The local symptoms of the medulla, in onanists, consist in different and more or less acute sensations felt along the vertebral column. At first, these sensations do not appear until after the act of venery, and pass off; they then continue a longer time; and finally become constant. The pain is generally of a dull character--inconvenient, rather than severe--which obliges the patient, when sitting or standing, to change his position frequently; and it is generally less perceptible, or even disappears, when the patient assumes a horizontal position. Sometimes there is a feeling as if of ants crawling over the body, descending from the head along the spine: this symptom was first noticed by Hippocrates. Sometimes, these sensations have a special character, which each patient expresses in his own manner: thus, a man who indulged night and morning, for two years, in coition, complained to me that he felt beatings constantly between his shoulders. Others say that they have a knot in the back. The pains in the spine are sometimes very severe; sometimes they are extremely sharp. Onanists, and individuals affected with pollutions, most generally complain of their loins. The frequent occurrence of the symptoms mentioned in persons exhausted by venereal excesses, has caused the terms _consumption_, phthisis dorsalis, and tabes dorsalis, to be applied to the state which they then present. The other symptoms of the affection of the spinal marrow are more or less severe pains--more or less distinct sensations of cold, of numbness, and formication in the limbs, particularly in the lower extremities; cramps; constant trembling, or convulsive motions in these parts; a kind of tetanic stiffness; gradual debility of the lower half of the body; and, finally, paraplegia. We shall find these symptoms, in addition to the other effects of masturbation, in cases to be mentioned.