Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/238

 PUBERAL HYGIENE IN RELATION TO PEDAGOGY AND SOCIOLOGY. 1

FROM the beginning of puberty, which is marked by the rapid increasing of stature, the growth of genital organs, and the first appearance of sexual hair, to its full development in youth of both sexes, which is marked by the changes in voice, the growth of beard in man and the full development of the breast in the maid, and the other changes in physical condition and moral character, is a period of many years. It is not far from truth to affirm that in our climates we should estimate the dura- tion of this period at from five to six years in the girl, and from eight to ten in the boy. Now, it is not indifferent to the welfare of individuals and of society to determine the manner in which during this whole period young people should conduct them- selves in relation to the increasing activity of reproductive functions. Sexual impulses usually appear early in this period, and the healthier the conditions of youth, the earlier generally grows genital activity. But its free satisfaction, though grateful to the senses, is not equally useful to health and welfare. It is a general law that rules all the organic world that every prog- ress in the development of a quality, of a function, or of an organ cannot take place without a regress, without inhibition in other properties, organs, or functions. We can say that all organic life is founded upon this law. Even in moral life we remark the same thing. The first lesson that a boy receives at school, says Lander Brunton, is a lesson of inhibition ; he is taught to sit silent and to hold back the movements that exterior impressions, acting upon his excitable nervous system, urge him to make.

All education rests on this principle; the continuation and the amplification of this lesson ought to lead the boy to restrain his ardent desires, to subdue his temperament, to do his duty, however disagreeable it may be.

1 See article of DR. A. MARRO, AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, September, 1899.

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