equally well informed. A woman's body is her own, and she will never be
really free until she knows how to look after it properly. If she is fit
to vote, fit to pay taxes, fit to hold her own estate under the Married
Women's Property Act, why should she not learn to exercise intelligent and
responsible control over her own self? Why do so many women _allow_
themselves to be impregnated and infected against their will? Because they
do not understand the construction and functions of their own body. When
they do understand this, they will guard their own health as carefully as
they guard their reputation. They will then not only keep their own sexual
organs scrupulously clean, but they will encourage their husbands to do
the same. Sexual intercourse is far more refreshing and exhilarating in
every way when both husband and wife have cleansed their parts immediately
before enjoying it. It is only natural that both should wish to be sweet
and clean before approaching the closest of all bodily intimacies.

[Footnote F: It would be much less untrue to say that the remedy for the
venereal problem is _clean women_.--E.A.R.]

But more than this. Every well-informed woman knows that there is far more
venereal disease in the world to-day, among men and among women, than
there was before the war, and she should train all the members of her
household in habits of strict cleanliness. Instinctively they will then
avoid risking their health by contact with a possible source of
defilement, or if the risk has most unfortunately been taken, they will
instantly and instinctively remove and destroy the possible infection, in
the same rapid and effective way as they would cleanse their boot from
filth accidentally coming in contact with it. By all means let the
mothers continue to inculcate virtue, but they should also teach sexual
cleanliness directly and indirectly, themselves setting the example. After
all, the microbes of venereal disease grow almost exclusively in the