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CHAPTER VIII.

So common are the ideas that it is "seminal weakness for men to discharge semen when not cohabiting with women," that some really honest doctors have gone so far as to advertise themselves to "cure" the same. Others have made it a means to make money, when they well know that the occasional emissions of that character is but an effort of nature to relieve itself of a surplus, just as the throwing off of the ovum in woman every month, is an effort of nature to rid the system of the ovum or eggs that are matured and unused. If men are in healthy conditions this will occur every month, to correspond with the emitting of the ovum in women. Whenever it occurs oftener in either men or women, it is either because of weakness or of unnatural excitement. Tobacco, all kinds of intoxicating drinks, highly seasoned food, the vulgarity of women's fashionable dress that is ever appealing to the basest passions, cause a drain upon the system that is undermining the constitutions of the masses. This must continue so long as women follow the ever changing fashions, which are studies to excite men's passions and get their money. As soon as men fail

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to be attracted by one style; as soon as its exciting novelty begins to wane, another fashionable means of keeping up this passional excitement is presented. Not alone are the lookers on these fashions injured in mind, body and morals, but the women themselves are fearful sufferers in all these regards. So intimately are all the interests of life blended, that neither sex can suffer alone.

About an equal number of men and women are matured and the unperverted laws of nature are such that men and women respond to them equally when living properly. Nature is full or order; and the ovum and the spermatozoa must be thrown off to make room for the constantly maturing. From the age of puberty, until the change in life, the process of throwing off the ovum is one essential to health; these pass from the ovaries through the fallopian tubes to the uterus. It is important that the spermatozoa in men should pass off also, protected by albumen as they pass through the many feet of tubing in the testes. Although all semen that is largely composed of albumen does not contain spermatozoa, it is a fact that where there is no albuminous discharges, spermatozoa is never found, and such men can not become fathers, although they may be in good health. Instances have been cited to disprove this, but close investigation has proved the correctness of our position.

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We know an instance of this kind. A woman who had been a mother when her first husband was living, married a man who was very anxious to have children. In consulting us she stated the difference in the seminal fluid of the two husbands, and when we informed her that he could not be a father, she expressed regrets on her husband's account. In less than a year we attended her in confinement. In about two years after she became a mother again. Another physician acknowledged the parentage and removed from the city where they resided. Several persons saw through the intrigues and kept watch of the parties, and knew of the doctor visiting the city in question in a clandestine manner, without her husband knowing of the same. Precisely nine months thereafter she became a mother again. The woman's husband knew nothing of the doctor's last visit, and was reconciled to the idea that he was the father of all three of the children.

Many cases of real seminal weakness are caused by masturbation, excessive copulation, and by shaving the beard. This last cause is a cause of masturbation, for the whole nerve system is excited by the shaving process. If the face was not shaved at all, the beard would not be so thick and harsh.

Men very readily understand the affect on the nerves of the eyes when a dull razor is used on the

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face, and they will learn to trace effect to cause and understand the irritability of the organs of sex.

The face is a tell-tale of the life, and the time is not distant when all who look may read for themselves and clearly understand what men have seminal weakness, and what are the causes, for every vice and every outrage on the great laws of existence have their own peculiar evidences.

Beautiful young women will not always marry seminally weak men to save such men's lives, for they will understand that their suitors have so destroyed their re-productive power, that they may not be able to ever become fathers for their children, and if they do, such children will be miserable specimens of humanity, both in body and mind.

It is a lamentable fact that there are but few young men to be found that are fit for marriage.