Woman physiologically considered as to mind, morals, marriage, matrimonial slavery, infidelity and divorce / by Alexander Walker.

  • Alexander Walker
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Woman physiologically considered as to mind, morals, marriage, matrimonial slavery, infidelity and divorce / by Alexander Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ Sanctioned by custom, these left-handed marriages are to be found with a certain respectability appertaining to them in all walks of life. The working classes have their somewhat famous ‘ mariages de St. Jacques,’ which among themselves are highly respectable. The working man and the lady who takes in washing, or who makes linen, find it cheaper and more comfortable (for the French have their idea of comfort) to take a room together. They take a room ; put in their joint furniture (one bed answers for both) ; the lady cooks ; a common menage and a common purse are established ; and the couple’s affection usually endures at least as long as their lease. People so living, though the one calls himself Mr. Thomas, and the other Mademoiselle Clare, are married a la St. Jacques, and their union is considered in every way reputable by their friends and neighbours during the time of its con- tinuance. “ The proportion of illegitimate to legitimate children in the department of the Seine, as given by M. Cabrol, is one to two :* add to this proportion the children born in marriage and illegitimately begotten ! [Such is the evil caused by the prevention of divorce !] “The hospitals of the * Enfans Trouv£s,’ which, under their present regulations, are nothing else than a human sacrifice to sensual indulgence, remove the only check that in a country without religion [and, he should have added, where divorce is refused], can exist to illicit intercourse* * Naissances par mois—Department de la Seine. In marriage . . . 20,782. Out of marriage . 10,139.
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