The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of Reproduction, Winfield Scott Hall [latest ebook reader txt] 📗

boy that such local manipulation may lead to pleasurable sensations of momentary duration. If he has not been instructed by his parents that these organs are sacred to the uses of manhood and that they will be injured if handled during childhood, he is very likely to repeat this act until it becomes a more or less fixed habit.

While it must be admitted that anything short of extreme excess in this habit among little boys will not be permanently injurious if the habit is stopped at puberty, it must be perfectly evident that if a boy enters puberty with this habit, the psychical and physical conditions of puberty are such as to make the habit very difficult to stop. If it is not stopped a serious injury may result. So the necessity hardly need be further urged for explaining to young boys that these organs should not be handled.

After the boy enters puberty, the habit of masturbation either acquired during puberty or carried into that stage from early boyhood, begins to have a distinctly deleterious effect.

Let us now consider just what is the character of this deleterious effect. From what we know of the physiology of the sexual apparatus, it must be evident that a sexual orgasm could be produced during waking hours only through strong stimulation of the activity of the testes, accompanied by liberation of spermatozoa and of the other elements of the vital fluid. Let us not forget in this connection, the statement made above: that the testis produces two forms of secretion, the internal secretion and the external secretion, the internal secretion being absorbed, produces those male characteristics which we group together under virility, while the external secretion is used for procreation. Spermatozoa do not make any part of the internal secretion. One reason for this must be evident, i.e., that being cellular elements, they could not pass through the vessel walls and be absorbed into the blood current, and if they could, by some special adaptation, get into the blood current, there is no conceivable action which they could perform in the body. We must then look upon the internal secretion as composed of the liquid elements of the testicular secretion.

So far as physiologists know at present, the external secretion differs from the internal secretion only in possessing spermatozoa. When we say that the testes form their external secretion under sexual excitement only, we simply mean that they liberate or release spermatozoa under sexual excitement. The spermatozoa must be looked upon as the fertilizing element of the semen, while the liquid portion of the semen probably contains that mysterious element which, absorbed into the body, produces virility and which, passed out with the spermatozoa, may have an important role to perform in the fertilizing function.

If the adolescent young man is leading a continent life, we may assume that from time to time he is subjected to conditions which serve as strong sexual stimuli, arousing in him a definite desire for sexual intercourse; but leading a continent life, he curbs his desire and fixes his thoughts upon other subjects. In this way, though the sexual excitement is brought quickly under abeyance, we can rest assured that a certain number of spermatozoa have been released from the testes; and that the other secretions have been increased in volume. The excitement may be sufficient even to cause an erection, and produce a few drops of the secretion of Cowper's glands. The spermatozoa, together with a small amount of the liquid secretion, will make their way gradually along the vasa deferentia and collect in the ampullæ. The bulk of the liquid secretion, however, will, in the course of the following hours or days, be reabsorbed, thus making for virility. The small advance guard of spermatozoa that may have made their way to the ampullæ will undergo a gradual decrease of their nascent activity, as the days go by. On the occasion of the next nocturnal emission the ampullæ will empty along with the seminal vesicles and these spermatozoa pass out. If they be examined under the microscope as a part of a normal nocturnal emission, they will be found to be almost motionless or very greatly lacking in typical spermatozoon activity.

Now let us suppose that the young man, instead of curbing his sexual appetite, resorts, after a season of erotic imaginations, to the act of masturbation. We may picture the seminal ducts, vasa deferentia and ampullæ as being gorged with the secretion of the testes, including, of course, myriads of just released and nascent spermatozoa, together with several cubic centimeters of the liquid portion of the testicular secretion. The act of masturbation causes an orgasm and leads to a complete emptying of all these ducts. Thus we note that in this case the virile fluid is wasted, not being used in the procreative act or reabsorbed to exert its influence on virility. Nature's ends have been defeated. The system suffers a certain degree of depletion from which it recovers only after hours or even days. It must be evident from this picture of the processes that go on in the male sexual apparatus incident to the act of masturbation that the act cannot be performed repeatedly, as it naturally is when it becomes a habit, without interfering with the virility of the adolescent male.

In the study of a large number of cases the author has found that the principal physical changes that occur in a young man as the result of this habit are, flabbiness of muscle and clamminess of hands. The really virile man possesses firm muscles and clear, direct eyes and a strong grip; usually also a warm grip.

It has been thought by some that pimples on the face are a sign of masturbation in the youth, but such is not the case. They are a sign of lack of elimination through the kidneys and bowels and are not to be interpreted as having any essential relation to masturbation. There may possibly be an incidental relation growing out of the fact that in some cases of masturbation that habit seems to affect the nutrition and that in turn may cause the appearance of pimples on the face of the adolescent. However, one must be very slow to pass judgment in these cases.

Not the least important among the results of masturbation is the attitude of the victim to society in general. This psychical change is noticed in immoderate cases of masturbation and takes the form of disinclination to enter into any physical contests, or games; and disinclination to cultivate the society of the opposite sex. Here again one must be conservative in his judgment, because there are individuals who possess a very retiring temperament naturally, and who may become so engrossed in study or productive work that they take little share in the society of either sex, so that individuals who may be wholly innocent of any abuse of their sexual apparatus would suffer a very grave injustice if they were classed among the masturbators. So allow the author at this place to emphasize the importance of never passing judgment on anybody in these matters on circumstantial evidence.

While the damage that one may do to his system through the practice of masturbation may not be very serious, in many cases that have come under the author's observation in which the habit has reached extreme limits, very serious, sometimes irretrievable damage has been done, yet the encouraging feature of this whole matter is, that if the adolescent youth, who is practicing this habit, is warned of its danger and stops at once absolutely, nature comes to his rescue, and gradually, step by step, but surely, rebuilds the whole fabric of his virility, bringing back gradually the flush of perfect health into his cheek, the light of perfect manhood into his eye and the tone of perfect virility into his muscles.

This change can be wrought in from one to three years of absolute continence. Nature, like a loving mother, heals the wounds of her child with a kiss.

3. CONTINENCE.

Such frequent reference has been made above to continence in antithesis to illicit intercourse and masturbation that little need be said in addition to that which has preceded. The young man who holds before his mental vision an ideal of the home he hopes some day to establish—in which a pure wife reigns as queen, sovereign of his life, and gently hovers over a brood of lusty boys and fair girls—cannot for a moment consider as a sane solution of his sexual problem, periodic visits to the house of ill fame or the periodic lapse into illicit intercourse with clandestines; nor can he expect to develop his powers, physically or intellectually to the highest possible degree if he permits himself to contract that habit [masturbation] which, step by step, undermines his development. There is open to the young man only one of the three alternatives mentioned above, 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, of the consciousness of his ability to establish and maintain a home, and to protect this home against all dangers.

CHAPTER V. HYGIENE.

HYGIENE.ToC

It is proposed in this chapter to outline, very briefly, a few simple rules of hygiene, the observance of which will tend to bring the young man into the highest possible state of physical development. Assuming that he wishes to lead a continent life, the observance of these rules will make that much desired condition more easily attainable.

1. DIET.

a. Choice of Food.—The young man who is boarding at a restaurant or in a boarding club can modify his diet only within the range of the menu provided. Fortunately, the young man can observe the most important rule of diet, i.e., to eat abstemiously. Wherever one is boarding he can eat temperately; he can avoid highly spiced foods, tea and coffee. The observance of these simple rules will go a long way towards simplifying his sexual problem. It has been discovered by the study of the influence of diet upon sexual appetite, that the heavy eating of rich and highly spiced foods, indulgence in stimulants and narcotics, all tend to excite the sexual desires.

The author presents a menu that would be looked upon as a temperate one for a student: