e inevitable consequences. Habits are indulged in and
marks of familiarity shown which should not for an instant be tolerated.

CAUSES which commonly produce sexual impressions on young children are,
allowing them to repose playfully on their belly, to slide down
bannisters, to go too long without urinating, constipation or straining
at stool, cutaneous affections, and worms. Also, thoughtless acts of
elder people which are very frequently more closely observed than is
commonly supposed. The sliding down bannisters produces a titillation
which is agreeable to the sexual organs. Children of both sexes will
constantly repeat this act until they learn to become inveterate
masturbators, even at a very early age.

Among boys a disease called _priapism_ is often developed; this arises
from undue handling of the parts, or from some morbid state of the
child's health. The disorder consists of paroxysms, occurring more or
less frequently, of violent erections of the penis; these sometimes
become very painful and require the attention of a physician. At all
events medical aid should be sought at once, because some functional
derangement is at work which might, if not arrested and cured, give rise
to masturbation. Owing to unknown causes such morbid conditions induce
some little boys to pull frequently at the foreskin of the penis until
their health is seriously impaired; they pine away, lose flesh, and
still continue to worry at the foreskin, till death has been known to
result. These cases require the most careful and skillful constitutional
treatment, until they are cured.

Sometimes, in other cases, the foreskin becomes inflamed, offensive
secretions may form about the end of the penis, etc. All such disorders
should be submitted to a judicious physician at once, to avoid
irritations which might result in a tendency to sexual excitement--a
calamity truly deplorable to the young. The idea which some writers
advance--that a long prepuce (or foreskin) often proves an exciting
cause of troublesome sensations to the boy, is certainly erroneous. So,
too, it is all wrong to state that particular care should be taken to
wash under the prepuce. That this objection in regard to washing is
true, is proved from the physical fact that in a large majority of boys
the orifice of the foreskin is not sufficiently opened to permit of
these washings. And the objection is still further proved by the fact
that all these unnatural secretions, off