treatment. It
is better for a youth to live a continent life." "There is a terrible
significance in the wise man's words, 'None that go to her return again,
neither take they hold of the paths of life.'"[57] This hazardous and
immoral mode of treatment is the result of the common opinion that
emissions are necessary and natural, which we have previously shown
to be a falsity.

[Footnote 57: Acton.]

Marriage.--Another class of practitioners, with more apparent regard
for morality, recommend matrimony as the sure panacea for all the ills
of which the sufferers from self-abuse complain, with the possible
exception of actual impotence. Against this course several objections
may be urged; we offer the following:--

1. It is not a remedy, since, as in the case of illicit intercourse,
"legalized prostitution" is only a substitution of one form of
emissions for another, the ill effects of which do not differ
appreciably.

2. If it were a remedy, it would not be a justifiable one, for its use
would necessitate an abuse of the marriage relation, as elsewhere
shown.

3. As another reason why the remedy would not be a _proper_, even if
a _good_, one, it may well be asked, What right has a man to treat a
wife as a vial of medicine? Well does Mr. Acton inquire, "What has the
young girl, who is thus sacrificed to an egotistical calculation, done
that she should be condemned to the existence that awaits her? Who has
the right to regard her as a therapeutic agent, and to risk thus lightly
her future prospects, her repose, and the happiness of the remainder
of her life?"

In cases in which seminal emissions occur frequently, the most reliable
writers upon this subject, Copland, Acton, Milton, and others, advise,
with reference to marriage, "that the complaint should be removed
before the married life is commenced." Independent of the
considerations already presented, the individual affected in this
manner and contemplating marriage should carefully consider the
possible and probable effects upon offspring, the legitimate result
of marriage; these have been already described, and need not be
recapitulated.

Local Treatment.--While it is true that general treatment alone is
occasionally successful in curing the diseases under consideration,
and that local treatment alone is very rarely efficient, it is also
true that in many cases skillful local treatment is required to
supplement the general remedies employed. While there has