Page:Fielding - Sex and the Love Life.pdf/119

however, prolonged engagements are not to be recommended, as the close communion of the loved ones implied in the betrothal, without the release of nervous tension afforded in the normal culmination of the love episode, tends to prove a wearing ordeal on the nervous system.

It is particularly difficult to the man who lives a continent life, unless his sexual libido is weak, because the frequent excitement of the masculine nature, without experiencing detumescence, produces tensions that are deprived of the normal means of relief.

In this way the accumulation of secretions may set up local irritations or inflammation of the glands of the groin, causing congestion that is detrimental to the reproductive system; or the frequent stimulation of the sexual centers of the brain and the excitation of the organism generally, may influence the nervous system adversely. It is not too much to say that the health of men has temporarily suffered from experiences of this kind, besides the more general bad effects on efficiency in everyday life.

While the man may feel the experience the more keenly, in many instances the more slowly aroused woman, too, will in time show the wearing influence of a prolonged engagement on her sensitive nerves, as a result of the recurring sexual excitement and the erotic stimulation on her imagination.

Physicians versed in the ways of sexual dynamics, advise against long engagements, unless there are some unavoidable conditions that prevent an earlier marriage, or personal idiosyncrasies that exempt the individual from the strain that is normally felt.

Proper Age to Marry. The question of the proper age to marry must necessarily be more or less an academic topic of discussion, because there are so many influences—social,