UNCHASTITY 273 



me of what they have seen or even been drawn into at 

 schools. I would fain hope that such abominations are 

 things of the past." The entrance of a single corrupt 

 boy into a school which may have been previously pure, 

 —though such schools must be extremely rare,— will 

 speedily corrupt almost the entire membership. The 

 evil infection spreads more rapidly than the contagion 

 of smallpox or yellow fever, and it is scarcely less 

 fatal. 



This danger exists, not in public or city schools 

 alone, but in the most select and private schools. A 

 father who had kept his two sons under the care of a 

 private governess for several years, and then placed 

 them in a small school taught by a lady, and composed 

 of a few small children from the most select families, 

 was greatly astonished when informed by a physician 

 that his sons showed symptoms of the effects of self- 

 abuse. He was totally incredulous; but an investiga- 

 tion showed that they had already practiced the vile 

 habit for several years, having learned it of an infan- 

 tile schoolmate. 



We were acquainted with one instance in which a 

 primary school in a secluded and select community was 

 nearly broken up by the introduction of this vile habit 

 through a corrupt student. Many a watchful teacher 

 has seen the light of growing intelligence suddenly dim 

 and wane in the eye of his favorite student just when 

 he was giving the most promise of developing unusual 

 talents in literature, mathematics, or some one of the 

 natural or physical sciences, and has been compelled 

 to watch the devastating influence of this deadly upas- 

 tree that often claims the best and fairest human flow- 

 ers as its \actims. 



Wicked Nurses.— In those cases in which the habit 



