THE FORMS, SYMPTOMS AND CONSEQUENCES
Of Masturbation, Spermatorrhœa, Nervous Exhaustion and Spinal Irritability.
In no disease known to us are the symptoms precisely the same in every case. They vary with the constitutional peculiarities of the individual. Yet in nearly every case there are certain prominent or leading symptoms (signs) that are rarely absent at some stage of the disease. We give here the more noticeable ones at first laid down by Lallemand, the great French physician, who first gave us the name “Spermatorrhœa,” who first wrote upon this disease, who was the first to discover the connection between the losses of semen and certain symptoms here given, and who, too, was the great originator of that treatment so successfully perfected by his successor, Prof. Civiale, and which is now the standard treatment, recognized and adopted in all the French hospitals.
OBJECTIVE SYMPTOMS DUE TO MASTURBATION.
First, as to the appearance and actions of the Masturbator—he who is constantly and recklessly drawing drafts of exhaustion and decay on the nervous energy and strength of his coming manhood, and which are sure to bankrupt the most robust health.
If there is a man to be pitied on this earth, it is he who is walking about from day to day conscious of being guilty of ever having practiced this vice. Mark the man who is addicted to it in no matter how light a form; his face tells the story of his sin. See his haggard looks, his deep, sunken eyes, which he throws only half-way into the countenance of his friend. Note the blue or black discolorations under the eye; the nervousness to get away from a crowd, and the extreme girlishness or backwardness when introduced into the company of ladies.
The victim of the most dangerous of all vices soon reaches a state which, if not promptly relieved by the proper remedy, will end in life-long misery or an early death.
Objectively considered, the masturbator is recognized by a marked facial expression, by a characteristic mannerism, and by a peculiar mental state.
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THE FACE.—The facial expression consists of a pale and sallow tint of the skin, unusual development of acne,—red pimples,—especially on the forehead; a dark circle around the orbits; dilated and sluggish pupils; lustreless eyes, and an oblique line extending from the inner angle of the lids transversely across the cheek to the lower margin of the malar (cheek) bone. The face has a haggard, troubled, furtive expression.
THE MANNER.—The manner of the masturbator is peculiar. He is listless, shy, retiring, and easily confused; he avoids society, preferring solitude; there is a want of steadiness and decision in his locomotion; his inferior extremities seem deficient in power, and all his movements betray a mind ill at ease.
THE MIND.—His mental operations are confused; his speech is embarrassed, awkward, and without directness; his memory is defective, and he is absent-minded and given to reverie. If the habit has long existed, and been excessively frequent in repetition, epilepsy may be produced; or serious mental disorder, as delusional insanity, dementia, etc., may occur.
THE SEXUAL ORGANS.—The state of the genital organs varies with the length of time the habit has been indulged. In some young subjects, there will be observed an extraordinary development of the organ, owing to premature excitement; but the disproportion is not maintained. Prof. Barthalow says: "With the progress of the habit the organ becomes small and relaxed, the erections feeble, the corpora cavernosa either waste away or their vessels lose their tonicity, whereby an apparent shrinkage takes place; the corpus spongiosum and the glands also shrink, so that the prepuce (fore-skinappears unnaturally elongated. The testes may increase in size, become tender and irritable, or they may waste away to nothing but little strings; the latter is the more usual result.
“Pains in the small of the back, a sense of weight and aching in the loins, around the anus, and in the testes is experienced. The appetite is capricious, the digestion feeble, and the bowels are constipated, or constipation alternates with diarrhœa.
“The mind is deficient in power of attention, the imagination is constantly pervaded with vague erotic dreams, the moral sense is blunted, and the perceptions are dull and confused. Pains in the head, in the occipital and frontal regions (front and back of head), and a sense of fullness, and in serious cases alarming Vertigo (dizziness and falling); pains in the course of the principal nerves, and an extreme nervous susceptibility, are experienced. The organic nervous system manifests a functional disturbance in harmony with the disorder of the nervous system of animal life. Gastralgia and abdominal pain (pain in stomach and bowels) and uneasiness are in some cases very distressing symptoms.
“The distinctiveness of the foregoing symptoms will be determined by the extent and duration of the habit, and by the constitutional peculiarities of the patient. The more highly developed the nervous system, and the more it preponderates in activity over the muscular and digestive systems, the more serious the effects.
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EFFECTS OF MASTURBATION ON THE MIND
“The most serious mental effects are produced by masturbation. This vice, commenced at or before the period of puberty, interferes seriously with the development of the brain and the evolution of the mental faculties.
“That spermatorrhœa will produce in one class of cases mental disorders, and not in another, indicates either that some predisposition to these disorders existed, or that the habit of self-pollution was merely an expression of mental alienation (insanity). The images which pervade the minds of boys possessed of the highly-developed nervous organization of masturbators are those of delusional insanity.
“There is, however, a cerebral (brain) phase of spermatorrhœa which may be separated from the two preceding classes. It is characterized by indistinctness of vision, dilatation of the pupil, amblyopia (near-sightedness), diplopia (double sight); diminution in the sensitiveness of the auditory apparatus (deafness); feebleness of voice; mental preoccupation, hebetude of mind, confusion of ideas, and a profound melancholy.
“The termination of such cases is in suicidal monomania, delusional insanity, etc. In that variety of the cerebral form in which a decided predisposition must be admitted to exist, to disorder of the intellectual faculties, there are found various forms of mental alienation. The chronic form is the most common, which corresponds to the melancholia of Pinel, or the lypemania of Esquirol, terminating in dementia. Several of the most characteristic cases which have happened under my observation correspond to the delusional insanity of Bucknill and Tuke.”—[Manual of Psychological Medicine, Phila. ed., p. 103.]
INSANITY FROM SPERMATORRHŒA.
Many writers are disposed to underrate the importance of this tendency in spermatorrhœa. The statistics of any of our large insane asylums will illustrate the influence of masturbation in the production of insanity. Mr. Holmes Coote, in a discussion which followed Dr. Drysdale’s paper on the “Medical Aspects of Prostitution,” read before the Harveian Society of London, remarked that “he still entertained the opinion that there were no worse evils appertaining to human weakness than this. He had opportunities of witnessing the fact that among the young there was no cause of insanity more common than indulging in habits which he would not further particularize, but which were known to result in the most complete bodily and mental prostration.”—[British Medical Journal, Feb. 17, 1866.]
Dr. John P. Gray, the distinguished Superintendent of the State Asylum at Utica, New York (Twenty-Fourth Annual Report, 1867), thus speaks of the influence of masturbation in the production of insanity: “The records of this institution show five hundred and twenty-one cases admitted directly attributable to this vice, and I am well convinced that the number is greatly understated.”
We might add confirmatory testimony from a variety of sources, but the foregoing is sufficient for our purpose.
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IMPORTANT.—Peculiar, numb, dead, aching, or tingling sensations in the hands, arms, legs or feet, and headache and specks before the eyes on stooping or reading; also sleeplessness, too sound sleep, and apprehensive dreams should be watched for, and the moment they appear danger from Paralysis or Insanity is to be apprehended and proper treatment at once taken. These symptoms may mean nothing in some cases, but they are terrible harbingers of ill in others.
A CASE OF INSANITY FROM SELF-ABUSE.—(Fig. 4.)
The following case, taken verbatim from the Care Book of the Insane Asylum at Blackwell’s Island, will serve as a type of the many to be found in every hospital for the insane in this country. (And a terrible and noteworthy fact is, that according to the recent annual reports of these institutions, both in this country and Europe, insanity, idiocy and dementia from Seminal Losses and Sexual Abuses, are increasing from year to year.)
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Fig. 4. Appearance of James McC——, a few weeks before he died. (See below.) |
"Upon examination he is found to be suffering from acute mania, alternating with periods of intense melancholia in which he invariably attempts to take his own life. His language when excited exceeds in obscenity anything ever heard. During the intervals of quiet he is constantly practicing the vile habit which has undoubtedly been the cause of his insanity. He has lost all sense of shame and continues to practice before visitors, attendants and physicians. He makes no effort to go to the water-closet, and his clothes and cell are in a filthy and disgusting state. Ever since admission he has refused all food, and it has been necessary to feed him with a stomach pump. He is losing flesh and strength every day, and is fast wasting away.
"From his relatives who have twice called to see him it was learned that his mental trouble came on very suddenly, although his memory and faculties have been failing for some time past. They say that he complained of sleeplessness, numbness and tingling sensations in the arms and legs, headache, and a peculiar itching of the skin, for months before any distinct symptoms of insanity appeared. They attribute it all to self-abuse, which he has admitted practicing from an early age.
“August 28th.—Is now paralyzed in both lower limbs. Still violent.
“Sept. 3d.—Died this morning about 1 A.M. Is so emaciated that he is little more than skin and bones. Rigor mortis entirely absent. Shortly after death the skin of the whole body changed to a dark chocolate hue.”
Truth is often stranger than fiction. What end more terrible than this!