Plain Facts for Old and Young

"In all solemn earnestness I protest against such false treatment. It is better for a youth to live a continent life." "There is a terrible significance in the wise man's words, 'None that go to her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.'"[57] This hazardous and immoral mode of treatment is the result of the common opinion that emissions are necessary and natural, which we have previously shown to be a falsity.

Marriage.—Another class of practitioners, with more apparent regard for morality, recommend matrimony as the sure panacea for all the ills of which the sufferers from self-abuse complain, with the possible exception of actual impotence. Against this course several objections may be urged; we offer the following:—

3. As another reason why the remedy would not be a proper, even if a good, one, it may well be asked, What right has a man to treat a wife as a vial of medicine? Well does Mr. Acton inquire, "What has the young girl, who is thus sacrificed to an egotistical calculation, done that she should be condemned to the existence that awaits her? Who has the right to regard her as a therapeutic agent, and to risk thus lightly her future prospects, her repose, and the happiness of the remainder of her life?"

In cases in which seminal emissions occur frequently, the most reliable writers upon this subject, Copland, Acton, Milton, and others, advise, with reference to marriage, "that the complaint should be removed before the married life is commenced." Independent of the considerations already presented, the individual affected in this manner and contemplating marriage should carefully consider the possible and probable effects upon offspring, the legitimate result of marriage; these have been already described, and need not be recapitulated.

Local Treatment.—While it is true that general treatment alone is occasionally successful in curing the diseases under consideration, and that local treatment alone is very rarely efficient, it is also true that in many cases skillful local treatment is required to supplement the general remedies employed. While there has been a tendency on the part of the profession generally to depend wholly upon general treatment, on the part of a less numerous body of specialists there has been an opposite tendency to depend wholly, or nearly so, upon local measures. Both extremes are evidently wrong.

The object of local treatment for the relief of emissions, especially, is to remove the local cause of irritation, which, as previously shown, is one of the most active exciting causes of seminal losses. To effect this, both internal and external applications are useful. We will now consider some of these agents.

Cool Sitz Bath.—The cool or cold sitz bath is one of the most efficacious of all remedies. It should be taken daily, and may often be repeated, with benefit, several times a day. Its effect is to relieve the local congestion, and thus allay the irritability of the affected parts. When but one bath is taken daily, it should be just before retiring at night. Full directions for this and other baths are given in works devoted to the subject of bathing.

Ascending Douche.—This is also a very useful means of allaying irritation, especially the reflex excitability which is often present in the muscles in the vicinity of the perineum and prostate gland, and when there is pain and fullness in these parts.

Abdominal Bandage.—This may be worn nights to very great advantage by most patients. It not only allays the irritability of the nerve centers which are closely connected with the genital apparatus, but serves to keep the bowels in a healthy condition. It should not be applied so continuously as to produce a very profuse eruption on the skin. If such a symptom should appear, discontinue the bandage for a time. When worn during the day-time, it should be changed once in three or four hours. It is generally best to wear it only nights.

Wet Compress.—This is an application to be made to the lower part of the spine for the purpose of allaying the excessive heat and irritation which often exist there. It may also be worn nights, as it in some degree prevents the danger arising from sleeping upon the back.

Hot and Cold Applications to the Spine.—These are powerful remedies under appropriate conditions. Hot applications relieve congestion of the genital organs and allay irritation. Cold applications are useful when a condition of debility and relaxation is present. Alternate applications of heat and cold are very valuable, when skillfully applied, as a means of allaying reflex excitability and promoting healthy action. These applications are especially useful in cases in which there is heat and pain in the lower portion of the back. Their effects are greatly enhanced by administering a foot or leg bath at the same time.

Local Fomentations.—When great local irritation exists, with considerable pain and spasmodic muscular action, the application of hot fomentations to the perineum will be found the most effectual means of giving relief. The hot douche and hot sitz bath are useful under the same circumstances.

Local Cold Bathing.—The genital organs should be daily bathed in cold water just before retiring. Simply dashing water upon the parts for two or three minutes is insufficient; more prolonged bathing is necessary. A short application of cold occasions a strong and sudden reaction which increases local congestion; hence, the bath should be continued until the sedative effect is fully produced, which will require at least fifteen minutes. The water must be cold; about 60° is the best temperature. Ice should be used to cool the water in warm weather. It should be applied thoroughly, being squeezed from a sponge upon the lower part of the abdomen and allowed to run down.

Enemata.—The use of the enema is an important means of aiding recovery, but it has been much abused, and must be employed with caution. When the bowels are very costive, relieve them before retiring by a copious injection of tepid water. The "fountain syringe" is the best instrument to employ.

Useful as is the syringe when needed, nothing could be much worse than becoming dependent upon it. The bowels must be made to act for themselves without such artificial assistance, by the use of proper food, especially graham flour and oatmeal, and the avoidance of hot drinks, milk, sugar, and other clogging and constipating articles; by wearing the abdominal bandage; by thorough kneading and percussion of the abdomen several times daily for five minutes at a time; by taking one or two glasses of cold water half an hour before breakfast every morning; and by plenty of muscular exercise daily. The enema should be used occasionally, however, rather than allow the bowels to continue costive, and to avoid severe straining at stool.

Electricity.—Probably no single agent will accomplish more than this remedy when skillfully applied. It needs to be carefully used, and cannot be trusted in the hands of those not acquainted with the physical properties of the remedy and scientific methods of applying it.

Internal Applications.—Complete and rapid success greatly depends upon skillful internal treatment, in a large number of cases. We are aware that there is considerable prejudice, in certain quarters, against internal treatment; but having had the opportunity of observing the effects of careful treatment applied in this way, and having put to the test of practical experience this method, we feel justified in recommending that which is approved on both theoretical and practical grounds; for it is rational to suppose that proper treatment applied directly to the seat of disease must be at least equally efficacious with methods less direct.

As heretofore explained, in the more severe cases the urethra is found in a very irritable condition. It is hyper-sensitive, especially in that portion just in front of the bladder, where the ejaculatory ducts open into it. We have also seen how this condition is one of the chief exciting causes of emissions. The remedies described for allaying this irritation are all excellent and indispensable; but there is another method of great value. This consists in the passage of a suitable instrument, a sound or bougie of proper size, two or three times a week. By the aid of this means, the abnormal irritation will often diminish with magical rapidity. The passage of the instrument of course needs to be done with great delicacy, so as to avoid increasing the irritation; hence it should not be attempted by a novice. Lack of skill in catheterism is doubtless the reason why some have seemed to produce injury rather than benefit by this method of treatment, they not recognizing the fact asserted by Prof. Gross in his treatise on surgery, that skillful catheterism is one of the most delicate operations in surgery.

Use of Electricity.—The use of electricity in connection with that of the sound adds greatly to its utility. By means of the metallic instrument, also, electricity may be applied directly to the point of greatest irritation; and its soothing effect is sometimes really wonderful, as the following case will show:—

The patient, a man of unusual physical development, was suffering from nocturnal emissions and diminished sexual power, the result of early indiscretions and marital excesses. One of his most unpleasant symptoms was severe pain in the portion of the urethra near the openings of the ejaculatory ducts. After he had been suffering more than usual for a few days, we applied the faradaic electric current in the manner indicated above, for about fifteen minutes. At the end of that time the pain was entirely removed, though considerable suffering had been caused by the passage of the instrument, so sensitive was the congested membrane. The pain did not return again for two or three weeks, though treatment was necessarily suspended on account of absence.

In another case, that of a young man, a student, at the beginning of treatment emissions occurred nightly, and sometimes as many as four in a single night, according to his statement, which we had no reason to doubt. Under the influence of these local applications, combined with other measures of treatment and a measurably correct regimen, the number of emissions was in a few weeks reduced to one in two or three weeks.

Numerous other cases nearly as remarkable might be detailed if it were necessary to do so. In quite a considerable number of cases in which we have employed this plan of treatment, the results have been uniformly excellent. A very slight increase of irritation sometimes occurs at first, but this quickly subsides.

The galvanic as well as the faradaic current is to be used under proper circumstances. The application of electricity to the nerve centers by means of central galvanization, and also general and local external faradization, are necessary methods to be employed in electrical treatment.

Circumcision.—In cases of phimosis, in which irritation is produced by retained secretions, division of the prepuce, or circumcision, is the proper remedy. These cases are not infrequent, but the exciting cause of much of the difficulty is often overlooked. The same remedy is often useful in cases of long prepuce.

When the glans penis is unusually tender and sensitive, this condition will usually be removed by the daily washing with soap and water necessary for cleanliness. If this does not suffice, or if there are slight excoriations caused by acrid secretions, apply, in addition, a weak solution of tannin in glycerine once a day.

Impotence.—Loss of sexual power arising from any form of sexual excess, should be treated on the same general plan laid down for the treatment of emissions and other weaknesses. Cold to the spine, and short, but frequent, local cold applications, are among the most useful remedies; but, probably, electricity, discreetly used, is by far the most valuable of all remedies. It should be applied both internally and externally.

The use of cantharides and other aphrodisiac remedies to stimulate the sexual organs is a most pernicious practice. The inevitable result is still greater weakness. They should never be used under any circumstances whatever. On the contrary, everything of a stimulating character must be carefully avoided, even in diet.

Varicocele.—Patients suffering from this difficulty should wear a proper suspensory bag, as the continued pressure of the distended veins upon the testes, if unsupported, will ultimately cause degenerative changes and atrophy. A surgical operation, consisting of the removal of a portion of the skin of the scrotum, is proper if the patient desires an operation; no other operation is advisable.

Drugs,Rings,etc.—If drugs, per se, will cure invalids of any class, they are certainly worthless in this class of patients. The whole materia medica affords no root, herb, extract, or compound that alone will cure a person suffering from emissions. Thousands of unfortunates have been ruined by long-continued drugging. One physician will purge and salivate the patient. Another will dose him with phosphorus, quinine, or ergot. Another feeds him with iron. Another plies him with lupuline, camphor, and digitaline. Still another narcotizes him with opium, belladonna, and chloral. Purgatives and diuretics are given by another, and some will be found ready to empty the whole pharmacopoeia into the poor sufferer's stomach if he can be got to open his mouth wide enough.

The way that some of these poor fellows are blistered, and burned, and cauterized, and tortured in sundry other ways, is almost too horrible to think of; yet they endure it, often willingly, thinking it but just punishment for their sins, and perhaps hoping to expiate them by this cruel penance. By these procedures, the emissions are sometimes temporarily checked, but the patient is not cured, nevertheless, and the malady soon returns.

The employment of rings, pessaries, and numerous other mechanical devices for preventing emissions, is entirely futile. No dependence can be placed upon them. Some of these contrivances are very ingenious, but they are all worthless, and time and money spent upon them are thrown away.

Quacks.—The victims of self-abuse fall an easy prey to the hordes of harpies, fiends in human shape, who are ready at every turn to make capital out of their misfortunes. From no other class of persons do quacks and charlatans derive so rich a harvest as from these erring ones. It is not uncommon to find a man suffering from seminal weakness who has paid to sundry parties hundreds of dollars for "specifics" which they advertised as "sure cures." We have seen and treated scores of these patients, but never yet met a single case that had received benefit from patent medicines.

The newspapers are full of the advertisements of these heartless villains. They advertise under the guise of "clergymen," charitable institutions, "cured invalids," and similar pretenses. Usually they offer for sale some pill or mixture which will be a sure cure, in proof of which they cite the testimonials of numerous individuals who never lived, or, at least, never saw either them or their filthy compounds; or, they promise to send free a recipe which will be a certain cure. Here is a specimen recipe which was sent by a "reverend" gentleman who claims to be a returned missionary from South America so intent on doing good that he charges nothing for his invaluable information:—