Dr. Martha Voegeli "Marlefried" Goldiwil-ob-Thun, Switzerland Tel. 033. 6 71 56 October 2, 1954 DATA on the THERMIC METHOD FOOR TEMPORARY MALE STERILIZATION The experiments were carried out by means of a "sitting bath". The following data and conclusions based upon them have been arrived at through research in the laboratory in my own hospital in India and by the application of the method for a number of years in the field of practice. Experiments begun about 1930 with the intelligent cooperation of nine of my male patients (2 Americans, 2 Indians, 2 English, 2 Scotch and an Austrian of Semitic origin) for a period of over ten years gave the following results: on application of heat of 107-118 F. for forty-five minutes daily during a period of, at most, twenty-five days, temporary sterility lasting from four to seven months was obtained in all cases in a climate with temperatures ranging from 70-100 F. Race and nationality seem to make no appreciable difference. The above mentioned result was later borne out by the use of the method in practice on a larger scale. When famine broke out in a number of districts of the south of India, the method was used by several hundreds from among the native population of those districts. Not a single refractory case was reported. As in the case of my volunteer patients mentioned above, children born after the period of the desired sterility was over were normal. Opportunity for observation of native children lasted from birth to five years of age; in the case of my patients, the lives of three of their children have been followed from birth to marriageable age. In India the number of unfavorable factors due to the social and cultural environment made it impossible to record reliable statistics. However, judging from the rapidly increasing popularity of the heat method among the poor, that method seems to bring the help they needed and wanted. It relieved families of the fearful burden of children whom they could not feed sufficiently to keep them alive. From facts obtained from laboratory and practice the characteristics of the thermic method hereafter listed would seem to be justified. However, part of what they claim stands in need of further proof. Thus the question as to where exerts its influence, i.e. on the matrix of the generative cell or on the cell itself, and what happens to that cell after it has been exposed to heat, is still unanswered. The fact that in a specimen all visible movement has ceased after application of heat and that such movement can be observed again after a nutrition solution has been added would suggest that the heat treatment does not destroy sperms, but reduces their vitality to such a degree that fertilization of the ovum is prevented. Statistics on this and other theoretical aspects of the method are of great importance and should be furnished at the earliest opportunity. However, my experience of its efficacy is, in my opinion, sufficient to justify its immediate application on a large scale in those countries where overpopulation constitutes an acute and urgent problem. CHARACTERISTICS of the THERMIC METHOD FOR TEMPORARY MALE STERILIZATION 1. It is for men, not for women. 2. It is reliable, for it has proved effective in all observed cases. 3. It is cheap and therefore suited for application on a large scale. Its cost is no more than the cost of a bucket of hot water. The poorest individual and the poorest government can afford it. 4. It is simple; the least educated can understand it. 5. It requires no periodic check-up by doctors in clinics or health centers. 6. It can be "timed" at will. 7. It does not sterilize permanently. Fertility returns after the desired period of sterility is over. 8. Children born after that period are normal in every respect. 9. The method is non-injurious to health. 10. It does not interfere with normal marital relationship. 11. It does not destroy "life" at any stage of development.