At 1 year old 54 kils. 22 dec. 2 " 52 33 3 " 51 20 4 " 49 44 5 " 47 90 6 " 46 43 7 " 44 57 8 " 42 91 9 " 41 02 10 " 39 15 11 " 36 57 12 " 33 85 13 " 29 29 14 " 24 91 15 " 20 05 16 " 14 00 17 " 10 82 18 " 5 82 20 " 3 61 25 " 0 74 30 " 0 02
Hence it will be seen that a man who at the moment of birth only possesses about .05 of the growth he afterwards attains, will have at most only a quarter of his full weight when 5 years old, at which age many children begin to indulge in masturbation. When ten years of age, he has yet to gain nearly .60 and nearly .40 of his weight when he has arrived at his fourteenth year. When sixteen years old, one fifth of his weight is still deficient, and at eighteen years nearly one tenth; his growth although nearly completed at the age of twenty-five, is not entirely attained, since even when thirty years old, the weight of the body is capable of a slight increase.
_Of the effect of venereal excesses when the subject of them has attained his growth._ The age of maturity is the period when venereal pleasures are attended with the slightest derangements and dangers. At this period these pleasures may not only not be injurious, but may even be necessary. This last circumstance would be sufficient to distinguish this period from those of the growth and decline of the body, when these pleasures are never useful. Let it not be thought, however, that, at the age of maturity, they may be indulged in to excess, or that the pleasures of love are limited only by the power of indulging in them, this is a great mistake; abuses are less frequent, but they do occur, as is seen both by experience and by simple reasoning. Although at the age of maturity the body increases but slightly, yet the process of nutrition is not arrested. It is true that the size and weight of the body no longer increase, but its substance is constantly renewed. The act of venery may then interfere with and derange as before the function of nutrition. The constitution also may be affected, and although the regular course of its formation may not be deranged, yet it may be deteriorated and its influence on the action and sensation of the different organs is so great, that if this deterioration proceed to any extent, these organs will suffer. Thus the health may be injured and the constitution impaired in adults, by venereal excesses; their influence however is resisted longer. The adult age may even present more unfavourable conditions for venereal excess than the period of growth. It may be attended with diseases transmitted from preceding years. In the adult age, the errours of youth are atoned for: wretchedness, debauchery, and excesses of every kind may leave their mark upon the body. Venereal excesses then find the constitution impaired, the health deranged, and they increase the evil already existing. Those particularly who have indulged in masturbation in their youth, perceive on arriving at the adult age, that if they wish to taste the pleasures of love, even to a moderate extent, they are affected with bad feelings which prove that premature indulgences must be paid for with interest.