Lecturing and contempt will not bully the disease, kindness and pity will not persuade it; youth turns a deaf ear to all but its own beautiful instincts, which for ever point out to it the path of truth; and none of these means will produce a quiet and a happy mind, which is essential to the patient's recovery. The only one who can cure a hysterical young woman, is a young man whom she loves, and with whom she may gratify her natural feelings, and have a free and happy outlet for the emotions which have been so long disordering her.

Along with this essential for the cure, other means of bracing the general health and restoring the mental balance should be taken. Change of scene is especially advisable, and removal from home influences, which are so often prejudicial in such cases. Travelling is an excellent auxiliary, especially a pedestrian tour, which women so seldom have the power of indulging in; not because they could not undertake it, but because it is thought indecorous in women. There are few things more salutary or delightful than a walking tour, whether in pleasant society or alone. It is much more strengthening than a driving one, and a most powerful means of invigorating the frame. I have frequently heard ladies express a great desire that they had the freedom that men have, in travelling about, and especially in making walking tours, which are becoming so common among our sex. But a girl is never allowed to go about alone, like a young man; she is subjected to a constant espionage, from which not one of her actions or motions can escape; and so she is frequently forced to do things, excellent in themselves, in an underhand manner, to the destruction of her sense of dignity and rectitude. It is to guard the great female virtue of chastity, as has been mentioned above, that all these intolerable restrictions and espionage, are placed upon the movements of woman; and as long as the present ideas regarding this so-called virtue remain, it is impossible for woman to obtain greater freedom. The difference in the privileges of man and woman, depends essentially on the difference of their sexual privileges; and until this question is attended to, the various efforts which are being made at present to give greater freedom and a wider sphere to woman, can have but a very limited success.

Every young mind, whether in man or woman, burns for romance, love, and adventure; these are the great natural stimuli to the health and virtue of youth, the pole-stars which cheer us on, and shed a glory on our every-day working-life. At home among her relations the young hyste rical girl has in many cases a constant feeling of degradation; the emotions which she instinctively feels are the most ennobling and exalting for her, are coldly looked upon or laughed at; her romantic longings are sneered down, and the main springs of her virtue trodden in the dust. Familiarity, in the home circle, far too often breeds contempt; and it is very frequently a love affair, that first shows a girl what she can be, and elevates her into another sphere of self-respect. In countries such as Scotland, where spiritual puritanism reigns triumphant, romance and love have no quarter shown to them, and all the ardent sexual aspirations meet with double discouragement. Kindness and reverence should be used towards the hysterical, instead of the contemptous way in which they

are usually treated, so as to increase their self-respect and self-control. A great part of the disease consists in a sense of weakness, and want of self-confidence. How can a girl have confidence in herself, if all around laugh at her, and treat her feelings as unreal? It must never be thought, that hysteria is an unreal disease. It is a weakened state of the nervous system, physical and mental, and the physical weakness and irritability are just as marked as the mental. It is easy to laugh, but it is rather the part of the wise and feeling heart to reverence and to cure.

One great reason of the simulation of various diseases, and also of the vague and unreal nature of many of the sufferings of which the hysterical complain, is that they are forbidden to disclose the real cause of their sufferings, or of their unhappiness. In every sexual disease both in man and woman, and especially in the latter, the miserable necessity for concealment makes the patient invent other subjects of complaint; and thus sexual patients are almost always accused of hypochondria, and falsification or exaggeration of symptoms. When a man or a woman suffers, whether in mind or body, they must give some reason for it, and if they are forbidden by our unnatural ideas of propriety to speak freely of the real cause, they are forced into deceit; and this is one cause which greatly heightens the miseries of all these diseases, and is the source of great degradation to the sufferer. No diseases cause such a feeling of insufferable degradation as the sexual ones; and in a minor degree those of the excretory organs. Not to believe in an individual is one of the greatest injuries we can do him, and is as philosophically false as it is unfeeling. It has been truly and beautifully said "Love thy neighbour as thyself;" but the precept "Believe in thy neighbour as thyself" is not less true, and still more needed among us. Every man believes in himself, and knows that his nature is true at bottom; that his joys and his sorrows are real, although his external character may be at variance with the inner man. But it is the part of the moralist and the physician to endeavour to see into this inner man, which is always real, and seek to make the exterior correspond with it. It is only when the inner man is in harmony with the outer, and when a person thus lives a true life, that there can be satisfactory happiness. Nature always strives to be true, and to have a true expression; although in our complex and imperfect society her purpose is so often defeated.

If a genital disease co-exist with hysteria, it will be necessary to cure it, but in many of the functional genital diseases by far the most effectual cure is sexual intercourse; and medicinal remedies will be needed chiefly in the inflammatory diseases, and in cases where sexual intercourse and child-bearing prove insufficient. It is important to remark, that sexual intercourse may frequently fail thoroughly to cure a sexual disease in woman, while child-bearing, lactation, and the thoroughly new world of physical and moral emotions which is thus opened up to her, and which is necessary in that sex to complete the chain of the sexual functions, may succeed. The immense impulse that is often given to the health of woman by child-bearing; the change which it produces, dispelling morbid states of body and mind, and giving a renewed freshness and vigour to both, in those cases where it proceeds naturally and happily, is well

known. If it be not possible to procure for hysterical women these great remedies, let us not flatter ourselves that the disease will yield throughout our society to any other means. If we must still adhere to the old routine, to valerian and musk, assafoetida and opium: to lecturing, persuading or upbraiding; the cure of hysterical disease is a physical and moral impossibility.

As to the still more important question of the prevention of this widespread malady, the same remedy which will cure, will also prevent, like all the natural remedies. The only possible mode of preventing hysteria. is by fortifying the general system by the appropiate exercise of all the bodily and mental powers from childhood upwards; and more especially by providing for the healthy exercise of the sexual organs and emotions, as soon as nature requires this. If we could possibly attain this so desirable aim throughout society, hysteria would almost disappear, instead of being as at present, probably the most widely spread af all diseases, and therefore creating an enormous mass of misery. It is the most widely spread of all diseases, simply because, of all the human organs, the female genital organs and sexual feelings are placed at present in the most unhealthy circumstances.

Woman's peculiar torments begin at puberty, and from that time, in innumerable cases, till her marriage, she is the constant prey of anxiety. Ungratified desires distract her, endless temptations and excitements surround her, marriage is for her so critical a step, and yet she has not the power of selection. The fatal question, shall she be married at all? gradually dawns upon her, and the clouds and whirlwinds of anxious and conflicting passions darken her sky. If these be not natural and real sufferings, and if we are not to recognise and do all we can to remedy this fearful state of matters, let us close at once the book of human knowledge, and give up the farce of philosophy and philanthrophy. It is our part to investigate diligently and recognise all truths; nor to bend what we see to a preconceived theory, but rather to form if possible, a theory based upon all the natural truths. If we do thus in the case before us, we will see, that unless we can remove the main cause of hysteria, namely, insufficient sexual gratifications, it is totally impossible to prevent that disease. Let us look this truth steadily in the face, whatever difficulties it occasions us.

I have now spoken of two of the most important female diseases, which are dependent, in the vast majority of cases, mainly on sexual abstinence. Before proceeding to the diseases of menstruation, many of which have the same cause, I shall say a few words on the subject of sexual excess.

SEXUAL EXCESS

A VERY meagre account is given in medical works of the frequency or the effects of venereal excesses in the female. Venereal excesses are not, in this country, nearly so prevalent a cause of disease in woman as venereal abstinence; and in this we see the great error of those, who are constantly declaiming on the evils of the former, while they never allude to the latter. In the pulpit, and among Christian moralists generally, we have fearful pictures given of the evils of sexual excess; but in reality they are very rarely seen, compared with those of abstinence. Men war with shadows, and neglect the dreadful realities under their eyes. Chastity or sexual abstinence causes more real disease and misery in one year, I believe, in this country, than sexual excesses in a century. We must not include venereal disease among the evils of excess, as it has nothing to do with it; it depends always on infection, not on over-use of the sexual organs.

However there is no doubt that sexual excess is capable of producing, and that in many cases it does produce, serious evils. Over stimulus of the sexual system will cause disease and exhaustion; and this not unfrequently results in newly-married women. Hysterical and chlorotic symptoms may be induced in this way by debility, and various organs may suffer in their functions. This is especially seen, when a weak and delicate girl marries a powerful man. Menorrhagia is apt to be induced from over stimulation of the ovaries, together with exhaustion and sexual apathy. In such cases the constitution should be allowed to regain its strength by separation of the parties for a time, and greater moderation must be used afterwards. I have seen several cases, both in men and women, where sexual excesses after marriage were the cause of great enfeeblement; and there is in these cases far too much delicacy in the medical man about telling the parties of their error. Why should such scruples be allowed to interfere with the most important of all considerations-the health and happiness of the individuals?

But there is another aspect in which we should view the question of sexual excess. A moderate amount of sexual indulgence braces and ennobles body and mind, and heightens the virtue of each but to he

always thinking on amatory subjects, or constantly indulging in venereal pleasures, has a very bad effect on both man and woman, even though it do not produce tangible bodily disease. The mind becomes effeminate, and the nerves lose their tone; the power of thought becomes impaired, cloyed as it were by sweetness. Nature never meant that we should be absorbed in one set of feelings, nor steeped in sexual indulgences, as some of the southern nations are. The great object of our aims should be to cultivate all the different faculties we possess, and so to vary and perpetuate our enjoyments. Self-denial, although so much abused in this country, especially in sexual matters, is often a most valuable quality. But the very way to ensure the rank and morbid growth of the sexual passions, is to deny them any gratification. By so doing, let us not suppose that we become their masters; rather we become their slaves, and they tyrannise over our thoughts, and absorb us completely. There are no people who think so habitually on sexual matters, as those in whom love has been most repressed; the youth suffering from seminal weakness, the hysterical girl, the single woman, or the priest. Married people soon become accustomed to the pleasures of love, and learn to divide their thoughts and affections among the many objects around them; but to the young single woman love is all in all. This is in one way a true sexual excess, and shows the folly of imagining that we can defeat the purposes of nature. Among many of our poets and young female authoresses we can see the effects of this effeminating one-sidedness; they can write and talk of nothing but love, and if we analyse their works, we will find how much this absorption in one set of feelings interferes with their general developement and happiness. They cannot escape from the passion, because they have either been sexually unfortunate themselves, or because their sympathising eyes see so much sexual misery around them, that they can think of little else.