Education in Sex Hygiene
By T.
WITH the above for a heading, the Journal of the American Medical Association has the following strikingly significant and important paragraphs: “Recognition of their responsibility has resulted in a marked awakening of physicians to their obligations as leaders and teachers in the science of keeping well. The essence of preventive medicine is education, and physicians, by virtue of their training, experience, and ideals, ought to be leaders and teachers. Yet until within a few years their responsibilities were not recognized in the prevention of venereal disease and education in the hygiene of sex. “The earlier policy of silence and repression in regard to these matters is fast changing not only on our part but on the part of parents and educators. The sinister menace of venereal disease can hardly be overestimated. In the United States 770,000 males reach early maturity annually. At least 60 per cent, or 450,000 of these young men, will at some time become infected with venereal disease, 20 per cent before the age of 22, 50 per cent before 25,11and over 80 per cent before they pass 30. This is the morbidity among males reaching 16 in any one year. Each succeeding year adds a similar group to the aggregate. “Syphilis and gonorrhea undoubtedly surpass in prevalence all other infectious diseases combined, and their immediate and disabling effects fall most heavily as the most active and productive period of life. Gonococcus infection alone is responsible for 80 per cent of all deaths from inflammatory diseases peculiar to women, 75 per cent of all special operations on women, and over 60 per cent of all the work done by gynecologists; 50 per cent or more of these infected women are left irremediably sterile, besides the number whose offspring are still-born, premature, weakly, diseased, or mentally defective. “Considering the terrible ravages of these diseases and their wide prevalence, our efforts at preventive measures have been woefully inadequate. The community and state assume immense burdens in the care of victims of such conditions as deaf-mutism, mental defectiveness, general paralysis, blindness, and many others. Yet the prevention of a large percentage of these conditions by prevention of syphilis and gonorrhea receives but meager attention. If bubonic plague had but a fractional percentage of the incidence of these diseases, all hands would be joined to drive it out. Cholera in a civilized country to-day is no such social and national menace as venereal disease. We appropriate great sums to fight certain epidemic diseases and to maintain a rigid quarantine against them, but we are only now beginning to wage warfare against diseases which are as dangerous as any epidemic disease and far more dangerous than many.” “There are various points of attack in this problem and various closely related problems. But there is one point of attack in combating the spread of venereal disease which is justly regarded by many experienced workers as the most vital and strategic, and this is the education of the young. There has been an upheaval in pedagogic and social sentiment in the last few years regarding the question of sex-teaching in home, school, and college. Conventional prejudice against such teaching is giving way rapidly, and results are already beginning to appear. Educators are coming to believe that these subjects have a rational and vital place in the educational system.” The figures in these paragraphs are authentic beyond question, for they come from one of the most dignified and trustworthy organizations of this great nation. The most learned, the most progressive, and the most moral of the physicians of the nation make up the backbone of the American Medical Association. And they have a reputation to maintain, and do not give out figures carelessly. When they tell us that 80 per cent of the male population is afflicted with venereal diseases, they base these figures upon the careful records that are made by reliable practitioners. The Master has told us, in His word, that in the times just before His coming the conditions in the world would be as they were in Sodom and Gomorrah. We need only to read the records of those cities in the time of Lot to know the conditions that obtained there. They were loaded down with unspeakable vices. We know that the education that the American Medical Association calls for, and that they are exerting their mighty influence to give, will do something in the way of stemming the tide of this evil. But we are in days when the moral barriers are broken down. Men have stood in the pulpit and taught their higher criticism until they have discredited, in the great mass of humankind, the high standards of morality expressed in the Bible. The standards of the Bible are no longer held as authority by the great masses. On the other hand we have voluptuous luxury and sensuality prevalent everywhere. The education through the theater, and in sensuous songs and literature, and in many other ways that might be mentioned, is breaking down the strong moral standard that this nation had fifty years ago. Things are advocated now as all right that twenty-five years ago would not have been tolerated at all, and these conditions are growing worse and worse. It is the duty of parents, of teachers, of physicians everywhere to raise a voice of warning. Men of international reputations have joined in associations to assist in putting down this great social evil that the Journal of the American Medical Association proclaims against. They are alarmed over the situation. The voice of warning should be sounded everywhere; and in connection with the warning in regard to the prevalence of this evil, there should also be sounded the warning note in regard to all that it means. This world is rapidly becoming so corrupt that the visitation that was meted out to Sodom in the days of Abraham and Lot is hanging over it by a very brittle thread. God could not be true to Himself and to His great principles of righteousness nor to His plan of salvation and permit these conditions to continue.