The most frequent cause of impotence, at that period of existence when man should be in the zenith of his procreative power, is in a general weakness of the generative organs, induced by too early an indulgence in coition, the pernicious and demoralizing crime of masturbation, or the abuse of venereal pleasures. In these cases, erection will not take place, or but feebly, although the mind be highly excited by lascivious ideas. The erector muscles are paralysed from over-use, and the semen, if any is secreted, from the lax and withered state of the testes, is clear, serous, without consistence, and consequently deficient of prolific virtue. Sometimes there is a want of consent between the immediate and secondary organs of generation; thus, the penis acts without the testicles, and becomes erected when there is no semen to be evacuated; while the testicles secrete too quickly, and an evacuation takes place without any erection of the penis; the latter disappointment is of extensive prevalence. Impotence is sometimes occasioned by particular diseases during their continuance, such as nervous and malignant fevers; while, strange to relate, an opposite effect is sometimes produced by other diseases, such as gout and rheumatism, hæmorrhoids, &c.; and instances are on record, that others produce such a change in the constitution, that an impotent man may find himself cured of his impotency on their cessation. Of all the functions of the animal economy, none are so subservient to nervous influence as those of generation, which, when the organs are perfect, and respond not to the natural application of them, the cause may be classed among those impediments termed moral. As the parts of generation are not necessary for the existence or support of the individual, but have a reference to something else in which the mind has a principal concern; so a complete action in those parts can not take place without a perfect harmony of body and mind, that is, there must be both a power of body and disposition of mind; for the mind is subject to a thousand caprices which affect the action of these parts. As these cases do not arise from real inability, they are to be carefully distinguished from such as do; and, perhaps, the only way to distinguish them, is to examine into the state of mind respecting this act. So trifling often is the circumstance which shall produce this inability depending on the mind, that the very desire to please shall have that effect, as in making the woman the sole object to be gratified. SECTION II. IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY OF THE FEMALE.