306 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



on the subject of adultery ; it cannot be thought less fit to in- 

 stract them on the danger they will run of ruining body and 

 mind, not only for themselves, but for their descendants, if they 

 do not take certain precautions in the satisfaction of their sexual 

 instinct. It is absurd to talk of leading them thereby into vice. 

 There is no boy of a certain age who does not understand what 

 the sexual instinct is — and if one sermonises them on adultery, 

 one presupposes such comprehension on their part — and how- 

 ever much we may try to ignore it, it is an obvious and natural 

 fact that every person will endeavour to satisfy that instinct. 

 This very obvious fact being given, we believe it to be more 

 rational to endeavour to impress on boys and young men the 

 great perils which menace them unless the satisfaction of this 

 instinct is accompanied by certain precautions. Our present 

 system of education is in this respect utterly irrational. The 

 most fundamental instinct of human nature is officially ignored, 

 alike by parents and masters ; the boy knows nothing of venereal 

 disease or of its prophylaxy, and the result is that he contracts 

 syphilis with all its attendant dangers. That this is the case is 

 shown by our statistics, demonstrating that over 50 per cent, 

 of cases of syphilis are contracted before the age of twenty- 

 five. 



It is not by shutting our eyes to facts that syphilis will be 

 effectually combated ; it is not by repeating pious maxims as to 

 the " immorality " of venereal disease that we can lessen the 

 grave danger to the race which such disease involves. It is 

 only by taking strong prophylactic measures that we can hope 

 to effect this, and it is a truth many times proved that educa- 

 tion constitutes one of the surest methods of prophylaxy. It is 

 a mistake to suppose that such education would prove to be an 

 incitement to debauchery. There is every reason to suppose the 

 contrary. The boy who is impressed by a sense of his responsi- 

 bilities towards the race in the person of his descendants, and 

 convinced of the dangers of syphiUs, is better fitted for the 



