34 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



trained parent, ignorant of the anatomical expression, 

 would find it hard to convey the necessary information 

 without incurring the suspicion and, in his own mind, 

 the reproach of indelicacy. 



"Some advise that the family medical attendant 

 should act in loco parentis in this matter; but we are 

 certain that such action would be highly disagreeable to 

 the members of the profession. One suggestion alone 

 seems to meet the case, but, fortunately, it meets it 

 most thoroughly. Elementary anatomy and physiology 

 should form an integral part of every education. We 

 might begin by teaching boys and girls the bones and 

 skeleton, the functions of the heart, stomach, etc., as in 

 the following chapter, and then, when the suitable age 

 arrives, the structure and functions of the sexual or- 

 gans might be taken as the natural sequel of the pre- 

 vious portions of the course. In this way, the necessary 

 knowledge would enter the mind naturally and simply, 

 with no false shame on the one hand, and no fillip to 

 the imagination on the other. We are confident that 

 an immense reform would thus be easily and quietly 

 effected, and that much evil and suffering would be 

 averted. We should thus convey, in the most natural 

 and unobjectionable form, knowledge which we have 

 no right to withhold ; and we should remove the unwhole- 

 some fascination which our present habit of secrecy im- 

 parts to sexual questions. ^Jertain it is that the stealthy 

 approaches of vice are favored by the existing system. 



*'It will often be found that there is a prevalent 

 opinion that sexual immorality is to celibates a physical 

 necessitj^, an attribute of manliness, and even a collat- 

 eral or prevalent condition of health. This degrading 

 error has been so vigorously denounced by the ablest 

 of modern physiologists, that no one has any longer a 



