In my opinion, blindness from amaurosis, being not so much a disease as a symptom, or rather the consequence, of many other diseases, is not, in onanists, the result of exhaustion, of asthenia, any more than the debility and paralysis of the lower extremities are, when the spinal marrow is diseased. Besides, what difference does it make, how the sight is lost in onanists? the most essential thing to be known is, that they can lose it. This unfortunate circumstance is to be dreaded by those whose sight is much affected during the act of venery, and who remain, as it were, in a mist for a few moments after this act. Thus, amaurosis was predicted in a public girl, whose case is mentioned by Hoffmann, and whose sight was obscured whenever she had connexion with men. She finally became blind. (_De morbis ex nim. ven._, § 26.) The sight is rarely lost suddenly: it commonly fades away gradually; and the onanist, if he can understand this warning, may, by abandoning his bad habits in time, preserve the vigor he still possesses; and, sometimes, even may recover what he has lost. The weakness and loss of sight, and the other affections of the eye already mentioned, are not the only ones which may arise from excessive onanism or coition: the muscles of the eye may also be affected. Lorry was, we believe, the first to notice this fact. “The eyes,” says he, “are affected with convulsive and spasmodic motions, after venereal excesses, rather than with blindness.” He states, that strabismus may be caused by onanism. We have before stated the case of a young man, whose eyes were affected with violent spasms at the moment of a discharge of semen. Demours has observed similar facts. “Masturbation,” says he, “affects the optic nerves, and also acts on the motor nerves of the eye.” He admits that he can see no reason for this. The same author mentions venereal excesses among the different causes of partial paralysis of the muscles of the eye.