Plain Facts for Old and Young Part 23

_General Debility_.--Nervous exhaustion and the loss of the vivifying influence of the seminal fluid produce extreme mental and physical debility, which increases as the habit is practiced, and is continued by involuntary emissions after the habit ceases. If the patient's habits are sedentary, and if he had a delicate const.i.tution at the start, his progress toward the grave will be fearfully rapid, especially if the habit were acquired young, as it most frequently is by such boys, they being generally precocious. Extreme emaciation, sallow or blotched skin, sunken eyes, surrounded by a dark or blue color, general weakness, dullness, weak back, stupidity, laziness, or indisposition to activity of any kind, wandering and illy defined pains, obscure and often terrible sensations, pain in back and limbs, sleeplessness, and a train of morbid symptoms too long to mention in detail, attend these sufferers.

_Consumption_.--It is well recognized by the medical profession that this vice is one of the most frequent causes of consumption. At least such would seem to be the declaration of experience, and the following statistical fact adds weight to the conclusion:--

"Dr. Smith read a paper before a learned medical a.s.sociation a few years since in which he pointed out the startling fact that in one thousand cases of consumption five hundred and eighteen had suffered from some form of s.e.xual abuse, and more than four hundred had been addicted to masturbation or suffered from nocturnal emissions."[49]

[Footnote 49: Acton.]

"Most of those who early become addicted to self-pollution are soon afterward the subjects, not merely of one or more of the ailments already noticed, but also of enlargements of the lymphatic and other glands, ultimately of _tubercular deposits in the lungs_ and other viscera, or of scrofulous disease of the vertebrae or bones, or of other structures, more especially of the joints."[50]

[Footnote 50: Copland.]

Many young men waste away and die of symptoms resembling consumption which are solely the result of the loathsome practice of self-abuse.

The real number of consumptives whose disease originates in this manner can never be known.

_Dyspepsia_.--Indigestion is frequently one of the first results.

Nervous exhaustion is always felt by the stomach very promptly. When dyspepsia is once really established, it reacts upon the genital organs, increasing their irritability as well as that of all the rest of the nervous system. Now there is no end to the ills which may be suffered; for an impaired digestion lays the system open to the inroads of almost any and every malady.

_Heart Disease_.--Functional disease of the heart, indicated by excessive palpitation on the slightest exertion, is a very frequent symptom. Though it unfits the individual for labor, and causes him much suffering, he would be fortunate if he escaped with no disease of a more dangerous character.

_Throat Affections_.--There is no doubt that many of the affections of the throat in young men and older ones which pa.s.s under the name of "clergyman's sore throat" are the direct results of masturbation and emissions.

Dr. Acton cites several cases in proof of this, and quotes the following letter from a young clergyman:--

"When I began the practice of masturbation, at the age of sixteen, I was in the habit of exercising my voice regularly. The first part in which I felt the bad effects of that habit was in the organs of articulation. After the act, the voice wanted tone, and there was a disagreeable feeling about the throat which made speaking a source of no pleasure to me as it had been. By-and-by, it became painful to speak after the act. This arose from a feeling as if a morbid matter was being secreted in the throat, so acrid that it sent tears to the eyes when speaking, and would have taken away the breath if not swallowed. This, however, pa.s.sed away in a day or two after the act. In the course of years, when involuntary emissions began to impair the const.i.tution, this condition became permanent. The throat always feels very delicate, and there is often such irritability in it, along with this feeling of the secretion of morbid matter, as to make it impossible to speak without swallowing at every second or third word. This is felt even in conversation, and there is a great disinclination to attempt to speak at all. In many instances in which the throat has been supposed to give way from other causes, I have known this to be the real one. May it not be that the general irritation always produced by the habit referred to, shows itself also in this organ, and more fully in those who are required habitually to exercise it?"

_Nervous Diseases_.--There is no end to the nervous affections to which the sufferer from this vice is subject. Headaches, neuralgias, symptoms resembling hysteria, sudden alternations of heat and cold, irregular flus.h.i.+ng of the face, and many other affections, some of the more important of which we will mention in detail, are his constant companions.

_Epilepsy_.--This disease has been traced to the vile habit under consideration in so many cases that it is now very certain that in many instances this is its origin. It is of frequent occurrence in those who have indulged in solitary vice or any other form of s.e.xual excess.

We have seen several cases of this kind.

Failure of Special Senses.--Dimness of vision, amaurosis, spots before the eyes, with other forms of ocular weakness, are common results of this vice. The same degeneration and premature failure occur in the organs of hearing. In fact, sensibility of all the senses becomes in some measure diminished in old cases.

Spinal Irritation.--Irritation of the spinal cord, with its resultant evils, is one of the most common of the nervous affections originating in this cause. Tenderness of the spine, numerous pains in the limbs, and spasmodic twitching of the muscles, are some of its results.

Paralysis, partial or complete, of the lower limbs, and even of the whole body, is not a rare occurrence. We have seen two cases in which this was well marked. Both patients were small boys and began to excite the genital organs at a very early age. In one, the paralytic condition was complete when he was held erect. The head fell forward, the arms and limbs hung down helpless, the eyes rolled upward, and the saliva dribbled from his mouth. When lying flat upon his back, he had considerable control of his limbs. In this case, a condition of priapism seems to have existed almost from birth, owing to congenital phimosis.

His condition was somewhat improved by circ.u.mcision. In the other case, in which phimosis also existed, there was paralysis of a few of the muscles of the leg, which produced club-foot. Circ.u.mcision was also performed in this case and the child returned in a few weeks completely cured, without any other application, though it had previously been treated in a great variety of ways without success, all the usual remedies for club-foot proving ineffectual. Both of these cases appeared in the clinic of Dr. Sayre at Bellevue Hospital, and were operated upon by him.

We have recently observed several cases of spinal disease which could be traced to no origin but masturbation. Two patients were small boys, naturally quite intelligent. They manifested all the peculiarities of loco-motor ataxia in older persons, walking with the characteristic gait. The disease was steadily progressing in spite of all attempts to stay it. An older brother had died of the same malady, paralysis extending over the whole body, and finally preventing deglut.i.tion, so that he really starved to death.

Insanity.--That solitary vice is one of the most common causes of insanity, is a fact too well established to need demonstration here.

Every lunatic asylum furnishes numerous ill.u.s.trations of the fact.

"Authors are universally agreed, from Galen down to the present day, about the pernicious influence of this enervating indulgence, and its strong propensity to generate the very worst and most formidable kinds of insanity. It has frequently been known to occasion speedy, and even instant, insanity."[51]

[Footnote 51: Arnold.]

"Religious insanity," so-called, may justly be attributed to this cause in a great proportion of cases. The individual is conscience-smitten in view of his horrid sins, and a view of his terrible condition--ruined for both worlds, he fears--goads him to despair, and his weakened intellect fails; reason is dethroned, and he becomes a hopeless lunatic.

His friends, knowing nothing of the real cause of his mysterious confessions of terrible sin, think him over-conscientious, and lay the blame of his insanity upon religion, when it is solely the result of his vicious habits, of which they are ignorant.

In other cases, the victim falls into a profound melancholy from which nothing can divert him. He never laughs, does not even smile. He becomes more and more reserved and taciturn, and perhaps ends the scene by committing suicide. This crime is not at all uncommon with those who have gone the whole length of the road of evil. They find their manhood gone, the vice in which they have so long delighted is no longer possible, and, in desperation, they put an end to the miserable life which nature might lengthen out a few months if not thus violently superseded.

If the practice is continued uninterruptedly from boyhood to manhood, imbecility and idiocy are the results. Demented individuals are met in no small numbers inside of hospitals and asylums, and outside as well, who owe to this vice their awful condition. Plenty of half-witted men whom one meets in the every-day walks of life have destroyed the better half of their understanding by this wretched practice.

A Victim's Mental Condition Pictured.--The mental condition of a victim of this vice cannot be better described than is done in the following paragraphs by one himself a victim, though few of these unfortunate individuals would be able to produce so accurate and critical a portrait of themselves as is here drawn by M. Rousseau, as quoted by Mr. Acton:--

"One might say that my heart and my mind do not belong to the same person.

My feelings, quicker than lightning, fill my soul; but instead of illuminating, they burn and dazzle me. I feel everything. I see nothing.

I am excited, but stupid; I cannot think except in cold blood. The wonderful thing is that I have sound enough tact, penetration, even _finesse_, if people will wait for me. I make excellent impromptus at leisure; but at the moment I have nothing ready to say or do. I should converse brilliantly by post, as they say the Spaniards play at chess.

When I read of a Duke of Savoy who turned back after starting on his journey to say, 'In your teeth! you Paris shop-keeper!' I said, 'That is like me!'"

"But not only is it a labor to me to express, but also to receive, ideas.

I have studied men, and I think I am a tolerably good observer; yet I can see nothing of what I do see. I can hardly say that I see anything except what I recall; I have no power of mind but in my recollection.

Of all that is said, of all that is done, of all that pa.s.ses in my presence, I feel nothing, I appreciate nothing. The external sign is all that strikes me. But after a while it all comes back to me."

EFFECTS IN FEMALES.

Local Effects.--The local diseases produced by the vice in females are, of course, of a different nature from those seen in males, on account of the difference in organization. They arise, however, in the same way, congestions at first temporary ultimately becoming permanent and resulting in irritation and various disorders.

Leucorrhoea.--The results of congestion first appear in the mucous membrane lining the v.a.g.i.n.a, which is also injured by mechanical irritation, and consists of a catarrhal discharge which enervates the system. By degrees the discharge increases in quant.i.ty and virulence, extending backward until it reaches the sensitive womb.

Contact with the acrid, irritating secretions of the v.a.g.i.n.a produces soreness of the fingers at the roots of the nails, and also frequently causes warts upon the fingers. Hence the value of these signs, as previously mentioned.

Uterine Disease.--Congestion of the womb is also produced by the act of abuse; and as the habit is continued, it also becomes permanent.

This congestion, together with the contact of the acrid v.a.g.i.n.al discharge, finally produces ulceration upon the neck, together with other diseases.

Another result of congestion is all kinds of menstrual derangements after p.u.b.erty, the occurrence of which epoch is hastened by the habit.

Prolapsus and various displacements are produced in addition to menstrual irregularities.

Cancer of the Womb.--Degeneration of this delicate organ also occurs as the result of the constant irritation and congestion, and is often of a malignant nature, occasioning a most painful death.

Sterility.--Sterility, dependent on a total loss of s.e.xual desire and inability to partic.i.p.ate in the s.e.xual act, is another condition which is declared by medical authors to be most commonly due to previous habits of self-abuse. In consequence of overexcitement the organs become relaxed.

Atrophy of Mammae.--Closely connected with other local results is the deficient development of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s when the vice is begun before or at p.u.b.erty, and atrophy if it is begun or continued after development has occurred. As previously remarked, this is not the sole cause of small mammae, but it is one of the great causes.

Pruritis.--This is an affection not infrequent in these subjects.

Continued congestion produces a terrible itching of the genitals, which increases until the individual is in a state of actual frenzy, and the disposition to manipulate the genitals becomes irresistible, and is indulged even in the presence of friends or strangers, and though the patient be at other times a young woman of unexceptionable modesty.

In cases of this kind, great hypertrophy of the organ of greatest sensibility has been observed, and in some cases amputation of the part has been found the only cure.

General Effects.--The general effects in the female are much the same as those in the male. Although women suffer no seminal loss, they suffer the debilitating effects of leucorrhoea, which is in some degree injurious in the same manner as seminal losses in the male. But in females the greatest injury results from the nervous exhaustion which follows the unnatural excitement. Nervous diseases of every variety are developed. Emaciation and debility become more marked even than in the male, and the worst results are produced sooner, being hastened by the sedentary habits of these females, generally. Insanity is more frequently developed than in males. Spinal irritation is so frequent a result that a recent surgical author has said that "spinal irritation in girls and women is, in a majority of cases, due to self-abuse."[52]

[Footnote 52: Davis.]

A Common Cause of Hysteria.--This, too, is one of the most frequent causes of hysteria, ch.o.r.ea, and epilepsy among young women, though not often recognized.

A writer, quoted several times before in this work, remarks as follows:--

"This is not a matter within the scope of general investigation; truth is not to be expected from its _habitues_; parents are deceived respecting it, believing rather what they wish than what they fear.

Even the physician can but suspect, till time develops more fully by hysterias, epilepsies, spinal irritations, and a train of symptoms unmistakable even if the finally extorted confession of the poor victim did not render the matter clear. Marriage does, indeed, often arrest this final catastrophe, and thus apparently s.h.i.+fts the responsibility upon other shoulders, and to the 'injurious effects of early marriages,' to the 'ills of maternity,' are ascribed the results of previous personal abuse.