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

Only a few years ago, I experienced a very similar scene, though in a different setting and circumstances, which was received with a precisely similar embarrassment and resent- ment by the young people who took part in it. And quite recently I have had written or oral statements from several young married women to the effect that they had hitherto prevented pregnancy, simply and solely because the fact of public proof of their intimate erotic life was intolerable to them. I cannot agree that sexual modesty should be so generally disregarded, denied and cancelled as, e.g., certain advocates of extreme Nudism recommend. Sexual modesty has its appropriate times and places and should not shroud the whole of life. But in my opinion a woman who reveals her whole body to her husband, in any and every circumstance and as a matter of course, is as unwise, indelicate and erotically callous and clumsy as the frigid prude who never abandons herself, without veils or reserves, to love-play. And it is just as fatal an error to think of marriage, and deny its sexual aspects, as it is to regard marriage as a succession of sexual encounters and nothing else. The act of union between man and woman is important and funda- mental to the whole of life. It is a deplorable mistake to speak of it only in terms of flippancy and lubricity, or to approach it only with irresponsible desire ; it is an equally deplorable mistake to depreciate the significance of the central coital act itself, and of the necessary actions and emotions, both for the individuals and the social institution of marriage. This act and its emotional superstructure are, in fact, depreciated and degraded if we do not endeavour to make it as satisfactory and successful as possible in every way. In " Ideal Marriage," (5) I endeavoured to give men the necessary knowledge and guidance to that end. I shall now suggest and indicate to women how they may best co-operate in what should always be reciprocal. The need for light and help here is great, and therefore, the inhibitions aforesaid, as well as many other inconveniences and hindrances, must be