The evolution of the diseases of women / by W. Balls-Headley.

  • Balls-Headley, Walter.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The evolution of the diseases of women / by W. Balls-Headley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    have eacli six children, with wives, there would be forty-eight to feed; and in the next generation, when married, thirty- six families might exist. But if the six brothers marry but one woman who has six children, there are but thirteen ; of these six children three might be girls, of whom two, perhaps, were destroyed; the three boys would have but one wife among them, and the families remain one or two. The inhabitants of lamaic Thibet, about Kandy in Central Ceylon, and of other parts of India are still polyandrous, and the custom of destruction of girls is common. Letourneau quotes Skinner of a mountainous Hindoo race. Having asked one of these women, ' How many husbands have you ? ' ' Only four,' she replied. ' And all living ?' ' Why not ?' Polyandry has always been an excep- tional form of marriage. Strength and wealth accumulated ; and among those who were not polyandrous and girl-destroyers, the people multiplied, and women were in excess of men because of the loss of men in constant wars. Women were property, and tbe desire of personal acquisifion created the desire of individual posses- sion. Various customs evolved. From puberty to marriage, common intercourse was no disgrace ; among the quite poor, monogamy was usual; men of power and property tonk many wives. David as he prospered took more wives; and Solomon had many wives and concubines. Thus with increase of prosperity evolved polygamy, concubinage, and cessation of destruction of female children, but of which the sale or barter continued common; and these became the customs of the age. In our own time the Mormons have afforded a prominent example of polygamy under the influence of environment, with the object of rapid increase of population in a new country, and of tillage of the soil and rearing of cattle at a minimum cost. Each wife would have an individual tendency—one a cook, a second a seamstress, and a third a lien-wife; all dressed in the simplest and cheapest way, and fed mainly on vegetables. They were directed in ' a word of wisdom ' revealed to Joseph Smith, the founder, ' that it is not good to drink wine or strong drink except at the Lord's Supper, and even then it should he home-made grape wine ; or to use hot drinks or tobacco, the
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