A Solemn Appeal - James White

with his ignoble work.
"Self-abuse is practiced in almost every
country, and by persons of all ages and both sexes.
Many children are born with this propensity, and
the habit is commenced in infancy, or in early
childhood, by handling the genital organs; the
friction and irritation giving rise to a peculiar kind
of excitement which they are unable to resist. The
habit formed at this early age is usually kept up till
after puberty, if the system does not earlier
succumb to its ill effects. The little, puny, sickly,
dwarfed, and diminutive menand- women-looking
children that we sometimes see are many of them
examples of this habit.
"Others who have escaped the vice at so early
an age are often initiated into the practice of selfpollution
at the age of eight or ten by their
playmates, their school-fellows, or by hired
servants; and all this without a thought of evil on
the part of the little masturbators."
"Those who have neither inherited the vice nor
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