The Baneful Effects and Consequences of Masturbation, Marriage Excesses,
Venereal and Urinary Diseases on Boys and Men.
Could we read the heart of every man and boy we pass upon the street,
how few--how very few--there are that would not reveal sickening
pictures of lust, disease, melancholy and insanity. Charnel-houses of
sin and lust--sloughs of despond and regret--excess of passion offset
by lack of power--dread, despair, hopelessness, shame and desperation,
making a picture of misery scarcely to be conceived by any but those
unfortunate beings who in the thoughtless, careless heyday of youth, or
the reckless reliance on more mature vigor, have weakened, emasculated
and enslaved themselves by indulgences and excesses that have borne
fruit of misery, disease and desperation in after years.
How little the youth who, in his ignorance of the terrible consequences
of his vice, steals away to the secrecy of his chamber or his bed,
leaving his happy, healthy and playful companions, in order that he
may let the hot waves of lust and passion run riot in his mind, and dry
up every spring of healthy thought and action--how little does he think
of the after-time of misery and exhaustion that he is bringing upon
himself--how little does he think that the vile demon that he is raising
up will, like the vampire, suck his very life-blood, steal away his
strength and life and vivacity, besmirch and weaken his mind, take the
strength from his muscles, the courage from his heart, sap the very
foundation of his existence, unsex and unnerve him, render him feeble,
wavering and imbecile, dog his footsteps to the very steps of the altar,
to curse and blacken and disappoint those joys of parentage and marital
right that should be his. The shadow deepens with him as life advances,
and follows him, bringing shame and misery and despair at every step,
until the poor victim, driven too far, sinks into an early grave by
disease or suicide, or is lost to the world and to all joys and friends
behind the doors of an insane asylum.
He died of no disease known to medical science. He simply faded
away--weaker, more nerveless and hopeless day by day; he faded away
until, almost before any one knew it, the grave yawned to receive him.
Poor, miserable, hopeless wreck--poor suicide, for his own sin and crime
were the real causes of his death.
How many such there are at the present day. We meet them on the street,
in business and at church. Our insane asylums are full of them. We
find their wives unfaithful or unhappy; and their offspring--when they
are cursed with any--poor, miserable, weak fledgelings, with aged,
wasted faces, water on the brain, with rickets and softening of the
bones--idiots or imbeciles--dying early and scarcely regretted even
by the parent whose progeny they are, for every wail of the little
suffering voice pierced his heart and reminded him of his lustful sin,
and passionate, inexcusable indulgence that caused all this misery.
"And the sins of the father shall be visited upon the children,
even to the third and fourth generations."
Alas, how true! how indisputable! The imperative Laws of Nature once
broken, the consequences are _inevitable_.
Of late years it has become the fashion amongst certain men to scoff
at this terrible vice of secret indulgence, and to claim that its
evil effects are overrated, are portrayed too vividly. Ask some poor
unfortunate whose confidence you may succeed in gaining, and listen to
the pitiful tale of lost health and vitality he will tell you. Mark well
the wasted hand, the putty-like skin, the black-ringed, lack-lustre
eyes, the heavy lip, the labored breath--read the consequences of his
sin and crime in his shame-faced way, his shambling gait, his nerveless
hands, his fluttering heart, his weakened muscles, and his tottering
memory and mind.
Must he needs lie dead at our feet before these skeptics can be
convinced? Is not such a state a living death? Must these men visit
him in the cell of the asylum, watch him as a raving maniac, gaze upon
him as a hopeless idiot or a driveling imbecile, before they will be
convinced? Such proof is at hand. Not an asylum in any country but has
its score of such; not an asylum record-book but chronicles the sad
histories of thousands of these poor, lost creatures--male and female;
not an asylum nurse or doctor but will sadly point out these creatures
to you, bereft of every trace of reason, all sense of shame, still
practicing the horrible vice that has driven every semblance of humanity
from their faces and the very light of reason from their eyes.
True, every boy or man who practices this vice does not come to this
end. But who shall discriminate? There are thousands such, and who shall
say which it shall be, or at what moment it shall occur? Ah! happy,
rosy-cheeked boy, so gay and thoughtless now, so free from misery,
disease and care, beware! It may be your turn next. A little thoughtless
indulgence, the imitation of friend or companion, though apparently
harmless now, may blanch your rosy cheek, destroy your peace and
happiness of mind, and make a life-long, hopeless, suffering invalid
of you--may shut the door of all earthly enjoyment in your face, blast
your hopes, disease or destroy your offspring, alienate you from friends
and family, and cut off from all communion with your race, make you an
object of shame and disgust to your fellow-men, sink you into an early
grave or entomb you for life in the cold stony walls of a lunatic
asylum.
The day will come, erstwhile, when you will curse the parents who reared
you, the friends who surrounded you and the teachers and ministers who
taught you, for not warning you of the terrible nature of this
indulgence, so secretly common amongst boys and young men.
The day will come, when in the midst of your mental, moral and physical
agony, with weakened mind and exhausted body, physicians will tell you
that masturbation is practically harmless, that its consequences are
exaggerated, and that your sufferings are mostly imaginary. Then will
you pity their ignorance and bemoan the fact that to such men must
sufferers in your terrible extremity apply without any feeling of being
understood, appreciated or sympathized with, and, far less, relieved or
cured.
Happy will you be then, if you can (with your vice and misery staring
you in the face and threatening you with some or all of its dire
consequences) direct your steps to those who not only can and will
sympathize with you, but who are able to aid you with proper remedies
and restoratives and set you safely on the way to health and happiness
again. For there _are_ proper aids and remedies; there are hope and
happiness to be obtained if the affections growing out of this vice
be skillfully taken in hand in time. None but the hopeless sufferers
who have been lifted from the misery, shame and weakness of their
self-inflicted suffering know how much this world owes to the high
medical skill, exhaustive study, and persistent search for truth and
proper remedies of those two great Frenchmen, +Professors Claude
Lallemand+ and +Jean Civiale+. The medical as well as civil honors
conferred upon them by their country and their medical brethren, great
as they were, could never half repay them for the good they rendered
thoughtless youth and suffering manhood by their special discoveries.
There can be no question but that the +Civiale Urethral Crayons+, named
thus after this great specialist, and endorsed by the most eminent
medical men of France (that country in which lust and passion are
peculiarly prevalent), are the most far-reaching and reliable specifics
for Generative, Sexual and Nervous diseases known.
CAUSES OF SPERMATORRHOEA AND IMPOTENCY.
SELF-ABUSE NOT THE ONLY CAUSE.
Many years' experience in the treatment of these debilitating diseases
has proven very surely that there are many causes besides Self-Abuse
(Self-Pollution, Secret Vice or Masturbation) for Spermatorrhoea,
Impotency and Debility or Lost Manhood. Self-Abuse is the most common
cause, and we therefore give it the most prominence. The others we will
name briefly in about the order of their frequency.
1. MARRIAGE EXCESSES.--A very common cause, more often producing
Impotency (loss of Sexual Desire or Power) and Sterility (inability to
beget offspring), than Spermatorrhoea (loss of vital fluid, daily and
nightly losses, losses in the urine, nervous prostration, debility,
insanity, paralysis, &c. For full description of symptoms, see pages
12-16). Sexual desire was given to mankind, like any other power or
appetite--to be enjoyed in reasonable moderation _and for the purpose of
insuring a continuance of our species by the birth of offspring_. Many
men abuse this power--abuse it inordinately, shamefully--and suffer the
consequences. This is especially true of the newly married, and men
advanced in years, who push their failing powers too far. As a just
retribution for the abuse of so important a function, the Almighty
deprives some of desire, some of power, some of both.
2. ONANISM.--By many this is confused with Masturbation or Self-Abuse.
While like it in some respects and in many of its consequences, it is
still different. It is as hurtful to an adult as abuse is to a young
person. God punished Onan for this sin, hence its name. Yet, despite
this terrible example so plainly set forth in the Old Testament,
probably one-half of the married men of the present day are pursuing it,
and hence so many Impotent and Powerless persons, seeking vainly amongst
the many cheap, quack remedies for something to re-invigorate and
re-vitalize them.
This is a terrible vice, terrible in its consequences, and however hardy
and robust the man, sooner or later his sexual powers must and will
succumb to the strain. Many men write us, saying that they never
masturbated, and yet are totally impotent and cannot understand why
it is. And yet they have been thus injuring themselves for years!
Sexual power and desire were given us for one purpose--the perpetuation
of our species, and whoso endeavors to avoid this, must suffer. Many
married couples do not want more children, from care, poverty or other
causes, and hence the extent to which this terrible practice is
indulged. It _must_ be from ignorance, for were it commonly known how
injurious this practice is, _but few would dare take the terrible risk_.
And yet the resulting weakness can be speedily cured if properly
treated. In no class of cases have the Civiale Remedies achieved greater
success than in these.
3. ANYTHING DEBILITATING--such as Overwork, Confinement, Sedentary
Occupations, Worry, Care, Excitement, &c., &c.--These are much more
common causes of Sexual and Generative Diseases than is generally
supposed, and usually very obstinate and difficult to treat, because
the system is so run down that there is very little stamina or vitality
to rely upon. Clerks, business men, lawyers, bankers, ministers and
students are very subject to this form of impaired vital and sexual
power. Theological students are very prone to it. Many do not have any
idea as to what their real trouble is, and lose much valuable time in
doctoring for Dyspepsia, Consumption, Neurasthenia and the like, when
really their very life and vitality are oozing away from them in their
urine or otherwise.
4. WOMEN'S (OR VENEREAL) DISEASES.--Gonorrhoea (clap), Gleet, Stricture,
Injury to the Urine Canal from the rough use of sounds, bougies,
catheters, &c., &c. Any one or all of these, by extending the
inflammation backward to the seminal ducts and neck of the bladder,
may cause either Spermatorrhoea or Impotency. Indeed, Stricture
(often caused by Self-Abuse) is one of the most common causes of
these complaints. It was here that +Lallemand+ and +Civiale+ found
the key-note of the true treatment of these diseases.
5. VARICOCELE, or a wormy, swollen or twisted state of the veins in the
bag, and of those that run down to the testicles, is a very common cause
of both Spermatorrhoea, Impotency and Debility. (For full description of
this very common and often unexpected disease, send for our illustrated
pamphlet on the subject, or see Chapter XI, page 44 of this book.) No
man or boy with Varicocele, no matter how it was produced, can be
perfectly sound and strong in his Sexual Organs.
6. UNDEVELOPED, WASTED OR MISSHAPEN PARTS.--A failure to have perfectly
developed organs sometimes dates from birth, but in most cases it is
caused by self-abuse at a time when the person is growing. In any case,
Seminal weakness and Wasted or Misshapen Parts go together as both cause
and effect, and the one, when found, will usually very soon lead to the
other. _Twisting or Curving_ is one of the most positive signs of
previous inflammation, stricture and twisting or distortion of the
seminal ducts, and hence sterility or barrenness. In such especially are
the remarkable effects of the +Civiale Treatment+ the most noticeable.
We can say with positiveness, and prove it by case after case, that by
no other method can such rapid and perfect restoration of the organs to
a natural and healthy state be obtained as by this. Some of the very
worst and apparently most hopeless cases that we have had--cases that
have gone from one physician to another without the slightest
improvement--have yielded effectually to the +Civiale Remedies+. In some
of them the persons thus afflicted would have been totally unfitted for
marriage had they failed to find relief. Their children--healthy, happy
and finely developed--speak volumes for what our treatment has done for
them. (For Treatment refer to page +42+ of this book.)
IMPOTENT OLD MEN--
THE SEXUAL DECAY OF ADVANCING AGE.
We have thus far given briefly the most common causes of Seminal
Disease. There are a few that we have not mentioned: Blows on the Head,
Loins (Small of the Back), Testicles, &c.; Weakness caused by prolonged
illness, fevers, &c.; Malaria, Consumption, &c.; the abuse of Tobacco,
Opium, Alcohol and Chloral, &c., &c.; but these are less common and less
important. There is one condition, however, that we have only referred
to incidentally, and that is the failure of Sexual Power in men past
middle age. No man (if he is reasonably careful and does not abuse
himself) should find his powers decaying before he is seventy or eighty
years of age. Mind, we do not say "no man does," but no man "_should_,"
provided he is reasonably careful.
But here comes the fact. Most men are _not_ careful, and most men _have_
abused themselves at some period. Many believe and stoutly maintain that
they "never had emissions or seminal disease, and it didn't hurt them."
But it did, and it is just now that they begin to feel it. It is true
they escaped the more acute and direful effects, but it told on them in
after years. There are many thousands to-day who are just now feeling
the effects of early vices, now almost forgotten. They can be restored
to _natural_ power by proper treatment, but they rarely are, because but
few of them believe that early self-abuse or later Onanism has anything
to do with it. So they spend a fortune almost--and uselessly too--on
Stimulants, Nervines, Tonic and the like, but still remain partly or
wholly Impotent. Foolish men!
_CHAPTER II._