UNCHASTITY 307 



for treatment. If there is even a reasonable suspicion 

 that it may exist, he should have his urine carefully 

 examined by one competent to criticise it intelligently. 



Spermatorrhea. —By many authors, the term sper- 

 matorrhea is confined entirely to this stage of the 

 disease. It is said that in many cases the forcible 

 interruption of ejaculation has been the cause of this 

 unfortunate condition. Such a proceeding is certainly 

 very hazardous. 



One more caution should be offered; viz., that the 

 occasional presence of spermatozoa in the urine is not 

 a proof of the existence of internal emissions, as a few 

 zoosperms may be left in the urethra after a volun- 

 tary or nocturnal emission, and thus find their way 

 into the urine as it is discharged from the bladder. 



Impotence.— In the progress of the disease, a point 

 is finally reached when the victim not only loses all 

 desire for the natural exercise of the sexual function, 

 but when such an act becomes impossible. This condi- 

 tion may have been reached even before all the pre- 

 ceding symptoms have been developed. Ultimately, it 

 becomes impossible to longer practice the abominable 

 vice itself, on account of the great degeneration and 

 relaxation of the organs. The approach of this condi- 

 tion is indicated by increasing loss of erectile power, 

 which is at first only temporary, but afterward becomes 

 permanent. Still the involuntary discharges continue, 

 and the victim sees himself gradually sinking lower 

 and lower into the pit which his own hands have dug. 

 The misery of his condition is unimaginable,— man- 

 hood lost, his body a wreck, and death staring him in 

 the face. 



This is a brief sketch of the local effects of the 

 horrid vice of self -abuse. The description has not been 



