured. Meanwhile we must toil on amid prayer
and watching to save from blight and corruption
the little that is left, and arm ourselves for a
vigorous campaign against blasphemy and license
in the public press, on the stage and in the lecture
room thus retrenching the evil in the top while
we foster a healthy root in a meagre soil."

NOTE : — For fuller information see The Eccles
iastical Review, Apr. to Sept., 1911; Thomas J.
Gerrard, Marriage and Parenthood; Ferreres-
Geniesse, Der wirkliche Tod und dcr Scheintod;
Gemelli, "Non Mcechaberis;" Kapellmann-Berg-

242 Instruction of the Young.

matin, Pastoral-Medizin; ''Chapters in Christian
Doctrine" especially the chapters on Chastity,
Marriage } and Purity; Die Erziehung zur Keusch-
heit, v. Dr. Michael Gatterer, S. J., and Dr.
Franz Krus, S. J., and Dr. Foerste/s books on
the Education of Youth.

APPENDIX I.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PROBLEM OF HEREDITY.

I. Heredity as a Factor in Propagation.
II. Heredity as a Factor in Morality.

CAN THE SPECIES OF THINGS BE CHANGED BY
HEREDITY?

i. If we could accept without suspicion the
interpretation which modern biologists put upon
the results of their experiments and observations,
we would fain accept the theory, that heredity
is a potent factor in the production, not only
of new races, but also of new types or species
of things.

The result of biological experiment and ob
servation is this : Certain groups of plants and
animals, notably insects, differing widely from
each other in structure, at the same time, how
ever, bearing plain traces of intercommunicat
ing properties, would point to the necessity of
referring them all to one original form, which
has been modifying continuously in different di
rections, until this original form seems either to
have been lost, or, to have been confirmed in a

244 The Problem of Heredity.

certain type, while each of its descendants is tend
ing toward establishing a new type.

The interpretation is this:

The new structure acquired by the descendants
of the first type was developed in certain indi
viduals by accommodation to new surroundings,
by submission to new exactions, or by a tendency
inherent in the original type, to develop in
various directions, so that the life and habits
of the new forms barely resemble those of the
ancestral type.

On this theory biologists base the following
conclusion :

The process of descent or systematic evolu
tion is still going on, as it must in the beginning
have given rise to the various circles of living
things developing together from a fundamental
form, originally placed in the world by the
Creator (or produced by Nature, according to
the agnostics) as the parent- form of the various
classes of things limited to the larger character
istics of the respective form.

But — this theory is open to the following
doubt :

If there were originally such parent-forms or
parent-types, were they placed for the purpose of
ensuring their own constancy, or, of effecting

The Problem of Heredity. 245

the multiplication of things, not so much as to
number, as according to types or forms?

But, if the constancy of the original types
was the intention of the Creator (or Nature?),
specific changes, or the efformation of new types
would contravene the intention of God, (or the
determination of nature ad unuwi), which is im
possible, as the work is not above the maker ; if
the constancy of the original type was not in
tended by the Creator (read Nature as a parallel),
it must be said that He intended the mutation of
the species for some time only, namely, until those
species be developed, which he had intended, and
which now constitute the historic species.

But this would argue either against His power,
or against His wisdom : because in this case He
would consign His work to the whims of chance
— which is not.

There are now certainly such types as are
beyond mutation, as man, and all the types at
least of the mammals and the birds.

Or we would have to admit that the Creator
intended constancy only for some species, and
not for others.

But the reason of this could only be the neces
sity of such mutability for some according to
new conditions of existence.

246 The Problem of Heredity.

But neither would this reason hold: because
many species have perished instead of accom
modating themselves to new conditions forced
upon them; and again, others have survived
without undergoing known changes, because they
have found new conditions congenial.

Finally, the fact that living things are not
rigid automatons, but, rather, movable things,
as a living being is "a being that moves itself,"
which suffers inflection and bends itself accord
ing to instinct and appetite, or opportunity, is
sufficient to show that adaptability would serve
the purpose of such arrangement better and more
naturally than mutation toward a new type.

The eruptions of the earth in the tertiary
period were only local, and still entire classes
of prehistoric animals have become extinct — not
modified, but wiped out.

If, however, the Creator intended to ensure
the multiplication of living things according to
types or forms, and we admit that the type, form
or pattern of created things is an idea of the
Creator (or a representation of Him realized
ad extra, — as we must, if we recognize a Creator
at all) — we must admit also that, as often as a
type is completed, a new creative act is neces
sitated.

The Problem of Heredity. 247

Another difficulty arises from the consideration
that a movable form is a futile form, and, an
indetermined idea, rather a confusion, worthy not
even of the ingenuity of the human artist, not
to speak of the infinite wisdom of the Artifex om
nium rerum.

Besides, the idea of form-multiplication by
either descent or evolution, does violence to the
idea of an omnipotent Creator; and more still
to the idea of predetermined Nature, lacking that
which the Creator is without limit, Intelligence.
The better part of development would be left to
chance (except we demand a constant exercise
of the creative assistance) — and we know from
daily observations, that nature left to chance, or
interfered with by blind powers, begets not order,
but chaos; not ideals, but monsters.

Hence we should conclude, that it is more in
accord with the reverence for the wisdom of God
and our own experience of the order in nature,
to hold to the ancient and tried doctrine of the
Constancy of the species.

2. But yet the fact of heredity cannot be
denied. For although we may set our face
against the omnipotence of hereditary influences,
still, changes have been observed in the dispo
sition, habits, and structure of individuals and

24§ The Problem of Heredity.

groups, which undoubtedly belong to the original
species. Certain habits have become constant in
some individuals through continued necessity,
and are transmitted to the descendants as an in
heritance.*

There have also been observed, especially by
the celebrated entomologist Father Eric Was-
mann, S. J.,** such remarkable changes in struc
ture in the so-called guests of the ants, particul
arly in the genus Dinarda, as to sustain the con
clusions of biologists seemingly with no small
power.

He says, for example (p. 214, Mod. Biol. etc.) :
"The systematic law, which is found in the dis
tribution of Dinarda described above, is an
nounced in this way: The specific evolution of
the forms of Dinarda is found in a state of ad
vancement which differs according to the dif
ference of its geographical field of distribution.
The adaptation of Dinarda dentata to formica san-
guineaf and of D. Merkeli to formica rufa, is al-

* Comp. Dr. Bernard Altum: Der Vogel und sein Leben,
pp. 154, et al.

'* Comp. Die moderns Biologie und die Entivicklungstheorie,
pp. 202, ss. and Vergleichende Studien fiber das Scelenleben der
Ameisen.

The Problem of Heredity. 249

ready completed in central and northern Europe ;
not so the adaptation of Dinarda Hagensi to for
mica exsecta, and of Dinarda pygmaea to formica
fusco-rufibarbis. The latter especially appears
as an adaptation now only in the state of develop
ment, which is already completed in some coun
tries, in others, advanced only to the middle stage
of the evolutionary process, and, lastly, in others
not even, or scarcely begun."

3. Now, granting that the systematic evolu
tion, as described by the learned scientist, is a
fact, it does not prove that the different "classes"
of Dinarda, and other ant-guests, as Lomechusa,
Atemeles, and Xenodusa, which he mentions, are
now, or ever will be, new types or species.
Are they not rather variations of the original
Dinarda, etc.? And if now only variations (de
viations?) of the original types, will their evolu
tion terminate in the constancy of their respective
forms, and in specifically new types, differing
from the original types by a difference which
would make them strangers to each other and
to their ancestors ?

We do not by any means deny that the various
forms of these beetles are the same generically;
but we believe that they are the same also speci-

250 The Problem of Heredity.

fically, shaping their habits and their structure
after the course of their lives.

4. If this is not so, it would seem that the
definition of species has either been applied rather
loosely in the classification of the lower animals
and plants, or, must be changed. St. Thomas
(S. Theol. i — 2, 52, i,c.) describes species in
this manner:

"In order to show the truth of this, we must
consider that that after which a thing has its
species, must be fixed, stable, and, so to speak,
indivisible; because whatever belongs to that,
belongs to the species, but whatever recedes from
it, either in the way of augmentation or diminu
tion, belongs to another species, more perfect, or
less perfect. On this account the Philosopher
says in 8. Metaphys. (text. 10.), that the species
of things are like numbers, in which addition or
substraction alters the species. Hence, if a form,
or anything in it, or anything belonging to it,
has the character of the species, it follows that,
considered in itself, it must have a fixed char
acter, which can neither be increased nor dimin
ished. . . ..and hence there is neither intension nor
remission in any form which belongs substantially
to the subject: therefore, as far as substances
are concerned, we can not speak of more or less."

The Problem of Heredity.

("Ut igitur hums rei veritas manifest etur, con
sider andum est, quod illud, secundum quod sor-
titur aliquid speciem, oportet esse fixum, et stans,
et quasi indivisibile : quaecunque enim ad illud
attingunt, sub specie continentur: quaecunque
antem recedunt ab illo, vel in plus, vel in minus,
pertinent ad aliam speciem, vel perfectiorem, vel
imperfectiorem: unde Philos. dicit in 8. M eta-
physic, (tex. 10.), quod species rerum sunt sicut
numeri, in quibus additio, vel diminutio variat
speciem. Si igitur aliqua forma, vel quaecunque
res secundum seipsam, vel secundum aliquid sui
sortiatur rationem speciei, necesse est quod sec
undum se considerata habeat determinatam ratio
nem, quae neque in plus excedere, neque in minus

dencere possit et ideo omnis forma, quae

substantialiter participatur in subjecto, caret in-
tensione, et remissione: unde in genere substan-
tiae nihil dicitur secundum magis et minus.")

Hence according to the argumentation of St.
Thomas the species itself, which follows the sub
stance of a thing and the form, must be "fixed,
stable, and, as it were, indivisible." Nay, the
species must, (if this were possible), be fixed and
unchangeable in a higher degree even than sub
stance and form, because it is by its substance
and form that a thing is ranged in a certain

The Problem of Heredity.

order of things called the species, whereby sub
stance and form are made secondary or subsidiary
to the species, or the universal norm of that order
of things. Not as if the species were first in the
order of actual existence; but because it is first
in the mind of Him who arranged all created
things in certain circles in their order, each one
of which constitutes a species.

If then, the species of things are as unchange
able as their essences, it would seem to follow,
that new species cannot be developed from other
species, and the efformation of any new species
would require a new creative act.

To this assertion, the following objection may
be offered: A new creative act is required also
in the process of generation, since the new form
acquired in generation is neither developed, "be
cause the species is immutable," nor taken over
from the parental body, as it were, by inheritance.

The objection is answered thus: There is no
doubt that those forms which are complete sub
stances in themselves, and incomplete only in
reference to the compositum which they form in
union with another substance incomplete in itself,
require the omnipotence of the Creator: as in
man the soul is created in every instance of con
ception.

The Problem of Heredity. 253

But there is no reason why the forms of the
animals and the plants should be created at every
new generation, because the powers of nature as
given and directed by the Creator suffice for the
purposes of propagation in these beings.

If the powers of nature do not suffice for the
entire purpose of propagation in the animals and
the plants, this failure would have to be proved
by this, that either the forms of these creatures
constitute an order of beings as independent as
individuals, or that the laws of generation and
propagation were insufficient to direct the effort
of nature to the completion of the natural pro
cess of generation and propagation.

But, now, as to the first reason: The forms
of the animals and the plants are not independent
of the compositum, either in their existence or
in their actuation and activity: they are not in
dependent of the compositum in their existence,
because they are the tota ratio esse of the com
positum, so as to die with the compositum. They
are not independent of the compositum in their
actuation, because they cannot exist outside of
the compositum; in their activity, because they
have no activity except that which proceeds from
the union of the form and the matter in these
creatures.

254 The Problem of Heredity.

"Are the laws of generation and propagation
sufficient to ensure the completion of the process
of generation, that is, to reproduce from the
parents, individuals of the same order as the
parents, and not, perhaps, only to prepare and
furnish the material, or chemical and mechanical
part? — We answer: i) The process of genera
tion and propagation is a vital process, i. e., it
takes its rise in life, is conducted on its course
by life, and terminates in life: if it would not
of itself terminate in life, we would have to say
that the vital process was at a moment — for no
natural reason — interrupted, just so as to furnish
to an external agency an occasion of interference.
This cannot reasonably be assumed, as nature
tends infallibly toward its purpose. Hence, as
long as generation demands nothing of a higher
order than what belongs to life, i. e. vegetation
and sensation, we must credit the ordinary pro
cess of generation with the powers, not only of
beginning, but also of completing its operation.
But the completion of the natural process of gen
eration is the efformation of an individual secun-
dum spcciem.

Intellectual life .as exhibited in man, is of an
order transcending the requirements of animal
life, because it extends its scope beyond the limits

The Problem of Heredity. 255

of growth and sensation, and is capable of an
activity which is in no way necessary for the
propagation, continuation and enjoyment of
animal life.

Moreover, nature particularizes, and devotes
its attention to the individual, while intelligence
generalizes, and makes universalities its formal
object. Hence also, life as such, in order to
answer the purposes of nature, need not be
higher than the nature of things, and intellectual
life is of a specifically higher order than is re
quired by the definition of life : "vivit quod seip-
sum movet." Intellectual life, therefore, is an
independent life, exerting its power in the com-
positum with the participation, indeed, of the
material part ; but, endowed with the prerogative
over lower forms of life, of having its operation
and object in a sphere far removed from, and
foreign to the material part.

5. Second: The process of generation and
propagation is a formal process, and therefore,
not merely a process of preparation, or a partial
process.

The formality of this process consists in this,
that all the elements concurring in genera
tion, work harmoniously toward an end not to
be found in any single one of them, or in their

'256 The Problem of Heredity.

mere accretion, as in nucleo; toward an end,
and object, therefore, which when attained, is
not the product of the activity of the material
elements, but of the effective concurrence of
these elements, the reproduction of life secundum
speciem.

Now, this effective concurrence is established
either by chemical affinity in the mutable matter
— according to the materialists — or, by a factor
not of the matter. But the chemical affinity of
matter cannot be more potent than each single
element ; hence its power cannot be greater than
the power of matter. But as matter cannot pro
duce life, chemical affinity or chemical activity
in general can not be the cause of the process of
generation. And if another power must super
intend generation, it cannot be material in the
chemical or atomical sense.

Again: If the material elements working to
gether toward the term of the generation, were
left to themselves without any guidance and
direction, there would be no reason why any
termination should be reached at all. For, ma
terial things working without pattern, are not
determined by an object toward which their
activity is not disposed; now, the activity of
matter is not disposed toward bringing forth life :

^ • The Problem of Heredity. 2S7

hence the process of generation cannot be de
termined by the material elements alone. Matter
working without model and mould must be
moved from without : and thus it may move ad in-
definitum without a purpose except that of the
mover, or it will cease to move, the mover ceas
ing, whether any end have been attained or not.

Hence as there is a determinate end and object
in generation, and matter alone can neither es
tablish nor complete this process, we must admit
a factor which superintends generation in such
a manner as to guide it toward the pattern of
the original. This factor is called the substantial
form, and its operation makes the process of gen
eration a formal, i. e., a uniformly ordered and
harmoniously determined process tending toward
the reproduction of the idea of the original in
rerum natura.

But if the laws of generation and propagation
are sufficient to ensure the completion of the
natural process, it follows, that the induction of
the form in every newly generated individual
does not require a new creative act, as the sup
position of the mutability of the species in evolu
tion and systematic descent would require.

For the induction of the new form it is suf
ficient that the ultimate disposition for the form

The Problem of Heredity.

should be produced in the elements of generation
living by the form of the parents. The ultimate
disposition is not merely the preparation of the
material, but the tendency, or, rather, the inten
sion of the material, roused and sustained by life
according to the laws ordained by the Creator
to initiate and sustain the process of generation,
a phase of the life-process.

But one may ask : Is the form of the new
individual not taken over from the parents?

No. For, in the process of generation two
mechanical or material factors concur regularly,
the sperm-cell and the cell of the ovum. Which
of the two is the bearer of the parental form?
Or can the form resident in the one unite with
the other into one form identical with either of
the former two? This would require the ab
solute simplicity of the form, and exclude indi
viduality, either of which is a denial of materi
ality, and the latter, even of actuation.

Or, perhaps, the two germs in conjunction pro
duce the ultimate mechanical disposition for the
form, and then the new form is infused by either
of the parents, deriving from the parental form?

No: (a) There is no ultimate purely mechan
ical or material disposition as there is not even
an initiative mechanical or material process : the

The Problem of Heredity. 259

piv,o€ss of generation is a vital and formal pro
cess, the nature of which excludes a merely
material proceeding at any and every stage.

(b) In the event that the form could be de
rived from the parent-form, we would have to
admit that the parent-form could multiply itself
in exact similitude of itself, or, double itself; but
this would mean identity of existence in more
forms than one — which is absurd, as identity of
self in multiplied individuality is a contradiction
in terms as well as in nature.

Therefore, the parental, or original form, the
form of the species, must be reproduced by an
agency dominating even the parental form.

What is this agency?

It can only be, either the creative power of
God, or a power innate to, and connate with life ;
just as the power of growth (and sensation) is
innate to, and connate with life.

Now, the power of the Creator mu: ;.>c be
invoked, except when we find conditions in
nature which cannot be explained on the basis
of the laws of nature, and natural forces and
faculties.

But there is an explanation for the induction
of the forms of lower life, i. e., all life not in
tellectual, which is not only not opposed to the

260 The Problem of Heredity.

laws and powers of nature, but which, on the
contrary, is very apposite to the arrangement of
living nature upon the laws and powers of life.

Hence the agency which produces the new
form of the object of generation and propaga
tion, is a natural agency.

This agency must be sought in the company of
those agencies which sustain life, because in
plants and brutes the reproduction of life and
the activity of life belong to the same principles.
Now, the activity of life in non-intellectual beings
is life itself, or, life as it manifests itself in such
beings: as also the activity of fire is the fire's
burning. An object without growth and sensa
tion — the principal activities of lower life — is
also without life. Life, therefore, being com
municated to the new individual produced in
generation, produces the new form; as it also
brings the faculty of growing, and, in animals,
of sensation.

St. Thomas says (S. Theol. 2 — 2, i/p, i. i.):
"The proper form of everything making it
actually a being, is the principle of its proper
operation (activity) ; and thus life is said to
be the being of living things for this reason,
that living things act accordingly as they have
being by their form" ("Dicendum, quod propria

The Problem of Heredity.

forma uniuscuiusque faciens ipsum esse in actu,
est principium operationis propriae ipsius; et
ideo vivere dicitur esse viventium ex eo, quod
viventia per hoc quod habent esse per suam
formam, tali modo operantur") .

7. The most important factor for the solu
tion of the problem of heredity is the tension, or
tendency, with which nature, in the process of
generation, strains toward the ultimate disposi
tion of the elements of generation.

The fundamental elements of generation —
aside from the form which does not initiate it,
and, therefore, does not stand in any relation to
the parents — are the elements constituting the
body of the cell, namely, the chromosomes and
the protoplasm of the spermatic and the ovulary
cell.

These material factors, but more probably
the chromosomes alone, or principally, are the
vehicles of those particular habits and traits of
the parents which bear most strongly upon the
process of life; i. e., in proportion as a certain
trait prevails in the life of the parent, in that
proportion it prevails also in the activity or
functions of that life: now, generation is one
of the principal functions of life ; therefore, such
habits or traits must also prevail in the process

262 The Problem of Heredity.

of generation. But as the principal elements of
generation, the substratum, so to say, of the
whole process, is found to be the chromosomes
of the cells, it follows, that the prevalent traits
in the life of the parents are carried over by the
chromosomes into the terminus of the generative
process.

But if this is the case, as biologists virtually
agree it is, there is a new barrier erected to the
branching-out of the original type, and hence
also to the theory of evolution and descent; for,
theory it is; a theory with hardly anything to
rest on but suppositions and a loose conception of
the philosophical term species.

Thus the discoveries of the scientists, instead
of strengthening Darwinism and kindred excres
cences, make toward opposing them in formi
dable array. The typical character of the species
is made clearer proportionately to the clearness
of our understanding of the species in the laws
of its reproduction by generation.

These laws effect not only the preservation
of those things that belong to the substance of
the individual, but even those which belong
merely to the habits, dispositions and inclinations
— (instinct) — of the original representatives of
the species, fortifying the characteristics both by

The Problem of Heredity. 263

way of unvarying descent, and by acquisition or
inheritance of whatever is congenial to the ways
of the individual. Upon this truth rests the suc
cess of breeding stock-animals.

However, one might here object: "Once that
we grant the fact of inheritance of prevalent
properties and traits, we grant, too, the possibility
of the inheritance of confirmed properties. But
then there is no telling whither this possibility
will lead. For, a property, once firmly established
in a group of individuals may proceed on its own
account to modify, and thus to lead these groups
away farther and farther from the character of
the original species, and thereby to cause that
dreaded "plus vel minus," according to which
a substance is classed with a higher or a lower
species.

This would endanger, or even destroy, the
stability of the species, and point the way for
evolution, or systematic descent."

This objection may be answered by clearing
up the relation of "plus" and "minus" to the
substance.

It stands to reason that there can only be
question of the plus and minus of the substance
of things; for only what belongs to the sub
stance, constitutes the species. But substances

The Problem of Heredity.

r(in the metaphysical sense) do not admit plus or
minus actually, as they are perfect; but only
potentially: i. e., every substance, except that
which is perfect absolutely, may be conceived to
be capable of augmentation and diminution of
its specification.

Now, however, it is plain enough that the
substances of things are prior to the things
themselves, as they are the patterns, and the
ratio esse of things, hence, neither the object nor
the material of any process of nature. There
fore, the substance of a thing cannot be changed
by natural powers, and, consequently, neither
the species.

The changes which we notice within a certain
group or class of beings, result in a modification
of some original structure and habits, or instincts,
on the basis of the original model, whose funda
mental traces are so well preserved, that even by
them we readily refer the modified to the original
form; else we could not speak of a descent or
derivation from a common model-form at all.

As to the new structures' deviating from the
original, it cannot import such a modification of
the first type or types as would import a muta
tion of the species. The very term modification
is a protest against a substantial change.

The Problem of Heredity. 265

Hence, neither can heredity by any means be
come the cause of new species of things, nor can
any transmutation take place from natural causes,
that would justify the theory of the evolution or
descent of one species from another.

8. The effect of heredity is limited to the
merely material parts of living things, be they
rational or irrational, and is determined by the
trend and force of dispositions agitating the indi
viduals occupied with the process of propagation,
and transfusing themselves from the seat of life
to the agencies of generation.

In order to make these dispositions constantly
and continuously hereditary, it would be neces
sary that the new individual should cultivate them
by constant exercise, perfect them, and transmit
them to the next generation in this state of
cultivation and (relative) perfection. But, now,
we know from daily observation that in the brute
creation the difference in surroundings, and other
influences, often suppress inherited instincts, and
develop others more in conformity with the gen
eral character of the species. And what is ob
served today, has been the rule through the
historic ages, at least; as we cannot discover
a cause which should have turned the drift of
nature aside for a period long enough to warrant

266 The Problem of Heredity.

unusual mutations; or influences strong enough
to counteract the constant efforts of nature of
reestablishing the equilibrium of its forces, if
once it be accidentally disturbed. Natura de-
terminatur ad unum.

Hence we may safely conclude :

Heredity is a very problematical factor in pro
pagation.

II. HEREDITY AS A FACTOR IN MORAE-
ITY.

1. Can evil be inherited?

2. Does hereditary oneration necessarily affect
the voluntariumf

PRINCIPLES.

I. It can not prudently be denied, that the
act of generation, for the very intensity with
which passion furnishes it, is stamped with the
character of the parents in no small degree. By
"the character of the parents" we do not mean
here the general characteristics of fathers and
mothers, but, rather, the particular, transient
mood which prevails over and harnesses their
natures at the time of the conjugal embrace. For
nature acts as it is constituted. Now, the nature

The Problem of Heredity. 267

of man is so much subject to change, that man
becomes so often an agent different from his real
nature, as his sentiments and faculties suffer
by immutation. A man is said to be "beside
himself" under the lash of a furious passion.
But it is not anger alone that may carry the mind
of man beyond the rule of reason; lust often
wields a still more furious scourge. The entire
energy of man seems to flow into the act executed
under the influence of a violent mental or physical
commotion.

Hence it would not be prudent to maintain
that an act, which fetches its whole force from
the depths of the flesh, which "is heir to many
ills," does not carry mud. A bucket, sunk to the
depth of the well, brings up signs of the bottom.

2. But the partial communication, through
the elements of generation (sperma and ovulum),
of the general character of the parents must not
be entirely overlooked. True it is that the noblest
parents have raised scape-goats of children, and,
also, that the most pure-minded are sometimes
found to have descended from brutalized sires.
If it were easy to determine the force of that
curse which follows unto "the fourth generation,"
it would not be so difficult to find reasons for the
many anomalies in human descent.

268 The Problem of Heredity.

Still, too much importance is attached by
modern sociologists (outside of the Church) to
the fact of inherited oneration. These students
of the social evils are totally at sea as to the
principles that govern the moral conduct of man.
They consider man a brute that has exchanged
a lower intelligence for one only higher in degree
or grade; the difference in the nature of the
intellect of man and brute they neither acknowl
edge nor realize, because they do not study and
compare, without prejudice, the nature of the
acts of these intellects (as they call them). Con
sequently, they recognize no moral responsibility
in either man or beast. For them, man and beast
are animated automatons which work the better,
the more their component parts are filed and
polished. Why, the public press does not blush
to publish such foolish opinions, as that maintain
ing that the morality of a man depends upon the
purity of the cells composing his flesh and blood !*

* The N. Y. American, Aug. 6, 1905 : " "The State of Con
necticut is fortunate in having for its prison warden a man of
exceptional brain, heart and sympathy ; a man who thinks, feels
and acts in accordance with the most humane and practical
religious principles in his association with unfortunate humanity.
Not long ago this man said to a visitor : "Children who receive
the right mental training for the first ten years of life never
wear prison stripes in later years. All criminal instincts can
be eradicated by forming the right kind of brain cells for children
before they are ten." "

The Problem of Heredity. 269

With such opinions finding vogue among the
masses, we have done with all morality.

In man we must recognize, first of all, his
supernatural destiny. It is the key, and it alone,
to the understanding of man's mission and com
position.

The supernatural destiny of man involves the
necessity of supernatural means with which to
reach it. These supernatural means demand a
spiritual subject, that must know its end and
destiny, and must be free to comply with the
directions toward its end.

There is nothing in the earthly life of man
that would justify his existence on earth. He
is capable of joys and pleasures that the earth
cannot furnish. He hungers after happiness, and
is filled the least when he tries to still his hunger
with the pleasures of the senses — the only ones
the earth can supply. Nay, before he is filled,
he is surfeited, and turns away, either in disgust,
or in despair; and ere he has run the length of
his craving, his nature breaks down and his end
approaches prematurely: nature thus avenging
the insults perpetrated upon itself, and peremp
torily protesting against such a use of its facilities
as against an outrage. Nor is it true that the
most beautiful purpose of man is in the endeavor

270 The Problem of Heredity.

to make others happy. This stands in opposition
to the very core of man's earthly and purely
natural existence; for the first natural principle
of human life is that of ^^//-preservation. Hence
we find in reality only millionaires, and socialists,
advocating humanitarianism ; the ones, because
they have too much, the others, because they have
nothing, to give; the ones, because they covet
the applause of the foolish, the others, because
they seek the companionship of the wicked, or
the disgruntled.

The universal trend of paganism toward the
meanest egotism proves to the student of history,
that the leaning toward charity — if such it be —
in our age, is due to a spark of that fire which
Christ "came to cast upon the earth, and which
He wills, should be enkindled and burn."

The brotherhood of man was so loudly pro
claimed by the Son of Man, that the echo of His
teaching is still lingering even in the recesses of
the hearts that have long been turned away from
Him.

Man, as the lord of the earth, is an egotist.
But it is equally false to suggest, that the main
purpose of man's life on earth is the storing up
of knowledge and the practice of what the world
in general holds to be virtue.

The Problem of Heredity.

For, above all else, the acquisition of the
knowledge of those things which truly instruct
the intellect and make it rich, is neither easy nor
certain, as long as the object of such knowledge
is under dispute. Nor can the million run with
the few in this noble contest.

The only object worthy of man's intellect must
be that which illumines the particular objects of
the sciences. For without a common flush of
light over all things, the particular objects would
have to be known by themselves; and a man
knowing everything of one object, would be in
the dark as to all others.

Now, the relations between the various objects
of scientific knowledge is established by the uni
versal cause of all things. All, therefore, depends
upon this, for every scientist, not to make a mis
take in accepting the common cause.

If Nature is the common cause, speculation is
out of the question of all investigation; for
Nature is not intelligent, and the lack of intel
ligence forbids the assumption of purpose and
finality. But where we must prescind from pur
pose and finality, there is nothing left but un
fruitful observation.

Hence we notice in the results of modern
scientific investigation, which makes Nature the

The Problem of Heredity,

god of the universe, that each scientist has a little
system of his own, which fits his purpose and no
other. But such a system is a misfit, an anomaly.
For, if Nature is a whole, formaliter, therefore,
a unit — which it is by their assumption of it
being the common cause, all its parts, and each
particular one to the other, must be related on
a common basis.

Therefore, Nature cannot be the formal object
of human speculation and knowledge.

But God is. As the Creator, the Author of
the world, He is the only object worthy of the
attention of man.

But those who repose the principal purpose
of man in the acquisition of knowledge, do not
want to know God, lest they must also consider
Him the object of all virtue, which militates
against their conception of virtue.

Hence, in the current sense of the terms,
knowledge and virtue do not satisfy man's crav
ing for happiness. So man is still the egotist,
unless he rises above himself, and aims at an end,
that lies beyond this life, and is, therefore, super
natural.

But then we must permit man to have a soul
essentially distinct from the soul of the brute,
and endowed with such faculties as will enable

The Problem of Heredity. 273

it to make use of spiritual and supernatural
means toward the attainment of its supernatural
destiny.

Now, such a spiritual agency is totally inde
pendent from its very creation and nature, of the
influences of the flesh, which cannot dominate
it, except by its consent and voluntary submission.

Hence, hereditary oneration can affect the
will of man only as a cloud can affect the vision.
It may make it more difficult for a man to obey
the dictates of right reason and conscience; but
"the appetite must be beneath him/'

The correction of criminal habits can not be
effected, except by self control and self govern
ment, deriving its authority from the conscious
ness of accountibility to God. All other means,
suggested by maudlin sentimentality or wool-
mouthed philanthropy, have thus far proved in
sufficient or vain, and are perpetuating the neces
sity of the insane asylum and the penitentiary.
It is well for both the educator and the physician
to keep this truth clearly in mind in their contact
with mental, moral and physical depravity.

APPENDIX II.

DECREES.

i. Beatissime Pater;

Episcopus N. N. ad pedes V. S. provolutus,
quae sequuntur humiliter exponit:

Parochus N. N. in hac diocoesi iuxta Rit. Rom.
praescripta, iuxta etiam preces mulieris praeg-
nantis et graviter decumbentis, super hac muliere
iam certe mortua curavit ut operatio caesarea
fieret. Medicus absens erat, et operatio facta fuit
ab alia persona capaci. Puer vivus erat et fuit
baptizatus.

Propter hoc factum praefatus parochus fuit
accusatus, sed a iudicibus civilibus sine ulla con-
demnatione remissus. Postea autem et propter
idem factum dictus parochus a Gubernio stipen-
dio annuo fuit privatus.

Quaeritur ergo:

i) Parochus N. N. egitne recte curando ut
fieret operatio, medico deficiente, ab alia persona
capaci, morte quidem certa sed non legaliter re-
cognita ?

Decrees. 275

2) Parochus, vel alius sacerdos, debetne cu
rare ut in iisdem supradictis circumstantiis ope-
ratio de qua agitur fiat, etiam quando sequi debet
privatio annui stipendii ?

ET DEUS, etc.

FERIA QUART A, die 13 Decembris 1899.

"In Congregatione Generali S. R. et U. Inqui-
sitionis ab Emis, et Rmis, DD. Cardinalibus in
rebus fidei et morum Generalibus Inquisitoribus
habita, propositis suprascriptis precibus, praeha-
bitoque RR. DD. Consultorum voto, iidem Emi,
ac Rmi Patres respondendum mandarunt:

"DETUR DECRETUM S. OFFICII diei 15 Fe-
bruarii 1780 ad Vicarium Apost. Sutchuen."

"Sequent! vero Feria 4, die 15 eiusdem mensis
et anni, per facultates Emo ac Rmo Domno Car-
dinali S. Officii concessas, SSmus D. N. Leo
div. prov. Pp. XIII resolutionem Emorum ac
Rmorum Patrum approbavit."

I. Can. Mancini, S.R. et U. Inquist.

NOTARIUS.

2. DECRETUM 15 Feb. 1780, ad Vic. Aposc.
SUTCHUEN.

"Ubi de rebaptizandis parvulis Rituale Ro-
manum hoc praescribit, scilicet : "Si mater praeg-
nans mortua fuerit, foetus quam primum caute

276 Decrees.

extrahatur, hue usque inter christianos casus oc-
currit, sed regula praescripta nunquam observata
est neque unquam promulgata. Rationes sunt:
Summa repugnantia quam Senenses habent ad
eiusmodi sectionem, absoluta apud ipsos artis
anatomicae imperitia, gravissimum periculum
atroces calumnias contra religionem excitandi,
gravesque persecutiones sustinendi cum discri-
mine salutis et vitae saltern pro iis qui sectionem
tentare auderent, si factum ad notitiam gentilium
perveniret, quod admodum facile est. Causae
praedictae possuntne silentium excusare?"

"Resp. Etsi caute prudenterque agendum sit,
ne, cum paucos quaerimus, multos amittamus,
agendum esse tamen, et sectionis a Rituali prae-
scriptae notitia ingerenda, ne oblivisci videamur
eos, quos abundantiori charitate manifestum est
indigere. Erit proinde e missionariorum debito,
paullatim et opportune commonere Sutchuenses
de miserrima parvulorum perditione in uteris
matrum decedentium quibus opitulari nihilomus,
quoad humana possunt vires, postulat Christiana
charitas, postulat ecclesiastica sollicitudo. Neque
improbum videri debere Sutchuensibus ut ullis
fidelibus secare matrem mortuam, cum et Domi-
nicum latus dissectum sit pro nostra redemptione.
Illud potius rationi absonum atque ab omni pietate

Decrees. 277

remotum, pro inani integritate pudoreque ser-
vando defunctae genitrici, viventem natum aeter-
nae morti addicere.

Certe, non modestia, non virtus, unde tantum
profluit malum. Haec autem foetus extractio de
praegnantis defunctaeque alveo matris, quamvis
patefacienda, ut dicimus, ac persuadenda sit, ex-
presse tamen cavet, prohibetque Sanctitas Sua,
ne missionarii in casibus particularibus se inge-
rant in demandanda sectione, multoque minus in
ea peragenda. Sat proinde missionariis fuerit
illius notitiam edidisse curasseque, ut eius per-
ficiendae rationem perdiscant qui chirurgicis in-
tendunt, laici homines, turn vero, cum casus tule-
rit, eiusdem praxim ipsorum oneri ac muneri reli-
quisse."

3. DECRETUM DE CRANIOTOMIA.

Eminentissime et Reverendissime Domine.

Eminentissimi Patres mecum Inquisitores Ge-
nerales in Congregatione generali, habita feria
quarta, die 28 lanuarii labentis Maii, ad examen
revocarunt dubium ab Eminentia Tua propo-
situm :

An tuto doceri possit in scholis catholicis lici-
tam esse operationem chirurgicam quam cranio-
tomiam appellant, quando scilicet, ea ommissa,

278 Decrees.

mater et filius perituri sint, ea e contra admissa,
salvanda sit mater, infante pereunte? Ac omni
bus diu et mature perpensis, habita quoque ratione
eorum quae hac in re a peritis ac catholicis viris
conscripta ac ab Eminentia Tua huic Congrega
tion! transmissa sunt, respondendum esse duxe-
runt: Tuxo DOCERI NON POSSE.

Quam responsionem cum SSmus D. N. in au-
dientia eiusdem feriae ac diei plene confirmaverit,
Eminentiae Tuae communico.

Romae, 31 Maii, 1884.

R. CARD. MONACO/'

Now, lest someone be tempted to think that
this "tuto doceri non posse" precludes only the
propriety of teaching, instead of having the
force of a decisive prohibition of both practice
and teaching, we append what Cardinal Patrizzi,
in the name of the Holy Father, answered the
bishops of Belgium, Aug. i, 1866, anent such
doubts as had arisen over the decision leveled at
certain propositions of the Ontologists, and
worded in a similar fashion, viz. : "tuto tradi
non posse." The decision is this : "Non ea sunt
ista dubia quae novam rei iam definitae interpre-
tationem ac declarationem requirant: iis enim
penitus diluendis per ipsas SS. Cong, responsio-

Decrees. 279

nes fit abunde satis. Imo non sine admiratione
auditum est hujusmodi dubitationes fuisse pro
positas . . . . "

In English:

"These doubts are not such as would require
a new interpretation and statement of a matter
already decided: for they have been thoroughly
solved by the very answers of the Sacred Con
gregation. Nay, it was not without a smile that
we heard, such doubts should have been pro
posed. ..." After this authentic declaration the
Archbishop and the bishops reminded the profes
sors and teachers, "that the matter must be con
sidered as definitely settled, and that it was the
wish of His Holiness, that, removing all errors,
they should all be of one mind."

"Tuto doceri non posse" means, plainly: "It
is a mistake."

4. DECRETUM AD ARCHIEPISCOPUM CAMERA-

CENSEM.
DE CRANIOTOMIA,

et Quacunque Operatione Directe Occisiva

Foetus.

"Anno 1886, Amplitudinis Tuae praedecessor
dubia non nulla huic supremae Congregation! pro-
posuit circa liceitatem quarundam operationum

280 Decrees.

chirurgicarum craniotomiae adfinium. Quibus
sedulo perpensis, Emi ac Rmi Patres Cardinales
una mecum Inquisitores Generates, feria 4 die
14 currentis mensis, respondendum mandave-
runt" :

"In scholis catholicis tuto duceri non posse lici-
tam esse operationem chirurgicam quam cranio-
tomiam appellant, sicut declaratum fuit die 28
Maii 1884, et quamcunque chirurgicam opera
tionem directe occisivam foetus vel matris ges-
tantis."

"Idque notum facio Amplitudini Tuae, ut sig-
nifices professoribus facultatis medicae Univer-
sitatis catholicae Insulensis."

"Interim fausta quaeque ac felicia Tibi a Do
mino precor."

"Romae, die 19 Augusti 1889.

Amplitudinis Tuae addictissimus in Domino.

R. CARD. MONACO.

Rmo Do. Archiep. Cameracensi."

5. DE PARTU PRAEMATURO, DE ABORTU ET OPE
RATIONS CAESAREA, ET DE ECTOPICIS

CONCEPTIBUS.
Decretum 4. Maii 1898.
Beatissime Pater,

Episcopus Sinaloensis ad pedes S. V. provulu-

Decrees.

tus, humiliter petit resolutionem insequentium
dubiorum :

1. Eritne licita partus acceleratio quoties ex
muleris arctitudine impossibilis evaderet foetus
egressio suo natural! tempore?

2. Et si mulieris arctitudo talis sit ut neque
partus praematurus possibilis censeatur, licebitne
abortum provocare aut caesaream suo tempore
perficere operationem ?

3. Estne licita laparotomia quando agitur de
praegnatione extra-uterina, seu de ectopicis con-
ceptibus ?

Feria Quarta, die 4. Maii 1898.
"In Congregatione generali habita ab EEmis
et RRmis DD. Cardinalibus contra haereticam
pravitatem Generalibus Inquisitoribus, propositis
suprascriptis dubiis, praehabitoque RR. DD.
Consultorum voto, iidem EEmi ac RRmi Patres
rescribendum censuerunt :

Ad i. Partus accelerationem per se illicitam
non esse, dummodo perficiatur iustis de causis et
eo tempore ac modis, quibus ex ordinariis con-
tingentibus matris et foetus vitae consulatur.

Ad 2. Quoad primam par tern, negative, iuxta
decretum feriae quartae, 24 Julii 1895, de abortus

282 Decrees.

illiceitate. Ad secundam vero quod spectat, nihil
obstare quominus mulier de qua agitur, caesareae
operation! suo tempore subjiciatur.

Ad 3. Necessitate cogente, licitam esse lapa-
rotomiam ad extrahendos e sinu matris ectopicos
conceptus, dummodo et foetus et matris vitae,
quantum fieri potest, serio et opportune providea-
tur.

In sequenti vero feria 6, die 6 eiusdem mensis
et anni, in solita audientia R. P. D. Adsessori
S. O. impertita, facta de omnibus SS. D. N.
Leoni, Divin. Prov. Papae XIII relatione, SSmus
responsiones EE. ac RR. Patrum approbavit."
J. CAN. MANCINI, S. R. et U. Inquis. Notarius.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Introduction: The Problem of Life and Gener
ation 5

Abortion . 27

The "Classical" Perforation of the Amnios . 73

Ectopic Conceptions 90

Myoma of the Pregnant Womb . . .114

Clear Ova 128

Hyperemesis Gravidarum . . . . 135

Embryotomy 140

The Cesarean Section 153

The Porro Operation . . . . .170

The "Crimen Nefandum" 175

Conjugal Onanism 176

Vasotomy (Vasectomy) 182

Death and the Sacraments .... 203
Instruction of the Young on the Sex Problem . 210
Appendix :

I. Heredity as a Factor in Propagation . 243

II. Heredity as a Factor in Morality . . 266

Decrees 274

KLABMMM, A.F. BQT

The Crux of pastoral medicine. 2932

.K6