the pressure of the
distended veins; but this does not produce impotence. It occasionally
occurs simultaneously on both sides, and greatly aggravates the effects
of self-abuse, if it is not itself an effect of the vice.

Nocturnal Emissions.--Seminal emissions during sleep, usually
accompanied by erotic dreams, are known as nocturnal pollutions or
emissions, and are often called _spermatorrhoea_, though there is some
disagreement respecting the use of the latter term. Its most proper
use is when applied to the entire group of symptoms which accompany
involuntary seminal losses.

The masturbator knows nothing of this disease so long as he continues
his vile practice; but when he resolves to reform, and ceases to defile
himself voluntarily, he is astonished and disgusted to find that the
same filthy pollutions occur during his sleep without his voluntary
participation. He now begins to see something of the ruin he has wrought.
The same nightly loss continues, sometimes being repeated several times
in a single night, to his infinite mortification and chagrin. He hopes
the difficulty will subside of itself, but his hope is vain; unless
properly treated, it will probably continue until the ruin which he
voluntarily began is completed.

This disease is the result of sexual excesses of any kind; it is common
in married men who have abused the marriage relation, when they are
forced to temporary continence from any cause. It also occurs in those
addicted to mental unchastity, though they may be physically continent.
It is not probable that it would ever occur in a person who had been
strictly continent and had not allowed his mind to dwell upon libidinous
imaginations.

Exciting Causes.--The exciting causes which serve to perpetuate this
difficulty are chiefly two; viz., local irritation and lewd thoughts.

The first cause is usually chiefly located in the urethra, and
especially at the mouths of the ejaculatory ducts. Distention of the
seminal vesicles with a superabundance of seminal fluid also acts as
a source of irritation. Constipation, worms, and piles have an
irritative influence which is often very seriously felt.

Unchaste thoughts act detrimentally in a two-fold way. They first
stimulate the activity of the testes, thus increasing the overloading
of the seminal vesicles. Lascivious thoughts during wakefulness are
the chief cause of lascivious dreams.

Emissions do not usually occur during the soundest sleep, b