Plain Facts for Old and Young

In order to make more clear and comprehensible the teachings of nature respecting the laws regulating the sexual function, and the evils resulting from their violation, it has seemed necessary to preface the practical part of the subject by a concise description of the anatomy of reproduction. In this portion of the work especial pains has been taken to avoid anything like indelicacy of expression, yet it has not been deemed advisable to sacrifice perspicuity of ideas to any prudish notions of modesty. It is hoped that the reader will bear in mind that the language of science is always chaste in itself, and that it is only through a corrupt imagination that it becomes invested with impurity. The author has constantly endeavored to impart information in the most straightforward, simple, and concise manner.

The work should be judiciously circulated, and to secure this the publishers will take care to place it in the hands of agents competent to introduce it with discretion; yet it may be read without injury by any one who is sufficiently mature to understand it. Great care has been taken to exclude from its pages those accounts of the habits of vicious persons, and descriptions of the mechanical accessories of vice, with which many works upon sexual subjects abound.

The first editions of the work were issued with no little anxiety on the part of both author and publishers as to how it would be received by the reading public. It was anticipated that no little adverse criticism, and perhaps severe condemnation, would be pronounced by many whose education and general mode of thought had been such as to unfit them to appreciate it; but it was hoped that persons of more thoughtful and unbiased minds would receive the work kindly, and would readily co-operate with the publishers in its circulation. This anticipation has been more than realized. Wherever the book has been introduced, it has met with a warm reception; and of the several thousand persons into whose hands the work has been placed, hundreds have gratefully acknowledged the benefit which they have received from its perusal, and it is hoped that a large proportion have been greatly benefited.

The cordial reception which the work has met from the press everywhere has undoubtedly contributed in great measure to its popularity. The demand for the work has exhausted several editions in rapid succession, and has seemed to require its preparation in the greatly enlarged and in every way improved form in which it now appears. The addition of two whole chapters for the purpose of bringing the subject directly before the minds of boys and girls in a proper manner, adds greatly to the interest and value of the work, as there seemed to be a slight deficiency in this particular in the former editions.

J. H. K. BATTLE CREEK, MICH., October, 1879.

CONTENTS.

PAGE. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

SEX IN LIVING FORMS.

Living beings--Animals and vegetables--Life force--Reproduction-- Spontaneous generation--Simplest form of generation--Hermaphrodism-- Sex in plants--Sex in animals--Other sexual differences--Men and women differ in form--Modern mania for female pedestrianism--3,000 quarter miles in 3,000 quarter hours--A female walking-match--The male and female brain--Vital organs of man and woman--Woman less muscular, more enduring--A pathological difference--Why a woman does not breathe like a man--The reproductive elements--Sexual organs of plants-- Polygamous flowers--The female organ of flowers--Sexual organs of animals--The spermatozoon--The ovum--Fecundation--Fecundation in flowers--Union of the ovum and zoosperm--Curious modes of reproduction--Human beings are developed buds--Fecundation in hermaphrodites--Development--Unprotected development--Partial protection of the ovum--Development in the higher animals and in man-- The uterus--Uterine gestation--The primitive trace--Curious relations to lower animals--Simplicity of early structures--The stages of growth-- Duration of gestation--Uterine life--How the unborn infant breathes-- Parturition--Changes in the child at birth--Nursing--Anatomy of the reproductive organs--Male organs--The prostate gland--Female organs-- Puberty--Influence of diet on puberty--Brunettes naturally precocious-- Remarkable precocity--Premature development occasions early decay-- Early puberty a cause for anxiety--Changes which occur at puberty-- Menstruation--Nature of menstruation--A critical period--Important hints--Menorrhagia--Dysmenorrhoea--Amenorrhoea and chlorosis-- Hysteria--Prevention better than cure--Extra-uterine pregnancy--Twins-- Monsters--Hybrids--Law of sex--Heredity--Ante-natal influences--Law universal--A source of crime--Circumcision--Castration . . . . . . . 25

THE SEXUAL RELATIONS.

Sexual precocity--Astonishing ignorance--Inherited passion--Various causes of sexual precocity--Senile sexuality--Marriage--Time to marry--Application of the law of heredity--Early marriage--Mutual adaptation--Disparity of age--Courtship--Long Courtships-- Flirtation--Youthful flirtations--Polygamy--Polyandry--Divorce-- Who may not marry--Do not be in a hurry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

CHASTITY.

Mental unchastity--Amativeness--Unchaste conversation--Causes of unchastity--Early causes--Diet vs. chastity--Clerical lapses--Tobacco and vice--Bad books--Idleness--Dress and sensuality--How young women fall--Fashion and vice--Reform in dress needed--Round dances--Physical causes of unchastity--Constipation--Intestinal worms--Local uncleanness--Irritation of the bladder--Modern modes of life . . . . 174

CONTINENCE.

Continence not injurious--Does not produce impotence--Difficulty of continence--Helps to continence--The will--Diet--Exercise--Bathing-- Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

MARITAL EXCESSES.

Object of the reproductive functions--Results of excesses--Effects upon husbands--Testimony of a French physician--Continence of trainers--A cause of throat disease--A cause of consumption--Effects on wives--The greatest cause of uterine disease--Legalized murder-- Indulgence during menstruation--Effects upon offspring--Indulgence during pregnancy--Effect upon the character--A selfish objection-- Brutes and savages more considerate--What may be done--Early moderation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

PREVENTION OF CONCEPTION: ITS EVILS AND DANGERS.

Conjugal onanism--"Male continence"--Shaker views--Moral bearings of the question--Unconsidered murders--The charge disputed--Difficulties-- Woman's rights--What to do--A compromise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

INFANTICIDE AND ABORTION.

Not a modern crime--Causes of the crime--The nature of the crime-- Instruments of crime--Results of this unnatural crime--An unwelcome child--The remedy--Murder by proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

THE SOCIAL EVIL.

Unchastity of the ancients--Causes of the "social evil"--Libidinous blood--Gluttony--Precocious sexuality--Man's lewdness--Fashion--Lack of early training--Sentimental literature--Poverty--Ignorance--Disease-- Results of licentiousness--Thousands of victims--Effects of vice ineradicable--The only hope--Hereditary effects of venereal disease-- Man the only transgressor--Origin of the foul disease--Cure of the "social evil"--Prevention the only cure--Early training--Teach self-control--Mental culture--Early associations . . . . . . . . . . 284

SOLITARY VICE.

Alarming prevalence of the vice--Testimony of eminent authors--Not a modern vice--Victims of all ages--Unsuspected rottenness--Causes of the habit--Evil associations--Corruption in schools--Wicked nurses--Not an uncommon case--The instructor in vice--Local disease--An illustrative case--Other physical causes--Influence of stimulants-- Signs of self-abuse--Suspicious signs--General debility--Early symptoms of consumption--Premature and defective development--Sudden change in disposition--Lassitude--Sleeplessness--Failure of mental capacity-- Fickleness--Untrustworthiness--Love of solitude--Bashfulness--Unnatural boldness--Mock piety--Confusion of ideas--Round shoulders--Weak backs-- Pains in the limbs--Stiffness of the joints--Paralysis--Gait--Bad positions--Lack of development of the breasts--Capricious appetite-- Eating clay--The use of tobacco--Unnatural paleness--Acne--Biting the finger nails--Palpitation of the heart--Hysteria--Chlorosis--Epileptic fits--Wetting the bed--Unchastity of speech--Positive signs--Results of secret vice--Effects in males--Local effects--Urethral irritation-- Stricture--Enlarged prostate--Urinary diseases--Priapism--Piles-- Prolapsus of rectum--Extension of irritation--Atrophy--Varicocele-- Nocturnal emissions--Exciting causes--Are occasional emissions necessary or harmless?--Emissions not necessary to health--Eminent testimony--Diurnal emissions--Cause of diurnal emissions--Internal emissions--An important caution--Impotence--General effects--General debility--Consumption--Dyspepsia--Heart-disease--Throat affections-- Nervous diseases--Epilepsy--Failure of special senses--Spinal irritation--Insanity--A victim's mental condition pictured--Effects in females--Local effects--Leucorrhoea--Uterine disease--Cancer of the womb--Sterility--Atrophy of mammae--Pruritis--General effects--A common cause of hysteria--Effects upon offspring--Treatment of self-abuse and its effects--Prevention of secret vice--Cultivate chastity--Timely warning--Curative treatment of the effects of self-abuse--Cure of the habit--How may a person help himself?--Hopeful courage--General regimen and treatment--Mental and moral treatment-- Exercise--Never overeat--Eat but twice a day--Discard all stimulating food--Stimulating drinks--Sleeping--Dreams--Can dreams be controlled?-- Bathing--Improvement of general health--Prostitution as a remedy-- Marriage--Local treatment--Cool sitz bath--Ascending douche--Abdominal bandage--Wet compress--Hot and cold applications to the spine--Local fomentations--Local cold bathing--Enemata--Electricity--Internal applications--Use of electricity--Circumcision--Impotence--Varicocele-- Drugs--Rings--Quacks--Closing advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

A CHAPTER FOR BOYS.

Who are boys?--What are boys for?--Boys the hope of the world--Man the masterpiece--How a noble character is ruined--The marvelous human machine--The two objects of human existence--The nutritive apparatus-- The moving apparatus--The thinking and feeling apparatus--The purifying apparatus--The reproductive apparatus--How a noble character and a sound body must be formed--The downhill road--Self-abuse--A dreadful sin-- Self-murderers--What makes boys dwarfs--Scrawny and hollow-eyed boys-- Old boys--What makes idiots--Young dyspeptics--The race ruined by boys-- Cases illustrating the effects of self-abuse--Two young wrecks--A prodigal youth--Barely escaped--A lost soul--The results of one transgression--A hospital case--An old offender--The sad end of a young victim--From bad to worse--An indignant father--Disgusted with life--Bad company--Bad language--Bad books--Vile pictures--Evil thoughts-- Influence of other bad habits--Closing advice to boys and young men. 419