SPERMATORRHŒA, OR LOST MANHOOD.
SYMPTOMS.
Spermatorrhœa may be conveniently divided into three stages.
FIRST STAGE—IRRITATION, CONGESTION.
In this stage the sexual organs of the brain and nervous system first begin to feel the strain of early abuse, overwork, confinement, sexual excess, or whatever the cause may be in this particular case.
The Prostate Gland (j, b, Fig. 5) the Seminal Vesicles (l, Fig. 5), Cowper’s Duct (n, Fig. 5), the Testicles and Spermatic Cord (h, f, k, Fig. 5), indeed all the sexual apparatus, including the bulbous sympathetic nerves lying just inside the spine, from the small of the back down to the end of the organ, become filled with dark, thick and stagnated blood. The Prostate Gland swells and becomes enlarged, the Seminal Vesicles become weak, baggy and filled with a thin, glairy fluid that oozes out into the urine and urine canal on any little strain, exertion or excitement; especially when, after being in the presence of the opposite sex, weak, feeble erections follow. The testicles become flabby and stringy and no longer make strong, healthy, fecund vital fluid. The constant calls upon them has exhausted them as also the nerves that gave them life, strength and vitality. A heavy dragging We Offer Special Help to Impotent Men. weight is often felt in the groin, especially after walking or long standing. There is a feeling of weakness and exhaustion in the parts. Often strange sensations shoot through the parts, and they are cold and clammy at one time, while weak and sweating profusely at another.
[ Fig. 5.]
MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION.
[From Acton’s Celebrated Work on “The Reproductive Organs.”]
Side view of Body cut in half lengthways showing the course taken by the vital fluid from the Testicle (where it is made) to the Seminal Vesicles (where it is stored). The penis is shown cut off at dotted line g.
As shown here the vital fluid secreted in the minute tubules of the healthy testicle is gathered into the vas deferens or conveying tube k, which passing through the groin dips behind the bladder a and empties into the Seminal Vesicles or Storehouse b. From here it is thrown forcibly into the urethra (urine canal) e, when needed, and expelled anteriorly by the ejaculatory muscles of the urethra. To reach the urethra the Seminal Duct m passes directly through the body of the Prostate Gland j-b. Upon the outside of the testicle, the tube or duct is found twisted and forming a slight bunch, known as the epididymis, f, g, h.
It is here that the pressure of a Varicocele is first felt—here that it succeeds in cutting off the free upward flow of vital fluid by pressure on these soft branches of the duct, causing emissions by varying and irregular pressure and Impotence by constant pressure. When the Varicocele becomes very large, it then destroys the delicate tubing or the testicle itself.
The general nervous system also feels the strain and drain. Memory and application, good judgment, decision of character, and clear-sightedness are not what they were. Headaches are not uncommon. Bashfulness and trepidation, especially in the presence of females, is the rule. The person feels clumsy, embarrassed and ill at ease. Sleep is sometimes poor, there are occasionally terrible dreams, sometimes lascivious ones accompanied by emissions, drowsiness and a tired, languid feeling in the morning, and a disinclination to rise and go to work are certain signs of impending nervous exhaustion.
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The eyes are dull and heavy, often black-ringed underneath. The pupils of the eyes are unequal—often very large—sometimes one small and one large. The hands tremble and perspire easily. The person is absent-minded, melancholy, prone to brood, and fears the jests or ridicule of his companions. The skin, especially of the face, sometimes becomes coarse and red, sometimes is pale and pasty and covered with blotches or pimples. There is sometimes spasm at the neck of the bladder, causing some delay before the urine will flow freely. Often it is passed in a forked or twisted stream, plainly showing the presence of either organic or spasmodic stricture. Twitching of the muscles of the eyelid, face and limbs is often present, accompanied sometimes by creeping sensations up the spine, flushings of the face, chills (slight), dizziness and black spots before the eyes on stooping over and occasionally by neuralgic pains in the head and about the heart. If unchecked, or if the baneful habit is still persisted in, the symptoms of the First Stage merge rapidly into those of the
SECOND STAGE.—CONGESTION AND INFLAMMATION.
Here all the symptoms of the foregoing stage are usually present, only somewhat more intensified. The congestion and irritation are more decided, the weakness more marked, the nervous prostration more decided. Any, many, or all of the following symptoms may be present, according to the degree of severity or the rapidity of the disease:
Emissions (day or night), Oozing of a glairy fluid under excitement and imaginings, presence of the opposite sex, etc., Partial and Imperfect Erections, Desire to Masturbate, Formation of Evil Pictures in the Mind, Flushing and Chilliness, Stupidity and Tendency to Doze or Sleep, Mental Hebetude, Failing Memory, Lack of Power of Application, Energy or Concentration, Restlessness, Pain and Smarting in passing urine, Wetting the Bed, Pain in the Kidneys, Headache, Pimples on the face or body, Itching or peculiar sensations about the scrotum (bag), thighs, legs, anus, etc., Wasting of the Organs, Stringiness and Softening of the Testicles, Dyspepsia, Sluggish Bowels, Torpid Liver, Failing Sight, Pains in the Head (front, top and back), Chest, Limbs, etc., Sensation of the Bowels Falling Out, Dizziness on stooping over or kneeling, Specks before the Eyes, Erotic Dreams, Melancholy (developing sometimes into Insanity), Numbness of arms, hands, feet or legs (precursors of Paralysis), Twitchings of the muscles of the eyelids and elsewhere (sometimes ending in Epileptic Fits or St. Vitus’ Dance), Timidity, Diabetes and Deposits in the Urine, Troubled Breathing, Indecision, Loss of Will Power, Bashfulness, Burning of the face, Coldness and Clamminess of the feet and hands, also of the Scrotum (or bag), Palpitation of the heart, Early Loss of fluid during connection, Feelings of Gloom, Despondency, Hopelessness of a cure, or fear of impending danger or misfortune, Tenderness of the Scalp and Spine, Dryness and Itching of the skin, Sudden Sweating, Sudden Nervous Trembling, Noises and Reports in the ears and brain, Weight on the brain, Weak and Flabby Muscles, easily tired after slight exertion, Desire to Sleep late in the mornings and failure to be rested by sleep, Weakness and Torpor the day after a nightly emission has occurred, the Oozing of thick white fluid from the urethra when constipated or straining at stool, Varicocele, etc., etc.
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WEAKNESS AND WASTING OF THE ORGANS.
As a rule the organs waste away rapidly or become curved, twisted, or misshapen. Oftentimes the testicles dwindle away to almost nothing. Settled gloom and melancholy pervade the mind, and hallucinations, morbid fear, unnatural lust, groundless jealousy and a morbid desire for solitude show themselves. Undoubtedly the list of promotive causes is considerably augmented by maltreatment and the employment of injudicious remedies. We should therefore suggest to all prudent persons the wisdom and importance of consulting competent authority only. Self-enervation in the first instance brings about that irritability which evinces itself in nocturnal discharges, afterwards in inappreciable but exhaustive diurnal discharges, and subsequently in complete debility of the whole generative system. This seminal fluid, such indeed as it is—weak, effete and devoid of all generative power—is undoubtedly the fluid which the organs suffer to escape; and to prevent further its flow, as well as to give a healthy tone to the secretory and retentive vessels ought to form our first care.
COUGH, CONSUMPTION AND GENERAL DEBILITY AND PROSTRATION.
It is a curious pathological fact, that during the progress of Spermatorrhœa, difficulty of breathing, cough, and tightness of the chest, arising in many constitutions from the seminal disorder, have sometimes been actually mistaken for pulmonary consumption. The cough is often distressing, occasionally attended by an expectoration of an offensive kind. There is no doubt that many have been maltreated for consumption when Spermatorrhœa was the real malady. That the latter leads to the former is certain enough, but the stages and connections of the respective diseases have been grossly misunderstood by practitioners who have not had sufficient personal acquaintance with the indications of Spermatorrhœa.
Remember that these continued seminal discharges of an involuntary character disorder every function of the animal economy, and it may be added that while Spermatorrhœa produces so many ruinous effects peculiar to itself, it aggravates and excites any other disease which may co-exist with it.
The features become pale, emaciated and haggard. The eyes are dead, sunken and lustreless, and in many cases hold in their depths a look of wild, unsettled fear that denotes rapidly approaching insanity. The bowels become sluggish, the appetite capricious, the muscles weak, the urine pale and with a heavy sediment of semen that drains away in it almost constantly. Emissions at night becoming more frequent and copious—sometimes bloody—although the fluid secreted by the wasted testicles is scarcely stronger than water. Sexual incapacity shows itself. Ejaculation is either too quick or else very long delayed. The skin becomes dry and sallow, the liver congested and sluggish. The heart beats irregularly, and any sudden sound, movement or fright sets it to beating violently. Shortness of breath is complained of. The brain becomes weaker and more sluggish day by day.
Our Crayons are Inserted without Pain.
Showing where the vital fluid is made and stored and how, and by what means it passes from the Testes (where it is made) to the Vesicles (where it is stored). The heavy black marks on either side of the urine channel, show the relative position of the ejaculatory muscles.
He generally loses flesh, and feels uneasiness in his stomach which suffers from many of the symptoms accompanying dyspepsia. He is easily startled; the slamming of a door, the firing of a cracker, the falling of a book, a sudden touch, or even speaking to him unexpectedly, will cause him to start. Cowardice is a sure consequence of Self-Abuse and involuntary emissions. The appetite is irregular, often poor, sometimes voracious; the bowels are also variable in their action. The prostatic portion of the urethra is frequently irritable and sometimes is very much inflamed; oftentimes there is a thickening, a sponginess or puffiness of the parts immediately involving the ejaculatory ducts. The mucous membrane of the vesiculæ seminales becomes inflamed and thickened. The testicles and the spermatic cord are oftentimes very tender and the seminal fluid is much thinner than natural. Such a Patient has generally dark spots under his eyes, a sharp nose, and often flushes of hectic color in his cheeks, particularly when in the presence of company, and there is more or less palpitation of the heart. In the second stage, as in the first, the pollutions are diurnal and nocturnal; the latter are copious and recur frequently. So insensible is the passage of semen that the patient is usually astonished and horrified on waking to find himself and bedclothes saturated with this fluid, which is easily absorbed by the clothes, and rapidly dries up, because it has become thin, watery and effete. In addition to this loss he is subject to one equally great on almost every occasion of urinating and We Cure where a Cure is Possible. defecating. This also takes place without any consciousness on his part, and his only knowledge of the fact is from the alarming weakness he experiences after passing water or going to stool. Distraction or absence of mind renders the judgment unfit for any extensive enterprise.
The sexual powers are greatly weakened; the overtaxed organs refuse to fulfill their legitimate task; their susceptibility and irritability are so great that the power of retention is lost, and the seminal fluid is discharged prematurely.
The generative organs are wasted and inactive, or so weakened as to secrete but a ropy, thin and glairy fluid, having few or none of the characteristics of Vital Fluid. Should the individual suffering this way—and either careless or unfortunate enough to go uncured—have offspring, they will assuredly be puny in body and weakly in mind, and will lead a miserable existence through the neglect and indiscretion of their parent.
THIRD STAGE.—STAGNATION AND WASTING.
This stage is an aggravation of the two preceding stages combined.
The emissions are accompanied and followed by a disagreeable and disgusting sensation of shame and misery. The mind is absorbed as much as can be by the one idea of its wretched situation, and the sufferer is haunted by the thought that his condition and its cause are known to the whole world, and that he is pitied or scorned by every person he meets. He is hypochondriacal, and fearful suggestions of self-destruction ever and anon present themselves.
The power of mental concentration is entirely gone and the memory is so feeble that the patient continually forgets what he begins to say. The dimness of vision is continual and so great as to be a material annoyance; the eyes are wandering or fixed upon the ground, seldom venturing to meet the gaze of another. The ringing in the ears, pains in the head and over the eyes are almost perpetual and frequently accompanied by partial deafness. The heart is the seat of pain, fluttering and throbbing with violent and long-continued palpitation, his hands shake, his limbs tremble, his knees are weak, so much so that at times it is almost impossible for him to walk erect. He experiences an insatiable desire for sleep, and yet upon retiring he lies awake for hours, tormented by his troubled reflections, and at last falls into an uneasy slumber, of short duration, disturbed by wretched dreams.
Hard, red pimples frequently appear on the face, forehead and body, scaly patches round the ears, eyes, nose and lips, a black or bluish semi-circle shows itself under the eyes, and there is a hollow mark from the corner of the eye in a slanting direction under the cheekbone to the angle of the mouth, which tells its tale. The skin is livid and clammy and the digestion is bad. The patient is tormented with flatulency, which he cannot always control and which he justly dreads, as it renders him an object of disgust to all in his presence. The bowels are generally constipated, obliging him to strain much at stool, thus aggravating the irritation of the prostate gland vesiculæ seminales and increasing the seminal losses.
The bladder is irritable and will retain the urine but a short time; the ureters and kidneys are also inflamed and in post-mortem examinations are We hold out no False Hopes. sometimes found to contain abscesses; they are the seat of much pain when pressure is made over the intervertebral spaces of the dorsal and lumbar vertebræ or backbone. The vesiculæ seminales have been indurated and can be felt to be knotty and hard. The spinal marrow is very sensitive throughout its whole extent; the cerebellum is the seat of a dull and heavy pain, and there is a feeling of pressure upon the brain. Cerebral congestion now and then occurs. This stage of the disease is frequently accompanied by Bronchitis or a continued Catarrh, also by disease of the rectum and all the tissues near the generative organs.
It is hardly necessary to say that the functions of the nervous system are completely deranged, indeed, nervous twitchings of the eyelids, head and limbs are the consequences of Spermatorrhœa. He is finally either hurried to a premature grave by consumption, epilepsy or apoplexy; or insanity, taking the hopeless form of dementia, has removed him from his home to the madhouse.
It is safe to say that of all the cases of incurable insanity, a large majority are caused by Spermatorrhœa.
Many, owing to sheer neglect or to false notions of delicacy, delay seeking for proper medical relief until they are almost destroyed, and body and mind are nearly in ruins.
Pitiable the picture of one who has reached this stage of the disease. The organs are still congested but irritability has given away to torpor and sluggishness. Semen drains away by day and night without provocation, these constant losses dragging the person to the very brink of the grave, or standing him within that melancholy shade where suicide, insanity or idiocy almost certainly stares him in the face. The organs are wasted almost totally away. All strength, vitality, erectile and procreative power have left them, and the victim is at last totally impotent. Of no use to themselves, a curse to their freinds, a disgrace to society, they sink from sight into an early grave or are lost to the world behind asylum doors. It is a sad and terrible picture, but true—too true—to life.
The tendency of Nature in most disorders is towards cure, but here it is towards deterioration. There is no chance here of the evil “wearing itself out” save in madness and death on the one hand, and on the other by the salutary intervention of the most vigorous, cautious and enlightened treatment, a treatment pursued in the full light of the aids afforded by the great discoveries in physiological science for which the present age is happily distinguished. Fortunately for humanity, by the aid of Chemistry, as well as Medical Science, it has been reserved for us to present to the public the Civiale Remedies, which have proved themselves undeniable blessings to thousands, restoring with unerring power those suffering from this hitherto baffling complaint.
LESS SEVERE CASES.
There are cases where the effects of early abuse are neither so rapid nor so severe. In many instances the persons, to all outward appearances, are strong and robust. They only complain of certain sexual symptoms that trouble them. But let them beware. Appearances are very deceitful. Let a Our Treatment is Pleasant, Quick and Lasting. sudden fit of illness supervene and see how quickly these apparently healthy men succumb and are swept away by it. Then, too, in many of these cases, he who to-day may seem strong and healthy, with the exception of his sexual weakness, may suddenly develop most grave nervous symptoms, and in less than a month be beneath the sod or hopelessly insane. Such cases have occurred, and one particular instance even as we write presents itself to our mind. Poor fellow, he died a raving maniac the very night he was to have been married to one of the most charming young ladies in New Haven. And yet he thought he was perfectly healthy. He only learned his true condition too late for human aid.
HIDDEN SPERMATORRHŒA.
In many cases the seminal ducts have become so weak and relaxed that the fluid passes off involuntarily with the water and is not perceived; also when straining at stool and when you have an erection. To test its escape in the urine, pass off your water in a clear glass pint bottle and let it stand twenty-four hours in a warm place; then hold up the bottle between yourself and the light, and if you discover a sediment of a white, fleecy nature, resembling cotton, in the bottom, you are suffering from hidden spermatorrhœa, from which all your present ailments come. Where this fluid passes off with the urine, it is just as injurious to the system as full emissions, as it is a continual drain day after day, as well as taking that part of the vitality which goes to supply the brain and nerves. Many patients afflicted in this way will notice, shortly after urinating, a dull pain in the forehead, sometimes extending to the eye-balls, causing, as well, a feeling of general debility, as if they had no strength or will to do anything. If this weakness is allowed to go on unchecked, the mind will become diseased, the eye-sight will be impaired, and the vital forces consumed—thereby causing partial and complete impotency. Should you desire greater certainty in testing, either send on a sample of your urine, or test it with our powder.
The characteristic symptoms of partial impotency are: an imperfect erection, or, if the erection is sufficiently vigorous, it is of too short a duration, and the vital fluid is discharged prematurely.
The erector muscles become paralyzed, and the organ remains inactive at the call of the will.
The person thus afflicted is greatly embarrassed and mortified at his paralytic condition. That buoyancy of spirit is gone; the snap, vim and vigor that once held sway has departed—and why? Because that great motive power (amativeness) that gives the push and go-aheaditiveness is checked, or rather, ceases to act.