The tendency of luxury is toward demoralization. Rome never became dissipated and corrupt until her citizens became wealthy, and adopted luxurious mo… - John Harvey Kellogg

Various disease which cause local irritation and congestion of the reproductive organs are the causes of unchastity in both sexes, as previously explained. It not unfrequently happens that by constantly dwelling upon unchaste subjects until a condition of habitual congestion of the sexual organs is produced, young women become seized with a furor for libidinous commerce which nothing but the desired object will appease, unless active remedial measures are adopted under the direction of a skillful physician. This disease, known as “nymphomania”, has been the occasion of the fall of many young women of the better classes who have been bred in luxury and idleness, but were never taught even the first lessons of purity or self-control. Constipation, piles, worms, pruritis of the genitals, and some other less common diseases of the urinary and genital systems, have been causes of sexual excitement which has resulted in moral degredation.

Dr. Gardner quotes the Abbe Maury, as follows: “I hold as certain that after fifty years of age a man of sense ought to renounce the pleasures of love. Each time that he allows himself this gratification is “a pellet of earth thrown upon his coffin.” Dr. Gardner further says: “Alliance of this sort have taken place in every epoch of humanity, from the time of the patriarchs to the present day,-alliances repugnant to nature,-between men bordering on decrepitude and poor young girls who are sacrificed by their parents for position, or who sell themselves for gold. There is in those monstrous alliances something which we know not how to brand sufficiently energetically, in considering the reciprocal relations of the pair thus wrongfully united, and the lot of the children which may result from them. Let us admit, for an instant, that the marriage has been concluded with the full consent of the young girl, and that no external pressure has been exerted upon her will-as is generally the rule-it will none the less happen that reflection and experience will tardily bring regrets, and the sharper as the evil will be without remedy; but if compulsion, or what is often the same thing, “persuasion”, had been employed to obtain the consent with the law demands, the result would have been more prompt and vehement. From this moment the common life becomes odious to the unhappy victim, and “culpable hopes” will arise in her desolate heart, so heavy is the chain she carries. In fact, the love of the old man becomes ridiculous and horrid to her, and we cannot sufficiently sympathize with the unfortunate person whose duty [?] it is to submit to it. If we think of it an instant, we shall perceive a repulsion such as is only inspired by the idea of incest. . . . So what do we oftenest observe? Either the woman violently breaks the cursed bands, or she resigns herself to them ; and then she seeks to fill up the void in her soul by adulterous amours. Such is the somber perspective of the sacrilegious unions which set at defiance the most respectable instincts, the most noble desires, and the most legitimate hopes. Such, too, are the terrible chastisements reserved for the thoughtless or foolish pride of these dissolute gray-bears, who prodigalize the last breath of their life in search of depraved voluptuousness.”

27. Disgust for simple food is one of the traits which a victim of this vice is sure to possess. He seems to loathe any food which is not rendered hot and stimulating with spices and other condiments, and cannot be induced to eat it. 28. The use of tobacco” is good presumptive evidence that a boy is also addicted to a practice still more filthy. Exceptions to this rule are very rare indeed, if they exist, which we somewhat doubt. The same influences which would lead a boy to the use of tobacco would also lead him to solitary vice, and each sin would serve to exaggerate the other.