Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/242

 228 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

clothes, to physical exercises as to mental application, rest, amusements, and society, besides the care that should be directly given to the organs of generation.

As to the food, it is necessary that it should provide for the necessities of the increasing body and for the great consump- tion of hydrocarbonaceous substances which takes place in the youth. It must also richly provide salt for the skeleton, albumen for the muscles, and fat or hydrocarbonaceous substances for the consumption of respiration and muscular exercises. Bread, milk, and a moderate quantity of meat are wanted, and fruits for the sugar and salts that they hold and for the refreshment they give. One must, on the contrary, avoid too many eggs, and still more venison, aromas, truffles, drugs, and all other such alimen- tary substances, which have the tendency to excite the sexual organs. One must also avoid for young people coffee and alcoholic drinks, which have the bad effect of exaggerating the dispositions, already natural in such an age, to excitement of the nervous and circulatory systems. Clothes must not be too tight, so that the generative organs be not subject to friction during the movements of the body, nor so warm as to excite them. The bed itself ought not to be too soft and the bedclothes not too heavy.

Young people must, as a general rule, go early to bed and rise early. "Tous les masturbateurs se levent tard, et quand chez un adolescent sans aucune cause legitime on voit se developper une tendance a rester au lit jusqu'a une heure avancee, on a le droit de concevoir des soupcons," writes Ball; 1 and Payot replies : "Tout jeune homme qui demeure au lit une ou plusieurs heures apres le reveil est fatalement vicieux." 2

Work is against that, as well as against many other dangers, a great talisman. We must, however, always keep in mind the peculiar condition of youth, the reduced power of resistance caused by the rapid increase of stature and by the development of muscular masses and of the whole organism, so that either physical or mental effort can easily occasion fatigue and impair the health of youth.

1 Maladies mentales. L Education de la volontl.