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to be covered with perspiration unaccounted for by the temperature of the room, the warmth of the covering, or any other observable cause. The breathing is at the same time more precipitate, the pulse more developed, harder, and quicker, the blood-vessels fuller, and the heat greater than in the natural condition. There is, in short, that sort of fever which ordinarily accompanies the venereal act.
We could give facts almost without number in reported cases, to show the prevalence and destructive nature of this vice among girls in our own country, but we forbear; the subject is painful and revolting even to contemplate. We believe that we have said enough to terrify parents into the needful precautions against it. If so much has been accomplished our object is fully realized. We remark, however, in conclusion, that it is not sufficient to use merely ordinary precautions of a judicious watchfulness; direct and skillful interrogation must be from time to time employed, at least in every suspected case. The subject should never be avoided through false delicacy, and such lessons should be imparted on the dreadful consequences of the habit, as shall effectually deter the perpetrators from persisting in it. It were far better to acquaint even pure-minded and perfectly innocent girls with the existence of such a vice, while teaching them its horrible consequences, than, through a false modesty or mistaken motives of delicacy, to fail in imparting the requisite information in a single case.
