In  beginning  a  consideration  of  the  treatment  of  any  disease
to-day,  it  is  customary  to  preface  one's  remarks  with  a  more  or  less
extended  consideration  of  the  various  measures  by  which  the  disease
can  be  prevented.  Only  in  a  very  limited  sense  can  this  rule  be  applied
to  sterility.  Education  is  the  line  along  which  the  most  valuable
results  in  prevention  will  be  achieved.  As  the  child  reaches  puberty
he  or  she  should  be  taught  in  a  simple  and  interesting  manner  the
wonders  of  reproduction  and  its  proper  relation  to  the  growth  of  the
world.     Later,  a  more  general  idea  of  the  sex  relations  should  be


ETIOLOGY— DIAGNOSIS— TREATMENT  73

imparted,  and  with  young  people  the  nature  and  dangers  of  the
venereal  diseases  clearly  and  strongly  dwelt  upon.  The  work  of  early
education  in  sex  hygiene  ought  to  be  begun  by  the  parents,  but  it  is  an
obligation  which  few  of  them  meet,  and  the  child,  in  the  majority  of
cases,  takes  its  first  lessons,  and  only  too  often  all  succeeding  ones,
from  play-fellows.  I  know  from  experience  that  the  role  of  teacher
in  sex  matters  to  one's  own  children  is  a  difficult  one,  especially  with
boys,  but  it  is  a  duty  that  should  not  be  evaded.
For  many  good  reasons,  which  it  would  be  superfluous  to  mention
here,  early  marriages  should  receive  every  encouragement.  One  of  the
saddest  features  of  society  to-day  is  the  increasing  tendency  to  defer
marriage  until  middle  age,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  has
much  to  do  with  out  alarmingly  high  rate  of  sterility  and  diminished
fertility.  There  has  been  of  late  a  wholesale  commercialization  of
nearly  everything,  and  to  this  movement  marriage  is,  I  fear,  no  excep-
tion.
