ut during
that condition which may be characterized as dozing, which is most often
indulged in early in the morning after the soundest sleep is passed.
This fact has an important bearing upon treatment, as will be seen
hereafter.

At first, the emissions are always accompanied by dreams, the patient
usually awaking immediately afterward; but after a time they take place
without dreams and without awaking him, and are unaccompanied by
sensation. This denotes a greatly increased gravity of the complaint.

Certain circumstances greatly increase the frequency of the emissions,
and thus hasten the injury which they are certain to accomplish if not
checked; as, neglect to relieve the bladder and bowels at night, late
suppers, stimulating foods and drinks, and anything that will excite
the genital organs. Of all causes, amorous or erotic thoughts are the
most powerful. Tea and coffee, spices and other condiments, and animal
food have a special tendency in this direction. Certain positions in
bed also serve as exciting or predisposing causes; as sleeping upon
the back or abdomen. Feather beds and pillows and too warm covering
in bed are also injurious for the same reason.

In frequency, emissions will vary in different persons from an
occasional one at long and irregular intervals to two or three a week,
or several--as many as four in one case we have met--in a single night.

The immediate effect of an emission will depend somewhat upon the
frequency of occurrence and the condition of the individual. If very
infrequent, and occurring in a comparatively robust person, after the
seminal vesicles have become distended with seminal fluid, the
immediate effect of an emission may be a sensation of temporary relief.
This circumstance has led certain persons to suppose that emissions
are natural and beneficial. This point will receive attention shortly.

If the emissions are more frequent, or if they occur in a person of
a naturally feeble constitution, the immediate effect is lassitude,
languor, indisposition and often inability to perform severe mental
or physical labor, melancholy, amounting often to despair and even
leading to suicide, and an exaggeration of local irritation, and of
all the morbid conditions to be noticed under the head of "General
Effects." Headache, indigestion, weakness of the back and knees,
disturbed circulation, dimness of vision, and loss of appetite, are
only a few of these.

Are Occasional Emissions