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A  TREATISE
Decline   of   Manhood;
ITS CAUSES,
THE BEST MEANS OF PREVENTING THEIR EFFECTS, AND
BRINGING ABOUT
A RE&TO"
A.  K. SMALL
TO HEALTH.*-*-*- -*-"* -i.'4-i -11
     8UR3L0N GLIALS G!-FiCE
-.Uu-1 IS2±
President of Hahnemann College and Hospital, Etc.
THIRD EDITION—REVISED AND ENLARGED.
    CHICAGO:
Duncan Brothers.
     18-")
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COPYRIGHTED BY DUNCAN BROS.

        1.SS5. 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
    In preparing1 this edition for the press, the entire
text has been thoroughly  and  carefully revised, and
new matter has been added.  It  is hoped that the work,
as revised, will  merit a continuance of the favorable
recognition extended to the previous editions by the
profession.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
    In  furnishing the  following  treatise  on  the
" Causes that induce the premature  decline of
manhood,"  and the most judicious means of removing
them and curing their effects,  the author is aware of
the many difficulties in the way of producing  any-
thing like  a  satisfactory treatise upon  the  subject.
But from many years' experience he has collected  the
results of his observations into the following pages. 
t>                    preface.
    The remedies employed have been such  as  he  has
found most  etfectual,  and yet he is aware that in  the
hands of many practitioners other remedies  have been
employed not mentioned-in this treatise.
    The work is not arranged so methodically  as  the
author could have wished, and  yet his object will be
accomplished if he has made any suggestions or thrown
any light upon the subject that will aid the profession
or redound to the benefit of the unfortunate.
    With the hope, therefore, that  this attempt to
supply a want in the  literature of Homoeopathy will
be charitably received, and pave the way for  better
efforts, the work is given to the profession and public.
                                  The Author. 
CONTENTS.
                                                   Page.
 Introduction.     -      -                            9
                      CHAPTER I.
 A General View  of the Subject.     -      -      -      n
                    CHAPTER II.
 Spermatorrhoea from Inflammation and Irritation of the
    Urethra.      ---.._     57
                    CHAPTER III.
 Masturbation.     -      -----      22
                    CHAPTER IV.
 How to Correct the  Habit of Self abuse and Cure its
    Effects.     -     -     -      -     .     .      -   34
                     CHAPTER  V.
 Continuation  of the  Effects of  Self-abuse, Nocturnal
    Emissions.     -                             -     39
                    CHAPTER VI.
Sexual Excesses and Other Causes of Spermatorrhoea.   -  45
                    CHAPTER VII.
Spermatorrhoea Caused by Ascarides and Gravel.    -    -  51
                   CHAPTER VIII.
Excessive Sexual Intercourse in Married Life.    -    -    59 
8                      CONTENTS.
                    CHAPTER  IX
The Consequences of Abnormal Seminal Emissions.   -   64
                     CHAPTER X.
Consequences  of Spermatorrhoea Affecting the "Whole
   System.     -------  76
                    CHAPTER XL
 The Effects of  Spermatorrhoea upon  the  Respiratory
    System and the Heart and other Organs.            - 82
                    CHAPTER Xil.
Marriage in Relation to Sexual Weakness.    -   -   -   89
                   CHAPTER XIII.
 Recapitulation and  Treatment of Sexual Weaknesses.  -  94
                   CHAPTER XIV.
The Application  of Electricity in  the Treatment of
    Seminal Weakness.    -----      101
                    CHAPTER  XV.
Clinical Directions.      -                              10- 
INTRODUCTION.
  The  chief object  to be  accomplished in writing a
treatise on the causes that produce a premature decline
of manhood, is to point out, explicitly, the  best pro-
tection against  them, as well as the most  commenda-
ble measures of relief from their effects.
  2. Sexual debility results from a variety of causes,
which, in many  instances, are avoidable,  while  in
some instances it may be constitutional and depend-
ent upon a general  deterioration of the nutritive and
nervous systems.
  3. AVhen  the cause is known, the first inquiry  is,
can it be removed? and can the  effect produced  be
remedied? No one suffers from the malady with indif-
ference, and therefore, it may be concluded that every
victim to sexual disorder desires radical relief.
  4. From the nature of the affection, those who suf-
fer are prone to seek aid from any source  that promi-
ses it, and without  some information of a  specific nat-
ure that will lead to a proper discrimination, a  resort 
10                INTRODUCTION.
 to nostrums and quackery, injurious in their  results,
 too frequently happens.
  5. As there are no two constitutions alike, and sel-
 dom that two cases of suffering are so precisely alike
 that the same treatment will suffice for each, it is pro-
 posed to point out the several grades of the  disorder
 in connection with the causes and  treatment of  each,
 when medical treatment is required.  The  kind of
 debility particularly under consideration in the  follow-
ing pages is generally known under the head of  " In-
voluntary emissions  of semen," which operates dis-
astrously upon the vital condition of manhood. 
CHAPTER  I.
         A GENERAL VIEW OF THE  SUBJECT.

  One of the main characteristics of sexual debility is
frequent involuntary emissions  of  the seminal fluid,
followed by  a feeling  of exhaustion.   For strong,
healthy and  plethoric  persons  these emissions may
occur occasionally without exciting undue apprehen-
sion of the result.   But even in such persons, where
the occurence is frequent and copious, great  weakness
and lassitude is apt to follow, betokening an abnor-
mal condition, that requires both hygienic and medical
treatment.
  2. In those of vigorous manhood, and of supera-
bundent vitality, the involuntary  evacuation of the
seminal vessels at times  may be considered  a conser-
vator cf health, and demanded for its protection.   This
is true so long as such  persons  remain conscious of
their  occurrence, unaccompanied by general malaise
and lassitude.
  3. Lascivious dreams  are simply reflex symptoms
conveyed from the distended  seminal vesicles through 
12
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
the nerves of the brain; and the most salutary remedy
for emissions arising from this cause is through matri-
monial  alliance  and the  legitimate  exercise  of the
function.
  4. But emissions that occur without the cognizance
of  the patient, and without erections and pleasurable
sensations, are of a different character, and may result
from  an abnormal irritability of the sexual  organs,
and if not arrested, they will deteriorate  the  general
health and produce a gradual decline of virility.
  5. The causes  that operate to produce increased ir-
ritability are various, and merit separate consideration
in order to arrive at the means of obviating them, and
the most  rational  application of remedies to over-
come  the debility and promote strength.   Some  of
these  causes are avoidable, and require  but a strong
effort of the  will  to set them aside; others are unavoida-
ble, being diseased conditions of the  urinary organs,
from  which  the increased irritability  of the  sexual
organs  proceeds.  These causes  can onty be removed
by  well-chosen remedies, or by the skill of the opera-
tive surgeon.
  6. From  either  class of causes excessive  emissions
may  occur, differing only from normal seminal emis-
sions  in being  involuntary and  debilitating.  The 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
13
seminal vesicles, ducts, and their orifices may severally
participate in the irritability, and  become  so debili-
tated that seminal discharges are  found to  occur fre-
quently, and on the slightest provocation.   The sim-
ple act of urination, the effect at stool, or immediate-
ly after  both, or when brought into  proximity with
female society, severally operate  to provoke seminal
emissions or consciousness of the  loss.  This is prop-
erly termed " spermatorrhoea."
  7. Pathologically considered, these seminal evacua-
tions arise from a variety of causes, and not, as is fre-
quently  asserted, from sexual excesses and abuses.
They often result from other and quite  different causes.
  8. When seminal emissions arise from causes inher-
ent in the system, their origin is so wrapped in obscurity
that the  real cause is overlooked, and, consequent!}7,
they are found to be the most persistent and difficult
of cure.  It is only when the true pathology of the
disorder is discovered that we can arrive at a knowledge
of the starting-point, so as to institute a rational or
successful treatment.   Anything short of  this neces-
sarily subjects the patient to continual drain upon his
constitution and life.  For without duly referring the
symptoms to the veritable source from whence they
proceed,  so as to base a proper and curative  treatment, 
14          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

in spite of remedies given in accordance with symp-
toms alone the difficulty will progress until the health
is undermined and the virility destroyed.
  9. The matter  must be probed  to the bottom, or
otherwise the  symptoms are meaningless, and afford
but an empty display of phenomena, as  likely to mis-
lead in the treatment as to favor its utility; for as a
variety of causes, differing widely in their nature, may
produce like effect, genuine  skill, in the treatment of
spermatorrhoea, must depend upon a knowledge of the
real cause as a starting point.
  10.  A glance at the anatomy of the genito-urinary
apparatus and its relation to neighboring parts,  will
convince any rational  practitioner  of the reasonable-
ness of this assertion; for who can deny the  fact  that
hard impacted tVeces, pressing upon the seminal  vesi-
cles, operates to  produce more  or less disorder in the
sexual organs?  Who does not know that a misman-
aged gonorrhoea produces the most disastrous conse-
quences upon the testes?  And why? Because of their
intimate anatomical connexion.
  11. Therefore, let  us look after the  various causes
of seminal weakness, which, as so many fountains, send
forth abnormal excitement to the genital organs, pro-
ducing emissions and spermatorrhoea. 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
1:'
   1.  Urethritis from different sources.  2. Stricture
(»f the urethra.  3. Affections of the rectum and anus.
4. Constipation, retained lleces. 5.  Hemorrhoids and
varices or fissures.  <i. Intestinal worms.   7.  Chronic
inflammation and tenesmus of the bladder.  <s.  Stone
or gravel.  i». Spinal irritation.  10. Sexual excesses.
11. Masturbation.  12. Prostatitis.  13.  Morbid im-
agination.
   A careful  examination of each  of the  above will
enable us to rationally comprehend  the relation be-
tween cause and effect in each particular case, and
show us the total  insufficiency of a merely  sympto-
matic treatment of these diseases.
   12. Either one or  all of these  causes have a close
relation to the genital organs, and  a continual irrita-
tion from  either forms a  source  of determination of
blood, congestion,  swelling, excessive irritability of
the testes, spermatic cord, seminal  vesicles, prostate
gland, and veru-montanum,  and  thence  erections at
first,  and seminal  emissions.   In   time  the erection*
cease; the membrum-virile becomes flaccid, and the
fluid constantly passes off, altered in quality, thin, and
void  of the  characteristic spermatozoa.   With this
general view of the subject we may form some idea ot 
16
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
the nature and extent of the malady under considera-
tion.
  Note.—Before entering on the consideration of the
various causes of spermatorrhoea, the author wishes to
impress on the mind of mothers and nurses the im-
portance of looking critically after the  interest of
young children committed to their care.   The noctur-
nal enuresis of young children, or " wetting the  bed''
as it is termed, denotes a chronic irritation of the blad-
der and  urethra which, by criminal neglect, may en-
gender the  habit of self-pollution.  This weakness pro-
duces such  an irritation of the  urinary  passage  as
will give rise  to early  erections, so annoying to the
child, that he  pulls and rubs his privates  until the
lamentable  habit of self-abuse is  unconsciously ac-
quired.   Therefore it is criminal  to neglect this pri-
mary condition of young boys, which so frequently
leads to self-abuse.  It is not sufficient to call it a bad
habit and that the boy will out-grow it.   All possible
care and means  must be called  into requisition  to
effect an  early cure.  (See letter of Dr. T. C. Duncan,
at the end of Chapter XIV.)
  Intestinal worms in children, and  especially ascari-
des or pin worms, often prove to be an early proxi-
mate cause of self-abuse.  The itching of the anus or
private parts may induce a rubbing, pulling or scratch-
ing that unawares leads to the habit.  In older sub-
jects, gravel or tenesmus of the  bladder  may lead to
the habit. 
CHAPTER II.
SPERMATORRHOEA FROM INFLAMMATION AND IRRITATION
                OF THE URETHRA.

  Chronic inflammation of the  urethra, from  what-
ever cause, extends itself by means  of continuity of
structure not only to the bladder, uterus and kidneys,
but also to the organs of reproduction.  This inflamma-
tion may be produced, 1st, By mechanical injury, in-
flicted by instruments used  by onanists, such as pencils
or  quills, which they introduce into the urethra to
excite pollutions, when, from frequent and long con-
tinued abuse, the  urethra becomes insensible to other
excitants.  Fragments of such instruments have been
known to remain,  forming a nucleus for inflammation.
  Blows,  bruises  and other occasional injuries may
provoke spermatorrhoea.  The great sensitiveness of
the urethra, and   the unavoidable admixture  of the
urine  with  the blood, from such  injuries,  renders
wounds or mechanical abrasions or  squeezes of the
greatest importance. 
18
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
  For from such sources chronic urethretis is liable to
result.
  To cure a spermatorrhoea, originating from causes of
this kind, the unnatural use of the  instruments must
be  banished; all  pressure  must be removed, and all
positions leading to contusion or pressure  upon the
organ should be avoided, and then let moderately cold
water be freely used for ablutions twice or thrice dur-
ing the  day.   Arnica at first is  an excellent remedy
for  internal administration, and drop doses may be
taken several times  daily until the soreness and irrita-
bility of the parts  disappear;  when the cause is re-
moved the effect ceases.  Should Arnica prove insuf-
ficient, injections of tepid water, with  a few drops of
the  tincture of Calendula, may suffice.  The distilled
extract of Hamamelis may be used  for the same pur-
pose.   When  spermatorrhoea is dependent on  this
cause, Apocynum, Eupatorium and  Senecio  aurens 3.
  2. Certain drinks and articles of diet produce an
unfavorable  action  upon the urethra, and sometimes
cause inflammation.  Certain medicines, taken in ex-
cess, have the  same influence, such as diuretics.   The
irritation produced by some  liquors, such as o-iD) are
proximate causes of involuntary seminal emissions.
When oysters, crabs, or other shell-flsh exert an in- 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.          19
jurious  action of the kind, refrain from using  them.
The same advice is given with reference to articles of
food or drink or medicine known to exert an unfavora-
ble effect updn the genital organs, and the spermator-
rhoea that remains as an effect can be  easily cured by
well-known remedies.
  A young clerk in a silk house suffered from involun-
tary emission several  times a week,  until the effect
upon his health began to be noted.   He applied to a
physician, who inquired critically into his  habits, all
of which he found quite regular, excepting eating late
at night.  On inquiry it was found that he indulged
freely in such food as eggs and oysters.  He was advised
to confine himself to regular meals, and to avoid both
the eggs and oysters—to partake  of beef, mutton, and
vegetables, and avoid poultry and stimulating soups.
At first but little change was noted; his digestion
seemed  somewhat impaired.  Nux vom.  3d was given
half an hour after each meal, and he soon recovered
from the emissions and gained robust health.
  Another young man, who suffered  much from this
difficulty, was constantly annoyed  by difficult digestion
and depressed spirits, was cured by Pulsatilla, 3; dose
three times a day, after duly regulating his diet.
  2. Another source of inflammation of the urethra is 
20          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
infection from impure sexual exposure and in urethral
stricture from chancre;  from these an irritation is set
up which results in pollutions of a serious  character.
To cure these, if they result from simple urethritis or
gonorrhoea, and particularly if there is much smarting
when urinating, Aconite may be taken first, and after-
wards Cannabis sativa.   Several cases of this kind have
been noted:  A gentleman of middle age having con-
tracted gonorrhoea, which he supposed himself entire-
ly cured of, was afterwards the victim of nocturnal
emissions, which weakened his  whole  system.   He
was greatly depressed, and suffered inveterate constipa-
tion.
  When constipation,  proctitis  or  haemorrhoids are
proximate causes of spermatorrhoea the remedies suit-
able for these affections may be called into requisition
 with good effect.
   He had applied  to one physician after another with-
 out benefit, until  he despaired of finding relief.   He
 finally consulted a Homoeopathic physician, who min-
 utely inquired into his antecedents, and then prescribed
 Nux vom. to remove the constipation;  after Nux, Ly-
 copodium was given,  and  his bowels moved freely,
 without difficulty. The 6th attenuation of these reme-
 dies was used.  A diet  of toast and steak in the morn- 
            THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.           21

ing, with a cup of black tea; beef or mutton  with
vegetables for dinner, and brown bread or toast for
tea, was directed, Cannabis sativa 6th was given every
six hours, for a week, in connection with this  diet,
and the patient  found himself greatly relieved; and
this treatment was afterward continued until  he was
completely rid of the  difficulty.
  Other cases were cured by addressing remedies di-
rectly to the proximate cause, and afterwards to the
resulting symptoms.  When the urethral irritation is
subdued, and the pollutions still  continue, Cannabis
sativa or Cantharis will generally cure.
  When stricture of  the urethra is ascertained to be
the existing cause of emissions, the stricture must be
removed before  the  difficulty can cease.  Sulphur 3d
will often accomplish the whole, in connection with a
well regulated diet.   To secure regularity of the bow-
els, Nux v., Sulphur and Mercurius sol. may be  used
advantageously.  Other remedies—Atropine, Bromide
of Camphor, Hydrastis, Bromide of Iron.
  As one of the most effective remedies for spermat-
orrhoea, we may  name electricity when properly used
by  an experienced electrician, when  the administra-
tion of  remedies indicated by the symptoms fails of
effecting a cure,  this  resort  has been effectual.   (See
Chap. XIV.) 
CHAPTER  III.
                  MASTURBATION.

  We shall now consider a cause of urethral irritation
which by many is believed to be one of the most dete-
riorating vices  incident to the youth of both sexes.
Very early in life boys have been initiated into habits
of self-abuse, and if no one finds an opportunity to ad-
vise and counsel them otherwise, by pointing out the
dangerous consequences of the practice, the habit be-
comes fixed and difficult to break.  After a while such
a youth begins  to grow sickly, pale, nervous, and un-
manly, and  unless the habit is arrested in time, and
the victims become sensible of the danger, his approach
to manhood is fraught with  entailed consequences,
that finally  render him an object of pity and  disgust.
Youth of fifteen or sixteen summers, who  indulge in
this  vice, may  soon bring about  an irritation of the
urethra that merges into real  inflammation, attended
by a secretion which has a close relation to pollutions
and  spermatorrhoea.   It is  our purpose, therefore, 
THE  DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
23
to treat  this subject somewhat in detail, in order to
give an insight into the best remedial measures for the
protection of virility.
  2. Immediately before the age of puberty and dur-
ing the  transition period, as well as after, unknown
longings and desires assert  their supremacy in  the
youthful mind.   These are the first titterings of sexual
instinct, though  scarcely recognized as such by  the
subjects.  Some arrive at this period earlier and some
later.  In peculiarly irritable constitutions the instinct
after  puberty manifests itself with  great  intensity,
and exhibits its effects in certain tendencies to bodily
ailments and frailties.
  3. When by the allurements of others such youth
are initiated into solitary habits of exciting the geni-
tals, first by filling the  mind with impure thoughts
and imaginings, and then by manual interference, the
most pernicious and degrading habit of self-pollution
steals over them, and soon results in physical weak-
nesses which are prophetic  of the early decline of
manhood.
  4. The defect of early education, coupled with direct
temptation and the allurements of evil  association,
often form the basis or starting-point  for a career of
miserable habits, that sooner or later prey upon  the 
24          THE  DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
mental and physical constitution.  When once initia-
ted and predisposed, both mind and body become sub-
ject to excitement from otherwise trivial causes. Novel
reading,  love  stories  and  sickly  sentimentalism  of
every kind, become disastrous allurements to the habit
of  masturbation.  These  allurements  and  dangers
often override the rigid supervision of parents and edu-
cators, and beset the youthful and impressible mind in
many different ways.
  It is a fact no less sad than true, that very many in
their tender years,  and even in  childhood, are brought
through one means or  another into mental excitement
and  thence into  actual abuse of the genital  organs,
which becomes a habit of greater or less injury.
  By such abuses the genital organs become impaired
and diseased, and the  strength and life of the entire
organism becomes  undermined.
  These excesses are so extremely dangerous and inev-
itably ruinous to  body and mind that it  is of the
utmost importance  to detect and arrest them before it is
too late, and to promote this end young boys should
be subject to the kindest and most friendly supervision,
and every prudent  effort should be made directly and
indirectly to withdraw them from such influences and
habits as  excite sexual phantasies, and without ac- 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
25
quainting them with  the friendly  object intended,
great care should be exercised in diverting their minds
from all misleading  thoughts and  inclinations  before
they have become so rooted that all attempts to oblit-
erate them prove a failure.
  To accomplish this, requires:
  1. A provision of suitable and  useful employment
for mind and body.
  2. To withhold  all kinds  of  seductive reading and
theatricals, and  all  imprudent mixing with the op-
posite sex, such as allowing them after early child-
hood to occupy the same  sleeping apartments  and to
share  the same  couch.  Experience and observation
have established beyond  a  doubt the imprudence, if
not the wickedness,  of allowing such practice.
  3.  But at suitable times and under the supervision
of  proper restraints, boys and  girls should be encour-
aged in outdoor sports and open air exercise.   It is a
mistaken idea to suppose that the cause of virtue is
promoted by keeping them  secluded from  the society
of  each other.   For such is not the case.  The reverse
often  begets that sickly, unhealthy  secret brooding
that creates a want of self-respect and dread of social
intercourse.  It is far better that boys should have
the advantage  of associating  in  suitable plays and 
26          THE  DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

pastimes with girls of their own age, while at the
same time, every  moral and elevating influence should
be exercised over  them by their parents and guardians.
  4. If a suspicion exists that boys indulge in self-
abuse, let them be quietly watched until the truth
is ascertained.  An inclination to  be alone and in
secluded places often  excites suspicion of self-abuse,
and especially if after such seclusions they seem pale
and excited, or depressed and morose,  or  peevish and
fretful.  And unusually timid  boys and  young men
addicted to self-abuse  are generally  shy and timid.
They betray an absence of manhood and  appear cow-
ardly;  and moreover, the countenance betrays with
nearly  the same certainty as  it does the tippler  or
opium  eater, and  when interested and affectionate
friends learn from these signs  the painful  fact, their
friendly aid is demanded, they should point out to the
 erring youth the sad effects that must inevitably fol-
 low this habit.   Many a boy, bright and  lively at ten
 years of age, has become dull, sickly and  mentally de-
jected  before his twenty summers by such miserable
 self-abuse.  A slow, hesitating speech, a blundering
 mode of speaking, a bad memory, and dullness of ap-
 prehension in general, are the usual fruits of this sin;
 and since so much is at stake, and the guilty ones are 
THE  DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
27
so prone to deny their pernicious habits, no prudent
means of detection should be neglected.  If necessary,
the bed linen and shirts should be called into requisi-
tion to afford confirmation of the fact, and if caught
in the practice, let them be told in a fartherly and af-
fectionate way the  disastrous consequences, not once
only, but many, many times, until the habit  is sub-
dued.
   5. This course will hardly fail to  make a favorable
impression  on young and pliable minds, and if the
will power at first is inadequate, gentle encourage-
ment and the aid of solicitious parents will greatly
stimulate resolution till the habit is conquered.
   When made  fully sensible  of  the  dreadful  conse-
quences of  self-abuse, there are but few so reckless
and incorrigible as to countenance and  continue the
habit.  Mechanical means of restraint has sometimes
been found  necessary to aid the efforts of young men
in dissipating the inclination and practice. The best
medical counsel may also  be necessary to aid in bring-
ing about this desirable result, and it would be adding
crime to crime to  withhold any measure capable of
arresting the  criminal practice.
   We have thus far treated of masturbation as a crime
involving the voluntary surrender of manhood.  But 
28           THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

now we propose  to  consider other causes that may
induce the habit, that places the victim  more in the
light of a sufferer than in that of a sinner.  Ascarides
or pin worms in the rectum sometimes induce an itch-
ing that implicates in no small  degree the genitals of
young  boys, and  compels them to scratch and rub
until they unconsciously fall into the habit of masturba-
tion.  Herpetic  eruptions  that  burn and itch may
compel similar  habits, terminating in the same way.
The reason why the habit operates so injuriously upon
the entire  organism, whether induced by vicious al-
lurements,  morbid broodings, or sickly love stories, or
by diseased conditions as detailed above,  is because of
the close proximity  and relation of the sexual  appa-
ratus to  the  spinal  cord, thence to the  brain, which
first receives  the shock and then by reflex action the
urinary and digestive systems become affected.  But
the injury does not stop  here, the  mind becomes filled
with impure images exciting the brain, and thence the
memory  and mental faculties.   It finally  ends  in
hypochondria, melancholy and suicide, or in epilepsy,
apoplexy or dementia.
  The intensity of the shock which the habit imparts,
to the whole system, and the consequent prostration
and  debility  must especially prove injurious to  the 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
29
organs properly supplied  with nerves.  The stomach,
therefore, is liable to become distended, and nutrition
is seriously interrupted; the entire  body as a conse-
quence fails of receiving sufficient nourishment, it grad-
ually gets weaker, the nerves become unstrung and
disposed to  paralytic weakness and cramps;  and  as
during the act, there is a determination of blood to the
brain, frequent cases of apoplexy have terminated the
fatal  habit;  or otherwise  10 or  15 per cent, of the
number  of inmates  of the lunatic asylums prove to
have been the victims of this vice.
  Self-abuse has another  peculiar effect, if not early
arrested; it destroys sexual enjoyment and entails cold-
ness in the conjugal bed, and  begets disappointment
and unhappiness and completely frustrates the fulfill-
ment of marriage relations.
  It is to be feared that  many who attain to a mar-
riageable age refrain from entering into  wedlock by
reason of the cold indifference toward the institution,
which results from this vice.  They prefer the mistaken
enjoyment of solitary  self-abuse to the  satisfaction of
legitimate sexual intercourse.
  It will be seen, then, that self-abuse requires greater
exertion of the sexual organs than a natural embrace,
and that they are weakened by oft-repeated  and un- 
30          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

natural irritation, as  the opportunities are more fre-
quent than for natural intercourse, and the constrained
position of standing or sitting must prove more  in-
jurious to muscles and nerves  that are  brought into
requisition, it follows conclusively that greater muscu-
lar and nervous weakness must result from the act.
It is also  manifest that in a natural embrace the ex-
citement  is  participated in by two, whereas in self-
abuse it is entirely cultivated  by one's own imagina-
tion, and must  therefore prove the more exhausting.
Self-abuse is more dangerous because it withdraws its
victims from society  and leads to solitary dwelling
upon themselves, or to musings and broodings of so
low a quality that they fall into the pit of melancholy
and thus make  complete shipwreck of health and life.
  In order to place safeguards around unsophisticated
youth and boys in early life, parents and teachers must
be vigilant and  ready  to comprehend the importance
of directing their thoughts and habits in  the right di-
rection at first.   They should teach them  to avoid such
plays as suggest and  often prove the beginning of in-
jurious habits.   It is far better to avoid  the causes of
urethritis at first than to be successful  even in curing
pollutions and  spermatorrhoea.
   As boyhood  and youth passes away, and manhood 
            THE DECLINE OF  MANHOOD.           31

supervenes, strictures pro'duced  by indiscretions of
youth, may be the constant cause of spermatorrhoea.
These strictures  arise from various causes; the worst
and most difficult to cure are for the most part traced
to badly treated  gonorrhoea.   But those arising from
the cicatrices of  wounds, or from urethral chancre, are
caused from the folding of the mucus lining of the
canal, and are sufficiently formidable.  For the folding
and swelling and formation of valves by fibrous indu-
rations of the  mucous membrane, are tedious in dura-
tion and difficult to cure.  Strictures generally have
their seat in that portion of the urethra where the in-
flammation has been the greatest and the suppuration
the most apparent.   There may be more than one near
or more remote  from the orifice of the bladder.  The
narrower and  longer they are the greater the obstruc-
tion to the passage  of urine and semen, and the por-
tion posterior to the strictures becomes distended, and
presses indirectly upon the seminal vesicles so violently
as to weaken and injure, and  thus  be the source of an
obstructed spermatorrhoea.
  Strictures may also produce other obstructions more
and more interiorly until effete and irritating matters
which  should  be thrown off meet  with obstructions,
and are thrown  back upon the delicate seminal vesi- 
32          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

cles, and result in weakening  them to a degree that
destroys their normal functions, or so  paralyzes the
tenacity of the ducts as to allow the seminal fluid to
flow off unnoticed  without any sensation or erection ;
in this way spermatorrhoea results, and impotence be-
comes inevitable.
  The effects of masturbation not only extend  to the
urethra, prostate gland and bladder, but to contiguous
structures.  The rectum becomes affected—the sphinc-
ter-ani  contracts, varices and haemorrhoids are sever-
ally the result of urethral irritation.   Stricture and
frequent urging to urinate,  haemorrhages  from the
bowels, prolapsus  and all the  various hemorrhoidal
ailments sometimes refer themselves to the same cause,
though too frequently overlooked, and on this account
a misdirected treatment is liable.
   Spasmodic strictures as well as those caused by ure-
thral inflammation, may result from self-abuse, and
also those resulting from enlarged veins of the urethra,
from gouty deposits, urinary calculi, and forcible cath-
eterization, may provoke spermatorrhoea or emissions.
   Since strictures are so often the cause of seminal
weakness, and self-abuse may be the first cause  of the
urethral inflammation that produces  them, it is well
to be familiar with  the  symptoms of stricture that 
THE  DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
33
they may receive early attention.  The first symptom
is the retarded flow of urine, and also the urging to force
the urine by reason of some sensible  obstruction, be-
hind which the urine accumulates; the stream is changed
in form and  volume, at first very small, afterward
sluggish, and finally  a mere  dribble from the urethral
orifice.   This  departure from  the normal  standard is
marked  that no one can fail to discover it.
  Spinal irritation is often the cause of much distur-
bance and weakness of the seminal vesicles, but mastur-
bation constantly persisted in may cause spinal irrita-
tion.  But if from a mechanical injury or a cold, there
results a spinal irritation.  Seminal weakness  may oc-
cur as a consequence. 
CHAPTER  IV.
  HOW TO CORRECT THE HABIT OF SELF-ABUSE AND
                CURE ITS EFFECTS.

  1. It is for  parents and guardians to  impress  ex-
tremely young subjects with the wickedness and dan-
ger of the practice, to watch over them and correct
them for every known indulgence.   There is but lit-
tle difficulty in correcting this abuse while the victims
are very young and before the habit is confirmed.
  2. When boys are  associated together and become
each other's instructors in the vice, let such associations
be broken up.  Older boys often initiate younger ones
and fill their susceptible and  tender minds with lewd
thoughts, and great care to guard against evil associa-
tions is absolutely  requisite when such, before the age
of puberty,  begin to exhibit that peculiar cast of the
countenance and debility consequent upon such early
vice.  Let them be impressed that  the  debility  and
sickness is brought on by  the crime.  Strengthen the 
THE  DECLINE OF MANHOOD.           35
impression by holding up the terrible and almost fatal
results that will surely follow, if they habitually re-
peat the act or allow themselves to be misled by wick-
ed associates.   When  first debilitated, give such,  in
connection  with moral restraint, Cinchona 6th dilu-
tion, ten drops in half a tumbler of  water, and give a
desert  spoonful three  times a day.  The  above is the
proper treatment when the self-abuse has been wick-
edly initiated  by older delinquents.
  3. Parents should so carefully guard the health of
their children  as to obviate all diseased conditions liable
to induce scratching or rubbing the genitals, for  in
this way the habit of masturbation  may be acquired;
pin worms or seat worms  of the anus produce a disas-
trous itching, and so  do herpetic  eruptions  in the
vicinity of the genitals, and too great care  cannot be
exercised in determining whether or not such disease
exists.  If the fact becomes established;  for the pin-
worms, give Sulphur 6th, ten drops  in half a tumbler
of water, dessert spoonful every night; if this does not
allay the itching, follow with Nux vomica in the same
way, and teach the boy not to scratch or rub.  If there
is any eruption that  causes much  itching of the parts,
Sulphur taken as above  is required.  In scrofulous
children these troubles are liable to occur and be the 
36
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
means of spontaneously initiating them into the habit
of self-abuse; cure the cause, and with proper instruc-
tion the effect will cease.  Ammonia 6th, Calcarea
carb.  6th,and sometimes Petroleum 6th, with suitable
moral restraint, will prove sufficient to correct  these
abuses.
  4. To cure self-abuse in boys after they have passed
the age of puberty, requires in  part the same measures
as for those  younger.  They must be impressed with
the heinousness of  the crime,  if voluntarily commit-
ted; and also with  the inevitable consequences  upon
the physical and  mental  health.  Nothing can cure
them  or break  them but a  determined resolution to
renounce the habit.  To aid them in doing it, suitable
employment for mind and body must be provided; and
they must be made to realize that the practice is a sin
against  God.   No protection  against  the vice is cer-
tain but a voluntary refraining from it from the high-
est of all motives; that it is a sin against God and an
abuse of themselves.
   5. To correct these morbid states of mind that tavor
the habits, let the youth be supplied with entertaining
and useful reading, and if already there is more or less
disturbance of the organic functions, which react upon
the brooding and susceptible mind, remedial measures
are necessary. 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
37
  6. To  guard against  the disposition  to self-abuse,
Calcarea carb. 3d  trituration, may be given every
evening  for a week.  If there is any disturbance of
the digestive system follow the Cal. c. with Nux vom-
ica  3d, every evening one hour  before  retiri g for
another week, observing at the same time to engage
in such amusements as  chess  and other intellectual
games, and sometimes in dancing  or base ball.   If the
onanist finds himself weak, let him take China 3d.  If
he has stiffness of the back or some pain in the small
of the back, let him take Cocculus 3d.   If after the
habit is subdued any debility remains, China  3d, may
be taken three times a day until  the debility is over-
come.  When the genitals are easily excited and sug-
gest a return of the habit, Phos. ac. 3d, in water will
be  found useful.   Morbid erections and lascivious
dreams require Cantharis 3d, three times a day.
  7. We have thus  pointed out the ways that gener-
ally lead to  self-abuse, as well as  the surest means of
arresting  the habit,  and  it may be  remarked that
onanism once fixed is classed among the  most inveter-
ate  of habits.   But it can be cured if proper atten-
tion is bestowed to the right kind of discipline and
medication.   The longer the habit remains the more
deteriorating the effects  upon the  nervous system, and 
38
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
thence upon  the nutritive functions.  For the  acute
effects which arise from  excessive rather  than from
longcontinued abuse we have named as remedies, China,
Cocculus and Phos. ac, to which may be added  Merc.
sol. 3d, and Selenium.  But for slow chronic effects,
Sulphur  may be given at long  intervals, or perhaps,
Carbo vegetabilis, and a generous  diet.
  For weakness and flaccidity  of the penis,  China
may be taken three or four times a week.
  For excessive nervousness and timidity, Calc,  Phos.
ac. may be taken in daily doses.
  If there is a dull, indefinable bewilderment and sub-
acute  headache, Nux vomica, or perhaps, Zincum met.
will often cure.
  For the minor consequences that remain after the
habit  has ceased, the above remedies are of the  great-
est  importance. 
CHAPTER V.
   CONTINUATION  OF THE EFFECTS OF SELF-ABUSE,
               NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS

  By these emissions are understood seminal dischar-
ges that occur during sleep, and are dependent upon
an  enfeebled condition of the seminal vesicles,  and
irritation  as the  predisposing  cause,  that for  the
most part result from  previous self-abuse.   They dif-
fer from spermatorrhoea in taking place  from excite-
ment of the genital organs and erections, which seem
to be produced by lascivious  dreams, or by reason of
the bladder being filled with urine.  The quality of
these discharges  does not differ materially from the
normal character of healthy semen; nevertheless they
result from debility that has  been induced from some
cause of irritation of the urethra or weakening of the
seminal ducts.
  2. Those which are entailed as an effect of mastur-
bation first demand our attention, because they occur
frequently and sometimes nightly, and are followed by 
40          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

great weakness and depression.   The victims of these
emissions often are made  unhappy  and wretched, be-
cause they know that habits which they have succeed-
ed in conquering  were the  primary cause,  and they
often seem willing to endure the suffering than  to ap-
ply  for relief.   But disease from any cause may be
curable, and such is the case with regard to these noc-
turnal emissions.  We have had considerable exper-
ience in the treatment  of such cases, and undoubtedly
they are  generally curable.
  3.  In the case of a young man who had been guilty
of self-abuse until  seventeen years, on  being aroused
to his condition he voluntarily  abandoned the habit,
and  turned his  attention to a conscientious religious
life.   But his whole system was greatly impaired.  He
was dyspeptic and nervous, depressed and melancholic,
and found himself  the  victim of almost nightly emis-
sions.  He sought  a confidential medical adviser, who
at once  comprehended the nature of his suffering.
For more than a year he had refrained from the pol-
luting habit,  hoping  that  his   health and strength
would return to him without obliging him to resort to
a physician.  But or the contrary, he found his health
declining he fancied himself the victim of imbecility,
and his mind was filled with fearful forebodings of a
disastrous future. 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
41
  4. The first measure of relief resorted to by his phy-
sician was to encourage his hopes and direct his mind
from himself to the consideration of topics that would
be most likely to give a healthy tone to his moral and
religious aspirations.  He further taught him that the
study of arithmetic and the solution  of its  problems
upon slate or blackboard would strengthen his manly
faculties, whereas  the reading of sentimental stories
would have the opposite effect.   All of which, the
young man seemed to appreciate.
  5. After pointing out a mental  and moral course
that would favor  a radical  cure, the physician com-
menced with him a course of medical treatment.  Find-
ing his patient the victim of excessive sexual excite-
ment,  he first gave him the sixth decimal attenuation
of Cantharis, four globules three  times  a day,  and
prohibited the use of all stimulating drinks, including
coffee and all stimulating aliments calculated to excite
sexual feelings, such  as oysters, crabs, lobsters, etc.
The first prescription was continued for five or six
days, and the young man  felt a  sensible relief.  But
feeling dull and stupid,  having a dread of society, and
still suffering,  but less frequently, from  emissions,
Phosphoric acid 6th was given in water three times a
day;  there was a gradual  improvement, and the emis- 
42          THE  DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

sions  were less frequent.  The  patient, as directed,
confined  himself  to a  light nutritious  diet,  under
which his strength improved;  occasional  seasons of
malaise and weakness were cured by China 3d.  For
two  years his whole system became more  and more
robust, and  he rejoiced in finding  himself radically
cured.
  6. For the debility brought on by onanism, China
is quite generally the best remedy, and it only requires
an early cessation of the habit, a careful diet, and a
good  occupation for the  mind, as well as a persistent
perseverance with this remedy to effect a perfect resto-
ration to health.
  7. For emissions brought on exclusively by this vice,
attended with extreme sense of weakness, provided a
proper attention  is paid to diet  and employment for
the mind, China will seldom fail of curing.  Aurum
muriaticum  will often cure when given daily in the 3d
centesimal trituration.
  8. For the  depression of spirits  and  nervous rest-
lessness, Hypophosphite of Lime in  the 3d trituration,
taken in three-grain doses morning and evening, will
suffice.  But  the remedy must  be  taken a sufficient
length of time to ensure its eflect.
  9. Nightly emissions have been cured by Digitalis in 
            THE  DECLINE OF MANHOOD.          43

those of bilious temperament  subject to melancholy.
The 3d dilution is employed, but for any treatment to
be successful the  cause must be  removed.  The  diet
should be well regulated, the mind must be accustomed
to dwell upon profitable subjects, and there must  be a
firm reliance upon the remedies.  In addition to those
already cited for nocturnal emissions, Sepia often has a
salutary effect, and in some inveterate cases Sulphur
3d, taken in daily doses, will effect a radical cure.
  10. A student of theology, aged twenty-five, found
his health declining on account of the debilitating ef-
fects of nocturnal  emissions, which were brought on
by  self-abuse in early life.  He applied for medical
treatment.  The  3d aqueous dilution  of Phosphoric
acid, while under a strict regimen as to diet, was ad-
ministered three times a day for a month; after which
his health improved rapidly, and he rejoiced in  finding
himself no longer troubled with the emissions.  He
was enabled to pursue his studies without difficulty.
  11. A  young man desirous of entering into matri-
mony, hesitated on account  of  the state of  health
which early self-abuse had entailed.   He suffered from
frequent involuntary emissions when asleep, and from
the  consequent loss  of  mental vigor and physical
strength which usually follow.  Alarmed on this ac- 
44          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

count, he sought  advice and medical treatment.  He
complained of a dull pain in the region of the lumbar
vertebrae,  and flaccidity  of the  penis.  He suffered
from tedious constipation and haemorrhoids, that often
protruded from the anus; Nux v., 3d trituration, was
first prescribed—a three-grain powder every night half
an hour before retiring—after which he was somewhat
relieved of constipation; but there was no improve-
ment  in other respects.  Sulphur 6th was then substi-
tuted for  the Nux v. and continued for a week; no
good  result followed; Conium mac. 6th dilution, ten
drops in a tumbler of water, was directed to be given
in tablespoonful  doses,  morning and  evening.   He
soon felt better, and after two weeks the haemorrhoids
disappeared, the pain in the back was better, and nor-
mal virility returned.  A short time after the  young
man got married, and has lived happily with his wife
for the last five years, and is the father of two children,
a son  and a daughter.
  12. Conium 3d, 6th and 30th attenuation have been
advantageously employed in the  treatment of noctur-
nal emissions, or those that occur involuntarily at other
times, when there is a flaccidity of the membrum virile
and a sense of weakness and pain in the back. 
CHAPTER. VI.
   SEXUAL  EXCESSES AND OTHER CAUSES  OF SPER-
                   MATORRHOEA.

  By spermatorrhoea is understood  the  unconscious
loss of the seminal fluid when at stool or when urinat-
ing,  or at other times from the most trivial exciting
cause, when there are no erections, but a mere flaccid
state of the penis.  The first cause of this weakening
discharge which we shall consider at some length, is
sexual excesses, both in unmarried and married life.
In the former a  reckless roaming lust,  and the fre-
quenting of brothels, wherewith to  become satiated by
frequent indulgence, are the primary causes of genital
weakness that result in the premature decline of man-
hood.  The effect of excesses of this kind, for the sake
of gratifying the mere lust for variety, is to bring
upon the victim a train of evil consequences hardly to
be enumerated.   First, upon  the  vital condition of
the general organism; and second, upon those organs
essential to the integrity of manhood.  After a general 
46
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
debauch, there is a complete derangement of the func-
tions, nutrition becomes impaired, and the entire body
suffers; and this is not all, the mind participates in
the general wreck and the victim bocomes polluted in
soul and body throughout. Frequent repetition soon
reduces the victim to the lowest point of physical and
moral degradation.  At first his digestion is impaired,
and he resorts to a stimulating diet  to encourage his
lusts;  then  follows constipation, haemorrhoids  and
other ailments  that, in  conjunction  with a corrupt
longing for sexual pleasures, so deteriorate and weak-
en  the  sexual system as to destroy  all power of re-
taining the seminal fluid, and it passes off in spermat-
orrhoea as readily as feculent matter passes from the
bowels in chronic diarrhoea.  The state of his mind is
even worse than  that of his body; sickened by his own
indulgence he at last hates the opposite sex, and never
conceives of it the idea of chastity.  Such is  the effect
of commencing a career of indulgence of roaming lust,
irrespective of the consequences.  Is there no remedy
for a reckless youth of this description till all is lost?
Before the habit is confirmed  by repeated indulgence,
it is possible to break off such a career and voluntarily
refrain and reform, but as the habit becomes more and
more confirmed  by illicit intercourse with a variety of 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
47
courtezans, there is the greatest danger of the complete
wreck of manhood.   Who is able to utter a successful
warning before it is to late to save the  victim from
becoming a mere driveler and a show, with genital
weaknesses that inevitably lead to absolute destruction
of virility, and, a confirmed spermatorrhoea?
  2. The  most inveterate  of all  maladies to cure  are
those found in such a wreck of humanity—the fruits
of unconquered lust.  Nevertheless, so long as a spark
of humanity remains, or in other  words, so  long as
any moral sense remains, a struggle to reform is pos-
sible.  When a manly struggle is made to break off
lewd practices, and  the mind is withdrawn from lewd
imaginings, there is at least some hope of recupera-
tion and recovery from the effects of debauchery.   If
the digestion is impaired  and the  stomach irritable,
and rejects the food taken into it, Pulsatilla 6th, in
doses of four globules, three times a day, may be taken
when there is a sense of weight in the stomach or a
sense of contraction.  Nux vomica 6th may be substi-
tuted for the Pulsatilla.
  3. After Pulsatilla and Nux have done their work,
China 6th may be taken in the  same way.  In case of
constipation and accumulation of  hardened feculent
matter in  the rectum, Lycopodium 6th may be taken 
48          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

morning and evening in connection with a diet of di-
gestible meats and vegetables, with bran bread, fruit
such as aples and pears, and no stimulating condi-
ments.  Great regularity in taking the meals, and the
repudiation of late  suppers, oysters, etc., are  essen-
tially necessary.  Agnus castus is a remedy not to be
overlooked.
  4. In case of haemorrhoids that become inflamed
and effect contiguous tissues so as to produce or aug-
ment spermatorrhoea, iEsculus  glabra tincture  may
be taken in drop doses in a spoonful of water, and re-
peated  every  three  hours.  In very many  cases this
remedy will remove  the piles,  and if the spermator-
rhoea remains and the seminal fluid passes off when uri-
nating  or straining  at stool, Selenium 3d, or Conium
3d  may be dropped in the proportion of ten drops to
half a goblet of water, and a tablespoonful  dose may
be  taken  every  four hours during  the day.  A strict
observance of the above course will accomplish  much
in  recovering the lost manhood.
   5.  For varices or  tumid veins that become so sore
and painful as indirectly  to produce weakness, if not
 paralysis of the seminal vesicles, Arnica and Pulsatilla
 are remedies to be consulted.
   6.  Affections of the  rectum  and anus that have re-
 sulted  from other causes than sexual excesses, may 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
49
produce spermatorrhoea, and before the  latter can be
cured these affections must be removed, and well cho-
sen remedies for the particular troubles often have a
salutary effect.
  7. Retained  fasces, by pressing upon the  seminal
vesicles, induce a semi-paralytic state of the muscular
coat, disabling them  so that they  cannot resist the
pressure of  the faecal  masses when at stool,  and  the
seminal fluid passes off involuntarily.  Similar effects
may occur during the act of urinating by the contrac-
tion of the bladder.  In every case, therefore, of sper-
matorrhoea, the state of the bowels and  the condition
of the urinary organs should be critically looked after,
and such  remedies  must be selected as will be most
likely to remove the proximate cause, and in a major-
ity of cases Nux vomica or Lycopodium will suffice;
a dose of either every night may produce relief.
  8. Fissures of the anus, which are  accompanied by
cramplike contractions of the sphincter  ani, and pain
at stool, tend to retard the evacuations and  cause re-
tention of faeces.   The itching and  tickling of these
are of great  importance in explaining many cases of
spermatorrhoea.   The intolerable  itching   compels
scratching the perineum and anal region; the adjacent
tests suffer from daily irritation provoked by this act.
The organs  contiguous participate in the irritation, 
50
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
and this is often followed by weakness and spermator-
rhoea, without sexual excitement.  Sulphur, the 3d
trituration,  taken  in three-grain  doses, every night,
will generally cure the fissures  and remove the itch-
ing, and consequently effect a cure.
  9.  Herpes, which consists of numerous minute vesi-
cles upon the scrotum, penis or perineum, and around
the anus, may burn, itch and smart, and provoke the
patient to rub and scratch until the genitals become
so weakened that  spermatorrhoea  may be occasioned.
To remove this condition, Petroleum has been found a
specific.
  10. A gentleman of steady, temperate and virtuous
habits, was  almost maddened by this herpetic erup-
tion, and spent much time and money in striving for
relief, was at last advised to take Petroleum, the 3d
attenuation, five drops in a spoonful of water, night
and  morning, and in less  than two weeks he was
entirety cured.
  11. When the seminal vesicles  are no longer able
to serve as reservoirs for the  seminal fluid by reason
of the constant irritation which produces  depression
and weakness, and on  the  slightest provocation dis-
charge their contents, there results an habitual sper-
matorrhoea.   Petroleum as  above may be given first,
and afterward Sulphur to cure the difficulty. 
CHAPTER  VII.
SPERMATORRHOEA CAUSED BY ASCARIDES  AND GRAVEL.

  The effect of thread worms upon  the sexual sphere
is both dangerous as well as distressing.   They gener-
ate in the large intestine, and to this  circumstance
must  be attributed the  inportance of some  persons
who, through their annoying influence, have been ini-
tiated into self-abuse,  and thence into suffering from
seminal losses and spermatorrhoea.  Very young boys
often become the victims of suffering from these para-
sites, and comparatively a less number of adults find
themselves victimized  by their presence.
  2.  This inconsiderable worm is cylindrical and point-
ed, white in color, about the size of common wrap-
ping twine used for tying up small parcels.  The tail
end of the male ends  abruptly, and is rolled up in a
spiral, while in the  female, it is straight and pointed.
  3.  The head is provided with wing-like attachments,
between which  the mouth  is situated; the  length
varies from a line to a line and a  half.   It sometimes 
52
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
appears in the evacuation in  large  numbers, so great
even as to present the appearance of a constant wrig-
ling motion.
  4. When we consider  the great number of symp-
toms this worm is capable of producing, such as tick-
ling the nose, squinting,  colic, fits, etc., it is not dif-
ficult to comprehend the nature of its action upon  the
anus in producing that intolerable itching which is so
hard to endure, and not only the anus, but the intes-
tines, testicles and penis,  and the most sensitive semi-
nal vesicles, exciting  them to  involuntary, emissions
by self-abuse, or to pollution and spermatorrhoea.
  5. Thread worms  produce nearly the same symptoms
as stone in the bladder;  children two or three years
old suffer constant erections from them.  This symp-
tom affords one of the most positive indications of the
presence of pin worms, and  these boys grow up with
the constant habit of handling the parts that itch, and
scratching and rubbing habitually comes up with them
in some form of self-abuse.
  6. The opposite sex likewise suffer in the same way,
and are led into habits of self-abuse, until health dis-
appears, and beauty fades.   This constant itching and
scratching irritates  the skin, causes the clitoris to be
reddened and swollen, and sometimes  an ichorous dis- 
THE  DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
53
charge from the vagina, and this only augments the
itching, burning and swelling of the labia, all of which
are powerful influences in augmenting self-abuse.  We
shall  discuss this  matter more fully when we enter
upon  the chapter relating to females entirely.
  7.  A learned authority, in treating of this particu-
lar affection and its  consequences, gives  as an indica-
tion  of the presence of pin worms, deeply-sunken
eyes,  surrounded by  blue rings.  This appearance  per-
sists as an outstanding sign of self-pollution, even after
the habit has been subdued  and only its consequences
remain; and what are the consequences that remain
after  the habit  has  been corrected?   We will see if
we can divine.
   8. Hypochondriasis, impotence, congestion of the
brain, apoplectic fits, may all  occur from  the irrita-
tion produced  by these  apparently insignificant  ver-
min, though all indulgence  in self-abuse is done away
with,  and  moreover all  these  affections  have been
cured when the worms have been removed.  When-
ever a boy or girl is  found to be suffering from epilep-
tic fits, inquire critically into their habits, and whether
they have been sacrificed to  the ascaris.  Should it be
ascertained that pin worms were preying upon them,
correct self-abuse, destroy the  worms, and nine times 
54
THE  DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
out of ten the epilepsy will prove to have  been mere
epileptiform  convulsions caused  by these iniquitous
thread worms, and the patients will speedily recover.
  9. A celebrated  writer mentions a case of frequent
nocturnal emissions of six years standing, which recov-
ered rapidly after the removal of the pin worms, which
it seems had been the cause.  For all other means had
previously failed, and the rapid convalescence of the
patient after their destruction, proves them to have
been the  cause.  This case, continues  the writer, was
also characterized by apoplectic symptoms and a par-
tial loss of memory.
  10. This writer  is of the opinion that young men
who are  suffering from diurnal  emissions,  without
erections or  pleasurable sensations, were  victims of
enuresis  during their  childhood.  In  such cases the
disease consists in  great irritability and weakness of
the bladder, increased by the warmth of the bed, and
conducted from the bladder to the neighboring sexual
apparatus.
  11. The neck of the  bladder is the most sensitive
when stones are trying  to  make their exit, and from
this source the most intensely painful symptoms pro-
ceed.  The more the disease we call "gravel" is pro-
longed, the longer the durations of  those affections of 
THE  DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
55
the bladder, and so much more extensive is the inva-
sion of the contiguous parts or organs—the ureters,
kidneys, prostate  gland, urethra, rectum and vagina,
all become implicated and somewhat exposed to dan-
ger.
  12. The peculiar pains  at the  neck of the bladder,
as well as at the base, while walking, sitting at stool,
etc., and especially the pains experienced at the end of
the urethra, induce the patient to violent  pulling and
stretching of the penis, and this leads to masturbation.
Excessive length of penis, and an  observable lengthen-
ing of the prepuce, as well  as  a  thickening of the
same, indicate the  presence of stone in the bladder.
  13. Sudden interruption of the flow of urine  takes
place when small  stones are  carried into the urethra
and remain there.   The reflex action of this irritation
upon the rectum, vagina, testicles, kidneys, etc., as
shown by  cramp-like contractions  of the perineum,
may produce an abnormal irritation of the whole urin-
ary and genital apparatus.  The tickling which stones
in the bladder produce  in the membrum  virile  often
provoke  involuntary emissions, and by the  irritation
being transferred to the seminal vesicles, testicles and
seminal ducts, frequent pollutions and spermatorrhoea
results, and so far  as the physical  health is concerned,
these may as well  be brought on by masturbation. 
56          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

  14. A siugle large stone in  the bladder, firmly im-
bedded in the fundus, may by its weight alone exert so
strong a pressure upon the seminal vesicles that  they
must empty their contents and gradually suffer a dimi-
nution from atrophy, to the detriment and  destruction
of the generative function.  In this way no  other
cause than  stone in the bladder may be the  cause  of
spermatorrhoea and impotence.
  15. The  treatment  of  spermatorrhoea from  these
causes consists in removing them.  For that caused by
thread worms, such remedies must be employed as will
exterminate them.  Sulphur is an important remedy
to give first—a dose of the 3d trituration  may be given
every day for a week.  This remedy may be  followed
by Santonin 2d trituration, in the same way.   Should.
these not be sufficient, Terebinth, in drop doses may
be given  twice a day,  and other remedies, Calc. Cina
and Ignatia.  A  timely use of these remedies will  in
a majority of cases effect a cure.
  16. To cure the spermatorrhoea  that has been pro-
voked by stones in the bladder, requires great care.
The cause must  be removed, or otherwise there is no
chance for a cure; when the stones  are so large that
they cannot pass  through the urethra while urinatino-,
and so hard and compact as to preclude'the possibility 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
57
of their reduction  by any other process, the sooner
some skillful surgeon performs the operation of crush-
ing them the better.  It is preferable to undergo the
pain of lithotomy than to struggle a long time in such
suffering.  After the operation  has been successfully
performed, the after treatment with remedies must be
in accordance with the  symptoms.  The soreness and
pain consequent upon the operation  is very soon re-
lieved by Arnica  6th, ten drops  in half a tumbler of
water, and a tablespoonful may be taken three times
a day.  Urging to urinate or painful urination requires
Cantharis to be prepared and taken the same as Arnica.
Urethral inflammation calls for Cannabis sat.   It may
be that these remedies will cure the seminal weakness
after the cause has been removed.  But if they fail, it
must be attributed to the extensive injury which the
seminal vesicles have already received.   The perisstent
use of China may in time bring up their vitality.
  17. A young gentlemen who had always lived a cor-
rect life, was somewhat rheumatic.  He  observed that
his urine deposited a reddish sediment, which stuck
fast and adhered to  the vessel.  In process of time he
passed what he termed red sand when he urinated.
He finally began to suffer  from  strangury and irrita-
tion of the urethra.   At last  he felt stinging when he 
58
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
         urinated that extended to the end of the penis.   Now,
         in our  opinion, if this young man had taken at that*
         time a  few doses of Tart, emetic, he might have had
         less suffering in the future.   But he neglected himself
         and the difficulty grew  worse, until he began to pass
         blood with his urine, and the heat and irritation was
         communicated to the testes and seminal vesicles  excit-
         ing pollution and spermatorrhoea.  The concretions in
         the bladder became so  massive that lithotomy  was a
         thing indispensable, and a skillful surgeon placed him
•        in position to operate, put him under the influence of
         Ether,  and  effectually  crushed  the deposits, so that
         they readily passed off with the  urine, after which he
         took Arnica and Cannabis and felt quite relieved, but
         the pollutions  remained and  frequently the  semen
         would  pass off with the urine, and when at  stool.
         Digitalis given in drop  doses of the 3d dilution  had a
         good effect.  Hypophosphite of Lime was given three
         times a day  for a week or ten days, and  the patient
         had no trouble afterward.
           18.  The diet in the cases should be barley water for
         drink,  fruits, esculents, and good digestible meat and
         fish; all  food  tending  to bind up the bowels  so as to
         render constipation habitual, must be avoided. 
CHAPTER  VIII.
 EXCESSIVE  SEXUAL INTERCOURSE IN MARRIED LIFE.

  Marriage  is intended for a higher, holier and  hap-
pier purpose than unlimited indulgence in sexual in-
tercourse.  It is not a license for excessive coitus, an0-
therefore when made such the worst of consequences
may follow.  First, weakness of the general  system;
second, weakness and derangement of the function of
reproduction.
  1. Weakness of the  general system is produced by
a series of disturbances which we will proceed to ex-
plain.  When a man and  wife cohabit for the sake of
the legitimate purpose  of begetting offspring, there is
but little tax upon the strength or but little risk of
impairing the generative function. But when the mind
sinks into the low plane that craves sensual sexual in-
dulgence, it morbidly and selfishly anticipates the most
unlimited sway for the passions, and to gratify them
is liable to become the  chief motive and delight.  Now
there  is a normal delight in sexual intercourse alto- 
60          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

gether different  from the morbid  craving  for indul-
gence.  The former is chaste and pure when it spon-
taneously occurs from mutual love and affection be-
tween married  partners, and  virility is constantly
strengthened for the purpose; with such the love looks
to the important result—the legitimate fruits of mar-
riage, and rejoices when children are born as the mutual
pledge of connubial affection.  But the latter is a mere
sensual lust that looks no higher than  for opportuni-
ties to  gratify it.  It despises the idea  of rearing  a
family, and the children that chance to  be born as the
consequence of this indulgence are not welcomed as
blessings, but as necessary evils.
  2. There is a limit to this morbid and selfish lust.
The gratification of it does not  strengthen  connubial
tenderness  and affection, nor promote  the health of
the parties.  After a time the  love grows cold, or is
turned into hatred, and frequent and continual indul-
gence ends  in the deterioration of mind  and body.
  3. The man from continual losses of semen finds his
digestion impaired, his nervous system weak, and what
is worse he finds himself the victim of sexual weakness
and his virility impaired.  His wife at  the same  time
has become hysterical and fretful, and there is no hap-
piness in the household.  The man and the woman only 
            THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.           61

come together when lust excites them to an embrace.
At other times their backs are turned to each other in
disgust and hatred.
  4. Continual  cohabitation at length destroys the
function of the seminal vesicles, and paralyzes the lit-
tle muscles that prevent the escape of the seminal
fluid, and thus manhood becomes sterile,  prostrated
and the victim of spermatorrhoea, and the woman has
become his sterile companion.  Excessive  sexual in-
dulgence has been the  proximate cause.   When the
digestion  has become  impaired, and the successive
chain of organic  functions participate in the misfor-
tune, nutrition becomes feeble, and the whole  body
suffers from emaciation  and debility.  The effect upon
the woman is quite similar.   She suffers from  nausea,
debility, and general nervous prostration.   The pic-
ture is not over-wrought.  Excessive sexual  indul-
gence, even in married  life, results in the  premature
decline of manhood.  It pollutes the soul and fills the
mind with diverse fancies—it destroys the vital elastic-
ity of the muscles, saps  the nervous system and entails
many weaknesses, such  as rheumatism, constipation,
haemorrhoids and renal disturbances.
  5. When all the vital functions  become thus im-
paired from over-indulgence  in sexual intercourse, the 
62           THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

query arises, Is there no remedy?  Is the restoration
of strength possible, and can manhood  be restored ?
If not too low or too far gone we answer these ques-
tions affirmatively.
  6. When one sensibly feels that his virility is want-
ing, let him  pause and  consider, let  him  direct his
mind and thoughts  to a  higher  plane of love and af-
fection, let him  refrain from indulgence and lust and
turn his back upon  the  wicked  practice.   If he  feels
feverish and restless, let him take a few doses of Aconite.
If his appetite is impaired and his food distresses  him,
let him take Nux vomica.  If his back is weak, rheu-
matic and stiff, let him take Cocculus.  If his bladder
and urethra are irritated, let him take Cannabis;  or if
he  has strangury,  let him take Cantharis;  and for
general weakness,  flaccidity  of the  penis  and sper-
matorrhoea, let him take China persistently, and eat
and  drink—if his  appetite permits, and nutrition is
not completely interrupted—well cooked  meats and
vegetables and drinks—wholesome drinks.   If he ful-
fills  these conditions without relapsing into more sel-
fish indulgence of his passions, virility may be restored.
  7. The worn out and depressed wife must also direct
her mind in that channel most conducive to her  hap-
piness.  Let  her thoughts and  affections ascend and 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
63
rest in a religious view of married life.  If she suffers
from nausea and indigestion, she may improve the con-
dition of her  stomach by taking 3 grs. of the 3d trit-
uration of Oxalate of  Cerium.  This remedy will
strengthen her nerves, improve the digestion, allay the
nausea, and give general tone to body and mind.
  8.  When both parties have thus complied with the
means of regaining health and  strength, they will be
able to come together as man and wife, and with lofty
sentiments above venery they will happily find connu-
bial love and affection to take the place of lust,  and
they may come into the happy relationship of husband
and  wife.  If otherwise, they  will  sink lower  and
lower, the victims  of excessive lustful indulgence.
Connubial bliss and conjugal tenderness will bloom no
more  for the household. 
CHAPTER IX.
THE  CONSEQUENCES  OF ABNORMAL SEMINAL EMISSIONS.

  Seminal  emissions are  either abnormal on account
of the means by which they are brought about, or in
respect to the frequency  of their occurrence, whether
produced by coitus or spontaneous pollutions at short
intervals.
  2. Long-continued and oft-repeated masturbation in
both sexes is altogether abnormal, and is the fruitful
source of disease.  In the male it results in  disease of
the reproductive organs, and is followed by emaciation
and  consequent debility of the whole  body. Hippo-
crates maintained that emaciation indicated the atrophy
of the spinal cord.  He describes the sense of formica-
tion, or the feeling, as if ants were crawling over the
skin, as an accompaniment to the atrophy, and the
loss of seminal fluid while urinating and when at stool
as the result, and to this is added a sense of weariness
and shortness of breath after a short walk.   All this
may occur when a person of the most robust health is
broken down by the vice. 
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
65
  3.  Celsus  supports the views  of Hippocrates, and
maintains that atrophy of the spinal cord is the imme-
diate source of emaciation and the legitimate conse-
quence of abnormal emissions, produced by masturba-
tion.  It has been observed  that the emaciation of
onanists increases in spite of a good appetite, and the
consumption of a large amount of food.  Insatiable
hunger and a good digestion are symptoms that indi-
cate  the  struggle  of  nature  to  compensate  for  the
losses, and yet so long as the spinal centre is the source
and its atrophy stands out in continual decrease of the
flesh, satiated hunger and an unimpaired digestion can
avail but little.  This emaciation is often ascribed to
the  rapid growth of youth  that sometimes follows
puberty.  The muscles of the hip and lower extremi-
ties show forth this peculiarity, which is  ascribed to
pathological changes of the spinal cord.
  4.  Just in proportion to the emaciation the onanist
loses his strength.  He leaves his bed with difficulty
in the morning, and is dull and listless during the day,
even when at his work.  In  going up stairs he finds
difficulty in  breathing and palpitation of the heart.
These symptoms of weakness may increase to an alarm-
ing extent, till the onanist bends over like an old man 
(36          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

and faints and reels from vertigo  on the  slightest
exertion, and is obliged to keep his bed.
  5.  The case of the  onanist even in the extremity
described above, is not hopeless.   The strength and
fullness of the body may return when the vice is given
up, and proper remedial means are employed to obvi-
ate the  deterioration of the spinal  cord.  The habit
broken, the appetite and digestion good, render it prob-
able  that the 3d decimal trituration of the Hypophos-
phite of Lime, given  persistently  for a  sufficient
length of time, will restore the spinal cord to its nor-
mal size and strength.  The remedy may be adminis-
tered in three grain doses, half an hour after each meal,
and before retiring.
   6. Modern physicians concur with Hippocrates and
Celsus in these  descriptions  of the  consequences  of
seminal  losses by  onanism.   Hoffman says :  " The
onanist loses his   strength  after  frequent seminal
evacuations, the body gets  thin, the face  pale, the
memory blunted  or  lost, and a continual coldness
seizes the  limbs;  the face becomes idiotic, the voice
 hoarse, and in short, the whole body is reduced  to
 atrophy, and sleeplessness, restlessness and tormenting
 dreams are the  usual concomitant  symptoms."  The
 same author says:  " Amaurosis or total blindness 
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
67
is  sometimes  the consequence of abnormal seminal
evacuations."
  7. Boerhaave has noticed " pain in the  membranes
of the brain, weakness  of  the body, blunting of the
senses, leanness and paralysis, and this is not all. The
face loses its healthy and beautiful tint, becomes pale,
earthlike and yellowish, or lead colored and livid; the
lips pale and the  eyes dim and glassy.    The bluish
margin around the eyes, a  puffness of the lids, flabbi-
ness of the flesh, weak and small pulse, copious sweats,
swelling of the upper and lower extremities, and finally
hectic fever and general symptoms of exhaustion are
the deplorable consequences  which  show  that  the
organism  does not succumb to the onslaught on its
integrity without the most obstinate struggle."  To
change  this condition  requires,  as  before  stated,  a
complete cessation of the polluting habit, and a stead-
fast resolution to rely on the best regimen and reme-
dial means to restore the body  to its normal health.
  8. At first the abuse of the genital organs  begets in
the onanist a sense of hunger and a voracious appetite,
but long continued sexual abuse results in indigestion,
loss of appetite and disgust for food, or at best the ap-
petite becomes irregular, vague and beset with mor-
bid cravings and derangement of the sense  of taste. 
68          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

Food taken into the stomach causes pain and vomiting,
or diarrhoea and flatulence or constipation and haemor-
rhoids.  For this condition Sulphur and Nux vomica
may be given as follows: Upon the supposition  that
the victim is alarmed at  the consequences and has
broken off the habit which induces abnormal  seminal
losses, give Sulpher  3d, every night for a week, and
then follow  with a dose of the 3d  of Nux v. every
night just before retiring, and with such a diet as will
accord with the condition  of the stomach,  the above
consequences in many cases may be obviated.
  9. Abnormal seminal emissions are said by Deslandes
to  lead to other diseases, classed among the severer
and fatal forms,  such as apoplexy, ramollissement,
epilepsy, chorea,  mental disorders, spinal  irritation,
blindness, deafness, gout,  strabismus, varicocele, sar-
cocele and hydrocele, many of which  are  incurable,
and they must therefore remain as a permanent warn-
ing to young men not to  make  shipwreck  of them-
selves upon the rock upon which so many have foun-
dered and sunk.
   10. Another consequence of onanism  is the com-
plete decline  of  virility and inability  to  propagate
their kind, either because they are unable to  perform
the marital act or because they have lost all the warmth 
            THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.           69

which  healthy  semen  requires  to  vivify the female
germs.  Could such enervated individuals beget chil-
dren, upon the principle that " like begets like," they
will be feeble and pun}', and as they grow to maturity
they will be ill-shaped,  bow-legged,  oldish-looking
specimens of humanity, and victims for an early grave.
The more healthy, strong and sound the father, the
more robust and perfect will be his offspring.
  .11. Bodily diseases alone are quite enough to utter
a warning to the onanist.   But they are trifling when
compared with the awful consequences upon the soul.
The mind succumbs, childishness and imbecility are its
attributes, and he becomes a moral monstrosity;  thank
heaven, monsters cannot propagate, neither physical
or moral, for manhood is gone, virility destroyed, and
the vessel is a complete wreck in the sea of human in-
firmities.   Such are the consequences of  this kind of
abnormal seminal losses.
  12. As stated in the preceding chapter, a high, licen-
tious degree of sexual abuse results in  hopeless  de-
generacy of the organs of reproduction, as well as of the
whole  animal system.  Their excitability  gradually
diminishes, and mental disorders, associated with their
diseased condition, become prominent.   This is espec-
ially the case when the body is well nourished with 
70           THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.

good food, while at the same time the debilitating cause
continues to act on the genital organs.  Pangs of con-
science, remorse, shame or fear of  the terrible conse-
quences, as set forth in certain books, easily excite ap-
prehension, melancholy and hypochondria.   When the
mind constantly fights against the disease-producing
lust, it is in a  continual state  of excitement.   The
brain becomes affected, and mental disturbance or in-
sanity is superinduced upon the physical weakness, and
in the lust it changes  to hopeless idiocy.
  13. The conviction of incurable impotence, joined to
intemperate habits resorted  to for the  purpose of
silencing anxiety and  fearful  forebodings,  frequently
contributes to unsettle the mind and pave the way to
hopeless dementia.  One-tenth of all the inmates of
our insane asylums are of this class of secret sinners,
who still continue the vile habit of self-abuse, though
brought  to spiritual and moral bankruptcy.  Insanity,
hallucinations, loss of sight  and  hearing in  a moral
point of view form the climax, characteristic of the
consequences, and withal these idiotic victims of sexual
abuse embrace every secret opportunity to instinctively
cultivate and practice  the vile habit of onanism.
  14. The consequences of masturbation in the female
sex are equally disastrous and injurious to the general 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
71
organism.   Some eminent physicians maintain that the
delicate and susceptible organization  of  the  female
system renders it more liable to sutler from this  vice
than that of the male.  Suffice it to  say  the female
masturbater suffers all the physical and mental deteri-
oration that the practice induces in the opposite  sex,
and besides she becomes the victim of uterine affections
of a serious nature, such as disturbance of the menses,
prolapsus, displacement, ulcers, indurations and cancer.
   15. One  of the most serious consequences of the
habit is local irritation of the nerves of the womb, re-
sulting in nymphomania, which  affects both soul and
body, and degrades  the  finest feelings and attributes
of her being—disgusting to herself, and a shock upon
female or womanly modesty.
   16. Rozier, a  French physician, asserts  that  mas-
turbation in  girls,  by  the frequent  and  powerful
cramp-like contractions accompanying the fulfillment
of the act, induces considerable swelling of the neck,
as in epileptics;  and further, that in  some the  skin
becomes yellow,  and in others eruptions resembling
ringworms make their appearance on the arms and legs,
which disappear when thay refrain from the vice, but re-
turn when a repitition is indulged in.  The voice, also, 
72
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
of such girls becomes rough and hoarse,  hollow and
weak, losing its sonorous, soft and metallic ring.
  17. A feeling of oppression in the chest and region
of the stomach, with a dragging, occasionally indica-
ting the need of food, are consequent on the habit.
Severe cramps in the stomach, and similar disturbances
of the  solar plexus especially, show themselves in
girls who indulge in this habit, and at the same time,
leucorrhcea becomes established, attended with other
troubles, such as spasms and cramps in various parts
of the body, eructations after eating, distention of the
abdomen, difficult  digestion, headache  and  restless
moving of the limbs.
  18. A sallow countenance and an ugly expression
of the face, which is pale and sickly, are  signs which
betoken the physical and mental depression, consequent
upon masturbation.  The vivacious expression of youth
gives way, the eye becomes dim and surrounded by
leaden colored rings, the lips are pale, the teeth covered
with a gummy and dirty-looking mucus.   The entire
fullness of feminine spirit and beauty has seemingly
vanished, and the shrunken image betokens premature
decline.  Both heart and mind suffer more in compari-
son from the habit than is the case  with the opposite
sex.  Worse than all are the pangs  of conscience, and 
            THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.          73

mortification, and grief which such a vile habit engen-
ders.  This, added to physical  exhaustion, becomes
prophetic of the shipwreck  of  all the glorious attri-
butes of  womanhood.  The yoke under  which  she
habitually labors is of such a  nature  that the mind
moves in a perpetual circle,  and from which it cannot
elevate  itself.  The whole endeavor is to mislead the
eyes  of others away from her true condition, and to
recall the memories and imaginations which give fresh
encouragement to the lascivious practice.
  19. And yet another kind of*  moral  deformity may
spring up from the practice.  The mind accustomed
only  to  its  own  selfish  broodings  and  lascivious
thoughts, does not feel  at  ease  in other spheres of
thought.  The pleasure  of self-abuse then becomes
the chief delight of those erring misses, and they give
themselves up to it.  All pleasure of concourse of the
sexes is  lost,  and nothing but loathing and indiffer-
ence  takes its  place.  Their own  silent,  or rather
secluded indulgence, eclipse the higher and  nobler en-
joyments.  The sexual impulse  with such is perverted
and usurps dominion, and is much more frequent, ac-
cording to Tissot,  in  women than in men.  He cites
the case of a wife who had become so confirmed  m the
habit of  masturbation that she  esteemed the pleasure 
74          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

superior to marital interpourse, for which she felt an
unmitigated disgust.  Tissot also  remarks that this
abominable habit keeps some giris  from marrying at
an age when they could do so;  because in their esti-
mation, it would deprive them of this unnatural method
of gratifying their pissions, and hence the increased
number of old maids.
  20. It is true that the fluids lost by women by mas-
turbation are less vital and perfect  than that  lost by
men, and for this reason women can endure these ex-
ercises longer and more frequently  without apparent
injury.  But the longer and oftener the woman gives
herself up to the practice, the more serious the conse-
quences becomes, and this is attributable to the delicate
organization of the female system.
  21. Among the examples of  broken down constitu-
tions, occasioned by the vice, we find recorded  numer-
ous instances of confirmed melancholy and insanity,
nymphomania, idiocy and suicide.   Dr. V. Graifa,  of
Berlin,  relates  a remarkable case  of  recovery  from
idiocy in a young woman after  the amputation of the
clitoris and the  cessation of masturbation.
  22. The treatment required for impaired  female
constitutions, so long as reason and moral sense re-
mains, must primarily be moral—onanism must be 
THE DECLINE OF  MANHOOD.
75
discarded, denounced and condemned.  The mind must
be directed to higher aspirations and purer thoughts,
and for the debility and loss of strength, a good whole-
some diet, and exercise in the open air are commended,
with two doses of China daily until relieved.  For the
cramps  of the incipient stage  give  Nux vomica and
Sepia 3d decimal, whenever they occur. For the weary,
tired and listless feeling, Arnica, third decimal, may be
taken twice a day.  For nervousness and hysteria or
for timidity and  spasm, Hyoscyamus may be given
three or four times during the day.  If dejected and
inclined to weep,  Ignatia.  For epileptiform troubles,
Cuprum met.  Loss  of mind and memory, Sulphur.
For nymphomania, Cantharis.  All of these remedies
may be  employed in the 3d decimal attenuation, and
prepared for administration in the usual way.
   23. Certain aliments are prohibited, such as oysters,
eggs and indigestible meats, and all stimulating bev-
erages.  By following the above directions all will
be accomplished  that can  be in the  way of restoring
sound health. 
CHAPTER X.
CONSEQUENCES OF SPERMATORRHCEA AFFECTING THE
                  WHOLE SYSTEM.

  1. Spermatorrhoea, as before stated, consists of un-
conscious seminal emissions, that occur from the most
trivial excitement, distinct from the disease-producing
causes on which it depends.  It gives rise to a series
of symptoms of great importance to the entire organic
structure  of man.  It is not only evident that the
causes of spermatorrhoea sometimes remain, but that
they effect pathological changes in  different parts of
the genital  organs.   The  disturbances  which  are
wholly due to the seminal losses are as follows:
  2. The  entire organism becomes  altered and  im-
paired; the  sufferer without being able  to fix the
locality of the pain, and probably without realizing
the nature of his trouble, is beset with general discom-
fort, lassitude and trembling weakness of the extremi-
ties—a depressed condition of the  entire body, and a 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
77
distaste for any occupation of body or mind; not fully
realizing the nature  of his trouble, nor able to ex-
plain, he retires exhausted, sleeps indifferently, and
awakes without having been refreshed or improved in
strength, with a sense of pressure,  fullness and dizzi-
ness of the head, and inclination to fainting.
  3. An enfeebled  and sick body is but a feeble instru-
ment for the mind that depends upon the cerebral-
center for its integrity.  It must therefore suffer when
the body is thus depressed.   Its activity is seriously
impaired and morbid.  The fire of the intellect can
glow but faintly when the whole physical system is in
such a  flickering condition.  For matter and spirit are
so closely and intimately related in human  beings,
there must be a reciprocal influence of each upon the
other, or a perpetual conflict between nature and spirit,
body and soul, or matter and force.
  4. And to add to  the misery and wretchedness, a
knowledge of its  source, or a self-consciousness of
guilt, and the probability of having become the victim
of incurable disease,  only opens the channel for fear-
ful  and tormenting forebodings.  Impotence is morti_
fying, and  to be in  this hopeless condition fills the
mind with despair and leads to confirmed melancholy.
  5. Then,  further, a continual depression of spirits 
78
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
 and brooding over this unpleasant condition, leads to
 intemperate stimulation,  and this to affections of the
 brain, and a train of evil consequences that betokens a
 complete wreck of body and mind, the fruits of which
 may culminate in despair and suicide, or in insanity or
 idiocy, and the absolute loss of mental impressibility,
 and finally a sinking away  in  exhaustion, or an apo-
 plectic convulsion  may  end the train of evil  conse-
 quences of self-abuse and spermatorrhoea.
  6. There is another class of symptoms that some-
 times  shows itself as the consequence  of abnormal
 seminal losses.  This class embraces great muscular
 weakness and different forms of paralysis.  There is
 an intimate relation and mutual dependence that exists
 between the nervous system and the blood;  nervous
 energy depends on the purity and normal condition of
 the blood.  An impoverished condition of the circula-
 tion explains the diminution of muscular power.  For
 it  is self-evident that the  vis nervosa,  which is the
 natural stimulant of muscular  power, must cease to
 be active in the degree that it fails of support from
 the blood.  Spermatorrhoea not only deprives the cir-
culation of the purest elements of the blood, and thus
produces an irritable condition of the nervous system,
but by reflex irritability the nearest spinal nerves and 
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
79
thence the whole cerebro-spinal system may become
affected;  and by continuity the muscles become sub-
ject to extreme weakness and paralysis.  As for exam-
ple the lower extremities sometimes exhibit a  semi-
paralytic  condition, causing the victim at every step
to throw  his legs irrespective of muscular control.-
  7. Paralysis of the bladder, rectum and anus follow,
and  the  muscles of the hip also become implicated.
Sometimes only  a  single locality becomes paralyzed
and this may be the tongue or perchance the  spincter
of the bladder or anus, and this depends upon the ex-
tent of the irritation of the nervous system.
  8. When brain affections are becoming more exten-
sive, one organ after another  may show the effect in
partial paralysis.  When  stuttering  and stammering
or loss of  speech entirely manifest themselves, we are
led to suspect some affection of the nerves immediate-
ly connected  with the brain,  on which  the muscular
apparatus depends; and it does not necessarily follow
that other localities will become similarly affected.
  9. But inasmuch as spermatorrhoea being in  some
instances, the primary cause of paralysis of the tongue,
this symptom has been regarded as ominous of more
serious troubles when the losses of semen are persist-
ent.   It may be the first  alarm of an increasing or 
80
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
progressive paralysis that may terminate  in  general
mania, and on this account the symptoms  have been
studied in lunatic asylums as the prodromous or fore-
runner of alarming results.
  10. That the most frightful cases of chorea arise
from self-abuse and seminal losses, no reasonable doubt
obtains.  The irritation  of the  bruin  which  results
therefrom, causes a  semi-paralytic condition  of the
facial muscles, which gives numerous twitchings and a
peculiar  expression  to the face, and if not obviated
there may arise a more extensive paralysis implicating
the optic and auricular nerves, and those of the palpe-
bral muscles, rendering  it difficult to open or  close
the eyes.
  11. But the effect  does not end with mere weakness
of sight.  Rognita describes a case of amaurosis from
excessive seminal losses in a young Jesuit from Paler-
mo, who indulged in self-abuse six or  seven  times a
day.  Deslandes  considers the amaurosis a symptom
of great exhaustion, and of a  parallel  character with
that of the legs from spinal irritation.  In addition to
this blindness, the motor muscles of the eye may be-
come sadly affected, and strabismus and spasms of the
greatest intensity may take place, and also  a constant
lachrymation and agglutination of the eyelids in the
morning. 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
81
  12. It must be confessed that spinal irritation is one
of the most disagreeable consequences of spermator-
rhoea.   It is a diseased condition intermediate between
nerve pain and inflammation, and is denoted by a press-
ing, drawing sensation in the region of the hips and
small of the back;  disturbed  sensibility,  formication,
alternation of coldness and heat, pressure and weight,
and pain in  bending down, and through the enfeebled
genitals the irritation extends to the lower portion of
the spinal cord, and is reflected to the testes and penis,
producing in them a sensation of drawing, pressure
and dullness, extending to the inguinal and hypogas-
tric regions, and  from thence it may be reflected up-
wards to other organs,  producing an uncontrollable
restlessness.
  13. A super sensitiveness of the entire organism is
liable to result.  The auricular nerves are too sensitive
to endure loud talking, music and the like. The sub-
ject is unable to concentrate his thoughts on any sub-
ject.  He can neither endure the act  of reading or
writing, and he must therefore, remain inactive, beset
with sleeplessness, headache, dizziness, perverted taste
and smell, and pricking and itching of the skin. 
CHAPTER XL
THE  EFFECT OF SPERMATORRHCEA UPON THE  RESPIRA-
  TORY SYSTEM AND THE HEART AND OTHER ORGANS.

  1.  In the course of the  general irritation of the ner-
vous system, arising from spermatorrhoea, the breath-
ing apparatus  becomes implicated, and oppression of
the chest and praecordial anxiety weigh heavily upon
the patient.  A short, dry, and persistent cough most
always results from the sensitive condition of the pul-
monary and bronchial nerves, and palpitation of the
heart sets in to  complete the picture.  Nearly every
authority upon  the causes  of sexual  diseases allude
definitely to the asthmatic symptoms produced by pol-
lutions and spermatorrhoea; associated with these are
dry cough, debility, feebleness, restlessness, perspira-
tion and stitches, which actually imitate the symptoms
that  usually accompany tuberculosis.   Many a practi-
tioner has been puzzled to institute a diagnosis, to  tell
the difference. 
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
83
  2.  Diseases of the heart and large blood vessels fre-
quently result  from self-abuse and  spermatorrhoea,
and  sometimes from  excessive  sexual  indulgence.
Nevertheless, organic trouble of the heart may  be
present without any lesion.  In such cases the appear-
ance is due to spinal irritation alone, which extends
in a greater or  less degree  to the medulla oblongata
and cerebellum, and this also explains the  unbearable
pain and sensation of pressure at the nape of the neck
and back of the head, and the tendency to bend back-
wards  as  in opisthotonos of the  neck in  transient
tetanus.
  3.  Gouty pains in the feet and  knees, or hands and
fingers, in conjunction with convulsive movements and
trembling are also consequent upon self-pollution and
spermatorrhoea.  Epilepsy and  chorea frequently fol-
low  sexual excesses—the latter  more frequently  in
young girls troubled with thread worms, who, through
their biting and itching influences, have led to rubbing
and masturbation.
  4.  Through disturbed innervation the nerves of the
stomach  become implicated, producing pains, cramps
and spasms, and through the  general deterioration of
the  body  indigestion  and  defective nutrition  may
result.  The torpor of  the muscular  system  through- 
84
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
out all the organs retards or depresses the vital activity
of all the organic functions, and loss of appetite, dys-
pepsia and  depression of spirits are certain to render
mind and body uncomfortable.
  5.  The vitality of the skin becomes impaired and its
function interrupted, and when distended by foul gases
in the stomach, and wind, the condition fully accounts
for the severe colic and cessation of peristaltic action,
accompanied  by constipation from  which  the victim
continually suffers.  Constipation  is one consequence
of spermatorrhoea, and it serves at  the same time to
stimulate a renewal of seminal losses.
  6.  Constipation and haemorrhoids, which frequently
exists at the same time, are probably classed among
the products of continual seminal losses, and also other
affections  implicating  the  neck of the  bladder and
prostate gland.  The bladder cannot long remain in a
healthy condition under such a pressure, neither can
the urethra escape the sad effects of strictures or dila-
tation and  weakness, strangury and incontinence, to-
gether with mucous or purulent discharges.
  7.  But one of the saddest of all consequences  is  the
final culmination of habitual seminal losses in com-
plete impotence, which may be of  two kinds—a total
inability for sexual intercourse, or want  of power to 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
85
impregnate when the ability for coitus remains.  The
first kind of impotence may  be  physical, which de-
pends upon a feeling of  disgust and hatred on the part
of a man toward his wife, or from too strong an at-
traction towards each other, or from a morbid imagina-
tion of the consequence of former sins, and  above all
the lack of self-confidence which one formerly addicted
to solitary habits is prone to experience in matrimon-
ial relations.
  8. Niemeyer  says, that young men engaged to be
married frequently experiment on lewd women previ-
ous to their wedding day, and find that they are unable
to have sexual intercourse, and on this accountconsider
themselves impotent; and that such cases argue a lack
of self-confidence, which must be cultivated on look-
ing forward to the married slate; not by lewdness and
expenditure of strength with harlots, but by looking
chastely on marriage as the forerunner of begetting off-
spring, and then his manhood is strengthened  and he
comes off victoriously the father of many children.
  9. The second  cause  of impotence is natural when
the power of erection is lost through diseases described
in preceding chapters.  Onanists acquire it by pollu-
tion and spermatorrhoea, which cause the membrum
virille to retract and become flaccid and flabby.  The 
86
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
semen with such flows without erections and contact
with the opposite sex, however tempting and voluptu-
ous they may be, fails to stiffen the flaccid member, and
the matrimonial couch affords no guarantee of a better
fortune.  If perchance a temporary erection occurs,
and especially if artificial, a  premature discharge of
semen is certain  to follow—alike disgusting and disap-
pointing to the excited and  expectant wife.  From
such imcompleteness of the marriage act, the wife suf-
fers from unsatisfied sexual desires  until the  nervous
system  becomes shattered and she falls a victim to
hysteria, or becomes  the  subject  of morbid excite-
ment and desire that may have a disastrous effect  upon
health and life, and who can measure  the extent of
matrimonial infidelity that supervenes upon this state
of things?   Another kind of impotence is when coitus
is possible without  power to  impregnate because the
spermatozoa is wanting.  Wedded life is not so liable
to be  disturbed by this as in the preceding variety, and
yet it is prophetic of a household without a baby un-
less furnished from among the foundlings.
  10.  Spermatorrhoea and onanism so deteriorates the
seminal fluid, that  it becomes  watery and thin, and
powerless, and  all  chance of fertilization is lost, by
reason of the previous abuse of the reproductive organs. 
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
87
When the ejaculatory ducts are irritated, diseased and
relaxed, they are unable to fulfil the design of coition
—the semen merely dribbles down, or must be pressed
out.  This is particularly the case in contraction of the
seminal ducts, when the  prostate gland  is indurated
and  enlarged, and when the muscular fibres are paral-
yzed and unable to promote the ejaculation of the semi-
nal fluid.
  11. The prepuce may be so contracted  and drawn
tight around the glans as to interfere with  the ejec-
tion of the semen, and thus be the cause of impotence.
The too great and painful stiffness of the member ren-
der the  avacuation of the seminal vesicles at first pain-
ful, and  finally a spasmodic  closing of  the  seminal
ducts and degeneration of the testes, lead to absolute
impotence.
  12. Cases sometimes occur with strong and vigorous
men, troubled with violent erections when no evacua-
tion of  semen takes place during sexual intercourse,
and it is recorded of others that spasmodic contractions
of the urethra have attended violent erections, suffi-
cient to oppose the ejaculatory forces, and prevent the
flow of semen during the act of copulation; such ob-
stacles are difficult to overcome.
  13. Atrophy, and cancerous induration  of the testes 
88
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
are most unfavorable in regard to prognosis.   Sarco-
cele, varicocele, and hydrocele inevitably lead to impo-
tence, because the secretion of the seminal fluid  in such
cases is hindered, or sexual intercourse is both painful
and difficult.   Spermatocele, which is a swollen con-
dition of the scrotum, resulting from an accumulation
of seminal fluid in the testes, epididymis and vas de-
ferens, either through voluntary retention of semen in
copulation or through abstinence, undoubtedly follow-
ed by impotence.
  14.  Such are in general and in particular the  causes
of impotence, and nearly all of which  may be tracea-
ble directly or  indirectly to some form of self-abuse,
and such are the consequences of pollutions and sper-
matorrhoea, as seen  in the premature decline of man-
hood.   The picture drawn in the foregoing of the dis-
astrous consequences of pollutions and spermatorrhoea,
although correct to a certain extent, must be viewed
more as a  warning to those addicted to self-abuse, than
a source of discouragement t©  those unfortunately af-
flicted, and therefore in the following chapter we shall
treat of marriage in relation to sexual weakness. 
CHAPTER XII.
   MARRIAGE, IN  RELATION TO SEXUAL WEAKNESS.

  1.  When a morbid imagination has led to  sexual
abuse, and the whole sexual  system  has become im-
paired thereby, the  victim is no sooner aroused to a
sense of his condition, than a morbid and discouraging
fancy begins to influence him in another direction, and
he too frequently regards  himself the  victim of in-
curable disease.   But this is not warranted.
  2.  When a young man who from some cause or in-
fluence had been initiated into solitary habits of self-
abuse begins to think seriously upon the consequences,
he is apt to imagine himself unfit to assume the rela-
tion of husband  to a wife, and under a sense of re-
morse he broods over his situation until he dreads the
future, and hesitates when  he looks upon marriage as
desirable.  But there is in the main no occasion for
this, and the sooner his will can  triumph over these
morbid forebodings the better. 
 90          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

   3. When he comes into a  state to renounce  and de-
 nounce as wicked and disorderly the habit of self-pol-
 lution, he takes the first  step to regain his manhood.
 If he suffers from sensible weakness on account of what
 has happened, it behooves him to employ the best rem-
 edial measures, with hopeful reliance on  them for a
 cure.   Looking forward to  matrimony is as likely to
 benefit him as any means he  can employ, provided his
 motives for entering into such a state are right, and he
 desires to become an affectionate and faithful husband.
 Even if some of  the effects of his former indiscretion
 remain, the  marriage relation is as likely to favor his
 entire recovery from them, and even more so than if he
 remains single.
  4. In a happy married life the incitement to sexual
 intercourse being normal and springing from affection,
 has a tendency to  strengthen mind and body for the
 purpose.  The affection of such a man  for his wife,
 who fully requites his love, has an undoubted tendency
 to strengthen the sexual system.  We have known in-
 stances of seminal  weakness so great as to excite ap-
 prehension and alarm, to entirely pass away after mar-
riage.  But in such cases much has depended upon the
previous exertion  of the will to fix  the mind upon
chaste subjects and to avoid all excesses and broodino-s 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
91
over the past.   A young student of the university,
subject to nocturnal emissions four or five times a week,
found himself in a  failing  condition  of health, and
without ability to concentrate his mind upon his studies.
He applied for advice, and medical treatment.  He be-
came very despondent and imagined for himself the
worst of future consequences. To encourage his hopes,
and direct his mind to  chaste subjects,  he was advised
to turn his attention to the subject of marriage, and
to look forward to such an event for himself;  to which
he replied that his indiscreet habits had ruined him and
blasted his hopes in this direction.   Although he had
fully broken himself of masturbation, the evils entail-
ed was what beset him, and interfered with his health
and peace of  mind, and he had therefore concluded to
abandon his studies, and try to recover himself in some
secluded way. Remedies were given him, accompanied
by encouragement to rest awhile, and try the "Health
Lift."   He did so, and derived great benefit.  After
a season of rest he returned with ability to complete
his studies, not cured of his infirmity, but greatly im-
proved ; after which he left the university and  went
into business, and soon became engaged to  a lovely
lady for whom he cherished the purest affection.   But
he  hesitated and delayed enteriug upon marriage un- 
92
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
til advised that such  an event might obviate and cure
his emissions, and be  the means of restoring rather
than of diminishing his sexual ability.  He finally took
courage and entered  into wedlock and became a happy
husband, and in due time the father of several children ?
and after was never  troubled with the weakness that
had so preyed upon his mind.
  5. The  above is by no means a solitary example.
Marriage  from  pure motives, and not as a means of
gratifying  lust, is ordained of heaven to be the means
of strengthening and  perfecting the powers of man-
hood, and getting rid of many evils incident to a bach-
elor's life.   Love is  not  lust, and in a beautiful and
affectionate wife it brings love in return, and this love
is life, and full  of power to overcome weakness and
give legitimate strength to virility.
  6. But to  look forward  to marriage as a license to
whoredom must be corrupting to  the  wrife, and a
source of  greater  weakness and suffering  to both
parties.  In this instance lust takes the place of love;
and as lust has previously led  to excesses and self-
abuse, fo marry for the sake of affording it unlimited
indulgence is only adding fresh fuel to the fire, and the
physical and  mental strength diminishes, and peace,
love and affection depart from the household. 
            THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.          93

  7. We will  therefore  say to all young men that
marriage from pure motives is honorable, and though
the follies of youth may have preyed upon your health
and  brought on pollutions and even spermatorrhoea,
you are not lost—your manhood is not gone—provided
you exercise the power of will to break off all lewd
habits which a morbid imagination begets, and turn
your  attention to  true love and  marriage;  for love,
requited and pure, is the  fulfilling of the law of mar-
riage; it can never lead to sexual excesses, but by the
employment of judicious measures in connection there-
with, it may give fresh life to the mental and physical
powers, obviate disease, and cure seminal weaknesses.
In  order  there is  beauty and  strength—in disorder
there is confusion and weakness. 
CHAPTER XIII.
      RECAPITULATION AND TREATMENT OF SEXUAL
                    WEAKNESSES.

   1.  In the  foregoing  chapters we  have enumerated
 the causes that operate to produce the premature de-
 cline of manhood, and the numerous effects that pro-
 ceed  from these causes.  We have  also given some
 general  therapeutic hints concerning remedies.   In
 this chapter we shall conclude the .work by a brief re-
 capitulation and special treatment with diet, regimen
 and remedies.
   2. In all cases the cause, whatever it  may be, must
 be removed if possible before the effect can cease, and
 causes are of  two kinds, viz.:  primary and secondary,
   Primary causes are those which primarily act upon
 the general health, inducing functional or organic de-
 rangement.
   Secondary  causes are the conditions that immedi-
ately  influence, aggravate or induce diseases of the
seminal  vessels. 
            THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.          95

  3. Among the primary causes of masturbation with
the young of both sexes, we  have  seen that worms
and eruptive difficulties, that occasion much itching
and consequent rubbing  and scratching, are to be in-
cluded; and it is incumbent on parents  to be exceed-
ingly particular with their children at this tender age,
in order to guard against such  initiative influences.
  Treatment.—For thread worms, Sulphur, Santonin
and Terebinth, have each proved successful in remov-
ing them.  The Sulphur may be given  in the 6th dilu-
tion, a dose every twenty-four  hours.  Should this
fail, follow with  Santonin 3d, morning  and evening,
or with  Sulphur and  Terebinth, in drop doses in  a
spoonful of water, and  the Santonin in powder.   This
treatment  will often  suffice to  arrest  the  effects of
those annoying parasites. To cure  the eruptive diffi-
culty and relieve the itching, Petroleum 6th in drop
doses three times a day will be  found useful, or else
Calcarea, Conium and Sulphur.
  When girls at a tender age have been initiated into
masturbation by such annoyances, serious consequences
have arisen.  We have  recently seen a sad case of
chorea which resulted  from  these insignificant  para-
sites, first initiating the habit  of rubbing and then of
masturbation.  She was cured of the malady by Tere- 
 96           THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

 binth 6th.   She was past nine years of age, and after
 becoming relieved of the thread worms, her general
 health and  strength  was greatly  improved.  Other
 cases have been cured by Sulphur  given  persistently
 every night for a month.  Santonin after Sulphur will
 generally exert a healthy influence upon the mucous
 membrane, and entirely obviate the itching, and there-
 fore one of the primary causes that initiates into the
habit of self-abuse becomes removed.   Itching  from
some eruptive disease on the integuments  of the geni-
tal organs, is another  primary cause of self-abuse and
sexual  weakness.  This eruption has  been cured by
Petroleum, and the itching entirely subdued. Conium
 mac. has been successfully employed for the same pur-
pose, and so has Sulphur.  The two former, when re-
quired, may be given in the 3d dilution three times a
day, and the latter when required may  be given in the
tincture every twenty-four hours.
  When  sexual weakness  is primarily caused by
 masturbation, there is little hope  of  cure until the
mind, the thoughts, motives and sentiments  become
 set against the habit, nor until the mind becomes ele-
vated  above that condition  which a morbid imagina-
tion engenders.  To come into this state requires a 
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.           97
strong will, and in youth, the kindest encouragement
from friends.
  If, as a result of self-abuse, there occur nocturnal
emissions, causing a  sense of  debility  and dullness,
China 3d dilution may be administered three times a
day before each meal, or until  the sense of debility is
removed, or Plantago major 3d dilution may be given
in the same way.  Where there is a feeling of malaise
and  confusion after  excessive emissions  Phosphoric
acid dissolved in water, the 3d decimal in 5 drop doses
may be given  morning and evening until the malaise
and confusion are better.  Selenium 3 may be given
instead if there is vertigo on rising in the morning, or
there has been an oozing out of semen when asleep, or
a discharge of prostatic fluid.   Sepia 6th to the 3d will
cure excessive nocturnal emissions when they are fol-
lowed  by hypochondria, weak memory,  sadness, de-
pression of spirits, dullness of the head, and weakness
of the sexual organs.  When  constipation aggravates
the discharges, or excites them Nux vom. 3d or 6th
may be given to overcome the difficulty.  Dr. W. H.
Burt cured  several cases of spermatorrhoea, attended
with much  nervous irritability, with half grain doses
of Bromide of Potassium, repeated every six hours for
several  days.   Cannabis  sativa has been prescribed 
98
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
successfully when urethral inflammation  has excited
seminal emissions.   Dr.  Baehr says,  Digitaline  will
cure the severest cases  of involuntary seminal  dis-
charges, especially when  there is  great weakness and
palpitation of the heart.
  Other writers maintain that after all the voluntary
causes have been removed, the involuntary effects that
remain must be treated in accordance with the promin-
ent symptoms, as in case of anaemia and debility and
frequent pollutions, Ferrum pyrophosp. and China, or
in case of constipation and  haemorrhoids Nux vomica
and Sulphur administered alternateby night and morn-
ing, or if strangury is a prominent symptom attendant
on pollutions, and  painful  erections, Cantharis 3d or
6th given  three times a day before  meals will gen-
erally cure spermatokrhcea, which  consists of an in-
voluntary  discharge  of seminal  fluid,  when  at stool
or when urinating, or at other times from the slightest
exciting causes, and  especially  when there  are  but
feeble erections, or flaccidity of the penis;  and when
there is great weakness of the back and spine Conium
maculatum may be given in the (5th decimal  dilution
three times a day before meals;  Calcis hypoph. is  also
a remedy much esteemed.  A small  powder of  the
second decimal  three times a day after meals has done
well in many cases. 
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
9?
  Ilypophosphite of Zinc  deserves a  careful study.
Oxalate of Cerium is a valuable  remedy for spermat-
orrhoea as borne out by clinical experience.   A small
powder of the 2d decimal may be given three times a
day.
  Ustilago madis in the hands  of Dr. W. H.  Burt,
cured a case of nocturnal emissions of long standing
when other remedies had failed.
  Cypripedium pubescens.   Dr.  E. M.  Hale adminis-
tered this remedy in a  case of great nervous  prostra-
tion and depression of spirits, and it seemed to impart
new tone and vigor to the nervous system.
  The remedies in general for spermatorrhoea include
those prescribed  for nocturnal  emissions, as well as
those known  to  act on the spinal centre, the most
prominent of which are Conium mac, Digitaline, Fer-
rum pyi'o., Nux vom.,  Plantago  major, Selenium,  and
when there are great weakness, emaciation,  dullness
and depression, China, Phosphoric  acid, Sepia  and
Sulphur.
  While  taking remedies,  great care  is required to
avoid all  medicinal articles of diet,  all distilled  and
fermented liquors.  The doses of the liquors where not
mentioned are from 1  to 5  drops in  water, to  be re-
peated from one to four times in 24 hours. 
100         THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
  By carefully studying the therapeutic hints given in
the preceding pages, and making a practical applica-
tion of the remedies pointed out, we confidently assert
that no one need despair of deriving the most desira-
ble benefits.
  And, further, a confiding trust in Providence and a
firm reliance  upon the best appointed means will in-
vigorate the whole system, dissipate fears, depression
of spirits  and physical weakness, restore happiness,
and promote a certain return  to manhood. 
CHAPTER XIV.
THE  APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY IN THE  TREATMENT
              OF  SEMINAL WEAKNESS.

  The effect of electricity upon the nervous system has
received greater or less attention  for several  years.
Of late it has been  classed among the most effective
remedial agents, and is applicable to those conditions
which are dependent upon spinal irritation, and par-
ticularly upon atrophy of the cord.   It is undoubtedly
a useful  remedy for torpid states of the nerves that
convey the vis nervosa to certain parts, and  as such it
may be employed  in the treatment  of seminal weak-
ness.   But it  is an unsuitable agent to be  tampered
with, and none but careful hands should undertake to
administer it—and then according to  explicit direc-
tions,                          i
  The Electric Battery, which is an excellent appara- 
102
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
tus for treating a variety of nervous difficulties, is not
so desirable in the treatment of spermatorrhoea.  The
interrupted currents sometimes cause a succession of
slight shocks, which, instead of increasing the vital
activity of the seminal vesicles, act disastrously upon
them.  It is, therefore, important to have a suitable
electrical apparatus, of light construction, that can be
called into requisition when needed.  The Voltaic, or
Galvanic apparatuses by  far the most  preferable for
effective purposes.  But in order to promote its useful-
ness in these distressing maladies, it must be borne in
mind that even the imponderable agents are powerless
unless brought into certain relations in subserviency
to the laws and conditions that govern them.
  Therefore, in '  the treatment  of  these  troubles,
patients  must deliberately, and with determination,
abandon all exciting causes, avoid excesses in eatinc
and drinking, and be always particular to shun couches
of  down or feathers, because the toleration of these
might interfere with the use of the battery.  It is also
incumbent on patients to avoid all violent exercise or
excessive physical  exertion, and  to  keep the mind
directed  to cheerful and interesting topics—to keep
good, social, and improving society, and to indulge in
reading useful, improving, and entertaining books. 
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.         103
  Dr. T. C. Duncan, whose  experience with electri-
city  guides him, writes: "Electricity is a  valuable
agent as you affirm, and also  a harmful one when im-
properly applied, as for example, in spermatorrhoea
when it has assumed a chronic form.  A strong Fara-
dic  current produces dangerous results.   In cases of
muscular debility, however, manifest by lameness and
soreness of the muscles with rheumatic pains  here and
there,  attended with constipation and  scanty urine,
here the interrupted current applied through the arms
or legs, or  passed rapidly over the whole  body is fol-
lowed by good results.   In spinal irritation, anaemia or
atrophy of the cord, the  Galvanic current should be
applied so  as to directly nourish the cord from per-
iphery to center.  Both the spinal  nerves  and  the
sympathetic should be brought under its influence.
  "In spinal irritation with hyperaemiaof  any portion
of the cord, but especially of sacral  or cervical por-
tion  manifest by eneuris, nocturnal erections and emis-
sions and vertigo, attended with lethargy and vertigo,
in such conditions, then the Galvanic current should
be so directed as to relieve the spine, and at the same
time, nourish  the organs in front.  One of the  most
convenient for  treatment of these cases is the Mcin-
tosh combined twelve cell Electric Battery. When or- 
101
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
ganic stricture, however slight, continues the irrita-
tion that gives rise to spermatorrhoea, a mild Gal-
vanic current is a speedy and very efficient agent, used
in conjunction with other means already recommended
by you." 
CHAPTER XV.
                CLINICAL  DIRECTIONS.

  When from self abuse, whether  from haemorrhoids,
pin-worms or any  other  cause, the victim becomes
restless and feverish. Aconite 3d dilution may be given,
and repeated once in three hours  until the feverish
symptoms pass away.
  When the genitals become excited from  haemor-
rhoids, and the patient suffers from nightly erections
and emissions, yEsculus glabra and JEsculns hipjjocast.
in the  3d dilution,  five-drop doses three times  a  day.
When  ascarides or any eruption have been the cause of
indicating self-abuse in young boys or girls, Ammonia
in the 1st  dilution may be used advantageously as a
lotion  to allay the itching and thus to arrest a per-
nicious caper.
  In case of complete prostration and impotence, testes
cold, swollen, hard, painful, pollutions from irritable
weakness with the passage of  prostatic juice during a
hard stool—a general  loss of vitality from self-abuse, 
106
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
 with melancholy, mental destruction,  self-contempt,
 general debility and spermatorrhoea, Agnus castus in
 the 3d or 6th dilution may be given in five-drop doses in
 water three or four times a day.
   If there is great depression of spirits, with suicidal
 proclivities, after prostration  from ouanism  and noc-
 turnal emissions, Aurum muriaticum in  the 3d or 6th
 trituration  given  in two-grain  doses  morning and
 evening will have a good affect.
   It sometimes  happens that shocks, mechanical in-
juries, bruises and spinal injuries are followed by semi-
 nal weakness and spermatorrhoea and from the general
 condition of the  system, Arnica is the most  appropri-
 ate remedy.  Drop doses of the 2d dilution may be re-
 peated every two hours.
   In case of sexual excess,  resulting in  seminal emis-
 sions attended with reeling and confusion of the head,
 Bovista 3d  centesimal trituration in two-grain doses,
 repeated every hour.
   Against a disposition to onanism, Calcarea is an im-
portant remedy.  It is also a good  remedy for noctur-
nal emissions.
  For  frequent  nocturnal  emissions, spermatorrhoea
from relaxed penis early in the morning in  bed with-
out sensative discharge of blood  or semen mixed with 
             THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.          107

blood, with  excessive desire for  sexual  intercourse,
and at times, satyriasis, or nymphomania.   Cantharis
3d dilution is indicated in drop doses, frequently ad-
ministered.
  Carbo vegetabilis for unconscious self-pollutions dur-
ing sleep, or for self-pollutions without any sensation
may be given in the 3d trituration, in daily doses tit
night.
  For impotence with lacivious fancies, and  nightly
involuntary emissions, excessive debility from seminal
losses and  for onanism and its effects, China is an ex-
cellent remedy.   It may be given in drop doses of the
tincture, or in the 2d trituration, two grains repeated
every three hours.
  Coccidus is indicated for seminal emissions at night
when there is great excitement of sexual desire, and
drawing sore pain in the testes when touched, 3d deci-
mal, five-drop doses in water three times a day.
  Conium mac. for pollutions, with more or less pain
in the back, painful seminal  emissions, sexual  desire
without erections.
  Cuprum met.  cured a case of epilepsy brought on
by self-abuse when other remedies failed, three-grain
doses  were given daily for more than  two weeks.
[Cypripedium, says Dr. E. M. Hale, cures spermator- 
108         THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

rhoea, attended with great nervous prostration and de-
pression  of spirits.]
  Digitalis and Digitaline are indicated for spermat-
orrhoea attended with violent beating of the  heart on
slightest  motion, irritation of the sexual  organs with
painful erections night  and day—pollutions always
accompanied by lewd  dreams and subsequent  pains in
the penis.  Dr.  Baehr says:  " Digitaline will  cure the
severest  cases of involuntary seminal emissions when
there is  great  weakness and palpitation, 3d tritura-
tion, two grain powder, three times a day.
  Eryngium aquat. may be  employed against profu-
sion, nightly emissions with erections. Semen passes by
day with the urine, lassitude and depression,  decrease
of virile  power, and dull, dragging pain in lumbar re-
gion.
  Ferrum hypophosphite for pale, sickly females who
suffer from masturbation, 3d trituration, three grain
powder morning and  evening.
  Gelsemium for spermatorrhoea from relaxation and
debility,  involuntary emissions of semen  without erec-
tions, seminal weakness of the seminal vesicles, emis-
sion of semen during  stool, relaxed and cold  genitals,
nocturnal emissions with lewd  dreams, followed  by
quiet languor and irritability of mind. 
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.
109
  In both sexes, suffering from excessive lascivous de-
sire and exposure of the pudenda, Hyoscyamus will
give relief.
  Iris versicolor, for spermatorrhoea with  pale  face,
sunken eyes depression of spirits, confusion of  mind
depressed, and  nocturnal  emissions with   amorous
dreams.   In all  cases where the dilution and dose are
not mentioned the 3d may be employed in five drop
doses in  pure water, repeated three or four times a
day.
  Kali brom. in the  3d trituration may be given  three
times a day, in three-grain powders, to cure nocturnal
emissions with amorous dreams and  erections.
  In cases of onanism with  epilepsy and  nocturnal
emissions with a thrill of  delight and  profuse  night
sweats, Lachesis is an excellent remedy given  everv
three hours in five-drop doses of the 6th and 30th dilu-
tions.  Cuprum may  be associated with this remedy
for  female  epileptics from masturbation,  especially
when the suffering is nocturnal.
   Lycopodium is indicated when there is great mental,
nervous  and  bodily weakness, constipation of  the
bowels, cold, relaxed and flaccid penis, feeble erections,
falls asleep during an embrace, the result of excessive
and exhausting pollutions. The 6th dilution ten drops 
110          THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.

in a third of a tumbler of water may be given in dessert
spoonful doses, every three hours.  Mercurius is indi-
cated when there is lascivious excitement and painful
nightly emissions, the sperm  mixed with blood, bow-
els constipated.   Nux vom. also is indicated for invol-
untary emissions  during sleep when there is constipa-
tion and the penis becomes relaxed during an embrace.
From the 3d to the 30th trituration of these remedies
may be employed in three-grain doses every night be-
fore retiring.
  For nightly erections and amorous dreams and emis-
sions  after waking, Opium in the  3d dilution or 3d
trituration may be given twice daily until a change.
  One of the best and most effectual remedies for loss
of sexual desire, with  alternations of  erections and
sudden  relaxation of  penis preventing emissions, or
onanism when the patient is distressed and  the  victim
of hypochondriasis, by the culpability of his indulgence
is Phosphoric acid 3d  aqueous dilution in five-drop
doses, repeated at intervals of three hours during each
day, until a change.
  Petroleum when the habit is brought on  by an itch-
ing eruption on  the integuments of the testes, and
from rubbing or scratching, has cured both the itch-
ing and the pernicious habit,  3d dilution in three-drop
doses  three times  a day. 
THE DECLINE  OF MANHOOD.         HI
  Platina is an effectual remedy of satyriasis and exces-
sive sexual desire in the male and  for nymphomania
in the female,  6th trituration daily  doses of three-
o-rains.   In both sexes Pulsatilla can be employed in
obviating deranged conditions of the sexual organs. In
the case of men affected with desire almost amounting
to priapism.   And in  Avomen who  suffer from head-
ache, backache and   weariness after self-abuse, or
sexual excesses. And also when men experience emis-
sions after onanism.
  When  spinal irritation results  from onanism or
sexual excesses, and the pain in the back is of a tearing
or contusive  nature, worse  when at rest, and the
patient  suffers  from  increased sexual desire and  noc-
turnal emissions.  The 2d or 3d dilution of Rhus fox.
taken in drop doses in  a dessert spoonful of water and
repeated every  three hours will afford great relief.
  Sabadilla will cure nymphomania  from  ascarides.
Selenium seminal emissions followed by lameness or
Staphisagria  may be employed in cases of long stand-
ing  masturbation with hypochondriasis  and constant
uneasiness, fearfully troubled with imaginary disease,
3d dilution, five-drop doses three times a day.
  Self-abuse  caused  by  ascarides  which provoke the
patient to rub and scratch, and unconsciously inaug- 
112
THE DECLINE OF MANHOOD.
urate a bad habit and consequent nocturnal emissions
has been cured by Sulphur, Sepia and Terebinth, that
is, the cause has been removed by  these remedies as
well as the inclination to self-abuse and  the  conse-
quences.
  In cases of nervous exhaustion and restlessness with
fancies.  The  Hypophosphites of  lime and soda in
three-grain doses in a little syrup, repeated before each
meal have had a quieting and strengthening effect.
  An epicurean diet of game, shell-fish seasoned with
salad dressings and sauces, should be avoided. 
       A   CATALOGUE  OF   BOOKS
                     PUBLISHED BY

DUNCAN    BROTHERS.
  The books in the following list are of special interest, consid-
ering, as they do, nearly all the diseases of humanity and their
Homoeopathic treatment.  These works may be obtained of
any bookseller, or will be sent by mail, on receipt of the printed
prices, postpaid, to any address in the United States,  Canada,
Europe, the Orient, or the  Isles of the Sea. No risks are as-
sumed, either on money or books.
  Descriptive Catalogues furnished free on application.
                                     Duncan Bros.
                            133 and 135 Wabash Ave., Chicago,
A Hand-Book on the Diseases of the  Heart, and their
    Homoeopathic Treatment.  By W. 1\ Armstrong, M. D.,
    formerly Lecturer on Diseases of the Heart;  Member of
    the American Institute of Homoeopathy, etc. One volume,
    240 pages.  Cloth bound, $1.50.
  The heart is one of the vital organs.  It is the great hydraulic
engine of the body.  When it fails all the machinery stops.  A
knowlege of its disorders, and the ability to cure its curable
diseases should be possessed by every physician.  To be able to
diagnosticate correctly every case of heart disease or supposed
heart disease, is what this work teaches. It is written in  a
plain, practical manner, and is especially clear just where help
is needed.

A Treatise on Ovarian Therapeutics.  By W. Eggert, M. D.
  The object of this work is to show the power of Homoeopathic
remedies in curing ovarian diseases, tumors, etc.  Price 25c. 
2
Catalogue of Books
A Guide to Post Mortem Examinations.  By A. R. Thomas,
    M. D., Professor of Anatomy in Hahnemann Medical Col-
    lege, of  Philadelphia.  In  one handsome volume of  337
    pages.  Cloth $2.0u.
 This is a work  that  should be in the possession of every
student and every  practitioner.
 The directions for opening each grand division of the body are clear and
thorough, and could have been written only by one who had been there
himself. Chapters IV. and V. are alone worth the price of the book.— Am.
Horn. Observer.
 We are glad to know that Prof. Thomas has eonsented to place in the
hands ol the profession so valuable an aid in post  mortem examinations.
Not only do we learn how to perform the operation skilfully but the mor-
did anatomy of the part is plainly set forth. This work should be placed
in the hands of oar students, and made a part of  the currioulu n of our
schools.  It is well systematized, compact and beautifully printed.—Med.
Advance.

A  New Similia.  First Principles of Homoeopathic Thera-
    peutics.  By A. W. Woodward, M. D., Professor of Mate-
    ria  Medica and Therapeutics,  Chicago Homoeopathic
    Medical College.
  This is a unique presentation of the study of remedies and
their therapeutic  application.   The selection is based upon
the similar order  of  succession of symptoms—a new similia.
Physicians read this brochure with protit.  Price, 25 cents.

A Treatise on the Decline of Manhood.  By A.  E. Small,
    M. D., President  of Hahnemann Medical College.  In one
    volume.  Cloth, §1.
  Sexual Neurosis would have been  a good title for  this book,
for it deals with innervating  troubles, such as spermatorrhoei
and masturbation  in both sexes, and sexual weaknesses ;  but
the author has chosen the caption used by the quack to frighten
and bleed his  victims.  This  little book  gives to the profes-
sion and  the poor sufferers some  practical  suggestions and
advice.  It is essentially a treatise on the  various causes that
induce the premature decline of manhood  and the most judi-
cious means of removing them and curing their effects.  The 
Published by Duncan Brothers.               3
wise, fatherly counsels of the venerable author especially adapts
it to be put into the hands of erring and despondent young
men.   The  work abounds in practical hints for the medical
adviser.


A Treatise on Diphtheria.  By A. McNiel, M. D.  Member
    of  the  American Institute of Homoeopathy, etc.  A neat
    compact volume of 145 pages.  Cloth, $1.00.

  This is a prize essay and a valuable reference book.
  "The  latest and best work published on the subject from  a  Homoeo-
pathic standpoint."—TJie Homoeopathic Courier.

Abridged Therapeutics : Founded unon Histology and Cel-
    lular Pathology.  New Treatment of Disease by the Inor-
    ganic Tissue Cell-Salts, the  Natural Constituents of  the
    Human Body.  With an Appendix, "Special Indications for
    the Application of the Inorganic Tissue-Formers."  By Dr.
    W. H.  Schussler.

  Authorized Translation.  Cloth, neatly bound, $1.00.


Surgical Principles and Minor Surgery.  By J. G.  Gilchrist,
    M. D.,  Formerly Lecturer on  Surgery, Medical Depart-
    ment,  Michigan University.  One volume of 205 pages.
    Cloth $1.25.
  This work is adopted as a text-book on Minor Surgery in  the
 leading medical colleges.

  It is written in a plain unassuming style, bo that he who reads may
 understand— North Am. Journal of Horn.
  Dr. Gilchrist seems to possess a rare union of surgical dexterity and
 medical skill, and hence we have all the greater pleasure in commending
this excellent work as a sound Minor Surgery.—Homoeopathic World.
  The present volume is a very excellent work, and leaves out many top-
 ics usually discussed in books on minor surgery, confining itself to band-
 aging,  dressing,  splints, catheterism, etc.  Everything  is concise  and
 practical.  Dr. Gilchrist is  a very pleasant writer, and has  a  knack of
 putting things very neatly.—New Eng. Med. Gazette.
  This work  is intended as an aid to students and as a complete and con-
 venient resource to the busy practitioner who has but occasional need for
 surgical knowledge.   The  application of splints  and bandages is weli
 Mlustratcd by means of white  linear drawings on  a black ground.  We
 commend the book as eminently useful.—Hah. Monthly. 
4                     Catalogue of Books
A Hand-Book of Diet in Disease. By  C  Gatchell. M. D.
    Formerly  Professor of  Practice, Homoeopathic Depart-
    ment,  Michigan  University.  Clinical Lecturer in Cook
    County  Hospital.  Second edition now ready.   One com-
    pact volume.  Cloth, $1.00.
  "This work is plain, practical and valuable. It is really a guide on diet,
and one the profession  will find reliable and  correct."— LT. i>. Medical
Investigator.
  I consider your work on " Diet in Disease" to be the most practical, and
therefore the most useful work on the subject with which I am acquaint-
ed. No physician should be without it;  every mother should have it. It
is in use in many of the households in which I practice.—C. C. Olmstead,
M. D., President of the Wisconsin State Homazovathic Medical Society.

The Ophthalmoscope;  Its Theory and Practical TJses.   By
    C. H. Vilas,  M. A., M.  D.,  Professor of Diseases of the
    Eye and Ear in the  Hahnemann Medical  College,  and
    Clinical Professor of Eye and  Ear Diseases in the Hahne-
    mann  Hospital.   Just issued.  Cloth,  $1.00.
  This practical treatise  fills a most important field.
  We take  pleasure  in commending this manual on the Principles and
Practice of  Ophthalmoscopy. The work is a very good one, and will be a
great aid to the beginner in studying the subject.—Physicians' and Surge-
ons' Investigator.
  The treatise now before us is calculated to do just what it indicates; it
tells us what the Ophthalmoscope is, how to use it, and what  use to make
of it.  It is a most interesting work, written by one who is master of the
subject under discussion, and who has the ability to make himself well
understood; the volume is profusely illustrated, printed on good paper,
and should have rapid sale. We can heartily recommend it—Med. Counselor.

How to See with the Microscope.   By  J.  Edwards Smith, M.
    D., Professor of Histology and Microscopy.  In oue elegant
    volume of 410  pages.  Cloth, $2.00.

   This work is an invaluable one, and  is up to date  on this
    most important department.
  The hints he gives are really useful —more  than that, they are highly
instructive.  Every word proves the great experience of the wriier, and
the pleasant agreeable style of his language makes the book a fascinat-
ing lecture. And that is just a point which deserves great praise, for we
acknowledge never to haye read a book so full  of teaching, written in
such an amiable style, such as this one;  certainly not in the line of books
on microscopy.—North American Journal of Homoeopathy. 
Published by Duncan Brothers.
6
An Illustrated Repertory of Pains in Chest, Sides and Back;
    their direction and character confirmed by clinical cases,
    By R. R. Gregg, M. L.  In one octavo volume. Third edi-
    tion.  Cloth, $1.00.

 Gregg's "Illustrated Repertory" is an old and valued friend, and in many
a disputed case the arrow's point divided our choice of the remedy.—N. A.
Journal of Horn.
 The idea of helping our sadly overladen  memories with the aid of picto-
rial symptomatology is very laudable  ....  This book teaches us one
very useful lesson, which our careful author has evidently l«arned well,
viz., the very great importance of noting the directions of pains.—Homoeo-
pathic World.


A  Treatise on Typhoid Fever and its Homoeopathic Treat-
    ment.  By M. Panelli, M. D.  Translated by G. E. Ship-
    man, M. D., with copious additions including  a chapter on
    symptomatic  indications  for remedies  by C. Hering, M.
    D.  One volume of 300 pages. Cloth  bound. $2.00.

  Typhoid fever  is an insiduous and treacherous  disease, and
even the oldest and most experienced physician is often glad
of practical  suggestions  as  to varieties,  complications  and
management.  This work, including the observations of both
European and American writers, is  at once  a  most systematic
and practical treatise, and without a peer in  medical literature.


Spectacles,  and How to Choose  Them.   By C.  H. Vilas,
    M. D., Professor  of Diseases of  the Eye and Ear, Hahne-
    mann Medical College.  One neat illustrated volume.  172
    pages. Bound in Cloth, $1.00.

 It tells everything which an intelligent layman or even an ordinary
practitioner need know about the anomalies of vision and their correction.
It would, we should think, be especially valuable to  opticians in towns
where no oculist is resident; and if we know of any such, we could hardly
do them  a greater service than by bringing it to their knowledge.—British
Journal of Homoeopathy.
 A very interesting an d instructive book, not only for the general practi-
tioner, for whom it is especially designed, but also for laymen, technical-
ties and obscure terms being avoided.  Its aim is to prevent the too
common haphazard and often injurious  custom of choosing one's own
spectacles, or trusting to unprincipled or ignorant venders. Tho dollar
for it will be wch spec..— New Eng-vnd Medical Gazette. 
6
Catalogue of Books
Helps to Hear.  By James A. CamDbell, M. D., Professor of
    Diseases of the Eye and Ear, Homoeopathic Medical Col-
    lege of Missouri.  A neat volume in cloth.  Price, 75c.

  This work will prove a godsend to many a poor soul shut
away from the voice of humanity.  The whole list of instru-
ments designed to help the hearing are carefully reviewed.


Diseases of the Pancreas.  By Professors A. R. Thomas, J. C.
    Morgan, A.  Korndoerfer, and  E. A.  Farrington, Hahn-
    emann Medical College of Philadelphia.  Cloth bound, 50
    cents.  Just out.

  This is a  compact treatise on the Diseases  of the  Pan-
creas and their Homoeopathic  Therapeutics by a quartet of
able men.  Every physician not thoroughly informed on pan-
creatic diseases should get a copy at once.


Diseases of the Brain and'N'ervous System.  By J. Martine
    Kershaw, M. D., Professor of Brain, Spinal and Nervous
    Diseases in the Homoeopathic Medical College of Missouri.
    Ei^ht parts.  Price per part, 50 cts.

  Parts I and II of this valuable  work are now  ready.  Each
part is complete in itself.  Part  I treats of Facial Neuralgia;
Cervico-brachial  Neuralgia; Dorso-intercostal   Neuralgia;
Angina pectoris; Gastralgia; Mastodynia ;  Neuralgia of the
Ovary, Uterus, Testicle, Urethra, Bladder, Kidney and Dia-
phragm. Part II treats Spinal Irritation ; Chorea; Labio-laryn-
geal Paralysis; Facial Paralysis   Writer's Spasm.


A  Hand-Book  of   Homoeopathic  Practice.   By
    George M. Ockford, M. D., Member of the American In-
    stitute of Homoeopathy, etc.   Just out. Price, tree by mail,
    $2.50.

  This wort has already been accorded a hearty welcome by
the Profession.
  It is excellent I have recommended  it to our students.—H. F. Biggar,
Cleveland Hospital Medical College.
  Dr. Ockford has given in his hand-book as good a condensation of treat-
ment as any one can give.—Homoeopathic Physician. 
Published by  Duncan Brothers.                7
 The  Treatment   of  Uterine   Displacements.   By

     W.  Eggert, M. D.  Second  Edition.  Neatly  Bound  in

     Cloth.  Price, $1.00.

     Among  the many  diseases to which women are subject,
 Uterine Displacements are perhaps the most common.  This
 work is fully illustrated, showing these displacements in their
 different degrees with the treatment.   The book has a copious
 Repertory or Clinical Index, the whole  making  it  of great
 value to the  student and busy practitioner.

  This is  a neat little brochure on the above subject. — " Therapeutic
 Gazette."
  The Repertory is excellent.—"The Chironian."
  We are always  glad to have one more repertory to help us out of
 trouble, and we intend to get it into the hands of all of our students, so
 that  gynaecology may not mean only Jocal  treatment, but sensible
 Homoeopathic  treatment.  May this volume become a household work
 with every gynaecologist.— "North American Journal of Homoeopathy."

  Tt clearly illustrates the different positions of the uterus when out of
 place, as also the most approved appliances,  external and internal, with
 causes and indications for medicines. It will render grent assistance
 to the physician in untying knotty cases that often -come  under his
 care.—"Physician's and Surgeon's Investigator."
  We are among those of our school who in  preaching and practice ob-
 ject decidedly  to  that indiscriminate  craze for local examinations that
 characterizes so many of the pr^ fession now-a-days.  We believe in elicit-
 ing the general symptoms and giving remedies a chance before insisting
 to know the exact nature of the local objective symptoms ; we therefore
 welcome Dr. Eggerts' useful book as a true guide and invaluable aid for
 close and accurate prescribing.  D mean Bros., the publishers, have done
 their part in an unexceptional manner, and  altogether the book is one
 to be commended most heartily.—"The California Homoeopath."

  The second edition of this book  has been rewritten, revised and new
 remedies and * complete clinical index added. We  desire to congratu-
 late the publishers upon their part of the work.—"The New York Medi-
 cal Times.."
  If one  wish  a studv of Homoeopathic remedies for the cure  of the
 lesions named, he will be  able to get it in this volume.  I agree with
 the writer that good medication is better than meddlesome gynaecology.
 —"The Eclectic Medical Journal."

  The book is evidently written by one who has  had the advantage of
 extensive clinical  experience.—"The Chicago Medical Times."

  It has many  useful points both theoretically and practically.  His se-
 lections of remedies are well and  judiciously made; his indications are
clearly, pointedly  and succinctly presented.—"St. Louis Periscope."

  We consider  Dr. Eggert's views sound.  In matters of treatment, nr.
Eggert is a safe guide, aid we heartily endorse his method.  The work
is well printed and bound.—"The American Homceopathist."
  We would gladly see Dr. Eggert's little monograph placed in the pos-
session of all Homoeopathic physicians, particularly  of men  who have
the pluck and good sense to try all things and hold fast to that which in
good.—"Medical Counselor." 
8                    Catalogue of Books
Surgical Therapeutics.  Surgical Diseases and their Homoeo-
    pathic Treatment.   By J. G.  Gilchrist,  M. D., Formerly
    Lecturer on Surgery, Homoeopathic Department, Michigan
    University.  Thirdediiion.  Now ready.   One large volume
    of 464 pages. Cloth $4.00.

  I look upon it, in its new edition, as an extremely  valuable book, and
exceedingly useful, not only to the Surgeon, but the general practitioner,
as well. 1 have read and consulted it in my practice, with much pleasure
and profit.—Chas. M. Thomas, Prof, of Surgery iu Hah. Medical College.
  "This is the third edition of the first work on Surgical Therapeutics in
our school, entirely rewritten and brought down to date, enriched by the
clinical and therapeutical researches of a hard student.  . . .  The chap-
ters on 'Tumors,' 'Diseases of the Nerves,' and especially that on the
'Genito-Urinary Diseases' are exhaustive in  their remedial indications,
and invaluable to the practitioner removed from easy access to surgical
consultation."—Medical Advance.

Therapeutical  Materia  Medica
    Of  216 Remedies,   by  Dr.  H.  C. Jessen,  author of
    "Eczema, Its Pathology and Treatment;" A  Prize Essay;
    The  Pathology and Treatment  of Hereditary  Syphilis,
    etc.  The most complete and concise work on the subject
    yet given to the profession.  Among its original and valua-
    ble features is its arrangement, enabling a rapid and true
    comparison of indicated  symptoms.   Having purchased
    this valuable work we have reduced the price to $3.50.
   "This is an important  work, valuable alike to the student and the busy
practitioner."                               j. p. i>AKE, M.D.
  "We predict for this book a rapid step into the favor of the students
of Materia Medica." - The Horn. News.

Text-Book on Diseases  of Infants  and Children, and their
    Homoeopathic Treatment.   B" T. C.  Duncan  M  D
    Clinical Professor of the Diseases of  Children, 'Chicago
    Homoeopathic Medical College.  The  third revised edition
    is now ready.  Lopip'et- in one volume of over 1,000 naffes
    Cloth $6.00; leather $7.00.                     '     P  g

  This work,—exhaustive, plain and practical—takes up tfw»
diseases  of  children  in a very systematic  manner.   ""& ae
velopement of  the child  is  first considered  in *^ congenital
malformations and diseases.   The disor-^rs attending birth
and  their management are  next fully given.  Then all  the
diseases of the whole  alimentary tract  are treated with all the
fullness and precision their importance demands.  Next, the 
Published by Duncan Brothers.               9
diseases of the glandular system are considered.  The diseases
of the child's throat, bronchi, lungs, heart, brain, skin, kidneys,
etc., are very fully treated.   The general  diseases follow—not
omitting worms.  The volume  closes  with a full analysis of
acid and alkaline children.
  This third edition has been carefully revised and brought up
to date, making it the most complete treatise on the diseases
of children, in one volume, and  a credit to Homoeopathy.

  The author has made such a concise compilation that his work may be
adopted as a text-book of our School, and we trust that no Homoeopathic
physician will allow himself to be without it.—Homoeopathic Times.

  Each subject is treated exhaustively and compiled from the very best
and latest literature  on the subjects.  Much time  and labor has been
expended in gathering and arranging the  material for publication.  The
therapeutic indications are fully ana admirably given having been taken
from all Homoeopathic sources, native andforeign.—Hahnemann Monihly.

  Duncan's Text-book fills a long-neglected want.  It is the only Homoeo-
pathic book on diseases of children written on a scientific basis.  We feel
glad that Duncan gives such prominence to physiological therapeutics, a
branch too much neglected in many otherwise fair text-bcoks.  How and
when  to feed  a  child is at least of equal importance as to heal it, when
from sheer ignorance it is made sick. As old a physician as I am, I thank
Dr. Duncan for this instruction.—N.  A. Journal of Homoeopathy.


Medical and Surgical Diseases ofWomen,  and their Hom-
    oeopathic  Treatment.   By R. Ludlam,  M. D., Professor
    of Medical and Surgical Diseases of  Women, Hahnemann
     Medical College and Hospital, Chicago.  Fifth edition.  Re-
     written and systematically arranged.  Enlarged to 1029 octavo
    pages.  Cloth $6.00;  leather $7.00.

   "Dr. Ludlam's book includes a wide range of subjects :  The functional
 diseases of menstruation ; of pregnancy, hysteria, etc., as well as the or-
 ganic diseases of the ovaries, uterus, etc.  The work is well and profusely
 l.iustrated ; its descriptions are  brief and good, etc."—The Ho myopathic
 Physician.      ,                                          *
   This is no mere reprint with added matter, but a complete recasting and
 developement of the whole work,  While the  clinical form is (with ad-
 vantage) preserved, the lectures are so arranged and multiplied that they
 present  a systematic picture of  ovario-uterine pathology and therapeu-
 tics.  It is thoroughly scientific, thoroughly practical; it is the teaching of
 a man who has seen and done -">*. of which he speaks, and knows how to 
10
Catalogue of Books
speak about it with clearness and elegance.  It affords delightful reading
and instructive reference.—British Journal of Homoeopathy.
  It is perhaps needless to remark that this edition, which  practically
amounts to a new book, is incomparably the best treatiseongencecology ever
published. Although this branch of medicine, having been cultivated with
great assiduity, has made wonderful progress within a few  years. Dr.
Ludlam has not only kept fully posted in the discoveries of others, but
has also himself introduced many valuable  improvements.  That this
work should pass through five editions in ten years attests  its popularity.
The last contains almost four hundred more  pages than the fourth, and
sixty lectures instead of thirty-two.  We are greatly pleased at the change
in,.the arrangement of the lectures, which now follow each other syste-
matically, instead of discussing certain subjects just in the order in which
patients happened to come into the clinic.  In short, there is no book on
the subject that can more profitably be put into the hands of the Homoeo-
pathic student lor physician than this.  If you can atford but one book,
buy this.— New England Medical Gazette.

Feeding  and Management  of Infants and  Children,  and
    the Homoeopathic Treatment of their Diseases.   12 mo.
    pp. 426.  Neatly bound in cloth, $2.00; half morocco, $2.75.

  This popular elementary work by Dr. T. C. Duncan, is essen-
/ially a treatise on the Hygiene of Children.  It is a valuable
book for beginners, and also for physicians  to  supply their
patrons.

  Evidently Dr. Duncan is a fine baby kenner, an eminent authority on
pasdology and a man of no mean merit.—Homoeopathic World.
  We recommend this work especially to students and young physician*
for the  chapters on food and  management  which they will find better
treated than in any other small work on this subject, indicative of  the
words with which the author heads his introduction : "An ounce of pre-
vention is worth a pound of cure."— American Homoeopath.


Diet Rules for Children of Different Ages.
   These are plain, practical directions, designed for  general
circulation, and  are  abstracts from a paper read  before the
Illinois Homoeopathic Medical Association, by Dr. T. C. Dun-
can, and from a public address given by him in Hershey Music
Hall to a large audience  of mothers of Chicago.  Those who
have examined these rules speak highly of them.  Price 1 cent
each, or ten cents per dozen copies. 
               Published by Duncan Brothers.             11

Practical Guide to Homoeopathy for Family and Private
    Use.  By Drs.  Pulte, Laurie, Hempel, Ruddock, Burt,
    Verde, and others.  Paper, 25 cts ; cloth, 50c.
  The demand for a compact and yet plain guide for the use  of
Homoeopathic remedies has produced this work that has had a
very large sale.  It is just the guide for the beginner.

The Law of Cure.  By T. M. Triplett, M. D.

  This is a stirring pamphlet that awakes and arouses enthusi-
asm of  Homoeopathy.  Per hundred,  $2.00;  200 with card
printed upon them, $4.00.

The Progress of Medicine as Influenced  by Homoeopathy.
    By A. J. Clark, M. D.
  This is  a new tract that is destined to  have a large run.
Price, per 100 copies $1.00; if 200 is taken and card printed on
back, $2.00; 500 copies, with card, $4.00.

How to Feed Children to Prevent  Sickness.  Bound  in
    paper, 10 cts.; cloth 25 cts.
  This is the substance of an address, by T.  C. Duncan, M. D.,
delivered to a company  of mothers.  It bears chiefly on the
avoidable causes of sickness among children.

Sun Stroke and its Homoeopathic Treatment.  By C.  B.
    Knerr, M. D.  Price, 15 cents.
  This brochure treats a grave emergency in a plain, practical
manner; coming from an associate of Father Hering, it bears
the mark of scientific exactness and reliability.

The Prevention of Congenital Malformations,  Defects and
    Diseases.  By J. C. Burnett, M. D., editor  Homoeopathic
    World  Price, 25 cents.
  This little treatise suggest the possibility of a great work.
If congenital malformations can be prevented it will prove a
great blessing. Every mother as well as every pnysician should
read this book. 
12                    Catalogue of Books


Skin  Diseases and  their Homoeopathic Treatment.

    By JohnR.  Kippax, M. D., LL.B., Professor of Princi-

    ples and Practice of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence

    in the Chicago Homoeopathic Medical College; late Clini-

    cal Lecturer and Visiting Physician  to Cook  County Hos-

    pital ; Member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy;

    Member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, On-

    tario ; Author of Lectures on Fevers,  etc., etc.   Third Edi-

    tion now Beady.  Price, $2.00.

    What is said of  this valuable work:

  The Hahnemann Monthly says: " Dr. Kippax has given us in this  book
excellent material  briefly disposed and well described. The Homoeopathic
indications are excellent."

  The Homoeopathic Physician says : "To 1 ne busy practitioner, as well as
to the student who desires to quickly gather a hint as to the diagnosis or
treatment of any skin affection Or. Kippax's Hand Book will be of service."

  The American Homoeopath says : "The book will be found a useful guide
in the study •>/ skin affections and their treatment.  We 1 ave been in the
habit of commending it to students, and find the new edition still more
useful as a Hand Book."

  The Medical Counsellor says:  "The third edition of Kippax on Skin Dis-
eases differs from the first published in 1880 in  the  revision of the text
as necessitated by the advances made in dermatology during the last few
years.  The book is conveniently arranged, is concise, and answers well
the purposes of a hand-book."

  The  Physicians  and Surgeons Investigator says:  "No matter whether
a doctor is a Homoeopath, or any other, he will do well to read this work.
He can ' btain an understand tng of the  diseases of the skin more thoroughly
from this book than from almost any other.  We congratulate the author
and publishers on producing such an interesting work."

  The Chironian says:  "The rapid sale of the  second edition, and the
demand for a third, shows conclusively  that a book of  this  kind was
needed. Dr. Kippax has compactly and  conveniently arranged a large
amount of material. The student or busy practitioner who desires  a re-
liable guide in the  treatment of skin  diseases cannot do better than to
procure a copy of this work."

  Cincinnati Eclectic Medical Jovrnalsays:  "As the diagnosis and treat-
ment of skin diseases is a difficult matter for most physicians, they may
be glad to consult a new authority (American), and see what Homoeopathy
promises for relief.  In a  brief examination of the work  the  author
seems to describe disease as he has observed it, and where he has seen
the necessity for potent means he employs them."

  The  North American Journal of Homoeopathy says : "That the second
edition is a great improvement on the first one, even a superficial glance
will show; and the therapeutics of each disease are given more thor-
oughly.  Alphabetically the diseases are  mentioned, an easy plan, as it
passes over the difficulty of dividing them scientifically. (How that word
is abused), but authorities differ, and who shall be the judge 1" 
                 Published by  Duncan Brothers.              13


Analysis of Acute and Chronic Diseases and Their Sup-
  posed Causes. By C. P. Jennings, S. T. D.  Price 15 cents.
  The basis for acute and chronic diseases is well established
in this pamphlet, and the therapeutic procedure for both well
marked.

How to be Plump; or, Talks on Physiological Feeding.  By
  T.  C.  Duncan, M.D., editor of The  United States Medical
  Investigator, etc.  Neatly bound in cloth, 25 cents.
  This novel work is practical, and should be read by all.

Teething and Croup.  By W.  V.  Drury, M.DM  M.R.I.A.,
  formerly Physician to the Children's  Department,  London
  Homoeopathic Hospital. One neat little  volume.   Price,
  25 cents.
  This little  work  is full of  practical  suggestions as to  the
management of children suffering from teetning  disorders,
nnd that much dreaded disease croup.  The notes from  the
American editor adds to its usefulness.

Diseases of the  Rectum; Their Homoeopathic and
    Surgical  Treatment.  By M. Ayers, M.D.  Price, 75c.
  There is a good deal of practical information in the book.—Buffalo Medi
cat and Surgical Journal.
  J have read "Diseases of the Rectum" with interest and profit.  We
need more such painstaking and discriminating observers.
                              Yours truly,        G.  E. Clark.
  Dr. Mortimer Ayres' mot'est little monograph on Diseases of the Rectum
is just such »> work as thousands of physicians  need, and we  hope it may
find many purchasers.— American Homoeopath.
  This is a neat work on a subject, that we feel, should be more thor-
oughly understood, oy the general practitioner. It is the practical ideas
of a practical man, we should judge, and fills a much needed want.—The
Regular Practitioner.
  Dr. Ayres' work is weJl written and concise, and we are glad to say most
excellently bound.  It  treats briefly, but clearly, of the most important
diseases of the  rectum, and will pay perusal.—The Chironian.
  The author of this work has endeavored to present in a convenient
and condensed  form as great amount as possible of practical informa-
tion concerning the most common diseases of  the rectum  and  anus.—
Chicago Medical Times.
  The author, having had great success in treating diseases of the rectum,
presents to the profession in this book the results of his own experience,
and adds a very good condensation of the general literature of the sub-
ject.— American Homoeopath.
  This book will prove a useful practical work to the physician and sur-
geon, for rectal and anai complaints are not as easily diagnosed or treated
to admit of our ignoring the ripe experience of our able  colleague.—The
Homoeopathic World.
  A good book written in plain style and no attempt made to mystify the
plain reading by scientific hypothesis. The Homoeopathic treatment is
reliable, perhaps too much condensed, but the cry for condensation is
now fashionable.  So much surgery as Ayers teaches  every physician
should be able to perform, and that is another recommendation.—The
North American Journal of Homoeopathy. 
 lx                   Catalogue of Books

 Surgical  Emergencies  and  Accidents.   By J.  G.
     Gilchrist, M.D., Professor of Surgical Pathology and Ther-
     apeutics, in the State University of Iowa; formerly Lec-
     turer on Surgery in the Homoeopathic  Medical College of
     the University of  Michigan; Member of  the College of
     Physicians and Surgeons of Michigan;  Author of Surgical
     Principles and Minor Surgery; also, Surgical Diseases and
     Their Homoeopathic Therapeutics.   Price, Neatly Bound
     in  Cloth, $4.50.  Just Out.

     It gives us great pleasure to call the  attention of the pro-
 fession to this valuable book, which is designed to  aid where
 aid is often most needed.  Few are always ready for surgical
 emergencies.

  Prof. Gilchrist has won  his spurs and is an  acknowledged authority
 in surgical therapeutics, and we need, therefore,  do no more than just
 let our readers know of the appearance of this  excellent work— a  large,
 handsome volume of 582  pages of close print. — "The Homoeopathic
 World."
  The author  has well adapted the work to the necessities of the pro-
 fession, and its careful study will be found to be a great help, in times of
 emergency, to all classes of practitioners of medicine and surgery.  It
 treats of  many things not otherwise  presented  to the profession, in
 print, and is  a very  complete  and commendable work.—"The Regular
 Physician."

  This is a solid and substantial volume, and deserves a place in  every
 physician's library. Prof. Gilchrist is a well-known  writer and teacher,
 and a new work from him is always welcome. He treats of all  kinds
 of accidents and emergencies in a most entertaining and  instructive
 fashion. "Many little things,"  so important for the student to know
 but usually not  found in text books, and lightly  touched upon by col-
 lege lecturers, are here explained in full. The plan of the book is well,
 conceived, and the style is easy  and lucid.—"The Chironian."

  "These little things" are really what the young practitioner  often
 needs, but in an emergency the big thing is good  common sense, for in
 an emergency one has not the time to consult authorities. Give me  the
good, old or young, country practitioner, who can^et a leg without hav-
ing the regulation splint, and who can  stop a  bleeding with his  little
pocket-case.  Study by all means Gilchrist's good book on Emergencies,
and hold what you studied firmly in your memory.—" North American
Journal  of Homoeopathy." 
The Foremost  Medical Journal.
                         THF



             UNITED    STATES



Medical  Investigator,


     A Monthly  Magazine of the Medical Sciences.

             Edited by T. C. Duncan, M. D.

                    Only $2.00  Per Year.

 The United States Medical Investigator  has changed from a
Weekly 10 a Monthly Journal and is issued at $2.t0 a year. The gre it
Buccess of this journal encourages us to endeavor to put it into the hands
of every wide-awake physician.
 The Change.—The change to a monthly seems to give general satis-
faction. The following is a sample of the many letters received:
 I am glad lhat you are returning to the " Monthly" again, as I am free
to confess that I did not like the •'Weekly," and had determined to dis-
continue,  but  under the new arrangement shall continue during the
present year.        Yours fraternally,    Thos.  Franklin Smith.
 New York.
 D. S. Smith, M.D., the veteran Homoeopath of the west says: The Jan-
ary number of The Investigator is a splendid one. Such articles as
Cushing's are just what we need. The monthly in  its new dress looks
fine.  I am glad you  changed it to a monthly. My sentiments exactly,
and shall promise my yearly renewal as iong as I read a journal, and it
keeps its present high standard.   Yours very truly,  J. N. Tilden.
  I am well pleased with the change in your journal; it looks well in its
new dress, and I wish it all success.     Fraternally,   H. E. Beebe.
 Continue The Medical Investigator, as I am well pleased with it in
its present form.              Yours,             W. S. Purdy.
 I like The Investigator—it is solid and dignified.
                             Very truly,        J. E. Jones.
 The monthly is a great improvement.      Yours truly,
                                            W. L. Morgan.
 The monthly Investigator for January is splendid.
                                            Charles Davis.
 You have done a wise thing in changing to a monthly. I am delighted
with the January  number.  If the numbers to follow are as good as this
one,  we shall have a feast of good things for the next year.
                   Yours fraternally,       Geo. R. Mitchell.
 I prefer a monthly to a weekly journal,          Thos. Houghton.
 I regard it as an indispensable aid to business ; many a single number
has contained a hint worth the volume.      Truly yours,
                                            Z. W. Shepard.
 I like the monthly Investigator very much.         A, M. Cross.
 Allow me to congratulate you on the change—a decided improvement
every way. Such articles as "Subjective Symptoms" and  others of
which the January number is full, are what the careful and  observing
physician wants to read.        Yours truly,          G. E. Clark. 
  I like the change from a weekly to a monthly.  Had you continued as a
 weekly, I should have discontinued my subscription.
                     Very respectfully yours,       F. M. Clark.

  The new monthly I consider a wise change from the weekly. I hope to
 continue The Investigator in years to come.  It is a guiding star to me.
                                                  H. L. Perney.

  The monthly is a great improvement. Fraternally,  A. W. Kanouse.
  I am much pleased with The Investigator in its new dress.
                        Respectfully yours,            A. L. Cole.
  You show much good sense in your return to the monthly.
                            Yours  truly,           T. Gillespie.

  The new form of the Journal is a decided improvement.
                             Yours truly,              J. Adams.
  I am much better pleased with the form of it than last year. I have
 about come to the conclusion  that I cannot do without The United
 States Medical Investigator  any more than I can my three meals a
 day, and that is the hardest thing I ever tried to do.
                       Yours truly,           John T. Thatcher.
  I like the new dress of  The Investigator very much.
                            Yours truly,           T. S. Turner.

  I am much pleased with the recent change in your journal, am in-
 terested in those "Backaches" articles.     Sincerely yours.
                                               W. F. Thatcher.

  I like the change to a monthly and think you did wisely in so doing.
                            Sincerely yours,       C. A. Walters.

  I am very much pleased with your monthly journal; I find it a great
 help and pleasure.              Yours,          M. P. Bradstreet.

  I am very much pleased with The Investigator, and think it the best
 of our periodicals.       Very respectfully,       C. M. Scheurer.
  The change to a monthly is a good one, and pleases me very much.
                     ,                              D. Winter.
  I am much pleased with it and hope to continue a subscriber.
                       I am yours truly,          W.  L. Griffin.
  The Investigator is an excellent journal and is certainly doing a good
 work.               Yours respectfully,            D. P. Shattuck.

  I join in the congratulations  upon  the  change in the  form  of The
 Investigator.  Success to  it.     Very truly yours,   F. H. Orme.
  I am much pleased with the Journal and glean from it many practical
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                              Yours truly,            A. L. COLE.

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