Paralysis, which is the consequence of myelitis, or of any other affection of the spinal marrow, has been seen much more frequently than tetanus, in onanists. It is most generally confined to the lower parts of the body; but if the disease be seated in the cervical portion of the spinal marrow, the four extremities may be paralyzed. This was seen in the case of a young man who was under the care of Dupuytren, in September, 1833:-- This young man was twenty years old: he was very much addicted to masturbation, and his disease could be attributed to no other cause. This affection had existed for two years, when the patient entered Hotel Dieu. The attack of paralysis had been sudden, like a clap of thunder: the patient had lost the use of his limbs suddenly. The muscles of the neck were paralyzed, and the head fell in any direction: a short time before, however, the patient had recovered the power of sustaining it. The paralysis of the four limbs, also, varied in degree, alternately increasing and diminishing. After the patient entered the hospital, it was not equal on both sides: thus, he had some power over his left arm, but not over his right arm. Both the upper limbs, also, were atrophied, or wasted: those of the right side more so, however, than those of the left. Many remedies had been tried for this patient, but without success. At the time the case was published, purgatives and moxas were proposed. Dupuytren remarked to his pupils, that the situation of the myelitis corresponded in this young man to the cervical vertebræ; and that, if it ascended a little, and extended to the origin of the diaphragmatic nerve, it would cause death. He regarded the passion for masturbation, which existed in this young man, as the probable cause of this myelitis; and, consequently, of an atrophy of the anterior roots of the spinal nerves. (_Lancette Française_, 1833, p. 339.) The disorganization, also, occupied an elevated portion of the spinal marrow, in the following case stated by Tissot:--“I was called upon,” says he, “to visit in the country a man, forty years old, who had been very strong and robust, but who had indulged excessively in sexual commerce and in wine, and who had been often engaged in athletic exercises. He began to be affected, a few months since, by a weakness in his legs, which made him totter in his walk, as if drunk. He sometimes fell, when walking on a plane; he could not descend the stairs without much difficulty; and hardly dared to leave his apartment. His hands trembled very much; he wrote with very great difficulty, and very badly; but he dictated with ease, although his speech, which had never been very fluent, began to be less so. His memory was still good; and the only ground for suspecting a lesion in his mind was the want of attention at the _jeu de dames_, and the change of countenance. His appetite was good, and he slept well; but it was difficult for him to turn in bed.