Sex-education: A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its relation to human life — John Shaqi
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 reports of medical men regarding the damage done by the social
diseases are inaccurate chiefly when they attempt to state percentages
of the whole population. They are reliable when they state observed
facts, such as the following: It is now established in medical science
that (1) gonorrheal infection results in tens of thousands of cases in
complications, such as heart disease, gonorrheal rheumatism, sterility
of both men and women, blindness of infants, inflammatory diseases of
female reproductive organs, and other well-marked sequelae of the
disease; and (2) that syphilis is responsible for a large majority of
cases of locomotor ataxia, paresis and certain types of insanity, and
also for numerous aneurisms of arteries, many apoplexies, and much
disease of liver, kidneys, and other organs. Moreover, syphilis is
charged with being the greatest race destroyer. Fournier, the great
French specialist, noted that only two children survived from a series
of ninety pregnancies of syphilitic women of the well-to-do class. It
is probably true that much less than ten per cent of syphilitized
embryos ever grow into mature men and women, and even these few
survivors are likely to carry in their bodies the germs or the "virus"
of syphilis which may affect the next generation.
[Sidenote: Social diseases admittedly dangerous.]
Such direct statements as the above may be accepted as not exaggerated.
However, it little matters in sex-education, except for the purposes of
sensational writers, whether statistics regarding the damage done by
venereal diseases are more than estimates; for it is sufficient to
remember that every physician of large experience agrees that syphilis
and gonorrhea are so common and so destructive of health and life that
they must be classed among the most dangerous diseases that now
threaten the human race. This ought to be sufficient to attract the
serious attention of every thinking man and woman.
[Sidenote: Double standard of morality.]
Thus, in general survey, we see the great problems of social-sexual
hygiene caused by diseases that are widely distributed because sexual
instincts are uncontrolled. In short, the alarming problem of the
social diseases results from masculine promiscuity or the failure of
men to adhere to the monogamic standards of morality. In other and
familiar phrasing, there is widespread acceptance and practice of the
so-called "double standard of sexual morality," a monogamic one for
respectable women and promiscuity for many of their male relatives and
friends. (See writings of Morrow, especially "The Sex Problem"; also
Creighton's "The Social Disease.")
[Sidenote: One problem for sex-education.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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