It is easily seen, that if coition and masturbation may cause all these inflammations, so, too, they may sustain and increase them. The pleasures of love, therefore, should be strictly forbidden to persons affected with diseases of the genito-urinary passages. Acute inflammation of the urethra, blenorrhagia, has often been known to pass to a chronic state by a single act of venery; which, says Lewedrain, may even cause this change several months after the apparent termination of acute blenorrhagia.
May an incontinence of urine be produced by excesses in coition or masturbation? We have more than once seen this disease in young onanists. Sainte Marie, also, places it among the symptoms of daily involuntary pollution; and Lallemand has remarked, that most individuals affected with this pollution had been subject, in their infancy, to incontinence of urine. May not the relations between these two affections extend to the causes which determine them?
One of the most common causes of excesses in venery is, the involuntary loss of semen. This disease, which has been termed spermatorrhœa, involuntary pollution, may also arise from other causes; but as it results most frequently from excesses in masturbation or coition, we shall devote particular attention to it.
Let us consider the mode in which the excretion of semen takes place in the normal state. It is the remote consequence of a voluntary action, and the immediate result of involuntary contractions. The venereal sense is excited voluntarily, either by copulation, or by applying the hand: this excitement is carried to as great an extent as possible; and then a crisis, entirely independent of the will, terminates it. This crisis occurs sooner or later. It may even be quickened or retarded by the will, which may excite or modify the venereal sense; but when it does take place, it is always by involuntary contractions—that is, by a true convulsion.
This last action has two well marked periods. In the first, the semen passes from the seminal vesicles into the urethra; in the second, this liquid is violently expelled. The contraction of the seminal vesicles—and perhaps, also, that of the levatores ani muscles—are the powers by which the semen comes into the urethra. The ejaculation is caused by the muscles of the perinœum, and particularly by the bulbo-cavernosus muscle. The swelling and hardness of the corpus cavernosum furnish this muscle with a point of resistance, which enables it to compress more efficiently the semen with which the urethra is filled; and the straightening of this canal, by the erection, renders the expulsion of this fluid more easy. All these motions take place by jerks; and, we repeat it, convulsively, without the aid of the will.
The involuntary excretion of the semen, the morbid pollution, may take place sometimes in the manner described, sometimes in another mode. In the first case, it differs from what occurs in the normal state, only not being preceded by those acts which are performed voluntarily by man. Secondly, the semen is excreted without any convulsive effort; it flows like the tears, the saliva, the bile. The semen comes into the urethra, and escapes from it merely because it is there. There is no ejaculation: and this is easily conceived of; for the genital organs are not sufficiently excited, to cause the ejaculatory powers to be convulsed, as is proved by the excessive weakness of the venereal sensation. And, secondly, one of the indispensable conditions of the ejaculation—erection of the penis—does not exist. There are, then, two kinds of involuntary pollutions; one which is convulsive, and the other which is not so. Between these two kinds, there are intermediate degrees, in which spermatorrhœa partakes more or less of one or the other. These degrees often mark the passage from convulsive spermatorrhœa to that which is not convulsive; for the latter has generally been preceded by the former. We shall see hereafter, that the existence of one of these affections does not forbid that of the other; and that the ejaculation of semen is possible in some individuals who present habitually an insensible flow of this fluid.
Involuntary pollutions have been distinguished until now in another manner: they have been divided into diurnal and nocturnal. These distinctions are founded only on accessory circumstances. What difference does it make, whether the pollutions occur by night or by day, provided they are similar in other respects? If, on the contrary, there are more essential differences, why not give to them the importance they demand? Farther: is not convulsive spermatorrhœa, like that which is not convulsive, seen both at night and day? These are the reasons why we have sought to distinguish these affections more logically, and which have led us to propose the new distinction just mentioned.
Convulsive spermatorrhœa may occur in all individuals, and under the influence of a great many causes, without being necessarily a disease. After excessive continence, it may even prove a salutary crisis. This pollution has a pathological character, when it is repeated too often, or under unfavorable circumstances; and then it produces the same result as excesses in coition or masturbation, and generally occurs only in individuals already enfeebled by this kind of excess. Sleep is the most favorable state for an attack of spermatorrhœa; and from this circumstance it is called nocturnal pollution. The temperature of the bed, and lying on the back—circumstances which favor the warmth and excitement of the lower part of the spinal marrow—may also cause the convulsive excretion of the semen. But another cause of it is, that during the sleep of the external senses, the internal senses have control, and have more power, because the action of the others is completely suspended. Cabanis remarks this fact, in saying that the genital organs do not participate in the repose of the external senses, but seem to be more excitable when these are asleep. We consider, that what takes place then is analogous to what is observed in idiots, who, deaf, blind, and dead to all the feelings of relation, abandon themselves to every excess, to satisfy a sense, the excitement of which in them often amounts to constant satyriasis.
If the sleep be very profound, pollution may take place without the consciousness of the patient, or, at any rate, without his remembrance of it. When he wakes, the loss of semen is then discovered only by its stain, and the state of fatigue, weakness, and malaise attending it. A lascivious dream, however, generally attends a pollution. These dreams are not, as is generally thought, the cause of the pollution: if they exist, it is because the venereal sense, which is excited, speaks for itself, even as hunger, thirst, or any internal sensation may do. These dreams have a peculiar character, which has been pointed out by many writers. The individual is rarely placed in voluptuous circumstances, where his imagination places him during his waking hours; but he is surrounded by females who are hideous and repelling, and whom he is as it were compelled to enjoy.
In fact, these pollutions fatigue more than those which are excited voluntarily. On rising, the patient experiences a general and more or less distinct feeling of feebleness and of suffering. His loins and limbs seem as if he had taken a long walk, or as if they had been bruised; the countenance is pale; the eyelids are swelled and bluish; the patient is sad and stupid. Finally, he presents physically and morally the consequences of an abuse of venery. It may readily be imagined, that the periods of spermatorrhœa render the exhaustion more rapid than the voluntary excesses already commenced. If, contrary to custom, the onanist remains one night without pollution, the organs which he permits to rest supply the unaccustomed activity. Happy is he, when these symptoms do not seem to him an evidence that this flow of semen is necessary. Every thing which specially excites the genital organs, as lascivious thoughts, voluptuous sights, riding, a soft and warm bed, &c., and also every thing which produces a more general excitement, in which these organs participate, as wine, liquors, coffee, spices, &c.; are so many causes which combine with the direct provocations of the patient, to multiply the causes by which he is excited.