274 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



is acquired at a very early age, the work of evil is 

 usually wrought by the nurse, perhaps through igno- 

 rance of the effects of the habit. Incredible as it seems, 

 it is proved by numerous instances that it is not an 

 uncommon habit for nurses to quiet small children by 

 handling or titillating their genital organs. They find 

 this a speedy means of quieting them, and resort to it 

 regardless or ignorant of the consequences. 



Professor Lusk, of Bellevue Hospital College, New 

 York, related to his medical class in our hearing a 

 case which came under his observation in which all 

 the children in a large family had been taught the habit 

 by a wicked nurse for the purpose of keeping them 

 quiet after they were put to bed. The vileness that 

 would lead a person to thus rob childhood of its inno- 

 cence, and blast its prospects for this life and the next, 

 is base enough for the commission of almost any crime. 

 Indeed, the crime could hardly have been a worse 

 one had the nurse referred to in the above ease 

 in cold blood cut the throats of those innocent chil- 

 dren; perhaps it might have been better for the 

 children. 



If occasional bad associations will work an immense 

 damage to the youthful character, what terrible injury 

 may be wrought by an agent of sin, an instructor in 

 vice, who is within the household, who presides in the 

 nursery, and exerts a constant influence! No one can 

 estimate it. 



Acton remarks on this point : ' ' I need hardly point 

 out how very dangerous this is. There seems hardly 

 any limit to the age at which a young child can be ini- 

 tiated into these abominations, or to the depth of 

 degradation to which it may fall under such hideous 

 teaching. Books treating of this subject are unfor- 



