280 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



has had much experience as a physician among the 

 North American Indians, tells me that Indian boys do 

 not masturbate, and do not, as a rule, in most of the 

 tribes, commit excesses in sexual indulgence prior to 

 marriage; and it is quite safe to assume, reasoning 

 deductively and inductively from a general knowledge 

 of the nervous, from observation among savages and 

 semi-savages, among the negroes, and among the strong, 

 healthy farming population in all civilized countries, 

 that those who live outdoors and have well-balanced 

 constitutions of the old-fashioned sort, are not annoyed 

 by sexual desire when they have no opportunities for 

 gratification, nor to the same degree as the delicate, 

 finely organized lads of our cities and of the higher 

 civilization. ' ' 



Signs of Self-Abase.— The net which this vice 

 weaves around its victim is so strong, and its meshes 

 are so elaborately interwoven with all his thoughts, his 

 habits, and his very being, when it has been long in- 

 dulged, that it is important to be able to detect it when 

 first acquired, as it may then be much more easily over- 

 come than at any subsequent period. It is often no 

 easy matter to do this, as the victim will resort to all 

 manner of cunning devices to hide his vice, and will 

 not scruple to falsify concerning it, when questioned. 

 To be able to accomplish this successfully requires a 

 careful study, first, of the signs by which those who 

 indulge in the practice may be known, and, secondly, 

 of the habits of the individuals. 



In considering the subject, it will be found that 

 there are two classes of signs, as follows: 



1. Those which may arouse suspicion; but any one 

 of which, taken singly, would not be an evidence of the 

 practice. 



