Part 3

This fact easily explains why the masturbation habit is so destructive and dangerous to younger children. They are unconscious of the evil character of their habit, and helplessly yield to the lure of impulse; neither can they exert any self-control. On the other hand, every drop of sexual fluid they lose means that much of vitality and life energy taken away from their growing body; it means that much loss of the natural source of their physical health and development. It is natural, therefore, that excessive and persistent masturbation in younger children may lead to physical exhaustion, may blunt their bodily growth and dwarf their mentality, may lead to development of epilepsy, idiocy, and other mental diseases; in a word, it may blight the child’s life forever and render him a physical and mental invalid. The older the victim of masturbation the smaller is the physical damage resulting from this habit, and the more this damage is transferred to his nervous system, mentality, and moral character.

The changes that take place in the personality of a habitual masturbator are a natural result of slowly-accumulating influences, exerted by the habit on its victim.

There are two cardinal features in the psychology of every masturbator which give us a keynote toward understanding his character, and serve as a starting point for all subsequent changes in his personality. The first is that every masturbator of age knows that he is doing something wrong; that he is committing a shameful act against his manhood and against Nature. As a result, he reproaches and pledges himself to shake off this degrading habit. But his will power is weak and temptation is strong, and he again and again fails in his efforts and falls back in the clutches of his master. This internal conflict gradually unnerves him and puts an indelible stamp of shiftlessness and weakness on his whole being. A feeling of guilt and shame makes him morose, seclusive, depressed, and unsociable. Particularly characteristic it is for an inveterate masturbator to avoid the company of all girls, and those pleasures and games that are so attractive to normal and healthy boys. A masturbator gets bodily weak, flabby, and unfit for any muscular exertion or physical work. The changes in his nervous system and mentality are still more striking. He becomes shiftless and restless, and at the same time shows signs of nervous weakness and irritability. He sleeps bad and feels in the morning more tired and broken up than before going to bed; he is subject to headaches; he gets easily tired, and is unable to concentrate his attention for any sustained mental effort. His personality also changes markedly; he becomes deceitful, self-retired, cowardly, and grouchy. His physical appearance reflects well the internal conflict and the slow sapping of his physical and mental strength; his look is haggard and dejected; the eyes are dull and deeply encircled with blue rings underneath; his hands are cold and clammy; his gait is slow, feeble, and uncertain. In a word, strong, happy, and full of life a boy can in a few years or even months be transformed under a loathsome mastery of the masturbation habit into a wreck and a mere shadow of his former self. There is no more sad and pathetic picture than that of an inveterate masturbator, who wants and cannot break his slavery to the habit. Such cases can be redeemed back to health by a long and tedious treatment. Much easier, and, in fact, the only proper way to fight the scourge of masturbation is by spreading knowledge of its dangers among the boys.

The prevention of the formation of the habit can best be affected thru the same physical training of the boys that has been above recommended to check unnecessary and premature sexual excitement. Give to a boy whom you suspect or know to be in danger of forming the habit of masturbation a friendly help; take him out into the fresh air for games and physical sports; distract his attention by physical and mental pleasures; regulate his diet and mode of life; even bring him into companionship with clean and refined girls, and you may save him from a slow waste and destruction of his physical and mental health and save his manhood for a healthy and happy family life.

Venereal Diseases

Venereal diseases present a unique and most difficult problem of our days. To realize fully the enormous scope and difficulties of the control of venereal peril, several social factors bearing on this problem must be considered. Such are: The attitude of society to the sexual problem; double standard of morality; prevailing ignorance on the subject on the part of the public; self-medication and medical quacks; the sources of venereal infection, and the best methods of its control.

THE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE.

Medically, venereal diseases belong to the oldest and best worked out class of diseases, tho their treatment only recently, due to the new discoveries, has been put on a definite and secure basis. Socially, their tremendous importance for the health, morals, and happiness of a community is just being disclosed to society, which heretofore, in its prudish and ostrich-like attitude, attempted to solve the problem of venereal peril by ignoring it and suppressing free discussion or preventive education along these lines. Naturally, the evil unchecked, tho driven underground by a prohibition of publicity, has spread to such a monstrous size that society could not any more feign not to see it and to continue the old policy of “conspiracy of silence.”

DOUBLE STANDARD OF MORALS.

Among factors bearing on the causes of sexual intemperance and venereal peril, possibly none stands out as clearly and prominently as the so-called double standard of morals. We all know that society has adopted and hypocritically approved a double code of sexual morality for men and women. What is considered to be natural and permissible for a man is an offense of morality and a crime punishable by social disgrace for a woman. No man is willing to marry a girl whom he knows or suspects to be of loose sexual morals, and no self-respecting man will tolerate that the fair name and honor of his sister be attacked or ruined even by a word, not to say in fact. And yet the same man, in full sincerity and in accord with his conscience gives to himself a free license of “sowing wild oats” before his marriage. In fact, many men believe that it is not only permissible, but even desirable for a young man to work off a surplus of his physical manhood before he settles down to family life. How a squandering of the best physical and nervous energy in dissipation, how a waste and perversion of the highest spiritual and moral instinct of love by a degrading purchase of the body of a prostitute, how a polluting of the young and pure blood with venereal poisons can make a man a better husband and father is beyond human reason and common sense to comprehend; but the superstitions and barbaric notions of the good old days are dying hard, and thousands of young men sacrifice their manhood to the deep-rooted traditions and to the slavery of established social habits.

How this double code of sexual morality has developed is probably to be explained by a combination of several factors. First, a historically developed subjection of the woman to man naturally has led to the domination of man’s ideas and laws, and to the interpretation of different facts bearing on the relationship between man and woman in favor of the man. To justify his own license of sexual intemperance and deny the same freedom to a woman, it was easy for a man to declare that the sexual necessity for a woman is not as imperative as for a man, and therefore a woman shall be chaste and pure until the marriage, while the man may suit himself in this regard. There is no scientific proof whatsoever that a woman differs in any way from a man in regard to the sexual instinct. It is true that woman, as an average, is purer, more temperate, less attracted by mere animal, brutal passion, and often seeks or tolerates a physical gratification only as the means to get with it a man’s love and affection. On the other hand, a man is more brutal and violent in seeking and satisfying his physical passion, less able to control his sexual impulse, less affectionate and less sentimental in his expression of love. But this comparative moderation, modesty, and better self-control can be more easily explained by woman’s training thru many generations in clean and moral habits of thought and living, by the fewer chances of exposure to evil influences, by less stimulation and intoxication thru liquors and tobacco, and last, but not least, thru fear of public disgrace. The man, being master of the situation, has never tried to develop self-control and will power in subduing his physical passion, and has cloaked his sexual intemperance and indulgence with a fancied natural necessity. The double moral standard as it is practiced to-day has brought untold misery and has ruined lives of millions of young women who were so unfortunate as to make a first misstep and yielded to temptation. While the male seducer goes on unmolested and unnoticed on his gay round of life, the girl, his helpless victim, has to face all the fury of public disgrace and contempt. Many of them commit suicide, others try to hide their disgrace by a criminal operation and die or cripple their health for life. Many more, in despair and revolt against the injustice and hypocrisy of public opinion, enter the gates that swing only one way to slow decay and untimely death, the gates of prostitution.

There is no more miserable existence, no more hopeless, no more body and soul-wrecking life than that of a white slave. It is no accident that practically all of the prostitutes are drinking and smoking, and that the majority of them are also drug fiends. In fact, that should rather be credited in their favor, as it shows that with clear judgment and normal senses they cannot endure this degradation and life-long slavery, and, since they do not see any possibility of breaking their chains and redeeming their lives, they drug themselves to forget their misery. Yet even continual drugging cannot dull the agony of their hopeless existence, and many of them welcome death at their own hands, usually thru poison. There is no other occupation or human walk of life where the suicide rate is as high as among the slaves of prostitution, neither is there any class of population where physical decay and premature death is as common as among the women of the underworld. Let a man or youth who enters a house of prostitution know that by doing so he is not only purchasing a lottery ticket for the prize of a venereal disease, which he seldom misses, but that also with each visit to a fallen woman he drags her down one step lower on the down-grade path of a social abyss. And if he can do this with full knowledge of the social consequences of his act with a clear mind and cool judgment, let him know that he is a man in name only, and that morally he is much more to be despised and branded with social contempt than the painted creature he is ashamed to recognize on the street the morning after.

THE DANGERS OF IGNORANCE.

There are three main venereal diseases which constitute the roots of the giant tree of the venereal peril, and from which almost all venereal disorders spring out like branches and twigs. They are Gonorrhea, Syphilis, and Chancroid. The first two easily overshadow in widespread distribution and dangers of complications the third member of the venereal triad, so that Chancroid can be considered by far the least dangerous of the three.

A conservative estimate of the spread of venereal diseases, in the writer’s opinion, would be that from every hundred men, at least ninety have had at one time or another a venereal infection; that from every hundred cases of venereal diseases, not half of them receive a thorough and scientific treatment, not half of the patients are aware of the seriousness of their condition and possibilities of different complications, and only a minority of them bring the treatment to a complete and permanent recovery. Any physician doing genito-urinary work both in a clinic, hospital, or private practice knows that most of the patients take treatment only until they cure up their pains, sores, and other symptoms of the disease, and not until they are completely cured. As it were, they dismiss the physician; the physician does not dismiss them. As a result of this unsystematic and superficial treatment, the original disease recurs again and again, only each time it penetrates a little deeper into the system and requires a longer period of time for a complete cure, with less chances for success. Thousands and thousands of men develop serious and deep-reaching complications, sapping their vitality and undermining their strength, complications which would never have happened if the disease had been treated from the start, thoroughly and to the finish. Still another result of this indifferent and reckless attitude is that thousands of men, believing themselves cured, take upon themselves the grave responsibility of entering marriage, taking a pure and fresh girl, the girl they love and revere with all their hearts, trusting and unsuspecting of the terrible danger hovering over her head. The disease-producing germs that have been weakened and stunned but not killed by insufficient treatment, falling on a virgin and fertile soil, take on a new lease of life, and with the fury of a devastating tornado attack and ruin their new victim. A young bride often before the honeymoon bliss is over is struck down with an acute infection, a mutilating operation follows, and in a few months a beautiful, healthy girl is transformed into a permanent invalid and nervous wreck, deprived forever of beauty, health, and joy of life. This terrible tragedy is not an exceptional case, it is not an overdrawn statement, it is an every-day occurrence in medical practice, and every day adds its new victims of men’s folly, criminal indifference, and recklessness born of ignorance.

SELF-MEDICATION AND MEDICAL QUACKS.

That the average boy or man has not the slightest idea about all the possible complications that may develop from a venereal infection is best shown by their attitude in time of such venereal mishap. What is an average boy doing when he discovers that he is a victim of a venereal mishap? The very first thing he does is to confide his shocking surprise to one of his companions, who he knows has already had a similar experience. The experienced friend first gives him a hearty laugh over his bad luck, and then assuming a wise look, pats him on the shoulder and confidently tells him not to worry, as he “will fix him all right.” He gives him a few general instructions, the kind he used to follow in his own previous experience, and sends him to the drug store for a certain kind of pills, capsules, or solutions for injections. If there be no such friend at hand, some other amateur “expert” is consulted; sometimes it is a barber, or even a bartender friend who gives an advice to drive out the sickness by copious drinking of beer. A grade higher in quality, but equally poor and uncertain in results is a consultation with the neighboring druggist, who, not having any more knowledge about the developments of diseases than the average layman, takes up the case with the supreme confidence of an authority and hands over the counter the best advertised pills or solution for injections. The best that can happen to the beneficiary of these consultations is, that he will not see at once any improvement, or that he will feel worse, then he will go to a competent physician and will start regular treatment. But woe to him if he will feel some symptomatic relief, some checking of the discharge or the pains. This is the time when he is the real loser. Fooled by the temporary improvement and by clearing up of the symptoms of his disease into belief that he is cured or pretty nearly cured, and encouraged in his belief by his equally ignorant and often unscrupulous adviser, the patient resumes his former mode of life and discontinues what little precaution or treatment he has been using. The natural result of it is that a few weeks later, after some indiscretion like drinking alcoholic liquors or dancing, the whole sickness comes back as strong and violent as in its very beginning. Again he resumes his treatment and care, and acute symptoms again quiet down until, under a new provocation, the disease will break out once more. Thus trusting and ignorant victims of venereal mishap, wasting time and often considerable money on their amateur doctoring, let the roots of the sickness untouched, allow it to penetrate deeper and deeper into the body and develop some deep complication or permanent damage of the sexual system, which is either incurable or at best requires many months of the most painstaking treatment.

Probably the most pitiful of all venereal patients are those unfortunates who either have no friends in whom they could confide, or who, thru a false feeling of shame, do not care to have a personal consultation, and resort to a treatment by mail thru one of the quack medical concerns. In no other class of diseases, in fact in no other walk of life, is human ignorance, suffering, and fear so cruelly and unscrupulously abused and penalized as in venereal diseases.

Shielded from criminal persecution by the secret manner of dealing with their trusting patrons, secure in their shady operations by the fear of disgrace, and a reluctance on the part of their victims to bring to publicity the fact of their venereal infection, these human vultures ply their extortionate trade on thousands and thousands of men. Most extravagant claims, guarantees of cure, regardless of what the sickness is, most blatant, alluring advertisements and offers of free examinations—these are the stock of trade used by these leeches waxing fat on human ignorance and degradation. Fortunately, in recent years the attention of State and Federal government has been called to the use of the mail by these benefactors of suffering humanity for extortionate purposes. Energetic steps have been taken to curtail and abolish this criminal correspondence game and to close up many of these establishments. Public opinion is aroused on the subject, and it demands that the newspapers refuse and eliminate all fraudulent and alluring ads. of quack medical institutions. In the meantime the campaign of information and enlightenment should be carried on, and every young man should be informed that reckless and indifferent treatment of venereal diseases, self-doctoring, cures by correspondence, and “sure cures” by medical quack institutes may prove as disastrous as the disease itself.

PROSTITUTION.

Considering the sources of venereal infection and the best possible methods of control of venereal peril, one strikes at once the sinister problem of prostitution. Prostitution is undoubtedly the main source of venereal infection, but the term prostitution should be taken broadly. There are two kinds of prostitution: one is openly organized in red-light district, tolerated by society, and regulated by the police; and another, secret, clandestine, practised by thousands of women and girls in large towns, women who do not make a living from the “life of shame,” but secretly indulge in illicit sexual intercourse for a side income or presents, while trying to keep up an appearance and social standing of a “respectable” woman. Which kind of prostitution is more dangerous to morals and health is not settled.

Many medical and social authorities believe that a woman secretly prostituting herself is more dangerous and more liable to spread venereal infection than an open registered prostitute, just because she is secret, and does not have to submit to medical inspection at any time. Yet it must be admitted that the medical inspection of houses of prostitution has failed to bring about the expected results and to give protection from venereal infection. It is well established that every prostitute is infected with gonorrhea or syphilis, and mostly with both, and that they practically at all times carry this disease in active or latent form. The degree to which they can transmit a venereal infection to a man depends mostly on the stage of the disease in the prostitute at the time of her visit by a man; that is, one time danger is greater than at another, but _at no time the perfunctory medical examination given to prostitutes as it is conducted under police regulations can give the slightest guarantee of safety from venereal infection_. All it can establish and claim is that no acute or active symptoms or lesions have been found on examination, and that there is no urgent necessity to move this woman to the hospital as an evident and prolific source of venereal infection. In other words, medical inspection can single out and isolate a few of the most flagrant and most evident cases of venereal diseases, but the women not excluded by medical examination from plying their trade are just as able to carry over venereal infection to a man as their sisters removed to the hospital. In fact, the reduction in the number of venereal infections because of isolation of a few most flagrant cases is so slight, and the increase in the number of venereal infections due to increase in numbers of exposures by men, who are misled into a feeling of security by alleged medical inspection, is so great that many medical authorities and sanitarians consider medical inspection of houses of prostitution useless and even harmful.

As mentioned above, a “secret” prostitute and private lady friend is not a bit more safe and secure from transmitting venereal infection, and in many cases, contrary to the expectations and beliefs of men, are much more dangerous and treacherous in this respect. It is almost humorous, if it were not so pathetic, to see how dumbfounded and shocked are these youthful transgressors of the forbidden path, when a physician declares that the exceptional favors of their lady friend resulted in a bad case of gonorrhea or chancre. They are sincerely indignant at the reflection on the honor of their affinity, and are almost ready to doubt the competency of the physician, until a microscopical examination and the subsequent course of the disease convinces them of the sad truth. On occasions of this character a man as a rule is always inclined to blame the woman and accuse her of gross deception. Such attitude is entirely wrong, and is based on the ignorance of clinical facts. The truth of the matter is that while a man can always tell when something is the matter with him, and can always notice or perceive some evidence of the venereal disease, such as a discharge, pains, sores, etc., a woman hardly ever is aware of her disease. In fact, women feel pains, discomfort, and suffer acute distress only in the acute stage of venereal diseases, at the very beginning of the infection. But after this acute period is over, they may sincerely believe themselves well, as no pain or any symptom unusual for them calls their attention to it. Therefore the noble indignation of these trespassers on forbidden ground is unjust and unwarranted, and the only party to blame is their own ignorance and lack of self-control.

The only sure way to avoid a venereal exposure is to avoid the exposure and to keep away from the danger zone.

PRACTICAL PROPHYLAXIS (PREVENTION).