344 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



marriage, should carefully consider the possible and 

 probable effects upon offspring, the legitimate result 

 of marriage; these have been already described, and 

 need not be recapitulated. 



Local Treatment. —While it is true that general 

 treatment alone is occasionally successful in curing the 

 diseases under consideration, and that local treatment 

 alone is very rarely efficient, it is also true that in 

 many cases skilful local treatment is required to sup- 

 plement the general remedies employed. "While there 

 has been a tendency on the part of the profession gener- 

 ally to depend wholly upon general treatment, on the 

 part of a less numerous body of specialists there has 

 been an opposite tendency, to depend wholly, or nearly 

 so, upon local measures. Both extremes are evidently 

 wrong. 



The object of local treatment for the relief of emis- 

 sions, especially, is to remove the local cause of irrita- 

 tion, which, as previously shown, is one of the most 

 active exciting causes of seminal losses. To effect this, 

 both interna] and external applications are useful. We 

 will now consider some of these agents. 



SIMPLE METHODS OF TREATMENT. 



No simple directions for treatment can render a 

 person competent to dispense with the services of a 

 physician, but there are some simple hygienic means 

 which are remarkably effective in relieving many of 

 the special morbid conditions which are referred to 

 in this work. In the following images we shall de- 

 scribe a few simple methods of employing water, 

 one of the most important of all hygienic measures 

 known. 



