CRITICISMS OF THE MEDICAL PRESS ON FORMER EDITIONS OF THIS WORK. From the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Quarterly Review. "We think Mr. Acton has done good service to society by grappling manfully with sexual vice, and we trust that others, whose position as men of science and teachers enable them to speak with authority, will assist in combating and arresting the evils which it entails, and thus enable man to devote more enduring energies and more lofty aims to the advancement of his race, and to the service of his God. "We are of opinion that the spirit which pervades it is one that does credit equally to the head and to the heart of the author." From the London Lancet. "The only way by which some of the most important functional ailments and aberrant physiologic states affecting humanity can be rescued from the grasp of the most disgusting and villanous quackery, and treated with benefit to the patient, is by the scientific and conscientious practitioner openly taking them under his own charge. "Now, however, that legitimate and able practitioners permit themselves to be known as willing to bestow as much consideration on the aberrations of the generative functions as on those of any other, we trust that some stop will be put to the basest system of plunder ever conducted under the mask of medical advice. "In the work now before us, all essential detail upon its subject matter is clearly and scientifically given. We recommend it accordingly, as meeting a necessary requisiton of the day, refusing to join in that opinion which regards the consideration of the topics in question as beyond the duties of the medical practitioner." From the London Medical Times. Mr. Acton has devoted himself for many years with unwearying assiduity to the study of the diseases of the reproductive organs, and after an intimate acquaintance with syphilitic diseases gained in the Clinique of M. Ricord, he has pursued in this country the same researches as those which he commenced under that distinguished specialist. Indeed, with Mr. Acton, the investigation of every circumstance connected with the generative function has been a labor of love; and we accordingly find that whether as regards the structure, the functions, or the diseases of the organs in question, every circumstance has received the minutest attention. On the subjects of Impotence and Spermatorrhoea, those bugbears of so many weak and foolish persons, and sources of inexhaustible wealth to the quack fraternity, Mr. Acton discourses with good sense, and indignantly exposes the nefarious tricks of the scoundrels, who, on the pretence of curing a disease which often exists only in imagination, extract enormous sums from their unwary victims. He seems to regard the spermatorrhoea-phobia, as we may term it, to be a species of monomania, in which light we ourselves are inclined to regard it; but he judiciously advises that to a patient laboring under this form of mental malady, the tone adopted should be one of sympathy and attention, not of ridicule or disbelief; and that by the employment of appropriate moral and therapeutical means, the morbid terrors of the imagination may be dispelled, and a healthy and hopeful tone of mind restored." Childhood, Youth, Adult Age, and Advanced Life CONSIDERED IN THEIR PHYSIOLOGICAL, SOCIAL, AND BY WILLIAM ACTON, M.R.C.S., LATE SURGEON TO THE ISLINGTON DISPENSARY, AND FORMERLY EXTERNE TO THE VENEREAL HOSPITALS, THIRD AMERICAN FROM THE FIFTH LONDON EDITION. PHILADELPHIA: LINDSAY & BLAKISTON. PREFACE ΤΟ THE FIFTH EDITION. A FIFTH edition of this book being called for, I have again carefully revised, and here and there recast it. The materials that have accumulated since the last edition was published have been incorporated, and no time or labor has been spared in the endeavor to make the work more worthy of the continued favor the profession has shown it. I have sought to investigate the subjects treated of, in the calm and philosophic spirit in which all scientific inquiries should be approached, and have striven to keep the text free from any sentiment or expression incompatible with the dignity and the high calling of a medical man. In conclusion, I would fain indulge the hope that the book may continue to exert, as I trust it has already exerted, some good practical influence upon public health and public morals. 17, QUEEN ANNE STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. April, 1871. |