Degeneracy: Its Causes, Signs and ResultsTalbot, Eugene S. (Eugene Solomon)
History
Degeneracy: Its Causes, Signs and Results
Talbot, Eugene S. (Eugene Solomon)
Abnormalities, Human; Degeneration; Heredity, Human
In dealing with the sexual appetite the fact should be remembered that
encouragement of healthy modesty is a duty in both sexes, and
pre-eminently so in the male. Too much of what is called "sexual purity"
is very often an expression of sexual perversity. While great stress has
been laid on the evil effects of association between boys, too little
stress has been laid on the danger of the training of boys by women. The
sexual history of boys often demonstrates that their initiation into the
sexual life was first at the instance of women older than themselves,
often servants, but not rarely sexual "purists" or persons whose
ostentatious religiosity covered a sexual perversity. In the healthy
association of the sexes there is very little danger, but in such morbid
association there is great danger, the more that the morbid conceals
itself under religiosity and the allied phases of sexual perversion. Great
stress has been laid on the dangers of co-education, but the growing
opinion is that education limited to one sex is the source of even greater
dangers to both boy and girl. It is a matter of common observation among
genito-urinary specialists, alienists and gynecologists, that much of the
alleged "purity" so ostentatiously displayed by graduates of colleges
limited to one sex, is often the offspring of a sexual perversion which,
whether congenital or not, has been fostered by the environment of one sex
without the modifying, healthy influence of the other.
In dealing with these cases the stigmata first likely to attract the
physician's attention are in the milder cases those of the jaws, teeth,
nose, throat, ear, and eye. Rapid decay of the teeth often leads to the
discovery not merely of constitutional degeneracy, but also of the effects
of certain strains which aggravated this. Dentists, mouth, throat, ear,
and to a lesser degree eye specialists, are hence in a position to detect
degeneracy at its outset. If they do not put the cart before the horse,
and refer the constitutional symptoms to the local disturbances, they are
in a position to be of eminent service to the race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account