DISEASES PECULIAR TO MEN 643 



is found to be the case with any other organ or system 

 of organs in the body. This is the wise provision of 

 nature for the protection of the rest of the body, which 

 sutfers more profoundly from excessive exercise of the 

 sexual function than from any other form of abnormal 

 functional activity. Hence, when great excesses of this 

 sort are indulged in, nature kindly takes away the 

 power for indulgence, and thus prevents that utter 

 destruction of the body which results from the con- 

 tinued exhausting drain to which the system might 

 otherwise be subjected. Wlien diurnal emissions of 

 any sort occur, the sexual organs are also seriously dis- 

 eased, and morbid processes are at work which are very 

 certain to result ultimately in serious loss of sexual 

 vigor. Cases in which the discharge is distinctly of a 

 seminal character, were formerly considered to be prac- 

 tically hopeless; but by proper management, and with 

 the aid of improved methods, these cases are known 

 to be amenable to treatment, and it is probable that 

 nearly all cases, if not every one, may be substantially 

 cured by the adoption of the proper measures. 



2. General nervous debility is another of the most 

 prominent results of these losses. This arises, not so 

 much from the drain upon the system by the frequent 

 discharge, but from the morbid reflex influence of the 

 local irritation, which gives rise to the discharge. The 

 patient is much given to melancholy, and sometimes 

 approaches almost to the border-line of insanity in con- 

 sequence of the mental distress arising from the knowl- 

 edge of his real condition, or from apprehension of a 

 condition more grave than that which really exists. 



3. Various diseases of the bladder and portions of 

 the urinary passages are often present in these cases, 

 and very frequent, difficult, or painful urination. 



