A CHAPTER FOR MARRIED PEOPLE 513 



wedded, intercourse is indulged in niglit after niglit, 

 neither party having any idea that these repeated sex- 

 ual acts are excesses which the system of neither can 

 bear, and which, to the man at least, are absolute ruin. 

 The practice is continued till health is impaired, some- 

 times permanently; and when a patient is at last ob- 

 liged to seek medical advice, he is thunderstruck at 

 learning that his sufferings arise from excesses un- 

 wittingly committed. Married people often appear to 

 think that connection may be repeated as regularly and 

 almost as often as their meals. Till they are told of 

 the danger, the idea never enters their heads that they 

 are guilty of great and almost criminal excess; nor is 

 this to be wondered at, since the possibility of such a 

 cause of disease is seldom hinted at by the medical man 

 they consult." 



^'Some go so far as to believe that indulgence may 

 increase these powers, just as gymnastic exercises aug- 

 ment the force of the muscles. This is a popular error, 

 and requires correction. Such persons should be told 

 that the shock on the system each time connection is 

 indulged in is very powerful, and that the expenditure 

 of seminal fluid must be particularly injurious to or- 

 gans previously debilitated. It is by this and similar 

 excesses that premature old age and complaints of 

 the generative organs are brought on." 



' ' The length to which married people carry excesses 

 is perfectly astonishing." 



Consequences of Excess.— "Since my attention 

 has been particularly called to this class of ail- 

 ments, I feel confident that many of the forms of in- 

 digestion, general ill health, hypochondriasis, etc., so 

 often met with in adults, depend upon sexual excesses. 

 . . . That this cause of illness is not more generally 



