‘Medical men are sometimes asked to formulate rules of diet and exercise—hygienic rules—by which immorality is to be banished. The task is altogether impracticable. Vice is voluntary, and it is only by the exercise of a resolute self-will that virtue is maintained.
‘We cannot but believe that were these three very elementary but fundamental physiological truths properly presented and enforced upon young men very much misery would be avoided. Ignorance of them drives men into the clutches of ruthless charlatans, leaves them a prey to groundless fears, and often leads them into vicious habits from which they are unable to free themselves. To withhold such knowledge is in many cases to leave youths in ignorance of the one power by which they can successfully contend against the evil. We feel strongly the urgent importance of this matter, and hence we speak plainly, and hope that others, as they have opportunity, will do their best to help young men in their struggle against vice.’
FOOTNOTES:
[2] See Acton’s Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, sixth edition, p. 17.
[3] See Appendix II., [p. 79].
[4] See Michel Lévy, Traité d’Hygiène 5th ed., vol. i., pp. 294-299.
[5] Ante, p. 53. See also pp. 128, 129.
[6] See Cazeaux, Des Accouchements.