“Is it not obvious then, where the remedy is to be applied, if indeed a remedy be possible? Is it not obvious that our success must be small indeed if we confine ourselves to means intended to check the overt indulgences of maturity in licentiousness in one generation, whilst those who are to constitute the next are left to the same fearful development of their animal passions, which must lead them on, by steps as certain as the grave, in the same career of indulgence?”[26] Such being the case, and seeking what is for the good of men alone, without regard as yet for the interests of women, we are compelled to indorse marriage as a most important sanitary measure, alike for enabling a reasonable gratification of the sexual instinct, for the avoidance of disease, and for restraining men from alternatives alike disastrous to themselves, their descendants, and to society. I proceed now to discuss the time in a young man’s life at which marriage becomes advisable. FOOTNOTES: [13] Hints to Young Men, &c., p. 36. [14] Report of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities, 1867, p. 19. [15] Criminal Abortion in America. Philadelphia, 1860, p. 14; North Am. Med. Chir. Review, Mar. 1859, p. 260. [16] American Journal of Science and Art. New Haven, March, 1867, p. 141. [17] For remarks pertinent to the above, see editorials in the New York Medical Record, February, 1867, p. 550, and in the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter, for the same month, p. 137. [18] To the million, drunkards themselves, or with drunkards in their family, the concise and philosophical treatise upon Methomania, just published by Dr. Albert Day, then of Boston, and now Superintendent of the New York State Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton, will be found to convey, with conviction, much comfort and hope. [19] Loc. cit., p. 57. [20] Loc. cit., p. 56. [21] Instructions on the Commandments and Sacraments, pp. 154, 173. [22] Acton, p. 192. [23] Bumstead. Pathology and Treatment of Venereal Diseases. [24] Ware. Loc. cit., p. 43. [25] New York Medical Record, February, 1867, p. 550. [26] Loc. cit., p. 45. III.—HOW EARLY IN LIFE IS MARRIAGE TO BE ADVISED? The answer to the above question varies with the circumstances under which it is asked. Viewing the subject, as I am doing, solely from a medical point of observation, it is unnecessary for me to give much attention to the other arguments, for and against, that would else have to be considered.