t of the
nervous system. Now there is no end to the ills which may be suffered;
for an impaired digestion lays the system open to the inroads of almost
any and every malady.

_Heart Disease_.--Functional disease of the heart, indicated by
excessive palpitation on the slightest exertion, is a very frequent
symptom. Though it unfits the individual for labor, and causes him much
suffering, he would be fortunate if he escaped with no disease of a
more dangerous character.

_Throat Affections_.--There is no doubt that many of the affections
of the throat in young men and older ones which pass under the name
of "clergyman's sore throat" are the direct results of masturbation
and emissions.

Dr. Acton cites several cases in proof of this, and quotes the following
letter from a young clergyman:--

"When I began the practice of masturbation, at the age of sixteen, I
was in the habit of exercising my voice regularly. The first part in
which I felt the bad effects of that habit was in the organs of
articulation. After the act, the voice wanted tone, and there was a
disagreeable feeling about the throat which made speaking a source of
no pleasure to me as it had been. By-and-by, it became painful to speak
after the act. This arose from a feeling as if a morbid matter was being
secreted in the throat, so acrid that it sent tears to the eyes when
speaking, and would have taken away the breath if not swallowed. This,
however, passed away in a day or two after the act. In the course of
years, when involuntary emissions began to impair the constitution,
this condition became permanent. The throat always feels very delicate,
and there is often such irritability in it, along with this feeling
of the secretion of morbid matter, as to make it impossible to speak
without swallowing at every second or third word. This is felt even
in conversation, and there is a great disinclination to attempt to speak
at all. In many instances in which the throat has been supposed to give
way from other causes, I have known this to be the real one. May it
not be that the general irritation always produced by the habit referred
to, shows itself also in this organ, and more fully in those who are
required habitually to exercise it?"

_Nervous Diseases_.--There is no end to the nervous affections to which
the sufferer from this vice is subject. Headaches, neuralgias, symptoms
resembling hysteria, sudden alternations of heat and cold, irregular
flushing o