PREFACE ΤΟ THE FIRST EDITION. IN the second edition of my work on the Diseases of the Urinary and Generative Organs, I ventured for the first time to treat of their functional disorders. Since that period I have invariably noted down in private practice such cases as presented features of peculiar interest, and have collected much additional material bearing on this hitherto neglected subject. The results are comprised in the present volume. The reader will in the first place find that I have described the normal functions of the sexual organs at the various periods of life, drawing illustrations from the most recent writings of Owen, Carpenter, and Rymer Jones. Thus guided by true physiological principles, and supported by the enlarged views which comparative anatomy now gives us of the generative functions, I have treated at length of the aberrations to which they are liable. In so doing I have not relied on my own observations only, but have quoted largely from the works of Lallemand, and Reveillé Parise; preferring that they should share the responsibility of many statements which I could establish on my own experience. Hence I would fain hope that the professional reader, who takes up this work in a serious, thoughtful, and what I would term a loyal spirit, will not rise from its perusal without having derived considerable information. Should these Should these pages accidentally fall into the hands of laymen of sense and information, many of the facts and opinions to be found therein will, I apprehend, prove at least suggestive. The continent student will find reasons for continuing to live according to the dictates of virtue. The dissolute will be taught, on positive and irrefragable grounds, the value of self-control. The married man will find advice and guidance; and the bachelor, who is often placed in a trying social position, will glean consolation from observing that not only are his sexual sufferings appreciated and understood, but that rules are given him for their mitigation. The physiologist will see his principles reduced to practice. The comparative anatomist will judge how much light his investigations on the animal kingdom have thrown upon sexual relations in Man. The surgeon will learn how to manage that difficult class the hypochondriacal, and how to address himself to the audacious old libertine who, setting at naught religious principle and social customs, acts in open defiance of the laws of his country. Lastly, the advocate who practices in the ecclesiastical or criminal courts will here find the basis for many valuable arguments,-nay more, he may learn how, in many cases of guilt, fair cause may be shown for a culprit's committal to a lunatic asylum instead of to a prison. I should be ungrateful indeed were I to neglect this opportunity of thanking Drs. Carpenter and Farr, and Messrs. Owen, Paget, Quckett, Simonds, Thompson, and Varnell, for their personal communication of facts gathered in their various departments of science; and I would take the opportunity of stating that I shall be happy to receive from any of my professional brethren facts illustrating the many delicate questions that are now for the first time formally discussed. In conclusion, I would remark, that if in the following pages I shall be judged to have fulfilled a tithe of what I proposed to myself, I shall have the satisfaction of thinking that, following in the footsteps of John Hunter, Parent-Duchâtelet, and Ricord, I have advanced the study and practice of that department of medicine with which their names will ever be connected. 17 QUEEN ANN STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. |