ures, or by the seduction of a
corrupted individual, becomes in his turn the seducer of his comrades.
Certain libidinous and unscrupulous women have often persuaded
adolescents and schoolboys to sleep with them, thus awakening
precocious and unhealthy sexual appetites.

Such habits which excite the sexual appetite and cause it to
degenerate artificially, develop in their turn a mode of sexual
boasting in men, the effects of which are deplorable. To appear manly,
the boy thinks he ought to have a cigar in his mouth, even if it makes
him sick. In the same way the spirit of imitation leads youth to
prostitution. The fear of not doing as the others and especially the
terror of ridicule constitute a powerful lever which is abused and
exploited. Fearing mockery, a youth is the more easily seduced by bad
example the less he is put on guard by parents or true friends.
Instead of explaining to him in time, seriously and affectionately,
the nature of sexual connection, its effects and dangers, he is
abandoned to the chance of the worst seductions.

In this way the sexual appetite is not only artificially increased and
often directed into unnatural channels, but also leads to the
poisoning and ruin of youth by venereal diseases, to say nothing of
alcoholism.

We have referred especially to educated youth, but the youth of the
lower classes are perhaps in a still worse condition, owing to the
promiscuity of their life in miserable dwellings. They often witness
coitus between their parents, or are themselves trained in evil ways
for purposes of exploitation.

It is astonishing that the results of such abominable deviation of the
sexual appetite are not worse. No doubt excesses disturb the ties of
marriage and of the family, and often provoke impotence and other
disorders of the sexual functions. It must, however, be admitted that
their satellites, the venereal diseases, and their most common
companion, alcoholism, are in reality the greatest destroyers of
health, and make much more considerable ravages in society than the
artificial increase and abnormal deviations of the sexual appetite
itself. However, the latter by themselves very often poison the mind
and social morality, as we shall have occasion to see.

Immoderate sexual desire, provoked in men by the artificial
excitations of prostitution, etc., is a bad acquisition. It renders
difficult the accustomance to marriage, fidelity and ideal and
life-long love for the same