SPERM.ATORRIICEA.
Though the above unsavoury title is only to be met with in the nomen clature adopted by quacks and the class of unqualified or irregular practi tioners who prey upon the fears of sexual hypochondriacs, nevertheless, in a volume on treatment this heading should have a place, since it is almost invariably omitted in medical and surgical textbooks, because no such affection as a paralytic flow or discharge of the spermatic fluid can be said to exist. Moreover, some justification for the retention of the term will be found in the fact that the physician is often called to treat the mental state which has arisen from the dread of this visionary condition.
Many of the individuals seeking advice for this supposed ailment are those who suffer from involuntary seminal emissions during sleep; they are for the most part chaste and nearly always unmarried, and have been perusing some advertising pamphlet or other form of quack literature. The calm assurance from the physician that the symptoms are purely physiological and not due to disease caused by some early self-abuse is generally all that is required. Health laws should be enunciated which have a bearing upon sexual excitement; free muscular exercises in the open air should be recommended to the extent of producing fatigue, over eating and especially late suppers must be forbidden, and the amount of animal food curtailed. Literature, conversation and companionship which tend to excite sexual desires should be warned against. Sources of peripheral irritation as balanitis, elongated and narrow prepuce, thread worms, piles, or rectal fissure should be corrected.
Bromide of Sodium in one dose of 30 grs. may be prescribed at bed-hour, and when the emissions have been found to occur when the patient lies upon his back during sleep the method of preventing this posture, de scribed in the article on Masturbation, may be tried by fastening an empty cotton-reel over the middle of the spine.
In those individuals who suffer from chronic prostatitis with the dis charge of a clear viscid fluid from the urethra, usually after defecation, the dread of so-called spermatorrhcea may become a very serious mental condition. The physician should fully explain the nature of the discharge and the cause, which is generally due to the remains of an old gonorrhoeal attack or to some form of sexual abuse. The surgical management of this condition is dealt with in the article on Prostatic Inflammation, and moral or suggestive treatment will also be often necessary to combat the hypochondria which may be present.
The injection of Spermin or other seminal gland preparations, electricity, blistering over the spine and the administration of various drugs to depress the activity of the centres in the cord are as a rule to be condemned not only because of their futility, but they also intensify the introspection indulged in by the patient, which is the only serious element in the condition.