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THE
SCIENCE OF LIFE
A TREATISE ON THE
CAUSE, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT OF
NERVOUS AND PHYSICAL DEBILITY,
SPERMATORRHOEA, AND THE
SECRET INFIRMITIES
OF YOUTH.
ILLUSTRATED WITH CASES.
BY DR. J. JACQUES,
Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Doctor of Medicine, and
Demonstrator of Anatomy and Surgery.
No. 148 WEST LOMBARD STREET,
(Between Hanover and Sharp Streets,)
Baltimore, m:d.
J^
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874,
BY DR. J. JACQUES,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Introduction , 5
CHAPTER I.
Anatomy of the Urinary and Generative Organs. . 9
CHAPTER II.
Onanism and its Destructive Consequences 22
CHAPTER III.
Marriage and its Obligations 42
CHAPTER IV.
Spermatorrhoea 47
CHAPTER V.
Treatment of Spermatorrhoea 62
CHAPTER VI.
Eruptions of the Skin 75
CHAPTER VII.
Special Diseases. . .* 85
CHAPTER VIII.
Self Diagnoses 106
Notes from Case-Book 112
To Patients and Invalid Readers 123
INTRODUCTION.
The continued extensive demand for my
Lectures makes it but too plain that the yices
therein condemned are still rife, notwithstand-
ing all that has been done by philanthropists
with the view of arresting them.
The reader will perhaps' suppose that I am
conjuring up a phantom. He may ask in as-
tonishment, what are the evils into which men
dare not or will not enquire ?
In reply, self-abuse on the one hand, and
venereal affections on the other. These two
evils are, more than everything else, the wide-
spreading and often the unsuspected causes of
physical and moral degradation ; a degradation
affecting not their immediate victims alone, but
extending to remote generations. It is scarcely
too much to say that every man and woman in
the civilized world would have been stronger,
healthier, more beautiful; would have felt a
1*
6 INTRODUCTION".
brighter, intenser life, had these scourges never
been known.
Health is essential to happiness ; and to enjoy
health we must study the unchanging laws
which govern it, and they are not difficult to
understand. When we see the miserable victims
of an insidious and unsuspected disease slowly
but steadily emaciating ; when we view a series
of phenomena faintly and indistinctly charac-
teristic of a great variety of disorders, such as
consumption, wasting away, loss of energy,
physical and mental, and actual brain disease,
can we surrender without remorse — secundum
artem, as it were — the unhappy sufferer to his
fate ? Shall we not rather, despite false delicacy,
investigate the origin and causes of such diseases,
and endeavor to determine the true principles
of their cure? To these investigations the
microscope has proved an invaluable assistance,
and the most important recent discoveries are
due to its aid.
To this part of the subject I have paid the
most anxious and untiring attention from a
very early period of my professional career. It
is one in fact, that not a day passes in which I
am not consulted, either by professional visits,
INTRODUCTION. 7
or by correspondents in different parts of the
country, and I feel that I am not exceeding the
limits of truth, or transgressing the bounds of
professional etiquette, in asserting that my mode
of practice, suggested and improved by long and
multiplied experience, has been productive of
the happiest and most successful results in the
treatment of sexual debility. During my prac-
tice, also, I have too frequently marked the
great extent of constitutional disease, primarily
springing from neglect or maltreatment of
syphilitic diseases. Any medical man who will
make it his study, as it has been mine to inves-
tigate as far as possible in every case, the original
channel through which disease or constitutional
disorder first found its entry into the system,
will be astonished at the mass of human suffer-
ing which may be traced to venereal origin,
although its primary symptoms may have been
for years apparently eradicated from the frame.
I therefore abandoned an extensive general
practice, and resolved to devote myself exclu-
sively to the treatment of this class of maladies,
in the hope of being able to effect some improve-
ment. To this determination I have steadily
adhered for nearly a quarter of a century, and
8 INTRODUCTION".
have, in consequence, accumulated an amount
of experience vastly greater than can fall to the
lot of any general practitioner.
J. JACQUES, M. D.,
148 West Lombard Street,
Baltimore.
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE
CHAPTER I.
THE ANATOMY OF THE URINARY AND GENERA-
TIVE ORGANS.
Ik order fully to understand, the nature and
treatment of the disorders resulting from the
abuse of the reproductive function, it will be
necessary that the general reader be informed of
the exact position, form, structure, and use of
the various parts of the human body which con-
stitute what may be termed the "generative
apparatus" These papers, as before stated,
being intended for popular use, need only con-
tain such a description of the male organs, as will
render the further inquiry into the subject clear
and intelligible. The physiology of each organ,
so far as they are known, will be stated, and
afterwards their pathology ; for it is impossible
to draw a line of demarcation between the states
of Health and Disease, — they are so closely re-
10 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
lated, that neither can be studied with advan-
tage unless in connection with the other. Equally-
close is the relation of Hygiene (or the art oi
preserving the body in health) to Therapeutics
(which is the art of curing disease); and thus,
in proportion as our system of treatment loses
its empirical character by being based on scien-
tific principles, will it increase in perfection and
success.
The organs of the Generative system in man
may be divided into external and internal ; the
former consisting of the testicles and penis ; and
the latter of the seminal vessels, seminal bladders,
and prostate glands. The Urinary organs con-
sist of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra,
all of which are internal except the urethra.
We will take the urinary organs first, commenc-
ing with the kidneys.
The Kidneys (Renes) are two glands lying
close upon the muscles of the loins, behind and
below the stomach, resembling in form a French
bean, and are called conglomerate glands. Their
outer structure is cortical or glandular; the
inner, consisting of minute cells, forming at first
into small canals and afterwards into tubes,
which terminate and open into the ureters.
THE SCIENCE OE LIFE. 11
The Ureters are long membraneous tubes or
canals which connect the kidneys with the blad-
der, and convey the urine, when secreted in the
former, to the latter. There is one to each kid-
ney; sometimes (but rarely) two.
The Bladder {Vesica Urinaria) is a mem-
braneous and muscular bag or pouch, situated
in the middle of the pelvis or basin of the body
below the abdomen, and is divided into anterior,
posterior, and lateral portions, the lower part of
which is called the neck, terminating in the
urethra or urinary canal, which is the common
exit of the urine from the body. The bladder
is composed of four coats or coverings, the ex-
ternal being the peritoneal (or serous) membrane;
the next, the muscular ; then the nervous (or
cellular); and lastly the mucous (or villous),
which is the internal lining. All these organs
have their arteries, veins, nerves, and absorbents,
which serve for the purposes of nutrition, vital-
ity, and secretion.
We now arrive at the Generative Organs
in man — (and here, the reader's attention is par-
ticularly requested), — commencing with —
The Testicles (Testes) ; two spermatic glands
enclosed in one peculiar bag termed the scrotum,
12 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
divided interiorly into two compartments, exter-
nally formed by a common skin or integument,
which in the external centre forms a ridge, called
the raphe, on each side, and in the middle of
this bag is a cell or cavity, in which the gland
of the testicle is situated. These glands are
composed of a vast number of fine tubes, folded
in various directions and encased in a fibrous
membrane called the tunica albuginea, proper to
each alone, and again surrounded by one mem-
brane common to both testicles, called the tunica
vaginalis; over this there is a muscular coat
called the cremaster, and exterior to that the
cellular substance termed the dartos, lying
directly under the outer skin, which in persons
in health is generally puckered or wrinkled.
On the upper and posterior portion of the gland
of each testicle is situated the epididymis, which
is a network of vascular cells consisting of
minute seminal tubes, terminating in the efferent
vessels, which are from twelve to thirty in number,
and when spread out form an united average
length of eight feet, each being rather more than
seven inches long. These vasa efferentia, or
efferent vessels of the epididymis, terminate in
two ducts, called
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 13
The Seminal Canals ( Vasa Deferentia), which
ascend on each side from the upper portion of
each testicle, and accompany the spermatic
artery, vein, and nerves, which together form
what is termed the spermatic corcl. This cord
passes upwards ti. agh the groin, and thence
laterally attached and across to the back and
lower part of the bladder, where it approaches
its fellow and terminates in the seminal Madders,,
from each of which, receiving a branch, they
emerge, and forming the ejaculatory ducts,, open
into the urethra, which they enter on each side
at the base of the prostate gland.
The Seminal Bladders {Vesiciblcz Seminales)
are situated at the u^der part of the bladder,
and are close to each other except at their upper
extremities. A mucous membrane lines each of
these bladders, which are considered to be the
reservoirs for the secretion of the testicles, in the •
same relation as the urinary bladder is to the -
kidneys.
The Prostate Gland is situated directly in:
front of the seminal bladders, and surrounds the
root of the urethra just at the neck of the blad-
der; it is a firm glandular mass, in form resem-
bling a carved chesnut.
2
14 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
The Penis (Membrum Virile) is divided into
the root, the body, and the glands or head; the
first attached to the arch of the pelvis by the
suspensory ligament, secured on each side by
three muscles, termed the erector penis, trans-
versalis perinwi, and transversalis perincei alter ;
these muscles assist materially in the functions
of the organ. Another muscle also, termed the
accelerator urinm, or ejaculator seminis, rising
from the membraneous and terminating at the
fbulbous portion of the urethra, is in connection
with these ; its name at once explaining its func-
tion. The body of the penis is composed of
^cavernous bodies, the vessels, nerves, and the
urethra. The upper surface of the penis is called
; the dorsum, or corpus cavernosum, and extends
from the root to the ridge of the glands ; there
is a groove on the upper side for the vessels and
nerves, and one on the lower, into which the
urethra passes; and encasing these parts is a
firm elastic tissue, the continuation of which
forms the prepuce or foreskin, which covers the
gland or nut of -the penis.
The Urethra (or seminal and urinary canal)
commences from rthe neck of the bladder, passes
through the prostate gland, that portion of
THE SCIENCE OE LIFE. 15
which is termed the prostate portion of the ure-
thra. Here the seminal ducts open into it for
the conveyance of the seed; afterwards passing
under the bony arch of the pubes or share bone,
the urethra assumes the character of a membra-
neouspipe (membraneous portion). The urethra
then acquires a spongy and fibrous tissue, which
continues to surround it, when it expands into
the top or extremity of the whole, called the
glans penis. The urethra is a most delicate and
important structure, and its interior surface is
lined with a very sensitive mucous membrane,
having several oblique ducts, called lactmce,
which furnish a secretion to prevent the abra-
sion of its surface from acrid urine.
Lastly, the Glans, or head of the penis, pro-
tected by the prepuce or foreskin, is abundantly
filled with arteries, veins, nerves and absorbents,
and invested with a soft smooth outer skin, and
endowed with peculiar sensibility. This com-
pletes the popular anatomy of the organs of
generation, as far as it is here necessary to ex-
plain it.
Having cursorily reviewed the anatomy, we
now arrive at the physiology, of the Urinary
and Sexual Organs; the former of which, as
16 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
subsidiary to the latter, I shall but briefly men-
tion. The kidneys are employed for the purpose
of secreting the urine from the blood, which is
conveyed to them by the emulgent arteries. On
the entrance of the artery into each kidney, it
divides into very minute branches and ramifica-
tions, and terminates in a capillary net-work,
from which the secretion of urine from the blood
ensues. It is formed drop by drop, and passes
out of the kidneys, through the ureters, into the
bladder; whence, after collecting in a certain
quantity it is evacuated, and passing through
the urethra, is thus expelled from the body. In
addition to the benefit that the system derives
from the secretion of urine relieving it of a
superfluous fluid, the blood is evidently im-
proved, and the whole system considerably bene-
fited, by the withdrawal of a certain number of
saline and deleterious substances which the urine
carries off in solution, and which, according to
Berzelius, amount to fifteen. These generally
exist in the human urine, but the fluid occasion-
ally contains in a morbid condition of the system,
many other substances, as albumen, bile, sugar,
fat, fibrin, blood, milk, and purulent matter. In
fact, there is scarcely any other fluid in nature
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 17
that contains so many substances dissolved in it.
The deleterious and heterogeneous matters which
the kidneys separate from the system "would
erode the interior surfaces of the ureters and
bladder, but that these are provided with a vil-
lous coat or lining, and plentifully supplied with
a secretion or sheathing mucus to obviate such
an evil. When secreted, and most commonly
w r hen first voided, the urine has a distinctly acid
reaction in man, and in all carnivorous animals.
On the contrary, in most herbivorous animals the
urine is alkaline and turbid; the difference de-
pending not on any peculiarity in the mode of
secretion, but on the differences in the food on
which the two classes subsist. Human urine is
not usually rendered alkaline by vegetable diet,
but becomes so after the use of alkaline medi-
cines. The "whole quantity of urine secreted in
twenty-four hours depends greatly on the amount
of fluid drunk, and the proportion secreted by
the skin. The latter being more active in sum-
mer than in winter, it may be estimated that in
summer a healthy man voids thirty ounces daily,
and in winter about forty ounces, thus giving a
mean average of thirty-five ounces of urinary
secretion per diem.
2*
18 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
In entering upon the physiology of the Gen-
erative system, we shall first take the Glands of
the Testicle, as they stand in the same relation
with the secretion of the semen, or seed, as the
kidneys do with the secretion of urine; both, in
fact, being the organs in which these important
fluids are secreted or prepared. The sexual
functions commence at puberty, and are per-
formed, if the individual be in health, until the
arrival of senescence. The function is dormant
in infancy or childhood, and ceases in old age.
The secretion of the • seminal fluid takes place
constantly (though slowly, except under excite-
ment), in the tubuli semeniferi of the testicles.
Thence it passes along the vasa deferentia into
the vesiculce seminal es, where it collects and is
discharged, passing through the prostate gland
by ducts into the urethra, whence it is expelled
by emission.
To the vesiculce seminales or seed-Madders a
double function may be assigned, for they secrete
some fluid to be added to that of the testicles,
and serve also as reservoirs for the seminal fluid.
The former is their most constant, and probably
most important office, for in the horse, bear, pig,
and several other animals in whom the vesicula3
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 19
seminales are large, they do not in any way com-
municate with the vasa deferentia, but pour their
secretions separately into the urethra. It is
highly probable, however, that the secretion of
the vesiculas (the action of which is unknown)
contributes to the proper composition of the
impregnatory fluid. There also exists some
mystery respecting the secretions of the prostate
gland, their nature and purposes ; it is supposed
they contribute only a subordinate part in the
composition of the impregnating semen; for
when the testicles are lost, or their secretions
destroyed, though these organs are perfect, all
procreative power ceases.
Tlie Semen is a thick whitish fluid, which
consists of a liquor seminis and of certain solid
particles; is colorless, transparent, and of an
albuminous nature. In contains, floating in it,
various cells, oil-like globules, minute granular
matter, and two principal microscopic constitu-
ents, named spermatozoa {spermatic filaments),
and seminal granules. The spermatozoa are pe-
culiar living bodies existing in considerable num-
bers in healthy semen, and in the urine of those
whose generative systems have become debili-
tated; and when examined in the field of the
20 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
microscope, seem to be endowed with the power
of executing a brisk lashing movement. Each
consists of a flattened oval part or body, and of
a long filiform tail ; the body is about one six-
thousandth part of an inch in width, the entire
body and tail being about one four-hundredth
to one five-hundredth part of an inch in length.
The seminal granules are rounded colorless
bodies, averaging about one four-thousandth part
of an inch in diameter, and are allied to mucous
corpuscles. The seminal fluid, secreted by the
testicles, is one of those secretions in which a
process of development is continued after its
formation by the secretory cells and its discharge
from them into the tubes. The complete devel-
opment of the spermatozoa, in their full propor-
tion and number, is not achieved until the semen
has reached, and for some time lain in, the sem-
inal bladders (vesiculm). These spermatozoa
present no trace of structure or dissimilar
organs : they move about in the seminal fluid,
lashing their tails and propelling their heads
forward, in various lines. Their rate of motion
is about one inch in thirteen minutes. Of the
physiology of these seminal filaments little that
is certain can be said ; their presence in the im-
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 21
pregnating fluid of nearly all classes of animals
proves their essentiality to the process of impreg-
nation. They have been regarded as highly
organized, and as the materials or organs out of
which the new individual is begun ; but whether
their contact with the ovum in the female be
essential to its impregnation cannot be deter-
mined; it probably is so, though the statements
respecting the insertion of part of the seminal
filaments into the cavity of the ovum have not
been confirmed. Nothing has shown what it is,
that makes the fluid capable of impregnation,
and of giving to the developing offspring all the
characters, in features, size, mental disposition,
and liability to disease, which belong to the father.
This is a fact wholly inexplicable. By many
these microscopical researches, relative to the
living bodies seen in the seminal fluid, have led
to a belief in the theory, that the offspring is the
progeny of the father only; but whether this be
the case, or whether the offspring be the product
of the mother alone, or of both, has never been
determined. I must confess I am inclined to
believe in the first-named supposition.
22 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
CHAPTEE II.
ONANISM AND ITS DESTRUCTIVE CONSEQUENCES.
Onanism is that unnatural practice by which
persons of either sex may defile their own bodies
without the assistance of others — whilst yielding
to filthy imaginations they endeavor to imitate
and procure to themselves that sensation which
God has ordained to attend the carnal commerce
of the two sexes for the continuance of our
species. This destructive habit, as the most
frequent case of impotency and sterility or bar-
renness, is usually denominated Onanism. It
were well if the evil pertained only to youth,
but it must be owned that such is the force of
this depraved and demoralizing habit, that it is
frequently found to be indulged, at an age when
usually the sober and mature judgment may be
expected to be in vigorous activity. This de-
structive and pernicious vice is alluded to in
the 38th chapter, 10th verse, of Genesis, as the
sin of Onan (whence its name) : and the revolt-
ing record is placed there, doubtlessly, for our
warning and as an indication of the abhorrence
THE SCIEXCE OF LIFE. 23
of that pure and holy Being for his unnatural
sin.
The spell-bound fascination of this unfortu-
nate delusion most commonly assumes its sway
at a very early period ; the secret is frequently
propagated in whisper, or by example from boy
to boy at school, where children are left, in a .
measure, open to the admission of sights and
sounds over which the preceptor can only ex-
ercise a limited control. There, left to intermix
with other lads more precocious than themselves
or exposed to the numerous snares and tempta-
tions presented on every side in all large cities,
it requires a more than ordinary amount of
watchfulness on the part of those parents and
guardians who have the supervision of youth,
to prevent the introduction, or to eradicate and
avert the consequences of this distressful and
abominable practice. Under such circumstances,
the secret of illusory gratification is soon dis-
covered, a new source of vivid and exquisite
sensual enjoyment is opened to the ardent im-
agination; it is felt to be easily and secretly
practical, and intensely pleasurable. Upon
youth, this destructive habit commits the most
unrestricted ravages; and it will be obvious,
24 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
that, inasmuch as it strikes at the very root of
society, at the increase and propagation of the
human race, by enervating and debilitating the
springs of life, no language can be sufficiently
strong in reprobation of the national, social, and
individual miseries resulting from a practice
which is not more hurtful and odious among
men, than it is destestable in the sight of God.
It is at that early period when passion predom-
inates, unchecked by the immature reasoning
faculty, that the heedless youth runs the greatest
risk of contamination.
It will be well to place before the reader, in
as brief a form as is consistent with a literal
outline of the facts, a summary of the conse-
quences, physical as well as mental, resulting
from the practice of self-pollution.
And these are twofold, for such is the myste-
rious nature of the union, such the relation and
mutual dependence existing between mind and
body, between the purely corporeal and the
mental portions of our being, that any physically
bad habit, while it undermines the bodily health,
produces a corresponding depression upon the
animal spirits; the brain and nervous system,
as the organs of the intellectual principle become
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE* ■ 25
preternaturally weakened and diseased, until one
common ruin involves both alike in destruc-
tion. If self-pollution has unhappily gained the
mastery over the young spirit, if it become an
admitted habit, the energies of the body, which
ought naturally to be directed to the purposes
of nourishment and growth, are employed in
the reparation of a criminal loss, and the pur-
poses of natural sustenance, as well as the
support of the bodily functions, are altogether'
superseded, or at ieast imperfectly provided for.
An idea mav be formed of the nature of this
loss, and of the sacred guard which health im-
poses upon its due preservation, by observing
the consequences resulting from its unnecessary
and too frequent emission. Physicians of all
ages have unanimously been«of opinion, that the
loss of an ounce of this humor by the unnatural
act of self-pollution, would weaken more than
that of forty ounces of blood. An idea may be
formed of its importance, not merely for the
direct end it was designed to fulfill in the pro-
cess of generation, but for other purposes, more
evident when retained, than its expulsion;, note,
for instance, the changes which take place in
the animal economv as soon as this vaulable
3
26 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
fluid begins to be secreted; the voice and
features change, the beard grows, the genitals
become covered with hair, the whole body
assumes a more round and manly appearance —
the muscular system acquiring that firmness and
solidity which chiefly marks the distinction be-
tween man and Woman.
Sensibly alive to the absolute impossibility
of mixing in the ordinary enjoyments of civil-
ized life, and of deriving from sexual congress
any of those thrilling delights, which for the
wisest of purposes the God of nature has in-
separably appended to that act, he becomes a
low, melancholy, dispirited, dejected being ; there
passes over his mind a change which induces
him to avoid all rational intercourse with his
species. He bids a gloomy farewell to the cheer-
ful society and haunts of men, the busy turmoil
of trade, politics, the thousand anxieties of com-
mercial ambition appear to his indolent imagi-
nation, as either too great for his hopes, or
foreign to his desires. Imbued with a moody
misanthropy, the natural result of his own
vices, he vents his splenetic complaints against
the world at large, or, if he speak, it is to de-
claim respecting the darker side of human feeling
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 27
and character. Thus ne becomes a secluded,
isolated being, his mind vegetating on his own
prurient and diseased fancies. -Once, perhaps,
there was the budding promise of future useful-
ness and activity; now — how fearfully changed
— -the dupe of a lust alike horrible in imagina-
tion as well as in act. The blossom of youth —
perhaps, the flower of manhood, the supremacy
of mind all gone, degraded, obliterated. Some
continue the practice from feelings of despair.
They have become conscious of its ruinous ten-
dency, and very desirous, in consequence, to
resist the unmanly habit; but, to their deep
dismay, have found their powers so strangely
and unexpectedly weak, that only an imperfect
erection could be commanded, leaving them
burning with baffled desire, yet powerless. Or,
perhaps, the seminal fluid, thin, poor, and scanty,
escapes too readily; and so, ashamed, vexed, dis-
pirited, they forego any future attempts, lest
they should again be subjected to the humilia-
tion of failing in that act, the energetic per-
formance of w^hich is the conscious pride of all
who stand erect in the dignity of man. Abashed,
the poor guilty sufferer retreats from the quick
gaze of his fellow mortals ; he sees, or fancies
28 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
he perceives, suspicion in the eye of every one
who looks steadfastly upon him. His haggard
countenance — his pale, unmeaning, inexpressive
face — his dull, lack-lustre eye — his thin and
tremulous form, may well betray him — as most
assuredly they do, to the practiced observer.
See then, in this, a striking fulfilment of the
prophetic warning, " There is nothing done in
secret that shall not be revealed," neither " hid"
even from the recognition of mortals, that shall
not ultimately be made, even to them, evident
as the noon-day. Self-pollution entails upon
its victims marks as legible to the eye that can
understand them, as the scars of small-pox.
As to the effects of this vicious practice upon
the body, they are not less remarkable than the
strange debility which clouds the mind. Let
once this forbidden and surreptitious form of
delusive enjoyment gain the force of habit, and
instantly down falls the barrier of intellectual
control. And, be it observed, there is no act
which so soon becomes habitual. But as to the
act of self-pollution, its first essay is ushered
in with a new, wild and intoxicating delight.
Its very secrecy aids the infatuation. The stream
once crossed— the Eubicon once passed — all may
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 29
be done effectually that is evil, for time and
eternity. To retrace that step, to efface it as a
blot from memory and conscience, is impossible >
and so often that monitor within becomes seared,
deadened, hardened, till its feeble voice, from
oft-repeated criminality, becomes drowned in
the mad and urgently loud calls of unnatural
passion ; and thus it is that the mind, now de-
praved, becomes, not the reasoning governor,
but the goad, the stimulant to acts which,
sooner or later, will abolish and destroy com-
pletely every vestige of intellect or rationality.
As the nervous system suffers, the brain be-
comes the subject of disease and melancholy
indifference ; and disgust and misanthropy, pass
through! their various grades into madxess.
The startling truth is not to be concealed — that
self-pollution is frequently the sole cause of
ixsainity. If the happy married man indulges
to excess in the legitimate gratifications of the
matrimonial couch, affections of the head are
frequently observed — dizziness, an unaccounta-
ble uneasiness, want of sleep, or perhaps drowsi-
ness. Dr. Armstrong was accustomed to teach
the pupils of the Borough Schools, "That the
solitary vice of Onanism produces affections
3*
x
30 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
of the head ; " and he details, in his published
lectures, the case of a youth "17 or 18
years of age, who went at the • age of ten, to
a school where this vice was very common, and
he became the subject of it, and from being a
fine, active and clever boy, he became a perfect
idiot. His eyes became prominent, his pupils
dilated — he had pains in his head and down the
course of the spine — loss of memory— a silly
unmeaning expression of countenance, and a
tottering gait/' He declares his conviction, no
doubt founded on repeated observation : " 1 think
I should know a person in the street who has
addicted himself to this vice, by merely loalking
behind him 9 from his peculiar gait" Is this
wonderful ? Nay, it is merely illustrative of the
value and power of close observation; and it
may serve usefully to alarm some poor infatuated
youth, who may foolishly imagine his secret
pollutions are known only in the recesses of his
own conscience. And that these oft-repeated
acts should really tend to insanity, if we had
not the evidence of the fact, it would not be
unphilosophical to suppose, for the mind, con-
tinuously and morbidly directed to this one sin-
gle idea, and the act connected with it, becomes
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 31
debilitated, from the preponderance and perpet-
ual recurrence of the same unchanging train of
thought and feeling ; and such is the sympathy
of the generative organs to the act which im-
presses them, that the physical and moral sen-
sibilities are there directed as to one common
focus, and that which ought to be only a casual
state of excitement, again to subside into repose,
becomes exchanged for a permanent, and there-
fore morbidly irritable condition.
How fallen from his high and proud estate —
how sunk beneath the true nobility of man — is
the wretched wreck of humanity, whose de-
plorable excesses have reduced him to a condition
so truly contemptible. Once, in the joyous
hilarity of youth, he rejoiced in the entire com-
mand of every manly faculty ; now, a senseless,
yet animated mass of helplessness, exciting the
commiseration of those who know not the cause
of his ruin, and visited with the bitter scorn of
those, who, spite of his attempts at concealment,
read his degradation enstamped upon every fea-
ture.
Every man or woman has his or her weak
point, not merely in mental but in bodily or-
ganization ; but many persons from accidental
32 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
causes (of which this form of vice must surely
be enumerated as one), call into active energy
the seeds of disease, which would otherwise
have lain dormant ; and, as the result of this,
the earlv marks 'of some disease of the chest are
to be noticed in the following order : — breath-
lessness on the slightest exertion, irregular sleep,
the sufferer, finding it excessively difficult to
fall asleep at night, is heavy with greedy sleep
at the hour when duty bids him rise ; together
with these symptoms, there is languor, lassitude,
and other signs of debility ; fever is then per-
ceptible, but chiefly in the evening. There is a
loss of appetite — the stomach becomes capricious
— and, as the" scanty food becomes less perfectly
subjected to the digestive process, there results
a manifest wasting of the muscular system.
Paleness of the countenance; a tumid belly,
with a distended condition of the legs; an irreg-
ular and costive state of the bowels, with frequent
changes in the character and appearance of
their discharges: these are the premonitory
symptoms which usher in the first stage of con-
sumptive disease, arising from debauchery.
Epileptic and convulsive diseases are
freely produced, excited, and called into action
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 33
by these excesses. The natural intercourse of
the sexes is bounded by natural capability, but
this by none, hence there is excitement without
power ; and, as every organ that is carried above
its proper pitch must necessarily rebound and
sink, there must be a corresponding state of de-
pression : we may easily conceive how this vicis-
situde, this repeated change and alteration, will
derange the tranquillity of the nervous system,
and speedily induce, especially sensitive, irritable
habits, hvsterical and convulsive disorders of
the worst kind. It is not unfrequent that Apo-
plexy should occur from this engorged and ir-
regular condition of the blood vessels of the
head, whether arising from Onanism or mere
venereal excess ; the latter paroxysm terminates
itself, the former, on the contrary, may be goaded
on to unnatural passion and madness; and if
the vessels of the brain are not ruptured, it is,
that the most dreadful and exhausting debility
remains behind.
If we consider ever so slightly the necessary
results of these two causes, namely, the evacua-
tion of the seminal fluid, and the convulsive
action of the whole bod}' — the orgasm or thrill
this sudden loss is naturally calculated to excite,
34: THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
— it will not be difficult to account for most of
the disorders which arise in the human body,
from this artificial and unusual condition being
too frequently repeated. Weakness of the brain,
with all its results — as insanity, idiocy, moping
melancholy, or that abstraction which unfits a
man for the sober realities of active life, de-
privation of the digestive organs, whether it
evince itself merely as a slow form of indigestion,
or that silently consuming inflammatory mis-
chief frequently terminating in cancerous dis-
organization — all these frequently may and do
result from excessive loss and unnatural dis-
charges of the male semen.
That the habit of masturbation is far more
deadly and destructive than moderate enjoyment
with women is evident, from the fact that the
latter has its limits of capability, whereas the
former has none. A well-known medical writer
adopts the axiom that " moderate indulgence in
the natural way is useful where the wants of
the system imperatively demand it ; but where
solicited by the diseased fancy it weakens all the
faculties ; the loss of the seminal fluid occurring
not merely when its excretion is salutary, but
too frequently for the constitutional powers to
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 35
bear up against the repeated evacuation. It
ought to be borne in mind that the loss of the
semen, even in a natural way, ought ever to bear
relation rather to the healthful wants than the
desires of the body. It ought, also, to be con-
fined within the limits of reparation ; and this
power of constitutional restoration varies very
widely in different individuals.
The eloquent Hoffman has arranged, under
six distinct heads, the evils which arise from
self-pollution, and his description accords pre-
cisely with my experience during a practice of
twenty years. He observes —
First — "All the intellectual faculties are
weakened, loss of memory ensues, the ideas are
clouded; they have an incessant irksome un-
easiness, continual anguish, and so keen a re-
morse of conscience, that they frequently shed
tears. They are subject to vertigoes ; all their
senses, but particularly their sight and hearing,
are weakened ; their sleep, at times, is disturbed
with frightful' dreams."
Secondly — " The powers of their bodies decay ;
the growth of such as abandon themselves to
these abominable practices, before it is accom-
plished, is greatly prevented. Some are in a
36 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
perpetual state of drowsiness. They are affected
•with hypochondriac, or hysterical complaints,
and are overcome with accidents that accompany
those grievous disorders— melancholy, sighing,
tears, palpitations, suffocations, and faintings.
Some emit a calcareous saliva; coughs^ slow
fevers and consumptions, are chastisements
which others meet with in their own crimes."
Thirdly — u The most acute pains form another
object of patients' complaints : some are thus
affected in their heads, others, in their breasts,
stomach, and intestines; others, have external
rheumatic pains ; aching numbness in all parts
of the body, when they are slightly pressed."
Fourthly — " Pimples do not only appeal in
the face (this is one of the most common symp-
toms), but even suppurating blisters upon the
nose, the breast,, and the thighs; and painful
itchings m the same parts. One patient com-
plained even of fleshy excrescences upon his
forehead."
Fifthly — " The organs of generation also par-
ticipate of that misery, whereof they are the
2^rimary causes. Many patients are incapable
of erection; others discharge their seminal
liquor upon the slightest effort and the most
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 37
feeble erection, or the efforts they make when
at stool. Many are affected with a constant
gonorrhoea, which entirely destroys their powers,
and the discharge resembles foetid matter or
mucus. Others are tormented with painful
priapisms, dysuricB, stranguries, heat of the urine,
and a difficulty in rendering it, which greatly
torments many patients. Some have painful
tumors upon their testicles, penis, bladder, and
spermatic cord. In a word, either the impracti-
cability of coition, or any deprivation of the
genital liquor, renders every one imbecile who
has for any length of time given way to this
crime."
Sixthly — "The functions of the intestines are
sometimes quite disordered ; and some patients
complain of stubborn constipations, others of
haemorrhoids, or of the running of a foetid matter
from the fundament."
But one of the most singular effects produced
by self-pollution is an actual reduction in the
bulk and thickness of the male organ. It is one
of the first and most obvious effects of this
strange habit, and what is worse, its power of
erection becomes correspondingly destroyed. If
we reflect upon the difference between mastur-
4
38 THE SCIEKCE OF LIFE.
bation and the natural act, we shall not wonder
at this. Such an one, if the seed vessels are not
sufficiently distended with the fluid that excites
erection, is able, by unnatural friction, to excite
a momentary supply, he can command the dis-
charge when nature refuses the necessary firm-
ness of coition. In this way a host of evils are
engendered. The testicles are called upon, sud-
denly and violently, to secrete, and the excretory
vCanals to discharge, a thin, weak, and unprolific
semen; and the nerves of the penis are rendered
susceptible of an agreeable titillation, with the
naturally inseparable adjunct— firm erection of
that organ; hence, when the votary of self-
pollution tries to indulge in intercourse, he can-
. not assume the requisite solidity to effect pene-
tration ; the organs have been accustomed, by
the rude friction and stimulus of his own hand,
to excrete without erection.
Shocking state! which places man beneath
the brute creation, and which more justly en-
titles him to the contempt than the pity of his
fellow-creatures. It ought not to be omitted in
a work of this nature, that there are other phy-
sical consequences connected with severe suffer-
. ing, arising from; the ^practice in question. One
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 39
of the most evil and distressing of these defects,
which arise from self-pollution, is connected
with a feeling of intense vexation. We allude
to the premature escape of the seminal fluid on
any attempt at sexual intercourse. In these
cases erection is mostly very imperfect, and,
before an entrance can be effected, the spasmodic
and irritable condition of the canal is such as
to cause the ejection of the semen almost with-
out gratification, and certainly without affording
the slightest pleasurable emotion to the object
of baffled desire. A failure in the accomplish-
ment of the sexual act may arise from a variety
of causes, of which this is one, and it is mostly
traceable to such indulgence in self-pollution,
as, though not leading to complete impotence,
has yet so seriously enfeebled the tone of the
retentive organs, that the slightest impulse causes
them to discharge their thin and watery contents.
Schirrhosity of the prostate gland (by which
the non-medical reader is to understand harden-
ing, enlargement, and an incipient cancerous
condition of an important fleshy gland in im-
mediate connection with the neck of the bladder),
is a disease with which men advanced in life
are apt to be afflicted, but particularly those who
40 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
imprudently produce an excitement of the seminal
vessels by unnatural means. The frequency of
the disease may be attributed to the unusual
degree of irritation which, in the present licen-
tious state of society, is kept up in the organs of
generation. The perfect impossibility of origina-
ting life in strong and robust children, is another
effect of the undue loss of the spermatic fluid I
evidently, the surest way in which sound and
vigorous children may be engendered, is the ac-
tion of a good constitution, unenfeebled by
excessive waste of the powers of life. There is
a nameless atrophy, which either delays the
procreation of children, or, if begotten, the pin-
ing mother is usually the suffering one, who has
to deplore a loss, to which her own early crim-
inality has been no party.
Many who have unwarily acquired the habit of
self-pollution have been convinced, by reading
this treatise, "of its iniquity and injurious conse-
quences to health, and have determined to give
it up, thinking that by so doing they may re-
cover their pristine health and vigor. In this,
however, they are deceived. A new and un-
natural association having been established
between the organs of generation and the mind,
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 41
the bad consequences of the practice do not
cease when the habit is left off. Involuntary
discharges of semen take place during sleep,
occasionally occurring as frequently as two or
three times in the course of one night. The
effect of these emissions is extremely debilita-
ting; all the symptoms already described are
aggravated, and the mind sinks into a state of
'the deepest dejection. Here there is no time to
lose ; they should immediately apply for the
necessary medicines, and the practice being dis-
continued (certainly a main point in the case,)
they may confidently anticipate the speedy re-
novation of their constitution. I therefore
recommend an early application for advice and
assistance, which in every case will be given
with that kind consideration and undeviating
attention that will give confidence to the timid,
and restore vigor to the debilitated.
4*
42 THE SCIENCE OF LIFis.
CHAPTEE III.
MAKKIAGE AND ITS OBLIGATIONS.
The subject of marriage has occupied the pens
of hundreds of writers, and been dilated upon in
nearly all its phases and aspects ; and truly the
topic is a most extensive one — a topic whose
ramifications spread through nearly all branches
of knowledge. The clergyman dilates upon it
as a religious rite, and in his high calling de-
scribes some of its obligations and duties. The
lawyer is frequently called upon to unfold and
construe old enactments, in which scores of the
wisest legislators were occupied for hundreds of
years in framing and bringing up to their present
condition, relating exclusively to the conjugal
bond, showing of how much importance the
marriage union has been deemed. The historian
tells us of complex old forms and ceremonies
formerly employed to hedge about the marriage
state, long since found unnecessary in the ad-
vances of civilization. The moral philosopher
and the social reformer describe marriage in its
bearing upon the well-being of society, show
how the conjugal bond is implied in the social
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 43
law, and how society reaps the greater advan-
tages from its purity and respect. The psycholo-
gist — with scarcely less advantage to society —
inquires into the mental difference between the
sexes, and endeavors to show that the one is
essential to the happiness of the other.
In proper states of society the laws have always
given encouragement to marriage. The censors
in ancient Rome paid particular attention to
this object, and by subjecting the single to pen-
alties and ridicule, made them anxious to change
their condition. Caesar gave rewards to those
who had many children, and prohibited women
under forty-five years of age from wearing jewels
who were unmarried and had no children.
In all ages of life the most agreeable compan-
ion that a man can have is a kind and loving
wife, one who will share his pleasures and his
pains, who is always rejoiced to hear of his pros-
perity; but who clings to him all the more
closely should adversity cast its sable shade over
his prospects. A woman who is indeed a part-
ner in the strict sense of the word — a true help-
mate, a partaker of his joys and his sorrows — is
the greatest blessing which heaven has bestowed
upon poor, disconsolate, lonely man.
44 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
To persons properly constituted, mentally
and bodily, there can be no greater happiness
than that derived from the mutual intercourse,
the mutual love and endearments of an affec-
tionate couple bound to each other in the lawful
bonds of matrimony. " The Cynthia of the
minute " has no charms comparable to the con-
nubial delight of a fond indulgent pair. The
frail one has nothing to bestow but the vehicle
of sensuality, the possession of which "filthy
lucre " can obtain at any time. Her charms are
common property ; her blandishments are unreal ;
her smile a hollow mockery of affection. The
caresses she bestows on the ardent youth are
transferred to tottering imbecility and age;
while the young wife, "lovely as she is good,
and good as fair," has in the plenitude of her
power surrendered herself into the embraces
of her "one true husband." Marriage, however,
is not altogether made up of " sighs and wreathed
smiles." Though it has its devotions, it has
also its obligations; and the divine command,
"increase and multiply," can only be obeyed by
those in the full possession of mental and bodily
vigor ; by those who have preserved the golden
stream until the time of its flood ; who have not
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 45
plucked the fruit until the day of its juicy ripe-
ness. To such happy creatures the nuptial bed
is indeed redolent of entrancing joys. The cares
of life are swallowed up in the ample provision
that bountiful nature has made for her devoted
servants.
It is therefore obvious that, before entering
into the state of matrimony, it is incumbent upon
every one to consider seriously whether he may
not be one of those who may be risking his own
life-long happiness, defeating his own expecta-
tions, involving in irremediable misery his in-
tended partner, and endangering the health and
well-being of possible offspring.
It is true that many may and do err from
ignorance ; they may be honest, temperate, and
virtuous, and contract the obligation in a con-
fident belief of the integrity and efficiency of
their virile power, finding but too late that they
had committed a fearful and (if they do not
suspect the cause and seek a remedy) irrepara-
ble error.
One of the most numerous of the classes of
patients who consult me, is that wherein the
patients, unsuspective of their disability, have
contracted matrimony, and have afterwards
46 THE SCIENCE 0E LIFE.
found that they could neither enjoy the pleas-
ures of the nuptial couch, nor secure the fructi-
fication which is its greatest glory; but both
husband and wife never for an instant suspected
that he or she was the party in whom the defect
existed; — and often has an after life of hap-
piness been f secured to those who have been
bold enough to emancipate themselves from the
thraldom of a false delicacy, and detailed to me
in sacred trust all those important particulars
which clear up the mystery, and enable me to
remove its cause.
In concluding this part of my subject, I
earnestly advise all who contemplate entering the
marriage state to take advice from a thoroughly
qualified practitioner, as to whether there is
anything to be set .right before the marriage is
consummated. Much misery, perchance in-
nocent lives, may be spared by attending to this
obvious and easy duty. Sometimes an old vene-
real contamination may be lingering in the
blood. Careful examination and analysis will
decide ; and treatment for two or three weeks
may prevent long years of unhappiness.
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 47
CHAPTER IV.
SPERMATORRHOEA.
I think it right to state in the first place, that
the term " Spermatorrhoea " (a Greek derivative)
indicates an excessive and unnatural loss of the
seminal fluid.
In proceeding to consider the sy7nptomatic in-
dications of the presence of Spermatorrhoea, it
is necessary to observe, that as the disease, in its
progress, assumes a variety of aspects, and in-
creases in intensity at every step, and as in the
earlier stages, the symptoms are sometimes
(though not always) absolutely imperceptible
to unprofessional persons, it will not be possible
to exhibit a description, however careful and
minute, which can enable men to discover, by
self-examination, ivhether they really are patients
or not. In some cases, it is true, the fact of
present illness forces itself upon the most stolid
and passive dispositions; but in others, — and
these very often the most dangerous— the disorder
steals on the sufferer, instead of smiting him
so suddenly as to warn him that things are not
as they ought to be with him. In the midst of
48 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
apparent security, the enemy may be at the gate,
nay, inside the gate of the citadel of health.
The only sure mode of ascertaining whether or
not he be near, is skillful medical diagnosis.
In order, however, that the people of all con-
ditions may know as much as possible, relative
to circumstances which may exercise so impor-
tant an influence upon the happiness or misery
of their whole life, and upon the endurance of
life itself, I will here mention plainly some of
the more overt symptoms, which cannot be mis-
taken, and also allude to others, detectible by
scientific investigation alone.
The symptoms of Spermatorrhoea are divided
into — Local and Constitutional.
Of the Local Symptoms, the chief are, dis-
charges of semen at night, whether attended or
not by venereal dreams ; and discharges of semen
during the day, which sometimes take place
visibly, in profuse emissions, but most frequently
imperceptibly, whilst emptying the bladder or
other bowels. The appearance of spermatozoa
in the urine is, as I have more than once men-
tioned, an unmistakable token of dangerous
disease ; but this appearance is wholly unnoticed
by the patient himself. Another local synrbtorrv,
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 49
which sometimes becomes distressing, is an in-
termittent succession of "priapisms " or violent
erections of the penis, without any pleasurable
sensation, these erections being often followed
by great exhaustion and a sense of weariness
and prostration; accompanying these, there is
sometimes an almost invisible trickling from —
or rather, to the sight, mere humidity at the
extremity of — the penis ; a kind of oozing, like
unwholesome perspiration, which, in reality, in
its slow but sure effect, is not less debilitating
than the perceptible emissions. At the same
time, there is apt to take place, on the occur-
rence of a voluptuous thought, or when in the
society of females, &c„, a thin mucus-like dis-
charge, sometimes so very small in quantity,
that the orifice of the penis is not more mois-
tened than if a single drop of urine had escaped.
The drop that does escape, hoivever, is the habita-
tion- of living beings ; it is a particle of the living
seed, perhaps deteriorated by disease, but the
gradual loss of which is tantamount to the de-
struction of the frame.
The state of the penis and testicles is another
indication. Though impotence may not as yet
have supervened, the patient will, by vigilance,
5
50 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
be often able to detect a diminution of his usual
erectile power, or, when in the act of copulation,
the semen will escape, before a proper degree of
penetration has been attained. This state of
things, if not altered, is the invariable forerun-
ner of impotence.
Having observed that nocturnal emissions may
sometimes (though rarely) not be symptoms of
disease, it will be right to make a remark, by
which persons who are debarred from seeking
medical advice, may have, ere too late, some
criterion by which to judge of their physical
condition.
Nocturnal emissions occurring- more
frequently than once in every fourteen
NIGHTS, ARE DECIDED SIGNS 6f DEBILITY, AND
CERTAIN HARBINGERS OF APPROACHING IMPO-
TENCE. My ample experience warrants the
conclusion, that the debility is more obviously
confirmed, and absolute impotence more certainly
follows, in those instances where emissions occur
within the above-named period, on wakiny sud-
denly in the night, at the moment of the discharge.
In many instances the sleep is not broken, and
it is comparatively difficult to ascertain, how
often the evacuation occurs; the consequences
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 51
of the loss of the seminal fluid are, however,
sufficiently evident. Occurring more frequently
than can be fairly ascribable to the distension of
healthy vessels, the most energetic measures are
instantly requisite, to avert the identical mischief
which would arise, if the loss of the seminal
secretion were solicited and voluntary. Profuse
and frequent nocturnal emissions may, or may
not, be connected with the habit of self-pollution,
and, as the term implies, may occur during the
hours of darkness, when the powers of the
body are prostrate in sleep. These morbid dis-
charges, are most frequently attributable to the
practice of self-pollution, and, in some cases, to
venereal excess ; but may arise from disease of
the testicle, or from an enlarged or schirrhous
state of the prostate gland. It is likewise cer-
tain, that lodgments of hardened feculent matter
in the large intestines, sometimes operate as a
mechanical irritant, and thus produce diurnal
as well as nocturnal evacuations of the most
important fluid of the human body.
This is probably enough to say for the present
with respect to Nocturnal Emissions. *The
Diukxal Discharges — those which occur at
stool, whilst making water, or, as I have de-
52 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
scribed, almost continuously in chronic moisture
and humidity of the organs, are of a more com-
plicated character; for in numerous instances
they are undiscovered by the patient — nay, un-
suspected — until the disorder has assumed a
formidable attitude. In cases of the latter kind,
the evil may go on increasing for an indefinite
period, the sufferer, unacquainted with the laws
of health and disease, being wholly unconscious
that he is undergoing a gradual loss and anni-
hilation of the vital functions — nay, being some-
times ignorant (so stealthy and treacherous is
the progress of the enemy) that any seminal loss
whatever is going on — and remaining in this
state of lamentable unconsciousness of his con-
dition, until the dread truth reveals itself, in
acute and agonizing disease, in prostration of his
faculties, in some of the formidable symptoms,
which force him at the eleventh hour, to fly to
medical aid for that relief, which, by earlier ap-
plication, might have been much more easily,
more quickly obtained. Some of the most
obstinate disorders with which physicians have
to contend, are those which have gained ground
during entire ignorance, on the part of the patient,
of the existence of any unhealthy symptom what*
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 53
ever. The generative organs, being the most
delicate and intricate portion of the system, are
those most subject to unseen and unsuspected
disarrangement^ exceedingly variant in symp-
toms and diagnosis; and this circumstance
should suggest to prudent persons, young and
old, married and single, who would effectually
guard themselves against the possibility of im-
pending ill, leading first to debility, then to
torturing pain, to not less torturing and humili-
ating impotence, and ultimately to premature
death — it should, I say, suggest to all prudent
persons the wisdom and importance of Self-
knowledge in these particulars — the duty of
perfectly ascertaining, from competent and
legitimate authority, whether their physical con-
dition be sound and safe.
So much for some of the more prominent of
the local symptoms of Spermatorrhoea. The
general symptoms are literally, Legion. Con-
nected, indeed, as they are with every part of
the human organization, it would be difficult to
mention any one feeling of functional, mental,
or constitutional uneasiness, which may not be
referable to this depraved condition of the sys-
tem. By a curious misclassification, some writers
5*
54 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
have accounted impotence as amongst the symp-
toms, whereas, it ought more properly, to be re-
ferred to the effects, of the malady. Uneasiness
in the stomach, accompanied by flatulence,
giddiness in the head, pain or weakness in the
eyes (which sometimes cannot endure a strong
light), indolence, dislike of exertion, nervous-
ness, dejection ; excessive craving for food, fol-
lowed by intervals during which every descrip-
tion of nutriment is loathed ; irregularity of
the bowels, constipation alternating with diar-
rhoea ; headache, and pains in the ears ; whim-
sicality of appetite ; troubled sleep during the
night, succeeded by days of gloomy apathy ; un-
easiness in the liver ; fluttering and palpitation
in the region of the heart ; and great sensitive-
ness to heat and cold, — are amongst the derange-
ments which often accompany morbid spermatic
discharges. It is a curious pathological fact,
that during the progress of Spermatorrhoea,
difficulty of breathing, cough and tightness of
the chest, arising in many constitutions from
the seminal disorder, have sometimes been actu-
ally mistaken for pulmonary consumption. The
cough is often distressing, occasionally dry, oc-
casionally attended by an expectoration of an
Th.^ SCIENCE OF LIFE. 55
offensive kind. I have no doubt that many
patients have been maltreated for consumption,
when Spermatorrhoea was the real malady.
That the latter leads to the former is certain
enough ; but the stages and connection of the
respective diseases, have been grossly misunder-
stood by practitioners who have not had suffi-
cient personal acquaintance with the indications
of seminal emission.
It has been remarked that Spermatorrhoea is,
in its early stages, frequently attended by an in-
crease of appetite — a species of voracity accom-
panied (with apparent inconsistency) by a feeling
of disgust. Spiced, savoury, and highly seasoned
food is sought for, and the digestive organs be-
ing out of order, it is vainly attempted to
strengthen them by recourse to strong drinks,
&c. These stimulants only lead to an increase
in the morbid discharge, consequent continuous
weakening of the system. The whole digestive
economy is gradually ruined, notwithstanding
which, the patient may, perhaps, retain much
healthfulness and freshness of appearance, and
even gather flesh. But meanwhile the evil is
taking root.
The senses of sight, hearing, taste, and smell ?
56 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
are all more or less affected. The loss of the
brilliancy, — of the "honest courage" of the
eye, is a symptom of Seminal Weakness (es-
pecially where the disorder has arisen from mal-
practices), which I have met with so constantly,
that I may term it an invariable accompaniment.
The look of the patient reveals his secret to the
glance of experience, though it may escape the
empirist and the superficial. " There is always/'
observes a renowned commentator, " more or less
dilation of the pupils under these circumstances,
and this probably conduces to give the eyes their
singular appearance. To the want of expression,
is joined a timidity or appearance of shame,
especially in such as practice masturbation.
Their eyks never meet those of another with
confidence. They are turned away hastily, and,
after wandering about, are at length directed to
the ground. There is, in this uncertainty of
the organs of vision, something analogous to
the trembling of the voice, hesitation of speech,
stuttering produced by emotion, and instability
of the lower extremities, habitual agitation of
the hands, palpitations, &c. — all common symp-
toms in these cases." Where Spermatorrhoea
has existed for any length of time, not only
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 57
the aspect of the eyes, but the haggard, care-
worn expression of the countenance, arrest
attention ; the complexion is usually pah, or of
an unhealthy brown and yellow hue ; * the face
and nose mostly angular; the voice becomes
effeminate and shrill; the frame weak and stoop-
ing, whilst the dragging step and the shambling
walk, show the presence of some overwhelming
cause of prostration and debility. It is not,
however, till the disorder has made considerable
ravages in the constitution, that the symptoms
become evident to the uninitiated.
Peculiarities of this kind must be carefully
watched ; for it must be remembered that per-
sons who are afflicted with diurnal emissions are
very generally unaware even of the existence of
the infirmity, and everything must depend on
the physician's keen perception. Nervous and
sedentary patients are apt to experience occa-
sional jerks or contractions of the muscles of
the eye, and sometimes beams and motes pass
flickeringly across the vision. These affections,
as the disease advances, become aggravated into
partial blindness.
* In some exceptional cases, however, as explained
in the text, the body continues for a long time plump,
and the color ruddy and seemingly healthy.
58 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
But of all the symptoms which bear witness
to the shattering and destructive influence of
Spermatorrhoea, the alteration in the mental
faculties is perhaps the most lamentable, at the
same time that it is in general too little under-
stood, not only by the friends and acquaintances
of the persons afflicted, but by the medical ad-
viser. This change is usually indicated in the
early stages by perplexity and confusion of idea ;
vacillation on ordinary occasions, where any
simple decision is required ; a certain degree of
hesitation or incoherency in speaking ; and a
diminution in the patient's ability to concentrate
his ideas on any particular topic of study, busi-
ness, or what not. " Wandering thoughts " rush
into the mind even at the most inopportune
times, and these thoughts are not always of a pure
or innocent description. The temper becomes
peevish, sour, and irritable upon the slightest
provocation, or rather upon no provocation at all.
"When the sufferer is a married man (and I be-
lieve tens of thousands on tens of thousands of
married men are unconsciously in, the incipient
stages), the bitterness of temper consequent on
a concealed or ukkkown cause is often the
source of aggravated domestic misery. Charac-
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 59»
ters previously cheerful, experience frequent at-
tacks of melancholy and languor; and vague
fears of some overhanging calamity, which they
cannot define, but still dread, hasten them to-
wards that depth of depression in which life
itself becomes wearisome. Forgetfulness, con-
fusion of memory, perplexing comminglement
of dales, names, facts, and numbers, show that
the sufferer is approaching a predicament of
mental prostration.
As the symptomatic evidences of the presence
of morbid Spermatorrhoea form the special sub-
ject of this chapter, I will for the present refrain
from sketching the deadly effects of the disorder.
Though I have by no means touched upon
every one of the symptoms, I have, I hope, men-
tioned enough to apprise readers of ordinary
intelligence and prudence of the infinite varie-
ties of circumstance in which it is imperatively
binding on men, for the sake of their own hap-
piness and that of all who are dear to them, to
ascertain whether or not they contain within
their system either the acquired or inborn seeds
of an affliction, which, in its ultimate stages,
has been but too correctly described as the most
fearful, degrading, and desperate of human dis-
60 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
eases. I cannot better close this chapter than
by referring to the words of the celebrated Lal-
lemand, in reference to the delusion of sponta-
neous recovery :— ■
" Many diseases, when left to themselves, work
their own cure, provided only they be not exas-
perated by the imprudence of the patients. This
is not the case with Spermatorrhoea, — chiefly,
perhaps, because the effects produced by the dis-
ease itself are favorable to the increase of invol-
untary discharges. Tlie natural tendency of this
disease to become aggravated, as the result of
its owk effects, frequently leads to a fatal
termination. The patients, under such circum-
stances, generally expire in one of the attacks of
syncope that follow congestion of the brain.
In this way also such of the insane who have
fallen into a state of dementia usually expire."
After alluding to the fact that patients fre-
quently die from diseases aggravated and inflamed
by unsuspected Spermatorrhoea, he goes on to
say, that the other complications usually engross
the attention of the attendants, Spermatorrhoea
being not even thought of, whilst it is commit-
ting its ravages, and reducing the patient to such
a state of debility that he is unable to withstand
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 61
other illness. " In such cases, unfortunately,"
concludes M. Lallemand, u Spermatorrhoea is
generally unsuspected"
My own observations enable me to confirm
the melancholy truth of this statement. I have
cases in my mind's eye, where patients have been
pronounced cachectic, or as having died of dis-
eased heart, diseased lungs, &c; and where all
that I have heard from the relatives of the de-
ceased parties, leaves me no doubt that the other
disorders, where they really existed, might have
been arrested for an indefinite period, had the
morbid spermatic emission been known either to
the medical attendant or to the patient, or being
hioivn, been properly treated. But it is, in fact,
a new thing in mere routine pathology, to con-
sider the existence of this disorder at all, though
it is the most widely extended, the most treach-
erous, the most destructive and fatal of any.
62 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
CHAPTEK V.
TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHOEA.
The treatment of spermatorrhoea is like the
diagnosis, exceedingly difficult, and requires
also much skill and experience. The disease
arises, as has been shown, from a variety of
causes, and each, as a matter of course, will re-
quire treatment peculiar to itself. Lallemand,
having observed the benefit that followed the
application of nitrate of silver, or, as it is com-
monly called, lunar caustic, to the eye, when its
vessels were relaxed by disease, inferred that
the application of the same substance to the
seminal ducts, when they were relaxed, would
be productive of equal benefit. He therefore
invented an instrument for this purpose, called
the porte caustique; and hence arose one of the
most brutal modes of treating an affection, with
which the whole range of medical science can
furnish us. Even supposing this application of
caustic to be valuable, which I dispute — and
admitting the possibility of the operator being
quite certain when he has reached the ducts,
and, therefore, knowing when to cauterize,
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 63
which I deny — still the application of so de-
structive an agent to such a delicate part as
the membrane lining the urethra, cannot but
be productive of the worst results. How many
hundreds of cases of stricture can be traced to
this horrible treatment? How many persons
have had to curse . the day that practitioners
adopted this French mode of treating sperma-
torrhoea, or that on which they were foolish
enough to submit themselves to it ?
The employment of the solid nitrate of silver
as a remedy in spermatorrhoea, is not only dan-
gerous, but it implies a total disregard of the
true pathology of that disease.
The objections to the application of the solid
caustic to the urethra are the intense pain with
which its use is attended — the risk of retention
of urine following the application — the well-
known liability of caustic to occasion severe
attacks of rigor — the danger of profuse urethral
hemorrhage, arising on the separation of the
slough which its application must produce ; and,
lastly, the danger that the sloughing process
may involve the membrane of the urinary canal
to such an extent as to destroy its integrity, and
thereby expose the patient to all the sufferings
64 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
and dangers resulting from infiltration of urine,
fistula, and the like.
It is allowed by all unprejudiced persons that
the results of actual experience far outweigh
the most specious theories, or the boldest asser-
tions. I therefore select a few cases out of
many that have come under my notice, in which
the effects of cauterization of the prostatic and
other portions of the urethra proved most serious
and distressing.
In a case a patient had led a most dissolute
life, and suffered at various times from repeated
attacks of gonorrhoea ; the consequence, at last,
being- that he suffered from obstinate urethral
and vesicular gleet, and a shattered constitution.
He applied for surgical aid, when cauterization
was recommended and applied, the effects of
which the patient described as terrible in the
extreme — the scalding on micturition was for
nearly three days beyond description, the diffi-
culty being such as almost to amount to retention.
A purulent discharge ensued, tinged with blood,
which continued for several days. On recovery
from the local effects of the caustic, the posterior
part of the urethra became the seat of a severe
and fixed pain, always intensified by the escape
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 65
of urine. Sexual intercourse, attempted on
several occasions, created so much pain and in-
convenience that it was abandoned. Nocturnal
emissions were of frequent occurrence, and also
discharges from the vesiculse seminales, when-
ever defalcation took place. In this condition
he consulted me. On attempting to pass a
bougie along the anterior part of the urethra,
much pain was complained of; but when it
reached the posterior part it was excruciating,
and the spasms so violent that it had to be with-
drawn. Two or three days being allowed to
elapse, and, in the meantime, sedative and effi-
cient medicine administered, another attempt
was made with a smaller sized bougie, which
entered the bladder, but not without much pain
and difficulty. ■
I obviated this, however, by catheterizing the
urethra; and at the same time successfully
counteracted other local and general symptoms
by a suitable course of medicines.
In the treatment of the disease which forms
the principal subject of these chapters, the
utmost degree of uncertainty formerly prevailed ;
there was a random wildness and contrariety in
the course adopted by various practitioner?,
6*
66 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
which too truly indicated the low ebb of profes-
sional information on the subject; and this
uncertainty and ignorance proved the fruitful
source of calamity.
A brief explanation will show how this oc-
curred. The morbid discharges from the urethra,
which, without the aid afforded by the skillful
and careful use of the microscope, might be
mistaken for spermatorrhoea, are of various
kinds. Amongst them may be accounted the
slight discharge which sometimes remains after
gleet ; also that connected with stricture of the
urethra, and the mucous emission from the
prostate gland (commonly called the prostatic
discharge) and from the mucous membrane.
The remnant of a syphilitic attack is also some-
times indicated by a discharge, which nothing
but great care and experience can distinguish
from spermatorrhoea or escape of the seed.
Now each of these affections, besides similar
ones, which I do not think it necessary to
enumerate, possesses distinct characteristics re-
quiring a mode of treatment different from the
others. The misfortune was, then, that there
being no certain means by which any of the
others could be distinguished from sperma-
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 67
torrhoea, the latter disease was not unfrequently
met by a treatment the very reverse of that
which was properly applicable to it, and the
results were, of course, most disastrous. There
were in short no means of detection — no means
of positively detecting the presence of sperma-
torrhoea, as contradistinguished from affections
similar in appearance, but quite opposite in
nature.
Thus, the seminal was sometimes mistaken for
gleety or syphilitic discharge, and subjected to
what was called "active treatment." Cubebs,
copaiba, mercury, and astringent injections were
administered, the effect of which was to produce
a high degree of inflammation, and to irritate
and aggravate the real malady, which, being
incapable of being detected, was very often not
even suspected; and so its ravages went on un-
checked, or, more properly speaking, inflamed
and stimulated, by the medicaments applied to
them.
It would be unjust to impute blame to the
practitioners of those by-gone times ; in the im-
possibility of detecting the real disease, they had
to make choice of the alternative either of strik-
ing in the dark, or of permitting the disorder,
68 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
whatever it was, to pursue its deadly career
without an attempt to restrain it. They chose
the former alternative. They struck in the
dark, but too often their blow was fatal to the
patient instead of to the disease.
That state of things is happily changed.
Whilst it is certain that in cases of morbid emis-
sion from the urethra, a derangement of some
kind or another will, it may almost be said with-
out exception, be found in the testicles, it is not
less so that each description of discharge has a
characteristic peculiarly of its own, which the
microscope enables us to identify as different
from the others. Thus, the presence of Sperma-
tozoa in the urine or in the dribbling effusion
affords unmistakable evidence of Spermatorrhoea.
If, on the other hand, the discharge be connected
with gleet arising from gonorrhoea, minute globu-
lar particles characteristic of that affection will
be discovered by the microscopic test. In like
manner, when the discharge is syphilitic, the
linear and almost crystalline formations can be
discovered, and the class of disorder is thus de-
fined. When it is considered that fifty years
back there was no possibility of thus ascertain-
ing the nature of disease, and that physicians
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 69
were compelled to act without any assurance
against the possibility that their utmost exer-
tions were doing the patient mischief, instead of
good, and that the more vigorous their endeavors
to effect a cure, the greater the amount of injury
which they might be inflicting on his constitu-
tion, some idea may be formed of the sad state
of confusion in which this department of thera-
peutics was involved.
But the errors of the elder physicians have
been succeeded in our own times by a mistake
of another kind, and the effects of which are
also deplorable. Formerly, the danger was that
the physician, scarcely aware of the very nature
of Spermatorrhoea, generally failed to discover
its existence, and treated it as if it were a disor-
der of a very different kind. Now, since the
dangerous importance of Spermatorrhoea has
been brought to light, it is, by the inexperienced
and ill-informed members of the profession, de-
clared to be present upon every appearance of
unhealthy discharge. From the extreme of neg-
ligence they have rushed to that of childish
nervousness respecting Spermatorrhoea. Thus,
at present, instead of Spermatorrhoea being mis-
taken for other diseases, other classes of disorder
70 THE SCIENCE -)E LIFE.
are frequently mistaken for Spermatorrhoea.
This happens not unusually in the case of obsti-
nate gleets, as well as in that of the discharge,
similar in appearance, which occasionally re-
mains after syphilis. The maltreatment admin-
istered causes the affection not only to continue,
but to become more obstinate, and, apparently,
even incurable.
These remarks will serve to indicate some of
the great benefits which have been conferred on
humanity by the pitch of perfection to which
the microscope has been brought, and the power
which it gives practitioners, really acquainted
with its uses, to detect, without the possibility of
mistake, the nature of any existing malady, and
thus to exhibit the medicines best calculated for
their removal. I could, in truth, recount hun-
dreds on hundreds of instances, in which the
utmost distress of mind, the bitter agony of dis-
appointed hope, the torturing fear that life was
a total blight, the feeling of degradation, of
hopelessness, of despair, have been scattered to
the winds and replaced by health, spirits, and
happiness, through the result of one timely, and,
as it has sometimes occurred, almost accidental
consultation. Such consultation has led to a
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 71
minute examination of the urine, or of the little
discharge from the urethra which had been the
cause of uneasiness; and the consequence has
been, the dispersion of unfounded or exaggerated
fear, and the adoption of the course of treatment
adapted to the removal of any derangement
which really existed, and which has often teen
most easy of cure in the very cases where the fears
and despondency of the patient had been most
profound* If, on the other hand, the symptoms
were serious, the great point was gained, that
their meaning was now understood, and the
steps to be taken for cure were satisfactorily
indicated. Such are the advantages which the
microscope confers in the all-important task of
detecting the real nature of disease.
I am, for my own part, free to admit, that I
was a considerable time studying and observing
the operation of the instrument, under every
variety of circumstance and position, and had
tested it in every way which my own mind and
the advice of eminent professional friends, at
home and abroad, could suggest, before I could
trust myself to act practically, for pathological
purposes, upon the results of my experience of
it. From what I have heard, I am disposed to
72 THE SCIEKCE OF LIFE.
think that it is a very great pity that every
medical man who undertakes to deal with an
instrument so delicate and complex in itself, so
liable to be mismanaged or deranged, so infalli-
ble when skillfully handled, but so apt to deceive
and mislead if there be the slightest error or
incapacity on the part of the practitioner, — it is,
I say, a pity that every medical man who under-
takes to deal with so critical an instrument,
does not exercise similar industry and precaution
with myself.
Having alluded to the distinctive signs by
which gonorrhoea and syphilitic discharge may
be discerned from Spermatorrhoea, I ought to
observe that there are other signs, besides the
contents of the respective discharges, through
which the identity of either may be ascertained.
Thus, the slight mucus-like discharge in the
urine usually occurs when it is the effect of
syphilis or gonorrhoea, along with the first drops
whilst emptying the bladder; but the discharge
in Spermatorrhoea occurs with the last drops of
the urine — sometimes a few seconds after the
urine has passed, in which case the spermatic
effusion is apt to be accompanied by a spasmodic
twinge or contraction caused by the pressure
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 73
upon the seed vessels. There are, in short,
various modes of diagnosis. A practiced eye,
for example, can readily distinguish, by exami-
nation of the patient's linen, whether the stains
be produced by spermatic or by ordinary venereal
affection; and the modern annals of medico-legal
inquiry present several cases wherein the last-
named mode of test has decided questions affect-
ing the liberty of accused persons.
But the microscope is, after all, the grand and
auspicious agency by which doubts of every kind
can at once be determined. So protean and
capricious are the aspects and attitudes assumuJ
by seminal disease that it is literally impossible
to lay down any dogmatic standards of treatment
which would apply to every case. The symp-
toms vary, both in intensity and continuity,,
according to innumerable circumstances depen-
dent on age, occupation, congenital temperament,
the kind of climate in which the patient may
have resided during certain periods of his life;
likewise according to his general habit of body,
&c; and so arbitrary are these variations, that
for the great object of safety, it is essentially
requisite that each case should be studied in
itself, and that every one desirous of ascertaining ■
7
74 THE SCIENCE OE LIFE.
his actual condition should submit himself pa-
tiently to give candid and explicit answers to
the inquiries which experience may put to him,
with respect to any circumstances that could
affect his health injuriously or otherwise.
It is to be recollected, that in connection with
spermatic disorder, there may be such a thing
.as groundless fear as well as groundless confi-
dence; if thousands on thousands perish, as they
^undoubtedly do, through not knowing until too
late, the nature of the dangerous malady which
is preying upon their vitals, great numbers en-
dure much needless torture of mind in conse-
quence of the fear that deadly disease is present,
when the affection is of a comparatively trifling
kind, easily removable the moment it is under-
stood.
.The most absurd of all emotions is that of
despair. Let the sufferer remember that there
is scarcely any degree of weakness or functional
derangement to which the timely aid of science
tcannot apply & cure.
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. ?3
CHAPTER VI.
OST ERUPTIONS OF THE SKIN.
Dr. Jacques has invited the attenion of the
public and of the profession to his important
discoveries in the treatment of skin diseases*
and, although he cannot complain that his views
have been neglected, still the subject is one of
so great importance as to require no apology for
enlarging upon it. We all know that for many
years the remedies generally relied on in these
cases were arsenic, mercury (corrosive sublimate),
antimony, and caustic ; that medical men looked
upon the skin diseases in general (as too many,
indeed, continue to do) as something to be ham-
mered at, without much hope of relief, with all
the most deadly drugs of the pharmacopoeia.
The almost invariable result was, and is, that
even if the disease is cured, which is exceedingly
doubtful, the constitution is ruined for the re-
mainder of the life. Let any man take up a
medical work on skin diseases and he will find,
even now, that arsenic is looked on as the sheet
76 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
anchor, and that hundreds of cases are reported
in which arsenic succeeded in curing after all
other treatment had failed. Now, I have care-
fully, and fo.r years, watched the results pro-
duced by this plan of treatment. I have always
found it injurious. In many cases, after a time,
there is a return of disease worse than before,
and almost invariably, cure or no cure, I have
found serious organic mischief affecting the heart
or the lungSc I am here simply stating results —
results which I have met with daily in a most
extensive practice. It is scarcely worth while
to enter into causes ; for it is quite in accordance
with' common sense that we should expect dead-
ly poisons to produce deadly results. "Why these
particular organs should be so affected is cer-
tainly of interest to medical men. Few diseases
have been more minutely classified and described
than the various forms of skin diseases, and it
would be easy to enumerate fifty or sixty Latin
and Greek names which have been applied to
them; but I fear that the information would
not be interesting to the general reader. For
myself, I am in the habit of applying one gen-
eral principle of treatment in all the varied
forms which I see daily. My principle is simple
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 77
enough and general enough to take rank as a
great discovery. It is a principle I have acted
upon m practice and have advocated in public
for years, and certainly my success has been most
extraordinary. I will explain it in a few words.
Let aloxe the Skin" Disease — Purify the
Blood.
Instead of classifying skin diseases under ten,
twenty, fifty, or a hundred heads, I find, as a
general rule, they take rank under three, and
that treatment must vary according to diag-
nosis — -still acting on the golden rule, "purify
the blood." Skin diseases are : —
1 st. — Hereditary.
2d. — Of syphilitic origin.
3d. — Accidental, occasional and anomalous.
Hereditary Skist Diseases are, undoubted-
ly, difficult to cure. The impure blood of the
parent descends to the children. The result is
an intractable form of disease, and the only hope
of cure is in steady, persevering treatment.
Every globule of the blood is vitiated from the
very cradle ; and if the smallest trace of the im-
purity is allowed to remain in the system, all
the labor is in vain, for the patient in a short
7*
78 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
time will be as bad as ever again. Hereditary
skin disease is frequently consumption or scro-
fula in a rather milder form. There is no doubt
in my mind of the intimate connection between
these forms of disease. It is obvious that all
local remedies must be of necessity ridiculous,
and even dangerous. In fact, the best dressing,
where there is great irritation, is a little cold or
lukewarm water on lint. Above all, avoid greasy
applications or caustics. In this, as in other
forms of skin disease, I am frequently consulted
by those who have taken sarsaparilla for months
or for years in large quantities, and desire my
opinion as to the benefit to be derived from its
use. My experience is that sarsaparilla in itself
is practically inert in cold or in temperate
climates. But it is perfectly wholesome and
harmless ; it is a pleasant drink, and a decidedly
nice vehicle for the administration of certain
drugs. On the other hand, in tropical climates,
or during exceptionally hot weather, sarsaparilla
exerts a slight action upon the skin which is
decidedly cooling and beneficial. In all forms
of skin disease I attach considerable importance
to the use of the bath ; not that the theory of
.the water doctors will satisfy — but I am willing
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 79
to accept truth even from opponents ; and cer-
tainly their plan approaches more nearly to the
correct principle than the wholesale administra-
tion of poisonous minerals. I may add that,
applying the same remedies, I have been signally
successful in my treatment of scrofula and con-
sumption. Skin diseases of syphilitic okigin
I have named as another great class of disease ;
and certainly their importance entitles them to
a rank apart. It is unnecessary in this part of
the work to allude more particularly to their
origin. Nor do I intend to include what we
may more properly class as " Secondary Symp-
toms." In cases of disease of the true syphilitic
type there is always danger that secondary
and tertiary symptoms may ensue, especially
when the patient is improperly treated and
salivated by the imprudent administration of
mercury. But these cases are sufficiently obvi-
ous, and any mistake in their diagnosis is not
probable, whatever there may be in their treat-
ment. I make this observation because it un-
fortunately happens that in these, as in the
primary disease, it is far too much the fashion
to prescribe mercury. But skin diseases of
syphilitic origin may occur many years after
80 THE SCIENCE OE LIEE.
the original disease, and when, in fact, the cause
is unthought of and forgotten. They are brought
on "by a taint, yirus poison, or germ, produced
by the original disease, and which has remained
dormant in the blood for months or for years.
I cannot tell you the reason of this extraordinary
phenomenon : I can only tell you the fact. But
it is easy to give an illustration of the unex-
plainable effects produced by animal poisons.
A man is bitten by a dog, perhaps so slightly as
just to draw blood. - The wound heals in a day
or two, and the circumstance is entirely for-
gotten. But three months, six months, or (cases
are recorded) even twelve months afterwards,
he is seized with hydrophobia, and death
in a day or two is certain. So with syphilis :
the poison may remain dormant for months or
for years, and then, breaking out, cause skin
diseases of the most serious and intractable
character. It is here important to remark, that
it does not necessarily follow because a patient
has suffered previously from syphilis, and is
afterwards affected by skin disease, that the
disease is of syphilitic origin. I have been
consulted by numerous patients, whose lives
have been rendered miserable by groundless
THE SCIEKCE OF LIFE. 81
fears, and have found, on careful examination,
no trace whatever of syphilitic taint. How is it
possible to discover? may be asked; and my
reply is, by one means and by one means only —
and that is, careful chemical and microscopical
examinations and analysis of the urine. My
treatment of skin diseases of syphilitic origin is
precisely the same in principle as of skin dis-
eases generally. It is necessary to bear in mind
that the blood is affected by a specific poison or
virus, which must be neutralized. .Pukify the
blood, and the work is done. Accidental, occa-
sional, anomalous skin diseases are such as arise
without apparent cause; or may result from
errors of diet, hard living, exposure to the
weather. I have frequently seen them as the
result of bad provisions, impure water, &c,
during a prolonged voyage. Salt food is injuri-
ous to some constitutions. To write at length
on the various forms of disease which may be
classed under the head anomalous would ex-
haust far more space than I have at command.
It is obvious that in their treatment, even mere
than in other forms of the disease, my dogma is
the only one consistent with common sense,
truth and reason ; and, even at the expense of
82 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
being considered prolix, I must again repeat,
PURIFY THE BLOOD.
DR. JACQUES' BLOOD-PURIFYING TREATMENT
Has now been used by the discoverer for a long
series of years. Its action is purely upon the
blood, which it vitalizes, enriches, cleanses, and
thoroughly purifies. The consequence is, that
it is an absolute specific in all cases of skin
disease, no matter from what cause arising.
That this is. so is proved by the undoubted tes-
timony of thousands who have used it with
unfailing effect during the last ten years. To
prevent any possibility of disappointment, Dr.
Jacques wishes it to be distinctly understood
that it is necessary to continue treatment for a
certain length of time. Skin diseases are in
their nature intractable and difficult to cure;
and to promise a rapid and permanent cure with
a single bottle of medicine would be to bring
discredit upon it, however valuable. But the
improvement will be found to be i?mnediatc, and
no matter how serious or of how long-standing,
the disease is certain to yield to a proper course
of the system, which is destined to effect a revo-
lution in the medical treatment of these cases,
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 83
and is in truth the most important discovery in
medical science since the introduction of vacci-
nation by Dr. Jenner.
Many persons, who have imagined themselves
cured of the venereal disease, have had the mis-
fortune to find the disease break out again six
or seven years afterwards. A proof of this hap-
pened in my practice lately. A gentleman was
affiicted with the complaint, and was cured, as
ho thought, by the advice and prescriptions of
an eminent surgeon. He afterwards married; a
few months after which he caught a severe cold,
which terminated in a sore throat. He applied
to a medical man, who prescribed the usual
remedies, but entirely without success. Having
been advised to consult me, he called, and
after a careful investigation, I informed him
it proceeded from an old venereal complaint.
It was some time before he would admit this to
be the fact, and he persevered with the old rem-
edies nearly a month longer, till at length the
disease became so serious that he was compelled
to place himself under my care ; the rapid im-
provement under my treatment was sufficient
proof of the truth of my diagnosis. I therefore
recommend extreme care that the disease be
84 THE SCIENCE OE LIFE.
thoroughly eradicated from the blood; for this
purpose my remedies are very generally em-
ployed, and will be found most valuable, partic-
ularly in the after consequences, in removing
all corruptions, contaminations, and impurities
from the vital stream, searching out the morbid
virus, and 'radically expelling it through the shin.
THE SCIEXCE OF LIFE. 85
CHAPTER VII.
SPECIAL DISEASES.
Venereal intercourse is occasionally impure
and infectious; and there are some of those poi-
sons generated and transmitted by sexual con-
tact, which are of a peculiarly malignant and
destructive character. In ordinary language,
one of them produces effects limited to the sur-
face upon which it falls, others lead out to
the whole range of syphilitic diseases, and .are
followed by constitutional derangements of the
direst description. The first is known as the
poison of gonorrhoea; the latter as the infec-
tious agent producing syphilis. The matter
of gonorrhoea, if applied to the skin, or to
any secreting surface, produces there local in-
flammation and a peculiar discharge, mostly
without breach of surface, while the noxious
virus occasions an ulcerated, ragged destruc-
tion of parts, styled in the nomenclature of
the schools, chancre. Further, the peculiar
secretion of this sore may be taken up by the
absorbents of the living system, and conveyed
into the general mass of the circulating blood ;
8
83 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
and, in its passage through the glands of the
groin (generally the nearest to the spot origin-
ally infected), these bodies are apt to enlarge,
inflame, become intensely painful, to suppurate
and burst, forming the complication known
by the name of the BtJBO. The original ul-
ceration may heal, and yet, from the contami-
nation of the general absorbent system, a train
of consequences may arise at an indefinite period,
and to these the name of constitutional
syphilis is given, as for instance, inflammation
and ulceration in the throat and skin, with en-
largement and painful swelling of the bony
system. For the present I confine myself to
Gonorrhoea, that most common yet intensely
painful disorder, which is productive, by its
frequent repetition, of important changes in the
physical organization of the sexual system.
The first symptom of gonorrhoea is generally
an itching at the orifice of the urethra, some-
times extending over the whole glands — there is
a tingling sensation, at first so slight as only to
provoke more frequent erections. A state of
erethism or irritation, not as yet amounting to
inflammation, characterizes the onset of the
disease. Presently this itching is exchanged
THE SCIENCE OE LIFE. 87
for an uneasy sensation, and a great degree of
fullness and pouting of the lips of the urethra,
which, if everted, are of a brighter scarlet than
natural. .Now, as the whole urinary canal se-
cretes a quantity of mucus, and is endued with
a high degree of sensibility, an increased secre-
tion of this fluid takes place from a great variety
of causes, the course of the urinary canal be-
comes narrowed, as the thickening and swelling
of the membrane which forms its lining ; hence,
partial retention of the urine and a diseased
change of the parts adjacent. The increase of
irritation in the surrounding organs is in pro-
portion to the virulence of the attendant symp-
toms, and the aptitude of the constitution to
receive and retain infection, as few can be ignor-
ant that some persons are more intensely sus-
ceptible of inflammatory diseases than others.
In many instances there is a great degree of
soreness, occurring long before any discharge
appears, and there is mostly a particular fullness
in the whole course of the penis, but especially
of its extremity. The glans, or nut, assumes a
kind of transparency, chiefly observable near the
beginning of the urethra, where the skin being
distended, smooth, and red, this appearance is
88 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
easily presented. The entrance of the urinary
passage is often to be found to be excoriated,
particularly if the glutinous discharge has not
been carefully washed away, instead of harden-
ing, as it is apt to do, around the orifice. The
scalding, which forms the prominent character-
istic of the disease, occurs at an early period.
The fear of the patient, while voiding his urine,
also disposes the urethra to sudden contraction ;
and the course of the urine is no longer equable
and steady, but much scattered and broken, as
it issues with pain and difficulty from the irrita-
ble and inflamed passage. If the inflammation
be not very intense — if the constitution be com-
paratively insusceptible — only a trifling dis-
charge, with some heat and soreness, may be
observable, but this is comparatively rare; if
these circumstances are reversed, many painful
things are apt to occur, among which, not the
least remarkable is that incurvated predicament
of the penis termed chordee. If inflammatory
excitement runs high, it prevents (should an
erection unfortunately occur) the extension of
the urethra to accommodate itself to the altered
length of the penis, so that should that happen,
the organ is curved downwards, with great pain.
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 89
Besides this painful evil, there are other at-
tendant conditions which, among men of irrita-
ble constitutions, we are called to witness. One
is the surgical disease named Phymosis. The
prepuce, or foreskin, may be considered as a thin
duplicating containing, naturally, nothing but
the minutely delicate web of cellular membrane,
uniting the internal surface with the outer skin.
But, in consequence of the sympathetic irritation
of gonorrhoea, there is produced such an amount
of effused fluid, between the two layers, as to
cause an unsightly thickening. A chancre, or
any immediate irritant, may produce, this state of
parts, but more commonly, it is observed, as su-
pervening upon gonorrhoea. The inflammation
attending phymosis often runs high, and so it
becomes impossible to retract the foreskin, which
is the seat of it, so as to uncover the glans, then,
the gonorrhceal discharge is apt to insinuate itself
beneath, producing painful ulcerations.
The remedies for this anomalous and unnatu-
ral condition are purely surgical, and depend
upon the relief of urgent and immediate pain,
as well as the removal of the original source of
irritation. That this is not always the free
division of the parts with the knife, I hesitate
8*
90 THE SCIENCE OP LIFE.
not to avow, inasmuch as I have known mor-
tification induced by the rash practice of cutting
the prepuce, either where the part was in a state
of acute inflammation, or there were ulcers on
its inner surface, connected with that disordered
condition of the system resulting from the abuse
of mercury.
Paeaphymosis is that state of parts arising
from the impossibility of drawing forward the
foreskin, which has been retracted or drawn
back, so operating as to effect a tight strangula-
tion of the neck of the glans. The constriction
is often so great as seriously to interfere with
the circulation, and threatening mortification
and sloughing of the glans. Either of these
conditions may arise as the result of Gonorrhoea;
indeed, Phymosis may, by unskillful treatment,
be made to pass into Paraphymosis.
Sympathetic Buboes, or inflammatory en-
largement of the glands in the groin, are apt to
occur during the progress of gonorrhoea ; there
is this essential difference between them and the
buboes which form after chancre — namely, that
a venereal or syphilitic bubo is almost certain
to run on to suppuration and burst, whereas a
gonorrhoeal bubo, being the result of sympathetic
THE SCIEKCE 0E LIFE. 91
irritation, very rarely (under proper treatment)
becomes converted into an abscess. A bubo
which follows in the train of gonorrhoeal symp-
toms will not cause much uneasiness, if the
patient be carefully kept at rest under proper
treatment. Here the importance of skillful ad-
vice is very obvious, for it is possible to mistake
an enlargement which is truly syphilitic, and
requiring the utmost peculiarity of treatment,
for one seemingly of a more harmless character.
Swelled Testicle is one of the most com-
mon, and, unfortunately, the most painful of the
consequences of gonorrhoea. This is essentially
an extension of the inflammation, communicated
by sympathy, from the urinary canal to the tes-
ticles, most commonly one of them. If the con-
stitution be irritable, or if, during the first stage
of discharge, the patient indulge in his usual
exercise, or ride upon horseback; if he drinks
even his accustomed quantity of wine, spirits, ale,
or porter, this distressing accompaniment to his
sufferings may almost certainly be expected.
Sometimes it arises from the improper use of
strongly purgative medicines of a sal.'ne or
acrimonious class ; but perhaps the most com-
mon cause of this production, especially after
9# THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
gonorrhoea has lasted a little time, is the incau-
tious use of irritating injections for the cure of
the discharge.
I must not argue against the use of a thing
from its abuse; all I can say for certainty is,
that here I have a proof of the danger and
impropriety of attempting to do that for our-
selves which a surgeon would altogether forbid,
or attempt at another time, in another way, and
far better. Let the patient think of the ultimate
results of inflammation and enlargement of the
testicle. It is not merely present suffering,
though that may be exquisitely severe ; it is im-
possible but that the functions of the gland, as
a secretory organ destined to prepare and secrete
the semen, cannot but be materially injured by
destructive inflammation, so that no folly can be
greater than losing a single moment in applying
for proper advice under such circumstances.
Spasmodic and Inflammatory Stricture
are to be accounted also as among the results of
gonorrhoea! inflammation. Spasmodic stricture
may arise from various causes, and attack indi-
viduals of any age, most commonly the young,
and those who are of an ardent plethoric tem-
perament. Inflammatory stricture may be ex-
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 93
pected also, when, from repeated attacks of gon-
orrhoea, the lining mucous membrane of the
urinary canal becomes thickened and diseased,
especially that portion of it nearest the neck of
the bladder. In fact, the inflammation of gon-
orrhoea is the most frequent among its causes, to
which may be added not alone the misapplication
of injection for the suppression of the discharge,
but also the ill-timed employment of bougies
for the same purpose. It ought to be borne in
mind that the stoppage of the discharge is not
the cure of the disease; this may be done with-
out much difficulty ; but it only serves to drive
it upon other parts, producing either swelled
testicle or stricture, and, as a consequence of
this latter mischief, retention of urine, which
is prevented from escaping from the bladder.
Inflammatory stricture consists in the effusicn
of adhesive lymph underneath the inflamed sur-
face of the urethra, and, of course, this dimin-
ishes the capacity of the canal. If the patient
be placed under proper treatment, the part may,
on the subsidence of inflammatory excitement,
again acquire its natural form and dimensions;
if otherwise, the matter thus poured out becomes
a solid organized mass, and so the condition
termed permanent stricture is engendered.
94 THE SCIENCE OP LIFE.
Other causes there are of permanent narrow-
ing of the urinary canal, but gonorrhoeal inflam-
mation is the most frequent of them all. If
venereal intercourse be unduly prolonged, or
attempted, without giving the organs proper
rest, there is produced such exhaustion of the
muscular fibres, such irregularity of action as
to lead to stricture ; so, it will be obvious how
self-pollution is to be accounted among its causes.
But now I speak exclusively of 'permanent con-
striction, as arising from the repeated disorgani-
zation produced by gonorrhoeal inflammation.
In the first instance, the patient is surprised to
find a few drops of urine remaining in the
urethra, after he fancies he has completely evac-
uated the bladder ; his linen becomes wetted in-
voluntarily. The stream of urine is diminished;
but that does not arrest his attention so early as
the increased force, amounting to straining, he
now finds necessary to produce its discharge,
and the time necessary for that purpose. Some-
times the stream becomes spiral, and gradually
very small, until the coats of the bladder, being
immensely thickened, dilatation of the parts
behind the stricture takes place, and the ureters,
bladder, and even the kidneys become involved
in one undistinguishable mass of disease.
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 95
All these evils may arise, and frequently do
originate from any of the forms of sensualism
indicated in this work, but are generally attri-
butable to the formation of a stricture or con-
traction of the urethra from the inflammation
of gonorrhoea— frequently existing when least
suspected, iclien it has long heen seemingly cured.
Gleet is that chronic, semi-transparent dis-
charge, which often obstinately remains after
the ordinary symptoms of acute gonorrhoea have
abated. It is most apt to occur among men of
naturally unhealthy habits, and when formed,
requires the nicest tact and management for its
removal. It does not often occur after the sub-
sidence of a first attack of gonorrhoea, but if a
person who lives freely has contracted the
disease repeatedly, stricture is almost sure to be
formed or in progress, and a gleety discharge is
mostly the premonitory warning of its approach.
The glairy transparent mucous of the urethra
is increased in quantity — its character is specific^
partaking of the nature of the disease which
has produced it, and therefore, infectious for an
indefinite length of time. While the slightest
appearance of even a clear pellucid discharge
remains, it is unsafe to attempt intercourse, and,
96 THE SCIENCE OE LIFE.
therefore, 'a bar is placed against entrance into
the marriage state, which may, by neglect or
unskillful treatment, be prolonged for a painful
length of time.
Inflammatory Disease and Enlargement
of the Prostate Gland may be enumerated as
among the seqnoela of severe gonorrhoea. Its
effects are of no transient character, impeding
the action of the bladder, producing an amount
of pain and suffering that is scarcely for a moment
absent, disturbing every enjoyment, and inflict-
ing such misery on the hapless sufferer, which,
if not cautiously studied with a view to its
amelioration, frequently runs coeval with every
remaining year of his ill-fated existence.
The poison producing syphilis is essentially
different from that producing gonorrhoea; as
the former contains a poisonous virus whksh
destroys the substance of the surfaces on which
it falls ; hence its effects are more certain and
more frightfully rapid.
The virus or animal poison engendering
syphilis terminates in the destruction of the
surfaces where it falls, and being absorbed
into the general" current of the circulating
blood, ' contamination is diffused throughout
THE SCIENCE OE LIFE. 97
the entire extent of the human body. The
poison producing syphilis is, then, essentially
different from that producing gonorrhoea ; and
even among syphilitic diseases it is an axiom,
established by concurrent observation, that there
are varieties even in this ; inasmuch as some are
more frightfully rapid, others more manageable,
and ending in less severe disorganization of the
structures that are successfully attacked. The
matter secreted by the local sores of a female
laboring under this disease, produce, by direct
inoculation, similar sores - from impure contact.
These ulcers or sores, generally single, but oc-
casionally numerous, and affecting mostly the
external genitals, have received the denomina-
tion of Ckakcke, which forms in the male,
chiefly on the foreskin and glans, or nut of the
penis, of an irritated and red appearance, grad-
ually spreading, and, if not arrested, ending
in the total destruction of the penis* An in-
definite period of time elapses before these
ulcerations, after unhealthy coition, make their
appearance. First an inflamed spot is precepti-
ble, then a small watery pimple is seen, which,
discharging its contents, displays a rapidly en-
larging ulcerated sore. In its centre an ex-
9
98 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
cavation is seen, extending beneath the skin,
excessively painful and sensitive; a blush of
dark fiery redness is seen around the ulcer, and
the skin becomes unusually thickened and firm.
The diseased surface is yellow, its edges are
hard and ragged, its outline irregular, and there
is a* feeling of solidity to the touch. The
thickened base is one of the most obvious pecu-
liarities of the true syphilitic chancre. As to
the seat- of these primary sores, they are not
limited to the genitals alone, but may be found
on any other part of the body, if that part be
invested with a mucous membrane, as, for in-
stance, the lips or nostrils. If a chancre be
limited to the external surface, its progress is
slow ; but if its destructive ravages have extended
deeply beneath the skin, mortification may be
expected.
The most remarkable forms of venereal
chancre that are met with in practice are the
following : —
First, that characterized by its circular form,
its excavated surface, covered by a layer of
tenacious and adherent matter, and its hard
cartilaginous base and margin.
Second, another form of chancre, unaccom-
THE SCIEXCE OF LIFE. 99
panied by induration, but with a very high,
margin, appearing often on the outside of the
foreskin, and seldom existing alone, called, from
the preceding description, "the superficial
chancre witli raised edges." These kinds of
ulcers are occasionally very serious, neither
getting better nor worse, but resisting' almost
every plan of treatment generally adopted by
the profession for their removal. I have known
instances where they have existed for several
months.
Third, the phagedenic, or malignant chancre,
a corroding ulcer without granulations, and dis-
tinguished by its circumference being of a livid
red color. Cases have occurred where, from in-
judicious treatment, or the misapplication of
mercury, the whole of the penis has been re-
moved by ulceration.
Fourth, a most formidable kind of chancre,
denominated the sloughing ulcer. It first appears
as a black spot, which spreads and becomes de-
tached, leaving a deepened and unhealthy looking
surface, which has evidently no disposition to
heal. This sore is very painful, and encircled
with a dark purple inflammatory ring. If
neglected or improperly treated, the process of
100 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
mortification goes on until all the parts of genera-
tion are destroyed.
The venereal poison from any of the above
mentioned sores is usually taken by absorption
from the chancre to the glands of the groin, and
in its course through those bodies, produces
inflammatory and painful enlargement, mostly
terminating in a deep and extensive abscess
bursting the skin; and to this state, either
previous to suppuration or subsequently, the
term venereal bubo is correctly applicable. As
a venereal sore or ulcer may assume from the
commencement an irritable or malignant ap-
pearance, rapidly destroying the penis by mortifi-
cation, so a bubo may assume the same character;
and in this way serious consequences may be
endangered, unless timely aid be afforded.
It appears, then, that the mode in which the
venereal disease becomes constitutional is by
the absorption and transmission of a poisonous
virus, first from the primary ulcer to the groin,
and thence throughout the whole system of
blood vessels. In this way, having reached the
circulating fluid, it affects and contaminates the
various solid structures of the body in succes-
sion. First, the lining membrane of the throat
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 101
and nose; next, the skin or surface of the body;
and, lastly, the membrane which invests the
bones, as well as the firm and unyielding struc-
tures of the bones themselves. When, even
long after the original cause of the mischief has
healed, the syphilitic action is set up in the soft
and delicate membrane that lines the throat ; it
becomes red and inflamed, a pimple forms upon
it, which, when it breaks, lays -bare a ragged
surface, bedewed with whitish matter ; or, if it
be seated over a bony structure, the exposed
bone is thrown off, and so, very rapid
and unnatural communication is established
between the mouth and nose, that fluids return
through the nostrils, and the voice becoming
nasal, proclaims but too surely the character of
the malady which has produced such disorgani-
zation. The lining membrane of the nose is
liable likewise to be similarly affected. The
progress of disease is frequently such as to dis-
figure the face most horribly, the cavity of the
nostrils being exposed from the throat, the
natural prominence of the face is lost, and, in
its place, a disgusting ulceration is apparent,
which can only very imperfectly be concealed.
Venereal Eruptions are the mildest of those
9*
102 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
secondary or constitutional symptoms which
follow in the train of chancre. Usually they
assume the appearance of copper colored blotches,
in irregular and indiscriminate patches, scat-
tered over the forehead, face, trunk of the body,
or upper or lower limbs. They are attended
with no greater pain than uneasiness or itching,
which is apt to increase towards the latter part
of the day, or when the patient is warm in bed.
There is a great variety in the character of
syphilitic eruptions; indeed many facts serve
to prove that each form of primary sore has op-
pended to it a peculiar form of eruption.
Syphilitic Disease of the Bones usually
folloAvs the existence of venereal inflammation
of their investing membrane. The long round
bones, as those of the legs, are commonly first
attacked; hence those enlargements of the shins,
well known as Venereal Nodes, which are, in
truth, inflammatory enlargement and thickening
of the periosteum which covers them, subsequent-
ly passing into actual disorganization of the bone
itself. Long after a chancre has healed, the
sufferer complains in the evening of each day of
increased aching and pain in the legs, or in some
particular spot upon one of them. There is not
THE SCIEKCE OF LIFE. 103
much swelling at the first, or the temporary en-
largement disappears towards morning*. Exces-
sive tenderness and pain occur towards nightfall,
and the sleep is disturbed, fever occurring from
irritation and want of rest. The fluid secreted
in consequence of venereal inflammation of the
bony covering is soon converted into a solid
enlargement; and next the membrane which
lines the cavity of the shaft becomes implicated
— till, from pain, exhaustion, and continued suf-
fering, existence becomes a wearisome burden.
Not only do the long bones suffer from syphilitic
inflammation, but also those of other forms. As
I have seen, the thin bony plates connected
with the mouth, throat, and nostrils may exfoli-
ate, and beyond this, the solid and apparently
unyielding bones of the skull may also be affected
with destructive caries, attended with a most
agonizing headache. These affections of the
bones are most frequently mistaken for Ehetj-
MATISM.
It is right to mention that syphilitic inflam-
mation of the Iris is to be ranked among the
most rapid of those inflammatory affections
which attack the Humak Eye. And I may
seize the same opportunity of observing, that if
104 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
the matter secreted in the urethra during the
progress of gonorrhoea be applied incautiously
to the eye, with a towel in washing, or by the
finger, if that retain the slightest atom of dis-
charge upon it, a most severe inflammatory
attack may be expected, which in a few days,
if proper treatment be not actively employed,
will impair the sight.
A most important feature in the history of
syphilitic diseases is the fact of their hereditary
transmission from parent to offspring. Infants
may be affected with syphilis in a variety of
ways. They may be diseased before birth, in
consequence of the state of one or both of their
parents. Dr. Burns, Professor of Midwifery in
the University of Glasgow, whose work "On the
Diseases of Women and Children " is a standard
text-book for the profession, says, "infection may
happen when neither of the parents has at the
time any venereal sivelling or ulceration, and
perhaps maky years after a cure has been ap-
parently effected, I do not," he observes,
"pretend here to explain the theory of syphilis,
but content myself with relating well-estab-
lished facts." Miscarriage or premature labor
not unfrequently is the indication of this, the off-
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 105
spring presenting a feeble, emaciating, and
wrinkled form. The eyes become inflamed ; the
cry of the infant is feeble and husky; there is a
low wailing; purulent discharge from the eye-
lids, and copper-colored blotches upon the
shrivelled skin that covers the genitals and
hips ; the nostrils are clogged with, an offensive
discharge; the nails peel off; and, indeed, many
children die soon after birth, the true nature of
their debility being hidden from the eye of the
attendant practitioner.
In presenting the foregoing detail of the con-
sequences of sensual indulgence, and of the
ailments incident to depraved habits, my design
has not been to satisfy the curiosity of the idle,
but, holding the warning mirror up to nature, to
deter the thoughtless, and, it may be, yet inno-
cent youth from those evils which are known
only to some by bitter experience.
106 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.
CHAPTEE VIII.
SELF DIAGNOSIS; OK, HOW SHALL WE ASCER-
TAIN UNDER WHAT AFFECTION
WE ARE SUFFERING?
In consequence of the frequent inquiries made
of us — "How shall I know whether I am suffer-
ing from spermatorrhoea ? What are the symp-
toms by which I shall be able to recognize it,
or by which it will be accompanied ?" — I am
induced to add a few words on this most impor-
tant point.
The symptoms are infinitely varied, extremely
numerous, and differ greatly in different cases,
both in number, nature, and degree. It will be
well, perhaps, first to put the most prominent of
them into a tabular form, and then to introduce
one or two illustrative cases.
To render this tabulation more intelligible the
symptoms are divided into Local, i. <?., affections
of the generative organs ; Bodily, i. <?., affections
of the muscular, circulative, nutritive, and re-
spiratory systems ; and Mental, i. e., affections of
the nervous system.
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 10?
In the first place, as being not only most defi-
nite in character, but also as indicative of the
disease being more than usually deeply seated
and confirmed, the local symptoms may be men-
tioned. They are as follows : —
Gekekal Symptoms.
Pollutions* accompanying expulsions of urine.
Pollutions accompanying defalcation.
Emissions unaccom; anied by erection.
Nocturnal pollutions, with or without erection or con-
sciousness.
Diurnal pollutions.
Spermatic urine.
Contraction of the foreskin.
Spasmodic or dull pains occasionally in the organs.
Varicocele, or varicose veins in the testicles.
Pimples on shoulder and forehead.
Premature emission during coitus.
Priapism, or erections apparently without any exciting
cause.
Decrease of sexual desire or enjoyment.
Sanguineous emissions.
Diminution in size of the penis and other organs.
Want or imperfection of erectile power.
Climax — Impotence.
*The terms "pollutions" and "emissions" refer to involuntary
escapes of seminal fluid.
108 THE SCIENCE OE LIFE.
In reference to general symptoms, it is neces-
sary to observe that many, if not .all, of these
symptoms may occur in and denote forms of or-
dinary disease ; but if produced by spermator-
rhoea, they will be aggravated in degree, and
will not yield to treatment known to be eradica-
tive of them' in ordinary cases. This fact could
be illustrated in a variety of instances, but one
may suffice. In an otherwise healthy person an
attack of indigestion, originating in inattention
to diet, will yield to gentle purgatives, tonics,
and other well-known means; but if the symp-
toms of indigestion exist in consequence of the
impairment of the nutritive functions by seminal
losses, the ordinary remedies for such symptoms
fail to produce their usual effect, as until the
primary cause of the symptoms be removed, the
effect will not only continue but increase. In
like manner disorders in respiration and circu-
lation may arise indifferently from spermator-
rhoea, or from other causes; in the latter case
the remedies usually indicated for such symp-
toms will remove them, but not so if they be
caused by spermatorrhoea ; and it may be men-
tioned that it has been clearly ascertained that
there is no single function of the animal econo-
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 109
my but may not become deranged by long-con-
tinued seminal losses.
General Symptoms — Bodily.
Muscular, Respiratory, Circulative and Nutritive System.
Increased appetite or voracity (in early stages).
Gnawing, and heat of epigastrium.
Uneasiness, sinking, or faintness before taking meals,
followed by disgust or nausea afterwards.
Want of appetite for plain kinds of food.
Weight of epigastrium.
Quickened pulse.
Flushed face.
Acid eructations.
Acrid heat at the upper part of oesophagus.
Alterations in secretions of liver and pancreas.
Evolution of flatus.
Colic.
Griping.
Difficulties of breathing, and cough.
Distension of stomach and intestines.
Muscular flaccidity.
Excessive mucous secretions.
Irregular action of the heart.
Apoplexy.
Liquid and unnatural stools.
Diarrhoea.
Inflammation of rectum.
Constipation.
10
110 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE,
Loss of substance.
Cadaverous appearance of skin.
Hollow, sunken eyes.
Extreme sensibility to cold-
Rheumatism.
Loss of hair.
Pulmonary catarrh.
Indolence, or indisposition to exercise.
Lassitude.
Fatigue on slight exertion.
Climax — Confirmed Debility.
General Symptoms — Mesttax*
Nervous System.
Restlessness.
Sighing.
Sensation of congestion.
Want of energy.
Uncertainty of tone of voice.
Nervous asthma.
Vertigo.
"Want of purpose.
Dimness of sight.
Weakness of hearing.
Aversion to society. '
Blushing.
Want of confidence.
Avoidance of conversation.
Desire for solitude.
THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. Ill
Listlessness and inability to fix the attention.
Cowardice.
Depression of spirits.
Giddiness.
Loss of memory.
Excitability of temper.
Moroseness.
Want of fixity of attention.
Disposition to ruminate.
Trembling of the hands.
Sudden pallor.
Lachrimosity.
Tremor from slight cause.
Pains in the back of the head or the spine*
Pain over the eyes.
Disturbed and unrefreshed sleep.
Strange and lascivious dreams.
Climax— Hypochondrias.
NOTES FROM CASE BOOK.
In proceeding to give a selection of cases which have
been successfully treated by me, I have to remark that
in no one instance will a case be inserted unless written
permission has first been obtained from the patient, nor
will anything be given which can possibly lead to the
identification of the writer, my promise of the most
inviolable secrecy being faithfully kept. It is my prac-
tice to destroy all letters, as soon as the treatment is
completed and the correspondence upon it has ceased,
unless the patient gives me permission to publish his
case and cure for the encouragement of others, and
then everything is carefully obliterated which could
lead to the patient being identified.
Case 375.
Sir-: — When you have read my case, will you
give me your candid opinion as to my fitness or
otherwise in entering into the marriage state ? I
confess I have doubts on the subject, and as ah
honorable man I should not enter into so holy
an alliance without such medical advice as I
presume it is in your power to give. I am just
forty years of age, and have been for twenty-six
NOTES FROM CASE BOOK. 113
years constantly at sea and in tropical climates,
five years of which time have been on the coast
of Africa. Seven years since I had a large tumor
on my liver, and I may say, to the surprise of
some of the medical men, "recovered." For
years previous to this, and also ever since that
illness, my bowels have been irregular ; I smoke
a cigar after breakfast, and before going to bed,
without which my bowels would not act. I
have for years had a singing in my ears^ particu-
larly the left. I feel after meals a heaviness,
and after dinner an inclination to sleep. I have
been very nervous, and am so still. I have been
much addicted to intercourse, and have given
way to solitary indulgence. At times I have in-
tercourse, and without a doubt of fulfilling the
part of a man. Since contracting marriage the
doubts have such a hold on my imagination, that
I feel sure, or almost so, that I could not perform
that duty which is the only bond of happiness in
that state. I should say that I am naturally of
a strong constitution, I look remarkably young
of my age ; am very active and well made ; and
when feeling well can endure a good deal of
fatigue. I enclose you the usual fee. Be so good
as to direct to me, " To A. B., Post-Office."
10*
114 kotes from case book.
Case 393.
A retired merchant, troubled with nightly
emissions, pains in the loins and back, specks
floating before the eyes, and complete prostra-
tion of the whole animal economy. He came
under my care, and within fourteen days the
patient wrote that he felt a decided improvement,
and he continued gradually to amend during
several weeks, when imprudently testing his virile
powers, he caught a violent gonorrhoea, the cure
of which delayed the case for nearly a month.
Notwithstanding this drawback, in about two
months from commencing he considered him-
self fully cured — the gloom which overshadowed
his mind has been entirely dispelled, he felt his
intellect clear and vigorous, his feelings had
acquired a warm and wholesome tone, and his
physical powers were in every respect those of a
sound and healthy man.
Case 412.
A clerk had suffered from gleet for five years.
He had consulted several surgeons, and, accord-
ing to their direction, had used a variety of in-
jections and inward remedies. He had some-
NOTES FROM CASE BOOK. 115
times received temporary benefit from treatment,
but upon fatigue, exposure to cold and wet, the
use of stimulants, or sexual intercourse, the dis-
ease never failed to re-appear. The discharge
was ordinarily very trifling in amount, but by
its long duration it had somewhat impaired his
general health. He was, moreover, engaged to
be married, but had been obliged to put off the
affair from time to time, fearing that he was
still in a state to communicate infection.
Having subjected specimens of the discharge
to a careful microscopic examination, in order
to ascertain whether the affection was compli-
cated with spermatorrhoea, I proceeded at once
with active treatment of the case. I directed
the use of the " Remedy," which, in ordinary
and recent cases, is alone sufficient to control
affections of this nature. But as the disease had
become so inveterate, and the parts had acquired
what may be called a morbid habit, I ordered a
course of active and strengthening medicine.
Regenerating treatment was finally used to in-
vigorate the general system, and in three weeks'
time I had the pleasure of declaring him to be
radically cured and in a fit state for marriage.
116 h0tes from case book*
Case 457.
u Da. Jacques—
"Dear Sir:— I have lately contracted a very
bad complaint, and am afraid I "have been im-
properly treated here/ as I feel great uneasiness
in my lower regions, as also an appearance of sec-
ondary symptoms ; throat very sore, spit a great
deal, and my skin much pimpled. Knowing your
great skill in these cases, I now abandon myself
to yon, and shall be glad of your advice and
assistance per return post. Enclosed is your
usual fee.
" I am, dear sir, yours truly, J. B."
A short course of Regenerating Medicine re-
invigorated his constitution, and in four weeks
he felt, to use his own words, "like himself
again."
Case 503.
I have been in the filthy habit of practising
self-pollution from about the age of 14, when at
school, until I was 24. I then married, which
is iiow about a year and a-half ago, but am
ashamed to say that so completely had the habit
taken hold of me that I have even (though not
XOTES FROM CASE BOOK. 117
often) practised it since that time, till lately in
fact, when I procured a copy of your Science of
Life. I must mention that I am naturally of good
constitution, but for nearly twelve months past I
have gradually been getting thinner and thin-
ner, as though I was wasting away. I appear
to be in excellent health, but am very speedily
tired with the slightest exertion ; my appetite is
poor, I have no energy, am extremely nervous,
and frequently overcome by melancholy; my
memory is becoming defective, and I have a very
tiresome little cough, with a sort of choking
sensation when attempting to ' read aloud, es-
pecially after a meal ; the left testicle hangs a
little lower than the right one, and after the
urine has been allowed to stand for a time a
white cloudy secretion appears to be floating
about in it, and a sort of greasy looking scum
forms on top. I am also troubled by frequent
emissions during sleep, all which symptoms in-
duce me to think I must be suffering from sper-
matorrhoea, and trust you will be able to do
something to relieve me. I applied to a medical
man who is esteemed very clever in this neighbor-)
hood, but he said he could not see any complaint,
save my getting thin, for which he advised
118 NOTES PROM CASE BOOK.
change of air, and gave me quinine, t>ut no good
effects have followed.
The treatment thus referred to was unsuccess-
ful, because it did not touch the deep-seated
cause of the symptoms.
Case 634.
A bachelor, about the age of fifty, of good
constitution, experienced a certain failing within
a year or two. The approaches were so gradual,
that he suspected it to be the natural decay of
years. However, he resolved to consult a physi-
cian. Not deriving much satisfaction, and hav-
ing some notion of seminal discharges, with the
method of detecting them, he requested that the
urine might be examined. This was done ac-
cordingly, and I believe zealously enough ; but
without detection of the fluid suspected. It was
pronounced positively that the animalculae were
not to be seen. General tonics were administer-
ed; which failing, after awhile, all treatment
was discontinued. The patient came to me, in
turn. After some preliminary inquiries, I pro-
posed to examine the urine ; but he replied that
nothing could result from that investigation, as
it had already been inspected. I learned in
K0TE8 FROM CASE BOOK. 119
what way the specimen had . been collected,
which was carelessly from the chamber utensih
I therefore advised to collect the last few drops
passed on getting out of bed in the morning ;
and not only detected the Spermatozoa, but in-
duced the patient himself to look through the
microscope, who saw them as plainly as 1 did*
To ascertain the cause is the first step towards
the cure ; I applied my remedies accordingly ;
and the result quite justified the prognosis.
Case 891.
I can no longer conceal from myself that I am
suffering from Spermatorrhoea, the result of that
wicked habit contracted even before I was in my
teens ; I even forget how, and how early it was
contracted, and although I have sometimes
abandoned it for a time, I have always relapsed
again into it, and have only lately been able to
feel that I have at length mastered it. My age
is now twenty-six, and although having been
three years at the sea-side, every one congratu-
lates me upon my health and appearance, I am
quite conscious of the unreality of those appear-
ances. My nerves are seriously impaired ; I have
very frequent nocturnal emissions ; the spirit I
120 NOTES FROM CASE BOOK.
once possessed I am afraid is forever gone, and
the sense of fatigue I experience on undertaking
the smallest labor, and the flaccid feel of the
muscles renders me doubtful of the possibility
of their effective reparation; I cannot fix my
attention on my business, make sad blunders,
and get very excitable and ill-tempered. For
the last few months, too, I have experienced a
dull pain or uneasiness in the testicles, especially
on the left side, and have occasional darting
pains of a spasmodic character in the penis, as
though they suddenly received a most severe
and acute electric shock.
In this case, although there were well marked
local symptoms, the mischief had principally
developed itself in the impairment of the nervous
system.
Case 1,121.
Dr. Jacques : — I am suffering from spots and
blotches on the face and body, caused, I believe,
by syphilis some years ago, although I was sali-
vated at the time, and thought myself perfectly
well. Do you think you can do me any good ?
If so, I will come over to see you. I may say
my age is about 35. I am unmarried. My oc-
NOTES FROM CASE BOOK. 121
cupation requires me to be a great deal in the
open air ; in fact, I am a farmer. Enclosed is
your fee. Please to answer by return, and tell
me candidly what you think of my case.
Yours respectfully, P. Y.
I wrote, requesting a personal interview, and
accordingly, a few days afterwards, P. Y. intro-
duced' himself. The spots and blotches on his
face and body exhibited the true syphilitic
character, and were exceedingly disfiguring in
themselves, without taking after consequences
into consideration. P. Y. became my patient,
and followed my advice carefully. In six weeks
he again wrote, stating that he was perfectly
cured.
Case 1,378.
A young man, engaged in a large mercantile
establishment where many hands were employed,
consulted me a few months ago for an obstinate
gleet. It was at once evident that he had been
a votary of self-abuse, indeed he said he could
scarcely escape, as all his companions were
more or less addicted to the habit. Some two
or three years back he read one of my books,
and became thoroughly disgusted with the pro-
11
122 KOTES FROM CASE BOOK.
pensity. He at length had recourse to illicit
intercourse, and thus contracted gonorrhoea,
when, through unskillful treatment, gleet was
the sequelae. In this dilemma he consulted me.
Kow, about this time his symptoms were com-
plicated and many. He was extremely weak,
losing flesh, headache, cold perspirations, eye-
sight much affected, especially the left eye,
frequent dizziness, especially when stooping,
emissions, pains in the shoulders and spinal
column, urine thick, passed frequently in small
quantities. The result of my treatment was the
complete recovery of this patient, and being
restored to health, sought ur ill those young
men whom he knew to be guilty of onanism —
warned them of their danger, and induced them
to apply to me for the necessary treatment.
They all had the good sense to follow my in-
structions, etc., and were cured. Thus through
the candor, conscientiousness, and moral courage
of one young man, a number of others were
rescued from vice, disease and misery, and
brought back to health and happiness.
Header, do you know any youth who is gradu-
ally succumbing to the effects of secret vice ?
Let such net perish. without warning!
NOTICE
TO
PATIENTS AND INVALID EEADEES,
Dr. J. Jacques, having for many years exclu-
sively devoted his attention to the treatment of
the diseases of the generative and nervous
system described in the preceding pages, may
be consulted personally from ten in the morning
till two, and from five in the evening till eight,
daily, at his permanent residence, 148 West
Lombard street, between Hanover and Sharp
streets, Baltimore.
The following directions are given to all who
desire to consult Dr. Jacques :
1. Hours of consultation are from 10 till 2,
and from 5 till 8 in the evening. On Sunday
from 10 till 2. — Or by special appointment.
2. Dr. Jacques' fee for consultation is $5.
3. Dr. Jacques may be consulted by letter;
and patients at a distance are requested to be as
minute as possible in describing the symptoms
124 NOTICE TO PATIENTS
of their cases, age, habits, occupation, &c, and
if any treatment has been previously adopted.
Much of Dr. Jacques' practice is carried on by
correspondence, and he has been successful in
Curing numerous cases which have been con-
ducted by letter only. All letters must contain
the consultation fee.
4. Dr. Jacques has made arrangements by
which the necessary remedies can be forwarded,
safely packed and free from observation, to all
parts of the world ; and it is his invariable cus-
tom to destroy all correspondence, or to return
it to the patient at the termination of each case.
Patients may have letters and packages forward-
ed by initials. The disclosure of a name is
neither sought nor necessary ; the most perfect
confidence may be relied on, so that no diffidence
or timidity may prevent the application for pro-
fessional relief. Patients are, however, requested
to retain the s&me name or initials throughout
the case, in order to prevent confusion.
5. Dr. Jacques wishes to impress the impor-
tance of one personal interview, even with pa-
tients at a distance, more especially when it is
necessary to make a microscopic or chemical
analysis of the urine. In fact, this is of such
AND INVALID READERS. 125
importance that it would be advisable for those
consulting him by letter to forward a small bot-
tle per rail, carefully packed to prevent breakage
(carriage paid), containing the urine passed m
the morning. .
6. Dr. Jacques, having no connection with
any other firm, can only be consulted at his per-
manent office, 148 West Lombard street, between
Hanover and Sharp streets, Baltimore, Md.
3*8*" -^^2:
b\i THE
f Science of Life:
ON
Nervous and Physical Debility
AND
SPECIAL DISEASES,
THEIR CAUSES A.1STID CUKE,
BEING A
Synopsis of Lectures Delivered at the
Museum of Anatomy,
126 WEST BALTIMORE STKEET, BALTIMORE.
Illustrated witli Oases.
BY
, DR. JACQUES, ,
hNo. 148 West Lombard Street, j
Between Hanover and Sharp Streets. <¥
BALTIMORE, MD. ^^^
Baltimore Museum
OF
ANATOMY,
126 W. BALTIMORE STREET,
BALTIMORE, MD.
This Institution Contains the Most Extraordinary Natural
Wonders and Curiosities in the World,
AND A
Host Superb Collection of Anatomical Models and Specimens,
Which convey to the mind, in the space of an hour or two, a more ac-
curate knowledge of the Human Body, and the Mysteries
of Creation, than years of reading,
Open Daily, for Gentlemen Only,
From 9 A. M. to 10 JP. M.
DR. JACQUES, Principal,
RESIDENCE, No. 148 WEST LOMBARD STREET,
Between Hanover and Sharp Streets,
BALTIMOKE, IS/LTD.
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