In public schools are found groups of perverted boys and girls whose depraved ideas sooner or later permeate the place. A recent issue of a conservative woman's journal says: “In absolute filth of conversation nothing could equal the talk of boys and girls during recess in our schools. What is still worse is that the child is generally instructed in masturbation, prostitution and sometimes sexual perversity.”
This subject of masturbation is at present under discussion from many points of view among the medical profession; some claiming, that, as with venereal diseases, we lay too much stress on the matter, and exaggerate the harm done to the individual by it. One writer plainly states that it is of such common practice that out of a hundred young men and women, ninety-nine are addicted to it, and the hundredth one is lying. Another says that out of a hundred men and women arriving at the age of 25, ninety-nine have practiced it at some time.
By these examples such writers would try to prove that because ninety-nine people out of one hundred are not in insane asylums the practice cannot be as harmful as it is stated by others to be.
Let us take a sane and logical view of this subject.
In children, before they have reached the age of puberty, prior to the development of the sexual organs, it stands to reason that to abuse these organs before they are strong enough to be exercised must weaken them for their natural functions. Again, masturbation, unlike the sexual act, can be practiced individually and at all times and nearly anywhere. This gives the individual unlimited opportunity for indulgence, and consequently drains and exhausts the system of the vitality necessary for full development.
In the boy or girl past puberty we find one of the most dangerous forms of masturbation, i. e., mental masturbation, which consists of forming mental pictures, or thinking of obscene or voluptuous pictures. This form is considered especially harmful to the brain, for the habit becomes so fixed that it is almost impossible to free the thoughts from lustful pictures. Every girl should guard against the man who invariably turns a word or sentence into a lustful, or commonly termed, “smutty” channel, for nine times out of ten he is a mental masturbator.
Perhaps the greatest physical danger to the chronic masturbator is the inability to perform the sexual act naturally. The strong physical irritants which are used are likely to produce catarrhal disease of these organs in both sexes, producing such irritating sensations that relief is demanded, and this can be obtained only by repeating the habit, and so it continues. The individual promises himself over and over again after such exercises to overcome the habit, but his will power gradually becomes destroyed and the impulse continues. He knows and intuitively feels such practice degrades him and destroys his character; he feels he is losing control of himself, and also realizes that his health, especially his nervous system is being undermined.
In my personal experience as a trained nurse while attending persons afflicted with various and often revolting diseases, no matter what their ailments, I never found any one so repulsive as the chronic masturbator.
It would not be difficult to fill page upon page of heart-rending confessions made by young girls, whose lives were blighted by this pernicious habit, always begun so innocently, for even after they have ceased the habit, they find themselves incapable of any relief in the natural act. This causes a nervous and excited condition in the girl, tossing about nervously for hours after. It is much more difficult for a girl to overcome the habit than a man. The effects are more permanent in her.
Before closing this subject, however, I want to tell of a case of an eight year old boy I attended during an attack of measles. I found he was shy and unresponsive, and at times very nervous and irritable with a strong liking to be alone. I observed him closely for a few days and reported the results of my observation to the attending physician. He was convinced of the truth, that the little fellow was masturbating. The physician assigned me to the task of talking to the child, who acknowledged that he was “touching” himself and had been ever since he could remember. The little fellow's mother had died when he was in infancy, leaving beside himself a brother a year older with whom he slept. I explained to him the danger as well as I could and the result was that I was awakened in the night by whisperings and found the little fellow asking the older brother to tie his hands to the bedpost. This the older brother did with a handkerchief, and the child went to sleep in this way every night during the few weeks I was attending him. The first few nights he was awake practically all of the time struggling to overcome this habit, which he finally overcame completely.