open and unprejudiced mind before you finally reject them.

Let us, therefore, begin with the nursery. It is in the nursery that the
roots of the evil we have to contend with are often first planted, and
this in more senses than one. In the more obvious sense all experienced
mothers know what I mean. But I am quite sure that there are a large
number of young wives who become mothers without the smallest knowledge
of the dangers to which even infant boys may be exposed. This ignorance
is painfully shown by the frequent application for nursemaids from our
penitentiaries. At one house where I held a small meeting my young
hostess, an intelligent literary woman, came into my room after the
household had retired to rest to ask me about some curious actions which
she had noticed in her baby boy at night. There could not be a doubt or
a question that her nurse was corrupting her little child before that
hapless young mother's eyes, and forming in him habits which could only
lead to misery hereafter, and only too possibly to idiocy and death; and
that young mother was too ignorant to save her own baby boy! Indeed, I
know of no greater instance of the cruelty of "the conspiracy of
silence" than the fact that in all the orthodox medical manuals for
young mothers the necessary knowledge is withheld.[8] But more
marvellous still is the fact that women should ever have placidly
consented to an ignorance which makes it impossible for them to save
even baby boys from a corrupt nursemaid, who by some evil chance may
have found her way into their service through a false character or under
some other specious disguise, not seeing at once that the so-called
delicacy which shrinks from knowing everything that is necessary in
order to save is not purity but prurience.

I would, therefore, beseech young mothers who are conscious of their own
ignorance to see a lady doctor, if they do not like to consult their own
family physician, and ask her to tell them plainly what they have to
guard against and the best methods to pursue. All I can say here is to
beseech every mother to be absolutely careful about the antecedents of
her nursemaids, and only to admit those of unblemished character into
the precincts of the nursery. Never, if possible, let your baby boy
sleep with any one but yourself, if through illness or any other cause
he cannot sleep in his own little cot. Pyjamas, I think, are generally
recognized now to be the best form of night gea