This stage is an aggravation of the two preceding stages combined.
The emissions are accompanied and followed by a disagreeable and
disgusting sensation of shame and misery. The mind is absorbed as much
as can be by the one idea of its wretched situation, and the sufferer is
haunted by the thought that his condition and its cause are known to the
whole world, and that he is pitied or scorned by every person he meets.
He is hypochondriacal, and fearful suggestions of self-destruction ever
and anon present themselves.
The power of mental concentration is entirely gone and the memory is
so feeble that the patient continually forgets what he begins to say.
The dimness of vision is continual and so great as to be a material
annoyance; the eyes are wandering or fixed upon the ground, seldom
venturing to meet the gaze of another. The +ringing in the ears+, +pains
in the head and over the eyes+ are almost perpetual and frequently
accompanied by partial deafness. +The heart is the seat of pain+,
+fluttering+ and +throbbing+ with +violent and long-continued
palpitation+, his hands shake, his limbs tremble, his knees are weak, so
much so that at times it is almost impossible for him to walk erect. He
experiences an insatiable desire for sleep, and yet upon retiring he
lies awake for hours, tormented by his troubled reflections, and at last
falls into an uneasy slumber, of short duration, disturbed by wretched
dreams.
+Hard, red pimples+ frequently appear on the face, forehead and body,
+scaly patches+ round the +ears, eyes, nose and lips+, a +black or
bluish semi-circle+ shows itself under the +eyes+, and there is a hollow
mark from the corner of the eye in a slanting direction under the
cheekbone to the angle of the mouth, which tells its tale. The +skin is
livid and clammy+ and the digestion is bad. The patient is tormented
with +flatulency+, which he cannot always control and which he justly
dreads, as it renders him an object of +disgust+ to all in his presence.
The bowels are generally +constipated+, obliging him to strain much at
stool, thus aggravating the irritation of the prostate gland vesiculæ
seminales and increasing the +seminal losses+.
The bladder is irritable and will retain the urine but a short time; the
ureters and kidneys are also inflamed and in post-mortem examinations
are sometimes found to contain +abscesses+; they are the seat of much
pain when pressure is made over the intervertebral spaces of the dorsal
and lumbar vertebræ or backbone. The vesiculæ seminales have +been
indurated+ and can be felt to be +knotty+ and +hard+. The spinal marrow
is very sensitive throughout its whole extent; the cerebellum is the
seat of a +dull+ and +heavy pain+, and there is a feeling of pressure
upon the brain. Cerebral congestion now and then occurs. This stage of
the disease is frequently accompanied by +Bronchitis+ or a continued
+Catarrh+, also by disease of the +rectum+ and all the +tissues near
the generative organs+.
It is hardly necessary to say that the functions of the nervous system
are completely deranged, indeed, +nervous twitchings+ of the +eyelids+,
+head+ and +limbs+ are the consequences of +Spermatorrhoea+. He is
finally either hurried to a premature grave by consumption, epilepsy or
apoplexy; or insanity, taking the hopeless form of dementia, has removed
him from his home to the madhouse.
It is safe to say that of all the cases of incurable insanity, a large
majority are caused by Spermatorrhoea.
Many, owing to +sheer neglect+ or to +false notions of delicacy+, delay
seeking for proper medical relief until they are almost destroyed, and
body and mind are nearly in ruins.
Pitiable the picture of one who has +reached+ this stage of the disease.
The organs are still congested but +irritability+ has given away to
+torpor+ and +sluggishness+. Semen drains away by day and night without
provocation, these constant losses dragging the person to the very
+brink of the grave+, or +standing him+ within that +melancholy shade+
where +suicide+, +insanity+ or +idiocy+ almost certainly stares him in
the face. The organs are wasted almost totally away. All +strength+,
+vitality+, +erectile+ and +procreative power+ have left them, and the
victim is at last totally +impotent+. Of no use to themselves, a curse
to their freinds, a disgrace to society, they sink from sight into an
early grave or are lost to the world behind asylum doors. It is a sad
and terrible picture, but true--too true--to life.
The tendency of Nature in most disorders is towards cure, but +here it
is towards deterioration+. There is no chance here of the evil "wearing
itself out" save in madness and death on the one hand, and on the other
by the salutary intervention of the most +vigorous+, +cautious+ and
+enlightened treatment+, a treatment pursued in the +full light+ of the
aids afforded by the great discoveries in physiological science for
which the present age is happily distinguished. Fortunately for
humanity, by the aid of Chemistry, as well as Medical Science, it has
been reserved for us to present to the public the +Civiale Remedies+,
which have proved themselves undeniable blessings to thousands,
restoring with unerring power those suffering from this hitherto
baffling complaint.