Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/246

 232 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

All extravagances, all immoral and antisocial impulses, find a favorable soil ; subjective life overbears the objective ; the circuit of ideas becomes narrower, judgment is easily troubled, the development of affections is hindered, and their prolonged sup- pression provokes sudden and fearful explosions. Such condi- tions during youth are the most favorable for the rising of irregular characters, whence come the political madmen, as well as the religious ones, the lunatics of every kind, and dangerous criminals.

A little while ago I was called, within the very short time of eight days, to assist as an expert in two lawsuits over great blood-crimes perpetrated by two young men who were declared by all witnesses always to have been before the crime good, laborious, and mild characters, but taciturn and solitary. One of them slew a comrade with nineteen stabs with a knife. The other killed a maid of whom he had become enamored, and who had been refused to him by her parents. He laid wait for her, and fired at her two gunshots, then inflicted on her sixteen wounds with a knife, of which nine were judged mortal.

All the modes of care just mentioned have their own value, and those who are charged with the education of youth must never forget to have recourse to them ; yet it must be avowed that they are seldom sufficient to check genital impulsions, when awakened in an age in which the excitations are strongly felt and the power of ruling them is still but partially developed.

All moral counsels, warnings, threatenings, punishments, and appeals to the sentiment of personal dignity have little power against the temptation of the enticing sensations. Against the allurements of early roving loves Gowdin proposed as the best means the early betrothal of the young men, relying upon the affection that comes to unite the betrothed. But I believe that we cannot yield too much confidence in this as well as in all other moral means to hinder youth from indulging in sexual delights. Recourse to physiological means, that may rule the development of sexual impulses, is far more reliable. Most important among them is the action of temperature. There is a very strict relation between heat and sexual tendencies.