The young girl must be told that nature has reserved this catamenial week for the process of ovulation and for the development and perfection of the reproductive system. All the pelvic organs are in a condition of increased nervous irritability and in a natural healthy state of congestion. The attention of the girl must be called upon the participation of the breasts in the genital congestion. They become extended and more sensitive.
With the irritability of the genital nerves the entire nervous system becomes impressionate. Especially at puberty, when the first menstruations set in, the nervous susceptibility is increased to the highest degree. The child enters the period of storm and stress. During puberty, says Kiernan, there is normally a struggle between the cerebral and the reproductive systems. The latter tends to obtrude subconscious states upon consciousness. Quite a few of the young boys and girls harbor in their hearts the so-called “Weltschmerz,” which may be defined as the subconscious conviction of the emptiness and worthlessness of existence.
Hence the functions of menstruation should be very carefully and minutely explained to the girl and the responsibility of the womanly organism impressed upon her mind, as soon as the mental symptoms herald the approaching change from child to maidenhood. Indefinable yearnings and moods, wishes and fears, the emotions of shame and guilt, of faith and hope, of love and hate, of vanity and repentance, of sensitiveness and ambition, assume a certain domination over the growing child. Sweet inexpressible emotions disturb the thoughts and actions of the awakening consciousness. Mysterious sensations and impulses fill the heart of the ripening individual. The bodings of desires and cravings take possession of the individual’s thoughts and fancy.
Other symptoms which appear at the time of the onset of the catamenial period are headaches, restlessness, excitability, irritability of temper and a general hysterical condition. The girl is carried away more easily than at any other time. She often cries without any cause. A certain lassitude seizes her. She has pain and feels heat in the back and breasts, loins and in the internal organs. The appetite is often diminished and capricious, at this period, just as it is not seldom observed at the beginning of pregnancy. The girl is not seldom attacked by sickness and giddiness. If she then goes to bed and remains in a recumbent position, the blood accumulates in the vagina and coagulates there before it leaves the system. This coagula frightens the child.
Hence at the approach of menstruation it is the duty of parents and teachers to assist the girl with their advice. The regular regimen at the time of menstruation must be, first of all, more rest and little physical exercise. Standing too much, dancing, swimming, horseback riding, cycling, out-door games, must all be forbidden. The girl needs more sleep at that time. She must avoid excitement. She must guard herself against the exposure to draughts, chills or to getting wet feet. Cold baths must be omitted, but she ought to take regularly her warm baths. Especially should the genital organs be frequently washed with warm water. Tight clothing is particularly injurious at that time.
Pollutions.—The boy needs a different lesson at this period. He has to be told that, at the time of maturity, the testicles begin to produce or secrete spermatozoa which fill the seminal vesicles about once or twice a month. Here the sperm is, as a rule, reabsorbed when no external pressure, such as from the filled bladder or rectum, is exerted upon the vesicles. In the daytime the bladder and rectum are regularly emptied, and the pressure from this side is at a minimum.
During the secretion of the spermatozoa the nerve apparatus of the genital system is charged with vital energy. When the tension becomes very high, which coincides with the filling of the vesicles with sperma, the nervous tension and the physical pressure are both eager to discharge, respectively, to evacuate. When the bladder and rectum are filled during the night, their pressure upon the seminal vesicles becomes so great that the latter evacuate and thus cause an ejaculation and a change both in blood and nerve-supply. This relief from the physiological congestion and nervous tension gives a feeling of satisfaction and pleasure. The boy is awakened and is conscious of what has happened.[BO]
Boys, therefore, must be taught that these pollutions, if they happen only once to three times a month, are entirely normal and have absolutely no pathological significance whatsoever. The appearance of nocturnal emissions is merely a proof that the boy is approaching manhood. Hence there is no necessity for him to resort to prostitution to get rid of the nocturnal losses, or the so-called wet dreams, as many a boy has done, sometimes even upon the advice of his parent or of some medical authority.
Prevention of masturbation.—At this period, the children of both sexes have to be warned against the habit of masturbation. There are three periods in the child’s life when the danger of masturbation is especially imminent. There is, in the first place, the period of infancy and early age when the child is usually seduced to masturbation either by vicious servants or ignorant mothers, uncleanliness or improper diet. At this time careful watching of servants, cleanliness of the genitals, details of diet, as light suppers, non-spicy food, non-alcoholic drinks, the right way of sleeping, as hard mattresses, the proper dressing, as light trousers, etc., will prevent early self-abuse.
At the second period when the child enters school the danger of seduction to self-abuse is again very great. Masturbation is widely spread in schools. No institution is free from it. In some schools the evil reaches a wide extension. Particularly dangerous, as hatcheries and divulgers of the evil, are those institutions in which numerous pupils are present who have passed the normal age by several years.