It  was  thus  that  a  large  number  of  the  early  Christian  writers
regarded  woman ;  she  is,  as  Tertullian  puts  it,  jamia  diaboli;
and  this  is  the  attitude  which  still  persisted  in  mediaeval  days,
though  it  should  be  added  that  ascetics  impartially  extended
the  idea  of  impurity  to  men  also.  At  the  same  time  the  belief
in  the  periodically  recurring  specific  impurity  of  women  has  by
no  means  died  out  even  to-day.  Among  a  very  large  section  of
women  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  in  England  and  other
countries  it  is  firmly  believed  that  the  touch  of  a  menstruating
woman  will  contaminate  food;  only  a  few  years  since,  in  the
course  of  a  correspondence  on  this  subject  in  the  British  Medical
Journal  (1878),  even  medical  men  were  found  to  state  from
personal  observation  that  they  had  no  doubt  whatever  on  this
point.  Thus  one  doctor,  who  expressed  surprise  that  any  doubt
could  be  thrown  on  the  point,  wrote,  after  quoting  cases  of
spoiled  hams,  etc.;  presumed  to  be  due  to  this  cause,  which  had


l6  MAN   AND   WOMAN.
come  under  his  own  personal  observation: — "  For  two  thousand
years  the  Italians  have  had  this  idea  of  menstruating  women.
We  English  hold  to  it,  the  Americans  have  it,  also  the
Australians.  Now  I  should  like  to  know  the  country  where
the  evidence  of  any  such  observation  is  unknown."  Women  of
every  class  preserve  this  belief,  and  still  regard  the  periodic
function — although  it  is  frequently  a  factor  of  the  very  first
importance  in  their  personal  and  social  life — as  almost  too
shameful  to  be  alluded  to.
