Shortly after earning his medical degree in 1824, Charles Knowlton was serving jail time for illegally using corpses, by whisking them off from their burial sites, for examination. At a time when one of the only methods an aspiring physician could employ to learn their trade was through an in depth evisceration of the human body, cadavers were not allowed for use in medical programs. Therefore Knowlton accepted his punishment for his transgression in the name of science and served his time. In fact, he used his solitude to develop the foundations for his 1829 missive Elements of Modern Materialism.
This was his discourse on the combination of religion through the human physical form and spiritualism. Although not one soul purchased a copy of his mantra, Knowlton stumped the circuit of freethinking thought to promote, what he thought would indelibly etch his moniker in the history books. Not dissuaded by his lack of financial success, Knowlton operated his own private practice in Ashfield, Massachusetts, and if a client was fortunate enough, he would reveal the contents of his second book, The Fruits of Philosophy or the Private Companion of Young, Married People. The book chronicled what would aid issues with fertility and also introduced the first form of contraception. Knowlton’s work is credited with vastly decreasing birth rates in England and the United States.
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The son of Puritan parents, Knowlton had a keen mind from birth. What severely impacted his decision to be a physician was personal experience. As a teenager, he frequently experienced wet dreams and was punished by his parents for it as sinful. This left a stigma with him on how people view and deal with their sexuality, in addition to how it impacts a person’s health.
Knowlton again had jail time to look forward to after his work being published in 1832 was not widely accepted as appropriate. He outlined a procedure he developed to prevent pregnancy that involved flushing the vagina with a chemical concoction. Tried and sentenced in Taunton, Massachusetts, Knowlton endured several jail terms for what the religious and political establishment felt was promotion of sin. That, however, was not the premise behind The Fruits of Philosophy.
The intrigue associated with contraception for Knowlton was based upon the premise this practice would solve many problems through science. A married man and father, he was raised in an environment where many men married later in life because without contraception, they had many children and often could not financially support all the mouths they had to feed. In lieu of regular sexual contact, these men would either relieve themselves through masturbation and then feel as if they were sinners or partake in ladies of the night. When engaging that route, they often contracted and passed on sexual diseases. In Knowlton’s mind, this would not problematic if men and women could couple without having to put off marriage due to the strain of children. For him it was not about promoting promiscuity but allowing people the freedom of choice and physicality without the ramifications through science.
Knowlton became a successful doctor with a wide array of patients, but the ideas he espoused in The Fruits of Philosophy were not lauded in this country. This is intriguing considering this is coined as the “Golden Age of American Freethought.” Although associated with not believing in God, freethinking was a popular mode of conceptualization at that time. It had to do with freeing thought patterns from the mores instilled through society. It was based in the real, the scientific and tested boundaries. Unfortunately, Knowlton was a bit before his time, as his freethinking was taken as route to pursue sin. The economical and emotional aspects of sex even within marriage producing a brood of children that could not be cared for financially or the spread of diseases or personal self-degradation over committing an act that is biologically inherent should have been motivation enough to just review Knowlton’s work.
Even with the era of Freethinkers in full swing, Knowlton’s book was not brought into the spotlight until the Bradlaugh/Besant trial nearly three decades after he perished in 1850. The publicity derived from their trial realized books sales increasing from less than a 1,000 to more than a 100,000 in short order. Besant eventually crafted her own work on birth control She based her work on Knowlton’s research and it significantly altered the population growth in the Britain.
So why should Charles Knowlton be included on the course syllabus? People may not agree with his perception on how birth control would be a tremendous aid in improving not only poverty in society, but would decrease the incidence of sexual transmitted diseases as well as improve the psyche. Although not received with as much fanfare as Charles Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest, Knowlton’s contribution not only to the Freethinkers but to people all around the glove, was just as significant, if not more so. Why should people have to avoid physical intimacy which was ruled by physical desires because of having to support a child they could quite possibly not afford. It seems to be a travesty he was not recognized for his efforts while still alive. One receives the impression, however, Knowlton was confident in his work right up until he met his end in 1850. He certainly should be credited with the concept of modern contraception and should be included on this syllabus.
