SOME CONSEQUENCES OF IGNORANCE AND SILENCE.—PART I.
When the boy arrives at the age of puberty, he is in greater danger than
a girl of being not only led astray by companions, but being actually
sent into unclean living by those nearest and most interested in his
welfare—HIS PARENTS.
The reason of this is that there has been and still is a false idea
clinging to many parents that as soon as the boy has seminal emissions,
it is a signal that he must have sexual relations or suffer in health.
That the seminal emissions are not harmful and that they grow less
frequent as the boy grows older is a fact of which few mothers seem to
be aware.
We cannot blame the mothers of the past for not informing their sons of
this physical condition, for few of them knew it themselves. Mothers
have been as ignorant as the boys of their sex functions as well as
other functions of the body.
They accepted sickness, disease, and even death without a question,
placing their faith and confidence entirely in the hands of the medical
profession, who, like the rabbis and high priests, made a church of
their knowledge.
Fortunately this condition of affairs is changing, and the knowledge of
the human body, which for ages has been most carefully locked within the
medical libraries, is fast taking up its abode in the homes of the
people—where it belongs.
It is said that in Japan or China, the duty of a physician is to keep
his patients in good health, receiving payment only when they are well.
Certainly this sounds like civilization.
Only a few weeks ago I had occasion to talk to a woman about her oldest
son, whom I considered sick from overwork and lack of nourishment. She
informed me, however, that this was not so, and whispered confidently
that he was 16 years old and “in that age when he needs a woman.” She
further remarked that she and “the papa” had talked it over with the
result that the father had told the boy, when he had “the desire for a
woman,” that he, the father, “would give him money enough to get one.”
Think of that boy's attitude toward women, and the danger to become
affected with venereal diseases that he was likely to contract. Yet both
parents had the sincerest wish to do their best for that boy; they gave
the best advice they knew.
One of the most common errors I have found among people, even those
educated in other lines of thought, is that the sexual organs will
become useless unless they are used in early manhood. This is considered
untrue by the best authorities on the subject, for it is known that the
essential organs of reproduction are glands, not unlike the tear glands
of the eyes or the milk glands of the breasts. The tear glands do not
atrophy even if one does not cry for years, nor the milk glands during
the entire period of reproduction. The same can be said of the sexual
glands.
Another idea which is fast being uprooted is that the sexual act is an
appetite, not unlike that of hunger and thirst, which must be fed by the
boy sowing his “wild oats” first before settling down to marriage. It is
now a recognized fact that it is no more necessary for a boy to “sow
wild oats” than it is for a girl, and women are today demanding of men
the same cleanliness of body and mind which men have heretofore
considered necessary only in women.
It is now the unreserved opinion of the foremost medical men of the day
that a man does not suffer in health from living a continent life, nor
is he a “mollycoddle” from so doing.
Hutchinson says: “The belief that the exercise of the sex functions is
necessary to the health of the male at any age is a pure delusion, while
before full maturity it is highly injurious.”
Ruggles says: “Sexual abstinence is compatible with perfect health and
tends to increase virility (which means manhood) through the
reabsorption of the semen.”
The ancient Teutons were aware of this, for it is said that it was
considered a most shameful thing for their young men to have sexual
relations with a woman before their twenty-sixth year. From observation
and experience they were convinced that men were not sexually mature
much before this age, and no one will dispute they were strong and
manly.
Statistics show that 65 per cent. of men infected with venereal diseases
(which means diseases due to sexual intercourse) are contracted between
the ages of 15 and 21 years; and 25 per cent. are contracted in the 21st
and 23rd years.
Writers claim that from statistics they have found men are not sexually
mature before the twenty-fifth year and women not before the twentieth
year. Yet we find them both reeking with sexual diseases before this
age.
According to Sanger's “History of Prostitution,” it is claimed that
three-eighths of the prostitutes enter the life before the twentieth
year in New York City. It is safe to say this is a conservative
estimate, for the more recent investigations in Chicago and other cities
show a very much higher percentage. However, this, together with the
statistics of venereal diseases mentioned above, show that it is before
the boy and girl are sexually mature that there is the greatest
difficulty in directing the impulses and controlling the passions.
Chassaignac says that the more healthy and normal an individual is, the
better can he not only control his passions, but the less likely is he
to be disturbed by continence.
Just one more word on the subject of continence, and that is that it is
not at all unusual to find men determined to remain continent until they
find their ideal woman. Nor for athletes in training engaged in
contests, nor for sailors on long sea voyages, and many others for long
periods of time is continence impossible; in fact, they are better for
it.
This knowledge was not lost sight of in ancient times.
Reference is made to it in the Bible, in the sending of women
prostitutes into the camps of the enemy the night before an expected
battle, in order to exhaust or decrease the vitality of the soldiers.
When one finds an individual who realizes the force of the sexual
impulses and knows how to conserve them, you usually find a person who
does not drain or exhaust these forces, but uses them in creative work.
Every girl should look upon the man who indulges freely in the sexual
relations =without Social responsibility=, as a prostitute far more
degraded than the unfortunate girl who is compelled to sell her body to
sustain life.
Every girl should know something about the physical makeup of a boy as
well as of her own, for upon the well-being of both does the future race
depend. To be a real mother a woman must understand a boy's emotions and
development, if she would sympathize with him. And when she does
understand, she will not send him to buy a woman for physical
satisfaction.
It is this ignorance of parents, together with the silence of the
medical profession, which is largely responsible for the terrible spread
of venereal diseases which exist today.
When a few years ago Dr. Morrow stated that there is more venereal
diseases among innocent, virtuous wives, than among prostitutes, this
statement should have resounded throughout the walls of every home in
the land, instead of which it is kept intact within the covers of large
volumes, where only those wearing cap and gown have access to it.
It is claimed that out of 1,000 married men in New York 800 have
gonorrhoea, and 90 per cent. of these have not been cured and can infect
their wives. The result is that at least three out of every five married
women in New York have gonorrhoea.
This seems astounding and exaggerated, but the following quotation is
taken from an authority and is considered quite conservative: “Over 90
per cent. of our young men stray from the path of virtue before
marriage; 60 per cent. contract venereal diseases which are difficult to
cure; more wives than prostitutes have venereal diseases; one-eighth of
all diseases in New York hospitals are venereal; 20,000 infected persons
walk the streets daily.”
It seems to me that the above facts are sufficient to warrant every girl
and boy knowing something about these diseases.
SOME CONSEQUENCES OF IGNORANCE AND SILENCE.—PART II.
The two venereal diseases which I will tell you something of here are
those most commonly known to all—gonorrhoea and syphilis.
Gonorrhoea is an inflammation of the urethra (water passage)
characterized by redness, swelling, smarting pain on the passing of
water, and accompanied by thick purulent (poisonous) discharge, at first
creamy in color, and later a greenish yellow. It is considered by the
highest authorities as solely a sexual disease in adults, depending
almost exclusively upon sexual intercourse as its mode of origin and
infection. In children, however, it is not the rule, especially in
infants and little girls, who can be infected by the hands of the mother
or nurse being soiled with the discharge, also where the fresh discharge
is on towels, toilets, etc. It starts an inflammation of the outer
delicate parts but seldom enters the urethra.
In former days gonorrhoea was considered an ordinary catarrhal
inflammation, “no worse than a bad cold,” the old saying went. It was
thought to originate in women with the discharge at the end of the
menstrual period, or leucorrhoea; in fact any secretions from the
uterus, of an irritating character, were thought to be sources of
gonorrhoea. However, with the discovery of the microbe “gonococcus”, in
1879, by Dr. Neisser, it is now an established fact that the disease
comes from a source where there is either latent or chronic gonorrhoea,
which, of course, means that the gonococcus is present. It is considered
a conservative estimate that at least 50 per cent. of the adult
population in this country have suffered from gonococcal infection. More
men than women have been and are infected.
The first symptoms of the disease appear from three to seven days after
infection, and under proper treatment the discharge may disappear in six
or eight weeks.
If the man or woman places himself under the care of a specialist within
forty-eight hours after infection, the disease is often of much shorter
duration. When allowed to become chronic, it is called gleet. Too much
emphasis cannot be put upon the danger of placing any one with this
disease into the hands of the doctors who advertise so conspicuously,
claiming rapid and complete cures for all sexual diseases. Experience
has found that thousands of boys and young men, attracted by such
alluring promises as only the quack can put forth, have been under such
treatment, only to find later that the disease was allowed to remain in
the tissues, the discharge only having been dried up. The germs were
allowed to continue their work on up into the bladder, kidneys, joints,
heart and even to the brain. The germs can live for years in the body
hidden away in the gland ducts, the mucous membrane of the organ first
attacked being in a normal state, yet when a condition arises when the
vitality of the tissues in which the germs are lodged is lowered, or
which gives the germs themselves more nourishment or stimulus, such as
alcohol or excessive intercourse, they almost always become active
again.
In women the small part of the womb (cervix), as well as the urethra,
are favorite places of attack. When the disease attacks the cervix a
woman may not be conscious of it, and so, unless prominent symptoms
attend it, she may infect many persons in the meantime. In man, on the
other hand, the disease cannot be present without his knowing there is
something wrong, and it should be impressed upon him that it is a moral
obligation on his part not to have sexual relations until he has been
examined and pronounced cured by a specialist in genito-urinary
diseases.
Your general practitioner will always recommend to you a specialist if
you ask him to. When the disease attacks the uterus and ovaries it very
often blocks the fallopian tubes and prevents the impregnation of the
ovum. It is said that over one-third of the childless marriages are due
to gonorrhoea in women, innocently contracted from their husbands. Both
men and women can become sterile from this disease. The seminal tubes in
the man become blocked, thus disabling him from impregnating the ovum.
Again, when the disease attacks the organs of generation, unless
speedily attended to, the organs get into a chronic state of
inflammation. The disease is, therefore, more difficult to reach, the
chances of cure more difficult, and it usually means an operation for
the woman.
The great mass of ailing women who trace their misery back to never
seeing a well day since marriage, can be classed among those suffering
with this disease, as can also that army of women whose illness is
classed among “female disorders.”
A curious point to know is that a man may have a hidden or latent
gonorrhoea, of which he is not aware, for it gives him no trouble, and
may infect a clean, healthy woman during sexual relations, and she in
turn, can infect him with the same disease, acting like a fresh
infection, giving rise to pain and discomfort. The great majority of
infections in women are contracted from men who believe themselves
cured, being under the false impression that they are cured because the
discharge has ceased.
At a lecture given by a well-known physician in this city last winter,
the physician advised every girl whose sweetheart, lover or expected
husband had a history of inflammatory rheumatism of the joints, back of
him, that as she values her life and future health, not to marry that
man without a thorough examination by a specialist in these diseases. He
declared: =No young man should have inflammatory rheumatism=. This
statement is considered somewhat exaggerated by some making more recent
investigations, yet all seem to agree that a very large majority of
cases of inflammatory rheumatism of the joints have the gonococcus
present.
If the woman is not made sterile by the disease and is able to carry the
child to full term labor, then there is another danger of infecting the
child's eyes during the process of labor, when the secretions lodge
themselves into the delicate membrane of the eyes. Then, unless quick
action is applied, the sight of both eyes can be lost. Over 80 per cent.
of blindness in babies is due to this germ. It can be carried into the
eyes of both children and adults by any means which can carry the
discharge to the eyes. Upon the slightest suspicion that this has been
done, medical aid should be summoned at once.
There is one fortunate thing to know, that the germ cannot live for a
great length of time outside its natural or proper environment, though
it can for years be hidden in the body. It dries up very quickly, and
special solutions of both bichloride and permanganate of potash will
kill the germs with which the solution comes in contact. There is but
one course to follow, that upon any of the symptoms mentioned above, go
at once to a reliable physician and follow his instructions closely. And
remember that the causes which retard recovery are alcoholic drinks,
lack of rest, spicy food and =sexual excitement=. It is said there is no
positive proof against this disease, except continency until marriage
and then monogamy.
A story is told of a young Irish physician, who, being asked how he
treated gonorrhoea, replied most tersely, “with contimpt.” That this was
for a time a general feeling is agreed, but with the knowledge that so
many persons, especially women, contract the disease, under the moral,
as well as legal, conditions of present society, the feeling has
changed. A woman is infected by her husband after the marriage is
sanctioned by the state and blessed by the church, neither taking the
interest in the woman's future to guarantee to her a clean individual as
a husband. Prostitution has been upheld and women segregated for man's
sexual use, the government going to the extent of authorizing
examinations of the women for venereal diseases to insure =man's= safety
from these diseases. Yet there has been no such protection given either
the woman prostitute or the wife that the man's body is free from them.
On the other hand, every means to keep a married woman in ignorance of
the source of her infection is made by the church, state and society in
general. Every law to protect the man's crime is made for his use, while
women remain unprotected victims of his guilt. And this, they say, is
“to protect the family and the home.”
Dr. James S. Wood tells a story of his experience With a young woman of
25, married five years, when she came to him. The husband admitted
having had gonorrhoea previous to marriage. The doctor found her flowing
excessively, the cervix badly torn, the uterus sharply bent back and
fixed, ovaries bound down and adherent, the tubes thickened; a
leuchorreal discharge was present which contained gonococci, and other
symptoms which made her sick and miserable. The doctor operated upon
her, scraping her womb, sewing the torn cervix, opening the abdomen to
remove the thickened appendix and inflamed ovaries and tubes. She
convalesced beautifully, and had no bad or unusual symptoms for six
months, at which time she returned with a renewed infection. Careful
questioning extracted from the husband the confession that he had been
“out with the boys,” and had had a recurrence of gonorrhoea. Most of the
good which came from the operation was spoiled by this second infection.
This is only one simple example of what is meant by preserving the home
and family at the terrible cost of women's lives. Women should protest
against the so-called medical secret which decrees that they be kept in
ignorance where their health, as well as life, is directly concerned.
That there are men in the medical profession in this country, as well as
in Europe, who have openly protested against respecting the secret where
another life is involved, seems a cheerful signal of a general social
awakening in this field.
In the Medical Record, April 20, 1912, Maude Glasgow says: “After
suffering for years a woman becomes a feeble, worn-out, nervous woman;
her life is a burden The operating table is her only hope, and she
leaves it deformed, mutilated and sexless.”
If women voluntarily exposed themselves to diseases which would sap the
husband's vitality, making him a dependent invalid, or expose him to the
shock of a mutilating operation, or death—would men continue to suffer?
Would they allow the medical secret to protect women in this alleged
“freedom”? Every girl knows he would neither protect her nor continue to
suffer. It is women only who have allowed the double standard of morals
to stand so long, giving men the purest and best of their womanhood, but
not demanding the same from them. As soon as women realize the danger to
themselves and their children which they are likely to incur from men
who have lived promiscuously, they will revolt against such standards.
Gonorrhoea differs from syphilis, and though it is not a disease which
can be transmitted from the parent to children, as syphilis can, yet it
is a subtle, wrecking disease and can do almost as much harm to the
individual.
WHAT EVERY GIRL SHOULD KNOW
[Illustration: NOTHING!]
BY ORDER OF THE
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT
FEB. 9, 1913.
[From New York Call, after temporary suppression of article, “What
Every Girl Should Know,” by the postal authorities.]
[The particular part of the article objected to by the postal
authorities].
SOME CONSEQUENCES OF IGNORANCE AND SILENCE.—PART III.
Prominent medical authorities claim that syphilis was not known in
Europe before the discovery of America. Others equally as prominent hold
that it has existed for many centuries in Europe, but was confused with
other diseases such as leprosy. It makes little difference to the girl
or boy today just how long or where it came from; the point we do know
is that it is here in our homes and workshops, and we should know what
it is like and how to avoid it.
A story is told of a French nobleman whose son was about to leave his
home to live in a big city. Said the father to the son: “If you are not
afraid of God, fear at least syphilis.” This advice might be applied
today, for if boys or girls knew, or could see the appalling results of
syphilis, they would surely fear it, for it is humanity's most deadly
foe.
Syphilis is an infectious disease, caused by a special microbe which is
acquired by contagion or heredity.
It is chronic in course, varied and intermittent in character, and the
length of time it remains in the body is indefinite.
It is so widespread that no country in the world is free from it,
neither is any organ of the body exempt from its ravages.
Let us take a young man indulging in promiscuous sexual intercourse, who
cohabits with a syphilitic woman. He notices nothing wrong for about
five weeks, when he becomes aware of a pimple on the sexual organs, to
which perhaps he pays little attention. This grows and becomes hard at
the base and is ulcerated on the top.
About ten days after the appearance of the ulcer (or chancre) the boy
notices that the glands of the groins begin to swell, but as there is
little or no pain attached he still pays no attention to all this.
After three, or sometimes four weeks the ulcerated opening heals, but
leaves the hard lump under the skin. In two or even three months after
the time of infection the first general symptoms appear. His bones ache,
he is mentally depressed, slightly feverish at night, and a rash appears
upon his body and sore spots in the mouth; and throat. These symptoms
usually decide him to consult a doctor, who finds him in the second
stage of syphilis. This condition lasts usually about two and one-half
years, the rash often lasting a short period, and leaving, but to return
again.
The blood within and the ulcers on the body contain the poisons of the
disease, and for three or four years the poison =can be transmitted= by
contagion, or by heredity.
The third stage is the most destructive, especially to the nervous
system, for this disease is recognized as the greatest factor in organic
disturbances of the nervous system.
It not rarely is the cause of cerebral and spinal meningitis, paralysis
of the legs, paralysis of one side of the body, and that most helpless
and terrible disease, softening of the brain and many other diseases
which affect the spinal cord, which are seldom ever cured. The majority
of those diseased are left with physical or mental infirmities,
rendering them public charges.
There have been cases where the third stage did not develop, and as this
stage is not distinctly separated from the second stage by a definite
line, it may not take place for months, or even years after the first
sore appeared. Again, this stage has been averted by careful treatment
in the early stages, and it is here the hope of all afflicted lies.
Every case of syphilis begins with the characteristic pimple or chancre,
except inherited syphilis. The chancre always appears where the
infection enters, and the glands swell in the same vicinity. For
instance, if in using a pipe of a syphilitic, whose mouth contains the
sore patches, the victim finds the chancre will appear on his lips,
mouth or throat, and the glands of the neck will swell.
It is said that almost 10 per cent. of the infections are contracted
innocently, especially in European countries, where kissing and other
forms of endearment are much indulged in. In this country it is not so
common, but more women than men contract it innocently and in this
manner.
In women, too, the first symptoms are not so characteristic as in men.
She may pay no attention to the chancre for a month, even if she does
feel aches in the bones, she thinks she is run down, or thinks she has
malaria; even the rash does not alarm her, and often only repeated
miscarriages will be the only symptoms she can remember of the early
stages. She may continue for years before the disease reaches the third
stage. This is not always so, for in every individual the disease
differs in character and duration.
Gonorrhoea and syphilis differ in many ways. For instance, the former
shows itself in a week or ten days after infection, where syphilis shows
no signs for five or six weeks.
Gonorrhoea is considered a purely sexual disease, because infection
takes place only in sexual relations (except where the germ gets into
the eyes), while syphilis can be contracted in many other ways, through
forks, spoons, glasses or cups, towels, sponges, bathtubs, toilets,
pipes, dental and barbers' instruments, and kissing.
Gonorrhoea is considered a social danger because of its effect upon the
sexual organs, often rendering them sterile. Syphilis is also a social
danger, but it has direct effect upon the offspring, and upon future
generations because its effects are visited upon the child.
Sixty to eighty per cent. of the syphilitic offspring die at birth or in
early infancy. Someone has well said, “The greatest criminal is he who
poisons the germ cells.”
In hereditary syphilis there is more difficulty in gathering facts, for
the laws which control it are not so well understood, as yet.
There is no sore or chancre in hereditary syphilis, but other symptoms
appear which every physician recognizes and of course attends to at
birth.
Under proper treatment the danger of the father transmitting the disease
to the child should cease in from two to five years, while the danger of
the mother transmitting it to her offspring does not end at any definite
time, for there have been mothers known to give birth to syphilitic
offspring years after all disappearance of their own symptoms.
The strongest features of the disease transmitted to the offspring are
the deformities which it imparts to the bones of the head as well as of
the body.
It is said on good authority that if a patient, at the end of five
years, has been two years without symptoms or treatment, he may be
guaranteed for marriage. Though he can never be wholly guaranteed from
relapses in his own person. These, however, are considered
noninfectious.
The cure of the disease depends upon the individual's environment,
constitution and his habits, chiefly as regards alcohol and tobacco.
Alcohol is considered the commonest and most active enemy of the
patient's recovery. Men addicted to the use of alcohol are the most
difficult to cure.
There seems to be no doubt that if the disease receives the proper
treatment there is every hope for the individual to live a normal life.
Fouriner, a French authority, says:
“Personally I could cite several hundred observations concerning
syphilitic subjects who, after undergoing thorough treatment, have
married and became fathers of healthy, good-looking children.” The
question, then, to receive some attention is what means are available
for the treatment of both syphilis and gonorrhoea.
Dr. Prince A. Morrow says: “Prompt curative treatment is not only in the
interests of the patients themselves, but especially in the interests of
the others they might infect. But everywhere we are confronted with this
situation: There are no special hospitals for this class of diseases;
few general hospitals receive them in the early, curable stage; still
fewer have special venereal wards; even the dispensary services are not
organized with special adaption to the needs of venereal cases; few have
night classes, so that working people who go to the dispensary must lose
half a day, which often means the sacrifice of their employment. As a
consequence they resort to quacks or the use of nostrums (secret or
quack medicines). They are not cured, but go on spreading the seeds of
contagion.”
This is the condition as far as hospitals are concerned in the matter of
venereal diseases. And in relation to private practice the average
person's position is still more deplorable. Take, for example, the story
of a girl who came under my care some years ago, after having suffered
three years with the disease. She had been refused attendance in public
hospitals in three different cities while she was working her way to New
York. At different times she consulted physicians, only to learn that to
be cured she must be treated regularly, and to be so treated would
require money. Different estimates were quoted from $150 to $500 for
treatment. As the amount of money left over after she had paid her
expenses each week was never over $2, the possibility of a cure looked
hopeless. She concluded to purchase patent medicines whenever she could,
but her condition became worse, until she was picked up by a charitable
organization, who cared for her until she died. When I saw her all her
hair, eyebrows and eyelashes were gone, her nose and upper lip were
almost entirely eaten away, most of her teeth were gone—in fact, to try
to describe her condition would be almost impossible.
This is only one case, but there are thousands of syphilitics who are
wandering around unable to pay the prices which the physician asks to
treat this disease. The same can be said of gonorrhoea, and the same
physician who clamors against the prices of the so-called quack, forgets
that the price he asks of the public is exorbitant in the extreme. So
the only course for the individual to take, if he cannot pay the price,
is to remain a menace to society. The physician assumes no
responsibility toward society to find out if the patient is under
treatment elsewhere; the patient can do as he pleases with his disease
when he closes the doctor's door. This, then is the situation as regards
society's attitude toward the venereal subject: Society seems to take a
different attitude towards other contagious and infectious diseases,
such as measles, chicken pox, diphtheria, etc. In these diseases, a
physician has some responsibility toward society; he must report each
case as it comes to his attention, to the Board of Health, who in turn
assume some responsibility by isolating the disease.
If this is necessary in these comparatively simple diseases, how much
more important should it be to register and isolate patients suffering
from the venereal diseases.