The Social Evil. Illicit intercourse has been a foul blot upon humanity from the earliest periods of history. At the present moment, it is a loathsom… - John Harvey Kellogg

1. From seven to nine hours’ sleep are required by all persons. The rule should be, Retire early and sleep until rested. Early rising is not beneficial unless it has been preceded by abundant sleep. 2. Arise immediately upon waking in the morning if it is after four o’clock. A second nap is generally unrefreshing, and is dangerous, for emissions most frequently occur at this time. 3. If insufficient sleep is taken at night, sleep a few minutes just before dinner. Half an hour’s rest at this time is remarkably refreshing; and even fifteen minutes spent in sleep will be fund very reviving. Do not sleep after dinner, as a pollution will be very likely to occur, and, as a rule, after-dinner naps are unrefreshing and productive of indigestion. 4. Never go to bed with the bowels or bladder loaded. The bladder should be emptied just before retiring. It is also a good plan to form the habit of rising once or twice during the night to urinate. 5. The position in sleeping is of some importance. Sleeping upon the back or upon the abdomen favors the occurrence of emissions ; hence, it is preferable to sleep on one side. If supper has been taken, the right side is preferable, as that position will favor the passage of food from the stomach into the intestines in undergoing digestion. Various devices are employed, sometimes with advantage, to prevent the patient from turning upon his back while asleep. The most simple is that recommended by Acton, and consists in tying a knot in the middle of a towel and then fastening the towel about the body in such a way that the knot will come upon the small of the back. The unpleasant sensations arising from pressure of the knot, if the sleeper turn upon his back, will often serve as a complete preventative. Others fasten a piece of wood upon the back for a similar purpose. Still others practice tying one hand to the bed post. None of these remedies should be depended upon, but they may be tried in connection with other means of treatment. 6. Soft beds and pillows must be carefully avoided. Feather-beds should not be employed when possible to find a harder bed ; the floor with a single folded blanket beneath the sleeper, would be preferable. Soft pillows heat the head, as soft beds produce heat in other parts. A hair mattress, or a bed of corn husks, oat straw, or excelsior-covered with two or three blankets or a quilted cotton mattress-makes a very healthy and comfortable bed. 7. Too many covers should be avoided with equal care. The thinnest possible covering in summer, and the lightest consistent with comfort in winter, should be the rule. Sleeping too warm is a frequent exciting cause of nocturnal losses. 8. Thorough ventilation of the sleeping-room, both while occupied and during the day-time, must not be neglected. It should be located in a position to admit the sunshine during the morning hours. It is a good plan to keep in it a number of house plants, as they will help to purify the air, besides adding to its cheerfulness.

Are Occasional Emissions Necessary or Harmless?-That an individual may suffer for years an involuntary seminal loss as frequently as once a month without apparently suffering very great injury, seems to be a settled fact with physicians of extensive experience, and is well confirmed by observation ; yet there are those who suffer severely from losses no more frequent than this. But when seminal losses occur more frequently than once a month, they will certainly ultimate in great injury, even though immediate ill effects are not noticed, as in exceptional cases they may not be. If argument is necessary to sustain this position, as it hardly seems to be, we would refer to the fact that seminal losses do not occur in those who are, and always have been, continent both mentally and physically, when such rare individuals can be found. They occur the most rarely in those who the most nearly approach the standard of perfect chastity ; so that whenever they occur, they may be taken as evidence of some form of sexual excess. This fact clearly shows that losses of this kind are not natural.

The following is from an eminent physician who for many years devoted his whole attention to the diseases of women and lectured upon the subject in a prominent medical college:- “It is undeniable that all the methods employed to prevent pregnancy are physically injurious. Some of these have been characterized with sufficient explicitness, and the injury resulting from incomplete coitus to both parties has been made evident to all who are willing to be convinced. It should require but a moment’s consideration to convince any one of the harmfulness of the common use of cold ablutions and astringement infusions and various medicated washes. Simple and often wonderfully salutary as is cold water to a diseased limb, festering with inflammation, yet few are rash enough to cover a gouty toe, rheumatic knee, or erysipelatous head with cold water. . . . Yet, when in the general state of nervous and physical excitement attendant upon coitus, when the organs principaly engaged in this act are congested and turgid with blood, do you think you can with impunity throw a flood of cold or even lukewarm water far into the vital in a continual stream? Often too, women add strong medicinal agents, intended to destroy by dissolution the spermatic germs, ere they have time to fulfill their natural destiny. These powerful astringents suddenly corrugate and close the glandular structure of the parts, and this is followed, necessarily, by a corresponding reaction, and the final result is debility and exhaustion, signalized by leucorrhea, prolapses, and other diseases.