“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, 
and fleeth; hut the simple pass on and 
are punished.” TO THE LADIES. 
Married Ladies, and those contemplat- 
ing Marriage, are referred to pagQS 18, 
19, 20, and 21. 11, The Kidneys; 22, Fimbria, or Fallopian Tubes ;3, Womb • 
t - BPe™atic vessels; 6, Vulva, or orifice of the’ 
Vagina, (, Aorta; 8, Vena Cava; 9, Bladder; 0, Hymen. THE SCIENCE OF LIFE ; 
OR 
SELF-PRESERVATION. 
A MEDICAL TREATISE 
ON NERVOUS AND PHYSICAL DEBILITY, SPERMA- 
TORRHOEA, IMPOTENCE, AND STERILITY, 
"WITH 
ON THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS 
PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS 
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
ALBERT H. HAYES, M.H. 
No. 4 Bulfinch Street, Boston, 
(Opposite Kevere House,) 
Doctor of Medicine, Honorary Member of the American Medical Society, 
Vice President of the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons 
in Washington, D.C.; Professor of the Diseases of Women i 
Author of a Treatise on Diseases of the Throat and 
Dungs ; late Surgeon in the XT. S. Army, Ssc. 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 
A. H. HAYES, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of 
the District of Massachusetts. PREFACE. 
The motive which has led to the preparation and 
publication of this volume, has been singly and solely a 
desire to present to the public, and especially to young 
men, a treatise which shall furnish the most valuable 
truths in reference to the physical organization of man, 
and convey to the minds of enquirers information that 
will enable them to avoid the terrible dangers to which 
the unwary are constantly exposed. The vast and va- 
rious experience of the author of this work has filled 
him with the liveliest appreciation of the awful conse- 
quences that flow, in a broad and almost uninterrupted 
stream, from the neglect of the education of young 
people upon matters of such vital importance to the 
health and well-being of the human race as those which 
are treated in the following pages. Since the creation 
of man these subjects have been of the deepest interest, 
and, at this day, more than ever before in the world’s 
history, they are of the most momentous consequence 
to mankind. With the increasing activities of the age 
in which we live, the dangers that beset the young, and 
even the middle aged and the old, are increased by a 
neglect of those branches of physiology which relate to 
the procreative faculty in man and woman. The cure 4 
Preface. 
of most of the maladies that flesh is heir to, although of 
manifestly great moment, does not yet possess that 
vital interest which attaches to the treatment of the 
organs of generation; for the diseases of the latter not 
only are most painful and destructive, but they affect 
the population of the earth, and their results reach for- 
ward to generations yet unborn. Upon the knowledge 
which is freely and fully imparted in this comprehensive 
book, depends not only the present health of those upon 
the earth, but the health, strength, and proper physical 
development ot thousands upon thousands of their 
descendants. It is, therefore, not only to prevent and 
diminish the prevalence of the most wasting, obnoxious, 
and terrible diseases that can fall upon man, that the au- 
thor of this work now gives it to the world, but also to 
cut off, as far as may be, the dire evils that would flow 
from those diseases, if left unchecked, down the line to 
future generations. There is no malady in the whole 
list of human ills to which quackery and empiricism 
have been so extensively applied as the diseases which 
flow from imprudence in sexual intercourse; and this 
must be ascribed mainly to the general lack of knowl- 
edge in young persons of their own physiological struc- 
ture, and the nature of this special class of diseases. 
Were all men and women properly educated in these 
matters they would not only be enabled to avoid these 
maladies, but if they should yet unfortunately contract 
them they would not, as thousands now do, be made 
victims of them until they are almost or quite past rem- 
edy through that false delicacy which prevents them 
from applying promptly to those who are competent to 
effect their speedy cure. Preface. 
I have devoted so many years to the study and suc- 
cessful treatment of the diseases to which the organs of 
generation are liable, and have acquired so thorough a 
knowledge of their nature and the certain method of 
their cure, that I deem it my solemn duty to place before 
the public so much of that knowledge as can be con- 
veyed through the printed pages of a comprehensive 
treatise upon this important subject. As I cannot, in 
the nature of tilings, attend personally to more than a 
small fraction of the thousands of sufferers in the land, 
I feel impelled to send abroad this work as a chart by 
which a great multitude, setting out on the voyage of 
life, may be enabled to avoid the rocks and quicksands 
which have proved the ruin of so many of their fellow- 
men. 
ALBERT H. HAYES, M. D. 
Office, No. 4 Bulflnch Street, ("Opposite Revere House,) 
Physician and Surgeon, 
BOSTON. No missing pages 
6-8 FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 
STRUCTURE, FUNCTIONS, AND DISEASES OF THE FE- 
MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 
The female genitals occupy the same relative situation 
in the pelvis as the male, but they are an antithesis to 
each other. The male are constructed to deposit, and 
the female to receive. In the female there is a conduit 
or passage in place of the male penis, termed the vagina, 
leading to the womb the receptacle for the impregna- 
ting fluid. The vagina is placed between the bladder 
and rectum. Its entrance is marked by doublings, or 
longitudinal folds of flesh, called labia, between the 
upper part of which is the opening of the urethra into 
the bladder, called urinary meatus, while below is occu- 
pied by the aperture, passage, or Assure, as above des- 
cribed. At the root of the vagina is a fleshy ridge, with 
a pouting apex, or point analagous to the penis in the 
male, except being impervious, and called the clitoris, 
which possesses the power of erection, or rather of be- 
coming intumescent when excited, and also of furnishing 
a peculiar secretion. It is exquisitely sensitive, and be- 
lieved to be the seat of pleasure in the sexual embrace. 
The vagina consists of a very soft, vascular, elastic, and 
contracting structure, constituting, when its sides are 
collapsed, lilliputian rugae, or ridges, like the impressions 
left on the sand by a receding sea. Its surface is lined 
by a delicate mucous membrane, which secretes a lubri- 10 
Female Organs of Generation. 
eating fluid. It is this membrane which is the seat of 
gonorrhoeal discharge, fluor albus, &c.; and it is also 
subject to ulcerations, and other diseases. From the 
clitoris is suspended an inner fold, like a graceful mantle, 
called nymphee, which are also extremely sensitive, and 
appear to serve, as they surround the urethra, also for 
the purpose of directing the flow of urine. Under the 
opening of the urethra, adherent to the external margins 
of the vagina, is a membranous veil or curtain, with a 
small central aperture, called the hymen, the presence of 
which is looked upon as a test of virginity. After the 
laceration or dilatation of this membrane, which takes 
place through other causes than sexual intercourse, the 
sides of it contract, and form little wing-like slips. 
In Plate 1., in the front part of the book, is the figure 
of a woman, with the abdomen, or lower belly, laid open, 
to show the essential parts of generation, and others 
which have some connection therewith. 
1, 1. The two kidneys. 
2, 2. Fimbria, or fallopian tubes. 
3. Womb. 
4, 4. Ovaries. 
5. Spermatic vessels. 
6. Yulva, or orifice of the vagina. 
7. Aorta. 
8. Yena Cava. 
9. Bladder, 
0. Hymen. 
Much has been said regarding the presence of the hy- 
men in its entire state. It has been deemed by many to 
be there placed as a moral evidence of chastity; but its 
laceration is by ho paeans an infallible test of dishonor. Female Organs of Generation. 
11 
In females of feeble or consumptive health, and others 
of delicate constitutions generally, the aperture of the 
hymen may become dilated from natural causes from 
too profuse a flow of the menstrual flux, from local de- 
bility of the part itself, such as exist in the disease known 
by the name of the whites; and it is sometimes to be 
traced to the habit of personal and solitary excitement, 
as will be presently alluded to. The membrane is occa- 
sionally so dense and hard as to resist sexual cohabita- 
tion; and only upon dividing it by the scalpel can 
intercourse be sustained. At other times it is so fragile 
and so vascular as to be torn with the least violence, 
and profuse hemorrhage to follow. 
At the end of the vagina is the uterus. It is sus- 
pended by what anatomists call its broad ligaments, 
which have certain local attachments. It resembles in 
shape a pear. It is of a peculiar structure, capable of 
great distension, and possessing extraordinary proper- 
ties. It is divided into a body, neck, and mouth, and 
when nnimpregnated is very compact, and occupies but 
little space. The interior is consequently very small, 
and it secretes and pours forth at certain periods a san- 
guineus discharge, termed the menstrua. When con- 
ception has occurred, the mouth of the womb, which 
before was open, becomes permanently closed until the 
period of delivery. Connected with the womb, and 
constituting a most important part of its machinery, 
there are discovered in the roof of the interior of the 
uterus two openings, which are the ends of two tubes 
or canals, called the fallopian tubes. 
These tubes have their origin in the ovaria, which 
are two small bodies encased in the ligamentous band 12 
supporting the uterus, and resembling the testicle of the 
male; hence they have been called the female testes. 
These ovaria contain a number of little vesicles of the 
size of mustard seeds, and some of the size of a pea, in 
number from twelve to fifteen. These vesicles are de- 
nominated the eggs of the human species. Annexed 
to the ovaria are observed, surrounding the tubes, cer- 
tain fimbriae, which grasp the ovaria during the copula- 
tive act, when prolific, and squeeze out, as it were, one 
of these little eggs, and propel it into the uterus. 
Female Organs of Generation. 
To particularize: The upper part is called the fun- 
dus; the widest part, the body; the neck, the narrow 
part; and the lower portion, the mouth or the os tincoe. 
The connection of the fallopian tubes is well shown. 
The uterus, or womb, is described by physiologists as 
being of a spongy structure—a structure that yields 
with its enlargement—that grows with its growth—that 
resumes the former size when disburdened of its con- 
tents. It is supplied with blood-vessels, is duly sup- 
ported, has scarcely a cavity when unimpregnated, but 
is ever in a state of preparation for changes. Of con- 
ception we shall presently treat. 
There is one function too important to omit in this 
place, and this is menstruation a terra indicating a 
monthly periodical discharge that escapes, or which is 
given off from the womb. At the commencement of 
this function, woman is said to arrive at puberty; but 
there are cases of precocity, and others wherein it never 
occurs, that neutralize this assertion; besides, menstru- 
ation, being deferred or protracted, depends frequently 
upon peculiarities of health. As soon, however, as it 
occurs, a sensible change takes place in the female Female Organs of Generation. 
13 
economy; and certainly the other developments of 
womanhood rapidly follow. 
Menstruation is the monthly discharge of a red fluid 
common to females from fifteen or sixteen years of age 
to between forty and fifty; and it is held that, while a 
female menstruates, she is apt, and capable also, to 
conceive. 
The act of connection is urged by what is called the 
sexual propensity. It is accompanied by feelings of the 
intensest kind: the acme of enjoyment is at the mo- 
ment of seminal ejaculation. The penis is excited to 
erection by the influx or rush of blood into its cavern- 
ous or cellular structure; the scrotum becomes con- 
stricted and compresses the testicles; the vesiculce 
seminales and the prostate gland are also elevated by 
the muscles called levatores ani. 
“In the female, the sense of enjoyment,sub coitu, ap- 
pears to be principally excited by the friction of the 
lahia interna and clitoris, which are alike in a state of 
turgescence or erection. This nervous excitement, as 
in the male, often reaches such a degree of intensity 
that a kind of syncoptic state is induced.” A sense of 
contented lassitude follows, and the mind is permitted 
to return from the regions of excited imagination to its 
ordinary quietude. 
The due occurrence of the phenomena just detailed 
does not necessarily secure, although it generally suc- 
ceeds in producing, a prolific result. Health, aptitude, 
and one important condition are indispensable; and the 
last is a positive contact between the male sperm and 
female ovum. There are many remarkable eccentrici- 
ties that embitter married life. A union may exist 14 
Female Organs of Generation. 
between two parties who are wholly inapt for mutual 
enjoyment. The sensations belonging to the sexual act 
are involuntary, and are provoked independently of the 
will; hence, in connection without consent, or under 
feelings of great repugnance, the orgasm is sometimes 
aroused; and yet, where the greatest affection and de- 
sire prevail, the male oftentimes unseasonably conclud- 
ing before the female, is a most tantalizing source of 
disappointment. Further allusions will be found to this 
subject under the heads of “Sterility,” and “Impuis- 
sance.” 
Man, unlike other animals, is not smitten with desire 
to propagate only at particular periods. In sentient 
beings, every season is favorable to the flame of love. 
When conception takes place, the following phe- 
nomena are believed to occur; The womb is supposed to 
participate in the excitement of the sexual act, and at 
the moment of the orgasm to receive the male seed, and 
to mingle with it a fluid of its own. The whole appar- 
atus of the uterus appears influenced at the same time 
by a kind of electric irritability. A vesicle, owing to 
the ovaria being grasped or embraced by the fimbriae, 
escapes from its lodgment and enters the fallopian 
tube, where it bursts, and its albuminous drop is con- 
veyed into the womb. 
From the circumstance of the male semen returning 
from the vagina after copulation, it has been doubted 
whether it was intended to enter the uterus. It cer- 
tainly can only enter once, and that when impregnation 
takes place; and even then a small portion suffices, for 
immediately after conception the mouth of the womb 
becomes impermeably closed. The mouth of the womb 15 
Hea horizontally like the lips of the face, while that of 
the orifice of the urethra is arranged perpendicularly; 
hence the presumption, from this better adaptation to 
transmit and receive, that the semen to impregnate 
should enter the uterus. 
Female Organs of Generation. 
This question is mooted, because it has been supposed 
by some that impregnation ensues from the vapor or 
odor of the male seed ascending to the womb. Con- 
tending parties admit, while others deny, that the seed 
may be, and has been, detected in the womb of females 
and animals having been slain (or who may have died,) 
during or soon after the act of copulation. Impregna- 
tion has followed very imperfect penetration, such as in 
cases of unruptured hymen, or of disproportion of parts, 
and other causes needless to insert here, by which the 
supposition is supported that conception takes place 
from vaginal absorption; but it must be remembered 
that the seed is projected generally with great force, and 
that the smallest possible quantity is sufficient for im- 
pregnation ; also that the vagina possesses a constrictive 
movement of its own, whereby the seed is carried into 
the womb. 
After the escape of the “ albuminous drop,” the vascu- 
lar membrane which contained it is converted into what 
is called a corpus luteum; denoting thereby—for it as- 
sumes the form, after a while, of a fleshy nucleus that 
the female has either conceived, or has been under the 
influence of strong amatory excitement. This salvo 
must be admitted, for corpora lutea have been discovered 
in females where intercourse was even impossible; but 
as this detection of corpora lutea generally corroborates 
the surmise that as many conceptions have taken place 16 
as there are corpora lutea, it is to be presumed that the 
exception must be owing to some similarly powerful 
mental as well as physical excitement. 
Female Organs of Gemration. 
When impregnation has taken place the womb begins 
to enlarge and become more soft, vascular, and turgid 
the wonderful process of fluids assuming the form of 
solids commences, and within a fortnight an investing 
membrane is formed, called the decidua, [I will insert 
as few names as possible,] consisting of two kinds of 
folds, one lining the womb, and the other containing the 
ovum, which has therein “ taken root.” The ovum is 
now a soft oval mass, fringed with vessels, and composed 
of membranes containing the early foetus. 
When opened, the foetus appears surrounded by three 
distinct membranes; first, the decidua; secondly, the 
chorion, the inner fold of the former; thirdly, the am- 
nios. The decidua, as before stated, lines the womb; 
the two others cover the ovum or foetus. After a time 
the amnios and chorion become adherent to each other, 
and a fluid is interposed betwixt the amnios and foetus, 
called the liquor amnii. The foetus, as it advances, is 
perceived to be hanging by an organized support, called 
the umbilical cord, floating in the liquor before named. 
It will answer no practical usefulness to go through 
the whole minutiae of the various physiological changes 
that take place relative to foetal growth, from the hour 
of impregnation to that of delivery. What has already 
been detailed has been offered to unveil a little of that 
ignorance that exists generally among non-medical per- 
sons regarding the history of themselves. And it will 
readily be allowed, that a sufficient idea that certain 
tilings happen, is oftentimes as useful as to know hoxo Symptoms of Pregnancy. 
17 
they happen, especially when it belongs to a department 
requiring much research, time, and ingenuity thoroughly 
to understand, and which may chance to be foreign to 
our ordinary pursuits. 
The period consumed in gestation is forty weeks, or 
nine calendar months, and the time is calculated from a 
fortnight after the suspension of menstruation. Some 
married ladies pride themselves upon being able to pre- 
dict, to a day,—to tell the precise occasion when they 
conceive, and which they date from some unusual sensa- 
tion experienced at the particular embrace which effect- 
ed the important change. Many medical men disallow 
that such tokens present themselves, and are opposed to 
the belief, which many mothers entertain, that nature is 
so communicative; and also are skeptical of those extra- 
ordinary influences that every day furnish proofs of ma- 
ternal imagination, occasioning to the burden they carry 
sundry marks, malformations, and monstrosities. 
SYMPTOMS OF PREGNANCY. 
Mysterious as is the process of impregnation, there 
are many forewarnings, which, being generally found 
correct, are useful to be known. Great as are the 
changes that take place in the female economy during 
child-bearing, and productive as they frequently are of 
serious disturbances to health, it is benevolently ordained 
that women who fulfil their destiny of becoming mothers 
have better health to sustain them through their travail 
than the single or unproliflc. The signs of pregnancy, 
during the first few weeks, are very equivocal. The first 
probably is the suppression of menstruation. A 1 though 18 
this may occur once only after conception, either in di- 
minished quantity or more profuse than usual; or it may 
go on in its regularity for two or three months, or it 
may occur through the whole period of pregnancy; full- 
ness of the breasts, the nipples of which become sur- 
rounded by a dark areola, and a moisture or secretion 
from the papillae or little elevations around the nipples; 
iieadache, flushing in the face, and heat in the palms of 
the hands, ensue; also, sickness in the morning, and 
probably an accession of mental irritability; various 
longings exist—many very ridiculous, others bordering 
bn insanity, and some indicating great perversion of 
temper, habits, in hitherto well-conducted inclinations. 
Symptoms of Pregnancy. 
There are many phenomena more readily discovered 
by medical men, accustomed to the accoucher’s employ- 
ment, than describable, that indicate pregnancy: the 
sinking of the abdomen, the descent and closure of the 
uterus, the altered facial looks, the state of the pulse, etc. 
Among the symptoms most commonly relied upon as 
fixing the condition of pregnancy, is the appearance of 
milk in the breasts. And yet this cannot be regarded 
as conclusive evidence of such condition, for it is well 
known to the medical faculty that the lacteal fluid is 
sometimes found in the breasts of young virgins, and 
even in the analogues of the mammary glands of the 
male sex. This secretion may be, and sometimes is, 
found in females who have not been impregnated, 
through several causes. The irritation produced by an 
infant held at the breast frequently by a young woman, 
may cause milk to be secreted; and it is sometimes 
caused by ovarian diseases. 
When, however, the presence of milk is accompanied Symptoms of Pregnancy. 
19 
by an enlargement of the breasts, while at the same 
time they acquire hardness, with tenderness accompa- 
nied by prickling sensations, it may he relied upon as 
one of the surest signs of pregnancy, although not ab- 
solutely infallible. In a healthy, vigorous young female, 
these and all other analagous symptoms are more pal- 
pable and unmistakable than in those who have feeble 
constitutions, for such, in some cases, give no reliable 
evidences of pregnancy until nearly arrived at the time 
for parturition. 
We find, then, that a young woman, lacking experi- 
ence, may be placed in a painfully perplexing dilemma. 
On the one hand, pregnancy may exist for months un- 
disco verable by the uninitiated; and on the other hand, 
symptoms may appear which would deceive any but the 
thorough practitioner. In all doubtful cases the only 
safe method is to consult one whose scientific knowledge 
and experience render him a safe guide. 
In general, women will make but few mistakes in re- 
gard to their condition in this respect. 
From the fourth month, when the womb ascends into 
the abdomen, the signs are more positive: the protrusion 
of the navel, the evident enlargement of the belly, the 
tenderness and fullness of, and occasional escape of milk 
from, the breasts, clearly point out the occasion. 
About the fifth month the movements of the child are 
very apparent to the mother, when all doubt is removed. 20 
SUPPRESSION OF THE MENSES. 
Suppression of the Menses. 
Aside from pregnancy, the menses are frequently in- 
terrupted by exposure to cold, mental agitation, and a 
variety of other causes which derange the health. The 
discharge is sometimes suddenly checked by remaining 
in a damp place until the body is chilled; and in that 
case there is usually headache, a dry cough, hot skin, 
thirst, tenderness in the region of the womb, and pains 
of the back and lower extremities. Sometimes the 
patient is attacked with shiverings. If the suppression 
continues beyond two or three periods, the health be- 
comes more or less impaired, as in retention of the 
menses; and hemorrhage from the lungs, or some other 
organ, is liable to occur. 
Our prognostic in this disease is to be directed by the 
cause which has given rise to it, the length of time it 
has continued, and the state of the person’s health in 
other respects. When suddenly suppressed in conse- 
quence of cold, it may easily be restored by pursuing 
proper means; but where the suppression has been of 
long standing, and leucorrhcea attends, we ought always 
to consider such circumstances as unfavorable. 
In those cases which have terminated fatally, in con- 
sequence of the long continuance of the disease, the 
same morbid changes in the cevarid and uterus are to be 
observed on dissection, as in those of retention of the 
menses. In this complaint the patient should be fully 
apprised of the connection between the suppression and 
pregnancy. 
In the treatment of this disease, if the suppression is 
owing to a sudden cold, a cure may be effected by a free Suppression of the Menses. 
use of warm herb teas, until perspiration ensues; and 
if the patient is in bed, a heated stone, wrapped in a 
damp cloth, may be placed at her feet. If she perspires 
with difficulty, an injection should be administered, fol- 
lowed by the vapor bath, and if necessary, an emetic to 
cleanse the stomach. VENEREAL DISEASES. 
OF THE SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT OF GONOR- 
RHOEA, (OR CLAP,) GLEET, STRICTURE, IRRITABLE 
BLADDER, SWELLED TESTICLES, &C. 
Venereal intercoure is occasionally impure, and there 
are animal poisons generated and communicated by this 
intercourse, of a peculiarly malignant character. One 
is the poison of Gonorrhoea, (the disease vulgarly 
termed Clap,) which, falling on the mucous membrane 
of the urethra, produces from that surface a discharge 
of infectious matter; the other, or poison of syphilis, 
being applied to the surface of the skin, or (as far as is 
known at present,) to any surface, produces local inflam- 
mation and ulceration, forming a sore which is called a 
Chancre. The discharge from this being received 
into the absorbent glands, occasions a swelling, which 
has been named Bubo, and from the transmission of the 
poison into the circulation there arise, respectively, in- 
flammation and ulceration in the throat, on the skin, in 
the membranes, investing the bones, and even in those 
solid bodies themselves. 
If a healthy individual have sexual intercourse with 
another laboring under chronic mucous discharge as 
the result of gonorrhoeal inflammation, infection, though 
not absolutely certain, is most likely to arise; but no 
rule can be laid down with regard to the time that a Venereal Diseases. 
23 
clap will take before it makes its appearance after in- 
fection has been conveyed. 
In some instances three or four days elapse, in others 
there will not be the least appearance of irritation be- 
fore the expiration of ten or even fourteen days; and 
Sir Astley Cooper, with other writers, record as many 
weeks. Most commonly, however, the disease is per- 
ceptible in the space of from six to twelve days. In the 
males it commences with a sense of uneasiness, or ting- 
ling about the extremity of the penis; often a thrilling 
sensation, not of an unpleasant character, and nearly 
allied to the venereal oestrum. Presently this is ex- 
changed for itching and soreness, and then a drop of 
fluid escapes without efibrt; the attention is called to 
the part, and it is found the lips of the urethra are 
swollen and inflamed, a whitish, glutinous, and nearly 
transparent fluid exuding from its orifice. At first the 
discharge from the passage is mucous, but afterwards it 
assumes a decidedly purulent appearance, that is, re- 
sembling “ matter.” This becomes yellow, or if the 
inflammatory symptoms run high, green, and it is often 
intermixed and streaked with blood. I say resembling 
matter, for the fact is, that even in these aggravated 
cases the discharge contains little beyond the altered 
mucous secretion of the part. The time this augmented 
diseased secretion will continue to discharge, is quite in- 
definite. Some people assert it will wear itself out; one 
thing is certain, it will sooner wear out the sufferer; 
besides, the doctrine is dangerous, inasmuch as it over- 
looks the permanent consequences of a disease sup- 
posed to pass away. Thickening of the mucous 
membrane of the urinary canal is one of the conse- 24 
Venereal Diseases. 
quences of long protracted and neglected clap, and this 
state of parts lays the foundation, if not identical with 
stbicttjee. Or the discharge may cease to present its 
usual characters and leave a surface prone to the secre- 
tion of a thin ichorous fluid, termed Gleet. It is 
obvious, then, that no folly can be greater than that of 
suffering the disease to end, as many others are apt to do, 
by terminating in another; and that other often of a 
permanently incurable character. Besides these effects 
on the urethra, gonorrhoea takes a course internally. 
It does not coniine itself to the lips of the urethra, but 
often produces an erysipelatous inflammation and swell- 
ing of the glans and foreskin, occasioning effusion and 
the formation of the diseases termed Phymosxs and 
Paeaphymosis, in the former of which the foreskin 
cannot be drawn back to cover the end of the penis; in 
the latter, the prepuce forming a tight ring at the back 
of the glan cannot again be brought forward. The pain 
and strangulation in this state of the parts are exces- 
sive, and demand prompt surgical interference. The 
gland of the groin often becomes affected feom sym- 
pathy. We say from sympathy, in contradistinction to 
that swollen state of the inguinal glands, resulting from 
the transmission of syphilitic matter, as occurs in the 
aggravated forms of venereal "disease. In the first in- 
stance the glands swell, but not the same range of 
glands as are liable to be affected with syphilitic bubo; 
and there is also this distinction, that while in the latter 
case they almost invariably burst, the gland that is sym- 
pathetically inflamed during the progress of gonorrhoea 
never or very seldom inflames to suppuration. Where 
this takes place from gonorrhoea, several glands of the Venereal Diseases. 
25 
groin are apt to be affected in succession; whereas, in 
the absorption of the poison of syphilis, a single gland 
only is enlarged on each side. In the course of the 
disease, swellingand suppuration often ake place in the 
mouths of those laoujske, which, like dilated pouches, 
are situated chiefly near the canal. Matter becomes 
accumulated there, and this place appears to constitute 
the last entrenchment of the diseased action. Irritation 
and inflammation occur also in the spongy bodies 
forming the bulk of the penis, thus constituting that 
painful affection termed Chordee, in which the penis 
becomes partially erect, and feels as curved and bound 
down, so as to prevent its complete extension. This, of 
course, is a temporary though intensely agonizing pre- 
dicament, and generally takes place in the night, 
accompanied with great pain, preventing the patient 
from sleeping. When the parts are not occupied with 
much inflammation, few, or none of the last symptoms 
will appear, and only a discharge of a specific character, 
with a slight heat or scalding in making water, will 
prevail. The sensation of scalding varies much in 
intensity in different individuals, and frequently abates 
or passes off altogether where the discharge has become 
established. Generally, from the adjacent part sympa- 
thising with those already affected, the patient feels a 
sensation of uneasiness, and dragging down about the 
thighs and fundament. One of the most painful conse- 
quences arising in the course of gonorrhoea, is the 
occurrence of Swelled Testicle. From the state- 
ments afforded in the anatomical section of this work, 
it will be seen there is a true continuity of mucous 
surface from the urethra along the cord to the testicles, 26 
Venereal Diseases. 
and it is along this surface that gonorrhoeal inflamma- 
tion occasionally creeps, giving rise to horribly painful 
enlargement of one or both these organs. The testicle 
is enveloped in a dense fibrous capsule, which does not 
readily yield to distension; hence the pain when 
enlargement is produced by inflammatory action. In 
consequence of this, there will be excruciating agony 
extending into the small of the back, heat, restlessness, 
and symptomatic fever; a furred tongue, thirst, quick 
pulse, and great depression of the vital energies. It not 
unfrequently happens that the swollen testicle suppu- 
rates and bursts; and whether this occur or not, it is 
certain that on the subsidence of disease, its functions 
as a secretory gland in the production and elimination 
of the seminal fluid are by no means enhanced by all 
this mischief. But of all the consequences of gonorhoea 
which tell most fatally upon the comfort of married life, 
and interfere most decidedly with the procreative ener- 
gies, the formation of stricture is most to be dreaded. 
Spasmodic stricture occurs during the progress of 
clap, and is produced by temporary spasms of the 
muscles surrounding the membranous portion of the 
urinary canal. Inflammatory stricture generally 
succeeds acute gonorrhoea, and consists in the effusion 
of adhesive matter around the canal; while perma- 
nent stricture is the result of the thickening of the 
urethra, and consequent narrowing of the canal from a 
slow inflammatory process. There are many cases of 
permanent stricture besides gonorrhoeal inflammation, 
and while speaking of this, it will be well to enumerate 
them. No one is more frequent than excessive prolon- 
gation in venereal intercourse. Its constant effect is Venereal Diseases. 
27 
the exhaustion of the energy of the muscular fibres; 
thus are they thrown into regular action, and perma- 
nent contraction of some part of the passage is thereby 
induced. Indeed, so strong is this effect that symptoms 
of spasmodic stricture have been known to arise in 
some patients after every repetition of venereal inter- 
course, especially if due time for repose has. not been 
afforded for the secretory organs; and though these 
symptoms at first were found on examination, not to be 
the effect of permanent stricture, yet this was generally 
produced in the end, and proved most troublesome in 
its removal. Masturbation, in this way, produces the 
same, or worse effects, than severe venereal effort. 
Spasmodic stricture then, or that too violent excitement 
of the muscles around the neck of the bladder, whether 
arising from self-pollution, venereal excesses, or inflam- 
mation of mismanaged or neglected clap, may, and 
often does, terminate in permanent constriction of the 
urinary canal. At the commencement of the formation 
of permanent stricture, the surgeon is made acquainted 
with the real nature of the complaint by the following 
indications: The first is the retention of a few drops 
of urine in the urethra, after the whole appears to be 
discharged. The patient, although the stream of urine 
may be somewhat diminished, feels no particular uneas- 
iness until he perceives some difficulty in its expulsion. 
The effort is greater than usual, and straining continues 
oven after the bladder is emptied. Occasional irregu- 
larities from cold, indulgence in drink, or change of 
weather, and even very trifling causes, are sufficient to 
cause the urine to pass only by drops, or for a time to 
he totally obstructed. The bladder, in the progress of 28 
Venereal Diseases. 
this disease, becomes irritable; this is evinced by the 
person not being able to sleep so long as customary, 
without rising to effect the urinary discharge. A man 
in health will sleep for seven, eight, or nine hours, 
without being obliged to empty his bladder; but if he 
labor under stricture, he cannot continue for a longer 
period than four or five hours, and frequently much 
less than this. A patient of mine, who occasionally 
(but not often) gets tipsy over night, invariably sends 
for my aid to pass the catheter next morning; the man 
is the subject of stricture, and frequently rises in the 
night to evacuate his bladder; when under the influence 
of intoxicating fluids, he sleeps insensible to the stimu- 
lus of an irritable yet distending bladder, and the result 
on waking is a complete powerlessness to effect its 
ordinary discharge. The next circumstance observable 
in the progress of permanent stricture, is the forked 
division of the urinary stream, the reason of which is 
deducible from the uneven, irregular, and swollen, as 
well as contracted state of the urethra. The urine 
cannot be ejected to the usual and natural distance, 
although the patient be sensible of the bladder making 
more than usual exertions. Sometimes it assumes a 
spiral or twisted direction. Even the thread-like 
stream, conspicuous in the advanced stage of stricture, 
often gives place to a discharge by mere drops, attended 
by the strongest efforts and the most excruciating pain. 
The coats of the bladder become enormously thickened; 
there is dilation behind the place where stricture 
occurs, (which is commonly the membranous portion 
of the urethra anterior to the prostate gland;) the 
ureters, or canals, leading from the kidneys to the Venereal Diseases. 
29 
bladder, become distended and dilated, and the kidneys 
themselves, the secretory organs of the urine, become 
diseased. Many of these appearances, if not all, are 
attributable to the existence of a physical impediment, 
a narrowing or steictuee, of a portion of the urinary 
canal and if viewed in connection with the obligation 
of marriage, are most grave in their consequences. 
Gleet is one of the sequelae of Clap, and is often 
exceedingly difficult of removal, sometimes continuing 
for years. The discharge becomes chronic, its character 
is altered; and from being purulent it is now semi-trans- 
parent. Its persistence mostly depends on the co-exist- 
ence of stricture in some portion of the canal. The 
term “ Gonorrhoea ” is derivable from the Greek, and 
signifies, literally, a flow of seed; the earlier writers 
mistaking the mucous discharge, occurring in clap, for 
the all-important seminal fluid. “ Blennorhagia,” a flow 
of mucous, is the more correct classical name, synony- 
mous with the “ Claud-Pisse,” hot urine, of the French, 
or “ Clap,” of the vernacular English. Timceus relates 
that a young law student, the victim of self-pollution, 
was “ seized with a Gonorrhoea, accompanied with 
weakness of the whole body.” He observes: “ I 
looked upon the gonorrhoea as a sequel of the relaxa- 
tion of the seminal vessel,” and truly his reasoning was 
correct; but as to the discharge termed by him, Gonor- 
rhoea, it was neither the involuntary escape of semen, 
nor the infectious matter, correctly indicating the exist- 
ence of clap, but a gleety discharge from the prostate, 
vesiculae seminale and urethral surface, certainly very 
analagous in character to the chronic effusion superven- 
ing on stricture from neglected clap. 30 
There is an exceeding distressing affection frequently 
resulting from gonorrhoea, and thereby fitly to be intro- 
duced in this place, named by surgeons—“Irritable 
bladder.” I say, frequently arising in this way, but it 
may also proceed from certain solitary practices; in 
fact, is closely identified with all the habits of sensual- 
ism. The patient is annoyed by a frequent desire to 
void his urine, and this symptom becomes ultimately 
so urgent that the inclination to empty the bladder oc- 
curs as often as every ten or fifteen minutes. The pain 
experienced is in exact ratio with the detension of the 
bladder, and sometimes the urine is discharged mixed 
with blood. Irritable bladder is a dreadful disorder; 
the patient’s life is a burden to him; he is obliged to 
keep from society and linger away his hours in solitude. 
Venereal Diseases. 
The late Sir Astley Cooper relates the case of a young 
gentleman, who, being in company with a party of la- 
dies, was about to leave them for the purpose of mak- 
ing water, having at the moment a strong desire; in 
the greatest agony he rode with them some miles: when 
endeavoring at the end of his journey to evacuate his 
bladder, to his utter astonishment he could not pass a 
drop; a surgeon was sent for, who took away the urine 
by means of a catheter, but from suppuration superven- 
ing upon an irritable bladder he shortly died from ex- 
haustion. Next to those cases which occurred in con- 
nection with gonorrhoeal inflammation, the most fre- 
quent instances of this irritable condition of the organ 
occur, as the result of excessive venereal indulgence in 
advanced life or self-pollution in youth. 
In reference to the treatment of gonorrhoeal affec- 
tions, little need be added. What I wish to state re- Venereal Diseases. 
31 
lates to the necessity of the avoidance of its misman- 
agement. The deplorable results of this form of vene- 
real disease, just recited, are easily averted hy common 
care and prudence; but from negligence, or in the 
hands of unskilful surgeons, the most calamitous con- 
sequences not unfrequeutly arise. Among the most 
common of those cases which precipitate these second- 
ary diseases, may he enumerated the use, or rather the 
abuse of mercury, (which by unanimous consent has 
long since been banished from the scientific treatment 
of gonorrhoea,) the employment of stimulant resins, as 
turpentine, cubebs, or the balsam of copaiba, before 
the subsidence of the inflammatory or acute stage; but 
principally the mismanagement of astringent or irritat- 
ing injections. These, however useful or necessary in 
the chronic stage of the complaint, undoubtedly tend, 
by destroying the discharge, to fix the specific diseased 
action upon the testicles, producing inflammation and 
enlargement nay, frequently disorganization there; 
consequences far more to be dreaded than the original 
mischief. For it must carefully be noted, that to arrest 
the flow of morbid mucus is not to cure the disease. 
Inflammation of a specific kind, in this instance relieves 
itself, or terminates in a discharge of a peculiar secre- 
tion from the inflamed surface; and it is only by chang- 
ing or destroying that diseased action of the vessels, 
which produces the discharge, that a cure can rationally 
be expected to' be effected. Gonnorrhcea attains its cri- 
sis more uninterruptedly in a full than in a languid 
habit; but extremes of both are sources of aggravation; 
the first as regards intensity, the second as regards time. 
’The science of surgery affords no means by which a con- 32 
Venereal Diseases. 
firmed clap can be suddenly arrested in its career, and 
the attempt, if made, is frequently productive of evil 
results. The treatment will necessarily be modified by 
the date, the intensity of the disease, and the constitu- 
tional peculiarities of the subject; and hence, though 
most of the remedies be well known, yet, in their ap- 
plication they require that discrimination which rend- 
ers it necessarily unwise and unsafe that a man should 
venture to treat his own case; and the records of our 
practice attest much serious mischief that has arisen in 
this way. For a period of at least one week, the treat- 
ment should be strictly palliative; the diet should be 
moderately reduced, the bowels relaxed, (but not vio- 
lently irritated by drastic purgatives,) the local inflam- 
mation mitigated by frequent fomentations and rest. 
The smarting which occurs in evacuating the bladder 
arises not from any change in the chemical constituents 
of the urine, but from the circumstance of its having to 
pass over an inflamed and highly sensitive surface; so 
when the eye is inflamed, light, which constitutes its nat- 
ural stimulus, becomes intolerable. This smarting may 
be much alleviated by taking about thirty drops of the 
solution of potassa three times a day, with sixty drops 
of the tincture of the herb Fedoni, (which neutralizes 
the acid the urine naturally contains,) combined with 
a few drops of the tincture of Opium, besides which 
mucilaginous and diluent drinks certainly render the 
urine less stimulating. The activity of the disease being 
exhausted, and the acute stage of inflammatory excite- 
ment subsiding, under judicious management the im- 
provement will be indicated by a diminution of pain in 
making water, and in the quantity of the discharge, Venereal Diseases. 
33 
which becomes paler in color and more watery in con- 
sistence. 
In order to effect these salutary changes, there is no 
necessity for the administration of mercury, as was once 
the practice. Formerly it was thought there is a set of 
constitutional symptoms supervening upon the local dis- 
ease, (in the same way as venereal sore throat follows 
neglected syphilitic chancres;) that gonnorhoea consti- 
tuted only a variety of syphilitic disease, and that mer- 
cury was absolutely necessary for its cure in every form. 
Modern science has, however, dispelled this illusion; 
there are some accidental complications, but no dis- 
tinctly regular secondary symptoms, resulting from 
Gonorrhoea. The first stage then passed, the treatment 
should undergo a corresponding change, otherwise the 
disease will pass into Gleet, and become tediously pro- 
tracted ; should Chordee, of which we have spoken, inter- 
rupt the healthy progress of the case, in all probability 
the cure will be more or less delayed, inasmuch as this 
painful symptom indicates a hitherto inflammation of the 
urinary canal, extending to the spongy tissue forming 
the body of the penis. Chordee is a common symptom 
of clap, and the general mode of treating it is a combin- 
ation of calomel and opium, the abstraction of blood 
from the arm, and the warm bath, &c., but it will invar- 
iably yield to an ointment composed of the following 
ingredients, applied along the dorsum of the penis 
Btrg.Mer. Oint. | oz.—Pulv. Opi. 10 grs. Pulv.Cam. 3 drcbm 34 
Venereal Diseases. 
STEICTUEE. 
As to the treatment of Stricture there are three indi- 
cations in its cure: one to produce the requisite physi- 
cal dilation of the constricted canal; another method is, 
the attempt to produce absorption of the thickened 
organized lymph surrounding the urethras; and a third 
is a mechanical destruction of the stricture. Elastic or 
solid instruments, cautiously introduced, will often effect 
the original dilations; medicine will sometimes succeed 
in promoting the cure by absorption, and destructive 
caustic will form a new passage through the thickened 
parts, when less powerful agencies have failed. 
It is certain that these means are strictly surgical, and 
perhaps, in the whole round of operative science, there 
is nothing demanding a more minute acquaintance with 
the unseen anatomy of the parts than the treatment of 
stricture; none in which blundering rashness or ignor- 
ance may effect more deplorable mischief. The bougie 
or catheter may be forced into the bulb of the urethra, 
or tear its way into the substance of the prostate gland; 
and death may ensue from unrelieved distension of the 
bladder, and the irritation supervening upon the injury. 
The use of caustic has been much abused, and indeed 
ought never to be employed, except in those extreme 
cases which surgical discrimination alone can detect and 
justify. 
All the diseases of this unhappy class are of a compli- 
cated and varied nature; they embrace, in their conse- 
quences, so many painful diseases, that I never consider 
them, however slight in appearance, as mere local effects. but always dread their approach to a constitutional 
character; for, by a deplorable fatality, to which limit 
is unknown, the most trivial cases of these diseases be- 
come the fruitful mine of a thousand discordant feelings 
and symptoms, that harass their devoted victim for an 
infinite period; therefore, I strongly recommend, in all 
cases, a minute investigation, in order that the remedies 
may be effective on their onset; the choice of which 
remedies must be governed by the symptoms, constitu- 
tion, and habits of the patient, bearing in mind that in 
diseases of this kind, large evacuations of any character 
are to be carefully guarded against; for in all cases 
they have done injury by producing either irritability 
of the stomach or the bowels, and thus rendering the 
system unequal to the retention of the necessary reme- 
dies. Let not the non-medical readers imagine that 
the foregoing sketch of gonorrhoeal disease and its con- 
sequences is intended to place the method of cure 
within their own grasp; let such a one apply for medical 
aid on the first outbreak of suspicious symptoms; by so 
doing he will save himself a world of anxiety, arising 
from the fear of going wrong in the adoption of the 
Venereal' Diseases. 
35 
curative plan of treatment. In fact, all that relates to 
the management of the consequences of gonorrhoeal 
inflammation, as for instance, gleet, strictures, swelled 
testicle, and other obscure, yet painful, affections of the 
urinary organs, is strictly surgical; the definition of 
those principles could little avail the general reader, 
whose interest is best consulted by referring him directly 
and at once, not to books, wliich could only confuse a 
mind ignorant of anatomical matters, but to that prac- 
titioner who has made sexual diseases his exclusive 
study. VENEREAL DISEASES. 
Of the Symptoms and treatment of the Ve- 
nereal, Disease in its Local and Constitu- 
tional Forms, and the use and abuse op 
Mercury. 
I have already observed that animal poisons differ, 
not merely in their intensity, but in their nature; that 
some confine their agency to the surface, where the con- 
taminating virus is originally applied, producing rather 
a peculiarity of disordered action than diseased change 
of structure; the constitution sympathizing little, and 
distant parts remaining unaffected, such is the poison of 
clap; but the virus of syphilis or pox produces local 
destruction of the surface, and, from absorption, the 
whole mass of circulating blood becomes much diseased. 
After an indefinite period, and even after the local 
sores are healed, the throat, the nose, the skin, hones, 
become often successively implicated, and if neglected 
or maltreated, death may, and not unfrequently does, 
arise from its invasion. The local sores affecting the 
surface of the external genitals from impure intercourse, 
are denominated chancres, sometimes single, occasion- 
ally more than two or even three are present. The 
time at which the effect of the poison producing these 
ulcerations makes its presence evident is very uncer- 
tain ; generally speaking, chancre makes its appearance No missing pages 
35-45 SYPHILITIC ERUPTIONS. Venereal Diseases. 
three or four days after impure sexual contact; from 
five to twenty days forming the average period. An 
inflamed spot is first perceptible, presently a small pim- 
ple bursts and displays a rapidly-enlarging ulcerated 
surface. In the centre of the sore an excavation is 
sometimes observable, of considerable magnitude, ex- 
tending beneath the skin, exquisitely sensitive and 
painful, erysipelatous redness surrounding the ulcer, 
and the skin assuming an unusual firmness. The edges 
°f that sore are irregular, its form often oval, but hard 
and ragged, its surface yellow, and the feeling of solidity 
easily perceptible if the part be grasped between two 
fingers. In fact, the thickened base is a distinguishing 
peculiarity of syphilitic sores. If a chancre has not 
penetrated the skin, it heals under the application of 
Proper topical and internal treatment, but if once the 
skin be perforated by destructive ulceration —if the 
cellular tissue underneath partake of the diseased 
action, it becomes irritable, sloughs, or mortifies, and is 
attended with danger. When a syphilitic sore is con- 
fined to the surface of the skin, its progress is slow, and 
it is comparatively easy of cure; if, on the contrary, it 
burrows deeply into the integuments, sloughing may be 
expected to be extensive, and the immediate constitu- 
tional and febrile symptoms will run high. Syphilitic 
sores or chancres vary exceedingly in character; this 
Variety is not only produced by previous mode of living, 
and constitution of the patient, but is undoubtedly 
ascribable to diversities in the nature of the poison. 
It two persons differing in irritability absorb the same 
virus, the more irritable subject of the two will present 
a sore surrounded by violent inflammation, so that a 48 
Venereal Diseases. 
person laboring under simple sores to-day, if be indulge 
to-morrow in any act of intemperance or debauchery, 
will change by that imprudence the aspect and ten- 
dency of the ulcer. In some unfortunate instances we 
have clap co-existent with chancre; however, the mat- 
ter of gonorrhoea will not produce chancre, nor will the 
secretion from a chancre originate clap; proving not 
(he identity, but the diversity and the possible absorp- 
tion of two poisons. Besides these, there are sores 
(believed to be followed by constitutional and secondary 
symptoms,) produced by the contact of men whose con- 
stitutional condition is peculiar with women, whose 
genital organs secrete a simply irritating fluid, as the 
whites, the diseased menstrual secretion, or indeed any 
impure secretion of a puriform character. 
It happens, not unfrequently, males become infected 
with troublesome and suspicious sores from intercourse 
with women, whose purity is undoubted; nay, even 
from contact with their own wives at certain periods. 
These views are fast gaining upon the confidence of the 
profession, and the result is most salutary, inasmuch as 
it was formerly the practice to style every sore, without 
exception, syphilitic, to apply mercury indiscriminately; 
and (to say nothing of the injurious moral imputation,) 
mercurial remedies unnecessarily and injudiciously 
applied, have frequently created a diseased condition, 
mistaken for the undoubted effects of the syphilitic 
virus itself. 
Healthy women, in whom not a vestige of actual dis- 
ease could be traced, upon examination, and so pro- 
nounced, have, undoubtedly, in consequence of some 
diseased peculiarity, totally unconnected with unchaste Venereal Diseases. 
49 
intercourse, communicated, by after contact with their 
husbands or iovers, actual sores closely resembling the 
previously recognised forms of venereal disease. These 
ulcers, which are perfectly simple in character, may be 
reasonably referred to the presence of matter irritating 
the surface applied, and co-operating with a constitu- 
tion prone to the promotion of that peculiar form of 
local mischief. 
Many authors favor the opinion that appears to be 
warranted by facts, that there exists, not one poison of 
n specific venereal kind, but many. If the poisons that 
respectively produce clap and chancre be evidently dis- 
tinct, forming two, who shall say that the limitation 
proceeds no farther ? that each of these poisons is not 
attended by its own distinct results, not only as regards 
the character of the sore, but also of the secondary and 
constitutional symptoms ? Those, on the contrary, who 
bold the opinion that the whole train of venereal symp- 
toms, both primary and secondary, are the product of 
the same poison, refer the diversities in the appearance 
°f the sore to the modifying influence of health, temper- 
ament, and especially to the habits of the patient. 
It is exceedingly probable, that, if these animal poi- 
sons producing syphilitic sores, be not all identically the 
same, at least they are not very unlike, and may be 
considered as the different genera of one species, owing 
their differences chiefly to the peculiarity of the consti- 
tution in which they are engendered; for it is certain 
that the poison of one sore in the female will not inva- 
riably give rise to a series of corresponding sores in 
each of those individuals of our own sex with whom 
she may have been placed ui^pntort. 50 
Venereal Diseases. 
I would here say that the sexual diseases which de- 
vastated Europe about the period of the return of 
Columbus from the discovery of America, are so altered 
or modified as to bear no relation to the horrible, yet 
doubtlessly faithful relations of the historians of that 
period. It was the opinion of Hunter that gonorrhoea 
and chancre arose from the same specific virus, and his 
practice was conformable and followed out ('until the 
days of Cline, Cooper, and Abernethy,) by the adminis- 
tration of mercury, equally for the cure of both diseases; 
but Hunter’s authority is fast declining. The late Sir 
Astley Cooper, in reference to this distinction, was 
accustomed to observe, “ Let me say no greater folly, 
nor indeed cruelty, can be committed than that of 
giving mercury to patients laboring under gonorrhoea. 
I abstain from entering the venereal wards of the other 
hospital, because patients under gonorrhoea are com- 
pelled to undergo so infamous a system of treatment.” 
Hunter spoke perhaps truly of a particular species of 
sore, but he generalized too much, identifying the true 
Chancre with every other species of ulcer resulting from 
venereal intercourse; hence his conclusions are much 
modified in modern practice. He taught us to believe 
that it is the invariable rule of all truly venereal sores 
to become progressively worse, and never undergo any 
amendment, unless mercury, the specific remedy, be 
administered. 
Thus chancres on the penis and secondary sore throat 
are described as constantly growing worse without the 
aid of mercury. Now the fact is, there are many sores 
which become irritable and disposed to slough under the 
mercurial treatment; and ignorant surgeons, mistaking Venereal Diseases. 
51 
the true nature of the case, have concluded that more 
complete and speedy saturation of the system alone 
could cure the mischief their own remedies were actually 
producing. If a sore were found to heal, as many will, 
without mercury, then, according to the Hunterian doc- 
trines of the English school, it was declared not to have 
been venereal; certainly, there is nothing in a name, 
whether ulceration or destruction of parts be styled vene- 
real, syphilitic, or simple, if originating in sexual contact. 
Men do not, or ought not, prescribe for names, but for 
an actually existing condition. In doubtful cases I am 
advised to prefer the employment of mercury, for the 
purpose of judging of the nature of the disease by the 
foregoing criterion; but now it is well known that 
many rapidly-spreading dangerous sores, arising from 
sexual intercourse, are not only curable without the 
administration of a grain of mercury, but are absolutely 
rendered malignant by its ignorant and injudicious 
employment. 
As the non-mercurial treatment of primary sores 
gained ground, “ secondary symptoms,” (or more cor- 
rectly speaking, what were formerly mistaken as such,) 
diminished at the same rate. Many of these miscalled 
“ secondary symptoms ” have only lately been found out 
m many cases to be the primary symptoms of bad prac- 
tice. Yes, the rotten skulls which are to be found in 
anatomical museums, with all the other beautiful speci- 
mens of diseased bones, which in our younger days 
'Were so abundant in hospitals, in the great majority of 
cases were the production of long and harrassing 
courses of mercury. When the mercurial treatment 
Was most in vogue, secondary symptoms were most 52 
Venereal Diseases. 
numerous, but the medical men of that day, the blind 
devotees of the doctrines of Hunter, supposed them to 
be the result of too little mercury having been employed 
in the primary treatment. These practitioners re- 
sembled the celebrated Sangrada, who, when his patients 
died, after he had drawn almost every drop of blood 
from their bodies and drenched them with warm water 
while they were able to swallow it, declared “their 
deaths could not have happened if they had been suffi- 
ciently bled or had taken warm water enough.” I 
coincide entirely in the spirit of the above passage from 
the published lectures of Dr. Dickson, formerly a medi- 
cal officer on the British Staff’, whose fearless mental 
independence in the exposure of popular and deeply 
rooted medical fallacies is deserving of the highest 
commendation. 
The rash, indiscriminate, and unqualified abuse of 
mercury has been productive of infinite mischief, not 
only in the hands of professedly-educated surgeons and 
ignorant quacks, but from them the practice has de- 
scended to patients who have thought to cure them- 
selves. Under the notion of its being an antidote, the 
untutored think they have only to saturate the system, 
or to persevere in the use of some of the advertised 
nostrums and pills, though professedly vegetable and 
harmless, and so thousands are mercurialized out of 
existence, or their constitutions so broken, and the func- 
tions of the living system so impaired, as to render the 
residue of life miserable. It must be recollected that, 
at best, the peculiar condition which mercury produces 
upon the system, is in itself a diseased unnatural pre- 
dicament. For with respect to the principle on which Missing pages 
53-54 Venereal Diseases. 
55 
mercury acts, we suppose it cures syphilis, not by any 
chemical operation, but by exciting in the constitution 
and parts affected a particular action, to all intents and 
purposes the effects of a poison, yet not in dose to 
extinguish life; and that upon the principle or law of 
living organization, that notoo-widely differing morbific 
agencies can exist together, the syphilitic action is ob- 
literated and put out. No consideration, short of the 
absolute impossibility of averting its use, should recon- 
cile us to the evil. There certainly are cases where a 
choice of evils present themselves, where mercury is 
apparently indispensable; but the selection of these 
cases, and the judicious administration of the remedy, 
both as respects the form of the preparation, and its 
dose,—these are matters which require the nicest dis- 
crimination. Mercurials are among the edge tools of 
Physic, and require to be wielded by a competent and 
Practised hand. 
With what contempt and abhorence, then, ought 
those charlatans to be viewed who recklessly tamper 
with the health and very life of the victims who are 
Unfortunately caught in their snares. Impelled by the 
most sordid motives, they pursue their iniquitous career 
utterly regardless of the misery and desolation which 
must inevitably follow their vile and criminal practices. 
With them to “ poison is no murder,” their seared hearts 
being deadened to all emotion except that of adding to 
fbe proceeds of rapacious extortion. To further their 
Uefarious designs, they usher their deadly mixtures to 
sufferers, bearing the name of some illustrious practi- 
tioner, thus committing their deeds of darkness under 
tiie apparent sanction of physicians who have long been 56 
Venereal Diseases. 
considered as the benefactors of mankind. When will 
the reign of ignorance and presumption cease ? 
True syphilis is that disease in which the chancre or 
primary ulcer on the genitals has a hardened edge and 
base; in which the blotches are scaly, with excavated 
ulcers in the throat, or when alfections of the bones are 
complained of. 
As to the treatment of true syphilitic chancre, this, as 
I before mentioned, can be cured without mercury; but 
this does not warrant the assertion that mercury ought 
not to be employed occasionally in some stages of the 
disease; when judiciously administered in aggravated 
cases, it sometimes expedites that process. 
From the foregoing description it appears, then, that 
venereal sores, or the swollen condition of the glands of 
the groin, termed bubo, may occur without the general 
system being at all contaminated; but when the poison 
has been conveyed into the blood, unless proper reme- 
dies be applied, another order of parts inevitably 
becomes affected, namely, the skin, the tonsils, the nose, 
throat, inside of the mouth, and tongue. When absorp- 
tion of the syphilitic virus has taken place, ulceration 
of the throat is the earliest indication of the general 
disease, but the eruption of the skin is usually consid- 
ered the first of the constitutional symptoms; this, when 
truly syphilitic, is scaly, affording an excellent guide in 
the treatment; a circumstance by which it may be dis- 
tinguished from those venereal eruptions which neither 
require nor bear mercury, which are either pimples, 
pustules, or elevated tubercles. The mucous membrane 
of the nose is liable to be affected by this disease as well 
as the lining membrane of the throat. Ulceration in destruction of the nose by syphilis, and 
ULCER ON THE CHEEK. Venereal Diseases. 
59 
this part very speedily affects the bones, which become 
diseased, and are thrown off, the patient losing the nat- 
ural prominence of the nose, as well as the acuteness of 
smell, and acquiring a most unpleasant peculiarity of 
tone in speaking. The bones often separate long after 
the syphilitic action has ceased; and the treatment of 
this variety of disease is similar to its management 
when occurring in other parts of the body, tinder 
proper treatment, no person perhaps lost his nose from 
syphilis; but the instances are very numerous in which 
this deformity has arisen from the abuse of mercury. 
Affections of the bones in syphilis (or after the primary 
symptoms have disappeared,) are often mistaken for 
rheumatism. Pain in the bones is often the indication 
of syphilitic action, after not merely the healing of 
local sores, but even after ulceration in the throat and 
eruptive blotches upon the skin have entirely passed 
away; it would seem that there is an order of parts 
mostly, but not always, attacked in succession, of which 
the solid structure of the bones, as well as their fibrous 
investment, are usually the last to suffer. 
A most important feature in the history of syphilitic 
diseases, is the fact of their transmission from parent to 
offspring. Infants may be affected with syphilis in 
various ways. They may be diseased before birth in 
consequence of the state of one or both of the parents. 
Dr. Burns, in his work on “ Midwifery,” observes, “ that 
infection may happen when neither of the parents has, 
at the time, any venereal swelling or ulceration, and 
perhaps many years after a cure has been apparently 
effected. Ido not,” he says, “ pretend to explain here 
the theory of syphilis, but content myself with relating 60 
Venereal Diseases. 
well-established facts.” In such cases, it is very com- 
mon for the mother to miscarry, or have a premature 
labor without evident cause; frequently the infant born 
before the time has been preceded by one or two dead 
children. It may be clean, and apparently healthy, 
and continue so during a month or two, but oftener it 
is feeble and emaciated, having a wrinkled countenance, 
with the appearance of old age in miniature. Presently 
the eyes are inflamed, its cry is husky, low, and mur- 
muring ; there is purulent discharge from the eyelids, 
often, though not invariably, resulting from syphilitic 
contamination; copper-colored blotches, ending in ulcer- 
ation, appear on the shrivelled skin; the nostrils 
become stuffed with a foetid discharge; the voice be- 
comes hoarse or whistling, the throat becomes involved 
in the ulcerative process, if indeed, as rarely happens, 
the child lives long enough to arrive at that state. If 
the unconscious helpless babe receives the infection from 
its hired nurse, we discover ulcers on her nipples, and 
the disease appears on the child’s mouth before the sur- 
face of the body is affected sometimes within twenty- 
four hours after its entrance into the world. Such 
children have the palms of the hands, the soles of the 
feet, or the buttocks, covered with copper-colored erup- 
tions, the nails at the same time beginning to peel off; 
and, unless something be done for the little sufferers, 
they will quickly be carried off from the violence of the 
disease; indeed, many children die of it in consequence 
of the true nature of the complaint not being under- 
stood by the medical practitioner. 
A case is recorded by Hunter, of a couple having 
been married for twelve years, during which time neither Venereal Diseases. 
61 
party had bean unfaithful to the other, nor were either 
diseased; the husband had had syphilis two years pre- 
viously to his marriage, but considered himself cured. 
About this time the lady bore him her fifth child; her 
first two children were healthy, but the two following 
were feeble and soon died; the lady, also, was in poor 
health; the last child was put out to nurse, and being 
itself afflicted with blotches, resembling venereal, and 
having a sore mouth, the nurse became affected both 
locally (on the nipples,) and constitutionally with a dis- 
ease bearing every similitude to syphilis. Why this dis- 
ease should lurk in the system for many years to devel- 
ope its action on the child in the womb, or through 
what agency this connection is produced, we know not. 
That the association does exist, it would be futile to 
contradict ; in fact, it frequently occurs that we can 
trace in infants a regular continuity of the action of this 
virulent poison from its parent. Once having entered 
the system and identified itself with the circulating 
fluids, it engenders a thousand fierce and contending 
symptoms, which may be indefinitely postponed; but so 
long as a germ remains in the constitution a hostile 
action may be expected, and its half-extinguished 
energy again usurps its power, with gradual and terrible 
progress. 
It is to be hoped that the foregoing outline of dis- 
eases, arising from impure sexual contact, will be found 
sufficiently precise to demonstrate at once their com- 
plexity and importance. Let not false delicacy induce 
the sufferer to hazard the dangerous experiment of the 
management of his own case. Without any knowledge 
of the modifications which individual temperament pro- 62 
Venereal Diseases. 
duces on the character of disease without an intimate 
acquaintance with the nature of disease, rather than 
with the mere history of symptoms ignorant of the 
precise operations of powerful remedies, for such a one 
to turn those engines of good or of evil upon himself, is 
a species of weakness truly pitiable. 
Attempts at self-cure are too frequently finished in 
self-destruction. It has been said, and not without 
truth, that in the practice of law, “ He who conducts 
his own case has a fool for his client; ” and much more 
emphatically may the assertion painfully apply to those 
who turn, in weakness and suffering, their ill-judged 
remedies against themselves. The practitioners of the 
healing art are generally wiser, and silently teach the 
unprofessional world an important lesson in refusing to 
prescribe for themselves, however trivial or temporary 
may be their ailments. ON 
NERVOUS DEBILITY, 
RESULTING FROM 
SPERMATORRHOEA, ETC. 
THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE URINARY 
AND GENERATIVE ORGANS. 
SECTION I. 
In order fully to understand the nature and treatment 
of the disorders resulting from the abuse of the repro- 
ductive function, it will be necessary that the general 
reader be informed of the exact position, form, structure,, 
and use of the various parts of the human body which 
constitute what may be termed the “generative appara- 
tus These papers, as before stated, being intended for 
popular use, need only contain such a description of the 
male organs as will render the further inquiry into the 
subject clear and intelligible- The physiology of each 
organ, so far as they are known, will be stated, and af- 
terwards their pathology; for it is impossible to draw a 
line of demarcation between the states of Health and 
Disease, they are so closely related that neither can 
be studied with advantage, unless in connection with the 
other. Equally close is the relation of Hygeine {or the 
art of preserving the body in health,) to Therapeutics 64 
Generative and Urinary Organs. 
(which is the art of curing disease); and thus, in pro- 
portion as our system of treatment Joses its empirical 
character by being based on scientific principles, will it 
increase in perfection and success. 
The organs of the Generative system in man may be 
divided into external and internal; the former consisting 
of the testicles and penis ; and the latter of the seminal 
vessels, seminal bladders, and prostate glands. The 
Urinary organs consist of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, 
and urethra, all of which are internal except the urethra. 
We will take the urinary organs first, commencing with 
the kidneys. 
The Kidneys (Genes) are two glands lying close upon 
the muscles of the loins, behind and below the stomach, 
resembling in form a French bean, and are called con- 
glomerate glands. Their outer structure is cortical or 
glandular; the inner, consisting of minute cells, forming 
at first into small canals, and afterwards into tubes, 
►which terminate and open into the ureters. 
The Ureters are long membranous tubes or canals 
which connect the kidneys with the bladder, and convey 
the urine, when secreted in the former, to the latter. 
There is one to each kidney; sometimes (but rarely) two. 
The Bladder (Vesica Urinaria) is a membranous and 
muscular bag or pouch, situated in the middle of the pel- 
vis or basin of the body below the abdomen, and is di- 
vided into anterior, posterior, and lateral portions, the 
lower part of which is called the neck, terminating in 
the urethra or urinary canal, which is the common exit 
of the urine from the body. The bladder is composed 
of four coats or coverings, the external being the peri- 
toneal (or serous) membrane; the next, the muscular ; Generative and Urinary Organs. 
65 
then the nervous (or cellular); and lastly the mucous 
(or villous), which is the internal lining. All these or- 
gans have their arteries, veins, nerves, and absorbents, 
which serve for the purposes of nutrition, vitality, and 
secretion. 
We now arrive at the Generative Organs in man 
(and here, the reader’s attention is particularly re- 
quested,) commencing with 
The Testicles (Testes); two spermatic glands enclosed 
in one peculiar bag termed the scrotum, divided inte- 
riorly into two compartments, externally formed by a 
common skin or integument, which, in the external 
centre, forms a ridge, called the raphe, on each side, 
and in the middle of this bag is a cell or cavity, in which 
the gland of the testicle is situated. These glands are 
composed of a vast number of fine tubes, folded in 
various directions, and encased in a fibrous membrane 
called the tunica albuginea, proper to each alone, and 
again surrounded by one membrane common to both 
testicles, called the tunica vaginalis; over this there is 
a muscular coat called the cremaster, and exterior to 
that the cellular substance called the dartos, lying di- 
rectly under the outer skin, which, in persons in health, 
is generally puckered or wrinkled. On the upper and 
posterior portion of the gland of each testicle is situated 
the epididymis, which is a network of vascular cells 
consisting of minute seminal tubes, terminating in the 
efferent vessels, which are from twelve to thirty in num- 
ber, and when spread out form an united average length 
of eight feet, each being rather more than seven inches 
long. These vasa efferentia, or efferent vessels of the 
epididymis, terminate in two ducts, called Generative and Urinary Organs. 
The Seminal Canals ( Vasa Deferentia), which ascend 
on each side from the upper portion of each testicle, 
and accompany the spermatic artery, vein, and nerves, 
which together form what is termed the spermatic cord. 
This cord passes upwards through the groin, and thence 
laterally attached and across to the back and lower part 
of the bladder, where it approaches its fellow and termi- 
nates in the seminal bladders, from each of which, re- 
ceiving a branch, they emerge, and forming the ejacula- 
tory ducts, open into the urethra, which they enter on 
each side at the base of the prostate gland. 
The Seminal Bladders (Vesiculce Seminales) are situ- 
ated at the under part of the bladder, and are close to 
each other except at their upper extremities. A mucous 
membrane lines each of these bladders, which are con- 
sidered to be the reservoirs for the secretion of the tes- 
ticles, in the same relation as the urinary bladder is to 
the kidneys. 
The Prostate Gland is situated directly in front of the 
seminal bladders, and surrounds the root of the urethra 
just at the neck of the bladder; it is a firm glandular 
mass, in form resembling a carved chestnut. 
The Penis (Memhrum Virile) is divided into the root, 
the body, and the glans or head; the first attached to 
the arch of the pelvis by the suspensory ligament, se- 
cured on each side by three muscles, termed the erector 
penis, transversalis perinoei, and transversalis penned 
alter; these muscles assist materially in the functions 
of the organ. Another muscle also, termed the acceler- 
ator urince, or ejaculator seminis, rising from the mem- 
branous and terminating at the bulbous portion of the 
urethra, is in connection with these; its name at once Physiology of the Urinary Organs. 
67 
explaining its function. The body of the penis is com- 
posed of cavernous bodies, the vessels, nerves, and the 
urethra. The upper surface of the penis is called 
the dorsum, or corpus cavernosum, and extends from 
the root to the ridge of the glans; there is a groove 
on the upper side for the vessels and nerves, and one on 
the lower, into which the urethra passes; and encasing 
these parts is a firm elastic tissue, the continuation of 
■which forms the prepuce or foreskin, which covers the 
glans or nut of the penis. 
The Urethra (or seminal and urinary canal) com- 
mences from the neck of the bladder, passes through 
the prostate gland, that portion of which is termed the 
prostate portion of the urethra. Here the seminal 
ducts open into it for the conveyance of the seed; after- 
wards passing under the bony arch of the pubes or 
share bone^the urethra assumes the character of a 
membranous pipe (membranous portion). The ure- 
thra then acquires a spongy and fibrous tissue, which 
continues to surround it, when it expands into the top 
or extremity of the whole, called the glans penis. The 
urethra is a most delicate and important structure, and 
its interior surface is lined with a very sensitive mucous 
membrane, having several oblique ducts called lacunae, 
which furnish a secretion to prevent the abrasion of its 
surface from acrid urine. 
Lastly, the Glans, or head of the penis, protected by 
the prepuce or foreskin, is abundantly filled with arter- 
ies, veins, nerves, and absorbents, and invested with a 
soft smooth outer skin, and endowed with peculiar sen- 
sibility. This completes the popular anatomy of the 
organs of generation, as far as it is here necessary to 
explain it Having cursorily reviewed the anatomy, we now ar- 
rive at the physiology, of the Urinary and Sexual 
Organs; the former of which, as subsidiary to the latter, 
I shall but briefly mention. The kidneys are employed 
for the purpose of secreting the urine from the blood, 
Which is conveyed to them by the emnlgent arteries. 
On the entrance of the artery into each kidney, it di- 
vides into very minute branches and ramifications, and 
terminates in a capillary net-work, from which the se- 
cretion of urine from the blood ensues. It is formed, 
drop by drop, and passes out of the kidneys, through 
the ureters, into the bladder; whence, after collecting 
in a certain quantity, it is evacuated, and passing 
through the urethra, is thus expelled from the body. In 
addition to the benefit that the system derives from the 
secretion of urine relieving it of a superfluous fluid, the 
blood is evidently improved, and the con- 
siderably benefited by the withdrawal of a certain 
number of saline and deleterious substances which the 
urine carries off in solution, and which, according to 
Berzelius, amount to fifteen. These generally exist in 
the human urine, but the fluid occasionally contains, 
in a morbid condition of the system, many other sub- 
stances, as albumen, bile, sugar, fat, fibrin, blood, milk, 
and purulent matter. In fact, there is scarcely any 
other fluid in nature that contains so many substances 
dissolved in it. The deleterious and heterogeneous 
matters which the kidneys separate from the system 
would erode the interior surfaces of the ureters and 
bladder, but that these are provided with a villous coat 
or lining, and plentifully supplied with a secretion or 
sheathing mucus to obviate such an evil. When se- 
68 
Physiology of the Urinary Organs. Physiology of the Generative Organs, 
creted, and most commonly when first voided, the urine 
has a distinctly acid reaction in man, and in all car- 
nivorous animals. On the contrary, in most herbiv- 
orous animals the urine is alkaline and turbid; the 
difference depending not on any peculiarity in the 
mode of secretion, but on the differences in the food on 
Which the two classes subsist. Human urine is not 
usually rendered alkaline by vegetable diet, but becomes 
so after the use of alkaline medicines. The whole 
quantity of urine secreted in twenty-four hours depends 
greatly on the amount of fluid drunk, and the propor- 
tion secreted by the skin. The latter being more active 
in summer than in winter, it may be estimated that in 
summer a healthy man voids thirty ounces daily, and in 
Winter about forty ounces, thus giving a mean average 
of thirty-five ounces of urinary secretion per diem. 
In entering upon the physiology of the Generative 
system, we shall first take the Glands of the Testicle, as 
they stand in the same relation with the secretion of the 
semen or seed, as the kidneys do with the secretion of 
urine; both, in fact, being the organs in which these 
important fluids are secreted or prepared. The sexual 
functions commence at puberty, and are performed, if 
the individual be in health, until the arrival of senes- 
cence. The function is dormant in infancy or childhood, 
and ceases in old age. The secretion of the seminal 
fluid takes place constantly (though slowly, except 
under excitement,) in the tubuli semeniferi of the tes- 
ticles. Thence it passes along the vasa deferentia into 
the vesicular seminales, where it collects and is dis- 
charged, passing through the prostate gland by ducts 
into the urethra, whence it is expelled by emission. 70 
Physiology of the Generative Organs. 
To the vesiculoe seminales or seed-bladders a double 
function may be assigned, for they secrete some fluid to 
be added to that of the testicles, and serve, also, as res- 
ervoirs for the seminal fluid. The former is their most 
constant, and probably most important, office, for in the 
horse, bear, pig, and several other animals in whom the 
vesiculse seminales are large, they do not in any way 
communicate with the vasa defereutia, but pour their 
secretions separately into the urethra. It is highly 
probable, however, that the secretion of the vesiculse 
(the action of which is unknown,) contributes to tbe 
proper composition of the impregnatory fluid. There 
also exists some mystery respecting the secretions of 
the prostate gland, their nature and purposes; it is sup- 
posed they contribute only a subordinate part in the 
composition of the impregnating semen; for when 
the testicles are lost, or their secretions destroyed, 
though these organs are perfect, all procreative power 
ceases. 
The Semen is a thick whitish fluid, which consists of 
a liquor seminis, and of certain solid particles; is color- 
less, transparent, and of an albuminous nature. It 
contains, floating in it, various cells, oil-like globules, 
minute granular matter, and two principal microscopic 
constituents, named spermatozoa (spermatic filaments), 
and seminal granules. The spermatozoa are peculiar 
living bodies, existing in considerable numbers in healthy 
semen, and in the urine of those whose generative sys- 
tems have become debilitated; and when examined in 
the field of the microscope, seem to be endowed with 
the power of executing a brisk lashing movement. 
Each consists of a flattened oval part or body, and of a Physiology of the Generative Organs. 
71 
long filiform tail; the body is about one six-thousandth 
part of an inch in width, the entire body and tail being 
about one four-hundredth to one five-hundredth part of 
an inch in length. The seminal granules are rounded 
colorless bodies, averaging about one four-thousandth 
part of an inch in diameter, and are allied to mucous 
corpuscles. The seminal fluid, secreted by the testicles, 
is one of those secretions in which a process of develop- 
ment is continued after its formation by the secretory 
cells and its discharge from them into the tubes. The 
complete development of the spermatozoa, in their full 
proportion and number, is not achieved until the semen 
has reached, and for some time lain in, the seminal blad- 
ders (vesiculce). These spermatozoa present no trace 
of structure or dissimilar organs; they move about in 
the seminal fluid, lashing their tails and propelling their 
heads forward, in various lines. Their rate of motion 
is about one inch in thirteen minutes. Of the physi- 
ology of these seminal filaments, little that is certain 
can be said; their presence in the impregnating fluid of 
nearly all classes of animals proves their essentiality to 
the process of impregnation. They have been regarded 
as highly organized, and as the materials or organs out 
of which the new individual is begun; but whether 
their contact with the ovum in the female be essential 
to its impregnation cannot be determined; it probably 
is so, though the statements respecting the insertion of 
part of the seminal filaments into the cavity of the 
ovum have not been confirmed. Nothing has shown 
what it is that makes the fluid capable of impregna- 
tion, and of giving to the developing offspring all the 
characters, in features, size, mental disposition, and Physiology of the Generative Organs. 
liability to disease, which belong to the father. This is 
a fact wholly inexplicable. 
The ingenuity and research of philosophers have been 
vainly, but not perhaps unprofltably, exerted in the at- 
tempt to unravel the mysterious process of conception. 
Life and organization are neither insparable, nor even 
identical. After the investigation of ages, the reference 
must be for explanation to the Creator of all things. 
Man is still ignorant of how life begins or ceases. It is 
all mystery to him. We see the instrument, and can, 
perhaps, explain the structure; but the hidden strings 
that produce the harmony are past the scope of mortal 
vision. Generative Physiology. 
SECTION 11. 
PUBERTY.— MANHOOD.— THE MORALE OF GENERA- 
TIVE PHYSIOLOGY. 
A profound and judicious observer of human nature 
remarked, “long, long ago,” that matters very trivial, 
either in present or future results, often occupy men’s 
interest and excite their vehement hopes and fears, to 
the exclusion of considerations of infinitely greater 
moment. A significant illustration of the truth of this 
is contained in the fact that the most important phe- 
nomena which occur in the progress of human beings, 
from the cradle to the grave,—phenomena, on the 
proper treatment of which depends the alternative of a 
long life of sound health and happiness, or a short one 
of ill health and misery—are those concerning which 
popular knowledge is most deficient; and which have, 
by a deplorable misconception of the meaning and in- 
tent of moral precepts, been all but ignored by many 
of our modern physiologists. 
This total neglect is of no recent date; indeed, within 
the last twenty years it has been in some measure rem- 
edied by the self-sacrificing devotion with which certain 
men of learning, benevolence, and distinguished profes- 
sional attainments, disregarding the whisperings op 
sordid self-interest and of puerile false delicacy, have 
applied themselves to the work of extricating, from the 
dense cloud of ignorance in which ages of barbarous Generative Physiology, 
prejudices had enveloped it, the most momentous, 
most interesting, and at the same time most intricate 
branch of pathological inquiry. When our fathers were 
young men, and for a century preceding, this all-import- 
ant subject was absolutely consigned by the medical 
profession to the hands of as crafty, as cruel, as ignorant, 
and unscrupulous a class of impostors as ever preyed 
upon credulity and helpless suffering. Things are now 
somewhat better in this respect. The topic is not 
wholly a tabooed one, and a few of the most illustrious 
men of whom science and erudition can boast, have 
labored successfully in the elucidation of the great fun- 
damental laws of human life and death. My own 
highest pride—my abounding and unfailing source of 
mental comfort and satisfaction, is the consciousness 
that to the stock of knowledge collected by these great 
men, my personal investigations, my opportunities of 
observation and comparison, my prolonged studies and 
experience, have enabled me to make additions, and 
have produced practical results and discoveries, which? 
in the course of my practice, have relieved an enorm- 
ous mass of human wretchedness, and often substituted 
health and hope for utter prostration and despair. 
Whilst, however, the relief of misfortune is dear to 
philanthropy, an object paramount even to this is to 
2?reclude the access of misfortune; and in no way can 
this be more effectually accomplished than by the in- 
culcation of such knowledge as may enable persons in 
all spheres to discern the road to happiness and to pur- 
sue it. Such is the special and single object of the 
present volume. 
Much has been said, and still more written, concerning Generative Physiology. 
what is usually called the “ turn of life.” viz.: the period 
at which human vigor begins to descend towards the 
weakness of old age. But, unfortunately, too little 
attention virtually none, until comparatively lately 
has been paid to that which constitutes the great 
“turn,” the great change of all, namely that point in 
our existence when the transition from incompleteness 
to completeness takes place—the period when the 
grand result, for which Nature had been preparing 
during all the earlier years of man’s life, at length, by a 
spontaneous effort of the mysterious principles of vi- 
tality, attains development; and when faculties long 
lying dormant, and in the creation of which the unerring 
precision of All-seeing Wisdom has been most won- 
drously displayed, become instinctively conscious of the 
uses for which they are designed. 
75 
The term in man’s existence when this great marking 
epoch occurs, is known by the generic appellation of 
“ puberty.” The age at which it sets in varies consid- 
erably, according to differences in individual tempera- 
ment and in climate; but it may be stated as a general 
fact, that except in very warm tropical countries, the 
earliest age is ten, the latest twenty. As in females 
the procreative powers cease long before those of the 
male, so their commencement takes place sooner. Thus 
in our northern climate the age of puberty is usually 
from eleven to fourteen in girls; from twelve to fifteen 
in boys. In Italy, Spain, and the southern countries of 
Europe, the period is at least one year earlier; and in 
Africa, India, and some regions of America, it is not 
very unusual to find girls capable of child-bearing whose 
years scarcely number nine. The “slaveholders” of jßelations between the Sexes. 
Brazil, the United States, &c., very often derive some 
of their ill-gotten gains from the sale of a mother and 
child between whose ages the difference is scarcely ten 
years. 
On the other hand, there are instances in which 
young persons of lymphatic constitutions, whose physi- 
cal training has been neglected, approach twenty, before 
the natural capacities of manhood and womanhood are 
developed. The hastening or the retarding of such 
development, in either sex, sometimes arises from various 
prejudicial causes, which are duly treated in the course 
of this work. 
A distinguished writer on this subject aptly describes 
puberty to be the period at which the generative func- 
tion commences. The function, he observes, “is dor- 
mant in infancy and childhood, and ceases in old age.” 
By far the most critical and important stage of human 
life is that at which it first becomes active, and this 
stage is accordingly marked and pre-announced by a 
number of symptoms, indicative of the arrival of what 
may be appropriately described as a new state of being. 
As the body and mind have a close and ineradicable 
sympathy with each other, these symptoms are discern- 
ible, not only in the physical, but in the mental organi- 
zation. At the time when a youth receives from nature 
the useful admonition, the meaning of which is so often 
withheld from him by a cruel and baneful prejudice, a 
number of new sensations arise to which he has been 
hitherto a’ stranger. The extreme restlessness and 
exuberant elasticity of childhood give way to a staid 
gravity, almost approaching melancholy, and from which 
misjudging friendship sometimes endeavors to rally him Relation's between the Sexes. 
77 
by ridicule and satire. The gait becomes settled, the 
voice changes from the shrillness of childhood to the 
more dignified fullness and depth of adolescence; a rea- 
sonable and reasoning anxiety for knowledge takes the 
place of the random curiosity and troublesome garrulity 
of the “little boy.” The manifestations and demeanor 
towards the other sex vary infinitely. In boys of timid 
and delicate constitutions, whose chief association has 
hitherto been with females, there arises an almost un- 
conquerable bashfulness when in the presence of those 
to whom they had been most accustomed. This bash- 
fulness is produced by the powerful emotion whose 
very strength, in the absence of the knowledge how to 
express itself, sometimes leads to a morose deportment 
towards—even to an avoidance of the society of—the 
gentler sex; a circumstance which, by an egregious 
error, is ascribed to the poor youth having imbibed a 
dislike to females. How totally contrary is the real state 
of the case! In boys of opposite and more robust con- 
stitutions, who have associated with their own sex in 
athletic sports and pastimes, the indications are different. 
They become more attached to the society of the other 
sex, towards whom their carriage is that of frank and 
gallant homage. Far from being impelled to hide their 
feelings, or resort even to the affectation of dislike for 
those towards whom their instincts yearn, they take 
pleasure in the manifestation of the delightful feelings 
which they regard as manly and ennobling, and are 
never so happy as when engaged in those attentions 
that indicate devotion and affection. 
In both cases, however, whether of bashfulness or 
boldness, the physical and mental powers in all parts of 78 
Sexual Development. 
the organization are changed. It very often happens 
that, immediately before the access of puberty, Nature, 
as if to bestow all her efforts on the development and 
completion of the great functional revolution, permits a 
temporary diminution of the force and vitality of the 
other faculties. Languor, weakness, sickness, awkward- 
ness of motion, partial stupidity, are not unfrequently 
observable. But, the revolution once accomplished, this 
disarrangement passes away, and Nature, left free to the 
exertion of her influence over the general system, causes 
a healthful reaction, in which all the other powers are 
invigorated in proportion to the efficiency of “ the new 
sense.” Then comes a “ settling ” and strengthening of 
the general constitution. The bones and muscles be- 
come firmer and harder; the joints and sinews somewhat 
less pliant, but more enduring and reliable; the chest 
and respiratory organs more capacious; and it sometimes 
happens that a childhood, precarious and delicate, and 
afflicted by various infantile maladies, merges into a 
youthhood of great robustness, free from disorders of 
any kind.* The mind, as I have before observed, par- 
takes powerfully of this sudden spring; and the youth 
is prepared for the profitable study of subjects hitherto 
incomprehensible to him. The late Dr. Ryan, than whom 
no modern physiologist deserves greater reverence from 
posterity for the substantial services which his labors 
have conferred on all mankind, gives, in his Latin trea- 
* Note.—It should be here observed, that, though juvenile 
disorders often disappear at puberty, new disorders, before un- 
known, sometimes date from this critical period of life. Much 
depends in this respect on the intelligence of parents, guardians, 
and friends. Sexual Development. 
79 
tise, Be Genere Humana ejusque Varietatibus, an 
admirable epitome of the overt signs of puberty, a trans- 
lation of which passage may prove useful and acceptable: 
“At this age a sudden increase of the whole body takes 
place, sometimes in a wonderful manner; the voice be- 
comes hoarser in males; the pubes, axillae, face, and 
whole body become covered with a whitish down. The 
genital organs, which were previously small and useless, 
increase with the rest of the body, and being much aug- 
mented, secrete a prolific semen, by whose stimulus the 
youth is incited to the enjoyment of the gifts of Yenus. 
About the same age at which boys become puberous, 
girls become nubile; the genital organs are evolved, the 
pubes appear, and the breasts are developed; a new love- 
liness appears on the countenance; a new elegance of 
the whole figure; and if the individual be previously 
delicate, good health is suddenly enjoyed. Hence, by 
the laws of nature,* the sexes are impelled with a de- 
sire to be united, whence offspring similar to themselves 
are propagated.” Rousel, in his Systeme Physique et 
Morale, alluding to the functional derangements which 
so often occur at this period, asserts, “ that by the elabo- 
ration of the reproductive fluids, there results a super- 
abundance of life, which endeavors to communicate and 
establish itself—there is a new and mysterious want 
developed, which compels the sexes to approach each 
other.”- And Colonis, in his Bapport du Physique et 
Morale de VHomme, alluding to the conflicting mental 
emotions which arise, supposes that “ the nvw want pro- 
duces in the young man a mixture of audacity and tim- 
idity ; of audacity, because he knows that all his organs 
are endowed with unwonted vigor; of timidity, because 80 
Sexual Development. 
the nature of his desires astonishes him, as defiance to 
them disconcerts him. In the young girl this want gives 
rise to a sentiment of modesty, or virgin shame, of which 
she was heretofore ignorant, which may be regarded as 
the hidden expression of her desires, or the involuntary 
signs of her secret impressions.” To these observations 
I would add the remark, that at this critical and inter- 
esting period the reproductive fluid deposited as it is in 
its proper receptacles, and thence naturally secreted and 
partly dispersed throughout the body, whilst it excites 
and invigorates the sexual organs, produces a corres- 
ponding excitement and vigor in other parts of the 
system. But it is important to inform the reader that I 
am here supposing a case in which the healthful course 
of nature had not been interfered with or set aside by 
vitiating influences. Too frequently it happens that 
through circumstances which exist more or less in all 
states of artificial society, the gifts of Providence are so 
perverted that that which was intended for man’s happi- 
ness, health, and longevity, becomes the instrument of 
his wretchedness and premature death. 
Much ingenious speculation might be uselessly ex- 
pended in discussing abstract questions relative to the 
ultimate law of the mechanical combinations through 
which the sexual emotion, terminating in the generative 
orgasm, is produced. The present being a work of in- 
structive fact, and not of vague conjecture, I will merely 
remark, that it is abundantly certain that the emotion 
may originate either exclusively in the sexual organs 
themselves, or (through the sympathetic relations exist- 
ing between different parts of the body,) in impressions 
conveyed externally or internally to other organs. In Sexual Development. 
81 
man, there is no doubt, such impressions are usually 
conveyed through the brain, through contact or vision; * 
the organs of smelling and hearing exercise similar influ- 
ence upon many of the lower animals. The natural 
process which is the result of the emotion is regarded, 
and no doubt justly, as more intensely absorbing and 
exciting than any other—so much so, indeed, that nume- 
rous cases are on record in which the excitement has 
proved too strong for the vital energies, and death has 
occurred in the consummation of the very act by which 
life is intended to be perpetuated and reproduced. 
No object of juvenile education should be more atten- 
tively studied by judicious and affectionate parents, than 
that of taking every measure to guard against the 
calamity of the era of puberty arriving, under circum- 
stances which could impede or vitiate the process of 
healthy development. Such circumstances are of vari- 
ous kinds. Luxurious and highly-seasoned food, over- 
much study, close apartments, ill-ventilated bed-rooms, 
the neglect of strict and regular cleanliness as regards 
the most delicate parts of the organization, are among 
the causes which may produce the precocious and pre- 
mature growth of sensations, the postponement of which 
would be profoundly conducive to the welfare of the 
individual. But independent of these causes, and even 
of that most dreadful and extensive agent of woe, pain, 
and death, to which detailed allusion is made in other 
chapters, evil often arises from unsuspected peculiarities 
of conformation, which the pernicious habit of ignoring 
*But also by other causes—viz., occupations, the uso of par- 
ticular food, changes in atmospheric temperature, &c., &c. 82 
True morality. 
this subject prevents parents from even dreaming of. 
Cases could he pointed to, in which at an age scarcely 
emerging from infancy, it has been found necessary to 
adopt coercive measures, even with female children, in 
order to prevent fearful'results arising from tendencies 
and inclinations incidental to a peculiar state of certain 
organs. Still more often with boys; and the instances 
to which I am here more especially referring, are those 
in which there had been no depravation from com- 
panionship with others. To mere neglect, or rather 
ignorance, on the part of their seniors, the poor little 
victims owed the supervention of circumstances fraught 
with their future misery. And here I would earnestly 
impress on parents and all others who have the care of 
young persons, that there is nothing which more imper- 
atively requires constant solicitude and watchfulness, 
than the part of the system which the frightful errors of 
other times left wholly to the chapter of accidents. In 
neglect of this resides the fruitful cause of the irretriev- 
able calamity and ruin of millions. 
The most prolific source of all evil, however,—that 
which slays its thousands whilst the others slay their 
tens,—is the destructive habit most frequently con- 
tracted through the unwatched association of young 
people, though occasionally through the solitary and 
accidental discovery of a fatal secret. And in this place 
I would solemnly and emphatically protest against that 
other most pernicious error, which causes the secret in 
question to be a secret at all. When the time arrives 
for the development of certain faculties, it is a monstrous 
delusion to imagine that mere silence on the part of 
adult friends can extinguish these faculties, or suppress True Morality. 
these instincts, or prevent the youth from feeling the 
sensations to which they give rise. The rigorous prohi- 
bition of all allusion to the subject, the absence of even 
the most shadowy suggestive intimation, as to the mis- 
chief and misery to which abuse or too early indulgence 
gives rise, is mainly accountable for the wide-spread 
existence of that devastating vice, which has sent, for 
centuries, and still sends its myriads of miserables to 
early and ignominious graves, and has wrought the 
rum and extinction of many a noble race. 
Against this murderous hypocrisy—the most blind, 
mistaken, the most obstinate and wrong-headed of all 
species of conventional hypocrisies—l would raise my 
warning voice, sadly and solemnly. My conscientious 
persuasion, founded on experience of an uninterrupted 
magnitude,—such as probably never before fell to the lot 
of any man, is, that the prejudice in question has immo- 
lated more victims than war, famine, and pestilence 
put together; and it will not be from any want of exer- 
tion on my part, if, unfortunately for my fellow-beings, 
I descend to the tomb without having eradicated it from 
the list of “ social proprieties.” 
True morality, sound morality, the morality which 
will produce its goodly fruit in generations of virtuous, 
healthful, long-lived, happy, and really “ innocent” men 
and women, consists, not in attempting fradulently to 
conceal the sacred laws of Nature, and to close up her 
book, so pregnant with truth and wisdom,—true moral- 
ity, I repeat, does not consist in this brutish sacrifice to 
the demon of ignorance, but rather in instructing the 
rising youth in the great and noble objects for which his 
capacities of mind and body were bestowed upon him; Natural Period of Development. 
in making him distinctly aware of the certain, the inev- 
itable misery involved in the abuse of those capacities, 
and the equally certain happiness arising from patience, 
moderation, and the avoidance of disastrous imprudence. 
The years allotted to the progress from infancy to 
puberty are years which Nature devotes to the prepara- 
tion of the body for a mighty crisis; the wise and virtu- 
ous vigilance of parents and teachers, should be equally 
assiduous in preparing the mind for the same. 
Thus much I have felt bound to say in emphatic pro- 
test against the continuance of a barbarous and destruc- 
tive error in the existing system of juvenile education; 
and I feel the more justified in saying it, because my 
professional pursuits have necessarily procured me more 
knowledge than can possibly be possessed by any other 
of my medical brethren, of the mischiefs which have 
flowed from want of candor and truth on this grave 
topic. 
For the rest, it would be possible, apropos of the sub- 
ject matter of this chapter, to enter into many interest- 
ing details concerning what may be denominated the 
Curiosities of Physiology, but I prefer confining myself 
as much as possible to that which is most calculated to 
be practically useful, and avoiding any digression which 
could divert attention from my main object—that of 
caution, warning, and explanation. The opinions of 
eminent men, as to the period of life at which, in the 
northern and temperate latitudes, sexual intercourse 
may be indulged in, without detrimental effects, seem 
to fix the age of twenty for the male, and of eighteen 
for the female, as the earliest. Some constitutions 
require a much longer postponement of amatory indul- Natural Period of Development. 
85 
gence. It is an ascertained fact, however, that the 
earlier the indulgence the sooner does the power of 
procreation decay. Women, in general, are incapable 
of childbearing after forty-five, and the generative func- 
tion usually ceases in males at sixty or sixty-five. It 
often happens that sexual vigor does not last nearly so 
long; whilst, on the other hand, there are a few well 
authenticated cases of children being borne by women 
who have almost reached their sixtieth year, and of 
patriarchs of eighty, or even a hundred, becoming 
parents. Such instances must be regarded as freaks of 
Nature in her eccentric moods. Precocious and un- 
healthy development is hastened by meretricious con- 
versation, lascivious pictures, and by perusal of the 
obscene and exciting books, the composition of which 
constitutes the trade of a class of wretches who live by 
pandering to vice and licentiousness, and who deserve 
the heaviest reprobation and punishment accorded to 
infamous crime. The subject of Sexual Physiology is 
one of the most grave and solemn which can occupy 
the contemplation of man, and in that tone it should be 
treated. Next to the evil of concealment and mystifi- 
cation respecting its great truths, is that of alluding to 
those truths in a spirit, partaking even remotely, of lev- 
ity. Of all the people of Greece, the Spartans were 
those amongst whom there was the greatest candor, 
the greatest gravity, the greatest plainness, the least of 
either hypocrisy or levity, upon matters relating to the 
intercourse between the sexes; and of all the people of 
Greece, the Spartans were the most vigorous, the most 
temperate, and the most chaste. 
Always bearing in mind that not only too early, but Empiricism. 
too frequent and indiscriminate intercourse, is the cer- 
tain forerunner of premature decrepitude and death, in 
consequence of the loss of the whole of a nourishing 
and invigorating essence, much of which was intended 
by nature to be retained in the system as the most 
effectual snstainer of its strength, and the most effectual 
counterpoise to the wear and tear of time; let modera- 
tion in the enjoyment of the highest physical pleasure 
be the motto of the married as well as of the single. 
The most powerful and healthy body with which man 
was ever blessed, could not sustain, without permanent 
damage, more than a very prudent and well-regulated 
amount of intercourse; and it will be well to reflect 
that any departure from prudence, even during the 
earlier enjoyments of nuptial love, may not only lay the 
foundation of disease and infirmity in the parent, but 
devolve, pain, sickness, deformity, and short life on the 
offspring, as the penalty of such imprudent abandon- 
ment to mere passion. 
By faithful attention to the facts and counsel con- 
tained in these chapters, intelligent and conscientious 
guardians of inexperienced youth may avert from their 
charges some of the direst curses and most degrading 
miseries by which fallen human nature can be afflicted. 
It is a subject upon which, beyond all others, ignorance, 
prejudice, and negligence, produce the most terrible 
effects; and to the removal of these initiative causes of 
ill (forties et origines mail), and of the train of calami- 
ties flowing from them, I have devoted the labor of a 
long, active, and (within the scope of my own exertions) 
signally successful professional career. Besides the 
main evils themselves, I have had collateral difficulties to contend with; one of these being the apathy and in- 
dolence of too many of my brother physicians, who, by 
applying only a small portion of their time and inquiries 
to a subject, whose complexity requires the undivided 
attention of skilful and qualified men, have practically 
disqualified themselves from efficiently dealing with it; 
the other collateral difficulty being the scandal and dis- 
trust created by the proceedings of a host of knavish 
and sordid persons, who, without possessing any one 
requisite of education, experience, or intelligence, have 
taken advantage of professional apathy, and, under a 
variety of assumed and quasi-foreign nomenclatures, set 
up as practitioners in a pursuit of the principles of 
which they are as ignorant as are those who unhappily 
commit themselves to their treatment. To such a pitch 
of effrontery have persons of the class named carried 
their proceedings, that they have even printed and para- 
phrased, in various ways, some of my published works, 
interlarding them (in order to evade legal penalties,) 
with irrelevant matter, in which the most dangerous 
and audacious fallacies are set forth. This sad state of 
things is indeed to be deplored; but it is only to be put 
down by men of character and reputation coming for- 
ward frankly and fearlessly to warn, to instruct, to heal. 
My most gratifying recollection, the high and ample re- 
ward of much bodily and intellectual toil, much sacrifice 
of wealth and ease, is, that—as testified by the thank- 
ful declarations of thousands who have been rescued 
from anguish and despair—l have worked efficiently 
for the accomplishment of this holy and beneficent pur- 
pose ! 
Empiricism. 
87 88 
Physiology of Marriage. 
SECTION 111. 
The most venerable philosophers, the most exalted 
Christian philanthropists and theologians of all ages, 
have concurred in proclaiming the incontrovertible 
axiom, that the moral, social, and eternal interests of 
man are intimately bound up with the due guardianship 
of his physical well-being. This is a truth, pregnant 
with meaning of momentous significance, the neglect of 
which, in one of its most important phases, has been the 
cause of a larger amount of human misery than, per- 
haps, any other of the calamitous “mistakes” which 
originated in the ignorance of bygone ages. 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF MAEEIAGE. 
Now, of all the subjects which bear directly on the 
perfection or disarrangement of the bodily functions 
on the absence or presence of disease, acute and chronic 
—on the vigorous development of the faculties which 
produce physical as well as intellectual health—none is 
more interesting, none more important, none more com- 
plicated in its details, none requiring a more perfect 
combination of skill, delicacy, boldness, and caution, in 
those who undertake to give advice upon it, than that 
which deals with the moral and social relations of mar- 
riage, with the causes which produce wedded happiness 
or its reverse; and, still more especially, with those 
remote and too frequently unsuspected habits and cir- Physiology of Marriage. 
eumstances, dating sometimes from the earliest period 
of youth, and by slow, but certain and inevitable steps, 
paving the way for the most excruciating woe and the 
deepest degradation which man is capable of enduring. 
In short, to use the language of a distinguished medi- 
cal authority of our own age,* the subject, “ considered 
in all its relations—religious, moral, social, legal, physi- 
cal, philosophical, and medical—will be found of the 
greatest importance to mankind. . . . The function 
of reproduction has been examined and inquired into 
by the most virtuous theologians, naturalists, philoso- 
phers, physiologists, legislators, and jurisconsults, as the 
most influential of all the functions of the human 
economy on every class of society, both civilized and 
savage.” 
It was appositely remarked by the great literary colos- 
sus of the last century,! that, “if marriage has many 
cares, celibacy has no blessings.” Fearfully momentous, 
however, to each individual is the contingency whether 
or not the “blessings,” properly appertaining to the conju- 
gal state shall be secured by the solemn contract entered 
into; for if the result be in the negative he has but too 
surely tied himself down to a dire and hopeless bondage. 
The nuptial union, in short, stands alone as the one 
great act, which, beyond any other, and indeed beyond 
all others together, is destined to tinge with hues of sor- 
row or of joy each future step of our journey through 
life. It is emphatically the most important relation that 
we can form, from the cradle to the grave, and indepen- 
dently of our own individual happiness, the thought 
•The late Valentine Mott, M.D. f Dr. Johnson. 90 
Aptitude and Inaptitude 
that the happiness of others is decisively and forever 
affected by the wisdom or folly of our choice, ought to 
be forcibly impressed upon the recollection of young 
persons. 
But here it is necessary to pass to another considera- 
tion deeply concerning the comfort, the peace, and hap- 
piness of thousands of wedded pairs. Much wretched- 
ness is frequently caused by a fear on the part of married 
persons, that the impediments which baffle enjoyment 
and baulk expectation, are absolutely insusceptible ot 
relief— absolutely incurable—when, in reality, the state 
of things is by no means so desperate as this. The al- 
leviation of actual evils, the removal of distressing fears 
and unfounded suspicions, the communication and reali- 
zation of rational and invigorating hope, are often, in 
cases apparently the most cheerless, within the power of 
the intelligent and educated physiologist; and to any 
who are already beginning to deplore what they con- 
ceive to be their unfortunate predicament, I would say, 
decide not hurriedly against yourselves or the partner of 
your bed; ascertain whether it be no mere temporary 
cause (of which, as fortunately proved by the triumphs 
of medical science, there are many,) that forms the ob- 
struction, the apparently insurmountable barrier, to 
your natural and commendable wishes. 
Much misunderstanding, many keen heartburnings, 
that destroy the comfort of married life, would be en- 
tirely removed, if upon the hearts and consciences of 
mankind were impressed a more correct knowledge of 
the indispensible requisites for a happy marriage, for the 
power of communicating as well as of selfishly receiving 
pleasure from that union, intended for the reciprocal For Wedded Happiness. 
91 
accomplishment of these objects. On a due understand- 
ing, and a faithful discharge of these duties, the happi- 
ness of each individual, and the well-being of unborn 
generations, greatly depend. 
Unhappy marriages! Unfortunate matches! What 
a melancholly retrospect of sin and sorrow do these sim- 
ple words present to the contemplation of the very few 
qualified medical practitioners, who have in modern 
times made cause and consequence in this branch of 
physiological investigation, the peculiar subject of their 
studies! What tremendous secrets of guilt, caused by 
parental neglect—what fearful records of error, never 
discovered or revealed until too late for remedy —what 
awful monuments of the curses which imprudence and 
wickedness, arising mainly in ignorance, inflict on the 
whole race of man! There is no branch of science 
which discloses to the experienced investigator secrets 
more fruitfully illustrative of the feebleness, and at the 
same time the obstinacy, of unreclaimed, unguarded, 
unguided human nature. 
Allusion may, in this place, be usefully made to early 
marriages, and to those which ordinary parlance terms 
“ love-matches,” closely connected as they are with the 
general subject under consideration. It cannot be 
doubted that, whilst warm and mutual affection is an 
essential condition to married felicity, mistakes, as to 
the reality and reciprocity of this sentiment, are active 
and deplorable accessories to permanent misery. Never 
was so false and treacherous a guide as passion, when not 
founded on well-merited and well-defined respect; never 
was there a feeling which more certainly and speedily 
relapses into weariness, ending in antipathy and ultimate 92 
The Perversion 
hatred; never was there a position so deeply to be pitied 
than that of a married couple who find themselves 
chained down, by one fatal mistake, in the woful thral- 
dom of “an ill-assorted alliance.” No matter from what 
source the discontent arises, if that discontent is inca- 
pable of being removed, it degenerates into disgust, as 
surely as cause leads to sequence in the natural proces- 
sion of things; and the unfortunate, ill-mated pair find 
each in the other the provocative and promoter of an 
unconquerable dislike which neither has the power to 
overcome. 
But whilst such sources of discontent are more nu- 
merous and peculiar in (their origin than is even sus- 
pected by the sufferers themselves, still less are they 
suspected by thousands of parents, guardians, teachers, 
and others, on whom devolves a great responsibility for 
neglecting precautions and inquiries much more impor- 
tant, in regard to the future happiness of those com- 
mitted to their care, than any consideration of pecuniary 
aggrandisement. If it be true that parental interference, 
founded on avarice and ambition, have occasionally con- 
signed young people to lives of wretchedness, it is 
equally so that the absence of interference, the neglect 
of considerations requiring the most close, cautious, and 
delicate supervision and attention, have led to misfor- 
tunes a thousand-fold greater in number and extent. 
To come to particulars, there is no danger which re- 
quires more caution and vigilance, in order to guard 
effectually against its results, than that involved in the 
formation of bad habits, often contracted at schools, but 
sometimes even, under the privacy of the parental roof, 
by which habits, and by the excesses connected with Of Marriage. 
93 
them, myriads of naturally good constitutions are un- 
dermined forever. 
Full of wisdom and humanity are the words of a vene- 
rable prelate, who alludes to this part of the subject in 
the following forcible language: 
“ I cannot understand why an evil everywhere ac- 
knowledged and felt, is not remedied somewhere, or 
discussed by some one with a view to a remedy. But 
no; it is like putting one’s hand into the fire only to 
touch upon it; it is the universal bruise, the putrefying 
sore, on which you must not lay your finger; or your 
patient (that is, society) cries out and resists, and, like 
a sick baby, scratches and kicks its physician. Strange, 
and passing strange, that the relation between the two 
sexes, the passion of love, in short, should not be taken 
into deeper consideration by our teachers and our legis- 
lators. People educate and legislate as if there was no 
such thing in the world; but ask the priest, ask the 
physician—let these reveal the amount of moral and 
physical results from this one cause.” 
It was for the purpose of assisting to remedy the fu- 
nereal evil indicated in this passage, that I commenced, 
many years since, a course of study and investigation, 
which, so far as my labors have proceeded, have pro- 
duced an amount of good, far transcending any expect- 
ations which I could have formed at the outset. As has 
been truly observed by an eminent writer already 
quoted, the subject had received the notice of some of 
the best, wisest, and ablest men who ever lived; but 
their efforts were for the most part confined to lament- 
ing the fatal infatuation, which had prevented educated 
medical men from devoting to the topic at issue that 94 
The Perversion 
undivided attention which its intricacy, its difficulty, its 
importance, and the vast scope and variety of the fields 
of contemplation from which it should be viewed, abso- 
lutely require. They exclaimed against the neglect, but 
the neglect still continued, and daily hecatombs of hu- 
man lives fell victims to it. A deadly evil was acknowl- 
edged,—an evil constantly manifesting itself in divorces, 
in suicides, in horrible and revolting forms of disease, in 
graves opening for the reception of persons of both 
sexes who had not attained ripe age; but practically, 
this state of things was too long ignored was treated 
as if it had no existence was scarcely heard of, save 
in the indignant protests of the illustrious men to whom 
reference has just been made. 
In the history of human civilization, if there be one 
feature more brilliant and gladdening than the rest, it is 
to be found in that civil and wholesome restraint upon 
brute passion which exists in marriage; without which 
society would consist of one continued struggle for the 
momentary gratification of individuals. It may be re- 
garded as the basis of social prosperity, as that which 
gives us the sanction of legal right to the object of our 
most intense solicitude. 
Conjugal society has been defined as a perpetual 
compact between man and woman, to live together in 
mutual love and friendship, for the procreation, conserv- 
ation, and education of children, and to aid each other 
by mutual succor through the course of life. “The 
diversity of the sexes was instituted for this purpose; 
and there is an innate desire implanted in both to per- 
petuate their species, their name, and to transfer their 
property to their children. Marriage was instituted by Of Marriage. 
95 
the Divine Greater in the time of man’s primitive inno- 
cence, as the means of his happiness and the perpetu- 
ation of his race.” Its influence extends from individu- 
als to kingdoms, and to the whole world. Jeremy 
Taylor calls it “ The mother of the world, which pre- 
serves cities, and fills cities, churches, and even heaven 
itself.” It is the primitive source of morals and society, 
the nurse of virtue and patriotism, the stay and support 
of governments. To the statesman, the divine, and the 
physician, the considerations which it presents are all- 
important. ISTo other social institution exercises so wide 
and profound an influence upon the well-being of states 
and communities, inasmuch as bodies politic are com- 
posed of a number of individual families, total form- 
ing the aggregate results of conjugal unions; and the 
health, strength, and intellectual and physical vigor of 
the citizens, (all depending so mainly upon the nature 
and observance of the laws relating to this great ordi- 
nance,) form the best and only trustworthy support of 
national glory, greatness, and prosperity. 
Whilst recognising the wisdom of the arrangement 
which renders the marriage-tie permanent, it is right to 
remember that that very permanence produces a proba- 
bility that if the contract be entered on unadvisedly, or 
should its obligations be undischarged, results the most 
appalling and disastrous must ensue. 
How often, even in the narrow circle in which private 
individuals move, may they note a legal union in which 
each party has assumed more or less disguise or dissim- 
ulation towards the other; and the fact has only been 
made apparent when frank sincerity is too late to sever 
the indissoluble fetter, which until death, must bind two 96 
The Perversion 
people secretly disgusted with themselves for their du- 
plicity, and with each other for the.absence of all that 
can endear a married home. And if, within the narrow 
sphere of private observation, the fact occurs frequently, 
how much of similar misery must exist in the great 
world around us! How many apparently smiling 
strange faces painfully conceal the canker worm secretly 
consuming all that once was hopeful within. Fortune 
may have smiled upon one or both, the respective fami- 
lies and friends of husband and wife may hope for their 
mutual happiness, and turn an unwilling ear to the 
faintest suspicion that all is not secretly well with them; 
all which the world can know may seemingly be there, 
to constitute the requisite ingredients in the cup of 
earthly enjoyment. Perhaps early attachment may be 
known to have existed, as a further and surer pledge of 
long years of felicity; it may have been a match in 
which the most thrilling and delicious of all possible an- 
ticipations seemed likely to bid fair for completion, and 
yet, must it be admitted?—is such the severity of 
suffering?—can disappointment so horribly mock the 
hope of years ? dash down in a moment the fairy edi- 
fice which the labors of a life have been delightfully 
tasked in constructing? Alas! one hour’s possession 
may do even more than this. Or if baulked and baffled 
eagerness be not subjected to so sudden mortification, 
there may silently grow up a repugnance, which, spite 
of every effort to the contrary, becomes more intense at 
every endeavor to repress it: a repugnance —an ina- 
bility that has its origin in some cause, real or imagin- 
ary, or haply in the discovery of some concealed hinder- 
ance to mutual desire. Of Marriage. 
97 
But the evils in question are widely different in source, 
in nature, in degree, and in obstinacy; and one of the 
objects of the present treatise is to separate and distin- 
guish those which are, from the very few which are not, 
amenable to skilful medical treatment. 
The object contemplated by the Great Author of the 
institution of marriage is the increase and perpetuation 
of the sum of human happiness. This object cannot bo 
attained save by individual virtue and prudence, acting 
concomitantly with the diffusion of enlightenment and 
the banishment of popular ignorance. Ignorance of a 
density unequaled of an obstinacy unparalleled—long 
prevailed, on the topics which control most completely 
the fitness of men and women for wedlock. There are 
certain states of injured health, capable, by early and 
skilful treatment, of thorough and speedy cure; but 
which, if neglected or injudiciously dealt with, render 
aught but disgust and misery in marriage a thing hu- 
manly impossible. It very often happens, too, that these 
morbid stages are, in their present and apparent effects, 
so insignificant, so slightly discommoding, and so con- 
nected with early imprudences long since relinquished, 
or humiliating in description, that they are allowed to 
gain ground insidiously, through the delusive idea that 
the disease will cure itself—that wedlock can work an 
improvement in a morbid condition, of which wedlock, 
in some circumstances, is in truth the most active pro- 
moter. 
The consequence of such misapprehension is that a 
contract of the most solemn kind is frequently entered 
into under circumstances which cannot fail to produce 
unhappiness in a variety of shapes,—unhappiness which 98 
On the Avoidance 
does not terminate with the lives of the individual par- 
ties to the contract, but throws its gloomy shadow across 
the path of posterity. The diseases thus engendered, 
circulated, and perpetuated in society, form only one 
section—though a most important one in the chapter 
of disasters referable to misconceptions of the true ob- 
jects of marriage, and of the steps which must be taken 
by all who would completely attain those objects. 
A leading and indispensable step in the work of sell- 
knowledge and self-preservation, is that of ascertaining 
in the first place, upon authority which cannot deceive, 
that in no part of the organization lurk even the most 
remote admonitory symptoms of the past, present, or 
prospective existence of any infirmities by which func- 
tional and general vigor can be impaired. In this task 
of self-examination the memory and conscience, not 
less than the reason, must be consulted. It will be ne- 
cessary to institute a rigid review of every habit, whether 
relinquished or not, or every incident and circumstance 
which impartial candor can suggest, as bearing in any 
degree on the point to be elicited; and reference must 
be made to the faithful counsel of a physician whose 
practice is chiefly devoted to that particular branch of 
pathological science more immediately connected with 
the subject of inquiry. 
As an “ unfortunate marriage ” is, of all earthly calam- 
ities, the most overwhelming and irremediable, and as it 
so frequently occurs that persons enter ignorantly into 
the solemn contract, to find, when too late, that they are 
unfitted to realize its principal ends, and under circum- 
stances which make dissension and misery its inevitable 
attendant, no prudent man should take the irretrie fable Of Calamity. 
99 
step without assuring himself, through competent ad- 
vice, that he is in all respects in a condition to do so. 
But consultation with the physician is a mere mockery 
and delusion unless there be perfect openness and sin- 
cerity on the part of the individual seeking his counsel. 
Every question which experience may put should be 
answered with truthfulness, as rigorous as if the eye of 
the questioner could read the heart of the client. If the 
latter fail in this duty, he is deceiving himself, and, 
haply, laying the foundation of a life of anguish and 
remorse, from which one moment’s manly frankness 
would have rescued him. Pie may rely on it, that if he 
have unpleasant secrets to reveal, he can tell nothing 
worse than his well-practiced adviser has listened to and 
soothed. If, on the other hand, his conscience acquit 
him of any self-incurred affliction, he can feel equally 
certain of faithful information as to the existence of any 
latent or semi-latent symptoms which may require to 
be suppressed and extirpated before the matrimonial 
compact be entered into. 
And here care should be exercised as to the class of 
practitioner who is applied to. If, on the one hand, he 
be an empiric, blindly adhering to an imaginary rule of 
uniformity in cases each of which requires its separate 
variety of treatment,—or if, on the other hand, he be 
one who has so “ diffused ” his studies as to have 
acquired only a superficial acquaintance with any one 
branch of his profession, the chances are that he is 
unable to apply to the case before him such a searching 
test as may eliminate the whole facts. The physiology 
of the reproductive organs is a subject so intricate, so 
extended, embracing so many complications and seem- 100 
Physiological Facts. 
ing contradictions, calling into requisition such an 
amount of minute research, observation, and comparison, 
as to demand the exclusive, unwearied energies of the 
practitioner who applies himself to it. It is a thing 
passing human capacity, to master it in its manifold 
details, unless the whole mind (prepared, of course, by 
a careful education in medical science generally,) be 
devoted to it. Hence it follows that the physician who 
distracts his faculties by avariciously endeavoring to 
grasp too many branches of practice, is apt, through 
mere ignorance, to treat with presumptuous levity, com- 
plaints or applications in which an indefinite series of 
human misery or happiness is involved. Above all 
things, therefore, the character and perfect qualifications 
of the adviser should be ascertained; and then the 
applicant may freely unbosom himself. It may be well 
to apprize the reader that absolute secrecy as to the 
identity of patients is the inviolable rule of the medical 
profession (excluding of course, the loathsome vermin 
who, under assumed titles and fictitious qualifications, 
usurp and disgrace its name). Setting out with the 
resolution to speak frankly and truthfully, the applicant 
may await the result with confidence. If he have ills 
or infirmities to be healed, they will be healed speedily 
and radically; whilst if “ all be right ” with him, he will 
have the comfort of knowing that it is so. 
A few words now, on the general morale of marriage. 
It may be laid down as a general principle, that when 
there is a striking disproportion in point of age, health, 
and strength when there is a manifest discordance in 
temper and disposition when there are disturbing 
elements connected with religious or family feuds, pru- On Generative Capacity. 
101 
deuce would recommend that persons thus relatively 
circumstanced should, on no account, commit them- 
selves to the most solemn of earthly engagements. 
This is, assuredly, the rule of safety, though experience 
daily shows that exceptions occur. It is not usual, but 
it does sometimes happen, that we see age and youth, 
vigor and infirmity, wisdom and stupidity, allied; with- 
out producing any apparent symptoms of unhappiness. 
Such instances of what an actuary would term “ depar- 
tures from the averages,” are rare; but they are suffi- 
cient to show that personal idiosyncracy is sometimes 
so powerful as almost to overcome the ordinary rules of 
Nature, who loves to exhibit herself clothed in the 
beauties of variety. Most dangerous it is, however, to 
act on the authority of isolated exceptions. If Parr 
survived his century and a half, Parr’s next-door neigh- 
bor would have been rather worse than an idiot, to 
found his own arrangements upon calculation of reach- 
ing the same comfortable climax of longevity. If a 
certain noble peer begat healthy offspring at threescore 
and ten the celebrity of this “ freak of nature ” proves 
its rareness. If Cornelia bore children at sixty-two, 
and if the illustrious Haller were rightly informed 
respecting the still more venerable nursing-dame of 
seventy, he would indeed be a sanguine man, who, upon 
such interesting phenomena, should rest his hopes of a 
son and heir on a union with a damsel of fifty. “ The 
averages ” are, after all, the safest landmarks, subject, 
however, to numerous exceptions. 
Among the subjects which occupy the attention of 
the practical hygieologist, the proper age for contracting 
marriage has given rise to no small amount of coutro- 102 
yersy; the result of which is, however, a pretty general 
agreement that, making allowance for the differences of 
climate and temperament, the preservation of chastity, 
by either sex, for several years after puberty has been 
attained, is productive of effects not less beneficial in a 
physical, than it is beyond all question, in a moral sense. 
If excessively early marriages those precocious unions 
which we sometimes see, formed between boys and girls 
of sixteen or seventeen years old—lead to the birth of 
children whose parents have neither the means nor 
experience to guide, to instruct, and maintain them 
if, in short, these improvident contracts lead to a morbid 
increase of mere numbers so, in like manner, the pre- 
mature activity of organs which should quietly ripen 
and mature, is apt to prejudice the physical vigor both 
of the parents and their offspring. It sometimes hap- 
pens that before a man has attained the meridian period 
of life, even though no vicious irregularity have stained 
his youth, his powers become debilitated through too 
early sexual congress, whilst his numerous children are 
sickly and enfeebled. This circumstance is often refer- 
able to the fact of marriage having been entered into at 
an age when the constitution of the individual had not 
acquired the hardihood and compactness requisite for 
the active discharge of all the duties of wedlock. 
Physiological Facts on Generative Capacity. 
In many nations, and at various epochs of history, 
legislative regulations have been introduced with the 
view of meeting this evil. We find penal obstacles 
imposed against marriage being contracted before the 
ages of thirty, twenty-five, &c., &c. But laws of this 
kind must always be partial, generally ineffectual, and 
sometimes mischievous. In the warm latitudes of the On Wedlock and Offspring. 
103 
south it would not be possible, and if possible, it would 
be tyrannical and pernicious, to compel young people 
to postpone marriage until the age which would appear 
timely and advisable in cold climates. Under the sun 
of Hindostan, or even of Palestine, a girl is endowed 
with all the functions of womanhood several years 
before her faculties would reach an equal development 
in the meridian of St. Petersburg!!.* Again; even 
among persons born and living in the same country, 
the variations of physical idiosyncracy are so wide that 
any useful settled rule is impossible. That which may 
be absolutely indispensable to the health, the virtue, 
nay, the very life of one, may be positively pernicious 
in the case of another person of the same age, but of an 
opposite habit of constitution. At eighteen years, the 
system of the one may have acquired a maturity, an 
exigent impetuosity of development, which it may 
take sevexr or eight years longer to produce in the other. 
It is thus evident that the course of wisdom and pru- 
dence is to treat every case upon its separate charac- 
teristics and circumstances. Parents and influential 
friends who adopt this advice, in weighing the pros and 
cons of arrangements on which such momentous con- 
sequences depend, will find their pains richly rewarded 
by the blessings of those who may have to ascribe the 
happiness of their lives to this laudable forethought on 
the part of their guardians. 
The same principle which governs the development, 
applies equally to the stages of change which precede 
* It is here to he noticed, that even in the most northern lati- 
tudes, peculiar physical developments lead to early puberty 
amongst certain races of Laplanders, &c. 104 
On Wedlock and Offspring. 
the collapse of the generative faculties. I will suppose 
three neighbors, one aged fifty-five, another sixty, and 
a third aged sixty-five; and of these the man of sixty- 
five is frequently more capable and vigorous younger, 
in short, as regards the subjects treated in this work 
than his neighbor of sixty, whilst the latter again is 
younger than he of fifty-five; so much does constitution 
influence the growth and duration of the powers of 
manhood. That which would be tantamount to a death 
sentence in one case, may be safe, healthful, and advisa- 
ble in another. Obviously impossible, as it is, to apply 
rules of inexorable uniformity, the proper course where 
doubt and uncertainty exist, is to take the advice of a 
medical man of experience and character, who will at 
once point out the necessities indicated by the respec- 
tive peculiarities of temperament which he has to 
consider. 
That the happiness of married life may in a great 
measure be secured or defeated, by attention to or neg- 
lect of what lies in our power previously to its consum- 
mation, is as true as that there are duties obligatory 
alike upon both parties after marriage. If a man have 
made a hasty or thoughtless selection, the fault of haste 
or thoughtlessness is assuredly his own. As to the 
period at which it is wisest to enter upon this state, the 
advice of the great moralist, Johnson, is striking: 
“ Those who marry at an advanced age will probably 
escape the encroachments of their children; but in dim- 
inution of this advantage, they be likely to leave them 
ignorant and helpless, to a guardian’s mercy; or, if that 
should not happen, they must at least go out of the 
world before they see those they love best, either wise On Wedlock and Offspring. 
105 
or great.” As to young women more especially, it is 
certain that the natural exercise of the organs of re- 
production has the happiest effect on those of a warm 
temperament, excited by diet, inactivity, and other 
stimulating influences. How often do we note the ces- 
sation of frequent hysterical paroxysms, when the 
subject of such attacks has exchanged the virgin for 
the matron state. In this respect, the advice of Hippo- 
crates, two thousand years old though it be, is equally 
applicable in our own day. Hippocrates prescribes 
marriage as the natural remedy, for not one, but many 
seriously-wasting female ailments. When, therefore, a 
young marriageable maiden exhibits symptoms of the 
approach of such diseases as hysteria, or irregularity, or 
absence of certain secretions, the fact that such dis- 
couragements are the result of continence, is Nature’s 
declaration that marriage is the best method of curing 
them; and the sufferer should then, if possible, be 
united to the object of her affections. Such symptoms 
generally disappear after marriage, unless long habit or 
some new disturbing cause, in a few instances, prolong 
their stay; health blooms again upon her cheek; and to 
her family and to society a being is preserved, who may 
be one of their most amiable and valuable members. 
In reference also, to the male sex, the remark is per- 
fectly just, that, independently of many morbid affec- 
tions and habits which marriage removes, it augments 
the energy of the system of the blood-vessels; the dis- 
tended arteries, pulsating with firmer force, transmit 
warmth and animation throughout the body; the 
muscles become more vigorous, the step more elastic, 
the voice firmer, every physical attribute of humanity 
becomes boldly developed. On Wedlock and Offspring. 
Allusion has been made to Dr. Johnson’s opinion in 
favor of early marriages. But this opinion is to be re- 
ceived only with a qualification. That the offspring of 
an aged parent is apt to inherit much of the debility and 
decrepitude which naturally attend old age; that the law 
of Nature and the dictates of prudence discountenance 
the marriage of the old to the young, as an ill-fitting 
conjunction, tending not only to the discomfort of the 
wedded parties, but to weak health and short life, as the 
inheritance of the fruits of such unions, is indisputable; 
but scarcely less grave are the mischiefs which ensue 
from precocious marriages—from marriages which take 
place before the parties have attained a considerable 
degree of maturity. The great physical degeneracy of 
the Polish Jews has been attributed more to the custom 
of marrying, generation after generation, within near 
degrees of kindred, than to Isbe connubial association of 
very young persons. In many parts of the Continent 
similar results have been observed to arise from a like 
custom; and it may be accepted, as a general rule, that 
no consummation of matrimony ought to take place 
before each party has arrived at adult age. If it be ar- 
gued that very early marriages check libertinism, it may 
be responded with perfect truth that they tend with 
equal effect to the production of a sickly, suffering, short- 
lived progeny, who, fortunately for themselves, seldom 
reach manhood or womanhood, and are, in fact, “ not 
worth rearing.” The best preventive of libertinism is 
vigilant and judicious training, combined with careful 
inculcation of the sacred precepts of religion. Viola- 
tions of the wholesome laws of Nature in one direction, 
ape not to be prevented by the violations of the same On Physical Contrasts. 
107 
rules in another direction; and the effeminate and fero- 
cious character of Louis the Eleventh, of France, is only 
one of innumerable examples of the effects of the ex- 
haustion of the nervous powers, and the perversion and 
destruction of some of the most important of the human 
faculties, consequent on too early congress. The lapse 
of two thousand years has confirmed the truth of the 
principle enunciated by the philosopher who declared 
that “ precocious marriages oppose a good generation; 
for in the entire animal kingdom the fruits of the first 
signal of reproductive instinct are usually imperfect, and 
have not any well-established form. It is also the same 
with the human species, and the cause is evident; for 
precocious marriages procure small and contemptible 
men.” The wisdom of this has been confirmed by the 
experience of all ages down to our own. 
In animate as well as inanimate nature, one of the 
greatest charms is contrast and variety, and the influ- 
ence of this is conspicuous in the relations between the 
sexes. It will ordinarily be found that the members of 
the softer sex fix their affections upon individuals distin- 
guished for the possession of the masculine qualities most 
opposite to the female characteristics; and so, vice versa, 
with respect to the attachments formed by males towards 
females. This, as I have observed, is the effect of a great 
natural law. Admiration of any kind is, in general, di- 
rected more intensely towards that which we do not, 
than towards that which we do possess, and towards 
the qualities most different from those with which we 
are ourselves endowed. On the same rule, by which an 
animal cannot feel sexual emotion towards itself, it feels 
comparatively little towards that which is like itself, 108 
ln Connection with Marriage. 
whilst the feeling is intense towards that which is unlike 
it. So we observe that man looks for delicacy, flexibility, 
and gentleness in his mate; woman, for strength, firm- 
ness, and power. In the vital or reproductive system, 
men and women are found instinctively to seek and ap- 
prove opposites; so, love from a man towards a mascu- 
line woman would be felt to be an ill-ordered association; 
and an effeminate man is repugnant to woman, whose 
weakness seeks support, in the wants which it feels or 
in the dangers which it imagines. The classic statue of 
Hector and Andromache must assuredly have been em- 
bodied under the inspiration of the poetry of Homer. 
The sylph-like mother clings about the manly form of 
her noble husband, armed for the fight, as she fondly 
yet proudly exclaims 
“ Too daring chief! ah, whither dost thou run ? 
Ah ! too forgetful of thy wife and son,” 
Frequent instances have occurred in which an ill-as- 
sorted union, brought about by compulsion, by merce- 
nary motives, or any other of the thousand conventional 
influences “ which war with Nature’s honest rule,” have 
caused a married couple to be not only unfruitful, but 
virtually impotent between each other, though otherwise 
perfectly competent to the performance of the offices of 
procreation. Thus, a married couple have often been 
observed to be childless, until, on the death of one of the 
parties, permitting the survivor to form a more eligible 
choice, the usual consequences of marriage were soon 
apparent. Further even than this, a wedded pair have 
been known to be sterile, though after divorce each has 
become prolific with an individual of opposite constitu- 
tions ; and it is well known that the test of congress was In Connection with Marriage. 
109 
abolished in France in the seventeenth century, owing 
to the circumstance that M. cle Langeois, though inca- 
pable of the duties of the married state with his own 
wife, was very fruitful with another lady better suited 
to him. 
It may be safely affirmed that a difference in temper- 
ament between married persons is conducive, not only 
to mutual affection, but to fertility. Nature appears to 
disapprove all unions in which her principle of differ- 
ences and contrasts is disregarded. She wishes mar- 
riages between different families and nations, because 
such crossings of the various races improve and invigor- 
ate the species. The mental weakness, as well as physical 
predicament, of some of the European royal families, are 
strongly confirmatory of the evil of alliances within nar- 
row limits, and daily examples confirm the validity of 
the principle. Pallas adduces the fact that the inter- 
marriages of the Mongol Tartars with the Russians and 
Persians, produce very fine individuals; while Hum- 
boldt and others have observed that the offspring of 
Europeans and persons of the Ethiopic race are pecu- 
liarly robust and active. The philosopher just named 
argues from this, that the best mode of eradicating 
heeeditaky diseases, gout, scrofula, consumption, 
madness, epilepsy, etc., in their early tendency, is by 
the commixture of the species in intermarriages, which 
arrangement often prevents the transmission of such 
diseases to the next generation. If all conjugal unions 
were assorted after the dictates of nature, or the secret 
instinct of sympathy, nothing, without doubt, could be 
more delightful and lasting than the bonds of Hymen. 
By well-ordered natural alliances both sexes become 110 
Physical Contrasts v. In-Breeding. 
better and more perfect, the mutual abandonment of one 
to the other forms one being in two bodies, care is less- 
ened by participation,-and pleasure rendered doubly 
exquisite. 
The instinctive feeling of repulsion win dr 'we experi- 
ence at the mention of the intermarriage of very near 
relatives, bears silent but eloquent testimony to the fact 
that Nature prefers a wide range in this respect; and 
physiologists concur in referring the corporeal and men- 
tal degradation of many ancient aristocracies and 
princely houses to the narrow limits within which mat- 
rimonial selections are made—to the system (speaking 
in homely phraseology) of “ breeding in and in.” Mr. 
Walker, in his celebrated work on “Intermarriage,” ad- 
vances a theory which has received much confirmation 
from subsequent inquiries, and which my own extensive 
observation enables me in great measure to corroborate, 
viz., that a given half or division of a child's organiza- 
tion is for the most part imparted hy the male parent, 
and the other half or division by the female parent; con- 
sequently that continual transmissions, generation after 
generation, of idiosyncracies which have not been health- 
fully varied— or it may be said, “ventilated” —by ac- 
cession of fresh blood, had inevitably led to depravation 
and debility. The noblest race of living beings would, 
by this long-continued process of “ family alliances,” be- 
come degraded, and in time, extinct; and the rule here 
indicated extends from man downwards, through the 
whole realm of animated creation. Mr. Walker argues, 
that by the laws of resemblance the qualities of the 
father and mother are communicated to their progeny, 
“ not in various and minute fractions, but in halves, in Evils of In-Breeding. 
the anterior or the posterior series of organs, and in no 
other way; ” and that by placing himself in suitable re- 
lation to an appropriate partner in marriage, the parent 
has “ the power to reproduce and preserve either series 
of organs,—the best, instead of the worst, portion of 
his organization.” Mr. Knight states, as the result of 
half a century’s experience, that the most vigorous off- 
spring, bodily and mentally, is, with scarcely any excep- 
tions, that of persons of different hereditary tempera- 
ments. This variation is unattainable under the system 
of in-breeding amongst a limited number of families 
a system which long ago elicited from a great British 
surgeon* the following remonstrance:— 
“ The marriages of high rank and of hereditary wealth 
are generally concocted in muniment rooms, where the 
estates of heirs and heiresses are entailed, together with 
the personal peculiarities, moral defects, and hereditary 
diseases of each family, and perpetuated as far as law, 
signings, and seals can extend them. Hence the fro-, 
quent termination of such ill-bred races; while in every 
ancient village of considerable though not shifting popu- 
lation, the names of humble families have continued for 
more ages, though ill-recorded, than those of the proud- 
est gentry.” 
This disastrous state of things has happily, of late 
years, been much changed for the better by numerous 
intermarriages between members of our wealthy families 
and the sons and daughters of prosperous persons of 
humble origin, who infuse the invigorating freshness of 
variety into the “ sang pur ”of their courtly mates. To 
*Sir Anthony Carlisle, 112 
Matrimonial Disappointment 
this circumstance may be attributed the gradual recov- 
ery of our aristocracy from the lamentable effeminacy, 
corruption, and degeneracy into which it had declined. 
These remarks are intended to have a practical bear- 
ing upon the principles which ought to guide persons of 
either sex in their irrevocable choice. True philosophy 
teaches, after all, that to be natural is to be wise; and 
even the simple dictates of the bodily organization are, 
if not infallible guides, (which they are not,) at least 
more safe and trustworthy than those of mercenary 
sordidness and greed. 
Having dwelt thus much on the condition, the observ- 
ance or violation of which so materially influences the 
happiness or misery of the marriage state, the vigor or 
decrepitude of offspring, the welfare of individuals and 
of society at large, it is important to observe that there 
are numerous incidental affections which, though re- 
movable by judicious medical treatment, exhibit so many 
of the overt symptoms of hopeless and incurable infirm- 
ity, that, in the absence of the knowledge that effectual 
relief can be administered, their presence inflicts the 
bitterness of despair and the anguish of shameful hu- 
miliation upon thousands. The prevention, the sup- 
pression, and the alleviation of suffering arising from 
these causes, are one of the purposes of my present 
labors. 
For, even when matrimony is contracted under the 
most promising auspices—when all seems lair as a sum- 
mer landscape,—how often there comes a blight of un- 
foreseen and dismal character, crushing hope, evoking 
despair, sowing discord and strife amongst entire fami- 
lies I We all know that this is an every-day occurrence; Exemplified and Treated. 
113 
but the causes—the fundamental causes of the anom- 
aly are generally hidden behind the dark curtains of 
personal and conventional pride. 
The principal of these causes it forms the labor of my 
life to sift, to identify, and to remove. My professional 
experience has brought me so much into contact with 
persons of all grades and stations, and of various men- 
tal and physical temperaments, that I feel myself justi- 
fied in speaking with the freedom of one whom a fund 
of mournful knowledge has made acquainted with facts 
which give language authority. 
In the first place, then, it is a truth which it would be 
not only useless but mischievous to disguise, that a prime 
and leading source of connubial infelicity is the inter- 
vention of certain physical phenomena, which in some 
measure interfere with the perfect fulfilment of the sa- 
cred institution of marriage. It is not in some cases 
until years have elapsed, that the existence of these 
phenomena has been discovered; in some the discovery 
dates from the bridal day itself; in others they seem to 
arise suddenly from some cause, which, without medical 
investigation, the sufferer cannot even conjecture. 
An example will suffice to illustrate some of these 
sets of circumstances: Many years since a marriage 
took place between a lady and a gentleman, who, to use 
the homely but expressive phrase, were in all respects 
“ well matched.” Age, health, pecuniary circumstances, 
and every element of harmony, seemed to foretoken a 
life of mutual satisfaction, and to promise an offspring 
of the quality which gladdens the parent’s heart. All 
went well for a while; in due time a child was born, 
with every outward indication of sound health; in a 114 
Conjugal Precepts 
few weeks the infant sickened and died. This was the 
more regretted, inasmuch as family settlements had 
made it more than usually important that there should 
be children. Better fortune was hoped for. The next 
child was still-born! And this sad alternation went on 
for six or seven years; the infants in no case surviving 
beyond a week or two. The state of things grew most 
painful; relatives on both sides became entangled in dis- 
cussions which promised anything but a friendly con- 
clusion. The mysterious loss of many successive child- 
ren, whose parents were to all appearance so well fitted 
for the performance of their respective functions, baffled 
the ingenuity of the family physician, and at length be- 
gan to excite suspicions of a kind the most injurious to 
third parties. At length medical advice was taken else- 
where, and the husband was minutely questioned as to 
any antecedent circumstances which could by possibility 
have affected his present state of health. He stated 
that in his youth he had suffered from a disorder which, 
as he believed, “ had been perfectly cured.” An examin- 
ation took place; after rigid analysis it became evident 
that there still existed in the system some smouldering 
remains of the evil. Light now began to set in; wife 
and husband were persuaded to live apart for a few 
weeks, and a powerful alterative and purifying process 
was resorted to in the case of each. They then resumed 
cohabitation. Three or four children, growing up in the 
bloom of health and vigor, are the fruit of the re-union. 
But, mark the consequences of the neglect, on the part 
of the husband, to take advice before his marriage from 
a thoroughly-qualified practitioner, as to whether there 
were anything “ to be set right ” before the union was And Friendly Counsel. 
115 
consummated. Half a dozen lives sacrificed; a wretch- 
ed interval of anguish and mutual reproach; family dis- 
sensions, which, once excited, will perhaps never be 
truly reconciled! Fortunate that the evil effects of cul- 
pable neglect proceeded no further. Such is one of the 
least distressing illustrations of the neglect of an obvi- 
ous and easy duty. 
Whilst on the subject of the health of children, it is 
important to take notice of the cases in which, though 
many incidents besides incapacity of the procreative 
powers on either side, there has been no offspring what- 
ever. Such deprivations of life’s chief blessing some- 
times arise out of conditions the very reverse of those 
which popular prejudices usually assign as the sole cause 
of non-fruitfulness. It happens, not very unfrequently, 
even where morality has never been departed from, 
where the strictest fidelity has been observed on both 
sides, where there is no overt disease, no hereditary pre- 
disposition to disease, no deficiency or malformation of 
the essential organs, that no offspring is forthcoming to 
crown the happiness of the wedded pair. Now, in many 
such cases, the very ardor and redundant warmth of 
love are the agents which defeat their own object; in 
others, the disappointment arises from ignorance of a 
few simple and salutary maxims respecting food, repose, 
and season. There is more important truth than is 
generally imagined in the ancient maxim—“Labor, 
cibus, potio, somnns, Yenus,” (Labor, food, drink, sleep, 
love); and it is equally worthy of note by those who hope 
to be the parents of a numerous and vigorous offspring, 
that the wished-for consummation is seldom accom- 
plished, save under the influence of “ natural and vigor- 116 
Friendly Counsel 
ous desire and impulse.” Children propagated during 
intoxication are often decrepit in body, and still more 
so in mind. Finally, very fond couples will do well to 
remember that the cherished object of their wishes is 
marred rather than promoted by a too frequent or im- 
petuous indulgence of their emotions. 
There is yet another class of cases, in which the ab- 
sence of children involves serious consequences, not 
merely as regards the discomfort of the married state, 
but in reference to the arrangement of property, and to 
many other objects which will suggest themselves to 
readers of intelligence. Extraordinary but well-authen- 
ticated narratives are on record, of elforts made to be- 
come parents through the violation of more than one of 
the laws of morality. As instruction, however, and not 
mere amusement, is the object of this treatise, it will 
suffice to remark that in the vast majority of the cases 
under review, timely application to efficient medical 
counsel would remove both the agony of disappointed 
hopes and the temptation to use vicious means for the 
fulfdment of these hopes. There are few causes of dis- 
qualification which cannot be effectually subdued by the 
appliances of science and experience—by the guidance 
of a physician whose devotion of all his faculties to 
the investigation of the functions of reproduction, fur- 
nish a guarantee of his capacity to adapt his treatment 
to the distinctive exigencies of each particular case. 
Let this precaution be adopted, and rarely indeed will 
the object fail to be accomplished. 
By a careful observance of these admonitory hints, by 
attention to the duties which each stage of existence 
calls into action, the great end of marriage the health, And Useful Truths. 
117 
the happiness, and natural reproduction of our species— 
will be prompted to an indefinite extent; and countless 
scenes of misery, degradation, and wickedness, be finally 
extirpated from the earth. The ways of virtue are the 
ways of Nature once known and followed, they will 
be found infinitely sweeter than those haunted by the 
infatuated votaries of inordinate indulgence. Much 
must be left to the vigilance of parents, teachers, clergy- 
men, and all having the care of youth, to prevent the 
seeds of vice -from being sown in the minds of their 
charges; to preclude all possibility of the younger- being 
corrupted by the elder; and, trampling on the hateful 
and deadly prejudicies created by the demon of false 
modesty, to be careful in inquiry, and delicate but firm 
in exhortation. Much will then depend on the mental 
training of the youth, whereby he may avoid those 
quicksands of passion on which so many have been 
shipwrecked. The ages of ignorance are said to have 
passed away forever. Shall we continue to tolerate that 
most hateful vestige of ignorance that would cloak and 
hide a frightful evil, which it rather becomes us to en- 
deavor to remove ? 
As to those who have attained mature years, who 
contemplate matrimony, or who have already under- 
taken its obligations, and would effectually secure the 
blessings, and as effectually avert the evils, which are 
(it is hoped,) sufficiently clearly indicated in this treatise, 
the pathway of health and safety, of happiness and 
longevity, is pointed out to them,—let then- own reason 
dictate to them whether they will follow the auspicious 
track. 
Thus, to all stages of life, to all variations of constitu- Physical Infirmity: 
118 
tion and temperment, to all grades of social or profes- 
sional position and circumstance, the subjects which 
form the staple-matter of examination and elucidation 
in these pages are pregnant with considerations of in- 
terest and utility. The experience of a life has con- 
vinced me that, of the undefined causes of unhappiness 
which perplex the politician and the philanthropist, an 
enormous proportion is referable to the dire neglect 
with which the more secret and difficult branches of 
physiology have been treated by the majority of medi- 
cal practicioners. One of my most cherished objects 
is that of awakening the convictions of my medical 
brethren to an active sense of the duty of giving to 
this department of pathology that studious and respect- 
ful attention which its importance eminently deserves. 
I feel that if I can effect this I shall have done much 
towards ensuring the desired result of my labors. 
But I have yet another object,— one equally in uni- 
son with the aspirations of the eminent men to whose 
remonstrances against pernicious anomalies and prejudi- 
ces allusion has already been made. That object con- 
sists in the diffusion of such an amount of popular 
knowledge as may serve, at least, to instruct my fellow- 
beings as to the extent to which the miseries and felici- 
ties of life are involved in a line of conduct over which 
each one of us has control viz: the observance or neg- 
lect of the celestial lights of nature and science. 
It is right and useful that all men should know that 
there are principles of personal management which 
cannot be violated without the incurral ot grievous pen- 
alties ; it is right that they should know, when wisdom 
and regret succeed the hey-day of inconsiderate self- Its Causes and Cure. 
119 
indulgence, how these penalties may be mitigated, and 
how the sting of their bitterness may ultimately be re- 
moved; it is right that they should understand the 
beginnings of evil, that so the evil and its consequences 
may be avoided; but it is almost equally important 
that the innumerable host of sufferers who are already 
experiencing the agony of disappointed hopes, and the 
humiliating degradation of a baffled existence,—it is 
almost equally important that these should be made 
aware that the most absurd of all emotion is that of 
despair; that physical infirmity is incalculably aggra- 
vated by permitting the mind to brood overmuch on 
misfortunes which men should seek to remedy instead 
of dissipating their energies in idle lamentations; that 
mental prostration is the fertile parent of bodily imbe- 
cility and anguish; and, above all, that there is scarcely 
any degree of weakness or functional derangement to 
ichich the timely aid of science cannot apply a cure. 
The cases are not counted by scores, but by hundreds 
upon hundreds, in which I have found a patient hasten- 
ing to, or already immersed in, an abyss of woe, re- 
morse, incapacity, and deprivation of hope, and have 
left this same patient in the thankful enjoyment of vigor 
and buoyant spirits. In the course of a widely-extend- 
ed practice and correspondence such instances are of 
continual occurrence; and they have sometimes pre- 
sented themselves under circumstances which made the 
conservation of titles and large properties, the dignity 
and perpetuation of ancient and time-honored races, 
contingent on the effectuation of the grand object of 
marriage. It is unnecessary to add more, before pro- 
ceeding to a detailed exposition of the subjects which A Vigorous Posterity. 
120 
enter capitally into the consideration of the Practical 
Philosophy of Marriage. It is a topic, the interest of 
which commences with earliest infancy, and does not 
cease until man is consigned to his last narrow resting- 
place. That the latter catastrophe should not take 
place until Nature’s course is fairly run,— until the ven- 
erable dignities of a hale and happy old age have been 
enjoyed,— until a virtuous, healthy, vigorous posterity 
is seen flourishing around each honored grandsire; that 
destructive viciousness be extirpated, and innocence and 
felicity take its place; such are among the high designs 
with which the following pages have been composed; 
and, actuated by this spirit, I feel myself guilty of no 
presumption when I bespeak the attention of my fel- 
low-men in all countries', to the warnings, the exhorta- 
tions, and the instructions therein contained. The Causes of Evil. 
121 
SECTION IV. 
ON SPEEMATOEEHCEA (EXCESSIVE SPEEMATIC DIS- 
CHAEGE, OE SEMINAL DEBILITY)—ITS HISTOEY 
AND CAUSES. 
My chief design, in composing the present work, is to 
furnish persons uninitiated in professional mysteries 
and technicalities with information sufficient to lead 
them to the adoption of those measures of precaution? 
prevention, or cure, which may, in certain states of the 
system, be necessary for the preservation of health, for 
its restoration when damaged or jeopardised, and for 
the arrest of disease, either imminent or present, ere it 
reaches that desperate stage with which even skill and 
science would grapple in vain. I think it right to state, 
in the first place, that the term “ Spermatorrhoea,” (a 
Greek derivative,) indicates an excessive and unnatural 
loss of the seminal fluid. 
This affection, which is often the precursor and cause 
of a train of the most dire, excruciating, and deadly 
maladies to which the human frame is subject, has vari- 
ous origins—the principal of which, (and that which 
is infinitely more general and destructive than all 
the others put together,) is the practice of that fearful 
habit which has slaughtered so many victims at the 
shrine of the Moloch of sensualism, aud which may be 
delicately, but I hope sufficient plainly, indicated as 
Solitary Vice. 122 
The Causes of Evil. 
The promotive causes of Spermatorrhoea, in its mean- 
ing of seminal weakness, are of several kinds; but the 
cases which arise from all the others put together, are 
not one hundredth part the number of those proceed- 
ing from self-abuse, the dreadful consequences of which, 
in their multiform shapes, form a principal subject 
a subject painful as it is important —of the present 
work. Among the secondary causes are venereal 
excesses of the natural kind, which come probably next 
in degree, though still at a vast distance. Organic 
disease of the testicles is another cause; to which may 
be added long-continued and obstinate gleets. The 
evil is also occasioned by the action of a variety of 
nostrums prescribed by injudicious medical men; and 
there are several kinds of congenital and local mal- 
formation which, if not obviated or removed, tend di- 
rectly to the production of the malady. Certain cu- 
taneous eruptions, causing itching on particular and 
sensitive parts of the body, are sometimes found to 
produce a similar effect; again, constipation or tight- 
ness of t fie bowels, and the irritation of the rectum or 
lower bowel by multitudes of small worms, termed as- 
carides, are another cause. Local accidents to the 
genital organs, or those adjoining, likewise to the head, 
and colds arising from damp or otherwise, at times lead 
to some of the consequences of Spermatorrhoea; and 
sedentaiy habits, long riding on horseback* or even in 
carriages, are in certain habits of constitution found 
• The prevalence of irapotency among the ancient Scythians, 
who almost passed their lives on horseback, and among cer 
tain of the Mongol and Tartar tribes, down to the present day_ 
is well known. The Sources of Evil. 
123 
productive of the worst effects in this respect. But 
as the influence of all these is absolutely insignificant, 
either in extent or malignity, compared with that of 
self-abuse, I shall, for the present, pass them by, and 
proceed at once to the consideration of that grand 
source of mischief. 
As connected with this subject, I may here observe 
that anything like prudery or attempted concealment 
respecting it is not merely one of the most vain and 
foolish affectations, but one of the greatest practical in- 
juries to morality of which mistaken good intentions 
are capable. The most ancient and venerable record 
of human events refers especially to abuse ; without 
either sanctimoniousness or profanity, I may reveren- 
tially affirm that the Book of Books itself is not only 
standing evidence of the heinousness of the sin of Er 
and Onan, but of the necessity of proclaiming that 
heinousness to all mankind, and the folly and wrong 
of endeavouring to conceal it. Their crime was com- 
mitted in the full consciousness of its inherent hateful- 
ness, and therefore their punishment was most signal. 
They dared to disarrange, to pervert the laws, im- 
pressed alike upon the conscience as upon the bodily 
organization of man. Theirs was presumptuous crimi- 
nality, not ignorant frailty, but wilful impiety; and 
their sad example has been left on record as A fearfue 
warning to all future geneeations ; as a measure 
of the depravity of certain transgressions, and the in- 
evitable certainty of retributive justice. Is it not, 
then, gross infatuation on the part of human beings, 
be they parents, guardians, teachers, or what not, to 
attempt to set aside this holy ordinance; to set aside 124 
The Sources of Evil. 
the force and meaning of this great example by 
paltry quibble and prevarication, or by any means 
(as all such means are,) inconsistent with candor 
and truth? Such devices merely create the danger 
nay, in many cases the absolute certainty that 
the evil may arise, and all its sad train of moral 
and physical ruin be incurred, before the victim be- 
comes acquainted with the meaning of the warning, 
so wisely and so mercifully set forth in the thirty-eighth 
chapter of Genesis.* That this has often been the case 
that young people frequently destroy themselves by 
falling into the habit in question, whilst in absolute 
ignorance of the meaning of the word “ Onanism,” or 
of the sacred text, I can state from the experience 
gathered in the course of my own practice. 
As to the pretence that any allusion to solitary vice 
may lead youth to the knowledge and practice of it, 
that would really appear too shallow an argument to 
be seriously dealt with. It is an evil against which it 
is impossible to guard, save by warning and vigilance ; 
for there are no circumstances conceivable in which 
a child may not fall into it, if not timely informed of 
its consequences. In the family circle, among his 
parents’ servants, in private and public schools, from 
accidental associates nay, by perverse instinct or 
physical infirmity—the secret may be learned. The 
practice of solitary vice the bane of future life 
* And Onan knew that the seed should not be his : and it came 
to pass when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilt it 
on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. 
And the thing which he did displeased the Lord, wherefore 
he slew him also,—Genesis, 36th chapter, 9th and 10th verses. Dangers of Hypocrisy. 
125 
exists at all ages, from infancy upwards, but chiefly 
amongst children and youth. Even children of seven, 
eight, and nine years have been brought to their graves 
through inveterate but unsuspected addiction to this 
habit, which the unhappy parent discovers when too 
late; and when we find that even female children are 
not exempt from it—when we find little female infants 
of tender years producing lascivious emotions by giving 
themselves up to furious masturbation* when we 
find that ignorant manipulation of nurses, working the 
ruin of children at the breast, and when pathological 
experience makes us aware of the innumerable in- 
stances in which young people are injured through 
their parents’ erroneous idea that, until the arrival of 
puberty, no vigilance need be exercised over “ the ac- 
tions of children with regard to their genital organs,” 
it is high time that the honest and intelligent members 
of a noble profession should protest against the hateful 
hypocrisy alluded to, should defy it, expose it, oppose it 
with might and main, and endeavor, with what force 
they can, to put it down and render it as loathed and 
despised, as it really is loathsome and despicable. 
Away, then, with this wretched perversion of the 
meaning of the terms “ morality and delicacy,” when it 
is known and declared by experienced physicians that 
even disease itself, in a variety of shapes such as 
pulmonary consumption, sometimes leads to con- 
siderable and even violent venereal excitement, and 
that the unchecked, untaught propensities of the young 
lead them, in infinite numbers, to perpetrate deadly 
* Annales d’Hygeine Publique et de Medecine Legale. 126 
Banger of Hypocrisy. 
violations of the sacred ordinance in this respect. It 
is better (in the language of a great master of science,) 
“to admit at once, that among other infirmities of 
our nature, causes, predisposing to masturbation, exist 
within the human organization itself,” and to take 
measures, at least as strenuous, against the development 
of this all but universal infirmity, as are adopted with 
regard to others infinitely less common, less seducing, 
and less pernicious. 
It is, therefore, my wish that this publication may 
become extensively familiar to the superintendents of 
our schools and collegiate educational institutions; to 
the clergy, to parents and guardians, and all to whom 
is entrusted the formation of youthful character. It 
will be useful, without admixture or diminution, in 
enabling them to make timely discovery of a hateful 
practice among those committed to their care; and it 
may put them upon their guard, so as to enable them 
to take such precautions as may be most fitting to avert 
the consequences. There are few of those who have 
devoted themselves chiefly to the treatment of sexual 
diseases, who are not deeply impressed with the general 
prevalency of self-pollution. It is doubted by the mere 
routine practitioner. Is it denied ? He, of all men, is 
least likely to be able to form an accurate conception. 
He is precisely the last man to be consulted or confided 
with the secret. 
The family physician may be in possession of family 
secrets, he may know the hereditary tendencies 
common to them all; but it is .quite another thing 
to become entrusted with individual secrets,—the 
confession that the solitary victim will not and Self-Abuse. 
127 
cannot make to a father, a mother, a brother, or a 
sister. The common medical attendant, never con- 
sulted, and very wisely so, is just as ignorant of the 
extent and prevalence of these pernicious practices, 
as he is of the best mode for their detection and 
cure. I am sure that, in calling attention to the 
evils resulting from every form of vicious indul- 
gence, I am adopting the most efficient means 
to deter unwary youth from the snare; and by point- 
ing out to persons of both sexes the frightful evils, 
both to body and mind, inseparably attendant upon 
the grosser habit of self-pollution, I hold the warn- 
ing beacon up to Nature, and mark the treacherous 
quicksand upon which have been wrecked the hopes 
and promise of many a noble youth now mouldering 
in a disgraceful grave. Temporary distraction may 
suddenly dethrone the self-determining power of the 
will; life may become extinct under the influence of 
momentary madness; but the poor slave of filthy pro- 
pensities is a deliberate suicide. And shall it be said 
it is wrong to strip the mask otf this infatuation, 
to paint the horrors which await the unfortunate crea- 
tures who venture near the edge of a moral gulf in- 
discriminately burying within its insatiable vortex the 
happiness of Time and the hope of Eternity ? 
Self-pollution is the most certain, though not always 
the most immediate avenue to destruction. It con- 
stitutes a lingering species of mortality, and if it were 
possible to study and invent some new refinement in 
cruelty, surely that would most clearly deserve the 
designation, which man deliberately points against 
himself, against not merely his temporal but eternal 128 
Self-Abuse. 
welfare; not by sudden wrench to tear himself away 
from the amenities of wife, children, and home, but 
with his own hand imperceptibly to infuse a deadly 
poison, slowly to rankle in the cup of life and embitter 
each passing day; to shroud in gloom the darkening 
future, and invite the king of terrors prematurely to do 
his office. 
To describe more precisely this fearful infatuation, 
Self-pollution is that detestable practice by which 
persons of either sex may defile their own bodies, alone, 
in secrecy ; and whilst yielding to lascivious imagina- 
tions, endeavour to imitate and procure to themselves 
those sensations which nature has appended to the 
commerce of the sexes. It appears to be one of those 
impure habits which are coeval with the world’s long 
history. It was the special vice of Rome. Temples 
were erected to Yenus Fricatrix,* in which the most 
obscene practices, of which self-pollution constituted 
one, were publicly perpetrated. The Friga or Yenus 
of the ruder Scandinavians was honored with similar 
vile observances; and from this curious, yet filthy 
source, we derive the name “ Friga-daeg” (Friday) of 
the sixth day of the week. A word in vulgar use, 
expressive of the sexual act, has the same dishonorable 
origin. 
Unfortunately for the history of human nature, the 
vice has been found coeval with every form of society, 
savage, or civilized; and the denunciations of the an- 
cient moralists are of equal application at the present 
* From the Latin verb “frico ” (to rub or chafe), whence 
“frictlo »(friction). From Bad Example, &c. 
129 
period. We find them uniformly expressing the most 
unmitigated horror at this abominable practice, as a 
crime most monstrous, unnatural and filthy, odious 
to extremity ; its guilt crying, and its consequences 
absolutely ruinous: as destroying conjugal affection, 
perverting natural inclination, and extinguishing the 
hope of posterity. 
One of the greatest of living physiologists,— one of 
those to whose energetic labors humanity is indebted for 
the degree of attention which, in modern times has for- 
tunately been directed towards this subject, observes that 
no error has inflicted greater ills on society, or produced 
greater social, domestic, and individual miseries, than 
that of parents who neglect the consequences which 
may be produced by children associating with servants, 
schoolfellows, playmates, &c. Countless numbers have 
owed their fall to this cause. But, besides the danger aris- 
ing from evil example, there is that of the child acquiring 
by himself, through accident or morbid precocity, hab- 
its which may ultimately prove destructive. “In 
some,” it is remarked, “ there is a kind of precocity of 
sexual instinct which leads to very serious results. In 
these it often happens that the instinct arises long be- 
fore puberty. Such children manifest an intuitive at- 
traction towards the female sex, which they show by 
constantly spying after their nurses, chambermaids, &c. 
These practices of children are commonly laughed at; 
but if they were regarded with more attention it would 
become evident that the sexual impulse was awakened.” 
Instances of this kind are, in fact, innumerable; but as 
I am desirous occasionally to support the results of my 
own experience by reference to that of such other prac- 130 
The Curse of Ignorance, 
titioners as have, like myself, addressed themselves to 
this department of physiological science, I shall here 
quote a case in point from the reports of a contempo- 
rary : 
“ M. D , the son of a physician, when between 
five and six years of age, was one day in summer in the 
room of a dress-maker who lived in his family: this 
girl, thinking she might safely put herself at her ease 
before such a child, threw herself on the bed almost 
without clothing. The little D had followed all 
her motions, and regarded her figure with a greedy eye. 
He approached her on the bed, as if to sleep, but he 
soon become so bold in his behavior, that, after having 
laughed at him for some time, the girl was obliged to 
put him out of the room. This girl’s simple impru- 
dence produced such an impression on the child, that 
when he consulted me forty years afterwards, he had 
not forgotten a single circumstance connected with it. 
“ The continual occupation of his mind by lascivious 
ideas did not produce any immediate etfect, but about 
the age of eight the most insignificant occurrence 
served to turn his recollections to his destruction. 
Having mounted, one day, on one of the moveable 
frames which are used for brushing coats, he slid down 
the stem which supports the transverse bar, and the fric- 
tion occasioned caused him to experience an agreeable 
sensation in his genital organs. He hastened to remount 
and to slide down in the same manner, until the repe- 
tition of these frictions produced effects which he had 
been far from anticipating. This discovery, added to 
the ideas constantly before him, gave rise to the most 
extraordinary abuses, and after a time to excessive mas- 
turbation.” Without entering into detail upon the miserable ef- 
fects which resulted from his practices, or describing the 
utter destruction, physical and moral, which ultimately 
occurred, it will here suffice to observe that the instance 
quoted is merely one of thousands of a like nature, in 
which children and very young persons procure volup- 
tuous sensations by masturbation, or by manoeuvres 
wholly unsuspected by all around them. In some cases 
the feeling is produced by hanging from doors, furni- 
ture, &c.; in others, by compressing the penis between 
the legs; in others, by sliding down banisters, poles, 
&c. A curious instance is on record where “an officer 
of high rank experienced his first sensation against the 
leg of a table, at the early age of ten years, and con- 
tinued for several years to employ the same means.” By 
this proceeding the most dreadful subsequent effects 
were produced. And here I would add my testimony 
to that of a modern writer, who advises that “ the ex- 
treme sensibility which the genital organs manifest at 
the period of puberty should prevent horse exercise 
from being commenced at this period, as is usually 
done.” The fact is, that some years earlier or some 
years later, is the safer period. I have myself known 
not a few instances in which the first voluptuous sensa- 
tion, and the first emission of semen, were caused by 
horse-riding; and in which, without recourse to any 
other means of creating such emotions, debility and 
impotency at length ensued, which I had not less diffi- 
culty in curing, than where the effects had been caused 
by other irregularities. 
And its Avoidance. 
131 
After much consideration, in short, no course appears 
to me capable of effectually guarding against the worst 
effects, resulting fxom the perversely ingenious contriv- 132 
Proofs, Sad and Terrible, 
ances,by which illegitimate pleasures are so dearly pur- 
chased,— no other course, I say, save that of revealing 
the awful truth during the early dawn of reason, and 
inspiring the youthful mind with horror of this, as of 
other sins. It is madness to wait even so long as the 
period of puberty. There is nothing so unwise as “ the 
confidence of the parents in the ignorance of their chil- 
dren.” I have demonstrated that long before the arrival 
of puberty the genital instinct and impulses are ener- 
getically experienced by many. At whatever sacrifice 
of the innocent recreations of youth, this propensity 
will find means for gratification, unless there be both 
watchfulness and warning. The former will be com- 
paratively useless in some senses mischievous—with- 
out the latter; for youthful curiosity is easily piqued. It 
has been well observed that “ Children’s sleep is not al- 
ways so sound as it seems.” Patients have confessed to 
me that in early childhood they have passed weeks 
without enjoying nocturnal sleep, while seeking the 
gratification of their instincts by lying on the abdomen 
manipulating the naval, and other almost incredible 
manoeuvres fraught with their future misery. Whilst 
so engaged, their days were passed in listless drowsiness 
and apathy; fond parents yea, and grave physicians 
attributing the decay in mental and physical health 
of the once-promising child, to every cause but the 
right one. 
But of all the causes and circumstances which lead 
to vicious habits, and more especially to the deadly one 
of masturbation, not one can bear even a remote com- 
parison to the corrupting influence prevalent in num- 
bers— I might say the majority— of schools, both male Of the Extension of Vice. 
133 
and female. The statements which have appeared from 
time to time, in connection with this subject are, so far 
from being exaggerated, very much within reality;— 
and the reason is obvious. Whilst a child remains at 
home, the opportunities of, as well as the instructors in 
evil are few, if any. A depraved servant or playmate 
forms ("saving the exceptional and accidental causes to 
which I have alluded,) the most serious danger then to be 
encountered. At school it is otherwise. There he finds 
tempters already initiated in vice, to whom corruption 
and depravity have been transmitted from numerous 
successions of former pupils, and where again it is en- 
grafted on the fresh arrivals.” 
“ One sickly sheep infects the flock, 
Most truly have these places been described, as being in 
many instances, foci and hotbeds of contagion, where 
destructive immorality assumes a thousand Protean 
aspects, and where obscenity is instilled by every device 
of example, persuasion, and menace. The sub-officials 
in these establishments are not always ignorant of the 
existence of the evil, and are even sometimes criminal 
participators in and active instigators of it. The prin- 
cipals are, no doubt, either in ignorance, or on discover- 
ing, endeavor to repress it—privately without scan- 
dal as they say. But on no account shall the public 
know anything about it. Aor for the world should any- 
thing transpire whereby the interests of such-and-such 
an institution or college or seminary could be compro- 
mised. Now this is, per se, a great mischief. Nothing 
effectual is done lest the character of the place should 
suffer. So one or two rotten sheep are sent away quietly 
And poisons all the rest.” 134 
Venereal Imprudences 
after a note to their parents recommending their with- 
drawal, and twenty or thirty or fifty equally rotten ones 
are perhaps left; for the infection sometimes extends to 
the entire establishment. Thus things remain much as 
before, save the occasional farce of an admonition upon 
immorality generally,— an exhibition which, from the 
countenances of the hearers, would appear as if got up 
expressly for the purpose of exciting the risible muscles. 
Now here is a grave, an awful anomaly,—an anomaly emi- 
nently calling for legislative action of some kind in or- 
der that special and systematic means should be applied 
for its suppression. The morals, the constitutions, the 
future manhood and womanhood of our growing popu- 
lation are perishing and rotting beforehand, under the 
upas influence of a gigantic evil; and deplorable will it 
be if either sordid private interests, hypocritical punctil- 
iousness, or the imposture of a pretended regard for our 
national character for morality, be permitted to inter- 
fere between it and its extinction. The latter pre- 
tence is not less absurd and unfounded than any of the 
others. The terrific prevalence of the vice in our 
schools and amongst our own youth, is matter of cer- 
tainty, to conceal which is impossible, and would be fool- 
ish and wicked if it were possible. But in other coun- 
tries, more especially those to which luxurious refine- 
ments have extended, things are no better, as is 
acknowledged by the highest authorities in France, 
America, and England* In short, the evil alluded to 
* The evil greatly preponderates amongst the male sex, as 
compared with females. But that it rages with deadly virulence 
even amongst the latter*, may he judged from the observation of 
Mr. Fowler, of Philadelphia, that women, young and apparently Illustrated in their Effects. 
135 
is the monster one of civilization, in every phase of de- 
velopment, from the barbaric to the more advanced 
stage. 
As already noticed, the effect of Venereal Excesses, 
by which it is understood an overfree or promiscuous 
indulgence in sexual intercourse, is often the provoca- 
tive of the disease of Involuntary Spermatorrhoea. a 
disease which, because not so evident in its inroads, is 
all the more formidable than even those maladies, fright- 
ful though they be, the severity of whose external 
symptoms forces them early on the sufferer’s attention. 
modest, “ are dying by thousands, of consumption, of female 
complants, of nervous and spinal affections, of general debility, 
and of other ostensible complaints innumerable, and some of 
insanity, caused solely by this practice.” This testimony, did 
it require confirmation, would receive it from that of Mrs. Gore, 
in her valuable “ Lectures to Ladies, on Anatomy and Physiolo- 
gy.” I may here observe that there are numerous instances of 
ladies holding medical certificates and practicing as physicians 
in the United States. Mrs. Gore is one of them, and enjoys an 
extensive practice, as well as much reputation for skill. In the 
“Lectures” referred to she says: “Some years since, my 
mind was awakened to examine the subject by the perusal of a 
medical work that described the effects of this vice (masturba- 
tion,) when practised by females. This was the first intimation 
I had that the vice existed among our sex ; since that time I have 
had much evidence that it is fearfully common among them. 
* * * Were this the particular vice of the low and vulgar, 
there might be more excuse for the apathy and false delicacy 
that pervade the community respecting it. But it invades all 
ranks. Professed Christians are among its victims. Our board- 
ing and day schools are sources of intolerate mischief.” These 
are native pictures by native writers. With melancholy truth it 
might be said in reference to our own, and, indeed most coun- 
tries,— “ Mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur,” 136 
Venereal Imprudences 
In some instances the affection produced by venereal 
excess is very difficult of perfect cure; but there is a 
wide difference as regards obstinacy, between the in- 
firmity arising from promiscuous excess, and that ensu- 
ing on imprudently frequent intercourse with one indi- 
vidual. In the former cases the work of cure sometimes 
requires a considerable period, while in the latter the 
difficulties are much less. Much, of course, depends on 
the timeliness of the application for advice. If such 
application be deferred until the constitution is seriously 
injured, the obstacles with which the physician has to 
contend are proportionately greater. 
Connected with sexual imprudence, the effects of 
Gleets, generally consequent on attacks of Blennorrhagia 
or Gonorrhoea, or as it is commonly called, Clap, are 
sometimes found to be of an obstinately malignant 
character. The generally-received notion among per- 
sons unacquainted with medical science is, that the sting 
of Gonorrhoea is quite trifling compared with that of 
Syphilis. This is a great mistake. The effects of Syphilis 
are externally more frightful, but the Gleet, consequent 
on injudiciously-treated Gonorrhoea, is not less deadly 
in its ravages. I may instance a case in point which came 
under my professional notice not long since. The pa- 
tient was an officer in the army, who, twelve years pre- 
viously, when a very young man, had been troubled 
with what was described as “an ordinary clap.” For 
this he was treated by some inferior practitioner, who 
dosed him in the routine manner with cubebs, copaiba, 
&c., &c., and, I had reason to suspect, resorted to a too 
early use of astringent injections. He was then pro- 
nounced “ cured.” Soon after a painless, gleety dis- Illustrated in their Effects. 
137 
charge was perceived, which, after continuing for several 
months, was also stopped by some empirical preparation. 
Here the “ cure ” was supposed to be complete, but the 
evil was only suspended. Years afterwards, and when 
the gonorrhoeal attack was all but forgotten, (no fresh 
infection having been contracted in the meantime,) the 
gentleman’s bodily and mental health became visibly 
affected by some cause, which, when the medical man 
tailed to discover it, was, as usual, considered to be 
fanciful, and the patient was regarded as a Malade 
Imaginarie ; imaginary or not, however, his complaint 
produced sad consequences, and I have seldom witnessed 
a more pitiable example of prostration. Total sexual 
impotence was only one of its symptoms. His abject 
and miserable condition had been coming on by degrees, 
and no one could account for it. Suspecting the real 
cause, I submitted his urine to a rigorous microscopic 
examination. The result was as I expected. The sper- 
matozoa,— the characteristic of the human semen, and 
which, in a healthy condition of the body, could not be 
found elsewhere, existed in large quantities in his urine. 
These animalcules constitute the main material of the 
seminal liquor,— the very essence of vitality. Here the 
nature of my patient’s misfortunes at once became self- 
evident. He was sinking Ifom Spermatorrhoea, unsus- 
pected, unperceived, by himself and others. Further 
examination convinced me that he had been for a long 
time thus suffering, and that the imperceptible insidious 
discharge took place whilst at stool, as well as in the 
act of emptying the bladder. In short, my patient had, 
year after year been parting with life itself, descending 
stage by stage, to the grave, as a consequence in the 138 
The Miseries of Imprudence. 
first place, of improper treatment of common gonorrhoea, 
followed by gleet, and afterwards, through the inability 
of the general practitioners whom he consulted to de- 
tect the real nature of his wasting malady. Had it not 
so happened that this was discovered in the manner 
which I have described, the scene would have soon 
closed over another victim to what, with cruel mockery 
is termed, “ imaginary ” illness. 
Melancholy has been the fate of modern times since 
the venereal poison was first known and propagated; 
and sad are the sensations which must naturally arise 
in the mind of every friend of humanity who considers 
its nature and progress. This destructive agent acts 
not merely upon individual life, but it contaminates 
every spring, transmitting its dreadful influences to 
generations yet unborn; it embitters life’s sweetest en- 
joyments, separates husband and wife, parents from the 
affection of their children, and inflicts a stab upon 
domestic peace, from which, however forgivingly the 
tender look of woman’s eye may heal the offensive 
wound, a scar remains upon memory and affection 
while life endures. It breaks down the vigor of lusty 
youth, covering the body with loathsome ulcers, or 
destroying the bones: and thus defacing the manly 
beauty of the “ human face divine.” The sonorous 
voice exchanges its deep rich tones for a pitiable con- 
temptible nasal twang, thus compelling the miserable 
victim, with every word he indistinctly utters, to pro- 
nounce his own shame. Such are the revolting features 
of Syphilitic disorganization ; its horrible mutilations 
are shudderingly hateful beyond all possible conception. 
To crawl upon the face of this fair earth a noisome The Miseries of Imprudence. 
139 
mass of living rottenness; to waste into hideous decay, 
fi’om slowly-consuming disease and pain, pain which 
leaves the mind in full consciousness to brood over 
past folly; to defile the germ of humanity at the very 
threshold and onset of its being; to transmit the seeds 
of disease to innocent, helpless infancy; to hear the 
feeble husky wail, and look upon the hue, that mark the 
contamination of the child which hangs at the breast 
oT a fond and virtuous mother,— that child which ought 
to constitute the pride and joy of a father’s heart, but 
to whom his first gift has been a feeble, puny, and dis- 
eased organization, the counterpart of his own, the 
transcript of his own excesses; surely, if there be within, 
one latent spark of sensibility, that infant cry will 
harrow inmost feeling, will chase it out, will lash as 
with a scorpion whip; or, feeble though it be, speak in 
dread whispers to the remorseful soul. Possibly the 
victim of sensualism may have been spared the pains 
of parental agony; no wife may be there to pity and 
to forgive. Paid mercenaries surround his couch. He 
has ran the round of guilty pleasure, till, giddy and 
weak, he falls upon that couch to die the wreck of 
youth, and hope, and life, together blended in one awful 
desolation! 
Who among us is not familiar with the history of 
some promising youth, whose noontide sun of existence 
has been thus in tears and death beclouded ? To die, 
—so to sink into the grave, to be remembered only 
with fearful regret, to forego the affectionate recollec- 
tion of surviving friends. These form the slight yet 
faithful outlines of a stern reality; and if the contem- 
plation of the picture deter but one thoughtless youth 140 
Miscellaneous Causes, 
from the path of folly, how much of human misery may 
thereby be prevented! It is salutary to ponder over 
the consequences of Sensualism; her fascinations derive 
more than half their charm from our ignorance of the 
hidden sting that in the end will “ bite like an adder.” 
Were these results ever present in all their power and 
permanency, could we strip the gaudy flattering mask 
from present sensual gratification, surely we should 
pause, rather than with reckless desperate heedlessness 
rush upon disease, misery, and ruin: for 
“ Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, 
That to be hated needs hut to he seen.” 
The late Sir Astley Cooper observes: “If oue of 
these miserable cases could be depicted from the pulpit 
as an illustration of the evils of a vicious and intem- 
perate course of life, it would, I think, strike the mind 
with more terror than all the preaching in the world. 
The irritable state of the patient leads to the destruc- 
tion of life; and in this way annually great numbers 
perish. Undoubtedly the list is considerably augmented 
from maltreatment and the employment of injudicious 
remedies.” 
There are certain organic malformations of the 
Testicles, of the Penis, or other portions of the genital 
system, which lead to an irritation ending in Seminal 
Weakness. Even so (apparently) trifling a cause as 
an unusually large foreskin, causing the formation of 
a white, pulpy substance on the surface of the glans, 
may so iiTilate the sensitive organs as, if not corrected, 
to produce dangerous symptoms of Spermatorrhoea. 
The evil is also induced by the administration of 
various descriptions of drastic purgative and astrin- Including Irjuries to the Head. 
141 
gent medicines, which, whilst perfectly adapted t 
one constitution, may be most injurious to another. 
Congenital predisposition is a very unfrequent cause. 
Here, the seeds of disease may lurk for an indefinite 
period in the system, until called into baneful activity 
by some exciting influence, such as a cold, a fall, a 
blow, a violent mental affliction, excessive fatigue, &c. 
Even a single unseasonable act of venery, though per- 
formed in the most legitimate manner, and with an un- 
tainted partner, may sometimes induce it. 
Disorders of the skin, eruptions, itching, and morbid 
sensibility of the external surface of the body, injuri- 
ously irritate the genital organs; and I have had 
patients who sought my advice, after wasting into ap- 
proximate impotence under applications of “ salves for 
the skin,” “ cutaneous lotions,” and other empirical 
nostrums. Affections of the kind must be constitu~ 
tionally treated, in order that beneficial and not in- 
jurious results may be obtained. The removal from 
the internal system of the vitiation which creates the 
prnriginous sensation, and the cautious but energetic 
treatment of the spermatic discharge, are the means of 
cure indicated by science. 
The influence of disorders in the Kectum or Lower 
Bowel is also sensibly felt. In some cases, Sperma- 
torrhoea is produced by mechanical obstructions to the 
act of defectation or evacuation of the bowels. This 
obstacle partakes of the nature of a stricture, and 
must sometimes be removed by a surgical operation. 
Chronic diarrhoea, or looseness of the bowels, is often 
perniciously active in inducing seminal weakness, as 
is also, the opposite state, of constipation. 142 
Facts and PJdlsophy. 
I have alluded to the close connection between the 
organs of generation and those of reason and percep- 
tion. That connection is not merely sympathetic; it 
is direct and palpable. Accidental injuries to the 
head, and especially to the posterior portion, the re- 
sidence of the cerebellum, very frequently lead to the 
suspension or temporary destruction of the genital 
capacity. Among the striking instances of this kind 
which have come before me in the course of my prac- 
tice, was that of a medical man, a personal friend, and 
once a fellow-student of my own, who unfortunately 
met with a fall, by which the occipital bone was in- 
jured, and a slight concussion of the brain ensued. At 
this time my friend was a strong and healthy young 
man; so vigorous, indeed, were his recuperative ener- 
gies that, after an interval of insensibility, which lasted 
a few hours, he was enabled to resume his professional 
pursuits. In a short time, however, (having mean- 
while experienced no particular inconvenience from 
the accident,) he perceived a diminution of the volume 
of the penis, and a shrinking of the testicles, accom- 
panied by clamminess and morbid moisture. To these 
symptoms were added great waste of flesh in his person 
generally, and a peevishness and moroseness of temper, 
so opposite to his ordinary character, as to excite as- 
tonishment, and ultimately alarm, among his friends. 
His misfortune arrived at the climax, when, on essay- 
ing an amorous embrace, he found himself totally in- 
capable of effectuating his intention. In this unenvi- 
able predicament he applied to more than one profes- 
sional man, whose attempts to relieve him were as fruit- 
less, as they were doubtless well meant. At length he Facts and Philosophy. 
143 
visited myself, in a state of mind which very nearly 
qualified him for a permanent residence in an insane 
asylum; and, after relating the circumstances, dis- 
posed himself candidly and in good faith, to my treat- 
ment. I soon discerned the true cause of his afflic- 
tions. It was entirely dependent on the injury he 
had received in the head,— a fact which had escaped 
the perspicuity of the general practitioners, accustomed 
to dissipate their attention among numerous branches 
of practice,—the efficient study of any one of which 
requires the undivided devotion of as much talent and 
knowledge as a human being can hope to possess. As 
my only object in mentioning the case is to exemplify 
the intimate nature of the relations between two chief 
sections of the organization, I need not detail the 
course by which I brought the matter to a happy con- 
clusion, and restored the patient to the possession of 
his former excellent health and spirits. Suffice it to 
say that the results of the accident, and the means 
by which the cure was wrought, and a talented and 
deserving member of the profession rescued from the 
downward path towards madness and death, have, I 
have reason to believe, aroused his own attention, and 
that of others of my medical acquaintances, to the im- 
portance of a branch of physiological inquiry in which 
are involved consequences of great magnitude to the 
interests of humanity. 
Though the above case has relation to temporary 
impotence produced by cerebral injury, without any 
lengthened continuance of Spermatorrhoea, I have 
thought it right to introduce it in this place, as it illus- 
trates the immediate sympathy between the respective 
sets of organs. 144 
Facts and Philosophy. 
In fine, it may be stated as regards the causes of 
Involuntary Spermatorrhoea that there is scarcely a dis- 
turbing influence to which the human flame is liable, 
but may ultimately resolve itself into an active pro- 
moter of this disease. In the multitude of vitiating 
circumstances with which the complex positions of 
artificial society surround our daily file, it seems impos- 
sible for any prudent man, without obtaining a skilful 
opinion on his real situation, to feel assured that he is 
not in some one of the stages of those “ silent causes ” 
erstwhile so mysterious which send so many of our 
friends, neighbors, and relations to the grave. From 
this comprehensive and truthful description of the 
almost universal nature of the provocatives which may 
lead to morbid spermatic discharges, seminal weakness, 
impotence, insanity, and death, I will not distract the 
reader’s attention by an attempt at specific allusion to 
each of such provocatives. For instance, a single 
night’s drunken debauch, or the frequent use of tobacco, 
is, in some constitutions, capable of producing the evil. 
An ordinary cause is the presence of ascarides, or small 
worms, creating itching in the anus or fundament, and 
leading to irritation of the generative organs; and there 
are other influences, which ignorance considers trifling, 
but which are known to “ cautious science ” as sources 
of calamity and death. Symptoms of Seminal Weakness. 
145 
SECTION Y. 
SYMPTOMS OF SPEEMATOKEIKE A, SEMINAL WEAK- 
NESS, AND IMPOTENCE. 
In proceeding to consider the symptomatic indications 
of the presence of Spermatorrhoea, it is necessary to 
observe that as the disease, in its progress, assumes a 
variety of aspects, and increases in intensity at every 
step, and as in the earlier stages the symptoms are some- 
times (though not always,) absolutely imperceptible to 
unprofessional persons, it will not be possible to ex- 
hibit a description, however careful and minute, which 
can enable men to discover, by self-examination, 
whether they really are patients or not. In some cases, 
it is true, the fact of present illness forces itself upon 
the most stolid and passive dispositions; but in others, 
and these are very often the most dangerous,— the 
disorder steals on the sufferer, instead of smiting him 
so suddenly as to warn him that things are not as they 
ought to be with him. In the midst of apparent securi- 
ty the enemy may be at the gate, nay, inside the gate of 
the citadel of health. The only sure mode of ascertain- 
ing whether or not he be near, is skilful medical diag- 
nosis. In order, however, that the people of all con- 
ditions may know as much as possible relative to 
circumstances which may exercise so important an in- 
fluence upon the happiness or misery of their whole 
life, and upon the endurance of life itself, I will here 
mention plainly some of the more overt symptoms, which 146 
Nocturnal and Diurnal Discharges. 
cannot be mistaken, and also allude to others, detectible 
by scientific investigation alone. 
The symptoms of Spermatorrhoea are divided into 
Local and Constitutional. 
Of the Local Symptoms, the chief are discharge of 
semen at night, whether attended or not by venereal 
dreams; and discharge of semen during the day, which 
sometimes takes place visibly, in profuse emissions, but 
most frequently imperceptibly, whilst emptying the 
bladder or the bowels. The appearance of spermatozoa 
in the urine, is, as I have more than once mentioned, an 
unmist,akeable token of dangerous disease; but this 
appearance is wholly unnoticed by the patient himself. 
Another local symptom, which sometimes becomes dis- 
tressing, is an intermittent succession of “ priapisms ” 
or violent erections of the penis, without any pleasur- 
able sensation; these erections being often followed by 
great exhaustion and a sense of weariness and prostra- 
tion. Accompanying these, there is sometimes an al- 
most invisible trickling from,— or rather, to the sight, 
mere humidity at the extremity of,— the penis; a kind 
of oozing, like unwholesome perspiration, which in reality, 
in its slow but sure effect, is not less debilitating than 
the perceptible emissions. At the same time there is 
apt to take place, on the occurence of a voluptuous 
thought, or when in the society of females, or even by 
the accidental friction of the clothes, &c., a thin mucus- 
like discharge, sometimes so very small in quantity that 
the orifice of the penis is not more moistened than if a 
single drop of urine had escaped. The drop that does 
escape, howrever, is the habitation of living beings; it is 
a particle of the living seed, perhaps deteriorated by Symptoms of Seminal Weakness. 
147 
disease, but tbe gxudual loss of which is tantamount to 
the destruction of the frame. 
The state' of the penis and testicles is another indica- 
tion. Though impotence may not as yet have super- 
vened, the patient will, by vigilance, be often able to 
detect a diminution of Ins usual erectile power or, when 
in the act of copulation, the semen will escape before 
a proper degree of penetration has been attained. This 
state of things, if not altered, is the invariable fore- 
runner of impotence. 
Having observed that nocturnal emissions may some- 
times ('though rarelyj not be symptoms of disease, it 
will be right to make a remark, by which persons who 
are debarred from seeking medical advice may have, ere 
too late, some criterion by which to judge of their 
physical condition. 
Noctuenad Emissions, occueeing moee fee- 
QUENTLY THAN ONCE IN EYEEY FOHETEEN NIGHTS, 
AEE DECIDED SIGNS OF DEBILITY, AND CEETAIN 
HAEBINGEES OF A PPEO ACHING IMPOTENCE. My 
ample experience warrants the conclusion that the de- 
bility is more obviously confirmed, and absolute impo- 
tence more certainly follows, in those instances where 
emissions occur within the above-named period, on 
awaking suddenly in the night at the moment of dis- 
charge. In many instances the sleep is not broken, 
and it is comparatively difficult to ascertain how often 
the evacuation occurs; the consequences on the loss of 
the seminal fluid are, however, sufficiently evident. 
Occuring more frequently than can be fairly ascribable 
to the distension of healthy vessels, the most energetic 
measures are instantly requisite to avert the identical 148 
Nocturnal and Diurnal Discharges. 
mischief which would arise, if the loss of the seminal 
secretion were solicited and voluntary. Profuse and fre- 
quent nocturnal emissions may, or may not, he con- 
nected with the habit of self-pollution, and, as the term 
implies, may occur during the hours of darkness, when 
the powers of the body are prostrate in sleep. These 
morbid discharges are most frequently attributable to 
the practice of self-pollution, and, in some cases, to ven- 
ereal excess; but may arise from disease of the testicles, 
or from an enlarged or schirrhous state of the prostate 
gland. It is likewise certain that lodgments of hard- 
ened feculent matter in the large intestines sometimes 
operate as a mechanical irritant, and thus produce diur- 
nal as well as nocturnal evacuations of the most impor- 
tant fluid of the human body. 
This is probably enough to say for the present with 
respect to Nocturnal Emissions. The Diurnal. Dis- 
charges,— those which occur at stool, whilst making 
water, or, as I have described, almost continuously in 
chronic moisture and humidity of the organs, are of a 
more complicated character; for in numerous instances 
they are undiscovered by the patient,— nay, unsuspect- 
ed,— until the disorder has assumed a formidable atti- 
tude. In cases of the latter kind, the evil may go on 
increasing for an indefinite period, the sufferer, unac- 
quainted with the laws of health and disease, being 
wholly unconscious that he is undergoing a gradual loss 
and annihilation of the vital functions; nay, being some- 
times ignorant (so stealthy and treacherous is the pro- 
gress of the enemy,) that any seminal loss whatever is 
going on,— and remaining in this state of lamentable 
unconsciousness of his condition until the dread truth Multiplicity of Symptoms. 
149 
reveals itself, in acute and agonizing disease, in prostra- 
tion of his faculties, in some of the formidable symptoms 
which force him, at the eleventh hour, to fly to medical 
succor for that relief which, by earlier application, 
might have been much more easily, more quickly 
obtained. Some of the most obstinate disorders with 
which physicians have to contend are those which have 
gained ground, during entire ignorance on the part of 
the patient, of the existance of any unhealthy symptom 
whatever. The generative organs, being the most deli- 
cate and intricate portion of the system, are those most 
subject to unseen and unsuspected disarrangements, 
exceedingly variant in symptoms and diagnosis; and this 
circumstance should suggest, to prudent persons, young 
and old, married and single, who would effectually guard 
themselves against the possibility of impending ill, lead- 
ing first to debility, then to torturing pain, to not less 
torturing and humiliating impotence, and ultimately to 
premature death,—it should, I say, suggest to all prudent 
persons the wisdom and importance of self-knowl- 
edge in these particulars,—the duty of perfectly ascer- 
taining, from competent and legitimate authority, wheth- 
er their physical condition be sound and safe. 
So much for some of the more prominent of the local 
symptoms of Spermatorrhoea. The general symptoms 
are literally, Legion. Connected, indeed as they are, 
with every part of the human organization, it would 
be difficult to mention any one feeling of functional, 
mental, or constitutional uneasiness, which may not be 
referable to this depraved condition of the system. By 
a curious misclassification some writers have accounted 
impotence as among the symptoms, whereas it ought 150 
Local and Functional. 
more properly to be referred to the effects, of the malady. 
Uneasiness in the stomach, accompanied by flatulence, 
giddiness in the head, pain or weakness in the eyes, 
(which sometimes cannot endure a strong light,) indol- 
ence, dislike of exertion, nervousness, dejection; exces- 
sive craving for food, followed by intervals during which 
every description of nutriment is loathed; irregularity 
of the bowels, constipation alternating with diarrhoea; 
headache, and pains in the ears; whimsicality of ap- 
petite ; troubled sleep during the night, succeeded by 
days of gloomy apathy; uneasiness in the liver; flutter- 
ing and palpitation in the region of the heart; and 
great sensitiveness to heat and cold,—are among the 
derangements which often accompany morbid sper- 
matic discharges. It Is a curious pathological fact 
that, during the progress of Spermatorrhoea, difficulty 
of breathing, cough, and tightness of the chest, arising 
in many constitutions from the seminal disorder, have 
sometimes been actually mistaken for pulmonary con- 
sumption. The cough is often distressing, occasionally 
dry, occasionally attended by an expectoration of an 
offensive kind. I have no doubt that many patients 
have been maltreated for consumption, when Sperma- 
torrhoea was the real malady. That the latter leads to 
the former is certain enough; but the stages and con- 
nections of the respective diseases have been grossly 
misunderstood by practitioners who have not had suf- 
ficient personal acquaintance with the indications ol 
seminal emission. 
It has been remarked that Spermatorrhoea is, in its 
early stages, frequently attended by an increase of ap- 
petite— a species of voracity accompanied (with ap- Indications of Self-J^adv. 
parent inconsistency,) by a feeling of disgust. Spiced, 
savory, and highly-seasoned food is sought for, and 
the digestive organs being out of order, it is vainly at- 
tempted to strengthen them by recourse to strong 
drinks, &c. These stimulants only lead to an increase 
in the morbid discharge, and conseauent continuous 
weakening of the system. The whole digestive economy 
is gradually ruined, notwithstanding which the patient 
may perhaps retain much healthfulness and freshness 
of appearance, and even gather flesh. But meanwhile 
the evil is taking root. 
The senses of sight, hearing, taste, and smell, are all 
more or less affected. The loss of the brilliancy, 
of the “ honest courage ” of the eye, is a symptom of 
Seminal Weakness, (especially where the disorder has 
arisen from malpractices,) which 1 have met with so 
constantly that I may term it an invariable accompani- 
ment. The look of the patient reveals his secret to the 
glance of experience, though it may escape the empirist 
and the superficial. “There is always,” observes a 
renowned commentator, “ more or less dilation of tne 
pupils under these circumstances, and this probably 
conduces to give the eyes their singular appearance. 
To the want of expression is joined a timidity or ap- 
pearance of shame, especially in such as practise mas- 
turbation. Their eyes never meet those of another 
with confidence. They are turned away hastily, and, 
after wandering about, are at length directed to the 
ground. There is, in this uncertainty of the organs of 
vision, something analogous to the trembling of the 
voice, hesitation of speech, stuttering, produced by 
emotion, and instability of the lower extremities, 152 
habitual agitation of the hands, palpitations, etc. all 
common symptoms in these cases.” 
Seminal Weakness. 
With reference especially to the practice of self-pol- 
lution, which is the most usual cause as well of the 
symptoms as of their effects, the late Dr. John Arm- 
strong, taking notice of the peculiar look and gait of 
those who unhappily addict themselves to it, observes 
“ I think I should know a person in the streets who has 
addicted himself to this vice, by merely walking behind 
him, from his peculiar gait.” Let not then the victim 
of secret vice flatter himself that his unmanly act 
escapes detection. It assuredly does not escape the 
scrutiny of those accustomed to deal with human in- 
firmity in all its phases. But, even independent of the 
guilty consciousness, the preternatural loss of semen 
being in fact a loss of the material essential to the con- 
stitution of the manly character, the masculine traits are 
gradually weakened, and the alteration produced 
thereby, in every movement of the sufferer, will lead a 
skilful medical man so to shape his questions and inves- 
tigations as to guide him to the actual fact. Where 
Spermatorrhoea has existed for any length of time, not 
only the aspect of the eyes, but the haggard, careworn 
expression of the countenance, arrest attention; the 
complexion is usually pale, or of an unhealthy brown 
and yellow hue ;* the face and nose mostly angular; 
the voice becomes effeminate and shrill; the frame 
weak and stooping, whilst the dragging step, and the 
*ln some exceptional cases, however, as explained in the 
text, the body continues for a long time plump, and the color 
ruddy and seemingly healthy. Seminal Weakness. 
153 
shambling walk, show the presence of seme overwhelm- 
ing cause of prostration and debility. It is not, how- 
ever, until the disorder has made considerable ravages 
in the constitution that the symptoms become evident 
to the uninitiated. 
Peculiarities of this kind must be carefully watched; 
for it must be remembered that persons who are afflicted 
with diurnal emissions are very generally unaware even 
of the existence of the infirmity, and everything must 
depend on the physician’s keen perception. Nervous 
and sedentary patients are apt to experience occasional 
jerks or contractions of the muscles of the eye, and 
sometimes beams and motes pass flickeringly across the 
vision. These affections, as the disease advances, be- 
come aggravated into partial or total blindness. 
The sense of hearing is also affected in very contrary 
fashions; sometimes it is dulled,sometimes it appears to 
contiact a preternatural acuteness or irritability, so 
that the smallest continuous noise, particularly if of a 
jarring kind, produces an annoyance amounting to posi- 
tive distress; singing, whistling, rumbling, and ringing 
sounds are occasionally heard; and the auditory func- 
tion, like others, may be said to become unnerved. 
Taste and smell are affected, and in some patients 
become perverted and depraved. Articles and objects 
which have heretofore given pleasure, grow insipid, or 
even disagreeable, and things of quite a different nature 
and flavor are preferred. These latter are symptoms 
of frequent, but by no means uniform, occurrence. 
The sleep of patients afflicted with Supermatorrhcea, 
in any, except the earliest stage, may be said to be in all 
cases disturbed. Persons in health go to bed weary and 154 
jlnfluence of Spermatorrhoea. 
rise refreshed. A contrary condition arises daring the 
continuance of morbid seminal discharge. It has been 
remarked with much truth, that “ the sufferers get up 
more fatigued than when they went to bed; their sleep 
is light and broken, or, in the other extreme, lethargic; 
it is unrefreshing, and apt to be disturbed by frightful 
dreams and nightmares.” After these indications fol- 
low painful sensations in the stomach and intestines; 
and finally a state of nightly restlessness ensues, during 
which the imagination revolves in gloomy images, among 
which self-destruction figures foremost. “ Days of tor- 
por and stupidity follow these restless nights,” and a 
common feeling is that of weight and heaviness of the 
head, and swelling and confinement of the brain; vertigo, 
stuttering, heats and flushes, and other inconveniences, 
are among the ordinary accompaniments; while in some 
cases actual congestion of the brain takes place, which, 
if not treated with the utmost vigilance, may have an 
immediately fatal termination. 
There have not been wanting writers who have con- 
tended that not the semen, but only the mucus of the 
canal or prostatic fluid, furnishes the discharge in these 
cases. But this is far from being a correct view of the 
pathology of the disease; mere chronic inflammation, 
arising from common causes, may be accompanied with 
simple mucous discharge, but Seminal Weakness is, in 
the majority of instances, the consequence of self-pollu- 
tion; which, in the first instance, brings about that irrita- 
bility which evinces itself in nocturnal discharges, after- 
wards in appreciable but exhausting diurnal discharges, 
and subsequently, in complete debility of the whole 
generative system. This seminal fluid, such indeed as Influence of Spermatorrhoea. 
155 
it is, weak, thin, effete, and devoid of all fructifying 
agency, is undoubtedly the fluid which the organs suffer 
to escape; and to prevent further its flow, as well as to 
give healthy tone to the secretory and retentive vessels, 
ought to form our first care. The shock to the nervous 
system, its repeated excitation and disturbance, is not 
the only avenue to disease and powerless prostration, 
consequent upon loss of the seminal secretion; for where 
the debility is great, and the dribbling loss of thin se- 
men, draining involuntarily from irritable vessels, occurs 
daily, there is progressive weakness, not referable to 
mere organs, or voluptuous excitement. In fact, as a 
popular writer has observed, as the disorder advances, 
tbe penis and testicles become small and relaxed, and 
the infirmity might not be inaptly termed a consump- 
tion of those glands. Consequently the causes may be, 
at this period, piles or hoemorrhoids, constipation, indi- 
gestion, irritability of the bladder or kidneys, &c., &c.; 
for they all, more or less, are present, and, perhaps, 
severally aggravated by stimuli of one kind or other, 
taken during the day or previously to rest. Another 
occasion may be the loss of tone of the absorbents, and 
also loss of sensibility of the passages through which the 
discharge escapes; thereby acting only as somnolent 
sentinels to the brain, whereby even the little control 
the wall might possess, is lost! Thus we perceive that 
this infirmity is not merely local debility of the genera- 
tive apparatus, but that other functions of life partici- 
pate in it. 
I might go further, and affirm that these continued 
seminal discharges of an involuntary character disorder 
every function of the animal economy; and it rimy be 156 
Effects on the Mental Faculties. 
added, that whilst Spermatorrhoea produces so many 
ruinous, effects, peculiar to itself, it aggravates and ex- 
cites any other disease which may exist concomitantly 
with it. It possesses this perplexing characteristic, that 
no single one of the ordinary remedies of the phar- 
macopoeia apply to, or can subdue it whilst it exhibits 
the additional difference from other maladies, that here, 
the vis medicatrix naturce (nature’s healing force, or 
tendency,) does not apply. The tendency of nature, in 
most disorders, is towards cure; but here, it is towards 
deterioration. There is no chance here of the evil 
“ wearing itself out,” save in madness and death on the 
one hand, or on the other, by the salutary intervention 
of the most vigorous, cautious, and enlightened treat- 
ment,—a treatment pursued in the full light of the aids 
afforded by the great discoveries in physiological 
science, for which the present age is happily distin- 
guished. 
But of all the symptoms which bear witness to the 
shattering and destructive influence of Spermatorrhoea, 
the alteration in the mental faculties is perhaps the most 
lamentable, at the same time that it is in general too 
little understood, not only by the friends and acquaint- 
ances of the persons afflicted, but by the medical ad- 
viser. This change is usually indicated, in the. early 
stages, by perplexity and confusion of ideas; vacilation 
on ordinary occasions, where any simple decision is re- 
quired ; a certain degree of hesitation or incoberency in 
speaking; and a diminution in the patient’s ability to 
concentrate his ideas on any particular topic of study 
business, or what not. “Wandering thoughts” rush 
into the mind even at the most inopportune times, and Influence of Spermatorrhoea. 
157 
these thoughts are not always of a pure or innocent de- 
scription. The temper becomes peevish, sour, and irri- 
table, upon the slightest provocation, or rather upon no 
provocation at all. When the sufferer is a married man, 
(and I believe tens of thousands on tens of thousands of 
married men are unconsciously in the incipient stages,) 
the bitterness of temper consequent on a concealed 
or unknown c ause, is often the source of aggravated 
domestic misery. Characters previously cheerful expe- 
rience frequent attacks of melancholy and languor; and 
vague fears of some overhanging calamity, which they 
cannot define, but still dread, hasten them toward that 
depth of depression in which life itself becomes weari- 
some. Forgetfulness, confusion of memory, perplexing 
eomminglement of dates, names, facts, and numbers, 
show that the sufferer is approaching a predicament of 
mental prostration in which the most distressing delu- 
sions prevail. He imagines enemies among his nearest 
friends; supposes that the whole world is in conspiracy 
against his happiness and life; and with an inconsistency 
peculiar to his unhappy condition, contemplates imme- 
diate suicide, at the very moment when he evinces a 
ridiculous degree of apprehension about every breath of 
air, or other trifling circumstance which his deluded im- 
agination may conjure up as bearing upon his health. 
As the symptomatic evidences of the presence of 
morbid Spermatorrhoea form the special subject of this 
chapter, I will for the present refrain from sketching the 
deadly effects of the disorder. Though I have by no 
means touched upon every one of the symptoms, I have, 
I hope,, mentioned enough to apprise readers of ordinary 
intelligence and prudence of the infinite varieties of cir- 158 
On the Mental Faculties. 
cumstances in which it is imperatively binding on men, 
for the sake of their own happiness, and that of all who 
are dear to them, to ascertain whether or not they con- 
tain within their system either the acquired or inborn 
seeds of an affliction which, in its ultimate stages, has 
been but too correctly described as the most fearful, 
degrading, and desperate of human diseases. I cannot 
better close this chapter than by referring to the words 
of the celebrated Lallemand, in reference to the delusion 
of spontaneous recovery: 
“ Many diseases, when left to themselves, work their 
own cure, provided only they be not exasperated by the 
imprudence of the patients. This is not the case with 
Spermatorrhoea,—chiefly, perhaps, because the effects 
produced by the disease itself are favorable to the in- 
crease of involuntary discharges. The natural ten- 
dency of this disease to become aggravated, as the 
result of its own effects, frequently leads to a 
fatal termination. The patients, under such circum- 
stances, generally expire in one of the attacks of syn- 
cope that follow congestion of the brain. In this way, 
also, such of the insane who have fallen into a state of 
dementia usually expire.” After alluding to the fact 
that patients frequently die from diseases aggravated 
and inflamed by unsuspected Spermatorrhoea, he goes 
on to say that the other complications usually engross 
the attention of the attendants, Spermatorrhoea being 
not even thought of, whilst it is committing its ravages, 
and reducing the patient to such a state of debility that 
he is unable to withstand other illness. “In such cases, 
unfortunately,” concludes M. Lallemand, “ Sperma- 
torrhoea is generally unsuspected.” And Fatal Mistakes. 
159 
My o ivn observations enable me to confirm the mel- 
ancholy truth of this statement. I have cases in my 
mind’s eye where patients have been pronounced 
cachectic, or as having died of diseased heart, diseased 
lungs, &c.; and where all that I have heard from the 
relatives of the deceased parties leaves me no doubt that 
the other disorders, where they really existed, might 
have been arrested for an indefinite period, had the 
morbid spermatic emission been known either to the 
medical attendant or to the patient, or, being known, 
been properly treated. But it is, in fact, a new thing in 
mere routine pathology, to consider the existence of this 
disorder at all, though it is the most widely-extended, 
the most treacherous, the most destructive and fatal 
of any. 160 
Seminal Debility. 
SECTION YL 
SPEEMATOEEHCEA, OE SEMINAL DEBILITY, CAUSES 
In treating of the primary and ultimate effects of Sper- 
matorrhoea, it is necessary to explain, in order to make 
the subject clear, that some of these effects are so mixed 
up, both with the causes and symptoms, as to make it 
impossible to describe them, in separate detail, without 
overloading the work with so much purely technical 
and scientific phraseology as to render it almost unin- 
telligible to the general reader; therefore, as this book 
is intended specially to be popularly and generally 
useful, I prefer clothing my descriptions in plain and 
simple language, which will enable persons of ordinary 
capacity to understand them. 
AND EFFECTS. 
The general importance of the subject it is impossible 
to exaggerate. It is moderate to affirm that the larger 
portion of all the known diseases which, under so 
many varieties and modifications, afflict civilized so- 
ciety, are connected, in some other way or other, with 
sexual ailment. The sympathy between the brain, the 
spine, and the generative members, in both male and 
female, is so close that eminent physiologists regard 
disorder in the former as almost inseparably associated 
with disorder in the latter. Dr. Warren speaks very The Mental and the Generative Machinery. 
161 
much within the limits of truth when he states, as the 
result of his experience and observation, “ that sexual 
weakness and imperfections constitute the great ma- 
jority,— perhaps nine-tenths,— [he might safely have 
said ninety-nine hundredths,]—of the causes of ner- 
vous and mental imbecility and derangement.” Indeed, 
the doctor more nearly describes the real state of the 
case when he affirms that every insane individual, 
whether male or female, is at the same time the subject 
also of some sort of procreative disability, defect, or 
disorder either impotence or sterility, or both. These 
fearful, but wholesome truths, are of an importance 
which unfortunately is too often ignored by those medi- 
cal men -who, from want of industry, want of oppor- 
tunity, or on that plea of “ want of time,” which avarice 
sometimes appeals to as her excuse for preferring the 
pursuit of dollars to the pursuit of professional knowl- 
edge, have neglected the study of this great department 
of physiology. 
Certain it is that as cerebral injuries cause disturb- 
ance of the genital system, so, by analogy of conse- 
quence, (as proved*in innumerable instances,) the in- 
jury to the generative organs, and the drain of the 
nourishing fluid which is designed as Nature’s great 
stay and support, debilitate, paralyse, and ultimately 
pervert and destroy the faculties of the mind. In the 
immensely preponderating majority of cases, where 
the remorse arising from the consciousness of self-in- 
curred penalties, —of guilt as well as misery,— is pre- 
sent, the evil is, of course, greatly increased; but leav- 
ing out of view, for a moment, the influence of this 
aggravating incident, it is abundantly certain that the 162 
The Mental and the Generative Machinery. 
mere loss of the seminal fluid iu immoderate quantities, 
or through any but the sexual orgasm ordained by 
nature, is, per se, certain to produce, sooner or later, 
most disastrous consequences to the reason as well as 
to the physique. The semen itself, let me repeat, is 
meant to be the cherisher and nourisher of health and 
strength in*, the whole organization; to be taken into, 
and intermingled with the circulating fluids, and through 
these to distribute its invigorating properties all over 
the frame. Its healthful retention makes itself evident 
in the bright eye, the ingenuous expression, the elastic 
step, the intelligent glance, which mark the votary of 
chaste and rational love, as contradistinguished from 
the sunken eye, the pinched and haggard lines, the fal- 
tering gait, the blotched skin, the anxious, care-worn, 
sordid tremulousness, which, to the eye of experience, 
betrays the hapless sensualist. 
It is unnecessary to multiply proofs of the intimate 
connection between the mind and the generative 
machinery. I may mention, however, the fact, so well 
known to almost every adult male, that the obtrusion 
of on irrelevant or distributing thought will, even at 
the moment when sexual excitement is at its highest 
pitch, absolutely preclude the consummation of the 
contemplated act. Nay, in the very act itself, a trivial 
accidental interruption, a slight noise, an inopportune 
word, will produce a temporary suspension of the power 
of copulation; in short, temporary impotence. Exces- 
sive ardor, the too eager pursuit of the object, will lead 
to the same effect, which, on the other hand, is equally 
induced by the occurrence of any sudden doubt, whether 
the other party in the amorous congress be as pure as The Mental and the Generative Machinery. 
163 
had been supposed; whilst the directly mechanical 
correspondence between two parts of the organization 
locally distant, but closely associated through the ver- 
tebral machinery, is indicated by the fact that at the 
awful moment of ignominous death, the shock to the 
brain and nerves produces a rigid erection of the organ 
of an executed criminal. This sympathy is, in fact, an 
uniform and inseparable condition in the physical con- 
stitution of man. 
But though for centuries the physiological axiom has 
been recognized that there is a close, inseparable, and 
mutually-reacting sympathy between the generative and 
the mental organs in the human frame, the knowledge 
of the precise nature of that sympathy is of only a few 
years’ date. The physicians of antiquity observed, in- 
deed, that cerebral disease, in any of its graver aspects, 
whether of raving madness, passive idiocy, or the wast- 
ing misery of hypochondriasis, does not exist without 
prostration or perversion of the generative faculties; but 
it was reserved for our own age to discover that the 
former afflictions could not exist without the latter; that 
the one is, in short, the irresistible and certain provoca- 
tive of the other. 
Among the indicative proofs of this physical truth, 
may be noticed the great disproportion of male and 
female lunatic patients, whose insanity can be traced 
directly to the excesses leading to generative disorders; 
there is in females afar smaller (comparative) liability to 
such disorders. Dr. Deslandes remarks that out of 256 
individuals admitted into the celebrated asylum of 
Charenton, during the years 1826,1827, and 1828, the 
number of males whose insanity was thus traceable, 164 
Spermatorrhoea, the Destroyer, 
was, to that of females, in the ratio of 15 to 1; and 
similar results have been ascertained from various 
countries. 
By the fact that females are not subject, like males, to 
the effects of that devastating pest, so prevalent among 
all classes, stations, and ages of the male sex,— viz., Ix- 
V OEUXTARY SPERM ATORRHCE A. 
How is this disproportion to he accounted for ? 
This terrible affliction is simply an unnatural emis- 
sion of the seminal fluid; and it is well described as ex- 
cessive spermatic evacuation, from whatever cause pro- 
duced, and whether occurring by night or by day. For 
nothing should be more constantly remembered by the 
pathologist than that, whilst Spermatorrhoea or seminal 
weakness is more evident to ordinary perception, when 
occurring in profuse discharges by night, it is still more 
insidious, still more destructive in its effects, when it 
occurs, imperceptibly, during the day, at stool, at the 
emptying of the bladder, and in a variety of other 
modes never suspected by a patient, and seldom, until 
too late, by any medical adviser unpossessed of consum- 
mate experience and habits of vigilant observation. 
Daily pollutions are, if possible, even more dangerous 
than those which occur by night, though the latter have 
almost exclusively attracted the attention of careless 
practitioners, many of whom are, in fact, ignorant of the 
very existence and nature of that which is the developed 
and most obstinate stage of Spermatorrhoea. The con- 
sequence is, that the cessation of the nightly emissions, 
or, rather, their passage into the next and malignant di- 
urnal stage, is frequently unnoticed; the disorder itself 
is declared to be cured at the moment when it isproduc- And its Million Victims. 
165 
ing mortal ravages ; and as it becomes evident, after a 
while, that some secret malady is still hurrying the pa- 
tient to his grave, some new “ treatment ” is adopted,—• 
a treatment which, perhaps, is the very reverse of that 
which should be applied. Thus mismanaged, misunder- 
stood, misled, by those who undertake to cure him, the 
unhappy sufferer is hurried forward, even sometimes 
when in comparatively good health, towards debility, 
impotence, paralysis, madness, despair, and death. 
Such is the fate of uncounted myriads, young and old, 
whose -bodily disarrangement is aggravated by igno- 
rance as to its real nature. And such, if must be added, 
is also the fate of multitudes, who, from the insidious- 
ness of the disease, and the mildness of its first begin- 
ings, never suppose that they are ailing at all, nor think 
of applying to, a professional man until the disorder has 
attained a degree of virulent strength, such as nothing 
can effectually grapple with but that intimate acquaint- 
ance with its infinite ramifications, so seldom, alas! at- 
tained by the general run even of those practitioners 
who have received legitimate qualifications, and, of 
course, never to be found, even in its first rudiments, 
among the class of charlatans. 
In reference to the evil consequences of the ignorance 
formerly prevailing on this subject, I take the liberty of 
quoting a few lines from the work of an English author, 
to whose researches, sympathising as they do with my 
cwn, I have more than once to acknowledge my obliga- 
tions : 
“ Both the patients and their medical attendants are 
led astray during the most severe periods of the disease 
by the diminution or entire cessation of the nightly 166 
Self-Abuse. 
pollutions; but diurnal discharges, the effect of which 
are much more serious, take their place and become 
permanent, complete impoteucy often being the result. 
The effects of nocturnal pollutions are generally sup- 
posed to be in proportion to the abundance, frequency, 
and energy of the symptoms that precede and accom- 
pany them. This, however, is very false; for it is, gen- 
erally, when the emissions become less frequent and less 
abundant, that they are followed by more serious and 
protracted results. This anomaly, however, is more ap- 
parent than real, for the nightly now become conjoined 
with daily pollutions, which latter likewise escape, 
without any sensation, passing off with the urine, or 
when the patient is at stool, without either his knowl- 
edge or observation. It is of importance, therefore, to 
warn such patients of the errors which they are daily 
committing, in estimating the importance of these night- 
ly pollutions by their abundance and frequency.” 
But whence the origin of the sexual disarrangements 
alluded to ? Let the answer be in the words of a scien- 
tific lecturer:—“Constitutional exhaustion and general 
enervation and debility, resulting from premature, in- 
temperate, and unnatural venereal excitement, are, 
without doubt, by far the most frequent causes of im- 
potence and barrenness in both sexes; this latter per- 
nicious vice, which can only have been conceived origin- 
ally by the imagination of some fiend,* and which, it is 
lamentable to know, is practised in the present day by 
* The fiend of ignorance, of negligence, of that false and hypo- 
critical affectation of fastidiousness, which is the accursed and 
prolific fountain of sin and immorality, might haye been truth- 
fully specified by the learned lecturer, The Victim of Self-Abuse. 
167 
the youth of both sexes, produces more examples of the 
disease in question, than all other causes combined.” 
Now, Spermatorrhoea, (in its professional acceptation, the 
involuntary flowing away of the seed, either by profuse 
nocturnal or diurnal discharges, by emission in the 
urine or whilst at stool, or by slow, scarcely perceptible, 
or wholly imperceptible “ dribbling,”) is the secondary 
result of unnatural or excessive indulgence, leading 
inevitably (unless stayed by the intervention of experi- 
ence and science,) to the dreadful consummation so 
quaintly but so truthfully depictured in the following 
translation from the German of Hufeland: 
“Hideous and frightful is the stamp which Nature 
affixes on one of this class. He is a faded rose, a 
tree withered in the bud, a wandering corpse. All 
life and fire are killed by this secret cause, and nothing 
is left but weakness, inactivity, deadly paleness, wast- 
ing of body, and depression of mind. The eye loses its 
lustre and strength, the eye-ball sinks, the features be- 
come lengthened, the fair appearance of youth departs, 
and the face acquires a pale, yellow, leaden tint. The 
whole body becomes sickly and morbidly sensitive, the 
muscular power is lost, sleep brings no refreshment, 
every movement becomes disagreeable, the feet refuse 
to carry the body, the hands tremble, pains are felt in 
all the limbs, the senses lose their power, and all gaiety 
is destroyed. Such persons seldom speak, and only 
when compelled; ail former activity of mind is destroyed. 
Boys, who before showed wit and genius, sink into 
mediocrity, or even become blockheads; the mind loses 
its taste for all good and lofty ideas, and the imagina- 
tion is utterly vitiated. Every giance at a female form 168 
The Victim of Self-Abuse. 
excites desire. Anxiety, repentance, shame, and 
despair of any remedy for the evil, makes the painful 
state of such a man complete. His whole life is a series 
of secret reproaches, distressing feelings, self-deserved 
weakness, indecision, and weariness of life; and it is 
no wonder if the inclination to suicide ultimately 
arises, —an inclination to which no man is more prone. 
The dreadful experience of a living death renders ac- 
tual death a desirable consummation; for the waste of 
that which gives life generally produces disgust and 
weariness of life, and leads to that peculiar kind of self- 
destruction, par depit, from sheer disgust of existence, 
which is characteristic of our age. Moreover, the diges- 
tive power is destroyed; flatulence and pains in the 
stomach create constant annoyance; the blood is 
vitiated, the chest obstructed, eruptions and ulcers break 
out upon the skin, the whole body becomes dried and 
wasted, and in the end come epilepsy, consumption, 
slow fever, fainting fits, and an early death.” 
This description sums up some of the prominent in- 
dications which mark the result of long-continued 
undue loss of the seminal secretion. Such loss arises 
chiefly, as I have already explained, either from 
over-free sexual indulgence, (as a comparatively minor 
cause,) or from the baneful practice of masturbation, 
(the frequent and major cause.) But there are in- 
stances, it should be observed, where the evil arises 
from incidental circumstances, unconnected with either 
of those two causes. Cases, where accidents, effects 
of climate, congenital defects, or any other of the in- 
numerable sources of physical disturbance impair, or 
threaten to impair, the sexual faculties, will at once be detected and treated by an efficient medical adviser, to 
whom recourse should be had, on the first occurrence 
of even the most apparently remote reason, for doubt- 
ing whether there be any trace whatever of morbid 
lesion. For here it is emphatically true that small 
things seen grew into great; and the single, isolated, 
scarcely visible "drop” or moisture, detected at stool, 
or after making water, may, if unnoticed or unchecked, 
grow in a short time into a malady of terrific severity. 
Self-Abuse. 
169 
Though the funereal effects of the undue loss of the 
seminal fluid are familiar to the intelligence of the medi- 
cal man accustomed to deal with such cases, it is neces- 
sary to illustrate them in the most simple and obvious 
manner, for the benefit of those, who, whilst their health 
and happiness,— all that can make life desirable, nay, 
existence itself,— are at stake, are necessarily unac- 
quainted with the nature of many of those secret influ- 
ences, which nothing short of years of observation, 
study, and practice, enables even the physician to mas- 
ter in their more recondite relations. It should be 
known, then, that in parting with the material of im- 
pregnation, the human being parts with a portion of 
life itself; and each act of coition, even under the most 
legitimate and natural circumstances, involves a degree 
of absolute exhaustion, from which the system requires 
some time to recover. The perfection to which the 
facilities of microscopic diagnosis have been brought 
enables us to ascertain definite facts in connection with 
tins subject, of which the practitioners of former times 
were ignorant. Some of the most ingenious of them 
vaguely conjectured that the animal semen contained 
separate living particles; we, their successors, positively 170 
Vice, and its Finale Death. 
know that each minute drop of that fluid consists, when 
in a healthy state, of innumerable living beings, each 
of these beings being endowed with the property of 
imparting its life to a future man or woman. This 
is no mere theory,— it is a demonstrated verity. Separ- 
ate the semen into the most minute atoms which dex- 
terous manipulation can isolate, and in each of these 
infinitesimal atoms will still exist a multitude of crea- 
tures moving about in their little world, and each in- 
spired with an active and restless vitality, the destined 
agent in that mysterious process which, guided by in- 
scrutable power, forms a stage in the interminable cycle 
of eternity, and developes itself into the likeness of 
Omnipotence. 
Eeturning, however, to the effects of that devastating 
vice which, unhappily, until comparatively recently, has 
been neglected in somewhat like an inverse ratio of pro- 
portion to its extent, there are substantial reasons for 
believing that, in the lapse of ages, it has swept whole 
races and nations off the surface of the earth. To this 
cause, eminent writers, not confined to those belonging 
to the medical profession, have attributed the gradual 
and incessant process of decay which has so long been 
manifest in the condition of the Ottoman empire. To 
this has been attributed the state of decrepitude and de- 
pravation which made the colossal empire of Darius 
so easy a prey to the audacious invasion of Alexander 
the Great. It was the vice of the ancient Eomans, in 
the era of their greatest moral degradation, turpitude, 
and filthy luxury, immediately previous to the introduc- 
tion of Christianity. I have, by-the-by, whilst acciden- 
tally looking over an old file of newspapers, fallen upon Seminal Losses arising from Self-Abuse. 
171 
a passage which is curiously illustrative of the subject: 
* The diminution of the Mussulman population in 
Asia Minor is alarming. Between Tockat and Broussa 
t found villages almost entirely abandoned by the in- 
habitants, in consequence of the severity with which 
the recruiting for the Nizram, the Turkish regular 
troops, is conducted in this part of the country. It 
would be an interesting study to seek out all the causes 
which contribute to the dreadful mortality which pre- 
vails among the young Turkish soldiers. The food 
which is distributed to the garrisons is of sufficiently 
good quality, and contagious maladies have been un- 
known to Turkey in Europe during the last five years. 
Some European physicians are of the opinion that these 
young soldiers, not being married, like the ancient 
Janissaries, abandon themselves to infamous vices, and 
so destroy their own constitutions. But whatever may 
be the cause of this immorality, the consequence is the 
ever-increasing weakness of the Turkish empire. The 
fact is nowhere more perceptible than in the interior of 
Asia Minor, whence the great number of conscripts are 
drawn to Constantinople. At present, several extensive 
villages are to be seen in Anatolia from which all the 
young men have been withdrawn. This remarkable 
circumstance has not escaped the Khoord chiefs of the 
neighborhood, who, from the tops of their mountains, 
regard with profound attention the decay of the Otto- 
man Empire.” 
It would be a painful thing to enumerate the list of 
maladies which arise from the practices to which this 
paragraph refers. In our own country, as abroad, they 
are most fearful, and are confined to no class or section 172 
Seminal Losses, 
of the community. A moment’s consideration will 
suggest how necessarily an excessive and continuous 
drain of the most invigorating fluid contained in the 
system, must lead to prostration and decline. That fluid, 
be it recollected, is not simply an excrementitious ma- 
terial, intended to be voided like other matters which 
nature expels from the body, —it is intended to be re- 
tained therein, with the exception of the comparatively 
small portion which may be healthfully employed from 
time to time in the consummation of the nuptial rites. 
An idea may be formed of the nature of this loss, and of 
the sacred guard which health imposes on its due pre- 
servation, by observation of the consequences resulting 
from its unnecessary, involuntary, or too frequent 
evacuation. Physicians in all ages have been of opin- 
ion that the loss of one ounce of semen, by self-abuse, 
nocturnal emission, or at stool, injures the system more 
completely than the abstraction of forty ounces of blood. 
Hippocrates observed that “ the seed of man arose 
from all the humors of his body, and is the most valua- 
ble part of them.” When a person loses it, (he says 
in another place,) he loses the vital spirit; so that it is 
not astonishing that its too frequent evacuation should 
enervate, as the body is thereby deprived of the purest of 
its humors. Another author remarks that “ the semen is 
kept in the seed vessels until the man makes proper 
use of it, or nocturnal emissions deprive him of it. D ur- 
ing all this time, the quantity which is there detained 
excites him to the act of venery; but the greatest part 
of this essence, which is the most volatile and odorifer- 
ous, as well as the strongest, is absorbed into the blood; 
and it there produces upon its return, very great changes. Arising from Self-Abuse. 
173 
It makes the beard, hair, and nails grow; it changes 
the voice and manners; for age does not produce 
these changes in animals, it is the seed only that oper- 
ates in this manner, for these changes are never met 
with in eunuchs, or those who have been deprived of 
their testicles. Can a greater proof of its vitalizing 
power be shown, than the fact that one single drop is 
sufficient (under proper circumstances,) to give life to 
a future being?” Those, then, who waste this precious 
fluid are truly wretched. Disabled from rendering any 
service either to themselves or their friends, they drag 
on a life totally useless to others, and a burden to them- 
selves, in the midst of that society which, if it could 
know, would despise, rather than pity them for their 
self-inflicted sufferings. The moralist and legislator 
will do well, in estimating the sources of human wretch- 
edness, mental perversity and crime, to take into ac- 
count those habits which tend not more to enfeeble the 
physical constitution of man than to demoralise his 
springs of action. 
It is essential to take notice that the cause which 
leads to the distressing and fatal symptoms, mental and 
bodily, described, is sympathetic with the presence of 
the morbid spermatic discharge which continues in- 
voluntarily, sometimes imperceptibly, but continuously 
and persistently, long after the vice which originally in- 
duced it has been abandoned, and hurries the victim to 
an untimely grave, unless by a fortunate discovery of 
the precipice on whose brink he totters, the helping hand 
of skill be invoked to his relief and rescue. 
In order to corroborate my own statements, I will 
here introduce an extract from a Report on the subject 174 
Self-Abuse. 
of Idiocy and Insanity presented to the Massachusetts 
Senate by Dr. S. G. Howe, in compliance with a former 
resolution of that body directing such a Report to be 
made. 
Dr. Howe makes the following forcible remarks : 
“ There is another vice, a monster so hideous in mien, 
so disgusting in feature, altogether so beastly and loath- 
some, that, in very shame and cowardice, it hides its 
head by day, and vampyre-like, sucks the very life-blood 
from its victims by night; and it may perhaps commit 
more direct ravages upon the strength and reason of 
those victims than even intemperance; and that vice is 
SELF-ABUSE. 
“ One would fain be spared the sickening task of deal- 
ing with this disgusting subject; but, as he who would 
exterminate the wild beasts that ravage his fields must 
not fear to enter their dark and noisome dens, and drag 
them out of their lair; so he who would rid humanity 
of a pest must not shrink from dragging it from its 
hiding-places, to perish in the light of day. If men de- 
ified him who delivered Lerna from its hydra, and can- 
onized him who delivered Ireland of its serpents, what 
should they do for one who could extirpate this monster 
vice? What is the ravage of fields, the slaughter of 
flocks, or even the poison of serpents, compared with 
that pollution of body and soul, that utter extinction 
of reason, and that degradation of beings made in God’s 
image to a condition which it would be an insult to the 
animals to call beastly, and which is so often the con- 
sequence of excessive indulgence in this vice ? Self-Abuse. 
175 
“ It cannot be that such loathsome wrecks of humanity 
as men and women reduced to drivelling idiocy by this 
cause, should be permitted to float upon the tide of life, 
without some useful purpose; and the only one we can 
conceive, is that of awful beacons to make others 
avoid, —as they would eschew moral pollution and 
death,—the course which leads to such ruin. 
“ This may seem to be extravagant language, but 
there can be no exaggeration, for there can be no ade- 
quate description even, of the horrible condition to which 
men and women are reduced by this practice. There 
are, among those enumerated in this Eeport, some who 
were considered young gentlemen and ladies, but who 
are now moping idiots, idiots of the lowest kind; lost 
to all reason, —to all moral sense, —to all shame; idiots 
who have but one thought, one wish, one passion,—and 
that is, the further indulgence in the habit which has 
loosed the silver cord even in their early youth, which 
has already wasted, and, as it were, dissolved the fibrous 
part of their bodies, and utterly extinguished their 
minds. 
“ In such extreme cases there is nothing left to appeal 
to, absolutely less than there is in the dogs and horses, 
for they may be acted upon by fear of punishment; but 
these poor creatures are beyond all fear and all hope, 
and they cumber the earth a while, living masses of cor- 
ruption. 
“If only such lost and helpless wretches existed, it 
would be a duty to cover them charitably with the veil 
of concealment, and hide them from the public eye, as 
things too hideous to be seen; but, alas! they are only 
the most unfortunate members of a large class. They 176 
Self-Abuse. 
have sunk down into the abyss towards which thousands 
are tending. The vice which has shorn these poor 
creatures of the fairest attributes of humanity is acting 
upon others, in a less degree indeed, but still most inju- 
riously ; enervating the body, weakening the mind and 
polluting the soul. 
“ A knowledge of the extent to which this vice pre- 
vails, would astonish and shock many. It is indeed a 
pestilence that walketh in darkness, because, while it 
saps and weakens all the higher qualities of the mind, 
it so strengthens low cunning and deceit that the victim 
goes on in his habit unsuspected, until he is arrested by 
some one whose practiced eye reads his sin in the very 
means which he takes to conceal it, —or until all sense 
of shame is forever lost in the night of idiocy with 
which his day so early closes. 
“Many a child who confides everything else to a 
loving parent, conceals this practice in its innermost 
heart. The sons or daughters who dutifully, conscien- 
tiously, and religiously confess themselves to father, 
mother, or priest, on every other subject, never allude to 
this. Nay, they try to cheat and deceive by false ap- 
pearances; for, as against this darling sin,—duty, con- 
science, and religion are all nothing. They even think 
to cheat God, or cheat themselves into the belief that 
He who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity can still 
regard their sin with favor. 
“ Many a fond parent looks with wondering anxiety 
upon the puny frame, the feeble purpose, the fitful hu- 
mors of a dear child, and, after trying all other remedies 
to restore him to vigor of body and vigor of mind, goes 
journeying about from place to place, hoping to leave Self-Abuse. 
177 
the offending cause behind, while the victim hugs the 
disgusting serpent closely in his bosom, and conceals it 
carefully in his vestment. 
“ The evils which this sinful habit works in a direct 
and positive manner are not so appreciable, perhaps, as 
that which it affects in a direct and negative way. For 
one victim which it leads down into the depths of idiocy, 
there are scores and hundreds whom it makes shame- 
faced, languid, irresolute and inefficient for any high 
purpose of life. In this way, the evil to individuals and 
to the community is very great. 
“It behooves every parent, especially those whose 
children (of either sex) are obliged to board anjJ sleep 
with other children, whether in boarding-schools, board- 
ing-houses, or elsewhere, to have a constant and watch- 
ful eye over them with a view to this insidious and per- 
nicious habit. The symptoms of it are easily learned, 
and, if once seen, should be immediately uoticed. 
11 Nothing is more false than the common doctrine 
of delicacy and reserve in the treatment of this habit. 
All hints, all indirect ad\ ice, all attempts to cure it by 
creating diversions, will generally do nothing but in- 
crease the cunning with which it is concealed. The 
way is, to throw aside all reserve; to charge the offence 
directly home; to show up its disgusting nature and 
hideous consequences in glowing colors; to apply the 
cautery seething hot and press it in to the very quick, 
unsparingly and unceasingly. 
“ There need be no fear of weakening virtue by let- 
ting it look upon such hideous deformity as this vice 
presents. Virtue is not salt or sugar to be softened by 
such exposure; but the crystal or diamond that repels 178 
Self-Abuse. 
all foulness from its surface. Acquaintance with such 
a vice as this,—such acquaintance, that is, as is gained 
by having it held up before the eyes in all its ugliness, 
can only serve to make it detested and avoided. 
“Were this the place to show the utter fallacy ot 
the notion that harm is done by talking or writing to 
the young about tins vice, it could probably be done by 
argument, certainly by the relation of a pretty exten- 
sive experience* This experience has shown that in 
ninety-nine cases in a hundred, the existence of the vice 
was known to the young, but not known in its true 
deformity; and that, in the hundredth, the repulsive 
character in which it was first presented, made it certain 
that no further acquaintance with it would be sought.” 
This is speaking to the point, and Dr. Howe never 
rendered more important service to suffering humanity 
than when he laid down these momentous truths. 
In another part of the Eeport the effects of ignorance 
are made terribly apparent, not only upon the unfortu- 
nate victim, but also upon society at large, and it is 
plainly shown what danger every one runs while that 
ignorance exists. 
“In some families which are degraded by drunken- 
ness and vice, there is a degree of combined ignorance 
and depravity which disgraces humanity. It is not 
wonderful that feeble-minded children are born in such 
families; or, being born, that many of them become 
idiotic. Out of this class domestics are sometimes taken 
by those in better circumstances, and they make their 
employers feel the consequences of suffering ignorance 
and vice to exist in the community. There are cases 
recorded in the appendix, where servant-women, who Self-Abuse. 
179 
had the charge of little girls, deliberately taught them 
habits of self-abuse, in order that they might exhaust 
themselves and go to sleep quietly! This has happened 
in private houses as well as in the almshouses; and 
such little girls have become idiotic! 
“ The mind instinctively recoils from giving credit to 
such atrocious guilt; nevertheless, it is there with all its 
hideous consequences; and no hiding of our eyes, no 
wearing of rose-colored spectacles, nothing but look- 
ing at it in its naked deformity, will ever enable men to 
cure it. There is no cordon sanitarie for vice; we can- 
not put it into quarantine, nor shut it up in a hospital; 
if we allow its existence in our neighborhood, it poisons 
the very air which our children breathe.” 
In preceding and subsequent chapters, (especially in 
those which treat of the result of personal examina- 
tions,) I introduce some curious and important particu- 
lars relative to the condition of healthful, unvitiated 
semen, when not weakened, corrupted, empoisoned by 
aberrations from the sacred ordinances of nature. 
When her rules are disregarded, the fluid becomes 
decomposed, and its living inhabitants mere aggrega- 
tions of disorder. In the discharge which takes place 
from the organs of persons who have habituated them- 
selves to improper practices, or who have been suffering 
for any length of time, perhaps unconsciously,— 
from morbid emissions, the spermatozoa (as the animal- 
culse in question are professionally designated) are 
found in a diseased, mutilated condition, full of malig- 
nity and irritation, instead of being germs of vitality. 
But, as even when in this diseased state, there is 
absorbed in their construction as much of the strength- 180 
Self-Abuse. 
ening juices of the frame as in that of the vigorous 
auimalcuhc in healthy semen, their emission from the 
system creates a waste equally great, but which the in- 
cessant debilitation of his body renders the victim, day 
after day, less and less able to endure. Meanwhile the 
evil proceeds in a duplicate process of aggravation. As 
the system becomes less capable of enduring any drain 
whatever, the drain itself becomes greater, not only re- 
latively but absolutely, and the progress to utter pros- 
tration is precipitated with mortal, unrelenting, re- 
flibutive severity. Truly, terribly, in such cases, the 
curse of sin “ comes home to roost.” 
In the early stage of seminal weakness, different per- 
sons are variously affected: some are incapable of pro- 
curing a discharge of semen into the cavity of the 
female genitals in a natural way, though they may 
effect temporary erection; whilst others cannot per- 
form the act of copulation, from emission talcing pla«e 
too quickly, and before the proper firmness of the male 
organ has enabled it to effect the requisite penetration. 
What man, possessing the ordinary capabilities of a 
man, can contemplate without a shudder, those terrible 
consequences of self-indulgence! The nuptial bed of 
such an one, instead of teeming with a hallowed, ecsta- 
tic and transporting delight, is converted into a scene 
of blended mortification, disgust, disappointment, and 
suppressed anger; and it is now that the mistaken 
bride is made to feel herself the victim of previous sen- 
suality,— the poor, deceived last hope of vigor,— 
anxious for offspring, yet baffled from day to day, in 
the arms of the man she has vowed at the altar to 
love and honor. And he, conscious of the cause of his Self-Abuse. 
181 
infirmity; the dark secret smouldering in his breast, 
galling his wretched existence, and not to be imparted 
even to the wife of his bosom! If, under such circum- 
stances, (nature roused by repeated and fruitless efforts,) 
the unfortunate female falls a prey to some ‘vile seducer, 
exulting in the full strength of manhood, her offence is 
not altogether without palliation, and the husband may 
well, yet painfully, accuse himself as the cause of her 
unhappy deviation. A youth devoted to the practice 
of self-pollution is led to form a matimonial connection. 
He is called upon to exchange his abhorred propensity 
for the natural enjoyments of the marriage bed. How 
forlorn is then the predicament of both individuals! 
The husband, perhaps, experiencing an excitation of 
a new, but' extremely powerful description, essays to 
fulfil the chief end of their union. Passion lights up 
a momentary flame, every faculty tremblingly alive to 
the impress of a new stimulus: he attempts the sexual 
act, a spontaneous emission occurs, the excitement re- 
tires, his lively emotions become palsied, and his animal 
organization is now utterly incompetent to manly or 
vigorous effort, a mere inanimate helpless mockery 
of all that woman delights to idolize, whose very 
vehemence, if not courted, is naturally expected. 
The various effects that urethral discharges have 
upon the animal frame, depend greatly on the influence 
they have on the mind. In most, nocturnal emissions 
lay the foundation of seminal weakness and gleet, and 
cases occur where the system, having labored under the 
influence of morbid emissions, feels more powerfully 
than others, all that nervous irritation which usually 
accompanies a profuse discharge of the semen; proving 182 
Seminal Weakness 
beyond doubt the existence of chronic debility. For 
what has less effect on one constitution produces 
symptoms in another extremely harrassing to both the 
body and mind; and thus a complex derangement 
arises, the combined result of a concatenation of events 
that may be traced, even with mathematical precision, 
to this debilitating cause : for we are led to infer that 
seminal weakness precedes this nervous derangement; 
and to me it is evident that when nervous debility 
exists, the seminal discharges are increased; and the 
repetition of them unquestionably weakens the vital 
energy, and after an indefinite period, predisposes the 
sensibility of the cerebral organ to morbid irritation. 
Thus, from intercourse with the nerves, the general 
system is disturbed, and body and mind rendered sus- 
ceptible to the caprice of that vicissitude of irritation, 
whose universality of influence can only be described 
by those who have felt its agency. Nor is the effect 
of tin's influence the offspring of a fervid or depressed 
imagination; on the contrary, a class of painful and 
distressing diseases are originated, which, in their pro- 
gress, have a great effect on organization; and this 
morbid irritability more frequently attends on consti- 
tutions previously debilitated by venereal excesses, or, 
more frequently still, by the baneful habit of Onanism, 
through which the parts are not only so weakened, but 
are also rendered so irritable, and so easily, from habit, 
excited by mental influences that the slightest stimulus 
is sufficient to call them into action, and thereby 
produce a discharge of semen. 
In some instances, the power of the male genitals is 
not altogether destroyed; nay, impregnation may occur And Sexual Impotence. 
183 
in a healthy female, from the laborious embraces of one 
whose constitutional vigor is almost entirely destroyed. 
But the offspring, can it be rationally expected that 
the child of such a father should he otherwise than 
puny, feeble, and predisposed to those diseases, which, 
under the most favorable circumstances, destroy so large 
a proportion of children under live years of age ? We 
know that there are diseases peculiar to childhood. 
The process of dentition is accompanied by much 
irritation, and sweeps annually its thousands into the 
grave. Measles, hooping cough, croup, and, m6st espe- 
cially, inflammatory affections of the lungs and mucous 
membranes of the bronchial cavities, form the sad 
catalogue of evils through which, as through an armed 
troop, the poor little sufferers are doomed to run the 
gauntlet, and only the minority pass the ordeal. 
Is constitutional vigor of no importance in enabling 
children to resist harmlessly the certain attacks of those 
diseases to which they are peculiarly liable ? The sem- 
inal secretion, which in a certain sense communicates 
life, or is at least the agent, without which the embry- 
otic rudiments of a new being cannot assume active 
and progressive vitality, is itself alive; and if from ex- 
cessive evacuation of this fluid, seminal weakness ensue, 
it is not unreasonable, but highly philosophical, to sup- 
pose, that in the event of procreation occurring from 
actual sexual congress, the offspring will bear enstamped 
upon it the physical characters derivable from parental 
debility. As illustrative of the truth of this position, I 
may observe, that from the days of Aristotle, it has been 
remarked that illegitimate children are frequently en- 
dowed with great genius and valor; and both ancient 184 
Seminal Weakness 
and modern history certainly affords many such exam- 
ples. The circumstance has been commonly ascribed to 
the impetuosity of both parents during their embraces. 
Hercules, Romulus, Alexander, Themistocles, Jugur- 
tha, King Arthur, William the Conqueror', Homer, De- 
mosthenes, and many others, were illegitimate; and in 
almost every kingdom the most eminent families have 
sprung from the left-handed offspring of princes. The 
worthiest captains, best wits, greatest scholars, bravest 
spirits in English annals, have been base-born. Cardan, 
in his “ Subtleties,” gives a reason,— “These are more 
noble and powerful in body and mind, chiefly from the 
vehemence of the sexual act that begat them.” Proba- 
bly their superior energy may be attributed to the 
strength of parental constitution, which is all for which 
I contend, the weak and delicate not being so likely to 
become the prey of unlawful and forbidden fove. 
If these positions be correct, and who so hardy as to 
impugn their accuracy, founded most evidently on the 
common-sense observation of mankind? —it follows 
that there may be, and are, varieties of Seminal Weak- 
ness (originating most commonly, if not exclusively, in 
sensual excess, and especially in self-pollution,) which, 
though not absolutely precluding the performance of 
the sexual act, may render that act unfruitful, or ter- 
minate in the production of progeny to whom a sickly 
short-lived existence is rather a curse than a blessing. 
Born only to rouse the sensibilities of maternal fond- 
ness 
For us they sicken, and for ns they die. 
Forgotten indiscretions, the sins of early youth, flit in bitter recollection athwart the keenly sensitive con- 
science : the poor unconscious babe, upon whose inno- 
cent smile love had riveted its tender fetters, in the 
mean time sleeps well; the flowers that deck its coffin 
are only flowers; but there is one to whose awakened 
heart those simple memorials are as keen as the blade 
of a polished dagger. 
And Sexual Impotence. 
185 
The term Impotence is applied as relative to that 
inability or incapacity to the performance of the sexual 
act, which may arise from a variety of causes, but from 
none so frequently as from excesses of Sensualism, more 
especially the secret, vicious, and solitary indulgences of 
self-pollution. It is important, in a practical point of 
view, that we do not confound this condition of the 
generative system with Sterility, inasmuch as a male 
who is sterile, or a barren female, may possess a perfect 
aptitude for coition, though for all the purposes of pro- 
creation absolutely incapable. In impotence there is a 
temporary or permanent destruction of those powers 
which are absolutely essential for generative purposes. 
Sterility may therefore be defined as inability to propa- 
gate the species, though not to effect the sexual con- 
gress ; while Impotency, in either sex, whether natural 
or acquired, whether as the result of disease or mal- 
formation, entirely precludes its performance. Impo- 
tence, resulting from physical imperfection of the sexual 
organs, is mostly incurable; but when originating in 
such disorders of the urinary or genital apparatus as are 
traceable to irritation or inflammation of those struc- 
tures, or to conditions however produced, thence re- 
sulting, such as thickening of the bladder, enlargement 
of the prostate gland or testicles, wasting of the penis, 186 
especially long-continued gleets and strictures, our first 
efforts are naturally directed to the removal of those 
proximate causes of the affliction; and if the habit be 
still indulged, to the baneful, ultimate, or primary cause 
of so severe a deprivation. If under these circum- 
stances Nature does not readily re-assume her wonted 
functions, if there be remaining debility, it is necessary to 
invigorate the frame by the employment, not merely of 
those diffusible stimuli which act generally upon the 
whole system, but by the administration of remedies 
which are known to act immediately upon the genera- 
tive parts. If excessive irritability be present, it is 
necessary to employ such remedies as tend to diminish 
irritation in the morbidly sensitive organs. 
Seminal Weakness 
Tire causes of Impotence in man arise from two 
sources, from vicious malformation of the genitals, or 
want of power; but among women, Impotence can only 
depend on malformation, either natural or acquired. 
These causes are more commonly observed in man than 
in the other sex, and this is easily accounted for by the 
greater part the male has to perform in the nuptial 
congress. This is evident from the phenomena which 
gave the virile member the form and disposition proper 
for erection, the introduction of the organ, and the ejac- 
ulation of the semen, which are effected by a violent 
and complicated action, requiring a concurrence ol 
many indispensable conditions, the organs not only 
contracting spasmodically, to effect, the expulsion of the 
male fluid, but all the body participating at this moment 
in a strange convulsion, as though nature at the instant 
forgot every other function. It will be obvious that the 
treatment must admit of wide modification, as Impo- And Sexual Impotence. 
187 
fence may be absolute or relative, constitutional or 
local, direct or indirect, transient or apparantly per- 
manent. Many defects of conformation are sufficient 
more or less completely, to interfere with the sexual 
act: among men, preternatural length, closure, or ad- 
hesion of the foreskin, constituting phymosis, which may 
be either congenital or the result of disease. Cancerous 
or schirrous enlargement of the prostate is frequent in 
advanced life, and forms another obvious physical bar 
to copulation. Among females, adhesion of the sides of 
the vagina is not so common as an imperforate state of 
the hymen, which occasionally so completely closes the 
entrance to the internal organs that the menstrual se- 
cretion has been known to accumulate behind that 
membrane, and for want of the natural outlet, the 
cavity of the womb has naturally assumed a distension 
closely resembling that of pregnancy. Some, from con- 
stitutional frigidity, are impotent; thus we read that 
Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, only admitted her hus- 
band’s embraces once a month, and then solely in rela- 
tion to posterity. It is doubtful whether under such 
circumstances her sense of duty would make up for 
the absence of inclination. Excessive venery, and the 
profuse discharges of fluor albus or the whites, are sus- 
ceptible of completely destroying all power of excite- 
ment in women; hence prostitutes, from overstimulation 
of the generative organs, seldom conceive. Transient 
impotence is often the result of mere apprehension. 
Too eager desires, to ardent imaginations, the ecstatic 
effect produced by the sight of a beloved object, extreme 
nervous susceptibility, are sometimes sufficient to pro- 
duce temporary impotence. 188 
Impotence and Sterility. 
It is not unusual to meet with instances of married 
people becoming quite indifferent to each other’s em- 
braces. A patient of mine confessed to me his inability 
to complete the sexual act with his wife, unless, by an 
effort of the fancy, imagination conjured up the form 
of some more voluptuous female. Physical defect may 
constitute the cause of impotence, but more frequently 
there is neither organic defect nor local disease; the 
affection is a mere nervous suspension of power, which 
is soon removed under proper management. Even 
this has its wise ordination. Any individual, however 
vigorous in his physical capacity, if he anticipates? 
with too intense eagerness, intercourse with a beloved 
object, will seldom perform the act well. Even among 
the most ardent and powerful, it occurs, as many have 
confessed, hat after waiting time after time for oppor- 
tunity, when that has arrived, they have not had the 
power to take advantage of it; a nervous anxiety, a 
tremulous delight absolutely indefinable, has completely 
prostrated all power, and the object of passion has been 
saved from perdition by its paralysing all the fire and 
ardency of animal desire. If the imagination wanders 
from the task, temporary impotence is the result; and 
many writers are firmly of opinion that impregnation is 
often impeded by the presence of ideas which interfere 
with the due performance of the generative act. Sterne 
has happily commented on this point in one of his most 
popular works, introducing his maternal parent as ask- 
ing, at a most untimely moment, whether his “ father 
had not forgotten to wind up the clock.” His views 
are strictly physiological. Such is the power of the 
moral over the physical state of man! Impotence and Sterility. 
189 
Many impotent persons are cured by quieting the 
imagination and strengthening the constitution, by in- 
vigorating the general health and the genital organs. 
We are acquainted with no function of the animal 
mechanism so specially dependent upon the mind as 
this; for though sexual intercourse be a compound act 
of the body and the mind, its essential energy, its pecu- 
liar stimuli, proceed from the mind; and according to 
the exciting energy of the mind is the act performed. 
Thus, from a compound act of indescribable pleasure 
and languor, organic beings are endowed with power 
to produce others similar to themselves; or rather, let 
me add, an essential part of themselves is separated in 
the act, the power of that separation being concentrated 
in the generative organs. The moment the semen has 
passed, from the greater exertion used by the male, 
langour and depression succeed; and at this period 
his office is complete, and a new and complicated ar- 
rangement takes place in the female; but what the 
character of the arrangement is, which actually occurs 
within the female uterus, after experiencing the most 
delightful aud exquisite of all sensual pleasures, being 
properly impregnated, and on the eve of giving .form 
and existence to her offspring, we yet know not. 
Impotence in the male may arise, then, from a wide 
diversity of conditions: Incapacity of erection, gene- 
rally referable to self-pollution; impotence, ensuing 
from a want of power of retention in the seminal ves- 
sels, induced by a morbid susceptibility in those vessels, 
and brought about in like manner by a persistence in 
the same vicious practice; impotence, from inability of 
retention resulting from repletion of the vessels all 190 
Impotence and Sterility. 
demand a variety of treatment peculiar to the precise 
condition of the parts. Impotence from mental in- 
fluence has also its appropriate management. Exclu- 
sive of this, the generative infirmity under considera- 
tion, though occasionally arising from simple disease, is 
ascribable in by far the greater majority of instances 
to the excesses of Sensualism, either with women, or 
more commonly still, in that vile excess to which such 
frequent allusion has been made in these pages. Long- 
protracted chastity or continence is not to be overlooked 
as a cause of impotence. The very reverse of the 
degrading habit of self-pollution, it is not only compar- 
atively rare, but offers in its very nature the indications 
of cure. But that long-continued debauchery, whether 
with women or by masturbation, is to be assigned as 
the most common and prominent of the causes of Im- 
potence, is a fact admitted by all systematic writers, 
and amply and painfully confirmed by my own expe- 
rience. Mons. Pinel observes, “ The Impotence caused 
by the latter is too often incurable.” Fortunately, the 
records of a numerous list of cases prove that recovery 
of the powers of manhood is not (under judicious man- 
agenjent,) so altogether hopeless as might seem to be 
the fact, trusting only to the observation of those medi- 
cal men who have not made these subjects their pecu- 
liar and exclusive study. 
Impotence, then, is chiefly caused by the debility of 
the genital organs, induced by precocious venereal 
enjoyments, or by the unrestrained abuse of the delicate 
structures in any method that tends to produce re- 
peated and severe evacuations of the seminal fluid. If 
impotence result from self-pollution, there is a want of Impotence and Sterility. 
191 
erection, and should a semiual emission take place, the 
semen does not possess its prolific power, and thus the 
man is at once impotent and sterile. This form of 
impotence is truly deplorable, and, unfortunately, it is 
the most prevalent variety. Nevertheless, I have suc- 
ceeded in curing many persons laboring under this 
complication, although several involuntary diurnal, as 
well as nocturnal, emissions have regularly occurred 
without amorous impulse. Next to Self-pollution, ex- 
cessive vexeey is a frequent cause of impotence, 
as well as of sterility among the male sex. This is a 
frequent cause of want of offspring in young married 
persons. In these cases the semen may escape without 
the aid of the ejaculatory muscles, is imperfect in 
quality, and devoid of power until the health he im- 
proved ; or if impregnation ensue, the child undoubtedly 
partakes of the debility of the parent, soon to he con- 
signed to a premature grave, the victim of that name- 
less atrophy or wasting decay which hurries thousands 
of infants annually to the tomb. In these cases the 
male parent suffers from inflammation of the seminal 
vesicles, or there is a seminal weakness, with more or 
less involuntary discharge. 
The surest means by which sound and vigorous child- 
ren may be engendered, is a good constitution, unen- 
feebled by excessive waste of those powers which, in 
their assemblage, constitute the manifestation of the 
living principle. It is admitted, not merely by all phi- 
losophic writers who have speculated deeply upon the 
subject, but by all who have paid the least attention to 
the facts connected with such a statement, that not 
merely the physical but the moral dispositions of the 192 
Impotence and Sterility, 
parents are transmitted by generation; hence, if a 
sound mind, in a sound body, be the first, greatest, and 
most lasting blessing, and its deprivation or absence the 
greatest possible curse, how imperatively necessary is 
the obligation to cumulate closely the tendency of vicious 
indulgences, to avoid the contamination of depraved 
habits, and to cori’ect and elude the consequences of 
that debility, already imposed upon the generative or- 
gans by sensual excess! Impotence and Sterility 
are usually the result of wilful imprudence. Malforma- 
tion is a direct interposition of creative wisdom; its oc- 
currence is comparatively rare; but failing power is not 
only exceedingly common, but generally constitutes a 
self-inflicted evil. Diseased and delicate parents procre- 
ate diseased and weakly offspring. The same results 
are observed in plants and animals. Can it be supposed 
that the physical powers, the sympathies, of a beautiful 
woman of an excellent constitution are in unison with 
those of a man whose best energies were long ago ex- 
pended in the premature and illicit excesses of lawless 
excitement, whose youth has been a hurried history 
of wild enjoyment, whose faculties have been lashed 
past the natural powers of his bodily organization, and 
who now brings his decrepit efforts as a worthless offer- 
ing at the shrine of matrimonial sanctity? Or worse 
still, is there a mockery more deep, more bitter, than 
that desolation of spirit which an affectionate woman 
must feel on finding she clasps entwined within her cir- 
cling embrace the mere wreck of sensualism, the horri- 
ble victim of self-pollution; the creature who, having 
trained his imagination and bodily powers to mere fan- 
cied enjoyments, is now deprived almost, if not entirely, As Effects of Self-Abuse. 
193 
of the capability of resuming the action for which his 
generative organs were destined? Woman’s scorn must 
be the more intense, because, from the very nature of 
her own position, she is precluded from giving vent to 
her feelings of anger and vexation. Love cannot be re- 
ciprocal in such cases; animal or organic impulse will 
prefer that which is more accordant with itself; even 
beasts prefer males which are possessed of vigor, power, 
and beauty, and this instinct is implanted by nature in 
all animals. Whatever perversion civilization may effect 
in our feelings or manners, it cannot extinguish this in- 
stinct. And this is an eminently wise ordinance, tending 
to the perpetuity of a healthy race of human beings. 
If Sensualism has impaired the powers, not of both 
parents, but of one only, the punishment of tire offence 
is either Sterility or debility; or pain, disease, and 
death transmitted to the children, and reflected back 
with sorrow upon the parents. Impotence, then, is the 
last crowning scourge of sexual imperfection, and de- 
mands for its removal the most cautious application of 
the resources of the healing art. The treatment of the 
chronic diseases of the generative system has been 
strangely neglected and signally misunderstood. The 
efficacy of well-directed efforts has been much mis- 
trusted in this matter, and it is remarkable that both the 
patient and the practitioner contribute to these impedi- 
ments ; for as the latter has been accustomed to see his 
remedies speedy in their effects, he is himself discour- 
aged if they do not immediately produce the desired 
benefit. Nor is it any wonder that the patient becomes 
incredulous of the promised relief, neither of them 
recollecting that the morbid states have been slowly 194 
Impotence and Sterility, 
produced, and cannot, therefore, be speedily changed. 
Self-pollution, the frequent cause of sexual impotence 
and sterility, is generally the habit of the best years of 
youthful life; and its deadening impress often tells with 
deplorable certainty, long after the baneful habit has 
been relinquished. Time must, therefore, be afforded 
for the rectification oi that artificial state into which the 
powers of the system have been wantonly plunged. It 
is evidently the absence of fixed principles in our path- 
ology of the slow diseases of the generative system, 
that has given such unbridled license to quackery. 
There has always existed a vagueness of opinion respect- 
ing their nature, and an unsettled doctrine as to the 
most rational methods to be adopted for their mitigation 
and cure. The communication of disordered action is 
an inevitable result of indulgence in any mode of 
Sensualism, either excessive, or contrary to the order of 
nature and the constitution of our being; and the char- 
acter of that perverted action may be readily anticipated. 
In fact, we see it exemplified in the excessive irritability 
of the bladder and seminal vessels, producing incapabil- 
ity for retention, disease of the spinal marrow and brain, 
spasm of the urethea and stricture, or an effeminate 
flaccidity of the penis, testicles, and scrotum. Can it 
be expected that these organs should be capable, under 
such circumstances, of fulfilling their appropriate office 
in the task of procreation ? Most assuredly not. Where 
Impotence is consequent upon that baneful propensity 
which cannot he sufficiently stigmatized, its extent of 
severity is far greater than ivhere produced by exces- 
sive indulgence with women, because the vital fluid that 
could have improved the stamina of the system has been As Effects of Self-Abuse. 
195 
lost without satisfaction; consequently no gratification 
of the mind has been had in counterpoise, to compensate, 
and, in some measure, to repair the expenditure of 
power. 
The man who, from his anxiety to indulge to the ut- 
most his libidinous propensities, seeks for variety among 
women, may certainly find in such variety a new stimu- 
lus sufficient for the occasion, and may be able to ac- 
complish more frequent repetitions of the sexual act 
than the sober, married man who is faithful to one. But 
we cannot overlook the fact that this is undoubtedly ac- 
complished at the expense of a corresponding amount 
of unnaturally-excited energy; and the ultimate results 
of such efforts tell with fearful and tremendous horror 
upon the helpless and debilitated votary of greedy 
pleasure. The nightly partner of a husband’s bed si- 
lently oilers only that gratification which is demanded 
by the sexual ogaus when fully charged with the semi- 
nal fluid, and impatient for relief; to such a man the 
stimulus of variety is unsought, contemned, forbidden, 
as contrary not merely to all laws, human and divine, 
but as directly opposed to his well-being, and to the 
maintenance of his animal organization in health, 
strength, and usefulness. Here, then, the natural laws 
of his physical constitution harmonize most admirably 
with the higher sanctions of morality. The actual 
amount of enjoyment realized by the temperate is, in 
the long run, far greater; power is maintained until old 
age, and a vigorous offspring is engendered; while the 
hasty, violent, and forced gratifications of the Sensual- 
ist, though vivid for a moment, are succeeded by that 
worst form of helplessness—insatiable desire, appended 196 
Self-Abuse, Sterility, Impotence. 
to diseased and powerless organs. The draining of 
the seminal fluid, which occurs either from excessive in- 
dulgence in venereal gratifications, or from solitary vice, 
is not equally great in every instance. There are some 
individuals who are not rendered absolutely but only 
partially impotent. They can accomplish the sexual 
act occasionally, and with severe effort, to the disgust, 
doubtlessly, of the female; or they are tolerably capa- 
ble, yet unprolific. Their powers are weakened, not al- 
gether destroyed. These patients have resources left in 
surgical skill, which, if expended in contending against 
improper or unskilful treatment, aee lost fobeyee. 
The debility produced by masturbation starts a dif- 
ficulty in the choice of remedies which does not occur 
in other cases. To excite, yet not irritate, this is the 
point of divergency, where cautious science leaves 
blundering quackery to pursue her blind, injurious 
course. It is a law of animal organization that when 
motion is increased, the increase is most considerable 
in those parts which are most susceptible, and these, 
among Sensualists, are the parts of generation; there- 
fore, the effects of irritating remedies are most sensibly 
and instantly felt in these parts, enforcing the utmost 
circumspection, not merely in the selection, but in the 
administration and employment of medical agents. 
Thus, sterility may be, in some cases, only apparent. 
Although it be perfectly true that in a few instances 
the uterine system of the female may be insensible to 
the seminal stimulus of a particular individual, yet ca- 
pable of being acted upon by another, the lapse of a little 
time is often sufficient (if there have been no debilitat- 
ing causes in operation before marriage,) to dissipate Sexual Philosophy. 
197 
groundless fear; and such being the truth,, it becomes 
doubly important, not only that proper treatment be 
adopted where absolutely demanded, but that science 
should determine whether any or what kind of inter- 
ference be really necessary, Offspring is frequently 
denied to newly-married persons from eagerness in its 
pursuit. The consequences of excessive venery in those 
whom warm passion has united in its indissoluble tie, 
amount only to the defeat of their wishes. Celsus re- 
marked upon this subject, more than eighteen centuries 
ago: “Paras concuhitus corpus excitat, frequens 
solvitwhich may be freely translated, “ the bodily 
powers are excited by occasional coition, by frequent 
repetition they become relaxed,” and, consequently, uu- 
prolific; or, as a poet has expressed the same sen- 
timent 
“ While temperate pleasure spurs the lazy hlood, 
Excess unstrings the nerves, and dries the flood ; ” 
and so truly it is within the experience of many that 
when the first warm anxiety for offspring, and its cor- 
responding efforts, have passed away and subsided, the 
blessing is granted to less passionate, exciting, and fre- 
quent embraces. 
The ancient physicians were right in their general 
rule: the longer parties abstain, the more quickly they 
generate. Almost all physiologists now agree that the 
retention of semen for some few days, or temporary 
abstinence from coition, is necessary to generation. 
During my practice many persons have consulted me 
on account of want of family, which entirely arose from 
this cause. Such cases require great delicacy in their 
investigation, but it is not difficult to learn their nature, 198 
when science, caution and sympathy are duly exerted. 
Conjugal, domestic, and social inconveniences must 
always be avoided; and it is scarcely to be observed, 
because of its obvious truth, that excessive sexual enjoy- 
ment relaxes both parties, and may, even in the married 
state, defeat its own end, be unfruitful from too frequent 
repetition, and bring on that atony, weakness, and 
debility of the generative organs, which may end in 
sterility in the female and impotence in the male. 
On Generative Capacity. 
If these things be so, (and who will dare to contravene 
their truth, founded as it is on the ordinary every-day 
observation of mankind?) it follows that there may be, 
and ai’e, varieties of seminal weakness, originating 
most commonly in nocturnal emissions, and these, de- 
pendent, in many instances, (but not invariably so,) on 
the unnatural practice of self-pollution, to which such 
ample reference has been made in the foregoing pages. 
That these emissions lead to the most deplorable con- 
sequences, independently of the injury done to the 
generative function, is indisputable. The most studious 
people, and those of a splenetic cast, are subject to this 
infirmity; and the discharge of semen is commonly so 
considerable that they fall into a slow, wasting con- 
sumption. A Roman physician (whose opinion is sup- 
ported by John of Acarius, author of a work com- 
posed for the Emperor,) observes: “If nocturnal 
emissions continue anytime, the necessary consequences 
are consumption and death; for the most balsamic part 
of the humor and annimal spirit is dissipated; the whole 
body falls away, and particularly the back; the patients 
become feeble, dry, and pale; they languish in slow, 
melancholy agony.” Let this antiquated, yet terrifically The Curse of Self-Abuse. 
199 
correct portraiture deter the thoughtless from practices 
which lead to such a state; and by those in whom it is 
commencing, let not incipient evil be deemed unworthy 
of their most serious consideration. 
Sterility, however, is frequently the vice of the fe- 
male organs, under circumstances which preclude 
its possibility on the part of the male. It may de- 
pend, in woman, either from malformation, which, in 
reference to the internal and hidden structure, is more 
common than is generally supposed; or it may be de- 
pendant upon some imperfect action of the generative 
organs. In some instances the ovaria are wanting or 
too small, the fallopian tubes may be impervious, or the 
uterus unnaturally small. With this state of the parts 
there is associated a want of due development of the 
breasts, and the sexual desire is inconsiderable. But in 
by far the greater majority of barren women the or- 
gans of generation seem to be well formed; neverthe- 
less, the action is imperfect or disordered. The men- 
strual secretion is either obstructed or sparing, for the 
reverse defect occurs, and they are troubled with pro- 
fuse discharges, either occurring at the natural period, 
or at irregular intervals, perhaps alternating with copi- 
ous mucal secretions of an acrimonious and whitish 
glairy fluid. It is extremely rare for conception to 
occur unless a woman menstruate regularly; and on the 
contrary, correct menstruation generally indicates ca- 
pability of impregnation on the part of the female. 
Women who are very corpulent are often barren, for 
their corpulence either depends upon want of activity in 
the ovaries, (castrated animals generally becoming fat,) 
or it exists as a mark of weakness of the generative sys- 200 
Impotence and Sterility. 
tem, and of the uterine organs in particular. This state 
of weakness and exhaustion of the generative system 
(however induced,) is unquestionably a frequent cause 
of female sterility; and among the causes which entail 
loss of vital and productive energy, excessive indul- 
gence is one of the most prominent. Hence, as before 
observed, prostitutes seldom conceive; not alone be- 
cause the frequent repetition of the act blunts sensibility 
to enjoyment, but also because of the atony of genera- 
tive power. Must it be added that vicious indulgences, 
solitary practices, find their way to the chamber of un- 
married girls ? The fact is unfortunately too well at- 
tested. I have known an instance where this horrible 
practice was communicated by a depraved domestic to 
a family of girls; and in another case that foil under my 
cognizance, the inmates of a lady’s school were all, 
without exception, devoted to this depraved and de- 
structive propensity. 
No combination of human ailments can be so pecu- 
liarly and painfully distressing to a sensitive mind, as 
that one hidden, yet restlessly-knowing anxiety, arising 
from the deferred hope of offspring. The possession of 
wealth cannot atone for the absence of that which riches 
cannot purchase, and in vain does the heart turn in 
lonely anguish, as the spring time of existence is rapidly 
flitting away, to its miserable expedients for the allevi- 
ation of this hopelessly corroding sorrow. I remember 
well having seen an accomplished and beautiful creature, 
already married a few years, blest with all that the 
world could bestow, burst into tears at the sight of a 
chubby boy borne by a beggar woman. And who does 
not know of the rejoicings that oft occur, when some Impotence and Sterility. 
201 
titled dame presents her liege lord with the long-expect- 
ed heir to his vast possessions ? As though the repro- 
ductive act were an almost impossible rarity among the 
more refined and civilized of the sex; as though “ while 
peasants bring forth in safety,” and rear in poverty a nu- 
merous, hardy brood, any valid reason should be as- 
signed why this process should be interrupted among 
the higher and more educated classes. If the immuta- 
ble laws of organized Nature were more closely ob- 
served and followed, making due allowance for congeni- 
tal imperfections, there is no reason why one class of 
women should be found to be more prolific than another; 
and I doubt not of the certainty of repeating my fre- 
quent and happy experience in the inculcation of such 
directions as may ensure to many of my anxious corres- 
pondents the long-cherished realization of their fond- 
est expectations. 
I have analysed the many peculiarities of sexual dis- 
appointments ; I have furnished correspondences to and 
fro, descending even lo minutiae as far as permissible; 
and I am in possession of others, from which, in my 
practice, I derive great assistance. With regard to 
sterility on the part of the female, and incapacity to 
impregnate on the part of the male, an ampler field is 
open for “aiding and abetting” such ends, than can be 
expressed in ink, or perhaps, suspected or believed by 
the world at large, to exist. As lam candid to confess 
in sending this publication forth, desirous as I have been 
of rendering it worthy of perusal, I never intended it to 
supersede my own usefulness, either to my neighbors or 
myself; and should I be in existence when these pages 
meet the inspection of a reader solicitous to know more 202 
Impotence and Sterility. 
than is here set down, the application, either viva voce 
or otherwise, may not prove a fruitless proceeding. 
Men advanced in years, and others of younger growth 
there are, who are skeptical as to the usefulness of art in 
completing the joys of married life; but if any should 
be trustful enough to believe that through such assist- 
ance effects have followed on which rested happiness, 
health, and not the least essential desideratum, the 
maintenance of family property, I am ready fearlessly to 
declare that their faith need not in every instance be 
misplaced. I have been, personally and alone, engaged 
in the investigation of this subject for several years, and 
I have had the satisfaction of effecting, even with parties 
whom I have never beheld, the purposes for which I 
have been consulted. 
During the act of copulation the external and in- 
ternal genital organs of both sexes, which are all sup- 
plied by nerves from the same source, are excited and 
stimulated; the vagina closes tightly on the penis, the 
uterine orifice is in close contact with the orifice of the 
male urethra; the tube or oviduct becomes straightened 
and erected, and its loose or floating extremity (corpus 
fimhriatum,) seizes on the ovary, and allows the male 
fluid, after its injection into the cavity of the womb, to 
advance through the tube to the ovary, by a species of 
vital attraction or suction. The moment the spermatic 
fluid arrives at the ovary, which is seized by the ex- 
tremity of the uterine tube, it acts on and vivifies one 
or more ova or ovules, and forms the new being or 
beings. Such is the natural history of the act which 
originates a new being, and it is obvious that in the de- 
fection of such DEVIATIONS FROM NATURE as OCCU- sionally occur, is to be found the secret which baffles 
hope, and denies to wedded love its legitimate conse- 
quences. Those deviations are more numerous and 
complicated than at first sight the inexperienced in 
such researches would imagine, and the imperfection 
once rectified by the judicious interference of art, im- 
pregnation is almost certain to follow; more especially 
when the female has seemingly of a sudden relinquished 
her usual capacity for procreation. Such deficiencies, 
though occasionally traceable to the weaker sex, are 
most frequently ascribable to the male, who, though in 
every respect strong, healthy, and robust, is yet the 
subject of such morbid dilation of the seminal vessels 
as results in premature emissions; and though able to 
perform the mere act of copulation properly, yet from 
the exudation of a thin, watery, effete semen, possessing 
no adequate vitality, and from its ejaculation at a hasty 
and inefficient moment, the ordinary mutual excitement 
of the act being wanting, impregnation is denied. To 
such, where this is the case, my treatment, having a 
direct action on the seminal vessels, is well calculated to 
restore tone and impart energy; and by inducing a 
healthy secretion of semen, supply the female with the 
indispensible requisites for a future progeny. Of course, 
these remarks exclude absolute congenital deformity, 
or malformation, in the absence of which the cases are 
comparatively very rare, which admit of no relief from 
medical art. 
Generative Philosophy. 
203 
We go out of the world by the same changes almost 
as those by which we enter it. We begin as children 
as children we leave off". We return, at last, to the same 
weak and helpless condition as our first. We must 204 
Self-Ahuse. 
have people to lift us, to provide us nourishment, and 
even to feed us. We again have need of parents. And 
how wise the arrangement! We find them again in 
our children, who now take delight in repaying a part 
of that kindness which was shown to them. Children 
now step as it were into the place of parents, while our 
weakness transposes us into the place of children. The 
venerable oak, on the other hand, does not enjoy the 
benefit of such a wise regulation. The old decayed 
trunk stands alone and forgotten, and endeavors in 
vain to procure from foreign aid that support and 
assistance which can he the work only of natural affec- 
tion and the bonds of relationship. 
The undue loss of the seminal secretion in a natural 
way, that is, from too frequent intercourse with the 
other sex, is productive of dire evils; but where result- 
ing from self-pollution, no language can describe the 
nature of those sufferings which violated nature is com- 
pelled to endure. All the intellectual faculties are 
weakened; the man becomes a coward, apprehensive 
of a thousand ideal dangers, or sinks into the effeminate 
timidity of womanhood! He becomes truly hysterical, 
sighs or Aveeps upon the slightest insult or want of 
sympathy with his hypochondriacal sensations. Such 
an one commences the career of incipient manhood by 
the abuse of Nature’s most secret and sacred functions, 
and that at a moment when the system is incompletely 
formed, when energy and passion need as yet the con- 
trolling rule of riper reason. Exclusively absorbed by 
this evil practice, all the powers of mind and body are 
wasted in delusive enjoyments, in imaginary creations; 
and an age of care and anxiety follows, broken only by 
useless and unavailing regrets. Self-Abuse. 
205 
Under the various forms of this peculiar excitement, 
but especially in the diseased fancy of the victim of 
solitary vice, we find associated every species of morbid 
sensibility, erratic imagination, and fheir consequent 
results, often indicated by an indecision of character 
difficult of comprehension by those who are unac- 
quainted with its cause. Waywardness, stubborn self- 
love, selfishness in every modification, or that form of it 
which requires and would attract the anxiety and atten- 
tion of others too exclusively upon himself, such are 
often the mental outlines of a character which secretly 
debasing passions have contributed to form. An in- 
cessant irksome uneasiness, continual anguish, or alter- 
nating with fits of unreasonable and childish merriment, 
depression or excitement without adequate cause,-— 
these form some of the mental inquietudes connected 
with the practice of masturbation. 
All the victim’s fire and spirit are deadened by this 
detestable vice; he is like a faded rose, a tree blasted in 
its bloom, a wandering skeleton; nothing remains but 
debility, languor, livid paleness, a withered body, and 
a degraded soul. A youth endowed by nature with 
talent and genius, becomes dull, or totally stupid; the 
mind loses all relish for virtuous or exalted ideas; the 
consciousness of the purity and essential holiness of the 
Creator operates as a bar against any approach to Him, 
or the appropriation of any of those consolations under 
suffering which religion is destined to afford. The 
whole life of such a man is a continued succession of 
secret reproach, painful sensations arising from the con- 
sciousness of having been the fabricator of his own 
distress, irresolution, disgust of life, and not unfre- 206 
Horrors of Self-Abuse. 
quently self-murder. Nay, what in effect is this but the 
consummation of slow self-destruction ? Could we but 
lift the veil of the grave, how should we startle at the 
long train of the victims of Sensualism! 
A gentleman of high connections, and apparently 
possessed of every requisite to make life happy, was 
found unexpectedly dead in his bed; a pistol, the in- 
strument of his death, was clenched in his hand. None 
could account for the rash act, and doubtless, but for 
bis own revelation, it, would have passed away as un- 
accountably as the “ temporary insanity” of the news- 
papers. Upon a piece of paper, in his own handwriting, 
were discovered the words, “ I am impotent and unfit 
to live.” Scarcely a day passes that deaths by suicide 
are not recorded, where no cause is assigned for the 
deed, but which, from the result of experience, I am 
strongly inclined to believe, could we explore the secrets 
of the gloomy prison-house, would be easily explained. 
Generative debility is not so unfrequent as many sup- 
pose ; it most usually is the result of sensual excesses; 
and the mental agonies of such an one are almost insup- 
portable. What bodily pain can equal the agony of the 
soul ? “A wounded spirit who can bear ? ” aggravated, 
as those feelings must of necessity be, by the conscious- 
ness that to his own imprudence, his own base slavery 
to Sensualism, he owes his forlorn, blighted, and miser- 
able condition, a being on whom the eye of beauty 
beams not with fond and pure affection, an outcast even 
from the paid embraces of a mercenary wanton. 
There is in this class of patients an exquisite sensi- 
tiveness to external impressions. The slightest change 
of tveather affects the Sensualist most severely; he can- VICTIMS OF SELF-ABUSE, AND THEIR OFFSPRING. 
“ Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit,”—Matt, vii, 18, Horrors of Self-Abuse. 
209 
not perceive the correctness of the remark that ours is 
a temperate climate, for with him the seasons are always 
in extremes; the summer scorches him into lassitude, 
or he becomes peevish at the continuance of the cold. 
Such individuals are excessively prone to catarrhal 
atfections, they take cold from trifling causes, their 
bodies becoming as keenly delicate to external and at- 
mospheric agencies as the most perfect barometer. 
We find that in them the lining mucous membrane of 
the nostrils and eyes is peculiarly irritable, fits of long- 
continued sneezing annoy them on getting into a cold 
bed, or bn the sudden approach of a strong light. The 
eyelids become strangely hot and night, the 
handkerchief is in frequent requisition, and a continual 
winking and pressure together of the lids is then ob- 
servable. The most acute pains form another feature 
of the increasing malady. They are sometimes referable 
to the head, or limbs, but more commonly to the 
stomach, forming the index to that form of Indigestion 
resulting from the drain upon sensorial energy. Many 
miscalled rheumatic diseases are solely dependent upon 
this practice. The organs of generation participate 
also in the misery of deprivation. It is a singular fact, 
that the habit of self-pollution is connected with a dimi- 
nution of the size of the penis. The author has had 
frequent occasions to verify this statement. Of noc- 
turnal emissions, seminal weakness, diseased testicle, 
and gleet, as the consequences of masturbation, I shall 
speak separately. The diminution of the size of the 
penis is one of the first and most obvious effects of this 
bad habit. The virile organ becomes shrunk into less 
than half its former outline, and what is worse, the 210 
Horrors of Self-Abuse. 
power of perfect erection is altogether destroyed. This 
is not wonderful, if we reflect upon the diversity of 
operation between the natural sexual act and the vile 
friction of the masturbator. The latter, even if the 
seminal vesicles be not sufficiently distended with that 
natural stimulus which provokes erection, can produce, 
by friction, a higher degree of irritation than is natural, 
and he can command the sensation when it would be im- 
possible to maintain the requisite firmness of the organ 
for coition. Thus then *a variety of evils are en- 
gendered. The testicles are called upon suddenly and 
violently to secrete, and the excretory canals to dis- 
charge a thin, effete, unprolific semen, and the nerves 
of the penisf are susceptible of an agreeable titillation 
without the naturally inseparable adjunct firm erec- 
tion of that organ. Hence, when the masturbator tries 
to indulge in coition, he cannot assume the requisite 
solidity to effect penetration; or if he partially effect an 
entrance into the vagina, it is followed by a premature 
emission. The organs have been accustomed to a 
vicious perversion, to excrete without erection; or if 
the penis swells for a moment, the genitals of the female 
do not grasp the whole length of that organ with the 
rude and forcible friction it has suffered from the human 
hand. 
The reader will understand that the prominent char- 
acter of seminal weakness is general, not partial, debil- 
ity. With regard to impotence, either partial or com- 
plete, it is the effect of causes which, whilst themselves 
produced for the most part by improper or excessive 
indulgence, may be classed under two general heads, 
viz., Organic (local) and Functional. When the disability Sterility and Impotence. 
211 
arises from a local cause, such as disease or mal- 
formation of any of the organs of generation, but more 
especially disease of the testicles, (such as varicocele, 
&c.,) we have functional effects, viz., loss of sexual 
power, and inability not merely for procreation, but for 
the act of copulation. In cases where the disability 
exists without any special organic defect, functional 
causes exist. So much in this class of disorder is cause 
intermingled with effect, as I have already observed in 
the earlier portion of this chapter. That which, in one 
stage, or under one aspect of malady, operates as a 
cause, is, in another stage, or under another aspect, re- 
cognized as an effect, and vice versa. The kinds of dis- 
ability which I classify as proceeding from constitu- 
tional and functional causes, (as distinguished from 
organic causes,) are generally curable by a compar- 
atively mild course of treatment, inasmuch as they are 
not permanent and structural, like malformation of the 
penis, or deprivation of the testicles, for example. 
In addition to those named, there are various con- 
stitutional causes, of which seminal weakness, impo- 
tence, and sterility are the effects. These causes are too 
numerous to be recapitulated, but a brief allusion to 
them is necessary. The disorder may arise from general 
ill-health, from an unhealthy or perverted state of the 
seminal secretions, from an impure and vitiated condi- 
tion of the blood, from the relaxation created by long 
residence in tropical climates, from venereal affections, 
from disordered liver or kidneys, and from several kinds 
of obstinate diseases of the skin. There are occasional, 
though comparatively rare, cases, in which I have 
found an impotence inborn and congenital, and which 212 
Sterility and Impotence. 
are described by Sir Astley Cooper in a passage more 
remarkable for its poetic beauty than for the soundness 
of the conclusions at which the learned lecturer arrives. 
“ There are,” he observes, “ several causes which pro- 
duce a destruction of the virile power. These may 
sometimes be traced to a peculiar sluggishness of 
constitution, to a general torpor of the procreative 
system, on which the usual attractive animal afilnities 
exert no influence. To such a person a Yenus might 
display her charms, and on such her son might exhaust 
his quiver in vain. No genial spring is here; no bloom- 
ing summer or fruitful autumn; but all is winter, a 
dreary, barren, and desolate winter, in which the springs 
of life are frozen up and the animal propensities de- 
stroyed. Some men are so constituted that they may be 
said never to possess a venereal stimulus, and some of 
the other sex are equally frigid. I knew a person who 
remained unwarmed by the flame from the hymeneal 
altar for seven years, and who was incapable of per- 
forming the duties which devolved upon him.” The 
mistake here made by Sir Astley Cooper is in suppos- 
ing that faculties are destroyed, which, in reality, are 
only held in a state of suspense or dormancy. Sir 
Astley spoke, or wrote, nearly fifty years ago. Science 
has since proved that in numbers of cases similar to 
those to which he alludes, the physical peculiarities, 
formerly supposed to be incurable, are quite within the 
reach of the healing art. 
Incidental to the effects of Spermatorrhoea leading 
to impotence, may be mentioned schirrosity of the 
gland of the testicle, which, if not checked, may ulti- 
mately proceed to total destruction of that all-impor- Affections of the Testicles. 
213 
tant generative organ. This disorder is characterized 
by a slow and insidious progress, the effect being for a 
long time imperceptible, unless by very close investiga- 
tion. A morbid action in the epididymis, which is a 
part of the testicle consisting of a number of small ves- 
sels and ducts upwards of forty feet in length, is another 
symptom, which, whilst among the frequent effects of 
Spermatorrhoea, is an active cause of impotence. To 
the same category of cause and effect may be referred 
hydrocele, or dropsy of the testicle, a disarrangement 
which is usually comparatively easy of detection. 
But of all the symptoms which are to be designated 
amongst the effects of Spermatorrhoea, and causes of 
sexual impotence, there is none more common than 
the disorder termed varicocele, or enlargement of 
the veins of the testicle. This malady tends to the de- 
struction of the testicle by morbid pressure upon 
the gland, and sometimes absolute ly displaces the organ 
from its proper position in the scrotum or rugged 
bag, which is its natural receptacle. 
I have known some distressing cases, in which, after 
the disease had continued some time, the scrotum has 
acquired such an excessive degree of pendulous elonga- 
tion as to reach half-way down to the knee; and I have 
on such occasions had some difficulty in imparting suffi- 
cient tone and vigor to the organ to make it respond 
according to my desire to the subsequent stages of 
treatment. It hangs from the body in a flabby, humid, 
unnerved condition, and requires artificial support in 
order to keep it from being constantly troublesome to 
the patient. Whilst the disorder is progressing, the 
Spermatorrhoea or unnatural loss of seed which causes 214 
Miscellaneous Causes. 
it, hourly increases in inveteracy; although it is possi- 
ble that, pending this transit from bad to worse, the af- 
flicted individual may labor under the idea either that 
he is well or all but well, that the affection is a trifling 
one, or that a rapid cure is taking place. This delusion 
is encouraged by the circumstance which I have before 
adverted to, of nocturnal seminal discharge so often 
changing, at an advanced stage of the disease, into the 
diurnal and less perceptible one, a state of things, 
which, unfortunately, too often baffles the practitioner 
as much as it does the patient, if the attention of the 
former has not been specifically directed to the investi- 
gation of generative disorders, their causes, symptoms, 
and effects. As incipient varicocele, indicated in the 
first place by some difference between the size of the 
testicles, and the length to which they depend, is a cer- 
tain indication of seminal weakness and approaching 
impotence, few social and domestic duties appear of 
mere real importance than that every individual who, 
from any cause whatever, has the slightest suspicion or 
doubt as to his condition, should obtain careful examina- 
tion from a medical man of known skill and experience. 
Not only incurable or distressing disorder, but a thous- 
and anxieties having reference thereto, may be prevent- 
ed by such examination, combined, of course, with the 
skillful use of the microscope (the indispensable vade 
mecum, of scientific investigation,) by the practitioner 
who undertakes the diagnosis. By these means the or- 
ganization can be thoroughly and minutely inspected, 
and any initiative disease or loss of function detected 
and arrested ere the malady has assumed a malig- 
nant form. Miscellaneous Causes. 
215 
It happens sometimes, though rarely, that disease in 
the prostate gland is an organic cause of impotence* 
the seminal canal which runs through the gland becom- 
ing relaxed, or otherwise injured, though the rest of the 
generative apparatus, including the testicles, may be 
healthy. This, however, is of unfrequent occurrence; 
for in nineteen cases out of twenty, when impotence 
supervenes, the testicles will be found in a morbid con- 
dition. ■ Cases of impotence arising from other organic 
disorders, are rare indeed; and as most minute inquiry 
and examination, and a complete revelation of all an- 
tecedent circumstances, are requisite for the ascertain- 
ment of the real source of the mischief, the failure of 
“ patent medicines ” is accounted for, and the folly of 
having recourse to mere nostrums is obvious. 
Other affections, such as stricture of the urethra and 
malformation of organs, (the unnatural enlargement 
of the penis, &c.) may be accounted among the organic 
causes which produce the effect of impotence. 
In Spermatorrhoea proper, which includes the imper- 
ceptible discharge of semen in the urine, and percep- 
tible discharge almost immediately on the contact of 
the male organs with those of the female, the testicle 
may remain for some time free from apparent disease; 
hence the importance of the microscope in determining 
and discovering that which may otherwise remain un- 
known. But the results of my experience convince me 
that in that stage of Spermatorrhoea where there are 
both nocturnal discharges, and diurnal emissions in the 
urine or stool and in the form of dribbling moisture, 
there will atmost always be found some disorder in the 
testicle and epididymis. The scrotum will be found to 216 
Effects on the Testicle, 
hang very low; or one testicle (usually the left,) will 
hang much below the other. The glands of the testicle, 
when they can be properly felt, (which is not always 
the case,) will be too large or too small, too soft or too 
hard; sometimes excessively sensitive, if not actually 
painful; and when varicocele is present, the testicle 
feels as if dispersed into small irregular knots. The 
sensation to the touch, in such cases, has been com- 
pared, not inaptly, to that experienced on feeling a bay 
of earthworms. 
It is necessary to remind the reader, in reference to 
diseases connected with the testicles, that these import- 
ant organs, before they descend into the scrotum or 
purse, occupy a very different position. They are re- 
tained in the abdomen until about the last month before 
the birth of the child; thence they descend to the groin, 
and from this to their final situation in the body. It 
sometimes happens, however, that the process of descent 
is delayed for years, and this circumstance has often 
caused ignorant surgeons and apothecaries to regard 
their absence from the scrotum as an indication of con- 
genital impotence. In the last century it was main- 
tained by the celebrated John Hunter that the testicles, 
when confined in the abdomen, do not fully exercise 
their functions; but this idea has been long disproved. 
Sir Astley Cooper informs us of an apprentice of his 
own “ who shot himself*because his testicles had not 
descended,” and in whom, on autopsy, the secretory 
glands were found full of semen. It is a pity that Sir 
Astley had not made his unfortunate pupil aware of a 
physiological fact, which is certainly not less important 
than many others that form the subject of lucrative And Physiology of the Organ. 
217 
lectures. I recollect a case where, from ignorance of 
these anatomical facts, a surgeon (!) had actually 
directed a youth to the house of a surgical instrument 
maker to ask for a double truss, under the impression 
that the small enlargements visible in each groin were 
protusions of bowel, when, in truth, Nature, somewhat 
tardy in her operations, was about effecting the descent 
«f the testicles into their ordinary receptacle. For- 
unately, in this instance, the intelligent dealer in trusses 
detected the real nature of the case. Had it been other- 
wise, the youth would doubtlessly have been maimed 
and impotent for life, from the pressure of the pad of the 
truss upon this exquisitely delicate organ. 
It is well known that the testicles may not descend into 
the scrotum, though they may be fully developed in the 
body, and perform their functions perfectly; indeed, 
according to some writers, better than in the natural 
situation. But this is questionable. I was once con- 
sulted by a young gentleman who had but one testicle 
in the usual situation, as to the propriety of his con- 
tracting marriage; the other testicle had never de- 
scended, and he was otherwise well developed, robust, 
and healthy. I advised him to marry; he did so, and 
became a parent. Similar incidents have occurred in 
the practice of others. So, the destruction of one tes- 
ticle by castration or disease is no impediment to pro- 
creation, any more than the loss of one eye is to vision. 
But when both testicles are completely diseased, or 
where alternately, from repeated attacks of Gonorrhoea, 
each of these organs becomes in turn inflamed and 
enlarged, the utmost care and the most scientifically 
cautious management are demanded, lest the future 218 
Plain and Practical Truths. 
power of secretion be materially diminished or abso- 
lutely destroyed. The slightest reflection upon the 
structure of the testicle will serve to convince the 
reader that it is, in truth, wonderful that inflammatory 
swelling does not more frequently disorganise, thicken, 
and obliterate the delicate and curiously contorted tubes 
of which its substance is composed. The testicle is of 
oval form, of the size of a pigeon’s egg; it is a little 
flattened on the sides; it hangs in the scrotum by the 
spermatic cord, which is, in fact, nothing more than the 
excretory canal leading from the testicle to the urinary 
passage, the artery or blood vessel destined for the 
nutriment of the testicle, some nerves and veins, 
constituting, by their approximation, a species of soft 
string, occasionally the subject of disease. As to the 
semen itself, it is eliminated by the testicles, and sep- 
arated from the blood, carried thither by the arteries 
of the cord. As to the course of the semen, we find 
it passing first upwards, along the vas deferens, or 
lengthened canal, leading from the point of its forma- 
tion, then deeply downwards and backwards, to the 
termination of this canal on either side, in the urinary 
passage. 
It is undoubtedly true that the thinner parts of the 
semen, distending the vesicular seminales or seminal re- 
ceptacles, become absorbed into the living mass of circu- 
lating blood in the body. The gelatinous residuum 
contained in the cells is rendered thereby more acrid 
and stimulating, provoking the natural desire; and when 
in this way Nature herself solicits the sexual act as a 
relief to the distended receptacles, there can be no 
doubt that, as Sauctorius observes, “ Moderate coition is On Symptoms and Effects. 
219 
good, hut when it is solicited by the imagination it 
weakens all the faculties, and especially the memory.” 
Nor is this difficult of explanation. When the vesiculoe 
sendnales are replete with a secretion that, by the loss 
of its more fluid parts, has occupied a certain degree of 
consistency, rendering its entire return into the circula- 
tion difficult if not impossible, and when, under these 
circumstances, evacuation follows, we may be assured 
that the body will not thereby become debilitated. The 
act of evacuation, (however induced,) is more pernicious 
according as it is unnecessary; and because the mas- 
turbator has the power of exciting these organs to ex- 
crete a thin fluid, when the seminal vesicles contain 
nothing sufficiently stimulating to rouse the erection 
necessary for the natural sexual act, he is able to perpe- 
trate so much the greater mischief. 
It will be remembered that excessive nervousness and 
morbid irritability are among the Spermatorrhceal ef- 
fects which are directly the causes of impotence. 
Throughout the course of my professional labors I nev- 
er lose sight of the influence of the nervous system 
and the imagination upon the generative organs. The 
physical sympathy is so intimate that mere ideas, con- 
veyed through the brain and nerves, often lead to Sper- 
matorrhoea, and to premature effusion on coition; the 
effect being more or less permanent and dangerous, ac- 
cording to the degree of irritation ordinarily prevailing 
in the cerebral organs. 
It has been stated that, in the great majority of cases, 
the testicles are specifically disordered, both in decided 
and partial impotence. But it may be right to apprise 
the general reader that seminal discharges at stool or 220 
On Symptoms and Effects. 
during urination, rather indicate disease in the vesiculce- 
seminales or seed bladders than in the testicles. In 
such cases the morbid discharge arises from two me- 
chanical causes. If the discharge takes place whilst 
urinating, it is caused by pressure of the urinary blad- 
der downwards upon the seed bladders, which lie imme- 
diately underneath, and hare become so weakened or 
relaxed as to be unable to -withstand a pressure which, 
whilst in health, can produce no perceptible effect, but 
which now creates such a degree of irritation that the 
semen is foi’ced out into the urethra; for a high degree 
of nervous sensibility always exists when the organs are 
in a state of debility. Almost in the same way, when at 
stool, a costive motion, (constipation, alternating with 
diarrhoea, being a general condition of seminal weak- 
ness,) presses the rectum or lower bowel against the re- 
laxed and sensitive seed bladders, forces the seminal 
fluid into the urethra, and thus a portion oozes out 
through the orifice of the penis. 
I have thus gone through some of the principal of the 
causes, symptoms, and effects of seminal weakness—the 
three conditions being frequently so nearly identical with 
or dependant on each other that it has not been always 
possible to keep them separate, with due regard to what 
may be termed the entirety of the subject. 
Always bearing in recollection the possibility that af- 
fections of this deplorable nature may supervene silently, 
insidiously, from other causes besides any of those men- 
tioned, and may go on for years increasing in violence 
and malignity, whilst the sufferer may be actually un- 
conscious of his affliction, it is more than probable that 
the infinite majority of instances in which promising On Symptoms and Effects. 
221 
marriages turn out “ unfortunately,” as it is termed 
that the infinite majority of irrecoucileable matrimonial 
antipathies, separations, divorces, violations of virtue 
and decorum —of sickly, pining offspring, perishing in 
infancy, and of no offspring at all arise from the neg- 
lect of that precaution which every man ought to take 
ere he commits himself to the duties and responsibilities 
of wedded life; and it is equally probable that the con- 
tinued and increasing embitterments between couples 
already united arise in the same manner from neglect 
from neglecting an application or inquiry which might 
result in the removal of the most common cause of 
chagrin, discontent, and approximate disgust. Let me 
distinctly explain my meaning. Nothing is more easy 
for a person contemplating matrimony than to satisfy 
himself, by consultation with a professional man of char- 
acter and integrity, whether his physical state be really 
such as to render it advisable for him to enter at once, 
without postponement, into the most important of all 
engagements whether his state be such as to enable 
him efficiently to fulfil all the expectations of a fond, 
confiding, ardently-loving bride. 
So, likewise, as respects the married man whose hopes 
have been disappointed; who, whilst self-deceived, has 
unwittingly deceived another; and whose matrimonial 
life is resolving itself into a concatenation of mutual 
repining, mutual discontent, mutual recrimination, mu- 
tual misery; it is very probable that by a brief consulta- 
tion with a physician who has made this part of thera- 
peutics his study, the hapless Benedict will soon, to the 
infinite solace of both parties, put a satisfactory end to 
all this repining, all this recrimination, all this misery Friendly Suggestions. 
and discontent. I might fill a volume exceeding tenfold 
the dimensions of the present, if I were to enter into 
the details of a tithe of the cases in which I have had 
the satisfaction of recalling the long-forgotten reality of 
early love, and of substituting thankful gladness for 
dreary despair. But I purposely refrain from such de- 
tails; my object is friendly suggestion—not importunate 
dictation. Detection of Spermatorrhoea, 
223 
SECTION YU. 
DETECTION OF SPERMATORRHOEA OR SEMINAR WEAK- 
NESS, BY MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION AND 
OTHERWISE. 
The determination of means for the absolute and 
definite ascertainment of the existence or non-existence 
of morbid Spermatorrhoea, is a scientific achievement of 
very recent date. It may he stated, without exaggera- 
tion, that the most eminent investigators of the last gen- 
eration had, so far as respects the detection of the symp- 
toms, advanced very little beyond the facts fixed on by 
the physiological writers of ancient Greece and Home. 
John Hunter, it may be affirmed, great and undoubted 
as was his proficiency in every branch of medical learn- 
ing to which the knowledge of his age extended, was 
actually ignorant of the facts which in our time are ac- 
counted among the most obvious of the phenomena 
that were formerly set down as anomalies. The word 
anomaly, by-the-bye, in reference to natural phenomena, 
is a misnomer. Nature has no anomalies, and her ap- 
parent deviations from law and order might always, if 
pursued to their source, be traced to causes originating, 
remotely or directly, in mere disregard of her ordi- 
nances. 
The agent to which we are chiefly indebted for deter- 
mination and certainty respecting the presence of Sper- 224 
Detection of Speculator rhuiu. 
matorrhoea, is the Microscope; an instrument which 
within the last few years has been brought to a degree 
of perfection totally unknown to our forefathers. 
Much has been said and written upon the wonders re- 
vealed by the microscope; of the revelations effected 
through it of a life within a life, running through all 
creation, and exhibiting activity in materials apparently 
the most inanimate. It has made us intimately ac- 
quainted with the structure and habits of creatures, 
the size of which varies from the twenty-four thousandth 
part of an inch in length, to the one forty thousandth 
part. By the microscope we know that an object no 
larger than the smallest sized duckshot exceeds in bulk 
many millions of certain classes of animalcules, and that 
a single drop of water contains a greater number than 
could be detected in a long life. But whilst the micro- 
scope is to be admired for the wonders which it reveals, 
still more admirable is it on the score of its utility,— its 
utility in enabling those whom long experience has made 
familiar with its use to detect the latent causes of hu- 
man suffering with a view to their removal. 
In the treatment of the disease which forms the prin- 
cipal subject of these chapters, the utmost degree of 
uncertainty formerly prevailed; there was a random 
wildness and contrariety in the course adopted by va- 
rious practitioners, which too truly indicated the low 
ebb of professional information on the subject; and this 
uncertainty and ignorance proved the fruitful source 
of calamity. 
A brief explanation will show how this occurred. The 
morbid discharges from the urethra, which, without the 
aid afforded by the skilful and careful use of the micro- Ancient Ignorance and Errors. 
225 
scope, might be mistaken for Spermatorrhoea, are of 
various kinds. Among them may be accounted the 
slight discharge which sometimes remains after Gleet; 
also that connected with stricture of the urethra, and the 
mucous emission from the prostate gland (commonly 
called the prostatic discharge) and from the mucous 
membrane. The remnant of a syphilitic attack is also 
sometimes indicated by a discharge, which nothing but 
great care and experience can distinguish from Sper- 
matorrhoea or escape of the seed. 
Now, each of these affections, besides similar ones, 
which I do not think necessary to enumerate, possesses 
distinct characteristics, requiring a mode of treatment 
different from the others. The misfortune was, then, 
that there being no certain means by which any of the 
others could be distinguished from Spermatorrhoea, the 
latter disease was not unfrequently met by a treatment 
the very reverse of that which was properly applicable 
to it, and the results were, of course, more disas- 
trous. There wrere, in short, no means of detec- 
tion— no means of positively detecting the pres- 
ence of Spermatorrhoea, as contra-distinguished from 
affections similar in appearance, but quite opposite 
in nature. 
Thus the seminal was sometimes mistaken for a gleety 
or syphilitic discharge, and subjected to what was 
called “active treatment.” Cubebs, copaiba, mercury, 
and astringent injections were administered, the effect 
of which was to produce a high degree of inflammation, 
and to irritate and aggravate the real malady, which, 
being incapable of being detected, was very often not 
even suspected; and so its ravages went on unchecked, 226 
Indications for Detection. 
or, more properly speaking, inflamed and stimulated by 
the medicaments applied to them. 
It would be unjust to impute blame to the practition- 
ers of those bygone times. In the impossibility of de- 
tecting the real disease they had to make choice of the 
alternative either of striking in the dark, or of permit- 
ting the disorder, whatever it was, to pursue its deadly 
career without an attempt to restrain it. They chose 
the former alternative. They struck in the dark, but 
too often their blow was fatal to the patient instead of 
to the disease. 
That state of things is happily changed. Whilst it is 
certain that in cases of morbid emission from the urethra, 
a derangement of some kind or another will, it may 
almost be said without exception, be found in the tes- 
ticles, it is not less so that each description of discharge 
has a characteristic peculiarity of its own, which the 
microscope enables us to identify as different from the 
others. Thus, the presence of Spermatozoa in the urine 
or in the dribbling effusion affords unmistakable evi- 
dence of Spermatorrhoea. If, on the other hand, the 
discharge be connected with gleet arising, from gon- 
orrhoea, minute globular particles characteristic of that 
affection will be discovered by the microscopic test. In 
like manner, when the discharge is syphilitic, the linear 
and almost crystalline formation can be discovered, and 
the class of disorder is thus defined. When it is con- 
sidered that fifty years back there was no possibility of 
thus ascertaining the nature of disease, and that physi- 
cians were compelled to act without any assurance 
against the possibility that their utmast exertions were 
doing the patient mischief, instead of good, and that the Indications for Detection. 
227 
.nore vigorous tlieir endeavors to effect a cuie the 
greater the amount of injury which they might he in- 
flicting on his constitution, some idea may he formed of 
the sad state of confusion in which this department ot 
therapeutics was involved. 
But the errors oi« the elder physicians have been suc- 
ceeded in our own times by a mistake of another kind, 
and the effects of which are also deplorable. Foimeilj, 
the danger was that the physician, scarcely aware of the 
very nature of Spermatorrhoea, generally failed to dis- 
cover its existence, and treated it as il it were a disorder 
of a very different kind. Note, since the dangerous im- 
portance of Spermatorrhoea has been brought to light, 
it is, by the inexperienced and ill-informed members of 
the profession, declared to be present upon erery ap- 
pearance of unhealthy discharge. I rom the extreme of 
negligence they have rushed to that of childish nervous- 
ness respecting Spermatorrhoea. Thus, at present, in- 
stead of Spermatorrhoea being mistaken for other 
diseases, other classes of disorder are frequently mis- 
taken for Spermatorrhoea. This happens not unusually 
in the case of obstinate gleets, as well as in that of the 
discharge, similar in appearance, which occasionally 
remains after syphilis. The maltreatment administered 
causes the affection not only to continue, but to become 
more obstinate, and, apparently, even incurable. 
Mistakes of either kind produce distressing effects, not 
merely ultimately, in a physical sense, but (separated 
from that,) also with regard to the present comfort of 
the patient, and to circumstances most important, per- 
haps, to his prospects and fortune. It will happen, for 
example, that Spermatorrhoea is mistaken for the gonor- 228 
Danger of Mistakes. 
rhoeal or syphilitic affection; and then the sufferer, 
perhaps at a time when matrimony might be advisable, 
—is afraid to contract that tie lest his wife should be 
injured by impure congress; and so an arrangement, 
desirable in every respect, is postponed, perhaps for 
ever. If, on the other hand, he is Jed by the medical 
advice which he has taken to attribute the discharge to 
Spermatorrhoea (Spermatorrhoea all the while not being 
present,) lie is, in like manner, restrained through fear 
of being unable to consummate the nuptial duties. 
These remarks will serve to indicate some of the 
great benefits which have been conferred on humanity 
by the pitch of perfection to which the microscope has 
been brought, and the power which it gives practitioners 
really acquainted with its uses, to detect, without the 
possibility of mistake, the nature of any existing mal- 
ady, and thus to exhibit the medicines best calculated 
for their removal. I could, in truth, recount hundreds 
on hundreds of instances, in which the utmost distress 
of mind, the bitter agony of disappointed hope, the 
torturing fear that life was a total blight, the feeling 
of degradation, of hopelessness, of despair, have been 
scattered to the winds and replaced by health, spirits, 
and happiness, through the result of one timely and, as 
it has sometimes occurred, almost accidental consul- 
tation. Such consultation has led to a minute exami- 
nation of the urine, or of the little discharge from the 
urethra which had been the cause of uneasiness; and 
the consequence has been the dispersion of unfounded 
or exaggerated fear, and the adoption of the course of 
treatment adapted to the removal of any derangement 
which really existed, and which has often been most Qualification for Inquiry. 
229 
easy of cure in the very cases where the fears and 
despondency of the patient had been most profound. 
it; on the other hand, the symptoms were serious, the 
great point was gained that their meaning was now 
understood, and the steps to be taken for cure were 
satisfactorily indicated. Such are the advantages which 
the microscope confers in the all-important task of 
detecting the real nature of disease. 
But it must be especially observed, in connection 
with the efficacy of microscopic examination, that com- 
petency to use that instrument with advantage can only 
he acquired by a long course of study and practice. 
The best class of instruments, which alone are capable 
of effecting trustworthy diagnosis, are probably more 
complicated in construction than any other machine to 
which science has recourse. They are composed of in- 
numerable parts, the proper working of all depending on 
the perfect order and skilful handling of each; and the 
least awkwardness or error in the adjustment of any of 
them, the least divergence from the proper focus of light, 
the least excess or diminution in the quantity of light, 
may disarrange the whole proceeding. It is through this 
circumstance that some gentlemen who have attempted 
microscopic inquiries without acquiring a sufficient 
amount of experience, have from time to time fallen 
into such serious blunders. I am, for my own part, free 
to admit, and I do not fear that the admission will 
subject me to any imputation of dullness, that I was 
no less than five .years studying and observing the 
operation of the instrument, under every variety of 
circumstance and position, and had tested it in every 
way which my own mind and the advice of eminent 230 
Qualifications for Inquiry. 
professional friends, at home and abroad, could suggest, 
before I could trust myself to act practically, for patho- 
logical purposes, upon the results of my experience of 
it. From what I have heard, I am disposed to think 
that it is a very great pity that every medical man who 
undertakes to deal with an instrument so delicate and 
complex in itself, so liable to be mismanaged or 
deranged, so infallible when skilfully handled, but so 
apt to deceive and mislead if there be the slightest error 
or incapacity on the part of the practitioner, —it is, I 
say, a pity that every medical man who undertakes to 
deal with so critical an instrument does not exercise 
similar industry and precaution with myself. 
Having alluded to the distinctive signs by which gon- 
orrhoeal and syphilitic discharge may be discerned from 
Spermatorrhoea, I ought to observe that there are other 
signs, besides the contents of the respective discharges, 
through which the identity of either may be ascertained. 
Thus, the slight mucus-like discharge in the urine 
usually occurs when it is the effect of syphilis or gon- 
orrhoea, along with the first drops whilst emptying the 
bladder; but the discharge in Spermatorrhoea occurs 
with the last drops of the urine—sometimes, a few 
seconds after the urine has passed, in which case the 
spermatic effusion is apt to be accompanied by a spas- 
modic twinge or contraction caused by the pressure 
upon the seed-vessels. There are, in short, various 
modes of diagnosis. A practised eye, for example, can 
readily distinguish, by examination of the patient's 
linen, whether the stains be produced by spermatic or 
by ordinary venereal affection ; and the modern annals 
of medico-legal inquiry present several cases wherein Means of Detection. 
231 
the last-named mode of test has decided the questions 
alfecting the liberty of accused persons. 
But the microscope is, after all, the grand and aus- 
picious agency by which doubts of every kind can at 
once be determined. So Protean and capricious are the 
aspects and attitudes assumed hy seminal disease that 
it is literally impossible to lay down any dogmatic stan- 
dards of treatment which would apply to every case. 
The symptoms vary, both in intensity and continuity, 
according to innumerable circumstances dependent on 
age, occupation, congenital temperament, the kind of 
climate in which the patient may have resided during 
certain periods of his life; likewise according to his 
general habit of body, &c.; and so arbitrary are these 
variations that, for the great object of safety, it is es- 
sentially requisite that each case should be studied in 
itself, and that every one desirous of ascertaining his 
actual condition should submit himself patiently to give 
candid and explicit answers to the inquiries which 
experience may put to him, with respect to any cir- 
cumstances that could effect his health injuriously or 
otherwise. 
It is to be recollected, that in connection with sper- 
matic disorder there may be such a thing as groundless 
fear as well as groundless confidence. If thousands on 
thousands perish, as they undoubtedly do, through not 
knowing, until too late, the nature of the dangerous 
malady which is preying upon their vitals, great num- 
bers endure much needless torture of mind in conse- 
quence of the fear that deadly disease is present, when 
the affection is of a comparatively trifling kind, easily 
removable the moment it is understood. 232 
Importance of Examination, 
But therein lies the difficulty. The words printed in 
italics represent the whole contingency. The failure of 
the inexperienced “ general practitioner ” to detect and 
understand the symptoms of the case before him, is ac- 
countable for the greater part of the evil and misery 
incidental to derangements of the genital organiza- 
tion; and the mischief is indefinitely increased by the 
attempt to apply what are called “general rules” to 
a department of pathology which varies in almost 
every patient. 
Acting always on the principle that investigations as 
to the absence or presence of disease, and as to its 
nature, where present, must be conducted individually, 
with a view to the particular idiosyncracies of each 
person, I shall be happy, when consulted, to apply the 
fruits of my long studies, and probably unparalleled ex- 
perience, in removing needless fears where no cause for 
fear exists, and, where disease is really threatened, or 
has already begun its ravages, in staying its onward 
course, and by timely use of judicious measures, eradi- 
cating the seeds of mischief. Though it is true that 
down to a very late and terrible stage of disease medi- 
cal science can command the means of cure, and none, 
therefore, need despair, still the effect of these means is 
proportionately slow or speedy, according to the pro- 
gress which disease has made. Thus, there is no wis- 
dom more sound than that implied in the axiom, that 
“prevention is better than cure;” and as one of the 
baneful characteristics of spermatic disorder is that it 
is apt to make so much progress before the patient sus- 
pects that he is ailing at all, it behooves all persons who 
think they have reason to entertain any doubt of the Importance of Examination. 
233 
actual or probable state of their health, to convert doubt 
into that certainty which will either calm their dis- 
quietude where no real cause exists, or, if such cause 
do exist, will place them on the road to cure. It is 
difficult to conceive how an honest and conscientious 
person, to whom doubts of the kind have occurred, can 
venture to enter into the bonds of matrimony can 
venture to make that solemn engagement on which 
hinges the happiness or misery of his life and the lives 
of others, without performing a duty so fraught with 
the elements of comfort and safety. My province is 
that of the physician, not of the theologian my office 
is the cure of bodies, not the cure of souls; but here, 
prudence, morality, a religious sense of duty, are so 
identical with each other, that I do not trangress my 
proper sphere when I submit the incumbency, on these 
as well as other grounds, of doing that which prudence 
dictates in connection with this grave subject. On its 
performance or non-performance may often depend the 
contingency of a wedded life of mutual contentment, or 
of reciprocal repining, discord, and disgust; and further 
than this, the question whether the offspring of a mar- 
riage are to enjoy purity of health, vigor of constitution, 
and long and painless lives, or to present, on the other 
hand, the pitiable spectacle of a set of poor, sickly, 
ricketty, stunted, and debilitated creatures who, during 
a short and unhappy life, merely “ cumber the earth.” 
Perfect medical diagnosis is therefore all important 
in cases of doubt as to the stability of health. But this 
brings me to a point which involves some of the most 
critical considerations incidental to the subject. I have 
already observed that the sympathy between the genital 234 
Mistakes of the Learned. 
organs and the other portions of the system is so inti- 
mate, that there is scarcely a symptom which can be 
named bnt may be dependent upon the presence of 
Spermatorrhoea. To enumerate the symptoms alluded 
to would be to enumerate nearly every kind and stage 
of illness, mental or physical, with which the practitioner 
can have to deal. The consequence of this is, that 
where the latter, unfortunately for himself and his pa- 
tient, has not been adequately disciplined into the inves- 
tigation of the circumstances which indicate the pres- 
ence of Spermatorrhoea, he sets out on a wild-goose 
search after a thousand other imaginary disorders, and 
nothing is done to arrest the progress of the real one. 
Having said thus much, I can add the further assur- 
ance that if medical men can be induced to devote as 
much time as I have done to the study in all its aspects, 
of the most difficult, delicate, and complicated branch of 
medical science, they will in course of time become 
aware, as I am, of the reasons of the vast number of 
failures which take place in the treatment of patients; 
of the enormous number of deaths, the true cause of 
which is buried in mystery; of the despair which is apt 
to overtake the practitioner when he is unable to hit 
upon the true source of a complaint, or having, as he 
imagines, hit upon it, and applied the medicines which 
he considers most applicable, discovers to his amazement 
that they have inflamed instead of mitigated the symp- 
toms, Before hoping to grapple successfully with the 
evil, he must become perfectly master of the best means 
of detecting it. A too general non-acquaintance with 
the nature and mode of using the best agents of de- 
tection is, in truth, the leading cause of that cpmpara- Mistakes of the Learned. 
235 
live powerlessness against disease, which constitutes a 
standing satire and reproach against the members of the 
healing art generally. Of this I have already convinced 
many of my professional friends, and I hope, as I pro- 
ceed, to convince more still. I feel certain that in doing 
so I am pursuing the course best calculated to elevate 
medicine from the position of a game of chance to 
that of a science; to raise it to that height in public esti- 
mation which the talent, learning, and benevolence of 
the majority of its members would qualify them to oc- 
cupy, provided, that, rising from the slough of prejudice 
and obsolete routine, they would set about making the 
best use of their accomplishments. Converts among 
medical men themselves are what are most to be desired; 
and though the present is essentially a popularly in- 
structive work, and is purposely free from abstruse pro- 
fessional technicalities, my trust is that it may not prove 
wholly fruitless in making converts among that impor- 
tant class. No lay person, uninitiated in the mysteries 
of the profession, will then be more surprised than the 
physician and surgeon brought up under the system so 
earnestly deprecated by Sir Astley Cooper, on discern- 
ing the huge aggregate of loss of life, formerly attribu- 
ted to Complaints of the heart, complaints of the lungs, 
complaints of the head, the stomach, the liver and what 
not, but which will now be readily traceable to a cause 
little known or understood even by the great Sir Astley 
himself. That eminent man, whilst his perspicacious 
mind enabled him to perceive that there was some- 
thing radically wrong in the system upon which gener- 
ative disorders were dealt with in his country, lived 
a few years too early to arrive at the whole truth. He 236 
Mistakes of the Learned. 
mourned a dire but mysterious evil. Had his life and 
health been preserved to our day, he would, I doubt 
not, prove himself an efficient laborer in the gcod work 
of removing that ill-omened mystery. 
While impressing on my medical brethren the impor- 
tance and duty of qualifying themselves in that which, 
whilst the most difficult, has been the most neglected 
branch of pathology, and, above all things, of obtaining 
a perfect knowledge of the means for ascertaining the 
true nature of disease, I must warn them, in the name 
of humanity, to take conscientious care that they do* 
not rush lightly or inconsiderately to the practical appli- 
cation of those means. As nothing, for example, affords 
such a perfect indication as the microscope, for the de- 
tection of the nature of morbid Urethral discharge, 
when the instrument is wielded with consummate knowl- 
edge of its properties, so nothing may lead to more dis- 
astrous mistakes when not handled by the most acute 
and painstaking intelligence. I have touched briefly, 
but I trust sufficiently, on some of the descriptions of 
discharge, any one of which is so likely to be mistaken 
for some other one requiring a wholly different treat- 
ment. The microscope has removed the abstract prob- 
ability of the danger, but has, at the same time, in con- 
sequence of the unskilful handling to which it is some- 
times subjected, increased the incidental probability 
thereof. The danger in this case is referable.to the 
same principle by which chloroform, which, in the hands 
of skilful practitioners, is so great an auxiliary in the 
avoidance of suffering, when surgical operations of an 
intricate kind have been performed, becomes so perilous 
and sometimes so fatal an instrument when ignorant presumption perverts it from its right uses, or adminis- 
ters it in excess, without making due allowance for 
variation in strength of constitution, etc. The attain- 
ment of full experience in the use of the microscope for 
purposes of medical diagnosis, like that of the proper 
use of chloroform in cases involving painful operations, 
requires, as I have observed, study and observation con- 
tinued for many years, and supported by a large amount 
of general medical knowledge; and great are the re- 
sponsibilities devolving on the man who, without such 
qualifications, undertakes to use either the one or the 
other. The importance of this remark is all the more 
urgent, considering the total impossibility of adopting 
any general rule of treatment capable of safe applica- 
tion in different cases, even when the symptoms are ap- 
parently most similar. Where Spermatorrhoea is actu- 
ally present, (but be it remembered that the great task 
is to discover when it is so,) there is, it is true, one 
sound maxim to which I have already adverted, viz., 
that in nearly all affections of this particular kind, disor- 
der of the testicles will in some way or other be indicat- 
ed. But, on the other hand, as there are serious com- 
plaints partaking of the external appearance of Sperma- 
torrhoea, but which do not necessarily present that 
indication, the ordinary pratitioner will be perplexed to 
determine the exact nature of the malady. If he do 
attempt to determine it, so manifold and complex are 
the modifications which are presented, that the chances 
are ten to one that he wholly fails; and more probably 
still, should he tamper with that which, under the eye of 
skill and experience, is the most efficient of all detective 
and indicative agencies. 
Pathological Failures. 
237 238 
Morbid Complications. 
When, again, the presence of Spermatorrhoea has 
been ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt, though 
it may usually be accepted as pretty certain that there is 
disorder in the testicles, complicated with the unhealthy 
emission of seed, the varieties of disorder to which the 
last-named organ is subject are in their turn so numer- 
ous that I could mention not less than twenty distinct 
classes of disease of this kind, every one of which re- 
quires its separate course of treatment; but which, with- 
out minute and careful analysis, cannot be distinguished 
from each other. It would fill a corpulent volume to 
recapitulate, in the most superficial manner, the symp- 
toms of these various affections of the testicles alone, 
and many of which may or may’ not exist in accompa- 
niment with Spermatorrhoea, though the latter does not 
as a general rule exist unless some specific disorder in 
the testicles is in active operation. So sensitive is the 
organ subject to the multitude of derangements alluded 
to, and so very similar in appearance are some of these 
affections, that it would probably be moderate to affirm 
that in no department of analysis are serious and irre- 
trievable errors more likely to be committed. It must 
be remarked that erroneous treatment of disorder in the 
testicles, even when not intimately connected with 
Spermatorrhoea, has frequently led to fatal disease in 
parts of the system so distant as the spine and head. 
This circumstance, of which examples are found by the 
thousand in medical annals, suggests the danger of at- 
tempting to tamper with so delicate an organ, save 
where all the symptomatic circumstances of the case 
are clearly defined in the mind of the practitioner. 
I have more than once made allusion to the danger Morbid Complications. 
239 
which exists that Spermatorrhoea may be mistaken for 
other disorders, such as disease of the heart, lungs, 
liver, or stomach, the symptoms having in many cases 
a close outward affinity with such affections, but being 
in reality connected with some of the various phases of 
development in which the seminal disarrangement ex- 
hibits itself. Through such misconceptions of the nature 
of the malady fatal consequences too often ensue; and 
this circumstance furnishes another, proof of the import- 
ance of minute and particular acquaintance with the 
means of detection. 
A very distressing train of evils arises where the 
practitioner, unpossessed of adequate knowledge of the 
indications of seminal disorder, and unable to discover 
any tangible cause to account for the mental and 
physical prostration of the patient, ascribes all to mere 
fancy and imagination, and endeavors to persuade the 
applicant that in order to be well he has only to think 
himself so. Friends and acquaintances are gravely 
told that it is all whim and nonsense; that there is no 
real disease; that they must make light of the sufferer’s 
complaints. Now it is, doubtless, very advisable to 
keep up his courage. A cheering word, uttered at the 
right time, may, as a collateral help, have a good effect; 
but disastrous are the results when a mere “ placebo,” 
or soother, is substituted for active measures of cure. 
On the errors committed by medical men, in ascribing 
to “ fancy,” or hypochondria, disorders in which actual 
organic or functional lesion is present, an eminent writer 
has the following pregnant remarks : 
“ It is in vain that we say to the so-called hypochon- 
driac—amuse yourself, employ your mind, go into 240 
Medical Errors. 
society, seek agreeable conversation; so long as toe 
have not removed the cause of his disorder he is un- 
able to profit by our counsels. How can we expect 
that when a man is fatigued by the least exercise he 
shall occupy himself with walking or gardening ? How 
can we desire him to go into society, when the simple 
presence of a woman intimidates him, and recalls all 
his former misfortunes ? How can we expect him to 
enjoy conversation when he loses its thread every mo- 
ment— when his memory leaves him, and when he 
feels his nullity? We persuade him to seek amuse- 
ments and pleasures; but are they such to him? Is 
not the happiness of others his greatest punishment? 
Because he is unable to follow our advice, we accuse 
him of unwillingness, and we wish to compel him. But 
let us first remove the cause of our patient’s disease, 
and we may then hope that his character and conduct 
will change, and that he will return to his natural 
tastes and habits.” 
Such is (he language of science and philanthropic 
philosophy, as distinguished from the dull presumption 
of the species of knowledge which is only of routine 
and tradition. Its appositeness to the present subject 
is peculiar, because nineteen out of twenty cases, which 
are loosely classed as nervousness, hypochondriasis, 
whimsicality, etc., are mere exhibitions of one of the 
symptoms of Spermatorrhoea, one of the peculiarities of 
which, it will be remembered, is to proceed continuously 
from bad to worse, this downward progress, instead 
of tendency towards improvement, being a special char- 
acteristic of the disease. Where seminal weakness, in 
any of its stages, is detected, nothing but energetic Means of Cure. 
241 
treatment, in which activity must be combined with 
profound caution at every step, can by any possibility 
produce improvement. Mere “Ilygeiuic” prescrip- 
tions, which consist of advice that might do very well 
for persons in sound health, may in such cases be often 
rather mischievous than otherwise, because they are apt 
to give rise to deceptive expectations, the inevitable dis- 
appointment of which is accompanied by most depress- 
ing reaction. 
The debility and impotence consequent on the ad- 
vanced stages of Spermatorrhoea or seminal weakness 
have elicited from the same authority from whom I 
have already made a short extract, a few observations 
on the question of marriage, so pregnant with good 
counsel to medical men that I cannot resist the temp- 
tation to quote them. The author is supposing that a 
visible improvement has been experienced, and con- 
tinues : 
“It is not long in such cases before we are embarassed 
by questions about the propriety of marriage being put 
to us. This is a matter which is serious in all its as- 
pects, and on which the least scrupulous should not 
pronounce without having had sufficient assurances of 
their patient’s return to health. The question of our 
patient’s health is now not the only one, nor is even 
his future happiness alone implicated; the fate of the 
innocent being who is about to be associated with 
him is the matter of chief importance, and justice to 
her demands that we do not counsel matrimony until 
after sufficiently long proof that re-establishment is 
permanent.” 
Little more need be added than that the moral of 242 
Cure for Body and Mind. 
this passage is equally applicable to children as to 
wife. The offspring of a person who has contracted 
matrimony whilst laboring under infirmity, or who, 
after marriage, is attacked by disease, being for the 
most part victims of ill-health and deformity during the 
continuance of their brief lives. And it applies with 
not less directness to the state of the married who have 
been uncertain as to their condition, than to that of the 
unmarried. In all such cases, whether of doubt or of 
disorder, already incurred, individual examination, con- 
ducted by one capable of entering into every phase of 
the applicant’s state, is the one thing necessary to his 
safety and ease of mind. It is by such means (includ- 
ing the conditions which I have specified,) that clanger 
can, with certainty, be averted, and actual evil, where 
it exists, be driven back from its fell career. Treatment of Spermatorrhoea. 
243 
SECTION YIII 
GENERAL REMARKS ON THE TREATMENT OF SPER- 
MATORRHOEA, SEMINAL WEAKNESS, AND 
It is the duty of a cultivated and well-intentioned 
medical adviser, who addresses himself more particu- 
larly to non-professional readers relative to the treat- 
ment of disease, to warn them against hesitation and 
timidity in applying to a competent person who devotes 
unweariedly his time, thoughts, and energies to one 
class of disorders, and so gains an amount of knowledge 
and experience from the number of cases constantly 
presenting themselves that mere general practitioners 
cannot have the opportunity of obtaining. 
IMPOTENCE. 
Apart from those whose self-neglect amounts to cul- 
pability, there exists a class of patients who gather a 
smattering of knowledge as to symptoms, and at the same 
time a fearful amount of error and delusion, from some 
empirical work, which lauds one medicine or applica- 
tion as the universal remedy for a number of disorders, 
variable as the climates and seasons, undergoing alter- 
ations marked as the' change from sunshine to shade. 
Self-opinion and want of knowledge ever march hand 
in hand, and the amateur self-constituted doctor, by his 
sage treatment of himself or his friend, increases seri- 244 
Treatment of Spermatorrhcea. 
ously the difficulties with which the regular practitioner 
has to contend, whenever the time arrives for discover- 
ing the truth of the, trite old adage, “Whoever has 
himself for a client has a fool for his adviser.” 
The mischief that arises from this absurd self-quackery 
by persons not professionally educated, induces me, 
more as a duty than with the hope of its suppression, 
to declaim against it; for although most men in a legal 
dilemma apply to their lawyer, and in cases of sickness 
in the lower order of valuable animals the best veteri- 
narian is consulted, regardless of expense, yet the very 
man who has acted with caution and judgment in both 
or either of the matters named, will, when his own 
health, happiness, and even life are at stake, tamper 
with all, and very probably in the end succeed in ruin- 
ing his constitution from the delusion of overweening 
self-conceit. There are individuals who indulge the 
fond yet irrational hope that nature is capable of re- 
suming, without assistance, her lost powers. To such 
I can only say that the time which is wasted in this 
delay is precious and irrecoverable, and can only tend 
to perpetuate the predicament of hopeless imbecility, 
and render Impotence permanent. Many of them are 
prevented from applying for medical advice and assist- 
ance through fear or dread of accidental exposure. In 
reference to this it is proper to remark that my general 
rule is to burn all correspondence, or to return it to 
the writers on the termination of their cast ; and only 
under peculiar circumstances is a personal interview or 
application absolutely necessary. It would have been a 
matter of no difficulty to me to detail the histories of 
hundreds of oases which have been treated most sue- Urinary Indications. 
245 
cessfully, in which the most deplorable forms of Nervous 
and Generative Debility, Impotence, Sterility, Nocturnal 
and Diurnal Emissions, Seminal Weakness, Indigestion, 
Syphilitic and constitutional diseases, have been ex- 
changed for health, vigor, and happiness. But this 
would have augmented the size of the work most in- 
conveniently ; and there are many whose delicacy would 
resent the transcript of their cases, even under anony- 
mous initials. 
Many symptoms of a character similar to those of 
Spermatorrhoea may supervene on some affection of the 
Kidney, Ureter, Bladder, Rectum, Prostate, or some 
portion of the Urethra not immediately connected with 
the outlet-of the seminal duct; and so intimate is the 
connection of these adjacent parts through their nerv- 
ous and arterial supply, that sympathetic affections of 
one or more constantly arise when the primary and 
often more serious disease is quietly committing its 
ravages in the neighborhood. 
Want of perception as to the relations of the parts 
affected in their manifold communications and sympa- 
thies, has induced the baneful or effete modes of treat- 
ment employed by some physicians, where the choice 
has fallen either on violent and injurious applications, 
or on a single drug of no effect whatever, puffed up, 
praised, and advertised, with romantic cases plentifully 
appended, to dazzle the uneducated, excite curiosity in 
the thoughtless, and false hopes in the invalid, while 
contemptuous pity and scorn are created in every right- 
thinking and feeling breast. 
Let me repeat how essential it is for every invalid to 
place himself entirely in the hands of his medical at- 246 
True Principles of Treatment. 
tendant, and to blot out forever from his memory that 
deadly illusion, “ self-treatment.” Experience amply 
warrants me in stating that it ought to be termed, “ self- 
injury,” for by it simple cases are rendered complicated, 
and intricate diseases well nigh permanently incurable. 
A comprehensive view of Spermatorrhoea and its ac- 
companying affections, mental and physical, leads me 
to divide the principles of its treatment into, 
Ist. Local, and Constitutional; 
2d. Modal and Dietetic. 
The first is the entire province of the physician, who, 
only in the last necessity, seeks the co-operation of his 
patient. Moral improvement depends wholly on the 
firmness and perseverance of the sufferer. 
A Local remedy of great value is the use of Cold 
Water, and this may be favorably applied over the whole 
body by river and sea-bathing, also to the region of the 
loins, and directly to the exterior of the Testicles. Part 
of the nerves supplying the genito-urinary system pass 
from the Cauda Equina low down in the pelvis, others 
may be traced back in the spinal marrow for some dis- 
tance, and the cold should be used sufficiently high up 
for application over their origin, as the most likely 
method of giving “ tone and power,” both of which we 
seek to impart. 
An enfeebled condition of the scrotum causes the 
testicle to drag on the spermatic cord more than it 
ought to do; so in very many instances a scientifically 
adapted and properly applied suspensory bandage pos- 
sesses no small degree of comfort and utility 
The action of cold on the scrotum causes a muscle 
which forms one coat of that purse (and is termed the True Principal of Treatment. 
247 
dartos,) to contract its fibres, and afford more healthful 
support than would otherwise be gained. Useful and 
simple as these applications are, some patients cannot 
at first bear them, and require to commence with a 
higher temperature, and so gradually proceed to general 
immersion and the use of shower-baths. Where salt 
water is not procurable, a small quantity of bay salt 
may be substituted. 
Coarse towelling or flesh brushes should be used after 
the bath; for the skin is not only an extensive and high- 
ly sensitive structure, but takes no insignificant part in 
the vital process of respiration. 
An embrocation applied along the region of the spine 
is useful in the earlier stages; but when disease is more 
confirmed I have recourse to shocks of electricity or 
galvanism, of course taking care to regulate their power 
in proportion to the strength of the recipient. 
Dry cupping over the dorsal and lumbar regions 
should not be omitted; it consists in applying the glasses 
only, without using the scarificator or lancet blades. 
Blisters, either fluid or plaster, when judiciously 
used, are very valuable appliances; safe and easy of 
adaptation, they can be speedily healed, or by dressing 
with proper material, continued more or less open, ac- 
cording to the medical directions. The best position for 
applying them is generally either the dorsal lumbar, or 
sacral regions; sometimes, however, the course, of the 
Spermatic cord between the two rings on the face of 
the abdomen, may be very properly selected. My testi- 
mony is decidedly in their favor as valuable allies in this 
class of infirmities, particularly in very obstinate cases, 
accompanied by seminal emissions, which resist all in- 248 
Medical and Dietetic. 
ternal remedies. In such instances I have generally 
found the blister, when applied to the perineum, (that 
portion of the body behind the testicles,) to be highly 
efficacious. 
Compression of the testis should not be omitted. 
When applied by the physician in an effective manner, it 
directly and mechanically supports the vessels of the 
epididymis, and, by assisting the tunica albuginea, tends 
to prevent greater relaxation of the secreting body of 
the testicle. Men of the highest professional rank will 
bear testimony to the favorable action of this remedy, in 
chronic and even acute forms of inflammation in the 
organ, and to the simplicity of its adaptation and re- 
moval. 
The proposed limits of this work would be far ex- 
ceeded by a continuation of the topical remedies which 
the medical man has at command; his practised eye 
alone can guide the patient as to which one is most 
applicable to the individual train of symptoms under 
consideration; and as scarcely any two cases are ex- 
actly similar in their minute details, it is wise and ra- 
tional to conclude that in order to be effective the 
curative means must be varied also. 
A sketch only of the medicinal or constitutional treat- 
ment can be offered; for the wide-spread ramifications 
of the scnso-motor and sympathetic nerves, bring into a 
state of functional disorder, not only organs situated 
near each other, but those which are at a distance, as 
the brain, lungs, heart, and stomach, all intimately con- 
nected by means of the pneumo-gastric nerves ; hence 
the palpitations, difficult and excited respiration, head- 
ache, floating bodies appearing before the eyes, Ac., True Principle ft of Treatment. 
249 
so frequently accompanying different stages of Sper- 
matorrhoea, and alluded to at great length by some 
writers. Any complications of these or other kinds 
will meet with due attention if looked on as the out- 
posts, to be treated in their turn, while the physician 
continues to employ his main strength on the citadel or 
stronghold of the enemy. 
The class of drugs which allay excitement and irrita- 
bility are the first likely to be required; for the stomach, 
so weakened and capricious that the whole complaint 
is frequently confounded with indigestion, demands our 
first attention, in order that it may. receive and assimi- 
late the medicines and food necessary for a permanent 
curative effect. 
Mild and cordial laxatives, alterative drugs with 
neutral salts, febrifuges and sedatives, will soon quiet 
the system and enable it to tolerate tonic or restorative 
medicines. If the last are indiscriminately commenced 
with, all the evils augment, and time is in the end lost. 
No word in medical phraseology is more misappro- 
priated than “ tonic.” One man means iron ; another, 
quinine ; a third, Ttdneral acids; whilst a fourth means 
stimulants or irritative preparations, which have no 
real action suitable to the term; and so on, through the 
entire Pharmacopoeia. 
Now, I mean not any one, but the whole class of 
medicines, legitimately so termed, which must be culled 
and combined to meet each case, changed and increased 
according only to their effect, in which consists the real 
art of scientific prescribing. One man gradually gath- 
ers strength from quinine, which would not suit an- 
other, whose deteriorated blood globules will become 250 
Medical and Dietetic. 
red and healthy under the exhibition of iron, in some 
of its numerous preparations. 
Perseverance and steadiness in obeying the directions 
laid down for him are incumbent on the patient, who 
should bear in mind that carelessness or excess may 
counteract the medicinal benefit he could not other- 
wise fail to receive. 
A great coadjutor in the work of restoration is a 
soundly-based and well-followed dietetic regimen, which 
may be gently hinted at in the next place. 
In the irritable stage, from the condition' of the sto- 
mach, very little in the way of diet can be borne, 
compared to the hearty meals afterwards partaken of, 
when the tonics are acting powerfully and well. Care- 
fully prepared broths, flavored only, not highly sea- 
soned, may be administered. Next come small portions of 
lean meat; anch finally, all those articles of food which 
contain most nutrition in the least space, giving the 
system support, and, as it were, nursing the power's of 
digestion. The palate, too, may be consulted, so that 
nothing injurious is fancied. 
Without usurping the prerogative of cooks, who are 
somewhat despotic in their rule, let me warn patients 
that it is essential to procure, in the soup or broth, all 
the osmazome, or red particles of the meat, and this is 
best done by cutting it into small pieces, and very grad- 
ually extracting the required material by placing the 
meat in a flat covered dish placed in an oven only heated 
sufficiently to simmer the water. 
A generous but not stimulating diet may be adopted, 
and the patient can select fish, shell-fish, eggs, poultry, 
and meat at pleasure. Warm relaxing drinks, such as tea, coffee, &c., are in- 
jurious, and their place may be supplied by new milk, 
where the stomach does not revolt at it; nearly all fruits 
and vegetables, lemon, vinegar, peppers, &c., should be 
avoided. 
Medical and Dietetic. 
251 
As to stimulating fluids, good old wine, genuine bran- 
dy, or rum of a proper age, may be prescribed in medi- 
cinal quantifies, but not lor unlimited use; every undue 
stimulus causes a weakening reaction. Malt liquors of 
a perfect quality and well regulated quantity, are valua- 
ble tonics; but their administration, together with a more 
copious digest of rules, applicable to each person and 
period, must remain under the sole control of one more 
experienced than the invalid. 
Most happily for humanity, there are not many causes 
which render impotence permanent; but organic disease 
or injury to the cerebellum may cause it. I witnessed an 
interesting case, some years ago, in a soldier, formerly of 
General Hooker’s brigade. 
Obliteration of both vasa deferentia, accidental defi- 
ciency or excessive congenital smallness of the penis 
must naturally and hopelessly confirm the state of impo- 
tence. 
I will say only a few words on moral treatment. Vice 
is more easily acquired than eradicated. Those who 
owe their diseased condition to a continuation of their 
own fault, I would entreat to seek a state of corporeal 
health, which may give them sufficient mental firmness 
to conquer their evil propensities. 
Marriage (which every man deems a blessing,) cannot 
without reference to feelings of affection and prudence 
be recommended as a remedy for the sick; the happiness 252 
The Author's Principles. 
of both parties depends on its results, and an unfortu- 
nate or ill-advised connection of the sexes, particularly 
arising from physical causes, can only aid in “ multiply- 
ing misery by two.” One victim is more than society 
can spare. Let all remember in good time the truthful 
Latin proverb, “ Gutto cavat lapidem non vi sed ssepe 
cadendo ,”—“ The drop of water hollows the stone, not 
by the force, but by the frequency of its falling.” 
The peculiarity of my treatment consists in the selec- 
tion of hitherto undiscovered remedies, and in the prac- 
tical adaptation and application of those we heretofore 
possessed. To act directly upon the seminal vessels, 
and to impart tone, without the production of irritation; 
to strengthen without inflaming or temporarily exciting 
the generative power; to renovate, by the exhibition of 
remedies which cure, by the removal of the proximate 
cause of debility and disease, and so permanently restore 
the lost energies of the system,—this is the mode of 
practice which in my hands has been signally suc- 
cessful. 
It will be a substantial service to society if the 
reader who has attentively, and I hope usefully, pe- 
rused these pages, will forward, under envelope, anony- 
mously or otherwise, this little work to such of his 
friends or acquaintances who, as he may have reason 
either to know or suspect, have been the secret victims 
of the baneful habit I have alluded to. In this way a 
parent may secretly, yet effectually, warn that child to 
whom on such a subject he would feel it repulsive to 
speak. I need only point out this mode of performing 
a humane and charitable action, to render obvious its 
very useful application. The Author's Principles. 
253 
It is evident that in a work of this nature it is abso- 
lutely necessary to cite a few cases cautiously, as de- 
scriptive of the character and variety of those sufferings 
for which lam ordinarily consulted. This is done with 
care, and no other or further publicity need be feared 
by those who have already consulted me, or may in 
future place themselves under my treatment. I have 
thus endeavored to explain the purpose of the present 
effort,—to offer an intelligent portraiture of the inter- 
ruptions to the enjoyment of sexual health, and by 
explaining the causes in a simple, forcible and per- 
spicuous manner, to enable the reader to disentangle 
the apparently inextricable and confused maze of his 
own wandering and diseased fancies,—to point to the 
concealed and, it may be, unsuspected cause of human 
suffering, and to the restoration of health, pristine vigor, 
usefulness, activity, and joyous hilarity. “Why do I 
suffer?—why, when all around me invites to enjoy- 
ment? Why is it that, while every face wears a smile, 
existence is to me a dreary blank, the world, its 
pleasures, cares, and duties an irksome weariness?” 
Are not these questions which even a cursory glance at 
the previous pages will enable the misguided to solve ? 
Requiring no name (if my patient be desirous to con- 
ceal it,) I am enabled to afford relief without even 
knowing the parties who receive it at my hands; and 
this certainty of concealment is to many a great satis- 
faction. Kever till ess it is unnecessary, for on no oc- 
casion has the slightest suspicion ever been excited. 
Inviolable secrecy and certain relief are the boons, 
then, I offer to suffering humanity. 
That I have these in my power to bestow, number- 254 
Inviolable Secrecy and Certain Relief. 
less cases sufficiently attest. I make no pretensions 
but such as are borne out by the fullest testimonies; 
and of the authenticity of these testimonies I am pre- 
pared to give every proof short of a disclosure of the 
confidence entrusted to me. Feeling sensible that from 
the absence of information in other legitimate channels 
many errors are committed through ignorance, and 
many evils endured through shame, this little work is 
tendered, accompanied with the hope that its useful- 
ness may not be diminished by any misinterpretation 
of my real motives. For the satisfaction of the reader 
a few illustrative cases are appended; and to those who 
are suffering from any of the consequences resulting 
from solitary habits or excess, a reference to the Notice 
to Patients at the end of the volume, will point out the 
method to be adopted, by which the alleviation and cure 
of such consequences may be effected. No missing pages 
255-264 Remarks of the Press. 
265 
A FEW OF THE MANY EXTRACTS IN MY POSSESSION 
FEOM THE LEADING NEWSPAPEKS AND MEDICAL 
JOURNALS OF THE COUNTRY. 
The distinguished and able Dr. Hayes, Yice President 
of the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
arrived in our city last evening. We understand that 
the doctor is on his way to the Kocky Mountains, 
whither he is journeying for the benefit of his health 
which has become so impaired by arduous professional 
labors as to render this recreation imperative. He has 
accepted an invitation from the Faculty of the Union 
Medical College to deliver a course of a few lectures on 
Pregnancy and the Diseases of Women. This will 
offer a rare opportunity for our physicians and students 
to listen to the instructions of one of our greatest and 
most experienced professors. 
(From the Chicago Medical Journal, June, 1867.) 
(From the St. Louis Republican, June 28,1867.) 
Distinguished Arrival. The distinguished Dr. 
A. H. Hayes, of Boston, arrived in this city last 
evening. 
Dr. Albert IT. Hayes, of Boston, Professor of Female 
Complaints, is on a brief visit to this part of the country 
to recruit his exhausted physical strength, which has 
become somewhat prostrated by increasing professional 
labors. Of all physicians of the present day there are 
none who sustain a higher character or so large a share 
of public confidence as Dr. Hayes. 
(From the St. Louis Medical Review.) 266 
Remarks of the Press. 
Dr. A. H. Hayes, who lectured at the Apollo last 
evening, is undoubtedly the most instructive and elo- 
quent lecturer in the United States upon physiology 
and health. The people of St. Louis were so delighted 
with him, they induced him to deliver three courses of 
lectures. Every lecture was listened to with the most 
profound attention by more than two thousand people, 
and hundreds were nightly compelled to go away 
unable to get even standing room within hearing of 
the doctor’s voice. 
(From the Louisville Journal, July 7, 1867.) 
(From the Toronto, C.W., Medical Times.) 
Dr. Hayes, of Boston, who has become so distinguished 
throughout the enlightened world by his success in 
the treatment of diseases of a delicate nature, has just 
completed a highly instructive course of lectures before 
the Medical Faculty at the Queen’s Medical College in 
this city. These lectures were delivered to large gath- 
erings of medical men exclusively, and have greatly 
enlightened our minds upon the nature and proper 
treatment of all private diseases. At the close of his 
last lecture, last Tuesday afternoon, F. Ramsbotham, 
President of the College, was called to the chair, and 
resolutions of the most flattering character were unani- 
mously passed by over three hundred of the very best 
physicians in Canada West, of which the following is 
a specimen: 
Resolved, That we have listened with unfeigned de- 
light and interest to the lectures delivered by Dr. 
Hayes, and brought to a close this day, and that we 
deem it an act of justice to him and the Faculty of the 
United States to thus express our appreciation of his 
high character, his- great ability, and his wonderful 
powers of illustrating his subject. 
Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed by 
the chair to tender Dr. Hayes the thanks of this Medical 
Society for his uniform courtesy to the members in af- 
fording them every facility for obtaining information 
upon the subject of his lectures, and that he be requested Remarks of the Press. 
267 
to deliver additional lectures at this College at the 
earliest period consistent with his other engagements. 
Geoege L. Somees, M. D. ) 
Heney T. Lyman, M. D. > Committee. 
Ehubin H. McCakty, M. D. ) 
Geoege L. Somees, Secretary. 
Toronto, C.W., July 23,1867. 
Dr. Hayes, Ho. 4 Bulflnch Street, astonishes all by 
his wonderful success in curing diseases. The facility 
with which he raises the prostrate frame, invigorates it 
with new life, and charms it with bright hope, is the 
mystery and admiration of the hour. His method of 
examination, his deep insight into disease, his profound 
knowledge of the materia medica, are all proverbial. 
Where others practice at hap-hazard and in tbe dark, 
he seems to tread in the light of certainty, and as a 
consequence conquers disease. All should consult him 
who wish for a speedy cure and thorough advice, for 
Dr. Hayes has had the most remarkable and gratifying 
success. 
(From the Evening Traveller.) 
(From the Daily Journal.) 
De. A. H. Hayes.—This renowned physician, whose 
bold and enlightened treatment of many of the most 
formidable diseases with which the human family is 
afflicted is as remarkable as it is gratifying, is constantly 
thronged with those seeking for health and its con- 
comitant blessings. He possessess a powerful and 
masterly mind, and his success is the most gratifying. 
Go to him, ye that are sick, and be healed. 
(From the Morning Post.) 
To the Afflicted.—Avoid all quack or advertised 
remedies for any disease, especially venereal, and all the 
instruments advertised to cure seminal emissions, as 
they are injurious quack humbugs; but go to Dr. 
Hayes, No. 4 Bulfinch St., (opposite Eevere House,) 268 
Testimonial from Dr. Conover. 
Boston. He is a skilful physician, and his elegant 
apartments are so arranged as to have all consultations 
strictly private. 
A letter from the distinguished Dr. Alexander Cono- 
ver, Medical Inspector in the United States army: 
Washington, D. C., 1 
June 18th, 1863. ) 
A noble benefactor is Dr. Hayes. He reaches the 
very roots and vitals of disease, and is enabled to apply 
thorough remedies. Thousands of apparently hopeless 
cases which have been given up by other eminent 
medical men have been speedily cured by Dr. Hayes, 
and have borne grateful evidence of the skill and learn- 
ing of this renowned physician. 
Alex. Conovee, M. D., 
Medical Inspector U. S. A. 
The preceding letter was addressed by Dr. Conover 
to W. A, Hammond, then Surgeon General in the 
United States Army. Certificates. 
269 
CERTIFICATES 
GIVEN ME BY THE PATIENTS THEMSELVES FOE 
CUEING THEM OF YAKIOUS PEIVATE DISEASES, AF- 
TEE THEY HAD BEEN HUMBUGGED AND CHEATED 
OUT OF THEIE MONEY BY VAEIOUS QUACKS 
ASSUMING FALSE NAMES IN THIS CITY AND PUFF- 
ING THEMSELVES HIGHLY IN CEETAIN NEWSPA- 
PEKS. 
CASE XL. 
De. Hayes: 
I improve this opportunity to inform you that you 
have perfectly cured me of Syphilis. I was under the 
care of three different quacks in Boston for almost four 
years. Three months ago I was recommended to you, 
and now, thank God, that through him you have saved 
me from a lingering, disgusting disease, and awful 
death. 
W. L. G. 
Melrose, Mass., June 18th, 1863. 
CASE XLI 
De. Hayes ; Xo. 4 Bulflnch Street, Boston. 
My Dear Sir: 
Xearly two years ago I contracted chancre [pox] and 
after bothering with several incompetent, self-styled doc- 
tors, none of whom afforded me the slightest relief from 
the loathsome ulcers with which I was covered, I ap- 270 
Certificates. 
plied to yon. In six weeks afterward I was entirely 
restored to health, and have never been better in my 
life than since then. 
J. L. K. 
East Boston, May 14th, 1863. 
CASE C. 
Haverhill, Mass, ) 
December 10th, 1867.) 
My Dear Doctor 
Accept my gratitude and homage to your skill. I as- 
sure you it gives me infinite pleasure to report progress 
in accordance with your request. It is now just four 
weeks since I commenced taking your medicine. The 
night before I commenced taking it I had an emission, 
and had been having about one a week. I have had 
but one since I commenced your treatment, and that 
was just three weeks ago. 
The very first time I took your medicine I felt its 
beneficial effect. I now feel so well, so happy, so full of 
joyous spirit, that lam like a holiday schoolboy. I as- 
sure you, doctor, that my health and strength are won- 
derfully increased; my duties, so tiresome before, are 
now light and easy; I work hard and never become 
wearied. In short, I have lately felt that life is a 
pleasure. Each day I have felt better. 
My friends are surprised to see me so well, so strong. 
I am most sanguine of future health and strength. 
I thought the emission would never occur again. 
However the last one was only slight, but I felt weak in 
the knees, and felt exhausted all the next day, but it 
went off, and I felt well and strong, and still continue 
so. The penis has assumed a much larger appearance, 
and is more vigorous; it has not that flabbiness, feels 
warm, and never clammy. 
I have rigidly adhered to your rules and advice; the 
thick, white matter does not now escape with my urine. 
lam surprised to see how fast I gain. Will the emis- Certificates. 
271 
sion stop altogether ? Will it injure my health to get 
married in twelve months’ time ? I already hail you as 
my regenerator. 
Tour Obedient Servant, 
T. M. 0. 
The author is constantly receiving letters of which the 
proceeding are an example, from his patients in all parts 
of the country. 272 
To Patients and Invalid Eeaders. 
TO PATIENTS AND INVALID EEADEES. 
Dr. Hayes having for many years exclusively de- 
voted his attention to the treatment of the diseases 
of the 
Generative and Nervous System and the 
Diseases of Women, 
described in the preceding pages, may be personally 
consulted from nine in the morning until nine in the 
evening, daily, at his office and residence, No. 4 Bulflnch 
Street, Boston, (opposite Eevere House.) 
Dr. Hayes has made arrangements whereby packages 
can be forwarded with secrecy and dispatch to all parts 
of the United States and British Provinces. 
For those who prefer correspondence, or who are 
compelled to adopt that course, a minute detail of their 
bodily and mental grievances, written in a simple style, 
and in accordance with the unerring dictates of their 
own feelings, will convey to the Doctor a fair idea of 
his patient’s case, and of course of all that is necessary 
for its safe treatment, and this the more naturally from 
the similarity that exists between multitudes of cases, 
with which, from long observation and practice, he has 
already become familiar. One personal interview, even 
with patients resident at a distance, is highly desirable 
where practicable. The advantages to the patient are 
manifold, when compared with mere correspondence. A single visit will in most cases enable Dr. IT. to form an 
instantaneous and accurate judgment, and thus facilitate 
the patient’s recovery. In the first place, many impor- 
tant questions affecting the patient are likely to be sug- 
gested by a personal interview, which would, in all 
probability, be lost sight of in correspondence. Sec- 
ondly, a more correct diagnosis of the disorder, and a 
better appreciation of the patient’s constitution, can be 
arrived at, whilst a microscopic examination of the 
urine, where necessary, will render any mistake im- 
possible, especially in cases of Spermatorrhoea. And, 
thirdly, where the patient is laboring under urethral 
discharges, which may or may not be produced by 
impure connection, one personal visit, with a view to 
an urinary examination, is eminently advantageous. 
In a word, the correspondent will be more than repaid 
for the trouble and expense of his journey to Boston, 
by the increased certainty and rapidity of the cure. 
To Patients and Invalid Headers, 
273 
COUNTRY PATIENTS 
Are informed that by forwarding their letters through 
the Post, they can have the necessary remedies sent to 
any address, or can be directed to be left at a Railway 
Station or Coach Office till called for, in a portable 
compass, carefully packed and free from observation; 
and they may be taken without confinement or any 
restraint. It is well that patients should consult their 
own interest, by being as minute as possible in the 
detail of their symptoms, age, general habits of living, 
occupation in life, and position in society. The com- 
mnnication must be accompanied by the usual consult- 274 
To Patients and Invalid Readers. 
ation fee of Five.Dollars, or a post-office order for that 
amount (payable to Dr. A. H. Hayes, Boston,) without 
which no notice can be taken of their application, and 
a distinct name must be given with each post-office 
order, or there may be difficulty in getting it paid. 
In all cases, secrecy is to be considered as inviolable, 
as all letters are either returned to the writers or des- 
troyed at the termination of each case. Where bank 
notes are enclosed in letters, it will ensure their safety 
by registering the letter at any post office, which can 
be done at a trifling expense, and is frequently prefer- 
able to obtaining a post office order, as it is unnecessary 
to give any name or address in registering the letter. 
For years past much of the author’s practice has been 
carried on by correspondence only. 
Dr. Hayes’s office, though centrally located and easy 
to find, is free from observation, (ho idlers hanging 
around the doorway, so common to other localities,) 
and patients, whether ladies or gentlemen, will see no 
one but the Doctor himself, as his numerous parlors are 
especially adapted to this purpose. 
No. 4 DDL FINCH STREET, BOSTON, 
(Opposite Revere House.) 
Kind and skilful nurses, with good board and 
pleasant rooms for those who wish to remain in the city, 
for a time, under the Doctor’s treatment. CONTENTS. 
Preface, ..... 3 
Female Organs of Generation,— 
Structure, Functions, and Diseases, - 9 
Symptoms of Pregnancy, - - 17 
Suppression of the Menses, Treatment for, 20 
Venereal Diseases,— 
Symptoms of Gonorrhoea or Clap, - 22 
Swelled Testicle, - - - - 25 
Gleet, - 29 
Irritable Bladder, - - - - 27 
Stricture, - - - - - 34 
Symptoms and Treatment of Venereal Disease 
in its Local and Constitutional Forms, and 
the Use and Abuse of Mercury, - 46 
Syphilitic Eruptions on the Face, . 53 
Destruction of the Nose by Syphilis, and 
Ulcer on the Cheek, , . .54 
Anatomy and Physiology of the Gener- 
ative Organs, ... 63 276 
CONTENTS. 
Puberty,—Manhood,— 
The Morale of Generative Physiology, - 73 
Generative Physiology, - - - 74 
Relations between the Sexes, - - 78 
Sexual Development, - 78 
True Morality, - 82 
Natural Period of Development, - - 84 
Empiricism, - 86 
The Physiology of Maeeiage,— 
Aptitude and Inaptitude for Wedded Happiness, 88 
Perversion of Marriage, - 92 
Avoidance of Calamity, - 98 
Physiological Facts on Generative Capacity, 100 
On Wedlock and Offspring, - - 103 
On Physical Contrasts, - 107 
In Connection with Marriage, - - 108 
Physical Contrasts v. In-Breeding, - 110 
Evils of In-Breeding, - 111 
Matrimonial Disappointments Exemplified 
and Treated, - 112 
Conjugal Precepts and Friendly Counsel, 114 
Useful Truths, - 117 
Physical Infirmity, Its Causes and Cure, 118 
A Vigorous Posterity - 120 
S P EEM AT O ElilKE A,— 
Its History and Causes, • - - - 121 
The Causes of Evil, - 122 
The Sources of Evil, - 123 
Dangers of Hypocrisy, - 12.1 
Self-Abuse, - 127,174,204 
The Curse of Ignorance, and its Avoidance, 130 CONTENTS. 
277 
Proofs of the Extension of Vice, - 132 
Venereal Imprudences illustrated in their 
Effects, 134 
The Miseries of Imprudence, - - 138 
Pacts and Philosophy, - - - 142 
Miscellaneous Causes, - 140 
Symptoms of Speematoeeieea and Impo- 
tence, - 145 
Nocturnal and Diurnal Discharges, - 146 
Indications of Self-Abuse, - - 151 
Multiplicity of Symptoms, - - 149 
Seminal Weakness, - 152 
Influence of Spermatorrhoea, - - 154 
Effects on the Mental Faculties, - - 150 
Fatal Mistakes, - 159 
Causes and Effects of Speematoeehcea, 160 
The Mental and Generative Machinery, - 161 
Spermatorrhoea and its Victims, - - 165 
Self-Abuse and its Victims, - - 160 
Seminal Losses, - 171 
Seminal Weakness and Sexual Impotence, 182 
Impotence and Sterility, - 188 
Sexual Philosophy, - - - 197 
On Generative Capacity, - 198 
The Curse of Self-Abuse, - - 199 
Impotence and Sterility, - 200 
Generative Philosophy, - 203 
Horrors of Self-Abuse, - - - 206 
Sterility and Impotence, - 211 
Affections of the Testicle, - - 213 278 
CONTENTS. 
Miscellaneous Causes, - 214 
Effects on the Testicles, and Physiology of the 
Organ, - 216 
Plain and Practical Truths, - - 218 
On Symptoms and Effects, - - 219 
Friendly Suggestions, ... 222 
Detection of Spermatorrhcea, - - 223 
Ancient Ignorance and Errors, - - 225 
Indications for Detection, - - 226 
Danger of Mistakes, - 228 
Qualification for Inquiry, - - 229 
Means of Detection, - 231 
Importance of Examination, - - 233 
Mistakes of the Learned, - - 234 
Pathological Failures, - 237 
Morbid Complications, - 238 
Medical Errors, - 240 
Means of Cure, - 241 
General Eemarks on the Treatment of 
Spermatorrikea, etc. - - 243 
Cure for Body and Mind, - - 242 
Urinary Indications, - 245 
True Principles of Treatment, - - 247 
The Author’s Principles, - - - 252 
Inviolable Secrecy and Certain Relief, - 254 
Remarks of the Press, - 265 
Certificates, - 264 
To Patients and Invalid Readers, - 272