or endorsement to leading medical authorities throughout
the country. The ready and hearty response of 370 of these men in
endorsing the declaration leaves no doubt as to the conviction of the
leading men of the medical profession on this question. The declaration is
as follows:--

"In view of the individual and social dangers which spring from the
widespread belief that continence may be detrimental to health, and of the
fact that municipal toleration of prostitution is sometimes defended on
the ground that sexual indulgence is necessary, we, the undersigned,
members of the medical profession, testify to our belief that continence
has not been shown to be detrimental to health or virility; that there is
no evidence of its being inconsistent with the highest physical, mental
and moral efficiency; and that it offers the only sure reliance for sexual
health outside of marriage."[1]

The erroneous beliefs concerning physiological necessity have been
propagated chiefly on the authority of advertising medical fakers, whose
business depends on misrepresentation and deceit, men whose methods
exclude them from the ranks of reputable physicians. They are also taught
by those within the ranks of the profession who are ignorant or
unscrupulous or both, and who for the most part have no higher incentive
in their profession than the pursuit of the dollar. The teaching of these
men is in most cases more an expression of their own vicious habits than
of real conviction. Both wholly misrepresent the teaching and attitude of
the great majority of physicians who constitute the reputable body of the
profession.

Dr. William H. Howell, Professor of Physiology at Johns Hopkins
University, says: "There is no evidence whatsoever that the sexual
appetite or the act of reproduction has any physiological relationship to
the preservation of the integrity of the individual. This appetite has
been created or evolved and made strong in us for an entirely different
purpose. A sexual necessity exists only so far as the integrity of the
race is concerned; so far as the individual is concerned his sexual
functions may be unused or he may be completely unsexed without any injury
to his bodily health."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The full list of authorities is given in _The Physician's Answer_, by
M.J. Exner, M.D., Secretary, Student Department, International Committee,
Young Men's Christian Associations, Association Press, New York, 1913.
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