Where one has practiced the secret sin from four to ten or more years and had the symptoms of greatly injured or lost manhood, it will require from one to four years for nature to restore his manly powers. Nature cannot counteract the loss of vitality and restore years of waste in a few days or weeks of time. Where one has been a victim of this habit for years he must be patient with nature. Years of practice have established a stream of waste from his body. In most cases it will require six months to one year for nature to check this waste. Until this is done, the patient cannot hope to be conscious of the delightful thrill of manhood being restored. Just here, I find many of my correspondents become discouraged. Failing to realize results in a few weeks, they are tempted to feel that the advice found in this book will not bring relief when followed, or that their case is a helpless one. They need to be patient with nature in her slow but sure method of producing real results. =What per cent. of children should be circumcised and when?=--The best physicians are not agreed on this. Many would say one-fourth to one-third. It is best to do this when the boy is only a few days or weeks old. =Should a young man be circumcised after he is grown?=--If the prepuce passes back freely and there is no irritation or soreness, I would not advise circumcision. If there is, I would advise circumcision. In extreme cases of the secret sin, circumcision would help in breaking off the habit. =Is there some method of dilating the prepuce and thus avoiding the necessity for circumcision?=--Yes. In many cases doctors are able to break up the adhesions and dilate the prepuce as a substitute for circumcision. In this matter most parents neglect their boys. When the prepuce is not passed back every few days and the secretion removed, an adhesion takes place between the prepuce and the head of the penis. A large number of boys labor for years, from the age of six to twelve trying to pass the prepuce back. They have not the right motive in doing this. It is impossible for them to handle this organ in this way, several times a day for months or years, without discovering the secret sin. In this way they dilate the prepuce and break up the adhesions. It is strange that this experience among boys has not suggested to parents the following natural and practical method of solving this problem. Where the prepuce passes back naturally in babyhood, the mother should occasionally take a damp cloth and remove the secretion. When the boy is two years old the mother should have the boy trained to do this every two or three days.