Youth and Sex

Youth and Sex

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Title: Youth and Sex
Author: Mary Scharlieb and F. Arthur Sibly
Release Date: October 12, 2004 [eBook #13722]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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YOUTH AND SEX
Dangers and Safeguards for Girls and Boys
by
MARY SCHARLIEB, M.D., M.S., AND F. ARTHUR SIBLY, M.A., LL.D.
1919

CONTENTS.


PART I.: GIRLS.
BY MARY SCHARLIEB, M.D., M.S.
INTRODUCTION
I. CHANGES OBSERVABLE DURING PUBERTY AND ADOLESCENCE IN GIRLS
II. OUR DUTIES TOWARDS ADOLESCENT GIRLS
III. CARE OF THE ADOLESCENT GIRL IN SICKNESS
IV. MENTAL AND MORAL TRAINING

V. THE FINAL AIM OF EDUCATION


PART II.: BOYS.
BY F. ARTHUR SIBLY, M.A., LL.D.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
I. PREVALENCE OF IMPURITY AMONG BOYS: THE AUTHOR'S OWN
EXPERIENCE
II. PREVALENCE OF IMPURITY AMONG BOYS: THE OPINIONS OF CANON
LYTTELTON, DR. DUKES AND OTHERS
III. CAUSES OF THE PREVALENCE OF IMPURITY AMONG BOYS
IV. RESULTS OF YOUTHFUL IMPURITY
V. SEX KNOWLEDGE IS COMPATIBLE WITH PERFECT REFINEMENT AND
INNOCENCE
VI. CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH PURITY TEACHING IS BEST GIVEN:
REMEDIAL AND CURATIVE MEASURES
NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS


PART I.: GIRLS.
BY MARY SCHARLIEB, M.D., M.S.
INTRODUCTION.
Probably the most important years in anyone's life are those eight or ten preceding the
twenty-first birthday. During these years _Heredity_, one of the two great developmental
factors, bears its crop, and the seeds sown before birth and during childhood come to
maturity. During these years also the other great developmental force known as
Environment has full play, the still plastic nature is moulded by circumstances, and the
influence of these two forces is seen in the manner of individual that results.

This time is generally alluded to under two heads: (1) Puberty, (2) Adolescence.
By Puberty we understand the period when the reproductive organs are developed, the
boy or girl ceasing to be the neutral child and acquiring the distinctive characteristics of
man or woman. The actual season of puberty varies in different individuals from the
eleventh to the sixteenth year, and although the changes during this time are not sudden,
they are comparatively rapid.
By Adolescence we understand the time during which the individual is approximating to
the adult type, puberty having been already accomplished. Adolescence corresponds to
the latter half of the developmental period, and may be prolonged even up to twenty-five
years.


CHAPTER I
.
CHANGES OBSERVABLE DURING PUBERTY AND ADOLESCENCE IN GIRLS.
1. Changes in the Bodily Framework.--During this period the girl's skeleton not only
grows remarkably in size, but is also the subject of well-marked alterations and
development. Among the most evident changes are those which occur in the shape and
inclination of the pelvis. During the years of childhood the female pelvis has a general
resemblance to that of the male, but with the advent of puberty the vertical portion of the
hip bones becomes expanded and altered in shape, it becomes more curved, and its inner
surface looks less directly forward and more towards its fellow bone of the other side.
The brim of the pelvis, which in the child is more or less heart-shaped, becomes a wide
oval, and consequently the pelvic girdle gains considerably in width. The heads of the
thigh bones not only actually, in consequence of growth, but also relatively, in
consequence of change of shape in the pelvis, become more widely separated from each
other than they are in childhood, and hence the gait and the manner of running alters
greatly in the adult woman. At the same time the angle made by the junction of the spinal
column with the back of the pelvis, known as the sacro-vertebral angle, becomes better
marked, and this also contributes to the development of the characteristic female type. No
doubt the female type of pelvis can be recognised in childhood, and even before birth, but
the differences of male and female pelves before puberty are so slight that it requires the
eye of an expert to distinguish them. The very remarkable differences that are found
between the adult male and the adult female pelvis begin to appear with puberty and
develop rapidly, so that no one could mistake the pelvis of a properly developed girl of
sixteen or eighteen years of age for that of a boy. These differences are due in part to the