514 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



acknowledged and acted on, arises from the natural 

 delicacy which medical men must feel in putting such 

 questions to their patients as are necessary to elicit the 

 facts." 



''It is not the body alone which suifers from ex- 

 cesses committed in married life. Experience every 

 day convinces me that much of the languor of mind, 

 confusion of ideas, and inability to control the thoughts, 

 of which some married men complain, arise from this 

 cause. ' ' * 



The debilitating etfects of excessive sexual indul- 

 gence arise from two causes ; viz., the loss of the semi- 

 nal fluid, and the nervous excitement. With reference 

 to the value of the spermatic fluid. Dr. Gardner re- 

 marks : 



' ' The sperm is the purest extract of the blood. . . . 

 Nature, in creating it, has intended it not only to com- 

 municate life, but also to nourish the individual life. 

 In fact, the reabsorption of the fecundating liquid 

 impresses upon the entire economy new energy, 

 and a virility which contributes to the prolongation 

 of life." 



Another case came under our observation in which 

 the patient, a man, confessed to having indulged every 

 night for twenty years. We did not wonder that at 

 forty he was a complete physical wreck. 



Continence of Athletes. — "The moderns who 

 are training are well aware that sexual indulgence 

 wholly unfits them for great feats of strength, and the 

 captain of a boat strictly forbids his crew anything of 

 the sort just previous to a match. Some trainers have 

 gone so far as to assure me that they can discover by 

 a man's style of pulling whether he has committed 

 such a breach of discipline overnight, and have not 



* Acton. 



