_Symptoms._――The physiognomy of a spermatorrhœa patient is often
very striking; especially one who has been an extensive masturbator,
and has been led to think that any physician has but to behold his
countenance to judge of his entire condition and its cause. He bears
the aspect of one who has been convicted of a shameful vice. This
is the picture of an advanced case, yet not beyond the threshold of
reason. As he realizes his condition, he is embarrassed that he is
compelled to converse on the subject and confess his shame. The face
is commonly pallid: the eyes are sunken, with dark lines beneath: the
lips are anæmic: the corners of the mouth are drawn down, and haggard
lines are deep-cut about the face. He looks much older than he is, and
his beard is tardy, isolated and of a dirty color. The general aspect
of hunger is marked upon his entire figure: he is often lean and wan.
He trembles with slight exertion, and complains of fatigue: his muscles
feel doughy, and an unpleasant odor is emitted from his body, strong,
like a goat or a pig, and his voice is feeble. He speaks low, as if he
desired to be very quiet and secret, even when his subject has nothing
in it of a secret character. In common conversation, his voice is
reduced almost to a whisper. He often has pustules on his face――acne.
A young man may have spermatorrhœa with very few of these symptoms
present; but when he has advanced far in the disease――in the nervous
lesions――the above symptoms are only the common manifestations noted
by close observation. Yet all these symptoms may exist from other
causes, and the patient may be free from spermatorrhœa or pollution.
Then, only by the history and physical signs connected with the general
aspect, can we hope to effect an exclusive and conclusive diagnosis.
He relates his history, which is only a confession of his vice and
the story of his spermal losses nightly, with languor, bad digestion,
pains and aches too numerous to mention. His tongue is coated, breath
fœtid, appetite poor, circulation feeble, and heart-sounds feeble and
irregular. Often, a dull aching is located in his back-head, forehead
and eyes, with asthenopia, anthropophobia, agoraphobia, astrophobia,
monophobia, syphilophobia, nocturnal ephidrosis, palmar hyperidrosis,
and neuralgia of different localities and of varied intensity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account