WINFIELD SCOTT HALL, M.D., Ph.D. YOUTH AND 'TS PROBLEMS The Sex Life of a Man By WINFIELD Ph.D., M.D. Member Medical Faculty, Northwestern University, Chicago; Mem- ber Volunteer Medical Service Corps, U. S. A.; Fellow of the American Medical Association, Fellow of the American Academy of Medicine, Fellow of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science. AUTHOR OF “ Girlhood and Its Problems." “ Text-Book of Physiology,” 11 Man- ual of Experimental Physiology,” “Nutrition and Dietetics,” “Repro- duction and Sexual Hygiene,” “From Youth into Manhood,” “ Sexual Knowledge,” “ The Sex Life of a Woman,” "Life's Begin- nings,” “ Life Problems,” etc., etc. Philadelphia THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY Publishers Copyright 1919, by The John C. Winston Co. DEDICATION To the Youth who hopes for Vigorous, Aggressive Young Manhood; to the Young Man who aspires to Virile, Suc- cessful Adult Manhood; to the Man WHO WOULD REALIZE A HAPPY MARRIED Life—this Little volume is Dedicated Fraternally by THE AUTHOR. Berwyn, 111., March 31st, 1919. PREFACE At no time in our national history has there been a more widespread interest in the social problem, than during our participation in the great World War. The interest in the social right living of our boys was a double-sided one: we wanted them to keep clean and fit, as effective fighters to win the war; then we wanted them to be clean and fit on their return, as healthy home-builders,—to father a generation of fine, healthy, normal children. All students of the social problem come early to recognize that right social relation- ships are maintained and normal health vouchsafed only through widespread infor- mation regarding the laws of life and through widespread inspiration of high ideals of living. In order to spread wholesome information and to instill idealistic inspiration this book is presented to the young men of the nation. The greatest care has been taken to get the most reliable and carefully tested facts and to set forth as clearly as possible those PREFACE principles of individual and of family life which experience of the generations has shown to be the safest guides to successful and happy living. It is the hope,—in fact the fixed belief,— of the author that if the young man will follow the instructions set forth in this volume he is sure to live a healthy, happy, efficient life,—a recognized success and a blessing to the world. CONTENTS Introductory (1) Brief Review of the Problem Which Confronted the Nation at the Beginning of our Participation in the World War. (2) Experience of the French and British Armies. (3) Measures which our Government Took to Solve a Com- plicated Social Problem: to Keep our Boys Healthy and Strong and Fit to Fight. (4) The Results of those Measures Justified the Anticipation: We had a Fine, Fit, Fighting Force in France, and They Came Back Clean and Fine. (5) Education in the Problems of the Sex Life Has Proven a Wonderful Advantage 15 PART I. PART II. LIFE PHENOMENA Chapter I. Animal Instincts The Egoistic Instincts of Self-Preservation and Defense— The Instinct of Procreation—Development of the Altru- istic Instinct—Sex Attraction Among Birds—Wild Cattle— The Splendid Fighting Qualities of the Bull, Used for the Protection of the Herd—The Protective Instinct of the Bull Moose 31 Chapter II. Instincts in the Human Species The Sublime Element of Self-Sacrifice Combined with the Instincts of Mating and Reproduction in the Human Species—Development from the Gregarious and Polygamous to Monogamous Mating—The Laws of Advanced Society . 44 CONTENTS PART III YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS Chapter I. Development of Youth Into Manhood The Adolescent Period—During the Preliminary Period of Puberty, the Physical and Sexual Powers Develop—During the Remainder of the Adolescent Period, Important Psychi- cal Powers Develop—The Social Instinct—The Age of Chivalry and Religious Impulses 51 Chapter II. Anatomy and Physiology of the Male Sexual Organs The Structure of the Organs is Diagrammatically Shown in a Figure, and Briefly and Clearly Described—The Physi- ology is Presented in the Light of the Latest Researches— This Presentation Clears up, for the First Time in a Popular Publication, Many Hitherto Misunderstood Experiences— Virility is Defined and Explained—Wonderful Power of the Secretions of the Sex Glands—Sexual Phenomena Recently Discovered by Scientists—“Fakes” About “Debility” or “Loss of Manhood”—Ignorance That Makes Victims for “Quacks”—Phenomenon of Nature Peculiar to Men Cor- responds to Nature’s Phenomenon Peculiar to Women; Commonly Referred to as “Nocturnal Emissions,” which is Nothing More Than Nature’s Plan of Disposing of the External Secretion and Relieving Tension in the Sex Apparatus—Extremely Important That All Men and Women Should Have the Scientific Sexual Knowledge Here Given on This Subject 73 Chapter III. Sexual Hygiene of the Man A Chapter of Warning and Advice—The Young Man is Here Told of the Difficulties Which he must Meet, and the Dangers to Which he will be Subjected—In Solving his Sex Problem he must Choose Between Three Alternatives: Masturbation, Illicit Intercourse and Continence—The CONTENTS Dangers and Diseases of the First Two, and the Compensa- tions of the Continent Life are Fully Set Forth 125 Chapter IV. Fatherhood Home-building—Home Keeping—The Rules of Married Life—Happiness and How it is Achieved—The Coming of the Children—Duties of the Father—The Highest Type of Manhood is Described—Social and Paternal Relations within the Family Circle—The Guiding and Inspiring Influence of the Father 167 PART IV SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS Chapter I. Secretions Semen—Vesicular Secretion—The Prostatic Secretion— Cowper’s Glands Secretion 189 Chapter II. Emissions The Emission in the Normal Sex Act—Nocturnal Emissions —Masturbation Emissions—Effect of Rich Diet—The Sleep - ing Posture—Strong Sex Excitement 194 Chapter III. Impotence Causes of Lack of Sex Power—Treatment—Unhygienic Living Largely Responsible—Where Medicine Fails . . . 207 Chapter IV. Sterility Reasons why no Children Come to a Family—Gonorrheal Infection—Stricture—Sterility in the Female 209 Chapter V. Rupture or Hernia Methods of Alleviating—Trusses—Surgical Operations . . 212 Chapter VI. Varicocele Causes of Swollen Veins in the Testicle—Not a Serious Condition—Exaggerations of Quacks and Charlatans— CONTENTS Ill-fitting Clothing, Cycling and Horseback Riding Often Responsible for the Swelling of the Veins 214 Chapter VII. Size of the Organs Rare Instances WKere Organs are Classified as Puerile— Small Sex Organs of the Greeks of the Classic Period—Not One Man in a Thousand Need be Disturbed About this Matter 217 PART V PERSONAL HYGIENE Chapter I. Diet This Chapter Outlines a Rigorous Course of Personal Hygiene, Which if Conscientiously Followed will lead to a Robust, Good Health—Choice of Food—Narcotics— Alcohol—Dietetic Control of the Bowels—Constipation, how Caused, how Cured—Dietetic Control of Sleep— Dietetic Control of the Kidneys and Skin—Dietetic Method of Curing a Cold 223 Chapter II. Baths The Bath for Cleanliness—The Tonic Bath—The Sponge Bath, the Shower, the Cold Plunge 233 Chapter III. Exercise The Morning Walk—Evening Exercises—How to Avoid Laying on Fat—Muscle Growth—Games 237 Chapter IV. The Hygienic Requirements of Sleep Amount of Sleep—Keeping the Feet Warm—Ventilation of Sleeping Rooms—Draughts 240 Chapter V. The Control of the Thoughts Continence Safeguarded—Work, and its Effect on the Control of Thought—Imaginary Evils 244 CONTENTS EUGENICS PART VI Chapter I. Outline of Eugenics Meaning of the Word—General Considerations—Revela- tions of Biology—Breeding in the Animal Kingdom—How the Human Race Might be Improved—Education and Restrictive Laws—The State’s Right to Interfere in the Propagation of Degenerates and Insane 249 Chapter II. The Part Played by Heredity Explanation of the Begetting of a New Life—The Laws of Heredity—Amount of Influence Exerted by Each Parent, Grandparent and Great Grandparent—The Mendelian Theory of Heredity 254 Chapter III. The Part Played by Environment Importance of Happy Conditions During Development of Young Life—The Mother’s Nutrition—Influence of Condi- tions on Infants—The Development of Habits, Good and Bad 259 Chapter IV. Positive Eugenics The Hereditary and Environmental Phases of Positive Eugenics—Education Plays a Double Part—Psychic Inhibition 261 Chapter V. Negative Eugenics Impairments to be Avoided—Improving Present-Day Conditions by a System of Sexual Education—The “Stork” Story—Imparting Knowledge of the Great Truths of Life. . 263 PART ONE INTRODUCTORY When our nation recognized officially in April, 1917, that it was in a state of war with the central powers of Europe it also recog- nized the military necessity of mobilizing and organizing, equipping and training the man power of the nation at the earliest possible moment with the definite program working in conjunction with our allies of winning a military victory over the central powers and forcing them to accept terms of a just peace— terms formulated by the victorious entente allies. Never once did it enter into our calculations to accept any other issue than victory. Very early in the nation’s plans for a great army the fact became known to higher officials in Washington that both the French and the British armies had, during the first two years of the war particularly, suffered a most serious handicap in venereal disease. Many organi- 15 16 INTRODUCTORY zations having continuously something like ten per cent of their men out of the fight recovering from venereal infections. Some organizations suffered even more heavily. When we remember that these diseased men had to be taken care of in the base hospitals where they occupied most valuable space, consumed the precious time and energies of both surgeons and nurses, and used up doubly precious surgical materials, all because they became infected viciously and not in the line of action, it will be easily understood what a serious handicap this matter was to the armies of the entente allies. As a matter of fact the decrease in the force of military punch wrought by venereal disease far exceeds the decrease in man power. For example, if ten per cent of an organization is out of the fight because of venereal disease, the force of their military punch is decreased far more than ten per cent. Of course, we can only estimate how much it is decreased, but military men have expressed to the author the belief that in such a case the military power of an organization is decreased as much as 20 per cent, that is, about twice as great INTRODUCTORY 17 a decrease as that represented by the numer- ical handicap. The reason for this is not far to seek. Where any considerable number of men are on sick leave because of venereal disease the morale of the remaining force is seriously impaired. It is this impairment of the morale of the remaining 90 per cent that decreases still further their military force. It was realized from the beginning by our national leaders; the Surgeon General and his staff; the higher army and navy officers; and the Council of National Defense, that some definite measure should be adopted and effectively carried out to protect our army and navy from the ravages of venereal disease. Trust America to accomplish something different—something new. Early in the sum- mer of 1917 a definite program of instruction was worked out. It was the fixed belief and unalterable conviction of national leaders that if the young American is told just what he must do—that is, just how he must live—to keep himself in fighting trim, he may be counted upon to do that thing and to live that way. So a program of education was organized 18 INTRODUCTORY by the army and navy. Three organized forces co-operated to put across this gigantic program of sex education. First, the Surgeon General’s staff from the office in Washington to the regimental infirmaries in the camps and cantonments all co-operated cordially, each to do his part. A splendidly conceived, brief pamphlet of instructions was written by a member of the Surgeon General’s staff, and published under direction of the Surgeon General’s office. This little eight-page, blouse- pocket pamphlet set forth in very simple language, that any doughboy or gob could understand if he could read English at all, the importance of keeping himself in perfect health if he was to become an efficient fighter. Special stress was laid upon the importance of avoiding venereal infection. A brief de- scription of gonorrhoea and syphilis was given and particularly the importance of reporting for prophylaxis immediately should one be- come exposed to infection. These pamphlets were printed by the million copies and a copy was put into the hands of every enlisted man very soon after he reported to camp. He was asked to familiarize himself with the contents INTRODUCTORY 19 of the pamphlet. Regimental surgeons, par- ticularly the infirmary staff of each regiment, co-operated cordially and effectively in this campaign of instruction as did also a consid- erable proportion of the captains, majors and colonels and not infrequently even major- generals. The author has in mind at the moment a splendid little pamphlet written by Major-General John O’Ryan, of one of the New York State divisions that was taking its training at Camp Wadsworth. This pamphlet urged the men of the division to keep themselves clean and fit to fight and to return. A copy was given to each enlisted man of the division. Next to be considered was the effective co-operation of the war department commis- sion on training camp activities. This com- mission called into civilian camp service a number of medicarmen of high standing who were sent to various camps and cantonments to give instruction and public lectures, usually illustrated by lantern slides. At these public lectures which were usually given in camp auditoriums or in liberty theatres, audiences of perhaps a thousand men would gather in accordance with an official camp program. 20 INTRODUCTORY Finally we may consider the effective and splendidly organized campaign of education instituted by the Y. M. C. A. A number of lecturers, medical men of national repute, were called into this civilian service and co-operated with the commission on training camp activities in such a way that all of the camps were effectively covered without dupli- cation or interference. The Y. M. C. A. medical staff gave their lectures as a rule either in the Y. M. C. A. huts evenings or in the Y. M. C. A. camp auditorium, not infrequently these civilian medical lecturers of the Y. M. C. A. as well as of the com- mission were asked by military authorities to address large organizations—regiments or brigades—on the drill field at the end of a drill period, the soldiers gathering about the reviewing stand upon which the speaker stood. The writer was one of the Y. M. C. A. staff of medical lecturers and during the first year, that is, between October 1,1917, and June 1, 1918, he visited every camp and cantonment, naval training station and naval anchorage on the Atlantic coast, from Camp Devans, Mass., to Camp Johnston, Fla., and on the INTRODUCTORY 21 Gulf coast as far west as New Orleans, speak- ing three hundred and fifty times to a summed up audience of nearly 400,000 of Uncle Sam’s soldiers and sailors. Not only were the men instructed in all of the inspiring and wholesome facts and principles of the normal sex life, but they were warned against the depleting and disabling ravages of venereal disease, and they were assured that periodic indulgence in sexual intercourse is not recognized by the medical profession as being a physical necessity. They were assured that the virile powers are maintained in their highest state and unim- paired after strict continence, that is, no sex indulgence of any kind during all the years of youth. They were also told that strict continence is compatible with perfect health. As a matter of fact their assurance of exuber- ant health is almost incomparably greater when living without sex indulgence, than could be the case if they were periodically visiting lewd women, because lewd women are practically without exception themselves dis- eased besides acting as carriers of disease from one man to another. INTRODUCTORY 22 The matter of paramount importance is this: How did our boys respond to this instruction? They responded in the way we all believed they would: like real Ameri- cans. As early as January, 1918, only three months after our newly built cantonments were filled with the newly called national army, the writer found a number of regiments whose surgeons reported a progressive decrease in the number of new cases reported since mobilization, many regiments showing the remarkable record of only two or three new cases per month. Inasmuch as an infantry regiment contains about 3,600 men that means that these regiments had reduced acute venereal disease to the remarkably low point of one-twelfth to one-eighteenth of one per cent per month. The writer ventures the assertion that not one town or city on the continent with a population of 10,000 or more could show among the young men of military age a record like that. Uncle Sam had already shown that his training camps were safer places for our American youth than their own home towns. As a matter of fact throughout INTRODUCTORY 23 the spring of 1918, military officials were very reluctant to permit soldiers in training to go home on even brief furloughs, the principal reason being that they would be subjected to conditions exceedingly unfavorable and many young men who were given furloughs were exposed some time during their absence from camp to venereal disease and would come down with the infection soon after their return to camp. By June, 1918, a very considerable pro- portion of the regiments had reduced acute venereal disease to a similarly low point (two or three new cases per month). It is generally well understood that no man who had any acute venereal disease or who was in the infective stage, or physically impaired with a chronic condition was sent overseas, so we sent to Europe an absolutely clean army, as well as a well instructed army. A very important factor in keeping our men free from venereal disease was the very effective method of prophylaxis which was used in every training camp. This method was carefully tested out in our Mexican border mobilization, as well as by the navy, 24 INTRODUCTORY and by the fall of 1917 we had developed a method of prophylaxis quite as effective as any in the world and probably much more effective than that used in most countries. The young men were strongly urged to leave women alone and to live in absolute conti- nence during their whole period of military service, but they were also instructed that if by some unfortunate situation a man had made a fool of himself and had exposed himself to venereal infection the only proper thing to do was to report at the earliest possible moment at a prophylactic station. These prophylactic stations were not only to be found at every regimental infirmary but there were always one or two, sometimes several, in each of the towns or cities near the camp. Without doubt a very considerable part of the freedom from venereal disease which our army and navy has shown was due to the fact that the men did appear promptly for prophylactic treatment, if they had failed to follow the advice of their officers and had exposed themselves to venereal infection. So we sent to Europe an absolutely clean INTRODUCTORY 25 army. In respect to this matter under con- sideration, without doubt the cleanest, finest army in all the history of the world. How did they stand the test of the summer’s campaign of almost continuous fighting? In a way that astonished the world and made every American at home proud. Not only did they put up a wonderful fight but they kept themselves clean. Reports that came back about the first of November from Pershing’s headquarters showed that the num- ber of acute cases of venereal disease during the summer in the whole American expedi- tionary force was only one case in 1,700 men per month. That means one-seventeenth of one per cent per month—a most remarkable record, and one of which our country will always be proud. As a matter of fact, the conditions under which our boys were living and fighting during the summer did not really subject them to the “acid test” as we had warned them in the winter and spring of 1918. We now can understand very clearly that young men going to overseas service in the spirit of crusaders and subjected to such a strenuous 26 INTRODUCTORY program of fighting were really keyed up to a very high pitch, both mentally and physically, and altogether unlikely to fall victims of either wine or women. Without a shadow of a doubt this physical and spiritual exalta- tion and high tension was quite as effective as a protecting influence as was the instruction which they had received during their training. Whatever guarded the boys and kept them fine and fit through the summer months, the fact of these splendid results must always be a matter to excite not only our pride but our gratitude. As we explained to the boys while they were in training, “Not only must they keep them- selves fit to fight but they must keep them- selves fit to come back.” The many thousands of young married men must come back clean to their waiting wives and the many tens of thousands of young men who were engaged to be married must come back clean and fit to their fiancees. To have won the war but incident thereto to have produced a half a million diseased men to come back and spread the disease in half a million homes would have been a national calamity from INTRODUCTORY 27 which we could not have recovered in a century, if ever. To have won the war and lost our nation’s clean manhood would have been really to have lost the war in the worst possible sense. As it was, we won the war doubly and in the highest interpretation of victory. The object of the writer in setting forth in such detail the nation’s experience with the sex problem in the army and navy has been to make it evident to the reader that wholesome information clearly and simply imparted is a very great help to any young man, guiding him unerringly along the path of right living which leads to that goal which we all hope to reach, SUCCESS and HAPPINESS. LIFE PHENOMENA PART TWO LIFE PHENOMENA CHAPTER I Animal Instincts Every animal is endowed by nature with several, perhaps many, instincts. One of the most universal instincts is the instinct for getting something to eat. The young of all higher animals begin to seek food within a few hours after birth. The young of birds will open their beaks for food within a few minutes after they have broken the shell that imprisoned them, and launch upon their new life. This instinct that impels the young animal to seek food is only one of the several instincts, all directed toward self-preservation. The young of most animals have the instinct of secretiveness. Young partridges, on the ap- proach of any danger, will instinctively secrete 31 32 LIFE PHENOMENA themselves in the grass and leaves so effec- tively that one could look long and carefully at the very place where they are hidden without being able to see them. The young calf or the young fawn will drop into the grass, when warned by the mother, draw its ears close to its head, lie close to the ground, and remain effectively hidden from the ob- server, unless he stand almost directly over it. One form of self-defense makes itself shown in the instinct to flee danger. Many young animals are equipped from their earliest hours of life with the power of flight. Even young fawns, within a few hours after birth, can run with prodigious speed and endurance. Presently, as an animal gains experience and gains in age and strength, the instinct of standing his ground and fighting becomes evident; and many animals will manifest this instinct comparatively young in life. In these several instincts of hiding, fleeing and fighting, we have cited sufficient examples of the instincts of self-preservation and de- fense. The instinct of procuring nourish- ment, mentioned at first, is one which urges the animal all through life to seek food. In LIFE PHENOMENA 33 the case of many animals, the food supply in the early days, weeks, or even years of life may be furnished by the mother or the parents. For example, the mammal mother, as the cow or horse or the human mother, furnishes her young with milk prepared in her own milk glands. The bird mother brings tender morsels as seeds and worms to her nestlings. But after the first stages, the young must begin to seek its own food; the parents begin to withdraw their support, and the young must, either from prowess or strength, secure its own sustenance. The young bird must scratch for itself; the kitten must learn to catch its own mice; the young dog must learn to track and capture its own rabbits; the young lion must overtake and overcome its own prey; the young man must earn his own bread. This scratching for himself, this overtaking his own prey, this earning his own bread, is the best thing that can happen a young animal, whether that animal is a bird, a beast or a man, because this fight for existence makes his eyes keener, his muscles more alert, and his teeth or claws or 34 LIFE PHENOMENA other weapons of war sharper and more effective. Now, all these instincts discussed above, instincts common to all animals, if we con- sider them in their broadest relationships, are, without exception, directed to self-preser- vation. So the instincts of self-preservation are, first, those that have to do with the pro- curing of nourishment, and, second, those that have to do with defense against danger. All these instincts, however, that we have named, are devoted wholly to self. They are the selfish instincts. They are the instincts of individualism. The scientist calls them the egoistic instincts. In all these instincts of the animal, no provision is made for others; it is all self-centered. We can readily understand, as we consider the matter, that no animal is in a position to help others until he has first insured his own safety. A mother cannot give suck to her young until she has herself procured the material in the form of nourish- ment. But a study of animal instincts in the broadest sense shows that there is another group of instincts just as deeply implanted, LIFE PHENOMENA 35 and, while somewhat less important for the individual, are incomparably more important for the race than those already discussed. Reference is made to the instinct of pro- creation, the instinct of bringing young into being: One the part of female animals, the instinct of giving birth to young and caring for their young; on the part of male animals, the instinct of seeking to procreate or seeking alliance with a female animal, to mate with her, and of copulating with this female animal with a view to procreation—with a view to bringing forth young. In the lowest animals, as well as in the plants, reproduction, and, to a certain rather limited extent also, nutri- tion and defense are more or less automatic; but the automatic phase of these instincts becomes less and less marked the higher wTe go in the scale of animal life. In the fish, for example, the instinct of the female, as she feels her body swell with the growing eggs writhin, is almost an automatic or a mechanical one, as she seeks a quiet little pool in a creek or a cozy little nook in a pond, and noses the bright pebbles together into a sort of little nest, where she deposits the 36 LIFE PHENOMENA eggs from her ovaries. Similarly, it seems to be largely an automatic act, purely instinctive, and hardly with any show of forethought or desire on the part of the male fish, as he comes to this nest of a female of his species as thus prepared, and just filled with eggs, to spread over this nest and empty upon the just-deposited eggs the contents of his sper- maries. These parent fish, having deposited eggs and spermatozoa—eggs by the thousands and spermatozoa by the millions—pass on to give no attention whatsoever to the young that hatch out a few hours or days later. These young, numbering into the thousands, must seek their own food, after the small egg yolk is consumed, and they live a more or less unprotected life, a prey to other fish, so that the chances are that not more than four to six of the thousands of young ever come to full adult maturity, thousands having been preyed upon by other and stronger predacious water animals. When we advance in the animal scale to the birds we find evidences of conscious mating, as a rule, though in some species of birds that live in flocks, gregariously, rather LIFE PHENOMENA 37 than in pairs, the mating is less evident. In the ease of these gregarious birds that live in large flocks, as we study their habits, we note the tendency for the larger, stronger and better equipped males to monopolize several or even many females, while the weaker animals are fought away and kept from mating with the females. And this is advantageous, of course, for the race, because it insures this great advantage, that every young animal coming into life has a physically perfect male ancestor. This, of course, is a matter of no small importance to the species, and tends to maintain in the species all their finest qualities. Among those birds that mate, it is interest- ing to note what is known among biologists as sex attraction. For example, the male birds, as a rule, possess certain striking qualities, either in beautiful plumage or in beautiful song, perhaps both. The females, as a rule, are less beautiful singers, and less gaudy in plumage. The males are active, actually courting the females. The females are modest, retiring little bodies who wait to be courted. They are strongly attracted to those males LIFE PHENOMENA 38 that possess the finest qualities. During the mating period of a few weeks in the spring, the pairing off of mates is accomplished, and each pair seeks some secluded place to build its nest, and male and female birds work with great industry for days in the preparation of their season’s home. The days devoted to the building of the nest are not wholly given up to the work-a-day life. They are courting continuously, and not infrequently during these days they are seen billing and cooing as they work. Once the nest is finished, the female bird begins daily to deposit an egg within it, and daily the male copulates with her, fertilizing these eggs as they pass from the ovary into the ovaduct. During these days of egg laying, the male bird is likely to devote himself to song, if they belong to species which possess this gift. The male bird sits near the nest where the female is depositing her eggs, and entertains her by the hour with bursts of song. If it is fine feathers and beautiful plumage that has commended him to his mate, he delights to parade these before her eyes as she sits demurely on her nest. He may bring her occasionally, as a LIFE PHENOMENA 39 mark of his devotion, tender morsels that he has gotten from a neighboring garden. Once the full quota of eggs has been deposited in the nest, the mother bird enters upon the trying ordeal of incubating or hatching these eggs. This necessitates, upon her part, a great sacrifice. She must sit hour after hour, and day after day, upon these eggs for two or three weeks, and never must they be allowed to cool. Every day the eggs must be turned over. This she does very carefully with her beak. As a rule, the devotion of the male bird reaches its highest point during these days. He brings his mate, many times a day, nourishing and tender bits of food which he has procured in his foraging. Sometimes he may even condescend himself to keep the eggs warm for a half hour or so while his mate is off for a morning constitutional and to seek for herself some seeds and grubs in a neigh- boring field. After the little birds are hatched, the parent birds devote themselves to the protection and the feeding of their ravenous little flock of nestlings for several weeks, until these birds are able to leave the parent nest, when they 40 LIFE PHENOMENA are pushed out to look after themselves. Once the nestlings are out in the world inde- pendent of the parents, the mating instinct, the solicitude and devotion and sacrifice of self for the other, so touchingly and beauti- fully shown by the parent birds during the height of the mating and nesting season, begins to w~ane, and later in the season they may join in a general flock and almost, appar- ently, forget each other, as the birds wing their way in large gregarious flocks to the Southland to spend the winter. In the re- mating of the following season, they may choose other mates, though some birds appar- ently are mated for life. When we study mammals, those hairy- coated animals that suckle the young, we find very similar conditions; that is, some of these animals are gregarious and live in large flocks or herds, the mating of the breeding season apparently being determined wholly by the aggressiveness and masterful fighting qualities of the males. Take a herd of range cattle, for example; the strongest bulls of the herd will fight away the weaker ones from the cows that come in heat or rut, and copu- LIFE PHENOMENA 41 late with these cows, mating with them for the day only, and on successive days with different cows as these come into the condition of heat. In that way, one great masterful bull, out of twenty bulls in a herd of a hundred cows, may easily sire twenty or thirty calves; and, of these twenty bulls, probably five will sire most of the calves, the weaker bulls having no access whatsoever to the females that are in rut, or at most serving only one or two cows out of a hundred. The bulls are equipped by nature with admirable and awe-inspiring fighting qualities. In the wild state, these animals, and par- ticularly the strongest bulls that have been most active in the breeding season and have sired the largest number of calves, will be the ones whose instinct impels them to protect the herd in case of danger. They will in- stinctively protect the cows and calves from an onslaught of wolves or other rapacious animals whose instincts lead them to stampede the herd in order to throttle the weaker mem- bers, as for example, the calves. On his part, the bull instinctively protects the herd from such animals; and his natural equipment 42 LIFE PHENOMENA of sharp, strong horns fits him for meeting the pack of wolves, and, catching a wolf on his horns, he will disembowel it. It is the wolves, perhaps, that are stampeded, instead of the herd, the herd being protected by these splendidly equipped fighting animals, which are the natural defenders of the herd. The buck deer, or elk, or the bull moose chooses a mate for life. This mate is pro- tected against danger, and her favor is courted by her beautiful and splendidly equipped fighting mate. This family may be, and frequently is, increased by the addition of another, perhaps several does, whose mates have been killed by the hunters. This instinct of the doe to join herself to another male when her mate is killed—a thing which happens not at all infrequently in the North woods— accounts for the fact that many of the bucks are polygamists, having two or three mates. While we do not see in these animals the poetic and beautiful traits of courtship and chivalrous gallantry that are so beautiful and attractive in some of the bird mates, we cannot watch their traits without being con- scious that there is a fidelity and devotion LIFE PHENOMENA 43 between these animal mates that may well serve not only to arouse our admiration, but compel our respect for the instinct which joins these mates together and holds them in a sort of family circle, each contributing his or her share to the well-being of their little group. The young are protected and cared for with a devotion and singleness of purpose that is beautiful and poetic, though we recognize it to be instinctive. CHAPTER II Instincts in the Human Species When we come to a consideration of these instincts of mating and procreation in the human species, we see it is only an extension of a deep, well-defined instinct that has come to man from the remote past. In man this instinct differs from that of the lower animals only in intensity. While in the lower orders of animals, as already set forth above, there is a certain degree of the automatic in all these adjustments, the higher we go in the scale, we can easily note a greater degree of independ- ence of action, a greater degree of choice in mating, a greater degree of individual judg- ment, decision and reason in all of the complex adjustments and adaptations of the animal life. When we come to the human species, we find the element of choice and the play of reason, judgment, and of individual tempera- ment reaching its highest manifestation. But still, with all that, we notice the instinct of 44 LIFE PHENOMENA 45 mating, the instinct of home-building, the instinct of reproduction or of bringing of young into being, the instinct on the part of the man to protect the woman, the instinct on the part of both parents to protect the young. The extent to which the man will sacrifice his personal comfort for the comfort and safety of the woman goes far beyond any limits reached by the lower animals. The limit to which father and mother will sacrifice themselves for their children, in the human species, is far beyond that reached by any of the lower animals. Far back in human history, there is no question but that the human species was gregarious, and that the strongest men of a tribe, the greatest fighters of the clan, fathered the children, while the weaker men were pushed aside and perhaps even castrated and made hewers of wood and carriers of water— practically enslaved. During later millenniums of human develop- ment, even in the most advanced nations, say during the last three or four thousand years, there has been a distinct advance in develop- ment from the gregarious and polygamous to 46 LIFE PHENOMENA monogamous mating, where one man courts and wins one woman for his wife, and becomes mated to her for life in the relation of marriage or matrimony. This monogamous mating, or mating of one man to one woman for life, has been generally recognized as of so important a nature for man’s highest development that it has received not only the sanction and blessing of religious leaders of those advanced races, but it has become interwoven in the very fabric of religious rite and ceremony, of political law and order, of social custom and sanction, so that, to overstep this law of advanced society, brings down upon the offending member the heavy hand of the law, the ostracism of society, and the anathema of the church. This being so recent a condition in human society easily accounts for the fact that now and then men and women, from some unbalancing of temperament, revert to the instincts of long ago; and so we find a tendency on the part of some to transgress this law of society and fail to live in fidelity to the monogamous union. LIFE PHENOMENA 47 Summarizing these facts regarding animal instincts, we may say that they are clearly divided into two distinct groups: first, those instincts directed toward self-preservation; second, those instincts directed toward the preservation of the race. The first group are called the egoistic in- stincts, and the activities which result from these instincts are called the egoistic activities of life. The second group, those directed toward the maintenance of a species, being activities for others rather than for self, are called the altruistic (from altera, others), and the activi- ties which grow out of the altruistic instincts are called the altruistic activities. As we study these wonderful instincts and natural impulses that have been implanted in the lives, not only of men, but of all animals, we are conscious of the infinite w isdom of the Creator of all life. But for this instinct of reproduction, we can easily understand that those lowrer animals, in whom there seems to be no particular deep-seated affection between mates, and no consciousness of the sex act, would cease to engage in this act of repro- 48 LIFE PHENOMENA duction, and their species would become extinct. It becomes evident, then, that the whole preservation of the species, in all the lower animals at any rate, depends upon this indelibly-plan ted instinct of reproduction. In recent times, as men have studied these problems of society, they have become con- vinced that the race is more important than the individual. In fact, it is even stronger than that, in a statement of modern science. The individual is important only in so far as he influences the race and assists in the main- taining of the race. After all, it is the race that is the important thing; and we find that the individual is now accounted as having not more than secondary importance at the best. When we consider that far-reaching im- portance to the race of this instinct of repro- duction and all production of young, we are prepared to find that Mother Nature very jealously guards this reproductive power, and lays a heavy hand of retribution upon any animal that, feeling some perverted tendency, departs from Nature’s law and fails to regard as sacred these instincts and activities which are concerned in the maintenance of the race. YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS PART THREE YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS CHAPTER I Development from Youth into Manhood As we study the development of individual animals, we discover it to be a general law of development, that, at a certain time in the history of each animal, it goes through a short ripening period. During this period, it devel- ops physically the characteristics typical of the adults of its species, and so comes into adulthood. We call this period of develop- ment adolescence. In the plan of Nature, it is clearly a period during which the repro- ductive powers of the individual are matured. In the mammalian female, the uterus (womb) develops to its full size, and the mammary glands enlarge. In the space of a few weeks or months, or, in those animals of longest lives, a couple of years, the young 51 52 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS female takes on those physical characteristics typical of the females of its species that are bearing young. Similarly, the mammalian male develops during his period of adolescence those char- acteristics typical of the male of his species. The male among mammals being, as a rule, much the larger of the two animals, and equipped with an armament for fighting, we are prepared to find that this fighting equipment is added to the male during his adolescent period. The fangs of the carniv- orous animals get heavier and stronger, the horns of the bull, the antlers of the elk, the prongs of the antelope, all get heavier and sharper during the adolescent period. The male sexual glands, the testicles, also increase in volume about eight-fold, that is, the testicles become twice as long, twice as wide and tw ice as thick, thus multiplying their volume eight- fold. Marks, distinguishing male from female, as the mane of the lion and the bison, become more luxuriant. Similar changes take place in the adolescent development of birds; the female bird devel- oping ovary and oviduct, and assuming her YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 53 modest plumage, and demurely comporting herself, while the male assumes his gay plumage, cultivates his winning song, and sharpens his fighting spurs during his period of adolescence. In animals lower in rank than birds and mammals, the adolescent period is much less clearly marked. Adolescence in Man. The period of a young man’s life from about fourteen to about twenty-three years, when he is growing from boyhood to mature adult life, is called the period of adolescence. The period of adoles- cence is ushered in by a series of physical and mental changes which make a well-defined initial period or first step into manhood, which we call 'puberty. The period of puberty is three or four years, and in the average case among American boys it is the period from the fourteenth to the seventeenth year, and is complete when the youth can produce fertile semen capable of fertilizing the human ovum. While the average age of puberty is from fourteen to seventeen, we find that in the boys from the Latin races, the period of puberty is much earlier, and may begin as 54 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS early as the twelfth or thirteenth year. As a rule, when the age of puberty begins so early, it is more likely to be protracted over a period of four years; on the other hand, it may begin as late as the sixteenth year in the boys of Northern Europe, as for example, the boys of the Scandinavian Peninsula or Finland. In most States, the law recognizes about the seventeenth year as the period when the boy is to be held responsible for acts of procreation. It is now universally recognized, however, that when the youth reaches this point in his development, that is, reaches a stage of devel- opment where he is able to procreate his kind, while he may be called a man, he represents manhood in its lowest form. He has not reached the stage of physical or mental devel- opment and maturity which justifies him in undertaking the responsibilities that are in- volved in parenthood. It requires in the average case a period of six or seven years more to develop the young man to the full stature of adult manhood, possessing his full physical and mental powers, and the strength required of one who may assume the responsi- bilities of parenthood. So that, at the age of YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 55 twenty-two to twenty-three, in the average case, the young man may be said to have reached this period of complete development, and to have finished his adolescent period. At that age the young man should be sufficiently mature, and sufficiently well started in his life work, so that he may begin home-building. Moreover, we may say, in all frankness, that, as a rule, it would be better for a young man to establish a home and take to himself a wife as early as the twenty-third to twenty-fifth year. Most young men would find it neces- sary to live very simply and frugally if they married so young; but simple and frugal living is better, both for the young man and for his young wife. And as they look back upon these years of their young married life, it is a very common experience to feel that they were the happiest years of their lives, even though they may have been years of simple, frugal living. We may profitably now consider more in detail some of the changes incident to this most important period. Physical Changes. The human being be- longs to the mammals, as stated above; and, 56 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS as a member of that class, he possesses over the surface of the body, excepting the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, hair follicles, which produce the hairy covering typical of mammals. A careful study of the distribution of the hair on the surface of the human body, comparing it with that of the higher apes, shows that this distribution is identical, and that the “lay” of the hair in any one region of the human body corresponds exactly with that of the same region in the body of the ape. For example, the hair of the forearm points outward and upward, and on the upper arm downward, and so on through- out the man and ape-like types. Every child comes into the world with a coat of rudi- mentary hair, which is shed at once. Aside from the growth of hair on the head, including the brow and the lashes, the skin is quite free from any noticeable growth of hair for months or even years. Beginning at the age of puberty, however, the growth of hair is very much increased over the whole surface of the body, particularly upon the face, in the arm- pits and over the pubic region. It is a gener- ally recognized law of biology, that at the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 57 period of sexual development the hairy mam- malian character becomes accentuated. The increase in the growth of hair at this time can have only one interpretation, namely, that the ancestors of man represented, to a very much larger degree, this character of the hairy covering, than is the case with man at the present time. It is interesting to note, in this connection, the almost universal attempt of man to rid the face of this hairy growth by various devices, from pulling to shaving it off. The origin of this custom of removing the hair from the face probably dates back to the remote past. It has been observed as a custom among both savages and civilized peoples. In all animals the voice plays an important part in the sexual and social relations. In many animals the voice seems to have almost no other function than as a sex call or as a means of communication between mates or between parents and young. The human subject shows this general principle in the profound changes which the voice undergoes at the time of puberty. These changes in the male consist in increasing the depth of the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 58 larynx, thereby increasing the length of the vocal cords, which, in turn, modifies the pitch of the voice, usually lowering it by almost an octave, and making it not only lower, but much more pleasant in quality and greatly increased in volume. As a rule, boys who sing in the church choirs have either a high- pitched treble voice or a mellow alto voice. When they come to the age of puberty, there is a period of a year or eighteen months, during which they lose the power to control the pitch of the voice. Boys who have been singing in a choir have to withdraw from that activity for a time “until the voice becomes settled,” when they usually find that the high-pitched treble has changed into the clear ringing tenor of manhood, while the mellow alto has been transformed into the deep sonorous bass of manhood. There are, howTever, many exceptions to this general rule, and we not infrequently find that the man who had a treble voice in boyhood may have a bass voice in manhood. Of incalculably greater importance than the changes described above, though perhaps less noticeable to the casual observer, are those YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 59 physical changes which the boy undergoes during the first half of the period of adoles- cence. We refer to the growth of bone, of muscle and of those internal organs concerned. We refer here to the digestive organs, the heart and the lungs. The first step in these profound physical changes is a rapid growth in height that makes itself manifest about the fifteenth year. It is not at all unusual for a boy to grow from four to six inches in a year. This increase in height is very largely due to a lengthening of the thigh and leg bones. At the same time that this increase in height is going on, there is a proportional increase in the reach of the arm. This is brought about by the increase in the length of the arm bones, corresponding to the leg bones. So the boy outgrows his clothes, his coat-sleeves are drawn up half way to his elbows, and his trousers half way to his knees. The muscles scarcely keep pace with the bones in their growth, and continue to be flabby, and lack the usual hardness and tonicity. It is difficult for the youth to hold his back straight and to hold his shoulders back. He is awkward and ungainly in his movements, and becomes YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 60 easily fatigued because of the condition of the muscles. At this period in the youth’s devel- opment, it is very unwise for him to take an active part in such strenuous athletic feats as sprinting races, and the more strenuous games, as football. Nature seems to provide against over-exertion at this period of the boy’s development, because most boys pass through a period of inherent and instinctive laziness. This seems to be Nature’s way of insuring them against over-work. Parents and teachers must be very patient with the boys at this time, and not expect too much of them. On the other hand, by the time a boy reaches his seventeenth year, he should have reached an age of muscular development when strenuous exercise is distinctly beneficial. As a rule, boys emerge from their constitu- tional laziness about this period, and their athletic ambitions lead them into the most vigorous physical life. If parents and teachers see a tendency on the part of the boy to prolong his period of laziness beyond his seventeenth year, every effort should be made to stimulate him to get into the games and to join in the strenuous physical activities typical YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 61 of the next stage of his development. We see in the seventeen-year-old boy, then, a great increase in the bulk and in the hardness of the muscles. They fill out arms, legs and back, shoulders and chest, with large masses of firm muscle tissue. The growth of these muscle masses changes the dimensions of the youth, and he fills out in girths then as rapidly as in the previous period he increases in length measurements. All of this increased activity can only be accomplished by increase in activity of all the nutritive processes. The appetite is prac- tically insatiable. The boy can eat three square meals a day, and lunches between meals. If he wakes up in the night, he is hungry. To accomplish the digestion and absorption of this great bulk of food, the digestive canal throughout, and particularly the stomach, is greatly increased in size. This increased activity of the digestive canal makes a greatly increased flow of blood, with the accompanying necessity for a larger and stronger heart to force the blood through the arteries and veins. With increased bulk of muscle and increased 62 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS quantity of food, we have increased oxidation of the tissues. This requires increased respira- tion, which demand is satisfied by rapid devel- opment of the lungs. The chest increases in dimensions in all direction?, and becomes deeper and broader and longer. Not only does the chest become more capacious, but also more mobile and more responsive to the varying requirements of the system. If we are interested in the biology of all these changes, we need not go far to discover the natural causes at work to produce them. Nature is preparing in the youth a home builder. It is preparing an individual who can support and protect not only himself, but also a family. This equipment in the case of primitive man, away back in human history, must necessarily have been one of bone and brawn. While under the conditions of modern society, the necessity for bone and brawn is somewhat less marked, the plan of Nature is no less evident and no less interesting. During this age of puberty, the growth of the sex organs is no less marked than the growth of the body in general. The develop- ment of the sex organs is much more striking, 63 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS and the metamorphosis much more complete. We can easily understand this, because the period of puberty is really a period of the maturing of the sex organs—of the reproduc- tive system. As mentioned above, the copu- lative organ of the male becomes at least twice as large in all of its dimensions, that is twice as long, twice as broad and twice as thick, thus increasing its bulk at least eight-fold. The testicles also, as mentioned above, are increased at least eight-fold. And the scrotum or sack which holds the testicles, probably because of the increased weight of the testicles, is lengthened. The testicles develop the power, during this period of puberty, of forming perfect semen, capable of fertilizing the human ovum. When these organs thus become capable of procreation, the period of puberty is complete. In this connection it is important to note that the development of the testicles produces a profound effect upon both the physical and the mental characteristics of the young man. The effect is produced through a substance which is absorbed into the blood and lymph, and is thus distributed throughout the body, 64 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS where it exercises its mysterious and profound influence. Just how this affects the mind and body will be discussed in detail in a subsequent chapter. Psychical Changes. Most of the higher animals, particularly man, and all races of men, devote a large part of the energies of the adolescent period to sports or games in which individuals contend with each other or teams of individuals contend with opposing teams in games that bring into play the various powers of brawn and brain, such as alertness of all the senses, readiness and correctness of judgment, agility, speed and strength of move- ment. Sport might be criticized by some because it represents a non-productive ex- penditure of energy. On the other hand, no energy ever expended by man is so highly productive of so precious a material as results from the many athletic sports. The products of these games are the substances consumed by them, unreasonable as that might at first appear. The use of brain, muscle and glands, and the consumption of the substance of these tissues, result in the development of brain, muscle and glands into a condition larger and YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 65 better equipped and more responsive than before such use. Thus, athletic sports, while they make drafts upon the nerves, muscles and glands, develop all these tissues to a high degree of efficiency. The plan of Nature in this instinc- tive indulgence in sports must be evident. Nature is educating and developing the male animal (man) to the highest possible degree of efficiency; so that sports, instead of being non-productive, lead to the development of structures possessing a high value, not only to the individual, but also to society. Fur- thermore, those qualities of mind that are encouraged on the athletic field between con- testants in the game are the qualities that in the later serious struggles of life make the most for success. Hardly less important than the office of sports is that of productive employment for adolescent youths. That the adolescent youth should not be asked to perform tasks that overtax his physical or mental powers goes without saying; nor should he be asked to per- form tasks that consume so much of his time that he is unable to take an active part with 66 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS his fellows in field sports; for experience shows that the youth undergoes a more wholesome development if he takes some active part in a productive employment, than if allowed to devote all of his energies to play. The simple fact that he is held responsible for some duty in the home, or the shop, develops in the youth not only a knowledge of how to do things, and a sympathy with the adults who are devoting their strength largely to similar tasks, but, more important than either of these considera- tions, these tasks develop in the youth an ability to accomplish properly and efficiently some piece of work as a duty, to do it regularly and promptly because it is a duty, without any reference to a personal enjoyment of the task. If this important lesson in life is learned during the early adolescent period, it will make the path of life much less rugged than some seem to find it. Incident to the activities of the athletic field, the youth is brought into more or less intimate contact with fellows of his kind, both of the same and of the opposite sex. While the boy of ten to fifteen delights in the forming of cliques, gangs and crowds, the boy of YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 67 seventeen delights equally in widening his circle of acquaintances. The athletic contest gives him an opportunity not only to measure his powers with those of other young men, but also to win the respect as wqII as admira- tion of his young lady acquaintances. There is no doubt but that the approbation of his young lady friends for his prowess and strength, as manifested in sports, serves as a strong factor in the stimulating of athletic contests, and in bringing the sexes together in a purely social capacity. Psychic phenomena, in both the male and female, have been well characterized by the German expression, “Sturm and Drang,” whose English equivalent is storm and stress. So we must recognize that there is a general breaking up of old relations and instincts in the mind of the youth, and their gradual dis- placement by new thoughts, desires and instincts. In the light of what has been recently dis- covered by scientists, we may expect to find in these adolescent boys and girls a love of Nature, a restiveness under restraint, a tend- ency to vacillation between extremes of emo- 68 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS tion. One day, ambitious; the next day, dis- couraged; one day, brilliant and happy; the next day, despondent and depressed; one day, too good to live; the next day, too bad to die. The rapid change from one of these mental attitudes to the other makes it very difficult for parents, teachers or other leaders and associates, either to understand or to sym- pathize with their mental state. The mental quality most needed by parents, teachers and other guardians of youth, is patience; and this must be possessed in infinite quantities. In the case of boys, at least, the problem may be immensely simplified, if they can be, at least for months at a time, brought very close to Nature. If there is any possibility of arranging it, every boy should have the benefit of several weeks of camping in the woods and by the water. Improvised camps, caves constructed in the bluff side, lodges built in trees, appeal to the boy in an inde- finable way, and seem to put him in harmony wfith Nature. A considerable amount of time may well be spent in fishing and hunting, constructing rafts and simple boats. Such opportunities develop the heroic side of the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 69 boy’s mind, and develop the massive, sturdy powers of his body. It goes without saying that every boy’s camp should have at least one, perhaps several, older young men of irreproachable character, monumental patience, phenomenal tact, and herculean strength to serve as leaders of the boys, and to inspire them in all the activities of the camp. Such a leader, or group of leaders, will use the opportunity afforded by the evening camp-fire, when all “the braves of the tribe” gather close in around the glowing embers, and as far as possible from the dis- quieting shades of the forest, to tell stories of the heroes of the olden times, and to inspire in the boys, by word pictures of heroes, a high ideal of manhood. These psychic phenomena, set forth in some detail as to the boy, but similar in many respects as to the girl, are so indissolubly asso- ciated with the sex life, that any discussion of the sex phenomena of this period, without mentioning these phenomena, would be incom- plete. One of the most noticeable psychic changes of the period is the change of attitude toward the opposite sex. The pre-adolescent 70 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS youth not only gives little heed to the oppo- site sex, but, as a matter of fact, rather despises them. However, as the months go by, the youth, who has entered upon his or her adolescent development, will begin to evince a change of attitude toward the oppo- site sex. There is a marked tendency on the part of girls and boys of thirteen to fifteen to play games that involve the choosing of partners, the chasing of the chosen one, the chase ending in the capture, and perhaps even of the kissing, of the object of the chase. The psychology of these games is interesting. Note that the partner chosen in these games is sup- posed to be surprised at the choice, and runs away and apparently makes every effort to avoid capture. When the object of the chase is a coy maiden of thirteen, this show of run- ning away to avoid capture, covers up any embarrassment; and if she is finally caught, and even kissed by the fortunate youth, it is all taken as a part of the game, and the maid rather glories in the agility- and strength of the youth who is able to catch her. Of course, it goes without saying that the girl really, down in her heart, enjoys the whole procedure, YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 71 though she may feign to be annoyed or even scandalized that the boy should take ad- vantage of her capture by planting a resound- ing smack on her glowing cheek. It is not at all difficult to perceive, in these choosing games of early youth, a mock social encounter that sustains, to the real society of the adult, a relation similar to that which the sham battle sustains to the life and death encounter of the armed forces of nations. Another stage in youthful society is dancing. In the physical and mental conditions of the dance, we have the partner-choosing games of youth, modified in such a way as to bring them into harmony with the gradually unfold- ing modesty and sedateness of young woman- hood, on the one hand, and the gradually developing chivalry of young manhood, on the other hand. In the dance, the same frequent and shifting choice of partners is noted as occurs in the partner-choosing games. The physical ac- tivity involved in the chase here takes the form of a hardly less vigorous chase of the rhythmic measures of the music. The element of contention, however, is furnished in the 72 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS repartee of conversation, rather than in physical contests. In place of the stolen kiss, the dance affords a close physical contact, almost, if not quite, an embrace. In passing, the writer wishes to take the opportunity to assure the reader that nothing in the above paragraph is to be interpreted as indicating that he believes the modern dance, as it is usually conducted, frequently with no chaperonage or safeguards, to be a wise or admissible exercise for young people. While in his social relations the young man is seeking points of tangency with those in his own plane, in his religious experience he seeks to come into relation with his Creator, that is, with the power that exists in the plane above his own. In the researches of Coe and Starbuck, made several years ago, they dis- covered the following truth, and demonstrated it as a general principle: First, a vast majority of professing Christians acknowledged their allegiance to God during the early part of the adolescent period. Second, a vanishingly small percentage of professing Christians become so after the age of twenty-five. CHAPTER II Anatomy and Physiology of the Male Sexual Organs The sexual organs of the human male consist of the penis and the scrotum, the latter con- taining the testicles. The penis of the young man who has completed the stage of puberty, consists of two erectile bodies which contain numerous blood channels, which, when filled, will cause the organ to erect. These two erectile bodies lie side by side and make up the main body of the organ. Just between and underneath these two cylindrical erectile bodies, lies the urethra, a tube which leads from the urinary bladder to the end of the penis. Around the urethra is a small amount of connective tissue, which leads the structure to be called the spongy body, though it is, principally, simply the tubular urethra. These structures just described are sheathed in loose connective tissue outside of which is the skin. About one inch of the lower end of the penis 73 TY\a\e SaxuaV C^paratuS YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 75 is formed into a sort of head which is called the glans, over which, in the young child, the skin is double folded and called the prepuce or the foreskin. The glans or head is covered by mucous membrane, which is folded back above the glans in such a way as to line the inner surface of the foreskin. The mucous membrane which covers the glans is red, thin and moist, and possesses numerous nerve endings. The prepuce, as stated above, usu- ally covers the glans in the young boys and may do so throughout life. It is sometimes adherent to the glans. This condition is abnormal, and as soon as it is discovered, the adhesions should be broken up by a physician. The normal prepuce or foreskin of the adolescent male should be free from the glans, and should be sufficiently loose, easily to retract back of the glans; a position it is likely to take when the organ is erected. If the prepuce should extend half an inch or more beyond the glans penis, as a little flap of skin, or if it is constricted at the opening so that it is difficult to draw it back of the glans or to replace it when once it is back of the glans, the condition is not normal, and 76 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS should have the attention of a competent surgeon. One can easily understand the need of a prepuce in the case of primeval man, who was practically unprotected by clothing, but in the present condition of civilized races, the fore- skin is certainly an unnecessary appendage, and there are several good reasons why it should be removed. This operation, called circumcision, is not to be looked upon as a mutilation, but simply a hygienic measure, made advisable, if not necessary, by the unnatural conditions under which we are now living. Beneath the foreskin, cheesy secretions,’pro- duced by the glands back of the head of the penis, collect; and if the organ is not fre- quently cleansed, these accumulated secretions may act as an irritant. Such local irritation is one of the most prevalent causes of self- abuse in boys. The removal of the foreskin in young chil- dren is an exceedingly simple operation, and is not by any means difficult or dangerous in the adult. If the prepuce is removed, the organ will need no especial care, as contact YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 77 with the clothing will remove the secretions as they appear. Furthermore, the glans penis becomes less sensitive, and therefore less subject to local irritation, thus greatly simplifying the young man’s problem in sexual hygiene. The 'penis in its relaxed state varies con- siderably in size, due not only to varying con- ditions of temperature, but also to individual peculiarities. The organ may vary between two and one-half inches and six inches in length in the relaxed state, and between five inches and eight inches in the erect condition. The size of the genital organs is not an index of virility in the male. The testicles are the male genital glands, and are described as about one and a half inches in length, one and a fourth inches in width and nearly one inch in thickness. The testicles are contained within a sack, which is called the scrotum. The outside coat of this sack is a thin wrinkled skin 'within which are four thin coats. These several coats taken together make a rather thick-walled sack. Next to the testicles and surrounding the spermatic cord is a thin covering which is carried down into 78 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS the scrotum when the testicle leaves the abdo- men where it is formed. This descent of the testicles, from the ab- dominal cavity, takes place usually in the latter weeks of inter-uterine life, that is, just before birth. The testicles, however, through some unusual condition, may be retained in the abdomen and make their descent months or even years later. If the testicles have not descended by the beginning of puberty, the advice of a competent surgeon should be sought. It is not at all an uncommon thing for a young man to have one testicle in his scrotum while the other testicle has been retained somewhere along the groin canal, where it may be felt as a movable lump, and usually somewhat smaller than the other testicle. Sometimes a simple surgical opera- tion will open the lower end of the groin canal in such a way that the testicle will then slip easily down into the scrotum. In any case, the surgeon, when he examines the condition of the tissues, will be able to decide what is best to do. If the testicle of any male animal were sliced through with a sharp knife, it would be found YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 79 to consist of many lobes. These lobes are all conical in shape, with the bases reaching to the outer coat of the testicles, while the apices point up toward the epididymis. Reference to the accompanying figure will show this lobular structure of the testicle as well as the other structures that we have already described. Note that each lobe, as shown in the figure, has a thin walled tubule leading up into the epididymis. As soon as the tubules reach the epididymis, they are thrown into a sort of tortuous tangle, among whose meshes the thin-walled blood vessels are intermeshed. Within the lobules, in the rounded left-hand ends in the figure, the spermatozoa are formed by a complex process of cell division and cell generation, which process is called spermato- genesis. The sperm cells, or spermatozoa, are wonderful structures shown at the top of the figure marked “spermatozoa.” These sperm cells, or spermatozoa, consist of a nucleated head, a neck and a tail. The head constitutes one-eighth or one-tenth of the body-length. The neck piece is shorter than the head. The tail, or flagellum, possesses the power of making strong lashing movements, 80 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS and constitutes the locomotor organ of the sperm cell. When a fresh sperm cell rests upon a moist membrane, these lashing move- ments carry it over the surface of the mem- brane, as do similar movements of a snake carrying it over the surface of the ground. The epididymis, referred to above, consists of a mass of coil tubes and blood vessels. After the secretion from the lobes of the testicles passes through the tortuous coils of ciliated tubes of the epididymis, it is collected into a single tube called the vas deferens, which passes as a part of the spermatic cord,—made up of the vas deferens, blood vessels, lymphatic nerves, and connective tissues which hold all of these structures together into a “cord,”— from the scrotum up through the groin canal and over the pubic arch into the pelvic cavity, where it makes a wide, sweeping turn and comes down back of the bladder, where it is dilated into a sack-like structure called the ampulla; beyond, each duct is again contracted into a narrow tube, and the two ducts, one from either side, converge and pass through the prostate gland, where they empty into the urethra. YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 81 The seminal vesicles are small, bladder-like organs, supposed originally to contain the secreted semen collected from the testicles. There are two of these vesicles from each of which a duct joins the vas deferens, making what is known as the ejaculatory duct. The two ejaculatory ducts, coming together in the prostate gland, open into the urethra, as stated above. The seminal vesicles possess glandular walls and secrete the substance which they contain. A small part only of the sperm from the testicles normally finds its way into the vesicles, these being mostly filled with their distinctive secretion. The prostate gland is situated around the neck of the bladder, and is traversed, not only by the urethra from the urinary bladder, but also by the ejaculatory ducts. There are numerous fine thread-like gland ducts which open from the substance of the prostate gland directly into the urethra. Just beyond the prostate gland are two small glands, called the Cowpers glands, whose ducts empty into the urethra some distance beyond the prostate, and just at the root of the penis. Function of the Organs. Thus far this chap- 82 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS ter has been devoted to a description of the structure of the male sex organs, but nothing has been said regarding the function of these organs. Let us now devote a little time to a minute description of the function of these various parts described above. The urethra has been referred to several times as the main canal or tube of the penis. It is important, in considering the physiology of the urethra, to remember that it has not only a double function to perform, but that the performance of one function, in a measure, temporarily unfits it for the performance of the other, and makes it necessary that a special measure of preparation be devised by Nature. The urinary secretion from the kid- neys, collecting in the urinary bladder, is passed out periodically through the urethra. This same channel must transmit periodically secretions from the sex apparatus. Cowper’s glands secrete a clear, alkaline mucus, very slippery and mucilaginous in consistency, and in appearance like the white of an egg. This secretion to the amount of six to twelve drops is poured from the Cow- per’s glands into the urethra whenever there YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 83 is a sexual excitement sufficient to cause a sustained erection of the penis. The purpose served by this alkaline mucus is a very important one, and it is important that every young man should understand it. It will be remembered that the male urethra affords passage, not only for the urine, but also for the generative fluid or semen. The urine is acid in reaction, and the frequent passage of urine along the urethra leaves that duct acid in reaction for a time after each urination. Spermatozoa are very sensitive to acid, and their vitality is seriously impaired by acid of any kind. Nature has provided that the secretion from Cowper’s glands should precede the generative products of semen along the urethra, thus neutralizing the acid, and insuring for the spermatozoa an alkaline passage from the body. Besides this impor- tant function of the secretion from Cowper’s glands, the slimy and transparent mucus appearing, drop by drop, at the opening of the urethra and spreading over the end of the penis, serves as a natural lubricant, covering the head of the male organ. It must not be forgotten in this connection that this secretion 84 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS appears only under strong sexual excitement, accompanied by erection. In Nature’s gen- eral plan, evidently, it is assumed that sexual excitement and erection is to be followed by sexual intercourse, and this lubricant aids in the sexual intercourse. A secretion from the female similarly prepares her organs for sexual contact, so that the delicate mucous membrane of the female organs shall not suffer by the contact. Many young men who have noticed the slimy secretion from Cowper’s glands have wholly misunderstood its nature and have feared that they were losing a vital fluid. This misunderstanding of the nature of this fluid makes the young man especially subject to the misrepresentations of the advertising quacks and charlatans, who are likely to tell him that he is “losing a vital fluid,” and chat he “will, if not treated, lapse into a condition of general debility and lose all procreative power.” This brief explanation of the signifi- cance of the s retion from Cowper’s glands will protect ihe young man from any such misrepresents liens. Let us remen.be;' then, that these glands YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 85 secrete mucus under the influence of strong sexual excitement; that this mucus looks like the white of an egg, but contains no albumen; and several drops of it may come out of the urethra after the excitement has subsided and the erection gone down. The prostate gland is intimately associated with reproduction. This is made evident from the fact that in those male animals that have suffered castration before puberty, the pros- tate gland withers and practically disappears. What then, is the role that this gland plays? Like Cowper’s gland, it secretes only during sexual excitement. Under such excitement, its ducts become gorged with the secretion peculiar to it, and at the moment of emission of the semen, the numerous ducts of the pros- tate empty their contents into the urethra to be mingled with and made a part of the semen. The secretion of the prostate is com- posed of a watery solution of albuminous sub- stances, and of alkaline salts, closely similar to the substance produced in the seminal vesicles. In the plan of Nature it is evident that this secretion from the prostate gland is intended to supplement the secretion from 86 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS the seminal vesicles and to serve the same purpose as that secretion. The seminal vesicles secrete continuously without any special relation to sexual excite- ment. The secretion is composed of a watery solution of albuminous substances, and of alkaline salts, practically identical with that prepared by the prostate gland, as mentioned above. This secretion, together writh that from the prostate gland, is poured into the urethra at the moment of sexual orgasm. These secretions become mixed, in their transit through the urethra, with the secretion from the testicles. This mixture is known as semen. In composition, the semen is a mixture of secretion from three sources, testicles, seminal vesicles and prostate. It will be described in some detail after we have considered the function of the testicles. It used to be supposed that the semen was secreted wholly by the testicles, and that the testicles were secreting continuously and pour- ing the semen along the vasa deferentia into the seminal vesicles, which act as small receptacles for the gradually accumulating semen from the testicles; but the researches YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 87 of Steinach, and others, have shown that the old theory is untenable, and these investigators have demonstrated that the semen is a mixture from three different sources, and that the testicles secrete their contribution to the semen only during sexual excitement and sexual stimu- lation, as is also the case with the prostate gland, while the seminal vesicles secrete their product continuously. Because of this continuous secretion from the walls of the seminal vesicles, they become periodically filled and distended like little bladders. These little bladder-like organs are each about as large as one’s little finger, though capable of great distension. They lie back of the bladder. Let us inquire regarding the function of this alkaline, albuminous secre- tion from the vesicles and prostate. For what purpose does Nature prepare such a substance? The spermatozoa frequently remain several days in the organs of the female before the ovum or egg is found and fertilized. During these several days, the spermatozoa are exert- ing no small amount of energy in their vigorous flagellate movements. For such an expendi- ture of energy, they must receive nourishment 88 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS and stimulation; the nourishment is supplied by the albumen and proteins of the vesicular and prostatic secretions. The stimulation is supplied by the alkaline salts, also secreted by this gland. The researches of Loeb, and others, have demonstrated the importance of mineral salts in stimulating the activity of living cells. One can cite no better example of this stimulating action than the influence of these vesicular and prostatic salts upon the activity of the spermatozoa. The vesicles and prostate may be looked upon as a commissariat of the army of spermatozoa; the vesicles accu- mulating a stock of supplies to be drawn upon at short notice; the prostate representing a factory where a considerable quantity of sup- plies can be prepared at short notice. The periodic distension of the seminal ves- icles is a matter of very considerable hygienic importance, and must be thoroughly under- stood by every young man who would lead a normal, sexual life. These organs, in com- mon with all other organs of the body, are supplied with two sets of nerves, one set passing away to the spinal cord, and carrying messages which indicate the condition of the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 89 organ or the presence and character of any local stimulus; the other set passing away from the spinal cord to the organ and carrying secretory or motor impulses, some of the nerve fibers carrying one sort of impulse and some the other. The secretory impulses are more or less continuous, and, as a result, these glands secrete continuously and become dis- tended as described above. The motor im- pulses pass to the muscles within the walls of the vesicles, causing a strong, spasmodic con- traction of those muscles at the moment of emission of semen, thus throwing the contents of the vesicles into the urethra at the same moment when the epididymis and vas defer- ens, the ampulla and the ducts of the prostate, are emptying their contents also into the urethra. Now, the sensory nerves, passing from the seminal vesicles up to the erection and emission centers of the spinal cord, are stimulated by an unusual pressure within the vesicles (See page 74). Unusual pressure may be caused either by distension, due to accu- mulated secretion, or by pressure upon the vesicles from over-distended rectum or blad- der. It sometimes happens that two or more 90 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS of these influences are acting at the same time. These impulses are most likely to be effective when the person is asleep, and particularly if he is lying upon his back. The result of this stimulus is to cause an erection, accompanied usually by an erotic dream, the whole phe- nomenon culminating in an emission of the contents of the seminal vesicles, followed, of course, by a relief of the pressure which was the cause of the condition. This phenomenon is technically called a “nocturnal emission” In common parlance, many men, however, refer to it as “pollution,” a “dreaming off” or a “wret dream.” Vecki, of Vienna, a specialist in physiology, hygiene and pathology of the sex apparatus, says that the nocturnal emission is a normal physiological phenomenon, the object of which is to relieve pressure in the seminal vesicles, and that in normal cases it occurs in fairly regular periods, these periods varying in length with different individuals, according to their physical condition and habits; the period being from tw'o to four weeks, usually, although a considerable longer or shorter period would not be looked upon as pathological. Vecki describes the normal YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 91 nocturnal emission as being “accompanied by an erection, erotic dreams and an orgasm, the subject being wholly unconscious of the condition until he is awakened at the moment of orgasm.” Normally, the subject experiences, on the following day, a feeling of relief and well- being, and should normally be wholly free from headache, depression or languor. In- quiry among a large number of normal, healthy men convinces the author that it is not at all unusual for these emissions to occur as infrequently as once in two months in a normal, healthy man. On the other hand, it is not unusual for them to occur as frequently as once in ten days, or even once a week, and still be within the physiological limit; how- ever, when the emission occurs as frequently as once a week, it should be looked upon as abnormal, if it is followed by depression, headache or lassitude. Cases are not unusual in which the nocturnal emission is experienced as often as three times in a week, after which there will be a period of two to four weeks without an emission, followed again by very frequent emissions and a free period. The phenomenon is an individual peculi- 92 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS arity, and it is not to be looked upon as abnormal; at any rate, it is not to be looked upon as showing a diseased or weakened condition, but simply as an idiosyncrasy. Another variation of these emissions is a sub- stitution of the diurnal emission for the noc- turnal emission. This is the experience of about one man in ten wdio has no nocturnal emission whatsoever; but about once in ten days or two weeks, on the occasion of a more or less difficult passage of the bowels, the subject will experience a sudden, more or less profuse flow of gelatinous liquid from the urethra; this is nothing more or less than the contents of the gorged seminal vesicles given out as a diurnal emission, instead of a noc- turnal emission. As in the variation cited above, this is an individual peculiarity or idiosyncrasy, and has no suggestion of disease or weakness connected with it. Still another variation from the average experience of a man is to be found in the case of an occasional man—perhaps one man in ten who has no nocturnal emissions at all, even when living a perfectly continent life. In many cases that have come to the writer’s attention, this YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 93 experience may easily be accounted for. The individuals in question, who had never experi- enced either nocturnal or diurnal emissions, were men of exceedingly abstemious and frugal habits, who not only ate and drank small quantities of food and beverage, but chose the plainest of foods and drinks, that were neither stimulating nor irritating. This fact, together with the frugal, simple life, may account for the fact that they did not experience noc- turnal emissions. This condition is not to be looked upon at all as abnormal, but simply another individual peculiarity. Cases of too frequent nocturnal emission accompanied by languor and headache are usually caused by irritability of or lack of tonicity of the sexual apparatus, particularly of the seminal vesicles and the ducts. This irritability or loss of tonicity is not infre- quently caused by masturbation or self-abuse, though it may be caused by excessive sexual intercourse; making itself manifest naturally, in either case, on the cessation of the habit of self-abuse or the cessation of the habit of excessive sexual intercourse. Another cause of too frequent nocturnal emissions, and one 94 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS that is wholly separate from any abuse of the sexual functions, is irritability and mechanical irritation of the sexual apparatus, perhaps especially of the membranous and prostatic portions of the urethra, caused apparently by the presence of the excessive amount of irri- tating substances in the urine, which sub- stances occur in sharp angular crystals and would seem to be in a high degree irritating to the tender membrane of the upper part of the urethra. The almost invariable presence of these crystals, in excess in those cases that have not been accounted for by abuse of the sexual function, leads one to adopt the plaus- ible theory that the crystals are the cause of the irritability; however, we must not lose sight of the fact that these crystals may be simply an accompaniment of the too frequent emissions, and that the presence of these salts in the urine may be caused by some disturb- ance of the nutritive process that go on in the body, which disturbances cause not only irri- tability of the sexual apparatus, but also the presence of crystals. When the seminal vesicles are much dis- tended, it occurs not infrequently that the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 95 passage of hard masses of fecal material through the rectum will, by simple mechanical pressure on the seminal vessels, force out a few drops, pe-jhaps the whole contents of the vesicles. This would be called an “invol- untary emission,” but the liquid passing out must not be looked upon as semen; it is simply the secretion of the seminal vesicles; and, in losing it, one is not losing a vital fluid or a fluid any portion of which would be absorbed; he is simply losing a fluid which would, in the normal course of events, have passed away within the next few days in the nocturnal emission. These details have been explained in order that the young man may fully understand the physiology of his sex apparatus, and not be disturbed by the advertisements or the pam- phlet literature of charlatans and quacks who make a business of frightening young men into the belief that in these experiences they are “losing vital fluid;” that they are “vic- tims of lost manhood,” or that they are enter- ing into a condition of “general debility and impotence.” As an actual fact, involuntary loss of any considerable or serious amount of 96 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS spermatozoa, a condition technically known as spermatorrhoea, is not found frequently, even in the practice of specialists in genito- urinary diseases; and, in these cases, the condition is usually a result of great excesses, of sexual debauchery, or it may be one of the results of venereal disease. This question is frequently asked: Are sper- matozoa found in the fluid that passes away in the nocturnal emission? The answer is, “Yes, usually.” In the above description of the nocturnal emission, we failed to state that the ampullae contract along with the seminal vesicles at the time of the normal nocturnal emission. As shown above, the ampullae contain sperma- tozoa, as do the vesicles to a small extent. The spermatozoa leave the testicles and pass out through the vas deferens whenever there is sexual excitement sufficient in degree to cause an erection of the penis. Now, if a young man experiences repeated seasons of sexual excitement, accompanied by repeated erections, it is evident, that his ampullae will become filled with sperm cells or spermatozoa. When these sperm cells first come into the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 97 ampullae fresh from the testicles, they are lashing their tails strongly from side to side. We call them nascent or new-born sperma- tozoa. In that condition, they are capable of fertilizing the human ovum, if the conditions are favorable as in the perfectly natural sex life of the married man. The male animal is supposed to experience extreme sex excitement with erection when in the presence of a female who is in the con- dition of heat. We may take, for example, the experience of a stallion. This magnifi- cently virile animal apparently experiences sexual excitement only when in the presence of a mare in heat. He seems to know instinc- tively when the mare, into whose presence he is brought, is in heat. We can easily imagine that, under such circumstances, the horse’s organ undergoes a strong erection, and sper- matozoa by the million swarm out of the testicle, up through the vas deferens into the ampulla. At the climax of the sex excitement, which occurs during the sexual intercourse between the horse and mare, the orgasm occurs, during which the ampullae and the seminal vesicles and prostate all pour their 98 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS secretions into the urethra, where they are mixed together as they pass out to be de- posited in the vagina of the female. Thus, we have the perfectly normal and natural sequence of events as they occur in the male sex apparatus. Now, let us suppose that this stallion, after being subjected to extreme sexual excitement in the presence of the mare in heat, is led away and not permitted to have sexual intercourse with her. The spermatozoa that have gath- ered in the ampullae in readiness to pass out, are retained there, while their food and the stimulation that is to keep them active are in the seminal vesicles, and they have access to this food and stimulation, only in so far as they pass up into the seminal vesicles which they will do to a certain extent. But most of them remain in the ampullae and gradually lose their vitality. It is easy to understand that such sperma- tozoa, now weak and less strongly motile, are practically useless for fertilizing purposes, and if this stale semen were injected into the organs of the mare in heat, it would probably not cause pregnancy. For this reason, Nature YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 99 gets rid of this stale semen by simply emptying out the ampullae at the next nocturnal emission. We can easily understand, then, how it happens that there are nearly always sperma- tozoa in the fluid that passes away in the nocturnal emission. They are simply sperma- tozoa which have passed up into the ampullae, hours or days before, as a result of sexual excitement and sustained erection. If a man exerts a restraining will power sufficient to avoid all sexual excitement and erections, he will thus avoid the passage of spermatozoa from his testicles into the ampullae, and secondly, avoid the loss of spermatozoa with nocturnal emissions. This interpretation of the physiology of this apparatus makes it evident that a man has it within his w ill power to govern the loss of spermatozoa. This question has been asked the wTriter on several occasions: Will an intense and con- tinuous desire on the part of a young man for sexual intercourse cause the loss of seminal fluid? The answer is: An intense and con- tinuous desire for sexual intercourse will in the man cause an active secretion on the part 100 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS of the testicles, and will probably cause an increased secretion on the part of the seminal vesicles, also an active secretion on the part of the prostate gland and of Cowper’s glands. The secretion from Cowper’s glands will make its way along the urethra, and appear at the opening of that duct, passing out and soiling the linen of the subject. The secretions accu- mulated from the other glands will tend rather to aggravate than to allay the sexual desires. Such a condition of the sexual apparatus is likely to cause a nocturnal emission in the near future, relieving this tension and empty- ing the gorged ducts. If the nocturnal emis- sion does not occur within twenty-four hours, sexual desires are certain to occupy the waking hours more or less completely. If the noc- turnal emission does occur, it will carry away, not alone the contents of the seminal vesicles, but also the spermatozoa and other constitu- ents of the vital fluid. Seasons of prolonged and intense sexual excitement are in a high degree inimical to continence, and even though the subject does not fully submit to his inclina- tion, his nocturnal emissions, which are likely to come frequently, carry away the product YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 101 of the testicular secretion, thereby depleting, to a certain extent, his virility. It is hardly necessary to urge upon every man who would lead a continent life, the very great impor- tance of resisting these onslaughts of sexual passion in their very incipiency. Yet another question is not infrequently asked: Is the production of semen modified by the character of the food or by the state of the nutrition of the subject? In answer to that question the writer would say that the vesicular secretion is greatly modified by the character and quantity of the food; the secre- tion from the testicles (spermatic fluid) is only very slightly modified by the conditions of nutrition. This accounts for the fact that well-nourished men, who eat heavily, and especially those men who eat heartily of such rich foods as meat and eggs, are very likely to experience frequent nocturnal emissions when living continently. Testicles. The testicles are the most im- portant structures in the sex apparatus of the man. No rational idea of the physiology of these glands can be given without laying down, as a fundamental physiological law, that the 102 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS testicles secrete, or give out spermatozoa, under sexual excitement only. The same general prin- ciple applies to all glands, that is, glands in general secrete or pour out their special fluid, only under the influence of some special stimulus. In harmony with that law, the testicles secrete only under the influence of sexual stimulation. At this point, we must make it clear that the process of making sper- matozoa in the testicles is not included here under the head, secretion. This process of making spermatozoa is called spermatogenesis, or sperm making. Whenever the testicles have been depleted, that is, when they have secreted or given out the spermatozoa, they directly begin to make more spermatozoa. This pro- cess of making spermatozoa in the testicles is called spermatogenesis, as stated above, and is more or less independent of sexual excite- ment. After the male animal has become sexually mature, that is, at the climax of his period of puberty, the testicles make sperma- tozoa, which remain in a dormant condition or sleeping condition in the lobes of the testicles. In this sleeping or dormant con- dition, the spermatozoa may rest in the young SPERMATOGENESIS OR SPERMATOZOON-MAKING The process of sperm-making, which is the making of the male germ cells, called spermatozoa, is an exceedingly interesting one (see page 102). With the growth in size of the sex glands, there is a marked development of the cells of the germ-plasm. These cells undergo a division not very unlike the division noted in the amoeba, and there is formed a new layer of cells in the germ-plasm made up of the so-called mother cells. Each mother cell divides into two spermatoblasts, and each of these divides into two spermatozoa. Wonderful indeed are Nature’s laws of sex ! YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 103 man’s testicles for many months, provided he experiences no sexual excitement. In this dormant condition the spermatozoa may be looked upon as a sort of savings account of young manhood; but should the young man experience a strong sexual excitement, accom- panied by a sustained erection, these dormant spermatozoa are given out or secreted by the testicles, and are released from the lobes, pass along the ducts of the testicles, out through the epididymis and up through the vasa defer- entia to the ampullae. At the moment of release, that is, at the moment of secretion, the spermatozoa begin the strong lashing of their tails from side to side. In this con- dition we call them nascent or new-born sper- matozoa. Once a spermatozoon is set free or secreted and begins the lashing of its tail, it never ceases this strong flagellate motion until it ceases for good and all. We have in pre- ceding pages described what took place in the sex apparatus of the stallion when brought into the presence of the mare in heat. The spermatozoa in his testicles, which had been made by process of spermatogenesis, hours, days, weeks or months before, are set free, 104 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS pass to the ampulla, where they are retained for a few minutes only, and at the climax of the sexual intercourse, immediately pass out, mixed with their rations, namely, the con- tents of the seminal vesicles and prostate. In the preceding discussion of the work of the testicles, we have described the external secretion only. It is important for us to remember that the testicles prepare two en- tirely distinct substances. One of these, al- ready described in detail, is the sperm, com- posed principally of spermatozoa. This is called the external secretion from the testicles. The other substance prepared by the testicles is called the internal secretion, because it is absorbed into the blood vessels. Secretions are thus classified into two groups, the external secretions being those that are poured out upon the cutaneous or mucous surface. Examples of external secre- tions are the saliva, poured into the mouth; perspiration, poured out upon the surface of the skin; gastric juice, poured into the stomach; bile from the liver, poured out into the intestines, etc. Examples of internal secretions are the secretion from the thyroid YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 105 gland, secretion from the suprarenal bodies, which are two little glands just above the kidneys. Some glands make only external secretions, as the salivary glands and the sweat glands. Other glands make only in- ternal secretions, as the thyroid gland and the suprarenal glands. But some glands make both external and internal secretions. For example, the pancreas prepares the well-known pancreatic juice, which is an external secretion poured into the intestines, there to exert an important influence on digestion. The pan- creas also prepares an internal secretion, which is absorbed back into the blood, there to exert an important influence on the use of sugars and starches in the body. The liver prepares an external secretion, the bile, which is poured out into the intestines, to exert an important influence on digestion. It also prepares several substances that are absorbed back into the blood. These substances are internal secre- tions (also internal excretions). The sex glands belong to this third group of glands, namely, to those glands that prepare both external and internal secretions. With the external secretions of the sex glands, men YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 106 have been acquainted for thousands of years. The oldest writings make occasional reference to the “seed of the man.” While this term, “seed of the man,” applies many times to the progeny of man, in other cases it is evident from the context that it refers to the semen of the man. In fact, the word “semen” means seed. In a similar way, men have for a long time known about the products from the ovaries—the external secretion, the eggs— but it is comparatively recently that we have come to know about the internal secretion; in fact, the whole subject of internal secretions is a distinctly modern subject. There was no thought of any such thing existing before the epoch-making work of Brown-Sequard, whose principal publication on this subject appeared in the Archives of Physiology in 1889. Two years, later, Poehl, of Germany, writing in the Berlin Clinical Weekly, refers to this internal secretion from the testicles as “spcrmin” a term which has frequently been applied to it since, though not universally used to designate it. In 1896, Zoth made some important con- tributions on this subject, which were pub- lished in Pflueger’s Archives of Physiology. YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 107 Zoth showed that this substance immensely increased the working power of muscles when injected into them before experiment. Since that time, more than a score of important communications have been published regard- ing researches in the laboratories of Europe. Most of these have been within the last ten years; and, practically without exception, they have confirmed the earlier findings; so that the proof is now positive and final that the testicles, as well as the ovaries, prepare this internal secretion from the beginning of adolescence, throughout adolescence and mid- dle life, and until the beginning of the senile period. The best summary of these recent investigations on the internal secretions from the testicles and ovaries has come recently from the pen of Prof. Francis H. A. Marshall, and is entitled “The Physiology of Reproduc- tion.” (Longmans-Green & Co., London, 1910.) The internal secretions in general have been found to exert a most profound influence on nutrition and development, as well as on several other physiological functions. For example, the internal secretion from the 108 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS thyroid gland determines and controls the development of the normal infant into the normal youth; while the internal secretions from the testicle or ovary determines the development of the normal youth into the normal man or woman. If the thyroid glands were removed from the throats of two puppies, out of a litter of four, these two puppies, instead of growing up into perfectly normal, active, alert, playful young dogs, as would the two unmutilated puppies, would grow into drooling idiots, unable to walk, unable to feed themselves, having a vacant stare, slobbering and drooling from the mouth, and wallowing in their own filth—objects of the most abject idiocy conceivable. A similar thing would occur in the development of a human child, who, through some misfortune, might lose the thyroid gland, or whose thyroid gland might be wholly incapacitated through disease or failure to develop. There are many cases of this kind known and described in medical literature, as cases of cretinism. Once the animal has passed through the stages of its development into normal youth, then we come to the period, noticed heretofore, YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 109 at the threshold of its adult life, when the internal secretion from the sex glands exer- cises upon its development an influence no less profound and far-reaching than that which is exerted by the secretion from the thyroid gland on the development of the infant. One of the best examples that can be cited of the effect of the internal secretion from the testicle is that which it exerts upon the devel- opment of the horse. Most young men have seen, either at horse shows or upon farms or ranches, pedigreed stallions. No person can see one of these splendid animals without ad- miring, if not actually standing in awe of its splendid physical force, beauty of form, and grace and power of action. He is the physical ideal of the horse kind. What is the source of his strength and beauty? The physical features that one notes pecu- liar to a stallion are, first, the great breadth and depth of chest, the great mass of shoulder and hip muscles, and the high, arched neck, fiery eye and luxuriant mane and tail; second, the functional features next noticeable are the greater alertness and constant physical exu- berance, as manifested especially in the gait 110 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS and the frequent whinnying. The thoughtful observer at the horse show or on the ranch cannot but compare these animals with the gelding. Two colts on a ranch may be full brothers, from the same pedigreed stallion and the same pedigreed dam. At the age of two years these twTo young horses may be as like as two peas in a pod. One of these promising young animals is chosen, because of some com- mendable peculiarity of temperament or ac- tion, to remain unmutilated as a progenitor of his kind upon the ranch. The other is sub- jected to the veterinarian’s knife and ecraseur, and deprived of the testicles—the male sex glands. From the day of this operation, these two animals, in every respect alike except that one is unmutilated while the other is deprived of the glands mentioned above, de- velop along radically different lines. The stallion develops, during his third year, into the noble animal described above. This third year is his period of puberty, and the changes which he undergoes, physically and tempera- mentally, are closely parallel to those which the human subject undergoes during his period of puberty. In one or two years the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 111 stallion develops into the great, fiery-eyed, hard-muscled war horse, such an animal as the General delights to trust himself to as he leads his battalions into battle, confident that his horse will carry him up to the belching mouth of a cannon if he wishes to go there. The stallion is absolutely fearless and abso- lutely tireless. The gelding, on the other hand, develops into an animal that is in every respect a neuter. Physically, this animal develops a body almost identical with that of the female of the same species. Temperamentally, the gelding is a patient, plodding beast of burden; and, though under good grooming, he may show considerable life while under the control of his driver, who gives him an occasional touch of the whip, he seldom shows any inter- est in other members of the horse family, either male or female; and in the pasture or stable his neuter sex is ever apparent. While he may contend mildly, for a place at the feeding trough, he never essays the defense of any weaker members of the herd; and one stallion would put a hundred like him to flight. The thoughtful observer of this phenomenon 112 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS cannot help wondering what has made this radical difference in the development of these two animals. The solution of the problem is not far to seek. From the beginning of puberty to the beginning of senile decay, the stallion derives from the testicles what is referred to above as internal secretion, the spermin. Physiologists agree that the inter- nal secretion formed by the testicles is ab- sorbed by the blood and lymph, is carried to brain and spinal cord, to the muscles and glands, and there produces this profound influence indicated above. So we have discovered the source of the stallion’s strength and beauty. What is true of the horse is true of man. The young man at puberty begins to receive from his testicles the internal secretion which leads to develop- ment of his full manly powers. The sum total of the qualities peculiar to manhood has been called virility. For want of a better word, this term has been applied to the sum total of the male qualities of any animal whatso- ever; so that the male qualities of the stallion are also compassed in the term virility. The inquiring young man will naturally YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 113 wish to know at this point if this lesson from the beasts of the field can be applied in all its details to the human subject. The unqualified answer of the medical profession to this ques- tion would be in the affirmative. An exact parallel to the conditions described above can be found in the eunuch of the Orient. Two thousand years ago in human history, it was a common thing in Western Asia, for boys who were born in bondage, or sold into bond- age, to be castrated. Such boys were some- times brought in by the hundreds as a part of the spoils of an aggressive war, and sold into slavery. As a rule, these boys were castrated before they entered the age of puberty. The men, who had bought them, knew from experience that, if they were not unsexed, they would, when they reached their young manhood, rise up and demand liberty; and they would fight to the death to regain liberty; but such slaves are neither profitable nor safe to own. So the men who owned these boys as mere chattels, simply had them castrated, well knowing that when they grew up they would be just as docile beasts of burden as the gelding. These eunuchs of the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 114 Orient, who were castrated before puberty, may be described as flabby-muscled, squeaky- voiced, beardless, namby-pamby molly-cod- dles, whose temperament manifests qualities of cringing servitude and lack of initiative. There is a curious tendency on the part of these creatures to lay on festoons of fat on chest and hips, presenting a pitiable similitude to the general outlines of the woman’s body. These creatures are as different from a virile man as the gelding is different from the stallion. The secret of this difference is easily to be found in the fact that they have been deprived of the influence of the spermin from the testicles. The application of all this to the adolescent young man must be very evident. From the time the youth passes into his adolescence, from the time that he begins his rapid growth in stature, from the time that his testicles begin their rapid growth—increasing, as they do, eight-fold in volume in the space of three years—from this time on, the youth receives every day of his life, perhaps every hour of the day, three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, the internal secretion into his blood, YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 115 which is carried to the heart and sent out in a thrilling, pulsing stream through the arteries to every growing tissue of his body. His red blood is carried into his muscles by his strong, young heart, and as the months go by, his muscles grow in volume and in tonicity. They lose that flabbiness typical of a boy in his ungainly cub stage of puberty, and assume the tonicity and hardness typical of the muscles of the virile man. The trained foot- ball or basket-ball player, the trained wrestler or boxer can receive terrific blows on any part of his muscular system, without showing any evidence of pain or of injury to the tissue. This same substance, the spermin, is carried to his central nervous system, to his spinal cord, his medulla oblongata, and his brain, and hammered into these by his strong young heart; and straightway his nervous system shows new functional attributes. He begins to act like a man; he begins to think like a man; he begins to do big things in a man’s way; he begins to think bigger things in a man’s way; he begins to make ambitious plans in a man’s way; and he is a man, every inch of him a man; he must put away boyish YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 116 things; there is a new light in his eye. This light is nothing more nor less than light from the kindling fire of manhood. He begins to see visions, visions of great things out in the to be done; and hejs ambitious to get out and do them. In this connection, it must be noted that some boys and young men seriously interfere with this natural process of developing from youth into manhood by the act of mastur- bation or self-abuse. If this act is begun before puberty, and continued at compara- tively frequent intervals, say, three or four times a week, or daily, the youth might almost as well have no testicles during such period of self-abuse; and if persisted in during the years of puberty, he will, instead of develop- ing into the hard-muscled, fiery-eyed, ambi- tious young man described above, develop into a flabby-muscled, namby-pamby, cow- ardly molly-coddle, lacking in initiative and will power Those who know conditions among boys are conscious of the fact that a very large propor- tion of boys, in some stage of their develop- ment, get into this habit. Some boys acquire YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 117 this habit of masturbation or self-abuse, as stated in the previous chapter, because of a long, tight foreskin, under which irritating secretions collect. These little boys, in their innocent attempt to allay the itching, put their hands upon their organs. It is easy to understand how readily they may learn in this way the act of self-abuse. Other boys come under the malevolent influence of older, low-minded boys, who deliberately teach them the act of self-abuse. In any case, once the act is learned, whether accidentally or other- wise, if repeated frequently, it seriously inter- feres with, if it does not wholly defeat, the plan of Nature for the young man's development, and he fails to grow into the splendid type of manhood that was his birthright. The degree to which he falls short of reaching the full stature of manhood will be in direct proportion to his departure from Nature's laws of clean, right-living. It cannot be assumed that the condition of virility, once attained, will always continue. It must be maintained. To be maintained, this vital substance produced by the testicles must be continuously absorbed into the blood. 118 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS When once the man or boy understands this, it must be evident to him that he has, to a certain extent, the making or marring of his own virility; that it is not simply an inex- haustible source of power provided by Nature, but, like such a natural resource as a forest or a coal mine, it may be exhausted, and, if not husbanded carefully, will be exhausted. On the other hand, clean, right-living, and clean, right-thinking will give mother Nature a free hand. The young man will easily attain and easily maintain the highest quality of virile manhood. It is a well-known fact, in the medical pro- fession, that the ovaries of the female exert upon her development an influence analogous to that which the testicles exert on the devel- opment of the male. If a girl of eight or ten years were to lose her ovaries, she would fail to develop those qualities of radiant woman- hood that the whole world admires. She would fail to develop that beautiful symmetry and graceful rotundity of arm, neck and limb, typical of this period of her development. She would fail to develop that beautiful color- ing of brow, cheek and throat, that is her 119 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS birthright. She would fail to develop that wealth of glossy hair, that is her crowning glory. She would fail to acquire that lustrous light in the eyes, that marks her entrance into womanhood. On the other hand, her devel- opment would take a turn toward the mascu- line. As the castrated male develops form toward femaleness, so the castrated female develops form toward maleness; and we need not be surprised to see her at twenty-five with a heavy voice, bewhiskered chin, square shoulders, and a long stride, a being who, in trousers, would pass anywhere for a man. Such is the working of Nature when defeated in her plan. If a woman of twenty-five to thirty-five were to suffer the loss of both ovaries, she would probably go very early into a condition of senile decay, and, in a few years after the operation, might easily pass for a woman of fifty-five to sixty-five. Sexual Stimulation may be subdivided into two general categories, namely, conscious sexual stimulation and subsconscious sexual stimulation. Conscious Sexual Stimulation is partly men- tal and partly physical. The physical stimu- 120 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS lation is produced by physical proximity of a member of the opposite sex. The physical and mental phases of conscious sexual stimulation are so intimately interwoven that it is exceed- ingly difficult to discuss one without constant reference to the other. And it may be said, in this connection, that the mental attitude of the two individuals of opposite sex, who are brought into close physical proximity, will modify very greatly their local sexual re- sponses. Reverting to the lower animals, when the female in rut or heat, is brought into proximity to the male, as when the mare in heat is brought into proximity to the stallion, there seems to be, on the part of each animal, a consciousness of the character and attitude of the other animal; and both animals are, step by step, excited by various physical con- tacts, and probably also mental conditions, to a high state of sexual excitement, leading to the natural, ultimate result, coitus, in which event the sexual excitement culminates in the orgasm of the male, which empties the secreted semen into the organs of the female. It will be easily understood that, in human YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 121 subjects whose social relations (wedlock) per- mit them to indulge in sexual intercourse, close physical proximity and various caresses, lead step by step, in the normal course of Nature to sexual excitement and sexual desire, which may culminate as described above in the case of lower animals. To revert to the function of the testicles, we may say, that during these various stages of sexual stimulation and excitement, these glands are actively secreting thousands upon thousands of nascent spermatozoa, which, being released, are hurried along, partly by their own flagellate movements, and partly by the action of the cilia in the ducts of the epididymis and the peristaltic contraction of the vas deferens—hurried along the vas to the ampulla. If the period of sexual excitement extends over fifteen to thirty minutes, the whole duct system from the epididymis to the ampulla becomes gorged with the secreted testicular product. This secretion consists of active motile spermatozoa, of spermatic gran- ules and of mucus. The latter is secreted by the ducts of the epididymis and the vas deferens, while the testicle itself furnishes 122 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS only the spermatozoa, the spermatic granules and a small amount of liquid, just sufficient in quantity to float the spermatozoa out of the testicles into the ducts. At the moment of sexual orgasm occurs what is known as the emission of semen. In this act the whole contents of the ampulla, vas deferens, testicle and epididymis, the con- tents of the seminal vesicles, the contents of the ducts of the prostate gland are all poured out, by a spasmodic muscular contraction, into the urethra, and by contraction of the walls of the urethra forced from that tube through the mouth of the urethra. Thus, in the act of emission, there is an intimate mixing to- gether of the three components to the semen, namely, that from the testicles, that from the vesicles, and that from the prostate. Subconscious Sexual Stimulation is not ac- companied by erection or by any mental or physical manifestation of sexual excitement. When a sexually mature individual is brought into more or less intimate relations with a normal, mature individual of the opposite sex, under conditions where the secondary sexual qualities may have free and unrestricted play, YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 123 there can be no reasonable doubt that both individuals experience a subconscious sexual stimulation, which will influence them, both physically and mentally, through subconscious responses of their sex apparatus. One can easily imagine, for example, that a young man may meet upon the skating rink a young lady for whom he has a very sincere admiration and respect. She, on the other hand, enter- tains for him a similar admiration and respect. They may skate together the whole afternoon, and converse upon politics, art or philosophy, the young woman feeling herself swung along, almost carried, on her companion’s strong arm. The whole experience is in the highest degree pleasurable and exhilarating to her. She will be conscious of absolutely no sexual stimulation. On the other hand, the young man experiences most exalted pleasure in the company of his young lady friend, through the pressure of her hand upon his arm, the graceful movements of body and limbs, the smile, the light in the eye and the soft voice— all of these give him an ecstatic pleasure that he will be unable to analyze, even if he were inclined to do so. In his case, as in the case 124 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS of the young woman, there has been absolutely no conscious sexual stimulation. In the case of neither individual has there been a thought of sex, as such, or of their sexual apparatus; yet, without a shadow of doubt, the sexual organs of both individuals have been more or less active during this period; they have been subject to subconscious sexual stimulation. In the case of the male, his testicles have been awakened into an activity of probably con- siderably less degree than in the case of con- scious sexual stimulation; and during this activity of the glands, a certain amount of secretion has been formed. The effect of the experience described above is to make the young man feel stronger and more manly, and to make the young woman feel more womanly; and the admiration and respect of each for the other is greatly increased. CHAPTER III Sexual Hygiene of the Man No rational or acceptable system of sexual hygiene for a human male can be worked out without constant reference to the lower ranks of the mammalian class (horses and cattle), and to primitive social conditions. In our study of the anatomy and physiology of the sex apparatus of the human male, it must have become evident that man has many things in common with other mammals, and that no adequate knowledge of man’s physical or mental attributes and qualities can be obtained without a study of similar conditions of life among related animals. In other words, the study of the sex relationship between male and female of the horse kind will throw much light upon these relationships as they should be found in the human race. It might be profitable for us to take a few paragraphs to explain just what these relationships are, as they may be observed on any farm, particu- 125 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 126 larly on those large farms or ranches where the horses run more or less at large, and under conditions very similar to the primitive con- ditions for the horse. Under such conditions, we are justified in expecting that the horse will live his perfectly natural life, unmodified by conditions more or less artificial, which man has thrown about him. The writer had an opportunity in his youth to study the horse under such conditions on a far Western ranch. Suppose that we have a herd of a hundred mares and ten stallions. Suppose that these stallions and mares run loose on the ranch at perfect freedom all the year around, or at least during breeding season. The horse is gregarious; there is no individual pairing off, except for the day or days when a mare is in heat. The attitude which the horses have toward the mares seems to be simply one of comradeship, except during the breeding sea- son. At the beginning of the breeding season, say about the middle of March, and during a period of about three months, the stallion be- comes distinctly more aggressive in tempera- ment, more exuberant in temper and action, YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 127 more noble and proud in carriage. As the mares begin to come into heat, the stallions contend for possession of them. The largest, strongest and most dominant and belligerent of the stallions will take possession of all the mares that come into heat during the first few weeks of the breeding season. Those stallions less equipped and less dominant will gain pos- session, perhaps, of no mares during the first two or three weeks; but presently, out of a hundred mares, there will be several come into heat in one day, and the less aggressive stallions then may have access occasionally to mares, especially when the young fillies, which are coming into heat for the first time, apparently frightened at the contention of the older horses, withdraw from the midst of the herd, and get off somewhat apart. It is a common thing for a young stallion, perhaps on his first breeding season, to pair off with a young filly, and they spend the day together, perhaps having sexual intercourse three or four times in the one day, unmolested. An interesting part of this gregarious life of the horse is the fact that through the whole year, except during the day or days when the 128 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS mare is in heat, which in most cases is only one day in the year, the attitude of the two sexes toward each other is simply one of good comradeship. However, the stallions, in this primitive condition of gregarious, tribal, clan or herd life, are the natural protectors of mares and colts, and will fight at any time against a common enemy of the herd. It is interesting to see the attitude toward each other of the young stallion and the young filly the day after the filly has been in heat. As a result of that day’s experience, she has become pregnant. Incidentally, both the male and female have become sexually depleted. The following day, they may feed together side by side out on the range, with no sign of a sexual approach between them. Any one seeing them on that day would never guess the ardent passion which they had manifested the day before. It is important to note that the male of the horse kind never approaches the mare in a sexual advance when she is pregnant. If the young stallion and mare were mated by their owner, and put into a pasture where they would have absolutely free access to each other at all hours of the day YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 129 throughout the year, this is what would happen: They would be good chums, good fellows together, until that day in the spring when the mare would come into heat. On that day, in some mysterious manner, the stallion would seem to detect at once the condition of the mare, and would at once approach her in that sex approach peculiar to their species. This approach would be ac- cepted in the same spirit, and the mare would manifest her ardent passion in the way peculiar to their species, perhaps having intercourse two or three times during the day. Under such favorable conditions for conception, the chances that the mare will become pregnant on that day are at leasts fifty to one. As stated above, they will, on the following day, be simply good fellows together; this will be their relationship for a whole year, until the colt, which is carried by the mother eleven months, is about four weeks old, when the mare will come in heat again. Under such conditions, then, the mare and horse will have intercourse only one day in the year, practi- cally giving up the day to that work of pro- creation. YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 130 It is interesting to note the physical con- dition of a stallion living such a life, which would be considered a continent life. From my own observations of stallions on Western ranches, I would say unreservedly that the continent life is not only not attended with any derangement of physical condition, but those stallions which serve few mares, five to ten or twenty in a year—and all, of course, during a few weeks in the spring—are among the finest stallions I have ever seen in physical stamina and temperamental aggressiveness. All the changes above noted, which enter into the physical and mental development of the adolescent human male, were of a char- acter to equip the individual for the mainte- nance and protection of a wife and children. This development has been reached by the time a young man is twenty-one to twenty- three years of age, when, in the average case, he would be able, so far as concerns his physical equipment, to establish and maintain a home. The fact that his adolescent develop- ment is complete by the age of twenty-five, YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 131 and that he has, by the time he arrives at that age, grown into the full stature of all his physical and mental powers, may cer- tainly be interpreted as an indication that his home building should be begun not later than the twenty-fifth year. This means, then, that young men ought, if possible, to marry as young as twenty-five. But the conditions of society at the present time are such that a large proportion of the young men, particu- larly those who are preparing for any of the learned professions (theology, medicine, law or pedagogy), are hardly through their pro- fessional course by the time they reach that age, and most of them feel that they must make a start in their profession before they attempt the responsibilities of supporting a home. This means that a large proportion of them marry as late as thirty years of age. If we consider now those commercial, financial and industrial vocations, which involve con- siderable preparation in technical institutions or long apprenticeships (engineering, phar- macy, manufacturing, commerce, banking, journalism, etc., etc.), we find that the young man is hardly able to establish such a home 132 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS as most such young men feel that they must maintain, on any salary they receive before they are twenty-eight to thirty years of age. These considerations apply particularly to college and university men, as, almost without exception, these men are preparing for some of the above-mentioned professions or voca- tions. Now, the conditions of college life, the field sports and athletics, together with the social position, tend to develop in college circles a body of most virile young men. The problem which now confronts us is: How may such young men live a hygienic life under these unnatural circumstances? Or, take the case of a young man who is expecting to go into business; he is very likely to begin his business training by the time he is eighteen years of age. Seven years of train- ing bring him to twenty-five, when he should be in a position either to go into business for himself or to be advanced or promoted in the business or commercial house where he has received his preparation, to a position where he will receive a salary of from twelve to fifteen hundred dollars a year at least. At this stage of his career, a young man in business YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 133 should feel that he is financially able to estab- lish a home. The writer believes that he should so arrange his plans as to do so. Of course, if he is to save a portion of his twelve or fifteen hundred a year, the home which he establishes will have to be a very simple one; their living abstemious or even frugal; and the wife will have to do her own work as the husband does his. Assuming that the young business man does marry at this time, we must not forget that he is about twenty-five years of age, and has been obliged, during a period of seven or eight years, to maintain some definite attitude on the question of his sex life, having become sexually mature at seventeen or eighteen. Let us now take the factory operative. A young man at sixteen goes into a factory or a big shop. He learns a certain phase of the business. If he is an average fellow only, with no high ambitions, he spends his evenings in seeking such amusement and entertain- ment as are at hand. By the time he is nineteen or twenty, he will probably be receiving twelve dollars a week or fifty dollars per month. In the building trades a young 134 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS man, as a rule, will not have learned his trade so that he can get the highest wages demanded by the union until he is about twenty-one years of age, and while he will be able to command a higher daily wage than the man in the factory, he is laboring under the disad- vantage of many unemployed days during the year. So that, by the end of the year, he will have received in wages, but little, if any more than six hundred dollars, or about the amount received by the man who receives twelve dollars a week. As we study these conditions, we are forced to the conclusion that the skilled laborer of the ordinary type will be getting, by the time he is twenty-one years of age, about as high wages as he will ever receive in that work. If he is unen- cumbered by obligations to his father’s family, he ought to establish a home of his own in his early twenties, perhaps by the time he is twenty-one or twenty-two. But even for this young man, married at about the earliest age feasible under present social conditions, he has at least three or four years of life between his sexual maturity and his marriage, during which he will have periodically to meet the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 135 problem of sex desire and sex impulse, and he will be compelled to take a definite attitude and stand, in one direction or another, as to what he will do regarding the sex problem. The more ambitious men in these lines of skilled labor, who spend their evenings in study with a view to advancing to positions of foremen in shops, and superintendents or managers of departments, will hardly reach a degree of advancement in the line of their ambitions to justify them to establish homes before they are twenty-five years of age; or they belong, in other words, to the same gen- eral social class as the ambitious young busi- ness man. If a man becomes able to procreate his kind at seventeen, but is unable, according to our present social conditions, to marry before he is twenty-five or thirty years of age, he must solve the problem as to what his attitude will be regarding matters of sex. This problem, concerning the young man of our times, is one peculiar to the advanced civiliza- tion, and one not found among primitive races. When our own forefathers were in the condition of primitive men, there is no reason- 136 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS able doubt that they were mated much earlier in life, probably as soon after sexual maturity as they were physically able to win possession of a mate. This might be as early as the eighteenth or nineteenth year in case of the especially well-equipped male of the tribe. The less virile males of the tribe, or those less aggressive and less highly developed physi- cally, might have to wait until some war had decimated the ranks of the fighters of the tribe, when those left-over men would be able to mate. But in modern society, all these conditions are changed, and the young man, as stated above, is forced into a position where the sex problem must be solved during those very years when sex impulses come most frequently, and sex desires are most potent. The earlier he solves his sex problem—assuming that he reaches a wise solution—the better it is for a young man. Unfortunately, many young men do not realize that they have any problem in this field to solve, until through some unfortunate influences they have acquired a mental attitude, and perhaps a habit of life, that may not be either wholesome or wise. YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 137 From what has preceded, it must be evident that from the early months of the period of puberty, through the adolescent and adult period, even until some progress is made in the senile period, every normal male will experience sexual desire. It has been shown that these particular experiences are linked more or less intimately with the condition of the sex apparatus. But, whatever the cause, we are confronted with the question, What shall be done about it? When a man experi- ences a sexual desire, does it necessarily follow that the desire must be satisfied? Some have reasoned that the muscles of the arm, if not exercised, wither and become weak. There- fore, by analogy, the sexual apparatus, if not exercised, will become weak; and if its func- tion is not repeated at comparatively regular periods, the apparatus will eventually become withered and atrophied. While this course of reasoning is absolutely sound, so far as it applies to the muscular system, and while the reasoning may seem rational, and the con- clusion may seem tenable, in its application to the sexual apparatus and sexual function, it is well known to physiologists and sociolo- YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 138 gists that the reasoning is fallacious. The fallacy rests in the premises. It was assumed above that the activity of the sex glands is comparable with that of the muscles. We must not lose sight of the fact that the sex glands are continuously active; and, in this continuous activity, they get their exercise. This activity develops them and keeps them physically perfect after the onset of the period of puberty. Their activity consists very largely in the formation of the internal secre- tion, the function of which is to develop in the male the highest possible state of virility, as fully described above. In this connection, we might call attention to the fact that the muscles are kept in a perfect physical condition by two or three hours of active exercise in each twenty-four hours; but the sex glands are working more or less continuously. Hour after hour, seven days in the week, three hundred and sixty- five days in the year, nights, Sundays and holidays included. They are almost as con- tinuously at work as the heart. must also note the fact that every pro- creative act is performed at a sacrifice of YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 139 some of the vital fluid on the part of the male. A wanton sacrifice of vital fluid, either in the act of self-abuse or excessive indulgence in the sexual act, is not justifiable under any con- sideration. In the light of these facts, every normal man will admit that frequent mastur- bation or excessive sexual intercourse, in wed- lock or out, would certainly not be recom- mended as a method of developing the sex apparatus. Most men, however, raise the question: “Is any indulgence or any artificial means for satisfying the sexual inclination to be dis- couraged?” This inclination comes to us in the course of nature. Man, in a primitive state, would seek a mate as soon as he felt this inclination, would fight for the possession of her as soon as he had reached a sufficient stage of muscular development, and, once in possession of his mate, would take her to his lodge in the trees or to his cave in the rocks. In his primitive home, he would follow his sexual inclination, impregnate his wife, and protect her against all dangers. Under our present social conditions, the young man ex- periences all these desires the same as his 140 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS primitive ancestor, but, as a rule, he is not able to choose a mate and begin with her the building of a home for at least five years, and perhaps ten or fifteen years, after he experi- ences the desire to do so. What is the solu- tion? It must be evident that the solution lies in the acceptance of one or another of three alternatives. Either the young man will seek illicit intercourse with women to satisfy his sexual desire, or he may take some artificial measure, such as masturbation or self-abuse; or, finally, he will lead what is known as a continent life. By “continent” we mean to adopt neither one of the first two alternatives mentioned, but to leave the sex apparatus wholly inactive, so far as external activities are concerned, subjecting them to no artificial stimulation whatsoever, and in- dulging in no illicit intercourse whatsoever. This is the continent life. We may now consider these three alterna- tives in turn. By illicit intercourse with women, we mean sexual intercourse out of wedlock. The term applies either to intercourse between any man and a prostitute, between an unmarried man YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 141 and a married woman, between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman, or between a married man and a married woman not his wife. The term “ illicit intercourse ” applies to all sexual intercourse that is illegal. In our discussion of the young man’s prob- lem, we may confine our consideration par- ticularly to intercourse with professional pros- titutes and the clandestines, or women who are willing to accept the sexual embrace for money, or for their owTn gratification. In this phase of sexual gratification, it is assumed that the woman has these relations with various men. We purposely eliminate from this discussion the deliberate seduction of pure girls for the purpose of sexual grati- fication, as such seduction is a heinous crime against the victim and against society, for which offense the man is legally responsible. We are here discussing not the crimes of men, but their vices. The question that the young man naturally asks is: “Why should society hold these relations as a vice when the woman, who is party to the act, gives her free consent, per- haps even soliciting the relation, and has 142 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS given herself up to this sort of life, either as a sole occupation (prostitute), or as an auxili- ary occupation (clandestine) to supplement a wage on which she may not be able to live in luxury?” The answer to this question is not far to seek. Women so occupied, have, as a rule, made themselves incapable of maternity. They are outcasts from society, unfortunately exerting a most harmful influence on all those who come into relation with them. Further- more, they are centers for the dissemination of venereal diseases, which wreck the health of all those who become infected. But for the uncontrolled passions of men, there would he no such women. So while the reader may not be responsible for the ruin of any woman, we must confess that men as a class are responsible for this condition of prostitution and clandes- tine intercourse. An overwhelming majority of women would, if following their inclinations, seek these relations in wedlock only and for procreation only. But many a young woman, under promise of marriage, sometimes even under a bogus marriage, is brought into a condition of hypnotism or into a mental state YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 143 that puts her in the power of the man whom she loves and respects. If he deceives her and betrays her, continuing such betrayal until the victim becomes pregnant, he will, in the average case, leave her to bear her child in shame, while he slips away to other scenes of activity. We cannot wonder that the girl— deserted, humiliated, crushed, by the one in whom she reposed absolute confidence, cast out of society, perhaps thrust from the pro- tection of her own father’s roof—gives up the struggle and says, “What’s the use?” A vast majority of such poor girls make their way to houses of ill-fame and give themselves over to a life of prostitution. Hardly one of these women, if married by the man who brought her to this condition, would have failed to make a true and loving wife and mother. So society, while it casts these women out, has come to recognize that men are the real sinners in such cases. It may be added here, that an occasional girl goes w rong through temperamental short- comings in herself—perhaps she may even be a degenerate; but the proportion of women who would willingly and deliberately sacrifice 144 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS their virtue is vanishingly small as compared with the proportion of young men who seem to be willing to sacrifice their virtue. This is probably in part due to their training. Moth- ers, as a rule, instruct their daughters carefully regarding their relations with boys and men. It is in part due to the instinctive and inherent purity of mind of the normal woman. Nature has devised a retribution for illicit intercourse in the form of venereal disease. If the parties observe fidelity to their marriage vows, venereal disease is experienced in wed- lock only on very rare occasions, and then through some accidental infection, as from contact with some public utensil, as a public water closet, a public towel or a drinking cup. So rare is this unfortunate accident, however, that we may say that intercourse in undefiled wedlock results normally in pleasure and gratification to both parties; while inter- course out of wedlock, or illicit intercourse, is destined, as a rule, to be visited with retribution. What form does this retribution that nature metes out to the vice of illicit intercourse take? Besides the various psychic punishments, the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 145 principal of which are remorse and impure thoughts, there are physical punishments in the form of venereal diseases. So prevalent are these venereal diseases among lewd women, whether prostitutes or clandestines, that specialists in the field say: “All lewd women are diseased part of the time, and some lewd women are diseased all the time.” These sexual diseases are contagious, that is, transmitted by contact. They are all germ diseases; one of them practically local, one is capable of spreading the infection to contiguous organs, and one is systemic. Syph- ilis is a systemic disease because it is carried throughout the system by the blood and causes very general destruction. Chancroid, or Soft Chancre. This is the least dangerous of the venereal diseases. It is a contagious disease of purely local type, usu- ally acquired during the sexual act, the infec- tion taking place through a break in the continuity of the mucous membrane. Chancroid may be single, though it is most often multiple. It makes its appearance in from one to five days after exposure, anywhere on the penis, but most frequently on the under 146 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS side of the glans beside the fraenum, as a small red spot. This rapidly takes the form of a blister containing serum and pus, and in a few days may become the size of a ten- cent piece. When the roof is removed, the ulcer has the appearance of having been punched out, the floor being covered with pus. It is surrounded by a zone of inflamma- tion and is painful. If uncomplicated, the disease runs its course in from two to five weeks. The most common complication is swollen and suppurating glands of the groin on one or both sides. This con- dition is termed bubo, or “blue ball” in com- mon language. Sometimes serious complications arise which may prove dangerous and require the individ- ual to be confined to his bed for weeks. Gonorrhea. This is incomparably more seri- ous than chancroid. This disease is very prevalent among the incontinent, and it is claimed by some specialists in this field that from sixty to seventy-five per cent of men have had gonorrhea before the age of thirty. It is a contagious disease, acquired usually during intercourse, though the individual may YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 147 become infected innocently from water closets, bath tubs, public towels, fountain syringes, etc. To become infected it is not necessary that there be an abrasion of the mucous membrane. The disease manifests itself in from three to seven days after exposure, by swelling of the orifice of the urethra, and peculiar sensations between tickling and itching, and smarting or burning during urination. The peculiar sensa- tions fix the attention to the genitals, thus causing frequent passage of urine. These symptoms increase for about a week, when the disease reaches its maximum degree of severity, which is maintained a variable time, the discharge from the urethra being thick, creamy, and of a greenish yellowr color. In the majority of the carefully treated cases, the discharge ceases in from three to six weeks with apparent recovery. Unfortu- nately, however, there is frequently a tendency for the disease to become chronic. The dis- charge becomes thin and more watery and per- sists for an indefinite period. This condition— chronic gonorrhea—is commonly known as gleet. 148 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS Twenty-five years ago, it was a very com- mon thing, even for clinicians lecturing to their medical students, to refer to gonorrhea with some jocose remark, sometimes even inti- mating to the young medical men that they “will hardly be able to treat this disease effectually until they have had some personal experience with it.” But those were the days of the dark ages, before these subjects were illuminated by the limelight of modern experi- mental science. The modern microscope, with all its optical perfection, and the science of bacteriology, one of the most exact and highly- specialized of the new sciences, have revealed facts regarding gonorrheal infection, of which the medical profession of a quarter of a cen- tury ago little dreamed. We have found that this infection may spread from the urethra up past the sphincter muscle of the bladder, infecting the bladder as well, and causing a most distressing condition known as gon- orrheal cystitis, or, expressed in plain English, an inflammation of the bladder caused by a clap infection. This inflammation may pass from the mucous membrane of the bladder up through the ureters into the kidneys, in which YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 149 organs it causes an incurable and serious de- rangement. Again, the infection may pass along the ejaculatory duct into the seminal vesicles, causing a chronic gonorrheal vesic- ulitis, which is very difficult to cure and very depressing and depleting, as it causes very frequent nocturnal emissions of a depleting character. It may pass up through the ampulla and down into the testicle, in which it causes one of the most distressing inflam- mations known. This condition is called, technically, gonorrheal orchitis, or a gon- orrheal inflammation of the testicle. As a rule, only one testicle is affected at a time. The inflamed testicle becomes very much en- larged, perhaps two or three times its usual dimensions, and it is painful beyond any power of language to express. The inflam- mation lasts a number of weeks; and when it subsides may leave the fine tubules of the epididymis affected with stricture, which prac- tically closes off the testicle and makes it useless as a procreative organ, though there is a possibility that it may still function as an organ of internal secretion. Occasionally a man loses both testicles, either through being 150 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS simultaneously infected or through two suc- cessive infections. In that case, of course, a man becomes completely impotent. It has been found, within the last decade or so, that the virus may get access to the blood and cause that most painful and disabling condition known as gonorrheal arthritis, or, in plain English, deforming rheumatism of joints from gonorrheal infection. This con- dition, of course, is incurable, and may destroy a man’s joints to such an extent as to wholly incapacitate him for work, besides being a most painful disease. Still another condition brought about by the virus, when once it gets access to the blood, is gonorrheal endocarditis. This is associated, as a rule, with valvular disabling of the heart, and may be so serious as to cause death. But these serious results of gonorrheal infection are not by any means the worst results that may follow the infection. It has been found, within the last few years, that the gonorrheal germs may get access to the fine tubules of the prostate gland, where they go into a sort of dormant or resting stage. In this stage, they may remain for one, two, three or four, and YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 151 some have said as many as ten years, finally to be dislodged or awakened, and set into activity, to make their way out of the prostate into the urethra, and cause a reinfection of this tube. If a man, who experiences this return of his long-dormant gonorrhea, has in the meantime been married, his wife is prac- tically certain to catch the disease from him. In such case, it is the wife who reaps the harvest of wild oats sown perhaps years before by the husband. A case was brought to the writer’s attention, not long since, by a well-known surgeon in a neighboring city, who stated that he was one day called to visit a young wife who had, only a few days before, returned home from her honeymoon trip. About the day of the return of the young married pair from this trip, the wife experienced an appearance of what she supposed was leucorrhea, and her condition failing to yield to her simple douches, she called in their old family physi- cian, the trusted practitioner who had stood by her mother when she came into the world, and who had seen her through the measles, whooping-cough, and the other diseases of childhood. When he saw her condition re- 152 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS vealed on examination, one may well imagine his surprise and astonishment. A microscop- ical study of the pus that was pouring in large quantities from her vagina, confirmed the physician’s fear, and he recognized that they had to deal with a serious gonorrheal infection. Large abscesses were in both Fallopian tubes involving the ovaries. The young woman had to be taken at once to a hospital, and in consultation several experienced surgeons con- curred in the belief that, unless both ovaries and tubes were removed at once, the young woman would lose her life. So she was obliged to go on the table and be unsexed for life. The fact that she was readily granted a divorce from the man who had been the cause of her physical ruin was very meager consola- tion, as she remains today at home under her father’s roof, an invalid for life, unsexed, and the possibility of maternity removed forever. Another case might be cited where innocent persons are made to suffer for the sins of others: The case, all too frequent, of the child that comes into the world through an infected parturient canal, to show signs, within YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 153 a few hours after birth, of gonorrheal infection of its eyes. If these infected eyes are not at once taken care of, most skillfully and assidu- ously by nurse and physician, the child is certain to lose its eyesight. Before the nature of this eye inflammation in the new-born was understood, it was commonly reported in such cases that the child was born blind; but we know now that there are very few children who come into the world blind, though there are many that show gonorrheal infection with- in a few hours after birth; and, as stated above, if this condition is not treated with the greatest promptness and skill, they never really see the light of day. Syphilis, popularly termed the “pox,” is a constitutional affection of the type known as “blood disease.” No disease has been so widespread in its dissemination or more potent in its influence upon humanity. It has been known for centuries, having been mentioned by Japanese historians and in Chinese writings two thousand years ago. Syphilis is contagious, and is transmitted by inoculation. The infectious material enters a broken surface of either the skin or mucous 154 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS membrane, called “contact” or “acquired” syphilis. When it is transmitted by the mother to the unborn child, it is called “hereditary” or “inherited” syphilis. The disease manifests itself first in a “primary lesion,” which is a local ulcer (hard chancre) at the point or points of inoculation at a period ranging from ten to thirty days after exposure. It may appear as an erosion or as a dry scaling and indurated papule, varying in size from a pin-head to a silver dollar. The base of the ulcer is indurated. It is oval in shape, perhaps somewhat irregu- lar, with a raw surface and a red-colored base devoid of pus. Immediately following the appearance of the chancre, the glands in direct connection with it become enlarged and hard, but rarely painful; however, they have no tendency to suppurate like the enlarged glands of chancroid. The chancre disappears in a few weeks, and then there is a period when the individual has no outward manifestation of the disease. In about six weeks after the chancre, the so- called secondary symptoms appear. They are YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 155 heralded by headache, pains in the limbs and back, nausea, sleeplessness, nervous irrita- bility and fever, followed by the appearance of a rash upon the face and body, falling-out of the hair, sore throat and mouth. These symptoms disappear, to be again followed by a period free from symptoms. After a longer or shorter time, the so-called tertiary symp- toms make their appearance. These are many and varied. The disease presents a succession of morbid constitutional disturbances, appearing at vari- able intervals, and pursues a chronic course. This disease remains in the body for years, and affects the most vital organs, particularly the brain and spinal cord. When one is infected with this disease, he should seek the services of a reputable physician. The treatment of this disease must extend over a long period, usually about three years, and must be strictly and con- scientiously carried out. Marriage upon the part of an individual once infected should be forever prohibited by every social, moral and legal code until, after years of treatment, positive assurance is given by skillful physi- 156 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS cians that every vestige of the disease has disappeared. After having detailed, as above, the terrible consequences of the venereal diseases, it is hardly necessary to add that the young man who deliberately seeks any of the usual chances for illicit intercourse is more than taking his life in his hands. If infection with a venereal disease meant simply the death of the in- fected individual, it would be really very much less deleterious to society than is the present condition. When a young man “sows wild oats” and catches incidentally gonorrhea, that twenty years ago was considered a “good joke,” he will, in a large proportion of cases, lay the foundation for broken health, and will run a serious risk of transmitting disease to an innocent, pure wife and child. When a woman catches this disease, par- ticularly from her husband, she is very likely to interpret the discharge as a leucorrhea, may say nothing about it to her husband or physician, but adopt simple home treatment with antiseptic and astringent douches. Such treatment will usually result in allaying the inflammation in the superficial organs, but YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 157 will not eradicate it from the deeper organs. It spreads to the uterus, Fallopian tubes and ovaries, and may even affect peritoneal tissues, first of the pelvis, then of the abdomen—may even finally affect the heart and joints. Of course, these are rather the extreme cases, but they are not at all rare cases. Once this terrible disease gets into a woman’s organs, it is very likely to lead to her sojourn in a hospital, where she may lose ovaries, Fal- lopian tubes, and possibly also uterus, as a sacrifice to this mogul of gonorrhea. It is claimed by specialists in this field that at least seventy-jive per cent of the operations that women are subjected to in the hospitals for disease of the pelvic organs are the results of gonorrheal infections. Besides the cases that require operations, a large proportion of cases of sterility is due to gonorrheal infection, either in the man or woman, or both. If we consider the revolting sequences of syphilis, with its train of operations, and progeny of scrofulous children, and degenerate grand-children, it would seem to make the natural retribution for illicit intercourse in- finitely outweigh any brief pleasures derived YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 158 from the indulgence of sexual desires lacking the proper mastery of self through strong will- power. It hardly seems possible that any young man who knows the whole truth about these vene- real diseases and their terrible after effects would be tempted to indulge in illicit inter- course. Masturbation. The vice of masturbation or self-abuse is very likely to be learned in boy- hood, perhaps even by boys of six or eight years of age, through their association with obscene playmates. It not infrequently hap- pens, however, that the habit is learned inde- pendent of these evil associates. It has been explained above that secretions frequently accumulate under the prepuce, and, accumu- lating there, serve as a local irritation, causing itching of the organ. This local irritation leads the boy to allay the irritation through rubbing. Such manipulation of the organ is very likely to excite it, and to lead to the discovery on the part of the boy, that such local manipulation may cause a pleasurable sensation of momentary duration. If he has not been instructed by his parents that these YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 159 organs are sacred to the uses of manhood, and that they will be injured if handled during childhood, he is very likely to repeat this act until it becomes a more or less fixed habit. While it must be admitted that anything short of extreme excess in this habit among little boys will not be permanently injurious, if the habit is stopped at puberty, it must be perfectly evident that if a boy enters puberty with this habit, the mental and physical con- ditions of puberty are such as to make the habit very difficult to stop. If it is not stopped, a serious injury will result. So the necessity need hardly be further urged for explaining to young boys that these organs should not be handled. After the boy enters puberty, the habit of masturbation, either acquired during puberty or carried into that stage from early boyhood, begins to have a deleterious effect. Let us now consider just what is the char- acter of this deleterious effect. From what we know of the physiology of the sexual apparatus, it must be evident that a sexual orgasm could be produced during waking hours only through strong stimulation of the 160 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS activity of the testicles, accompanied by liberation of spermatozoa which are carried to the ampullae, filling them to their limit. At the climax of the sex excitement the am- pullae and vesicles discharge, thus carrying away from the body the semen, which we know to be a far more vital fluid than the same volume of blood. Masturbation is therefore a most depleting habit. If the adolescent young man is leading a continent life, we may assume that, from time to time, he is subjected to conditions which serve as strong sexual stimulation, arousing in him a definite desire for sexual intercourse; but, leading a continent life, he curbs his desire and fixes his thoughts upon other subjects. In this way, though the sexual excitement is brought quickly under abeyance, we can rest assured that a certain number of spermatozoa have been released from the testicles, and that the other secre- tions have been increased in volume. The excitement may be sufficient even to cause an erection, and produce a few drops of the secretion of Cowper’s glands. The sperma- tozoa, together with a small amount of the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 161 internal secretion, will make their way gradu- ally along the vas deferens and collect in the ampulla. The small advance guard of sper- matozoa that may have made their way to the ampulla will undergo a gradual decrease of their nascent activity as the days go by. On the occasion of the next nocturnal emis- sion, the ampulla will empty, along with the seminal vesicles, and these spermatozoa pass out. If they be examined under a microscope as a part of a normal nocturnal emission, they will be found to be almost motionless or very greatly lacking in typical spermatozoa activity. Now let us suppose that the young man, instead of curbing his sexual appetite, resorts, after a season of erotic imaginations, to the act of masturbation. We may picture the seminal ducts, vasa deferentia and ampullae as being gorged with the secretions of the testicles, including, of course, myriads of just released and nascent spermatozoa, together with several cubic centimeters of the liquid portion of the vesicular secretion. The act of masturbation causes an orgasm and leads to a complete emptying of all these ducts. 162 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS Thus we note that in this case the virile fluid is wasted, not being used in the procreative act. In the loss of the semen, the victim of this loathsome habit of masturbation has lost a vital fluid representing far greater 'poten- tiality than the same quantity of blood. It must be evident from this picture of the processes that go on in the male sexual apparatus, incident to the act of masturbation, that the act cannot be performed repeatedly, as it naturally is when it becomes a habit, w ithout very seriously interfering with the vitality and the virility of the adolescent male. In the study of a large number of cases, the author has found that the principal physical changes that occur in the young man, as the result of this habit, are flabbiness of muscle, shiftiness of eyes, and clamminess of hands. The really virile man possesses firm muscles, and clear, direct eyes, and a strong grip; usually, also, a wrarm grip. It has been thought, by some, that pimples on the face are a sign of masturbation in the youth, but such is not the case. They are a sign of lack of adequate elimination through the kidneys and bowels, and are not to be YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 163 interpreted as having any essential relation to masturbation. There may possibly be an incidental relation, growing out of the fact that, in some cases of masturbation, that habit seems to affect the nutrition, and that in turn may cause the appearance of pimples on the face of the adolescent. However, one must be very slow to pass judgment in these cases. Not the least important among the results of masturbation is the attitude of the victim to society in general. This psychical change is noticed in immoderate cases of masturba- tion and takes the form of disinclination to enter into any physical contests, or games; and disinclination to cultivate the society of the opposite sex. Here again, one must be conservative in his judgment, because there are individuals who possess a very retiring temperament naturally, and who may become so engrossed in study or productive work that they take little share in the society of either sex; so that individuals, who may be wholly innocent of any abuse of their sexual appa- ratus, would suffer a very grave injustice if they were classed among the masturbators. 164 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS Allow the author at this place to emphasize the importance of never passing judgment on anybody in these matters on circumstantial evidence. While the damage that one may do to his system through the practice of masturbation may not always be very serious, in many cases that have come under the author’s observation, in which the habit has reached extreme limits, very serious, sometimes irre- trievable damage has been done; yet the encour- aging feature of this whole matter is that, if the adolescent youth, who is practicing the habit, is warned of its danger and stops at once absolutely, Nature comes to his rescue, and gradually, step by step, but surely, rebuilds the whole fabric of his virility, bringing back gradually the flush of perfect health into his cheek, the light of perfect manhood into his eye, and the tone of perfect virility into his muscles. This change can be wrought in from one to three years of absolute continence. Nature, like a loving mother, heals the wounds of her child with a kiss. Continence. Such frequent reference has YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 165 been made above, to continence, in antithesis to illicit intercourse and masturbation, that little need be said in addition to that which has preceded. The young man who holds before his mental vision an ideal of the home he hopes some day to establish—in which a pure wife reigns as queen, sovereign of his life, and gently hovers over a brood of lusty boys and fair girls—cannot for a moment consider, as a same solution of his sexual problem, periodic visits to the house of ill- fame or periodic lapse into illicit intercourse with clandestines; nor can he expect to develop his powers, physically or intellectu- ally, to the highest possible degree, if he permits himself to contract that habit (mas- turbation), which, step by step, undermines his development. There is open to the young man only one of the three alternatives men- tioned above, that is, to lead the continent life. The continent life is the goal which every healthy young man should strive to reach. To arrive at a goal that is before us and above us requires sacrifice and brings compensation. The sacrifice takes the form of the exertion of the whole will-power of the man, and the 166 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS painstaking observance of those rules of hygi- ene which makes continent life more easily attainable. The compensations of continence are those that come from the assurance that the young man has, of his virility, of his worthiness to take the hand of a pure wife in wedlock, of the consciousness of his ability to establish and maintain a home, to protect this home against all dangers, and to beget healthy, strong and perfect children, wholly free from any hereditary taint. CHAPTER IV Fatherhood The young man who has led a continent life up to the time when he assumes the holy bonds of matrimony, and who has followed such a rigorous hygienic regimen as that outlined in Part Five on Personal Hygiene, has prepared himself, physically at least, for the high estate of fatherhood. The man who has conserved his natural resources so carefully and conscientiously will be sure to choose a wife with the same care that he has manifested in the solution of his other life problems. We may picture the young married pair, then, as typical and perfect specimens of the human species. The young man, hard-muscled, with the light and fire of manhood in his eye, in perfect health, abstemious in habits, alert in his business or professional activities, simple and frugal in his habits; the wife, the embodiment of all those qualities of radiant young womanhood, 167 168 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS so admirable and attractive the world over. We may picture the young wife as especially adapted to home-building, in education and temperament and inclination. She is thor- oughly trained in all the activities involved in good housekeeping. These young people enter upon their new estate with the firm determination of building an ideal home. In their conjugal relations, they observe the same temperateness and abstemiousness that they do in all other matters which are concerned in the gratifica- tion of natural inclination and appetite. In all their relations, one to another, the husband is affectionate and considerate of the wife’s needs and wishes. On her part, the wife studies the temperament of her husband. She observes his likes and dislikes, and finds her chief delight in so ministering to his physical and mental needs as to elicit from him those manifestations of the lover, which were so sweet to her during the days of their courtship. Where a married couple observe all these little rules of married life, there is no growing cold of their love. They are drawn closer and closer to each other in the bonds YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 169 of love, and as the years go by, we can imagine that within one or two years a child comes into their home to add its quota of care, and to bring a new fund of inexhaustible joy and happiness, and a new source of unending interest and delight. This little life brings another mouth to feed, and other needs to minister to; but the young parents are made incomparably happier in the little sacrifices they must make for the baby than they would have been if the baby had not come. As the years go by, and the family gradually in- creases, the father’s burdens for the support of his family are commensurately increased; but, on the other hand, as a rule, his earning power is also increased. With his advance in experience, he is very likely to be advanced to the position of greater responsibility in business or in the professional world; and, with greater responsibility, he should receive greater remuneration. This aspect of the life of the head of the family may well be dis- missed with this brief reference. The writer wishes to take this occasion to make an appeal to all fathers to take a more intimate and active part in the inner life of 170 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS the family than is frequently or even usually the case. Many fathers leave not only the care, but also the governing of the children, almost, if not wholly, in the hands of the mother. Then the mother, as a rule, bears the whole burden of the care and the teaching of the children in the home. The father returns from his wrork in the evening, weary; and if he has been working out of doors, the warmth of the home and the bright lights of the sitting room seem to make his eyes heavy, and he drops into a peaceful slumber. Or, if not given to sleeping in his chair, he may bury himself in the daily paper and use an evening hour to read the paper that he did not have an opportunity to read in the morn- ing; or he may become involved in club wrork, and spend one to three or four evenings a week away from home in a club. In any one of these cases, the father seems to be consulting rather his own personal inclination than the best welfare of his family. If the stories of two or three generations ago may be believed, the fathers of that time used to romp with the children and cultivate a spirit of good comradeship with them. I am rather YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 171 inclined to believe, however, that these were the fathers that got into the story books, and that fathers are no more derelict in this regard at the present day than they have been in the past. The ideal condition is that fathers in general should be stimulated to adopt that attitude and those home customs that caused a few of the fathers of former generations to get into the stories. If the head of the family would romp with his children after the evening meal, he would find himself retaining his health. He would not get old and inelastic. He would retain his childlike simplicity and gaiety of disposition and carriage. He would be more sympathetic with his children and more lenient toward their little childish foibles, fancies and failures. Let us grant that, in all the matters of government and care within the home, the mother most naturally plays the leading role; but no father should feel that he has done his duty unless he has at least played a strong second to the mother. They should have frequent conferences regarding the develop- ment and peculiarities of individual children. The father should be made acquainted with 172 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS everything that the mother is teaching and trying to instil into the minds of the children, so that when they come to the father with questions along similar lines, he, knowing what the mother has said, wall be able to substantiate and reinforce her teaching. There is one phase of home teaching that cannot be briefly discussed in these general terms. The writer refers to teaching regard- ing the sex life. In every growing family, where new little ones are being added to the growing circle about the hearth-stone every two or three years, the question is sure to be asked by older children, when they reach the age of six or seven, “Where did baby come from?” Parents used to answer this honest and fair question, equivocally, even with deliberate untruth and falsehood on many occasions. Some such fantastic fiction as the “stork story” that has come down from antiquity was given the child in answrer to his question regarding the source of the baby. But experience has shown that this way of dealing with the problem of the child’s ques- tions is a very unwise one. The child will not come to his parents with these questions after YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 173 he discovers that he is not given truthful answers. The child wants the truth. He will feel that there is a mystery connected with the coming of the baby, that, for some reason, the parents wish to keep hidden. This only ex- cites his curiosity the more, and he is not long in finding out that some of the older children in the neighborhood have found out about the mystery, and are ready to impart information, which he receives with the keen- est interest, simply because it is the revelation at last of the hidden mystery. That children gossip among themselves regarding these matters is a very well-known fact. It is also a fact, and a deplorable one, that a great deal of misinformation and untruth gets mixed in with the truth, and the young child’s mind becomes early stored with a great mass of unspeakable misinformation in which there are only a few grains of truth. Incidentally, he has acquired an unfortunate distrust of his parents, especially concerning all matters of information in this general line, and his mind is poisoned, perhaps for life, regarding some of the most sacred things of human experience. 174 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS It is very easy to see that a child who is told this great truth of “where babies come from,” in a beautiful, truthful, simple, sympathetic way, will have his little mind and heart filled with the thought of the sacredness of the relation of mother to child. To a child thus instructed, the vulgar story and the ribald joke are offensive in the highest degree. His mind gives no place to such things when they are incidentally heard. If parents will only answer the fair and natural questions of their child concerning these matters with the absolute truth—never overanswering a question, but always answer- ing it briefly and truthfully—they will find that, as the years go by, these natural ques- tions of the child, together with the answers to the questions which they have given, reveal these great life truths in a perfectly natural and logical way to the child’s mind, and by the time a child is at the threshold of adolescence, he is in possession of all the major truths con- cerning reproduction and development. Naturally, it falls largely to the mother to answer these questions, because the little children in the home are continuously and YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 175 very intimately associated with the mother, while the father is away busy with his trade or vocation. However, the children are very likely to come and sit on the father’s knee and ply him with the same question that they have just been asking mama, perhaps only a few hours before. Here is the father’s opportunity to play the strong second to the mother. Knowing how the mother presents these matters to the children, he cannot do a wiser thing than to use almost the same words that the mother uses. Children are very exacting in verbal statements of things; and it will be most gratifying and satisfying to the children if the father uses the same words that the mother uses in expressing these same truths. And so the children in the home are taught these great truths by the parents. When a child reaches the threshold of adolescence, there should be a parting of the ways for the girl and the boy. The mother cultivates a closer bond of comradeship and chumminess with her daughter as this daughter approaches adolescence; and in little heart to heart talks she prepares the daughter for her coming into 176 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS womanhood, in a wise and tactful way, so that when the change really comes to the daughter, she is prepared for it; and if the mother has done her work wisely, the daughter is really proud and happy in her new estate. But we are really discussing fatherhood rather than motherhood. The father’s rela- tion to his adolescent daughter, and a little later to his young lady daughter, should always be one of absolute and irreproachable chivalry and honor. It is unthinkable that any father, deserving the name of father, should ever, by any word or act, bring a blush of shame to his daughter’s cheek. The father should always be considerate, gentle and affectionate with his daughter, yet there must be a robust good-fellowship between the two; but this good-fellowship should never relax to the point where the father for a moment forgets that his daughter is a woman, and, furthermore, that she is a woman whose purity of mind and chastity of person are pearls of great price and of incalculable worth both to herself, her parents and her future husband and children. The father’s relation to his adolescent son YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 177 is one which we may well discuss in somewhat greater detail. When the boy reaches his pre- adolescent period, it is his inherent right to have the guidance of his father’s judgment and experience, and the inspiration of his father’s personality. The boy at twelve and thirteen is a hero worshipper. He is living over again, in his own personal development, that stage which corresponds to our racial development when our primeval ancestors were living close to Nature, and every man in the tribe, or clan, bowed to the despotic will of the hero chieftain. Boys at this age are hero worshippers, instinctively and inherently. A study of the list of the boy’s heroes shows that, without exception, they are all great fighters. David, the shepherd boy, who killed a bear, a lion and a giant, is very likely to head the list of the boy’s heroes; then comes Alex- ander the Great, who sighed for more worlds to conquer; Caesar, who crossed the Rubicon; Napoleon, who conquered Europe; Washing- ton, who fathered our country; Grant, who never lost a battle; and recently the great hunter of “big game,” and the champion of the “square deal” and the strenuous life— YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 178 Roosevelt—fighters all, and stalwart heroes of the race. The boy at this stage seems to delight in war and bloodshed. He is very likely to have his father on his list of heroes. The loyal mother of the boy has been holding the father up before the boy’s eyes on many occasions as the personification of everything that is honorable in business and square in politics. The father, incidentally himself, without any intent to magnify his own merits, may have told his boy about some of his youthful athletic exploits, how his home-run brought in the deciding score of a great ball game, or his touchdown decided a great foot- ball contest. So the boy has his father listed among the world’s heroes—perhaps at the bottom of the list, but he is there, and it means something to be even at the bottom of such a list as that—and there is nothing else to do but for the father to “make good” for his boy. Of course, he can make good very easily in business honesty and political square dealing; but it is only with some little sacrifice that he can make good in his athletics. He must get out with the boys. His Saturday afternoons perhaps he would have preferred to spend YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 179 sitting on his back porch or walking in the park with the whole family, but that is not strenuous enough for his hero-worshipping boy. There is to be a ball game down in Jones’ pasture. The father is asked to go. He realizes that it is up to him, so he goes. His son chooses him to play on his side, or adroitly so maneuvers that he gets father also chosen on the same side, he having full con- fidence that his father will enable their side to win an easy victory. As the father gets up to bat, and squares himself over the plate, the situation brings vividly to his mind the memory of the long ago that is like the whiff of powder in the nostrils of the war horse. He makes good. He may not knock the ball over a hedge fence and lose it, as he did on that memorable occasion that his boy has heard about, but he knocks a safe grounder between shortstop and third base and gets safe to first, and finally makes the round of the bases and scores. From that day forth, the father has a hold upon his boy’s affection that nothing can loosen, a place in his boy’s confidence that nothing can disturb, and in- fluence in his boy’s life that nothing can 180 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS exceed. Of course, he must follow this up. He must spend frequent Saturday afternoons with the fellows at their games. Perhaps he will soon be promoted to the position of umpire or referee, which will be somewhat less strenuous and no less appreciated by the boys. As the months go by, the father will seek opportunities for heart to heart talks with his boy when they are alone. These opportunities may not come spontaneously; they may have to be arranged for at some little sacrifice on the part of the father. In a growing family of children, the boy in school, the father at his work, there are no oppor- tunities during the day, no opportunities in the early morning, none in the evening, unless they are definitely arranged. Perhaps the most convenient time for the father to arrange hours with his boy will be an hour in the middle of Sunday afternoon. Of course, such an hour may interfere with a reading of the last twenty-four pages of the Sunday paper, or it may interfere with the Sunday afternoon nap that the father has enjoyed for a number of years, but a worse calamity can happen a family than for the father to fail to read these YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 181 last twenty-four pages of the Sunday paper; a greater inconvenience can happen the father than to miss a few Sunday afternoon naps— for example, whole nights without sleep, while the father may be seeking his boy out on the streets wondering where his boy may be wandering at that time. So the father gladly makes these little sacrifices that are involved, and goes, perhaps not every Sunday, but very frequently, for a Sunday afternoon stroll with his boy. The wise father leads the boy far afield. If they are in a city, let them ride to the end of the car line, and then walk away out into the country. It would not be a bad plan for them occasionally to take a little lunch with them—a few slices of bacon, a couple of potatoes, some bread and butter— and, far out in the woods, perhaps on the gravelly banks of a brook or pond not in a wood or forest, to build a little camp fire, roast their bacon and potatoes, and sit there and eat their frugal meal after the fashion of our primitive forefathers. Thus the boy is brought into close communion with Nature, and his father is a part of it all. Such little hikes with father will be remembered as long 182 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS as the boy lives. They will be treasured in his memory as among the dearest experiences of his life. The father will have opportunity on these occasions to talk very frankly with his boy on many subjects—his ambitions, his plans for life, and what he would like to be, the choosing of a life-work. The boy, per- haps, has advanced to his fourteenth or fifteenth year. He is in the midst of his high school course. They talk over the subjects of his course of study, and plan for his studies. Finally, on some occasion, the boy will ask his father something about manhood—what makes a man, or why some boys are manly and others are not. This is the question for which the father has been waiting for many weeks, perhaps. The father may even have adroitly and tactfully brought out the ques- tion by some story or remark. The father is not unprepared. He has his answer all ready. And there, perhaps under the spreading bows of a great primeval oak tree, the father reveals to the boy, in a very frank talk, the secret of manhood. He very briefly reviews for the boy some of the things that the boy has learned even before from his mother in answer to the YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 183 questions of his early childhood. Then the father explains to the boy that presently he will come into manhood; that the manifesta- tions of his coming into manhood will be his growth in stature and in musculature; and that the secret of this wonderful development from youth into manhood is to be found in the marvelous influence upon the body of a sub- stance formed in the testicles. The father explains how this substance formed in the testicles is absorbed into the blood, passes in the venous stream of the blood up to the heart, thence out through the arteries to the muscles and brain and other active tissues of the body, there to exert its marvelous influence on the youth’s development. The father ex- plains to his son how, as the months go by and he passes into his sixteenth or seventeenth year, the muscles become not only bulky, but hard, having attained the splendid tonicity that marks the muscle of the virile man. He explains to his boy how the same magical stimulant absorbed from the testicles is carried to the brain by the blood, and the young man begins to see visions, visions of great things out in the world to be done. He begins to be 184 YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS fired with ambition, an ambition to get out into the world and help to do these things. He explains to his son that when he begins to see these visions and be fired with these ambitions, new light will come into his eyes, the kindled fires of virile manhood are shining there. The young man goes out into the world fired with the same spirit that fired the heart of young David, the giant killer; that spurred on young Alexander to the conquering of the world; that lashed Napoleon Bonaparte on from one victory to another; that inspired the great Washington to hold together his meager army until independence was won. Fired with this spirit, the young man goes out to dare and to do; to dare to grapple with prob- lems that have frustrated those who have preceded him, and to do his work with such impetuous zeal and such well-directed energy that he accomplishes things that have been looked upon as impossible. When a father sees his son develop into this stalwart, magnificent young manhood, any sacrifices that he has made, incident to his fatherhood, pale into insignificance. As for compensation, the very sight of his broad- YOUTH AND ITS PROBLEMS 185 shouldered, deep-chested, courageous and alert son compensates him a thousand times over for every sacrifice he has made. So the father leads his son from youth into manhood, and the obligations of fatherhood have been discharged. SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS PART FOUR SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS CHAPTER I Secretions The sex system has several glandular organs and tissues and therefore produces several secretions. These secretions may be clas- sified as Jiinternal and external. The reader will remember that in a previous chapter it was explained the testicles prepare both an internal and an external secretion. The inter- nal secretion is absorbed at once into the blood—all of it is absorbed into the blood and is carried by the blood to every active tissue of the body where it exerts a profound influence upon the development of these tissues in the youth and upon the maintenance of their special characteristics during the whole period of adulthood up to the threshold of the 189 190 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS senile period. The external secretions are four in number. 1. The semen is the external secretion from the testicles and consists of the spermatozoa which have been described in a previous chapter, together with spermatic granules and a slight amount of fluid probably mucilaginous fluid. In this connection one must clearly differentiate between the making or forming of this semen in the lobes of the testicle and the passing of the semen from the lobes of the testicle out through the tubes. The first pro- cess, that is, the forming process, is called spermatogenesis. This process is a very slow one, particularly in the case of the boy in his age of puberty. The spermatozoa develops by a cell-division process very slowly in the lobes of the testicle and after having reached maturity remain there apparently tethered or at any rate lightly held with the heads turned toward the secreting wall of the lobe, and absolutely motionless. In this condition the spermatozoa may be carried for months in the case of the youth in puberty. The semen leaves the lobes of the testicle under sexual excitement only. This process SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 191 of release of the sperm cells from the lobe may- be called secretion of semen. It may be a very rapid process and within a few minutes the gradually accumulated store of mature sperm cells, the product of months of slow spermatogenesis, may be completely drained from the lobes passing up through the tubes of the epididymis and the vas deferens to the ampullae. It is at the moment of, or very soon after, the release of the sperm cells in the lobes that each begins the strong, regular lashing of the tail or flagellum. 2. The vesicular secretion has been described in the previous chapter. It consists of two distinct elements, namely, an alkaline stimu- lating material, the purpose of which is to stimulate strong action of the sperm cells; then there is a food material, the purpose of which is to nourish the sperm cells, so that they can maintain their strong action for several days. This secretion begins to develop in the vesicles of a boy immediately after the onset of puberty. This secretion is strongly influenced by the diet being distinctly in- creased by the free use of lean meat and eggs. 192 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS Apparently it is also somewhat modified by conscious mental sex excitement. 3. The prostatic secretion produced by the prostate is practically, identically, chemically with the vesicular secretion and is secreted or at any rate poured out into the urethra at the time of strong sexual excitement—perhaps only at the moment of emission. Inasmuch as it has been positively proven that the strength of the movements of the sperm cells is a factor in the efficiency of those sperm cells in the fertilizing process, it must be clear that the normal functions of the prostate will modify the procreative effectiveness of the semen, disturbed prostatic functions may therefore be a cause of sterility. 4. Cowper’s glands secrete an alkaline mu- cus under sex excitement as is sufficiently discussed in the previous chapter. If a man has experienced strong sex excitement accom- panied by erection for only a brief half minute, he is very likely to notice, a little while later, the appearance of the Cowper secretion at the end of his organ. This experience has been greatly misinterpreted. The uninitiated fear that they are suffering SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 193 an involuntary emission and the quacks and charlatans deliberately tell their victims that they are “Subject to spermatorrhea” and “In a serious condition.” As a matter of fact, this secretion is of no more consequence than an equal volume of sputum and the individual can do no better than simply to forget it. CHAPTER II Emissions These are three in character, the normal emission that accompanies the sex act, the nocturnal emission, and the emission induced by the masturbation act. 1. The emission in the normal sex act is com- posed of semen, vesicular secretion and pros- tatic secretion. The vesicular secretion being far more abundant than both the others together. While the actual relative quanti- ties of these three secretions have not been determined, perhaps because they vary con- siderably under various conditions, it is how- ever probable that the semen from the testicles does not exceed 20 per cent of the whole seminal emission of the normal sex act. 2. Nocturnal emissions as explained above represent Nature’s method of relieving the tension in the sex apparatus, particularly in the seminal vesicles themselves. The noc- turnal emissions consist particularly of the 194 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 195 vesicular fluid which has been gradually accu- mulating in the vesicles since the last emission which may mean that it represents the accu- mulation of a month or two or in some cases perhaps only the accumulation of a day. Ordinarily let us say the accumulation of one or twro weeks. The amount of testicular semen in the nocturnal emission varies greatly with the thought habits of the individual. In the case of the young man, however virile and red-blooded he may be, who is centering his attention upon athletics and work, the nocturnal emission may have comparatively a small amount of semen representing perhaps simply the drop by drop accumulation that has gradually filled the ampullae. On the other hand, a man who permits himself to drift into periodic (perhaps daily) experiences of strong sex excitement accompanied by sustained erection and strong sex desires, that man is almost sure to have nocturnal emis- sions which teem with active spermatozoa; in fact the proportion of testicular semen present may be practically as great as that of a normal emission accompanying the sex act. SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 196 From the above it must be perfectly ap- parent to the reader that the man has the power through control of his thought habits, to control in a very considerable degree the loss of the conservation of semen and sper- matozoa. 3. Masturbation emissions do not differ essen- tially, perhaps not at all, in character and contents from the emissions which accompany the normal sex act. These masturbation emissions are always teeming with active spermatozoa, in the case of virile men. In the case of boys in the early stages of puberty the spermatozoa may not be either numerous or mature and perfect. In the case of little boys who have not yet entered puberty there will be at most a few drops of mucus in the emission. The damage done to the little boy is not the depleting action of the loss of fluid but in the nervous shock which accompanies the act. 4. Nocturnal emissions: The nocturnal emis- sions vary so in amount, constituents, fre- quency and other incidental accompaniments such as dreams and erections, that many young men are led to worry fearing that their SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 197 particular experiences are enough removed from the normal to justify concern. It is the writer’s plan here to give a full discussion of the various variations and the significance of these so that the reader may estimate his own condition with fair accuracy. From what has preceded immediately above and in a previous chapter, the reader can picture vividly the normal and usual experience. About once in a week or ten days the man will awaken in the latter part of the night out of a restless dreamy sleep, to notice that an emission is taking place or has just taken place. He will note that his organ has been erected and is at the moment rapidly relaxing. As a rule, he drops quickly into sound restful sleep for the rest of the night, awakening in the morning with a feeling of relieved tension in his sex apparatus, a feel- ing of well being, and if he understands these experiences of normal sex life of the man so so that he does not worry he will experience no depletion. It is the man that worries who experiences depletion and loss of appetite, the man who understands will not worry and will therefore experience only the normal reaction. Variations of the normal and usual as set 198 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS forth above are numerous and should be understood by every man. In the first place the quantity of the emission may vary. As stated above, the secretion of the vesicles is modified by diet. If a man is eating very freely of lean meat, fish, game and eggs, the quantity of the vesicular secretion may be doubled or trebled, at any rate very greatly increased. This increased quantity of secre- tion is sure to result either in causing very copious secretions at normal intervals, or normal secretion at frequent intervals, or somewhat increased quantity of emission at somewhat increased frequency. The character of the emission may also vary. As indicated above, the proportion of semen in the nocturnal emission will vary in response to active sex excitement. If a man is living in absolute continence and permitting no sex excitement his nocturnal emissions may contain no sperm cells or very few. The frequency of nocturnal emissions is a matter of far greater importance than either of the variations just discussed. As already indicated, the normal frequency, that is, the usual frequency, is once in a week to once in SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 199 three weeks, varying under various conditions, the average frequency being once in ten to fourteen days. If the emissions come oftener than once a week they are looked upon as being not quite normal and physiological. If they come less frequently than once in three weeks we interpret the matter as not abnormal but representing a personal peculiarity. Some men who seem to be perfectly virile and healthy and who are leading continent lives still are conscious of no nocturnal or other involuntary emissions. Just why this is has never been explained in a way satisfactory to the medical profession. It may be that the man has been eating very abstemiously particularly of proteins (meat and eggs) so that the secretion develops very slowly and this slowly developing secretion may be absorbed as rapidly as it is made so that the vesicles never become greatly dis- tended. Another theory that has been ad- vanced and one which seems more acceptable to the writer, is that the man who would be expected to have occasional nocturnal emis- sions but who is not conscious of any such emissions, probably experiences an emptying 200 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS of the seminal vesicle at the same time that the bladder is emptying. The author has found many cases of men who are light sleepers, that is, very easily awakened, who every few mornings awaken with a strong erection. They arise at once and empty the bladder, the erection relaxing within a few seconds after they get up and by the time they reach the water closet. The proba- bilities are ten to one that they awakened a few moments before they would have had— or were due to have had—a nocturnal emis- sion. The vesicles were probably strongly distended and the distended urinary bladder pressing upon the vesicle caused the strong erection. The conditions wTere those which usually precede a nocturnal emission but awakening prematurely the emission did not occur at the usual time. What actually happened is in all probability the emptying of the vesicles at the same time the bladder was emptying. Inasmuch as the vesicular secretion is freely miscible and soluble in the urine it will not modify the appearance of the urine and thus may easily escape detection on inspection though of course a chemical test SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 201 would show its presence. The semen from the testicles is not soluble in the urine and would therefore be easily noticeable if any considerable amount of testicular secretion were present. However, though we do not know positively why some continent living virile men are never conscious of involuntary emissions, our observation of many such cases leads us to believe that these cases represent simply personal peculiarities and anyone experiencing that peculiarity has no occasion whatsoever to be disturbed or to worry about it. Frequent nocturnal emissions, that is, those that come two or three times per week or perhaps daily, for months, represent a dis- turbance of the normal function that should be corrected. Several causes contribute to these frequent nocturnal emissions. Any one of the causes enumerated will cause increased frequency, therefore it is easy to see that a combination of two or three of these causes might cause a very considerable disturbance of the function. The causes of frequent nocturnal emissions are diet, too rich in meats and eggs, sleeping SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 202 posture abnormal, or repeated occurrences of strong sexual excitement. We have discussed the influence of diet perhaps in sufficient detail above except that it may be wise in this connection to mention the fact that very free drinking of water in the latter part of the day, particularly in the evening, is also an exciting cause for frequent emissions. Not because it increases the vol- ume of the emission, thus filling the vesicles more quickly, but because it greatly increases the volume of urinary secretion during the night, causing the urinary bladder to become distended to such an extent that it not only disturbs the sleep perhaps necessitating arising in the night to empty the bladder, but also pressing upon the vesicles to such an extent as to cause them to empty prematurely, that is, to empty before they are really distended. The sleeping posture is probably the most important factor of frequent nocturnal emis- sions. Many a man acquires the habit of lying upon the back during sleep. This is an unnatural and therefore improper posture to take during sleep. No live animal lies upon its back while asleep, with the sole exception SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 203 of man who is likely to acquire the habit in his ignorance of Nature’s laws. Inasmuch as the vesicles are on the back or dorsal side of the urinary bladder, when a man lies upon his back the vesicles are underneath and the bladder rests upon them. The bladder is uniformly distended by morning because of the accumulation of urine during the night. The heavy distended bladder resting upon the vesicles is very likely to press out their con- tents because they have no valves. Emissions caused in that way are strictly mechanical and are not likely to be accompanied by the usual erotic dream and strong erection. Further- more, these mechanical emissions are likely to be rather scanty in volume because only the accumulation of a day or two flows out at one time. But these frequent mechanical emissions are very annoying and because of the fact that a man know’s that they are not normal he is disturbed in his mind, perhaps actually worrying and that only aggravates the situation. His sleep is not normally rest- ful; his mental disturbance interferes with his appetite and therefore with his digestion. We frequently find that these cases lead to a 204 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS very considerable disturbance of the health and therefore demand correction. In so far as the frequency is caused by sleeping upon the back that is corrected of course, by assuming the normal posture of sleep for mankind, namely, to sleep upon the side, preferably the right side, not because the choice of the right side will in any way modify the reaction of the vesicles but because it leaves the heart somewhat freer in its action. Strong sex excitement, accompanied as it is by a more or less copious secretion of the semen in the testicle and the gathering of this secretion in the ampullae, causes an excitation of the erection center that may result, and usually does result, in a nocturnal emission. It goes without saying that when the nocturnal emissions are caused by frequent strong sexual excitement the emission fluid is especially rich in semen from the testicles, so that there is a very considerable loss of semen. Frequent emissions caused in this way are especially depleting, the depletion actually leading to physical and sexual exhaustion and to that rather obscure neuro-muscular difficulty SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 205 which, lacking a better term, we call neuras- thenia. It must be perfectly evident to the reader that if his frequent emissions are due to this cause their correction is strictly up to him. He has only to control his thoughts and put his mind on his work and keep them away from sex and he will find that his emissions become rapidly less and less frequent and are soon reduced to the normal. The rules of sexual hygiene which regulate and control the frequency and character of the emissions may be thus summarized: (1) Eat abstemiously of lean meat and eggs and eat sufficiently freely of fruits and vege- tables to control the bowel movements (one normal passage of the bowels each day). (2) Drink very freely of water in the early part of the day but very abstemiously in the after part of the day, particularly after the evening meal, preferably drinking no water after the evening meal. If one experiences thirst let him take a mouthful of water and hold it in the mouth for a minute or so, then swallow it, but do not take more than the one swallow. In this way one will avoid the over- filling of the bladder during the night. (3) 206 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS Sleep on the side with the knees drawn up moderately, this last precaution to insure the retaining of the position during the whole period of sleep. (4) Avoid sexual excitement. Diurnal emissions are experienced by many men instead of nocturnal emissions. These diurnal emissions are likely to occur at the time of a passage of the bowls, particularly if a rather large fecal mass is passing through the rectum at the same time that the vesicles are considerably distended. These diurnal emissions are, as a rule, strictly mechanical as is the case with those nocturnal emissions which are caused by an over-distended urinary bladder and the dorsal position of sleep. If the diurnal emissions do not occur more fre- quently than once in a week or so they may be accepted as representing simply a personal peculiarity and need give no concern. CHAPTER III Impotence This condition is one of lack of sex power and makes itself evident in either a complete lack of erectile power on the part of the male organ or a partial erection which quickly sub- sides following a premature emission in the sex act. From this it must be evident that there are various degrees of impotence. The first degree being evidenced by a premature seminal discharge in the sex act followed by a quick relaxation of the organ. Between that condition and the one in which the man is unable to have an erection at all, there are many variations and degrees. The difficulty is largely one of neuro-muscular adjustment and stability. There are various causes recognized, the most prevalent one being youthful excesses in sex excitement either normal or artificial, but whatever the cause the condition is a very serious one that does not respond readily to treatment. The 207 208 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS reason why it does not respond readily is probably due to the fact that it is the result of conditions or the habits of many years standing. We find, as a rule, that abnormal conditions resulting gradually and progres- sively from long years of unnatural and unhygienic living respond very slowly to treatment. The first thing to be accomplished is natu- rally to correct absolutely the cause of the difficulty, but if the cause is a habit of a decade standing, it can easily be understood that a complete correction is not easily accom- plished. Many years of observation of these cases lead the writer to feel that medicine alone is very ineffective. The first thing to accomplish is to correct wrong habits and establish a perfectly normal regime of living. It may be that the physician will see fit to supplement this hygienic treatment with some medical or even surgical treatment, but each case is more or less peculiar to itself and the treatment is always strictly up to the physi- cian in charge. CHAPTER IV Sterility This condition is one in which the individual has lost his procreative power. The condition becomes apparent usually after a few years of married life. If no children come to a family naturally the married pair begin to inquire into the reason. Of course it is taken for granted that either the man or the woman or perhaps both, are suffering from this condi- tion—sterility. As a rule, it is the wife who takes counsel of their family physician to find out why it is that she does not conceive. In a considerable proportion of the cases of childlessness it is found that the woman is in perfect physical condition and reveals no assignable cause for suspecting that she is responsible. In those cases it is customary to take the matter up with the husband and subject him to a physical examination. It is usually found that he is responsible in those cases 209 210 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS where the wife is found to be normal. Sterility in the man may be due to a serious malforma- tion of the organ. It may be due to a reten- tion of the testicles in the groin canal, or it may be due to atrophy or shriveling of the testicles or to disease or tumor. However, in a vast majority of cases where we locate the sterility in the man we find that it is caused by a gonorrheal infection. The ordinary course of events is as follows: In his youth perhaps years before his mar- riage he had a gonorrheal infection which spread to his testicles causing either a gonor- rheal epididymitis or a gonorrheal orchitis, in simpler terms a clap infection of the epididy- mis or a clap infection of the testicle body. There seems to be a tendency with clap infections to denude the surface epithelium of the tube, which, on healing, contracts. When this happens to the urethra—the large tube of the male organ—it causes what we call a “ stricture” When this happens to the minute thread- like tubes of the epididymis or the body of the testicle, it closes the tubes when they heal. It is easy to understand that if that closure SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 211 of tubes becomes at all general it really locks the testicle, closing the exit so effectively that semen cannot leave the testicle. This natu- rally causes sterility. A man so afflicted in both testicles would not show any sperma- tozoa in his emission. The emission fluid might be nearly normal in bulk but it would come altogether from the vesicle and the prostate gland and, lacking the spermatozoa, would be useless so far as fertilizing the egg. When we remember that sterility in the female is also due in a very large proportion of cases to a gonorrheal infection of lining membrane of the uterus or the egg tubes, it will be evident that to these gonorrheal infec- tions we must attribute a very large propor- tion of all cases of sterility. CHAPTER V Rupture or Hernia Most cases of rupture in boys and men are what we call inguinal hernia or groin rupture. The testicles are formed within the body cavity and pass into the scrotum or bag about the time of birth or in many cases months or years later. When the testicles are held (one or both of them) in the groin canal for years making their descent when the boy is ten, twelve or fourteen years old, it leaves this canal sufficiently open so that a loop of the intestine or gut may slip into the canal and becoming distended cause a good deal of local difficulty, naturally interfering with the free passage of the intestinal contents along the intestinal canal. Hernias are more or less painful and dis- abling and have a very considerable element of danger because of interference with a free transit of intestinal contents and with free circulation. Naturally the condition must be 212 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 213 promptly and effectively corrected. An old time method of alleviating hernia was to wear a truss, but during the last three decades the surgical operation to correct hernia and com- pletely cure it has been elaborated to such a point of perfection that we now feel that any young man who has hernia should at once put himself under the care of a competent surgeon and have the difficulty properly corrected. CHAPTER VI Varicocele; or Swollen Veins in the Testicle The veins in the epididymis sometimes swell, making a noticeable lump or extension on the side of the testicle. When one feels this lump it is like feeling a small mass of angle worms or fish worms. These worm-like structures that one feels through the wall of the scrotum are simply the enlarged veins. As to cause of varicocele, anything which causes greatly increased pressure within the veins is likely to cause the veins to distend and remain distended thus causing the permanent enlarge- ment. Among the various causes of varicocele are the wearing of ill-fitting clothing which makes more or less continuous pressure against the crotch, thus backing up the blood in the veins and distending them. Riding on a saddle of any kind is also likely to cause vari- cocele, particularly bicycle or motor-cycle saddle and perhaps to somewhat less extent 214 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 215 the equestrian saddle. It seems to be in the case of the motor-cycle saddle the strong vibration of the saddle that causes the veins to swell. Varicocele is really not at all a serious con- dition, particularly if the swelling is only moderate in size. Quacks and charlatans have emphasized far beyond the truth the seriousness of varicocele. Conservative sur- geons do not undertake corrective measures or any kind of treatment unless varicocele is large enough to cause discomfort and to serve as a distinct handicap to work or perhaps because of its size to have encroached upon the testicle causing the testicle on that side to be distinctly smaller than its mate. In that case the surgeon usually advises the removal of the enlarged veins. Where the varicocele is not large enough to justify its removal the best way to relieve any slight discomfort it might occasion is to wear a suspensory. In general, the young man who has a varicocele would do well to consult a surgeon of high standing, perhaps carrying a note of introduction to the surgeon from his family physician and take the surgeon’s SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 216 advice as to treatment. Surgeons are very conservative regarding operations on vari- cocele, and do not advise operations unless in their judgment it is the only way to correct and alleviate the difficulty. CHAPTER VII Size of the Organs Many a young man is worried, and need- lessly so, if he discovers that his organs are smaller than those of someof his chums or some other young man whose organs he may have seen when they were in swimming. The average size of the male organs was given in the chapter on anatomy, but if the young man finds that his organs fall short of the average size there is no occasion for him to worry as a rule. As a matter of fact, in the many thousands of cases which the writer has examined during the last thirty years only a half dozen cases at most have been found where the organs were so small as to be classi- fied as puerile and too small to justify the young man in attempting family life because of the practical certainty that his small testicles would not produce mature and fertile semen. Of course, it goes without saying that in all these cases of puerile sex 217 218 SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS condition or undeveloped sex organs there are various other conditions psychical and physi- cal that lead even the patient himself to see clearly that there can be no serious thought of marriage and family life. As a rule the mitigating feature of the situation is that the puerile undeveloped case has no thought of or desire for marriage. In an overwhelming majority of cases, probably as much as 999 out of a thousand, the organs are large enough so far as size alone is concerned to justify the man in attempting marital life. While the average length of the erected male organ is about six inches it is effective as a copulative organ if when erected it measures as much as four and a half or five inches. The Greeks of the classic period, had very small sex organs, if we may judge the size by classic Greek statuary, and the probabilities are that they were just as accurate in their sculpture of that part of the body as they were of all the other parts. Assuming then that their statuary was anatomically accurate we must recognize that their organs were noticeably smaller than those of the white SPECIAL SEX PROBLEMS 219 races of the western continent, yet the whole world knows that the Greek men were splendid specimens of virility. So we feel that not one man in a thousand has any occasion to be disturbed as to the size of his sex apparatus. PERSONAL HYGIENE PART V PERSONAL HYGIENE CHAPTER I Diet It is proposed in this part to outline, very briefly, a few simple rules of hygiene, the observance of which will tend to bring the young man into the highest possible state of physical development. Assuming that he wishes to lead a continent life, the observance of these rules will make that much desired condition more easily attainable. Choice of Food. The young man who is boarding at a restaurant, or in a boarding club, can modify his diet only within the range of the menu provided. Fortunately, the young man can observe the most important rule of diet, that is, to eat abstemiously. Wherever one is boarding, he can eat temper- ately; he can avoid highly spiced foods, tea 223 PERSONAL HYGIENE 224 and coffee. The observance of these simple rules will go a long way towards simplifying his sexual problem. It has been discovered, by the study of the influence of diet upon sexual appetite, that the heavy eating of rich and highly spiced foods, indulgence in stimu- lants and narcotics, all tend to excite the sexual desires. Narcotics are those drugs which cause nar- cosis, or a dulling of the senses, and a decreased activity of both the muscular and nervous system. One of the most common and typical nar- cotics is opium. Derived from opium is morphine. Cocaine belongs also to the nar- cotics, as do the anaesthetics, such as chloro- form, ether and common alcohol. So the young man who would develop a clear-thinking brain and a sound body must leave alcoholic beverages alone. Further- more, the young man who would have absolute control of his sexual desires must leave alcohol alone, for the first thing that alcohol does is to throw down the lines of control. It is under the influence of alcohol that the young man is almost sure to make his first visit to the PERSONAL HYGIENE 225 house of prostitution. Tf a girl lose her virtue, it takes place in a majority of cases when she is under the influence of alcohol. But for this influence lessening her control, she could not be seduced. Hence one of the requirements of continence is TOTAL ABSTINENCE. In so far as tobacco is a narcotic, in just so far does it disarm and put to sleep aesthetic and moral impulses which are so helpful in the maintenance of the continent life. The dietetic control of the bowels. A most important hygienic rule is to maintain a strict regularity of the bowels. By regularity of the bowels, we mean a free, normal passage of the bowels at least once in twenty-four hours. Two or three passages in twenty-four hours are not too many. A tendency towards constipation may be hereditary. The writer finds that at least one case in four of persistent chronic consti- pation among college men seems to be due to a hereditary tendency. Those individuals who have from early infancy and throughout their whole lives suffered from a tendency to constipation, and perhaps from actual chronic constipation, find 226 PERSONAL HYGIENE it exceedingly difficult to produce normal, regular daily movements of the bowels. Whether constipation is chronic or occasional, or whether it is hereditary or acquired, in any case it should be corrected, if possible, through modification of the diet, and of daily habits. First of all, one must remember, in this connection, that the lower bowel or rectum is subject to education, and not by any means the least important factor in overcoming a tendency to constipation is the regular morn- ing visit to the water closet. The author would discourage the habit, which some have, of “ straining at stool.” This act of straining at stool, together with the pressure which the hard fecal masses make on the blood vessels, increases the blood pressure on the veins of the rectum to such a high degree that it is likely to cause hemor- rhoids or piles. But if the position favorable to the passage of the bowels be taken regularly every morning, and a reasonable time spent in that position, and if the daily passage is brought about at the time, the muscles of the rectum will be educated to the point of con- PERSONAL HYGIENE 227 tracting upon its contents at that time and under those conditions regularly, and this will be a strong factor towards regulating the movements of the bowels. But the most important thing to consider in this condition is the dietetic regulation of the bowels. There are some foods that tend to constipate, while others act as a laxative. Such foods, for example, as contain a con- siderable portion of tannin, are always con- stipating. Strong teas have a constipating effect, particularly such as the bitter English breakfast teas, in which there is a very large proportion of tannin. This large percentage of tannin accounts for the prevalence of constipation among female tea drinkers. If one then, who is annoyed by a tendency to constipation, wishes to correct it, a rational change of diet would be to eat freely of cereals and coarse bread and of various fruits, par- ticularly apples, figs and prunes. The most effective way to eat these laxative fruits is to eat freely of them just before retiring. The apples and figs may be eaten just as they are received from the market. Prunes may be soaked in cold water for 228 PERSONAL HYGIENE twenty-four hours, and then taken directly from the cold water and eaten. If this is not effective, a supplementary regime may be adopted that is only in part dietetic, that is, to rise one hour before breakfast, drink two glasses of cold water, and take a brisk walk of fifteen to thirty minutes. The cold water has a tonic effect upon the stomach, preparing it for a rapid digestion of the breakfast. It also washes out the accumulation of mucus in the stomach, which may easily equal a pint in volume. This pint of mucus, plus the pint of water, making a quart of liquid altogether, pours through the pylorus, and during the rapid walk works its way rapidly down through the alimentary tract, washing the whole tract and preparing it to receive and rapidly digest the next meal. This slimy water, having washed out the stomach and small intestine, then passes into the large intestine, moistening and lubricating its con- tents and causing it to move gradually toward the rectum, where it stimulates a normal free passage into the bowels after breakfast. Any usual case of constipation will yield to PERSONAL HYGIENE 229 this treatment. Such a treatment is incom- parably more rational than the taking of medicines. The Dietetic Control of Sleep. Most students study evenings. If their heavy meal is a dinner at 5.30 or 6 p. m., they are likely to feel very drowsy by 7.30 or 8 o’clock. This is a perfectly natural experience, all animals manifesting a drowsiness after a heavy meal. If one could lie down and sleep for an hour while his dinner is digesting, he could probably rise at 8 o’clock and put in two or three hours of good hard work. He would find himself at 11 or 12 o’clock so thoroughly awake, however, that he might have difficulty in getting to sleep if he retired at that hour. If, on the other hand, one has his dinner in the middle of the day, and a light supper at night, he is able to begin studying within an hour after supper, and keep it up until he is ready to retire. In this case also, he is likely to be so wide awake at the time of retiring that he may have difficulty in getting to sleep. In either of these cases, it is altogether proper and advisable to take a light lunch before retiring. A double purpose can be served by 230 PERSONAL HYGIENE this lunch. In the first place, the taking of anything into the stomach that requires digestion tends to deplete the circulation from other organs (brain in this case) to the stomach. In the second place, the food may be so chosen as to exert a definite somnolent effect. Such foods are celery, lettuce, onions, warm milk. It may not be convenient to get warm milk at midnight, but it would hardly be inconvenient to provide one’s self with two or three Graham crackers and a stalk of celery. These with a drink of water ought so far to divert the circulation from the brain as to enable one to fall asleep quickly. The Dietetic Control of the Kidneys and Skin. The stimulation of excretion, through the kidneys and skin, may be an exceedingly important thing, particularly if one has just caught a cold and wishes to establish free excretion. The food which has a most clearly marked effect upon both kidneys and skin is the juice of the citrus fruits. These fruits, as they appear in our markets, are lemons, oranges and grape fruit. All of these fruits are in a high degree wholesome as an addition to the dietary. Lemon juice is far more PERSONAL HYGIENE 231 wholesome than vinegar in salads. The juice of lemons and oranges make most refreshing and deliciously cooling drinks in summer, and on occasions where one wishes to get a stronger stimulation of the kidneys and skin, he has only to drink large quantities of hot lemonade. The Dietetic Method of Curing a Cold. A whole quart of hot lemonade may be taken on retiring after one has caught cold. The effect in such a case would be to cause a free sweating and copious urination. Both the action of the kidneys and the skin would tend to carry away from the system the materials that have been retained as a result of the cold. It is hardly necessary to add in this connec- tion that care should be taken that during the sweating or immediately following it, the body should not be exposed to catch more cold. In this method of treating a cold, one should take a strong cathartic, such as two or three teaspoonfuls of castor oil, and should remain in bed twenty-four hours. During this twenty-four hours, no other food than a light broth should be taken. This treatment 232 PERSONAL HYGIENE usually completely breaks up a cold, and one is able, in two or three days, to make good the loss of the twenty-four hours, during which time he was confined to his room. This dietetic method of caring for an acute catarrhal cold is incomparably wiser and more economical than to drag around, hoping to “wear out the cold” only to be worn out by it. CHAPTER II Baths The Batli for Cleanliness. Little need be said regarding the bath for cleanliness, except that it should be taken at least once in a week during the colder portion of the year, and perhaps as frequently as once a day during that portion of the year when there is free perspiration. Where one is bathing for cleanliness, he may well use soap and warm water over the whole surface of the body. If he takes this bath just before retiring, it is not necessary to take a cold shower or sponge at the end of the bath. If, however, one takes a warm soap bath in the morning, the relaxing effect of the bath upon the skin makes it necessary to take a cold shower or a cold sponge after the warm bath in order to secure the tonic effect upon the skin, and fortify one against catching cold. During the hot weather, when one may 233 234 PERSONAL HYGIENE bathe daily for cleanliness, he should guard against an excessive use of soap, as a daily soap bath may have a tendency to remove the oils from the skin so completely as to make the skin rough. With the daily bath for cleanliness, it is possible that warm water and soap need not be used more frequently than once or twice a week, and that a laving of the whole surface with cold water, followed by a vigorous rub down with a coarse towel, may serve the double purpose of insuring absolute cleanliness, and at the same time serving as a skin tonic. In this connection, the author would empha- size the importance of insuring absolute clean- liness of the sexual apparatus. In primeval conditions, less attention was necessary, as these organs were more or less exposed, but the present method of dress is such as to permit the accumulation of the skin secretions. While these may in part be removed by the friction against the clothing, it is advisable to wash the external genitals and all neigh- boring surfaces as a regular part of the daily toilet. The Tonic Bath. In warm weather, when PERSONAL HYGIENE 235 one takes a daily bath to insure cleanliness, at least five of these baths each week may be in cold water, sufficiently cold to secure the tonic effect as described above. In cold weather when one takes not more than one or two warm soap baths a week, the cold tonic bath can be made to serve a most important purpose in the hygiene. Some have followed the custom of immers- ing the body completely in a tub of cold water. This method of taking the cold bath is not to be recommended, except for those who are in the most robust health, and in these cases, so vigorous a treatment is not necessary nor particularly beneficial. The author has seen many people who were injured by this method of taking the tonic bath. There are two methods to be recommended: Those who have access to a cold shower may stand for a moment, and for a moment only, under the cold shower, then step at once upon a warm rug and rub the whole surface of the body vigorously with a dry crash towel, until the whole surface of the body glows with the warmth of the reaction. If one does not have access to the cold shower, he may take a most 236 PERSONAL HYGIENE effective tonic bath in his room, using cold water, the coldest obtainable, with sponge, or even a wash cloth, dipping the sponge into the cold water, then pressing out enough of the water so that there will be no excess of water to run over the surface of the body from the sponge. Begin by sponging face, neck, shoulders, arms and chest, then wipe these parts dry, subject them to vigorous friction with the crash towel, until the arms, shoulders and chest particularly, glow with the warmth of the reaction. While the upper half of the body is receiving its bath, the lower half may be kept covered, and conversely. This tonic bath should be taken immediately upon arising in the morning, and as a part of the morning toilet. If one takes such a tonic bath on arising, then dresses hurriedly and takes a brisk walk of fifteen or thirty minutes, the regime quickly brings his body into the most vigorous and robust state of health; unless there is some- thing wrong with his digestion or his excretion, and even moderate derangements of these will be very likely to be corrected by the regime just suggested. CHAPTER III Exercise The Morning Walk. Incident to the above topic, mention has been made of the brisk morning walk before breakfast. This has a most salutary tonic effect besides the influence that it exerts upon the bowel movements. Not the least important results of this morn- ing exercise depends on the fact that the lungs are repeatedly and completely inflated with the pure out-of-door air. This naturally exerts a most valuable influence upon the development of the lungs in the youth, or the maintenance of their vigor in middle age. This increased heart action is also advan- tageous as it tends to hasten circulation through the muscles, glands and brain. This hurrying blood current not only carries nutri- ment to these organs, but carries away their accumulations of effete material to the excre- tory glands. The reader must be cautioned not to overdo 237 238 PERSONAL HYGIENE this early morning exercise. The mile run, the mile row, or any other strenuous exercise, is strongly to be discouraged at this time of the day. If one overdoes morning exercise, he is likely to feel somewhat depleted and fatigued throughout the remainder of the forenoon, and his ability to do a high grade of mental work is decreased rather than increased. Evening Exercises. Besides the morning exercise, every person, who wishes to live a vigorous physical life, should have from one to two hours of heavier exercise during the latter part of the day or evening. This exercise may take any one of many forms. It may be golf, tennis, rowing, swimming, skating, cycling, basket-ball, horseback riding, cross-country hikes, track or gymnasium work, etc., etc. The immediate results of this exer- cise should be largely to increase lung and heart action, and to cause a sufficient fatigue of the muscular system so that rest is sought and may be followed by dreamless, recupera- tive sleep. It might at first seem paradoxical that to build up strong muscles, we must first fatigue them, but that seems to be Nature’s plan. PERSONAL HYGIENE 239 The only way to build up a strong physique is to use that physique, and use it to its maximum capacity. If one exercises thus, freely, and eats abstemiously, one ought not to lay on fat. If one does lay on fat, it is certain that one is eating more than is needed, and he should make his diet more temperate. The youth of eighteen or nineteen, who is tall and rather spare, and whose muscular system has not reached its full development, would increase his weight through muscle growth or fat deposit. The latter should be avoided, and the former encouraged. Not by any means the least important thing accomplished by physical exercise is the asso- ciation with one’s fellows incident to one’s exercise. The courage, nerve control, quick judgment, agility and strength required in an athletic game make no small part of the young person’s equipment to fight the battles of life. The conditions of these games give frequent opportunities for the young person to cultivate the spirit of honesty and fair play, without which no one can reach his highest success in the real contests of life. CHAPTER IV The Hygienic Requirements of Sleep The personal hygiene of sleep is by no means an unimportant topic, though it may be briefly treated. Amount of Sleep. The amount of sleep that each individual requires and should take, can only be determined by the individual. Some seem to require ten hours, others eight, others six, while rarely individuals are found who seem to thrive on even so little as five hours of sleep out of twenty-four. The aver- age requirement seems to be about eight hours. If one has, by experience or experiment, deter- mined the amount of sleep which he requires, he should so plan his daily regime that he can secure that amount of sleep. While a brief departure from this regime may be without serious results, any prolonged departure from it will certainly bring its natural retribution. So, the young man having determined how much sleep he needs, should adopt a daily 240 PERSONAL HYGIENE 241 program that will provide for just that many hours in bed, and he should early establish the habit of going to sleep at once upon retiring, and of arising at once upon awakening. Dallying in bed has led many a young person to lapse into habits of thought and of action that are in a high degree deleterious, morally and physically. So far as one may choose the equipment of his sleeping apartment, he should choose a hard bed and a cover as light as possible and yet be comfortable. Keeping the Feet Warm. One should never retire with cold feet. A most effective way to warm the feet is to dip them for a moment in cold water, and then rub them vigorously with a coarse towel until they glow with warmth. Furthermore, no more effective remedy for habitual cold feet could be devised than this nightly tonic bath. One will add greatly to his comfort, and decrease largely the danger of taking cold, if he provides himself with a pair of warm bedroom slippers, which should always be worn during one’s excursions to the bathroom, and during his tonic sponge bath. 242 PERSONAL HYGIENE The Sleeping Posture. As to posture in bed, the experience of men, in general, is that the most comfortable posture, and the most hygienic one, is to lie upon the side. The right side is to be preferred to the left, because, in this position, the heart being on the upper side is not embarrassed in its free movement by the superincumbent lung tissue. Further- more, this position facilitates the passage of digesting foods from the stomach. To main- tain comfortably this side position, requires that the knees be at least moderately drawn up. This posture, when asleep, is practically identical with that of nearly all higher animals, and is unquestionably the most hygienic one for man. No animal, but man, ever lies upon its back unless it is dead. Furthermore, the dorsal position puts tendons, nerves and muscles on a stretch, while the flexed lateral position puts these in a more or less relaxed position, which is most favorable to rest. Ventilation. It goes without saying that sleeping rooms should always be thoroughly ventilated. The occupant should take care that he does not lie in a direct draught from a window or door, because it has been found PERSONAL HYGIENE 243 by experience that one is less likely to catch cold, if he sleeps out of doors, than he is if he sleeps in a direct draught from a window or door. Just why this is, has not been satis- factorily accounted for, but the fact remains. So, if you must sleep in the house, secure perfect ventilation without direct draughts. CHAPTER V The Control of the Thoughts There is no more effective safeguard for the man who wishes to lead a continent life, than the control of the thoughts. It goes without saying that the man who thinks about sexual matters, especially the one whose imagination runs wild upon all kinds of sexually stimu- lating images, is only inviting temptation to relax his continence. If he controls his thoughts during those times when he is less amenable to temptation, he is far more likely to be able to control his acts at those times when his physical condition makes him most amenable to temptation. The most effective way to control the thoughts is so to plan one’s work as to insure the complete occupation of the mind with affairs that are wholly independent of sexual experiences or considerations. One should set a mark for himself so high above his present position that he is compelled to put forth 244 PERSONAL HYGIENE 245 strenuous and unremitting efforts in order to accomplish his aim. The old saying, that “Satan finds work for idle hands to do,” is all too true. Anyone may observe the influ- ence of idleness, or even the influence of a partially occupied program, upon the habits of the youth and young man. Beard and Rockwell, in their valuable work on this sub- ject, say: “Go to work; develop your muscles and brain; resolve to become at least useful, if not famous. The activity which will be necessary in carrying out these ambitions will divert the mind from imaginary evils, if they are imaginary, and will be one of the best means to cure the real ones.” EUGENICS PART VI EUGENICS A Brief Outline CHAPTER I Outline of Eugenics There is no subject about which young people contemplating marriage should be more sincerely and seriously interested than this subject of Eugenics. The word “Eugen- ics” means “well-born.” One’s first thought on this subject naturally concerns the heredity. However, to be well-born concerns environment almost as much as it does heredity. We wrill, therefore, consider this subject rather syste- matically; first, as to certain general con- siderations; second, the part played by heredity; third, the part played by environ- ment; and fourth, laws or rules of Eugenics. Biology, now so widely studied, both in 249 250 EUGENICS colleges and high schools, has revealed to the world and impressed it upon the conviction and consciousness of the whole thinking and reading world, first, that man is an animal; second, that this animal, man, obeys the same laws in his physical and mental development that other animals obey; hence, third, the laws of heredity, as carefully worked out for mammals, hold absolutely for the mammal, man; fourth, such conditions of life as food and shelter and association with others of his kind (environment), profoundly influence the development of the human individual as it does that of the mammal in general. Much attention has been devoted, during the last few decades, to the breeding of domes- tic animals, and it has been found that every species responds readily to the care of the breeder. Horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, as well as other domesticated animals, and even plants, have been so greatly improved within the last generation or two, that their value to man has been at least doubled. This improvement, through breeding, is accomplished through a very careful choice of mates; in other words, through a control EUGENICS 251 of heredity on the one hand, and careful feeding, shelter and association on the other hand. The breeders say that they are able, in a few generations of any species, to emphasize any desired quality, simply through the influence of these factors named above. For example, if the breeder wishes to produce a breed of cattle in which the cows are large producers of milk, they have only to choose for the mothers of the desired breed, the best milkers, and for the sires, males begotten from the best milkers. Determining thus the heredity, and specializ- ing the environment, half a dozen or ten generations of such breeding will produce a strain of Holsteins, for example, commercially worth, perhaps thousands of dollars each for breeding, and the cows, commercially worth a hundred dollars or more, simply as milk producers. On the other hand, Herefords and Durhams may be modified by breeding and feeding to produce the best grade of beef cattle. So in the horse kind, breeders have pro- duced draft horses, roadsters and race horses, emphasizing any physical or temperamental quality at will, through strict adherence to the laws of breeding. EUGENICS 252 A few years ago it was simultaneously dis- covered, by a number of prominent people of the country, that our government and some of our States are spending millions of dollars for the improvement of domestic animals that possess a commercial value, while nothing was being expended to improve the human race. A few extremists thought that the same measures could be adopted for the improvement of the human race as have been adopted so effec- tively for the domestic animals, but this is not the view of the extremist only. Thoughtful, conservative people believe that much may be done profoundly to influence our race without seriously disturbing the social order. The two influences which will probably be most effective are education and restrictive laws. The education will influence young people in the choosing of their mates, while the restric-I tive laws will debar certain individuals from marriage. Statistics show that in every State there are many hundreds, if not thousands, of imbeciles, degenerates, criminals, insane, idi- ots, etc., begotten in lust and squalor while the parents were inebriated or semi-imbecile, insane, degenerate or criminal. As this gen- EUGENICS 253 eration of human debris becomes a charge on the State, seriously complicating social, politi- cal and economic conditions, it is the universal belief that the State has a right to interfere in the propagation of such individuals. The only difference of opinion is just how the State may most wisely exert its recognized powers in the matter. CHAPTER II The Part Played by Heredity Naturally, heredity exerts a profound influ- ence upon an individual, and while environ- ment exerts perhaps an equally profound one, still no adequate discussion of Eugenics can be made without going into considerable detail regarding heredity. In order to explain the operation of the laws of heredity, it is necessary to explain the begetting of a new life. As you know, a new life is begotten through the fertilizing of an egg, produced by the maternal organism, by a sperm cell produced by the paternal organ- ism. While the egg is relatively large and non-motile, and the sperm cell is relatively small and possesses a remarkable motility, the essential element in both the egg and the sperm cell is the nucleus. The nucleus of the egg and the nucleus of the sperm cell are the same size, and, separated from the accom- panying cell substance, cannot be differen- tiated one from the other. 254 GALTON’S LAW OF HEREDITY The word “Eugenics’ ’ was first used by Sir Francis Galton, of England, and means the generation of the good, that is, the pro- creation of the good. One of the laws of heredity, which Sir Francis Galton discovered and formulated was that half or approx- imately half of the unit characters, physical and psychical, of an individual is inherited from each ancestral line through father and mother respectively; that is, half of our characteristics is from the maternal line and half from the paternal line (see page 256). The above illustration shows the division of heredity characteristics back through four successive generations, and in like manner, the division might be carried back indefinitely, generation after generation. EUGENICS 255 In the process of fertilization, the sperm cell enters the egg yolk through the yolk membrane, and the two nuclei, called pro- nuclei, gravitate toward each other through the yolk substance, finally fusing with each other within the yolk substance. Immedi- ately after this fusing of the two nuclei, the process of development begins, and we say a new life has been begotten or conceived. Of the essential material, the father fur- nishes the same amount as the mother. In a wonderful way, which we described in detail under Reproduction, the bit of living matter which comes from the father is so intimately mixed with the egg nucleus, that each furnishes exactly half of the nuclear material which becomes a part of each cell of the body. Thus, every organ, tissue and cell of the new body, pos- sesses a minute bit of material which came from the father, and an equal amount which came from germ-plasma of the mother. Through this minute bit of matter, the development of the organ, tissue or cell is determined. As we study the laws of heredity, we find that the sum of the hereditary traits possessed by individuals came equally from the paternal- 256 EUGENICS ancestral line and the maternal-ancestral line. We also find that the two parents exert, indi- vidually, one-half of all the hereditary influence, while all the preceding ancestors exert the other one-half of the hereditary influence. The four grandparents will, therefore, exert one-fourth of all the hereditary influence, while the preceding generations of ancestors will exert the other one-fourth. In a similar way, the great-grandparents, eight in number, will exert one-eighth of the hereditary influence, and all preceding ancestors will exert one- eighth, and so on back through the genera- tions. (See illustration showing Gal ton’s Law of Heredity.) If the question arises, how much influence does each parent, grandparent and great- grandparent exert on one’s heredity, the answer is an easy one. If the two parents exert one-half of the hereditary influence, each parent will exert one-fourth of this influ- ence. Further, if the four grandparents exert one-fourth of the hereditary influence, each grandparent will exert one-sixteenth, while each of the eight great-grandparents will exert one-sixty-fourth. EUGENICS 257 The writer has heard people pluming them- selves on being able to trace ancestry back to William the Conqueror. This great hero of English history lived about thirty generations ago. In that generation, each one of us pos- sessed over one million converging lines of ancestry; each one therefore, exert about one-billionth part of the hereditary influ- ence. The parents and grandparents, therefore, exert together three-fourths of the hereditary influence and a very large part of the environ- mental influence, so we don’t need to do much worrying about what happened previous to the grandparents. However, we must recognize that certain family traits are passed down many genera- tions in some families. This is probably due to the fact that they are valued traits of which the possessors are conscious and proud. These traits are cultivated in each generation, and there is not infrequently a more or less con- scious determination or choice of mates, with some reference to this same trait. Should this mating between families that possess certain valued traits take place through three or four EUGENICS 258 generations, it goes without saying that the accentuation of this trait becomes very marked. According to the Mendelian theory of heredity, so carefully worked out by Mendel, and now universally accepted, a trait, as for example, color, is likely (almost certain) to be passed down according to the following law: In guinea pigs, when a black male of black line of ancestors is mated with a white female, from a white line, their progeny will be one- fourth black, one-fourth white and one-half mixed. It is very interesting to note that a trait like imbecility, that has been transmitted through several generations, and, therefore, may be taken as a fixed hereditary character in that family, is transmitted, according to the Mendelian law, to progeny when the imbecile is mated with an individual whose family is free from this trait. Out of eight children, we would, therefore, expect two imbe- ciles, two normals, and four, more or less defective ones. CHAPTER III The Part Played by Environment The surroundings or conditions under which the life is developed, begin at the hour of con- ception, within the maternal uterus. Every life is profoundly influenced by the conditions to which the mother is subjected during her carrying of the young life. These conditions concern especially the nutrition of the develop- ing life, so if the mother’s nutrition is seriously interfered with during her pregnancy, the child is certain to show some mark of this interference with the mother’s nutrition. This influence may make itself shown in various ways. There may be an impairment of physi- cal development, taking the form of an arrest or retardation of physical development, or arrest or retardation of mental develop- ment, or both physical and mental. The con- ditions to which the infant is subjected during the first two or three years of life also pro- foundly influence the course of development. 259 EUGENICS 260 The discipline, training, associations, nutri- tion during early childhood, during the pre- adolescent period, and even during adoles- cence, also profoundly influence the course of development of the individual. While it would be impossible, through environment, to develop mentality in a born imbecile, it is altogether possible, through bad environment, to develop habits that will wreck the life in an individual whose heredity may be of a high order. In a similar way, it is possible through environment largely to overcome hereditary weaknesses, and greatly to strengthen hereditary advantages. Let no young pair establishing a home, lose sight of the importance of environment in the development of their children! CHAPTER IV Positive Eugenics By positive Eugenics, we mean conditions that accentuate desirable qualities. There are naturally two phases to this, namely, the hereditary and the environmental phase of posi- tive Eugenics. Physical and mental qualities which are advantageous and strongly to be desired, may be cultivated and trained envir- onmentally, and may be chosen in the mating, and in this way, if also cultivated and trained in the offspring, become gradually accentu- ated with each successive generation. Education plays a very important part in this positive Eugenics. It plays its part in a double way. First, through causing the indi- vidual to take pride in the desired character, and cultivate that character, through leading the individual instinctively to be drawn and attracted toward mating with an individual from a family possessing the same trait; while, on the other hand, there is a condition which 261 262 EUGENICS may be called 'psychic inhibition, which tends to cause the individual to hesitate, perhaps later, to say “No,” when this much-prized trait is found not to exist in the family of a candidate for mating. CHAPTER V Negative Eugenics By negative Eugenics, we mean the avoiding of the disadvantageous and unfortunate in the development of the individual. There are certain unfortunate impairments, physical or mental, that should he studiously avoided in the mating of human individuals; such, for exam- ple, as hereditary insanity, syphilis, imbecility, degeneracy, criminality and chronic alcohol- ism. If one of the parents possesses any one of these unfortunate impairments, especially if this impairment seems, evidently, to be in- herited, their offspring will certainly he pro- foundly influenced hy this impairment, perhaps three-fourths of their children being distinctly subnormal. If this fact is known to young people, that knowledge will protect them from mating with an individual that is the victim of any of these impairments. The victim of the impairment, however, perhaps because of the 263 264 EUGENICS impairment, is very likely not to experience this inhibition, and may be ready to mate, either in wedlock or out, and to produce offspring. Here is where the State should inter- fere, and every individual who possesses these serious impairments should be prohibited, in some way, from transmitting this unfortunate impairment to another generation. When we remember that a normal individ- ual, born of a defective parent, may transmit to some of his children, even though married to a normal person, the ancestral impairment in small or great degree, this fact should lead every young person to inquire carefully into the family history of individuals with whom the question of mating may arise, and though that individual may himself be free from impair- ment, if he has an imbecile brother or sister, and a syphilitic or epileptic father, the mating with that individual should not for a single moment be considered. If young people knew these facts, it would not be necessary for the statutes, or for parental authority, to interfere in the mating. This important trait of psychic inhibition would cause any love that may have been awakened in the early meetings of two EUGENICS 265 individuals to die out and be wholly destroyed as soon as the family history becomes known. The author believes that the only way to improve and purify the conditions of today is by such a system of sexual education as sug- gested throughout the pages of this book, beginning with the little children in the homes, telling them the true story concerning the great truths of life, rather than fiction, such as the “Stork Story,” which sooner or later wTill prove false in the minds of the children, and will influence them to look to others for the knowledge they should get from those nearest and dearest to them, those who, through the plan of Nature, gave them life, and wrho should also teach them the great truths of life, in order that they may live up to the plane of the ideal, and so live up to the best that is in them, not only for their own welfare and happiness, but that the influence of their lives may be for all that is good and holy, through all time and eternity. Surely, lives so precious when they are children, should be protected by such knowl- edge of the great truths of life as will prove 266 EUGENICS to be the greatest safeguard for them all along the journey of life. This book goes forth to the world, in the hope that the great fundamental truths of life herein set forth, may be to humanity a foun- dation of truth on which the present and future generations shall build such lives of true and noble manhood and womanhood as were de- signed by the Creator, when, as the Bible tells us, “God created man in his own image.” It is the hope of the author that these great truths may become universal knowledge, and so be a part of the very lives of the young children while still at mother’s knee, and while under the father’s care and influence, and throughout the sojourn of life, helping them to fight bravely and heroically the battles of life, especially the sexual battles, and winning, with the “sword of sexual truth,” those victories over self and passion that will help wonderfully in doing their part to work out their destiny in harmony with the design of Nature’s God, through obedience to the laws of Nature and the laws of the Creator, respect- ing the highest form of animal creation— MAN.