SEXUAL HYGIENE 189 



neous. Their general acceptance has been due, with- 

 out doubt, to the strong natural bias in their favor. It 

 is an easy matter to believe what agrees well with one 's 

 predilections. A bare surmise, on the side of preju- 

 dice, is more telling than the most powerful logic on the 

 other side. 



*'We know that this opinion is held by men of the 

 world, and that many physicians share it. This belief 

 appears to us to be erroneous, without foundation, and 

 easily refuted.* 



The same writer claims 'Hhat no peculiar disease 

 nor any abridgment of the duration of life can be 

 ascribed to such continence." He proves his position 

 by appealing to statistics, and shows the fallacy of 

 arguments in support of the contrary view. He fur- 

 ther says : 



'^It is determined, in our opinion, that the com- 

 merce of the sexes has no necessities that cannot be 

 restrained without peril." 



*'A part has been assigned to spermatic plethora 

 in the etiology of various mental affections. Among 

 others, priapism has been attributed to it. In our 

 opinion, this malady originates in a disturbance of 

 the cerebral nerve power; but it is due much less 

 to the retention of sperm than to its exaggerated 

 loss; much less to virtuous abstinence than to moral 

 depravity. ' ' 



There has evidently been a wide-spread deception 

 upon this subject. "Health does not absolutely require 

 that there should ever be an emission of semen, from 

 puberty to death, though the individual live a hundred 

 years; and the frequency of involuntary nocturnal 

 emissions is an indubitable proof that the parts, at 



* Mayer. 12 



