t many of the forms of indigestion,
general ill health, hypochondriasis, etc., so often met with in adults,
depend upon sexual excesses.... That this cause of illness is not more
generally acknowledged and acted on, arises from the natural delicacy
which medical men must feel in putting such questions to their patients
as are necessary to elicit the facts."

"It is not the body alone which suffers from excesses committed in
married life. Experience every day convinces me that much of the languor
of mind, confusion of ideas, and inability to control the thoughts,
of which some married men complain, arise from this cause."[18]

[Footnote 18: Acton.]

The debilitating effects of excessive sexual indulgence arise from two
causes; viz., the loss of the seminal fluid, and the nervous excitement.
With reference to the value of the spermatic fluid, Dr. Gardner
remarks:--

"The sperm is the purest extract of the blood.... Nature, in creating
it, has intended it not only to communicate life, but also to nourish
the individual life. In fact, the re-absorption of the fecundating
liquid impresses upon the entire economy new energy, and a virility
which contributes to the prolongation of life."

Testimony of a French Physician.--A French author of considerable
note,[19] remarks on the same subject:--

"Nothing costs the economy so much as the production of semen and its
forced ejaculation. It has been calculated that an ounce of semen was
equivalent to forty ounces of blood.... Semen is the essence of the
whole individual. Hence, Fernel has said, 'Totus homo semen est.' It
is the balm of life.... That which gives life is intended for its
preservation."

[Footnote 19: Parise.]

It may be questioned, perhaps, whether physiology will sustain to the
fullest extent all the statements made in the last quotation; but
perhaps physiology does not appreciate so fully as does pathology the
worth of the most vital of all fluids, and the fearful results which
follow its useless expenditure.

Continence of Trainers.--"The moderns who are training are well aware
that sexual indulgence wholly unfits them for great feats of strength,
and the captain of a boat strictly forbids his crew anything of the
sort just previous to a match. Some trainers have gone so far as to
assure me that they can discover by a man's style of pulling whether
he has committed such a breach of discipline over night, and have not
scrupled to attribute the occasiona