hour to two days for a baby to be born. Doctors are learning more and more how to lessen the pain, and by the end of another generation it ought to be possible for child-birth to be practically painless for most women. By that time people will more generally understand how to have babies only when they want them and can afford them. At present, unfortunately, it is against the law to give people information as to how to manage their sex relations so that no baby will be created unless the father and mother are ready and glad to have it happen.

Now you must understand something about this intricate sexual machinery. Plate I shows the woman's organs and Plate 2 the man's. Both these illustrations are sections, as if the body were cut in two vertically.

Plate One

1. Backbone.

2. Rectum, which carries away the solid waste matter from the bowels.

3. Anus, the opening of the rectum.

4. Bladder, which holds the waste water or urine.

5. Ovary, in which grows the ovum or egg.

6. Fallopian tube, which carries the ovum to the uterus.

7. Uterus or Womb, in which the egg or ovum grows into a baby.

8. Mouth of the Uterus, through which the semen has to go to meet the ovum.

9. Vagina or Birth Canal, into which the penis fits during the sex act.

10. Entrance to the Vagina.

11. Entrance to the Urethra, which carries away the waste water or urine.

Plate Two

1. Backbone.

2. Rectum, which carries away the solid waste matter from the bowels.

3. Anus, the opening of the rectum.

4. Bladder, which holds the waste water or urine.

5. Penis, which fits into the vagina, during the sex act.

6. Prepuce, or fore-skin.

7. Scrotum, the bag which holds the testicles.

8. Testicles, in which grow the spermatozoa, or germs of life.

9. Vas Deferens, which carries the spermatozoa to the urethra.

10. Prostate Gland.

11. Seminal Vesicle.

Both 10 and 11 secrete liquids that make part of the semen, and which nourish the spermatozoa.

12. Urethra, which carries the spermatozoa, also the urine.

13. Cowper's Gland, which secretes a liquid which makes the urethra alkaline.

14. One of the spermatozoa, or germs of life, much magnified.

Sometimes it seems very distasteful to us that the sex or generative organs should be placed so near to what we might call our “sewerage system.” We do not like to have to connect in our thought anything so sweet and nice as a baby or so happy and precious as the sex embrace with the waste of our bodies, which we want to be rid of with as little thought as possible, as it is disagreeable at best, and we wonder why we were created this way. But we have to remember that the sex organs are very delicate and they are probably placed where they can best be protected from injury. It would be hard to think of any other part of the body that would be safer than just this place. At any rate there they are, and our duty is to understand them as best we can, and take mighty good care of them as our most wonderful possession.

Looking at Plate I, you will see that the woman's body provides the egg or ovum. These grow, many thousands of them, in two small sacs called ovaries, and every little while (usually every four weeks, but not always) an ovum ripens and passes out from the ovary through the fallopian tube