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       No. <LD.2~.&d 
 
 
 
 
GENERAL  NOTICE.
   Persons wishing  the special  advice  of Dr. S.
 Pancoast, must particularly describe  the nature
 and progress  of the  disease,  as  far as practicable,
 enclosing a fee to receive  attention.  This arrange-
 ment is found necessary in order  to ensure  parties
 the  fullest information  desired  by  them,  as  the
 time of Dr. Pancoast is too much occupied in read-
 ing  letters and attending to communications of par-
 ties  who do not seem to appreciate the axiom that
 "time is  money," especially  with a medical prac-
 titioner.    Letters without  a fee will  not receive
 attention.   Dr. Pancoast  is prepared to  extend
 private facilities for the examination of patients, and
 to supply remedies that will cure the most inveterate
 forms of Spermatorrhoea, General Debility, etc.
                           S. PANCOAST,
        No. 916  Spring  Garden St., Philadelphia.

  P. S. Private interviews can be arranged for at
Dr. Pancoast's Office;  or visits will be  made at a
distance,  where the parties are reliable or  respon-
sible, at short  notice.
                                       (1) 
 
 
TJie healthy couple njni thar rhiM.
Parti. Title.
Frontispiece Parti. 
ONANISM. —SPERMATORRHEA.
Porneio-Kalogynomia-Pathology.
BOYHOOD'S  PERILS
AND
MANHOOD'S   CURSE.
AN EARNEST APPEAL TO THE YOUNG OF AMERICA.
 " My honor is my proudest heritage.  My chastity 's the jewel of a noble
race, descended to me from many ancestors, which it were the greatest obloquy
in the world for me to lose."
        By  S. PANOOAST, M. D.,

Professor of Microscopic Anatomy, Physiology, and the Institutes of Medicine, in Penn
    Medical University, Philadelphia ; Author of " An Original Treatise on
        the Curability of Consumption," " The Family Guide in
          Diseases of the Throat and Chest," dfco. Ao.
PHILADELPHIA.
    1858. 
 
LIST  OF EMBELLISHMENTS.
* m i
                          PART  I.
                                                     TO PACE PAOB
 Plate 1.—Frontispiece.—The Healthy Couple and their Child.   1
 Plate A.—Anatomical View of the Organs of Generation............  25
 Plate B.—Fig. 1, Front View of the Bladder and Penis.—Fig. 2,
   Posterior View of the Bladder and Prostate.—Fig. 3, A Section-
   al View of the Seminal Vessels and  Prostate..........................  30
 Plate G.—Fig. 1, Varicole produced by Self-pollution.—Fig. 2t
   The Testes in Health.—Fig. 3, The Testes wasted away through
   Onanism...........................................................................  35
 Plate B.—Fig. 1, The Urethra of  the Penis laid Open.—Fig. 2.
   Microscopical View of Semen and Spermatozoa.—Fig. 3, Sper-
   matozoa in Masturbation.—Fig. 4, Gonorrhoeal  Discharge Mag-
   nified.—Fig. 5, Syphilitic Discharge Magnified.......................   58

                         PART  II.
 Plate 2.—Frontispiece.—The Onanist and their Child............   96
 Plate E.— Fig. 1, Gonorrhoeal Ophthalmia.—i%.  2, Nodes on
  the Frontal Bone.—Fig.  3, Syphilitic Pustules on the Face.—
  Fig. 4, Venereal Taint in the Offspring.—Fig. 5, Venereal Erup-
  tions after Suppuration.—Fig. 6, Syphilitic  Pustules previous to
  the Nose being  Destroyed.—Fig. 7, Venereal Eruptions after
  Suppuration...................................................................... 10(5
Plate F.—Fig. 1, The Eye previous to  Disease. — Fig.  2, Sy-
  philis in the Eye.—Fig. 3, Secondary Symptoms in the  Eye.—
  Fig. 4, Destruction of the Eye  through  Syphilis.—Fig. 5, Pri-
  mary Symptoms.—Fig. 6, Syphilitic Tubercles......................... 121
Plate G.—Fig. 1, General Appearance of the Features through
  Onanism.—Fig.  2, The Meagre  Appearance of  the  Features
  through  Onanism.—Fig.  3, Spermatorrhoeal Ophthalmia  conse-
  quent through Onanism...................................................... 143
                                                  (7) 
 
PREFACE.
   The subjects which embrace the theme of this volume, I am free to
 confess, are of a highly delicate and peculiar nature. Accordingly, it has
 been my constant study to clothe my thoughts in language that cannot
 possibly offend the feelings of the most pure and fastidious of those moral-
 ists and humanitarians, who would save their fellow-beings from terrors
 more insidious than the serpent's coil—who  would snatch them from
 utter despair and a most revolting degradation of soul and  body, even as
 " brands are  rescued from the terrible burnings."  A true morality—
 a morality that will produce its goodly fruit in generations of virtuous
 and healthy men and women, does not consist in any attempt to co?i-
 ceal the sacred  laws of Nature, but  rather should lie in efforts to in-
 struct the youth of America, in all those noble truths which will tend
 to the improvement of their physical capacities, and that elevation of
 soul, without which  no  one can  ever become really virtuous, happy,
 wise, and proudly great.  The great  Holler well remarked, that " there
 are no secrets in Physiology."  Surely, pristine Nature will never be
 found ashamed of herself!   There is nothing whatever of the prurient
 and revolting in her simple laws !   Indeed, there is a world of philo-
 sophy in the  maxim, that  it is " only the evil who evil  think"—honi
 soil qui mal y pense.
  Is it  not our duty, then, to instruct calmly, admonish gently, but
 earnestly and  faithfully exhibit the terrible consequences of Self-pol-
 lution t   Onanism, and  sexual excesses,  therefore, hare  been dilatod
 upon with particular care.  I have thought  only of the weal of deluded
 and erring mortals; while my zealous purpose has been to do all in my
 power to limit the horrors which have so long impaired the welfare
 and happiness of human society,  as  a consequence of this most loath-
 some and detestable iniquity.  The "Book  of books" not only vividly
portrays the heinousness of the sin of Er and Onan, but reveals how
signal and  retributive was the punishment of Jehovah upon their un-
 natural  sins.  Parents,  guardians, and  teachers,  therefore, may  no
longer, through any falso notions of delicacy,  or any idea of the neces-
                                                      (9) 
10
PREFACE.
sity  of  concealment and mystification, add  to somo of  the direst
curses and most degrading miseries with which poor human nature has
so long  been and is still so lamentably afflicted. The pretence that any
allusion to solitary vice  may lead innocent youth to a knowledge and
practice of it, is utterly fallacious and untenable; for it is an evil against
which it is impossible to guard save by warniny and vigilance.   The
mock-modesty of many persons who pretend to be horrified at the bare
mention of the probability of the prevalence of secret pollutions, should
no longer outweigh a most solemn, palpable and incontrovertible fact!
Surely, it were the most wrong-headed of all moral conventionalities—a
most wicked  hypocrisy: nay, a most murderous policy, to  allow my-
riads of fellow-creatures to descend to loathsome tombs, without  some
vigorous attempt to  save the misguided from the dismal  paths which
" take hold on hell."  At least, a "conscience void of offence," and a
solemn conviction that I am doing  a great service to society, will no
longer allow  me to refrain from the publication  of   startling truths,
especially where there is a possibility of showing to the non-profes-
sional reader the readiest means of guarding against a host of distress-
ing maladies, which are only entailed through vicious propensities, and
the inordinate  indulgence of  the  grossest of sensual proclivities.  I
would only further remark, that while  I would have  this work placed
by parents in the hands of every child suspected of destructive secret
habits, the work is  a medical book; and,  like all others of  that char-
acter, it is not designed  for the centre-table, nor to be loosely thrown
about among  persons either too young, or too  silly and ignorant to
understand and profit by the important truths that are revealed. 
INTRODUCTION.
                 GENERAL  PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

   As it is my purpose to treat of the Normal and Abnormal Functions
 of the  Generative Apparatus of the Human Being, in a Scientific man-
 ner, it  will be necessary to give at the outset a brief and clear descrip-
 tion of their anatomical and physiological relations in connection with
 their influence upon the constitution and  intellect, so that the simplest
 mind  may fully comprehend  how  the health may be maintained  in
 pristine vigor, and how all violations of Nature's laws, entailing ter-
 rible disease and death, may be ameliorated or altogether avoided.
   I here, accordingly, premise that  the Generative Organs are of most
 wonderful construction, and most  admirably adapted, by their special
 mechanism, for a most important and essential function, that of the
 propagation of the species, agreeably to the Divine injunction to  " mul-
 tiply and  replenish  the  earth."*  In  man they consist of a secretin^
 apparatus, which is comparatively simple.   In woman they are much
 more complex.   They embrace, in the  female, a greater number of
 objects; because, independent of the immediate agents of that function,
 the mammas, or breasts  of woman, may be considered as belonging to
 the organs.  Nature, moreover, has given to this sex the depository of
 the product of conception—the  womb.  Thus the  generative organs in
 woman are more essentially a part of the organization.  It is proper to
 observe further,  that  the Urinary  and  Sexual organs are  so  closely
 related  to each other, as respects their original development and the
 union of their secretory ducts, that it  is  necessary to treat  them ana-
 tomically as one set of apparatus.   The urine secreted by the kidneys
 must pass out by the same channel that is  made to carry the fructifying
 seed of  the male into  the vagina of the female,  and through which
 the seminal fluid is  ejected into the womb, or transmitted to the innei
 organs of generation and gestation, where, after a period of forty weeks,
 a human being is perfected and brought into breathing and tangible
existence,  among the myriads of organized beings or creatures on the
face of the earth.
                       * Genesis, chap. i. v. 28. 
12
INTRODUCTION.
  I speak plainly, for it is of the highest importance that every man,
woman, and child, should possess a satisfactory knowledge of the physio-
logical, anatomical, and morphological relations of the organs which are
the seat of the sexual and  urinary functions, in order that the best
means may be placed in requisition to arrest the spread of disorders
which even now actually threaten the speedy and  total extinction of
the human race !  I do not,  however, mean to imply that this work is
for laymen only.  The physician will likewise derive essential advan-
tages from its perusal, inasmuch as a full  regard has been  had to all
the demands of modern science, embracing all the psychological, phy-
siological, chemical, and pathologico-anatomical discoveries of the age ;
combining, with conscious care and sacred duty, my own independent
critical  judgment  and experience,  with  the  knowledge  I  have thus
obtained from  the most enlightened sources, in respect to the scientific
diagnosis, etiology,  and prognosis of the peculiar class  of disease of
which I at present write.   Among other invaluable  information, I also
present a chemical analysis of healthy urine, and a microscopic ac-
count of spermatorrhea, which play such an important part in the func-
tions of propagation of the human species.
  This book will be found accordingly divided into two  parts.  The
first part will treat of  the Normal or Natural Functions j  and the sec-
ond of the Abnormal Functions, or those conditions which spring from
some violation of Nature's  laws—together with the  presentation of
those general hints which may serve to the mitigation and eradication
of unnatural and distressing disorders of whatever kind. 
PROGRAMME  OF  MEDICAL   PRINCIPLES.
THE  LAW  OF   LIFE,
     THE VIS MEDICATRIX NATURE OF THE HUMAN ORGANISM.

   The Vis Medicatrix, or the vital force, or natural law of life, has never
 been satisfactorily explained. Physiologists widely differ as to its origin,
 nature,  and  influence on the physical frame.  I have, for several years,
 believed in the recuperative efforts of the system in overcoming disease,
 and preventing its occurrence.   Physicians are aware that the greater
 the debility, the greater the irritability; which irritability causes  the
 system  to be  much more  liable to disease,  particularly those of an
 infectious nature.
   To make myself more clearly understood, we will  suppose two persons
 visiting a miasmatic section of country : one possessed of a strong and
 vigorous constitution, with little or no irritability; and the other much
 debilitated, with excessive  irritability.   The first, by ordinary prudence,
 and keeping  up his system to its normal standard, may remain in such
 affected  location with perfect impunity; while the other will  rapidly
 Buccumb to the miasmatic  influences, by reason of his depressed vital
 condition, and therefore greater  susceptibility to increased  functional
 disorders.
   This debility is caused  by a diminution of the vital force of the ani-
 mal economy.   This force I call the generative and sustaining principle,
 or Promethean fire, of the entire animal kingdom—man being the ulti-
 mate of  creation, and embracing, in his composition, every element or
 ingredient which is contained in the various animal, vegetable, mineral,
 and other elements  that make up the  universal creation.   It  is  this
 generative or sustaining force that becomes first impaired or influenced
 by exciting or abnormal  causes, before we have those  symptoms or
 manifestations  pathologically regarded  as  disease.  As a  matter of
course, the  vital force must  be restored  before health  can again exist.
Nature being her own therapeutic, directs her recuperative  efforts to

         2                                          (13) 
14
THE LAW OF  LIFE.
 restore the fire to the furnace of the  system.   If this vital spark can-
 not  be rekindled, the machinery of the organism will cease to work;
 decomposition will ensue; while the elements entering into our physical
 structure will return to their original or inorganic condition or status.
 We  see this principle beautifully  exemplified in  a  grain  of corn or
 wheat.   So long as the vitality of the grain is sustained, it will germi-
 nate, providing  conditions favorable  for germination exist.  A grain
 may be preserved in its fructifying  principle for many thousand years.
 Grains  of wheat, exhumed from the  Egyptian tombs, after being en-
 closed in solid masonry for two thousand  years, have germinated and
 yielded their natural product, under  the ordinary conditions favorable
 to the growth of  this plant.
   For the  unfolding or generation of matter, several conditions are
 essential:
   1. Proper material for development.
   2. Normal generative and sustaining force.
   3. Normal temperature, which is  98°.
   4. A due amount of moisture.  A substance divested of moisture wili
 not decompose, nor undergo development.
   5. Sufficient  amount  of oxygen.   It is  well known that this  sub-
 stance, preserved from the air, will not decompose.
   The following conditions must exist for decomposition :
   1. Matter to be decomposed.
   2. Moisture.
   3. Oxygen.
   4. Sufficient temperature.
   5. The matter divested of its generative or sustaining force.  So
 long  as one  particle of it exists, decomposition cannot be  perfectly
 accomplished; but it will progress  in proportion as the vital  principle
 diminishes.
   If these views  are correct, it follows that health consists  in  a har-
 monious relation between the Promethean fire and the material struc-
 ture and fluids of the organism; while the  circumstances or conditions
 named,  and  disease, is simply the  inharmonious  relations which  may
 subsist  between  them all, in whatever degree or extent.   The severity
 of disease, as  a matter of course, will correspond with  the derangement,
 or the inharmonious relations of the several constituents of vital life
with each other.
   Wo will suppose 100 to represent  the healthful  or normal condition.
 Any exciting cause  may first depress this  standard,  say ten per cent.
 This would indicate some slight indisposition or reduction from health.
 Let this  standard  be further  rcducod, say twenty-five or fifty per cent. 
TEE LAW  OF LIFE.
15
In the first case, a man would lose one-fourth of his natural vitality; in
the other, one-half of it.   Ho might be restored to good health from a
depression of twenty-five per cent., or even more;  but it is doubtful  if
Nature would  be able to recover herself at a depression of one-half of
her vis medicatrix.   A man thus reduced would be half dead  at best,
and  the crisis of disease  having been reached, the chances would  be
rather against than in favor of recovery to normal health.  Should the
depression still continue, there would be an acceleration of the  ravages
of disease, ending rapidly in physical death.
  When an impression is made on the system, which reduces its inherent
vital force, the irritability is increased; while, (unless the depression  be
too great), there will be that reaction which  causes the fever.   If the
depression is five per cent., the reaction will  correspond.  The  interval
between  reaction and depression  is a period in which the system has
partially recovered, and is nearer  a state of health, though not fully
able to sustain herself.  About the same time on the next day, or a little
earlier, or a little later,  the system is again depressed, which depression
is followed by fever.  If this depression, and return of fever, be earlier
and earlier each day (or the interval shorter each day between fever
and depression), it would indicate that disease is  gaining the mastery.
If the return be later  and later each day (or the intervals more and
more prolonged), it would indicate an  improved  condition of hoalth ;
or that the recuperative energy of Nature was rectifying her abnormal
state.
  In some forms of disease, this depression and reaction is taking place
several times  a  day, although the intermission may bo  so imperfect as
to  elude  the  observation  of  even the most experienced physician.
Again, in  some low forms  of disease, when this force is  very much
depressed, as  in Typhus or  Typhoid fever,  we find the reaction to ho
very imperfect.   Hence, the  system soems  to be sustained in  a  fifty per
cent, condition,  with a gradual receding.  In such cases, if there is not
immediate relief, this force must succumb, together with the conditions
that surround or accompany  it in sustaining physical life, as moisture,
oxygen, temperature, etc.
  Indeed, if we contemplate the simplicity of Nature's  laws, it is not
unreasonable to  suppose, that the nature  and treatment of disease are
capable of being written on a single page of a volume like the present.
The time is no doubt rapidly approaching when this will be done.  The
day cannot be  far  off, when  some progressive  mind  will dispel the
mysteries of  medical  science;  and  from   amidst  the accumulated
rubbish that environs it, pluck tho jewel-secret of Nature, and hold it 
16
THE LAW OF  LIFE.
  up for the regeneration  of man, and the healing of nations  of their
  many maladies.
    Let mo now  endeavor to show from what sources  this force, this
  Promethean fire, of which I have herein written,  is  derived—whero
  located—and tho part it takes in sustaining life.
    It  is clear that this force is derived from tho parents at tho time of
  conception, and  it ultimately becomes the constitution of the now being,
  which possesses all the attributes and idiosyncracies  of the parents.  It
  unfolds the germ by developing  cells;  the first-formed cells being tho
  ganglionic  nerve-cells, in which the germ takes  up  its abode.  When
  the system is once developed, it sustains it; in other  words, it circulates
  the blood, carries on digestion,  promotes secretion, assimilation, and
  sustains nutrition, which is the replacing or renewal of structure that
  has been  destroyed or  disintegrated.   In brief,  it carries  on all the
  functions  of the animal  economy, and is to the human frame what
  steam is to machinery.   Any interference with the  operations of this
  force  in nutrition, will cause abnormal growths, such as cancers, in place
  of healthy structure.
   Parents that have weak  constitutions must impart to their children
  a similar imperfection of physical organization.  In this way, Scrofula,
  Consumption, and many other diseases, become hereditary.  Therefore,
 persons marrying, if they  wish to have healthy offspring, must  present
 this force  in a  normal  or healthy condition. The  child  that  most
 resembles either  of the parents will partake generally of that parent's
 ailments or peculiarities.
   Suppose the case of a  married couple having six children, the father
 predisposed  to Consumption, and the mother to nervous disease.   Tho
 children resembling the father will partake of a consumptive diathosis,
 while  those resembling tho mother will be liable to her nervous ailments.
   A very striking case came under my observation some years ago,
 which may be here presented in corroboration of this theory.  A gentle-
 man of respectability, and apparently in perfect health, married a healthy
 lady, and they had two children.   One child died before a year  old,
 with  what  had been pronounced  Scrofula.   I was called to see the
 second child, when it was in its fourth year, and found it laboring under
 what  had  been  considered Scrofula by two  eminent  physicians  of
 Philadelphia.  I was immediately  impressed that tho disorder  was
 Secondary Syphilis, yet the parents enjoyed excellent vigor.  I accord-
 ingly treated the  child for  that disease, and  it soon recovered perfect
 vigor.  I then  deemed it  my duty to  question the  father, when  ha
frankly informed  me that he had  contracted Syphilis  ten years before
but supposed he had been perfectly cured, as he had no  reason to 
THE LAW OF  LIFE.
17
 think otherwise.   I induced him and his wife to submit to a  course
 of medical treatment, which ended in a complete eradication of every
 particle of venereal taint from their system.  They have had two children
 since, both of whom have always  enjoyed the most blooming and per-
 fect  health.  I could give a large number of similar cases, caused  by
 other diseases, particularly  Masturbation; but the present is not the
 place for such details.  Perhaps there is no cause that has such a  debili-
 tating  effect  upon  the  constitution as Masturbation; nothing  which
 tends more  to depress  the vital  force  as  excessive venery, whether
 naturally or artificially practiced, by coition or hand-manipulations.
   Those who will  take the trouble  to  examine closely the Law of
 Nature, will find  that "vital force," "vitality," "vis vitas," terms fre-
 quently employed, readily admit  of two significations.  Life,  in  its
 highest sense, is an emanation (incomprehensible to  ourselves, because
 beyond  our finite thoughts) from the Omnipotent Creator of the uni-
 verse, pervading every organized body in varied but definite propor-
 tions, and preserving the harmony of  the natural laws to which we arc
 subjected.  This controlling power,  this emanation from the Deity, keeps
 all in order,  from  the simple developing cell (the commencement or
 starting-point of all organization) to the body as a whole ; it regulates
 the movements of all that delicate, beautifully-adapted, and complicated
 machinery, upon the exact mutual  co-operation of each and  every part
 of which organic existence depends.  From man, the highest and most
 perfect of  God's  works, through the animal kingdom,  down to thj
 zoophyte class, linking animal and vegetable life; through the higher
 classes  of vogetable organization down to the lowest orders, where the
 doubt arises whether we  are  still dealing with life, or whether we havo
 entered  the mineral kingdom:  everywhere throughout Nature we seo
 depicted  higher  or lower grades  of  intrinsic  "vital  power," which
 with  undeviating accuracy, organize matter, and preserve organization
 by certain ourrents of force or arrangement given  to the  otherwise
 inorganic atoms.
  Again, we observe that life,  in  the different classes  of  organized
 existence, has its  fixed  or determined period.   Man, cwteris paribus,
 lives  from 70  to 100.years, rarely beyond; the  horse, between 20 and
 30 years; some insects,  from birth to death,  but 24  hours.   The oak
 has via vitce  for several hundred  years, but at length  must decay and
 die;   many of  our  favorite garden flowers enjoy but a few months'
existence.  As it prevails throughout Nature, so does it obtain witli
man.  A minuto germ—a cell—by this intrinsic " vis vitas," is devel-
oped into the foetus, the foetus into the infant, the infant into the }'outh,
the youth into mature age—then comes the descent in the vital scale,
         2* 
18
THE LAW  OF LIFE.
until the decay of old ago  is reached.   The duration of life ia fixed by
irrevocable decree: unchangeable, excepting  by a special permission
of Providence.
  This is lifo in its highest acceptation, as it must be acknowledged by
every physiologist who can view organization as dependent on the fiat
of a Divine Creator; but the word "vitality," or " vital force" admits
of another interpretation,  and conveys  the idea of a  power, existing
in association with organized matter, which appears to be generated by
certain arrangements of, and  motions  among its alternate molecules.
Life, in its highost form, is above all  material forces ; life, in its sec-
ondary acceptation, exists as a consequence of electrical and  chemical,
or electro-chemical action, constantly doveloped in vitalized matter.
It is with life in this, its secondary form, that the physician is especially
connected.
  Science shows  that no chemical  action  can take place without the
evolution  of electricity, or without evidence of considerable  electrical
disturbance.  As  Dr. Carpenter beautifully suggests, the contraction
of any muscle upon the application of a stimulus must  be  attributed
to an  exercise of  vital force, engendered by previous acts of  nutrition.
This stimulus is  not  the source of the force, but only supplies  some
condition which  is  requisite for its manifestation; just as the applica-
tion of the discharger  to the  Leyden  jar (charged by  the previous
action of the electrical machine)  liberates, so to speak, its pent-up
electricity, and allows this to display itself as an  active force.   Now,
just as the jar may be so charged with electricity as to discharge  itself
spontaneously, so it is easy to conceive that a muscle may be so charged
with vitality (motor force)  as to execute spontaneous  contractions; and
of the existence of such a condition, we have valid  evidence.  Instance
the action of the uterus in the local contractions  frequent during the
later months of gestation, as well  as  the final parturient effort; and
also the rhythmical  movements of the  heart, as  due  to  a simple
excess continually supplied by the nutritive operation, and as constantly
discharging itself  in  contractile action.   It is difficult, indeed,  to
explain all the laws which regulate  the  physical forces, because  there
does not exist a sufficient acquaintance either with them or their con-
ditions.  The latest scientific discoveries, however, in their totality,
afford very good ovidence that the body is constantly undergoing  mole-
cular changes, more or  less rapid, attended with  more or less powerful
electrical currents.  In fact, it has been beautifully and (to many emi-
nently philosophical minds) satisfactorily domonstrated, that man and,
of course, all animals possess inherent electricity,  which is  generated,
not derived.  What is called <«the odylic force" by Baron Reichenbach, 
THE  LAW  OE  LIFE.
19
  however, I am inclined to think, is simply a manifestation of universal
  physical force.
    In the living body, a series of changes are constantly proceeding,
  which are immediately dependent on  electrical  conditions; and the
  medical efficacy or action of many substances arises from their ability
  to modify, alter, or change these conditions ; ergo, their  medical action
  is rather electrical than chemical.  This would  seem  palpable,  from
  the  fact that all processes of nutrition and secretion, or of disintegra-
  tion and excretion, are dependent on the access and presence of oxygen,
  as a primary factor in the generation of electrical currents.
   In considering the magneto-electrical relations of the organism, a
  most remarkable  point, to which every reflecting  mind must turn, is
  the duality of the body; that is, its division into symmetrical halves,
  and the  wonderful harmony existing  between tho  cerebro-spinal  or
  voluntary  portion  of the nervous  system,  and  the sympathetic  or
  involuntary series  of nervous  arrangements.  We  find  a series of
  nervous centres (which might very properly be termed animal  mag-
 neto-electric batteries)  in  each of the two  great nervous  divisions,
 connected together by a number of nerves (or, so to speak, conducting
 wires), and sending forth  branches which  minutely subdivide  and
 interlace in every, even the  smallest, point of the body.   The cerebro-
 spinal presides over motion and special  sensation ;  the sympathetic or
 ganglionic  over general  sensation : the intuitive and formative func-
 tions  linked together in one most intimate yet  harmonious whole,
 forming continuous magneto-electric circuits.
   Let me thoroughly be  understood in my definitions of special  and
 general sensation.  The  first  is  derived through  the medium of the
 cerebro-spinal nervous system, as sight, hearing, smelling, and taste.
 The fifth  sense,  usually termed  touch, or general sensation (formerly
 considered as belonging  to  the  special senses), resides  solely in  the
 ganglionic nervous system.'  Now it is this general  sensation which
 recognizes all impressions made  upon the system that produce disease.
 Were it not for this  sensation, the system would recognize neither heat
 nor  cold,  nor any of the various causes inducing  an abnormal  con-
 dition ; hence, the  body would  be an inert mass.   For example,
 3uppose a man to plunge his  hand in the fire, or some boiling liquid,
 without a recognition of the  special senses, the ganglionio  system,
recognizing  danger  or injury  by means of general  sensation, would
promptly telegraph  the cerebro-spinal system,  and it, acting on  tho
voluntary  muscles, will produce  a contraction  of  these  muscles, and
thus prevent or save the arm from further  injury.   If the  ganglionic
nervous system  had control over the voluntary muscles, it would  not 
20
THE LAW OF  LIFE.
 be necessary for it thus to telegraph the cerebro-spinal system, and
 warn it of danger.
   With  respect to medicines, and  their actions, although chemistry
 may enable us to determine the peculiar arrangement of atoms with
 which a particular medicinal action, or the active principle of a  medi-
 cine  is associated, it does not, nor  can it,  inform why that medicine
 has a special influence on some part of the system ; why, for instance,
 belladonna  is specially directed toward the  iris, or rather the nerves
 supplying  it; mercury to  the  liver; why diuretics and  diaphoretics,
 such  as ipecachuana and  digitalis, respectively are directed to certain
 fixed channels of exit;  and so, with other remedies, influencing  other
 portions of the system.
   Again, in the  body, we see currents of force acting in a special and
 defined manner. We see the urea secreted by the kidneys; bile secreted
 by the liver; cholestine formed and  appropriated as a constituent of
 nervous  substance itself; we seo various analogous actions oonstantly
 maintained; but we  cannot call the force which directs a  certain  com-
 pound of atoms to a special organ, chemical force.   Chemistry can only
 acquaint us with the nature of bile, urea, etc.  As in these instances,
 so  it  is  throughout the body.   There are unceasing series  of meta-
 morphoses, of decay, of reconstructions, of different atoms taking defi-
 nite directions with  unerring  accuracy,  and  forming  the numerous
 products, necessary for life, simultaneously with the ejection from the
 system of effete  matters; but these actions are due to the Vis Medica-
 trix Naturae, or  to vital dynamics, although they necessarily involve
 chemical changes.
   Thus we are  able to comprehend something  of the electrical forces
 and polar conditions of tho vital  organization ; thus we know that the
 brain and the other  nervous centres  are the batteries where the  vital
force  or  nervous influence  is  generated  and accumulated;  and also
 that the electro-positives supplied to  the blood  by the ingesta, and tho
electro-negative  oxygen absorbed from the  atmosphere,  are  the ele-
ments by which the magneto-electrical power is generated.
   Having  thus  presented  an  outline  idea of tho  Law  op Life, and
seen that man is literally a galvanic battery,  I may attempt a few sug-
gestions as to the best means of keeping this exceedingly delicate and
complicated machine  in vigorous  operation; or,  in other words,  show
how the vis medicatrix of the economy may be indefinitely maintained
and prolonged.   This will now lead  me to explain the laws of Manly
Health  and Training, or  the science of a sound and beautifnl bodily
organization.  It will, accordingly, be  proper to ask : 
THE  LAW OF  LIFE
21
 when ought a man to be  in  his  piumest condition, and how long?
   Probably the answer which  I shall give to this question will excite
 some surprise. In the present state of artificial society, I doubt whether
 there be a single human being living in the civilized world in that perfect
 state of  health and strength to  which the human frame should attain.
   From  about the  twenty-fourth  to the fiftieth or fifty-fifth  year, the
 body,  in a fair specimen  of health and condition, remains nearly sta-
 tionary.  The liability to disease is less, and all the powers are in  their
 best working order.  This is the period that a man makes his mark, if
 at  all.   Activity is  now at its fullest; indeed, the repression or  non-
 action of it, in many cases, is the greatest  misfortune that can happen
 to this stage of life.  All the labor and employments of the earth are
 served with these years—without them there would be little or nothing
 to  show for  man, for  governments, for  science, for civilization, litera-
 ture, or  art.
   It is during some  portion of this stretch  of time, varied in different
 persons, that all the celebrated men  of the world have achieved the
 works which  have given them  renown.   Some have started early, and
 finished, it  may be  said, prematurely.  This  is  the case with many of
 the  poets, especially those of passionate imagery and  tone, such  as
 Shelly, Byron, Keats, etc.  Of first-class works, however, it is doubtful
 whether any have ever yet been achieved by young men.  Shakspeare
 wrote  bis best productions during the  period from his thirty-seventh
 to his forty-fifth year.
  When  I ask how long a man  might be in his  primest condition, I
 mean,  of course, how long, allowing a favorable state of care, habits,
 food, etc.  With these, I can deliberately say, if he have a fair natural
 constitution, and has not ingrained his system in early life with  the germs
 of an  incurable malady (this last is important—take notice, young
 man),  he ought to be in  a high range of health and  strength  from the
 age  of twenty-three or four to the  age op sixty-five—a space
 of  over  forty years !   This  statement, I know, is not in  accord-
 ance with popular convictions on the subject;  but with greatest respect
 and good-nature, I am constrained to  call this popular opinion nothing
 more than popular ignorance !
  Take notice, however: if Life, and its  reserved fund of vitality, are
dissipated during the years from fifteen to twenty-three or foul—if extrav-
agant and continued drains are made on the bodily stamina during  that
period, by excesses  of any kind whatever, particularly by Masturba-
tion, I can promise neither health nor longevity to any such individual.
The  years from fourteen  to twenty-four are the very ones, out of the 
22
THE LAW OF  LIFE
whole stretch of life, when  there is the most danger of breaking down
the tone of the body, and ruining the organism forever J
   The human  frame, however, is full, in  every case, of latent poicer !
Though wounded,  buffeted, violated time and again, it seems joyously
to respond to the first return of reason and natural habitudes.  I  would
be clearly understood.  Tho indulgence of perverted  appetite, and  the
violations of the laws of Nature, cannot GO TOO LONG with  impunity !
There  will assuredly come a time when the turning-point is reached.
My object, however, is to encourage the rising youth of  our land, espe-
cially, to realize what superior pleasure a good and  natural state of
health is over every sensual or other gratification.  Yes, Nature is ever
tolerant and bountiful.  Long injured and insulted, she yet keeps bless-
ings in her hands, ready to be bestowed,  with  freedom and certainty,
on the first practical signs of repentance.
  It should be borne in mind by parents, for their offspring's sake, and
also  by every youth developing himself into early manhood, that the
true plan of life  involves a fine and robust condition  of manhood,
with every faculty of body and mind in full play and  high health from
the twenty-third year to beyond the sixtieth.  To  spring up in  the  morn-
ing with  light feelings, and  the disposition to raise the  voice in some
cheerful song—to feel  pleasure in going into the open air, and breath-
ing it—to sit down to your food with a  keen relish for  it—to pass forth,
in business or occupation, among  men, without distrusting them, but
with a friendly feeling toward all, and finding the same feeling returned
to you—to be buoyant in all your movements by the curious result of
perfect digostion (a feeling as if you could almost fly, you  are so  light)
—to have perfect command  of your arms, legs, etc., able to  strike out,
if occasion demands, or to walk long distances, or to endure great labor
without exhaustion—to have year after year pass on,  and  on, and still
the same calm  and equable state of all the organs, and  of tho temper
and mentality—no  wrenching pains  of the nerves and joints—no pangs!
returning again and  again  through the sensitive head, or  any  of  its
parts—no blotched and disfigured complexion—no premature lame and
halting gait—no tremulous shaking  of the hand, unable to carry a glass
of water to the mouth without spilling it—no film  and bleared-red
about the eyes, nor bad taste in the mouth, nor  tainted breath from tho
stomach  or gums—none of  that dreary, sickening, unmanly lassitude,
that, to so many men  and women, fills  up and curses what ought to be
the best years of their lives.
  Alas ! how many are there, instead of enjoying a vigorous constitu-
tion, or having a sound mind in a sound body, literally endure a  liciu,/
death ! as the result of early ignorance  and imprudences of every kind. 
THE LAW OF  LIFE.                  23
none more direful in their consequences than those of unnatural  and
excessive sexual passions!
  Surely it should be the highest ambition of every youth to become a
sound, healthy, and handsome man ; and to remain so for many years, in
full possession of all his faculties  and strength.  Indeed, nothing is
more worthy of the ambition  of the youths of our land than the attain-
ment of the soundest health and the  most perfect beauty; and  surely
nothing will repay the  effort  and resolution  to follow them, than a
steady pursuit of the regulations,  laws,  self-denials, and daily habi-
tudes that lead to the sound condition and beautiful appearance of the
body, the manly form—that wondrous and beautiful  structure that
nover wearies the mind in contemplating its inward and outward mys-
teries, and in which concentrates the whole interest of life, happiness,
affection, dignity, and glory  of the  human being.  Yes, every young
man should  desire and  determine to  put  his body in a healthy and
sweet-blooded condition—to be a man, hearty, active, muscular, intellec-
tual, handsome, and noble!
  It is  no small  thing to be perfectly well.  As  before  remarked, tho
ease is  one  that, in  our civilized  and artificial forms  of  society, is
extremely rare, if it exists at all!  It is useless to blink the unpleasant
conviction, that in all our  large cities, and even in the country, where
it might be less expected, the amount of ill-health, is enormous.   Con-
sumption, Dyspepsia, Rheumatism, nervous affections, and many other
frightful maladies, are everywhere observed.  Possibly one-fourth of
the entire population die of Consumption ; thousands on  thousands
suffer from some form of Scrofula, or are affected with sores and ulcers,
interior and  exterior.  Half  the people we  meet with have, at  times,
pimples and pustules on the face  and nock, indicating that  health is
any thing but clear with them.  Indeed, there are few, in any rank of
life, who do not labor under some disorder of the blood, or derange-
ment of the nervous system.
  And why is all this amount of frightful disease and death? Simply
because man is prone to  violate the laws of Nature by excesses of every
kind—excesses in eating and  drinking, and  improper hygienic rules
of whatever  kind; but the great source of  evil is found in  excessive
venereal indulgence, particularly of the violent abuse of the generative
organs by the debasing and destructive habit of Onanism or  dlasturba-
tion, as will be plainly demonstrated in the future pages of this little
volume.
  Perfect  life, I have shown, is  but an ideal thing.  Surely he errs
fatally who does  not  daily strive to make life a reality !  Surely it is
high time that we began to distinguish between  the possible  and  the 
24
THE LAW OF  LIFE.
 practical length  of  life.  By reasoning upon the experience of many
 ages, and founding conclusions in strict accordance with  analogy, the
 problem, for the regeneration of man to his pristine health  and vigor,
 may be stated, in the words of an eminent philosopher and  humanita-
 rian, as follows :
   1. Men and women have lived to an age  of  near 250 years, and
 within the last few centuries a few individuals to from 140  to 180 years.
   2. Since these were but men and women, they possessed  no capabili-
 ties but those which all  of us possess; and providing our parentage,
 habits, and external and internal conditions in all respects, were as good
 as theirs, all men and women  now could attain to ages of from 140 to
 185 years.
   3. Just as soon as the race at large shall have discovered and reduced
 to unmistakable rules, the principles of health and endurance on which
 theso few stumbled, as it  were, by chance, the majority of human  kind
 may live to  at least 140 or 150 years.
  4. When  for a  few generations tho  practice of hygienic living has
 been quite  universally adopted, so that the constitution  may recover
 from its present  broken and  enfeebled  condition, deaths  under 80
 should become as unusual a6 deaths over 100 now are; and the whole
 race, with rare exceptions, could then attain to ages ranging from 100
 to 150 years, and many even beyond that, to near or quite 200 years.
 We have, as human  beings, the germs of the  capacity to do this: we
 only need to look after and develop them.
  5. While  a life thus prolonged  is our birthright, and would become
our possession if our conditions and modes of living were  brought to a
perfection of system  and practice, it is evident that until some  great
change is made in the causes now at work, we shall continue to  reap
the frightful consequences of distressing maladies and premature dis-
solution, with which the race of man is at present  so awfully cursed.
  Shall we not, then, all strive for so glorious and blessed a consumma-
tion, as that of man's redemption from woe and ruin ? 
 
Anatomical Pre tr of Vie Organs of Generation,
Parti. Page 2 5.
Plate A. 
THE NORMAL  GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.
               PART  I.

                 CLTAPTEK  I.

 ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF
       THE MALE ORGANS OF  GENERATION.

               See Plates A, B, and C.
   The male generative organs may be divided into
 the External and Internal.
   A.  The First  comprise  the Penis,  Urethra,
 Scrotum, and Testicles.
   B. The Second are the Seminal Ducts, or Vasa
 Deferentia, the  Spermatic  Cord, the  Vesicul^:
 Seminales, &c.

          THE  EXTEKNAL ORGANS.
                  Section A.

  1. The Penis.—Every male is familiar with the
external appearance of the pendant cylindrical organ
         3                        (25) 
26    the normal  generative functions.

at the forepart of the body, called, in physiological
phraseology, the Penis, or Yard.  Besides being de-
signed for urinating purposes, it is the  medium of
sexual union between the male  and female.  It com-
mences at the Bladder, is of a  spongy nature, and is
composed of three  different parts;  the  two  upper
and  larger being called  the cavernous bodies, and
the lower one the  spongy body.  These bodies  are
covered by the  skin which comes over the head of
the Penis, known as the Foreskin, or Prepuce.

  2.  The Prepuce.—The  Prepuce, or Foreskin, is
simply a duplicature of  the integuments  investing
the Penis, which may be  conceived to pass forward
from the external  part of that  body, and again to
return, (serving as a sort of a sheath, like a glove to
a finger,) forming an inner layer under the external
one,  both of which thus cover  the Glans Penis.  In
front, the Foreskin has a roundish aperture of differ-
ent sizes, through which passes the urine discharged.
via the canal  in its own body known as the Urethra.
The  Prepuce  has nothing peculiar to its structure,
except that small follicles on its inner surface secrete
a sebaceous matter; in  other  words, a fatty, thick,
strong-smelling substance, of a white-yellow color.
  3.  The Urethra.—The Urethra is the canal of
the  Penis, through which the urine is  discharged, 
the  external organs.
27
 and also by which the male semen is thrown into
 the internal sexual organs of the  female.  It is one
 of the constituent parts of the male organ of genera-
 tion.   If its object was merely to pass out the urine
 from the system, a simple orifice at the  surface,  at
 the outside of the body, as in the female, would be
 sufficient.  Not only is it designed for the  passage
 of the urine, and for transmitting the semen, but it
 performs a very important mechanical function, by
 exciting the sexual tone of the female organs. Such
 exaltation is an essential condition for the reception
 of the  semen  by the female.   Hence  the Penis is
 capable not only of erection but of elongation, so as
 to produce the greatest amount of electrical stimula-
 tion, both by pressure and friction.
  The Urethra is  lined by an exquisitely fine, deli-
 cate,  and susceptible  membrane,  of whitish color,
 somewhat similar to that of  the mouth, nose, intes-
 tines, &c.  This canal  has its commencement from
 the bladder, and terminates  at  the orifice (or head)
 of the Glans Penis.  It is in the whole about twelve
 inches in length, (about one half being within  the
body, and the  other half exterior,) though  the length
is very different in  different individuals.
  There are  upon  its surface a great  many small,
oblong  orifices, of various sizes, called  Lacunae.
Lacuna, or hcus, means a lake, or literally,  a ditch 
28     the normal generative functions.

containing water.  Hence the term lacuna is applied
to a multitude of follicles observed in the mucous
membrane of the  Urethra.   They  are also  named
" Sinuses of Morgagni;"  sinus  meaning a gulf, or
cavity,  or cell, a  tube  or  a  venous canal.   The
Lacuna Magna is  the  large  cell or canal which is
the seat of the secretion of the drop of matter which
is squeezed from the Urethra in old Gonorrhoea,  vul-
garly termed Clap.
  The  membrane  of  the  Urethra  has  a striated
(grooved  or  streaky) appearance, in consequence of
folds which are observed along its whole length.   The
folds are capable of great dilation, by which the  pas-
sages may suffer considerable distension with impu-
nity.  It is so elastic and dilatable, that a large instru-
ment may be passed through it into the bladder, while
it will  also contract on the smallest.  The passage
varies  in  size in different parts.  It is rather con-
tracted  at the orifice, enlarges within and  for an
inch, again contracts, dilates nearer the bulb, dimin-
ishes at the membranous portion and near the pros-
tate gland, and finally enlarges into the bladder.
  The Urethra is constantly moistened with a  mu-
cous secretion, which protects it and renders it very
pliable.  The inner surface of  the Urethra  is very
sensitive, which is shown in the first passing of the
bougie, or  in  inflammation.    The  pain  of  the 
the  external organs.
29
former, and the act of urinating in  the latter, often
cause fainting.
   4. The  Scrotum.—The  purse, or  bag,  is  that
wrinkled pouch  which  contains  the testicles.  It
hangs as a sort of pendant to the root of the Penis
at the  surface  of the body.  It is  composed  of a
membranous and cellular substance,  invested by the
common skin or integument of the body.  This bag
is divided about the  middle by a septum, or parti-
tion, so as to form two cavities, in each of which a
testicle is lodged

   5. The Testicles.—These are two glands, or se-
creting organs, each of  the size of  a pigeon's  egg,
situate in the cavities of the Scrotum, as  above de-
scribed.
   Before birth, these glands are lodged within the
cavity of the abdomen or belly, immediately before
the kidneys. Each of these glands is supplied  with
blood  from the descending aorta or great artery,
within the abdomen, by means of a long and undu-
lated  vessel, called  the spermatic artery,  which  is
variously contorted  and interwoven with the  sper-
matic  veins.  These  return  the  blood to the vena
cava, or great vein, within the abdominal cavity.
  The substance  of the Testicle is of a white,  soft,
and apparently pulpy nature, but in reality consists
       3* 
30    the normal  generative functions.
 of an infinite number of small  tubes, called seminif-
 erous, which at the upper part of the gland terminate
 in one general duct, or conduit pipe, called epididy-
 mis.   The tuhuli are about T40th of an inch in diam-
 eter,  and being united by cellular tissue and blood-
 vessels,  thus  constitute  the  parenchyma,  or  solid
 substance  of  the  Testicle, of a yellow  or  gray
 color.  As already intimated, this structure is com-
 posed of the seminiferous tubuli, or  ducts, of which
 800 have been counted, whose united length amounts
 to from  850 to 2500  feet, as ascertained  by obser-
 vations of the  Testicles of different persons.
   These glandular bodies (the Testicles) {see Plate E)
 are not  left naked in  the cavities of the Scrotum.
 Each is provided with three coats; an external one,
 called albuginea, which is smooth,  white,  fibrous
 and exquisitely sensitive, and  which immediately
 invests the glandular apparatus;  a  middle one, ex-
 ternal to the latter, termed vaginal coat, which,  after
 involving  the Testicles, accompanies the spermatic
 vessels in their progress through the muscles of the
 abdomen;  and a  third, or external one, which  is
 continued  downward from the  muscles  last men-
 tioned, is itself muscular, and receives the name of
cremaster.   This is fixed around the  second or vagi-
 nal coat. 
 
   trout Wew of the BhtfldrrJl
            Penis.

 A  The Bloddtr.
  B  fork of the Plodder.
(T  Ireters
DD  Tlie rasa deferent io
Vi¥.  Seminal resides,
  T  ProxUite.
  (r  I'rethra.
  11  The Krrctar muscles of the Penis.
. I Sectional Heir of the Stniiiml
        Vessels t I'mslate.

  11  The Cavernous bodies in the Penis
 KK  The Merits of the Pews
  1.  The. yrettt vriti aflhe Paris
MM Serves of the p,nis
  X  fhipre of the I'reihru
  () Ohi till of the Penis
  P  The fry/tire or Fore shin
Partl.Pa,ge31.
Plate E. 
CHAPTER II.
           MALE ORGANS  OF GENERATION.

             INTERIOR APPARATUS.
                     Sectiox B.
                (See Plates A and B.)
   B. The interior sexual organs are called the
 Seminal Ducts, or Vasa Deferentia, the  Spermatic
 Cord,  the Yesicul^e  Seminales, the Prostate
 Gland, Cowper's Glands, etc.

   Note.—In  conclusion  of my  description  of the
 Scrotum and Testicles, I spoke of a number of small
 tubes called  seminiferous, which  terminated  in one
 general duct, Epididymis.  {See  Plate B,  Fig. 1.)
 This convoluted tube has its origin from the outer
 and posterior  part of the superior end of the Tes-
 ticle, and  as  it descends along the outer and back
 part of the Testicle, (without coming in contact with
 it,) becomes larger in diameter, but less convoluted,
 till it reaches its lower part, where it immediately
begins to reascend, and forming  a straighter tube,
 assumes the name of Vas Deferens.
                                      (31) 
32    the normal generative functions.

  1. The Yas Deferens.—The Yas Deferens, pro-
ceeding from the lower  part of the Testicle, is en-
veloped in the same  membranous sheath with the
artery  and vein already described, and forms with
them the Spermatic Cord.  They run  together up-
ward over the os pubis, (or bone forming the trans-
verse at the lower part of the belly,) enter the abdo-
men by a small aperture placed  a little above this,
called  the ring of the abdominal  muscles,  when,
separating from the vein and artery, which continue
to pass  directly upward, the Yas Deferens throws,
as it were, an arch backward over the  lateral part
of the Bladder.   At the posterior inferior portion of
this  organ, it joins, on  its  respective side, a body
called Vesicula Seminalis.  On the inner side of this
it passes forward to the commencement of the Ure-
thra, or outlet of the  Bladder, into which it opens,
after penetrating a part of the Prostate  Gland.  The
Yas Deferentia are to the organs of generation what
the Ureters are to the Bladder.  It is  through the
open triangular space, where  the Bladder  and the
Rectum meet, that the  former has to  be  cut into
from the Perinczum, in the operation of Lithotomy.
The  Yas Deferens terminates at the base of the
Prostate Oland, as before remarked, by uniting with
the duct of the Yesicula Seminalis,  and constitute
the Ejaculatory Duct.   The structure of this canal is 
             THE INTERIOR APPARATUS.         33

 remarkable on  account  of the thickness of its pa-
 rietes, or walls, which is  so great that the canal  can
 be easily felt in the Spermatic  Cord.  {See Plate B.)

   2.  The  Spermatic Cord.—It is composed of ar-
 teries, veins, lymphatics, nerves, the excretory duct
 of the vesicle, and the investing tunic.  The left cord
 is somewhat longer than the right, and permits the
 left Testicle to descend a little lower than the other.
 Externally, the cord is surrounded  by a thin mus-
 cular expansion, capable of elevating  the  Scrotum
 toward the abdominal ring.

   3.  The  Yesicula Seminales.—These  are two
 oblong, irregular bodies, situate at  the under part of
 the Bladder,  near the neck, or between that  part
 and the Rectum, converging toward  the base of the
 Prostate Gland.   They  are  about  two inches in
 length.  Their upper surface is in contact with  the
 base  of  the Bladder;  the under  side  rests on  the
 Rectum.  Each Yesicula Seminalis is composed, not
 of numerous cells, as they would seem  to be, but of
 one continuous  convoluted tube,  which  gives  off
 several irregular local branches.  It does not form a
 continuation of the Yas Deferens, for that tube only
 passes literally along it;  and it opens into the Ure-
 thra at the neck of the Bladder, or commencement
of the Urethra.  It communicates with the duct of 
 34    the normal generative functions.

 the Yesicula and forms  the Ejaculatory Duct.  This
 is  about  three quarters of an inch in length, and
 opens upon the mucous membrane of the Urethra,
 near  its fellow on the opposite side, at the extremity
 of the process.
   The Yesiculae Seminales appear like two cellular
 bags.  They have two coats, the one called fibrous,
 and the inner the mucous: a membrane divided into
 folds  or ridges.
  The use of the Yesiculae is  supposed to be to act
 as a reservoir for the Semen.   Some  physiologists,
 however, contend that this fluid is not spermatic, but
 merely an addenda to the seminal secretion.

  4. The Prostate Gland is a firm,  glandular
 body, about the size of a  large Spanish  chestnut,
 which lies entirely within the Pelvis.   It surrounds
 the commencement of the Urethra for a little more
 than an inch of its extent, and is situated  upon the
 Rectum,  through which it  may be  felt with the
 finger. It consists of three lobes, two lateral and  a
middle lobe or  isthmus, which are united together
by  a  firm  cellular membrane  that surrounds the
whole gland. Its  surface is  smooth.   It possesses
numerous ducts, into which bristles  may be intro-
duced. Inflammation of the Urethra,  (the  mucous
membrane of which being continuous with  that of 
            THE  INTERIOR APPARATUS.          35

the excretory ducts of the glands,) is liable to spread
onward to, and include the Prostate Gland.
  5. Cowper's Glands.—These are two small lobu-
lated  glands of the  size of peas.  Their  excretory
ducts unite into  one,  three-fourths of  an inch in
length, which  opens  upon  the lower surface of the
Urethra.  Like the Prostate Gland,  the glands of
Cowper may have some  importance not clearly un-
derstood.   {See Plate B.) 
CHAPTER IIT.
              THE URINARY ORGANS.
                    Section D.
                (See Plates B and C.)
   D.  The organs which secrete and eject the Urine,
are the Kidneys, the Ureters, the Bladder, and
the Urethra.

   1. The Kidneys.—The  Kidneys are designed to
secrete the urine.  They are  two glandular bodies
situated one on each side  of the spine, just below
the two last ribs, behind the stomach and intestines.
In  shape they resemble   the  kidney-bean.  The
right  Kidney  is  somewhat lower than  the left, in
order to accommodate the right lobe of the liver,
when man is in the erect position.  The left Kidney
is below the spleen—the right being larger than the
left.   Both are  surrounded by a fatty, loose, cellular
tissue, which  keeps them  in place.   The secretions
of the Kidneys is much influenced by the passions.
The effects of fear, for instance, have an  extraordi-
nary  influence  either to increase  or diminish the
      (36) 
X
Rutl.?a.ge36
Plate C. 
 
THE  URTNARY ORGANS.
37
 quantity and flow of urine, not only in the human
 being, but in animals.   There are many anatomical
 peculiarities about  the  structure of  the  Kidneys
 which  I  need not  describe, as they would not be
 readily understood by the ordinary reader.

   2.  The  Ureters. — These  are  two  cylindrical
 membranous canals, intended to convey the  urine
 from the Kidneys into  the Bladder.  They are of
 the size of a goose-quill,  but are extremely dilatable.
 There is  one on  each side of the body, and they
 pass downward and inward to the back and lower
 part of the Bladder.
   3.  The  Bladder.—This organ is located in the
 lower part of the body,  in what is called the Pelvis,
 or the  space embraced  in the  basket of the hip-
 bones.  It is the largest reservoir  in the  human
 organism, containing secretions.  Its size varies ac-
 cording to the age, sex, or habits of persons, or the
 diseases with which it is affected.  It admits of a
 distention to a degree almost incredible.  It is of oval
 shape.  That in man lies directly below the bowels,
 while in the female the womb intervenes  between it
 and the rectum.   It is composed of three coats.  The
outer one, being  a continuation of the Peritoneum,
is  a  serous  sac covering the Bladder.  The  middle
one is composed of muscular fibres, the constriction
      4 
38    THE NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

of which causes the expulsion of the urine.   The
third coat is  a thin mucous  membrane, which dips
into the Urethra.  The  Bladder is also  furnished
with numerous nerves and blood-vessels.
  The female  Bladder is larger than that of  the
male.  This is owing to the more frequent retention
of  urine to which females  are exposed.   Women
void urine less frequently than men.  One reason
for this is, women drink less than men.  Old people
have larger bladders than young ones.  They do
not feel the want of urinating as often as the latter :
hence the greater distension of the Bladder.  When
the Bladder  is full,  it can be  distinctly felt above
the symphysis ]mbis,  as high up as the navel.  To
the lower surface  of the Bladder, in  the  male, are
attached  the  seminal vesicles  and   the  excretory-
ducts.

   4. The Urethra.—The Urethra is the excretory
canal of the  Bladder, extending from the neck of
that organ to  the end of the Penis.   It  is formed
of  cellular   and  mucous  tissues  similar  to  the
Bladder.   It is very vascular, and quite elastic.
It is, however, provided  with muscles, the action of
which is to  assist in the expulsion  of urine,  and
also of  the   seminal  fluid  during  copulation  or
sexual commerce.  The Urethra of the male is eight 
the  urinary organs.
39
to twelve  inches long, about one half interior of,
and  the other half exterior to the body, and from
one eighth to  one fourth of an  inch wide.   It  can
be  sufficiently dilated to admit of the  passage of
instruments of four lines  in size, in operations for
stone in the Bladder.
  The female  Urethra is only one inch and a half in
length.  It is wider than that of the male; it can be
dilated to  half an  inch aperture.  The  occurrence
of stone is less frequent in females than in males,
owing  to  the  shortness  and  dilatability  of  the
Urethra.   Stone is taken  from the female bladder
without the operation of lithotomy.  For this same
reason it is much easier and much less dangerous to
introduce the  catheter  into the female Urethra than
into that of the other sex.  A further description
would not impart much information to one unversed
in the technicalities of  physiological and anatomical
science. 
CHAPTER IY.
            THE URINARY  SECRETIONS.

  The blood is conducted  to the Kidneys by their
arteries, and after  passing  through a multitude of
ramifications, is finally converted into venous blood.
The urine when secreted is,  after many sinuous wind-
ings, received into the pelvis of the Kidneys, thence
passes forward through the  ureters into the Bladder,
to be expelled as often as the desire is felt.
  The evacuations of the Bladder take place in a
similar manner as  those of the Bowels.   The force
with which the urine is expelled  is about equal to
the force that would  be required to burst  the Blad-
der, if the urine should be prevented, by some me-
chanical obstacle, from being expelled.
  The  muscular contraction of the  Bladder causes
the expulsion  of the urine, which contractions are
brought  about by the action of the many nerves
distributed over the  walls,  and  especially  about the
neck of  the Bladder.  These nerves proceed from
the spinal marrow; and the absence or deficiency of
nervous power will  cause  paralysis of the Bladder
      (40) 
THE  URINARY SECRETIONS.
41
 and a consequent inability on the part of this organ
 to perform its contractions.
   The most  natural  and frequent cause of the con-
 tractions  of the Bladder is  the stimulation  of its
 walls  by the  quantity  and quality of  the  urine.
 The organ is more or less sensitive to its stimulating
 effects, according  to the  drinks used,  and other
 natural or artificial  circumstances.  In young per-
 sons the sensitiveness is  greater than in old age, the
 contractions being more rapid and vigorous in the
 former than in the latter.   In females the sensitive-
 ness is less  than in males, for the reason, probably,
 that their modesty induces them to hold their urine
 as  long  as  possible, the Bladder thus  becoming in
 some measure blunted to the promptings of Nature.
 Literary men, and others leading a sedentary life,
 by being completely absorbed  in their  mental  or
 other  pursuits, frequently lose  sight of  the  indica-
 tions of the Bladder, and are enabled to hold their
 urine  for a  long time on account of a  diminished
 sensitiveness of  the inuer surfaces of this organ.
   When the urine is forcibly retained  in  spite of
the natural desire  to void it, incalculable mischief
may be expected  to result.  An over-full Bladder
will cause stinging pains in the Urethra  and other
parts, palpitation of the  heart, fainting fits, &c.   It
is  extremely dangerous  to retain the urine.  The
       4* 
42     THE  NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

celebrated astronomer, Tycho  de  Brahe,  perished  at
the table of Queen Christina of Sweden, in conse-
quence  of suppressing  a natural desire of voiding
the urine.
  Foreign  bodies in the  Bladder, such as  stone,
coagula, a piece of a probe, strictures of the  Ure-
thra, etc., irritate and increase the sensitiveness of
this  organ.   The  external use  of cantharides  will
occasion uneasiness and danger, causing  a desire  to
urinate  without  a drop of urine being  discharged.
The irritability of the Bladder may also be increased
by various diseases, such as painful hemorrhoids  or
piles, diseases of the  rectum,  cancer  or  polypus of
the uterus, &c.
  The rapidity of the flow of urine depends on cir-
cumstances.   It is slower  in old people  than  in
young.   In  stricture, the urine may  pass out  drop
by drop.  A stream thrown with force to a distance
is an indication of strength and  good health.   The
size of  the stream will vary according to the width
and  dilatability of the  Urethra.   In  young people
the stream is larger than in old persons.  The stream
is thinner during an erection of the Penis.   Where
the Prepuce covers the  glans, or head of the Penis
too tightly, great pain and difficulty may be experi-
enced in urination.  The flow of urine  slackens  as
the Bladder is being emptied.  The dribbling shows 
THE  URINARY SECRETIONS.
43
a deficiency of muscular action in the whole urinary
apparatus.
  The urinary secretion of the  female is somewhat
different from that of  the male.  The stream is less
vigorous, because the  Urethra is much shorter.  The
stream,  being larger, is more quickly discharged by
females than by the other sex.  The  greater width
of the Urethra  may  likewise be the  cause of the
more sudden and involuntary emission of urine in
the case of females, under  the impulse of fright, fear,
&c.  Many other particulars might be detailed, but
without any practical  benefit to the reader. 
CHAPTER Y.
PHYSICAL  PROPERTIES  OF  URINE — DISEASES  OF
              THE URINARY ORGANS.
                    Section A.
  A.—There is more water and more saline parti-
cles  in the urine of the female  than  in  the  male;
but the latter generally secretes a larger quantity
than  the  former,  in  consequence  of drinking a
greater quantity of water or other liquids.
  The color of fresh healthy urine is perfectly tran-
sparent, of a pale amber or orange yellow.  Within
every twenty-four hours from three to five pounds
are usually secreted; but  this quantity varies  more
or less, according to the amount of liquid a person
drinks in that time.  Beverages which contain car-
bonic acid, will also  increase  the  secretion of the
urine; while spirituous  drinks have  a tendency to
diminish it, as a general rule.
  Potatoes, parsley, and  nutrient vegetables;  beer,
and  such drugs as colchicum, digitalis, turpentine,
saltpetre, bicarbonate  of soda, cream of tartar, can-
tharides, etc., promote the secretion of the urine by
virtue of their specific action on the kidneys.  In
       (44) 
         PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF URINE.       45

the  winter season more  urine  is secreted in the
twenty-four hours than in summer, for the simple
reason  that the  perspiration of  the body, or the
cutaneous  exhalation, is less abundant—the action
of the  skin and  that of the  kidneys, being thus in
alternate relation to each other.
   Children emit a large quantity of urine, which  is
pale  and clear as water.  Adults  and old people
secrete  a comparatively smaller quantity of urine,
which is darker, and  contains  a  good deal  of  urate
and phosphate of lime.  In  the  morning the  urine
is generally darker, occasioned by the uroxanthin, a
coloring matter of  urine.
   Food and drugs modify the color of urine. Beets,
cochineal, madder,  and other articles will impart a
reddish hue,  while rhubarb tinges  it yellow, and
indigo and Prussian blue will tinge  it greenish and
blue.
   The odor of recently voided urine is  peculiarly
aromatic, and  not very disagreeable,  while  it has  a
bitterish saline taste.   On cooling, it  loses this fra-
grance and assumes the characteristic smell of urine.
It is more or less disposed to become decomposed;
the smell is first  sour, and  then ammoniacal, and
afterward fetid.  The  ordinary smell of urine, also,
is liable to be altered by certain kinds of food or
drugs.  Asparagus, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., im- 
46    THE NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.
part a very unpleasant smell to urine; turpentine,
resin, balsam of copaiva,  etc., give it the odor  of
violets; juniper berries, valerian, garlic,  musk, etc.,
impart the odor which is peculiar to those substances.
  The shining of the urine is a peculiar but not very
frequent phenomenon.  This  shining results, prob-
ably, from the presence of phosphorous nitrogen, aris-
ing  from the deoxydation of phosphoric  acid and
carbon  contained in the urine.   The urine, in the
winter season, soon after being voided, will shine for
half a minute like a fire-fly, after which  the lumin-
ous  appearance  will  rapidly  diminish  and  cease.
In some cases, this  phenomenon has been  observed
two or three minutes in succession.  This shining
of the urine is a natural  property of this fluid in
the case of the civetrcat, the iltis, and other animals.
  The  " extractive" matters of the urine are made
up  of  a variety of different  compounds.  Among
these substances are creatine, creatinine, and hip-
puric acid.   Human urine ordinarily contains a sul-
phurized and phosphorized compound, which serve
for the excretion of sulphur and  phophorous in an
unoxydized state.
  The  Urine  Pigment  has, to a certain extent, been
separated as a definite compound from the " extract-
ive."  On the whole, with the exception of creatine
and  creatinine,  all the known constituents  of the 
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF URINE.       47
" urinary extractive," are substances which are rich
in carbon and  comparatively poor in nitrogen; so
that their increase will be favored by an excess of
carbonaceous food, an  imperfect action of the liver,
and a low  degree of  respiration;  whilst,  on the
other hand, a highly azotized diet, especially if com-
bined with active exercise, will tend to their reduc-
tion.
   If the functions of  the liver are imperfectly per-
formed, there will be  first observed  an increase in
the  ordinary urine-pigment, (which contains  58|
per cent, of carbon,) giving  a high color to the se-
cretion, while the addition of a few drops of hydro-
chloric acid to the warmed fluid will cause it  to de-
velop a fine crimson or purple hue.  If the inactivity
of the liver increases,  a deposit of purpurine, (a sub-
stance which contains 62 \ per cent, of carbon)  is
thrown down ; while the complete arrest of the elim-
ination of bile is marked by the appearance  of the
proper bile pigment in the urine.
   The following inferences are confirmed by  many
experiments.
   1.  Animal articles  of  food augment  the  solid
matters of  the  urine.  Yegetable  substances, and
still more such as are deprived of azote, on the con-
trary, diminish it.
   2. Although Urea is a product of decomposition 
43    THE NORMAL  GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

of the organism,  yet  its proportions in the urine
depend also on the food; as, for instance, a richly
azotized  diet  considerably augments its  quantity.
The proportion of the  urea to other solid matters is
as 100 to  116 on a mixed diet; as 100 to 63  on an
animal diet; as 100 to 156 on a vegetable diet;  and
as 100 to  170 on a non-azotized diet.
  3. The  quantity of uric acid  depends less  on the
nature of  the diet, than on other circumstances.
  4. The  protein-compounds, and consequently  the
azote of  the  food,  are  absorbed in the  intestinal
canal; and what is not employed in the formation
of the tissues, is  thrown off by the kidneys  in  the
form of urea or uric acid; these organs being  the
chief, if  not the  sole channel  through which  the
system frees itself of its excess of azote.
  5. The urine  contains quantities of sulphates and
phosphates proportional to the azotized matters which
have been absorbed, and the proportion of these salts
is sensibly increased under the use of a large amount
of those substances.
   6. The extractive matters are increased by the  use
of a vegetable  diet, and vice versa.
   7. The urine, after the use of animal food, has  a
strong acid reaction, but contains little or no lactic
acid, and no hippuric  acid.  Under a vegetable  diet
there is  more lactic acid, but it is united  to bases. 
         PHYSICAL- PROPERTIES OF  URINE.      49

The largest proportion of lactic acid is under a non-
azotized diet, and  most of it is then combined with
ammonia.
  8. The kidneys not only separate certain constituent
parts of the organs which have become inadequate
to the maintenance of life, but they also  expel  the
superfluous  nutritive matters  that  may have been
absorbed.
  Besides its organic materials, the  urine contains a
considerable amount of saline  matter;  the excretion
of which, in a state of solution, appears to be one of
the principal offices of the kidneys.  Yarious saline
compounds  are continually being  introduced with
the food;  and others are  formed within the  system
by the oxydation of the sulphur and phosphorus of
the tissues, or of the food, and by  the combination
of the sulphuric and phosphoric acids thus  formed,
with alkaline and earthy bases which the food may
contain, etc.   Thus the saline compounds found in
the urine are to be regarded  as partly proceeding
from the retrograde metamorphosis  of  the materials
of the tissues, after these have served their purpose in
the economy, and partly from that  of such compo-
nents of the food  as, being  superfluous, do  not  un-
dergo  organization.
  There  are other  properties and peculiarities of
urine, which it is unnecessary to note in the present
       5 
 50    THE  NORMAL  GENERATIVE  FUNCTIONS.

 work.  I may, however, make a few  remarks  in
 regard to the character of urine in cases of disease.
   In diseases, the secretion of urine  may either be
 decreased or increased, or even entirely suppressed.
   In Diabetes Mellitus, the urine is not only secreted
 in  excessive quantity,  but  it  likewise  contains a
 good deal of saccharine (sugar) matter,  which may
 be obtained from the urine in the  shape of crystals,
 by evaporating the liquid.
  In Diabetes Insipidus,  and  in  Pulmonary Phthisis,
 it is likewise increased.
  In Fevers,  in Diseases of the Liver and  Heart, and
 more particularly in  Dropsy,  it is diminished; while
 in Cholera, and disorganizations of the kidneys, it is
 entirely suppressed.
  In Fevers, in diseases  of   the Liver, in Arthritis,
 Rheumatism, etc., the urine frequently assumes a red
 brown, dark yellow,  greenish, or some other color,
 and deposits a quantity of sediment.
  The normal chemical constituents  of the urine
 are sometimes increased, at other times decreased, in
 disease.
  In Nervous diseases,  in  violent Nervous pains,
Hysteria, Megrim,  the urine  is  generally pale, and
reacts less as an acid.
  Urine, which is clear and transparent in health, is
apt to become cloudy and turbid in diseases.  This 
        DISEASES OF THE  URINARY ORGANS.     51

 c/j»udiness is partly owing to the  anomalous chem-
 ical constituents of  the urine; partly to the admix-
 ture of organic substances, such as mucus, albumen,
 fat, blood, semen, pus, etc.
   In Hysteria, and other nervous affections, urine has
 but little odor. In Brights disease, which is generally
 accompanied with dropsy, and where the urine con-
 tains a good deal of albumen, it  smells like broth.
 In Diabetes Mellitus,  it has at first an insipid smell,
 which, after  the sugar begins to ferment, changes to
 the odor of alcohol.  In Blennorrhea of the Bladder,
 and in Retention of Urine, it has  an  offensive smell
 as soon as it is emitted.

       DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS.
                     Section B.
   B.—These diseases may exist independently of
 Syphilis,  or  derangements of the urinary  organs.
 They are  generally  troublesome, painful, and dan-
 gerous.   Many persons aggravate their condition by
 not applying to a physician in season.
   1. Retention of Urine.—This is an inability to void
the urine.   It  may  endanger life, if not  promptly
attended to.  The retention will depend on the con-
tractile  power, or  some degree  of paralysis of the
bladder.   When the bladder is paralyzed,  there is a
complete retention of urine. 
52    THE NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.
  Sometimes obstacles from without, compressing the
urethra and  neck of the  bladder, will  prevent the
flowing out of the urine.  In men the urine may be
retained in the  bladder by large hernia, swelling  of
the testes  and  scrotum; accumulation of the faeces
in the rectum, or constriction of the penis by means
of a cord,  which is tied  around the part  by some
young men, for the purpose of preventing involun-
tary discharges during sleep.
  Mechanical obstacles may likewise act from with-
in, by closing the canal as with a plug.  This may be
effected by stone, gravel, etc., or foreign bodies pen-
etrating into  the bladder, as pieces of bougies, cath-
eters,  etc.   Children will sometimes introduce slate-
pencils or other bodies into the urethra for fun, and
thus such things find their way into the bladder.
  Whatever  the cause of the retention  of urine,
Dot a moment should be lost in having  the  advice
of some competent physician, in order to mitigate
pain and save the life of the patient.
  2. Too  Frequent  Urination.—This disease  arises
from a relaxed  state of the bladder.  It is not dans:-
erous, but exceedingly disagreeable and loathsome.
The clothes are soaked with urine, and a pestiferous
odor  thereof surrounds the  patients.   They  are a
burden  to themselves, and  have to shun all com-
pany.   In spite of the greatest cleanliness they are 
       DISEASES  OF THE  URINARY ORGANS.     53

troubled with a burning  and itching, redness and
soreness  of the parts moistened by the urine.  Noc-
turnal enuresis, or wetting the bed, is a variety of
this affection.   In some persons the urine escapes in-
voluntarily, in consequence of sleeping too soundly.
Some fancy they  are using the chamber, and others
wet the bed from sheer laziness to get up and urin-
ate in the usual vessel.  In such cases, punishment
or exposure is the remedy to be adopted.  The treat-
ment of  this  weakness is best left to the care of a
competent physician.  Children should eat and drink
little  at supper, and should be made to void urine
just previous  to  going to bed. They should  never
sleep on  their backs, but always  on  their sides or
stomach, etc.
  If the  affection is owing to excesses, these have to
be avoided; and the weakness of the sphincter vesicae
has to be removed by specific remedies.
  3.  Bloody Urine.—This is an affection of advanced
age,  more  common with  men than with  women.
The  blood may proceed from various parts of the
Uropoe'tic system, as the  kidneys, ureters, bladder,
and urethra, the cause being either general or local.
An alteration  in  the composition of the blood, as a
consequence  of  various  diseases, such  as  scurvy,
severe typhus, etc.; or the blood may  be passed with
      5* 
54    THE NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

the urine in consequence of the  suppression of reg-
ular discharges, such as the piles or catamenia.
   One half of those who are troubled with bloody
urine are addicted to  intoxication.  This trouble is
also one of the consequences of Onanism and sexual
excesses.
   In treating this disease much consideration is re-
quired on the part of the physician, and strict atten-
tion to himself on the part of the  patient.  Spirit-
uous beverages,  and self-abuse  especially,  must be
strictly avoided.
   4. Gravel and Calculi,—These are urinary deposits
found in the kidneys, ureters, and bladder. Generally/
the deposit is composed of small  crystals discernible
to the naked eye.  Sometimes there is a pulverized
sediment, containing  small calculi.  There are  sev-
eral varieties  of gravel.   It occurs most frequently
among those who are addicted to rich living, to the
use of meat,  strong  wine, etc.   Cheese, sour  food,
and sour drinks, favor the development of gravel.
The attention of  a skillful physician will be  requi-
site in the  cure of gravel; but the affection may be
materially  assisted by a  strict diet,, with a view to
arrest the formation of urates in the  kidneys.   By
refraining from  meat,  and employing  a vegetable
diet and refreshing drinks, the gravel  diathesis  may
be  gradually  mitigated.  Any  food  calculated to 
       DISEASES  OF THE URINARY ORGANS.     55

engender  acids, or which contains a  good deal of
saccharine matter,  together with wine, especially
sour wine, should be avoided.
  5. Stone.—This is a more perfect degree of the
former weakness, the stone arising from the gradual
combination of  several  calculi  into  one  coherent
mass.  A  stone  in the  bladder  will  require to be
removed by means of  an operation, either lithotomy
or lithrotripsy.
  6. Catarrh of  the Bladder.—The most  essential
symptom of this disease is  the  secretion of a  con-
siderable  quantity  of  mucus,  which  is  discharged
from the  bladder together with the urine.  It is an
obstinate  disease, although no  actual  danger exists
except when paralysis takes place, or the urine is
absorbed by the blood.
  The causes  of this affection  are  numerous and
varied.   Old people   are  particularly liable to it;
men more than women.
  Individuals  addicted to a luxurious mode of liv-
ing, to the use  of spirits; literary men, tailors, shoe-
makers, etc., are  especially liable to the disease.
  Sexual excesses, Onanism, abuse of certain kinds
of beverages, such as new beer, new wine, strong
claret; the use of cantharides, turpentine, etc.,  may
likewise  lead to this trouble.  A radical cure is
seldom effected.  The most that  a physician can do 
56    THE NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

is to make the patient as comfortable as possible, by
carefully regulating the diet and regimen.
   There are many other complications  of the dis-
eases of the urinary organs, which  are  not of suffi-
cient interest to the general reader to be particularly
noticed in the present  volume.   It  is important,
however, to remark that in the treatment of Sper-
matorrhoea the urine  should be examined with
great care, particularly the last drops  of the fluid,
which will be found distinguished by the following
characteristic phenomena.  At the bottom of a tran-
sparent vessel, we perceive small  globular  bodies
or flocks  of  a somewhat shining  exterior.  After
filtering the liquid, these flocks, and the spermatozoa,
(or animalculce subsisting in the semen) remain be-
hind on the filter.  To the naked eye, the globules
appear of different sizes and numbers.   They do not
dissolve even in  boiling  water.   Alcohol, nitric
acid, and a solution of tannin, cause them to  coag-
ulate like  albumen. Inasmuch as these phenomena
likewise take place when the prostatic  fluid, which
sometimes  is discharged together with the semen,
escapes, the use of the  microscope will be necessary
to establish a correct diagnosis.  If the alteration of
the semen is considerably advanced, these flocks dis-
appear; but  the  spermatozoa, which  are heavier
than the urine, fall to the bottom of the vessel.  A 
       DISEASES OF  THE URINARY ORGANS.     57

valuable diagnostic  is the constant formation of a
number of crystals  of  the oxalate of lime in the
urine.   By means of the microscope we may ascer-
tain the quality, and the numerical decrease and  in-
crease of the spermatozoa.  If the seminal fluid has
lasted a long time, the spermatozoa diminish in num-
ber, are imperfectly  developed, move about slowly,
or are quite motionless.   Afterward they shrink to
one half or  one third of their normal size.   If ex-
cessive Onanism, or  marasmus  sets  in, the  sperma-
tozoa entirely disappear, and in their stead will be
found little roundish shining bodies, which are prob-
ably undeveloped  or imperfect spermatozoa.  This
kind of semen is devoid  of all fecundating power. If
an improvement in the condition of the patient takes
place, the spermatozoa reappear in the  semen, and
their reappearance encourages the hope of the ulti-
mate  restoration of health, and of the virile powers
of the patient. 
CHAPTER VI.
OF GENERATION — SEMEN — SPERMATOZOA — FECUN-
                  DATION, ETC.

               Generation.—Section A.
  A.— Generation.—The  organs of  generation are
designed for the  perpetuation  of the race,  by the
production of  successive generations of similar be-
ings.  In  men, and  the  higher animals, this  func-
tion is performed in  only one method; namely, by
the development of an ovum (or egg) in the female,
which, when fertilized by  the spermatozoon of the
male,  gives origin within itself  to a  new being—the
embryo, if supplied with the requisite nourishment,
warmth, etc., gradually evolving itself into the like-
ness  of its  parent.  This process is formed  in a
manner essentially the same throughout the animal
and vegetable kingdoms.   In order that fecundation
or conception maj^ take  place, it is  necessary that
the ovum should actually be penetrated by the sper-
matozoa, and not  merely by the seminal  aura; and
also, that the semen should contain a sufficient  num-
ber of spermatozoa.   (See Plate  D.)
       (58) 
Fu/. 7

Ma?. Mierwsecpuro'l fair of Semen i' Spermaioza.
Fig. .>. Syphilitic disrhror/e. nioipiifed.
Paxtl.Page58
Plate D. 
 
SEMEN.
59
                 Semen.—Section B.
  B.—Semen.—The  spermatic fluid is secreted by
the glandular organs known as Testes, from the blood
which is conveyed to them by the spermatic artery.
After this operation  has  been completed, the super-
fluous blood is carried back into the circulation by
the spermatic veins.   This  secretion proceeds  with-
out our consciousness; yet certain states of the  mind
excite the testicles  to an increased action, far be-
yond that which they usually possess.  Although we
have  probably only  an imperfect  knowledge of  the
changes which the seminal fluid undergoes after it
is secreted in the testicles, and  before it arrives at
the urethra  during  coition; yet, as every  secretion
of the human body seems  to  have a  receptacle be-
fore it  is put to use, it  is quite probable  that  the
astonishingly numerous convolutions of the  epidi-
dymis, is that  especial reservoir.   The  epididymis
itself consists of a canal twenty-one feet in length.
Into  its lower extremity, where it terminates in the
vas deferens, is poured a secretion, the special function
of which is unknown.  The vas deferens conveys the
semen from the testicles to the urethra during coi-
tion.  The vesicula? seminales,  which secrete another
fluid  to be  blended with  the  former,  also empty
themselves,  with a  sort of  pulselike  contraction, 
60    THE NORMAL  GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

into the urethra, from which it is similarly forced in
the same manner at the height and crisis of coition.
  The prostate gland, as well  as the lacunoe of the
urethra, secrete a fluid into the urethra by numerous
ducts ;  and these are supposed to be the parts  prin-
cipally affected in gonorrhoea.   This fluid seems to
be a  necessary part of the semen.
  The urethra, in all  its parts, serves  the  double
purpose of being at once  a passage for the urine
and the semen, and is lined  by its easily distensible
membrane, to allow their escape.  The small glands
under  the  membrane  of  the  urethra,  constantly
yield a quantity of  mucus to  lubricate the parts,
and to prevent the membrane from  being irritated
by the urine passing over it.
  The prepuce exhibits a curious contrivance of na-
ture.   When the penis  is in a flaccid state, at which
time the sensibility of the  glans is  not called into
action, the prepuce then covers  it; and  in this way
its delicate  surface  is  most effectually preserved:
but when the penis is erect,  or when, during coition,
the glans is to receive the  most exquisite and sen-
sible impressions, the doubling of skin which forms
it, in  consequence  of being only large  enough,
while the penis  remained flaccid, is now gradually
drawn back, while the glans is left entirely uncovered.
At this period, the prepuce seems, as  it were, gath- 
SEMEN.
61
ered together with a cord, and fastened down to the
outer side of the glans—this cord being termed the
frcenum.  The lubricating glands on the inner sur-
face of the prepuce preserve the moisture and sensi-
bility of the glans, and the  lubricity they produce
is necessary to permit the prepuce to pass backward
over the glans, or head of the penis.
   Erection is produced by the cells of the parts
forming the penis being filled with blood, and thus
the size and firmness' necessary for the purposes of
coition are produced.   The blood is probably pre-
vented from  returning through the veins, by the
strong  action of the  muscles  near  the root  of the
penis.   The  erection is strong in proportion  to the
quantity of the blood and healthy action of the mus-
cles. ' By the same distending power also, the glans
penis is not only enlarged, but its  sensibility is so
much  increased  as  to produce, during coition, the
very highest degree  of the  delirium of pleasurable
sensation.
   The muscles  called  erectores penis are chiefly in-
strumental, not  in the erection, but in the direction
of the  penis.  Those termed  transversales penis assist
the erectores.   While  this  seems to  be one part of
their duty, they are also employed,  during erection,
in preserving the cavernous bodies in a state of dis-
tention, as well as the urethra and the ducts situated
       6 
62    THE  NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

near their origin.  The acceleratores urinae, while com-
pressing  the  penis, probably assist  as much, if not
more, in  producing erection, as either of the other
muscles.
  To return to the seminal fluid.  When this is se-
creted  by  the testes  it  is thick,  tenacious, of  a
starchish consistency,  and of a grayish or yellowish
color.  It is  mingled, during or before coition, as
before remarked, with fluid secreted by the prostate,
Cowper's gland, spermatic ducts, seminal vesicles,
and probably the mucus of the urethra.   The semen
thus consists of a thin milky, and of a thick, viscid,
and albuminous portion.   It is obtained pure only
by drawing it from the testicles.
  If the  semen be exposed to the air, the fluidity of
its  elements increases, and  a  more  intimate com-
mingling takes place.  The semen spreads a peculiar
odor,  and has  an alkaline reaction.  Its chemical
constituents are water,  mucus,  albumen, natrum,
phosphate  and muriate of lime,  phosphorus, and a
peculiar animal substance termed spermatine.
  Very many discussions have taken place upon the
nature of the seminal liquor, and the causes which
render its  too frequent  and copious emission pro-
ductive of  such extensive and fearful consequences
to the human frame.  Physicians and physiologists
of all ages, agree in  opinion  that the  loss  of one 
SEMEN.
63
ounce of semen is more debilitating than the loss of
forty ounces  of blood/  "The  seed of man," says
Hippocrates, " arises from all the humors of his body;
it  is  the most valuable part of them."   The fluids
from every part of the human frame appear to rush
to the genital  organs, to give greater  effect to the
first  act of  nature.  All the  powers  of the body
seem to be suspended, or rather concentrated to  one
point, during  the time of  coition.   Galen says:
" When a person loses his seed, he loses at the same
time  the vital  spirit; so that it is not astonishing
that too frequent coition should enervate, as the body
is  thereby deprived of the purest of its humors."
   It has been described by Aristotle, as the excrement
of aliments, having the faculty of reproducing bod-
ies like that which produced  it.   Others have de-
scribed it to be a portion of the brain, and have
pointed out certain ganglions, which form the com-
munication between it and the testicles.  It is termed
by Plato a running of the spinal marrow; and by
Epicurus, it is  called a  part of the soul and body.
Pythagoras says it is the flower of the parent  blood;
and Alcceon  considers it apart of the brain.
   The distribution of the seminal fluid is said to
extend to all the nerves of the body, like  the  ani-
mal  spirits of  the brain;   and again, it has been
termed the  essential oil of the animal liquors;  and 
 64    TnE NORMAL  GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

 a number of organs are placed in requisition as ducts
 and channels to convey it from the source to the '
 object of its secretion, as I have already described.
   It thus appears clearly, from the complicated  ma-
 chinery employed in the conveyance and distillation
 of the seminal fluid, that nature has intended its im-
 portance to be fully understood by those  for whose
 use and pleasure it was  created.  Now, in the too
 frequent and prodigal  emission of this  liquor, it is
 manifest,  that all this  variety of  organs must be
 called into unnecessary action;  and in nature, as in
 art, the constant  friction of the  minuter  parts of the
 machine must tend to its rapid waste.
  "In  a  healthy man," says   a  celebrated writer,
 " the secretion of this  liquor is constantly made in
 the testicles;  it repairs to the  reservoirs, the limits
 of which  are very  confined, and  cannot,  perhaps,
 contain all  that is secerned in   a day: nevertheless
 there are continent men, who  do  not evacuate for
 whole  years.  What would become  of  it, if it did
 not continually return into the vessels of circula-
tion? a return which is very much  facilitated by
the  structure of all the  organs which assist in  the
secretion of  this  humor,  in conveying it into  the
proper channel, and  in its preservation.   The veins
are there much more considerable than the arteries •
and  this in a proportion that is not found so great 
SEMEN.
65
elsewhere;  so it is probable  that  this  return is
not only made in the vesiculae seminales, but that it
previously took place in  the testicles, in  the epidi-
dymes, and in the vasa deferentia."
  Holler says: " The semen is  kept in the vesiculae
seminales until the man makes use of it,  or noctur-
nal emissions deprive him of it.* During all this time,
the  quantity which is  there  detained excites the
animal  to the act of venery; but the greatest part
of the seed, 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
surprising  changes; it makes the beard,  hair,  and
nails to  grow ; it changes the voice and manners ;  for
age does not produce these changes in animals—it is
the seed only that operates in this manner, and they
are never met with in eunuchs."
  All this  shows that the most  distinguished phi-
losophers have,  at all times,  looked upon  the male
semen as the most  precious  secretion of  the blood,
and have cautioned against the wasteful use of  this
fluid, as something ruinous to the mind  as well as
the body.   It is, therefore, a great mistake to sup-
pose  that Continence is detrimental either to the con-
  * The vesiculae seminales are not now regarded as recep-
tacles for semen, but secrete an albuminous  fluid of suitable
specific gravity for the preservation of the spermatozoa.
       6* 
66    THE  NORMAL  GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

stitution of man  or of woman.  A life  of celibacy
is  never a cause of Impotency or Sterility !  On
the contrary, it  is the abuse of the sexual  organs
that produces many  of  the serious " ills to which
the flesh is heir," including consumption, nervous
complaints,  and  all the  other terrible disorders
which make up a very large excess of the mortality
of our land.
  In a state of pure  nature, where the appetites are
not stimulated by artificial contrivances, whether en-
gendered of food or other means, man would  have
his sexual instincts  under natural restraints; but
possessing reason, he is the more able and bound to
govern all  licentious promptings, and to conform to
Nature's pristine  mandates.

              Spermatozoa.—Section C.
  C.—Spermatozoa.—The essential peculiarity of the
spermatic fluid consists  in  the presence of  a  large
number of very minute filiform bodies, only dis-
cernible with a high power of the microscope. These
are called Spermatozoa,   They exist in  every kind
of animal semen, and are  so characteristically  shaped,
that their presence is a sure indication of the  char-
acter of the  fluid.   In  ordinary cases, the  sperma-
tozoa  remain in actual  motion for some time after
they have quitted  the  living organism.  Thus in 
SPERMATOZOA.
67
cases  of nocturnal  emission, the  spermatozoa may
not unfrequently be found actively moving  through
the urine in the morning.   Those contained in the
seminal fluid collected from females that have just
copulated, are frequently found to live  many days.
Their presence may be readily detected by  a micro-
scope of sufficient power, even when they have long
ceased to move, and are broken into fragments;
and the physician and medical jurist will frequently
derive much  assistance from an examination of this
kind.  Thus, cases are of no uncommon occurrence,
especially among those who have been too much
addicted to Onanism or sexual indulgence, in which
seminal emissions take place unconsciously and fre-
quently, and produce great general derangement of
health.  In charges of rape, in which  evidence of
actual emission is required, a microscopic examina-
tion of the stiffened  spots left on  the linen  will sel-
dom fail in obtaining proof, if the act has been com-
pleted.  In such cases, however, we must not expect
to meet with  more  than  fragments of spermatozoa;
but these are so unlike any thing  else, that little
doubt need be entertained in regard to them.
   The human spermatozoa consists, then,  of small
oval flattened bodies,  resembling tadpoles!  They
are between g^th and the gooth of a line in length,
from  each of which proceeds a  long  filiform tail, 
68    THE NORMAL  GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

gradually tapering to the finest point of -gVjtli, or at
most ^th of a line in length.  If magnified to three
or four hundred times their original size, in the re-
cent semen,  they move about very briskly in every
direction; they agitate their tails, and even avoid
small obstacles in their  course.   Such movements
are not checked  by the  admixture of the seminal
fluid with other secretions, such as the urine and the
prostatic fluid.  The duration and liveliness of these
movements,  however, depend upon the strength of
the individual from  whom the semen comes.   The
strength or  debility of these spermatozoa indicates
a higher  or lower  degree  of fecundating  power.
They first show themselves at the age of pubescence,
and  probably  disappear  again  with the complete
extinction of the  sexual power.  The complete ab-
sence of spermatozoa in the seminal fluid, indicates
an inability on the  part  of man to  fecundate the
female ovum.

                   Fecundation.
  The  power of procreation  does not usually exist
in the  human male,  until from  the age  of  14
to 16 years; and it may be considered probable
that no spermatozoa  are produced until that  period,
although a fluid is secreted by the Testes.  At  this
epoch,  which  is  ordinarily designated as that of 
FECUNDATION.
69
Puberty,  a  considerable change takes place in the
bodily constitution: the sexual organs undergo a
much-increased development;  various parts of the
surface, especially the chin and pubes, become cov-
ered with hair;  the larynx enlarges, and the voice
becomes lower  in  pitch,  as well as rougher  and
more powerful;  and new feelings and desires  are
awakened in the mind.  Instances, however, are by
no means  rare, in  which these  changes take place
at a much earlier period.  The full development of
the  generative  organs, with  manifestations  of  the
sexual  passion,  have been observed  in  children of
but a few years old.  The procreative  power  may
last, if  not  abused, during a very prolonged  period.
The ordinary rule seems to be that sexual power is
not retained by the male to any considerable amount,
after the age of 60 or 65 years.  Undoubted in-
stances, however,  of  virility at  the age of more
 than 100 years  are on record.
   Thus we find that the genital  organs, during life,
 present two states, which  may be termed the frigid
 zones  of  existence, and are  manifest in childhood
 and old age.  The infant  has nothing to give, and
 the old man has given all he ever had.  Immaturity
 of age  and innocence are causes of want of erections.
 This doctrine, however, as before remarked, admits 
70    THE NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

of exceptions,  as children have been precociously
developed before their fourteenth year.
  A boy, aged seven years, a native of the Depart-
ment of Lot, was so far developed as to make a fu-
rious attack upon a female child, and  deprive her
of that she could never regain.
   St. Gregory  relates of a boy nine years of age,
who had a child by his nurse; and St. Jerome says
that he had heard the same thing of a boy of ten.
   On the other hand, a Frenchman, aged ninety-nine
years, married  his tenth wife, and was a father at
one hundred and two.
   Thomas  Parr  married at  one  hundred  and
twenty;  and performed nuptial duties so well at one
hundred and forty, that he even forgot that he was
 an old man.
   Pliny says that Masinissa had a son born to him
 after he was eighty-six years of  age, and that Cato,
 the senator, had one at the  age of  eighty.  Savo-
 NAROLO asserts, that Nicholas de Palavicinis had a
 son  in  his hundredth year.   Alexander  Bene-
 dictus knew a German who had one in his nine-
 tieth ; and Lemnius mentions  another, who, at the
 age of  one  hundred, married a woman of thirty,
 and had a numerous  offspring by  her.  The cele-
 brated  physician, Felix  Platerus,  who died at
  Basle, in 1614, says,  his father married when he 
FECUNDATION.
71
was seventy-two years old, and had six sons ;  and at
the age of eighty-two his wife bore him a daughter.
He mentions, also, that his grandfather had a son  in
the hundredth year of his age.
   The faculty of  generating disappears at forty-five
or fifty in the female, though there are many excep-
tions to these general rules.
   Valescus de Taranta knew a woman who had
a child  at sixty-seven; and Cardan  mentions  an-
other who had a child when she was more than
eighty.   Pliny says that Cornelia, of the family
of the Scipios, brought forth a  child  in her sixty-
second year, which child was afterward the Consul
 Volusius Saturnius.
   Father Dutertre knew a savage Carribean woman
at Guadaloupe, who had a child when she was eighty
years old; and he  speaks of another woman  who
became pregnant when she was one hundred years
old!
   In conclusion of this  subject, it is proper here to
remark, that there are many persons who do not feel
sexual desires until a late period of life ;  the conse-
quence  is, the organs themselves are not only im-
perfectly developed, but the body and  mind are also
retarded in the same  way.   Sometimes the long-sup-
pressed feelings will receive a sudden stimulus, from
seeing some person of the opposite sex particularly 
72    the  normal generative functions.

adapted to make this desired impression upon their
minds.  Every person of experience very well knows
that a certain impression must be made on the mind,
before the animal feeling is experienced, or the phy-
sical development takes place, for there are many of
the opposite sex who excite disgust, and under such
circumstances the  certain feelings  for  enjoyment
would not only not be produced, but if age, with the
necessary favorable circumstances, had not  already
caused a full development of the organs, there would
be great danger of their ever fulfilling Nature's in-
tentions.  This at once explains to us the reason of
so many of those distressing  cases  of indifference
and dislike to be met with between parties, and be a
partial aid in giving the necessary treatment.
  There are good reasons for  supposing that the
sexual instinct is materially dependent upon a  par-
ticular part of the brain, though we are not exactly
certain what part it is, nor whether it  is  a mere de-
velopment of it that is needed, or some  peculiarity
of structure or organization.  It is  not  all uncom-
mon to find men perfectly organized  in  every re-
spect, with vigorous minds, and with every  other
faculty in full play, but yet  almost wholly destitute
of desire for sexual enjoyment. In most of  these
cases, it is true, the generative  organs  are small or
inactive, yet in some  they are of full development, 
                  fecundation.                73

 healthy, and active.   In such cases we can only ac-
 count for the singular indifference exhibited, by sup-
 posing that the part of the brain which regulates the
 reproductive instinct has not had sufficient power,
 or else the senses have not been properly presented.
 In the same way, we can account  for the influence
 of the brain and nervous system on  the generative
 organs.
  As I have before stated, the genital organs are so
 intimately connected  with the rest of  the system,
 that the slightest derangement of them affects  it,
 more particularly as some parts are in common with
 the urinary; the rectum also is  in close juxtaposi-
 tion  to  them, so  that any disease  that  affects the
 genital organs  is very  apt to disarrange all  these
 likewise, and it  is very probable  this second  affair
may  be  more  severe  than  the first one.  Some
remarkable cases of this character will be presented
in the course of  this volume.
        7 
CHAPTER  VII.
 SEXUAL  CONGRESS, OR THE ACT OF COPULATION.

  Sexual congress is  necessary in order to fulfill
the wise  and beneficent purposes of  the  Creator.
He has instituted certain laws in the universe, which
are made obvious to man by the causes and effects
which are in operation around him.  Thus, it is a law
of Nature that all bodies are attracted toward the cen-
tre  of  the earth—that the sun causes  light and heat
—that things like each assimilate: water blends with
water, oil with oil, clay with clay, clouds with clouds,
and "birds of a feather flock together."  It is in ac-
cordance with this feeling, that animals are attracted
toward other  animals  of their species  and genus.
It is a feeling, passion, or instinct necessary to the
procreation  and  perpetuation of every creature or
thing.
  In man the feeling  is usually stronger than the
judgment, and it is requisite for the continuance of
the species that it should thus be a paramount  prin-
ciple of his. organization.  " Multiply and replenish
the earth," is a Divine  law that may not be violated,
       ("4) 
SEXUAL CONGRESS.
75
without a  more or less  vitiation  of the progressive
ordinances of  Nature.  It has  been well observed
that  man parries reason—avoids  future  interest
for the  sake of present pleasure.  The love of sex
is a sun  against whose melting beams winter can-
not stand. It is a soft,  subduing slumber, which
wrestles down the giant—a  passion which, perhaps,
not one human  being  in  a million  is hardened
against, or able to  resist and overcome.
   The object of the sexual  act on the part  of man
is to discharge the semen into the sexual organ of
the female, and on the  part of the woman to receive
the seminal fluid.  The  sexual delight which pre-
cedes the  act, increases in proportion as the  contact
of the  sexual organs  become  more intimate.   Its
more  certain  fulfillment is attended with a consider-
able  degree  of  pleasure—oftentimes  with  an ex-
static thrill, which it is impossible to describe, pros-
trating the body and soul in a very delirium of rap-
turous impulses.
   By merely touching  the mammae or breasts of the
female,  both the mammae and the penis sometimes be-
come  erect; the woman experiences shooting stitches
in the bosom and abdomen, palpitation of the heart,
trembling, chills, etc.  Excitable  or debilitated fe-
males are  even seized with convulsions.  The penis
and the tissue of the clitoris become erect, and the 
76    THE  NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

constrictor  muscle of the vagina dilates its  orifice
and changes it to a rounded' opening.
  On inserting the penis into the vagina, the  nerves
of the clitoris are first touched by the glans, and the
sexual delight is increased.  The male organ pene-
trates onward under the clitoris, until the whole
space of the  vagina  is  filled up—the  sensation of
delight being the more intense in proportion  to the
contraction of the vagina  about the penis, and its
enlargement  with the  abundance of  seminal fluid,
or the flow of blood to the minute capillaries of
that  organ.
  The sexual delight is even increased by the rup-
ture  or tearing of the hymen.   The narrowness and
pleasant  temperature of the vagina, its prominences
here and there,  caused by the  rugos,  or  wrinkled
nature of the mucous  membrane,  or  internal wall
of the vagina, facilitate the friction  of  the penis
so as to increase the pleasurable excitement to the
highest degree, which terminates in  the male with
the  emission of  the semen—and in the female after
the penis has been withdrawn, or the  penis has be-
come relaxed.  The emission takes place involunta-
rily  by the contraction of the ejector muscles; after
the  emission is terminated, the stimulation of the
nervous  tissues  generally  ceases,  as  well  as the
afflux of blood to  the arteries of the penis; the 
SEXUAL CONGRESS.              77
blood again flows  backward through  the veins, and
the penis  becomes  relaxed.  The erection of  the
clitoris likewise ceases; while  there is also, soon
after, a  collapse,  or  return  of  the tube of  the
vagina to its normal condition.   This sexual orgasm
is frequently succeeded by languor, drowsiness, sad-
ness, irritable mood; hence the  proverb:  Omne  an-
imal post coitum triste;" after coition, every animal
feels out of humor.
   In order more fully to understand all the peculiar
phenomena  involved in the sexual  embrace, it  will
be necessary to present an outline idea of the forma-
tion and structure of the female organs of genera-
tion, and their functions or uses.
   In action, the ovaria have been  supposed to re-
semble the  testicles of the  male.  When they  are
extirpated  in  consequence of  disease, the woman
ceases to menstruate, her breasts become flat, and she
 is thinner and more masculine.
   The Fallopian  tubes are intended to transmit  the
 semen to the ovaria, and to return the ovum to  the
 uterus.  The canal of these tubes is irregular, being
 at its entrance into the uterus so very small that it is
 scarcely  capable  of admitting  a hog's bristle;  but
 toward the ovaria (or sacs containing the ova or eggs)
 they become wider.   Their common length is three
 inches, but they vary in different women.
        7* 
78    THE NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

  The uterus, or womb,  in  its impregnated  state,
or rather before the female has  had children,  is in-
capable of containing more  than the kernel of  a
small hazel-nut, and its sides  remain in contact.  It
is of triangular shape and divided into three portions,
each  having its use, not  necessary  now to be ex-
plained.
  The Vagina is  the  tube or canal  which stretches
from the external  orifice of the uterus to the  exter-
nal parts of generation.   It  is  named vagina from
its receiving the penis like a sheath.  This  canal  is
generally six or eight inches long, and about an inch
and  a half wide; but  is of various length, as well  as
width, in different women.  Its  sides lie in contact.
It is capable, especially by the indulgence of lasciv-
ious thoughts, or in time  of coition, of considerable
contraction and relaxation.   It is of a membraneous
texture, exquisitely  sensible, full of rugae  or folds
in those who have not copulated very frequently,  or
who have not been subject to frequent child-bearing.
The vagina,  though firm  in  youth,  becomes  flaccid
in old age.
   The Hymen closes  the orifice  of the vagina in in-
fancy and  childhood, and even in  those more ad-
vanced in years, if they  have never  been married.
Imperforated hymen occasions much distress.   It
causes pain  of the back, headache, and general in- 
SEXUAL CONGRESS.
79
disposition, and these abate and return at the end of
each month.  Immense quantities of secreted liquors
are sometimes collected behind such  obstruction,
giving an appearance similar to that of pregnancy,
and suppositions even  of  such a state when the un-
fortunate female was not in a condition in which she
could  possibly be  so.  In some, the hymen is  so
very strong,  that even  the most vigorous efforts  of
the male is quite ineffectual in rupturing it.
   The Clitoris is placed at the upper part of the ex-
ternal parts  of generation.  The usual  size  of this
body is somewhat less than the point  of the  little
finger.   It is, however, much  larger, in  proportion
at  birth; and in various instances of adults it  re-
sembles the male penis.  It is larger in Simice than
in women, and larger  in the negress than in women
of other races.  There are other portions which will
not here require to be particularly mentioned.
   In recapitulation, the Uterus is the receptacle  for
the semen, is destined to give adhesion  to the ovum,
and is the proper nidus (or capsule)  in which  the
embryo is  deposited  to be  nourished  during  the
months of gestation.   The  vagina  is  at once  the
mere external organ of generation in the female and
forms the passage of the fetus at the period of partu-
 rition.   The excretory glands, placed immediately
 under the membrame of the vagina, are principally for 
80    THE NORMAL GRNERATIVE FUNCTIONS.
the purpose  of separating a mucus matter, particu-
larly  during copulation, for the lubrication of  the
parts.  By these glands the discharges in leucorrhoea
and gonorrhoea, are produced.  The mjmphce seem to
direct the stream of urine;  and, in addition  to  the
divided portion of the clitoris,  aid in closing  the
vagina, and  in time of  coition also to grasp  the
penis.   They are exquisitely sensitive, and being
very vascular,  are apt to  become erect.   They also
serve the purpose of folds, which, in time of coition,
are calculated to afford mutual  pleasure, and which
during  parturition are capable  of  great distension
without laceration.  From  the delicate structure of
the clitoris, and its extreme sensibility, it is the princi-
pal seat of pleasure during coition.   When titillated
it becomes erect;  and the portion  of it which runs
around the margin of the vagina, swelling it,  grasps
the, penis.  Indeed, as before remarked, the penis of
the male  and  the  clitoris  of the female seem,  in
some respects,  to resemble  each other.   They  are
both possessed  of similar  sensibility, are both capa-
ble of erection, and each of them can support these
states till the action excited during coition alters the
sensation.
  A very ridiculous notion  is not unfrequently en-
tertained, that the venereal  paroxysm in the  female
terminates by an emission of semen.  The impossi- 
SEXUAL CONGRESS.
81
bility of such an occurrence is evident, when we re-
collect that a female has no seminal vessels.  That a
peculiar sensation is produced in the female, which
terminates the paroxysm, is  certain, as well  as  that
there is a considerable discharge of lubricating fluid,
but that can alone proceed from the secreting  mu-
cus glands.
  In another  place we have described  the male or-
gans of generation, and it is only necessary  here to
observe, that the prepuce of the  penis  performs an
important part  in increasing the  pleasures of the
sexual act.
  Mr. Paget, a French author, thinks  that the  pre-
puce is of importance  in exciting the  reflex action.
He says, in  substance :—
  " The function of the prepuce in the act of copu-
lation is explicable  on the principle that, other
things being  equal, the force of a reflex act is' di-
rectly proportionate to the force of the incident im-
pression which  it follows.  For instance, the  con-
traction of the pupil  is a measure of  the intensity
of the impression of light on the retina; the quan-
tity and  rapidity of  secretion of saliva  is  propor-
tionate to the quantity and strength of  an  irritant
taken into the mouth ;  and so in numerous instances.
In  like  manner,  the  energy of the  secretion  and
expulsion of the  seminal fluid,  during copulation, 
82    THE  NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

will (other things being equal,) be proportionate to
the quantity of highly excitable  surface which is
stimulated  in  the act.  The mucous  membrane  of
the prepuce, naturally reverted during copulation,
supplies  a large extent of highly-excitable surface;
and the stimulus of its nerves, added to that  of the
nerves of the  glans, increases the force of the inci-
dent impression on the spinal cord (and brain), and
thus increases, in the same  measure, the force of  all
the reflex acts.   The importance of the prepuce, in
this  view, may be estimated by the difference be-
tween  the sensibility of its mucous  membrane and
that of the common integument of the penis, or that
of such a scar as may remain after circumcision."
  This  distinguished physician is doubtless  right
in the abstract; yet I am of the opinion with Mr.
Acton, that the prepuce  in man (at least  in the
present day,)  is the cause of  much mischief, and
that we could well  spare that organ.  As affording
an additional surface for the excitement of the reflex
action, this fold of membrane aggravates an instinct
rather  than supplies a want.  In  the unmarried, it
additionally excites the  sexual desires which it is
our  object  to  repress.  Its existence,  no  doubt,
during the  sexual congress, does give additional
pleasure; indeed, as age advances, it  maybe even
necessary to copulation.  Without the prepuce there 
                SEXUAL CONGRESS.              83

might be a difficulty in exeiting the flagging powers.
It is not  excitement,  however, but  restraint  which
we require.
   It must be admitted, that in all animals  having a
prepuce, it not only protects the delicate glans penis
from injury, but enables the  intromittent  organ of
the male to be brought into an erect state, by yield-
ing to an extent that  is  not required in the human
being.   For  instance,  according to  the " Physiolo-
gical Cabinet," by Owen, the  coitus in the kanga-
roo,  and probably in other marsupials,  is of long
duration; while the scrotum  during the act disap-
pears, and seems to be partially inverted during the
forcible retraction of the testes against the marsupial
bones.
   In monkeys there is no fraenum, and this doubt-
less serves some good  purpose, of which we are not
yet aware.   I repeat, man, in a state of nature, and
the lower  classes of civilized  society, receive thor-
ough protection from the foreskin ; but to the sensi-
tive, excitable, civilized individual, the prepuce often
becomes an additional source of mischief. In the East,
the collection of the secretion between it and the glans
causes  irritation and  its consequences;  hence the
origin of circumcision.  No doubt the existence of the
foreskin predisposes to many forms of Syphilis.   It
may well be believed  that the  excessive sensibility 
84    THE NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.
induced by a tight and narrow foreskin, and the dif-
ficulty of withdrawing it, is often the cause of  emis-
sions, masturbation, or undue excitement of the sex-
ual desires, which  it becomes very difficult for the
sufferer to endure.  The pleasure in the copulative
act among Jews, or those who have undergone cir-
cumcision, can scarcely be in a less degree than that
which is experienced by the uncircumcised, although
there is no decisive proof to decide  the  question.
The circumcised, at least, do not complain in this
regard.   At any rate, whatever  opinion may be en-
tertained in respect to the importance of the prepuce,
no one will pretend to deny that the act of copula-
tion is necessary in order to the reproduction of the
species, whether of the human or otherwise.
   I have thus explained the form and structure, and
separate functions  or  uses of the male  and female
organs of generation, as preparatory to the right un-
derstanding of their united functions in the sexual
embrace.

UNITED  FUNCTIONS  OF THE MALE  AND  FEMALE
               GNERATIVE ORGANS.
   While  reciprocal notions of beauty are  doubtless
excitements to this embrace, perhaps no portion of
the female figure so greatly attracts the  male as the
 mammae (or breasts), when fully developed and finely 
UNITED  FUNCTIONS.
85
formed.  It is these fine forms which the male first
receives  in his arms, and  presses  nearest  to  his
heart.  Their perfect development is then important,
not only in this point of view, but as indicating a
disposition  to  and a fitness for sexual  pleasure.
Hence in hot countries, where these pleasures  are
the  chief pursuits  of life,  a very large  bosom is
deemed essential to beauty.  Long mammae are  re-
garded  as  beautiful  in Africa,  and therefore  the
women of that country elongate them by art.  The
musky  odor,  also,  of the  arm-pits  and generative
parts, (and they are perfectly musky in  cleanly per-
sons of warm temperament) is a powerful stimulus
to sexual love.
  In various temperaments this passion is very  dif-
ferently  modified.  The sanguine, being  more  vo-
luptuous,  love amorous preludes.  The bilious are
under the  influence of an erotic fury, which is as
great as it  is quickly exhausted.  The  melancholic
burn with a secret and more constant flame; while
the phlegmatic are cold and insensible.
  In the act  itself, as before intimated, the penis,
fully erect and introduced into the vagina, is grasped
by the tensor vagniae  muscle, which at that moment
is sympathetically  excited,  and possessed  of  the
strongest contractile power; while the clitoris, being
also erect, and possessing an exquisite sense of touch,
      6 
86    THE NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

is the  source  of much delight to  the female.  In
this operation, as in all impressions on the organs
of touch, it is  not one and  the  same contact, but  a
repetition of contacts, which communicates pleasure.
This is also the case with taste and with  odors, the
removal  and  reapplication of which is essential to
pleasure, and even to sensibility.  Hence, in coition,
the  male  and  female ultimately withdraw and  ap-
proach in manners which are modified by the sensi-
bility, the disposition, the tastes, and the experience
of each.
  At this  moment,  also, the  expression of  each
countenance is  modified  by  the  same circum-
stances.  The  courtezan betrays  herself  either by
playing with her necklace or ringlets, or  by affect-
ing an ardor,  which, from  the want of nature and
truth, it is evident she  never knew or has long for-
gotten.  The cold woman adds, perhaps, to a mode-
rate degree of this affectation, one evanescent emotion
when the paroxysm reaches its crisis.   The warmer,
but yet experienced woman, tries to conceal her sen-
sibility  and fixes  her  features; but,  awhile before
the  crisis of the  passion, that  fixity becomes  con-
traction of the features, and their paleness  betrays
her interior sensation.  The voluptuous woman, who
surrenders herself to the  passion, is at the first
warm, blushing, yielding, and free from constraint; 
UNITED  FUNCTIONS.
87
 successively  and gradually increasing chills soon
 take the place of the flush ;   the  features seem  to
 contract as well as to become pale ; the eyelids drop
 over the eyeballs, which are convulsively drawn up-
 ward and inward, while the lips are half opened.
   At the crisis of the passion in both sexes, the mo-
 tions of the body are vivid and violent; the whole
 frame trembles convulsively; the heart beats against
 the breast;  in a moment the  muscles yield  under
 the  weight of pleasure.   Even  intelligence seems
 extinct; or rather  the whole  sensibility is concen-
 trated in one point, where the muscles of the gene-
 rative organs undergo a spasmodic  constriction.  In
 the male, the semen is then projected into the uterus
 by spasmodic jerks, which  are repeated as long  as
 there is any semen to be expelled; while  in the  fe-
 male  the increase of pleasurable sensation, excited
 at this moment, causes the fimbriated extremities
 of the  fallopian  tubes  to  grasp  the ovaria within
 which an ovum is possibly burst, and an albuminous
 drop, thus disengaged, consequently descends  along
 the fallopian tube into the uterus, where meeting
 with the male semen  the  future embryo is formed.
 The  female generally experiences a  shivering—a
voluptuous  horripilation,  etc.   Generally all the
symptoms of this real epilepsy disappear, and the
mind  and body  remain equally languid. 
88    THE  NORMAL GENERATIVE  FUNCTIONS.

  There have been many examples of persons who
have died during the union of the sexes from excess
of the venerous passion, and the same has been ob-
served  among  insects.  Frogs, during this act, do
not quit each other; nay, do not cease, though their
limbs be cut.  Butterflies  seek  to couple,  though
their heads are cut off, and  they are impaled with a
pin.   Others  seek  to  fecundate their  dead females.
Thus, reproduction is an imprescriptible law of all
animals, or rather of all organized beings.
  Some have asserted that  the copulative pleasure
has more  extensive  relations in woman* than in
man.  It would require  a new Tiresias to determine
this point.  However, this opinion is  probably cor-
rect, because  the generative system is not only more-
extensive in woman than in man,  but  is more inti-
mately blended with her nature, and more powerfully
modified by  her structure  and her functions; and
because, at  the same time, her sensibility is greater.
Indeed,  I would contend, that without such pleas-
ure no conception is possible.  Whenever, therefore,
a woman becomes a mother, it is most  probably the
result of her  spontaneous act. 
CHAPTER VIII.
   SEXUAL COMMERCE OF INFERIOR CREATURES.

   Of late years men of the highest ranks in science,
have given much attention to the laws of Fecunda-
tion and Reproduction in the animal and vegetable
kingdom.   In connection  with  the  subject-mat-
ter of  the foregoing Chapter, it will  be  proper to
present some curious facts, gleaned  from  the great
volume of Nature, in respect  to  the modus operandi
of the sexual congress of animals, insects, etc.
   In the fish, sexual congress does not take place.
The female  simply deposits her spawn in  favorable
places.  This the male passes  over, and thus fecun-
dates the ova by emitting  those  immense  quantities
of milt, with which  every  body is acquainted,  in
the shad,  soft-roed  mackerel,  or  herring—that are
caught at  certain seasons of the year in such profu-
sion, when frequenting shoal or  secluded places, for
the purpose of  depositing  the  heavy burdens borne
by both sexes.
  In many the act of erection  lasts but a short time.
In the dog,  when  the penis is introduced into  the
       8*                              (8(J) 
90    THE NORMAL GENERATIVE  FUNCTIONS.

vagina of the bitch, the organ  becomes  suddenly
enlarged, so that the animal is unable to withdraw
from connection for a long time.   This, according to
Richeraud, depends upon  the absence in  the  dog
of vesiculas seminales ;  and as the semen passes but
drop by  drop, impregnation would not occur  had
not Nature  ordained  such prolonged copulation.
We must recollect, however, if the dog has no vesic-
ulae he has  a very large prostate, which facilitates
the discharge of the seminal fluid, and its passage to
its proper receptacle in the female animal.
  In  some  animals  copulation  takes  place  with
wonderful celerity.  The coitus of stags is effected
in a few moments.  Such is the case with the giraffe.
One sexual congress suffices for the perfect fecunda-
tion of the female.
  All knotted animals are a long time in connection.
The  fox has the same enlargement of the penis as
the dog; hence the same  duration of the copulative
act.
  The boar-pig  takes  his time very leisurely—his
penis being of  a  corkscrew  shape; whence, also,
perhaps emission does not take place rapidly.
  That the  erect penis should fill the vagina and
distend it, seems necessary to the  full excitement of
the female sexual feelings.  It appears  from the fol-
lowing, given by Rymer Jones, in his " General Out- 
SEXUAL commerce.
91
    line  of  the Animal Kingdom," that Nature, ever
    bountiful, has given to certain classes of animals an
    apparatus which deserves the attention of the  sur-
    geon and physiologist.  He says:—
      "In the  guinea-pig, no  one  will be disposed to
    deny that the penis is an instrument of excitement.
    It  is  strengthened by a  flat bone  that reaches  for-
    ward  as far as  the extremity of the glans, beneath
    which is the termination of the  urethra; but  behind
    and below the orifice of this canal is the opening of
    the pouch,  wherein  are lodged  two  long  horny
    spikes.  When  the member is  erect, the pouch  al-
    luded to becomes  everted,  and the spikes are pro-
    truded externally  to a considerable length.   Both
    the everted pouch, and the entire surface of the glans,
    are moreover covered densely with sharp spines or
    hooklets ; and as though even all this were not suffi-
    cient to produce the  needful irritation, still further
V   back there are, in some species, two short and strong
    horny saws appended to  the  side of the  organ.
    From this  terrible armature  of the male cavys, it
    would be only natural to expect  some corresponding
    peculiarity  of the parts;  but,  however  inexplicable
    it may appear, the female vagina  offers no uncom-
    mon structure."
     Every body must be cognizant of the caterwaul-
    ing which takes place at night, or early in the morn- 
92    THE NORMAL GENERATIVE  FUNCTIONS.

ing,  in the  streets of our cities;  but few, perhaps,
are aware of the  cause.  Those who have watched
the animals, assure  us that the cries are during  the
act of copulation.   The noise proceeds from the she-
cat,  and  in  the opinion  of some naturalists arises
from the tortures  she  experiences.  In the Museum
of the College of  Surgeons, of  London, Mr. Que-
kett has preserved the penis of a young tom-cat,
which  Mr. Owen describes  in his  catalogue.  The
" penis of a cat shows the reverted callous papillae
of the glans," which is covered with spinous-looking
elevations, which  is supposed to give the female  ex-
ceeding pain.  They disappear in  the old Tom.
   In my judgment it  is  intense  pleasure,  rather
than pain, which  causes the cries and seeming anger
of the female cat.  As in the guinea-pig, the rugous
state of the male organ, most probably excites  not
anger but delight, notwithstanding the speedy sepa-
ration  of the lovers,  which always ensues. Like  a
bitch, the she-cat  will allow herself  to be lined very
frequently;  but in  a  few days, they will both snap
at the male  and refuse his attentions.
   Mr.  Thompson,  Superintendent  of  the London
Zoological Garden, corroborates the statement, that
in the feline race  it  is  the female that makes the
noise.  He notices it as occurring constantly in the 
SEXUAL COMMERCE.
93
leopards, tigers, lions, &c, and as presaging the con-
clusion of the sexual act.
  In certain birds, the copulative act is only requi-
site once in the season.   In some parts of the coun-
tries of England  and  Ireland, it  is customary  for
poultry women to keep but one turkey hen, which
is sent distances to the cock only once in the season,
yet all the eggs she lays during  the year are fertile
ones.  In such a case all the eggs must be impregnated
at once, or the spermatozoa be  hoarded up  in  the
cloaca till  they are required.  I can see no  reason
why spermatozoa might not live some time on  the
mucous membrane, which is not exposed to the  air.
Birds have no spermatheca, such as is found  in  the
bee, for instance.
  Certain animals, called hermaphrodite, have per-
fect male  and female organs in  the same  creatures,
yet are not  self-impregnating.  The leech, for  in-
stance, requires for fecundation the sexual  congress
of two animals.   This same peculiarity  is found in
snails.  The  copulative act of these creatures is thus
described by Rymer Jones.
  "The  manner  in which snails copulate  is  not a
little  curious,  their union being accompanied  by
preparatory blandishments of a  very  extraordinary
kind, that to a spectator would  seem rather like a
combat between  mortal  foes than the  tender  ad- 
94    the normal  generative functions.

vances of  two lovers.   After  sundry caresses  be-
tween  the parties,  during which  they exhibit an
animation quite foreign to them at other times, one
of the snails unfolds from the right side of  its neck,
where the generative orifice is situated, a wide sac-
culus, which, by becoming everted, displays a sharp
daggerlike speculum, or dart, attached to  its walls.
Having bared this singular weapon, it endeavors, if
possible, to strike it  into some  exposed part of  the
body of its paramour; who, on the other hand, uses
every precaution  to  avoid the blow  by steadily re-
treating into its  shell.   But at length having  re-
ceived the  love-inspiring  wound, the smitten snail
prepares to retaliate, and in turn uses every effort to
puncture its assailant in a similar manner. The darts
are generally broken off in this encounter, and either
fall to the ground, or else remain fixed in the wounds
they have inflicted.   After these preparatory stimu-
lations, the snails proceed to more effective advances.
The sac of the dart is withdrawn into the body, and
another sacculus is, by a like process, protruded from
the common aperture, (every individual is hermaph-
rodite,  possessing perfect male and female  organs).
Upon the  last organ  two orifices are seen, one of
which leads to the female generative system; while
from the other a long and whitelike  penis is slowly
unfolded, being gradually everted,  like  the finger of 
                  sexual commerce.             95

  a glove, until  it attains the  length  of an inch or
  more;  and then each of the two snails, by inserting
  its penis into the female aperture of the other, im-
  pregnates its partner,  and is itself impregnated at
  the same time."
    The ram will  tup  from fifty to  eighty ewes  in a
  single night.  In this animal  the act is of momen-
  tary duration.   Like a battery, it soon  exhausts it-
  self, and all is quiet.
    The copulative act in the bee has lately occupied
  the attention of naturalists; and in the recent work
  of  Siebold, translated by  Dallas,  entitled, " On
  the True  Parthenogenesis in Moths and  Bees," the
 following very interesting account is  given of the
 act in these insects :—■
   " It would appear  that, whilst in the higher  ani-
 mals the male is  the perfect and ruling creature__
 the bull keeps together, and, as it were, governs the
 herd of  cattle, and the cock does  the  same by  the
 hens—the reverse of this takes place in insects.  In
 the wasps, hornets, humble-bees, ants, and especially
 in  the bees, the  perfect female forms the central
 point,  and holds the swarm together."
  Copulation never takes place in the hive.  When
the queen takes  her  wedding  flight in  fine warm
weather,   she  makes  her selection of  a male bee,
(drone) and the act takes place in the air.  It is very 
 96    THE  NORMAL GENERATIVE FUNCTIONS.

 quickly completed,  whereas  other  insects  may re-
 main  for  days united  in  copulation.  When the
 queen returns to the hive after this single copulative
 act,  the  external orifice of  the  sexual apparatus,
 which was kept closed before the flight, stands open,
 and the torn male copulative organ remains  sticking
 in the  vagina, and partly  protrudes from it.   This
 eunuchism,  Siebold says,  not unfrequently occurs
 in other  insects, as  in the  beetles,  or glow-worms.
 In the particular case examined by Siebold, the se-
 minal receptacle (spermatheca), which is empty in all
 virgin female insects,  was  in this  queen  filled to
 overflowing with spermatozoids.
  " In the copulation of the queen the ovary is  not
 impregnated; but this vesicle,  or seminal receptacle,
 is penetrated or filled by the male semen.  Thus the
 enigma is at last explained, how the queen  can  lay
 eggs in the spring when there are no males in  the
 hive.   The supply of semen received during copu-
 lation is sufficient for  her whole life.  The  copula-
 tion takes place once for all.  The queen then never
 flies  out again, except when the  whole colony re-
moves.   When she has begun to lay, we may with-
out scruple cut  off her wings: she will still  remain
fertile  until her  death." 
Thr Onanists and Uirir Chdd.
Part2.Pa.ge96
Frontispiece Part 2. 
 
PART   II.
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
                 CHAPTER I.

                SEXUAL excesses.

   Sexual Excesses have been common in all ages
of the world.  The refinements of sexual lusts seem
to  have  been  even  greater among  the ancient
nations than the modern.   The Bible  furnishes
abundant  accounts of the  sensuality of the Asiatic
and African nations.  The vices  of Sodom and Go-
morrha;  the  excesses of  Ruben, Juda,  and  of
Thomar,—who  may be set down as the mother of
prostitutes,—of Potiphar, Absalom, and even of the
wise Solomon,  who kept a  harem of  a  thousand
women, are cases in point.
  The ancient Egyptians were celebrated for their
sexual excesses.  The pyramid of Cheops was con-
structed by the lovers qf th,e daughter  of that  king,
        9                             (97) 
98
FUNCTIONAL disorders.
as a reward for her favors.  Of the wild excesses
of Cleopatra whole volumes might be filled.   The
temple of Isis in Egypt was the  central  locality of
all the excesses of the priests.   In the temple of
Belus  at Babylon, at Thebes  in Egypt,  and  at
Patares in  Lydia,  it  was the gods,  or  rather the
priests, who honored  the young  maidens with their
favors.  There  are devotees yet in Egypt to whom
women expose  themselves in public, in the belief
that  their  conduct is well-pleasing to  God.  There
was  a law in Babylon which  obliged every maiden
in the  country to expose  herself to a stranger,  once
in her  lifetime, in  the  temple  of  Venus.   The
women of  Carthage and Tyrus had to submit to a
similar  prostitution,  and  the money which  they
earned by this  degradation was  their wedding pres-
ent.  The  women  of  Lydia  obtained their bridal
gifts by similar  means; and the  women of Armenia
were not deemed fit to be married until they had
been prostituted by some stranger in the temple of
Diana Anaitis.
  The ancient  Babylonians,  Medes,  and  Lydians,
were celebrated for their debauched manners; but
the licentiousness of the Persian kings transcended
every thing that history has recorded of human im-
morality.   The  most beautiful and most  fascinating
girls were sent to the Persian kings from every  pro- 
SEXUAL EXCESSES.
99
vince  of  their  vast  empire.  These girls  had to
anoint themselves with salves, balsams, and  myrtle,
before they  could be  admitted  to  the  honor  of
sharing a nightly debauch with their masters.  Even
their own daughters and sisters became the concu-
bines of the Persian kings.
   Who has  not heard of the debaucheries of the
ancient Greeks  and Romans ?  Who has not heard
of those bacchanalia during which young girls, in a
state of  intoxication and singing amorous songs,
half  naked  and dishevelled, committed the most
horrible  orgies  with men disguised  as satyrs and
shamelessly exposed ?
   In  the  time  of  Pericles, there  appeared and
flourished  at Athens  a  class of females who gloried
in their wild excesses.   In  the Greek colonies  of
Asia, temples were  erected to the earthly Venus, and
courtesans not  merely  tolerated  but honored  as
priestesses of that  condescending  divinity.  The
wealthy  and  commercial city of Corinth was  a
nursery of courtesans.  In the temple of Venus, as
we are told  by Strabo,  there- were no less than a
thousand  beautiful damsels, who,  to  gain  the god-
dess's favor, prostituted themselves for hire.  Hence
arose the saying, "to act  the Corinthian is to com-
mit  fornication."  These  courtesans  admitted none
to their  embraces,  as we learn  from Aristophanes, 
100
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
 but such as could deposit a considerable  sum  of
 money for the favor.
   Beauty and talents often raised great estates.  A
 remarkable instance is that of Phryne, who offered
 the Thebans to rebuild the walls of their city, when
 demolished  by Alexander, on condition they would
 engrave on them this inscription: "These walls were
 demolished by Alexander,  but  raised by Phryne the
 Courtesan?
   It is said  to have been at the feast of Neptune,
 that Phryne, in the presence of all the people of
 Eleusis, went naked into the sea to bathe; and that
 it was from  that public exhibition of so beautiful
 a woman, that Praxiteles framed his immortal sculp-
 ture,  and that  Apelles  made  his  admirable picture
 of Venus Anadyomene.   The Venus of Praxiteles,
 modeled from Phryne,  excited the most remarkable
 enthusiasm among  the Greeks.   They fancied the
 marble moved;  that it seemed to speak;  and their
 illusion, says Lucian, was so great, that they ended
by  applying their  lips to those  of  the  goddess.
In  the celebrated  city of Gridus, that statue of
Venus, the most beautiful of the works of Prax-
iteles  was  worshiped.   It was  placed in a  small
temple, open on all  sides ; so that in whatever point
of view it was  examined, it excited equal admira-
tion.   No  drapery  vailed its charms; and  it was 
SEXUAL EXCESSES.
101
of such uncommon beauty, that it inflamed with a
violent passion another Pygmalion, who, in the dark,
endeavored  to  animate a cold  and insensible rep-
resentation of a most fascinating woman, and there
left traces of a  mad profanation.
   The prostitute  and public dancer,  Colytto, was
worshiped  in Athens as  a goddess,  under  the
name of  Venus  Popularis.  She  was honored  by
nightly orgies, under the direction of her priests.
The companions of the renowned Aspasia served as
models for paintings  and statuary.  Hence it was,
that whenever a  beautiful  woman appeared,  her
name was in every mouth, from the extremity of
Peloponnesus to the confines  of  Macedonia.  The
fermentation spread like a contagious flame.  Hus-
bands  could not be  restrained by the caresses of
the  most tender wives, nor  sons by the threats of
their imperious mothers.  The whole  nation  was
prostrate  at the  feet of Lais;  and while Greece
triumphed  over  the armies  of  Persia  and   the
treachery of Sparta, it was  totally  subdued by  the
courtesan  of Sicily.  In  Athens,  the  number of
brothels was incredible.  Solon found it necessary
to allow the courtesans and prostitutes to enter  the
temples and forums for the purpose of public pros-
titution.
   Public depravity was still worse  in ancient Rome.
       9* 
102
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
Augustus committed incest with his own daughter.
Every Roman lady, married or single,  sought the
honor of a  debauch with the emperor.  They had
first to undress themselves, in order to have all their
secret charms or defects examined before admitted
to the imperial favor.   Caligula,  as well stated by
Seneca, was the greatest monster that ever sat on  a
throne.   He is charged by Seneca  with having com-
mitted incest with all his sisters, even in the pres-
ence of his wife, and while eating his meals.   He
took women from their  husbands  at his fancy, and
turned them adrift on  satiety  of  his beastly  pro-
pensities.   His  palace  was a  brothel,  where  the
most horrible excesses  were committed.  He even
boasted of  being the  king of  vice.   The  great
C&sar was scarcely less  infamous in his lechery and
sodomy.   Messaline, wife  of the imbecile Claudius,
surpassed every woman of  her time in vile licen-
tiousness.   Juvenal says of her:  " Dressed in vile
clothes, she entered a chamber in  a public brothel,
and under the name of Lyciska, exposed her body,
that had  borne  the magnanimous Britannicus,  in
order to gratify her lustful desires."   Nero went
even so far as to violate the person of a Vestal,  a
crime which the superstitious  Romans  would  not
forgive their errrperor Heliogabalus.
  The monks  and nuns of the  early  periods of 
SEXUAL EXCESSES.
103
Christianity were as much addicted to debauchery
as the Greeks and Romans  had been.  Indeed, so
horrible were their excesses, that Charlemagne had to
arrest them by stringent edicts.  Among others wa3
the following:
   " We have been informed, to our  great horror,
that many monks are  addicted to debauchery  and
all sorts of vile abominations, even to unnatural sins.
We forbid all such practices in the most solemn
manner; and hereby make known  that  all monks
who indulge in the gratification of  such lusts,  will
be punished by  us so severely that no  Christian
will ever care to commit  such excesses again.   We
command our monks to  cease swarming about the
country; and we forbid  our nuns to practice forni-
cation and intoxication.  We shall  not allow them
any longer to be whores, thieves, murderers, and so
forth; to spend their time in  debauchery  and  sing
improper  songs.  Priests are herewith forbidden to
haunt the taverns and  market-places for  the  pur-
pose of seducing mothers and daughters," &c.
   Among  the many specific  forms of a  depraved
sexual appetite, the so-termed Lesbian Love, is  per-
haps the most degrading and  hideous of all others.
Surely,  if it be a horrible practice for men to  gra-
tify the lusts in filthy embraces with one another, or
with beasts, as in Sodomy and Pederasty, how much 
104
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
more  revolting and disgusting is it  to see women
approach  each other  for the  purpose of  quieting
their wild desires by the most unnatural  intimacy!
Sexual  depravity  cannot  possibly  reach  a  lower
level.
  This  vice derived its name  from  the  Island  of
Lesbos.   It is said  to have been practiced by the
celebrated poetess Sappho.   She rendered herself
famous, not only by her amorous songs, but by her
licentious excesses, including the Lesbian vice  which
she helped to spread.  The practice is still preva-
lent in  modern Egypt.  In ancient  Rome it was
very common.  The women who indulged in it were
called " Tribades."  Previous to the first French
Revolution there existed a society of women in Paris,
numbering ladies of the highest ranks, who made
it their business  to practice this vice in common.
As if to add mockery to infamy, they termed them-
selves the Society of " The Vestals."
   The abominable vices formerly known as Sodomy
or  Pederasty, are fortunately rare among the  Christ-
ianized  nations of modern times.
   Sodomy was a common thing among the Hebrews
in the earliest periods.  It is believed that Sodom
and Gomorrah* were destroyed by fire  and brim-
stone from Fheaven, for  the horrible practice.   In
           *See Genesis, chap, xviii. and xix. 
SEXUAL EXCESSES.
105
Greece, Pederasty was  a religious act.   The most
distinguished men, those whose  minds soared high
above  the common ideas  and habits of  the race,
were guilty of the practice.   The great  philosopher
Socrates, it is said, indulged in the vice.   Sodomy is
still practiced in Greece, Syria, Egypt, and in North-
ern Asia and Africa.  The Egyptians, Mussulmans,
Bedouins, or Maures, compel their prisoners to sub-
mit  to their  infamous  familiarities.  In  all  those
countries of Asia where Bramah is worshiped, there
exists a class of young men who make it their busi-
ness to sell themselves  for such horrible purposes.
In all large cities of Europe  and America there  are
occasionally some refined rakes, or rather  I should
term them inhuman brutes, who seek every occasion
to buy the favors of handsome boys and young men.
The consequence to such young reprobates of allow-
ing such connection, is some  of the most  distressing
diseases, such  as fistula, induration, and ulceration
of the rectum.   Sodomy prevailed in ancient Rome.
Ccesar bargained away his virtue to Nicomedes, King
of Bythinia, who was designated  as the "husband
of all women, and the wife of all men."
  Pederasty was  originally practiced  by shepherds,
who resorted to this mode of gratifying their sexual
passion.   They  connected  with  beasts for want of
more natural opportunities.   It is still practiced in 
106
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
 Sicily with goats.   According to Blumenbach,  the
 women of Guinea have intercourse  with monkeys.
 The  late Captain Herndon states, that  the Indian
 women, along the banks of the Amazon, have bab-
 oons  for husbands  and paramours!   The  Persians
 resort to she-asses as a cure for  coxalgia.  Among
 the Christian nations of modern times the vice of
 Pederasty has become nearly extinct.   In  the middle
 ages it prevailed to  a considerable extent  among the
 Catholic  priests.  The  Popes Leo X.  and  Sixtus IV.
 practiced  the abominable vice.  In  most civilized
 countries, both Sodomy and Pederasty are capital
 crimes,  or punishable  by  death, like murder.   In
 Paris, in 1750, two pederasts were publicly burnt.
  Numerous  other  instances  of  similar  excesses
might be quoted, but enough is presented to show
that mankind has  most sadly departed from  the
perfection and purity of his original existence. 
fiq.l.
fig..3
. Syphilitic puslii les
   on the Fore.
Veneral taint /// die
    Ofisprmtj
Feneral eruptions afier
    .mppuration.
     . Syphilitic pfislajes prerions to the      Veneral enqdiami a/ter
             Nose being destroyed.               sajrpuralion.
Fart 2. Page 106.
Plate B. 
 
CHAPTER  II.
         ORIGIN OF VENEREAL DISORDERS.

   The  origin of Venereal diseases is traceable to
the remotest antiquity; but  among what nation  it
first appeared, or what precise period, is entirely
unknown.   In the Bible, in the Books of Moses, we
find the first allusions to syphilitic or venereal dis-
charges.   Syphilis, like the glanders and  the  small-
pox, it is quite probable, was transmitted to man by
the brute  creation.  It is well known that many
diseases  are ingrafted  upon the human species by
animals,  and that they have remained as  a peculiar
or  aggravated type  of his organism.   The  term
Syphilis  is from the Greek words, SYS,  swine, and
phileo,  to love.  This would indicate literally  a
lover of  swine.  Among the ancient  Jews the hog
was regarded as  an unclean animal; and to this day
swine food is supposed, by many physicians and
others, to be  a  principal  breeder of Scrofula, and
similar disorders, which is somewhat analogous to
Sypldlis.   It must be admitted, however, that there
are many diseases of the genital organs and of the
                                     (107) 
108          FUNCTIONAL  DISORDERS.

general organism, resembling venereal, which have
nothing to do with syphilitic contagion.   When we
speak  of  syphilitic contagion, we mean that infec-
tion which is  communicated by one sex to another
during  the sexual act, and by which the highest
earthly enjoyment is converted into the source of a
distressing and loathsome disease;  and which, like-
wise,  results in  the procreation of  unhealthy and
miserable offspring.
  In the fifteenth  chapter of the book of Leviticus,
we will  find  allusions to  a  contagious  discharge
from the  urethra, which  the ablest commentators
declare to be the same disorders that are at the pres-
ent day deemed of a syphilitic character.   I quote
a few passages from the sacred text:—
  " 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron,
saying,
  " 2. Speak unto  the  children of Israel,  and  say
unto them, When a man hath  a  running issue  out
of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean.
  "3. And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue,
whether his flesh run with  his issue, or his flesh  be
stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness.
  "4. Every bed  on which he  lieth that hath  the
issue, is unclean: and every thing whereon  he sitteth
shall be unclean.
  "5. And whosoever  toucheth his bed shall wash 
         ORIGIN OF VENEREAL DISORDERS.      109

 his  clothes,  and bathe  himself in water, and be un-
 clean until the even."
   The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Leviticus
 speak of Leprosy and treat it fully, so that there can
 be no confounding of that affliction with the  dis-
 ease mentioned in  the fifteenth chapter.  Dr. Adam
 Clarke, the learned commentator of the Bible, is
 of the opinion that there is  a total dissimilarity be-
 tween leprosy  and venereal  disorders,  as  bearing
 upon the  contexts  of the biblical  authority above
 quoted.  Dr. Edward H. Dixon, editor of the New
 York Scalpel, quotes Dr. Clarke's views as all suffi-
 cient to establish the point in question.
   If we read from the  eighth to  the twelfth verses,
 inclusive,  of the fifteenth chapter of Leviticus, we
 can  have no possible doubt of the contagious char-
 acter' of the disease previously  spoken of in  the
 same chapter.   Dr. Clarke's  commentary  in  this
 regard will  scarcely fail to  be satisfactory to  the
 general reader.  He says :—
   "The  cases of natural uncleanness, both  of men
 and  women,  mentioned in this chapter, taken in a
theological point of view, are not of such import-
ance to  us as to render  a  particular description
necessary,  the  letter of the text in general being
plain enough.  The disease mentioned in the former
part  of this chapter appears to some, to have  been
       10 
110
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
either  the  consequence of a very bad infection, or
of some  criminal indulgence; for they  find that it
might be communicated in a variety of ways, which
they imagine is here distinctly specified.  On this
ground,  the  person was declared  unclean, and all
commerce  and  connection  with him strictly for-
bidden.  The  Septuagint renders ha-zab, the  man
with the issue,  by 6 yoi/op^j, the man  with a  gon-
orrhea, no less  than nine times in this chapter; and
that it  means, what, in the present day, is commonly
understood by  that disorder, taken not only in  its
mild, but in its worst sense, they think there is  little
room to doubt.   Hence they infer, that a disease
which  is  supposed to be comparatively recent in
Europe, has existed almost  from time  immemorial
in the Asiatic  countries; that  it ever has been, in
certain measures, what  it is now, and  that it  ever
must be the effect of sensual indulgence,  and illicit
and extravagant  intercourse  between the sexes.
The disgraceful disorder referred to here, is a foul
blot, which the justice  of God, in  the  course of
providence, has  made  in general the inseparable
consequence of  these   criminal indulgences,   and
serves, in some measure, to correct and restrain the
vice itself.  In countries where public prostitution
was permitted, where it was even  a  religious  cere
mony  among those who were idolaters,  the disease 
ORIGIN  OF VENEREAL DISORDERS.     Ill
 must necessarily have been frequent and prevalent.
 When the pollutions and libertinism of former times
 are considered, it seems rather strange that medical
 men should have adopted the opinion, and consumed
 so much time in endeavoring to prove  it, viz.:  that
 the  disease is modern.  It must have existed, in
 certain measures, ever since prostitution prevailed in
 the world,  and this has been in every nation  of the
 earth,  from the  earliest era.   That the Israelites
 might have received it from the Egyptians, and that
 it must, through the Baal-peor and Ashteroth abomi-
 nations, which they learned and practiced, have pre-
 vailed  among  the Moabites, &c., there can be little
 reason to doubt.  Supposing this disease to be at all
 hinted  at  here, the  laws and ordinances enjoined
 were at once  wisely and  graciously calculated to
 remove  and prevent it.  By contact, contagion of
 every kind is  readily communicated;  and to keep
 whole from disease, must be essential to the check and
 eradication of  a  contagious  disorder.  This was  the
 wise and grand object of the most enlightened  legis-
 lator, in the ordinances which he lays down in this
 chapter.  I grant, however, that it was probably of
 a milder kind  in ancient times;  that it has gained
strength and virulence  by continuance; and  that,
associated  with  some  foreign causes,  it  became
greatly exacerbated in Europe, about 1493, the time 
112
FUNCTIONAL  DISORDERS.
in which some have supposed it first began, though
there are strong evidences of it in England ever
since the eleventh century."
   This  same  eminent  man,  commenting on the
eleventh verse of the fifteenth  chapter of Leviticus,
says:—
   " Here we  find that the  saliva, sitting on the same
seat,  lying on the same bed, riding on the  same saddle,
or simple contact, were sufficient to render the person
unclean, mean possibly, in  certain cases, to communi-
cate  the  disorder; and it  is well known, that  in  all
these ways, the contagion of this disorder may be com-
municated—is  it not even  possible  that  the effluvia
from the body of an infected person,  may be the
means of communicating  the disease ?   Sydenham
expressly says, that it may be communicated by lac-
tation, handling, the  saliva,  sweat, and by  the  breath
itself, as well  as by the grosser means, of which there
is no question."
  By a  reference to the Psalms of  David, chapter
xxxviii., which  was written about  the year  1034
B. C, we can  have  little doubt of the nature  of the
disease with which  the great King of Israel was so
sorely afflicted.  He laments in the  following man-
ner:—
  "1. 0 Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither
chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 
ORIGIN OF VENEREAL  DISORDERS.     113
  "2. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy
hand presseth me sore.
  " 3. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of
thine anger: neither is there  any rest in  my bones
because of my sin.
  "4. For my iniquities are gone  over mine head:
as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
  "5. My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of
my foolishness.
  " 6. I am troubled;  I am bowed down greatly;  I
go mourning all the day long.
  " 7. For my loins are filled with  a loathsome dis-
ease :  and there is no soundness in my flesh,
  " 8. I am  feeble and sore broken: I have roared
by reason of the disquietness of my  heart.
  "9. Lord,  all my desire  is before thee, and my
groaning is not hid from thee.
  " 10.  My heart panteth, my strength faileih me:  as
for the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me.
  "11.  My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my
sore, and my kinsman stand afar off."
  Dr. Clarke thus comments on these passages:—
  " Several conjectures have been made relative  to
the  occasion on which this Psalm was  composed;  %
and the most likely  is, that it was  in reference  to
some  severe affliction which  David had after his
illicit commerce with Bathshcba;  but of what nature
      10* 
114
FUNCTIONAL  DISORDERS.
 we  are  left  to conjecture  from the  third, fifth, and
 seventh verses.   Whatever it was, he deeply repents
 for  it, asks  pardon,  and earnestly entreats support
 from God."
   Verse 2. "This, no doubt, refers to the acute pains
 which he endured; each appearing, to his feeling, as
 if an arrow were shot into his body."
   Verse 3. " This seems  to refer to  some disorder
 which so affected the muscles, as to produce sores and
 ulcers; and so affected  his bones, as to leave him no
 peace nor rest.  In  short, he was completely and
 thoroughly diseased ; and all this  he attributes to his
 sin, either as  being its natural consequence, or as being
 inflicted by  the  Lord  as 'a punishment on its ac-
 count."
   Verse 5. " Taking this in connection  with  the
 rest  of this Psalm, I  do not believe  we can under-
 stand the words in any figurative or metaphorical way,
 I  believe they refer  to some  disease  with which he
 was  at this time afflicted."
   Verse  7. "A burning or strongly feverish disease."
 " That David describes  a  natural  disease here, can-
not reasonably be doubted; but what disease it  was,
who shall attempt to say ?  However,  this is evident,
that  whatever it was, he most deeply deplored the
cause of  it;  and, as he worthily lamented,  so he
found mercy  at the hands of God.   It would be easy 
         ORIGIN OF  VENEREAL DISORDERS.     115

to show a disease of which what he here enumerates are
the very general symptoms:  but I forbear, because in
this I may attribute to one, what, perhaps, in Judea
would be more descriptive of  another."
   Verse 10.  "Through fear and alarm.  Not being
able to take nourishment.  I can scarcely  discern
any thing through the general decay of my health
and vigor, particularly affecting my sight."
   Verse 11.  " Those who professed much affection for
me: my friends,  my companions, who never before
left my company, stand aloof."
   Besides the allusions made  to  the  subject in the
Sacred \Arritings, we find many passages in the works
of the  ancient Greek physicians, from which the ex-
istence of Syphilis may be inferred.
   Hippocrates speaks of ulcers of the sexual or-
gans, pustules of the penis, and a considerable num-
ber of other affections, arising from the progressive
development of Syphilis.
   Celsus describes every variety of chancre (or sore,
or ulcer) known at the present day as a concomitant
of sexual commerce, &c.
   Galen describes a case of gonorrhoea contracted
by unclean coition.
   Avicenna gives a  detailed account of ulcers of
the penis, which  corresponds with the  modern
chancre. 
116
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
  Michael  Scott, W.  Saliceto,  Lafranc, and
other ancient writers,  describe ichorous, virulent or
so-called acrid discharges, inducing a variety of sex-
ual affections and genuine buboes.
  AY. Becket gives the rules laid down for the pros-
titutes of  the city of  Winchester,  England, accord-
ing to which every diseased woman, if caught in the
exercise of her trade, was  fined one hundred shil-
lings.
  As far  back as the twelfth century, regulations
were  published  in  Paris, to  prevent  women  who
were diseased from cohabiting.
  A case  is mentioned  by Astruct, of a  distin-
guished citizen of Padua, dying in  1245, of a dis-
ease in the private parts.  In the year 1347 decrees
were issued by the Queen of the Sicilies, for the
government of prostitutes, which were calculated to
prevent the  growth of secret diseases and  relieve
those who were  suffering  from them.  In the be-
ginning of  the fourteenth century  similar decrees
were enacted at Venice, showing the existence, even
at that date, of diseases of this class. We have an ac-
count of a hermit, mentioned by Bishop Pall adius,
in the fifth century, who contracted a disease from a
public dancer, which rotted off his  penis.  Josephus
also mentions a case of death, resulting from ulcers
on the organs of generation; and king Herod's dis- 
origin of  venereal disorders.      117
ease does not ill accord with the effects of the worst
form of Syphilis.
  These facts would indicate that Syphilis existed in
the earliest ages.  The ancient physicians, however,
did not know that  the  disease was derived  from a
specific poison.  They were particularly unacquainted
with  the  constitutional consequences of primary
Syphilis,  and accordingly treated  it as  a form of
lepra.
   The fabled origin of  the disease  is attributed by
Fracostorio, in  a  very elegant  poem, to his hero
" Syphilvs," who brought  down the disease upon
himself and the world at large, as a curse for having
insulted Apollo while  attending  the flocks  of king
Alcithv.s.
   A  German clergyman of Buffach, by the name
of Matehn Berten, declares it to have been a pun-
ishment inflicted by the Almighty on Charles VIII.
and his subjects, in consequence of having  carried
off the Duchess Ann, of Bretagne, from the Emperor
Ma si million, to whom she had been betrothed.
   Many have supposed  that Syphilis had its origin
 in America, and that it was brought to Europe by
 the crew  of Columbus, on his first or second return
 home,  in  1493 and  149G.   There  is,  however, no
 foundationfbr such a supposition.  When Columbus
 returned  to  Seville, in the spring of 1493, the dis- 
118
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
order had been  raging  in the Spanish  army  for
months  previous.  It had, in fact,  already spread
over nearly the  whole of  Europe, as  a special epi-
demic.  Twenty  nations  were  then  invaded by it.
It existed in Auvergne, Lombardy, and other  parts
of Italy.  It was observed in the summer of 1493,
in Saxony, Brandenburg, Brunswick, Mecklenburg,
Strasburg, and at Cracow in Poland.
  In Germany, prior  to this time, the disease was
entirely unknown.  The  Germans were a vigorous
and  moral  people,  prostitution  being  very rare
among them.   This was not the case in Italy.  Lux-
urious living,  shameless immorality, and  the celib-
acy of  the priests—all  these things,  it  might  be
supposed, would  have a tendency to spread the dis-
order far and  wide among the nations having an
extensive commerce,  and located on the borders of
the ocean.
  No doubt  the campaign of  Charles  VIII. of
France, was the chief cause of the epidemic. Hence
its name " Morbus Gallicus," "French Disease," or
" French Pox," which was given  to  it by the En-
glish.  Charles VIII. invaded Italy in 1494, with a
well-appointed army, for the purpose  of  chastising
Pope Alexander VI., who  was opposed to his pre-
tensions, and of conquering the kingdom  of Naples,
which had fallen  to  him  as an inheritance.   The 
ORIGIN OF VENEREAL DISORDERS.      119
 soldiers carried off immense booty, and with  it the
 syphilitic  disorder.   Hence the French called the
 disease "Souvenir," or  "Mai de Naples," in  which
 city it had  existed  some time  before  the French
 invasion, and produced the greatest ravages among
 all classes of people.   It was not till  1495, that the
 Spanish army was sent to Italy, consequently the
 disease could not have  been brought to Spain from
 America.
   The virulence of  the disease was  first noticed
 among the military rabble, and doubtless was spread
 by them throughout Europe in the fifteenth century,
 when  the  whole continent  was overrun and  trav-
 ersed  by  military  hosts.  The disease must have
 been very  violent in Paris in 1496, as in that year
 public decrees were  issued  in order to prevent the
 spread of  the contagion.  Hence its name of the
 " French Pox."  It was  not until 1530 that Jerome
 Fracostorio,  of Verona,  invented  the name of
 Syphilis for it; but it is proper  to say, that  three
 years previous, in 1527, Jaques Bethencourt, of
 Rouen, published a work, in which he describes this
 complaint under the title of  " Venereal Disease."
  It was at one time believed that the disease might
be transmitted by the atmosphere;  or that it might
be introduced  into and carried  out  of a convent
through the latticed-door in the parlor.  The priests, 
120
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
monks, and nuns of that epoch we may well believe
were a profligate set, if there be any reliance to be
placed on the  edicts of Charlemagne  against them.
Fallopius even fancied that  the  disease might be
communicated by the holy water into which a syph-
ilitic patient had dipped his finger.   Such were the
obscure ideas which then prevailed in regajjd to the
syphilitic poison.                        fc
  Fernel, in 1556, discovered that the disease origi-
nated in  some specific cause, emanating from some
affected individual.  He scouted  the  idea that the
disease was communicated by the atmosphere.  He
rejected incontinently all the astrological cosmic or
teleological absurdities of  the  times, and succeeded
in describing with great clearness and correctness
the mode of transmission  of the  syphilitic disease.
He proved that the disorder is contagious, and that
contagion is  indispensable  to transmission.   He
showed that contagion  cannot take place without
actual contact,  and that the most frequent contact is
during sexual intercourse.   He describes accurately
all the symptoms by which the contagion is recog-
nized ; likewise, the secondary or constitutional symp-
toms.  FerneVs doctrines have been confirmed  and
perfected, after a lapse of three hundred years, by the
scientific  researches  of  Hunter and  Carmichael.
The best works, however, which the light of modern 
The Eye preriom to disease
SyphtUs in the Eye.
SecondImy Symptoms in die Rye.       Destruetion of the Eye through Syphilis.
            Primary Symptoms.




Part 2.Page 121.
SyfthiUtic tiiherelrs.
Plate F. 
 
       0R1GTN  OF VENEREAL DISORDERS.      121

science has given us upon the remarkable  disorder
of Syphilis, or  venereal  contagion,  are  those  of
Ricord and Lallemand of Paris, Simon of Ham-
burg, SiGMUND of Vienna, Waller of Prague, and
Acton of London.
  With this  general  account of venereal  excesses,
it will be next in place to speak of Masturbation or
Onanism, as the concomitants of such sexual licen-
tiousness.
       11 
CHAPTER III.
  MASTURBATION—ITS DANGERS AND DISORDERS.

  There is a certain  secret vice of extensive preva-
lence, usually termed SELF-Pollution, but variously
known  as  Onanism,  Masturbation, &c.  The word
Onanism is derived from Onan, a man's name*  It
is the practice of having resort to artificial means
of friction  to induce a discharge of semen, or seed,
from the male organs of generation,  or  that titila-
tion of the private parts  calculated to excite pleas-
urable sexual feelings in the female.  " Onanism,"
though a term in common use, is scarcely a  proper
appellation  for  the  sexual  vice  of which  I treat.
Onarcs  crime  was  not self-pollution.  Therefore,  I
prefer to employ the term Masturbation to the act
of the habit of self-abuse.  Some have referred the
origin of this abuse to the idolatrous worship of the
Northern Venus, named Frago, in oblation to whom
her votaries were accustomed to shed their seed, by
the artificial means of Masturbation.  Whether, how-

           * Genesis, cliap. xxxviii., verse 9.
       (122) 
masturbation.
123
ever, the origin of this  most unnatural and abom-
inable  curse is to be  traced  to  Onan, or to the
worshipers of  the goddess  abovenamed,  there  is
abundant evidence to show that  it has prevailed
from the earliest ages through all time; yet, proba-
bly, not to the same terrible extent as at the present
day, among  all classes of  society, without distinc-
tion of sex.
  No one at all acquainted with the physiological
or normal laws of the human animal,  can  doubt
that the  power possessed by man  for  indulging  in
the act of  venery  may be greatly abused;  in  other
words, that  most  serious injury may arise to the
health and constitution by excessive indulgence  in
this  act, whether by  natural  or  artificial means,
more particularly  by the latter mode.  The semen,
indeed,  may be emitted, in at  least three different
ways,  viz.:  1st, by  the natural connection of the
sexes; 2d, by  the concentration of the mind  upon
subjects of an amatory character ; and 3d, by  artifi-
cial friction of the organs of procreation, as by Mas-
turbation,  or by using the  hand  to produce such
titilation or sexual excitement.  In this  connection
I may remark,  that God has wisely ordained, for the
propagation of the human species, the power of co-
habitation  of the sexes; and that nothing but sexual
intercourse in the  natural way should be productive 
124
FUNCTIONAL  DISORDERS.
of offspring.  He has, moreover, solemnly indicated
that the emissions of the secretions for the propaga-
tion of the  race, by any  other  than the  natural
means, shall be  attended  with ill-health, manifold
miseries, and a life of comparative brief duration.
Every man of the  least pretensions to  reason and
common sense, must surely be convinced that exces-
sive venereal indulgences are ever attended  by evil
results;  while no  physician of  intelligence  will
deny that  Masturbation is a primary and indirect
cause of more than  two-thirds of the sickness and
distressing disorders at  present  incident to the. hu-
man family.  Nay,  Masturbation is not  only the
most active  cause of disease, but the  most fatal to
human  existence.   The  hundred thousand victims
who fall into an untimely grave in the United States
alone from that insidious  destroyer, Consumption,
may be attributed directly and  indirectly to  exces-
sive venery  and  Masturbation.   The victim may,
indeed, be as pure as the angel of light from gross
sensuality and secret manipulations;  yet, in thou-
sands of instances, the words of Sacred Writ are lit-
erally and awfully fulfilled in. the visitation of pun-
ishments and evils upon children for the sins of the
parents, through  the series of many  successive gen-
erations.
  The practice of Masturbation is, at once, a viola ■ 
MASTURBATION.
125
tion of the Law of Nature, or the Law of Life, in
the face of common sense and  reason.  It is not
only a sin against the body, but against the mind—
against that sublime and etherial  principle which
springs of Heaven itself.   By consequence, it is pun-
ished by the severest afflictions.  As the great physi-
cian, Reveille-Parise of France, has well and  most
truthfully remarked—" Neither the plague, nor war,
nor small-pox, nor similar  diseases, have produced
results so disastrous to humanity, as the pernicious
habit of Masturbation: it is the destroying  element
of civilized societies which is constantly in action,
and gradually undermines the health of nations."
  From my own professional experience, I can  most
solemnly  affirm  that  Masturbation is one of the
leading causes of general debility, Dyspepsia,  Con-
sumption, Paralysis, Loss of Sight, Leucorrhcea,  Fall-
ing of  the Womb,  Insanity, Idiotcy,  and other
frightful maladies, entailing  death of most awful
kind, not to speak of numerous and less dangerous
diseases, whose origin  is not suspected by even the
most  intelligent  of physicians  themselves.   Ah,
truly, as a very acute observer of the effects of  sex-
ual  disorders clearly affirms :  " How numerous are
the affections which are borne in  silence, and which
never come under the notice of a physician !  How
numerous the practitioners who avoid the trouble of
       11* 
126          FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.

referring to the immediate or remote causes of the
diseases which are observed by them, and who con-
fine themselves  simply to their treatment, without
tracing  them to their  source!  How often are  dis-
eases, resulting  from  Masturbation, attributed to
causes with which they have no connection!  How
frequently, also,  does the  practitioner exclude him-
self from obtaining information, by abstaining from
making suggestions to  the patients which all hear
with displeasure and repel with indignation !  How
often  does he refrain  from asking  necessary ques-
tions, for fear of  wounding the modesty of  the
young patient—of teaching him a  thing of which
he is innocent or  ignorant, or, at  least, of exciting
in him  a dangerous  curiosity!  Finally,  how fre-
quently  are  the  physician's doubts  removed by  the
ART with which those who indulge  in Onanism, even
WHEN YOUNG, KNOW hoio  to conceal a habit at which
they blush in secret I"
  I am  satisfied that  any physician, who will  call
to mind every thing which has occurred to him in
the course  of a long  practice, will doubtless  find
numerous instances of diseases readily referable to
the deplorable vice of Masturbation, or  excessive
sexual  indulgences.  The  principal utility  of ob-
serving  the  diseases caused by Masturbation, is to
determine what  are the maladies produced by Onan- 
MASTURBATION.
127
ism, and what is the relative  frequency of each of
them.   We should not only understand the genital
system  in  its relation with organs, but the infirmi-
ties  and dangers  concomitant of the abuse of the
genital  system!   In vain  may we  hope  to rescue
myriads of human souls from the awful pit, unless
we can  trace the root of the evil, and crush at one
fell blow the hydra of horror !  This is the sole aim
and purpose of this little volume.
   To return  from the digression.  Not only is Mas-
turbation attended by many physical evils, but it is
fraught with many of  a moral  bearing.  If in  noth-
ing  else alone it will prevent offspring, and in so
doing will  prove a violation of the direct  command
of God,  to " increase and  replenish the earth."   It
lessens   the  woman  in the esteem of  the man;
and the man in esteem of the woman.   In short,
Masturbation is death, i. e., it  entails-a moral and a
physical  death !  It is clung to by  many with per-
tinacious tenacity through ignorance of Nature's law,
or merely to gratify an evanescent  animal passion.
Alas! " it is  the  couch which invites to repose; but to
slumber upon it, is DEATH !"
  It is  but  justice, however,  to say that  the  prac-
tice  of  Masturbation is often  freely confessed and
vigorously resisted.  In the female  it is  more suc-
cessfully concealed than in the  other sex; yet, the 
128          FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.

shy, timid,  downcast countenance of the  first, com-
bined with a debilitated physique, with relaxed tis-
sues, and varicose veins, is apt to arouse  suspicions
of Masturbation.  In some females the effect is the
development of the cellular and  adipose tissues ; in
other words (that I may be distinctly understood by
all,)  it will make some persons become very fat,
lazy,  and  stupid, or  perhaps in some   instances,
wanton and voluptuous in their manners.  In others
it produces great weakness, debility, or emaciation,
with  an  irritable, morose, suspicious, and unhappy
temper or disposition, &c.
   When self-pollution has been  for  a  long time
practiced, the youth  or man will begin to  suffer
from involuntary emissions.    Sometimes  these will
take  place three or four  times  a week—at  others,
two  or three  times a night.   These discharges  are
generally preceded or accompanied by  lascivious
dreams ; when they are very frequent, there will be
a rapid wasting  away of the  flesh.  This will give
him a hang-dog cast of countenance, and make him
feel as sneaking and mean as  if he had been plun-
dering somebody's hen-roost.  You can never "catch
his eye."   His every action is like one conscious of
sin,  and  ashamed to look the world in  the face.
   Such frequent emissions will  finally end in more
or less dribbling, or running of  the semen or semi- 
MASTURBATION.
129
nal fluid from  the  penis.  It will even pass away
when he urinates with his urine or with the feces
of his stools, without a consciousness on his part.
Cohabitation  is out of the question.  The penis is
incapable  of  erection; the discharge is without  the
vital  principle; while the pleasure experienced  in
partial success, is but a wretched aggravation of an
insane desire.  Hence the masturbator soon becomes
completely impotent!  He is  haunted with the dis-
tressing thought that every one is  acquainted with
his filthy habits, and that they scorn and  despise
him for his  infatuation.  This state of feeling  or
condition of mind, finally, may lead him to commit
self-murder in the hopelessness of his despair.  This
has often been the case;  but  if the victim does not
become a miserable  and forlorn suicide, he will be
certain to fall into a consumptive's grave, or else will
most assuredly be consigned to the gloomy dungeons
or iron  manacles  and straight jackets of the madhouse
or lunatic asylum !
   Were I to publish the many death-bed confes-
sions  that have been made to me, the world would
be astounded at the  havoc this demon has made  in
human  society.   These revelations, however, must
be sacredly kept secret so far  as the parties are per-
sonally  concerned, but I have no hesitation in pre-
senting the solemn  facts,  in  order to the  warning 
130          FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.

and  purification of  my  fellow-creatures  from the
foulest of sins and crimes.
  I will now first proceed to give the  statements of
the most celebrated authorities, in all  ages of the
world, in respect  to the  different affections which
result from venereal excesses, and subsequently pre-
sent  matters of most startling interest, as corrobo-
rated by my own knowledge and experience, in
regard to the dangers and disorder which flow  from
the abuse of the sexual organs through Onanism or
Masturbation. 
CHAPTER IV.
IMPORTANCE  OF  PERFECTLY UNDERSTANDING  THE
  SUBJECT OF  ONANISM—ITS EXISTENCE AND EF-
  FECTS  IN ALL  AGES.

  Self-abuse, is the abuse of the generative organs
by  excessive Coition,  or by  Masturbation.   The
genital organs in the female are the vulva,  clitoris,
vagina, uterus, Fallopian tubes, and ovaries.  Those
in the male are the penis, seminal  passages, and the
testicles.  The question now to be discussed is, can
these organs be  placed in  a condition so as to be-
come a source of injury or  disorder to the rest of
the body.  The  most enlightened experience will
affirm the fact that they can.  It has been clearly
demonstrated, that when  such organs are made  in-
struments of disorder,  the  consequences which fol-
low are lamentably great.
   The genital organs will  be observed  in one or
other of three states.  The first state is  that of rest,
or where no especial sensation is perceived and  ex-
 perienced.
   The second state is that  which is attended with
                                      (131) 
132          functional disorders.
more or less vivid sensation.  In animals this phe-
nomenon  is called  rutting, that  is  to  say, the  in-
creased animal heat observed in  quadrupeds,  as in
the dog or horse during the genital  excitement; or
that which  is common to birds,  as the hen-fowl,
during what is called the storge, or the period of
sitting.  In the human species this  heat may exist
to such a degree as to constitute the  diseases known
as  Satyriasis or Nymphomania, a species of sexual
delirium or madness, is the effect of a more or less
violent  altered  action of the ganglionic  nervous
system.
   The third stage is the instinctive act, not only pecu-
liar to birds and animals, but to the human  being,
growing out of the normal or natural impulses  induc-
ing the copulative conjunction of the male and female.
This  instinct in man is  moderately made manifest,
and is  capable of being controled or governed by
his reason.   The power to bring  the genital organs
into action is the venereal power.  When this  is  put
in action, it is the act of venery.  If this  act  results
from the connection  of the  sexes,  it is coition.  If
caused by solitary manipulation of the private part,
it is  called Masturbation  or  Onanism.   The  act of
venery, when it is the result of the concurrence of
the sexes, may or  may not be injurious.  When it
is injurious, then it is venereal excess, an ABUSE of the 
EFFECTS  OF ONANISM.
133
genital organs.   The  normal  or natural  coition,
guided by reason and moderation,  is  rarely ever
injurious.  Onanism, on the contrary, is a vice more
or less destructive of the animal economy, as I will
now  proceed to prove.  I will accordingly give
some extracts from  the Fathers of Medicine, many
of  whom  lived centuries  before Christ,  together
with  remarks of physicians of more modern times,
less deficient in scientific  accuracy than were their
illustrious predecessors.
   Josephus, speaking in regard  to  the purification
laws of the Jews, makes special allusion to the dis-
eases which  result from Onanism  and  sexual  ex-
cesses.  " He that sheds his seed in his sleep shall
be  privileged with  those  who have wives."   The
law of purification  was intended to reclaim  those
given to  self-abuse,  by compelling marriage,  or to
prevent Masturbation by the early union of the sexes
by this religious rite,  In  relation  to the other dis-
eases, he gives  us the  following law.  " Those  who
had a Gonorrhoea were prohibited from coming with-
in the bounds of the city," &c.
   Hippocrates,  the oldest and most  correct  ob-
server of the effects of an abuse of the pleasures
of venery, describes one of these disorders in  the
following terms.  Speaking of Dorsal Consumption,
he says:—
       12 
134         functional  disorders.

  " This disease arises from  the  dorsal portion of
the spinal  marrow.  It principally  attacks young
married people, or the licentious.   They have no
fever, and  although they eat well, they grow thin
and waste away.   They have a sensation like ants
crawling from  the  head down  along the  spine.
Whenever  they go to stool, or evacuate their urine,
a considerable  quantity of very thin seminal fluid
escapes from the  urethra.  They loose  the  power
of procreation,  yet often  dream  of  venereal pleas-
ures.   They become very weak,  and walking  pro-
duces shortness of breath; they have  pains  in  the
head, and ringing  in the ears, and finally, an acute
fever (Libiria,)  supervenes, and they die."
   Speaking of  excessive venereal indulgences, Cel-
SUS remarks:   Rarus concubitus corpus  excitat;  fre-
quens, solvit: or as  rendered: "The bodily powers are
excited by occasional coition;  by frequent repetition
they become relaxed."
   These deviations  from the grand law of  Nature
thus stand  on record in the pages of two of the most
remarkable physicians that have ever  lived, as  bea-
cons over the graves of those who have been sacri-
ficed on the shrine of passion.   We  can, however,
find  nothing  more  frightful than  the  description
by Aretaus,  of  the  diseases produced  by a  too-
 abundant evacuation of semen.   He observes:— 
               EFFECTS OF ONANISM.           135

   " Young persons  assume the air and the diseases
 of the aged; they  become  pale, stupid, effeminate,
 weak, idle, and even void of understanding;  their
 bodies bend forward, their legs are weak, they have
 a disgust for every thing, become fit  for nothing,
 and many are affected with paralysis."
   Galen has seen diseases of  the brain and nerves
 from the same cause, with the powers  of the body
 greatly impaired.
   Actius says: " The stomach is deranged, all the
 body  wastes,  becomes  pale,  dry, and  the  eyes
 sunken."
   Sanctorius  observes:' "That  sexual  excesses
 weaken the stomach, destroy digestion, prevent in-
 sensible perspiration, the derangement of which pro-
 duces  such evil consequences, disposes to calculous
 diseases, diminishes the natural warmth, and is usu-
 ally attended with a loss or derangement of sight."
   Lomnius,  commenting  on the fine  passage of
 Celsus, already quoted, says:—
   "Frequent  emissions  of  semen relax,  weaken,
dry, enervate  the  body, and produce numerous
other evils, as apoplexies, lethargies, epilepsies,  loss
of sight, trembling, paralysis, and all kinds of pain-
ful affections."
   One cannot read without horror the  description 
136         functional disorders.
left us by Tulpius, a celebrated burgomaster and
physician of Amsterdam:—
  He says :  " Not only the  spinal marrow wastes,
but  the whole body and mind become  languid,
and the patient perishes  in  misery.   Samuel  Vcs-
pertius was   attacked with  a  humor  upon  the
back  of his  neck and  head;  it  then passed to
the spine, to the loins, to the lower and lateral re-
gions of the  abdomen, and to  the  hips.  This un-
happy man was affected with so much pain that he
was entirely disfigured, and wTas emaciated so grad-
ually by a slow fever, that he more  than once asked
to be relieved from his miseries by  death."
  Blancard,  a celebrated  physician, has known
simple gonorrhoeas,  dropsies, and consumptions, to
depend on this cause.
  Muys has seen a man of good age attacked with
spontaneous gangrene of  the foot, which he attrib-
uted to the same kind of excesses.
  Solmuth has known a sensible hypochondriac to
become a fool, and in another man  the brain to be-
come so collapsed that it was heard to  rattle in the
the cranium, both from excesses in venery.  He also
knew a man, fifty-nine  years  of  age, who, three
weeks after  marrying a young wife,  became blind,
and in four months died. 
               EFFECTS OF  ONANISM.           137

   Hoffman has seen the most frightful  symptoms
 ensue from the loss of semen.  He says:—
   " After long nocturnal  pollutions, the patient not
 only loses  strength,  becomes  emaciated  and  pale,
 but the  memory is impaired, a continual sensation
 of coldness affects all the extremities, the sight be-
 comes dim, the  voice harsh,  and the whole body
 gradually wasted; the sleep, disturbed  by unpleas-
 ant dreams, does not refresh, and pains  are felt like
 those produced by bruises."
   This illustrious author  gives many cases  in con-
 firmation  of his views.   In  a  consultation for a
 young man, who, among other  diseases produced by
 Masturbation,  was affected  with weakness  in  the
 eyes, he says: "I have  seen  several  instances of
 young men, who, at  mature  age, when  the body
 possesses all its  strength, were attacked,  not only
 with  severe pain  and redness  of the eyes, but the
 sight became so feeble, that they could  neither read
 nor write.   The disease commenced by a lassitude
 and feebleness in the body, particularly in the loins;
 it  was accompanied by twitching of the tendons,
 periodical spasms and loss of flesh, so as to destroy
 the whole body; also pains in the membranes of the
 cerebrum, pains which the patient terms  a dry burn-
 ing,  {ardeur seche), which constantly inflames  this
most noble organ.  I have also  seen one young man
       12* 
138
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
affected with dorsal consumption.  His figure was
good, and although often cautioned against  indulg-
ing in these pleasures, he did not  regard it, and be-
came so deformed before death,  that the layer of
flesh which appears above the spinous processes of
the lumbar vertebrae, entirely disappeared.  The ce-
rebrum in this case seemed to be consumed; in fact,
the patient seemed to be stupid, and became so stiff)
that we have never seen the body so immovable
from any other cause.   The eyes are so dull that the
sight is nearly lost."
  De Senac, in  his celebrated essays, speaking of
the dangers attending Masturbation, states that "all
who indulge in this vice will be affected in the flower
of their youth with the infirmities of age."
  Ludwig, speaking of the loss of semen, remarks,
that young people  of  both sexes who indulge in
licentiousness, ruin their health by wasting strength
which was designed to make them vigorous, and
finally fall into Consumption.
  Van Swieten, after quoting  the  description of
Hippocrates already given, adds :—
  "I have seen  all these  symptoms, and  several
others, in those unfortunate people who indulged in
self-pollutions.  I have employed  uselessly, for three
years,  all the resources  of  medicine,  for a  young
man who was diseased, in  consequence of this prac- 
EFFECTS  OF ONANISM.           139
tice, with wandering,  frightful, and general pains,
with a sensation, sometimes of heat  and sometimes
of cold, in every part  of the body, but particularly
in the loins.  Afterward these pains having dimin-
ished, his thighs and legs were so cold, that although
they  seemed  of  the  natural temperature  when
touched, he was constantly warming himself by the
fire, even during  the  warmest  days of summer.  I
noticed  particularly all  this—a  continued rotary
motion of the testicles in  the scrotum, and the pa-
tient felt a similar motion in the loins."
   M. Klookof, in an excellent work which he has
written  on the  disorders  of  the mind,  remarks:
 " Too great a dissipation of the semen weakens the
spring of all the solid parts;  hence arise weakness,
laziness, inertness,  phthisics, dorsal  consumption,
 numbness and a depravation of the senses, stupidity,
 madness, faintings, and convulsions."
   Mr. Lewis describes  all  these ills.  I transcribe
 some remarks of this author, which  relate to the
 soul:—
    " All the ills that are occasioned  by excesses with
 women, more quickly follow in  youth the abomin-
 able practice of self-pollution, (Onanism or Mastur-
 bation), and which  it would be difficult to paint in
 colors so glaring as they merit.  The soul is sensible
 to all  bodily disorders,  but  particularly of those 
140          FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
which  arise  from this cause.   The  most clouded
melancholy, indifference to or aversion for all pleas-
ures, the impossibility of sharing in  the  conversa-
tion of company, wherein they are always absent in
mind;  the  thought of their  own unhappiness;  the
despair which arises from  considering themselves as
the architects of their own miseries,  and the neces-
sity of renouncing the  felicities of marriage, are  the
fluctuating  ideas which compel  these  miserable  ob-
jects to sequestrate themselves from  the world, and
happy  are they who do not  put  the finishing hand
to their existence."
   Baron Boyer, in  his  Treatise on  Surgical Dis-
eases, believes that the  injuries may be prolonged to
old age, and  that is  a secondary cause of many of
those cases of dry gangrene which are observed at
that period of life.
   These  solitary habits in many females  produce a
swelling  of the neck from the force and frequency
of those  convulsions which so often follow the repe-
tition of  this imprudent act, as well as by the arrest
of blood which it occasions in the principal vessels of
the neck, in the same way as is observed in epileptic
patients.
   Professor Ricard reports,  in  his  Chirurgical
Nosography, a remarkable  example  of  the power 
EFFECTS  OF ONANISM.
141
of this cause in the production of eruptions.  He
says :—
  "A lady had  at the same time this pernicious
habit and an eruption of  blotches.   She was ad-
vised to discontinue  the  practice; she did so, and
they disappeared.  She  again took up the habit;
the eruption again made its  appearance.  Her reason
again taught  her the error of her ways, and she
once more conquered the  penchant,  and she was
never again troubled with those blotches which had
so disfigured her."
   Professor Woodward, of Connecticut, in  a  re-
port made to the Legislature of that State, remarked
that over  two-thirds  of  the inmates  of the Insane
 Retreat,  (an  institution  over which  he presided),
 were brought there through the effects of Onanism
 or Self-pollution.  In a letter he says: " For the last
 four years it has  fallen to my lot to witness,  ex-
 amine, and mark the progress of from ten to twenty
 cases daily, who have  been the victims to this  de-
 basing habit; and I aver that  no cause whatever,
 which operates on the human system, prostrates all
 its  energies—mental, moral,  and physical—to  an
 equal extent."  He further remarks:  "I have seen
 more cases of idiotcy  from this cause  alone, than
 from all  other causes of insanity.  If insanity  and
 idiotcy do not result, other diseases, equally hopeless, 
142
FUNCTIONAL  DISORDERS.
follow in its train;  or such a degree of imbecility
marks its ravages upon the body and mind as to de
stroy the happiness  of life, and make existence mis-
erable indeed."
  Thus I might go  on and quote authorities to fill a
large volume,  but  those already named are abun-
dantly sufficient to prove that Masturbation and sex-
ual excesses have extensively prevailed in all  ages
of the  world, and that these vicious propensities are
the primary cause of the many formidable maladies
which are annually hurling myriads of human crea-
tures to an untimely and revolting grave.
  In my next chapter I will detail a few of the most
remarkable cases of  disease,  as a concomitant of
Self-Pollution, which have been placed on record by
some of the most able and  celebrated physicians of
every nation and period of the world. 
 
(rairntl appearance of thr features tjiromjh Ooanisni
The meagre, appeartoice of the features
          through Omuiitm
          Sivrmatorrhoeal.
Opih'ilmin consequent lltrooijh Onanism
Pait2.Pagel43.
Plate  ( 
CHAPTER V.
           HORRORS OF SEXUAL ABUSE.

  Among the effects of Masturbation, may be  men-
tioned the permanent erection of the Penis, causing
immense pain and deplorable consequences.   There
are cases on record where persons have been affected
with priapism (or erection) for  several months at a
time—the Penis remaining firm, like a horn, caus-
ing excruciating agony in the hopeless victim of sol-
itary unnatural abuse of the sexual organs.
  In some instances, from too much excitement, the
genital  organs  lose their  sensibility, and become
atrophied, or  dwindle  almost entirely away.   The
manipulations which at first were followed with the
desired result, sometimes become  unable to excite
the genital sense.  It is often impossible to  cause
the erection of the Penis; but if this is done, it may
prove a  painful and  inconvenient  priapism, tor-
menting the Onanist with the remembrance of past
pleasure, while it is impossible ever to renew again
the fountain of enjoyment.  Disturbed by such re-
collections, the victim will often resort to the most
                                     (143) 
144
FUNCTIONAL  DISORDERS.
extraordinary means to arouse the sensibility of the
blunted organs.   Obtaining no satisfaction from the
modes of manipulation formerly employed, he will
arm himself with some formidable instrument, and
then seek to penetrate to the very depth of the  gen-
ital organs, in the insane hope of a renewal of pleas-
urable venereal sensations.
  Chopart, in  a work on the diseases of the urin-
ary passages, shows the almost incredible  extent of
insensibility which the Penis may attain, or of deli-
rium, which  may affect  a man,  who, having  ex-
hausted  his  faculties,  still remains  a slave to his
passions:—
  "Ashepherd, of Languedoc, Gabriel Gallien, about
the age of fifteen, became  addicted to Masturbation,
and to such a degree as to practice it seven or eight
times a day.  Emission became  at last so difficult,
that he would strive for an hour, and then discharge
only a few drops of blood.  At the age of six-and-
twenty his hand became insufficient—all he could do
was to keep his Penis in  a continual state of priap-
ism.    He then  besought  himself of tickling  the
internal parts of his urethra, by means of a bit of
wood, six inches  long, and he would  spend in that
occupation several hours, while tending to his flocks
in the solitude of the  mountains.  By a continua-
tion of this titilation for  sixteen years, the canal of 
           HORRORS OF  SEXUAL ABUSE.       145

the urethra became hard, callous, and insensible.
The piece of wood then became as ineffectual as his
hand. At last, after much fruitless effort, Gallien, one
day in despair, drew from his pocket a blunt knife,
and made an incision into his glans along the course
of the urethra.  This  operation, which would have
been painful to any body else, was in him attended
with a  sensation of pleasure, followed by a copious
emission.   He  had  recourse to  this  new discov-
ery every  time his  desire returned.   AVhen, after
an  incision into the  cavernous bodies, the blood
flowed profusely,  he stopped the hemorrhage, by
applying around the Penis a pretty tight ligature.
At last, after repeating the same process perhaps  a
thousand times, he ended in splitting his Penis into
two equal parts, from the orifice of the Penis to the
scrotum, very near the symphisis pubis.  When he
had got so far, unable to carry his incision any
further, and again reduced  to  new privations, he
had recourse  to a piece of wood, shorter  than  the
former; he introduced it into what  remained of the
urethra, and exciting, at pleasure, the extremities of
the ejaculatory ducts,  he provoked easily the dis-
charge  of  semen.   He  continued  this about  ten
years.   After  that  long  space  of time, he one day
introduced his  bit  of wood so carelessly that it
slipped  from his fingers and dropped  into the blad-
       13 
146
FUNCTIONAL  DISORDERS.
der.   Excruciating pain and serious symptoms came
on.  The patient was conveyed to the  hospital at
Narbonne.  The  surgeon, surprised at the sight of
two  Penes of ordinary size, both capable of erec-
tion, and in that stage diverging on both sides,  and
seeing besides, from the scars and from  the callous
edges of the divisions, that  this  conformation  was
not congenital from his birth, obliged the patient to
give him  an account of his life, which he did, with
the details that have been related.  This wretch,  cut,
as for a stone, recovered of the operation, but died
three months after of an abscess in the right side of
the chest; his phthisical state having been evidently
brought on by the practice of Masturbation, carried
on for many years."
   Gallien's unhappy idea of introducing a foreign
body into the urethra, has often occurred to others,
who had  availed  themselves but  unsuccessfully of
the ordinary resources of Masturbation.   These un-
fortunate people have always been obliged to call in
medical advice,  either on account of the diseases
caused by  their  dangerous  maneuvers, or, much
more frequently, by  the symptoms and evils to
which they  fall victims through  their carelessness.
In fact, the implements used often escape into  the
bladder; and then the  acute suffering and fear of
death oblige them to reveal what they had formerly 
HORRORS OF  SEXUAL  ABUSE.       147
 concealed,  and to  undergo an operation which is
 always painful,  and  which  is not exempt from
 danger.
   I will present here a few instances of this kind of
 accident:—
   "An innkeeper, near Saumer, was  in  the habit,
 like Gallien, of titillating the urethra by introduc-
 ing foreign bodies.   He used an iron wire seven or
 eight inches long,  the end of which  was crooked
 like a hook,  to obtain, probably,  more exquisite
 pleasure.   One day, while indulging in this singular
 maneuver, he suddenly felt  severe pain.  The mem-
 braneous  portion of the canal was ruptured.  The
 unfortunate man  made several attempts to with-
 draw the wire; but the hook,  which had entered
 the soft part, rendered it impossible.  Overcome by
 suffering and shame, he wished to get rid of it;  and
 with this view, he rounded the loose part of the
 wire into  the form of  a ring,  proposing in  this
 manner to pull upon it more firmly.  He exercised
 this force until the  ring was nearly broken, but the
 iron was still in its place. He now expected  death,
 and was obliged to call in a physician to his relief."
  Dr. Fardeau was promptly in  attendance.  He
found the Penis, and also the skin of the scrotum
enormously tumefied.   All the tissues which are
inserted in the  Penis  were also swelled,  hot,  and 
1-18
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
painful.  The belly began to  be puffy;  the urine
was suppressed; the face was  red ;  the eyes filmy;
the pulse hard, frequent and corded, and the mind
much affected.  Dr. Fardeau grasped the loose por-
tion of the  wire, pulled it up slightly, and imme-
diately found that the other end was arrested by an
immovable  obstacle.  He then examined the parts
attentively, and found, to his astonishment,  that the
hook was  fixed in  the  inner  edge of the  ischiatic
tuberosity.   An oblong incision was now made over
this part; the hook seized, and  the wire was with-
drawn through the perineum. This patient, after suf-
fering  a long time  from the wounds inflicted, was
finally restored to good health, and effectually cured
of his destestable practices.  The full particulars of
this case may be found in a French Medical Journal,
called the " Lancette," Oct. 13, 1831.
  Saraille has reported a similar case.   The pa-
tient was fifty years old, and called this surgeon the
18th of October,  1813.   He stated  that  a sailing
needle, about  four  inches  long, had  unfortunately
slipped  into the urethra, and the point had become
fixed upward near the root of the Penis.  After suf-
fering for eight days, during which the presence of
this body excited frequent erections, it was extracted
by the renowned Dr. Lallemand.
  Louis Senn mentions the case of a young man 
           HORRORS OF SEXUAL  ABUSE.       149

of nineteen years old, who introduced the stalk of
a plant into the urethra or canal of the Penis.   It
broke ;  and after much suffering the  operation for
stone was employed to extract  it,  and the calculi
which had formed around it.
  Rigal  had  a  patient  similarly situated,  aged
thirty-eight years.   This  man introduced into  his
urethra the stalk of a sword lily, {Gladiolus  commu-
nis)  The stalk  broke, fell  into the  bladder, and
after two months of pain and danger, the operation
for stone was employed to extract it.  It was two
inches long,  and was already covered with a saline
secretion, one or two lines thick.
  Bonnet, formerly surgeon at Hotel Dieu, at Cler-
mont, stated  in his lectures that  a vine-dresser used
a vine-stalk for this purpose. During  an emission
of semen he dropped the  stalk, which entered  the
urethra and passed into the bladder, where it caused
symptoms which required the operation of lithot-
omy.  The foreign body extracted  was three inches
long, and three lines thick.
  Civiole presents an extraordinary case.  Would
it be believed that he extracted from the bladder of
a man,  by means of lithotomy, a bean which was in-
troduced eleven months before, and which gave rise
to all the symptoms of stone ?
  A volume  might be filled  with facts of a similar
       13* 
150          FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
character.  Many may be found in the " Ephemerides
Curiosorum."   Memoirs  of the Royal Academy of
Sciences;  those of the Royal  Society of Medicine,
and of the Academy of Surgery; in the works of
Chopart,  Deschamps,  Lamotte,  Tolet,  Morgagni, Van
Sicieten, Morand, Ponteau, &c.
  The dangers of these practices,  as a late judicious
writer well observes, are not confined to an exhaus-
tion of the sensibility of the genital  organs.   They
cause many chronic  diseases of a painful character
in the urethra, bladder,  and  other  organs.   They
are subject or  liable  to serious and painful  inflam-
mations ;  indurations,  ulcerations,  and strictures
form in the urethra; after which  supervene all the
symptoms  of acute and  chronic  blenorrhcea, deten-
sions of urine, catarrh of the bladder, &c.
  There are many other cases of venereal  excesses
equally dangerous, but much  more  ridiculous, and
unworthy even of the weakest and simplest mind.
  Sabatier relates  the case of a young man who
had passed his Penis through  the handle of a key,
with a view to imitate  the natural  process  better.
The handle had been pushed far  toward  the pubis,
and the Penis had swelled so as to  conceal  it from
sight.   The  swelling was  also  increased  by the
efforts of the patient to withdraw it. After oiling the
parts well, the handle was slipped down as far as the 
           HORRORS OF SEXUAL ABUSE.        151

glans, (or knob of the Penis), but here scarifications
were required to diminish the  engorgement, before
the Penis  could be liberated.  After this,  eschars
sloughed  off,  which were  followed by cicatrices,
which rendered the part deformed, although a sound
was introduced into the urethra  to prevent  this
result.
  In the Die. des Sc. Med., vol. xxi. p. 167, we  have
one of the most  horrid cases of this kind on record.
It is that of a young man, who, on taking  a bath,
indulged in Masturbation, by placing his Penis into
the hole  in the bottom of the tub,  made  for the re-
moval  of the water.  The  glans  soon  became so
much swollen that he could not withdraw the Penis.
His cries brought him assistance, but it was not easy
to remove  him  from the fetters he had  forged for
himself.
  Dupuytren relates many similar cases as  having
occurred in his practice.  One was  that of a young
man who came  to the clinical lecture  at the Hotel
Dieu, in Paris, having introduced his Penis through
the socket  of a  candlestick, in  front of which the
glans was enormously tumefied.  Being  unable by
any effort to remove it, the cylindrical portion  sur-
rounding the Penis was filed and  thus taken  from
him.
  It would occupy too much room to enumerate all 
152
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
the facts of this  kind which  have been  noted by
practitioners;  but a common accident, and  which
has been  seen several times  by Dupuytren,  is the
ligature of the Penis by a thread or wire.  Some
young men, and even adults, have bound  the Penis
in fits of erotic delirium, so that this knot  could not
be loosed; and a circular section has been made in
the skin, and the urethra has even been  opened and
cut.   It is evident, that in these cases the only thing
to be  done is  to  divide  the thread, to  dress the
wound, and then to introduce a gum-elastic sound,
in order to prevent the formation of  an urinary
fistula, or of an accidental  hypospadias.
  There are other kinds of difficulties and strangu-
lations, arising from morbid  or  erotic  indulgences,
concomitant  of Masturbation and excessive  coi-
tion, which I need not at present enumerate.
  Not only do  men and boys frequently use  extra-
ordinary means to produce the sexual sensation, but
young girls and women are  also  addicted to such
practices;  and accidents of a very serious nature
have sometimes resulted from such causes.
  Pamard speaks of a woman, thirty-one  years old,
who used  an ivory whistle, three inches and a half
long, and five lines around its centre;  this she in-
troduced, not into the vagina, but  into the urethra;
one day it entered so far that she could  not remove 
HORRORS OF SEXUAL ABUSE.        153
it;  after many efforts it was drawn out with a poly-
pus forceps.
  Faure relates a case of a girl,  seventeen years
old, who was in the habit  of introducing a large
piece of wood into the urethra.   On one occasion  it
entered very deeply, and fell into  the bladder, which
obliged Dr. Faure to cut for  it, to extract it, which
was done  with much  difficulty  and  pain to  the
patient.
  Rigal was obliged to do  the  same  to relieve  a
young girl, twenty years old, who  used a wooden
needle-case in Masturbation.  Needles and pins have
often escaped into these passages.
  Morgagni says, that it is by no means unfrequent
in Italy for the lascivious  girls to introduce into the
urethra the golden pins worn in their hair, and that
they sometimes fall into the bladder; this they con-
ceal for a long time,  but are finally obliged, through
pain, to confess their fault.
  Moinichien names a Venetian girl, who was re-
lieved by Molinetti of a golden  needle, which had
slipped from the hand into this organ.
  Lamotte had a case of an old  maid, who had in-
troduced into the bladder  a very large pin, which,
after sounding several times very patiently and at-
tentively, he  felt distinctly; he sounded on the
fourth time, when by accident it became engaged in 
154         FUNCTIONAL  disorders.

the sound, and wishing to withdraw it, but finding
some resistance, he introduced his finger into the
vagina  and ascertained  whence  it  proceeded; by
skillful manipulation he succeeded in withdrawing it.
These accidents only happen in those who are im-
prudent, and introduce into the urethra an instru-
ment designed for an adjacent passage.  Foreign
bodies  seldom  remain  in the vagina, it being so
short and large.  For  such  a thing to  take place,
certain conditions are  requisite, which are possible
but not  very common.
  Dupuytren  mentions the following :—A  female
consulted him  for some derangement in  the  vulvo-
uterine passage; on examination a foreign body was
felt, the nature of which could not  at first be  deter-
mined ;  the patient refused to  give any information
of the subject;  on examination,  however,  it was
found that  the  body presented a  large opening or
deep cavity.  The tumefied walls of the vagina cov-
ering the edges of the kind of vessel, prevented its
disengagement; after much effort the body was re-
moved, and it  proved to be a  pomatum pot,  which
had been introduced by its base.
  Thus  we perceive, as has been  before remarked,
that  Onanism, or  self-abuse,  is  a most loathsome
vice and deplorable substitute  for a  natural gratifi-
cation of the sexual passion.   Its frighful develop- 
          horrors of sexual abuse.        155

ment depends more or less upon the age and sex of
the patient.   It affects both sexes pretty much alike
previous to the age of pubescence;  after which its
progress is distinctly marked, differing  in phenom-
ena between the two,  but finally ending in both in a
complete derangement of the nervous system—pro-
ducing imbecility, idiocy and lunacy, with all their
lamentable and destructive concomitants.
  The following  picture will give some idea of the
gradual effects of this vice: —
  " The frequent indulgence of the habit soon be-
comes a daily practice.  Not only daily, but  several
times a day, Masturbation is indulged in. The effect
of the abuse  is gradually revealed.   The child loses
its bright complexion, becomes pale, with a greenish
tint around the eyes, which are sunken, surrounded
by blue margins. The lips lose their vermilion hue;
the mind is indolent; the  child sits as if engaged in
deep thought, without looking  at  any thing.  It  is
averse  to play, seeks solitary places, where it can in-
dulge in its vicious propensities.  It becomes obsti-
nate, peevish, irritable;  its  motions are slow and
heavy, while  it is startled and looks frightened when
suddenly spoken to and bidden to do any thing. It
will sleep late in the morning, but without being re-
freshed on  getting up.  It loses its appetite; its di-
gestion  is  greatly  impaired; the tongue becomes 
156
functional disorders.
coated; there  is much  emaciation;  the  intellect
grows  weaker  and  weaker, until  imbecility and
idiocy  overwhelm the victim.  Such  consequences
may continue for years, when the body finally suc-
cumbs to the terrible  ravages of complicated mala-
dies.   Thus the young life  perishes even before it
has begun  to bud, as a young plant withers away
at whose root a worm has been gnawing.  Truly,
there is no more degrading bondage  than that  of
one's own lusts.  An impure fire is ever burning and
consuming  body and  soul.   If the vicious  habit is
continued  beyond puberty, the nervous  derange-
ments  are  strikingly manifest; every  pleasure is
poisoned, and craziness and suicide are the final re-
sults.  The victims  have horrible  dreams; some-
times they  are of a lascivious character; there are
emissions several  times every night, while the sem-
inal  fluid is constantly discharged  with the urine
and the faeces at stools. There is finally no erection
nor any peculiar sensation of pleasure.  This is the
most dangerous form of  Spermatorrhoea.   One  of
the unavoidable consequences of this weakness is
Impotence !
  Touching this subject of  Spermatorrhoea, the fol-
lowing is a  translation from Hufeland, a German
Physiologist of  great distinction:—
  " Hideous and  frightful is the stamp which Na- 
           horrors of sexual abuse.       157

ture affixes  on one guilty of  unnatural excesses.
He is a faded rose—a  tree withered in the bud—a
wandering corse !  All  life and fire are killed by this
secret cause,  and nothing is left  but weakness,  inac-
tivity, deadly  paleness, wasting of body, and de-
pression  of  mind.   The  eye loses its lustre and
strength; the  eye-ball sinks; the features become
lengthened;  the fair  appearance of youth departs,
and the  face acquires a pale, yellow, leaden  tint.
The whole body becomes sickly and morbidly sen-
sitive ; the muscular power is lost;  sleep brings no
refreshment;  every movement  becomes  disagree-
able ; the feet refuse to carry the body; the hands
tremble; pains are felt in all  the  limbs;  the senses
lose their power, and all gayety  is destroyed.  Boys
who before showed wit and genius sink into medioc-
rity, and even become blockheads; the mind  loses
its taste for all good and lofty ideas, and the imagi-
nation is utterly vitiated.   Every glance at a female
form excites  desire.   Anxiety,  repentance,  shame,
and despair of any remedy for  the evil, make 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
none is so prone  as  those who are, or have been,
       14 
158          functional disorders.

given to self-abuse.   The dreadful experience  of
a living death  renders actual death a desirable con-
summation.   The waste of  that  which gives life,
generally  produces disgust  and weariness of life,
and  leads  to  that  peculiar  kind  of destruction
which  is characteristic of our  age.   Moreover, the
digestive power is destroyed;  flatulence  and pains
in the stomach are likely to  follow, and create con-
stant 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 comes  slow fever, fainting fits, epi-
lepsy,  palsy, consumption, insanity, and   an  early
death."
  Truly, the above is a most appalling picture, but
not more horrible  than true, in nearly every case  of
those who give themselves up  entirely to their un-
natural beastiality  and lustful desires.
  The  pious and learned theologian, the Rev. Adam
Clarke, D.D., the celebrated Commentator on the
Holy Scriptures, speaks of Masturbation in the fol-
lowing startling manner:—
  " The sin of Self-pollution  is one of the most de-
structive evils ever practiced  by fallen  man;  in
many respects it is several degrees worse  than com-
mon whoredom,  and has in train more awful conse-
quences.  It excites the power of nature  to undue 
horrors of  sexual abuse.       159
action, and produces violent secretions, which neces-
sarily  and speedily exhaust the vital principle and
energy;  hence, the  muscles  become flaccid and
feeble, the tone and natural  action of the nerves re-
laxed and impeded, the understanding confused, the
memory oblivious, the judgment perverted, the will
indeterminate, and wholly without energy to resist.
The eyes appear  languishing and without  expres-
sion, and the countenance becomes vacant; appetite
ceases; as the stomach is incapable of performing its
proper office, nutrition fails ; tremors, fears, and ter-
rors are generated:  and  thus the wretched victim
drags out a miserable existence, till  superannuated
even before he had time  to arrive at man's estate,
with a mind often  debilitated, even to state of  idiot-
ism, his worthless body tumbles  into the grave, and
his guilty soul is hurried  into the awful presence of
its Judge." 
CHAPTER VI.
REMARKABLE CASES  OF  DISEASE CONSEQUENT OF
           THE PRACTICE  OF ONANISM.

  Consumption,  or  Phthisis  Tuburcularis. — Dis-
eases of the lungs and  respiratory organs are more
frequent than any other, as concomitant of or result-
ing from Onanism.
  The act of venery—that  power  which  has so
much influence on the internal  life  of the tissues,
and  on the respiratory organs—and which, to use
Rullier's  expression,  seems to  agitate the lungs,
is commenced in most Onanists exactly at  that age
when the  chest enlarges  in every  direction, and
which Phthisis, or Consumption, seems to prefer.
  Portal, a venerable physician, who published
" Observations on Pulmonary Consumption," says :—
  "How many persons have been the  victims of
their unhappy  passions.  Medical men every day
meet with  those who, by this means, are  rendered
idiotic, or so enervated, both in body  and mind, that
they drag out a miserable existence; others perish
       (160) 
REMARKABLE CASES.
161
with marasmus, and  too  many die of a real pulmo-
nary consumption."
  Sydenham says : " The organs of respiration are
the weakest of all those belonging to the human
race; two-thirds of mankind die of diseases of the
lungs ; and the most common period in which young
persons resort to  these vicious  habits is precisely
that wherein the chest exhibits the greatest suscep-
tibility.  There is, moreover, a species of consump-
tion to which women are greatly exposed by the
very nature of their constitution, such as  tubercu-
lous and lymphatic consumption."
  Fournier and  Begin state, that " those persons
who indulge in Onanism are generally remarkable
for the imperfect  development  of  the thorax, and
for the promptitude with which the least  exercise
renders  respiration difficult  and hurried.   Almost
all  these individuals contract chronic catarrhs, or
more serious affections of the  pulmonary organs,
and finally perish  in a complete  state of Phthisis.
  Broussais also  places  among  the causes  Phthisis
Pulmonalis, " erotic spasms, no matter in what man-
ner they are excited."
  It is with Phthisis, as with most other diseases
caused by Masturbation.  This habit causes disease
by  cherishing and cultivating special dispositions.
Thus,  the  Onanist born of  consumptive parents,
       14* 
162
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
whose chest  is narrow, with a long neck and thin
limbs, and who  presents symptoms of Scrofula, is
more  likely to be affected with Phthisis,  or  Con-
sumption, than others."  {See Plate Page 96)
  The cases on record of  Consumption, as a result
of Onanism, are exceedingly numerous ; but as their
characteristics are very  similar, I need not give
more than one or two illustrations on this point.
  Case  1.—Broussais speaks as follows of a young
man who died in 1833.
  "This young  man  sustained  himself  so well in
public debate that he was placed, at the expense of
Government, in a public school.   He was then six-
teen years old; and his health, which had  previously
been good, now failed.   He became pale, languished,
and grew thin; and this, too, although his appetite
was keen, and his digestion excellent.   His loss of
flesh and paleness continuing, his parents felt anx-
ious about him.  I examined his organs  separately.
I could  find  none presenting  any mark of disease,
or which could explain the general state of the pa-
tient.  At length a dry cough  supervened, which
was the  first symptom indicating an affection of any
particular organ.  By means of auscultation I found
that the respiration at  the summit of the lungs was
imperfect.  At this time the patient avowed  to his
father his deplorable  habit.  This had  been con- 
REMARKABLE cases.
163
tracted at school; it had been  indulged in for two
years,  and of late very  frequently.   Every attempt
was  now made to arouse in him the feeling of self-
preservation. He was terrified; but the power of the
habit was so great, that  he did not leave it off till
Consumption had  progressed  very  far.   Deep ab-
scesses successively formed in his lungs; the ex-
pectoration soon became  purulent  and  excessive.
Night sweats and diarrhoea followed, and the patient
died in a terrible state of marasmus and exhaustion.
   Case 2.—Tissot speaks  of a young man who came
to Montpelier to pursue his studies, but was affected
with Phthisis from excessive Onanism.  His cough
was so hard, that he annoyed every body who came
into his presence.   All remedies were in vain.  One
day, after taking a  bowl of turtle-soup, he was seized
with a hemorrhage (or bleeding) of the lungs, and
died in two hours after his meal.
   Case 3.—A few years  since, there was at the
the Hotel Dieu, at Paris,  a patient nineteen years
old, addicted to Masturbation from childhood.  The
most active watching and the strictest  mechanical
methods  could  not arrest his fatal  manipulations.
Diarrhoea was  added to his habitual loss of semen,
and he died three months  after entering the hospital,
in a perfect state of marasmus, reduced to mere skin
 and bones. 
164          functional disorders.
  Case 4.—Dr. Federigo, the Italian translator of
Portal's work on Consumption, says: "I knew a
female who was  affected  for many years with ex-
treme debility and entire  loss of appetite.  A slow
fever every evening  had rendered her  extremely
thin; her eyes were pale and sunken; her skin was
very hot, and it was highly painful for her to stand
erect.  A profuse discharge weakened her still more,
and  she  was  in  an advanced  state of marasmus.
She died in a most deplorable state of Consumption.
I attempted, by questioning her as to her mode of
living, to discover the cause of this disease, but un-
successfully.  A month before her death, however,
she told me with tears in her eyes,  that she had
brought her debility upon herself by indulging con-
stantly, and for many years, in a secret and murder-
ous habit."
  Case 5.—Hoffman relates the case of a young
man, who died in 1831, after excesses in Onanism,
with  diarrhoea.   This unfortunate individual,  al-
though in the last stage  of Consumption, still  in-
dulged, as soon as he was left alone, in his deplorable
habit.
  Combette  relates the  case of  the  complete de-
struction of the cerebellum  in  a  girl eleven years
old, who was addicted to Onanism.  In place of this
organ  was found a gelatini-formed membrane at- 
REMARKABLE CASES.
165
tached to the medulla oblongata by a peduncle of a
similar  character.   The genital organs of this girl
presented evident marks of her habits.  The finger
could be easily introduced into the vagina; the hy-
men was absent;  the external labia were of a bright
red color, and seemed to have been  frequently irri-
tated.   *   *  *  She  suffered immensely, and was
finally  obliged to  remain constantly in bed.  She
was completely stupefied.   She laid constantly on
her back, her head turned to the left, and she moved
her  limbs  with  great  difficulty.   She became af-
fected with a constant diarrhoea, and she died fifteen
months after entering the hospital in a state of com-
plete exhaustion, as a  consequence of her habit of
Masturbation.  (See Revue Mxlicale,  April, 1831.)
  Asthma  and  Heart   Diseases.—I  have  al-
ready remarked that the  respiration in Onanists is
frequently  affected. Their  breath  is often short;
they pant on the slightest exercise; are  subject to
stifling, &c. These  symptoms, which cannot always
be  explained by that of any organic  alteration in
the heart or lungs,  finally assume, in some  individ-
uals, the characters attributed to Nervous  Asthma.
The authors who have written  on this subject have
all classed Onanism and venereal excesses  among its
most frequent causes.
  F. Ferrus savs :  " Individuals of  a nervous tern- 
 166          functional disorders.

 perament seem more particularly liable to it;  but the
 influence of certain bad habits—as Masturbation, the
 abuse of venereal pleasures by  young persons,  con-
 tribute very powerfully to produce this disease."
   Jolly remarks, in nearly similar language: "Ve-
 nereal excesses and Masturbation," says this distin-
 guished physician, " have appeared in some  cases to
 produce asthma.  And if some authors think  that
 too much importance is attached to this cause, they
 may  readily appreciate its value  by observing the
 effects of the venereal orgasm  on the  pulmonary
 circulation."
   Our remarks on Asthma may  apply to diseases of
 the heart, and  large vessels.  The frequent  repeti-
 tions  of an act which renders the  emotions so pow-
 erful, frequent, and tumultuous, have often produced
 or increased aneurismatic dilatations of this  organ •
the thickening of its parietes, or other diseases of
the parenchyma, or of the vessels which leave it  and
go to  it.   Thus the abuse of Onanism, and the pleas-
ures of love, hold a high place on the list of causes
of this affection.  Among other diseases of the heart,
too frequent  coition  predisposes  to polypi  of  the
heart.   The act produces its  effects, either by weak-
ening the motive powers of  this organ, which they
over-excite momentarily; or, by causing too great
an accumulation, and consequently a congestion of 
REMARKABLE  CASES.
167
blood in the cardiac cavities.  Onanism  and vene-
real excesses may not  only cause diseases of the
heart,  but will  increase those which exist.  They
may, also, by causing the rupture of an aneurism
produce instant death.  There are many instances on
record of death  having occurred to a person while
in the  act of coition or Masturbation, which are too
terrible to relate.
   Idiotcy,  Diseases  of  the   Brain,  &c.—Be-
sides  the intellectual and moral effects, Onanism
often produces a very marked debility of the mental
faculties, and particularly of the  memory.  The de-
bility  of tha mental  faculties does not always stop
at the  point indicated.  It may extend to idiotcy  to
the most complete stupidity.  Most generally, then,
the brain,  or its appendages, are  deeply injured,
which is indicated by different symptoms, as loss of
sight,  hearing, fits, paralysis, &c.
   Case 1.—Alibert mentions  a case of idiotcy,
which  came under his  notice  at the Hospital  St.
Louis,  at Paris.  The patient was  a peasant girl,
twenty-two years  old, who was constantly employed
in tending sheep.   The seclusion of this girl's situa-
tion favored the  development  of  Onanism.  She
concealed  herself in quiet and retired situations,
to  indulge  this  horrid  inclination.   Two  years
elapsed, during  which her intellectual faculties were 
168          FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.

progressively enfeebled;  she  became stupid,  while
the venereal sense was excited to the highest degree.
Things came to such an extent that she fell, as it
were, into a species of nymphomania, for which she
was  carried to  the  hospital.  The unfortunate girl
presented a kind of  automatic motion, which she
could not repress.  Her head, chest, and upper half
of her body were excessively thin, while the  lower
half was remarkably plump.  The sight, and  much
more, the contact of a male, caused  in her a state
which was  soon terminated by  a  pollution.  By
merely touching this girl, her whole person  could
be agitated and convulsed to a distressing degree.
{Diet, des Sc. Med., vol. xxxvi., p. 582.)
   Case  2. — Parent Duchatelet  relates the fol-
lowing remarkable  story of a young girl who had
imposed upon herself the terrible yoke of Onanism.
   "This girl, whose early childhood was spent with
her grandmother, a respectable and religious woman,
was about seven years old when she returned home.
For the first four months after her  return she was
very sad, and  was not  as  playful  as children are
generally, and never caressed her father and mother.
 She lost flesh rapidly. The cause of this was sought
for in vain; when, one day,  a few questions  having
 been put to her, she stated that from the age  of four
 years she had been in the habit of seeing boys from 
remarkable cases.
169
ten to twelve years old; that since she had returned
home she had no opportunity, and had indulged  in
self-pollution.  In vain did  her parents try to wean
her from this vice. They reasoned with and caressed
her; they gave her presents, and all the clothes she
desired;  physicians visited her; the powers of reli-
gion were tried—but all in vain.  A horrid inclina-
tion soon  appeared.   She  now  desired to see her
parents dead, and  even to murder them.  This wish
she  expressed freely, and also  her regret  at not
being able to satisfy her wishes.   She promised her-
self to embrace any opportunity which was presented.
The only motives  which induced her to this were to
possess her  mother's jewels, and then  to go with
the men.   Things soon came to such an extent that
the parents, for their own  safety, were  obliged to
lock up their daughter every night, as she did not
conceal her  intention of assassinating them during
sleep.   The child,  being in this  manner less ex-
posed to observation, abandoned herself to her habits
without  constraint,  it being the only wish which
she  could gratify.  She  never  laughed, nor cried.
She sat the whole  day in  a very small  chair with
her  hands crossed,  and  she abused herself as soon
as her mother's back was turned.  Punishments suc-
ceeded no  better than presents or caresses.  One day
her father tied her to the bedstead.  She said, " You
       15 
170
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
may kill me, but I will  not change."   These facts
gave rise to a judicial  investigation, from the min-
utes of which this statement is taken.  {Arch, d Hy-
giene ct de Med. Legale, January, 1832.)
  Case 6.—Chronic Arachnitis, &c.—The patient
was a boy seven years old, who entered the Ilvpital
des  Enfans, at Paris, at the beginning of the year
18] 6.  He was much addicted to Masturbation, and
was usually affected with convulsions during the act.
He  finally became idiotic.  He  was extremely  re-
pugnant  to take exercise, and  he  remained very
quiet.  His strength failed; his limbs wasted away,
and finally he became affected   with  almost total
blindness.  The hearing, and generally the external
and internal senses were also much weakened.  Gal-
vanism and other remedies were employed in vain.
The patient died, and  on opening the cadaver the
brain was found in a high state of inflammation.
  Case 7.—Gall, (in his Treatise on the Functions
of the Brain, vol. iii., p. 314,) gives us the history
of a boy three years old, who was strongly addicted
to Onanism, and in whom two-thirds of the cerebel-
lum was found to be suppurated.
  Case 1.—Epilepsy, &c—A  young man, nine-
teen years  old, was  so  much  addicted  from his
infancy to Masturbation, that  all  mechanical means
were tried in vain  to conquer this fatal habit.  It 
REMARKABLE cases.
171
was even proposed to scarify the Penis in order that
his motions might be prevented by pain.  All at-
tempts were  in  vain;  and this unfortunate young
man, exhausted  by continual losses of  semen, died
three months after entering the Hotel  Dieu, in the
most complete state of marasmus.  He had often ex-
perienced attacks of epilepsy.   On opening the dead
body there was found in his cerebellum an encepha-
loid tumor, the  size of a walnut, which  had  begun
to soften.
   Case 2.—Epilepsy, Loss of Sight, &c —Serru-
rier mentions the following case of Epilepsy, Loss
of Sight, and  the destruction of the  intellectual
faculties.
   "I  always remember  with horror the frightful
picture presented by a young soldier, after frequent
indulgences in  Onanism, which  were more violent
 and  copious after each epileptic fit.   This  young
 man was in a perfect state of marasmus. . His sight
 was  lost entirely; he was  perfectly imbecile; and
 even the calls of nature were unanswered by him.
 His body exhaled a particularly nauseous odor; his
 skin was livid; his tongue trembled;  his eyes  were
 sunken ; his teeth decayed; and his arms were cov-
 ered with ulcers which indicated a scorbutic affec-
 tion.  This state continued for six months, when
 the melancholy man died, having  struggled a long 
172          functional  disorders.
time against death, which finally terminated his suf-
ferings."
  Zimmerman  tells of a man, twenty-three  years
old,  who  became epileptic,  after debilitating his
body by frequent Masturbation.  Whenever he had
nocturnal  pollutions a fit of epilepsy ensued, and
the same thing occurred after Masturbation; from
which, however, he did not abstain, notwithstanding
the  bad  symptoms  with which  it  was  followed.
After the fit had  subsided, he felt very severe pains
in the kidneys and  around the  coccyx.   Having,
however, abstained from his manipulations for some
time, the pollutions disappeared, and the doctor had
hopes of curing the  Epilepsy, the attacks of which
were less frequent.  He had regained his strength,
appetite, sleep, and color, after resembling a cada-
ver ; but having  returned to  his bad habits, which
were always followed by fits, he was found dead in
his chamber one morning, bathed  in blood.
  Miscellaneous  Cases.—Some  individuals in-
dulge in Coition  and Masturbation, even in an ad-
vanced state of disease.
  Case 1.—Pinel  says:  "I  have  seen  a person
affected with a dynamic fever who was entirely ex-
hausted,  and  yet his passion  for Onanism was so
powerful,  that  on the sixth  day of his  disease he 
REMARKABLE cases.
173
still attempted to excite  his organs, although death
was coming upon him."
  Case 2.—Fabricius de  Hilden states the case
of a young man whose hand was amputated, and
whose physician forbid having any intercourse with
his  wife,  who was  also informed of  the danger.
But  when all the symptoms  disappeared, and the
cure was  progressing rapidly, the patient  feeling
desires to  which his wife could not respond, pro-
cured a  seminal emission without coition;  it was
immediately followed by fever, delirium, convul-
sions and other symptoms, and in four days the pa-
tient died.
  Spermatorrhea.— The  tendency to  Sperma-
torrhoea is often hereditary.   Congenital  predispo-
sitions occasionally exist, particularly in those of a
nervous disposition;  and as very few are  aware  of
the  fact, I  will give some excellent illustrations  of
these  kind of cases, from L. Lallemand's note-
book, which fully confirm those  in my own  case-
book, which are quite numerous: the following will,
however, be sufficient to answer all purposes.
  Case 1.—" One of these patients, (continues Lal-
lemand), one day experienced, at the age of sixteen,
a fit of irritability and  impatience, which  however
he succeeded in repressing, and he then felt a sud-
den and impetuous  desire of  micturation; whilst
        15* 
174          functional disorders.
emptying his bladder, he perceived a large quantity
of pure semen discharged with the last  drops of
urine.  This occurrence was the forerunner of noc-
turnal and  diurnal emissions, which, at  the age of
twenty-seven, had entirely ruined his health."
  Case 2.—" A third patient suffered in  the same
way, under similar circumstances;  he saw the  mo-
ment approach  for sending in his thesis;  the more
he endeavored to hurry, the less freely  his expres-
sions flowed; at length, on hearing the clock strike,
he suffered from so great mental  disorder that he
nearly fainted; at this moment emission took place."
  Case 3.—" Another,  at the moment  of competi-
tion for a college  prize, was unable to find  an ex-
pression he wanted;  at the same time he felt a want
to make water, which he resisted by firmly crossing
his legs;   but  his   impatience  increased, and he
shortly experienced  an abundant  emission without
either erection or  pleasure."
  Case 4.—M. Tissot relates  the  following appall-
ing case:—
  " L. D----, was by profession a  watchmaker; he
had lived prudently, and had enjoyed a good state
of health till he was about seventeen years of  ao-e;
at this period he  gave himself up  to  Masturbation,
which he repeated every day, sometimes even to the
third time;  and  the  ejaculation  was  always  pre- 
remarkable cases.
175
ceded and followed by a slight insensibility, and a
convulsive motion in the extended  muscles of  the
head, which drew  it  very  much back, whilst  the
neck was  extremely  swelled.   A  year  had  not
elapsed before he began to feel a weakness after every
act;  this notification was not sufficient to rescue him
from his filthy practices ; his  soul, already devoted
to these disorders,  was  incapable  of  forming any
other idea, and  the repetition of  his crime became
more frequent, till such time as  he was in a state
which gave reason to apprehend his death.  Too late
grown wise, the evil had already made so great a
progress that he was incurable, and the genital parts
were become so easily irritated, and were so weak,
that  it was no longer necessary  that the  unhappy
youth should  be an agent  to shed  his  seed.   The
slightest irritation immediately procured an imper-
fect  erection,  which was  instantly followed by an
evacuation of  this liquor, which  daily increased his
weakness.  This spasm, of which he was not before
sensible  but in consummating the  act, and which
ceased therewith,  now became  habitual,  and  fre-
quently  attacked him without any apparent cause,
and  in so violent a manner, that  during the whole
period of  the fit,  which  sometimes lasted fifteen
hours, and never less than eight, he felt such violent
pains in the hinder part of the neck that he did not 
176
functional disorders.
 scream out, but  absolutely howled;  and  all this
 while  he was  unable to swallow either solids  or
 fluids.  His voice was become hoarse, but I did not
 observe that it  was more so whilst the fit continued.
 He entirely lost his strength, and was obliged to give
 up his profession, being altogether incapacitated:
 thus overwhelmed with misery, he languished with-
 out any  assistance for some months,  and was the
 more to be pitied,  as what memory he  had  remain-
 ing, and  which he was at length entirely bereft of,
 only served him to take  an  incessant retrospect of
 the cause of his misfortunes, which  were increased
 by all the aggravating horrors of remorse.   I heard
 of his  situation, and went to him; I found a being,
 that less resembled a living creature than a corpse,
 lying upon straw, meagre, pale, and filthy, casting
 forth an infectious stench, almost incapable of mo-
 tion, a watery  palish blood  issued from his  nose,
 slaver  constantly flowed  from his mouth ; having a
 diarrhoea, he voided his excrements in the bed with-
 out knowing it; he had a continual  flux of semen;
his sore watery  eyes were deadened to  that  degree,
that  he could not move them, his pulse was very
small, quick, and frequent; it was with great diffi-
culty he breathed, reduced almost to a  skeleton in
every part excep this feet, which became  cedematous.
  " The disorder of his mind was equal to that of 
REMARKABLE CASES.
177
his body: devoid of ideas and memory, incapable of
connecting two sentences, without reflection, with-
out being afflicted at his fate, without any other sen-
sation than pain, which returned with every fit, at
least every third day.  Far below the  brute creation,
he was a spectacle, the horrible sight of  which can-
not  be conceived, and  it was difficult  to discover
that he had formerly made part of the human spe-
cies.   I had immediate recourse to the assistance of
strengthening  remedies, in  order to remove these
violent spasmodic fits, which so dreadfully brought
him  back to sensibility only by pain.  I contented
myself with having given him some ease  in  this
respect and  I  discontinued  administering remedies
which could not ameliorate his condition." 
CHAPTER  XII.
                  MISCELLANEA.

CIRCUMCISION—THE  PREPUCE--PHYMOSIS AND PARAPHYMOSIS--CIR-
  CUMCISION, HOW  PERFORMED--EXTIRPATION OF  THE  CLITORIS--
  HERMAPHRODITES--CASTRATION AND EUNUCHISM--GENERAL  RE-
  MARKS.

  Circumcision. — In   connection  with   Seminal
Emissions and Masturbation, we may  consider the
matter of Circumcision.  The act consists in  re-
moving the prepuce  skin, or  foreskin of the penis,
(covering the glans) by  a surgical operation: after
which Masturbation is difficult.  The word "prepuce"
is derived from the Latin prcepvio, to lop off before.
  AYe  read  in the Bible that Circumcision was the
seal of the covenant which God made with Abraham
and his posterity.  Biblical  commentators  think it
was  instituted to prevent  Self-pollution.  It is  be-
lieved  by many other than the Jews, even by sincere
Christians, that were Circumcision more generally
practiced, there would be far less Masturbation, and
the evils arising from this cause.
  Circumcision was  an ante-Mosaic  rite.   It was
       (178) 
MISCELLANEA.
179
known prior to the time of Moses, the patriarch.
It was practiced in Egypt and Ethiopia from the
earliest times.
  The ceremony, as practiced by the Jews of our
own day, is as follows:—
  When a male child is born, the godfather is chosen
from among  his relatives, or near friends.   If the
party is not  in circumstances to bear the  expenses,
which are  considerable, (including the expenses of
a luxurious breakfast,) it is usual for the poor to get
one  among the richer, who accepts  the  office and
becomes a godfather.  There are also societies formed
among  them  for the purpose of defraying  the ex-
penses,  and  every  Jew receives  the  benefit if his
child is born in wedlock.
  The circumciser being provided with a very sharp
instrument, called  the  circumcising-knife, plasters,
cummih-seed  to dress the wound, proper bandages,
etc., the child  is brought to the  door of the syna-
gogue by the godmother, when the godfather re-
ceives it from her, and carries it into the synagogue,
where a large chair is placed.   The godfather being
seated, and the child placed on a cushion in his lap,
the circumciser performs the operation.  Forms are
repeated by  the circumciser, the parents, and the
congregation
   The  Prepuce.—A  tight Prepuce, in connection 
180
FUNCTIONAL disorders.
with  an abnormal, or unnatural  accumulation of a
fatty matter back  of the head of the  glans  penis,
sometimes occasions  inflammatory symptoms, with
small  ulcers on the glans.   This is the disorder
known as Balannorrhcea—an affection which might be
readily mistaken for Syphilis, or Venereal Pox, by
uninformed persons. If the Prepuce is so long that it
hangs beyond the glans, like a tube, and is so tight
that it cannot be drawn back over the head or acorn
of the penis, a condition is induced which is  called
Pliyntosis.   This not only gives rise to uncleanliness,
but often prevents the discharge of urine, or the free
escape of  the semen during  sexual  congress, pro-
ducing distressing and annoying results.
  Sometimes the Prepuce, by disease, may be drawn
back over the head  of the penis, so that  it cannot  be
brought forward again.  A kind of ligature is thus
created, which, unless speedily removed, will  arrest
the circulation of the blood in the head  of the  penis,
cause it to mortify and drop off entirely.  This state
of the Prepuce is called Paraphymosis.
  If either of these affections occur  in  young chil-
dren, they  should  be alleviated  without delay,  in
order to allay the  disagreeable itching which is  a
primary cause of that dreadful scourge of the human
race—Mast u rbation.
  The foreskin  is  that part  which the  Jews and 
MISCELLANEA.
181
Mohammedans circumcise in imitation of the ancient
Egyptians, in order to prevent painful inflammation,
or Masturbation, and its direful consequences.  The
pleasure in the  copulative act, among the Turks or
Jews, or  those who have undergone circumcision,
can scarcely be in a less degree  than that which is
experienced by the uncircumcised.  The circumcised,
at least, do not complain  in this regard; although it
is asserted on good authority,  that the women of the
East prefer the uncircumcised.
   Circumcision is performed as follows: The Pre-
puce or foreskin is pulled forward as far as possible
over the  head of the penis,  and forcibly held by an
assistant with a pair of forceps.   Then  the surgeon
takes that part of the Prepuce projecting beyond
the  forceps with his  left hand,  and with a bistoury
or sharp instrument cuts it off.   The lining is then
divided by a single cut with  the  scissors; the flaps
are next removed round to the Frcenum (at the  under
part or latch of the  penis), and then both removed
with the Frsenum, at one cut.
   This operation  is  also  necessary in  natural or
congenital Phymosis, when  the  flow of  urine is  im-
 peded,  or sexual commerce  is prevented, in cases of
 adults.
   Extirpation of   the  Clitoris.—It was  the
 « Lesbian Love" which led to the  extirpation  of the
        16 
182
FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS
Clitoris for the purpose of arresting this abuse.  The
Clitoris is  placed at the external upper part of the
female organ of generation.   The usual size of this
organ is somewhat less than  the  point of the little
finger, and resembles somewhat the male penis.  It
is  larger in the  negress  than in white women.  It
sometimes  acquires an  extraordinary magnitude.
Fabricius  says that he saw one as large as a goose's
neck.  There are many proofs on record  of women
with large clitorides  having  seduced young  girls.
To this  day the Asiatic nations, particularly  the
Arabians, to prevent such  unnatural connections,
and to preserve the chastity of their females, are in
the habit of removing the clitoris, when of a  large
size.  It is owing to this size alone that the idle and
marvellous  tales  about  Hermaphrodites have  been
told.  AYe  have no such combination of the  sexes
but in this way.  It is by no means uncommon for
a midwife to be in doubt to which of the sexes the
child at birth belongs.   On  examination, however,
it will  be found that the  Clitoris has  no urethra, or
tube, through which semen can pass, as in the penis
of the male.  From  the  delicate structure of  the
Clitoris, and its extreme sensibility, it is the princi-
pal  seat of pleasure during sexual  connection.
AAlien titillated, it becomes erect,  and  the portion of
it which  runs round  the margin of the  vagina, by 
MISCELLANEA.
183
swelling, grasps the penis.  Indeed, the penis of the
male, and the Clitoris of the female, seem, in some
respects, to resemble each other.  They are both
possessed of similar sensibility; they are both capa-
ble of erection; and each of them can  support these
states till the action during coition alters the sensa-
tion.
   In some cases, the Clitoris is the size of the penis
of a boy of two years, and thus affording an unna-
tural satisfaction of the sexual instinct between two
women.  Among  the women  of Abyssinia, among
the Mendingas and Ibbos, its size is so considerable,
that it is a popular usage to clip off a part  of it, as
being a hindrance to sexual intercourse between male
and female.   When,  after  the  conversion of the
Abyssinians to Christianity, the circumcision of the
women was abolished as  a  remnant  of  paganism,
the  men rebelled against  this  innovation,  and the
opposition was not appeased  until a surgeon was
sent  by the Propaganda from  Rome, who  declared
the restoration of the former custom necessary.  In
southern climates, the Clitoris is larger than in the
temperate and frigid zones.
   Castration.—It may be well  supposed  that the
testicles, which secrete the semen, are the  most  es-
sential  portion of the  organs of generation.   They
determine the sexual character of the man.  Their 
184
FUNCTIONAL  disordrs.
loss annihilates  his generating faculty, and  effaces
all his  other sexual attributes.   The  value  which
men place on these organs, (testicles,) or rather on
the due performance of their functions, is rendered
evident by the fact, that suicide is not unfrequently
caused by their supposed or real imperfection.
  Men, upon whom the operation of Castration has
been performed, generally become moping and me-
lancholy, and speedily perish.
  Eunuchism.—Eunuchs, who have been castrated
prior to the age of pubescence, never arrive  at the
full vigor  and enjoyment of manhood.  There is  a
marked difference in the external  character of a man
and of a Eunuch.   The voice of the  latter  resem-
bles that of children;  the hair is  thin and delicate ;
the limbs are small; the beard and whiskers  do not
grow, or at least are thin and scattered,  while the
mental faculties are feeble or relatively idiotic. In-
deed, such is the similitude in the structure  of the
brain and of the testicle, that  there is an  extraordi-
nary sympathy between them, undoubtedly exercis-
ing great  influence on the desire for sexual inter-
course.  In fact, the influence of the mind  on  the or-
gans of generation, and of the latter  on  the  mind,
is completely reciprocal.
  The  testicles are generally two in number;  some-
times  there is but  one ; while in   other cases, three, 
MISCELLANEA.
185
four,  and even  five, have  been found.   Occasion-
ally,  also,  they  do  not  attain their  full size and
power of secreting semen.   This may arise from an
arrest of the development  of  the  testicles, caused by
an  indulgence in Self-pollution or Masturbation, prior
to puberty.  Those  in whom  more than  a  pair of
testicles are found, are regarded as more than ordi-
narily salacious, or fond  of  sexual  indulgence.
Such persons have a penis of inordinate size;  while
in  those who  have  only one  testicle, or  who have
both imperfectly developed, the  penis will be re-
duced to resemble that of a boy's at  five years of
age.
   In regard to Castration, or  Eunuchism, the in-
vention  is  not  only cruel but absurd.   Infibulation
among men is to prevent them  from indulging in
love,  and  in order to  preserve the delicacy and
flexibility  of  their  voices.   This was practiced by
the Romans upon  their players, by passing a ring
of metal through the prepuce.   Such is also the Cinc-
ture of Virginity, and the attachment of parts among
the African and Asiatic women.  Such likewise  is
 Castration, or  Eunuchism, which is said to have been
invented by Semiramis  for men,  and by Gyges for
women.   Hence the  crowd of timid Castrati who,
even at this  day, fill the theatres, or  sing in the
 ohurches of Italy.
       16* 
186         FUNCTIONAL  DISORDERS.
  The removal, however, of a single testicle, does not
suspend the generative faculty in men ; and there are
examples of pregnancy, notwithstanding the altera-
tion or obliteration of one ovarium or receptacle for
the ova, or eggs, in the female. Among others, history
informs us that Sylla and  Timur-lung were natural
Monorchides,  or those born with  a single testicle.
  Castration is  sometimes effected by the mere com-
pression of the  blood-vessels which supply the testi-
cles.   This is the least dangerous method, but it will
not always deaden the power of love or sexual de-
sire.   The erection of the penis  often takes  place in
Eunuchs; hence they are capable of coition.  The
Roman ladies  sometimes amused themselves  with
their Eunuch slaves.  Juvenal, in his  sixth satire,
says:—
     " Sunt quas eurmchi imbelles, ac mollia semper
       Oscula delectent et desperatio barbae,
       Et quod abortivo non est opus."
   Even in modern times the same custom  prevails
among the women  of  Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
To prevent these indulgences in  their harems, the
most jealous Turks  seek for Eunuchs who are de-
prived of  all  external  organs of  generation;  yet
even these unfortunate slaves sometimes experience
amorous irritations.
   In a moral point of view, Eunuchs are generally 
MISCELLANEA.
187
the vilest  portion of the human species.   They are
envious and wicked, because they are wretched; and
cowardly  and  deceitful,  because  they  are  weak.
Not only in Europe, but  in Asia, they pass almost
immediately from youth to decrepitude.  St. Chry-
sostom reproached the Eunuch Eutropius, that his
countenance, when  deprived  of paint,  was more
ugly and wrinkled than  that of an  old woman.
Narses is almost the only Eunuch, who,  in  ancient
times, exhibited great energy of mind.  How much
courage and magnanimity might he  have shown, if
he had not been subjected to that barbarous mutila-
tion I  I may also  name  Salomon, one of the lieu-
tenants of Belisarius, who  displayed such rare ability
and great courage in the war against the  Vandals in
Africa.
   In the eighteenth century, Pope  Clement abol-
ished castration of youths, which was then practiced
 in Italy for the  purpose  of retaining the  soprano
 voice.  It was well known  that the castrated pre-
 serve the shrill voice {voix  aigue) of infancy, at the
 same time that the chest becomes fully developed,
 thus giving volume to the voice.  Women, in those
 days, were not admitted to  theatres; hence this hor-
 rid mutilation, as it qualified them  to sing soprano
 parts.
    In the article on "Eunuchs," in the  "Dictionnaire 
188
FUNCTIONAL diseases.
des Sciences Medicales," it is stated that no Eunuch
can now be received into the priesthood of the Catholic
church.  Priests, however, are required to observe
a moral eunuchism, inasmuch as they must be bach-
elors, and vow to  lead a life of celibacy.   Still they
have the merit of resistance to the thorn in the flesh,
in order to obtain la palme de la, recompense.
  General Remarks.—Thus we  cannot shut our
eyes to the fact, that the existence of testes, and the
power of secreting semen, have a powerful influence
on the development of the system.  Not  only is this
the fact with the human being, but with  the lower
animals. The same relation that subsists between the
testicles and the brain of man, is relatively observed
between the bones and the testes. Sir Philip Eger-
ton has made some experiments which incontestably
prove  the influence of  the testes on  the horns in
stags—the  one being the  recipient of  the  blood
when the other no longer requires  it.   He  ascer-
tained that fawns, when cut prior to the formation
of any horn—that is, within a  week or  so  after
birth—both testes being removed with a portion of
the vas deferens,  or  seminal cord,  will  never bear
horns, however long they may live.  If,  however,
the bodies of the testes only be taken away, leaving
the "knob"  (epididymus)  attached  to  the cord, the
animal will have horns,  and renew them annually. 
MISCELLANEA.
189
  There can be no doubt that entire horses are ca-
pable of undergoing more work  than geldings.  It
is a saying in Norfolk, England, that a stallion in
draught is equal  to one gelding and a half.  The
same influence of the testes will  be noticed in many
other  instances.  The  castrated creature  is never
equal in power and endurance with the perfect or
unmasculated  one, nor will they compare in size,
symmetry, strength, fleetness, and beauty.
   In conclusion of this description of the  organs of
generation, I  deem it proper to remark, that the
mind does not seem to have an entire power, either
over the production of erection or of our powers of
coition.  It certainly greatly assists these  acts; but
in order fully, and satisfactorily to all parties, to do
these duties properly, there is a state of  the body
which must co-operate with the state of  the mind.
In this connection I may remark that the result of
 love is  marriage.  In sooth, for no  one  circum-
stance  of  civilization  have we  more reason to re-
joice  than in  such  an institution.  The wisdom of
marriage,  as we  now  understand it, has been ac-
knowledged by every modern civilized nation.  It
 is  the basis  of a nation's  prosperity, and of indi-
 vidual happiness.  It  gives  legal and strong posses-
 sion of the object of our love.  It  establishes regu-
 lation and order; forms  links  of  relationship, and 
190          FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
renders each  country one  large  family.   A happy
marriage is the alpha and omega of every man and
woman's hopes.  There is  no  pleasure in life  com-
parable to it,  where  it is  unalloyed by physical or
mental  qualifications; but, alas,  for  want  of  such
knowledge as this book  contains, or  because man
does not " know himself," how  rarely is such a con-
summation to be found.  It is  a happy state indeed
"when,"  as the  Psalmist says,  "the fountain is
blessed, and he rejoiceth with the wife of his youth;"
or, as the eloquent Thomson, the poet of " The Sea-
sons," so beautifully, truly, and naturally pictures the
happy state of marriage:—

  " 0 happy they, the happiest of their kind I
    Whom gentle stars unite, and in one fate
    Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.
    'Tis not alone the tie of human laws
    That binds their peace, but harmony itself,
    Attuning all their passions into  love.
    Thought meeting thought,  and will preventing will,
    With boundless confidence : for nought but love
    Can answer love, and render bliss secure." 
APPENDIX.
                            «•»—
       INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS.
                        ------*•►-----

                 CAUSES OF SPERMATORRHOEA.

   Spermatorrhoea is one of the most frequent, obstinate, and
 disastrous consequences of  sexual  excesses,  particularly  of
 long-continued Onanism.  The phenomena which characterize
 the disease are generally attributed  to some derangement  of
 a cardinal  portion  of the nervous system, particularly the
 spinal marrow, although such nervous derangements are gen-
 erally secondary, sympathetic affections.
   Through the progress of science it is easy to diagnose the
 disease, and to cure it, provided the patient is willing to  obey
 the instructions of his physician.
   The following may be looked upon as some of the  principal
 special causes instrumental in producing the disease :—■
   1. Gonorrhoea, especially chronic Gonorrhoea.  This dis-
 order is usually located in the portion of  the urethra, where
 the seminal ducts terminate.  Hence the  necessity of remov-
 ing, as soon as  possible, even the lightest  forms of this dis-
 ease.
   2. Irritating  Injections  in the  Urethra.  These injec-
 tions, if used to excess, or at improper periods, or if  too acid,
 frequently cause the inflammation of the mucous membrane  to
extend to  the posterior portion of the urethra.
   3.  Stricture  of the Urethra.  Behind the  stricture the
urethra generally enlarges, the mucous membrane is  irritated
by the urine which collects  in the  enlarged portion, an  in-
                                            (191) 
192
APPENDIX.
creased quantity of  mucus is secreted, and the inflammation
generally spreads to the more deep-seated portions of the ure-
thra.   While endeavoring to expel the urine, the orifices  of
the seminal ducts become relaxed, and  the involuntary dis-
charge of semen is facilitated thereby.
  4. Morbid Conditions of the  Rectum, such  as obstinate
constipation, piles,  painful fistulse of  the  anus, tumors, diar-
rhoea, etc.  Some of  these conditions act mechanically, in con-
sequence of the  effort which is required during stool;  others,
like the piles, by communicating the irritation to the seminal
vesicles.
  5. Onanism.—This is undoubtedly the  most frequent cause
of spermatorrhoea.   The disastrous habit induces a constant
irritation of the sexual organs ; a more frequent and more co-
pious determination  of blood to  these parts, which  is alone
sufficient to cause a  loss of semen.  After such  an irritation
has lasted some time, the internal sexual parts become weaker,
relaxed, particularly the orifice of the seminal ducts,  in con-
sequence of which the seminal fluid escapes more easily.
  6. Sexual Excesses with Women.—These  injurious con-
sequences  are of a  threefold  character.  First, an increased
secretion of semen, in  consequence of the frequent irritation
of  the sexual parts.   Secondly, relaxation  of the whole body,
and particularly of the sexual organs.   Tliirdly, irritation, and
even chronic inflammation of the seminal vesicles and the ejac-
ulatory ducts, which  may be inferred from the suddenness with
which the semen is discharged, and  from the pain by which
the discharge  is accompanied.   The bad effect is  still  in-
creased by retaining the semen as long as possible, either  for
the purpose of  perpetuating the pleasurable  excitement,  or
from  some other cause.   By this means the vesicles and the
ducts  become distended, and the orifice of the ducts lose their
tone and elasticity.
   7.  Frequent  excitation of the Sexual instinct,  without
subsequent natural gratification, either by lascivious books, or
by intimacies with  females, except  sexual intercourse.   In
consequence of  this excitement, there is a considerable rush 
APPENDIX.                    193
of blood to the sexual parts, the penis swells, becomes erect,
and such erections last much longer  than during an embrace ;
a viscous transparent fluid, the  prostatic  fluid, or eveu real
semen,  is discharged from  the  urethra; a violent throbbing
Bensation is experienced in the perinaeal region ;  the face be-
comes flushed ; the heart beats more violently.  And a frequent
repetition of such fruitless  intimacies  brings on formication and
shooting stitches in the back.   The immediate  consequence
of this exaltation is a relaxation of the seminal vesicles and of
the orifices of the seminal ducts, which are endowed with a simi-
lar but weaker power, as the sphincter musclep of other orifices
of excretory ducts.
  8. Abstemiousness.—Excessive abstemiousness  may  like-
wise be attended with  involuntary seminal  losses.  In a full-
grown young man, especially if he lives well, the testicles con-
stantly secrete semen, which ought to be discharged from time
to time, proportionally to its  quantity and the rapidity with
which it is secreted.  If this  discharge is not effected by coi-
tus, the excess  is got  rid of by involuntary nocturnal emis
sions, the frequency of which is in proportion to the quantity
of  semen secreted.   When emissions take place every night,
especially if the patient had been given to excessive intercourse
previous to becoming abstemious, they will prove  injurious.
  9. Diseases of the Cerebellum and the Spinal Marrow.—
The cerebellum and the medulla  oblongata are in close  rela-
tion to the sexual organs.  It has been noticed that a disorgani-
zation of the cerebellum impairs the  sexual functions, and that
a complete atrophy of the cerebellum  is  succeeded by their
complete extinction.  Gall directed  attention  to the fact, that
the cerebellum  is the seat of the sexual power.   He presents
many cases  going to 6how that many diseases of the brain,
such as  inflammation, tumors, mechanical injuries inflicted  by
a blow, concussion,  etc.,  cause a violent  excitement of  the
sexual passion, and  consequent seminal emissions.  Various
diseases ef the spinal marrow are still more frequent  causes of
spermatorrhoea, because a flow of semen is a standing symp-
tom  of  many such  spinal  irritations,  and consequently  in-
        17 
194
APPENDIX.
creases the debility.   In these diseases the sexual organs are
deprived of  the normal  nervous influence which  they require
for the healthy exercise  of  their functions.   The semen  loses
its vivifying properties, the  testicles hang down relaxed, shoot-
ing stitches  are experienced in the spermatic cord ;  the erec-
tions are either imperfect or entirely wanting, and an unavoid-
able consequence is Impotence, etc.
  There are many other special causes of Spermatorrhoea, as
excessive length of the prepuce and consequent phymosis ;
excessive use of  tea and coffee, aphrodiniaca, cantharides, vio-
lent cathartics, warm and irritating ejections, intestinal worms,
riding  on horseback, sedentary  habits, and lastly,  various
idiosyncracies, which it is not  always  possible to account for
upon physiological principles.  Many persons  are  even at-
tacked with  seminal losses on looking down from a height, etc.
  As  regards the  phenomena which  accompany  Spermator-
rhoea, we have to consider, in the first place, whether  the semi-
nal losses take place in the day-time, or at night.
  Nocturnal Pollutions.— While it is quite easy  to ascer-
tain the  involuntary discharges which take place during sleep,
there  may be some difficulty in  appreciating the degree of
importance  attached to  them.  They are not all equally inju-
rious ;  under some circumstances they may even serve a very
useful or necessary purpose, in maintaining the vis medicatrix
of the animal  economy.  The most copious  nocturnal pollu-
tions, as already  intimated, are far from being always the most
hurtful.  If they arise from true spermatic plethora, they will
relieve  erotic excitement,  with its accompanying agitation,
anxiety, uneasiness, and  indefinable trouble  in  all the  func-
tions.  There will  be  a  general feeling of comfort;  the head
will be clear, the ideas bright and  flowing with  rapidity, the
motions nimble,  while there will be  more inclination to amuse-
ment and to every  kind of occupation.          .
  I am inclined to believe that  such involuntary discharges
are periodical, and probably take place about  every thirty
days, correlatively  with the  menses of the other sex, in all per-
sons of  full normal health.   Many healthy and continent per- 
APPENDIX.                   195
sons have assured me of this fact, from their own experience,
although I can offer no physiological proof of such  a  conclu-
sion, concomitant of my own especial professional reading and
practice.
  As a general rule, however, nocturnal emissions  are to be
viewed with  suspicion and alarm.   They are not always the
result of spermatic plethora.   When there is a feeling of dis-
content, idleness, weight in the head, disorder in the ideas, etc.,
after frequent emissions, we may be sure that the natural func-
tions are out of tone, and require to be strengthened  by suit-
able remedial  agents,  as  exercise, attention to diet, and a
change of pursuits and pleasures.  There is, however, yet no
disease ;  the economy is not permanently disordered, but there
is a degree of instability in the patient's health, a valetudinary
 condition, the progress of which  it is necessary to arrest.  In
 these simple  and early cases coitus may be useful, as it will
give tone to the organs, and break up the habit of involuntary
emissions.   At a later  period, coitus has its dangers,  while
 Masturbation will produce the most alarming aggravations of
the general weakness.
  10. How often should Coition take place?—In wedded life,
 moderate  coitus is a requirement or mandate  of nature; if
too often indulged, it will soon be found  highly  prejudicial to
 the system, at once introducing a  train of diseases, and pre-
 venting the procreation of healthy offspring.  It is difficult to
 say how often copulation should take place, as   much will de-
 pend upon the constitution, habits, and  idiosyncracies of the
 parties.   Once a month,  in ordinary cases,  is  perhaps suffi-
 cient ; but once a week would scarcely be considered an excess
 of  venery.  It requires at least three days to  secern a pure
 spermatic fluid, or a semen  imbued with  a healthy  fructifying
 principle.   This precious gift, which is  one  of the first  means
 of  promoting health and cheerfulness  of  mind,  may  be so
 abused as to destroy the  organism, and  become a source of
 torture and misery.  These sexual excesses  undermine health,
 shorten life, destroy the happiness of families, incapacitate the 
196                   APPENDIX.                       t

male from  the noble office of procreating offspring, and de-
prive woman of her beautiful mission  of bearing children.
  Twenty-four hours after a  seminal  discharge, the seminal
vesicles are again full; but it  takes a  few more days to impart
to this semen vivifying properties of a healthy nature.  Not
only is semen  the most  precious and  concentrated secretion
of the  human  organism, but its production takes place  more
slowly than any other.  This is owing to the length of the
route which the semen has to  traverse.  Were all the seminal
canals extended  in one line, it would  be about 1050 feet long,
or, as Munro,  the English  anatomist, says, 1208 feet !  This
immense length shows that it  is  not only difficult for the semen
to be reproduced, but that its excessive use must be attended
with disastrous consequences  to the general organism.  How-
ever, as a  general rule, the  healthy person, concerning the
frequency of  sexual intercourse, may adopt the  maxim  of
Martin Luther, the great Protestant  Reformer, that "twice a
week, or one hundred and four times  a year, hurts neither me
nor thee."
  Excecs, however, depends  not so much  upon the frequency
as upon the quality of the act,  the age and  temperament of
the  parties.  As Celsus  says: " Coit will not be hurtful, if it
be not succeeded either by lassitude or pain."
  History tells  some extraordinary  stories of  the venerous
powers of certain men.  Hercules is said to have impregnated
fifty girls in one night.   The Emperor Proculus boasted of
having impregnated a hundred  Samaritan maidens in a fort-
night.  Phares relates of a Moorish prince, that he had  inter-
course with forty women in three days.  A woman requested
protection of the King of Arragon against the passion of hei
husband, who  used her ten times every night.   The king con-
fined  him,  under penalty of  death, to six times  a day.   A
mountaineer of  the  Eastern  slope of the Pyrenees, married
eleven wives in the space of fifteen years.  He used them  so
often  and vehemently, that all of these women  died of severe
uterine affections.   He  was  forbidden to marry the twelfth
time. 
APPENDIX.
I'«l7
  History has also preserved the names of women who had
carried  their licentious habits to the  highest degree without
their health being visibly affected by this libertinage.   Quar-
tilla, a Roman woman, boasted of having never been a virgin,
and  requiring the use of a man thirty times a day.  Lysisca
stood the embraces of fifty robust men in succession.  Cleo-
patra entered in disguise a brothel of Rome, and  in one night
triumphed by twenty-five  times  over  the basest prostitutes.
In one night, Messalina  used one hundred and fifty men with-
out being  satiated.   Bertrand Rival  relates that during the
first French  Revolution, a beautiful and  modest  girl was rav-
ished by twenty-eight hussars ; and that the only bad  effects
of  this violence were  a  slight irritation of the vagina, and a
few scratches, which soon healed again.   A physician of Paris
relates  the  case  of  a woman  of  forty  years old, who  had
used a  man ten  times  a  day for twenty-two years, and  still
enjoyed good  health.   As  a general rule, women  are  less
exhausted by intercourse than men, and preserve their strength
better.   Daily experience  shows that a man will  ruin himself
by excessive coit; whereas, we see prostitutes  getting fat in
spite of their dissolute lives.  Very fat men, on the contrary,
are usually incapacitated  for venerous indulgence, and rarely
prolific.  Women frequently complain that their husbands do
not satisfy them, but men are seldom heard to complain  of
their wives.
   These cases of excesses are exceptions, and even these ex-
 ceptions finally lead  to serious derangements—but much more
 frightful are the consequences which flow from artificial manip-
 ulation of the sexual organs.
   Local Symptoms.—When nocturnal pollutions are  excited
 by  Masturbation, or by venereal  excesses, serious  disorders
 will soon be observed.  By  degrees all the phenomena or ex-
 citement, which preceded  or accompanied the crisis, disappear
 entirely;'emissions occur without  dreams,  erections, pleasure,
 or any particular sensation, so that the patient  only discovers
 what has taken place by finding the marks on his linen.   The
 seminal fluid gradually loses its consistence, color, smell, and
         17* 
198
APPENDIX.
even its spermatozoa, while it more resembles mucus or pros-
tatic fluid.   These watery evacuations are followed by similar
but more violent effects.   The seminal  vesicles discharge  a
large  amount  of  viscid matter.  The  emission  is  sudden.
They will happen frequently in one night, although the patient
is  sometimes unaware of the fact.   The  sleep, however, is
usually light and broken, and the patient will find the matter
in  the hair around  the base of the penis, in the perinaeum, and
even on the  thigh.  When it becomes dry after  flowing over
the skin, it forms a thin, brilliant pellicle, resembling the mark
left by the garden  snail.  A good  deal of this matter will be
found on the interior of the prepuce; sometimes the  prepuce
is  entirely filled with it, showing  the flaccidity  of the penis,
and the little energy of the  seminal vesicles.  This  kind of
progressive  decrease in the excitement of  the genital organs,
with the corresponding increased alteration in the qualities of
the semen, is accompanied with notable increase in the severity
of  the  general  symptoms, and in the difficulty of  treating
them.  Patients sometimes practice Masturbation or coitus so
furiously as  to cause emissions of blood.  The semen  is rarely
purulent or  sanious in patients affected by involuntary  dis-
charges ; such characters evince a  profound lesion of the sper-
matic organs,  which would  be soon followed  by death, if
continued in so great intensity.  The diminution  of the ener-
getic phenomena should cause uneasiness  and alarm, for the
reason that the most debilitating  discbarges, and those most
difficult to cure, are those that take place most passively.  The
more the seminal fluid loses its distinctive characters and be-
comes watery, the more hurtful are  the effects of the discharges
on the system.
  Diurnal Pollutions.—These take place during the waking
state.  They may happen during defecation and  the emission
of urine.  In robust people,  they  may happen from unusual
continence, riding on horseback, etc.  Accidental or long con-
stipation will cause them.   They will occur as the  effects of
long-continued  sitting of  literary men   and others. After
having produced heat in the margin of the anus and perinaeum, 
APPENDIX.
199
with frequent and prolonged erections, sedentary habits are
often followed by a completely opposite condition, without the
transition from one state to another being appreciable.  The
long use  of astringents  and bitters, together with all  causes
capable  of inducing  constipation,  tend equally to transform
diurnal pollutions, which are harmless at first, into serious and
intractable diseases.
  Seminal discharges that  take place during the emission of
urine are the most serious and most  obstinate of all, because
they are  the most often, and the most easily repeated.   They
are also  very  obscure, on account of the alterations the semen
undergoes, and^ of its mixture with the urine, at least  in the
majority  of  cases.   I  must  lay considerable stress  on the
means by which  the presence of these  discharges may be
ascertained, and therefore refer the reader to the  chapters on
this subject in this work.
  Impotence.—Loss  of virility, when not attributable to any
evident cause, must be considered  a local symptom, and one
of the most certain of seminal discharges.  The effects of age,
of serious diseases, and of lesions of the testicles, are of course
left  out of the question in this  statement; and there are also
other cases which must  be carefully distinguished from habit-
ual  or acquired  impotence.  Impotence and sterility  of the
male, are weaknesses which, though differing in  form, resem-
ble each other in one respect: both arrest the faculty of pro-
pagating the species.  By impotence we mean an inability to
exercise  the act of coition.   Impotence is necessarily accom-
panied by sterility.   In  sterility coitus may take place, but
there is  no conception.   Generally speaking, impotence ap-
plies to the male,  and sterility to the female.
  Under the influence of powerful  moral  impressions of what-
ever kind, the genital organs may occasionally not respond to
the most energetic desires.  Sometimes, even the violence of
the excitement may prevent its external manifestation.   Such
accidental circumstances  should  therefore be distinguished
from habitual impotence.  In  other cases,  too, the evolution
of the genital  instinct never perfectly takes place.   Some even 
200
APPENDIX
never experience a commencing puberty.   Lallemand once
saw a man thirty years of age, very fat, without beard, and
without hair on the pubes, whose testicles and  penis appeared
to belong to a child seven of years of age.  He had never expe-
rienced erections or venereal desires.  This case  must be con-
sidered  as  the type of congenital impotence.  It is rarely so
complete, but in no  case must it be  confounded  with  the ac-
quired condition.
  Impotence  is  also  chiefly  caused by diseases  of the brain
and spinal marrow, arising from Onanism and sexual excesses.
Diseases of the urinary and sexual organs, and abdominal af-
fections, likewise weaken the  sexual functions.  Intoxication
is an obstacle to sexual intercourse.   Drunkards are frequently
affected with impotence.
  The presence of well-formed semen, in the seminal vesicles,
is the cause of all normal erections,  and without  this essential
condition, either direct or  indirect, excitement would have no
action  on the erectile tissues.  Habitual and  acquired impo-
tence, therefore, arises from the want of the normal  stimulus
in the vesicles,  and  is, consequently, one of the  most  certain
signs of the presence of diurnal  pollutions.   Thus, the local
causes of impotence may be various, either purely physiologi-
cal and functional, or  resulting in alterations of the secretions
as organic and congenital.
  The loss of the testicles is a principal cause of impotence and
sterility.   Retention of the testicles in  the abdominal cavity
is another  cause.  So is  disease of this organ.   Cancer, tu-
berculosis, etc., completely destroy the virile power. In short,
any thing that has a tendency to  weaken the fecundating
power of organs, or to cause  spermatorrhoea, will  induce  im-
potence and sterility.
  Among congenital malformations, we distinguish—
  1.  Smallness of the  Penis.—All the rest of the organs being
normally developed, the penis may nevertheless remain small,
without the party being sterile or impotent.  A  mere ejacula-
tion of the semen against the outer pudendum  is frequently
sufficient to effect fecundation.  Sometimes the  penis of the 
APPENDIX.
201
male is not much larger than the clitoris of the female.  Evi-
dently, sexual intercourse is impossible when the male organs
are shrunk to this diminutive size.
  2.  Atrophy of the Penis  is almost  always accompanied by
atrophy of the  testes, and  always causes  impotence and ster-
ility.
  3.  Apparent Diminution of the Size of the Penis.—This takes
place in large scrotal hernias ; sarcocele, hydrocele, may occa-
sion impotence until disorganization is removed.
  4.  Phymosis,  or  excessive length of the prepuce, may  also
lead to impotence.   If the prepuce is so long and narrow that
it cannot  be drawn  back over the glans, the ejaculation of
the semen is impeded.   Circumcision  may restore  the fecun-
dating faculty.
  Imperfect or suppressed erections constitute a mechanical ob-
stacle to the sexual act.  The weakness may arise from abuse
or severe  disease.   A  deviation of the erect  penis from the
true line likewise prevents its approach to the os tinea?.  This
defect  arises from  an extreme shortness and tension of the
suspensory  ligament of the penis, or of the frenulum;  or it
may arise from  paralysis of one of the corpora  cavernosa, or
the condition may resemble that of chordee in gonorrhoea, etc.
The urethra may be closed up by ulcers  on the penis, strict-
ures, while the passage of the semen may be obstructed in other
ways.   Congenital  malformations of the sexual organs, caus-
ing impotence and sterility, cannot be removed by art.  Never-
theless,  if  weaknesses  result  from  general debility  of the
sexual organs, or abuse of the sexual functions, they can be
cured, provided the patients are in the hands of intelligent and
experienced physicians.
  Sterility of the  Female.—Sterility occurs much  more fre-
quently in the female than in the male.  It frequently occurs
after sexual excesses, or in consequence of Onanism.  Consid-
erable fleshiness is  likewise a  frequent cause of sterility.  A
lascivious disposition and excessive  intercourse will prevent
conception, as is seen  in  the case of prostitutes.   Females
who marry either too young, or too old, are likewise apt  to be 
202
APPENDIX.
without children.   There is  scarcely a woman who is entirely
devoid of sexual desire;  but even if this were the case, she
might yet conceive, considering that  the part she performs  in
the sexual act is of a very passive  nature.  Women, in whom
the sexual  passion is inactive, are more easily  impregnated
than women with strong sexual desires.  The same diseases
which cause impotence in the male will  cause sterility in the
female.  The same remark applies to the use of coffee, tea, and
spirituous stimulants.  Diseases of the ovaries, inflammation,
dropsy, hydatids, the absence of the  menses, copious leucor-
rhcea, functional derangements, congenital malformations, etc.,
are all among the causes of sterility.
  Besides these exceedingly important defects, there are other
relative causes of  sterility.  There may be perfect develop-
ment of all  the  organs, and yet conception not  take place.
Such causes, for example, are antipathy or antagonism be-
tween the married  partners ; extreme difference of age, consti-
tution and  temperaments, as when a very old man is  married
to a young  wife, or  an old  woman to  a young  husband ;  or
where a cold and  phlegmatic husband has a wife of very ar-
dent temperament, and vice versa.  Such causes are quite fre-
quent, although it  is  not always easy  to find them  out.
  There are instances of sterility of five, ten, or twenty years
standing.   Henry  II. had no children by the Duchess of Ur-
bain for ten years.   When on the point of separating from his
wife, his friends  advised  him first to consult the celebrated
Doctor Fernell.  "  Will you make my wife a child ?"  said the
king, smilingly.  " Sire,"  said the Doctor,  " you  will have to
do that, but I will tell you how."  The Doctor's advice being
followed, the Queen soon gave birth to a child, and the Doctor
received a  present of seventy  thousand  dollars  for  having
brought about the happy conception.  Anne of Austria,, had
been  married to Louis XIV. for fifteen years before she had a
child.   I delivered a lady of her first child, about a year ago,
who had been married twenty years.
   It often happens that women who  had no children by a first
husband, have  children by another,  and vice versa  In 1658, 
APPENDIX.
203
the Marquis de Langry married, at the age of  twenty-five,
Lady Mary de Countemoir, fourteen years old ;  and for four
years they lived on the best possible terms together.  In the
fifth year, she charged  her husband with impotence, and ob-
tained a divorce  from him.  He  afterward married Diana of
Montault, and had seven children by her.
  The treatment of sterility is pretty much the same as impo-
tence.  The conscientious  physician must take cognizance
of every circumstance, the whole history of the parties them-
selves, even  of their  parents, the  condition  of the sexual
organs, in order to suitably treat each case of sterility, &c.
  General Symptoms.—Involuntary seminal discharges may
oppose  fecundation previously to  actually producing  impo-
tence, by diminishing the energy of all the phenomena that
occur to  the  accomplishment  of the act, and  by preventing
the complete development of the spermatozoa, as well  as the
elaboration  of the fluid which acts as the vehicle for them.
  .Fewer.—Whatever may be its character, fever can never be
considered as a symptom of involuntary seminal discharges-
such evacuations, however serious they may be, never pro-
ducing  febrile  excitement.   Patients suffering from sperma-
torrhoea, however, are not exempted from fevers arising from
other causes.  Indeed, they are  more  liable, in  consequence
of  their  constitutions  resisting such   causes  less directly.
These  fevers  must,  therefore, be  considered  as  accidental
complications, and treated as such.
   Symptoms affecting the Digestive Organs.—At first, Venereal
excesses  are generally accompanied with an increased appe-
tite  from the  necessity the economy experiences of making
up 'its  daily losses, and  from  the  excitement of the genital
organs   Masturbation  often  produces analogous  results.
Sometimes extreme  voracity is produced by such abuse  of
the organs   The sensation experienced is  not precisely that
 of common hunger:  it is  rather a  sense of gnawing and heat
 referred  to the epigastrium or pit of the stomach, or a kind
 of uneasiness or sinking, which sometimes nearly causes faint-
 ino-   A small quantity of food puts an end to this sensation, 
204
APPENDIX.
and  soon afterward disgust is felt.  But the patients compel
themselves to eat against their will, or they increase the num-
ber of meals in proportion as the uneasiness in the stomach
becomes more frequently repeated.   By some means or other,
they generally take more  food during  the  day than the  sto-
mach is able to digest.
  Almost all, too, seek  the most spiced and savory kinds of
food, and take  alcoholic drinks, coffee, etc.,  in  order  to favor
the digestive process.  But these dangerous  auxiliaries cannot
restore the original vigor of  the digestive  organs; they only
beget  excitement, not healthy strength.  Hence, the illusion
produced by this stimulating diet, is not of long duration.  Those
who expect the greatest benefit will soon find  their digestion
more difficult and  painful; they have thus increased the  irri-
tation  of the stomach.
  A constant  and remarkable increase of the involuntary
discharges results as much from  the  effects  such excitants
produce on the whole economy, as from the special influence
of the stomach on the spermatic organs; for there is no recip-
rocal act, as usual.  The various phenomena attending diges-
tion  are too well  known  by physicians to require further
elucidation in this place.
  Nutrition.—The whole economy necessarily feels the effects
of serious digestive disorder ;  for the condition  most essential
to nutrition is good digestion.   The  phenomena which follow
meals  in  such  cases show clearly enough  that  digestion is
incomplete; absorption  can,  therefore,  only obtain little re-
parative  matter from a  mixture of useless,  or  even injurious
materials.  Hence, the structures  of  the body necessarily  lose
substance, and  the functions  languish.   Not only do the pa-
tients  become emaciated, but there  is  decreased  energy and
activity of all the organs ; for it is necessary that all, in order
to act well, should  constantly receive a full supply  of  rich
blood.
  Animal Heat.—As soon as the digestion becomes deranged,
and the em-bon-point decreases, the patients become sensible to
the influence of cold.  They soon  find that they must clothe 
APPENDIX.
205
themselves more warmly, keep out of draughts, and use in-
creased precautions of every kind, in order to prevent pain
in their limbs, catarrhal affections, etc. But being very warmly
clothed, they are unable to take any exercise without  being
covered with perspiration, which comes on very rapidly.  Ou
the other hand,  again, warmth during the night exposes them
to the occurrence of pollutions.
   Respiration.—Not only while running, or ascending a hill or
stairs, but even on taking very slight exercise, patients affected
with  Spermatorrhoea become out of  breath;  sometimes even
they feel  oppressed breathings  during absolute quiescence.
They frequently sigh also.
   Patients suffering  from Spermatorrhoea, often experience
other symptoms of which it  is necessary to be aware.   Ner-
vous  asthma may be produced by Masturbation.  Sometimes
patients have  a predisposition to pulmonary catarrh  with
coryza, loss of voice, a dry cough, etc.; in others again, fixed
or wandering pains in the thorax; and in  a few cases, a sudden
pain  seizes on the heart, or diaphragm, and  for a minute or
two causes great agony.  Most of the patients whose respira-
tory apparatus is thus diminished, believe themselves the sub-
ject of phthisis, or pulmonary consumption.
   Circulation.—It  is  indisputable that  abuse, venereal ex-
cesses, and involuntary discharges, often  excite, more or less,
alarming palpitations of the heart.
   General Phenomena.—There are numerous other indications
of Spermatorrhoea, such as innervation, loss of sight, hearing,
tasting, smell,  touch,  etc.   There  is also loss of sleep and
general uneasiness, inducing  or  resulting in  many disorders,
such  as cranial congestion, cephalalgia,  hypochondriasis, loss
of memory, impairment of the intellect, insanity, paralysis, etc.
  The patient must understand  that the actual condition of
the spermatic organs must be altered in order to obtain a cure.
This  point  must  never  be lost  sight of in  considering the
means to  be employed for the treatment of Spermatorrhoea.
The  remedies are  numerous  and of very  opposite classesj
requiring considerable experience and skill in their adaptation
           18 
206
APPENDIX.
to the temperament or idiosyncracy of each patient, as well as
to the different stages of disease.   The  patient should  place
himself under the care of some conscientious, and intelligent,
and experienced physician for medical treatment, and shun the
dens  of  quackery and  empiricism which are  found in such
numbers in every part of the land.

              NEW CASES OF CURIOUS INTEREST.
  In  conclusion of this volume, I deem it proper to present a
few recent cases of remarkable interest, as have been developed
in my own special practice.  I would first observe, that my plan
of treatment and the remedies I employ, partake largely of the
specific, comprehending  Oxygen in various combinations, with
other medicaments whose tendency is to recuperate the sys-
tem, by  enriching the blood, aerating it through the means
of the lungs and the pores of the skin, and affording that elec-
tric or nervous influence which is so materially impaired in
consequence of the abuse of Onanism and  excessive vener}^.
The dietetic and hygienic requirements  are based on strictly
scientific principles, while the moral obligations are rigidly
enforced. I insist on an entire abandonment of the destructive
habit  of  Masturbation and all other  venerous excesses, and a
faithful adherence to  the  regimen  prescribed as regards daily
exercise, business  pursuits and pleasures, diet, clothing, tem-
perature, etc.    The  medicines  used  are easily taken,  and
readily respond to the vis medicatrix naturoz, or the  recupera-
tive energies of the organism.  In  this way the various com-
plications of disease rapidly yield, and vigorous health is finally
restored, even  in the most formidable cases  of bodily prostra-
tion and mental disorder.  Desperate cases of  Spermatorrhoea
usually require from six months to a year for complete  eradi-
cation, while it  should  be remembered  that there are many
cases utterly beyond the power of cure. Deep-seated legions of
every  kind, entailing consumption, scrofula, insanity, paralysis,
etc., are  seldom cured ;  and this  being  the fact,  the  sooner
the  physician is called in the better it will be for the prospec- 
APPENDIX.
207
five longevity and happiness of the votary of inveterate sexual
passions.

                  PRIVATE SPECIAL CASES.
  Case of  Consumption.—J. G. B. (single), aged 25, parents
healthy,  applied to me in December,  1856, with  a severe
cough and  copious  expectoration, amounting to nearly  one
pint in twenty-four hours.  He also had copious night-sweats,
severe pain  in the chest, and at times violent chills followed
by raging fever.   On  examination of the lungs, I found  the
left one diseased  from apex to base, with two large cavities,
one  near  the apex  and the other about the centre  of  the
lung. He had all the symptoms of the last stage of Consump-
tion.  I was led  from the expression  of  his countenance  and
some questions put to him, to believe that he had been addicted
to Masturbation, which he  frankly  acknowledged was  the
case, the pernicious habit having been taught him by his uncle
when he was about fourteen  years of age.  This young man
was perfectly satisfied, prior to seeing me, that his direful  dis-
ease had been brought about  by his constant  abuse of  the
genital organs.  I informed him that I  could do nothing for
him, as he had delayed medical treatment too long.  He died
in a few weeks afterward, his  friends  supposing him  to have
been called  away from time to eternity through  the dispensa-
tion  of  a mysterious Providence, whereas it was his own per-
verse violation of Nature's laws, that was  the special  cause
of his untimely decease.
  It is proper here to remark, that Consumption, which is  the
great scourge of the civilized world, causing a^out  two-thirds
of the general mortality, is owing, directly or indirectly, to Mas-
turbation and excessive sexual indulgence.  Such unnatural
excitement  of  the organs of  generation is not confined to
one sex—males and females are equally guilty of the degrading
and  destructive  practice of self-abuse, etc.  I herewith pre-
sent  a case in corroboration of this assertion.
  Cases  of Consumption and Marasmus. — C.  B.,  aged 40,
called March 10th. 1857, to consult me about a child of  his, 
203
APPENDIX.
which he supposed to be afflicted with Consumption.   He de-
sired, before I saw the child, to have  some conversation with
me about himself.  He stated that he had practiced  Mastur-
bation from the time he was a mere  child, until a short time
before  his  marriage, which  occurred  when 20 years  old, the
habit having been acquired at school.  When he did not mas-
turbate, he would have involuntary discharges at night, which
he thought quite as  bad.  After marriage he found  himself
gradually becoming impotent, or  having  less inclination and
power to consummate the  sexual act, virility seeming to be
almost entirely lost,  when he came to consult with me con-
cerning this venereal debility.  He  had four  children ; one
lived three  years, when it died—having pined  away to a mere
skeleton, under a disease which the doctors pronounced ma-
rasmus.  The second child, about whom he had called to con-
sult, was then  eight  years of age.   His third child had died
soon after its birth, from what the physician stated was a defi-
ciency of vitality.  The fourth was living, in good health, and
much resembling its  mother, who had never been addicted  to
Onanism.  The first three children resembled the father, and
doubtless partook of his debility through hereditary predisposi-
tion. The fourth child I succeeded in restoring to good health,
after much anxious care and difficulty, in about a year's treat-
ment of his cachetic constitution.
  The chances for the recovery of children, from any  general
debility, are much more hopeless when both parents have been
addicted to Masturbation in  early life.  See the plate of " The
Onanists and their Child," for a good illustration of the effects
of the abuse on parents and child.
  Having many such cases as the above  as  a basis for a ra-
tional conclusion, I have no hesitation in saying, that if Mas-
turbation could be entirely  abolished, Consumption would  be
among the  rarest of diseases, and  as amenable to  successful
treatment as any of ordinary character.  The constitutional
weakness, called "hereditary," which is transmitted from par-
ents to  offspring, in  six  cases  out of ten,  has its foundation
in Masturbation.  It is entailed on  the offspring, more or less 
APPENDIX.                    209
 remotely retrospectively, coming down, even through a course
 of three or four  generations,  thus fulfilling the  Scripture
 truth, that the " sins of the  parent are visited upon the chil-
 dren, even to tho  third or fourth  generation."   This is espe-
 cially the effect in cases of Consumption and Insanity.
   Consumption, in a large majority of cases, commences in the
 left lung.  Some writers say, eight cases  to  ten.   This fact
 proyes what  has been stated, that it is the  left lung that is in
 sympathy with the generative organs, the  same as the head is
 in sympathy  with the stomach.
   Marasmus, Diseases  of the Heart, Dyspepsia, Constipation
 of the Bowels,  Epilepsy; in fact, almost every other distress-
 ing malady,  including  Imbecility  an8 Insanity, may be the
 direct or remote consequences  of sexual  abuse, particularly
 that by Masturbation.
   Case  of  Masturbation.—Mrs.  D. E. L. called to  consult
 me about her sister, who lived with her, and who was then in
 her eighth year of age.  She  had a troublesome cough, hemor-
 rhage from the lungs, night sweats, and other pulmonary symp-
 toms, together  with  a  discharge from the labia,  which she
 called whites or leucorrhcea.   I informed the lady  that  I
 thought the child had brought on  this alarming condition of
 the system by excessive excitation of the organs of genera-
 tion, and requested her to watch and  ascertain  whether my
 supposition was correct or not.  This she did.  On one occa-
 sion she sent the little girl up stairs to change her dress.  She
 staid longer  than she thought was necessary.  She followed
 her up stairs, and found the  child under the highest state of
 excitement, her face flushed, her whole system bathed in  pers-
 piration, from titillation of the organs.   The  child  confessed
 that she had practiced the  secret sin  for  several  years, her
 nurse having induced the habit by tickling her in order to  keep
 her quiet.  The child, after a course of suitable treatment, is
now a fine, hearty young lady, about  to be  married, who, if
her early secret habits had  not been opportunely discovered,
would doubtless long since have gone to her grave.
  I could present numerous similar caees of disastrous couse-
        18* 
210                  APPENDIX.
quences growing  out  of  the practice which obtains  among
many nurses of tickling  the children under their charge in
order to  quiet their fretfulness, or to induce that prostration
which inclines them to sleep, more than is natural or requisite.
Parents,  therefore, cannot be too careful  in selecting persons
to take charge of children.
  A Case of Spermatorrhoea.—S. M., a young man of twen-
ty-one years of age, had  been a student-at-law, but was com-
pelled to  give  it up.  He was afterward employed in  a con-
veyancing office, as a copyist, etc.   From the many errors he
made,  he was soon dismissed  this situation, also.  He  had
graduated at one of the first-class colleges in the country, and
entered upon the study  of  law in  seeming fine  health,  and
every prospect of a brilliant career, as possessed of many
amiable  and intellectual gifts.   Prior, however,  to  quitting
college, he had been taught the  habit of Masturbation, by a
fellow-student, some years older than himself,  who has since
died in an Insane asylum from the effects of self-abuse.  Our
patient had continued the vicious practice until his  physical
system was greatly  prostrated, while he had many indications
of mental aberration.  His  nervous system  became exceed-
ingly irritable; he had little  or no appetite ; the bowels were
much constipated;  while he had violent palpitations  of the
heart, a  dry racking  cough,  and neuralgic pains  through  his
chest and head.   He was drowsy during the day,  and restless
at night, with marasmus, or a rapid wasting of his general
organism. He informed me that he had often premeditated sui-
cide.  By a firm effort of the will he had ceased Masturbation
for six months, but  continued to have frequent  nocturnal pol-
lutions and discharges of semen when he micturated or went
to stool.   After six months  treatment, I  succeeded in build-
ing up this young man's constitution to nearly its  normal con-
dition, giving him thus comparative good health and a marked
improvement in his mental faculties.  He is now a prominent
member  of the Philadelphia bar, and, with ordinary prudence,
will have a life full  of years and honors.
   I could give a large number of cases of clerks, salesmen, and 
APPENDIX.
211
young men in all trades and professions, who were compelled
to abandon business on account of impairment of intellect, as
a  consequence  of Onanism  and  sexual  excesses.  I have
treated a young man who lost three situations in one year, as
salesman, in consequence of the many blunders he made in
that capacity, the infirmity of intellect arising solely from his
practice of self-pollution; while  another man lost two situa-
tions in one year, because he was unable  to  keep correct
accounts, as a book-keeper, from  excessive Masturbation  and
venery.  Both these young men were successfully treated, and
are  now holding lucrative situations in mercantile  establish-
ments in Philadelphia.
   Case of Mental Derangement.—Belief in  Change of Sex.—
This species of pollution is frequently met with,  as a result of
Onanism.   Professor  Rech  describes  a case  of  this kind,
which is almost identical, in general features, with one which
recently came  under  my notice.  The intellect  had been im-
paired  for a long time ;  finally the patient imagined himself
a woman,  and spent  much  of his  time in  writing amorous
epistles to an imaginary lover.
   This patient died of a chronic diarrhoea.   The ejaculatory
ducts were found atrophied and obliterated, which, as a matter
of course, abolished the functions of the testes,  and  hence led
the  patient to believe  himself a girl.
   Perhaps in  all cases where we find cerebral symptoms of
long standing, there will also  be found remarkable derange-
ments  of all the other functions of the body.   The digestion
will be performed badly; the stomach will not bear fermented
drinks,  spiced meats, or very nutritious food.   Constipation
supervenes;  the intestinal tubes  are  greatly distended by
flatus,  sexual  intercourse becomes  more and more  rare,  the
 copulative  act more  rapid,  and at last  entirely impossible.
 Being  constantly tormented  by flatus, of  which they want
 continually to relieve themselves, the patients shun society
 and its trammels ;  they dislike any thing which recalls pleas-
 ures they can no longer share: hence, they become melan- 
212
APPENDIX.
 cholic  and irritable, misanthropic and hypochondriacal, and
 often hopelessly insane.
   Case of Blennorrhagia.—This was a case of diurnal pollu-
 tion.  H. W. was a student of medicine, twenty years of age,
 of lymphatic  temperament, tall and thin, pale face, red hair,
 white, and habitually cold skin, narrow chest, and soft, feeble
 voice.  In 1836 he contracted Blennhorrhagia.  I employ this
 term, because I consider the word Gonorrhoea a misnomer, in
 speaking of Spermatorrhoea arising from contagious urethritis.
 Before coming to me he had been treated by emollient drinks,
 general  baths, and  corrosive  sublimate.  He  finally  took
 several doses of  Chopart's mixture,  which arrested  the dis-
 charge  after it had  been running four months.  In September
 he contracted the disorder a second time after horse-exercise.
 There was a swelling of the left  testicle, which soon was dis-
 persed,  leaving a  flaccid  scrotum, with painful dragging pains
 in the spermatic cord,  which was measurably relieved by the
 use of a suspensory bandage.  At the beginning of 1857, the
 discharge still continuing, local astringents and mercural fric-
 tions were employed, with iodide of potassium and bichloride
 of mercury; all of which failed to arrest the discharge.  While
 under this treatment, he was exposed to severe cold, which sup-
 pressed the cutaneous exhalations and increased the pain in the
 loins. Attributing this to a weakness of the stomach, he sought
 to stimulate  the organ  by a generous diet, and by the use of
 rhubarb and wine,  which,  however, only aggravated his dis-
 order.   As  soon  as food touched  the stomach, there was  a
 great oppression  of the  prsecordia, difficult breathing, much
 lassitude, and  a desire  to vomit;  his tongue was white  and
 pasty, constipation was very obstinate, while he was unable to
 fix his  attention  on any subject requiring mental exertion.
 He forced himself to eat to gain strength, but only to increase
the difficulty of his  digestion.  Toward the close of 1857, the
 cold  weather increased  his symptoms.  He was always  very
 chilly, and nothing  seemed to give him his natural warmth
He suffered severe pains in the loins, passed urine  frequently
but had difficulty in  expelling the last drop, which left a viscid 
APPENDIX.
213
 matter on his  shirt.   He had no  longer  erections or sexual
 impulse.  He often passed semen in his sleep, without lascivi-
 ous dreams or turgidity of the penis, etc.
   When  he  placed himself under my charge, in February,
 1858, his  state had become  most deplorable.  I ordered him
 to wear flannel next to the skin ; applied  leeches to the  anus,
 and  cold lotions to the  stomach;  put him through a course
 of tonic  regimen.  In  a few days there  was a  remarkable
 change.  His digestion was better;  the pains in the loins and
 the lassitude entirely disappeared ; his genital organs acquired
 energy; he threw aside his suspensory bandage ;  the urine no
 longer  deposited the  reddish sediment, and erections  reap-
 peared.   In three months his health was reestablished, which
 the warmth of the last summer has proved sufficient to confirm.
   The  lymphatic temperament  of  this patient rendered him
 peculiarly liable  to  the injurious  effects  of cold.  Hence, I
 ordered the  constant  wearing of  flannel  next to  his  skin.
 This will  tend to preserve him  from further relapses, and to
 permanently  build up his constitution.  Although he had only
 suffered from Blennorrhagia, he had undergone several courses
 of anti-venereal treatment, the effects of mercury proving very
 injurious to his constitution, as it was naturally little fitted to
 withstand  its action.  He fell,  also, into the very common
 error of eating heartily in order to restore his wasting  flesh.
 Hence, digestion  was badly performed, while there was flatus,
 because the stomach shared  the general weakness, which the
 recourse to rhubarb, generous wines, spices, only  further ag-
 gravated.   Hence, frequently arise the  attacks of  Chronic
 Gastritis,  which so  constantly attends old  cases of Sperma-
 torrhoea.  This patient's intellectual faculties being weak, he
 took coffee and tea to rouse himself.   At length he began to
treat symptoms, instead of a disease; and  allowed  himself to
be influenced by the  names given to medicines.   His  urine
was thick, deposited sediment, and  was passed with difficulty ;
yet he  took nitrate of potass as  a diuretic, without reflecting
that the tendency of this remedy is to increase the secretions,
and excite the urinary  organs, already  too much  irritated. 
214
APPENDIX.
His bowels  being constipated, he  took purgatives, without
reflecting  on the effect which irritation of  the  rectum  pro-
duces on the bladder, the prostate, and the seminal vesicles.
These are errors of daily occurrence.   The cold-water bathing
produced  no good effects, because his organism was already
too cold and weak to obtain a proper degree of reaction after
bathing.   The  genito-urinary mucous membrane was already
too irritable not to receive a hurtful shock from immersion  in
cold water.  Cold baths employed, without distinction, in Sper-
matorrhoea, have  done  much more harm than good.  Every
thing must depend upon the temperament of the organism, etc.
  Were it necessary, I could  fill a large volume with cases
badly treated by unprincipled empirics, without education and
knowledge of the peculiar disease or condition of the system
which they attempted to treat.   Many of  these quacks treat
symptoms for disease, or do  not  know those which arise from
involuntary seminal  discharges caused by mechanical means,
from those excessive discharges, caused by abuse of the genital
organs by Masturbation.  Their  treatment proves unsuccess-
ful, because the origin of the disorder is unrecognized.  Par-
ticularly are the remedies useless while the habit of self-abuse
is  continued.  Nay, the disorder  of Spermatorrhoea is  very
little understood by the profession generally, in this country.
The patients affected by it are usually, if not always, hypo-
chondriacal—indeed, the symptoms of hypochondriasis and
mental derangement are generally by far the most marked  in
them—and after the usual remedies for digestive disorder and
liver disease fail, the physician  either treats  his  patient  as
a malade imaginaire, or leaves him a prey to the wretched
balsam-selling  quacks, who  are  unfortunately permitted  to
pollute every newspaper with their disgusting advertisements.
The regular  profession  generally do not seem to be  aware  of
the immense importance of these seminal discharges ; and,  bv
common  consent, refuse to  recognize a subject  which  they
deem repugnant to delicacy.  By consequence, sufferers  find-
ing themselves neglected by their ordinary medical attendants,
fall into the hands of the ignorant and  rapacious advertising 
APPENDIX.
215
 quacks, who thus make rapid fortunes by the sale  of  their
 horrible nostrums, and mal-practices.   Many cases  of  gross
 imposition, by these charlatans, have come under  my notice,
 which it is  my intention soon to expose to the world through
 the medium of some popular medical or other journal.
   The subject of Spermatorrhoea is an  uninviting one—espe-
 cially to the fastidious,  perhaps too  fastidious professional
 taste.  That any physician should relieve himself from the in-
 vestigation  of a most afflicting disease,  because the subject is
 an unpleasant one, appears to me utterly unworthy of the gen-
 eral character of our profession.   Had  similar opinions been
 held  respecting Syphilis—a subject quite as repugnant to our
 rational feeling as Spermatorrhoea—what a fearful amount of
 misery would have been entailed on the  human  race !
   Many patients are supposed to suffer from chronic gastritis
 or gastro-enteritis; from  aneurisms  near the heart, the  early
 symptoms of phthisis, etc.;  and in other cases from nervous
 affections,  and  especially from  hypochondriasis.   Hence we
 see how frequent, important, and difficult of detection are
 the involuntary seminal discharges, and to what  deplorable
 errors of treatment  they give  rise.    It is also  easily seen
 that their  causes must be  very varied, and their treatment
 attended with considerable difficulties.  Sometimes these  cases
 give rise to distressing suspicions, and much family uuhappi-
 ness,  especially as they often occur in  married  men.  The
 symptoms are often almost as severe as those in virulent clap or
 gonorrhoea, and the discharge is  attended with great irrita-
 tion in the neighborhood of  the prostate, and  frequent desire
 of micturition.  The discharge came on, in one case of a mar-
 ried  man who  consulted me, after taking  a  single  glass of
whisky and  water  at  night—this gentleman not being in the
habit  of taking spirits.  The discharges in these cases are
thicker  than that of  ordinary clap, and stick  in patches  on
the linen.
  Many members  of our profession are in the habit of setting
down  all discharges from the  urethra indiscriminately as the 
216                   APPENDIX.
result  of  impure  connection,  however positive  the  patient
may be that such has not taken place.
  The  diagnosis of Spermatorrhoea,  in aggravated or long-
standing cases, is by no means easy.  When frequent diurnal
pollutions have deteriorated the patient's health, discharge of
watery  semen taking place  almost every  time  the patient
makes  water, the Spermatozoa are often only distinguishable
nnder  the  microscope   and   long-continued  manipulation.
Perhaps in  no research connected with medical science  is it
more important  to  possess one of the  best  of microscopes.
The eighth of an inch object-glass  will  be  found almost indis-
pensable in the study of these cases, although the Spermatozoa
in  healthy semen can  be perfectly well examined  with  an ob-
ject-glass  of a quarter of an inch focal length.
  It may now be  proper to  speak  of the action of certain
medicine—as astringents, purgatives,  narcotics, stimulants,
and diuretics—as inducing conditions from which Spermator-
rhoea may arise.
         ACTION OF CERTAIN  MEDICINE.

                      astringents.

  Large Doses of Bark.—Consumption  is evidently  attribut-
able to the prolonged use of Bark.  The straining at the stools
will cause palpitations of  the heart and diurnal pollutions.
  Purgatives.—Irritation  from spermatic contractions of the
rectum may extend to the seminal vesicles, and  produce just
as serious diurnal pollutions as those which arise from mechan-
ical compression of the same organs.
  Ascarides, diarrhoea, etc., may excite  involuntary emissions
equally as well as any mechanical obstacle to defecation does.
Hence drastic purgatives, by irritating the  rectum,  may ex-
pose the  patient  to the same dangers as astringents do, by
bringing  on  constipation.  Drastic purgatives,  by irritating 
APPENDIX.                   217
the large intestines, produce spasmodic contractions  of the
rectum,  and by consequence induce the pollutions.   If the
abuse of  purgatives may bring on diarrhoea  in persons not
previously affected, it is  evident that those previously, or at
the time-being afflicted with it, will be further much injured
by their use.  In almost  all cases of Spermatorrhoea, the con-
stipation is very obstinate.  Therefore, under no pretext should
the medical attendant permit the administration of any thing
more active than mild  laxatives in these cases.  Indeed, it is
very doubtful whether  even the mildest laxatives can be used
with impunity.  In the symptoms  of hypochondriasis, and
the  cerebral congestion  they may  manifest, purgatives  are
freely administered—a course  of  treatment,  in my opinion,
very erroneous indeed.

                        NARCOTICS.
   Tobacco is said  to have  a very injurious influence on  the
genital  functions.   The  question  to be  settled is, is such in-
fluence  due to the action of tobacco  on  the cerebro-spinal
system, or to its direct action on the spermatic organs?  I am
led to believe that pollutions occur by some special action of
tobacco on the cerebellum.  It is  said that excessive smoking
of cigars will  cause  a  loss of the virile power.  This view is
net confirmed in my practice.  I know one instance, at least,
of a man who had scarcely ever a cigar out of his mouth, who
was the  father of  twelve  healthy  children, and  vigorous
enough apparently to be father of a dozen more.  This gen-
tleman was very excitable  and wild  under the influence of al-
coholic stimulants, but quiet and good-natured under the in-
fluence of ale, and the  constant smoking of cigars.  He how-
ever never used tobacco  in any other way.
   The action of tobacco  on those who smoke for the first time
is well known.  More or less disorder of functions arises from
it.   The patient may become habituated to the use of tobacco
without  any narcotic  effect on the system  whatever  being
perceived.  Others, through a nervous and excitable organ-
ism, can never accustom  themselves to the habit.   The use of
         19 
218
APPENDIX.
tobacco in excess, however, as a general rule, must prove in-
jurious.   Hence the most accomplished  smokers often  expe-
rience vertigo, cephalalgia, anorexia, etc., when they have re-
mained  in an atmosphere densely filled with  smoke, which is
then drawn into  the lungs, and  produce worse effects than
when merely drawn into the mouth, or swallowed, as in smok-
ing.  Disorder of the digestive organs is quite common to in-
veterate smokers.
  Cantharides.—The application  of  a blister will frequently
contribute to increase, or develop involuntary seminal dis-
charges ; yet cantharides are frequently administered internally
for the relief of impotence and to cure seminal weakness.  I am
inclined to believe that cantharides will increase the discharges
and lead to complete impotence.  The unsuccessful employ-
ment of cantharides  in cases of Spermatorrhoea would prove
that the disease does not arise from atony, or  relaxation, but
from irritation of the genital organs, whether mechanical  or
otherwise.
  Camphor.—The  action of Camphor is most  advantageously
employed  in  the  treatment of Spermatorrhoea.   Its effects
are the very opposite to that of Cantharides.   By sprinkling
Camphor  over blisters, the irritating action of  Cantharides on
the genito-urinary organs is avoided.  It relieves, more than
any  other  remedy, priapism, and great pain  in  the  organs,
induced by the  administration of Cantharides.  Hence it is,
with good reason, considered  as  an anti-aphrodisiac.   In
moderate doses  it  is always useful; but if the doses are too
large, there will be more or less  serious and obstinate involun-
tary discharges.
  Nitrate  of Potass I regard as a  dangerous remedy.  It does
not possess the power of quieting the genito-urinary organs,
and  will not  remove venereal disease.  Saline mixtures con-
taining Nitrate of Potass are prescribed daily for the inflam-
matory symptoms  of Blennorrhagia.  This is a grave error.
Nitrate of Potass  is  usually regarded as a diuretic, because
it increases the flow of urine.  This is precisely why its  seda-
tive  powers should be doubted.  By stimulating the functions 
APPENDIX.
219
of the kidneys, it  acts  as  an excitant or irritant.  Large
doses of it produces hematuria, pain, etc.  It increases  all
inflammation of the  bladder, whether acute or chronic.  It is
even contra-indicated in the most simple case of vesicle irrita-
tion.  It acts as a  stimulant of the whole  urinary apparatus,
producing the  same effect on the spermatic organs  as a con-
sequence.  A large  number of my  patients,  who  had  been
treated by Nitrate  of Potass  in some form or other, always
found themselves worse afterward; but immediately  got better
when they  placed  themselves under a treatment, as  anti-
indicated.   I have  known the effects of Nitrate of Potass to
remain  several years.   Many of my patients, before coming
to me, had also observed the same bad effects from prepara-
tions of Squill; and, in fact, from all diuretics.
   Ergot of Rye.—This singular production  seems to act with
as much energy on the genital organs of man, as on the female
uterus.   When the  diseased grain is not carefully separated
from the healthy, the bread  made from the flour will cause  the
male to commit venereal excesses, and  the woman frequently
to abort.  Mr. Roberts, in the Annales de  Therapeutique,
relates a case in which the Ergot of Rye is said to have cured
Spermatorrhoea, after  cauterization  and  other  means  had
failed.  The medicine was  given in two-grain  doses combined
with one grain of Camphor.   One of these  pills was taken
twice a  day.   I attribute  the beneficial  effects  of this  pill
more to the Camphor than to the Ergot.  I have, however,
given Ergot in some cases of Consumption, induced by Mas-
turbation, with decided advantage, in conjunction  with oxygen
and a nutritious diet, and other hygienic requirements.
   Coffee.—^he effects of Coffee on the cerebro-spinal system
is well known.  Taken in  moderate quantities, Coffee excites
the bladder and kidneys, increases the secretion of  urine, and
renders  its discharge  more frequent.  It acts  in  the  same
manner  on the spermatic  organs, augments the  venereal  de-
sires, favors erections, and  accelerates ejaculation.  Taken in
excess, it may  so stimulate the organs as to induce  Masturba- 
220
APPENDIX.
tion, and, as a  consequence, Spermatorrhoea, and finally, im-
potency.
  I have had  many cases of  Spermatorrhoea, followed by an
immoderate use of strong Coffee, in connection with other
stimulants; but none that could be distinctly traced to Coffee
alone.   Almost all  such cases were scientific or literary men,
who wished to  keep up mental activity in  order to  prolong
their hours of  study.  Some  of these recovered by the use
of  oxygen baths, regular active exercise, combined with  a
strict regimen.  Others required various kinds of treatment.
The natural sulphuretted waters were generally the most suc-
cessful.  Weak, delicate, and  excitable persons are the  most
easily influenced by Coffee.   They experience agitation, disor-
dered  vision, involuntary contraction in their muscles, and
especially  a notable increase in the secretion of urine, and  in
the involuntary seminal discharges.   As a general  rule, how-
ever, I  am not inclined to believe that involuntary discharges
should be attributed to a moderate use of either tea or coffee.
Those persons with whom Coffee nor Tea do not agree, find
no ill effects follow  the use of  Cocoa.
      TREATMENT  OF  SPERMATORRHCEA

         POLLUTIONS ARISING FROM DIRECT CAUSES.

  In the treatment of involuntary seminal discharges, it is
important to discover their maintaining  cause.  It  is  the
actual condition of the spermatic organ that must be altered
in order to obtain a cure.
  Pollutions arising from Ascarides.—The symptoms  are an
insupportable itching of the anus.  This itching  arises from
the pricking produced by the tails of the worms.  Ascarides
always inhabit the lower bowels of the  large intestine.  The
best and most simple  remedy is injections of water at a tem-
perature of 75° Fahr., afterward an  injection of Olive Oil. 
APPEXDIX.
221
 Water,   at  a  low  temperature, will  stun  or  kill  these
 worms ;  and when it is injected  in sufficient  quantity, so  as
 to return in some force, large numbers will be  passed alive.
 When the  mucous membrane of the  intestine  has, in some
 degree, recovered its  tone, salt-and-water  injections  may be
 used, the quantity of salt being gradually increased from one
 to three table-spoonfuls to the quantity of water.  Too much
 salt would irritate.  All purgative enemata destroy Ascarides,
 but irritate the mucous membrane.  Oily injections are very
 useful.  Camphoretted  injections have been  recommended.
 Their action on the Ascarides is very prompt;  but in  seminal
 discharges,  its employment is contra-indicated  in  my expe-
 rience.
   Pollutions excited by Cutaneous Eruptions are  best treated by
 using either the natural or artificial sulphuretted waters. Care
 must be taken that these baths be neither too  strong  nor too
 hot.   Water from 80 to 90 Fahr. is usually the proper tem-
 perature  for excitable  subjects.  The artificial  sulphuretted
 bath should at first contain a  small proportion  of  sulphuret
 of potassium.  After the natural  waters have been used some
 time as  baths, they may be taken internally, and applied as
 douches.  Sometimes  the immediate effect of  sulphuretted
 waters is  to produce a degree of excitement that  increases the
 involuntary discharges.  The final results are, however, almost
 sure to be favorable.
   Pollutions arising from altered  or increased  Secretion from
 Sebaceous Glands.—The sebaceous matter of the prepuce and
 glans  is  abundant in quantity and remarkably acid, especially
 in individuals subject  to  cutaneous eruptions.   Sometimes  it
 may be retained by great length of the prepuce, or narrowness
 of the preputial orifice.  Under such circumstances the irrita-
 tion of the  glans  penis may bring on very serious noctnrnal
 and  diurnal pollutions.  An   operation  will be  necessary in
such  cases.   Circumcision will always  be found au effectual
remedy.
  Pollutions  depending on  Strictures of the  Urethra.—The
involuntary discharges cannot  be removed without first remov-
        19* 
222
APPENDIX.
ing the obstacles to  the free discharge of urine.  Bougies
and catheters must be employed, either of metallic or of gutta
percha, in the hands of an experienced physician.
  Pollutions arising from Hemorrhoids.—-They cause emissions
either by exciting irritation, or by mechanically impeding defe-
cation.  Vegetable and milk diet  should be used, with warm
baths, cold and opiate enemata, and emollient poultices when
the tumors become prolapsed and  painful.   Immediate relief
may be obtained by puncturing the  most  distended  tumors
with a lancet; but leeches are to  be decidedly reprobated, as
their bites tend to increase the irritation.
  Pollutions caused by  Constipation.—The means  employed to
relieve constipation are so well known that I need not recapit-
ulate them here.
  Pollutions,  caused  by Relaxation and  Debility, are  to  be
treated according to the peculiar circumstances of each case.
No particular rule can  be laid down  adapted to every case.
To the general means proper to restore the strength, however,
may be added  such special ones as act chiefly on the  genital
system : such  as generous  wines,  most  of  the  gum  resins,
cinchonia bark, highly-seasoned dishes, game, etc.   Galvanism
and oxygen are also very advantageously employed in torpidity
of the genital organs and general atony of the organism.
  Nervous Irritability.—Tincture of Aconite is indicated by
great nervous derangemeut, intense frontal headache, dryness
of the mouth, coated  tongue, distress in the pit of the stomach,
vomiting of the  ingesta,  wakefulness at  night, drowsiness in
the day-time, nightmare, costiveness, and copious emissions
every night.
  Nux Vomica may be usefully employed occasionally if  the
patient complains of costiveness, bad taste in the mouth, sore-
ness of the stomach, distress after eating, fullness in  the pit
of the stomach,  etc.
  Phosphorus is  very useful  if the nervous  system  is much
shattered,  if  there be  oppression  of the chest,  tendency to
cough, pains in the chest, etc.
  Pollutions by Sleeping  on  the Back or Belly.__The 
APPENDIX.
223
weight of  the head on the cerebellum, and the body on the
spinal column, will cause erections and nocturnal  emissions;
while lying on the belly will produce  a degree of warmth and
friction of the organs, which will cause the pollutions.   The
patient should always lie on his right  side, with his head to the
north.  He should also sleep on a hard hair or  common mat-
trass, with the rectum and bladder emptied before retiring to
rest.   His supper, also,  should be a very light one, and taken
several hours before bed-time.  If this do not succeed, it will
be proper to apply a sheet of lead over the loins.  It can be
fixed to a linen girdle and tied in front.   The use of  lead pre-
vents the loins from  being overheated, and thus  the genital
irritation is kept down, inducing  refreshing sleep, and an en-
tire exemption from the nocturnal pollutions.
   In all cases the food should be  nutritive, but not stimula-
tive, with plenty of exercise in the open air.
   Cauterization.—This operation is especially indicated in
chronic inflammation or irritation of the'urethra.  Its results
are usually certain when involuntary discharges follow a com-
mon clap,  or non-contagious gleet. Cauterization  of the glans
penis is a  good means of prevention of Masturbation in chil-
dren.  The pains caused by the caustic and sore will prevent
the patient from any  manipulations of the generative organs.
There is scarcely a tyro in surgery who has not seen  the  ni-
trate of  silver in substance applied  to fungous, irritable, and
bleeding ulcers, and all  well know that the pain caused by the
application soon ceases  ; that the granulations  assume a more
healthy aspect, and that the discharge becomes more creamy,
and the sore shows a  disposition to heal.   It is not by destroy-
ing the fungous and bleeding surface that this improvement is
effected, but by giving tone to the vessels of the part.  After
the  operation, frequent baths  must be used,  with  emollient
 enemata, abundant diluents and rest, in  all cases of seminal
 discharges of the  urethra, and in leuchorrhcea and chronic
 vesicle catarrh.  The inflammation  passes off very rapidly,
 and in very rare  cases is the abstraction of blood necessary.
 When cauterization  does not succeed in  perfecting the cure, 
224
APPENDIX.
it invariably so alters the condition of the mucous membrane,
that the means previously  employed  unsuccessfully may be
used with every prospect of success.   I refer  to  the natural
and artificial sulphuretted  water,  tar water, and turpentines,
especially copaiba.

                      CONVALESCENCE.
  In  recent  and simple cases  of involuntary seminal  dis-
charges, re-establishment takes place promptly and rapidly.
All the organs  successively  resume their normal functions.
  In severe cases, the progress from disease to health is never so
simple and rapid.  The constitution having been seriously weak-
ened, much time and attention is required for its repair.   Be-
sides  this, habit, which possesses considerable influence over
all  organs, tends  unceasingly to cause a relapse in  cases of
Spermatorrhoea that have been of long duration.  It is, there-
fore, slowly and with prudence that the  patient should return
to his ordinary diet and mode of life ; while there  are certain
hygienic precautions which in some cases must  be continued
long after the perfect re-establishment of health.
  In proportion as the energy of the digestive organs returns,
more nourishing food is required.  It is however  best to  in-
crease the quantity of light food,  with greater frequency of
meals, than allow a return too soon to a heavy diet,  thus  dis-
ordering the  digestive organs  and  endangering a relapse.
From a vegetable diet  the patient should proceed to fish  and
white meats, before having recourse to more stimulating food.
Of  course exceptions  must  be made,  where tonic  and stimu-
lating food is  required on  account of the pollutions arising
from atony.
  During  convalescence from Spermatorrhoea,  arising from
irritation,  a warm and damp climate  agrees best; but when
the  disorder arises from atony or from lymphatic constitution,
a dry and pure air is required.   Cold bathing and foot exer-
cise should be taken in proportion  to  the return of  strength,
in order that  the products of digestion may be as  much" as
possible employed in the repair of the  waste of the  organism. 
APPENDIX.
225
  The seminal secretion  is never completely arrested in man,
unless after  long and severe  sickness.   The pollutions may
therefore  return, provided absolute continence  is persevered
in.   Where the  patient,  however, exercises much in the open
air,  and undergoes  a course of gymnasial  pursuits, perfect
continence will result in  an improvement of his general healthi
the  semen secerned yielding a spirit or aroma especially vivi-
fying to the general organism.   In  order  that  involuntary
semen discharges, however, should cease entirely, it  is neces-
sary, as a general rule, that they be supplied by  normal volun-
tary emissions.  The regular exercise of the organs  will best
restore them to  their proper  energy.   This is the case with all
the organs of the body,  and  the generative are by no  means
an exception to the general rule.   In  order that the  return to
health  may be  durable,  regular sexual intercourse should be
established,  not by intercourse with  prostitutes,  but by mar-
riage.  Marriage should  never be contracted  until there is
the fullest proof of  a return  to perfect health.  The  responsi-
bility of sacrificing the  happiness of the female is to be con-
sidered seriously, as well as a possibility of a relapse occurring
to  the patient, from  comparatively unrestrained  indulgence
during the first months of marriage.  On this head, however,
no decided rules can be  laid  down.  Every thing must  depend
upon the circumstances  affecting each particular case.
THE END. 
 
 
 
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