hallI SOCIAL HYGIENE 37 



are beginning to experience the "primordial urge" or sexual 

 desire. Many boys of fourteen come to believe that all natural 

 desires should be gratified, but the teachers of social hygiene 

 must explain to the youths that the fires of passion must be 

 banked, in order that the energies of manhood may be con- 

 served to a time when they may be put to their legitimate use, 

 namely, the begetting of a healthy offspring after the establish- 

 ment of the home. 



A matter of the greatest importance for youths of this 

 group to understand is the influence of internal secretions from 

 the sexual glands upon the body and its development. Most 

 youths have seen the influence of castration upon the develop- 

 ment of a young male animal. This profound effect is due to 

 the loss of those glands which produce the internal secretions, 

 distributed with the blood to> muscle and nervous system. With- 

 out this secretion the animal never develops those splendid 

 physical and temperamental qualities typical of the male of his 

 species. 



The matters to be presented to the girls, young women and 

 mothers, are parallel and analogous to those presented to similar 

 audiences of boys, youths and men. 



4 — Method of Presentation 



How shall this carefully selected matter be presented to 

 these carefully selected and homogeneous groups? This is a 

 problem of pedagogy. In my presentation of this matter to boys 

 I have used three defferent methods: the biological, the moral 

 and the "heroic." 



The biological method was not a success because I was able 

 to meet the group but once and no adequate biological presen- 

 tation can be made in one meeting of a class or audience. Sev- 

 eral, or better yet, many such meetings should follow in regular 

 succession, where actual living material collected from the plant 

 and animal kingdom should be prsented and studied with the 

 aid of the equipment of a biological laboratory. Manifestly 

 such a presentation is out of the question for social workers, 

 physical directors, and public lecturers. While this must be 

 conceded to be the ideal method of presenting the subject of re- 

 production and sexual life, it is a method feasible only for the 

 teacher of biology of a high school or college. A physician 

 could, of course, with the facilities of his office, teach a group 



