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DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE SYSTEM. 419
the exhaustion follows. It is difficult for any well man
to conceive of the weak, hopeless, miserable, despair
ing condition of the victim to this disease.
He feels coming upon him all the consequences of
masturbation, without having the power to prevent
them. The habit is not within his volition. The nerv
ous organism is performing for itself what the voluntary
muscles perforin for the victim of solitary vice. Hun
dreds of men are young driven to suicide by this dis
ease —hundreds more drown the sense of suffering by
the excesses of dissipation. All hope of genial life is
destroyed. There is no love, no marriage, no children,
no ambition, for all power of mind and body is wasted.
In some cases, the action seems confined to the spinal
center—the cerebellum no longer acts. The semen is
voided unconsciously. Sometimes, in extreme cases, it
oozes away without erection, or the slightest sensation
of pleasure, even passing off with the urine.
He who has carefully read this book thus far, will
scarcely need that I should point out the causes of this
terrible disease. I will notice a few. Masturbation is
the cause in nine cases in ten. When the victim of
this diseased habit would stop, he finds that a fiend has
taken the place of his volition ; a fiend he has raised,
but can not quell. In some cases, beyond doubt, conti
nence is the cause ; and it would be in more, if conti
nence or absolute were more common.
chastity
All diseasing and debilitating influences may co8perate
in causing this condition. Exhaustion, even by
natural means, especially in promiscuous or unloving
unions, may bring on the irritability of weakness.
Married men have it occasionally, as well as single.