294 Human Physiology. 



amusements, literature and art all tend more or less to 

 increase these false conditions. We are driven therefore to 

 study the real nature of man rather than his habits in a false 

 society ; to consider his physiology rather than his pathology ; 

 that we may ascertain what modes of life and action tend 

 to health and happiness, and how he may avoid such as lead 

 to disease and misery. 



The law of sexual morality for childhood is one of utter 

 negation of sex. Every child should be kept pure and free 

 from amative excitement, and the least amative indulgence, 

 which is unnatural and doubly hurtful. No language is strong 

 enough to express the evils of amative excitement and unna- 

 tural indulgence before the age of puberty ; and the dangers 

 are so great that I see no way so safe as thorough instruction 

 regarding them at the earliest age. A child may be taught, 

 simply as a matter of science, as one learns botany, all that is 

 needful to know, and such knowledge may protect it from the 

 most terrible evils. 



The law for childhood is perfect purity, which cannot be too 

 carefully guarded and protected by parents, teachers, and all 

 caretakers. The law for youth is perfect continence a pure 

 vestalate, alike in both sexes. No indulgence is required by 

 one more than the other for both Nature has made the same 

 provision. The natures of both are alike, and any the least 

 exercise of the amative function is an injury to one as to the 

 other. Men expect that women shall come to them in marriage 

 chaste and pure from the least defilement. Women have a 

 right to expect the same of their husbands. Here the sexes 

 are upon a perfect equality. The exercise argument is just as 

 good for one as for the other and, as a matter of fact, the 

 medical men who outrage science and morality by prescribing 

 sensual indulgence to young men, do not hesitate to do the 

 same for young women, and for the same fallacious reasons. 



On this subject, Dr. Carpenter, in his physiological works, 



