Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/93

 PREVENTION OF MENTAL DISEASES 79

remarkable, and that governments cannot give too much assist- ance to these schools for backward children, who, without them, are sure to descend to degeneration and mental complications.

In respect to those who remain incapable of such intellec- tual and moral progress, it will be necessary to segregate them for life in special establishments, as I have shown in a work pub- lished, in 1896, in \.Y.q Journal of Mental Scietice, "The Need of Special Accommodations for the Degenerate." These unhappy beings are dangerous to society. I have the deep conviction that this would be one of the most hopeful social measures, and would contribute to prevent the increase of mental troubles in the degenerate, and, at the same time, would contribute very much to diminish crime.

A vice exceedingly frequent in schools, and especially in boarding schools, is masturbation. This vice is found most frequently in children poorly endowed in mental and moral facul- ties. But when many children are crowded together, the con- tagion of masturbation is much to be feared. One child instructs another in this vice, and a few bad spirits are enough to infect a whole school among the pupils who are ignorant of the terrible and dangerous consequences of masturbation. It is the imperative duty of the director of an establishment to keep his eyes open to repress this evil ; and it is the duty of the parents to inform the teachers of the vices of their own children ; and on both sides it is important to point out to vicious pupils the diseases to which they make themselves liable. The physicians also have a part to play in these circumstances, because the young people frequently have more confidence in their word than in the advice of parents and teachers.

It is the duty of the parents and teachers to anticipate the physician with the least possible delay. The physician can expose the injurious physical, mental, and moral consequences of masturbation, and the counsels he gives should be attested by facts. The question of masturbation is a leading argument in favor of education at home. We have heard conscientious men, some even interested in boarding schools, declare openly that they wished to see these establishments suppressed, and that it