These two cases show how far the system can be restored, when the cause which disturbs it ceases to act. The following, which was communicated by Zimmerman to Tissot, proves the same thing; but it also shows how soon a return to the bad habit destroys the good effects resulting from its abandonment.
“I have seen,” says Zimmerman, “a man, twenty-three years old, who became epileptic, after debilitating his body by frequent masturbation. Whenever he had nocturnal pollutions, a fit of epilepsy ensued; and the same thing occurred after masturbation—from which, however, he did not abstain, notwithstanding the bad symptoms with which it was followed. After the fit had subsided, he felt very severe pains in the kidneys, and around the coccyx. Having, however, abstained from his manipulations for some time, the pollutions disappeared; and we had hopes of curing the epilepsy, the attacks of which were less frequent. He had regained his strength, appetite, sleep, and color, after resembling a cadaver; but having returned to his bad habits, which were always followed by fits, he was found dead in his chamber one morning, bathed in blood.”
Another convulsive affection, St. Vitus’ dance, has sometimes been caused by onanism. Marc Ant. Petit has published a case of it, which was communicated by Dr. Morelot. It is as follows:—A young girl, eight years old, became remarkably thin: her lower limbs were agitated by extraordinary motions, which were extended to the upper limbs. She soon lost all control over them. The twitching in the muscles of the face and eyes was excessive; the patient could not continue in her bed, and she was confined to a large chair. Her attending physician thought that this might be attributed to the presence of worms, and gave several anthelminthics, but without success. Dr. Morelot was consulted at this period, and thought that he could perceive the effects of a bad habit: he soon became convinced of its existence. By means of great watchfulness on the part of her parents, the use of cold baths, musk, and camphor, she was radically cured.
Mental derangement is often the prevalent symptom in diseases of the brain, produced by excess of masturbation or coition. We have already spoken of idiocy; but this is by no means the only change observed in consequence of these excesses. Every variety of affection of the mind may be caused by them, as is proved by statistics collected by several authors, in insane asylums. Yet these abstracts are far from presenting the truth. “So many circumstances combine,” says Esquirol, “to embarrass the discovery of causes of mental alienation, that the one mentioned, like other causes, must often be unascertained by physicians.” According to this sagacious observer of all the forms of mental alienation, mania is produced least frequently by venereal excesses. He adds, that maniacs, during the duration of the periods of access, are less addicted, generally, than other deranged persons to masturbation; but when they do indulge, this act must be considered as a bad symptom, since it constitutes an insurmountable obstacle to the cure: it destroys the strength, and finally produces in the patients stupidity, phthisis, marasmus, and death.
Dementia is, perhaps, the kind of derangement most frequently observed after masturbation. I saw a remarkable instance of this disease in a young man, twenty years old, who, indulging in these excesses for several years, gradually lost his mental faculties, became averse to even his relatives and dearest friends, and finally fell into a most perfect state of dementia. The relative frequency of this form of mental alienation in onanists has been pointed out in France by Esquirol, and in Norway by Holst. (Annales d’hygiene publ. December, 1830.)
Holst has remarked, that paralysis, that fatal symptom which so frequently attends all varieties of derangement, particularly monomania and dementia, is observed particularly in those insane who are addicted to onanism, and to other venereal excesses. This remark is confirmed by the two facts, that paralysis is much less common in females than in males, and that onanism produces mental alienation much less frequently in the former than in the latter. Thus, of 256 persons, admitted at the asylum at Charenton, during 1826-7-8, there were 44 men, in whom derangement could be attributed to libertinism or to onanism, while the same was true of only 3 women. Dr. Holst has shown that a similar proportion exists between the deranged of the two sexes in Norway. This relation, however, must not be considered as strictly correct; for females, being generally very reserved in their disclosures, onanism probably passes undiscovered in them more frequently than it does in men. It is well ascertained, that one twentieth of the deranged at Salpetrière, is composed of public women, who are for the most part affected with dementia and paralysis. Now, consider that masturbation is much more frequently a cause of derangement among the rich than among the poor. (Dict. des Sc. Med., vol. xvi., p. 179.) And remark, too, that at the Charenton asylum, where only persons in easy circumstances are received, there are proportionally more patients with paralysis than at Bicetre, the population of which is composed of men, belonging to the poorest classes of society.
We have only to consider the phenomena which attend and usually follow the venereal act, to infer that the spinal marrow may frequently be affected in consequence of the abuse of that act. Agitation, the involuntary contractions of the muscles, particularly of those surrounding the pelvis, and the tetanic spasm with which they are affected at the time of the ejaculation of the semen; the cramps which frequently attend it; the general feeling of pain, fatigue, and debility, which follows it—a feeling which is always more perceptible in the loins and lower part of the body, than elsewhere, indicate the powerful impression made on the spinal marrow, and the part which it takes in all going on. This participation is also demonstrated by different pathological facts, and by the results of experiments which we shall mention, when treating of the influence exercised by affections of the spinal marrow, as the cause of venereal excesses.
The local symptoms of the medulla, in onanists, consist in different and more or less acute sensations felt along the vertebral column. At first, these sensations do not appear until after the act of venery, and pass off; they then continue a longer time; and finally become constant. The pain is generally of a dull character—inconvenient, rather than severe—which obliges the patient, when sitting or standing, to change his position frequently; and it is generally less perceptible, or even disappears, when the patient assumes a horizontal position. Sometimes there is a feeling as if of ants crawling over the body, descending from the head along the spine: this symptom was first noticed by Hippocrates. Sometimes, these sensations have a special character, which each patient expresses in his own manner: thus, a man who indulged night and morning, for two years, in coition, complained to me that he felt beatings constantly between his shoulders. Others say that they have a knot in the back. The pains in the spine are sometimes very severe; sometimes they are extremely sharp. Onanists, and individuals affected with pollutions, most generally complain of their loins.
The frequent occurrence of the symptoms mentioned in persons exhausted by venereal excesses, has caused the terms consumption, phthisis dorsalis, and tabes dorsalis, to be applied to the state which they then present.
The other symptoms of the affection of the spinal marrow are more or less severe pains—more or less distinct sensations of cold, of numbness, and formication in the limbs, particularly in the lower extremities; cramps; constant trembling, or convulsive motions in these parts; a kind of tetanic stiffness; gradual debility of the lower half of the body; and, finally, paraplegia. We shall find these symptoms, in addition to the other effects of masturbation, in cases to be mentioned.