Part 20 (1/2)
A short time sufficed, however, to secure the indisputable evidence of the fact by his being caught in the act by his nurse.
This young man was a sad example of what havoc is made with the ”human form divine” by this debasing vice. Once a bright boy, kind, affectionate, active, intelligent, the pride of a loving mother and the hope of a doting father, his mind had sunken to driveling idiocy.
His vacant stare and expressionless countenance betokened almost complete imbecility. If allowed to do so, he would remain for hours in whatever position his last movement left him. If his hand was raised, it remained extended until placed in a position of rest by his attendant.
Only with the utmost difficulty could he be made to rise in the morning, to eat, drink, or walk. Only by great efforts could he be aroused from his lethargy sufficiently to answer the most simple question. The instinctive demands of decency in regarding the calls of nature were not respected. In short, the distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics of a human being were almost wholly obliterated, leaving but a physical semblance of humanity; a mind completely wrecked, a body undergoing dissolution while yet alive, a blasted life, no hope for this world, no prospect for the next. In the insane asylums of the country may be seen hundreds of these poor victims in all stages of physical and mental demoralization.
Causes of the Habit.--It is needless to recapitulate all the causes of unchast.i.ty which have previously been quite fully dwelt upon, nearly all of which are predisposing or exciting causes of solitary as well as of social vice. s.e.xual precocity, idleness, pernicious literature, abnormal s.e.xual pa.s.sions, exciting and irritating food, gluttony, sedentary employment, libidinous pictures, and many abnormal conditions of life, are potent causes in exciting the vile practice; but by far the most frequent causes are evil a.s.sociations, wicked or ignorant nurses, and local disease, or abnormality. These latter we will consider more particularly, as they have not been so fully dwelt upon elsewhere.
Evil a.s.sociations.--A child may have been reared with the greatest care.
From infancy he may have been carefully s.h.i.+elded from all pernicious influences, so that at the age of ten or twelve, when he is for the first time sent away to school, he may be free from vice; but when he a.s.sociates with his fellow-students, he soon finds them practicing a habit new to him, and being unwarned, he speedily follows their filthy example and quickly becomes fascinated with the vice. Thousands have taken their first lessons in this debasing habit at school. Teachers and scholars testify that it is often practiced even in school hours, almost under the teacher's eyes; but where the infection most quickly spreads is in the sleeping apartments, where more than one occupy the same bed, or where several sleep in the same room.
Nothing is more indispensable to purity of body and of morals than a private sleeping room and single bed for each student. Such an arrangement would protect the youth from the reception of much evil, and would allow an opportunity for privacy which every young man or youth needs for his spiritual as well as physical benefit. Not the least benefit of the latter cla.s.s is the opportunity for a thorough cleansing of the whole body every morning, which is almost as indispensable to purity of morals as cleanliness of body. The same suggestion is fully as applicable to the sleeping arrangements of girls. The exceptional cases in which this plan would not be the best are very few indeed.
Corruption in Schools.--Says Dr. Acton, ”I cannot venture to print the accounts patients have given me of what they have seen or even been drawn into at schools. I would fain hope that such abominations are things of the past.” The entrance of a single corrupt boy into a school which may have been previously pure--though such schools must be extremely rare--will speedily corrupt almost the entire members.h.i.+p.
The evil infection spreads more rapidly than the contagion of small-pox or yellow fever, and it is scarcely less fatal.
This danger exists not in public or city schools alone, but in the most select and private schools. A father who had kept his two sons under the care of a private governess for several years, and then placed them in a small school taught by a lady, and composed of a few small children from the most select families, was greatly astonished when informed by a physician that his sons showed symptoms of the effects of self-abuse. He was totally incredulous; but an investigation showed that they had already practiced the vile habit for several years, having learned it of an infantile school-mate.
We were acquainted with one instance in which a primary school in a secluded and select community was nearly broken up by the introduction of this vile habit through a corrupt student. Many a watchful teacher has seen the light of growing intelligence suddenly dim and wane in the eye of his favorite student just when he was giving the most promise of developing unusual talents in literature, mathematics, or some one of the natural or physical sciences, and has been compelled to watch the devastating influence of this deadly upas tree that often claims the best and fairest human flowers as its victims.
Wicked Nurses.--In those cases in which the habit is acquired at a very early age, the work of evil is usually wrought by the nurse, perhaps through ignorance of the effects of the habit. Incredible as it seems, it is proved by numerous instances that it is not an uncommon habit for nurses to quiet small children by handling or t.i.tillating their genital organs. They find this a speedy means of quieting them, and resort to it regardless or ignorant of the consequences.
Not an Uncommon Case.--Prof. Lusk, of Bellevue Hospital College, New York, related to his medical cla.s.s in our hearing a case which came under his observation in which all of the children in a large family had been taught the habit by a wicked nurse for the purpose of keeping them quiet after they were put to bed. The vileness that would lead a person to thus rob childhood of its innocence, and blast its prospects for this life and the next, is base enough for the commission of almost any crime. Indeed, the crime could hardly have been a worse one had the nurse referred to in the above case in cold blood cut the throats of those innocent children; perhaps it might have been better for the children.
A gentleman once declared that if he should detect a person teaching this crime to his child he would shoot him on the spot; and if homicide is allowable under any circ.u.mstances, it seems to us it would be extenuated by such an aggravation. If occasional bad a.s.sociations will work an immense damage to the youthful character, what terrible injury may be wrought by an agent of sin, an instructor in vice, who is within the household, who presides in the nursery, and exerts a constant influence! No one can estimate it.
Acton remarks on this point, ”I need hardly point out how very dangerous this is. There seems hardly any limit to the age at which a young child can be initiated into these abominations, or to the depth of degradation to which it may fall under such hideous teaching. Books treating of this subject are unfortunately too full of accounts of the habits of such children.”
In not a few instances the ”hired man” has been the means of communicating to innocent little boys the infamous knowledge which, fortunately, they had not acquired in babyhood. With no knowledge of the evil they are committing, they begin the work of physical d.a.m.nation which makes a h.e.l.l of life and leads to endless death.
The ”hired girl” is often an equally efficient agent for evil in the instruction of little girls in this debasing vice. Some time ago, the very intelligent parents of a bright family of children were awakened to the importance of this subject from the perusal of the first edition of this work, and upon investigation were horrified to find that their oldest child a promising daughter of ten, was already a victim to the vile practice, having been initiated by a ”hired girl.” After using in vain every means he could bring to bear upon the case, the father brought her to us, and with tears in his eyes gave his story. After telling of his unsuccessful attempts to effect a reform, he declared that he would far prefer to place his daughter in the grave than to see her grow up a wretched victim of this vice. We were most happy to be able, after a few weeks' treatment, to restore her to her parents, as we hope, permanently reformed. Not a few such cases are constantly coming to the attention of the medical profession.
The Instructor in Vice.--Are these lines perused by any one who has ever taught another this vice so vile, and so certainly followed by penalties so terrible--penalties not upon the instigator but upon the hapless victim? let such a person clothe himself in sackcloth and ashes, and do penance for the remainder of his life. The only way in which he can hope to atone even in some small degree for such a heinous crime, is by doing all in his power to warn those in danger against this sin.
When all men receive their just deserts, what will be the punishment of such a one who has not, by thorough repentance and a life spent in trying to undo the work of ruin so foully wrought, in some measure disburdened himself of the consequences of his act!
Sending children very early to bed before they are weary, ”to get them out of the way,” or for punishment, is a grave error, as this may give rise to the vice. Confining children alone in a room by themselves is an equally reprehensible practice, as it favors the commission of the act, at least, and may afford a favorable opportunity for its discovery.
Allowing children to form a habit of seeking solitude is an evil of the same nature.
Local Disease.--In the male, a tight or long foreskin is a frequent cause of the habit. The constant contact of the prepuce with the most sensitive part of the organ increases its sensibility. The secretion is retained, and acc.u.mulates, often becoming hardened. In this manner irritation is set up, which occasions uncomfortable feelings, and attracts the hands to the part. Owing to the great degree of excitement due to irritation, but a slight provocation is necessary to arouse voluptuous sensations, and then the terrible secret is revealed. The child readily discovers how to reproduce the same, and is not slow to commit a frequent repet.i.tion of the act; and thus the habit is formed.
An Ill.u.s.trative Case.--A case in which the vice originated in this manner was recently under our observation. The patient was a man of considerable intellectual power and some culture, but showed unmistakable signs of his early indiscretion. He stated that although he mingled quite freely with other boys of his age, he obtained no knowledge of the habit from others. He often heard allusions which he did not understand, and of which he did not, fortunately, discover the meaning. But he was afflicted with congenital _phimosis_, the prepuce being so tight that retraction was impossible. This, together with urinal irritation,--which occasioned nocturnal incontinence of urine,--constipation, and highly seasoned food, produced so much local irritation as to occasion frequent erections, and an increased secretion. He soon noticed that there was an acc.u.mulation of hardened secretion beneath the foreskin, and in attempting to remove this, he accidentally provoked voluptuous sensations. He speedily abandoned himself to the habit, often repeating it several times a day. Beginning at the age of twelve years, he continued it for three or four years.
Soon after acquiring the habit, he became aware of its tendencies, through reading books upon the subject, but he found himself so completely enslaved that abstinence seemed impossible. One resolution to reform after another was formed, only to be speedily broken. His unwholesome diet, habitual constipation, and especially the unfortunate organic difficulty in his genital organs, produced an almost constant priapism, which was only relieved, and then but temporarily, by the act of pollution. His sedentary habits increased the difficulty to an extreme degree.
In the meantime, his const.i.tution, naturally weak, was being gradually undermined. He suffered from constant headache, heart-burn, pains in the back and limbs, weakness, and la.s.situde. Yet he attributed none of these ailments to the true cause. After the lapse of three or four years thus spent, and after repeated ineffectual attempts, by a powerful effort of the will, by the aid of prayer, and by adopting a more wholesome diet, he succeeded in getting the mastery of his vice.
But the local difficulties still continued in a great degree, and under particularly aggravating circ.u.mstances occasioned a relapse at long intervals. After a time, the local difficulties grew less and less, and enabled him to gain a complete victory over the habit, though the results of previous sin still remained, for which he desired treatment.
This case will serve as a fair ill.u.s.tration of many of similar character, in which the child accidentally makes the discovery which leads him to work his own ruin.
Other Physical Causes.--Constipation, piles, irritable bladder, fissure of the a.n.u.s, local uncleanliness, and pruritis of the genital organs, will produce the habit in both males and females in the manner described. Sleeping on feather beds increases the local congestion, and thus favors the exciting influences of any of the above-named causes.