SEXUAL PHYSIOLOGY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 302, 18 June 1912, Page 7

SEXUAL PHYSIOLOGY

THE SEXUAL QUACK.

ADDRESS BY DR. HOME. SOME PLAIN STATEMENTS. In iiis opening remarks on education in sexual physiology at the New Plymouth. Brotherhood on Sunday afternoon, Dr. Home referred to his previous address, mentioning that some people were perhaps inclined to think that the prevalence and importance of the diseases referred to in it were overstated. In New Plymouth this may have been so, but for larger countries and larger centres there waa no over-statement. There was now every indication that New Plymouth -would become a large centre, and the speaker thought that the instruction he advocated would help to make it physically and morally a healthy centre. THE VALUE OF FORE-KNOWLEDGE. Curtain persons might holu the opinion that this sort of knowledge ahould be kept Irom the people in the streets. They would rather wait until the street people acquired the individual damaging necessity for the knowledge, wlucli would then be too late to prevent the trouble. Tile speaker maintained that the right kind of fore-knowledge would be the very thing to prevent a great deal of this harm, and, it so, it was quite wrong to withhold it from the general public. (Applause.) Others again, whose ideas were casehardened and resentful of the intrusion of new ones, would turn from these subjects in traditional disgust, but the great majority of the people were open-minded enough to at least let the advocates of this teaching have a fair hearing. The subject of venereal diseases was admittedly an unwholesome one, but the 6peaker was that afternoon offering for their consideration a wholesome subject, or what should be a wholesome subject—the education of young people in

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SEX. and what was just now even more imof grown-up people into a right-minded way of looking at this subject. Dr. Home then proceeded to give the actual wording of a lesson such as might be given to children of about twelve to fourteen years of age, remarking that the words and phrasing required very careful ehoosing and arrangment, that the idea of "father" and "mother" must be kept constantly before the children, and the language must be designedly simple. The method of approach was the comparative method, beginning with reproductive processes in lower forms of life and leading to the higher. To the audience it would appear ludicrously easy—almost a laughing stock of simplicity—but it could not be too explicit within the limits prescribed, and they were to recollect that it was being addressed to young children who had not as yet acquired mental attitudes of horror or disgust at .the mention of these things, but who were naturally and frankly deeply interested. "All life comes from some other life of the same kind that has been in the world before it," proceeded the doctor. "This is true in all things—human beings, animals, birds, plants, right down to the smallest living things which are so small that we can only see them with the microscope, and which we call microbes. Now these smallest and simplest of living things each grow to full size, divide evenly into two halves, and each half grows to full sip, and ,so on. That is quite Bimple. But when! Wf coma to bigger, higher, more complicated living things, auch as plants and animals, we find that young ones' ire not produced in quite such a simple way, but that there is u male, or father part, and a female, or mother part, which must eome together to produce young ones. THE LESSON OF THE FLOWERS

Take a flower like a 1%, for instance. Inside the pretty colored part of the flower there are things like stalks, and eome of them have at the end of each a swelling, which has on it yellow or brown powder, which sometimes comes off on to your nose when you smell the flower. This powder is called pollen, and it is the male or father part of the flower. Right in the middle of the flower is another kind of stalk with a 6mall sticky patch at the end of it, and if you cut across the bottom part of th'e stalk you will find inside it small round white things, which would have become the seed. This is the female part or mother part of the flower",'and "it:! is called the ovary or thing which contains the eggs. Now the pollen, or male part by an insect, or, in some other male part by an insect or in some other kinds of flowers, by the wind. The yellow powder sticks to the sticky place mentioned, and from each grain of the powder there grows down a tubelike process into the female or mother part, or ovary, and these processes join with the little roundish white things. After this has happened these become seeds, and, when they are ripe,, young plants can grow from them. This meeting of the male and female parts of tthe flower is called fertilisation or making fertile—that is, able to produce young ones, for without this meeting no seeds' that could grow would be produced and all parts of the flower would die.

IN THE CASE OF FISHES. Now, let us learn what happened in the case of fishes. The female or mother fish has in her body a bag containing a very great many littl" round clear things, like very small cler r sago grains. The bag is the ovary {: 'member the ovary of the flower), and the little round things are the eggs. In the epringtime the mother fish prepares a place in the bottom of the water that she lives in and there lays many thousands of eggs. Then the male fish or father fish comes along, and pours out of his body a fluid over them, which is in its use like the pollen of the flower, for it fertilises them and the eggs can then grow into young fishes. Now flowers and fish generally produce a great lot of seeds and eggs, and the flowers product; a great, lot of pollen, for large quantities are carried away by the wind and the water, and in the case of fish it is only because there are a very great number that some are fertilised and grow into fish. THE CASE OF BIRDS. Let us now take the case of birds. You all know that young birds come out of eggs, and that eggs are laid in a nest by the mother bird; therefore, the eggs are produced in the body of the mother bird. Now the mother" bird la vs comparatively only a few eggs, and when the egg is laid it has a hard shell, so I lie egg must be fertilised before it in '.iid. For this reason the father bird must, introduce the fertilising fluid into the body of the mother bird where it can find the eggs and join with them 1 before the shells are formed. If this is I nof done the eggs would be laid, but I none of them would be able to' begin the growth of young birds.

TIIR ANIMAL. Now, when we come to four-footed animals and human beings, {hero is onlv one other condition which is different and which I wish you to take notice of. That is, while the bird lays its eggs and Kits upon them so that by the warmth of its body they are thatched into young birds, in the higher animals und in human beings the egg, after it is

I fertilised, .remains inside the mothers body until the young one is fully formed and grows to a certain size. Then it is torn a living being. You will now I see how very important the reproductive organs are. Without them indeed there would he no new life. Therefore they { must be regarded and treated with every care and respect, and Nature punishes any disrespect or misuse of these organs. They must be kept clean and free from irritation, and not handled or played with, and they should not be talked about, except in a wholesome way. A good many people and boys, and sometimes, even girls, who are not niceminded, say nasty things about them. You should not listen to nor even be seen with those who talk that way. It is very harmful for your character and also for your health to have thoughts that are not nice. It is right that you should know something about the reproductive organs, but you should not keep your thoughts on them, but upon your work and your games. PERNICIOUS EFFECTS OF IMPURE THOUGHTS. Impure thoughts lead to secrecy and sneakishness, and later on in life to practices which do the reproductive organs great harm, and also bring disease and bad .health not only to the body itself, but to the children that might be born afterwards. There is a lot of this disease and bad health because boys and girls have not been told about the harm that might come from bad and immoral thoughts and habits. I "I am of the opinion," the speaker I continued, "that if the necessary knowI ledge is conveyed in some such simple straight-forward way it would preclude curiosity and secret discussion, because the children's natural desire for knowledge would be rightly satisfied. Girls, if anything, need more explicit instruction than boys. There is, if possible, less danger of injury to their thoughts, - and the possible results of ignorance are to them more lasting and terrible. ' Their sexual instincts are as a rule less, and their parental instincts greater than those of boys. They require special teaching .regarding the signs of their ripening reproductive functions. It should be quite easy for mothers to do at least this much, and a good many mothers probably do explain the natural changes that occur, but I know of j several cases where this has not been done, and many a young girl has brooded in misery and fear for months over a natural manifestation about which she was afraid to ask even her parent. To older children, public schoolboys for example, a deeper talk might be given, especially regarding the consequences of misuse and abuse of their reproductive functions. The presence of disease, or apprehension of disease, has a specially harmful effect upon the mind of the adolescent, and the fear is often worse than the reality, for it impels the young man into the clutches of that vilest of human reptiles,

11 can find no words in my vocabulary to adequately express my denunciation J of him, and his advertisements -of "Lost manhood," "electric belts," "thirty years' 1 experience," "infallible remedies," etc. I ) could not drive home to young men any ; more Important lesson than this, the danger of the quack and his advertiseJ ments. Let us consider some of the coniditions which giVe the quack his opportunities of harm. The most important is self-abuse, unfortunately a very com- . mon vice amongst boys. It is generi ally taught to a boy by his associates, J and most boys embark, on a course of j this evil practice because they hav# j never been informed of the harmfulness of the habit, how it robs them of mental control, self respect, and manliness, besidek predisposing to nervous diseases. When boys know this, if they are rightminded. they break it off altogether, and I consider it important to let them know of its danger before the habit is started. Treatment of it consists in raising personal health, sticking to work and games, baths, and exercises out of doors, and avoidance of stimulating food and drinks. And, above all, to avoid impure literature, impure thoughts and impure companions. This is also I the treatment of nocturnal emissions, which are sometimes the result of impure secret practices, and which also occur quite normally in healthy fullblooded young men, but which are not harmful if not occurring too frequently. But in these cases the most important element is worry, which drives its victim | into the hands of the quacks. The quack circular or advertisement meets bis eye and seems to meet his needs. The circular sets forth a whole catalogue of symptoms which every one feels now and again, whether well or ill, and anyone who has these symptoms is threatened with epilepsy, insanity, or death unless he encloses a remittance by first mail for the purchase of the electric belt or other certain and infallible remedies. Very often these descriptions first give the victim the idea that there is something really and seriously wrong with him. Self observation and introspection take full possession of his mental faculties, and he arrives at a frantic mental state created by the quack himself. He communicates with the quack, and receives a futile course of treatment, which depletes ihis poeket. Then the quack shows his utter shamelessness by sending the victim's communications on to another of the pernicious breed, who in turn worries him with new circulars, new aspectß of future disaster, and a new set of so-called remedies. And when the patient has got this mental obsession it makes it doubly difficult for the regular medical practitioner to deal with him, for both his faith and his hopes are shattered, and generally also his finances. This is then the most diabolical form of quackery. Fortunately, the New Zealand Government and the New Zealand press have practically succeeded in sup- , pressing the advertisements of it. The ] quack who undertakes to treat venereal diseases also does incalculable harm, for his methods are inadequate for curing the disease. They lead to the belief that the disease is cured while it is still lingering in the victim's system, with possibilities of very serious future harm. ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN. In dealing with young men it is necessary to say more than a word about continence. A good many young men have an idea that sexual indulgence is necessary to health and I wish to emphatically combat this most unfortunate and erroneous idea. I speak plainly in the hope thnt nrv assertion will do something towards correcting the widespread, false, <mil often harmful notion. There is absolutely no harm in continence. On behalf of continence i! may lie truly said that it is the only read safeguard iigainst venereal disease, but the chief argument in its favor is that it makes character, for it begets self control, which is the basis of all character.

A GRAVE FAULT. In connection with this subject, I might mention a grave fault of present day society in that it almost- compels marriage to be entered upon later in life than it should he oil the average. Fashion and luxury have postponed the time of life when people can marry to past what is perhaps the most efficient age. The young man hesitates to ask the young lady until lie feels he can keep 'her surrounded by the comforts and luxuries in which she has been brought up, and the young lady looks to the young man for bank-book assurance of his ability to support her. It may be scouted as a Puritanical idea, but the only remedy that is apparent is

I to get the households of the nation into I a simpler and more thrifty way of l living. j TEACHING THE CHILDREN. j Returning to the question of the teaching of sexual physiology and hygiene, the ideal method would be for the parents, especially the mother, to explain these tilings to their children. Why do parents neglect to explain these matters ? Every thinking person knows 'that this neglect is wrong. Even the I most devoted parents are reticent and 1 cannot talk rightly on these subjects to their children. The reason is because parents' have a wrong mental attitude towards the subject themselves. This most sacred of relations retains in their minds some taint of uncleanliness, beI cause they have generally got their first impressions in an objectionable manner, because they have got their earliest knowledge of sexual matters through sly, eecret, and unwholesome channels, and it has never got free from these associations. The young growing child ha# a normal curiosity and does not restrict questions. Every child especially wants to know how babies came into the world. The ideal would be for the parents to be able to answer these questions in a frank and natural manner when the, child is beginning to be old enough to understand. Secrecy and disgust are implanted hi the child's mind bv the way in which it is "turned down"~in these inquiries. Then the child enters upon puberty. Different bodily feelings and impulses and mental attitudes arise. The beginning adolescent feels that it cannot get any information from parents, and generally acquires a varied amount, of miscliievious misinformation from associates. What requires to be done is that they should get the requisito knowledge in an authoritative, frank, and legitimate way, not in highly objectionable and secret channels which don't convey the requisite knowledge, but something far otherwise. Looked at in this way, what harm can the proper teaching do? It is admitted that most young people arrive at a certain sort of knowledge—or mis-knowledge. Would it not be infinitely better that they should be taught cleanly and rightly? If properly done, I cannot see that pure-minded, innocent young people could possibly gain any harmful suggestions. I again emphasise the necessity for starting young, while the child's mind is frank and open on this subject, and before any adult notions of horror or disgust have been planted in it. That is the way to get the future fathers and mothers of our race into a right-minded way of looking at this subject. Only in this will this sacred and important relation be rescued in people's minds from the taint and reproach which now cling around it. Reproduction is

A NATURAL PROCESS which should no more be regarded vulgarly than the bursting of buds or the opening of flowers. Children should be taught about it as they are taught about any other legitimate business in life, for is not the chief business in life the reproduction of life ? In the Lingain worship in India, which is devoted to the reproductive organs, the temples are among the cleanest in the country, in marked contrast to other temples in which merely religious gods are adored. Now until the parents are able to undertake this duty towards their children, the schools should take it up—and they are going to take it up. Collective instruction 'has its disadvantages, but it is apparently a necessary step for the present until the community can arrive at a sufficient number of parents to be able to carry on individual instruction. Individual ingtruction given by parents in the .household allows of increased mutual confidence and trust between them and their children. This privilege should not be taken from parents if possible, but the parents must qualify first if they would retain it. AHEAD OP THE TIMES. I folly realise that, advocating this teaching, I am ahead of the timestwenty, perhaps thirty years ahead. Even if we start teaching the children now the best part of a generation must probably come and go before there is diffused sufficient knowledge to make a majority of adults who will regard the whole ((uestion ii: a right-minded, openminded, natural way. I have given these questions a good deal of quiet thought for some years, and I feel that I would not be doing right if I did not do something Inwards helping to give the movement a start."' (Applause.) Dr. Home then Tear! some remarks made at the meetings of the New Zealand Educational Institute at Tiinarit. of the Auckland Headmasters' Association, and of the Jlethodist Conference at Auckland, drawing attention to the advisability of teaching sexual physiology and hygiene in the schools. Some remarks by the president, of ilie New Zealand Educational In-lifute (Mr. 0. I). Elamank) are particularly interesting, and may be published in a future is .-tie of this paper.