ments, evil influences sometimes find their way, and the destructive habit may take root and become common. In private schools, however, which are to a great extent free from the control of that healthy public opinion that, even among boys, has so salutary an effect, there is too much reason to fear that this scourge of our youth prevails to an extent which will not be known, with any certainty, till years hence the sufferers from early vice are seeking medical relief, too often, alas, in vain. It is for us now to consider what preventive steps can be taken to lessen if not remove the evil; that it exists among children, even now, to a frightful extent, I have only too abundant reason to know. And that schools are still subject to it is pretty evident from much information I have had, of which the letter printed at page 21 from one who has had unequalled opportunities of knowing what goes on in schools is a sample.

I cannot venture to print the accounts patients have given me of what they have seen or even been drawn into at schools. I would fain hope that such abominations are things of the past, and cannot be now repeated under more perfect supervision, and wider knowledge of what is at least possible.

THE SYMPTOMS Which mark the commencement of the practice are too clear for an experienced eye to be deceived. As Lallemand remarks: "However young the children may be, they get thin, pale, or irritable, and their features become haggard. We notice the sunken eye, the long, cadaverous looking countenance, the downcast look which seems to arise from a consciousness that their habits are suspected, and, at a later period, that their virility is lost. It may depend upon timidity acquired or inherited. I wish by no means to assert that every boy unable to look another in the face, is or has been a masturbator, but I believe this vice is a very frequent cause of timidity. These boys have a dank, moist, cold hand, very characteristic of great vital exhaustion; their sleep is short, and most complete marasmus comes on; they may die if their evil passion is not got the better of; nervous symptoms set in, such as spasmodic contraction, or partial or entire convulsive movements, together with epilepsy, eclampsy, and a species of paralysis accompanied with contractions of the limbs." (vol. i, p. 462.)

Provided the vicious habit is left off, or has not been long practised, Nature in the boy soon repairs the mischief, which appears to act principally on the nervous system,' for in very young boys no semen is lost. If, however, masturbation is continued, Nature replies to the call

1 Lallemand admits that in children it is not the loss of semen which can produce the usual effects of spermatorrhoea, but that the symptoms must depend upon the influence exercised on the nervous system, what he terms the ébranlement nerveux épileptiforme, the loss of nervous power which follows over-excitement, tickling, or spasmodic affections in young and susceptible children, and which may produce such a perturbation of the nervous system as to occasion even death. He gives an instance

of the excitement, and semen, or something analogous is secreted. Occasionally, the emission gives pleasure, and there is then great danger of the habit becoming confirmed. The boy's health fails, he is troubled with indigestion, his intellectual powers are dimmed, he becomes pale, emaciated, and depressed in spirits; exercise he has no longer any taste for, and he seeks solitude. Let those who would read an eloquent and able description of the symptoms, consult J. J. Rousseau's 'Confessions,' p. 366. At a later period the youth cannot so easily minister to his solitary pleasures, and he excites his organs the more, as they flag under the accustomed stimulus. He becomes shy and timid, particularly in the presence of women. There is a case related by Chopart, of a shepherd boy who was in the habit of passing a piece of twig down the urethra, in order to produce ejaculation, when all other means had failed.

PROGNOSIS.-Evil as the effects are, even in early childhood, the prognosis of the ailment, looking on it as an ailment, is not in children, unfavorable. Lallemand observes:-" In respect to the evil habit in children, it is easy to re-establish the health, if we can prevent the little patient masturbating himself, for at this period the resources of nature are great;" he does not, however, think that "it is so easy to repair the injury inflicted on nutrition during the development of the body, nevertheless the consequences disappear readily, and all the functions become re-established; not so, however, when masturbation occurs after puberty." (vol. i, p. 468.)

PREVENTIVE TREATMENT.-I cannot but think that much of this evil could be prevented, by wisely watching children in early life; and where a sexual temperament, a suspicion of the practice having been begun, or other circumstances rendered it desirable, by pointing out the dreadful evils that result from it, kindly but solemnly warning them against it. I have noticed that all patients who have confessed to me that they have practised this vice, have lamented that they were not when children made aware of its consequences, and I have been pressed over and over again to urge on parents, guardians, schoolmasters, and others interested in the education of youth, the necessity of giving their charge some warning, some intimation of their danger. Almost all coincide in the opinion that at the early age at which these practices are generally learnt, it is generally mere curiosity which prompts them. And it is often only when too late, that the adult finds out that the idle and ignorant, if not innocent trick of the child has resulted in seriously impaired health, if not in calamities that embitter his whole after life. It is not to be denied, however, that there are great difficulties in the way of this, which he attributes to the effect produced on the brain by repeated convulsive shocks similar to those which susceptible subjects receive when the soles of the feet are tickled. (See Lallemand, p. 467-8.)

of carrying out this protective method. I find, for instance, that the parents of boys about to be sent to school are, not unnaturally, most unwilling to speak of these matters to their sons. In addition to the instinctive, shrinking which every right-minded person must feel from putting ideas of impurity into a child's innocent mind, a parent's pride leads them to hope that their boys are above any such mean and disgusting practises, and that at any rate, they can leave these matters to the master whose interest, as well as duty it is to check any such evils for the credit of his school.

The schoolmaster, on the other hand, is just as disinclined to move. Till it is positively forced upon his notice, he will, most naturally, persist that the practice never has or will exist in his school. Many masters feel, and say, that such things are no business of theirs. They hint at the delicacy of the subject and ask how they can even allude to matters of this kind, which do not properly come under their supervision. They say, as we might expect, that it is a parent's task, and that if fathers and mothers will take care that their boys are well brought up, they will not fall into dirty habits of any kind, much less so filthy a one as masturbation. And, indeed, it is a good deal to ask of a schoolmaster. He naturally feels that, when he has done all he can in the way of supervision and management to prevent his boys from indulging in evil propensities, the responsibility of warning them against habits which he hopes they have never heard of, and which might be put into their heads if he were to broach the subject at all, is greater than he ought to be called upon to bear. If he were, he says, to discover any boys practising or inciting others to practice the evil habit, they would of course be severely punished or even expelled, but never having discovered any such offenders, he does not believe the habit is indulged in at all, and declines to mention it. Now if testimony is to be believed, it is certain that these practices are still (though perhaps less frequently than formerly), indulged in; yet no one considers that it is his duty to try to prevent them, except indirectly. As I have said, it is my deliberate opinion that in many cases it would be true wisdom, and true kindness openly and in plain and solemn language to lay before a child the full extent of his danger, and impress upon him as urgently as possible, the fact that it is a danger, and that the consequences of yielding on his part will be most lamentable. I have myself no hesitation as to the advice I should give to parents in such matters. In all cases, I would tell them, the best preventive step to be taken is to watch their children, if not actually to warn them against what it is to be hoped they are ignorant of, and to develope all their muscular powers by strong gymnastic exercises. For, as any one may observe, it is not the strong athletic boy, fond of healthy exercise, who thus early shows marks of sexual desires: but your puny exotic, whose intellectual

education has been fostered at the expense of his physical develop

ment.

Little do parents know or think of what they sacrifice in unnaturally forcing the intellectual at the expense of muscular development. Our ancestors valued a man for his muscle-we go into the other extreme; and, unfortunately, many of the attempts of modern education tend only to the development of intellectual superiority, and children are confined to the school-room for hours that, at an early age, had better be passed in the open air.

If such parents would read the biographies of eminent characters who have succeeded in the highest walks of their various professions, they will find that one of the most necessary means of success is a strong constitution. If on this be engrafted superior intellectual endowments, accompanied by that energy of character which usually attends the strong, success in after life may be nearly ensured. Such are not the youths whom we see cut off in the prime of life just as they are giving promise of great distinction, and whose parents look back with regret, and ask themselves, with justice, if they have not been partially instrumental in causing these intellectual suicides.

A vigorous healthy boy is not likely to have any tendency to debase himself, and it is a question with many if it is well (on his going to school) to caution him against the vile habit of masturbation and its consequences. My own impression long was, that it would be a pity to poison the mind of a high-spirited lad with any cautions about vile practices; but the confessions of many, who, in ignorance of the results, have, by the example of others, been led to practise masturbation, have very much altered my opinion; I believe that in many cases a parent should at least hint to his son that he may very possibly have to witness infamous practices, and conjure him at once manfully to resist and oppose them, pointing out at the same time the consequences to which they tend. Of course he runs the risk of tainting an ingenuous mind when he broaches such a subject, and unfolds before it this distressing page in the book of knowledge of good and evil. But when it is needful he should in my opinion accept the grave responsibility, for knowing what I know, and seeing what I see, I could not face the greater unknown ill of dismissing my child to the probability of contamination by those whose corruption has but lately gone before, without an attempt to save him. I esteem it false delicacy and a wrong, that a parent should demur to accept the office of exponent, when he can, at the most, anticipate by a few days or weeks the offices of a schoolmaster in vice, as ignorant of consequences as the pupil, and unable to administer the antidote with the poison.

The exposition would not often be so unintelligible to a child as is sometimes supposed. Parents are often disinclined to acknow

ledge that their children can have any information on sexual matters. They should bear in mind that although the father may have omitted to allude to sexual matters, yet that a mere child with its keen curiosity, and eyes always on the alert for anything new, may acquire in a very short time an astonishing amount of information even about sexual matters-quite sufficient at any rate to be very dangerous to him if not guided and corrected by the wise precautions of his parent.

It is, indeed, hardly possible to keep children ignorant, and therefore, where the likelihood is so great that a boy will learn for himself, or as soon as he goes to school, be taught, all sorts of information on sexual subjects, I would put it to any parent whether he would not rather be his boy's instructor, than leave him to his own fancies, or the possible misleading of foolish or wicked companions. Whatever is the best course for ordinary children, on one point my mind is fully made up. If I saw a child, a few years old, paying attention to female children only, and toying with them, I should watch over his future most anxiously. On the occurrence of any symptoms of debility, paleness, or ill-health, my vigilance would be still greater, particularly if I saw any development of the idées génésiques, as Lallemand calls them. In such a case, I should have no hesitation in calling the precocious child's attention to the pitfall yawning before him, fully convinced that not only could advice do no harm, but that I should not be teaching such a lad what he ought not to know by calling his attention to sexual subjects. I am of opinion that I should but anticipate the natural curiosity of such peculiarly organized children, who early acquire, from the habit of watching animals, and reading books that come in their way, a smattering of knowledge which excites their feelings, but which teaches them nothing of the ill consequences of the only sexual indulgences they can practise at this early age. To suppose that a parent can keep such a sexually disposed child from a knowledge of much that he had better not be acquainted with, shows a grievous ignorance of the infantile mind. But this mind may be regulated, and the dangerous consequences of the practices may be pointed out.1

Although I would not give too much weight to the opinions of

1 As I was preparing this the third edition for the press, a stranger called on me to ask my opinion as to what he should do in the case of a boy of twelve years whom he suspected of evil practices. The boy had fallen away in his studies, had dark patches under his eyes, and was depressed in spirits. In such a case I told him I should have no hesitation in quietly talking to the boy without taxing him with any evil practices (which he would probably deny). I should tell him that it was well recognised that secret vices are sometimes carried on at schools. I should tell him that such practices cannot be continued with impunity, and warn him against them. Steps must, of course, be taken at the same time to improve his general health.