304 PLAIN FACTS FOK OLD AND YOUNG 



feel decidedly worse. Occasionally they may fancy 

 there is a sense of relief, but it is very much the same 

 sort of relief that a drunkard feels from a dram. In 

 early life, the stomach may be re^Deatedly overloaded 

 with impunity; but I suppose few would contend that 

 overloading was therefore good. The fact is that emis- 

 sions are invariably more or less injurious ; not always 

 visibly so in youth, nor susceptible of being assessed 

 as to the damage inflicted by any given number of them, 

 but still contributing each in its turn, a mite toward 

 the exhaustion and debility which the patient will one 

 day complain of. ' ' 



Diurnal Emissions.— As the disease progresses, 

 the irritation and weakness of the organs become so 

 great that an erection and emission occur upon the 

 slightest sexual excitement. Mere proximity to a fe- 

 male, or the thought of one, will be sufficient to pro- 

 duce a pollution, attended by voluptuous sensations. 

 But after a time the organs become so diseased and 

 irritable that the slightest mechanical irritation, as 

 friction of the clothing, the sitting posture, or riding 

 horseback will produce a discharge which may or may 

 not be attended by sensation of any kind. Frequently, 

 a burning or more or less painful sensation occurs. 

 After a time, erection no longer takes place. Even 

 straining at stool will produce the discharge, or vio- 

 lent efforts to retain the feces when there is unnatural 

 looseness. 



The amount of the discharge may vary from a few 

 drops to one or two drams, or even more. The charac- 

 ter of the discharge is of considerable importance. 

 When it occurs under the circumstances last described, 

 viz., without erection or voluptuous sensations, it may 

 be of a true seminal character, or it may contain no 



