Chapter 4

ADOLESCENCE OF THE MALE.

Adolescence of the male embraces the period of life from the age of fourteen or sixteen years to the age of twenty-five.

At about the age of fourteen years "the period of youth is distinguished by that advance in the evolution of the generative apparatus in both sexes, and by that acquirement of its power of functional activity, which constitutes the state of _Puberty_." At this age the following great changes take place in the general appearance and deportment of the male: His frame becomes more angular and the masculine proportions more pronounced; increased strength and greater powers of endurance are manifested; the larynx enlarges and the voice becomes lower in pitch as well as rougher and more powerful; new feelings and desires awaken in the mind. His deportment becomes more commanding, his frivolity is less and less apparent, and the boy is lost in the man. If he has been so fortunate as to escape all the dangers and baneful influences of childhood, he is manly indeed, and we behold him with an unburdened conscience, bright intellect, frank address and good memory. His spirits are buoyant and his complexion clear; every function of his body is well performed, and no fatigue is felt after moderate exertion. He evinces that elasticity of body, and that happy control of himself and his feelings, which are indicative of the robust health and absence of care which should accompany youth. His time is devoted to his studies, duties and amusements; as he feels his stature increase, and his intellect enlarge, he gladly prepares for his coming struggle with the world.

All boys may come to this condition with proper training through the period of infancy and childhood; and after arriving at the adolescent age of their existence as they have the power of mind to _choose_, so also have they the power to _refuse_. The human race is created above the animal so that we are something more than mere animals; we are human beings with human propensities, human passions, human desires and human tastes, which are subject to the human brain, to the human reason and to the human will--all elevated and ennobled by the Divine Will. Man must not let himself down to be governed by animal passions; the moment he does that, his higher powers suffer and become weakened, and he becomes more like an inferior animal; if he persists in this downward course, his lower powers become strengthened until finally they transcend and rule the higher. Then, to all intents and purposes, such a man's head is downwards and the lower part of his body is upwards just where his head ought to be.

Man is a human being, yet, like the whole animal kingdom, he has appetites, desires and passions, as it is absolutely necessary that he should have. He has organs corresponding to these appetites, desires and passions, and it is necessary that he should have them. A proper understanding in regard to this matter will convince anyone of the truth of this assertion. Our Creator doeth all things wisely and well, in the most perfect manner possible. Consequently, man with all his organs, parts and passions is just what he should be when he blossoms into youth, in the perfection of his adolescence as described above. In fact there could be no other form of creating man, for the Lord always creates in the most perfect way possible, according to one harmonious law which He has ordained to govern the creation of all beings.

Such a man is fully prepared to struggle with himself and the world at large. In his desires, appetites or passions of any kind, he, in his humanity, protected by his rational faculties and enlightened by the Divine Oracle of God, unquestionably has the power to choose between propriety and impropriety, between the right and the wrong, between the good and the bad. Take any evil into which a member of the human family may fall--the love of ardent spirit for instance; he first thinks of it and desires to partake of some. Finally he takes an opportunity to gratify his desire, does satisfy it for the time and thinks it very nice. The next craving is a little more intense, and he cannot overcome the temptation quite so easily as he could have done before, and at last he indulges again. So he goes on, step by step, until he may fall very low. _The same thinking, feeling and desiring precedes the adoption of every vicious habit that was ever formed._ Nor will anyone pretend to say that a persistent effort of the will power, at the very outset, when he first perceived the tendencies of his desires to do what he need not do, would not have prevented the evil; no argumentation will prevail in the face of stubborn facts, and the real facts are all on the side of purity and order.

These very young men or youths, as they progress through adolescence, may become tempted in a variety of ways, some to the use of ardent spirits or tobacco, others to lie, to steal, to forge, &c.; but the approach to all these evils is gradual and first comes through the mind. They first think about the action, turn it over and over in their minds until they come to greatly desire and then, later, to commit the evil which would not have been ultimated if the mind had been persistently set against it in the beginning. This is an indisputable fact.

In this manner many promising youths, just as they are blossoming into the pride of early manhood, begin to indulge in sexual thoughts and to allow these thoughts to influence their minds until they commit some of the evils to which perverted and unchaste passions lead them. If this evil be masturbation, then they are on the direct road to ruin, as will be seen described further on. If it be the commission of sexual intercourse with women, their ruin is still more certain, and in the latter case they are exposed to one of the worst poisons that can possibly infect the human race. I do not overdraw the picture when I declare that _millions of human beings die annually from the effects of poison contracted in this way_, in some form of suffering or another; for, by insinuating its effects into and poisoning the whole man, it complicates various disorders and renders them incurable. When gonorrhoea is contracted, although frequently suppressed by local treatment in the form of injections, it is never perfectly cured thereby. No; the hidden poison runs on for a life time producing strictures, dysuria, gleet and kindred diseases; finally, in old men, a horrible prostatitis results from which the balance of one's life is rendered miserable indeed. If inflammation of the lungs supervenes, there is often a translation of the virus to these vital organs, causing what is termed "plastic pneumonia," where one lobule after another becomes gradually sealed up, till nearly the whole of both lungs becomes impervious to air, and death results from asphyxia.

This horrible infection sometimes becomes engrafted upon other acute diseases when lingering disorders follow, causing years of misery, and only terminating in death.

If real syphilis, in the form of chancre, should be contracted, and in that form suppressed, we have buboes often of a malignant type, ulceration of the penis and a loss of some portion of this member. Sometimes the poison attacks the throat, causing most destructive ulcerations therein; sometimes it seizes upon the nasal bones, resulting in their entire destruction and an awful disfiguration of the face; sometimes it ultimates itself in the ulceration and destruction of other osseous tissues in different portions of the body. Living examples of these facts are too frequently witnessed in the streets of any large city. Young men marrying with the slightest taint of this poison in the blood will surely transmit the disease to their children. Thousands of abortions transpire every year from this cause alone, the poison being so destructive as to kill the child _in utero_, before it is matured for birth; and even if the child be born alive, it is liable to break down with the most loathsome disorders of some kind and to die during dentition; the few that survive this period are short lived and are unhealthy so long as they do live. The very first unchaste connection of a man with a woman may be attended with a contamination entailing upon him a life of suffering and even death itself. There is no safety among impure or loose women whether in private homes or in the very best regulated houses of ill-fame; even in Paris, where, after women have been carefully examined and pronounced free from any infecting condition, the first man who visits one of them, often carries away a deadly enemy in his blood, which had lurked in concealment beyond the keen eye of the inspector. A young man, or a man at any age, is in far greater danger amidst company of this stamp, than he would be with a clear conscience and pure character in the midst of the wildest forest, full of all manner of poisonous serpents and wild beasts of every description. A knowledge of the above facts should be enough to chill the first impulse and to make any man who respects his own well-being, turn away and flee from the destruction that awaits him.

As if the above sufferings were not a sufficient penalty for the transgression against the law--"Be ye pure," we find yet another. Coincident with the physical wreck, which syphilis makes of the man who becomes thoroughly tainted with its poison, comes his moral wreck. He loses all respect for the truth and all regard for his word; no dependence of any kind can be placed upon him, and he will not pay his debts or fulfil any moral obligation; all because he began by prostituting his mind more and more until, with deadened conscience, almost literally, his head is dependent and his feet uppermost, ruling all the better part of his nature. And next come the mental sufferings--and most agonizing they are. Unhappy to the last degree, he no longer takes pleasure in life, but, wishing to die, finally commits suicide. A search in any insane asylum will show that a very large proportion of patients are made up from those who masturbate or have syphilis. Stamp out these two evils, or rather _curses_ of the human race, and the supply that feeds our insane asylums, aye and our penitentiaries, too, will become vastly lessened. Think of it! So many of the inhabitants of our prisons, asylums, and our poor-houses, are composed of men and women who have offended against nature's laws by violating their own sexual nature. Add to this summary the list of broken-hearted, deflowered virgins and unwedded mothers, and you have the picture complete.

What a contrast with that manliness of character from which he has fallen! Now he is in an insane condition, blaming everyone for having contributed to his many misfortunes and his fallen condition, whereas he alone is the culprit. No one made him commit the first or any subsequent evil. He allowed his own mind to yield to the first temptation, and then went on from step to step, he alone being responsible for the result Yield not the first point, and all is safe.

The pride of perfect adolescence, as described a few pages back, is due to purity of thought, to chastity and continence. This purity shines through every tissue, enkindles the eye with a true expression, makes bright the countenance and erects the form. It gives elasticity to the step, causes harmony in the tones of the voice, and adds dignity to the carriage and deportment. The first step in the paths of vice in any form, whether in sexual errors or any other, detracts in the exact degree of the digression from all of the above beautiful and ennobling characteristics.

We have spoken in the preceding pages of new feelings and desires being awakened in the youth after his fourteenth year. This change is wholly due to his approaching manhood, to the time when he will be fully prepared to appreciate, to love and protect, guide and support her whom he makes his wife, and to become the father of happy and healthy children. But this approach to manhood is not due to the development of the genital organs, as some writers affirm, for this would be a reversion of orderly development. The approaching manhood develops in full accordance to their uses and importance _all_ the organs belonging to man. As the well-developed infant has all its organs developed in a condition suitable for its state, and the child has all its organs in all parts of the body, developed in full accord with its state, so adolescence follows, and every organ must develop accordingly; and in this development a new impetus is given to every organ in the body. The whole man awakens to a newness of life as is seen in the change of his voice, the spreading out of his frame, the independence and command of his bearing, the activity of his brain, the soundness of his judgment, until he becomes in the fullest sense a rational being. Of course the development of his genital organs keeps pace with that of his brain; but the brain should lead the way throughout the entire development of the human race.

At the time of puberty, then, a new and a different sensation springs up in the generative organs, which is in perfect harmony with the uses for which they are intended. We recognize the use of the hands, the fingers, the feet, the eyes, the ears, the sense of taste, &c., and we use them accordingly. We should think of the generative organs only in the same light. They are intended for use, for the highest and holiest use of procreating human beings to the end that they may become angels in heaven. These organs were not made to be abused; but they are abused every time the mind is allowed to dwell upon them improperly. Every excitation we allow from lewd thoughts or fancies, has a debasing and deteriorating effect upon that well-developed form, upon that conscience so free, and upon that countenance so open and bright, which has been described in the preceding pages.

If the mere thought and excitation arising therefrom are injurious to the perfection of the youth, how much more injurious must be the ultimation of that thought in masturbation, in unlawful sexual intercourse, or in the loss of seminal fluid by other unnatural means.

Right here I feel impelled to say something of the

DIFFICULTY OF MAINTAINING CHASTITY.

I, in connection with many of our best and wisest men who have given the subject a lifetime's most earnest consideration, hold that for a young man whose early education has been carefully looked to, and consequently, whose mind has not been debased by vile practices, it is no more impossible mentally, or injurious physically, to preserve his chastity than to refrain from yielding to any other of the innumerable temptations with which his life is beset. And every year of voluntary chastity renders the task easier by mere force of habit. I wish to be clearly understood in this matter.

So long as a young man remains chaste in thought and deed, he will not suffer any bad effects from his continence. It is the _semicontinent_, the man who knows the right but pursues the wrong, who suffers! Patients frequently complain that enforced continence makes them restless, irritable, unfit for mental application of any sort, &c. Sexual intercourse is then indulged in, and presto: for the time being, what a welcome change. The now unclogged mind grasps with vigor any subject presented to it, the spirits are exuberant and the physical frame buoyant. But, is the trouble cured, is it permanently eradicated from the system? No! In a short time the symptoms reappear and the same remedy is again sought. The more the sexual feelings are indulged the more frequent will be their recurrence, and the result need not be written; every candid mind can easily see it. To their shame and confusion be it said, there are many physicians who, when consulted by their patients for medical assistance in such trials, "deliberately encourage the early indulgence of the passions, on the false and wicked ground that self-restraint is incompatible with health. What abhorrence can be too deep for a doctrine so destructive, or for the teachers who thus, before the eyes of those whose youthful ignorance, whose sore natural temptation, rather call for the wisest and tenderest guidance and encouragement, put darkness for light, evil for good, and bitter for sweet."[E]

[E] Wm. Acton, M. R. C. S.

I declare emphatically that no symptoms of sexual suffering, no matter how feelingly described or cunningly insinuated, should ever lead a physician to prescribe for a young man that fatal remedy, illicit intercourse. Medically as a physician, morally as a Christian, and sympathizingly as a fellow being, I record a solemn protest against such false treatment. It is better for a youth to live a continent life. The strictly chaste suffer comparatively little sexual irritability; but the incontinent, at recurring periods are sure to be troubled in one or other of the ways spoken of; and the remedy of indulgence, if effective, requires repetition as often as the inconvenience returns. No! When thus consulted, let the physician prescribe the proper medicament, if one be necessary; and let him direct a plain, nourishing, non-stimulating diet, physical exertion of any kind carried to exhaustion, and SELF CONTROL.

Would any young man in his senses listen to a physician, who, for lowness of spirits, mental despondency, &c., should tell him to drink plentifully of brandy or eat hasheesh? On the same principle then let a youth shun the physician, who, for sexual excitement, prescribes sexual indulgence.

Again, such complaints coming from young men are very often specious, and are mere subterfuges--overdrawn pictures of their sufferings--which are presented as an excuse for indulging the sensual emotions, instead of manfully and righteously struggling to overcome them. And further, "if anyone wishes to really experience the acutest sexual suffering, he can adopt no more certain method than to be incontinent with the intention of becoming continent again, when he has 'sown his wild oats.' The agony of breaking off a habit which so rapidly entwines itself with every fibre of the human frame (as sexual indulgence) is such that it would not be too much to say in the Wise Man's words, '_None_ that go to her return again, neither take they hold on the paths of life.'"

"The sin, of all, most sure to blight-- The sin, of all, that the soul's light Is soonest lost, extinguished in."

Remember then that sexual suffering comes to the _incontinent_ man, and that it is far easier, even for the fully developed vigorous adult, to continue in control of these feelings, than when they have been once excited and indulged.

One single impure connection may entail a whole life of syphilitic suffering on the unhappy transgressor. Would this "pay?"

No inducement could persuade me to assume the awful responsibilities of advising illicit intercourse. Apart from Christian principle, I know that there is no necessity, physiological, pathological or any other, that can excuse any physician for saying that the Seventh Commandment may ever be broken. My sentiments on the physiological side of the question are so admirably expressed by Acton,[F] that I will here quote from him.

[F] Fourth American Edition, P. 97.

"One argument in favor of incontinence deserves special notice, as it purports to be founded on physiology. I have been consulted by persons who feared, or professed to fear, that if the organs were not exercised regularly, they would become atrophied, or that in some way impotence might be the result of chastity. This is the assigned reason for committing fornication. There exists _no greater_ error than this, or one more opposed to physiological truth. In the first place, I may state that I have, after many years' experience, never seen a single instance of atrophy of the generative organs from this cause. I have, it is true, met with the complaint--but in what class of cases does it occur? It arises in all instances from the exactly opposite cause--abuse: the organs become worn out, and hence arises atrophy. Physiologically considered, it is not a fact that the power of secreting semen is annihilated in well-formed adults leading a healthy life and yet remaining continent. The function goes on in the organ always, from puberty to old age. Semen is secreted sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, and very frequently under the influence of the will. No continent man need be deterred by this apocryphal fear of atrophy of the testes from living a chaste life. It is a device of the unchaste--a lame excuse for their own incontinence, unfounded on any physiological law. The testes will take care that their action is not interfered with."

Many and many a time have I heard it regretted and bemoaned, on account of the many troubles they had seemed to cause, that the sexual organs exist. It is the lewd thoughts and uses to which they are put that causes all this misery, and there is always that "first thought" which should not be harbored. Cast away the impure thoughts, rise above them, and one is safe! Pure thoughts can _never_ lead to harm.

The generative organs, with their functions and uses, are most closely interwoven with the highest destiny and well being of the race physically, mentally and spiritually; they are a part of us, without which there would be no men and women, lovers and loved ones, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. We must then happily accept the situation as it is, and our bodies, parts and passions as they are; for they are all indispensable, high and holy, when kept in an orderly and chaste condition. We only need the above knowledge and its application to make ourselves as happy in the enjoyment of these organs as it was designed by our Creator that we should be.

To rise above the sexual temptations that may be more or less experienced by many and perhaps by all, requires an effort of course, and frequently a very great effort; but let it be borne in mind that all temptations to do wrong, require effort to overcome them; and as a rule, the greater the evil we are tempted to commit the greater is the effort needed to overcome it. Now, as shown above, since sexual matters are so thoroughly interwoven with the highest destinies of the human race, physically, mentally and spiritually, there is scarcely any function of higher import, allotted to any individual, than that assigned to the genital organs. No function more deeply concerns the healthfulness of the body, the clearness and brilliancy of the intellect, or the purity and sincerity of the soul itself.

Several times in the course of this book I have referred to the term "abuse." By "abuse," I mean precisely what _Lallemand_ so forcibly expresses as follows: "_I understand by the term abuse, when applied to the organs of generation, any irregular or premature exercise of their functions; any application of them which cannot have, as its result, the propagation of the species._"

Look at the habitual masturbator! See how thin, pale and haggard he appears; how his eyes are sunken; how long and cadaverous is his cast of countenance; how irritable he is and how sluggish, mentally and physically; how afraid he is to meet the eye of his fellows; feel his damp and chilling hand, so characteristic of great vital exhaustion. Taken as a class, how terrible are their lost virility, their miserable night's sleep, their convulsions and their shrunken limbs. They keep by themselves, seeking charm in solitude and are fit companions for no one; they dare not read their Bible, they cannot commune with good angels nor with the Lord, our Saviour. Is not this picture deplorable? It is at the last end of the chain I admit, but it is reached link after link, one at a time; and the first link was forged when the first temptation in the mind was first favored and finally yielded to. The above picture is a true one and shows how intimately connected are the soul, the mind and the body with this whole subject. Man in a healthy state need not and should not lose one drop of seminal fluid by his own hand, by nightly emissions or pollutions, or in any way, until he becomes conjoined to a wife of his choice in the holy bonds of matrimony. Every time the seed of his body is lost in a disorderly or unnatural way, he injures the finest textures of his brain correspondingly, as well as the finest and most exalted condition of his mind and soul, because the act proceeds in its incipiency from a willful prostitution of these higher powers.

When sexual thoughts and temptations arise in one's mind, even very young men are capable of putting them away, urged by the thought that tampering with one's generative organs is wrong. He should intuitively feel that it is something akin to theft, or a crime of some worse sort, for him to indulge in solitary vice and he should intuitively feel an inward reproach for all such meditations. When one is sorely tempted in these matters, as is often the case, let him reflect that he was not created to indulge in such pleasures by himself, and that to do so is a crime, a sin against the God of Heaven; that it is his destiny, his privilege and one of the uses of his life to share such enjoyments with the wife of his bosom; and that all excitement or dallying with this part of his nature before marriage only serves to weaken his sexual powers, as well as his mind and body; also, that it mars his sexual uses and will detract from his sexual pleasures in the married life. Sexual indulgence of any sort in a young man is a loss, not only to himself but also, prospectively, to that dear girl whom he will some day make his wife. Such reflections will often drive away the temptation entirely. If they are not sufficient to do so let him read some interesting book that shall take his mind away from the subject; or, that failing, let him take exercise, vigorous exercise--pushed to fatigue, if necessary. If these states of temptation occur in bed at night, let him rise and read, plunge his arm into very cold water, or if necessary go forth into the open air and seek relief in a rapid walk. It is better to go to any amount of trouble and to endure any physical discomfort, than to sacrifice one's chastity, the loss of which can never be replaced.

A young man naturally desires and expects chastity of the strictest order in the young woman of his choice for a wife. Who would marry a girl, no matter how beautiful or how many and varied her accomplishments if it were known that she had granted her favors to any other man? And yet, what less has _she_ a perfect right to require from a young man who presumes to pay his addresses to her? This consideration, too, should serve as a restraint to any amorous desires that might infest a man's mind. It is wonderful how keen are the perceptions of a pure minded young lady to detect even an approach to licentiousness in the male. He is abhorrent to her and his very sphere betrays him.

With the facts of the preceding pages, contained in this chapter being known, it does seem as if every man would keep himself pure from all carnal associations and use the utmost care not to prostitute his mind, that he may approach the nuptial altar as pure in mind and body as he would have her who is to become the idol of his heart.

Now this is all very beautiful in theory and desirable in practice, but _is it practical_? Can man so school himself in self denial as to accomplish this end? Are there not real physiological facts existing which utterly preclude the possibility of this most desirable result? Do not, as has been alleged by some writers, the testicles of man secrete semen until they become so surcharged that emission becomes absolutely necessary, and does not this accumulation actually produce such sexual excitement that man feels compelled to seek relief in some way? I answer, most unhesitatingly, NO! The above questions are all theories and utterly devoid of fact.

Would Almighty God command, "Thou shalt _not_ commit adultery," and then so create man as to compel him to break his Divine injunction?

Abundance of proof is at hand to substantiate this sweeping remark of mine, were this the place to produce it. Seminal fluid is abundantly secreted and produced only during the height of sexual excitement in the male. As Acton remarks: "It is a highly organized fluid requiring the expenditure of much vital force in its elaboration and its expulsion." It is secreted from the blood of his body and the whole man physically, mentally and spiritually is concerned and represented in its product; consequently the action requires an effort of the whole man, and, if often repeated, the effect is very exhausting to the physical powers, to the mind and to the brain. Let this be another warning to remain in purity of heart.

We have said in the preceding pages that man, in a healthy state, need not lose a drop of seminal fluid until after marriage. There are many abnormal causes resulting in what are called wet dreams, nightly pollutions, spermatorrhoea, prostatic emission during stool or urination, also diurnal emissions without erection. These may result from over study, from errors in diet such as use of coffee, highly seasoned food, wines, spirituous liquors or drugs of various kinds--though perhaps prescribed by a physician. When these troubles arise from constitutional disorders, a skillful physician must be consulted at once. Errors in diet and the taking of drugs causing this trouble must of course be discontinued. [G]"Certain medicines--as astringents, purgatives, narcotics, stimulants and diuretics especially--may bring on conditions from which spermatorrhoea may arise." Among other causes Lallemand refers to the use of quinine, tobacco and, particularly _alcohol_. The trouble may also arise from injuries and many other accidental causes, besides masturbation and venereal excesses.

[G] Lallemand and Wilson, page 192.

It is distressing to see what a complete wreck seminal losses make of those who were once robust and healthy young men, and what a shock they give to the nervous system. They become weak, pale, and feeble in mind, while all that was manly and vigorous has gone out of them. Now which of the two is preferable--the pride of a virtuous youth, or the roué exhausted and worn out by sexual abuses? It demands great strength to become either, but really a much greater effort for the latter; because it requires very great perseverance for a chaste and pure minded man to debase himself by such practices. It depends on the mind which is all right before yielding the first point; therefore beware and shun the first step downward. Strengthen the moral courage and exercise the will power so as always to be able to say, "No," to whatever temptation the conscience tells you is wrong.