DISEASES OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 



A DISEASES OF THE MALE SEXUAL OKGAKS. 



IN this section we shall speak only of spermatorrhoea and impo- 

 tence, leaving the other diseases of the male sexual organs to surgery. 



CHAPTER I. 



NOCTURNAL AND DIURNAL POLLUTIONS SPERMATORRHCEA. 



FROM the occurrence of puberty till the virile power has been lost, 

 most men have occasional nocturnal emissions, without our being able 

 to say that they are a sign of disease. If the emissions are repeated 

 at unusually short intervals, if they come without lascivious dreams, if 

 tney are accompanied by incomplete erections, or if they occur during 

 the waking state (diurnal pollutions), the condition is a pathological 

 one. 



The persons who consult physicians on account of pollutions are 

 chiefly young men from seventeen to twenty-five years of age. They 

 complain of having emissions of semen one or more nights each week, 

 which weaken them greatly, and that they feel particularly dull and list- 

 less the day after an emission. We should not have too much confidence 

 in these patients, or rather we should mistrust that they are concealing 

 some important fact. The first glance at these confused and embar- 

 rassed young men usually shows that they have a bad conscience ; in 

 many cases we may tell what the trouble is from the mysterious letters 

 in which they request a consultation. It is not generally difficult to 

 obtain from these patients a confession that they have previously mas- 

 turbated, and some even appear to be relieved by making the acknowl- 

 edgment. We must not be satisfied with this confession, however, 

 but should carefully seek to find out if they do not still continue the 

 practice. This confession is generally far more difficult for them ; but 

 I shall not exaggerate in saying that full two-thirds of the patients 



