628 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



of disease in the portions of the body considered, and 

 the consequences of neglecting to give timely and thor- 

 ough attention to these disorders before, by long con- 

 tinuance, they become difficult of eradication, if not 

 wholly incurable. 



Spermatorrhea.— Used in its most general sense, 

 this term applies to all forms of disease of the sexual 

 organs accompanied by involuntary seminal losses. In 

 a more technical sense, it relates only to a condition 

 in which there is an unconscious escape of the seminal 

 fluid connected with the passage of urine or movement 

 of the bowels. It is in the latter sense that the term 

 is here used. This disease is not so frequent as has 

 been supposed by many; and on the other hand, it is 

 not so rare an affection as many medical writers have 

 seemed to think. There are those who claim to believe 

 that the disease occurs so infrequently that it is scarcely 

 worthy to be considered a distinct disorder. After 

 carefully investigating several hundred cases of dis- 

 eases peculiar to men, we have come to believe that it is 

 by no means so rare a disease as is generally supposed 

 to be the case, having determined the presence of sper- 

 matozoa by microscopical examination in a large num- 

 ber of cases in which a discharge occurred after uri- 

 nating or while straining at stool. 



Symptoms.— The leading symptoms of true sper- 

 matorrhea are headache; dulness of intellect; loss of 

 power to concentrate the mind; defective memory; 

 occasionally, partial deafness ; roaring in the ears ; gid- 

 diness ; spots before the eyes ; blurring of vision ; short 

 breath; sensation of weight or stricture in the chest; 

 various forms of dyspepsia, such as sour stomach, or 

 heaviness at the stomach; sleepiness after meals; con- 

 stipation of the bowels; dry skin; abnormal sensitive- 



