318 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



dream is accompanied by ejaculation, wliich is followed 

 on the succeeding clay by all the unpleasant symp- 

 toms of nervous irritability, headache, backache, etc., 

 which are experienced by males subject to seminal 

 losses. 



General Effects— The general effects in the fe- 

 male are much the same as those in the male. Although 

 women suffer no seminal loss, they suffer the debili- 

 tating effects of leucorrhea, which is in some degree 

 injurious in the same manner as seminal losses in the 

 male. But in females the greatest injury results from 

 the nervous exhaustion which follows the unnatural 

 excitement. Nervous diseases of every variety are de- 

 veloped. Emaciation and debility become more marked 

 even than in the male, and the worst results are pro- 

 duced sooner, being hastened by the sedentary habits 

 of these females. Insanity is more frequently devel- 

 oped than in males. 



Spinal irritation is so frequent a result that a recent 

 surgical author has said that ' ' spinal irritation in girls 

 and women is, in a majority of cases, due to self-abuse.* 



A Common Cause of Hysteria.— This, too, is one 

 of the most frequent causes of hysteria, chorea, and 

 epilepsy among young women, though not often recog- 

 nized. 



A writer, quoted several times before in this work, 

 remarks as follows: 



"This is not a matter within the scope of general 

 investigation; truth is not to be expected from its 

 habitues; parents are deceived respecting it, believing 

 rather what they wish than what they fear^ Even the 

 physician can but suspect, till time develops more fully 

 by hysterias, epilepsies, spinal irritations, and a train 

 of symptoms unmistakable even if the finally extorted 



* Davis. 



