UNCHASTITY 343 



hazardous and immoral mode of treatment is the result 

 of the common opinion that emissions are necessary and 

 natural, which we have previously shown to be false. 

 Marriage. — Another class of practitioners, with 

 more apparent regard for morality, recommend matri- 

 mony as a sure panacea for all the ills of which the 

 suiferers from self-abuse complain, with the possible 

 exception of actual impotence. Against this course, 

 several objections may be urged; we offer the follow- 

 ing: 



1. It is not a remedy, since, as in the case of illicit 

 intercourse, *' legalized prostitution" is only a substi- 

 tution of one form of emission for another, the ill 

 effects of which do not differ appreciably. 



2. If it were a remedy, it would not be a justifiable 

 one, for its use would necessitate an abuse of the mar- 

 riage relation, as elsewhere shown. 



3. As another reason why the remedy would not be 

 a proper, even if a good one, it may well be asked, 

 A^Hiat right has a man to treat a wife as a vial of 

 medicine? Well does Mr. Acton inquire, ''AVhat has 

 the young girl, who is thus sacrificed to an egotistical 

 calculation, done that she should be condemned to the 

 existence that awaits her? Wlio has the right to re- 

 gard her as a therapeutic agent, and to risk thus lightly 

 her future prospects, her repose, and the happiness 

 of the remainder of her life!" 



In cases in which seminal emissions occur fre- 

 quently, the most reliable writers upon this subject- 

 Copland, Acton, Milton, and others— advise, with ref- 

 erence to marriage, "that the complaint should be 

 removed before the married life is commenced." Inde- 

 pendent of the considerations already presented, the 

 individual affected in this manner and contemplating 



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