The critical age of woman / by Walter M. Gallichan.

  • Walter M. Gallichan
Date:
[1920]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The critical age of woman / by Walter M. Gallichan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ought ” to have “ winter in the blood/’ and to renounce one of the sources of marital affection. In the future it is their duty to live ‘ ‘ platonically ’ ’ with their husbands, and to banish erotic impulses. If they yield to the husband’s impor¬ tunity, they may consider that such acquiescence is an act of self-sacrifice, pardonable only because it is unselfish in motive. And not only are women at this crisis wont to imagine that the incapacity for conceiving is plain proof that erotic desire should cease, but they are also much perturbed by the thought that they are no longer attractive to their partners. The middle-aged virgin woman gives up all hope of love, and the wife reflects that her wifely life, apart from interest in the grown-up children and domestic affairs, is at an end. This dangerous misapprehension is the cause of untold mental and physical distress at the menopause, and in the after-life. The wife resolves from a sense of duty, inculcated by old traditions and fables, that it is now her part to live a celibate life in wedlock, and in some cases the husband approves on alleged moral of hygienic grounds. Frequently, the wife is dismayed by the reflection that her husband is still vigorous, and that middle-
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