year, before
the boy has learned anything of their dangers or perhaps of their
existence. If these patients received the right treatment immediately
and continued it until the disease had been eradicated the results would
have been less serious. Here, too, lack of early and proper instruction
is shown; for these immature boys do not realize the necessity for
prompt and wise treatment, or are misled by unscrupulous persons. I
shall talk to you again on this subject, for many of you will have sons
and you must know the dangers that beset them, so they can be prepared.

CHAPTER VI

FAKE MEDICAL ADVICE FOR WOMEN

One young lady wrote me, "Recently I read that imperfectly developed
ovaries might be a reason why some women do not have children. I have
the symptoms which the article said indicated imperfect development.
Does this necessarily mean that I never can have a baby? I seem to be
healthy. I am twenty-one years old. I was to have been married in three
months but now I do not know what to do. 'My boy' loves children as I
do. It seems as though I cannot give him up, yet it surely is not
honorable to marry him if I find that I never will have a little one,
without telling him. Please tell me what to do."

The probabilities are that this girl's ovaries are perfectly normal and
that the article mentioned was an advertisement of some medical house
which, by misleading statements, endeavors to induce women to take their
treatment. There are many women who suffer a great deal mentally, and
this in turn reflects on their physical health because of just such
articles.

It has been said that we are a nation of dupes and the advertisements
carried in some of the papers would indicate the truth of this
statement. No manufacturer is going to advertise anything that does not
sell well and bring a considerable profit. Men are not so altruistic as
to be in business just for the good of humanity. The majority are in
business for the money to be obtained from it. Somehow, women are very
susceptible to the arts of these greedy manufacturers. A company
commences to make a patent medicine and then, in order to derive any
profits from the investment, large quantities of the preparation must be
sold. In order to accomplish this they must convince possible buyers of
their need of this particular treatment. The company employs an agent to
write an advertisement, perhaps in the shape of an article purporting to
be written by someon