CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.

Having now brought this brief summary of the disastrous results of Sensualism to its termination, and having selected a few, from among many illustrative cases, as depicting, by example, the truths we have advanced, we would wish our efforts to be regarded more especially by the young, as a brief warning, and faithful outline of the sufferings incidental to unnatural and vicious indulgence; so that they may be in possession of those necessary cautions against the prevalence of a vice, not more detrimental to themselves, than to the interests and welfare of the whole community. The consequences of self-pollution, have been often, not merely overlooked, but too frequently misunderstood or unseen. This happens, in some measure, from the absence of that confidence on the part of the patient, who hesitating to reveal the secret cause of their disorders, act unfairly by their medical advisers: but, in the majority of instances, professional men themselves are so unaccustomed to seek such inquiries, to detect the sources of disease, that they escape unnoticed. There is a wide range of morbid sympathies closely connected with the practices of the solitary Sensualist, which much resemble diseases arising from ordinary causes. And as

the detection of the origin of disease is the first and most absolutely essential requisite to a complete and perfect restoration to sound and vigorous health, the consequences of ignorance or mistake, on this point, are too frequently fatal. That practitioner is sure to fail, who is entirely ignorant of the effects of Self-pollution, or who, from want of attention to the subject is destitute of that nice discernment possessed only by few. Affections which he may suppose to be primarily seated in the digestive organs, and arising from the common incentives to inflammation, may be, and often are, in truth, traceable as the direct consequences of that ruinous and destructive habit, not more difficult to detect than to overcome. So we have often seen symptoms resembling those of genuine tubucular consumption, or palsy, affecting the spinal cord and lower extremities, disease of the heart, liver, or brain, indigestion, dysentery, or habitual sluggishness of the intestinal canal, each in its particular instance arising from no other cause than that of Onanism, to which some young persons are unfortunately addicted. These are inquiries which are strangely neglected by those to whom is ordinarily entrusted the care and management of the afflicted. Errors in practice of the most serious description necessarily arise from it. If a person, affected with the ordinary consequences of Self-pollution, be placed under the treatment of a well educated surgeon, or physician, who has neglected to study the nature of those evils arising from sexual abuse; if his patient have headache, he will perhaps order the abstraction of blood, not knowing that enervation of brain and agonizing pain may arise from exhaustion, from an undue drain on the seminal vessels,

of which circumstance he remains in ignorance. Evidently depleting treatment, in such cases, can only render the condition of the patient much worse than previously. And so purgatives, tonics, and the whole catalogue of medicines have been, and are, thus blindly misemployed. Medical men are seriously to be reprehended for their inattention, as a body, to the consequences of Sensualism. Few of them have devoted any portion of their time to these studies; consequently, in the absence of that penetration which long practice and observation cannot fail to bestow, they are not only unable to unveil the shroud of concealment with which some young people hide their practices, but being seemingly ignorant of that which patients imagine they ought assuredly to detect, no wonder confidence fails, or that their prescriptions are inefficacious. It is no less strange than certain, that the great body of general practitioners, do not pay that close attention to the diseased conditions of the generative system demanded by the actual existing conditions of society, and especially those affections resulting from self-pollution, or excessive and indiscriminate indulgence with the sex. In a moral point of view, this neglect is highly important. Under this conviction, we have unremittingly devoted all our time and energies to the prosecution of such inquiries as bear closely upon the mitigation, as well as the prevention of these forms of human suffering.

The cases we have selected for publication abundantly prove, that exclusively of the facilities afforded for frequent personal interview, which, with the closest regard to privacy, may always be obtained at our own establishment in London, our resources are not less in the treatment of patients who can only correspond with us through the post.

Our country correspondents may rely on the application of our prompt attention and skill in reference to the slightest peculiarity of their complaints. For when it is

considered at what a distance medical aid has often to be procured, and that the multifarious engagements of a country practitioner naturally preclude that minute attention to so important a subject, which can alone secure to the patient a certainty of health; our method is of double utility, by the SECRECY which it offers and the relief it ensures.

In conclusion, we beg to suggest a practical extension of the benefits we have endeavoured to inculcate. It will be an acceptable service to society, if the reader who has attentively, and, we hope, usefully perused these pages, will forward, with as much privacy as may be, under envelope, anonymously or otherwise, our little work, to such of his friends or acquaintance who, as he may have good reason either to know or suspect, have been the secret victims of the baneful habit we have described. In this way a Parent may secretly, yet effectually, warn that child, to whom on such a subject he would feel it repulsive to speak. We need only point out this mode of performing a humane and charitable action, to render obvious its very useful application.

And now, under the full consciousness of a sincere and ardent wish to be instrumental in discharging our individual share of that obligation to society which is founded on our mutual dependance upon each other, we fearlessly confide our efforts to the discriminating eye of every enlightened, judicious, and philanthropic lover of his fellow man. For, to reclaim from destruction, to save from misery and pain, to restore to usefulness and happiness, is assuredly one of the highest rewards associated with the

recollection of our past labours, and the noblest stimulus to future exertion. The grateful smile of returning health and renewed vigour, will be to us, as they have ever been, a happy compensation for studious effort. We feel that we have not failed to consult the real interests and permanent happiness of those who have entrusted themselves to our care; and it is our earnest hope, that the wide publicity of our present undertaking may be directly conducive to the promotion of the health, comfort, and welfare of the victims of weakness, anguish, and decay.