Sexual hygiene

“ It is, I hope, unnecessary for me to say that, in thus pointing out some of the difficulties and the risks which must assail every attempt to introduce an element of effective sexual hygiene into life, I am far from wishing to argue that it is better to leave things as they are. ”

“ If we further consider that the work of sexual hygiene, to be carried out on a really national scale, demands the more or less active co-operation of parents, teachers, and doctors, and that parents, teachers, and doctors are in these matters at present all alike untrained, and usually prejudiced, we shall realize some of the dangers through which sexual hygiene must at first pass. ”

“ The thousands of ladies who are suffering with spinal irritation, organic disease of the spine and other nervous disorders, are witnesses to this fact. It is apparent, then, that prevention of these serious maladies by attention to sexual hygiene, especially to the hygiene of menstruation at the first establishment of that function, is a matter of gravest importance. In fact, attention to hygiene is about all that is required. ”

“ An important auxiliary method of carrying out the task of sexual hygiene, and at the same time of spreading useful enlightenment, is furnished by the method of giving to every syphilitic patient in clinics where such cases are treated a card of instruction for his guidance in hygienic matters, together with a warning of the risks of marriage within four or five years after infection, and in no case without medical advice. ”

“ Undoubtedly we have amongst us many mothers, teachers, and physicians who are admirably equipped to fulfil their respective parts—elementary, secondary, and advanced—in the work of sexual hygiene. But so long as they are few and far apart their influence is negatived, if it is not even rendered harmful. ”

“ Although we are passing through a wave of moral legislation, there are yet indications that a sounder movement is coming into action. The demand for the teaching of sexual hygiene which parents, teachers, and physicians in Germany, the United States and elsewhere, are now striving to formulate and to supply will, if it is wisely carried out, effect far more for public morals than all the legislation in the world. Inconsistently enough, some of those who clamour for moral legislation also advocate the teaching of sexual hygiene. ”

“ But between these groups there is another, probably much the largest, who resist slight sexual suggestions but may succumb to stronger or longer influences, and on these the cares of sexual hygiene may profitably be bestowed. ”

“ And this should be effected by a certain degree of continence and by the observation of extensive periods of sexual quiescence.
To preserve a woman’s health during the acme of her sexual activity, a careful general hygiene is an important requisite. The dwelling should be dry and roomy; above all the bedroom should not be too small, neither damp nor dark, and it should be well ventilated. The wife’s occupations should be so arranged as to afford a suitable alternation of activity and repose, and there should be as little night work as possible. ”

“ It is scarcely necessary to say that the ordinary teacher of either sex is quite incompetent to speak of sexual hygiene. It is a task to which all, or some, teachers must be trained. A beginning in this direction has been made in Germany by the delivery to teachers of courses of lectures on sexual hygiene in education. ”

“ Furthermore, the rank and file are beginning to clamor for a knowledge of these matters for themselves. This is shown by the frequency of articles that deal with sex in many of the best newspapers and magazines in the civilized world, and by similar discussions in the literature, the works and scientific books that now go into the hands of the common people. It also shows in the attempts that are occasionally being made to introduce the subject of sexual hygiene into our public schools and other educational institutions. "The world do move!" ”

“ We will enter more fully into the consequences of complete sexual abstinence in the chapter on sexual hygiene; but the great majority of young men have the danger from sexual intercourse suspended, as the sword of Damocles, over their heads, and the best way to avoid this is by marriage. ”

“ Many men and women suffer from injured, if not ruined, health because they did not know, especially between ten and fourteen years, the laws of personal sex-hygiene, which concern health in ways not involving sexual relationship. ”

“ See Frau Maria Lischnewska's excellent pamphlet, Geschlechtliche Belehrung der Kinder, first published in Mutterschutz, 1905, Heft 4 and 5. This is perhaps the ablest statement of the argument in favour of giving the chief place in sexual hygiene to the teacher. Frau Lischnewska recognizes three factors in the movement for freeing the sexual activities from degradation: (1) medical, (2) economic, and (3) rational. But it is the last—in the broadest sense as a comprehensive process of enlightenment—which she regards as the chief. "The views and sentiments of people must be changed," she says. ”

“ It is convenient to group under personal sex-hygiene all hygienic knowledge concerning sexual processes in their personal as distinguished from their social aspects. The distinction between these two aspects of sex-hygiene is essentially on the same basis as that between personal and public hygiene. For example, indigestion and overwork are matters of personal hygiene, while tuberculosis and typhoid are problems of public hygiene because the individual case leads through infection to disease of others. ”

“ As far as humanity is concerned, the most important part in the science of sexuality is the hygiene of the vita sexualis. Preventive medicine will score its greatest successes in the field of sexual diseases. If the rules of personal hygiene are followed they may prevent many an anomaly which, when once established, is seldom amenable to treatment. ”

“ The touchstone of marital hygiene is this, that on the day following intercourse both husband and wife should feel perfectly fresh, vigorous, and lively, alike in body and mind—even more so, perhaps, than on other days. In the absence of such feelings, we may feel assured of the occurrence of sexual excesses.” The same author quotes a saying of Pomeroy’s: “We may quaff the nectar as freely as we will—nature herself mixes the draught and holds the goblet to our lips; if, however, we drink too much, she first dilutes the draught with water, later adds gall, and ultimately perhaps deadly poison.” ”

“ Yet it is certain that in the competition of nationalities, as Max von Niessen has well said, "that country will best take a leading place in the march of civilization which has the foresight and courage to introduce and carry through those practical movements of sexual hygiene which have so wide and significant a bearing on its own future, and that of the human race generally." ”

“ Our brief survey of the hygienic problems caused by sexual promiscuity and its characteristic diseases is sufficient to indicate one great problem for sex-education. Such social-hygiene problems have been most responsible for the recent and rapid rise of the movement for sex-education, and they must be recognized in any adequate scheme for instruction of young people. ”

“ In view of the enormous morbidity and mortality inflicted upon innocent women and their children by sexual disease, the girl should learn the main facts concerning the nature, effects, and incidence of gonorrhea and syphilis. Health certificates of prospective bridegrooms will probably be more easily enforced if such intelligence becomes general. The time for such instruction is difficult to state, and would vary with the social environment; probably late adolescence would be early enough in most cases ”

“ Perhaps it does not, but I am disposed to think it receives a strong artificial stimulus from instructors whose minds are unduly engrossed with sexual problems, and that this artificial stimulus is a menace rather than a safeguard. We hear too much about the thirst for knowledge from people keen to quench it. Dr. Edward L. Keyes advocates the teaching of sex-hygiene to children, because he thinks it is the kind of information that children are eagerly seeking. ”

“ Moll in his wise and comprehensive work, The Sexual Life of the Child (German ed., p. 225) , lays it down emphatically that "we must clearly realize at the outset that the complete exclusion of sexual stimuli in the education of children is impossible." He adds that the demands made by some "fanatics of hygiene" would be dangerous even if they were practicable. Games and physical exercises induce in many cases a considerable degree of sexual stimulation. But this need not cause us undue alarm, nor must we thereby be persuaded to change our policy of recommending such games and exercises. ”

“ See Social emergency, Reproduction. Ice-cream parlors, 19. Ideals of sex education, 199-201. Illinois State Senate, vice investigation made by, 61. Immorality and wages, 16, 17, 50-62. Industrial education for women, lack of, 48. Industrial efficiency, connected with social hygiene problems, 3, 18. Industrial stress, its bearing upon sexual hygiene and morals, 62-64. Infection. See Venereal infection. Instruction in sex hygiene and the physiology of reproduction, what, when, and by whom to be given, 3, 10, 25, 42-44, 90-102, 106, 110-22, 142-49, 179-89, 191 ”

“ The So- Called Sexual Necessity in Man, The Venereal Diseases. Published by the American Federation for Sex Hygiene, 105 West 40th St., N.Y. City: List of Publications of the Constituent Societies, The Teaching of Sex Hygiene, Sex Instruction as a Phase of Social Education. Published by the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis: The Sex Problem, Health and the Hygiene of Sex.
For a time after the women had left, the two men sat silent.
“Strong,” said Mr. Clyde presently, “who is Bartley Starr’s physician?” ”

“ Cleanliness.—Sexual control is largely a matter of sexual cleanliness. We must all learn to keep the genital passages cleansed in the same way as we keep all the other openings of the body clean. The ears, eyes, nostrils, mouth, anus, orifice to the urethra, and the vagina should be appropriately cleansed daily. The openings of the body which stand most in need of daily cleansing are the anus and the vagina, and yet many women fail to cleanse these properly at all. ”

“ Infection with the gonococcus and with the virus of syphilis, chronic salpingitis, metritis, and parametritis, the manifold diseases of pregnancy, the diseases of the puerperium, the various displacements of the uterus, osteomalacia—all these are pathological states the dependence of which upon the sexual life of the married or at any rate sexually active woman is indisputable. But the complete renunciation of sexual activity appears also to exercise an injurious influence on the health, and to give rise or at least predispose to morbid manifestations. ”

“ During the sexual epoch of the menacme a woman’s principal hygienic need is marriage completely satisfactory alike to body and to mind. It cannot be denied that sufficient sexual gratification, regular, of course, and free from all excess, such as is usually experienced in married life, is very advantageous to the health of a woman who has attained sexual maturity—even though we admit that the drawbacks of sexual abstinence, regarded as a cause of disease of the female genital organs and the nervous system have been as a rule greatly exaggerated. ”

“ If a woman is unfortunate enough to be married to a man liable to infect her, then she should follow the same practice as detailed here (every effort, of course, being made for her husband to be cured as soon as possible) , and she should use a special suppository, as prescribed by her doctor or otherwise authoritatively recommended, and should douche and urinate immediately after each sexual connection. She should also, before douching with weak disinfecting lotion, wash thoroughly—internally and externally—with suitable soap and water. ”

“ The dangerous roller towel and the no less dangerous common drinking cup are being gradually eliminated as factors of non-venereal infection; and we may confidently expect that in a decade or two the amount of venereal disease from venereal infection will be greatly lessened in all civilized countries. The general increase in cleanliness in all strata of society and the universal use of antiseptics after suspicious sexual relations will constitute the chief factors in this diminution of venereal disease. ”

“ Armed with the A B C's of sex hygiene at school, boys and girls will be prepared to select employment, associates, and newspapers that will permit normal, healthy sex development. Men and women who are leading normal lives, who have plenty of work, sleep, fresh air, nourishing food, amusement, and exercise are unlikely to be sexually abnormal.
After all, the question of instruction in sex hygiene will quickly settle itself when it is made a condition of a teacher's certificate that the applicant shall himself or herself know the personal and social reasons for sex health. ”

“ The same evils result from inattention to local cleanliness, and the same measure of prevention, daily cleansing, is necessitated by a similar secretion. Local cleanliness is greatly neglected by both sexes. Daily washing should begin with infancy and continue through life, and will prevent much disease.
Castration.—This operation consists in the removal of the testes of the male. It does not at once obliterate the sexual sense, especially if performed after puberty, but of course renders the individual impotent, or incapable of reproduction. ”