Produced by Donald Cummings, from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.
SEXUAL NEUROSES.
――BY――
J. T. KENT, A. M., M. D.
[Illustration]
ST. LOUIS:
MAYNARD & TEDFORD, PRINTERS AND BINDERS.
1879.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by
J. T. KENT,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
LIST OF CHAPTERS
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
PREFACE.
In presenting this little monograph to the profession, I have no
apologies to offer. My only hope is, that the subject may be as
seriously considered as it deserves. Believing that a superabundance
of modesty has prevented facts from being duly presented to the
profession, and thinking myself endowed with less of that desirable
virtue than others, I can but conclude that my reputation will not
suffer from reverses such as might ensue from elucidating theories,
and maybe fancies, connected with such a delicate topic. But if
professional minds are stimulated to a renewed study of these important
phenomena, my highest anticipations will be reached.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
INTRODUCTORY 5
PREDISPOSITION 11
CONTINENCE 22
SODOMY 25
ONANISM 27
MASTURBATION 18――31
Among Females 33
As a Cause of Organic Stricture 36
The Effect of upon the Neural Axis 37
COPULATION 39
Social Attributes of 44
NYMPHOMANIA 46
Causes of 47
Treatment 49
SATYRIASIS 56
SEXUAL NEURASTHENIA 60
Treatment of 70
PSEUDO-SPERMATORRHŒA 71
Cases of 74
Prostatorrhœa 76
SPERMATORRHŒA 80
Cases of 81――83
Moral Effect of 90
Symptoms of 90
Spinal Congestion 92
Spinal Anæmia 94
Cerebral Sexual Neurosis 97
Clinical Illustrations 102
LOCAL STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN GENITAL ORGANS 109
SPERMAL CHANGES 110
SEQUELÆ 111
TREATMENT 113
Of Spinal Congestion 114
Of Spinal Anæmia 117
Cerebral Sexual Neurosis 120
DILATATION OF THE ANUS 123
ANAL PLUG 123
IMPOTENCE 126
Treatment of 133
ASPERMATISM 140
SEXUAL NEUROSES.
CHAPTER I.
_Introductory._――The term sexual presupposes the possibility of two
distinct and perfect beings, yet one is counterpart of the other,
distinguished by anatomical features designated male and female; with
attributes such as passion, love and reciprocal admiration. Sexually
the two beings become united, constituting plurality in unity.
The sequel of such coalescence of the sexes, or marriage legitimately
considered, is copulation and reproduction of the species. The
summit, or peripheral center of venereal sensibility, is found at the
genitalia, and in the male a concentration of nerve-force conducts,
as it were, to and unites at the glans penis; and division of the
terminal nerves at this point will render erection impossible. In both
man and beast, the only mechanical irritation capable of exciting
venereal sensibility must be at this point. When the sexual centers
are physiologically irritated, from peripheral or centric influences,
contentment is only possible (physiologically speaking) when male
and female counterparts coalesce, or are in juxtaposition. The sexual
attributes also constitute an instructive topic for study, as they
become modified by civilization and the development of reason. The
procreation of organic life is the sequel of the sexual connection. The
living universe has been called into existence, and the perpetuation of
its life-spark is only dependent upon the contact of sexes.
The universe, it is said by one theorist, was evolved; by another,
who depends upon the Holy Book for a guide, all living creatures were
thaumaturgically or miraculously, and “in the twinkling of an eye,”
made to exist in full form and shape. This problem will never be
settled to the satisfaction of all men as long as theory and faith
are at war; and small is the prospect of peace while both parties
are redoubling in their forces annually. Then, we can but accept the
situation of the human race, as it is, since we have no historical data
of its origin, that are beyond controversy and that would be accepted
as evidence in a physiological point of view. But we need no ponderous
evidence to show the truth of the premise, that animal life is not
perpetuated except through sexual congress. Not life _only_, but good
and evil of every degree; vice, folly, crime; love and hate; society,
social evil and social good: all depend, largely, upon the sexual. It
is the bond of our existence; it is the wheel of our fortune; it is our
guiding star; and it may be our loadstone to crime and premature death.
Passions leading to love, true and gentle, or jealousy, hate, revenge,
murder and suicide, all hinge on circumstances connected, directly or
indirectly, with the sexual.
Our schools are conducted upon a foundation entirely sexual; educating
each of the sexes in the role they are to pursue, with reference to
exclusiveness in conduct. The girl is taught to pursue only such
vocations, practices and manners as are becoming to her sex; the boy,
on the other hand, is instructed not to enact girlish capers, but to
pursue masculine vocations, from the childish toys to settled, adult
labors. This all means nothing but distinctive development of the sexes.
The sexual enters our every-day lives, from childhood up; it governs
our development; it modulates the voice, the build, the dress, the
hair, the fashion of wearing the dress, and even the gait. In all this
we can but observe the worship of the sexual; though obscure, yet
every manifestation of human existence points to it. The good people
of the earth profit by the grand and noble sexual unity in the marital
existence, and by the pure, social relations, and chaste affections of
the unmarried; but these are but a small part of human society. The
masses express their worship for the sexual by debauch, dissipation,
vice and crime. The common saying, whenever suicide or murder has been
committed, that “_woman was at the bottom of it_,” might just as well
read, “_man was at the bottom of it_;” as without the one, where would
the other have been?
It is the bad use of noble agencies that often constitutes vice.
Nothing ignoble, was intended by the Great Designer, should grow out
of the sexual privileges, and when nobly appreciated, for moral beings
a greater happiness or pleasure has not been instituted. But by long
prostitution of these privileges, vices have originated; beliefs have
been established; customs have been founded; even religions have been
constructed and modified to suit the wishes of designing “sexualists,”
“free-thinkers,” Mormons, etc. Occasionally, dissatisfied members of
one sex will establish an innovation, or a revolutionary commotion,
demanding rights which they claim have been usurped from them, and
sometimes thirsting for prerogatives belonging to the opposite sex.
They agitate their cause until their isolated followers establish
societies and churches, effecting discord in families, and no good to
the world in general, and for themselves an unenviable reputation. Such
individuals are often advocating reforms; temperance, charity, etc.;
but when good comes out of one, evil grows out of ten. They often take
a decided stand against the opposite sex, and when their true history
is known, it will be often found that they have been suffering from
unrequited love, disappointment in matrimony, deception in society,
misplaced confidence, illegitimate pregnancy, etc.; or, they are
phlegmatic and passionless; or, hermaphrodites; or wanting in some of
the sexual appendages necessary to constitute a perfect man or woman.
Then, without the complete sexual system, harmoniously balanced, all is
imperfect.
My purpose in dwelling so much upon these mixed relations and
disappointments, has been more especially to fully expose the
predisposing causes of neuroses and more essentially of the sexual
variety. As I shall labor to show that neurosis is the condition
throughout our list of sexual diseases, and that all the foregoing
changes, excesses and defects, depending upon the sexual, are more or
less influential in predisposing human beings to brain and spinal cord
disease. No person, so well as the physician, will comprehend, after
once meditating upon this theme, the necessity for thorough study and
a more rational understanding of the sexual. Medical writers, with
one or two exceptions, have only ventured now and then an isolated
paragraph, and left the physician to draw his own conclusion. Among
the aboriginal tribes, the sexual appetite is and has always been
indulged _ad libitum_; not only in the natural manner, but in every
conceivable way, without noticeable harm to the organs themselves,
or to the nervous system. In a lesser degree this is true of slaves,
sailors and peasantry, and the lower orders of civilization. Sexual
endurance diminishes in proportion to the advancement in civilization
and intellectual culture. A long-cultured family can not sustain,
in sexual indulgence, what to the uncivilized would be a matter of
indifference.
Sexual intercourse, when not contra-indicated, may relieve nervous
tension and produce sleep in a moderately feeble individual; but on
the other hand, if carried to excess, it may produce nervous tension,
wakefulness, headache and exhaustion. There are no definite rules to
regulate the sexual appetite, more than the stomach for food.
The evils of sexual intemperance are temporary, and if recent, quickly
recoverable by rest only.
Says Dr. Briggs, of New York, “The sexual system is notoriously the
seat of excitement and depression from psychical and mental influences.
It is under the control of the sympathetic nerves, and influenced by
the solar flexus. Much of the peculiar sensibility experienced in this
part of the body is directly referable to the mind and imagination:
the manifestations are controlled by the sympathetic nerves, from the
impulse given in this manner. But the mind and will, however intense,
have little power over the sexual functions, except through this
medium. The emotions are superior.”
_Predisposition._――The innate or uncaused condition, which is so
commonly found among the young, is quite likely congenital and
constitutional. There is evidently structural malformation in the
neuroglia, or nerve cells proper, which predisposes the child to sexual
excitement. This may not be derived from the immediate parent, but
far back. In the third or fourth generation, debauchés may be found.
Licentious parents commonly predispose their children to morbid sexual
desires; and what evidence have we that structural changes do not exist
in or about the nerve centres that preside over the sexual functions,
and that such changes are not constitutional? Then, with this
structural change as a predisposition, the least cause will set the
sexual centers into a blaze of excitement. They who are predisposed by
many generations, show upon their faces the lines of coarse breeding;
that they are the offspring of debauchés; congenital degradation; not
but these conditions, under favorable circumstances, may be overcome,
by rigidly cultivating opposite nerve centers; but such opportunities
are seldom presented, and when presented seldom embraced.
Circumstances are also to be considered as having a bearing upon the
sexual “ups and downs” of our human career. With a predisposing sexual
cause, a downfall may occur under circumstances less seductive in
character than when no such congenital condition is present.
Listen to the heart-rending stories of girls in the houses of
prostitution. Each has her story of circumstantial events to relate.
Circumstances of varied gravity have caused the multitudes of “fallen
women” to occupy their degraded sphere of shame and debauch. Many of
these have never been predisposed to a sexual livelihood by an erotic
disposition, and they only stay by compulsion and fear of reproach that
must follow if they return to society. The line of social demarkation
is drawn, and there is no palliation or chance of redemption by
reform――only secret forgiveness, secret repentance, or a nunnery. There
are some who follow this life by choice, from the pleasure therein.
Such are predisposed: they naturally follow this course: they learn it
on the streets, in mere childhood: their ancestors, or some one of them
at least, were of this type――mal-constructed――and circumstances are
meagre that, as is said, lead them astray. They are not led astray: it
is more natural to them than to pursue the path of rectitude and virtue.
These people are predisposed to evil, and it is only, even if guarded
from childhood up by constant watching and being kept from every
possible circumstance, and taught only the good and pure, to adult
life, that any reasonable assurance may be had of their safety from
vice. This inheritance is almost indestructible and may crop out after
the best of culture, with very slight cause, any time in adult life or
in future generations.
Not only the predisposition to sexual desire is congenital, but the
enfeebled nervous system that can endure only a limited amount of
sexual indulgence. They learn to indulge the sexual appetite at a very
early period, and the males grow up effeminate, or half-sexed. The
tendency of civilization is toward brain and mental culture. In this
we have a cause of nervousness which is wonderful. Our ancestors, who
knew very little of brain-work compared to the cramming of the present
day――compared to the curriculums of our present school system――were
not nervous; they were not excitable, but physically strong. They
labored at a variety of toils without machinery, and they obtained
physical endurance. Now, the boy is crammed at school and hurried
through to professional studies, when he has but just begun life; or
he is placed at business, to find that excitement of competition which
is the greatest brain-stimulus and the greatest cause of nervousness
of the present age. The multitude of collateral sciences that a young
man is compelled to read; the books, scientific and novel, that must
be perused by every popular student; and the short period of time in
which he is expected to pass over this entire field: all tend to change
the young man into a habit of nervousness which would surprise our
ancestors of one hundred years ago.
The labor that was performed by hand by our ancestors, which was the
cause of their physical endurance, is now entirely accomplished by
machinery; and the modern man, instead of patiently doing the labor by
hand, expends months and years at brain-work, attempting to construct a
machine that will run by steam, water, or horse-power, that he may save
physical force, time, and perhaps, in the end, money.
The haste in which Americans live and move, must also become an
exciting cause of nervousness. The ancients were patient in obtaining
information; in performing works of art, literature, or agriculture.
The Greeks did not expect to become proficient in the varied vocations
until middle life; but an average American is expected to finish
college at twenty-two; to have invented some kind of a machine for the
saving of labor, to have made a fortune, married and raised a family of
children, wasted his father’s fortune, and be prepared to begin life
anew by the time he is thirty years of age.
Then, to answer the question, “Why are American people so nervous?”
we have but to compare the present with the past; our country with
others. The nervousness and mental development of our people, preclude
anything but moderation in sexual indulgence; and whenever fast living,
brain-working, nervous people indulge to satiety in sexual pleasure,
they are in danger of grave consequences, such as our ancestors never
knew of, as the results of excessive sexual indulgence. They could
cohabit _ad libitum_, and never notice such consequences as nervous
people are constantly suffering.