I should suggest, then, that all the masters be provided with such information as is necessary. They might, I think, very well speak to some of the senior boys on the subject, and request them to warn the others of the practice, and exhort them to discontinue it. The doctor of the place might be considered, perhaps, a fit person to speak to the boys. I think, however, that if he alone were to give his advice, the boys would not perceive that a general interest was taken in the matter, but that it was a subject in which he, as a medical man, was alone concerned; and so probably even his advice would not have the influence which it otherwise might. He, of course, by acting in concert with the masters, might do a great deal. It might, perhaps, be advisable for the masters to lend a medical work such as your own to the senior boys, in order that they might see that the ill-effects of the practice were not fancies of the masters, but that they were well known by surgeons and other medical men. Hoping that these suggestions may prove useful both to yourself and the public, I remain, yours truly, PERIOD II. THE FUNCTIONS AND DISORDERS OF THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS IN YOUTH. PART I. NORMAL FUNCTIONS. YOUTH (by which we mean that portion of man's earthly existence during which he is growing-that is, in which he has not yet attained his maximum of mental and physical stature and strength) is, as regards the reproductive functions, to be divided into two periods. The line of demarcation is the occurrence of that strange series of phenomena which constitute what we call puberty. During the first of these two periods, or childhood, strictly so termed, the fitting condition is, as we have seen, absolute sexual quiescence. We now pass to the consideration of the second period of youth, in which quiescence wakes into all the excitement of the most animated life-a spring season, so to speak, like that so brilliantly sketched by our great poet: "In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast, In the spring a livelier iris changes in the burnished dove, In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." The dangers as well as the powers and delights of this new energy are increased tenfold. If childhood has its sexual temptations, manhood and womanhood have theirs, infinitely harder to overcome, infinitely more ruinous if yielded to. Of the real nature of this new condition, of its temptations, of the incalculable advantages of resisting them, and of the means of doing so, it is now my purpose to speak, as plainly and simply as possible. The ultimate consequences of yielding will be treated of at length hereafter. Dr. Carpenter thus describes the change from childhood to youth: "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 of PUBERTY. At this epoch a considerable change takes place in the bodily constitution: the sexual organs undergo a much increased development; various parts of the surface, especially the chin and the pubes, become covered with hair; the larynx enlarges, and the voice becomes lower in pitch, as well as rougher and more powerful; and new feelings and desires are awakened in the mind.” "To the use of the sexual organs for the continuance of his race, MAN is prompted by a powerful instinctive desire, which he shares with the lower animals. This instinct, like the other propensities, is excited by sensations; and these may either originate in the sexual organs themselves or may be excited through the organs of special sense. Thus in man it is most powerfully aroused by impressions conveyed through the sight or touch, but in many other animals the auditory and olfactory organs communicate impressions which have an equal power, and it is not improbable that in certain morbidly excited states of feeling the same may be the case with ourselves."-Carpenter's Physiology, p. 792. With this bodily and mental change or development special functions, hitherto quiescent, begin their operations. Of these the most important in the male is the secretion of the impregnating fluid, the semen. "From the moment," says Lallemand, "that the evolution of the generative organs commences (the testicles act), if the texture is not accidentally destroyed, they will continue to secrete up to a very advanced age. It is true that the secretion may be diminished by the absence of all excitement, direct or indirect, by the momentary feebleness of the economy, or by the action of special medicines, but it never entirely ceases from puberty up to old age." (p. 240, vol. ii.) And now begins the trial which every healthy boy must encounter, and come out of victorious if he is to be all that he can and ought to be. The child should know nothing of this trial, and ought never to be disturbed with one sexual feeling or thought. But with puberty a very different state of things arises. A new power is present to be exercised, a new want to be satisfied. It is, I take it, of vital importance that boys and young men should know, not only the guilt of an illicit indul.. gence of their dawning passions, but also the danger of straining an immature power, and the solemn truth that the want will be an irresistible tyrant only to those who have lent it strength by yielding; that the only true safety lies in keeping even the thought pure. And nothing, I feel convinced, but a frank statement of the truth will persuade them that these new feelings, powers, and delights, must not be indulged in. Now, it is very well known to medical men that the healthy secretion of semen has a direct effect upon the whole physical and mental conformation of the man. A series of phenomena attend the natural action of the testicles which influence the whole system; gradually, in fact, forming the character itself. A function so important, which does, in truth, to a great extent determine, according as it is dealt with, the happiness or misery of a life, is surely one of the last, if not the very last, to be abused. But what, too often, are the facts? The youth, finding himself in possession of these sexual feelings and powers, utterly ignorant of their importance or even of their nature, except from the ribald conversation of the worst of his companions, and knowing absolutely nothing of the consequences of giving way to them, fancies, as he, with many compunctions, begins a career of depravity, that he is obeying nature's dictates. Every fresh indulgence helps to forge the chains of habit, and, too late, the truth dawns on him that he is, more or less, ruined for this world, that he can never be what he might have been, and that it can only be by a struggle as for life or death that he can hope for any recovery. Alas, in too many there is no strength left for any such struggle, and, hopelessly and helplessly, they drift on into irremediable ruin, tied and bound in the chain of a sin with the commencement of which ignorance had as much to do as vice. "The instinct of reproduction, when once aroused, even though very obscurely felt, acts in man upon his mental faculties and moral feelings, and thus becomes the source, though almost unconsciously so to the individual, of the tendency to form that kind of attachment towards one of the opposite sex which is known as love. This tendency, except in men who have degraded themselves to the level of brutes, is not merely an appetite or emotion, since it is the result of the combined operations of the reason, the imagination, the moral feelings, and the physical desire. It is just in this connection of the psychical attachment with the more corporeal instinct that the difference between the sexual relations of man and those of the lower animals lies. In proportion as the Human being makes the temporary gratification of the mere sexual appetite his chief object, and overlooks the happiness arising from mental and spiritual communion, which is not only purer but more permanent, and of which a renewal may be anticipated in another world, does he degrade himself to a level with the brutes that perish."-Carpenter, p. 793. Shakespeare makes even Iago say "If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions; but we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts."-Othello. "Nuptial love," says Lord Bacon, "maketh mankind, friendly love perfecteth it, but wanton love corrupteth and embaseth it." Here, then, is our problem. A natural instinct, a great longing, has arisen in a boy's heart, together with the appearance of the powers requisite to gratify it. Everything—the habits of the world, the keen appetite of youth for all that is new-the example of companions--the pride of health and strength-opportunity-all combine to urge him to give the rein to what seems a natural propensity. Such indulgence is, indeed, not natural, for man is not a mere animal, and the nobler parts of his nature cry out against this violation of their sanctity. And more, such indulgence is fatal. It may be repented of. Some of its consequences may be, more or less, recovered from. But, from Solomon's time to ours, it is true that it leads to a "house of death." But the boy does not know all this. He does not know that to his immature frame every sexual indulgence is unmitigated evil. He does not think that to his inexperienced mind and heart every illicit pleasure is a degradation, to be bitterly regretted hereafter-a link in a chain that does not need many to be too strong to break. "Amare et sapere vix Deo conceditur," said the ancients. It is my object, nevertheless, to point out how the two can be combined-how, in spite of all temptations the boy can be at once loving and wise, and grow into what indeed, I think, is one of the noblest things in the world in these our days, a continent man. CHAPT. I.-CONTINENCE. In the following pages the word continence will be used in the sense of voluntary and entire abstinence from sexual indulgences in any form. The abstinence must be voluntary, for continence is very different from impotence. An impotent man is continent in a sense, but his continence, not depending on any effort of the will, is not of the kind we are now speaking of. Nor is the continence which I advise, and would encourage by every means in my power, mere ignorance. That, as I have already said, I consider a dangerous condition. True continence is complete control over the passions, exercised by one who knows what they are, and who, but for his steady will, not only could, but would indulge them. Again, continence must be entire. The fact of the indulgence being lawful or unlawful does not affect the question of continence. In this respect our definition differs from those in most dictionaries.1 This definition, of course, excludes the masturbator from the category 1 The following are one or two of the definitions of the word "continence" in standard works: "Abstinence from, or moderation in, the pleasures of physical love."-R. Dunglison, M.D. "The abstaining from unlawful pleasures.”—Bailey. "Forbearance of lawful pleasure.”—Ash. |