"The most serious +mental effects+ are produced by +masturbation+. This
vice, commenced at or before the period of puberty, interferes seriously
with the development of the brain and the evolution of the mental
faculties.
"That +spermatorrhoea+ will produce in one class of cases
+mental disorders+, and not in another, indicates either that some
predisposition to these disorders existed, or that the habit of
+self-pollution+ was merely an expression of +mental alienation+
(insanity). The +images+ which pervade the minds of boys possessed
of the highly-developed nervous organization of masturbators are those
of +delusional insanity+.
"There is, however, a +cerebral+ (brain) +phase+ of spermatorrhoea which
may be separated from the two preceding classes. It is characterized by
_+indistinctness of vision+, +dilatation+ of the +pupil+, +amblyopia+
(near-sightedness), +diplopia+ (double sight); +diminution+ in the
+sensitiveness+ of the +auditory apparatus+ (deafness); +feebleness+
of +voice+; +mental preoccupation+, +hebetude+ of +mind+, +confusion+
of +ideas+, and a +profound melancholy+._
"The termination of such cases is in _+suicidal monomania+, +delusional
insanity+, etc._ In that variety of the cerebral form in which a
decided predisposition must be admitted to exist, to disorder of the
intellectual faculties, there are found various forms of mental
alienation. The +chronic form+ is the most common, which corresponds
to the _+melancholia+ of +Pinel+, or the +lypemania+ of +Esquirol+,
terminating in +dementia+._ Several of the most characteristic cases
which have happened under my observation correspond to the _+delusional
insanity+ of +Bucknill and Tuke+_."--[Manual of Psychological Medicine,
Phila. ed., p. 103.]