SEMINAL INCONTINENCE.
BY SAMUEL W. GROSS, A.M., M.D.
DEFINITION.—By the term seminal incontinence, which is synonymous with involuntary or abnormal seminal emissions, pollutions, and spermatorrhoea, is meant the involuntary discharge of semen beyond the limits of health. Although usually described as a distinct disease, it is symptomatic of, and, as a rule, primarily dependent upon, weakness or exhaustion, along with exaggerated irritability, excitability, impressibility, or mobility of the centres which preside over erection and ejaculation. Hence it should be regarded as a motor neurosis, and not as a functional disorder of the testes.
CLASSIFICATION.—Involuntary seminal losses embrace three conditions, which constitute as many varieties of the affection, and which may exist separately, or pass into one another, or be combined. These varieties are, first, nocturnal losses or pollutions, which occur during sleep, and are generally attended with an erection, erotic dream, and pleasurable sensation; secondly, diurnal pollutions, which take place when the patient is awake, are excited by trivial mechanical or psychical causes, and are associated with imperfect erection and diminished sensation; and, thirdly, spermorrhagia, or spermatorrhoea, in the strict acceptation of that term, which is characterized by a constant escape of a slight amount of seminal fluid, without the orgasm, pleasurable sensation, or impure thoughts, or during micturition and defecation.
1. Nocturnal Pollutions.—By far the most common of the varieties of seminal incontinence is the first, or that in which the emissions occur during sleep under the influence of an erotic dream, and which may, therefore, be regarded as an exaggeration of the normal or physiological condition. In health, provided the subject leads a continent life, the number of emissions varies greatly, and as they are merely reflex signs of distension of the seminal passages, they are not pathological nor are they attended with ill effects. The knowledge of this fact is of great practical importance, as it frequently enables the physician to assure his patient that the emissions are not abnormal, thereby relieving his mind of a great weight. It is, of course, to be remembered that the frequency of nocturnal pollutions depends upon age, climate, habits, temperament, constitution, diet, and predisposition, and that young men who suffered during childhood from nocturnal incontinence of urine are particularly obnoxious to them. Their frequency also varies greatly in the same person, and it is scarcely possible to determine what constitutes the standard of health merely by the intervals of their repetition, since a number which would be normal in one person would be abnormal in another. In men, however, who possess sound nervous systems and who do not trouble themselves with sexual matters an emission every fortnight is a sign of excellent health; and even if they should occur at intervals of several days, they are not inconsistent with temporary good health. The latter statement is well exemplified by a case which came under my observation in 1882. A druggist, twenty-seven years of age, had had for six years from three to live emissions a week, and occasionally two during a single night, attended with erections and voluptuous dreams, without the slightest evidence of impairment of his health. In all such cases, however, as well as in those in which the emissions have occurred at longer intervals for a number of years, it only requires a little longer time for general symptoms to manifest themselves.
Nocturnal pollutions are to be regarded as pathological when they occur in married or single men who indulge in regular intercourse; when they are followed by backache, headache, enfeeblement of the functional powers of the brain, mental depression, and bodily or mental lassitude; when they take place without erections or dreams; when they accompany or follow acute or chronic diseases; when they coexist with diurnal pollutions or spermorrhagia; and, finally, when they are complicated by one of the varieties of impotence, which may be the only indication that the emissions are abnormal or one of the effects of impairment of the functions of the genital nervous centres. The associated symptoms of myelasthenia and cerebrasthenia vary very much in degree in men of apparently the same amount of vigor and tolerance, and in whom the pollutions occur with equal frequency, or they may even be absent altogether.
2. Diurnal Pollutions.—Ejaculation of semen during the day is fortunately of comparatively infrequent occurrence, since it indicates a more serious condition than do losses of seminal fluid occurring when the patient is asleep, the genital organs and the centres which preside over them being highly impressible or in a state of irritable weakness. In what may be regarded as the lesser form of the affection the ejaculation is due to slight peripheral irritation, induced, for example, by friction of the clothing, crossing of the legs repeated several times, horseback exercise, driving over rough streets, riding in railway-cars, or even shaving, combing the hair, or shampooing the head; while in the more aggravated variety an emission is induced by psychical irritation, such as reading libidinous books, the sight of indecent pictures, dwelling upon sexual ideas, or the mere sight of a female. In the former of these varieties there is a fair erection, but the sensibility is blunted; in the latter the erection is flabby or the penis is flaccid and there is little if any pleasure.
3. Spermorrhagia.—In the third phase of the affection, which is still more uncommon than the second variety, there is a continuous passive loss of semen, without erection or sensation—a condition which depends upon paralysis and dilatation of the orifices of the ejaculatory ducts, and which is most conspicuous during the acts of micturition and defecation. The existence of spermatorrhoea, in the restricted sense of the term, is denied by some authors, but I have myself met with it in five instances, and typical cases have been recorded by other modern writers.
CLINICAL HISTORY.—Seminal incontinence usually supervenes upon the interruption of sexual intercourse, especially when the subject has been accustomed to excessive venereal indulgence, or, as more frequently happens, upon the abandonment of the habit of masturbation. Any one of these varieties may exist separately, but they gradually pass into each other, and are variously intermixed in the advanced grade of the affection. In the mild type there is increased frequency in the occurrence of nocturnal pollutions, ejaculation taking place at intervals of several days or for two or three nights in succession, when there is a respite for a week or ten days. The emissions are associated with disturbances of the nervous system, referable to the brain or spinal cord or to the cerebro-spinal axis, of which mental lassitude and muscular debility are the most common signs. When, as the result of the increase in the irritability of the ejaculatory centre and of the progressive weakness or exhaustion of the entire nervous system, the case goes on from bad to worse, it usually pursues the following course: Abnormal frequency of the nocturnal pollutions is associated with pain in the back, headache, muscular fatigue, and incapacity for sustained mental effort. With the increase in the number of the emissions erection becomes imperfect, ejaculation on coition is frequently precipitate, and the patient complains of dulness of perception, impairment of memory, mental dejection, a dull pain in the occipital region, weakness of vision, vertigo, palpitation of the heart, trembling and numbness of the limbs, shortness of the breath, flatulence, constipation, and other signs of gastric derangement. Diurnal pollutions are now superadded, and intercourse is impracticable, either from failure of erection or from premature ejaculation. The general symptoms, too, are more serious. The patient constantly broods over his condition, assumes that he has permanently lost his virility, and the mental anxiety and dejection verge upon or merge into a condition of sexual hypochondrism. The gait is unsteady; the hands and feet are habitually cold; he is subject to wandering neuralgic and rheumatoid pains; passes restless nights; loses flesh and color; shuns society; imagines that every one recognizes his condition, and fears to look one in the face; and is utterly incapacitated for mental or physical exertion. With the still further increase of the irritable weakness of the genitalia and nervous centres the semen flows continuously out of the urethra, and its discharge is augmented during defecation and micturition. Finally, the man becomes a confirmed hypochondriac, and should he have inherited a tendency to insanity, epilepsy, ataxia, or other nervous disorders, he may lapse into one of these conditions.
In the early stage of seminal incontinence, when the nocturnal pollutions overstep the natural limits, the ejaculated fluid is unchanged. When, however, the pollutions are more frequent and diurnal discharges coexist, the semen is watery and scanty; the spermatozoids are smaller, comparatively few in number, and their movements are liable to be abolished in less than an hour, while spermatic crystals form more rapidly and more abundantly than in health. In the worst cases, or those characterized by diurnal and nocturnal pollutions and by the presence of semen in the urine, the spermatozoids are either entirely absent, or, if they are present, they are motionless, stunted, or variously deformed. In these advanced cases the ejaculated fluid, which consists principally of the secretions of the seminal vesicles and the prostate, frequently undergoes fatty degeneration, as indicated by granular epithelium, by molecular detritus, and even by oil-globules in the protoplasm of the altered zoosperms. The entire absence of spermatozoids, constituting the condition known as azoospermatorrhoea, is of infrequent occurrence.
An examination of the genital organs discloses elongation of the prepuce in nearly one-fourth of all cases; a rigid and pointed penis in one-tenth; relaxation of the scrotum in about one-eighth; irritable testes in 1 example out of every 25; varicocele in 1 case out of every 50; coldness of the genitalia in 1 case out of every 17; a feeling of heat in 1 case out of every 33; and irritability of the bladder in 1 case out of every 25. It will, moreover, be found that seminal incontinence is complicated by feebleness of erection, with precipitate ejaculation on coition, in 22 per cent. of all cases; by the occurrence of ejaculation on attempting intercourse, before penetration, simultaneously with erection, or even before erection, in 16 per cent.; and with total impotence in 5 per cent. of all cases. Prostatorrhoea is also a not infrequent complication, while urethral strictures and hyperæsthesia are nearly always present.
ETIOLOGY AND PATHOGENY.—Seminal incontinence is not a separate entity, but one of many symptoms of general or local disorders, or of both combined. In the majority of instances it must be looked upon as a neurosis, diurnal and nocturnal pollutions representing a motor neurosis with spasm of the seminal vesicles, and spermorrhagia indicating a motor neurosis with dilatation and paresis of the orifices of the ejaculatory ducts. In all of the varieties there is increased susceptibility of the cerebral and spinal genital centres to factors which in healthy persons are not productive of ill effects.
Like other nervous disorders, involuntary seminal emissions sometimes manifest themselves in several members of the same family through several generations, being the result of inherited predisposition. In this class of cases the subjects are of a nervous, excitable, or irritable temperament, somewhat anæmic, and possibly suffered during infancy from nocturnal enuresis. Among the predisposing causes the most common is indulgence in erotic fancies, which terminates in increased reflex impressibility of the centres which preside over the genital organs.
The affection is, however, usually acquired, being met with particularly in single subjects toward the termination of the second decade and between the second and third decades. Of these cases, at least nine-tenths can be traced to masturbation, while the remainder will be found to have had gonorrhoea or to have masturbated, suffered from gonorrhoea, or indulged their sexual propensities in various ways. Seminal incontinence is not common as the result of sexual coition, and it is highly probable that when married men are affected the sexual excess is engrafted upon a previously vicious habit. From a practical point of view, it is of the first importance to be aware of the fact that one or more strictures of the urethra will be found in 80 per cent. of all cases, and that decided hyperæsthesia of the prostatic portion of the urethra is present in 94 per cent. of all instances.
The rational explanation of morbid seminal emissions seems to be as follows: Under the influence of erotic ideas, masturbation, sexual excesses, or unsatisfied sexual excitement produced by dallying with women, exaggerated irritability of the genital organs is induced, and is followed by subacute or chronic inflammation and abnormal sensibility of the urethra, particularly of its prostatic division, which terminate, in cases characterized by diurnal pollutions and spermorrhagia, in relaxation and dilatation of the orifices of the ejaculatory ducts. As the natural result of the constant excitability of the terminal filaments of the nerves distributed to the prostatic urethra, these nerves are alive to the slightest impressions, act as peripheral sources of irritation, and induce permanent increased mobility or irritability of the cerebral and spinal genital centres, through which the motor nerves of the ejaculatory apparatus are thrown into action, and an emission ensues.
Seminal incontinence is an occasional accompaniment of injuries of the spine, and it is also met with during the progress of or convalescence from acute and chronic diseases which are marked by disturbances or exhaustion of the central nervous system. Thus, it may be symptomatic of phthisis, variola, typhus, progressive muscular atrophy, and incipient bulbar paralysis, ataxia, and paraplegia; while the habitual use of opium and chronic alcoholism predispose to its occurrence.
Of the local causes referable to the genitalia, by far the most important and most frequent are hyperæsthesia and inflammation of the prostatic portion of the urethra, which are generally induced by masturbation. These lesions constitute the primary source of the trouble in the large majority of cases, and tend not only to excite reflex pollutions, but to maintain the disorder by keeping the mind occupied with sexual matters. Other common local causes are found in congenital narrowing of the meatus, organic stricture of the urethra, a redundant prepuce, balanitis, and the accumulation of smegma. Among the more infrequent etiological factors may be mentioned herpes of the prepuce, congenital shortness of the frenum, spasmodic stricture, polypus of the deep urethra, spermato-cystitis, and epididymitis.
Among the remaining exciting causes of pollutions are diseases of the anus and rectum, as hemorrhoids, morbid growths, ascarides, fissures, ulcers, pruritus, and painful eruptions. The nerves of the rectum and anus being derived from the same region as those of the genitalia, it is not surprising that the ejaculatory centre should respond to an impulse transmitted from them. In habitual constipation straining at stool may also excite an emission through the consentaneous action of the muscles of the abdomen, rectum, and seminal vesicles; but this is only observed when the orifices of the ejaculatory ducts are paralyzed and patulous.
ANATOMICAL CHARACTERS.—There are no records of the morbid appearances which appertain to seminal incontinence in its early stage, but that the hyperæsthesia of the prostatic urethra depends upon chronic or subacute inflammation is rendered certain by the concomitant symptoms, by exploration with the sound, aided by the finger in the rectum, and by the results of treatment. In the advanced stage, post-mortem inspection has disclosed stricture of the urethra, injection of the mucous membrane of the deep portion of the urethra, dilatation and excoriation of the orifices of the ejaculatory ducts, and suppuration of the prostate and the seminal vesicles. The changes which occur in the nervous centres are unknown.
DIAGNOSIS.—The microscope affords the only positive mode of determining whether the fluid which is discharged from the urethra during pollutions, or constantly moistens that canal in spermorrhagia, or is expelled at stool or with the urine, or is brought away by the bulb of the explorer, is seminal in its character. Should spermatozoids be detected, there can be no doubt as to its true nature, but their absence is not an evidence that the case is not one of spermatic incontinence, since in the condition known as azoospermatorrhoea the exhausted sexual apparatus furnishes a thin, transparent, watery fluid which may be entirely devoid of fertilizing elements, and contains cylinder epithelial cells, epithelium which has undergone fatty or colloid degeneration, a few lymph-corpuscles, an abundance of fatty detritus, and a few small shining bodies which are the remains of the badly-evolved spermatozoids. Under these circumstances, the history of the case, the fact that the subject is or was a masturbator, and the associated nervous symptoms are aids in forming a diagnosis; and this is especially true of cases in which a fluid is expressed at stool, and which in the majority of instances is the altered secretion of the prostate. Under the microscope the thin, more or less milky prostatic fluid will be found to contain cylinder epithelium, numberless colorless and refracting granules of lecithin, and minute yellowish concentric amyloid concretions; and, after it has slowly dried upon the slide, crystals of phosphate of magnesium or of ammonio-magnesian phosphate will make their appearance.
Should a microscopical examination be impracticable, we may assume that the discharge which occurs during defecation in the subjects of too frequent nocturnal pollutions is an evidence of coexisting prostatorrhoea; while we may frame the rule that the flocculent sediment contained in the urine and the discharge at stool of persons suffering from both nocturnal and diurnal pollutions, and a slight continued discharge from the urethra represents semen. In the last event we may moreover assume, especially if the patient be impotent, that the orifices of the ejaculatory ducts are relaxed.
PROGNOSIS.—Nocturnal emissions are very amenable to treatment, particularly when they are kept up by appreciable local lesions, the only cases which are, as a rule, rebellious being those in which the pollutions are associated with chronic inflammation of the seminal vesicles. In expressing an opinion in a given case the physician should, however, be influenced by the severity of the signs of nervous exhaustion. If the general symptoms point to involvement of the cord alone, the prognosis is far better than when signs of cerebrasthenia are present; but the outlook is bad if, in addition to cerebral and spinal exhaustion, the patient is a sexual hypochondriac. Nocturnal pollutions occurring during the progress of acute or chronic general disorders are also, as a rule, readily checked. The prognosis in the same class of cases is, moreover, far better when the usual local lesion—namely, morbid sensibility of the prostatic urethra—has been induced by gonorrhoea rather than by masturbation; and it is also more favorable when the pollutions occur in mature years from sexual excesses than when they are due early in life to masturbation.
Even when the emissions occur during the day from trivial psychical or mechanical causes, ample experience has convinced me that the prognosis is far better than many writers would lead one to believe. These cases are, however, less tractable than those of nocturnal pollutions, but they finally recover with the exercise of a little patience. The worst outlook is when the emissions are passive, or occur without the orgasm, or during urination and defecation. In this class of cases not only are the ordinary remedies applicable to the other varieties demanded, but measures will have to be resorted to to overcome the paralyzed and dilated orifices of the ejaculatory ducts. Although the prognosis is not as favorable, I have never seen an example of spermorrhagia that did not finally yield to treatment.
TREATMENT.—Certain hygienic and moral rules must be observed in the management of all the varieties of seminal incontinence. The diet should be plain, nutritious, and digestible; the evening meal should be light and dry; and spirits and malt liquors, as well as stimulating articles of food, should be eschewed. As the morning fulness of the bladder is very liable to produce an erection, that organ should be thoroughly emptied on retiring; and as pollutions usually occur toward morning, the patient should set an alarm-clock one hour before the time at which he has generally observed that the emissions take place, in order that he may be awakened to relieve the bladder of its contents. He should also sleep upon a hair mattress without much covering. Everything calculated to induce a flow of blood to the genitalia, such as horseback exercise, driving over rough roads, and railway travelling, should be interdicted. Masturbation and sexual intercourse must be abandoned, and the subject should be informed that the enforced rest of the organs will possibly result in temporary increased frequency of the pollutions. Chaste associations should be cultivated, and erotic thoughts and desires be banished. To attain this end the mind and body should be kept pleasantly occupied by gymnastic exercises and the study of any subject which the patient may fancy. If, however, he be not in full health, or if there are commencing or marked signs of spinal or cerebral exhaustion, mental and physical exercise should be taken in moderation.
In the treatment of involuntary seminal emissions a thorough examination should be made of the genital and associated organs, with the view of detecting and getting rid of any reflex or eccentric lesions or causes which predispose to, or even excite and maintain, them in impressible subjects. If the patient has a redundant prepuce, it should be removed; if the meatus be contracted, it should be enlarged; while balanitis, herpes, hemorrhoids, rectal fissure or ulcer, or pruritus should be treated in the usual way. In not a few mild cases, particularly those dependent upon phimosis, a contracted meatus, or a stricture just behind the orifice, it will be found that operative interference is quite sufficient to bring about relief. Habitual constipation, which is met with in about one-third of all instances, demands particular attention, either by enemata of temperate water or a pill composed of one-tenth of a grain each of aloin and extract of belladonna, administered every eight hours.
In the section on the etiology and pathogeny of seminal incontinence attention is called to the fact that hyperæsthesia of the prostatic urethra is nearly always present. While it is undoubtedly true that the genital nervous centres may be highly impressible without the intervention of hyperæmia, inflammation, and abnormal sensibility of the prostatic urethra, it is none the less true that those lesions are the most constant and most important of all the causes which excite and maintain the disorder, especially in masturbators, in whom, moreover, strictures may be looked for in about eight-tenths of all cases. As a rule, the coarctations will be formed just behind the meatus, but others may be present posteriorly. Be this as it may, a knowledge of their existence is of the first importance, as they aggravate the morbid condition of the prostatic urethra and serve to keep up a peripheral source of spinal neurasthenia.
For the detection of a stricture the exploratory or acorn-headed soft bougie should be resorted to, as it is the only instrument with which coarctations of large calibre and granular patches can be accurately defined, and with which abnormal discharges can be withdrawn for minute examination. One being selected which fills the meatus, it is warmed and well oiled, and inserted as far as the bladder. Should its introduction be arrested, smaller sizes are successively employed until one will pass without difficulty. On its withdrawal the abrupt shoulder of the bulb coming in contact with the posterior face of the stricture imparts to the touch a sensation as if it had jumped over a band, while a granular patch conveys the impression of a limited roughness of the canal. Hyperæsthesia of the urethra is readily determined by the nickel-plated steel bougie, and its existence should never be based upon the passage of the soft explorer alone, as the latter is productive of far more pain than the former. In conducting these examinations a contracted meatus or a stricture just behind the orifice should first be divided, in order that the instruments for exploration may correspond to the normal calibre of the urethra. Unless this point receives attention the examination will be likely to prove valueless. Should one or more strictures be present, the case must be referred to a surgeon.
From the preceding considerations it follows that the treatment, whether it be local or general, must at the outset be of a calming and sedative nature, the end in view in the great majority of instances being to overcome the exaggerated irritability of the genital nervous centres and the abnormal sensibility of the deep urethra. By the indiscriminate employment of strychnia, cantharides, phosphorus, and cold ablutions great harm is done, and the management of involuntary seminal emissions is brought into disrepute.
Of the local remedies to overcome the hyperæsthesia of the prostatic urethra, there is not one entitled to so much confidence as the nickel-plated conical steel bougie, passed at intervals of four days, and at once withdrawn for the first few insertions, after which, with the decrease of the sensibility, the intervals should be shortened, and it should be retained longer, until it is inserted every forty-eight hours and permitted to remain in the canal for a few minutes. The size of the first instrument is to be gauged by that of the meatus if it be normal, and if it be found necessary during the course of the treatment the orifice should be enlarged, in order that bougies of progressively increasing sizes may be introduced until they correspond to the full calibre or distensibility of the urethra, as indicated by the urethrameter. Unless these precautions be observed the measure will not bring about the desired result.
As a rule, the bougie will meet the indication, but in exceptional instances a small, circumscribed area of tenderness remains, which comprises the sinus pocularis, and which proves rebellious to instrumentation. Under these circumstances it becomes necessary to apply a drop or two of a solution of nitrate of silver to the spot, which is best done with a small syringe attached to a perforated bulbous explorer. The ordinary forms of porte-caustique charged with the fused nitrate are objectionable, as the remedy does not come in contact with the orifices of the ejaculatory ducts contained within the sinus pocularis, and its application cannot be properly controlled. From an ample experience I can confidently recommend the use of a thirty-grain solution, repeated every four days. Provided the patient be kept in bed for a few hours, the pain and desire to urinate will not last more than thirty minutes. When the affection proves to be more than ordinarily obstinate, flying blisters, made by pencilling cantharidial collodion first on the one side of the perineal raphé, and, after the surface has healed, on the opposite side, will prove serviceable.
In addition to these measures great assistance will be derived on retiring from the hot sitz-bath, or from a sponge or cloth dipped in water at a temperature of at least 105° F. and applied to the perineum and lower part of the spine. Cold applications are to be studiously avoided.
Of the general remedies, not a single one is comparable to bromide of potassium, which not only diminishes the reflex excitability of the cord and suspends sexual desires and the power of erection, but corrects the acidity of the urine and exerts an anæsthetic effect upon the mucous membrane of the urethra. I am in the habit of administering from three to four scruples of the salt at bedtime, and if I find that it sets up signs of bromism I diminish it for a time, and afterward promote its excretion by the kidneys by combining with it about fifteen grains of bitartrate of potassium. Should the patient be anæmic, the dose should be reduced to one drachm, and three grains of quinine along with twenty-five drops of the tincture of the chloride of iron should be ordered every eight hours. When, on the other hand, the patient is robust and plethoric or in full health, I frequently add to the bromide ten drops of veratrum viride or tincture of gelsemium, or administer the bromide in half an ounce of the infusion of digitalis.
Another remedy which diminishes the reflex mobility of the genito-spinal centre, at the same time that it reduces the secretion of the seminal fluid, is the sulphate of atropia. Given in the average dose of the one-sixtieth of a grain on retiring, so that the patient may sleep through its disagreeable action, it will be found to be an invaluable addition to the treatment.
When the bromide of potassium and atropia do not agree with the patient, I substitute the monobromide of camphor and extract of belladonna in the proportion of ten grains of the former to one-third of a grain of the latter. In the remaining anaphrodisiacs, such as lupulin, camphor, and conium, I have not the slightest confidence.
Under the plan of treatment thus outlined the majority of cases of nocturnal and diurnal pollutions recover; but if the spinal genital centre still remains too impressible, galvanization with the anode to the lumbar region and the cathode to the perineum will prove highly serviceable. When the condition is one of spermorrhagia, after the hyperæsthetic symptoms have subsided the relaxed and paralyzed orifices of the ejaculatory ducts may be restored to their normal condition by the continuous current, the negative reophore being placed in the rectum and the positive on the perineum or the lumbar vertebræ. Should galvanization fail, the induced current may be passed through a negative catheter electrode in the prostatic urethra to the anode resting on the perineum or spine; but this mode of application requires great caution, and a feeble power should be employed at the commencement. For this reason the rectal is preferable to the urethral reophore. In the absence of electrical apparatus the tonicity of the muscles of the ejaculatory ducts may be greatly improved, and even restored, by the use of the cooling sound, by the application of a thirty-grain solution of nitrate of silver, and by cold sitz-baths. In these cases half a drachm of the fluid extract of ergot after each meal, or fifteen drops of a mixture composed of six drachms of the tincture of the chloride of iron and two drachms of the tincture of cantharides, will also prove valuable. The operations of castration and excision of portions of the vas deferens need only be mentioned to be condemned.
To sum up the results of my experience in the management of seminal incontinence, I may add that the steel bougie, bromide of potassium, and atropia are especially adapted to cases of nocturnal and diurnal pollutions, and that after the hyperæsthesia has been relieved electricity, ergot, and strychnia are the most reliable agents in spermorrhagia. The end having been accomplished, moderation in sexual intercourse should be enjoined if the patient is married; continence in thought and action should be observed if he remains single; and matrimony should be advised if his circumstances and inclination warrant it. Marriage should not, however, be encouraged if the emissions are not arrested, as I have met with several cases in which the patient was rendered miserable by this act, from the fact that he deemed his case beyond all hope, as the emissions still continued.