456 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



be a warning to those who have never entered the sin- 

 ful road. "Wliat a terrible thing it is for a pure and 

 lovely being, designed by God to fulfill a high, holy, 

 and sacred mission in the world, to become a victim 

 to such a filthy vice! No girl of sense would in her 

 right mind raise her hand to dash in pieces a beautiful 

 vase, to destroy a lovely painting, or a beautiful piece 

 of statuary. A girl who would do such a thing would 

 be considered insane, and a fit subject for a mad-house. 

 Yet is not the human body, a girl's own beautiful, 

 symmetrical form, infinitely better, more valuable and 

 more sacred, than any object produced by human art? 

 There can be but one answer. How, then, is it possible 

 for her thus to defile and destroy herself? Is it not a 

 fearful thing, a terrible vice? 



A Ruined Girl.— One of the most remarkable cases 

 of disease resulting from self-abuse which ever came 

 under our observation was that of a young lady from 

 a distant Western State whose adopted parents, after 

 consulting many different physicians for a peculiar 

 disease of the breast, placed her under our care. We 

 found her a good-looking young woman about seven- 

 teen years of age, rather pale, and considerably ema- 

 ciated, very nervous and hysterical, and suffering with 

 severe pain in the left breast, which was swollen to 

 nearly double the natural size, hot, tense, pulsating, 

 and extremely tender to the touch. Occasionally she 

 would experience paroxysms in which she apparently 

 suffered extremely, being sometimes semi-conscious, 

 and scarcely breathing for hours. We suspected the 

 cause of these peculiar manifestations at the outset, 

 but every suggestion of the possibility of the suspected 

 cause was mei with a stout denial and a very deceptive 

 pretense of innocent ignorance on the subject. All 



