_ CC LC^_ . C~ Cc C c CC C CTiLCICcc cc 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. 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. 03 xm -^-^^<-#&f -c- ^ 3K> >3 ^> "l» >2> ~3T> 32> ^8 3 33» JfcS>_> OJ> _» J8> i» i>35»3»z> !S355* 3 »£j> L^^333»3€5 3T3 ; = 3^3 >0> 3>33> >^>.. 353SL > 3 33) 30)3 L> 3XDS > > 3 3>32>^ JQ* "ST~X "~^^k. 3>3^ ^ -xlj^ y ] j& 3> J> ji ■} > 3> >5 lOtDb ^DP 33I> >^« ►3X>3 1^ 333» 3X3 ►>3> vnn ^:3r> ' s> 2^3^ "> >3l>3 , E^ 13X3) -■C^ &3 3C£>3>l3£>X> ~X> 3 > )C£ 32> 3 33i> 'ios>' 3>3 3 >333> "33 333 3) J >33 •»3r>3 3330> 33 I > 00 3>3> 3>_J*>:§> 33 I >3 > • ~> ^>3 .^>:>S> >3 3 3i> ^I5i> 333|3> "33 333 » 3t3> 3j> 33 33 •3 > L> I>0> 3>3 Z>S> 373 3v> 3 "33 33 33 33 3 > .. 3 33 33 33 33 > ;» 33 33 Z>^> ""> ■-. .3s>:s> 33 "3T3 33 : 33 pZ 3» 33 :>3 33 3 3 3o> 33:133 33 3 3 3 ^3> i: »33 3D 3 3 *■ * 3* >>^> 3- >£) ' i ^iy • ^jp ^ 3 »3"3 3> HT 3 3 1 3 333 r>3>~ > ^ ^ >'^."x>3 3 :s>: 3> > 1 3 S>JB> »o ■■ .:> 3>3 12 $ ^ ^> > r >^ ~^* U) ~~^ > D 3 »3 ~V3> ~^> — ^^ mm