happy one and reasons on love instead of feeling it; and perhaps at last is so unfortunately successful, that the strong sexual passions and erections vanish together. But not with impunity, do we triumph over any part of our nature. He now becomes restless and dissatisfied, he loses his serenity and active vigour of mind, he is distracted by nervous irritability and probably dyspepsia, that frequent attendant on mental anxiety; weak and exhausted, he cannot fix his attention on the objects he would wish to study; his intellect, formerly vivid and elastic, has become turbid and sluggish, and instead of the objective and impetuous passions of youth, he becomes morbidly shy and bashful, wrapping himself in subjective speculations, so that the very thought of woman's society is often distasteful to him. Poor fellow! is this the result of his imagined good conduct? Nay, but the penalty for a youth unphysiologically spent. If we examine into the cause of this train of evils, we shall find it to be the enfeeblement of the genital organs from disuse, besides the exceedingly pernicious effect, that a powerful natural passion has when repressed upon all the rest of the mind. Subject to the frequent excitement of erotic ideas, the genital organs have been denied all normal exercise, and the effects of this are now manifest. The penis may be shrunk and flabby, the testicles soft, and even, in extreme cases, greatly atrophied; the erections which, when vigorous, are a sign of power in the organ, have in great part disappeared, and perhaps involuntary discharges of the seminal fluid have been established. These discharges, when they occur unfrequently and in a healthy person, have often but little bad effect on the health, although perhaps they should always, when proceeding from abstinence, be considered as a warning that sexual exercise is required; they occur generally at the time of puberty, as a sign of the maturity of the organs; but when they are frequent, proceeding from irritability and enfeeblement, and acquire a morbid habit of recurrence, they form one of the most miserable diseases to which man is liable, and which I shall describe more fully under the head of spermatorrhea.

If this disease be established, the young man sinks gradually into a gloomy hypochondria, an invariable attendant in a greater or less degree, on any seminal weakness; he begins perhaps a system of mental analysis, which may lead, according to his disposition, to a hopeless scepticism, or to a religious melancholy; society is a burden to him, and the love of his friends an annoyance. His health becomes much impaired, all the symptoms marking nervous weakness, for such is always the effect of loss of the seminal fluid. Night brings no consolation after the gloomy day, for he lives in constant dread of nocturnal discharges of semen, which weaken him so much, that in the morning he feels as if bound down by a weight to his couch. He goes from one physican to another, but is probably rather injured than benefited, for all but the natural remedy, namely, sexual connexion, can do little good, and may do much evil. And how few English physicians are there, who have the courage, even if they have the knowledge, to prescribe, nay even to tell the patient, of this one and only physiological remedy! No; overawed by the general erroneous moral views on these subjects, they shrink from their duty of asserting the sacredness of the bodily laws in opposition to

G

all preconceptions. At most, perhaps, some more scientific physician will tell the unhappy sufferer from abstinence, that marriage is the only thing for him; but this is like the prospect of the distant shore to the drowning man. It would be the most rash and immoral act, for a man hypochondriacal and impotent, to stake another's fortunes, as well as his own, on so uncertain a chance; were it even possible that he should change his robes of grief for a marriage garment, in so sudden a manner. The true and only remedy for the evils arising from abstinence, is a moderate indulgence in sexual intercourse, together with the freedom from study, exercise and amusements in the open air, and other means of satisfying the wants of our animal nature. By these means, if the disease have not progressed too far, and if the constitution have not been tampered with by unnatural remedies, health and happiness will in general be soon and readily restored. Vigour of body will return along with a generous self confidence and manly bearing, without which youth is not itself.

It may be objected to these facts, that there are others, who remain strong and healthy, though they be rigorously abstinent. This may be true in some cases, where the constitution is strong, the temperament not very erotic, and the pursuits not of too sedentary, indolent, or studious a nature. But there is nothing that leads to more unphilosophical views, than this idea, that what one man may do with comparative impunity is equally safe for another. Complete sexual abstinence is in every case an evil, and more especially so in the years immediately after puberty, as then the imagination on sexual subjects is most vivid and powerful from their novelty, and also from the instinctively sensuous direction of that part of life; in after years, when the body has gained greater firmness of fibre, and the mind more sedateness and reflection, especially if the sexual passions have been duly and naturally gratified in their fitting season, the injurious effect of abstinence is not so great. We may observe on looking around us, every different degree of its evil effects; in some young men it may proceed to the extreme results I have mentioned above, the establishment of great seminal weakness, and total loss of energy of mind and body; while in the majority of cases but minor degrees of lassitude of body, and irritability, depression, and sluggishness of mind will be produced, a benumbed and confused state of the mind being a very frequent and characteristic symptom; but in no case will the physical and moral nature of a man who is rigorously abstinent, be so high as it should be, had it the due and necessary stimulus of moderate sexual gratifications.

What prevents this certain truth from being acknowledged, is the fact, that all but married love, which it is impossible for the young man to obtain, is so degraded by the commonly received moral views on sexual subjects, that the youth who indulges in it, is necessarily to a certain extent degraded, besides running great risks from the venereal diseases, which have been so shamefully neglected and looked down upon. Hence the young man is placed in this most unhappy dilemma; either he must be abstinent, and in so doing not only make himself wretched, dissatisfied, or diseased, by the repressing of the most powerful passion, on the due

regulation of which the whole of his youth's and manhood's developement depends, more than on perhaps, any thing else at the time, but also be false to his duty, and the principles of physical religion, which enjoin the due exercise of all parts of his body; or, if he follow the dictates of his nature, he has to indulge in an intercourse generally, nay invariably, of a most degraded kind, where true love, honour, openness, and sense of right, are replaced by mercenary, suspicious, and heartless feelings, and the obscure sense of sin and degradation; besides this he runs the risk of catching venereal complaints, which may destroy his whole life, and which from their nature, mode of origin, and the degrading light in which society regards them, are the most painful and bitter of all diseases.

To remedy these great evils, it is the part of every well-wisher of his kind, and more especially of all the youth, to endeavour to attain a truer knowledge of this most important subject in its physical and moral aspects, and to remove the mass of ignorance and secrecy which surrounds it, and to which so many have been sacrificed. The principle which should be kept steadily in view is that a due and natural amount of exercise for the organs, and gratification of the passions connected with them, should be aimed at for every individual in society; and that if a society be so constituted, that this cannot be obtained, there must be something radically defective in its constitution, which we should seek with all patience and diligence to rectify; that abstinence and excess are alike pernicious, and that an individual is equally culpable, if he allow mind or body to be weakened or thrown off its balance, by either too much repressing or too much indulging these natural feelings; and that the ideal of a good chaacter is as little possible, with the exclusion or imperfect exercise of the sexual passions, as of any other natural or virtuous quality.

Hence, we must acknowledge, that every man, who has not a due amount of sexual exercise, lives a life of natural imperfection and sin; and he can never be certain how far nature's punishment for this will proceed in his case. I am well aware how intricate and difficult are many of the social questions, which are involved in these relations of the sexes; but such questions are incapable of solution without reference to the physical laws of the generative organs; and nothing but confusion and misery can arise from the mysterious way in which these subjects are at present viewed. The youth of both sexes are at present almost uniformly suffering to a greater or less degree from the evils caused by this ignorance; the female sex especially, as is seen in the matter of prostitution, are placed in the most appalling and heart-rending position of degradation and misery, in which any class of human beings, not even excepting the slaves, have been placed in the world's history; and such evils are more than sufficient to show the inadequacy of our present moral views, and to make us strive in every possible manner to gain more insight into so important a subject.

EVILS OF EXCESS.

THE evil effects of excessive venereal indulgence are not so often mer with among us as those of abstinence or abuse. The reason is, that there are many natural checks on excessive sexual intercourse, which do not exist in solitary indulgence. Besides this, any abnormal gratification of the sexual passions is much more dangerous both physically and morally, than the natural one.

Venereal excesses arise in many cases more from ignorance and imprudence, than from confirmed sensuality. There is nothing perhaps, in which constitutions differ more, than in the amount of sexual exercise they can severally bear. Among men we shall find every degree of difference in this respect, from those of exceedingly erotic temperament and powerful frame, like the extreme case of a Greek mentioned in M. Lallemand's work on spermatorrhoea, who for years indulged in sexual connection on an average fourteen times a day, to those who are injured by indulging oftener than once, or at most twice, a week. The cause of this difference lies, first, in the nervous temperament; those who are of an erotic disposition being caeteris paribus, more capable of, and less injured by immoderate venereal indulgences than the more lymphatic; also in the strength or weakness of the muscular developement; and also to a great degree on men's habits of life. Those who take plenty of exercise in the country air and live well, are less subject to injury from frequent venereal indulgence, than the studious or indolent. Nothing seems to have greater influence in weakening sexual power than overwork of the brain. The student is therefore liable to suffer from slight excesses, which would be unfelt by one of more healthy pursuits. In this matter, as in all other physical gratifications, we must sedulously bear in mind, that a greater indulgence demands from us greater exertions to maintain the balance of the constitution. Thus if a man drink, smoke, or exercise his brain, or his sexual organs, to a great extent, he will infallibly become exhausted and diseased, unless he at the same time take plenty of exercise in the open air, and live otherwise a healthy life.

Although it is difficult to give any general rule in a matter, in which different constitutions vary so much, yet it may perhaps be said, that about twice a week is the average amount of sexual intercourse of which the majority of those who live in towns are permanently capable, without

injury; while for the delicate, once a week, or even less, may often be sufficient. But each individual should be guided by his own sensations; and whenever he feels at all exhausted or enervated by sexual indulgences, he should recognise that he has exceeded his natural powers, and practise greater moderation. Excesses are often committed from ignorance of the amount of sexual intercourse which the constitution can bear; as well as from the desire to please, and not to appear deficient in what is justly regarded as a proof of manly vigour; but no man should allow himself to be tempted to exceed his true powers by such feelings, nor should any woman permit so dangerous an error. A great deal of mischief is done by two persons of unequal constitutions being matched together, as is so frequently seen in married life. Here the wife either exhausts the husband, or the husband the wife, the weaker party being constantly tempted to exceed their strength. This shows us, that in all sexual relations, as in the other relations of life, we should have a careful consideration for the health and happiness of others, as well as of ourselves, and never allow our partner to overtask his or her energies for our own gratification. It is not so much from selfishness that such a mistake is made, as from ignorance, and still more from the lamentable morbid delicacy, which prevails on sexual matters, and which prevents all open and rational conversation on them, even between those who have the most intimate knowledge of each other.

Those who are most frequently found to suffer from venereal excesses are young married couples, especially if they be of weak constitutions, and excitable temperament; young men of very dissipated habits; and those who are at the same time, hard students. The effects are very similar to those of abstinence-namely, increasing weakness, nervous irritability, loss of appetite, impaired digestion, hypochondria and disgust with life, and distaste for female society; mental irresolution and enfeeblement, and all the symptoms of nervous exhaustion, which may well be expected to follow the lavish expenditure of a fluid so vitally important as the semen. A weakness of the genital organs is here also produced, and involuntary seminal discharges may be established, which will reduce the patient to the last degree of wretchedness. Besides this, the moral character, in the very sensual and dissipated, becomes selfish, and in many other respects most imperfect and lamentable; results which we should endeavour to remedy by training the mind to self-denial, exercise in other directions, and the noble aspiration for the happiness of others equally with their own; just as in the opposite case of abstinence, we had to urge attention to the gratification of the sensual passions, as constituting no less important a duty.

As for the treatment of disease from excesses, if the case be a slight one, and the result of ignorance, the individual should be warned to be more moderate, to take exercise in the open air, the shower bath, and other means of strengthening the constitution; and at the same time not to give himself up so much to the relaxing and effeminating feelings of love and sexual pleasures, which never fail, when too much indulged in, to detract from the beauty and health of the whole character. It is from being too exclusively devoted to these feelings, that southern and oriental nations, amatory poets, and also many of our youth of both sexes with