Insanity. This deplorable malady is not a very uncommon result of masturbation and its various resultant morbid conditions, as the records of the many institutions for the unfortunate class of sufferers from this disease bear abundant witness. Sometimes it manifests itself in the milder forms of hallucination, or monomania, but in the majority of cases, the patient sinks into a despondent hypochondria, which is many times followed, sooner or later, by a raving mania.
In cases of monomania resulting from masturbation, the mental derangement is often so slight as to escape detection by the patient's friends, the peculiar freaks of disposition being regarded rather as eccentricities of character than as symptoms of serious disease. Fits of despondency are usually common with such sufferers. The mental derangement is not always accompanied or preceded by spermatorrhea or frequent seminal emissions, the injury done to the nervous system by the practice of self-abuse, or sexual excesses, being first noticeable in various phantasms or imaginings on the part of the patient. These are, in different cases, so various, both in character and degree, as not to admit of any classification, each case presenting phases peculiar to itself. In many cases, the patient imagines that his best friends are conspiring to injure him, or that some great calamity is about to befall him. In most cases there is danger of the patient's committing suicide, if not closely watched. Especially is this true of those who suffer from fits of hypochondria.
Except in its milder forms, insanity resulting from masturbation and sexual excesses, is rarely curable.
Don't be Alarmed. A nocturnal seminal emission now and then, or at long intervals is not, in and of itself, evidence of the existence of spermatorrhea or other serious disease. A full blooded, strong, passionate man, in vigorous health, and who has never abused himself, may now and then, at long intervals, if his sexual passions be not gratified naturally, or if he permit his mind to run much upon lascivious subjects, experience an emission while asleep and dreaming. As to whether such occurrences are evidence of disease or not, in any given case, depends upon their frequency, and as to whether they are the result of a weakness of the organs and are followed by more or less depression and debility, or are merely the overflow of a robust system, or the outburst of restrained, pent-up, and ungratified passions. In the latter case, and when only occurring at long intervals, the emissions are not followed by any perceptible enervating or weakening effects.
Quackery Rampant. This country is flooded with cheap circulars and pamphlets, circulated openly and broadcast, wherein ignorant, pretentious, blatant quacks endeavor to frighten young men who may never have practiced self-abuse, or been guilty of excesses in any way, and yet who experience, now and then at long intervals, nocturnal seminal emissions. In such cases, it is the duty of the conscientious, honest, and sympathetic practitioner of the healing art to give assurance, and not to unnecessarily alarm those who experience nothing inconsistent with a state of fairly good health. To frighten such young men into believing themselves diseased, when in reality they experience nothing but what may occasionally occur in the experiences of any robust, healthy man, is the most detestable, downright quackery.
Treating the Wrong Disease. Not only are many men subjected to useless treatment by general practitioners who overlook the real disease, caused by pernicious youthful habits pursued in solitude, or later excesses in venery, but the female sex are also quite as often subjected to treatment for diseases which do not exist, the real trouble being nervous debility and other weaknesses that have resulted from the youthful pernicious practices common to both sexes, or later excesses in marital pleasures.
Moral Considerations. Masturbation is a habit which tyrannizes over the mind, perverts the imagination, and forces upon the victim venereal desires, even while he is forming the strongest resolutions to reform. It constrains into its service the higher faculties, such as friendship, confidence, love, reason, and imagination, to make its ideal graceful and beautiful.
Sensual Lust. The fancy creates an attractive partner, possessed of girlish beauty, a perfect type of goodness, blended with sexuality, and whom the subject worships with all the ardor of passion. Around this beau ideal all his affections are clustered; to her the purest of his blood is offered in sacrifice, and it is no wonder that female associates seem tame and unattractive when such imaginary and consummate divinity is courted. In the sensual delirium is conceived an elysium of carnal bliss, where half-nude nymphs display their charms and invite to sensual enjoyments. Thus we see how this habit makes the spiritual faculties subservient to morbid passion, and by what means elevating influences are prostituted to vulgar and base-born creations.
Symptoms Vary in Different Cases. We can only partially delineate the terrible effects resulting from the abuse of the sexual organs. The symptoms are multitudinous, but, as we have before stated, no two persons are similarly influenced by this disease. The symptoms will vary according to the severity of the affection, the age of the patient, and his constitutional peculiarities. The presence of only a few of the symptoms which we have enumerated is evidence of abnormal weakness, which demands treatment.
Montaigne says: "We must see and get acquainted with our sins if we expect to correct them." Virtue presupposes trials just as much as victory implies warfare. The triumph of virtue is to defeat morbid or excessive passion, for virtue is only realized when it is a conquering force. Innocence is passive but virtue is an active quality, purified in the fiery furnace of temptation. As men have in all ages been influenced by passions, so temptation has ever found its victims. It is an obligation that one owes to himself to overcome every evil passion or weakness to which he is subject, and the discharge of this personal duty requires moral courage.