ILL EFFECTs of PolyGAMy on CHILDREN, ETC.

281

In these countries, men are not allowed to have any

commerce with the females, not even physicians, when

all
sickness may be supposed to have extinguished
the

of
wanton passions the fair, and,

at
in
the bosoms

of
same time, has rendered them unfit objects desire.

a he
Tournefort tells us, that when was brought into

he
as
the Grand Seignior's seraglio physician, was
little surprised, looking along gallery,

to
in
not see
a

a
great number naked arms standing out from the
of
a

of

sides the room. He could not imagine what this

he he

could mean; till was told that those arms belonged

bodies, which must cure, without knowing any
to

more about them than what he could learn from the

of
arms. He was not allowed question
to
ask the
a
of

he
patient, her attendants, lest might find
or

it
even
necessary inquire concerning circumstances which
to

the delicacy the seraglio allowed not be

of

to to

revealed.

all
Hence physicians the East pretend dis
in

know
eases from the pulse.”
us

of

Let now look this system

at

to
the relation
-
children.
As the beauty
of

of

the women harems the sole

is
of

source their power, they sometimes cause abortion

order the longer preserve their attractions; and
in

to

when children are produced, they are often deficient

ex
of

natural vigour, because the offspring

in

fathers
hausted by indulgence; and this way the race con
in

degenerate. Moreover, these children afford

to

tinues
their mothers but moment's consolation: the daugh
a

up
of

ters, before they reach the age puberty, are shut

other harems; and the sons are removed still
in

earlier.
Hume justly observes that “the bad education
of

24*