True manhood : a manual for young men / by E.R. Shepherd ; also, The White Cross: its origin and progress / by B. F. DeCosta.

  • Shepherd, E. R.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: True manhood : a manual for young men / by E.R. Shepherd ; also, The White Cross: its origin and progress / by B. F. DeCosta. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    not a frivolous recreation. When the day's chapter is completed put the book away, as it is better for him to read it with your explanations. Yet do not be seriously alarmed should this volume fall into the hands of a child not thus specially prepared for the reception of its truths. Do not shrink before the subject of masturbation. It is not enough to lay down a command and threaten punishment. Painstaking explanation is what is needed. Reasoning and proofs will do more than rods to save the child. Even little ones four and five years old are not too young to contract the habit, and should be warned. An only child nearly ruined himself before puberty with this habit. Yet he had been so carefully shielded from evil influences that he had read nothing of this vice, been told nothing, never slept with any one, nor played with any other child except in the presence of one of his parents. He had originated the practice himself. My own impression once was, writes a parent, *' that it would be a pity to poison the mind of a high- spirited lad with any cautions about such debasing practices ; but that opinion has been altered. I now believe a parent should at least hint to his son that he may very possibly have occasion to witness unclean practices, and warn him at once to manfully resist them, pointing out at the same time the consequences to which they tend.