One essential condition for the success and effectiveness of the propaganda of sexual hygiene and morality is a concrete, practical, and natural presentation of the subject, without abstract theorizing or ill-disguised sermonizing, which bores and rather repels an unsophisticated and untrained in intellectual reasoning average street man or boy—the real would-be beneficiaries of this crusade.

It is the writer’s firm conviction, based on many years of genito-urinary practice and mingling with men and boys of different classes, that each one of them is only too eager for sex knowledge; but this knowledge has to be presented in a concrete, matter-of-fact fashion, comprising and explaining various problems and facts of sexual life in health and disease as they arise daily in the life of the average man or boy. In this way, and in this way only, in the writer’s opinion, a man of the masses can be reached.

Moses Scholtz, M. D.

Cincinnati, 1916.

Table of Contents.

Introduction—Importance of Sex in the Life of an Individual, [11]
SEX IN HEALTH.
1. Structure and Function of the Sexual Organs, [19]
2. Sexual Continence and its Natural Self-Regulation, [25]
3. Control of Sexual Instinct, [27]
4. Psychology of Sex, [29]
5. Physiological Bases of Sex, [34]
6. Influence of Mind on Sexual Instinct, [40]
SEX IN DISEASE (Sex Pathology).
1. Non-Venereal Inborn Diseases of Sex Organs, [46]
2. Non-Venereal Acquired Diseases of Sex Organs, [47]
3. Masturbation (Self-Abuse), [50]
VENEREAL DISEASES.
General Part:
1. Double Standard of Morals, [59]
2. The Dangers of Ignorance, [64]
3. Self-Doctoring and Medical Quacks, [67]
4. Prostitution, [71]
5. Practical Prevention (Prophylaxis) of Venereal Infection, [76]
Special Part:
1. Gonorrhea, [80]
a. Its Importance, [81]
b. Diagnosis-Recognition, [82]
c. Clinical Course, [84]
d. Complications, [86]
2. Chronic Gonorrhea-Gleet, [90]
a. Gonorrhea of the Prostate Gland, [91]
b. Gonorrheal Strictures, [94]
c. Gonorrheal Rheumatism, [96]
3. Treatment of Gonorrhea, [97]
4. Treatment of Gonorrheal Complications, [102]
5. Gonorrhea and Marriage, [106]
6. Tests for the Final Cure of Gonorrhea, [108]
FUNCTIONAL SEXUAL DISEASES.
1. Impotence—Loss of Manhood, [115]
a. Psychic Impotence, [115]
b. Irritative Impotence, [117]
c. Paralytic Impotence, [119]
2. Sterility—Inability to Have Children. Its Relationship to Gonorrhea and Syphilis, [121]
3. Sexual Neurasthenia—Nervous Weakness and Irritability, [125]
CHANCROID.
Its Course and Complications, [129]
SYPHILIS.
1. Diagnosis-Recognition, [134]
2. Clinical Course, [136]
3. Hereditary Syphilis, [144]
4. Treatment of Syphilis, [146]
5. Syphilis and Marriage, [150]
6. Tests of the Cure of Syphilis, [152]
CONCLUSION, [155]
QUESTIONNAIRE, [157]

INTRODUCTION

No greater and more sacred ambition can stir the heart of a boy or youth than to grow up into a perfect manhood, to become strong enough physically and mentally to meet any demands on his strength that life may put upon him. Equally so, no more important nor more sacred duty lies on a grown-up, fully developed man than to keep this treasure of physical and mental equipment bestowed upon him by generous Nature intact and unimpaired.

Unfortunately, while most men and boys have good intentions and right ambitions, many of them, by weakness of character, light-mindedness, but mostly thru ignorance, yield to evil temptations, to ugly and morbid habits, to self-destructive practices, only to find themselves, after a few years of “sowing wild oats,” as “damaged goods,” physical and mental wrecks, without strength or ambition to live, worn out and sapped by chronic diseases. It can be truly said that no other scourge blights as many happy homes, destroys as many brilliant careers, undermines as much vitality of body and spirit as does abuse of the sexual system. If it were possible to express in figures and money value the total amount of loss of money, time, physical suffering, mental anguish, blighted happiness, and permanent invalidism; if it were possible to summarize all the misery and suffering, all the decay and waste of human bodies and souls, caused directly or indirectly by diseases of sexual origin, the world would be staggered and shocked by the immense sacrifice it brings to the Moloch of sex ignorance.

What does sex mean to the average man and youth? What idea does he have of the function of sex in the human body and its significance in human life? To a youth, sex means a mysterious force that makes itself felt by vague desires and impulses, by an irresistible attraction toward the opposite sex, by its undefinable impulses in his whole being—his body, his mind, his feelings. But before he has time to clear up the mystery of his body, some companions more experienced in life’s vulgarities initiate him almost by force in the physical mysteries of the sexual relationship, ordinarily under the most vicious and vile surroundings, which initiation leaves in him invariably a lasting and intense aftertaste of shame and disgust. More sensitive and refined natures instinctively recoil after this harrowing experience, and exert their best and sincerest efforts to avoid temptations and keep their bodies and feelings fresh and clean. Others yield again to the stronger will of the older debased companions, and gradually develop a habit of indulgence in brutal and degrading passions, with the subsequent train of venereal diseases, impairment of physical and mental strength, and gradual withering of all moral noble features of manly character. And yet under proper instructions and the right attitude of mind, no man or boy should fail to realize that sex is the most precious treasure he possesses, the squandering and abuse of which is sheer madness and self-destruction.