Plain Facts for Old and Young Part 25

Daily exercise should be taken to the extent of fatigue. It is better that those who are still strong enough should have some regular employment which will secure exercise. Those who prefer may secure exercise and recreation in the pursuit of some study that involves necessary physical exertion; as, botany, geology, or entomology. The collection of natural-history specimens is one of the most pleasant diversions, and may be made very useful as well.

Pleasant companionship is essential to the best progress of these patients, especially in their walks, as much more exercise may be taken without an unpleasant sense of fatigue with a cheerful companion than when alone. Solitude should be avoided at all times as much as possible.

Diet.--So much has already been said upon the relation of diet to chast.i.ty and its influence upon the s.e.xual organs that it is unnecessary to add many remarks here. Nothing could be more untrue than the statement made by some authors that the nature of the diet is of no consequence.

The science of physiology teaches that our very thoughts are born of what we eat. A man that lives on pork, fine-flour bread, rich pies and cakes, and condiments, drinks tea and coffee and uses tobacco, might as well try to fly as to be chaste in thought. He will accomplish wonders if he remains physically chaste; but to be mentally virtuous would be impossible for him without a miracle of grace.

One whose thoughts have been so long trained in the filthy ruts of vice that they run there automatically, and naturally gravitate downward--such a one must exercise especial care to secure the most simple, pure, and unstimulating diet.

The following precautions are necessary to be observed in relation to diet:--

1. _Never overeat_. If too much food is taken at one meal, fast the next meal to give the system a chance to recover itself and to serve as a barrier against future transgressions of the same kind. Gluttony is fatal to chast.i.ty; and overeating will be certain to cause emissions, with other evils, in one whose organs are weakened by abuse.

2. _Eat but twice a day_, or, if supper is eaten, let it be very light, and of the most simple food, as fruit, or fruit and bread. Nothing should be eaten within four or five hours of bed-time, and it is much better to eat nothing after three o'clock. The ancients ate but two meals a day; why should moderns eat three or four? If the stomach contains undigested food, the sleep will be disturbed, dreams will be more abundant, and emissions will be frequent. A most imperative rule of life should be, "Never go to bed with a loaded stomach." The violation of this rule is the great cause of horrid dreams and nightmare.

3. _Discard all stimulating food_. Under this head must be included, spices, pepper, ginger, mustard, cinnamon, cloves, essences, all condiments, salt, pickles, etc., together with animal food of all kinds, not excepting fish, fowl, oysters, eggs, and milk. It is hardly to be expected that all who have been accustomed to use these articles all their lives will discard them wholly at once, nor, perhaps, that many will ever discard them entirely; but it would be better for them to do so, nevertheless. The only ones which should be tolerated under any circ.u.mstances should be lean beef or mutton, salt in very moderate quant.i.ties, and a moderate use of milk. Use as little of these as possible--_the less the better_.

4. _Stimulating drinks_ should be abstained from with still greater strictness. Wine, beer, tea, and coffee should be taken under no circ.u.mstances. The influence of coffee in stimulating the genital organs is notorious. Chocolate should be discarded also. It is recommended by some who suppose it to be harmless, being ignorant of the fact that it contains a poison practically identical with that of tea and coffee.

Hot drinks of all kinds should be avoided.

Tobacco, another stimulant, though not a drink, should be totally abandoned at once.

5. In place of such articles as have been condemned, eat fruits, grains, and vegetables. There is a rich variety of these kinds of food, and they are wholesome and unstimulating. Graham flour, oatmeal, and ripe fruit are the indispensables of a dietary for those who are suffering from s.e.xual excesses.

Further remarks upon diet, with a few useful recipes for preparing healthful food, will be found in works devoted to the subject of diet.[54] The patient must carefully comply with all the rules of a healthy diet if he would be sure of recovery.

[Footnote 54: See "Healthful Cookery," _Good Health_ Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.]

Sleeping.--It is from accidents which happen during sleep that the great majority of sufferers complain; hence there is no little importance attaching to this subject. The following suggestions present in a very brief manner some of the more practical ideas connected with this part of the subject:--

1. From seven to nine hours' sleep are required by all persons. The rule should be, Retire early and sleep until rested; Early rising is not beneficial unless it has been preceded by abundant sleep.

2. Arise immediately upon waking in the morning if it is after four o'clock. A second nap is generally unrefreshing and is dangerous, for emissions most frequently occur at this time.

3. If insufficient sleep is taken at night, sleep a few minutes just before dinner. Half an hour's rest at this time is remarkably refreshing; and even fifteen minutes spent in sleep will be found very reviving. Do not sleep after dinner, as a pollution will be very likely to occur, and, as a rule, after-dinner naps are unrefreshing and productive of indigestion.

4. Never go to bed with the bowels or bladder loaded. The bladder should be emptied just before retiring. It is also a good plan to form the habit of rising once or twice during the night to urinate.

5. The position in sleeping is of some importance. Sleeping upon the back or upon the abdomen favors the occurrence of emissions; hence, it is preferable to sleep on one side. If supper has been taken, the right side is preferable, as that position will favor the pa.s.sage of food from the stomach into the intestines in undergoing digestion.

Various devices are employed, sometimes with advantage, to prevent the patient from turning upon his back while asleep. The most simple is that recommended by Acton, and consists in tying a knot in the middle of a towel and then fastening the towel about the body in such a way that the knot will come upon the small of the back. The unpleasant sensations arising from pressure of the knot, if the sleeper turn upon his back, will often serve as a complete preventive. Others fasten a piece of wood upon the back for a similar purpose. Still others practice tying one hand to the bedpost. None of these remedies should be depended upon, but they may be tried in connection with other means of treatment.

6. Soft beds and pillows must be carefully avoided. Feather-beds should not be employed when possible to find a harder bed; the floor, with a single folded blanket beneath the sleeper, would be preferable. Soft pillows heat the head, as soft beds produce heat in other parts. A hair mattress, or a bed of corn husks, oat straw, or excelsior--covered with two or three blankets or a quilted cotton mattress--makes a very healthy and comfortable bed.

7. Too many covers should be avoided with equal care. The thinnest possible covering in summer, and the lightest consistent with comfort in winter, should be the rule. Sleeping too warm is a frequent exciting cause of nocturnal losses.

8. Thorough ventilation of the sleeping-room, both while occupied and during the day-time, must not be neglected. It should be located in a position to admit the sunshine during the morning hours. It is a good plan to keep in it a number of house plants, as they will help to purify the air, besides adding to its cheerfulness.

9. If wakeful at night, instead of lying in bed trying to go to sleep, get up at once, open the bed, air the sheets, remove the night clothing and walk about the room for a few minutes, rubbing the body briskly with the bare hand at the same time. A tepid sponge bath, followed by a vigorous rubbing kept up until really tired, will conduce to sleep in many cases. Sometimes a change of bed, or pulling the bed to pieces and arranging it again, is just the thing needed to bring sleep.

10. One of the most effectual panaceas for certain varieties of sleeplessness is going to bed at peace with all the world, and with a conscience void of offense toward G.o.d as well as man.

Dreams.--This is a subject of much interest to those suffering from nocturnal pollutions, for these occurrences are almost always connected with dreams of a lascivious nature.

In perfectly natural sleep, there are no dreams; consciousness is entirely suspended. In the ordinary stage of dreaming, there is a peculiar sort of consciousness, many of the faculties of the mind being more or less active while the power of volition is wholly dormant.

Carpenter describes another stage of consciousness between that of ordinary dreaming and wakefulness, a condition "in which the dreamer has a consciousness that he is dreaming, being aware of the unreliability of the images which present themselves before his mind.

He may even make a voluntary and successful effort to prolong them if agreeable, or to dissipate them if unpleasing; thus evincing a certain degree of that directing power, the entire want of which is characteristic of the true state of dreams."

Can Dreams Be Controlled?--Facts prove that they can be, and to a remarkable extent. A large share of emissions occur in the state described by Dr. Carpenter, in which a certain amount of control by the will is possible. This is the usual condition of the mind during morning naps; and if a person resolutely determines to combat unchaste thoughts whenever they come to him, whether asleep or awake, he will find it possible to control himself not only during this semi-conscious state, but even during more profound sleep.

The following case, related by an eminent London surgeon,[55]

ill.u.s.trates what may be done by strong resolution; the patient was an Italian gentleman of very great respectability.

[Footnote 55: Acton.]

"He had been inconvenienced five years before with frequent emissions, which totally unnerved him. He determined resolutely that the very instant the image of a woman or any libidinous idea presented itself to his imagination, _he would wake_; and to insure his doing so, dwelt in his thoughts on his resolution for a long time before going to sleep.

The remedy, applied by a vigorous will, had the most happy results.

The idea, the remembrance of its being a _danger_, and the determination to wake, closely united the evening before, were never dissociated even in sleep, and he awoke in time; and this reiterated precaution, repeated during some evenings, absolutely cured the complaint."

Several other cases of the same kind have been recorded. Doubtless the plan would be found successful in many cases when coupled with a proper regimen.

A still greater control is exerted over the thoughts during sleep by their character during hours of wakefulness. By controlling the mind during entire consciousness, it will also be controlled during unconsciousness or semi-consciousness.

Dr. Acton makes the following very appropriate remarks on this subject:--

"Patients will tell you that they _cannot_ control their dreams. This is not true. Those who have studied the connection between thoughts during waking hours and dreams during sleep know that they are closely connected. The _character_ is the same sleeping or waking. It is not surprising that, if a man has allowed his thoughts during the day to rest upon libidinous subjects, he should find his mind at night full of lascivious dreams--the one is a consequence of the other, and the nocturnal pollution is a natural consequence, particularly when diurnal indulgence has produced an irritability of the generative organs. A will which in our waking hours we have not exercised in repressing s.e.xual desires, will not, when we fall asleep, preserve us from carrying the sleeping echo of our waking thought farther than we dared to do in the day-time."

Bathing.--A daily bath is indispensable to health under almost all circ.u.mstances; for patients of this cla.s.s, it is especially necessary.

A general bath should be taken every morning immediately upon rising.

General _cold bathing_ is not good for any person, especially in the morning, though some may tolerate it remarkably well, being of exceptionally hardy const.i.tutions; but the advice to try "cold bathing"

often given to sufferers from seminal weakness, is very pernicious, for most of them have been reduced so low in vitality by their disease that they cannot endure such violent treatment.

Sun baths, electric baths, spray, plunge, and other forms of bath, are of greatest value to those suffering from the effects of indiscretions.

These are described, with additional observations concerning temperature of baths, etc., etc., in works devoted to this subject.

Improvement of General Health.--Patients suffering from emissions and other forms of seminal weakness are almost always dyspeptic, and most of them present other const.i.tutional affections which require careful and thorough treatment according to the particular indications of the case. The wise physician will not neglect these if he desires to cure his patient and make his recovery as complete as possible.

Prost.i.tution as a Remedy.--Said a leading physician in New York to us when interrogated as to his special treatment of spermatorrhoea, "When a young man comes to me suffering from nocturnal emissions, I give him tonics and _send him to a woman_." That this is not an unusual method of treatment, even among regular physicians, is a fact as true as it is deplorable. There are hundreds of young men whose morals have been ruined by such advice. Having been educated to virtuous habits, at least so far as illicit intercourse is concerned, they resist all temptations in this direction, even though their inclinations are very strong; but when advised by a physician to commit fornication as a remedial measure, they yield their virtue, far too readily sometimes, and begin a life of sin from which they might have been prevented. There are good grounds for believing that many young men purposely seek advice from physicians whom they know are in the habit of prescribing this kind of remedy.

Few know how commonly this course is recommended, and not by quacks, but by members of the regular profession. A medical friend informed us that he knew a case in which a country physician advised a young man of continent habits to go to a neighboring large city and spend a year or so with prost.i.tutes, which advice he followed. Of his subsequent history we know nothing; but it is most probable that, like most other young men who adopt this remedy, he soon contracted diseases which rendered his condition ten times worse than at first, without at all improving his former state. In pursuing this course, one form of emission is only subst.i.tuted for another, at the best; but more than this, an involuntary result of disease is converted into a voluntary sin of the blackest character, a crime in which two partic.i.p.ate, and which is not only an outrage upon nature, but against morality as well.

A final argument against this course is that it is not a remedy and does not effect a cure of the evil, as will be shown by the following medical testimonies:--

"The vexed question of connection is one which may be decided out of hand.... _It has no power of curing bad spermatorrhoea_; it may cause a diminution in the number of emissions, but this is only a delusion; the s.e.m.e.n is still thrown off; the frame still continues to be exhausted; the genital organs and nervous system generally are still hara.s.sed by the incessant tax, and the patient is all the while laying the foundation of impotence."[56]

[Footnote 56: Milton.]

"In all solemn earnestness I protest against such false treatment. It is better for a youth to live a continent life." "There is a terrible significance in the wise man's words, 'None that go to her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.'"[57] This hazardous and immoral mode of treatment is the result of the common opinion that emissions are necessary and natural, which we have previously shown to be a falsity.