}>;-.[-WffifSwM !:?'* au^&gut^ |U|! ~ysKs%&?rJi IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT. ¥%~ To my American Friends and the Public. Departure of Dr. HAMMOND to Paris, France. After an unprecedentedly successful practice in my Specialty of upwards of 25 years in this City, I now take my departure hence for the purpose of establishing my peculiar Method of Treatment in this Class of Diseases in Europe, where I shall remain till 1870, possibly longer. In the meantime patients afflicted with Spermatorrhoea, ^ tal Decay, aed tha,t I Ive treated spondence tes, South that I am |" the only |e class of f the case jadily sent >f taste or lere being and tonic i i r? Surgeon General's Office N< jnjs ^Q^^^OQB0^^G<^d^^O^QGQ^'^% Nervous D (Sec, who r guarantee t overTwent P alone in A M America, ai Lj aware of; ; p person livin hj complaints, d may be. 1 M by letter, b< 3 odor, thus r 1 no restricts effects of thi Correspondents should state their cases fully and plainly, answering the Queries on page 219 of this Book, pre-pay their letters, and inclose the consulting fee, §5 greenback. All such letters addressed to Dr. C. D. Hammond, care of Galignani & Cie, 224 Rue de Rivoli, Paris, France, wall reach me promptly, and be duly attended to. In conclusion, I will state that I leave no successor, representative or partner in this Country, as my method of treatment, the mode of preparing my Medicines, &c, cannot be imparted to or successfully practised by another—except at that other's own risk—for I can be responsible only for myself. Very truly yours, W C. D. HAMMOND, M. D., \\ Late o/658 Broadway, 31 East 27th St., and 236 Bast H 51** St., New York, U. S. A. P May, 1868. V3- SEE BACK COVER. '4 i METHOD OF ARRANGEMENT OF THIS BOOK. For the convenience of the reader, it may hero be men- tioned that this Work is divided, for convenience sake, into two Parts, to which has been annexed an Appendix. In the First Part, which begins on page 31 and ends with page 110, will be found, among other important subjects, a brief and interesting Summary of Ricord's Practice in Sy- philitic and Gonorrhceal Diseases; the object of which is to show, at a glance, the principles of this admirable method in contrast with the hazardous routine course pursued by the empirics and charlatans of the times. In this Part is also given all the important practical points relating to the re- searches of Ricord on Inoculation, in its application to the study of Syphilis and Non-Specific Maladies; also, on A new and successful Method of treating Stricture. The Second Part of the Book is a Complete Practical Treatise on SPERMATORRHOEA, and all other Seminal dis- eases, Impotence, etc., includiug those Urinary, Nervous, Mental, and Consumptive complaints arising therefrom, and which will be found worthy of a careful perusal. Page 113 to 258. In the Appendix some information of great importance to the reader may also be found, including a chapter of the deepest and most vital import to Females, with which the volume closes. Page 259 to 279. J^** The common mistake of other popular medical books, of sacrificing Quality to quantity, has been avoided in thia Work, altho' it contains more valuable reading matter than most 500-page books. KEMOVAL. Dr. Hammond has removed from 31 East 2Tth Street to 236 East 51st Street, near Third Avenue. Strangers can reach him with facility by taking the Third Avenue cars opposite the Astor House. *** Every part of this great Metropolis ean now be convenient- ly reached with the utmost facility, by both stranger and citizen, in consequence of the perfect system of horse-car railroads, run- ning from south to north, from east to west, thus rendering dis- tance of no moment. Most of the cars pass 51st Street, which, owing to the marvellously rapid growth of the city, is now as much "down town" as 27th Street was "up town" two short years ago. Ten years hence New York will rival the colossal cities of London and Paris. Excelsior. ANSWER TO CORBESPONDENTS. The Subscriber is occasionally in the receipt of letters inquiring if he 1 the proprietor or inventor of the " perennial compressor," the " urethra Bupporter," " Ricord's blood purifier," the " electro-galvanic preventive" (of conception), etc. The public is hereby informed that he has No Con- nection with any secret instrument or medicine offered for sale. As a rule, probably admitting of no exception, there is not a "specific," or a " patent" medicine, or an instrument advertised in the newspapers, or in. quack pamphlets,' or placarded about the streets, &c, for the cure of Venereal and Seminal diseases, and the like, that is not a vile fraud, and the concocters thereof simply Impostors.* Avoid them—and also those who profess to cure these important diseases under an assumed name, as is the case with nearly every (if not every) charlatan in this and other cities, &c. C. D. HAMMOND, M.D. Nbw York May, 1863.1 • j^f. see INTERESTING INFORMATION, page 264. IMLTATOBS.-TO THE AFFLIClrEP. The labors of my pen having been extensively pilfered by certain irrespon- sible medicalpicfure-ooofc manufacturers, and benevolent individuals amusingly styling themselves Associations," Assistants of Ricord," &c, &c, but who are in reality mere " getters-up" of quack books, pamphlets, " reports," "medicines," instruments, and other " traps" for infamous purposes, with the object of foisting, through the medium of their sapient publications, the -aforesaid wares on the unwary, the credulous, and the depraved admirers of such specious " literary and professional efforts,"—in nearly every instance appropriating entire pages and chapters from my Books, especially from my popular work on Medicine entitled " Medical Information for the Million," &c., on the subject of Medical Electricity and the Theory and Practice of Medicine on Electrical Principles, and from the present volume on Nervous and Seminal Diseases, &c.; thus basely deceiving the afflicted as well as injuring my pro- fessional reputation: I, therefore, hereby warn the public against all such fraudulent, trashy, and mischievous productions and their" authors"—or manufacturers, more properly speaking. Also, as my cards, works, and System of Treatment of the important class of diseases embraced in my Specialty have been, in numerous instances, iMirATEDor pirated by said individuals, who are incapable and too indolent to think or write for themselves, let me hereby caution the invalid that any medical book, essay,pamphlet, etc., either resembling my Books in style or language, or my Theory and System of Treatment, whether purporting to have emanated from me or not, and which (when attributed to me) shall not contain my pen-and-ink signature, as below, and to counterfeit which would constitute a felony, is spurious and therefore UNRELIABLE. New York, February, 1863. 31 East 27ih Street C. D. Hammond, M. D. ) Za Mjom it Ufajr ftonctm. The following Testimonial of professional qualifications I received many years ago (when contemplating entering the Merchant Marine Service) from my respected and eminent preceptor, Prof. J. M. Carnochan, M.D., " the rec- ognized Head of American Surgery ;" and I now deem it both opportune and highly proper to present it to the public as an invaluable pledge—in view of the high Official source from which it emanates—that patients entrusting their cases to my care, will be skilfully and honorably treated. CHARLES D. HAMMOND, HD, New York, June, 1856. TESTIMONIAL. * * " Dr. Charles D. Hammond was a conjoint pupil with Dr. Valentine Mott, Sen., and myself, in the year 1841. Since that time, Dr. Hammond has visited Paris and other European cities, for the purpose of prosecuting his studies, and has also been engaged in private practice. * * * * I con- sider him capable of giving satisfaction to those who may entrust him with the duties of a Medical Practitioner. " J. M. CARNOCHAN, M.D. " Professor of Surgery, " New York Medical College ; " Scrgeon-in-Chief to the " State Hospital, &c." » <--------------' State op New York, ) City of New York, j On the 30th day of August, 1855, appeared before me Dr. Charles D. Ham- mond, Surgeon, who did depose and say, that the signature appended to the above Testimonial of his professional qualifications (the original copy of which, signed "J. M. Carnochan, M.D., Professor of Surgery, New York Medical College ; Surgeon-in-Chief to the State Hospital, &c," he now pre- sents for my perusal) is genuine. CHARLES D. HAMMOND, M.D. Sworn to this 30th day of August, 1855, before me, William Lee, Commissioner of Deeds , I No. 433 Broadway. ; PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OF SEMINAL DISEASES, INTRODUCING, ALSO, AN ENTIRELY NEW AND ORIGINAL METHOD FOR THE PROMPT, SAFE, AND RADICAL CURE, WITHOUT CA.TJTEKIZATION, OF THESE AND OTHER KINDRED AFFECTIONS. PRECEDED AND FOLLOWED BY A SERIES OF ORIGINAL ESSAYS AND CHAPTERS UPON SUBJECTS OP VITAL INTEREST TO BOTH SEXES. .**•—■ BY I? C. D. HrVMMOND, M. D., FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF SPECIAL ANATOMY, ETC., IN THE SYRACUSE MEDICAL COLLBGE, N. Y. J LECTURER ON THE SPECIAL DISEASES OF BOTH SEXES. TENTH ENLARGED EDITION. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, No. 236 EAST 51st STREET. 1866. VUXlp 1864 Entered according to Act of fongress, in the year 1866, t>f CHARLES D. HAMMOND, M.D., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. TO DR. PHILIP RICORD, SURGEON TO THE HOPITAL " DU MIDI," PARIS, FRANCE, ETC., imj k IN ADMIRATION OP HIS EMINENT PROFESSIONAL CHARACTER, THESE PAGES ARE VERY RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BT HIS GRATEFUL PUPIL, THE AUTHOR. EDITORIAL NOTICES. To those who are unacquainted with the stylo and character of 1 his author's Works, we would say, that they have been highly recommended, editorially, as Books admirably adapted for the perusal of the young of either sex, and as valuable guides to health, by the respectable portion of the lay and med- ical press throughout the country, among which may be mentioned here the following few only :—The Home Journal, Courier, Post, Repress, Atlas, Evan- gelist, Medical and Surgical Journal, Mircury. Boston Medical Journal, Cour- ier and Enquirer, Cleveland, O., Journal, Syracuse Medical Journal, Unioerser Brooklyn Star, Oneida Herald, etc., etc.—E. Warner, Publisher. [From the American Medical and Surgical Review, Aug. 14, 1859.] ****** Dr. Hammond's practical suggestions to those who contemplate entering upon the responsible duties of married life, are as valuable as they are original, and should be universally known and ap- preciatea We cordially commend this able Surgeon's views to the public. [From the N. T. Reform Journal, Sept. 16,1859.] , * \ * * * * * Dr. Hammond is one of our most promi- nent surgeons, has spent many years in Europe, and is an enthusiast for Med- ical Reform. His book is worth every one's owning as a reference and a guide to health [From the Boston Eclectic Medical Journal.'] We have read with much satisfaction a new medical book, entitled "THIS FALLACY OF CAUTERIZATION EXPOSED ; OR, PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS FOR YOUNG MEN," from the pen of the well-known Author aod Surgeon, Dr. CHAS. D. HAMMOND (the Medical Reformer), of New York, and take this opportunity to recommend the work, which is one of the Doctor's best, to the attention of all sensible Young Men ; it being one of absorbing interest , to them, more especially. [From the N. T. Eclectic Medical Gazette.'] Ricord's Practice.—Its Superiority.—This excellent system of private med- ical and surgical practice is at once the safest, mildest, and least inconvenient —with regard to diet, avocation, etc.—of any other method ; while at the same time it is by far the most certain, prompt, and efficacious- treatment, for Seminal and Sexual Diseases, extant. Dr. C. D. Hammond, who was for- merly a pupil of Ricord, of Paris, the founder of this system, and also of Pro- fessors Carnochan and Valentine Mott, of New York, is acknowledged to be the most accomplished Surgeon in his Specialty in America. [From the New York (Daily) Tribune, May, 1858.] ****** It seems all but inevitable that a Doctor who makes one special form of disease his study, should understand that form better, and be able to treat it more successfully, than if he practiced miscellaneously and generally. If, then, a physician, by careful observation and thorough study, shall find himself qualified to cure a certain form of dis- ease which usually baffles medical treatment, it seems not only his right, but his duty, to make the fact generally known. The adverse rule of the medical orofession seems to us unreasonable and injurious—not to say inhuman. *4* Ricord's Practice includes not only the cure of all diseases and in- firmities of a confidential or private nature to which the sexes are liable, but also of those incidental Nervous, Mental, and Consumptive complaints grow- ing out of Premature Decay in young persons and adults, from whatever cause arising—complaints which, of all others, should not be tampered with by blindly resorting to specifics, patent medicines, self-cure instruments or other plausible but delusive, destructive, and unscientific treatment. %£- See additional Opinions of the Press at the end of the Volume. CARD, TO BOTH SEXES. TERMS, Etc. Dr. Hammond continues to be successfully con« suited, as heretofore during the past twenty-five years, for the cure of NERVOUS DEBILITY, SEM- INAL, and all other diseases mentioned in this Book ; also, for diseases of the Rectum, as fistula, fissure, piles, itching ulcer, stricture, etc.; also, for the diseases of the Uterus, Ovaries, and Vagina, including all menstrual complaints, Sterility, whites, falling or displacement of the womb, &c, as well as for the cure of malformations, deficien- cies, excesses and deformities of the Sexual and Mammary organs, the nose, face, etc.; also, urinary, syphilitic, gonorrhoeal, Scrofulous and Skin diseases, arising from hereditary taint, or impurity of the Blood and Secretions. And also on Micro- scopic and Chemical Analysis of Urinary and other deposits, discharges, and secretions—seminal, uter- ine, urethral, or vaginal—after the most approved methods, and in accordance with the latest re- searches made therein by Dr. H. during his recent visit to Europe. Consulting fee, $5. Treatment by correspondence or in person. Office ii CARD. hours, from 1 to 3, and T to 9, evenings ; at all other hours, by previous arrangement by letter only. 8®* No NOTICE CAN BE TAKEN OF ANY LETTER THAT DOES NOT CONTAIN THE CONSULTING FEE, NOTICE. I warrant a sound and permanent cure in ail cases undertaken by me with that distinct understand- ing ; and in such cases as I consider incurable, as there are such, I will agree to do all that the best Medical, Obstetrical, and Surgical skill in the world can accomplish—the amelioration and comfort of the patient. C. D. Hammond, M. D. 8®- Correspondents should state their cases plainly and fully. *** The attention of Females is directed to the last chapter of this book. NOTE UPON THE VERATRUM VIRIDE. Veratrum "VJiride being one of the bases of my internal or constitutional treatment of the diseases embraced in this book, I deem it proper to say a few words more, in this place, concerning so invaluable a Medicine, potent and of subtle action though it be. Accident, rather than design, first caused me to employ this remarkable remedy as an anti-venereal, scorbutic, and nervo-seminal alterative and men- strual regenerator. Having occasion to visit Cairo, 111., in the Spring of 1843,1 there became acquainted for the first time, I may say, with the medicament under consideration, through the kindness of a very aged and highly respected native Eclectic physician, Dr. Smith, of St. Louis, Mo., since deceased, who was reputed to be very successful in treating this class of affections, chiefly by means of vegetable remedies, of which the Veratrum, conjoined with Iodine, was the principal. He averred to me that this medicine was an alterative, purifier, and nervine, without its equal in the vegetable kingdom, " or in any other kingdom," as he expressed it; and he furthermore declared that it was a perfect substi- tute for Mercury, in all those diseases for the cure of which that pernicious mineral is, unfortunately, an imagined " specific." I then naturally asked him what he thought of the Veratrum as au auti-syph- 6 NOTE UPON THE VERATRUM VIKIDE. ilitic and seminal (or nervous) rein vigor ant. He instantly asservated that he had " cured hundreds" with it, in combination with other suitable reme- dies, who were laboring under both complaints. " I mix it,' to use his own words, " with Iodine and such things as ought to exactly evenly balance, to a single all-spice,^ its sedative and emetic action. I have, however, since ascertained, that by submit- ting the Iodine to a certain process of setherization, the emetic and sedative effects of the Veratrum are absolutely neutralized—a desideratum which Dr. S. frankly admitted he had never been enabled fully to attain. The old gentleman subsequently imparted to me minute and rather complicated rules, concerning the safe and otherwise judicious use of this great Rem- edy, to the best advantage, and for which valuable information I thanked him, most gratefully ; for I had in vain searched, for a long time, after just such a Medicine—to harmonize with my well-authentic- ated Theory of these Diseases—as this has proved itself to be. I say that I gratefully thanked him ; for I had early discovered that, although a plain, unpretending man, the Doctor was full of ripe ex- perience, and, withal, that he was an intelligent ob- server of nature's laws, even then, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. He was, also, of liberal principles, and devoid of all professional prejudices, for which I greatly admired him. On my return to New York, shortly after, I lost no time in putting to practical test Dr. Smith's sub- stitute for "hydrargyrum, potash, iron, and the NOTE UPON THE VERATRUM VIRIDE. 7 common nervines and tonics to boot," and was not long in ascertaining the value of this truly invalu- able plant. In brief, after five years of very active experience in the use of this remedy, I take pleas- ure in pronouncing it the ne plus ultra of medicines, for the cure of these affections; and as such it is recommended to the unfortunate afflicted. Though a new remedy in these diseases—being myself, I believe, the first and only medical prac- titioner (with the above exception) who has em- ployed it in this connection—-the Veratrum Viride is, nevertheless, an ancient medicine. It is an American plant, and " is found from Canada to the Carolinas, inhabiting swamps, wet meadows, and the banks of mountain streamlets."* As an alterative, non-narcotic nervine, tonic, ano- dyne, diaphoretic, and purifier of the Blood and Se- cretions, I hesitate not to pronounce this remedy far superior to both iodine and mercury combined, which two medicines are, it is well known, the sup* posed " specifics" for Scrofulous, Venereal, or Syph- ilitic diseases ; an erroneous and unfortunate notion, truly, when it is remembered that these minerals are- the principal ingredients made use of in man- ufacturing the " patent medicines" sold throughout the country as blood purifiers and anti-scrofula pan-. aceas, under a variety of high-sounding names. As a remedy of extensive influence and varied virtues, I know of no curative agent at all equal to the American Veratrum in the treatment of Scrofu- * Professor Wood, of Philadelphia. 8 NOTE UPON THE VERATRUM VERIDE. lous, Venereal, Nervous, SEMINAL, and Menstrual complaints, when duly combined with suitable auxiliaries, and competently prescribed in all other essential respects : otherwise, it should not be re^ sorted to. In the hands of ignorance and presump- tion, it is unquestionably a dangerous remedy : and the same remark equally applies to iodine. A quail fied surgeon takes age, sex, constitution, and other individual circumstances into consideration, before rashly prescribing a valuable but powerful medicine, which might otherwise aggravate the disease, in- stead of alleviating and ultimately curing it. In the Veratrum Viride, etc., then, we have a com- plete substitute for Mercury, Liquid Iron, and Po- tassium, as well as for the whole tribe of Nervous Stimulants; free alike from the corrosive, bone-rot- ting, and uncertain action of the former, and from the exhausting, reactionary, and destructive effects of the latter.* Finally, though highly recommended throughout this work, for the cure of the diseases herein treated upon, when prescribed in combination with suitable ad- juncts, by an experienced and careful surgeon, I have at the same time studiously abstained from making any attempt to prescribe for the non-medical reader either the Veratrum Viride or iodine ; not only be- cause such an attempt would be as absurd as mis- chievous, but also btcause, had I done otherwise, I should have acted most unfairly toward confiding * As generally, empirically, and improperly prepared and administered ; as well as in their individual, or umcientifvcallyCombined, state—to wit: the popular " anti-scrofulous," venereal, and nervo-seminal nostrums of the day. NOTE UPON THE VERATRUM VIRIDE. 9 patients, by thus putting into their hands an edged tool, as it were,—safe and useful in the hands of the skilful, because experienced, workman only. Such an act would be justly censurable in the eyes of all right-minded and intelligent people. Physicians and medical students who are desirous of knowing more about the modus operandi of the Veratrum Viride, are cordially invited to call upon, or address the undersigned, thus : Charles D. Hammond, M.D., 236 East 51st Street, New York City. N.B.—The author's ^Etherized Preparations of the Veratrum Viride and Iodine will be furnished to a few qualified Physicians for the treatment of Scrofula and Spinal Consumption, and who will, also, be instructed in the use of them gratis.* * Dr. H. hereby pledges himself to the public, not to permit his Medicina Preparations to be sold by any person or " agent" whomsoever ; therefore should any, purporting to be such, be offered for sale, all may know, for a certainty, that they are not genuine medicines. The afflicted will thus be effectually protected against frauds upon not only their purse, but upon their health, as well. Persons applying for these medicines must, at the same time, give the symptoms, etc., of the case, or they can not be supplied.'—See Ap- pendix, pages 267-8. 1* PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The exceeding importance of the author's " New American Medico-Instrumental Treatment of Sperm- atorrhoea and its Results," including his original Theory upon which this System is founded, together with the favorable reception which his previously published medical works have met with—especially his " Medical Information for the Million," which has passed through fifteen large editions since it first appeared in 1850, and also his " Ricord's Practice Ex- plained,"—induce him to issue the present volume, substituting reading matter in place of such illus- trations as might be in the least objectionable to the most fastidious ; thus rendering it free from those objections which are generally made against works treating upon this class of diseases, and which, it must be admitted, are usually filled with very disgusting, not to say obscene, engravings — filthy and ridiculous caricatures, rather than faith- ful delineations of disease, the object of which is to frighten rather than instruct the over-credulous reader. Although the views of M. Lallemand on Sperma- torrhoea have unquestionably exercised much in- fluence, and the Treatment advocated by him was at one time adopted by surgeons more theoretical PREFACE. 11 than practical, perhaps; still, a number of years having elapsed since his work was given to the Profession, the subsequent teachings of experience have, it is to be presumed, served greatly to dis- abuse the over-sanguine advocates of Cauterization with regard to the utility of their once favorite method. The author has, therefore, thought it highly opportune to give to the afflicted the benefit of his very active and extended experience in the treatment of a disease, which, more than most others (Syphilis excepted), is of such vast import- ance to young men, and others who may, unfor- tunately, have become the victims of Seminal or Nervous Diseases. The causes, also, of the different varieties of Sperm- atorrhoea, are, in this work, investigated with the aid of modern pathology, from which, combined with the more recent experience of the author in the use of his Medicated Bougie, the Veratrum Viride, etc., etc., he flatters himself that he has finally succeeded in deducing a rationally-scientific System of Curative Treatment. Whatever defi- ciencies, therefore, upon this head, may have been caused in the works of Lallemand, Wilson, and a few other European (and American) surgeons, by the progress of isolated or individual experience and discovery in Medical Science in America, will, it is believed, be found to be in this work effectively supplied. Having now for a long term of years given his undivided attention and study to such branches of his profession as he has treated upon in his medical 12 PREFACE. writings—particularly Spermatorrhoea, Stricture, and Syphilis—the author can not but believe himself calculated to inspire that implicit confidence in his honor, skill, and experience, which patients should feel in those in whose hands they place themselves in matters of such delicacy and importance. It is quite compatible with all reason and argument to consider that surgeons whose talents and efforts have been so long concentrated upon one particu- lar BRANCH OF THEIR PROFESSION, should be the IHOSt suitable ones to apply to in those cases apper- taining to that particular specialty or, branch. It were almost superfluous to point out to parties suf- fering from these diseases, the great advantages which must accrue to them by availing themselves of the experience which such surgeons (if they are talented and careful) can not but obtain ; for it is evident that they must possess the immense advant- age of superior skill over those who have engaged their attention in the promiscuous study of disease and medicine. It is a well-known fact that those maladies in which the author's practice is princi- pally involved, do not receive from medical men in ordinary practice, that careful study and observa- tion, which are so essentially requisite before they can be properly understood ; while in most instances they are entirely excluded, Should the painful but necessary task which the writer has undertaken require an apology, he begs leave to observe that it is not alone for the vicious he writes, but for the unfortunate ; that these diseases may be contracted in a variety of PREFACE. 13 ways, and without the smallest degree of criminal- ity ; and that such as are unfortunate enough to have become thus undesignedly and unknowingly the victims of contagion, will be the m@st likely, either from ignorance or delicacy, to fall sacrifices to a most otuel disease.* Moreover, as the passions will remain ungovernable while human nature fails, from want of due enlightenment, to be firm, endeavors to lessen an unavoidable evil, and to rescue from an untimely fate or loathsowie exist- ence, individuals who, from unwillingness to avail themselves of the services of the family medical attendant, are driven to the necessity of placing confidence where too frequently none is due : en- deavors such as these, it is supposed, will be con- ceded to be a work of moral and political rectitude, —for in the one case it is a duty to alleviate the distresses of our fellow-creatures, and in the other every life saved is an addition to the strength and riches of the state. This work is divided, for convenience' sake, into two Parts, in the First of which will be found, among other matters, a brief and interesting Summary of Ricord's Practice in Syphilitic and Gonorrhceal Dis- eases ; the object of which is to show, at a glance, the principles of this admirable method in contrast with the hazardous routine course pursued by the empirics or charlatans of the times. In this Part is also given all the important practical points relating to the researches of Ricord on Inoculation, * Reference is here made, more particularly, to the Vbsereal Disease. 14 PREFACE. in its application to the study of Syphilis and Non- specific maladies. The Second Part of the Book is a Complete Practical Treatise on Spermatorrhoea, and all other Seminal diseases, including those Nervous, Mental, and Consumptive complaints aris- ing therefrom, and which will be found worthy of a careful perusal. The writer of this book has discarded, as much as possible, the use of terms which few, besides the professional man, are conversant with ; he has writ- ten (unavoidably in haste) down to the comprehen- sion of the smallest capacity ; and has endeavored to convey practical information, regardless alike of elegance of diction, or the beauty of nicely-turned periods. May it be productive of much good 1 C D. H. New York, May, 1863. j 31 East 27th Street. J NOTICE. Dr. Hammond's Office is REMOVED to 236 East 51st Street, between Second and Third Avenues, New York City. Office Hours from 1 to 3, and 7 to. 9, evening, except Tuesday and Friday evenings. *** This work contains more reading matter than most books of five hundred pages ; the type, or letter, is of a peculiar style—slim and close—the object having been to give valuable matter with as little bulk as possible. PREFACE TO THE TENTH REVISED EDITION. Another edition of this work being called for by a discerning public, I would here take the op- portunity to say, that my Method of Treating Seminal, Nervous, Menstrual, and some other dis- eases, as laid down in the following pages, has been adopted in France, Switzerland and Italy, within the past few years ; and I was much grati- fied to learn, during my recent visit to Paris, that this method is thought highly of by the French physicians who have adopted it; and at Naples I was informed by Dr. Paoli, and other medical gen- tlemen of repute, that it is considered infinitely superior to the European plan (cauterization), which is the only other known method in practice in those countries. I felt the more flattered by this candid admission, as I had not expected that preju- dice would have yielded in so short a time, com- paratively speaking ; but in this as in some other important respects, great progress has been and is being made, much to the advantage of progressive humanity. My own beloved country, however—glorious America—takes the lead in the introduction of what- ever is of superior excellence in the sciences gene- rally; and I doubt not that this great nation has now fully entered upon a career of unexampled 11 PREFACE. splendor and prosperity. In no country that I have visited do I find the people so untrammelled, and so favorably circumstanced before the law as here, for the full development of those faculties which make a people great, prosperous, and happy; and were it not for the extraordinary prevalence of Seminal, Uterine, and Consumptive diseases (which last are generally induced by the former), thus affecting both sexes, our greatness and influence abroad would be very much more felt than they are at present. How- ever, when the true method of treatment in these complaints—which method I had the good fortune to originate and make known, by great and con- tinued efforts, amid the sneers and jeers of some, and the malevolence of those who should have known better, for a period now of more than twenty- three years—shall have become thoroughly dis- seminated throughout the country, the increased energies of the American character will place the United States at the very head of the nations of the world. C. D. Hammond, M. D. ew York, September, 1866. ) No. 236 East 51st Street. 1 CONTENTS. PACK TITLE PAGE......................................................... 1 DEDICATION........................................................ 3 EDITORIAL NOTICES................................................. 4 NOTE ON THE VERATRUM VTRTDE.................................... 5 PREFACE........................................................... 10 CONTENTS..........................................................15 INTRODUCTION.....................................................25 PART I. A SERIES OF ORIGINAL PRACTICAL ESSAYS. ' ESSAY THE FIRST. RICORD'S PRACTICE EXPLAINED. The object of this essay—The difference between Ricord's Practice and the ultra-mercurial method—False names and filthy books—Ricord on syphi- litic inoculation—Rapidity of the cure and safety to the constitution—Ricord denounces the indiscriminate use (abuse) of all remedies—Denies the in- fallibility, or positive reliability, of mercury, &c., &c., in the cure of Venereal—Convenience of the New Medicines, being odorless and tasteless— Ricord's Practice based on the Fundamental and General Principles or Medicine—Contrasted with the Mercurial or Quack method—The terrible effects of said meth«d—Mercury and the nitrate of silver—Author's rea- son for exclusively practising in sexual diseases—His success. SEMINAL DISEASES. General application of Ricord's Practice in the treatment of these diseases—Badly managed by the charlatanism of the day—Injurious effects of cauterization, " self-cure" appliances, &c.—Caution to patients —Enumeration of some of the more important diseases of the sexual sys- tem—Elongation and contraction of the foreskin can be cured without an operation—Varicocele an unsuspected cause of impotence—Piles can often be cured without the knife or ligature—SYNOPSIS OF SYMPTOMS AND CAUSES. Syphilis (chancre)—Syphilitic bubo—Constitutional syphilis— Gonorrhoea—Gleet—Stricture—A good rule to observe—Seminal emissions.. 31-39 ESSAY THE SECOND. ON INOCULATION AS APPLIED TO THE DIAGNOSIS AND TREAT- MENT OP SYPHILITIC DISEASES. Observation by Earle—Chancre produced by matter secreted by a chancre only—The first stage, or period of ulceration—When a chancre is but a simple ulcer—Local signs of syphilitic inoculation—Description of chan- cre—Indurated chancre most frequently followed by secondary symptoms— 16 CONTENTS. On the plurality of venereal poisons—Inoculation sets this matter at rest— The uniform action of syphilitic virus—Effects of constitution, mode of liv- ing , local treatment, &c., on chancre—Chancres of eighteen months' stand- ing capable of propagation—Buboes—Ricord's conclusions with regard to bubo—" Bubons d'emblee"—Ricord's opinions on inoculation—Discharges from the urinary passage, gonorrhoeal, and syphilitic—Concealed chancres of the urethra—Inoculation to be frequently tested—Caution to the inex- perienced ...................................................... 40-47 ESSAY THE THIRD. SOLITARY HABIT--WRITTEN ESPECIALLY AS A WARNING TO YOUTH, NOT TO FRIGHTEN, BUT TO AWAKEN. Description—The seminal secretion—Its effects on men and animals—The mi- croscope—Lascivious dreams—Celebrated, authors on immoderate coition- Tabes Dorsalis—Drs. Woodward, Woodbridge, Combe, &c, on self-abuse— Letter to Dr. Hammond from a physician—Lypria described—Madness and frightful dreams—Pimples on the face, &c.—Vital importance to youth of knowledge upon the subject—Dr. Trousseau's thrilling description of the effects of this vice—Tulpius—Mr. Harper—The passion, love—Seminal pol- lutions—A graphic picture—Dr. Bast's case—Proper treatment the pa- tient's only hope—Very interesting cases—Treatment—.General remedies, moral, physical,and medico-mechanical—The Medicated Bougie, Veratrum Viride, &c.—Diet and regimen—Prescriptions—Concluding remarks—New York Anatomical Museum....................................... 48-72 ADDRESS TO PARENTS, GUARDIANS, SCHOOLMASTERS, AND THOSE WHO ARE INTRUSTED WITH THE EDUCATION OF YOUTH. Case—General remarks—Confidence and steady perseverance in the treatment essential—How to render a substantial benefit to society—Two modes of cure........................................................... 73-76 ESSAY THE FOURTH. DANGEROUS ILLUSIONS. The use of " safes" is but another form of onanism—" A shield against pleasure, a cobweb against disease"—Local mechanical " self-cure" ap- pliances never cure, but always aggravate seminal disease—One of the most frequent causes of sterility—The cause of semen becoming mixed with the urine explained—Rapid glance at the author's theory and treat- ment of seminal diseases in general—Advice to youth—Showing how "safes" are positively a dangerous reliance—Not a sure preventive of pregnancy__ Ricord's opinion with regard to " safe-onanism.".................. 77-82 ESSAY THE FIFTH. ON THE NEW AND ABSOLUTELY PAINLESS MODE OF TREATING STRICTURES OF THE URETHRA WITHOUT INSTRUMENTS. General description of stricture—The bridle stricture, the corded stricture, and CONTENTS. 11 the ribbon stricture—Spasmodic stricture—Old treatment and new treat- mentr-The Veratrum Viride—Inflammatory stricture—Treatment—Perma- nent stricture—Causes—Symptoms—A few of the most harassing symp- toms—Author's treatment without caustic or the bougie—Mr. John Hunter, of England, Mr. Howe, Mr. Whately, and Ambrose Pare—Interesting letter —Veratrum Viride, Iodine, and their auxiliaries—Two important objects to be obtained in the cure, viz., relaxation and absorption—Success of the1 new method—its advantages to patients............................... 83-92 ESSAY THE SIXTH. THE VENEREAL DISEASE. Poetical Description—Opinions of Ricord and the late Dr. Wallace—Origin of the disease a mystery—History of venereal—Voltaire on this subject—Gon- orrhoea and Syphilis distinct diseases—Gonorrhoea and its various syno- nyms—Gonorrhoea not a specific disease—Reasons for this opinion given — Symptoms of Gonorrhoea—Gleet—Stricture—Copaiba and cubebs—Wrong treatment—Case of C. J. B.—Great skill required to treat gonorrhoea suc- cessfully—Symptoms of the later stage of this disease—Gleet does not term- inate in a spontaneous cure—Clap passing into gleet—Cubebs and copai- ba—J. D.'s case—A sufferer for forty years—Syphilis—Nature of syphilis__ Syphilis contracted by smoking a dirty pipe—Characteristics of chancre— Evils of mercury—How black-wash is made—Secondary symptoms—Do not procrastinate, but commence the treatment in time—Concise description of Secondary or Constitutional syphilis—Nodes................... 93-107 ESSAY THE SEVENTH. PLAIN AND EASY RULES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. 108-110 NOTICE. TIME AND MONEY SAVED BY EARLY ATTENTION TO DISEASE. 110 PART II. A TREATISE ON SPERMATORRHOEA, AND ITS CONCOMI- TANT DISEASES—NERVOUS, MENTAL, AND CONSUMP- TIVE AFFECTIONS, ETC. INTRODUCTION............ 113-115 REMARKS ON THE AUTHOR'S PECULIAR MODE OF TREATMENT. Characteristic observation of Dr. Franklin's—The resources of the physician must not be limited to the American and English Pharmacopoeias—All 18 CONTENTS. lands must be ransacked—Reliance not to be placed exclusively on the veg- etable, or the animal and mineral domains—The poet's advice to be followed —Seize upon good medicines where'er they are found—Not done by the ma- jority of physicians—A mystery—Few remedies in the U. S. or British Pharmacopoeias that can be relied upon—Ordinary medicines cannot cure spermatorrhoea, or any form of private disease—Reliability of mercury de- nied—Author's treatment not the routine or every-day method—Is against all secret remedies whatever—His claim to a peculiar treatment established —Brief explanation of the Eclectic system—Not the botanic, nor the ani- mal and mineral, but it includes them all—Prof. Raffinesque's definition of Eclecticism...........................,........................116-120 FALSE DELICACY. Spurious bashfulness—Fashionable ideas vs. genuine modesty—Physiology as a branch of education—Nature's impulses—An absurd objection—Advice to those who sneer—Patriotic address to professional men—The portion of the Onanist on earth.......................................... 121-125 , PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. Medicated Bougie, The Veratrum Viride, Iodine, &c.—Testimonial to the au- thor—Two distinct methods for curing seminal complaints—The constitu- tional method a slower, but none the less sure means—The local, or medico- mechanical system, both rapid and radical—The patient's choice of meth- ods governed by circumstances—Absurdity of " specific " and external me- chanical treatment only—The cerebellum and spinal nerves involved in spermatorrhoea, impotence, &c.—Author's theory and treatment at once scientific and plain—All may understand them at a glance__Brief descrip- tion—Treatment by the Medicated Bougie a painless one__The writer's new internal remedies tasteless and odorless, rather agreeable than otherwise ' being gelatinized and confectioned—Explanation of Mons. Lallemand's the- ory and practice—Refutation—Loss of Vitality in the Sexual Nervous System, not " inflammation," the only true or real cause of seminal disease —Cure by author's system effected in half the time possible by any other method extant—No risk run by the new American method__Mischief re- sulting from cauterization—The inflammation and pain caused by it fre- quently last, according to Lallemand," about two weeks "__A painful un- safe and generally ineffectual mode—Lallemand's admissions with regard to his plan—Diseases produced by cauterization—Spermatorrhoea a very prevalent and terrible complaint among young men—A continual drain from the system—Grindle's remarks on cauterization, &c.—The importance of knowing every symptom—The honorable Venereal Surgeon the patient's only reliance in sickness...................................... Il'G-IS-1 CHAPTER II. THE MALE ORGANS OK GENERATION. Anatomical and physiological description of these organs—The seminal fluid Spermatozoa................................................. 105-143 CONTENTS. 19 CHAPTER III. SELF-ABUSE. The terms Onanism, masturbation, self-pollution, &c., considered—Self-abuse practiced by very young children—Epilepsy, fits, &c, produced by this vice—Death resulting from self-abuse—Lallemand's case—Idiocy—Preco- cious developement of the sexual instinct—A more cruel deity than Mo- loch—Large schools hot-beds for this vice—Results of past actions—Case- How masturbation is commenced—Sinning in ignorance—Weakness and nervous debility—" Better late than never ".................... 144-151 CHAPTER IV. SPERM ATORRHCE A. Cause of spermatorrhoea—Nature of spermatorrhoea—Results of excessive sexual intercourse—Enormous quantity of semen passed—Erotic dreams and nocturnal pollutions—Attack during sleep—Diurnal emissions—Cause of barrenness—Vitiated seminal fluid—Case—Resolved to commit suicide— Happy denouement—Sir A. Cooper on impotence—Commence treatment in time......................................................... 1&2-160 CHAPTER V. PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON SPERMATORRHEA, ETC., ETC.—THE CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, PREVENTION, AND CURE BY A NEW AND ENTIRELY ORIGINAL SYSTEM OF TREATMENT. Description, causes, and symptoms—Numerous synonyms—Young men the most frequent victims—Unsuspected cause of pulmonary consumption- Destroys nine-tenths of the human race—Prof. Bonn's classification- Symptoms—Complete loss of power and retention—The immediate cause— The principal causes—Capillary congestion—General symptoms—Inclination to commit suicide—True nature of the local disease—Loss of vitality— Where?...................................................... 161"166 CHAPTER VI. ON THE NEW TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHCEA AND ITS CON- COMITANT DISEASES, BY MEANS OF THE AMERICAN VERATRUM VIRIDE, SPTS. FORMIC, THE acthor's MEDICATED BOU- GIE, THE PREPARATIONS OF IODINE, ETC. How seminal losses are to be arrested—Constitutional treatment—Local treat- ment—Why the medico-mechanical, or local treatment, is the best—Value of the Veratrum Viride and Iodine, with their auxiliaries—Physiology and composition of semen—Vauquelin's chemical analysis—The spermatozoa— The cause of impregnation—Deposition of seminal fluid in the urine—Ob- servation by Brau concerning respectable married men—General treatment —Special treatment—Skmlnai Glkbt..........................• • 167-173 20 CONTEXTS. CHAPTER VII. IMPOTENCE—A BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE AUTHOR'S NEW THE- ORY THEREON.---THE FALLACY OF CAUTERIZATION DEMON- STRATED. Different kinds of impotence—Causes—The immediate cause—Brief allusion to Lallemand's theory and treatment—Confutation of his main argument— The fallacy of cauterization exposed—Inflammation of the seminal ducts proved by French anatomists not to be the cause of spermatorrhoea, impo- tence, &c.—The author's theory fully established by post-mortem exam- inations—The researches of anatomical science triumphant—Remote causes —Masturbation—Absence of the spermatozoa—Accumulation of urine a powerful exciting cause of impotence in old men................. 174-178 CHAPTER VIII. TREATMENT OF IMPOTENCE. Sketch of the original theory on which the author's treatment is based, quot- ed from Medical Information, &c.—Stimulants and excitants mere place- boes in this disease—The cause of impotence lying deeper, requires more potent and suitable means of relief—Value of the Veratrum Viride and its adjuncts, together with the Medicated Bougik—Iodine and Spirit. Formic. a valuable compound—Consummation of the connubial union—Worn out condition of the nervous system—^Etherization, gelatinization, and confec- tion of medicines—Late chemical discoveries of Joeckel—Admixture of se- men with the urine infallibly cured—Author's treatment in conjunction with his Medicated Bougie, removes this symptom in less than half the time required by any other method extant........................... 179-182 CHAPTER IX. ON URINARY DEPOSITS AND DISEASES. Semen in the urine—Very frequently caused by the use of spermatorrhoea rings, &c, for the "cure" of involuntary seminal emissions—A never- failing and painless method for the removal of this formidable symptom, is the Medicated Bougie, Veratrum Viride, Spirit. Formic. jEther., Iodine, and their adjuncts—The length of time necessary, by this method, to effect a perfectly satisfactory cure—Men of all ages, up to sixty )'ears,made hale and lusty, where no organic defect originally exists—Sterility or barrenness in women, invariably cured by the author's treatment—Cautionary foot- note—The number of applications of the Medicated Bougie necessary—Treat- ment by Cauterization has been totally abandoned by the author for more than five years—No practical surgeon should ever employ it—Request to persons addressing the writer.................................. 183-185 CONTENTS. 21 CHAPTER X. THE CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, AND PATHOLOGY OF URINE. Color, odor, and temperature of pure urine—Abnormal urines, blue, black, and violet—Chemical analysis by Dr. Marchand, Prof. Lehman, and others —Abnormal constituents of urine—Urinary calculi—Great importance of the urine in the treatment of disease. URINARY DEPOSITS. Characteristics of healthy urine—The three-fold functions of the kidneys—Three distinct varieties of urine—Origin of the elements of urine—Relation between the kidneys and the lungs—Evil effects of spermatorrhoea on the digestive organs. UREA. Beautiful microscopical appearance of its crystals—Its ex- cess in urine constitutes disease—Symptoms in connection with sperma- torrhoea. THE NEWLY DISCOVERED ACIDS IN THE URINE. Absolute importance of microscopically and chemically analyzing the urine, by which, if properly done, the cure of spermatorrhoea is greatly facilitated— New acids discovered by Dr. Marcet—Elementary constituents of the pig- ment of urine. URIC AND LITHIC ACIDS. Symptoms of uric acid in the urine—General appearance of this acid—Its relation to stone in the bladder. THE URINARY PHOSPHATES. Difficulty of discovering these deposits- Appearance of their crystals—Frequently mistaken for cloudy mucus— —Though chemically difficult of detection, examined by the microscope they at once become apparent—Symptoms—Causes. ALBUMINURIA. Inflammation giving rise to albuminous disease of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra—A very frequent but insidious disease, only to be detected by careful study and chemical research—Old authors describe this disease as a " premature decay of nature "—Albuminous urine most im- portant, because most frequent and readily recognizable—When acute, the disease is rapid in progress and of fatal tendency—Symptoms—Degenera- tion of the kidneys—Symptoms so often overlooked by most patients as to be seldom well cured—Generally occurs in the prime of life—Easily over- looked by a careless observer—Anaemia, or paleness, a characteristic feature of the disease—In young girls, degeneration of kidneys and albuminuria often fatally mistaken and treated for ordinary chlorosis, or " green sick- ness "—General state of system during this disease—Frightful errors com- mitted in treating spermatorrhoea for albuminuria, and vice versa, might be easily prevented by skillful examination of the urine—Diagnosis. DIA- BETES. Two varieties of the disease—Appearances in each—Extraordinary quantity of urine secreted, being occasionally several gallons—Symptoms __Diabetes frequent in broken-down constitutions—Spermatorrhoea a pro- lific cause of the disease—Its fatal tendency..................... 186-202 CHAPTER XT. SUMMARY OF THE NEW AMERICAN TREATMENT OF SPERMA- TORRHEA, ETC., ETC., BY MEANS OF THE AUTHOR'S MEDIC- ATED BOUGIE, THE VERATRUM VIRIDE, IODINE, AND THEIR AUXILIARIES................................203-209 22 CONTENTS. CONCLUSION. The great importance of carefully watching urinary diseases, to prevent them from lyultiplying, and thus rendering their cure difficult—Imperative neces- sity of the microscope for detecting semen in the urine, through the pres- ence of spermatozoa—How this process is conducted—Chevalier's powerful microscope—Not always an easy thing to detect the spermatozoa—Their re- fractive power—Imperfectly formed spermatozoa—Once their presence is discovered, the treatment of spermatorrhoea becomes easy—Urina Sanguin- is, or morning urine—Author's method of examining the samples of urine sent to him—By this scientific invention, a decided opinion of the case can be formed—Observation to patients who wish a thorough and permanent cure—An important case—Its result............................ 209-212 CHAPTER XII. LIST OF A FEW CASES SUCCESSFULLY TREATED, EITHER BY CONSTITUTIONAL MEANS, OR THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF THE MEDICATED BOUGIE, and other adjuncts.—QUE- RIES, etc.................................213-220 CHAPTER XIII. NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASES—EXHAUSTION, HYSTERIA, HY- POCHONDRIASIS, ETC., ETC. These diseases are slow and insidious in their approach—Great variety of , forms which they assume—The honorable physician's claims to public fa- vor—Experience is the only grand criterion of a physician's skill—Nervous diseases very prevalent in this country—Should claim our sympathy, not our contempt—Numerous diseases included under this head—Symptoms of nervous debility—One particular symptom—Effects of genital weak- ness upon the great nervous centres—Nervous affections imitate, or simu- late, almost every other disease—Seldom alike in different persons, or even always in the same person—They affect both body and mind__Erroneous notions concerning these diseases—Internal symptoms of hypochondria —The fear of death united with a desire to commit suicide__Violent im- agination—How nervous disease begins—Horrid dreams—Physicians gen- erally unacquainted with these complaints—Causes—Excessive venery a prominent cause—Nervous exhaustion, or a want of vital action__The mis- erable practice of a destructive habit—DisapDO»«tment in life__Intense application to study—What the aim of the physician should be—Conclud- ing remarks.................................................. 221-228 CHAPTER XIV. THE TREATMENT OF NERVOUS DISEASES. The Spirit. Formic., Veratrum Viride, Iodine, and their auxiliaries, the chief and only certain remedies—The Medicated Bougie, also, when these dis- eases are accompanied with spermatorrhoea, &c., and a. speedy euro is im- CONTENTS. 23 portant to the patient—Eat little and often—The kinds of food necessary- Avoid excesses—Prescription for a tonic cordial—Late or heavy suppers in- jurious—Beware of drams—The above-mentioned remedies invaluable__ When are they efficacious ?—Their revitalizing effects—The best modes of exercise—Air—How flannel waistcoats should be worn—Effects of early rising and exercise before breakfast—Violent exercise after meals bad__ Exercise in gout—Horseback exercise—Moderate dancing in the open air beneficial—Common errors respecting exercise—The Veratrum Viride, &c, as a substitute for, or preliminary aid to, exercise—" Catching cold"— Sleep—The proper duration of sleep—A good sign of health—In what a perfect digestion consists—The value of Iodine and Veratrum Viride in im- parting tone to the stomach and nerves—They give a fine youthful com- plexion—Judicious remarks of Dr. Blandeau—Diet and regimen—Nervous diseases can be effectually cured, without fail, by the means herein laid down—Peruvian bark—Prescriptions—The only way to secure a radical and satisfactory cure..............................................229-238 CHAPTER XV. CONSUMPTION, GENERAL AND PULMONARY. General description—The result either of scrofulous inflammation of the lungs, or of sexual excesses, or both—Causes—They are various—Among the most prominent of these is secret vice, producing genital weakness, nervous exhaustion, &c.—The common use of mercurials—A hundred thousand persons die annually of consumption in this Union alone—Two- thirds of this number die before the age of thirty-five—Incidental remarks on self-abuse—Symptoms—Very numerous—Author's division of consump- tion into two stages—Even to the last the patient seldom thinks death is near......................................................... 239-242 CHAPTER XVI. TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION. Roast beef and mutton, and generous wine, recommended—Friction, exercise, warmth—Iron and salt prescribed, and the reason for doing so given—Ob- servation on the free use of stimulants—The judicious employment of remedial means of vast importance—Judgment and experience the two great landmarks of the physician—The value of woman's milk in this dis- ease—Case reported by Dr. Burroughs, an English East India physician— Dr. Mendon's case—Diet, regimen, &c.—Boerhaave's opinion of buttermilk— Dr. Barrington's opinion—Prescription—The kind of air proper for con- sumptives—Coltsfoot flowers, tusseligo and honey—Shell fish, game, Port wine—Confection of red roses an important remedy—Tonic cordial—Pul- Terized Peruvian bark superior to quinine—Mode of prescribing it—Eco- nomical method for making lime-water—A medicinal Preparation for colds, coughs, and consumption, of extraordinary efficacy, and in which there is no failure—Nitrous acids for night-sweats—Recipe—CASE........ 243-250 24 CONTENTS. CONCLUDING CHAPTER. Immense advantage to patients of applying early for treatment—A speedy, safe, and permanent cure the result—Disadvantages of procrastination- Cure thereby rendered more tedious and difficult—How much depends upon the prudence and judgment of the physician !—Injudicious treatment pro- ductive of the saddest consequences—Improper mercurial treatment often the cause of consumption—Mercurial palsy—Fourteen years' experience and observation in Venereal Practice—Extensive prevalence of nervous de- bility—It is seen everywhere—Its melancholy effects—Family or general practitioners debarred by "professional etiquette" from treating private diseases—What they do and do not, when consulted in such cases—They never ask : " Do vou commit seif-abuse?"—The reason for this—One of the bad consequences of masturbation—The benefits conferred upon patients through the medium of specialties—Their encouraging effects upon patients manifest—Wherefore?—The author deems it not only desirable, but indis- pensable, to see his patients in all cases of spermatorrhoea, wherein the party desires a speedy cure, by means of the Medicated Bougie:—The pre- sumable reason why certain " doctors " do not desire to see their patients —No honest physician declines seeing his patients—Author's suggestion to patients—Write first, call afterwards ; thus all unpleasantness is obviated —Advantages of this plan—Benefits resulting to patients by the faculty ig- noring sexual diseases—Nervous debility not always the result of sperma- torrhoea or sexual abuses—The general or ordinary practitioner does not, unfortunately for the patient, make any distinction on this head, hence the danger of his treatment—The dilemma in which this places patients who consult the " family physician "—The case not being understood, throngh mutual embarrassment and reserve, is consequently maltreated—Aim of this took—Dr. Franklin's observation respecting self-treatment—Stupid and sinister attempts of quacks at beguiling the afflicted into becoming their own physicians—The result—Author's opinion and desire on this sub- ject.......................................................... 251-258 APPENDIX. To the Public.............................. 259-263 Interesting Information..................... 264-269 Particular Notice—" Carping Cavilers"...... 270-271 Scrofula and Skin Diseases—Author's Theory of Life and Death........................ 272 IMPORTANT NOTICE TO THOSE PATIENTS AT A DISTANCE WHO CANNOt VISIT DR. HAMMOND IN PERSON. SELF-APPLICATION OF THE "MEDICATED BOUGIE." Dr. Hammond has so improved the use of the Medicated Bougie within the past few years, that any patient of ordinary intelligence may now, by means of special written instructions from himi apply it himself with perfect safety and success, in all cases wherein the patient finds it inconvenient or impossible to Visit the city. In such cases (although it is of course a much greater pleasure to the Dr. to see his patients, and less laborious for him) he will warrant the entire safety and success, by Self- application, through special instructions from him, of the Treatment in all SEMINAL CASES, IMPO- TENCY, Stricture, and some of the other diseases laid down in this Book, including a few others, in both sexes, not herein mentioned, either by means of the Medicated Bougie, or by the Doctor's internal Remedies, or by the combination of both, as the patient may elect. In numerous cases, however, Dr. Hammond omits the use of the Bougie alto- gether j in others he employs it almost exclusively \ a Important notice. While in many instances, again, his favorite method consists in the judicious combination of both the above*mentioned means. These modifications in the application of the Treatment are based upon the peculiarities of individual Cases, to be acted upon according to the different phases or conditions which these diseases are constantly presenting, as described to Dr. H. by different patients. See "Answers to Queries" on page 219 of this volume. INTKODUCTION. The following pages have been written for the pur^ pose of communicating instruction to intelligent Young Men, and others, on subjects of most vital importance. The fearful extent of the ravages of the diseases, and habits noticed, are sufficient to justify the most vigorous measures for suppressing them. All that can at present be done is to en- lighten the public upon their nature and results, and thus assist in spreading that information which is destined in a future age to well-nigh extinguish vice and disease. i It appears to me there never was a period in which a correct system of medical and surgical practice was more imperiously demanded than the present; for the science of medicine is, as taught in most of the medical schools, a perfect chaos. There are so many theories, so many modes of treating disease, such discordant sentiments enter- tained, both by physicians and the community at large, on the subject of medicine, that duty requires every exertion to be made to rescue the Healing Art from the intricacy and maze in which it has, unfor- tunately, become involved. My primary object in laboring in the field of 2 26 INTRODUCTION. Medical Reform is now, and has ever been, to clear away the rubbish of former as well as of present medical theories, and amid their wreck to collect whatever materials might be found, from all proper sources, for the construction of a new edifice, rest- ing on a broader and more durable foundation. The present period may be emphatically denom- inated an age of investigation and improvement; and, when truth is plainly presented to the honest mind, it seldom fails of receiving a cordial welcome. In the arts and sciences in general greater re- searches and discoveries have been made than at any former period. In respect to steam-boats, rail- roads, the electric telegraph, education, and various other matters, the human mind has achieved won- ders, and given ample proof of its divine origin. Unfortunately, however, for suffering humanity, the healing art, in the opinion of those who are regard- ed as the most learned and skilful, has advanced scarcely any in this country, and forms a lament- able contrast to the progress made in other depart- ments. But when we turn our eyes to the Eclectic Medical School, we are greeted with the most cheer- ing prospects. In France, the Eclectic Practice is now most ex- tensively adopted, not only by the members of the Eclectic College, but also by many of the old school practitioners, who admit that what before was con- jecture, they now can reduce to a certainty. My object in returning to America, in 1850, was to endeavor to establish the Eclectic System of Introduction^ 27 Medicine in Sexual Diseases, particularly ; and up to the present time, my success has been even greater than I anticipated. I know I shall long have to contend against bigotty, contumely, and a host of minor evils ; but feeling that I have the truth on my side, I stand prepared for all the force that prejudice and ignorance can bring to bear against me. It will be asked why I confine myself to Sexual, Nervous, Seminal, and Consumptive diseases, etc., in practice ? For this I have the following reasons, and I know they will be considered sufficient. In the first place, I so practice, because for years I have devoted my whole attention to the treatment of these diseases, and have ever been rewarded with success ; and in the second place, and per* haps a more cogent reason than the former, I found the state of medical knowledge in this country upon these all-important diseases so woefully deficient, that I concluded I should be but imperfectly acting the part of a medical reformer if I did not attack and overthrow those points that most required it. The mode of treating sexual; nervous, and mental diseases in America, has neither science nor common sense for its foundation. Starving, bleeding, caus- tic,* mercury, and all the dreadful, life-destroying array of old, but still-existing remedies, must be done away with ; and in their place, I have intro- duced a series of entirely new and natural reme- • "Cauterization." S8 introduction*. dies, safe and mild in their operation, but at the same time most certain and effectual. To Time, the great Umpire between men and sys^ tems, I am content to submit, fully believing that that which is true can never be lost. It would have been in keeping with the nature of this volume to have, in the introduction, said something about the foolish prudery so prevalent in this country, which fosters in its bosom terrible vices ; but as I have entered at some length upon that subject in the body of the work, it may be omitted here* PAET I. A SERIES OF ORIGINAL PRACTICAL ESSAYS ON SUBJECTS OF VITAL IMPOKTANCE TO BOTH SEXES RICORD'S PRACTICE. ESTABLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, A.D. 1850. Introduced through the American Press, June, 1854. Popularly Explained, March, 1858. PART I. ESSAY THE FIRST. The object of this Essay, as its title implies, is simply to give (it is believed for the first time) the non-medical reader a concise and plain idea of Ricord's Practice, as contradistin- guished from the old and exploded ultra-Mercurial or empir- ical method of treating this class of diseases—a method by which thousands are annually destroyed, through the vulgar charlatanism of the times, and hurried into untimely graves. Under cover of false names, and generally through the medium of newspapers, placards, or filthy books, the country is nearly overrun by a horde of ignorant and mercenary indi- viduals, who pretend to " cure" these all-important, aye, vital diseases, both Seminal and Venereal; and it was with a view of opening the eyes of the afflicted to a subject so pregnant * First published in March, 1858. 32 ricord's practice explained. with importance to the human family, ana especially to the rising generation and their future progeny, that the writer has been induced to take up his pen to attempt an explana- tion of the difference between Medical Science and medical vampirism, in the Treatment of these diseases. With these few preliminary remarks, I proceed at once with the subject in hand. That important branch of Medical Science, the diagnosis and treatment of the large class of diseases popularly termed " Secret Diseases," has, at all times, and in most countries, engaged, as indeed from its vital importance it should, the attention and profound research of every truly benevolent surgeon; but, at no time, and in no country, perhaps, have those labors been so successfully prosecuted as in France, within the past twenty-five or thirty years. Several years since, Dr. Ph. Ricord, Chief Surgeon of the Paris Civil Venereal Hospital, commonly known as the Hopital du Midi, deduced from an extended series of observations and experiments on the inoculation of the poison of Syphilis, or specific primary chancre, consisting of many hundred cases, certain conclusions of great value, which he has given to the Profession in an important (scientific) work, entitled " A Practical Treatise on Venereal Diseases ; or Critical and Experimental Researches on Inoculation, as Applied to the Study of these Diseases." Paris, 1838. (See "Essay the Second.") In presenting this brief Synopsis—this bird's-eye view, as it were—of Ricord's Practice to the reader, I do not know that I can give a better general idea of it than to say it is the modern and only rational system of Venereal Practice extant; combining, as it does, in a pre-eminent degree, rapid- ity of cure, with entire and permanent safety to the constitu- tion ; while it expressly rejects the old, empirical, secret, and liazardous employment of such pretended " specifics " as mer- cury, copaiba, cubebs, &c, &c., &c. In Syphilis, Gonorrhoea, ricord's practice explained. 33 —ami all other diseases of the sexual system so wretchedly botched by the charlatans of the day, through the barbarous use of Mercury and Nitrate of Silver, particularly, to say nothing of the disgusting medicines, cauterization, " self-cure" instruments, etc., so vauntingly bepuffed in the newspapers, —the vast superiority of Ricord's Practice, by reason of the celerity,* certainty, and great mildness of the means which it employs, is now, and has been for the last twenty years, fully admitted and established beyond the reach of doubt or further cavil. Ricord does not proscribe the judicious use of those or any other suitable medicaments, by any means, in the treat- ment of Syphilis proper, or in that of Gonorrhoea (" clap"), &c.; but he does, very properly, denounce the ignorant and indiscriminate use (or rather abuse) of them, in cases and under circumstances which would be highly unfavorable to their proper action. For instance, mercury should only be em- ployed in certain conditions of true syphilis—never in gonor- hoea, gleet, &c.; neither is it to be resorted to in simple venereal sores, or in those chancres of a non-specific (non-inoc- ulable) character. Neither does this distinguished Surgeon allow that mercury, copaiba, cubebs, and the like, either simple or compound, are positive remedies at all, or to be implicitly relied on by the intelligent physician, for the cure of gonor- rhce-al or kindred complaints ; hence he denies that they are specifics, or medicines which are by any means certain to cure these maladies. But he recommends the rational and scientific * In recent cases, a cure by this excellent method may be effected in a very few days, thus doing away with the necessity of taking much medicine, so disagreeable to most persons ; neither is any particular change required in the patient's ordinary habits, diet, or business pursuits ; and further, he may be treated by Letter, if the case be well-described, &c, by reason of the com- pactness and ordinary appearance of the Remedies, which are absolutely free from taste and odor, and may be readily carried about in one's pocket, with- out any inconvenience or fear of detection whatever. 2* 34 ricord's practice explained. employment of said medicaments, .nevertheless, in accordance with the fundamental and general principles of Medi- cine ; whereas the empiric, or quack, uses those powerful remedies as certain means of cure, in all cases, and upon a stereotyped or fixed plan, if one may so term it. And, so far as mercury in the treatment of syphilitic or venereal, as well as of gonorrhoea! diseases was concerned (for these appella- tions used to be, before the time of Ricord, synonymous terms), even many of the old regular surgeons, from Paracel- sus down, were in th« habit—a fatal one, truly—of employing it in the same empirical way that our quacks do at the pres- ent day; and, of course, with about the same horrible results to the unfortunate patient. It is through the indiscriminate use of these potent medicines, particularly mercury, injections of nitrate of silver, etc., by the incompetent, that those terri- ble deformities and suffering which we sometimes behold with a shudder of indescribable disgust or pity ensue to embitter the remainder of the unhappy victim's life—and, it may be, the lives of his friends also. It was from having such miserable spectacles constantly presented to his attention, in his professional capacity at the Hospitals, that determined the Author more than anything else, perhaps, to visit Paris, and there study, under the clin- ical teachings of the great Venereal Surgeon of France, the best method of treating these diseases, in all their variety; and subsequently to return home, after an absence of some five years, most profitably spent—almost exclusively in study- ing, practically, this important Branch of the Healing Art at the famous Hdpital du Midi—and practice his Spe- cialty in this city; thus endeavoring to do for New York, what Ricord has so successfully accomplished for Paris, namely—to rescue the unfortunate from ever-ruthless char- latanry, by instituting, so far as in him lay, an improved, rational, and Successful Treatment for this mischievous class of complaints. And, he may add, he has every reason seminal diseases. 35 to feel satisfied with the result of his efforts in this cause, during the past fifteen years. SEMINAL DISEASES.—Spermatorrhea, Emissions, Debility, Impotence, &c, the results of " Self-Abuse," and other causes. The foregoing remarks on Ricord's Practice apply most significantly to these delicate and highly importaHt complaints, as no class of diseases is less understood or more badly managed by the empirics of the present time. I know of no treatment so reprehensible and useless as the much boasted one by cauterization—a plan which Lallemand, a French surgeon, introduced in France many years ago. Hav- ing little or no merit in the vast majority of cases, it was soon consigned to oblivion by the practical surgeons of Europe, only to find favor, at the hands of certain persons, in this country. The only true plan of eradicating these com- plaints, is that which is based on the Great Principles of medical science—the method of Ricord. This method, in connection with the Medicated Bougie, which is an improve- ment of my own, I have found implicit—the other, or cauter- ization, not only utterly fallacious, but hazardous in the ex- treme, from its natural tendency to produce enlargement of the prostate gland, permanent nervous irritation at the neck of the bladder (so annoying to the.sufferer), spasmodic strict- ure, swelled testicle, &c. In a word, those who have expe- rienced the evils here alluded to, not only through the instru- mentality of " patent" medicines and cauterization, but by the use of " spermatorrhoea rings," wooden blocks, metallic instruments, varicocele trusses, and similar modes of worse than inquisitorial torture, need not be advised by me to avoid the same; while the unscathed who may read these lines, will, if they are wise, be cautious how they " meddle with edge-tools" of this description. Enumeration of some of the more important Diseases 36 some op the more important diseases. of the Sexual System.—For the better information cf the afflicted, I will mention the names of some of the more im- portant diseases of this class, and also of one or two com- plaints which, if not belonging to the sexual system, strictly considered, are none the less frequent causes of some of the most annoying gexual diseases:—Syphilis (commonly known as " the venereal," or " pox,") in all its forms; Gonorrhoea * or "clap;" Gleet, or chronic discharge from the urinary passage; Stricture, or narrowing of the urinary passage— these two last are generally the results of badly treated gonor- rhoea ; Irritable Bladder—producing Incontinence of Urine; Enlargement of the Testicles; Malformations and Deformi- ties of the penis f and vagina; Seminal Emissions (by some called "spermatorrhoea"), commonly caused by self-abuse, and terminating in Impotence ; General Nervous Debil- ity, the patient expressing himself as " neither sick nor well," but deficient in nervous energy; Varicocele, or enlargement of the spermatic veins within the scrotum (envelope of the testicles), which, by their pressure upon the seminal vessels become a frequent though unsuspected cause of impotence. These swollen veins may be felt by pressing upon the upper part of the scrotum, just above the left testicle, and much resemble to the touch a knot or string of worms. Varico- cele is commonly a painless disease, but should never be neg- lected, as it can generally be cured without an operation—■ by a properly contrived appliance, easily adjusted by the pa- tient. Piles are, also, a prolific source of seminal irritation, lascivious dreams, emissions, &c, &c. This disease is sometimes present unknown to the patient. It is astonishing * The remarkable celerity and ease with which this otherwise baffling dis- ease is cured by Ricord's system, strikingly illustrate- its superiority over the tedious methods adopted by those who are either obstinately, ignorantly, or through bigotry attached to those obsolete modes of cure. ■f- Phymosis, or unnatural elongation and contraction of the fore-skin, may, by judicious treatment, be frequently remedied without an operation. synopsis of symptoms and causes. 31 to me that a complaint of such importance, and having so many who profess to cure it, should be so prevalent and " in- curable "—especially when it may be readily prevented, and cured, also, if properly understood and treated. I have sel- dom been baffled in soon curing even the worst cases of blind and bleeding piles. Neither the knife or ligature should be resorted to for the cure of any case of piles, where no actual orgauic difficulty exists. * SYNOPSIS OF SYMPTOMS AND CAUSES. 1. Syphilis—Chancre :—Inflammation, pimple, slight red- ness, pain, swelling; ulcer or sore, with hard, uneven edges, surface yellow or grayish; commonly situated on fore-skin, head, or body of penis, and occasionally in urinary passage; ulcer circular, oblong, deep, or superficial. 2. Syphilitic Bubo :—Swelling of a gland in one or both groins, commencing slowly, but with pain, stiffness, and uneasiness in walking; at first feels like a small, round, hard tumor, gradually increasing in size, pain, inflammation, &c.; finally becoming an abscess if not prevented. 3. Constitutional Syphilis :—Sore throat, with ulcera- tion ; spots or sores on different parts of the body; painful swellings of the periosteum and bones, called nodes; fever, general uneasiness, rottenness, gradual exhaustion, death. Causes :—Impure connection, syphilitic inoculation. 4. Goxorrhcea :—TTxiite, yellowish, or bloody discharge * The above is intended merely to give the reader a general idea ; for full description, see " Medioal Information," &c, referred to at the end of this book. 38 SYNOPSIS of symptoms and causes. from urinary canal, at first transparent and thin, then thick ; pain or scalding in passing urine; painful erections (chordee); pain more severe, discharge copious; occasional swelling in the groins (sympathetic bubo); contraction or retraction of fore-skin (phymosis or paraphymosis); fever; pain extends towards the fork as disease advances; pain and occasional swelling of testes (stvelled testicle). Cause :—Impure con- nection. 5. Gleet :—Thin or thick, white or yellowish discharge from the urethra or urinary passage, without pain ; discharge generally small in quantity, and white like cream. Causes : —Neglected gonorrhoea, self-abuse, straining, costiveness, diarrhoea, &c. 6. Stricture :—Gradual narrowing of urethra, stream of urine becoming smaller, twisted, curved, split or forked; frequent desire to pass urine; a few drops remaining after, wetting the linen. Causes :—Neglected gleet, injections injudicious treatment of gonorrhoea, resulting in a thickening of the lining of the urethra; self-abuse, &c. The symptoms and causes of the above six forms of dis- ease, are about the same in both sexes; but in some cases, other symptoms may exist, while in others some of those above mentioned may be altogether absent. They usually appear in from three to seven days after an impure connection, in recent cases. If attended to at once, on the earliest ap- pearance of any of the symptoms after a suspicious con- nection, the disease may be generally cured immediately, if properly treated; and it is also a good rule, to apply to an experienced venereal surgeon even before any decided signs of disease have manifested themselves, if the connection has been a doubtful one—prevention being better than cure. 7. Seminal Emissions :—Lassitude, nervousness, weakness SYNOPSIS OF SYMPTOMS AND CAUSES. 39 of the lower limbs, palpitation of the heart, appetite poor or excessive, pains in the back, dimness of vision, specks be- fore the eyes, dullness of mind, deficient memory, want of power to fix the mind on any one subject, melancholy, emacia- tion, gloomy thoughts of suicide, fear of death, aversion to society, timidity, love of solitude, incapacity for study, diz- ziness, want of self-confidence, headache, weakness and redness of the eyes, pimples, lascivious dreams, nocturnal and diurnal discharges of semen; semen in the urine; dislike to females ; inability to cohabit, from loss of power of erection, or too sudden escape of the seminal fluid; idiocy, insanity. Causes : —Masturbation, hereditary weakness, &c. [See Part II.] *** I would here observe, distinctly, that M. Ricord em- phatically denies the infallibility of Mercury, in the cure of Syphilitic Diseases. ESSAY THE SECOND. ON INOCULATION, AS APPLIED TO THE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF SYPHILITIC DISEASES. " I know it will be said, that diffusing medical knowledge among the people might induce them to tamper with medical science, and to trust to their own skill, instead of calling upon a physician or surgeon. The reverse of this, however, is true. Persons who have most knowledge in these matters, are commonly most ready both to ask and follow advice, when it is necessary. The ignorant are always most apt to tamper with medicine. Instances of this are daily to be met with among the ignorant."—Earle. Both before and since the time of Hunter, inoculation has been employed for the purpose of testing the character of syphilitic diseases; and at the present day, M. Ricord, Sur- geon to the Parisian Civil Venereal Hospital (Hdpital du Midi), has deduced, from an extended series of experiments, certain conclusions of great value and importance, which he has given to the world in his great work, " Traite pratique des Maladies Veneriennes, ou Recherches critiques et experi- mentales sur l'lnoculation, appliquee a l'etude de ces Mala- dies." * M. Ricord establishes, in the first place, that a chancre, wherever it may be seated, is produced by a specific matter, which is secreted by a chancre only, which matter produces a similar disease whenever placed in circumstances favorable to contagion.f This specific matter is only produced from the surface of a chancre during its first stage, that is, during the period of * Paris, 1838, f Parker, London. SYPHILITIC INOCULATION. 41 ulceration, or when the sora is indolent or stationary. At these periods only does a chancre give us a specific matter capable of producing a similar disease by inoculation. When the sore begins to heal and a process of reparation has com- menced, it is merely a simple ulcer, does not furnish a specific matter, and is not capable of propagation by inoculation. If matter be taken from a chancre during the period of ulceration, and introduced under the skin by means of a lan- cet, it produces the following effects :—During the first four and twenty hours the puncture becomes more or less in- flamed ; from the second to the third day it is accompanied with a slight tumefaction, and presents the appearance of a small pimple surrounded with a red ring: from the third to the fourth day the disease assumes a blister-like form, the skin being raised by a fluid more or less opaque, presenting at its top a small dark point; from the fourth to the fifth day the con- tents of the blister become purulent, the top of the pock de- pressed, resembling very much the pock of small-pox. At this period the ring, which had progressively increased, begins to diminish or altogether disappears, particularly if the dis- ease does not increase : after the fifth day, however, the sub- jacent and surrounding tissues, which hitherto had undergone little or no modification, or were merely slightly swollen, be- come hardened by the extravasation of a plastic lymph, which communicates to the touch the resistance and elasticity of cartilage. After the sixth day the contents of the pustule thicken, the pock itself shrivels up, and is covered with crusts. These enlarge toward their base, and forming by successive layers, at length assume the form of a flattened pyramid with a depressed top. If these crusts are detached, or if they fall off, we find under them an ulcer with the hard base of which we have spoken, extending through the whole thickness of the skin. The surface of this ulcer, with a deep red color, is foul, covered with a thick adhesive matter, al- most like a false membrane, which cannot be removed by any 42 SYPHILITIC INOCULATION. attempt to clean the sore. The edges of the ulceration at this period appear as though it had been dug out from the surrounding parts by a sharp circular instrument. The im- mediate vicinity of the sore is surrounded by a red, dark, or livid margin, more elevated than the surrounding parts. M. Ricord further establishes that chancre in its com- mencement is purely a local disease ; that constitutional or secondary affections can only take place after this antecedent; that they do not occur in all cases, and only after the lapse of a certain period of time. Whatever may be the varieties and complications which subsequently follow or accompany the inoculated chancre, the progress of the latter is in all instances such as we have described it. The pock-like form of incipient chancre is only wanting when the parts to which the poison is applied are destitute of skin or epithelium, and it is only preceded by inflammation when the matter has been introduced into the subcutaneous cellular tissue under the skin, or into the ab- sorbent system. The ulcerations completely destroyed or arrested on the third, fourth, or fifth day from the application of the poison, are not liable to secondary inflammation. It is not before the fifth day that the induration of chancres commonly com- mences, and it is the indurated chancre that is most fre- quently followed by secondary symptoms ; this induration seems to indicate that the affection has become in some measure already constitutional; as long as there is no in- duration we may suppose the disease to be merely local. The varied appearance which primary venereal sores pre- sent (says M. Ricord) ha3 given rise to arguments against the identity of the venereal virus, and has led to the promulgation of the theory of a plurality of venereal poisons. Inoculation however, sets this matter at rest, for whatever may be the actual character of the sore from which we take the matter, provided it be taken during the first stage of chancre, that SYPHILITIC INOCULATION. 43 of ulceration or indolence, we obtain by inoculation a regular pock when the matter is introduced beneath the skin; an ulcer when it is applied to a denuded surface; and an abscess when introduced into the cellular tissue, or into the lymphatic system. The various characters of chancres, or primary venereal sores, are due to circumstances which are foreign to the specific cause which produced them; these are principally the particular constitution of the patient, his made of living, the influence of any antecedent or present disease with which he may happen to be affected, and not least the local treatment of the sore. It is from one or many of these circumstances that we see bad conditioned ulcers in subjects who have con- tracted their disease from others affected with ulcers of the simplest character. The first stage of chancre, i. e., of ulceration or indo- lence, is the only one during which the disease is susceptible of propagation by inoculation; the period of this stage is not limited, hence M. Ricord has known primary venereal sores capable of propagation after having continued eighteen months. The Recherches of M. Ricord on the nature and differential diagnosis of buboes are of equal interest with those which we have detailed on the subject of primary sores. According to this author, buboes are of two kinds, simply inflammatory, or virulent: in the first instance, succeeding to gonorrhoea, balanitis or any other primitive affection; and in the second, from the consequences of the direct absorption of specific matter from a chancre. M. Ricord deduces from his experiments upon buboes in a condition of ulceration, the following conclusions: that a virulent bubo, or one resulting from the absorption of the specific pus from a chancre, is a disease precisely similar to chancre, merely differing from it in its seat, and the anatomical organization of the parts affected ; that this 44 SYPHILITIC INOCULATION. species of bubo is the only one capable of producing a pock by inoculation; that the symptoms hitherto indicated by authors, with a view of establishing the differential diagnosis between a true virulent bubo and one merely inflammatory, are of little value, inoculation being the only certain and pathognomonic sign. M. Ricord admits the existence of buboes which are not preceded by any other syphilitic affection : these make their appearance at a certain period after an impure connexion, without the intervention of chancres, gonorrhaa, balanitis, or other form of primary irritation. The existence of these buboes is admitted by Fallopius, Astruc, Swediaur, Bertrande, and lately by Dr. Mondret, in a memoir inserted in the " Recueil periodique de la Societe de Medecine," for August, 1837. These buboes are termed by the French surgeons " bubons d'emblee," and may be either simply inflammatory or syphilitic. With reference to the test of inoculation, some degree of difference of opinion exists, although M. Ricord states that the reason of this is, that the experiments have not been made in a proper manner.—On this point we consider this author's opinions worthy of great attention. Whenever in- flammation and suppuration of the cellular tissue, or lymphatic glands of the groin, are owing to any other cause than the occurrence of chancre, the matter produced furnishes no result from inoculation, at whatever periods and under whatever circumstances the test may be made. Neither does it follow, of necessity, that buboes succeeding to true chancres will fur- nish a specific matter; and consequently, by inoculation, a characteristic pock. That this may occur it is necessary that the bubo shall not merely be owing to a simple sympathetic inflammation, but that actual absorption of the specific mat- ter of the chancre shall have taken place. When absorption of the matter from a chancre on the genitals takes place, it is generally confined to the superficial glands of the groin; SYPHILITIC INOCULATION. 45 and most frequently the syphilitic poison is conveyed to one gland only, although many of the glands in the immediate vi- cinity of the latter, both superficial and deep seated, are in- flamed, and suppurate at the samj time, so that the matter taken from one gland shall be purely syphilitic, and give rise, by inoculation, to the characteristic pustule, whilst those in its immediate neighborhood, and the cellular tissue, shall be affected by simple phlegmonoid inflammation, the pus from which shall, when tested by inoculation, give a negative re- sult* It may be very readily conceived, that the irritation pro- duced by the passage of the syphilitic poison through a lymph- atic vessel and ganglion may excite in the neighboring or- gans an inflammation which is not specific, but merely inflam- matory, and this appears to be the true nature of the case. M. Ricord opened a bubo which had succeeded to a chancre, the pus from which produced no result by inoculation. In the centre of the abscess he discovered an enlarged lymphatic gland, presenting an evident fluctuation ; this was punctured and tested by inoculation, the characteristic pock of chancre was obtained. Discharges from the urethra are of two kinds, resulting either from the existence of a true syphilitic ulcer in some part of the passage, or owing to gonorrhoea, properly so called. Chancres, or syphilitic ulcers of the urethra, are in all respects, except situation, of the same character as other primary sores, and give rise to the same results when the matter is tested by inoculation. The matter of gonorrhoea applied upon a mucous surface (the lining of the urethra, mouth, eyelids, nose, etc.), produces an inflammation and discharge of the same character. In no instance can it produce a true syphilitic sore ; although by remaining in contact with a mucous surface for a certain * See Ricord, op. cit, p. 14-«t suivautes. 46 SYPHILITIC INOCULATION. period of time, it may occasion a greater or less degree of ex- coriation, but is not capable of producing a specific ulcer, as the researches of Ricord* Hernandez,! an mals become fierce and vicious about the same time. The bull, a most fierce animal before he sets upon the venereal act, afterward becomes weak and languid; and the unhappy people who have exhausted all the vigor of their bodies by too early and excessive venery, live enervated, and are subject to a numerous train of misery and disease. The natural irritation to venery scarce needs description J instinct is the spring in brutes ; and that, with reason, guides the rational being. Both are naturally satisfied when their desires are gratified. Immoderate use of coition, even in a natural Way, depresses the spirits, relaxes the fibres, and renders the whole frame weak and exhausted: what, then, must be the consequences when nature is forced against her will ? Celsu3 says, ''■ that from the practice of self-pollution, young people are prevent^ ed from their growth, and as it were, become old before their time." Sanctorics observes, that the insensible perspiration is diminished, and the concoctive faculties weakened, by ex- cess of venery; and in his several aphorisms, reckons up the damage arising from this baneful habit. Hippocrates gives an account of two persons in fevers, brought on by excessive venery, one of whom escaped, not however without great difficulty, after a severe fit of sickness, which lasted till the twenty-fourth day ; and the other died of that weakness and debility which he had brought on himself by this most horrid and baneful practice of self-pollution. The same celebrated author, in treating of the many dis- eases which arise from venereal excesses, says, that "the Tabes Dorsalis (which is a consumption of the spine), hap- 52 SOLITARY HABIT. pens to those who are over-lecherous in self-abuse, or lately married ; they are without a fever and eat heartily, but grad" ually waste away: and if you ask the patient how he is affect1 ed, he will say, there appears to him as if ants were creeping down the spine (back bone) from the top of the head; a great quantity of liquid semen is also discharged when he makes urine or goes to stool; nor does he retain his semen In his sleep, but ha3 involuntary emissions, whether he sleeps with his wife or not; and when he takes much exercise he feels a great weariness and debility, a shortness of breath, a heaviness in the head, and a singing in the ears." Dr. Woodward, the sagacious superintendent of the Worcester Hospital, in his Fifth Annual Report of that institution, speaking of Masturbation or Onanism, says :— "No effectual means can be adopted to prevent the devastation of mind and body, and the debasement of moral principle, from this cause, till the whole subject is well understood and property appre- ciated by parents and instructors, as well as by the young them* aelves." And the following from the "Annals of Education," are the sentiments of William C. Woodbridge, the youth's friend and productive laborer in the noble cause of education. He says:—*■ "Atopic in physiology which ' artificial modesty' has covered up, until a solitary, but fatal vice is spreading desolation through our schools and families, unnoticed or unknown. The experience of teachers, the case-books of physicians, and the painful exposures which accident, or the dreadful diseases which follow in its train, have occasionally produced, have at length forced it upon public at- tention ; and we hope it will not again be forgotten. We would warn them (parents and teachers) that those who have been most confident of the safety of their charge have often been most deceived ; and that the youthful bashfulness which seems to shrink from the bare mention of the subject, is sometimes the blush of shame for conceal- ed crime. We feel bound to add, what abundant and decisive evidence has shown, that ignorance on this subject is no protection from the vice; nay, that it is often the original cause or encouragement of SOLITARY HABIT. 63 it ,4 that it gives tenfold power to the evil example and influence Which are so rarely escaped." Combe in " The Constitution of Man," of which he is the author, thus observes t— " The organ of Amativeness is the largest of the whole mental organs ; and being endowed With natural activity, it fills the mind spontaneously with emotions and suggestions, the outward manifest-1 ations of which may be directed, controlled, and resisted, by intellect and moral sentiment, but which cannot be prevented from arising, or eradicated after they existt The whole question, therefore, resolves itself into this—whether it is more beneficial to enlighten the under4 standing, so as to dispose and enable it to control and direct that feel* ing, or (under the influence of an error in philosophy, and false deli- cacy founded on it) to permit it|o riot in all the fierceness of blind animal instinct, withdrawn from the eye of reason, but not thereby deprived of its vehemence and importunity. The former course appears to me to be the only one consistent with reason and morale ty; and I shall adopt it, in reliance oh the good sense of my readers; that they at once discriminate between practical instruction concern* ing this feeling addressed to the intellect, and lascivious representa- tions in obscene medical compilations (quack books) addressed to the propensity itself; With the latter of which the enemies of all improvement may confound my observations. Every function of the mind and body is instituted by the Creator; each has a legiti- mate sphere of activity 5 but all may be abused, and it is impossible regularly to avoid the abuse of them, except by being instructed in their nature, objects, and relations. This instruction ouglvtto be addressed exclusively to the intellect/ and when it is so, it is science of the most beneficial deSc>iiption.,, Onanism is " the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the destruction that wasteth at noonday;" neither is it con- fined to the obscure and the vicious, but pervades all ranks of society. " In my opinion,'* observes a French author, " neither the plague, nor War, nor small pox, nor similar dis- eases, have produced results so disastrous to humanity as the pernicious habit of Onanism; it is the destroying element of civilized society, which is constantly in action, and gradually undermines the health of a nation." 64 SOLITARY HABif. Extract of a letter to Dr. Hammond, from i)r. t. " Brooklyne, Mass., December 19th, 1849. " In my own practice, 1 think I have seen the following results of masturbation—involuntary emissions, prostration of strength, pa- ralysis of the limbs, hysteria, epilepsy, strange nervou.3 affections, dyspepsia, hypochondria, spinal disease; pain in the back and limbSj costiveness—and, in fine* the long and dismal array of gastric, ente- ric, nervous and spinal affections, that are so complicated and difficult to manage." Such is the state of those deplorable victims, who, if they have not timely relief, perish with the Lypria, a most dread- ful disease, wherein the internal parts are consumed with a burning heat, and the external frozen with cold. All these complaints I have seen in patients who have indulged them- eelves in foul pollutions : the symptoms I have generally or> served were, violent pains wandering through the whole body, attended sometimes by a troublesome heat, and sometimes With dullness, especially in the loins, which complaints had continued for three, five, and even eight years, resisting all remedies, except the entire and total abstinence from the hor- rid practice, the use of the Veratrum Viride, the Medicated Bougie, temperance, cold bathing, &c. In one patient par- ticularly I observed, that after all the above pains.were lessened, he felt a great pain in his legs and thighs, that he was obliged to sit by the fire-side even in the midst of summer, though when I felt his legs and thighs they seemed to have their proper and natural warmth ; but what seemed to be most strange was, during this time the testicles were continually moving about in his scrotum, and he perceived the like motion in his limbs, with great pain. A similar case is likewise related (arising from the same cause) by Van Sweiten, in his commentaries on Boerhaave. I have performed several operations on persons who had by this practice brought on a paraphymosis, by not being able to SOLITARY HABIT. 55 bring the foreskin back to cover the nut of the penis, whereby the inflammation became so great, that an incision was absolutely necessary, to let out the acrid lymph and free the strangled glans. The consequences which attend this terrible vice are as follows: 1st. All the intellectual faculties are weakened, loss of memory ensues, the ideas are clouded, the patients sometimes fall into a slight madness : they have an incessant irksome uneasiness, continual anguish, and so keen a remorse of con- science, that they frequently shed tears. They are subject to vertigoes; all their senses, but particularly their sight and hearing, are weakened; their sleep, if they can obtain any, is disturbed by frightful dreams. 2d. The powers of their body decay; the growth of such as abandon themselves to these abominable practices, before it is accomplished, is greatly prevented; some cannot sleep at all, others are in a perpetual state of drowsiness; they are all affected with hysterical or hypochondriac com- plaints, and are overcome with the accidents that accompany those grievous disorders, as melancholy, sighing, tears, palpi- tations, suffocations and faintness. Some emit a calcarious saliva; coughs, slow fevers, and consumptions, are chastise- ments which others meet with in their own crimes. 3d. The most acute pains form another object of the pa- tients' complaints: some are thus affected in their heads, others in their breasts, stomachs, and intestines; others have external rheumatic pains, aching numbness in all parts of the body, when they are slightly pressed. 4th. Pimples not only appear on the face (this is one of the most common symptoms), but even real suppurating blisters upon the nose, the breast and thighs, with disagree- able itching of the same parts. 5th. The organs of generation also participate in that mis- 56 SOLITARY HABIT. ery whereof they are th3 primary causes : many patients are incapable of erection, others discharge their semen upon the slightest titillation, or the most feeble erection, or in the efforts they make when at stool. Many are affected with a constant gonorrhoea, which entirely destroys their powers, and the discharge resembles fetid matter or mucus; others are tormented with painful priapisms, dysuriae, stranguries, heat of urine, and a difficulty cf voiding it, which greatly tor- ments many patients. Some have painful tumors upon their testicles, penis, bladder, and spermatic cord. In a word, either the impracticability of coition, or a deprivation of the genital liquor, renders nearly every one imbecile who has for any length of time given way to this crime. 6 th. The functions of the intestines are sometimes quite disordered, and some patients complain of stubborn constipa- tion ; others of the hemorrhoids, or of a running of a fetid matter from the fundament. This last observation recalls to my mind a young man men- tioned by Dr. Hoffman, who, after every masturbation was afflicted with a diarrhoea, which was an additional cause of the loss of his strength, and soon reduced him to the state of a living skeleton. The laws of God, of Nature, and of Life, powerfully ad- monish parents, in their own personal sufferings, to reveal them to their offspring, rather than have such revealed to them only by the bitter experience of their violation. " Would it not be better, even in tender years, to possess a seeming premature, but protective and saving knowledge of our ex- istence, and of the natural laws, than to experience a destruc- tion of them from early ignorance?" Certainly; and this maxim should be ever impressed upon our youth, as the re- sult of our own sorrowful experience. " The only amaranthine flower on earth Is Virtue. The only lasting treasure, Truth." The destructive and pernicious habit of Onanism, or self- SOLITARY HABIT. 57 pollution, is recorded in the 38th chapter of Genesis, as the crime of Onan, the son of Judah, with a view, no doubt, of transmitting to posterity his chastisement; and we learn from Galen, that Diogenes was said to have polluted himself by committing this crime. In Scripture, besides the instance of Onan, we find self-polluters termed effeminate, filthy, and abominable. " How soon the calm, humane, and polish'd man, Forgets compunction, and starts up a fiend."—Armstrong. Pliny, the naturalist, informs us, that Cornelius Galicus, the ancient Praetor, and Titus iEtherus, the Roman knightj died in the very act of coition. There can be nothing more dreadful than what Celsus and iEtherus tell us of that abominable vice. The former says that " these pleasures are always hurtful to weak people, and the frequent indulgence of them destroys even the strongest constitutions." The last celebrated author draws a most horrid picture of the shocking consequences that are produced by this vile practice, and says that" young people have the appearance and air of old age; they become pale, effeminate, benumbed, lazy, base, stupid, and even imbecile; their bodies become bent, their legs are no longer able to carry them; they have an utter distaste for everything, and are totally incapacitated, and many become paralytic. The stomach is disordered, the body is weakened, paleness, bodily decay, and emaciation succeed this destructive habit, and the eyes sink into the head." Dr. Trousseau draws the following lively and true picture of the consequences of this deluding practice :— "As soon as the habit has obtained any degree of strength, the soul and body both concur in soliciting the crime ; the soul, beset with un- clean thoughts, excites lascivious emotions ; and if it be diverted for some moments by other ideas, the sharp humors which irritate the organs of generation, soon draw it back. The truth of these observa- tions would be sufficient to stop young people in this pernicious pro- gress, if they could foresee that in this respect one false step brings on another ; that they cannot resist temptation ; that in proportion 3* 58 SOLITARY HABIT. as the motives for seduction increase, reason, which should keep them within bounds, is weakened ; and, in a word, they find them- selves plunged in a sea of misery, without, perhaps, the hope of a single plank to escape upon. If sometimes early infirmities give them notice, if the danger terrifies them for some moments ; when the in- firmity is relieved, and the danger over, rage precipitates them afresh. " The empire which this odious practice gains over the senses, is beyond expression. No sooner has this uncleanness got possession of the soul, but it pursues its votary everywhere, and governs him at all times and in all places. Upon the most serious occasions, and in the solemn act of religion, he finds himself in a manner transported with lustful conceptions and desires, which take up all his thoughts. " Nothing so much weakens the mind as the continual bent of it to one object, which is the case with those addicted to Onanism; for in whatever vocation a person is engaged, some degree of attention is required, which this pernicious practice renders him incapable of. " It is true, we are ignorant whether the animal spirits and the seminal liquor are the same ; but experience teaches U3 those two fluids have a strict analogy, and that the loss of either produces the same effects. " The loss of too much semen occasions lassitude, debilities, and renders exercise difficult; it causes emaciation, and pains in the membranes of the brain. " Young people of either sex who devote themselves to lascivious- ness, destroy their health in dissipating those powers which were destined to bring their bodies to the greatest degree of vigor. " Too great a quantity of semen being lost in the natural course, produces very direful effects ; but they are still more dreadful when dissipated in an unnatural manner. The accidents that happen to such as waste themselves in a natural way are very terrible, but those which are acquired by masturbation are still more so." The description which Tulpius, that celebrated physician and burgomaster of Amsterdam, has left us, cannot be read without horror 1 " The spinal marrow does not only waste, but the body and mind both equally languish, and the man perishes a miserable victim!" Too great dissipation of the animal spirits weaken the stomach, destroys the appetite, and nutrition having no longer place, the motion of the heart is weakened, and all the parts languish. Frequent pollutions not only produce lassitude, weakness SOLITARY HABIT. 59 and debility, but the memory fails, a cold sensation seizes the limbs, the voice becomes hoarse, and the eye-sight clouded ; disturbing dreams prevent sleep from administering relief. Mr. Harper observes, that, " The premature indulgence of amorous desires, in the early bloom of youth, is productive of the most ruinous consequences. At this period the mind grows warm, and well adapted to imbibe a proper fund and connection of ideas, through the favorable disposition of the nerves ; and the body begins to germinate and gather firmness and vigor from the maturation of its juices, especially those of the glands, which now unfold and afford a repository for the lymphatic and nutritious parts of the fluids to answer the emergencies of nature, but the unseasonable pursuit of unripe enjoyment blasts these prom- ising fruits, draws off health and genius from the system through the channel of pleasure, and inevitably shortens life!" If in this progress of the system to its destined perfection, youth yields to the temptations of lasciviousness, and indulges in criminal enjoyments, plucking the unripe fruit of pleasure with a hasty hand of uncontrolled passion, he surely checks the growth of all his faculties, destroys the happiness which their legitimate use would bring him to encounter, and sacri- fices all the joys of the future to a present odious, heinous, worse than brutal and unnatural gratification, which inevita- bly shortens the period of his existence. When the constitution approaches its state of perfect de- velopment, when the boy and girl blossom into the full-grown man and woman, if the social impulse, or amative propen- sity produce disorder and defy control, the effects are too important to be for one moment neglected, as they have often the most vital influence upon the whole system; and upon their action, future happiness, health, and even existence, may, and do depend. To every animal but man, nature has set bounds to the ex- ercise of the procreate functions, and prescribed the periods of their desires ; but to man, as a rational being, and the noblest work of creation, she has given full liberty to enjoy 60 SOLITARY HABIT. those blissful pleasures continually, guided only by reason and a proper regard to the powers of his system. While this liberty is used with discretion, and this license does not degenerate into abuse, the exercise of this function is prop- er, honorable, virtuous, healthful, and necessary. It gives the highest pleasures of which the senses are capable, and mingles with the sweetest affections of the human heart. The passion, Love, that liberal herald of our manifestations, and the bright shining emblem of a noble soul and a tender heart, adorned by a brilliant intellect, is also the theme of the novelist, and inspires the poet and the artist Without it, the world is a blank and society a chaos In its righteous enjoyment, all is order, delight, sunshine, mirth and bliss ; deprived of it, all is cold, dark, and misanthropic. But when pleasure is perverted into debauchery, and the blissful ecstacy is carried to a blind excess, man loses the reins of reason, and sinks below the level of the brute, and remorse, disease, and shame, are the results of the abuse of faculties, whose reg- ular action should bring happiness and peace. Let this sen- timent be refined and governed by affection and reason, lest it hurry thee into the horrors of lust, and produce the fruits of debauchery and excess. When this has once • fastened upon thy mind and degraded thy body, farewell to love and all its soft and pure delights ; farewell to peace of mind and the pride of conscious rectitude—to all which makes exist- ence a blessing, farewell When the constitution approaches its zenith or confirmed state, if the social impui&e occasions disorder and rejects con- trol, its effects are too important to be neglected, as they often have the greatest influence upon the whole frame. An exquisite sensibility in the nervous system, united with sufficient powers in the circulation on the one hand, and a full and phlegmatic constitution on the other, are the two extremes of temperament which particularly require indul- gence ; the former, in order to diminish that plenitude and SOLITARY HABIT. Gl irritation, which, if not removed, might produce frenzy, fevers, inflammation, etc.; and the latter, on purpose to create that excitement and action in the nerves and vessels which are necessary to prevent obstructions, consumptions, hypochondria, etc. Continued celibacy generally loads the glands, retards the circulation, and occasions fullness and stagnation in the ves- sels. In this state, the miud, unexpanded by the soft fire of mutual rapture, often becomes gloomy, selfish, and contracted ; and all its faculties being confined within the narrow compass of ordinary gratifications, are devoted to habits of parsimo- nious care and contemplative amusement. Temperance is the best pledge for longevity ; nevertheless, young people should, by all means, inure themselves to the hardships and asperities of life. Without some share of these to temper the lethargic effects of indolence, the body sinks into a state of effeminacy and imbecility, and the mind soon becomes as feeble and insignificant as the body. Of all the various evils that human nature is ordained to suffer, none are more calamitous than those attending seminal pollutions, and which would be difficult to paint in colors so glaring as they merit; a practice to which youth devote themselves without being acquainted with the enormity of the crime, and all the ills which are its physical consequences. The most clouded melancholy, indifference and aversion for all pleasures; the impossibility of sharing the conversation of company, wherein they are always absent in thought; the idea of their own unhappiness, the despair which arises from considering themselves as the authors of their own misery, and the necessity of renouncing the felicities of marriage, are the fluctuating ideas which compel these miserable objects to shut themselves up from the world ; and happy are those who do not, in the midst of despair, put a period to their own existence! A description of the danger to a person who is addicted to 62 SOLITARY HABIT. this vice, is perhaps the most powerful mode of correction. It is a dreadful portrait, sufficient to make him retreat with horror!—Consider, then, its principal features—The whole mass fallen to decay; all the bodily senses, all the faculties of the soul, weakened—loss of imagination and memory—im- becility—contempt—shame and ignominy are its constant attendants : All the functions disturbed, suspended and pain- ful—capricious, disagreeable and disgusting, even to one's self—violent pains ever renewing—all the disorders of old age in the prime of youth—and above all, the incapacity for all the functions for which man was created—besides which, the humiliating consideration of being a useless member of sodety ; the mortifications to which they are exposed—lassi- tude—debility—distaste for pleasure, and incapable of enjoy- ing the company of even a friend—an aversion for others as well as one's self—life appears horrible—the dread which every moment starts at suicide! anguish worse than pain; remorse, daily increasing and daily gaining fresh strength. Alas ! alas! when the soul (no longer weakened by its unity with the body) serves as a fire, that is never extinguished, for an eternal punishment! Coition is useful whenever it is solicited by nature in a healthy state of the system ; but at all other times it weakens the faculties. The drafts upon the system to supply the con- stant excitements, are so frequent, so constant indeed, that the dissipation of its fluids or juices must occasion the greatest weakness ; and other functions, where these juices are want- ing, must, of necessity, be imperfectly performed. If the love is pure, the bliss is the greatest man can wish for; but beware, 0 youth ! beware; let this noble passion be guided by reason, lest it should hurry thee headlong into lust; for if that be thy misfortune, farewell to love and every other social virtue, thou art ruined forever! Sacred instinct first kindles the ethereal fire; and when that pair meet whose inclinations come in unison, they pro- SOLITARY HABIT. 63 claim to each other, with palpitating endearments, that there is a secret anxiety for becoming united in one. If this is not repugnant to the laws of chastity, and agreeable to the laws of society, there now remains nothing but the embrace to complete the felicity, agreeably with the dictates of instinct. If this is concluded, and the period arrives, nature then pre- pares ; and the ideas centre in this act only; the blood in- creases in velocity ; and, like the attractive power of magnet- ism, they cement as they approach in contact. Excessive venery produces lassitude, weakness, numbness, a feeble gait, headache, convulsions of all the senses, dimness of sight, and dullness of hearing, an idiot look, a consump- tion of the lungs and back, and effeminacy. These evils are increased by a perpetual itch for pleasure, to which the body and mind have been so much accustomed, that it is difficult to wean themselves from it; whence follow obscene dreams and frequent erections, which are occasioned by the influx of se- men, which, however small, becomes a burden and a stimu- lus, which will be discharged from the relaxed cells by the very slightest effort. Thus it is, that this horrid practice de- stroys the flower of our youth, and nips them in their bud. Dr. Rast, a celebrated physician at Lyons, relates, that a young man, a student, died of the excess of this debauchery. The idea of the crime had made such an impression on his mind, that he died in a kind of despair, fancying he saw hell opening on every side, ready to receive him. He also assures us, that he saw a child of six or seven years old, (instructed by a servant maid), polluting himself so often, that he died of a slow fever. His rage for this act was so great, that he could not be restrained from it the very last day of his life; and when he was informed that he thereby hastened his death, he consoled himself in saying, he should go to his father, who died a few months before. Frequent repetition of the act of self-abuse, has been followed in some instances with an emission of blood instead of semen. It is universally ac- 64 SOLITARY HABIT. knowledged, that we are equally ignorant of the nature of spirit and the nature of matter, but we know that these two parts of man are so intimately united, that all the change which the one undergoes is felt by the other. This observation equally points out to us, that of all disorders, there are none which more quickly affect the soul than those of the nervous SYSTEM. " Absence, distrust, or e'en with anxious joy, The wholesome appetites and powers of life Dissolve in languor ; the coy stomach loathes The genial board ; your cheerful days are gone ; The gen'rous bloom that flushed your cheeks is fled To sighs devoted and to tender pains, Pensive you sit, or solitary stray : You waste your youth in musing." Those who addict themselves to this practice are generally disordered in the stomach and afflicted with loss of appetite —dry coughs—weakness of the voice—hoarseness—shortness of breath upon the least exercise—and a relaxation of the whole nervous system. Some are afflicted with a consider- able loss of strength—paleness—sometimes a slight jaundice— pimples often appear on the face, and particularly about the forehead, temples and nose—leanness—they are greatly affect- ed by change of season, particularly cold weather—languor of the eyes—weakness of sight and loss of memory. Youth is the important period for framing a robust consti- tution. Nothing is so much to be dreaded as the premature or excessive indulgence of amorous pleasure; hence arise weakness of sight, vertigoes, loss of appetite, and mortal decay. A body that is enervated in youth seldom recovers itself, old age and infirmities speedily come on, and the thread of life is shortened, unless proper treatment is resorted to, and faith- fully persevered in. No care should be neglected that may contribute to the elegance and strength of the body; the excesses which I here treat of are equally destructive of both, " for the foundation of a happy old age, is a good constitution SOLITARY HABIT. 65 in youth: temperance and moderation at that age, are pass- ports to happy gray hairs." Nature, in a state of health, does not inspire lascivious ideas ; but when the vesiculae seminales are replete with a quantity of liquor, which has acquired such a degree of thick- ness as to render its return into the mass of blood difficult, then coition is both necessary and proper ; but when we sub- ject ourselves to lascivious desires, when we have no occasion for them, it is the imagination, lustful habit, and not nature, that importunes them. The body wastes away, th' infected mind Dissolves in effeminacy, forgets Each manly virtue and grows dead to fame. Sweet heaven ! from such intoxicating charms Defend all worthy breasts ! Another cause why those who practice self-pollution are debilitated, is, independent of the emissions of the seed, the frequency of erection, which, though imperfect, greatly weak- ens them. Every part that is in a state of tension exhausts the powers, and they have none to lose : the spirits are con- veyed there in large quantities, they are dissipated, and this occasions weakness : they are wanting in the performance of other functions, which is thereby only imperfectly done. When a person has habituated himself to confine his thoughts to one idea, he becomes incapable of any other ; its empire is fixed, its reign is despotic ! Upon the most serious occasions he finds his thoughts occupied with lustful desires and conceptions, and wishes to withdraw from observation, that he may indulge in his darling sin. To such a degree has dissipation in some places arisen, that debauchery with women is looked upon only as a habit; the most criminal, in this respect, make no mystery of it, and imagine it draws upon them no sort of contempt. But where is the masturbator who dares openly acknowledge his infamy ? and should not this necessity of hiding the deeds in mystic obscurity, be a conviction of the criminality of these acts ? 66 SOLITARY HABIT. It is evident in what manner the constitution is injured more by this habit than by a natural connection; for after excessive coition with a woman that is beloved, a mau is not sensible of the lassitude which should follow this excess, be- cause the joy which the soul feels, increases the strength of the heart, favors the functions, and restores what was lost; but this is not the case when every effort is strained to obtain a secretion of that fluid, whereby the human frame suffers such convulsions that it is difficult of being replaced. Why should we commit so great a crime against nature ? Why sink the soul in a sea of woe, and depress the spirits of the man, when " beauty hath charms to dilate our hearts, and multiply our joys ?" I will here give in concluding this already lengthened essay, a few prominent cases only, to illustrate some of the effects of this vice on lovely Woman. A distinguished teacher in the State of Massachusetts, re- lated that, recently, a lovely and intelligent young lady, of a wealthy family, attended his school. She, at length, began to lose her health, and became exceedingly nervous, and partially insane; it was then ascertained that she was given to this secret and fatal habit, and that this was the cause of her illness. About two years ago, a young woman, aged twenty-two years, came under my care, in a state of the worst form of insanity. She was furious, noisy, filthy, and, apparently, nearly reduced to idiocy. She had been in this condition many months, and continued so for some time while under me. She was pale and bloodless, had but little appetite, frequently rejected her food, and was reduced in flesh and strength. Finding her one day more calm than usual, I hinted to her the subject of masturbation, and informed her that, if she practiced it, she could not get well—if she abandoned it, she might. She did not deny the charge, and promised to follow my advice strictly. In two or three weeks from this time, SOLITARY HABIT. 67 she was perceptibly better; her mind improved as her health gained ; and both were much better in the course of a few weeks. The recovery was very rapid in this case*.' At the end of three months she had excellent health, was quite fleshy, and became perfectly sane ; and has continued so, as far as I have known, to this time. In the spring of 1837,1 was consulted by the father of a young woman who had, for four years, been in the worst pos- sible condition of health. She had consulted many eminent physicians, who had prescribed remedies and regimen for her without benefit. On first seeing the patient, I was impressed that the cause of her illness had not been understood, which had rendered all remedies unavailing. Upon inquiring of the patient, I found that she had been the victim of self-pollution. I cautioned her to abandon the practice, prescribed some rem- edies, and saw her no more. More than a year from the time of seeing her, I heard di- rectly from her parents, who sent me word that she had en- tirely recovered her health and energy of mind, and that my prescriptions had entirely cured her. Not long since a case of periodical insanity came under my observation, the subject of which was a young lady. The dis- ease had existed ten years without any material change. Sus- pecting that masturbation was the cause, I directed her mother to ascertain, if possible, and inform me. Some months after, I received intelligence that my patient was better, and that my suspicions of the habit were confirmed by the observation of her friends. The case is not without hope, although of so long standing, if the cause is removed. Three or four similar cases have been under my care re- cently, in which individuals of the same sex have been reduced to the same degraded state. They were a melancholy spec- tacle of human misery, without mind, without delicacy or modesty, constantly harassed by the most ungovernable pas- sion, and under the influence of propensities excited to a 68 SOLITARY HABIT. morbid activity by a vice far more prevalent than has been supposed. A large proportion of the "bed-ridden" cases, of which thajre are so many in the community, will be found to have originated in this cause. TREATMENT. General Remedies—Moral, Physical, and Medico-Mechan- ical.—There are two methods to be pursued in the treatment and cure of the vice of onanism, namely, the moral and medic- inal treatment, and the use of medico-mechanical means. These modes for effecting a cure must go hand in hand,* each assisting the other, and both persevered in until not only a constitutional and permanent cure is established, but the moral faculties have regained their ascendency over the sense, or the perverted animal instinct. The moral treatment has already been sufficiently explained and illustrated in the foregoing pages; but the following re- marks from a late writer on this subject, are so apposite and excellent withal, that I shall here give them. He says:— "Avoid bad and lascivious companions. Never converse upon loose subjects, except with such well-disposed persons as may give you salutary lessons upon the evil effects of licen- tious habits, and give to the victim motives and strength to overcome them. Shun the company of the vicious and aban- doned, and everything that tends to excite the sensibilities, which are to be regulated and reduced. Avoid sedentary habits and solitary places, if they engender impure imagina- tions ; and, above all, never read obscene i medical' books, or look upon exciting pictures. Seek the company of the wise and moral, and, likewise, have some active employment for * When a speedy cure is desired ; but when time is not of much importance, or circumstances prevent, the patient from availing himself ot the assistance conferred through the medium of the Medicated Bougie, the medicinal or constitutional method will suffice for an equally radical, though much less rapid, cure. SOLITARY HABIT. 69 both body and mind. Never sleep alone, but with some moral and estimable person, whose good opinion you so much value that you would fear in his presence to commit a sin, however strongly tempted. Let the beauty and dignity of true virtue, and the danger and odiousness of vice—the true end of your being and hopes of happiness—be constantly in your mind, and preserve you from evil thoughts and actions." Such moral means, with the proper constitutional and medico- mechanical discipline presently to be spoken of, cannot fail of effecting a thorough, radical, and permanent cure. The medicinal and medico-mechanical treatment consists in the use of the Medicated Bougie, the ^Etherized Veratrum Viride, &c, and in the avoidance of all stimulating, acrid, and high-seasoned food or drinks ; on the other hand, a poor, thin, and watery diet, as recommended by the disciples of Graham, for instance, is very improper, and will have a tendency rather to increase than ameliorate the disordered state of the body under which the patient is suffering, by keeping below the natural standard of health the tone of the system. The sup- ply of food should be furnished in proper quantity, and suffi- ciently nutritive. It is true, that as the strength increases, the secretion of the seminal fluid will also "increase in quanti- ty and vigor, which not being all absorbed into the circula- tion, the remainder is a source of irritation to the generative organs. To counteract this, exercise is to be used, not only for pleasure, but so as to induce considerable fatigue. Use, therefore, a generous, plain diet, eating little and often, and indulge in but little sleep, and that upon a hard mattress or straw bed, so as merely to repair the fatigues of a day's exer- cise or labor. Too much sleep is as prejudicial as idleness or stimulating food. Excess of wine, spirits, or fermented li- quors, should be avoided, though the use of good wine in moderation, is often beneficial, and may be prescribed as a tonic; but pure cold water or beef-tea should be the com- mon drinks. Take daily exercise in the open air, and at sun- 70 SOLITARY HABIT. set, eat a supper of the lightest kind, go to bed early and rise betimes, sleep on a cool bed—avoiding that of feathers; bathe frequently, and wash the genitals with cold water every evening and morning, and if convenient twice or three times during the day. Too much covering is hurtful, and if the genitals become irritated, rise at once, and bathe them in cold water. In all cases of much debility, the following preparation may be taken:— Compound Tincture of Gentian. Take of Gentian Root, sliced, 2 ounces ; Orange Peel, dried, 1 ounce ; Car- damon Seeds, bruised, %. an ounce ; Proof Spirit, 2 pints. Let it stand in a warm place forty-eight hours, to digest. Dose : a tablespoonful morning, noon, and evening, in half a wine-glassful of cold water. When there is a tendency to much irritability, or heat of the parts, in conjunction with cold bathing, above mentioned, use the following :— Compound Tincture of Camphor. Take of Camphor two scruples ; Opium, dried and powdered, Benzoic Acid, of each, one dram ; Proof Spirits, two pints. -is Keep this near a stove, as above, for the purpose of steep- ing. Dose : half a teaspoonful in a little water, as often as the parts become excited, particularly on going to bed, or as often as occasion requires. With these rules to guide the patient, provided the reme- dies are judiciously prescribed, all may hope for benefit; and in most cases, a few weeks will suffice for a perfect cure to be produced—even in those who have for years indulged in ve- nereal excesses, or in the vice of masturbation or self-pollution; while those who, for moral or other reasons, desire a life of celibacy, will find these means more effectual than any vows of chastity, however sacred or sincere. " Who pines with love, or in lascivious flames Consumes, is with his own consent undone." ANATOMICAL MUSEUM. u CONCLUDING REMARKS. NEW YORK ANATOMICAL MUSEUM.* In concluding this important chapter, the cause of human* ity cannot be better subserved by me, than to offer here a few remarks which suggested themselves on beholding the life-like pathological specimens contained in the New York Anatomical Museum, (an establishment of respectability in Broadway,f no^ ^ar fr°m Canal street, New York City). The specimens therein contained, to which I now more particu- larly refer, consist of two full-size figures of the human body, one a male and the other a female-^*both victims to the hor- rid practice of masturbation. Let all addicted to the vice pay this moral school of Science a visit, and contemplate those two startling figures, representing with truthful reality the sad, the fearful end of the victims of masturbation! What an impressive lesson is here exhibited to the young in those silent, yet eloquent monitors! Beyond all doubt, such lessons are the best preservatives and protectors of the morals that can possibly be presented to the youthful mind-^- aye, to the minds of all. I have also noticed with wonder and admiration, in a phi- lanthropic and scientific point of view, among this splendid anatomical collection, the vast series of life-like models, repre- senting and illustrating venereal diseases, in all their forms and phases—from a bad gonorrhoea or clap, to the worst possible forms and stages of syphilis or chancre. Great credit is certainly due to the enlightened, humane, and enterprising proprietors of this Museum, for having suc- ceeded—amid so much opposition and calumny on the part of the interested, the malevolent, and the bigoted members of the medical profession (though the more liberal and intelli- gent of the profession, of course, sanction and hail it with delight, for the People's sake)—in establishing it in this great * Do not confound the above described Museum with the Quackery " of Wonders"-shop lately opened (1862) on Broadway. \ riince removed to the Bowery. 72 ANATOMICAL MUSEUM. City. I am happy to see it prosper as it does ; for its extort^ ive and varied collection of models teaches one of the great- est moral lessons possible, to the youth of both sexes, and all classes of society ; it being constantly and very properly vis* ited by such throughout the day and evening, with great ap» parent gratification. The lessons which it teaches are tar more effective than anything that ever has or can be taught from either the pulpit or the bench; No language with Which 1 am acquainted, is half so eloquent as that conveyed to the head and heart by a contemplation of those silent but impressive lessons. Such an establishment is of paramount importance to the Well-being of Society, and a most wholesome and powerful check on licentiousness and its appalling results. I look upon the New York Anatomical Museum; then, as being admira* bly calculated, from the nature of its extensive collection of models, to enlighten the people to a degree beyond calcula- tion, respecting the important subjects of health and disease. Quackery will soon begin to quail before the growing knowl- edge of the public On these literally vital points ; for which I repeat all praise must be aWai'ded to the proprietors of this Museum, for their indefatigable efforts to cater" sound intel- lectual and profitable knowledge for the citizens of this highly favored country. I see nothing in the Museum in question to shock the honest modesty Of either man, Woman, or child; but as to the pure all things are pure, so to the unclean and impure all things are full of impurity ; however, as we be- come enlightened, we learn to discriminate between the true and the false, in all things.* * This Museum, I should remark, contains an immense number of models on all subjects relating to anatomy, as well as to pathologyj physiology; &c. There1 is a full series of taodels, showing the different stages of pregnancy, from the Brst to the ninth month, which is alone worth traveling a thousand miles to behold. But, were I to enddavor to enumerate and describe this grand collec- tion of anatomical models, a volume instead of a page br two would be the1 result. It must be seen to be approbated. ABDHESS TO Barents, guardians, schoolmasters, AND THOSE WHO ABK INTRUSTED WITH THB EDUCATION OF YOUTH, The groxying pest, whose infancy was weak, And easy vanquish'd, with triumphant sway O'erpowers your life. For want of timely aid, Millions have died of medicable wounds. The following case is worthy the attention of parents and guardians who have the care of youth :^-A young man of twenty-eight years of age, was initiated into these abomina- tions (self-abuse) by his private tutor-, and had the same dis- gust for the married state. The anguish of his situation, joined to his exhausted condition, the consequences of his operations, threw him into a profound melancholy, which, however, yielded to the power of the Medicated Bougie, the aetherized preparation of Veratrum Viride, and the nervous and strengthening medicines mentioned in the preceding essay. Permit me to entreat you who are fathers and mothers, to reflect upon the source from whence the above patient de- rived his misfortunes, as there are more examples of this kind than one. If they may be deceived in the choice of those to whom they intrust the important charge of forming the mind and heart of their pupils, what is there not to fear from those, who, being only appointed to display their corporeal talents, are examined less critically with respect to their morals; and 4 74 ADDRESS. from servants who are frequently hired without its being known whether they have any morals at all! Many young and tender plants hate been blasted by the very gardener who was intrusted with their rearing; there are in this kind of rearing gardeners of both sexes; but should it be asked where is the remedy for this evil ? the answer is concise and simply this—Be particularly careful in the choice of a preceptor ; watch over the preceptor and his pupil with that vigilance which an attentive and careful father of a family exerts to know what is done in the darkest recesses of his house. Never leave servants or tutors alone with youth, if you have the least reason to believe that they are given to these practices. Watch youth if they stay too long in the privy or necessary, particularly with a companion, for in great schools it is frequently to such places that they retire to commit this destructive vice; and I have been assured by many, that they were first taught this detestable practice in such places. It is time to conclude these shocking details; I am weary of the turpitude and misery of mankind. Good God! would young people only take time to consider that every act of de- bauchery of this kind strikes deep at the root of the consti- tution, inevitably hastens those disorders they fear, and will in the very flower of their youth bring on all the infirmities of the most languishing old age, they certainly would abhor and desist from so vile and abominable a practice. Before I dismiss this subject, it is absolutely necessary to remark, that it ought not to be expected that disorders of this kind can be removed in a few days, which perhaps have been many years accumulating. Those who wish to be re- stored to their former health, strength and vigor, ought strictly to adhere to the advice and remedies prescribed for them by their physician; they should consider that from im- plicit confidence and steady perseverance, a cure can only be obtained. A patient who is inattentive to his own welfare, ADDRESS. 15 cannot expect a cure. Hippocrates justly observes that, " the patient, the physician, and the assistants ought equally to do their duty." Aretus says, " Let the patient have cour- age, and conspire with the physician against the disorder. The most stubborn distempers generally give way to this har- mony." Experience daily demonstrates the justness of this assertion; and the author can safely challenge the whole world to prove one single instance wherein the remedies here- in prescribed have failed in producing the most happy and salutary effects, even in the worst of cases, wherein they have been taken regularly and persevered in for a moderate length of time. Persons who have addicted themselves to this Vice, gen-* erally find themselves disgusted with all amusements, absent in company, stupid and lifeless everywhere; and if they think at all, feel themselves plunged into the deepest melancholy. From all these miseries, the treatment laid down under Sperm- atorrhoea, in Part II. (which see), is certain td afford re- lief. But it should be observed that perseverance is necessa- ry ; in all cases a particular attention to the directions, as also a regularity in time and dose, are to be regarded; and above all, it must be noticed, that it will be in vain to expect any relief from those remedies, without punctuality; for taking a dose or two regular, then leaving off for some days, and beginning again, will be of no service; tliey must be con- tinued regularly. Yes, it is time to conclude our remarks upon this most im- portant but unpleasant subject. What a picture of human weakness, turpitude and misery has been unfolded in the fore- going pages 1 Would youth but consider that every act of debauchery, and every excessive secretion, strikes at the root of their future health and happiness, and surely tends to pro- duce all the terrible evils, infirmities, and miseries they most dread, how would they abhor and detest their vile, unmanly, and death-dealing vices! ?G ADDRESS. It is Vain and exceedingly foolish to suppose that diseases Which have been years in accumulating, and habits which have been forming, perhaps through a whole life, thus far, can be cured suddenly, or without effort and perseverance. I would, however, inform all, that there is hardly no case so desperate that may not be remedied by perseverance and the discoveries of modern science* judiciously applied, in from four Weeks to two months, according as the ease is a recent one, or of long standing.* *** It will be a substantial service to society, if the reader, having attentively perused these pages himself, will forward under envelope, anonymously or otherwise, this work to such of his friends or acquaintance* who, as he may have reason either to know or suspect, have been the secret victims of the baneful habit I have alluded to. In this way a parent may secretly, yet effectually, warn that child, to whom on such a subject he Would feel it repulsive to speak. I need only point out this mode of performing a humane and chari- table action, to render obvious its very useful application. * As mentioned elsewhere in this Work, a patient afflicted with semhial debility can be radically and satisfactorily cured either by constitutional or internal treatment alone ; or locally, through the medium of the Medicated Bougie, which is not only radical, but singularly prompt in its remedial action^ [See "Preliminary Chapter," and " Summary of the New American Treat- ment," Part II. of this book.] ESSAY THE FOURTH. DANGEROUS ILLUSIONS. Not a day passes by that I am not consulted by some Un» fortunate patient) Who has either been rendered impotent, by the pressure of metallic instruments or" plates against the perinceum, the Wearing of " spermatorrhoea rings " upon the penis* or by the use of some other equally vile deception for the " cure " of Nocturnal or Diurnal Seminal Emissions ; or" else he has been infected with Syphilis, or some other form of the venereal disease, through the agency of another absurd and villainous deception, namely, a thing balled baudruche, " safe," " French letter," etc> and Which is, by the way, sim- ply an invention of some depraved mind for the initiation of unsuspecting ignorance into a new, but none the less destruc- tive, disgusting, and demoralizing mode of Onanism, mastur- bation, or self-abuse : " a shield agdinst pleasure, a cobweb against disease.'* The conscientious physician can Only raise his feeble warn- ing voice against the despicable tricks and subtleties of char- latanism, and point out the miserable, fatal results to which they are constantly giving rise : it remains with the reader to decide, after the matter shall haVe been fairly laid open to him, whether he will profit by the lesson sought to be incul- cated, or whether, On the other hand, with a full knowledge of the facts before him, he Will reject that lessom To be brief, then, I will just intimate that pressure against tlie perinceum, or urethra, whether by means of a metallic plate, ot by any other means, is entirely nugatory or useless, as ^prevent* 78 Dangerous illusions'. ive or cure of seminal emissions, nocturnal or otherwise. The only possible effect that can be produced by such tricks, is that of local irritation, whereby the emissions are not only not benefited, but are greatly aggravated. The same1 is also true of " spermatorrhoea rings," the inevitable and sole result of the use of which is either to annoy, torment and irritate the wearer, by awakening him continually during the night, breaking his rest and robbing him of his sleep, and thus in- creasing the tendency to these emissions ; or when this is not the case, to cause the semen, by unnaturally diverting its course, to flow into the bladder, to be afterwards expelled from that organ mixed with the urine. When the seminal fluid has thus been forced, by this stupid " invention," to pass into the bladder a few times, the habit has become confirmed, and the victim rendered almost hopelessly impotent. This is, indeed, one of the most frequent causes of Sterility—the poor woman not being at all at fault, but the man. Thus does the quack, with his illusory appliances, success- fully cajole the (alas!) too confiding patient, who, finding his emissions stopped, as he fondly but vainly imagines, is de- luded by the Very natural mistake that because they are no longer external or visible, he is cured, when in reality he is simply ruined—impotent'. How many cases of sterility have I not been able to trace directly to the man, whose impotent condition was solely due to the employment of " spermator- rhoea rings," &c., &c. Patients invariably complain that the urine becomes cloudy soon after they have commenced wear- ing the ring—which cloudiness is owing to the admixture of Semen with the urinary secretion. To explain the modus operandi, the " why and wherefore " of the above, would here be impracticable for want of the necessary anatomical knowledge on the part of the reader; neither would it serve any good or useful purpose to do so, except, perhaps, to demonstrate the fact that the emissions are caused, by these instruments, to take place internally into the dangerous illusions. 79 bladder, instead of externally, via the urethra ; and this is what is called by the quack curing the disease! Such, how- ever, are the facts, pure and simple, as they actually exist: may the reader be benefited by a knowledge of them.* * Note.—Rapid Glance at the Author's Theory and Treatment of Seminal Diseases in General. Still, for the satisfaction of those who are so deeply interested in this im- portant matter, I will mention that Spermatorrhoea depends upon a weakness and relaxation of the back brain (cerebellum), spinal nerves, and seminal ducts ; which ducts proceed from tire testicles to the vesical portion of the urinary passage, near the neck of the bladder. The seminiferous tubes are of great length, being in fact several feet long, and are relaxed throughout their entire length, thus permitting the semen passively to flow from the testicles out through their orifices or mouths into the urethra, and so on out of the body. Hence the absurdity, by the way, of burning (" cauterization ") the orifices only of the ducts, at their point of entrance into the urinary passage. Now, then, the reader will understand that so long as the seminal ducts are thus relaxed, the semen must flow through them, as water flows through a pipe ; and, also, that if prevented by any mechanical obstacle, whether it be a metallic ring, or what not, from passing out through the urethra, it must go somewhere else. And this is precisely what I wanted to explain above ; for the semen being prevented from passing through the urinary canal, the ori- fices of the ducts being spasmodically acted upon by this accumulated semen, become suddenly deflected, and slipping away from the obstacle (pressure of the "curative" instrument), they bend upon themselves—either upwards, downwards, or to one side or the other—and empty their overburdened con- tents into the Bladder. Thus, we clearly see how it is that the Author's Med- icated Bougie cures this disease in less than one-half the time required by in- ternal medicines alone, by conveying direct medication to the orifices of the sem- inal ducts, whence the medicament, by reason of its refined elaboration, and peculiar adaptability, through chemical agency, is conveyed, by the capillary absorption and peristaltic action of the ducts, throughout their entire course; thus effectually astringing, bracing, and contracting those ducts, upon whose relaxation the local symptoms (the involuntary emissions) greatly, but not wholly, depend ; * and, by the judicious administration of the appropriate con- stitutional means—the jEtherialized Veratum Viride, Spts. Formic, Iodine, and their auxiliaries—the cerebellum and spinal nerves are reinstated in their normal, or healthy and vigorous action : and thus the RADICAL CURE of Spermatorrhoea is scientifically effected. In the above concise explanation, the reader has, at a glance, a perfect hird's-eye view of both my Theory and Treatment of Seminal Diseases in general. * See Chapter on Treatment of Impotence. 80 DANGEROUS ILLUSIONS. With regard to "safes"—a singular misnomer truly!-—1 shall, in conclusion, add but a few words to what I have already said concerning them. How any one calling himself a man, can so far consent to debase his nature as to offer the vile things for sale, and for such a purpose too, is to me pass- in"- strange. But what amount of self-respect can that in- dividual possess, who can resort, in the presence of a female, however degraded, to so debasing and unnatural a form of Onanism, by using the "safe"? Either let a man cohabit with the other sex in a natural, manly way, or not at all, should be (and is) the sentiment of all right-minded, sensible and decent men. And, youthful reader, let it be yours also. What, in the name of reason, can be the motive for em- ploying the baudruche ? Is it for the purpose of preventing venereal infection ? There was never a more erroneus idea] or a more egregious delusion than this; for the syphilitic virus is liable to inoculate any moist absorbing * part upon which it may chance to lodge, thus proving, conclusively, that the so-called " safe" is one of the most unsafe protectors imaginable—by lulling the Onanist into the belief that he is quite safe, when in good truth he never was less so! For (and this should be remembered) the thing, whether made of membrane or white rubber, is not only prone to tear, from its extreme thinness, at the very point where it should not, namely, at the small closed end—and which is of very fre- quent occurrence—but to slip off as well, either partially or entirely, during the act of coition, and remain, occasionally, in the vagina. Let those who delude themselves with the prevalent but fatal notion that the " safe" is a sure preventive of preg- nancy, ponder well these facts, through ignorance of which thousands have been irretrievably ruined. * The natural absorbing power of the Absorbent Vessels wlien excited is so active, that the veoereal virus can soon be conveyed by them throughout tho entire system, destroying, sooner or later, the victim's health, and, it may be, hi.s life also. DANGEROUS ILLUSIONS. 81 The venereal virus, or poison, is an etliereal essence—an el- ement or principle—not gross matter, as many seem to think. It is not the matter of a chancre, or a bubo, that infects, but the virus contained in that matter. It is as subtle and atten- uated in form as air, or even electricity itself. No substance, and least of all a thin tissue of rubber or skin, such as " safes" are made of, can resist its passage ; but it readily passes through any intervening substance with which it may chance to come in contact. This is amply proved by the sponta- neous chancre, termed by the French bubon d'emblee, which all venereal practitioners of repute have long since admitted the existence of. [See Essay 2, page 42.] Hence, a more dangerous mistake, in supposing (as many persons do) these shields or " safes" effectual as preventives of venereal infec- tion, or of pregnancy—for the semen* is, also, a principle (aura)—can scarcely be conceived of. These are facts, of which every competent physician is perfectly aware. Avoid, then, all "safes," as you would poison, or any other foe to life and happiness. I would merely remark, in passing, that inasmuch as some persons who employ these coverings may fancy, perhaps, that because they have thus far escaped the evils in question, the above statement is consequently either erroneous, or greatly exaggerated, it may be as well for such to understand that they would have equally as well escaped had they not resorted to the " safe" at all; and for this well-known fact to every tyro in medical science, namely :— " While the system remains inaccessible to the action of viri [vene- real and other animal poisons] from a variety of causes as yet not fully ascertained, and, in some rare instances, from a peculiar inapt- itude to receive vital impressions which ordinarily affect mankind, whether normal pregnancy, or abnormal syphilis, etc., neither con- ception on the one hand, nor venereal infection on the other, will obtain in individuals so conditioned. Occasionally, though very * See Essay 3, page 48. 4* 82 DANGEROUS ILLUSIONS. rarely, this inaptitude of the economy may exist throughout one's lifetime—hence some women never conceive, and some men never contract the venereal disease. However, this peculiarity is seldom constant, and cannot be relied upon at all ; which accounts for the fact, that, sooner or later, women who supposed themselves abso- lutely sterile, will conceive, and men who foolishly imagine it im- possible for them to contract a venereal, are finally caught at last, and badly caught too."—Dufour.* Nor is this all: " The baud ruche (" safe") is a shield AGAINST THE PLEASURE OF BOTH SEXES, BUT ONLY A COBWEB AGAINST DISEASE."! Reader, there are other objections, scarcely less serious, not only in a physical, but in aTmoral sense, against the em- ployment of the " safe" by persons of intelligence ; but I have neither time, space, nor inclination to enter further into de- tails. Although no " fancy-sketch" has been indulged in by me, in the foregoing remarks, yet enough has been said upon the subject to effectually warn all, who are susceptible of being warned, to shun a vice so destructive to Health and Happiness as " Safe"-Onanism; and, should the warning have the effect of saving but a single fellow-being from self-degra- dation, misery, and, it may be, death, these lines will not have been penned in vain. * Sur VAction des Poisons, etc., dans VEconomie Animate ; Paris ed., 1856, tome, ii., p. 594. f Ricord's " Lettres sur la Syphilis." Paris, 1866. ESSAY THE FIFTH. On a New and Absolutely Painless Mode of Treating Strictures of the Urethra, without the use of Instruments. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF STRICTURE. The term Stricture, in surgical language, signifies a morbid obstruction in some of the ducts or canals of the human body, either of a transient nature, the result of irregular muscular contraction, or of a more persistent character, from some alteration of structure in the part affected. The urethra, or urinary passage, is peculiarly liable to both kinds of obstruc- tion ; the former is called spasmodic, the latter permanent stricture. Urethral obstructions, however, occasionally arise from external or outward causes—as abscesses or other tu- mors—which, by their pressure, may either partially impede or completely obstruct the passage of the urine. In permanent strictures, various degrees of thickening of the lining membrane of the urethra and its underlying text- ures are observed at the seat of obstruction, by which the natural elasticity of the canal has been more or less impaired. Sometimes the stricture consists of a narrow white band. extending entirely or partly around the urethra ; not always. however, in a circular manner, but sometimes in an oblique direction. The band may present a somewhat semicular form, extending across the lower portion of the canal. This lias been called the bridle stricture. When narrow and cir- cular, it was compared, by John Hunter, to a thread tied round the urethra. The obstruction may resemble a piece of 84 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF STRICTURE. whipcord, called by Sir A. Cooper the corded stricture. In some instances, a flat circular band extends an inch or more along the urethra, which is the ribbon stricture of the same author. In some cases of rare occurrence, the greater portion of the urinary passage has been contracted. The alteration of structure may be confined to the mucous membrane of the canal, but, generally, the subjacent cellular texture is more or less thickened; and, should the disease have been of long du- ration, the elastic tissue will mostly be found to have lost its healthy pliability. A frequent and formidable consequence of gonorrhoea is stricture. Certain constitutions appear to be more disposed to this disease than others ; and, in fact, those are most sub- ject to it who show strong marks of a scrofulous habit in other respects. This symptom exists in various degrees, and narrows the urinary canal, often, in several points at the same time. This complaint generally comes on gradually. The stream of urine becomes here more or less diminished, twisted in size and shape, or scattered, as it were, and forked. Stric- ture is the result of a thickening of the mucous membrane. Strictures, also, are divided into the spasmodic, the inflamma- tory, and the permanent varieties. Spasmodic Stricture, not associated with inflammation, is a rare disease. It comes on suddenly, and is not attended with pain until the patient attempts to make water. Various causes are said to give rise to this kind of gtricture ; it may proceed from exposure to cold and damp, excesses in drinking wine, spirits, etc., retaining the urine too long in the bladder, irritation of distant parts; or " even an irritated state of mind, or a mind deeply engaged in study, will occasionally in- fluence the nervous system to such a degree as to produce spasmodic stricture of the urethra." Old Treatment.—"You should introduce a bougie," says Sir A. Cooper, " letting it steal gently along the urinary passage, and when it arrives at the strictured part, there let it rest for a short time ; aft- er this, you should gradually push it forward, using only a very GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF STRICTURE. 85 slight force, but continuing that force until you have succeeded in passing the stricture. Let the bougie rest for a minute or two in the strictured part, and then withdraw it. The patient will be immedi- ately enabled freely to pass his urine. If you have not a bougie at hand, you may employ a catheter, and it will answer equally well; you must take care, however, to use it gently, as I have just de- scribed." " The chief point to be attended to in such cases is not to irritate the parts by attempting to pass the stricture with a bougie, or to reach the bladder with a catheter. If much resistance be offered to the in- troduction of instruments, it will be better to have recourse to other means rather than persist in overcoming the obstacle by using force. The bowels should be well cleared out by means of copious injections of warm water, and afterwards an injection consisting of fifty or sixty drops of laudanum with a wineglassful of warm water should be ad- ministered, or from forty to fifty drops of this medicine may be given by the mouth ; and the dose may be repeated after a few hours, if the patient be not relieved." The Author's treatment, however, entirely does away with the bougie, and is based upon the internal employment of the ^Etherialized Veratrum Viride, as well as the external use of this admirable remedy, in the form of an unguent; this remedy, then, conjoined with suitable auxiliaries, I find amply sufficient in removing this variety of stricture. INFLAMMATORY STRICTURE. Persons who indulge too freely at table, while laboring under chronic gonorrhoea or gleet, are most liable to this kind of obstruction ; it may also occur during the acute gonorrhoea, in consequence of inflammatory swelling of the mucous or lining membrane of the urethra, and may follow the intro- duction of a bougie. It is generally associated with the spas- modic form of the disease above described, is quick in its ap- proach, and accompanied with severe pain. Treatment.—The treatment in this case consists in opening the bowels with an infusion of senna and salts, or by means of purgative clysters, the use of the Veratrum Viride, and the warm bath. [See Med. Inf. p. 324.] 8C> GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF STRICTURE. PERMANENT STRICTURE. This is by far the most common form of stricture ; and, in the great majority of cases, proceeds from gleet, or frequent attacks of gonorrhoea, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. Astringent injections, employed in the cure of gonorrhoea and gleet, were formerly supposed to be frequent causes of strict- ure ; but experience has shown that they have been often con- demned without sufficient reason, save when ignorantly em- ployed. At the commencement of every permanent stricture, you are made acquainted with the real nature of the complaint by the following Symptoms. " The first is, the retention of a / few drops of urine in the urethra after the whole appears to have been discharged, so that when the penis has been re- turned into the small clothes, the linen becomes slightly wetted ; and if you press on the underside of the urethra, a few drops more will be voided, which had collected between the bladder and that part of the urethra where the stricture is situated. The next circumstance we notice is an irritable state of the bladder. This is evinced by the person not be- ing enabled to sleep as long as usual without discharging his urine. A man in health will sleep for seven, eight, or nine hours without being obliged to empty his bladder; but when he has a stricture, he cannot continue for a longer period than four or five hours, and frequently much less even than this. The next circumstance observable is the division of the stream ; the reason of which is, that the urethra is in an un- even state from the irregular swelling that surrounds it, and, consequently, the urine is thrown with an irregularity of force against its different sides; sometimes the stream splits into two, becoming forked; sometimes it is spiral; at other times it forms, as it were, a thin sheath. Occasionally the stream rises perpendicularly, its long axis being at right angles to the long axis of the penis; thus, then, the retention of a few drops of urine after the whole appears to have been dis- GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF STRICTURES. HI charged, a more frequent propensity to make water than when in health, and the peculiar character of the stream, as just men- tioned, will be conclusive evidence of the existence of stricture.' Having now briefly treated of the several varieties of stricture, I would here refer to a few of the most harassing symptoms, separately, as it is of great importance that the patient should have a due appreciation of them—the more particularly so, as they are generally lightly passed up- on by medical writers, which would go to show that few of them have a practical knowledge of the disease. It is ex- tremely desirable that the existence of a stricture should be ascertained as soon as possible : 1. Persons with urethral strictures are sometimes subject to attacks of inflammation of the testicles ; therefore, should this symptom occur, the patient should be examined. 2. Piles and protrusion of the rectum, with itching of the part, are not unfrequently indicative of stricture. 3. Increased secretion of urine is a common symptom of stricture, and I have known sixty ounces of urine to be passed in the course of twelve hours. 4. Incontinence of urine is one of the most annoying ac- companiments of bad strictures, the patient being sometimes troubled with a more or less constant dribbling day and night; in other cases, the incontinence is even much more serious, and often causes mental depression. It is usually ob- served in strictures of an aggravated kind, in which the urine is passed with great difficulty. In some of these cases, the poor sufferer is so harassed night and day with this dribbling of urine (which is often very fetid), that his linen is kept constantly wet, and he may thus become an object so offensive as to be obliged entirely to exclude himself from society. 5. Involuntary seminal emissions, when present, add in no slight degree to the mental depression, which, more or less, is a too frequent accompaniment of urethral obstructions. C. A gleety discharge is a very common, if not a constant, 88 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF STRICTURE. symptom of stricture. This discharge is often but slight, a few yellowish spots being occasionally observed upon the linen. Sometimes the discharge occurs only after coition, and is often so profuse as to resemble a gonorrhoea, for which it is frequently mistaken by the patient. It is usually, however, attended with but little scalding, and ceases naturally in the course of a few days. The discharge may be brought on or aggravated by a cold, or by intemperance. 7. Diarrhoea is, also, an occasional consequence of bad strictures, apparently from the irritation extending by sym- pathy to the mucous membrane of the large intestines. 8. Pain extending down either thigh, though more often the left, is at times indicative of stricture. 9. In bad cases, sterility is sometimes induced from ob- struction to the seminal fluid; and impotence may result from irritation extending to the prostatic part of the urethra, caus- ing Spermatorrhea. The seminal emission in such cases is often attended with acute pain. 10. The prostate gland, as well as its ducts, sometimes become inflamed and enlarged by stricture. Notwithstanding the catalogue of a patient's miseries with a bad stricture may be long and fearful, let him console him- self with the assurance, that they will all of them most prob- ably eventually disappear, after removal of the urethral ob- struction. It may be as well to notice that the symptoms of strictures in general are mostly aggravated in cold weather, especially in such as are predisposed to spasm. For example, a person suffering from stricture will probably be unable to pass his urine whilst exposed to a low temperature in the open air, although, on his return to a warm apartment, he may soon, under its influence, secure the power of urinating. Treatment.—No disease can be considered of more im- portance, then, to the patient than stricture; and, hence, every sensible and prudent person afflicted with it will not fail to NEW TREATMENT OF STRICTURE. 89 avail himself of proper medical aid as soon as the earlier symptoms are perceived; for there is no disease in which rashness or ignorance may effect more deplorable results. No subject has more employed the attention of surgeons than this complaint, and two methods of cure are employed by them all, with the single exception, perhaps, of the Author; these methods are caustic and the bougie. The difficulty of introducing such a dangerous remedy into so sensitive a part as the urethra, and without ever having the power to regulate the extent of its action, will ever be a strong objection among careful surgeons to the use of caustic in urethral diseases— whether it be the nitrate of silver, or the kali purum. The objections to both are equally strong, and the most mischiev- ous consequences are allowed to have attended their employ- ment. These remarks equally apply to the use of caustic in seminal diseases. (See Spermatorrhea, Part II.) Stricture seems to have shown itself at a very early period, and the original plan of applying the caustic, introduced by Mr. John Hunter, of England, and employed by Mr. Howe and Mr. Whately.owes its origin in reality to Ambrose Pare. The danger of this practice is now sufficiently established; and its want of efficacy, and the frequency of relapses after its use, cannot be better stated than in a letter from a cor- respondent, which I shall here quote, as it was applied in his case for s%ch a number of times; and he is now under the necessity of resorting to my treatment, after suffering all the pain and distress which unavoidably attend this method, and being harassed for a length of time with the fruitless pros- pect of a cure :— " Boston, Mass. " Sir :—Having labored under strictures of the urethra for many years, and, in consequence, having been several times confined—in this instance it is now six months since I have been out of my lodgings —there is no doubt of my having two strictures at present, the one about four inches, and the other about eight, from the point of the penis. This first stricture has already been burnt upwards of sixty 90 NEW TREATMENT OF STRICTURE. times, and there is no appearance of its being any way reduced ; the other has not been touched, which induces me to write to you, having heard that you have completely removed strictures of the most invet- erate kind without the application of caustic or the use of bougies. If I thought a cure could be accomplished, having already suffered so much, money would be no object. Have the goodness to write to me, if such can be effected. Enclosed is $5, your consulting fee." The Veratrum Viride, conjoined with Iodine, and their adjuncts, are the remedies employed by me, and exclusively re- lied upon, for the radical and permanent cure of the disease in question; and I am of opinion, based upon many years' experience in the treatment of stricture, that there are no cases but what may be cured by my method. In saying so, I am aware that I shall be accused of temerity ; but I speak from an extensive practice in this line, and have the pride to state that I have never yet failed to cure a single patient by this means. The chief object with me, in the treatment of stricture, is to obtain relaxation of the parts which are the seat of the complaint, and which I fully accomplish by the aid of the setherized Veratrum Viride ; this is my first point. The sec- ond is, to procure absorption of the organized structure upon which the disease mainly depends. If these important ob- jects are attained—which will, however, require all the skill and judgment of an experienced adept—this hitherto formi- dable complaint may be cured as expeditiously as is compat- ible with the safety and welfare of the patient. The success which has attended the method I pursue, leads me to speak with a confidence which practitioners may per- haps think too great on my part; but I can solemnly again repeat, that I never have failed in a single instance that has come under my care, since I adopted the plan I now recom- mend, nor have any of my patients suffered the least relapse. That I have failed in pursuing the common methods, recom- mended by other surgeons, I cannot deny ; and therefore I was NEW TREATMENT OF STRICTURE 91 obliged to abandon them, from finding them ineffectual in ac- complishing a cure. The idea of completely relaxing the parts previous to any attempt at dilating the passage then forcibly struck me, as, in this disease, there are two points to overcome ; the one is the resistance of the urethra, which is so great under this disease ; and the other, the opposition of the stricture itself, rendered even greater by the spasm ex- tending also to the morbid substance. Instead, then, of con- sidering the preparatory operation as a secondary point, I view it as the most essential of the whole, and the one upon which the success of the cure mainly depends. Other practi- tioners, on the contrary, have trusted to their dexterity in passing the bougie, and therefore have omitted or underval- ued this point, so highly necessary to success. This method so considerably abridges the treatment of stricture, that a cure, which, under other management, would require several months, I am generally able to complete in the course of a few weeks. The patient is thus saved a world of distress consequent upon the repeated introduction of bougies—a circumstance of the highest consequence from feelings of humanity, even were there no other good and sub- stantial reason, which, however, there is, namely, that of the mischief arising from the ignorant or careless use of the bougie, or catheter—a mischief so commonly perpetrated as to deter patients, in countless instances, from submitting to treat- ment by bougies, if to any treatment whatever; thus resign- ing themselves to more misery than I have either the inclina- tion or space to describe in this essay. In concluding this subject, I would apprise the sufferers from stricture, that the New Treatment can be successfully carried through without an interview, unless the patient pre- fers it; which is sometimes of importance to those who reside at too great a distance from New York to call. This is ef- fected by the person writing a minutely-detailed description of his symptoms, the length of time they have existed, the 92 NEW TREATMENT OF STRICTURE. ' state of his general health, what treatment, if any, has been pursued; together with his age, temperament, color of hair, eyes, complexion, and any other points which he may see fit to communicate as to occupation, general habits, diet (gen- erous or abstemious), whether he be single or married, &c. Medicines adapted to the case can be sent, properly packed and sealed, by express or other conveyance, so that they shall reach their destination safely and expeditiously, being of suf- ficiently small bulk to be included in a pocket package. They are thus sent to the most distant parts, including Cali- fornia, South America, the West Indies, &c. ESSAY THE SIXTH. [Fros ths Author's Diseases and Infirmities of Youth.—New York, 1852.] " But now the plague attacks With double rancor, and severely marks Modern offenders ; slily undermines The face and nose, that by unseemly lapse Awkward deforms the human face divine With ghastly ruins ; such ills attend Obscene and bought embraces."1—Brown. The various forms of disease resulting, as a general rule, From promiscuous intercourse with the opposite sex, have been classed together, and denominated the Venereal Disease. Whatever symptoms presented themselves under these cir- cumstances, have been viewed only as modifications or phases of one grand affection, the result of a specific poison : at least this was the view universally taken of the subject prior to the investigations of Ricord, and which is still entertained by many professional men, and by nearly the whole of the masses of non-professional. The late Dr. Wallace declared that syphilis and gonorrhoea were but varieties of the same disease; and certain it is that the major part of those who apply to us for advice know of no other difference between them. Venereal disease, however, if the term be used in its broadest sense, must be looked upon as a generic term, in- cluding affections of the genital organs essentially different in their character, symptoms, and sometimes in their origin. The term itself is perhaps objectionable, but, for want of a better one, must be employed: I shall use it, therefore, as a Vi THE VENEREAL DISEASE. general denomination of all those disorders coming more or less directly from sexual intercourse. The origin of the venereal disease is shrouded in mystery: much has been written on the subject, but with little result: the labors of Astruc, Sanches, Gittner, and a score of other authors who have devoted their time and their talents to the solution of this problem, have been little more than labor lost and time thrown away. It has been customary to ascribe its introduction into Europe to Columbus, and the sailors who returned with him from America : by this means it is said to have been imported from the new world. Even supposing, however, this to be correct, it still leaves the question of its origin undecided. " Could not," says Ricord, " the Ameri- cans ask us or ask themselves, where they had it from ?" It is quite certain that the disease is not more innate in this country than in any other; and as for the elevated tempera- ture, which has been looked upon as one of the causes of syphilis in America, it may be objected that the temperature of some parts of the Eastern hemisphere is just as high. But the fact of its being so imported is exceedingly improbable: there are several circumstances which militate against this theory, such as the power of a few sailors to infect the half- dozen different nations in which the disease appeared at that time, the preservation of the faculty of inoculation during so long a voyage, &c. Sometimes it has been declared to be the result of unnatural connexion ; at another, its origin has been discovered in the air or water; and anon it has been traced to the influence of the stars ; or to anthropophagy. A more intelligent opinion, and a more probable one, is that of Van Helmont, who attributed syphilis to farcy transmitted from the horse to the human being. Certain it is, that the antiquity of this disease is very great: references are made frequently in the Scriptures to complaints which bear a striking resemblance to gonorrhoea (vide Leviticus, cli. xw, and in some few cases syphilis is mentioned, though not by THE VENEREAL DISEASE. 95 name (vide Leviticus xiii. 2). " Hippocrates speaks of an ulceration of the genital organs; Galen mentions the conta- gious nature of Blcnnorrhagia; and Celsus gives a description of the different affections of the parts of generation. The Greeks, the Arabs (Avicenna, Aretaeus, Albucans), and the Physicians of Rome have one and all given descriptions which cannot be mistaken."— Ricord. Indeed, it is probabla that it was known in all ages and in all countries. Wherever sexual intercourse has taken place, there the venereal has been found; and Voltaire spoke the truth when he said :—" It is With syphilis as with the fine arts, it grows, comes to perfec- tion, and no one knows whence it came." I have already stated that I use the term, venereal disease, in its widest sense, and consequently, I include in it two dis- eases of an entirely different character; these are, gonorrhoea and syphilis : on each of these I shall say a few words. 1. Gonorrhoea.—This term is used to describe that dis- charge from the urethra commonly and vulgarly called clap. Both these terms are, however, exceedingly inappropriate; the latter is derived from the French word, clapier, signifying a filthy abscess, whereas, there is really no abscess formed ; and the former is derived from the Greek, Torn, semen, and Peco, to flow, and has, therefore, nearly the same meaning as spermatorrhoea, having been employed when it was supposed the disease depended upon a discharge of semen. Other terms have been suggested, and are frequently employed, such as Blennorrhagia, from Blewa, mucus, and Pew, to flow, signifying a discharge of mucus. This, perhaps, is the most appropriate, if applied to the early state of the disease, for, as I shall presently show you, in the latter state its character is entirely changed: puorrhcea, signifying a discharge of pus; this would be more correctly applied to the latter stage of the disease: jiucitis, signifying inflammation of the mu- cous membrane: venereal catarrh, arsura, Brenning; and it has even been suggested to call it leucorrheea, a term which 96 THE VENEREAL blSEASE, is now employed to describe that discharge in females called, in common language, " the whites." I shall use the term gon- orrhoea, however, in this essay ; not because it is more appro* priate than the others, but because it is better understood. Gonorrhoea is not a specific disease, that is to say, it is not the result of a specific poison. As sexual intercourse is the most favorable means for developing it, it generally arises from an impure Connexion, but not always. Any acrid of purulent matter brought into contact with the nlucous mem- brane of the urethra will be very likely to give rise to it i frequently it has its origin in mere mechanical causes, and Sometimes in substances taken internally, either as articles Of diet or medicine. I have known cases where it has originated in the following causes i viz., food or drink of a stimulating or exciting character. (Among the various articles of diet Which have a tendency to produce this discharge, the Worst are salt provisions, asparagus, and beer;) excessive sexual intercourse, masturbation, local irritation, such as passing a catheter or bougie* injections, inattention to cleanliness, worms, cohabiting with a woman suffering from the whites, or even laboring under the menstrual discharge) so that, you perceive, if a man contracts a gonorrhoea of a female, it by ho means follows that the female of whom he contracted it Buffered from that disease ; she may haVe been quite as free from it as he was. This is a matter of great importance, a3 hnpleasantness and unhappiness have frequently arisen in a family, between man and Wife, in consequence of their enter- taining the common opinion that gonorrhoea must be the re> suit of a specific contagion, and, consequently, of art impure connexion. The first Symptoms of gonorrhoea are the itching, irrita1- tion, and heat of the mucous membrane of the Urethra, and in the course of a short time, a discharge will make its ap- pearance, which will vary in color, consistence, and smell, ac« cording to the severity of the attack, and other circumstances. THE VENEREAL DISEASE. 9? Generally, When it makes its first appearance, it consists of a thin, white, watery fluid, and is then simply mucus, the natu- ral secretion of the part, but excessive in quantity, and vitia- ted in quality. It speedily changes its color, becoming yel- low, and in this condition, if not checked, lasts for some time; ultimately, however, it again changes, and loses the yellow tint, becomes niore watery, and passes into that state termed gleet; ia this condition it may last for years. It not unfre- quently happens that persons consult me who have been la- boring under a discharge of this kind for seven or eight years; and Ricord mentions persons who contracted the dis- ease at the peace of Amiens, in 1800, and who had not got rid of it when he saw them in 1840, and must, therefore, have suffered from this affection for forty years. These cases are, however, exceedingly rare, because, generally, in the course of a year, or less, it gives rise to stricture, or some other equally bad result. In the early stage of this complaint, the difficulty of treat- ing it is not great, but in the latter it is one of the most diffi- cult diseases to cure. The common remedies, however, are generally ineffectual, even in the early stage, as might be ex- pected, these remedies being given on the principle that gon- orrhoea is a constitutional disease, whereas, it is purely local, originating in local causes, producing local results, and con- sequently requiring local remedies. In nine cases out of ten, where persons contract this disease, it passes into the chronic form, in consequence of the treatment adopted being consti- tutional. The filthy rubbish called balsam of copaiba, and cubebs, are the most invariable remedies resorted to in these cases, and the result may be easily judged of; the disease re- mains, and the system becomes affected by the medicines taken internally; the patient, therefore, labors under two diseases instead of one. C. J. B— called on me for advice, under the following cir- cumstances. He had contracted a gonorrhoea about five 5 98 THE VENEREAL DISEASE.- months before ; had applied immediately to some one for mi- vice, and had taken large doses of balsam of copaiba. The disease, however, got no better, the discharge still remained, and recently an eruption made its appearance on various parts of the body, which his medical adviser informed him was syphilis. He then came to me, and immediately I saw him, I informed him that the eruption was the result of the copaiba he had taken, and requested him to take no more, and wait on me again in a few days. When he called on me again, about a week after, the eruption had entirely disappeared. I then applied local remedies for gonorrhoea, or rather gleet, which still remained. In a fortnight later he was quite re- covered. To treat gonorrhoea successfully, requires great care and skill on the part of the practitioner, the difficulty arising from Various circumstances. In the first place, the canal in which it has its seat, being very narrow, it is exceedingly difficult to bring a remedy in contact with the affected part; then the urine washing over the diseased portion of the canal four or five times a day, causes a great degree of irritation ; and, lastly, we find the greatest difficulty in preventing a harden- ing or thickening of the mucous membrane ; this is very like- ly to occur, either from the disease Or the remedy, and consti- tutes a stricture. There are more cases of stricture arising from badly-treated cases of gonorrhoea, than from all other causes put together. In the later stage of gonorrhoea it is much more difficult to treat than in the earlier stage. It has now passed into a chronic form, the discharge has become of a muco-purulent character, there is no scalding pain in passing water, the lipsi of the meatus will, in the morning, probably be found glued together, and a very small quantity of discharge escapes on the linen ; a stain is left like that of gum. This is that stage called gleet, or rather one of the several symptoms takino- that name, for the term gleet is frequently applied to half-a- ffiE VENEREAL DISEASE. &§ dozen different kinds of discharge; even spermatorrhoea id sometimes denominated gleet. This, however, is the true gleet, or chronic gonorrhoea; or, as the French call it, chronic blennorrhoea. A gonorrhoea once having passed into gleet, Will be likely to remain in statu quo for years, but will be much aggravated by taking wine, violent exercise, or any other powerful stimulant. Treatment may appear to stop it, but the probability is, that as soon as the patient ceases to take medicine, it will break out again, in another and a worse form, if treated in the usual routine way. J— D—, Esq., writes me that he contracted a gonorrhoea When about twenty years of age, but paid no attention to it, till he became so bad that he was compelled—e. g. he suffer- ed from chordee, Violent inflammation, and excessive swelling; he then obtained a few bottles of medicine from his medical adviser, and the swelling disappeared, the pain left, the dis- charge stopped, and he imagined himself quite well. Several weeks later, however, on having taken a few glasses of wine more than usual in the evening, a white gleety discharge ap- peared the morning following; treatment was again resorted to, and again the discharge stopped. Three months after, he Was riding on horseback, and being in a hurry, rode very last, and a second time the discharge returned. This time it never left him till I was consulted by him, which was fourteen years after, nor had any treatment that he had adopted appeared to touch it. Cubebs he had taken, to use his own expression, " bushels of," and copaiba " in pailsful." Injections he had employed without number; but nothing did him good. In this state he remained until he wrote to me. I forwarded him medicine into the country where he resided, and in a few weeks I had the gratification of knowing that the discharge had been stopped ; and, a short time since, the still greater gratifi- cation of knowing that it had never returned since, though now more than four years ago. II. Syphilis.—This disease is the result of a specific poi* 100 THE VENEREAL DisEASE. son, though what is the exact nature of that poison We cannot tell; for, says a popular author, " its active principle has never yet been discovered in a separate or distinct form ; nor do we know rightly either its appearance, color, sub-' stance, or consistence, or any other of its precise chemical properties, further than the appearance of the matter that contains the poison ; but in this there is no difference from any other diseased secretion, as, for instance, as far as exter- nal appearance goeg> the matter of the small-pox, or the pus issuing from any other ulceration or wound, might be taken for thfc same." Hence, all we know of the poison existing in the venereal matter is, that its morbid action consists in a certain animal acrimony, element or principle, differing in its qualities and effects, and Which is no sooner brought into con- tact With the living parts* than, by the violent irritation and inflammation it is capable of exciting, it speedily destroys all healthy action, corroding through the substance, causing deep ulcerations and morbid secretibns, while, at the same time that it creates those purtilent secretions from such sores, it likewise converts the matter into its own specific poison. This disease never arises sua sponte, but is always the result of contagion from another person ; not always the. result of sexual intercourse, because any mode by which the poison can be introduced into the system may give rise to it; e.g., you will find a model in my cabinet, of a child who received a syphilitic taint from its parents, and communicated syphilis of a very bad form to the nurse Who suckled it; this case oc- curred in my own practice. The poison of syphilis may be introduced into the system by inoculation, or by bringing the body of a healthy person in contact with that of a person suf- fering from the disease. A case came before my notice, a short time since, and a model of which you will also find in my cabinet, of a young man who contracted syphilis, and suffered severely from ulcers in the mouth; the mode by which the poison was introduced THE VENEREAL DISEASE. 101 into his system being caused by using a dirty pipe, which had been employed by some person suffering from chancres in the mouth. Whether, however, it arrives in this way or by in- tercourse with the opposite sex, it is equally the result of a specific poison. The great characteristic of syphilis is the ulcer called a chancre. This is its type, and is consequently inseparably connected with it. The great difference between syphilis and gonorrhoea was decided by Ricord, by inoculating with the matter taken from a chancre, and the discharge from the Urethra in gonorrhoea. In the former case, another chancre was always the result, in the latter, no effect whatever was produced. A chancre, therefore, always arises from the secretion of another chancre, which it reproduces. The greater or less liability to these venereal ulcers depends to a great extent Upon the power of the constitution to throw off the poisonous matter, and upon the peculiar condition of the cuticle; for we generally find that in those men where the prepuce is long, covering the glans penis, and consequently preserving its surface delicate and tender, there is a much greater susceptibility to the disease than in those persons in whom the glan3 penis is continually Uncovered, either from the foreskin being naturally short, or from circumcision hav- ing been performed. Hence, two persons may cohabit with the same female ; one may contract the disease in a very bad form, and the other shall escape entirely free. The first symptoms of the chancre are itching of the parts, this changes to smarting, then sharp pains come on, and after that, inflammation 5 this is followed by a small pimple mak- ing its appearance, filled with the poisonous matter, which ultimately bursts and forms those corrosive sores styled chancres. The characteristics of those ulcers are the surround' ing inflammation, the ragged edges, hardened base, and indis- position to heal. A chancre may appear in a day or two after the coition, or it may not appear for two nioaths. They are exceedingly dangerous if not stopped at the onset. 102 THE VENEREAL DISEASE. J. F— cohabited with a female, and felt no inconvenience till about three weeks after, when he noticed a small pimple on the glans ; this he rubbed off, thinking it was nothing of any importance. In the course of a few days, however, a small sore began to appear, and now, fearing it might be a chancre, he determined to seek medical advice. On doing so, he received sundry doses of mercury—the common remedy in cases of the kind ; this he continued taking week after week, and applying black wash (also mercury*) to the ulcers, but continually got worse, as the sores were running together, re- ducing the whole of the glans penis to the appearance of a honeycomb of sores. In this state he called upon me; I found him not only laboring under the primary ulcers, but suffering very severely from the effects of the mercury. Or- dered him to discontinue the mercurial medicine, and also the black wash, prescribed remedies internal and external, and had the pleasure to see my patient quite restored in three weeks. The affections resulting from syphilis and the diseases com- pbcated with it are very numerous ; the most important of the former, however, are those affections of the skin, face, throat, mouth, tongue, eyes, bones, etc., called Secondary (or Constitutional) Symptoms, but these I need not describe here f ; suffice it to say, in this connection, that they are pro- duced by the poison in the constitution, and are consequently the result either of neglecting the disease at the onset, or of not treating it properly—the result either of no treatment, or of bad treatment. The length of time that this poison may remain in the system is perfectly surprising. G. M— consulted me in regard to a Swelling of the throat, and a sore upon the tongue. On examining it, I had no hes- itation in immediately declaring it to have had a syphilitic * Black wash is made by adding a drachm of calomel to half a pint of lime water, and sometimes a teaspoonful of laudanum. f See " Synopsis of Symptoms and Causes," Essay 1, page 37 ; also, pags joa SECONDARY SYMPTOMS. 103 origin. This surprised the patient exceedingly, as he assured me that he had never suffered from the venereal disease but once, and that was at least twenty years before. He stated that at the time he certainly was very bad with the disease, but that it was cured, as he thought, and since that time he had felt nothing of it. Still there could be no doubt the symptoms, respecting which he now consulted me, were sec- ondary symptoms, the results of the former attack, and of the mercury taken to cure it. I administered remedies, and in a few weeks the swelling of the throat and the other symp- toms entirely disappeared. Here it may be a3 well to remark, that in the majority of cases which come before my notice of persons who imagine they are suffering from secondary symptoms, I find them la- boring under not secondary symptoms of syphilis at all, but under the results of former mercurial treatment. Hence the importance of the syphilitic poison being destroyed immedi- ately it enters the system, and the mercurial poison being rarely admitted, never, in fact, but in the most extreme cases, and then only under the care of an experienced and skilful physician. CONCISE DESCRIPTION OF SECONDARY (CONSTITUTIONAL) SYMPTOMS. The secondary symptoms of the Venereal disease consist of various eruptions, sore throat, ulcerations of the palate and nose, pains in the limbs, inflammation of the membrane cov- ering the bones, called periosteum, caries, or rotting of the bones, inflammation of the eyes, falling off of the hair, deaf- ness, and general ill-health and debility. Of the loathsome consequences of Venereal taints, those arising from the jecondary action of the syphilitic poison seem most to evidence the effects of Divine vengeance upon 104 SECONDARY SYMPTOMS. the sufferer, and to communicate misery and anguish to his friends. I shall here not only describe the symptoms of the dis- ease, but also detail some of its consequences, to apprise my readers of their danger, and to impress upon them the immediate necessity of medical aid. The eruptions are occasionally various, sometimes they appear in pustules, at others in tubercles, at one time in pimples, at another in scales. Before the eruption comes out the patient has more or less fever, pains in the head and shoulders, oppression at the chest, the throat is dry and husky, and is a good deal affected; there is difficulty in swallowing, the glands are enlarged, and the eyes are often suffused with blood ; the patient is generally indisposed with- out complaining of any symptom in particular; the eye is languid, the countenance pallid and anxious; there is pain in the limbs, tenderness of the head, and perhaps headache, especially at night; there is severe pain in the joints, especi- ally in those of the knees and ankles ; and a very horrible form of sore throat frequently accompanies the eruption. When it comes in scales, it first makes its appearance in red patches, of a dusky or copper color, which give the skin the appearance of being mottled, especially about the forehead, neck, chest, and lower part of the belly, where it is most copious; the redness soon disappears, and is followed by a scurf or scale. In the more serious forms of this dis- ease, the most awful consequences result from the venereal virus, and if unchecked, the weary existence is spun out for many weeks, amid tortures from the contemplation of which the mind turns with shuddering; all is horror, the whole frame becomes putrid, loathsome, and corrupt, the various organs mortify and drop Off, till at last the poison seizes the vitals, and finishes a life of insupportable anguish and dis- graceful misery. In the female sex, this disease is attended with other peculiar circumstances. Women are liable from it to sup- SECONDARY SYMPTOMS. 105 pressions, or immoderate discharges of the periodical evacua- tions, to the fluor albus or whites, to hysteric fits, to cancers in the breast, and to the same disorder, together with other abscesses, ulcers, inflammation, scirrhus, and mortification of the lips, cheeks, and of the womb; those who labor under this disease are in general barren, or subject to abortion, a hap- py circumstance, as the children produced from such subjects come into the world deformed with ulcers, affected with rot- tenness, and covered with foul eruptions. Such are the symptoms of a malady imprudently and dis- gracefully contracted, and in a state of neglect or misman- agement, and much does it behoove mankind, and young per- sons of both sexes especially, to attend to the alarming catalogue, and consider the dreadful consequences attending the indulgence of those passions which were inspired by the Almighty for purposes of wisdom and mercy, and which, di- rected to proper ends, are equally conducive to health, happi- ness, and reputation ; but being turned into the channels of vice, produce disease of body and depravity of mind, and unfit the wretched victim of his lusts for the comforts of society, or the pleasures of intercourse and communication with the world. Before I quit the subject, it may not be improper for me to remark that the first object of attention is cleanliness; without the practice of this necessary precaution, the best prescriptions will be fruitless, and the most efficacious medi- cines administered in vain. Slight infections are frequently removed by a due regard to this advice, in external washings and frequent injections, and if this method were pursued when- ever suspicion was entertained of infection being received, it would probably, in many instances, prevent the venereal poi- son from taking effect at all Water, with a small addition of spirits, or oil and warm milk and water, are almost always at hand, and as the use of them is attended with little trouble and no inconvenience, it is astonishing that men should lose 106 SECONDARY SYMPTOMS. such favorable opportunities of nreserving health on such fair and reasonable terms. In the article of exercise, the less motion, and particularly of a violent nature, the patient takes, the more speedily he will in all probability get rid of his complaint. Above all it behooves those who are visited by these dis- eases, to remember that it is not enough that the symptoms abate, or even that they wholly disappear ; both frequently happen before the virulent matter is totally expelled, and the smallest remaining particle will be sufficient to light the flame afresh, when it is no longer resisted by the administration and operation of medicine. Necessity frequently, expediency always, makes it desirable to obtain a cure with the utmost expedition, and to this end the patient not unfrequently takes his medicines too hastily, and leaves them off much too early: if men would be con- vinced that it is more safe to continue the use of them a month too long, than to discontinue them a day too soon, circum- stances of a very unhappy and melancholy nature would often be avoided. If the poison be not totally expelled, the disease breaks out afresh, the symptoms are always aggravated, and new ones commonly occur, the patient is obliged to resume the course of medicine; but the same impatience prevails, he stops short of the cure, and by repeated indiscretions of the same kind eventually ruins his constitution and eBtails misery on himself and his posterity. I would earnestly recommend to such of my readers as may have unfortunately contracted the disease, to continue the use of moderate medicines a consid- erable time beyond the appearance of indisposition. Having now nearly completed my self-imposed task, I would earnestly recommend to my readers of both sexes, more particularly those whose youth and inexperience may render them most liable to the dire evils I have described, an atten- tive perusal of the dreadful catalogue of symptoms attendant on these diseases in their different degrees and appearances. SECONDARY SYMPTOMS. 101 Let them figure to themselves the loathsome object of this foul contagion rendered equally useless and obnoxious to so- ciety, and creeping about the world covered with sores, ulcers, and offensive eruptions; his eyes sunk, weakened, and inflamed; his hearing impaired, his teeth loosened, his breath foetid, his strength exhausted, and his faculties clouded or confused ; let them hear him complain of insufferable pains by day, and unremitting tortures by night; let them remark that his wretched case is unlamented and unpitied ; that he is avoided by all those who, from duty or obligation, are compelled to minister to his wants ; and that even his former companions desert him, and leave him a prey to the complicated horrors of his disease and his reflections! Let them compare this dreadful spectacle with the health, vigor and bloom of youth, the erect form, the manly tread, the lively and penetrating eye. the quick apprehension and the universal sprightliness and alacrity of the untainted and uncontaminated youth; and let them ask themselves if the gratification and indulgence of the passions be worth pur- chasing at the price of such a contrast. %* Nodes, or Venereal Diseases of the Bones, are for the most part formed on the long bones, though now and then on the flat ones, and particularly on the forehead: they are caused by a thickened state of the periosteum (the membrane that covers the bones), caused by inflammation of that part, and by a deposition of extra bony matter under the part of the periosteum so inflamed. ESSAY THE SEVENTH. PLAIN AND EASY RULES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. For the benefit of those who desire, through the blessing of God, and the study and practice of Virtue, to retain the health which they have recovered, or are undergoing a course of treatment for the recovery thereof, the following few, plain and easy rules are given :— I. The air we breathe is of great consequence to our health. Those who have been long abroad in easterly or northerly winds, should drink some thin and warm liquor on going to bed, or a draught of water with a toast. II. Tender people should have those who lie with them, or are much about them, sound, sweet, and healthy. III. Every one who would preserve health, should be as clean and sweet as possible in their houses, clothes and furniture. IV. The great rule for eating and drinking is to suit the quality and quantity of food to the strength of the digestion; to take always such a sort and such a measure of food as sits light and easy upon the stomach. V. All pickled or smoked, or salted, or high-seasoned food is un- wholesome. VI. Nothing conduces more to health, than abstinence and plain food, with due labor. VII. For studious persons, about eight ounces of animal food, and twelve of vegetable, in twenty-four hours, are sufficient. VIII. Water is the most wholesome of all drinks ; it quickens the appetite, and strengthens the digestion most. IX. Strong, and more especially spirituous liquors, are a certain though slow poison. Experience shows there is very seldom any danger in leaving them off all at once. Strong liquors do not pre- vent the mischiefs of a surfeit, nor carry it off so safely as water. X. Malt liquors, except clear small beer, or small ale, of due age, are exceeding hurtful to tender persons XI. Coffee and tea are extremely hurtful to persons of weak nerves. RULES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. 109 XII. Tender persons should eat very light suppers ; and that two or three hours before going to bed. XIII. They should go to bed about nine, and rise at four or five, XIV. A due degree of exercise is indispensably necessary to health or long life. XV. Walking is the best exercise for those who are able to bear it; riding for those who are not. The open air, when the weather is fair, contributes much to the benefit of exercise. XVI. We may strengthen any part of the body by constant exer- cise. Thus the lungs may be strengthened by loud speaking, or walking up an easy ascent; the digestion and nerves by riding; the arms and hams, by strongly rubbing them daily. XVII. The studious ought to have stated times for exercise, at least two or three times a day; the one half of this before dinner, the other before going to bed. They should frequently shave, and frequently wash their feet. XVIII. Those who read or write much, should learn to do it stand- ing ; otherwise they will impair their health. XIX. The fewer clothes any one uses, the hardier he will be. XX. Exercise should always be on an empty stomach; should never be continued to weariness ; and after it, we should take time to cool by degrees, otherwise we shall take cold. XXI. The flesh-brush is a most useful exercise, especially to strengthen any part that is weak. XXII. Cold bathing is of great advantage to health ; it prevents abundance of diseases. It promotes perspiration, helps the circula- tion of the blood, and prevents the danger of taking cold. Tender people should pour water upon the head before they go in, and walk swiftly. To jump in with the head foremost, is too great a shock to nature. XXIII, Costiveness cannot long exist with health ; therefore care should be taken to remove it at the beginning ; and when it is re- moved, to prevent its return, by soft, cool, open diet. XXIV. Obstructed perspiration (vulgarly called catching cold) is one great source of diseases. Whenever there appears the least sign of this, let it be removed by gentle sweats. XXV. The passions have a greater influence on health than most people are aware of. XXVI. All violent and sudden passion, such as grief and hopeless love, bring on chronic diseases. XXVII. Till the passion which caused the disease is calmed, medi- cine is applied in vain. 110 NOTICE. XXVIII. The Love of one another, as it is the sovereign remedy for nearly all miseries, so in particular it effectually prevents all the bodily disorders the passions introduce, by keeping the passions themselves within due bounds. And by the unspeakable joy and per- fect calm, serenity and tranquillity it gives the mind, it becomes the most powerful means of health and long life. XXIX. It is vain for people to lake medicine for any disorder whatever, if they do not pay some attention to tlwir mode of living, during the administration of proper remedies; for the best pre- scriptions may be rendered useless by inattention to these particu- lars ; whilst good nursing, and a due regard to diet, are great as- sistants to the most able physician. It is therefore desired that par- ticular attention may be paid to the directions concerning regimen, &c, which are treated of in this Book. NOTICE. TIME AND MONET SAVED BY EARLY ATTENTION TO DISEASE. Of all diseases, none will repay a patient better for an ear- ly acknowledgment of his having contracted it, in the facili- ty of a cure, than the Venereal Disease, in any and all of its local forms. At the commencement, the disease may often be subdued in a few days; but if delayed, it is only by a systematic arri comparatively protracted course of treat- ment, that it can be effectually eradicated from the system. In nineteen out of twenty cases, if application be speedily made, immediately the disease is perceived, or, what is still better, within twenty-four hours after a suspicious connexion, when this is practicable, it will give little or no trouble to the patient; for then the disease may be either prevented or sup- pressed, by the. skilful administration of prophylactics ; or if taken in its very inception, it may be readily cut short and cured by the abortive method; and it is only where, in such cases, peculiarity of habit is presented, that any more time need be lost or difficulty experienced. At least, such has been my experience, and is, I doubt not, that of every com- petent surgeon practically conversant with this peculiar class of diseases. PAET II. A TREATISE ON SPEEMATOEEHOEA, AND ITS CONCOMITANT DISEASES, NERVOUS AND CONSUMPTIVE. INTRODUCTION TO THE TREATISE ON SPERMATORRHOEA, AND ITS CONCOMITANT DISEASES. This succinct and unpretending monograph is de- signed, more especially, for the personal and care- ful consideration of youths and young men, who may unfortunately be afflicted, from whatever cause, with Spermatorrhea, Involuntary Seminal Emis- sions, Premature Decay, Impotence, Urinary Depos- its, Nervous Debility, Nervo-Mental affections, Con- sumption, and impediments to the marriage con- tract generally. That it will be found, on examina- tion, to be an eminently plain, practical, and there- fore a desirable publication, highly contributing to the benefit of the rising generation, the author, judging from an ample experience in the treat- ment of these all-important diseases, confidently believes. In introducing this little work to those who have not yet had an opportunity of reading the writer's more elaborate treatise, entitled Medical Informa- tion for the Million, etc., he must refer, for a further explanation of its object and purpose, to the Pre- liminary Chapter, in which the destructive conse- quences of Spermatorrhoea are alluded to generally, in connection with its causes and treatment. Being intended to take the place of those filthy and dangerous quack books (true medical garbage) 114 introduction. with which the country is well-nigh inundated, to the great detriment of the health, happiness, and future prospects of those who confide in their plaus- ible but specious and destructive promises, which, "like pie-crust, are made only to be broken," it is thought this brief treatise will be productive of much good to those for whom it has been (necessa- rily hastily) written. A book of this description, unexceptionable in language or tone, is in fact a much required desideratum, which will doubtless be hailed with no little satisfaction by all, save the lowest class of readers ; for these latter, the " pic- ture books " mentioned in the preface to this work are probably best adapted, because it is for the vul- gar that such trash is specially designed. Hence, it is presumed that all sensible young men, laboring under any of the forms of this insid- ious disease, into whose hands this book may chance to come, as well as those who may have been dis- appointed in the use of cauterization, curative in- struments, spermatorrhcea rings, " urethral support- ers," or " compressors," patent medicines, and like delusions of the "self-cure" charlatanism of the day, will early avail themselves of the advantr ages which recent improvements in medical sci- ence, judiciously employed, so effectually, safely, and painlessly confer. To those, however, who are simple enough to be- lieve that this complicated disease, Spermatorrhcea, is curable by "self-treatment," as set forth by cer- tain dishonorable persons, who, under the disguise of false names, pretend that their specifics and de- INTRODUCTION. 115 ccptive instruments will enable " all, or nearly all," to cure themselves of involuntary emissions, or, in- deed, of anything else, these remarks are not ad- dressed. No competent or honorable-minded man will, for a moment, hold out any such delusive idea to the unthinking, the medically-ignorant, and the unfortunate, because he well knows that such were neither more nor less than sheer falsehood—cruel and shameful swindling ; age, constitution, and the individual peculiarities of each and every case, must be well weighed and carefully considered, before the conscientious and able surgeon, who values his professional reputation, will proceed to treat this delicate class of complaints. Therefore, let it be well understood, that the author addresses himself to the intelligent and discriminating reader exclu- sively. The above observations, of course, refer to those cases of Spermatorrhcea, Impotence, etc., only, which require, for the purpose of a more speedy cure, the introduction of the author's Medicated Bougie ; in all other instances, the patient may, with care, be successfully attended to by letter, when the party residing out of New York, cannot well leave home or business to visit the city. The chapters on Nervous, Mental, and Consump- tive diseases, included in this Part II., merit unus- ual attention on the part of the reader, as these af- fections almost invariably arise from, or grow out of, Seminal Debility, in some one or other of its va- rious forms. In the Appendix, also, some few mat- ters of great importance to the reader may be found. REMARKS ON THE AUTHOR'S PECULIAR MODE OF TREATMENT.* " Till the hour of sickness comes, how few non-medical persons ever think of a subject which ought to be of interest to all."—Dr. Franklin. It has been said that to know a disease is half the cure. Doubtless this is the fact, when applied to many of those maladies which flesh is heir to, but is certainly very far from being correct when applied to the diseases noticed in the foregoing and following pages. Few persons will have any difficulty in ascertaining whether or not they are suffering from gonorrhoea, or laboring under syphilis ; nor can they very well be mistaken in their diagnosis should they be troubled with nocturnal emissions, or experience the involun- tary escape of semen in large quantities during the day ; but nevertheless, such persons would find considerable difficulty in curing the former, or preventing the occurrence of the latter. Indeed, although scarcely any diseases are more easy of diagnosis than those treated of in this volume (at least except in some of the more difficult and subtle forms, as, for example, when the semen escapes with the urine), yet the treatment requires perhaps more skill and experience than any other derangement to which the physical organization is sub- ject. These are affections in which the treatment must not be Umited to the remedies employed in the practice of one country, or contained in the Pharmacopoeia of another. The cases are so desperate, and the remedies required so potent, that all lands must be ransacked for the latter. Here we * Extracted from the Author's Diseases and Infirmities of Youth, 3d ed., New York, 1854. REMARKS. in must not confine ourselves to the vegetable kingdom, nor seek to obtain antidotes exclusively from the animal or mineral domain ; nature in her totality must be ransacked here. The advice given by a poet in relation to truth must here be fol- lowed, when applied to remedial agents : " Seize upon truth where'er 'tis found, Among your friends, among your foes, On Christian or on heathen ground, The flower's divine, where'er it grows : Avoid the nettle, and accept the rose." So must we seize upon good remedies for cases of this kind where'er they are found. Now this, I need scarcely say, is not done by the major part of those who treat these diseases. They are content with the ordinary routine of treatment, no matter how often it has been " weighed in the balance" and " found wanting," and the result is what you would expect—the disorders are very rarely cured. Indeed, how American and English prac- titioners can, with their limited Pharmacopoeias, treat dis- eases of this kiud is to me a mystery. There are, really and strictly speaking, few remedies in either the United States or English Pharmacopoeias which can be relied upon in these complaints. What can be employed successfully for the purpose of thoroughly eradicating syphilis from the constitu- tion ? and what to restore the system to health in the debility occasioned by self-abuse? or what to stop the Spermatorrhoea, the cause of that debility ? The answer, doubtless, is ready —Mercury for the former, tonics for the latter. To which I reply—In the first place, I deny that mercury will have any such effect; and, secondly, if it had, it would only be at the expense of the future health ;* and as to the tonics—more * In the vast majority of cases so treated, •• Mercury is not an absolute specific : in some cases it is inert, and in others it is injurious."—Ricord. Hence, we see that it is by no means a certain or reliable remedy, which is all I am contending for. The Veratrcm Viridb, however, judiciously com- bined and prescribed, I aver is a. Positive Remedy. 118 ' REMARK 3. particularly the ordinary tonics of American or English prac- tice—these will have no such result, for they cannot stop the escape of semen in a bad case of Spermatorrhcea. The fol- lowing case will serve as an illustration : A. B., a gentleman of property, applied to me, stating that he had for years been afflicted with nocturnal emissions, and that, for the last few months, he had been totally unable to cohabit with his wife. He had been the round of medical men, but without any beneficial result. He had taken Qui- nine, Iron, and the vegetable bitters in surprising quantities; in fact, he thought he had taken everything in the list of Ma- teria Medica, and, consequently, he completely despaired of ever being cured. As a last resource, however, he came to me. The iEtherized Veratrum Viride and Iodine were pre- scribed ; I also supplied him with a mixture and lotion, which I usually employ in cases of a Character analogous to his. On taking the bottles into his hand, I observed a smile pass over his countenance, and on inquiring the cause, he remark- ed that he fancied his system was already impregnated pretty Btrongly with what I had given him, as he had taken every- thing. I replied that I was quite sure he had neither tak- en the mixture nor employed the lotion that I gave him. He seemed doubtful, and I offered to convince him by writing a prescription after the manner of American physicians, con- taining the drugs I had employed, and allowing him to get it made up at any druggist's he might select. I took this course for the double purpose of convincing him that my medicines were neither employed by our medical men here nor to be obtained in this country * and also to show hira that, notwithstanding that fact, I did not wish to pretend to give secret remedies. The prescription was as follows : R. Elixir : Acid : Halle : §ss. Aqua Laurocerasi §ij. M. fiat mist. Most of the remedies can now (1862) be bad in this country. remarks. 119 R. Tr: Ciner : Siber ; cum Spr : iEther : Form : Afric : a a gij. Liq s Anodyn i Hofm : Bals : vit s Hofm ; a a . . . |ss. Aqua Menth : pip : ——■---Scrpyll: a a . . . . Siii. M. ft. lotio. He took it away with him, and promised to let me know the result. In three months after he called upon me again, and declared himself quite satisfied that my medicines could not be obtained in America, as he had sent the prescrip- tion to some of the first druggists in Boston, and none of them appeared to have heard of the drug therein prescribed ;* and he also informed me, what was more satisfactory for me to hear, that he had completely recovered. Now this one example is as good as a hundred. The first ingredient in the lotion is a tincture made from the leaves of a Siberian herb, combined with a spirit made from African ants, and is one of the most effectual remedies, applied exter- nally to the generative organs, that is known in any part of the world ; and yet no one in America uses it but myself. The British Pharmacopoeia, also, is exceedingly limited in remedies of this kind, and no man can treat these cases suc- cessfully, who has not other medicines than those contained in it. My treatment is not a repetition, it will be perceived, of the ordinary routine of practice; as the reader can convince himself, by taking the same course with the prescription giv- en that the gentleman referred to in the case just mentioned pursued. I employ the best remedies from all the Pharma- copoeias in the world, and nlatiy Which I have discovered and prepare in my oWn laboratory, and which are contained in no Pharmacopoeia. I have, therefore, in these few remarks, I think, justified the heading I adopted for this chapter, and established a claim to a peculiar mode of treatment. The virtues of the Medicines which I am now about to in- * It can at present be obtained here, as well as in Boston, I think. 120 REMARKS. troducc to the reader's special attention, for the Cure of Nerv- ous and Seminal Complaints, will be fully explained and illustrated in subsequent chapters, particularly one of them, which is of American origin, and possessed of rare potency and revitalizing properties—when duly combined with Iodine (aetherialized) and Spirit Formic, and judiciously prescribed —by a number of well-authenticated and extraordinary cures; and therefore it is only necessary here to say, that, in my opinion, no Remedy worthy of the name, and adapted to all cases, male and female, attended especially with Chnital De- bility and Relaxation, from whatever cause arising, was ever yet presented to an intelligent American public. I al- lude, more especially, to the Veratrum Viride. The cures it has performed are very many and great, several of which will be presented in the course of the following pages ; but want of time and space have induced me to withhold many more cases, which I am otherwise at liberty to publish, for the benefit of Afflicted Humanity. Such is, in general terms, the Reformed or Eclectic * sys- tem of treating diseases, as understood and expounded by enlightened teachers of the Healing Art; but which is never to be confounded, however, with the vulgar root-and-herb, or exclusively " botanic practice,"—with its ignorant, bigot- ed, narrow-minded and jealous pretenders to the sublime Science of Medicine! * The term Eclectic is derived from the Greek (ex&exTlxog • eg and ley a), to choose) and signifies to select. It is a word we find applied to certain ancient philosophers, who did not attach themselves to any particular sect, but selected from the opinions and principles of each what they thought solid and good J they were, in consequence, called Eclectic Philosophers. It» application to medicine also dates back to the earliest ages. The celebrity of Archigenes, an ancient physician, arose from the fact that he selected from other modes of practice what he deemed best and most rational ; hence he and his followers were called Eclectics, and their medicines Eclectic medicines. Professor Raffinesque, speaking of Eclectics, says, " They are liberal and modest, learned or well-informed, neither intolerant nor deceitful, and ready to learn or impart information. They study nature and the human frame write their observations, and improve medical knowledge ; they select and adopt in practice whate.ner is found most beneficial, and change their prescrip- tion* according to emergencies, circumstances, and acquired knowledge." PALSE DELICACY. tine halbe Wahrheit ist gewohnlichgefalirlicher als eine ganze Luge * I cannot, perhaps, do better, in commencing a work of this kind, than to quote an admirable extract from the Quarterly Review for 1848, as it is most appropriate for the subject. " It is time," says the writer, " to burst througb that arti- ficial bashfulness, Which has injured the growth, while it has affected the features of genuine purity. Society has suffered enough from that spurious modesty, which lets fearful forms of vice swell to a rank luxuriance, rather than point at their existence ; Which coyly turns away its head from the wounds and putrefying sores that are eating into our system, because it would have to blush at the exposure." This passage do- serves to be written in letters of gold. There are still hundreds and thousands of persons who entertain the senti- ments here so justly and so powerfully condemned. A fool- ish feeling of false delicacy is still prevalent, exercising what influence it possesses, to keep the human family in ignorance upon topics of the greatest importance to their own well- being. There exists very extensively a spurious bashfulness, having no relation whatever with that genuine modesty, which is one of the graces of a female, and which even the harder and rougher nature of the male should not be des- titute of; this it is that would frown down the discussion of subjects of this kind, regardless of all consequences. Though the fountain of life may be drained of its vitality—though * A half truth is generally more dangerous ihan& who!e falsehood. 6 122 FALSE DELICACY. disease in ten thousand shapes rack the body, and melancholy despondency take sole possession of the mind—though death lays low in the tomb the fairest portion of God's creatures, and the parent mourns over his Only child, as he sees him fast pining and wasting away, losing all that buoyancy and energy which he was wont to display in earlier days, and ulti^ mately hastening, prematurely, to that " bourne from whence no traveller returns"—though these consequences, and others equally as formidable, and too numerous to mention at this stage of our proceedings, flow necessarily from that monster vice of the present age, to which it is my object to draw your attention in this chapter—still, fashionable society would frown down any allusion to so delicate a subject; fashion, which has no objection to vice of the most hideous kind being fostered and nourished by her own devotees, so long as it is not mentioned in society. She seems to view subjects of this kind in some such light as the members of secret frater- nities look upon their passwords; though each knows that the other is in possession of the secret as well as himself, yet he may not speak the mystic word above a whisper, or write it, even in hieroglyphics, upon a piece of paper. So with fashion; though each of the gay and thoughtless throng who worship at her shrine knows that every individual is aware of the existence of this vice, and, may be, large num- bers practising it in consequence of their ignorance of its consequences, yet it may not be named either by word of mouth, or by the printing press, or a hue and cry of indeli- cacy, indecency, and obscenity is heard above every other sound. To discuss this question thoroughly, it would require definitions to be given of what constitutes true delicacy, and what, therefore, might be justly considered a violation of her laws; but that would take up much more space than I have to devote to the subject, or perhaps more tune than you would spare to read what I should write: suffice it to say, that nature is a much better guide in matters of this kind FALSE DELICACY". 123 than art; yet the whole of the objections raised against these subjects being publicly talked of, or pictured in models, are drawn, not from the natural, but from the artificial, and even that artificial not genuine, but spurious. I disapprove, says an objector, of my daughters knowing any thing of vaginas, fallopian tubes, ovaries, and et ceteras, which go to .make up the total of the female internal organs. Why does not such an individual object to his daughter knowing that she has a stomach, or a liver, or lungs ? Can any reason be shown why she should know the one, which would not equally apply to the other ? Certainly not; and therefore such an object tion cannot be viewed as being valid, unless all knowledge of physiology be prohibited, as in fact it is by some. The hor- rors of tight lacing, and other evils of that kind, are, how- ever, now opening the eyes of fathers to the importance of physiology as a branch of female education ; and if the physiology of the stomach or the heart be tolerated, why not that of the generative organs ? But again, it is assumed that if the female be not informed by her teachers of subjects connected with the organs of generation, that 6he will remain in perfect and blissful ignorance of every thing of the kind. Let no parent, however, entertain so delusive an idea ; de- pend upon it, the Voice of nature is more powerful than youf silence, aud will give such impulses that will lead to a search for information from any source where it can be obtained. That source, if left to present itself by chance or accident, Will, in all probability, be a bad one, and therefore the very means, not only of instilling incorrect notions into the mind, but also of considerably corrupting the moral faculties, gov- erned by so imperfect and uninformed, or misinformed a judgment. How often have I, when called upon to admin- ister medically to the diseases of youthful imprudence in the female sex, found them with their heads full of the trash of Aristotle; or, what is much worse, the filthy obscene pro- auctions which there are always found persons base enough 124 FALSE DELICACY. to write. Men may console themselves with the idea that their daughters are totally ignorant of every thing that would be likely to lead them astray, and, as far as true and correct knowledge is concerned, they may be correct, but woefully mistaken as to false knowledge. Nature reminds the young female, rising to puberty, that she has a mission in woman- hood, a destiny in the peculiarity of her sex ; and in obedi- ence to the instinct thus implanted, she will seek for knowl- edge as to the nature of that mission and that destiny. Do not let her obtain that knowledge from pure sources, and the result is inevitable, she will obtain it from impure. But I am digressing. To return, therefore, to our subject. The objection to say- ing any thing to young men on the vices to which these pages are devoted, more particularly that of self-abuse, is, that by so doing, you may be teaching it to those who may not be awaro of its existence. Now this objection, although urged again and again by men of high standing—and urged with great gravity too—if it were not upon so serious a topic, is cer- (ainly admirably adapted to excite the risible faculties, for it is really supremely ludicrous. Tell not your son that a rob- bery was committed in your neighbor's house, or he too may become a robber: let him not know that a murder was per- petrated in some secluded spot near your residence* or he will not, as is generally imagined, fear that he will become a vic- tim : no, he will become a murderer too I Inform him not that some desperate and desponding man deprived himself of life, or he too may die by suicide I Is not such teaching the quintessence of absurdity? Yet such arguments are more reasonable when applied to theft, murder, or suicide, than when directed to the vice of self-abuse. Now, if what is here set down be true—alas! it is__let my greatest glory, pride and honest boast, consist in sending forth this book throughout the length and breadth of every land where the English tongue is understood. Asking for FALSE DELICACY. 125 tto profit from the sale thereof, I issue it at such a price as hinders not the poorest from its possession, and with such care in the general execution, as befits it for the perusal of the most educated and refined. Looking with calmness in the face of those who ungenerously sneer at my efforts to regen* erate and lift up the unfortunate, I not only tell them plainly to do in like manner as myself, but charge them in the name Of a higher power than man, that they use the means which their abilities may give them to arrest the progress of the Vices and excesses which they well know are luring victims innumerable to destruction, and whose blood may haply be required at the hands of those who have been criminally si- lent When they should have spoken out; who have hesitated When they should have denounced with pen and voice. But for myself, my cry shall be against them day by day ; these pages shall witness for me that I have fulfilled my duty in making known to this generation the exceeding evil of its besetting sins. And let every professional man likewise, be- ing fearless of this offense, wara all his youthful patients of their danger in these matters; and so shall America again, as in days of yore, have men Of mind and Vigor to sustain her early fame in her hour of peril; to relieve her in her time of mental and physical prostration and senility. Now that a salutary alarm has been raised by me in the consciences of the votaries of secret vice, they daily write to me for help, confessing that their mental energies are gone, and that their bodily powers are failing them—that their memories of the past are fading—that current events now flit along, and leave behind no impress of their passage—that they are dead alike to business and to pleasure—that to themselves they are a burden, whilst to the world they are an incumberance—that to all around they are as dead, that to themselves they are worse than dead! This is the portion of the Onanist on earth ; what it is in eternity I leave to another profession to point out, for here my mission ends. PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. It is the author's desire to treat upon Spermatorrhea, &c, &c, in such a manner, that those Who are afflicted with the disease may learn how to distinguish it from other dis- eases which bear more or less resemblance to it—Gleet, par- ticularly—and to induce young men, if possible, to shun the cause to which this complaint commonly owes its origin, namely, to Masturbation. This subject being, then, one of such vast importance to the rising generation, especially, and one which has been so long and liabitually neglected or despised by medical men, and turned over to the tender mercies of ignorant charlatan- ism—with its miserable delusions and snares to entrap the unwary, in the shape of instruments, cauterization, mercury, and " specifics " innumerable, and worthless as they arc dan- gerous—I have come to the conclusion to embrace the pres- ent opportunity, afforded by a comparatively recent happy discovery of mine—the Medicated Bougie *—and throw aside all thoughts of self, for the purpose of giving my ten years' experience in connection with that discovery or inven- tion, and the Veratrum Viride, Iodine, &c, &c, freely, for the benefit of the victims of the most terrible affliction with which so many unfortunate persons are scourged, through ig* *A Decided Improvement.—"Dr. C. D. Hammond's admirable and novel mode of eradicating, promptly and effectually, by means of the ' Medicated Bougie,' the sad results of a destructive habit indulged in by youths and young men to such a deplorable extent, is a remarkable and decided improve- ment, as it entirely supersedes cauterization, which is both a very painful and very uncertain remedy, to say the least of it. Dr H. is a gentleman and a thoroughly practical physician and surgeon, of great experience and skill, whose superior professional advantages have rendered him, unquestionably, tlft most successful practitioner in his line."—Syracuse Medical and Surgical Journal. PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 127 norance of the means adapted for their relief, or adequate to their full restoration to Health and the pleasures of life. To those who are afflicted with any of the various forms of Seminal or Nervous Disease—especially with Sperma- torrhcea, Impotence, &c,—be they young men or old, the au- thor would observe that these complaints may be radically, permanently, and with every degree of satisfaction to the pa- tient, cured, either with or without the use of the Medicated Bougie, which improvement, however, greatly expedites the cure—a consideration frequently of no little importance to many. The writer's practice in this line being unusually large, he is constantly meeting with some of the worst cases of this class ; while in no instance has the method pursued by him disappointed his most sanguine expectations thus far. It should be here distinctly stated for the reader's informa- tion, that Spermatorrhoea, and all other seminal diseases, may be successfully treated by two distinct methods, to wit: Con- stitutional or medicinal, and Local or medico-mechanical : the former by properly selected and judiciously administered medicines internally, through the medium of the stomach, and the latter by the aid of suitable direct medication applied through the medium of the Medicated Bougie. But in point of time, the medico-mechanical method, conjoined with the constitutional treatment, is immeasurably superior to the ex- clusively medicinal plan; for, by the aid of direct medication, the cure may generally be effected in less than one-half the time required by th£ first-mentioned process. It should, there- fore, be understood, that while I give the decided preference to a wise combination of these two methods, I do not, for a single instant, deny that these diseases can be effectually cured by either plan—indeed, more than half my cases are cured by medicine alone. Nevertheless, in all cases where a prompt cure is desired, the employment of direct medication possesses not only immense advantages, but it becomes indispensable. Both methods being, then, alike certain and radical in their 128 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. action, the clioice of means on the part of the patient will be governed by circumstances. To rely, however, in these affections, exclusively on purely mechanical appliances, of any kind, or upon any one " spe- cific " medicine, or set of specific medicines, without due re- gard to the constitutional or individual circumstances of each and every case, simply argues one of the many palpable ab- surdities of which the practice of charlatanism is, unfortu- nately for its deluded victims, so terribly prolific. The cere- bellum and spinal nerves are deeply involved in all seminal complaints, and any mode of treatment which neglects these delicate parts, must necessarily fail to afford satisfactory re- lief in any case whatever. And, while the constitutional means which I employ, are of a benign and rather agreeable character—being both gelatinized and confectioned, after the method of Prof. Jceckel, of Paris, so as to enable the patient to carry them about upon his person without any inconven- ience, cither on account of taste, smell, or appearance of the medicine—the local medication employed by me is almost en- tirely devoid of pain, or other disagreeable concomitant. The Medicated Bougie is also applicable in paralysis of the neck of the bladder, enlarged prostate, &c, in which diseases it has been used with the happiest result. The author's Theory and Treatment of Spermatorrhcea are at once scientific and plain, and may be understood bv all at a glance. They are based on the fact, amply substantiated by a long series of cases, extending over 15 years of active practice, that this complaint, nine times in ten, is not (as Lal- lemand at one time supposed) the result of inflammation of the seminal ducts, but of weakness or a loss of vitality in the Nervous Circulation * of those ducts; hence the proper treatment consists, not in cauterizing or burning the said ducts (Lallemand's method), but in restoring tlte impaired or lost vitality to the parts in question. * See Chapter on the Treatment of Impotence, pages 177-8, PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 129 To attain this important object, the author was induced, in the year 1854, to seek some expeditious, certain and safe method, and with highly flattering results ; for, by the judi- cious use of his Medicated Bougie—a discovery, it is proper to mention, entirely his own—he has demonstrated, in a very large number of cases, consisting of several hundred, many of which were of an inveterate character, that Spermatorrhea, etc., can be relieved with entire safety to the sexual organs and the constitution without pain, and in less than one-half tlie time required by any other method extant. Even in those cases where cauterization seems to be more or less beneficial, it should be observed that the benefit is merely temporary and delusive, inasmuch as the caustic can only produce a transient, stimulating effect, which soon pass- es off, greatly to the annoyance of the patient, who again and again has recourse to cauterization, " cordials," &c, whereby the tone of the ducts is soon worn out—hopelessly and forever; whereas, by the author's method, not only are the seminal ducts, &c, revitalized and vigorously strengthened, but the brain and whole nervous system are reinvigorated ; whence it comes that the cure is radical, and permanently satisfactory to the patient. These are important practical facts, and should not be lightly passed upon or thoughtlessly heeded. The original method which is here referred to, consists in conveying to the seminal ducts, by means of the Medicated Bougie, an amount of direct medication adequate to the prompt and perfect restoration of the local vitality upon which the healthy and vigorous action of the ducts depends ; while the constitutional medication administered to the brain and spinal nerves, completes the cure. The success of this novel method of treating seminal diseases has been so uni- formly flattering, that the author has deemed it proper to make it now known to the public. As just mentioned, in about ten per cent, only of the cases of spermatorrhcea, let it be admitted,/ora?-gumenfssafte,that 6* 130 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. the disease may depend upon chronic inflammation of the seminal ducts ; and that in this number alone is Lallemand's method by cauterization applicable, namely, that of passing along the urethra, to the locality of the orifices of the ducts near the neck of the bladder, lunar caustic, and applying it to and burning those orifices, by means of a metallic curved caustic holder. If this delicate coup de main be accomplished with precision, which requires perfect anatomical knowledge, and great manipulating skill, such as only a Lallemand—a surgeon of extraordinary mechanical dexterity—is generally apt to possess, a painful,* transient cure, will, perhaps, be ef- fected ; though it by no means follows lliat because the nitrate of silver occasionally cures inflammation of the external mem- branes of the eye, it will also cure the (assumed) inflammation of the lining membrane of the seminal ducts ; and the reason of this is, because the surgeon can see why and where he ap- plies the caustic in the former instance, whereas he can only feel (or guess) why and where he applies it in the latter case; besides, we can only cauterize the orifices of the seminal ducts, while at the same time admitting the inflammation (if any there be) is located along the interior of those very elongated and minute canals, throughout their entire length, which, the reader will remember, is several feet; see page 130, on which is given the length of the seminal vessels, as calculated by competent anatomists. This latter fact is of immense im- portance in illustrating the entire superiority which the Med- icated Bougie possesses over the caustic ; as it is well known that certain medicines are so subtile and elastic in their ac- tion, that they readily permeate all animal tissues, throughout their length and breadth, even those the most dense, by Cap- illary Absorption. But (turning from this digression) in the remaining ninety cases, the cause of the disease, as has been stated, is not inflammation of the ducts at all; but is * Which pain, he admits, lasts about " two weeks." PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 131 that which we have mentioned, namely, a loss of vitality in the nerve power of those ducts, &c, &c. Lallemand, being a man of sense as well as science, has not failed candidly to admit, as was his duty, that cauterization is applicable in but a very small number of instances ; as well as to insist, also, upon the danger resulting even in the small number of cases in which his method is supposed to be ser- viceable, from absence of knowledge and skill on the part of those persons who undertake to apply caustic to the seminal ducts. What, then, must be the amount of mischief done by the medical mountebanks to be found in all large cities and towns, who hesitate not to attempt to cauterize, indiscrim- inately, these ducts "withoutpain," in all cases of involuntary seminal emissions, impotence, and the like ! Cauterization, thus recklessly and bunglingly applied, as is almost always, if not always the case, has, in thousands of in- stances, laid the foundation of a most distressing disease— incontinence of urine of a permanent character—consequent upon irritation at the neck of the bladder; without mention- ing enlargement of the testicles and prostate gland, spasmodic stricture, etc., which, from this cause, are of common occur- rence. These are not mere idle assertions, as the reader may see by looking into the works of scientific (practical) venereal surgeons generally—Bohn, and others. On the absurd treatment by cauterization of the orifices of tlie seminal ducts, for the cure or even amelioration of sperm- atorrhoea,—a mode of treatment which, I may mention here, I have, in my former works, combated against for years, alone and single-handed—Grindle, in 1858, aptly remarks:— " Lallemand of France is the only author we shall notice upon the treatment by instruments of the diseases under consideration. Though we differ from him in some things, it would be egotistical to pass him by in silence ; as his researches and experience deserve 132 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. our respect; not so many other authors, who may be consigned to well-merited oblivion with a passing remark, that nothing original occurs in their writings, simply because study and practical investi- gation have never been their object, and bigoted fanaticism takes the place of study and philosophy, whilst outbursts against more suc- cessful contemporaries, stand vividly forward as substitutes for sound, rational theory, and well-based practice. " Lallemand says (and truly, too), that ' some affection of the or- gans for the secretion and excretion of the semen is the most frequent and most active cause of Spermatorrhoea.' It is worthy of notice that this very statement furnishes one of the best arguments against his mode of treatment, as I will hereafter point out; and in another page of his work he states with equal veracity that this malady is by no means, in all cases, of a moral nature, but very generally the con- sequence of peculiar bodily conditions; yet because the application of caustic over the vessels of the eye, is of service in some instances, he concluded that a similar process to the outlet of the ducts must en- sure an equally favorable result; so the ' Porte Caustique' was in- vented—an instrument like a catheter, made of silver, and armed at its termination with a piece of lunar caustic, to be passed into the urinary canal of all persons, regardless of what condition the system or local parts might be in. It became that detestable thing,' a fash- ionable remedy,' and was blindly thrust down the urethras of the unfortunate victims, to cauterize, sometimes one part, sometimes" another, of the urinary tube, occasionally and but seldom coming in contact with the outlet of the ducts, and when it did, causing much suffering and doing no good,—because, " First. If the cause of the disease be only locally situated at or near the mouth of the outlet, it must be cruel and unnecessary; but, as has been fully demonstrated, over and over again, by distinguished anatomists, such is not the case. " Second. If it be seated at a distance, reflected irritation and in- creased inflammation alone can result, for the ducts in question are the termination of the vas deferens, and the vas deferens itself is only the outlet of convoluted tubes composing the body of the testes and epididymis, and exceeding, altogether, twenty feet in length; and the attempt to remove an obstruction in one of the numberless riv- ulets which help to form a stream, by blocking up the mouth of a mighty river, would be as likely to succeed. " The author and disciples of the Porte Caustique differ- much from each other, as well as from their opponents, as to the amount of pain and length of suffering which this so-called remedy occasions; and PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 133 this fact incontestably points out that the escharotic is used in differ- ent conditions of the urethra and applied to parts of the canal where the outlets are not: these small openings, like other orifices of the secretive glands, are composed of erectile tissue, with a trace of muscular fibre, which enables them to remain closed and quiescent, or erect and open, so that the cleverest operator cannot ensure the positive contact of his instrument exactly where he requires it to touch, above once in a hundred times; and if, happily, difficult now, it would be still more fortunate for humanity if the feat were impos- sible ; for an agony of pain, followed by violent inflammation of some ten or fourteen days' continuance, accompanied by a flow of blood with the urine, and occasional painful erections without any improvement, are the mildest symptoms and slightest annoyance to which the patient is subjected ; whilst long continued strangury, irri- table and inflamed bladder, and stricture, are always risked; and when a tendency to any of these complaints, or to prostatic disease, chances to be present, will lead on to still more serious maladies, such as acute and chronic abscess, ulceration, or even mortification, and fatal hemorrhage ; and yet, with these authentical facts before us, we are told by the advocates of this instrument, that a second appli- cation is frequently required! When the Porte Caustique exactly reaches its intended destination, and is quickly withdrawn, perma- nent induration of the outlets, or loss of tone in their erectile tissue, are common results. One of the most celebrated physicians of the present day beans testimony to the suffering, danger, and mischief, he has himself witnessed in victims to the use of this dangerous agent. " Various other so-called remedies of a caustic and irritant nature have been recommended for introduction into the urinary passage, but it may be said of them all, that if they were less escharotic in their action, they would be less baneful in effect; still, more or less mischief must result from their use, and little or no benefit arise from such harsh applications." Again, " an attempt to compress the walls of the urethral passage, by means of a mechanical adaptation to the penis, does not want advocates at the present day. Surely absurdity can reach no greater length. The invention is just worthy a school-boy suffering from incontinence of urine ; the semen flowing as usual into the passage, is, by force, prevented from passing away until the instrument is removed, when the semen and urine are ejected together, and the sufferer, perhaps, is beguiled into the idea of amendment, because he does not see the semen escaping, as he did previous to this treat- ment." 134 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. Cauterization, then, of the seminal ducts, by means of Lal- lemand's caustic holder, or by the use of caustic injections with an elongated syringe, as resorted to by certain persons, should seldom or never be employed for the cure of this dis- ease—by reason of the danger (fatal in some instances),patn- fulness and inefficacy of the same. The author undertakes to cure all curable cases presented to him, without the use of a particle of caustic. Involuntary seminal emissions, whether nocturnal or di- urnal, constitute a prevalent and very terrible disease among young men and others, consequent upon Masturbation, or "self-abuse," excesses, or the debilitating effects of climate; being one of the most appalling complaints, perhaps, with which its victims are or can be afflicted. The author's atten- tion has, therefore, necessarily, been closely confined to the treatment of Spermatorrhcea, and the other different forms of seminal weakness or disease, now for a long term of years; and, as the proper treatment is evidently so little understood, he has thought proper to give it in full in this work. Those, then, who are unfortunately emaciated, and wko labor under a continual drain from the system, whereby their bodily strength is not only exhausted, but also their menta:. vigor and vivacity are impaired,—thus preventing their enter- ing the marriage state,—will meet with a friendly monitor in this valuable publication. What can be of more importance to patients, than to make themselves intimately acquainted with every symptom to which many of the young, more especially, are liable; how to conduct themselves under all circumstances, without having their delicacy wounded by a disclosure of their fears or ap- prehensions to the rude scrutiny of pretended "friends"? Under such circumstances, the only second person in whom we can judiciously confide, is the respectable and honorable special surgeon; he never forgets that his profession, of nearly all others, is a truly sacred one, the secrets of which must never, under any circumstances whatever, be divulged. CHAPTER II. THE MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. Before we proceed to explain the abuses to which the or- gans of generation are liable, it will, for the sake of render- ing the subject more easy of comprehension to the non-pro- fessional reader, be necessary to give a brief sketch of the anatomy and physiology of the organs themselves; in other words, to explain the healthy state of these parts, before we attempt to enter upon their diseased conditions; and, indeed, this is, after all, the true and only satisfactory mode. These organs include the testes, and a variety of other parts directly | or indirectly connected with them, each of which we will treat ] respectively. I.— The testes and their coverings.—The testes, or, as they are more commonly called, the testicles (Fig. I., C), are two small glands, of an ovoid form, each weighing about an ounce, and measuring in the long diameter from one-and-a-half to two inches, and in the short about an inch. The left hangs down a little lower than the right, probably for the purpose of avoiding the pressure of one against the other, if the thighs are brought close together. The testes are surrounded by five coverings, on each of which I shall say a few words, commencing with the most external, and proceeding internal- ly. The coverings are called—1, the scrotum ; 2, the dartos ; 3, the cremaster muscle; 4, the fibrous tunic; and 5, the tunica vaginalis. 1.— The Integuments form a purse-like envelope of both testes, called the scrotum, which is short and corrugated in 136 THE MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. healthy, robust persons, but is much more lax and flaccid in disease. Temperature has also a considerable effect upon it, being much more contracted in cold than in warm weather; the skin of the scrotum is exceedingly delicate, and of a dark- ish color ; is thrown into several folds or rugae, and has a slightly elevated ridge or raphe in the middle line, extending from the penis to the anus. 2.— The Dartos is the cellular tissue—of peculiar texture—placed immediately under the skin, and so arranged as to form two bags, one for each testi- cle, and both united along the median line, forming a partition called septum scroti. The texture of the dartos is very loose, and readily becomes distended in disease ; it corrugates the skin, and assists in moving the testes. 3.— The Cremaster Muscle (Fig. L, W.) consists of a bundle of fleshy fibres, de- scending through the inguinal canal on either side; its use appears to be to draw up the testicle. 4.— The Fibrous Tu- nic is a strong, thin transparent membrane, of a shining white color, supporting the cremaster muscle, and forming a bag for each testicle. 5.— The Tunica Vaginalis is a dense mem- branous sac, of a bluish-white color, in which the body of the testicle is contained : it was at one time—viz., in the foetal state—a process of peritoneum, but has been pushed before the testes, and thus prolonged as they descended from the ab- domen to the scrotum. In addition to these investments there is another, called the tunica albuginea, but as it forms the capsule of the testicle, and preserves its form, it may be treated as part of the organ, rather than a covering to it; it is of a clear white color, and very dense ; it separates at the back part into two laminae, one of which is continued to the vas deferens, and the other, joining with a corresponding layer from the opposite side, is passed into the substance of the gland, and forms the mediastinum testis. The glandular structure of the testicle has the appearance of a soft, greyish or yellowish pulpy mass, formed of lobules : when these are examined more minutely, they arc found to be made up of THE MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 131 small convoluted tubes called tubuli seminiferi, or seminal ducts (Fig. I., D, E), rolled up in packets or bundles. The average diameter of these tubes appears to be about Fig. I. Fig. I. represents a back view of the male organs of generation-"-A, the bladder ; B, the spermatic artery, vein and nerve ; C, the testicle ; D, E, the tubuli seminiferi; F, G, H, the epididymis ; I, the ves deferens ; J, the vesi- culae seminales ; K, the prostate gland ; L, the urethra ; M,Cowper's glands ; N, the bulb of the urethra ; 0, the erector muscles ; P, Q, the veins and arte- ries of the penis, called dorsal ; R, the integument underneath the penis ; S, the glans penis ; T, the orifice ; U, the raphe, which joins the anus ; V, W, the Cremaster muscle ; Y, Z, the ureters. 138 THE MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. .j4._ or .gJ— part of an inch, the length of each sixteen feet, ami the number not less than three hundred. Each tube commences in a closed extremity (or by anastomosing with another), near the inner surface of the fibrous covering of the testicle, and from that point progresses to the mediastinum testis ; as they approach this process, they become less con- voluted, and having passed through its fibres several coalesce, and terminate in about twenty larger and less convoluted ves sels, which proceed in parallel lines towards the back part of the gland ; these arc called vasa recta, or tubuli recti, they are situated amid the fibres of the tunica albuginea, in that part called the mediastinum ; of this they occupy the tront part, the blood-vessels being behind. In brief, these tubuli empty the semen into two bodies termed the vesicula seminales, or seminal reservoirs. Here it is that the semen is stored up, these tubes answering the pur- pose of reservoirs: each vesicula terminates, posteriorly, in a rounded cul-de-sac, and anteriorly unites with the vas deferens' of the same side to form a common duct, called the ductus ejaculalorii. The seminal fluid undergoes a great change in the vesiculoe seminales, to which I shall refer more fully in another part of the work. VI.— The Ductus Ejaculatorii are the common seminal conduits, resulting from the junction of the vas deferens and the vesicula on each side. Each is about an inch in length, and its calibre is greater and more dilatable than that of the vesicula? seminales. They are directed forwards, parallel to each other, pass through the prostate gland, and open into the urethra by two very small oblong apertures. VII.— The Prostate Gland (Fig. L, K) is a small body, about the size and shape of a chestnut, surrounding part of the neck of the bladder and the commencement of the ure- thra, measuring about an inch from before backwards, a little more from side to side, and about half an inch in thickness. It is traversed by the urethra, and also by the ductus ejacula- THE MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 139 torrii; the greater part of it, however, is situated below the urethra, and it therefore rests upon the rectum. It consists of three lobes, two placed laterally—one on either side—and the third between and behind the other two. It secretes a thin, white fluid, which is supposed to be for the purpose of lubricating the urethra: its texture is peculiar, and is well known to possess, in a high degree, the property of elasticity, a fact which has been turned to considerable account in the operation of lithotomy. The prostate frequently becomes enlarged in old age. VIII.—Cowpefs Glands (Fig. I., M) are two small bodies, about the size of peas, situated upon the membranous part of the urethra, near the bulb. Their existence is not invariable; Bometimes they are absent, and sometimes there is but one: they are not peculiarly male, since they exist in the female, and are quite as large in one sex as in the other. Two small ducts, about three-quarters of an inch in length, issue from them, and passing obliquely inwards and forwards, enter the urethra. Their use is by no means clear. IX.— The Penis.—The penis is the organ in the male which corresponds to the clitoris in the female, and consists princi- pally of the corpus cavernosum, the corpus spongiosum, the urethra, and the integuments, on each of which a few words may not be uninteresting. The common integuments of the body cover the greater part of this organ, the skin on the pubis is prolonged over the penis, not however without some slight alteration in its character, as in the former position it is supported by a thick cushion of fatty matter, whereas in the latter there is an entire absence of fat, and the skin is also much thinner on the penis than in other parts of the body : at the extremity of the corpora cavernosa it continues forwards, forming a loose fold, termed the prepuce, or foreskin. The skin at the margin of the prepuce is continuous with the mu- cous membrane lining the inside, and then being reflected to cover the glans, at the base of which, by the orifice of the 140 THE MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. urethra, where it is continuous with the lining of that canal, it is thrown into a fold called the fra?num prajputii. The length of the prepuce differs much in different individuals; underneath at its base, a foetid whitish substance is secreted, called smegna. The corpora cavernosa form about two- thirds of the entire volume of the penis, and determine its form : they are of the shape of longitudinal sections of cylin- drical tubes, and placed side by side, and blended together the greater part of their length, whilst at the rest they branch off into the two crura, and consequently present nearly the appearance of the letter Y, the upper part of which would be placed against the pubis, and the lower at the glans penis. The corpus cavernosum is situated at the upper part of the penis : its color is generally an opaque white, and its struc- ture a slightly elastic, danse fibrous membrane, traversed in many places by blood-vessels, which, being excited, give rise to the distension of the organ, called erection: the corpus cavernosum does not extend quite to the end of the penis, the glans not forming a part of it. The corpus spongiosum forms the lower part of the penis, and is analogous in its struc- ture to the corpus cavernosum. The urethra is situated partly in the groove formed by the union of the two corpora cavernosa, and the remaining part surrounded by the corpus spongiosum: it extends from the neck of the bladder to the extremity of the penis, and is in the male from eight to ten inches in length : it serves to convey the urine from the blad- der, and the seminal fluid from the vesicute seminales : it is divided into—a prostate portion, about an inch in length, and into which the ductus ejaculatorii, and the orifice of the mu- cous follicles of the prostate gland open—a membranous part, comprising the interval between the prostate and the bulb, also about an inch in length, and being the narrowest part of the canal—and a spongy or vascular portion, extending from the bulb (Fig I., N) to the glans, and being about six or seven inches in length. At the end of this portion, THE MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 141 viz., within the glans, there is a great dilatation of the canal called the fossa navicularis: it is this part that is generally affected in gonorrhoea, or, as it is vulgarly termed, clap. The glans penis (Fig. I., S) is a conical prominence forming the extremity of the penis, and presenting at its base a circular ridge called the corona glandis. Fig. II. Fig. n.—A drop of semen, in which the spermatozoa are sparingly con- tained—a, spermatozoa ; b, seminal granules. This short sketch of the anatomy of the organs of genera- tion will enable the reader the better to understand what I shall now state, regarding their functions and abuses, and the diseases to which they are liable. The seminal fluid, I have already remarked, first makes its appearance in the testes, where it is elaborated from the blood, but is not perfectly formed there, as it undergoes other changes before it is ejected altogether out of the system. " It % is one of those secretions," says Kirkes, " in which a process of development is continued after its formation in the secret- ing cells, and is discharged from them into tubes," It con- 142 THE MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. ',-■ ' tains, when first secreted, granules and round corpuscles, btfJ no trace of the peculiar bodies which afterwards make their appearance. Having, however, passed into the vesiculsa seminales—taking the course I have already pointed out—■ here the great development is completed; here small bodies Fig. in. make their appearance, which have been called seminal filaments, or sometimes, from the idea that they were really living animals, and belonged to the entozoa, they have been termed spermatozoa (Fig. II., a). These are, no doubt, the essential elements of the spermatic fluid; they are exceedingly minute, measuring in the human semen not more than the ^-J-^r or -^j- of an inch in length, and not more than the -g-J-jr of an inch in £1 the diameter of the head, by far the largest part of the body; they consist of a head or body, of a flattened elliptical form (Fig. III. a); from this head is given off a kind of thr»*d-like tail (Fig. III. b), by means of ^^^wimBm which the movements of the body are effected, %WJmMm 1 and therefore this tail will be straight, or waved, according to its position. Spermatozoa exist in the seminal fluid of almost all other animals except hybrids, in which they are either absent, or imperfectly developed, such animals being generally sterile. The shape of these small animal- culae varies in different animals : in most mammalia they are nearly of the same form as those of the human being, but generally larger, especially in the smallest animals; e. g. in the rat they are, according to "Wag- ner, about -j-^j- of an inch in length; in the Fig. IH^-Spermatozoon magnified—a, head ; 6, tail. THfi MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 143 dbg and rabbit they have a pear-shaped body; in the mouse the extremity of the body is bent upwards and backwards, like the point of the scalpel; in the squirrel, the margin of Uhe body is bent, or rolled up j and in lizards) serpents, frogs, &c.j they have a globular body, and a delieate Caudal filament. The seminal fluid, in addition to the spermatozoa, is made Up of two other1 elements; these are—a fluid and seminal gran- ules ; the latter are round bodies, granulated on the surface, and being in size about the -j^Vo" °^ an *nCn *n diameter. (Fig. II., b.). The fluid part of the semen has not been ob- tained separate from the other components, and consequently its properties have not been ascertained. The whole together, form, as you are a Ware, a thick white or yellowish-white fluid, having a peculiar smell; it speedily becomes more transpar- ent, when exposed to the air. From the nature of this fluid —from the purpose which it serves—and from the large quan- tity of blood brought down to the testes to form it, there can be no doubt whatever that its vitality is greater—much greater—than any other fluid in the body. CHAPTER III. SELF-ABUSE. ' What are the sun and stars to things like me f I am a wretched mass of filth and misery I Hide me, dark-throated caverns,-^hide my form I That lacks the signet and the power of man I" Various terms have been employed to describe the habit of self-abuse; most of them, however, to some extent are objectionable. The most common, perhaps, is Onanism, taken from the circumstance that the first instance we have on record of a perpetration of a crime of this kind is that of Onan, mentioned in Genesis. Every one, however, who reads the narrative carefully, must perceive that the crime of Onan Was not exactly that which is now called after his name. Another term, and perhaps a more correct one, is Mastur- bation, derived from manus, the hand, and strapo, I defile. This can, however, be considered strictly correct only when applied to the procuring emissions by titillations of the virile member with the hand; whereas it is used in a much more extended sense, signifying emission procured by any artificial means—any means, in fact, short of natural intercourse with the opposite sex.* Sometimes habits of this kind have been spoken of as Pollutions ; but this term is objectionable, as it confounds in many cases the cause with the effect. A pollution is merely an emission, and that may frequently arise from weakness or disease of these organs, caused, perhaps, by See Essay 4, Part I. PELF-ABUSE. 145 this vice, perlmps not, and even in the former case occurring long after the habit has been abandoned. The most express- ive term is that of se(/"-pollution, or self-abuse ^ but as all the others named are commonly used and commonly understood, my objections to them are not sufficiently strong to prevent me from also employing them. The pernicious habit of Self-Abuse may be commenced very early in life, and may be, as has been already intimated, the result either of teaching by associates or companions, or of chance or accidental circumstances. Few .persons, except those who have had great experience in these matters, would for a moment guess that a habit of this kind could com- mence at the tender age that children are sometimes present- ed to our notice, suffering its dire and dismal consequences. Indeed it is almost impossible to say of any child that it is too young to practice it; frequently it is commenced at three or four years of age, and sometimes much earlier: of course there can be no emission at so early a period, but gratifica- tion is found in producing friction upon the glans penis, and Other parts adjacent to it; and the habit is continued for the sake of this pleasurable sensation till an emission takes place, which occurs under such circumstances much earlier than otherwise. Even infants, a few months old, will acquire the habit of playing with their genital parts, handling them, and moving them between their fingers, if not checked by their parents or nurse; and there can be little doubt that such a trifling circumstance as this has, ia hundreds of instances, given rise to that most degrading and pernicious vice. At three or four years of age, however, it is very common, and produces the most baneful consequences; for, although there is not at that period the terrible debility consequent upon the loss of large quantities of the most vital fluid in the body, which we so frequently witness in the emaciated and broken- up constitutions of those more advanced in years, yet there is an undue excitement, which must give rise to a large number 146 BELF-ABUSE". of the diseases " which flesh is heir to," more particularly of the brain and nervous system ; and there is also the dismal fact, that the habit commenced at this period will continue through life, unless some guardian angel arrests its course. The diseases which may arise from this habit, even when practiced before seminal fltiid is found in the vesicles, and con- sequently before there can be any emission, are neither few nor email. The over-excited state, of the nervous system which is produced, and the loss of nervous power which fol- lows it, may give rise to such a perturbation of the nervous system as to occasion death, which is evidenced by a case of Lallemand's where death did occur, and which the Professor of Montpelier attributes to the effect produced on the brain by repeated convulsive shocks, similar to those which sus- ceptible subjects receive when the soles of their feet are tickled. When, however, this undue excitement, and its con- sequent depression, does not terminate in physical death, it ends, in nine cases out of ten, in what may be justly consid- ered mental death, in the loss of all intellectual capabilities, and the establishment of idiocy. How numerous are the cases which I have myself seen of children at six or seven years of age, who had been their parents' pride and joy, sunk into a state of confirmed idiocy through this baneful practice 1 Other evils, much too numerous t» refer to individually, are also the common consequences of this habit, when com- menced at this early period. " However young the children may be," says the author just quoted, " they get thin, pale or irritable, and their features become haggard ; their sleep is short, and most complete marasmus comes on ; they may die, if this evil passion is not got the better of; nervous symptoms set in, such as spasmodic contractions, or partial or entire convulsive movements, such as epilepsy, eclampsy, and a species of paralysis, accompanied with contractions of the limbs." Should, however, the habit be continued, and, in cone©- SELF-ABUSE, 147 quence of a strong constitution, none of these symptoms make their appearance during this youthful period, nature will re- ply to the call of the excitement, and semen will be emitted at a period much earlier than would otherwise occur. In such cases the sexual instinct manifests itself some time, per* haps many years, before the genital organs are in a fit condi- tion to secrete this fluid. As soon as there is an escape, the pleasure will be much greater than had before been experi- enced, and consequently the habit will become more Confirm-* ed; the practice will be much more frequent, and as a mat- ter of course, the chances of escape much less. Now, in ad- dition to the undue excitement, there will be a drain upon the system, in the loss of the most vital fluid in the body. The frequency with which this act will be repeated in the day, Is enough to frighten the physician or physiologist as to the consequences; but the youthful devotee, at the shrine of a more cruel deity than Moloch, fears no ill, because he knows not the danger—he sees not the precipice upon which he is standing, nor the vast chasm over which he is tottering. All cases of this kind, however, are not commenced at so early a period in life; the habit is not discovered by many till the genital organs are in a condition to obey the call made upon them. Sometimes the first knowledge that a youth ob- tains of this practice is learned from his associates at school j for large institutions, where a large number of boys are col- lected together, and more particularly where several sleep in the same room, are admirably adapted for the purpose of propagating a vice of this kind ; and there can be little doubt, that in many instances they are the very hot-beds of this vice. A circumstance occurred in a large school near ------, a short time since^ which will be fresh in your mem- ory, and which alone will serve to illustrate this point. At Other times this habit is discovered by accident. Horse-rid- ing has in numerous cases given rise to it, by producing an agreeable feeling in the friction of the genitals upon the sad' M8 SELF-ABUSE, die, or back of the horse; at other times it has been com' menced by rubbing the legs together, the penis being between them; and frequently by sleeping upon the abdomen. Some- times the cause which first gave rise to it may have been a derangement of the cerebellum—that part of the brain which presides over the function of the sexual organs—and of the spinal nerves. All that I shall do further in this chapter, will be to notice very briefly that disease called Varicocele, or varicose veins in the testicle. Frequent and undue action of an organ, no matter in what part of the body situated, will cause a greater flow of blood to that organ, and a change is consequently very likely to take place in the number and condition of the blood-vessels; this is what occurs in the testes in varicocele. From the continual excitement and constant action of the parts in the formation and emission of large quantities of seminal fluid, the veins become enormously distended, and ap- parently more numerous, and their coats thickened; the scro- tum generally becomes elongated on the affected side, more frequently the left, but sometimes both; the folds disappear, and the whole Organ hangs down in a pendulous state ; some- times the testicle wastes entirely away, and, as a matter of course, impotence, in many cases incurable, is the result. I was consulted, a short time since, on a case of this kind by a young man, the son of a clergyman of high standing------■ ------, whose pale and haggard appearance, together with the heart-breaking sobs which frequently interrupted the re- cital of the narrative, as he related to me the particulars, made such an impression upon me, that I shall never forget it as long as I live. He had practiced the habit of mas- turbation from the age of ten, as near as he could recollect, but thought it might probably have been earlier. It was first commenced by mere accident; climbing a tree in his father's garden to obtain some fruit, the friction upon the genital or- gans produced so agreeable a sensation, that he repeated the BELF'ABUSE, 149 act again and again ; this led him to attempt to produce the same pleasurable feelings by other means, first by rubbing outside his clothes, and ultimately by titillation of the naked virile member with the hand. Having continued this prac- tice for two or three years, an emission was the result; the pleasure being much greater now than before, there was little probability of the habit being discontinued; and now, too, began to make their appearance inclinations for intercourse with the opposite sex, which this vicious practice was found the means of gratifying. At last, when about sixteen, he des termined to discontinue the baneful practice, not because he saw any evil in it, but because he looked upon it as a boyish habit; and, as he was now arriving, as he thought, to manj hood, he concluded that the practices of childhood, this among the number, should be thrown aside; but before he had car- ried out his resolution more than a week, he was Seized with an excessive desire for sexual intercourse; this he dare not indulge in, for fear of violating those laws and precepts of Christianity which his pious father instilled into his mind. Fornication he looked upon as a horrible sin, and, however strong the temptation to it, it must be avoided. You will readily imagine the sequel; he again returned to his old hab-> it, and for years afterwards viewed it not as an evil, but as a positive good, since it was to him the means of avoiding the sin of fornication. " Oh!" he said to me, with tears in his eyes, " if my father or some one else, had conversed with me on matters of this kind at that period, it would have prevented all this suffering. But no, all such subjects were prohibited from being mentioned, and I went on sinning against God, and against my own constitution, in complete ignorance.'' The habit was continued for two years longer, when his con- stitution commenced breaking up ; he began to look pale and emaciated, his appetite fell off, severe pains were experienced in the back part of the head, and in the testes and the loins; seminal emissions frequently occurred, and he was fast becom- 150 SELF-ABUsE. Ing the shadow of his former self. His friends bcgatt to b« alarmed at his appearance; the family medical man was con- sulted ; his lungs were examined, and declared sound, and the disease pronounced general debility, which a change of air and tonic medicines would probably remove. The tonic med- icines, in the shape of large doses of quinine, were adminisj tered ; the sea-coast was resorted to for a change of air, but the habit was continued, and the patient experienced no re- lief. The toot of the disease had escaped attention, and, as a matter of course, the system did not improve. At this peris od the patient himself had not the slightest idea that the dc bilitated state of his frame originated in the habit he had been so long practising. He thus continued to grow worse and worse, and his friends made up their minds that whatever might be the cause of his disease, he certainly would never recover. Celebrated physicians were now consulted, but the habit that was draining the fountains of the body of their vi- tality was never referred to, and the consequence was that the treatment had no effect. At length the young man began to notice a great change in his genital organs ; the scrotum hung down in the pendulous state before mentioned; on the left side no testicle could be felt, but in its place a number of hard cords; there was an apparent diminution in size of the exter- nal parts, and an eruption made its appearance under the pre- puce. These circumstances led him to imagine that probably the habit he had been so long practising might have some-- thing to do with the condition in which he found himself, and he determined to make inquiry on the subject. In his search through various works for the purpose of ascertaining this fact, he alighted upon " J. J. Rousseau's Confessions," which completely opened his eyes, and he now saw clearly the na- ture of the horrible vice he had for so many years indulged in, and the consequences, which were now, in misery to him- self, flowing from it. It was immediately after this that I caw him; and although, from the nature of the case, and the SELF-ABUSE, 151 extent of the evil, I at first despaired of rendering him any service, yet I am happy to say, that, with his discontinuing the practice, the administration of powerful remedies inter- nally, the employment of the Medicated Bougie, and the use of lotions and injections locally, he is now completely recov- ered, and is, he informed me, the last time I saw him, about to enter shortly into the connubial state with a young lady of great wealth and beauty. This case alone ought to be suf- ficient to show the evil of keeping young men in ignorance of the proper use of the genital organs, and the abuses to which these organs are liable. CHAPTER IV. SPERMATORRHCEA. The disease called Spermatorrhcea is one of the most com- mon results of Masturbation ; indeed, it is almost an invaria- ble result, for it is next to an impossibility for any person to practice this baneful habit for any length of time, without suffering from the involuntary escape of seminal fluid, either with the urine or otherwise. It does not follow, however, that if an individual suffers from emissions, that, therefore, he must have been guilty of the vice of Onanism. By no means : the disease may have had its origin in excessive venery, or weakness from other causes, or in some cases, I have no doubt it is constitutional. " The Vesicula? Seminales," says Lalle- mand, " take on the habit of contracting themselves under the influence of excitement less energetic than usual, and quite abnormally so. In such cases, a full bladder or rectum, a bed too warm or too soft, lying on the back, warm or ex- citing drinks, etc., provoke emissions more readily than they ought. It is in such instances that the intimate and recipro- cal connexion between the vesicula} seminales and brain pro- duces lascivious dreams, les plus desordonnes, under the slight- est direct or indirect excitement of the genital organs, and inevitable pollutions, from the reproduction of all the ideas which are connected with those of generation." Among the common causes of spermatorrhcea, I might place haemorrhoids (piles), a long foreskin, accumulation of dirt with the secre- tion under the prepuce, drinking large quantities of alcoholic drinks, gonorrhoea, venereal excess, and even, though it may SPERMATORRHCEA. 153 seem paradoxical, excessive continence; but the most com- mon of all, is weakness of the genito-urinary apparatus, resulting from the habit before named. The term Spermatorrhcea, is derived from Exey/ia, semen, Peco, to flow, and is applied to all cases where emission of seminal fluid takes place otherwise than in obedience to the impulse arising from the natural act of coition, or the will of the person in whom it occurs. It has been already remarked, that the seminal fluid is stored up in the vesiculae seminales, and that small ducts open from the junction of these with the vasa deferentia into the urethra, and that by means of these ducts, the fluid es- capes. Now, in the healthy state, these are continually kept closed, so that the semen cannot escape, except in obedience to the impulse arising from the natural act of coition; but when they become weakened by excessive venery, or, what is more common, by the habit to which the last chapter was devoted, dilatation follows, and the slightest degree of press- ure will cause the semen—as yet imperfectly formed—to es- cape ; such pressure, for example, as would be present when the faeces were passing down the rectum, or when the bladder was contracting to empty itself. You will remember that the vesiculae seminales are situated immediately between the bladder and the rectum, so that, when the faeces are passing down the latter, there is necessarily pressure upon the vesicles, and, consequently, it is then that the first symptoms of sperm- atorrhoea are observed. The same thing occurs when the bladder is contracting to empty itself, and from the same reason; a quantity of thick slimy fluid may be observed pass- ing with the last few drops of urine, which, upon examina- tion, turns out to be semen. Should the weakness, and, con- sequently, the dilatation, continue to increase, it will require no pressure to force away the seminal fluid, for it will escape as soon as formed, not remaining in the vesicles at all; but, passing immediately into the urethra, will either escape in 7* 154 SPERMATORRHOEA. large quantities, or pass backwards into the bladder, and come away with the urine. B. C— called upon me one morning, and informed me that he was twenty-four years of age, had practiced masturbation whilst at school, but had left it off for more than ten years, and had recently had sexual intercourse with females, much more frequently than he thought, to use his own words," did him good;" for the last week he had felt a little pain in the penis, and had noticed, on going to stool, a quantity of white glutinous matter pass away from the urethra, and become suspended in the water. I requested him to furnish me with some of the matter upon a piece of glass, which he did ; on examining it with the microscope, I detected spermatozoa, ordered a lotion to be applied to the genital organs morning and evening, and medicine to be taken internally, together with the use of the Medicated Bougie; in three weeks he was quite recovered. The seminal fluid is elaborated from the blood in nearly the same way that the milk, or any other secretion is ; but, requiring a much larger quantity of blood to form it, it is of. a much more vital character. Indeed, it has been computed, that its vitality is twenty times that of blood, and, conse- quently, the escape of an ounce of semen would be equal in the debilitating effects it would produce upon the system, to the loss of twenty ounces of blood ; and by this calculation, any one may easily judge of the result of frequent emissions. In the healthy condition of the generative organs, the sem- inal fluid is continually being formed, and stored up in the vesiculae seminales, to be ejected from the system at regular intervals ; but the formation of this fluid, like that of most other secretions, is very much under the control of the nerv- ous system, and will consequently be much increased by the mind being continually directed towards objects calculated to excite the sexual propensity; and thus, if it be frequently ejected, a much larger quantity will be produced, at a terri- SPERMATORRHCEA. 155 ble expense to the other organs of the body. When, there- fore, a morbid condition of these organs has been brought about by excessive venery, or any other evil habit, so as to give rise to spermatorrhcea, and the patient suffers from the continual escape of this vital fluid, the quantity that may be secreted and passed away, is enough to frighten any one who understands anything of the physiology of the human body. One form, and a very common one, in which we meet with spermatorrhoea, is the escape of seminal fluid during the night, accompanied with erection of the penis, and erotic and lascivious dreams ; the emission in this case is generally sup- posed to arise from the excitement of the pictures before the imagination; this is, however, by no means the case. " The general belief," says Lallemand, "exists that erotic dreams produce nocturnal pollutions, and they are looked upon as very dangerous; but lascivious pictures, which occur during sleep, arise from excitement of the genital organs, just as erections and spasmodic contraction of the vesiculae seminales do ; ail these phenomena coincide, because they depend upon one and the same cause, but the one does not depend upon the other." A young man, of a nervous and excitable temperament, wrote to me, asking for advice under the following circum- stances : He had practised masturbation for many years, in fact, had commenced it as early as he could remember, and had continued it till within two years of the time when I saw him, at which period his age was twenty-one. For the last year he had suffered from emissions, but in a trifling de- gree—as he called it—once a fortnight, or sometimes a little oftener. Recently, however, he never slept a night without having his rest interrupted by dreams of a most lascivious character, imagining himself in the embrace of the most beautiful women that imagination could picture, which dream always ended with his consummating his wishes, as he im- agined, but which the morning revealed to him as a copious emission, his night-clothes and the bed being wet with the fluid which had escaped. As this was rather a serious case, 156 SPERMATORRHCEA. I wished him to see me personally. This request he complied with, and I found, as I had anticipated, varicocele in one tes- ticle, and the whole of the genital organs in a great state of irritation. I employed remedies internal and external, and in two months had the pleasure of knowing that af complete cure had been effected. This is a very common form of spermatorrhcea. Scarcely a day passes without my seeing patients whose symptoms are analogous to those I have just detailed. The dfeease, like an assassin, attacks its victim during sleep, and invhen, conse- quently, he has no power to ward off the* bldw. Even on those, nights when emissions do not occur, still the patient suffers from gloomy and terrible fancies, breaking in upon his slumbers, haunting his imagination, and reviving what during the day has occurred, of the most unpleasant nature. My slumbers—if I slumber—are not sleep, But a continuance of enduring thought, Which then I can resist not ; in my heart There is a vigil, and these eyes but close To look within. Sometimes the escape of seminal fluid is experienced at regular intervals during the day, apparently without any di- rect cause. The patient may be walking or sitting—in one position or another—when suddenly he feels a quantity of fluid escaping from the urethra, without exciting any pleasurable sensation, and in the entire absence of erection of the penis. G. F., called upon me, and stated that a few days ago he had attempted intercourse with his wife, and had failed ; at first there was an erection, which, however, soon subsided, without any escape of semen, and then all sexual power was gone. He had been many years in Florida, and had enjoyed very good health, but for the last three or four weeks had suffered from the escape of what he supposed to be. semen, which had passed away generally whilst taking a lounge on the sofa, and smoking his cigar after dinner. This was not the result of an erection, nor did it occasion any pleasurable SPERMATORRHCEA. 157 sensation. He had, he stated, practised Onanism during his youth, but did not think it was that, or he should have felt the ill effects of it before. I used the Medicated Bougie, ordered cold bathing every morning, and prescribed internal remedies: and the patient was quickly restored to health and manly vigor. The worst form of spermatorrhoea, because the one most likely to escape detection, is that where the semen escapes by the ducts into the urethra, not, however, to be immediately ejected from the system, but to pass backwards into the blad- der, and then to be brought away with the urine. In this way the disease may go on for years without even being sus- pected, and the person who finds himself from this cause suf- fering from general debility and nervousness, wonders what can have given rise to the symptoms under which he labors. L. M., an Englishman, consulted me, to know if I could point out any probable cause why his wife had not borne children. He stated that he had been married four years, had lived rather freely previously, but did not think he suf- fered any ill effects from it, as he was able to have intercourse with his wife, although he admitted the pleasure experienced during the ejection of semen was not as great as formerly. Thinking he might suffer from this form of spermatorrhcea, I inquired if he knew whether the seminal fluid retained its usual color, smell, and consistence; to which he replied, that it did not; it was much thinner, and void of smell; the quan- tity, also, passed was very trifling. I Fig. rv. then requested him to bring me some of his urine, which he did. Upon ex- amination, this was found to contain large numbers of spermatozoa, but not perfect ones; most of them with the tails broken off, or mutilated in some other way, presenting nearly the ap- pearance Seen in the Diagram Fig. IV. F;g, jy. Imperfect sperma- tozoa. 158 .SPERMATORRHCEA. I now informed him that the cause of his wife's barrenness was obvious; he himself labored under the evil effects of spermatorrhcea, and the seminal fluid was of a most vitiated character, such, in fact, as could not possibly fecundate an ovum. He then placed himself under my treatment; the result of which will be best seen in the fact, that in less than twelve months the newspapers announced the birth of an heir to his estates, which were considerable. The broken or imperfect form of the spermatozoa is a com- mon consequence of spermatorrhcea, and is frequently met with in that disease. B. F., a young man about 23, a lawyer, who had been mar- ried about a year, and had never consummated the marriage obligation, called upon me to ask advice in his case. He in- formed me that he had never practised masturbation, nor, excepting once, when about eighteen, had he ever cohabited with a female ; and even then the pleasure he experienced was trifling. At the age of twenty-two, however, he married a young lady of great respectability, and of a warm and san- guine temperament. On attempting coition he failed, as there was no ejection of seminal fluid; and almost before penetration had taken place, the power of erection disap- peared. This sadly disappointed him; but thinking it proba- bly arose from his shyness, he consoled himself with that idea, and went to sleep. In the morning, another attempt was made, but with no better success: the next night, and the one succeeding that, was a repetition of the same circum- stance. He blundered out apologies to his wife, but she, in the generosity of her woman's nature, hoped he would think nothing of it—she, no doubt, hoping for better days. "Week after week passed away with the same result, till at length he scarcely dare make the attempt; his wife endeavored to en- dear him to her, but all in vain. At first he was desperate, and meditated self-destruction; but at length he became ac- customed to the circumstance, and thought little of it: his SPERMATORRHCEA. 159 wife was still in that same maiden state as when he took her from her father's home, but now he began to study her hap- piness much less. Twelve months passed away, and one day some trifling neglect on the part of his wife caused him to make a most severe remark : she, in return, replied, that she thought he should be more lenient to her faults and imper- fections, as she had not been so severe upon his. He under- stood to what she referred, and went out at the door without replying: he reflected, and after a few moments determined to commit suicide, and returned again to the house for that pur- pose. Fortunately, however, it occurred to him, that if he did, the secret might out, and he could not bear the thought that remarks should be made upon such a subject, to his pre- judice, after he was dead. It now, too, occurred to him that he might be suffering from some malady which might be within the reach of medical skill to remove. In this con- dition he waited upon me: I examined his urine with the microscope, and, after much trouble, and with great diffi- culty, detected spermatozoa. This solved the problem: I administered the remedies I employ in such cases, and the following short note, which I received six months after, will indicate the result. My Dear Sir :—I am happy to inform you that I am completely recovered ; the proof being, not only that I can engage in the act of coition, as other men, but that my wife is enciente. I shall look upon you as my benefactor as long as I live. I am, dear Sir, Yours, very truly, Dr. Hammond. B. j\ Impotence is surely the greatest calamity that can befall a man. With what contempt does a woman look upon a man who is incapable of performing the functions of his nature ; and how few are the individuals who possess courage enough 160 SPERMATORRHCEA. to meet the jests of their fellow-men under such circumstances. Who could bear to think that the following remarks of Sir Astley Cooper applied to him ? " To such, a A'enus might display her charms, aud on such, her son might exhaust his quiver in vain. No genial spring is here—no blooming sum- mer or fertile autumn! but all is a winter—a dreary, desolate, and barren winter, in which the springs of life are frozen up, and the animal propensities destroyed." Impotence is com- monly the result of spermatorrhcea. There is another point or two which are of the greatest possible importance to refer to : these are, Firstly, the mode of detecting spermatozoa; and, Secondly, the treatment to be adopted. To these I shall recur in subsequent chapters. The most important point for the patient to bear in mind, in regard to the treatment of this affection, is to attend to it in time. When it has once commenced, it very rapidly be- comes worse, and speedily, if not attended to, passes beyond the reach of all treatment, nearly. CHAPTER V. PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON SPERMATORRHEA, &c, &c. The Canses, Symptoms, Prevention, and Cure, by a New and entirely Original System of Treatment. I DESCRIPTION, CAUSES, AND SYMPTOMS. This Disease, popularly called Seminal Weakness, but sci- entifically termed Spermatorrhcea, is also known by a vari- ety of names, more or less familiar to readers, as:—" Sexual debility," " seminal emissions" (nocturnal or diurnal), " nerv- ous debility," " physical decay," " mental debility," " prema- ture exhaustion," " premature decay," " consumption," " im- potence," " nervousness," &c, &c, &c. Young men are the most frequent victims of Spermator- rhoea, although it is by no means confined to them, as many adults are quite deplorably afflicted with it, and hurried by thousands, yearly, into the very jaws of death, Consumption, and the premature, silent grave, through the indirect agency of this frightfully appalling and secret scourge of civilization. For be it known and remembered that this disease is very often the immediate, though generally unsuspected cause* of Phthisis Pulmonalis, or Pulmonary Consumption—and con- sumption is the fell destroyer of nine-tenths of the civilized human race. The observance of the sacred injunction, speaking the lan- guage of nature, or the physical laws: " Be fruitful and mul- tiply and replenish the earth," is not unfrequently attended with much difficulty, if not impossibility, for the patient labor- ing under this complaint; to remove which, is the duty of every physician who is endowed with benevolence, reason, and * The origin, or Remote Capsk ot Phthisis, is generally Constitutional Syphilis in the parents or progenitors. See page 269. 162 PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. sufficient skill: to lay before all the. proper means for accom- plishing so desirable and important an object, is the aim of the following pages. The involuntary and tdo frequent discharge of the semen, or the seed, is called nocturnal pollution, if it happens only with voluptuous dreams at night; and diurnal pollution, if it happens in the day-time, with the slightest irritation, as for instance—if riding on horseback, or by an amorous idea, or by looking at or touching a female. The too frequent or in- voluntary nocturnal pollution is debilitating; still more so is the diurnal pollution, which may be classed as one of the most weakening and destructive of evacuations. To make this all-important subject perfectly clear to the general reader, I shall adopt the classification of Bohn,* a late Prussian writer of ability on this class of diseases. " Sperma- torrhoea," says he, " has three different stages, showing them- selves— " 1st, by JVbcturnal Emissions J "2nd, by Diurnal Seminal Losses ; " 3d, by Impotency, or Complete Loss of Manhood. " All these three different stages are accompanied, more or less, by nervousness; by an impaired nutrition of the body ; by lassitude, languor, weakness of the limbs and back; by indisposition and incapacity for study or labor; by dullness of apprehension; a deficient power of attention ; loss of memory; aversion to society; love of solitude; timidity; self-distrust; dizziness; headache; pains in the side, back, and limbs ; affections of the eyes (specks, &c, floating before them); pimples on the face; and, in extreme cases, even by idiocy, or insanity, in their most intractable forms. " The progress from one stage to another, is oftentimes scarcely perceptible; the virile organs losing their vigor so gradually, and those seminal losses being frequently so hidden * Sur les Pertes Seminales. Paris, 1852. PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 163 from view, that only a well-experienced eye is able to trace them. Nocturnal emissions, of course, both with and with- out erections of the procreative organ, cannot be overlooked; but diurnal emissions, or the second stage, are frequently es- caping the attention of the patient, till he finds himself in the third stage, or wholly unable to perform the natural sexual functions of a man. ' At first, the emissions are always attended by erections and pleasurable sensations during sleep, but in progress of time they begin to occur without either erections or sensa- tion ; and finally take place in the day-time, and this some- times whenever the bowels are moved, or the urine passed, or by the slightest excitement in female society, or occasionally they pass too quick during the act of copulation, so as to prevent either party from enjoying it. In extreme cases, there is a constant passing away of the semen, with scarcely any intermission, and a complete loss of power and retention is the inevitable consequence. " Persons, therefore, who have been suffering in former years from frequent nocturnal emissions, and are now not any more troubled in this way, will be oftentimes quite ignorant about the cause of their nervousness, their incapacity for study or business, their depression of spirits, &c, until by accident they detect small quantities of semen in the urine," etc." Causes of Spermatorrhea.—The immediate cause of this disease is debility, or a loss of vitality in the sexual-nervous system, with the consequent morbid sensibility and irritabili- ty of the seminal ducts and their appendages, the cerebellum and spinal nerves. In the highest degree of diurnal pollution, or seminal leakage, consists the greatest weakness of the seminal vessels—a slight pressure of the parts even causing an evacuation of semen. [See the article Impotence, Chap- ter VIII., page 177.] The most common predisposing cause of an involuntary dis- 164 PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. charge of semen is the practice of Masturbation, or Onanism ; and next to this in frequency is the occurrence of an attack of Gonorrhoea. There is a variety of other causes which may give rise to Spermatorrhcea, such as constipation of the bow- els, venereal infection, strictures of the rectum, or of the urethra, repelled cutaneous eruptions, hot climates, and the operation of cold; but these causes are so rare in comparison with the two first mentioned, that I will pass them by with- out further remark, confining myself to the discussion of, and pointing out the treatment adapted to the disease when brought on by Onanism and Gonorrhoea. When the emissions become thus unnatural, they may be said to have outlived the wants'of the system, and it is then that they compromise the health of the individual. The ir- ritation- which arises from the presence of a superabundance of spermatic fluid, still persisting and increasing, the organs themselves begin to feel the pernicious effects of the over-ex- citement, and the erections become incomplete, the emissions hurried, and the act almost entirely devoid of' pleasure. Fi- nally, the power of erection is entirely lost, the nocturnal dis- charges are diminished, and the change takes place of having the discharges during the day, instead of the night, as before —diurnal emissions; debility, or loss of vitality in the semi- nal-nervous system, as explained in the foregoing chapter and elsewhere, and in some rare instances, capillary congestion— not inflammation as Lallemand supposed—have now extended to the entire series of organs concerned in reproduction, and to the urinary apparatus; and every time the patient defe- cates or attempts to urinate, these acts are accompanied by a sensible loss of semen. General Symptoms of Spermatorrhcea.—Debility of tfie nervous system, hypochondria, cramps, weakness of the eyes, optical delusion, weakness of the memory, of all the faculties of the mind ; loss of the manliness of character, and the love of life; and if not properly treated and cured, these symp- PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 165 toms are followed by palsy, imbecility, insanity, consumption of the spinal marrow and lungs, and finally by death. Among the more prominent symptoms of Spermatorrhoea, or of a tendency towards this demoralizing and insidious mal- ady in young persons, are, a subversion of the natural temper to a disposition prone either to excessive irritability or mor- bid sullenness ; in some, the face becomes sallow, in others, meagre and attenuated; the countenaace flushes fitfully and readily ; the eyes lose their clearness and vivacity (or " vim "), and an unnatural yearning for solitude takes the place of that gaiety proper to the period of youth; whilst an invincible aversion to the searching gaze of the observer, master, friend, or parent, betrays, in the downcast eye, the consciousness of secret shame. This alteration in the temperament and man- ners displays itself more or less obviously, according to the organization of the constitution, and the tenacity of hold which the habit of self-abuse has effected upon the youthful mind by its destructive influence. In fact, the symptoms are such as might be expected to arise from such a drain upon the system; the individual becomes lean, wan, and dejected; wandering pains are felt throughout the body, but particular- ly in the head and region of the kidneys; the digestion is la- boriously and painfully performed ; tne most obstinate consti- pation will oftentimes be present; wind in the bowels will con- tinually torment and harass the patient, driving him out of society; the lassitude and general debility which result from these conditions, will induce a state of moroseness in the pa-| tient, which renders him discontented with himself and others^ he avoids society, because of the restraints thrown around him. He becomes averse to everything which reminds him of the pleasures in which he can no longer take a part; he falls into profound melancholy, becomes irascible, misanthrop- ic, completely hypochondriac; occupied with one sole object. he manifests the greatest indifference for everything that does not pertain to his own condition. The emissions in most of these cases occur during the sleep, 166 PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. accompanied by an erection of the penis, at times, and are oft- en consequent upon the termination of a lascivious dream. Among the symptoms which render evident disease of the mind, are, " the impairment of the elasticity and tension of the intellect—the power of application is diminished, the love of pursuit is decreased, the perception becomes" slow, confused and'erroneous—the wide range of the imagination is curtail- ed, and concentrated upon the one all-absorbing subject—the mind becomes old, if I may so speak, so that the memory of the immediate past is obliterated ; while that of scenes and events long since passed, of by-gone days of happiness and mental hilarity, remains to harass and torment the mind that would escape from its torturing and terrible thoughts ; the judgment becomes infirm and vacillating ; a horrible inclina- tion to commit suicide is felt by the patient at the sight of in- struments of death—a feeling rendered still more horrible, by the ineffectual attempts which are made to flee from it." These, and many other symptoms (see chapter VII.) are oft- en observed, although, perhaps, never in full in any one sin- gle patient; I should, perhaps before this, have stated what was the true nature of the local disease. From the preceding and succeed- ing pages, it can be seen plainly, that it consists in a loss op vitality—but where ? I will answer : whether brought on by self-pollution, gonorrhoea, or excessive coitus, the nerves of the mucous membrane of the seminal tubes and ejaculatory ducts (or those canals through which the semen flows), and the testes, become debilitated from over-use. That is the true nature of the disease. Just in the same way that any other secreting organ would become weakened and irritated from too much use, these delicate organs become so likewise; and it could hardly be expected that they should do otherwise. In the course of the disease, other organs adjacent and con- nected with them- become exhausted, and thus increase the patient's dangen CHAPTER VI. On the New Treatment of Spermatorrhoea, and its Concomitant fiifc eases, by means of the American Veratrum Viride, Spts. Formic, the Author's Medicated Bougie, the Preparations of Iodine, etc. Now the question arises, how are these seminal losses, noc- turnal as well as diurnal, to be arrested, thereby restoring not only the affected parts, but the whole body, to their former pristine vigor? The best because the most prompt method, is by a judicious combination of Medicinal, Local, and Medico- Mechanical means ; or in other words, by General (consti- tutional) and Special (local) Treatment. The special or local treatment consists in first reducing the local weakness and relaxation, and thus bringing about a healthy action in the seminal vessels, etc., largely by the aid afforded through the medium of the Medicated Bougie; and, also, in Counteracting the debility of the system at large, by the employment of suitable internal remedies; one of the princi- pal among which, in my practice, is the Veratrum Viride, than which a rrtore appropriate Nervine Was never vouch- safed to afflicted mart suffering from Spermatorrhcea; for it Will, if properly combined with Iodine, and other auxiliary ingredients, effectually supply the deficient constitutional vigor, generally connected With seminal weakness, through the brain and spinal nerves, particularly. To make the treatment perfectly intelligible, a little ana- tomical and physiological knowledge will be useful to the reader. I again quote from Bohn :— " Physiology and Composition of the Semen.—The semen passes 168 S'EW TREATMENT. from the testes along a pipe or duct, called the vas dcferctis, which opens into the urethra, through the pro.state gland and Mininal Vesicles, just behind the tipper and back part of the scrotum, or bag. These ducts and vesicles have, in a healthy state, sufficient power bf retention and contractility to retain the semen in its proper place, till it is wanted in a natural way in cohabitation. If, however, they are Weakened from self-abuse, tta, they become relaxed, and, as it were, enlarged, and consequently allow the semen, almost me- chanically, to escape involuntarily at the slightest excitement. When irritated, they are liable t<» be acted upon by the urine, which passes over their mouths; and as the bladder itself soon partakes of the same irritation, the urine is being constantly passed, and is nearly always mixed with semen." According to a chemical analysis of semcrt made by Mons. Vauquelin, it appears to be composed of— 1. A peculiar extractive matter ; 6 2. Phosphate of Lime ... 3 3. Soda . . . 1 4. Water ; . . • -90 100 Dr. Bohn found a substance resembling mucus, a pcc*liaf form of albumen, a matter slightly soluble in either soda ot chloride of sodium (common salt), phosphate of lime, sulphur, and a peduliar volatile distinguishing odorous principle. The semen of animals is a thick white or yellowish White fluid, having a peculiar penetrating odor. It becomes more transparent; when exposed to the atmosphere, and is coagu- lated by alcohol. Semen, of both men and the lower animals, is composed of three distinct elements, a fluid, granules, and animalculse-^-viz., the spermatozoa. These animalculae are found in both the Vas deferens, and in the seminal vesicles^ The fluid of the semen cannot be obtained separate from its other component parts, and, consequently, its other peculiaf properties are unknown. The spermatozoa Were discovered by a student at Leyden, named Hamme, and are ably de- ecribed by M. Leuwenhoeck; and during the present century NEW TREATMENT. 169 by M. Wagner, M. Prevost, Baron Dumas, Dr. Miiller (of the University of Berlin), and Dr. Carpenter (of University Col- lege, London). They are found in man and the majority of the higher classes of animals. In birds, they are produced anew each Spring, and disappear in the Autumn. In the mam- malia (animals which bring forth their young and suckle them), their formation commences at an early age 5 in rab- bits their development is complete, according to M. Wagner, at the third month after birth; in cats and dogs it is effected much later; but in men, it does not take place till the age of puberty, which on the continent of Europe occurs when the individual is about fourteen years of age. These important observations have also been confirmed by those eminent men, M. Vou Siebold, Dr. Valentine, Dr. Dewhurst, Dr. Hutin, Dr. Brier, and Dr. Hallmann. These animalcule or spermatozoa, are the cause of impreg- nation in the female after a successful matrimonial enjoyment, and, of course, this can only take place when these microscopic animalcule are perfectly formed. However, it has been dis- covered, not only by myself, but by far more eminent physiol- ogists, that when, from self-abuse, the individual is attacked With Sparmatorrhofea, these minute animals are imperfectly formed, and consequently no impregnation can take place in the female; and for this reason, all hopes of a married pair, under these circumstances, are entirely out of the question. This fact -alone, independent of others I could«name, will dem- onstrate the absolute necessity of every individual suffering from Spermatorrhoea, and especially when it has originated from baneful youthful practices, paying particular attention to these important subjects. Deposition of Seminal Fluid in the Urine. Semen constitutes a very frequent deposit in the urine of persons suffering from Spermatorrhoea, (from the pernicious use of curative instruments, rings, ttc, which, in " preventing 8 no NEW" TREATMENT. the emissions," as the quack says, causes it, the Scltleit, id enter the bladder, and1 produces Impotence), and which can only be detected by the microscope. This is also shown, by the presence of the well-known seminal animalcules and cor- puscles. The spermatozoa are nearly always dead, in conse^ quence of the injurious action of the urine itself upon their vitality. They are occasionally seen in the urine in small number, where there is no visible deposit. In combination with these spermatic animalculae, octahe' dral crystals of oxalate of lime are frequently noticed. Some pathological chemists have stated, that when these crystal.-; occur in urine, semen is always present; but as far as my own observations extend (and these, have been extensive—al- most daily), such has not been the case. In this I am con- firmed by the researches of Dr. Hassell. " It is very common for patients to remark, that their urine ia thick and ropy, particularly the last drop, and it is generally t bought that this arises from inflammation of the bladder, but in most cases it is only from being mixed with semen. Many respectable married men, of temperate habits, do not suppose that they are in the least affected in this way, simply because they do not know that such losses could occur in any hidden form. Oh acquainting them with this form of Spermatorrhoea, they are amazed, and deeply regret the want of information that had prevented them from knowing the cause of their suffering before. There is no doubt, but that thin hitherto undetected form of Spermatorrhcea, has been the cause of incalculable misery to thousands, and that it has condemned numbers to insanity and aifuntimely death : in married people, this frequently arises, where the bounds of true moderation in the sexual act have been exceeded."—Brau. We can now resume the above observations in a few words. This relaxation, and loss in the power of retention, in the seminal conductors, must be considered as the real cause of the disease in question; while the too frequent losses of the seminal fluid, produced by them, are the cause of the consti- tutional symptoms above enumerated. To produce a healthy contraction (through revitalizatiou of NEW TREATMENT. 171 the seminal-nervous system) of these seminal vessels, tubes, ducts, and vesiculae seminales, then, througliout their entire length, is to cure the Emissions. I shall now point out the proper treatment. General Treatment.—The cure of the too frequent pol- lutions is at the same time the cure of Onanism, and is impos- sible without desisting entirely from the latter. To this end, the prurient imagination is to be regulated and diverted from voluptuous and sensual objects; avoid obscene and disgusting books ; the mind should be occupied with serious and abstract occupations; the physical powers are to be invigorated by exercise, so that the couch is sought from a sense of weari- ness, almost, though not from excessive fatigue. The diet is to be bland, nutritious, and plain, and the patient should avoid all that is stimulating and exciting, especially spices, wines, and other liquors; and in their place vegetables and fruits should be used : no food should be taken late at night, nor in- deed for some hours before retiring to bed, while feather beds Should be avoided, and early rising adopted. With these preliminary regulations, then, the cure is to begin. The next thing necessary, is to strengthen and remove the wealcness and morbidly-increased irritability of the sexual ap- *. paratus. This should be done with great precaution. An immediate and too sudden strengthening and stimulation of the organs would increase the local irritability,'and of course the pollutions, and thereby the debility; hence the absurdity and perniciousness of resorting to cauterization, and to the Various alcoholic preparations of cantharides, or Spanish flies, sold in this and other markets under Various names and forms, which merely stimulate and consequently weaken the parts. At first, therefore, the more powerful remedies are not to be used, but the Medicated Bougie, the Spts. Formic, the mineral acids, and particularly the Aromatic Sulphuric 172 NEW TREATMENT. Acid, in doses from 15 to 20 drops, three times a day, arc to be our chief reliance; after a week or two, a mixture of this acid and the Spiritus Formic, with Tinct. Cinchona; and after another week, the time will have come for employing the Veratrum Viride, Iodine, &c. At the same time the use of means Which have a tendency to diminish the irritability, and give real strength, should not be neglected. For instance, sea baths, and repeated bathings of the genitals, the perinseum, and the back, with cold salt Water; afterwards, cold water mixed with Spirit. Formic, and camphorated spirits ; together with bathing in the river or sea. Also, artificial ferruginous baths—vitriolized iron, half an ounce to each bath-^-used in connection with the other means, Will, when the baths can be conveniently employed, facilitate the cure; although they are not absolutely essential. seminal gleet. A seminal gleet may arise from an excessive indulgence in Venereal pleasures, from stimulating provocatives—as " invig- orating cordials," &c,—as well as from self-abuse ; it may also be brought on by a variety of accidental causes, such as very violent labor or exercise ; lifting weights above the strength of the body, or other strains ; violent or otherwise improper medicines, may also produce this complaint; or it may be occasioned by epilepsies, convulsions, ot involuntary emissions, whether from dreams or other causes. In the ar> proaches of this disease, there are generally no symptoms of actual pain, except a weakness and a dull uneasiness in the loins and about the neck of the bladder ; the semen or seed passes away insensibly, and particularly on going to stool, or on using the smallest force with the body; the erections, though frequent, are not vigorous ; the semen is too readily ejected, and is thin, of a bluish color or shade. kEW TREATMENT. 173 Aftef this disease has continued for some time, the penis' becomes heavy and useless, the testicles hang lower than usual, and grow heavy and awkward ; a pain Sets in at the lower extremity of the sphie or back bone, which by degrees is felt further up the back : the calves of the legs diminish, the patient's eyes grow dull and weak, a sense of weight is felt in the head and a ringing in the ears, the breath becomes short and laborious, especially after exercise, a slow and wast< ing fever comes on, with continual pains in the head, breast and bowels, attended with thirst and Universal weariness and disinclination to motion; at length the spirits become de- jected, the memory fails, the Sight decays, or an incurable gutta serena deprives the patient of it entirely, and a hectic doses the scene. In the cure of this disease, the remedies already pointed but in the preceding chapter are to be skillfully employed, at the same time that regimen and diet are of much importance; the diet should be light, cordial, and extremely nourishing, and it should be taken frequently and in small quantities at a time ; the patient should retire to rest early in the evening) breathe a dry, pure, and mild air, and take gentle exercise, if possible on horseback, or in a carriage. The medicines should be judiciously combined with those auxiliaries which are mod- erately cordial, and such as increase the latent heat of the body ; cold bathing, ialsoj Will in this case be attended with considerable benefit. CHAPTER VII. IMPOTENCE—A BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE AUTHOR'S NEW THEORY THEREON. THE FALLACY OF CAUTERIZATION DEMONSTRATED. By the term impotence, I mean the inability of the male to perform a fruitful coition. This defect is of different kinds and different in degree, being absolute or general, and existing Under all conditions; or relative, existing only at certain times and under certain circumstances. Thus impotence may be either complete or incomplete. In the latter case, impreg- nation is still possible, if met with a great degree of warmth or sympathy on the part of the woman. But if the impo- tence be absolute, then there is a total absence of the power of erection, or a too quick evacuation, or total failure in emit- ting the semen or sperm. Causes of Impotence.—These are of two kinds, predispos- ing and immediate. I shall first State the immediate cause, and then the predisposing causes, or those causes Which pre- cede and give rise to the former. In my estimation, the im- mediate cause is of the utmost importance, as it is upon this cause that the New Treatment is based, in contradistinction to that of Lallemand. To this cause I have adverted in the Preliminary Chapter, and will now proceed to a more thor- ough amplification of it, in order to give the reader a true ap- preciation of toy claims in relation therewith. But, before I do so, it will be as well to again briefly state Lallemand's idea of this immediate cause, upon which his treatment (and IMPOTENCE. 175 that of all his imitators), by cauterization depends ; this repetition being rendered the more essential, inasmuch as I wish to give his main reason for relying upon his theory of spermatorrhcea (the result of which disease is Impotence), for the purpose of showing the fallacy of said theory, and consequently of his treatment, which, I need hardly say, is founded upon his theory. According to Lallemand—an able surgeon of Montpelier, France—spermatorrhcea, impotence, &c, are the results of inflammation of the seminal ducts; and, as lunar caustic sometimes cures inflammation of the eye, he concluded that it would, also, cure inflammation of the ducts. To prove that it was inflammation of these ducts upon which the above- mentioned diseases depend, he referred to the red appearance, after death, of the lining of the ducts in some persons who had died of some other disease, while laboring under sperma- torrhoea or impotence. It has, however, since been shown, most conclusively, in scores of instances, by consummate French anatomists, that the red appearance of the lining of mucous canals, or organs (stomach, intestines, bladder, seminal ducts, urethra, etc.), is due merely to the act of death itself; or, in other words, that 6uch redness is but a phenomenon of death, and takes place in this wise : In a tissue that has been long in a weak condi- tion, or for some time previous to death, the minute blood- vessels of such tissue, or membrane, are in a relaxed, flaccid, and dilatable state; and during the convulsive act of dying, the blood rushes into these relaxed vessels, and remains in them, thus giving rise to the red appearance of the lining membrane of the seminal ducts above mentioned. This sim- ple fact explains all. It not only completely overthrows the theory of Lallemand, but it as completely establishes mine, namely, that it is weakness, from los^of vitality, of the sem- inal ducts, coupled, more or less, with brain and spinal debili- ty, &c, which immediately causes spermatorrhcea, impotence, 176 IMPOTENCE. and the like. Many other solid reasons could easily be given to substantiate my theory—as the absence of symptoms gen- erally of inflammation in the seminal ducts of those who la- bor under seminal emissions, provided cauterization has not been employed; Tpie Inability of Cauterization to Cure. But, as one fact is enough to overthrow any erroneous theory, even the most plausible, and as it is my wish not to trespass more than is absolutely necessary on the reader's attention, I will rest my case here ; merely add- ing, in conclusion, that my experience of many years in the treatment of these diseases, is alone sufficient to demonstrate the correctness of my theory, even were there no other reasons adducible. The predisposing or remote causes of impotence, may be: want of or bad food, excessive fatigue, great exertions of the mind, grief and sorrow, exhaustion by sexual excesses, Mas- turbation ; absence of the spermatozoa ; in a word, every- thing that diminishes the vitality of the man, and of the sem- inal ducts especially, or that gives to the semen a poor, thin, and watery nature, without a sufficient degree of healthy ex- citability in the generative organs. Such are some of the more prominent causes of complete impotence ; while those of relative or temporary impotence, are : physical or moral disgust, antipathy toward each other, or incompatibility of temper, both in the man and woman. A man may be impo- tent with one woman, while with another he is not. Even the influence of weakening and disturbing physical or moral causes, lack of self-confidence, or too great a desire for coition, may become obstacles to its proper consummation. This disease is an occasional consequence cf chronic gleety discharges from the urethra, and it is a defect the presence of which never rails to make a strong impression on the mind of the patient. It is connected with one of those acts which a man naturally prides himself upon, and justly considers it as connected with the strongest passion of his nature ; and any IMPOTENCE. 177 defect in the performance of it has a powerful influence upon the mind; and this influence is often so potent, as to have an effect in producing the deficiency, where it was only supposed to exist. It consists in an inaptitude of the genital organs for the venereal act, generally from loss of vitality in the whole seminal apparatus. Brau Bays the loss of vitality, whenever we are unable to attribute it to any apparent cause, ought to be ranged among the local symptoms of diurnal pollutions, and among the most certain ones. Impotence is more frequent from temporary than from permanent causes; and though it may be the effect of the venereal disease, it is not generally the case. Gleet certainly will, at times, produce a temporary defect, but the cure of it will remove this, and the patient will find himself in possession of his wonted powers and inclinations again. But this complaint is commonly the result of masturbation or self-abuse. (See the chapter on Self-Abuse.) As Acton says, one of the most common causes in persons who consult us on account of impotence, is a lax scrotum and enlargement of the spermatic veins; hence the condition of thp scrotum and testicles is the first thing a surgeon should observe in these patients. In some instances, temporory im- potence, depending upon non-erection, is caused by fear, dis- gust or timidity. In other instances, ill health, anxiety, pro- longed intellectual employment, or injuries to the head, are among some of the many causes to which we can trace a large number of the temporary causes of supposed impotency. The imprudent indulgencies of youth lead to habits which both reason and maturer years frequently in vain attempt to conquer ; and such practices destroy the tone and vigor of the sexual organs, and leave the wretched sensualist without that enjoyment which his immoral desires drive him, without regard to consequences, to indulge in. Hence the care that is necessary in guarding the minds of youth from imbibing improper ideas, which lead to such propensities. They end 178 IMPOTENCE. in the destruction of the constitution, and in a premature de- cay of those powers which nature meant should continue through the greater part of life, properly husbanded, as a source of enjoyment and usefulness. Says Lallemand, We read in many serious authors, that old feeble husbands, who are nearly impotent, should seize this opportunity—he is speaking of the moment of waking in the morning, when the accumulation of urine in the bladder is a powerful cause of excitement to the genital organs—and profit by the happy disposition in which they thus find them- selves, to perform effectually their conjugal duties. However, more unfortunate advice has never been given. In fact, these erections are deceptive, inasmuch as they do not arise from a real want. A union of many circumstances being necessary for the accomplishment of the act, we may affirm, without dread of being deceived, that it is injurious ; that it is a true excess in regard to the debility of these individuals; if the at- tempt should be persisted in, it must have the most deplora- ble results. Impotence is, if possible, a worse disease than spermator- rhoea ; for here the person thinks himself, as it were, annihi- lated, and debased from the dignity of his nature, and views himself as an outcast from society. CHAPTER VIII. TREATMENT OF IMPOTENCE. As mentioned elsewhere, in i854 I finally succeeded in dis- covering the true method of cure in this, and kindred com- plaints, and which consists in restoring the lost or impaired en- ergy of the Vital or Nervous Circulation of the virile system, which, arising in the Brain and Spinal System, term- inates in the seminal ducts and penis. In order to enable the reader to form, in this place, a rational idea of my method, I will here briefly describe the outlines of the original Theory which forms the basis on which the Treatment is founded, as practised by me for the prompt and safe removal of the com- plaint under consideration:— " 1. There is, in all animate organizations, a Vital or Nervous Circulation, which is anterior, and superior in power, to the Wood-circulation, influences the direction or course of the latter, and wholly governs its motion and circu- lation/rom and to the heart—the action of which organ, also depends entirely upon the Nervous Circulation—the source of heat and life, the vital principle. 2. All the phenomena of life (which result from action), have their origin in the nerv- ous or vital circulation. When this vital fluid becomes, from any cause (as Masturbation, etc.), exlw-usted, or its action is long suspended (from obstruction, &c), a loss of vitality is the result; when it is partially obstructed, or its equilibrium is disturbed, by an undue accumulation of it in some parts to the prejudice of other organs or parts of the system (as is the 180 TREATMENT OF IMPOTENCE. care in Impotency, etc.), especially when arising from mental labor or anxiety, disease, more or less serious, is the result. " Now, it is also by an obstruction (from exhaustion) of the Nervous Circulation in the base of the brain, and certain por- tions of the spinal marrow, which is thus prevented, to a greater or less extent, as the case may be, from passing from the brain, etc., into the organs of the sexual system, thai the complaint in question arises; for, if we injure, obstruct, or destroy this Nervous Circulation in any of the organs of the body, disease or death of the organ so circumstanced is the result—invariably and inevitably—be it the brain, heart, arteries and veins, lungs, stomach, liver, kidneys, or the Or- gans of Generation. Hence, to overcome these derangements and restore the tone of the organs affected, we must employ such means as will enable us to restore the free circulation of the Nervous fluid in this branch of the Nervous System. If this is properly done, health and vigor follow."* This, as I have stated, I finally succeeded in accomplish- ing, by a judicious and happy administration of medicinal, or medico-mechanical means, according to the choice of the pa- tient—some preferring the former or internal method, while others, whose time is of importance, choose the latter or local and medicinal mode, which combination effects the cure in half the time occupied by the constitutional treatment only. The particulars respecting these methods, may be found on preceding pages of this work, to which the reader is referred. I shall only add, that these methods are, I consider, after ample trial of them, Infallible—not having failed in a single in- stance in which I have undertaken to effect a cure of any of these complaints, Spermatorrhcea and Impotence particularly. Stimulants and excitants are the supposed remedies required, and every charlatan is furnished with his " invigorating cor- dial," or cauterizing specific, for this complaint. Such trash, » From "Medical Information for the Million,"6th. ed., New York, 1803. TREATMENT of impotence. 181 and cold bathing, though plausible and rather popular with the crowd, are of little avail except as placeboes; the means here required must be more suitable and powerful, and have an in- timate relation to the particular cause from which the defect really proceeds, and whether it be connected merely with a local, or with a constitutional source. Such a means, either alone or in connection with the Medicated Bougie, the Vera- trum Viride will be found, on trial, if properly combined with other remedies already laid down, to prove itself, when regularly and faithfully persevered in, according to instruc- tions adapted to individual cases. There is not in our whole Materia Medica, a medicine more powerful and certain, or more efficacious in aiding to restore, through the constitution, the vitality of the sexual nerv- ous system, than the preparations of Iodine, in conjunction with the Veratrum and Spirit. Formic, if carefully employed. If used for some time, in connection with suitable adjuncts, it will effectually strengthen and restore the entire constitution, and produce that degree of vitality necessary for the proper consummation of the connubial union. In worn-out conditions of the nervous system, it will be necessary, in bad cases, to produce this desirable effect, to continue the use of these medicines (the Bougie excepted) for about two months, under instructions from some skillful and experienced practitioner in this line. There need be no in- convenience to the patient while going through with a course of these remedies, if properly compounded and administered, as the (etherization, gelatinization and confection of them, ef- fectually relieves these preparations from all disagreeable taste or odor; provided the aetherization, &c, shall have been scientifically conducted in accordance with the late chemical discoveries of Jceckel, whose formulae and costly apparatus have been adopted by me in the preparation of my choice liquid and solidified medicines. In conjunction with the above-mentioned treatment, it is 182 treatment of impotence. advisable for the patient to employ strengthening diet, as eggs, meats, oysters, chocolate, &c, together with old wine as a beverage; frequent ablutions of the genital organs in cold salt water, will, also, be very serviceable. I have elsewhere remarked, that premature old age is the consequence of excessive indulgencies, and the loss of those very pleasures which constitute the summit of our hap- piness, rightly considered. In such cases, medicine can do much good when aided by proper restrictions on the part of the patient; and, in certain instances, by the aid and employ- ment of such appropriate surgical or local means as only come within the province of an experienced practitioner in this class of affections. I here refer to that formidable symptom, wherein tlie semen enters tlie bladder and mixes with the urine, after having been ejected from the seminal vessels. For the removal of this symptom, I resort, when convenient, to the in- vention for which I claim the authorship, and which consists in the employment of the Medicated Bougie, alluded to above. After ten years' experience with this method, I consider it infallible for the removal of this most mischievous symptom, and which no other means that I am acquainted with—and I believe I am conversant with them all—have ever been able to remedy in more than double the length of time required by the medico-mechanical method. CHAPTER IX. ON URINARY DEPOSITS AND DISEASES. SEMEN IN THE URINE. As I have already observed, seminal debility from self- abuse, or indeed from any other cause, gives rise to involun- tary emissions of semen, which is not unfrequently found mixed with the urine, especially in those instances where " spermatorrhcea rings" or self-cure nostrums have been resorted to by the patient; from the circumstance of its re- gurgitating into the bladder, after having been ejected from the vesicula seminales, through the seminal canals or ducts, into the urethra. (See page 77, Part I.) In the removal of this formidable symptom, I can, with confidence, claim never to have had an instance of failure; and without desiring to reflect on the practice of others, who may have proposed different modes of relief, I can only state, for my own part, that, having adopted a peculiar method, which I have uniformly fouud satisfactory in overcoming every obstacle connected with the removal of the symptom in question, I prosecute that method, without being led by the views or practice of others. I may here remark that the process alluded to is not, as has already been shown, cauteri- zation, which mode I regard, in common with most practical surgeons, as improper, and fraught with much subsequent trouble, protracted pain and vexation to the patient. I would add, that the method which I so successfully employ, is almost an entirely painless one. 184 ON URINARY deposits and diseases. To fulfil the indication desired, various means have hith- erto been tried, which, until lately, or within the last ten years, have been ineffectual; but the new remedies already mentioned in foregoing chapters, have, as before observed, been very satisfactorily employed: they consist either in direct medication of the seminal vessels at their point of entrance into the urethra, by means of the Medicated Bougie, or in the judicious employment of the Veratrum Viride, Spirit. Formic, ^ther, Iodine, and their adjuncts. By the Medicated Bougie, however, the relief is at once brought about, thus speedily restoring the diseased organs to their healthy functions. I do not hesitate to affirm that this new and peculiar im- provement is an infallible one, whose success can be calculated on in ninety-nine cases in the hundred. Those who have been disappointed by injudicious treatment, would do well to make early application for relief; for in no class of affections are delays so prolific of evil as in those discussed in this treatise. From four to six weeks, in recent cases, is the average time necessary to effect, by this method, a perfectly satisfactory cure; slight cases being usually cured in half that time ; while the worst cases require but a few weeks more for their rad- ical and permanent relief. I have restored vigor to men at the age of sixty years, who had labored under sexual incom- petency for thirty years previous. Neither is it saying any thing more than the facts strictly warrant, when I affirm that hundreds of men, of all ages, have been made happy by means of this method; while many women have become mothers* of fine healthy offspring, who had despaired of ever having children, until they became acquainted with the po- * Caution.—While the Veratrum Viride, properly employed, is an absolute cure in cases of chlorosis, or " green sickness," in painful, difficult, or ob- structed menstruation, occurring in young, unmarried females, as well as in leucorrhoea, or " whites," it should never be prescribed for pregnant women. ON urinary deposits AND DISEASES. 185 tency of this treatment. Thus sterility, which depends upon impotence, in nine out of every ten cases, may also be readily removed by the use of the means which I employ. From four to eight, and, in some instances, twelve applica- tions of the Medicated Bougie, I generally find amply suffi- cient. Cauterization, by means of Lallemand's porte-caustique, I have not employed in my practice in many years, it being a dangerous, ineffectual, and very painful application. I em- ploy no mineral poisons ; and well would it be for mankind, if others would follow the same example. (See " Ricord's Practice Explained," Part I.) *#* All persons writing to the Author, will please men- tion, in plain writing, the State, County and Town, where they wish to be addressed. CHAPTER X. THE CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, AND PATHOLOGY OF URINE. Pure urine, recently excreted by a healthy person, is trans- parent, of a straw color, with a peculiar odor, which disap- pears as the urine becomes cold. Its general temperature, is the natural heat of the body, which is about 97° or 98°. Dr. Prout, M. Spangeberg, and Dr. Simon (U.S.D.), and others,* mention abnormal urines of a blue color; these, how- ever, are rare. Professor Dulks and Dr. Hooper mention patients in whom it was black, and M. Velsen another in whom it was of a violet hue. The physical and chemical char- acters present modifications, aud all vary with the nature of the food and pathological state of the system. The amount of water often fluctuates both in health and disease, especially in the latter. Urine, according to the chemical analyses of Dr. Marchand and Professor Iiehman, and other eminent physiological and pathological chemists, consists of— 1. Water . . . . . 933-190 .. .. 938-856 2. Solid Residue .... 66 801 ... .. 61-144 3. Urea ...... 32-675 .. .. 30-321 4. Uric Acid .... 1-065 ... 1001 5. Oxalate of Lime . 0-100 .. 0-110 6. Lactic Acid .... 1'521 .. 1-362 7. Extractive Matter (nature of 111-151 .. 10-653 which was not ascertained) •283 .. •201 9. Sulphate of Potass . 3-587 .. 3-201 10. Sulphate of Soda 3 213 .. 3011 11. Phosphate of Soda . 3-056 .. 2-998 12. Bi-Phosphate of Ammonia . 1-552 .. 1-231 13. Chloride of Sodium . 4-218 .. 4-001 14. Chloride of Ammonium 1'652 .. 1-231 16. Phosphate of Lime and Magnesia 1-210 .. 1-001 10. Lactates . 1-618 .. 1-032 CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, k PATHOLOGY OF URINE. 187 The yellow coloring matter of normal urine arises from the actual presence of a substance called Ha>maplwin, and the red coloring matter to an inherent material occasionally found, especially in disease, denominated Urethrin ; and Dr. Heller has recently announced the presence, is healthy urine, of an- other pigment, Vroxanthin, which, by oxidation, becomes transformed into a ruby-red matter called Urrhoidin, and another of a blue tint, named Uro-glaucin. The strong castor odor and deep color of inspissated urine, is attributed by M. Scharling to a brown organic matter, which he calls the oxide of a new radical, termed Omichmyl. In addition to these constituents, there have been described two unnamed new acids, by M. Pettinfoker and M. Heintzic; and carbonic, fluoric, aud hippuric acids, with creatin, are also components. According to Dr. Simon and others, bodily exercise aug- ments the amount of urea and the sulphates. The amount of urea is also increased by an excess of nitrogenous food, and vice versa. When the system becomes unhealthy from any cause (and especially in the diseases I have treated on in this work), then, as is well known, the urine changes in many of its characters, and includes in its chemical composition a series of abnormal constituents, viz., albumen, sugar, carbonate of ammonia, and lime, an excess of the natural mucus secreted by the internal coat of the bladder, pus, fibrin, fat, cystine (or a substance sometimes forming the sole ingredient in urinary calculi), and the ingredients of the blood. The urinary deposits known as Urinary Calculi are all morbid secretions. Healthy urine is not precipitated by acids, although oxalic acid produces a cloudiness. The free alkalies throw down phosphates of lime. The mucus separates in slight nebula after long standing, and by continued exposure the urine emits an unpleasant odor, and carbonate of ammonia is formed, which, by precipitating the phosphate of lime and 188 CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, k PATHOLOGY OF URINE. ammonio-magnesian phosphates, causes turbidity. By still further exposure the urine becomes concentrated, and drops its saline constituents in crystalline forms. I have felt it my duty to be thus minute in the Chemistry of the Urine, which, as the reader will perceive, is a subject of the greatest importance in the treatment of disease. URINARY DEPOSITS. In the treatment of abuse, excess, and Spermatorrhcea, it is of the greatest importance that the condition of the urine should be inquired into, for it will generally be found com- plicated with unhealthy deposits,—hence it becomes neces- sary to arrest not only the seminal discharges, but to correct the morbid condition of the urine itself. In a healthy state the human urine is a limpid liquor, varying in color from a clear yellow to a yellowish brown; and having a salt, dis- agreeable and bitterish taste. When first voided, it has an aromatic odor; as it cools, this leaves it, and gives place to a stale or urinous odor ; it varies greatly in density, and has an acid reaction on litmus paper. If left to itself, for several days, it becomes changed, throws down some salts, becomes alkaline, and gives out an ammoniacal and repulsive smell. Urine must be regarded as arising from three separate sources. The effects of copious potations in producing a free discharge of pale urine, demonstrate the important function of the kidneys, in freeing the economy of any excess of fluid which may enter into the circulation. A second great duty of these organs is shown in the physical and chemical char- acters of their secretion; after digestion, it is no uncom- mon circumstance to detect the presence of some trace of imperfectly digested food, especially in the unhealthy and irritable state of the digestive organs, arising from abuse, excess, and Spermatorrhcea. The kidneys have, therefore, the duty of removing, in a liquid form, any crude or undi- gested elements of the food which may have been absorbed CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, & PATHOLOGY OF URINE. 189 into the blood, and, also, of excreting the often injurious re- sults of unhealthy assimilation. The third function of the kidneys, is that of freeing the system from those elements of worn-out tissues, which cannot serve any ulterior process in the economy, nor be got rid of by the lungs or skin. The destruction of tissue here alluded to, is a necessary result of the growth and reparation of the body ; not a muscle con- tracts, not a gland secretes, not a thought passes through the brain, without involving the consumption of a portion—mi- nute, no doubt—of the active organs ; the friction of living tis- sues is quite as destructive as that of an inanimate machine. It is admitted by all, that during each moment of our ex- istence every atom of the frame is undergoing some change, the old matter is thrown off by some of the excreting outlets of the body, and new matter is deposited from the blood to supply its place ; the old and worn-out atoms are not ex- creted in the form of dead tissues, but their elements be- come rearranged; one series thus produced, rich in nitrogen, is excreted by the kidneys, whilst the more highly carbonized products perform au important office through the medium of the liver, previous to their final elimination. It is therefore necessary to recognize three distinct varieties of the uri- nary secretion; first, that passed some little time after drinking freely of fluids; secondly, that secreted after the di- gestion of a full meal; thirdly, that secreted from the blood, as that passed after a night's rest, which presents in per- fection the essential characters of urine. As the elements of urine owe their origin to » process by which the worn-out materials of the body are removed, it may be as well to explain how this is accomplished. The exhausted atoms of the muscles cannot be removed as fibres, but their elements must be rearranged so as to enter the circulation, and be carried to other organs; they therefore undergo metamor- phosis. Water and oxygen are conveyed to the muscles, the former in the fluid of the blood, the latter in the red par- 190 CHEMISTRY. PHYSIOLOGY, & PATHOLOGY OF URINE. ficles, and the result is the rearrangement of the elements, which, while it enables the old tissues to be removed with facility, furnishes the food for other and important secretions. There is a beautiful system of mutual dependency in the animal economy; the functions by which life is manifested are never accomplished singly, but combined with one an- other in the most intimate manner; and perhaps one of the best examples of the harmonic action of our organs, is found in the relation which exists between the functions of the kid- neys and those of the lungs. The oxygen of the arterial blood, as before observed, passing into the capillaries, there destroys by a true combustion the tissues which have become unfit for life, whilst the carbon and hydrogen of these tissues tend, at least in part, to transform themselves into carbonic acid and water, ultimately to be rejected by the lungs. But what becomes of the nitrogen ? The most simple combina- tion which it could form would be that of ammonia, but as this body cannot exist in a state of liberty in the system without danger, nature causes it to undergo some modifica- tion ; for this purpose it has merely to be brought in contact with carbonic acid, and by eliminating from this conforma- tion the elements of water, it is transformed into urea. This principle being inert and soluble in water, can pass without the least danger throughout the current of the circulation, and be eliminated by the kidneys. If the removal of some of these properties of the lungs is stopped, the circulation through the lungs ceases in two minutes; the heart and brain are stopped, and from mechanical stoppage in the lungs, death ensues. If the removal of these products by the kid- neys is stopped, in two days the patient is poisoned ; the nerve and muscle are effected by the poison, and chemical death ensues. In a perfectly healthy condition of the system, when water is taken in large quantities, even during the process of diges- tion, it interferes less with the functions of the stomach than CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, Tt PATHOLOGY OF URINE. 191 blight be expected, for, by a beautiful provision, the super' fluous water is immediately absorbed into the blood, or passes downwards into the bowels. Of the portion taken into the blood, so much Is appropriated as is required to maintain its fluidity, whilst the excess is expelled from the system during summer, principally by the skin and lungs, and during winter by the kidneys. But when the digestive functions are lan- guid, and the powers of the stomach weakened by abuse, ex- cess, or Spermatorrhcea, the fluids taken remain in the stom- ach, impede digestion, and produce acidity; tinder such cir- cumstances the alimentary solids are either imperfectly digested or converted into unnatural principles; hence, distension, flat- ulency. &c, till they are ejected, or the imperfectly digested food escaping into the duodenum and bowels, irritates them, and deranges their functions. Not1 is this all; the fluid por- tion, impregnated with noxious principles, and absorbed into the blood, causes a general irritation of the whole system, till at last, separated, they are expelled by the kidneys, not, how- ever, without serious danger to those organs, and in numerous cases are the cause of albuminuria and degeneration of the kidneys. In describing the morbid states of the urine, I shall cohfine myself exclusively to those which are the result of abuse, excess, and Spermatorrhoea! UREA. Urea constitutes more than half the solid matter of the Urine ; it always occurs in solution. According to Dr. Spren- gel, it is secreted in greater quantities during summer than in the winter season ; and when present in great quantity it be- comes precipitated, on the addition of pure nitric acid, as nitrate of urea. The entire quality of urine becoming solid, the crystals present a beautiful microscopic appearance, hav- ing a brilliant pearly lustre, and the form of croslets. When superabundant in quantity, it constitutes a disease, at the commencement of which, there is an earnest desire to pass urine frequently, and this is generally accompanied 192 CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, & PATHOLOGY OF URINE, with irritation of the neck of the bladder; the uririe itself being of a pale color, and of a specific gravity varying from 1.010 to 1.030. There is always a sense of weight or dull pains felt in the back, with disinclination to bodily exertion, and uneasiness of the digestive organs; There is no remarkable thirst or craving for food, but a3 the disease advances, the symptom*! increase in severity, the countenance becoming haggard, care-1 worn, and presenting a peculiar hollow-eyed anxious expres- sion ; the digestive organs become more und more disordered, the urine is generally pale, but sometimes assumes the appear- ance of porter diluted with water. The patient now becomes emaciated, and has constant flushes of heat towards the head j the hair, too, begins to fall off rapidly; the whiskers, eye- brows, eyelashes, all fall off; whilst the hair of the head comes off in patches; the pains in the back become more severe, joined with wandering pains throughout the body, accom- panied with great and increasing debility. This is consid- ered a rare disease; but this will be found more apparent than real, for many patients do not apply for medical advice till the malady is merged into some other disease, of which it often constitutes the transition stage. Excess of urea is often complicated with other affections, which, of themselves, would never lead to the inference of such a morbid or unnatural state of the urine ; independently of its connections with certain urinary conditions, it has been observed to be complicated with epilepsy and other nervous affections, and certain forms of hysteria and nervousness ap- proaching insanity. Such secondary complications present an obstinacy of character more apparent than real; for if the urine be attended to, and its unnatural condition removed, epilepsy, hysteria, and other nervous affections previously unassailable readily give way; therefore, in whatever circum- stances excess of urea may occur, either during a particular state of disease, or as complicated with more urgent derange* CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, & PATHOLOGY OF URINE. 193 ment, it is always a symptom of much importance; the dis- ease is not only obstinate, but from its deep-seated character, it yields with difficulty to medical treatment; even when for a time it appears to give way, it is apt to return from the slightest cause; and one of the most frequent termina- tions of the affection seems to be disease of the kidneys and its consequences. A superabundance of oxalate of lime constitutes a disease which is invariably a complication of Spermatorrhcea, few persons suffering from that disease without the presence of much oxalate of lime in the urine, which is generally trans- parent, remarkably free from sediments, of a pale citron color, its specific gravity about 1.020; the symptoms partake of a nervous or irritable character. Patients affected with this disease, are generally depressed in spirits, and when the dis- ease has existed for some time, much emaciated ; extremely nervous and painfully susceptible to external impressions, often hypochondriacal to an extreme degree; they complain bitterly of incapacity of exerting themselves, the slightest exertion bringing on fatigue. In temper they are irritable and easily excited to anger ; the sexual power, as may be im- agined from its complication with Spermatorrhcea, entirely^ absent; a severe and constant pain across the loins is always complained of, and the mental faculties are slightly affected, loss of memory being sometimes present; the patient mostly complaining of losing flesh, health, and spirits, Without any definite cause. In the majority of instances, the predisposing cause of this disease is nearly the same; a chronic and per- sistent derangement of the general health, injury to the con- stitution, by abuse, excess, Spermatorrhcea, or intemperance, involuntary seminal emissions, great mental anxiety produced by excessive attention to business, or study, or blows across the kidneys, or exposure of the lower part of the spine to cold, appear capable of producing this disease; the detention of oxalate of lime in the urine may be determined in a few min- 9 194 CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, & PATHOLOGY OF URINE. ntes by the aid of tlie microscope. From the excessive irri- tation of the urinary organs, Caused by oxalate of lime, dis- eases of the kidneys, albuminuria, &c, are no unfrequent terminations of this disease. THE NEWLY DISCOVERED ACIDS IN THE URINE. Dr. Marcet* has discovered two new acids hitherto uu- known to chemists in the human' urine; these, as far as his researches have extended, are only found in the healthy state } consequently, when urine is deficient of these, it stands to reason and common sense, that the sanitary condition of the constitution must be in a very " critical" condition, and dem- onstrates the absolute necessity for patients in every disease, under which they may suffer, to have their urine carefully, microscopically, and chemically analyzed, by some skillful op- erative pathological chemist. In all cases-, patients consult- ing me will do well to send me a small quantity of their urine, passed a short time before rising from their bed for the day, but not mixed with that voided immediately before they retired to rest, so that it may Undergo the necessary examin- ation ; and by the treatment that would be pursued tlie cure will be greatly facilitated. One of these acids Dr. Marcet has not named, and though not hippuric acid, yet in many respects it bears considerable analogy. The second acid is a pink deposit, an