become developed through such revival meetings as have of late been held in various districts of Great Britain and Ireland, would, on searching inquiry, be found to be cases of the class now occupying our attention.

In some patients, actions of peculiar character are the result of the idea that, by so acting, an atonement is made for the sin committed. The attempt to injure the genitals, to pass blood, and other similar acts proceed from this; while in other instances the object of these actions may be to convince those around and themselves that they still have some power left. In these, the various acts of violence or destructiveness are the result of their endeavors to test their powers and to convince those around.

For a description of the treatment proper for these deplorable cases, I must refer my readers to Dr. Ritchie's pamphlet. He is not sanguine as to the probability of recovery. He has apparently seen these cases at a later stage than I have had the opportunity of doing, and in these advanced forms remedies are not of much avail. The treatment which seems to me most appropriate will be found fully described under the head of Spermatorrhoea (post).

7

PERIOD III.

THE FUNCTIONS AND DISORDERS OF THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS IN THE ADULT.

THE following pages will, for the purpose of greater clearness and conciseness, be divided into two parts. In the first I propose to describe the adult sexual condition as a whole, and in the second, to examine rather more minutely the constituent parts and necessary requisite of the sexual act, viz., erection, ejaculation, and emitted semen. In each of these divisions I shall follow, as far as possible, the course I have hitherto adopted, directing attention first to the healthy discharge of the several functions, and then to the various complications and disordered conditions which prevent or interfere with that healthy discharge.

FIRST DIVISION.

ADULT SEXUAL CONDITION AS A WHOLE.

The commencement of adult life is a period in human existence less marked, perhaps, but not less real, and hardly less critical, than that of puberty. The general growth of the body is complete. The soft bones of childhood are hardened into the firm and elastic. frame of man. The mental powers should be at their highest. The will and judgment should command, and yet be enlivened by the remains of youthful energy and enthusiasm. And, which is more to our present purpose, the virile powers, whose existence commenced at puberty, now at last matured, should be fit and ready to be exercised in obedience to the Creator's command to be fruitful and multiply.

At a certain period in every man's life-occurring generally somewhere between twenty-five and thirty-he is conscious, if he have lived on the whole a chaste life, of a great change in those

sexual tendencies of which he has been frequently conscious before. They are no longer the fitful fancies of a boy, but are capable, he feels, of ripening at once into the steady rational passion, or rather purpose, of the full-grown man. The natural longing is there still, but is no longer toward mere sensual indulgence only (it will be remembered that I am speaking of the continent man), but is deeply tinctured with the craving for wife-and home-and children.

Still, it is not to be denied that, however purified and fortified by these additional elements, the sex-passion in a healthy continent adult is very powerful; very different from the sickly cravings of the voluptuary, or the mad half-poetical desires of a boy,-but requiring his utmost efforts to control, and his best wisdom to guide, when he is able at last lawfully to indulge it.

My object, at present, will be to discuss these sexual desires in the adult with a view to furnish, if I can, some hints and suggestions which may be not without their use, in enabling him to judge wisely, and decide rightly in some of the most important conjunctures of his life.

PART I.

NORMAL FUNCTIONS.

First let us recall the real physical character of the sexual desires. They are," says Carpenter, "in man, prompted by instinet, which he shares with the lower animals. This. instinct, like the other propensities, is excited by sensations, and these may either originate in the sexual organs themselves, or may be excited through the organs of special sense. Thus, in man it is most powerfully aroused by impressions conveyed through the sight or touch; but in many other animals, the auditory and olfactory organs communicate impressions which have an equal power; and it is not improbable that, in certain morbidly excited states of feeling, the same may be the case in ourselves. Localized sensations have also a powerful effect in exciting sexual desires, as must have been within the experience of almost every one; the fact is most remarkable, however, in cases of satyriasis, which disease is generally found to be connected with some obvious cause of irritation of the general system, such as pruritus, active congestion, &c. The seat of this sexual

sensation is no longer supposed to be in the cerebellum' generally, but probably in its central portion, or some part of the medulla oblongata.'

Roubaud considers that as venereal desires are instinctive in animals at the rutting season, so also are they in young human males, at puberty, after long periods of continence, or after intervals of healthy rural repose. Later in life these desires, he thinks, answer to no appeals but those of sensation or imagination. The sense of smell principally affects animals, the odor of the sexual organs of the female possessing an extraordinary attraction for the males of the breed; but all the senses have power to influence the desires of man. "There is no doubt," adds this author, "that mere volition, without the aid of the senses, is adequate to engender venereal desires. Such is the force of imagination, that it alone, without reference to instinct and sensation, is competent to produce not only venereal erethism, but the very act of ejaculation itself."

It is to be expected that, at the time when the man is physically in the fittest state to procreate his species, nature should provide him with a natural and earnest desire, a stimulus, as it were, to the commission of the act which he is now fully competent to perform, not only without injury, but often with positive advantage to himself. This physical condition is thus described in the " Encyclopædia of Anatomy:"

"During the period of excitement, spermatozoa are becoming rapidly adult, the testicles and the ducts are full of semen, the individual is in the condition of a fish with a full milt, or a bird or stag with enlarged testes. He now instinctively seeks the society of woman. These things are not so much matters of chance as is generally imagined, and the testicles may be blamable for much of what is usually ascribed to the heart. Intercourse with females increases his excitement, and all is ready for the copulative act." ("Encyclopædia of Anatomy," art. Vesicula Seminales.)

These, then, are the physiological conditions of the adult male. He feels that MANHOOD has been attained, he experiences all those mysterious sensations which make up what we call VIRILITY.

1 M Flourens removed the cerebellum from cocks, yet they exhibited sexual desire -but were incapable of gratifying it. Among animals, there is no proportion to be observed between the size of the cerebellum and the development of the sexual passion. In geldings, the proportionate weight of the cerebellum, compared with the cerebrum, is as 1 : 5.97, and only as 1 : 7:07 in stallions. (Kirke's "Physiology," and see chapter on Satyriasis," post.)

CHAPT. I.-VIRILITY.

Lallemand thus describes this normal condition of the healthy adult: "Virility, derived from the Latin word vir, a man, is the distinctive characteristic of the male; it is the condition upon which essentially depends the preservation of the species. Is this deep and moral sentiment the artificial result of education, of social convenance, of institutions, &c.? Certainly not! for it is identical in all men, among all people; it is even more energetic, or at least more potent, among the least educated and the least civilized. It depends then evidently on the instinct of propagation, the most powerful feeling of all after that of self-preservation." (Vol. iii, p. 124.)

This feeling of virility is much more developed in man than is that of maternity in woman. Its existence, indeed, seems necessary to give a man that consciousness of his dignity, of his character as head and ruler, and of his importance, which is absolutely essential to the well-being of the family, and through it, of society itself. It is a power, a privilege, of which the man is, and should be proud-so proud that he should husband it, and not squander or debase it. Too many a man, with a recklessness that can only be attributed to ignorance of its value, exhausts or defiles this noble prerogative of his manhood, a possession as precious in its own way as that of chastity-The fayrest vertue, far above the rest."

CHAPT. II.-MARRIAGE.

The whole being of the man cries out, at this period of his life, for, not the indiscriminate indulgence, but the regulated use of his, matured sexual powers. And at this time, therefore, but not before, the medical man will recommend marriage.

The marriage state is the best and most natural cure for sexual suffering of many a human being. It is in itself a state conducive, when well regulated, not only to increased happiness, but to long life.

Parise says: "Amid the abundant statistics which have been collected lately, it has been demonstrated that bachelors live a shorter time than the Benedicts. This assertion is only true provided the married couples live happily together; otherwise bachelors