Are We a Declining Race ? 



croire que 1'onanisme etait beaucoup moins 

 commun chez eux qu'il ne Test chez les modernes, 

 dont le genre nerveux est plus irritable par 

 1'effet d'une infinite des causes que les anciens 

 ignoraient." (Aloyce Schwartz, " Dissertation 

 sur les Dangers de rOnanisme.") 



This may be perfectly true, for when we con- 

 sider the enormous incentive to vice during the 

 intervening centuries, caused by an ever increas- 

 ing population ; the demoralising effects of 

 people being pent up, sometimes for many 

 months, in besieged cities ; the existence of 

 slum areas in all large towns ; the increasing 

 consumption of alcohol, and many other in- 

 fluences in connection with the growth of 

 civilisation, we cannot wonder that secret vice 

 should have gained ground among the people. 



The ancients were also publicly cautioned 

 against the evil effects of sexual vices, and we 

 read of such men as Hippocrates, Aristotle, 

 Democritus, Actius, Celsus, Sanctorius, and even 

 the much- traduced Epicurus, who have given 

 their testimony against the dissipation of the 

 " vital fluid." 



Tissot says : " Epicurus, that respectable man 

 who knew better than anyone that man could be 

 happy only by pleasure, but who, at the same 

 time, limited this pleasure [Ordinary Sexual 

 Congress] by such a rule that a Christian hero 

 would not disprove of. Epicurus looked upon 

 the seed as part of the soul and body, and upon 

 this opinion he founded his precepts, which 

 enjoined its preservation." 



Galen is the last to discuss these matters 



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