to admit. So ruinous is the practice of solitary vice, both in the one and other sex, that it is carried on even in married life, where no excuse can be devised, and is actually preferred to the natural excitement. Venereal excesses engender satiety just as certainly as any other excesses, and satiety is followed by indifference and disgust. If the unnatural excesses of masturbation take place early in life, before the subjects who commit them arrive at maturity, it is not surprising that we meet with women whose possibility of sexual feeling, if it ever existed, is now prematurely worn out. Doubtless sexual feeling differs largely in different women. Although it is not my object to treat other than incidentally of the sexual economy in women, yet I may here say that the same causes which in early life induce abnormal sexual excitement in boys have similar effects in girls. This tendency may be checked in girls, as in boys, by careful moral education in early life. But no doubt can exist that hereditary predisposition has much to do with this, besides education and early associations. There are families, for instance, in which chastity among the females is not the characteristic feature. We offer, I think, no apology for light conduct when we admit that there are some few women who, like men, in consequence of hereditary predisposition or ill-directed moral education, find it difficult to restrain their passions, while their more fortunate sisters have never been tempted, and have, therefore, never fallen. This, however, does not alter the fact which I would venture again to impress on the reader, that, in general, women do not feel any great sexual tendencies. The unfortunately large numbers whose lives would seem to prove the contrary are to be accounted for on much more mercenary motives. Vanity, giddiness, greediness, love of dress, distress, hunger, make women prostitutes, but not generally sensuality.1

II. TRUE IMPOTENCE.

II. ABSENCE OF OR DEFICIENCY OF POWER.-INABILITY TO CONSUMMATE MARRIAGE.

We now have to speak of those melancholy cases in which the absence of sexual power is not temporary or casual, but perma1 See author's work on "Prostitution," p. 20.

nent.

"True impotence," says Lallemand, "consists in want of power in connection, not once, but habitually; not only with courtesans, but with those whom we most love; not under unfavorable circumstances, but during long periods of time, say five, fifteen, or twenty years, when married to lovely and handsome women, whose devotion to their husbands has never been questioned." (Vol. ii, p. 242.)

That this lamentable state of things truly exists there can be no doubt, and in London those who devote their attention to diseases of the reproductive organs, occasionally meet with cases in which there appears to be complete annihilation of all the sexual feelings and actions, and in which the man is reduced to what Roubaud describes as generative syncope; such instances, however, are rare. Usually it happens, at least in England, that the functional diseases requiring treatment consist in the absence of only one or more of the conditions necessary for coition. In the East, I am told, the Levantines are often perfectly impotent before they arrive at the age of thirty. If report speaks correctly, Hien Fung, the late Emperor of China, was in this same condition. The forms that impotence assumes are various, though the result is the same in all cases, viz., inability to perform the sexual act. Thus, a man may be entirely impotent whether he has or has not erection attendant on desire. Again, there may only be a partial erection, lasting an insufficient length of time for penetration; or the erection may be so weak, or the emission so quick, as practically to render the man impotent; or a man may be impotent from having no emission at all, or an emission that does not take place until after the time of attempted connection.

CAUSES.-I fear we must come to the conclusion that when there is desire, and merely a want of power, this state of things arises from abuse of the generative organs, aggravated in most instances by alarm, a guilty conscience, fear of not succeeding, habits of intemperance, too free use of tobacco, from timidity, or from too frequent excitement without gratification.

The exact way in which these causes produce the effects of impotence is not certainly known, but it is most probably by occasioning lesions of the nervous system, and most especially that portion of it which is under the influence of the sympathetic nerve or excito-motory system.

Non-descent of the Testes is a cause in some men of partial impotence, and it appears almost invariably attended by sterility. I do not pretend to say that every man who has an undescended testicle must necessarily be altogether impotent; a few cases are recorded of men whose testes have never descended into the scrotum having had families; but I have met with several instances, one of which I shall presently describe, where, I believe, impotence arose entirely from this cause. It is true that in the elephant, and some other animals, in the cetacea, in birds and reptiles, the testes are constantly found in the abdomen, side by side with the kidneys, lungs, &c. This only shows that if the adult's testes are truly in the abdomen, they may secrete' semen as readily as when in the scrotum; but when in the inguinal canal, or in the groin, such pressure may have been, and probably has been, exercised on the gland as to impair its secreting powers.

Breeders look with great distrust on animals with undescended testes. The phenomenon of undescended testes has lately been investigated in France. M. Godard has written a very interesting account of this condition, which he has called Cryptorchidie, from XруяTE to conceal, and pzs testicle. This author goes on to say, in the case of a dog wolf he examined, in which both the testes were undescended, their structure was neither fibrous nor had they undergone fatty degeneration; the parenchyma was gray and dryer than usual, although of a natural consistence; in size the gland was a third smaller than usual. The semen contained no traces of seminal animalcules, but simply epithelial cells. M. Godard further observes that, in the case of a man with undescended testicles, whom he examined after death, the section of the testes presented no peculiarity. The glandular parenchyma was of the ordinary color; the canals were healthy and pervious; the liquid

1 I say may, for I believe that in the greater number of instances the testes, even if free within the abdomen, will not secrete spermatozoa or living animalcules. This subject has been repeatedly examined in France, and among others M. Goubax, professor of the veterinary school at Alfort, says: "When the testicles remain within the abdomen of the animal, they augment very little in size. The substance of the gland, although healthy, remains soft, as it is in the foetus. The semen which is contained in the vesiculæ seminales of the side corresponding to that on which the testis is in the abdomen, is found on microscopic examination to contain no spermatic animalcules, and observation and experience prove that the animals in whom double Cryptorchis is found are unfruitful or barren.

which was pressed from them contained epithelial cells, blood, and fatty globules. The vasa deferentia contained a liquid composed of fatty globules of variable diameters. No animalcules, but epithelial cells, were present. He personally examined the seminal secretion of many living men who had both testes in the abdomen, and his conclusion was that in the Cryptorchis no seminal animalcules are ever found in the secretion, although the ejaculated fluid has been frequently examined. He concludes that "men both whose testicles are arrested in their evolution are sterile, but not impotent; that those who have for their generative apparatus only vasa deferentia are sterile, and nearly incapable of sexual intercourse."-Comptes rendus des séances de la Société de Biologie, tome iii, série 2, 1856, p. 315.

My own experience in practice certainly is, that men with undescended testes have no family. I was consulted by a gentleman in 1861, in consequence of his wife having no children. He told me. he had been married some years, and the lady presented all the external attributes of a person likely to have a large family, and I was aware that she had consulted a celebrated physician, at whose suggestion the husband had come to me. There was no suspicion at the time that the testes were absent, or even imperfectly developed. However, on examination, it was impossible to detect any testicles in the scrotum, and pressure in the groin did not give him any peculiar pain. There was, nevertheless, abundant evidence that the testes existed, although undescended. In no other respect did the patient differ from other men, and he assured me that the sexual feeling was natural, and that he had connection once or twice a week, the emission being as abundant as he supposed it ought to be in other men. I must say that, as far as my personal observations go, I look with great suspicion on the procreative powers of any person with undescended testes. Among other causes of impotence, or rather sterility, I may mention the influence of

Hernia and Trusses. In practice, we find that both one and the other considerably interfere with the circulation. Whatever does this, must impair the secretion of the seminal fluid; and, in fact, we find that many persons who wear trusses complain of impaired sexual power. In the same way, I have found sexual power absent likewise in the more severe cases of—

Varicocele, but in the slighter instances it is only impaired.

Fortunately, this kind of affection is generally only temporary; but, by taking a few precautions, permanent impotence can be avoided, and the procreative functions be sufficiently performed. In our discussion of the causes of impotence they could hardly be, however, passed by.

Before leaving this branch of our subject, I shall remind the reader that all the practical results of impotence can be, and constantly are, produced by the mechanical effects of a

Stricture of the urethra, by preventing the emission of semen. The description of this form of disease of the reproductive organs is not within the scope of the present treatise. For further information upon it I may be allowed to refer to my larger work on the "Urinary and Generative Organs," page 81. Impregnation is, of course, rendered almost impossible by a serious stricture, as the semen, instead of being at once ejaculated, can only dribble away afterward when all erection has disappeared. The act of connection, moreover, is often painful, the pain being generally felt during the ejaculatory act. This form of impotence is far from incurable, as proper treatment by dilatation and other means generally succeeds in removing the stricture. Impotence arising from a similar cause, viz.,

Obstruction, is observed in sheep. The high-fed and high-bred rams, from which the best breeds are obtained, become subject to a kind of stricture arising from the deposit of calcareous matter in the urethra.

The peculiar conformation of the organ in sheep conduces to this result. The glans penis of the ram consists of an oval and wrinkled swelling, divided horizontally at the end, looking like the head of a snake. From this glans projects a long, thin appendix, of a consistent character. This appendix, which shepherds call "the worm,' tapers to a point, and the canal passing through it is very small. A ram is sometimes observed to be very uneasy and apparently to be less and less able to micturate. On examination, the vermiform appendage is found distended and stiffened from an accumulation within the urethral canal of calcareous matter in a sabulous form.

This in many instances can be removed by slightly pressing and rolling the appendage between the fingers, which will at once relieve the strangury, and save the animal; but frequently either the ram has to be killed or part of "the worm" removed. If sufficient is