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Confidential Chats with Boys
_BOOKS BY_
WM. LEE HOWARD, M.D.
FACTS FOR THE MARRIED
PLAIN FACTS ON SEX HYGIENE
CONFIDENTIAL CHATS WITH BOYS
CONFIDENTIAL CHATS WITH GIRLS
CONFIDENTIAL CHATS
WITH BOYS
BY
WILLIAM LEE HOWARD, M.D.
Author of
“Plain Facts on Sex Hygiene,” “Confidential Chats with Girls,”
“Facts for the Married”
[Illustration]
New York
Edward J. Clode
Publisher
COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY
EDWARD J. CLODE
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE BODY AS A MACHINE 3
II. THE OUTSIDE LUNGS――THE SKIN 26
III. HOW ALL LIFE COMMENCES 45
IV. CARE OF SELF DURING PUBERTY 67
V. NIGHT EMISSIONS AND THE BOY’S WORRY 79
VI. SELF-ABUSE――HOW TO STOP IT――THE QUACKS 95
VII. YOUR VOCATION AND HOW TO FIT YOURSELF FOR IT 124
VIII. ENVIRONMENTS AND DISEASES WHICH RUST BRAIN-TOOLS 138
FOREWORD
THE REASON
These chats are the pleasurable results of the many little confidential
ones I have given at boys’ and young men’s clubs and at preparatory
schools.
It has been my fortune――for so I consider it――to have been brought into
intimate relations with men who are failures. Not the down and out men,
but those who are struggling along dissatisfied with what they are
doing――what false and wrong training has forced them to do.
Many of these despondent and useless men have been guided into places
where they fit――where there is conservation of energy, happiness and
results. These are the factors for a mentally and physically balanced
man――provided he has had early instruction in some vital matters.
The impulse to have the future fathers in a position to guide and live
in close confidential relations with their sons, is the reason for this
book.
Professional experience has proven to my complete satisfaction that
the many failures, misfits, despondents and diseased in our present
generation were not fundamentally ill fitted to battle with life,
but that they had never been started right, physically, mentally,
vocationally.
Physical instructors built muscle, teachers forced much useful and
also useless stuff into unwilling brain cells, fathers furnished the
money――as a rule I find that this latter was about all the parents did
furnish; and thought this all-sufficient.
The results have been deplorable. Wasted energies, disgust for study in
lines that never appealed, misdirected powers, and exhausted vigor is
what I have daily seen for twenty-five years.
And most of these conditions are avoidable.
How frequently have I heard the remark, after explaining to a young man
who came to me a complete failure: “Why didn’t my father see all this?”
or “I wanted to do that, Doctor, but they said that I didn’t know my
own mind; so they made me study things that I hated.” Then the vital
facts which every boy should early have confidentially and chummily
told him:――“Oh, Doctor, if I had only known these things ten years ago!
What a different man I would be to-day!”
Yes, and your sons can benefit from your experience, for it has forced
me to “chat” with them in these pages.
My plan as outlined is to give the boy and youth the information which
will enable him to conserve his energies, increase his vigor and learn
just what his mental endowment and powers are. Then to concentrate upon
these constantly, allowing deviations only so far as they broaden the
horizon surrounding his vocation.
There also is much to say upon physical conservation――the storing of
physical vigor which in emergencies can be called upon without injury
to the working capital. This vital matter has seldom been touched in
the training of our youths; and as men we find them working up to the
last degree of power and when the call comes for extra power there is
none――the man then goes to the human dump pile. There is no excuse
for this sad state of affairs――the cause is ignorance of man’s vital
resources and how to conserve them.
Boys, I have been a repairer of human machines all my life; machines
sent out on the road not properly adjusted, they have been returned to
my shop, and with most of them I could only point out certain parts
which were weak and let them go again, taking care not to put too great
a strain on these parts.
Now I want you all to start out with every part――brain, body and
soul――equally adjusted, all of the same strong material, well fitted to
work in peace, happiness and health――these factors working in harmony
means success――no matter what line you take up for life’s work.
WILLIAM LEE HOWARD.
CONFIDENTIAL CHATS WITH BOYS
CHAPTER I
THE BODY AS A MACHINE
Any young man who understands the simple facts concerning his body and
the laws of human energy, should be able to be as strong in body and
nerves at fifty as he is at twenty-five years of age.
If he is strong in body and nerves at fifty he has the increased brain
power of experience and work, and only think of the force he has then
to utilize for the next twenty years.
This is a practical idea and not a theory or a statement of exceptional
cases.
But if this is so, why have not our parents been able to be boys with
us instead of old men at fifty? Because they did not understand; never
had the plain points shown them; physicians have not always considered
this side of boyhood development, and because physiology as taught in
the public schools was not that physiology needed by youths and boys.
We shall not here bother with the old style and schoolbook physiology.
I am going to present to you the simple, common-sense facts about the
body and how it must be handled to get the best out of it.
If you have an automobile, the first thing you do is to understand it;
its different working parts, how they are dependent upon each other,
how much fuel is needed and how applied, what will make the engine run
smoothly, what will injure it and what kind of usage is necessary to
keep it always in good running order, what will cause it to break down
and become an old rattling thing and send it to the scrap heap.
The finest built machine is of no value if any of the parts which have
gone into it are faulty; it will break down when a strain comes. It is
just so with man; for when you really come to understand the machinery
within you, you will realize that you are the most delicate and at
the same time toughest piece of mechanism ever produced. Muscular
power, brain force, will, mental ability, all depend upon the PHYSICAL
condition of man――the parts and condition of the machine in him.
The higher power in us that makes the human body a mere medium for
development we shall not here say much about, but so related is it to
the body itself, that a poorly adjusted or diseased body will affect
this higher power, the soul, the conscience, the morals of the man.
That is, a diseased or weak body――not merely muscular weakness, but
a general weakness due to neglect of nature’s laws――will show a weak
will, a lack of determination and a further falling away from a high
moral standard――in other words make a failure of a man.
But why should this be so? Is man to be blamed for being physically
weak, to be punished because he has not that full strength of body that
others have? Yes; I think so. But suppose he inherits a weak body,
inherits disease? Is he to be blamed for something over which he has
no control? Not exactly that, for there _is only one disease you can
inherit_, and that is a punishment for your parents’ or grandparents’
sins――or in most cases, ignorance.
When you thoroughly understand your own body, the little _tendencies_
to weakness or predisposition to certain diseases can all be overcome.
The distressing effects of venereal diseases seen in children whose
parents have been ignorant of the facts you will be given in this book,
have been a blessing to mankind, insomuch as you can all avoid them
after the knowledge concerning them and your body is yours.
You see, what I mean is that you will possess knowledge your
parents did not possess. In such a grand position the future men and
women――your children――will be started right. And so will you if you
heed and absorb what I shall tell you.
Big muscles do not necessarily mean strength, but to be strong one must
have well developed muscles.
Seems an odd statement; doesn’t it?
A man may inherit big bones to which are attached big muscles. The
fibres of these muscles may be coarse, inelastic and under control of a
slow motor――a sluggish nervous system. Just as you may have a big motor
car, big frames and running gear, but under-powered.
Now remember that all real muscular power originates in the nervous
system and brain. If the nervous system and brain are not in perfect
condition, the full power of the muscles can never be utilized any more
than you can get the full power out of your big car if the cylinders
are too small or so weak in construction that you do not dare to run
them at full speed.
This is one reason why men born with big frames and large muscles are
not always the strong men. Frequently these men break down in the prime
of life. Also during their active lives they really never get all their
power in use. I consider such men unfortunate in that they do not
possess the knowledge of their condition, so they neglect in early life
the necessary rules and habits which, if heeded would bring them to old
age in full possession of their natural strength.
The weakling who realizes his failings and knows how to correct and
care for them, is more often the strong and healthy man in middle and
later life. This fact teaches us one of the great laws of nature; that
is that we cannot for a day neglect our body; the born strong man does,
he never watches or cleans his big machine――it goes to rust and wears
out in parts.
These strong men as youths, from the mere fact of having big,
hawser-like muscles controlled by a slow-moving force, do not have
the incentive to build up active muscles nor the energy to train the
nervous mechanism controlling muscular activity. The result is that
such a man’s muscles remain coarse fibered, fatty, bulky, and respond
slowly to the motor centers of the brain. Moreover, they feel in such
perfect health that they are careless about their habits and throw away
a lot of energy that the man who is building up strength takes care
of――saves for future use and material.
A youth who desires to build muscular strength goes about it carefully
and slowly. Remember that all staying powers, brain or muscle, must be
built up slowly. The tough and hardy oak does not grow like the weak
poplar――quickly. Its growth is steady, regular and slow, but in the end
it is powerful, long lived and richly reproductive. Make haste slowly
is one of the fundamental laws of nature.
Brain and nervous system always come first in starting to build
muscular power that is to last and be always at your command. The basis
of power depends upon the rapidity with which the muscles respond to
mental impulses. Properly developed muscles are finely-fibered, and
react instantly to the impulse of the motor cells of the brain――the
cells which tell the muscles to shoot out at once. Now let anything
such as alcohol, tobacco, loss of sleep or immoral habits, fasten on
the youth and all attempts to get the full strength out of muscles,
no matter how big they are, will be useless. The reason is that the
brain cells have been affected――they cannot act as they should and
so the muscles cannot respond to the impulse. This is the cause of
so many first-class boxers taking the final count. Success has made
them careless; they neglect the rules of the physiologic game, they
drink a little, smoke and indulge in other habits which affect their
nervous system. They go on the stage breathing the foul and poisonous
atmosphere while exhibiting, are necessarily late to bed and while
still keeping up their MUSCULAR training neglect the fact that every
day they are injuring their nervous motility. It is so little noticed
that no attention is paid to the matter. But when it comes to a battle
after such a career――even if careful training has been done weeks
before the contest――the effect is shown, and down the champion goes
before a less experienced boxer, one not so strong in the muscles but
one whose full brain and nervous force has remained uncontaminated.
Then, sad to relate, THIS champion goes the same way.
So you see that mere gross muscular structure is valueless――except it is
needed for daily labor, where it exists as mere animal automatism――unless
it is under the immediate control of a highly-organized nervous system
free from disease and abuse.
So delicate is this nervous element of the body in getting the muscles
to respond, that I have tested hundreds of athletes――including
myself――by a very sensitive instrument which shows the response of the
muscles to the condition of the brain cells. A youth who has lived a
perfect life――physiologically speaking――is kept from one half of his
night’s sleep. The next day he is tested and there is a difference
shown in the rapidity of muscular response. The difference in a tenth
of a second in a blow makes all the difference between a champion and
a loser, and this tenth of a second can be brought about by the loss of
one night’s rest. How must it be then when the youth has lost several,
or been breathing foul air with heavily working lungs?
The extreme muscular development seen in those who pose on the stage
and before the camera, while marvelous to the sight, is in reality of
little practical use. Such muscles are not developed through normal
exercises, but gain their prominence by being contracted and expanded
through mental concentration on the muscle itself, not on any work that
the muscle should be made to perform. Under this fad form of “physical
culture” the levers which the muscles should lift and lower are kept
immovable, the muscles themselves do no work, the fibers only being
caused to swell and shrink.
Take the “development” of the biceps, for instance. This muscle is
intended to flex the forearm, attachments being on the upper arm and
shoulder and the insertions in the upper part of the lower arm, making
a perfect leverage. Now, in this false “physical culture” system the
arm is held semi-flexed and rigid and the muscle made to rise and fall,
no tension being put upon its attachments. The result is a development
of the center of the muscle, but a development of a mere shape, not
the development of the power of lifting. The attachments are not
developed or strengthened; they remain thin; hence, to the spectator in
the audience, the center of the bulking mass of biceps looms up as a
powerful organ of force――it is simply an artificial lump.
This false method of “physical culture” also squeezes out the little
amount of fat that the muscle should bed in for ease and nourishment,
and this further accentuates its size when illumined by a spot light
against a black background.
Big chests do not necessarily mean big lung power, but one must have a
capacious chest to have great lung power.
Another odd statement? Not exactly.
The average man does not use in daily work much more than half his
lung power-capacity. There remain in the lower portion of his lungs
thousands of little air cells, which stay practically closed in
ordinary breathing. When a man is called upon to run a long distance he
soon finds himself in distress, has “a stitch in his side.” This slight
pain is caused by the effort made by the air to get into these closed
cells. It is the forcing open of these reserve cells that produces the
“stitch in the side.” When these cells become active and take up the
extra air needed, the distress ceases and the man gets his “second
wind.”
Now, it can readily be seen that the greater the chest capacity the
greater the reserve force. As it is in the muscle of the “physical
culture” man so it is in the chest development of the same class――an
unnatural condition. These latter possess, by constant deep breathing,
forcibly inhaling and exhaling, a large chest. But there is no reserve
force; all the cells are constantly filled. The chest development is
good to look upon, but we must remember that the owner of such a chest
has no reserve power――no extra breathing space to call upon when most
needed. He has reached his limit at the start――a condition fatal to
athletic work. A condition injurious to the man’s future health, for
there are many times in illness and in emergencies when he will need
some reserve force to fall back upon. It is like taking a journey and
spending all your money at the start――when you need some, it is not
there.
Athletes are healthy, not because they are athletes, but because all
healthy individuals are athletes; not necessarily competitors in games
or strivers after honors, but persons who enjoy outdoor living and
breathing the fresh red-blood giving air.
But there are so many mistakes made by youths and boys who strive to
become athletes before their body machinery is properly adjusted, that
much harm has been done by overtraining and a misunderstanding of what
really constitutes a healthy man.
Americans have absorbed much of the energy in the world, but not all
its wisdom. Too many of our athletic instructors at the schools have
tried to turn out athletes instead of strong men and women.
When we read in the daily papers of the collapse of a celebrated
athlete, or the breaking down during training of a young aspirant
for honors on the cinder path, we naturally surmise that fundamental
knowledge of the physiology of the muscular mechanism of the human body
is either submerged by the overpowering desire to make a record or is
totally absent among certain trainers and their pupils.
The want of wisdom concerning man and his body is the cause of many sad
conditions existing to-day among formerly strong and healthy young men.
A comprehensive idea of the physiology of growth, of the physiologic
and chemic relations of strength and endurance to age and condition,
would be of great value to a large number of old individuals――not old
in years, but old in vessels and tissues――who strive to put an unusual
strain on their weak arteries, as well as to the youth whose central
nervous system is often permanently injured by over-exertion in
attempting to make records placed by carefully trained and intelligent
athletes.
Let us take those Marathon runs as an example. Two years ago
I witnessed the real Marathon――that is, the great one in this
country――the Boston event. This run is a nerve-racking, lung-pulling
one of twenty-six miles up many steep and long hills. Among the
large number of contestants were a boy of about sixteen and a man
somewhere in the forties.[1] To allow such starters was a great
mistake――especially in the boy’s case. There were physicians at the
start to examine into the condition of the runners, but what doctor
could tell off-hand of the past habits, inherited faults in the bodily
mechanism or system of training these various contestants possessed?
There was only one reasonable course to take――that is, to withhold
their sanction to the starting of those whose years had not fully
developed the bodily functions, and of those whose habits had brought a
strain on the valves of the heart.
[1] Since my criticism and explanation in the magazines, the Committee
allow no youths under eighteen years to run in the event.
If we were all Indians, having been placed at birth out in the open
and lived without clothes until puberty placed a loin cloth on us,
accustomed every day to run and tramp, developing the different
organs of the body harmoniously and gradually until they all reached
their full power and held in reserve extra power, then these runs of
twenty and more miles would not injure us. But, as it is, they are
of no benefit and in many cases injurious. Young men who spend hours
indoors, who have worn clothing since birth, been prevented from using
the greatest breathing organ next to the lungs,――the skin,――who train
for this event and then step back to our civilized life of houses,
furnaces, trolleys and clothing, are not fitted for these great strains
on organs which have been unused to them.
The human body is a wonderful piece of mechanism, which not only renews
itself constantly, but whose strength and endurance and capacity for
more work increase with increased use up to the point at which use
becomes abuse. At what time and under what pressure this danger-line
is reached depends upon the individual. However, the approach to the
danger-line is governed in all cases by fixed and immutable laws.
The athlete must always bear in mind that the length of time a muscle
cell can continue to work will depend upon the rapidity with which the
energy-holding explosive compounds are formed by the cell protoplasm
and the waste products are secreted. In other words, the capital must
not be expended at a greater rate than it can be replaced. If it is
expended at a greater rate fatigue commences, and a continuance of this
expenditure results in physical bankruptcy.
It is simply the case of the automobile over again. To run smoothly and
continuously there must be fuel steadily supplied and the exhaust――the
waste products――cast off, leaving no residue to clog up the engine. But
you watch your fuel tank and see that it is well supplied, for you know
the consequences if the fuel runs out――if you run your engine up to the
last drop.
To use up no more fuel in the body than the body will replace, is the
secret of athletic success. To go beyond this point means injury――often
injury that a life time can never repair. This is one reason why
sprinters who have made records succumb early in life to disease or ill
health. They have over-heated their human machinery, and the worn parts
can never run completely smooth again.
How is this fuel that is being used up in the body replaced?
The muscle is continually undergoing change of material. The minute
substances which make up the muscle, and whose very actions keep it
alive, are being constantly cast off, fresh substances taking their
place. The cast-off material is the fatigue poison. And it is a
poison. Inject it into a dog and he will soon die. Without muscle rest,
this dead poisonous stuff cannot be replaced fast enough by the new
products, and the result is an impoverished capital of force elements.
This does not apply only to the muscle in active use up to this point,
but to all muscles of the body.
The energy products of the food are delivered up to the muscle by the
blood, and this fluid picks up and carries away the cast-off substances
of the muscle. These fatigue products are only _gradually_ eliminated
from the blood.
In the youth these poisonous products are cast off much more rapidly
than in the full grown man. Also they are not so rapidly manufactured.
But right here lies a danger point――the youth is not warned in time
and often goes beyond the point where the off-castings are entirely
eliminated and some remain stored up in his system. Then his nervous
system suffers and the trouble goes on unrecognized until it is too
late.
Another thing may happen. In the youth the fatigue poison may be thrown
off quicker than the good material can take its place, hence such an
athlete――generally a runner――will fall from sheer exhaustion of the
muscular mechanism――perhaps ruined for life.
To keep on the right side of the danger-line in exercise, the muscle
must have short intervals of rest. Nature so well understood the
proneness of man not to heed advice that she placed the action of one
muscle beyond his control. This muscle is so constructed, internally
adjusted, that it has its regular periods of rest, and only in disorder
of the body can its expenditure be raised beyond its means. This great
and wonderful muscle is the heart.
However, there are certain conditions having their origin in the will
and the excitement of mental forces, where the heart is pushed beyond
its self-control. Such cases sometimes occur in college boat races――the
four-mile races. It is not so much the mere muscular efforts of the
contestants as it is the intense mental excitement accompanying the
effort. No youth of a highly-strung, nervous temperament should row in
these races――no matter what his muscular strength is.
The heart, though making contractions at the rate of seventy-two times
a minute, is able to continue its work without fatigue throughout the
life of the individual. Each contraction of this wonderful muscle is
followed by an interval of rest, during which the cells recuperate.
Push the heart-beats to a very rapid rate and we approach the
danger-line at which fatigue products cannot be replaced by fresh
cells; the intervals of rest are not sufficient. The same conditions
exist in every muscle. This is the reason why we often see immediate
or ultimate collapse at the finish of a four-mile boat race or a
quarter-mile run. Such a collapse may be followed by irremediable loss
of health.
You should remember all through your life that each member of the body,
in the very act of living, produces poison to itself. When this poison
accumulates faster than it can be thrown off, which always occurs
unless the muscle can have an interval of rest, then will come fatigue,
which is only another expression for poisonous infection――real, genuine
poison. If the muscle is given an interval of rest, so that the cell
can give off its waste product to keep pace with the new productions,
the muscle will then liberate energy for a long time. This latter
condition is what we call endurance. When you say a boy has long
endurance it simply means that all his organs are in perfect working
order; that they repair as soon as they waste. Such a condition kept up
means a long life and a healthy one. And you can all obtain this state,
as I shall later on show you.
The power and endurance of the human machine are limited according
to our understanding of the above facts. But another important bit
of knowledge is necessary to have if we wish to avoid ruining our
physical energy: that is, to recognize the necessity of starting the
human machine slowly. Like any other ponderous and intricate machine,
the body requires time to get in harmonious working order. What would
you think of an engineer who started his engine off with a jump at high
speed? What would happen to a big engine if the throttle were pulled
wide open at the instant of starting?
The brain, nerves, heart and muscles must be given some warning of the
work they are expected, collectively, to perform. Ignorance of this
fact has broken down many a young man who aspired to honors on the
cinder-path. The necessity of getting all the parts of the body slowly
in working order is well understood by trainers and jockeys on the
racetrack, as is evidenced by the preliminary “warming up” they give
their horses, although it is doubtful if the trainers could give any
physiologic reason for the custom.
I once asked an old darky trainer in the South why he always ran his
horses just before a race, and he replied, “I’s got ter ile ’em up;
jus’ ile ’em up.” Then he shouted to a little bow-legged coon on a big
bay horse: “Youse, git a goin’ dar, Sam; git ’im iled up so I kaint
heer ’im squeek――git de ile in ’is jints; go dar!” And Sam went on
“iling ’im up.”
Of the substances supplied to the muscles by the blood, oxygen is one
the want of which is soonest felt. The muscle contains within itself
a certain store of oxygen, but one which is by no means equal to the
oxidizable substances. The muscle’s activity is dependent, to a great
extent, on the _character_ and force of the blood-flow. It must be
clear of waste products, and contain, as well, sufficient oxygen to
keep up continually a renewal of energy.
From what has been said, it will readily be seen that the result of a
muscular task which an athlete wishes to perform, will depend primarily
on his muscular bulk and on the conditions of these muscles and the
rate at which he expends his capital; the test of his endurance will
depend upon the condition of the other parts of his body and how
rapidly they will carry off the quickly formed poisonous products and
supply fresh ones.
A large number of the lesser pugilists have died in the ring the
last ten years. Scarcely one of these deaths was directly due to the
force or severity of the blows struck, but because the fighters were
“out of condition.” The writer, himself, once had an opponent in the
amateur ring whose condition was so plainly unfit that he refrained
from exerting forceful energy, but let the man poison himself, when a
gentle cross-counter laid him out. He literally beat himself.
What I have said about self-poisoning refers also to the nerves and
brain. As the muscles work faster, so do the central nerve cells which
send the stimulating impulses to these muscles. These latter cells
become fatigued sooner than the muscles. This is a grand feature of
physiologic economy; for, did not this condition exist, the muscles
would work themselves to pieces――run wild, like an uncontrolled engine.
The muscular differences noted in individuals are in reality the
difference in the nerve cells, the actions of the muscles indicating
the activity of the central nervous system. When the muscles are being
exercised the nerve cells indirectly determine the muscular activity.
From the above statement it can be seen why one with exhausted nerve
cells should avoid exercise. The nervous system should be at rest. For
example; if a youth is recovering from some severe illness――typhoid
fever, let us say――he should not at first try to get back his muscular
strength by self-exercise. The muscles need blood sent to them to grow
and regain their former elasticity, but the nerve cells required for
all this must have a rest. How is it to be done?
By the exercise of another person’s nerve cells. That is, the muscles
should be massaged by some strong man. As the nerve cells gradually
come to their full activity again, then the youth may commence gradual
exercises on his own account.
It is the general impression among athletes that exhaustion and “loss
of wind” are due to the inability to consume sufficient oxygen and
exhale rapidly enough carbon dioxide. When the muscle is moving rapidly
and forcibly, it is true that it demands more oxygen and gives off to
the blood more carbon dioxide than when at rest. When a man is running
as fast as he can make his limbs move, he is able to keep up the pace
but for a short distance, unless, like the hunted hare, he runs to
death. On account of the forced and rapid muscular action in this case
the poisonous materials are thrown into the blood, to be carried to all
parts of the body――muscles, nerves, brain. The heart is affected by
this poison through the nerve cells controlling this organ; the muscles
of respiration are similarly disturbed. The panting, distressed efforts
of breathing, sidelong tumbling and final semi-unconsciousness of the
hunted stag or hare are good examples of acute self-poisoning ending in
death. It is just as much a case of poisoning as would be a case of gas
poisoning; the only difference being that in the first case the gas is
manufactured in your body, in the other case, outside and you breathe
it in.
One of the main “clearing houses” of the body, by which the blood is
constantly cleared of much of its poisons, is the liver. The minute
cells of this organ each have their individual work to perform in
transforming the poisonous material into harmless substances. The cells
of this “clearing house” are delicate little organs, and will not stand
abuse. All habits having a tendency to cause dyspepsia――eating rapidly,
eating indigestible food, constant and intemperate use of alcohol or
the use of tobacco in the youth――disturb the normal work of the liver.
Hence, one of the first aims of a boy who desires to be a strong
man――and what boy does not have this admirable aim?――should be to keep
the liver in the best possible condition. Any clogging or disturbance
of the ordinary work of the liver prevents the blood from being in a
pure state. All parts of the body will show distressing symptoms of
fatigue and exhaustion if the little cells of the liver have become
diseased or useless through intemperate living and ignorance of the
duties belonging to each separate organ of the human body.
In general terms I have given you some facts necessary to know if you
wish to reach full manhood in perfect health and with all the organs so
adjusted that the human machine in you will work the rest of your long
life without squeaking and rattling. But there are many little details
for you to know in order to keep the adjustment perfect and to increase
the power and energy in you――mental and physical. Too many boys and
youths have never been taught how to get the best that is in them to
work――to be a success because they are doing what is in them to do and
are happy in doing it――this is what means success. I shall try in the
next chat to go into some of these details, and so on up to the most
important facts in life. To give you a comprehensive knowledge of your
sex organs, how to care for them, what Life means, and in all matters
that go to make up the normal man. To give you instruction that makes a
man, produces the character of the man of honor, to give you the inward
grace of a gentleman, which cannot manifest itself outwardly save in
good manners, modesty of bearing and fearlessness. And so many of these
qualities depend inwardly upon a perfect adjustment of all your organs.
You shall be told all about differences of man and woman; why you
should be at all times kind and considerate to the girls and women――in
fact what the world means in its development and what you can do to
assist in its better development.