The cosh wave, for instance, which reversed the views of many previous opponents of beating, is a case in point. His contrasting of the temporary marks left by the rod with the well-nigh permanent stain left by a prison sentence proved an essential argument in his cause; he earnestly sought to prevent the origins of such phenomena as coshing, which he, in common with many others, attributed mainly to lack of discipline in the domestic upbringing. Far better, this view would run, a series of moderate chastisement in the home, than the disgrace of a prison-sentence, reinforced perhaps by a birching, not to mention the sufferings of the coshers’ victims.