Sex efficiency through exercises : special physical culture for women / by Th. H. van de Velde ; [photos, by E. Steinemann].

her husband ! (Needless to say, her pitiful quest was in vain.) Another familiar figure of everyday human tragedy is the wife and mother who has borne two or three children : who has had no relevant instruction or effective treatment after her confinements, and is, therefore, unable to compensate for the unavoidable stretching and slackening of her organs, by conscious contractions and rhythmic movements of the pelvis and the muscles of the pelvic floor. Or, again, her husband, who finds that maternity has robbed his wife of her special physical charm in coitus. I have discussed this matter with experienced gymnastic instructresses of serious and alert mind. They unanimously testified that they had been much impressed by the lively interest shown by mature married women (in the forties) for pelvic exercises, and, above all, for those involving the muscles of the pelvic floor. They described the indefatigable persistence and vigour with which these women performed such exercises, and tried to master the processes involved, and those instructresses who were themselves already initiated, were in no sort of doubt as to the reason and motives for this gymnastic zeal. I would add a final series of examples to the foregoing list. When I first contemplated a brief monograph on pelvic physical culture and its benefits for women, I discussed the idea with a certain number of married women, in order to test their views. I chose for consultation, only such women as I knew to have lived for at least three years in apparently normal marriage, who were free from flippancy and irrespon- sibility, and were mentally above the average and capable of sound judgment. Without exception, they immediately recognised and emphasised the importance of pelvic physical culture for women in coitus, and gave me encouraging approval from this point of view. They passed over the (equal) significance of pelvic physical culture for pregnancy, birth and the process of local involution, which is termed the puer- perium, and concentrated on the coital values. Therefore I consider it indubitable that many women are more or less definitely and acutely aware of their deficiencies