fertile. I say perfectly fertile, or capable of producing both sexes; for to lay drones' eggs, according to my experience, requires no fecundation at all." (P. 41.) "After this single fecundation a queen bee can for a long time (four or five years) lay male or female eggs at will; for by filling her seminal receptacle with male semen she has acquired the power of producing female eggs; while before copulation, and with an empty seminal capsule, and therefore in the virgin state, she can only lay male eggs." (P. 53.)

The possibility of the semen thus lying in the spermatheca is a fact of great significance and importance, and illustrates the fact that seminal animalcules will live and thrive in the upper portion of the vagina long after they have been emitted from the testis.

PART II.

DISORDERS IN THE ADULT.

CHAPT. I.-MARITAL EXCESSES.

But any

HITHERTO We have applied the word excess chiefly to illicit sexual connection. Of course, whether extravagant in degree or not, all such connection is, from one point of view, an excess. warning against sexual dangers would be very incomplete if it did not extend to the excesses too often committed by married persons in ignorance of their ill effects. Too frequent emission of the lifegiving fluid, and too frequent sexual excitement of the nervous system, is, as we have seen, in itself most destructive. Whether it occurs in married or unmarried people has little, if anything, to do with the result. The married man who thinks that, because he is a married man, he can commit no excess, however often the act of sexual congress is repeated, will suffer as certainly and as seriously as the debauchee who acts on the same principle in his indulgences, perhaps more certainly, from his very ignorance and from his not taking those precautions and following those rules which a career of vice is apt to teach a man. Many a man has, until he married, lived a most continent life;-so has his wife. But as soon as they are wedded, intercourse is indulged in night after night, neither party having any idea that this is an excess which the system of neither can bear, and which to the man, at least, is simple ruin. The practice is continued till health is impaired, sometimes permanently, and when a patient is at last obliged to seek medical ad

vice, he is thunderstruck at learning that his sufferings arise from such a cause as this. People often appear to think that connection may be repeated just as regularly and almost as often as meals may. Till they are told, the idea never enters their heads that they have been guilty of great and almost criminal excess; nor is this to be wondered at, as such a cause of disease is seldom hinted at by the medical man they consult.

Some years ago a young man called on me, complaining that he was unequal to sexual congress, and was suffering from spermatorrhoea, the result, he said, of self-abuse. He was cauterized, and I lost sight of him until March, 1856, when he returned, complaining that he was scarcely able to move alone. His mind had become enfeebled, there was great pain in the back, and he wished me to repeat the operation.

On cross-examining the patient, I found that he had recovered. his powers after previous cauterization, and, strange to say, had been in the habit of indulging in connection (ever since I had seen him, two years ago) three times a week, without any idea that he was committing an excess, or that his present weakness could depend upon this cause. This is far from being an isolated instance of men who, having been reduced by former excesses, still imagine themselves equal to any excitement, and when their powers are recovered, to any expenditure of vital force. Some go so far as to believe that indulgence may increase these powers, just as gymnastic exercise does the muscles. This is a popular error, and requires correction. Such patients should be told that the shock on the system, each time connection is indulged in, is very powerful, and that the expenditure of seminal fluid must be particularly injurious to organs already debilitated. It is thus that premature old age and complaints of the generative organs are brought on.

A few months later I again saw this young man, and all his symptoms had improved under abstinence, care, and tonics.

Again, in 1856, a gentleman, twenty-three years of age, from the country, married two years, came to me in great alarm, complaining that he was nervous, and unable to manage his affairs. There was pain in his back, the least exertion caused him to perspire, and he had a most careworn countenance. I may further mention that he had been highly scrofulous as a boy. I learnt that he had married a young wife, and fearing that he might be considered a

Joseph, as he had never known woman beforehand (although he acknowledged to having been guilty of evil practices at school), he unconsciously fell into excess, and attempted connection nightly; latterly, erection had been deficient, emission was attended with difficulty, and he felt himself daily less able to discharge what he thought were his family duties. Having procured my book, he came to me for relief, and was extremely surprised that I should consider he had committed excesses, believing that after marriage, intercourse, however often repeated, could not be so termed. The history was given with such a naïf air, that I was obliged to yield implicit credence to it. The treatment, as he was unable to reside in town, consisted in desiring him to restrain himself. ordered him phosphorus.

Again, in September, 1861, a stout, florid man, about forty-five years of age, was sent to me by a distinguished provincial practitioner, in consequence of his sexual powers failing him, and one of his testes being smaller than the other. On cross-examination, I found that he had been married some years, and had a family. Connection had been indulged in very freely, when, about four years ago, a feeling of nervousness gradually came over him, and about the same time his sexual powers gradually became impaired. The real object, it appeared, which he had in coming to me was to obtain some stimulus for his sexual powers, rather than to cure the nervousness and debility under which he was laboring. Indeed, at his request, the efforts of the country practitioner had been made in this direction. Instead of giving remedies to excite, I told him that his convalescence must depend upon strict abstinence and allowing the system to rally, and treated him accordingly.

The lengths to which some married people go are perfectly astonishing. I lately saw a married medical man, who told me that for fourteen years, he believed, he had never allowed a night to pass without having had connection, and it was only lately, on reading my book, that he had attributed his present ailments to marital excesses. The contrast between such a case as this, where an individual for fourteen years has resisted this drain on the system, and that of a man who is, as many are, prostrated for twentyfour hours by one nocturnal emission, is most striking. This great disparity is further discussed at page 180. All experience, however, shows that, whatever is the condition of the nervous system, as re

gards sexual indulgences, excesses will sooner or later tell upon any system, and can never be indulged in with impunity. I believe them to be a common and very fruitful cause of ill health, and hardly yet sufficiently appreciated by the profession.

I will give one more instance. A medical man called on me, saying he found he was suffering from spermatorrhoea. There was general debility, inaptitude to work, disinclination for sexual intercourse, in fact, he thought he was losing his senses. The sight of one eye also was affected: The only way in which he lost semen was, as he thought, by a slight occasional oozing from the penis. I asked him at once if he had ever committed excesses. As a boy, he acknowledged having abused himself, but he married seven years ago, being then a hearty, healthy man, and it was only lately that he had been complaining. In answer to my further inquiry, he stated that since his marriage he had had connection two or three times a week, and often more than once a night! This one fact, I was obliged to tell him, sufficiently accounted for all his troubles. All his symptoms were similar to those we find in boys who abuse themselves. It is true that it may take years to reduce some strong, healthy men, just as it may be a long time to prejudicially influence some boys, but the ill effects of excesses are sooner or later sure to follow.

Since my attention has been particularly called to this class of ailments, I feel confident that many of the forms of indigestion, general ill health, hypochondriasis, &c. depend upon sexual excesses. The directors of hydropathic establishments, it would seem, must have had some such opinions, or they would not have thought it expedient to separate married patients when they are undergoing the water treatment. That this cause of illness is not more widely acknowledged and acted on arises from the natural unwillingness which medical men feel to put such questions to their patients as are necessary to elicit the facts.

I have often been surprised at the immediate and manifest benefit produced in these cases by complete abstinence, together with the simple treatment hereafter detailed under the head of Spermatorrhoea, where other remedies have entirely failed.

It may very naturally be asked, what is meant by an excess in sexual indulgence? The simple reply is-the same as in any other indulgence. An excess is what injures health. I have at page 111

stated that, according to my experience, few married men should indulge in connection oftener than once in seven or perhaps ten days. This, however, is only a guide for strong, healthy men. Generally, I should say that an individual committed an excess when coitus was succeeded by languor, depression of spirits, and malaise. This is the safest definition, for such results will not happen if the male is in good health and indulges his sexual desires moderately.

No invariable law can be laid down in a case where so much must depend upon temperament, age, climate, and other circumstances, as well as the health and strength of both parties. I maintain that the continuance of a high degree of bodily and mental vigor is inconsistent with more than a very moderate indulgence in sexual intercourse, and the still higher principle holds good, that man was not created only to indulge his sexual appetites, and that their indulgence should not be encouraged.

CHAPT. II.-IMPOTENCE.

IMPOTENCE is the term given to all those morbid conditions, in man or woman, which are opposed to the physiological union of the two sexes, that is to say, coition; or, in less accurate language, it may be said to be, general inability to consummate marriage. STERILITY is the term reserved for all those morbid states which, either in the one or other sex, prevent the reproduction of the species. When, however, the term sterility is mentioned, it more especially applies to the female, and is synonymous with barrenness. Impotency or Impotence is usually applied to the man. It may be, perhaps, best described under the two divisions

1. Absence of Desire for Connection-Temporary or false Impotence.

2. Absence or deficiency of Power-Inability to Consummate Marriage-True Impotence.