SOLITARY VICE

Regnet knackar mot rutan och ljuden av fåglarna på taken rör sig genom skorstenen och förvrids av stenen, tills själva väggen tycks kvida. Jag känner mig som våt aska i sängen, en nyss utslagen eld, de torra grå benpiporna skallrande under lakanen. Den cykliska belägenheten som spänt ut buken likt ett trumskin, hade ensamheten varit behaglig, möjligen otillbörligt så.

Unga kvinnor bör inte gärna vara ensamma längre tider. Och de tunna nattlinnena och små underkläderna som skaver mot skinnet kan lätt upprör det mest oskuldsfulla sinne. Jag underhåller mig själv med uppbyggande litteratur för en bättre moral och ljusare framtid:

SOLITARY VICE

"I hold that mental serenity is one of the essentials of healthful menstrual periods,
and this cannot be had if the mind is continually
troubled and the thought centered on the physical condition.
I would be glad to have your mind freed from the ideas of sex matters as far
as possible. It is a scientific fact that thinking continually of an organ
tends to disturb that organ." 

"As the reproductive system awakens to activity it naturally attracts the attention
of the girl, and an effort should be made to call her
thoughts to other themes.

As I have said before, the reading of sensational love stories is most detrimental.
The descriptions of passionate love scenes arouse
in the reader a thrill through her own sexual organism that tends to increase
its activity and derange its normal state. Girls often mature
into women earlier than they should, because through romances, through
jests of associates in regard to beaus and lovers, and through
indulgence in sentimental fancies their sexual systems are unduly
stimulated and aroused. This stimulation sometimes leads to the formation of an
evil habit, known as self-abuse. The stimulation of the sex organs is accompanied
with a pleasurable sensation, and this excite
ment may be created by mechanical means, or even by thought.
Many girls who are victims of this most injurious habit are unaware of its
dangers, although they instinctively feel that they do not want it known.
Others who would not stoop to a mechanical exciting of themselves
do so through thoughts, and do not know that they are just as truly
guilty of selfabuse as the girl who uses the hand or other mechanical means.

The results of self-abuse are most disastrous. It destroys mental power and memory,
it blotches the complexion, dulls the eye, takes
away the strength, and may even cause insanity.
It is a habit most difficult to overcome, and may not only last for years, but in its
tendency be transmitted to one s children." 

(What a Young Woman Ought to Know, 1898, av Mrs Mary Wood Allen)