pi t.o.e i- t ^ ''-' .'.'• ": *?.&.&&■;■ : - ■ I Ml III II IH Will HP Ml I MMBMIIjMM^-llliWTllln i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, i I H-- r# {UNITED STATES OpTmeUICA.I I A TREATISE ON THE CAUSE OF EXHAUSTED VITALITY; OR, ABUSES OF THE SEXUAL FUNCTION. BY E. P. MILLER, M.D., PHYSICIAN TO THE HYGIENIC INSTITUTE AND TURKISH BATHS, 13 AND 15 LAIGHT STREET, NEW-YORK CITY. -++ — S» e NEW- YORK : John A. Gray & Green, Printers, 16 and 18 Jacob St. 1867. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by Eli P. Miller, M.D., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New- York. PRE FACE. This little book is born of the idea that mankind are suffering for want of the knowledge it is designed to give. A medical experience, extending through several years, has convinced me that people of all ages and both sexes are suffering from abuses of the sexual function. In a ma- jority of instances, these abuses were begun and contin- ued in ignorance of the results which were to follow. Children inherit strong sexual desires of which they do not know the meaning ; and, receiving no instruction with regard to these desires, they either fall spontaneously into evil practices, or learn from impure associates habits which eventually prove their ruin. Young men and women, con- trolled by passion, rush into vices which finally destroy both body and soul. Married people, without a thought of sin, commit excesses which induce disease, destroy hap- piness, and entail weakness and deformity upon their children. These facts have been so frequently and so forcibly thrust upon me, that I have felt constrained to bring before the people a consideration of the sexual nature of man- kind; I am aware of the prejudices which exist against a discussion of these subjects, and of the difficulties to be met in attempting to bring a work like this before the pub- lic. Parents shrink from instructing their children with IV PREFACE. regard to their sexual nature ; teachers dislike to talk of such private matters to their pupils ; ministers fail to de- nounce these evils from the pulpit ; doctors are backward about referring to sexual vices amongst their patients ; and newspapers are, many of them, so fearful of offending the public taste, that they decline inserting in their columns advertisements of a work of this kind. But I am so impressed with the importance of a knowl- edge of the subjects here presented, that I earnestly hope this book will overcome many of the existing prejudices against a dissemination of such truths ; and, in order to accomplish this, I must look for aid in its circulation from all who feel that reform in this direction is needed. I know that the book is far from perfect ; but I could not wait longer for those who might write it better. I send it forth with the feeling that if, by means of it, one boy or girl, or one young man or woman, is saved from the "broad road that leads to death," if one father or mother is in- duced to live more in accordance with the laws of nature, or to watch and guard a single child from sexual vices, then my work will not have been in vain. E. P. M. New- York, Sept. 1867. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. HUMAN PERFECTION. PAGB Materials entering into Man's Composition — Wisdom and Skill of the Designer — The Perfectness of the Hand, Foot, Eye, and Internal Organs — The Brain the Masterpiece — Harmony of Organic Action necessary to Happiness — Man's Physical Nature made Perfect — Intellectual and Moral nobler still — Unity of Man's Physical and Mental — Means by which Mind is manifested — Depend- ence of Mental Powers upon Physical Conditions 7 CHAPTER II. NATURAL LAWS. Every thing in Nature governed by Law — The Human System not an Excep- tion — Each part controlled by Special Laws — Henry Ward Beecher's Opinion of Natural Laws — Happiness Dependent upon Obedience to Law 15 CHAPTER III. DERANGEMENTS OBSERVABLE IN MANKIND. Universal Prevalence of Disease — Mortality among Mankind — Disobedience to Law the Cause of Physical Derangements — Mental Aberrations the Result of Physical Derangements — Physicians and Drugshops — Adam's Sin no Excuse for Physical or Moral Imperfections 18 CHAPTER IV. ABUSE OF THE SEXUAL FUNCTION A PRIME CAUSE OF DERANGEMENTS. The Foundation of Life — Loss of Semen — Nervous Exhaustion — Parents Im- part to Children a Portion of their own Life-Power — Loss of Vital Force a Cause of Disease — Every part of the System drained of its Vitality by Sex- ual Abuses — Original Sin considered — How Death resulted 23 CHAPTER V. THE LAW WHICH GOVERNS THE SEXUAL FUNCTION. Sexual Indulgence designed for Propagation of Species — Recognition of this Law by Animals — Restraint of Sexual Passion — Opinion of Drs. Dixon and Rosch — The Extent to which Indulgence is sometimes carried no Evidence in its Favor 28 CHAPTER VI. SELF-ABUSE. Self- Abuse the Worst Form of Sexual Abuse — When and How the Habit is* contracted — Opinions of Different Authors — Who are its Victims — The Hor- rors of this Vice depicted — Effects upon the Body — Influence upon the Mind. 34 CHAPTER VII. EFFECTS OF SELF-ABUSE UPON CHILDREN. Signs of the Vice — The Boy who practices it contrasted with one who does not — Effects upon Girls and Women — Disease of the Female Organism en- gendered by Sexual Abuse — Loss of Stamina in the Race resulting from Sex- ual Abuse 43 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS, OR SPERMATORRHEA. PAGB What Henry Ward Beecher says — Seminal Emissions, how induced — May occur during the Day as well as Night — Conditions resulting from Self- Abuse — Involuntary Action of the Sexual Organs — A Warning to those Be- ginning the Practice — Every part of the System exhausted by it — Extracts from Letters written by Young Men Guilty of this Vice 47 CHAPTER IX. MANIFESTATIONS OF SELF-ABUSE. Genital Form — Digestive Form — Spinal Form — Cerebral Form — Epilepsy, In- sanity, Spinal Irritation, and other Diseases, caused by Self- Abuse 62 CHAPTER X. PREDISPOSING AND EXCITING CAUSES OF SELF-ABUSE. Hereditary Taints — False Ideas of Marriage — The Effect of Food and Drink — Care of Young Children — Servants — Playmates — Schools — Sleeping — Lewd Stories — Constipation — Worms — Occupations, etc 68 CHAPTER XL PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL INDULGENCE. A Bane to Society — Special Diseases caused by it — Draining of the Life- Powers — What Solomon says — Nature's Laws can not be violated with Impunity 73 CHAPTER XII. MATRIMONIAL EXCESSES. Marriage not a License for Sexual Indulgence — Evils arising from Marital Excesses — Wives and Husbands Widowed by Marital Excesses — Effects of Sexual Abuse much the same whether in or out of Wedlock — Children inher- it Strong Passions — Frequent Indulgence fatal to Love — Indulgence during Pregnancy robs both Mother and Child of Vitality — Sterility — Impotency — Abortion — Both Parents equally blamable — Effects of Abortion 79 CHAPTER XIII. PREVENTION OF SEXUAL ABUSE. Instruction needed — Duty of Parents — Correct Ideas of the Sexual Nature necessary to guard Children and Youth from Error in this Direction — Parents should not hesitate to teach truth for fear of suggesting Evil Thoughts — Proofs that Children are kept from Evil by the Knowledge that it is Evil — Teacher's Duties — Schools the Hot-Bed of Sexual Vice — The Knowledge most needed for Success in Life — Duty of Christian Ministers — Physical Laws not Referred to by them — Efforts to save Souls while the Body is going to Ruin — Sexual Vices not even Hinted at — Sexual Excesses of Church Mem- bers — Beecher's Discourse to Medical Students — A similar one needed for Ministers — Christ's Teaching — Obedience to Sexual Law should be required by the Church — Physician's Duties — Instruction to Families under their Charge — Essays — Lectures 8; CHAPTER XIV. TREATMENT. Stop Sinning — Who may hope for Cure without Special Advice — Will-Power — Blood diverted from Sexual Organs — Physical Training — Mental Training — Diet — What Food should be used and what avoided — Bathing — What Baths most Beneficial — Sleeping — What to do on retiring and during the Night — Electricity — In what Cases applicable and how useful — Turkish Baths — Their Effects — Swedish Movements — Benefits derived — Caustics — Instruments — Marriage not a Cure for Seminal Emissions — Religion needed — Christ's Ex- ample 108 Abuses of the Sexual Function. chapter I. HUMAN PERFECTION. AN is the highest, noblest, most perfect work of God. He is an epitome of the whole created universe. The most subtle essences of the animal, vegetable, and mineral do- main are used in his formation. The atmospheres and gases are in his substance. The sunshine and the light of stars ; the riches of soil and the varying charms of climate ; heat and cold ; the ocean and the continent ; the mountains, plains, and valleys ; the forest and the prairie, the marsh, the lake, the river ; the clouds, the winds, the storm, the calm ; spring showers and summer dews, autumn rains and winter snows ; the grains, the fruits, the flowers, the birds, the cattle on a thousand hills — all go to make the air he breathes, the food he eats, the water he drinks, and the purity or impurity of the flesh he wears. The highest wisdom and genius are displayed in the formation of the various organs of his body ; and the greatest mind could never conceive of any thing 8 HUMAN PERFECTION. more perfect, or better adapted to the purposes for which they were designed. Look at his form as he stands upright before you ; how admirably it is arranged in all its parts ! The body is erect, yet the frame-work is so connected by joints and elastic tissues as to enable him to bend with ease and grace in whatever direction he may choose. His head, placed upon his shoulders as a cupola upon the structure, is so nicely adjusted as to be capable of being turned in almost every conceiva- ble direction. The arms and hands are attached to the body by the best means, and in the best position to serve in ministering to his necessities and his pleasures. The legs and feet are so adroitly arranged as to balance the whole body in the most accurate manner, either in standing or walking, and admit of the greatest ease and freedom of motion, and speed of locomotion. Thus much of man is visible to every eye ; but to those who have made the human form a study this is but the surface, while a glance beneath, even at the hand alone, can not fail to excite the wonder and admiration of all who observe its form, and the arrangement of its integument, mus- cles, tendons, bones, joints, nerves, arteries, and veins. Though small in compass and compact in struc- ture, its nerves and blood-vessels form such a com- plete net- work that the point of the finest cambric needle can not penetrate any part of it without pierc- ing some of them. Yet, minute as they are, each has its peculiar function, and the whole is so admi- rably arranged that each and every part can do its own especial duty without interference. HUMAN PERFECTION. 9 And how varied are the uses to which the hand is adapted and applied ! Glowing thoughts are penned by it upon the author's page ; it causes the artist's canvas to assume the delicate tints or brilliant hues which nature in her varied moods is wont so lavishly to wreathe about her form ; by means of its vibrations the musical instrument is made almost a thing of life ; it plays, it works, it acts, it talks ; the farmer's toil, the housewife's task, the mechanic's skill, are all wrought out by the human hand ; except the tongue, it is the orator's chief aid in giving expression to his lofty strains of eloquence, or his pathetic and power- ful appeals ; it gives greater pathos to the pleader's prayer, and tells with tenfold force the tale of sor- row, suffering, and woe. We do not realize how many notes in the tune of life the hand is made to play. Its beauties and its uses are almost beyond our thought ; and he who is deprived of it sustains a loss that none can estimate. We look with admiration, pride, and almost with awe upon what is being done by man in every direc- tion. We see his skill displayed in the various arts, and his reason and intellect in the wonderful works of his hands. We boast of our ships, our steam- boats, and our telegraphs ; we are proud, and justly proud, of our bridges, our viaducts, and our Atlantic cable ; but where, in the whole range of arts, me- chanics, architecture, or engineering, can we find such a structure as the human foot ? How manifold are the functions it is fitted to perform ! Not only does it sustain weights, but it must carry them. Man, in his labors- and his toils, is obliged to walk, run, 10 HUMAN PERFECTION. jump, leap, climb, etc., and upon the foot must he depend for the performance of these several duties. And not only this, but the foot must sustain the frame, not as a mere solid mass, but with a fostering though firm elasticity, must adapt itself to the action to be performed, so as to prevent the jarring and concussion that would inevitably destroy the delicate organs of the body, such as the brain and spinal cord. Look, too, at the human eye, placed as it is in the front and upper portion of the head, so as to com- mand the greatest possible range of vision ; incased in a bony orbit to protect its delicate structure from injury; so suspended that it may be turned upward to the starry heavens, or downward to our mother earth, or from side to side, spanning half the horizon at a single glance. Note the beautiful arrangement of its curtains, humors, lenses, pigments, membranes, nerves, and vessels ; and how accurately it delineates pictures of every object within its range, and conveys them to the brain, the great picture-gallery of the soul. The eye is also the window through which the mind and heart of man are made visible to his bro- ther man ; grief and anger, joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, the heart's sunshine and its shadow, are all depicted there ; the passions hold their orgies in this window, and truth and love dance hand in hand be- fore its curtain. Can mortal conceive of any thing more beautiful, more perfect than the human eye ! Let us consider for a moment the wisdom and skill displayed in the formation and arrangement of man's organs of digestion, circulation, respiration, and ex- HUMAN PERFECTION. II cretion. Each and all are made of the right material, and of the precise form and size, and placed in the exact position to subserve best the purposes for which they were designed. The digestive apparatus forms a study of vast interest and importance ; the circula- tory is no less wonderful, while the respiratory and excretory, which are organs of purification, can not but fill with amazement all who contemplate them closely. Yet, wonderful and beautiful as are all these varied portions of man's body, the great masterpiece of workmanship is the human brain, with its hundreds of little counterparts in the nervous system. The brain with its continuation, the spinal cord, is the great centre, while the nerves are but so many minute telegraphic mediums of communication, pene- trating the most distant and intricate portions of the whole body. The brain is the manufactory of thought, the home of the mind, and the medium through which we receive impressions of the material world. Through the brain and nervous system the power, intelligence, will, ingenuity, and, in short, all the at- tributes of the mind are made manifest ; it presides over, provides for, and regulates all other parts of the body ; even the functions of circulation, respira- tion, digestion, and assimilation, which seem to be carried on independently of the mind, receive their power from the brain, and are consequently dependent upon it. Each portion, too, of the brain structure has a func- tion of its own, which is different from that of every other part. It has been clearly demonstrated that in 12 HUMAN PERFECTION. the frontal region lie the reason and intellect ; the summit is occupied by the moral faculties, while the base of the brain is the seat of man's affections, and upon its development depends his social and sexual nature. The All- Wise Creator has formed every organ of the human system with direct reference to the accom- plishment of a certain object. Every bone, muscle, nerve, and tissue has its own peculiar duty to per- form, every fibre a purpose to subserve. By means of the brain we think, feel, and act ; the nerves take cognizance of external things, convey an impression of their character and uses to the brain, and carry back the commands of the will to the muscular sys- tem, that the behests of the mind may be obeyed ; the heart receives th& impure blood from all parts of the system, sends it to the lungs to be purified, then takes it back, and forces it with tremendous power even to the minutest parts of the body ; the veins and arteries are made for the express purpose of con- veying the blood to> and fronty the heart ; the lungs throw off carbon and take up oxygen ; the stomach and small intestines digest the food ; the eye is made to see, the ear to hear ; and thus the various organs have each their own especial use in the animal econo- my, and their exact function to perform ; and, as a result of the proper performance of all these func- tions, we have not only harmony, but happiness of mind as well as body. Thus, we find that man's physical being was made perfect ; but his intellectual, moral, and spiritual were created nobler, grander still ; for it is this por- HUMAN PERFECTION. 1 3 tion of his nature that renders him so much superior to all other created beings ; that makes him the ruler of the earth on which he dwells ; that allies him to the angels ; that reflects so perfectly the image of God. It is mind that makes the man ! The human mind molds and fashions all material substances of which it has a knowledge. Mind has harnessed the wind for a steed to traverse the tempest-tost sea ; has entrapped and tamed the lightning, teaching it to bear tidings from continent to continent, and al- most from pole to pole ; it has made of steam a ser- vant to do its bidding both upon the waters and the land ; and yet, with all its achievements, with all its grandeur and its glory, the dependence of mind upon the body is so apparent, and its union with the phy- sical so complete, that although in the past we have been taught to exalt the mind at the expense of the body, yet the day is at hand when neither shall be neglected, but each receive its own proper share of laudation and attention. Prof. Youmans says ;* " From time immemorial man has been regarded as having a double nature ; mind and body have been cleft asunder and con- sidered as separate and independent existences : the mind has been ranked as the higher or spiritual na- ture, and the body as the lower or material nature. The mind was said to be pure, aspiring, immaterial ; the body gross, corrupt, and perishable ; all terms of applause have been sought to celebrate the one, while the vocabulary of reproach has been exhausted upon the other." * See lecture on " The Scientific Study of Human Nature." 14 HUMAN PERFECTION. "But science now establishes the truth that the notion of man's duality is erroneous, and that the de- pendence of thought upon organic conditions is so intimate and absolute that they can no longer be considered except as unity ; that the bodily organism which has been so long neglected as of no account is in reality the first and fundamental thing to be considered." " The mental life and the bodily life are manifesta- tions of the same organism ; growing together, fluc- tuating together, declining together ; they depend upon common laws which must be investigated by a com- mon method, and science, in unraveling the mysteries of the body, has thrown important light upon the workings of the mind." Science has demonstrated the fact that mind is manifested by means of the formation and develop- ment of cells in the brain ; and upon the condition of the blood depends the character of these cells ; upon the condition of the body depend the mental power and activity, the mental force and stamina ; and he who possesses a sound mind in a sound body may be looked upon as the noblest work of God. When we contemplate man as coming perfect from the hands of his Maker, his entire organism harmo- niously developed, and his whole life a thanksgiving and a joy, we are led to exclaim with the ancient bard: " What a piece of work is man ! How noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties ! in form, and moving, how express and admirable ! in action, how like an angel ! in apprehension, how like a god!" H is j CHAPTER II. NATURAL LAWS. O one can study the anatomical structure and physiological functions of the hu- man system in all its departments, with- out being deeply impressed with the order and adap- tation that reign throughout the whole ; and no less deep must be the conviction that it is the work of some great, all-wise, and all-powerful Intelligence. Every part bears proof of a Designer, and shows that it was formed for a particular use ; every part gives evidence, too, that there are laws which govern its action, and that to preserve its integrity it must be used accord- ing to its design, in consonance with those laws. Science has demonstrated that the entire universe is regulated and maintained by an established system of laws. There are physical laws, chemical laws, or- ganic laws, and vital laws ; the planetary system has its laws ; the earth, its laws ; the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms have each their controlling laws ; and man, the acme of creation, is generated and de- veloped in accordance with law. Each organ of man's body, too, is subject to a special law. The eye was made with direct reference to the laws of light ; the ear, to laws of sound ; the stomach, to laws of diges- tion ; and so long as these laws are recognized and obeyed, so long will harmony and happiness prevail ; 1 6 NATURAL LAWS. but if they are violated, whether willfully or ignorant- ly, the penalty is sure to follow. Henry Ward Beecher says :* " He that breaks a valid law of God, whether it be enacted in nature, in the physical globe, in his own body, or in his own spi- ritual being, sins against his own soul, and the damage is in the man himself, whether he knows it or not." " Men are subject to the great material laws of the globe on which they dwell, and there is not a mate- rial law that a man can break and not sin." " The thought would be worth every thing to this world, that sin means the infraction of laws which God has made, of every kind!' " You think it is a sin to steal ; it is a sin ; and to break those laws on which the very potency of your bodily organization is founded, to break those laws on which your mind-powers turn, is no less a sin. All the laws of the globe which report themselves in your strength and in your economy are moral laws, and foi you to break them is to sin." The laws of nature are immutable, and as eternal as God himself. Man may array himself in opposi- tion to them, but their operations are not suspended on this account. If the eye is exposed to a light too strong, the result is an injury to the sight ; if the ear be subjected to loud and long-continued noise, the hearing is more or less impaired ; if the hand is brought in contact with fire, it is consumed accord- ing to the laws of combustion ; and so of each and all the laws of Nature ; they can not be changed, but are forever, and under all circumstances, the same. * See Herald of Health for February, 1867. NATURAL LAWS. 1 7 He who violates a civil law may have a hope of im- munity from justice. He may plead ignorance of the law, or inability to comprehend it, and thus obtain mercy. But the punishments for violation of natural laws can never be evaded ; no act of faith pr suppli- cation, no amount of entreaty or persuasion, neither tears, nor protestations, nor promises, avail aught to modify or change their prescribed mode of action. In every human being there is a certain relation to natural laws, and the man who puts himself in wrong relation to those laws must take the penalty. But the penalty may be deferred, for it is even asBeechersays again : " Many a young man goes on sinning and sin- ning in his own body, and, because sentence is defer- red, he thinks he is not sinning ; but, by and by, the penalties begin to execute themselves, and then it is too late for him to avert the evil. Many a man finds out at thirty-five years of age that he is an old man ; that his marrow has been sucked up ; that the gene- rating power of his nervous system has been burned out or rotted out ; and he thinks he will reform, and means to reform, but it is too late." " The man that violates the laws of nature in the structure of his own body or mind may be perfectly certain that those laws will inflict their penalties on him both here and hereafter ;" while he who obeys them feels a foretaste of the joys of heaven, and blesses God in his body as well as in his spirit, which is his. CHAPTER III. DERANGEMENTS OBSERVABLE IN MANKIND. E have seen that man came forth pure and j perfect from the hands of his Creator ; symmetrical in proportions, harmonious in action, his whole being was formed with such perfect adaptation to the accomplishment of the purposes for which it was designed, that all necessary and legiti- mate action could be productive only of pleasure. We have considered that to govern every department of this beautiful structure, and insure its health and happiness, immutable laws were established, which can not with impunity be ignored. Let us contrast this beauty, order, and perfection, with the deranged conditions in which we at present find the race. We may range the earth throughout its length and breadth, and where shall we find a people who are living up to that standard of perfec- tion which their organization seems to indicate they were designed to attain and enjoy ? Everywhere we see deformity and disease. In almost every land, " The pestilence walketh in darkness, and destruction wasteth at noonday." Our cities are studded with asylums and infirmaries for the sick, the lame, the halt, and the blind. In every household there are evidences of suffering and sorrow ; we can not walk DERANGEMENTS OBSERVABLE IN MANKIND. 1 9 abroad but the heart is pained at sight of the pale cheek, the sunken eye, the deformed body, the totter- ing gait, the enfeebled and exhausted men, women, and children of this enlightened age ; yes, enlightened in all things save in regard to the noblest work of God, mankind. The cities of the dead outnumber far the cities of the living ; emblems of mourning and sadness are met on every hand ; death is constantly claiming its victims amongst the young and the middle-aged as well as the old. Babes die by thousands before they are born, and one fifth of those born alive are lain away in their tiny graves before they reach the age of seven. The weaknesses, the infirmities, and the diseases of parents are entailed upon their children from gene- ration to generation ; the noble structure, so " fear- fully and wonderfully made," has been deranged in all its functions, till every one of the " thousand strings " of this beautiful " harp " is either broken or rendered so discordant that scarce a tone of sweet- ness can be made to vibrate from it. Not an organ but is abnormal in its condition, but has been perver- ted in its action, but occasions pain instead of plea- sure. Sickness, sorrow, suffering, and death are the rule of the race ; while good, sound health, with its accompaniments, joy and happiness, is the seldom seen exception. The physical ills which we meet at every turn are enough to make us wonder at the forbearance of the Creator in permitting man to live when he carries about with him such manifold evidence of having vio- 20 DERANGEMENTS OBSERVABLE IN MANKIND. lated the laws by which he should be governed. Yet, direful as are all the physical ills under which man labors, could we separate mind from body, we should say they are but slight, compared with the mental aberrations resulting from diseased conditions. Dr. Bucknill says : " The little cells of which the gray substance of the brain is composed are the agents of all that is called mind ; of all our sensations, thoughts, and desires ; and the growth and renovation of these cells are the most ultimate conditions of mind with which we are acquainted. Not a thrill of sensa- tion can occur, not a flashing thought or a passing feeling can take place, without a change in the living organism. Much less can diseased sensation, thought, or feeling occur without such changes," for " polished steel is not quicker dimmed by the slightest breath than is the brain affected by some abnormal condi- tions of the blood." And this being true, what wonder is it that so many phases of mental disease present themselves to our notice ! What wonder that our insane asylums are peopled with sufferers of all ages, and in every stage of insanity ! What wonder that the lustre of the brightest stars is dimmed, and that every now and then the world is awed with the announcement that a bright light has suddenly gone out, dashed into darkness by a sweep of its own hand ! None may tell the terrible sufferings of the poor victim ere this last step was taken ! Violations of the law of digestion by wrong habits of eating and drink- ing, and of the law of respiration by breathing im- pure air, or, it may be, violation of the sexual law by DERANGEMENTS OBSERVABLE IN MANKIND. 21 indulgence in secret vice or sexual excesses, first led to loss of memory, then false reasoning or reasoning from false premises, till, finally, the world and all things in it were standing in such a delusive light that the poor sufferer could not choose but clear himself from its entanglements, which he did to the amazement of thousands who had scarcely recognized the fact that he was not perfectly sound both in body and in mind. " Behold what a great fire a little spark kindleth !" The beginning of all these sad, woeful, heart-rending, and life-destroying conditions, is almost imperceptible ; slight deviations from perfect health receive no atten- tion ; slight violations of the laws governing any organ or function are all unheeded ; for the beneficent Cre- ator has so formed mankind that every tendency of the system is toward repair, and, unless marked viola- tions occur, producing palpable results, the deception may go on until the health is fairly undermined. The fact that there are fifty-three thousand physi- cians in this country, constantly gaining their liveli- hood by the ills of the human family, proves too truly that the physical condition of the race is not what it should be. The drug-shops with which our towns and villages abound are patronized to an extent almost in- credible. The animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms are explored for " remedies " to " cure disease ;" the earth and sea yield their most obnoxious elements for the same great end ; money is scarcely counted when medicine is to be obtained, and the cost of drugs is scarcely less than the cost of bread. And all this as a result of the practice of " regular " physicians, to 22 DERANGEMENTS OBSERVABLE IN MANKIND. say nothing of the fortunes made upon elixirs, sarsa- parillas, pectorals, and pills. There is something radically wrong somewhere ; man's organization indicates a different design from this. The exactness, the precision, and the invaria- bleness of scientific truths denote a natural cause for all things ; and a natural cause for disease must there- fore exist. One portion of mankind is too apt to think that disease and suffering is the natural and unavoidable condition of life ; and he who argues that disease may be avoided, and that suffering is the result of sin, is looked upon as striving to oppose God's " providences ;" others trace every thing back to the sins of our first parents, and charge them with entailing death upon the race, with all the phy- sical weaknesses which are its precursors, thus mak- ing man individually irresponsible for the ills to which he is subjected. But is he considered irresponsible for deviations from right in the moral part of his nature ? Is Adam's sin admitted as an excuse for the liar, the robber, and the murderer ? And are they permitted in consequence to pursue their nefarious course un- punished ? Not at all. And neither does the " ori- ginal sin" give man the privilege of violating the laws of his own physical being, trampling upon those very parts of his nature which ally him most closely to the Infinite. Where no law is, there is no sin. " Sin means the infraction of laws which God has made of every kind ;" so he who transgresses a law of his physical nature is held responsible in the sight of God, and the penalty is sure to be inflicted either upon him who sins or upon his posterity. CHAPTER IV. ABUSE OF THE SEXUAL FUNCTION A PRIME CAUSE OF DERANGEMENTS. VERY thinking mind must ere this have decided that all the derangements and dis- eases pertaining to mankind are but the natural effects of certain causes. Let us seek to ascertain, if possible, the origin of all these evils ; and, in searching for the cause of unsoundness, let us begin at the foundation, for perchance we there may find the quicksands upon which depends the tottering of the whole edifice. And what is the foundation of the human struc- ture ? In what does it consist ? Does it not lie in the sexual organs ? Is it not dependent upon the sexual function ? In the union of the male principle with that of the female consists the first springing forth of the germ of a new existence — the first forma- tion of a new being — the very foundation of life. From the blood the elements of a new life are formed ; and it has been ascertained that the material — called semen — which goes to generate a new being, is so refined, so intensified in its vitalizing power, that " one ounce of it is equal to forty ounces of blood in any other part of the body." Then, too, the nervous force expended is amazing ; for " in the sexual organs we find a union of the three great systems of nerves — the 24 ABUSE OF THE SEXUAL FUNCTION vegetative, or nerves of organic life ; the emotional, or nerves of animal life ; and the intellectual, or nerves of spiritual life ; for the last two sacral nerves, which go to supply the generative organs, have their ganglia within the dura mater of the spinal cord ; thus differing from the other spinal nerves, and re- sembling the nerves which originate in the brain, and are connected with the mind." Is it any wonder, then, considering this concentra- tion of blood and nerve, that the orgasm experienced in the indulgence of the sexual passion induces in many persons an exhaustion of every faculty of body and mind ? Is it possible that this orgasm should constantly or even frequently occur without produc- ing a degree of prostration that must sooner or later make sad inroads upon even the strongest constitu- tion ? The loss of semen is very exhausting, yet the ex- penditure of nerve force is quite as great a source of evil in the abuse of the sexual function ; for until puberty males have no semen to lose, and females have none at any age. It is, therefore, in the ner- vous orgasm that the greatest evil lies. When this is prematurely experienced, although imperfect, it gives a shock to the whole system ; and when often repeated the nervous power is completely drained away. "All the vitality of the system goes to sup- ply the immature but already exhausted organs of sexuality, both in body and in brain. The manufac- tory of the mind is robbed, and the victim loses sense and memory ; the digestive apparatus is robbed, and dyspepsia and decay follow," accompanied by the A PRIME CAUSE OF DERANGEMENTS. 2$ many nervous diseases with which we are only too familiar. Every child that is begotten is at the expense of a degree of vital force in the parent. This is demon- strable from the fact that the semen, or male princi- ple, is composed of the elements which form brain, nerve, muscle, bone, in short, every tissue of which the body is composed ; and by parting with it a portion of the life-principle is lost ; and a constant loss of this life-principle, whether for purposes of generation or otherwise, must inevitably drain the system of a vast amount of life-force, and render it an easy prey to the innumerable diseases to which humanity is subject. The loss of vital power by means of this drain ren- ders man less able to resist the effects of change of climate, and of malarial poisons and miasms. It im- poverishes the blood, and induces consumption, dys- pepsia, nervous diseases, and mental derangements, with the long train of sequences which follow in their wake. Says Dr. J. Hughes Bennett : " There can be no doubt that the deposit or exudation of tubercle in the tissues — which in the lungs constitutes phthisis or consumption— is the result of defective nutrition con- sequent on defective vitality, either inherited or ac- quired." And in no way can vitality be so surely rendered defective as by the loss of this principle, which contains the very essence of life, together with the loss of nerve power which accompanies it. And this loss affects not only the loser, but all who come after him ; for the weakened and diluted semen 26 ABUSE OF THE SEXUAL FUNCTION can never impart life-force to a new being which it does not itself possess ; from healthy blood is formed healthy tissue, full of force and power ; healthy semen, that will impart a strong and vigorous life to off- spring ; while from impoverished and impure blood are supplied the elements of disease ; and the child begot- ten from such blood must of necessity be born with a constitution wanting in vitality, weakened in those very parts upon whose strength and vigor depends the vital stamina ; and he either dies young, or falls early into the degrading habits he has inherited, and becomes a victim of the vices of his progenitors. Nearly all the diseases to which the human family is liable may be traced to want of vital force, result- ing from abuses of the sexual function. Let those who refer all human derangements to the " original sin" consider that, according to Bible history, this "sin" consisted in "eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil :" it was disobeying a law of God ; it was doing what he had commanded them not to do ; and death was to be the penalty. Now, there is no law which God has made, the obedience to which is productive of greater good than obedience to the sexual law ; and none, the disobedience to which would entail upon the race such certain knowledge of evil in all its forms as disobedience to the sexual law ! Neither is there any law of man's organization, nor any law of God, the violation of which is more certain to bring death as a penalty, than violation of the sexual law ! Although death may not take place on " the day thou eatest thereof," yet the expenditure of vital force, and the exhaustion consequent upon it, begin A PRIME CAUSE OF DERANGEMENTS. 2J on that " day," and, if continued, will surely lead to death in the end. Man's sexual organism and instincts, when unper- verted, are among the most complete and harmonious of his nature ; and when rightly used, in accordance with the laws which govern their functions, they be- come a source of the highest enjoyment and happi- ness. The appetites and passions, when under the control of reason and conscience, when subject to the sway of a high and noble moral nature, become a fountain of force and an engine of power to the pos- sessor, and lead to the grandest achievements within the scope of human ability and will ; but when per- verted and abused, when misused and misapplied, when the laws which God has made to govern them are violated, then, alas ! they become fruitful of the deepest misery and wretchedness, and are the source of constant sorrow and a living death. CHAPTER V. THE LAW WHICH GOVERNS THE SEXUAL FUNC- TION. ACH organ was made for a special use; each function, established for a specific purpose. No one will attempt to deny- that the specific purpose of the sexual function is the propagation of the species. For this the Creator de- signed it, and the nearer mankind confine themselves to its use in accordance with this design, the nearer do they come to obedience to the sexual law, and the purer and holier do they learn to consider the entire sexual apparatus, and the office it was designed to perform. I know that many who read this work will cry " Nonsense !" at these ideas ; but the law exists, and it matters not who recognizes its truth ! it will daily slay its hundreds and thousands regardless of the opinions of any ; and those who choose to gratify their passions in disregard to the law must inevitably bear the curses that follow. Throughout the animal kingdom we find a recogni- tion of this law ; the female never permits the ap- proach of the male except when in a condition to conceive ; and, when impregnated, not again until her young has been developed, and she is free from the THE SEXUAL FUNCTION. 29 care of it ; even amongst those animals which choose a mate, there is no indulgence except for the pur- pose of procreation. Animals possess no higher faculties than those of mere sensual enjoyment, and yet they never indulge the sexual passion except for the purpose of perpetuating their species ; while man is endowed with a mind and soul, for the cultivation and development of which, his life-force and nerve- power should be expended ; but, instead of using his vitality thus, he is constantly frittering it away, and abusing this highest of all created powers, the power to beget a being in the image of his God. Then, too, man's desires toward the object of his affections should flow forth in tender tokens of love and esteem, instead of being degraded to the mere gratification of lustful passion ; he should look upon her as a creature too pure and precious for aught that is lustful to approach, instead of making her a thing to cater to his use, thus either degrading her to his , own low level, or sending her, heart-broken and life- weary, to a premature grave. It is through the elevation of woman alone that mankind can ever hope to attain his true position, " a little lower than the angels ;" and not all the openings of every opportunity for education, of every branch of labor, and every profession, not all the command of property, nor all the rights of suffrage, can serve to bring her to her highest estate, so long as this foul degradation hangs like an incubus upon every branch of her tree of life. Woman must by education make herself familiar with the laws of her own nature, and with her God-given rights respecting that nature ; 30 THE LAW WHICH GOVERNS and, by demanding and receiving those rights, the race will at length become purified and ennobled. Men frequently tell me that, if they restrain their passions, they " get nervous and excitable, the head feels bad," and they " can not accomplish any thing ;" but they are " better immediately after having gratified this desire." Some medical men cater to this idea by teaching that " in restraint there is danger of insanity and other diseased conditions." Do they think there is any more danger from restraint in married than in single life ? for surely the passions are no less strong before marriage than afterward. I have no doubt that to many persons indulgence brings' relief ; and it is the same with the drunkard, the opium-eater, and the tobacco-user ; they feel un- comfortable whenever the accustomed indulgence is withheld, and are sometimes even insane in conse- quence ; but this does not prove at all that they would not be infinitely better and happier when the habit # should be entirely broken off, and the system restored to its normal condition. A frequent drain upon the blood and nervous forces of any part causes a determination of blood to that part, and, if the drain ceases, the blood accumulates in the system, and until it can be so arranged and dis- tributed that the surplus is used in the formation of brain, muscle, etc., it must necessarily create more or less disturbance. But if self-denial be rigidly adhered to, and the right rigidly followed, the result would be the ennobling of the whole man, such as can never come from any amount of indulgence. Although there are evidences that the semen in THE SEXUAL FUNCTION. 3 1 man is constantly being secreted — and it is 'argued by many that on this account it must of necessity pass away — yet there are proofs quite as strong that, if not uselessly expended, it will be reabsorbed, and go to supply material for the growth and development of brain and nerve, and in this way contribute essen- tially to the improvement of man's mental, moral, and spiritual nature. There are a few who recognize the fact that the sex- ual passions were bestowed upon mankind for the pur- pose of securing the continued existence of the race, and not for the mere pleasure accompanying its grat- ification. Dr. Dixon says, in his work on sexual disease : " We deplore the universal ignorance of that great truth pointed out by analogy and every light from the ample page of nature, that the intercourse of the sexes could only have been designed for the production of offspring^ Dr. Rosch, in his work on Nervous Diseases of Women, says : "If it were possible to bring home si- multaneously to the minds of mankind this undeniable truth that the object of coition should only be pro- creation and propagation, and that abuse of it causes indescribable misery, disturbs the forming man in the enjoyment of his most sacred right, the right to be, and to be healthy ; that through its abuse sacred duties are violated — the duty of preserving the moth- ers health for the sake of the child ; that thereby man ruins himself, when it is his duty to be a father and protector to his helpless offspring ; if, I say, man- kind could be convinced of this truth, we should have 32 THE LAW WHICH GOVERNS made an advance which would outweigh the wisdom of ages." " Man loses by coition his best vital bloody that which sustains his own existence, and is indis- pensable to his own body." It is actually astounding the extent to which some men go in regard to sexual indulgence. One man told me that he had often indulged seven times during twenty-four hours, and that he could not see that it injured him ; but in a year from that time he died of apoplexy, induced by his excessive indulgence. An- other had indulged thirteen times ; and cases are on record of still greater excesses. The fact that some men can thus indulge, and not seem to be injured by it, is no argument against the law of continence ; it simply proves that such men possess physical powers sufficiently strong to enable them to bear up in spite of this draft upon the system ; and that these powers, had they been spent usefully and normally, would have tended to make them the most powerful men of the age, and probably prolonged their life for many years. Some persons can use alcoholic stimulants, tobacco, opium, arsenic, and other poisons, for years with little or no apparent injury ; yet this is no argument in favor of their use. It simply proves that such persons possess by nature strong constitutions, and that they have vitality sufficient to resist the deleterious effects of these agents. Again, I say, the more nearly we confine sexual indulgence to the generation and development of offspring, the nearer do we fulfill the sexual law of our being ; the nearer do we satisfy the analogy of THE SEXUAL FUNCTION. 33 nature ; the nearer do we come to being true Chris- tians ; for he who is truly a follower of the great Re- deemer will study to know and obey all the laws of his being, the physical as well as the moral and spirit- ual ; and, knowing and obeying, he will become wiser, healthier, and happier, and transmit blessings instead of curses to his posterity. CHAPTER VI. SELF- ABUSE. T is apparent that upon the integrity of the sexual organs depend the health and hap- piness, the manliness and nobility, of the individual and the race ; and that weakness of these organs, caused by abuses of the sexual function, begets a large proportion of the sufferings of man- kind. Let us, then, consider in what the abuses of the sexual function consist. These abuses may be classed under three heads : ist, Self-abuse; 2d, Promiscuous sexual indulgence ; 3d, Matrimonial excesses. SELF-ABUSE, masturbation, onanism, and self- pollution are terms meaning one and the same thing. These terms are applied to the practice of irritating or exciting the genital organs, either with the hand, or by any means other than natural sexual inter- course, for the purpose of producing sexual pleasure. Self-abuse is, probably, the most flagrant violation of the sexual law ; the grossest abuse of the sexual function ; and it is a practice fraught with the most disastrous consequences to the health, happiness, and even life of the race. It is an evil more damning thanany other to which mankind is subject ! Language supplies no words sufficiently strong to express the horrors which result from it! And surely, if the evil SELF-ABUSE. 35 one, in tempting our first parents, had foreseen that this practice would have been the result of the pas- sions he aroused, he must have been more than satis- fied with his ignoble work. Self-abuse is practiced in almost every country, and by persons of all ages and both sexes. Many children are born with this propensity, and the habit is commenced in infancy, or in early childhood, by handling the genital organs ; the friction and irritation giving rise to a peculiar kind of excite- ment which they are unable to resist. The habit formed at this early age is usually kept up till after puberty, if the system does not earlier suc- cumb to its ill effects. The little, puny, sickly, dwarfed, and diminutive men -and -women -looking children that we sometimes see are many of them examples of this habit. Others who have escaped the vice at so early an age are often initiated into the practice of self-pollu- tion at the age of eight or ten by their playmates, their school-fellows, or by hired servants ; and all this without a thought of evil on the part of the little mas- turbators. . They would, of course, be ashamed to have their parents or grown-up friends know of the habit, because, instead of being rightly taught the uses of the sexual organs, and that all things which God has made are pure, and their normal use holy,, they are brought up with the idea that these organs are ignoble ; that every thing pertaining to them is degrading ; and the mystery which envelops the entire sexual apparatus, in consequence of the deceiving answers of parents 36 SELF-ABUSE. and others to their innocent questions, often leads to an investigation, the result of which is this horror of horrors, self- abuse. But of this we shall speak more fully in the chapter upon prevention of this vice. Those who have neither inherited the vice nor learned it from others often commence the habit of self-abuse about the age of puberty, when the devel- opment of the sexual organs and the establishment of the sexual function produce a peculiar uneasiness of the parts, to allay which, this habit is at first almost unconsciously fallen into. Of course, the excitement and irritation, instead of being allayed, are by this means increased, and the momentary pleasure experienced induces a repetition of the act, till by and by the habit becomes fully established. This goes on voluntarily for from three to ten years, till those who practice it learn from some source that this habit must, sooner or later, lead them to misery, and perhaps destruction ; but by this time the organs have become so weakened, and the system so impoverished, that, although the habit may be abandoned, in nine cases out of ten the loss will be continued in the form of involuntary noc- turnal, and perhaps diurnal emissions. It is probable that medical men alone can realize the extent to which this vice is practiced in all civil- ized communities. Dr. Jackson has stated in a published work that " not one young man in a thousand escapes this vile habit." Said one of the professors of Bellevue College to his medical class of 1864: "There is hardly a student SELF-ABUSE. 3 7 among you who has not suffered more or less from this vile practice, and several of your number are now under my treatment for diseases arising from this habit." Mr. O. S. Fowler says : " I have known boys not yet four years old both practice self-abuse and in- dulge with the opposite sex ; and have known hun- dreds ruinedhy it before they entered their teens." " I have been consulted in cases almost without number by those on the brink of ruin who sought relief from the consequences of this vice. I know it by its infal- lible signs, and go where I will, in the busy street, in the lecture-room, in the family, they throng me like leaves in autumn." Dr. Woodward says : " I have never conversed with a lad twelve years of age who did not know all about the practice, and understand the language used to describe it." William C. Woodbridge says : " This solitary but fatal vice is spreading desolation throughout our schools and families, unnoticed and unknown." E. M. R. Wells, a teacher in Boston, says : " Thou- sands of pure-minded and amiable boys, and young men, are undermining their physical constitutions, and prospectively corrupting their souls, by a pleasur- able, and to many of them innocent, gratification." Dr. Alcott says : " There is not a town in New- England whose bills of mortality from year to year are not greatly increased by this fearful and wide- wasting scourge." Dr. Snow, of Boston, says : " Self-pollution is un- doubtedly one of the most common causes of ill 38 SELF-ABUSE. health that can be found among the young men of this country. I am satisfied the practice is almost universal. Boys commence it at an early age ; and the habit once formed, like that of intemperance, be- comes almost unconquerable. In boarding-schools and colleges it obtains almost without exception." %- The preceding are but a few of the many statements I might quote concerning the prevalence of this per- nicious habit ; and my own practice as a physician fully corroborates their truth. Law students and doctors, mechanics, merchants, and ministers, men of every craft, persuasion, and profession, are suffering from diseases which originate almost solely in self-abuse. The evils of this habit can never be fully delineated ; they can never be enumerated, for their " name is legion." When a primary law of the human system is vio- lated, the most disastrous consequences must follow. There is no law of the animal economy that is vio- lated with so great risk to life and happiness as the sexual law ; no function the abuse of which is followed by such deleterious results as the sexual function. The evils which result from self-abuse do not come upon the victim all at once ; they creep in so slowly, so unconsciously, that they are often scarcely per- ceived until he is upon the verge of ruin. Multitudes of unpleasant feelings arise which are attributed to a variety of causes, but they are seldom traced to their true source. Truly, if there is a wretched being upon earth, it is the person who has habitually practiced self-abuse, even for a few years. It brings disaster and ruin SELF-ABUSE. 39 upon every part of the system ; it drains away the life-power, the vitality, the proper elements of health and strength, and destroys the ability to grow and develop, and increase in beauty and vigor ; it takes away the materials that are needed to produce a noble, high-toned, healthy, and happy human being ; it crushes out the image of God, and stamps in its place that of the destroyer ; it withdraws such an amount of life-force from the blood that every organ and tissue of the body is left so enfeebled and debili- tated as to become an easy prey to disease. Self- abuse opens the door for consumption, dyspepsia, nervous debility, apoplexy, epilepsy, paralysis, in- sanity, and almost every disease from which humanity suffers. It weakens and deranges the stomach, the liver, the kidneys, the bowels, the muscles, the bones, the nerves, the brain, and all the various organs of the body. It destroys the appetite so that there is little or no true enjoyment in eating or drinking. Sometimes the victim loathes food, at others he is not satisfied even after eating large quantities. I have seen per- sons in this condition eat nearly all the time, and yet crave more. I have known a patient eat five full meals before dinner-time, and then, because more food was denied him, he went to a barrel of offal and ate therefrom. The constant drain upon the system produces an unsatisfied but indescribable longing for something which neither food nor drink will supply. The inordinate craving for spirituous liquors and tobacco, which is to-day so almost universal, is due, in a great measure, to the lack of vital force in the 40 SELF- ABUSE. system, resulting from sexual abuses. The defective organism longs for something to supply its need, and almost naturally the wine-cup and the cigar are sought ; these drown, for a time at least, the sense of lack, but only to render it more intense in the fu- ture ; and then the potation is renewed, and thus each vice helps on the other, till the path is surely entered which leads to irretrievable ruin. Stimulants and narcotics fail most signally to satis- fy the terrible craving ; for self-abuse enkindles a flame which can not be extinguished ! It opens the flood-gates of the passions, and ingulfs all that is pure and true ! It makes a hell where Christ says " the kingdom of heaven is !" Ask him whose life- force has been exhausted in this direction, and he will tell you that his torments could not be exceeded by the tortures of hell ! he will tell you that his thoughts are a consuming fire ! his hopes and aspira- tions blasted as by the lightning's shock ! his mind shattered and vapid, his whole life a constant burden, and his every duty an irksome task ! He will tell you that his waking hours are filled with anguish, and his sleep disturbed by cursed and depraving dreams. Self-abuse is a sure road to the grave, which is often longed for as a haven of rest from the uncontrollable and never-ending sufferings of its victim. This picture, full of horrors as it is, is not over- drawn ; in truth " the half hath not been told ;" nor would volumes contain all that might be said, all that should be said, upon this terrible and revolting evil. Truly, " there is no more degrading bondage than the bondage of one's own lusts." SELF-ABUSE. 4 1 We can not separate mind from body in the results of this soul-destroying vice, yet we would speak more particularly than we have yet done of its INFLUENCE UPON THE MIND. The dependence of mind upon organic conditions, upon cell-development of the brain — as stated in a previous chapter — is such that the effects of self-abuse are quite as apparent upon the mind as upon the body ; and derangements here are often the first inti- mation received by friends that something is wrong in the beloved one. The sufferer from this vice becomes listless, inat- tentive, indifferent ; there is an inability to concen- trate the mind, or apply it with any degree of vigor ; want of interest in friends ; loss of self-control ; fail- ure of memory, and difficulty of conducting conver- sation ; the reasoning is disconnected, and oftentimes the mental powers entirely fail ; the victim becomes diffident, bashful, and ashamed, and seldom looks people in the face ; his love of books is lost, history becomes a blank, the glowing pages of romance charm no more, the poet's spell hath lost its power, music's witchery is dead, the beauties of art are passed un- heeded by, the loveliest landscape is but an arid desert, and nature's most sublime endeavors fail to arouse the soul of him who has long been contami- nated by this loathsome vice. When man has once surrendered his conscience, his reason, and his will, to the control of lust, he is like a ship at sea without compass or rudder ; he is at the mercy of the tempest-tost waves, in constant 42 SELF-ABUSE. danger of being ingulfed, and, except by some almost miraculous intervention, he must assuredly be lost. Self-abuse is the " Vile worm that gnaws The root of all his happiness terrene, the gall Of all his sweets, the thorn of every rose Of earthly bloom, cloud of his noonday sky, Frost of his spring, sigh of his loudest laugh, Dark spot on every form of loveliness, Rank smell amidst his rarest spiceries, Harsh dissonance of all his harmony, Reserve of every promise, and the if Of all to-morrows !" CHAPTER VII. EFFECTS OF SELF-ABUSE UPON CHILDREN. HE habit of self-abuse is practiced amongst girls as well as boys. Previous to the age of puberty the effects are very similar in both sexes, momentary excitement, followed by depression of spirits, and irritability, induced by the exhaustion of the nervous system. After having indulged in this habit for a time, the child loses its bright and happy look ; it becomes pale with a greenish tint, the eyes are sunken, and sur- rounded by dark rings ; the vermilion of the lips is faded, the limbs are attenuated, the muscles soft and flabby, and both in form and feature the child has the appearance of being old and worn out. Gradually, so gradually that the parents do not notice it, the mind becomes dull, the power of com- prehension is diminished, the child sits listless, seem- ingly absorbed in thought, and is startled whenever suddenly addressed ; all its motions are slow and heavy ; it seeks solitude, that its vicious propensities may be indulged ; it is obstinate, peevish, and irri- table ; shuns the plays it formerly loved, and becomes morose and taciturn. And these conditions may con- tinue to the end of life, even though the habit had long been abandoned. 44 EFFECTS OF SELF-ABUSE UPON CHILDREN. And thus sadly but surely does the worm at the bud sap the young life ere it is conscious of its own existence. All the efforts of sorrowing friends are insufficient to restrain the overwhelming tide of evil which is the sure, inheritance of those who practice this terrible vice. Dr. Acton, in his excellent work on the sexual organs, in noting the outward signs of self-abuse in the boy who is guilty of this sin, describes "his frame weak and stunted, the muscles undeveloped, the eye sunken and heavy, the complexion sallow and pasty, the face often covered with pimples of acne, the hands cramped and cold, and the skin moist. The boy shuns the society of others, creeps about alone, and joins with repugnance the amusements of his school-fellows ; he looks no one in the face, and be- comes careless in dress and manners, and uncleanly in person ; his intellect is often of the lowest class, and, if his evil habits are persisted in, he may end in be- coming a driveling idiot or a peevish valetudinarian." Every boy and girl who is practicing self-abuse is tending toward just the conditions above described ; and if the habit is not abandoned at once, it will surely lead to misery, ruin, and death : " Every indulgence of the sexual desire by children who have not attained their growth, is an unmitigated evil ; an illicit pleasure, to be bitterly repented of in after years." How different is the picture presented by the boy who has kept his sexual function unimpaired. His body is firm, vigorous, and elastic ; his countenance rosy and healthy ; his complexion bright and clear ; his manners frank and candid ; his spirits buoyant ; his EFFECTS OF SELF-ABUSE UPON CHILDREN. 45 memory quick and ready ; every function of his body is properly performed ; he has that firmness of will and purpose which give him a happy self-control ; he has no cause for shame ; and, as he feels his stature increase and intellect expand, his whole life is a joy, and his heart a fount of thanksgiving to the great Creator that he is permitted to exist. EFFECTS UPON WOMEN. The object of masturbation is the same in girls as boys, namely, sexual excitement ; but the conse- quences of the vice are somewhat different in the two sexes after the age of puberty. Women are not weakened by the loss of the sperm- atic fluid, but by the excessive excitation of the nervous system. Nervous prostration is, therefore, the first effect of this sin in females. In hospitals and lunatic asylums there are more women than men suffering from the effects of this terrible scourge. This is probably owing to the fact that the stronger consti- tution, the more active employments, and the less delicate nervous organization of men, serve to ward off the ill effects of the vice, so that they do not in such large numbers yield to the nervous and mental derangements consequent upon it. These derangements, slight in the beginning, soon lead to derangement of the digestive function ; spinal irritation follows,* and also spinal curvature ; spas- modic symptoms are developed, and chorea, epilepsy, * I have had numbers of young women under my care for spinal irritation brought on by self- abuse. 46 EFFECTS UPON WOMEN. catalepsy, and convulsions are frequently the result. The charms of maidenhood are lost ; the appearance of face and form, of mind and manners, is similar to that described as belonging to boys ; and the changes are perhaps even more apparent in young women than in men, for their indoor and comparatively sed- entary life, their habits, mode of dress, etc., are such as to hasten the evil day rather than retard it. Females, although they do not lose semen, induce by this habit a discharge from the vagina which proves a terrible drain upon the system ; this dis- charge, called " leucorrhea," or " whites," is often the beginning of the most dreadful and fatal diseases ; it is the precursor of congestion, inflammation, ulcera- tion, tumors, and cancers of the womb ; it is very frequently induced by other means aside from self- abuse, for it follows in the train of all sexual abuses, and is often present as the result of inherited weak- nesses ; it is exceedingly debilitating, and, sad as it is, it is nevertheless true, that our American women as a class are almost universally afflicted with this exhausting loss. The best blood of woman as well as man goes to the generative organs for the purpose of forming the new being ; and, if it is lost by this constant drain from a million women, who can estimate how much lower we stand in consequence of this, both as re- gards physical and mental conditions, than we might have done had the life-forces of our progenitors been preserved intact ? CHAPTER VIII. INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS, OR SPER- MATORRHEA. OW truthfully has Mr. Beecher spoken when he says :* " Young men come into life not knowing the meaning of their passions ; without knowing the laws or the drift of their appetites. Many times through ignorance they fall into habits that drain their very life-blood and undermine their whole constitution. And when they come to years of discretion, so as to know what is wise and what is unwise in the care of themselves, the work is done, they are damned, and they can not be restored." No " habit " so effectually " drains the life-blood and undermines the constitution " as does self-abuse ; and, after this habit has been practiced for a time, the sexual organs become so weakened and so easily excited that the " drain" takes place in the form of involuntary seminal emissions. The life-principle is lost by means over which the loser has no control, and which, if not overcome, will finally seal his doom. These emissions commence in the night, and are generally preceded or accompanied by a lascivious dream, induced, no doubt, by an excessive flow of * See Herald of Health for July, 1867. 48 INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. blood or nervous influence to the sexual organs ; for, upon whatever part of the body the thoughts are placed, there the flow of blood is increased ; and the thoughts of the masturbator are so constantly centred upon the sexual organs, to the exclusion of all other ideas, that the flow of blood to those parts is im- mense. His waking thoughts are full of unholiness, and his dreanns, of licentiousness and lust, and he awakes to find that he has had or is having a free emission of semen. The emission is at first accompanied by pleasurable sensations, and the poor, deluded victim imagines that he has an added source of enjoyment ; for his ideas have become so degraded that this mere unnat- ural animal pleasure is his highest sense of enjoy- ment. Previous to this he has not, probably, realized the exhausting effects of the habit, and, of course, is not always alarmed at the involuntary action of his or- gans. He may still continue during the day the volun- tary practice, but it is not long before he finds that these involuntary losses become more and more fre- quent, with less and less sensation of pleasure ; and as the pleasure subsides, an exceedingly disagreeable sensation takes its place, which is very exhausting both to mind and body. At first strong erections accompany these dis- charges, which do not occur oftener than once a week, perhaps, or once in two weeks ; but after a time the erections subside, and the emission takes place without either dreams, erections, or sensations of pleasure ; and they gradually become more and more frequent until they may occur every night, and in I INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. 49 several young men whom I have had under my charge they would occur two or three times in one night. The genital organs often become so morbidly sen- sitive that emissions occur upon the least excitement in the daytime. I have had patients who could not look upon a woman without violating the seventh commandment, for he " committed adultery with her already in his heart." I have had those who would have emissions while at stool ; the bowels are gener- ally constipated, and the effort necessary to evacuate their contents often produces an emission. Semen often passes with the urine, or just as urination ceases. Some patients can not rock hard in a rock- ing-chair, or ride on horseback, without producing emissions ; and some there are in whom the chafing of the clothing is sufficient to produce a similar effect. If every boy in the land, who is just beginning the practice of self abuse, could be made fully to under- stand that this habit would soon produce such a weak- ness and irritation of the genital organs that they would act ijivoluntarily upon the least excitement, or even when they were asleep, and they could not stop ot control this by any effort of the will, and that these in- voluntary discharges would finally exhaust their vital- ity, stunt their growth, destroy digestion so that the constant natural waste of the system could not be re- paired, root out their manhood, render them incapable of taking pleasure in any thing in this life, and, in short, crush them physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually, both for time and for eternity, it seems to me that it would be an argument so forcible that they would at once abandon the vicious practice ; and, in- 50 INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. stead of one child contaminating a whole street, or school \ or village, as is often the case, they would become pure themselves, and warn others of the fatal dangers arising from this vile and sinful habit. Some physicians have stated that seminal emis- sions are " natural, even to healthy men," and that it is an indication of " strength and vigor of the sexual organs ;" and thus they attempt to solace their suffer- ing patients by such logic. A more fatal error than this could not be disseminated. It is true that very many men, full-grown and mar- ried, who appear healthy and vigorous, do occasionally have seminal emissions involuntarily. But it is be- cause these organs have either been abused in early life, or sexual intercourse has been indulged in to ex- cess, till the parts have been so excited that they take dh involuntary action, which is always an" indication of a diseased condition of any organ over which we usually have control. A man, healthy in every respect, who has lived a temperate life, and never abused his sexual nature, would no more have involuntary seminal emissions than the animals do. And, consequently, this condi- tion tells too truly a tale of the vices of the subject. There are very many men in every walk in life who are afflicted with this evil ; yet, as they are seen about their daily duties, no one, unless accustomed to observe these things, would suspect that such con- ditions existed. Some men who appear strong and vigorous have suffered indescribable agonies from this source. They are too proud to let their friends know of it ; they INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. 5 I will not even consult their family physician, and they live and suffer on without complaint ; but their lives are rendered miserable by this incubus hanging upon them. Many a man of independent fortune would gladly give up all his wealth to be rid of this terrible scourge. I am often consulted by this class of sufferers, and almost invariably find that the evil is grounded either upon self-abuse or sexual excesses. Perhaps I can not better substantiate my state- ments than by giving extracts from a few of the nu- merous letters I am constantly receiving from all parts of the country, written by the victims of this vice. A. B. writes : " I am the subject of that vile habit, self-abuse. Commenced when but fourteen years of age. Continued it till eighteen, when I saw that it was hurting me and left it off ; but I had practiced it so long that involuntary emissions set in, and I have had them ever since. Am now twenty ; have been well all but this, but am now beginning to go. I have severe palpitation of the heart, am very nervous, and my sexual organs have not grown any, but have wasted almost entirely away. Can you cure me? Do tell me that you can by return of mail." Another who had " constant emissions " writes : * I am exceedingly nervous, with trembling of the hands. I have a constant fear of death, which the least pain increases ; am very much afraid of thunder and lightning ; and at times feel so miserable that I care not whether I live or die. O dear doctor ! fot the love of God, do what you can for me ! I forgot 52 INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. to say that I have periodical symptoms of fainting, especially when sitting in church or lying in bed." Another says : " Dear doctor, after a lapse of sever- al months, I am before you again for advice. Your advice how to take the swelling and soreness out of my testicles acted like a charm ! I now write to give you a full statement of my case. Should have done it before, but hoped to recover sufficiently to be able to come to you and have the advantage of your skill, and the means of carrying out your advice. I do hope you will now tell me how I can treat myself till I can patch up enough to come to your Cure. " I am told I have disease of the prostate gland ; have great difficulty in urinating, continual discharge of yellowish matter or semen, burning at the anus, and a blubbering and uneasy sensation between the anus and testicles ; but I suffer most from nervous- ness ; have such a ringing and blowing in my head, particularly the back part of it, that I can not walk without staggering. Have at times a twitching and jerking over my whole body. My heart palpitates in a manner that is frightful to me. " I presume you suspect the cause of all this. I think it is the result of self-pollution commenced at about twelve or thirteen years of age, and kept up till seventeen when I left it off at intervals, but did not quit it entirely until about twenty-five ; and from that time I have had seminal discharges sometimes before and sometimes after urinating ; sometimes once or twice a week, sometimes every day or two, and frequently several times a day. These are occa- sionally attended with a considerably painful sensa- INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. 53 tion. This morning, before urinating, I passed sever- al drops of blood mixed with semen, and, after it, a considerable discharge of semen. Am thirty-four years of age, weigh one hundred and sixty-four pounds, have flesh enough, and a good appetite. " Now, doctor, do tell me what I shall do to put myself in a condition to come to you. " Truly yours, Address" C. D. E. F. says : " I am troubled with spermatorrhea of seven years' standing. Am unable to attend to busi- ness ; left lung has been in very bad state for three years, so that I have raised blood several times. Now, I want your candid opinion whether I can treat myself at home under your advice, or whether it would be necessary to come to you ; or is my case a desperate one, past all cure ?" G. H. says : " I am much troubled with nervous debility as the result of self-abuse when I was young. Am now over forty years of age. I wrote you about two or three years ago when I was almost gone. I followed your advice and have been a great deal better ; still I have a great many bad symptoms ; have passed through all the symptoms of nervous debility, and diseases of the sexual organs which arise from self-abuse. My great trouble now is, want of power in the sexual organs and nervous dyspepsia. Have a voracious appetite, and am constantly over- eating, so that I get entirely out of heart. I often break down my stomach and bring on a bad spell, during which I am almost entirely impotent ; feel as though I were all wilted away to a kind of flabby skin and flesh. Very weak in the limbs," etc. etc. 54 INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. " Now, please tell me, do you think you could do any thing for me either at your Cure, or by sending me a prescription ? If I come, you could at least examine my case, and perhaps give me some encouragement, for at times I am almost in despair. Please answer immediately, and tell me what you think best for me to do." I. J. says : " I am unmarried, twenty-four years old. When thirteen or fourteen, I learned from evil companions the habit of self-abuse, but, finding that it was evil, I left it off at eighteen, but suffered from involuntary seminal emissions from the age of about seventeen ; have suffered from convulsive movements of the arms, mostly the left one, and sometimes of other parts of the body, so that I would fall down, and once, after shaking violently, I fell senseless to the floor. At first I used to be troubled only in the morning, and when excited or confused, but have been much annoyed during the past winter. Have taken drugs, but with no benefit ; have always been troubled with heartburn and spitting acid from the stomach." K. L. tells of a " painful sense of bashfulness and timidity in presence of company on being spoken to, and especially at table. This terrible diffidence comes upon me like a spell, and makes me stammer. My head seems splitting, my face turns red, my heart palpitates, and I am no longer, for the moment, my- self. Pray, what is the cause of this, and what the remedy ? . . . . " What is the cause of nocturnal dreams, and what will cure them ?" INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. 55 This young man's diffidence prevented his telling even me that he had involuntary emissions, but the fact is self-evident. A mothers aching heart appeals for hope for her "dearly beloved and only child, a son of nineteen years ; a frail, finely organized, sensitive boy ; is scrof- ulous, has had typhoid fever and congestion of brain, swellings of neck, pain between the shoulders, and pain or nervous distress in the ankles and calf of legs, almost excruciating. At the place where the pain is felt between the shoulders two of the bones are standing out some, and one is depressed ; his nights are sleepless ; much distress in the head, front and back ; his urine contains a mucus all the time, which the doctor says is scrofula, but it is much more apparent after a nightly emission, for I must pert the direful words that for about three years he has had these. He inherited a weakness, we think — a sad transmission from a father — and working, lifting, etc., as he has been obliged to do, induced the emissions. The terrible exhaustion, noises in head, and pains, come from the emissions ; his nervous system is involved, but not his mind 7" Then comes much more of the poor mothers heart- wailings, and she says : " He was ignorant of their nature, and, being an only child, quiet and secluded, away from any male rela- tive, he thought it was something that would wear off; but, O my heart ! had I known of it, or known half I now do of its nature and results, it should long ago have been attended to. He has always had much heat and scalding about the penis, even from a babe. 56 INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. Tell me, I pray, what I best do for my beloved one t Please do interest yourself as though your own dear flesh and blood were thus, and tell me can you aid him f' M. N. says : " O doctor ! I come to you as a last resort ! I have read all the books I can get, hoping to find something that would help me to get rid of the disease I am suffering from, without telling any one about it. I have done every thing that could be done ; I have spent many a dollar, but of no avail. If you can give me no relief, I may as well give up and wait patiently till death shall relieve me of my sufferings. " I have had a disease ever since I can remember. I firmly believe that the disease was in me when I was bom. I am now nineteen years old, have discharges every three or four nights, and always wake up soon after and feel faint and very weak. I have very fre- quent erections both night and day. It seems as though I wanted something to hold my testicles up ; I feel very weak in the back, with a dull aching of the head nearly all the time. I can not walk straight, but kind of wiggle from one side to the other, and my sexual organs feel dull and heavy. " Now, doctor, I have spoken very plain to you, for I feel that I must have something done to relieve me, and, if you can help me, just tell me so, and I will send you the money before you tell me what to do." A theological student writes : " I am twenty-three years old. Member of senior class in seminary ; have been troubled six or seven years with nocturnal emissions, the result of self-pollution in early life. INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. 57 Both my testicles drop down very low, and have the appearance of a red skin bag, covered with large veins, with two round stones at the bottom. In the region of the testicles I perspire profusely, and the perspiration has a very bad odor ; this has troubled and shamed me many years." After giving many other symptoms, he says : " I never feel well ; but I do not know whether to refer it to these conditions, or to my stomach, which for four years has been very troublesome, often refusing to retain food. " Am troubled with depression of spirits, for which I have no cause whatsoever. Am suspicious and jealous without reason ; am subject to hot flushes in the face. Lascivious thoughts often insinuate them- selves into my mind. I have never read corrupting books, and the nature of my study is of the highest and purest character. It puzzles me to know wheth- er impure fancies enter my mind first and give rise to desires that end in nocturnal emissions, or whether it is the yearning of the diseased parts that induces lustful thoughts. My penis is sometimes alarmingly small, and the outer skin shriveled ; my memory is not as good as formerly; is this the result of my disease ? I have consulted physicians and devoured their potions, but am not in the least benefited by them. I do hope I may get relief at your hands. "Address — ." Another who has successfully passed through his studies for the ministry finds himself " utterly pros- trated by the exertion of writing and delivering a sermon. Commenced self-abuse at seventeen, not knowing the terrible consequences with which I am 58 INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. now too familiar ; continued it a year and a half almost daily, until, having read upon the subject, I left it off; but the genital organs were so weakened that seminal emissions commenced almost imme- diately, and from that time to this, about nine years, I have suffered from this i living death/ I thought perhaps marriage would be a benefit, and so married, but have never been able to perform proper sexual intercourse, and at present I should think I am nearly impotent, if not quite. I must be cured if it is pos- sible, for at present life is hardly worth living for. If I "had known any thing about your Institution, I should have come to you before this. Please write soon, and address ." O. P. says : " I, through ignorance, have sinned, and now I suffer the consequences. There is a ques- tion I am asking myself daily, How and when shall I be well ? O God ! how glad would I be could I once more be freed from this tormenting, soul-destroying, and wicked disease, ' seminal emissions !' I have re- pented, but there is no forgiveness. At the age of fifteen I commenced that disgraceful habit, self-abuse, and at twenty this complaint manifested itself. Since that time I have been fighting with it. Am now twenty-six years old. My life will be a lottery unless I become entirely cured ; I am single ; a farmer by trade ; at home with my parents, and I work accord- ing to my strength Now, please, let me ask you, as an honest boy, what to do ?" One in the dark waters wails thus : " Suppose you were struggling for life in mid-ocean with a vessel sailing in sight, having plenty of room to accommo-* INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. 59 date you, and plenty of expert swimmers to come to your rescue, what would you do under the circum- stances ? Would you not exert all your strength to gain the floating refuge, and cry for assistance with all the intensity of agony and horror of feeling in- spired by your condition ? Just with such feelings do I send out my soul to you in this letter. I am perishing, miserably perishing in body and soul, and you are at the helm of that great and noble ship which I wish to board, and must board, or sink beneath the w r aves of temporal, and, I fear, eternal ruin. I beg you to listen to a brief sketch of the cause of my un- paralleled distress ! I was reared on a farm till eighteen years of age, then took chafge of a school ; # at twenty-one began to read medicine. After little more than a year I took sick of nephritis ; spine be- came affected, sore throat, and extreme nervousness. More than a year passed before I could dress or un- dress, rise up or lie down, without assistance. Took monstrous quantities of monstrous drugs, which ren- dered me doubly monstrous in body and in mind. Since that period I have been a wretched invalid ; the drugs on which my system was long dependent produced a clamor for stimulants which I have grati- fied ever since in the form of highly-seasoned food. Never was a drunkard or opium-eater more shackled by Satan than I am by gluttony ! I am always hun- gry, always eating, always repenting, always mocking God with false promises, sinking deeper and deeper into the gloom of despair and utter irresolution, and gathering in upon my soul the elements of consum- mate, eternal woe. The remembrance of what I once 60 INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. was, what I hoped, and aimed, and strove to be, and what I now am, and the shoreless, fathomless woe that awaits me unless my physical conditions can be changed ; the anticipation of this, and the remem- brance of that, scorches my soul as with hell-fire every day of my life." And thus the letter goes on, and, after describing his condition, he proceeds to say : " I know that I am lost, and that forever, if not soon put under the influ- ence of redemptive measures. If you can and will receive me under your care, and enable me, by your example, your encouragement, and your skill, to regain such health as to render me capable of sustaining myself, / will work for you as long as I live ! O Doctor ! in an agony of soul I implore you to commis- erate my case, else I can do nothing but lie down on the brink of helpless, hopeless ruin ! .... I have read several water-cure books, and am as fully persuaded of the correctness of the Hygienic theory and practice as I am of the redemption of man through Christ. If I was well, I would spend, and be spent, to impress the great truths you preach upon the minds and consciences of the people. I am called a ' fool/ a * cynic/ an ' opposer of the arrangements which God has made for the removal of disease/ sim- ply because I refuse to take drugs ! Oh ! had I known there was a better way in the beginning, I would not to-day be the slave of a degrading vice, destitute of moral energy, a poor, blasted, self-abhorred, self- abused, God-forsaken wretch ! O Doctor ! for the sake of Him who sacrificed his own life to save the lost and helpless, let me become the recipient of your care and skill !" INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. 6 1 These letters need no comment. You who have read this book thus far will appreciate them. And when I tell you that these tales are but a sample of what I am almost daily learning, both by letter and in my private office, you will not wonder that I felt the necessity of putting before the public a warning word concerning this dreadful evil. CHAPTER IX. MANIFESTATIONS OF SELF-ABUSE. HE effects of self-abuse, as manifested upon its subjects, seem to arrange themselves into four classes, each partaking, in a mea- sure, of the symptoms of others. In the first class the genital organs are most affected ; in the second, the digestive apparatus ; in the third, the spinal cord ; in the fourth, the brain. genital form. In this form, some or all of the following symp- toms will be exhibited : An uneasy, disagreeable sen- sation in the genital organs ; pain in the testicles ; spermatic cord elongated, allowing the testicles to hang much lower than natural ; the scrotum is weak and flabby, and its veins enlarged ; shrinking and withering of the penis and scrotum, and perhaps extreme sensitiveness to touch ; erections and dis- charges produce little or no pleasure or sensation ; emissions are both nocturnal and diurnal. Such cases usually become entirely impotent, for they either so completely lose all sexual power as to become inca- pable of having erections, or, if erections take place, the weakness is so great that an emission occurs be- fore sexual intercourse can be accomplished. MANIFESTATIONS OF SELF-ABUSE. 63 Life is bereft of all its charms, and such persons not only lose all interest in the higher sources of en- joyment, but the sexual instincts are entirely de- stroyed, and the poor sufferer bears about with him a worse than living death. DIGESTIVE FORM. Those in whom the digestive apparatus is the part most deranged will exhibit great disturbance in the action of the bowels ; severe constipation is generally present, though the opposite condition may obtain, and there is sometimes an alternation of constipation and diarrhea. There may also be derangements of the bladder, incontinence of urine, and diseases of the kidneys, such as diabetes and Bright' s disease. The appetite becomes morbid ; there is acidity of the stomach, derangements of the liver, heartburn, palpi- tation of the heart, indigestion in its worst forms, decayed teeth, gray hair, baldness, catarrh, sallow countenance, sunken eyes, haggard look, despond- ency, melancholy, and hypochondria. The system feels the want of sustenance, but is never satisfied. The victim, although he may be eating enormously, gradually becomes emaciated, and the friends won- der what can be the cause of all this trouble. If he has no cough, the doctor satisfies the world by saying he has " consumption of the bowels, or maras- mus," which is only too true ; but most often the lungs become affected, and the poor, self-abused, self-despised sufferer fills a consumptive's grave. SPINAL FORM. In the spinal form, there is excessive irritation and 64 MANIFESTATIONS OF SELF-ABUSE. excitability of the spinal cord ; rheumatic pains through the hips and lower limbs ; weakness and often numbness of the legs ; a sense of heat in the lower part of the spine, sometimes accompanied with severe pain and inability to move ; paralysis of the lower extremities, spasms, and epileptic fits. I have had several cases of epilepsy which I could trace directly to this vice. Some of these were from the first families in the country, whose parents never surmised the cause of the terrible calamity till I dis- closed it to them. One young man was brought to me in whom epi- lepsy was developed while away at school. His pa- rents and teachers supposed it was induced by over- taxing the mind with study. Suspecting the cause to be self-abuse, I interrogated him, but he was un- willing to admit it ; still believing my opinions to be correct, I placed a close watch over him, and he was soon caught in the practice. The habit had acquired such control that he could not voluntarily restrain himself ; although he improved while under my care, yet after he left me he continued the habit until he finally died in an insane asylum. Dr. Davis, in his recent work on surgery, says : "Masturbation affects the spinal cord, occasionally increasing common sensation until it becomes pain- ful. It also impairs the function of the nerves of motion. We have seen the lower limbs badly dis- torted as a consequence of this habit in children. Spinal irritation in girls and women is, in a majority of cases, due to self-abuse. ,, MANIFESTATIONS OF SELF-ABUSE. 6$ CEREBRAL FORM. Those persons in whom the brain and nervous system predominate over the muscular and digestive, will usually manifest signs of mental disturbance ; the thoughts continually revert to the sexual organs and things pertaining to them ; lascivious images and morbid imaginations constantly haunt the mind. It may be diverted for a short time to other things, but it soon falls back into its accustomed channel, and becomes listless and powerless as before. The victim loses the ability to fix the thoughts or to concentrate the mind, and has but little power of self-control in any direction ; there is dullness of the eye, with no expression of life or vivacity ; the vision becomes dim and indistinct ; the hearing dull, and all the senses are blunted in their action ; the voice loses its manly tones, and becomes feeble, rough, broken, or squeaking ; the countenance presents either a bloated, coarse, and harsh expression, or it may be- come thin, angular, and expressionless ; there is roar- ing in the ears, with dullness and a disagreeable sen- sation in the upper and back portions of the head. As the difficulty progresses, and the victim awakens to a sense of his crime, he becomes morbid and mo- rose, dwelling constantly upon his ruined condition. Conscience goads him to despair, and, with the con- stant drain kept up by the seminal losses, he grows weaker in body and mind, and falls an easy prey to temptation in other directions ; he is almost sure to be led into intemperance, and next comes some viola- tion of civil laws, perhaps a crime the commission of which he has no controlling power to resist, and so 66 MANIFESTATIONS OF SELF-ABUSE. he goes on till he ends either in idiocy, insanity, sui- cide, or the gallows.* The reports of all insane asylums show that these institutions are filled with victims of this unparalleled evil. Of many a young man it might be said as a friend says to me : " A neighbor of ours, a young man of promising intellect, became insane, and was placed in the Brattleboro Asylum. After a lengthened stay he was so much recovered as to be taken home ; but, beginning to relapse into his former condition, he finally told his mother that she must tie his hands to the bed-posts at night, for that was the way they did at the asylum." What must have been the feelings of that mother, who had never before suspected the cause of his insanity ! " She immediately informed her husband, and their desire to save others led him to speak to several boys upon the subject, and he found that there was not a young boy in the imme- diate neighborhood who did not know and practice the vice. Many a young man is compelled to leave school or college, and renounce his plan of obtaining a liberal education, and his friends sympathize and say, " What a pity !" " He has studied too hard !" They may well say, " What a pity !" but it is not " because he has studied too hard P It is because his vital stamina, his brain, and nerve-power are all exhausted by seminal losses ! And there is many a student of whom state- ments similar to the following might be written : " A * We have personal knowledge that a man recently hung for mur- der in Philadelphia, was subject to epileptic fits, brought on by self- abuse. MANIFESTATIONS OF SELF-ABUSE. 67 young man studying for the ministry boarded with a friend of mine, and not a morning passed but his night-shirt was found saturated with seminal dis- charges. No one dared say any thing to him about it, and he was soon obliged to give up his studies, went into a decline, and died." Let no one fear to speak with trumpet-tongue when- ever and wherever they see signs of this sad condition ; for it may not yet be too late to save some from the fearful end they are fast approaching. This same evil is the cause of a large majority of the suicides of the age. The brain and nervous sys- tem become so deranged in their action that the love of life is lost, and the embarrassments of business or the trials of domestic life — which trials arise, in nine- ty-nine cases out of a hundred, from abuses of the sexual function — afford sufficient excuse for the vio- lent completion of the act of self-destruction, com- menced years before. CHAPTER X. PREDISPOSING AND EXCITING CAUSES OF SELF-ABUSE. HE principal influence which leads to this frequently uncontrollable and almost uni- versal abuse of the sexual function may often be traced out in the history of parents. The father was, perhaps, born with strong sexual passions which have never been controlled, and the mother may have inherited similar conditions. They have married without any appreciation of what true marriage is, and too often solely, or principally, for the gratification of the animal passions ; for lust, and not for love ! The child is begotten in mere passion ! The father transmits his propensities to indulgence, along with the excitement and irritation of the sexual organs arising from those propensities ; and not only this, but the sexual passion is indulged during preg- nancy, which causes the mother to transmit doubly of the direful ill to the offspring within her womb, while at the same time the nervous force expended detracts just so much from the rights of the child to inherit a strong, well-balanced, and healthy organiza- tion. Every orgasm expends of the mother's vitality a CAUSES OF SELF-ABUSE. 69 portion that should go to nourish and develop her babe. Very much of the weakness and lassitude ex- perienced during pregnancy is due to the exhaustion consequent upon the sexual embrace, and the forming child must suffer from its effects ; for the mother can not impart what she does not herself possess, health and strength, with elasticity of mind and earnestness of purpose. Children are born with passions of which they neither know the meaning, nor that they should be controlled, and children's children take up the curse and bear it on till they are powerless to beget, bring forth, or rear ! and then, when it is all too late, they look around and wonder whence the strange fatality. " The iniquities of the parents shall be visit- ed upon the children unto the third and fourth gener- ation." No decree of the All-Wise was ever more fully verified than this ; and in no respect does it work surer ruin than in regard to sexual abuse. The manner in which children are reared and edu- cated has also much to do in developing an irritability of the sexual organs, and is a predisposing cause of self-abuse ; the food and drink, habits of cleanliness — or its opposite — dress, associations, etc., all have their influence upon the child, and tend either to develop or overcome the inherited tendencies of the sexual organization. Feeding children upon pork, gravies, eggs, pastry made of lard, salt meats, with mustard and pepper, rich pies and cakes, spices, cloves, and other excit- ants ; candies and sweetmeats, vinegar, pickles, tea and coffee, and every thing of this description, eaten JO PREDISPOSING AND EXCITING at all hours of day and late at night, tend to fire the blood, derange the functions of the system, excite the nerves, and bring on a precocious development of the sexual passion. The skin, too, with its millions of little sewers, by which God intended the purification of the system to be carried on, must be kept clean, or the impurities are dammed back, and the internal organs become deranged in consequence ; and, wherever a predisposi- tion to excitability of the sexual organs exists, those organs must suffer and become more irritable still, from habits of uncleanliness. Weakness of the sexual organs is often induced and increased by the inatten- tion of mothers and nurses with regard to changing the clothing of infants ; they are allowed to go wet and soiled, thus irritating and chafing the tender parts, until this becomes a strong excitant to self- abuse. Sleeping on feather-beds and feather-pillows, in close, unventilated rooms, is another cause of weak- ness, and, therefore, aids in inducing this vile practice. Children are often initiated into the habit of self- abuse by sleeping with libidinous servants ; and many a man and woman might say as a patient writes tome : " I curse the time when I slept with a servant of im- pure mind, who led me to habits of vice from which I have suffered ever since." Little babes acquire the habit of masturbation from nursery-maids, who fre- quently play with the genital organs to keep the child quiet. Confining children in-doors ; compelling them to sit on hard benches, with their toes scarcely reaching CAUSES OF SELF-ABUSE. 7 1 the floor, in ill-ventilated school-rooms ; low, vulgar stories upon subjects relating to the sexual function, which many young men and boys, yes, and old men too ! are so fond of relating to excite the imagination and arouse the curiosity of all who listen to them ; giving children false impressions as to how they were born — and this is as often done by parents as by others — and of the nature and use of the sexual function ; reading low novels and obscene stories ; looking at obscene pictures — all tend to excite the imagination, and arouse and pervert the sexual in- stinct. Among the more immediate exciting causes are : constipation ; worms in the intestines, especially as- carides, or pinworms in the rectum ; an accumulation of filth and sebaceous matter around the glans penis ; retention of urine beyond a proper time ; eating late suppers ; using alcoholic stimulants, tobacco, etc.; sed- entary occupations, and certain employments which require such motion of the limbs as to cause friction of the thighs upon each other, such as working a lathe, treadmill, sewing-machine, or playing musical instruments that require this action — all these mo- tions cause a determination of blood to those parts, which will inevitably occasion more or less nervous excitement of the sexual organs. Handling of the genital organs has also a tendency to cause a flow of blood in that direction, as does keeping the thoughts upon subjects of a sexual character. Talking to children about "sweethearts" and " lovers " is a fruitful cause of premature excitement of the sexual system, and often leads to self-abuse, 72 CAUSES OF SELF-ABUSE. as well as to promiscuous sexual indulgence. I am often horror-stricken at the lightness and levity with which these seeds of damnation are sown in the minds of children. Parents and others who sow such seed may thank themselves for the fruit thereof. CHAPTER XL PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL INDULGENCE. HE evils arising from promiscuous sexual indulgence are far less ruinous mentally, and, being less universal, are probably less destructive physically, than those arising from self- abuse. Yet, as a result of promiscuous indulgence, society groans to-day beneath a burden of physical diseases, of mental depravity, and of moral corrup- tion that is crushing and cursing the race. Aside from the private, infectious diseases from which persons of both sexes are suffering, diseases arising from venereal poisons, which contaminate the blood, rot the flesh, corrode the bones, and literally eat up alive their victim — aside from these, I say, there is an innumerable host of difficulties resulting from the great draft upon the vital forces of those who indulge in this way, which is sapping the enjoy- ments and rooting out the pleasures from every thing that makes life desirable. Men full of passion argue that nature has given them sexual desires thus strong, and, therefore, it must have been intended that they should be gratified ; and that it is right and lawful that the gratification should be obtained whenever and wherever it may be 74 PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL INDULGENCE. found ; but after they have contracted loathsome dis- eases, and the entire physical being is exhausted and ruined, they come to a different conclusion, and find that it is absolutely necessary to practice self-control. After the penalties for the violation of sexual law- have been inflicted, they are ready to consider the nature of the law, and to admit that their strong sexual feelings are the result of perverted sexuality, either inherited, or developed by bad habits in early years. " There is a way which seemeth right unto a man ; but the end thereof are the ways of death." As well may the dyspeptic plead that his morbid appetite should be gratified, or the drunkard that the flame within him should be fed with more fire, as the sensualist that his passions should be permitted to have sway. The world was once destroyed on account of its licentiousness, and has been continually cursed with all sorts of loathsome diseases, both of a special and general character. Yet the lesson of obedience to God's laws is still unlearned. Men do not yet know that their derangements, their diseases, their suffer- ings, their miseries, are penalties which follow the violation of the fixed and eternal laws God has estab- lished for the government of man's existence, and the maintenance of his happiness upon earth. They have not yet learned what Solomon so graphically deline- ates, that " The lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, And her mouth is sweeter than oil :" PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL . INDULGENCE. J$ "^But her end is bitter as wormwood, c Sharp as a two-edged sword. 6 Her feet go down to death; i Her steps take hold on hell" They have not obeyed his admonition : " Come not nigh the door of her house, ' Lest thou give thine honor unto others. 6 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, ' And thou mourn at last 1 When thy flesh and thy body are consumed^ And also : " Keep thee from the evil woman, * From the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. 1 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart ; ' Neither let her take thee with her eyelids. i For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread ; 1 And the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. ' Can a man take fire in his bosom and not be burned ? ' Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned ? ' So he that goeth unto his neighbor's wife. 1 Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding : ' He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. 6 A foolish woman is clamorous : ' She sitteth at the door of her house, ' To call passengers i Who go right on their ways : ' Whoso is simple let him turn in hither ; * And as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, * Stolen waters are sweet, 1 And bread eaten in secret is pleasant. 6 But he knoweth not that the dead are there, 1 And that her guests are in the depths of hell" 76 PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL INDULGENCE. The " Wise Man " still further says : Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister ; And call understanding thy kinswoman ; That they may keep thee from the strange woman, From the stranger which flattereth with her words. For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, A young man void of understanding, Passing through the street near her corner ; And he went the way to her house, In the twilight, in the evening, In the black and dark night : And behold there met him a woman With the attire of an harlot ; So she caught him and kissed him, And with an impudent face said unto him, I have peace offerings with me ; I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, With carved works, with fine linen of Egypt, I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cin- namon. Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning : Let us solace ourselves with loves. With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, With the flattering of her lips she forced him. He goeth after her straightway As an ox goeth to the slaughter, Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks ; Till a dart strike through his liver; As a bird hasteth to the snare, And knoweth not that it is for his life. Hearken unto me, therefore, O ye children ! And attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, Go not astray in her paths. PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL INDULGENCE. JJ 1 For she hath cast down many wounded : * Yea, many strong men have been slain by her. i Her house is the way to hell, 1 Going down to the chambers of death" Among the evils arising from promiscuous sexual indulgence, we find exhausted vitality, shortened life, and liability to every form of disease in general, be- sides the endless train of special diseases which are the accompaniments of such indulgences. Among these latter are the poisons of gonorrhea and syphi- lis. I have seen persons whose genital organs were entirely destroyed by venereal poisons ; I have seen the eyes eaten out, the nose rotted away, and the skull decayed so as to expose the brain to the size of a man's hand ; I have seen corroding ulcers, large as a dinner-plate, eating the flesh in differ- ent parts, and also those of smaller size about the generative organs, groins, nose, throat, legs, arms, and, in short, all parts of the body. I have seen such disgusting sores upon the face as would almost make you sick to look upon. Let all those who have a propensity to indulge in promiscuous sexual intercourse visit the hospitals in our large cities, and see for themselves the poor vic- tims of these degrading vices ; and the contemplation of its fruits must surely convince them that they can not with impunity indulge in the promiscuous gratifi- cation of the sexual passion. They can not fail to see that nature, as well as the Bible, condemns licen- tiousness, so that even disbelievers in the latter are most sacredly bound, by nature's immutable laws, to live in continence with regard to sexual things. 78 PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL INDULGENCE. Beware, O ye thoughtless and passionate young men and women, beware how you commit this sin ! for, even though you stand not in fear of God or man, even though you respect not purity and chastity, con- sider, at least, your own danger, and refrain from in- ducing this terrible curse ! for, when once the system becomes contaminated with certain forms of venereal poison, it is literally impossible ever to completely eradicate it. It may, for a time, be suppressed by counteracting influences ; but, when the victim im- agines himself free from its accursed evils, it breaks out in some form, perhaps more aggravated than ever, to blast his hopes and make his life more bitter than before. And the evil is not alone to the author of the crime, but is handed down from generation to gener- ation, destroying the vital stamina, and blasting the happiness of all upon whom it is entailed. Beware, then, lest your children and your children's children fling back the fiery venom in your face, and with curses loud and deep denounce you as the author of their miseries, their crimes, their death ! CHAPTER XII. MATRIMONIAL EXCESSES. LARGE majority of mankind seem to think that the marriage ceremony is a full license for sexual indulgence ; and that, in the eyes of the civil law, in the opinion of socie- ty, and in view of moral obligations, this rite be- stows the privilege of gratifying the sexual desires to the fullest extent. They even go so far as to plead that Christianity sanctions this, and thousands of professing Christians die yearly from diseases induced solely by the practice which this belief engenders. The multitude of evils growing out of such ideas, the tales of sorrow, suffering, and woe which wives and mothers could unfold, and which children, with their dwarfed, deformed, and diseased bodies, and weakened, shattered minds, so sadly testify to ; the extent to which vitality has been impaired, diseases of various forms begotten, and life prematurely cut short, from sexual indulgences in married life, can never be fully known, save to Him who knoweth all things, and knowing, either sanctions or condemns. Dr. Acton says : " The exhaustion of nerve-power, the draining of the best life-blood by seminal losses, 80 MATRIMONIAL EXCESSES. the influence upon the constitution, life, and health, is much the same whether the indulgence occurs in or out of wedlock, whether produced by natural or artificial means." There are very many married people who have lived continently before marriage, but, as soon as they are wedded, indulge in sexual intercourse day after day, neither party dreaming that this is an excess which the system can not endure, and which is often to both parties simple ruin. This course is continued till the health becomes impaired ; and when, at last, medical assistance is sought, they are thunder-struck at being told that their ailments are the result of mat- rimonial excesses ! They can not realize that they have been guilty of great and even criminal excesses in the indulgence of the sexual passion. They do not seem to know that God in forming their bodies established laws by which they should be governed ; and that a violation of these laws has brought upon them its penalties, which they must inevitably bear. The long train of diseases and sufferings conse- quent upon these excesses are too numerous to be mentioned here ; but a majority of the diseases incident to the female organs, such as inflammations, ulcera- tions, displacements, tumors, cancers, etc., most com- monly have their origin in sexual abuses, and are quite as liable to be begotten in married life as by abuses in single life. Little girls are born with a transmitted tendency to these diseases, and even the slightest exciting causes often serve to develop them. Very much of the nervousness and hysteria so com- mon among women arises from abuses of the sexua 1 MATRIMONIAL EXCESSES. 8 1 function : in single life it is often the result of excite- ment of the sexual organs, induced by reading " love- sick" novels, and cherishing lascivious thoughts, while in married life it is from the overtaxation of the nervous system by marital excesses. I know the heart-history of many noble, high-toned women, whose whole being revolts at the use to which they are put ! Yet their ideas of domestic peace are so exalted that, loyal and true, they submit them- selves a constant sacrifice, and, by the mere force of will, keep alive the fire of love within their tortured souls ; living martyrs are they, daily enduring a fiercer ordeal than any to which the Christian mar- tyrs were subjected. Many of these husbands are all the wife could ask, except in this one thing, and never dream but that they love those whom they have promised to " honor and cherish ;" but it is a love so full of selfishness that it ceases to be true. Many men argue that "love between husband ana wife would die out but for the constant indulgence of the sexual passion." It is false ! The love that re- strains indulgence within the limits of the sexual law, that seeks to deny itself for the happiness of the being beloved, is infinitely more pure, more holy, more intense, more lasting, than that which seeks a lustful gratification, and forces upon its object tokens which she loathes ; while the love of a wife for the husband who recognizes and obeys the laws of his being in these things is beyond all power of expres- sion. Her deepest respect and highest reverence are his, and her very soul flows out in love for him, inas- much as he presents pure and unsullied the image of God. 82 MATRIMONIAL EXCESSES. But the number of women whose love survives the unhallowed test of sexual abuse is small compared with those whose respect and reverence die out, whose love loses its beauty and its power, whose hearts bleed and faint, and bodies grow weak and sick, until nervous irritability and fretfulness take the place of the love- words and love-tokens which should form a goodly part of woman's life. And thus the unhappiness, the unkindness, and the petty bickerings so frequent in the home circle are, almost without ex- ception, the result of marital excesses. The husband whose love for the wife has become degraded to mere lust for the woman, and whose nervous system is racked by his excesses, is in no mood to soothe the ruffled waves of the domestic sea ; and the children, inheriting the sad legacy, often serve to roll these waves up mountain high, until the love which God implanted as the root of the marriage relation is crushed, and buried beneath the blackened sod of sexual abuse ! Our graveyards, could they speak, would send forth a sad and sickening wail from the young wives and mothers who have been placed there, the victims of matrimonial abuse of the sexual function. Our Greenwoods, our Auburns, and our Laurel Hills are dotted with graves of young and middle-aged women, whose lives have been offered up as a sacrifice to the lustful passions of their husbands. And not always are these husbands ignorant of the result they are hastening ; yet they will not pause in their guilty work, but deliberately and often furiously commit the murder for which, were justice meted out to them, MATRIMONIAL EXCESSES. 83 they would " hang by the neck till they were dead," instead of being permitted to live and woo a second, a third, and sometimes even a fourth victim to their base desires. Many husbands, too, are stricken down in conse- quence of marital excesses. There are more widows in our land to-day, made so by these excesses, than those who have been widowed by the war through which we just have passed. Many a man as well as woman has gone into a decline in consequence of gross violation of the sexual law. God has, indeed, as he threatens those who " despise my statutes," " ap- pointed over" him " terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart." Truly, nature " is no respecter of persons," for she enforces upon all the fact that " not one jot or one tittle shall in anywise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." The human race are wondering and mourning over the " mysterious dispensations of Providence " in permitting so much disease, and removing from earth so many of the middle-aged and the young ; and we are exhorted to consider this a lesson God is teaching to prepare for death. The facts are these : people destroy their own lives, and the lives of their children, by their own sexual abuses, and God suffers them to die, because they have so often and so grossly violated the laws he has ordained that they are not fit to live ! Very many of the sickly, puny, scrofulous children whom we daily see are the offspring of par- ents who are addicted to matrimonial excesses. Many parents mourn the loss of young children who 84 MATRIMONIAL EXCESSES. have died in infancy or early youth, because the vi- tality which should have been given to them before birth was used up in sexual excesses ! If the world would learn this lesson from the deaths that are con- stantly occurring, if they would learn that God has made laws which have here been disobeyed, then, in- deed, might they learn that which would not only bless mankind, but give glory unto God ! Then would they be prepared not only for death, but for life, which is infinitely better, inasmuch as death is but a point in existence, while life stretches out on both sides of it, beautiful, glorious, grand. Every one who reflects upon this subject will ad- mit that the solitary vice of self-abuse is a terrible evil which should be done away ; and that promis- cuous licentiousness and prostitution are heinous crimes, to the extinction of which the law should be applied ; but how few there are who stand ready to probe this corrupting evil to its very core, and cleanse the fountain from which the virus flows ! The foundation of this whole scheme of abuse of the sexual function is laid in the marriage-bed. Children who early fall into the habit of self-abuse, and young men and women who become libertines and prosti- tutes, are often not so much to blame as are the par- ents who, by their excesses in married life, entailed upon them a depraved organization. Many a child is born who was begotten of lust and not of love ! at a time, too, when neither parent had any desire for offspring, but came together for the sole purpose of gratifying an abnormal craving which should have been restrained. And not only this, but MATRIMONIAL EXCESSES. 85 during every day, while the little one was being de- veloped in its mother's womb, that mother submitted to the embraces of her husband, sometimes, perhaps, with pleasure, at others with discomfort, if not with torture. And what must be the effect of such a course of action upon the forming child ? If the fountain is corrupt, can the stream which flows there- from be other than impure ? Many a man and woman would shun the society of a profligate, and shrink from one who would sell her virtue for gain as from a viper or a scorpion ; yet they themselves, under cover of the marriage rite, are just as guilty in the sight of God with regard to the sacred laws of their own body as those whom they condemn. The great Redeemer of the world has said : " Ye have heard that it hath been said by them in old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery : but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." And this saying reaches forth into married as well as single life, for Christ makes no reference to wedlock as being an exception when he speaks thus. Aside from the conditions and diseases which produce suffering and death as a result of marital excesses, violations of the sexual law are a frequent cause of sterility ; for they not only induce an ab- normal condition of the female organs of generation, so as to render conception doubtful, if not impossible, but the spermatozoa, not being permitted to mature, do not possess the fecundating power, and, of course, without this, conception can never occur. I am often 86 MATRIMONIAL EXCESSES. consulted by parties desirous of offspring, and in many cases the simple adherence to continence for a few weeks or months, as the case may be, has been followed by the desired result. Excesses in this direction are also a frequent cause of partial or complete impotency and premature old age ; the organs become so weakened by being over used that all power is lost ; and this, with its accom- panying loss of health, and loss of respect between husband and wife, is a fruitful cause of misery and wretchedness wherever it exists. abortion. This is a most deplorable evil, a most foul and in- human crime, which results from unrestrained indul- gence of the sexual passions. Instead of this indulgence being restricted to pro- creation, as the Creator designed, instead of seeking to control and apply the sexual powers to the sacred purpose of producing offspring of the highest, noblest type, every conceivable device is sought whereby the indulgence may be continued and the design be thwarted. Innumerable contrivances are gotten up to prevent conception, and when, in spite of these devices, it does take place, the agents of death are unhesitatingly employed to destroy the child in em- bryo ere it is capable of an independent existence. Few are aware of the fearful extent to which this nefarious business, this worse than devilish practice, is carried on in all classes of society ! Many a wo- man determines that she will not become a mother, and subjects herself to the vilest treatment, commit- MATRIMONIAL EXCESSES. 87 ting the basest crime to carry out her purpose. And many a man, who has " as many children as he can support," instead of restraining his passions, aids in the destruction of the babes he has begotten. The sin lies at the door of both parents in equal measure ; for the father, although he may not always aid in the murder, is always accessory to it, in that he induces, and sometimes even forces upon the moth- er the condition which he knows will lead to the com- mission of this crime. But the effort to destroy the child is many times unsuccessful, and the little one is born with murder in his heart, stamped there by the murderous inten- tions of his own mother. And what wonder that these inborn passions should lead him to the lowest depths of degradation both as regards the body and the soul ? Many a child lives to mature years, dwarfed and deformed in body, and irritable and im- becile in mind, a disgrace to himself and to the race, who might have been a model of beauty and strength, both physically and mentally, but for the attempts of his parents to destroy his life before he was born. And besides all this, the consequences of such a practice are most disastrous both upon the physical and moral nature of those whose souls are stained with this terrible sin. The general health of the mother is often ruined, and the generative organs seriously injured. No system can endure the shock produced by this unnatural crime without being more or less impaired, while many a woman meets death as a penalty for her sin ; others live, but are never again in a condition to conceive, and often suffer con- 88 MATRIMONIAL EXCESSES. stantly in consequence of their fiendish endeavors ; while others still are enabled to bear children, but with such anguish as no tongue may tell, and the child thus born is frequently a curse to himself and all with whom he is connected.* When the sinfulness of this practice is pointed out, many women affirm : " Oh ! I wouldn't do it, of course I wouldn't, after there was life !" They do not realize the truth that, the moment impregnation takes place, life begins — the body begins. Abortionists teach the sophistry that " until the mother feels motion there is no life f but if there were no life before that time, there surely would be none after. This period of " quickening," as it is termed, is simply that stage of development in the child when it is capable of making its motions felt. There is life just as truly at conception as at birth, or when the child is five years old. It being mind that makes the man, just as well might the child be de- stroyed at birth, with the argument that its mental and moral faculties had no life, for they lie dormant at that time even as does the physical before " quickening." He who destroys a child in embryo, at whatever period of its term, stands arraigned before his God as a destroyer of life ! Take warning, then, and obey the laws of your sexual nature, that you may never be pointed out as the agent for whose gratification these direful deeds are done. * The disinclination for child-bearing among American women, and the consequent decrease in the number of their children, arises, to a great extent, from their physical unfitness for the trust ; and this un- fitness is largely the result of inherited weakness and disease caused by sexual abuse. CHAPTER XIII. PREVENTION OF SEXUAL ABUSE. O those who feel an interest in the welfare and progress of suffering and diseased humanity, the question forces itself home : What can be done to stay this flood-tide of evil that is sweeping over our fair land, bearing death and de- struction upon its wild waves ? Let all who have a heart to feel and a tongue to speak consider what can be done to check this tornado of self-degradation and ruin, which is crushing the highest hopes, blast- ing the brightest prospects, and wasting the vital stamina of so many of our children and youth, and destroying the harmony and happiness of the whole world. What can be done in order that the young, and even those of maturer years, shall know the nature of their own organization, and the laws which should control their physical being ? How shall they obtain a knowledge of the duty they owe to themselves, their fellow-beings, and their God ? In what way shall they learn how to use the bodies and souls which God has given them, so as to be productive of the truest happiness to themselves, the greatest good to 9.\^v^. ■ ^M>M fin !Wf.'JtA >?.y.Wfttti^W Wixijy WHWiBimCn i WMMM mmsmk WIBn1BHWWBWBMM>MffTifiMMflttnHWIW BBnl9SBnB919B0nHraH HBBffiSBBlBHF BfloBa »&* rage My w&W&iSra HBP hMBhShk BSRH ■■■■■■'<■:>■■■■■■_■