446Chapter 23
ten found him stupefied by opium) or even famous
preachers (William Wilberforce was an addict because
of his ulcer medication). This situation lasted until the
Pharmacy Act of 1868 introduced the first restrictions
because the government feared that workers were start-
ing to use opium for its pleasure-giving properties. Fur-
ther restrictions appeared in the 1890s when the
government began to fear that immigrants, especially
the Chinese, congregated in “opium dens” and plotted
crimes.
The Life Cycle: Birth and Birth Control
The subject of human reproduction led to much con-
troversy during the nineteenth century. The century
witnessed a significant decline in the birthrate, which is
explained by a variety of birth control practices. Physi-
cians, churches, and governments generally opposed
the circulation of birth control information and the use
of contraceptives, however; they considered them im-
moral and made them illegal in most places.
The search for a reliable means of birth control is as
old as human records, and discussions of it are found in
pre-Christian records. The early church opposed con-
traception and medieval canon law forbade it, but ideas
about avoiding pregnancy nonetheless circulated in
popular culture. The population explosion that began in
the late eighteenth century persuaded nineteenth-
century reformers to circulate birth control information.
These neo-Malthusians proposed a variety of (semi-
reliable) means of contraception: the insertion of a
barrier (such as a sponge) as a rudimentary form of the
diaphragm; the use of simple chemical douches (such
as vinegar), as a rudimentary spermicide; and the prac-
tice of male withdrawal before ejaculation, modestly
described by the Latin term coitus interruptus.Condoms
made from animal membranes had been tried for cen-
turies, and a reusable condom of vulcanized rubber
(hence its nickname) was clandestinely marketed in the
1870s, although the modern, thinner condom made of
latex was not invented until after World War I.
Such methods of contraception—plus abortion, in-
fanticide, and abandonment—were first used on a scale
large enough to check population growth in France.
The French birthrate in 1810 was 317 births per ten
thousand population, 15 percent lower than the rate in
Britain (375 per ten thousand); the rate in the German
states was even higher (395 per ten thousand). The dif-
ference between the French and the Anglo-German
birthrates widened during the nineteenth century, even
when the British birthrate started falling. By 1910 the
French birthrate (202 per ten thousand) was 26 percent
below the British rate (272 per ten thousand) and 32
percent below the German rate (298 per ten thousand).
By the early twentieth century, the French had reached
zero population growth (a balance between births and
deaths), despite the opposition of leaders who foresaw
the depopulation of France. This trend, combined with
other demographic data, leaves no doubt that the
French were practicing birth control on a significant
scale.
British radicals tried to spread such information.
Richard Carlile, a tinsmith and printer, published a
manual in 1838, entitled Every Woman’s Book,advocating
the use of a sponge barrier. It and an American manual,
Fruits of Philosophy(1832), which advocated a vinegar
douche, were censored, and some booksellers were im-
prisoned, but their ideas circulated. In 1877 Annie Be-
sant, a preacher’s wife and campaigner for unpopular
causes, and Charles Bradlaugh, a social reformer, defied
the courts and sold 125,000 copies of these reprinted
works. Besant summarized the various methods of birth
control in The Law of Population(1877), which conserva-
tives branded as “a dirty, filthy book... that no human
would allow on his table... and no decently educated
English husband would allow even his wife to have”
(see document 23.2). Besant was sentenced to six
months in prison, but the verdict was overturned on a
technicality.
Similar controversies developed in many countries.
Dr. Alleta Jacobs, the first woman physician in the
Netherlands, opened the world’s first birth control
clinic in Amsterdam in 1882, despite great opposition
from the medical profession. In other countries, radical
feminists, such as Dr. Madeleine Pelletier in France,
made the control of reproduction an essential element
of women’s rights. Pelletier even published one of the
first works claiming the right to abortion. By the end of
the century, information about both birth control and
abortion circulated widely. A study of Spain has found
significant use of contraception in the cities, especially
in Catalonia. A study of a Berlin working-class clinic in
1913 found that 64 percent of the women used birth
control.
Historical data on abortions are among the least re-
liable evidence confronting historians, but provocative
records survive on this controversial subject. A study of
abortion in France in the late nineteenth century con-
cluded that approximately 250,000 abortions per year
were performed there. It was illegal to perform or to