PLAIN TALKSONAvoided Subjects.HENRY N. GUERNSEY, M.D.Plain TalksonAvoided Subjects.BYHenry N. Guernsey, M. D.,Ex-Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in theHomœopathic Medical College of Penn'a; Ex-Professor of MateriaMedica and Institutes in the Hahnemann Medical Collegeof Philadelphia and Dean of the Faculty; Author ofGuernsey's Obstetrics, including the Disorderspeculiar to Women and Young Children;Lectures on Materia Medica, &c.Honorary Member of the Hahnemannian Medical Institute of Phila-delphia; of the Homœopathic Medical Society of the State of NewYork; of the Instituto Homeopatico, Mexicano; of the Hahn-emannian Society of Madris de Tulio, Spain; Member ofthe American Institute of Homœopathy; ConsultingPhysician to the West Philadelphia Homœo-pathic Hospital for Children, &c. &c.PHILADELPHIAF. A. DAVIS COMPANY,Publishers1905Copyrighted, 1882,byH. N. Guernsey. M. D.This little volume is fervently and solemnly dedicated to its Mission.Those who conscientiously read and faithfully apply its teachings to life, cannot fail to become wiser, better and happier members of the Home circle and of Society at large.PREFACE.Formany years I have wished that some able pen would place before the community at large the knowledge contained in the following pages. Some of this information has appeared from time to time in such books as “Graham's Lectures on Chastity,” “Todd's Students' Manual,” and a few popular works of a similar kind, which have been of immense service to the human race in preserving chastity and in reclaiming the unchaste. But all these are now inadequate to the growing demand for more light on these vital topics. It has been too much the custom for everyone, parents included, to shrink from instructing their own children, or those entrusted to their care, on these points; consequently, many young peoplesolely from their ignorancefall into the direst evils of a sexual nature and are thereby much injured and sometimes wholly ruined for life's important duties.An experience of forty years in my professional career has afforded me thousands of opportunities for sympathizing with young men, and young women too, who had unconsciously sunk into these very evils merely for want of an able writer to place this whole subject truthfully and squarely before them, or for some wise friend to perform the same kind office verbally. The perusal of a work byWm. Acton, M. R. C. S., of London, on “The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs in Childhood, Youth, Adult Age, and Advanced Life,” has, by his purity of sentiments, which have ever been identical with my own, both inspired and emboldened me to write a work of similar import. But his is for the profession while mine is for the profession and the laity, of both sexes and of any age. May its perusal inspire the readers with a higher appreciation of the matters herein treated, and with a greater effort to reformatory measures everywhere. Whenever I advise the consulting of a “judicious” (a term I use many times) physician, I mean one fully and practically qualified, both by inherent qualities andeducation,for the fullest confidence of his patients.I am indebted to my son, Joseph C. Guernsey, M. D., for assistance in editing and carrying this work through the press.Henry N. Guernsey, M. D.,1423 Chestnut St., Philad'a.June, 1882.CONTENTS.CHAPTER I.Introductory,13CHAPTER II.The Infant,24CHAPTER III.Childhood,27CHAPTER IV.Adolescence of the Male,42CHAPTER V.Adolescence of the Female,68CHAPTER VI.Marriage.—The Husband,84CHAPTER VII.The Wife,90CHAPTER VIII.Husband and Wife,100CHAPTER IX.To the Unfortunate,110CHAPTER X.Origin of theSex,117CHAPTER I.Introductory.Inthe creation of the world and all that therein is, we should consider it an axiom that “Everything was created for use.” All individual substances, or beings, that come to our notice bear certain relations to one another, have connection one with another, and are dependent upon and useful to each other; and nothing could possibly exist or subsist without this co-relation: connection with and use to each other. This is a law which needs only a little reflection to be accepted as a truth in every particular—in the greatest as well as in the least created form. This is more plainly seen in the animal kingdom than in the mineral or vegetable, because its members associate and finally become conjoined in pairs. Man and woman, who represent the crown and glory of all created beings, in whom are embodied all the lower orders, were and are still created to associate in pairs—each created for the other, the one to help the other; the two to love and to belong to one another. This principle, fully carried out,justifies and shows the necessity for the creation of man and woman precisely as they are, having bodies, parts and passions, will and understanding. It is my intention in the following pages to explain the relations existing between the sexes, for the purpose of showing that the greatest happiness to the human race will be found in living a life in full accord with these relations. In order that the subject may be fully understood, let us examine the physical development of man and woman in detail, particularizing the different organs of the body as they appear in their order of formation, from the very inmost or beginning, to the ultimate or end, in their respective natures.Ever since the primal creation of man and woman, the human race has been perpetuated by a series of births. Children have been conceived in harmony with the natural order of events, in such matters, and have been born boys and girls. A boy is a boy to all intents and purposes from his very conception, from the very earliest moment of his being; begotten by his father he is a boy in embryo within the ovule of his mother. The converse is true of the opposite sex. At this very early age of reproduction the embryo has all the elements of the future man or woman,mentally and physically, even before any form becomes apparent; and so small is the human being at the earliest stage of its existence that no material change is observable between the ovule that contains the product of conception and a fully developed ovule unimpregnated.[A]It is about twelve days after conception before the impregnated ovule, which undergoes many changes during this time, makes its escape from the ovary where it became impregnated and enters one of the Fallopian tubes, thence gradually descending into the cavity of the womb. Here it begins to mature and become fitted for its birth into the outer world. Soon now the embryo (for such it is called at this early stage) begins to assume form. The first indication of formation that it is possible to discover, even by the help of the microscope, consists of an oblong figure, obtuse at one extremity, swollen in the middle, blunt-pointed at the other extremity. The rudimentary embryo is slightly curved forward, is of a grayish white color, of a gelatinous consistence, from two to four lines long and weighs one or two grains. A slight depression representing the neck, enables us to distinguishthe head; the body is marked by a swollen centre, but there are as yet no traces of the extremities. So much can be observed about the end of the third week after conception.At about thefifth weekthe embryo presents more distinctions. The head is very large in proportion to the rest of the body, the eyes are represented by two black spots, and the upper extremities by small protuberances on the sides of the trunk. The embryo at this stage is nearly two-thirds of an inch in length and weighs about fifteen grains. The lower extremities now begin to appear in the shape of two minute rounded tubercles. Till about this time a straight artery has been observed to beat with the regularity of the pulse; but now it appears doubled somewhat into the shape of an adult heart, although as yet it has but one auricle and one ventricle. As time advances we find the perfect heart with its two ventricles and two auricles, all developed from the original straight artery. At this period the lungs appear to exist in five or six different lobes and we can barely distinguish the bronchial tubes; about the same time the ears and face are distinctly outlined, and after awhile the nose is also faintly and imperfectly perceived.At about theseventh weeka little bony depositis found in the lower jaw. The kidneys now begin to be formed, and a little later the genital organs. The embryo averages one inch in length.Attwo monthsthe rudiments of the extremities become more prominent. The forearm and hand can be distinguished but not the arm above the elbow; the hand is larger than the forearm, but is not supplied with fingers. The sex cannot yet be determined. The length of the embryo is from one inch and a half to two inches, and it weighs from three to five drachms. The eyes are discernible, but still uncovered by the rudimentary lids. The nose forms an obtuse eminence, the nostrils are rounded and separated, the mouth is gaping and the epidermis can be distinguished from the true skin.Atten weeksthe embryo is from one and a half to two and a half inches long, and its weight is from one ounce to an ounce and a half, the eyelids are more developed and descend in front of the eyes; the mouth begins to be closed by the development of the lips. The walls of the chest are more completely formed, so that it is no longer possible to see the movements of the heart. The fingers become distinct and the toes appear as small projections webbed together like afrog's foot. At about this period the sexual organs show their development as follows: On each side of the urinary locality an oblong fold becomes distinguishable; in course of progress if these folds remain separate, a little tubercle forms in the anterior commissure which becomes the clitoris; the nymphæ develop, the urethra forms between them, and the female sex is determined. If, on the other hand, these folds unite into a rounded projection the scrotum is formed, the little tubercle above becomes the penis and hence the male sex. The testicles forming within the body, descend later into the scrotum, and organs similar to them, their counterparts, form in the female and are called ovaries. These ovaries are found attached to an organ called the womb, and this again is united with the vagina, which leads downwards and outwards between the labia majora.[B]At the end of thethird monththe weight of the embryo is from three to four ounces and its length from four to five inches, the eyeballs are seen through the lids, the pupils of the eyes are discernible, the forehead, nose and lips can be clearly distinguished. The finger nails resemble thin membranous plates, the skin shows more firmness, but is still rosy-hued,thin and transparent. The sex can now be fully determined.At the end of thefourth monththe product of conception is no longer called an embryo, but a fœtus. The body is from six to eight inches in length and weighs six or seven ounces. A few little white hairs are seen scattered over the scalp. The development of the face is still imperfect. The eyes are now closed by their lids, the nostrils are well-formed, the mouth is shut in by the lips and the sex is still more sharply defined. The tongue may be observed far back in the mouth, and the lower part of the face is rounded off by what a little later will be a well-formed chin. The movements of the fœtus are by this time plainly felt by the mother, and if born at this time it may live several months.At the end of thefifth monththe body of the fœtus is from seven to nine inches long and weighs from eight to eleven ounces. The skin has a fairer appearance and more consistence; the eyes can no longer be distinguished through the lids, owing to the increased thickness of the latter. The head, heart and kidneys are large and well developed. At the end of thesixth monththe fœtus is from eleven to twelve and a halfinches in length, and weighs about sixteen ounces, more or less. The hair upon the scalp is thicker and longer, the eyes remain closed, and very delicate hairs may be seen upon the margins of the eye-lids and upon the eye-brows. The nails are solid, the scrotum small and empty, the surface of the skin appears wrinkled but the dermis may be distinguished from the epidermis. The liver is large and red, and the gall-bladder contains fluid.At the end of theseventh monththe length of the fœtus is from twelve and a half to fourteen inches, its weight is about fifty-five ounces, and it is both well defined and well proportioned in all its parts. The bones of the cranium, hitherto quite flat, now appear a little arched, and as the process of ossification goes on, the arching increases till the vault is quite complete. The brain presents greater firmness, and the eye-lids are opened. The skin is much firmer and red. The gall-bladder contains bile.At the end of theeighth monththe fœtus seems to thicken up rather than to increase in length, since it is only from sixteen to eighteen inches long while its weight increases from four to five pounds. The skin is red, and characterized at this period by a finedowny covering, over which is spread a quantity of thick viscous matter, called the sebaceous coat, which has been forming since the latter part of the fifth month. The lower jaw has now become as long as the upper one, and in the male the left testicle may be found in the scrotum. Convolutions appear in the brain structure.Atnine monthsthe anxious time of parturition has arrived. The fœtus is from nineteen to twenty-three inches in length and weighs on an average from six to eight pounds. Children at birth sometimes weigh as much as fourteen pounds; but such extremes are very rare. At this period the white and grey matter of the brain are distinct, and the convolutions are well marked; the nails assume a horny consistence, hair upon the head is more or less abundant, the testes are in the scrotum, and the entire external genital organs of both male and female are well formed.The above particulars respecting the development of the human being have been narrated to show that one organ is just as important as another, and that each is really dependent upon the other; no one could exist without the other and all are to subserve a use. First must be theesse(the inmost) the vital force imparted to the ovule. A littlelater certain changes take place in the ovule, later still other changes, and finally about the fifteenth day a slight development of the new human being can just be outlined by the help of the microscope, which, as before stated, has form at about the third week after conception. First the vestige of a head and body, a little later the heart and lungs appear lying in the open chest; then the hands are protruded from the sides of the trunk, afterwards the forearms, then the arms, all pushed out from the body; the feet and legs gradually protrude from the lower end of the trunk, and the chest closes up so that the heart and lungs can no longer be seen; the face, mouth and eyes take form, the external genital organs make their appearance in conjunction with other developments, and in due course of time the boy or girl is born ready for further developments in childhood, and adolescence. When the latter development has been attained, if due care has been taken by all interested parties, we have pure men and pure women fitted to enter upon the privileges and theusesof a wedded life according to the design of our Creator.How wonderfully and how instructively are all organs in the animal body disposed and arranged! In the highest place we find thebrain to govern and rule over all below. It is the first organ formed and in an orderly life should control all the others. Next in order and importance are the heart and lungs, which put into motion all other parts and enable the animal frame to continue in motion. So each and every organ is developed in its proper order, all to obey the commands of the first and most important—the brain, the seat of the reason and the will. Happy are they of either sex who will govern themselves by a pure enlightened reason and a pure affectionate will.CHAPTER II.The Infant.Embracing the First Year of the Child's Life.Thebattle of life really begins as soon as the child is born. Its cleanliness, its clothing, its temperature and its food are matters for daily observance and care, as also are the light, sunshine and air which it is to breathe. Opiates, soothing syrups and cordials, are to be strictly avoided as being deleterious to health; proper sanitary measures usually suffice to render alldosingunnecessary. Spirituous potions and lotions should be avoided as being contrary to the laws of hygiene as well as for fear the child may learn to love and to become addicted to their use later in life. Every organ of the body should be carefully protected even at this early age, so that health may reign supreme. Particular care and the utmost solicitude should be bestowed upon the genital organs. No rubbing or handling of these parts should be permitted under any pretense whatever—beyond what may be absolutely necessary for cleanliness. The genital organs require justas much watchful care, if not more, as the stomach, the eye, the ear, &c. I regret to say that I have known some fathers to tickle the genital organs of their infant boys until a complete erection of the little penis ensued, which effect pleases the father as an evidence of a robust boy. The evil effects of such a procedure are too manifest to require dilating upon. Fathers take warning!Nurses are known to quiet young children by gently exciting pleasurable sensations about the genital organs both of males and females—practices which are the most vicious and vice-begetting that can possibly be invented. Many a young man and young woman has fallen to very low depths from influences developed by these and similar means. Nurses should be cautioned in this matterand carefully watched too, as even the least suspected may (innocently perhaps) be guilty of this fault to save themselves the trouble of quieting their charges in a proper way. Early impressions upon these animal passions, as well as those made upon other senses of the young, are very abiding. Mothers be watchful!Great care should be exercised in the choice of a diaper for infants and the material of which it is made. The diaper should fiteasily about the organs which it covers and protects, so as not to cause undue heating or friction of the parts; and immediately after a babe has soiled itself either with urine or from a motion of the bowels, it should be made clean and dry at once to avoid any irritation that would otherwise ensue upon these delicate parts. The material of which the diaper is made should not be stiff or harsh, but very limp, soft and pliable; nor should it be thick and bungling. There are great objections to the use of oil-cloth, rubber or other impervious materials as they prevent the escape of perspiration, urine, fecal matter, etc. As soon as possible, say near the end of the first year, the child should be taught to use its little chair-commode, thus dispensing with the diaper at an early age. This is much better for the sexual organs, is more comfortable for the child and is more healthy; it also favors a more perfect development of the limbs and joints, the hip joints particularly.CHAPTER III.Childhood.Childhoodis that portion of life extending from infancy to adolescence, which in boys occurs at the age of fourteen to sixteen years; and in girls at the age of twelve to fourteen years. In very warm climates adolescence is reached some two or three years earlier.Most fortunate the infant who has completed its term of life, thus far, in accordance with the strictest rules of Hygiene, or the laws of health.“In a state of health sexual impressions should never affect a child's mind or body. All its vital energy should be employed in constructing the growing frame, in storing up proper external impressions and in educating the brain to receive them.” Unfortunately this state of health is not always attained. Impressions may be exhibited in these organs at a very early age either from inheritance, from improper handling or from some morbid condition of the child that could show itself in no other organ of the body and which, like morbid conditions in general,make their appearance somewhere in the mind or body.Sexual Precocity.—Many parents who are most particular in all other respects, as to the moral and physical training of their children, imagine there is no need to pay any special attention to the genital organs. This, however, is a grave mistake and needs our careful consideration. As is well known, some children evince a sexual precocity which may lead to very serious results. In these it often happens that the sexual instinct arises long before puberty; such children, if males, manifest an instinctive attraction towards the female sex which they show by constantly spying after their nurses, chambermaids, etc.; by seeking as much as possible to play with children of the opposite sex and improperly toying with them.[C]“One case is so remarkable that an abstract of it may be instructive: M. D——, between five and six years of age, was one day in summer in the room of a dressmaker who lived in the family; this girl thinking that she might put herself at ease before such a child, threw herself on her bed, almost without clothing. The little D—— had followed all her motions and regarded her figure with a greedy eye. Heapproached her on the bed, as if to sleep, but soon became so bold in his behavior that the girl, after having laughed at him for some time was obliged to put him out of the room. This girl's simple imprudence produced such an impression on the child that forty years afterwards he had not forgotten a single circumstance connected with it.”Parents are remarkably careless on this point. They allow children to play together for hours at a time without the surveillance of an older person, provided only they are removed from any danger. It is sufficient to merely draw attention to such a custom as every reflective mind can easily draw the inevitable consequences. Habits are indulged in and marks of familiarity shown which should not for an instant be tolerated.Causeswhich commonly produce sexual impressions on young children are, allowing them to repose playfully on their belly, to slide down bannisters, to go too long without urinating, constipation or straining at stool, cutaneous affections, and worms. Also, thoughtless acts of elder people which are very frequently more closely observed than is commonly supposed. The sliding down bannisters produces a titillation which is agreeable to the sexual organs. Children ofboth sexes will constantly repeat this act until they learn to become inveterate masturbators, even at a very early age.Among boys a disease calledpriapismis often developed; this arises from undue handling of the parts, or from some morbid state of the child's health. The disorder consists of paroxysms, occurring more or less frequently, of violent erections of the penis; these sometimes become very painful and require the attention of a physician. At all events medical aid should be sought at once, because some functional derangement is at work which might, if not arrested and cured, give rise to masturbation. Owing to unknown causes such morbid conditions induce some little boys to pull frequently at the foreskin of the penis until their health is seriously impaired; they pine away, lose flesh, and still continue to worry at the foreskin, till death has been known to result. These cases require the most careful and skillful constitutional treatment, until they are cured.Sometimes, in other cases, the foreskin becomes inflamed, offensive secretions may form about the end of the penis, etc. All such disorders should be submitted to a judicious physician at once, to avoid irritations which might result in a tendency to sexualexcitement—a calamity truly deplorable to the young. The idea which some writers advance—that a long prepuce (or foreskin) often proves an exciting cause of troublesome sensations to the boy, is certainly erroneous. So, too, it is all wrong to state that particular care should be taken to wash under the prepuce. That this objection in regard to washing is true, is proved from the physical fact that in a large majority of boys the orifice of the foreskin is not sufficiently opened to permit of these washings. And the objection is still further proved by the fact that all these unnatural secretions, offensive odors, sensations, etc., which irritate and worry a boy together with all inflammations of these parts are soon relieved and permanently cured by the proper medicament. Needless laving, handling or rubbing the sexual parts should be avoided as strictly as possible. To show how little good such washings really do, even though persisted in, I will mention one out of many similar cases: “In spite of repeated washings every day, a fetid smegma was deposited in considerable quantity on the glans, causing a tiresome burning and itching.” All such cases are utterly intractable by any amount of bathing. But the suitable remedy administered internally cures the trouble permanentlyin a few weeks and at the same time improves the general tone and health of the individual. This is so because the proper remedy removes the morbific cause which produced that condition of the penis and all concomitant symptoms, at the same time. It must be remembered that the troubles referred to above come from within, and that they are but developments of internal morbific causes. In a similar manner, small pox, measles, chicken pox and all eruptive diseases comeoutas products from morbific causeswithin. No sane person ever thinks of washing off these appearances with the hope of curing the case!All our external parts were made just as they should be and they work in harmony so long as we are perfectly healthy inwardly. Every blemish upon the skin, even to a wart, has a corresponding morbid influence within, which can be removed by proper treatment. Let it be remembered then for all coming time that a little boy's penis is never to be meddled or trifled with, nor his foreskin, nor the parts about the generative organs. All unnatural conditions, appearances or sensations require prompt and proper medical aid. If erections of his little penis occur during sleep, or if he cannot urinate promptly on rising inthe morning, because of an erection, let these conditions beget an anxiety for his welfare and at once seek a judicious physician, who will be able to prescribe a medicament to arrest all further development of sexual precocity—an affliction so baneful to the young.A little later in life children are liable to ascarides or seat worms, called by some “pin worms.” No applications, purgatives, “vermifuges,” injections or other mechanical means should ever be employed to remove these, as they are of constitutional origin and should be so treated, until perfectly cured. Removing the worms by irritants or by mechanical means does not remove thecauseof their existence or reproduction in the body. The dyscrasia that gives rise to these worms, with the accompanying itching and tickling, is apt to cause a sexual excitement which may prove more disastrous than the original trouble itself. Therefore be sure that this affection is treated constitutionally; so long as the vital forces work in harmonious order, no abnormal appearances of any kind can come to light, because they do not exist.From the age of nine to fourteen, boys generally acquire very curious notions about sexual affairs and are naturally, from what they hear, desirous of obtaining some ideaof sexual congress, a knowledge of where babies come from, etc. This curiosity, of course, causes the mind to dwell much upon sexual subjects. I fully believe that good information will, by satisfying this curiosity, free the mind to a great extent from sexual thoughts. It is from such very thoughts that boys are led to play with their sexual organs in secret, and to handle them so as to excite pleasurable sensations; erections of the penis are thus produced and finally, by this continual excitation with the hand, theheightof sexual orgasm is reached, ejaculation of semen occurs andself-pollutionis the consequence. This act is called “masturbation” and becomes asecret vice of the worst kind!Very frequently and to an alarming extent “masturbation” is taught by older boys, and by young men even, in nearly all our colleges, boarding, public and private schools, and by companions under the paternal roof. This act is repeated time after time until the degrading and destructive (morally and physically so) habit is confirmed. As a result, the boy grows thin, pale, morose and passionate; then weak, indolent and indifferent; his digestion becomes impaired, his sleep short, disturbed and broken; he sometimes becomes epileptic or falls into a state of marasmus; inany case he is in great danger of being totally ruined forever.There is a great difference in boys regarding the formation of these habits. While some may almost insensibly glide into them, others, intuitively as it were, turn away from all such temptations and banish all thoughts of a sexual nature from their minds at once. This is right. So long as a boy's mind refuses to harbor such baleful approaches, so long he is safe; but the moment he heeds them and allows them to enter his mind, that moment he is in danger and will most likely fall into bad habits. He must strenuously resist all such thoughts and going to his father or mother tell them about his trials and temptations and strive to forget them until success crowns his efforts. By persistent efforts, by repeated prayers to the Lord for help, by reading his Bible and good, pure stories, by running into the open air and indulging in some useful occupation or joyous, healthful play, he will eventually conquer them and thus rise to the dignity of a true man. Sometimes, too, it may be necessary to consult the physician for help. In addition to the instinctive shrinking which every right minded person generally feels from putting ideas of impurity into a child's innocent mind,a parent's pride leads him to hope thathisboy would not indulge in any such mean and disgusting practices. But, bearing in mind the advice of Herbert Spencer—“that the aim of discipline should be to produce aself-governingbeing,” the best advice a parent or guardian can, and ought, to give, is: do not harbor bad thoughts or feelings about anything; at once turn them away and think of something else, of something good, true and pure. Indulge in no hatred or revengeful feelings towards others; plot no evil things; always be true to your word, faithful to your duties and charitable to all. Treat everybody kindly and politely. And further, a child should betaughtwhat “chastity” really is, instead of leaving him to find it out as best he may.It should be clearly explained to him that true chastity requires the shunning of all indecency and foul language; that he should refrain from touching his secret parts except when the necessities of nature require it; that all sexual emotions should be subjugated. When he grows older every boy should be taught that chastity means continence; and it should be firmly impressed upon his mind that all lascivious actions are a drain upon his whole system and weaken the powerswhich the Lord has given him to be employedonlyin the married state. These are characteristics of a true man and will help him very much to keep out of sexual difficulties which, as we shall see further on, are among the greatest curses of life.The use of tobacco, wine, coffee or tea by children is well known to be highly injurious. Never allow a child to use either of these—not even in small quantities. A too common practice in many families is to allow a little wine at dinner “to assist digestion!” Others allow coffee or tea, “because my child is so fond of it.” “The after-effects of all these is to disturb the heart, to cause nervousness and irritability, andto weaken the sexual organs in a marked degree. Tobacco particularly has this last effect in old and young, besides producing convulsions, a dulled intellect, etc.”[D]Remember where the brain is and the purposes for which it has been given! Here reside the knowledge and the power to govern all below it. No matter what the stomach craves or how strongly the appetite begs for this or that; no matter how much one may be tempted to steal, to lie or to swear; no matter how much the sexual organs may lead one to think about or handle them—here isthe great and good brain, the home of the will-power, which says: “Touch not, taste not, handle not.” So long as these commands are listened to and obeyed, one is safe. The desire need not and should not control the act—but the rational faculty can and will control, when early taught to do so. The more one is led by this rational faculty the easier it becomes to follow it, andvice versa.What has been said above regarding the danger of little boys falling into bad habits applies with equal force to little girls. Do not forget this. They too may have sexual thoughts, feelings and curiosity, and care must be taken to keep their minds pure and bodies healthy. They are also liable to disorders that require prompt and careful attention, such asinflammations, excoriations, itchings and swellings of the genital organs with discharges from these parts resembling leucorrhœa. All such conditions lead them to more or less rub and scratch these parts—which should never be touched—for relief. Pleasurable sensations are experienced and then comes masturbation—a sin chargeable to the parentfor not having given the matter proper medical attention. “Repeated washings” will no more cure these cases in little girls than, as shown above, will they cure inlittle boys. All these are but the outcropping of some constitutional affection and should be treated accordingly. No applications or medicated washings of any kind should be allowed. Such external treatment only palliates the suffering for a little while without removing the disordered vital force that gave origin to its appearance. This is simply repressed and may react upon the child and appear in another form tenfold worse than the first. The passing of urine or fecal matter may (in either sex) cause irritation and excoriation; this is another sign that all is not right in the vital forces and should be mentioned to the physician as a sure index that medical treatment, but not topical applications, is absolutely necessary. All abnormal appearances, actions and discomforts of the child, whether mental or physical, should be submitted to an experienced and judicious physician. A healthy child should be happy and comfortable in all respects.A very successful plan for keeping children from vice or vicious habits is to see that their time is fully occupied with amusements and duties which interest them. They need a great deal of harmlessly conducted amusement and—donotstrive to “keep them quiet.” Allow little boys and girls to play together,under proper surveillance, and let them be boisterous if they will; let them romp and run, climb fences, trundle hoops, jump rope, go to dancing school, participate in military drills, go coasting and skating, take swimming lessons, etc.No judicious parents will allow a son or daughter to be alone much; to seek to be alone is always a bad sign and should be carefully guarded against without its being known that such precaution is observed. Furnish them liberally with instructive and innocent story books and let them read aloud to you or to each other. Take them to walk or ride when you go, and strive to make companions of them as much as possible, making whatever sacrifices are necessary to attain this end. Above all,encourage their making confidants of you. Let them feel that they can come and talk freely on any subject, no matter what its nature may be. Do this, and you have thrown around them a bulwark of defence that will withstand the repeated attacks of hosts of evil spirits. When night comes and they go to bed, let them learn to go to sleep at once; no play then—they may be read to sleep, but no romping or playing. No strange children should be allowed to sleep with yours; make them occupy separate rooms or at least separatebeds; be sure that the sleeping places of your children are sacred to them alone. Nor is it advisable for children to sleep with a grown person of either sex and particularly not with servants—all for obvious reasons.The observance of all these precautions against influences that might excite sexual disturbance is most sacred in its character and most needful even in a religious point of view; for there should bechastityabove all things.CHAPTER IV.ADOLESCENCE OF THE MALE.Adolescenceof the male embraces the period of life from the age of fourteen or sixteen years to the age of twenty-five.At about the age of fourteen years “the period of youth is distinguished by that advance in the evolution of the generative apparatus in both sexes, and by that acquirement of its power of functional activity, which constitutes the state ofPuberty.” At this age the following great changes take place in the general appearance and deportment of the male: His frame becomes more angular and the masculine proportions more pronounced; increased strength and greater powers of endurance are manifested; the larynx enlarges and the voice becomes lower in pitch as well as rougher and more powerful; new feelings and desires awaken in the mind. His deportment becomes more commanding, his frivolity is less and less apparent, and the boy is lost in the man. If he has been so fortunate as to escape all the dangersand baneful influences of childhood, he is manly indeed, and we behold him with an unburdened conscience, bright intellect, frank address and good memory. His spirits are buoyant and his complexion clear; every function of his body is well performed, and no fatigue is felt after moderate exertion. He evinces that elasticity of body, and that happy control of himself and his feelings, which are indicative of the robust health and absence of care which should accompany youth. His time is devoted to his studies, duties and amusements; as he feels his stature increase, and his intellect enlarge, he gladly prepares for his coming struggle with the world.All boys may come to this condition with proper training through the period of infancy and childhood; and after arriving at the adolescent age of their existence as they have the power of mind tochoose, so also have they the power torefuse. The human race is created above the animal so that we are something more than mere animals; we are human beings with human propensities, human passions, human desires and human tastes, which are subject to the human brain, to the human reason and to the human will—all elevated and ennobled by the Divine Will. Man must not let himself down to be governed byanimal passions; the moment he does that, his higher powers suffer and become weakened, and he becomes more like an inferior animal; if he persists in this downward course, his lower powers become strengthened until finally they transcend and rule the higher. Then, to all intents and purposes, such a man's head is downwards and the lower part of his body is upwards just where his head ought to be.Man is a human being, yet, like the whole animal kingdom, he has appetites, desires and passions, as it is absolutely necessary that he should have. He has organs corresponding to these appetites, desires and passions, and it is necessary that he should have them. A proper understanding in regard to this matter will convince anyone of the truth of this assertion. Our Creator doeth all things wisely and well, in the most perfect manner possible. Consequently, man with all his organs, parts and passions is just what he should be when he blossoms into youth, in the perfection of his adolescence as described above. In fact there could be no other form of creating man, for the Lord always creates in the most perfect way possible, according to one harmonious law which He has ordained to govern the creation of all beings.Such a man is fully prepared to struggle with himself and the world at large. In his desires, appetites or passions of any kind, he, in his humanity, protected by his rational faculties and enlightened by the Divine Oracle of God, unquestionably has the power to choose between propriety and impropriety, between the right and the wrong, between the good and the bad. Take any evil into which a member of the human family may fall—the love of ardent spirit for instance; he first thinks of it and desires to partake of some. Finally he takes an opportunity to gratify his desire, does satisfy it for the time and thinks it very nice. The next craving is a little more intense, and he cannot overcome the temptation quite so easily as he could have done before, and at last he indulges again. So he goes on, step by step, until he may fall very low.The same thinking, feeling and desiringprecedesthe adoption of every vicious habit that was ever formed.Nor will anyone pretend to say that a persistent effort of the will power, at the very outset, when he first perceived the tendencies of his desires to do what he need not do, would not have prevented the evil; no argumentation will prevail in the face of stubborn facts, and the real facts are all on the side of purity and order.These very young men or youths, as they progress through adolescence, may become tempted in a variety of ways, some to the use of ardent spirits or tobacco, others to lie, to steal, to forge, &c.; but the approach to all these evils is gradual and first comes through the mind. They first think about the action, turn it over and over in their minds until they come to greatly desire and then, later, to commit the evil which would not have been ultimated if the mind had been persistently set against it in the beginning. This is an indisputable fact.In this manner many promising youths, just as they are blossoming into the pride of early manhood, begin to indulge in sexual thoughts and to allow these thoughts to influence their minds until they commit some of the evils to which perverted and unchaste passions lead them. If this evil be masturbation, then they are on the direct road to ruin, as will be seen described further on. If it be the commission of sexual intercourse with women, their ruin is still more certain, and in the latter case they are exposed to one of the worst poisons that can possibly infect the human race. I do not overdraw the picture when I declare thatmillions of human beings die annually from the effects of poisoncontracted in this way, in some form of suffering or another; for, by insinuating its effects into and poisoning the whole man, it complicates various disorders and renders them incurable. When gonorrhœa is contracted, although frequently suppressed by local treatment in the form of injections, it is never perfectly cured thereby. No; the hidden poison runs on for a life time producing strictures, dysuria, gleet and kindred diseases; finally, in old men, a horrible prostatitis results from which the balance of one's life is rendered miserable indeed. If inflammation of the lungs supervenes, there is often a translation of the virus to these vital organs, causing what is termed “plastic pneumonia,” where one lobule after another becomes gradually sealed up, till nearly the whole of both lungs becomes impervious to air, and death results from asphyxia.This horrible infection sometimes becomes engrafted upon other acute diseases when lingering disorders follow, causing years of misery, and only terminating in death.If real syphilis, in the form of chancre, should be contracted, and in that form suppressed, we have buboes often of a malignant type, ulceration of the penis and a loss of some portion of this member. Sometimesthe poison attacks the throat, causing most destructive ulcerations therein; sometimes it seizes upon the nasal bones, resulting in their entire destruction and an awful disfiguration of the face; sometimes it ultimates itself in the ulceration and destruction of other osseous tissues in different portions of the body. Living examples of these facts are too frequently witnessed in the streets of any large city. Young men marrying with the slightest taint of this poison in the blood will surely transmit the disease to their children. Thousands of abortions transpire every year from this cause alone, the poison being so destructive as to kill the childin utero, before it is matured for birth; and even if the child be born alive, it is liable to break down with the most loathsome disorders of some kind and to die during dentition; the few that survive this period are short lived and are unhealthy so long as they do live. The very first unchaste connection of a man with a woman may be attended with a contamination entailing upon him a life of suffering and even death itself. There is no safety among impure or loose women whether in private homes or in the very best regulated houses of ill-fame; even in Paris, where, after women have been carefully examined and pronouncedfree from any infecting condition, the first man who visits one of them, often carries away a deadly enemy in his blood, which had lurked in concealment beyond the keen eye of the inspector. A young man, or a man at any age, is in far greater danger amidst company of this stamp, than he would be with a clear conscience and pure character in the midst of the wildest forest, full of all manner of poisonous serpents and wild beasts of every description. A knowledge of the above facts should be enough to chill the first impulse and to make any man who respects his own well-being, turn away and flee from the destruction that awaits him.As if the above sufferings were not a sufficient penalty for the transgression against the law—“Be ye pure,” we find yet another. Coincident with the physical wreck, which syphilis makes of the man who becomes thoroughly tainted with its poison, comes his moral wreck. He loses all respect for the truth and all regard for his word; no dependence of any kind can be placed upon him, and he will not pay his debts or fulfil any moral obligation; all because he began by prostituting his mind more and more until, with deadened conscience, almost literally, his head is dependent and his feet uppermost,ruling all the better part of his nature. And next come the mental sufferings—and most agonizing they are. Unhappy to the last degree, he no longer takes pleasure in life, but, wishing to die, finally commits suicide. A search in any insane asylum will show that a very large proportion of patients are made up from those who masturbate or have syphilis. Stamp out these two evils, or rathercursesof the human race, and the supply that feeds our insane asylums, aye and our penitentiaries, too, will become vastly lessened. Think of it! So many of the inhabitants of our prisons, asylums, and our poor-houses, are composed of men and women who have offended against nature's laws by violating their own sexual nature. Add to this summary the list of broken-hearted, deflowered virgins and unwedded mothers, and you have the picture complete.What a contrast with that manliness of character from which he has fallen! Now he is in an insane condition, blaming everyone for having contributed to his many misfortunes and his fallen condition, whereas he alone is the culprit. No one made him commit the first or any subsequent evil. He allowed his own mind to yield to the first temptation, and then went on from step tostep, he alone being responsible for the result Yield not the first point, and all is safe.The pride of perfect adolescence, as described a few pages back, is due to purity of thought, to chastity and continence. This purity shines through every tissue, enkindles the eye with a true expression, makes bright the countenance and erects the form. It gives elasticity to the step, causes harmony in the tones of the voice, and adds dignity to the carriage and deportment. The first step in the paths of vice in any form, whether in sexual errors or any other, detracts in the exact degree of the digression from all of the above beautiful and ennobling characteristics.We have spoken in the preceding pages of new feelings and desires being awakened in the youth after his fourteenth year. This change is wholly due to his approaching manhood, to the time when he will be fully prepared to appreciate, to love and protect, guide and support her whom he makes his wife, and to become the father of happy and healthy children. But this approach to manhood is not due to the development of the genital organs, as some writers affirm, for this would be a reversion of orderly development. The approaching manhood develops in full accordance to their uses and importanceallthe organs belonging to man. As the well-developed infant has all its organs developed in a condition suitable for its state, and the child has all its organs in all parts of the body, developed in full accord with its state, so adolescence follows, and every organ must develop accordingly; and in this development a new impetus is given to every organ in the body. The whole man awakens to a newness of life as is seen in the change of his voice, the spreading out of his frame, the independence and command of his bearing, the activity of his brain, the soundness of his judgment, until he becomes in the fullest sense a rational being. Of course the development of his genital organs keeps pace with that of his brain; but the brain should lead the way throughout the entire development of the human race.At the time of puberty, then, a new and a different sensation springs up in the generative organs, which is in perfect harmony with the uses for which they are intended. We recognize the use of the hands, the fingers, the feet, the eyes, the ears, the sense of taste, &c., and we use them accordingly. We should think of the generative organs only in the same light. They are intended for use, for the highest and holiest use of procreatinghuman beings to the end that they may become angels in heaven. These organs were not made to be abused; but they are abused every time the mind is allowed to dwell upon them improperly. Every excitation we allow from lewd thoughts or fancies, has a debasing and deteriorating effect upon that well-developed form, upon that conscience so free, and upon that countenance so open and bright, which has been described in the preceding pages.If the mere thought and excitation arising therefrom are injurious to the perfection of the youth, how much more injurious must be the ultimation of that thought in masturbation, in unlawful sexual intercourse, or in the loss of seminal fluid by other unnatural means.Right here I feel impelled to say something of theDIFFICULTY OF MAINTAINING CHASTITY.I, in connection with many of our best and wisest men who have given the subject a lifetime's most earnest consideration, hold that for a young man whose early education has been carefully looked to, and consequently, whose mind has not been debased by vile practices, it is no more impossible mentally, or injurious physically, to preserve his chastitythan to refrain from yielding to any other of the innumerable temptations with which his life is beset. And every year of voluntary chastity renders the task easier by mere force of habit. I wish to be clearly understood in this matter.So long as a young man remains chaste in thought and deed, he will not suffer any bad effects from his continence. It is thesemicontinent, the man who knows the right but pursues the wrong, who suffers! Patients frequently complain that enforced continence makes them restless, irritable, unfit for mental application of any sort, &c. Sexual intercourse is then indulged in, and presto: for the time being, what a welcome change. The now unclogged mind grasps with vigor any subject presented to it, the spirits are exuberant and the physical frame buoyant. But, is the trouble cured, is it permanently eradicated from the system? No! In a short time the symptoms reappear and the same remedy is again sought. The more the sexual feelings are indulged the more frequent will be their recurrence, and the result need not be written; every candid mind can easily see it. To their shame and confusion be it said, there are many physicians who, when consulted by their patients for medical assistancein such trials, “deliberately encourage the early indulgence of the passions, on the false and wicked ground that self-restraint is incompatible with health. What abhorrence can be too deep for a doctrine so destructive, or for the teachers who thus, before the eyes of those whose youthful ignorance, whose sore natural temptation, rather call for the wisest and tenderest guidance and encouragement, put darkness for light, evil for good, and bitter for sweet.”[E]I declare emphatically that no symptoms of sexual suffering, no matter how feelingly described or cunningly insinuated, should ever lead a physician to prescribe for a young man that fatal remedy, illicit intercourse. Medically as a physician, morally as a Christian, and sympathizingly as a fellow being, I record a solemn protest against such false treatment. It is better for a youth to live a continent life. The strictly chaste suffer comparatively little sexual irritability; but the incontinent, at recurring periods are sure to be troubled in one or other of the ways spoken of; and the remedy of indulgence, if effective, requires repetition as often as the inconvenience returns. No! When thus consulted, let the physician prescribe theproper medicament, if one be necessary; and let him direct a plain, nourishing, non-stimulating diet, physical exertion of any kind carried to exhaustion, andSELF CONTROL.Would any young man in his senses listen to a physician, who, for lowness of spirits, mental despondency, &c., should tell him to drink plentifully of brandy or eat hasheesh? On the same principle then let a youth shun the physician, who, for sexual excitement, prescribes sexual indulgence.Again, such complaints coming from young men are very often specious, and are mere subterfuges—overdrawn pictures of their sufferings—which are presented as an excuse for indulging the sensual emotions, instead of manfully and righteously struggling to overcome them. And further, “if anyone wishes to really experience the acutest sexual suffering, he can adopt no more certain method than to be incontinent with the intention of becoming continent again, when he has ‘sown his wild oats.’ The agony of breaking off a habit which so rapidly entwines itself with every fibre of the human frame (as sexual indulgence) is such that it would not be too much to say in the Wise Man's words, ‘Nonethat go to her return again,neither take they hold on the paths of life.’”
PLAIN TALKSONAvoided Subjects.
HENRY N. GUERNSEY, M.D.
BYHenry N. Guernsey, M. D.,
Ex-Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in theHomœopathic Medical College of Penn'a; Ex-Professor of MateriaMedica and Institutes in the Hahnemann Medical Collegeof Philadelphia and Dean of the Faculty; Author ofGuernsey's Obstetrics, including the Disorderspeculiar to Women and Young Children;Lectures on Materia Medica, &c.
Honorary Member of the Hahnemannian Medical Institute of Phila-delphia; of the Homœopathic Medical Society of the State of NewYork; of the Instituto Homeopatico, Mexicano; of the Hahn-emannian Society of Madris de Tulio, Spain; Member ofthe American Institute of Homœopathy; ConsultingPhysician to the West Philadelphia Homœo-pathic Hospital for Children, &c. &c.
PHILADELPHIAF. A. DAVIS COMPANY,Publishers1905
Copyrighted, 1882,byH. N. Guernsey. M. D.
Copyrighted, 1882,byH. N. Guernsey. M. D.
This little volume is fervently and solemnly dedicated to its Mission.Those who conscientiously read and faithfully apply its teachings to life, cannot fail to become wiser, better and happier members of the Home circle and of Society at large.
This little volume is fervently and solemnly dedicated to its Mission.
Those who conscientiously read and faithfully apply its teachings to life, cannot fail to become wiser, better and happier members of the Home circle and of Society at large.
PREFACE.
Formany years I have wished that some able pen would place before the community at large the knowledge contained in the following pages. Some of this information has appeared from time to time in such books as “Graham's Lectures on Chastity,” “Todd's Students' Manual,” and a few popular works of a similar kind, which have been of immense service to the human race in preserving chastity and in reclaiming the unchaste. But all these are now inadequate to the growing demand for more light on these vital topics. It has been too much the custom for everyone, parents included, to shrink from instructing their own children, or those entrusted to their care, on these points; consequently, many young peoplesolely from their ignorancefall into the direst evils of a sexual nature and are thereby much injured and sometimes wholly ruined for life's important duties.
An experience of forty years in my professional career has afforded me thousands of opportunities for sympathizing with young men, and young women too, who had unconsciously sunk into these very evils merely for want of an able writer to place this whole subject truthfully and squarely before them, or for some wise friend to perform the same kind office verbally. The perusal of a work byWm. Acton, M. R. C. S., of London, on “The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs in Childhood, Youth, Adult Age, and Advanced Life,” has, by his purity of sentiments, which have ever been identical with my own, both inspired and emboldened me to write a work of similar import. But his is for the profession while mine is for the profession and the laity, of both sexes and of any age. May its perusal inspire the readers with a higher appreciation of the matters herein treated, and with a greater effort to reformatory measures everywhere. Whenever I advise the consulting of a “judicious” (a term I use many times) physician, I mean one fully and practically qualified, both by inherent qualities andeducation,for the fullest confidence of his patients.
I am indebted to my son, Joseph C. Guernsey, M. D., for assistance in editing and carrying this work through the press.
Henry N. Guernsey, M. D.,1423 Chestnut St., Philad'a.
June, 1882.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.Introductory.
Inthe creation of the world and all that therein is, we should consider it an axiom that “Everything was created for use.” All individual substances, or beings, that come to our notice bear certain relations to one another, have connection one with another, and are dependent upon and useful to each other; and nothing could possibly exist or subsist without this co-relation: connection with and use to each other. This is a law which needs only a little reflection to be accepted as a truth in every particular—in the greatest as well as in the least created form. This is more plainly seen in the animal kingdom than in the mineral or vegetable, because its members associate and finally become conjoined in pairs. Man and woman, who represent the crown and glory of all created beings, in whom are embodied all the lower orders, were and are still created to associate in pairs—each created for the other, the one to help the other; the two to love and to belong to one another. This principle, fully carried out,justifies and shows the necessity for the creation of man and woman precisely as they are, having bodies, parts and passions, will and understanding. It is my intention in the following pages to explain the relations existing between the sexes, for the purpose of showing that the greatest happiness to the human race will be found in living a life in full accord with these relations. In order that the subject may be fully understood, let us examine the physical development of man and woman in detail, particularizing the different organs of the body as they appear in their order of formation, from the very inmost or beginning, to the ultimate or end, in their respective natures.
Ever since the primal creation of man and woman, the human race has been perpetuated by a series of births. Children have been conceived in harmony with the natural order of events, in such matters, and have been born boys and girls. A boy is a boy to all intents and purposes from his very conception, from the very earliest moment of his being; begotten by his father he is a boy in embryo within the ovule of his mother. The converse is true of the opposite sex. At this very early age of reproduction the embryo has all the elements of the future man or woman,mentally and physically, even before any form becomes apparent; and so small is the human being at the earliest stage of its existence that no material change is observable between the ovule that contains the product of conception and a fully developed ovule unimpregnated.[A]
It is about twelve days after conception before the impregnated ovule, which undergoes many changes during this time, makes its escape from the ovary where it became impregnated and enters one of the Fallopian tubes, thence gradually descending into the cavity of the womb. Here it begins to mature and become fitted for its birth into the outer world. Soon now the embryo (for such it is called at this early stage) begins to assume form. The first indication of formation that it is possible to discover, even by the help of the microscope, consists of an oblong figure, obtuse at one extremity, swollen in the middle, blunt-pointed at the other extremity. The rudimentary embryo is slightly curved forward, is of a grayish white color, of a gelatinous consistence, from two to four lines long and weighs one or two grains. A slight depression representing the neck, enables us to distinguishthe head; the body is marked by a swollen centre, but there are as yet no traces of the extremities. So much can be observed about the end of the third week after conception.
At about thefifth weekthe embryo presents more distinctions. The head is very large in proportion to the rest of the body, the eyes are represented by two black spots, and the upper extremities by small protuberances on the sides of the trunk. The embryo at this stage is nearly two-thirds of an inch in length and weighs about fifteen grains. The lower extremities now begin to appear in the shape of two minute rounded tubercles. Till about this time a straight artery has been observed to beat with the regularity of the pulse; but now it appears doubled somewhat into the shape of an adult heart, although as yet it has but one auricle and one ventricle. As time advances we find the perfect heart with its two ventricles and two auricles, all developed from the original straight artery. At this period the lungs appear to exist in five or six different lobes and we can barely distinguish the bronchial tubes; about the same time the ears and face are distinctly outlined, and after awhile the nose is also faintly and imperfectly perceived.
At about theseventh weeka little bony depositis found in the lower jaw. The kidneys now begin to be formed, and a little later the genital organs. The embryo averages one inch in length.
Attwo monthsthe rudiments of the extremities become more prominent. The forearm and hand can be distinguished but not the arm above the elbow; the hand is larger than the forearm, but is not supplied with fingers. The sex cannot yet be determined. The length of the embryo is from one inch and a half to two inches, and it weighs from three to five drachms. The eyes are discernible, but still uncovered by the rudimentary lids. The nose forms an obtuse eminence, the nostrils are rounded and separated, the mouth is gaping and the epidermis can be distinguished from the true skin.
Atten weeksthe embryo is from one and a half to two and a half inches long, and its weight is from one ounce to an ounce and a half, the eyelids are more developed and descend in front of the eyes; the mouth begins to be closed by the development of the lips. The walls of the chest are more completely formed, so that it is no longer possible to see the movements of the heart. The fingers become distinct and the toes appear as small projections webbed together like afrog's foot. At about this period the sexual organs show their development as follows: On each side of the urinary locality an oblong fold becomes distinguishable; in course of progress if these folds remain separate, a little tubercle forms in the anterior commissure which becomes the clitoris; the nymphæ develop, the urethra forms between them, and the female sex is determined. If, on the other hand, these folds unite into a rounded projection the scrotum is formed, the little tubercle above becomes the penis and hence the male sex. The testicles forming within the body, descend later into the scrotum, and organs similar to them, their counterparts, form in the female and are called ovaries. These ovaries are found attached to an organ called the womb, and this again is united with the vagina, which leads downwards and outwards between the labia majora.[B]
At the end of thethird monththe weight of the embryo is from three to four ounces and its length from four to five inches, the eyeballs are seen through the lids, the pupils of the eyes are discernible, the forehead, nose and lips can be clearly distinguished. The finger nails resemble thin membranous plates, the skin shows more firmness, but is still rosy-hued,thin and transparent. The sex can now be fully determined.
At the end of thefourth monththe product of conception is no longer called an embryo, but a fœtus. The body is from six to eight inches in length and weighs six or seven ounces. A few little white hairs are seen scattered over the scalp. The development of the face is still imperfect. The eyes are now closed by their lids, the nostrils are well-formed, the mouth is shut in by the lips and the sex is still more sharply defined. The tongue may be observed far back in the mouth, and the lower part of the face is rounded off by what a little later will be a well-formed chin. The movements of the fœtus are by this time plainly felt by the mother, and if born at this time it may live several months.
At the end of thefifth monththe body of the fœtus is from seven to nine inches long and weighs from eight to eleven ounces. The skin has a fairer appearance and more consistence; the eyes can no longer be distinguished through the lids, owing to the increased thickness of the latter. The head, heart and kidneys are large and well developed. At the end of thesixth monththe fœtus is from eleven to twelve and a halfinches in length, and weighs about sixteen ounces, more or less. The hair upon the scalp is thicker and longer, the eyes remain closed, and very delicate hairs may be seen upon the margins of the eye-lids and upon the eye-brows. The nails are solid, the scrotum small and empty, the surface of the skin appears wrinkled but the dermis may be distinguished from the epidermis. The liver is large and red, and the gall-bladder contains fluid.
At the end of theseventh monththe length of the fœtus is from twelve and a half to fourteen inches, its weight is about fifty-five ounces, and it is both well defined and well proportioned in all its parts. The bones of the cranium, hitherto quite flat, now appear a little arched, and as the process of ossification goes on, the arching increases till the vault is quite complete. The brain presents greater firmness, and the eye-lids are opened. The skin is much firmer and red. The gall-bladder contains bile.
At the end of theeighth monththe fœtus seems to thicken up rather than to increase in length, since it is only from sixteen to eighteen inches long while its weight increases from four to five pounds. The skin is red, and characterized at this period by a finedowny covering, over which is spread a quantity of thick viscous matter, called the sebaceous coat, which has been forming since the latter part of the fifth month. The lower jaw has now become as long as the upper one, and in the male the left testicle may be found in the scrotum. Convolutions appear in the brain structure.
Atnine monthsthe anxious time of parturition has arrived. The fœtus is from nineteen to twenty-three inches in length and weighs on an average from six to eight pounds. Children at birth sometimes weigh as much as fourteen pounds; but such extremes are very rare. At this period the white and grey matter of the brain are distinct, and the convolutions are well marked; the nails assume a horny consistence, hair upon the head is more or less abundant, the testes are in the scrotum, and the entire external genital organs of both male and female are well formed.
The above particulars respecting the development of the human being have been narrated to show that one organ is just as important as another, and that each is really dependent upon the other; no one could exist without the other and all are to subserve a use. First must be theesse(the inmost) the vital force imparted to the ovule. A littlelater certain changes take place in the ovule, later still other changes, and finally about the fifteenth day a slight development of the new human being can just be outlined by the help of the microscope, which, as before stated, has form at about the third week after conception. First the vestige of a head and body, a little later the heart and lungs appear lying in the open chest; then the hands are protruded from the sides of the trunk, afterwards the forearms, then the arms, all pushed out from the body; the feet and legs gradually protrude from the lower end of the trunk, and the chest closes up so that the heart and lungs can no longer be seen; the face, mouth and eyes take form, the external genital organs make their appearance in conjunction with other developments, and in due course of time the boy or girl is born ready for further developments in childhood, and adolescence. When the latter development has been attained, if due care has been taken by all interested parties, we have pure men and pure women fitted to enter upon the privileges and theusesof a wedded life according to the design of our Creator.
How wonderfully and how instructively are all organs in the animal body disposed and arranged! In the highest place we find thebrain to govern and rule over all below. It is the first organ formed and in an orderly life should control all the others. Next in order and importance are the heart and lungs, which put into motion all other parts and enable the animal frame to continue in motion. So each and every organ is developed in its proper order, all to obey the commands of the first and most important—the brain, the seat of the reason and the will. Happy are they of either sex who will govern themselves by a pure enlightened reason and a pure affectionate will.
CHAPTER II.The Infant.Embracing the First Year of the Child's Life.
Thebattle of life really begins as soon as the child is born. Its cleanliness, its clothing, its temperature and its food are matters for daily observance and care, as also are the light, sunshine and air which it is to breathe. Opiates, soothing syrups and cordials, are to be strictly avoided as being deleterious to health; proper sanitary measures usually suffice to render alldosingunnecessary. Spirituous potions and lotions should be avoided as being contrary to the laws of hygiene as well as for fear the child may learn to love and to become addicted to their use later in life. Every organ of the body should be carefully protected even at this early age, so that health may reign supreme. Particular care and the utmost solicitude should be bestowed upon the genital organs. No rubbing or handling of these parts should be permitted under any pretense whatever—beyond what may be absolutely necessary for cleanliness. The genital organs require justas much watchful care, if not more, as the stomach, the eye, the ear, &c. I regret to say that I have known some fathers to tickle the genital organs of their infant boys until a complete erection of the little penis ensued, which effect pleases the father as an evidence of a robust boy. The evil effects of such a procedure are too manifest to require dilating upon. Fathers take warning!
Nurses are known to quiet young children by gently exciting pleasurable sensations about the genital organs both of males and females—practices which are the most vicious and vice-begetting that can possibly be invented. Many a young man and young woman has fallen to very low depths from influences developed by these and similar means. Nurses should be cautioned in this matterand carefully watched too, as even the least suspected may (innocently perhaps) be guilty of this fault to save themselves the trouble of quieting their charges in a proper way. Early impressions upon these animal passions, as well as those made upon other senses of the young, are very abiding. Mothers be watchful!
Great care should be exercised in the choice of a diaper for infants and the material of which it is made. The diaper should fiteasily about the organs which it covers and protects, so as not to cause undue heating or friction of the parts; and immediately after a babe has soiled itself either with urine or from a motion of the bowels, it should be made clean and dry at once to avoid any irritation that would otherwise ensue upon these delicate parts. The material of which the diaper is made should not be stiff or harsh, but very limp, soft and pliable; nor should it be thick and bungling. There are great objections to the use of oil-cloth, rubber or other impervious materials as they prevent the escape of perspiration, urine, fecal matter, etc. As soon as possible, say near the end of the first year, the child should be taught to use its little chair-commode, thus dispensing with the diaper at an early age. This is much better for the sexual organs, is more comfortable for the child and is more healthy; it also favors a more perfect development of the limbs and joints, the hip joints particularly.
CHAPTER III.Childhood.
Childhoodis that portion of life extending from infancy to adolescence, which in boys occurs at the age of fourteen to sixteen years; and in girls at the age of twelve to fourteen years. In very warm climates adolescence is reached some two or three years earlier.
Most fortunate the infant who has completed its term of life, thus far, in accordance with the strictest rules of Hygiene, or the laws of health.
“In a state of health sexual impressions should never affect a child's mind or body. All its vital energy should be employed in constructing the growing frame, in storing up proper external impressions and in educating the brain to receive them.” Unfortunately this state of health is not always attained. Impressions may be exhibited in these organs at a very early age either from inheritance, from improper handling or from some morbid condition of the child that could show itself in no other organ of the body and which, like morbid conditions in general,make their appearance somewhere in the mind or body.
Sexual Precocity.—Many parents who are most particular in all other respects, as to the moral and physical training of their children, imagine there is no need to pay any special attention to the genital organs. This, however, is a grave mistake and needs our careful consideration. As is well known, some children evince a sexual precocity which may lead to very serious results. In these it often happens that the sexual instinct arises long before puberty; such children, if males, manifest an instinctive attraction towards the female sex which they show by constantly spying after their nurses, chambermaids, etc.; by seeking as much as possible to play with children of the opposite sex and improperly toying with them.[C]“One case is so remarkable that an abstract of it may be instructive: M. D——, between five and six years of age, was one day in summer in the room of a dressmaker who lived in the family; this girl thinking that she might put herself at ease before such a child, threw herself on her bed, almost without clothing. The little D—— had followed all her motions and regarded her figure with a greedy eye. Heapproached her on the bed, as if to sleep, but soon became so bold in his behavior that the girl, after having laughed at him for some time was obliged to put him out of the room. This girl's simple imprudence produced such an impression on the child that forty years afterwards he had not forgotten a single circumstance connected with it.”
Parents are remarkably careless on this point. They allow children to play together for hours at a time without the surveillance of an older person, provided only they are removed from any danger. It is sufficient to merely draw attention to such a custom as every reflective mind can easily draw the inevitable consequences. Habits are indulged in and marks of familiarity shown which should not for an instant be tolerated.
Causeswhich commonly produce sexual impressions on young children are, allowing them to repose playfully on their belly, to slide down bannisters, to go too long without urinating, constipation or straining at stool, cutaneous affections, and worms. Also, thoughtless acts of elder people which are very frequently more closely observed than is commonly supposed. The sliding down bannisters produces a titillation which is agreeable to the sexual organs. Children ofboth sexes will constantly repeat this act until they learn to become inveterate masturbators, even at a very early age.
Among boys a disease calledpriapismis often developed; this arises from undue handling of the parts, or from some morbid state of the child's health. The disorder consists of paroxysms, occurring more or less frequently, of violent erections of the penis; these sometimes become very painful and require the attention of a physician. At all events medical aid should be sought at once, because some functional derangement is at work which might, if not arrested and cured, give rise to masturbation. Owing to unknown causes such morbid conditions induce some little boys to pull frequently at the foreskin of the penis until their health is seriously impaired; they pine away, lose flesh, and still continue to worry at the foreskin, till death has been known to result. These cases require the most careful and skillful constitutional treatment, until they are cured.
Sometimes, in other cases, the foreskin becomes inflamed, offensive secretions may form about the end of the penis, etc. All such disorders should be submitted to a judicious physician at once, to avoid irritations which might result in a tendency to sexualexcitement—a calamity truly deplorable to the young. The idea which some writers advance—that a long prepuce (or foreskin) often proves an exciting cause of troublesome sensations to the boy, is certainly erroneous. So, too, it is all wrong to state that particular care should be taken to wash under the prepuce. That this objection in regard to washing is true, is proved from the physical fact that in a large majority of boys the orifice of the foreskin is not sufficiently opened to permit of these washings. And the objection is still further proved by the fact that all these unnatural secretions, offensive odors, sensations, etc., which irritate and worry a boy together with all inflammations of these parts are soon relieved and permanently cured by the proper medicament. Needless laving, handling or rubbing the sexual parts should be avoided as strictly as possible. To show how little good such washings really do, even though persisted in, I will mention one out of many similar cases: “In spite of repeated washings every day, a fetid smegma was deposited in considerable quantity on the glans, causing a tiresome burning and itching.” All such cases are utterly intractable by any amount of bathing. But the suitable remedy administered internally cures the trouble permanentlyin a few weeks and at the same time improves the general tone and health of the individual. This is so because the proper remedy removes the morbific cause which produced that condition of the penis and all concomitant symptoms, at the same time. It must be remembered that the troubles referred to above come from within, and that they are but developments of internal morbific causes. In a similar manner, small pox, measles, chicken pox and all eruptive diseases comeoutas products from morbific causeswithin. No sane person ever thinks of washing off these appearances with the hope of curing the case!
All our external parts were made just as they should be and they work in harmony so long as we are perfectly healthy inwardly. Every blemish upon the skin, even to a wart, has a corresponding morbid influence within, which can be removed by proper treatment. Let it be remembered then for all coming time that a little boy's penis is never to be meddled or trifled with, nor his foreskin, nor the parts about the generative organs. All unnatural conditions, appearances or sensations require prompt and proper medical aid. If erections of his little penis occur during sleep, or if he cannot urinate promptly on rising inthe morning, because of an erection, let these conditions beget an anxiety for his welfare and at once seek a judicious physician, who will be able to prescribe a medicament to arrest all further development of sexual precocity—an affliction so baneful to the young.
A little later in life children are liable to ascarides or seat worms, called by some “pin worms.” No applications, purgatives, “vermifuges,” injections or other mechanical means should ever be employed to remove these, as they are of constitutional origin and should be so treated, until perfectly cured. Removing the worms by irritants or by mechanical means does not remove thecauseof their existence or reproduction in the body. The dyscrasia that gives rise to these worms, with the accompanying itching and tickling, is apt to cause a sexual excitement which may prove more disastrous than the original trouble itself. Therefore be sure that this affection is treated constitutionally; so long as the vital forces work in harmonious order, no abnormal appearances of any kind can come to light, because they do not exist.
From the age of nine to fourteen, boys generally acquire very curious notions about sexual affairs and are naturally, from what they hear, desirous of obtaining some ideaof sexual congress, a knowledge of where babies come from, etc. This curiosity, of course, causes the mind to dwell much upon sexual subjects. I fully believe that good information will, by satisfying this curiosity, free the mind to a great extent from sexual thoughts. It is from such very thoughts that boys are led to play with their sexual organs in secret, and to handle them so as to excite pleasurable sensations; erections of the penis are thus produced and finally, by this continual excitation with the hand, theheightof sexual orgasm is reached, ejaculation of semen occurs andself-pollutionis the consequence. This act is called “masturbation” and becomes asecret vice of the worst kind!
Very frequently and to an alarming extent “masturbation” is taught by older boys, and by young men even, in nearly all our colleges, boarding, public and private schools, and by companions under the paternal roof. This act is repeated time after time until the degrading and destructive (morally and physically so) habit is confirmed. As a result, the boy grows thin, pale, morose and passionate; then weak, indolent and indifferent; his digestion becomes impaired, his sleep short, disturbed and broken; he sometimes becomes epileptic or falls into a state of marasmus; inany case he is in great danger of being totally ruined forever.
There is a great difference in boys regarding the formation of these habits. While some may almost insensibly glide into them, others, intuitively as it were, turn away from all such temptations and banish all thoughts of a sexual nature from their minds at once. This is right. So long as a boy's mind refuses to harbor such baleful approaches, so long he is safe; but the moment he heeds them and allows them to enter his mind, that moment he is in danger and will most likely fall into bad habits. He must strenuously resist all such thoughts and going to his father or mother tell them about his trials and temptations and strive to forget them until success crowns his efforts. By persistent efforts, by repeated prayers to the Lord for help, by reading his Bible and good, pure stories, by running into the open air and indulging in some useful occupation or joyous, healthful play, he will eventually conquer them and thus rise to the dignity of a true man. Sometimes, too, it may be necessary to consult the physician for help. In addition to the instinctive shrinking which every right minded person generally feels from putting ideas of impurity into a child's innocent mind,a parent's pride leads him to hope thathisboy would not indulge in any such mean and disgusting practices. But, bearing in mind the advice of Herbert Spencer—“that the aim of discipline should be to produce aself-governingbeing,” the best advice a parent or guardian can, and ought, to give, is: do not harbor bad thoughts or feelings about anything; at once turn them away and think of something else, of something good, true and pure. Indulge in no hatred or revengeful feelings towards others; plot no evil things; always be true to your word, faithful to your duties and charitable to all. Treat everybody kindly and politely. And further, a child should betaughtwhat “chastity” really is, instead of leaving him to find it out as best he may.
It should be clearly explained to him that true chastity requires the shunning of all indecency and foul language; that he should refrain from touching his secret parts except when the necessities of nature require it; that all sexual emotions should be subjugated. When he grows older every boy should be taught that chastity means continence; and it should be firmly impressed upon his mind that all lascivious actions are a drain upon his whole system and weaken the powerswhich the Lord has given him to be employedonlyin the married state. These are characteristics of a true man and will help him very much to keep out of sexual difficulties which, as we shall see further on, are among the greatest curses of life.
The use of tobacco, wine, coffee or tea by children is well known to be highly injurious. Never allow a child to use either of these—not even in small quantities. A too common practice in many families is to allow a little wine at dinner “to assist digestion!” Others allow coffee or tea, “because my child is so fond of it.” “The after-effects of all these is to disturb the heart, to cause nervousness and irritability, andto weaken the sexual organs in a marked degree. Tobacco particularly has this last effect in old and young, besides producing convulsions, a dulled intellect, etc.”[D]
Remember where the brain is and the purposes for which it has been given! Here reside the knowledge and the power to govern all below it. No matter what the stomach craves or how strongly the appetite begs for this or that; no matter how much one may be tempted to steal, to lie or to swear; no matter how much the sexual organs may lead one to think about or handle them—here isthe great and good brain, the home of the will-power, which says: “Touch not, taste not, handle not.” So long as these commands are listened to and obeyed, one is safe. The desire need not and should not control the act—but the rational faculty can and will control, when early taught to do so. The more one is led by this rational faculty the easier it becomes to follow it, andvice versa.
What has been said above regarding the danger of little boys falling into bad habits applies with equal force to little girls. Do not forget this. They too may have sexual thoughts, feelings and curiosity, and care must be taken to keep their minds pure and bodies healthy. They are also liable to disorders that require prompt and careful attention, such asinflammations, excoriations, itchings and swellings of the genital organs with discharges from these parts resembling leucorrhœa. All such conditions lead them to more or less rub and scratch these parts—which should never be touched—for relief. Pleasurable sensations are experienced and then comes masturbation—a sin chargeable to the parentfor not having given the matter proper medical attention. “Repeated washings” will no more cure these cases in little girls than, as shown above, will they cure inlittle boys. All these are but the outcropping of some constitutional affection and should be treated accordingly. No applications or medicated washings of any kind should be allowed. Such external treatment only palliates the suffering for a little while without removing the disordered vital force that gave origin to its appearance. This is simply repressed and may react upon the child and appear in another form tenfold worse than the first. The passing of urine or fecal matter may (in either sex) cause irritation and excoriation; this is another sign that all is not right in the vital forces and should be mentioned to the physician as a sure index that medical treatment, but not topical applications, is absolutely necessary. All abnormal appearances, actions and discomforts of the child, whether mental or physical, should be submitted to an experienced and judicious physician. A healthy child should be happy and comfortable in all respects.
A very successful plan for keeping children from vice or vicious habits is to see that their time is fully occupied with amusements and duties which interest them. They need a great deal of harmlessly conducted amusement and—donotstrive to “keep them quiet.” Allow little boys and girls to play together,under proper surveillance, and let them be boisterous if they will; let them romp and run, climb fences, trundle hoops, jump rope, go to dancing school, participate in military drills, go coasting and skating, take swimming lessons, etc.
No judicious parents will allow a son or daughter to be alone much; to seek to be alone is always a bad sign and should be carefully guarded against without its being known that such precaution is observed. Furnish them liberally with instructive and innocent story books and let them read aloud to you or to each other. Take them to walk or ride when you go, and strive to make companions of them as much as possible, making whatever sacrifices are necessary to attain this end. Above all,encourage their making confidants of you. Let them feel that they can come and talk freely on any subject, no matter what its nature may be. Do this, and you have thrown around them a bulwark of defence that will withstand the repeated attacks of hosts of evil spirits. When night comes and they go to bed, let them learn to go to sleep at once; no play then—they may be read to sleep, but no romping or playing. No strange children should be allowed to sleep with yours; make them occupy separate rooms or at least separatebeds; be sure that the sleeping places of your children are sacred to them alone. Nor is it advisable for children to sleep with a grown person of either sex and particularly not with servants—all for obvious reasons.
The observance of all these precautions against influences that might excite sexual disturbance is most sacred in its character and most needful even in a religious point of view; for there should bechastityabove all things.
CHAPTER IV.ADOLESCENCE OF THE MALE.
Adolescenceof the male embraces the period of life from the age of fourteen or sixteen years to the age of twenty-five.
At about the age of fourteen years “the period of youth is distinguished by that advance in the evolution of the generative apparatus in both sexes, and by that acquirement of its power of functional activity, which constitutes the state ofPuberty.” At this age the following great changes take place in the general appearance and deportment of the male: His frame becomes more angular and the masculine proportions more pronounced; increased strength and greater powers of endurance are manifested; the larynx enlarges and the voice becomes lower in pitch as well as rougher and more powerful; new feelings and desires awaken in the mind. His deportment becomes more commanding, his frivolity is less and less apparent, and the boy is lost in the man. If he has been so fortunate as to escape all the dangersand baneful influences of childhood, he is manly indeed, and we behold him with an unburdened conscience, bright intellect, frank address and good memory. His spirits are buoyant and his complexion clear; every function of his body is well performed, and no fatigue is felt after moderate exertion. He evinces that elasticity of body, and that happy control of himself and his feelings, which are indicative of the robust health and absence of care which should accompany youth. His time is devoted to his studies, duties and amusements; as he feels his stature increase, and his intellect enlarge, he gladly prepares for his coming struggle with the world.
All boys may come to this condition with proper training through the period of infancy and childhood; and after arriving at the adolescent age of their existence as they have the power of mind tochoose, so also have they the power torefuse. The human race is created above the animal so that we are something more than mere animals; we are human beings with human propensities, human passions, human desires and human tastes, which are subject to the human brain, to the human reason and to the human will—all elevated and ennobled by the Divine Will. Man must not let himself down to be governed byanimal passions; the moment he does that, his higher powers suffer and become weakened, and he becomes more like an inferior animal; if he persists in this downward course, his lower powers become strengthened until finally they transcend and rule the higher. Then, to all intents and purposes, such a man's head is downwards and the lower part of his body is upwards just where his head ought to be.
Man is a human being, yet, like the whole animal kingdom, he has appetites, desires and passions, as it is absolutely necessary that he should have. He has organs corresponding to these appetites, desires and passions, and it is necessary that he should have them. A proper understanding in regard to this matter will convince anyone of the truth of this assertion. Our Creator doeth all things wisely and well, in the most perfect manner possible. Consequently, man with all his organs, parts and passions is just what he should be when he blossoms into youth, in the perfection of his adolescence as described above. In fact there could be no other form of creating man, for the Lord always creates in the most perfect way possible, according to one harmonious law which He has ordained to govern the creation of all beings.
Such a man is fully prepared to struggle with himself and the world at large. In his desires, appetites or passions of any kind, he, in his humanity, protected by his rational faculties and enlightened by the Divine Oracle of God, unquestionably has the power to choose between propriety and impropriety, between the right and the wrong, between the good and the bad. Take any evil into which a member of the human family may fall—the love of ardent spirit for instance; he first thinks of it and desires to partake of some. Finally he takes an opportunity to gratify his desire, does satisfy it for the time and thinks it very nice. The next craving is a little more intense, and he cannot overcome the temptation quite so easily as he could have done before, and at last he indulges again. So he goes on, step by step, until he may fall very low.The same thinking, feeling and desiringprecedesthe adoption of every vicious habit that was ever formed.Nor will anyone pretend to say that a persistent effort of the will power, at the very outset, when he first perceived the tendencies of his desires to do what he need not do, would not have prevented the evil; no argumentation will prevail in the face of stubborn facts, and the real facts are all on the side of purity and order.
These very young men or youths, as they progress through adolescence, may become tempted in a variety of ways, some to the use of ardent spirits or tobacco, others to lie, to steal, to forge, &c.; but the approach to all these evils is gradual and first comes through the mind. They first think about the action, turn it over and over in their minds until they come to greatly desire and then, later, to commit the evil which would not have been ultimated if the mind had been persistently set against it in the beginning. This is an indisputable fact.
In this manner many promising youths, just as they are blossoming into the pride of early manhood, begin to indulge in sexual thoughts and to allow these thoughts to influence their minds until they commit some of the evils to which perverted and unchaste passions lead them. If this evil be masturbation, then they are on the direct road to ruin, as will be seen described further on. If it be the commission of sexual intercourse with women, their ruin is still more certain, and in the latter case they are exposed to one of the worst poisons that can possibly infect the human race. I do not overdraw the picture when I declare thatmillions of human beings die annually from the effects of poisoncontracted in this way, in some form of suffering or another; for, by insinuating its effects into and poisoning the whole man, it complicates various disorders and renders them incurable. When gonorrhœa is contracted, although frequently suppressed by local treatment in the form of injections, it is never perfectly cured thereby. No; the hidden poison runs on for a life time producing strictures, dysuria, gleet and kindred diseases; finally, in old men, a horrible prostatitis results from which the balance of one's life is rendered miserable indeed. If inflammation of the lungs supervenes, there is often a translation of the virus to these vital organs, causing what is termed “plastic pneumonia,” where one lobule after another becomes gradually sealed up, till nearly the whole of both lungs becomes impervious to air, and death results from asphyxia.
This horrible infection sometimes becomes engrafted upon other acute diseases when lingering disorders follow, causing years of misery, and only terminating in death.
If real syphilis, in the form of chancre, should be contracted, and in that form suppressed, we have buboes often of a malignant type, ulceration of the penis and a loss of some portion of this member. Sometimesthe poison attacks the throat, causing most destructive ulcerations therein; sometimes it seizes upon the nasal bones, resulting in their entire destruction and an awful disfiguration of the face; sometimes it ultimates itself in the ulceration and destruction of other osseous tissues in different portions of the body. Living examples of these facts are too frequently witnessed in the streets of any large city. Young men marrying with the slightest taint of this poison in the blood will surely transmit the disease to their children. Thousands of abortions transpire every year from this cause alone, the poison being so destructive as to kill the childin utero, before it is matured for birth; and even if the child be born alive, it is liable to break down with the most loathsome disorders of some kind and to die during dentition; the few that survive this period are short lived and are unhealthy so long as they do live. The very first unchaste connection of a man with a woman may be attended with a contamination entailing upon him a life of suffering and even death itself. There is no safety among impure or loose women whether in private homes or in the very best regulated houses of ill-fame; even in Paris, where, after women have been carefully examined and pronouncedfree from any infecting condition, the first man who visits one of them, often carries away a deadly enemy in his blood, which had lurked in concealment beyond the keen eye of the inspector. A young man, or a man at any age, is in far greater danger amidst company of this stamp, than he would be with a clear conscience and pure character in the midst of the wildest forest, full of all manner of poisonous serpents and wild beasts of every description. A knowledge of the above facts should be enough to chill the first impulse and to make any man who respects his own well-being, turn away and flee from the destruction that awaits him.
As if the above sufferings were not a sufficient penalty for the transgression against the law—“Be ye pure,” we find yet another. Coincident with the physical wreck, which syphilis makes of the man who becomes thoroughly tainted with its poison, comes his moral wreck. He loses all respect for the truth and all regard for his word; no dependence of any kind can be placed upon him, and he will not pay his debts or fulfil any moral obligation; all because he began by prostituting his mind more and more until, with deadened conscience, almost literally, his head is dependent and his feet uppermost,ruling all the better part of his nature. And next come the mental sufferings—and most agonizing they are. Unhappy to the last degree, he no longer takes pleasure in life, but, wishing to die, finally commits suicide. A search in any insane asylum will show that a very large proportion of patients are made up from those who masturbate or have syphilis. Stamp out these two evils, or rathercursesof the human race, and the supply that feeds our insane asylums, aye and our penitentiaries, too, will become vastly lessened. Think of it! So many of the inhabitants of our prisons, asylums, and our poor-houses, are composed of men and women who have offended against nature's laws by violating their own sexual nature. Add to this summary the list of broken-hearted, deflowered virgins and unwedded mothers, and you have the picture complete.
What a contrast with that manliness of character from which he has fallen! Now he is in an insane condition, blaming everyone for having contributed to his many misfortunes and his fallen condition, whereas he alone is the culprit. No one made him commit the first or any subsequent evil. He allowed his own mind to yield to the first temptation, and then went on from step tostep, he alone being responsible for the result Yield not the first point, and all is safe.
The pride of perfect adolescence, as described a few pages back, is due to purity of thought, to chastity and continence. This purity shines through every tissue, enkindles the eye with a true expression, makes bright the countenance and erects the form. It gives elasticity to the step, causes harmony in the tones of the voice, and adds dignity to the carriage and deportment. The first step in the paths of vice in any form, whether in sexual errors or any other, detracts in the exact degree of the digression from all of the above beautiful and ennobling characteristics.
We have spoken in the preceding pages of new feelings and desires being awakened in the youth after his fourteenth year. This change is wholly due to his approaching manhood, to the time when he will be fully prepared to appreciate, to love and protect, guide and support her whom he makes his wife, and to become the father of happy and healthy children. But this approach to manhood is not due to the development of the genital organs, as some writers affirm, for this would be a reversion of orderly development. The approaching manhood develops in full accordance to their uses and importanceallthe organs belonging to man. As the well-developed infant has all its organs developed in a condition suitable for its state, and the child has all its organs in all parts of the body, developed in full accord with its state, so adolescence follows, and every organ must develop accordingly; and in this development a new impetus is given to every organ in the body. The whole man awakens to a newness of life as is seen in the change of his voice, the spreading out of his frame, the independence and command of his bearing, the activity of his brain, the soundness of his judgment, until he becomes in the fullest sense a rational being. Of course the development of his genital organs keeps pace with that of his brain; but the brain should lead the way throughout the entire development of the human race.
At the time of puberty, then, a new and a different sensation springs up in the generative organs, which is in perfect harmony with the uses for which they are intended. We recognize the use of the hands, the fingers, the feet, the eyes, the ears, the sense of taste, &c., and we use them accordingly. We should think of the generative organs only in the same light. They are intended for use, for the highest and holiest use of procreatinghuman beings to the end that they may become angels in heaven. These organs were not made to be abused; but they are abused every time the mind is allowed to dwell upon them improperly. Every excitation we allow from lewd thoughts or fancies, has a debasing and deteriorating effect upon that well-developed form, upon that conscience so free, and upon that countenance so open and bright, which has been described in the preceding pages.
If the mere thought and excitation arising therefrom are injurious to the perfection of the youth, how much more injurious must be the ultimation of that thought in masturbation, in unlawful sexual intercourse, or in the loss of seminal fluid by other unnatural means.
Right here I feel impelled to say something of the
DIFFICULTY OF MAINTAINING CHASTITY.
I, in connection with many of our best and wisest men who have given the subject a lifetime's most earnest consideration, hold that for a young man whose early education has been carefully looked to, and consequently, whose mind has not been debased by vile practices, it is no more impossible mentally, or injurious physically, to preserve his chastitythan to refrain from yielding to any other of the innumerable temptations with which his life is beset. And every year of voluntary chastity renders the task easier by mere force of habit. I wish to be clearly understood in this matter.
So long as a young man remains chaste in thought and deed, he will not suffer any bad effects from his continence. It is thesemicontinent, the man who knows the right but pursues the wrong, who suffers! Patients frequently complain that enforced continence makes them restless, irritable, unfit for mental application of any sort, &c. Sexual intercourse is then indulged in, and presto: for the time being, what a welcome change. The now unclogged mind grasps with vigor any subject presented to it, the spirits are exuberant and the physical frame buoyant. But, is the trouble cured, is it permanently eradicated from the system? No! In a short time the symptoms reappear and the same remedy is again sought. The more the sexual feelings are indulged the more frequent will be their recurrence, and the result need not be written; every candid mind can easily see it. To their shame and confusion be it said, there are many physicians who, when consulted by their patients for medical assistancein such trials, “deliberately encourage the early indulgence of the passions, on the false and wicked ground that self-restraint is incompatible with health. What abhorrence can be too deep for a doctrine so destructive, or for the teachers who thus, before the eyes of those whose youthful ignorance, whose sore natural temptation, rather call for the wisest and tenderest guidance and encouragement, put darkness for light, evil for good, and bitter for sweet.”[E]
I declare emphatically that no symptoms of sexual suffering, no matter how feelingly described or cunningly insinuated, should ever lead a physician to prescribe for a young man that fatal remedy, illicit intercourse. Medically as a physician, morally as a Christian, and sympathizingly as a fellow being, I record a solemn protest against such false treatment. It is better for a youth to live a continent life. The strictly chaste suffer comparatively little sexual irritability; but the incontinent, at recurring periods are sure to be troubled in one or other of the ways spoken of; and the remedy of indulgence, if effective, requires repetition as often as the inconvenience returns. No! When thus consulted, let the physician prescribe theproper medicament, if one be necessary; and let him direct a plain, nourishing, non-stimulating diet, physical exertion of any kind carried to exhaustion, andSELF CONTROL.
Would any young man in his senses listen to a physician, who, for lowness of spirits, mental despondency, &c., should tell him to drink plentifully of brandy or eat hasheesh? On the same principle then let a youth shun the physician, who, for sexual excitement, prescribes sexual indulgence.
Again, such complaints coming from young men are very often specious, and are mere subterfuges—overdrawn pictures of their sufferings—which are presented as an excuse for indulging the sensual emotions, instead of manfully and righteously struggling to overcome them. And further, “if anyone wishes to really experience the acutest sexual suffering, he can adopt no more certain method than to be incontinent with the intention of becoming continent again, when he has ‘sown his wild oats.’ The agony of breaking off a habit which so rapidly entwines itself with every fibre of the human frame (as sexual indulgence) is such that it would not be too much to say in the Wise Man's words, ‘Nonethat go to her return again,neither take they hold on the paths of life.’”