"From his relatives who have twice called to see him it was learned that his mental trouble came on very suddenly, although his memory and faculties have been failing for some time past. They say that he complained of sleeplessness, numbness and tingling sensations in the arms and legs, headache, and a peculiar itching of the skin, for months before any distinct symptoms of insanity appeared. They attribute it all to self-abuse, which he has admitted practicing from an early age. "AUGUST 28th.--Is now paralyzed in both lower limbs. Still violent. "SEPT. 3d.--Died this morning about 1 A.M. Is so emaciated that he is little more than skin and bones. _Rigor mortis_ entirely absent. Shortly after death the skin of the whole body changed to a dark chocolate hue." Truth is often stranger than fiction. What end more terrible than this! _CHAPTER IV._ SPERMATORRHOEA, OR LOST MANHOOD. SYMPTOMS. Spermatorrhoea may be conveniently divided into three stages. FIRST STAGE--IRRITATION, CONGESTION. In this stage the sexual organs of the brain and nervous system first begin to feel the strain of early abuse, overwork, confinement, sexual excess, or whatever the cause may be in this particular case. The Prostate Gland (_j_, _b_, _Fig. 5_) the Seminal Vesicles (_l_, _Fig. 5_), Cowper's Duct (_n_, _Fig. 5_), the Testicles and Spermatic Cord (_h_, _f_, _k_, _Fig. 5_), indeed all the sexual apparatus, including the bulbous sympathetic nerves lying just inside the spine, from the small of the back down to the end of the organ, become filled with dark, thick and stagnated blood. The Prostate Gland swells and becomes enlarged, the Seminal Vesicles become weak, baggy and filled with a thin, glairy fluid that oozes out into the urine and urine canal on any little strain, exertion or excitement; especially when, after being in the presence of the opposite sex, weak, feeble erections follow. The testicles become flabby and stringy and no longer make strong, healthy, fecund vital fluid. The constant calls upon them has exhausted them as also the nerves that gave them life, strength and vitality. A heavy dragging +weight+ is often felt in the +groin+, especially after walking or long standing. There is a feeling of +weakness+ and +exhaustion+ in the parts. Often +strange sensations+ shoot through the parts, and they are +cold+ and +clammy+ at one time, while +weak+ and +sweating profusely+ at another. {Illustration: Fig. 5. MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. [From Acton's Celebrated Work on "The Reproductive Organs."] _Side view of Body cut in half lengthways_ showing the course taken by the +vital fluid+ from the +Testicle+ (where it is made) to the Seminal Vesicles (where it is stored). The penis is shown cut off at dotted line _g_.