as in boys
and men, with the most fearful penalties. Nothing will sooner deprive
a girl or young lady of the maidenly grace and freshness with which
nature blesses woman in her early years than secret vice. We have the
greatest difficulty in making ourself believe that it is possible for
beings designed by nature to be pure and innocent, in all respects free
from impurity of any sort, to become so depraved by sin as to be willing
to devote themselves to so vile and filthy a practice. Yet the frequency
with which cases have come under our observation which clearly indicate
the alarming prevalence of the practice, even among girls and young
women who would naturally be least suspected, compels us to recognize
the fact. The testimony of many eminent physicians whose opportunities
for observation have been very extensive shows that the evil is
enormously greater than people generally are aware. Instructors of the
youth, of large experience, assert the same. Nor is the evil greater
in America than in some other countries. One writer declares that the
vice is almost universal among the girls of Russia, which may be due
to the low condition in which the women of that country are kept.

Terrible Effects of Secret Vice.--The awful effects of this sin against
God and nature, this soul-and-body-destroying vice, become speedily
visible in those who are guilty of it. The experienced eye needs no
confession on the part of the victim to read the whole story of sinful
indulgence and consequent disease. The vice stamps its insignia upon
the countenance; it shows itself in the walk, in the changed disposition
and the loss of healthy vigor. It is not only impossible for a victim
of this sinful practice to hide from the all-seeing eye of God the
vileness perpetrated in secret, but it is also useless to attempt to
hide from human eyes the awful truth.

Headache, side-ache, back-ache, pains in the chest, and wandering pains
in various parts of the body,--these are but a few of the painful
ailments from which girls who are guilty of this sin suffer. Many of
the tender spines which cause great solicitude on the part of parents
and physicians, who fear that disease of the spine is threatening the
life of a loved daughter, not infrequently originate in this way. Much
of the hysteria which renders wretched the lives of thousands of young
ladies and the fond friends who are obliged to care for and attend them,
arises from sexual transgression of