ne for a considerable time. In any case the
condition is an unnatural one and is certain to bring a natural
retribution in some form--either broken health, or sterility of the
wife, and depleted powers of the husband, or weak and sickly children,
separated by long intervals.

9. _How long is it possible for a young man to waste his vital fluid
and yet be able to raise healthy children?_

This question cannot be answered in other than most general terms. The
author has known one case of a young man who, for several years,
practiced masturbation several times a day, so far depleting his
powers that he could not walk erect, his muscles were flabby, his
testes were very soft and small, his eyes shifty, his hands clammy and
his mind incoherent in its working. He seemed to be a candidate for
the asylum and would probably have gone there if radical means had not
been adopted to break him of the habit. He was broken, however,
absolutely, and never performed the act after his nineteenth birthday.
Within three years he had completely recovered his virility. He had
nearly doubled in weight and in lung capacity and a large part of his
increased weight was in great bulk of muscle of high tonicity--muscle
which he had gained by heavy physical work upon a ranch. His sexual
organs had completely regained their tonicity and without doubt, their
virility. He had so far recovered mentally that he finished a course
of professional study and entered with great success upon the practice
of his chosen profession.

On the other hand, a middle-aged man consulted the author regarding
the sterility of his wife. After examination, it was found that the
husband had practiced masturbation about twice a week from the age of
puberty to his twenty-fourth year, when he was married. He assured the
author that at the time of his marriage his testicles were, as far as
he had known, similar to the testicles of other young men, and that
during his married life he had never had intercourse with his wife
more frequently than once in a month, but that during that time he had
noticed a gradual atrophy of the testes. At the time of the
examination only small atrophied remains of these testes could be
discovered. The sterility of the wife was due, without any question,
to the absolute impotence of the husband, and so far as the history of
the case would suggest, there was no other assignable cause of this
impotence than the eight years of masturbation.

From