Your sex organ needs attention at an early age. If you have parents who understand this matter, they have instructed you in the details; but if you are like most boys, these have been left to chance and possible wrong treatment.
The gland of the penis secretes a cheesy material. This is constantly being poured out in small quantities and unless cleaned away will at first become offensive to the nostrils, then irritating and in some cases proceed to an inflammation which will require the services of a surgeon.
But to begin with the small boy. He should pull back the foreskin every morning as he washes, and with a soft cloth soaked in warm water, remove all the accumulation. Do it carefully; but don’t forget to do it, even if you have to let the face go. The reason for being so particular about this matter I shall explain further on in these Chats.
If your foreskin is too long, or if it hangs over so as to retain some drops of urine after you have relieved the bladder, go first to your father; and if you are so unfortunate as not to have a father or mother to whom you can go in these matters――and I know there are many such――go to your doctor and explain to him.
Many boys are far better off when circumcised. This is a simple little operation――just the snipping off the overhanging foreskin. If your parents have been wise and instructed in this necessary detail of the sex toilet, you will have been circumcised when a baby. But you cannot blame them if it has been neglected. However, _your_ boy will have a right to blame you if he is allowed to be a victim of irritation and inflammation of the penis when he is a youth.
As you grow older this detail of the toilet becomes more and more necessary, for at puberty――fourteen to sixteen years of age――all your glands become very active, and those of the penis especially so.
I have told you in the first Chat about the bad effects of allowing your bowels to retain matter that should always be kept out of the body. The absorption of the poisons from this dead stuff left from food causes headaches, laziness and in time affects the complexion. It is a lot of natural filth left in the pocket of the lower bowel which Nature intends should be thrown out daily. There are muscles in this bowel or pocket especially for this purpose. If you neglect to work the muscles placed for this purpose, they soon become weak, inactive and refuse to perform their duty unless irritated by some drug, salts or castor oil. In a healthy boy――one who has taken any decent care of himself――these medicines are never needed. If such methods to make the muscles of the lower bowel work are constantly used, the muscles lose their tone and of course usefulness. Then in later life the veins become full of black blood, swell and often burst. These swollen veins are generally called piles. You see how you can avoid these disagreeable things, which are only plain signs that the man or boy has kept in his lower bowel filthy stuff. Just think for a moment; would you allow filthy stuff to remain in your pocket? Of course not; yet if this stuff were kept there, it would not do you physical harm. It would be a little disagreeable, I admit, but not bring about the ill health it does when kept in the pocket of the bowel.