“Why, I have wondered, long and often, that man could sink so low, be so foolish. Just conceive of the intensity of such a shock upon the system, and then have this repeated time after time, year after year. Why there are married people who never once, in all their married life, completely and unreservedly finished the act of cohabitation.
“No wonder that nervousness, peevishness, and all kinds of distempers show themselves. No wonder we get spermatorrhœa and impotence in the male, and a perfect host of troubles, insanity included, in the woman. No wonder homes are broken up and human lives made desolate.”
_Masturbation._――Under this caption will I proceed with the topic of self-abuse; as this term more properly covers the vice of both sexes, as well as of childhood.
The small boy, only four years of age, will often titilate his genitals until the prepuce has become inflamed and swollen. In this undeveloped and delicate condition of the genitalia, more harm may be accomplished than could be imagined. Nurse-girls, sometimes, for the purpose of quieting a child, will titilate its genital organs; which is quite sufficient to lead the child to manipulate its own organs as it goes on in age and development. Often a feeble state of health in the child, will cause the mother to consult a physician; and the genitalia will show signs of irritation; and when the true nature of the difficulty is revealed to the mother, it will be much to her surprise, and often, disgust; and she will not be convinced beyond a doubt until by constantly watching, she has observed actions more convincing than the doctor’s hints.
Boys at school teach each other to perform this manual pollution; and vile servants initiate small boys at a surprisingly early period. I have often gained the confidence of these little ones, and learned things more astounding than amusing. Not long since a boy only eight years of age convinced me, by his confidential description of his little vice, that he realized passion, erection, and as he called it the “goodie feeling” (orgasm); which was evidently the sensation without emission of semen. No small amount of injury is done to the nervous system by the constant titilation of the undeveloped genitalia; and as the habit passes on to the puberty-stage of adolescence, the novelty of the first ejaculation affords great and frequent amusement to the child, and he pursues it as often as he can obtain an obscure corner. This must be the time that the greatest harm is wrought upon the brain and spinal cord. The first five years succeeding puberty, the vice is carried on with great energy in a vigorous youth. Doubtless, the majority of boys have practiced masturbation, to some extent, some time during adolescence, but as they arrive at the age of discretion, become disgusted; or some influential person frightens them, and they quit the practice. Where it has only been an occasional indulgence, no lasting injury has occurred.