Sexual Specialists.

Southland Times, Issue 19725, 27 January 1906, Page 2

Sexual Specialists.

DANGERS TO HEALTHY LADS. Mere chance has brought under our notice a case that calls for some public comment iwith a view to exposing a system of imposture and to sounding a warning to those who may be imposed upon. We are indebted to Mr Bligh, the agent of the White Cross league now lecturing in Invercargill, for bringing the facts under notice. It appears that a healthy Invercargill schoolboy met with an accident in the football

lield some time ago. The accident was followed by consequences that were perfectly natural and that' any qualified physician would have remedied by simple treatment. The consequences were of such a kind, however,. that in deference to our prudish delicacy the lad hesitated to speak about them. With few exceptions boys and girls are allowed to grow up with the idea that certain parts of their bodies are never to be talked, about, even between father and son or mother and daughter, and that certain functions of the human organism are neither to be enquired into nor explained. In this common state of ignorance the lad wrote to a “ specialist,” whose advertisement came under his notice. In reply he was informed that ho was suffering from some disease of the sexual organs, and a guaranteed cure was offered for ‘‘ £3 or two monthly payments of 355.” Enclosed with the reply were a number of leaflets dealing with the ailments of women that could not fail to produce an unhealthy curiosity (if nothing worse) in a boy’s mind and other matter that was obviously intended as a direct incitement to vicious practices and immorality. In the envelope there was, in fact, all the material for a healthy boy’s ruin. Fortunately he was not afraid to show the mischievous rubbish to a trusted adviser who saved him from the loss of £3 and perhaps the sacrifice of his clean youth. By this advisor the printed matter was handed to Mr Bligh, who brought it under our notice.

It appears that this is the sort of stuff usually sent *out by the numerous dangerous quacks ,who advertise ’’certain cures” for supposed diseases that have symptoms so general that every boy or girl must experience them sometimes. "Do you feel run down?” “ Do you blush?” “ Are you nervous ?” “ Do you feel disinclined for work ?” " Are you troubled by dreams ?” These are’thc ingenious questions that these unprincipled traflicers in manhood ask. To those who know the trap is so plainly visible that there is no danger. But what boy does not blush, and what healthy vigorous boy is not “troubled by dreams?” He is not taught to understand the ordinary healthy activities of the body and fears to speak about, bis experiences. Some day he roads a quack’s advertisement and a sheaf of pamphlets, poisoned with evil suggestion from the first line to the last, is placed in his hands. Ho may show them lo his father, or he may rot,; he may escape from the temptations of the impostor or he may fall into his toils. In not a few cases, wo fear, he enters the path of misery and sometimes of moral and physical ruin. We understand that all medical men have experience of these cases—they dre called in to endeavour to restore to health a wrecked constitution and an enfeebled mind that were healthy and strong until undermined and contaminated by a “ sexual specialist.” Too strong a warning cannot be tittered against these pests and their detestable practices p but the only effective safeguard against their wiles is the discreet instruction of the young by means of such lectures as those which Mr Bligh has been delivering in Invercargill, or by books by accredited writers of which there arc many nowadays.