A CHAPTER FOR MARRIED PEOPLE 515 



scrupled to attribute the occasional loss of matches to 

 this cause. ' ' * 



A Cause of Throat Disease.— The disease known 

 as clergyman's sore throat is believed by many eminent 

 physicians to have its chief origin in excessive venery. 

 It is well known that sexual abuse is a very potent 

 cause of throat diseases. This view is supported by 

 the following from the pen of the learned Dr. X. Bour- 

 geois : 



' * We ought not, then, to be surprised that the phys- 

 iological act, requiring so great an expenditure of 

 vitality, must be injurious in the highest degree, when 

 it is reiterated abusively. To engender is to give a 

 portion of one's life. Does not he who is prodigal of 

 himself, precipitate his own ruin? A peculiar char- 

 acter of the diseases which have their origin in venereal 

 excesses and masturbation is chronicity. " 



' ' Individual predispositions, acquired or hereditary, 

 engender for each a series of peculiar ills. In some, 

 the debility bears upon the pulmonary organs. Hence 

 result the dry cough, prolonged hoarseness, stitch in 

 the side, spitting of blood, and finally phthisis. How 

 many examples are there of young debauchees who 

 have been devoured by this cruel disease! ... It is, 

 of all the grave maladies, the one which venereal abuses 

 provoke the most frequently. Portal, Bayle, Louis, say 

 this distinctly." 



The author has met a large number of cases which 

 fully verified the above statements. In fact, in quite a 

 large proportion of cases suffering from sexual ex- 

 cesses which have come under his care, some form of 

 throat ailment has been present. 



A Cause of Consumption.— This fatal disease finds 



a large share of its victims among those addicted to 



— . . . ■ \ 



* Acton. 



