SEXUAL HYGIENE OF THE YOUNG MAN.

Hygiene means health. We usually use the word to include those laws of health which are based upon physiology. The laws of hygiene are the laws of right-living. Sexual hygiene, therefore, is a presentation of the laws of sexual right-living. Departure from sexual right-living usually takes one or the other of two forms: first, the so-called “secret sin,” masturbation or self-abuse; and, second, improper relations with the opposite sex. Impulses toward these two forms of sex sin seem to arise from one or the other of two causes: first, from the influence of low-minded, vulgar associates; or second, from some physical difficulty. In any particular case, however, both of these causes may be active.

It would be difficult to conceive of a more unfortunate thing to happen to a young man than to come into association with any of those low-minded people who are themselves guilty of immoral practices, and who delight in filling the minds of persons younger than themselves, and inexperienced, with their inexhaustible supply of vile stories and rank misinformation.

The fact that most parents are reticent with their children on this subject, and seldom mention it, or permit it to be brought into the conversation, leaves in the mind of the youth the impression that there is mystery and secrecy about the whole subject. So when he meets any older person who appears to have knowledge of the subject, he becomes a ready listener, lending eager ears and an easy readiness to believe anything that his informant may see fit to say. If such unfortunate experience should come when the youth is just entering his adolescence, there will be added to the zest that comes from getting forbidden information, the physical stimulus of a maturing sexuality. So, the youth pushed on from within, and led on from without, devotes a very large part of his waking hours to sensuous imaginings, and no small part of his sleeping hours to excited dreams. There is little wonder that a youth subjected to such unfortunate conditions is sorely tempted to depart from his life of personal purity, and fall a victim of one or the other of the two lines of temptation already mentioned. If, when the young man wishes information regarding these matters, he would go direct to his parents and ask them frankly to explain everything to him, he would probably find them ready to give all needed information. Failing to do this, he drifts like a sailor on an unknown sea without a compass.

In discussing briefly the two forms of sexual sin referred to, let us take first the one most prevalent among boys and young men, namely, self abuse. As the reader probably knows, this act consists in the rubbing or moving of the penis with the hand, or causing friction in any other way which leads to an excited feeling. In a general way, this act is the physical equivalent of a sexual intercourse. However, it is generally agreed that being an unnatural act, it is more depleting than is normal sexual intercourse. Then too, those boys and young men who do this act are likely to resort to it far more frequently than they would resort to sexual intercourse if that were their particular form of sexual gratification.

Whenever we disobey the laws of Nature we are compelled by Nature to suffer a penalty. There is no escape from Nature's penalty. Nature never forgives a sin against her laws. Furthermore, Nature may visit her punishments not only upon those who actually commit the sin but upon other, usually innocent, people.

So with the one who has broken Nature's laws in the sin of masturbation, Nature punishes him by removing, step by step, his manhood. This is brought about in a very natural way, easy to understand. From the preceding chapter, you can readily see that the artificial stimulation of the sexual organs by handling them and thinking about them, would cause a pouring out of myriads of spermatozoa. While these just-released spermatozoa are rushing to their meeting-place in the ampullae, they sweep through the tubes of the epididymis, gather into a single stream in the vas deferens, and pass upward. When at the climax of the act these fluids are poured out, the system loses not only the released spermatozoa with their prodigious potentiality, but also the contents of the seminal vesicles prepared for nourishment of the spermatozoa. Irritation of the testicle also interferes with the formation of the internal secretion.

As this act is repeated from week to week, or as in some extreme cases, every day or two, the youth feels the foundations of his manhood undermined. He notes that his muscles are becoming more and more flabby; that his back is weak; his eyes may after a time become sunken and “fishy,” his hands clammy; he is unable to look anybody straight in the eye. As the youth becomes conscious of his weakness, he loses confidence, refuses to take part in athletic sports; avoids the company of his young women friends; and becomes a non-entity in the athletic and social life of his community. So far as his school record is concerned, he may succeed very well in his studies for a number of years but eventually his memory begins to fail, and just at the time when he is trying to prepare for some useful life work, he wakes up to the realization that his mind is as flabby as his muscles, lacking in force, originality, and power to think things out.

But if Nature is severe in punishing the sinner, she is also kind to the one who turns from his error, and like a loving mother kisses the cheek of her repentant right-living child and brings back to it the ruddy flush of health. After a young man who has been guilty of this sin finds out his error, he will of course, never repeat the act again. It will require every bit of will power that he has to overcome this habit, but as a rule the young man stops it positively as soon as he learns the effect which it will have upon his system. If he has not carried his habit to extremes, he will probably recover within six months or a year of right-living. If he has practiced the habit to an excess that has caused all of the symptoms already noted to appear, he will probably even then wholly recover his manhood by three years of right-living.

Here are a few rules that will help the young man who wishes to overcome the habit just described.

First: Sleep on a hard bed, under light cover, on the right side, in a well ventilated room.

Second: Eat lightly, of simple foods, well cooked. Eat meat not more than once a day. Avoid such unnecessary things as pepper, strong tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcoholic drinks.

Third: Do not think about your shortcomings but throw your whole energy into your work.

Fourth: Arise three-quarters of an hour before breakfast every morning, take a cold sponge or shower bath; drink two glasses of cold water, dress and go out and walk around the block before breakfast. However, if you are so situated that you need to do some work around the house before breakfast, that may serve as a substitute for the outdoor exercise. Or if the weather is bad, vigorous exercise in one's room with the window open may be substituted for the outdoor walk.

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Little has been said about the seminal vesicles. These little bladder-like organs possess glandular walls, which secrete a gelatinous albumen, intended by nature as food for the spermatozoa. This albumen is not a vital fluid. It collects in the seminal vesicles until these organs become distended, when Nature relieves the pressure within the organs by causing them to empty out. This emptying of the seminal vesicles usually occurs in the night and is for that reason called a “nocturnal emission.” Health young men of seventeen or eighteen, sometimes younger, experience these nocturnal emissions. It is a perfectly natural experience that results in no loss of vitality, only a slight depletion of material, and has on the whole a rather sedative and quieting effect following the stimulation caused by the distention of the vesicle.

When the young man first begins to experience these emissions, they are likely to come only once in two or three months; a little later they may occur as often as once in a month or six weeks. If they should later come as frequently as once in a week or ten days, nothing is to be thought of the matter unless the young man should experience a very noticeable languor and weakness following it.

This periodic filling of the seminal vesicles, and the consequent tendency to sexual stimulation, as a result of a distention of the vesicles, gives to the sexual life of the young man a more or less definite ebb and flow or periodicity, as it is technically called. This accounts for the fact that most young men will every two to four weeks experience strong sexual desires and inclinations. It is at just such times that the temptation to self abuse becomes greatest, and it is just at these times that the young man needs to get a grip on himself and control his inclinations. If he can do so for a few days Nature will probably come to his relief in a nocturnal emission, and the physical cause of his temptation will be removed for another period of two to four weeks.

Some have asked in what respect Nature's method of relieving the tension differs from the artificial method of self abuse. This is the difference: In the natural nocturnal emission only the seminal vesicles are emptied of their contents—the vesicular secretion and a small amount of semen from the ampullae. But in self-abuse, not only is the vesicular secretion lost, but the testicles are drained of their semen. Also, irritation of the testicles interferes with the internal secretion.

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The other sexual sin referred to is that of improper relations with members of the opposite sex. In their more extreme forms these improper acts take the form of a sexual intercourse. This act was intended by Nature to be used between married people, for the purpose of bringing children into the world. Indulging in the act out of wedlock is a sin as severely punished by Nature as it is by the laws of society and the State. A youth can hardly have reached the age of fifteen without having heard that there are women who give themselves up to lives of shame, in which they have sexual intercourse with any man that wishes it, not for procreation at all. The act is performed solely for the sexual gratification of the sensuous men who visit them. In the Bible these woman are called “harlots.” That such acts against the laws of the State, of society and of nature should be followed by a severe retribution is very natural.

It is a fact well established by the statistics of specialists, that all lewd women are diseased some of the time, while some lewd women are diseased all of the time. What is true of the lewd women of the “bad houses” in our cities is true also of the lewd and free-living girls of the neighborhood. Even many country neighborhoods have one or two girls who are wilfully degenerate and unclean in their lives, or who have been subjected to some unfortunate conditions, early in their lives, that have robbed them of their purity. Such girls are a menace not only to the morals but also to the health of the community. Sooner or later, usually very early in her career, some fellow will infect the girl with gonorrhoea or clap. She is almost certain to misunderstand her condition and to take no effective means for getting rid of this contagious disease so she transmits it to every boy or man in the neighborhood who has sexual intercourse with her.

Many young men have confessed to me that they had caught this terrible disease on the first illicit intercourse. Specialists in this field of medical practice tell us that the lewd girls of the neighborhood are even more dangerous companions in illicit intercourse than are the professional prostitutes of the houses of ill-fame in the larger cities, dangerous as the prostitutes are.

Every young man who knows that this social condition exists at all, ought also to know that any physical contact whatsoever with a lewd woman or girl, whether such woman or girl is an inmate of a bad house or living at home and having secret relations with young men, will surely lead to contracting of a venereal disease before many such contacts have been indulged.

The more important of these diseases are: gonorrhoea and syphilis. The latter is always a blood disease. Once this disease gets into the blood it can be cured only by skillful treatment begun early, and continued through one to three years, checking by the Wassermann test. What is perhaps worse than any suffering which the sinner himself is called upon to experience is that which is visited upon the succeeding generations. Once syphilis gets into the blood of any individual, his children or grandchildren may die in infancy or be afflicted with disease. All the world dreads syphilis and fears it worse than leprosy. Yet the young man who visits a lewd woman is in danger of catching that terrible disease on the first contact.

Twenty years ago, gonorrhoea was not looked upon as a particularly serious disease, but the bacteriologist with his microscope has not only found the germ which causes this contagious disease but has been able to follow this germ throughout the various passages and ducts of the sexual system, and also through the circulatory system into various parts of the body, which may become infected with this venereal disease, curable only with great difficulty. We have only recently discovered a method of treatment which, if begun early, can cure gonorrhoea. Not only does the man who contracts the disease run the risk of complete loss of health, but he also jeopardizes the health of his wife and children, even though his marriage may not occur till years later.

We have mentioned briefly some of the dire results which follow illicit sexual intercourse. These seem to be meted out by Nature as a retribution for transgressing her laws, but there is another side to this question which we must not forget. No young man can come into association with a lewd girl or woman without receiving upon his soul a blot which is not easily washed away. Surely the reader will see that he cannot afford to run a risk of laying himself liable to Nature's retribution, either the physical, the mental, or the spiritual.

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Some one says, “But what is the young man to do with his feelings and inclinations! Nature gave him these inclinations. If he does not respond to them, will he not suffer some later disability?” These are perfectly fair questions. Some have thought that if the young man does not yield to these inclinations he will after a few years lose his manhood. It has, however, been well established by the medical profession that continent living, that is sexual right-living, is no more harmful for the man than for the woman. On the other hand, continent living is in no way injurious to either man or woman.

The young man who holds before his mental vision an ideal of the home he hopes to establish—in which a pure wife reigns as queen, sovereign of his life, and gently governs her brood of lusty boys and fair girls—cannot for a moment consider as a sane solution of his sexual problem periodic visits to a lewd girl or woman, nor can he expect to develop his powers physically or intellectually, if he permits himself to contract that habit (masturbation) which, step by step, undermines his virility. There is open to the young man only one of these three alternatives, i. e. to lead the “continent life.”

The continent life is a goal which every healthy young man should strive to reach. To arrive at a goal that is before us and above us requires sacrifice and brings compensation. The sacrifice takes the form of the exertion of the whole will power of the man and the painstaking observance of those rules of hygiene which make continent living more easily attainable. The compensations of continence are those that come from the assurance that the young man has of his virility, of his worthiness to take the hand of a pure wife in wedlock, and from the consciousness of his ability to establish and maintain a home, and to protect this home against all dangers.