Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
The following methods are taken from the pamphletpublished by the Neo-Malthusian League of Holland, called“Methods Used to Prevent Large Families,” translated intoEnglish from the Dutch.
The Council of the Neo-Malthusian League calls attentionto the fact that it has for its sole object the Prevention ofConception, and not the causing of abortion.
The Neo-Malthusian League of Holland knows nothing ofthis pamphlet, and is not in any way responsible for itspublication.
In the year 1877 Mrs. Annie Besant and Mr. CharlesBradlaugh, two firm and honest advocates of the doctrine ofMalthus, were prosecuted and sentenced to imprisonment forpublishing a book entitled “The Fruits of Philosophy,” whichpresented the physiological aspects of birth control.
The trial lasted several days, and aroused a greater interestin the subject than had been known since the days of Malthus.The English Press was full of the subject; scientific congressesgave it their attention; many noted political economists wroteabout it; over a hundred petitions were presented to Parliamentrequesting the freedom of open discussion; meetings of thousandsof persons were held in all the large cities; and as a result, astrong Neo-Malthusian League was formed in London.
Interest in the subject did not confine itself to England,however, for the following year at an International MedicalCongress in Amsterdam the subject was discussed with greatenthusiasm. A paper prepared and read by Mr. S. Van Houten(later Prime Minister) caused a wider interest in the subject,and a year later the Neo-Malthusian League of Holland wasorganised. Charles R. Drysdale, then President of the EnglishLeague, attended the Conference.
As is usual in such causes, many of the better educated andintelligent classes adopted the practice at once, as did the bettereducated workers; but the movement had as yet no interestamong the poorest and most ignorant. The League set to workat once to double its efforts in these quarters. Dr. Aletta Jacobs,the first woman physician in Holland, became a member of theLeague, and established a clinic where she gave information onthe means of prevention of conception free to all poor womenwho applied for it.
Naturally, this action on the part of a member of themedical profession aroused the animosity of many of its membersagainst her; but Dr. Jacobs stood firm in her principles, and5continued to spread the necessary information among the peasantwomen in Holland in the face of professional criticism and grossmisunderstandings.
All classes, especially the poor, welcomed the knowledge withopen arms, and requests came thick and fast for the League’sassistance to obtain the necessary appliances free of charge. Theconsequence has been that for the past twelve years the Leaguehas labored chiefly among the people of the poore