these different states owe their origin, and even their immediate existence, to nearly the same cause, and may, in almost every instance, be removed by nearly similar treatment.

Hippocrates, the most ancient and just observer, has already described the ills that are occasioned by self-abuse, under the title of Tabes dorsalis: "This disorder arises from the spinal marrow; and those of a lascivious disposition are afflicted with it. They have no fever, and though they eat well they fall away and become consumptive. They feel as if a sting or stitch descended from the head along the spinal marrow. Every time they go to stool, or have occasion to urine, they shed a great quantity of thin seminal liquor. They are incapable of procreation, and they frequently dream of the act of coition. Walking, particularly in rugged paths, puts them out of breath and weakens them; occasioning a heaviness in the head and noise in the ears, which are succeeded by a violent fever, (lypiria,) that terminates their days." There can be nothing more dreadful than the picture which Aetius has left us of the ills that are produced by too great a discharge of the semen. Young people,” says he, “ have the air and appearance of old age; they become pale, effeminate, benumbed, lazy, base, stupid, and even imbecile; their bodies become bent, their legs are no longer able to carry them; they have an utter distaste for every thing, are totally incapacitated, and many become paralytic." "The stomach is disordered," says Aetius, "all the body is weakened; paleness, bodily decay, and emaciation succeed, and the eyes sink into the head." These

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testimonies of the most respectable ancients, are confirmed by innumerable modern writers. Sanctorius, who has examined with the greatest attention all the causes which actuate our bodies, has observed that it weakens the stomach, destroys digestion, obstructs that insensible perspiration, the irregularity of which produces the most fatal consequences, occasions the liver and reins to be over-heated, gives a disposition for the stone in the kidneys, diminishes the natural heat, and usually occasions the loss of, or at least weakens, the sight. Lommius, in his beautiful commentaries upon the passages of Celsus which we have quoted, supports the testimony of this author, with his own just observations. "Frequent emissions of the seed relax, dry up, weaken, enervate, and produce a crowd of evils; apoplexies,lethargies, epilepsies, faintings, the loss of sight, tremors, palsy, spasms, and every species of the most racking gout."

The description which Tulpius, that celebrated physician of Amsterdam, has left us, cannot be read without horror. "The spinal marrow does not only waste, but the body and mind both equally languish, and the man perishes a miserable victim. Samuel Verspretius was seized with a flux of humour extremely sharp, which immediately affected the hind part of the head and nape of the neck; from thence it communicated to the spinal marrow, the loins, the buttocks, and the thigh; which made this unfortunate man suffer such excruciating pain, that his countenance was entirely distorted, and he was seized with a slow fever, which by degrees consumed him, but not so fast as he desired; and he was in such a situation, that he frequently

invoked death before it snatched him from his misery." "Nothing," says that renowned physician, De Louvain, "weakens the stomach and abridges life so soon." Blanchard has been an eye-witness to a simple gonorrhoea, to consumptions, and dropsies, which have flowed from this source.

Too great a dissipation of the animal spirits weakens the stomach, destroys the appetite, and nutrition having no longer a place, the motion of the heart is weakened, all the parts languish, and an epilepsy succeeds. M. Hoffman has seen the most fatal accidents flow from a dissipation of the seed. "After frequent nocturnal pollutions," says he, "not only the powers are lost, the body falls away, and the face turns pale; but moreover, the memory fails, a cold sensation seizes the limbs, the sight is clouded and the voice becomes hoarse; all the body languishes by degrees; disturbing dreams prevent sleep administering any relief.” In a consultation which was held for a young man, who among other ills which he had drawn upon himself by masturbation, was afflicted with a great weakness of sight, he says, "that he had seen several examples of people even in an advanced age, that is to say, after the body had attained its full vigour, who had not only brought on redness and acute pains in the eyes, but also such a weakness of sight that they could neither read nor write anything whatever." An account of the disorder which gave rise to this consultation, will doubtless be agreeable to the reader. "A young man at the age of fifteen, having given way to masturbation, and having frequently practised it till he was twenty-three, was, at that period seized with

such a weakness in his head and eyes, that the latter were frequently afflicted with violent spasms at the time of his seminal emissions. When he wanted to read any thing, he was taken with such a kind of stupor as intoxication creates: the pupil was very much dilated, and he suffered exquisite pain in his eyes; the lids were very heavy, and shut themselves at night; he was constantly shedding tears; and a great quantity of whitish matter gathered in the two corners, which were very painful. Though he ate with pleasure, he was reduced almost to a skeleton, and as soon as he had done eating, he was in a kind of intoxication.” The same author has communicated to us another observation, of which he was an eyewitness, and which we think should find a place here. “A young man, eighteen years of age, who had frequently practised self-pollution, was on a sudden seized with a weakness, and a general tremor in all his members; his face became red, and his pulse very weak. He was relieved from this state in an hour's time, but an incessant languor continued upon him. The fit frequently returned, and threw him into great agonies, which at the end of eight days, occasioned a contraction and tumour in the right arm, with a pain in the elbow, which was greatly increased with the fit." The disorder continued increasing for a long time, notwithstanding many remedies were prescribed: at length a cure was performed.

The eloquent Tissot also remarks, that "all the intellectual functions participate in this derangement : the memory loses its retentive power; the ideas are connected with no solidity; caprice rather than reflec

tion governs every action, and, in fact, partial insanity invades the whole system; while inward terror, restlessness, and constant anguish, are never absent from the hapless sufferer, if this state of system is long. allowed to predominate." Most of such individuals become hypochondriacal or hysterical, with all the ills attendant on these tedious complaints: some are affected with coughs, slow fevers, and lingering consumptions: the most acute pains pervade different parts of the body; which frequently have been referred to imaginary sensibility, but which sensations, we contend, are actually present, and produce a change of organization equally as hostile to the mind as to the constitution, and which are called into action on the slightest impression. There are not only to be seen pimples on the face, which is a common symptom, but even blotches there, as well as on the nose, breast, and thighs; and, occasionally, fleshy excrescences arise on the forehead. Amid this mighty ravage of silent disease, the generative organs are also affected: the semen is evacuated on the slightest irritation, even on going to stool: numbers are affected with habitual gonorrhoea, which entirely destroys the energy and vigour of the constitution, the discharge assuming the appearance of that which flows from old ulcers in the legs: impotence more or less exists: the functions of the intestines are sometimes totally destroyed; and some individuals complain of costiveness, others of diarrhoea, piles, and a discharge of a fœtid mucus from the intestines; thus constituting a class of disease, calamitous indeed, which perhaps at its first approach may arise without producing any organic alteration, but ultimately assists in