To those who would complain of the publication of a work upon the delicate subject to which the following pages refer, we would remark, that the evil here depicted, is one of great magnitude. This cause of disease is often entirely overlooked even by medical men, either from false notions of delicacy, or because their attention has not been drawn by fearful experience to cases which are ascribable merely to onanism. The patient is unconscious of his danger, and perseveres in his vicious habit—the physician treats him symptomatically, and death soon closes the scene. “Many a young man,” remarked a physician, who had seen much of disease from this cause, “many a one has come to me, totally unconscious that his criminal act was sapping to the very foundation his health and strength.”

To call the attention of medical men to this source of disease, and to point out to such persons not of the profession as may meet with this book, and who indulge in this habit, the fatal precipice to which they wend their way, has been the object of publishing it here. How very many cases of consumption, that disease which annually destroys its thousands, could, if the truth were known, be referred to this cause! How many minds have been ruined by self-indulgence!

If any apology were needed for this publication, it may be found in the last annual report of the State Lunatic Asylum of Massachusetts, which states that of the number of insane received at that institution during the last year, no less than THIRTY-TWO lost their senses from this cause.