Sex-education: A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its relation to human lifeBigelow, Maurice A. (Maurice Alpheus)
Science
Sex-education: A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its relation to human life
Bigelow, Maurice A. (Maurice Alpheus)
Sex instruction
The deep interest of the medical profession is directly responsible for
the close association between the beginning of the sex-education
movement and the diseases of immorality. At the organization meeting of
the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, Dr. Prince
Morrow in the opening paragraph of his address said: "We have met for
the purpose of discussing the wisdom and the expediency of forming a
society of sanitary and moral prophylaxis. The object is to organize a
social defense against a class of diseases which are most injurious to
the highest interests of human society." Thus, the American Society of
Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis started as an avowed enemy of the social
diseases and so it has continued to the present. The very name of its
official journal, _Social Diseases_,[19] indicated the central idea of
the Society. Likewise, most of the local American societies for
sex-hygiene have names including such phrases as "social hygiene,"
"prevention of social diseases," "sanitary prophylaxis"; and only one,
the Massachusetts Society for Sex Education, has a name which does not
directly suggest the medical problems of sex.
[Sidenote: In Europe.]
In Europe, the sex-instruction movement has been concerned chiefly with
spreading information concerning the social diseases. In 1902 an
international congress for consideration of the venereal diseases was
held in Brussels, and this congress recommended that in all countries
there should be organized sanitary, social, moral, and legal societies
for the prophylaxis of these diseases. As a result of this
recommendation, prophylactic societies were formed in France, Germany,
Italy, Holland, the United States, and other countries. Of these, the
German society for the prevention of venereal disease became the
strongest, with over five thousand members and twenty branch
societies.
[Sidenote: National societies.]
The fact that the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis
was organized by a group of people in New York City tended from the
beginning to make it a local society. While for several years it took
the lead in sex-hygiene and enrolled members residing in many parts of
the United States, it was never a national organization. In recent
years the word "American" has been omitted from its name, and its work
has been limited to New York City and vicinity.[20] Many independent
state and city societies were organized within a few years after the
original sex-hygiene society in New York. This multiplication of
societies called attention to the need of a national organization, and
in 1910 the various societies were affiliated in the American
Federation for Sex-Hygiene. Dr. Morrow was the leading spirit in the
Federation until his death. In 1913, the Federation and the American
Vigilance Association (a society especially concerned with the social
evil) were united in the American Social Hygiene Association. Its
offices are at 105 West 40th Street, New York City.
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