The preceding pages may seem to many of our readers more particularly adapted to France; and it may be presumed that onanism is not so frequent in America. This however is a mistake: an able writer in that valuable periodical, the Boston Med. and Surg. Journal, when treating on the subject remarks as follows:—

“The pernicious and debasing practice of Masturbation is a more common and extensive evil with youth of both sexes, than is usually supposed. The influence of this habit upon both mind and body, severe as it has been considered, and greatly as it has been deprecated, is altogether more prejudicial than the public, and, as is believed, even the medical profession, are aware.

“A great number of the evils which come upon the young at and after the age of puberty, arise from masturbation, persisted in, so as to waste the vital energies and enervate the physical and mental powers of man. Not less does it sap the foundation of moral principles, and blast the first budding of manly and honorable feelings which were exhibiting themselves in the opening character of the young.

“Many of the weaknesses commonly attributed to growth and the changes in the habit by the important transformation from adolescence to manhood, are justly referable to this practice.

“This change requires all the energy of the system, greatly increased as it is at this period of life, which if undisturbed will bring about a vigorous and healthy condition of both the mental and physical powers.

“If masturbation be commenced at this period, it cannot fail to interrupt essentially this important process; and if continued, will inevitably impress imbecility on the constitution, not less apparent in the body than the mind, preventing, as it will not fail to do, the full development of the powers of both.

“The individual becomes feeble, is unable to labor with accustomed vigor, or to apply his mind to study; his step is tardy and weak, he is dull, irresolute, engages in his sports with less energy than usual, and avoids social intercourse; when at rest he instinctively assumes a lolling or recumbent posture, and if at labor or at his games takes every opportunity to lie down or sit in a bent and curved position. The cause of these infirmities is often unknown to the subject of them, and more generally to the friends; and to labor, or study, or growth, is attributed all the evils which arise from the practice of this secret vice, which if persisted in will hardly fail to result in irremediable disease or hopeless idiocy. The natural consequence of indulgence in this, as in most other vices, is an increased propensity to them. This is particularly true of masturbation. In my intercourse with this unfortunate class of individuals, I have found a large proportion of them wholly ignorant of the causes of their complaints, and if not too far gone the abandonment of the habit has, after awhile, removed all the symptoms and resulted in confirmed health.

“One young man, now under my care, was first arrested in his career by reading the chapters on the subject in the Young Man’s Guide. For many months, he has totally abstained from the practice, and yet he is feeble, depressed, irresolute, and unable to fix his attention to any subject, or to pursue any active employment. But he is steadily convalescing, and will doubtless recover.

“If the symptoms above enumerated do not lead in any way to a discontinuance of the habit, other symptoms more formidable, and more difficult of cure, will present themselves. The back becomes lame and weak, the limbs tremble, the digestion is disturbed, and costiveness or diarrhoea, or an alternation of them, take place. The head becomes painful—the heart palpitates—the respiration is easily hurried—the mind is depressed and gloomy—the temper becomes irritable—the sleep disturbed, and is attended by lascivious dreams, and not unfrequently nocturnal pollutions. With these symptoms the pulse becomes small, the extremities cold and damp; the countenance is downcast, the eye without natural lustre; shamefacedness is apparent, as if the unfortunate victim was conscious of his degraded condition.

“The stomach often rejects food, and is affected with acidity, and loathing; the nervous system becomes highly irritable; neuralgia, tabes dorsalis, pulmonary consumption, or fatal marasmus, terminate the suffering, or else insanity and deplorable idiocy are the fatal result. Long before such an event, the mind is enfeebled, the memory impaired, and the power of fixing the attention wholly lost. These are symptoms which should awaken our attention to the danger of the case, and which should induce us to sound the alarm, and if possible arrest the victim from the inevitable consequences of persisting in the habit.

“In females, leucorrhoea is often induced by masturbation, and I doubt not incontinence of urine, stranguary, prolapsus uteri, disease of the clitoris, and many other diseases, both local and general, which have been attributed to other causes.

“It is often difficult to obtain information on the subject of masturbation. Where it is suspected by the physician, the friends are wholly ignorant on the subject, and the individual, suffering, is not ready to acknowledge a practice which he is conscious is filthy in the extreme, although he may have had no suspicions of its deleterious influence upon his health.

“It is not sufficient that we know the consequences of masturbation, for these are often irremediable disease; we ought to know the symptoms of its commencement, of the incipient stages of those diseases which result from it, as well as the influence which the moderate practice of it will have upon the physical and mental stamina of the man—for it is not too much to say that the practice cannot be followed by either sex, even in a moderate way, without injury, especially by the young.

“Nature designs that this drain upon the system should be reserved to mature age, and even then that it be made but sparingly. Sturdy manhood, in all its vigor, loses its energy and bends under the too frequent expenditure of this important secretion; and no age or condition will protect a man from the danger of unlimited indulgence, legally and naturally exercised.

“In the young, however, its influence is much more seriously felt; and even those who have indulged so cautiously as not to break down the health or the mind, cannot know how much their physical energy, mental vigor, or moral purity, have been affected by the indulgence.

“Nothing short of total abstinence can save those who have become the victims of it. In this indulgence, no half way course will ever subdue the disease, or remove the effect of the habit from the system. Total abstinence is the only remedy. If the constitution is not fatally impaired—if organic disease has not taken place, this remedy will prove effectual, and must be adopted, especially in all cases in which the effects are visible, or the consequences cannot fail to be ultimately fatal.

“This means of cure may be seconded by others, which may be found necessary to remove the effects upon the physical system. Suffice it to remark here, that total abstinence, in an aggravated form of masturbation, is not easily effected. Slight irritation will produce an expenditure of the secretion quite involuntary, and spontaneous emissions and nocturnal pollution may for a long time prolong the danger, and prevent that renovation of the powers which would otherwise be the result of the good resolution of the victim of the habit.

“No cause is more influential in producing insanity, and, in a special manner, perpetuating the disease, than masturbation. The records of the institutions give an appalling catalogue of cases attributed to this cause; and yet such records do not show nearly all the cases which are justly ascribable to it. For it is so obscure, and so secret in its operation, that the friends in almost all cases are wholly ignorant of it. It is in a few cases only, where the practice of the vice becomes shamefully notorious, that friends are willing to allow its agency in the production of any disease, particularly insanity; and yet no cause operates more directly upon the mind and the feeling. The mental energies are prostrated by the habit in innumerable cases, long before the delusions of insanity appear. Indeed there are many cases, in which insanity does not intervene between the incipient stages of that mental and physical imbecility, which comes early upon the victim of masturbation, and the most deplorable and hopeless idiocy, in which it frequently results.

“This is perhaps peculiar to this cause of idiocy. I know of no other which does not produce the ravings and illusions of insanity, or the gloomy musings, agitations and alarms of melancholy, before the mind is lost in idiotism. But the victim of masturbation passes from one degree of imbecility to another, till all the powers of the system, mental, physical and moral, are blotted out forever!

“This is not, however, always the case. In some individuals there is all the raving of the most furious mania, or the deep and cruel torture of hapless melancholy, before the mind is obliterated and the energies of the system forever prostrated.

“There are other circumstances attending the insanity from masturbation, which render this the most distressing form of mental disease. I allude to the difficulty of breaking up the habit while laboring under this malady. When insanity is once produced by it, it is nearly hopeless, because the cause of disease is redoubled and generally perpetuated. The libidinous desires are greatly increased, and the influence of self restraint cannot be brought sufficiently into action to prevent the constant, daily, and I might say almost hourly recurrence of the practice. Thus the cause is perpetuated; and in spite of every effort, the disease increases, the powers of body and mind fail together, and are lost in the most deplorable, hopeless, disgusting fatuity! And yet the practice is not abandoned. All the remaining energies of animal life seem to be concentrated in these organs, and all the remaining power of gratification left is in the exercise of this no longer secret, but loathsome and beastly habit.

“Those cases of insanity arising from other known causes, in which masturbation is a symptom, are rendered more hopeless by this circumstance. It is a counteracting influence to all the means of cure employed, either moral or medicinal, and coinciding as it does with whatever other causes may have had an agency in producing disease, renders the case almost hopeless. Of the number of the insane that have come under the observation of the writer (and that number is not small,) few, very few have recovered, who have been in the habit of this evil practice; and still fewer, I might say almost none, have recovered, in which insanity or idiocy has followed the train of symptoms enumerated in a former paper, indicating the presence of the habit, and its debilitating influence upon the minds and bodies of the young.

“Most of the cases of insanity from this cause commence early in life; even confirmed and hopeless idiocy has been the melancholy consequence, before the victim had reached his twentieth year.

“Of eighty males, insane, that have come under the observation of the writer, and who have been particularly examined and watched, with reference to ascertaining the proportion that practised masturbation, something more than a quarter were found to practise it; and in about 10 per cent., a large proportion of which are idiotic, the disease is supposed to have arisen from this cause.

“Would it be believed, if it should be said that the proportion will not vary essentially in the other sex? On a former occasion I observed that the absolute abandonment of the practice, even in those whose minds were unaffected by insanity, was not always easily effected. If no voluntary practice is continued, the habit may be so far established, and the susceptibility to the complaint be so great, that slight irritation will produce it, and that often for a long time after the danger is fully appreciated, and the victory over the propensity achieved so far as cautiously avoiding known and intentional indulgence. Nocturnal pollution and involuntary emissions come from slight causes and trifling irritation, but perpetuate for a long time all the train of unhappy influences that have been heretofore detailed. The unfortunate subject of this detestable vice, whose mental energy is unimpaired, and whose moral feelings are susceptible of impression, can be persuaded to abandon it, if the danger is set before him in its true light; but hundreds can bear me testimony that the effects of it are long felt, and the involuntary excitement produced by dreams, lascivious companions, warm beds, and improper intercourse with corrupt society, has for a long time after had its influence in retarding complete recovery to health. With the insane we can have no such hopes, and no such prospects of cure. They will rarely form resolutions on the subject, and still more rarely adhere to them. Reason, the balance wheel of the mind, being denied them, they are obnoxious to the influence of all the propensities in a high degree.

“After the practice of masturbation, as a voluntary habit, is entirely suspended, long and persevering efforts will be required to remove the effects from the system, and restore it to vigor and soundness. The individual himself must exercise great self-denial, and resolve to persevere with the means and overcome all obstacles that may be in his way, however formidable and difficult. The regimen to be adopted must be strictly adhered to on all occasions. As the inebriate would probably never conquer his appetite for alcoholic drink if he indulged once a month only—so in this habit, the occasional indulgence will thwart the whole plan of cure. The diet should be simple and nutritious; the exercise should be moderate and gentle; indulgence in bed should not be allowed, and the individual should always sleep alone. A mattress is better than a soft bed. He should rise immediately upon waking, and never retire till the disposition to sleep comes strongly upon him. The cold bath is a valuable remedy; a sea bath is better, and the shower bath often superior to either.

“Narcotics, if there is a high degree of irritability in the system, are valuable remedies, of which conium, belladonna, hyoscyamus, nux vomica, and opium, may be used under different circumstances, combined or singly, according to the effects. Blisters and issues on the pudenda or perineum, promise well, and the different preparations of bark and iron, and other mineral tonics, should be used till all the effects of the habit are removed, till the propensity is fully conquered, and the constitution is restored to health and vigor.”

Among the cases which occurred in the practice of this gentleman, are the following:—

“A respectable young gentleman, of one of the learned professions, was out of health for a long period; his head and eyes suffered exceedingly, and he was in a state little short of insanity. He placed himself under the care of one of the most eminent men in the metropolis, and followed his prescriptions a year, but without benefit. He then called upon another, who asked him whether he was addicted to masturbation, to which he answered in the affirmative. The advice given him was principally to abstain from the indulgence, and his health gradually improved, and is now re-established.

“B. D., aged 20, had had ill health for a year or more; he was pale, feeble, nervous—lost his resolution—had no appetite—took to his bed most of the time, and became dull, almost speechless, and wholly abstracted and melancholy. His brother was his physician; but not ascertaining the cause of his symptoms, he gained no advantage over the disease, and the unhappy young man was constantly losing strength and flesh. After a while he came under the care of the writer. He was in the most miserable condition conceivable; emaciated, feeble, pallid—had night sweats, diarrhoea, or costiveness, total loathing of all food; his heart beat, his head was painful, and he felt no desire, and would make no effort, to live. Suspecting masturbation, I found, upon strict inquiry and watching, that my suspicions were well founded. I pointed out the danger of the practice, assured him that it was the cause of all his sufferings, and that he might be restored to usefulness and health again if he would strictly adhere to the course prescribed for him. He took bark and iron alternately for a long time, pursued a course of gentle exercise and invigorating diet, and gave up at once the vicious indulgence. After a long time he wholly recovered, and is now a healthy and valuable citizen.

“P. W., aged 27, called for advice in the summer of 1834, having had ill health for some eighteen months or two years. He complained of confusion of the head and pain in the eyes, indigestion, palpitation of the heart, and difficulty of respiration. His sleep was disturbed, his temper irritable, and he felt dissatisfied with himself, and greatly inclined to gloom and melancholy. He complained of listlessness and indisposition to any bodily efforts, and of inability to fix his mind upon any subject, or give his attention to any business. His hands were cold, countenance pale and dejected, pulse frequent, and his whole system in a state of great irritation. It was ascertained that for two or three years he had been in the daily habit of masturbation. For eight or nine months last past, he has discontinued it; he is, however, occasionally subject to nocturnal emission, which has thus far interfered with his recovery; but he is better, and under the use of tonic remedies, exercise and generous diet, feels confident of recovery, having regained his spirits and appetite.

“H. F., aged 20, was for a long time in the habit of masturbation. He was for years confined to the house, and much of the time to his bed. By long indulgence the habit had become irresistible, and the consequences truly deplorable. His mind was as fickle and capricious as that of an infant, and his health was wholly prostrated. For five or six years he was the most wretched being imaginable. Nocturnal pollutions, spontaneous emission, and all the evils resulting from unrestrained indulgence, were presented in this truly unhappy young man. He had been apprized of the danger which the continued practice would bring upon him, and was sensible that all his trials had their origin in this vice; and yet the propensity had become so strong that he could not resist it, and if he did, the consequences had become such that little benefit was derived from his good resolution. In his intercourse with his friends he was covered with shame and confusion, and seemed to feel conscious that every individual that he met with knew, as well as himself, the height and the depth of his degradation. In this condition, in a fit of desperation, he attempted to emasculate himself, but succeeded in removing one testicle only. After he recovered from the dangerous wound which he inflicted, he began to get better, and after two years he recovered his health and spirits. He has since, at the age of 45, married a very clever woman, and they live in peace and harmony.

H. ——, a young man 20 years of age, had been feeble and dejected for two years. He was pale, torpid, irresolute, and shamefaced in the extreme—so much so, that I could not catch his eye during a sitting of an hour. He complained of his head, of short breathing and palpitation of the heart, and of extreme debility. His extremities were cold and damp, his muscular system remarkably flabby, and his snail-like motions evinced great loss of muscular strength. His father, who accompanied the young man, said that he had consulted many physicians without benefit. The moment that he came into my room I was strongly impressed that he was the victim of this solitary vice. I questioned him sometime without ascertaining the cause of disease. His father was wholly ignorant, and the physicians had not suspected it, or inquired concerning it. I requested a private interview—told him the danger of such habits, the importance of ascertaining the true cause of disease, and my suspicions that he was in this habit, and that if so, he would soon fall a victim to its influence. He then acknowledged that he was in the daily practice of masturbation, and had been for three years—that he often also had spontaneous emission, &c. He had never suspected that it had any influence upon his health.

“The symptoms which follow masturbation, viz. nocturnal pollution and spontaneous emission, often continue after the victim of the vice is made sensible of the danger of voluntary indulgence. These require distinct and separate consideration. In some cases they become very obstinate; and in spite of every effort, continue to make such a waste of vital energies as to prevent a recovery of the health—and the new form of disease continuing, the same fatal results follow which take place from a continuance of the habit. The local irritability of the organs of generation often become so great, that the ordinary evacuations of the bowels and the bladder produce an emission; and even lascivious ideas, riding on horseback, or other equally slight irritation, has the same effect. Such cases require the utmost care, to afford any chance of recovery.

“In addition to the common remedies prescribed for the effects of masturbation—as bark, iron, silver, the cold bath and shower bath, &c., which are valuable remedies for this local, as well as for the general debility attending the habit—other remedies, of a more stimulating character, and that have a more direct local effect upon these organs, are also indicated. Of these, tincture of lytta, bals. copaiva, and nitrate of silver, may be named. The strong tinct. of lytta, (made of pulv. lytta, 10 oz. alcohol, lbj.) may be taken in doses of from 10 to 20 drops, increasing, so as to produce a slight irritation of the urethra, and continued in such doses as will keep up this effect without occasioning actual pain. The dose should be repeated three or four times a day, generally. The very best effects often result from the use of this remedy.

“Balsam of copaiva, if the urethra is irritable, may be a valuable remedy. Nitrate of silver is also both useful as a general remedy, and as having some local action on these organs. From one to four grains may be taken daily, combined with a little opium, to prevent irritation of the stomach and bowels.

“In leucorrhoea, which too frequently arises from this cause, these remedies promise much; and when prescribed in efficient doses, often effect a cure, whatever may have been the cause of the disease. It is not too much to say, that no one cause more frequently affects the health of females, and lays the foundation of fatal disease, than severe and long continued leucorrhoea; and yet, if attended to early, it is easily cured. It ought, however, even if slight, never to be neglected.”

Many cases similar in character to those already stated, and confirming the foregoing observations, have been transmitted to us by Dr. A. Sidney Doane, and Prof. J. W. Francis, both of New York. Our limits, however, forbid their insertion.