The age at which the venereal power enters into full action, and when its exercise is attended with the least detriment has been generally determined on two distinct grounds: first, the physical aptitude for sexual intercourse: second, the general state of the organization. The marriageable age has been fixed at an earlier or later period according as legislators have assumed one or the other of these bases. The first served as foundations for the matrimonial laws of the Romans: and probably the second served as a guide to Lycurgus, who prohibited men from marrying before the age of thirty-seven, and to Plato who recommended that every child born of a female younger than twenty years old or begotten by a man less than thirty years, should be branded with infamy. J. J. Rousseau too reasons in the same manner: “until the age of twenty,” he says, “the body grows and has need of all its substance: continence is natural, and if not observed it is at the expense of the constitution.” Although the physical aptitude for coition comes at the age of puberty, this fact proves nothing except that the genital organs can then be used. It does not follow that the genital power is fully developed or that the body is in the state most favorable for its use. Who would venture to say; that because masturbation is practicable in early infancy that it is not more injurious than at a later period of life? Hence the cause and degree of the evils attendant on premature indulgence is to be sought for in the degree of perfection of the organism as we have already stated. We therefore think ourselves justified in saying that other things being equal the period of life when the act of venery is attended with the least trouble, is that which begins when the organization is completed, is perfected; and as a reverse of this formula, we may say, that other things being equal, venereal enjoyments anterior to this period, are more detrimental, the less perfect the system is.