John Harvey Kellogg · Public domain edition · 343 cards · 96 chapters
John Harvey Kellogg’s Plain Facts for Old and Young argues that sexual knowledge should be given to children gradually and accurately rather than concealed, warning that partial understanding is more dangerous than complete instruction. The deck covers the preface’s aims and circulation advice and the chapter’s objections to sexual instruction, parental motives, and methods for imparting information.
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Chapter 1 · Question
According to the preface, what is the prime object of this book?
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Chapter 1 · Answer
The author states the prime object is to call attention to the great prevalence of sexual excesses of all kinds, the heinous crimes resulting from some forms of sexual transgression, and to point out the terrible results that inevitably follow violation of sexual law. He also says the book is written for all old enough to understand it, not for the young alone.
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Section 14 cards
According to the preface, what is the prime object of this book?
The author states the prime object is to call attention to the great prevalence of sexual excesses of all kinds, the heinous crimes resulting from some forms of sexual transgression, and to point out the terrible results that inevitably follow violation of sexual law. He also says the book is written for all old enough to understand it, not for the young alone.
Chapter 1
Why does the preface include a section on the anatomy of reproduction?
The author explains that to make the teachings of nature about sexual law and the evils of violating it clearer, a concise description of reproductive anatomy is needed first. He says he avoided indelicacy but would not sacrifice perspicuity to prudish modesty, arguing scientific language is chaste in itself and becomes impure only through a corrupt imagination.
Chapter 1
What does the preface say about how the book should be circulated and read?
The author says the work should be judiciously circulated, with publishers placing it in the hands of agents competent to introduce it with discretion. Yet he also claims it may be read without injury by anyone sufficiently mature to understand it. He notes care was taken to exclude accounts of vicious persons' habits and descriptions of vice's mechanical accessories found in many sexual works.
Chapter 1
How does the preface describe the reception of earlier editions?
The author says the first editions were issued with anxiety about adverse criticism from readers whose education unfitted them to appreciate the work, but he hoped thoughtful, unbiased minds would receive it kindly. He reports the anticipation was more than realized: the book met a warm reception, hundreds acknowledged benefit, the press was cordial, and demand exhausted several editions, prompting an enlarged version with two added chapters for boys and girls.
Chapter 1
Section 24 cards
What objection to sexual instruction does Kellogg address first, and how does he answer it?
The objection is that sexual matters are too delicate to mention to children, who should be kept in ignorance until puberty. The author argues children nearly always already have vague sexual ideas before puberty, so proper instruction only presents an existing subject in a true light, satisfying curiosity and preventing them from seeking distorted information from evil sources.
Chapter 2
According to Kellogg, why do parents most opposed to sexual instruction often hold that view?
The author argues that parents most opposed to imparting sexual information are often those who have themselves indulged in sexual excesses. In their minds the sexual organs and functions are associated only with lust and gross sensuality, so they wish to keep such topics in the dark and cannot bear the scrutiny of virtue.
Chapter 2
What method does Kellogg say his book uses to avoid exciting sensuality in readers?
The author states he diverts the reader's mind from the sexual function in man by frequent references to corresponding functions in lower animals and the vegetable kingdom. This imparts additional information while viewing the sexual function as a fact of natural history, associated with animal innocence and the chaste loveliness of flowers, freeing it from the gross animal instinct that causes sensuality.
Chapter 2
How does Kellogg characterize most other books written on his subject?
The author argues most such works are utterly unreliable, filled with gross misrepresentations and exaggerations, and designed as advertising for ignorant charlatans or worthless patent nostrums. Many contain pictorial illustrations that stimulate animal propensities and excite lewd imaginations; their influence is as great as grossly obscene works, and even well-meant books often tend toward the opposite of their intended effect.
Chapter 2
Section 34 cards
According to the chapter, why is partial knowledge more dangerous than complete understanding?
The author argues that children will not remain in innocent ignorance; if parents do not instruct them, they will seek answers from older companions or books, and knowledge gained this way is unreliable and often corrupting. The clandestine manner of obtaining it is itself demoralizing, so the author concludes it is better for parents to impart the information with proper warnings.
Chapter 3
What rule does the chapter give for when sexual information should be given to children?
The chapter states it is difficult to fix an exact age, but offers a safe rule: impart a certain amount of knowledge as soon as curiosity in this direction is manifested. If there is reason to believe the child's mind is exercised on the subject, even without particular inquiries, information should not be withheld.
Chapter 3
How does the chapter say proper knowledge should be imparted to children?
The author advises skill in introducing the subject so as not to arouse passions or create sexual excitement. Information should not be given all at once: first obtain the child's confidence and assure him by candor that he will receive all needed information, then answer truthfully and carefully when he asks. Dr. Wilkinson is quoted favoring telling children the truth from the first.
Chapter 3
What does Dr. Ware argue about hiding sexual knowledge from the young?
Dr. Ware argues that even setting aside whether it is desirable, it is impracticable to hide the subject from children, as every man of experience would confirm. Since their minds cannot be kept from it, he says it is better to forestall evil impressions by implanting good ones, mingling good with evil, and imparting just and religious views of the relation between the sexes.
Chapter 3
Section 44 cards
According to the chapter, what are the two great functions common to all living creatures?
Nutrition and reproduction. Nutrition serves the development and maintenance of the individual existence; reproduction aims at producing new individuals, or preserving the race. The author calls nutrition a purely selfish process and reproduction purely unselfish in its object, though he argues humans, unlike lower animals, too often pervert reproduction's functions to grossly selfish ends.
Chapter 4
Why does the chapter say no single trait cleanly separates animals from vegetables?
Most vegetables stay stationary and draw nutriment from earth and air, while animals subsist on living matter—but some plants move and swim like animals, and a few catch and kill small insects. The author states it is impossible to draw a precise line, since the kingdoms blend so intimately that some microscopic specks cannot be classified, though this is usually of no practical importance.
Chapter 4
What does the author argue about the so-called 'vital force'?
The author argues that positing a peculiar vital force merely furnishes a name for something unknown, and that the theory vanishes before the more rational view of advanced modern scientists: vital force is only a manifestation of ordinary natural forces acting through a peculiar arrangement of matter. Thus life depends on organization, not organization on life—life results from organization.
Chapter 4
How does the chapter describe the lowest forms of life seen under a microscope?
They are mere atoms of living matter—transparent, structureless specks of trembling jelly with no organs of locomotion, nerves, or sense organs, yet able to move, take food, grow, reproduce, age, and die. Some are so minute that one hundred million could fit in a cube one-thousandth of an inch per side, yet each performs its functions, perhaps more perfectly than man.
Chapter 4
Section 53 cards
What is spontaneous generation, and what did Pasteur and Tyndall demonstrate about it?
Spontaneous generation is the supposed formation of living creatures directly from dead matter without other living organisms. The chapter says the ancients applied it to frogs and marshes, and that belief in maggots from decaying meat was disproved when flesh protected from flies produced none. Pasteur, Tyndall, and other scientists demonstrated that even microscopic beings are not independent of parentage, establishing that every living organism originates with a previously existing living being.
Chapter 5
According to the chapter, what power does the Creator delegate to plants versus to man and animals?
The chapter states the Creator alone can originate life, and delegated organizing power to plants: a grain of wheat, kernel of corn, or potato takes inert matter from earth and air and organizes it into living substance. To man and animals was delegated the power to form their own structures from the vitalized tissues of plants. The author argues this view harmonizes with Genesis, where God formed man, animals, and plants from the earth.
Chapter 5
What distinguishes male from female, and why were some sexual relations long undiscovered?
Rising higher in the scale, reproduction results from union of two dissimilar elements produced by special organs, each adapted to forming one kind. The two classes of organs usually exist in separate individuals, giving distinctions of sex: a male possesses organs forming one kind of element, a female the other. Sexual differences are not confined to sexual organs; in some lower animals and many plants, males and females are so unlike that no sexual relation was long recognized.
Chapter 5
Section 63 cards
How does the chapter describe sex in plants, including the corn example?
The author argues botanists recognize sex distinctions in plants as clearly as in animals. The seed-producing flower part answers to the female; the part incapable of forming seeds answers to the male. Fertile and sterile flowers may grow on separate plants or separate parts of one plant, as in oak, walnut, and Indian corn, where the tassel holds male flowers and the silk with its attached ear holds the female flowers.
Chapter 6
What does the chapter say about male and female reproductive organs when studied through embryology?
The chapter states that male and female reproductive organs in man and other animals, though seemingly dissimilar, are found through embryology to be wonderfully alike in structure, differing more in appearance than reality and being little more than modifications of one general plan. Every organ in one sex has an analogue in the other, complete in every particular and corresponding in function, structure, and usually position.
Chapter 6
What differences in height and weight between average men and women does the chapter report?
The chapter reports that in this country the average man is about five feet eight inches tall and weighs one hundred forty-five pounds, while the average woman is five feet two or two and one-half inches and weighs one hundred twenty-five pounds. That is between five and six inches and about twenty pounds of difference. The author says the degree varies by country but the relation never changes, and Americans average above the general human average.
Chapter 6
Section 74 cards
What does Kellogg claim about the size and quality of the male versus female brain?
The author argues that man possesses a larger brain than woman, but that she compensates for the smaller size with superior fineness in quality. He further asserts that the female brain differs so markedly from the male organ of mentality that one who has studied the subject can determine the probable sex of a skull with perfect ease, a difference he attributes to differing cerebral development and mental character.
Chapter 7
How does Kellogg explain women breathing chiefly with the upper lungs?
Kellogg rejects this as a natural sex difference. He notes boys and girls breathe identically until puberty, when most girls shift to increased intercostal and diminished abdominal respiration. He attributes this change to the corset, stays, and tight-lacing adopted around that time, and reports that women freed from corset-wearing breathe deeply as naturally as men. He concludes the difference is pathological, not physiological.
Chapter 7
What differences in vital organs and endurance does Kellogg describe between men and women?
The author states that a woman has a proportionally smaller heart than a man but a larger liver. He argues this leaves her less fitted for severe physical exertion due to less circulatory power, yet gives her superior excretory powers. From this he concludes woman is less muscular but possesses greater endurance, enduring for months what would kill a robust man in weeks, secured by more perfect elimination of bodily wastes.
Chapter 7
Which flower parts does Kellogg identify as essential and which as accessory?
Kellogg states that complete flowers consist of four parts. Two are essential: the stamen, the male organ, and the pistil, the female organ. Two are accessory: the calyx, the outer and lower surrounding part, usually green or greenish, and the corolla, just within the calyx, which usually forms the showy, beautifully colored part of the flower, as in rose or geranium petals.
Chapter 7
Section 84 cards
What did Linnaeus base his classification of flowers on?
The author states that Linnaeus made the number of stamens possessed by various flowers the basis of a systematic classification. Flowers with one stamen were classed as monandria (one husband), those with two as diandria, and flowers with many male organs as polyandria, or many husbands.
Chapter 8
What happens to the testicles during development, and what abnormalities can result?
The testicles form within the abdominal cavity near the kidneys but usually descend to their permanent position before birth. The opening in the abdominal wall usually closes shortly after; if it remains open, congenital hernia can occur, where a loop of intestine follows the testicle into the scrotum. The author notes that undescended testes do not interfere with organ function.
Chapter 8
What are spermatozoa, and how do they develop in the testis?
Spermatozoa are the male reproductive element, about 1/600 of an inch long in humans. They originate in the testis as cells filled with granules; each granule acquires a long appendage, converting the cell into a bundle of zoosperms. The bundle's outer pellicle ruptures, liberating young spermatozoa that complete development. The author says the spermatozoon is pure protoplasm, and its motion led early observers to mistake it for an animalcule.
Chapter 8
Which reproductive element is principal, the zoosperm or the ovum?
The author reports that the ancients supposed the male element to be essential, merely nourished by the female, but modern biological research does not sustain this view. Probably neither enjoys especial preeminence, since neither can undergo complete development without the other. In very rare cases the ovum develops somewhat on its own, but a perfect individual requires union of both elements, called fecundation.
Chapter 8
Section 93 cards
How is pollen transferred when male and female flowers grow on separate plants?
The author states that when male and female parts sit on different plants, as in the willow, poplar, and melon vine, wind or gentle breezes waft pollen to the stigma, usually nearby though fertilization can occur at considerable distances. Bees, moths, other insects, small birds, and even snails carry fertilizing dust on wings, antennae, tubes, and feet; insects are poetically called the marriage priests of flowers.
Chapter 9
How does fecundation differ between fish and reptiles versus higher animals?
In most fish and reptiles both elements are discharged from the parents' bodies before contact, with no contact between individuals: the female drops ova at spawning season while the male follows and discharges zoosperms upon them, as frogs do when the male rides the female's back. In higher animals fecundation occurs inside the female's organs through contact, requiring accessory organs, the penis and vagina.
Chapter 9
What alternating reproduction does the author describe in the polyp?
The polyp attaches to a solid object and grows bud-like protuberances. Some buds separate and swim about as separate animals; these never resemble the parent polyp, but they lay eggs that hatch into stationary polyps like their grandparent, which in turn throw off buds to form swimming polyps. The author calls this two kinds of generation combined, alternating with each other.
Chapter 9
Section 104 cards
How does reproduction in plant-lice alternate between generations?
Males and females unite and produce eggs; the hatched young are imperfect females that reproduce live young without union, apparently from internal buds like a polyp's external buds. After eight or ten such generations, a few perfect individuals appear and the original process repeats.
Chapter 10
What does the chapter claim about human beings as buds?
The author cites an eminent physiologist's suggestion that the ovum and zoosperm may be considered internal buds, making generation universally a process of budding. A child is described as a compound bud, an offshoot of its parents, and men and women are called blossoms in a strictly scientific sense.
Chapter 10
How do higher animals and humans differ from fishes and reptiles in protecting young?
Most fishes and reptiles discharge ova and leave them unprotected, though some fishes carry eggs in the mouth or a pouch, and some frogs and toads carry eggs on legs, abdomen, or back. Higher animals are less prolific and their development more complicated, so ova are retained internally in the uterus.
Chapter 10
What happens to the ovum after it enters the uterus, and what is the primitive trace?
If fecundation does not occur, the ovum is expelled or absorbed after six to twelve or fourteen days. If zoosperms fecundate it, conception occurs and the ovum divides symmetrically, adheres to the uterine wall, and develops a primitive trace that becomes the spinal column, with one end the head and the other the tail.
Chapter 10
Section 114 cards
What does the chapter say about the umbilical cord's composition and function?
The chapter describes the umbilical cord as a cable of blood-vessels connecting the fetus to the placenta, carrying fetal blood to and from it. It contains no nerves, so there is no nervous connection between mother and child; the child can be influenced by the mother only through the blood. The cord attaches at the navel and is cut at birth by the accoucheur.
Chapter 11
How does the chapter describe the fetus receiving oxygen and nourishment before birth?
Oxygen and nutriment reach the fetus through the placenta, a spongy blood-vessel growth on the inner wall of the uterus where the ovum attaches. Fetal blood does not mix with the mother's; it receives oxygen and nourishment by absorption through the thin walls separating it from her blood. The chapter notes the mother must breathe for the child as well as eat for it.
Chapter 11
According to the chapter, at what point is the fetus considered viable?
The chapter states that at the seventh month the fetus is fourteen to fifteen inches long and weighs two to three pounds, and is then viable—meaning it may live if born. At the sixth month, by contrast, if born, life could continue only a few minutes.
Chapter 11
What does the chapter claim about pain in childbirth and its causes?
The author argues that while some suffering must always accompany parturition, the excessive pain usually involved results from causes that can often be removed by proper management beforehand and at confinement. He claims modern medical science can greatly lessen suffering, and that barbarian women and many lower-class laborers' wives experience little pain, attributing civilized women's greater suffering to wrong habits and modern civilization.
Chapter 11
Section 124 cards
What change occurs in the child's circulation at birth?
At the moment of expulsion into the outer world, the child's lungs fill with air for the first time and receive the full tide of blood. The whole course of circulation changes and an entirely new process begins. The chapter notes surprise at how short a time such marvelous changes require.
Chapter 12
What does the chapter say about alcohol for nursing mothers?
The author argues the popular notion that lager-beer, ale, wine, or alcohol is necessary or beneficial to a nursing woman is a great error. Medicine and stimulants taken by the mother pass into the milk and can affect the infant more than herself, with cases of infants kept intoxicated for weeks. He condemns the practice as injuring both mother and child.
Chapter 12
What is colostrum and when does true milk begin?
The first product of the mammae is not proper milk but a yellowish fluid called colostrum. The true milk secretion begins two or three days after delivery. The chapter also notes the gland is usually inactive even in women until near the close of gestation, and mentions rare cases of functional activity in men and young girls.
Chapter 12
How do the Fallopian tube cilia move the ovum?
The filaments and interior of the Fallopian tubes are covered with cells bearing minute cilia in constant motion, all moving in the same direction toward the cavity of the uterus. When an ovum escapes from the ovary at menstruation, these hairs propel it along a filament to the tube and thence to the uterus, where fecundation may occur anywhere between ovary and lower uterine orifice.
Chapter 12
Section 134 cards
According to the chapter, what typically causes puberty to occur earlier or later?
The chapter states climate strongly affects timing: puberty comes at fourteen or fourteen and a half in females in this latitude, later in cool climates like Norway and Siberia (eighteen or nineteen), and as early as nine or ten in the tropics. It also lists habits, temperament, constitutional tendency, education, and idiosyncrasy as hastening causes, while vigorous physical exercise tends to delay it.
Chapter 13
What dietary advice does the chapter give regarding puberty's onset?
The author argues stimulating foods—pepper, vinegar, mustard, spices, condiments, tea, coffee, and excess animal food—hasten puberty and should be prohibited or used sparingly by children. He claims nitrogenous nutrients can be obtained from oatmeal, unbolted wheat flour, peas, and beans instead. He also warns against too abstemious a diet, noting many young ladies induced serious disease by actual starvation.
Chapter 13
What does the chapter claim about premature sexual development and later life?
The author argues that whatever occasions early or premature sexual development also occasions premature decay: females reaching puberty at ten or twelve are shriveled and wrinkled by the time their age doubles, while late maturers retain beauty and strength longer. He therefore calls unnaturally early puberty a cause for anxiety, usually indicating inherent weakness, and warns against supposing it a sign of superior vigor.
Chapter 13
What physical changes does the chapter describe as occurring at puberty?
In both sexes, hair grows over the symphysis pubis, around the sexual organs, and in the armpits. In man, the chest and shoulders broaden, the larynx enlarges, the voice lowers from elongated vocal cords, and facial and body hair grows; the testicles begin secreting seminal fluid. In woman, the pelvis and abdomen enlarge, the frame stays more slender, the mammae enlarge, ovarian vesicles dilate, and periodic discharge of ova with sanguineous fluid is established.
Chapter 13
Section 144 cards
What five rules does the chapter give for treating adolescents during rapid change?
The author lists five: do not overwork the boy or girl mentally or physically; keep the mind occupied with light, useful employment or harmless amusement, avoiding idleness; ensure abundant outdoor exercise, sunshine, and fresh air for both sexes; carefully watch the youth's associations, especially at this critical period; and apply care properly, since a weak solicitude pandering to every whim and perverted appetite is a fatal error.
Chapter 14
How does Dalton describe the symptoms and discharge of menstruation?
Dalton says the female feels discomfort, lassitude, pelvic weight, and disinclination to society. Vaginal mucus begins, becoming yellowish or rusty brown from blood, then nearly pure blood by the second or third day. The unpleasant sensations usually subside, and the discharge grows scanty, changing from red to brownish until it disappears and the female returns to her ordinary condition.
Chapter 14
What does the chapter say about the nature and timing of menstruation and ovulation?
The author says no entirely satisfactory conclusions exist on the cause and nature of menstruation, except that it is usually accompanied by maturation and expulsion of an ovum (ovulation). But menstruation may occur without ovulation, and vice versa. The discharge of the ovum generally takes place about the time the flow ceases, and immediately afterward the female's sexual desires are more intense.
Chapter 14
What hints does the chapter give for care during menstruation?
The author advises avoiding taking cold: avoid exposure, but not constant confinement in a warm room, which increases susceptibility; a daily bath and daily open-air exercise are the best preventives. Intense mental excitement and severe physical labor should be avoided, since intense study, anger, sudden grief, or even great merriment may arrest the process prematurely. The malaise is a warning to rest, and the individual should be kept comfortable, calm, and cheerful.
Chapter 14
Section 154 cards
What did Kellogg claim was the main cause of injury to schoolgirls during menstruation?
The author argues that many young women permanently injured their constitutions at school through excessive mental taxation during the catamenial period, driven by ambition or the "cramming" system. However, he also states that moderate sound study is not injurious to a healthy young woman, and that much of the attributed injury came from other causes such as improper dress, exposure to cold, late hours, and improper diet.
Chapter 15
What remedy does Kellogg propose for constipation and bladder irritation from resisting nature?
Kellogg advises establishing a daily bowel habit at a set hour, discarding all laxative and cathartic drugs, eating oatmeal, wheat-meal, fruit and vegetables while avoiding fine-flour bread, sweetmeats and condiments, taking daily exercise short of fatigue, kneading and percussing the bowels if confined indoors, and never resisting the calls of nature. He warns that retained feces cause foul breath as odors enter the blood and escape at the lungs.
Chapter 15
How does Kellogg explain the ease of childbirth among Indian women?
Kellogg states that Indian women suffer scarcely at all from the pains of childbirth, and argues one reason is preservation of sexual health through rest during the menstrual period. He says they invariably absent themselves from the lodge and enjoy absolute rest at those seasons. He suggests a similar custom may have prevailed among ancient Hebrew women based on Mosaic laws, and concludes that if hardy forest women benefit from rest, more delicate women certainly may.
Chapter 15
What three dress faults does Kellogg identify as causing menstrual and uterine disease?
Kellogg identifies three glaring evils: unequal distribution of clothing, where the trunk and pelvis are over-covered while limbs, ankles and feet get only thin protection, causing colds; skirts hung on the hips and drawn tight at the waist rather than supported from the shoulders, pressing pelvic organs down and congesting the uterus; and tight lacing with a corset, which produces the same results. He calls reform imperative for any woman seeking sexual health.
Chapter 15
Section 164 cards
Why does Kellogg say the first two years after puberty are decisive for a woman's health?
The author argues that if a woman gets through the first two years after puberty without acquiring serious uterine or ovarian disease, she has a good chance of sexual health for the rest of her life. He claims the foundation of many thousands of uterine disease cases is laid in this period, so careful attention to establishing the menstrual function at the outset matters greatly.
Chapter 16
What does Kellogg identify as a certain sign that something is seriously wrong with menstruation?
Kellogg states that if there is pain, it is certain evidence of something seriously wrong, and any irregularity deserves serious attention. Because the young daughter is usually too young to recognize or appreciate slight deviations from health, he says it is a duty no mother should neglect to inquire into the frequency of periods, the amount and character of the discharge, and other points.
Chapter 16
How does Kellogg treat menorrhagia, and what does he say about the popular fear of cold?
Kellogg recommends absolute rest, chiefly supine, during the period and for a few days before it. If the flow persists, he advises cool or even cold compresses on the lower abdomen and small of the back, and ice-compresses in severe cases, while keeping hands, arms, feet, and limbs thoroughly warm with warm bottles and woolen blankets. He says the popular fear of cold is groundless so long as the extremities stay warm and the patient is not made chilly.
Chapter 16
What does Kellogg say about hysteria, including its relationship to the uterus and its ability to mimic disease?
Kellogg notes hysteria has long been linked to morbid states of the female reproductive organs, especially the uterus, but says it is not exclusively caused by these, since men sometimes suffer from it too. He says it simulates almost every disease, even consumption, enough to deceive experienced physicians. He describes cases of young women thought to be in the last stages of pulmonary disease where chest examination found no pulmonary disease, with symptoms disappearing after the true state was disclosed.
Chapter 16
Section 174 cards
What does Kellogg say causes the disease of the uterus discussed here?
The author argues the foundation of this disease is almost always laid in some indiscretion that induces disease of the uterus, so careful attention to this part of the organism is required. He insists it is a real malady from morbid states of the system, not a trivial matter of diseased imagination needing only mental treatment, and requires substantial treatment as much as rheumatism or dyspepsia.
Chapter 17
What does Kellogg claim about prevention and hygiene in these maladies?
The author argues prevention is better than cure: these maladies are noted for obstinacy when morbid conditions have long existed, and some of the most inveterate nervous disorders, including spinal irritation and organic disease of the spine, originate this way. He holds attention to sexual hygiene, especially menstrual hygiene at the function's first establishment, is of gravest importance—with it drugs are rarely required; without it they are utterly useless.
Chapter 17
What does the chapter say about extra-uterine pregnancy and twins?
Sometimes the ovum is fecundated before reaching the uterus and remains in the Fallopian tube or on the ovary, or falls into the abdominal cavity and is fecundated there; such abnormally placed ova develop to some degree and commonly result in the death of the mother. The human female usually matures one ovum per menstrual period, the two ovaries acting alternately; occasionally two, rarely three or four, are matured at once, producing corresponding embryos.
Chapter 17
How does the chapter explain conjoined twins and hybrids?
The author states such cases as the Carolina twins and Chang and Eng were formerly supposed to result from union of two separate individuals but are now believed to develop from a single ovum, the primitive trace sometimes dividing partially in various patterns. On hybrids, he states no progeny result from union of different species; varieties of the same species may form a fertile union, as the mule from horse and ass, but the offspring are almost without exception sterile because they do not produce mature generative elements.
Chapter 17
Section 184 cards
What theory of sex control does the chapter attribute to Prof. Thury of Geneva?
The chapter describes Thury's theory that the timing of fecundation controls the child's sex: conception shortly after menstruation yields a female, while impregnation later in the month, before the three or four days preceding the next menstrual period, almost certainly produces a male. Dr. Heitzman of New York is said to have tested it and found it reliable, though the chapter calls it a theory awaiting confirmation.
Chapter 18
How does the doctrine of pangenesis explain heredity, according to the chapter?
The chapter presents pangenesis as the theory that cellular centers of nutrition shed minute granules called gemmules, each able to develop into a cell like its parent. The testicles and ovaries collect these gemmules into reproductive elements, so each ovum and zoosperm contains representatives of every part of the individual plus gemmules transmitted from ancestors. The chapter argues this explains resemblance to parents and even to grandparents or uncles.
Chapter 18
What examples does the chapter give of transplanted tissue surviving in a new location?
The chapter cites a cock's spur grafted onto an ox's ear that lived eight years, reaching nine inches and nearly a pound; a tooth made to grow on a cock's comb; and a pig's tail transplanted to the animal's back that retained sensibility. These are offered as proof that every minute structure has a central growth point, supporting the pangenesis argument.
Chapter 18
What does the author argue about ante-natal influences and human reproduction?
The author argues that parental conditions can mold offspring's mental and physical traits, as stock-raisers and pigeon fanciers demonstrate, yet humans rarely apply these principles. He claims people reproduce haphazardly, quoting a writer who says the urban poor virtually 'spawn children.' He further suggests many criminals may be less responsible for their crimes than those who brought them into the world.
Chapter 18
Section 194 cards
What did Dugdale find when studying the "Juke" family?
Dugdale, a member of the New York Prison Association, traced 709 of 1200 descendants of five sisters over seventy-five years. He reported 280 paupers, 140 criminals, 60 thieves, 7 murderers, 165 prostitutes and adulteresses, 91 illegitimate children, 480 with syphilitic disease, and a cost to the state of $1,308,000. The author says a complete summary would be worse, since suspected but unconfirmed cases were excluded.
Chapter 19
What physiological claim does the author make about parental influence on offspring?
The author asserts it is an established physiological fact that the character of offspring is influenced by the mental as well as physical conditions of the parents at the moment of the generative act. He argues that debasing the reproductive function to selfish animal indulgence imprints on children an almost irresistible tendency to vice, and asks how parents can witness sexual depravity in children without conscience pangs.
Chapter 19
What does Prof. O. W. Holmes say about reforming heredity?
Holmes remarks that people think everything can be done if the doctor, educator or physician, is called in season, but "in season" would often be a hundred or two years before the child was born, and people never send so early. He adds that each person is the footing up of a double column of figures going back to the first pair, with some units plus and some minus.
Chapter 19
How does the author qualify expectations for improving offspring?
The author concedes that some writers have greatly exaggerated what proper attention to these laws can achieve. He states that all cannot be equally beautiful, every child cannot be a genius, and six thousand years of transgression cannot be effaced in one generation. Still, he argues persevering efforts to comply with health, purity, morality and natural law will accomplish wonders in securing healthy children with good dispositions and brilliant intellects.
Chapter 19
Section 214 cards
What analogy does the chapter reject as a defense of childhood sexual precocity?
The chapter rejects the argument that precocious sexuality is natural because young lambs and other animals show it. It replies that sexual development corresponds with an animal's longevity: short-lived animals like sheep mature sexually quickly, while long-lived man should have these manifestations delayed until a much later period. Insects that mate as soon as they reach perfect form perish right after the act.
Chapter 21
How did parents respond when the teacher reported children imitating the "Black Crook"?
A friend teaching a country school learned that children aged eight to fourteen were gathering in barns and other secluded places, undressing and imitating the "Black Crook" with added nastiness. When he informed the parents, they laughed indifferently and said it was only natural, perfectly harmless, "just like little pigs." The chapter condemns this apathy, saying such parents likely learned too late that these were incipient vices.
Chapter 21
According to Dr. Acton, what subtle signs suggest a boy has premature sexual inclination?
Dr. Acton says slight signs suffice: the boy singles out one girl and takes unusual pleasure in her society. His attentions are not ordinary boyish good nature but little courtesies usually reserved for later, showing sadly premature feeling. He may seem healthy and enjoy playing with other boys, yet his play with the girl is different, his kindness a little too ardent, and he fondles her with tenderness suggesting dawning passion.
Chapter 21
What causes of sexual precocity does the chapter list besides heredity?
The chapter names several causes beyond hereditary predisposition: irritation from worms in the rectum, local irritation or uncleanliness, and irritation of the bladder, the last indicated by frequent bed-wetting at night, which doubly demands immediate attention. It also mentions marital excesses, alluded to under another heading, and deprecates juvenile parties where young children imitate fashionable dinners and sham marriages, which tend to develop the sexes' distinctive peculiarities prematurely.
Chapter 21
Section 224 cards
According to Kellogg, what physiological age marks the earliest admissible time for marriage?
Kellogg states that physiology fixes the earliest admissible age for marriage at complete body development: not before twenty for females and twenty-four for males. He notes that even if growth seems finished, bone ossification is not fully effected, so development remains incomplete. He cites Mayer, who sets the normal epoch at the twentieth year for women and the twenty-fourth for men.
Chapter 22
Why does Kellogg argue that early marriage produces immature offspring?
Kellogg argues that reproductive elements are complete representatives of the parents, composed of minute gemmules that develop into the new being's cells and organs. If the body is still incomplete, the reproductive elements must also be incomplete, so the progeny is equally immature. He adds that the reproductive act exhausts an undeveloped person, retarding growth and weakening the constitution.
Chapter 22
What did Cicero reply when asked whether he still indulged in love's pleasures?
Kellogg quotes Parise, who reports that Cicero was asked if he still indulged in the pleasures of love. Cicero replied, 'Heaven forbid, I have forsworn it as I would a savage and a furious master.' Parise uses this as an example of the important knowledge a man in years should attain: to learn to become old betimes if he wishes to reach old age.
Chapter 22
What does Kellogg say about the theory that spouses should be as alike as possible?
Kellogg describes a writer of some note who advocates that parties contemplating marriage should select partners as nearly like themselves as possible, with exact duplicates making the most perfect union. Kellogg presents this critically: to make the theory practicable, the writer falls back on phrenology, directing suitors to obtain a phrenological chart and circulate it until a counterpart is found, even using newspaper advertising.
Chapter 22
Section 234 cards
What theory of mate selection does Kellogg refute in this chapter?
The author argues against the theory that people should marry partners with the same traits and temperaments as themselves. He claims such unions would produce domestic conflict, divorce, or a "domestic broil," and that unbalanced temperaments would grow more unbalanced rather than being checked by an opposite example. He also says the children of such unions would inherit exaggerated parental faults.
Chapter 23
What middle course does Kellogg recommend for choosing a marriage partner?
Kellogg states that the true course lies between the two extremes: not identical temperaments, and not wholly dissimilar tastes, aims, and temperaments. He says couples considering a life partnership should ensure there is a sufficient degree of congeniality of temperament to make close, continued association agreeable. He notes that alliances of wholly dissimilar people would be quite as wretched.
Chapter 23
What does Kellogg say about extreme age disparity in marriage?
Kellogg says both nature and custom indicate the husband should be a little older than the wife, but a difference of thirty, forty, or fifty or more years abuses nature, offends good taste, and shocks morality. He calls such alliances disastrous to both parties, and says an old man marrying a young girl risks sudden death and premature decay.
Chapter 23
Which authorities does Kellogg cite on the dangers of the sexual act for older men?
Kellogg cites Dr. Acton, who says the nervous paroxysm of the sexual spasm can be dangerous and that men with weak hearts have died in the act, with men sometimes found dead on their wedding night. Acton also says old men who marry young wives become martyrs to paralysis, softening of the brain, and driveling idiocy. Kellogg also quotes Dr. Gardner and the Abbe Maury.
Chapter 23
Section 244 cards
What does Dr. Gardner say about children born to old men?
Dr. Gardner claims such children habitually bear a serious, sad countenance unlike normal infantile expression, and as they grow their features take on an increasingly senile character. He says most offspring of these unions are weak, torpid, lymphatic, if not scrofulous, and do not promise a long career, with early death frequently confirming the prediction.
Chapter 24
What does Dr. Acton conclude about the children of old men?
Dr. Acton concludes that children of old men have an inferior chance of life, and says daily facts confirm this. He describes their value as the worst kind: spoilt childhood, feeble and precocious youth, extravagant manhood, and early and premature death.
Chapter 24
How does the chapter describe unions where a young man marries a much older woman?
The chapter says such unions are rarer than the reverse case, perhaps less deplorable in physical effects but still highly reprehensible. It claims they are seldom prompted by pure motives and can produce no good, and that children resulting from them are notably weak, unbalanced, and sorry specimens of humanity.
Chapter 24
What does the chapter say about American courting customs versus French ones?
The author argues courting as described is distinctly an American custom, and criticizes the unrestrained association of young people in the US. He notes French respectable society does not tolerate a young man seeing a girl alone or taking her out without a lady friend, and says a French matron would be horrified by such liberties.
Chapter 24
Section 263 cards
What role does Kellogg say parents play in youthful flirtations?
The author argues that many parents give tacit or even active encouragement to their children's flirtations, seemingly in ignorance of the evil they are winking at or fostering. He insists parents need enlightenment and should be aroused to the fact that this is one of the most momentous questions in the rearing and training of children.
Chapter 26
What six arguments does the anonymous clergyman's book make for polygamy?
Kellogg lists them: the Bible approves it; a robust man needs more than one woman; women outnumber men so each woman deserves a husband; great men of all ages were polygamists; monogamy is a relic of Greek and Roman paganism; and polygamy is the only cure for the "social evil." The author notes the clergyman's name is excluded from the title-page and the publisher was sworn to secrecy.
Chapter 26
How does Kellogg rebut the claim that women outnumber men, requiring polygamy?
Kellogg concedes a slight excess of adult women but says it is not enough to require polygamy, and that many women are unfit to marry. He notes more males than females are born, the adult disparity coming from higher male mortality, accidents, and war; health reform and abolishing war would erase it. The surplus exists mainly in a few settled regions like Massachusetts and Connecticut, while newly settled countries show the reverse.
Chapter 26
Section 272 cards
How does Kellogg rebut the claim that great men's incontinence justifies polygamy?
The author argues that citing noted men like Plato, Aristotle, Caesar, Napoleon, and Byron as incontinent proves nothing, since the fact that great men committed a crime does not lessen its enormity. He notes many great men were also intemperate or criminal—Alexander was a Sodomite as well as a lecherous rake—and asks whether that makes those vices virtues. Such argument, he says, stultifies itself.
Chapter 27
What does the chapter say about polyandry in Thibet and among the Medes?
Kellogg calls polyandry—one woman possessing multiple husbands—a still greater outrage against nature than polygamy. He says it is common in Thibet, where a woman marrying the eldest of a family of brothers includes all the other brothers in the contract. Among the ancient Medes, both practices occurred: a man needed at least seven wives to be respectable, and women needed as many as five husbands.
Chapter 27
Section 282 cards
Why does Kellogg reject the claim that syphilis patients may marry after symptoms fade?
He calls such assertions dangerous and pernicious, arguing syphilis is the hardest disease to eradicate once the system is thoroughly infected. Not only three years but thirty may pass after active symptoms disappear, yet the disease may return in a more serious form, lie dormant for life, or break out in children. He says it is never safe to call such a person cured.
Chapter 28
What does Kellogg claim about children resembling a mother's earlier husband?
Kellogg asserts that children of a woman by a second husband often resemble the first husband more than their own father, and that children of negro women by pure negro husbands are much lighter if she previously had a child by a white man. He presents this as illustrating that intimate married association modifies the whole constitution. The author argues this, not established fact.
Chapter 28
Section 294 cards
What did Kellogg claim about the offspring of a zebra-mare cross in England?
The author cites an English case in which a male zebra was crossed with several young mares. Not only the hybrid colts but also all colts the same mares later foaled by other horses were striped like the zebra. Kellogg uses this to argue that a woman's system may be profoundly affected by her husband's constitutional weaknesses and individual peculiarities.
Chapter 29
What does Kellogg say about marriage between first cousins?
The author argues that earlier statistics blaming cousin marriages for idiots and defectives are invalidated by more careful examination. When both parties are healthy, he says, there is no more liability of mental incompetency in their children than in offspring of more distant relatives. Still, he does not generally recommend such marriages, since blood relations are more apt to share similar morbid tendencies.
Chapter 29
Which diseases does Kellogg say should absolutely bar marriage?
The author argues that persons with a strong hereditary tendency to consumption, cancer, epilepsy, or insanity should in no case marry. If the morbid tendency is only slight, marriage may be admissible, but only with a partner of robust health. He notes that children of consumptive parents are commonly feeble and puny, and that when both parents carry the tendency the offspring's chance for life is very poor.
Chapter 29
What reasons does Kellogg give against marriage between cousins, criminals, or the deformed?
The author argues criminals often inherit evil proclivities, and inheritance is largely responsible for the increase of crime, so preventive measures deserve consideration. Persons with serious congenital deformities are likely to transmit them to children, though he notes exceptions where development is not seriously defective. Cousin marriages are discouraged mainly because blood relations are more apt to share similar morbid tendencies.
Chapter 29
Section 303 cards
What does Kellogg claim about the saying that two can live as cheaply as one?
The author argues the idea that two can live almost as cheaply as one, so marriage brings savings, is a most fallacious one. He grants occasional exceptions, but says young people who marry with this in mind find they have reasoned not wisely. He adds that a young man can be economical if he will, and if he does not learn economy before marriage, he likely never will.
Chapter 30
What marriage requirement does Kellogg describe in Iceland and among the Patagonians?
Kellogg writes that in Iceland, a young man must appear before the proper authority and present evidence he can support a wife and family as well as himself before marrying. He says the natives of Patagonia show equal good sense: the chief requires each young man to prove competence to provide for a family, having skill in hunting and fishing and at least two horses and necessary equipment.
Chapter 30
What does Kellogg say about a person's level rising after marriage?
The author argues that, with exceptions, a man or woman seldom rises much higher than the level reached at marriage. If a young man has no trade then, he probably never will master one; if he has not fitted himself for a profession, he likely never will attain such rank. He will probably be a common laborer living from hand to mouth with nothing laid by for a rainy day.
Chapter 30
Section 314 cards
Whom does the chapter warn young women against marrying?
The author warns against men with a leaning toward infidelity, who mock religion, are addicted to profanity, drink without practicing total abstinence, use tobacco, or are jockeys, fops, loafers, scheming dreamers, or speculators. He also warns against men known to be unchaste or who have led a licentious life, arguing such men will neglect their obligations to wife and children.
Chapter 31
What does the chapter say about the belief that a reformed rake makes the best husband?
The author calls this one of the greatest errors abroad. He argues a man whose affections were consumed in lust cannot give a pure-minded woman the love she deserves, since a person cannot pass through the fire unscathed. The scars of concupiscence are deep and lasting, and only in the regeneration will they be wholly effaced.
Chapter 31
What does the chapter say about a woman reforming a husband who drinks?
The author grants that noble women have reformed erring husbands through years of patient effort, and that it can happen again. But he calls the experiment most perilous, succeeding for not more than one woman in a hundred. He advises that a man prove himself reformed before marriage, and that a proposition to reform on condition of marriage be dismissed with disdain.
Chapter 31
How does the chapter define chastity, and what does it say about mental unchastity?
Citing the seventh commandment and the Saviour's commentary, the author says chastity requires purity of thought as well as of outward acts. A man who lets his imagination run riot, delights in licentious tales or obscene pictures, or mentally undresses women he passes is not virtuous; though he commits no overt act, he is but one grade above the open libertine.
Chapter 31
Section 324 cards
According to the chapter, what is the 'wide-spread and deadly error' about chastity?
The chapter calls it a deadly error to believe that only outward acts are harmful and that only physical transgression of chastity laws produces disease. It insists that mental sin alone can produce all the effects of 'beastly abuse,' citing Acton's claim that he traced serious affections and great suffering to this cause in patients usually considered continent.
Chapter 32
What does the author say about the phrenological claim that amativeness is located in the cerebellum?
The author notes doubt whether amativeness is located in the cerebellum at all, and says it is certain amativeness is not its exclusive function. He cites Carpenter, who says the seat of sexual sensation is probably in the cerebellum's central portion or part of the medulla oblongata. The author also mocks phrenologists for riding this hobby disgustingly.
Chapter 32
How does the chapter describe the effects of lascivious day-dreams, citing Graham?
Graham is quoted saying lascivious day-dreams and amorous reveries, especially common among the idle, voluptuous, sedentary, and nervous, are often sources of general debility, effeminacy, disordered functions, premature disease, and even premature death, without actual exercise of the genital organs. He calls this unchastity of thought the beginning of immeasurable evil.
Chapter 32
What does the chapter say about unchaste conversation among boys, men, and women?
The author calls boys' and young men's filthy stories, foul jokes, and lewd criticism of passing females an abominable sin that crushes pure thoughts, annihilates respect for virtue, and leads to overt lewdness. He says boys often learn this from older ones. Women also share in it through finer terms, loose insinuations, and gossip about scandals and others' chastity.
Chapter 32
Section 333 cards
According to the chapter, what is the earliest cause of unchastity?
The chapter states that the earliest cause of unchastity is hereditary predisposition: a child conceived in lust cannot be chaste by nature. It adds that a deeper cause lies behind this, affecting parents as well as offspring, and that between infancy and puberty the influences described under "Sexual Precocity" are also at work.
Chapter 33
How does the chapter link diet to sexual passion?
The author argues that flesh, condiments, eggs, tea, coffee, chocolate, and all stimulants act directly on the reproductive organs, increasing local blood supply and arousing passions through nervous sympathy with the brain. Overeating, hasty eating, eating between meals, and late suppers also react on the sexual organs, since poor digestion produces poor blood that irritates the nerves governing reproduction.
Chapter 33
What charge does the chapter make against tobacco regarding morals?
The author argues tobacco, especially acquired early, excites undeveloped organs and arouses passions, turning a chaste youth into a "volcano of lust." Long use, he says, finally causes emasculation as a consequence of prior super-excitation. He also condemns smokers' lecherous daydreams as a kind of fornication and says similar charges could be made against liquor.
Chapter 33
Section 344 cards
What did Comstock report seizing in his campaign against obscene materials?
Comstock claims to have seized and destroyed over 182,000 obscene photographs and pictures, more than five tons of obscene books and pamphlets, over two tons of obscene letter-press sheets, about 625 negative plates, 350 engraved plates, nearly 6,000 transparent playing-cards, over 30,000 immoral rubber articles, and to have arrested more than fifty dealers since October 9, 1871.
Chapter 34
How did dealers obtain students' names to send them catalogues?
Dealers got names by requesting school catalogues under pretense of enrolling a child, or by circulating a fake directory or census of students and unmarried people offering five cents per name. The money was seldom sent, and the lists were sold to other dealers, so a child could receive a devilish catalogue unknown to parents.
Chapter 34
What did Merriam say about organized circulating libraries of obscene books?
Quoting Hon. C. L. Merriam, Dr. Lewis reports that dealers organized circulating libraries run by the most vicious boys in the schools, chosen and paid by the venders, who circulated among students at ten cents a volume any of the one hundred and forty-four obscene books previously published in New York City.
Chapter 34
What does the author argue about popular novels and idleness as causes of immorality?
The author argues that standard literature and popular novels contain concealed lubricity and have done more than obscene literature to arouse prurient curiosity and lead thousands to dissoluteness. He also argues idleness fills the mind with unchaste thoughts, so incessant mental occupation is the only safeguard against unchastity.
Chapter 34
Section 354 cards
According to the chapter, how does corset compression supposedly lead to vice?
The author argues that compressing the waist with bands or corsets obstructs blood circulation toward the heart, crowding venous blood into the reproductive organs. Congestion follows, and through reflex action this produces unnatural excitement of the animal propensities. He adds that heavy garments hung from the hips and thinly clad feet and limbs further unbalance circulation, together producing ovarian and uterine derangements linked to hysteria and nymphomania.
Chapter 35
What dress reforms does the chapter prescribe to prevent the described evils?
The author argues dress must allow every organ free movement. No corset, band, belt, or other constriction should impede circulation. Garments should be suspended from the shoulders by a waist or proper suspenders rather than from the hips, and the limbs should be as warmly clad as any other part of the body. He directs readers to works on dress reform for details.
Chapter 35
What does the chapter mean by 'fashionable dissipation,' and what examples are given?
The author defines it as excesses in which wealthier or aristocratic classes pride themselves. Wine-drinking is treated as a matter of propriety, while total abstainers are avoided as fanatics; highly seasoned foods, spices, condiments, rich meats, and rich desserts accompany the wine. He cites an ex-governor's account of a political dinner running from 5 P.M. to nearly midnight, and argues such gormandizing leaves public men of loose morals.
Chapter 35
What is the chapter's argument against round dances such as the waltz?
The author argues no excuse can defend round dances, especially the waltz, even if other dance forms might serve as calisthenics under restrictions. Besides associated dissipation, late hours, fashionable dress, and midnight feasting, he claims dancing directly stimulates the passions and provokes unchaste desires that may lead to unchaste acts. He quotes Petrarch calling the dance the spur of lust and cites 'The Dance of Death.'
Chapter 35
Section 364 cards
How does the quoted author describe the waltz's effect on the young woman?
The author describes a couple whirling face to face, limbs interwoven, his arm pressing her to him until her body thrills with the amorous contact. When the music stops she is enervated, limp, listless, and worn out, led to a seat to recover for five minutes before yielding her body to a new embrace. He then identifies her as the "pure and lovely girl" admired earlier.
Chapter 36
What does the quoted woman say she actually enjoyed about waltzing?
She says she cared little for other dances but found a strange pleasure in the waltz; the anticipation fluttered her pulse and a sweet thrill shook her. She states it was the physical emotions from contact with strong men she was enamored of, not the dance nor the men themselves, and she refused second dances with partners who failed to arouse those sensations.
Chapter 36
Why did the letter writer not know her feelings were wrong at the time?
She says no one told her she did wrong; she had been taught it was right to dance because her parents and friends did and she was permitted. She and other schoolgirls talked among themselves and read romances, and had their parents heard them they would have considered them on the high road to ruin.
Chapter 36
What does the author claim about physical conditions and vice?
The author argues too little is generally known about the intimate connection between physical and mental conditions, and that many vices originate in physical imperfections. He says when physical influences on the mind are fully allowed, it is difficult to avoid pleading extenuating circumstances for most transgressors of moral and civil laws, a principle he says applies especially to sexual relations.
Chapter 36
Section 374 cards
What physical mechanism does Kellogg give for constipation causing sexual excitement in males?
Kellogg states that the seminal vesicles sit at the base of the bladder, with the bladder in front and the rectum behind. In constipation the rectum becomes distended with hardened feces, which presses on the parts involved in the sexual act and causes excessive local excitement. Chronic constipation, he says, can lead to serious results, including satyriasis.
Chapter 37
What remedies does Kellogg recommend for a child's bladder irritation causing bed-wetting?
Kellogg advises limiting the child's drink in the latter part of the day, ensuring the bladder is emptied just before bed, and waking the child once or twice at night to urinate. He also urges removing the cause of irritation through plenty of out-of-door exercise and a simple but nutritious diet, avoiding meat, eggs, and condiments.
Chapter 37
What does Kellogg claim about modern modes of living and chastity?
The author argues that superheated rooms, sedentary employment, overdeveloped mental and nervous organization at the expense of muscle, cramming in schools, long sitting confinement, too much freedom between the sexes, and public amusements like balls and church fairs all push toward abnormal sexual excitation. He asserts that for one conforming to modern modes of living, absolute chastity is next to an absolute impossibility without special Providence.
Chapter 37
What arguments does Kellogg cite against the claim that continence causes harm or impotence?
Kellogg quotes Mayer, who calls the belief erroneous and says no disease or shortened life can be ascribed to continence. He also quotes Acton, who says he never saw atrophy of the generative organs from continence; such cases arise from the opposite cause, abuse. Acton calls the fear of atrophy a device of the unchaste, and Kellogg says animal experiments confirm this.
Chapter 37
Section 384 cards
What aids to continence does Kellogg list in this section?
Kellogg lists the will (firm determination to quench impure thoughts, forming a habit of continence), diet (simple wholesome food, avoiding condiments and stimulating foods), exercise (physical and mental, including walking, riding, rowing, gymnastics, and gardening), bathing (daily cool or tepid bath with vigorous rubbing), and religion (divine grace, which he calls the most powerful aid).
Chapter 38
What does Kellogg claim about condiments and modern cookery?
The author argues that condiments make food pungent and stimulating and are the great, almost sole, cause of gluttony, calling them one of the greatest hindrances to virtue. He further asserts that the devices of modern cookery are powerful allies of unchastity and licentiousness, and says the subject only needs candid investigation to demonstrate its soundness.
Chapter 38
What exercise advice does Kellogg give, and what caution?
Kellogg recommends walking, riding, rowing, and gymnastics for sedentary persons, but says gardening and cultivating small fruits and flowers excel all other modes, being useful, healthful, and refining. He warns that exercise carried to exhaustion is always injurious, as is excessive mental labor, and that plenty of sleep and regular habits are important.
Chapter 38
What does Kellogg say about religion as an aid to continence?
Kellogg argues that after all other aids, one must seek divine grace, which he calls the most powerful and helpful aid. He claims human nature alone could rarely win the battle, since unseen agencies also assail man and drag him toward lust. He says these influences are felt but not seen, and the only safe weapon against them is 'the blood of Christ.'
Chapter 38
Section 394 cards
According to the chapter, what must accompany prayer to overcome evil thoughts?
The chapter states that prayer alone will not avail; faith and works must always be associated. One must do all he can to work out his own salvation, then trust God for the rest. It adds that prayer is of no avail while the mind half-consents to evil thought—the evil must be loathed, spurned, and detested.
Chapter 39
What does the chapter say about physical causes of sexual excitability and reform attempts?
The chapter argues it is improper to resort to prayer alone when sexual excitability arises from culpable neglect of physical conditions of local excitement. Such physical causes must be looked after by the means already mentioned, or every attempt to reform will be fruitless. God requires each person to employ every available means for alleviating his sufferings.
Chapter 39
What opinion does the chapter say prevails about sexual restraint within marriage?
The author argues a generally prevalent opinion holds that the marriage ceremony removes all restraint from sexual functions, and few suspect the seventh commandment applies within matrimony. He claims legalized prostitution is a more common crime than illicit commerce, and that expressing this truth invites being mocked, decried, and stigmatized as an extremist or fanatic.
Chapter 39
Why does the chapter compare human reproductive organs with those of lower animals?
The author argues man is universally depraved and removed from his primitive state, so to ascertain organ functions we must compare them with corresponding organs of lower animals. He says this comparative method developed most important physiological truths and is universally acknowledged as proper and logical, citing a distinguished physiologist on periodic reproductive development.
Chapter 39
Section 401 cards
Why does the author say male constant development is not a warrant for constant use?
The author argues that in other animals whose sexual organs are in constant development, males use them only for reproduction. Therefore, he concludes, constant development in man is a provision of nature to secure a fruitful union when the female is ready, not an indication for constant or frequent use.
Chapter 40
Section 414 cards
According to the quoted writer, does marriage make excessive sexual indulgence safe?
No. The quoted writer states that nature recognizes no human enactments and punishes infringement of her laws in the legally married as readily as in the unmarried. Excessive indulgence between married persons produces as great and lasting evil effects as in single persons, and is called nothing less than legalized prostitution.
Chapter 41
What two causes does the chapter give for the debilitating effects of excessive indulgence?
The chapter attributes the debilitating effects to two causes: the loss of the seminal fluid and the nervous excitement. It adds that each act produces a powerful shock to the system, and that the expenditure of seminal fluid is especially injurious to already debilitated organs, leading to premature old age and complaints of the generative organs.
Chapter 41
What does the chapter say about the belief that sexual indulgence strengthens the powers like gymnastics?
The chapter calls this a popular error requiring correction. It states that the shock on the system from each act is very powerful, and the expenditure of seminal fluid is particularly injurious to organs already debilitated. It is by this and similar excesses that premature old age and complaints of the generative organs are brought on.
Chapter 41
What does the chapter report about trainers and sexual continence in athletes?
The chapter reports that modern trainers know sexual indulgence unfits men for great feats of strength, and that a boat captain strictly forbids his crew anything of the sort just before a match. Some trainers claimed they could tell from a man's style of pulling whether he had broken this rule overnight, and blamed lost matches on it.
Chapter 41
Section 422 cards
What did Kellogg identify as a cause of consumption (tuberculosis)?
The author argues that sexual excesses—illicit or within marriage, since he claims physical effects are identical—are a major cause of consumption, especially fatal for sedentary persons. He cites a muscular twenty-two-year-old laborer with no family history of consumption whose lung disease he attributed solely to years of confessed excessive sexual indulgence.
Chapter 42
According to Dr. J. R. Black, what is a most common cause of uterine disease?
Dr. Black states that medical writers agree excessive cohabitation is among the most common causes of women's derangements, including menorrhagia, dysmenorrhoea, leucorrhoea, amenorrhoea, abortions, prolapsus, and chronic inflammation and ulceration of the womb. He argues colds and heavy lifting cannot explain these ills, since inferior animals endure such conditions without developing them.
Chapter 42
Section 434 cards
According to Kellogg, what is the great immediate cause of abortion?
The author argues that "accidental pregnancies" are the great immediate cause of the crime of abortion, and that popular morals concerning it are amazingly blunted. He estimates the practice's extent by the number of standing newspaper advertisements warranting feticide safe and secret, and claims both rich and poor patronize such practitioners, citing Madame Restell's million-dollar fortune.
Chapter 43
What did Dr. Black claim about gonorrhoea in virtuous women?
Dr. Black testifies that women whose health is weak may, by transgressing this law, become liable to an infectious disorder commonly supposed to originate only among disreputable characters. He states that Dr. Bumstead and other eminent authorities believe gonorrhoea may originate among women entirely virtuous in the ordinary sense, and that medical men have long held excessive venery to be the chief cause of this inflammation.
Chapter 43
Why does Kellogg say offspring suffer from parental excess?
The author argues seminal fluid deteriorates rapidly with repeated indulgence, so spermatozoa lack time to mature and progeny inherit the same deficiency, producing deformed, scrofulous, weazen, and idiotic children. He adds that parental physical and nervous exhaustion unfits them to beget sound offspring, citing Acton that sickly children of apparently healthy parents may arise from this cause, supported by animal-breeding investigations.
Chapter 43
What does Kellogg argue about limiting children to parents' means?
The author argues it deserves attention whether it is a sin to bring more children into the world than parents can properly care for, noting half-raised people already abound and recruit the ranks of thieves, drunkards, beggars, vagabonds, and prostitutes. He asks why limiting children according to circumstances should be considered improper, and cites distinguished persons holding man is duty bound to limit children as he does sheep, according to his means.
Chapter 43
Section 444 cards
What does Kellogg claim is a consequence of sexual indulgence during pregnancy for the child?
The author argues that sexual indulgence during gestation abnormally develops the sexual instinct in the child, and he links this to sexual precocity and depravity in the rising generation. He says medical testimony concurs in forbidding indulgence during gestation and the nursing period, citing the impossibility of fecundation during pregnancy and normally absent female desire as further arguments for continence.
Chapter 44
What does Dr. J. R. Black say coition during pregnancy can predispose children to?
Black claims coition during pregnancy is one way the predisposition is laid for epilepsy in children, arguing the mother's unnatural nervous excitement injures the germ in her womb. He also says it reacts injuriously on the child's mental capacity, tending toward a stupid, animalized look, and may aid in developing idiocy. He attributes the child's qualities entirely to derivation from the parents.
Chapter 44
How does Kellogg answer the married man who claims indulgence is a necessity?
Kellogg says practicing continence removes any such necessity. He argues that what many mistake for a need to relieve accumulated semen is actually a call of nature for a bowel movement, caused by pressure of the distended rectum on the generative organs, which is why many sexual excesses occur in the morning. He also calls it supreme selfishness for a man to make his wife subservient to his desires.
Chapter 44
What does Kellogg say about animals and 'savages' regarding abstinence during pregnancy?
Kellogg claims the untutored barbarian and nearly all lower animals abstain from sexual indulgence during pregnancy, and that natives of the Gold Coast and many African tribes regard cohabiting during gestation as a shameful offense. He says females of lower animals resist vigorously. He uses this to reprove civilized men, saying they place themselves below the uncouth negro of Southern Africa.
Chapter 44
Section 454 cards
What range of medical opinion does the chapter report on sexual indulgence?
The chapter states there is wide diversity of opinion among medical men. A very few hold the sexual act should never be indulged except for reproduction, and only when reproduction is possible. Others, equally opposed to excesses, limit indulgence to a certain number of months in the year. The author urges readers to reflect, weigh the matter, and fix a plan of action without swerving from it.
Chapter 45
What does the chapter say about moderation at the start of marriage?
The chapter says the beginning of matrimonial life is when moderation is most demanded yet least practiced. It claims many women date a life of suffering from the first night after marriage, with mental and bodily scars. It quotes a French writer: a husband who begins with his wife by a rape is a lost man and will never be loved. Dr. Napheys advises care and forbearance over precipitation and violence.
Chapter 45
What case of wedding-night injury does the chapter describe?
The chapter describes young wives needing months of treatment to repair wedding-night damage. In one reported divorce case, a young lady married an older man for riches, then declined into emaciation and near-insanity from excessive demands 'day and night.' Examination found severe laceration and inflammation of delicate organs and adjacent organs. Her divorce suit on cruelty grounds was defeated, the judge ruling the law had no jurisdiction.
Chapter 45
What does the chapter say about preventing conception and conjugal onanism?
The chapter calls prevention of conception the great cause of the evils discussed, saying excesses lead people to employ devices rendering the act fruitless. Quoting Mayer, it links the practice to Onan in Genesis 38 and the name 'conjugal onanism.' It cites Dr. Devay arguing ungratified desire provokes nervous super-excitation in women, comparing it to snatching food from a famished man, and claims it damages marital affection.
Chapter 45
Section 464 cards
What does the cited physician say about cold or medicated washes after coitus?
The physician argues that douching with cold or lukewarm water during the congestion of coitus is harmful, comparing it to pouring water on an inflamed limb. He says strong astringents corrugate and close the glandular structures, causing a reaction that ends in debility and exhaustion marked by leucorrhoea, prolapsus, and other diseases.
Chapter 46
What did Madame de Stael reportedly say about rubber or skin coverings?
The physician quotes Madame de Stael calling them 'cobwebs for protection, and bulwarks against love.' He adds that they produce shame and disgust, suggest licentiousness and the brothel, degrade matrimony to bestiality, and give only limited protection. He also cites French writers who allege physical lesions from irritation and the chemicals used in their manufacture.
Chapter 46
What did Kellogg's own practice observe as the cause of many women's ailments?
Kellogg says that in many hundreds of cases of sex-specific ailments, the real cause was the 'crime against nature'—conception prevention. Effects often appear years later and are seldom traced to the cause. He adds that Dr. William Goodell of Philadelphia linked prevention of conception to prolapsus of the ovaries, and that the bladder may also be affected.
Chapter 46
How do Shaker views on reproduction differ from the Oneida Community's?
Kellogg says Shakers believe in marriage and reproduction regulated by natural law, holding that reproductive organs should serve only procreation, as among lower animals—so no contrivances are needed. He contrasts this with the Oneida Community, which he says separates reproduction from its purpose and permits unstinted gratification of lust, calling it worse than brutish.
Chapter 46
Section 474 cards
How does Kellogg characterize the founder and practices of the community he condemns?
The author calls the founder a "scheming sensualist" who knows the truth but chooses evil and lures others as sensual as himself. He describes the community's practices, reported by insiders, as too foul to mention, likening it to a "gigantic brothel" and a "den of licentiousness" worse than Sodom, and welcomes a ministers' convention at Syracuse seeking its removal by legal measures or otherwise.
Chapter 47
What argument does Kellogg make about conception and the right to life?
The author argues that the ovum and spermatozoon contain in rudimentary form all elements of the human being, and that at the instant of contact fecundation occurs and individual life begins. From that moment nothing absolutely new is added, only development. He therefore argues the embryo possesses at conception all the right to life it ever can possess, being as distinct an individual as at any later point.
Chapter 47
How does Kellogg classify preventing conception after the reproductive act?
The author argues that if conception may occur during the reproductive act, then using means to prevent it immediately afterward or later, if successful, destroys the delicate product of an already-occurred conception. He reasons this is equally murder, since the conceived being is a distinct individual, and asks who can deny that killing a child or destroying a half-formed being in the womb is murderous.
Chapter 47
What does the quoted authority Gardner say about destroying life before quickening?
Gardner is quoted as saying there is no moment after conception when the child has not life, and that destroying human life is as heinous before "quickening" as after. He rejects the defense that only animal life, not mind or soul, is destroyed, comparing it to destroying all fowls by destroying all eggs, and defines murder as willful destruction of a human being at any period of existence.
Chapter 47
Section 483 cards
What popular view of marital sexual relations does Mr. Mill's work represent, according to Kellogg?
Kellogg quotes Mill's "The Subjection of Woman" to illustrate the erroneous popular view: that a wife, however brutal a tyrant her husband may be, can be claimed and forced into "the lowest degradation of a human being"—being made the instrument of an animal function contrary to her inclinations. Kellogg presents this as the mistaken view he opposes.
Chapter 48
What does Kellogg argue about a married woman's rights over her own body?
The author argues a woman does not surrender all personal rights upon marriage. Since the law protects her if her husband beats or injures her, he asks why she may not refuse "beastly lust." He argues she remains proprietor of her own body and no one can justly claim she is morally obligated to allow it to be abused.
Chapter 48
What compromise does Kellogg describe for limiting conception, and what cautions does he add?
Kellogg cites Gardner's claim that women can usually conceive only during menstruation and six to eight days after, suggesting twelve days of abstinence. He cautions the plan is not absolutely certain, that abstinence should extend from menstruation's start to the fourteenth day, plus three or four days before the flow. He does not call it wholly safe or natural.
Chapter 48
Section 493 cards
According to Kellogg, what effects does excess produce in the husband?
The author argues that violating this law in marriage does not produce very serious disorder in the husband, though debility, aches, cramps, and a tendency to epileptic seizures are sometimes seen as effects of great excess. He also claims habitual unrestraint steadily grows the sexual passion, nursing what is called libidinous blood among the strictly virtuous as well as the promiscuous.
Chapter 49
Whom does Kellogg name as the chief sufferers from this practice?
The author argues the wife and the offspring are the chief sufferers from violation of this law among the married. He reasons that among animals the female decides when the male's approaches are allowable, resisting untimely ones with ferocious zeal, and that since human bodies resemble animals' in structure and reproductive law, the same prohibition should apply during pregnancy.
Chapter 49
How does Kellogg answer the claim that the wife is helpless?
The author argues she is neither man's slave nor his property, and that marriage does not bind her to carry out any unnatural requirement. Since no one dare approach her without consent before marriage, he asks why man should not be educated to do the same after marriage, leaving the decision to her reason and will rather than unreason.
Chapter 49
Section 503 cards
According to the chapter, what is the primary cause of abortion, and who does it say is neglected in discussions of reform?
The author argues the primary cause lies in "marital excesses" and disregard for the natural law making the female sole proprietor of her own body, with the right to refuse the male. While doctors and moralists condemn the mother, the chapter argues reform will accomplish little until the man's part is recognized and reform demanded where most needed.
Chapter 50
How does the chapter argue against the 'quickening' distinction that abortion before fetal movement is not murder?
Quoting Gardner, the chapter argues there is no moment after conception when the child lacks life, and that the quickening view rests on an outdated belief that life begins when movements are felt. It compares destroying embryos to destroying all eggs and thus all fowl, and argues that killing the small and helpless aggravates rather than excuses the crime.
Chapter 50
What does the chapter say about the legal and social treatment of abortion, including boasting and hypocrisy?
The chapter quotes a clergyman contrasting missionary work in India with child-murder at home, calling it hypocrisy, and cites writers saying women boast of abortions with impunity and become heroines. It also notes false certificates hide abortion deaths, and that the guilty rarely face civil punishment but face nature's self-executing laws.
Chapter 50
Section 514 cards
According to the chapter, how does the risk of immediate death from abortion compare to natural childbirth?
The chapter states that statistics prove the danger of immediate death from abortion is fifteen times as great as in natural childbirth. It also cites a medical author claiming a woman suffers more injury from one abortion than from twenty normal births, and Dr. Gardner arguing efforts to avoid propagation are far more disastrous to health than large families.
Chapter 51
What does the chapter claim may happen to a child when an abortion attempt fails?
The chapter claims an unsuccessful attempt may result in the child being born mutilated or disabled, and offers a narrative of a woman whose child was born with one eye put out and brain injury causing imbecility. It also asserts the mother's murderous intent is stamped on the child, giving it a propensity for murderous deeds.
Chapter 51
What remedy does the author propose for the evil of abortion?
The author argues the evil is exceedingly doubtful to eradicate, since it is secret and civil legislation is evidently inefficient. He calls for Christians and pulpits to speak plain warnings and treat the guilty as murderers, but says the radical cure lies in the principles of the section on 'Marital Excesses,' which would prevent the circumstances occasioning abortions and infanticides.
Chapter 51
What is 'murder by proxy' as described in the chapter?
The chapter describes murder by proxy as a more dangerous form of infanticide done with impunity: parents who recoil from destroying their offspring place them with nurses reputed never to return children to those who entrusted them. These children are condemned to perish from inanition and bad treatment, and the number of such victims is said to exceed marked infanticides sent to the Court of the Assizes.
Chapter 51
Section 524 cards
What evidence does the chapter cite that ancient societies were more licentious than the present?
The author argues ancient vice exceeded modern times, citing pre-flood corruption, Assyrian kings' sensuality, the Ptolemies making Alexandria a bagnio, Herodotus on Cheops' pyramid built by his daughter's lovers, Cleopatra, and Phoenician temple prostitution required by law. He notes St. Augustine saw such rites in his day, ended when Constantine destroyed the temples in the fourth century.
Chapter 52
How does the chapter describe Roman imperial excess?
The author describes Rome's emperors as notoriously debauched: Caesar was said to merit being surnamed every woman's husband; Tiberius invented refinements requiring new words; Caligula committed incest with all his sisters publicly; Messalina disguised herself as a prostitute; Vitellius used emetics and aphrodisiacs; Nero committed rapes on the public stage disguised as a wild beast.
Chapter 52
What role does the chapter assign licentiousness in the fall of nations?
The author argues licentiousness was a potent agent in national downfall: it sapped vitality and weakened prowess, so conquerors were led captive by their own passions. He claims Assyrians, Medes, Grecians, and Romans successively fell victims to lust and gave way to more virtuous successors, and that even the Jews fell through this sin coupled with idolatry, as in the Midianite seduction.
Chapter 52
Why does the chapter claim modern moral turpitude may exceed ancient grossness?
The author argues that although present sensuality may be less gross, moral turpitude may be greater because enlightened Christianity raised the standard of morality. Christ's commentary on the seventh commandment requires stricter chastity than ancient standards, even among the Jews, since David, Solomon, and Jacob had multiple wives. Thus a slight breach now is as great a fall from virtue as a greater lapse in the past.
Chapter 52
Section 533 cards
According to Kellogg, what is the primary cause of sensual propensities?
The author argues heredity is the strongest cause, claiming the children of libertines are almost certain to become rakes and prostitutes. He cites biblical examples: David's sons Amnon and Solomon, and traces David's line to Judah's incestuous union with his daughter-in-law, suggesting David's own sin was an inherited propensity.
Chapter 53
What dietetic habits does Kellogg rank as a predisposing cause of unchastity?
The author ranks gluttony second only to heredity, asserting that all libertines are great eaters. He claims pepper, mustard, ginger, spices, truffles, wine, alcohol, tea, and coffee excite the sexual organs, and warns that children raised on such foods may 'turn out bad.' He recommends a simple diet free of condiments plus generous exercise.
Chapter 53
Whom does Kellogg hold most responsible for the 'social evil,' and why?
The author argues men bear the greatest responsibility, since supply follows demand: if patrons withdrew support, prostitution would cease. He also condemns the double standard—a betrayed girl is disowned and shunned while the seducer keeps his social standing—and asks whether the seducer should not be branded with equal infamy.
Chapter 53
Section 544 cards
According to Ware, what distinguishes transient youthful transgression from habitual vice?
Ware says many young men yield to temptation transiently and accidentally, never without remorse, wishing and purposing to resist while animal nature bears down moral nature. But with too many, the mind becomes debauched by dwelling on licentious images and conversation; there is no wish to resist, they seek temptation rather than being overtaken, and transgression becomes habitual with a deep, lasting stain on character.
Chapter 54
What does the chapter claim about sentimental literature in libraries, and which writer supports it?
The author argues sentimental literature floods the land, filling city, school, circulating, and even Sunday-school libraries with books containing moral teaching yet an element incompatible with purity. Writers for youth treat courtship, love, and matrimony as indispensable, and some religious novels are more pernicious than ordinary fiction. T. De Witt Talmage supports this, urging parents to examine children's books and warning against family papers full of vice.
Chapter 54
How does the chapter respond to poverty as a cause of prostitution?
The chapter acknowledges that in large cities poverty may be the immediate occasion of a young girl entering a life of shame, but insists there must have been a deficiency in previous training, since a young woman educated with proper regard for purity would sooner sacrifice life itself than virtue. It adds that poverty is no excuse because every city provides relief for the needy poor, and none truly worthy need suffer.
Chapter 54
What does the chapter say about ignorance and intellectual culture in relation to vice?
The chapter states that perhaps nothing fosters vice more than ignorance, and prostitutes come almost entirely from the more ignorant classes, though many exceptions exist. Vice appears in grossest forms among the lowest classes. Intellectual culture is antagonistic to sensuality, and generally as intellect develops, animal passions are subdued. The author concedes intellectual men have been libertines and the Borgias and Medicis encouraged art, but calls these only apparent exceptions.
Chapter 54
Section 554 cards
According to Deslandes, what relationship exists between intellect and generative sensibility?
Deslandes states that as intellect becomes enfeebled, generative sensibility is augmented. The chapter illustrates this with an idiot from birth at Bellevue Hospital whose animal propensities were nearly uncontrollable despite minimal intelligence, and notes that extravagant sexual excitement among the insane is well known.
Chapter 55
What is nymphomania and what does the chapter say causes it?
The chapter describes nymphomania as a furor for libidinous commerce that only the desired object will appease unless remedial measures are taken under a physician. It results from habitual congestion of sexual organs caused by dwelling on unchaste subjects, and has caused the fall of young women bred in luxury and idleness without lessons in purity or self-control.
Chapter 55
Which venereal diseases does the chapter call purely local, and how do they differ from syphilis?
Gonorrhea and chancroid are described as purely local diseases that cause great suffering but may be cured, leaving no trace except in conscience. Syphilis begins as a slight local lesion but rapidly infects the whole system, poisoning the body and liable to develop in protean forms later. One attack secures no immunity from subsequent ones.
Chapter 55
What is the only hope the chapter offers someone who has contracted syphilis?
The chapter says the only hope is a life of perfect continence thereafter, with careful living, strict conformity to health laws, bathing and dieting, possibly avoiding later-stage consequences. Mercury will not cure, nor any other poison. It cites Prof. Bumstead, who never promises immunity after treatment however prolonged.
Chapter 55
Section 564 cards
According to the chapter, what may happen to children of a man with venereal disease?
The chapter states that children who survive infancy may later show the disease's effects, including scrofula, consumption, cancer, rickets, brain and nerve diseases, and bone decay. More often the child dies before birth or lives only days or weeks. Survivors may show notched, deformed teeth and ulceration of the soft or hard palate.
Chapter 56
What does the chapter claim about whether venereal disease can affect lower animals?
The author argues man is the only animal that abuses his sexual organization for ends other than reproduction, and therefore the only sufferer from this disease. He notes attempts to communicate the disease to lower animals failed, even with inoculation. The chapter presents this as a penalty of such abuse.
Chapter 56
What reasons does the chapter give against licensing brothels with medical exams?
The author argues licensing makes prostitution lose half its disrepute and become respectable, like gambling and liquor-selling under license. He asks why fornication should be legally protected more than theft or gambling, and claims precautionary measures will allay fear and push thousands who might have stayed physically virtuous into vice.
Chapter 56
What does the chapter say about curing those already committed to a life of sensuality?
The author argues such persons are generally so lost to purity and right that there is little chance of reform, having no principle to appeal to. Lust is said to degrade the soul and benumb higher sensibilities, making them unpromising subjects. He cites a physician telling a young man beginning vice, 'You are entering upon a career from which you will never turn back.'
Chapter 56
Section 574 cards
According to the chapter, what is the only solid basis for moral character?
The author argues that a love of right for its own sake is the only solid basis for moral character. He condemns training children chiefly through fear of punishment (whipping, dark closets, hell) or hope of reward (toys, books, Heaven), calling such motives selfish and character-narrowing. Instead, children should be taught to love right, truth, purity, and virtue for themselves.
Chapter 57
What does the chapter mean by healthful mental discipline, as opposed to school training?
The author argues healthful mental discipline is not the superficial cramming and memorizing of the average school, but sound culture: directing the mind from facts to underlying principles, developing reasoning powers so emotions and passions are brought into subjection, and acquiring the power to concentrate the mind, which he calls one of the best methods of cultivating self-control.
Chapter 57
What does the chapter claim about a taste for light literature?
The author argues that once a taste for reading light literature is formed, it destroys the relish for solid reading, and usually the taste, once lost, is never regained. He urges supplying children with natural history, travels, and instructive biographies, while guarding against love-sick novels, sentimental religious story-books, and bad associates as carefully as deadly serpents.
Chapter 57
How does the chapter describe the prevalence of masturbation among girls and boys?
The author claims the habit is not confined to boys; girls also indulge, though he hopes to a lesser extent in this country. He cites a Russian physician, quoted by an eminent New York medical professor, stating the habit is universal among Russian girls, and says it is more than probable the practice is far more nearly universal everywhere than even medical men admit.
Chapter 57
Section 584 cards
What daily frequency of the vice does Dr. Copland's patient report?
Dr. Copland describes a patient sent to London who confessed he had practiced the vice seven or eight times daily from age thirteen until twenty-four. By then he was reduced to the lowest state of mental weakness with various bodily infirmities; both mental power and physical existence were nearly extinguished. Copland presents this as evidence of deep depravity.
Chapter 58
Which causes does the chapter call by far the most frequent for the habit?
The chapter lists sexual precocity, idleness, pernicious literature, abnormal passions, irritating food, gluttony, sedentary employment, and libidinous pictures as potent causes. But it states that by far the most frequent causes are evil associations, wicked or ignorant nurses, and local disease or abnormality. The author says these latter deserve closer attention because they were not fully covered elsewhere.
Chapter 58
What ages does the chapter say the habit spans, and what evidence is offered?
The chapter claims the habit can occur across almost all of human life, having been seen in infants of three or four years and in men nearly sixty, with lamentable consequences at both extremes. Cases are noted beginning as early as age two, and Dr. Copland reports it common among African boys at nine and ten. These claims are presented without supporting data.
Chapter 58
What does the chapter say about parents' awareness of the habit in their children?
The author argues parents often have no suspicion, thinking their children pure, yet careful observation may reveal that supposed virtuous children are 'old in corruption.' Personal testimony cannot be relied upon. The author illustrates with a young man whose pious father denied any possibility, until the son was caught in the act by his nurse, by then reduced to near imbecility.
Chapter 58
Section 594 cards
According to the chapter, where does the habit spread most quickly among students?
The chapter states the infection spreads fastest in sleeping apartments, where more than one student occupies the same bed or several sleep in the same room. It argues that a private sleeping room and single bed for each student is indispensable to purity of body and morals, and says the same applies to girls' sleeping arrangements, with very few exceptions.
Chapter 59
What does Dr. Acton say about school corruption and its spread?
Acton says he cannot venture to print patients' accounts of what they saw or were drawn into at schools, and hopes such abominations are past. The chapter adds that one corrupt boy entering a previously pure school will speedily corrupt almost the entire membership, spreading faster than smallpox or yellow fever and scarcely less fatal.
Chapter 59
How does the chapter describe nurses causing the habit in young children?
The chapter claims nurses sometimes quiet small children by handling or titillating their genital organs, through ignorance or disregard of consequences. It cites Prof. Lusk of Bellevue Hospital College, who described a family where a nurse taught all the children the habit to keep them quiet after bedtime. The author argues such vileness is base enough for almost any crime.
Chapter 59
Who else does the chapter blame for teaching the vice to children?
The chapter names the 'hired man' as often communicating the knowledge to innocent little boys, and the 'hired girl' as an equally efficient agent for evil with little girls. It recounts parents who discovered their ten-year-old daughter was a victim, initiated by a hired girl, and the father said he would rather place her in the grave.
Chapter 59
Section 604 cards
According to the chapter, what practices with children may encourage the vice?
The author argues that sending children to bed early before they are weary—whether to get them out of the way or as punishment—is a grave error that may give rise to the vice. Confining children alone in a room is equally reprehensible, and allowing a habit of seeking solitude is an evil of the same nature.
Chapter 60
How does a tight or long foreskin contribute to the habit in males?
The chapter states that constant contact of the prepuce with the sensitive part increases sensibility, and retained secretion accumulates and hardens. This sets up irritation that draws the hands to the part; only slight provocation then arouses voluptuous sensations, and the child discovers how to reproduce them, forming the habit.
Chapter 60
What physical causes other than local disease does the chapter list?
The chapter lists constipation, piles, irritable bladder, fissure of the anus, local uncleanliness, and pruritis of the genital organs as causes in both males and females. It adds that sleeping on feather beds increases local congestion, and that lying on the back or abdomen and climbing may provoke excitement.
Chapter 60
What does the chapter claim about stimulants as a cause?
The author argues stimulants of any kind are a fruitful cause: tea and coffee have led thousands to perdition this way. He claims tobacco use is so strongly linked that a boy past puberty using tobacco is almost certainly also addicted to the habit, and that candies, spices, cinnamon, cloves, peppermint, and strong essences powerfully excite the genital organs.
Chapter 60
Section 614 cards
According to the chapter, what general debility signs suggest solitary vice in a child?
The author lists emaciation, weakness, unnatural paleness, colorless lips and gums, and general exhaustion. These count as suspicious only when not traceable to other causes such as internal disease, worms, grief, overwork, poor air, or poor food, and when change of air or remedies does not speedily remove them. The author argues such a judgment will rarely be mistaken under those conditions.
Chapter 61
What physical and mental developmental signs does the chapter attribute to self-abuse?
The author says premature genital exercise hastens puberty but drains vital energy, so the body stays small and the mind is dwarfed. In males: voice fails to deepen, beard grows poorly, chest stays narrow, shoulders not broad. In females: menstrual derangements, unnatural slimness, and failure to develop pleasing character. The author argues these signs deserve investigation as the result of a blighting influence.
Chapter 61
Which sudden changes in disposition and behavior should raise suspicion, per the chapter?
The author says a cheerful, dutiful boy turning morose, cross, peevish, and disobedient, or a joyous, confiding girl turning gloomy, sad, fretful, and unconfiding, signals a foul influence. Also listed: lassitude and dislike of play, dull vacant expression, sleeplessness not caused by dietetic errors, failing memory and lessons, fickleness, untrustworthiness and lying, love of solitude, and either excessive bashfulness or unnatural boldness.
Chapter 61
What does the chapter say about bashfulness and boldness as signs?
The author says not everyone excessively modest or timid is a masturbator, but victims show a timorousness from shame or fear of discovery, often inability to look a superior in the eye. In contrast, some show unnatural boldness, impropriety, rude staring, or a mix of timidity and ungainly staring. The author concedes boldness is useful only to a very close observer.
Chapter 61
Section 624 cards
What does Kellogg claim about the piety of children who masturbate?
The author argues that a formerly playful child becoming sober and sedate may be mistaken for piety by friends, who are gratified without suspecting the real cause. He warns that the child may add hypocrisy to his crimes and use assumed devotion as a pretense for seeking solitude, advising parents to investigate the origin of this kind of religion in their children.
Chapter 62
What signs does Kellogg list as suspicious of masturbation in children?
The author lists round shoulders and stooping posture, weak backs, limb pains, stiff joints, paralysis of the lower extremities without apparent cause, a dragging or shuffling gait lacking elasticity, and bad positions in bed such as lying on the abdomen or hands near the genitals. He notes these conditions have other causes but calls their occurrence frequent enough to be a suspicious indication.
Chapter 62
What eating habits does Kellogg associate with the secret vice in children?
The author describes a capricious appetite: initial voracity and gluttony, then impaired digestion with appetite sometimes absent and sometimes unappeasable. He claims such children crave unnatural, irritating articles like salt, pepper, spices, cinnamon, cloves, vinegar, mustard and horse-radish in inordinate quantities, that girls may eat clay, chalk, plaster or slate-pencils, and that victims show disgust for simple food.
Chapter 62
What does Kellogg say about tobacco use and physical appearance as signs?
The author argues that tobacco use in a boy is good presumptive evidence of masturbation, claiming exceptions are very rare if they exist. He also lists unnatural paleness and colorless lips as attributable to secret sin unless otherwise explained, granting the benefit of the doubt for overwork, anxiety or dyspepsia, and notes acne on the forehead as suspicious while chin pimples at puberty are common and without significance.
Chapter 62
Section 634 cards
According to the chapter, what signs around the eyes may raise suspicion of the vice?
Sunken eyes lacking luster and natural brilliancy, red edges, soreness, and a dark ring around them may raise suspicion, especially in a child. However, the chapter stresses that dyspepsia, debility from any cause, and loss of sleep can produce the same signs, so no one should be accused on these indications alone while legitimate causes could explain them.
Chapter 63
What does the chapter say about the reliability of individual suspicious signs?
The author argues no single sign should be considered conclusive evidence of the habit in any individual. Any one sign may and should arouse suspicion and watchfulness. If the habit exists, other signs will appear shortly, and when several point the same direction the evidence may be nearly or quite conclusive. Persistent watching, without the individual's knowledge, should eventually reveal positive signs.
Chapter 63
What does the chapter call the most certainly positive sign of solitary vice?
The chapter states the most certainly positive sign of all is detection in the act. It adds that stains on the nightshirt or sheets before puberty are certain evidence in boys, since before that time they are subject to no discharge leaving a similar stain, except the rare one from piles. Stains from urine are easily distinguished.
Chapter 63
What local effect does the chapter describe from frequent excitement of the genital organs in males?
The chapter states excitement of the genital organs produces intense congestion, and no other organs are capable of such rapid and enormous engorgement. With frequent repetition, this becomes permanent in some tissues, particularly the mucous membrane lining the urethra. Because this membrane is continuous with the bladder, kidneys, and other urinary organs, irritation in one part may extend to another or to all the rest.
Chapter 63
Section 643 cards
What does the chapter say causes true stricture of the urethra?
The chapter states that long-continued irritation of the urethral mucous membrane ultimately produces inflammation and swelling in some part of the urethra. When this swelling becomes permanent, it constitutes real stricture, which the author calls a most serious disease. More often the swelling is transient, from some unusual excess, and subsides. A temporary stricture may also come from spasmodic contraction of the muscular fibers around the urethra, excited by local irritation.
Chapter 64
How does the chapter describe the cause and signs of enlarged prostate?
The author says enlarged prostate is a frequent result of chronic urethral irritation communicated to the surrounding gland by proximity, producing enlargement and hardening. It is felt as a hard body just anterior to the anus and causes additional trouble by pressure. Sometimes it progresses to dangerous ulceration. It is attended by heat, pressure, and pain between the anus and the root of the penis.
Chapter 64
What does the chapter say about varicocele, including its cause and effects?
The chapter defines varicocele as a varicose state of the spermatic veins, almost always on the left side due to an anatomical peculiarity of that vein. It has been supposed a result of masturbation, but the author says it is certainly otherwise caused in many cases. Prof. Bartholow contends its presence should generally be considered accidental. Pressure from distended veins often atrophies the left testicle, but this does not produce impotence.
Chapter 64
Section 654 cards
According to the chapter, what causes the disease of emissions?
The chapter states the disease results from sexual excesses of any kind, including abuse of the marriage relation followed by forced continence, and mental unchastity even with physical continence. The author argues it would probably never occur in a person strictly continent who did not dwell on libidinous imaginations.
Chapter 65
What two exciting causes perpetuate emissions, and how do unchaste thoughts act?
The chapter names two exciting causes: local irritation and lewd thoughts. Local irritation is usually in the urethra, especially at the mouths of the ejaculatory ducts; distended seminal vesicles, constipation, worms, and piles also irritate. Unchaste thoughts act twofold: they stimulate the testes, overloading the seminal vesicles, and lascivious waking thoughts are the chief cause of lascivious dreams.
Chapter 65
What does the chapter say about whether occasional emissions are necessary or harmless?
The author argues emissions are not natural or necessary. He concedes some may have monthly losses for years without great apparent injury, but says losses more frequent than once a month will ultimately cause great injury. He compares emissions to vomiting: a remedial, pathological process made necessary only by voluntary transgression, and still wasteful of vitality.
Chapter 65
What did Dr. Milton testify about emissions, and what circumstances increase their frequency?
Dr. Milton remarks that anything beyond one emission a month requires attention, and that emissions are invariably more or less injurious, though not always visibly so in youth. The chapter also lists frequency-increasing circumstances: neglecting to relieve bladder and bowels at night, late suppers, stimulating foods and drinks, tea, coffee, spices, animal food, erotic thoughts, sleeping on the back or abdomen, and feather beds or too-warm covering.
Chapter 65
Section 664 cards
What causes diurnal emissions, according to the chapter?
The chapter attributes diurnal emissions to spasmodic action of the muscles involved in ejaculation, triggered by local irritation, and to pressure on the seminal vesicles from a distended rectum or bladder. It says they indicate debility and irritation that may occasion grave alarm, and notes that forcible interruption of ejaculation is said to have caused this condition in many cases.
Chapter 66
How does the chapter say internal emissions can be identified?
The chapter says external discharges may cease while the patient keeps declining, because seminal fluid passes back into the bladder and is voided with urine. Urine then shows cloudy or whitish sediment, and microscopic examination reveals zoosperms. But the author cautions that most such sediment is mucus or phosphates, distinguishable only by careful microscopy with at least 150 diameters magnification.
Chapter 66
What caution does the author give about spermatozoa in urine?
The author cautions that occasional spermatozoa in urine do not prove internal emissions, since a few zoosperms may remain in the urethra after a voluntary or nocturnal emission and pass into the urine as it leaves the bladder. He also warns that quacks have frightened patients into believing they had such discharges when only phosphates were present.
Chapter 66
What two causes does the author give for the general effects of self-abuse?
The author lists nervous exhaustion and loss of seminal fluid. He argues loss of semen is not the only or perhaps chief cause, since effects appear in children before puberty and in females, where no seminal discharge occurs, so nervous shock alone works the evil. He adds that some eminent physicians believe seminal fluid is absorbed to replenish nerve and brain tissue, though not all physiologists agree.
Chapter 66
Section 674 cards
What did Dr. Smith's statistics claim about consumption cases and sexual abuse?
Dr. Smith reported to a medical association that of one thousand consumption cases, 518 had suffered some form of sexual abuse, and more than 400 had been addicted to masturbation or suffered nocturnal emissions. The author cites this via Acton as supporting evidence that the vice is among the most frequent causes of consumption, though he admits the true number can never be known.
Chapter 67
What throat symptoms did the young clergyman attribute to masturbation?
The clergyman, who began the practice at sixteen, reported that after the act his voice lost tone and his throat felt disagreeable, later becoming painful to speak. He described a sensation of acrid morbid matter secreted in the throat that brought tears and could take away breath, becoming permanent once involuntary emissions impaired his constitution, making speech require constant swallowing.
Chapter 67
What two paralysis cases did Dr. Sayre present, and what treatment cured them?
Two small boys who began genital excitation very early showed paralysis; one was completely helpless when held erect, with head falling and saliva dribbling, while the other had paralysis of leg muscles producing club-foot. Both had congenital phimosis. Circumcision improved the first somewhat and completely cured the second within weeks, despite prior unsuccessful club-foot treatments.
Chapter 67
Which nervous and special-sense effects does the author attribute to sexual excess?
The author lists headaches, neuralgias, hysteria-like symptoms, flushing, and heat-cold alternations, and says epilepsy has been traced to the habit in many cases. He also claims dimness of vision, amaurosis, spots before the eyes, hearing degeneration, diminished sensibility of all senses, spinal irritation with limb pains and muscle twitching, and partial or complete paralysis of the lower limbs or whole body.
Chapter 67
Section 684 cards
What examples does the chapter give of spinal disease attributed to masturbation?
The chapter describes several cases of spinal disease traced only to masturbation, including two intelligent small boys showing the gait of loco-motor ataxia, with disease progressing despite treatment. An older brother had died of the same malady, with paralysis spreading over the whole body and finally preventing deglutition, so that he starved to death.
Chapter 68
How does the chapter explain so-called religious insanity in masturbators?
The author argues that religious insanity may justly be attributed to this cause in many cases: the individual is conscience-smitten over his sins and fears he is ruined for both worlds, driving him to despair until his weakened intellect fails and reason is dethroned. Friends, ignorant of the real cause, blame religion rather than the vicious habits.
Chapter 68
What local effects does the chapter claim masturbation produces in females?
The chapter claims congestion first affects the vaginal mucous membrane, producing a catarrhal leucorrhoea that enervates the system and extends to the womb. It also lists soreness and warts on the fingers from acrid secretions, uterine congestion and ulceration, menstrual derangements, prolapsus and displacements, cancer of the womb, sterility, atrophy of the mammae, and pruritis sometimes requiring amputation.
Chapter 68
What general effects does the chapter attribute to masturbation in females compared with males?
The author argues females suffer no seminal loss but are debilitated by leucorrhoea, and that their greatest injury comes from nervous exhaustion following unnatural excitement. Nervous diseases of every variety develop, with more marked emaciation and debility than in males and worse results sooner, hastened by sedentary habits. Insanity is more frequent than in males, and spinal irritation is called frequent.
Chapter 68
Section 693 cards
According to the quoted writer, what conditions in young women may self-abuse cause?
The quoted writer says the practice is one of the most frequent causes of hysteria, chorea, and epilepsy among young women, though it is not often recognized. He adds that time may reveal it through hysterias, epilepsies, and spinal irritations, and that marriage may arrest this "final catastrophe," which he says is then wrongly blamed on early marriage or maternity.
Chapter 69
What does the author say about whether the effects of self-abuse cure themselves?
The author argues this is a fatal mistake: the diseased conditions induced by the vice never improve themselves, and their constant tendency is to increase in virulence and inveteracy. He says the victim, not understanding the inveterate character of the disease, may neglect to take measures, and he insists prompt measures for relief are necessary.
Chapter 69
What does the author recommend parents do to prevent the habit in children?
The author recommends cultivating chastity from infancy, avoiding corrupt servants and associates, and instructing servants about the harm of genital manipulation even in infants. He urges timely warning of children before the habit forms, teaching them to regard handling the genitals as improper, and explaining the organs as the child matures. He notes parents often resist discussing sexual subjects and should first learn the organs' true functions themselves.
Chapter 69
Section 703 cards
What methods does Kellogg recommend for breaking the habit in younger children?
For younger children, with whom moral considerations carry little weight, Kellogg lists bandaging the parts, tying the hands (which does not always succeed, since children contrive other ways such as working the limbs or lying on the abdomen), and covering the organs with a cage, practiced with entire success. He also claims circumcision is almost always successful in small boys, especially with phimosis.
Chapter 70
Why does Kellogg recommend circumcision without anaesthetic for small boys?
Kellogg argues the operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anaesthetic, because the brief pain will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if connected with the idea of punishment. He adds that the soreness lasting several weeks interrupts the practice, and if not too firmly fixed, the habit may be forgotten and not resumed.
Chapter 70
What does Kellogg say is the most that others can do for an adult patient?
Kellogg argues that after all, the most must be done by the individual himself. Others can only surround him with favoring circumstances and arouse him to a proper sense of his real condition and danger. If that can be thoroughly accomplished, there is much reason to hope; but if he cannot be made to feel the need of reformation, his case is hopeless.
Chapter 70
Section 714 cards
According to Kellogg, what is the greatest impediment to a patient's recovery?
The author argues the greatest impediment is usually the patient's own mind: hopeless despair, melancholy, sullen apathy, want of energy, and fickleness of mind thwart all attempts made for him. In other cases, lack of willpower or neglect to exercise the will in controlling thoughts counteracts everything done for him. He urges occupying the patient's attention away from brooding over his ills.
Chapter 71
What does Kellogg claim about whether a person can control their thoughts?
The author argues control of thoughts is not impossible. Thoughts result from brain action, and brain action can be controlled like a voluntary muscle. It may be harder when resolution is weakened by the vice, but while remnants of will and reason remain, control is possible. Sufferers should say 'I can and I will control my thoughts,' not 'I can't.'
Chapter 71
What role does Kellogg assign to physical exercise in treatment?
Kellogg says exercise powerfully aids pure thoughts: when unchaste ideas intrude, engage at once in energetic muscular exercise, pursuing it to fatigue if needed while making a strong mental effort at control. Exercise also balances circulation and relieves internal congestion. He calls walking the best single form, recommending four or five miles daily, and warns ball-playing may injure through violent, spasmodic competition.
Chapter 71
What does Kellogg say about diet's relation to chastity?
Kellogg rejects as untrue the claim of some authors that diet is of no consequence. He asserts that physiology teaches thoughts are born of what we eat, and that a man living on pork, fine-flour bread, rich pies and cakes, condiments, tea, coffee, and tobacco might as well try to fly as be chaste in thought; mental virtue would require a miracle of grace.
Chapter 71
Section 724 cards
What diet precautions does Kellogg say are necessary for someone long trained in vice?
Kellogg lists five: never overeat (fasting the next meal if one does); eat but twice a day, with nothing within four or five hours of bed-time; discard all stimulating food including spices, condiments, salt, and animal food; abstain strictly from wine, beer, tea, coffee, chocolate, hot drinks, and tobacco; and eat fruits, grains, and vegetables instead, with Graham flour, oatmeal, and ripe fruit called indispensable.
Chapter 72
What does Kellogg claim about overeating and late meals?
Kellogg states that gluttony is fatal to chastity and that overeating will certainly cause emissions and other evils in one whose organs are weakened by abuse. He advises eating but twice a day, keeping supper very light, and eating nothing within four or five hours of bed-time, calling "Never go to bed with a loaded stomach" an imperative rule and the great cause of horrid dreams and nightmare.
Chapter 72
Which foods and drinks does Kellogg say should be discarded, and what does he allow?
Kellogg would discard spices, pepper, ginger, mustard, cinnamon, cloves, essences, all condiments, salt, pickles, and animal food of all kinds including fish, fowl, oysters, eggs, and milk. He concedes many will never discard these entirely but says it would be better. The only tolerated items are lean beef or mutton, very moderate salt, and moderate milk, the less the better.
Chapter 72
What sleeping practices does Kellogg recommend to prevent emissions?
Kellogg advises seven to nine hours' sleep, rising immediately after four o'clock since a second nap is dangerous, and napping before dinner rather than after. He says never retire with loaded bowels or bladder, sleep on one side rather than the back or abdomen, avoid soft beds and too many covers, ventilate the room, and try devices like a knotted towel to prevent sleeping on the back.
Chapter 72
Section 734 cards
According to Carpenter, what distinguishes the intermediate dream stage from true dreaming?
Carpenter describes a stage between ordinary dreaming and wakefulness in which the dreamer is aware he is dreaming and recognizes the unreliability of the images before his mind. He may even voluntarily prolong agreeable images or dissipate unpleasing ones, showing a degree of directing power that is entirely absent in the true dream state.
Chapter 73
What method did Acton's Italian patient use to stop frequent emissions?
The patient resolved that the instant a woman's image or any libidinous idea appeared, he would wake. To ensure this, he dwelt on the resolution for a long time before sleep. Acton reports that this vigorous will succeeded: the idea, the sense of danger, and the determination to wake stayed linked even in sleep, and the practice cured the complaint.
Chapter 73
What does Acton say about patients who claim they cannot control their dreams?
Acton calls the claim untrue. He argues waking thoughts and sleeping dreams are closely connected and share the same character: a man who lets his daytime thoughts dwell on libidinous subjects will have lascivious dreams at night. A will not exercised in repressing sexual desires while awake will not preserve him in sleep.
Chapter 73
Why does the chapter oppose advising prostitutes as a remedy for emissions?
The author argues the practice is common even among regular physicians but deplorable. He says it ruins morals, converts an involuntary result of disease into a voluntary sin, substitutes one form of emission for another, and risks disease. He cites medical testimony that connection has no power to cure bad spermatorrhoea and may lay the foundation of impotence.
Chapter 73
Section 744 cards
What objections does the chapter raise against marriage as a cure for emissions?
The chapter offers three objections: marriage is not a remedy because it merely substitutes one form of emissions for another with similar ill effects; even if it were a remedy it would not be justifiable, since it would abuse the marriage relation; and a man has no right to treat a wife as a "vial of medicine." It quotes Mr. Acton asking what the young girl thus sacrificed has done to deserve such a fate.
Chapter 74
What do Copland, Acton, Milton and others advise regarding marriage for frequent emissions?
The chapter states that the most reliable writers on the subject—Copland, Acton, Milton, and others—advise that "the complaint should be removed before the married life is commenced." It adds that the affected individual contemplating marriage should also carefully consider the possible and probable effects upon offspring, the legitimate result of marriage, which the chapter says were described earlier.
Chapter 74
How should the local cold bath be applied for emissions, and why?
The genital organs should be bathed daily in cold water just before retiring. A brief dash is insufficient: short cold application causes strong sudden reaction that increases local congestion, so bathing must continue until the sedative effect is produced, at least fifteen minutes. Water should be about 60 degrees, iced in warm weather, and squeezed from a sponge over the lower abdomen.
Chapter 74
What does the chapter say about enema use and avoiding dependence on it?
The enema is important but has been much abused and must be used with caution. When bowels are very costive, relieve them before retiring with a copious injection of tepid water, using a fountain syringe. But nothing is worse than dependence on it; bowels should act naturally through proper food like graham flour and oatmeal, avoiding hot drinks, milk, and sugar, plus abdominal bandage, massage, cold water, and exercise.
Chapter 74
Section 753 cards
What does the chapter say about using drugs alone to cure emissions?
The author argues that no drug in the materia medica can alone cure emissions, and that thousands have been ruined by long-continued drugging. He lists purging, phosphorus, quinine, ergot, iron, camphor, opium, belladonna, and chloral among the treatments used, and says emissions may be temporarily checked but the patient is not cured and the malady returns.
Chapter 75
How does the chapter describe the use of a sound or bougie?
The author recommends passing a sound or bougie of proper size two or three times a week to reduce abnormal irritation in the irritable urethra, especially near the bladder where the ejaculatory ducts open. It must be done with great delicacy to avoid increasing irritation, and should not be attempted by a novice; he cites Prof. Gross that skillful catheterism is one of the most delicate operations in surgery.
Chapter 75
What is advised for varicocele and unusually pendulous testicles?
Patients with varicocele should wear a proper suspensory bag, since continued pressure of distended veins on the testes, if unsupported, will ultimately cause degenerative changes and atrophy. A surgical operation removing a portion of the scrotal skin is proper if the patient desires an operation, and no other operation is advisable. The suspensory bag is also advised for unusually pendulous testicles.
Chapter 75
Section 762 cards
How do quacks profit from victims of self-abuse, according to the chapter?
The chapter states that victims of self-abuse fall easy prey to quacks and charlatans, who derive a richer harvest from them than from any other class. It describes men paying hundreds of dollars for advertised "specifics" and "sure cures," and says the author never met a single case that benefited from patent medicines.
Chapter 76
What tricks does the chapter describe quacks using to lure sufferers?
The chapter describes advertisements posing as clergymen, charitable institutions, or cured invalids; free books like "Manhood Regained" that frighten readers with exaggerated symptoms before selling a $50 remedy; and "Anatomical Museum" lectures by a "doctor" designed to excite fears and passions before robbing young men of their last dollar.
Chapter 76
Section 774 cards
According to the chapter, what must a sufferer from sexual disease resolve to do for life?
The chapter states that every sufferer must make up his mind to live, for the remainder of his life, as closely in accord with the laws of life and health as circumstances under his control allow. It adds that one who does so, with genuine regard for principle and love of right, may confidently expect the reward of obedience for his faithfulness.
Chapter 77
What does the author claim about boys growing up in his own era?
The author argues that boyhood has become brief: boys now learn to imitate the vices and manners of their seniors before their teens and are impatient to be counted as men despite their unfitness. He claims this inordinate haste causes premature decay, and that the average boy of twelve knows more of vice than the youth of twenty of the past generation.
Chapter 77
What two kinds of sins does the chapter distinguish, and what follows each?
The chapter distinguishes sins that transgress the moral law from those that transgress physical laws. Both classes are followed by penalties: violating the laws of health brings suffering just as certainly as lying, stealing, or murdering. The author argues that perfect obedience to all of nature's laws, including moral laws, is necessary for perfect health and perfect nobleness of character.
Chapter 77
How does the chapter describe the relationship of boys to men, and why call boys a nation's most valuable property?
The chapter says boys are the beginnings of men, related to men as buds to flowers or green apples to ripe fruit; greenness is natural and no disgrace if they ripen with age. It argues a nation's most valuable property is its boys, since a country with noble, virtuous, vigorous boys is sure of noble, brave, energetic men, and whatever injures its boys undermines the nation's strength.
Chapter 77
Section 784 cards
According to the chapter, what are the two objects of human existence?
The chapter states the two objects of the human mechanism are: 1. the maintenance of an individual life, and 2. the production of similar individuals that also have the power of maintaining individual lives. It notes the same may be said of every plant and animal, and that reproduction, though incidental, is necessary to perpetuate the race or species.
Chapter 78
Which organs make up the nutritive, moving, and thinking/feeling apparatuses?
The nutritive apparatus includes the mouth and teeth for receiving and chewing food, the stomach and intestines for digesting and absorbing it, and the heart and blood-vessels for distributing it. The moving apparatus is the muscles and bones. The thinking and feeling apparatus is the brain and nerves, aided by special-sense organs: eye, ear, nose, tongue, and skin/mucous membrane for touch.
Chapter 78
Why does the chapter argue reproductive organs are meant for use only after maturity?
The author argues the reproductive organs, unlike lungs, stomach, and muscles which must be used from infancy and are developed at birth, are only partially developed in childhood and become perfected later, especially after about age fourteen to eighteen when puberty occurs. He says this later development is sufficient evidence they are intended for use only when the body is fully mature.
Chapter 78
What does the chapter claim about forming a noble character and sound body?
The chapter claims that by obeying all laws relating to healthy action of body and mind, a noble character and healthy body may be formed, and any deviation from right will be followed by suffering. It says a boy who heeds wise parents, avoids bad company and bad habits, and cultivates purity, honesty, and manliness will grow into a noble youth and virtuous man.
Chapter 78
Section 794 cards
According to the chapter, how does self-abuse compare to violating the seventh commandment?
The author argues that self-pollution is itself a flagrant violation of the seventh commandment, and is in every respect more pernicious, debasing, and immoral than what is generally considered adultery. He also claims that those who think they may do as they please with themselves are wrong, since people belong to their Creator and are accountable to God for how they treat their own bodies.
Chapter 79
What biblical examples does the chapter cite as warnings against sexual sins?
The chapter cites Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by fire and brimstone for such transgressions; Onan, struck dead in the act of committing a vileness of this sort; the wicked inhabitants of Palestine, destroyed for similar vices with their lands given to the Hebrews; and David, who suffered to the day of his death for a single violation of the seventh commandment.
Chapter 79
What physical effects does the chapter claim follow early secret vice in boys?
The author claims the habit wastes the most precious part of the blood and uses up vital forces, stunting growth so boys become puny dwarfs, weak, scrawny, sickly, hollow-eyed, and listless. He asserts such boys cannot become strong vigorous men, will be short-lived, and may father puny, scrofulous, consumptive, rickety, or nervous children. He also says anxious friends often wrongly blame overwork or overstudy.
Chapter 79
What does the chapter say about a person's right to do as they please with themselves?
The author argues that people are not their own masters; they belong to their Creator and are accountable to God not only for how they treat fellow-men but for how they treat themselves and use the bodies God gave them. He compares the man who commits suicide to a murderer, and says he who pollutes himself violates the seventh commandment even though the crime is against himself.
Chapter 79
Section 804 cards
According to the chapter, what physical signs in boys does the author blame on the 'vile habit'?
The author argues the habit shrivels, dwarfs, and destroys the human form, making boys look older than their years. He claims fond mothers who glory that their sons look old are, in nine cases out of ten, seeing the habit's effects. He also links it to ruined digestion, decayed teeth, and early breakdown of the body.
Chapter 80
What does the author claim about idiots and insane asylums in relation to the vice?
The author argues that the vice recruits the ranks of the 'daft' every day, and that visitors to insane asylums see scores ruined in mind and body by it. He describes such victims as bereft of sense and lower than a beast, claiming they were once pure and intelligent and perhaps the hope of a fond mother.
Chapter 80
What does the author identify as causes of young dyspeptics and early decay?
Setting aside bad food and worse cookery, the author argues no cause is so active in breaking down American boys' digestion as the vice. He claims boys of ten or twelve should digest almost anything but thousands cannot digest simple food; ruined digestion leads to bad teeth, and hardly one boy in a dozen has sound teeth, laying a foundation for disease.
Chapter 80
What does the author claim about the race's physical decline and its cause?
The author argues the human race grows steadily weaker, that modern boys cannot match their grandparents' strength, and that even farm boys cannot endure the hard work their fathers did, making them unwilling to farm. He attributes much to civilization's refinements but argues vice is the most active cause, ruining more constitutions than hard work, study, hunger, cold, privation, and disease combined.
Chapter 80
Section 814 cards
What symptoms did the two brothers develop, according to Kellogg's account?
The elder boy grew slow and stiff, staggered when walking, and his speech became indistinct. The disease progressed to his hands so he could not feed himself, and his mind failed, leaving a blank stare. The younger son soon showed the same symptoms and sank into the same helpless state. Both eventually staggered like drunken men, heads drooping, mouths open with saliva dribbling.
Chapter 81
What cause did Kellogg conclude explained the brothers' condition?
After finding no hereditary explanation—both parents came from good families and were sober and temperate, and the father used neither liquor nor tobacco—Kellogg concluded the cases were marked illustrations of the results of self-abuse begun at a very early age. The mother doubted it, but the boys were soon caught in the act, which he took as full confirmation.
Chapter 81
What treatment outcome did the two brothers have under Kellogg's care?
Kellogg says every possible remedy was used but in vain. Symptoms sometimes eased temporarily, raising the mother's hopes, but improvement always proved temporary and the boys relapsed and gradually worsened. Eventually the mother gave up hope and took them back to her Western home, where Kellogg expected they might suffer for years before death released them.
Chapter 81
What happened to A. M., the Ohio youth described as a prodigal?
A. M. acquired the habit early, which Kellogg says destroyed his taste for study, made his mind dwell on low subjects, and led him to leave home and sink into vice. Broken in health, he fell into the hands of quacks who took his money. He came to Kellogg penitent, but Kellogg told him he could never be as well as before and must always suffer for his transgression.
Chapter 81
Section 823 cards
What did Kellogg hope for the young man, and what ended that hope?
Kellogg says he and others labored for months to lift the young man from sin, and the hard lines on his face seemed to fade, so they began to hope for his recovery. But through the influence of bad companions he fell again, and they lost sight of him.
Chapter 82
What does Kellogg say happens once a person has gone far in sin?
The author argues that not one in a thousand can be reached once they have gone far in sin, and that once they have ventured, they are rarely checked before great harm is done. He urges youth to cease doing evil before the will is paralyzed by sin.
Chapter 82
What did L. R. find after he claimed to have broken his habit?
L. R. claimed he wholly broke the habit after a friend warned him, but Kellogg says the years of sin had wrecked his system: his health was deranged, his constitution broken, and his sexual organs diseased enough to require a serious and painful surgical operation. Kellogg calls it a narrow escape.
Chapter 82
Section 833 cards
What did Kellogg's examination reveal about the young man whose friends blamed religious study?
Kellogg suspected sexual abuse despite the friends' emphatic denial and claim of close supervision. A nurse caught him in self-pollution within a week, and he confessed, saying "I know I have made myself a fool." Kellogg describes the youth as imbecilic, vacant, drooling, and incontinent, and says he was sent to an institution for imbeciles and lunatics.
Chapter 83
What did the Eastern State patient claim about his transgression, and what did Kellogg conclude?
The young man insisted he had committed self-pollution only once, but afterward let his mind dwell on vile thoughts and indulged his imagination. Kellogg says he suffered the same disorders as long-term practitioners, arguing that no dallying with sin is safe and only perfect purity is safe. The man recovered largely with treatment and married happily.
Chapter 83
How does the case of C. L. end, and what does Kellogg say about his mother?
C. L., a studious college student, declined into moodiness, inability to concentrate, emaciation, and mental failure. He confessed to years of the suspected sin and promised reform, but the wasting disease continued. He returned home and shot himself. Kellogg says his mother was spared full knowledge of the truth, or her sorrow would have been unbearable.
Chapter 83
Section 843 cards
What did C. E. do shortly after his health began to improve under treatment?
Once C. E. found he was not liable to die immediately, he resumed his career of sin. Within less than a month he was detected stealing a watch from a fellow-patient; on arrest he confessed to weeks of petty thieving and had scores of stolen articles. He was led away in irons to prison, and the author reports he continued his downward career after serving his time.
Chapter 84
How did the indignant father cure his son, and what did the author think of it?
After punishment, threats, and warnings failed, the father seized the boy and performed castration on him himself, as he would on a colt. The boy recovered and was effectually cured of the habit. The author calls the remedy efficient but scarcely justifiable, insisting even a father has no right thus to mutilate his own son.
Chapter 84
What general warning does the author draw from these cases for young men?
The author argues that a course of vice once entered upon is not easily left, and that a youth who once gives himself up to sin rarely escapes going headlong to destruction. He offers C. E. as the warning example, notes that only fear of impending death paused him briefly, and says he has not dared portray half the misery he has seen.
Chapter 84
Section 854 cards
What does Kellogg claim a single bad boy can do to a community?
The author argues a bad boy can do more harm in a community than all the clergymen, Sabbath-school teachers, tract-distributers, and other Christian workers combined. He compares an evil boy to a pest worse than cholera, small-pox, or the plague, and says the damage from one vicious lad exceeds that of a hurricane sweeping through a settled district.
Chapter 85
How quickly does Kellogg say vice spreads among boys, and what example does he give?
The author says vice spreads like wild-fire, is more catching than the most contagious disease, and more tenacious once implanted than leprosy. He reports known instances in which a boy of seven or eight implanted the venom of vice in half a score of pure-minded lads within a few days of first associating with them.
Chapter 85
What rule does Kellogg give boys for responding to an evil word or indecent act from a companion?
The author instructs that at the first intimation of evil from a companion, a pure boy should flee as from a deadly serpent or voracious beast. He says not to let curiosity delay escape, to cut the acquaintance at once, never be alone with such a boy, and on no account associate with him, since he will soil one's moral garments as surely as filth soils outer clothing.
Chapter 85
What does Kellogg say about bad books compared with evil companions?
The author argues a bad book is as bad as an evil companion and in some respects worse, since it can cling to a person at all times and follow him into the secrecy of his bed-chamber to poison his mind. He includes not only obscene volumes seized by Mr. Comstock but dime and nickel novels, papers like the Police Gazette and Police News, and sensational story books, some reaching Sunday-school libraries.
Chapter 85
Section 864 cards
What test does the author give for a suspicious book offered by a companion?
The author advises boys to take any suspicious book to a father, mother, or reliable older friend for examination. If it is handed over with an air of secrecy, or if the giver requires a promise to keep it hidden, the author says to have nothing to do with it, comparing such reading to placing a coal of fire or a live viper in one's bosom.
Chapter 86
How does the author describe the lasting effect of bad books read in youth?
The author argues that thoughts implanted in youth stick for life despite efforts to dislodge them. Men who escaped a life of vice still look back with intense regret and wish the mental pictures from bad books could be effaced. These evil impressions can torture the mind for a lifetime and intrude even at solemn moments, despite efforts to avoid them.
Chapter 86
What does the author say about obscene pictures and their circulation?
The author says vile pictures lead boys astray and circulate widely despite efforts of philanthropists like Mr. Anthony Comstock. He claims boys in almost every large school act as agents scattering them. He also argues that some art gallery paintings, defended in the name of art, serve only as means of evil for those not trained to rigid chastity, and that landscapes, flowers, birds, and animals offer ample subjects instead.
Chapter 86
Which foods and substances does the author claim stimulate boys sexually?
The author argues that highly seasoned food, rich sauces, spices, condiments, sweetmeats, and all stimulating foods excite the sexual organs of boys into too early activity. He also says beer, wine, hard cider, and tobacco excite the passions, calling tobacco especially detrimental, and that tea and coffee should be forbidden to boys. He notes France and Germany have laws restricting tobacco use by students.
Chapter 86
Section 874 cards
What does Kellogg call the greatest safeguard for a boy?
The author argues that a boy's greatest safeguard is implicit trust and confidence in his parents, so he brings all his queries to them rather than to an older boyish friend. He claims that if all boys did this, an immense amount of evil would be prevented, and urges boys facing temptation to think of the act's vileness, remember God and pure angels see every act and thought, and pray for deliverance.
Chapter 87
Why does Kellogg say a physician is best fitted to address girls on this subject?
The author argues a physician who has studied ladies' health and the causes of their ill-health, and who has observed the harmful influence of the evil practices on girls' bodies and minds, can best appreciate the evil's magnitude and speak understandingly and authoritatively. He says he would gladly avoid the task but is convinced of its urgent need, since thousands of girls are being led into ruin by an unseen vice.
Chapter 87
What causes does Kellogg give for the decline in girls' healthy appearance?
The author says ruddy cheeks and bright eyes are seen less often in schoolgirls than a quarter century earlier, with pale cheeks and languid eyes suggesting weak constitutions. He hopes most cases stem from bad diet, improper clothing, confinement in poorly ventilated rooms with too little exercise, and similar causes, but is obliged to recognize that in far too many cases there is another cause he declines to name yet.
Chapter 87
How does Kellogg say a girl who wants to be beautiful should behave?
The author argues that while all girls cannot be equally beautiful, all may become good-looking, and he tells those who wish to be handsome to first be good: to love what is right and true, be pure in mind and act, simple in manners, modest in deportment, and kind in ways. He also criticizes mothers who dress daughters in fine clothing and tell them to sit quietly and 'act like little ladies,' calling this pernicious and damaging to mind and body.
Chapter 87
Section 883 cards
According to the chapter, what is the relationship between health and beauty?
The author argues health is essential to beauty: no girl can long be beautiful without health, and perfect health makes a girl not really ugly. Disease wastes features, bleaches cheeks and lips, and destroys eye luster and step elasticity. The author adds that if goodness is moral health, then health is the one great requisite of beauty.
Chapter 88
What does the chapter say about human reproduction and woman's role?
The author says all living creatures multiply through sexual organs—flowers being the sexual organs of plants—and that human beings form by a similar budding process, with human buds formed by an organ possessed only by the female sex. The author calls producing these human buds one of woman's most important and sacred duties, making motherhood one of the grandest functions of womanhood.
Chapter 88
What habits does the chapter say mar a girl's beauty?
The author argues that disregarding health laws ruins beauty: eating bad food or at all hours, staying up late, attending parties with dancing, wine, and rich suppers, lacing the waist for fashion, wearing thin narrow-toed gaiters with French heels, and insufficient clothing in cold weather. He also claims heavy eating of fat meat, rich cakes, pies, confectionery, and iced creams causes sallowness, and that chalk and rouge cannot hide it.
Chapter 88
Section 893 cards
What physical signs does the chapter claim reveal secret vice in girls?
The chapter claims the vice shows in the countenance, walk, and loss of healthy vigor. It lists headache, side-ache, back-ache, chest pains, and wandering pains. It also names hysteria, blanched cheeks, hollow eyes, and rough pimply skin. The author cautions that not every girl with pimples is guilty, and it would be unjust to charge someone on an eruption alone.
Chapter 89
According to the chapter, why do many girls break down in health at puberty?
The author argues that prior addiction to the habit causes unnatural excitement of the organs before puberty, laying the foundation for disease. At the critical period from twelve to eighteen, organs are congested, sometimes near inflammation, and the natural increased congestion can trigger serious disease. He claims displacements, ovarian neuralgia, and leucorrhoea follow, worsened by tight lacing and heavy skirts.
Chapter 89
What cause does the chapter emphasize for girls forming the habit?
The chapter stresses vicious companions. It says girls are remarkably susceptible to influence by peers, and an agreeable vicious girl can sway companions more than older persons can. It claims even a mother rarely has the influence of a bosom friend. Close same-age friendships lead girls to confide in each other and become estranged from their mothers, the only competent counselors.
Chapter 89
Section 904 cards
Which traits does Kellogg say make a girl an unsafe companion to avoid?
The author argues a girl should avoid companions who are vain, idle, silly, or frivolous, since these traits likely accompany worse ones. He also warns against girls rude in manners, careless in habits, or irreverent and disobedient to parents and teachers, saying they should be shunned no matter how pretty, witty, stylish, or aristocratic.
Chapter 90
To what does Kellogg compare the taste for novel-reading, and why?
The author argues the taste for novel-reading is like the appetite for liquor or opium: it is never satiated and grows with gratification. He claims a confirmed novel-reader is almost as hard to reform as a confirmed inebriate or opium-eater, and that such reading destroys love for solid reading while exciting the emotions and passions.
Chapter 90
What physical and dietary causes does Kellogg list for secret vice?
The author lists bad diet, stimulating and exciting foods, late suppers, confectionery and dainties, and strongly condemns tea and coffee for young ladies. He also names improper dress causing local congestion and excitement, and says probably the greatest cause is too much familiarity with the opposite sex, including silly letters and childish flirtations.
Chapter 90
What does Kellogg claim is woman's best safeguard of virtue, and what happens when it is lost?
The author argues true modesty and maidenly reserve are the best guardians of virtue, protecting a girl from improper advances and from secret temptation. He claims this protection is quickly lost by one who abandons herself to secret vice, and that her respect for chastity diminishes until she may become an inmate of a brothel or an outcast.
Chapter 90
Section 914 cards
In the case of the young lady with mental unsoundness, what did careful investigation reveal as the cause?
The author reports that too close application to study was first assigned as the cause of her mania, which included violent fits and threats to nurses. But a careful investigation revealed that the sexual sin described in the chapter was the actual cause. The author argues that not all who indulge will become insane, but any transgressor may be so punished, and that there is no safety but in absolute purity.
Chapter 91
What symptoms did the seventeen-year-old girl from a Western state present, and how did she respond to suspicion?
She was pale, emaciated, nervous, and hysterical, with severe pain in a left breast swollen to nearly double size, hot, tense, pulsating, and tender. She had paroxysms of semi-consciousness and scarcely breathing for hours. She stoutly denied the suspected cause with a deceptive appearance of innocent ignorance, until vigilant observation detected evidence and she confessed to appalling wickedness.
Chapter 91
How was the penitent victim's recovery described, and what struggle remained after her repentance?
She repented sincerely and made earnest efforts to help herself, and her diseases began to be removed. But when the will was off guard during sleep, her mind reverted to old channels and rioted in vileness. Unchaste dreams made her dread sleep, waking enervated and prostrated as though she had actually transgressed. She continued the struggle and finally gained a perfect victory over her mind, sleeping as well as waking, and recovered enough health to enjoy life and be useful.
Chapter 91
What did the author claim happened within ten days once the girl was threatened with exposure to her parents?
The author reports that the young woman, hardened and feeling no remorse, only promised to reform when threatened with exposure to her parents unless she ceased the practice. In less than ten days the mysterious symptoms that had puzzled many physicians disappeared altogether. The swollen, tender breast returned to normal size and was so restored she could strike it a full blow without pain.
Chapter 91
Section 924 cards
According to the chapter, where did the young lady with the nervous difficulty learn the habit?
The chapter states she was placed in a boarding-school when quite young and there learned the habit, practicing it without knowing its ill effects or appreciating its sinfulness. She later tried to stop but found herself too securely bound to escape, and her thoughts ran in sentimental channels during waking hours while her imagination ran riot in sleep.
Chapter 92
What did the father of the ten-year-old girl threaten to do rather than let her grow up with the habit?
The chapter says the father was so awake to the consequences that he declared he would take his daughter away into the wilderness and leave her to die if need be, rather than allow her to grow up to womanhood with the blight and risk contaminating his younger children. He wept as he spoke and insisted on the surgical operation.
Chapter 92
What did the young lady in the boarding-school case do about sentimental literature?
The chapter says her love of sentimental literature occasioned another battle, since she could scarcely resist daily temptation to while away weary hours with stories of love and sentiment. She fought earnestly and finally conquered the evil tendencies of her mind both awake and asleep, after which she began slow progress toward recovery and hoped for comfortable health.
Chapter 92
What advice does the author give to girls in his final word?
The author begs girls to heed the matter seriously, saying only the ignorant or hardened treat it lightly. He urges the pure to thank God and pray to remain pure, cultivate heavenly graces, make their mother their confidant in all perplexities, let no foreign influence beguile their confidence from her, trust God to resist evil, and flee temptation.
Chapter 92
Section 934 cards
According to the chapter, what should those who have already fallen do?
The author urges those who have fallen, whether ignorantly or through weakness, to turn from their evil way at once, warning that misery and ruin lie ahead with no way of escape. He says it may take years of pure living to repair the evil already done, but they should begin at once, resolving with God's help to become pure again, since God can cleanse them from all unrighteousness.
Chapter 93
What does the author say about the value and dangers of boys and girls associating together?
The author argues boys and girls are designed by nature to associate and be educated together, and that secluding them entirely causes both to suffer loss. However, he also claims serious evils can grow from too intimate or improper associations, and that many wise people have felt the sexes should be reared and educated apart as much as possible. Modest reserve should be maintained.
Chapter 93
What does the author say about early friendships and hasty marriages among young people?
The author argues too early friendships often lead to hasty marriages before either party is prepared for the married state or has developed judgment enough to choose a suitable partner. He says these facts are usually learned too late to be of value. He holds parents and teachers especially responsible for guarding early associations and giving timely warning, and says youth should be ready to take such advice.
Chapter 93
What does the author say about 'small talk' and conversation between the sexes?
The author argues young people wrongly believe they must talk 'small talk,' which he calls silly twaddle that disgusts everyone yet all seek to imitate. He says conversation between the sexes should address subjects of real interest that exercise sound sense and culture. He claims introducing a topic requiring depth usually produces a lull or reveals shallowness, and that superficial minds fall easiest into sentimentalism leading away from virtue.
Chapter 93
Section 944 cards
What does Kellogg claim about the effect of continence on male health?
The index lists continence under male physiology and asserts it is "not injurious," while also noting its "difficulty" and that impotence is "not produced by continence." The author argues continence is safe and even helpful, addressing fears that abstinence harms health.
Chapter 94
How does diet relate to chastity and puberty according to the chapter?
The index entries connect diet to chastity ("influence on chastity") and note diet's influence on puberty, alongside stimulating foods and drinks. The author argues that what one eats and drinks affects sexual development and self-control, treating diet as a factor in moral and physical health.
Chapter 94
What does the chapter say about the heredity of crime?
The index lists crime as a "source of" something, its "cause," and states "criminality hereditary," illustrated by the Juke family. The author argues criminality passes through generations, using heredity of crime and disease to support his views on marriage restrictions and race degeneration.
Chapter 94
What stance does the chapter take on masturbation and its effects?
The index catalogs masturbation extensively: its treatment and prevention, effects in females, effects on offspring, physical causes, signs, and "terrible effects," plus "self-abuse" as "not a modern vice." The author argues it is a grave, widespread harm requiring cure, a view reflecting his era's medical opinion rather than modern consensus.
Chapter 94
Section 954 cards
What topics does the index list under the heading 'Social evil'?
The index lists 'Social evil' with entries for the evil itself (page 284), its causes (page 290), and its cure (page 308). Related entries include 'Solitary vice' (315), its alarming prevalence (316), and its unsuspected cause (318), plus 'Vice legalized' (309).
Chapter 95
According to the index, what are listed as causes of self-abuse?
The index lists 'Stimulants the cause of self-abuse' at page 330, and separately 'Unchastity, physical causes of' at page 201. It also lists 'Vicious companions' (484) and 'Unchaste conversation' (179) as related entries, though the index does not state how each operates.
Chapter 95
What entries appear under 'Woman' in this index?
The index lists 'Woman, servitude of' (263), 'her responsibility' (270), and 'Woman's rights' (264). Nearby entries include 'Women, Indian' (86) and 'Women, Hebrew' (87), as well as 'Wives, on trial' (139) and 'sale of wives among the Russians' (138).
Chapter 95
What does the index list regarding tea, coffee, tobacco, and wine?
The index lists 'Tea and coffee' (292) and 'bad effects of' (467), 'Tobacco' (292) with 'evil effects of' (467) and 'grave charges against' (185), and 'Wine, evil effects of' (467). The author's tract list also advertises works on tea and coffee's evil effects.
Chapter 95
Section 961 cards
What are the details of Kellogg's Home Hand-Book as advertised?
The chapter advertises Kellogg's Home Hand-Book of Domestic Hygiene and Rational Medicine as the most complete popular treatise on anatomy and physiology, hygiene, and rational domestic medical practice. It has over five hundred engravings, including twenty-two full-page colored plates, and nearly 1600 pages in royal octavo. Prices are $6.50 for muslin and $7.50 for library binding, embossed in gold and jet.
Chapter 96
Source and licence
Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #19924 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-30. Cards reviewed 2026-10-30.
These cards paraphrase the text for study. They are not a substitute for reading the book, and they do not reproduce long passages.
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