,0 ^ CT , ° N ° + W , ^ rr^r* ° u/3rJ± FATHER'S ADVICE: A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. y by E. P. MILLER, M. D. PHYSICIAN TO THE NEW HYGIENIC INSTITUTION, AND TURKISH BATH, NO. 41 WEST TWENTY-SIXTH STREET, NEW YORK. AUTHOR OF "VITAL FORCE," "DYSPEPSIA," "HOW TO BATHE," "THE IMPROVED TURKISH OR ROMAN BATH," ETC. / NEW YORK: MILLER, HAYNES & CO. 41 West Twenty-Sixth Street. 1870. T*+. 4& » » « Entered,according to act of Congress, in the year 1870, by ELI P. MILLER, M. D., in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. \ A FATHER'S ADVICE. MY DEAR CHILD: You are now old enough to know- good from evil; you are old enough to understand what sin means; you know that when you tell a lie, or take what is not your own, you commit a sin; but do you know that sin means disobedience to God's laws of every kind? Do you know, too, that when God formed your body, he made laws by which every part of that body should be governed and preserved ? Do you know that he made a law for the eye, that it should have light or it would become a father's advice: weak and useless; but that the light must not be too strong, — like the direct rays of the sun, for instance, — or the sight would be injured? Do you know that he made a law for the skin, that it should be kept clean or the little pores — of which it contains several millions — would be clogged up, and prevent the impurities of the body from passing away? that he made laws by which the food you eat shall be digested and go to make blood, and bone, and muscle, and nerve, and brain ? Now, disobedience to any of these laws is sin, and if the disobedience is continued, suffering is sure to follow as a penalty. God made every organ of your body with the intention that it should perform a certain work. If you wish to see, you use your eyes; if you want to hear, your A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 5 ears are called in use; you would not think of walking on your hands nor using your pencil with your feet, nor putting food in your nose; Nature teaches you better than this; but Nature has not taught you the proper use of all your organs, and there may be bad children or wicked servants around you who have taught, or will teach you to use some of your organs in a way that is sinful — I refer to the organs w T hich make you a little boy, and I write this book especially for you, that you may know what is right and what is wrong with regard to this part of your body. Perhaps you have thought that these organs, wmich are called sexual organs^ were vulgar, and impure, and ignoble; but I want to teach you that they are of the greatest possible importance; that God made them for a special purpose; a father's advice: and that they are most honorable if used only for that purpose. It is true that impurities taken from the blood in a fluid form, called urine, pass from the body through a portion of the sexual organs ; but Nature takes care of that, so I need only teach you that when God made mankind he made the sexual organs for the purpose of keeping the race alive. He made them so that when you are grown up to man- hood and are capable of taking care of yourself and others, you may, yourself, have children, and thus fill the highest position in the created universe, the po- sition of a parent. These organs are given to you as a sacred trust, that in maturer years you may be the means of giving life to those who shall live forever. . Now the purpose for which these A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 7 organs were given is high, and holy, and honorable, and if used only for this purpose, in accordance with the laws which govern them, they will be the means of helping you to become great and honorable men. The Bible says that one part of the body must not exalt itself over another; but if there is any part which may be considered as the foundation, the cor- ner-stone of all the bodily and mental powers, of all the moral and spiritual greatness, it is the sexual part of our nature; and if this part is abused, if it is put to any use but that for which God made it — and he did not intend that it should be used at all until a man is fully matured — it will bring disease and ruin upon those who thus abuse it, and upon those who disobey the laws which God has made to govern it. 8 a father's advice: If you have ever learned to handle your sexual organs, or to touch them in any way except to wash and keep them clean, let me tell you now that if you continue to do this you can never grow to be a strong and healthy and hap- py man. You must determine that from this hour you will never do such a thing again, however great may be the temp- tation. Your playmates may try to persuade you to do it, or some servant, even some grown-up person may tell you that it will do no harm ; but when I tell you that I am a physician, and that I see thousands of young men and boys who have pale cheeks, sunken eyes with dark rings around them, weak stomachs that can not digest food, lame backs, hearts all in a nutter with palpi- tation, weak and inflamed eyes, unsteady walk, crooked legs, deformed bodies, A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 9 trembling hands, decayed teeth, hair dead, or gray, or falling out, and the sexual organs inflamed or wasted away, all on account of having handled and irritated those organs when they were children, then perhaps you will believe me, instead of believing those who are bringing misery and ruin upon them- selves and would prevail upon you to do the same. This habit of handling or exciting the sexual organs is called Self-abuse, be- cause every part of the body is abused and injured by it. Do not go with those who would teach you to do such things, or talk to you about them ; and if you know of any child who practices such habits, give him this book to read, or tell him the consequences of this terrible sin ! for it is a sin as dreadful as any that children IO A FATHERS ADVICE: can commit! It is worse than lying or stealing! for, although these are very wicked and will ruin your soul, yet this habit of self-abuse will ruin you both soul and body. If you practice self-abuse > even for a short time, you will be in such a condi- tion that you can take little interest in any thing or any body. You will be- come cross, and peevish, and fretful, dissatisfied with everything that is done for you ; you will not love to play, for you will feel too weak and "all-gone'' from the exhaustion which is the sure consequence of this dreadful habit! You will not care for books, or music, or birds, or flowers, because your mind will become so degraded by low and vulgar thoughts that you will be inca- pable of loving those things which are • pure and beautiful. You will not like A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. II to look people in the face, for you will feel as though they could read your habits in your eyes, and they can, or at least a good many physicians can. When I see a boy or man wasted, and weak, and listless, with great hollow eyes, and a sort of sallow tint on the hag- gard face, vrith the red hue of the lips faded, the ears white like marble, and the face covered with pimples, I know that they have committed the sin which will, if not abandoned, lead them down to death. There are also other signs which a physician can recognize; signs which show themselves as soon as the habit is begun. There is a change in the skin, in the eye, in the muscles, in the actions; and no child need hope to conceal his sin, for the effects of it are sure to be apparent. It is because I want to save 12 a father's advice: you from these effects, because I want to save you from the fearful conditions which will surely come upon all who practice self-abuse, that I tell you these things. It is to save you from the ter- rible sufferings which you will sooner or later experience if you indulge in this sinful habit. If the sexual organs are handled it brings too much blood to these parts, and this produces a diseased condition; it also causes disease in other organs of the body because they are left with a less amount of blood than they ought to have. The sexual organs, too, are very closely connected with the spine and the brain by means of the nerves; and if they are handled, or if you keep thinking about them, these nerves get excited and become exhausted, and this makes the back ache, the brain heavy A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. I 3 and dull, and the whole body weak. Then, too, by and by, when you are fourteen or fifteen or sixteen years old, if you handle yourself, this blood will pass away, or, rather, a fluid which is formed from the blood, and which is called Semen, will pass away, so that you will lose it entirely from your body; and you may think that you have gained something, in being able to throw off this fluid; you may think that this makes you more of a man ; but let me tell you, you are draining away the best part of your being! you are throwing off your very life with it! for not only is the body ruined by taking away the best part of that which should go to make muscle, and bone, and nerve, and brain, but it greatly weakens the intellect and finally destroys the mind and soul of him who thus wastes it. 14 A FATHERS ADVICE: If you have never heard any thing of this before, then I am glad to have you learn the truth about these things before learning the error and falsehood which evil companions so often teach; but if you have heard of it, and have learned the evil habit, then I warn you to break it off at once and turn your thoughts to something pure and good and useful. If you do not, each day you continue to prcatice this habit, it will be more and more difficult to overcome; your sexual organs will become so weakened that this fluid of which I told you, this semen as it is called, which at first will pass away from you only when you choose to make it, will, after a time, pass off of itself when you are asleep, or even in the daytime when you have a dis- charge from the bowels, or when you ?7iake water. Riding on horseback will cause A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. I 5 it to pass, or rocking hard in a rocking- chair ; or you may get so bad that the chafing of your clothes will produce an emission, as this discharge is called. You can have no control over this, you can not hinder or stop it. You will dread the coming of the night for fear of the emis- sion, and the morning will find you so weak and exhausted from the loss of your very life-force which oozes away i?i the semen, that you will have no energy or vigor left. Your whole, life will be a burden, your every duty an irksome task ! You will drag out a weary existence, feeling all the time that it is your own folly and sin that has brought upon you all your troubles. You will find you can never accomplish any thing great, either with mind or body; for this terrible loss of semen drains away and exhausts all the faculties of both body and mind. 1 6 a father's advice: Self-abuse weakens every part of the system, and a great many young boys and a great many grown-up men, die of consumption, and heart disease, and brain disease, and many other diseases, just because they have wasted their best blood and weakened the system by this vile habit. A great many, too, have epilepsy, and paralysis, and St. Vitus's dance, because self-abuse has racked the nervous system till they have no control over themselves. Some become idiots, incapable of taking care of themselves. Some be- come crazy; in the insane asylums all over the land, are very many who have practiced self-abuse. Many of those who commit suicide, do it in conse- quence of having practiced this habit when they were young. Their life- powers have been wasted till they can A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 1 7 not enjoy anything, and the world and all things in it seem so dark and un- lovely that they can not endure it any longer, and so they dash out the poor portion of this life which remains to them. The friends mourn and weep, and the world wonders what was the cause of the fearful deed! for they did not know till now that this man was not as happy as most men; but his physician knew it, and he does not wonder — perhaps he gives the friends a true statement of the condition of their lost darling, and then their grief is greater than before; they would give all they possess if they had only taught the poor sufferer when he was young, the evils of such sinful habits. Little boys who are practicing sel^- abuse are just as surely committing su- icide as the man who shoots himself or 1 8 a father's advice: cuts his throat; for, as Henry Ward Beecher says, "it does not take a man with a rope around his neck to be a suicide, or with a portion of poison in his stomach. ,, You need not think that it is not hurting you because you do not suffer now, for the effects of this vice come on so slowly that the victim is often very near death before he knows that he is doing himself harm. This fearful habit saps the life-powers, drop by drop — it is like a little hole in the wall of a mighty reservoir, through which the water oozes, and it trickles down a- mongst the stones and the mortar and the earth, until, little by little, the whole structure is undermined, the foundation washed away, and only the ruins are left to tell what once was there. Just so it is with you, my dear child, A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. I 9 if you commit this dreadful sin, and it is with the hope of saving you and many more like you, from just such fearful consequences as I have described, that this little book is written ; for every boy who is practicing self-abuse is tend- ing towards just such a fate. You may not become as bad or as miserable as some of those I have told you about, but you must not be bad at all. Do not you want to grow up to be a noble, high-toned, and honorable man? Do not you want to be able to use all the organs of your body and faculties of your mind as God intended they should be used, for high and holy purposes ? Surely you do not want to grow up a poor, weak, puny, dyspeptic, comsump- tive, scrofulous, degraded specimen of a man, always suffering, always com- plaining, always regretting that you 20 A FATHERS ADVICE: were born and wishing you might die. Would you not rather grow up with a good stomach that can digest food well, and thus manufacture good blood? good lungs that can take in oxygen enough to keep the blood red and bounding? And if you have these you will be pretty sure to have a good brain, one that can think, and feel, and act, with a purpose. You will, perhaps, be able to become a philosopher, or a statesman, or an inventor, or an author, — a wise and useful man in every re- spect. You will have a finely formed body with strong muscles, and work and toil and care will be a pleasure to you for you will be capable ot perform- ing any labor, of enduring any hard- ship. You will grow up rosy, healthy, happy, and handsome; for happiness and beauty depend, in a great degree, upon A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 21 the healthy condition of the body. On the other hand, if you practice the vile habit of self-abuse, you will be on the road that leads to just the conditions I have pointed out, or you may perhaps die before you are grown up. Many young boys die before they are fifteen years old, just because their nervous systems are ruined by self- abuse ; perhaps some of your playmates, whom you knew to be guilty of this sin, have died, and if so, you may be sure that that was one cause of their death ; for even though they might have had measles, or fever, or some other disease, yet their systems had been so drained of life-power by this habit that when these diseases came upon them they had not strength to resist them, but fell early victims to this terrible vice. This early death is certainly far pre- 22 A FATHERS ADVICE! ferable to the dreadful life of those who practice self-abuse till they are grown up, for such are always saying, "Oh if I had only been taught when I was young the evils of this habit ! Now, my hopes are blasted as by the light- ning's shock ; I despise myself, and am incapable of enjoying any thing in this life, and I know I am hastening on to eternal woe ! " "I am constantly re- gretting what I have done, constantly angry with myself that I did not know better, constantly longing to be free from this worse than living death ! " "O God! if I had only known to what a terrible condition this habit would bring me !" "O doctor! I am sinking, sinking! Can not you save me from this dreadful hell?" Now, my dear boy, which course will you choose ? which path will you take ? A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 23 You may think I have told more than is true, but I assure you that if you indulge in self-abuse, even for a short time, you are liable to come to the very worst condition I have named. I have not told one-half — no, not one-tenth part of the horrors of this terrible vice ! I do not want you to read this book and forget it, for it contains earnest, living truth, and if you will accept and follow its teachings, you will bless God as long as you live that you were saved from the sufferings I have de- scribed. Read it again and again, and lend it to your playmates, and if any refuse to believe, and prefer to run the risk rather than break away from the accursed habit, then be sure that you shun all such children, for they are already far on the way that leads to death. 24 A FATHERS ADVICE: People often think they can leave off a bad habit any time they choose. This is a most fatal mistake, and is the cause of much misery and ruin. The moment you begin a bad habit of any kind, that moment you begin to lose the power to act right, and the longer the wrong course is continued the less power you will have to turn back. If you would be free from evil you must not think of, nor wish for, any- thing that is sinful or bad, for if you do, you will be almost sure to give way to sin. And even if you do not give way at the time, the bad thoughts will injure your nerves and pollute your mind so that you cannot be strong and pure. If you were playing in a field where there was a dangerous precipice, would you not thank me to warn you against A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 25 the danger of going near it? If you were rowing a little boat on a great river and I knew there were frightful falls just below you of which you were unconscious, would you not think me your friend if I told you your nearness to them, and showed you how to keep your boat out of the current that would surely carry you over? Just that do I do here : the terrible whirlpool of self- abuse, which I here point out to you, is far more to be dreaded than the most frightful precipice, or the Falls of Ni- agara, for you might be dashed down there and only your body would be destroyed, but if you once come within the circle of this whirlpool, your mind and soul as well as body are almost sure to be lost. Now, would you like me to tell you something that will help to keep you 26 a father's advice: from the terrible vice I have told you about? In the first place, never have secrets which you cannot tell to your father or your mother. Never say or do any thing you would be afraid or ashamed to have them know. Be very carefu] about the company you keep — Do not go with those who use coarse and vulgar language nor with servants and hired men who tell "smutty" stories. Never listen to any stories that you can not tell your parents, for if you shrink from telling them what you hear, you may be sure your minds will be misled by listening to it. Do not curse your- self by the use of impure language — Do not associate with boys or young men who talk about sexual things in a low and obscene way, for if you do you cannot keep pure and good. Do not read any books without first A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 2J showing them to your parents. Do not cherish low thoughts about the sexual organs, for God made them just as perfect as your hand, or your foot, or your eye, and they are more impor- tant than any of these organs, for you might have your hand or foot cut off, or your eye put out, and yet retain your health, your manhood, your nobil- ity of mind and soul ; but if you misuse and abuse your sexual nature, you can never be what you might have been if you had kept it unimpaired. Keep your mind constantly filled with thoughts that are pure, and there will be no room for those that are im- pure to come in. Be social and cheer- ful, and try to make every one around you happy, for this is the surest way fo be happy yourself. Do not allow yourself to think of 28 a father's advice: using tobacco or strong drink, in any form, for these not only fire the blood and excite the passions, but they lead you into company that is low and degrading, and will make it impossi- ble for you to keep your mind filled with pure thoughts. Tea and coffee, too, and candies, sweetmeats, and spices, rich pies and cakes, rich gravies, hot biscuits, pickles, etc., all injure the digestive organs, make the blood hot and impure, and tend to lead you in- to evil habits — you have something else to do besides just living to eat, and you do not want to eat hurtful things just because they taste good, for this is mak- ing a wrong use of the sense of taste, and also a wrong use of the stomach, and is sure to bring disease and suffer- ing. Finally, do right in all things, not only because this will bring happi- A BOOK FOR EVERY BOY. 29 ness and save you from evil, but because it is right, and then you will be sure to live in the way that leads to Heaven. God has given you a life which is to last forever, and the little time you spend on earth is as nothing to the ages upon ages which you are to spend in the world beyond; yet your earthly life is a very important part of your exist- ence, for it is here that the foundation is laid for either happiness or misery in the future. It is here that you decide your destiny, and your efforts to know and obey God's laws in your own body as well as in your soul will not only bring blessings to .you in this life, but never-ending happiness throughout eternity. RD - 5. ft « ■Wo +* ^ *r*w% ° <^ <£ ^W/V ^- ** *J "bv 1 > •.„•• .0' *2* "6 ? :<\ s° *° ^ JO 9 ^ V. ,,- DOBBS BROS. *> ^ ^ ! ^S^^X * <<"V LIBRARY BINDING c///a^aSSS^ «*, * V>>» * A ^ \i i ;■ & ^