Page:Counter-currents, Agnes Repplier, 1916.djvu/157

The Repeal of Reticence without reserve. Give it to boys, give it to girls, give it to children. No other force is taken into account by the visionaries who—in defiance, or in ignorance, of history—believe that evil understood is evil conquered. "The menace of degradation and destruction can be checked only by the dissemination of knowledge on the subject of sex-physiology and hygiene," writes an enthusiast in the "Forum," calling our attention to the methods which have been employed by some public schools, noticeably the Polytechnic High School of Los Angeles, for the instruction of students; and urging that similar lectures be given to boys and girls in the grammar schools. It is noticeable that while a woman doctor was employed to lecture to the girl students of the Polytechnic, a "science man" was chosen by preference for the boys. Doctors are proverbially reticent,—except, indeed, on the stage, where they prattle of all they know; but a 141