rd with the view that the
use of alcohol should be prohibited to children. Alcohol cannot do any
good to children, and the possibility that in individual instances it
may stimulate the sexual imagination, is one which cannot be denied. But
this fact does not justify us in advising against the moderate use of
alcohol by adults.[150]

Passing to consider the general mode of life, we certainly agree with
Hufeland, who, in his _Makrobiotik_, recommends vigorous bodily
activity. He contends that children who go to bed at night healthily
tired out, will not be likely to think of masturbation. In the present
age of sports and games it will not be found difficult to fulfil this
indication; and we see as a matter of fact that a great deal of trouble
is taken to give children every opportunity of keeping in active
movement. Even in our large towns, in which, owing to the lack of a
sufficiency of open spaces, great difficulties have arisen in this
respect, much has of late been done to improve matters. For many years
past in England special efforts have been made to provide such
playgrounds for children and adults.

I take this opportunity of drawing attention to a method recommended by
Fere for the cure of masturbation, which I have myself found of good use
in several cases, but which appears to be almost entirely unknown. It is
that the child addicted to masturbation during the night hours should be
watched by a trustworthy person; every time the child puts its hand to
its genital organs, or endeavours to stimulate these organs mechanically
in some other way, the attendant must immediately intervene, and draw
the hands from beneath the bed-clothing. This plan may be adopted
whether the child masturbates while asleep or while awake. But good can
be expected from the method above all in those cases in which the child
masturbates during sleep, and in which it commonly wakes up directly it
is interfered with. In most cases the children treated in this way soon
give up the practice of masturbation, even though the evil is of long
standing. But it will be advisable to continue to supervise the child
for some time after a cure has apparently been effected, lest what may
have become a nervous automatism should be resumed after a brief
intermission. The chief difficulty in the practical application of this
method lies in the choice of a trustworthy person to watch the child. As
a rule, the mother will be the most suitable, but now and a