Plain Facts for Old and Young by John Harvey Kellogg

6. Every sufferer from sexual disease must make up his mind to live,

1225 words  |  Chapter 126

during the remainder of his life, as closely in accord with the laws of life and health as circumstances under his control will allow him to do. One who pursues this course, with a genuine regard for principle and a love for right, may confidently expect to receive the reward of obedience for his faithfulness. We would recommend such to obtain and study the best works upon hygiene, put in practice every new truth as soon as learned, and become missionaries of the saving truths of hygiene to others who are suffering from the same cause as themselves, or who may be in danger of falling into the same evil. A CHAPTER FOR BOYS. Boys, this chapter is for you. It is written and printed purposely for you. If you do not read another word in the book, read these few pages if you are old enough to do so. Read each line carefully and thoughtfully. You may not find anything to make you laugh--possibly you may: but you will be certain to find something of almost inestimable value to you in every line. Who are Boys?--Boys are scarce now-a-days. In the days of Methuselah, male human beings were still boys when nearly a century old; twenty-five years ago boys were still such until well out of their "teens"; now the interval between infancy and the age at which the boy becomes a young man is so brief that boyhood is almost a thing of the past. The happy period of care-free, joyous innocence which formerly intervened between childhood and early manhood is now almost unobservable. Boys grow old too fast. They learn to imitate the vices and the manners of their seniors before they reach their teens, and are impatient to be counted as men, no matter how great may be their deficiencies, their unfitness for the important duties and responsibilities of life. The consequence of this inordinate haste and impatience to be old, is premature decay. Unfortunately the general tendency of the young members of the rising generation is to copy the vices of their elders, rather than the virtues of true manliness. A strong evidence of this fact, if there were no other, is the unnaturally old-looking faces which so many of our boys present. At the present time the average boy of twelve knows more of vice and sin than the youth of twenty of the past generation. It is not so much for these human mushrooms, which may be not inaptly compared to toadstools which grow up in a single night and almost as speedily decay, that we write, but for the old-fashioned boys, the few such there may be, those who have not yet learned to love sin, those whose minds are still pure and uncontaminated. Those who have already begun a course of vice and wickedness we have little hope of reforming; but we are anxious to offer a few words of counsel and warning which may possibly help to save as brands plucked from a blazing fire, those whose moral sense is yet alive, who have quick and tender consciences, who aspire to be truly noble and good. What are Boys for?--This question was answered with exact truthfulness by a little boy, who, when contemptuously accosted by a man with the remark, "What are you good for?" replied, "Men are made of such as we." Boys are the beginnings of men. They sustain the same relation to men that the buds do to full-blown flowers. They are still more like the small green apples which first appear when the blossoms drop from the branches, compared with the ripe, luscious fruit which in autumn bends the heavy-laden boughs almost to breaking. Often, like the young apples, boys are green; but this is only natural, and should be considered no disgrace to the boys. If they grow up naturally they will ripen with age, like the fruit, developing at each successive stage of life additional attractions and excellent qualities. Boys the Hope of the World.--A nation's most valuable property is its boys. A nation which has poor, weakly, vicious boys will have still weaker, more vicious and untrustworthy men. A country with noble, virtuous, vigorous boys, is equally sure of having noble, pious, brave, and energetic men. Whatever debases, contaminates, or in any way injures the boys of a country, saps and undermines the very foundation of the nation's strength and greatness. Save the boys from vice and crime, give them good training, physically, mentally, and morally, and the prosperity of the nation is assured. Man the Masterpiece.--When a skillful artist perfects a work of art, a painting, a drawing, a statue, or some other work requiring great talent and exceeding all his other efforts, it is called his masterpiece. So man is the noblest work of God, the masterpiece of the Almighty. Numerous anecdotes are told of the sagacity of dogs, horses, elephants and other animals, of their intelligence and ingenious devices in overcoming obstacles, avoiding difficulties, etc. Our admiration and wonder are often excited by the scarcely less than human wisdom shown by these lowly brothers of the human race. We call them noble animals; but they are only noble brutes, at best. Compared with man, even in his most humble form, as seen in the wild savage that hunts and devours his prey like a wild beast, a lion or a tiger, they are immeasurably inferior. And in his highest development, man civilized, cultivated, Christianized, learned, generous, pious, certainly stands at the head of all created things. Boys, do you love what is noble, what is pure, what is grand, what is good? You may each, if you will, become such yourselves. Let us consider for a moment How a Noble Character is Ruined.--A noble character is formed by the development of the good qualities of an individual. A bad character is formed by the development of bad traits, or evil propensities. In other words, sin is the cause of the demoralization of character, the debasing of the mind, the loss of nobility of which we see so much around us in the world. Sin is the transgression of some law. There are two kinds of sins: those which are transgressions of the moral law, and those which are transgressions of physical laws. Both classes of sins are followed by penalties. If a person violates the laws of health, he is just as certain to suffer as though he tells a falsehood, steals, murders, or commits any other crime. Perfect obedience to all of nature's laws, including of course all moral laws, is necessary to perfect health and perfect nobleness of character. The nature of these laws and the results of transgression will be understood after we have taken a hasty glance at The Marvelous Human Machine which we call the body. All the inventions and devices ever constructed by the human hand or conceived by the human mind, no matter how delicate, how intricate and complicated, are simple, childish toys compared with that most marvelously wrought mechanism, the human body. Let us proceed to take this wonderful machine in pieces and study its various parts and the manner in which they are put together. The Two Objects of Human Existence.--The objects of this wonderfully formed mechanism are two: 1. The maintenance of an individual life;

Chapters

1. Chapter 1 2. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3. INTRODUCTION. 4. 1. In childhood, and until about the age of puberty, respiration in 5. 2. Although there is a change in the mode of respiration in most females, 6. 3. We believe the cause of this modification of respiration is the 7. 4. We have met a number of ladies whose good fortune and good sense 8. 1. Do not allow the boy or girl to be overworked, either mentally or 9. 2. Keep the mind occupied. While excessive labor should be avoided, 10. 3. Abundant exercise out-of-doors is essential for both sexes. Sunshine 11. 4. Watch carefully the associations of the youth. This should be done 12. 5. None too much care can be exercised at this important epoch of human 13. 2. Intense mental excitement, as well as severe physical labor, is to 14. 3. A third hint, which is applicable to both sexes and at all times, 15. 4. Take daily exercise, as much as possible short of fatigue; if 16. 4. Perhaps nothing tends more directly to the production of menstrual 17. 1. If a child is begotten in lust, its lower passions will as certainly 18. 2. The same remarks apply with equal force to the transmission of other 19. 3. The influence of the father is, at the outset, as great as that of 20. 4. If during gestation the mother is fretful, complaining, and 21. 1. For the beginning of a new life, select the most favorable time, 22. 2. If a child has been properly conceived, the duty then devolves upon 23. 3. After birth, the mother still possesses a molding influence upon 24. 1. During the development of the body, all its energies are required 25. 2. The reproductive act is the most exhaustive of all vital acts. Its 26. 3. The effects upon the female are even worse than those upon the male; 27. 2. That a robust man requires more than one woman to satisfy his sexual 28. 3. That there are more women than men; and since every woman has a right 29. 4. That the great men of all ages have been polygamists in fact, if 30. 5. That monogamy is a relic of the paganism of the ancient Greeks and 31. 6. That it is the only proper and effective cure for the "social evil," 32. 1. We deny most emphatically the assertion that polygamy is either 33. 2. The second argument is based upon the asserted fact that man 34. 3. While it is true that there are a few more adult women than men, 35. 4. In proof of the propriety of polygamy, as well as of its necessity, 36. 5. The fact that monogamy was practiced among the ancient Greeks and 37. 6. The argument that polygamy will cure the "social evil" is exactly 38. 1. They are useful as well as healthful. While they call into action 39. 1. The sexual function is for the purpose of producing new individuals 40. 2. In the animal kingdom generally, the reproductive function is 41. 3. In those exceptional cases in which the organs of the male are in 42. 4. Fecundation of the female element can only take place about the time 43. 5. The desire for sexual congress naturally exists in the female only 44. 6. The constant development of the sexual organs in human males is a 45. 7. The time of sexual congress is always determined by the condition 46. 1. The fact that in all animals but the human species the act can be 47. 2. The fact that the males of other animals besides man in which the 48. 3. The general law that the reproductive act is performed only when 49. 1. The moment that prostitution is placed under the protection of law 50. 2. Why should so vile a crime as fornication be taken under legal 51. 3. By the use of certain precautionary measures the fears of many will 52. 1. Those which may arouse suspicion, but any one of which, taken singly, 53. 2. Those which may be regarded as positive. Several suspicious signs 54. 1. _General debility_, coming upon a previously healthy child, marked 55. 2. _Early symptoms of consumption_--or what are supposed to be such--as 56. 3. _Premature and defective development_ is a symptom closely allied 57. 4. _Sudden change in disposition_ is a sign which may well arouse 58. 5. _Lassitude_ is as unnatural for a child as for a young kitten. A 59. 6. In connection with the preceding symptom will generally be found, 60. 7. _Sleeplessness_ is another symptom of significance. Sound sleep is 61. 8. _Failure of mental capacity_ without apparent cause should occasion 62. 9. _Fickleness_ is another evidence of the working of some 63. 10. _Untrustworthiness_ appearing in a child should attract attention 64. 11. _Love of solitude_ is a very suspicious sign. Children are naturally 65. 12. _Bashfulness_ is not infrequently dependent upon this cause. It 66. 13. _Unnatural boldness_, in marked contrast with the preceding sign, 67. 14. _Mock piety_--or perhaps we should more properly designate it as 68. 15. _Easily frightened_ children are abundant among young masturbators, 69. 16. _Confusion of ideas_ is another characteristic of the devotee of 70. 17. Boys in whom the habit has become well developed sometimes manifest 71. 18. _Round shoulders_ and a stooping posture in sitting are 72. 19. _Weak backs, pains in the limbs, and stiffness of the joints_, in 73. 20. _Paralysis_ of the lower extremities, coming on without apparent 74. 21. The _gait_ of a person addicted to this vice will usually betray 75. 22. _Bad positions_ in bed are evidences which should be noticed. If 76. 23. _Lack of development of the breasts_ in females, after puberty, 77. 24. _Capricious appetite_ particularly characterizes children 78. 25. One very constant peculiarity of such children is their extreme 79. 26. _Eating clay, slate-pencils, plaster, chalk,_ and other 80. 27. Disgust for simple food is one of the traits which a victim of this 81. 28. _The use of tobacco_ is good presumptive evidence that a boy is 82. 29. _Unnatural paleness_ and colorless lips, unless they can be 83. 30. _Acne_, or _pimples_, on the face are also among the suspicious 84. 31. _Biting the finger nails_ is a practice very common in girls 85. 32. The eyes often betray much. If, in addition to want of luster and 86. 33. An habitually moist, cold hand, is a suspicious circumstance in 87. 34. _Palpitation of the heart_, frequently occurring, denotes a 88. 35. _Hysteria_ in females may be regarded as a suspicious circumstance 89. 36. _Chlorosis_, or _green sickness_, is very often caused by the unholy 90. 37. _Epileptic fits_ in children are not infrequently the result of 91. 38. _Wetting the bed_ is an evidence of irritation which may be 92. 39. _Unchastity of speech_ and fondness for obscene stories betray a 93. 2. Loss of the seminal fluid. 94. 1. The composition of the nerves and that of spermatozoa is nearly 95. 2. Men from whom the testes have been removed before puberty, as in 96. 1. Begin by a resolution to reform, strengthened by the most solemn 97. 2. Resolve to reform _now_; not to-morrow or next week, but this very 98. 3. Begin the work of reform by purging the mind. If a lewd thought enters 99. 4. As a help to purity of mind, whenever impure thoughts enter, 100. 5. Avoid solitude, for then it is that temptation comes, and you are 101. 6. Strictly comply with all the rules laid down for the cultivation 102. 7. Above all, seek for grace and help from the Source of all spiritual 103. 1. _Never overeat_. If too much food is taken at one meal, fast the 104. 2. _Eat but twice a day_, or, if supper is eaten, let it be very light, 105. 3. _Discard all stimulating food_. Under this head must be included, 106. 4. _Stimulating drinks_ should be abstained from with still greater 107. 5. In place of such articles as have been condemned, eat fruits, grains, 108. 1. From seven to nine hours' sleep are required by all persons. The 109. 2. Arise immediately upon waking in the morning if it is after four 110. 3. If insufficient sleep is taken at night, sleep a few minutes just 111. 4. Never go to bed with the bowels or bladder loaded. The bladder should 112. 5. The position in sleeping is of some importance. Sleeping upon the 113. 6. Soft beds and pillows must be carefully avoided. Feather-beds should 114. 7. Too many covers should be avoided with equal care. The thinnest 115. 8. Thorough ventilation of the sleeping-room, both while occupied and 116. 9. If wakeful at night, instead of lying in bed trying to go to sleep, 117. 10. One of the most effectual panaceas for certain varieties of 118. 1. It is not a remedy, since, as in the case of illicit intercourse, 119. 2. If it were a remedy, it would not be a justifiable one, for its use 120. 3. As another reason why the remedy would not be a _proper_, even if 121. 1. Give the matter prompt attention. Do not delay to adopt curative 122. 2. Set about the work of getting well with a fixed determination to 123. 3. Avoid watching for symptoms. Ills are greatly exaggerated by 124. 4. Never consult a quack. The newspapers abound with lying 125. 5. Do not despair of ever recovering from the effects of past 126. 6. Every sufferer from sexual disease must make up his mind to live, 127. 2. The production of similar individuals which shall also have the power

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