st numbers of people
cannot be approached from this point of view. How can the illustration
of the Christ-child help those who do not accept certain orthodox
religious beliefs?

Sec. 46. _The Conflict between Sex-hygiene and Sex-ethics_

[Sidenote: Richard Cabot.]

It has been said in an earlier lecture that several writers have
declared that sex-ethics and sex-hygiene are essentially conflicting
and should not be associated in teaching; that is to say, that hygienic
facts should not be taught with the hope of improving morals. Most
prominent of those who have declared that hygienic and moral teaching
should be dissociated is Dr. Richard C. Cabot, of Boston. I shall give
in this lecture attention to his writings because they have tended to
introduce confusion by critical attention to certain weak details and
unessentials in the original suggestions for sex-education, and by
wrongly assuming that the original "sex-hygiene" was aimed at improved
morals, whereas it was aimed directly at health. In a paper entitled
"Consecration of the Affections (often misnamed 'Sex-hygiene')," read
at the fifth (1911) Congress of the American School Hygiene
Association, Dr. Cabot attacked the kind of sex-instruction that is
limited to sex-hygiene. He has later returned to the attack on many
occasions. I shall quote a number of his paragraphs and follow each
with a discussion of its contents.

[Sidenote: Hygiene and conduct.]

(1) "The straight, right action in matters of human affection has
nothing to do with hygiene. For hygiene has no words to proclaim
as to why you and I should behave ourselves. Hygiene has the right
and the duty to make clear the perverted and the diseased
consequences of certain errors. But these consequences are far
from constant.... Let us disabuse our minds, then, of the idea
that there are always bad physical consequences of mistake, error,
or sin in this [sex] field, and that those consequences are
reasons for behaving ourselves. But even if there were such
consequences, I think it even more mischievous for us to preach a
morality based upon them."

That hygienic knowledge makes many people control their sexual selves
is beyond dispute. Because the consequences of sexual error are far
from constant is a weak argument against pointing out possible results.
The consequences from pistols are far from constant, and yet I have no
doubt that Dr. Cabot would teach s