38 



THE NA TURE-STfJD Y RE VIE W [6:2-Feb. , 1910 



of boys and girls with this biological method, but the physician 

 can rarely devote the time required for such a course of study: 



The moral method was used after I satisfied myself that the 

 biological method could not be used in the short space of one 

 hour. By the moral method, I refer to an appeal, from a moral 

 standpoint, for right living. After several attempts to stir up 

 boys to a high and noble desire for right living, putting my 

 arguments strictly on a moral basis, I came to the conclusion 

 that the method was not eflfective, that it did't really stir the 

 boys. 



The heroic method succeeded, because it was based on the 

 human instinct of hero worship. Heroes appeal to boys. When 

 one begins to discuss the real hero, every boy in the audience is 

 awake and alert. He believes in heroes. He hopes to be one. 

 He knows a few, and they inspire him to do and to dare. When 

 one gets hold of an audience through discussing with them 

 some great heroes, he has their undivided, almost painful atten- 

 tion when he asks the question: "What is the secret of the 

 hero's success?" "What is the secret of manhood?" and "What 

 can a boy do to grow into the highest type of virile manhood, 

 which alone makes possible heroic deeds?" The lecturer can 

 answer that in the last five minutes of a forty-five minutes' talk, 

 and leave every boy in his audience convinced and determined. 



As to the method of presenting these matters to young 

 people and parents, I am convinced that incomparably the most 

 effective method is a frank presentation of the findings of sci- 

 ence. Don't try to point toO' many morals. If the presentation 

 has been clear and convincing, the listeners will very readily 

 draw their own conclusions and formulate their own morals. 



II. Its Relations to General Hygiene and Public Health 



As educators we must face the fact that social wrong 

 living, — illicit and promiscuous sexual intercourse, — is certain 

 sooner or later to be followed by a natural retril)ution in the 

 form of a venereal disease. 



These diseases are communicable by contagion, and are as 

 readily caught by innocent parties as by guilty ones, when they 

 are subjected to contact with a diseased person. 



The leper of the orient was segregated and isolated. When 

 he met a pedestrian upon a public highway he was required to 

 stand aside, lift a warning hand and cry: "Unclean, Unclean!" 



