Chapter 3

COUGH, CONSUMPTION AND GENERAL DEBILITY AND PROSTRATION.

It is a curious pathological fact, that during the progress of Spermatorrhoea, difficulty of breathing, cough, and tightness of the chest, arising in many constitutions from the seminal disorder, have sometimes been actually mistaken for pulmonary consumption. The cough is often distressing, occasionally attended by an expectoration of an offensive kind. There is no doubt that many have been maltreated for consumption when Spermatorrhoea was the real malady. That the latter leads to the former is certain enough, but the stages and connections of the respective diseases have been grossly misunderstood by practitioners who have not had sufficient personal acquaintance with the indications of Spermatorrhoea.

Remember that these continued seminal discharges of an involuntary character disorder every function of the animal economy, and it may be added that while Spermatorrhoea produces so many ruinous effects peculiar to itself, it aggravates and excites any other disease which may co-exist with it.

The +features+ become +pale, emaciated and haggard+. The +eyes are dead, sunken+ and lustreless, and in many cases hold in their depths +a look of wild, unsettled fear that denotes rapidly approaching insanity+. The +bowels+ become +sluggish+, the +appetite capricious+, the +muscles weak+, the +urine pale+ and with +a heavy sediment of semen+ that drains away in it almost constantly. +Emissions+ at night becoming more frequent and copious--sometimes bloody--although the fluid secreted by the wasted testicles is +scarcely stronger than water+. +Sexual incapacity shows itself.+ +Ejaculation+ is either +too quick+ or else very +long delayed+. The +skin+ becomes dry and sallow, the +liver congested and sluggish+. +The heart beats irregularly+, and any sudden sound, movement or fright sets it to beating violently. +Shortness of breath+ is complained of. +The brain becomes weaker and more sluggish day by day.+

{Illustration: Fig. 6. DIAGRAMMATIC REPRESENTATIONS OF THE TESTICLES, DUCTS, &c. Showing where the vital fluid is made and stored and how, and by what means it passes from the +Testes+ (where it is made) to the +Vesicles+ (where it is stored). The heavy black marks on either side of the urine channel, show the relative position of the ejaculatory muscles.}

He generally loses flesh, and feels uneasiness in his stomach which suffers from many of the symptoms accompanying dyspepsia. He is easily startled; the slamming of a door, the firing of a cracker, the falling of a book, a sudden touch, or even speaking to him unexpectedly, will cause him to start. Cowardice is a sure consequence of Self-Abuse and involuntary emissions. The appetite is irregular, often poor, sometimes voracious; the bowels are also variable in their action. The prostatic portion of the urethra is frequently irritable and sometimes is very much +inflamed+; oftentimes there is a +thickening, a sponginess or puffiness+ of the parts immediately involving the ejaculatory ducts. The mucous membrane of the vesiculæ seminales becomes inflamed and thickened. The +testicles+ and the +spermatic cord+ are oftentimes very tender and the seminal fluid is much thinner than natural. Such a Patient has generally +dark spots under his eyes+, +a sharp nose+, and often +flushes of hectic color+ in his cheeks, particularly when in the presence of company, and there is more or less palpitation of the heart. In the second stage, as in the first, the pollutions are diurnal and nocturnal; the latter are copious and recur frequently. So insensible is the passage of semen that the patient is usually astonished and horrified on waking to find himself and +bedclothes saturated+ with this fluid, which is easily absorbed by the clothes, and rapidly dries up, because it has become thin, watery and effete. In addition to this loss he is subject to one equally great on almost every occasion of +urinating+ and +defecating+. This also takes place without any consciousness on his part, and his only knowledge of the fact is from the alarming weakness he experiences after passing water or going to stool. Distraction or absence of mind renders the judgment unfit for any extensive enterprise.

The sexual powers are greatly weakened; the overtaxed organs refuse to fulfill their legitimate task; their susceptibility and irritability are so great that the power of retention is lost, and the seminal fluid is discharged prematurely.

The generative organs are wasted and inactive, or so weakened as to secrete but a ropy, thin and glairy fluid, having few or none of the characteristics of Vital Fluid. Should the individual suffering this way--and either careless or unfortunate enough to go uncured--have offspring, they will assuredly be puny in body and weakly in mind, and will lead a miserable existence through the neglect and indiscretion of their parent.

THIRD STAGE.--STAGNATION AND WASTING.

This stage is an aggravation of the two preceding stages combined.

The emissions are accompanied and followed by a disagreeable and disgusting sensation of shame and misery. The mind is absorbed as much as can be by the one idea of its wretched situation, and the sufferer is haunted by the thought that his condition and its cause are known to the whole world, and that he is pitied or scorned by every person he meets. He is hypochondriacal, and fearful suggestions of self-destruction ever and anon present themselves.

The power of mental concentration is entirely gone and the memory is so feeble that the patient continually forgets what he begins to say. The dimness of vision is continual and so great as to be a material annoyance; the eyes are wandering or fixed upon the ground, seldom venturing to meet the gaze of another. The +ringing in the ears+, +pains in the head and over the eyes+ are almost perpetual and frequently accompanied by partial deafness. +The heart is the seat of pain+, +fluttering+ and +throbbing+ with +violent and long-continued palpitation+, his hands shake, his limbs tremble, his knees are weak, so much so that at times it is almost impossible for him to walk erect. He experiences an insatiable desire for sleep, and yet upon retiring he lies awake for hours, tormented by his troubled reflections, and at last falls into an uneasy slumber, of short duration, disturbed by wretched dreams.

+Hard, red pimples+ frequently appear on the face, forehead and body, +scaly patches+ round the +ears, eyes, nose and lips+, a +black or bluish semi-circle+ shows itself under the +eyes+, and there is a hollow mark from the corner of the eye in a slanting direction under the cheekbone to the angle of the mouth, which tells its tale. The +skin is livid and clammy+ and the digestion is bad. The patient is tormented with +flatulency+, which he cannot always control and which he justly dreads, as it renders him an object of +disgust+ to all in his presence. The bowels are generally +constipated+, obliging him to strain much at stool, thus aggravating the irritation of the prostate gland vesiculæ seminales and increasing the +seminal losses+.

The bladder is irritable and will retain the urine but a short time; the ureters and kidneys are also inflamed and in post-mortem examinations are sometimes found to contain +abscesses+; they are the seat of much pain when pressure is made over the intervertebral spaces of the dorsal and lumbar vertebræ or backbone. The vesiculæ seminales have +been indurated+ and can be felt to be +knotty+ and +hard+. The spinal marrow is very sensitive throughout its whole extent; the cerebellum is the seat of a +dull+ and +heavy pain+, and there is a feeling of pressure upon the brain. Cerebral congestion now and then occurs. This stage of the disease is frequently accompanied by +Bronchitis+ or a continued +Catarrh+, also by disease of the +rectum+ and all the +tissues near the generative organs+.

It is hardly necessary to say that the functions of the nervous system are completely deranged, indeed, +nervous twitchings+ of the +eyelids+, +head+ and +limbs+ are the consequences of +Spermatorrhoea+. He is finally either hurried to a premature grave by consumption, epilepsy or apoplexy; or insanity, taking the hopeless form of dementia, has removed him from his home to the madhouse.

It is safe to say that of all the cases of incurable insanity, a large majority are caused by Spermatorrhoea.

Many, owing to +sheer neglect+ or to +false notions of delicacy+, delay seeking for proper medical relief until they are almost destroyed, and body and mind are nearly in ruins.

Pitiable the picture of one who has +reached+ this stage of the disease. The organs are still congested but +irritability+ has given away to +torpor+ and +sluggishness+. Semen drains away by day and night without provocation, these constant losses dragging the person to the very +brink of the grave+, or +standing him+ within that +melancholy shade+ where +suicide+, +insanity+ or +idiocy+ almost certainly stares him in the face. The organs are wasted almost totally away. All +strength+, +vitality+, +erectile+ and +procreative power+ have left them, and the victim is at last totally +impotent+. Of no use to themselves, a curse to their freinds, a disgrace to society, they sink from sight into an early grave or are lost to the world behind asylum doors. It is a sad and terrible picture, but true--too true--to life.

The tendency of Nature in most disorders is towards cure, but +here it is towards deterioration+. There is no chance here of the evil "wearing itself out" save in madness and death on the one hand, and on the other by the salutary intervention of the most +vigorous+, +cautious+ and +enlightened treatment+, a treatment pursued in the +full light+ of the aids afforded by the great discoveries in physiological science for which the present age is happily distinguished. Fortunately for humanity, by the aid of Chemistry, as well as Medical Science, it has been reserved for us to present to the public the +Civiale Remedies+, which have proved themselves undeniable blessings to thousands, restoring with unerring power those suffering from this hitherto baffling complaint.

LESS SEVERE CASES.

There are cases where the effects of early abuse are neither so rapid nor so severe. In many instances the persons, to all outward appearances, are strong and robust. They only complain of certain sexual symptoms that trouble them. But let them beware. Appearances are very deceitful. Let a sudden fit of illness supervene and see how quickly these apparently healthy men succumb and are swept away by it. Then, too, in many of these cases, he who to-day may seem strong and healthy, with the exception of his sexual weakness, may suddenly develop most grave nervous symptoms, and in less than a month be beneath the sod or hopelessly insane. Such cases have occurred, and one particular instance even as we write presents itself to our mind. Poor fellow, he died a raving maniac the very night he was to have been married to one of the most charming young ladies in New Haven. And yet he thought he was perfectly healthy. He only learned his true condition too late for human aid.

HIDDEN SPERMATORRHOEA.

In many cases the seminal ducts have become so weak and relaxed that the fluid passes off involuntarily with the water and is not perceived; also when straining at stool and when you have an erection. To test its escape in the urine, pass off your water in a clear glass pint bottle and let it stand twenty-four hours in a warm place; then hold up the bottle between yourself and the light, and if you discover a sediment of a +white, fleecy+ nature, resembling cotton, in the bottom, you are suffering from +hidden spermatorrhoea+, from which all your present ailments come. Where this fluid passes off with the urine, it is just as injurious to the system as full emissions, as it is a continual drain day after day, as well as taking that part of the vitality which goes to supply the brain and nerves. Many patients afflicted in this way will notice, shortly after urinating, a +dull pain+ in the forehead, sometimes extending to the +eye-balls+, causing, as well, a feeling of +general debility+, as if they had no strength or will to do anything. If this weakness is allowed to go on unchecked, the mind will become diseased, the eye-sight will be impaired, and the vital forces consumed--thereby causing +partial and complete impotency+. Should you desire greater certainty in testing, either send on a sample of your urine, or test it with our powder.

The characteristic symptoms of partial impotency are: an imperfect erection, or, if the erection is sufficiently vigorous, it is of too short a duration, and the vital fluid is discharged prematurely.

The erector muscles become paralyzed, and the organ remains inactive at the call of the will.

The person thus afflicted is greatly embarrassed and mortified at his paralytic condition. That buoyancy of spirit is gone; the snap, vim and vigor that once held sway has departed--and why? Because that great motive power (amativeness) that gives the push and go-aheaditiveness is checked, or rather, ceases to act.

THE CURABILITY OF SPERMATORRHOEA AND IMPOTENCY.

Having before us the records of some three thousand cases, grave, simple and severe, that have come under our treatment in this country, as well as the printed copies of the +French Hospital Reports+, and +Civiale's Works+, in which he minutely reviews all phases of this complaint, illustrating them with cases from his own practice, we feel justified in assuring our readers that almost any case can be cured, provided +thoroughness+ is the maxim of treatment.

The method of Profs. +Jean Civiale+ and +Lallemand+, as now perfected and extended by us, and so justly named after +Civiale+, stands unrivaled in its +success+ as well as its +simplicity+ and +reasonableness+. To all such as suffer from this harassing complaint we commend, first, a careful reading of the history of this discovery and the eminent medical men and hospitals that endorse it; and, second, a fair trial of these remedies, no matter how +hopeless+, +despondent+ and +despairing+ you may be. (See page 55.)

Although the advertising and spreading, and the ringing to full perfection of this treatment is really due to us and our physicians, still we feel in duty bound to always keep in view the two great French surgeons who first discovered the method of +intra-urethral medication+.

_CHAPTER V._

IMPOTENCY OR LOST POWER.

Scarcely a day passes that we do not have some patient inquiring +"What is Impotence?"+--+"Are Impotence and Spermatorrhoea the same Disease?"+

+Impotency+ (from the Latin words _im_ [not] and _potens_ [to be able] means a condition of the Sexual Organs in which a man is not able to beget his species. It may be because he has lost his erectile power (and this is how it is most commonly understood), or because he has lost all desire, or lastly, because the +vital fluid+ has become so +weakened+ and +degenerated+ as to have lost its +procreative power+.

Impotence is most common in men past middle age. It may come on as _the second or third stage of Spermatorrhoea_, or it may develop slowly or suddenly _without any symptoms of Spermatorrhoea_. It may be accompanied by various +nervous+ and +exhausting+ symptoms, or these may be _wholly absent_. If vital fluid is being lost, and the Impotence is due to the weakness thus caused, +nervous exhaustion+ is sure to come sooner or later.

Impotence and Spermatorrhoea may exist together in the same person.

Many impotent men have no other bad symptoms than simply this failure of the +sexual organs+ to respond when called upon. The trouble in these cases usually lies in the erectile muscles, which are +weakened+ or +paralysed+, and in the +nervous bulbs+ or +ganglia+, that are blunted or exhausted.

A perfectly healthy man should be able to beget his species until he is +at least+ 80 years of age. Instances of such power at the age of 97 are on record. In these days of +exhaustion+, +early decay+, +excesses+ and +abuse+, most men begin to lose their power at or before 40. This is not right, and can +certainly+ be remedied by proper treatment.

IMPOTENCY, COMPLICATED WITH BLADDER OR PROSTATE DISEASE.

In such cases the Prostate Gland is usually congested, enlarged and irritated, and needs prompt and thorough treatment. (See page 26.) The tone of the nervous system is also lowered, even though it may not be apparent to the individual himself. Hence, some good, strong, special, general and sexual tonic, such as +Civiale's Tonic Regulator+ (see page 30) is needed, as is shown by the rapid improvement that follows its use, especially when combined with effective measures for strengthening the +erectile muscles+, invigorating the +Sexual Nerve Ganglia+, and reducing the +Prostatic congestion+. Some of the most remarkable cases of the thorough cure of Impotence and restoration to full sexual vigor that appear in the 53d Volume of the French Hospital Reports, were in men +past 60 years of age+.

IMPOTENCY AND WASTING OF THE ORGANS.

In many of these cases of impotence (as well as of Spermatorrhoea) the organs were either small and puny from birth or had wasted away as the disease progressed--just as a paralyzed arm or leg will waste away from want of use and exercise. Such cases, as also those where there is twisting or curving of the organ, need thorough developmental treatment. Such organs can be readily developed under proper treatment, just as the breast or a limb may be developed and increased in +size, strength and power+ by the use of the proper treatment. Those who have not kept pace with the advances of medical science abroad can scarcely realize how great her strides have been. To-day it is easy (especially in Sexual, Seminal and Urinary diseases) to do what ten years ago the majority of physicians deemed impossible, and to +Lallemand+ and +Civialè+ belong the highest meed of praise for their unremitting labors in bringing this branch of medical science to its present state of comparative perfection. As an illustration we can cite case after case that has been sent us by physicians in good standing as utterly beyond their skill, and we have returned their patients to them in a few months' time fully and +perfectly restored to sexual strength+ and +vigor+ as they, themselves, were obliged to admit.

IMPOTENCY AT ANY AGE IS CURABLE.

Do not despair then, reader, if you are thus afflicted and have made several trials and failed to find +health+ and +vigor+. The +Civiale Remedies+, while not infallible, have certainly done wonders for many so-called "+hopeless cases+," and we doubt not that you, too, can be perfectly restored. Submit your conditions and symptoms to our Board of Consulting Physicians, and at least get their opinion upon it. Certain it is that these remedies, brought to light by the eminent French savant, Professor in the greatest medical college in France, and adopted and endorsed by all the large Parisian hospitals and most eminent French physicians, +cannot possibly hurt you+, and +more than likely will cure you+.

_CHAPTER VI._

BLADDER, KIDNEY, PROSTATIC AND URINARY DISEASES.

Congestions, irritation and even inflammation of the Urinary Organs often occur in men, either alone or as a complication of Seminal Disease and Weakness. The Seminal Vesicles lie just behind the bladder, while the Seminal Ducts pass through the body of the +Prostate Gland+, and open into the urethra (or urine channel) upon its surface (see Fig. 5). Hence, any inflammation or congestion of this large gland that lies at the root of the organ and neck of the bladder, is almost certain to produce +Seminal Weakness+, +Losses+ and +Impotence+.

It will be noticed that men past 50 years of age are often forced to rise in the night once or oftener to make water. This, and the delay that sometimes occurs before the stream will start, are usually due to enlarged +Prostate Gland+--a common condition in men past 50. Many and many a man at this age finds his +sexual power declining+ and cannot understand it--+Enlarged Prostate Gland+.

As the gland enlarges and becomes stiff and its tissues hardened and brawny, it presses upon and deprives the Sexual Nerves of power and sometimes paralyzes them, causing total Impotency. How useless--worse than useless, even hurtful--are the usual remedies. The Prostate Gland must be softened, cooled and +robbed+ of its +inflammation+ before Anti-Impotency remedies can be of the slightest service. And here it is where the great success of the +Civiale Crayons+ is best shown: +The Prostatic Crayons melt, run down upon, soothe, quiet and allay the inflammatory and hardened gland+, while the +Impotence Crayons+ are +re-toning+, +strengthening+ and +re-vitalizing+ the Sexual Nerves, and strengthening the +erectile+ and +ejaculatory+ muscles. Perfect cure and perfect restoration are possible if +proper+ means are +properly+ applied.

Spermatorrhoea likewise is both caused and complicated by +Prostatic+ and +Urinary+ inflammation. The Sexual Nerves are involved and weakened in the same manner as in Impotency, while, in addition the hardened substance of the Prostate Gland keeps the mouths of the Seminal Ducts open, and the +vital fluid+ runs away into the +urethra+ to be swept out with the urine, without let or hindrance. Soon this loss tells, not only upon the brain and nerves and general health, but upon the testicles where this fluid is made. So much is wasted that these two glands, work as they may, cannot supply a sufficiency of good, healthy fluid, and meet the difficulty by making a thin, watery infertile fluid that would flow away even if the mouths of the ducts were healthy. They do this at the cost of a terrible strain upon the whole system--they strain and injure themselves and grow +weak and flabby+ and finally +wasted+--often rupture small vessels in their substance, thus yielding +bloody or black seminal fluid+.

The _CAUSES_ of Prostatitis or Prostatorrhoea are many and diverse. The most prominent are:

_Gonorrhoea or Gleet_, running backward and settling in the gland or neck of the bladder;

_Stricture_, deep in the canal, causing congestion and inflammation;

_Masturbation_, by keeping the gland excited, congested and irritated, often causes it;

_Exposure to cold and wet_, especially sitting on a cold door-step or damp seat;

_Blows and Injuries_ of any kind;

_Strong Injections_, and rough jabbing with steel sounds or rough bougies;

_Eating Hot Condiments_, or too free indulgence in alcoholic beverages.

VARIOUS COMPLICATIONS.

If the inflammation extends to the neck of the +bladder+, he has an attack of +cystitis+. If it goes down along the seminal ducts, it produces +swelled testicle+, +clogged duct+, +chronic enlargement+, +cancer+, +cysts+ and hopeless wasting of the +testicles+. If it extends up the +ureters+, it causes +Bright's Disease+, +abscess+ of the +kidneys+, or +lumbar fistula+. If it runs forward along the urine canal, it produces so-called +gleet+. If it settles in the +prostate gland+ and becomes chronic, it may cause +abscess of the gland+, +retention of the urine+, and certainly either or both +Spermatorrhoea+ or +Impotency+.

It may thus be seen how exceedingly dangerous a disease this +Prostatitis+ is, and how very important it becomes to check it at the earliest possible moment.